Lots of folks have never heard of fireballs and their long relationship with the UFO phenomena. Fireballs come in all colors not just green, and can appear almost anywhere in the world as you will soon see.
Once long ago, our Military took the idea of fireballs quite seriously, even had a secret project looking into them called “Project Twinkle”.
I think we all should look at these mysterious fireballs more closely.
In the summer of 1949, a rash of "green fireball" sightings in New Mexico spurred a special study project, Project Twinkle. Because of the uniformity of the sightings many people reported the same type of object, and the proximity of the reports to a highly sensitive nuclear facility, Los Alamos, and missile testing area, White Sands, there was some concern the fireballs might be reconnaissance devices of some kind. When the fireballs faded away, so did interest in studying them. The official conclusion ultimately was that the objects were simply a rash of oddly colored meteors.
It seems to me the case for the Fireball’s is still an open one. I have a quite a few examples of modern fireball sightings, along with a little known report written by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, the Director of the U.S. Air Force’s Project Bluebook called “Green Fireballs, Project Twinkle, Little Lights, and Grudge”
All reports listed are from either the U.S. Air Force’s Project Bluebook’s 701 unknown’s files or from the Magonia UFO database, or were investigated by myself.
First, a report on a contemporary sighting that occurred in my area, I called it:
NORAD CALLS FIREBALL A "MISSILE"
At 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday, January 22, 1997, a bright green fireball lit up the sky over the central United States. The light was seen in five states, including Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas.
Wayne Wyrick of the Kirkpatrick Planetarium in Oklahoma City said, "It looked like an airplane on fire and crashing."
Major Steve Boylan, a spokesman for NORAD, said the object was the "remnant of a Delta II rocket" used to launch a satellite in December.
A woman in Tulsa, Oklahoma said the fireball "appeared to crash just west of the city." See the newspaper The Daily Oklahoman of Oklahoma City for January 25, 1997.
Next, a fireball report from 1903, Strange light puzzled many in 1903 Akron The term UFO had not yet been coined on Jan. 22, 1903, when the Akron Beacon Journal reported that a mysterious light -- a ``ball of fire'' hanging low in the night sky -- was terrifying residents in Munson's Hollow and keeping ``timid people indoors after dark. ''Munson's Hollow was in Akron's Old Forge area in the Little Cuyahoga River valley just north and east of downtown.
Police were called to investigate several
sightings ``the last few nights'' of a bright object the size of a man's head
that remained perfectly still until searchers got to within 50 yards of its
location. Then it disappeared, only to reappear when searchers left.
``All believe that it is some supernatural body,'' the newspaper reported. But
the police guessed it was the work of mischievous boys. Published Saturday,
January 22, 2000, in the Akron Beacon Journal
Next, a sighting report from my own back yard you might say, the following incident happened to my wife Debbie, and was reported worldwide and was documented in the book “UFO’s in the USA”. On Wednesday, February 25, 1998, at about 9:15 p.m., Debbie H. was driving west on Interstate Highway 40 in Oklahoma when she spied "a green fireball" in the night sky. Ms. H saw the object "at mile marker 126, west of El Reno, Okla. (population 15,414)." "I left Oklahoma City and was driving west on I-40 back to Elk City," she reported. "I had passed the towns of Yukon and El Reno and was at mile marker 126 when I spotted a green fireball in the sky west of my position.
It appeared to be about the size of a golf ball at arm's length and traveled straight-line. I spotted the fireball as it came into the view of my windshield. It was in view for three or four seconds as it traveled straight down and then impacted the ground... I saw green sparks fly up from the impact.
This next report is one I monitored with my ham radio gear; I’m a licensed ham operator, call sign, KA5UFO, (of course!).
MYSTERIOUS LIGHT FLASH PUZZLES OKLAHOMA DEPUTY
An Oklahoma sheriff's deputy had a Halloween surprise when she spotted a mysterious flash of light on the outskirts of Reydon. On October 31, 1997, at approximately 8:23 p.m., a sheriff's deputy saw a "flash of light" northeast of Reydon, 120 miles west of Oklahoma City.
According to Jim Hickman of Skywatch, the deputy's radio report was monitored, and he spoke of a "large flash of light in the sky." A partial transcript follows:
Dispatch: "Was it lightning?"
Deputy: "I don't see any clouds in the sky."
Deputy: "It was one large flash to my northeast, and it wasn't lightning."
I can tell you she sounded like she had just had a “Close Encounter!” this sighting was talked about in the area for quite some time, it’s now referred to as the mysterious “Reydon Flash”.
Next, I have compiled several reports of strange Fireball like objects reported over the last few years. Most of these come from “the Hickman Files”.
BLUE FIREBALL DAZZLES VIEWERS IN FLORIDA
On Tuesday, November 9, 1999, at 9:16 p.m., a "blue fireball" streaked through the sky over DeLand, Florida (population 16,491), a town on Highway 92 about 30 miles north of Orlando.
"A blue ball of fire that streaked across the sky above Volusia County has residents wondering whether the sight was something iut of this world." "Chet Jones, who caught a glimpse of the burning mass over DeLand Tuesday night, is betting it was a UFO."
"'I believe it's probable,' said Jones from his home on the St. Johnsbury River. 'I know they exist.'" "At 9:16 p.m., one caller told the Volusia County Sheriff's Office he saw a fireball pass over in the direction of Clyde Morris and LPGA Boulevards. It was headed for Ormond Beach."
"Sheriff's deputies, along with Daytona Beach police officers and a sheriff's helicopter, searched for over an hour. They found nothing."
"The National Weather Service in Melbourne, Florida reported no unusual activity Tuesday night. Officials at the Federal Aviation Administration tower in Daytona Beach and at the FAA Regional Office in Atlanta, Georgia said they saw nothing out of the ordinary."
"'If a pilot would have seen it, they would have reported it,' FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said." "Roger Hoefor, curator of astronomy at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, speculated that people might have seen a bolide meteor. Bolide meteors appear to be falling, when in reality, they're simply crossing the horizon."
"'This one was not falling,' Hoefor said, 'It was still going in its orbital path.'" (See the Miami Herald for November 10, 1991.)
SPEEDY FIREBALL SHOCKS CROWD IN NORTHERN ITALY
On Wednesday, November 10, 1999, at about 11:15 p.m., people at the I Portal shopping center In Modena, a large city in Emilia-Romagna province, Italy, about 180 miles north of Rome, spotted a "large shiny luminous object" plunging through the night sky.
They saw "a bright luminous object that moved with incredible velocity, following a descending trajectory. The object left a luminous trail with three different colors ranging from an intense white and yellow to a brilliant green."
On Monday, November 8, 1999, ufologist Mike Harman was driving home to Granbury, Texas, located about 25 miles southwest of Fort Worth, when he caught a glimpse of an unusual object in the sky.
"I was driving home to Granbury at 10:15 or maybe 10:30 that night on Davis Road, heading southeast. The road is very dark and narrow, winding and lined with 20-foot trees It's hard to look at anything except the road, lest you end up in a ditch."
"I caught a very quick glimpse of a ball of fire, trailing a blazing trail. It was off to my left, a lot more east of my line of sight. I could only see it from where it came into view at the top of my car's windshield until it dropped behind the tops of the trees, maybe 10 degrees, from 45 degrees to 35 degrees above the horizon."
"It was falling at a very fast rate. It took less than a second to pass into and from my line of sight. It was a very bright yellow, and from my viewpoint, it appeared to be very large but a great distance away. It fell at an angle, from left to right east to west...I don't think I've ever seen anything move that fast."
GIANT GREEN FIREBALL SEEN BY THOUSANDS IN THE USA'S UPPER MIDWEST
Shortly after 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 16, 1999, a giant luminous green fireball flew from west to east across the states of the USA's Upper Midwest region, startling thousands of eyewitnesses.
"A little after 6 p.m. Central time, Tuesday, a bright light--most reported it as green--streaked across the eastern sky of the Chicago, Illinois area for about 5 to 10 seconds and abruptly broke into a cascade of particles, causing a variety of reactions among viewers ranging from cosmically cool to panic-stricken."
"Don Troiani, an astronomer at the Cernan Earth and Space Center at Triton College in River Grove, Ill. was convinced that the light was caused by 'space debris' rather than a meteor shower."
"Shane Crone, the Adler Planetarium's observatory operator and sky show operator, agreed, saying the reported bright green color made him doubt it was a meteor. More likely, he said, it was a satellite." "But then again, he said, 'It's hard to say.'"
"Joe Petersen of Island Lake, who was driving eastbound on Illinois Highway 176 when he saw the light, said he felt it was a plane crash." (See the Chicago Tribune for November 17, 1999, "Tuesday's spectacle of light a source of color, confusion")
In Indiana, UFO Roundup correspondent Steve Wilson Sr., who lives in Avon, Ind., received phone calls from 25 witnesses who reported "a very large fireball that flew over the south side of Indianapolis at around 7 p.m. Eastern time."
Police switchboards in Columbus, Ohio "were swamped by callers who mistook what might have been a meteor for a flaming aircraft." "'The average person won't see any that large in a lifetime,' said Bob Hollinshead, operations coordinator for the airport. 'We initially got calls from people who thought it may have been an aircraft breaking apart in the sky."
"The fireball streaked across the sky from west to east about 7 p.m., stunning stargazers as far away as Kentucky who were awaiting the arrival of the Leonid meteor shower."
"The fireball lasted for twenty seconds before disappearing over the horizon."
"'It was gorgeous,' said Tom Burns, director of the Perkins Observatory in Delaware, Ohio." "Samuel Guess and Tiffany Parker had just placed an order at the Kentucky Fried Chicken fast-food restaurant at Cleveland and Oakland Park avenues when the fireball streaked by." "'It was big and it was really long. That's how we knew it wasn't an airplane,' Guess said."
"It was moving really fast and then it disappeared,' Parker said." "Gerald Newsom, an Ohio State University astronomy professor, said he believes the fireball was either a piece of an asteroid or a satellite entering the atmosphere...At 7 p.m., when the fireball took to the sky, the Leonid meteors were on the other side of the Earth, he said." (See the Columbus, Ohio Dispatch for November 17, 1999, "Fireball stuns stargazers, 'average' folks")
At 7:03 p.m., eyewitness O. Kinsbury was driving through New Philadelphia, Ohio, "just north of the Stone Creek exit," when he saw "a light train moving across my field of vision from west to east about 20 degrees above the road."
Further south, in Cincinnati, "If you happened to glance at the sky shortly after 7 p.m., you may have thought you were getting a piece of tonight's meteor shower."
"Many callers to police described seeing a green ball of fire with a fragmented tail in the sky for about 15 seconds."
"But two Tristate astronomical experts said the green glow that was reportedly seen from Kentucky to Wisconsin wasn't part of the Leonid meteor shower due to arrive late tonight. Instead, it was probably a dead man-made satellite reentering Earth's atmosphere."
"'It's definitely not a meteor,' said Paul D. Mohr, an astronomer with the Cincinnati Observatory, who did not witness the light show. 'According to the descriptions, it sounds like it was a satellite.'"
"Rick Marra of West Chester Ohio was driving north on Snider Drive in Symmes Township Tuesday when he saw the fragmented object about 7:04 p.m. 'My wife kept saying, 'Rick, stop looking up--stay on the road,''he said, 'Whatever it was, it was huge.'" (See the Cincinnati, Ohio Enquirer for November 17, 1999)
At 7:04 p.m., Pamela Z. and her husband were "walking on the University of Cincinnati campus with 20 other people. We all stood and watched for what seemed like minutes. It was an enormous, Titanic-like aircraft. It was like a fireball with greenish exhaust behind. It was quite spectacular. It moved slowly from west to east, over the horizon. The triangular shape was apparent and circled with white/yellow lights. People saw red and green, s well."
In Kentucky, a Cincinnati resident "while traveling northbound on Interstate Highway I-75 in Florence, Ky., he and his wife observed two rows of lights shortly after 7 p.m. Traveling in formation." The formation, he added, "was way too wide to be an airplane."
On Friday, January 8, 1999, at 10:25 p.m., a fireball of "an eerie blue or green color" flashed through the sky of southern Alaska and exploded with "an earthshaking boom."
According to the Anchorage Daily News, "Dozens of people phoned authorities last Friday to report the event, which happened at 10:25 p.m. Most eyewitnesses described a brilliant and colorful flash, followed several minutes later by a boom. The boom was so loud it shook homes in Palmer and Wasilla and was heard from South Anchorage to Sutton and beyond."
Palmer (population 2,866) is on Highway 1 about 30 miles north of Anchorage. Wasilla (population 4,028) is eight miles west of Palmer. Sutton (population 210) is 13 miles northeast of Palmer.
"'I wish I could describe it,' said Gina Gilmore, who watched the fireball from a hot tub near Palmer. 'It was an eerie blue or green color... It lit up the whole area. Then we heard an explosion and it stilled our conversation.'"
"Gilmore said that at first she thought the object was a shooting star, but its intensity" had her wondering if it could have been "a missile, an explosion or something from The X-Files."
"'It was greenish, and it was loud,' said Rachael Wagner, 16, another observer from Wasilla. She was inside her house and watched it flash through her window."
Donald Masters, an astronomy professor at the University of Alaska at Anchorage told the newspaper that he "believes the flash came from a meteor or a comet fragment, probably the size of a pumpkin, that exploded about 50 miles above the Earth's surface."
Scientists thought the meteor to be a latecomer from the Quarantid meteor shower, which began on December 28, 1998. "'Imagine a cold rock coming in and getting very hot,' said Greg Durocher, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey. 'It's under tremendous stress.'"
"Durocher and other observers of the fireball said they heard the boom about three to four minutes after they saw the flash. Based on this information, Masters estimated that the object was about 50 miles away at the time of the explosion."
"There were rumors Friday of the object striking the ground near Parks Highway at Mile Marker 141, and reports by pilots of debris falling, but meteorites are extremely hard to find, Masters said." (See the Anchorage Daily News for January 10, 1999, "Great ball of fire--Flash in sky is likely exploding meteor")
On Sunday, January 10, 1999, at 7:05 p.m., "Bill Slatton was driving home when he saw what looked to be a green fireball streak across the night sky" in Pittsfield, New Hampshire N.H. Pittsfield (population 1,717) is on Route 28 about 37 miles northeast of Manchester, New Hampshire's largest city.
"'My God, this thing is as clear as day,' he remembers thinking to himself. 'It was huge. It was right along side of us.'" "His fiance, Kathy Bickford, saw it, too. Police departments in Bow (population 600) and Northfield reported sightings, with callers describing 'a green flash' in the sky." "Slatton said he and his fiancee saw the fireball for a few seconds as they drove south on Route 20 in Pittsfield...He said it was like the fireball that crashes into the Earth in a recent Dunkin Donuts commercial."
"'It was descending almost like a plane descending. It's hard to describe,' Slatton said."
"The object was about the size of a nickel or quarter in the sky, and perhaps a few thousand feet away and a few thousand feet up, although it was hard to tell, Slatton said."
"It was to the left of them as they drove south, perhaps landing or crashing in Pittsfield, Epsom or Chichester, said Slatton, a property maintenance contractor from Chichester," a town located six miles southwest of Pittsfield. (See the Manchester, N.H. Union-Leader for January 11, 1999, "'Green flash' streaks through central NH sky")
These next reports are from the Magonia files…
Feb. 17, 1949 France (exact location unknown). Alain Berard saw a large, bright object land near his farm with a green lightning flash. It became dark. As he approached the craft, the witness saw three figures with stocky short legs, apparently without heads. Frightened, he fired at them three times. A moment later the object took off vertically.
Dec.1953, Sherbrook, Canada Mrs. Orfei heard a knock at the door in the middle of the night and obtained no answer when she asked who it was. When more furious knocks were heard, her Alsatian dog jumped toward the door, but suddenly retreated, trembling as if terrified and retired to a corner. Mrs. Orfei went to an upper door and saw two “indescribable” shadows go away from the house. A while later a big, round object took off 100 m away with a blue-green lightning. The police found broken bushes as evidence of an enormous weight.
GREEN FIREBALL SHAKES UP THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
On Tuesday, December 17, 1996, at 6:15 a.m., people living in the Pacific Northwest were startled to see "a glowing green fireball" approaching from the western horizon.
An early morning commuter in Maple Valley, Washington, east of Seattle, reported that the unusual fireball "came to within 500 feet" of his car before shooting off in an easterly direction towards Wenatchee.
People living in King and Snohomish counties reported seeing the fireball "go down near Richmond Beach" on Puget Sound.
The King County Sheriff's Department told the Seattle Times that they'd received many calls about the fireball from residents of Issaquah (population 5,536) and Bellevue (population 74,000). Bellevue is located across Lake Washington from Seattle, on the eastern shore. Issaquah is 15 miles to the southeast of Bellevue, just south of Lake Sammamish.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) also received calls from Skagit County, Washington and as far south as Tigard, Oregon and Salem, Oregon. (See the Seattle Times for December 17, 1996)
North of Seattle, in Anacortes, Washington, radio station KLKI received 40 phone calls about the fireball. Radio stations in Spokane, Washington, which is 280 miles east of Seattle, also received phone calls from eyewitnesses, who claimed the fireball was heading for Idaho.
North of the border, in Courtenay, British Columbia (population 7,800), a man named O'Carrol was scraping the snow from his car windshield when, suddenly, the neighboring houses began to glow with a feeble green light. Looking skyward, he saw "a huge, flaming, sparking, greenish-blue light ball" that appeared to be "throwing off white sparks." The fireball hurtled toward the eastern horizon. "Several seconds later," O'Carrol said, "there was quite a boom, and I thought, 'Wow! I wonder what that was.'"
The National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle reportedly said "two meteors" were responsible for the sighting.
Gary Mayer, the FAA duty officer in Renton, Washington, said the light was not caused by any aircraft and he "assumed it was a meteorite." Perhaps one of the Geminids
UFO SEEN IN COLORADO'S MYSTERIOUS VALLEY
On November 13, 1996, at 6 p.m., ranchers living 20 miles west of Salida, Colorado (population 4,900) sighted "a large, dazzling ball of light moving from north to south." Witnesses had the UFO in view for 4 to 5 seconds. "Some said it was huge, the size of the full moon, and was either white or a rainbow color." The UFO was seen by many people between Salida and Chama, New Mexico, on the state line. (Many thanks to Tim Edwards for this report.)
