by Leslie Kean
10 “and return to home base” George E. Valley, “Some Considerations Affecting the Interpretation of Reports of Unidentified Flying Objects,” report for Project Sign, USAF, originally classified Secret.
11 and Pease AFB (New Hampshire) Larry Hatch, Nuclear Connection Project (1998); also see the book by Robert Hastings, UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites (AuthorHouse, 2008), for details of these and other incidents.
CHAPTER 15: UFOS AND THE NATIONAL SECURITY PROBLEM
1 “sightings categorized as ‘unidentified’ are extraterrestrial vehicles” The Air Force Fact Sheet, “Unidentified Flying Objects and Air Force Project Blue Book,” can be found at http://www.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=188. The December 17, 1969, News Release, no. 1077–69, “Air Force to Terminate Project Blue Book,” was issued by the Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs), Washington, D.C.–20301. See http://www.dod.gov/pubs/foi/ufo/asdpa1.pdf.
2 Astronautics Committee in its 1968 hearing This is the same hearing discussed in chapter 11 in reference to the testimony of James E. McDonald, held just before the Condon report was issued and Project Blue Book was shut down.
3 “scientific secrets we do not know ourselves” Hearings before the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninetieth Congress, “Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects,” July 29, 1968 (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington 1968), pp. 121–24.
4 General Samford in his 1952 press conference See chapter 11 to review details of Samford’s press conference. He stated the percentage of credible reports of UFOs did not represent “any conceivable threat to the United States.”
5 “responsibility for the defense of the United States” UPI, “Air Force Order on ‘Saucers’ Cited; Pamphlet by the Inspector General Called Objects a ‘Serious Business,’” New York Times, February 28, 1960.
6 “UFOs could not be Soviet machines” Statement of Hon. Leonard G. Wolf of Iowa in the House of Representatives, August 31, 1960. Entered into the Congressional Record, p. 18955.
7 “cause for grave concern to this headquarters” SAC headquarters to Ogden Air Material Area (OOAMA) Hill AFB, Utah, “Loss of Stategic Alert, Echo Flight, Malstrom AFB,” March 17, 1967. Originally classified Secret. The document is reprinted on p. 108 of Robert Salas and James Klotz, Faded Giant (privately published, 2004), a book with useful information about the Malmstrom case and other missile UFO incidents from the 1960s. For a more detailed and broader look at such cases, see Robert Hastings, UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites (AuthorHouse, 2008).
8 directly injected into the equipment Salas, op. cit., p. 29.
9 have come forward with similar reports Hastings, op. cit.
10 “reports which fall within their responsibilities” C. H. Bolender, Brig. Gen. USAF, memorandum, “Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO),” October 20, 1969. Obtained through the FOIA by Robert Todd in 1979. http://www.nicap.org/directives/Bolender_Memo.pdf.
11 the NORAD log reports 24th NORAD Region Senior Director’s Log, November 1975; NORAD Command Director’s Log, November 1975.
12 the Post reported Ward Sinclair and Art Harris, “UFOs Visited U.S. Bases, Reports Say,” Washington Post, 1979.
13 This highly unusual report JCS Communication Center of the USDAQ Tehran Message 230630Z, September 1976, released in 1977 through the Department of Defense, “Reported UFO Sighting,” 3 pages plus 1 page evaluation. See also Henry S. Shields, “Now You See It, Now You Don’t,” United States Air Force Security Service, MIJI Quarterly Report 3–78, October 1978.
14 “maneuverability was displayed by the UFOs” This list is exactly the way it is in the document, except I’ve put bullets where there were letters (a.–f.) and removed 1) from the first line (“an outstanding report …”) to make it easier to read.
15 Titled “UFO Sighted in Peru” Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff message center, “UFO Sighted in Peru,” June 3, 1980.
CHAPTER 16: “A POWERFUL DESIRE TO DO NOTHING”
1 twelve officers from this department alone had their own sightings Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Philip J. Imbrogno, and Bob Pratt, Night Siege: The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings (Llewellyn Publications, 1998), p. 81.
2 “as if the ball were trying to measure something” Interview with Heinrich Nicoll for the NBC television series “Unsolved Mysteries,” hosted by Robert Stack.
3 “One came back and the other didn’t” Athens reported Hynek, Imbrogno, and Pratt, op. cit., p. 117.
4 “probing the water” Ibid., p. 2.
5 bigger than a football field Ibid., pp. 165–66.
6 well-documented visits by some kind of phenomenon Hynek’s research on the Hudson Valley wave was collected into the very readable book Night Siege, published after his death, first in 1987 and later reissued, in collaboration with Philip Imbrogno and Bob Pratt.
