M U T U A L U F O N E T W O R K

UFO JOURNALOCTOBER 1997 ~f NUMBER 354 $3

SPY PLANES: THE CIA'S "UFO99

M U F O N U F O J O U R N A LO F F I C I A L P U B L I C A T I O N OF THE MUTUAL UFO N E T W O R K S I N C E 1967

OCTOBER 1 997 N U M B E R 3 5 4

CIA'S UFO EXPLANATION IS PREPOSTEROUS Bruce S. Maccabee, Ph.D.

NEWS 8. VIEWS 6&20

CURRENT CASES T. David Spencer

SARBACHER'S UFO ALLEGATION QUESTIONED T. Scott Grain, Jr.

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MUFON FORUM - LETTERS Schoen, Brethwaite and Hall 16

READER'S CLASSIFIEDS 21

THE NOVEMBER NIGHT SKY Walter N. Webb 22

CALENDAR 22

DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE Walter Andrus.

COVER — SR-71 and U-2 Photos courtesy of the book The World's Great Stealth andReconnaissance Aircraft

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MUFON UFO JOURNAL(USPS 002-970)

(ISSN 0270-6822)103 Oldtowne Rd.

Seguin, TX 78155-4099Tel: (830) 379-9216FAX (830) 372-9439

EDITORDennis Stacy

ASSOCIATE EDITORWalter H. Andrus, Jr.

COLUMNISTSWalter N. Webb

John S. CarpenterT. David Spencer

ART DIRECTORVince Johnson

Copyright 1997 by the Mutual UFO Network. All Rights Rcsen'ed.No part of this document may be reproduced in any form without tht' written permission of

the Copyright Owners. Permission is hereby granted to quote up to 200 words of any one arti-cle, provided the author is credited, and the statement, "Copyright 1997 by the Mutual UFONetwork, 103 Oldtowne Rd., Seguin, Texas 78155," is included.

The contents of the MUFON UFO lournal are determined by the editors and do not necessari-ly reflect the official position of the Mutual UFO Network. Opinions expressed are solely thoseof the individual authors.

The Mutual UFO Network. Inc. is exempt from Federal Income Tax under Section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Rei'enue Code. MUFON is a publicly supported organization of the typedescribed in Section 509 (a) (2). Donors may deduct contributions from their Federal IncomeTax. Bequests, legacies, devises, transfers or gifts are also deductible for estate and gift purposes,provided they meet the applicable provisions of Sections 2055, 2106 and 2522 of the InternalRevenue Code. MUFON is a Texas nonprofit corporation.

The MUFON UFO Journal is published monthly by the Mutual UFO Network, Inc., Seguin,Texas. Membership/Subscription rates: $30 per year in the U.S.A.; $30 foreign in U.S. funds.Second class postage paid at Seguin, TX.

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A Die llard Issue

CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90

An extraordinary 9S percent cf all Americans have at least heard or read somethinj abcvt Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), and bVpercent believe they are real ,(l)_Fcr.ner US Paste as Cajrte: and Reagan claii'.i ID h«ve seen a UFO UFOfc'4:sts--a neologism forUF1 j bvffs--an4 private UFC organizations aje fovnd throvghout the U rated States Many are cor^inced that the US < Tnverrjnent, aiidparacvl»ilv CIA, axe er^sjed u a uiusire conipiracv and coveiTp of the issue The idea that •?; A his secretly co.icetJei :ts rese?i;huto IJF'J: has bee.i a m«jcr Aeme cf ITP~.- buffs SLice the /node^-. "JFC1 phereiiTMr-.a e/jierjed L-. the >te 19-X3s .(2)

In >w 1993, tins beLii pressv^d by ".T'JkiiTJts for -JK release of additmr.sl 7IA iiifoLT.aoc-.i or. 'JF':'S,_(3>. ZCI R James Woc^eyordered aiTothe» OVKV of ail Aje.icy aes on UFvs Usi-ig i.'IA records coii-.p-Jed from that reviev, tks study traces CIA interest andirrolTemem m the UFO ccnloversy from the h»> 1 9-40i w I Q^ It chronolcjrKsJly exa/r^ves The Aiency1 s efforts t: solve the i;iys»ryof UFOs, its projraj'ns UwthM M ijiipact on UF-r siihtmgs.Jiilits etempts »o corp^al > "!A inv.V.ve/,y>r.t in the entire UF-J usw WhMer.isrzes froyn This examratKn is that, vhife Aje.icv conceal over "JF^'S vas svbstjiit?! «ntU the ejily 1950s, CIA has since part onlyLmfcd and peripheral anenocn to

BackgroundThe emergence in 1Q-J7 of the CcW War ccriLcnaoun betveen the United States and the Soviet Ui-jcn also sav the fust -rsve of UFCsifchtnjs The first report of a "Gyms sauce:" over the United Stttes carae on 2-1 Jiine 19J7, vhe.i Kenneth Arnold, a private pifct andreputjble ivsuwssjiian, vhile tooVjnj for a dovned plsuis sighted nine disk-sh«.ped ct)ects r«eai- Kt Rainier, Wash^jvan, wveiLifc atan estimated speed cf over 1,000 r.iph ArnoJd s report TBS folioved by a flood of additional si^har^s, inclu<lL.is reports from rndrsryand civiliaii pifcts end an1 traffic conMiiers all ever the I Inited States (4). la 19-)C, Air Force '"Jen 1 laftan Tviiunj, head of the Aj1Technical Service -ronj-nand, estiitshed Project SIOJl (imtnliy n-?ji«d Project SAUCER) w co^ect, colle.te, eval-jate, and distntv*viTh^ii Th<> oTtypi^.-.i^.-it ftll info\v.'«inr;i iTpfoni'c- t.T «siirh ^iQ'hniV^*! n.'' tV nrp.'n«:p T^.^T TPi'j*! 'n^/hr hp .pal tird rf iift*v..-ift1 <y.7in*?Tv

CIA'S UFO EXPLANATION IS PREPOSTEROUSby Bruce Maccabee

CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs,1947-90" is a recently published arti-

cle that describes CIA involvement in thehistory of UFO phenomena. The article, byCIA historian Gerald Haines, is published inthe unclassified version of Studies in Intel-ligence, a twice-yearly CIA journal (Volume1, 1997. pg. 67).

The article presents the history of CIAinvolvement as determined mostly fromdocuments released by the CIA nearly 20years ago. There is also some updating onCIA activities since the documents were re-leased in December, 1978.

According to the CIA documents, in theearly days (late 40s early 50s) the CIA gotits UFO information from the Air TechnicalIntelligence Center at the Air MaterielCommand headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio.

This was the "home" of Projects SIGN,GRUDGE and BLUE BOOK (see below).Consequently the CIA was "fed" the con-ventional AF position on the subject (no ev-idence of truly new technology: no evidenceof a threat). In the late summer of 1952 theCIA investigated Project Blue Book andconcluded that it was satisfactory if all onewanted to do was separate explainablesightings from those which were not ex-plainable. However, the CIA analysts werecritical of the Air Force for not studying theunexplained sightings to find out the under-lying causes of the reports. The CIA evalu-ated the whole subject and concluded thatthere might really be something unusual go-ing on. During the fall of 1952 at least oneCIA official, Marshall Chadwick, appar-ently believed that the unexplained sight-ings were a real mystery. However, before

According to aCIA historian,over half of allUFO reportsfrom the late50s throughthe 60s wereattributable tohigh-flyingU-2s.Preposterous,says BruceMaccabee.

October1997Number 354Pages

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

The U-2, withits 80-footwingspan, flewat 60-70,000feet and atthat altitudewas essen-tially invisibleduring theday. It createdno contrail be-cause of thelack of mois-ture at that al-titude.

October1997Number 354Page 4

carrying out an in-depth study to be autho-rized by the National Security Council, hewanted to have a panel of experts reviewthe situation. This panel, which came to beknown as the Robertson Panel after itschairman, carried out its review in early1953. After this review, which basicallyadopted the AF official position that every-thing could be explained, the CIA appar-ently lost interest in the subject. All of theabove has been known for years. However,the new article reveals some informationwhich was still classified Top Secret inDecember, 1978 when the FOIA documentswere released. According to Mr. Haines1 ar-ticle, when the U-2 high altitude spy planebegan flying (first flight on August 4,1955), CIA project directors discovered that"commercial pilots and air traffic con-trollers began reporting a large increase inUFO sightings."

The U-2 is the high altitude spy planemade famous by the 1960 shootdown ofGary Powers as he flew over the SovietUnion and by photos taken from a U-2 ofRussian missile sites in Cuba during the"Cuban Missile Crisis."

M r. Haines has written, "According tolater estimates from CIA officials who

worked on the U-2 project and the OX-CART (SR-71 or Blackbird) project, overhalf of all UFO reports from the late 1950sthrough the 1960s were accounted for bymanned reconnaissance flights (namely theU-2) over the United States. This led the AirForce to make misleading and deceptivestatements to the public in order to allaypublic fears and to protect an extraordinar-ily sensitive national security project. Whileperhaps justified, this deception added fuelto the later conspiracy theories and thecoverup controversy of the 1970s. The per-centage of what the Air Force consideredunexplained UFO sightings fell to 5.9 per-cent in 1955 and to 4 percent in 1956."

This explanation for many ("over half ofall") UFO reports has never before beenpublicized. It was not contained within doc-uments released by the CIA in December,1978 after a lawsuit filed under the Freedomof Information and Privacy Act (FOIA) byGround Saucer Watch, a civilian UFO orga-nization which ended its activities in theearly 1980s.

According to Mr. Haines the U-2 was re-ported as a UFO because "the early U-2'swere silver (they were later painted black)

and reflected the rays of the sun, especiallyat sunrise and sunset. They often appearedas fiery objects to observers below. AirForce BLUE BOOK investigators, aware ofthe secret U-2 flights, tried to explain awaysuch sightings by l inking them to naturalphenomena such as ice crystals and temper-ature inversions. By checking with theAgency's U-2 Project Staff in Washington,BLUE BOOK investigators were able to at-tribute many UFO sightings to U-2 flights.They were careful, however, not to revealthe true cause of the sighting to the public."

Project BLUE BOOK was the publiclyknown Air Force effort to collect and ex-plain, if possible, UFO sightings. Any sight-ings which they could not explain were cat-egorized as unknown. No careful analysesof the unknowns were carried out. ProjectBLUE BOOK ran from early 1951 through1969, When it closed, BLUE BOOK and itspredecessors (Project SIGN, 1948,'andProject GRUDGE, 1949-1951) had col-lected about 13,000 sightings, of whichabout 700 were left unexplained.

The claim that the U-2 caused "over halfof all UFO reports from the late 1950sthrough the 1960s" is, to put it gently, pre-posterous. The U-2, with its 80 ft long by 6ft wide (front to back) wingspan, flew at 60-70,000 feet and at that altitude was essen-tially invisible during the day. It created nocontrai I because of the lack of moisture atthat altitude. It was, after all, designed to at-tract l i t t le attention from the ground as itflew at a higher altitude than could be at-tained by any Russian defense missiles!Nevertheless, during the hour before sunriseand the hour following sunset it would bepossible for an unpainted aircraft to reflectthe sun enough to be visible, perhaps with areddish glow resulting from the reddeningof sunlight (caused by passage of the sun-light through the atmosphere, which actslike a filter that removes blue and green rel-ative to red). High altitude balloons (e.g.,Project SKYHOOK) did cause some UFOreports during these times of day and wereso identified by the Air Force and civilianinvestigators. However, only a small frac-tion of sightings occur durnu: ihe^e times.The largest fraction of sighting i^ at night,when the U-2 can't be seen and ihe nextlargest fraction is during the dd>lniie.