On Sunday, March 8, 1998, at about 6 p.m., a bright green fireball appeared over Placerville, California (population 8,355), a small city on Highway 50 about 44 miles east of Sacramento.
Minutes later, the fireball hovered in the sky over Sacramento, the state capital. Motorists stopped their cars on San Juan Road and Del Paso Road in the west end of the city to observe the phenomenon.
"Traffic on Interstate Highway 80 between Davis and Dixon slowed to a halt as motorists stopped to watch the fireball. Many drivers swamped the California Highway Patrol with phone calls, but the control tower at Sacramento Metropolitan airport insisted no planes were missing."
Sacramento (population 369,365) is 91 miles east of San Francisco. In Monterey (population 31,954), located 125 miles south of San Francisco, witnesses reported the green fireball hovering over the bay.
"The U.S. Coast Guard contacted Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, which confirmed that it was a big meteor shower." Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Alan Tubbs said,
"It was just getting dark and everybody was facing this direction just as the sun was coming down. It was the king of all meteor showers." (See the San Jose Mercury News for March 9, 1998, "Meteor Shower Stalls Traffic Near Sacramento)
This should be enough evidence for anyone that we need to reopen the investigation into mysterious fireballs.
by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt
In the following report titled “Green Fireballs, Project Twinkle, Little Lights, and Grudge” by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, Director of Project Bluebook, He reports that:
"Thousands of people saw a huge fireball light up dark New Mexico skies tonight."
The story went on to tell about how a "blinding green" fireball the size of a full moon had silently streaked southeast across Colorado and northern New Mexico at eight forty that night. Thousands of people had seen the fireball. It had passed right over a crowded football stadium at Santa Fe, New Mexico, and people in Denver said it "turned night into day." The crew of a TWA airliner flying into Albuquerque from Amarillo, Texas, saw it. Every police and newspaper switchboard in the two state areas was jammed with calls.
One of the calls was from a man inquiring if anything unusual had happened recently. When he was informed about the mysterious fireball he heaved an audible sigh of relief, "Thanks," he said, "I was afraid I'd gotten some bad bourbon." And he hung up.
Dr. Lincoln La Paz, world-famous authority on meteorites and head of the University of New Mexico's Institute of Meteoritics, apparently took the occurrence calmly. The wire story said he had told a reporter that he would plot its course, try to determine where it landed, and go out and try to find it. "But," he said, "I don't expect to find anything."
When Jim Phalen had read the rest of the report he asked, "What was it?" "It sounds to me like the green fireballs are back," I answered. "What the devil are green fireballs?"
What the devil are green fireballs? I'd like to know. So would a lot of other people.
The green fireballs streaked into UFO history late in November 1948, when people around Albuquerque, New Mexico, began to report seeing mysterious "green flares" at night. The first reports mentioned only a "green streak in the sky," low on the horizon. From the description the Air Force Intelligence people at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque and the Project Sign people at ATIC wrote the objects off as flares. After all, thousands of GI's had probably been discharged with a duffel bag full of "liberated" Very pistols and flares. But as days passed the reports got better. They seemed to indicate that the
"Flares" were getting larger and more people were reporting seeing them.
It was doubtful if this "growth" was psychological because there had been no publicity, so the Air Force decided to reconsider the "flare" answer. They were in the process of doing this on the night of December 5, 1948, a memorable night in the green fireball chapter of UFO history…
At 9:27 P.M. on December 5, an Air Force C-47 transport was flying at 18,000 feet 10 miles east of Albuquerque. The pilot was a Captain Goede. Suddenly the crew, Captain Goede, his co-pilot, and his engineer were startled by a green ball of fire flashing across the sky ahead of them. It looked something like a huge meteor except that it was a bright green color and it didn't arch downward, as meteors usually do. The green- colored ball of fire had started low, from near the eastern slopes of the Sandia Mountains, arched upward a little, and then seemed to level out. And it was too big for a meteor, at least it was larger than any meteor that anyone m the C-47 had ever seen before. After a hasty discussion the crew decided that they'd better tell somebody about it, especially since they had seen an identical object twenty-two minutes before near Las Vegas, New Mexico.
Captain Goede picked up his microphone and called the control tower at Kirtland
AFB and reported what he and his crew had seen. The tower relayed the message to the local intelligence people.
A few minutes later the captain of Pioneer Airlines Flight 63 called Kirtland
Tower. At 9:35 P.M. he had also seen a green ball of fire just east of Las
Vegas, New Mexico. He was on his way to Albuquerque and would make a full report when he landed.
When he taxied his DC-3 up to the passenger ramp at Kirtland a few minutes later, several intelligence officers were waiting for him. He reported that at 9:35 P.M. he was on a westerly heading, approaching Las Vegas from the east, when he and his co-pilot saw what they first thought was a "shooting star." It was ahead and a little above them. But, the captain said, it took them only a split second to realize that whatever they saw was too low and had too flat a trajectory to be a meteor.
As they watched, the object seemed to approach their airplane head on, changing color from orange red to green. As it became bigger and bigger, the captain said, he thought sure it was going to collide with them so he racked the DC-3 up in a tight turn. As the green ball of fire got abreast of them it began to fall toward the ground, getting dimmer and dimmer until it disappeared. Just before he swerved the DC-3, the fireball was as big, or bigger, than a full moon.
The intelligence officers asked a few more questions and went back to their office. More reports, which had been phoned in from all over northern New Mexico, were waiting for them. By morning a full-fledged investigation was under way.
No matter what these green fireballs were, the military was getting a little edgy. They might be common meteorites, psychologically enlarged flares, or true UFO's, but whatever they were they were playing around in one of the most sensitive security areas in the United States. Within 100 miles of Albuquerque were two installations that were the backbone of the atomic bomb program, Los Alamos and Sandia Base. Scattered throughout the countryside were other installations vital to the defense of the U.S.: radar stations, fighter interceptor bases, and the other mysterious areas that had been blocked off by high chain link fences.
Since the green fireballs bore some resemblance to meteors or meteorites, the
Kirtland intelligence officers called in Dr. Lincoln La Paz. Dr. La Paz said that he would be glad to help, so the officers explained the strange series of events to him. True, he said, the description of the fireballs did sound as if they might be meteorites - except for a few points. One way to be sure was to try to plot the flight path of the green fireballs the same way he had so successfully plotted the flight path of meteorites in the past. From this flight path he could determine where they would have hit the earth - if they were meteorites. They would search this area, and if they found parts of a meteorite they would have the answer to the green fireball riddle.
The fireball activity on the night of December 5 was made to order for plotting flight paths. The good reports of that night included carefully noted locations, the directions in which the green objects were seen, their heights above the horizon, and the times when they were observed. So early the next morning Dr. La Paz and a crew of intelligence officers were scouring northern New Mexico. They started out by talking to the people who had made reports but soon found out that dozens of other people had also seen the fireballs. By closely checking the time of the observations, they determined that eight separate fireballs had been seen. One was evidently more spectacular and was seen by the most people.
Everyone in northern New Mexico had seen it going from west to east, so Dr. La Paz and his crew worked eastward across New Mexico to the west border of Texas, talking to dozens of people. After many sleepless hours they finally plotted where it should have struck the earth. They searched the area but found nothing. They went back over the area time and time again-nothing. As Dr. La Paz later told me, this was the first time that he seriously doubted the green fireballs were meteorites.
Within a few more days the fireballs were appearing almost nightly. The intelligence officers from Kirtland decided that maybe they could get a good look at one of them, so on the night of December 8 two officers took off in an airplane just before dark and began to cruise around north of Albuquerque. They had a carefully worked out plan where each man would observe certain details if they saw one of the green fireballs. At 6:33 P.M. they saw one.
This is their report:
At 6:33 P.M. while flying at an indicated altitude of 11,500 feet, a strange phenomenon was observed. Exact position of the aircraft at time of the observation was 20 miles east of the Las Vegas, N.M., radio range station. The aircraft was on a compass course of 90 degrees. Capt was pilot and I was acting as copilot. I first observed the object and a split second later the pilot saw it. It was 2,000 feet higher than the plane, and was approaching the plane at a rapid rate of speed from 30 degrees to the left of our course. The object was similar in appearance to a burning green flare, the kind that is commonly used in the Air Force. However, the light was much more intense and the object appeared considerably larger than a normal flare. The trajectory of the object, when first sighted, was almost flat and parallel to the earth. The phenomenon lasted about 2 seconds. At the end of this time the object seemed to begin to burn out and the trajectory then dropped off rapidly. The phenomenon was of such intensity as to be visible from the very moment it ignited.
Back at Wright-Patterson AFB, ATIC was getting a blow-by-blow account of the fireball activity but they were taking no direct part in the investigation. Their main interest was to review all incoming UFO reports and see if the green fireball reports were actually unique to the Albuquerque area. They were. Although a good many UFO reports were coming in from other parts of the U.S., none fit the description of the green fireballs.
All during December 1948 and January 1949 the green fireballs continued to invade the New Mexico skies. Everyone, including the intelligence officers at Kirtland AFB, Air Defense Command people, Dr. La Paz, and some of the most distinguished scientists at Los Alamos had seen at least one.
Ruppelt continues in his report,
In mid February 1949 a conference was called at Los Alamos to determine what should be done to further pursue the investigation. The Air Force, Project Sign, the intelligence people at Kirtland, and other interested parties had done everything they could think of and still no answer.
Such notable scientists as Dr. Joseph Kaplan, a world-renowned authority on the physics of the upper atmosphere, Dr. Edward Teller, of H-bomb fame, and of course Dr. La Paz, attended, along with a lot of military brass and scientists from Los Alamos.
This was one conference where there was no need to discuss whether or not this special type of UFO, the green fireball, existed. Almost everyone at the meeting had seen one. The purpose of the conference was to decide whether the fireballs were natural or man-made and how to find out more about them. As happens in any conference, opinions were divided. Some people thought the green fireballs were natural fireballs.
The proponents of the natural meteor, or meteorite, theory presented facts that they had dug out of astronomical journals. Greenish colored meteors, although not common, had been observed on many occasions. The flat trajectory, which seemed to be so important in proving that the green fireballs were extraterrestrial, was also nothing new.
When viewed from certain angles, a meteor can appear to have a flat trajectory. The reason that so many had been seen during December of 1948 and January of 1949 was that the weather had been unusually clear all over the Southwest during this period
Dr. La Paz led the group who believed that the green fireballs were not meteors or meteorites. His argument was derived from the facts that he had gained after many days of research and working with Air Force intelligence teams. He stuck to the points that (1) the trajectory was too flat, (2) the color was too green, and (3) he couldn't locate any fragments even though he had found the spots where they should have hit the earth if they were meteorites.
People who were at that meeting have told me that Dr. La Paz's theory was very interesting and that each point was carefully considered. But evidently it wasn't conclusive enough because when the conference broke up, after two days, it was decided that the green fireballs were a natural phenomenon of some kind. It was recommended that this phase of the UFO investigation be given to the Air Force's Cambridge Research Laboratory, since it is the function of this group to study natural phenomena, and that Cambridge set up a project to attempt to photograph the green fireballs and measure their speed, altitude, and size.
In the late summer of 1949, Cambridge established Project Twinkle to solve the mystery. The project called for establishing three cinetheodolite stations near White Sands, New Mexico. A cinetheodolite is similar to a 35 mm. movie camera except when you take a photograph of an object you also get a photograph of three dials that show the time the photo was taken, the azimuth angle, and the elevation angle of the camera.
If two or more cameras photograph the same object, it is possible to obtain a very accurate measurement of the photographed object's altitude, speed, and size. Project Twinkle was a bust. Absolutely nothing was photographed. Of the three cameras that were planned for the project, only one was available. This one camera was continually being moved from place to place. If several reports came from a certain area, the camera crew would load up their equipment and move to that area, always arriving too late. Any duck hunter can tell you that this is the wrong tactic; if you want to shoot any ducks pick a good place and stay put, let the ducks come to you.
The people trying to operate Project Twinkle were having financial and morale trouble. To do a good job they needed more and better equipment and more people, but Air Force budget cuts precluded this. Moral support was free but they didn't get this either.
When the Korean War started, Project Twinkle silently died, along with official interest in green fireballs. When I organized Project Blue Book in the summer of 1951 I'd never heard of a green fireball. We had a few files marked "Los Alamos Conference," "Fireballs," "Project Twinkle," etc., but I didn't pay any attention to them.
Then one day I was at a meeting in Los Angeles with several other officers from
ATIC, and was introduced to Dr. Joseph Kaplan. When he found we were from ATIC, his first question was, "What ever happened to the green fireballs?" None of us had ever heard of them, so he quickly gave us the story. He and I ended up discussing green fireballs. He mentioned Dr. La Paz and his opinion that the green fireballs might be man-made, and although he respected La Paz's professional ability, he just wasn't convinced. But he did strongly urge me to get in touch with Dr. La Paz and hear his side of the story.
When I returned to ATIC I spent several days digging into our collection of green fireball reports.
All of these reports covered a period from early December 1948 to 1949. As far as Blue Book's files were concerned, there hadn't been a green fireball report for a year and a half. I read over the report on Project Twinkle and the few notes we had on the Los
Alamos Conference, and decided that the next time I went to Albuquerque I'd contact Dr. La Paz. I did go to Albuquerque several times but my visits were always short and I was always in a hurry so I didn't get to see him. It was six or eight months later before the subject of green fireballs came up again. I was eating lunch with a group of people at the AEC's Los Alamos Laboratory when one of the group mentioned the mysterious kelly-green balls of fire. The strictly unofficial bull-session-type discussion that followed took up the entire lunch hour and several hours of the afternoon.
It was an interesting discussion because these people, all scientists and technicians from the lab, had a few educated guesses as to what they might be. All of them had seen a green fireball; some of them had seen several. One of the men, a private pilot, had encountered a fireball one night while he was flying his Navion north of Santa Fe and he had a vivid way of explaining what he'd seen.
"Take a soft ball and paint it with some kind of fluorescent paint that will glow a bright green in the dark," I remember his saying, "then have someone take the ball out about 100 feet in front of you and about 10 feet above you. Have him throw the ball right at your face, as hard as he can throw it. That's what a green fireball looks like."
The speculation about what the green fireballs were ran through the usual spectrum of answers, a new type of natural phenomenon, a secret U.S. development, and psychologically enlarged meteors. When the possibility of the green fireballs' being associated with interplanetary vehicles came up, the whole group got serious. They had been doing a lot of thinking about this, they said, and they had a theory.
The green fireballs, they theorized, could be some type of unmanned test vehicle that was being projected into our atmosphere from a "spaceship" hovering several hundred miles above the earth. Two years ago I would have been amazed to hear a group of reputable scientists make such a startling statement. Now, however, I took it as a matter of course. I'd heard the same type of statement many times before from equally qualified groups.
Turn the tables, they said, suppose that we are going to try to go to a far planet. There would be three phases to the trip: out through the earth’s atmosphere, through space, and the re-entry into the atmosphere of the planet we’re planning to land on. The first two phases would admittedly present formidable problems, but the last phase, the re-entry phase, would be the most critical. Coming in from outer space, the craft would, for all practical purposes, be similar to a meteorite except that it would be powered and not free falling.
You would have myriad problems associated with aerodynamic heating, high aerodynamic loadings, and very probably a host of other problems that no one can now conceive of. Certain of these problems could be partially solved by laboratory experimentation, but nothing can replace flight testing, and the results obtained by flight tests in our atmosphere would not be valid in another type of atmosphere. The most logical way to overcome this difficulty would be to build our interplanetary vehicle, go to the planet that we were interested in landing on, and hover several hundred miles up.
From this altitude we could send instrumented test vehicles down to the planet. If we didn't want the inhabitants of the planet, if it were inhabited, to know what we were doing we could put destruction devices in the test vehicle, or arrange the test so that the test vehicles would just plain burn up at a certain point due to aerodynamic heating.
They continued, each man injecting his ideas. Maybe the green fireballs are test vehicles-somebody else's. The regular UFO reports might be explained by the fact that the manned vehicles were venturing down to within 100,000 or 200,000 feet of the earth, or to the altitude at which atmosphere re-entry begins to get critical.
I had to go down to the airstrip to get a CARGO Airlines plane back to Albuquerque so I didn't have time to ask a lot of questions that came into my mind. I did get to make one comment. From the conversations, I assumed that these people didn't think the green fireballs were any kind of a natural phenomenon. Not exactly, they said, but so far the evidence that said they were a natural phenomenon was vastly outweighed by the evidence that said they weren't
During the kidney-jolting trip down the valley from Los Alamos to Albuquerque in one of the CARGO Airlines' Bonanzas, I decided that I'd stay over an extra day and talk to Dr. La Paz. He knew every detail there was to know about the green fireballs. He confirmed my findings, that the genuine green fireballs were no longer being seen. He said that he'd received hundreds of reports, especially after he'd written several articles about the mysterious fireballs, but that all of the reported objects were just greenish colored, common, everyday meteors.
Dr. La Paz said that some people, including Dr. Joseph Kaplan and Dr. Edward Teller, thought that the green fireballs were natural meteors. He didn't think so, however, for several reasons. First the color was so much different. To illustrate his point, Dr. La Paz opened his desk drawer and took out a well-worn chart of the color spectrum. He checked off two shades of green; one a pale, almost yellowish green and the other a much more distinct vivid green. He pointed to the bright green and told me that this was the color of the green fireballs. He'd taken this chart with him when he went out to talk to people who had seen the green fireballs and everyone had picked this one color.
The pale green, he explained, was the color reported in the cases of documented green meteors. Then there were other points of dissimilarity between a meteor and the green fireballs. The trajectory of the fireballs was too fiat. Dr. La Paz explained that a meteor doesn't necessarily have to arch down across the sky; its trajectory can appear to be fiat, but not as flat as that of the green fireballs. Then there was the size. Almost always such descriptive words as "terrifying," "as big as the moon," and "blinding" had been used to describe the fireballs. Meteors just aren't this big and bright. No ---Dr. La Paz didn't think that they were meteors. Dr. La Paz didn't believe that they were meteorites either.
