UFOs and Intelligence, 2022

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After an effort of many years, I have prepared a comprehensive timeline of UFO history that will be useful to UFO researchers and historians. “UFOs and Intelligence” is an up-to-date retrospective of UFO history (from Agobard of Lyons to the newly appointed US investigation agency UAPTF), intertwined with events in US and world history concerning military and civilian intelligence agencies and the cult of secrecy. It is now 906 pages and more than 814 , words (including a substantial “Sources and Further Reading” appendix). Readers will discover or rediscover many events, people, and UFO cases they may not be familiar with. Some will find it useful for current or planned research projects. Military cases, those involving commercial aircraft, close encounters involving physical traces and other evidence, reports involving occupants or entities, and events surrounding military and sensitive nuclear sites are emphasized, but this timeline covers the full spectrum of UFO history, from contactee experiences to misidentifications of mundane phenomena and notorious hoaxes. Links to online sources are given, and links to biographical information are provided when available. A timeline like this allows us to view events from a different perspective, letting us make connections we might not otherwise see. It forces us to view the big picture, amid the grand flow of UFO cases, military security decisions, a vast swathe of personalities, and world history. NEW: As of 2022, all references have proper bibliographical citations with embedded links; if you have a version with raw URL links, it is an earlier version.

Table of contents

812

812 — Agobard, the archbishop of Lyon, France, writes De Grandine et Tonitruis (“On Hail and Thunder”), in which he condemns pagan folk beliefs, such as the notion of a “certain region called Magonia, from which ships, navigating on clouds, set sail to transport back to this same region the fruits of the earth ruined by hail and destroyed by the storm.” He cites an episode in which some foolish peasants capture “three men and one woman who they said had fallen from these ships.” Brought out in front of an enraged mob, Agobard intervenes and prevents their lynching, persuading the crowd that the charges are false and absurd. Some ufologists interpret this as a visitation from an alternate reality or an abduction case, while Jean-Louis Brodu observes that in the 9th century the atmosphere was likened to an ocean in which aerial ships could navigate from point to point on the earth. Miceal Ross argues that Magonia is a corruption of Magonianus, relating to the city of Mahón, the port of the island of Menorca, Spain. (Jean-Louis Brodu, “Magonia: A Re-Evaluation,” Fortean Studies 2 (1995): 198 – 215; Miceal Ross, “Anchors in a Three-Decker World,” Folklore 109 (1998): 63–75; Vallée, Magonia, pp. 23– 24 ; Clark III 1213– 1214 ; Vallée and Aubeck, Wonders in the Sky, Tarcher, 2009, pp. 70 – 73 ; Pierre Chambert-Protat, “Florus de Lyon et les Extra- terrestres,” Florus de Lyon, November 4, 2014; Pierre Lagrange, “Agobard, la Magonie et les ovnis,” Actualité, no. 440 (October 2017): 28–29; Wikipedia, “Magonia (mythology)”)

1547

December 15 — Mariners in the port of Hamburg, Germany, see a fireball moving to the south. Its rays are so hot that passengers cannot remain inside the ships. Thinking the vessels are about to burn, they hide and take cover. (Simon Goulart, Thrésor d ’ histoires admirables et mémorables de nostre temps, Geneva, 1600, vol. 1, p. 55)

1561

April 4 — Dusk. A “frightening vision” is seen in the sky above Nuremberg, Germany, said to be observed by many. Printer Hans Glaser describes in his broadside many blood-red, blue, and black balls or discs near the Sun. “They were three alongside each other, sometimes four in a square, and several alone, and between these balls blood- colored crosses” are seen. Two “great pipes” (cannon) are also observed, and everything starts to “fight against each other.” The battle lasts about one hour, then the burning balls fall to the earth and vanish on the ground. Although cited as a possible early UFO report, the narrative is simply about a battle in the sky by phantom armies told as an allegory of what awaits an unrepentant humanity on Judgment Day. (Hans Glaser, Himmelserscheinung

über Nürnberg am 14. April 1561, Holzschnitt, 1561; Carl Jung, Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen
in the Skies, Mentor ed., 1969, pp. 103 – 104 , between pp. 120– 121 ; Ulrich Magin, “A UFO in the Year 1561,”
Fortean Times 283 (February 2012): 40–42)

1638

1638 — English clergyman and philosopher John Wilkins writes The Discovery of a World in the Moone, in which he highlights the similarities of the Earth and the Moon (seas, mountains, atmosphere) and concludes that the Moon is likely to be inhabited by living beings, whom the calls “Selenites.” (Maria Avxentevskaya, “How 17th Century Dreamers Planned to Reach the Moon,” Real Clear Science, December 2, 2017) 1638 — Night. John Everett and two companions are crossing the Muddy River near Boston, Massachusetts, in a boat when a “great light” appears above them. It darts back and forth across the river, sometimes hovering and “flaming up,” for about 2–3 hours. After they stop watching it, they discover that their boat has moved about one mile against the current to the place where they had embarked. (John Winthrop, The History of New England from 1630 to 1649, Little, Brown, 1853, vol. 1, pp. 349– 350 )

1663

August 1 5 — 12:00 noon. The faithful gathered in a church in a village near Lake Zarobozero, Vologda Oblast, Russia, hear a loud noise outside and see a large ball of fire descend from the north and then head south following the lake, low over its surface. The fireball seems to measure about 140 feet across and has blue smoke issuing from its sides. Two fiery rays extend from its front part. Less than an hour later, a similar fireball reappears over the same lake. Moving from south to west, the object again disappears. It reappears a third time a short while later, this time larger than before, and stays over the lake for an hour and a half. Peasants in a boat try to get close to it, but the heat is too intense. The water of the lake is illuminated to a depth of 30 feet, and fish are seen swimming away from the object, which then flies off to the west. (Akty istoricheskie, sobranye i izdanye Arkheografischeskaia Kommissiia, Vol. 4, Saint Petersburg, 1842, pp. 331 – 332 ; Hobana and Weverbergh 54– 61 ; Jacques Vallée and Chris Aubeck, Wonders in the Sky, Tarcher, 2009, pp. 215– 217 ; Thomas E. Bullard, “Defending UFOs,” IUR 34, no. 2 (March 2012): 31; Stonehill and Mantle, R ussia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, pp. 157– 161 )

1665

April 8 — 6:00 p.m. Numerous wonders are seen in the sky over Stralsund, Germany, including ships, large flocks of birds, fire, and smoke, as well as a dark “round flat form like a plate and like a big man’s hat” that hovers above St. Nicholas Church for one hour. Witnesses include several fishermen who later complain of tremors in their hands and feet. (Eine abgebildete Beschreibung von dem wunderbarlichen Stralsundischen Lufft-Kriege und Schiff-streite, Leipzig, 1665; Chris Aubeck and Martin Shough, Return to Magonia: Investigating UFOs in History, Anomalist, 2015, pp. 23–38)

1686

1686 — French philosopher Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle writes Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds, in which he speculates on extraterrestrial life. He imagines Venusians to be “little black people, scorched with the Sun, full of fire, very amorous.” (Wikipedia, “Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds”)

1737

December 5 — 5:00 p.m. Physician Thomas Short witnesses a blood-red luminous display in the sky around Sheffield, England, which moves from west to north and then to the east. The cause seems to be one or more clouds in which are embedded brilliant lights as bright as the full moon that give off slow-moving streamers or rays. The

display is accompanied by unseasonable heat and lasts until 10:30 p.m. Short hears that a similar phenomenon is seen at the same time in Venice, Italy, and Kilkenny, Ireland, where it appears as a bursting fireball. (Thomas Short, “An Account of Several Meteors,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 41 (1741): 625–627) December 6 — Afternoon. A large, blood-red object is seen in the western sky at Bucharest, Wallachia [now Romania]. It lingers for two hours before splitting up then reuniting once again. The phenomenon is said to have occurred at night in the Banat region. (Hobana and Weverbergh 222; Romania 4)

1741

September 21 — Dawn. Parson-naturalist Gilbert White wakes up at his vicarage in Selborne, Hampshire, England, and finds the neighboring clover fields matted all over with a thick coat of cobwebs, laced with dew. The dogs are blinded by it when they attempt to hunt. At 9:00 a.m. more cobwebs fall from the sky and continue until dusk. They are “perfect flakes or rags; some near an inch broad, and five or six long, which fell with a degree of velocity that showed they were considerably heavier than the atmosphere.” The fall extends to the neighboring villages of New Alresford and Bradley. (Gilbert White, The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789), Letter XXIII)

1742

December 16? — 8:40 p.m. Physician Cromwell Mortimer, secretary of the Royal Society, is walking through St. James’s Park in Westminster, London, England, when he sees a light ascend from behind the trees and houses in the southwest. When it reaches 20° against the sky, it takes a horizontal path with an undulating motion before disappearing in the northeast after a full 30 seconds. The front part is luminous with a frame-like structure behind it, and it has a faint trail. The date is questionable since Mortimer calls this a “Thursday” and December 16 was a Sunday. ([A Note by Cromwell Mortimer], Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 43 (1745): 524 – 525 )

1745

July 14 — Astronomer George Costard observes a meteoric stream of fire that persists for at least one hour at Standlake Broad west of Oxford, England. (“Part of a Letter from the Reverend Mr. Geo. Costard to Mr. John Catlin, concerning a Fiery Meteor Seen in the Air on July 14, 1745,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 43 (1745): 522 – 524 )

1749

November 4 — 11:50 a.m. The crew of the HMS Montagu watches a large blue fireball, apparently low on the water, head directly toward them from the northeast and explode some 150 feet away from the ship, causing some damage to the mast, before it continues on toward the southwest. The incident takes place in the North Atlantic Ocean some 240 miles west of Cape Finisterre, Spain. (Chalmers, “An Account of an Extraordinary Fireball Bursting at Sea,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 46 (1752): 366–367; Chris Aubeck and Martin Shough, Return to Magonia: Investigating UFOs in History, Anomalist, 2015, pp. 67 – 75; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 2, Anomalist, 2021, pp. 105–114)

1755

March — German philosopher Immanuel Kant publishes Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens, in which he theorizes that distance from the Sun determines the intelligence level of a world’s inhabitants; thus, the people who live on Mercury are the stupidest, and the Venusians are only dimly brighter—making any Jupiterians and Saturnians much smarter than earthlings. (Wikipedia, “Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens”)

1756

1756 — Scottish astronomer James Ferguson writes Astronomy Explained upon Sir Isaac Newton ’ s Principles, proclaiming the certainty of a plurality of inhabited worlds “peopled with myriads of intelligent beings, formed for endless progression in perfection and felicity.” (James Ferguson, Astronomy Explained upon Sir Isaac Newton ’ s Principles, 8 th ed., London, 1790, p. 6; Matthew Goodman, The Sun and the Moon, Basic Books, 2008 , pp. 189– 190 )

1758

1758 — Swedish theologian and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg writes in The Earths in the Universe that that he has conversed with spirits from Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Venus, and the Moon, as well as spirits from planets beyond the solar system. From these encounters, he concludes that the planets are all inhabited and that such an enormous undertaking as the universe cannot have been created for just one race on one planet. (Emanuel Swedenborg, The Earths in the Universe, London, 1875; Richard Smoley, “Is There Really Life on Other Planets?” Swedenborg Foundation, February 15, 2019)

1759

April 27 — 4:00 p.m. Following a clap of thunder, a flat, pale object is seen “dancing” in the sky over Longdon, Somerset, England. It is joined by three similar objects, all of which move from west to east for 30 seconds and disappear in a cloud. (London Universal Chronicle, May 5, 1759; Chris Aubeck and Martin Shough, Return to Magonia: Investigating UFOs in History, Anomalist, 201 5, pp. 83 – 96)

1762

August 9 — 12:00 noon. An amateur astronomer named de Rostan is observing the Sun at Lausanne, Switzerland, when he notices a large, spindle-shaped body moving across the solar disc from east to west at a slower rate of speed than sunspots move. It is surrounded by a thin “nebulosity.” An observer named Croste in Solothurn, Switzerland, also observes the object, but French astronomer Charles Messier, who is also taking solar measurements in Paris, France, does not see it. It remains visible until September 7, when it passes the Sun’s western limb. (“Observation Astronomique,” Histoire de l ’ Académie Royale des Sciences, 1766, pp. 106–107; “An Account of a Very Singular Phaenomenon Seen in the Disk of the Sun,” Annual Register, 1766 , pp. 120– 122 ; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 2, Anomalist, 2021, pp. 33–45)

1767

September 9 — A cloud “like a house on fire” that soon takes on a pyramidal form is seen traveling along the course of the River Isla near Coupar Angus, Perth, Scotland. It moves northeast to the confluence of the River Ericht and follows that stream to the west toward Blairgowrie where it disappears. It is accompanied by strong winds that destroy two houses. (Annual Register 1767, pp. 127– 128 )

1777

June 17 — 11:46 a.m. French astronomer Charles Messier views a large number of round, dark-brown globules passing in front of the disc of the sun for 5 minutes from west-southwest to east-northeast. He sees them through an achromatic refractor at the naval observatory located in the Hôtel de Cluny in Paris, France. His estimate of their size (one- 600 th the size of the solar disc) puts them near the limit of resolution for his telescope, but Messier claims the objects are far away and in focus. (Charles Messier, “Observation singulaire d’une prodigieuse quantité de petits globules qui ont passé devant le disque du soleil, le 17 juin 1777,” Mémoires de l ’ Academie Royale des

Sciences, 1777, pp. 464–472; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 1,
Anomalist, 2019, pp. 7–18)

1783

1783 — British astronomer William Herschel has been observing the lunar surface since the mid-1770s in Bath, England, and writes journal entries in which he details sightings of immense trees, forests, and pastures, comparing it to the English countryside. By 1778, he is seeing circular formations that he thinks are towns and villages. He also notes canals, roads, and patches of vegetation, but never writes about it publicly, since he knows that telescopic observations can be tricky. (George Basalla, Civilized Life in the Universe, Oxford University, 2006 , pp. 51– 52 )

August 18 — 9:15–9:30 p.m. An unusually bright bolide is observed in the British Isles on a clear, dry night. Analysis indicates that the meteor has entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the North Sea, before passing over the east coast of Scotland, England, and the English Channel; it finally breaks up, after a passage within the atmosphere of around 1,000 miles, over southwestern France or northern Italy. Perhaps the most prominent witness is Tiberius Cavallo, an Italian natural philosopher who happens to be among a group of people on the terrace at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England, at the time the meteor appears. (Wikipedia, “ 1783 Great Meteor”; Tiberius Cavallo, “Description of a Meteor, Observed Aug. 18, 1783,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 74 (1784): 108 – 111 ; Charles Blagden, “An Account of Some Late Fiery Meteors,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 74 (1784): 202 – 232; Martin Beech, “The Great Meteor of 18th August 1783,” Journal of the British Astronomical Association 99 (1989): 130–134; Kaushik Patowary, “The Great Meteor of 1783,” Amusing Planet, September 8, 2021)

1790

June 12 — 5:00 a.m. Several farmers in Alençon, Normandy, France, see a large globe surrounded by flames and making a whistling sound. The object slows, oscillates, and moves toward the top of a hill, unearthing some plants along the slope. The heat is so intense that grass and small trees start burning. In the evening the sphere is still warm. Witnesses include two mayors, a doctor, and three other authorities in addition to the dozens of peasants who are present. A kind of door opens and a person emerges. He is dressed in a tight-fitting suit and, seeing all the people, says some words that are not understood. He runs into the woods. The sphere explodes silently, throwing pieces everywhere, and these pieces burn until they are powder. The original source is allegedly from a June 17 report by a Police Inspector Liabeuf and forwarded to the French Academy of Sciences. However, the Academy reported in 2006 that it has no knowledge of such a report in its archives. Probable hoax. (Alberto Penoglio, “Antichi Visitatori dal Cielo,” Clypeus 3, n. 3 (1966): 13–14; Vallée, Magonia, pp. 60– 61 ; “ 17 90 UFO Crash or Time Traveller?” Cool Interesting Stuff, June 1, 2014)

1798

September 10 — Before midnight. Schoolmaster Alexander Campbell and one other person observe a “remarkable comet, or meteor” at Alnwick, Northumberland, England. It rapidly increases in brightness, changing from a star-like object to a shape like “two half-moons, back to back, having a short luminous stream between the two backs” over the course of 5 minutes. (Annual Register 1798, p. 83)

1803

February 22 (or March 24) — An attractive young woman aged 18–20 years old arrives on a beach aboard a “hollow ship” (Utsuro-bune) that looks like a rice cooking pot or incense burner in Hitachi province, Japan. Fishermen bring her inland to investigate further, but the woman is unable to communicate in Japanese. She is dressed in a foreign fashion made of unknown fabrics and is clutching an ornate box also marked with the unknown script. The vessel is covered in hieroglyphs that no one can decipher. The fishermen return her and her vessel to the sea,

where it drifts away. Accounts of the tale appear in three texts: Toen shōsetsu (1825), Hyōryū kishū (1835),
and Ume-no-chiri (1844), but no official records mention it. (Wikipedia, “Utsuro-bune”; Kazuo Tanaka, “Did a
Close Encounter of the Third Kind Occur on a Japanese Beach in 1803?” Skeptical Inquirer 24, no. 4
(July/August 2000): 37–60; Masaru Mori, “The Female Alien in a Hollow Vessel,” Fortean Times 48 (Spring
1987): 48– 50 ; Junji Numakawa, “On a UFO-Shaped Boat in 1803,” UFO Criticism 1, no 1 (January 2001): 2–3;
Tanaka Kazuo, “‘Utsurobune’: A UFO Legend from Nineteenth-Century Japan,” nippon.com, June 26, 2020;
Shoichi Kamon [pseud. of Tanaka Kazuo], The Mystery of Utsuro-bune: Ancient UFO Encounter in Japan?
Flying Disk Press, 2019)

1808

May 16 — 4:00 p.m. Swedish lichenologist Erik Acharius watches a stream of dark-brown spherical objects moving slowly through the sky in a straight line over Biskopsberga, near Skänninge, Sweden. Some hover temporarily and speed up, while others fall to earth. The objects appear in the western sky and stream to the east for 2 hours. Some are apparently linked together in groups of three, six, or eight, and all of them have some kind of trail. A few of them fall in the vicinity of K. G. Wettermark, who has also been observing. They resemble soap bubbles and dissipate quickly, leaving a film like cobweb. (Erik Acharius, “Besynnerligt Meteor-Phenomén,” Konglige Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handligar, ser. 2, vol. 29 (July/September 1808): 215–218; “Account of an Extraordinary Meteoric Phenomenon,” North American Review 3 (1816): 320– 322 ; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 1, Anomalist, 2019, pp. 18–29)

1819

August 13 — 8:00–9:00 p.m. A brilliant white fireball streaks across the sky at Amherst, Massachusetts. The next morning, Erastus Dewey finds a strange substance 20 feet from his front door and assumes it is residue from the meteorite. It is about 8 inches in diameter, resembles an upside-down salad dish, and consists of buff-colored pulpy substance with an overwhelmingly bad smell. It is covered with a nap that, when removed, causes the interior to liquefy and form a starchy substance. A couple days later, it largely dissipates. Geologist Edward Hitchcock thinks it is some kind of “gelatinous fungus” common to the area in the late summer. (Rufus Graves, “Account of a Gelatinous Meteor,” American Journal of Science 2 (1820): 335–337; Edward Hitchcock, “On the Meteors of Nov. 13, 1833,” American Journal of Science 25 (1834): 354, 362–363)

1820

February 12 — 10:45 a.m. A German astronomer and cleric named Steinheibel watches a clearly defined dark orange-red spot traversing the disc of the Sun in about five hours. (Joseph Johann von Littrow, “Further Note on the Supposed Observation of an Intra-Mercurial Planet on the 12th of February, 1820,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 22 (1862): 276)

1824

1824 — Bavarian astronomer Franz von Gruithuisen of Munich, Germany, writes Discovery of Many Distinct Traces of Lunar Inhabitants, Especially of One of their Colossal Buildings, in which he announces his discovery of a city on the Moon in the rough terrain to the north of Schröter crater that he names the Wallwerk. This region contains a series of somewhat linear ridges that have a fishbone-like pattern, and, with the small refracting telescope he is using, can be perceived as resembling buildings complete with streets. His claims are readily refuted using more powerful instruments. Gruithuisen also thinks that the mysterious “ashen light” observed on Venus’s dark side is due to a festival of fire in honor of the “ascension of a new emperor to the throne of the planet.” Later, he speculates that the illumination is caused by burning jungles to create new farmland. (“Gruithuisen’s Lunar City,” whatsupinthesky.com; David Dunér, “Venusians: The Planet Venus in the 18th-Century Extraterrestrial Life

Debate,” Journal of Astronomical Data 19, no. 1 (2013): 162; Andrew May, “The Lost Ruins of the Moon,”
Fortean Times 358 (October 2017): 56)

1826

April 1 — 4:00 p.m. Stone mason Johannes Becker hears a noise resembling thunder at Rastpfuhl, northwest of Saarbrücken, Germany, and sees a grayish object “like two pieces of tin” approaching the earth with lightning speed and expanding itself like a sheet before falling to earth, apparently not far away. After one minute there is another sound like thunder and a strong whirlwind, as if coming from an impact. Pastor Köllner collects testimony from other nearby witnesses and visits the supposed landing site but finds no burn marks or meteoritic stones. (Ernst Chladni, “Über eine merkwürdige meteorische Erscheinung, am 1 April 1826, nicht weit von Saarbrücken,” Annalen der Physik und Chemie 7 (1826): 373–377; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 1, Anomalist, 2019, pp. 31–38)

1829

August 20 — 11:00 p.m. A man on the York Road east of Leeds, England, sees a moon-like object split into two halves, the upper half of which gives off an apparent shaft of light. He sees two human figures visible to the waist, one of which has a red cloth around its head. The object is visible for more than one hour and is seen by others, during which time a cloud passes in front of it. (“Celestial Phenomena,” York Herald, August 22, 1829, p. 2; Chris Aubeck and Martin Shough, Return to Magonia: Investigating UFOs in History, Anomalist, 2015, pp. 111 – 125)

1835

May 11 — At the Palermo Observatory in Italy, astronomer Niccolò Cacciatore detects a starlike object in the Southern sky between the constellations Virgo and Crater moving at a slow rate that might indicate a planet beyond Uranus. It is nowhere to be seen during his next observation on May 14. (“Supposed New Planet,” American Journal of Science 31 (1837): 158–159)

August 25– 31 — The New York Sun publishes a series of six articles on the alleged discovery by English astronomer John Herschel of plants, animals, and winged people on the lunar surface. Using a huge and powerful telescope, Herschel supposedly sees herds of bison-like quadrupeds, a spherical amphibious creature, and a bipedal beaver that lives in huts. The humans are man-bats “covered, except on the face, with short and glossy copper-colored hair, and had wings composed of a thin membrane, without hair, lying snugly upon their backs.” The article is an elaborate hoax. Herschel hasn’t observed life on the moon at all, nor is Herschel even aware of the story until much later. The announcement causes enormous excitement throughout America and Europe. Authorship of the article is usually attributed to Richard Adams Locke, a reporter who is working for The Sun at the time. Locke publicly admits to being the author in 1840, in a letter to the weekly paper New World, although his intent is satire, not misinformation. (Wikipedia, “Great Moon Hoax”; Richard Adams Locke, The Moon Hoax, Gowans, 1859 )

1838

1838 — Scottish minister and science writer Thomas Dick publishes Celestial Scenery: The Wonders of the Planetary System Displayed, in which he suggests that every planet in the Solar System is inhabited. At his home in Broughty Ferry, Dundee, he computes that the Solar System contains 21.9 trillion inhabitants, 53.5 billion of them on Venus. This is done comparing the surface area of each planet and the population density of England. (Thomas Dick, Celestial Scenery, Harper, 1838)

1845

June 18 — 10 :30 p.m. The British brig Victoria, captained by George Henry Caithness, is becalmed in the Strait of Sicily about 30 miles southwest of Licata, Sicily, Italy, when a huge wind suddenly blows from the east for two hours. Then the wind suddenly stops, and the crew feels an overpowering heat and smells a sulfuric stench. At this moment three “luminous bodies” emerge from the sea about one-half mile away and remain visible for 10 minutes. Shortly thereafter the wind picks up again. (This could be a magma plume from an undersea volcanic vent.) Around 7:10 p.m., at Ainab, Lebanon, two objects five times as large as the moon, joined by “streamers or appendages,” are observed in the west and remain visible for one hour, moving slowly on an easterly course. The objects are so bright they are painful to look at. A possible outgassing event from the Madrepore subsea vent. (“Atmospherical Phenomena,” London Morning Chronicle, August 8, 1845, p. 5; The Athenaeum, August 19, 1848, p. 833; James Glaisher, et al., “Report on Observations of Luminous Meteors, 1860–61,” Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1861 , pp. 30– 31 ; Chris Aubeck and Martin Shough, Return to Magonia: Investigating UFOs in History, Anomalist, 2015, pp. 139 – 152 ; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 2, Anomalist, 2021, pp. 115– 126 )

1847

March 19 — 8:30 p.m. A woman and her companion are in Highbury East, London, England, when they notice what seems to be a fire balloon ascending slowly in the west, seemingly over Hampstead. It shoots out “several fiery coruscations” and turns into an intensely radiant cloud, which moves on further west. Its light shines down on the houses below. Suddenly another bright cloud appears above the first. After 2–3 minutes, a fiery ball drops from the upper cloud to the lower one, followed by two others. Soon after this, both clouds disappear. (“Meteoric Stones,” Littell ’ s Living Age 56 (1858): 503)

1850

September 15 — 6:20 p.m. Senior medical officer Elisha Kent Kane and other crew members of the USS Advance, participating in the First Grinnell Expedition to the Arctic to determine the fate of the lost Franklin Northwest Passage expedition, watch a balloon-like object over the Wellington Channel between Cornwallis and Devon islands, Nunavut, Canada. It is floating slowly northward and appears to be 2 feet long by 18 inches wide. After a short time, a small object appears below it. (Elisha Kent Kane, The U.S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, Harper and Brothers, 1854, p. 190)

1854

March 21 — 9:30 p.m. People in Washington, D.C., see a brilliant light in the sky overhead “like a coal of fire glowing,” red in color and stationary. It is visible for 20–30 minutes before it fades away. (“Atmospherical Phenomenon,” Gettysburg (Pa.) Adams Sentinel, March 27, 1854, p. 1)

1855

January 22 — 10 : 0 0 p.m. A witness walking in the public square in New Haven, Connecticut, sees a brilliant red fireball in the sky near the star Gamma Draconis. At first it is stationary but after 15 seconds it moves slowly toward the east with a slight undulatory motion. It passes below the star Eta Ursae Majoris and disappears not far from Denebola in the constellation Leo. The object is visible for 10 minutes. (“Meteoric Phenomenon,” New York Times, January 25, 1855, p. 1)

1857

June 19 or 20 — Sunset. A large cloud moves in over Carbondale, Pennsylvania, from the northwest, accompanied by considerable wind. It emits a dark-looking substance that falls to the ground, where it becomes highly luminous. It moves toward a large barn and passes through its center, setting it on fire, and continues on in a straight course for the woods, burning up the underbrush. It makes a path about 16 feet wide for a distance of 3 miles, and it finally stops against an outcrop of anthracite coal 60 feet in thickness. It leaves a sulfurous mass behind. (“Extraordinary Meteoric Phenomenon,” Baltimore (Md.) Sun, June 27, 1857, p. 1)

1860

July 2 0 — 9: 4 0 p.m. A poem by Brooklyn, New York, poet Walt Whitman, “Year of Meteors (1859-60),” published in a later edition of Leaves of Grass, describes a “strange huge meteor-procession dazzling and clear shooting over our heads.” For many years, no one could identify the event. Then in 2000, Texas State University–San Marcos physicist Donald W. Olson discovered a painting by Hudson River artist Frederic Edwin Church depicting two large meteors streaming across the sky and dated July 20, 1860. An examination of contemporary newspapers revealed that this was probably Whitman’s meteor procession. Around 9:40 p.m., two meteors with trails, one behind another, are seen in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Norfolk, and other locations in the East, proceeding slowly from northwest to southeast for nearly one minute. They are as bright as Venus. A rare event, and little understood until 1913, a meteor procession occurs when an earth-grazing meteor breaks apart and the fragments travel across the sky in the same horizontal path. Olson and his colleagues finally publish their discovery in the July 2010 issue of Sky & Telescope. (“The Wonders of the Heavens: The Meteor Train,” Brooklyn (N.Y.) Evening Star, July 21, 1860, p. 2; “The Meteor of Friday Night,” New York Herald, July 22, 1860 , p. 1; “Texas State Astronomers Solve Walt Whitman Meteor Mystery,” Office of Media Relations, Texas State University, May 28, 2010; David Dickinson, “Remembering the Great Meteor Procession of 1860,” Universe Today, July 20, 2013)

August 2 — 11:00 p.m. Another seeming procession of two meteors is observed in Norfolk, Virginia, moving with an undulating motion in the western sky in a northerly direction. One of the lights is clear red and the other is greenish, and they both emit flashes of light, leaving a sparkling trail. The phenomenon is also seen in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Some unnamed contemporary scientists compare it to the July 20 meteor procession. (“Another Splendid Meteor,” Baltimore (Md.) Sun, August 6, 1860, p. 1)

1862

November — Early morning. Magistrate Osman Edward Middleton hears a “peculiar rushing noise” at Morpeth, New South Wales, and looks up to see a dark object traveling rapidly toward the southeast. It appears to be revolving on its axis. ([Letter], Sydney (N.S.W.) Morning Herald, November 20, 1866, p. 5; Chris Aubeck and Martin Shough, Return to Magonia: Investigating UFOs in History, Anomalist, 2015, pp. 167 – 173)

1865

1865 — French novelist Jules Verne publishes From the Earth to the Moon. It tells the story of the Baltimore Gun Club, a post–American Civil War society of weapons enthusiasts, and their attempts to build an enormous Columbiad space gun and launch three people—the Gun Club’s president, his Philadelphian armor-making rival, and a French poet—in a projectile with the goal of a lunar landing. (Wikipedia, “From the Earth to the Moon”)

December — The British Board of Trade asks Trinity House to investigate the “false lights” of the Durham, England, coast, mysterious revolving lights seen above a rocky headland at Whitburn by mariners negotiating a hazardous stretch of the northeast coast. Between 1860 and 1870, more than 150 ships are wrecked on the rocks near Whitburn after following a light or lights in the sky that they wrongly believe are from a lighthouse at the mouth of the Tyne. A commission led by Rear Admiral Richard Collinson meets in Sunderland on December 28 to

interview witnesses and determine whether salvagers are responsible for the lights that are causing shipwrecks.
Although the commission decides that the false lights are not deliberately lit, they are puzzled about the true
cause. The lights and wrecks continue until January 1871 when the Souter Lighthouse is erected on Lizard Point.
(“False Lights on the Durham Coast,” Newcastle Weekly Courant, January 12, 1866, p. 5; David Clarke,
“Britain’s First X-File?” August 14, 2010; David Clarke, “The False Lights of Durham,” Fortean Times 266
(October 2010): 40–42; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 1, Anomalist,
2019, pp. 77–79)

1866

June 21 — The US Hydrographic Office is established by Congress. It is assigned to the Navy Bureau of Navigation and collects reports from ships’ officers on observations of various marine phenomena, hazards, and other activities. Among the reports collected are meteors, ball lightning, and other celestial and meteorological phenomena. (Wikipedia, “United States Hydrographic Office”)

1867

November 4 — 3:00–4:00 p.m. James E. Beveridge is passing the mill by the Waterworks Reservoir in Chatham, England, when he and the miller see numerous black discs moving in the air to the west, some in groups, others scattered. They are visible for more than 20 minutes. In passing in front of the sun they appear like large cannon shot. Several groups pass over his head, disappearing suddenly, and leaving puffs of grayish brown smoke. (“Three Strange Stories,” Symons ’ s Monthly Meteorological Magazine 2 (1867): 130)

1868

June 8 — 9:50 p.m. John Lucas Sr., an observer at Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford University, England, notices a comet- like object with a trail a bit west of Polaris. As he is pointing it out to some others, it begins moving west. It moves in a straight line at first, then moves south for a bit, then continues to the north. They watch it for 4 minutes until it disappears below the northwestern horizon. (“Remarkable Meteor,” English Mechanic 7 (July 10, 1868): 351)

July 25 — Engineer Frederick William Birmingham of Parramatta, New South Wales, watches a bizarre procession of the faces of two prominent Australians (Archbishop of Sydney Frederic Barker and New South Wales Premier James Martin) through the air as well as a vessel he calls an “ark.” He hears a voice suggesting that “That’s a machine to go through the air.” The voice comes from a “spirit” whom he describes as “like a neutral tint shade and the shape of a man in his usual frock dress.” After the ark maneuvers for a while in the air, the spirit says, “Have you a desire or do you wish to enter upon it?” He is then lifted up and carried through the air into the object about 60 feet away. The spirit guides him into the “pilot house” of the machine where he is given some papers with formulas on them that will help him construct a flying machine. He observes another UFO-like craft on March 9, 1873, and later attempts to build a mechanical replica of what he has seen. (Bill Chalker, “The Mystery of a Machine to Go through the Air: A UFO Vision?” 1998; Clark III 60–65; “Did Frederick William Birmingham Build a Flying Machine Based on His Bizarre 1868 UFO ‘Vision’ in Parramatta, NSW, Australia?” TheOzFiles, November 30, 2013; Chris Aubeck and Martin Shough, Return to Magonia: Investigating UFOs in History, Anomalist, 2015, pp. 185–190)

1869

1869 — French poet and inventor Charles Cros is convinced that pinpoints of light observed on Mars and Venus are the lights of large cities on those planets. He spends years petitioning the French government to build a giant mirror to communicate with the Martians and Venusians by burning giant lines on the deserts of those planets. (Alissa Walker, “A French Inventor Once Proposed a Giant Mirror to Burn a Message on Mars,” Gizmodo, October 16, 2014)

August 7 — 1 2:00 noon. Four or five witnesses watch a luminous object land in a vacant lot about 200 yards north of the village of Adamstown, Pennsylvania. It is originally square-shaped but shoots up into a column about 3–4 feet high and 2 feet thick. The object glitters like a “column of burnished silver.” It gradually fades away and disappears after 10 minutes. No unusual traces are found on the lot. (“Singular Phenomenon,” Lancaster (Pa.) Daily Evening Express, August 10, 1869, pp. 2–3) August 7 — About 4:45 p.m. During a total solar eclipse, four amateur observers in St. Paul’s Junction [possibly a railroad stop between Maynard and West Union], Iowa, both with and without instruments independently notice a bright object below the lunar disc and just outside the solar corona. There are no visible stars in that position in the sky. (“Was It the Intra-Mercurial Planet?” Astronomical Register 7 (1869): 227 – 228 ; John Russell Hind, “Stellar Objects Seen during the Eclipse of 1869,” Nature 18 (1878): 663–664)

1870

March 22 — 6:30 p.m. Capt. Frederick William Banner, master of the barque Lady of the Lake, is sailing in the North Atlantic 400 miles north of the Equator and 860 miles from the coast of West Africa when he sees a “curious- shaped” light-gray cloud in the south-southeast. It is circular, with four rays or arms extending from the center to the edge, and a curved tail. It is visible for about 50 minutes until it is too dark to see. (Frederick William Banner, “Extract from Log of Barque ‘Lady of the Lake,’” Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 1 (1873): 157; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 1, Anomalist, 2019, pp. 89– 109)

September 26 — A luminous object with a tail is seen in the constellation Lyra by Reginald Brabazon, 12th Earl of Meath, second secretary of the British legation to the North German Confederation, in Berlin, Germany. Possibly a light pillar reflection caused by a bright arc-light source at a military installation on Eiswerder island. (Brabazon, “A Meteor,” London Times, September 30 , 1870, p. 9; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 1, Anomalist, 2019, pp. 111–116)

1871

1871 — English astronomer Richard A. Proctor writes Other Worlds Than Ours, in which he discusses the question of the plurality of worlds in the light of new facts. He suspects that Venus is likely the “abode of living creatures not unlike the inhabitants of earth.” (Richard A. Proctor, Other Worlds Than Ours, Appleton, 1871)

August 1 — 10:43 p.m. Astronomer Jérôme Eugène Coggia at Marseille Observatory, France, watches a slow, blood-red fireball move across the sky and change course twice before falling to the earth. He sees it for 20 minutes and 20 seconds. Possible earth-grazing meteor or a candle balloon. (Jérome Eugène Coggia, “Observation d’un bolide, faite à Observatoire de Marseille le 1er août,” Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l ’ Académie des Sciences 73 (1871): 397– 399 ; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 1, Anomalist, 2019, pp. 117–119)

1873

1873 — English-American geologist and psychometrist William Denton of Wellesley, Massachusetts, publishes volume 3 of The Soul of Things, in which he describes his astral visit to Mars along with his sister Anna Cridge and wife Elizabeth. He finds it harbors a thriving civilization with a technology based on aluminum. He reports that they soar above traffic on their individual fly-cycles and seem particularly fond of air travel, with as many as 30 Martians occupying some of the large flying conveyances. (William Denton, Soul of Things, Wellesley, Mass.: Elizabeth M. F. Denton, 1873, vol. 3, pp. 171– 267 )

Late March — Evening. Thomas Inman and his son are traveling home from the village of Taylorsville [now Philo], Ohio, and are possibly in Bristol Township when they see a bright light descending swiftly with a roaring noise. It strikes a short distance in the road [probably Lawrence Road] ahead of them, flickers and flares, then fades. A

man dressed in a suit of black carrying a lantern emerges from the object. He walks a few paces and steps into a
buggy, which Inman has not noticed before. The buggy begins to move silently and quickly, even though there is
no horse attached to it, until it reaches a deep gully, into which it plunges and disappears. Historian William
Alexander Taylor, who supplies the story to the New York Herald, vouches for the witnesses. (“Very Like a
Whale,” New York Herald, April 8, 187 3 , p. 7; Clark III 1123–1124; Chris Aubeck and Martin Shough, Return to
Magonia: Investigating UFOs in History, Anomalist, 2015, pp. 175–191)

1874

April 24 — 3:30 p.m. Chemist and astronomer Vojtěch Šafařík of Prague [now in the Czech Republic] sees “an object of so peculiar a character that I do not know what to make of it.” It is a dazzling white object slowly crossing the moon. He first sees it in front of the moon, then watches it against the “deep blue sky like Sirius or Vega in daylight.” (Vojtěch Šafařík, “Telescopic Meteors,” Astronomical Register 23 (1885): 205–211)

August 13 —11:00 p.m. A large, “luminous electric cloud” flies over the western edge of Pascagoula, Mississippi, from the northwest to the southeast. It illuminates the ground and emits heat so intense that some witnesses think their houses are about to ignite. When last seen over the Gulf of Mexico, it renders the spars and rigging of a ship “distinctly visible.” (“Singular Phenomenon,” Pascagoula (Miss.) Star, August 22, 1874, p. 2)

1876

December 21 — 8:30–8:45 p.m. A bright bolide that explodes and breaks up into a group of 20–100 smaller balls is seen over a wide swath of the US from Topeka, Kansas, to western Pennsylvania. Over Columbus, Ohio, it is described as “a cluster or flock of meteors seemingly huddled together, like a flock of wild geese, and moving with the same velocity and grace of regularity. The color of their light was a yellowish red, like red rocket-balls.” A stony chondrite falls 3 miles northwest of Rochester, Indiana, at the same time. (James Glaisher, et al., “Report on Observations of Luminous Meteors during the Year 1876–77,” Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 47 (1877): 98, 149 – 152 ; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 1, Anomalist, 2019, pp. 144–145)

1877

October — Astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli reports seeing canali on the Martian surface from Brera Observatory in Milan, Italy, during the Great Opposition. While the term “canals” indicates an artificial construction, its proper translation as “channels” implies that the observed features are natural configurations of the planetary surface. From the incorrect translation into the term “canals,” various assumptions are made about life on Mars; as these assumptions are popularized, the canals become famous, giving rise to waves of hypotheses, speculation, and fiction about the possibility of intelligent life on Mars—the Martians. (Wikipedia, “Martian canal”)

1878

January 22 — John Martin is out hunting near his ranch 6 miles north of Dallas, Texas, when he notices a dark object high in the southern sky. It is so bright it hurts his eyes as it moves with great speed to directly over his head. The object is “about the size of a large saucer” and looks like a large balloon. It speeds away rapidly. (“A Strange Phenomena,” Dallas Daily Herald, January 2 3 , 1878, p. 4 ; Patrick Gross, “The First Publicized Flying ‘Saucer’ Report?”; “Dallas 1878,” Texas UFO Museum and Research Library, February 5, 2014)

July 29 — About 12:30 p.m. Astronomers James Craig Watson, director of the Ann Arbor (Mich.) Observatory, and Lewis Swift, an amateur from Rochester, New York, both claim to see a planet-like object close to the Sun during the total solar eclipse. Watson, observing from Separation, Wyoming, places the object about 2.5° southwest of the Sun and estimates its magnitude at 4.5. Swift, observing from a location near Denver, Colorado, sees what he takes to be an intra-mercurial planet about 3° southwest of the Sun. He estimates its brightness to be

the same as that of Theta Cancri, a fifth-magnitude star which is also visible during totality, about six or seven
minutes from the object. Both Watson and Swift describe the object as red in color. Watson says it has a definite
disc, unlike stars, which appear as shimmering pinpoints of light. (James C. Watson, “On the Discovery of an
Intra-Mercurial Planet,” American Journal of Science, ser. 3, 16 (1878): 23 0 – 233; Lewis Swift, “Letter from Mr.
Lewis Swift, Relating to the Discovery of Intra-Mercurial Planets,” American Journal of Science, ser. 3, 16
(1878): 313–315; Richard Baum and William Sheehan, In Search of Planet Vulcan: The Ghost in Newton ’ s
Clockwork Universe, Plenum, 1997, pp. 185–223)

1880

March 22 — About 6:00 a.m. A large number of brilliantly luminous bodies are seen to rise from the horizon and pass from east to west at Kattenau, East Prussia [now Furmanovka, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia]. They move through space “like a string of beads.” Possible meteor procession. (“A Remarkable Phenomenon,” Nature 22 (May 20, 1880): 64; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 1, Anomalist, 2019, pp. 169– 170) March 26 — Night. The train depot operator and a few friends are walking at Galisteo, New Mexico, when they hear loud voices and laughter coming from a “large balloon” shaped like a fish approaching from the west. A flower is dropped from the car of the balloon to which is attached a slip of silk-like paper on which Chinese characters are written. The next morning, searchers find a cup of peculiar workmanship, but both artifacts are purchased by a “wealthy young Chinaman” and a “collector of curiosities” who visits town on March 28, although this part of the tale seems facetious and racist. The yarn is typical of sensational newspaper hoaxes that have no basis in reality. (“Galisteo’s Apparition,” Santa Fe Weekly New Mexican, March 29, 1880, p. 3; “Solved at Last,” Santa Fe Weekly New Mexican, April 5, 1880, p. 4; Clark III 69–70, 592; Patrick Gross, URECAT, December 3, 2007)

June? — David Muckle and W. R. McKay of East Kent [now Chatham-Kent], Ontario, are in a field on Muckle’s farm when they hear a loud explosion and see a cloud of stones flying upward. They go to the spot and find a circular area, 16 feet across, that has been swept clean of vegetation. (“A Curious Phenomenon,” Rock Hill (S.C.) Herald, July 7, 1880, p. 4)

Early July — A train is running on the Chattanooga Railroad near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in a thunderstorm when the engineer sees a large ball of fire rushing down the rails to the engine. As it passes under the locomotive, he feels a shock that jars the entire train. There is a loud explosion “opposite the ladies’ car” and a telegraph pole is splintered from top to bottom. (“Passengers Shocked by Lightning,” Memphis (Tenn.) Public Ledger, July 15, 1880, p. 2; Mark Rodeghier, “UFO/Vehicle Very Close Encounters,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 5) July 28 — 6:00 p.m. C. A. Youngman and Ben Flexner are looking out a drugstore window at 2nd and Chestnut streets in Louisville, Kentucky, when they see something in the air coming from the direction of the Ohio River bridge. As it approaches them, it appears to be a man surrounded by machinery, which he is working with his hands and feet. The object is too high to make out the details of its construction. The man moves off to the south, pedaling constantly. Around 8:00 p.m., the Royster family of Madisonville, Kentucky, watches a circular flying object with a ball at each end moving above the train depot. (“More Monkeying,” Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal, July 29, 1880, p. 4; “The Flying Machine,” Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal, August 6, 1880, p. 4)

September 30 —9:45 p.m. A brilliant object is seen crossing the sky in Columbus, Georgia, at a very low altitude. Coming from the south, it heads northeasterly in a horizontal line. It appears made of three perfectly developed balls of an equal size and equidistant from each other. The first ball emits a tail that envelops the two following and extends behind them. The tail is luminous except at the far end, where it is indistinct and nebulous. It is visible for a full 50 seconds and continues on its course without falling. (“Wonders of a Meteor,” Marion (Ohio) Star, October 5, 1880, p. 3)

1881

Late October — An unusual fall of spider web occurs near the coast of Lake Michigan at Milwaukee, Green Bay, Fort Howard, Sheboygan, and Ozaukee County, Wisconsin. The webs seem to come from “over the lake” and fall

from a great height. The strands are from 2 feet to several yards long, strong in texture, and very white. No spiders
are seen. (“A Rain of Spider Webs,” Scientific American 45 (1881): 337)

1882

July 6 — 10:30 p.m. Amateur astronomer N. S. Drayton in Jersey City Heights, New Jersey, watches a red object without a trail move across the sky from the constellation of Ursa Minor to Capricorn in 45 seconds. (N. S. Drayton, “A Supposed Meteor,” Scientific American 47 (July 22, 1882): 53)

November 17 — 6:00 p.m. An auroral beam is observed from the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London, by astronomer Edward Walter Maunder and by John Rand Capron from his private observatory on Hog’s Back, Surrey, England, in association with a geomagnetic storm. The beam is described in detail in various ways, including as a “beam,” “spindle,” “definite body” with a Zeppelin-like shape and pale green color, passing from horizon to horizon above the moon. The phenomenon transits the sky in approximately 75 seconds. (Wikipedia, “November 1882 geomagnetic storm”; J. Rand Capron, “The Auroral Beam of November 17, 1882,” Philosophical Magazine, ser. 5, 15 (1883): 318–339; Edward Walter Maunder, “A Strange Celestial Visitor,” The Observatory 39 (May 1916 ): 213 – 215 ; Paul Fuller, “The Life and Times of John Rand Capron (1829–1888),” The Antiquarian Astronomer 8 (March 2014): 21– 45 )

1883

February 5 — 6: 45 p.m. A witness at Lake Glasfjorden, near Arvika, Sweden, spots a meteor-like object high on the horizon moving from southeast to northwest. It makes several minor course changes, varies its color from white to yellow, and emits some sparks. After 18 seconds, it changes its course to the southeast and is so low to the ground that its light is reflected in the lake. By this time, it has a distinct tail. Total duration is 50 seconds. (“On February 5, at 6.45 p.m.,” Nature 27 (March 1, 1883): 423)

August 12– 13 — Astronomer José Árbol y Bonilla, director of the El Cerro de la Bufa Meteorological Observatory in Zacatecas, Mexico, is observing the sun by eyepiece projection when he and an assistant see a large number of small bodies crossing the solar disc. Over the course of two days, they count a total of 447 dark objects. They seem bright as they approach the sun but are dark as they pass across its face. He takes several photographs and suspects that they are relatively near the earth. Mexican astronomers in 2011 suggested that a comet may have split into several pieces; these objects were estimated to have had a size of between 150 and 3,350 feet, and to have passed only 334 to 5,000 miles from the Earth; they thought a fragmented Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks was one possibility, in which case Earth barely avoided multiple Tunguska events or even a mass extinction; this was reported in the media and disputed in October 2011; but the source of these objects could also have been comet C/1883 D1 (Brooks-Swift) or even a third, unknown comet that year; the event also coincided with the annual Perseid meteor shower; even migrating birds cannot be ruled out. (José Á. y Bonilla, “Passage sur le disque solaire d’un essaim de corpuscles,” L ’ Astronomie 4 (1885): 347– 350 ; Hector Javier Durand Manterola, Maria de la Paz Ramos Lara, and Guadalupe Cordero, “Interpretation of the Observations Made in 1883 in Zacatecas (Mexico): A Fragmented Comet That Nearly Hits the Earth,” Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (2011); “Billion-Ton Comet May Have Missed Earth by a Few Hundred Kilometers in 1883,” MIT Technology Review, October 17, 2011; “Did a Massive Comet Almost Wipe Out Humans in 1883?” The Week, January 8, 2015; “OT- 1883 Zacatecas Observation of Objects before Sun Were Not 12P/Pons-Brooks Fragments,” October 17, 2011; Phil Plait, “Did a Fragmenting Comet nearly Hit the Earth in 1883? Color Me Very Skeptical,” Bad Astronomy, October 17, 2011; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 1, Anomalist, 2019, pp. 189 – 207)

1884

June 6 — 1:00 p.m. Rancher John W. Ellis and some of his ranch hands in south-central Dundy County, Nebraska, allegedly see a blazing object fall from the sky and crash into many pieces, burning the grass and fusing the sand. The light is so intense it blinds one of them. The newspaper suggests it is a “vessel belonging originally to some

other planet.” The remains of the object are said to have dissolved in a rainstorm. However, the tale is actually a
fictional story written by a correspondent in Benkelman. (“A Celestial Visitor,” Lincoln (Neb.) Daily State
Journal, June 8, 1884, p. 5; “The Magical Meteor,” Lincoln (Neb.) Daily State Journal, June 10 , 1884, p. 4 ;
Jerome Clark, “Spaceship and Saltshaker,” IUR 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1986): 12, 21; Clark III 593 )