A check of the Project BLUE BOOKsighting statistics in the "Condon Report"(Scientific Study of Unidentified FlyingObjects, D.S. Gilmor, Ed., Air Force publi-

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

cation, 1968; Bantam edition, 1969, pg.514), which includes sightings by pilots andair traffic controllers as well as by militarypersonnel and civi l ians ^hows the follow-ing numbers of sighiniL's tor the six monthsbefore to the six months .itier flights beganin early August: Feb - 34, Mar-41, Apr -33, May - 54, Jun - 48, Jul - 63, Aug - 68,Sep - 57, Oct - 55, Nov - 32, Dec - 25, Jan(1956) - 43. Notice that the August increaseof 5 reports over the number in July mayhave been just a continuation of the overallincrease that began in April, 1955. Then thenumber of reports per month dropped eventhough the number of U-2 flights increased.The total number of reports during the 6months before the start of U-2 flights is 273.The total number for the 6 months follow-ing the start (Aug - Jan) is 280.

Thus, there was a 100 x (7/273) = 2.6%increase in the number of reports followingthe start of U-2 flights using the six monthtotals. These numbers are the sum of ex-plained and unexplained sightings and soi n c l u d e U-2 sightings, if any. These statis-tics Miygcsi that the U-2 was causing nomore ih.m .1 few percent of the sightings(and may have caused NONE of the sight-ings!). Comparing yearly statistics in theCondon Report we find: 1953 - 509, 1954 -487, 1955 - 545. Tn 1956 there was an in-crease during the summer months with 72 inJuly, 123 in August and 71 in Septemberwhich, when added to the nominal rate forthe other months (40 to 50 per month) re-sulted in a total of 670 for the year. Theyear 1957 had 1005 reports, mostly as a re-sult of the "Sputnik Flap" (103 in October,361 in November and 136 in December;other months were in the range of 40 - 70reports). Although the number of U-2 air-craft and the number of flights increasedduring the following years the number ofsightings showed no correlation: 1958 -627, 1959-390, 1960-557, 1961 -591,1962-474, etc.

Statistics based on a different set of dataare contained within the "U Database" ofover 14^000 sightings by Larry Hatch (LarryHatch Software, 142 Jeter St., RedwoodCity, CA 94025-1957). This excellent PC-based software provides statistics that arebased on unexplained sightings recorded byProject BLUE BOOK and by other organi-zations (civilian UFO groups). If ProjectBLUE BOOK investigators explained somesightings as the U-2, these sightings wouldnot appear in the list of unexplained BLUE

BOOK sightings and hence would not be in-cluded in this database. On the other hand,the far larger collection of non-Blue Booksightings in this database could include U-2sightings, if the CIA is correct, that werenot identified by civil ian investigators whowere unaware of the U-2's existence. Hencea comparison of the sighting statistics be-fore and after U-2 flights started could pro-vide evidence that the U-2 was being re-ported as a UFO. Tn this database ] find thefollowing:

YEAR/MONTHJ F M A M J J A S O N D Tot.

1954 13 13 12 1725 28 18 14 18 4 15 10-1871955 I I 8 9 4 12 1 I 30 29 12 13 12 6 1571956 10 1 1 7 5 13 20 33 43 9 6 1 2 3 174

1957 3 6 7 3 6 5 12 7 9 10 110 1 1 1 8 91958 5 0 4 8 3 5 2 8 4 1 2 6 1 5 8

As one can see from the above table,there is no evidence of an increase inmonthly sighting rales following the firstflight of the U-2 on Aug. 4, 1955. Thelarge increase in November, 1957 occurredjust after Sputnik 2 was launched. (This flapis noted for the large number of close-rangecar-stopping events. Most of the sightingswere not sightings of Sputnik itself.)

An even more telling set of statistics usesthe sightings which occurred near sunrise orsunset when, according to Mr. Haines, theU-2 would have appeared as a shiny or fierybright spot in the sky.

TIME 0400 to 0700 (which encompassesthe time before sunrise) (With a time win-dow this wide we get an overestimate of thenumber of sightings just before sunrise; thetime of sunrise varies during the year.)August 1955 is noted by *2*.

YEAR/MONTHJ F M A M J J A S O N D Tot.

1953 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 O i l ] 5

1954 0 0 1 0 0 2 1 I 2 0 0 0 7

1955 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 *2* 1 1 I 0 7

1956 0 1 0 1 1 2 6 2 1 0 1 0 15

1957 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 13 I 19

1958 O O O J O O O O O O O O I

TIME 1700 to 2100 (which encompassesthe time after sunset) (With a time windowthis wide we get an overestimate of thenumber of sightings just after sunset; localsunset time varies during the year.)

In the early1960s many ofthe U-2s werepainted blackor other cam-ouflage colors,further reduc-ing visibilityfrom sun glint.Hence theprobability ofseeing onewas even lessthan before.

October1997Number 354PageS

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

Photo of U-2Spy Plane

YEAR/MONTHJ F M A M J J A S O N D Tot.

1953 9 3 2 1 2 3 2 4 6 2 7 3 44

1954 3 2 0 5 5 8 5 2 4 2 4 - 0 4 01955 5 3 3 0 5 0 10 *7* 2 4 5 2 461956 5 1 2 2 2 2 6 12 2 0 3 0 37

3 1 2 26 3 38

I 2 0 1 0 10

1957 0 2 0 0 0 1 0

1958 1 0 1 2 1 0 I

October1997Number 354Page 6

Clearly there is no statistical support fora sudden increase in the number of

sightings at sunrise or sunset when the U-2started flying. In fact, the number of sight-ings during the evening time period waslower in August, 1955, than during July.

In the early 1960s many of the U-2s werepainted black or other camouflage colors,thus reducing the number of U-2's thatcould potentially be seen by glint reflectionfrom the sun. Hence the probability of see-ing one was even less than before.

Aside from the statistics it should bepointed out that many of the unexplainedsightings involved relatively nearby, struc-tured objects rather than far distant, nearlyinvisible points of light. Many of theunidentified objects were reported to moverapidly at apparent (angular) speeds thatwould far exceed the apparent speed of a U-2 (about 500 mph) flying at 60 - 70,000 ft(the U-2 would seem to move slowly, ifseen at a l l ) .

The documented history of the agency in-volvement has been published in ClearIntent by Larry Fawcett and BarryGreenwood, in UFOs, The Public Deceivedby Philip Klass (in my opinion, Phil de-ceived the public!), in Above Top Secret byTimothy Good, and most recently in TheFBI-UFO Connection/the REAL X-files by

Bruce Maccabee (available from the au-thor).

The complete CIA history paper is avail-able on the web page of the Center for theStudy of Intelligence at www.odci.gov/csi(where odci = Office of the Director ofCentral Intelligence.... shudder!). When youget to the "front page" look under What'sNew and then check through the table ofcontents of Studies in Intelligence, No. 1,1997, semiannual unclassified edition .

Computer Company ClaimsBell Labs "Stole" Transistor

Inside Knowledge or CleverMarketing Ploy?

The hottest hum on the labyrinthineInternet in recent weeks surrounds re-

tired colonel Philip Corso's claims (TheDay After Roswell) that he seeded alientechnology recovered at Roswell to variousAmerican industries, leading to rapid ad-vances in the area of lasers, integrated cir-cuitry, and particle beam weaponry, amongothers. Now officials at American ComputerCompany in Cranford, New Jersey, havethrown fuel on the fire by intimating thatthe transistor itself may have been reverseengineered from the Roswell debris.

Do ACC's own claims, which include analleged rifling of company files, supportCorso's controversial contentions, or dothey amount to nothing more than a clever

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

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1T~'J Netscape: flrnericon Computer Company - PCs. tfl.NS. SUPERCOMPUTERS... L-T

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tetters ANYBODY OUT THEREExpn&s «Man wa YOUR Opinion,..?Qlck the GREEN DOOR twOowl!

marketing campaign aimed at grabbing at-tention and increasing the company's com-puter sales? The interested are invited tovisit ACC's web site at http://www.amen-can-computer.com. The following is repro-duced verbatim from the company's webpage.

TEXT OF THE INVITATION TO SHADOWLAKE IS-SUED BY AMERICAN COMPUTER COMPANY:

AMERICAN COMPUTER COMPANY(• COMMERCE DRIVE CRAWFORD.NEW JERSEY 07016

22-SEPT-1997

A COMMUNIQUE ADDRESSED TO THE SECRE-TARY OF DEFENSE, VARIOUS SENIOR PENTAGONOFFICIALS OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY ANDAIR FORCE. AND THE JOINT CHIEFS OFSTAFF. WAS ISSUED AS OF 18:00 HOURS BYAMERICAN COMPUTER COMPANY, SET FORTH ASFOLLOWS-

RE: A MATTER OF CONSIDERABLE URGENCY

GENTLEMEN:

FOR NEARLY 50 YEARS, AMERICAN CITI-ZENRY HAVE BEEN CALLING FOR A SERIOUSINVESTIGATION OF THE VERY STRANGE AN-

NOUNCEMENTS BY THE ARMY ON AND AFTERJULY 7TH OF 1947 REGARDING AN ALLEGEDMISHAP INVOLVING SOME FORM OF AIRBORNECRAFT OUTSIDE OF ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO,AND SINCE THAT TIME, REGARDING A LARGENUMBER OF OTHER ALLEGED, SO-CALLED"UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT" INCIDENTS.

THE MOST COMMON EXPLANATIONS. SEEM-INGLY NUMEROUS, OFTEN FAR-FETCHED MANYTIMES VERY CONTRADICTORY, AND GENERALLYNOT WIDELY BELIEVED, HAS CAUSED TO COMEINTO BEING, A 'SITUATION' THAT SORELYNEEDS ADDRESSING, IN KEEPING WITH OURAMERICAN HERITAGE - THAT OF A PEOPLE ANDA COUNTRY FOUNDED FOR ONE OVER-RIDINGPURPOSE: OUR EMINENT AND MUTUAL FREEDOM.

IT HAS BEEN THAT, FOR SOME TIME. MEM-BERS OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC HAVE EX-PRESSED' FAIRLY WIDESPREAD OUTRAGE OVER AWIDELY HELD BELIEF THAT OUR GOVERNMENTHAS HELD BACK SECRETS THAT, WERE THEYREVEALED, WOULD ALLEGEDLY REVEAL A LONGPRACTICE OF CONCEALMENT CONNECTED WITHVISITS TO OUR PLANET BY OTHERWORLDLYSPECIES, CONCEALMENT OF THE TRUTH FROMTHE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND ALL OF HUMANITY.

WE CAN NOT CONTINUE TO STAND BY IDLYWITH THIS BELIEF SO STRONGLY HELD, WITHNO PUBLIC POLICY IN PLACE THAT COULDJUSTIFY THE DEEP SEATED ENTRENCHMENT OFTHE PERCEPTION THAT A "POLICY AND PRAC-

Above. Youmay not findthe answersto all ofCorso's ques-tionableclaims here,but the com-puter pricesaren't halfbad.