A meteorite is accompanied by sound and shock waves that break windows and stampede cattle. Yet in every case of a green fireball sighting the observers reported that they did not hear any sound. But the biggest mystery of all was the fact that no particles of a green fireball had ever been found. If they were meteorites, Dr. La Paz was positive that he would have found one. He'd missed very few times in the cases of known meteorites. He pulled a map out of his file to show me what he meant. It was a map that he had used to plot the spot where a meteorite had hit the earth. I believe it was in Kansas. The map had been prepared from information he had obtained from dozens of people who had seen the meteorite come flaming toward the earth. At each spot where an observer was standing he'd drawn in the observer's line of sight to the meteorite. From the dozens of observers he had obtained dozens of lines of sight. The lines all converged to give Dr. La Paz a plot of the meteorite's downward trajectory. Then he had been able to plot the spot where it had struck the earth. He and his crew went to the marked area, probed the ground with long steel poles, and found the meteorite. This was just one case that he showed me. He had records of many more similar successful expeditions in his file.
Then he showed me some other maps. The plotted lines looked identical to the ones on the map I'd just seen. Dr. La Paz had used the same techniques on these plots and had marked an area where he wanted to search. He had searched the area many times but he had never found anything. These were plots of the path of a green fireball. When Dr. La Paz had finished, I had one last question, "What do you think they are?" He weighed the question for a few seconds then he said that all he cared to say was that he didn't think that they were a natural phenomenon. He thought that maybe someday one would hit the earth and the mystery would be solved. He hoped that they were a natural phenomenon.
After my talk with Dr. La Paz I can well understand his apparent calmness on the night of September 18, 1954, when the newspaper reporter called him to find out if he planned to investigate this latest green fireball report. He was speaking from experience, not indifference, when he said, "But I don't expect to find anything." If the green fireballs are back, I hope that Dr. La Paz gets an answer this time.
The mystery continues as we are still getting in reports today…
On Thursday, January 27, 2000, at 11 p.m., "a very bright white light," described as "a basket ball sized fireball with a fluorescent green train" crossed the southern coast of Western Australia state "Between Albany and Esperance and headed northeast at an estimated altitude of 60 miles." Esperance, W.A. is located 420 miles southeast of Perth, the state capital.
The mysterious object "reportedly split into three or four pieces at an estimated altitude of 50 miles by the time it reached Kalgoorlie and the Eastern Goldfields. It was observed from as far away as Shark Bay on Australia's northwest coast"
"Three pieces exploded east of Kalgoorlie whilst the fourth traveled some 1,200 miles to Wyndham in the northeast where it disintegrated into many smaller pieces at an estimated altitude of 12 miles"
The Perth Astronomical Observatory "received hundreds of phone calls on the event." An observatory spokesman said the fireball could have been the Russian satellite Molynia returning to Earth. The Molynia was launched back in 1986. (See the newspaper The Western Australian for January 28, 2000.)
We may never know the real answers to the Green Fireball mystery. Fireballs are here to stay, and once again I’m reminded of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s quote: "Things are more like they are now than they ever were before."
Jim Hickman
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not
sure about the former." --Albert Einstein
I had someone ask me the other day “seen any Flying Saucers or Little Green Men lately?” Of course I answered they are all grays these days! With that question I realized that the somehow the general public seems to think of all aliens as Little Green Men from Mars in Flying Saucers. We all know that is not what is being seen in our skies. We have traditionally seen flying disks, cigars, triangles, airships, even flying wings… but no flying saucers until 1947.
I wondered where the expressions got started and was there any truth to the idea of “LGM’s”? I did some research into it and the first mention of LGM’s comes from an article in the newspaper The Kentucky New Era from Aug. 22, 1955…
August 21, 1955 Hopkinsville, KY (Christian County)
A family is terrified by small, glowing humanoids which surrounded their rural farmhouse. The father takes several point-blank shots at the humanoids with a shotgun, and the force of the blast only seems to harmlessly repel the creatures several feet backward. The family flees the residence and alerts the Sheriff's department, where through later investigations, find indications of the struggle.
From the Kentucky New Era
(Editor's Note: One of the more curious incidents to occur in recent Christian County history is the celebrated 1955 invasion of Kelly by "little green men." Staff Writer Joe Dorris was on the scene the night of the incident and the following morning and filed this story -- the first in the nation. Dorris later noted that it was two or three days later that the national media injected the green color into the description -- a color never mentioned by those claiming to have seen the invaders.)
Story of Space-Ship, 12 Little Men Probed Today Kelly Farmhouse Scene Of Alleged Raid By Strange Crew Last Night; Reports Say Bullets Failed To Affect Visitors
All kinds of investigations were going on today in connection with the bizarre story of how a space-ship carrying 12 to 15 little men landed in the Kelly community early last night and battled occupants of a farmhouse. Most official of the probes was reportedly being staged by the air force.
More than a dozen state, county, and city officers from Christian and Hopkins counties went to the scene between 11 p.m. and midnight and remained until after 2 a.m. without seeing anything either to prove or disprove the story about the ship and its occupants.
The farmhouse is located on the Old Madisonville Road about eight miles north of Hopkinsville. The property is occupied by Cecil (Lucky) Sutton, one of those who reported experiencing last night's phenomena.
There were some 10 or 12
persons at the house, including several children, but investigating officers
were not able to determine exactly how many of those present actually clamed to
have seen any of the little men from the space ship.
Only other person who officers quoted directly was identified as Billy Ray
Taylor. One account said Taylor is a visitor from Pennsylvania, which recently
had a similar report of a space ship. Neither Sutton nor Taylor was at home when
officers returned to the scene this morning.
The story broke around 11 o'clock last night when two cars, one bearing a Pennsylvania license drove up to Hopkinsville's police headquarters. Officers then at the station said the two autos contained at least five adults and several children. All appeared highly excited.
Spokesmen for the crowd told of how something resembling a space ship or flying saucer had landed at the back of their house near Kelly and 12 or 15 men, who appeared to be about 4 feet tall, had got out of ship and come up to the house and done battle with the occupants.
"We need help," one of the men said, "we've been fighting them for nearly four hours."
Four city police, Chief Russell Greenwell, T.C. Gross, Dorris Francis, and Gray Salter, drove to the scene to see about the "little men". By radio, contact was made with State Troopers R.N. Ferguson Jr. and G.W. Riley and Deputy Sheriff George Batts, all of whom joined the motorcade to Kelly in their own vehicles. Four MP's also went.
The radio discussions also brought two Hopkins County deputy sheriffs and at least three state troopers from the station at Madisonville. First arrivers found the scene deserted. The two cars which had brought the report to Hopkinsville did not return to the Kelly farm until after officers had arrived and looked the situation over.
Officers reported they found no tracks of "little men," nor was there any mark indicating anything had landed at the described sport behind the house. There was a hole in the screen at the window through which occupants said a shot had been fired at one of the strange little men.
Both Chief Greenwell and Deputy Sheriff Batts said they got approximately this story from the still-terrified and excited Sutton and Taylor families:
About 7 p.m. one of the men went out of the house to get a bucket of water. He saw what looked like a flying saucer come over the trees and land in a field at a point about a city block behind the house. There was no explosion, only a semi-hissing sound, and the watcher returned to the house with the bucket of water.
A short time later somebody reported some little men with big heads and long arms were approaching the house. The men were described as having huge eyes and hands out of proportion to their small bodies. The visitors were wearing what looked to be metal plate.
The men got their guns, a shotgun for Sutton and a .22 caliber target pistol for Taylor. By and by, one of the little men pressed his face against the window and the shotgun was fired through the window. The face disappeared.
The men decided to go outside and see if the visitor had been hit. Taylor was in front and when he emerged from the front door, a huge hand reached down from the low roof above the door and grabbed him by the hair. He pulled away and the two men went on out of the house.
One of the strange little men was in a nearby tree, another on top of the house. A blast from Sutton's shotgun knocked another one of the men down but he did not appear hurt. He disappeared in the darkness.
Taylor reportedly opened fire on other member of the invading party, also with little effect. The battle went on for some time. When the occupants of the house saw their chance, they jumped into their cars and drove to Hopkinsville for help.
Deputy Sheriff Batts
said the men told him that in all they fired up about four boxes of .22 pistol
shells. The officer quoted a neighbor saying he heard shooting at the Suttons
but distinguished only about four shots and mistook them for fire-crackers.
Most of the officers remained at the site for more than two hours. During that period, there were approximately 25 person at the scene.
Only excitement during the period the officers were there came when an MP happened to step on a cat's tail while walking in the darkness near the house. The cat let out a squawl and for a few seconds there was much activity and scurrying around on the part of those present.
Two officers who returned to the Kelly area early this morning reported hearing that the "little men" had reappeared around the Sutton home about 3:30 a.m.
Other investigators who went to Kelly later during the morning said they were told Sutton and Taylor had gone to Evansville today.
Officers who visited the scene during last night's excitement were reluctant to express any opinion today in regard to the reported invasion of Kelly. All officials appeared to agree that there was no drinking involved.
Only outspoken comment came from Frank Dudas, city police desk sergeant, who was not on duty last night and has not visited the scene so far. He said, "I think the whole story is entirely possible."
Sergeant Dudas was one of two city policemen who reported seeing three flying saucers early one morning last summer. He said, "I know I saw them. If I saw them, the Kelly story certainly could be true."
Drawing of the Kelly aliens
Next I wanted to present a report from Annie MacFie who’s website: https://www.angelfire.com/ky/ufohome/bbfile9.html carries this report:
by Annie MacFie
The term "high strangeness," frequently tossed around in current UFOspeak, aptly applies to a Kentucky CE-III (close encounter of the third kind) incident more than 30 years old. This is the one often referred to as the "Hopkinsville Case," although it took place seven miles to the north at a wide-spot-in-the-road called Kelly.
Because of outlandish exaggeration and derisive treatment in the press, the story was generally disbelieved at the time, but careful investigation by responsible researchers has turned up no evidence of hoax or deceit on the part of the witnesses. That they were uneducated "hillbillies" seems to have been most people's reason for doubting their word.
We return now to the hot, clear evening of August 21, 1955, one of the wilder nights in UFO history…
Pennsylvanians Billy Ray and June Taylor were visiting the Cecil Sutton family at a tenant house in western Kentucky. Sutton's 50-year-old mother, Glennie Lankford, lived with the family, and some kinfolks were over, making a crowd of eight adults and three children at the farmhouse.
Around 7 p.m. Taylor went to fetch water from the backyard well and came back excited, saying he'd seen a brilliant flying saucer come whizzing in from the southwest and drop into a gully not far from the house. The others dismissed the sightings as a falling star, but within the hour, the violent barking of Sutton's dog brought the men out in time to see the animal hide under the house.
Approaching from the fields was a luminous shape - a humanoid figure three and a half feet tall, shining all over as if "nickel-plated." Large, pointed ears extended from its oversized head, and its eyes, set more laterally than human eyes, glowed with yellow light. Its thin arms reached almost to the ground, displaying big, webbed hands with talons at the ends of the fingers.
Apparently, the creature had seen its share of cowboy movies - it raised its hands high over its head in an attitude of surrender. Ignoring Mrs. Lankford's pleas not to shoot at it, her son and Taylor opened fire on the intruder with a shotgun and a .22. To their astonishment, it flipped over, righted itself and ran off into the darkness.
Presently, it - or a second one like it - appeared looking in at a window. Sutton's younger brother J.C. discharged the shotgun through the window-screen, knocking the being out of sight.
Certain it had been hit, Taylor, followed by Cecil Sutton (nicknamed "Lucky") started outside to find it. As he hesitated beneath an overhanging roof, those in the house began to scream at the sight of a claw-like hand reaching down to touch his hair. He was quickly pulled back inside, and Lucky Sutton, leaping out into the yard, blasted the creature off the roof with the shotgun. Taylor spotted another being, and both men shot it out of the maple tree in which it was perched. It floated, rather than fell to the ground and scurried away on slender, inflexible legs that seemed to move from the hip only.
Just then, another entity (possibly the one that had been on the roof) appeared around the corner of the house near Sutton. His shotgun pellets struck it point-blank with a sound like that of a metal bucket. Nonetheless, it jumped up and ran away unhurt.
Several more times the aliens advanced on the house, never making any sound nor behaving with any overt hostility and each time they were repelled by a hail of gunfire.
At last, the unnerved defenders fled from the farmhouse in two cars and raced for the Hopkinsville police station where, in a state of near-hysteria, they told their bizarre story.
By 12:30 the still-frightened family was back on the scene, accompanied by state and local police, a deputy sheriff, a newspaper photographer, and two military police from Ft. Campbell. A thorough search of the house and grounds turned up a lot of spent shotgun shells and a hole blasted through a screen, but no glowing little men. A luminous patch of grass was observed where one of the creatures was shot off a fence, but no cause for it could be determined. Apparently, no samples were collected.
Chief of Police Russel Greenwell stated that he and the other investigators admitted sensing a "weird feeling" that permeated the entire area that night. Although he couldn't find any evidence of what, exactly, happened, "Something scared those people," he said. "Something beyond reason - nothing ordinary."
With the excitement over and nothing more to do, everyone but those occupying the farmhouse left around 2 a.m. The exhausted Sutton family retired, but by 3:30, the little metallic guys were peeking in the windows again. Lucky Sutton blew one more hole in a screen, to no effect. The inquisitive visitors persisted in their forays until just before dawn.
Morning brought various investigators who conducted an extensive, but fruitless, daylight examination of the farm. It also brought a hoard of news reporters, and after their stories - some of them blatantly sensationalistic and erroneous - went out, the curiosity seekers arrived. Fed up with harassment and ridicule, the witnesses soon refused to talk about the incident and, within 48 hours, packed up and left the area.
Fortunately, one of the first persons to interview the percipients was Andrew "Bud" Ledwith of radio station WHOP, a man with artistic ability and a broad-minded attitude toward UFOs. Before the issue was clouded by the "chaff" of so many careless reports, Ledwith obtained firsthand most of the informational "wheat" from which today's researchers can put together the closest-to-complete account of what really went on at Kelly. He also made drawings based on witness descriptions and received signed statements of their testimony.
Almost a year later, Isabel Davis managed to locate and interview Glennie Lankford and J.C. Sutton's wife, Alene, as well as Chief Greenwell. The 196-page report of her investigation, "Close Encounter at Kelly and Others of 1955," co-authored by Ted Bloecher, is available from CUFOS (the Center for UFO Studies).
Far from the preposterous tall tale of "gun-toting hillbillies shooting it out with a dozen or so green monsters," that the press of that day put out, the Kelly-Hopkinsville Standoff has gone down in serious UFO literature as one of the more credible, although highly unusual, close encounters of the century.
Kenneth Arnold is usually credited with coining the phrase “Flying Saucer” but a little research shows us that the media was once again involved in this one…
Oddly enough, we got flying saucers because of a journalist's error. 1947 was an exciting time in aviation history. New advances and innovations were turning up regularly and speed records were being broken as pilots aimed to break the sound barrier. Chuck Yeager would win that prize on October 14, 1947. Four months earlier, on June 24, 1947, Kenneth Arnold surprised the world by reporting nine objects flying by Mount Ranier at the incredible speed of 1,200 miles per hour. It was an incredible mystery and was such a sensation that it made front page news across the nation. Soon everyone was looking for these new aircraft which according to the papers were saucer-like in shape. Within weeks hundreds of reports of these flying saucers were made across the nation. While people presumably thought they were seeing the same things that Kenneth Arnold saw, there was a major irony that nobody at the time realized.
Kenneth Arnold hadn't reported seeing flying saucers.
In a memoir of the incident for the First International UFO Congress in 1977 Arnold revealed the flying saucer label arose because of a "great deal of misunderstanding" on the part of the reporter who wrote the story up for the United Press. Bill Bequette asked him how the objects flew and Arnold answered that, "Well, they flew erratic, like a saucer if you skip it across the water." The intent of the metaphor was to describe the motion of the objects not their shape. Arnold stated the objects "were not circular."
A look at the drawing he did for his report to the Air Force shortly after the incident confirms the truth of that statement. It is hard to describe in a word or two; beetle- shaped is the best I can come up with. However you describe it, one thing is clear. It is not the elegant alien geometric perfection we have come to know and mystify ourselves over.
Now we know the truth about LGM’s and Flying Saucers. Next time you’re asked you will have an answer. No, their has never been a report of a Flying Saucer or Little Green Men, the Media made them up!…
New Mexico is the UFO state. Some say Nevada has that honor, but I say New Mexico has had, and continues to have the most, and best sightings you will find anywhere. Remember, Roswell was in New Mexico!. Here’s an old one to start things off…
Mar. 26, 1880, Lamy, New Mexico. Four men walking near Galisteo Junction were surprised as they heard voices coming from a “strange balloon,” which flew over them. It was shaped like a fish and seemed to be guided by a large fanlike device. There were eight to ten figures aboard. Their language was not understood. The object flew low over Galisteo Junction and rose rapidly toward the east.
From the U.S. Air Force’s Unknown files…
April 5, 1948; Holloman AFB, New Mexico. Afternoon. Witnesses: Geophysics Lab balloon observers Alsen, Johnson, Chance. Two irregular, round, white or golden objects. One made three loops then rose and disappeared rapidly; the other flew in a fast arc to the west during the 30 second sighting.
April 24, 1949; Arrey, New Mexico. l0:30 a.m. Witnesses: General Mills meteorologist and balloon expert C.B. Moore and others on a balloon launch crew. One white, round ellipsoid, about 2.5 times as long as wide.
Feb. 24, 1950; Albuquerque, New Mexico. 1:55 p.m. Witnesses: Municipal Airport Weather Observers Luther McDonald, Harrison Manson. One white, slightly elongated oval was watched for 1.5 minutes through a theodolite while it flew straight and level.