July 3 — 8 : 3 0 p.m. L. C. Yale of Norwood, New York, watches an object with a long tail move slowly from east to west. It has a “nucleus like a globe, as large as the moon, surrounded by a bright ring, two dark lines crossing the nucleus in vertical direction, the lines larger in the middle, straight on inside, curved on outside, tapering both ways to points.” The general appearance is of a “gigantic sword of fire, moving handle first.” (“A Great Meteor,” Illustrated Science Monthly 2 (1884): 136)

1885

February 16 — Night. During a severe snowstorm, a bright light suddenly flashes in the high rocks on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River some five miles northwest of Port Jervis, New York. The snow-covered hill glows like red-hot iron for several feet around, gleaming through the storm for several minutes, then growing dim and disappearing. (“Mysterious Light,” Wichita (Kan.) Beacon, March 25, 1885, p. 1) February 25 — 5:00 a.m. Sailing in the North Pacific some 800 miles west of Victoria, British Columbia, Captain John Waters of the barque Innerwick and his mate see the sky turning fiery red. Suddenly a large fireball appears above the ship and falls hissing into the sea about 150 feet away from them, causing a wave of water to impact the ship. Electrical discharges run through the rigging and the masts. (“Frightful Experience at Sea,” Sacramento (Calif.) Record-Union, March 3, 1885, p. 1; “Notes and News,” Science 5 (1885): 242 – 243; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 2, Anomalist, 2021, pp. 177–199)

1886

1886 — French novelist Jules Verne publishes Robur the Conqueror, which describes the appearance of mysterious objects and strange lights in the sky all over the world. It turns out that the sightings are of a flying machine, invented by the novel’s anti-hero Robur, who kidnaps people and takes them on board the airship. (Wikipedia, “Robur the Conqueror”)

October 24 — Night. Nine persons who are sleeping in a hut some 10 miles from Maracaibo, Venezuela, are awakened by a loud humming noise and a dazzling light that illuminates the interior. The people begin to pray but they start vomiting as extensive swellings appear on the upper part of their bodies, especially around the face and lips. They feel no heat, although the light has a smoky appearance and a peculiar smell. The next morning, the swellings subside but leave black blotches. By November 2, the skin peels off and the blotches are round sores. Portions of their hair falls off. Trees around the hut show no damage until November 2, when they suddenly wither. The symptoms are similar to those of ionizing radiation syndrome. (Warner Cowgill, “Curious Phenomenon in Venezuela,” letter, Scientific American 55 (December 18, 1886): 389; Clark III 949; Patrick Gross, UFO Reports from the Past)

1887

March 19 — 5:00 p.m. Captain Cornelis Dirks Swart of the Dutch bark J.P.A. sees a “meteor in the shape of two balls” during a storm in the North Atlantic about 590 miles northeast of Bermuda. One ball is black and the other is luminous and oblong. The luminous object descends with a roar and lights up the ship and surrounding water. The crew feels heat from the object even as solid lumps of ice fall on the deck and the rigging becomes iced. The side of the ship where it falls turns partially black and the copper plating is blistered. The wind increases to “hurricane force.” (“Rare Electrical Phenomenon at Sea,” American Meteorological Journal 4 (July 1887): 98 – 99 ; Chris Aubeck and Martin Shough, Return to Magonia: Investigating UFOs in History, 2015, pp. 205– 217 ; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 2, Anomalist, 2021, pp. 201 – 210 )

November 12 — Midnight. Captain R. F. Moore of the English steamer SS Siberian, sailing 10 nautical miles off Cape Race, Newfoundland, watches an enormous fireball rising from the sea to the height of 15 feet. It travels against the strong wind and comes close to the ship, then turns to the southeast and disappears. The object is seen for about 2 minutes. Moore says he has seen this phenomenon before and considers it a sign of stormy weather. (“Globular Lightning,” Science 10 (1887): 324; Thomas Corwin Mendenhall, “On Globular Lightning,” American Meteorological Journal 6 (February 1890): 437, 442 – 443 ; Theo Paijmans, “Fiery Objects Rising from the Oceans,” Charles Fort Institute Blogs, July 6, 2007; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 2, Anomalist, 2021, pp. 151– 174 )

1888

Early September — 3:15 p.m. During a severe thunderstorm, after a flash of lightning and a peal of thunder, witnesses see a huge flame at Highland Lake, near Winsted, Connecticut. The water is parted for yards by a huge ball of fire at least 10 feet in diameter, and billows rise on either side to a height of 20 feet. The light moves toward the head of the lake with great velocity. When it is within 100 yards of the shore, another flash of lightning strikes, and the fireball disappears. The waters of the lake remain disturbed for hours. (“A Ball of Fire on a Lake,” Hagerstown (Ind.) Exponent, September 12, 1888, p. 3)

1889

February 7 — 6:00 p.m. A cylindrical luminous object passes over Oella, Maryland, at only several hundred feet altitude. It lights up the village “as brilliantly as if by a strong electric lamp.” It curves and appears to descend to the ground one mile away. It follows the course of the Patapsco River to the north for several seconds. (“A Brilliant Meteor,” Washington (D.C.) Evening Star, February 9, 1889, p. 6)

1891

June 13 — Day. An unnamed witness claims to see a “meteor” explode with a loud noise over the Wasson & Miller flour mill and cotton gin in Dublin, Texas. The object looks like “a bale of cotton suspended in the air after having been saturated in kerosene oil and ignited, except that it created a much brighter light” that dazzles people standing several hundred feet away. The object shatters into pieces before it hits the ground, the fragments setting the grass and weeds on fire. In addition to the fragments is a scrap of paper with writing in a strange language. (“Dublin 1891,” Texas UFO Museum and Research Library, February 5, 2014)

July 12 — 7:00 p.m. Residents of Theodore Street in Ottawa, Ontario, see over the rifle range a cigar-shaped balloon with a bright light on one end and a fan on the other traveling from south to north. (MacLeod (Ont.) Gazette, July 16, 1891; Clark 45)

September 2 — 8:00 p.m. Alonzo M. Swan and L. D. Dodson (an equestrian recovering from an illness) are camped in Coyote Canyon [now within the Sandia National Laboratory complex], New Mexico, to benefit from the mineral springs there when they see a brilliant light rise above a mountain to the south. As it moves closer against the wind, they see it has a series of “electric arc lights” around it and a “pole” or rudder that is similarly lit. The object is in view for nearly two hours. Another lighted object appears from the southwest and approaches the first object, but clouds prevent any further observation. Swan sees a lighted object again on September 4, although this time it could be a star. (“Strange Mid Air Ships,” Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Weekly Citizen, September 12, 1891, p. 3; Chris Aubeck and Martin Shough, Return to Magonia: Investigating UFOs in History, Anomalist, 2015, pp. 219–237)

1892

January? — George W. Crusselle and S. D. Cuthereil from the USS Thetis are wandering among the salt water lagoons on the west coast of Baja California, Mexico, when they see a luminous object with smooth edges about 30 feet in

diameter approaching from the ocean at an altitude of 50 feet. It changes shape from circular to an hourglass and
moves swiftly to the surface of a lagoon, covering it with a “brilliant halo of light.” It rises moments later,
changing its shape frequently, and moving swiftly in a zigzag fashion. After 15 minutes it disappears inland.
(George W. Crusselle, “The Coast Survey,” Atlanta Constitution, April 10, 1892, p. 9)

March 23 — Evening–1:00 a.m. Residents of Warsaw, Poland, watch a balloon over the city that casts rays of light from an electrical apparatus. It remains stationary until 1:00 a.m., then it takes off to the west. Other supposed balloons are seen March 22 or earlier over Kaunas Fortress, Lithuania; and Modlin Fortress (in Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki), Sosnowiec, Dąbrowa Górnicza, and Dąbrowice, Poland. As they remain stationary for as long as 40 minutes, some assume they are piloted by German spies. (“Spying by Balloon,” New York Evening World, March 25, 1892, p. 1; “Balloons As German Spies,” New York Times, March 26, 1892, p. 3; “Steering Military Balloons,” Birmingham Daily Post, March 31, 1892, p. 8; Clark 45; Brett Holman, “The Phantom Balloon Scare of 1892,” Airminded, July 11, 2009)

April 16 — Witnesses at Przemyśl Fortress, Poland, see a bright point of light in the north that seems to be a sphere emitting searchlight beams above and below it. The object is hovering at an altitude of 2,100 feet and begins circling. (Poland 7–8)

June 1 — Night. A large balloon carrying a searchlight and four passengers passes over Newark, New Jersey, descending as low as 20 feet from the ground. (Trenton (N.J.) Times, June 2, 1892; Clark III 70) June 19 — Night. J. L. Shaw of Conyers, Georgia, sees a mysterious light in the sky from which balls of fire fall to the ground near him. (“Saw Balls of Fire,” Atlanta Constitution, June 21, 1892, p. 10)

August 30 — 11:00 p.m. Several people in Waxahachie, Texas, see a “kind of balloon” with colored lights passing over the northern part of the city after hearing a man shouting a greeting. (“What Was It?” Galveston (Tex.) Daily News, September 2, 1892, p. 6; Clark III 70)

September 20 — Large quantities of a white, thread-like substance fall from the sky during a rainstorm at Gainesville, Florida. Samples are sent to arachnologist George Marx of the US Department of Agriculture, who performs a chemical analysis that shows it to be from migrating spiders. (“Spider Web from the Clouds,” Scientific American 67 (1892): 325)

1893

February 24– 25 — 10:00 p.m. Charles James Norcock, captain of the corvette HMS Caroline, is sailing about 16 miles south of Jeju Island, South Korea, in the Korea Strait when the officer of the watch observes some round lights resembling “Chinese lanterns festooned between the masts of a lofty vessel.” They are moving slowly north and appear to be in the air between the ship and the Hallasan volcano on Jeju. They are visible until roughly 12: midnight, sometimes appearing as a mass, other times strung out more in an irregular line. The ship’s crew observes them again the next night as they are sailing east from Port Hamilton [now the Korean islands of Geomundo]. This time they are visible until dawn. Although there are some odd characteristics of this observation, the likeliest explanation is that they are inferior mirages of distant fishing boats, as atmospheric conditions are favorable on these dates. (Charles J. Norcock, “An Atmospheric Phenomenon in the North China Sea,” Nature 48 (1893): 76–77; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 1, Anomalist, 2019, pp. 253–281)

August 18 — Sunrise. People living near the small hamlet of Leslie in Cumberland County, Kentucky, notice that the sun has a peculiar color. Thousands of small discs, seemingly about the size of a wagon wheel, appear in the sky, all of them in motion. They appear round in shape from far away, but when closer to the ground they change to triangles, squares, or odd forms. Their colors vary: Some are bright red, others green or black, but when they are close to the ground they are all a deep purple color. All are silent. The phenomenon lasts about one hour, during which time the villagers fear it is judgment day. (“Judgment Day,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, August 20, 1893, p. 9)

1894

February? — Capt. Corning of the British schooner W. and H. Witherspoon sees several lights rise from the Gulf of Mexico off the west coast of Florida. They ascend to a height of 25 feet, explode, and disappear. (“Cum Grano Salis,” Lowell (Mass.) Daily Sun, February 8, 1894, p. 1)

May — During the opposition of Mars, the idea that Schiaparelli’s canali are really irrigation canals made by intelligent beings is first hinted at, and then adopted as the only intelligible explanation, by American astronomer Percival Lowell in Flagstaff, Arizona, and a few others. The visible seasonal melting of Martian polar icecaps fuels speculation that an advanced alien race indigenous to Mars has built the canals to transport the water to drier equatorial regions. Newspaper and magazine articles about Martian canals and “Martians” capture the public imagination. Lowell publishes his views in three books: Mars (1895), Mars and Its Canals (1906), and Mars As the Abode of Life (1908). He remains a strong proponent for the rest of his life of the idea that the canals were built for irrigation by an intelligent civilization. (Wikipedia, “Martian canal”)

June 7 — Astronomers Percival Lowell and William H. Pickering at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, see two “dazzling white specks” for a few moments on the south polar cap of Mars. The most likely explanation is the reflection of sunlight from ice on the surface or ice crystals in clouds. (Percival Lowell, Mars, Houghton, Mifflin, 1897 ed., pp. 86 – 87 )

July 20 — Sunset. Bernard Parry and his wife are near Marriott [now Marriott-Slaterville], Utah, when they see a “small black cloud” in the northeast quickly approaching them. It grows bigger, then smaller, as they watch it. When it is only 450 feet away, it stops and hovers. Its sides seem to be folded up toward the center. Many small black-and- white objects (birds?) are moving in its center. Suddenly the object pivots to the east and moves away toward Ogden. (Ogden (Utah) Standard, July 26, 1894)

Late November — 11:00 p.m.–2:00 a.m. Mennonite farmers Henry W. J. Smith and Benjamin W. Blue see a luminous ball in the northeastern sky about 30° above the horizon some 3 miles west of Manchester, Kansas. The object, in the shape of a “casket,” shoots toward the west 3° then returns to its original position. As it maneuvers near them, it opens several times, revealing various entities each time, from a crowned man to a “haughty woman” and a military leader. The original report appears in the Evangelical Visitor. (“Battle in the Heavens,” Wilkes-Barre (Pa.) Times, October 6, 1894, p. 6)

1895

1895 — French parapsychologist Albert de Rochas is asked to hypnotize a family friend, “Mireille,” who is suffering from some ailment. In one of her sessions, Mireille describes how she is rising in space, which she describes as luminous and peopled with phantoms. Subsequent sessions reveal that she has visited Mars and other planets in astral form. Mars has canals, of course, but also Martians who are less intelligent than earthlings. (Hilary Evans, “Martians of the 1890s,” IUR 11, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1986): 8–9)

August — US psychical researcher James Hyslop begins investigating a case of automatic writing by Sarah Harper Cleaveland (“Mrs. Smead”) in Onondaga County, New York. She keeps records of her planchette experiments and puts them at Hyslop’s disposal. In August, she makes several references to the planet Mars and Jupiter. She provides a crude map of Jupiter’s surface, and the planet is said to be the “babies’ heaven.” At the next sitting, she draws a map of Mars, the different zones named in the Martian language; she gives several communications about the inhabitants and the canals. Martian revelations cease for another 5 years until September 1900, when the communications return in a developed state. She draws men, boats, houses, and flowers, named in Martian and written in hieroglyphic characters. Some of the sketches (a self-winding double clock) are very ingenious, while others (a Martian airship) are peculiar but unconvincing. (Hilary Evans, “Martians of the 1890s,” IUR 11, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1986): 6–7) August 31 — 8:00 p.m. Oxford English Dictionary lexicographer James Murray watches a “brilliant luminous body” move slowly over the Oxford University campus in Oxford, England, toward the east. At roughly the same time, other observers in London see a similar meteor pass over slowly for about 5 minutes, and A. Warren Melhuish

sees it at Margate, Kent, around 10:15 p.m. (J. A. H. Murray, “Remarkable Meteoric (?) Appearance,” London
Times, September 4, 1895, p. 3; “Remarkable Meteoric Appearance,” London Times, September 6, 1895, p. 8)

1896

July 1 — 6:00 p.m. A mysterious balloon passes over Winnipeg, Manitoba, to the east at an estimated 2,000 feet. It is lost to view after 20 minutes (“A Mysterious Balloon,” Winnipeg Manitoba Morning Free Press, July 2, 1896, p. 4; “They Think It’s Andreé’s,” Chicago Tribune, July 2, 1896, p. 1; Clark III 70) July 3 — The chief of the Kispiox people and a group of Canadian trappers see a brightly lit balloon traveling north near Blackwater Lake, British Columbia. The same day, a First Nations boy sees something similar at the Skeena River, British Columbia. (“It Was No Dream,” Winnipeg Manitoba Morning Free Press, August 13, 1896, p. 2; Brett Holman, “Believing Is Seeing,” Airminded, May 2, 2010) Mid-July — Night. Chester N. Crotsenburg, a postal clerk on the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railway, is on a train heading north from Princeton, Missouri, when he notices a round, dull-rose-colored light low on the western horizon. It then rises in height to 45°, and appears to be pacing the train, keeping a half-mile or one mile distance. After the train reaches Lineville, Iowa (13.7 miles away), it passes out of sight behind buildings. Possibly the moon. (“Ball Lightning,” Monthly Weather Review 26 (August 1898): 358; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 1, Anomalist, 2019, pp. 291–304)

August 11 — Charles Abbott Smith of San Francisco, California, is granted a patent for a cylindrical airship with a cone- shaped bow, “two wings hinged at the upper part of the vessel,” and a compartment for machinery and passengers. (US Patent, “Air-ship,” granted August 11, 1896)

October — Evening. A Miss Hagstrom is riding a bicycle on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, California, when she notices an object with a powerful headlight moving toward the west and gradually descending. (“Saw the Mystic Flying Light,” San Francisco Call, November 22, 1896, p. 13) Late October — Fruit rancher Constant T. Musso and his family in Bowman, California. watch three bright lights moving toward the east at about 100 mph. (“Mission of the Aerial Ship,” San Francisco Call, November 25, 1896, p. 1)

Early November? — Evening. Some of the employees at the Sutro Heights estate [now Sutro Heights Park in the Richmond District] of San Francisco, California, Mayor Adolph Sutro watch a brilliant light approaching from the sea at a height of 500 feet. Two lights are visible, one a “misty-looking mass” and the other a searchlight. The object disappears in the direction of the city and turns to the north just before it passes from view. Another report suggests that the object passe over Seal Rocks and shone its searchlight on the seals. (“The Apparition of the Air,” San Francisco Call, November 24, 1896, p. 1) Early November — 8:00 p.m. Louis Charmak and one other person in Woodland, California, notice three bright lights in the southwestern sky moving toward the northeast. As they reach Main Street, they rise another 100 feet in the air. They are close together and followed by a white trail of light. (“Was It an Airship?” Woodland (Calif.) Daily Democrat, November 24, 1896, p. 3) November 17 — Afternoon and evening. A mystery airship wave begins in California when residents of the Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento see a high-flying object moving slowly in a circle, leaving a trail of smoke. Around 6:30 p.m., a light resembling an electric arc lamp appears in the night sky above Sacramento. Horse trainer David Carl notices it close to the ground and hears a voice saying, “We are too low down here. Send her up higher.” Hundreds watch as it passes at low altitude for 30 minutes, avoiding buildings and hills. Some people claim to hear voices, either arguing or singing. R. L. Lowry sees four men pushing the vessel by its wheels. The witnesses include streetcar workers Charles Lusk and Granville C. Snider, who watch the object rise and fall as it moves southwest. (Wikipedia, “Mystery airship”; “Voices in the Sky,” Sacramento (Calif.) Evening Bee, November 18, 1896, p. 1; “Strange Craft of the Sky,” San Francisco Call, November 19, 1896, p. 1; Loren E. Gross, UFOs: A History, 1896, The Author, 1974; Thomas E. Bullard, The Airship File, The author, 1982; Clark III 70– 75 ) November 20 — Afternoon. D. H. Risdon is working in an orchard near Tagus, California, when he spots an object “like an immense sheet” moving against the wind at a “considerable elevation.” (“Saw the Mystic Flying Light,” San Francisco Call, November 22, 1896, p. 13) November 2 0 — 5: 3 0 p.m. Passengers on a streetcar in Oakland, California, notice a “peculiar-looking contrivance” high in the sky and moving in a westerly direction toward San Francisco. It has a powerful headlight and another light

on the bottom. It is also seen over Folsom, San Francisco, Sacramento, Modesto, Manteca, Sebastopol, and several other cities later in the evening and is reportedly viewed by hundreds of witnesses. (“Saw the Mystic Flying Light,” San Francisco Call, November 22, 1896, p. 13; Wikipedia, “Mystery airship”) November 22 — San Francisco attorney George D. Collins announces that he represents the airship inventor, a “very wealthy man who has been studying the subject of flying machines for fifteen years” and who moved to California from Maine in 1889. He claims the airship is a 150-foot metal contraption with two canvas wings 18 feet wide and shaped like a bird’s tail. It has been built in Oroville and is now hidden in the San Francisco, California, area as the inventor deals with technical problems. However, people in Oroville sense a hoax, as they know of no such inventor. On November 24, Collins complains to the San Francisco Call that another newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner, has been printing falsehoods about him, including an interview with another attorney, Frederick Bradley. Suspicion falls on an itinerant dentist from Maine, Elmer H. Benjamin, who insists his only inventions are dental fittings. A prominent citizen of Oakland, George H. Carleton, claims to know the inventor but has been sworn to secrecy. Former California Attorney General William H. H. Hart soon claims to represent the mystery inventor, who has fired Collins for talking too much. But Hart is also blabbing prolifically, saying that two or three airships exist (a second built in an eastern state) and his role is to “consolidate both interests.” Hart asserts that the airship can carry four men and 1,000 pounds of dynamite for dropping on Havana, Cuba. (Clark III 71–73; “A Lawyer’s Word for That Airship,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 22, 1896, p. 36 ; “Collins Sticks to His Airship Story,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 23, 1896, p. 12; San Francisco Chronicle, November 24, 1896, p. 9; “Have We Got ‘Em Again?” Sacramento Bee, November 23, 1896, p. 1; “Coy Mr. Collins and His Airship,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 24, 1896, p. 9; “The Apparition of the Air,” San Francisco Call, November 24, 1896, p. 1; “Mission of the Aerial Ship,” San Francisco Call, November 25, 1896, p. 1; “Hart Stands by His Ship,” “Hart Confirms the Story from Sacramento,” San Francisco Call, November 26, 1896, p. 1; “Three Airships, Says Hart,” San Francisco Call, November 29, 1896, p. 1; Michael Busby, Solving the 1897 Airship Mystery, Pelican, 2003, pp. 249– 315 ) November 22 — 5:30 p.m. Another mystery light moving in a wavering fashion toward the southwest is seen in Sacramento, California, by many people. At times it disappears, then flashes out again with renewed brilliance. Edward Carragher, owner of the Saddle Rock Restaurant, views the light through binoculars and is able to see a large object supporting an arc lamp. Cigar store vendor Jacob Zemansky watches the undulating light through a telescope until it fades into nothingness. (“Have We Got ‘Em Again?” Sacramento Bee, November 23, 1896, p. 1; “A Winged Ship in the Sky,” San Francisco Call, November 23, 1896, p. 1) November 22 — 7:05 p.m. M. H. Cohen, a conductor on the Hayes Street line, sees an aerial light at about 300–400 feet altitude when he is at Market and 8th streets in San Francisco, California. Other people on the streetcar also watch the light, which is moving across the Golden Gate and flashing periodically. When the streetcar disembarks at 1st Street at 7:13 p.m., Cohen and the others see the light over the Twin Peaks downtown. At the top of Pierce Street hill, Cohen sees it returning from Twin Peaks, and at 7:51 p.m. he watches it from Ashbury Street. Airships are seen later at Oakland, Alameda, San Leandro, San Jose, California, and Tacoma, Washington. (“The Apparition of the Air,” San Francisco Call, November 24, 1896, p. 1) November 23 — 7:00 p.m. A bright light is seen west of Chico, California, traveling to the northwest. The same or similar light is seen west of Red Bluff, California flying west at about 2,000 feet. After a few minutes it descends to 1, feet. It disappears over the Coast Range. (“Mission of the Aerial Ship,” San Francisco Call, November 25, 1896, p. 1) November 24 — 6:45 p.m. Several passengers on a train crossing the bay from San Francisco to Oakland, California, see an airship alternately stop, hover, and move on. Minutes later, 6th Street in Oakland is overflowing with onlookers as the object passes above Broadway, flashing its light. One spectator is watching through binoculars and says the airship’s turns causes the searchlight to shine in different directions. Among the witnesses are Col. Thomas F. Garrity, city electrician George H. Carleton, George Hatton of the Oakland Tribune, and Melvin Holmes. (“Mission of the Aerial Ship,” San Francisco Call, November 25, 1896, p. 1) November 25 — Evening. A mystery light flies in circular patterns around Sacramento, California, at a rapid rate of speed. Observers include Deputy Secretary of State George A. McCalvy, District Attorney Frank D. Ryan, and E. D. McCabe, the governor’s personal secretary. It is three times as large as Venus, also visible. The light is observed for 20 minutes then reappears later in the evening. A Professor Dodge of Galt, California, claims he can make out the “outlines of a dark body” just above the light. (Clark III 73; “Hart Confirms the Story from Sacramento,” San Francisco Call, November 26, 1896, p. 1) November 25 — 6:00 p.m. Col. H. G. Shaw and Camille Spooner are riding in a carriage near Lodi, California, when their horse stops suddenly. Looking up, they see three slender beings about 7 feet tall. Shaw walks up to them and asks them where they are from; they reply in an odd warbling language. He notes that they are hairless and wear no

apparent clothing. The eyes are large and lustrous, and they each seem to be carrying and egg-shaped light and a breathing apparatus under the left arm. Shaw claims the beings try to lift him but they are not strong enough. They then notice a 150-foot airship hovering 20 feet above the water close to a bridge. The three beings float to the craft, open a door in the side, and disappear inside. The ship flies quickly out of sight. Shaw speculates that the beings are from Mars. (“Three Strange Visitors,” Stockton (Calif.) Evening Mail, November 27, 1896, p. 1; Patrick Gross, UFOs in the Daily Press) November 26 — 7:00 p.m. Farmer John Bawl and his family see an airship moving to the southwest over his residence on Monroe Street near Franklin Street in San Jose, California. It is lunging sharply from side to side and has a pair of flapping wings and a red light on the bottom. Musician and President of the University of the Pacific Moses Smith Cross also sees the strange aerial light when he is visiting a colleague two blocks away. (“It Flitted over San Jose,” San Francisco Call, November 28, 1896, p. 1; “Three Airships, Says Hart,” San Francisco Call, November 29, 1896, p. 1) November 26 — 8:00 p.m. Electrician Case Gilson and three other men see an unlighted airship in a clear sky 1,000 feet over Oakland, California. It is flying northward against the wind and looks like a “great black cigar with a fishlike tail.” The body is at least 100 feet long and looks as if it is made of darkened aluminum. It is seen again at 8:30 p.m. and disappears in the direction of San Francisco. (Clark III 73; “Says He Saw It,” Oakland (Calif.) Tribune, December 1, 1896, p. 1; “Saw the Airship at Close Range,” San Francisco Call, December 2, 1896, p. 14) November 27 — 10:00 p.m. A prominent attorney and others in Woodland, California, see a cluster of lights attached to an apparent airship moving at an altitude of about 500 feet at about 25 mph. It remains visible for an hour. (“More Airship Stories,” Woodland (Calif.) Daily Democrat, November 29, 1896, p. 2) November 28 — Percy Drew watches an enormous airship with a red light over Oakland, California. (“Says He Saw It,” Oakland (Calif.) Tribune, December 1, 1896, p. 1)

December 1 — Harry Lytle watches an airship as it flies toward the southwest over the Coast Ranges 3 miles north of Rumsey, California. He claims to recognize it as an “aircycle,” kind of a winged balloon with a pedal-driven propellor, plans for which he submitted to E. W. Brown of Davis, California, and which they constructed in 1893. He calls it the Nonesuch. On an alleged test flight to Los Angeles on March 2, 1893, the device was stolen by some “hoboes.” He assumes the airship is his stolen invention. (“The Mystery Solved,” Woodland (Calif.) Daily Democrat, December 8, 1896, p. 3) December 4 — 6:30 p.m. Travelers on a freight train between Dixon and Elmira, California, see two large, bright lights moving parallel with them at about 1,000 feet altitude. The lights outdistance the train and disappear to the southwest. (Clark III 74; “The Airship Again,” Woodland (Calif.) Daily Democrat, December 7, 1896, p. 3) December 26 — Early morning. Dairy farmer Ezekiel Sergeant and a hired man have just finished milking their cows near Wilmington, Delaware, when they hear strains of music in the air. Then a bottle falls at Sergeant’s feet and breaks into pieces. He sees an enormous, fish-shaped airship with extended wings, a large tail, and a bright searchlight. Amid the shattered glass he finds a slip of paper allegedly written by Capt. James Dashiel and Thomas Murphy on the airship Icarus that is sailing from Salt Lake City to Cuba. (“Saw an Air-Ship,” Philadelphia (Pa.) Times, December 28, 1896, p. 5)

1897

Mid-January — Just after sunset. People in Acampo, California, see an airship the size of a small house, seemingly built of canvas, and moving to the southeast. It looks “like a cigar box with a spark of fire in it.” (“Airship Reported Again,” Stockton (Calif.) Evening Mail, January 22, 1897, p. 5 ) January 31 — 9:30 p.m. A “large, glaring light,” apparently from an airship, is seen for nearly 30 minutes west of Hastings, Nebraska, hovering, ascending, descending, and moving at a “most remarkable speed.” (“See an Air Ship at Hastings,” Omaha (Neb.) Daily Bee, February 2, 1897, p. 2)

February–July — The mystery airship wave continues, from Nebraska and Colorado to Texas and Ohio. Hoaxes and pranks pollute the information pool in a major way during this era and the planet Venus and other celestial objects undoubtedly play a major role, but many airship reports emanate from manifestly sober, puzzled citizens, and they continue long after the initial excitement subsides. To all appearances, they are objects of some kind, but since newspapers rarely question witnesses critically about details at this time, little can be deduced from the mass of reports. (Loren E. Gross, The Mystery of Unidentified Flying Objects — A Prelude, 1896 – 1949 , The author, 1971; Roger L. Welsch, “This Mysterious Light Called an Airship: Nebraska Saucer Sightings, 1897,” Nebraska

History 60 (1979): 92– 113 ; Daniel Cohen, The Great Airship Mystery, Dodd, Mead, 1981; Thomas E. Bullard, The Airship File, The author, 1982; Jerome Clark, “Airships: Part I,” IUR 16, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1991): 4–23; Jerome Clark, “Airships: Part II,” IUR 16, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1991): 20–21, 24; Michael Busby, Solving the 1897 Airship Mystery, Pelican, 2004; Jerome Clark, “UFOs or Mystery Airships?” IUR 31, no. 4 (March 2008): 8 – 14, 29 ; J. Allen Danelek, The Great Airship of 1897, Adventures Unlimited, 2009; Dennis Crenshaw and P. G. Navarro, The Secrets of Dellschau: The Sonora Aero Club and the Airships of the 1800s, Anomalist, 2009 ; Clark III 75– 90 ) February 4 — Night. A dozen people returning home from a prayer meeting in Inavale, Nebraska, see a bright light passing overhead. Six smaller lights are placed at intervals around a larger dark body. After 10 minutes it returns at a lower altitude, now visible as a conical object 30–40 feet long with two sets of wings and a large rudder. Voices can be heard plainly. (“Air Ship Is Seen at Inavale,” Omaha (Neb.) Daily Bee, February 6, 1897, p. 6) February 17 —Night. Hy Smith, Charles Braternitz, and Harry Reese see a bright light moving to the east just west of Big Springs, Nebraska. The light repeatedly rises up about 300 feet then descends quickly, sending out sparks. (“Seen near North Platte,” Kearney (Neb.) Hub, February 18, 1897, p. 3) Mid-February — Residents of Valley Falls, Kansas, can see the outlines of an airship behind a large light that passes over the town. (“The Supposed Kansas Airship,” Atchison (Kan.) Daily Globe, February 27, 1897, p. 4) February 26 — 10:15 p.m. People at the railway depot in Falls City, Nebraska, see an object with a large searchlight in the northern sky. According to dispatcher Ike Chidsey, it is moving west at 60 mph and also has a red light. Chidsey alerts other Missouri Pacific train stations to the west. Over the next four and a half hours, the object is seen over Stella, Beatrice, Wymore, Hastings, Kenesaw, and Hartwell. (“The Supposed Kansas Airship,” Atchison (Kan.) Daily Globe, February 27, 1897, p. 4)

March 13 —Night. A bright fireball appears in the west over North Loup, Nebraska, moving up and down erratically. It occasionally throws out sparks. (“That Strange Light Again,” Lincoln Nebraska State Journal, March 16, 1897, p. 5) March 14 — 9:30 p.m. An object with a “big engine headlight” flies over South Omaha, Nebraska, and remains visible for 30 – 40 minutes. It is moving to the west and disappears behind some buildings. One of the witnesses is Isaac J. Copenharve, a compositor for the Omaha Bee. (“Visions of an Air Ship,” Omaha (Neb.) Daily Bee, March 16, 1897, p. 7) March 2 3 – 26 — Night. Residents of Belleville, Kansas, watch a lighted airship moving at 75 mph and “lighting up the houses and city like an immense meteor.” It hovers for 20–30 minutes, changes direction, and is seen on four nights in succession. At 9:20 p.m. on March 25, workers at the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad depot and others in Belleville watch a bright light pass above the city for 45 minutes. It disappears to the northwest and reappears two more times. (“Say They Saw an Air-Ship,” Kansas City (Mo.) Times, March 27, 1897, p. 5; “It Flies at Night,” Kansas City (Mo.) Journal, March 28, 1897, p. 2) March 27 — 8:30 p.m. A blood-red light appears in the western sky over Topeka, Kansas, moving northward parallel with the horizon until after 20 minutes it disappears “with a flicker.” Among the witnesses is Kansas Gov. John W. Leedy, who describes it as a “very strange light.” Harold T. Chase, editor of the Topeka Capital, is on the State House steps with Leedy and says the object is a large, oblong shape. (“Strange Light in the Sky,” Topeka (Kan.) Daily Capital, March 28, 1897, p. 1; “Neither Star Nor Planet,” Kansas City (Mo) Times, March 29, 1897, p. 1; “Airship Is Seen by Gov. Leedy,” Chicago Tribune, March 29, 1897, p. 4)

April 1 — 8:00 p.m. Strange lights appear in the sky south of Kansas City, Kansas, zigzagging and crossing the horizon. (“Air Ship Headed toward Omaha,” Omaha (Neb.) Daily Bee, April 3, 1897, p. 9) April 1 — 9:00 p.m. J. E. Gunn, proprietor of the Commercial Hotel, and other residents of Everest, Kansas, watch a 30- foot-long object that looks like a canoe suspended from a balloon. Two wings are visible on each side. Its light appears to dim when the object is moving and glows brightly when hovering. (“Air Ship Headed toward Omaha,” Omaha (Neb.) Daily Bee, April 3, 1897, p. 9) April 1 — Night. Residents of Galesburg, Michigan, see a brilliant white light passing overhead. It is attached to a black object that emits a crackling sound. Human voices are heard distinctly. (“The Airship Story Spreads,” Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Evening Gazette, April 2, 1897, p. 1) April 2 — Evening. People in Wesley, Iowa, view a cone-shaped object with windows in the side through which light is visible. It is traveling slowly toward the northwest. (“Wesley Saw the Air Ship,” Algona (Iowa) Republican, April 7, 1897, p. 8) April 4 — 12:15 a.m. Dairy farmer Dick Butler is returning to his farm in Wolf Creek Township, Iowa, after delivering milk in Sioux City when he notices an electric-like light on his right about 200 feet away in a cornfield. He can

see a dark object with light coming through its windows. It appears to be a “long, narrow car, resembling a corset box in shape,” some 30–35 feet long and 6–7 feet high. Above the car floats a cigar-shaped bag about the same length and 8–10 feet thick. When his horses see the object, they bolt and tumble his wagon into the ditch. By the time Butler recovers, the object is moving briskly in a descent to the south. He watches it as it moves out of sight. (“Air Ship Again,” Marshalltown (Iowa) Evening Times-Republican, April 9, 1897, p. 3) Early April — An airship allegedly lands near Elburn, Illinois, where some farmers run across it. It is made of “some light substance like aluminum.” Two aeronauts are repairing the vehicle and will only say that they are flying from the Pacific to the Atlantic by following the Chicago and North Western Railway. (“That Blooming Ship,” Rockford (Ill.) Daily Republic, April 12, 1897, p. 1) April 6 — 2:00 a.m. James Southard gets lost on his ranch near Peru, Nebraska, looking for strayed cattle. He notices a light on a bar in the Missouri River, and it turns out to be on a landed airship 200 feet long, whose crew are apparently repairing its searchlight. The aeronauts answer all of Southard’s questions, telling him that “the craft is loaded with several tons of dynamite and is bound for Cuba” to bomb Spanish ships. (“Boarded the Airship,” Auburn (Neb.) Granger, April 9, 1897, p. 3) April 8 — 8:00 p.m. Many people in towns along the Burlington, Cedar Rapids, and Northern Railroad from West Liberty to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, see an object with a “bright glaring headlight,” a glistening steel body, and wings on either side. It makes a hissing noise as it glides through the air. By 10:00 p.m., it fades from view to the north of Cedar Rapids. (“Airship Appears in Iowa,” Chicago Record, April 9, 1897, p. 1) April 9 — 8:30 p.m. Hundreds of people in Chicago, Evanston, Niles Center, and Schermerville, Illinois, see an airship earing multicolored lights and swinging a huge white searchlight from side to side. Nearly 800 witnesses on Davis Street in Evanston watch the object, estimated to be 400 feet in length. Using binoculars, the outline of a structure can be seen behind the powerful light. By 9:30 p.m., the airship is last seen over South Chicago. Northwestern University astronomer George W. Hough, director of the Dearborn Observatory, tells the newspapers he is sure the airship is the star Alpha Orionis (Betelgeuse). (“See Airship or a Star,” Chicago Tribune, April 10, 1897, pp. 1 – 2 ; “California Airship on the Wing,” Chicago Tribune, April 11, 1897, p. 1) April 10 — Evening. Witnesses in Marshfield, Wisconsin, see a cone-shaped airship with a bright headlight moving south of town. (“Hides in the Woods,” Chicago Chronicle, April 11, 1897, p. 3 ) April 10 — 10:00 p.m. A noise draws residents of Platte City, Missouri, outside where they can see a hovering object 100 feet long and 20 feet wide. Two immense wings on either side are moving up and down. Greenish light beams shine down on Main Street from its back and front. Suddenly there is a hissing sound and explosions and the object moves away to the northeast. (“Saw the Airship,” Buffalo (N.Y.) Enquirer, April 12, 1897, p. 1) April 10 — 10:30 p.m. Policemen, firemen, and many other residents of Jacksonville, Illinois, see a bright light moving swiftly from east to west a few hundred feet in the air. The light sways from side to side and throws out beams several hundred feet in length. When it is above the city, the object the light is attached to can be seen as metallic and long with possible wings. Some witnesses can hear voices. The object reverses direction over Jacksonville, throwing its searchlight in all directions, and disappears to the east. (“The Airship over Quincy,” Quincy (Ill.) Morning Whig, April 11, 1897, p. 8) April 10 — 11:00 p.m. A bright white light with red and green lights on either side of it is observed by many residents of Quincy, Illinois, flying low above the Mississippi River on the city’s west side. At one point it is no more than 400 – 500 feet above the ground. The light is attached to a metallic cigar-shaped object. Two wings extend from the sides and on top is some kind of superstructure. Witnesses estimate its length to be 50–100 feet. The object ascends, moves east, then south, then west, hovers above South Park for a few minutes, then moves north and stops again. It reverses direction and leaves toward the south at “tremendous speed.” (“The Airship over Quincy,” Quincy (Ill.) Morning Whig, April 11, 1897, p. 8) April 11 — 12:30 a.m. John Peterson, E. K. Rowley, George Moody, Bayard Taylor French, and other residents of Hawarden, Iowa, see a conical object about 60 feet long with four sets of 15-foot wings. It is flying so low (about 600 feet) that they can hear machinery, voices, and laughter. Two red lights are positioned on the tail end and a large searchlight is in the front. After three minutes it moves off to the north. (“Another Wonderful Tale,” Des Moines (Iowa) Leader, April 13, 1897, p. 3) April 11 — 5 : 3 0 a.m. An alleged photo of an airship is taken at 4356 East Ravenswood Park in Rogers Park, Chicago, Illinois, by an ex-policeman named Walter R. McCann and George A. Overrocker, who provide copies to several newspapers. The Chicago Tribune photo editor pronounces it a fake because it looks like it is taken by a Kodak with a small lens that cannot achieve a panoramic view. A later report claims that McCann has photographed a piece of canvas on which an airship is painted. (“Airship Myth Yet Soars,” Chicago Tribune, April 12, 1897, p. 5; “Airship Is All a Joke,” Chicago Chronicle, April 13, 1 897 , p. 2; Wautauga (N.C.) Democrat, April 27, 1897, p. 1; Clark III 78; Wikimedia Commons, “Mystery airship 1897”)

April 11 — 12:15 p.m. Gary Carlton Jr. watches a flat object looking like a “big piece of yellow canvas” pass over Bloomington, Illinois, at a high altitude toward the northeast. (“The Air Ship,” Bloomington (Ill.) Daily Pantagraph, April 12, 1897, p. 5) April 11 — 7:45 p.m. John Lee and others in Benton Harbor, Michigan, watch an airship rapidly moving north-northwest for 15 minutes. With the naked eye it looks like a huge ball of fire, but through opera glasses it resembles a cluster of soft yellow lights. (“Air Ship Seen Here,” Benton Harbor (Mich.) Evening News, April 12, 1897, p. 1) April 11 — 8:00 p.m. R. G. Adams and his parents at 3126 Fourth Avenue South in Minneapolis, Minnesota, watch a lighted, cigar-shaped object flying low towards the southwest. Through binoculars it appears to be 18–20 feet long. A square light that changes from white to green to red, depending apparently on its speed, is on top. Hundreds of other people also see the object over the next four hours, maneuvering above Lake Minnetonka and eventually receding into the northeast. (“Does He Hail from Mars?” St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press, April 12, 1897, p. 4; “Wonder! Mysterious Airship Seen by Stuart Mackroth,” Minneapolis Tribune, April 13, 1897, p. 1) April 11 — 9:00 p.m. An airship approaches Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from the northeast over Lake Michigan and heads toward the southwest. It stops and hovers 1,000 feet above City Hall for 15 minutes. (“Airship Myth Yet Soars,” Chicago Tribune, April 12, 1897, p. 5) April 11 — After 10:30 p.m. Stuart Mackroth is riding a bicycle just east of Minnetonka Mills, Minnesota, when a flying machine “shaped like an ordinary boat” passes overhead. It has red and green lights on each side and a powerful electric light in front. Inside he can see men, women, and children, all moving about “as if very busy.” (“Wonder! Mysterious Airship Seen by Stuart Mackroth,” Minneapolis Tribune, April 13, 1897, p. 1) April 11 — 11:15 p.m. A bank clerk in Decatur, Illinois, sees an object “like two monster cigars with three bright headlights” moving to the north. (“Saw the Air Ship,” Decatur (Ill.) Evening Republican, April 12, 1897, p. 8) April 12 — Morning. F. L. Bullard, engineer on the Fast Mail train on the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, says he caught sight of an airship moving parallel with the train shortly after his Engine 950 left downtown Chicago. The train is moving at 70 mph, and by the time it reaches Lisle, Illinois, the object is far ahead. Bullard estimates it is moving at 100–150 mph. (“Air-Ship Distances a Train,” St. Louis (Mo.) Globe-Democrat, April 13, 1897, p. 6) April 12 — 8:00 p.m. During a rainstorm in Lincoln, Illinois, more than 50 people stand on Pulaski Street to watch a light moving to the northeast. John Fitzgerald sees a V-shaped object with a bright searchlight moving rapidly toward Lincoln. It changes course, the light changes from white to green, and the object disappears behind clouds. (“Was It the Airship?” Lincoln (Ill.) Weekly Courier, April 13, 1897, p. 8) April 13 — Before sunrise. Augustus Rodgers, a farmer living two miles south of Louisville, Kentucky, goes outside to attend to his livestock. He sees an oblong object, some 40 feet long by 15 feet tall, flying about 400 feet in the air at 100 mph. His wife comes out to watch it with him, and they both see “a form like that of a man” standing in the front and directing its course. (“Airship Passed in the Night,” Louisville (Ky.) Evening Post, April 13, 1897, p. 6) April 13 — Night. Mayor Charles Merritt Seely and other people in Canton, South Dakota, watch a winged airship passing to the north over the town with a red light in front and a green light in back. (“Airship Is Seen by Moonlight,” Omaha (Neb.) Daily Bee, April 15, 1897, p. 1) April 13 — 11:15 p.m. Frederick Chamberlain and O. L. Jones are riding one mile west of Lake Elmo, Minnesota, when they notice a figure in a clearing, walking around as if he is looking for something. They turn off the road to investigate and hear a cracking sound followed by a rushing noise. A moment later they notice a gray-white object that looks like the top of a covered wagon. It has two rows of four red or green lights. The object rises quickly at a sharp angle to clear the treetops. They can make out no machinery or wings or rudders or even an outline of the object. In the mud, Chamberlain finds 14 footprints, each 2 feet long, 6 inches wide, “arranged seven on each side, and in an oblong pattern.” Adam Thielen, a nearby farmer, independently sees a dark object with red and green lights flying overhead about the same time. (“Adam Saw the Airship Light,” St Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press, April 15, 1897, p. 5) April 14 — Early morning. Marble merchant David W. Paul is traveling with a party of workmen from Burlington to Frankfort, Indiana. When they are at the middle fork of Wildcat Creek, they hear a “swishing, roaring sound” and see an object with a blinding white searchlight and smaller green and yellow lights. The object is cigar-shaped with wings or fins. It descends to just above the treetops, hovers there for a moment, then rises and noisily shoots off to the southwest. (“That Mysterious Airship,” Indianapolis Sentinel, April 1 5 , 1897, p. 6) April 14 — 4:30 a.m. Farmers see an airship land about 3 miles northwest of Howard City, Michigan, and some go to investigate. Inside the craft is a “strange man” dressed in heavy furs although he seems “to have no use for them, as he was almost naked and seemed to be suffering from the heat.” The man is 9.5 feet tall and speaks in a musical language that, however, sounds like bellowing. One farmer gets too close, and the giant kicks him severely enough to break his hip. (“Trip of the Airship,” Saginaw (Mich.) Courier-Herald, April 17, 1897, p. 5)

