by Dan Wright
“Anatomy of a What'Zit.” Notable 1960s cases from Project Blue Book were highlighted. Among them: February 23, 1965, Williamsburg, Virginia, mushroom/lightbulb shape where two observers' vehicles stalled; and September 3, 1965, Damon, Texas, triangular shape with two witnesses (both sheriff deputies). Courtesy of NICAP, ten vehicle shapes were drawn—all showing the bottom view, bottom angled, and side view—plus prominent historical dates for each: flat disc, domed disc, Saturn disc, hemispherical disc, sphere, flattened sphere, ellipse/football, triangle, and cylinder/cigar.
“Worth 1,000 Words.” Intriguing photos over the years were featured, including the August 1951 “Lubbock Lights”; June 1950 McMinnville disc; October 1957 cigar shape near the White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico; and a 1951 domed disc near Riverside, California.31
Near Pueblo, Colorado, sometime in mid-October 1967, two 19-year-olds reportedly drove to the King Ranch to photograph a rumored UFO. At 1:20 a.m. they took two photos of a brilliant white light—apparent size of a penny. The light moved about the area, changing color and intensity until 3:04 a.m. when it winked out. No mention was made of whether the photos would be examined.32
From a personal journal, on the 28th of November a request had been received from a congressman's assistant who, on behalf of a constituent, asked for a copy of the 1953 Robertson Report. The writer had referred the staffer to the Air Force.33
By late 1967 Playboy was emerging as a serious, avante-garde literary magazine. Its December issue featured an essay by astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek, observatory director and astronomy department chairman at Northwestern University. In his provocative piece titled “The UFO Gap,” Hynek noted that earlier Russian dismissals of the possibility of interstellar life were softening. A Russian magazine article posed questions (referencing the Cmena article described on page 195) and called for “a many-sided, careful scientific investigation.” But because the US establishment was not taking the subject seriously enough, Hynek feared the Soviets would beat the West in making first contact with an ET. “From my own official involvement, I know that the United States is only now beginning to consider treating the problem seriously.”34
“I had scarcely heard of UFOs in 1948 and, like every other scientist I knew, assumed that they were nonsense,” Hynek began. “For the first few months of my association with what is now Project Blue Book ... I had no reason to change this opinion.” Sighting reports were uniformly identifiable or the witness was unreliable. “But over the years cases began to accumulate for which I could find no satisfactory physical explanation.” Blue Book did not debunk many cases outright, but its annual reports leaned toward IFO conclusions. Its miniscule staff led by one or two low-ranked officers echoed a skeptical Air Force officialdom, he asserted.
Needless to say, with this article Hynek left no doubt he had philosophical differences with the Air Force and was completely out of the UFO closet.
An official at the Moscow Aviation Institute declared that intelligent life probably resided on other planets in our solar system. Over the previous two years, UFOs were sighted in “ever-increasing numbers” and in ten countries. “It is becoming apparent that this is not an optical illusion.” The USSR instituted an observation service to assess UFO speeds and acceleration beyond that of modern aircraft.35
On December 7, 1967, a form letter to an Auburn, Washington, resident acknowledged receipt of his inquiry and suggested he contact the Air Force.36
Dr. Robert Low of the Condon Committee wrote to Dr. J. Thomas Ratchford of the USAF Office of Scientific Research on December 8, 1967, to ask that he convey a message. Low wanted Arthur Lundahl, Director of the National Photographic Interpretation Center (NIPC) to know that Low had spoken with Carl Sagan regarding the Soviet military's establishment of a UFO commission. “... Sagan is very interested in the UFO problem and in what we're doing and also in the recent developments in Russia.. .”37
Two days hence on the 10th, a Mr. Vitolniyek, Director of the (Soviet) Station for the Radio Observation of the Ionosphere and Artificial Earth Satellites, related that the Soviet press that night reported “luminescent objects in the form of balloons and convex disks” in the sky. Further, radar detected circular objects tens of kilometers high. Astrophysicists postulated plasma phenomena.38
While you were away from your desk . . .