Feb. 25, 1950; Los Alamos, New Mexico. 3:55 p.m. Witnesses: Twelve Atomic Energy Commission security inspectors. One cylinder with tapered ends, silver and flashing, flew slow and hen fast, fluttered and oscillated, and changed course. observations by individuals varied from 3 seconds to 2 minutes.
Jan 16, 1951; Artesia, New Mexico. Time unknown. Witnesses: Two members of a balloon project from the General Mills . Aeronautical Research Laboratory, the manger of the Artesia Airport, and three pilots. The balloon crew was observing their 110' balloon at an altitude of 112,000' when a dull white, round object was spotted. It appeared larger than the balloon, but made no movement. Later, the balloon crew and the others saw two objects from the airport; flying side-by-side, they circled the balloon and flew away to the northeast. The second observation lasted about 40 seconds. Note: there is confusion over the date of this case, with some USAF records showing it as 1952; however, 1951 appears to be correct.
Aug. 25, 1951; Albuquerque, New Mexico. 9:58 p.m. Witnesses: Sandia Base Security Guard Hugh Young and wife. A flying wing- shaped craft passed over their heads at an estimated 800-1,000' altitude with no sound. Size estimated at 1.5 times wingspan of B-36 bomber,or 350'. Dark, chordwise stripes on underside, and 6-8 pairs of soft, glowing lights on trailing edge of "wing". Speed estimated at 300-400 m.p.h., object seen for about 30 seconds.
April 24, 1952; Clovis, New Mexico. 8:10 p.m. Witness: USAF light Surgeon Maj. E.L. Ellis. Many orange-amber lights, sometimes separate, sometimes fused, behaved erratically. Speed varied from motionless to very fast during 5 minute sighting.
May 28, 1952; Albuquerque, New Mexico. 1:45-2:40 p.m. Witnesses: two city fire department employees. Two circular objects--one shiny silver and the other orange or light brown-- were seen three times performing fast maneuvers.
June 5, 1952; Albuquerque, New Mexico. 6:45 p.m. Witness: S/Sgt T.H. Shorey. One shiny round object flew 5-6 times as fast as an F-86 jet fighter for 6 seconds.
June 7, 1952; Albuquerque, New Mexico. 11:18 a.m. Witnesses: crew of B-25 bomber #8840 at 11,500'. One rectangular aluminum object, about 6'x4', flew 250-300' below the B-25.
June 8, 1952; Albuquerque, New Mexico. 10:50 a.m. Witnesses: Mr. and Mrs. J.D. Markland. Four shiny objects flew straight and level in a diamond formation.
Note: Walker AFB, was in Roswell…
June 16, 1952; Walker AFB, New Mexico. 8:30 p.m. Witness: USAF maintenance specialist S/Sgt. Sparks. Five or six greyish discs, in a half-moon formation, flew at 500-600 m.p.h. for l minute.
July 22, 1952; Los Alamos, New Mexico. 10:50 a.m. Witnesses: control tower operator Don Weins, and two pilots for Carco. Eight large, round, bright aluminum objects flew straight and level, then darted around erratically during 25 minutes.
July 26, 1952; Kirtland AFB, New Mexico. 12:05 a.m. Witness: Airman lst Class J.M. Donaldson. Eight to ten orange balls in a triangular or V-formation flew very fast for 3-4 seconds.
July 30, 1952; Albuquerque, New Mexico. 11:02 p.m. Witness: USAF lst Lt. George Funk. One orange light remained stationary for 10 minutes. No further details in files.
Note: Holloman AFB is the current home to the F-117 “stealth fighter”…
Aug. 25, 1952; Holloman AFB, New Mexico. 3:40 p.m. Witnesses: civilian supervisor Fred Lee, foreman L.A. Aquilar. One round silver object flew south, turned and flew north, made a 360 turn and flew away vertically after 3-5 minutes.
Oct. 7, 1952; Alamagordo, New Mexico. 8:30 p.m. Witness: USAF Lt. Bagnell. One pale blue oval, with its long axis vertical, flew straight and level for 4-5 seconds, covering 30 in that time.
Oct. 17, 1952; Taos, New Mexico. 9:15 p.m. Witnesses: Four USAF officers One round, bright blue light moved from north to northeast at an elevation of 45* for 2-3 seconds and then burned out.
Oct. 17, 1952; Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico. 11 p.m. Witness: one military person (no detail). One white streamer moved at an estimated 3,000 m.p.h. in an arc for 20 seconds. No further details in files.
Nov. 12, 1952; Los Alamos, New Mexico. 10:23 p.m. Witness: security inspector. Four red-white-green lights flew slowly over a prohibited area for 15 minutes.
Nov. 27, 1952; Albuquerque, New Mexico. 12:10 p.m. Witnesses: pilot and crew chief of UAAF B-26 bomber. A series of black smoke bursts (4-3-3-4-3), similar to antiaircraft fire, was seen over a 20 minute period.C. 12:30 a.m. Witnesses: radar
March 27, 1953; Mt. Taylor, New Mexico. 7:25 p.m. Witness: pilot of USAF F-86 jet fighter at 600 kts. (700 m.p.h.). One bright orange circle flew at 800 kts. (900 m.p.h.), and executed three fast rolls. Pilot chased object for 4 minutes.
Jan, 1, 1955; Cochise, New Mexico. 6:44 a.m. Witnesses: instructor and student pilot in USAF B-25 bomber/trainer. A metallic disc, shaped like two pie pans face-to-face, and 120- 130' in diameter, paced the B-25, showing both its edge and its face, for 5-7 minutes. Only item in case file was summary form.
Feb.l, 1955; 20 miles east of Cochise, New Mexico. 7:55 p.m. Witnesses: Instructor Capt. D.F. Ritzdorf, aviation cadet F.W. Miller in TB-25 bomber/trainer. One red and white ball hovered off the left wing of the TB-25 for 5 minutes, then made a very fast climb. Total time of sighting was 8 minutes.
Nov. 6, 1957; Radium Springs, New Mexico. 10:50 p.m. Witnesses: one Las Cruces policeman, one Dona Ana County Deputy Sheriff. One round object--changing from red to green to blue to white-- rose vertically from a mountain top. Sighting lasted 10 minutes.
April 24, 1964; Socorro, New Mexico. 5:45 p.m. Witness: Socorro policeman Lonnie Zamora. Watched object with flame underneath descend toward the desert. Two small humanoids observed near vertical oval on ground. Later watched object take off with a roar, go silent and fly away. Burning and charred brush found at landing sight
A sketch drawn by Lonnie Zamora
This is the famous Zamora case investigated by Dr. J. Allen Hynek. The experience of Lonnie Zamora on April 24, 1964 stands as one of the most profound ufo events in the modern history of the phenomena. To this day it remains a case in which all the facts involved support the witnesses claims and it is this kind of case that makes the ufo phenomenon such an enduring mystery.
Lonnie Zamora saw a highly unusual device of unknown origin, what can only be described as a "craft" of some kind, and he reported seeing what he believes were occupants. Despite the controversy, which often surrounds the subject of UFOs, the incident at Socorro remains an example of what the UFO phenomenon is, in fact, all about.
Sergeant Lonnie Zamora of the Socorro Police Department was the individual who witnessed the Socorro landing in New Mexico on Friday 24 April 1964. The Project Blue Book investigation stated: "There is no doubt that Lonnie Zamora saw an object which left quite an impression on him. There is also no question about Zamora's reliability. He is a serious officer, a pillar of his church, and a man well versed in recognizing airborne vehicles in his area. He is puzzled by what he saw, and frankly, so are we. This is the best documented case on record."
Sept. 25, 1965; Rodeo, New Mexico. 10 p.m. Witnesses: Dr. George Walton, physical chemist, and wife. Two round white objects flew side-by-side, at 30-50' altitude, pacing the witnesses' car for 6 minutes.
I have had my share of sightings in New Mexico also. I call them
The New Mexico UFO Incidents
I took these photos in 1998 while on vacation in New Mexico. I've blown up the photo above quite a bit, and the original is below. You can see the object in the upper left of the photo below. This photo was taken in White Sands National Park.
The photo on the right was taken by me on April 25, 1998 at White Sands, the one on the left was taken in 1952, notice any similarities? I did.
This is a series of photos taken the next day north of Las Cruces, New Mexico. There appears to be 2 objects, one cylindrical and the other seems more rounded, they are next to each other in this photo.
This is the second photo taken about 10 seconds later, you can see that the first object has moved to the left and has gone to about a 45-degree angle...
Luckily, we had several others who saw this same object, and I was able to get a Email report from one of them. In his email he describes us as one of the cars parked by the side of the road, and here's his report...
Date: Saturday, April 25, 1998 9:09 PM
Subject: UFO Sighting---New Mexico, April 22
For Posting Sighting Report
This was related to me by my brother. At about 10:30 AM on Wed. April 22 he was traveling east on Rte 10 in southern New Mexico west of Las Cruces, near he border of Luna and Dona Ana counties, when he saw several cars parked on the side of the road with the occupants outside looking up in the air.
He glanced over where they were looking and saw a stationary white object. He stopped also, got out and began to observe the object with the others. He said that it was a typical "saucer shape" tilted upward at about 10 to 30 degrees from vertical. It was about the thickness of a pencil held at arms length and at about a 60 degree angle from the horizon.
He judged it to be about several miles away and a few thousand feet up, south towards the Mexican border. He and the others observed it motionless in the sky for about 10 minutes. It then began to level out to a horizontal position after which it slowly started to move to the south.
In a few minutes it was gone from view. My brother is an "open minded skeptic" and since it was too far away to see any identifiable features and did not perform any erratic or unconventional maneuvers he is not saying for sure that he observed a "flying saucer", but it was nothing like he had ever seen before and did not look like it "belonged there". Anyone else with any knowledge of this or similar sighting near that place and time please respond.
And from Vallee’s Magonia files,
Oct. 25, 1953 Santa Fe (New Mexico). Jim Milligan, 16, was driving through a park when he saw something fall in front of his car and stopped as the object landed in some bushes. He walked toward it, found a craft that looked like two ship hulls, about 3 m long, 2 m wideglued together. When he tried to touch it, the object flew away. (Wilkins A 223)
May. 18, 1954 Cannon Air Force Base (New Mexico). Two persons witnessed the landing of a lens-shaped object the size of a house. It came to the ground near the railroad tracks, kicking up a small sand storm in the desert. One witness first decided to approach it, then ran away in fear. (Binder)
Nov. 03, 1957 White Sands (New Mexico). At Stallion Site, an army patrol in a jeep saw an orange,“apparently controlled,” luminous object on the ground near the site of the first A-bomb explosion. It was first seen as a sunlike source 50 m above ground, descending to ground level after 3 min, and landing several km away at the northern end of the testing grounds. Two witnesses.
Nov. 06, 1957 Santa Fe (New Mexico). J. Martinez and A. Gallegos saw an egg-shaped object coming toward them at low altitude. It moved slowly, illuminating their car and producing a humming sound. The car engine, the clock and a wristwatch stopped. The object shot away toward the southwest.
Apr. 22, 1964 Lordsbury (New Mexico). Marie Morrow and two other persons were driving west, about 2O km east of Lordsbury when the entire area was illuminated by a
bluish light “as bright as day,” and a round object flew about 3 m above the car, making a whining sound, then went north.
Apr. 26, 1964 La Madera (New Mexico). Orlando Gallegos observed a bright, metallic, egg-shaped object about 70 m away, on the ground, north of La Madera. Blue flames appeared to circle the base of the machine, which was silent and about the length of a telephone pole. Scorch marks and four imprints were found, according to Police Capt. Martin Vigil.
Apr. 28, 1964 Anthony (New Mexico). Numerous witnesses, among them policeman Paul Arteche, saw a reddish, round object hover at low level, then take off very rapidly toward the west.
Jun. 02, 1964 Hobbs (New Mexico). A “black object with flames” is blamed for burns suffered by an 8-year-old child, who said he saw the object coming from the sky. His grandmother, Mrs. Frank Smith, who was standing nearby, heard a sound similar to that of a bullet, but saw nothing. The child suffered second-degree burns on his face, and lost part of his hair.
From the Journal Archives, Sunday Morning, July 6, 1947
Veterans Hospital Patients Report Flying Disc Here
Four patients at the U.S. Veterans' Administration Hospital here said that they
watched a "flying disc" disappear into and come out of the clouds in the
southwestern sky Saturday afternoon.
The group, all in the
same room, were John Goyng, Charles Roat, Fred Lucero and Lorenzo Garcia.
They watched it out of a
window, they said, and it "seemed like a round ball, brighter than any airplane
we've ever seen and was going straight ... not dipping. It had nothing
projecting from it that we could see."
It was the second report about discs from Albuquerqueans Saturday. In the morning, Jess Satathite of W. Candelaria Rd. reported having seen five, saucer shaped objects and said one of them circled the city. They appeared from the west, he said, as he was working on the house.
From CAUS’s Chris O’Brien comes several reports of activity in New Mexico.
A close proximity report of unexplained aerial activity near or over a small body of water has surfaced in Northern NM. Note: The La Veta, CO Jan 26th sighting featured a craft extending a beam into a small lake on the 18th hole of the La Veta Golf Course
Fri Feb 19, 1999 between 9:30 PM and 10:00 PM, 1/4 mile south of Black Lake, NM--about 23 miles SE of Taos, NM, CE1 Duration: 5-10 minutes Mora/Colfax Counties
A couple w/ a south facing house witness 2 objects (each w/ a single brilliant white light) rise from the Coyote Canyon area NE of Chacon, NM., about 2 miles south of their home. Lights viewed under binoculars were "rapidly oscillating as if they were rapidly spinning." Woman witness described the lights as being between their vantage point and the mountains 2 miles away. The lights were described as being "... so bright they left an after-image" when the witnesses looked away.
Within minutes of the commencement of the sighting the first two objects/lights were joined by 4 similar lights/craft. 1st two objects stopped out "in front of the living room window" and "began bouncing around like they wanted our attention." Then, the group of lights headed down to the lake for several minutes before 2 of the objects went straight up and the other 4 "drifted off over the mountains to the south."
No sound was associated with the entire episode and in the witnesses estimation, there was "no way they were helicopters." Woman estimated they were less than a mile away at their closest approach and completely silent.
The following day a truck driver told the couple he had been returning up NM 434
after a delivery; at the same time as the couple's sighting, and had also
witnessed the 6 unusual lights.
Thu Mar 4, 1999 at 11:00 PM North of Del Norte, CO Airfield AN1 Rio Grande County
A couple that live near the Del Norte, CO airstrip call to report watching "a large straw-colored light hovering over Jeep Hill," 1/4 mile away to the SW of their house. They estimated the size of the light to be "15 feet in diameter." Craft/object/light then turned on a spotlight which illuminated the area below it. Witnesses told me this was the second sighting of a similar light/event in the area; the first event occurred in the late Fall '98.
The Black Lake, NM couple claims they have watched similar bright white lights
"almost ever night" since a multiple-object sighting on Feb 19. Lights have
appeared to be higher in altitude. In one sighting:
Mar 8, 1999 at 8:30 PM, Black Lake, NM; a bright white light [similar to the lights in the Feb 19 sighting] appeared to rise from behind the mountains (just to the south of their location), to the altitude of a passing jet. The light "paced the plane--sitting 15 miles behind it" as the two headed south toward Las Vegas, NM.
ALBUQUERQUE -- IamLeona writes that on April 2, 1999, my wife and I observed a very bright luminous object traveling east just south of our home 10:03 PM. We are located at 8,000 feet up in a mountainous area 20 miles SE of Albuquerque. The object was a bright luminous amber sphere slightly smaller than the moon would appear and traveled just above tree top level. The distance from us was difficult to judge because the size is unknown but we both estimated it to be between 50 and 300 yards away. The object was definitely not anything like the air traffic we normally see and made no sound. We observed the object for 15 - 20 seconds until it disappeared behind trees
August 15, 1999 - A dramatic bluish-white ball of light was seen by observers over northern New Mexico. Witnesses described it to be the apparent diameter of the full moon , and said it lit up the ground like daylight.
And so it continues, New Mexico is a state of mystery.
Levelland, Texas is a place where UFO’s like to visit, and so do I. Last year I made a road trip thru several UFO towns on my way to a meeting in Roswell, New Mexico. I had the time and I thought it would be fun to check on some of the cases in the area I was to drive through.
I live in rural western Oklahoma; “Known for absolutely nothing” is our town’s motto, so, as you can imagine, I try to get away on investigations as often as I can. On our last trip to Roswell, we managed to stop in Lubbock, and Levelland, Texas known for it’s famous sighting. These towns are only a few miles apart, and yet they both have a UFO history. I will have a report on what we found in Lubbock in another article.
First, a report from the Project Bluebook 701 unknown files, on Aug. 24, 1952, in Levelland, Texas. 9:30 p.m., 10:30 p.m. Witnesses: Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Sharp. One object, shaped like a spinning top, changing color from red to yellow to blue, and with a fiery tail, hovered for 20 minutes, Whistling, then flew away. It, or another like it, returned an hour later.
Also the Levelland sightings as reported from the Magonia files: On Nov. 2, 1957, in Levelland, Texas, a large number of reports from the Levelland area described a low-flying object, over 60 m long, equipped with a bright light, and which interfered with car ignition.
Levelland, TX 10:30 pm. Pedro Siado
(or Saucedo) sighting/car stalling/rush of wind/heat. 10:50 Siado (Saucedo)
called dispatcher A. J. Fowler at police
HQ to report his sighting. 11:00 pm Fowler called Reese AFB who started to
monitor police radios for additional reports.
From the Texas monthly www ranch report at: http://www.texasmonthly.com/travel/virtual/ufo/index.html
Not far from where the Lubbock Lights were seen six years earlier, residents of Levelland, Texas, reported ten UFO-related incidents during the course of several hours on November 2, 1957. The first close encounter took place around eleven o'clock in the evening when farm workers Pedro Saucedo and Joe Salaz saw a giant, brilliantly-lit object fly over their truck. As it passed overhead, the truck's headlights and engine went dead, resuming to normal only once the craft had disappeared. Saucedo reported the incident to Levelland police, who received a call an hour later from Levelland resident Jim Wheeler.