October1997

Number 354Page 7

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

They sawlights on twoedges of theobject as itslowly left.Two brightlights were atthe corners ofeach side andat the frontapex.

October1997Number 354Pages

TICE OF LYING, COVERSION, COVER-UP ANDCONSPIRACY" RULES THE AMERICAN POLITICALSYSTEM AND THE OPERATIONS OF THE UNITEDSTATES PENTAGON; EXECUTIVE AND STATE DE-PARTMENTS AND DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE.

THE HUGE NUMBER OF ANECDOTAL, AND SOMELESS THAN ANECDOTAL, CLAIMS THAT HUMAN-ITY HAS BEEN VISITED BY ANpTHER SPECIESFROM OUTSIDE THIS PLANET OR OUR SOLARSYSTEM, LEADS US TO BELIEVE THAT AN ' EM-PANELMENT' OF DESIGNATED'ANALYSTS EMPOW-ERED TO ENGAGE IN ONGOING RESEARCH INTOPAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE CLAIMS, MUSTIMMEDIATELY BE ORGANIZED, AND THAT, OVERALL, NO STONE SHOULD BE LEFT UNTURNED.

TO THAT END, WE INVITE YOU TO CONFER-ENCE WITH THE PEOPLE IN AN OPEN FORUM TODISCUSS THESE PAST EVENTS, SUCH AS'ROSWELL', NO MATTER HOW IMPROBABLE YOUMAY FIND IT THAT ANY RESOLUTION OF FIND-INGS OF FACT MAY GIVE RISE FROM SUCH AMEETING. IT IS OUR OPINION THAT THE VASTBREADTH OF THE OPINION HELD BY MANYAMERICANS MAKES SUCH ACTION AN IMPERA-TIVE ONE, IN DEFENSE OF YOUR OWN AC-TIONS, THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE YOU, THOSEWHO WILL COME AFTER YOU AND OF THE REPU-TATION OF AMERICA THE WORLD. OVER. ITSPURPOSE: TO CREATE A PROPER FORUM FOR ANAIRING OF WHAT HAPPENED, WHAT VARIOUSNOW DECLASSIFIED OBSERVATIONS BY MILI-TARY PERSONNEL, VARIOUS RECORDINGS MADEBY AIR FORCE AND NASA PERSONNEL AND WHATTHE SO-CALLED 'SIGHTINGS' BY NON-MILI-TARY PERSONNEL ALL MEANS, IN POINT OFFACT.

, THERE IS NOT POWER ON EARTH, NOR ORGA-NIZATION OF MANKIND, GREATER IN NOBILITYNOR GREATER IN ABILITY, THAN THE AMERI-CAN PEOPLE. YOU REPRESENT OUR FINEST,OUR BEST, AND OUR BRAVEST. WHO AMONGSTALL OF US ARE BEST SUITED TO ASSIST THEPEOPLE IN A MATTER OF SUCH 'OVERWHELMINGIMPORTANCE?

IN THE INTEREST OF PROMOTING THE HEAL-ING OF BAD FAITH ON THIS SUBJECT, IWOULD INVITE YOU TO RESPOND AT YOUR EAR-LIEST CONVENIENCE TO OUR OFFICES IN NEWJERSEY, AT WHICH TIME WE CAN DETERMINEWHAT TYPE OF PARTICIPATION IN A WELL OR-GANIZED PUBLIC DISCUSSION FORUM MIGHTENCOURAGE YOU TO BE COMPLETELY CANDIDWITH THE AMERICAN PEOPLE REGARDING YOUROWN FINDINGS, INFERENCES YOU HAVE DRAWNFROM WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN, HEARD, RECORDEDAND PHOTOGRAPHED, AND CONCLUSIONS THATHAVE RESULTED FROM YOUR EFFORTS.

THERE MAY BE NO BETTER TIME THAN NOWFOR AMERICANS EVERYWHERE TO BECOME WELLINFORMED ON THIS MATTER.

KINDLY REPLY RSVP, ACC/SHADOWLAKE RE-SEARCH CENTER, CRANFORD, NJ 908-272-3330.

WRITER'S E-MAIL: nicolai_tesla@ms n.comTELEX: shadowlake.2000@ Copyright 1997 American ComputerCompany. All Rights Reserved.

By T. David Spencer

MUFON Deputy Director, Investigations

On March 2 and 3, 7997. three sightingsof unusual objects occurred in Georgia andIowa. Although there is nothing knownwhich would suggest any relationship be-tween these sightings, the information ispresented for consideration.

LOG # 970302E: MA-/, 03/02/97, Stovall,GA, at 18:45 hours EST, 23:45 GMT. for2.5 minutes. Investigator: John Thompson

A hovering object was seen in the southby a young mechanic who was drivingnorthwest toward LaGrange, Georgia onStoval Road in the twilight of the day. Thewhite orb he observed was smaller than thefull moon at arm's length but many timeslarger than a star, which, at several milesaway, was thought to be the size of a car.He slowed as he approached the object, as ifto study it closely, but his effort was in vain.The object suddenly shot "straight up at ahigh rate of speed," moving out of sight infour or five seconds. Afterward, he guessedthe object's rate of climb to be "faster than ahelicopter but slower than a jet."

You are correct to guess that this incidentmay have a conventional explanation, it'spresented here because of the other twosightings.

LOG # 970514cC: MA-]. 03/02/97, DesMoines, IA, at 19:00 hours CST, 01:00GMT, for 0.5 minutes. Investigator: BeverlyTrout

Driving on Merle Hay road in DesMoines in the early evening on a cold butclear day, a married couple — one a mem-ber of MUFON — saw what appeared to bea dull black object, possibly a triangle, at analtitude of 1,000 — 1,500 feet one block tothe west of them. "That's a UFO!" one ofthem exclaimed. "Let's chase it!"

The two turned onto Cumming'sParkway and headed in the general direc-tion of the object, but to no avail. The craftmoved to the southeast, away from the road.They saw lights on two edges of the objectas it slowly left. Two bright white lights

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

were at the corners of each side and at thefront apex. On the sides, smaller red lightswere to the inside of each white light, and ablue light was at the center. They estimatedthe object to be about 100 feet long and 20-30 feet tall.

By the time the couple had driven a fewblocks and reached University Avenue, theyhad lost sight of the vehicle. They attemptedto locate it again but were unsuccessful.

The investigator contacted the FAA, DesMoine's Police, the Polk County Sheriff,and the Drake Observatory without findingcorroborating reports.

LOG # 970303E: FB-1, 03/03/97, Franklin,GA, at 14:00 hours EST, 19:00 GMT, for0.2 minutes. Investigator: Tracy Hardy,John Thompson

Three young men were driving south onhighway 27 about one mile south ofFranklin on a bright, sunny day when thedriver noticed a "shiny blob" hovering atabout 25,000 feet a mile away in the east-northeast. He lost sight of the object, thensaw its reflection of sunlight again threemiles later, after alerting his two passengers.Farther away and to the east of their posi-tion, the craft could only be seen for a fewseconds. Two miles past highway 100, allthree in the car saw the object for about fiveseconds. During this short time, they saw anoblong, smaller craft, having a grayishcolor, possibly having wings, and travellingabout the speed of a conventional propellerplane, almost on a collision course with theoddity. As the oblong craft passed the ob-ject, both of them vanished.

The investigator contacted the countySheriff's Department and was told there hadbeen a UFO report on their recorder, andthere had also been a white helicopter in thearea about the same time. The witnessessaid what they saw was not a helicopter. Aperson living near where the sighting wasmade was contacted, but the person had notseen either an anomalous object or a heli-copter.

The investigator claims that many reports ofunexplained, anomalous objects seen in thisarea have been made in the past, includingApril 1995.

LOG # 970901SE: CE-1, 04/xx/95,LaGrange, GA, at 22:10 hours EST/EDT,

00:10-1:10 GMT, for 1 minute.Investigator: John Thompson

On three separate occasions, the witnesssaw an object in the vicinity of highway 27between LaGrange and Franklin, Georgia.The first two occurred on two nights in arow, and one two days before the third. Thefirst, which he observed for about 15 sec-onds as he drove on, was about a half mileaway, hovering over a ridge line. The sec-ond was moving from the southwest to thenortheast very slowly, and he watched it forabout 30 seconds. Both were at treetop alti-tude. During the third sighting — which in-volved an object he thought was the same asthe two earlier sightings, but four miles far-ther south — the witness watched the tree-top-level, huge craft fly directly overhead,coming within 100 feet.

The witness was driving south on high-way 27 and saw multicolored lights flicker-ing through the trees to his right. He loopedthe car around to face the lights and stoppedat the intersection with the entrance toGrayson's Landing to watch it approach.Moving at a speed less than 20 mph, a 250-300 foot long cigar-shaped vehicle loomedover him, blinking some of its 10 white,green and red lights as it passed. Both endsof the shape were rounded. The witnessmade out a several-foot-wide indentation inthe dark, non-metallic surface. The recesswas across its flat, 100-foot width, at itsmiddle and gave him the impression of adoorway that "could open up."

The object continued its journey to thenortheast and went out of sight behind thetrees.

At about 09:00 hours on February 17, 1997an area near LaGrange, Georgia experi-enced a small earth tremor having a magni-tude of 2.0 on the Richter scale, which wasapparently accompanied by a "loud sonicboom, " according to one witness. Later thatday and the next, three sightings of anom-alous objects occurred, which makes onewonder if the sightings and the tremor weresomehow related. The airport, police, andAtlanta FAA all indicated they had not re-ceived any cal/s regarding unusual aircraftthat evening.

LOG # 970610E: FB-1, 02/17/97,LaGrange, GA, at 21:00 hours, for 1minute. Investigator: John Thompson

Then they sawan oblong,smaller craft,having a gray-ish color andtravelingabout thespeed of apropellerplane, almoston a collisioncourse withthe oddity. Asthe oblongcraft passedthe object,both of themvanished.

October1997

Number 354Page 9

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The USAFdentist fo-cused hisbinoculars onone of the ob-jects andstudied itclosely, find-ing it to beshaped like adisc. Six lightswere on thebottom, one inthe centerand the othersaround thebottom edge.

October1997Number 354Page 10

In the wooded and hilly suburbs ofLaGrange, the witness was outside sayingfarewell to her son-in-law when she noticeda glowing object in the south approaching.When it was closer, three soft-white lightsabout the size of a golf ball at arm's lengthand in a triangular formation were seen"floating" in the sky and moving in unison.Two of the lights led the third, passing by atless than 1,000 feet altitude, and silently go-ing out of sight.

LOG#970217E: CE-1, 02/17/97,Franklin, GA, at 21:10 hours, for 2 minutes.Investigator: John Thompson

In the country near Franklin, two middle-aged and one young lady were outside whenthey saw a glowing, multi-colored objectapproach at a low altitude and at a rapid butnot incredible speed ("faster than a prop butslower than a jet"). The red, blue, white,and yellow lights were in a group like a tri-angle, but no triangular object's surface wasseen. The assembly of lights passed on bythem, then out of sight, without a sound.