January 6, 1967
Dr. J. Allen Hynek spoke to an overflow crowd at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland, telling the audience he had revised his thinking on aerial phenomena. He urged scientists to take an active role in UFO investigations. He confirmed reports that NORAD and SAC radars had tracked unknowns and cited one incident in which SAC radar followed an object at 4,000 mph on an erratic path.39
January 25, 1967
Colorado UFO Project director Condon spoke to the American Chemical Society in Corning, New York. Though his assembled scientists were not scheduled to complete their work for another year, he declared that the government should get out of the UFO business, since there was apparently nothing to it.40
Unspecified Date, January 1967
At the Algerian Hammaguir military base, a group of scientists and engineers was driving in two sedans one night toward a launch tower in preparation for a morning desert missile launch. The first car reached a row of buildings and the driver stopped, leaving the engine running. Momentarily he and his three passengers saw an approaching light in the sky. “And then something happened to my engine—it started running ‘rough’ and stopped by itself,” the driver said later. They all exited. “We watched as the light slowly came closer, without making any sound.... It seemed to come within about 500 meters from us, and remained stationary at an elevation of 45 degrees.”41
Cylindrical and dark, the men estimated it to be gigantic, 300–400 meters in length. Along its fuselage were “flames” of multiple colors. A later testifying witness said that was from ionization of the air. At a point they felt a “tinkling” deafness and paralysis for minutes. The second vehicle arrived, carrying the astrophysicists. Astonished, they watched the object for 20–30 minutes as it continued slowly on the same trajectory. Eventually it angled upward and out of sight.
March 5, 1967
North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) radar tracked an uncorrelated target descending over a Minuteman missile site at Minot AFB, North Dakota. Strike teams sighted a metallic disc with bright flashing lights slowly circling over the launch control facility. They chased the intruder in armed trucks until it stopped and hovered at 500 feet. Before F-106 Delta Dart jets could be scrambled, the ship climbed vertically and flew out of sight.42
Hours later, from 12:01 to 12:40 a.m. in Benton Harbor, Michigan, a radio station newsman and his wife watched a hissing oval or saucer shape, airborne and motionless. Red, green, and yellow lights around the bottom rim pulsated. A second object approached and halted above the first for 30 seconds then seemed to vanish. At 4:25 a.m. in Galesburg-Moline, Illinois, a deputy sheriff came upon a domed disc. Its bottom portion spun rapidly and the rim pulsated red. The saucer passed close overhead with a hissing sound. Both accounts were listed as unexplainable in the USAF Project Blue Book files.43
March 8, 1967
At 1:05 a.m., a couple was nearing their home in Leominster, Massachusetts when they entered an unexpected and dense fog. The husband noticed a bright light 400–500 aloft; he stopped the car and stepped out. As he pointed toward it, his engine and headlights failed and a force pulled his arm backward onto the roof. He was frozen in place by what he later said “felt like shock or numbness.” His panicked wife was unable to pull him back inside. Half a minute passed before the object rocked back and forth and ascended with a humming sound. The engine easily restarted, but the man remained sluggish afterward.44
April 4, 1967
The Federal Aviation Agency published Notice N7230.29 that established procedures for reporting UFOs to the Colorado UFO Project.45
May 17, 1967
A group of Russ
ian scientists convened in Moscow to form an unofficial scientific UFO investigating team. Several months later, on November 11, the establishment of the Russian UFO Commission was announced. It consisted of a network of observatories with 200 personnel, including eighteen scientists and military officers, led by a major general.46
June 7, 1967
Atmospheric physicist Dr. James McDonald spoke to the United Nations Outer Space Affairs Group. Concurrently, UN Secretary General U Thant expressed deep concern over the UFO situation.47
July 30, 1967
An Argentine steamer was 120 miles off the Brazilian coast in the evening, when the captain was called to the deck. Below the water's surface was a cylindrical object over 100 feet long but with no sign of a periscope, railing, conning tower, or other superstructure indicative of a submarine. The anomaly emitted a powerful blue and white glow while pacing the ship for 15 minutes before diving under it, not to be seen again. Argentine maritime authorities classed it an “Unidentified Submarine Object.”48
October 4, 1967
At Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia, following reports earlier in the evening of odd lights at or near the water, at 11:20 p.m. something plunged into the sound. Mounted police were among the witnesses. Believing an airplane had crashed, they and other locals alerted authorities, including the RCAF, and gathered at the shore. Some type of dark object, about 60 feet across with a pale yellow light, floated on or hovered very near the water some 800–900 feet away. As they watched, it submerged out of sight. A boat sent out to investigate encountered thick bubbly foam, yellow in color and greasy, stretching for half a mile. The smell of sulfur was pervasive. A Coastguard cutter joined the search but nothing was found. Two days later, four divers from the Royal Canadian Navy's Fleet Diving Unit scoured the seabed and at one point brought something up to the surface, as seen by a number of area fishermen. It was rumored to have been sent to the Naval Armament Depot.49
Decades later a priority message was discovered, originating from the Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax and sent to the Canadian Forces Headquarters. The message advised that a UFO had impacted the waters of Shag Harbour. Other official documents about the 1967 incident were retrieved as well.50
October 17, 1967
Congressman Louis Wyman of New Hampshire introduced House Resolution 946 calling for the Committee on Science and Astronautics to “conduct a full and complete investigation and study of unidentified flying objects.”51
November 1, 1967
The US Weather Bureau issued Letter 67-16, amending its Operating Manual to encourage personnel to report UFO sightings to the Colorado UFO Project. Later that month, on the 24th, a Memorandum to Forest Service supervisors from the US Department of Agriculture followed suit.52
Chapter 21
1968: Return to Relative Calm
Bruce Cathie, a New Zealand commercial airline pilot, had written several books theorizing a planet-wide grid (electrodynamic field) powering UFOs. Cathie stated many New Zealand sightings went unreported. He told an American military attaché that, on January 14, 1968, four UFOs were detected at high speed and great altitude by Auckland Air Traffic Control radar. Having been advised to submit verifying materials, he did so on January 18 (additional commentary illegible).1
Robert Low of the Colorado UFO Project (a.k.a. Condon Committee) wrote to J. Thomas Ratchford at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research on January 17, 1968. He attached a letter exchange with Commander Alvin Moore regarding Moore's 1952 UFO encounter and the disposition of materials related thereto. Low said Moore claimed he sent a report—plus many “stones” he had collected that were somehow tied to the UFO subject—to Wright-Patterson AFB (Project Blue Book). Low speculated that the original Project Blue Book chief, Captain Edward Ruppelt, might possibly have confiscated them, but Ruppelt's widow denied that. Low suggested that Ratchford discuss the matter with his superiors.2
A non-sourced report concerned a January 20, 1968, news article in Komsomolskaya Pravda entitled “Fantasy or Reality (Unidentified flying objects).” Various Soviet scientists had been interviewed on the UFO subject. “Although opinions varied, eyewitness accounts were cited and the necessity of studying the UFO phenomenon stressed.”3 Originally in a Hungarian newspaper, a January 31 news abstract in Leninskaya (illegible) reviewed British, Russian, Yugoslav, and US eyewitness accounts. A worldwide conference would be held in August 1968. Soviet astronomer Felix Ziegel said UFOs may have been optical illusions, earthly flying objects, natural phenomena, or objects from other planets. The ET hypothesis was “supported by the fact that UFO's exhibit a tremendous speed, which presupposes highly developed remote control.” But few physical traces or photos existed.4
The Astronomic Council of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, on March 6, 1968, issued a report in USSR Scientific Affairs, “Scientists Refute Claims of ‘UFO’ Sightings.” The authors lauded Donald Menzel's “painstaking analysis of phenomena.” Claimed irrefutable facts by “scandalmongers,” when examined, were of three basic types: deliberate misinformation, anecdotal accounts of no scientific value, and misidentifications of known objects or phenomena. Neither Soviet nor US scientists concluded any claims were credible. All the Soviet sightings, the academy concluded, evolved from “unscientific sensationalism.” (The remainder of the file was redacted or unrelated.)5
From various eyewitness accounts, the author or authors of an article in Pravda Ukrainy determined that UFOs were a myth. Stereoscopic photography was not reliable. Pictures that did not initially raise doubts were usually ball lightning, the nature of which was unknown. The November 1957 “saucer” over Sofia, Romania, was actually a NATO scouting balloon. When the Western public was distracted from politics or economics, “there appear flying saucers, Loch Ness monsters, or Snowmen.”6
Novosti (a.k.a. APN) was a Soviet unofficial news agency with close ties to the periodical Soviet Life. On April 9, 1968, it offered ten pages of material presenting opposing views on the UFO subject, including:7
“‘Flying Saucers’? They're a Myth!” (unknown date), by an APN science commentator. The United States publicized UFO events to divert attention from its failures and aggressions, it was argued.