April 14 — 3:00 p.m. An airship looking like an “immense bird” approaches Gas City, Indiana, from the northwest. As it draws nearer, witnesses see that it is cigar-shaped and “propelled by broad canvas wings.” The object lands briefly one mile from town, terrifying some farm animals. As a crowd rushes toward it, it takes off and vanishes to the east. (“In Daylight,” Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer, April 15, 1897, p. 1) April 14 — 3:00 p.m. A brownish cigar-shaped object with wings passes south of Marion, Indiana, coming from the northwest. Six passengers can be seen on board. (“Six Men Seen in the Airship,” Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer, April 15, 1897, p. 1) April 14 — 7:30 p.m. An airship 100 feet long and 20 feet high in the center lands in a meadow three-quarters of a mile west of Birmingham, Iowa. A large crowd of men and boys sets out to examine the object, but when they are within several hundred feet, it rises with a loud whirring sound and moves away to the northwest. Two men can be distinctly seen inside, one carrying a lantern that he waves as the airship ascends. (“Airship Positively Seen,” Burlington (Iowa) Hawk-Eye, April 16, 1897, p. 2) April 14 — 8:00 p.m. James McKensie is feeding hogs on his farm north of Casstown, Ohio, when he hears an odd noise like a flock of geese passing overhead. Looking up, he sees an object with wings and a rudder flying slowly along about 150 feet in the air, and he distinctly hears music. As it disappears, he thinks he hears a human voice, and something large and white is thrown overboard. (“Talking Heard by the Citizens,” Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer, April 16, 1897, p. 1) April 14 — Just after 9:00 p.m. Farmhand John Halley and vintner Adolf Wenke see an airship land on Jefferson Street three miles west of Springfield, Illinois. They supposedly converse with one of its occupants, a bearded scientist who is outside the craft. Inside, they can see another man and a woman. The scientist says little other than “as soon as Congress recognizes Cuban belligerency his air ship would be heard from.” (“Mystery Solved,” Springfield (Ill.) News, April 15, 1897, p. 1) April 14 — Night. Many persons in Mount Vernon, Illinois, including Mayor Barton C. Wells, allegedly see an object “resembling the body of a huge man swimming through the air with an electric light on his back.” (“Airship’s Travels,” Cincinnati (Ohio) Commercial Tribune, April 16, 1897, p. 1) April 14 — Night. A man in Denton, Texas, is watching the stars with binoculars when he notices a shadow crossing the Moon. It is caused by a large cigar-shaped object with wings moving slowly to the southeast. In the front it has a powerful searchlight, and along the side appear a row of lighted windows. It remains in sight for 20 minutes. A woman also sees possibly the same object “bounding along through space like a balloon.” (“The Air Ship Again,” Dallas (Tex.) Morning News, April 15, 1897, p. 4) April 14 — Night. The Rio Grande Railroad operator at Cresson, Texas, sees an object about 60 feet long and “resembling the top of a passenger coach in shape” with a powerful searchlight in the front and several smaller lights on the sides. It is moving to the southwest at a “terrific rate of speed” and has wings “something like that of a bat.” It turns to the southeast after passing the station and disappears in the clouds after a few minutes. (“Sighting the Air Ship,” Dallas (Tex.) Morning News, April 16, 1897, p. 5) April 15 — Late evening. Telegraph repairman Patrick C. Byrnes is operating a railroad handcar about 7 miles west of Cisco, Texas, when he sees a light a little distance from the track on the south side. Knowing there is no farmhouse in the area, he goes to investigate. It is a landed cigar-shaped airship about 200 feet long and 50 feet across at its widest point. Several men are repairing its searchlight, and they tell him that the craft is loaded with several tons of dynamite for bombing Spanish troops and ships in Cuba. (“Oft-Seen Air-Ship,” Fort Worth (Tex.) Register, April 18, 1897, p. 11) April 15 — Night. An airship with red, green, and white lights lands on a farm near Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Five witnesses see an odd-looking man in a fur coat emerge and walk to a farmhouse belonging to Melvin Bannister, whose dogs are barking fiercely. The stranger points a lantern-like device at them and sends them running. Bannister answers the door and converses awkwardly with the man, who is speaking an odd language, but loans him a hammer, some nails, and a can of skim milk. The man returns the tools, along with a strange coin. The airship takes off with a whizzing sound. (“Brunswick and Drammen,” Eau Claire (Wis.) Leader, April 17, 1897, p. 7) April 15 — 8:15 p.m. Willie Mahon, ex-Marshal French, and other residents of Dunkirk, Ohio, watch a winged object “as large as a wagon bed” pass over the town toward the east. It has propellers on each end, a red light in front, and a greenish-yellow light on the tail. Voices can be heard coming from the object. (“Seen at Dunkirk,” Kenton (Ohio) News-Republican, April 16, 1897, p. 4) April 15 — 9:00 p.m. Residents of Farmersville, Texas, notice a dim light traveling toward the city from the south at 60– 80 mph. Thinking it might be a meteor heading toward the Earth, more people gather outside to watch. City Marshal Brown is in the western part of town making his rounds, and the “ship or balloon” passes overhead about 200 feet in the air. Brown can see two men in the object and something like a large Newfoundland dog. He can

hear them talking but cannot understand what they are saying. (“Airship Seen in Galveston,” Galveston (Tex.) Daily News, April 18, 1897, p. 2) April 15 — Between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. A cigar-shaped airship with a row of red lights along the sides passes above Emerson, South Dakota. (“That Ubiquitous Airship,” Sioux City (Iowa) Journal, April 17, 1897, p. 6) Mid-April — 3:00 p.m. Railroad conductor Capt. Jim Hooton is hunting near Homan, Arkansas, when he hears a loud mechanical sound like an air brake. Investigating, he discovers an airship undergoing repairs. The aeronauts are not very communicative, so once the repairs are complete, they reenter the airship and take off with a loud hissing sound. (“Saw the Air Ship,” Little Rock Arkansas Gazette, April 22, 1897, p. 3) Mid-April — Early evening. J. W. Lansing sees a cigar-shaped airship twice in Grinnell, Iowa. It moves in various directions, sometimes against a strong wind. (“He Saw It,” Springfield (Ill.) News, April 26, 1897, p. 1) Mid-April – Night. F. Crocker is sitting near the window of his apartment on Barr Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana, when he notices a yellowish light coming from the west. It seems attached to a pear-shaped object with the apex pointed downward. Two yellow rays of light come from its sides as it sways to and fro in the air. He calls R. J. (or R. T.) and J. L. Tretheway, who live in the apartment below his, and they also glimpse the object, which is in sight for 20 minutes. (“Sighted Here,” Fort Wayne (Ind.) Weekly Gazette, April 15, 1897, p. 1) Mid-April — Between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. A man in Eldridge, North Dakota, sees an airship that looks like a car attached to a large, kite-shaped structure with wings. It stops and changes course. At one point the man is close enough to hear a humming sound. Some of the time it displays colored lights; at other times it is completely dark. (“He Saw the Air Ship,” Jamestown (N. Dak.) Weekly Alert, April 22, 1897, p. 8) April 16 — 12:03 a.m. An airship and a smaller “trailer which followed it very closely” are seen by residents of Danvers, Illinois. The objects are made of aluminum-like material, and its “occupants were dressed in western style.” (“The Aerial Mystery,” Bloomington (Ill.) Daily Pantograph, April 17, 1897, p. 5) April 16 — 12:30 a.m. A group of people returning home from a lodge meeting in Bay City, Michigan, notice a large conical object approaching from the south and slowly descending to about 50 feet altitude above Center Avenue. A red light appears at either end of a body that is apparently 50–75 feet long. It shines with a dull red glow, as if there are lights on its upper side. The object moves away to the northeast. (“Air Ship a Reality,” Saginaw (Mich.) Courier-Herald, April 16, 1897, p. 1) April 16 — Morning. A large object passes slowly over Linn Grove, Iowa, heading north. Five men—James Evans, F. G. Ellis, Ben Buland, David Evans, and Joe Croskey—jump into a rig and follow it 4 miles north of town where it has landed. But when the pursuers get within 2,100 feet of the airship, it spreads out four massive wings and ascends again. The two occupants have extremely long beards and make desperate efforts to conceal themselves. They toss two enormous boulders “of unknown composition” out of the airship. (“More Air Ship Fakes,” Indianapolis Journal, April 17, 1897, p. 1) April 16 — While wandering in the hills east of Springfield, Missouri, W. H. Hopkins, a traveling insurance agent, spots a landed airship in a clearing. Next to it is a nude female with hair down to her waist. As she picks flowers, she speaks in an unknown language with a musical voice and fans herself as if the day is hot. In the shade cast by the craft lies a naked man with shoulder-length hair and a long beard. After a few minutes, Hopkins approaches the woman, who shrieks and runs toward the man. Hopkins speaks soothingly and the two aeronauts relax. Hopkins asks where they come from, and they point upward, pronouncing a word that sounds like “Mars.” The two examine Hopkins’s clothing, hair, and watch with great curiosity. They show him the interior of the ship but take off shortly afterward, “laughing and waving their hands.” (“Golden Haired Girl Is in It,” St. Louis (Mo.) Post- Dispatch, April 1 9 , 1897, p. 1) April 16 — 8:00 p.m. Howard R. Bolander, superintendent of the Ohio Bicycle Works in Marion, Ohio, is looking at the night sky when he sees the light from a cigar-shaped object moving to the southwest. Its light looks like an incandescent lamp. (“Is Your Credulity in Condition for the Only True Airship Story?” Marion (Ohio) Daily Star, April 17, 1897, p. 9) April 16 — Night. Judge John Spencer Bounds is riding in a buggy in Hillsboro, Texas, when his horse whirls around in fright. A brilliant light as if from an arc lamp shines on him for less than a minute and then moves over to a nearby field. The light suddenly ascends to an altitude of 1,000 feet. As he watches, the searchlight blinks out and smaller lights surrounding a dark object become visible. The object moves slowly to the south and disappears. (“Seen near Hillsboro,” Dallas (Tex.) Morning News, April 17, 1897, p. 8 ) April 16 — 12:00 midnight. C. G. Williams is walking across a field two miles south of Greenville, Texas, when he comes across a brilliant light and a large, cigar-shaped object resting on the ground. Three aeronauts emerge from it; two go to work on the ship, and the third approaches Williams and asks him to mail some letters. The man tells him that the airship runs on electricity and that his invention was perfected in a small town in New York State. (“C. G. Williams Saw It,” Dallas (Tex.) Morning News, April 19, 1897, p. 5)

April 17 — 1:30 a.m. R. E. Draughon, a night watchman at a lumber plant in Beaumont, Texas, sees a “globular” object with a bright light the size of a star in one end. It is moving to the northwest at a high altitude. (“Seen at Beaumont,” Dallas (Tex.) Morning News, April 18, 1897, p. 4 ) April 17 — 6:00 a.m. An airship is said to collide with the tower of Judge James Spencer Proctor’s windmill in Aurora, Texas, causing it to explode and strew debris over several acres. The pilot (reportedly “not of this world,” or a “Martian” according to an alleged Army Signal Service officer named Thomas Jefferson Weems from nearby Fort Worth), does not survive the crash and is buried “with Christian rites” at the Aurora Cemetery. Wreckage from the crash site is either dumped into a nearby well located under the damaged windmill or ends up with the alien in the grave. Adding to the mystery is the story of Brawley Oates, who purchases Judge Proctor’s property around

1935. Oates cleans out the debris from the well in order to use it as a water source, but later develops an extremely severe case of rheumatoid arthritis, which he claims is the result of contaminated water from the wreckage dumped into the well. As a result, Oates seals up the well with a concrete slab and places an outbuilding on the spot in 1945. The entire yarn is widely regarded as a hoax, although Proctor’s windmill apparently did exist. (Wikipedia, “Aurora, Texas, UFO incident”; “A Windmill Demolishes It,” Dallas Morning News, April 19, 1897 , p. 5; Donald B. Hanlon, “Texas Odyssey of 1897,” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1966): 9–10; H. Michael Simmons, “Once upon a Time in the West,” Magonia, no. 20 (August 1985); Wallace O. Chariton, The Great Texas Airship Mystery, Wordware, 1991; Thomas E. Bullard, “Defending UFOs,” IUR 34, no. 2 (March 2012 ): 8 – 10 ; Clark III 316– 318 , 5 92 – 593 ; “Aurora 1897,” Texas UFO Museum and Research Library, February 5, 2014; Mutual UFO Network, “Aurora, TX Crash, 1897,” May 14, 2021) April 17 — 8:30 p.m. A large white light attached to a cigar-shaped object passes over Trenton, Tennessee, at an altitude of about 1,500 feet. It has a red light on the left side and a green light on the right. The object remains in sight for 5 minutes then disappears to the east. (“Trenton Has ‘Em,” Memphis (Tenn.) Commercial Appeal, April 18, 1897, p. 4) April 17 — 9:00 p.m. George Alverson, Alex Oxford, and Charley Hunter are walking on Manchester Street near the Cincinnati Southern Railway trestle bridge in Lexington, Kentucky. An airship lands and settles in a vacant lot about 600 feet away. They hurry forward but are stopped by a man who has just emerged from the machine. He is carrying a bucket, which he fills with water from a nearby spring. He declines to answer any of their questions, reenters the airship, and flies away to the southeast. (“Talked with the Airship Man,” Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer, April 19, 1897, p. 5) April 18 — 8:30 p.m. W. E. Roe, captain of the Ohio River packet T. M. Barnsdall, as well as watchman Elmer Hardy and engineer Litus Kinnard, sees a light high in the air above the river as the riverboat is lying at Sistersville, West Virginia. It seems to be moving to the northwest but at other times it retraces its course. Around 12:00 midnight it disappears over a hill to the west. (“The Airship Seen near Marietta,” Marietta (Ohio) Daily Register, April 19,

1897. April 18 — 9:30 p.m. An object with lights on both ends is seen southeast of Lyons, Nebraska, traveling to the northwest. Some young observers estimate it is moving at 4–6 mph. When the object is south of Bancroft it makes 2–3 large circles and then moves to the southwest. (“Airship’s Lamp Is Lighted,” Omaha (Neb.) Daily Bee, April 20, 1897, p. 5) April 19 — 1:30 a.m. As people are returning from a party at the Armory Hall in Natchitoches, Louisiana, they see a bright light attached to a massive airship in the form of a balloon with a cigar-shaped undercar. The light dims while it is over the city and intensifies again when it has passed beyond it. It moves in undulations and is visible for 30 minutes. (“The Airship Seen in Louisiana,” New Orleans Daily Picayune, April 21, 1897, p. 6) April 19 — 2:00 a.m. A man in El Paso, Texas, sees a cigar-shaped object with lighted portholes on each side. The object approaches from the east and passes overhead at 500 feet. Voices from the craft are heard. (“The Air Ship Seen in El Paso,” El Paso (Tex.) Herald, April 20, 1897, p. 4) April 19 — 12:00 noon. George Dunlap, a man known to Davis H. Tucker, physician at the Harlem Prison Farm [now the Jester State Prison Farm] in Fort Bend County, Texas, is riding in the country near Lake Charles, Louisiana, when he sees an airship moving toward him about half a mile distant. It makes a loud whistling noise, scaring his horses and causing him to be thrown from the buggy. As the horses flee, the ship lands, a rope comes down, and two men rush over to apologize. They are the owner Mr. Wilson (formerly of Fort Worth, Texas) and his friend Scott Warren. The man is taken into the airship and introduced to two others, a Mr. Waters and a Hispanic man. Wilson tells him the airship is sustained by a gas, and that several of them have been built. (“Was Aboard an Airship,” Dallas (Tex.) Morning News, May 16, 1897, p. 18) April 19 — 9:00 p.m. A bright light moves from the northwest over Cochransville [now a ghost town], Monroe County, Ohio, where it hovers for 20 minutes, flashing red, white, and green lights. Through binoculars a cone-shaped

object with large fins on either side can be discerned. It is apparently 180 feet long. (“Hovered over the Town,” Cincinnati (Ohio) Commercial Tribune, April 20, 1897, p. 2) April 19 — 10:30 p.m. Rancher Alexander Hamilton, his son Will, and his hired hand Gid Heslip are awakened by a noise in the cattle pen of their ranch at Yates Center, Kansas. They watch as a 300-foot-long, cigar-shaped airship with a carriage underneath descends to about 30 feet above the ground. Two men, a woman, and three children are heard talking in the carriage. They see a calf caught in a nearby fence with a cable knotted around its neck that connects to the airship above. They cut the cable and the airship floats away. A few weeks later, Hamilton admits he made the story up. (Clark III 130 , 5 93 ; Jerome Clark, “The Great Airship Hoax,” Fate 30, no. 2 (February 1977 ): 94 – 97 ; Jerome Clark, “The Leroy, Kansas, Calfnapping Hoax of 1897,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 6 (April 1977): 26; Daniel Cohen, The Great Airship Mystery, Dodd, Mead, 1981, pp. 92– 102 ) April 19 — After 11:00 p.m. John R. Ligon, an agent for a brewery in Houston, and his son Charley notice lights in a pasture a few hundred yards away near Beaumont, Texas. They walk over and discover four men moving around a large dark object, who ask for water. They accompany Ligon to his house, each bringing two baskets, which they fill and return. One of the men identifies himself as “Wilson” and says they are traveling in a flying machine that has been over the Gulf of Mexico and is now headed toward Iowa. Ligon says the airship is 130 feet long and 20 feet wide, propelled by four large wings and powered by electricity. Wilson gives Ligon a tour of the ship and says it is one of five built in a small Iowa town. Rabbi Aaron Levy of Beaumont also claims to have met aeronauts from a landed airship near the city around the same time. (“Inspected the Air Ship,” Houston (Tex.) Daily Post, April 21, 1897, p. 2; “The Airship,” New Orleans Daily Picayune, April 25, 1897, p. 7; Jerome Clark, “Mystery Aeronauts of Texas,” IUR 33, no. 3 (December 2010): 5–6; Clark III 81–82) April 20 — Henry Heintz of Elkton, South Dakota, patents an airship consisting of a cigar-shaped balloon and a structure for passengers beneath it. At some point he allegedly brings his invention out for a test flight in front of the Elkton blacksmith shop. The airship rises 8 feet into the air before plopping to the ground. (US Patent, “Air Ship,” granted April 20, 1897; Ruth Becken, A History of Elkton, [City of Elkton,] 2000, p. 94) April 20 — 10:00 p.m. Sheriff Henry W. Baylor of Uvalde, Texas, sees a bright light and hears strange voices behind his house. He finds a landed airship and its crew of three men, one of whom is named “Wilson” (from Goshen, New York), who inquires after an acquaintance, C. C. Akers of Eagle Pass, Texas. After procuring water from a hydrant in Baylor’s yard, the men board the airship, which speeds away northward toward San Angelo. County Clerk Henry J. Bowles sees the airship as it passes over Getty Street in Uvalde. Akers tells a reporter in Galveston that he knew a New Yorker named Wilson when he lived in Fort Worth in 1876–1877. Baylor’s seemingly compelling testimony disintegrates after he confesses in late May to making the whole story up, possibly in collusion with Akers. (“The Airship in West Texas,” Galveston (Tex.) Daily News, April 24, 1897, p. 3 ; “The Airship at Uvalde,” Weimar (Tex.) Mercury, May 1, 1897, p. 6; “Airship Story Exploded,” Weimar (Tex.) Mercury, May 22, 1897, p. 7; Jerome Clark, “Mystery Aeronauts of Texas,” IUR 33, no. 3 (December 2010): 6– 7 ; Clark III 82– 83 ) April 21 — 12:30 a.m. An employee of the Picayune newspaper in New Orleans, Louisiana, steps outside the office and sees an airship, 50–60 feet long and bearing a powerful searchlight. He returns to tell his colleagues, but by the time they come out, the airship is gone. (“The Airship,” New Orleans Picayune, April 21, 1897, p. 9) April 21? — 8:00 p.m. A man is riding his horse between Lancaster and Baltimore, Ohio, when something scares his horse. He sees an object with two brilliant white lights on either end landing in a nearby field. He tethers his horse and approaches the object, which seems as large as a house. Inside he can see two men conversing, so he walks up to ask them questions. One of the aeronauts seems to be Japanese and the other speaks English with a British accent. The craft is called the Aeribarque, and they are on a test flight. The aeronaut says that they often land in remote areas and come to nearby towns for supplies or mechanical parts, posing either as tourists or “harmless cranks trying to invent perpetual motion.” After giving the witness a demonstration of the electrical lighting system, they take off into the sky. (“Aeribarque, That’s It’s Official Name,” Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer, April 25, 1897, p. 9) April 21 — 11:00 p.m. Confectioner John S. Scheer, Frank King, and Frank Mulick of Erie, Pennsylvania, watch a cigar- shaped, winged object moving north at a relatively high rate of speed. It has a large propeller on its tail end, but it flies silently and disappears over Lake Erie. (“Passed over Erie,” Erie (Pa.) Daily Times, April 22, 1897, p. 8) April 22 — 7:30 p.m. Prominent citizens, including the mayor, observe a low-flying airship heading slowly southwest above Kenly, North Carolina. Its sails “resembled mosquito netting to the naked eye.” The outlines of two people aboard are plainly visible. (“Men Seen in the Airship,” Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer, April 25, 1897, p. 4) April 22 — 10:10 p.m. A ball of fire is seen moving slowly and horizontally from southwest to northeast over Kokomo, Indiana. Some people can distinguish the faint outlines of a cigar-shaped object and wings. The light is white with a reddish tint and no more than 300 feet in altitude. The witnesses include Harry M. Grimes, William E.

Sollenberger, and banking executive Frank McCarty. (“The Mysterious Air Ship,” Kokomo (Ind.) Daily Tribune, April 23, 1897, p. 4) April 22 — 11:00 p.m. John M. Barclay wakes up when he hears a whirring noise that causes his dogs to bark wildly outside his home near Rockland, Texas. He goes outside and sees an oblong airship with wings and brilliant lights. When he first sees it, the object is hovering 150 feet above the ground. It circles a few times then lands in a nearby pasture. Barclay goes down to investigate with his Winchester rifle, but the lights go out as he gets closer. Some 90 feet away from the airship he is stopped by a man who asks him to put his rifle down. He identifies himself as “Smith” and gives Barclay $10 to purchase lubricating oil, two chisels, and bluestone. When Barclay returns with the materials, the aeronaut will only say he is from “anywhere,” adding that “we will be in Greece tomorrow.” (“Supplies for Airship,” Houston (Tex.) Post, April 2 5 , 1897, p. 13) April 22 — 12:00 midnight. Frank Nichols, a farmer living 2 miles east of Josserand, Texas, is awakened by a whirring noise. Outside, he sees a huge airship in his cornfield. Before he can get close, two men with buckets ask him if they can draw water from his well. Nichols consents and in return they give him a tour of the vessel, whose motive power is “highly condensed electricity.” One aeronaut tells him that five airships have been built in an Iowa town. (“That Airship,” Houston (Tex.) Post, April 26, 1897, p. 2) April 23 — Night. Henry A. Hooks and A. W. Hodges of Kountze, Texas, allegedly meet two aeronauts named Wilson and Jackson when their airship suffers a gas leak and lands. (“That Airship,” Houston (Tex.) Post, April 25, 1897, p. 5) April 24 — An airship in need of repairs lands near Stringers Ridge on the other side of the river from Chattanooga, Tennessee. An unnamed journalist talks to one of the aeronauts, who identifies himself as Prof. Charles Davidson of Sacramento, California, the inventor of the airship, which can travel as fast as 93 mph. (“Is This a Reality?” Knoxville (Tenn.) Morning Tribune, April 25, 1897, p. 1) April 24 — 11:00 p.m. Howard Warn is outside his home in Toledo, Ohio, when he notices bright, multicolored lights moving rapidly toward the southwest. The lights are attached to a cigar-shaped object at an altitude of 500 feet. He calls his father, Milo S. Warn, and they watch the lights until the object disappears into heavy clouds to the southwest. (“Say They Saw the Airship,” Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer, April 28, 1897, p. 5) April 25 — Evening. As some residents of Merkel, Texas, are leaving a church service, they notice a heavy, anchor- shaped object being dragged by a large rope that is attached to an airship in the sky not far above them. After 10 minutes, a small figure dressed in a blue sailor suit starts climbing down the rope. But when he sees people watching him, he cuts the rope and returns to the airship, which moves away to the northeast. The anchor goes on exhibit at a local blacksmith shop. (“Anchor of the Airship,” Houston (Tex.) Post, April 28, 1897, p. 5) April 25 — Night. William F. Whittier, editor of the Sunbury (Ohio) News-Item, sets up his camera in the printing office to take lightning photographs. He manages to take a photo of a nearby lightning strike and develops it the following morning. The negative shows not only the lightning but the outline of what seems to be an airship. Whittier makes many copies of the photo and sells them to Sunbury residents. (“Fairy Story: A Sunbury Editor Takes a Photograph,” Dayton (Ohio) Daily Journal, April 28, 1897) April 28? — 8:00 p.m. Hiram C. LaGrone hears a disturbance among his horses on his ranch at Deadwood, Texas. Stepping outside, he sees a brilliant, multicolored light approaching from the southwest. It slows, hovers, then lands in a field. LaGrone walks up and discovers five men, two of whom take rubber bags and procure water from his well. The other three tell him that this is one of five airships touring the country (and the same one that landed in Beaumont on April 19). (“The Airship,” Houston (Tex.) Post, April 30, 1897, p. 7)

May 2 — 1 :00 a.m. Edwin Shaffer is driving a rig about one-half mile west of Cassville, Indiana, when he encounters a landed airship 40 feet long. The object spooks his horse, which will not run past it. Shaffer claims the airship is crewed by midgets who speak no English. (“The Air Ship at Cassville,” Kokomo (Ind.) Daily Tribune, May 4, 1897, p. 8) May 4 — 9:00 p.m. Louis Dumhoff, a physician living at 112 Garfield Place in Cincinnati, Ohio, sees a red, egg-shaped light, “the rays escaping in the center and at each end.” It passes to the southeast in about 5 minutes, moving in a zigzag, up-and-down course. Conductor J. C. Gaupel and attorney W. J. Klein also see the light in the same neighborhood. (“Airship,” Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer, May 5, 1897, p. 7) May 6 — During a rainstorm five miles west of Hot Springs, Arkansas, Deputy Sheriff John McLemore and Constable John J. Sumpter Jr. see a light in the sky descend behind a hill one half-mile away. After seeing two persons carrying lights, they draw their rifles and demand to know who is there. A man with a long, dark beard tells them that he and two others are traveling around the country in an airship and hope to end up in Nashville, Tennessee. He invites the officers to take a ride and transport them to somewhere dry, but they tell him they prefer to get wet.

They return to the spot 40 minutes later and the airship is gone. (“Swore They Saw It,” Little Rock Arkansas Gazette, May 9, 1897, p. 1; “Swear They Saw It,” Arkadelphia (Ark.) Southern Standard, May 1 4 , 1897, p. 2) May 9 — 8:00 p.m. Abe Parker of Norwalk, Ohio, sees an object with 10–12 bright white and red lights moving slowly over the town for about 10 minutes. Other witnesses report hearing music coming from it. An unnamed young witness, who follows the object out of town for about one mile after it passes over Main Street, says the shadow cast by the object is round. (“That Airship Again,” Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer, May 11, 1897, p. 3) May 11 — 10:00 a.m. John E. Hopley is one of a small group of people in Sandusky, Ohio, who watch a “fleecy white bulk” floating far away to the west. Through binoculars the object looks like a white bird with long black wings. Hopley guesses that it is 1–2 miles high, 20 miles away, and 60–80 feet long. (“The Air Ship: John E. Hopley Sees This Modern Invention,” Bucyrus (Ohio) Evening Telegraph, May 11, 1897, p. 4)

July 4 — 7:45 p.m. Hundreds of witnesses in Lexington, Kentucky, see a lighted object silhouetted against a storm cloud in the southwest moving to the north at 500 feet altitude. When it nears the city, the light goes out and it disappears after passing over the western part of the city. (“The Air Ship or Its Twin Brother Passes over Lexington,” Lexington (Ky.) Morning Herald, July 5, 1897, p. 5) July 29 — Sunset. Farmer Andrew Henderson sees a large, unlighted, oblong object with a suspended car and a huge sail drifting to the northeast over his farm three miles from Whitemouth, Manitoba. He estimates it is only a half-mile away. (“Could It Be Andree?” Winnipeg Manitoba Free Press, July 31, 1897, p. 1; “Big Balloon Story,” Winnipeg Manitoba Free Press, August 2, 1897, p. 1)

August 26 — 6 :45 p.m. An airship with an attached car is seen moving steadily southwest above Asheville, North Carolina, by Dr. Willard P. Whittington and two other men who are standing on Grove Street. It is about one mile in altitude. (“Maybe It Was Andree on His Return?” Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, August 27, 1897, p. 3) August 28 — 3:00 a.m. Luther Myers hears dogs barking outside his home in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. When he looks through the window, he sees a rapidly moving airship with a light on each end. It has a propeller and rotates as it moves forward. (“Our Closeby Neighbors,” Chambersburg (Pa,) Valley Spirit, September 1, 1897, p. 5)

September 7 — 2:00 p.m. V. H. Hollingsworth and his family in Ellsworth (between Sherman and Denison), Texas, see an unusual object approaching from the east. It has a fan-like wheel on front and fin-like projections on the side. (“The Air Ship,” Marshall (Tex.) Evening Messenger, September 9, 1897, p. 2)

November 2 — 12:45 p.m. Engineer Charles W. West sees a balloon of unusual size passing southwest above Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. It looks like an inclined cylinder with rounded ends and has a car suspended from it. After 20 minutes it passes out of sight. (“Saw the Man Who Saw the Ship,” Boston Daily Globe, November 5, 1897, p. 3) November 19 — 11:00 p.m. A telegraph operator in Kellogg, Iowa, sees a bright, bluish light moving rapidly to the southwest. He notifies the operator at Colfax, Iowa, and people in the depot there also see it. (“See the Airship,” Chicago (Ill.) Chronicle, November 20, 1897, p. 2)

December 5 — Early morning. Engineer John J. Hussey and fireman John Henderson of the Great Northern Railroad in northern Minnesota see a “large, white long light which seemed surrounded by some dark objects” near Deerwood. Other employees of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railways also view the light (“Was It an Air-Ship,” Saint Paul (Minn.) Globe, December 7, 1897, p. 2)

1898

1898 — English author H. G. Wells publishes The War of the Worlds, one of the earliest stories to portray a conflict between humans and an extraterrestrial race. The novel is the first-person narrative of both an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and his younger brother in London as southern England is invaded by Martians. (Wikipedia, “The War of the Worlds”)

January 10 — 9:00 p.m. Residents of Rome, Georgia, watch a blue light “attached to some dark and indistinguishable object” as it flies from the northwest to the east. (“Star-Gazing in Rome,” Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution, January 11, 1898, p. 4)

February 4 — Mid-day. The postmaster of Greifswald, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state, Germany, and 11 other persons see an object crossing the Sun’s disk. They watch the object approach the Sun for 15 minutes, take one hour to pass, and stay visible for another hour until clouds obscure it. (Martin Brendel, “Ueber ein 1898 Febr. 4 in Greifswald beobachtetes Phänomen,” Astronomische Nachrichten 145 (1898): 333–334)

May 2 — Dusk. Bystanders in front of the Pearson building in downtown New Castle, Pennsylvania, notice a bright arc light moving in from the southwest just below the clouds and remaining visible for 5 minutes. (“A Mysterious Light,” New Castle (Pa.) News, May 4, 1898, p. 10)

June 1 — 8:30 p.m. Harry McCandliss is riding in the country near Emporia, Kansas, when he sees a cigar-shaped object flying toward the northwest at about 300 feet. It is suspended from a balloon and is peppered with electrical lights. At one point the lights go out then reappear. A searchlight beam in the front skitters in different directions. It ascends to 600 feet and is lost to view. ([News note], Emporia (Kan.) Gazette, June 2, 1898, p. 4)

October 4 — 9:00 p.m. A brilliant object passes over Italy, Greenville, Garland, and Blossom, Texas. Initially moving in an easterly direction, it seems to change course and shoot upwards then burst, throwing out three distinct objects, one red, the other white, and the last one blue. The red and blue lights die out, but the white one continue a few seconds before it too bursts, emitting a shower of sparks. Blossom merchant Dick Moore says the light is so glaring that he thinks his “house was falling on him.” About 2.5 miles north of Sherman, 12-year-old George Campbell is riding with his father when they see the fireball descending, apparently coming as close as 3 feet above the ground before moving upward; they can hear a buzzing noise and think the object is about 10 feet in diameter. (“Aerial Phenomena in Texas,” Dallas (Tex.) Morning News, October 5, 1898; “The Meteor,” Dallas Morning News, October 7, 1898; Theo Paijmans, “High Strangeness in Texas,” Fortean Times 286 (May 2012): 30) October 4 (or 3) — Night. At Fort Washita, Oklahoma, Mrs. William Peveto (possibly Mary Peveto) watches a fireball (probably the same one as October 4) descend. A few minutes later, distracted by the meteor, she is standing in her kitchen when a “female ghost” appears and chats with her for a few minutes, saying that if she would follow her, she will lead her to a fortune. Peveto becomes terrified, and the entity flees through a closed door. The entity visits her again on other nights, again talking about treasure in the basement. They continue until February 1899 when they occur nightly. At one point the ghost claims to have been murdered years ago in Fort Washita and shows her strangle marks around her neck. Poltergeist phenomena (tables moving) occur and a male ghost also talks to her. Peveto becomes ill and apparently moves away from the place. (“Ghosts at Old Fort Washita,” Dallas (Tex.) Morning News, October 20, 1898; “Old Fort Washita Ghosts: Mrs. Peveto Contributes Another Uncanny Chapter to the Record,” Dallas (Tex.) Morning News, March 26, 1899; Theo Paijmans, “High Strangeness in Texas,” Fortean Times 286 (May 2012): 30–31)

1899

1899 — Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla is working in his laboratory near Colorado Springs, Colorado, when he observes unusual signals from his receiver that he speculates are communications from another planet. He mentions them in a letter to a reporter in December 1899 and to the Red Cross Society in December 1900. Reporters treat it as a sensational story and jump to the conclusion Tesla is hearing signals from Mars. In 1901, Tesla writes that it has not been immediately apparent to him that he is hearing “intelligently controlled signals” and that the signals could have come from Mars, Venus, or other planets. It is possible that he is intercepting Guglielmo Marconi’s European experiments in July 1899—Marconi may have transmitted the letter S (dot dot dot) in a naval demonstration, the same three impulses that Tesla hinted at hearing in Colorado—or signals from another experimenter in wireless transmission. Brian Dunning of the Skeptoid podcast attributes Tesla’s signals to pulsars, which are not identified until 1968. (Nikola Tesla, “Talking with the Planets,” Colliers Weekly 26 (February 9, 1901): 4–5; Margaret Cheney, Tesla: Man Out of Time, Dorset Press, 1989 ed., pp. 1 11 – 113 ; Daniel Blair Stewart, Tesla: The Modern Sorcerer, Frog, 1999, p. 372; Michael D. Swords, “Radio Signals from Space, Alien Probes, and Betty Hill,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 11; W. Bernard Carlson, Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age, Princeton University, 2013, p. 315; Brian Dunning, “The Black Knight Satellite,” Skeptoid podcast, no. 365, June 4, 2013) 1899 — Swiss psychologist Carl Jung investigates his 15-year-old cousin, Hélène Preiswerk (“S.W.”), in Basel, Switzerland, who claims to be a spiritualist medium. Her trances frequently involve journeys to other planets. She

claims that Martians have flying machines, and they irrigate the land with canals and artificial lakes. (Hilary
Evans, “Martians of the 1890s,” IUR 11, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1986): 7–8)

Mid-January — Late night. People returning from a dance near McMahan, Texas, see a group of stars in formation, moving in one direction. A few miles further east, hunters camping on a hilltop see the full outline of an airship with headlights and windows. (Dallas (Tex.) News, January 25, 1899; Clark III 86) January 26 — 11:00 p.m. People outside the opera house in McAlester, Oklahoma, watch an airship “like a railway car suspended from a large balloon-like arrangement” pass overhead. It shines a bright searchlight along the ground. ([News note], Garfield County (Okla.) Democrat, February 9, 1899, p. 4)

June 1 — Late evening. Observers in Kamen-Rybolov, Primorsky Krai, Russia, see a blue sphere about 28 inches in diameter flying silently from south to north near the steamboat Kazak Ussuriyskiy moored on Lake Khanka. It is seen for 20 minutes, then it returns later in the evening flying north to south at greater speed, disappearing 11 minutes later. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, p. 113)

July 4 — 4:30 p.m. A mystery balloon floats across the sky in Spokane, Washington, from southwest to northeast. Before it disappears, it ascends so high that “nothing but a small black ball far up in the heavens could be discerned.” (“Who Owns the Big Balloon?” Spokane (Wash.) Chronicle, July 5, 1899, p. 2)

October — Midnight. Physician Malcom McKinnon is driving home to Fosston, Minnesota, in his carriage when a dazzling ball of white light crosses the road ahead about one-quarter of a mile away, lighting up the road like daylight. It resembles an electric arc lamp and moves slowly from north to southeast about 3 feet above the ground, throwing the field furrows into visible relief. As it passes closer, McKinnon sees that it is clearly “disk shaped, about the size of an umbrella.” It is in sight for 30 minutes. (Minneapolis Minnesota Journal, October 25, 1899; Chris Aubeck and Martin Shough, Return to Magonia: Investigating UFOs in History, Anomalist, 2015, pp. 239–251)

1900

1900 — Psychic medium Catherine-Elise Müller (under the pseudonym “Hélène Smith”) of Geneva, Switzerland, becomes famous with the publication of Des Indes à la Planete Mars (From India to the Planet Mars) by Théodore Flournoy, professor of psychology at the University of Geneva. The medium and the psychologist remain very close until 1 900 , when the book is first published, documenting her various series of somnambulatory trances in which she experiences a civilization on Mars and her former lives: the “Martian” cycle, “Ultramartian” cycle, “Hindu,” “Oriental,” and “royal” cycles. She writes out the Martian communications on paper and translates them into French, popularizing automatic writing. (Society for Psychical Research, PSI Encyclopedia, “Hélène Smith”; Hilary Evans, “Martians of the 1890s,” IUR 11, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1986): 4– 6 )

Summer — Dusk. A 12-year-old girl is walking back to her farm from Cadwst, Denbighshire, Wales, when a large disc- shaped object about 14 feet in diameter silently passes above her and over a nearby meadow. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 13–14) Mid-summer — 3 :00 a.m. Perrian A. McGilvra, 14, is returning on horseback from a dance near Reedsburg, Wisconsin, when his horse begins acting up. He sees a large, dark, dirigible-shaped object passing over a grove of poplar trees. The trees bend like they are in a strong windstorm, but he notices no wind. The object flies over his head with a whooshing sound. The horse remains frightened even after the object leaves. (Clark III 1161)

December — Percival Lowell at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, records a shaft of light that projects from a “well-known geographical point” on Mars for 70 minutes. (“Science Notes,” Scientific American 84 (1901): 179)

1901

Summer — Day. A 10-year-old boy is walking home to Bournbrook, West Midlands, England, through a path behind his family’s garden when he comes upon a large box-shaped device with a small, centrally placed turret. The only opening is a door, through which two small men (less than 4 feet tall) in military uniforms (but no insignia), each

wearing an odd-looking cap with a wire sticking up on both sides, step out. One stays by the door, but the other
walks toward the boy and waves him away. The beings go back in the craft, a bright flash surrounds it, and it
shoots into the air with a whooshing sound. (Clark III 261 ; Jenny Randles and Philip Barnet, “Humanoids
Encountered in 1901?” Flying Saucer Review 24, no. 5 (March 1979): 28–29; “UFO Britannia: Part 1, The Early
Years,” Above Top Secret, December 19, 2012; Jenny Randles, “The ‘Wes’ Effect 1: The Hut That Flew,”
Fortean Times 309 (Christmas 2014): 27)

1902

May 13 — 8:00 p.m. A blue-colored fireball appears over Austin, Texas, and ascends into the sky until it disappears. (Austin (Tex.) Daily Tribune, May 14, 1902; Clark III 1168)

1903

March 17 — Mid-evening. Madge Brosius, 12, and her father Charles see a “huge object like a gigantic ripe cucumber with slightly tapered ends” over the family farm in Helmer, Indiana. Its inside is illuminated, and it has 8 windows in two rows of four each. Her father estimates it is 100 feet long. It begins moving away from him as he moves toward it, zigzagging like a child’s balloon losing air. (Madge Brosius Allyn, “The Flying Cucumber of 1903,” Fate 24, no. 3 (March 1971): 45 – 47 ; Clark III 1162)

September 29–October 3 —An implement dealer named U. G. Griffith is on his way home in Van Meter, Iowa. As he approaches, he notices a strange point of light like a spotlight emanating from the top of the Mather & Gregg’s building. He approaches cautiously, but the light sails across the street. He tells others about the experience, and over the next few days several people report a half-human, half-animal entity with large bat-like wings. The townsfolk chase the creature toa local mine shaft, down which it disappears, never to be seen again. (Clark III 1216 – 1218 ; Craig Woolheater, “The Van Meter Visitor,” Cryptomundo, May 9, 2013; Chad Lewis, Noah Voss, and Kevin Lee Nelson, The Van Meter Visitor, On the Road, 2013)

December 17 — Inventors Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier- than-air aircraft with the Wright Flyer 4 miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. (Wikipedia, “Wright Flyer”)

1904

1904 — Late afternoon. Wirt M. Covert, 17, and Arthur B. Eldert are returning on horseback from a grocery store in Dixboro, Michigan, when they see a large object in the air moving west behind the steeple of the Dixboro United Methodist Church. He compares its shape to the Confederate ironclad Virginia and it has a thick mast sticking up from its center and orange light shining through some windows. Suddenly it rises at about a 60° angle over the hills, tipping its mast back, and disappears. (NICAP case file)

February 28 — Mid-evening. The steamer USS Supply is transporting the ill Governor of Guam, William Elbridge Sewell, from Guam to San Francisco, California. About 300 miles west-southwest of San Francisco, commanding Lt. Frank Herman Schofield observes three objects “beneath the clouds, their color a rather bright red.” As they approach the ship they appear to soar, passing above the broken clouds. After rising above the clouds, they appear to “be moving directly away from the earth. The largest had an apparent area of about six suns. It was egg-shaped, the larger end forward. The second was about twice the size of the sun, and the third, about the size of the sun. Their near approach to the surface appeared to be most remarkable.” The objects are in sight for over two minutes by three people. Barry Greenwood thinks they are meteors, but Bruce Maccabee is not so sure. (Frank H. Schofield, “Remarkable Meteors,” Monthly Weather Review 32 (March 1904): 115; Bruce Maccabee, “Even More Remarkable,” IUR 9, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1984): 14–15; Bruce Maccabee, “Meteors? Even More Remarkable,” 2005; NICAP, “Three Red Objects Sighted from USS Supply”; Barry Greenwood, “The USS Supply Sighting of 1904,” UFO Historical Revue, no. 2 (September 1998): 2–6; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 1, Anomalist, 2019, pp. 329–351)

June — 1 0:00 p.m. When Tony Darby goes outside to the well on his farm 5 miles north of Rolling Prairie, Indiana, he notices two round, orange-colored, silent objects hovering 5–6 feet from the ground near the barn. He estimates they are the size of wagon wheels. One of the objects is 2 feet behind and to the left of the other. Running back to the house, he calls for his mother and brother, and all three walk toward the objects, which move away slightly then stop when the witnesses stop. Soon the objects move steadily away to the northeast, still maintaining their relative positions, at about the speed of a man walking. They pause briefly in a small hollow, then continue over a small hill and out of sight. (Lore and Deneault, pp. 91 – 92 )

1905

1905 — Frederick Spencer Oliver’s book A Dweller on Two Planets is published posthumously. It is a narrative channeled by Oliver in Yreka, California, through automatic writing and mental dictations by a spirit calling itself Phylos the Tibetan, an Atlantean who reveals his story from 1883 to 1886. The book deals with deep esoteric subjects including karma and reincarnation and describes Phylos’s final incarnation in 19th century America where his Atlantean karma plays itself out. In that incarnation (as Walter Pierson, gold miner and occult student of the Theo-Christic Adepts) he travels to Venus in an astral body while his physical form remains at a temple inside Mount Shasta, California. (Wikipedia, “A Dweller on Two Planets”; Frederick Spencer Oliver, A Dweller on Two Planets, Baumgardt, 1905 )

August 3 — 1:30 a.m. Farmer John A. Jackson is driving a herd of hogs from Silsbee (a former settlement 6 miles southwest of El Centro) to Imperial, California, when a bright light flashes on him from above. He is momentarily blinded, and the hogs start running away. Jackson sees it is a searchlight from an airship about 100 feet long and propelled by wings that move up and down. It has smaller lights along the sides. Jackson wakes up W. E. Wilsie, who lives nearby, and they watch it disappear to the northeast. Another farmer, A. J. Morey, also glimpses the airship. (“Aerial Navigation in Imperial Valley,” Imperial (Calif.) Press, August 5, 1905, p. 4)

1906

1906 — Herbert Vern DeMott, 10, watches an object come down near his family’s water well in Mitchell, South Dakota. As he approaches it, a door rolls back and he is welcomed inside by two human-like occupants who are sitting inside on camp stools. They converse with him fluently, but he does not know where they come from. He sees a lever that apparently can cut off the earth’s “magnetism,” allowing the object to rise. The occupants take water from the farm’s horse trough to be “used in making electricity.” (“DeMott Rock Study Crosses Continents,” Albany (Oreg.) Democrat-Herald, August 27, 1973, p. 11; Clark III 261 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, July 22, 2009)

January 4 — Night. Martin Meyerson is on the beach at Paia, Maui, Hawaii, when he sees a green object with the shape and diameter of the full moon appear from behind the southern slopes of the Wailuku Mountains. It is so bright it illuminates the cane fields below, then travels like a “slow-pitched baseball” and disappears behind Mount Haleakala to the southeast. (Clark III 1168)

September 16 — Late afternoon. Hundreds of people in Indianapolis, Indiana, see a “cigar-shaped object” like an airship pass over the city. It is seen first in Irvington and then floats over the southern side of the business district where it is distinctly seen from downtown. Some estimate it to be 2,000 feet in the air; the watchman at the courthouse tower looks at it through binoculars but cannot see any detail. It disappears to the west. (“Ship Founders in Air,” Indianapolis Star, September 17, 1906, p. 1)

October 7 — 5:00 p.m. An airship again floats over the southeastern portion of Indianapolis, Indiana, and is seen by many as it turns northeast and disappears in the distance. (“Ship Floats over City: Hundreds See It in Flight,” Indianapolis Star, October 8, 1906, p. 3)

November — Dusk. Roy Russell and four other cotton-pickers are taking a brief respite from work 10 miles southeast of Anadarko, Oklahoma, when they see a fiery object shaped like a stovepipe. From an initial altitude of 60 feet, the object sinks down, comes toward them, and passes within 16 feet at eye level. Then it seems to flatten out and just

blacks out. Another similar object follows and then several others. Russell watches them for 20 minutes. (“Recalls
Fiery 1906 U.F.O.,” Des Moines (Iowa) Tribune, May 4, 1966, p. 36)

1907

April 20– 26 — The Nashville American prints some tall tales about encounters with occupants of a balloon who land briefly in various places (usually near a spring) around central Tennessee. The witnesses include a farmer named W. A. Smith, Walter Stephenson, Herman Schubert, Asa Hickerson, and A. Mollycoddle. The aeronauts are dressed strangely, play music, and speak a foreign language. (Nashville (Tenn.) Sunday American, April 21–23, 28 , 1907; “Here’s a Weird Tale,” Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer, April 25, 1907, p. 6; Theo Paijmans, “The Tennessee Aeronaut Flap of 1907,” Fortean Times 313 (May 2014): 28 – 29 )

Summer — While playing along the shore of a lake near Vilppula [now Mänttä-Vilppula], Finland, a group of boys see a light come from over the water and settle on the beach nearby. A door opens, and human-like beings emerge, sending the youths running. Searchers who come to the site later find traces and footprints. (Clark III 261 ; Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1900- 1909 , p. 7) July 2 — Just before 12:00 noon. Bishop John Stephen Michaud is talking with Vermont ex-governor Urban A. Woodbury at the corner of Church and College streets in Burlington, Vermont, when they hear a loud explosion and see a torpedo-shaped object about 6 feet long and 8 inches in diameter suspended in the air about 300 feet away. It is dark, with several tongues of flame issuing from it at various points, as if its covering is ruptured. It slowly begins to move to the southeast. The explosion has either knocked down or stunned a horse in College Street. A strong downpour of rain ensues shortly afterward. Although described as a “possible case of ball lightning,” the object appears more likely to have been an exploded balloon that someone has attached fireworks to in preparation for a Fourth of July celebration. (William H. Alexander, “A Possible Case of Ball Lightning,” Monthly Weather Review 35 (July 1907): 310– 311 ; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 1, Anomalist, 2019, pp. 354– 372 , reprinted in “Revisiting the Bishop’s Torpedo,” Fortean Times 387 (Christmas 2019): 44–51) July 7 — 6:40 p.m. W. E. Thomas is watching a vivid sunset in Phoenix, Arizona, when he sees a “blue disk floating in the heavens apparently close to the sun.” It passes in front of the sun, completely covering it. Other discs appear until there are seven of them. His wife also sees the objects, which are constantly in motion, changing directions and sometimes moving in a straight-line formation. The disks are visible for another hour until sunset, when they are last seen as blue blotches. (“Phoenix Man Sees Blue Stars,” Tucson (Ariz.) Citizen, July 11, 1907, p. 4)

1908

March 30 — 10:15 p.m. F. W. Longbottom in Queens Park, Chester, England, is photographing the Whirlpool Galaxy (NGC 5194) in Canes Venacti with a 12.25-inch reflector. When the plate is developed, it shows an unknown nebulous object some 25 minutes of arc northeast of the galaxy. He does not see the object when he examines the same spot again on April 6. (F. W. Longbottom, “Comet or ———?” The Observatory 31 (1908): 215–216)

May — Late evening. Helen C. Peterson sees a string of lighted beads in the sky over Great River, Long Island, New York. The first light stops and as the others reach it, they seem to bump into it. It grows a little bigger, appearing like a large star. Suddenly it begins to spin like a pinwheel, but without sparks. The motion stops and what looks like a very bright star takes off at great speed toward the southeast. (Clark III 1168–1169)

June 30 — 7:14 a.m. A large explosion takes place near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate [now Krasnoyarsk Krai], Russia. Evenki natives and Russian settlers in the hills northwest of Lake Baikal observe a column of bluish light, nearly as bright as the sun, moving across the sky. About 10 minutes later, there is a flash and a sound similar to artillery fire. Eyewitnesses closer to the explosion report that the source of the sound moves from the east to the north of them. The sounds are accompanied by a shock wave that knocks people off their feet and breaks windows hundreds of kilometers away. The explosion over the sparsely populated eastern Siberian taiga flattens 770 square miles of forest and possibly causes up to three human casualties. The event is generally attributed to the air burst of a meteoroid. It is classified as an impact event, even though no impact crater has been found. The object disintegrates at an altitude of 3–6 miles rather than hitting the surface of the Earth. The

area is so remote that the site is not inspected until 1927 by a team led by Russian mineralogist Leonid Kulik, who
finds a zone about 5 miles across where trees are scorched and devoid of branches but still standing upright. More
exotic explanations for the event include a black hole impact, antimatter, a UFO crash (as recently as 2004 by
Russian ufologist Yuri Labvin), a nuclear explosion, and an inadvertent experiment by Nikola Tesla. (Wikipedia,
“Tunguska event”; Hobana and Weverbergh 10 – 30 ; John Baxter and Thomas Atkins, The Fire Came By: The
Riddle of the Great Siberian Explosion, Doubleday, 1976; Surendra Verma, The Mystery of the Tunguska
Fireball, Thriplow, 2005 ; Vladimir Rubtsov, The Tunguska Mystery, Springer, 2009 ; Phil Plait, “Aliens Saved
Tunguska!” Bad Astronomy, May 29, 2009; Mark Peplow, “Rock Samples Suggest Meteor Caused Tunguska
Blast,” Nature, June 10, 2013)

Summer — Repeated sightings of unidentified airships, sometimes flying against the wind, take place in Denmark. They usually have wings and searchlights; on one occasion, an antenna is seen jutting from the front end. Other reports are of oddly shaped clouds from which a searchlight emanates, sweeping the ground. (Willy Wegner, “The Mystery ‘Airship’ over Denmark in 1908,” The UFO Register 8, no. 1 (November 1977): 3–8; Clark III 1163) July 25 — About 6:00 p.m. A “large airship sailing very high” is seen passing from north to south over the Forestville neighborhood of Bristol, Connecticut. It seems to be an elongated gas bag under which a framework with a propeller is suspended. After “maneuvering” a while, it stops and circles over Lake Compounce then changes course toward the southwest. An East Bristol man named Wilson later claims it was a pig-shaped balloon he had sent up for his daughter’s birthday party, but “balloon” sightings continue in Massachusetts through December. (“Large Airship Seen Sailing over East Part of Bristol, Ct.,” Boston Herald, July 2 6 , 1908, p. 16; “The Lake Compounce Airship,” Willimantic (Conn.) Daily Chronicle, July 29, 1908, p. 26; Clark III 1163) July 26 — A special agent force in the Department of Justice, forerunner of the FBI, is created by Attorney General Charles Bonaparte. Its first chief is Stanley Finch. Attorney General George W. Wickersham renames the force the Bureau of Investigation in March 1909. (Federal Bureau of Investigation, Timeline, March 31, 2002)

October — Skipper J. H. Stockman of the smack Superb is fishing in the North Sea 35 miles out of Lowestoft, Suffolk, England, when he sees a large “star” rise out of the water and approach his ship. He signals it with a red flare, and to his surprise he is immediately answered with a red flare above him. He then shows a white flare and receives a blue flare in response. The object appears sausage-shaped and carries a single light. It disappears in the direction of the Netherlands. (East Anglian Daily Times, May 20, 1909; Norfolk News, May 22, 1909; Clark III 1163; David Clarke, “Scareships over Britain: The Airship Wave of 1909,” Fortean Studies 6 (1999); Patrick Gross, URECAT, August 17, 2013)