7 In a 1985 essay While he was investigating the Westchester County “boomerangs” in New York, Dr. Hynek left this essay on a diskette at the home of his friend Dr. Willy Smith on August 30, 1985. Titled “The Roots of Complacency,” it was meant to be a draft preface for Night Siege. A few weeks after writing the piece, Hynek went into surgery. His health rapidly declined in the ensuing months, and he died in April 1986. This last essay is quite different from the much shorter preface to Night Siege in its passion and intimate, unedited style.
8 “springboard to mankind’s outlook on the universe” J. Allen Hynek, The Hynek UFO Report (Dell Publishing, 1977), p. 1.
CHAPTER 17: THE REAL X-FILES
1 “until some material evidence becomes available” The working party’s conclusions, titled “Unidentified Flying Objects” and classified Secret Discreet, were presented in a document dated June 1951, bearing the designation DSI/JTIC Report No. 7. Its six pages are posted at http://www.nickpope.net/documents.htm.
2 had not been released to the public It was later released in 2001 under the title “Unidentified Flying Objects (U.F.O.’s) Report of Sighting, Rendlesham Forest, December 1980.” The key documents are posted at http://www.nickpope.net/documents.htm.
3 some rapid sketches in his police notebook A detailed account of what happened is provided in Jim Penniston’s contribution to this book, in the next chapter.
4 one of the most significant UFO sightings ever For a detailed account of the case, see the book by Georgina Bruni, You Can’t Tell the People (Pan Books, 2001).
5 “repeatedly denied, in precisely those terms” Letter from Lord Hill-Norton to Lord Gilbert, Minister of State, Ministry of Defence, dated October 22, 1997.
6 “to out-maneuver a UAP during interception” Defense Intelligence Analysis Staff Study, December 2000, “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defense Region,” vol. 1, chapt. 5, p. 4. See http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/AB43D483-FF03-44F0-85DE-C4233C7C9F10/0/uap_vol1_ch5_pg4.pdf for the relevant extract.
7 “and dealt with by RAF fighter aircraft” BBC News, “UFO Investigations Unit Closed by Ministry of Defence,” December 4, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8395473.stm.
CHAPTER 19: CHILE
1 known as the OIFAA OIFAA stands for Oficina de Investigación de Fenomenos Aéreos Anómalos (Office for the Investigation of Anomalous Activity). The Peruvian Air Force established the agency within the DINAE, Division de Intereses Aeroespaciales (Division of Aerospace Interests), an Air Force department, in December 2001.
2 physically real but could not be explained Dr. Anthony Choy, a UAP field investigator and founding member of the OIFAA, was the lead investigator in the very remote Chulucanas region, beginning even before the OIFAA was founded in 2001. Choy had the unique of experience in 2003 of actually witnessing a dramatic UFO event over the town square of an ancient village, along with about forty other witnesses, while in the process of conducting investigations. His studies in this region precipitated the Air Force’s first acknowledgment of a physically real but unknown phenomenon.
Choy is now petitioning the Peruvian government to declassify its UFO files.
3 who presides over an Air Force commission studying the cases Daniel Iglesias, “Uruguay: Air Force Declassifies UFO Files, ET Hypothesis Not Dismissed,” June 6, 2009, http://www.elpais.com.uy.
4 The CEFAA CEFAA stands for el Comité de Estudios de Fenómenos Aéreos Anómalos (the Committee for the Study of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena). It was established in October 1997 within the Department of Civil Aeronautics, the Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil or DGAC, the Chilean equivalent of the American FAA.
5 Bermúdez wrote in an e-mail These details about the ceremony come from a personal e-mail communication with General Bermúdez in January 2010.
6 In the last days of March Sections of this piece were translated from the Spanish by Gustavo Rodríguez Navarro, Oscar Zambrano, and Andrea Soares Berrios.
7 The aviation branch of the Army of Chile Brigada de Aviación del Ejército de Chile, the aviation branch of the Army of Chile, is known as BAVE.
CHAPTER 20: UFOS IN BRAZIL
1 by the Navy, which compiled a report Carlos Alberto Ferreira Bacellar, Commander of the Oceanographic Station at Trindade, “Clarification of the Observation of Unidentified Flying Objects Sighted on the Island of Trindade, in the Period of 12/5/57 to 1/16/58.”
2 experts in America conducted further analysis The information on the Trindade photos was obtained from Don Berliner, UFO Briefing Document (Dell Publishing, 1995), pp. 71–77. This report is available at http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/
ufo_briefingdocument/1958.htm#50.