Eight miles from the original report, Wheeler said that his engine and headlights had failed as he approached a brightly lit egg-shaped object in the road. Once the craft had ascended into the sky and disappeared, Wheeler was able to restart his engine.
Sheriff Weir Clem and Deputy Pat McColloch drove along Route 116 searching for the glowing object when finally, at 1:30 a.m., they spotted an enormous, egg-shaped craft that looked "like a brilliant red sunset across the highway," according to Clem. It "lit up the whole pavement in front of us for about two seconds," he said, and then it disappeared. Throughout the night, the Levelland police department continued to receive calls describing a similar bright object that caused lights to dim and car engines to shut off.
The Air Force investigated, speculating that the incidents were examples of ball lightening. However, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the Air Force's primary UFO investigator at the time, recanted this conclusion in later writings. "I am not proud today that I hastily concurred in Captain Gregory's evaluation as 'ball lightning' [as the explanation for the Levelland sightings] on the basis of information that an electrical storm had been in progress in the Levelland area at the time. That was shown not to be the case," wrote Hynek. "Besides, had I given it any thought whatsoever, I would have soon recognized the absence of any evidence that ball lightning can stop cars and put out headlights." The Levelland sightings remain unexplained.
I mention this report, as it is only the start to a whole UFO “flap” in the Levelland/Lubbock, Texas area.
The following article that I wanted to share with you is by the famous UFO researcher Dr. J. Allen Hynek, who at the time of this series of sightings was a consultant for the U.S. Air Force’s Project Bluebook, and who later founded the Center for UFO Studies, of which I am an associate member.
THE LEVELLAND, TEXAS, SIGHTINGS
By Dr. J. Allen Hynek
For the moment, let us look at the probability that motors are killed and lights and radio stop by coincidence when the driver has a UFO close sighting. We have all seen cars stopped by the side of the road, hood up, waiting for tow trucks. It would be highly improbable that a car would become completely immobilized and then a few moments later “heal itself,” yet it can happen. Perhaps, for example, a wire that had become loose was jarred back into place in some way. But to combine this low probability event with the simultaneous appearance of a strange light coming down from the sky and hovering over the car, the car remaining disabled only so long as the light was present, is dubious at best.
It is, of course, much the easier way out to dismiss the whole matter as “psychological” (whatever that means in this context) and return to commonplace, understandable matters. However, that would not be acting true to the high ideals of science, which involve being curious about all things that occur in man’s environment, investigating and weighing them, and calmly considering the evidence.
If the probability of a happening in any one case is extremely low, consider the probability of coincidence in the following train of events - if they happened as reported.
On the evening of November 2, 1957, at about 11:00 P. M., just one hour after the Russians had launched their second, dog-carrying artificial satellite (that certainly was coincidence) but before we Americans knew about it, Patrolman A. J. Fowler, officer on duty at Levelland, Texas (population 10,000), received the first of several strangely similar phone calls.
The first was from Pedro Saucedo, who, with companion Joe Salaz, had been driving four miles west of Levelland when a torpedo-shaped, brilliantly illuminated object (as Saucedo described it) rapidly approached the car. Fowler listened to a terrified Saucedo relate the incredible story of how, as the object passed close over the car, the truck headlights went out, and the engine died. A certified copy of a statement made by Saucedo reads:
To whom it may concern: on the date of November 2, 1957, I was traveling north and west on route 116, driving my truck. At about four miles out of Levelland, I saw a big flame, to my right front. I thought it was lightning. But when this object had reach to my position it was different, because it put my truck motor out and lights. Then I stop, got out, and took a look, but it was so rapid and quite some heat that I had to hit the ground. It also had colors - yellow, white - and it looked like a torpedo, about 200 feet long, moving at about 600 to 800 miles an hour.
As the UFO moved into the distance, the truck lights reportedly came on by themselves, and Saucedo found that his truck started easily. The two men drove on to Whiteface, ten miles west of Levelland, and it was from a phone booth there that the call was made to Officer Fowler. Fowler apparently figured the man must have had one too many drinks, and he dismissed the report from his mind.
Considered by itself, the testimony of an uneducated, frightened truck driver, as sincere in his reporting as he might have been, has little credibility. But one hour later Fowler got another call, this time from Mr. W. of Whitharral. Fowler was told that he (Mr. W.) was driving four miles east of Levelland (the direction in which the Saucedo object had disappeared) when he came upon a brilliantly lit egg-shaped object, about 200 feet long, sitting in the middle of the road. As Mr. W. approached it, his car engine failed, and the headlights went out.
According to the observer, the object was lit up like a large neon light and cast a bright glare over the entire area. The observer decided to get out of his car, but when he did so, the UFO rose and, at an altitude of about 200 feet, the object’s light or glare blinked out entirely. Mr. W. then had no trouble starting his car.
A short time later Officer Fowler got another call, from another Whitharral man, who was, at the time of the incident, some 11 miles north of Levelland. He reported to the police station that he had come across a glowing object sitting on the road and that as he approached it - the reader can finish the sentence -his car engine stopped, and his headlights went out. But when the object left shortly thereafter, all was again well.
But that was not the end. According to a signed statement in Project Blue Book files, at 12:05 A.M. that Saturday night in November, a 19-year-old freshman from Texas Tech, driving roughly 9 miles east of Levelland, found that his car engine began to sputter, the ammeter on the dash jumped to discharge then back to normal, and the motor “started cutting out like it was out of gas.” The car rolled to a stop; then the headlights dimmed and several seconds later went out.
Baffled at the turn of events, he got out of his car and looked under the hood but found nothing wrong. Closing the hood, he turned away and then noticed for the first time, he reported, an oval-shaped object, flat on the bottom, sitting on the road ahead. He estimated it to be about 125 feet long, glowing with a bluish-green light. He stated that the object seemed to be made of an aluminum-like material, but no markings or other details were apparent. Frightened, he got back into the car and tried frantically but in vain to restart the car.
Resigned, he sat and watched the object sitting in front of him on the road (he did not state how close he thought he was to the object) for several minutes, hoping that another car would drive by. None did. The UFO finally rose into the air, “almost straight up,” and disappeared “in a split instant.” Afterward, the car was again fully operable.
“I then proceeded home very slowly,” his statement continues, “and told no one of my sighting until my parents returned home from a weekend trip .. . for fear of public ridicule. They did convince me that I should report this, and I did so to the sheriff around 1:30 P.M. Sunday, November 3.”
At 12:15 A.M. Officer Fowler got still another call, this from a man phoning from a booth near Whitharral. This observer reported his encounter with the strange object at a point some nine miles north of Levelland. Once again the glowing object was sitting on a dirt road, and as his car approached it, its lights went out and its motor stopped. Soon the object rose vertically, very swiftly, and when it reached an altitude of about 300 feet, its lights went off and it disappeared from sight. As the reader expects by now, at this point the car lights came back on and the car was started with no difficulty.
By this time Officer Fowler had finally realized that something odd was going on, and he notified the sheriff and his colleagues on duty, some of whom took to the roads to investigate. Two of them reported bright lights, seen for just a few seconds, but they did not have any car-stopping encounters.
At 12:45 A.M. another single witness - I have broken my rule to use only multiple-witness cases because of the independent witnessing of essentially the same event or object, with the same physical effects, from independent nearby points - driving just west of Levelland and thus close to the spot where two hours earlier Saucedo had had his sighting, spotted what looked like a big orange ball of fire at a distance of more than a mile. The ball then came closer and landed softly on the highway about a quarter of a mile ahead of the observer. It covered the paved portion of the highway.
The witness reported that the motor of the truck he was driving “conked out” and his headlights died. Meanwhile, the object sat there on the road ahead of him, glowing bright enough to light up the cab of his truck. In about a minute, the observer reported, it made a vertical ascent - and, of course, things returned to normal. This encounter was not phoned in at the time to Officer Fowler but was reported the following day. One possibly significant clue to some as yet unknown process may lie in the fact that the reporter stated that when the UFO landed it changed from its original red-orange color to a bluish green but that when it rose it changed back to red-orange. And it is perhaps of interest to note at the object or objects always landed on the pavement, except once, when it settled on a dirt road.
But that is not all. At 1:15 A. M. Officer Fowler got another call, this time from a terrified truck driver from Waco, Texas, who was at the time just northeast of Levelland, on the “Oklahoma flat road.” The man told Fowler that his engine and headlights suddenly failed as he approached within 200 feet of a brilliant, glowing egg-shaped object. He said that it glowed intermittently ‘like a neon sign” and that he estimated it to be about 200 feet long. He reported that as he got out of the truck, the UFO quickly shot straight up with a roar and streaked away.
Officer Fowler stated that the truck driver was extremely excited when he called and that the witness was most upset by his close encounter. The truck engine and lights worked perfectly when the object left.
By this time patrol cars were out looking for the reported object. Sheriff Clem and Deputy Pat McCulloch were being kept up to date by Fowler as they drove around the area. At 1:30 A.M, while driving along the Oklahoma Flat Road, between four and five miles from Levelland, the two men spotted an oval-shaped light, “looking like a brilliant red sunset across the highway,” a good 300 or 400 yards south of their patrol car. “It lit up the whole pavement in front of us for about two seconds,” said Clem.
Patrolmen Lee Hargrove and Floyd Gavin were following in their patrol car several miles behind. In his signed state ment llargrove stated:
Was driving south on the unmarked roadway known as the Oklahoma Flat Highway and was attempting to search for an unidentified object reported to the Levelland Police Department. I saw a strange-looking flash, which looked to be down the roadway approximately a mile to a mile and a half . . .. The flash went from east to west and appeared to be close to the ground.
Constable Lloyd Ballen of Anton, Texas, also reported seeing the object, although his statement was: “It was traveling so fast that it appeared only as a flash of light moving from east to west.”
None of these patrolmen’s cars was affected, but Levelland Fire Marshal Ray Jones, who also was looking for the UFO, stated that his car’s headlights dimmed and his engine sputtered but did not die, just as he spotted a “streak of light” north of the Oklahoma Flat.
Officer Fowler reported that a total of 15 phone calls were made to the police station in direct reference to the UFO, and he added, “Everybody who called was very excited.”
In terms of probabilities, that all seven cases of separate car disablement and subsequent rapid, automatic recovery after the passage of the strange illuminated craft, occurring within about two hours, could be attributed to coincidence is out of the statistical universe - if the reports are truly independent (and they are, according to the tests we’ve used throughout).
Suppose we try to attribute the happening to mass hysteria, although that does not disclose a mechanism for killing engines and extinguishing lights and stopping radios. The observers were independent unless all of them, for example, were listening to a local radio station that carried the news. (No investigator ever checked into the important question of whether the radio stations were notified and if they broadcast the reports.) We know that at first Officer Fowler discounted the reports, and it is unlikely that he would have almost immediately notified the local station. But let us suppose that he or someone else did and that all car radios were tuned in to that particular station. We still would need an explanation for the physical effects reported unless we attribute them to downright prevarication rather than to hysteria.
What was needed at the time was swift reaction by Blue Book and a serious, thorough investigation. Captain Gregory, then head of Blue Book, did call me by phone, but at that time, as the person directly responsible for the tracking of the new Russian satellite, I was on a virtual around-the-clock duty and was unable to give it any attention whatever. I am not proud today that I hastily concurred in Captain Gregory’s evaluation as “ball lightning” on the basis of information that an electrical storm had been in progress in the Levelland area at the time. That was shown not to be the case. Observers reported overcast and mist but no lightning. Besides, had I given it any thought whatever, I would soon have recognized the absence of any evidence that ball lightning can stop cars and put out headlights.
I was told that the Blue Book investigation consisted of the appearance of one man in civilian clothes at the sheriff’s office at about 11:45 A.M. On November 5; he made two auto excursions during the day and then told Sheriff Clem that he was finished.
A newspaper reporter subsequently said that he had recognized the investigator and identified him as an Air Force sergeant.
In any event, Blue Book came under severe pressure. In a memo dated December 4, 1957, Captain Gregory complained that as a result of pressure from both the press and public, Assistant Secretary of Defense requested that ATIC immediately submit a preliminary analysis to the press, a most difficult requirement in view of the limited data.”
Interfering with cars on the highways is but one of the physical effects reported in this category of Close Encounters. There are also the reported - and photographable - effects on living things, notably plants and trees. Many witnesses have reported temporary paralysis in their limbs when their encounters have been quite close.
More than 300 cases of “scorched, denuded circles” and related “landing marks” frequently associated with the sighting of UFOs at close range have been cataloged. These, like UFOs in general, have been reported from many parts of the world, and a definite pattern is evident. The prototype is clear from an examination of even a few cases.
Dr. Hynek closes his report on the Levelland sightings here.
I have heard from Jan Aldrich that Nov 2nd of 1957 was a very busy day. Here is a partial list of the sighting that occurred that day.
Youngstown, Ohio, early morning, two waitresses see egg-shaped object zipping along near cemetery.
Souther, Dominican Republic, 1:00 am. Strange bodies in "Y" formation.
Brenham, TX, 5:50 pm Glowing Saucer Near the North Carolina-Virginia State line 6:50 pm an object hovered over a car while the driving down the road for 10 minutes.
Logansport, LA, 7:00 pm, bright object hovered and disappeared down below hill.
Shreveport, LA 7:00 pm Landing of a glowing object.
Fort Worth, TX, about 8:00 pm boy sees an egg-shaped object going northeast.
Between Seminole & Seagraves, TX, 8:30 pm. Car Stalling as lights rose up from road and sped away.
Near Littlefield,TX (30 miles North of Levelland) 1100 pm couple say fireball and small object sighting--moved west then south.
Amarillo, TX 11:20 pm Two CAA tower
operators saw blue colored
object (meteor?)
Near Amarillo, TX (late evening?) A
couple flagged down a police
officer and reported an incident similar to Siado's.
The Levelland sightings are classified on the Hynek system as at least a CE-II, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the system I have included a definition of a CE-II…
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE SECOND KIND (CE-II):
A UFO that is seen interacting with the environment and frequently with the witness as well, is known as a CE II. Such interaction can be with inanimate matter, as when holes, rings, burn marks, or depressions are made on the ground, or even tree limbs that appeared to have been broken off or away by contact with the object. Interaction can be with animate matter, such as when animals are affected. Animals can become aware of the UFO before humans. (It would appear that cattle mutilations would fit into this category of encounter, but perhaps at a higher level, somewhere between a CE II and CE III. This is, as the other evidence is caused by the craft, cattle mutilation seems to be performed by those in the craft. Therefore, we have a closer encounter.)
People can be affected by a close encounter. There have been cases reported of burns (including radioactive in nature), temporary paralysis, nausea, conjunctivitis, memory loss, and other maladies. For a CE II to have occurred, the UFO must be shown to have been at the same location where the physical effects are noted. If a burnt ring on the ground is noted, it must be at the exact place where the UFO was sighted hovering. If a vehicle's ignition system is interfered with, such interference must have occurred at the time and place of the UFO sighting.
Observed physical effects in these cases are usually called "Physical Trace Cases" and which cannot be explainable in another obvious way. For example, if landing marks are found, they must be unique and not like marks found elsewhere in the vicinity.
Close Encounters of the Second Kind are of particular interest to some scientists, especially those who are becoming interested in the field of Ufology. That is due in part to scientific principals that can be called into play. Samples of burnt grass and of disturbed soil can be tested in an attempt to determine what caused the burn, what pressures were necessary to cause imprints on the ground, to find what chemical changes occurred, and even more.
Levelland is a remarkable case. On that researchers are still looking into nearly 50 years later…
More reports from my road trips coming up in another article, stay tuned!
Jim Hickman
I was somewhat startled by a report that came in the other day about a fellow who shot at a low flying triangle near San Francisco, this is his report…
From: Filer's Files #06 – 2000
SAN FRANCISCO -- On the evening of Super Bowl Sunday, January 30, 2000, I was hauling up a line of crab traps off Farlon Island aboard our 25' boat. My dog started to bark furiously. I looked up and saw a huge triangular object hovering above with NO sound. I was hit by a beam of white light and fell backward. I grabbed my Ruger 10-22 rifle loaded with a 100 round banana magazine and stared firing as fast as I could until the clip was empty.
I was able to shoot out the light. While grabbing for a second clip, I saw a hatch open up on the bottom side of the object and two people leaned down to yell, "STOP SHOOTING AT US YOU IDIOT." The only other noise I heard was a hissing sound like air escaping from a flat tire. As the object moved off to the south, I saw a helicopter come out off the top and move in next to my boat about 20 feet off the water and only feet away.
Someone in the side door held up a
camera and the flash shot off a picture of me in the boat holding the rifle.
The helicopter made no noise and had no markings on it. It was solid flat black
as was the huge Triangle. The chopper then took off toward the Golden Gate
Bridge climbing up. The Triangle slowing gained altitude and was last seen
heading south. At first I thought it was an alien UFO and was genuinely
startled by it. However, I now believe it was an experimental military platform
for transporting a small fleet of black helicopters that leave and enter out of
the top of a huge silent floating
triangle the size of a football field. A rigid airship if you will. (NUFORC
noted: This may be the first report we have received that has the occupants of
such a craft using a camera with a flash attachment.) Thanks to Peter Davenport
at
www.ufocenter.com.
I started to wonder, what happens when we do shoot at UFO’s, I remembered a case during World War II and our “battle” with unknown aerial vehicles… From A Fire Officer's Guide to Disaster Control…
“Few Residents of the United States, except for those in Hawaii, have experienced an enemy attack on their hometown in this century; some think they have. The Great Los Angeles Air Raid of February 26, 1942, began at 2:25 A.M. when the U.S. Army announced the approach of hostile aircraft and the cities air raid warning system went into effect for the first time in World War II.