1909

1909 — Night. Frederick G. Hehr sees a bright white light executing a “curious dance” over a village one mile away in East Frisia, Lower Saxony, Germany. A minute later the light suddenly streaks in his direction, coming within 300 feet as it passes by at 60 feet altitude. Three seconds later it is gone. (“Report from the Readers,” Fate 4, no. 5 (July 1951): 95 – 96 ; Clark III 1169)

March 4 — 8:25 p.m. Charles Maberly, an organist at St. Michael’s Church in Lambourne, Berkshire, England, is returning home from choir practice when he sees a bright searchlight attached to a torpedo-shaped dirigible heading west at 200 feet altitude. He walks for about 50 yards watching it. As it passes out of sight, he hears three explosions at regular intervals. (London Evening News, May 18, 1909; Carl Grove, “The Airship Wave of 1909: A Preliminary Survey,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1970): 9) March 23 — 5:15 a.m. Police Constable James Kettle of Peterborough, England, sees a powerful light about 1,200 feet in the air above Cromwell Road making an engine-like buzz. The light is on a dark, fast-moving oblong object. It is in view for about 3 minutes. (Peterborough Advertiser, March 27, 1909; “Aerial Mystery,” London Standard, May 17, 1909, p. 7; Carl Grove, “The Airship Wave of 1909: A Preliminary Survey,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1970): 9; David Clarke, “Scareships over Britain: The Airship Wave of 1909,” Fortean Studies 6 (1999))

May 9 — 11:20 p.m. Miss H. M. Boville notices from her bedroom window at Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, a “large dark object looming out of the sky” and traveling slowly from the east. After a few seconds it remains nearly stationary for a few minutes in front of her window, and she sees the outline of a torpedo-shaped airship about

1,300 feet in altitude. It rises higher then travels swiftly to the west toward London. It shows two powerful searchlights at each end very briefly. (London Evening News, May 15, 1909; Carl Grove, “The Airship Wave of 1909: A Preliminary Survey,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1970): 1 0 ; David Clarke, “Scareships over Britain: The Airship Wave of 1909,” Fortean Studies 6 (1999)) May 13 — Night. C. W. Allen and two other men are motoring through Kelmarsh, Northampton, England, when they hear a loud explosion in the air followed by the rumbling of an engine. Allen sees an oblong dark shape, perhaps 100 feet long, with lights in front and behind moving at an altitude of 500– 600 feet. They dimly perceive some men on a platform below it. It passes out of sight at 20 mph northeast toward Peterborough. (East Anglian Daily Times, May 13, 1909; Carl Grove, “The Airship Wave of 1909: A Preliminary Survey,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1970): 11; David Clarke, “Scareships over Britain: The Airship Wave of 1909,” Fortean Studies 6 (1999)) May 13 — 9:45 p.m. Fred Harrison of King’s Lynn, Norfolk, England, sees a “long, dark object” moving swiftly overhead just above treetop level. It carries a searchlight that illuminates the road, farm buildings, trees, and everything it touches. (“Mystery of the Air,” London Daily Express, May 14, 1909, p. 1; David Clarke, “Scareships over Britain: The Airship Wave of 1909,” Fortean Studies 6 (1999)) May 16 — 1:30 a.m. A Mrs. Wigg, who lives near Belle Vue Park on Yarmouth Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk, England, wakes up to an engine-like sound. She looks out her window and sees a long, dark, bottle-shaped object pass by at a low altitude. She thinks she can see a man in front, steering the craft. Other people in Lowestoft hear engine sounds and flashes of light around the same time. (East Anglian Daily Times, May 18– 19 , 1909; Norfolk News, May 19 , 1909, p. 13; David Clarke, “Scareships over Britain: The Airship Wave of 1909,” Fortean Studies 6 (1999)) May 17 — The subject of mystery airships is brought up in a debate in the House of Commons. Arthur Fell, MP for Great Yarmouth, England, had asked Secretary of State for War Richard Haldane if he could give the number of dirigibles, either built or in progress of being built, in Germany. Haldane replies that 7 dirigible airships have been built and another 5 are under construction. Horatio Myer, MP for Lambeth North, follows up by asking Haldane: “Will the honourable gentleman, in any report he may circulate, tell us about a certain dirigible supposed to be hovering about our coast?” The question is greeted with laughter and Haldane does not reply. (Neil R. Storey, Zeppelin Blitz: The German Air Raids on Great Britain during the First World War, History Press, 2015) May 1 8 — 11:00 p.m. Charles Lethbridge (part-time dock worker and Punch-and-Judy showman) is traveling on a “spring cart” from Senghenydd on his way home to Cardiff, South Wales. At the summit of Caerphilly Mountain he sees a long, tube-shaped object sitting on the grass by the roadside, with two men busily working on something. They are wearing heavy fur coats and fur caps that fit tightly over the heads. Lethbridge proceeds to about 60 feet of them when they notice him and start jumping up and jabbering in a foreign language. They quickly pick up something from the ground, then jump into a little carriage suspended from the object (with wheels at the bottom), which rises into the air in a zig-zag fashion. When it clears the telegraph wires, two electric lights shine out and the craft heads toward the southeast. Lethbridge returns to the site with a newspaper reporter and they find signs of trampling in the grass for about 45 feet. They also pick up a small red French military label, letterhead from a London stockbroker, many newspaper clippings with references to airships or the German army, and a tin box with paste for polishing metal. (“Airship Mystery,” The Guardian (London), May 20, 1909, p. 7; “Mystery of the Air,” London Daily Express, May 20, 1909, p. 1; Nick Redfern, “UFOs over Wales: A 1909 Wave,” Mysterious Universe, May 23, 2016; Brett Holman, “What the Showman Saw,” Airminded, November 17, 2014) May 19 — 1:15 a.m. Robert Westlake, railroad signalman at King’s Junction in the Queen Alexandra Dock at Cardiff, Wales, sees a cigar-shaped object flying swiftly at perhaps 2,600 feet and making a whizzing noise. It has two lights and is moving eastward. Some dock workers who are loading the SS Arndale also see the object for “a minute or two.” It passes over the Bristol Channel towards Weston-super-Mare. Aeronaut Percival G. Spencer says that he recently sold several of his “man-lifting” 25-foot-long model airships to advertising firms in the UK, one of them in Cardiff. (London Globe, May 19, 1909; Brett Holman, “Wednesday, 19 May 1909,” Airminded, May 19, 1909; London Standard, May 21, 1909; Brett Holman, “Friday, 21 May 1909,” Airminded, May 21, 2009) May 19 — 11:30 p.m. A lone motorcyclist observes a glowing light traveling in a straight trajectory overhead near Wroxham, Norfolk, England. As it passes, the motorcycle headlight fails. It begins working again after the UFO passes. (East Anglian Daily Times, May 21, 1909; Norfolk News, May 22, 1909; Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 1 ; Brett Holman, “Saturday, May 22, 1909,” Airminded, May 22, 2009) May 19 — 12:00 midnight. A Mr. Chatten, grocer’s assistant, is cycling home to Tharston, Norfolk, England, when he is dazzled by a bright light with a bluish tinge overhead. It switches off for a few seconds, and Chatten can see a

long, cigar-shaped object 300 – 400 feet above him, moving rapidly toward Norwich. On its underside is a
framework with a yellow light at each end. (“Airship Mystery,” London Daily Telegraph, May 21, 1909, p. 12;
Brett Holman, “Saturday, May 22, 1909,” Airminded, May 22, 2009)

July–August — A mystery airship wave begins in New Zealand with numerous sightings of unusual nocturnal lights and airships seen in both daytime and nighttime. The sightings are at first most intense over the southern end of South Island. In the following weeks the reports appear to move northward and by August, Australia also falls under the grip of what press accounts call “aerialitis.” (Bill Chalker, “Early Australian Historical Encounters,” 1997; Tony Brunt, “The New Zealand UFO Wave of 1909,” Ufocus NZ, July 22, 2020; Clark III 65–67; Brett Holman, “Scareships over Australia—1,” Airminded, October 20, 2010; Brett Holman, “Scareships over Australia—II,” Airminded, October 23, 2010; Brett Holman, “Scareships over Australia—III,” Airminded, October 25, 2010; Robert E. Bartholomew, “The Great Zeppelin Scare of 1909,” NZ Skeptics, May 1, 1998; Hilary Evans and Robert E. Bartholomew, Outbreak!, Anomalist, 2009, pp. 479–483) July 23 — 12:00 noon. Mrs. James Russell and several schoolchildren in Kelso, New Zealand, see an airship shaped like a boat that flies toward them from the east, circles above the school, and returns in the same direction. It seems to have a propeller. (Bill Chalker, “Early Australian Historical Encounters,” 1997; Bryan Dickeson, “The ‘ 1909 Kelso Airships’ of New Zealand,” Ufocus NZ, July 22, 2020) July 30 — 5:00 a.m. Two men working on a dredge on the Mataura River north of Gore, New Zealand, see a lighted object descend out of the mist. It appears to be a narrow, boat-shaped craft that circles the dredge over a period of several minutes, rising and falling like a bird, and varying its speed. Two figures can be seen inside. It disappears into the mist, leaving behind a yellow glare. (Bill Chalker, “Early Australian Historical Encounters,” 1997; Tony Brunt, “The New Zealand UFO Wave of 1909,” Ufocus NZ, July 22, 2020)

August 3 — Night. A man is riding in Waipawa, New Zealand, when his horse becomes nervous. He sees a large, gray, torpedo-shaped object passing overhead. Three persons are visible in it, one of whom shouts to him in an unknown language. The object rises to a great height, showing lights fore and aft. After circling around, it disappears behind a hill. (Clark III 261 ; Hawkes Bay Herald, August 6, 1909; Tony Brunt, “The New Zealand UFO Wave of 1909,” Ufocus NZ, July 22, 2020) August 7 — 10:30 p.m. Four young men at brick kilns near the railway station in Goulburn, New South Wales, see a bright, pale blue light arise from behind some hills to the east. After ascending, it circles back in the direction it came from. The object is said to be visible every night from August 5–10. (“The Goulburn ‘Airship,’” Sydney (N.S.W.) Morning Herald, August 11, 1909, p. 10; Bill Chalker, “Historical Australian UFO Reports,” UFO Research Australia Newsletter 4, no. 3 (Nov.–Dec. 1983): 27) August 9 — 7:30–8:00 p.m. A flying object with lights on its front and back sails at a great altitude from west to east over Concord, New Hampshire, eventually disappearing into a cloud. Capt. Lyman Jackman at first thinks it is a balloon, but its estimated speed of 45–50 mph against the wind leads him to think otherwise. (“Air Ship or Meteor,” Concord (N.H.) Evening Monitor, August 10, 1909, p. 3) At about the same time, Bertha Niles of Vale Perkins, Quebec, watches a similar lighted object moving west to east. (“Air Ship or What?” Concord (N.H.) Evening Monitor, August 13, 1909, p. 7) August 9 — Night. Residents of Moss Vale, New South Wales, watch a large lighted object like an airship float over the town. (“Is It an Airship?” Sydney (N.S.W.) Morning Herald, August 10, 1909, p. 7) August 18 — 2:30 a.m. Four men (Capt. Edward P. Sisson, Ernest T. Newton, Prentice Lanphear, and Edward M. Knapp) at the Coast Guard life-saving station on the south side of Fishers Island, New York, see a winged airship 60 feet long and 20 feet wide. Moving swiftly against the wind, it moves in from the northeast, its engines whirring and a dazzling white light at its head. Two dark figures can be seen in the center of the object. Visible for 3 minutes, the object moves off to the west. (“Fishers Islanders See Big Aeroplane,” Providence (R.I.) Journal, August 19, 1909, p. 1) August 22 — Evening. Residents of Upper Montclair, New Jersey, watch a mystery airplane that emits a large puff of smoke. It descends and flies off to the north. (“Airship over Montclair,” New York Times, August 24, 1909, p. 2)

September — 7:30 p.m. E. B. Hanna of South Windham, Connecticut, watches a high-flying, meandering “searchlight” along Windham Center Road for about an hour. After heading toward him, it changes direction and moves southward. (“What Mr. Hanna Saw May Have Been the Worcester Airship,” Willimantic (Conn.) Chronicle, December 14, 1909, p. 8)

September 3 — 9:00 a.m. Several hundred residents of Bloomingdale, Indiana, see a “dirigible balloon” pass over the city for 15 minutes. The car beneath the gas bag is plainly visible. (“Sights Strange Airship,” Indianapolis Star, September 4, 1909, p. 5 ) September 20 — During the opposition of Mars, astronomer Eugène Antoniadi uses the 83cm aperture telescope at Meudon Observatory in Paris, France, to observe Mars. He sees no canals. The outstanding photos of Mars taken at the new Baillaud dome at the Pic du Midi Observatory in the French Pyrenees also bring formal discredit to the Martian canal theory, and the notion of canals begins to fall out of favor. Around this time, spectroscopic analysis also begins to show that no water is present in the Martian atmosphere. (Wikipedia, “Martian canal”) September 30 — Evening. A balloon “supposed to be from Chicago” passes over Edinburgh, Indiana. Its anchor somehow gets entangled in high-tension wires of the traction station for the Indianapolis, Columbus, and Southern interurban rail. It moves south to Taylorsville a few minutes later, and it is so low to the ground that the occupants are able to talk to passersby. (“Tramp Balloon Snaps Wires,” Indianapolis Star, October 1, 1909, p. 9)

October — 10:30 p.m. Rev. Ruth Smith and some church members are riding in a wagon in La Porte, Indiana, when the horses rear and a blinding light splashes across the road. A large structure resembling two inverted bowls, separated by a row of lights, is hovering, with several phosphorescent beams extending to the ground. It is encircled in a corona of light and begins moving slowly. After 15 minutes, it blinks out. (Lore and Deneault, p. 97 ; Clark III 1169)

December 13 — 10:00 p.m. A. W. Norris of Mabelvale, Arkansas, sees a bright, bobbling light moving through the air about 300 feet above him from the south. (“Airship Flies near Little Rock, Perhaps,” Little Rock Arkansas Gazette, December 15, 1909, p. 7) December 22 — 6: 30 p.m. Many residents of Worcester, Massachusetts, see a “brilliant ray” emitted by a large black object 1,000 feet high in the southwestern sky. After circling over the town, the object heads to the west, where it is seen over Marlboro. It returns to Worcester between 7:00 and 7:30 p.m., flying at low altitude and sporting a searchlight. One policeman thinks he sees enormous wings; others detect one or two figures inside. The airship is attributed to a Worcester businessman named Wallace E. Tillinghast, who has told the Boston Herald on December 12 that he has invented a heavier-than-air monoplane and has made more than 100 test flights at night to Boston and New York City. But Tillinghast never offers his aircraft for public viewing, and people gradually realize it is a hoax. (“Tells of Flight 300 Miles in Air,” Boston Herald, December 13, 1909, p. 1; “Airship Seen in Two Cities,” Boston Globe, December 23, 1909, p. 1; Clark III 1165; Stephen Whalen and Robert E. Bartholomew, “The Great New England Airship Hoax of 1909,” New England Quarterly 75, no. 3 (September 2002) :466– 376 ; Hilary Evans and Robert E. Bartholomew, Outbreak!, Anomalist, 2009, pp. 483–486) December 2 3 — 10 :00 p.m. Thousands of citizens of Boston, Massachusetts, and neighboring communities see an airship with lights flying at an altitude of around 400 feet. Alex Randall of Revere reports wings, tail, and propeller, but other observers only see a cylindrical shape at most. (“Skyship of Mystery Flies above Boston,” Boston Journal, December 24, 1909, p.1; Clark III 1165) December 24 — In Providence, Rhode Island, author H. P. Lovecraft sees what people are claiming is Tillinghast’s airplane bearing a powerful searchlight, but he identifies it as the planet Venus. (“City Is Airship Mad,” Providence (R.I.) Journal, December 25, 1909, p. 2; “Providence Men See Searchlight in Sky,” Providence (R.I.) Journal, December 25, 1909, p. 14; H. P. Lovecraft, Collected Essays, Volume 3: Science, ed. S. T. Joshi, Hippocampus, 2005, p. 99; Clark III 1165)

1910

January 12 — 9:30 a.m. An unknown cigar-shaped aircraft is seen moving over Chattanooga, Tennessee, to the northeast. It returns on January 13. (“Airship in the Air,” Chattanooga (Tenn.) Daily Times, January 13, 1910, p. 7; “Another Airship Flying,” Chattanooga (Tenn.) Daily Times, January 14, 1910, p. 6; Patrick Gross, URECAT, February 20, 2013) January 12 — 4:30 p.m. An unknown airship flies high over Huntsville, Alabama, against the wind, from southwest to northeast, disappearing over the crest of Chapman Mountain. (“Strange Airship,” Huntsville (Ala.) Journal, January 13, 1910, p. 1) January 14 — 6:55 p.m. Two men on Summit Hill in Knoxville, Tennessee, see a large airship moving south. Its outlines are distinct. The men hear a hum of machinery and see sparks from “its motors.” (“Positive That They Saw an Airship,” Knoxville (Tenn.) Journal, January 15, 1910, p. 7)

Summer — Morning. Lawrence J. Crone is playing on a baseball field in the Violetville neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, when he sees a metallic, brown, blimplike object, more than 100 feet long, hovering above a pine tree 200 feet away. It has a row of colored, rectangular windows. Through one he can see as many as 20 strange entities taking turns looking at him. Their heads are pointed, and they are dressed in light-colored garments with a fur-like texture. Each has small dots for eyes and a slit for a mouth. Two other young men also see the object and are badly frightened. (Clark III 262 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, February 20, 2013) Summer — Night. Carl H. Darden is riding near Vernal, Utah, when he notices that his horse is acting strangely. He dismounts and walks the horse into a clearing, where he sees a row of lights a few feet above the ground. They are attached to a huge, hovering disc. After watching it a while, he steps toward it, and it makes a buzzing sound as if in warning. As he advances, it rises slowly into the sky until it reaches an altitude of several hundred feet, when it suddenly streaks off to the north. (Clark III 1169)

October 25 — 5:30 p.m. A mystery airship is seen at Minderoo Station, Western Australia, by Mrs. A. J. Roe, wife of the station manager. She says it “looked compact, like a dirigible balloon, but it appeared to be squarer and more like an aeroplane. The sun shone on it, and flashes came from it, as though reflected from something revolving, or from metal work.” Three station hands also see the object. (“Mysterious Airship Sighted at Onslow,” Sydney (N.S.W.) Morning Herald, December 5, 1910, p. 9; Bill Chalker, “Early Australian Historical Encounters,” 1997; Brett Holman, “Scareships over Australia—IV,” Airminded, October 27, 2010) October 27 — 1:10 a.m. An airship with a powerful headlight and red and green taillights is seen flying at 600 feet above Swift Current, Saskatchewan. Observers at Irvine, Alberta, see it at 4:45 a.m. going west. It is also seen at Medicine Hat, Alberta, flying southwest. (“Unknown Aeronaut in Alberta,” Calgary (Alberta) Herald, October 27, 1910, p. 1) October 29 — 5:30 a.m. Two objects flying at a great altitude are seen over East Providence, Rhode Island, by newspaper workers and others up early. They are too distant to be recognized as dirigibles or balloons, but they resemble luminous pumpkins. One is far ahead of the other, but both are “cutting pigeon wings, looping aerial loops, circling and diving like birds and generally doing skylark stunts.” (“Aviators Seen High Up in Air near City,” Providence Journal, October 30, 1910, p. 1)

1911

January 9 — Harvard astronomer William H. Pickering tells the Boston Post that he believes Venus is populated by “huge monsters and lizards such as roamed the earth ages ago.” He adds that “If human life exists on Venus, the people do not live as we do.” (“Olden Monsters Inhabit Venus?” Chicago Tribune, January 9, 1911, p. 8)

May 5 — 5:00 p.m. William Nixon is working at his father’s sawmill 18 miles from St. George, Queensland, Australia, when he sees a flying machine carrying two men, one of whom is dressed in dark clothing. He estimates it is traveling from south to northwest at about 1,000 feet. (“Mysterious Airships,” Perth West Australian, May 15, 1911, p. 5)

July 22 — Evening. A ball of fire the size of the full moon is seen for several hours at Durango, Colorado. For a time it grows even larger, then diminishes in size until it disappears entirely. (“Large Ball of Fire Is Seen in the Sky,” Reno (Nev.) Evening Gazette, July 25, 1911, p. 1)

August 3 — 9:00 p.m. Adam H. McCullough and his wife Carrie are driving on Brinkerhoff Avenue in Mansfield, Ohio, when they notice a light, as brilliant as an arc light, in the northern sky. It has an apparent size of 6 inches and looks to be about 50 feet up. It remains visible for several minutes then fizzles out. (“A Phenomenon,” Mansfield (Ohio) News, August 4, 1911, p. 10)

1912

April 8 — Sunset. Charles Tilden Smith at Little Bedwyn, Wiltshire, England, observes the apparent fan-shaped shadow of a stationary object 45° in the sky against the altostratus cloud layer. The dark patch remains stationary against the moving clouds and is visible for 30 minutes. Meteorologist Charles John Philip Cave suspects the object is a

pilot balloon. (Charles Tilden Smith, “Clouds and Shadows,” Nature 89 (1912): 168; Charles J. P. Cave, “Clouds
and Shadows,” Nature 89 (1912): 268)

Fall — About 2:30 p.m. C. F. Rowling, 15, and two friends see three perfectly round, pale-green objects less than a mile away in the northern sky over Alameda, California. They are traveling in parallel with the horizon in a vertical formation (one atop the other) and heading west. They are completely silent and 75–100 feet in diameter. He watches them for 10 seconds before they pass behind some trees. (Clark III 1170)

October 14 — 7:00 p.m. Noise from an unseen aircraft startles the residents of Sheerness, Kent, England. Nearby at Eastchurch, residents light flares to guide the craft in case it needs to land. The incident comes up in a debate in Parliament on November 21. MP William Joynson-Hicks asks First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill whether the government has any zeppelins capable of traveling at 60 mph, but Churchill answers no. However, some authorities conclude that the incident is caused by the intrusion of the LZ 13 Hansa Zeppelin over British airspace. (“The Alleged Visit of a Foreign Airship,” London Times, November 22, 1912, p. 8; Brett Holman, “The Sheerness Incident,” Airminded, October 14, 2007; Brett Holman, “Secrets of the German Aërial Fleet—I,” Airminded, May 29, 2013; Hilary Evans and Robert E. Bartholomew, Outbreak!, Anomalist, 2009, pp. 486– 487 ; UFOFiles2, p. 6 )

1913

January 4 — 5:00 a.m. Council worker John Hobbs hears aerial motors at Dover, England, and sees a light speeding toward him from the sea in a northeasterly direction. It is moving steadily despite a gale-force wind. Two other people, tradesman Mr. Langley and Police Constable Pierce, hear the noise but do not see the object. (“Unknown Aircraft over Dover,” London Times, January 6, 1913, p. 6 ; “Mysterious Airship,” London Daily Telegraph, January 6, 1913; Brett Holman, “Monday, 6 January 1913,” Airminded, January 6, 2013) January 6 — 10:00 p.m. Two lights “thought to be the lamps of an airship” maneuver in the sky over Lavernock Battery, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. (“Mystery Airships,” London Daily Express, January 7, 1913, p. 5; Brett Holman, “Friday, 10 January 1913,” Airminded, January 10, 1913) January 17 — 4:45 p.m. Capt. Lionel Lindsay, chief constable of Glamorganshire, watches a large, fast-moving object above Cardiff, Wales, leaving in its wake a dense volume of smoke. Other witnesses see the light moving west from Cardiff at considerable speed. (“An Airship over Cardiff,” London Times, January 21, 1913, p. 10; Brett Holman, “Tuesday, 21 January 1913,” Airminded, January 21, 2013) January 25 — 7:00–8:30 p.m. Several people see a mysterious aircraft over the Clubmoor neighborhood of Liverpool, England. It is traveling about 25 mph and carries a brilliant light. (“Aircraft over Liverpool,” London Times, January 28, 1913, p. 13; Brett Holman, “Tuesday, 28 January 1913,” Airminded, January 28, 2013) January 25 — 8:25 p.m. Villagers of Chancery, Ceredigion, Wales, watch a mystery airship with searchlights that turns south and leaves in the direction of Carmathenshire. (“Mystery Airship,” London Daily Express, January 30, 1913, p. 1; Brett Holman, “Thursday, 30 January 1913,” Airminded, January 30, 2013) January 27 — 9:00 p.m. A resident of Stretford, Greater Manchester, England, sees an aircraft “like a huge ball” passing silently overhead in a southerly direction. He estimates its speed at 40 mph and its altitude as 700 feet. It has a yellowish light that later turns light red. When it is over Eccles, it turns westward in the direction of Liverpool. (“Is It a German Airship?” London Daily Express, January 31, 1913, p. 5; Brett Holman, “Friday, 31 January 1913,” Airminded, January 31, 2013) January 29 — 8:00 p.m. An airplane with a powerful searchlight is seen over Iași, Romania, coming from the direction of Russia. It maneuvers over the town for 10 minutes and then moves toward the barracks. Troops are mustered out and signals are given for the aviator to land. Two warning shots are fired, but the lights go out and the object disappears. Other mystery aircraft are seen this month at military barracks in Focşani, Brăila, and Târgovişte. (“‘Russian Aeroplane’ Scare in Roumania,” Manchester Guardian, January 31, 1913, p. 9; Romania 8– 9 )

February 1 — Evening. A Russian airplane equipped with a searchlight is seen maneuvering over Lvov, Ukraine. Another mystery plane, making signals, is spotted over Ternopil, Ukraine. (London Globe, February 4, 1913, p. 3; “Airplane Fired at,” London Daily Express, February 3, 1913, p. 7) February 2 — 7:30 p.m. Police Constable Church at Aberavon, Wales, watches an airship flying for an hour over Swansea Bay and the Mumbles. (“Another Mysterious Airship,” London Times, February 3, 1913, p. 6; Brett Holman, “Monday, 3 February 1913,” Airminded, February 3, 2013)

February 2 — 8:45 p.m. Mr. Trubshaw of East Croydon, England, sees an airship come in from the southeast and disappear rapidly to the northwest. Rays of light stream from it on the right and the left and downward. Others see the object, said to be moving with the wind. (“Mysterious Fly-by-Night,” London Daily Express, February 3, 1913, p. 7) February 2 — 9:25 p.m. Robert Lawrence Thornton sees an airship pass over his house in Framfield, East Sussex, England. (“The Mystery Airships,” London Daily Express, February 4, 1913, p. 1) February 5 — Evening. Numerous witnesses in Newport, Cardiff, and Neath, South Wales, watch a “dirigible” carrying a bright light pass in a northwesterly direction. (“The ‘Mysterious Airship,’” Manchester Guardian, February 6, 1913, p. 9 ; Brett Holman, “Thursday, 6 February 1913,” Airminded, February 6, 2013) February 9 — 9:00 p.m. An earth-grazing meteor procession is seen from locations across Canada, the northeastern United States, and Bermuda, and from many ships at sea, including eight off Brazil, giving a total recorded ground track of over 7,000 miles. The meteors are particularly unusual in that there is no apparent radiant—no point in the sky from which the meteors appear to originate. Witnesses are surprised to see a procession of between 40 and 60 bright, slow-moving fireballs moving from horizon to horizon in a practically identical path. Individual fireballs are visible for at least 30 to 40 seconds, and the entire procession takes some 5 minutes to cross the sky. Subsequent observers also note a large, white, tailless body bringing up the rear, but the various bodies making up the procession continue to disintegrate and travel at different rates throughout their course, so that by the time observations are made in Bermuda, the leading bodies are described as “like large arc lights in appearance, slightly violet in colour,” followed closely by yellow and red fragments. Research carried out in the 1950s by Alexander D. Mebane uncovers a handful of reports from newspaper archives in the northern United States. At Escanaba, Michigan, the Press states the “end of the world was apprehended by many” as numerous meteors travel across the northern horizon. In Batavia, New York, a few observers see the meteors and many people hear a thundering noise, while other reports are made in Nunda and Dansville, New York (where several residents again think the world is ending) and Osceola, Pennsylvania. The observations are analyzed in detail later in 1913 by the astronomer Clarence Chant, leading him to conclude that as all accounts are positioned along a great circle arc, the source is a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth. One curious feature of the reports, highlighted by Mebane, is that several appear to indicate a second meteor procession on the same course around 5 hours later, although the Earth’s rotation means that there is no obvious mechanism to explain this. One observer, A. W. Brown from Thamesville, Ontario, reports seeing both the initial meteor procession and a second one on the same course at 2:20 a.m. the next day. Chant’s original report also refers to a series of three groups of “dark objects” that pass on the same course as the previous meteors from west to east over Toronto on the afternoon of February 10, which he suggests are “something of a meteoric nature.” (Wikipedia, “1913 Great Meteor Procession”; Clarence A. Chant, “An Extraordinary Meteoric Display,” Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada 7 (1913): 145–191; Alexander D. Mebane, “Observations of the Great Fireball Procession of 1913 February 9, Made in the United States,” Meteoritics 1, no. 4 (1956): 406– 421 ; Condon, pp. 570– 571 ; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 31– 35 ; “Sample Press Coverage of the 1913 Meteor Procession,” UFO Historical Revue, no. 12 (September 2006): 7; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 1, Anomalist, 2019, pp. 383–385) February 21 — Evening. An airship is seen at several locations around Selby, North Yorkshire, England. It alternately flies and hovers, flashing a searchlight and skirting the roofs of houses before vanishing to the north at “great speed.” At one point a group of businessmen waiting for a train at the Church Fenton railway station are treated to the sight of a powerful searchlight running along the tracks. Other witnesses hear the whir of motors as the vehicle passes by. (“The Fly-by-Night,” London Daily Express, February 24, 1913, p. 7; “Night Raids by Air,” London Daily Express, February 2 5 , 1913, p. 1 ; Brett Holman, “Monday, 24 February 1913,” Airminded, February 24, 2013; Brett Holman, “Tuesday, 25 February 1913,” Airminded, February 25, 2013) February 25 — 8:00 p.m. Coast guards at Hornsea, Yorkshire, England, see a bright light traveling to the west and report it to the Admiralty. Roberrt Falconer Jameson watches it through binoculars and sees that the lights are attached to a cone-shaped craft. A little later, the object appears over Hull, seen by crowds in the city center and Paragon Interchange for over an hour. It alters its course frequently and hovers occasionally. (“Airship Mystery,” London Daily Telegraph, February 26, 1913, p. 11; Brett Holman, “Wednesday, 26 February 1913,” Airminded, February 26, 2013)

March 13 — 6:00 p.m. Two women walking along a forest road by the Schwielowsee between Caputh and Ferch, Brandenburg, Germany, observe an airship catch fire and explode. The fire brigades of three villages, 40 riflemen from a local garrison, and several police officers and medical attendants rush to the scene. They search the woods south of Potsdam until early morning but find nothing. Though the women are considered trustworthy, they are

accused later of hoaxing the report. Later, airman Lt. Zwickau claims that he was firing rockets while flying from
Leipzig to Döberitz in order to see his way in the night. (“An Airship Catastrophe near Potsdam?” Berliner
Tageblatt, March 13, 1913, p. 3; “The Tale of the Airship,” Berliner Tageblatt, March 13, 1913, p. 4 ; “Phantom
Airships,” London Daily Telegraph, March 14, 1913, p. 15; “Mysterious Airship near Berlin,” Manchester
Guardian, March 14, 1913, p. 8; Brett Holman, “Friday, 14 March 1913,” Airminded, March 14, 2013)

April 8 — 8:23 p.m. An airship reappears over Cardiff, Wales, once again seen traveling at high speed to the southwest by Chief Constable Lionel Lindsay. (“The Cardiff Aerial Mystery Again,” Manchester Guardian, April 9, 1913, p. 9; Brett Holman, “Wednesday, 9 April 1913,” Airminded, April 9, 2013)

May (or May 1914) — Morning. Silbie J. Latham, 12, is working with his brothers Sid and Clyde on a cotton farm 2.5 miles west of Farmersville, Texas. Their two dogs, on the other side of a picket fence 50–75 feet away, begin barking and howling. The boys stop work and go to investigate. They see a little man, dark green in color and 18 inches high, who “looked like he was sitting on something.” His arms are hanging down by his sides. He has a Mexican-looking hat on, but no other clothes. Right after the boys get there, the two dogs jump him and tear him to pieces. Blood and internal organs spew out, but it doesn’t cry out. The boys go back and check the spot the next day, but the remains are gone. (Clark III 262 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, October 19, 2006)

June 29 — Sunset. An aerial object passes over Lansing, Michigan, from southeast to northwest at a great height. It moves swiftly, taking only 3 minutes. (“Strange Aircraft Passes over Lansing at Great Rate of Speed Sunday,” Lansing (Mich.) State Journal, June 30, 1913, p. 3; Clark III 1167)

October — Swiss astronomer Fritjof Le Coultre at the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland reports seeing “bluish-white flashes” on Mars for 17 consecutive nights. Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, also observes them. However, astronomer Guillaume Bigourdan at the Paris Observatory thinks the flashes are merely “auto- suggestion.” (“Is Mars Trying to Signal Us?” Santa Cruz (Calif.) Evening News, November 24, 1913, p. 1)

1914

1914 — 3:00 p.m. Hans M. Schnitzler, 7, is sitting in his front yard in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, when he hears a musical humming sound and sees a 30 - foot domed object about 25 feet away hovering about 10 feet above the ground across the street in front of a church. An opening appears and eight small entities emerge and begin singing a melody over and over again. Then they return inside. The object rises slowly and disappears behind the church. He remembers the melody and plays it on his harmonica years later. (“Correspondence,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 6 (Dec. 1982/Jan. 1983): 3)

March — Twilight. A farmer is returning to his house at Lajoumard, Haute-Vienne, France, when he sees a round, green, luminous object hovering just above a hilltop. Several small beings emerge, walk around the machine, and go back inside. The object takes off. (Clark III 262 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, March 3, 2013)

Summer — Mid-afternoon. For about 60 minutes at Mount Lyndhurst Station, South Australia, an unusual substance floats by at a constant altitude. Some pieces, 6–8 inches long, fall to earth and leave no trace. (Keith Basterfield, “Angel Hair: An Australian Perspective,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 6) June — 4:00 a.m. Gustav Herwagen sees a cigar-shaped object with luminous portholes in a field next to his house in Hamburg, Germany. Near it are 4–5 dwarfs about 4 feet tall. He walks toward them, but they flee inside the ship, which ascends and disappears. (Clark III 262 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, November 28, 2007)

August — William J. Kiehl, 18, is with seven others in a small cove along the shore of Georgian Bay, Ontario. They see a strange machine on the surface of the lake. Two little men wearing square masks and purple-green coveralls are working with a hose leading from the water to inside the UFO. Three other figures, dressed in khaki, are adjusting some rods that are pulsating with various colors. The beings notice the group watching them and run into the machine, which starts vibrating with colors. It starts to ascend, but one being has not made it inside and is hanging on. After hovering 12 feet in the air to balance itself, it rapidly accelerates upward. A likely hoax. (“Old-Timer Tells of Outer Spacemen in Letter to Wanaque Police Officer,” Paterson (N.J.) News, August 15, 1966, p. 9; Clark III 262 ; Lorenzen, Encounters with UFO Occupants, Berkley Medallion, 1976)

August 10– 11 — Night. Maj. Becke, commander of defenses at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England, reports that two or three cigar-shaped airships are seen above the Vickers shipyard. Soldiers fire upon them with machine guns and the only anti-aircraft battery on the west coast. (UFOFiles2, p. 7– 8 ) August 11–September 9 — Many British residents in South Africa observe a mystery monoplane that is assumed to be on a German reconnaissance mission. Most of the sightings are at night and at a distance. The government issues a statement on August 29 that there are no Union airplanes in South Africa, so any mystery aircraft are assumed to be enemies and should be fired upon. (“The Aeroplane,” Cape Times, August 21, 1914; “Aeroplanes in the Union,” Cape Times, August 22, 1914, p. 7; “Mysterious Airship at Sanday,” Pretoria News, August 24, 1914, p. 5; “Aeroplane Mystery,” Johannesburg Star, August 26, 1914, p. 4; “The Mysterious Aeroplane,” Cape Argus, August 2 7 , 1914, p. 5; “Aviator Discusses Air Visitors,” Cape Times, September 5, 1914, p. 5; Hilary Evans and Robert E. Bartholomew, Outbreak! Anomalist, 2009, pp. 487–489) August 13 — 7:30 p.m. High Constable Hobson and numerous residents of Sweaburg, Ontario, see “two large aeroplanes” pass from east to west. Sporadic sightings of mystery airplanes continue in the region for the next two weeks. (“Reports Aeroplanes over Oxford Village,” London Free Press, August 13, 1914, p. 2; “Three Aeroplanes Scan Topography of the Province, London (Ont.) Free Press, September 5, 1914, p. 8; Barry Greenwood, “And Yet More in 1914!” UFO Historical Revue, no. 12 (September 2006): 6; Hilary Evans and Robert E. Bartholomew, Outbreak! Anomalist, 2009, p. 4 91 ) August 14 — Afternoon. A large ball of fire sweeps over the southeast portion of Montpelier, Vermont, seen by employees of the C. P. Gill stone cutting plant near the Winooski River. It is accompanied by a loud noise. One man says the heat of the object has scorched his hands. The plant motor stops as the object passes over, and insulation from some electrical wires is found burned off. (“Great Ball of Fire,” Rutland (Vt.) Daily Herald, August 18, 1914, p. 5)

Autumn (or 1915) — Dusk. A man is having an outdoor meal with his family in Bujoreanca, Romania, when they see a reddish object moving to the east 60 feet above the ground, causing trees to bend from its movement, and making a whistling noise. It leaves a trail of glowing sparks and reappears for 6–7 days in the same position. (Hobana and Weverbergh 224) September — Two schoolboys named Uden and Hopkins are wandering along Caerphilly Mountain, South Wales, when they encounter an unexpected mist. Two white humanoid figures with piercing eyes and unusually tall hats are standing at the edge of it. They approach, and the boys take off. (Clark III 262 – 263 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, March 5, 2013; Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1910–1939, p. 9) September 9 — Mid-day. Amateur astronomer William Herbert Steavenson points his 3-inch refracting telescope in West Norwood, south London, England, at the planet Mercury, then about 8° distant from the Sun, when a round, luminous object the apparent size of the planet, but brighter, speeds across his field, passing centrally from south to north in about 3 seconds. A few seconds later, another appears going in the same direction. More follow, and the display continues until at least 3:00 p.m. when the sky becomes overcast. He watches several hundred bodies pass; about half are perfectly round and the rest are dumbbell shaped. All the objects are well defined and intrinsically brighter than Venus. The prevailing color is yellowish white. Steavenson sends a telegram to the Rev. T. E. R. Phillips at Ashstead, Surrey, but the sky is now overcast and he cannot confirm the observation. Steavensen thinks high-altitude seeds are the most likely explanation. (W. H. Steavenson, “Bright Objects Observed near the Sun,” Journal of the British Astronomical Association 25 (1914): 36 – 38 )

October 10 — Afternoon. Albert Alfred Buss is observing the sun using a spectrographic telescope at Manchester, England, when he sees an “absolutely black spindle-shaped object” against the sun. (Albert Alfred Buss, “Cosmic and Terrestrial Flotsam and Jetsam,” English Mechanic 100 (October 14, 1914): 256)

November 21 — Some 20–30 people watch an airship flying at 2,300 feet descend to about 1,300 feet and shine a searchlight on a passing ship near Skjaervser lighthouse on the island of Mindlandet, Nordland, Norway. (“Airship at Tjølta,” Morgenbladet, November 25, 1914, p. 2; Clark III 1167–1168)

December 15 — 4:10 p.m. The crew of a Hull trawler, the SS Ape, is streaming toward Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, when they see a “black object astern” which gradually approaches them. It turns and heads for the Lincolnshire coast where it vanishes in the fog. (UFOFiles2, p. 8)

1915

February 14 — 9: 15 p.m. The mayor and three city constables of Brockville, Ontario, see the lights of unknown aircraft crossing the St. Lawrence River heading for Ottawa. They can hear the sound of motors. A second flying machine is heard as it crosses the river from the direction of Morristown, New York. Three balls of fire drop from it into the river. Two more objects pass from the east and west ends of Brockville. The mayor, who has seen one of the planes flash a searchlight beam that lights up a city block, tells the police chief to alert the mayor and police chief in Ottawa. At 9:30 p.m., the mayor of Gananoque, Ontario, reports that two invisible aircraft are heard flying over his town. Prime Minister Robert Borden hears about the reports and orders the lights on Parliament Hill to be turned off at 11:15 p.m. The entire city follows suit 5 minutes later. The airplanes do not reappear, but Ottawa is placed on high alert. Later, Brockville police find two paper balloons that might explain the sightings. (“Ottawa in Darkness Awaits Airplane Raid,” Toronto Globe, February 15, 1915, pp. 1–2; “Scare in Ottawa over an Air Raid,” New York Times, February 15, 1915, p. 1; Brett Holman, “The Air Raid That Didn’t,” Airminded, February 13, 2014; Hilary Evans and Robert E. Bartholomew, Outbreak! Anomalist, 2009, pp. 492– 493 ; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 36– 38 ) February 15 — Early morning. Residents in a Toronto, Ontario, suburb notify police of a “strange aeroplane” hovering above their homes. Later, a man in Guelph sees “three moving lights passing over” the Ontario Agricultural College. He alerts other residents in his boarding house and they watch the silent lights until dawn. (Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 37–38)

April 26 — Possibly the first UFO film ever made, The Mysterious Airship premieres in the United States. A lost two-reel French short produced by the Ideal Film Company in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and distributed by United Film Service, the film does involve a mysterious airship built by aeronauts, but it is more of a murder mystery. (“United Film Service,” The Moving Picture World 24 (May 1, 1915): 806; Barry Greenwood, “UFO Feature Film: In 1914!” UFO Historical Revue, no. 12 (September 2006): 2–4; Barry Greenwood, “The Mysterious Airship: An Early Silent Film, Update,” UFO Historical Revue, no. 14 (May 2015): 1– 3 ; Internet Movie Database, “The Mysterious Airship”)

Late June — Just before dawn. Cecilia Peel Yates of Ashburton, Devon, England, is awakened by her dogs barking. She sees outside her bedroom window a bright light in the sky bearing north. It disappears in the direction of Haytor rocks on Dartmoor. This incident is followed by others at Hexworthy and Dartington in July and August, so much so that British Naval Intelligence sends two officers out to investigate. (Nick Redfern, “UFOs and the Military, 1915: Pt. 1,” Mysterious Universe, May 7, 2014; Nick Redfern, “UFOs and the Military, 1915: Pt. 2,” Mysterious Universe, May 8, 2014)

September 4 — 9:30 p.m. Two British Naval Intelligence officers, Lt. Col. William Price Drury and Lt. C. Brownlow, on Dartmoor, Devon, England, watch a “bright white light, considerably larger in appearance than a planet” ascend steadily from a meadow to a height of 50–60 feet. It then swings 300 feet or so to the left and suddenly vanishes. The officers have been investigating reports of similar lights seen in the region during the summer. In December, GHQ Home Forces issues a 16-page confidential report on the investigation and concludes there is “no evidence on which to base a suspicion that this class of enemy activity ever existed” and that 89% of the reports are explained. Some “moving lights in the air” are attributed to marsh gas. (Nick Redfern, “UFOs and the Military, 1915: Pt. 1,” Mysterious Universe, May 7, 2014; UFOFiles2, pp. 11– 12 )

1916

1916? — Mrs. Whiteland of Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England, sees from an open window a “round platform” on which nearly a dozen men wearing blue uniforms and little round hats stand gripping a handrail. It is moving in the air about 30 feet above the house and coming from the direction of a nearby marsh. It moves toward a railway yard and disappears behind some houses. (Clark III 263 ; “The Aldeburgh Platform,” Flying Saucer Review 15, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1969), pp. 23–24; “The Aldeburgh Platform,” parts 1–3; David Halperin, “UFOs, Screen Memories, and the Aldeburgh Platform Mystery,” April 8, 2016; Chris Aubeck and Martin Shough, Return to Magonia: Investigating UFOs in History, Anomalist, 2015, pp. 299–314)

January 31 — 8:25 p.m. Royal Flying Corps Lieut. Reginald Maxwell is cruising his B.E.2c biplane at 10,000 feet near Romford, Essex, England, patrolling for German Zeppelins. He sees an “artificial light” to the north. He follows it northeast for 20 minutes, but it moves higher and he loses it in the clouds. At the same time, Royal Flying Corps pilot Sub-Lieut. J. Eric Morgan, also flying a B.E.2c at 5 ,000 feet near Rochford, Essex, and looking for Zeppelins, sees an object about 100 feet away with a row of windows “like a railway carriage with the blinds drawn.” He tries to close on it, but his engine is malfunctioning. When he fires his pistol at it, the lights rise and rapidly disappear. Morgan is forced to make a crash landing. (Capt. Joseph Morris, The German Air Raids on Great Britain, 1914 – 1918, Sampson, Low, Marston, 1925, pp. 81– 82 ; David Clarke, “Britain’s First Military UFO Encounter?” Part 1 and Part 2, The Real UFO Project, 2004; UFOFiles2, p. 10; Patrick Gross, “Pilots UFO Sightings,” August 10, 2021, and “Near Rochford,” August 2, 2021)

February 29 — 4:30 a.m. John Tullyson, head watchman at Globe Elevators, and John Gustavson at the Carnegie Coal Dock in Superior, Wisconsin, hear an engine noise and see a large flying object “50 feet wide and 100 feet long,” with three lights, “one on each end and one in the middle.” Moving swiftly at 600 feet altitude, the object carries a long rope trailing behind it with a large object attached to it. Three “men” are inside the craft, one of them sitting in the front of the machine. The other two seem to be looking around. Possible Chinese lantern or airplane. (“Mysterious Aeroplane Continues Nocturnal Trips over Superior,” Superior (Wis.) Telegram, February 29, 1916, p. 5; Clark III 263 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, March 16, 2013)

March 12 — Early evening. Claude D. McGee is walking home from a trip to a ranch outside Lowry, South Dakota, when he sees a strange glowing light in the hills ahead of him. Suddenly the light swings in a huge arc down into the valley but stays close to the wall of hills where it comes to rest. It stays there a few moments then swings back to where it had been about 2 miles away. It repeats the action twice then disappears. (Clark III 1171)

May 4 — Evening. Astronomers Charles Dillon Perrine and Anna Estelle Glancy observe an object resembling a comet at the National Observatory in Córdoba, Argentina. It is moving remarkably fast, moving 10° toward the sun within an hour and passes below the horizon. It has a prominent tail of 8°–10° in length. (“Comet or Meteor?” Scientific American 115 (1916): 493)

July 19 — 10:30 p.m. Walter H. Eager and another witness in Huntington, West Virginia, watch a nebulous object in the shape of a dirigible that slowly fades from view. Possibly a light pillar created by a nearby blast furnace. (Walter H. Eager, “An Unusual Aurora,” Scientific American 115 (1916): 241; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, Redemption of the Damned, vol. 1, Anomalist, 2019, pp. 391–397)

December 17 — On the Western front in Europe, Canadian soldier Maurice Philipp Tuteur and two sergeant majors watch a Zeppelin-like object rise into the clouds in the rear of their lines. It darts ahead at an estimated speed of 200 mph, turns around, darts backward, and shoots up and disappears. (“I Saw a Flying Saucer,” Flying Saucers, May 1959, pp. 6–18, 78; Clark III 1170)

1917

April — Night. Residents of the African American neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina, report hearing strange, motor-like noises in the air at night for several nights. Some have fleeting glimpses of the swiftly moving dark objects that are causing the noise. (“The Colored People Are Seeing Visions,” Charlotte (N.C.) News, April 11, 1917, p. 13) April 13 — Early morning. Two National Guardsmen from Company L of the Sixth Massachusetts Infantry are stationed on the bridge linking Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Kittery, Maine, when they hear the noise of an airplane. They see an unidentified aircraft circling near the bridge. When it descends, apparently to make a pass at the bridge, one of the guardsmen panics and fires his rifle at it. It moves off and disappears in the distance. Other vague reports continue through April 30. (“Hunt for Aircraft Base,” Manchester (N.H.) Union, April 14, 1917, pp. 1, 3; Hilary Evans and Robert E. Bartholomew, Outbreak! Anomalist, 2009, pp. 496–497)

May 13 — Three shepherd children at the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portugal—Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto—report seeing a woman “brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal goblet filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun.” The woman

wears a white mantle edged with gold and holds a rosary in her hand. She asks them to devote themselves to the
Holy Trinity and to pray “the Rosary every day.” The children had seen an “angel” at the cove since the spring of

1916. (Wikipedia, “Our Lady of Fátima”)

June 13 — The three children at Fátima, Portugal, again see the lady, who reveals that Francisco and Jacinta will be “taken to heaven” soon, but Lúcia will live longer to spread the message. The lady also purportedly reveals to the children a vision of hell and entrusts a secret to them, described as “good for some and bad for others.” (Wikipedia, “Our Lady of Fátima”)

August 13 — Some 18,000 people have been flocking to Fátima and nearby Aljustrel, Portugal, drawn by reports of visions and miracles. The assembled multitude hears thunder and witnesses lightning in a clear blue sky. Then the sun grows pale and a cloud hovers above the oak tree where the apparitions usually appear. Provincial administrator Artur de Oliveira Santos, believing that these events are politically disruptive, takes the children into custody, jailing them before they can reach the Cova da Iria. Santos interrogates and threatens the children to get them to divulge the contents of the secrets. August 19 — Instead of the promised apparition in the Cova da Iria on August 13, the children see the Virgin Mary at nearby Valinhos, Portugal. She asks them again to pray the rosary daily, speaks about the miracle coming in October, and asks them “to pray a lot.” Late Summer — 12:30 p.m. John Boback is walking along railroad tracks in Youngstown, Pennsylvania, when he hears a swishing sound and sees an elliptical object about 100 feet away on the ground in a pasture. It has portholes emitting ligt from the interior and a smooth surface. Moments later the object ascends smoothly in a gradual climb and flies away to the east. (Lore and Deneault, pp. 104– 105 )

Early September — Witnesses at Salida, Colorado, watch distant moving lights flicking on and off over a period of several days. Through a telescope, one light appears to be a revolving wheel with lights on it. (Arlene Shovald, “Edwards’ UFO Sighting Not Salida’s First,” Salida (Colo.) Mountain Mail, September 7, 1995; Clark III 1171) September 13 — With the three children in attendance, the crowd at the Cova da Iria, Portugal, see a “luminous globe” sail across the sky. A white cloud envelops the children and the oak tree. A rain of white roses is said to have fallen out of the heavens but dissolves just before landing. Behind the cloud, the crowd can see Lúcia talking to the invisible lady.