LOG # 970218E: FB-1, 02/18/97, Glenn,GA, at 06:45 hours, for 2 minutes.Investigator: John Thompson

Watching television and sipping a cup ofcoffee in her country abode outside ofGlenn, Georgia, a middle-aged insuranceagent looked out her window to see a groupof about 15 white lights in a row, in thesouthwest and moving slowly eastward. Theanomaly was at a low (treetop) altitude, andthe assemblage was about the size of a base-ball at arm's length. Each light appeared tobe square, like a window possibly "six feetsquare." They were each bright, but the col-lection did not illuminate ground surfaces.The string of lights appeared to curve to therear at each end, suggesting they were onthe outside of a circular object "at least 90feet" in diameter, according to the witness,but no object surface was seen.

Keying on the estimated size of the ob-ject, the investigator first suspected a blimpand called the LaGrange-Calloway airport,but they were not aware of anything thatcould produce such a sighting. Additionally,neither the owners of a nearby store nor aneighbor to the witness had seen anythingunusual that evening; they had not had theopportunity.

Also on February 17, about 300 milesfrom LaGrange, Georgia, a sighting wasmade in Mississippi. This sighting occurredabout six hours after the tremor and sixhours before any of the sightings inGeorgia.

LOG # 970514bC: FB-1, 02/17/97, Biloxi,MS, at 14:30 hours, for 7 minutes.Investigators: J.R. Gillis and Don Hirth

The witness used the 800 number to callMUFON headquarters, which resulted in hisbeing put in direct contact with one of theinvestigators.

A middle-aged USAF dentist was clean-ing his carport when he heard jet aircraftand looked up to watch them cross over-head. At the same time, he glimpsed some-thing shiny to the northwest and turned tosee a bright object at a distance. Realizingthis was not a typical aircraft, he rushed intothe house to get his binoculars. When hecame back out to look, the single object wasnow four bright lights.

He focused his 7x35 binoculars on one ofthe objects and studied it closely, finding itto be shaped like a disc. Six lights were onthe bottom, one in the center and the othersaround the bottom edge. Bright white, theobject switched to red, then back to whitebefore it was out of sight.

The investigators talked to the local po-lice and Keesler AFB trying to find corrob-orating information, but without luck.

PROJECT 1947MUFON has a limited supply of

Jan Aldrich's 209 page book titledA Preliminary Report On The 1947

UFO Sighting Wavepublished by the UFO Research Coalition.

Price: $20 plus $2 for postage and handlingin the U.S.A. and $5 for foreign.

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MUFON UFO JOURNAL

SARBACHER'S UFO ALLEGATIONS QUESTIONEDby T. Scott Grain, Jr.

frustrating problem in solving theUFO mystery is that nobody has pro-

ed a flying saucer for scientificstudy, which is not to say a UFO has notfallen into government hands. In fact, it wasadmitted by Dr. Robert I. Sarbacher, anAmerican scientist who worked for the U.S. Defense Department, that a crashed aliencraft and its occupants has been in the pos-session of the American authorities sincethe late 1940s. But is it true?

Sarbacher's alleged knowledge of UFOretrievals became apparent on September15, 1950, during a meeting to discuss mat-ters of national defense at his Washingtonoffice with a group of Canadian governmentscientists and engineers. Dr. Sarbacher, anAmerican physicist, was at the time, speak-ing in his capacity as a science consultantfor the U. S. Defense Department'sResearch & Development Board, headed byVannevar Bush. Sarbacher served on theGuided Missile Committee. The content ofthe meeting was penned in a memo byCanadian Scientist Wilbert B. Smith. Whatfollows is a transcript of that meeting.

Sept 15, 1950 — Notes on [an] interviewthrough Lt/C. Bremner with Dr. Robert I.Sarbacher.WBS I am doing some work on the col-

lapse of the earth's magnetic field asa source of energy, and I think ourwork may have a bearing on the fly-ing saucers.

RIS What do you want to know?WBS I have read Scully's book on the

saucers, and I would like to knowhow much of it is true.

RIS The facts reported in the book aresubstantially correct.

WBS Then the saucers exist?RIS Yes, they exist.WBS Do they operate as Scully sug-

gests—on magnetic principles?RIS We have not been able to duplicate

their performance.WBS So they come from some other

planet?RIS All we know is, we didn't make

them, and it's pretty certain theydidn't originate on the earth.

WBS I understand the whole subject ofsaucers is classified.

RIS Yes, it is classified two pointshigher than the H-bomb. In fact, it isthe most highly classified subject inthe U.S. Government at the presenttime.

WBS May I ask the reason for the classifi-cation?

RIS You may ask, but I can't tell you.WBS Is there any way in which I can get

some information, particularly as itmight fit in with our own work?

RIS I suppose you could be clearedthrough your own DefenseDepartment, and I am pretty surearrangements could be made to ex-change information. If you haveanything to contribute, we would beglad to talk it over, but I can't giveyou any more at the present time.

Note: The above is written out from mem-ory following the interview. I have tried tokeep it as nearly verbatim as possible[WBS].

UNBELIEVABLE ALLEGATIONSThese are, to say the least, startling re-

marks made by a prominent scientist work-ing for the upper echelons of the govern-ment. Sarbacher implies that UFOs ( flyingsaucers ) are probably extraterrestrial, thatscientists are working on how they fly, andthat the whole project is as secret as it gets.If the project is classified two points (what-ever that is) higher than the H-bomb, why isSarbacher openly discussing these activitieswith our Canadian counterparts? IfSarbacher did have access to information ofthe magnitude he describes, did he not haveto sign a security agreement about divulgingsuch high level classified information?

Smith's attempts to find out more detailsabout Sarbacher's remarks were, for themost part, unsuccessful. However, threemonths later, Smith was put in charge of ashort-lived UFO investigation, ProjectMagnet, under the auspices of theDepartment of Transport, for the CanadianGovernment. Smith died in 1961, and even-tually many of Smith's personal paperscame into the possession of Authur Bray, aCanadian researcher. Bray mentionedSmith's memo during his lecture at the 1982Mutual UFO Network symposium whichcaught the attention of another researcher,

T. Scott Grainis co-authorwith GrantCameron ofUFOs, MJ-12and theGovernment,available fromMUFON for$19 plus$1.50s/h.

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"About theonly thing I re-member atthis time isthat certainmaterials re-ported to havecome from fly-ing saucercrashes wereextremelylight and verytough. I amsure our labo-ratories ana-lyzed themvery closely."

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Stanton T. Friedman, who contactedSarbacher.

A review of the contact is best describedby Jerome Clark, editor of the InternationalUFO Reporter, in his authoritative book,UFOs in the 1980s: The UFOEncyclopedia, Volume 1. Clark writes:

"When he spoke with him over thephone, Friedman .learned immediately thatSarbacher had not been, Bray to the con-trary, "deeply involved in UFO research forthe U.S. government." He did confirm theessentials of the Smith account but said hisknowledge of the UFO project was basedonly on what he had heard from other scien-tists who were involved. At one point, hesaid, he had been invited to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to hear a presenta-tion by scientists and military men whowere studying UFO remains, but otherpressing business had kept him from attend-ing. Sarbacher said his colleagues had toldof wreckage and bodies, but with the pas-sage of years his memory had grown hazyabout the specifics. He said he did not knowwhy the matter had been covered up allthese years."

Friedman met Sarbacher in early 1983,but little more was learned that had not al-ready been discussed on the phone.Friedman mentioned his conversation withSarbacher to a colleague of his, UFO writerWilliam L. Moore, who later relayed the de-tails to UFO enthusiast William S.Steinman. Steinman wrote Sarbacher sev-eral letters, and finally received a responsefrom Sarbacher, dated November 29, 1983.The contents were quite revealing.Sarbacher writes:

I am sorry I have taken so long in an-swering your letters. However, I havemoved my office and have had to make anumber of extended trips.

To answer your last question in your let-ter of October 14, 1983, there is no particu-lar reason I feel I shouldn't or couldn't an-swer any or all of your questions. I am de-lighted to answer all of them to the best ofmy ability.

You listed some of your questions in yourletter of September 12th. I will attempt toanswer them as you had listed them.

1. Relating to my own expexience re-garding recovered flying saucers, I had noassociation with any of the people involvedin the recovery and have no knowledge re-

garding the dates of the recoveries. If I had Iwould send it to you.

2. Regarding verification that personsyou list were involved, I can only say this:John von Neuman was definitely involved.Dr. Vannever Bush was definitely involved,and I think Dr. Robert Oppenheimer also.

My association with the Research andDevelopment Board under Doctor Comptonduring the Eisenhower administration wasrather limited so that although I had beeninvited to participate in several discussionsassociated with the reported recoveries, Icould not personally attend the meetings. Iam sure that they would have asked Dr. vonBraun, and the others that you listed wereprobably asked and may or may not have at-tended. This is all I know for sure.

3.1 did receive some official reportswhen I was in my office at the Pentagon butall of these were left there as at the time wewere never supposed to take them out of theoffice.

4.1 do not recall receiving any photo-graphs such as you request so I am not in aposition to answer.

5. I have to make the same reply as onNo. 4.

I recall the interview with Dr. Brenner ofthe Canadian Embassy. I think the answers Igave him were the ones you listed.Naturally, I was more familiar with the sub-ject matter under discussion, at that time.Actually, I would have been able to givemore specific answers had I attended themeetings concerning the subject. You mustunderstand that I took this assignment as aprivate contribution. We were called "dol-lar-a-year men." My first responsibility wasthe maintenance of my own business activ-ity so that my participation was limited.

About the only thing I remember at thistime is that certain materials reported tohave come from flying saucer crashes wereextremely light and very tough. I am sureour laboratories analyzed them very care-fully.

There were reports that instruments orpeople operating these machines were alsoof very light weight, sufficient to withstandthe tremendous deceleration and accelera-tion associated with their machinery. I re-member in talking with some of the peopleat the office that I got the impression these"aliens" were constructed like certain in-sects we have.observed on earth, whereinbecause of the low mass the inertia! forces

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

involved in operation of these instrumentswould be quite low.

I still do not know why the high order ofclassification has been given and why thedenial of the existence of these devices.

I am sorry it has taken me so long to re-ply but I suggest you get in touch with theothers who may be directly involved in thisprogram. [End quote]

BACKGROUND & ANALYSISEven skeptics would agree that Dr.

Sarbacher's background is exceptional. Inour book, UFOs, MJ-12 & TheGovernment, Canadian UFO researcherGrant Cameron and I reported on some ofSarbacher's past accomplishments.

Dr. Sarbacher's credentials are impres-sive: he was a graduate of the University ofFlorida (B.S., 1933), Princeton University(M.S., 1934), Harvard University (Sc.D.,1939). He served as a Harvard instructor inphysics and communications engineering(1936-40) and was a professor of electricalengineering at the Illinois Institute ofTechnology (1940-42). Sarbacher was aprofessor at Harvard in 1941, a wartime sci-ence consultant for the U.S. Navy from1942-45, and dean of the graduate school ofthe Georgia Institute of Technology from1945-49. He was an inventor and helped au-thor such technical works as Hyper andUltra-High Frequency Engineering (1944).In the 1980s he was President of theWashington Institute of Technology.