"Suddenly the night was rent by sirens. Searchlights began to sweep the sky. Minutes later gun crews at Army forts along the coast line began pumping the first of 1,433 rounds of ack-ack into the moonlight. Thousands of volunteer air raid wardens tumbled from their beds and grabbed their boots and helmets. Citizens awakened to the screech of sirens and, heedless of the blackout warning, began snapping on their lights . . . The din continued for two hours. Finally the guns fell silent. The enemy, evidently, had been routed. Los Angeles began to taste the exhilaration of its first military victory. "
I couldn’t remember very many other cases involving violence and Aliens, but when I started researching, frankly, I was amazed at how many times we have had “close encounters of the bad kind”… I have a few examples below. This article is for your information and education, all reports are as reported by the witnesses.
From Vallee’s Magonia files;
In the year 1880, in Aldershot, Great Britain. A strange being dressed in tight-fitting clothes and shining helmet soared over the heads of two sentries, who fired without result. The apparition stunned them with something de scribed as “blue fire.”
On Feb. 17, 1949 in France (exact location unknown). Alain Berard saw a large, bright object land near his farm with a green lightning flash. It became dark. As he approached the craft, the witness saw three figures with stocky short legs, apparently without heads. Frightened, he fired at them three times. A moment later the object took off vertically.
On Jan. 29, 1953 in Conway, South Carolina. Hearing a commotion in his barn, a farmer observed an object about 7 m long and 4 m wide at treetop level. It was light gray in color and lit up inside. It resembled a half egg. The witness fired his gun at the object. Numerous livestock died “mysteriously” in the area after the sighting.
Nov. 14, 1954, In Isola (Italy). Amerigo Lorenzini, a farmer, saw a afternoon bright, cigar-shaped craft land near him and took cover. Out of it came three dwarfs dressed in metallic diving suits. They centered their attention on rabbits in a cage while speaking among themselves in an unknown language. Thinking they were going to steal the animals, the farmer aimed a rifle at the intruders, but it failed to fire and the witness suddenly felt so weak that he had to drop the gun. The dwarfs took the rabbits, and their craft departed, leaving a bright trail.
In December of 1954, in Guanare, Venezuela. Early in December, a luminous disk chased the director of Barquisimeto College as he was driving near Guanare. He fired at the object with his revolver, without effect. He stopped another car in which a lawyer and two policemen were traveling. All four saw the machine fly away.
On Dec. 4th, 1954 in Caselle di Nogara, Italy. For several minutes a night waiter saw a circular object stationary in a pasture 50 m away. It was blue with symmetrical openings, from which a bright red light was emitted. The witness got a rifle and fired twice at the very tall figure who came out of the turret on the craft. Immediately a very strong wind was felt, and the craft took off amidst a reddish glow.
On Aug. 21, 1955, Hopkinsville, Kentucky. The Sutton family saw a light landing near their farmhouse, then several nightmarish entities about 1 m tall, with glowing silver clothing, an oversized round head, huge eyes and ears, and a slit-like mouth harassed them for several hours, in spite of heavy gunfire. At one point, one of the entities was knocked down from the roof by a bullet: it “floated down.” Running out of ammunition, the Suttons got the police, who observed a lighted object in the sky, flying very fast
On Oct. 12, 1963 in Monte Maiz, Argentina. E. Douglas, while driving a truck through a violent rainstorm, had to stop when he encountered a large, blinding object, 35 m high, from which three giants, 3 m tall, wearing luminous clothes and strange helmets, emerged. Douglas fired at them, as a red beam burned him. He ran away and found shelter in Monte Maiz. He suffered burns similar to ultraviolet exposure. Footprints of large dimension were found at the site
On Aug. 15, 1965, Nablus, Jordan. A guard saw a boatlike object flying at high speed, with red flames on its sides. It circled and came low over a farm. In fear, the man fired at it with his rifle.
On March 25, 1966, in Bangor, Maine. John King, 22, working with the Bangor Police Department, suddenly saw above him a very bright object with a dark underside. He fired
at it four times, hearing the bullets hit a metal surface as the object flew off.
INDIANA SIGHTING OF HUMANOIDS IN WOODS
PEPPERTOWN -- On September 27, 1999, a hunter walked three miles into the woods and smelled burned ozone and heard something strange like a low electrical hum 6:30 PM. The witness said, "I walked down the hill into valley and saw three suited humanoid figures around a deer carcass about 150 yards away." Behind the beings was a round metallic object that I watched for ten minutes. It was sharply defined with a 12 foot radius and ten feet high. After about 15 minutes a being came out of the stainless steel like craft and pointed in my direction. The beings all started moving toward me so I fired four or five shots into the air and ran up hill. I heard a strange sound about 90 seconds later, that may have been the craft leaving. It was almost dark by then. I went back next morning but there was nothing there and I am not crazy
Sometimes they shoot back…
UFO ATTACKED OUR NUKES
Britain's former military supremo is asking the Government to investigate whether aliens fired LASER BEAMS at our nuclear arsenal.
Admiral of the Fleet Lord Hill-Norton, retired chief of the defence staff, wants the probe to be launched into the sighting of a UFO hovering over RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk. He has now tabled questions to the Ministry of Defence asking whether nuclear weapons stored at Woodbridge were struck by light beams fired from an unidentified craft.
He claims that US air force personnel who saw the "attack" filed reports which are being covered up by the MoD. He said: "The Ministry has doggedly denied that anything untoward happened and I simply don't believe them." Defence minister Lord Gilbert refused to confirm or deny whether the base was equipped with nuclear missiles.
He added: "There is no evidence to suggest that the Ministry of Defence received any such reports." The mysterious sighting happened in December 1980 and was picked up on RAF radar. Phantom jets were scrambled and pilots reported intense, bright lights in the sky. Source: The People newspaper (UK) 2nd November 1997
Light Beams? I have lots of reports of beams,
On Oct. 9, 1954 in Lavoux, France. Mr. Barrault was riding his bicycle when he suddenly saw a figure in a diving suit aiming a double beam of light at him. The individual had
boots without heels and very bright eyes, walked on the road for one minute and went into the forest. The witness was “paralyzed” throughout the incident. The entity had a hairy chest and two lights, one above the other, in front of him.
On Oct. 20, 1954, in Panavicino d’Erba (Italy). Renzo Pugina, 37, bad night just put his car in the garage when he saw a strange being covered with a “scaly” luminous suit, about 1.3m tall, standing near a tree. The creature aimed the beam from a sort of flashlight at him, and he felt paralyzed, until a motion he made when clenching his fist on the garage keys seemed to free him. He attacked the intruder, who rose and fled with a soft whirring sound. An oily spot was found at the site.
On Oct. 26, 1954 in La Madiere, France. Aime Boussard, 47, a farmer, was suddenly confronted with an individual of normal height 1.60 m wearing a sort of diving suit with a pale-green light on either side of the helmet. The individual aimed at the witness the beam of two blue lights, and he was thrown backward. No craft was observed.
On Nov. 5, 1954, in La Roche-en-Brenil, France. Raymond R. saw a craft, which made a noise like a large transformer and gave off an orange light, land in a pasture. Three men in dark coveralls were standing nearby. One was holding a sort of box, “which emitted a beam of light three meters long.” The other two were holding objects that looked like weapons. Another witness fled and felt pricklings on his face as he ran. Four photographs of the scene were taken. Traces: a whitish substance and a circle 3 m in diameter where the ground had an ashlike appearance.
On Dec. 19, 1954, in Valencia, Venezuela. Jose Parra, an 18-year-old jockey, saw six small creatures loading stones into a disk-shaped machine hovering about 3 m above ground. He tried to run away but was paralyzed by a violet beam aimed at him by one of the creatures. All the creatures entered the craft, and it took off.
On Oct. 8, 1957 in Nabouwalu, Fiji Islands. Two couples going from Nabouwalu to Nawaca in a motor boat saw a white object come down from the sky, thought it was a plane in trouble and went closer. They found the object hovering 7 m above the water, and a figure on board the craft aimed at them a beam so bright they “felt weak.” The figure disappeared suddenly, and the object took off vertically at high speed.
Nov., 1957, in Provencal, Louisiana. Haskell Raper, Jr., was driving home on a rainy night when he saw a large, lighted object on the road ahead, which he thought was a truck. Suddenly the object flashed a beam of light directly at the car, apparently exerting a strong pressure and slowing it to a stop 5 m away. The object was then described as oval, 5 m long, 3 m high, army green in color. It bore lettering beginning with the letters UN, followed by some numbers. A sort of heat wave filled the car, and the witness ran out in panic as the vehicle caught fire. The object rose with the sound of a diesel engine. Raper ran to the town, less than 2 km away; and reported the incident. The car, a 1956 Ford, was completely destroyed.
Jan. 11, 1963, San Pietro, Italy. A 43-year-old farmer was awakened by restless animals and went out to calm them. Fifteen min later he saw an object land in a small square in the village, went toward it, was “paralyzed” when 10 m away. Two min later the craft, 4.5 m long, 1.5 m high, with a translucent upper dome showing two dark, moving figures, ascended in the direction of Brindisi, emitted a vertical beam of green light.
Aug. 28, 1963 in Sagrada Famila, Brazil. Two brothers, F. and R. Eustagio, 11 and 9, saw a luminous sphere at treetop level. Through an opening they observed “several rows of people inside” and a thin, 3 m tall being, who glided down to the ground along two vertical beams of light. He walked with a strange, swinging motion, then sat down. He wore a transparent helmet, had one eye in the middle of his forehead, wore high boots that left a triangular imprint, and carried a box emitting flashes. He made a threatening gesture and flew up to the sphere, which left. The children somehow became convinced that the being was “good” and would return.
On Mar. 15, 1965 in Fort Myers, Florida. In the Everglades, 30 km east of Big Cypress, James Flynn, 45, who was hunting, saw a huge, lighted object 1 m above the swamp surface. He watched it for 40 min, observing that it was conical, twice as wide as it was high, and seemed built from metal sections over one square m each. It showed four rows of square windows, 70 cm wide. Estimated diameter: 25 m. A yellow light shone through the windows, and the object made a sound of a transformer and wind. Flynn got within 2 m of it and made a gesture. A beam of light from the underside of the object struck him between the eyes and he lost consciousness for 24 hours. He had lost vision in the right eye, saw poorly with the left, went to a doctor in Fort Myers, and spent five days in the hospital.
On Nov. 2, 1968 in France. During a thunderstorm, a medical doctor was awakened by his crying 14-month-old son. He saw two luminous objects outside his house, and observed them coming close together and merging about 180 m away. A vertical beam of light was aimed at him for a second as the object tilted, and then the display vanished with a flash, leaving a slowly dissolving cloud. Persistent nightmares and various physiological phenomena were later recorded.
And then there was the Mantel case… Where they shoot back…
January 7, 1948 Captain Thomas Mantell (USAF) crashes in his F-51 Mustang while allegedly pursuing a UFO.
On the afternoon of January 7, 1948, a control tower operator at Godman Air Force Base, in Kentucky, answered the telephone. It was an innocent enough action, surely, but was nevertheless destined to set a series of events in motion that ultimately would lead one man to his death.
The call was from an officer of the Kentucky State Patrol, who wanted to know if Godman was aware of any unusual aerial activity in the vicinity. Godman knew of no activity in the area, and a quick check with Wright-Patterson AFB Flight Service in Ohio confirmed that there were no scheduled flights. Nevertheless, the state patrol was back on the phone to Godman about twenty minutes later, reporting that individuals in
Owensboro and Irvington, Kentucky, were seeing a strange object in the sky. This unidentified object was described by the witnesses as 250-300 feet in diameter, moving rapidly in a westerly direction.
At precisely 1:45 in the afternoon, the tower operators at Godman were seeing the object. Certain that it was not a balloon, they called flight operations. Soon, word of the strange object in the sky over Kentucky had spread across the base, and the base commander,
Colonel Hix, came to the control tower to see the object for himself.
Around 2:30, the men in the tower were beginning to talk about possible courses of action to deal with the anomaly in the sky above. By happenstance, at that very moment, four F-51 Mustangs were approaching the base. The tower operator spoke to the flight leader, a Captain Thomas Mantell, and asked him to have a look at the object. Mantell agreed, and he and two of his wingmen turned their airplanes around and headed for the object, while the fourth pilot, his craft low on fuel, continued on to land at its base.
The planes labored upwards to 10,000 feet, with Mantell pulling out in the lead. At 2:45 PM, Mantell radioed the tower: "I see something above and ahead of me, and I'm still climbing. " Moments later, one of his wingmen was overheard radioing Mantell: "What in the hell are you looking for?"
Some UFO researchers claim that Mantell radioed back, saying "I've sighted the thing. It looks metallic, and it's tremendous in size..." The tower operators, according to Captain Edward Ruppelt's account in The Report on Unidentified Flying objects, never agreed among themselves that Mantell actually said this. However, they did agree that Mantell said, a few seconds later, "It's above me and I'm gaining on it. I'm going to 20,000 feet."
Shortly after that last transmission Mantell's F-51 came hurtling down from the sky, and spread itself across the landscape. At 3:52 P.M., a telephone at Godman Air Force Base rang. Captain Thomas Mantell was dead.
The opinion of the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) at that time was given as follows:
It is the [ATIC] opinion that Captain Mantell lost consciousness due to oxygen starvation, the aircraft being trimmed continued to climb until increasing altitude caused a sufficient loss of power for it to level out. The aircraft then began a turn to the left due to torque and as the wing drooped so did the nose until the aircraft was in a tight diving spiral. The uncontrolled descent resulted in excessive speed causing the aircraft to disintegrate. It is believed that Captain Mantell never regained consciousness. This is born out by the fact that the canopy lock was still in place after the crash, discounting any attempt to abandon the aircraft. The UFO was in no way directly responsible for this experienced pilot conducting high altitude flight without the necessary oxygen equipment.
From: Filer's Files #06 – 2000
SAN FRANCISCO -- On the evening of
Super Bowl Sunday, January 30, 2000, I was
hauling up a line of crab traps off Farlon Island aboard our 25' boat. My
dog started to bark furiously. I looked up and saw a huge triangular object
hovering above with NO sound. I was hit by a beam of white light and fell
backward. I grabbed my Ruger 10-22 rifle loaded with a 100 round banana
magazine and stared firing as fast as I could until the clip was empty. I
was able to shoot out the light. While grabbing for a second clip, I saw a
hatch open up on the bottom side of the object and two people leaned down to
yell, "STOP SHOOTING AT US YOU IDIOT." The only other noise I heard was a
hissing sound like air escaping from a flat tire. As the object moved off to
the south, I saw a helicopter come out off the top and move in next to my
boat about 20 feet off the water and only feet away. Someone in the side
door held up a camera and the flash shot off a picture of me in the boat
holding the rifle. The helicopter made no noise and had no markings on it.
It was solid flat black as was the huge Triangle. The chopper then took off
toward the Golden Gate Bridge climbing up. The Triangle slowing gained
altitude and was last seen heading south. At first I thought it was an alien
UFO and was genuinely startled by it. However, I now believe it was an
experimental military platform for transporting a small fleet of black
helicopters that leave and enter out of the top of a huge silent floating
triangle the size of a football field. A rigid airship if you will. (NUFORC
noted: This may be the first report we have received that has the occupants
of such a craft using a camera with a flash attachment.) Thanks to Peter
Davenport at
www.ufocenter.com.
Yea Right, I know that flash of light you saw in the sky wasn’t a UFO, It was swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and refracted the light from Venus…
Jim Hickman
"All warfare is based on deception"
General Sun Tzu-The art of war- 500 BC
Many people have written on why we are being visited by aliens from outer space. I propose one theory; I’ll call it the “Alien Breakdown syndrome” for lack of a better term. I have a feeling our alien friends do have an advanced technology, but that it may have a few “bugs” in the system and that they may not be as advanced as we would like to imagine they are… Sometimes they may be lost, tired, hungry, or just having a breakdown on the side of the old’ intergalactic highway…
I hope you don’t mind my slightly irreverent look at UFO history. I want you to remember, all the folks mentioned in these reports were serious individuals who saw something very unusual and then took the time to report it. All reports come from either the Magonia files or from Project Bluebook’s 701 unknown files. Looking back I do find there are enough facts in the records to warrant further research into the subject of Alien Breakdowns…
First, I have a very early example of an alien breakdown from April 12, 1897…
On April 12, 1897 near Green Ridge, Illinois, a large crowd of miners saw an unknown object land 3 km north of Green Ridge and 4 km south of Girard. The night operator of the Chicago-and-Alton Railroad, Paul McCramer, stated that he came sufficiently close to the craft to see a man emerge from it to repair the machinery. Traces were found over a large area. The object itself was elongated like a ship with a roof and a double canopy. It left toward the north.
Another report of a breakdown April 14, 1897 just two days later…Where’s Charles Fort when you need him?
On April 14, 1897 in Gas City, Indiana, an object landed 2 km south of Gas City on the property of John Roush, terrifying the farmers and causing the horses and cattle to stampede. Six occupants of the ship came out and seemed to make some repairs. Before the crowd could approach the object, it rose rapidly and flew toward the east.
And yet another report from just one day later of another roadside repair job…AAA in Space… On April 15, 1897 in Springfield, Illinois, two farm workers, Adolph Winkle and John Hulle, saw a strange craft in a field. They had a discussion with its occupants, a woman and two men, and were told the ship-had flown from Quincy to Springfield in 30 min and that the crew was making electrical repairs.
And a week later another report, and the witness actually made some cash money on this one…
On April 22, 1897 in Rockland, Texas, a John M. Barclay was intrigued when his dog barked furiously and a high-pitched noise was heard. He went out, saw a flying object circling 5 m above ground. Elongated with protrusions and blinding lights, it went dark when it landed. Barclay was met by a man who told him his purpose was peaceful and requested some common hardware items to repair the craft. He paid with a ten-dollar bill and took off “like a bullet out of a gun.”
A more modern report of a roadside repair comes from Oklahoma (my home state) notice the amount of detail in the report, even the craft’s identification number, now that’s a good witness…
On March 23, 1966 in Temple, Oklahoma an electronics instructor, who was driving to work at a local Air Force Base, observed an object blocking the road. It was shaped like an airplane fuselage, 25 m long, with a “bubble” on top resembling the canopy on a B-26, rested on legs, and had very bright aft and forward lights. There was a door and a short stairway to the side of the object, and a man in coveralls appeared to be examining the craft which bore the identification “TL 4768” When the witness approached, the “pilot” went back inside, a sound resembling that of a high speed drill was heard, and the object rose. No engine was observed. The witness was familiar with all conventional military aircraft.