October — Seven-year-old Elizabeth Klarer and her older sister Barbara have their first alleged encounter with a UFO on their parents’ farm Connington in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands, South Africa. While playing outside the farmhouse, Elizabeth claims to witness a giant orange-red wheel rolling across the sky. The plummeting object, also described as a fiery pockmarked meteor or planetoid, is intercepted by a silver disc bathed in a pearly luster. Around this time Elizabeth begins receiving occasional telepathic messages from a friendly space alien named Akon. (Clark III 657 ; Elizabeth Klarer, Beyond the Light Barrier, Howard Timmins, 1980) October 13 — After some newspapers report that the Virgin Mary has promised a miracle for the last of her apparitions, a huge crowd, possibly between 30,000 and 100,000, including reporters and photographers, gathers at Cova da Iria, Portugal. What happens then becomes known as the “Miracle of the Sun.” Various claims are made as to what really happened. The three children report seeing a panorama of visions during the event, including those of Jesus, Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and Saint Joseph blessing the people. Father John de Marchi, an Italian Catholic priest and researcher who wrote several books on the subject, included descriptions by witnesses who believe they observed a miracle created by Mary, the mother of Jesus. After a period of rain, the dark clouds break and the Sun appears as an opaque, spinning disc in the sky. It appears significantly duller than normal and casts multicolored lights across the landscape, the people, and the surrounding clouds. The Sun then seems to careen towards the earth before zigzagging back to its normal position. Witnesses report that their previously wet clothes become “suddenly and completely dry, as well as the wet and muddy ground that had been previously soaked because of the rain that had been falling.” Not all witnesses report seeing the Sun “dance.” Some people only see the radiant colors, and others, including some believers, see nothing at all. The only known picture of the Sun taken during the event does not show anything unusual. No unusual solar phenomena are observed by scientists. Some theologians, scientists, and skeptics have offered alternative explanations that include psychological suggestibility of the witnesses, temporary retinal distortion caused by staring at the intense light of the Sun, a sundog, and optical effects caused by natural meteorological phenomena. The Miracle of the Sun is interpreted by others as a UFO event. Investigator Joe Nickell thinks that the effects are “a combination of factors, including optical effects and meteorological phenomena, such as the sun being seen through thin clouds,

causing it to appear as a silver disc. Other possibilities include an alteration in the density of the passing clouds,
causing the sun’s image to alternately brighten and dim and so seem to advance and recede, and dust or moisture
droplets in the atmosphere refracting the sunlight and thus imparting a variety of colors.” (Wikipedia, “Miracle of
the Sun”; Clark III 484 – 485 ; “O Milagre do Fátima,” Ilustração Portuguesa, no. 610 (October 29, 1917 ): 353 –
355 ; John de Marchi, The True Story of Fatima, St. Paul, Minn.: Catechetical Guild Educational Society, 1956;
Joe Nickell, “The Real Secrets of Fatima,” Skeptical Inquirer 33, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 2009): 14–17; Jeffrey S.
Bennett, When the Sun Danced, University of Virginia, 2012; Auguste Meessen, “Apparitions and Miracles of the
Sun,” in Science, Religion, and Conscience, Actas do Forum International, Centro Transdisciplinar de Estudos da
Consciência, October 23–25, 2003, Santos, 2005)

1918

Winter? — Edwin T. Bauhan and other soldiers at Rich Field in Waco, Texas, see a noiseless, flame-colored, cigar-shaped object 100 – 150 feet long flying overhead at an altitude of 500 feet. (Lore and Deneault, p. 105 ; Clark III 1170; “1918 Sighting,” Civilian Saucer Investigation Quarterly Bulletin 1, no. 4 (Winter 1954): 10–11)

March 1 — Early morning. A woman at Tahunanui Beach, Nelson, New Zealand, sees two distinct “seaplanes” flying together near the surface of the water. They soon diverge, one going in the direction of the eastern hills and both getting lost in the clouds. (“Seaplanes over Tasman Bay,” Nelson Colonist, March 2, 1918, p. 4; Brett Holman, “The Mystery Aeroplane Scare in New Zealand— 1 ,” Airminded, August 28, 2013)

Summer — 7:30 p.m. At an isolated ranch 60 miles from Malta, Montana, 9-year-old Theodore Warren sees a cigar- shaped “airship” with windows that shine with greenish light. It flies in from the mountains in the east and hovers above the ranch house. He watches it for a while, and then it “whooshes” away to the northwest. (Ione Warren Conway, “A UFO(?) from the Past,” IUR 7, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1982): 16)

August 12 — After 5:00 p.m. Two women at Durie Hill, Whanganui, New Zealand, see an airplane moving swiftly off the South Spit heading toward the south. It disappears behind Landguard Bluff. Other witnesses come forward to corroborate the sighting. (“Aeroplane off Wanganui,” Wanganui Chronicle, August 13, 1918, p. 4; Brett Holman, “The Mystery Aeroplane Scare in New Zealand—IV,” Airminded, October 26, 2013) August 13 — Evening. Mr. C. Rawlinson is cycling to a dance on Carrington Road, New Plymouth, New Zealand, when he sees a bright star against some mountains about 6 miles away. It starts flashing red and white and moves closer and downward, then rises to 400–500 feet and performs other maneuvers. He rides home to tell his sisters, who also see the light until about 8:30 p.m., when it moves off to the sea. (“Local and General,” Wellington Dominion, August 14, 1918, p. 4; Brett Holman, “The Mystery Aeroplane Scare in New Zealand—IV,” Airminded, October 26, 2013)

October — During operations against the Bolshevik Army in Tulgas, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, soldiers of the US 339th Infantry Regiment watch a round object the color of burnished copper, with a faint light and vapor obscuring much of its shape. (Letter to J. Allen Hynek; Jan Aldrich)

1919

1919 — Wireless inventor Guglielmo Marconi claims that he has detected large-wavelength radio signals from Mars. He claims the most frequent signal is the Morse code for “S,” or three short dots. The signals, however, are subsequently traced to an experiment conducted by chemist Irving Langmuir at the General Electric Laboratories in Schenectady, New York. (“‘Hello, Earth! Hello!’” White Earth (Minn.) The Tomahawk, March 18, 1920, p. 6)

January 22 — After 10:00 p.m. A brilliant light the size of a tennis ball appears in a garden at Shuttlewood, Derbyshire, England. When the witness approaches it, it moves away at a leisurely pace and passes through wire netting. It follows the top of a hedge, turns right, and ascends until it finds a break in the high branches of a tree, where it hovers for 3 minutes before flying on. The witness then notices his neighbor’s farm is illuminated with bright white light. Several minutes later, the sphere returns to the garden, hovers another 3 minutes, then approaches the witness. As it does so, it turns from white to orange. It moves away, stops above a neighbor’s garden, travels

along a hedge, traverses a field, and circles a row of houses before soaring into the sky and disappearing. The
light is seen for 40 minutes. (Mark Ian Birdsall, “The Luminous Pearl of 1919,” Quest International 10, no. 2
(1991): 26–27; Clark III 1171)

June 2 — 9:30 a.m. A tiny circular cloud appears in an otherwise cloudless sky over Ottertail, Minnesota. Suddenly it expands to several times its size. Seconds later, the window that the witness is watching through starts to shake and creak. By the time it stops, the cloud has expanded more and now has a ragged appearance, bending toward the earth. A black object shoots out of the bottom of the cloud, leaving a vapor trail, and begins making 6– 7 barrel rolls. It then peels off in a straight line, headed north. (Clark III 1170; “Supersonic Jet in 1919?” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 6 (Jan./Feb. 1982): 14–15)

July — 11:00 a.m. A young brother and sister who live on a farm near Webster City, Iowa, hear a strange chirping sound while out playing. They turn and see a brown-green object under a tree near a creek 75 feet from them. They notice a similarly colored figure standing in a door that has been lowered down. It makes strange guttural sounds. They see another figure running toward the stream leading to a pond. This smaller one dips up some water into a can. The larger figure seems to be hurrying the smaller figure back into the object. The door slams shut with a metallic sound, and the vehicle rises up quickly with its three legs still out and goes over a hill. The soil where the object had been is covered with round spots that resemble cane marks. (Clark III 263 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, July 23, 2009)

Late summer — 10:00 p.m. Harry Anderson, 13 (or 16), is out riding with his family and two friends when their car runs out of oil east of Barron, Wisconsin. A passing farmer offers to give them some oil, and Harry accompanies him 2 miles away to his farmhouse. Harry walks back to the car alone and sees 20 little men walking in single file towards him. Their heads are bald, and the figures are dressed in leather “knee pants” held up by suspenders. They are mumbling but pay no attention to him. Terrified, he continues and does not look back. ([Jerome Clark], “Encounters with Little Men,” Fate 31 , no. 11 (November 1978): 83 – 86; Clark III 263 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, July 24, 2009)

December 1 — Boni & Liveright publishes Charles Fort’s first book of scientific anomalies, The Book of the Damned. Fort gathers reports of objects or “vessels” that he humorously speculates might be visitors from a multitude of worlds that have come to earth over the centuries. Among his wilder expressions is the suggestion that floating land masses in the sky harbor civilizations and oceans. Fort also speculates that someone is fishing for us and that an alien race considers us its property, warning off all interlopers. It receives positive reviews from Ben Hecht and Booth Tarkington. (Wikipedia, “The Book of the Damned”; Clark III 506– 507 ; Jim Steinmeyer, Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural, Tarcher, 2 008 , pp. 173– 174 ; Ulrich Magin, “The Book of the Damned,” Fortean Times 386 (December 2019): 38– 43 )

1920

1920 — Day. Stanley Clason, 10, is walking across his uncle’s pasture in northern Montana when he sees an object traveling from northwest to southeast. It has a “long, slim, pointed shape” and appears “silvery in color.” (“Report from the Readers,” Fate 7 , no. 4 (April 1954 ): 115 – 116; Clark III 1171)

Summer — 11:00 p.m. A group of young people, including sisters Louise and Marie Grasset, returning from a dance at Nontron, Dordogne, France, observe small beings in the air above a wooded area. Luminous balls surround the figures, who are giving off “musical sounds.” (Clark III 264 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, October 3, 2017)

June 3 — Day. Jesse Clark Linch is fishing on a pond near Mount Pleasant, Iowa, when he sees a soundless, blue, disc- shaped object emerge from behind a grove of 100-foot-high maple trees. It flies across the pond and lands 15 feet away. Linch gets up and walks toward it, but it rises up, slowly moves over some trees to the west, and disappears. (“Mini UFO Landed near Mt. Pleasant in 1920,” The UFO Examiner 2, no. 2 (June 1978): 8, 19; “Man Visited by Strange Object While Fishing in Iowa in 1920,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 382 (February 2000): 12; Clark III 1170)

Late October — 3:00 a.m. C. B. Alves sees four flying discs 50 miles north of Freeport, Texas, when he is out fishing with some friends. They look like two big silver plates set edge to edge. Each appears to be about 25 feet in diameter and 10 feet thick at the center. (“Report from the Readers,” Fate 8, no. 2 (February 1955): 122 – 123 ; Clark III 1170)

1921

1921 — An 8-year-old is playing in the hillocks near a canal in Marseille, France. He is suddenly accosted by two tall, slender men wearing apparent diving suits who drag him into a strange looking “tank.” After a while, an opening appears in the ceiling, and in a few moments he finds himself back on the ground. He must walk all afternoon to get back to the place where the UFO picked him up 5 minutes earlier. (Clark III 264 ; [Letter], “J’ai voyagé en soucoupe,” Paris-Match, no. 291, October 23, 1954; Patrick Gross, URECAT, September 7, 2006)

Late July — 2:00 a.m. Annie Baker of 39 Highland Road, Southsea, Portsmouth, England, sees a “strange looking bladder like monster the shape of an airship only much wider” during a thunderstorm. It is luminous and remains stationary for several minutes but moves away and disappears quickly. (UFOFiles2, pp. 13– 15 ) July 29 — The Council on Foreign Relations is incorporated. Founded by corporate lawyer Elihu Root, the organization brings diplomats, high-level government officials, and academics together with lawyers, bankers, and industrialists to engineer foreign policy. The first issue of Foreign Affairs is published in September 1922. (Wikipedia, “Council on Foreign Relations”)

September — The British Air Ministry has asked the public to submit reports on observations of ball lightning to its Meteorological Office. The results are summarized by geophysicist Harold Jeffreys, who notes very little uniformity in the observations, with little agreement on size, duration, color, or shape. (Harold Jeffreys, “Results of the Ball Lightning Inquiry,” Meteorological Magazine 56 (September 1921): 208–211; UFOFiles2, pp. 13– 16 ) September 1 — J. H. C. Macbeth of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company announces that inventor Guglielmo Marconi is convinced he has intercepted wireless signals from Mars while cruising in the Mediterranean Sea on his mobile laboratory and yacht, the Electra. The signals are regular and “produced high in the meter band.” One of them resembles the letter “V” in the Marconi Code. (“Marconi Sure Mars Flashes Messages,” New York Times, September 2, 1921, p. 1; Michael D. Swords, “Radio Signals from Space, Alien Probes, and Betty Hill,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 11)

October 9 — Harvard University astronomer William Henry Pickering claims that he has discovered, through two years of observation, vegetation growing in lunar craters that contain water and a source of heat. They seem to form strips or “canals” that vary according to season. (“Says 2 Crops a Day Grow on the Moon,” New York Times, October 9, 1921, p. 6)

1922

1922 — Starting this year, ghost lights are seen every year until 1932 in the desert near the Oregon Canyon Ranch, McDermott, Nevada. They look like lanterns or car headlights in the distance. More than 50 of the sheepherders in the area have seen the lights, including Tito Bengoa, the brother of Frank and Christopher Bengoa of the King’s River Ranch near Orovada. (Kenneth Arnold, “Phantom Lights in Nevada,” Fate 1, no. 3 (Fall 1948): 96–98)

Summer — A teenage couple, William O’Brien and Irma (later married surname is Hinz), walking home from a movie in Detroit, Michigan, see a large disc-shaped object hovering above a vacant lot on South Dragoon Street. Rectangular windows surround the perimeter of the UFO’s base. Seated at those windows are 20 or so bald- headed beings with close-set eyes. They stare at the witnesses, who become unnerved and leave. (Clark III 264 ; Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1910–1939, p. 21) Summer — Many witnesses in Warsaw, Poland, see a silvery object, shaped like two hemispheres divided by a rotating ring, that shoots a beam of light and ascends with a loud noise. (Bronislaw Rzepecki, “UFOs and Ufologists in Poland,” IUR 11, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1986): 15; Poland 8)

1923

1923 — Two DePauw University college students, Andrew Wallace Crandall and Herrick Greenleaf, watch a revolving red object pass over Greencastle, Indiana. The object, round and glowing, moves silently from northeast to southwest, then vanishes. (Lore and Deneault, p. 106 ) 1923 — A photograph shows a domed disc hovering near the church tower in Sebeş, Romania. (Romania 10 - 11)

October — Boni & Liveright publishes New Lands by Charles Fort, who writes about odd aerial and astronomical observations: “It seems no more incredible that up in the seemingly unoccupied sky there should be hosts of living things than that the seeming blank of the ocean, should swarm with life.” (Wikipedia, “New Lands”; Jim Steinmeyer, Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural, Tarcher, 2008 , pp. 198– 199 ; Clark III 507, 1098 )

1924

January — 1:00 a.m. Perry G. Powers and Duncan Miller are returning to a ranch when they see a beam of light shining on the snow in the Osage Hills, Oklahoma. It emanates from a large oval-shaped object with white dots of light on the side and blue flame at the trailing end. It makes a slight hissing noise and moves out of sight over the horizon in less than 3 minutes. (UFOEv, p. 129 ; “1924 Sighting,” Civilian Saucer Investigation Quarterly Bulletin 1, no. 4 (Winter 1954): 10)

August 22 — Mars enters an opposition closer to Earth than at any time in the century before. In the US, a National Radio Silence Day is promoted during a 36-hour period in August 21–23, with all radios quiet for 5 minutes on the hour, every hour, just in case the Martians take the opportunity to communicate with Earth. At the US Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., an SE- 950 radio receiver is lifted 1.9 miles above the ground in a dirigible tuned to a wavelength between 8 and 9 kilometers, using a “radio photo message continuous transmission machine” recently invented by Amherst College and Charles Francis Jenkins of Washington. The program is led by retired astronomer David Peck Todd with the military assistance of Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Edward Walter Eberle, with William F. Friedman (US Army chief cryptographer), assigned to translate any potential Martian messages. The device records radio signals on chemically treated film. One signal consists of a “fairly regular arrangement of dots and dashes along one side” and on the other “at almost evenly spaced intervals … curiously jumped groups each taking the forms of a crudely drawn human face.” Todd tells a reporter, “It may not be a message from Mars, but if it isn’t from Mars, where is it from?” Astronomer Frederick E. Fowle of the Smithsonian thinks they are “disturbances introduced by solar or terrestrial causes not yet understood.” Other scientists suggest the images are caused by static discharge from a passing trolley car, malfunctioning radio equipment, or the natural symphonic radio waves produced by Jupiter. (Jerome Clark, “Conversations with Martians,” IUR 29, no. 3 (Fall 2004): 20 ; Michael D. Swords, “Radio Signals from Space, Alien Probes, and Betty Hill,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 11–12; Kristen Gallerneaux, “Reaching for Mars,” Past Forward, August 23, 2016; Jessica Leigh Hester, “Everybody Shut Up! We’re Listening for Mars,” Atlas Obscura, August 3, 2018)

Fall — Dusk. A hunter in a rowboat on Okanagan Lake, British Columbia, sees a faint blue light moving from northeast to southwest. It temporarily disappears behind a mountain but reappears and approaches the boat, passing it at a distance of 200 feet and a speed of 30–40 mph. The object is pearly silver in color with faint dark blue light at the rear. After moving a quarter mile away, it ascends and disappears at terrific speed. (Clark III 1171–1172)

1925

1925 — Thomas Green is riding with another young man on a farm near Moora, Western Australia, when they come across an object “like two saucers placed edge on edge” resting on a paddock. Some oval-shaped windows are visible, and it is resting on four legs splayed outwards. The two decide to return home. Several days later they return and find the earth “scuffed about” on the spot. (Bill Chalker, “Historical Australian UFO Reports,” UFO Research Australia Newsletter 4, no. 3 (Nov./Dec. 1983): 28)

June — 2:30 a.m. A driver stops his Ford Model T to watch a 300-foot-long, cigar-shaped object flying south toward Chicago, Illinois. Red sparks are peeling away from its nose and it has multicolored lights. As it passes in front, the driver feels a heat wave. (San Diego (Calif.) Evening Tribune, August 12, 1965; Clark III 1171)

1926

1926 (or 1927) — 3:00 p.m. A 14-year-old girl is tending cows in a meadow between Brzezie and Ujazd, Poland. Suddenly the cows become agitated and pull on their halters. She notices three cement-colored spherical objects some 650 feet away in a field to the north. In front of each is a small entity dressed in greenish uniforms. (Poland 9)

January — Aviator Bert Acosta is flying somewhere between Wichita, Kansas, and Colorado Springs, Colorado, when he notices 6 or so objects that look like manhole covers flying off his starboard wing 600 feet away. They keep pace with his plane for 5 minutes. Finally they turn, change course, and fly away. (Jacques Vallée, Anatomy of a Phenomenon, Ace ed., 1965, p. 49; Patrick Gross, “Pilots UFO Sightings,” August 6, 2021)

June — After midnight. Farmer Ion Bunescu is with his horses on the Leurda plateau near Colun, Romania, when he sees a light ascend from the village of Cârța. An illuminated globe moves toward him with a light so strong that it brightens the River Olt some 2.5 miles away. Hobana and Weverbergh 224 – 225; Romania 9 – 11)

August — Dusk. Frank Tezky and his father watch 6 disc-shaped objects in Westmont, Illinois. Five smaller discs are trailing in a straight line behind a much larger one, moving west beneath cirrus clouds, which reflect the light cast by the objects. (Clark III 1170)

Late September — 11:00 p.m. An Air Mail pilot named Colin Murphy is repeatedly buzzed by a huge glowing object one hour after he takes off in his DH-4 biplane from Salt Lake City, Utah. The object is a 90-foot-long cylinder with no wings or propeller. Every time the object approaches closer than 150 feet, his engine sputters and misfires. He is forced to land in a sheep pasture, whereupon the object shoots away to the south. Possible hoax. (Patrick Gross, “Pilots UFO Sightings,” August 5, 2021)

October 27 — Attorney and “telepathist” Hugh Mansfield Robinson, who has been in contact with a female Martian entity named Oomaruru since 1918, convinces the central radio office in London, England, to send out a message, “MMM opesti nipitia secomba” over the airwaves. He intends for it to be picked up by Martian wireless. The next day, he claims that Oomaruru telepathically told him that only the first three letters had been received. Robinson describes the Martians as 7–8 feet tall with large ears, a wealth of black hair, and almond eyes. Over the years he continues receiving messages from Oomaruru while in a trance and attempting to send signals to Mars. Psychic investigator Nandor Fodor, who has attended some of Robinson’s séances, calls him “as slippery as a human eel.” (Earl J. Johnson, “Imagination Runs Wild about Visit of Martian Realm,” Pomona (Calif.) Bulletin, October 28, 1926 , p. 1; “Doctor Files Mars Message by Radio ‘At Sender’s Risk,’” Vancouver (B.C.) Sun, October 28, 1926, p. 18; Nandor Fodor, The Haunted Mind, Garrett, 1959, pp. 259– 269 ; Clark III 101 8 – 1019 ; Marc Hartzman, “Earth to Mars in the 1920s: The Strange Case of the Man Who Tried to Contact Martians via Radio,” Weird Historian, February 22, 2018)

November — Early evening. Playing hide-and-seek with friends in Bolton, Lancashire, England, Henry Thomas slips into a backyard and finds three figures dressed in odd suits made of silvery gray rubber tubes. They are looking into a window in the back of a house. A tube extends from their helmets into a tank on each figure’s back. They turn to look at him and he sees their heads are pale and “shaped like lightbulbs” and they have slits for mouths. Thomas runs away. (“1926: Humanoid Hide and Seek,” ThinkAboutIt; Clark III 264 )

1927

1927 — For a few weeks, 10-year-old Cecil “Danny” McGann, his family, and other farmers in the area of Fernvale, New South Wales, are terrorized by dancing aerial lights during the night, the unusual deaths of their cattle and pigs, mystery intruders, apparitions, circular areas of scorched grass, large and unfamiliar birds, bizarre noises, and

strange men in odd suits. McGann is still terrified of this series of events when he relates them to UFO
investigator Bill Chalker in 1985. (Clark III 485– 491 ; Bill Chalker, “Physical Traces,” UFOs 1947 – 1987 , Fortean
Tomes, 1987, p. 190)

Summer — Reece Andrew Lacey, 9, sees a large fish-like object with “big fins extended outward near the front, and small, short ones near the rear” in Wolfe County, Kentucky. (“Report from the Readers,” Fate 11, no. 2 (December 1958): 111 – 112; Clark III 1171) July — Agricultural engineer Gheorghe Achimescu sees a smoke-gray, cylindrical object fly silently from west to east over the village of Nicolae Bălcescu, Romania, at an altitude of 650–950 feet. He estimates it is about 50 feet long with a diameter of 10 feet. (Hobana and Weverbergh 152 – 153)

August 5 — Explorer Nicholas Roerich and others in his caravan observe a UFO near Qinghai Lake, Tibet. “We all saw, in the direction north to south, something big and shiny reflecting sun, like a huge oval moving at great speed. Crossing our camp this thing changed in its direction from south to southwest, and we saw how it disappeared in the intense blue sky. We even had time to take our field glasses and saw quite distinctly the oval form with the shiny surface, one side of which was brilliant from the sun.” (Nicholas Roerich, Altai-Himalaya, Frederick A. Stokes, 1929 , pp. 361– 362 ; Brad Sparks, “Analysis: Roerich Case, Aug. 5, 1927”) Late summer — Long delayed echoes—radio echoes that return to the sender several seconds after a radio transmission has occurred—are first observed by civil engineer and amateur radio operator Jørgen Hals from his home near Oslo, Norway. The cause of LDEs remains unknown, although A. G. Shlionsky has proposed 15 different explanations. (Wikipedia, “Long delayed echo”; Carl Størmer, “Short Wave Echoes and the Aurora Borealis,” Nature 122 (1928): 681; Sverre Holm, “The Five Most Likely Explanations for Long Delayed Echoes,” March 16, 2004; Sverre Holm, “15 Possible Explanations for Long Delayed Echoes,” November 6, 2007)

October 18 — Richard Sweed is driving west on the outskirts of Bakersfield, California, when he sees a bluish-gray metallic disc with portholes take off from the ground at a 45° angle. It is about 60 feet in diameter and makes a whining sound. He examines the spot where the object had rested and finds the sand “fused like glass crystals.” (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 18)

1928

January 3 — Kansas journalist Charles Benedict Driscoll begins writing about ball lighting in his syndicated column, “The World and All,” keeping the subject alive for many years. (Charles B. Driscoll, “The World and All,” Lexington (Ky.) Herald, January 3, 1928, p. 4)

May — Mystic and white supremacist William Dudley Pelley claims he has an out-of-body experience in which he travels to other planes of existence devoid of corporeal souls. He describes his experience in an American Magazine article titled “My Seven Minutes in Eternity,” expanded to a book 1933 as Seven Minutes in Eternity. In later writings, he describes the experience as “hypo-dimensional.” During this event, he meets with God and Jesus, who instruct him to undertake the spiritual transformation of America. He later claims that the experience gives him the ability to levitate, see through walls, and have out-of-body experiences at will. (William Dudley Pelley, “Seven Minutes in Eternity” with Their Aftermath , Robert Collier, 1929; Clark III 1285)

Summer — A 6 - year-old girl sees a black, faceless, 5-foot-high figure with a large head and dangling arms in a field off Anstey Lane, Leicester, England. She thinks it is a scarecrow but notices a “large globe on legs” near the figure. She wakes up her father (who is resting in the open air) but when she turns around, the scarecrow and the globe are gone. (Pauline Berger, “The Disappearing Scarecrow,” Flying Saucer Review 15, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1969): 29; Clark III 264 ) June 13 — 9:00–10:00 p.m. Something like a “great blurred electric light” appears over Miami, Florida, for more than 30 minutes. One witness, amateur astronomer R. C. Fahrion, describes it as a comet without a tail, but it does not move, is of an “enormous size,” and disappears very suddenly. (“Miami Astronomers Unable to Identify Light in Sky,” Miami Herald, June 14, 1928, p. 1; “Miamians Watch Sky Mystery, Mistaken for Tailless Comet,” Miami News, June 14, 1928, p. 12; Clark III 1172)

Early November — 10:30 p.m. Norman H. Sabie and Thorsten Sabie are driving cattle near Milton, North Dakota, watch a round, metallic object, like a “soup bowl turned upside down,” speed by at a low altitude (15–20 feet), emitting 4 – 5 rays of light that illuminate the ground and startle cattle. It makes a sound like air pouring through a tube. (UFOEv, p. 129 ; Clark III 1170) November 28 — French diplomatic scholar Henri Pensa writes that a silvery object trailing fire is seen in Rodez, Aveyron, France, coming from the “direction of Mars.” He says that in the winter of 1927–1928, he has seen a bright light, usually between 8:00 and 11:00 p.m., that brightens the landscape. (Giuseppe Stilo, “Francia, 1928: Marte Attacca?” Cielo Insolito, October 2, 2019)

1929

1929 — In Hertford, England, a 5-year-old girl and her 8 - year-old brother have such an unsettling experience that they do not talk about it themselves until about 1960, and the woman herself does not reveal it to outsiders until 1970. They are playing in a garden when they hear engine sounds and see a tiny (12 or 15 inches wide) biplane coming over the fence from the direction of an orchard. It swoops down, nearly hitting a trash can, and lands for a few seconds before resuming its flight. While it is stationary, the girl can see a “perfectly proportioned tiny pilot wearing a leather flying helmet, who waved to us as he took off.” (Gordon Creighton, “A Weird Case from the Past,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1970): 30; Clark III 1173)

June 12 — 11 :00 p.m. As he is driving home at Ferme-Neuve, Quebec, Levis Brosseau, 20, sees something like a black cloud with a yellow light resting on a hillside. He gets out to investigate and discerns a structured object 50 feet in diameter. Outside of it, 4–5 small men of yellowish color are moving quickly about. Soon the object flies overhead, “purring like a milk separator,” and he hears two voices arguing. (Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1910– 1939 , p. 31; Clark III 264 )

September — Medical student William Walton is crossing a street in Oak Park, Illinois, when he sees a very bright yellowish-white light like two saucers pressed together. It approaches his position, and he hears a humming sound like the throbbing of a turbine and feels heat and pressure. The object passes over him at about 100 feet altitude, but the force knocks him to his knees. After it passes, he detects an odor of sulfur. (Linda Zimmerman, More Hudson Valley UFOs, Eagle Press, 2017 )

1930

1930 — 10:00 a.m. A woman is driving the family car in an isolated hilly area of Texas when she rounds a curve and sees a huge object about 100 feet across by the side of the road. A small door is open with steps leading down to the ground. One side of the object is braced up by two slender legs with round plates for feet. A man of normal size comes walking toward her and forces her to stop. He seems to speak to her telepathically, telling her to leave the road and make a shortcut through a gully. Some 8– 10 other figures walk forward, much smaller and with slanted eyes. They are wearing tan coveralls and tight caps. Despite potential damage to her car, she drives through the gully as the larger man walks alongside. The next thing she remembers is walking up to her porch at her home 15 miles away. It is around 12:00 midnight. In March 1968, having read Interrupted Journey about the Betty and Barney Hill case, she writes to the Colorado project and offers herself for hypnosis and research. Edward Condon files the letter under “psychological” and does not respond. (Michael D. Swords, “Too Close for Condon: Close Encounters of the 4th Kind,” IUR 28, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 4– 5 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, August 29, 2019) 1930 — Day. Schoolboys and teachers at the Barton Hill Academy in Bristol, England, watch a cigar-shaped metallic object speed across the sky faster than a dirigible. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 16–19) 1930 — 9:30 p.m. Two men walking along a lane at Tomintoul, Scotland, see a white light “like a meteor.” When it gets brighter, they can see figures moving inside it. The witnesses think it is a ghost light. (Clark III 264 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, September 20, 2018)

Spring (or spring 1931) — 7:00 p.m. As he walks down a country road near Newberry, Michigan, high school student Ralph Newman sees a “distinctly green fireball” in the low eastern sky that moves from south to north. About the size of the full moon, its light brightens the countryside, then it vanishes. (Clark III 1175)

May — Day. A top-shaped object 40 feet wide lands in a garden in Greensboro, North Carolina. Mr. and Mrs. J. T. Rankin and their two daughters can see the head and shoulders of a figure inside wearing a tight-fitting outfit and helmet. Some 5–10 minutes later the object ascends quietly and is gone. (Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1910– 1939 , p. 33; Clark III 264 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, September 15, 2018)

1931

January 1 — 1 :00 a.m. J. Stewart Childerhose and his brother, two farmers of Cobden, Ontario, see an object with a brilliant white light on its front illuminating treetops on the shore of Muskrat Lake. Green and white lights twinkle on its tail end. It moves in a rectangular path, then speeds up suddenly and climbs out of sight. (Lore and Deneault, p. 108 ) January 26 — Author Tiffany Thayer founds the Fortean Society during a dinner with Charles Fort in the Savoy-Plaza Hotel in New York City in order to promote his books and ideas. (Wikipedia, “Fortean Society”; Jim Steinmeyer, Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural, Tarcher, 20 08 , pp. 239 – 241)

February — Charles Fort writes in Lo!, published this month, that “Unknown, luminous things, or beings, have often been seen, sometimes close to this earth, and sometimes high in the sky. It may be that some of them were living things that occasionally come from somewhere else.” (Wikipedia, “Lo!”; Jim Steinmeyer, Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural, Tarcher, 2008, pp. 235– 243 ; Clark III 507–508, 1098)

May — 4:30 p.m. Pasquale Masala is out riding his horse with a friend a few miles southeast of Paulilatino, Sardinia, Italy. When they reach a megalithic tomb known as Nuraghe Trudumeddu, they dismount to enjoy the view. Suddenly, a strange object the size and shape of a football emerges from the partially blocked entrance of the tomb. It travels at a height of about 3 feet above the ground at a constant speed of about 10–15 mph and enters a thick patch of undergrowth. Marsala runs after it for about a half mile and notices that the bushes part in front of the object and close up after it passes. His companion is frightened and insists on returning to the village. (Mary Boyd, “An Early Italian Cross-Country Case,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 3 (December 1974): 21; 1Pinotti 13– 14)

June 6 — Aviator Francis Chichester sees a dull gray-white “airship” as he is making the first solo flight in a Gypsy Moth seaplane from New Zealand to Australia over the Tasman Sea. (Francis Chichester, The Lonely Sea and the Sky, Hodder and Stoughton, 1964, p. 165; Keith Basterfield, “Aviator Francis Chichester’s Classic Sighting: Is the Date Wrong?” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena–Scientific Research, May 29, 2018; Patrick Gross, “Francis Chichester Sighting, 1931”)

Summer — Alice May Williams of Auckland, New Zealand, begins writing letters over a two-year period to Edison Pettit and Seth Barnes Nicholson, astronomers at the Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California, describing her encounters with telepathic aliens who fly in a circular machine “like a great big lamp.” She writes that “The Planet mars is inhabited by human spirits like us can talk eat & drink wear clothes, but have great power. They are something people of this earth have never seen.” Their ships “are round like the moon with airtight shutter at the front, glass. The machine must be built with some light material, airproof fireproof, waterproof. The inside must be like a room, 2 beds tables & chairs.” Much of her information seems to be derived from articles in the Auckland Star about conditions elsewhere in the solar system. (David Herkt, “Who No: Letters from Alice May Williams,” Speaker: Public Address, September 3, 2012)

1932

1932 — Danish pilots Lt. Col. Peter Grunnet and Lt. Tage Andersen are flying an H.M.II (Heinkel HE 8) seaplane over eastern Greenland as part of a photogrammetric survey. Suddenly, Andersen notices they are being followed by a hexagonal metallic object about a mile behind them. (Rufus Drake, “UFO Crisis over Greenland,” Saga, October 197 6, pp. 36–38, 54, 60; Patrick Gross, “Pilots UFO Sightings,” August 8, 2021)

April or May — Terry F. Lapeza sees an aluminum-like disc with yellowish lights or “portholes” on the underside, about 100 feet in diameter over Durham, New York. It is moving north at about 300 mph. (UFOEv, p. 129 )

Early summer (or early summer 1933)— 7:30 p.m. Teenager Fred W. Van Sant and his brother Milton see 7 – 8 “meteors flying in a bunch” over hills east of Oakland, California. They maintain the same altitude from east to west in a great arc. The objects are silent and are so bright they seem to be emitting their own light. (NICAP case file; Clark III 1175) June —Evening. Reuben D. Knight is standing on the porch of his farmhouse near Wattsburg, Pennsylvania, when he notices a bright speck of light approaching from some woods to the south. Growing in size, it comes to within 4 feet of him and appears as a silvery-blue ball about 14 inches in diameter. It travels in a loop and circles back to the woods in a steady path of 35–40 mph. After it circles past him again, he calls his wife and she sees the ball make a final loop before it disappears in the woods. (NICAP case file; Clark III 1175; Patrick Gross, URECAT, August 19, 2018)

1933

1933 — Earl J. Duncan and a Native American boy are in a truck near Fort Washakie, Wyoming, on the Wind River Indian Reservation. As they reach the crest of a hill, they see three perfectly round, pulsating, orange-red balls about 900 feet away. They are moving “in absolute alignment” about 20 feet from the ground toward the nearest mountain range. After 5 minutes of silent movement they disappear over a nearby mountain. (NICAp case file; Clark III 1175)

Summer — For weeks, strange lights in the sky are reported around Tobin Lake, Saskatchewan. Curious about the reports, two young men and a woman drive to the lake from Napawin. On their way they see a glow near the horizon, so they park and trek a quarter mile into the woods where they can see a large, oval-shaped craft sitting on legs. From an open central doorway shines a bright orange glow; a ladderlike stairway extends downward with a dozen figures dressed in silver suits moving up and down the steps. They appear to be repairing the craft. The witnesses watch for 30 minutes when they decide to return to their truck and get closer. Two nights later they return and find imprints and burn marks, which they photograph. Two of them write an article that they submit to magazines, which refuse to publish what they consider outlandish fiction. (John Brent Musgrave, “Saskatchewan, 1933: UFO Stops for ‘Repairs,’” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 6 (April 1977): 16–17; Clark III 264 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, July 15, 2009) Summer — 2:30 a.m. A man who still insists on anonymity in 1964 is driving near Cherryville, Pennsylvania, when his car gets a flat tire. As he is jacking it up, he sees a faint violet light in the field on his right. Curious, he walks about 200 feet toward the light and sees a bell-shaped object about 10 feet in diameter and 6 feet high on the grass. Light is issuing from a circular door about 1 foot in diameter. He pushes it and it swings open. Putting his head inside, he cannot see much because of the peculiar light coming from the ceiling. The chamber inside is about 6 feet in diameter, 4 feet high, and full of tubing and dials on a console. An ammonia scent pervades the room, which is notably chilly. The man then walks around the object, touching the surface, which is slick, metallic, and cold. After 10 minutes, he goes back to the car, replaces the tire, and drives home. (“Flying Saucer Spotted in 1933,” Allentown (Pa.) Sunday Call-Chronicle, February 16, 1964, pp. B1–B2; Clark III 117 5 – 1176 ; “1933 Sighting Reported,” APRO Bulletin, July 1964, pp. 7–8; Patrick Gross, URECAT, July 16, 2009) Summer — Night. Frank Van Keuren is fishing with others along the waterway off Beach Haven, New Jersey. Suddenly they are illuminated by a searchlight coming from an object moving slowly and silently about 1,000 feet in the air. It goes on to circle some radio towers about 8 miles away, flooding them with light. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 19–20) June 1 — English mountaineer Frank Smythe, during the British Mount Everest Expedition in the Himalaya Mountains of Nepal, is heading for camp at 27,500 feet when he sees two dark objects floating in the blue sky. In shape they resemble kite balloons, except that one appears to possess short squat wings. As they hover motionless, they seem to pulsate in and out as though they are breathing. A minute or two later they disappear behind mountain mist. (Frank S. Smythe, Camp Six: An Account of the 1933 Mount Everest Expedition, Hodder and Stoughton, 1937 , pp. 264– 265 ; Barry Greenwood, “UFOs on Mt. Everest in 1933,” UFO Historical Revue, no. 5 (July 1999): 2–3) June 13 — An unknown aircraft allegedly crashes at Magenta, just west of Milan, Italy. The Italian government establishes a top-secret group, Gabinetto Ricerche Speziale/33, to examine the craft. It is headed by Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, and Air Marshal Italo Balbo, with scientific support from Guglielmo Marconi and astronomer Gino Cecchini. Debris is reportedly stored in the hangars of the SIAI- Marchetti aircraft company in Vergiate, Varese. Journalists are ordered to keep silent about the incident due to

national security. (Good Need, pp. 12 – 15 ; Roberto Pinotti and Alfredo Lissoni, Gli “X - Files” del Nazifascismo,
2001 ; 2Pinotti 179–197)

July 5 — Evening. Four RAF Hawker Fury I biplanes flying over Sussex, England, encounter a gigantic light that shines directly into the center of their formation from a higher altitude. Two Hawkers experience mechanical trouble and separate. Capt. Nigel Tompkins and Lt. Bruce H. Thomas make emergency landings when both their planes’ engines quit. On his way down, Thomas passes so close to the light that it causes burns on his face and hands. Probable hoax. (History of the III Fighter Squadron, RAF, London Press, 1947; Jan Aldrich, “Aircraft/UFO Encounters Prior to 1942,” Project 1947; Patrick Gross, “Pilots UFO Sightings,” August 3, 2021) July 31 (or August 1) — 9:15 p.m. Somewhere between Butt Valley Reservoir and Humbug Valley, California, high- school science teacher Paul M. Barry Jr. is skywatching when he sees two objects shoot across the sky. They are solid, prolate spheroids with a green luminescence. Their brightness changes considerably as they approach the zenith and diminish as they approach the horizon. He thinks they are 8–10 miles distant. The two objects disappear and are followed by a third. (Clark III 1175)

Fall — 11:45 p.m. A chemist in Contra Costa County, California, hears a humming sound outside coming from the northeast. Looking out the window, he sees the yard bathed in a steady blue-purple light. Suddenly the light goes out and the humming ends with a “pow” sound. (Lorenzen, UFOs; The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 19) Late November — After sunset. A lone observer sees what appears to be an aircraft land on ice-covered lake Fjosoken, Sorsele, Sweden. It takes off and circles the lake for one hour, during which time it projects a powerful searchlight on the lake’s surface. However, local police interview the witness and suspect that he was looking at Venus. (Swords 361)

December 24 — 6:00 p.m. Witnesses in Kalix, Norrbotten, Sweden, see beams of light coming from a machine that seems to be searching the ground below. The beams are “blinding.” The sighting is part of a wave of “ghost flier” reports of gray monoplanes without identifying markings that are reported over rural areas of Scandinavia from November 15, 1933, through February 11, 1934. The Swedish Military Record Office accumulates 96 reports from Sweden, 234 from Norway, and 137 from Finland, and the Swedish Air Force undertakes at least two reconnaissance missions in search of the mystery planes. More than 50% of the reports take place between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., when Venus is low over the horizon. (Strange Company 7 ; Hilary Evans and Robert E. Bartholomew, Outbreak! Anomalist, 2009, pp. 497– 499 ; Swords 361– 363 ; Anders Liljegren, “Ghost Flier Mystery Still Unresolved,” AFU Newsletter 41 (September 2001): 1 – 3) December 28 — The 4th Swedish Flying Corps begins an investigation of the ghost flyers. (John A. Keel, “Mystery Aeroplanes of the 1930s, Part 2,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1970): 12) December 30 — Swedish customs sends a request for air support to Gen. Eric Virgin, head of the Swedish Air Force, to help apprehend the ghost fliers who could be smuggling liquor into Sweden. However, he is cautious and wants more information to evaluate. (Swords 361– 362 ; Good Above, p. 13 )

1934

January — George Adamski, who has been a lecturer and counselor on spiritual topics since about 1928, opens the Monastery of the Royal Order of Tibet at 758 Manzanita Drive, Laguna Beach, California. The monastery serves as his home and headquarters until 1940. (George M. Eberhart, “George Adamski—New Age Meets the Space Age,” IUR 21, no. 2 (Summer 1996): 20; “Laguna Beach, 1932–1940: From Temple to Ranch,” The Adamski Case, September 27, 2019) January 2 — 3:45 a.m. Olof Hedlund is taking a walk in Sorsele, Västerbotten, Sweden, when he hears an engine above him. There is a full moon and visibility is good. He sees an airplane fly over the city from the west, passing directly above the train station. It turns three times in wide circles, then it takes off to the north, following the railroad tracks. It is at about 1,300 feet altitude and visible for 15 minutes. (John A. Keel, “Mystery Aeroplanes of the 1930s, Part 2,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1970): 12) January 9 — A mystery airplane is seen again over Västerbotten province, Sweden. The Swedish Air Force loses two aircraft trying to discover where the plane is based. (“Mystery Plane Reported,” New York Times, January 10 , 1934 , p. 11; Strange Company 7 – 8)

January 10 — Gen. Pontus Reuterswärd, chief of armed forces in Upper Norrland, Sweden, recommends to officials of Norrbotten County that they request assistance from the Air Force to deal with the ghost fliers. Norrbotten administrator Bernard Gärde is skeptical of the “vague and unreliable” reports at first. (Swords 361–362) January 22 — A mystery aircraft flies over the military fortress at Boden, Norrbotten, Sweden, seen by 30 soldiers, and Reuterswärd alerts the press that planes had flown over restricted military areas. (John A. Keel, “Mystery Aeroplanes of the 1930s, Part III—The Landings,” Flying Saucer Review 17, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1971): 17; Swords 362 ) January 27 — Swedish MP Arvid Lindman puts a question to Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson, asking what action the government plans to take about the ghost fliers. (Swords 362)

February 1 — Night. A mystery aircraft flies in circles for two hours over central London, England. Its engine is noisy, and its course can be clearly seen by its lights. On February 6, Under-Secretary of State for Air Philip Sassoon claims that it was an RAF plane carrying out a training exercise in coordination with ground forces. (John A. Keel, “Mystery Aeroplanes of the 1930s, Part 2,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1970): 13) February 2 — Prime Minister Hansson tells the Swedish Parliament that most ghost flier sightings are misidentifications or fantasy, while others are unsolved. (Swords 362) February 2 — Night. A large unidentified airplane is seen over eastern Finland close to the Russian frontier, apparently scouting the district. Flights of ghost planes and mysterious lights have been seen for the past month over Helsinki and Vyborg, Finland, as well as Sweden and Norway. The Scandinavian mystery fliers continue to be seen into

1935. (“Finnish Alarm Grows over ‘Ghost’ Planes,” New York Times, February 4 , 1934, p. 9; Strange Company 8 – 9 ) February 12 — Norrbotten, Sweden, administrator Bernard Gärde officially requests assistance of the Air Force with the ghost fliers. But air surveillance has actually been taking place since early January. (Swords 362)

March 4 — Sweden calls off its hunt for the ghost fliers, although sightings are still being reported. Even though 24 airplanes participated in the search, no Swedish pilot has seen a ghost flier. Soldiers on the ground occasionally report sound from a motor or lights in the sky. (Swords 362–363)

April 30 — Gen. Reuterswärd tells the press that several ghost flier reports in January had been of real, unidentified aircraft involved in a violation of Sweden’s airspace. MP Elof Lindberg accuses him of not being competent enough to draw such a conclusion. (Good Above, p. 13 ; Swords 363)

June 11 — Night. Two mystery airplanes circle around London, England: “The machines were low enough for their outlines, as well as their navigation lights, to be clearly visible against the sky.” Regulations prohibit RAF planes from flying over London at less than 5,000 feet. (John A. Keel, “Mystery Aeroplanes of the 1930s, Part 2,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1970): 13)

Summer — Day. 9-year-old Coral E. Lightner and two friends watch a white object “like an open umbrella without the ribs or spurs” glide silently through the sky from the west-southwest to the northwest over Barron, Wisconsin. It moves silently with a slight undulation before it disappears after 20 seconds. (Lorenzen, FS Hoax, pp. 15– 16 ; “The Wisconsin Flying Saucer That Changed UFO Research Forever,” Wisconsin Frights, September 20, 2018)

August 9 — Around 5:00 a.m. Musician Leon M. Thompson is boating on Keuka Lake in western New York when he notices an odd cloud on the west side of the lake. It is in the form of an elongated cone some 60 – 75 feet in length and 10–15 feet in diameter at its largest point. Suddenly the sky lights up in a flash and the cloud emits a fireball that arcs across the lake to the east and leaves a fiery train. It falls on a cottage and throws up a cloud of mist or steam that slowly dissipates. (“Ball of Fire Brings Thrill to Fisherman,” Elmira (N.Y.) Star-Gazette, August 4, 1934, p. 5; Chris Aubeck and Martin Shough, Return to Magonia: Investigating UFOs in History, Anomalist, 2015, pp. 315 – 328)

1935

1935 — 10 :00 p.m. Edward Winters of the US 4th Coast Artillery Regiment watches a dull-red, Zeppelin-shaped object flying over the Panama Canal Zone at high speed from the Pacific to the Atlantic for about 30 minutes. Later it returns, moving in the opposite direction farther away. (NICAP case file)

1935 — Astronomer Arthur M. Harding writes that “Surely there must be some forms of life on Venus that are not so very different from what we find on earth.” (Arthur M. Harding, Astronomy: The Splendor of the Heavens Brought Down to Earth, Garden City Publishing, 1935, p. 408)

January 10 — Charles Spayde, the operator of a telegraph station west of Lima, Ohio, claims that he has been receiving a “series of strange, unintelligible signals” that are broad in wavelength and “come in all over the dial.” He is convinced they are not static or mechanical disturbances and they do not originate on this planet. (Jerome Clark, “Conversations with Martians,” IUR 29, no. 3 (Fall 2004): 20) January 22 or 23 — 8:00 p.m. A woman in Vienna, Virginia, sees a lightning-like flash in the southwest that flares up several times then dies down. It seems to come from a “great blazing light, almost a ball of fire,” that is moving around the horizon. It is lost to view in the southeast. (“A correspondent from Vienna, Va., writes,” Science 81 (1935): 294)

Spring — Night. A Mr. Aerts sees a brilliant circular object “like aluminum” in the sky above the roofs of nearby houses in Mechelen, Belgium. It lands and he sees two small occupants come out of the rear; they wear square helmets with short antennas and are apparently examining the exterior surface. (Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1910 – 1939 , p. 42; Clark III 265 ) April 5 — Dusk. A farmer named Mora sees a large, round, brilliant object descend and hover just above the ground near his property in Aznalcázar, Seville, Spain. Several small beings appear and stroll around it. (Clark III 264 – 265 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, April 9, 2007)

May — Radu Popescu and his cousin are walking by the Olt River near Drăgășani, Romania, when they come upon what seems to be a Romany wagon. They see five figures—one next to the object, two farther away, and another two next to a boat on the shore. Suddenly the figures run toward the object, something black covers it, an antenna appears, and it rises up above the river. It turns to a white color as it moves away. (Romania 121–122)