Sarbacher's job on the R & D Boardwould definitely put him in a position tohave access to sensitive high-level informa-tion, and may have been privy to detailsabout UFO retrievals, if they existed. All ofthose who contacted Sarbacher, includingWilliam Steinman, author of UFO Crash AtAztec, Jerome Clark, who interviewedSarbacher for an OMNI article, BruceMaccabee, of the Fund for UFO Researchand Barry Greenwood, for an article in JustCause, a UFO newsletter, were impressedwith Sarbacher's seeming sincerity, and hiswillingness to answer questions as best hecould. His story is fairly consistent withthese UFO researchers who interviewedhim, and sounds like the truth as he mayhave understood it.

CREDIBILITY QUESTIONSThe story sounds so credible on the sur-

face, most UFO researchers assume RobertSarbacher's testimony is valid, even though

there is no corroboration for it. But there areproblems in the story that go deeper than noconfirmation.

According to an article in the September1985 issue of Just Cause, editor BarryGreenwood explained that Sarbacher be-came involved with the UFO evidence dueto his connection with the Research andDevelopment Board. Greenwood writes:

"Sarbacher's role with the R&DB was asChairman of the Guidance and ControlPanel of the Guided Missile Committee ofthe R&DB."

"The R&DB meetings were not necessar-ily UFO meetings per se but were part oftheir regular schedule and UFOs came upamong other subjects under discussion.Sarbacher told me that since he did not at-tend the meetings, he had only heard snip-pets of stories which others more closely in-volved in the meetings had heard. This in-cluded the information in his 11/29/83 letterto Steinman. The crash/retrieval data origi-nally came from Wright Field, as Sarbacherrecalls."

A contrasting version of the R & D Boardmeetings comes from Fred A. Darwin, whowas the Executive Director of the GuidedMissile Committee for the R & D Boardfrom 1949-54. Darwin was a good friend ofSarbacher's. He met him while at HarvardUniversity where he, William Edson andSarbacher studied a lot together. In a letter tome in August, 1988, Darwin writes:

"I wish that I could give you news morelikely to be welcome: The RDB took arather dim view of UFO's. Not that UFO'sdo not exist; they have existed, probablysince the beginning of time. Vehicles fromouter space are, however, another proposi-tion."

The Public Affairs Division of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base also takes a dimview of Sarbacher's assertion that thecrash/retrieval data originated from their lo-cation. In a fact sheet, dated January 1985, itstates:

"Periodically, it is erroneously stated thatthe remains of extraterrestrial visitors are orhave been stored at Wright-Patterson AFB.There are not now, nor ever have been, anyextraterrestrial visitors or equipment onWright-Patterson Air Force Base."

Sarbacher'sjob on the R& D Boardwould defi-nitely put himin a positionto have ac-cess to sen-sitive high-level informa-tion, and hemay havebeen privy todetails aboutUFO re-trievals, ifthey existed.

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Strieber saidthatSarbacher in-dicated theanalysis of thedebris washelpful inmaking seam-less coatingsthat wouldcover "radar-proof aircraftwhich eventu-ally evolvedinto theStealth."

October1997Number 354Page 14

SARBACHER & THE MISSILECOMMITTEE

Just how involved was Dr. Sarbacher onthe Missile Committee? First let's examineSarbacher's recollection of those days onthe R&D Board. In a telephone interviewwith Stan Friedman, Sarbacher states:S: And ah, Fred came to me and asked me

if I would help him on the guidance andcontrol.

F: I see.S: For the missiles?F: Ya he was chairman for that subcom-

mittee.S: Ya that's right.F: Or went on to be anyway.S: That's right and I came down and I

was in that, and worked on it, for a longtime and I guess it was over a year,maybe a couple of years, I don't know, Idon't remember. But I know it was dur-ing that time we had an office there thatwe all went to. You know.

F: The Research and Development Board?S: Ya the Research and Development Board.

It was sorta like a little cabinet post.F: OK so the guys there told you about the

UFO's?S: Ya it was among those fellows in conver-

sation.F: Remember any of those guys?S: Not a one. Not a one. Fred would

know them all. I should think that some-where among his files he would have alist of all the men that worked there.

F: Oh ya. He did. As a matter of fact he hadnames at his fingertips so to speak.

S: Ya I know, Fred was right in the middleof it.Sarbacher stated he worked on the R&D

Board for a long time, perhaps a year ortwo. However, Darwin provided me with adifferent perspective of Sarbacher's partici-pation on the Missile Committee. Darwinwrites:

"Bob Sarbacher (originally known asIrving) had virtually no connection with theactivities of the Research and DevelopmentBoard. (More's the pity.) I got Bob ap-pointed to membership on the Guidance andControl Panel. After a couple of months, theChairman requested his replacement; henever came to the meetings. Bob had talentsthat could have been valuable."

OTHER SCIENTISTS INVOLVED?In Sarbacher's 1983 letter to William

Steinman, he writes that those having

knowledge of UFO retrievals and who were"definitely involved" were John vonNeuman and Vannevar Bush, "and I thinkDr. Robert Oppenheimer also." Again, Iquestioned Darwin about some of the namesSarbacher offered along with a few others,and he responded:

"Of the people listed on page 2 of yourletter, I knew pretty well Johnny vonNeuman, Wernher von Braun, RobertOppenheimer, Vannevar Bush, DetlevBronk, and Lloyd Berkner. None of thosewas ever convinced that vehicles from outerspace even existed."

One would think that the Director of theMissile Committee would have had someknowledge of a UFO retrieval or a meetingabout crash hardware and aliens at Wright-Patterson AFB if it happened as Sarbacherclaims. Darwin makes no mention in his let-ter to me that any such discussions tookplace.

Another, source I contacted who knewSarbacher well, and was in close contactwith him from 1935 to 1950, recalled hav-ing no conversations with him about UFOresearch. He described Bob as "brillant" and"charming," but doubted whether some ofthe statements Sarbacher makes are entirelytruthful.

Sarbacher told Friedman he had a prob-lem remembering the names of those menserving on the R&D Board. For the record,the United States Government OrganizationManual 1951-52 indicates the following listof names serving as the R&D Board mem-bers during this period: Chairman, WilliamWebster; Deputy Chairman, James A.Perkins; Army members Archibald S.Alexander and Major General Ward S.Maris; Navy members Dan A. Kimball andRear Admiral M. E. Curtis; and Air Forcemembers John A. McCone and MajorGeneral Gordon P. Seville. Dr. Eric A.Walker served as Executive Secretary. TheR&D Board was established by the NationalSecurity Act of 1947, and was set up to ad-vise the Secretary of Defense on trends ofscientific research affecting national secu-rity, and to promote research and develop-ment among the services involving security-type scientific problems.

STRIEBER S TALEEarlier versions of Sarbacher's story

were fairly consistent. But in 1986, shortlybefore he died, it is alleged his story becamemore elaborate and detailed. According to

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science fiction writer Whitley Strieber in his1995 book Breakthrough, Sarbacher toldhim on the phone the UFO debris had someunusual properties. "That fabric we ob-tained at Roswell had molecular welds sosmall you couldn't even identify what theywere until the sixties, when the microscopesto do it became available." Strieber said thatSarbacher indicated the analysis of the de-bris was helpful in making seamless coat-ings that would cover "radar-proof aircraft,which eventually evolved into the Stealth."Strieber said he asked Sarbacher if he hadseen the material and he reportedly repliedthat he had not only seen it, but examinedand studied it. Asked if the material was ofa non-human origin, Strieber said he an-swered, "What I can be certain about is thatit was not produced by any technology thatwe were aware of in 1947. Or now."

In all fairness, Sarbacher was getting upin age, and perhaps his memory was notwhat it used to be. Strieber's account is alsosuspect, because it seems to contradict oneof his earlier books, Communion, where heindicates he only learned of Steinman's let-ter after Sarbacher's death, and "...was un-able to interview him ..." I wrote to Strieberon April 13, 1997, for clarification, and inmid-May he sent me a two-page form letterexplaining, "I wish that I could reply toeach of you individually, but the volume ofmail prevents me from doing this."

CORSO'S TALESupport for Sarbacher's claims have re-

cently been reported in the 1997 book, TheDay After Roswell, by Col. Philip J. Corso(ret.). Corso, who served as the Chief of theArmy's Foreign Technology Division in1961, says Sarbacher was a valuable player,was in close touch with the U.S. Govern-ment's UFO working group, and was instru-mental in helping General Nathan F.Twining decide to move the Roswell crashsaucer debris to Wright-Field for a prelimi-nary examination.

Although this all sounds very interesting,there was no evidence that I could see tosupport these points. Corso could very wellsay Sarbacher was involved based onSarbacher's own remarks regarding his in-volvement, and created a story usingSarbacher based on previous research al-ready found in the literature.

Corso also reported in his book that alienartifacts that have been recovered have beenreverse engineered by earthly scientists, re-

sulting in the development of lasers, fiberoptics, integrated circuit chips and supertenacity fibers by some of the nation'slargest companies. The companies havepublicly admitted on nationwide televisionthey have no knowledge of this, but Corsosays it was meant to be that way. It allsounds a little too easy, and until Corsocoughs up supporting documents and de-tailed notes supporting his claims, these al-legations cannot be taken seriously.

CONCLUSIONSAll the allegations Sarbacher reported

could still be true, but there are inconsisten-cies as well as Darwin's remarks that cast ashadow of doubt over Sarbacher's testi-mony. I discussed some of these discrepan-cies with an associate, Grant Cameron, whosuggested that Darwin could have been leftout of the loop, and that Sarbacher wasasked to attend UFO meetings because ofhis technical expertise. The alleged groupasked to attend meetings at Wright-Patterson AFB may have been on a need toknow basis, and Darwin didn't need toknow. When researcher Bruce Maccabee in-terviewed Sarbacher on August 5, 1985,Sarbacher explained it "... as something Ishould have done but didn't do. I had had arequest to visit a site...(either the site wasWright Field or the request came fromthere)... regarding a fallen... UFO and atthat time could not go...tied up with per-sonal business." He went on to tellMaccabee that, "Some of the men went. Iwent to the office some time after they gotback and talked to some of the guys whosaw it. I wish I could have gone."

Looking at this situation another way,one could say Sarbacher simply overheardsome of the guys talking around the watercooler about alleged UFO crashes and bod-ies that were discussed at the meeting,mayjje even the situation at Roswell cameup, and Sarbacher began to fill in theblanks. Sarbacher openly admitted he hadno first-hand knowledge of the UFOcrashes, did not attend the R&D meetingswhere they may have been discussed, andaccording to Darwin, didn't show up at toomany Missile Committee meetings either. Itseems very odd that Sarbacher would passup an opportunity to attend an event this ex-traordinary because of personal business.

Dr. Sarbacher did identify to researcherWilliam Steinman a member of the R&DBoard who he said attended all the UFO

Sarbacheropenly admit-ted he had nofirsthandknowledge ofthe UFOcrashes, didnot attend theR & D Boardmeetingswhere theymay havebeen dis-cussed ... anddidn't show upat too manyMissile Com-mittee meet-ings either.

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Reading ofKent Jeffrey'sconversion isreminiscent ofRobert Mac-Namara's meaculpa after hesent 58,000Americans totheir deaths inVietNam, onlyto state lastyear that hehad made amistake!