3 many of them concerning the Air Force’s “Operation Saucer” The Brazilian files can be viewed online. See the National Intelligence Agency report of Operation Saucer: http://www.ufo.com.br/public/prato/ACE_3370.83.pdf; also, the Brazilian Air Force report of Operation Saucer: http://www.ufo.com.br/public/prato/ACE_3370.83.pdf. More recent files can be accessed at www.ufo.com.br/public/abertura_2; and more through these links: www.ufo.com.br/public/abertura_1, www.ufo.com.br/public/brasil, www.ufo.com.br/public/documents, and www.ufo.com.br/public/prato.
4 All was translated from Portuguese Translation services were provided by Eduardo Rado of Brazil and Andrea Soares Berrios of New York.
5 “to fly in formation, not necessarily manned” Air Brigadier José Pessoa Cavalcanti de Albuquerque, commander of the Aerial Command of Aerial Defense, to Aerial General Command, “Occurrence Report,” June 2, 1986. Both the original document in Portuguese and an English translation can be seen at www.ufo.com.br/documentos/night.
6 Brazilian Airspace Defense Command Comando de Defesa Aérea Brasileiro, known as COMDABRA.
7 to the air defense operations center Comando de Operações de Defesa Aérea, known as CODA.
CHAPTER 21: FIGHTING BACK
1 “Unidentified Flying Objects and related phenomena” Dept. of State Teletype, “Grenadian UFO Crusade: Déjà vu,” November 18, 1978, released through the Freedom of Information Act. Sourced from Clifford E. Stone, UFOs Are Real (SPI Books, 1997).
2 “and scientists, including astronomers” Dept. of State Teletype, “Grenadian UFO Resolution,” November 28, 1978, classified Confidential and released through the FOIA. Sourced from Clifford E. Stone, UFOs Are Real (SPI Books, 1997), Doc. 5–21a.
3 a “blitzkrieg sales pitch” Dept. of State Teletype, November 18, 1978, op. cit.
4 “U.S. nationals on the Grenadian delegation” Ibid.
5 “and gamble on the results” Dept. of State Teletype, “Grenadian UFO Resolution,” December 2, 1978. Sourced from Clifford E. Stone, UFOs Are Real (SPI Books, 1997), Doc. 5–22.
6 “of this French investigation are profound” J. Allen Hynek, speech to the United Nations, November 27, 1978. His speech is summarized in a State Dept. Teletype, “Grenadian UFO Resolution,” November 28, 1978.
7 then it “disappeared” Sighting Report for the International UFO Bureau, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, September 18, 1973.
8 “ought to be NASA” Dr. Frank Press, letter to Dr. Robert Frosch, July 21, 1977. Richard C. Henry, “UFOs and NASA,” Journal of Scientific Exploration, vol. 2, no. 2 (1988), p. 109.
9 NASA name a “project officer” Dr. Robert Frosch, letter to Dr. Frank Press, September 6, 1977. Full letter included in the appendix: Richard C. Henry, “UFOs and NASA,” Journal of Scientific Exploration, vol. 2, no. 2 (1988), pp. 110–11.
10 White House concurred without delay Dr. Frank Press, letter to Dr. Robert Frosch, September 14, 1977. Full letter included in the appendix: Richard C. Henry, “UFOs and NASA,” Journal of Scientific Exploration, vol. 2, no. 2 (1988), p. 114.
11 “preventing a reopening of UFO investigations” Charles E. Senn, letter to Duward L. Crow, September 1, 1977.
12 “to convene a symposium on this subject” Dr. Robert Frosch, letter to Dr. Frank Press, December 21, 1977. Henry, op. cit., p. 115.
13 “to intelligences far beyond our own” Dr. Richard Henry, memorandum to Dr. Noel Hinners, Subject: UFO Matters, January 17, 1978; Richard C. Henry, “UFO’s and NASA,” Journal of Scientific Exploration, vol. 2, no. 2 (1988), p. 130.
14 first step in conducting any sort of investigation See chapter 6 about the O’Hare incident in 2006 and the FAA response.
15 which was reported by the BBC See chapter 7 by way of review.
16 “confounded local military experts and local police” BBC News, “UFO Baffles Aviation Experts,” September 15, 1999, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/448267.stm.
17 The 2010 FAA Aeronautical Information Manual See section 7–6-4, “Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) Reports.” The manual can be viewed at http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/ATpubs/AIM/Chap7/aim0706.html.
18 “report the activity” FAA manual, ibid.
19 Ministry of Defence monitors them for that reason Author interview with Nick Pope, via a series of e-mails, August 2009.