July 1 — The US Division of Investigation officially becomes the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (Federal Bureau of Investigation, Timeline, March 31, 2002) July 8 — The Swedish Chief of Staff releases its final report on ghost fliers. After concluding that 42 of the 487 reports investigated by Sweden, Norway, and Finland are of actual aircraft violating borders, the military admits the phenomenon is at least partially real. (Swords 363)

1936

1936 — Atmospheric physicist William Jackson Humphreys, after examing 280 cases, argues that ball lightning is caused by persistence of vision, meteorites, will-o’-the-wisp, brush discharge, and other natural phenomena. (W. J. Humphreys, “Ball Lightning,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 76 (1936): 613– 626 ) 1936 — Late evening. Mrs. E. P. Higgins and another member of the Canal Zone Astronomical Society observe a moving orange-red star passing from north to south near Miraflores Lake, Panama. Suddenly it halts and travels in three small circles from right to left. (Lore and Deneault, pp. 112 – 113 ; Clark III 1176)

January — George Adamski’s Royal Order of Tibet publishes Universal Jewels of Life as a free monthly newsletter for those attending his meetings in Laguna Beach, California. Besides Adamski, talks are also given by Marguerite Weir, Alice Wells, and others. Beginning in May, the Royal Order has a weekly 15-minute slot on local radio stations KFOX in Long Beach and KMPC in Los Angeles. He also publishes Wisdom of the Masters of the Far East, a summary of his “ageless wisdom” teachings. (“Laguna Beach, 1932–1940: From Temple to Ranch,” The Adamski Case, September 27, 2019)

August 17 — A metallic disc with a diameter of 33–40 feet is seen flying soundlessly near Venice, Italy. It has windows and alternating white and red lights. Two fighters from a nearby air base attempt to intercept it but cannot reach it. After maneuvering for an hour and passing above Mestre, Veneto, it appears more like a torpedo-shaped object. Two other smaller, domed discs are also seen following it. A report on the incident is sent to Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano. (Good Need, p. 12 ; Roberto Pinotti and Alfredo Lissoni, Gli “X - Files” del Nazifascismo, 2001)

Fall — Before 12:00 midnight. Louie R. Lindblad and five companions from Texarkana, Arkansas, are fox hunting in Bowie County, Texas [around the current site of the Red River Army Depot] when they observe numerous star- like objects in a circular formation. Occasionally a light would fly across the circle and take up another position until they all seem to relocate. They watch the display for about 30–40 minutes. (MUFON UFO Journal, no. 15 0 , August 1980, p. 12)

October — Night. Holger Berg and another worker at the Civilian Conservation Corps in Eklutna, Alaska, are walking south toward Anchorage when the see a light approaching them from the south. It is attached to a cigar-shaped object embedded in a blue-green haze and making a strange buzzing noise. As the object passes directly overhead, they notice it actually has a triangular shape and multicolored lights on its tail end. Frightened, they dive into a nearby snowbank then run back to Eklutna. (Marler 64–66) October 10 — 4:15 a.m. Capt. Mario Rossi, flight instructor at the airfield at Orbetello, Grosseto, Italy, is flying a Savoia- Marchetti SM.62 at 12,465 feet over Talamone, Italy, when he sees an unusual light ahead of his plane. He follows the light, which is at a slightly higher altitude and moving at nearly 440 mph. Rossi loses it after flying into a cloud for 12 minutes and finding himself over Elba. (Ernesto Thayaht, “Three Sightings in Italy,” Flying Saucer Review 1, no. 3 (July/Aug. 1955): 6; 1Pinotti 15– 16 ; “Pilots UFO Sightings,” August 7, 2021)

Winter — Robert Damion, an astronomer of Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France, who has a private observatory in the Alps, claims that for several nights a “certain portion of the sky in the vicinity of Mars” has been lit up with a deep bluish tint for 40 seconds each time. He is convinced that Mars is trying to signal Earth. (“Strange Light from Mars Called Signal to Earth,” Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner, March 11, 1936, p. 12)

1937

January — A man who later becomes an administrator in a Missouri state agency chases a disc-shaped object in his private aircraft over Van Buren, Missouri. (Harley D. Rutledge, Project Identification: The First Scientific Field Study of UFO Phenomena, Prentice-Hall, 1981, p. 213) January 1 — Noon. Pilot Howard S. Behr is flying a Curtiss-Wright CW-15 Sedan at 3,000 feet over Virginia on his way to Raleigh, North Carolina. Suddenly he sees an object beginning to cross his flight path about 1,000 feet below him. It looks like a gondola, gun-metal gray in color, with both of its ends turned up. He estimates it is about 35– 40 feet long and traveling at 150 mph. It moves off to his left and disappears. (Jerome Clark, Strange Skies: Pilot Encounters with UFOs, Citadel, 2003, p. 6 ; Patrick Gross, “Pilots UFO Sightings,” August 7, 2021) January 4 — New ghost flier sightings around the fortress at Boden, Norrbotten, Sweden, have prompted Gen. Pontus Reuterswärd to alert Minister of Defence Janne Nilsson about the possibility of foreign spies. (Swords 363) Late January — Ghost fliers return to Västerbotten, Sweden. A light is seen wandering near the horizon east of Umeå. A light brighter than a headlight is reported from a community near Dorotea. A light similar to position lights on an aircraft flies over a village outside Stensele. (Swords 363)

February 11 — 9:00 p.m. The crew of the fishing vessel Fram is departing Kvalsvik, Norway, when they notice a “large aeroplane” with red and green glowing lights resting on top of the water. The captain turns the boat around to offer assistance, but the object’s lights go out and it is cloaked in a “cloud of smoke” and vanishes. (Strange Company 11) February 15 — MP Elof Lindberg demands in the Swedish Parliament that a commission with civil experts, not military, should investigate the ghost flier intrusions. He suspects the military has embellished the reports to direct more resources to the northern region and to the Air Force in general. (Swords 363)

May 19 — Lindberg’s request for a civilian ghost flier investigation is rejected by Swedish Minister of Defence Janne Nilsson, who explains that no new facts have surfaced and few new observations have been reported. (Swords 363) May 30 — Amateur astronomer Latimer J. Wilson of Nashville, Tennessee, is observing Mars through a 12-inch reflector when he sees a series of intermittent bright flashes across the south polar cap. A line of tiny white spots seems to extend across the cap, some coalescing to swell in a brilliant white spot that quickly becomes yellow, then red- yellow, the “phenomenon passing from left to right across the polar cap.” (Latimer J. Wilson, “Apparent Flashes Seen on Mars,” Popular Astronomy 45 (1937): 430; Walter H. Haas, “Flashes on Mars Observed in 1937 and Some Random Remarks,” The Strolling Astronomer 45, no. 1 (Winter 2003): 43–45)

Summer — An object allegedly falls from the sky in Langenau [now Czernica, Poland] into a field belonging to Eva Braun’s family and is retrieved by German soldiers. It supposedly winds up in Wernher von Braun’s laboratory, but the story is probably mythical. (Poland 116–117)

September — Tiffany Thayer publishes the first issue of the Fortean Society Magazine (retitled Doubt in 1944) in New York City. (Fortean Society Magazine 1, no. 1 (September 1937); Clark III 516) September 10– 12 — George Adamski’s Royal Order of Tibet organizes a festival in Laguna Beach, California, dramatizing the “teachings of the universal masters” and a round-table discussion focusing on the “present day needs in unifying all mankind.” (“Laguna Beach, 1932–1940: From Temple to Ranch,” The Adamski Case, September 27, 2019)

1938

1938 — The Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation begin contributing large amounts of money to the Council on Foreign Relations. They create various Committees on Foreign Relations throughout the country, which later become governed by the American Committees on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C., funded by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation. Influential men are chosen in several cities and are brought together for discussions in their own communities as well as participating in an annual conference in New York. These local committees serve to influence local leaders and shape public opinion to build support for the council’s policies, while also acting as “useful listening posts” through which the Council and US government can “sense the mood of the country.” (Wikipedia, “Council on Foreign Relations”) 1938 — Harvey L. Sperry, 13, sees a white, vapor-like object moving at 5–10 mph at less than 100 feet altitude from north to south in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Its rim seems to be “composed of two interwoven parts revolving and moving in opposite directions.” (Lore and Deneault, p. 136 ; Clark III 1176)

February — Raymond A. Palmer is hired as editor of Amazing Stories magazine, owned by Ziff-Davis in Chicago, Illinois. He immediately sets out to enliven the periodical, which is close to folding. Concentrating on “space opera” stories, he expands its size to more than 200 pages and encourages readers to contribute content. (Wikipedia, “Raymond A. Palmer”)

Summer — Midnight. Artist Malcolm B. Perry sees what looks like a Navy blimp moving east to west over Somerville, Massachusetts. It has apparent portholes in the sides, and he can see the silhouette of someone looking at him. Other figures are taking turns looking through portholes. It disappears below some low clouds. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 20–21; “1938: Perry’s Alien,” UFO Roundup 5, no. 37 (September 4, 2000); Clark III 265 ) July 25 — 11:30 p.m. A lieutenant and his aide see a strong light coming from a hovering lens-shaped object near Guadalajara, Spain. It is over 35 feet in diameter and 15 feet high. A platform with two moving figures is lowered from underneath. A blue beam from the object shines on the witnesses, who feel a sudden chill. The platform rises back up, and the object glows with an intense white light and flies away. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, A Catalogue of 200 Type I UFO Events in Spain and Portugal, CUFOS, 1976, p. 2; Clark III 265 )

October — Dusk. A man is in a cornfield with his father near Alger, Ohio, when an object moves up and hovers about 500 feet above the field. The tractor motor stops running. The object is about 100 feet in diameter and has a ring of pulsating, multicolored lights around it. Soon it makes a right-angle turn and vanishes in the sky, after which they get the tractor working again. (Michael D. Swords, “The Timmerman Files,” IUR 26, no. 4 (Winter 2001–2002): 14) October 22 — Italian Lt. Col. Mario Pezzi reaches a record altitude of 56,850 feet in a Caproni Ca.161. It is still the highest a manned, propeller-driven biplane has gone. (Wikipedia, “Mario Pezzi (aviator)”) October 30 — 8:00 p.m. “The War of the Worlds” episode of the American radio drama anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air, directed and narrated by actor and future filmmaker Orson Welles, is an adaptation of H. G. Wells’s novel The War of the Worlds (1898). It is performed and broadcast live in New York City as a Halloween episode over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network. The episode becomes famous for allegedly causing panic among its listening audience, though the scale of that panic is disputed as the program has relatively few listeners. In the days after the adaptation, widespread outrage is expressed in the media. The program’s news-

bulletin format is described as deceptive by some newspapers and public figures, leading to an outcry against the
broadcasters and calls for regulation by the FCC, which declines. Some government agencies in the US,
Germany, and Russia take note of how segments of the population are easily manipulated into thinking fiction is
fact. According to Annie Jacobsen, the confusion allegedly inspires Joseph Stalin to create a similar scenario with
a fake alien crash in the US. (Wikipedia, “The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)”; John Gosling, Waging the
War of the Worlds: A History of the 1938 Radio Broadcast and Resulting Panic, Including the Original Script,
McFarland, 2009 ; Jacobsen, Area 51 , pp. 22 , 211 )

December 17 — The process of nuclear fission is discovered by chemist Otto Hahn and his assistant Fritz Strassmann at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut für Chemie in Berlin, Germany, producing barium by bombarding uranium with neutrons. (Atomic Heritage Foundation, “Atomic Timeline”)

1939

1939? — Sisters Lucile and Allene Holt, daughters of Rev. Turner Hamilton Holt, claim they are separately told by their father, a cousin of Secretary of State Cordell Hull, that Hull personally showed Holt a wrecked circular craft of some kind and glass jars holding unknown creatures. These are stored in a sub-basement of the US Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Both sisters are told the story when Holt is a minister at the Shenandoah Christian Church in Greenwich, Ohio, before 1947, but researchers can find no confirmation in any of Hull’s papers or memoirs. (William E. Jones and Eloise G. Watson, “Pre–World War II ‘Creature’ Retrieval?” IUR 2 6, no. 4 (Winter 2001–2002): 6–9, 12)

January 13 — The process of nuclear fission is explained theoretically in Stockholm, Sweden, by Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Robert Frisch, who compares it to the biological fission of living cells. (Atomic Heritage Foundation, “Atomic Timeline”) January 25 — A Columbia University team conducts the first nuclear fission experiment in the US in the basement of Pupin Hall on the south side of 120th Street in New York City. The experiment involves placing uranium oxide inside an ionization chamber and irradiating it with neutrons, then measuring the energy released. The results confirm that fission is occurring and hints strongly that it is the isotope uranium- 235 that is undergoing fission. (Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Simon & Schuster, 1986, pp. 267– 270 ) January 26 —The Carnegie Institution of Washington holds a press conference at the Fifth Washington Conference on Theoretical Physics in D.C. to announce the discovery of nuclear fission. (Atomic Heritage Foundation, “Atomic Timeline”)

Late summer — A girl sleeping in the back yard of her home in Fort Worth, Texas, is awakened by a whirring noise. She sees a small object approaching from the east at an altitude of 20–30 feet. When it gets close, it descends to the level of her bed and hovers briefly at the foot, so close that she can touch it. It has the shape of an “old-time Mississippi steamboat with a deck around the bottom.” Strata or veins run through it, and a soft, blue-green glow surrounds it. It is 3 feet around and 1 foot high. It rises suddenly and disappears. (“Woman Says Strange Object Flew by Her Bed in Yard,” Fort Worth (Tex.) Star-Telegram, March 24, 1950, p. 23; Clark III 1176) Early August — George Pârvu and four other schoolchildren are playing in an open field in Armășești, Romania, when they see a bright light in the sky moving in a zigzag fashion. It circles a few times then descends in their direction, getting bigger and brighter. The egg-shaped object hovers silently at an altitude of 230–260 feet. Suddenly it becomes a dull coppery color and lands about 140 feet away. Two of the children flee but Pârvu and two others remain. The bottom of the object has a ring of small turbine blades that look like paddles in a water mill. It seems to be 16 feet high. A hatch opens and two little men about 4 feet tall come out, dressed in gray diving suits. They walk toward the children, one of them holding a rectangular box pointing at the ground. The children approach them, holding hands, but when they are about 23 feet away the other man points a thick stick-like device at them and they are no longer able to move forward. The little men bow in their direction, waist deep, then turn around and reenter the object, which takes off. The children find a circular area of yellowed grass where the object had been. Pârvu feels energized, but one of the other boys is temporarily sick. Pârvu encounters what he perceives to be the same object in August 1944, August 1949, and the summer of 1954 (in the center of Bucharest). (George Pârvu, La voia destinului, CNI Coresi, 2011; Romania 124– 128 )

August 2 — Hungarian-American physicist Leo Szilárd writes a confidential letter to President Roosevelt, in consultation with fellow Hungarian physicists Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner. He has persuaded Albert Einstein to sign it as well. The letter warns that Germany might develop atomic bombs and suggests that the United States should start its own nuclear program. It results in the establishment of research into nuclear fission by the US government, and ultimately to the creation of the Manhattan Project. Delayed by the outbreak of war in Europe, the letter is eventually hand-delivered to Roosevelt by economist Alexander Sachs on October 11. Roosevelt gives the letter to his aide, Brig. Gen. Edwin “Pa” Watson with the instruction: “Pa, this requires action!” (Wikipedia, “Einstein–Szilard letter”; Atomic Heritage Foundation, “Atomic Timeline”)

October — An egg-shaped object with 8 spots like portholes is observed through an astronomical reflector telescope at Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. (Richard H. Hall, From Airships to Arnold, UFO Research Coalition, 2007 , p. 17) October 21 — After reading Szilárd’s letter, Roosevelt creates an Advisory Committee on Uranium, which meets for the first time at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C. The committee consists of NBS Director Lyman James Briggs, Army Lt. Col. Keith F. Adamson, and Navy Cmdr. Gilbert C. Hoover. It is attended by physicists Fred L. Mohler from the National Bureau of Standards and Richard Brooke Roberts from the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and Szilárd, Wigner, and Teller. Einstein is invited but declines to attend. Adamson is skeptical about the prospect of building an atomic bomb, but is willing to authorize $6,000 (equivalent to $107,000 in 2018 dollars) for the purchase of uranium and graphite for Szilárd and Enrico Fermi’s experiments into producing a nuclear chain reaction at Columbia University. (Wikipedia, “S-1 Executive Committee”)

November 13 — 7:00 a.m. A building foreman is driving past a deserted farm near Brockworth, Gloucester, England, when he hears a high-pitched humming sound. He watches a gray, bell-shaped object hovering about 20 feet above a field 100 feet away. He estimates it is about 25 feet across. Dark window-like patches are visible on the side. A “curtain” of blue-green light emanates from the underside. After about two minutes, the green light retracts into the base of the object. The object then tilts to an angle of about 80° and moves away without a sound. (Jenny Randles and Peter Warrington, Science and the UFOs, Basil Blackwell, 1985, p. 3; Jenny Randles, “Beam Me Up,” Fortean Times 381 (July 2019): 29– 30 )

1940

1940 — Astronomer Royal Harold Spencer Jones publishes Life on Other Worlds, an essay on the cosmos, the possibility of life arising, science’s tools, the development of the Earth, solar system bodies without atmospheres, the giant gas planets, Venus, Mars, the origin of solar systems, and possibilities for life beyond the solar system. (H. Spencer Jones, Life on Other Worlds, Macmillan, 1940; Michael D. Swords, “SETI/ETI and UFOs,” JUFOS 5 (1994): 141– 142 )

March — George Adamski moves from Laguna Beach to a property along the Star Route in Valley Center, California, about 9 miles from where Palomar Observatory is under construction to set up a spiritual retreat. He acquires a 15 - inch telescope to create an interest in astronomy. (“Palomar Mountain, 1940–1960: From Obscurity to World Fame,” The Adamski Case, September 22, 2019) March — US physicist John R. Dunning and colleagues at Columbia University verify the hypothesis of Danish physicist Niels Bohr that fission is more readily produced in the rare uranium-235 isotope than the abundant uranium- 238 isotope. Dunning begins investigating gaseous diffusion as a process for enriching uranium. (Atomic Heritage Foundation, “Atomic Timeline”) March — Otto Robert Frisch and Rudolf Peierls, two researchers at the University of Birmingham in England—who ironically have been assigned to investigate nuclear weapons by Australian physicist Mark Oliphant because, as enemy aliens in Britain, they are ineligible to participate in secret war work—issue the Frisch-Peierls memorandum. It contradicts the common thinking of the time that many tons of uranium would be needed to make a bomb, requiring delivery by ship. The calculation in the memorandum shows that a bomb might be possible using as little as 1–10 kilograms of pure uranium-235, which would be quite practical for aircraft to carry. (Wikipedia, “Frisch–Peierls memorandum”; Atomic Heritage Foundation, “Atomic Timeline) March 22 — Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 8381, creating the three security levels for the most important documents: Restricted, Confidential, and Secret. (US President, Executive Order No. 8381, “Defining Certain Vital Military and Naval Installations and Equipment,” March 22, 1940)

Spring — Afternoon. Walking down a street in Hinsdale, Illinois, William T. Powers sees five disc-shaped objects in the northern sky. They are traveling together at 100–200 mph and disappear into a cloud. (Clark III 1177) April 10 — The first meeting of the MAUD Committee in England, established in response to the Frisch-Peierls memorandum to determine if an atomic bomb is feasible, meets in the Royal Society committee room in Burlington House, London. The original members are physicists George Paget Thomson, James Chadwick, John Cockcroft, Mark Oliphant, and Philip Burton Moon; physicists Patrick Blackett, Charles Drummond Ellis, and chemist Norman Haworth are subsequently added, along with a representative of the Director of Scientific Research at the Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP). (Wikipedia, “MAUD Committee”)

Mid-May — 9:00 a.m. Lavern P. Zewiske and his father Paul are checking some recently planted corn on their farm near Fairbank, Iowa. A gray object with multiple hooked “hairs or tentacles” moving around on the bottom passes overhead at 500–1,000 feet. (“Out of the Past,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 5 (Oct./Nov. 1984): 6) May 21— President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizes the FBI to conduct electronic surveillance and wiretapping on US spies, saboteurs, or suspicious individuals. (“Warrantless FBI Electronic Surveillance,” US Senate, Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Final Report, April 23, 1976, pp. 271–351)

Summer (or summer 1941) — Near St. Clair, Pennsylvania, as he is walking along a country road, young Frank Sever hears a loud noise in the nearby woods. He sees something like an “aluminum building” partly concealed in the trees. A short distance from it he sees “six small men milling about or looking for something on the ground.” Thinking they are ghosts, he runs. Later he comes back and confirms there is no building on the spot. (Clark III 265 )

August 11 — The RAF Bomber Command issues a report on “Phenomena Connected with Enemy Night Tactics” concerning unidentifiable aircraft observed by bombing crews over the coast of Holland and the Ruhr Valley of Germany. The report suggests the sightings are either due to observer strain or German “experimental apparatus.” (Strange Company 16 – 17)

1941

1941 — A physicist and his wife are traveling notrh on US Highway 99 north of Bakersfield, California, and pull off to the side to watch a long, slender object of a blazing red, green, and yellow color moving about 8 miles east of them. It is traveling at about 50 mph at an altitude of 200–300 feet and is clearly outlined against the foothills. It seems to be several times longer than a bomber. (“Recent Sightings,” APRO Bulletin, January 1957, p. 5)

Early spring — 9:00–9:30 p.m. Rev. William Guy Huffman of the Red Star Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, is summoned to an apparent airplane crash one Saturday. When he arrives at the scene, about 15 miles from town, he finds a weird-looking craft “broken and scattered all around,” but smooth and rounded without edges or seams. A cockpit with a chair facing an instrument panel remains intact. Police officers, military men, and plain-clothes individuals are sifting through the wreckage. He also sees three non-human bodies about 4 feet tall with long arms, oversized heads, and large eyes. He says a prayer for them, and afterward sees someone take a photo of an alien propped up by the arms between two plainclothesmen. The following evening, he is given a copy of the photo by a member of his congregation (thought to be Garland D. Fronabarger), but he loans it later to someone who never returns it. Huffman’s wife Floy reveals the story to her granddaughter, Charlette Mann, on her deathbed in 1984, who relates the story to ufologist Leonard Stringfield. (Clark III 343–344; Paul Blake Smith, MO41: The Bombshell before Roswell, W&B Publishers, 2015 ; Billy Booth, “1941 Cape Girardeau, Missouri Crash,” liveabout.com, February 5, 2019; Kevin Randle, “Cape Girardeau UFO Crash, 1941,” A Different Perspective, December 5, 2019) March — The Chain Home radars placed around the English coastline detect a formation of blips moving across the English Channel. RAF fighters are sent to intercept, but their crews see nothing and the blips fade. The radar returns are characterized as radar “angels,” invisible targets in the clear atmosphere. (David Clarke, “The Radar Angels,” Fortean Times 195 (May 2005): 36 – 37) March 17 — The Western Defense Command is established as the command formation of the US Army responsible for coordinating the defense of the Pacific Coast and training soldiers prior to their deployment overseas. (Wikipedia, “Western Defense Command”)

May — With the help of the American Legion, volunteers are recruited into the Aircraft Warning Service, the civilian arm of the Army’s Ground Observer Corps. On the east coast, the AWS is under the auspices of the Army Air Force’s 1st Interceptor Command based at Mitchel Field near Uniondale, New York. On the west coast, the AWS is under the auspices of the 4th Interceptor Command based in Riverside, California. On both coasts, observation posts, information centers, and filter centers are established. (Wikipedia, “Aircraft Warning Service”; Project 1947, “Aircraft Warning Service (AWS): Freeman Observation Post #52”)

June 20 — The Army Air Corps becomes the US Army Air Forces to provide the air arm greater autonomy. (Wikipedia, “United States Army Air Forces”) June 26 — The first draft of the final report of the MAUD Committee is written by George Paget Thomson and circulates among committee members. It concludes that an atomic bomb is feasible. Vannevar Bush receives a copy. Without the help of the MAUD Committee the Manhattan Project would have started months behind. Instead, they are able to begin thinking about how to create a bomb, not whether it is possible. (Wikipedia, “MAUD Committee”) June 28 — Roosevelt establishes the Office of Scientific Research and Development; Vannevar Bush is appointed director. It subsumes the National Defense Research Committee, whose Uranium Committee becomes the Uranium Section of the OSRD, soon renamed the S-1 for security reasons. To the S-1 Section, Vannevar Bush adds American physicist Samuel King Allison, Russian-American physicist Gregory Breit, American physicist Edward Condon, physicist Lloyd P. Smith, and Henry DeWolf Smyth. American physicist Ross Gunn is dropped in line with an NDRC policy not to have Army or Navy personnel in the sections. Lyman James Briggs remains the chairman, with American physicist George B. Pegram as the vice chairman. (Wikipedia, “Office of Scientific Research and Development”) Late June — About 5:30 p.m. Helen Michailoff and her mother are in Odessa, Ukraine, when they see a raspberry-red object slowly moving east and emitting smoke. Thinking it is a bomb, they rush to the basement, but there is no explosion. (“Out of the Past,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 5 (Oct./Nov. 1983): 4)

July 3 — The Northrop N-1M, an experimental “flying wing” aircraft with a 38-foot wingspan, is first flown at Baker Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert, California, by test pilot Vance Breese for several hundred yards. He reports that the aircraft can fly no higher than 5 feet. After this is corrected, the N-1M takes another 28 flights through November. (Wikipedia, “Northrop N-1M”) July 11 — Roosevelt establishes the Office of the Coordinator of Information, a forerunner of the Office for Strategic Services, headed by lawyer William J. Donovan. It is tasked with collecting and analyzing national security information. (Wikipedia, “Office of the Coordinator of Information”)

September — Night. Seaman Mar Doroba, Anthony Kornilak, and others on the British troopship SS Pulaski in the Mozambique Channel see a “strange globe glowing with greenish light, about half the size of the full moon.” They watch it for more than an hour before it disappears. (Strange Company 17 ; Lore and Deneault, pp. 130 – 131 )

October 2 — German test pilot Heini Dittmar attains an unofficial airspeed record of 623 mph in a rocket-powered Messerschmidt Me 163A at Peenemünde, Germany. (Wikipedia, “Heini Dittmar”) Early October — A possible UFO crash/retrieval takes place during preparations for the US Army’s Carolina maneuvers in south central North Carolina (possibly in or around the Uwharrie National Forest). The sketchy story is based on the participation of Pvt. Guy B. Simeone, who relates a few details about a crash and dead “little people” to his family in a letter and phone call. Walter N. Webb reports on his investigation of the incident in 1996. (Walter N. Webb, “An Anecdotal Report of a UFO Crash/Retrieval in 1941: Part 1,” IUR 21, no. 4 (Winter 1996): 20–28; Walter N. Webb, “An Anecdotal Report of a UFO Crash/Retrieval in 1941: Part 2 ,” IUR 22, no. 1 (Spring 1997): 28 – 32) October 9 — Roosevelt approves an atomic weapons program after meeting with Office of Scientific Research and Development Director Vannevar Bush and Vice President Henry A. Wallace. On Bush’s advice, Roosevelt chooses the US Army to run the project rather than the Navy, although the Navy has shown far more interest in the field, and is already conducting research into atomic energy for powering ships. Bush’s negative experiences with the Navy has convinced him that it would not listen to his advice and cannot handle large-scale construction projects. (Cameron Reed, “Manhattan Project Mystery,” Forum on the History of Physics, Spring 2012)

Early December — Army Lt. Walter Hanson and his wife are stranded in the Georgia countryside when they run out of gas. They see a star-like object that swiftly moves in circles counterclockwise. Suddenly it stops and takes off obliquely. (Strange Company 17 – 18; Lore and Deneault, p. 140 ) December 8 — Around noon. Red Cross volunteer Yoshio Taketa is resting on the lawn of the Kuhio School in Honolulu, Hawaii, with 9 others. The smoke is still rising from the Pearl Harbor attack to the west. One of them notices a round white object at about 20,000 feet overhead. It floats away slowly. (Clark III 50 1 ) December 18 — With the US at war, funding for an atomic bomb is now available in amounts undreamed of the year before. At the S-1 Section meeting, American physicist Ernest Lawrence asks for $400,000 for electromagnetic separation, and the section immediately recommends granting it. MIT physicist Karl Taylor Compton is allocated $340,000 for nuclear reactor research at Columbia and Princeton, and $278,000 at the University of Chicago. Another $500,000 is earmarked for raw materials. His proposed schedule is no less breathtaking: to produce a nuclear chain reaction by July 1942, and an atomic bomb by January 1945. In January 1942, he creates the Metallurgical Laboratory, centralizing the work at the University of Chicago. (Wikipedia, “S-1 Executive Committee”) December 22 —Electrical engineer George Bogner stops his car at the corner of St. Agnes Avenue and Pleasant Street in Utica, New York, to watch a round, metallic object speed silently across the sky. He estimates it at 100 feet in diameter and moving at 300 mph. (Strange Company 18; Lore and Deneault, pp. 140 – 141 )

1942

1942 — Naval Intelligence Officer Bernard M. Baruch Jr. develops a submarine reporting network, Communication Instruction for Reporting Enemy Sightings on which CIRVIS is modeled in 1948. (US Naval War College, Master Script for “Communication Instruction for Reporting Enemy Sightings,” undated; NICAP, “Capt. Bernard Baruch Jr.”) 1942 — 1 :00 a.m. A woman returning home in Prouvy, Nord, France, finds herself face-to-face with three small entities with large round heads and short beards. They have large, luminous yellow eyes and wear tight, one-piece suits with a metallic sheen that leave only their faces exposed. The beings stare at her without moving, so she goes inside to get her husband, but by the time they return the entities have gone. (Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1940– 1949 , p. 3; Clark III 265 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, September 26, 2007)

February 24– 25 — The Battle of Los Angeles takes place, a rumored enemy attack and subsequent anti-aircraft barrage over Los Angeles, California. Air raid sirens sound throughout Los Angeles County on the night of February 24. A total blackout is ordered, and thousands of air raid wardens are summoned to their positions. At 3: 16 a.m., the 37th Coast Artillery Brigade begins firing .50 caliber machine guns and 12.8-pound anti-aircraft shells into the air at reported aircraft; more than 1,400 shells are eventually fired. Pilots of the 4th Interceptor Command are alerted, but their aircraft remain grounded. The artillery fire continues sporadically until 4:14 a.m. The “all clear” is sounded and the blackout order lifted at 7:21 a.m. Several buildings and vehicles are damaged by shell fragments, and five civilians die as an indirect result of the anti-aircraft fire. Three are killed in car accidents in the ensuing chaos and two die of heart attacks attributed to the stress of the hour-long action. The incident is front-page news along the Pacific coast and earns some mass media coverage. Within hours of the end of the air raid, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox holds a press conference, saying the entire incident was a false alarm due to anxiety and “war nerves.” Knox’s comments are followed by statements from the Army on February 26 that reflect General George C. Marshall’s belief that the incident was caused by commercial airplanes used as a psychological warfare campaign to generate panic. Some contemporary press outlets suspect a cover-up. Rep. Leland M. Ford (R-Calif.) calls for a congressional investigation, saying, “none of the explanations so far offered removed the episode from the category of ‘complete mystification’ … this was either a practice raid, or a raid to throw a scare into 2,000,000 people, or a mistaken identity raid, or a raid to lay a political foundation to take away Southern California’s war industries.” The Japanese government, after the war ended, declares that they had flown no airplanes over Los Angeles during the war. In 1983, the US Office of Air Force History attributes the event to a case of “war nerves” triggered by a lost weather balloon and exacerbated by stray flares and shell bursts from adjoining batteries. A number of fake documents about this incident have been circulated by Timothy S. Cooper. (Wikipedia, “Battle of Los Angeles”; Clark III 1176– 1177 ; NICAP, “Battle of Los Angeles”; Lore and Deneault, pp. 74 – 87 ; Good Above, pp. 15 – 17 ; Good Need, pp. 17 , 31 ; “No Bombs Dropped, No Planes Shot Down,” Los Angeles Herald Express, February 25, 1942, p. 1; “Japanese Carry War to California Coast,” Life, March 9, 1942, pp. 19– 23 ; Brett Holman, “New Light on the Battle of Los Angeles,” Airminded, April 20, 2011; David Marler, “The Battle of LA

UFO Incident,” OpenMindsTV YouTube channel, October 9, 2018; Strange Company 19 – 22; Robert Wood, “‘Leaked’ Documents Shed New Light on Outcome of ‘Battle of Los Angeles,’” MUFON UFO Journal, June 2010, pp. 3 – 7; US Office of the Chief of Military History, “History of the Western Defense Command, 17 March 1941 – 30 September 1945,” five ms. vols., Appendix no. 5, “Chronology of Enemy Operations on Pacific Coast of Continental United States,” pp. 25– 27 ; History, Fourth Anti-Aircraft Command, January 9, 1942, to July 1, 1945, pp. 112– 124 ; Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate, The Army Air Forces in World War II: Vol. 1, Plans and Early Operations, Office of Air Force History, 1948, pp. 283– 286 ; Lorraine Boissoneault, “The Great Los Angeles Air Raid Terrified Citizens—Even Though No Bombs Were Dropped,” Smithsonian Magazine, January 19, 2018; Patrick Gross, “Los Angeles, February 25, 1942”) February 26 — Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall writes Roosevelt that as many as 15 unknown commercial aircraft, flying at various speeds up to 200 mph and at elevations from 9,000 to 18,000 feet, were responsible for the Battle of Los Angeles. (presidentialufo.com, “General George Marshall Secret Memo to President Roosevelt about the Unidentified Objects over Los Angeles on February 25, 1942”; Good Above, pp. 17 , 446 ) February 26 — Royal Netherlands Navy cruiser HNLMS Tromp, returning to Australia after the Battle of Badung Strait (off Bali in Indonesia), reports a large, aluminum disc speeding above it in the Timor Sea and maneuvering for nearly 4 hours. It departs at an estimated 3,500 mph. (“Australasia,” Flying Saucer Review 3, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1957): 6)

March 5 — Benjamin Smith, formerly of the Army Air Corps, sees several blinking lights moving slowly over the Middle River adjacent to Essex, Maryland. They circle the river two or three times then disappear. Smith reports the incident to local police, who then inform Naval Intelligence. (Towson (Md.) Union News, March 6, 1942; Jan Aldrich) March 9 — The Air Service Command becomes a major Army Air Forces unit to support logistical functions. (Wikipedia, “Air Materiel Command”)

Spring — Rev. Robert H. Moore and six other persons attending the Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, watch a small, light-gray, rectangular object over the northern part of town for 10 minutes. (Lore and Deneault, p. 142 ) April 1 — The Materiel Division of the Air Service Command assumes responsibility for R&D and procurement and is redesignated as the Air Corps Materiel Command. (Wikipedia, “Air Materiel Command”)

May — 3:00 p.m. Abdon Gonzales Tello, 13, and other boys see a silvery, cigar-shaped object in the sky to the west of Miraflores, Peru. Its ends are cut off at sharp angles, and it takes 20 seconds to proceed to the south and out of sight. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 22)

June — Col. James C. Marshall is selected to head the Manhattan Project. (Wikipedia, “Manhattan Project”) June 13 — Roosevelt establishes the Office of Strategic Services, a wartime intelligence agency, with Gen. William J. Donovan at its head. (Wikipedia, “Office of Strategic Services”) June 19 — Roosevelt abolishes the S-1 Section and replaces it with the S-1 Executive Committee, tasked with the technical and contractual aspects of producing an atomic bomb, while the Army handles engineering, construction, and site selection. American chemist James B. Conant is appointed as its chairman, and Lyman James Briggs, Karl Taylor Compton, Ernest Lawrence, and American chemists Eger V. Murphree and Harold C. Urey as its other members. Roosevelt approves the committee’s recommendation to move to the pilot plant stage and build piles to produce plutonium and electromagnetic, centrifuge, and gaseous diffusion plants to produce uranium-235. (Wikipedia, “S-1 Executive Committee”) June 25 (or March 25) — Midnight. Flight Lt. Roman (Ray) Sabiński of the 301 Polish Bomber Squadron is flying an RAF Wellington bomber after returning from a run on the Ruhr Valley, Germany; he sees a bright copper-colored light the “size of the moon” following the aircraft over the Zuiderzee in Holland. When it gets within 200 yards, the rear gunner shoots at it with all four machine guns. After two minutes, it moves at terrific speed to the port side, and the front gunner starts firing at it. Sabiński takes evasive action, but the object keeps pacing him. Finally, it moves in front of the bomber, stays there a while, then takes off at fantastic speed. (Strange Company 23 – 25; Gordon W. Creighton. “Foo Fighters,” Flying Saucer Review 8, no. 2 (March/April 1962): 15; Patrick Gross, “Pilot Reports”)

Late 1942? — According to records released in August 2010, Prime Minister Winston Churchill supposedly classifies for 50 years an alleged UFO incident because of fears it could create mass panic. The incident allegedly involves an

RAF reconnaissance plane returning from a mission in Europe. The aircraft is over or near the English coastline when it is allegedly intercepted by a strange metallic object that matches the aircraft’s course and speed for a time before shooting away. The plane’s crew photograph the object, which “hovered noiselessly” near the aircraft before moving off. According to the documents, details of the cover-up emerge when a man writes to the government in 1999 seeking to find out more about the incident. He describes how his grandfather, who served with the RAF, was present when Churchill and Gen. Dwight Eisenhower discussed how to deal with the encounter. However, the evidence is hearsay and somewhat questionable. (UFOFiles2, pp. 20– 21 ) Summer — 5:50 p.m. An RAAF pilot is on flying patrol off the Tasman Peninsula, Tasmania, following reports by fishermen of strange lights on the waters of Bass Strait. A “singular airfoil of glistening bronze color” appears out of a cloudbank. It’s about 150 feet long, 50 feet in diameter, and has a dome on top. It accompanies his plane for a few minutes before departing at “a hell of a pace.” It turns again and dives into the ocean, throwing up a “whirlpool of waves.” (Bill Chalker, “Australian A.F. UFO Report Files,” APRO Bulletin 30, no. 10 (October 1982): 6–7) Late summer — Pvt. Albert Lancashire, 27, is standing guard at Cresswell radar station near Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Northumberland, England, when he sees a cloud-enshrouded light approaching from the North Sea. As it descends, he is drawn up into it by a beam. Small men grab him and carry him into the craft, where he sees other human figures of normal height, including an apparent captain with dark hair and goggles. He is made to lie down on a couch or table. He has only vague memories of what happens next, but he thinks a medical exam is performed. He wakes up back at his sentry post. (Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1940– 1949 , p. 4; “New Time Lapse Case from England Uncovered,” MUFON UFO Journal 107 (October 1976): 1–18; Clark III 265 ) August — Evelyn M. Howell and two other adults see a huge cigar-shaped object hovering near them between Lafayette Township and Newton, New Jersey. It has “two rows of windows” that give off blue, green, white, and red fluorescent lights. They watch it for 10 minutes, after which it silently and slowly takes off. Howell and her husband see a similar object on the drive home to Ogdensburg, New Jersey. (Clark III 1178) August 5 — Early morning. The Navy destroyer USS Helm is on its way to the Solomon Islands in preparation for the Guadalcanal landings. A radio blackout is in effect. An aircraft approaches, a full alert is sounded, and three cruisers (Vincennes, Quincy, Astoria) and seven other ships open fire on it. The object is not hit and proceeds to circle around the fleet. An anonymous sailor on security detail on the Helm watches it through binoculars and sees it as 90 feet in diameter, oval, with a round dome on top. The ships continue to fire on the UFO, which attains extremely high speeds. Commanding Officer Chester Edward Carroll later hears that the aircraft is neither German nor Japanese. (Strange Company 27 – 28) August 12 — Day. Sgt. Stephen J. Brickner of the 1st Marine Division on Tulagi in the Solomon Islands is cleaning his rifle when an air-raid warning is sounded. He dives into his foxhole looking to the sky. He hears a roaring sound unlike that of an aircraft. Soon he sees a formation of more than 150 silvery objects, in straight lines of 10 or 12. The objects seem to wobble slightly. They are flying faster than Japanese planes and are soon out of sight. (Good Above, p. 18 ; Strange Company 28 – 29 ) August 13 — The Manhattan Engineering District, with Brig. Gen. James C. Marshall as district engineer, is established by Chief of the US Army Corps of Engineers Maj. Gen. Eugene Reybold. (Wikipedia, “Manhattan Project”) August 29 — Army Air Corps control tower operator Pvt. Michael Solomon sees two small reddish objects descend near the AAC Advanced Flying School at Columbus, Mississippi, then speed away. He later contacts government officials and officers from the school in attempting to confirm his sighting. (Clark III 1177; Jan Aldrich)

September 23 — Col. Leslie Groves is promoted to brigadier general and becomes director of the Manhattan Project. The Military Policy Committee, consisting of Vannevar Bush (with James B. Conant as his alternative), Maj. Gen. Wilhelm D. Styer, and Rear Adm. William R. Purnell, is created to oversee the project. (Wikipedia, “Manhattan Project”) September 25 — RAF Bomber Command’s Operational Research Section releases a report titled “A Note on Pyrotechnic Activity over Germany.” An unnamed Flak Liaison Officer has coordinated the reports from No. 3 and No. 5 Groups and determines there are two types of phenomena: a ball of fire that is shot from the ground and drips multicolored fragments, and multi-part flares. Another type involves “small coloured balls” that climb to 7,000 feet. (Strange Company 32) September 29 — US Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson authorizes the Corps of Engineers to acquire 56,000 acres in Tennessee for Site X, which will become the Oak Ridge, Tennessee, laboratory and production site. (Wikipedia, “Oak Ridge, Tennessee”)

October 7 — Land at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is acquired by eminent domain for Clinton Engineer Works. (Wikipedia, “Clinton Engineer Works”) October 19 — Leslie Groves approves J. Robert Oppenheimer to coordinate the scientific research of the Manhattan Project at the Site Y laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. (Wikipedia, “Manhattan Project”)

November 15 — Teams under physicists Herbert L. Anderson and Walter Zinn have constructed 16 experimental nuclear reactors under the Stagg Field stands at the University of Chicago. (Wikipedia, “Metallurgical Laboratory”) November 25 — The Los Alamos site in New Mexico is acquired for Project Y. (Wikipedia, “Project Y”) November 28 — 10:40–10:45 p.m. Capt. Lever and the No. 61 Squadron crew of an RAF Lancaster are returning from a bombing raid on Turin, Italy, when about 10–15 miles southwest of the city they see an object 200–300 feet long traveling southeast at a speed of 500 mph. It has four pairs of red lights spaced along its body and is flying on a level course. Five minutes later, as the Lancaster approaches the Alps at 14,000 feet, the crew sees the object again traveling southwest up a valley. It disappears when the red lights go out. (UFOFiles2, pp. 25– 26 ; Strange Company 34 – 35 ; Good Need, pp. 18 – 19 , 32 )

December — A Technical Data Laboratory is established at Wright Field near Dayton, Ohio, as part of the Army Materiel Command. Its operations include the evaluation of foreign aircraft and related equipment. (US Air Force, “National Air and Space Intelligence Center Heritage,” July 31, 2015) December — 8 :00 p.m. RAAF Lt. Bruce Clyde Lumsden is flying a Hawker Hurricane heading for the French coast. About 7,000 feet over the mouth of the River Somme, France, he observes two orange lights climbing, one slightly above the other. He completes a full turn, putting the lights behind him on the port side. They now appear brighter and larger. When they reach his altitude, they stop climbing and stay at his altitude. He makes another full turn, but the objects stay with him. Lumsden dives to 4,000 feet, but the lights match his maneuvers. He increases his speed to 260 mph and gradually leaves them behind. His squadron mates do not believe him, but the next night another squadron member has a similar encounter with a green light. (Strange Company 36 ) December 2 — Chicago Pile- 1 , the first nuclear reactor, goes critical at the University of Chicago under the leadership and design of Enrico Fermi, achieving a self-sustaining reaction just one month after construction was started. (Wikipedia, “Chicago Pile- 1 ”) December 27 — The Northrop N-9M, a prototype flying wing bomber with a wingspan of 60 feet, makes its first test flight at Jack Northrop Field [now Hawthorne (Calif.) Municipal Airport] with pilot John Wescott Myers. Through May, 44 more flights are made, nearly all terminated by mechanical failures. (Wikipedia, “Northrop N- 9M”)

1943

January 15 — During a US bombing raid over Cherbourg, Manche, France, several crews see “large numbers of projectiles resembling ‘schools of flying fish,’ about a foot long and similar to incendiary bombs, coming up from a direction of the town.” (Strange Company 38) January 16 — Leslie Groves approves development of the Hanford site in Washington State for plutonium production. (Wikipedia, “Hanford Site”)

February 9 — Land for a plutonium production complex is acquired at Hanford, Washington. (Wikipedia, “Hanford Site”) February 18 — Construction begins for Y- 12 , a massive electromagnetic separation plant for enriching uranium at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. (Wikipedia, “Y-12 National Security Complex”)

April 1 — Los Alamos Laboratory is established in New Mexico and begins operations. (Wikipedia, “Project Y”) April 5 — 9:50 a.m. Flight instructor Gerry A. Casey and a student pilot in a Boeing-Stearman Model 75 watch a radiant- orange, elliptical disc dive at their aircraft near Long Beach, California. There is no propellor and it has a rounded hump above and below. It hovers alongside with a slight wobble, then accelerates, turns from orange to white, and climbs out of sight in 2 seconds. (Project 1947, “UFO Reports, 1943”; Gerry A. Casey, “UFO: The Time for the Telling Has Come,” Tacoma (Wash.) Western Flyer, July 7, 1989, via UFO Newsclipping Service 241 (August 1989), p. 3; Patrick Gross, “Observation at Long Beach, 1943”) April 9 — 5:00 p.m. Kazimierz Bzowski and other resistance fighters are monitoring a fire in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland. They notice a flying object approaching them at about 60 mph. Through binoculars it appears to be a sphere colored with tangled strips of both raspberry and blue-green colors. Bzowski estimates it is at an elevation

of 200 feet and is about 25 feet in diameter. They observe German and Lithuanian snipers on Bonifraterska street
shooting at it, although the bullets seem to pass through it. The object alters course and heads toward Old Town,
then stops dead and shoots away at great speed. (Poland 13)

May — Capt. Gordon W. Cammell is flying an RAF Lancaster bomber back over the English Channel when he and his entire crew see a “huge orange ball on or near the sea” 7,000–8,000 feet below them. Over the next 10 minutes, they watch it project a bright and constant light. (Strange Company 41) May 19 — The Northrop N-9M flying wing bomber prototype crashes 12 miles west of Muroc Army Air Base [now Edwards AFB], California, killing its pilot Max Constant. (Wikipedia, “Northrop N-9M”) May 26 — Late night. Capt. Ray Smith and copilot Sgt. Gordon N. Cockcroft are flying at 18,000 feet in a Halifax bomber on a run near Essen, Germany, when they see a silvery-gold cylindrical object, larger than their aircraft, on the port side. It has several evenly spaced portholes. It is hovering at a 45° angle. After 20–30 seconds it climbs away at high speed. (“Correspondence,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 5 (Oct./Nov. 1982): 4–6; Strange Company 40 ; Project 1947, “UFO Reports, 1943”; John Hanson and Dawn Holloway, Haunted Skies: The Encyclopaedia of British UFOs: Volume 1, 1940 – 1959, Fortean Words, 2010)

June — The Army Air Force’s Air Tactical Service Command meets with Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in Burbank, California, to ask them to develop a jet fighter. (Wikipedia, “Skunk Works”) June 2 — Construction begins on K-25, the gaseous diffusion plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. (Wikipedia, “K- 25 ”)

July — Lockheed Engineer Kelly Johnson and other associate engineers hand-deliver a proposal for the XP-80 jet fighter to the Air Tactical Service Command. Two days later, the go-ahead is given to Lockheed to start development, and the Skunk Works is born in Burbank, California, with Johnson at the helm. The name supposedly comes from the L ’ il Abner comic strip, which has a place called “Skonk Works” where a strong beverage is brewed from skunks, old shoes, and other ingredients. (Wikipedia, “Skunk Works”) July 18 — A French prisoner in a German labor camp near Gdynia, Poland, is walking to work along the Baltic Sea when he sees a flat, metallic object embedded in the sand. A human figure is standing next to it, apparently trying to dig it up. When he passes by, the figure, apparently an Asian woman with long blonde hair and dressed in a tight- fitting overall, turns in his direction. The witness assumes she is the famous German aviator Hanna Reitsch and helps her dig the experimental aircraft out of the sand. The object is 20 feet in diameter and looks like two metallic saucers put together. The woman touches the witness’s chest with her hand and points to the sky. She touches her belt and a door in the object opens. She crawls inside, the door closes, and the object ascends and departs at a tremendous speed. (Jean Sider, Ultra Top-Secret: Ces OVNIs qui font peur, Axis Mundi, 1990)

September — During an air battle between the Germans and Russians, a member of the Spanish Blue Division fighting with the Germans near Pushkin outside Leningrad [now Saint Petersburg], Russia, notices a disc-shaped object above the planes. It appears to be observing the battle, then disappears at a fantastic speed. (Antonio Ribera, Platillos Volantes en Iberoamerica y España, Santiago Pomaire, 1968, pp. 411 – 412) September — Ray Palmer, editor of Amazing Stories magazine, receives a letter from a reader named Richard S. Shaver, who claims to have discovered “Mantong,” a proto-language that is the source of all earthly languages. In Mantong, each sound has a hidden meaning, and by applying this formula to any word in any language, one can decode the secret meaning. Palmer applies the formula to several words and realizes Shaver might be onto something. (Wikipedia, “Richard Sharpe Shaver”; Clark III 609; Walter Kafton-Minkel, Subterranean Worlds, Loompanics, 1989, p. 136) September 6 — 9:50 a.m. During an aerial fight over Stuttgart, Germany, the crews of two aircraft of the 384th Bomb Group, commanded by Capt. Raymond P. Ketelson, observe two round objects “resembling silvery discs” floating downward through the aircraft formation. One hits the wing of a B-17 bomber, setting it on fire. The bomber does not return from the mission. (Strange Company 43 )