October1997Number 354Page 16

meetings. His name is Dr. Eric A. Walker,who served as Executive Secretary of theR&D Board between 1950-51, and later be-came President of the Pennsylvania StateUniversity. Cameron and I investigatedWalker for several years, but we couldnever get Walker to admit to us that he par-ticipated in UFO retrieval discussions whileat the R&D Board. However, Steinmanclaims he had a telephone interview withWalker in which he admitted attending UFOmeetings at Wright-Patterson AFB and wasfamiliar with a group known as "MJ-12," analleged group of military and governmentofficials brought together under PresidentTruman to oversee UFO recovery opera-tions. Since that interview with Steinman onAugust 30, 1987, in all follow-up interviewswith us and others, Walker has proved elu-sive in answering direct questions aboutUFO retrievals. Walker died on February17, 1995.

RUMORS TO THE ENDDr. Sarbacher died on July 26, 1986, in

West Palm Beach, Florida. Hints of a con-spiracy concerning Dr. Sarbacher's deathappeared on the internet. One notebook fileSX112 dated September 21, 1996 re-ported..."Why did Dr. Sarbacher 'drown ina boating accident' only TWO DAYS afterhis third interview in 1983 or so in which hereally began naming more names and talk-ing more?"

The source of that comment originatedwith writer Whitley Strieber. In his book,Breakthrough, Strieber indicated after hav-ing a telephone conversation with Sarbacherin 1986, he forwarded a letter to him viaUnited Parcel Service outlining some expe-riences he had had. Strieber writes, "I didn'thear anything for a while, then received atelephone call from UPS. They could notdeliver because the recipient was deceased.The UPS driver had been told that he hadfallen off his boat and drowned." An AlexaCameron questioned Strieber by E-Mailabout the admission, and he replied onSeptember 22, 1996. Strieber repeated theUPS story he said he was told, and wrote, "Inever researched this any further. The fact isthat he died at a very inopportune time forme, and that was where my interest in thematter ended."

If Strieber had followed up, he wouldhave discovered that Sarbacher died of heartfailure according to the newspaper account

appearing in the July 29, 1986 issue of ThePalm Beach Post.

There was no boating accident. Sarbacherwas 79 years old.

Sarbacher leaves behind an extraordinaryfile of possible government involvementand cover-up of a retrieved UFO and its pi-lots. But lacking corraborating evidence tosupport these claims, it remains one ofmany reports that remains unverified.

Letters to Mufon UFO Journal

DISGRUNTLED

Speaking as a MUFON Consultant anda Psychotherapist-Hypnotherapist with

many years of research and work with ab-ductees, 1 do not believe that my Journalshould be used to debunk the UFO phenom-enon generally nor the Roswell crash specif-ically. I was astounded and irate that the edi-tor would give Kent Jeffrey fifteen pages outof a total of eighteen pages to expound hisnegative views about the Roswell incident.Whether he has been co-opted or he has sim-ply had a change of heart is not relevant.This is not the first time you have given overmy journal to debunkers, but if it is not thelast, you no longer represent my thinkingand have no further need of my membershipdues or my services.

Reading of Kent Jeffrey's conversion isreminiscent of Robert MacNamara's meaculpa after he sent 58,000 Americans to theirdeaths in VietNam, only to state last yearthat he had made a mistake!

Moreover, Jeffrey's apologia is repletewith contradictions. To begin with, he usesthe film Roswell as an example of exagger-ated statements. No one familiar with theRoswell affair believed the film was any-thing other than a popularized and fictional-ized version of events. Jeffrey is disingenu-ous when he cites the film as a factual expli-cation of events in New Mexico in 1947, andthen proceeds to point out its exaggerationsand shortcomings.

When he writes of the discredited MU-FON Board Member and author, once againhe sets up a straw man in order to destroyhim.

He embarks on pseudo-philosophicalmusings concerning the relationship of ad-vanced technology to reliability, using mod-ern airliners as his medium. Modern airlinersare wondrous examples of 1990s state of the

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

art aircraft technology, but they do crash onoccasion with terrible loss of life. Manysuch crashes are due to pilot error, others toweather conditions such as icing, lightning,and wind shear. Is it too much to expect thateven the most advanced space-craft maysimilarly be subject to these same vagariesof wind shear, lightning and pilot error?

Jeffrey sarcastically refutes the notion thatthere are secret hangars at Wright-Patterson,and throughout his article asks us to use ourcommon sense and be logical. I believe I ambeing logical when I ask Mr. Jeffrey to con-sider the response of Air Force GeneralCurtis LeMay to Senator Barry Goldwaterwhen he asked LeMay if he could have ac-cess to these secret hangars where alien bod-ies and space-craft were reported to behoused: LeMay is alleged to have retorted"Hell no, and don't ask again." A strange re-sponse to make to a United States Senator,Air Force General and Presidential candi-date, particularly if there were no alien bod-ies or artifacts hidden. Wouldn't a more logi-cal response have been, "there is nothing tosee, Barry. The whole thing is a myth. Wehave no alien bodies or space-craft?"

Concerning the 509th Bomb Group,Jeffrey states that a "very elite group of indi-viduals" comprised the 509th, yet he obvi-ously believes that the Intelligence Officerfor that elite outfit, the only atomic bombwing in the entire world, could not tell thedifference between a weather balloon andwhat he believed to be extraterrestrial debris.Abandoning his own logical stance, Jeffreyrather illogically asks us to believe that a ju-nior level weather officer easily identifiedthe debris that Colonel Blanchard, Lt. Hauland Major Marcel, who all saw and handledthe wreckage, obviously could not identify.Would they have issued the flying saucernews release had they recognized the debris?Obviously not.

Mr. Jeffrey places great importance on thefact that Jack Ingham had no knowledge ofanything unusual occurring at Roswell in1947. He tells us that Ingham retired as a Lt.Colonel in 1971.1 mean no disrespect toCol. Ingham when I state that Lt. Colonel isnot a very exalted rank to attain after at least25 years in the service. In 1946, he veryprobably was a 2nd Lieutenant. Is it logicalfor us to believe that a mere second lieu-tenant should have been privy to top levelsecrets in 1946? I think not. Jeffrey also asksus to believe that the pilots and bombardiershe interviewed "heard nothing about the

supposed crashed-saucer incident until yearslater, after all the publicity started." Are weto believe that these "elite" intelligent offi-cers had their heads in the sand and were notaware of the Roswell news release, thequeries from all over the world, the fuss inRoswell, and learned about a possible saucercrash only years later? Absurd! Jeffrey ac-knowledges that "the word was already out -the story had been published in afternoonnewspapers all over the Western UnitedStates!"

It is interesting how Jeffrey treats the tes-timony and recollections of the witnesses hechooses to mention. When the pilots andbombardiers he interviews profess to knownothing about a UFO crash, he accepts theirstatements without question. However, hecasually dismisses out of hand the testimonyof other witnesses whose testimony wouldapparently refute Jeffrey's theory."...Because the debris recovered outside ofRoswell in 1947 was not extraterrestrial,"Jeffrey states, "none of the other witness tes-timony really matters." In one fell swoop,Jeffrey simply declares the testimony ofdozens, perhaps hundreds of witnesses, to beunimportant. Jeffrey similarly dismisses thetestimony of Henderson's family. Theirmemories are faulty and they got it mixedup, he says, with something they read. Sure,Mr. Jeffrey, but the testimony ofHenderson's friend Jesse Mitchell is "incon-trovertible." He no doubt remembers every-thing very clearly and correctly, Jeffrey asksus to believe. It's only the memories of thosewho recall seeing alien bodies that haveeroded over time. And of course WalterKlimkowski is unimpeachable as a witness.After all, he comes highly recommended. Heplayed the piano for stripper Gypsy RoseLee!

Jeffrey concludes his incredible recanta-tion by stating "...we don't yet have tangibleevidence that alien spacecraft exist..."

Mr. Jeffrey is quite free of course to as-sess the evidence and to arrive at any judg-ment he wishes concerning the existence ofUFOs. He is certainly free to change hismind about an alien spacecraft crash atRoswell. What he does not have is the rightto a fifteen page essay in the journal of anorganization devoted to demonstrating thatUFOs and aliens are real. MUFON is not adebating society which presents both sidesof the question of UFOs and aliens. MU-FON is an advocacy organization whose ac-tivities are supported primarily by the dues

And of courseJeffrey'sWalterKlimkowski isunimpeach-able as a wit-ness. After all,he comeshighly recom-mended. Heplayed the pi-ano for strip-per GypsyRose Lee!

October1997Number 354Page 17

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

Interestinglyenough, Iknow for afact that wehave been vis-ited by ex-traterrestrials.And ironically,it happened inNew Mexicoexactly twentyyears after•Roswell.

October1997Number 354Page 18

of people who believe aliens have visitedand are visiting earth, that citizens of theearth are being abducted, and that the gov-ernments of the world, particularly our own,are not telling the truth to their citizens. Bydevoting any space whatsoever to Jeffrey, letalone just about the entire issue, you haveplaced our organization in the position ofhaving pulled the rug out from under thecountless abductees who, rebuffed at somany turns, found solace in knowing oneimportant organization supported them. Iwant to see articles in our journal which sup-port those abductees. Do Phil Klass and oth-ers of his ilk at CSICOP provide a platformfor MUFON members? Why should we pro-vide space for those who oppose our beliefs?Don't the editors and leaders of our organi-zation understand the joy Mr. Jeffrey's arti-cle provided our critics, and the consterna-tion he caused our allies?

What is at stake here is not some theoreti-cal issue of freedom of the press. Mr. Jeffreyis entitled to his opinions, but he is not enti-tled to have them printed in our Journal. Bypublishing this article, the officers of MU-FON have called into question their judg-ment and their commitment. By their ac-tions, they have also called into questiontheir fitness to continue to serve as the lead-ers of the Mutual U.F.O. Network. Theyhave driven a stake into the heart of our or-ganization. The implications for their ill-conceived actions are so terrible and seriousI tremble for the continued vitality of our or-ganization in the months ahead.Resignations are in order for all those in-volved in this meretricious exercise. TheEditors also owe an apology to all MUFONmembers and particularly to the countlessnumber of abductees who by the thoughtlessactions of Jeffrey and those Editors now findthemselves adrift without the support of theone international organization which hereto-fore provided them with the support theyneed so badly.

— Dr. Walter T. Schoen, Ph.D.

Editor's Note: Dr. Schoen is speaking forhimself, just like Kent Jeffrey has done.However, the statements made in the last twoparagraphs, where he condemns the editorsand officers of the Mutual UFO Network areentirely unwarranted. The MUFON Board ofDirectors determines the policies of MU-FON, not Dr. Schoen.

— Walt Andrus

ROSWELL & REALITY

My name is Chris Brethwaite and I'm aMUFON member here in Kansas City,Missouri. I'm writing to commend you onthe job you've done as editor of MUFON's"UFO Journal." As a professional writerand adjunct college professor, I appreciateyour efforts at trying to inject some level ofscholarship into the UFO debate.