20 a spokesman explained at the time Associated Press, “FAA Investigates JAL Flight 1628 UFO Sighting,” 1986; and United Press International, “Pilot Describes ‘Unbelievable’ UFO Encounter,” December 31, 1986.
21 As revealed in a verbatim transcript “Record of Interview with JAL Captain,” January 2, 1987, pp. 16–17. The transcript was provided to researchers by the FAA in 1987.
22 “was unable to confirm the event” Bruce Maccabee, “The Fantastic Flight of JAL 1628,” http://brumac.8k.com/JAL1628/JL1628.html. This is the most complete report about the sighting over Alaska, and highly recommended. Dr. Maccabee is the author or co-author of about three dozen technical articles and more than a hundred UFO articles over the last twenty-five years. He is also a leading photoanalyst of UFO images. See http://brumac.8k.com.
23 during the FAA’s interviews with these witnesses AP and UPI, op. cit.
CHAPTER 22: THE FAA INVESTIGATES A UFO EVENT “THAT NEVER HAPPENED”
1 “that we were visited by a UFO” A Twix is a message sent to all media advising them to broadcast or print a news article. It can be transmitted either by e-mail or fax or as a print-out.
CHAPTER 23: GOVERNMENT COVER-UP
1 even “no comment” is considered a confirmation Sweetman is the North American editor for Jane’s Defence Weekly. This story was published in Jane’s International Defence Review in 2000; see http://www.janes.com/defence/news/jidr/jidr000105_01_n.shtm.
2 “classified above Top Secret,” he wrote in a 1975 letter Senator Barry Goldwater, letter to “Mr. S A,” on “United States Senate” letterhead, March 28, 1975. The name of the recipient, who had written to inquire about the senator’s interest in UFOs, was redacted from the document when it was released through the Freedom of Information Act. The names on numerous other similar letters were not redacted.
3 “it is just impossible to get anything on it” Senator Barry Goldwater, letter to Lee M. Graham on “United States Senate” letterhead, October 19, 1981.
4 “I’ve never tried to make it my business since” Senator Barry Goldwa
ter, letter to William S. Steinman, on “United States Senate” letterhead, June 20, 1983.
5 “‘Don’t ever ask me that question again!’” The radio clip can be viewed on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPFBg1NNUBU. Numerous websites state that this clip was an excerpt from a 1994 interview with Larry King on CNN, but I have not been able to verify this.
6 “who destroyed the messages, or why” News Release, U.S. Congressman Steve Schiff, First Congressional District New Mexico, July 28, 1995.
7 possible Soviet nuclear testing James McAndrew, Headquarters United States Air Force, “The Roswell Report: Case Closed,” July 1994, http://www.af.mil/information/roswell/index.asp.
CHAPTER 24: GOVERNOR FIFE SYMINGTON AND MOVEMENT TOWARD CHANGE
1 watching it take off in the blink of an eye NUFORC reports can be found at www.nuforc.org. See also the feature-length documentary I Know What I Saw, directed by James Fox, for witness interviews (trailer can be seen at www.iknowwhatisawthemovie.com).
2 into the national spotlight Richard Price, “Arizonans Say the Truth about UFOs Is Out There,” USA Today, June 18, 1997.
3 “find out if it was a UFO” The television clip from a local Arizona station is included in I Know What I Saw.
4 mask was removed before the cameras A clip from television coverage of the press conference is featured in I Know What I Saw.
5 which could be seen for 150 miles Senator John McCain, letter to constituent (name redacted), United States Senate, October 9, 1997.
6 were, in fact, flares Dr. Bruce Maccabee, “Report on Phoenix Light Arrays,” 1998, http://brumac.8k.com/phoenixlights1.html. This detailed study concludes with the following:
“The most parsominous explanation for these lights is that they were flares (as so stated for the March 13, 1997, lights by the Maryland National Guard). This analysis is therefore consistent with that of the Cognitech Corporation (Dr. Leonid Rudin) done for the Discovery Channel documentary (November, 1997). It is also consistent with the analysis of Dr. Paul Scowen, professor of astronomy at ASU, as reported by author Tony Ortega in the Phoenix “New Times” newspaper, March 5–11, 1998, which showed that the lights were farther away than the mountain peaks in the K video. In that newspaper article the author also reported that an “Arizona National Guard public information officer, Captain Eileen Benz, had determined that the flares had been dropped at 10 P.M. over the North Tac Range 30 miles southwest of Phoenix at an unusually high altitude of 15,000 ft.” Except for the stated distance, which should be more like 60 miles (and up to 100 miles away), this statement is consistent with the analysis presented here.”