Autumn — A Polish bomber unit based in England claims that silver-blue balls of fire appeared near their wing on six missions when they raided the Nazi V-1 weapons plant in Peenemünde, Germany. RAF intelligence officer Michael Bentine debriefs them later and asks, “But what did it do to you?” They reply, “Nothing.” Bentine points out, “Well it was not a very effective weapon, was it?” (UFOFiles2, p. 20; David Clarke and Andy Roberts, “The Foo Fighters: The RAF Experience,” The Real UFO Project, January 2003) October — 9:00 p.m. Wilberta Finley, an air spotter for the Civil Air Patrol, notices a “huge dark aerial object approaching” her home in Santa Barbara, California, facing the Goleta Valley. Moving low and soundlessly, it

barely skims over a nearby hill. From its front a beam of light shoots down, and at intervals it swings from side to side as if scanning the hills and homes below. (“Report from the Readers,” Fate 11, no. 11 (November 1958): 116 – 118 ; Clark III 1178) October 10 — Construction begins for the first reactor at the Hanford site in Washington. (US Department of Energy, Office of History and Heritage Resources, “Hanford Becomes Operational,” August 7, 2013) October 14 — Night. A group of B- 1 7s from the 384th Bombardment Group are returning from a mission over Germany when they see a cluster of silver-colored discs in the path of their formation and closing with the bombers. The crews talk back and forth, discussing and confirming the sight before them. They describe the objects as “about one inch thick and three inches in diameter…gliding down slowly in a very uniform cluster.” One of the bombers goes directly through the cluster “with absolutely no effect on engines or plane surface,” even though one is heard to strike the tail assembly. A mass of black debris about 3-4 feet long is also observed. (Clark III 502; Martin Caidin, Black Thursday, Dell, 196 2, pp. 188– 190 ; Frank Edwards, Flying Saucers — Here and Now! Lyle Stuart, 1967 , pp. 77– 78 ) October or November — 11:00 p.m. 2Lt Thomas J. Duzynski is stationed at Camp Ibis on the west side of the Dead Mountains Wilderness northwest of Needles, California. Taking a stroll outside his tent, he notices an elliptical- shaped object traveling to the south at high speed parallel to the ground between himself and the mountains. It banks sharply, almost on edge, and gains altitude, disappearing in seconds. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 22–23)

November — Ray Palmer publishes an article, “An Ancient Language?” on the language of Mantong in the January 1944 issue of Amazing Stories and enters into correspondence with Richard S. Shaver, who responds with a 10,000- word document titled “A Warning to Future Man.” Shaver writes of advanced prehistoric races who built underground cities before abandoning Earth for another planet because of damaging radiation from the Sun. Those ancients also abandoned some of their own offspring here, a minority of whom remained noble and human “Teros,” while most degenerate over time into a population of mentally impaired sadists known as “Deros”— short for “detrimental robots.” Shaver’s robots are not mechanical constructs, but robot-like due to their savage behavior. These Deros still live in the cave cities, according to Shaver, kidnapping surface-dwelling people by the thousands for meat or torture. Deros can be blamed for nearly all misfortunes, from minor “accidental” injuries or illnesses to airplane crashes and catastrophic natural disasters. Though generally confined to their caves, the Deros sometimes travel in spaceships or rockets, and have dealings with equally evil extraterrestrials. Shaver claims to possess first-hand knowledge of the Deros and their caves, insisting he had been their prisoner for several years. The article stirs considerable reader interest, and the pages of Amazing Stories are soon filled with stories and articles about the “Shaver mystery.” (Wikipedia, “Richard Sharpe Shaver”; [Richard] S. Shaver, [Letter], “An Ancient Language?” Amazing Stories 18, no. 1 (January 1944): 206 – 207; [Ray Palmer,] “Mantong: The Language of Lemuria,” Amazing Stories 19, no. 1 (March 1945): 71, 206; Walter Kafton-Minkel, Subterranean Worlds, Loompanics, 1989, pp. 136– 137 ; Clark III 87 2 ; Richard Toronto, War over Lemuria: Richard Shaver, Ray Palmer, and the Strangest Chapter of 1940s Science Fiction, McFarland, 2013 ) November 4 — The X-10 Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, goes critical. The Y-12 plant is separating uranium- 235 from natural uranium, which is 99.3% uranium-238, by using calutrons to perform electromagnetic isotope separation. (Wikipedia, “X-10 Graphite Reactor”)

December? — Matt P. Dillingham is on evening duty adjacent to Mullinix Field [now Bonriki International Airport] on Tarawa Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. He begins receiving radar plots showing a north-south track to the west moving at 750 mph. It disappears, but two other targets on the same trajectory appear, moving at the same speed. The same targets are repeated for several nights following. (“Out of the Past,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 6 (Dec. 1983/Jan. 1984): 6) December 2 — Night. Some 105 German Junkers Ju 888 bombers attack the port of Bari, Italy, a key supply center for Allied forces. 28 Allied ships are sunk, including the US Liberty ship SS John Harvey, which is carrying mustard gas intended for retaliation in case German forces use chemical warfare. Liquid sulfur mustard from the bombs spills into waters already contaminated by oil from the other damaged vessels. The many sailors who abandoned their ships into the water become covered with the oily mixture. The wounded are pulled from the water and sent to medical facilities whose personnel are unaware of the mustard gas. Medical staff focus on personnel with blast or fire injuries. Within a day, the first symptoms of mustard poisoning appear in 628 patients and medical staff, including blindness and chemical burns. That puzzling development is further complicated by the arrival of hundreds of Italian civilians also seeking treatment, who have been poisoned by a cloud of sulfur mustard vapor that blows over the city when some of John Harvey ’ s cargo exploded. As the medical crisis worsens, little

information is available about what is causing the symptoms, because US military command want to keep the presence of chemical munitions secret from the Germans. By the end of the month, 83 of the 628 hospitalized military victims have died. The number of civilian casualties, thought to have been even greater, cannot be accurately gauged since most have left the city to seek shelter with relatives. (Wikipedia, “Air raid on Bari”) December 11 — US bombers conduct a daylight raid on Emden, Germany, and observe an unknown object about the size of a Thunderbolt aircraft over the target area. It passes below the bombers in a straight line and at terrific speed, leaving a vapor trail that persists. (Strange Company 51 – 52) December 14 — Night. British 255 Night Fighter Squadron leader Patrick Hardy Vesey Wells is flying his Bristol Beaufighter on a patrol mission around Naples, Italy, when he and his navigator notice a small bright light behind them. It stays on their tail, moving from side to side. After 1–2 minutes it goes off in another direction. (Strange Company 52) Winter — Day. While on a bombing mission over central Germany, Sgt. Louis Kiss, a tail gunner on the Phyllis Marie, a B-17 of the 390th Bombardment Group, sees an odd-looking sphere approach the plane from behind and below. It seems to be the size of a basketball and shimmery gold. The object hovers just above one wing, then passes over the top to the other wing where it hovers again. Soon it moves to the rear and gets caught in the B- 17 ’s backwash and disappears. (“First Official Foo-Fighter Records Discovered,” Just Cause, no. 32 (June 1992): 4–5) Winter — 3 :00 p.m. Harry G. Barnes, a member of the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department stationed at No. 1 Precinct, sees three oval-shaped objects in V-formation speeding eastward across the northeast sky. The objects have pulsating, greenish-red exhausts that occasionally flare and curl around them. (UFOEv, p. 64 ; Clark III 1177)

1944

1944 — During a mission to bomb oil fields in Romania, a Russian Tupolev Tu-2 piloted by Maj. Bajenov and Boris Surikov are flying over southwest Ukraine at an altitude of 3 miles when a large, elliptical object approaches them. The bomber starts shaking, the oil pressure rises, and Surikov feels a strong electrostatic charge. Even after the object passes, the bomber’s wings are covered with glowing discharges. (Good Need, pp. 21 – 22 ) 1944 — George Adamski and his followers move closer to Palomar Mountain, California, along the Road to the Stars where his long-time associate Alice K. Wells sets up a roadside café, Palomar Gardens. According to coworker Charlotte Blodget, “Each member of the group shared in the manual labor that went into this effort, and since heavy restrictions were still in effect regarding materials [in the war’s aftermath], anything available had to serve.” Adamski builds a “small observatory” to house his 15-inch telescope to study the skies. (“Palomar Mountain, 1940–1960: From Obscurity to World Fame,” The Adamski Case, September 22, 2019; George M. Eberhart, “Palomar Gardens Café,” IUR 30, no. 3 (May 2006): 9)

January 15 — The Materiel Command becomes the AAF Materiel Command. (Wikipedia, “Air Materiel Command”)

February — 2:30 a.m. An Australian Beaufort bomber is flying at 4,500 feet over Bass Strait, Australia, when it is joined by an object like a “dark shadow” with a flickering flame coming out of its rear. It appears only 100–150 feet away and stays with the bomber for 18–20 minutes, during which time its radio and direction-finding instruments fail. It shoots away at 700 mph. (Bill Chalker, “Australian A.F. UFO Report Files,” APRO Bulletin 30, no. 10 (October 1982): 7) February 9 — RAF No. 5 Group issues a report of its investigation on “Rocket Phenomena,” concluding that the air crews are seeing either rockets fired from aircraft, parachute rockets, or high-explosive projectiles at maximum altitudes of 18,000 feet. Reports of objects changing their course are either defects causing erratic flight or light flak tracers reaching their highest point and descending. (Strange Company 57 – 58) February 20 — 2:30 a.m. Two guards of the 3rd Marine Division on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands see what they first assume are the headlight beams of a truck coming from a swamp about three-quarters of a mile from their position. It moves laterally about 50 feet and they see it is a circular light about 50–60 feet long and 20 feet high. It then rises into the air about 25 feet and heads in the direction of the guards at about 45 mph. It makes a 45° turn and passes about 100 feet above the trees of a coconut grove. Several days later, a 200 - foot cut in the reeds is discovered in the approximate spot where the light originated. (Alvin G. McNish, “Letter,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 5 (Oct./Nov. 1984): 2) February 23 — Brig. Gen. George C. McDonald is appointed assistant chief of staff for intelligence for the newly created US Strategic Air Forces in Europe. “Many months preceding the collapse of Germany, McDonald recognized the

imperative need for the creation of a new type of intelligence activity to investigate and exploit air intelligence objectives in Germany and liberated countries. This unique system was established and consisted of a great number of highly qualified technical and scientific personnel to exploit all the worldwide aeronautical research developments of Germany. This resulted in the collection of priority intelligence information of value in the prosecution of the war against Japan; technical and non-technical information of immediate operational significance and value; as well as a substantial portion of important documents and personnel of the German Air Ministry that enabled the US Army Air Forces to undertake long-range research with respect to many valuable- phases of air doctrine, research, employment, organization, procedure, and plans of the German air force.” Among the personalities involved in the operation are some who will become involved in UFO investigations in the future: Col. John A. O’Mara, Col. Howard H. McCoy, Col. Harold E. Watson, and Col. Malcolm D. Seashore. (Wikipedia, “United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe”) February 24 —Night. Southwest of Saint-Quentin, Aisne, France, three silver objects are seen by an RAF bomber returning from a mission over Schweinfurt, Germany. They resemble Zeppelins but move independently of the wind. (Strange Company 60)

March — An Army Air Force pilot flying a B-17 sees a fast-moving, glowing green object light up the cockpit and speed out of sight over the horizon at Carlsbad, New Mexico. (UFOEv, p. 19 ) March 1 — The first prototype H.IX V1, an unpowered glider with fixed tricycle landing gear, is tested in Germany, but there is an accident when the pilot attempts to land without first retracting an instrument-carrying pole extending from the aircraft. The design is taken from the Horten brothers and given to Gothaer Waggonfabrik. (Wikipedia, “Horten Ho 229”)

Spring (or 1945) — Two grammar school teachers are driving in the mountains near Auberry, California, when their car stalls and they see a cigar-shaped object with lighted portholes along the side hovering in a nearby ravine. They watch it for several minutes until it begins moving slowly out of the ravine, ascends, and shoots away to the west at a tremendous speed. The car engine remains stalled for a while, then starts by itself. (“Past Sightings Come to Light,” APRO Bulletin, Jan./Feb. 1968, p. 5) April — Late afternoon. Near the Eastern front in western Slovakia, a man is standing on a hill near his home when he sees a dark round object moving at high speed to his right for less than one minute. It moves at a steady speed and is followed by another object about 20 seconds later. As many as 6 others appear, and five are visible at one time, each beginning as a pinpoint of light, growing bigger, then decreasing back to a pinpoint. The display lasts for about 5 minutes. (“Correspondence,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 5 (Oct./Nov. 1982): 2) April 5 — The Y-12 plant at Oak Ridge has sent 200 grams of enriched uranium to Los Alamos. Italian-American physicist Emilio Segrè receives the first sample and within 10 days discovers that the spontaneous fission rate is too high for use in a gun-type fission weapon (because of pu-240 isotope present as an impurity in the pu-239). (Atomic Heritage Foundation, “Atomic Timeline”) April 26 — Night. RAF pilot Arthur Horton of the 622 Squadron is returning from a bombing mission to Essen, Germany, when he is followed by four orange balls of light with “short stubby wings” and emitting sparks, two on each side of the aircraft. He takes evasive action with his Lancaster, but the objects follow all his maneuvers for 10 minutes. When they reach the coast of Holland, they seem to “burn themselves out.” (Strange Company 64 – 65 ; UFOFiles2, pp. 16, 18)

May 29 — The Aircraft Warning Service is deactivated. (Wikipedia, “Aircraft Warning Service”)

June — 12:30 p.m. David A. K. Morris, a fitter with Service Unit 10 of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, takes a swim with a friend at Torokina Beach, Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea. They see “a huge, dark-gray, seemingly metallic, bulbous mass hanging out of a large cumulus cloud.” It moves silently, its outline fading into the cloud and out of sight. It resembles a Zeppelin or the R101 airship, only bigger. (D. Morris, “RNZAF Camp UFO Sighting of 1944,” Ufocus NZ, July 22, 2020) June — Edward W. Ludwig is commanding a small, Coast Guard–manned cargo vessel near Palmyra Atoll. While looking for a lost Navy patrol plane, he observes a bright aerial sphere that alternately moves and stops for 30 minutes. (“True Mystic Experiences,” Fate 3, no. 8 (December 1950): 82 – 87) June 10? — The Liberty ship SS George E. Badger is off Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, when gunner Edward Breckel sees a “dark ellipsoidal object” on the horizon about 5 miles away. “Blunted on each end like a sausage,” the silent craft remains in view for 3 minutes, moving slowly at about 15 feet above the surface of the water. (Strange Company 67; “The Case for the ‘Sea-Saucer,’” CRIFO Orbit 1, no. 10 (January 7, 1955): 5 )

Early July — 10:30 a.m. During Allied operations in the area around Loreto, Castelfidardo, and Osimo, in Ancona province, Italy, Antoni Szachnowsky, of the 2nd Polish Artillery Regiment, notices an egg-shaped, glistening, metallic, motionless object. The Polish Army anti-aircraft gun fires on it, then the German batteries join in. Eventually both sides stop, and the object remains motionless for a minute. Then it tilts at a 45 ° angle, moves rapidly upward, and disappears. (“1944: An Italian Foo-Fighter?” UFO Sightings Italia, no. 2, March 2002) July 4 — Oppenheimer reveals Segrè’s final measurements to the Los Alamos staff, and the development of the gun-type plutonium weapon “Thin Man” is abandoned. Designing a workable implosion design (Fat Man) becomes the top priority of the laboratory, and design of the uranium gun-type weapon (Little Boy) continues. (Atomic Heritage Foundation, “Atomic Timeline”) July 6 — German test pilot Heini Dittmar attains an unofficial airspeed record of 702 mph in a rocket-powered Messerschmidt Me 163B at Lagerlechfeld, Bavaria, Germany. (Wikipedia, “Heini Dittmar”) July 9 — Afternoon. After a successful air strike by the US 449th Bombardment Group against the Concordia-Vega refinery at Ploe ș ti, Romania, witness Grigore Zmeuranu sees a round, yellowish object flying from the north at a speed about 3-4 times that of an aircraft. It leaves a short vapor trail, moves over the bombed area, and returns silently in the same direction. (Hobana and Weverbergh 226– 227 ; Strange Company 71 ) July 17 — The Air Service Command and the AAF Materiel Command are placed under AAF Materiel and Services. (Wikipedia, “Air Materiel Command”) Late July — Evening. Jaakku Kivistö is serving in the Finnish Army as a noncommissioned medical officer stationed on a farm near Impilahti, Karelia [now Russia], by Lake Ladoga. He notices a large object next to the corn-drying building on a steep hillside that he at first takes for a military truck. As he walks closer, he sees it is reddish in color, moving slowly about 150 – 230 feet in the air, 100 feet long, and has a row of black windows. It moves off quickly in the direction of the lake and vanishes. (“A Close Encounter from the Year 1944,” Nordic UFO Newsletter, 1985, no. 1, pp. 3–5)

Summer — 5 :00 p.m. François Panes watches a cigar-shaped object at an altitude of about 5,000 feet above the Kamensko Forest north of Blovice, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic], glittering brightly with no wings, no rudder, and no propeller. It is about 150 feet in diameter and 300–400 feet long. The object is lit up from underneath. It slowly descends, after which it rises up again and vanishes into the blue sky after 10–15 minutes. (Hobana and Weverbergh 215–216) Summer — Fred Wieland and some friends are riding their bicycles on a footpath adjacent to the Grand Central Parkway in Queens, New York City. As they climb a hill, they look up and see a cigar-shaped object “broadside” to them. It is of smooth metallic construction with no windows or openings. They race to the top of the hill for a better look, but by then the object has completely disappeared. (Clark III 1178) Summer — Mid-day. Franceen Andron is at Camp McCain, southeast of Grenada, Mississippi, when she sees a large, fat, cigar-shaped object that changes from dull black to gray to “fog blue.” It is joined by three smaller discs that appear below it after emerging from a cloud. The large object disappears first, followed by the discs, which race away in different directions. (NICAP case file) Summer — Day. Asa Howard Jr. is outside the barracks at RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire, England, when he and other airmen see a pencil-shaped, metallic object moving faster than a jet about a mile away. While watching it for about 2 minutes, they see it pass behind a small cloud before it disappears. (NICAP case file) August — Night. Officer George Todt of the 38th Regiment, Second Infantry Division, is between Saint-Lô and Vire, Normandy, France, when he sees a cherry-red light one-fifth the size of the moon moving silently west at 120 mph towards Omaha Beach. It stops over the American lines and hovers for 14 minutes. It expands and contracts regularly every few seconds. Col. Francis Henry Boos and another officer also observe it. (Strange Company 78 – 79) August 11 — Shortly after midnight. Capt. Alvah M. Reida is piloting a B-29 bomber based at Kharagpur, India, on a bombing mission over Palembang, Sumatra, Indonesia, when his right gunner and copilot notice a sphere “probably five or six feet in diameter, of a very bright and intense red or orange in color” that constantly throbs, at about 12,500 feet, pacing them about 1,500 feet off the starboard wing. It keeps up with the B-29, then flying at 210 mph. Reida tries to shake it off his plane, but it stays in the same relative position until, after 8 minutes, it makes an abrupt 90° turn and accelerates rapidly, disappearing in the overcast. (UFOEv, p. 23 ; Strange Company 71 – 75 ; Good Above, p. 19 ) August 11 — Night. RAF Warrant Officer Ronald R. Claridge is over France aboard a No. 7 Squadron Lancaster bomber returning from a bombing run on La Pallice, La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime, France, when his radar screen goes blank. Another crewman shouts to look at a vast disc-shaped object with a long row of lights on their starboard

side. They watch it for 3 minutes, then it shoots away in a flash of light. Later he draws a watercolor painting to show how the UFO dwarfed the bomber. (UFOFiles 2 , pp. 26 – 27 ) Mid-August — 11:00 a.m. During the Warsaw Uprising in Poland, Zenon Sergisz notices a German bomber passing by, as well as three bright points of light that descend as the bomber moves away. The lights are flattened spheres that move low behind some buildings then rise up at an angle and disappear. (Poland 14–15) August 17 — The Allied command creates the Combined Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee (CIOS), charged in part with investigating the strange balls of fire. (Strange Company 79) Late August — Sgt. Ness and another man of the mine-laying platoon of the 175th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, see a large rectangular object “like a railroad boxcar” with no apparent source of propulsion move steadily at about 90 mph over the front lines near Brest, Brittany, France, and out to sea. At one point the object passes in front of the moon, briefly obscuring it from view. (Lore and Deneault, pp. 120 – 121 ) Late August — 4:20 p.m. A nurse, Mrs. E. M. Church, on her way to a tram station in Christchurch, New Zealand, sees an object like an “upturned saucer” resting on the ground near the road. It seems to be 20 feet across and 9 feet high. Two beings, not quite 4 feet tall, are inside, visible through a rectangular window. A third stands motionless, just outside an open door. All three seem to be looking toward the lights of a nearby fairground. The nurse cannot decide if their skin color is green or they are dressed in green, but all are encased in a transparent oblong box. The head takes up half of their bodies and there are no apparent legs or arms. She inadvertently makes a noise, and the outside figure notices her. Its helmet flips over automatically, and it drifts inside the object, which rises up and disappears in the clouds. (Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1940– 1949 , p. 12; Clark III 265 ) August 31 — The Army Air Forces Air Technical Service Command is formed as the result of the merging of the Materiel and Air Service Commands. (Wikipedia, “Air Materiel Command”)

September — Dusk. Three Oak Ridge workers (a man named Nelson, A. C. Butler, and Albert Profitt) are driving 2 miles southeast of Oliver Springs, Tennessee, when a strange object appears about 50 feet ahead of them at the level of their windshield. It is glossy white in color and about 30 feet long and 4 feet wide. Nelson eases the car up to the object, but it withdraws; when he stops, it also stops. Soon the light rises high in the air and disappears over Black Oak Ridge. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp, 23 – 24) September — 9:00 p.m. Canadian Army Lance Cpl. Carson Yorke is just outside Antwerp, Belgium, during a German bombardment. He steps out of his vehicle and sees a glowing globe traveling at about 30 mph and 40 feet altitude from the front lines toward the city (in the same course that the German V-2s are following). It seems to be 3– 4 feet in diameter and looks “as though it was cloudy glass with a light inside.” It disappears from view, then is followed by another, then five others in succession. (Jerome Clark and Lucius Farish, “The Mysterious ‘Foo Fighters’ of WW II,” Saga UFO Report, Spring 1975) September 2 — Two chemists are killed, and Arnold Kramish almost killed, after being sprayed with highly corrosive hydrofluoric acid while attempting to unclog a uranium enrichment device that is part of the pilot thermal diffusion plant at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. (Wikipedia, “Arnold Kramish”) September 6 — The Combined Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee holds its first meeting in London, England. Present are Air Commodore K. C. Buss (Air Ministry), Gen. George C. McDonald (AAF Director of Intelligence), Lt. Col. Lewis F. Powell Jr., Col. Howard McCoy (chief of the Air Technical Section), Howard P. Robertson (CalTech physicist), and Cmdr. Ian Fleming (Admiralty). (Strange Company 80 )

October — Late night. Members of a family who live in an isolated area on the outskirts of Rochester, Pennsylvania, are awakened by a loud noise and flash of light. The father goes to the door, where he sees a 4.5-foot-tall figure dressed in a brown robe. Fifteen feet to its left are five other figures dressed in luminous brown metallic suits. Their heads seem large, with only a slit for a mouth. The arms are long, with long thin fingers. Three of them enter the house and the father accompanies them to a landed craft nearby. He remembers nothing else when he wakes up in the morning. A round, burned circle 20 feet from the house and 25 feet in diameter is found the next day. (Clark III 265 – 266 ) October — Nellie Carlin and another woman are about to drive to work in St. Paul, Minnesota, when they see what seems to be an airplane about to crash. It abruptly stops 20 feet above their heads, revealing itself to be a brown, bullet- shaped object with a flat end “like frosted glass with a bright light behind it.” It makes a crackling noise, turns right, and ascends at great speed. (Clark III 1178) Late October — 9:30 p.m. 1Lt. J. B. Douglas Jr. and other soldiers of the 489th Armored Field Artillery near Weert, Netherlands, watch a bright silvery object through field glasses moving silently from northwest to southwest through an arc of 90° in about 30 – 4 5 minutes. (UFOEv, pp. 30 , 129 )

October 28 — Physicist David T. Griggs, a civilian adviser on radar to the War Department, is asked by Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold to look into incidents of unusual aerial phenomena in Europe and interview pilots. He later moves his investigation to the Pacific Theater. His report to Arnold at the end of the war has never been located. He was interviewed by James E. McDonald on April 10, 1969. (Michael D. Swords, “David Griggs and the Foo Fighters,” IUR 31, no. 1 (January 2007): 17–19) October 30 — Late night. RAF Flight Engineer Maurice Juberley of the 640 Squadron is returning from a bombing mission over Köln, Germany. His Halifax III is flying at 19,000 feet above the clouds when the rear gunner reports a ball of orange fire closing in on them. He orders an evasive maneuver and loses the light. (Strange Company 86)

Early November — Night. Lieut. Col. Oris B. Johnson’s 422d Night Fighter Squadron, equipped with P-61 Black Widow fighters, reports seeing 15 – 20 mystery objects every night over Germany, either alone or in formations of four. Johnson says he could accept that the reports are rocket planes or night fighter jets. (Strange Company 87) November 3 — The Japanese Army launches the first of some 9,300 Fu-Go bomb-bearing fire balloons intended to land in North America to instill fear and terror. About 300 are found or seen in America. It is likely that more of them land in unpopulated areas. On November 4, a US Navy patrol craft discovers one of the first Fu-Go balloons floating off San Pedro, Los Angeles, California. National and state agencies are placed on heightened alert status when balloons are found in Wyoming and Montana before the end of the month. (Wikipedia, “Fu-Go balloon bomb”; Franklin Matthias, “Japanese Balloon Bombs Fu-Go,” Atomic Heritage Foundation, August 10, 2016) November 4 — Night. RAF Lancaster bombers over Solingen, Germany, report what they call “scarecrow” dummy airplanes that explode with a sheet of flame and dense black smoke. (“German Dummy Planes Explode Amid Our Own,” New York Times, November 6, 1944, p. 3) November 12 — 9:30 p.m. A radio station in Santiago, Chile, broadcasts a version of The War of the Worlds in Spanish in which Martians land in Puente Alto, causing a panic and the death by heart attack of at least one person in Valparaíso. (John Gosling, Waging the War of the Worlds: A History of the 1938 Radio Broadcast and Resulting Panic, Including the Original Script, McFarland, 2009, pp. 99–102) November 16 — 11:55 p.m. Lt. J. L. Besmond, officer of the day on the USS Gilliam, enroute from Oro Bay, Papua New Guinea, to Leyte Gulf, Philippines, observes an unusual object at a distance of 21 miles. Fire Control Officer P. Kendall Bruce describes it as a bright green globe that rises from behind the ship and moves in a “perfect parabola at great speed, finally disappearing behind the horizon to the north.” (NICAP, “UFO Observed from USS Gilliam”) November 24 — Capt. William D. Leet’s B-17 crew (part of the 2nd Bombardment Group, 5th Wing of the Fifteenth Air Force) is returning from bombing a target at Klagenfurt, Austria. While flying over northeastern Italy near Trieste, Leet notices a blinding light and feels an intense heat. It goes away quickly, but seconds later he sees a “round amber light” sitting off the left wingtip of the B-17. It is bright and perfectly circular. Leet orders the gunners not to shoot at it. Sgt. Harris, the upper gunner, thinks it is 10 feet in diameter and 150–300 feet away. The object stays with them over the Adriatic Sea for 50 minutes, until it “just turned off” like a light bulb. (Strange Company 90 – 93) November 29 — 3:00 p.m. Reginald Herbert Mortimer and his daughter Frances are on the Bruce Peninsula between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, Ontario, when they hear a hissing sound behind them and see 9 disc-shaped objects pass overhead at approximately 2,000 feet. Moving three abreast in a square configuration, they are lost to sight over the lake. (Clark III 1179) November 2 9 — Night. A Bristol Beaufighter crew (pilot Lieut. Edward A. Schlueter and radar observer Lieut. Donald J. Meiers of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron, and intelligence officer Capt. Fred B. Ringwald as observer) is on a bombing mission and flying above the Rhine River north of Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France. They see “eight to 10 bright orange lights off the left wing…flying through the air at high speed.” Neither the airborne radar nor ground control registers anything nearby. Schlueter and Meiers also see red lights on November 26 above Mannheim, Germany. (Zoe Crasney, “What Were the Mysterious ‘Foo Fighters’ Sighted by WWII Night Flyers?” Smithsonian Air and Space Magazine, August 2016; Strange Company 93 – 95) November 30? — As the USS Gilliam is transporting troops from Leyte Gulf to Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, Philippines, Lieut. JG Kendall Bruce, fire control officer on the ship, observes a bright green, globe-shaped object rising out of the nearby headlands and disappears to the north, It is too slow for a missile. [Same event as November 16?] (NICAP, “UFO Observed from USS Gilliam”; Strange Company 95 – 96)

December 13 — SHAEF in Paris, France, issues a press release identifying the fireballs as a “new German weapon” and that the Ninth Air Force has reported seeing “many silver balls floating in the air above enemy territory.” An

Army Air Force spokesman says on December 20 that the silver balls have “no detectable effects” on Allied planes. He does not know whether or not they are metallic. (Strange Company 96 , 101) December 14– 28 — Numerous balls of light are reported by the Night Fighter Squadrons during bombing raids over Germany. Pilot and operations officer Charlie Horne of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron suggests calling the objects “foo fighters,” a name gleaned from the men’s favorite comic strip, “Smokey Stover” by cartoonist Bill Holman. The comic follows the escapades of a madcap fire fighter who calls his fire truck the “Foomobile.” Smokey Stover often states, “where there’s foo, there’s fire.” (“More Foo-Fighter Records Released,” Just Cause, new ser., no. 33 (September 1992): 2–6; Strange Company 96 – 111 ; Swords 3–5; “The Foo Fighters of World War II, Part One,” Saturday Night UFOria; Clas Svahn, “The Origin of the Expression ‘Foo Fighter,’” IUR 25, no. 3 (Fall 2000): 18; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Hunneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 47– 49 ; Barry Greenwood, “Foo Fighter Archive Donated to UHR,” UFO Historical Revue, no. 17 (December 2015): 2–8) December 23 — Night. Navy Lt. George Arents III and copilot Lt. Elon Forster are flying a military DC-3 at 9,000 feet between Blackstone and Richmond, Virginia, when they notice a cigar-shaped object hovering below them at about 4,000 feet. It appears to be 200 feet long and has two horizontal rows of blue-lighted windows and a flaming exhaust coming out of its tail. (Jan Aldrich) Late December through February 1945 — Radar operators at Naval Air Station Pasco, Washington, report unusual blips that appear out of nowhere and proceed from northwest to southeast. A Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter is scrambled on at least two occasions with orders to shoot down anything that appears to be hostile, but nothing is seen. In another incident, Lt. JG Clarence R. Clem accompanies Lt. Commander Richard Brown and Ensign C. T. Neal to a waiting aircraft and Brown takes off in pursuit of a ball of fire that quickly leaves him behind as it speeds off to the northwest and is lost to radar. On another occasion, naval officer R. W. Hendershot, flying an SNJ aircraft, is asked by ground radar to make contact with two high-altitude blips flying at the speed of a single- engine Piper Cub. Though he can see nothing, he is convinced the blips are real. (Strange Company 142 ; Nukes 43 – 44; Project 1947, “UFOs over Hanford: Cdr. R. W. Hendershot,” June 22, 2014; Robert L. Hastings, “Reports Confirm UFO Activity at the Hanford Nuclear Weapons Plant during World War II,” UFOs & Nukes, August 9, 2015; Headquarters Fourth Air Force, “Air Defense Measures at Hanford Engineering Company,” January 23, 1945; Robert L. Hastings, “Former US Navy Pilot Says Huge Fireball Maneuvered above the Hanford Atomic Plant during World War II,” UFOs & Nukes, October 5, 2015)

1945

January — Ray Palmer edits, rewrites, and publishes Richard S. Shaver’s description of the cave-dwelling Dero for the March 1945 issue of Amazing Stories under the title “I Remember Lemuria.” The issue sells out and generates quite a response. Between 1945 and 1949, many letters arrive attesting to the truth of Shaver’s claims (tens of thousands of letters, according to Palmer). The correspondents claim that they, too, have heard strange voices or encountered denizens of the Hollow Earth. (Wikipedia, “Richard Sharpe Shaver”; Richard S. Shaver, “‘I Remember Lemuria,’” Amazing Stories 19, no. 1 (March 1945): 12–70; Walter Kafton-Minkel, Subterranean Worlds, Loompanics, 1989, pp. 137– 144 ; Clark III 872, 1069; Richard Toronto, War over Lemuria: Richard Shaver, Ray Palmer, and the Strangest Chapter of 1940s Science Fiction, McFarland, 2013 ; David Halperin, “The Shaver Mystery—Richard Shaver, Ray Palmer, and the Quest for Lemuria (Part 1),” July 4, 2014) January 2 — 2:30 a.m. USAAF Lieut. Jack Green and navigator Lieut. Warren Barber, 653rd Bombardment Squadron, are conducting a reconnaissance flight in a Mosquito over the Netherlands and northern Germany when they encounter two balls of fire on three occasions pacing their plane. Barber describes them as a “pair of fog lights, shooting up to 60 or 70,000 feet.” (Strange Company 114 – 116 , 208– 209 ) January 2 — The New York Times publishes an article stating that the foo fighters are German weapons. Lieut. Donald J. Meiers of the 415th Night Fighter Squadron says he has been followed by foo-fighters twice. “A foo-fighter picked me up at 700 feet and chased me 20 miles down the Rhine Valley [Germany]. I turned to starboard and two balls of fire turned with me. I turned to the port side and they turned with me. We were going 260 miles an hour and the balls were keeping right up with us.” (“Balls of Fire Stalk U.S. Fighters in Night Assaults over Germany,” New York Times, January 2, 1945, pp. 1, 4; Strange Company 117 – 118) January 2 — Col. Clayton Lawrence Bissell, in the Pentagon’s Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, sends SHAEF in Paris a classified message seeking an explanation for the red balls of fire pacing planes. No response has been located to date. ([Clayton Lawrence] Bissell, [message], January 2, 1945; Project 1947, “UFO Reports, 1945”)

January 16 —Lt. Col. Leavitt Corning Jr. of the XII Tactical Air Command sends a secret memo to the assistant chief of air intelligence requesting further information on the “Night Phenomenon.” (Strange Company 126 – 127) January 20 — First Tactical Air Force Executive Officer Maj. Samuel V. Boykin responds to Corning asking for more particulars about the reports. (Strange Company 127) January 22 — British prisoners being force-marched out of the German Heydebreck labor camp (near modern Kędzierzyn-Koźle, Poland) see a four-engine bomber overhead. Behind it is a “brilliant light” that is following it closely. (Clark III 503) January 30 — 12:10 a.m. A 415th Night Fighter Squadron crew observes two amber-colored “lights in the air at 2,000 feet” between Wissembourg, Bas-Rhin, France, and Landau, Germany. They seem to be about a foot in diameter and 20 – 50 feet apart. The lights follow their Bristol Beaufighter, closing in to about 1,000 feet before disappearing. (Strange Company 129) January 30 — Capt. Fred B. Ringwald, intelligence officer for the 415 Night Fighter Squadron, responds to Corning’s January 16 request by offering a summary of 14 foo fighter reports from December 14, 1944, to January 29, 1945. (Strange Company 129 – 132)

February — Meade Layne founds the Borderland Sciences Research Associates in San Diego, California, and publishes the first issue of its newsletter, The Round Robin. Working with local medium Mark A. Probert, who channels “etheric” entities from discarnates with advanced knowledge of spirit and cosmos, Layne and BSRA seek to explore the mysteries of the invisible world. (Borderland Sciences Research Associates, [History]; Clark III 876; Håkan Blomqvist, “Round Robin and Contactee History,” Håkan Blomqvist’s Blog, March 30, 2014) February 2 — The first Hanford plutonium arrives at Los Alamos. (Atomic Heritage Foundation, “Atomic Timeline”) February 2 — The first flight of the H.IX V2 is made in Oranienburg, Germany. All subsequent test flights and development are done by Gothaer Waggonfabrik in Gotha. By this time, the Horten brothers are working on a turbojet-powered design for the Amerika Bomber contract competition and do not attend the first test flight. The test pilot is Leutnant Erwin Ziller. Two further test flights are made in February. There are reports that during one of these test flights, the H.IX V2 undertook a simulated dogfight with a Messerschmitt Me 262, the first operational jet fighter, and that the H.IX V2 outperformed the Me 262. However, the Me 262 is considered by many as unsuitable for fighter missions, being slow in turning. (Wikipedia, “Horton Ho 229”) February 7 — Afternoon. Several F6F fighters on patrol (one piloted by Ensign Norman P. Stark) from the USS Wasp aircraft carrier anchored at Ulithi Atoll in the Caroline Islands are told to investigate a radar target at 30,000 feet some 10 miles west of the fleet. Before they can reach altitude, the object moves back to the west at high speed. They catch a brief visual glimpse of it. (LCDR Norman P. Stark, “A WWII F6F Navy Fighter Pilot’s Experiences in the Pacific,” Battle of Saipan, January 1, 2000) February 1 0 — The Chicago Tribune and Washington Times-Herald reveal Bill Donovan’s plans for a postwar intelligence agency and publishes a secret memo he has sent to Roosevelt proposing its creation. The article compares the proposed agency to the Gestapo. Knowing that Americans want a smaller federal government after the war, Roosevelt is not entirely sold on Donovan’s proposal, although Donovan feels reasonably confident that he can talk the president into the idea. J. Edgar Hoover disapproves of Donovan’s plan, which he sees as a direct threat to FBI authority, even though Donovan has stressed that his agency will operate only abroad, not domestically. (Walter Trohan, “Super-Spy Idea Denounced As New Deal OGPU,” Chicago Tribune, February 10, 1945, p. 1; Central Intelligence Agency, “Origins of CIA,” August 3, 2005; Mark Riebling, Wedge: From Pearl Harbor to 9/11, Simon & Schuster, 2002, pp. 59– 61 ) February 11 — Air Commodore Colin McKay Grierson, RAF assistant chief of staff A2, refers Ringwald’s report to the Air Ministry. (Strange Company 133 – 134) Mid-February — As their C-47 prepares to land at Biggs Field, Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas, S/Sgt Ralph Bayer is alarmed to see an aircraft approaching from the left and only 900 feet below them. The object is about 30 feet long and a dull, flat gray in color, and it travels in a straight course 500 feet above the ground until it disappears. (Clark III 1178) February 18 — Disaster strikes during the third test flight of the H.IX V2 in Gotha, Germany. Erwin Ziller takes off without any problems to perform a series of flight tests. After about 45 minutes, at an altitude of around 800 meters, one of the Jumo 004 turbojet engines develops a problem, catches fire and stops. Ziller is seen putting the aircraft into a dive and pulling up several times in an attempt to restart the engine and save the precious prototype. He undertakes a series of four complete turns at a 20° angle. Ziller does not use his radio or eject from the aircraft. He already is unconscious as a result of the fumes from the burning engine. The aircraft crashes just outside the boundary of the airfield. Ziller is thrown from the aircraft on impact and dies from his injuries two weeks later. The prototype aircraft is completely destroyed. (Wikipedia, “Horton Ho 229”)

February 22 — Night. A B-24 bomber flying near Chichijima in the Ogasawara (Bonin) Archipelago, Japan, sees an object trailing exhaust. It is also picked up on radar and follows the plane for about 20 miles before disappearing off the screen. (Project 1947, “UFO Reports, 1945”)

March — The K-25 gaseous diffusion plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, begins production. (Wikipedia, “K- 25 ”) March — A man is squirrel hunting in a wooded area near Belfast, Maine, when he sees a huge, elongated object just above the trees. He runs after it, thinking it is a dirigible about to crash. The object crashes into the trees at the far edge of a clearing, splitting a huge pine tree down the middle. He smells burned rubber. The object seems to be as big as several B-36 bombers. As he stands there stunned, the lowest end of the craft begins to rise and he hears a humming sound of increasing intensity. After it rises to a horizontal position, it begins to spin faster and faster and the hum becomes very intense. Suddenly one end spews a shower of fine, silvery threads that glint in the sunlight. The object begins to change to a white metallic color and it takes off straight up at fantastic speed. (“I Saw a Flying Saucer,” Flying Saucers, May 1959, pp. 6–18, 78; Clark III 1178–1179) March — Ray Palmer travels to Barto, Pennsylvania, and spends a weekend with Richard Shaver and his wife. He witnesses Shaver’s channeling trances and the different voices describing the cavern world that he generates during his sleep. (Wikipedia, “Richard Sharpe Shaver”; Walter Kafton-Minkel, Subterranean Worlds, Loompanics, 1989, pp. 137– 144 ; Clark III 872, 1069; Richard Toronto, War over Lemuria: Richard Shaver, Ray Palmer, and the Strangest Chapter of 1940s Science Fiction, McFarland, 2013 ; David Halperin, “The Shaver Mystery—Richard Shaver, Ray Palmer, and the Quest for Lemuria (Part 1),” July 4, 2014) March 10 — A Japanese Fu-Go balloon strikes a high-tension wire on the Bonneville Power Administration in Washington State. The balloon causes sparks and a fireball that results in the power being cut. Coincidentally, the largest consumer of energy on this power grid is the Hanford site of the Manhattan Project, which suddenly loses power. The officer in charge at Hanford, Col. Franklin Matthias, says “it shut down the plant cold, and it took us about three days to get it back up to full power again.” (Franklin Matthias, “Japanese Balloon Bombs Fu-Go,” Atomic Heritage Foundation, August 10, 2016) March 12 — Nearly a week after the US Army launches Operation Lumberjack to cross the Rhine River, the Ho 229 is included in the Jäger-Notprogramm (Emergency Fighter Program) for accelerated production of inexpensive “wonder weapons.” The prototype workshop is moved to the Gothaer Waggonfabrik (Gotha) in Friedrichroda, Germany. In the same month, work commences on the third prototype, the Ho 229 V3. (Wikipedia, “Horton Ho 229 ”) March 18 — Grierson writes to Samuel V. Boykin that the Air Ministry thinks the fireballs are either Me- 262 ’s or flak rockets. (Strange Company 147) March 18 — Night. A 416th NFS crew is flying a Mosquito 25 miles northwest of Florence, Italy. Suddenly a light is flying alongside them at 13,000 feet. It doesn’t appear on the radar screen. The pilot turns the plane toward the light, keeping on its tail, pursuing at 260 mph and climbing to 16,000 feet. Suddenly the light disappears. (Strange Company 148) Late March — At least two residents of Dresden, Germany, see a round, flat, silver-colored object without propellors or wings hovering silently in the air. It suddenly disappears like a “burst soap bubble.” (“Weltrundschau,” Weltraumbote, no. 32/22 (July/Aug. 1958): 14– 15 ; Clark III 503) March 22 — 1:00 p.m. The USS New York is off New Guinea preparing to rejoin the Seventh Fleet. Gunner Cpl. Donald Pratt is preparing for a Japanese attack when he sees a shiny silver object hovering directly over the battleship. It remains stationary over the ship for 30 minutes and is tracked on ship radar. Two antiaircraft guns fire on the object, but it does not move or seem affected. Capt. Kemp C. Christian Sr. orders the guns to stop. Immediately the object shoots up and away at a fantastic rate of speed. (Strange Company 151 – 152) March 25 — Around 10:30 p.m. Company A of the US 44th Armored Infantry Battalion is bivouacked on a hill along the Autobahn between Mannheim and Darmstadt, Germany, when 6–7 circular, glowing, yellow-orange objects approach at 150 feet, roughly following the road. They are not in strict formation and seem individually controlled. John G. Norris recalled that after 5–6 minutes they are hidden by the trees. (Strange Company 153 – 154) March 26 — During an air operation, Lieut. Calvin P. Lamb (pilot), Lieut. James G. Holmes (radar observer), and Sgt. John W. McIsaac (gunner) notice lights on an airborne object. The lights follow them through a few turns but move away as the crew orbits north of Iwo Jima, Japan. They give chase, obtaining a slight target on the aircraft radar, then the object pulls out of sight. A similar lighted object is again seen March 28 by Lieut. William F. Sill (pilot), Flight Officer George W. Hayden (radar observer), and PFC William Brasvell (gunner). (Project 1947, “UFO Reports, 1945”)

April — During operations around Okinawa, Japan, the radar crew on the aircraft carrier USS Independence frequently notices strange radar returns that move at slow speeds (30–70 mph). Aircraft and destroyers sent to search for them never find anything. These radar ghosts are usually detected 25–30 miles away at an altitude of 1,500 feet, but occasionally 3,500 feet. The primary diagnostic for these false returns is their speed. The Navy nicknames them the “ghost of Nansei-shoto” after the Japanese name for the Ryukyu Islands, of which Okinawa is one. (Strange Company 183 – 186) April — Ray Palmer publishes a second story by Richard Shaver, “Thought Records of Lemuria,” in the June issue of Amazing Stories. Here it is revealed that Shaver’s knowledge of the cave world and Lemuria isn’t really a “racial memory,” as the first story had asserted. Shaver, working in a factory, heard voices speaking to him, apparently through his welding gun. (Richard S. Shaver, “Thought Records of Lemuria,” Amazing Stories 19, no 2 (June 1945): 16–52) April 3– 4 — US B-29 bombers over Honshu, Japan, encounter numerous balls of light tagging along with them. (Strange Company 157 – 159) April 7 — Walter and Reimar Horten, German designers associated with wingless aircraft, are arrested by US troops near Göttingen, Germany. (Lance Cole, Secret Wings of World War II: Nazi Technology and the Allied Arms Race, Pen & Sword, 2015) April 10 — 11:00 p.m. James L. Hendry sees from his porch in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, a bright light that seems to be directly above Fisherville, 3 miles to the east. Its brightness fluctuates and it seems to be moving directly toward his location, casting a light beam downward. After 10 minutes, it goes out “like a snuffed candle.” (“A Meteor?” Louisville Times, April 14, 1945; Project 1947, “UFO Reports, 1945”) April 10 — As part of the Manhattan Project, 18 people in the US are injected with plutonium in doses ranging from 95 to 5,900 nanocuries without their knowledge or consent. The intent is to study how plutonium is absorbed into the digestive tract. The last experiment is conducted on July 18, 1947. (Wikipedia, “Unethical human experimentation in the United States”) April 12 — Roosevelt dies at Warm Springs, Georgia. Harry S. Truman is sworn in as president. April 17 — Maj. Gen. James P. Hodges writes a memorandum to Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, saying that infrared devices are now available to take photographs of “balls of fire” in the Pacific. (Project 1947, “UFO Reports, 1945 ”) April 22 — The USS Lewis Hancock is northeast of Okinawa, Japan, when the SG radar picks up an unidentified target at 6 miles heading their way at 7 0 – 115 mph. Its movements are erratic. Two miles out, the ship identifies a “tight formation of more than fifty birds.” (Strange Company 184) April 24 — The USS Audubon is headed for Okinawa, Japan, with US Army passengers and equipment. Radar operators pick up “unidentified aeroplanes” heading their way. The screens show a blip, alternately fuzzy and strong, some 8 miles away headed down the starboard side at 25 mph. Still, nothing can be seen visually, and the radar operator suggests that it is a flock of birds. (Strange Company 184 – 186) April 25 — 9:45 a.m. Acting Squadron Leader Kit Francis Williams of the RAF 617 Bomber Squadron is flying a Lancaster with 25 other aircraft to bomb Hitler’s headquarters at Berchtesgaden, Germany, in the Bavarian Alps. Just after a turn near Kaiserslautern, Germany, at 16,500 feet, Williams witnesses an object like a large woolly blanket that takes up his entire windshield. He thinks it could be as much as 4–5 miles wide. It moves vertically and is gone in an instant. Suddenly his aircraft loses its electrical power and loses one of its bombs. He and his bomber and engineer get severe headaches. They return to base in England after regaining power. (Keith Basterfield, “Observation by Pilot over Germany, 1945,” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena—Scientific Research, November 14, 2016) April 26 — Gen. Curtis LeMay’s XXI Bomber Command’s Air Intelligence staff produces a 5-page report representing the most up-to-date information and theories on the balls of fire but cannot find a good explanation for them. (Strange Company 162 – 163)

May — German scientist Viktor Schauberger, who has been using inmates from the Mauthausen concentration camp to help him develop new aircraft and submarine engines, is captured by Allied forces in Leonstein, Austria. Supposedly his devices and documents, which allegedly include a prototype flying saucer, are kept under lock and key. He is released in March 1946 and moves to Linz, Austria, but the Americans do not confiscate his workshop and laboratory materials, although they prohibit him from further military experimentation. (Wikipedia, “Nazi UFOs”) May 3 — Early morning. Nine B- 24 ’s with the 11th Bombardment Group’s 431st Squadron are heading out on a bombing mission against Japanese air installations on Truk [now Chuuk] Atoll in Micronesia. One plane over Fala Island sees two objects at their altitude of 11,000 feet, changing from cherry red to orange then white, then

dying out and turning cherry red again. Both follow the B-24 through all sorts of evasive actions. (“B-24 Sights Circles of Light,” UFO Historical Revue, no. 2 (September 1998): 8; Strange Company 163 – 165 ; NICAP, “May 2, Truk Atoll Sighting”) May 5 — A pregnant woman, Elsie Mitchell, and five children are killed when they discover a Japanese Fu-Go balloon bomb that has landed in the forest of Gearhart Mountain near Bly in southern Oregon. (Wikipedia, “Fu-Go balloon bomb”) May 23 and 25 — Night. In the wake of two B-29 raids on Tokyo, Japan, both nights, businessman Iomoyo Okado looks up from his air raid shelter and sees slow-moving “roundish objects, like hot cakes, about 20 square yards” in diameter, and silent. They are blue or gray in color. (“‘Flying Hot Cakes’ over Tokyo in 1945,” St. Joseph (Mo.) News-Press, July 12, 1947, p. 6; Clark III 503)

