CBS
television
reported a wave of UFOs over the western states. There were several
reports like this during the mid-sixties. This caught my attention because back
during the 1950s I saw the space
movie,
The Day the Earth Stood Still. Now in 1965 I was being told the concept was
possibly non-fiction. Within the same year, there was another UFO report
on television! I ran outside, but only to view a normal and uneventful
sky.
This
was intriguing, but I heard nothing more. A few months later, I went to buy a
baseball glove at J.M. Fields, a department store. I walked out instead with a
book containing all the information I was missing, Flying
Saucers--Serious
Business
by nationally-known reporter Frank Edwards. The title was taken from an actual 1950s
special order from a U.S. Air Force IG. I read the entire book, fascinated with
the detailed reports.
In 1969 while at Stetson University, I wrote a research
paper entitled How
Much Truth Have We Exposed From the Mystery of Unidentified Flying Objects?
I documented the paper with cases from the Edwards book as well as magazines and
newspapers. What I didn't know was that much more information was available in
the archives of NICAP and the books of Major Donald Keyhole, USMC, (Ret.).
Keyhole had numerous high-ranking military friends, some with inside information
on the UFO situation. One was an Annapolis classmate, Admiral Roscoe
Hillenkoetter, the first CIA director. Hillenkoetter had reason to believe that
UFOs were fact not fiction.
The unidentified
objects did present a threat. Hundreds of "flying saucer" sightings
across the
U.S. in
the summer of 1947 coincided with plans to form the
United States Air Force
that same year in September. A saucer-shaped UFO made the front
page of the Aug 12, 1947 Titusville Star Advocate, when a church group
reported an aluminum disk speeding over Titusville, Florida late in the
afternoon. Sightings by commercial and military pilots continued. As a result,
U.S.A.F. Chief of Staff Twinning created AFR
200-2 in
1954 for reporting unidentified flying objects!
and are
U.S. Air Force acronyms. The current term may be AVCs (Alien
Visitation Craft).
Also in Brevard in 1951, a high-ranking U.S.A.F. officer made
an astonishing admission. This is not known except by a few people.
Colonel Asa
B. Gibbs was commander of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and an MIT
graduate. During a TDY flight to California with a group of scientists, the pilot
announced to the Colonel at 03:00 that at everyone should look out the port side of the
aircraft. Just off the left wingtip was a cigar-shaped UFO with blinking lights.
When it disappeared, the pilot directed everyone to look to starboard. The
object had reversed sides. The plane never went to California, but instead flew
to Washington DC where everyone was debriefed. My source here is Mr. Alvin W.
Parry. Parry is a WWII PT boat veteran who fought in the Pacific. His adventures
included a brief conversation with five-star General Douglas MacArthur while the
general was transported on PT-194, headed for the USS Nashville. Parry would later become a GS-14 and executive officer
at Patrick AFB during the 1960s, serving directly under the base
commander. Parry reported to Colonel Gibbs several times a
month during the early 1950s.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Since
reading the Edwards book in 1966, I've come across many books on this subject.
Many have been compelling, yet their fantastic possibilities mingled at times
with doubts and disbelief.
Now, though, after almost 40 years, information is
rapidly flowing through the Internet and through former military and civilian
officials. Those who can't believe use "in-the-box" reasoning to
disprove and debunk. Those who do know the reality, know not because they
reason more openly, but because they've seen the objects. Logic has rules.
Without facts or observation, no dependable conclusion can be made. Yet, many of
those who disbelieve do conclude, illogically, that the unknown or unseen
does not exist!
It is amazing that after 50
years there is no new UFO verdict beyond the conclusions of
Edwards, Keyhole, and Twinning. UFOs exist. Those initial public reports were
not a craze of the fifties. The sightings have never stopped. The National UFO Reporting Center verifies this fact daily.
Though the physical evidence is slim, there is an abundance of
credible
observation and testimony from scientific experts. For example, former NASA aerospace engineer,
Clark C. McClelland, ScO-Space Shuttle Fleet, gives the inside scoop on the UFO problems in the space program. Fifty-three years of space flight experience makes him a true insider. His web site has some fantastic recollections.
The completion of his book on this subject should finally disclose with
authority his unique first-hand perspective on the relationship between
UFO activities and government officials.
U.S.A.F. Colonel (Ret.) Gordon Cooper is another credible witness.
This Mercury astronaut has plenty of UFO references in his book, A
Leap of Faith.
Cooper believes " these extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews are
visiting this planet from other planets, which are obviously a little more
advanced than we are here on Earth."
That the air force is troubled by attention to UFOs is highlighted by
two
confronting publications on the anniversary of the Roswell incident. In the
spring of 1997, an Army Intelligence officer, Lt. Col. (Ret) Philip Corso, was
completing The
Day After Roswell,
(release date 1Jul97). At the same time, the air force was preparing a report
resembling a Sears & Roebuck catalog entitled, The
Roswell Report : Case Closed."
It was released 24 Jun 1997 and presents a view diametrically opposed to the
colonel's report.
Recently I reviewed another book, also with very different views. Captured
by Aliens: the Search for Life and Truth in a Very Large Universe
is 400 pages of clever reasoning mixed throughout with "in-the-box"
logic. The author has fun intellectualizing on the pros and cons of all the
known alien scenarios. He reports
facts, but mostly the facts that concern his viewpoint. He reasons for the
"no it's not" position much more than the "yes it is"
evidence. For instance, he does mention Gordon Cooper, but considers none
of his first-hand reports, only that he fell asleep prior to his Mercury launch.
He also mentions Lt. Col Corso and states he is either truthful or a liar. Then
he speculates that Corso wanted to write a “best-seller” and boost his ego
in his old age.
This author is very artful in presenting his personal view like
this, but no, he is not “searching for life and truth…” as his title
claims; he is reporting his spin on some facts. . . and leaving out the evidence
that he can’t deal with. e.g. data from science reporter Linda Moulton
Howe, Command Sergeant Major Robert
Dean, Dr. Stephen Greer’s Disclosure Project, Dr. (Apollo astronaut) Ed Mitchell, NASA engineer Clark McClelland, and many others. Instead of digging deep for the truth, he pokes fun of Keyhole’s publications, yielding no intelligent comment. He deals in controversy; that’s his market. There is no room in his book for the mountains of evidence reported in
UFOs and the National Security State by Richard
Dolan, or Keyhole’s Flying Saucers: Top Secret.
The road to knowing is long. That does not mean we can not
know . . . accept that it will not be easy. Amazing discoveries will be
made only by those with minds open to possibilities. Asking questions is
required.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Classic
Aircraft Book: Aviation From the Ground Up by Manley, 370 pages, c 1942 in very
good condition. Get it at: Amazon.com
www.eBook-Browser.com 