Judging by some of the things I read in, the August issue of the Journal, it appears

that the UFO faithful are somewhat dis-pleased with you because of your refusal togo along with every new claim and unsub-stantiated story that comes down the ex-traterrestrial highway. I know that your edi-torship is on shaky ground, but I imploreyou not to give in to those who would havethe Journal become a printed version of"The Art Bell Show." Though there may besome ways to improve the Journal, such asby publishing a list each month of placescurrently experiencing UFO activity, thebottom line is that we need a publicationthat addresses the subject in a serious man-ner, and which isn't afraid to police its ownby pointing out dubious claims, shoddy re-search and selective reporting.

I was also displeased to learn that you re-ceived a lot of criticism for printing KentJeffrey's Roswell article in the June issue. Ithought his piece was well reasoned, wellresearched and well written. Though I'mstill at a loss to explain how an Air ForceMajor, who was an intelligence officer,could have mistaken balloon debris for analien spacecraft, I am nonetheless forced toagree with Kent that maybe that's exactlywhat happened. I first started thinking thatRoswell might be a myth when I visitedWalter Haul's UFO museum and noticed thesimilarity between Jessie Marcel Jr.'s I-beam and Project Mogul debris. Many ofthe concerns that Kent raised in his articleare things that I have wondered about overthe years also. For example, why wasn'tthere a greater variety of debris? Questionslike these need to be addressed. It's just un- ^fortunate that so many MUFON membersare so desperate to believe in aliens that anynegative information is viewed as heresy.

Interestingly enough, I know for a factthat we have been visited by extraterrestri-als. And ironically, it happened in NewMexico exactly twenty years after Roswell.This is the Reader's Digest version of my

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

close encounter. I was twelve years-old atthe time, living with my family in theSandia Foothills on the northeast side ofAlbuquerque. One night during the summerof 1967,1 went to go next door to return abasketball to my best friend, Scott Everett,and noticed an unusual light in the skysouthwest of my house. Together, Scott andI watched this light travel north, turn to thenortheast, perform a series of zigzag movesand then disappear over Sandia Peak. Theobject returned the next two nights. On thethird night, the object stopped dead in theair after performing the zigzag moves.Shortly thereafter, Scott walked over to meand said, "Chris, I just saw an orange manon the school roof." A reference to theHoover Elementary School that was directlyacross the street from us, probably about ahunderd feet away. I walked over to thecurb and had Scott show me exactly wherehe had seen this "man." All I could see wasthe black of night, and I was just gettingready to turn away, when all of a sudden, aseven-foot tall, luminous orange man ap-peared right where I was looking. Less thantwo seconds later he was gone, but I haveabsolutely no doubt as to what I saw.

As for his appearance, I was quite sur-prised at how human he looked. He had twoarms, two legs, a torso, and a slightly elon-gated head. He stood very erect and lookedto be quite muscular. Because of the glowand a black speckling that also covered him,I was not able to make out any facial fea-tures. Shortly after he disappeared, the UFOresumed its flight and was not seen again.The only thing I have to add is that one ofthe members of our group saw an orangelight come on [on] the UFO during the timeperiod that Scott and I saw the alien.

Needless to say, it was an experience thatchanged my life. I think one of the waysthat it benefitted me is that I know for a factthat we have been visited by a being not ofthis world. Consequently, I could care less ifa sacred UFO case gets debunked. If othersightings are misidentifications or hoaxes(Ed Walters), I want to know about it. It re-ally bothers me to see ufology become souncritical in its thinking. Most of the UFOliterature that's available on the book tablesat UFO conferences belongs in a landfill,yet people snatch the stuff up left and right.It's very disheartening. What we need aremore people like you, and Jerome Clark andGeorge Wingfield and a few others I could

name who endeavor to promote ufology inan intellectually honest manner.

Well, that's all I wanted to say. I hopeyou get to stay on as editor of the Journal.You have done a great job, and you cancount on me for my support.

—Chris BrethwaiteKansas City, MO

Actually, Walter Haut recently resignedfrom the International UFO Museumand Research Center in Roswell. GlennDennis is the current president ofsame.

CIVILIZED DISCOURSE

The sorry state of ufology never ceases todepress me. As someone who has devotedmost of his adult life to trying to bring san-ity and science to bear on UFOs, I am ap-palled by the notion that you should bedrawn and quartered for publishing seeming"anti-UFO" articles (or should we say'questioning ufological orthodoxy'). Sincewe have an excess of sloppy investigationand wild speculation that is making a mock-ery of science, you are entirely correct topublish thoughtful skeptical pieces like thatof Kent Jeffrey.

The only genuine editorial issues are theoverall balance of material presented, andthe credibility and credentials of contribu-tors. But editorial decisions are not easy; forexample, both James Moseley and KarlPflock have certain legitimate credentials,but—in my estimation—seriously lackcredibility. Track records of game-playingand manipulation are not conducive to cred-ibility. Still, if you—as editor—choose topublish some of their writings, that is yourprerogative, subject to peer review and cri-tique.

There is no need to fear ideas that dis-agree with our own provided that a mecha-nism is in place to ensure fair comment. Ajournal of, by, and for "believers" will re-main just that and, at best, will be a poorimitation of a scientific journal. In that con-text, I agree wholeheartedly with JeromeClark's letter (Journal, August 1997) thatwhether or not we agree with Jeffrey, he hasset a good example of civilized discoursethat is all too lacking in the UFO field.

My personal view is that Jeffrey is quitesincere and made some cogent arguments,but he lacks the experience and detachmentto recognize the flaws—or omissions—in

There is noneed to fearideas that dis-agree with ourown providedthat a mecha-nism is inplace to en-sure fair com-ment. A jour-nal of, by, andfor "believers"will remainjust that and,at best, will bea poor imita-tion of a sci-entific journal.

October1997Number 354Page 19

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

his own presentation. Just like some of thepro-Roswell writers, he seizes on a fewpoints and then leaps to conclusions far be-yond those justified by facts and logic. As aphilosophy graduate, I can't help but thinkof the close parallel to people who haveseized on one or two statements in the Bibleand founded entirely new religions based ona literal and simplistic interpretation of anarrow portion of the text.

In particular, Jeffrey fails to comment onthe strong and consistent testimony frommany witnesses to the effect that Roswellresidents who allegedly had some knowl-edge of a crash were subjected to harsh in-timidation, including threats on their lives.We have their testimony on videotape. Theirtestimony is totally inconsistent with theidea that what crashed outside of Roswellwas merely a Mogul balloon (or —as em-braced by Karl Pflock—crash-test dummiesin the 1950s). Jeffrey also overinterpretscertain negative testimony from people whomay or may not have been in a position toknow.

Let's face it, something obviouslycrashed outside of Roswell in 1947, but theevidence is in total disarray as to exactlywhat it was. The main investigators and au-thors on Roswell have, for the most part,been part of the problem rather than part ofthe solution. We need a totally fresh ap-praisal of the situation by more objective in-vestigators who are willing to suspend judg-ment (i.e., practice science rather than pre-mature advocacy and territorial defensive-ness).

In the same vein, the face-value accep-tance of Philip Corso's story by MUFON"leading lights,".despite many obviousproblems of internal logic, and despite hisrather fanatical far-Right interpretation ofhistory, I find appalling. Maybe there issome truth to his story, but it will not befound out by gullible believers. Your skepti-cal remarks on this issue were entirely ap-propriate.

—Richard H. Hall

The author is chairman of the Fund forUFO Research and writes a regularcolumn, "Richard Hall's Reality Check, "for UFO magazine.

UFO NEARLY HIT 747 ENROUTE TO BOSTON, SWISSAIRSAYS

ZURICH. Switzerland (AP) — Anunidentified, wingless object traveling

at high speed passed dangerously close to aSwissair jetliner between Philadelphia andBoston, the airline said Friday.

The pilot and copilot gave U.S. investiga-tors different descriptions of the object thatpassed about 50 yards from the Boeing 747after it had taken off from Philadelphia onAugust 9, said the airline.

The pilot told the U.S. NationalTransportation Safety Board that the objectwas long and wingless, but the copilot saidit was more spherical, Swissair spokesmanErwin Schaerer said.

The incident took place at 23.000 feet.The plane's final destination was Zurich.

(Copyright 1997 by The AssociatedPress. All Rights Reserved.) September 26,1997.

CLASSIFIEDS - Continued from Page 21

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READER'S CLASSIFIEDS - Continued on Page 20

October 1997 Number 354 Page 21

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

The NIGH SKY. - • , - . . . ' - . • - - « . - -- '....-jj-»

Walter N.Webb ° "0 °

November 1997Bright Planets (Evening Sky):

From about mid-November through early December, it ispossible to view all five naked-eye planets at the same timeduring evening twilight. Mercury will be the hardest to seefrom northern latitudes. (Both it and Venus are higher fromthe southern states.) The parade of planets can be seen atdusk as follows, from W to E: Mercury (magnitude -0.4), lowin the WSW (early twilight): Mars (1.1), Sagittarius, SW;Venus (-4.5), Sagittarius, SW; Jupiter (-2.3), Capricornus,S; Saturn (0.5-), Pisces, ESE.Both Venus and Mars set around 7 PM. The two planets andthe lunar crescent form a nice triangle on November 3. On the7th, Jupiter lies near the quarter Moon, while on the 11thSaturn is near the gibbous Moon. In fact, on the latter datestates in the Southeast will see the Moon hide the ringedplanet for up to an hour starting at 6:25 PM (Miami) or 6:52(Atlanta), for example. Jupiter sets in the W about 10 PM inmidmonth.In addition to seeing all the bright planets at once, Uranus andNeptune may be visible in binoculars or a telescope as well.The former is a 6th-magnitude object in Capricornus; thelatter, an 8th-magnitude object in Sagittarius. (For findercharts or coordinates, consult such publications as Observer'sHandbook 1997, The Astronomical Almanac 1997. or Sky &Telescope magazine.)

Bright Planets (Morning Sky):Saturn sets in the W about 3 AM in mid-November.

Meteor Showers:The South Taurid meteors peak during the first week ofNovember at about 10-15 per hour before dawn. Though fewin number, the reddish meteors of the Taurids do create somebright fireballs.The "Leonid watch" continues as we head toward a possiblyspectacular meteor display in 1998 or 1999. Last Novemberobservers reported an exceptional number of Leonid fire-balls and an above-average per-hour rate. Though this year'sbright gibbous Moon severely hampers viewing, it still may beworth watching the sky during the predawn hours of the 17thfor an increase in bright meteors which will emanate from theconstellation Leo in the southern sky. Some predictions favorwestern North America and/or the Pacific for the best chanceof seeing a decent show.

Moon Phases:

First quarter—November 7

Full moon-November 14

Last quarter—November 21

New moon-November 29

October 1997 Number 354 Page 22

cO

The Stars:At 9 PM the Summer Triangle nears the W horizon, while thebright patterns of winter appear in the E—Orion, Taurus,Auriga, and Gemini. The dim autumn constellations of "TheSea" and the season's sky symbol Pegasus occupy the middlesky. Be sure to observe the Andromeda spiral galaxy withnaked eye, binoculars, or telescope. This system of billions ofstars, visible to the unaided eye as an oval patch, lies right onthe N-S meridian almost directly overhead at 9 PM in mid-November.

October 11 & 12 — 'The UFO Experience" at Holiday Inn in NorthHaven. Connecticut. Contact Omega Communications, P.O. Box2051, Cheshire, CT 06410.