“Unidentified Flying Object.” Dr. Felix Ziegel of the Moscow Aviation Institute offered a serious perspective that the subject deserved continuing attention.
In Lyustiberg Moskovsky, February 16, 1968, the 1948 crash of Captain Thomas Mantell while pursuing an unknown was argued as “undoubted proof of the existence of mighty forces still unknown to us.” But the saucer was only a Skyhook balloon, and Mantell died of careless asphyxiation. Other UFO stories over the years bore the hallmarks of hoaxes. Flying saucers were like the Virgin Mary, appearing only to believers. Experiments were not repeated or the chance appearance of a phenomenon excluded the possibility of investigation.
No stereoscopic photos of an anomalous flying object were ever taken. “Modern photographic techniques allow photographs to be produced which no expert will ever prove to be counterfeit.” Ball lightning accounted for some unretouched photos. Others were reflections of electric welding, airplane warning lights, high-altitude balloons, or solar plasmas. The anonymous eyewitness accounts were unconvincing. UFO lecturers were either frauds (for example, Adamski) or sincere but deluded.
Numbers of sightings always rose on the eve of US presidential elections or to divert attention from ruthless warfare—Korea and Vietnam. When US newspaper circulation dropped, American businessmen resorted to stories of UFOs, sea monsters, and the Yeti, drawing attention away from a wage freeze, rising prices, or unemployment. For statesmen in imperialistic countries, “the flying saucers are not a myth, but a well-camouflaged means for misinforming the people.”
In this posting by an Agency operative, the Novosti/APN articles continued. On July 26, 1967, three Latvian astronomers observed a bright disc with a raised center, surrounded by three spheres rotating around it, as seen through a telescope and binoculars. After 15–20 minutes
the spheres moved away in different directions.
On August 2, 1967, at 11:30 p.m. Moscow time in the Norwegian Sea, three sailors saw a very bright white light moving rapidly southward. A few minutes later a light high in the sky rushed angularly westward, stopped abruptly, displayed rainbow colors, threw off sparks, then was enveloped in a white shroud and moved south. This procedure was repeated four times over an hour. On the final time the unknown stopped and showed an egg shape. A white jet of liquid squirted downward, then the object grew pale and moved away.
Two weeks earlier, on the night of July 17–18, 1967, several Russian astronomers viewed a reddish unknown enveloped in a milky white cloud, reported by the area newspapers. The cloud dispersed, leaving a red nucleus. It remained until dawn. Photos were taken at various points. At 3:40 p.m., August 8, ten scientists at the same observatory witnessed a bright, moving white light in front of a red disc. Both disappeared.
Many thousands of such reports were recorded in many nations over 20 years, too many to be lightly dismissed. Publicity seekers would always surround the subject. “But we do not stop using money because there are counterfeiters. The task of science is, precisely, to distinguish between the false and the true.” [Most of the remainder is illegible.]