This time we encounter downright dumb activities by aliens from 1897…
On April 25, 1897 in Merkel, Texas, People returning from church observed a heavy object being dragged along the ground by a rope attached to a flying craft. The rope got caught in a railroad track. The craft was too high for its structure to be visible but protrusions and a light could be distinguished. After about 10 min a man came down along the rope cut the end free, and went back aboard the craft, which flew away toward the northeast. The man was small and dressed in a light blue uniform.
We come in peace; we only want your dog…
On November 6, 1957 in Everittstown, New Jersey, a John Trasco saw a brilliant, egg-shaped object hovering in front of a barn and was confronted with a being 1 m tall with a putty-colored face and frog-like eyes. He thought the dwarf said in broken English: “We are peaceful people; we only want your dog.” The little man, who was dressed in a green suit with shiny buttons, a green tam-o-shanter-like cap, and gloves with a shiny object at the tip of each finger, fled when the witness denied his request.
And some pancakes…
On April 18, 1961 in Eagle River, Wisconsin, a J. Simonton heard a whining sound and saw an object, 10 m in diameter, 4 m high, with exhaust pipes around the periphery, land near his house. A door was opened and a man appeared. About 1.50 m tall, he wore a black, turtle-neck pullover with a white band at the belt, and black trousers with a vertical white band along the side. Two figures were visible inside the object. Simonton filled a jug with water, returned it to the man, who gave him three ordinary pancakes, and the craft took off.
And a glass of water to go please…
On June 15, 1964 in Aria, Chile, a miner, R. A. Donoso, observed a strange machine land. From it emerged two fair skinned men who asked for water in a language, which appeared to be a mixture of English and Spanish. Donoso took some water from his car radiator for them and they left. Their craft was about 3 m long and 1 m wide.
And while were on the subject of water to go…
On August 1914 in Georgian Bay, Canada, a William J. Kiehl and seven other persons saw a spherical craft on the surface of the water. On its deck were two small men wearing green-purple clothes. They seemed to be busy with a hose, plunging it into the water. On the opposite side were three men dressed in light brown, wearing square masks down to their shoulders. Seeing the witnesses, they reentered the craft except for one dwarf, wearing shoes with a curved, pointed tip, which remained outside while the craft rose 3 m above the water and shot upward, leaving a short trail
Water…. Water!!!
On July 16, 1964 in Conklin, New York a Edmund Travis, 9, Randy Travis, 7 Floyd Moore, 10, and two other boys, saw a dwarf dressed in a black suit and a helmet, with a glass section in front of his face, which looked human. He appeared to request some water in a strange tone, which sounded, “as if it came from a pipe.” He then walked to a shiny machine partially hidden in the brush, as the boys ran home.
Another UFO that needed some H20 is reported on July 2, 1950 in Steep Rock Lake, Canada. A man and his wife saw a double saucer with portholes and a rotating antenna come to rest on the surface of the lake. Ten figures, 1.20 m tall, dressed in shiny clothing, emerged and walked on deck like robots “changing direction without turning their bodies.” Their faces could not be seen. One of them wore a red cap, had darker arms and legs and “seemed to be their chief.” They immersed a hose in the lake, and then took off. Fishermen later reported a green moss forming on the lake.
Another out of water UFO with a MIB from 1952…
On July 24, 1952 in Vico, Italy, a man who was fishing in the Serchio River saw a disk hovering for 10 min. From it hung a hose that plunged into the water. The object was 20 m in diameter, with five propellers in the rear and a dome with something like blades on top. An orange glow could be seen through slits along the deck. A man wearing a diving helmet looked at the witness through a window, and he received a kind of electric shock as a “green ray” hit him. He looked up with difficulty, in time to see the object fly away toward the east. Six days later a stranger with a foreign accent contacted the witness and intimidated him
Water Water everywhere!!!
On May 20, 1953 in Brush Creek, California, Two miners, John Q. Black, 48, and John Van Allen, reported that an object, silvery, 2.5 m in diameter, 2 m thick, with a tripod landing gear, landed on a sand bar 50 m away from them. An occupant described as a broad-shouldered dwarf wearing clothing that covered the head and the trunk was also seen. His arms and legs were covered with tweed like cloth fastened at the wrists and ankle. He filled a shiny pail with water and handed it to someone inside the craft. He then appeared to notice Black and jumped into the craft, which made a hissing sound and departed
Everyone water logged? I sure am…
Have you ever notice that we have had many reports of “UFO Crashes”? I have, and I wonder sometimes if some aliens might need a designated driver program…
In March 1945 near Belfast, Maine a man out hunting observed an elongated object flying very slowly, tilted toward the earth. It crashed into some trees at the end of a clearing. The enormous craft seemed undamaged as it rested briefly on the ground, then lifted again with a humming sound, started to spin, released a shower of fine silvery threads, and rose straight up, disappearing in seconds.
I think this is the only report I have seen of a UFO doing a loop; I just wonder what he was on…
On October 12, 1954 in Sainte-Marie d’Herblay, France, a Gilbert Lelay, 13, saw a phosphorescent cigar in a pasture and a man near it, wearing a gray suit, boots, and a gray hat. He held a flashing sphere and told Gilbert in French not to touch it. He went back inside the craft, which flew in loops and vanished.
Here’s another bad driver report from 1952, If they are so advanced, why can they avoid hitting a chimney?
On August 27, 1952 in Lamberton, North Carolina, a saucer-shaped craft, 3 by 2 m, landed on the witness’s property after hitting a chimney. A little man, about 70 cm tall, emerged and was asked whether he was hurt, but he did not answer. The craft took off with a whistling sound.
Sometimes a good road map can go a long way, just don’t give out the time, as you can see from these accounts
On October 20, 1954 in Raon-l’Etage, France, Forty-year-old Lazlo Ujvari was suddenly confronted by a man wearing a jacket, boots, and cloth headgear (like a pilot’s) who pointed a gun at him and said something he could not understand. When Ujvari spoke to him in Russian, the man answered in the same language, asked whether he was in Spain or Italy, and how far he was from Germany. When he asked the time, Ujvari said: “2:30.” The man took his watch and said “You lie; it’s 4:00.” Then he wanted to know how far and in what direction Marseilles was. He made Ujvari walk on the road with him, and they came close to a gray craft with an antenna on top. When he was about 200 m away, he heard a soft whistling sound and saw it fly straight up, then take an oblique trajectory.
Nothing like making friends with newcomers, they were lost and still took him for a trip…
On February 1949 in Pucusana, Peru, a C. A. V. an oil company employee, 30, was driving to Lima when he saw a shiny disk at ground level. He walked toward it for 10 min. Three figures came out, as he was 20 m away. They looked like mummies, had joined legs and one large foot. They “slid” along the ground. They were covered with a strange “towely” skin, asked the witness where they were, had a lengthy discussion with him, and took him for a trip in their craft.
These aliens would fit in out there in Hollywood, they could land and no one would notice, nice outfits though…
On November 6, 1957 in Playa del Rey, California, a Richard Kehoe was driving near the beach when his engine stopped, and so did three other cars. The man got out and observed an egg-shaped object wrapped in “a blue haze” on the beach. Two men, below average height got out of the craft and asked them questions about their identity, what time it was, etc. They looked normal wore black leather pants, white belts, light-colored jerseys, and seemed to have yellowish-green skin. They went back inside the craft, which left rapidly, and the cars could then be started.
They liked his dog…
On October 4, 1954 in Chaleix, France, a farmer, Mr. Garreau, saw an object the size of a carriage land in his field. Two men of normal height emerged through a sliding door.
They wore khaki overalls and were of European type. They shook hands with the witness and said something like: “Paris? Nord?” (According to another version they spoke indistinct words.) They gave a pat on the back to Mr. Garreau’s dog and took off at an
Amazing speed.
More breakdowns this time with rubber pants…
On October 9, 1954 in Rinkerode, Germany a Willi Hoge, a projectionist, saw four occupants of an object that had come to ground level 70 m from the road. He was returning home when he observed a blue light and thought an airplane had made an emergency landing. The object was cigar-shaped, and four men wearing rubber coveralls were working under it. They were about 1.2 m tall and had very large chests and oversized heads; their legs were short and thin
A breakdown with tight-fitting clothes…
On April 24, 1950 in Abbiate Guazzone, Italy, a Bruno Facchini heard and saw sparks coming from a dark, hovering object, near which a man dressed in tight-fitting clothes and wearing a helmet seemed to be making repairs. Three other men were seen near the craft. When the work was finished, a trap through which light had been shining was closed and the thing took off. The witness had the time to note many details of the machine and its occupants.
On June 19, 1951 in Sonderborg, Denmark, a Joseph Matiszewski, a mechanic, heard a whistling sound and saw an object land in a meadow. Approaching within 50 m, he found himself paralyzed and observed that birds had stopped singing and cows seemed to be similarly unable to move. From the object emerged four handed- men who had brown skin and wore black shiny suits and translucent helmets. Eight objects also emerged from the craft and hovered above it. Other men inside the craft and on its deck appeared to be making repairs, then the objects flew to about 100 m altitude and climbed rapidly out of sight. Only then did the paralysis subside.
On September 24, 1954 in Becar, near Diges and “Les Michauts” or “Les Jolivets”, France, two women (Widow Geoffroy and Miss Gisele Fin) made independent reports of a dark gray disk, 6 m in diameter, 1 m high, seen in a clearing. A man of normal height was standing close to it. He wore dark clothes and a kind of cap. Miss Fin came within 30 m of the craft and stated the man was repairing it. Traces were found on the grass.
Why didn’t you tell me before I touched it? Thanks a bunch!
On October 23, 1954 in Tripoli, Libya, a farmer saw a flying craft descend to ground level about 50 m away, with a sound like that of a compressor. It was an egg-shaped machine with six wheels and complex machinery. The top half was transparent, flooded with bright white light. Aboard were six men in yellowish coveralls, having human faces and masks. When he touched part of the craft, the witness felt a strong electric shock. One of the occupants motioned for him to stay away. For the next 20 min, the witness was able to observe the six men, apparently busy with instruments. Reliable investigations were made.
Sometimes you just have to stop and smell the flowers…and steal them.
On November 1, 1954 in Poggio d’Ambra, Italy, a 40-year-old lady going to a cemetery suddenly observed an object, shaped like two cones with a common base, resting on a grassy space. Two small seats were visible inside the lower cone. From behind the object appared two dwarfs, 1 m tall, wearing gray coveralls and reddish helmets. Speaking words she could not understand, and with smiles that showed fine white teeth, they took a pot of flowers from the witness and flew away.
Sky-watching? Hmm…
In summer, 1952 in Itenhaem, Brazil, a thunderclap and a strong bluish light awakened a woman. As she got out, she saw a large number of hovering disk-shaped machines resembling “inverted soup plates” 200 m away at an altitude of about 1 m. She observed them for 30 min, saw two figures standing on one of the craft and looking at the sky. They went back inside, and shortly thereafter the “fleet” took off, one object at a time.
And you gotta stop to smell the grass…
In March 1954 near Santa Maria, Brazil, a Rubem Hellwig was driving when he saw a football-shaped machine, the size of a Volkswagen, on the ground. He walked toward it and met two men of slim build, normal height, their faces brownish, wearing no helmets. One was inside the object while the other collected grass samples. They spoke to Hellwig in a strange language, and yet he said he understood they were asking for ammonia. He directed them to a nearby town. The craft vanished silently and instantly with blue and yellow flames.
And we should also include the just plain rude type aliens…
On July 2, 1953 in Villares des Saz, Spain, Approximate date. An illiterate boy cowherd, Maximo Munos Olivares, 14, saw a “big balloon” on the ground behind him when a faint whistling attracted his attention. Shaped like a water jug, it was metallic. Through an opening came three dwarfs 60 cm tall, with yellow faces, narrow eyes, and oriental features. They spoke in a language he could not understand. They were dressed in blue, had a sort of flat hat with a visor in front and a metal sheet on their arms. One of them smacked the boy’s face, and then they reentered the machine, which glowed very brightly, made a soft whistling sound and went off “like a rocket.” Footprints and four holes 5 cm deep forming a perfect square 36 cm in side were found by police.
They came to Earth to destroy the newspaper?
On December 16, 1965 in Sauce Viejo, Argentina, a railroad worker, Cesar T.Gallardo, was surprised when his carbide lamp and his radio stopped working. He saw strange lights outside the sleeping coach where he was reading, and a luminous being whose legs were clad in shiny dark cloth came in, tore up his newspaper, poured the contents of an oil can into a small bottle and went away, leaving the witness amazed. Other people saw “a luminous man” walking along the tracks.
And a “Dbano da skigyay o dbano,” to you too, buddy!
On October 19, 1954 in Fabriano, Italy, Two men saw a disk-shaped object, 6 m diameter, hovering and emitting small violet flashes. On top of it was a very high antenna. Two small robot like beings, 1.2 m tall, descended from it on a long ladder. Their eyes were “sharp” and dark red. They said something that sounded like “Dbano da skigyay o dbano,” went back aboard their craft, and flew away
Remember; you should always make friendly gestures to aliens.
On September 10, 1954 in Mourieras, France, a farmer, Mr. Mazaud was walking home when he was suddenly confronted with a helmeted being of average height who made friendly gestures, then went back into the brush, entered a cigar-shaped object about 4 m long, which took off toward Limoges. A few minutes’ later witnesses in Limoges reported a disk-shaped, red object leaving a bluish trail.
Again on September 17, 1954 in Cenon, France, Between Cenon and Vouneuil, Yves David, 28, met a being in a diving suit that made friendly gestures. He was very small and had a voice “inhuman and incomprehensible.” The witness could not move throughout the encounter. He saw the creature enter an object on the road, about 3 m by 1 m in size; it took off “like lightning,” throwing a greenish light.
And on October 1, 1954 in Jussey, France, Two young men saw a luminous white disk moving in the sky. It dived to the ground and two men, described as being very tall and dressed in white, emerged from it and made gestures. The witnesses ran away in fear.
On May 1, 1957 at Pajasblancas Airport in Argentina. When his motorcycle suddenly failed, the driver observed a disk, 20 m in diameter and 5 m thick, hovering about 15 m above ground. He hid in a ditch and saw the craft come down, making a sound similar to air escaping from a valve. A sort of lift descended from its base almost to the ground. In it was a man of average height, who made friendly gestures to the witness. He was dressed in a plastic diving suit. The witness entered the machine and saw inside several people seated before instrument panels, lighted by an extraordinary light. He was then escorted out, and the disk rose to the northwest. During the next hour, independent witnesses made six sightings along the same course.
Our new secret weapon- flash cameras…
On February 21, 1965 in Chalac, Argentina, About 50 Toba Indians, including policemen, saw three little men with luminous glows emerge from an object that had made several low passes over the village with other flying craft. A photographer took several pictures and noted that the creatures feared the light from his flash camera. The object increased in luminosity as it took off.
And be sure to take plenty of pictures too!
On March 2, 1965 in Brooksville, Florida a John F. Reeves, 65, retired, was walking in the woods when he observed an object10 m in diameter, 2m thick, saucer-shaped with an outer rim and a stairway. After watching it for 10 min, he saw a robot-like being, about 1.30m tall, wearing a silver uniform, glass headgear, and then returned with a box that emitted a flash when pointed at the witness. The object subsequently took off with a whistling sound.
And sometimes when you just gotta go…those intergalactic rest stops are getting farther and farther apart…
On September 20, 1965 in Pichaca, Peru, a farmwoman saw an object land, and six dwarfs, 80 cm tall, emerged from it. They wore very shiny white clothes and “walked like ducks.” She hid during the observation, and noted that they spoke in a language she could not understand. After their departure, a liquid resembling vinegar was found on the ground.
More Breakdowns, maybe we should start an intergalactic Auto Club?
On October 11, 1954 in Taupignac, France, Three men driving near Taupignac got out of their car to observe an intense red sphere in the sky. Then they discovered a round machine with a dome, 6 m diameter, giving off a yellow-red light, 200 m away at 10 m altitude. It was motionless and silent. It suddenly moved horizontally for a short distance and landed behind a wood. Two witnesses went closer and saw four dwarfs, 1 m tall, who seemed busy with the machine. The creatures rushed inside when the witnesses arrived within 15 m. The witness was blinded by a sudden burst of light, blue, then orange, then red, and the object took off vertically at fantastic speed.
These reports make me think our alien friends are a little weird, to say the least. I guess if your going to have an encounter, it should be strange...
Jim Hickman
From the Book "5000 years of UFOs" By Jim Hickman
"1492 AD, October 11, 10:00 PM: Christopher Columbus and Pedro Gutierrez while on the deck of the Santa Maria, observed, "a light glimmering at a great distance."
It vanished and reappeared several times during the night, moving up and down, "in sudden and passing gleams." It was sighted 4 hours before land was sighted, and taken by Columbus as a sign they would soon come to land." Shortly thereafter, the entire native populations of the America's were basically wiped out by disease, war and inter-tribal rivalries.
This is what I call the "Columbus Effect" and we are the natives when it comes to UFO's landing here on Earth. I'm not the only one who thinks so. Take for example the Aztec's who lived in modern day Mexico, they had a "encounter" with a advanced civilization. It only took a few years and their civilization was history, literally. I have a letter from an eyewitness to this close encounter. I thought it might help shed some light on our modern predicament.
From: The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico (Boston: Beacon Press, 1962), pp. 64-66 "When Montezuma had given necklaces to each one, Cortis asked him: "Are you Montezuma? Are you the king? Is it true that you are the king Montezuma?" And the king said: "Yes, I am Montezuma." Then he stood up to welcome Cortis; he came forward, bowed his head low and addressed him in these words: "Our lord, you are weary. The journey has tired you, but now you have arrived on the earth." "You have come to your city, Mexico.