October 17-19 — Australian International UFO Symposium 1997 atCarlton Crest Hotel, Brisbane, Australia. For further informationwrite to Glennys Mackay, P.O. Box 2183, Mansfield MC, Brisbane,QLD 4122, Australia.

October 18 — Second Annual Corpus Christi MUFON Mini-Conference, Skywatch and Camp Out on the Reeves Ranch, start-ing at 1:00 p.m., between Goliad and Victoria, Texas on U.S.Highway 59. For information contact Doris Upchurch (512) 937-2381 or Sue Taylor (512) 785-4010.

October 24 & 25 — Australian International UFO Symposium 1997at Carlton Crest Hotel in Melbourne, Australia. For further informa-tion write to MUFON (QLD), P. O. Box 2183 Mansfield, Brisbane4122 Australia.

October 31 - November 2 — 4th Annual Tampa UFO Conference.Camberly Plaza Hotel, Tampa, Florida. For information write ProjectAwareness, P.O. Box 730, Gulf Breeze, FL 32562 or call (904) 432-8888.

November 2 — First Annual Long Island UFO Conference atLevittown Hall, Levittown Parkway, Hicksville, New York. For infor-mation contact Joanne Steele (516) 386-1493 or Janet Russell(516)654-3353.

November 15 — Second Annual UFO/Alien Abduction Seminarfeaturing John Carpenter at the Holiday Inn Convention Center, EauClaire, Wisconsin. For tickets and/or information call (715) 833-4639.

November 22 & 23 — 5th Symposium on Ufology and Exobiology.Sindipetro, Santos, SP Brasil. For further information call 55 (043)336.3719 or 55 (011) 5513.7107.

December 4-7 — Second World UFO Congress Acapulco 1997 inAcapulco, Mexico. For information contact Pasquale Lopresti, Fax(525) 589-33-43.

December 7-14 — First World UFO Forum, Brasilia, D.F. Brazil atParlamundi Convention Center. Sponsor is Legiao da Boa Vontade(LBV) and Coalition of Leading Brazilian UFO researchers. Forinformation write to Caixa Postal 2182, 79008-970 Campo Grande(MS) Brazil.

February 1-7,1998 — The 7th Annual International UFO CongressConvention and Film Festival. To be held at the Gold River Resortin Laughlin, Nevada. For information contact the UFO Congress,9975 Wadsworth Pkwy. #K2-274, Westminster, CO 80020.Phone/Fax (303) 543-9443.

June 26, 27 & 28,1998 — MUFON 1998 International UFOSymposium, Renaissance Denver Hotel, Denver, Colorado.

July 3-5 — Roswell Days, Roswell, New Mexico. For informationcontact International UFO Museum & Research Center, P.O. Box2221, Roswell, NM 88202 or call (505) 625-9495.

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE - Continued from Page 24

We have found it necessary to revise our missionstatement three times since founding MUFON in 1969in order to reflect our goals and objectives without al-lowing theories and philosophic trends to influence ourthrust in resolving the phenomenon. Our new mission isnot only a challenge in broad terms, but an unlimitedvision for the future. We are indebted to MUFON'sTreasurer and Bexar County State Section Director,Thomas M. Whitmore for proposing this missionstatement.

MOTTO CONTESTNearly nine hundred mottos were submitted in the con-test, a record surpassing all previous programs of thisnature. In their original form, the judges could not findone that literally "rang the bell," that is, catchy, unique,eye appealing and exemplified MUFON's goals andobjectives. As previously announced, the judges will besorting through the entries looking for one or more thatis compatible to our new mission statement. Eventhough this may require making slight wording revi-sions in the motto originally submitted, one or morecontestants will be awarded or share $100 in MUFONpublications of their choice.

MUFON LAPEL PINSThe one-inch long oval-shaped lapel pin has the

MUFON logo in blue on a white background outlinedin gold with a pin clasp on the back suitable for fasten-ing to clothing. You may order yours from MUFON inSeguin, TX for $5 plus $1 for P&H. This is an opportu-nity to let people know that you are a MUFON memberby proudly wearing our new lapel pin. The lapel pinsare being mailed in a special bubblepack envelope toprotect them from damage.

FIELD INVESTIGATOR'S EXAMAnyone who has purchased and studied the 4th edi-

tion of the MUFON Field Investigator's Manual is eli-gible to take the exam via mail when they feel quali-fied. The 100-question test may be secured from MU-FON headquarters in Seguin and returned to KathleenF. Marden, 103 Willow Road, East Kingston, NH03827, for grading. In localities where field investigatortraining classes are conducted, the instructor may ordersufficient quantities of the test and administer the examat the conclusion of the training classes. However, themajority of people will study the manual, like a corre-spondence course, before taking the exam. It is an openbook test and other references may be utilized tobroaden the scope of your knowledge.

A passing grade is 75%. A few individuals have re-quested that they want to know which questions theymissed. To supply the correct answers would make it

possible for them to possess every answer to the test.Obviously, we would not like for them to share their an-swers with colleagues, therefore we have been reluctantto do so. Since a large number of the questions are mul-tiple choice, Mrs. Marden would be willing to advisethe examinee which of these questions that was incor-rectly answered by question number only, upon writtenrequest.

A study is being conducted, based upon questionsconsistently answered incorrectly, to revise the exam.Some of the true-false questions need rewording oreliminated as an example. A few questions are a mea-sure of the overall knowledge of ufology of the exami-nee, based upon reading the literature. These answersare obviously not in the MUFON Field Investigator'sManual. For current members, the new manual may bepurchased for $25.00 plus $3.50 for postage and han-dling from MUFON in Seguin.

Congratulations to the people who have recentlytaken the Field Investigator's Exam and received apassing grade. Kathleen Marden now grades the examsand forwards the name and score to MUFONHeadquarters, where Ann Knovvles records the gradeon your membership application, revises the applica-tion, and mails the new Field Investigator their new I.D.card.

As a further incentive to the Field InvestigatorTrainee to successfully pass the examination, someState Directors are making this a condition before a per-son is promoted to State Section Director. This is a pos-itive means of upgrading the caliber of the MUFONfield organization. Obviously, anyone teaching a FieldInvestigator's Training Class must be a qualified FieldInvestigator.

MUFON COMMUNICATIONNUMBERS

MUFON Headquarters: Seguin, TXTelephone: (830)379-9216

Fax: (830)372-9439

MUFON UFO HOT LINE 1-800-UFO-2166

THE INTERNET - mufon.com

MUFON e-mail address -- mufonhq@aol.com

MUFONET-BBS (901)327-1008

MUFON On CompuServe - "Go MUFON"to access the Forum

MUFON Amateur Radio Net40 meters - 7.237 MHz - Saturday, 8 a.m.

Eastern Time

October 1997 Number 354 Page 23

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

aiRECTOR'S MESSAG'Walter Andrus O o

NEWS FROM AROUND THE NETWORK

JOURNAL EDITOR RESIGNSA Membership Journal Survey was enclosed within

the September 1997 issue of the MUFON UFO Journalto solicit each readers opinion on how we can improvethe Journal to meet the members/subscribers desires. Ifyou have not returned your pink survey form, please doso immediately, because we want to know what evolu-tionary changes should be incorporated into your maga-zine.

An evaluation of the editor was point number two onthe survey. On August 28, 1997, Dennis Stacy offi-cially resigned as Editor of the MUFON UFO Journaleffective after the November 1997 issue. Starting withthe October 1984 issue, Mr. Stacy has performed meri-torious service to the Mutual UFO Network as editor ofour monthly magazine for over thirteen years, longerthan any previous editor. He must be highly com-mended for being responsible for the overall improve-ment of our magazine during this period. As a freelancewriter, photojournalism and publisher, this will giveDennis an opportunity to explore other exciting fieldsbesides UFOs.

Mr. Stacy was originally elected to the MUFONBoard of Directors as Director of Publications in 1980and coedited the Annual MUFON SymposiumProceedings from 1980 through 1984. Walt Andrus isproud to have introduced Dennis to Japanese magazinepublishers prior to this time, giving him his first oppor-tunity to write professionally in the UFO field. TheMUFON 1993 International UFO SymposiumProceedings were respectfully dedicated to DennisStacy in recognition of his editorial services to MU-FON. We all extend our best wishes to Dennis in hisnew endeavors.

NEW JOURNAL EDITOR SELECTEDEffective with the December 1997 issue, Dwight

Connelly will take over the reins as Editor of the MU-FON UFO Journal for a second time. Mr. Connellyedited our monthly magazine from February 1974through May 1976 when it was known as SKYLOOK,succeeding the founder in 1967. Mrs. Norma E. Short.Dwight's wife, Carolyn, formerly the business man-ager of SKYLOOK is anxiously anticipating a role inthe future of the Journal.

Dwight previously taught Journalism at QuincySenior High School in Quincy, Illinois and is nowteaching in the school system in Marshall, IL. He isalso a part owner of the newspaper Shoreline Reporterin Treasure Island. Florida and has owned and operated

October 1997 Number 354 Page 24

several small town newspapers after leaving Quincy, ILin the late I970's. Mr. Connelly is eminently qualifiedfor this important position based upon his prior journal-istic and publishing experience.

The MUFON Executive Committee has recom-mended that Walter H. Andrus, Jr. become the Editorin Chief as well as publisher of the MUFON UFOJournal.

NEW DIRECTORSCesar Remus, State Director for Puerto Rico, has

selected Mrs. Luz B. Guzman de Pla (San Juan) to bethe Assistant State Director. James E. Delehanty(Jeffersonville) was appointed Assistant State Directorfor Indiana by Jerry L. Sievers. Four new StateSection Directors were appointed this month. They areLeslie G. Salvato, B.A. (Silverdale, WA) for KitsapCounty; James G. Bouck, Jr. (Schenectady, NY) forthe additional Counties of Albany, Schenectady,Saratoga and Rensselaer; William M. Dungan, Jr.(Crystal Springs, MS) for Copiah, Simpson andLawrence Counties: and Connie Churchill (ThreeRivers, TX) for Live Oak County. Gayle Treadwell,B.S. (Beeville, TX) was reassigned to Bee County. Mrs.Treadwell joined MUFON in 1983.

NEW CONSULTANTS AND RESEARCHSPECIALISTS

The following new Consultants volunteered their ex-pertise this past month: Charles Albano, Ed.D. (PointPleasant, NJ) in Education; William H. Hardy, Jr. J.D.(Ada, MI) in Law; and Thomas E. Simpson, Ph.D.(Dublin, OH) in Industrial Design. A new ResearchSpecialist is Philip A. Bayly, M.S. (Largo, FL) inEducation.

MUFON MISSION STATEMENTAt the MUFON Board of Director's Meeting in

Grand Rapids, Michigan, each Director was requestedto submit a MUFON Mission Statement to identify ourgoals and objectives. Some very good statements weresubmitted, however, most were more detailed in scopeand some were very specific providing insufficient lati-tude for the future. At the Executive CommitteeMeeting in Seguin on September 13th, the five officersselected a brief statement that summarizes MUFON'smission for the future without being confining in thisvery controversial field of study. As one might say, "itis short and sweet." MUFON's Mission is the system-atic collection and analysis of UFO data with the ul-timate goal of learning the origin and nature of theUFO phenomena.

Continued on Page 23