You have come here to sit on your throne, to sit under its canopy. "The kings who have gone before, your representatives, guarded it and preserved it for your coming. The kings Itzcoatl, Montezuma the Elder, Axayacatl, Tizoc and Ahuitzol ruled for you in the City of Mexico. The people were protected by their swords and sheltered by their shields. "Do the kings know the destiny of those they left behind, their posterity? If only they are watching! If only they can see what I see!" "No, it is not a dream. I am not walking in my sleep. I am not seeing you in my dreams.... I have seen you at last! I have met you face to face! I was in agony for five days, for ten days, with my eyes fixed on the Region of the Mystery. And now you have come out of the clouds and mists to sit on your throne again."
"This was foretold by the kings who governed your city, and now it has taken place. You have come back to us; you have come down from the sky. Rest now, and take possession of your royal houses. Welcome to your land, my lords! " When Montezuma had finished, La Malinche translated his address into Spanish so that the Captain could understand it. Cortis replied in his strange and savage tongue, speaking first to La Malinche: "Tell Montezuma that we are his friends. There is nothing to fear. We have wanted to see him for a long time, and now we have seen his face and heard his words.
Tell him that we love him well and that our hearts are contented." Then he said to Montezuma: "We have come to your house in Mexico as friends. There is nothing to fear." La Malinche translated this speech and the Spaniards grasped Montezuma hands and patted his back to show their affection for him....
Note: by 1590 there was little left of the Aztecs and their civilization, so much for "There is nothing to fear." Another view of the same phenomena comes from of all places, the U.S. National Security Agency, in their report "UFO Hypothesis and Survival Questions" formerly classified "Secret" states: "This hypothesis has a number of far reaching human survival implications: If they discover you, it is an old but hardly invalid rule of thumb, "they" are your technological superiors. Human history has shown us time and again the tragic results of a confrontation between a technologically superior civilization and a technologically inferior people. The "inferior" is usually subject to physical conquest.
Often in the past, a technologically superior people are also possessors of a more virile or aggressive culture. In a confrontation between two peoples of significantly different cultural levels, those having the inferior or less virile culture most often suffer a tragic loss of identity and are usually absorbed by the other people. Some peoples who were technologically and/or culturally inferior to other nations have survived- have maintained their identity- have equalized the differences between them and their adversaries.
The Japanese people have given us an excellent example of the methods required to achieve such a survival: It continues: (1) Full and honest acceptance of the nature of the inferiorities separating you from the advantages of the other peoples, (2) Complete national solidarity in all positions taken with the other culture, (3) Highly controlled and limited intercourse with the other side doing only those actions advantageous to the foreigner, which you are absolutely forced to do by circumstances, (4) A correct but friendly attitude toward the other people, (5) A national eagerness to learn everything possible about the other culture- its technological and cultural strengths and weakness'. This often involves sending selected groups and individuals to the other's country to become one of his kind, or even to help him in his wars against other adversaries. (6) Adopting as many of the advantages of the opposing people as you can, and doing it as fast as possible- while still protecting your own identity by molding each new knowledge increment into your own cultural cast. NSA concludes with this statement: "It would seem a little more of this survival attitude is called for in dealing with the UFO problem".
Next, a look back just 50 years ago to the "Cargo Cults" of World War 2, and our connection to them. Some have speculated that our entire modern history and civilization is one giant Cargo Cult, read this, and make up your own mind.
From: What is a Cargo Cult? http://members.tripod.com/cargocult/info.html A Cargo Cult is an attempt to explain the unfathomable wealth of western material goods, referred to as "cargo" in the islands of Melanesia. Having no knowledge about factories or technology, the people of these islands believed "cargo" is created by magic, and originates from a mystical place called "America". During World War II, the presence of thousands of American soldiers in the South Pacific deeply affected the native Melanesians. The sight seemingly inexhaustible supplies and equipment was unfathomable. Having little knowledge about technology, the natives of these islands believed cargo was created by magic, and originated from a mystical place called America.
Cargo cults sprang up where the Americans had been stationed. Followers believe that it is only a matter of time before they receive their rightful share of western cargo. They worship an American G.I. named Jon Frum (pidgin for John From America). The Red Cross seen on supply crates during the war, is the symbol of the cult. Patiently, the islanders wait for the day when American will return. Followers mimic the ways of the GI's.
Their resolve does not waver with the passing of time. One-day ships, planes and parachutes will arrive. Until then, they wait and watch the skies. Interesting, "they wait and watch the skies" sound familiar? So do we as Ufologists. We have our own "cargo cults" today, and they will have to make many adjustments when and if we make contact with an alien culture. If we can't adjust to our new reality, we will perish. It's as simple as that.
I have a theory of why we haven't been told the "truth", Of course the easy answer is that we can't handle the truth. I think some of us can, others wouldn't make the transition and others would require extensive retraining. You might have noticed the increasing media ads lately. Almost every brand name you can imagine has some sort of connection to UFO's or Aliens. Look at the new TV shows, "Roswell" or the X-Files, for example. We are being conditioned for the release of the truth. If we hear it enough, and see it enough, it's not "scary" anymore. The movie "Contact" is another example of conditioning on a mass scale.
I know the X-Files TV show used actual UFO reports, (from the Skywatch mailing list) in their production more than once. This helps them blend reality and fiction in a way that the masses can consume. A whole other point is the religious aspect of ufology. A recent poll taken in England states that - More young Britons believe in the existence of aliens and ghosts than believe in God. A poll of 1,000 young people aged 15-24 showed that 70 percent had "some belief" in ghosts and 61 percent in aliens. Only 39 percent had any belief in Christianity.
What if the Pope does knows the real truth about UFO's? Monsignor Corrado Balducci, a Vatican theologian "close to the pope", who has been charged with studying reports of UFOs sent in from Vatican embassies around the world. This quote comes from one of Father Balducci's many recent appearances on Italian television. "We can no longer think... is it true? Is it not true? Are they truths or are they lies--if we believe or if we don't believe--no!
There are already numerous considerations which make the existence of these beings into a certainty we cannot doubt." Some researchers say the last secret of Fatima is that were not alone in the universe. Others have said that the Pope wants the truth out at the start of the millennium. The year 2000 would be a perfect time for the release of the "truth" as it would be helped by the "new era" feeling we surely will have in the 21st century.
One has to wonder what the heads of the world's governments and religions would do and think on that day when we are "discovered". Would our civilization fall like the Aztecs or the Mayans? Or would we be strong enough- psychology wise to handle the "Truth"? Our little planet is very small and it's far from the beaten path, but we are all we have. Our job as Ufologists is to get the word out to the public through the media that it's all going to be ok, we have had visits from our alien friends for years.
We should be the people who lead the way into this new world. One day after our first encounter as a civilization I'm sure someone will as me about the days before ET, and I would have to say. "I knew it all the time, I'm a Ufologist!" let's make sure were Columbus and not the natives when that day comes. Let's make a plan for post-encounter times. It's not too far out an idea to be thinking about.
Jim Hickman
Questions anyone?
By Jim Hickman
As a somewhat well known Ufologist, I get questions from just about everywhere about everything it seems, I want to present a few of my favorites here for your consideration.
Ryan asks, “I’m a big fan of stuff like
this but can u send me a site or stuff that is top
secret and that’s proof? Or maybe could you send me a photo of those aliens you
talk about?
Well Ryan, if we had the proof you ask for we Ufologist’s would all be out of work! No one yet has the "proof" of the kind you are looking for. There are hundreds of sightings by reliable people occurring monthly, yet we can't call that proof. We have to have physical evidence, just like in regular court, and that hasn't been found yet.
Yes, even the famous Roswell case can’t be proven beyond a reasonable doubt (yet!) much to our dismay! But incredible ideas like an alien contact require a unimpeachable level of proof, now if we had a flying saucer land on the White House lawn, that might be considered “proof”!
“Pandabear” writes in asking, “if the government and other people who didn't make such a big deal about everything and say aliens will hurt instead of just letting them go on and live happy lives where they want to live then I bet you that none in this whole world would be scared of aliens and think they are bad.”
I agree with you “Panda” if the government would ease up on it’s secrecy we would have a much easier time adjusting to the new reality of the UFO presence.
I get questions about my work at the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) they have a page setup with the most frequently asked questions about UFO’s. I have a few of their answers below.
From CUFOS’s FAQ file:
Who sees UFOs?
All kinds of people see UFOs. It does not matter whether you are rich or poor, educated or uneducated, young or old. In fact, many people who report seeing UFOs were not even looking for them when they had their sighting. The chances for seeing a UFO are greater for those people who live in small towns or in the country and are outside late at night. Although most of us at CUFOS have never seen a UFO personally, some colleagues of ours say that their interest in UFOs was sparked by seeing a UFO when they were children or young adults.
Does the United States government study UFOs?
At present, the United States government does not officially investigate UFO sightings, although there is some evidence suggesting that various governmental agencies continue to maintain a secret interest in the subject. During the past forty years, however, there have been several projects and investigative panels that examined the UFO evidence, at least superficially. Because UFOs are an aerial phenomenon, between 1947 and 1969 the U.S. Air Force was charged with organizing several projects to investigate UFO reports.
The most famous was Project Blue Book, which existed from 1952 to 1969. Although there were many UFO reports during those years, including numerous sightings by military and civilian pilots, and other technical personnel, the Air Force maintained that UFOs were not real. The military considered UFO reports seriously only because it believed that they could be used to confuse and overwhelm our intelligence and communication operations, thereby making America vulnerable to surprise attack by some foreign power.
Some military experts also admitted the possibility that the Soviet Union, with the help of captured German scientists, was developing technology far superior to any the United States possessed. Therefore, the Air Force concluded that UFO reports should be investigated until these possibilities were proven unlikely. Through its investigations, the Air Force was able to explain most sightings as natural phenomena or misidentified aircraft. However, there were still hundreds of UFO reports that it could not so easily explain.
In 1966 there was a wave of spectacular UFO sightings across America that received widespread press coverage. Political leaders, especially congressional representatives, were pressured by their constituents who demanded explanations for their sightings. A congressional committee conducted hearings on the UFO sightings, and pressure was placed on the Air Force to resolve the issue once and for all.
In response, the Air Force contracted with the University of Colorado to conduct what it hoped would be the definitive study of the UFO phenomenon--a study that would finally settle the UFO question to everyone's satisfaction. The project was headed by Professor Edward U. Condon, a physicist, who had expressed negative views about life on other planets and the existence of UFOs. Several members of the Colorado study (which became known as the "Condon Committee") charged Condon with failing to act in an open-minded and impartial manner, thereby biasing the study. Despite becoming mired in controversy, after several committee members were fired and the Congress organizing its own symposium on UFOs, the Condon Committee continued its investigation and eventually released a final report. The study's conclusion, written by Condon, stated that the 21-year study of UFOs had not added anything to scientific knowledge and that further study could not be justified. Critics charged the report's conclusion did not follow from the study's own data, and the Condon investigation was a sham from the beginning. Despite the controversy surrounding the Condon Report, the Air Force used its conclusions as a justification for disbanding Project Blue Book in December 1969 and severing its connection with the UFO subject.
Despite this disbanding, many ufologists believe the government still maintains extensive files on UFOs and continues to investigate sightings in secret. Their belief is reinforced by the fact that U.S. intelligence agencies have already released documents showing that they have been collecting UFO information that is still classified Top Secret. The government does not allow public access to these documents, despite numerous attempts by UFO researchers to see them through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which is supposed to give American citizens the right to view any government document that does not threaten national security.
In response to the government's reluctance to release UFO documents, the UFO group Ground Saucer Watch began legal action to gain the release of documents on UFO sightings over military bases in the 1970s. After Ground Saucer Watch ran into financial difficulties, Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS) pursued the case. Though CAUS argued that the release of official UFO information would not threaten national security, U.S. intelligence agencies claimed their operations would be jeopardized by their release. Even when CAUS emphasized that it only wanted the UFO information and not anything related to U.S. intelligence, the government adamantly refused to release the information.
Eventually, federal judge Gerhardt Gesell ruled in the government's favor, citing national security reasons. CAUS protested the decision, claiming the hearing was unfair. In particular, the group pointed out that the judge was not allowed to review the UFO material despite having top security clearance. In fact, Judge Gesell was only given a summary explaining why the government could not release the documents, which served as the basis for his decision. Although CAUS failed to win the case, it continues to work for the release of government UFO documents through the Freedom of Information Act.
How can you recognize a UFO hoax?
Although tens of thousands of UFOs have been reported over the past forty years, less than 1% have been shown to be hoaxes. For the most part, competent UFO investigators have been able to recognize hoaxes almost immediately. The most common type of UFO hoax is a prank balloon, which involves tying a flare or candle to a helium-filled balloon. On rare occasions elaborate hoaxes have been perpetrated, necessitating a more extensive investigation.
To eliminate the possibility that a UFO report is a hoax, one must examine the credibility of the witnesses, the details of the report, and any physical evidence, especially photographs. The reliability and validity of these factors must be ascertained before a researcher can have confidence in the data.
A witness's reliability can be checked by interviewing neighbors, friends, relatives, co-workers, and other associates. In particular, an investigator is interested in determining whether the individual has a reputation as a sincere, responsible person, or as a practical joker, prankster, or hoaxer.
The researcher also examines the UFO report to determine if there are any unbelievable claims or glaring inconsistencies. For example, are there elements in the report similar to those found in science fiction or so unusual that they do not appear in other UFO accounts? Does the witness claim to have seen the UFO many times, although other witnesses cannot be found? Does the witness claim that important evidence is mysteriously missing or taken by unknown "government agents"? While such facts may not prove a hoax, they can cast doubt on the report and must be considered during the investigation.
Finally, the UFO investigator must examine the evidence to check if it has been altered, falsified, or hoaxed. If the evidence looks faked, or if it can be explained by more prosaic methods, doubt is cast on its validity. Often an experienced ufologist can determine that a UFO photograph is a hoax upon first viewing. Clues, such as a noticeable difference between the sharpness of the UFO image and that of foreground and background objects, can indicate a hoax. Computerized photo enhancement can also be used to prove a hoax. Enhancement techniques can reveal supporting strings or wires and can provide information about an object's actual shape, material, and density.
Remember, in any investigation you must critically and thoroughly examine the evidence. The more evidence that is proven to be unreliable, the greater the doubt to be cast on the validity of the UFO event. A rule-of-thumb to consider when investigating any UFO case is if something appears too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true." (This is also true in life, not just ufology.) So--investigator beware, and never let your critical thinking skills down.
When did people first see UFOs?
Many UFO researchers argue that UFOs have appeared throughout history. There are many myths, legends, and stories that tell of strange things seen in the sky or beings who came from the sky to help humans develop civilization. Because modern scholars cannot directly check the facts of these stories, it is impossible to determine if these are accurate reports of true events. Most ufologists, therefore, concentrate on studying UFO reports beginning in this century.
In the 1890s, people across North America watched strange dirigible-shaped airships with very bright searchlights flying above their farms and towns. Some people claimed they had met the airship pilots. Researchers disagree about the authenticity of these accounts. Many investigators think the airship reports were hoaxes spread by local "liars' clubs" or sensational stories written by creative journalists hoping to sell papers. A few ufologists, however, are convinced these airship sightings represent the first reliable UFO reports in history.
During World War II pilots saw strange, glowing balls of light flying beside their airplanes. They called these lights "foo fighters," a term based on an expression ("where there's foo, there's fire") from Smokey Stover, a popular comic strip at the time. At first the Allied command believed the foo-fighters were secret German weapons or surveillance devices. Only after the war did they discover that German pilots had also seen the glowing lights, which were thought to be American or British secret devices!
During the summer and fall of 1946, a number of unusual aerial objects were sighted over Sweden and Norway. They were given the name of "ghost rockets" and it was believed that they were secret Russian weapons developed from the German wartime rocket program. The Swedish defense ministry stated that 80% of the 1,000 ghost rockets could be explained by natural phenomena, but about 200 cases could not be explained as either a natural phenomenon, Swedish or Russian aircraft, or misperceptions.
Although the airship and foo-fighter reports are more detailed and credible than ancient stories of strange "prodigies" seen in the sky, many ufologists question whether these sightings can be accepted as true UFO reports. As a result, many researchers say the modern UFO era started on June 24, 1947, with the sighting by businessman and pilot Kenneth Arnold. While flying his small plane along the Cascade Mountains in Washington state, Arnold saw nine crescent-shaped objects flying along the contours of the mountains. Although he saw them for only a three and a half minutes, Arnold knew they were not regular airplanes. He radioed in his report, and when he landed at the airport, reporters were waiting to ask questions. He described the motions of the objects as "like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water." This is where the term "flying saucer" came from.
Jim Hickman
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Dreamland by: Edgar Allen Poe 1849
By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule-
From a wild clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE- out of TIME.
Bottomless vales and boundless floods,
And chasms, and caves, and Titan woods,
With forms that no man can discover
For the tears that drip all over;
Mountains toppling evermore
Into seas without a shore;
Seas that restlessly aspire,
Surging, unto skies of fire;
Lakes that endlessly outspread
Their lone waters- lone and dead,-
Their still waters- still and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily.
By the lakes that thus outspread
Their lone waters, lone and dead,-
Their sad waters, sad and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily,-
By the mountains- near the river
Murmuring lowly, murmuring ever,-
By the grey woods,- by the swamp
Where the toad and the newt encamp-
By the dismal tarns and pools
Where dwell the Ghouls,-
By each spot the most unholy-
In each nook most melancholy-
There the traveler meets aghast
Sheeted Memories of the Past-
Shrouded forms that start and sigh
As they pass the wanderer by-
White-robed forms of friends long given,
In agony, to the Earth- and Heaven.
For the heart whose woes are legion
'Tis a peaceful, soothing region-
For the spirit that walks in shadow
'Tis- oh, 'tis an Eldorado!
But the traveler, traveling through it,
May not- dare not openly view it!
Never its mysteries are exposed
To the weak human eye unclosed;
So wills its King, who hath forbid
The uplifting of the fringed lid;
And thus the sad Soul that here passes
Beholds it but through darkened glasses.
By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have wandered home but newly
From this ultimate dim Thule.
From "Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe", 1849
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