Summer — After 5:00 p.m. Future ufologist Ann Druffel is on a bus returning from her summer job in Long Beach, California, when she sees out of the left-hand window a bright, stationary, yellowish-white light in the northeastern sky. It looks like Venus but has a yellow color. She gets off the bus and still watches it, walking home. Soon she sees it is moving slowly to the northwest. She gets her mother to view it as well. Druffel thinks it is too high to be a coastal defense balloon. Druffel watches it for 90 minutes, after which it takes on some “activity.” Some 10–15 pieces of light begin separating from it, fading from view after moving several diameters away from the large object. (Ann Druffel, “UFO Sightings by UFO Researchers: The ‘Inaccessible Cases,’” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 139 (September 1979), pp. 14–15; Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects: A Further Look,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 3– 4 ) Summer — Future ufologist Illobrand von Ludwiger sees an object like a black plate, whose diameter is one-eighth that of the Moon, flying against the wind below the clouds, in Stendal, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. (Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, p. 357) Summer — Radioman Robert S. Crawford and 13 other sailors aboard the US Army Transport Delarof see a large, dark sphere rise out of the ocean east of Adak in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. The UFO, showing darkly against the setting sun, climbs almost straight up for a few moments, then it arcs into level flight, and circles the ship two or three times. All the observers are convinced it is a large object. Crawford estimates the UFO is 150–250 feet in diameter. The gun crews hold their fire. After several minutes, it disappears to the south. (NICAP, “Large Object Emerges from Sea near the Delarof”; “The Question of Submerging UFO’s,” UFO Investigator 4, o. 5 (March 1968): 4) June 1 — The Army Air Force approves a Northrop-recommended change for installing eight jet engines in each of two modified YB-35 piston-driven flying wings, which are redesignated YB-49s. (Wikipedia, “Northrop YB- 49 ”) June 1 — 7:30 p.m. A shiny, tubular object, 5–6 feet long, is observed over Morganton, North Carolina. It streaks toward the northwest, blue flame shooting from the rear. After it vanishes in the mountains near Lake James, witnesses hear an explosion. (Loren E. Gross, The Mystery of Unidentified Flying Objects — A Prelude, 1896 – 1949 , The author, 1971, p. 156) June 9 — XXI Bomber Command Air Intelligence issues an Air Intelligence Report on the balls of fire in the Pacific Theatre. The Truk sighting is attributed to an unknown Japanese experimental aircraft, though not a jet. (Strange Company 177 – 180)

July — The 9th Bombardment Group on Tinian in the Northern Marianas: “During our night missions in June and July a UFO phenomenon was reported. Our air crews started sighting balls of fire, i.e., glowing objects about the size of a full moon which flew around in the vicinity of our flying patterns over Japan. One of our crews reported that one of the objects followed their airplane halfway to Iwo Jima. I saw them on two missions. I don’t remember any reports of any hostile action by these objects and the reports of sightings stopped after a couple of months. The object of these reports was dismissed by some experts as the planet Venus. And, after these reports started coming in, some crews did mistake the rising full moon as one of these balls of fire. Some reports speculated that these balls of fire were exhausts from a Japanese development called a Baka Bomb, but exhaust flames can only be seen from the rear; and these objects appeared to have the same size and intensity in whatever direction they were traveling. I have never heard of any official assessment as to what these objects were. I had an occasion to ask General LeMay about them several years after the war and he had no explanation. I am sure that what I saw was neither Venus nor the moon nor a Baka Bomb.” (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 24; Henry C. Huglin, “Group Commander’s Reminiscences,” in Lawrence S. Smith, et al., History of the 9th Bombardment Group (VH), 9 th Bomb Group Association, 1995, pp. 27–28) July — In northern Okinawa, Japan, on a bluff looking toward the South China Sea, Artillery Capt. William A. Mandel sees a cigar-shaped object with a lighted tail moving at eye level at about 200 –300 mph at an elevation of no

more than 400 feet. He estimates its length at 30 – 40 feet and its diameter at 6–8 feet. (Project 1947, “UFO Reports, 1945”) July — When several balloon-shaped objects appear above Selfridge Field [now Selfridge Air National Guard Base] near Mount Clemens, Michigan, the base commander asks for a volunteer to attack them as possible Japanese balloon bombs. Jean Kisling, serving with a Free French Air Force detachment as an instructor on P-47 Thunderbolts, accepts the challenge. He chases one “well beyond the service ceiling of the P-47D” and opens fire with 8 machine guns. The object shoots away sideways on edge, leaving a contrail. (Good Need, p. 24 ) July 1 — The Air Technical Service Command is moved into T-2 Intelligence. (Wikipedia, “Air Materiel Command”) July 16 — The first detonation of a nuclear weapon (an implosion-style plutonium-based bomb) takes place at the Trinity site on what is now the White Sands Missile Range near Alamogordo, New Mexico. At this time, the bomb’s price tag, adjusted for inflation, is $28 billion. (Wikipedia, “Trinity (nuclear test)”) Mid-July — Noon. Pilot Rolan D. Powell and five other F6F Hellcat pilots at Naval Air Station Pasco, Washington, are scrambled after radar reports a fast-moving object over the nearby Hanford facility. They see a bright object with a saucer-like appearance at. It is the size of three aircraft carriers, side-by side, oval shaped, very streamlined like a stretched-out egg and, and pinkish in color. It hovers in a fixed position at 65,000 feet and then goes straight up and disappears. (NICAP, “Huge Saucer over Nuclear Reactor—Radar/Visual”; Strange Company 188 ; Patrick Gross, “Alleged UFO Intercept Attempt at Hanford Nuclear Plant, July 1945”) July 20 — The Joint Chiefs of Staff establish Operation Overcast, a forerunner to Project Paperclip, a secret recruitment program to aid in postwar military research. The Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency is established to conduct the operation. (Wikipedia, “Operation Paperclip”) July 24 — President Truman discloses to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin that the United States has atomic weapons. Stalin feigns little surprise, since he already knows this through espionage. (Gene Dannen, “Truman Tells Stalin, July 24, 1945”)

August — The Army Signal Security Agency persuades ITT, RCA, and Western Union to continue the wartime cable intercept program, both foreign and domestic, now called Project SHAMROCK. No courts, no warrants. It remains secret from Congress and the President. (Wikipedia, “Project SHAMROCK”) August — 5:00 a.m. Ilona Johansson-Paasonen, staying in a sauna along lake Längelmävesi, Finland, wakes up and sees a 35 - foot dazzling ball of fire streaking in her direction along the opposite shore. She throws herself to the floor, but when nothing happens she looks outside and sees a big dog, frozen in terror, its gaze fixed on the lake and a dark log-like object, 6 feet long, gliding through the water with a tall, slender man at the prow. He is dressed in a green coverall. On the other side another man sits steering an engine enclosed within a big glass bulb. (Ilona Johansson- Paasonen, “Humanoideja Längelmävedellä?” Vimana 1970, no. 3/4, pp. 22–24; Ilona Johansson-Paasonen, “Humanoids at Längelmävesi,” FSR Case Histories 13 (February 1973): 3 – 4 ; Clark III 266 ) August 6 — 8:15 a.m. An atomic bomb (a fission weapon containing 64 kilograms of Uranium-235, Little Boy) is detonated 1,900 feet above Hiroshima, Japan, by the Enola Gay. The weapon is considered very inefficient, with only 1.7% of its material fissioning, but it is enough to obliterate the city. Some 78,000 people die instantly or immediately afterward in the firestorm. By the end of the year, another 25,000 will also sicken and die from radiation exposure. (Wikipedia, “Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki”) August 7 — During a press conference with the Seattle Times, Col. Franklin Matthias, officer in charge at the Hanford Engineer Works in Washington, admits the plant has had problems with aerial intrusions, but that radar has been installed and an arrangement made with the Navy to intercept any unidentified aircraft. (Project 1947, “UFOs over Hanford: Commander R. W. Hendershot”) August 9 — 11:01 a.m. Another atomic bomb (an implosion-type plutonium weapon, Fat Man) is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, by Bockscar. Although the bomb is more powerful than the one used on Hiroshima, its effects are confined by hillsides to the narrow Urakami Valley. At least 35,000–40,000 people are killed, and 60,000 others are injured. (Wikipedia, “Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki”) August 10 — 3:00 a.m. Pianist Doris La Fountain is driving home along Market Street after finishing a concert at a night club in East Paterson [now Elmwood Park], New Jersey. She is accompanied by music store proprietor Thomas Brino and James Shaw of Clifton, New Jersey. For about 5 minutes they watch a brilliant red and green rectangular object maneuver at ground level about 70 feet away. It shoots off into the sky and disappears. (“Seeing Saucer Sweet Music to a Pianist,” New York Daily News, September 8, 1957, Passaic-Bergen Sec., p. 22; Lore and Deneault, p. 145 ) August 16 — A UFO allegedly crashes near San Antonio, New Mexico, and is discovered by Jose Padilla, 9, and Remigio Baca, 7, when they are looking for a cow. The crashed saucer has created a gouge, and they can see entities moving around inside. They collect two shiny metal parts from the periphery of the crash site. A recent analysis

shows that the metal is of terrestrial origin. (Paola Leopizzi Harris, “The Reme Baca and Jose Padilla Witness Case,” The UFO Chronicles, November 30, 2010; John Greenewald, “Analysis of Two Metallic Parts Purportedly from a Crashed Unidentified Aerial Object (San Antonio, New Mexico, August 16, 1945),” The Black Vault, February 1, 2017; Jacques Vallee and Paola Leopizzi Harris, Trinity: The Best-Kept Secret, StarWorksUSA, 2021 ; Kevin D. Randle, “Trinity: The Best Kept Secret—A Critique,” A Different Perspective, June 2, 2021; Jacques Vallée, “The Other Lessons of Trinity,” Trinity blog, December 6, 2021; Kevin D. Randle, “Jacques Vallée and Ten Unexplained UFO Cases and Metallic Debris,” A Different Perspective, December 16, 2021) August 21 — Manhattan Project physicist Harry Daghlian is conducting an after-hours experiment at the remote Omega Site of the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico when his hand slips. The test assembly he has built—a ball of plutonium surrounded by tungsten carbide bricks—goes critical. He sees a momentary blue flash and is struck by a wave of gamma and neutron radiation amounting to more than 500 rem. He disassembles the experiment, walks away, and admits himself to medical care. He falls into a coma and dies on September 15, the first person to die accidentally from close exposure to nuclear fission. (Adam Higginbotham, Midnight at Chernobyl, Simon & Schuster, 2019, pp. 30–31) August 28 — Twelve 5th Air Force intelligence specialists flying on a C-46 approaching Iwo Jima (in the Ogasawara Islands, Japan) see three white, teardrop-shaped objects paralleling the plane. Navigational needles go wild, the engine sputters, and the plane falters until the objects speed away. One of the passengers is future UFO investigator Leonard Stringfield. (Stringfield, Situation Red, Fawcett Crest, 1977 , pp. 9 – 10 ; Strange Company 191 – 193 , 209– 211 ; NICAP, “C-46 Encounters Objects / Magnetic Compasses ‘West Wild’”)

September — The first group of seven German rocket scientists arrive at Fort Strong in Boston harbor, Massachusetts, through Operation Overcast: Wernher von Braun, Erich W. Neubert, Theodor A. Poppel, August Schultze, Eberhard Rees, Wilhelm Jungert, and Walter Schwidetzky. By the end of the year, they and two other groups are moved to Fort Bliss, Texas, and White Sands, New Mexico, as “War Department Special Employees.” (Wikipedia, “Operation Paperclip”) September — The US Army atomic bomb production unit, Z Division, named for its director, Jerrold R. Zacharias from Los Alamos, New Mexico, moves to Oxnard Field, New Mexico, from Wendover Field [now Airport], Utah, to be closer to Los Alamos. This marks the beginning of Sandia Base [now part of Kirtland AFB]. Nearby Kirtland Field is used as a B-29 base for aircraft compatibility and drop tests. By October, all the staff and facilities at Wendover are transferred to Sandia. As reservist officers are demobilized, they are replaced by about 50 hand- picked regular officers. (Wikipedia, “Manhattan Project”) September — Policy adviser Ferdinand Eberstadt writes for Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal a report recommending a complete realignment of national security organizations. (Wikipedia, “Eberstadt Report”) September 20 — The OSS is dissolved by Executive Order, effective October 1, scattering personnel through the Departments of State and War. The Research and Analysis Branch is transferred to the State Department. The War Department takes over Secret Intelligence (SI) and Counter Espionage (X2), which are rolled up into the Strategic Services Unit (SSU) headed by Brig. Gen. John Magruder, the former OSS Deputy Director of Intelligence who oversees the OSS liquidation. Most of the other personnel are cashiered. (Wikipedia, “Office of Strategic Services”) September 26? — Night. Machinist Mate First Class George M. Reynolds, attached to the submarine tender USS Beaver with Submarine Squadron 45, anchored in Buckner Bay, Okinawa, Japan. He is on the main deck when he sees a bluish light move to the south, turn right, go over to the west, stop, and stand still. When it moves again, it goes back to the general area it started from. (Strange Company 195 – 196)

October — 8:00 p.m. While driving a car between Bryan and Stryker, Ohio, Gerald M. Kryling and his wife Thelma approach a bright light about 50 feet in the air and 20 feet from the road near some high-tension wires. It appears to be a 35-foot oval object with an amber-colored opening like a window that has shadows moving around inside. It takes off horizontally at great speed and then moves straight up. (CUFOS case file) October 9 — Brig. Gen. George C. McDonald, AAF director of intelligence, writes to Maj. Gen. Elwood Richard Quesada in answer to a request for the investigation into wartime “balls of fire.” Exhaustive investigations of German technical personnel and US and UK sources reveal no confirmation of German involvement with the phenomena. (Macdonald–Quesada correspondence, October 1945)

November — Operation Overcast is renamed Project Paperclip. (Wikipedia, “Operation Paperclip”)

December — Lt. Col. Jo Chamberlin’s article on foo fighters appears in American Legion Magazine. Intelligence officers have ordered him not to state his military rank or position, but he is a special aide to Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold. (Jo Chamberlin, “The Foo Fighter Mystery,” American Legion Magazine 39 , no. 6 (December 1945): 9, 43 – 47; “Foo Fighter Archive Donated to UHR,” UFO Historical Revue, no. 17 (December 2015): 2– 8 ) December 5 — A training flight (Flight 19) of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers disappears while over the Atlantic Ocean. The squadron’s flight plan is scheduled to take them due east from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for 141 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 140-mile leg to complete the exercise. The flight never returns to base. A report by Navy investigators concludes that flight leader Lt. Charles C. Taylor mistook small islands offshore for the Florida Keys after his compasses stopped working, resulting in the flight heading over open sea and away from land. The report is later amended by the Navy to read “cause unknown” to avoid blaming Taylor for the loss of five aircraft and 14 men. One of the search-and-rescue aircraft deployed to look for them, a PBM Mariner with a 13-man crew, also disappears. The report attributes the loss of the PBM aircraft to an explosion in midair while searching for the flight. According to contemporaneous sources, the Mariner has a history of explosions due to vapor leaks when heavily loaded with fuel, as it might have been for a potentially long search-and-rescue operation. A tanker off the coast of Florida sees an explosion^ and a widespread oil slick when fruitlessly searching for survivors. The weather is becoming stormy by the end of the incident.^ None of the Avenger bombers have been found. (Wikipedia, “Flight 19”; Larry Kusche, The Bermuda Triangle Mystery — Solved, Harper & Row, 1975 , pp. 97– 122 ; Larry Kusche, The Disappearance of Flight 19, Harper & Row, 1980 )

1946

1946 — The US nuclear stockpile consists of 9 atomic bombs. (Ryan Crierie, “U.S. Nuclear Stockpile, 1945– 2009 ”) 1946 — Dancers on the roof of a nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey, watch the rapid passage of four square-shaped lights, reddish in color and aligned side by side, moving from the east and disappearing in the west in less than 60 seconds. One witness, meteorologist and RAF pilot George Raymond Leatherbarrow, estimates their altitude at 50,000 feet based on reflections on cirrus clouds. (G. R. Leatherbarrow, “Two Early UFO Cases from the Middle East,” Awareness 5, no. 3 (Autumn 1976): 4–5; Clark III 1177) 1946 — American astrophysicist Charles Greeley Abbot writes that he thinks Earth might make contact with Venusians, coming into “fluent communication by wireless with a race brought up completely separate, having their own systems of government, social usages, religions, and surrounded by vegetation and animals entirely unrelated to any here on earth.” (Charles Greeley Abbot, The Earth and the Stars, Van Nostrand, 1946, p. 110; Roger D. Launius, “Venus-Earth-Mars: Comparative Climatology and the Search for Life in the Solar System,” Life 2, no. 3 (2012): 255–273) 1946 — A farmer named Gunyon in Westerham, Kent, England, calls the British Technical Intelligence staff asking that the Air Ministry come and remove one of these “darned contraptions” which has fallen on his farm. The intelligence officers ask for directions and are told to drive from Croydon to Westerham, turning onto a lane when they reach a pub called The White Dog. Amid great security, two staff cars are dispatched, but fail to find the farm. They locate a pub called The White Hart and a farmer named Bunyan, who strenuously denies having made the call. Although the incident appears to be a hoax, few people can reach the Technical Intelligence staff and convince them to make a field visit. Indeed, the intelligence officers believe that former Air Intelligence scientist Reginald Victor Jones, who has been skeptical of foo fighters and ghost rockets, is behind the affair. Jones writes that a signal is received from Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s staff in Tokyo, asking for confirmation of a report that a Russian flying bomb had recently crashed in England. The other Director of Intelligence on the Air Staff, Air Commodore Roland Eugene Vintras, suggests to Jones that this might tie in with the “Westerham Incident.” (R. V. Jones, Most Secret War, Hamish Hamilton, 1978, pp. 507– 513 ; “UFO Britannia: Part 2—World War Foo and Post War Cover Ups,” Above Top Secret forum, December 19, 2012)

January 10 — The Air Materiel Command at Wright Field, Ohio, issues a restricted-access document, German Flying Wings Designed by Horten Brothers by Capt. N. LeBlanc, detailing the drawings, photos, models, and documents relating to aircraft designed by Nazi aircraft designers the Horten brothers that were recovered in Germany by Allied forces. (N. LeBlanc, German Flying Wings Designed by Horten Brothers, Air Material Command, Technical Intelligence summary report no, F-SU- 1110 - ND, January 10, 1946; H. P. Dabrowski, The Horten Flying Wing in World War II: The History and Development of the Ho 229, Schiffer, 1991; Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, “Roswell and the Flying Wing,” IUR 18, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1993): 3; John Powell, “The Horten Flying Wings,” War Bird Forum, July 2019)

January 18 — 11:00 p.m. A US C-54 transport plane is at 7,000 feet over the French countryside on its way to Paris, France. Suddenly the pilot sees a brilliant “shooting star” about 35° above the horizon. It streaks down below the eastern horizon, then reappears and moves in a hyperbola before falling again. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 1) January 22 — President Truman creates a National Intelligence Authority (State, War, Navy, Chief of Staff, and a presidential representative with the DCI as a non-voting member) for policy and coordination and a Central Intelligence Group for operations under it. Rear Adm. Sidney Souers heads the CIG as Director of Central Intelligence. (Wikipedia, “National Intelligence Authority”)

February 21 — 8:30 p.m. One or more meteors are seen in west Finland and the counties of Västerbotten, Västernorrland, Kopparberg [now Dalarna], Gävleborg, Uppsala, Östergötland, and Skaraborg [now Västra Götaland] in Sweden. It supposedly sets a farmhouse on fire in Vaasa province, Finland. It leaves a long trail of smoke in the sky. (Archives for the Unexplained, “Case XXX: The Meteor That Did Not Start a Fire”)

March — The Air Technical Service Command becomes the Air Materiel Command. (Wikipedia, “Air Materiel Command”) March 5 — 6:00 p.m. João Prestes is returning on foot from a fishery on the banks of the Tietê River to his sister’s home in Araçariguama, São Paulo, Brazil. As he is entering the house, a light from outside strikes and envelopes him. He becomes dizzy and confused but manages to get up and go inside. He summons Araci Gomide, a nurse who has served in the military with him. Gomide describes his friend as being literally cooked, with his flesh detaching from his bones, injuries on his feet and ankles, and his feet clenched like the claws of a bird. His arms are burned and the flesh on his fingers is falling off. His chest, neck, and face also seem to be burned but not charred or red. Prestes dies on the way to a hospital in Santana di Parnaíba at 3:00 a.m. (Clark III 166–167; Brazil 17–21; Pablo Villarubia Mauso, “The Incredible Saga of João Prestes,” UFO Casebook) March 6 — The Western Defense Command is deactivated. (Wikipedia, “Western Defense Command”) March 14 — Dusk. Paul Cummings Jr. is driving east on US Highway 136 about 10 miles east of Havana, Illinois, with Douglas Gowdy. A bright orange ball appears in the road about 1 mile ahead, gliding down the highway only one foot above the pavement and possibly touching both shoulders of the road. When it is within 2,000 feet, Cummings pulls the car over and stops, and they rush out to lie down in a ditch, fearing an explosion. When they look up again, the object is nowhere in sight. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 26–27)

April 2 — The Strategic Services Unit is transferred to the new Central Intelligence Group and becomes the Office of Special Operations. (Wikipedia, “Strategic Services Unit”) April 25 — While ice fishing at Anima Nipissing Lake, Ontario, Don Cameron and his family watch 12–14 small disc- shaped objects descend at a 45° angle about 75 feet away. They come spinning down on the ice, rise 2 feet into the air, then come down again. Cameron walks toward them, and they ascend and shoot away at the same angle and direction. They find black marks on the snow and ice. (Clark III 1179) April or May — Around 12:00 noon. Richard R. Hill and Stanley Ogdrzyiak are driving in an open convertible on the Country Club Road near Lafayette, New York. Suddenly they see a gleaming, metallic, cigar-shaped object in the sky. It remains motionless at 5,000–10,000 feet altitude, which at that height would make it 300–400 feet long. After 2 minutes, it disappears instantaneously. (“Case 84,” CRIFO Newsletter 2, no. 3 (June 3, 1955): 4; Clark III 1179)

May — Day. Navy Lieutenant Andrew A. Titcomb is on leave and picking oranges at his wife’s family home at La Grange, north of Titusville, Florida, when he hears a whistling noise and sees a dark “flying football” directly overhead at about 1,000 feet elevation moving at 125 mph. It appears 15–20 feet in diameter and flies in an arc to the southeast. It disappears in a cloudbank. (UFOEv, p. 6 ; Clark III 1179) May 13 — The Soviets establish a rocket center called NII- 88 [now TsNIIMash] at Kaliningrad [now Korolyov], Russia, northeast of Moscow. Missile designer Sergei Korolev is appointed chief designer of Section 3 on long-range missiles. Stalin declares Korolev’s name a secret, which it remains until his death in 1966. Russia keeps dozens of its captured German scientists here, working on special projects until 1955. (Wikipedia, “TsNIIMash”) May 13 — A rocket is seen traveling over Helsinki, Finland, in a southwesterly direction at 1,000 feet. It supposedly moves at supersonic speed, emitting a magnesium-like light and a trail of smoke. (Jan L. Aldrich, comp., The Ghost Rocket File, Fund for UFO Research, 2000, p. 10) May 18 — 10:45 p.m. Gösta Carlsson, later to become founder and owner of Cernelle AB, is walking in the forested area of Kronoskagen near Ängelholm, Sweden, when he sees a disc-shaped machine more than 50 feet in diameter. On

the top is a cupola with oval windows, and beneath it are an oblong “fan,” two legs, a small ladder, and openings. A man dressed in a white, one-piece outfit gestures to Carlsson to stop. Two other occupants, three of them women, all wearing suits and transparent helmets, are nearby. One of the males points a boxlike device at the witness, who leaves the scene but returns by a different route 30 minutes later, just in time to see the UFO depart. A concrete model of the UFO is dedicated in 1963 as a memorial. (Wikipedia, “UFO-Memorial Ängelholm”; Sven-Olof Fredrickson, “The Ängelholm Landing Report,” Flying Saucer Review 18, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1972): 15– 17; Anders Liljegren, “High-Quality Investigation of 1946 CEIII Case,” AFU Newsletter, no. 38 (March 1995): 2 – 3; Clark III 528– 529 ; Clas Svahn, “Gösta Carlssons möte,” Riksorganisationen UFO-Sverige, July 10, 2018; Håkan Blomqvist, “UFO-Sweden Memories: Ängelholm 1996,” Håkan Blomqvist’s Blog, July 1, 2020; Clas Svahn and Gösta Carlsson, Mötet i gläntan: Sveriges mest kända närkontakt med UFO, 3rd ed., Parthenon, 2021) May 21 — Two motorists report an elongated craft resembling a rocket or Zeppelin over Stora Mellösa, Sweden. One of the witnesses sees two short wings, although the other cannot see any despite watching the object for 5 minutes. (Swords 12) May 24 — 2:20 a.m. Witnesses in Landskrona, Sweden, see a wingless, cigar-shaped object, spurting sparks from its tail. About 300 feet above the ground, it is moving at airplane speed toward the southwest. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 1 ; Göran Jansson, “Spökraketerna 1947,” January 2005, p. 6) May 28 — The Aftonbladet newspaper in Stockholm, Sweden, is the first to use the term “Spökraket” (ghost rocket) in a headline. (Swords 12) May 31 — 11:43 a.m. A huge, metallic, wingless cigar moves rapidly at 1,000 feet altitude over Katrineholm, Sweden. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., pp. 2 – 3 )

Summer — Late evening. Two women on a walk in Johannesburg, South Africa, see an aerial object hovering 5 feet above the roof of a nearby hotel. It is shaped like a saucer with a round, golden ball in the center, evenly split between the top and bottom sections. They hear a clicking noise, and the ball drops through the saucer until it is level with the roof. More clicks are heard, and the ball rises through and above the saucer 8–9 feet. In the space between the ball and the disc the witnesses see two figures larger than normal height (7 feet), fair-complexioned and broad-shouldered, with short wavy hair. They are wearing white uniforms with stiff collars and stand motionless until the object floats away and is lost to view. (John Judge, “Near-Landing in 1946 in Johannesburg,” Flying Saucer Review 24, no. 5 (March 1979): 14–16; Clark III 266 ) Summer — Day. Eleanor Hancock is in Colorado Springs, Colorado, looking southwest toward Cheyenne Mountain when two shining silver objects appear, moving rapidly in tandem from east to west toward the escarpment. Just before they reach the mountain, they turn sharply upward, still in formation, and disappear. (Clark III 1179) June 6 — The Joint Research and Development Board is created by the Secretaries of War and the Navy to coordinate research efforts. (Joint Research and Development Board, Organization Authority Record, June 6, 1946) June 9 — Night. An enormous light drops earthward over Sala, Sweden, leaving a long, fiery trail. An explosion is heard. Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 3) June 9 — 10:17 p.m. A rocket-like light passes over Helsinki, Finland, at 10,000 feet leaving a smoke trail and making a distant rumble. A luminous afterglow lasts 10 minutes. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 3) June 10 — Lieut. Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg replaces Souers as director of the CIG. He expands it and wins the right to collect intelligence in Latin America. (CIA Historical Staff, Chronology 1946 – 65 , vol. 1, 1946–1955, p. 9) June 12 — The Swedish Defense staff secretly orders reports of unknown rockets to be collected by military and civilian defense units in Sweden. (Anders Liljegren and Clas Svahn, “The Ghost Rockets,” UFOs 1947 – 1987 , Fortean Tomes, 1987, p. 33) June 18 — A first-strike scenario, the Pincher war plan, is created by the US military to strike Moscow and the Caucasus with 50 nuclear weapons if the Soviets invade the Middle East. It is never officially approved, but the Joint Chiefs agree to use it for planning purposes. (Phillip S. Meilinger, “The Early War Plans,” Air Force Magazine, December 1, 2012) June 25 — A four-engine Northrop XB-35 flying wing bomber makes its first test flight from Jack Northrop Field [now Hawthorne Municipal Airport] to Muroc Army Air Field [now Edwards AFB] in California. (Wikipedia, “Northrop YB- 35 ”) June 26 — The commander of the military district in Morjärv, Sweden, issues instructions on how to report incidents with “certain kind of light phenomena’ that might be associated with “tests made by foreign powers with guided weapons.” (Swords 12).

July — Amazing Stories publishes four short articles in its September 1945 issue by William C. Hefferlin, each describing a wonderful new invention that has come to the author, according to editor Ray Palmer, “from Tibet by mental telepathy.” One of the inventions is a “circle-winged airplane.” In later issues, Hefferlin and his wife Gladys go on to describe the Rainbow City, an underground Martian city beneath Antarctica where the flying saucers originate. (“A Description of Rainbow City from the Hefferlin Manuscript (Hollow Earth)”; Walter Kafton- Minkel, Subterranean Worlds, Loompanics, 1989, pp. 160– 167 ; Clark III 610) July — Day. A long, silver-colored cigar appears suddenly out of the haze over Crane Beach, Ipswich, Massachusetts, moves noiselessly over the water, then disappears suddenly. (Lore and Deneault, p. 148 ; Clark III 1179) July — 2:00 p.m. Hans Sorensen is cycling near Viskinge, Denmark, when he sees three discs flying silently overhead. The underside is uneven and dull gray, but they are like “polished mirrors” on top. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 16) July 1 — Able nuclear test, Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands. Radio-controlled autopilots are installed in eight B- 17 bombers, converting them into remote-controlled drones that are then loaded with automatic cameras, radiation detectors, and air sample collectors. Their pilots operate them from mother planes at a safe distance from the detonation. The drones can fly into Able’s mushroom cloud, which would have been lethal to crew members. (Wikipedia, “Operation Crossroads”) July 3 — The Joint Research and Development Board is established. Essentially it is Vannevar Bush’s existing cadre of brain trust from the still active Office of Scientific Research and the postwar Joint New Weapons Committee. Added to this are other reconstituted R&D committees and advisers like Lloyd Berkner of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The original founding members are physicist Alfred Lee Loomis, biologist Caryl Parker Haskins, physicist Luis Walter Alvarez, physicist William Shockley, and George Doriot. Two military representatives each from the Army, Navy, and Air Force complete the board’s membership. Counting Bush, this makes a board of 12. (Michael Hall and Wendy Connors, “The Research and Development Board: Unanswered Questions,” IUR 2 6, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 7–8) July 6 — A special ghost rocket investigations committee is formed with Col. Bengt Jacobsson from the Royal Swedish Air Force Materiel Administration as chairman. Other members are Henry Kjellson and Eric Malmberg from the Air Administration; Maj. Nils Ahlgren and Capt. Gerdt Stangenberg from the Air Defense department; chemist Gustaf Ljunggren; physicist Martin Fehrm; and Olof Kempe from the Defense Radio Institute. They hold at least 12 meetings, beginning on July 10. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 13 ; Anders Liljegren and Clas Svahn, “The Ghost Rockets,” UFOs 1947 – 1987 , Fortean Tomes, 1987, p. 33 ; Swords 12) July 6 — Astronomer Bertil Lindblad, after consulting with the Swedish Defense staff on ghost rocket reports, remarks that the “adjective ‘cigar-shaped’ is something new.” (Anders Liljegren and Clas Svahn, “The Ghost Rockets,” UFOs 1947 – 1987 , Fortean Tomes, 1987, p. 33) July 9 — A journalist finds three dubious fist-size fragments, one of iron and the other two slag-like, after a bright projectile is seen over a beach at Njurunda, Sweden. (Göran Jansson, “Spökraketerna 1947,” January 2005, p. 12 ; Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 14) July 9 — 2:30 p.m. Erik and Asa Reuterswärd take a photo of a greenish-white daylight meteor by a lake at Guldsmedshyttan, northwest of Lindesberg, Sweden. They are atop a forest watchtower and have a good view of the object. The image is circulated to newspapers throughout Sweden; however, the photo probably shows an unusual daylight meteor, not a ghost rocket. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., pp. 12 – 13 ; Clas Svahn, “The 1946 Ghost Rocket Photo,” `IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 12–14, 23; Swords 13– 14 ; Clas Svahn, “Spökraketerna: Den Största Gåtan,” Riksorganisationen UFO-Sverige, March 7, 2017 ) July 9 — 2:30 p.m. Two people on the north side of Vaxön, Sweden, watch a glowing white object with a blue-white tail streak across the sky in about 2 seconds, disappearing to the southeast. Around the same time, a witness at Järna Station in Södertälje sees an object “like a glass flask in a thermos” descending from a high altitude. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 6) July 9 — 2:30 p.m. A member of the US legation sees a silent ghost rocket falling rapidly over Stockholm, Sweden, according to a July 11 telegram from State Department official Christian M. Ravndal to Washington, D.C. Hundreds of other observations take place over central Sweden. Ravndal suggests that the Soviets are trying to intimidate the Swedes. (Göran Jansson, “Spökraketerna 1947,” January 2005, p. 11 ; Clark III 524, 527 ; Good Above, p. 20 ; Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p.p. 6, betw. 12 – 13)

July 9 — 2:35 p.m. Efrain Johnson sees a strange, cigar- or sugarloaf-shaped object to the east of Ockelbo, Sweden. It shines like silver and appears “like some glistening mass.” It falls to the ground and is gone in a few moments. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 6) July 9 — About 3:00 p.m. A housewife near Sörbo, Sweden, is washing on the shore of Södra Barken when she sees a falling object coming from the northeast. It changes color from blue to green and has a long tail. It tumbles into the lake about 320 feet away. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., pp. 6– 7 ) July 9 — 3:30 p.m. A young man in Mockfjärd, Sweden, sees a silver-colored star diving toward the ground with a whistling noise. It comes down about 490 feet away from him, and he is blinded by the intense light. He thinks it crashes into Mt. Landholm. A powerful burning smell lingers for 15 minutes. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 7) July 9 — 3:35 p.m. Many people see a bright red, rocket-like object moving swiftly over Turku, Finland, and leaving a short trail. It casts shadows on the ground. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 7) July 10 — A brilliantly glowing projectile trailing luminous smoke crashes into a beach near Norrvikssand, Sweden. Airline pilot Torvald Linden and other witnesses find a shallow crater a little more than 3 feet in diameter. A mass of slag-like material, some of it reduced to powder (which burns the hands when touched) is found at the site and collected into bags. A journalist from Svenska Dagbladet on July 11 finds a “burnt-brown object with a hollow cylinder” with a diameter of about 1–2 inches. Military authorities take over the site. The debris is taken to Dr. B. Backlund at a laboratory in Kubikenborg, who finds it contains paper with microscopic black-and-white squares like a screen. Some porous, rust-colored fragments are also present. The same day, the beach is visited by Lt. Col. Rudberg, Capt. C. Ljungdahl, and Capt. R. Westlin, who conclude that the material has been in the area for a long time. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., pp. 10– 12 ) July 10 — 2:30 p.m. A bluish flying cigar 10–12 times the diameter of the full moon in length passes over Stockholm, Sweden. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 9) July 12 — Swedish Intelligence agrees to cooperate in sharing ghost rocket information with the British military attaché in Stockholm, Sweden, Maj. de Salis. (Swords 20) July 12 — Day. The railway station master at Gryon, Vaud, Switzerland, is watching a B-24 Liberator flying overhead at 15,000 feet when he also sees a “flying bomb” looking like a big star traveling northeast at about 250 mph. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 14) July 12 — 10:00 p.m. Inga Eriksson is in her garden in Usta, Örebro, Sweden, when she hears a sharp, sizzling sound in the air and sees three silvery triangular objects traveling horizontally from east to west. They are visible only for 2 seconds, but her mother notes that the electrical power has gone out in their home. (AFU case file) July 15 — The Swedes provide the British attaché with analytical reports of all observations to date. (Swords 20) July 16 – 18 — US Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal makes an unexpected visit to Stockholm, Sweden, to meet with the Swedish Defense Minister Allan Vougt and two members of the special committee on ghost rockets. (Anders Liljegren and Clas Svahn, “The Ghost Rockets,” UFOs 1947 – 1987 , Fortean Tomes, 1987, p. 35) July 18 — Two British intelligence officers arrive in Stockholm to meet with their counterparts in Sweden. One is from the Air Ministry (Squadron Leader Barrie Heath) and the other (Maj. Malone) is from MI10(a), a branch of the Directorate of Military Intelligence. (Swords 20) July 18 — 12:00 noon. Sigvat Skaug and his son, who live along Lake Mjøsa in southeastern Norway, and his sister Åse Tandberg watch two rocket-like objects about 7 feet long pass over their heads at a very low altitude. They fall simultaneously into the lake, throwing the water several feet into the air. The objects look like V-1 rockets and come in low from the west at about 150 feet, causing the trees to sway. They fall into the lake about 1. 2 miles from the western shore and 4.3 miles from Minnesund. (NICAP, “‘Ghost Rocket’ Crashes into Lake”; Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., pp. 18 – 19 ; Göran Jansson, “Spökraketerna 1947,” January 2005, pp. 19 – 20 ; Clas Svahn and Anders Liljegren, “The Kölmjärv Ghost Rocket Crash Revisited,” AFU Newsletter 27 (Jan./Dec. 1984): 1–5; Swords 16; Clark III 526) July 18 — Three workers see a ghost rocket above Ortviken, Sweden. Shortly afterward, Gunnar Falck watches a silvery cylinder moving over the northern part of Sundsvall. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 17) July 19 — 11:15 a.m. In the village of Bölebyn, Sweden, Leonard Danielsson and his sons Kjell, Dan, and Hans see an “aeroplane” moving against the wind to the southwest. The boys say it looks like a large, metallic milk canister. It travels from horizon to horizon in about 20 minutes before disappearing in the northwest. (Swords 17) July 19 — 11:30 a.m. Kurt Larsson, 11, is fishing at the north end of Lake Kattisträsket, Sweden, when he hears a roaring sound. A huge column of water rises out of the lake as if a mine has detonated. Military officers from Boden

investigate, but the lake is too muddy to send in a diver. They conclude that whatever fell is buried in 15 feet of mud. (Swords 24) July 19 — 11:45 a.m. Many witnesses see a gray, winged rocket crash into Lake Kölmjärv, Sweden, with a loud bang close to the southwest bank. Knut Lindbäck says it generates a high plume of water when it hits the surface, “followed by another cascade as if something had detonated.” Water lilies and other aquatic plants are torn up and thrown on the shore. Lieut. Karl-Gösta Bartoll from the Boden engineer corps arrives the next day to supervise the salvage operation. Engineers Roland Rynniger and lab technician Torsten Wilner from the Defense Research Department also arrive with a Geiger counter. A three-week search turns up no traces of metal, even though the evidence points to an underwater explosion. (NICAP, “‘Ghost Rocket’ Crashes into Lake”; Göran Jansson, “Spökraketerna 1947,” January 2005, pp. 20– 26 ; Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., pp. 20, 76; Clas Svahn and Anders Liljegren, “The Kölmjärv Ghost Rocket Crash Revisited,” AFU Newsletter 27 (Jan./Dec. 1984): 1–5; Swords 17– 20 , 24; Clark III 525, 526 ) July 19 — 3 :00 p.m. Karl and Tyra Axberg are sitting on the porch of their cabin on Lake Vassarajärvi in Norrbotten County, Sweden, when they hear a loud noise. A projectile comes in at a very low angle and hits the water at a 30 ° angle, continuing underwater for about 600 feet. A military team led by Karl-Gösta Bartoll can find no trace of a “ghost bomb.” (Swords 24– 25 ) July 19 — 3:40 p.m. Ingrid Hansson is sunbathing with her father on a floating jetty at the northern end of Lake Marmen, near Sunnanå, Sweden. She hears a violent roaring over the water and looks up to see an object bouncing along the surface, stirring up a wake. The object has created a water column 66 feet high upon impact. (Swords 25) July 19 — Maj. Gen. George C. McDonald prepares a memorandum for the Commander of the Army Air Forces Gen. Carl Spaatz on reports of “rockets” over Scandinavian countries. (Jan L. Aldrich, comp., The Ghost Rocket File, Fund for UFO Research, 2000, pp. 9– 11 ) July 24 — 1:20 p.m. Engineer Tennlund sees a small cigar-shaped object with a pair of small wings south of Vålberg, Värmland, Sweden. It comes from the direction of Norway (west) at great speed with no sound. Tennlund thinks it crashes into Vänern lake. (Anders Liljegren and Clas Svahn, “The Ghost Rockets,” UFOs 1947 – 1987 , Fortean Tomes, 1987, p. 35) July 25 — The Swedish military states that ghost rockets are not meteors. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 23 ) July 25 — Baker nuclear test, Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. (Wikipedia, “Operation Crossroads”; Fran Ridge, “The Baker Blast: Cause for Alarm?” May 4, 2013) July 27 — British Air Attaché Capt. Henderson informs the Foreign Office in London, England, that cooperation with Swedish Air Staff should be kept from the Americans. (David Clarke and Andy Roberts, Out of the Shadows, Piatkus, 2002; Joel Carpenter, “Guided Missiles and UFOs: A Tangle of Fear, 1937–53, Part Two”; Swords 20) July 28 — Night. Sections of Oslo, Norway, are shaken by two violent aerial explosions. An “intense white light” accompanies the blasts. (London Daily Telegraph, July 29, 1946; Clark III 526) July 29 — Norway begins censoring ghost rocket reports just as Sweden is doing. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 25) July 30 — 1:15 p.m. Two objects shaped like dark crosses are seen in the sky over Filipstad, Värmland, Sweden. (Anders Liljegren and Clas Svahn, “The Ghost Rockets,” UFOs 1947 – 1987 , Fortean Tomes, 1987, p. 35) July 30 — 3:12 p.m. William Jorgensen, a soldier at the fort at Oskar-Fredriksborg, Stockholm, Sweden, sees a silent flying object with short wings at a distance of about 6,560 feet. It is moving faster than a jet aircraft. (Anders Liljegren and Clas Svahn, “The Ghost Rockets,” UFOs 1947 – 1987 , Fortean Tomes, 1987, p. 35) July 30 — 5:00 p.m. A customs officer on the Norway-Sweden border watches a silvery torpedo with short wings. The object moves in from the south but changes direction with a sharp turn and continues east with a whining sound. (Anders Liljegren and Clas Svahn, “The Ghost Rockets,” UFOs 1947 – 1987 , Fortean Tomes, 1987, p. 35)

August — Day. Charles A. Johnson is driving on US Highway 41 along Lake Michigan north of Chicago, Illinois, when he sees three silver discs going from east to west in a triangular formation. (Clark III 1179) August — 8:30 p.m. A young man sees a pan-shaped object near a road in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium. A small entity holding an acacia branch is nearby. The being enters the object through an opening on the underside. Afterward, traces of burning on the ground are detected. (Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1940– 1949 , p. 20 ; Clark III 266 ) Early August — An astronomer and meteorologist is looking at some clouds through a telescope in Stockholm, Sweden, and sees a luminous object that he estimates is about 90 feet long, torpedo-shaped, and metallic. It has a “tapered tail that spewed glowing blue and green smoke and a series of fire balls.” The object explodes with a terrific flash. (“Sweden Plans Radar Fight on ‘Rockets,’” Los Angeles Times, August 13, 1946, p. 1; Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 39)

August 1 — President Truman signs the Atomic Energy Act, transferring the control of atomic energy from military to civilian hands, effective on January 1, 1947. It categorizes information on atomic energy as “born classified,” even if it is not created by any US government agency. “Restricted Data” is not a level of classification; rather, a document can be classified as Confidential, Secret, or Top Secret, while also containing Restricted Data. In addition, a document containing Restricted Data can also contain Critical Nuclear Weapon Design Information. In this way, a document can be classified as Secret (S), Secret//Restricted Data (S//RD), or Secret//Restricted Data- Critical Nuclear Weapon Design Information (S//RD-CNWDI), depending on the type of information it contains. (Wikipedia, “United States Atomic Energy Commission”) August 1 — Truman approves the establishment of the Office of Naval Research for “planning, fostering, and encouraging scientific research” in relation to naval power and national security. (Wikipedia, “Office of Naval Research”) August 1 —Col. Edwin Kennedy Wright, Vandenberg’s executive assistant at the Central Intelligence Group, sends a memorandum to President Truman saying the ghost rockets conform to a V-1 shape and seem to be launched from the USSR. The report notes that the missiles can turn and fly circular courses, seemingly indicating radio control. Most information comes from the military attaché in Sweden and the conclusions are from the director of intelligence for the War Department general staff. (Swords 21 – 23 ; Jan Aldrich, “Investigating the Ghost Rockets,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 10, 12) August 1 — 6:00 p.m. AF Capt. Jack E. Puckett is flying over Tampa, Florida, in a C- 47 transport and sees a long cylinder twice the size of a B- 2 9 with luminous portholes. After 3 minutes, it disappears at a speed of 1,500 mph. (“Rocket Craft Encounter Revealed by World War 2 Pilot,” UFO Investigator 1, no. 2 (Aug./Sept. 1957): 15; UFOEv, p. 19 ) August 5 — 6:26 p.m. A luminous object is seen by a motorist near Landskrona, Skåne, Sweden. August 5 — 11:00 p.m. A fast-moving, silent, circular object glitters in the sun over Skåne, Sweden, as it heads toward the south-southwest at a high altitude. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 28) August 6 — The US delegation in Budapest, Hungary, reports that a German scientist now working for the Russians has revealed that the Soviets have developed guided rockets called V-3 and V-4 that are able to fly a round trip of 700 miles. (Jan Aldrich, “Investigating the Ghost Rockets,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 10) August 7 — A Top Secret message from the Commander-in-Chief Air Forces, Pacific, to Gen. Lauris Norstad, War Department Operations, requests guidance on the current classification of the substitute code word “Majestic” for Operational Plan Olympic (the invasion of Northern Japan). The plan has been downgraded to Restricted (Message CM1472 IN). The answer is that both code words had been declassified by the JCS on October 8, 1945 (Message CM96908 OUT 8 Aug 1946). (Jan Aldrich; Murray Bott, “Military Codenames ‘Olympic’ and ‘Majestic,’” UFO UpDates, April 4, 2002) August 7 — Swedish Lt. Lennart Neckman of the Defense Staff’s Air Defense Division sees a clear, yellow flame passing low and slow over the countryside. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 30) August 8 — Chief of Swedish Air Defense Maj. Nils Ahlgren says that some of the rockets are seen at low altitude, maneuver in half circles, and appear to come from the south. (Göran Jansson, “Spökraketerna 1947,” January 2005, p. 36) August 11 — 8:47 p.m. Astronomer Bertil Lindblad sees an exploding fireball in Ljugarn on Gotland, Sweden. (Göran Jansson, “Spökraketerna 1947,” January 2005, p. 38 ) August 11 — 9:00–10:00 p.m. Hundreds of people in central and southern Sweden see “ghost bombs” that fly from south to north, giving off a brilliant blue-white light. Sometimes two of the objects are seen flying together. Some witnesses see smaller silver balls come out of the larger objects, which are variously described as cylinders and torpedoes with a “wide nose” and “fire-spurting tail.” Stockholm is said to be “near the boiling point” with ghost rocket speculation. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., pp. 33 – 39; Göran Jansson, “Spökraketerna 1947,” January 2005, pp. 38–40; Clark III 525; Anders Liljegren and Clas Svahn, “The Ghost Rockets,” UFOs 1947 – 1987 , Fortean Tomes, 1987, p. 37 ; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 50– 53 ) August 12 — 10:00 a.m. A twin-engine Saab 18 Swedish Air Force bomber crashes and explodes near Valdshult, Jönköping, Sweden, killing three airmen. Rumors circulate that it collided with a ghost rocket, but an investigation indicates that the pilot lost control. (Good Need, pp. 39 – 40 ) August 12 — 8:15 p.m. A torpedo-shaped ghost rocket moves slowly over a seaport town in southern Sweden, barely grazing the roofs and trailing smoke. It continues out to sea and seems to come down on a small island. Two men

go out to investigate, but the island is too overgrown to allow a search. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., pp. 40–41) August 13 — Capt. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, US naval attaché in Paris, forwards as top secret a report by the French government on ghost rocket activity in Scandinavia. It states that “a good number of these projectiles are of the V- 1 type in the form of a torpedo with two small wings.” A map shows them originating in the Leningrad [now St. Petersburg] area, Russia. (Swords 21; Good Need, pp. 38 – 39 ; Jan Aldrich, “Investigating the Ghost Rockets,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 11) August 13 — The Hungarian report of August 6 causes Maj. Gen. Stephen J. Chamberlin, Army assistant chief of staff for intelligence, to ask Budapest for further information. Top-secret requests are sent to military attachés in London, Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, and Copenhagen asking for listings of all ghost rocket reports, as well as V-3 and V- 4 missiles. The military attaché in Oslo reports that a Soviet ship in the north Baltic Sea has been transmitting code to shore stations regarding the ghost rockets. The military attaché in Moscow asks other European officials about where the rockets originate and gets several answers, which he forwards on to Chamberlin: Hiiumaa island, Estonia; Latvia; or Peenemünde, Germany. Gen. Joseph T. McNarney of the US Forces in Europe Theater replies that Peenemünde is a likely origin, since the site has been refurbished. The military attaché in Stockholm suspects Hiiumaa, Peenemünde, or Parikkala in Finland, while the naval attaché in Stockholm thinks that Łeba, Poland, is the launch site. (Jan Aldrich, “Investigating the Ghost Rockets,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 10–11) August 13 — The New York Times says the ghost rocket situation is extremely dangerous and that Sweden will not tolerate such violations. (“Swedes Use Radar in Fight on Missiles,” New York Times. August 13, 1946, p. 4) August 13 — The US naval attaché and the Assistant US military attaché in Stockholm interview three Swedish Air Force officers assigned to the General Staff who say that they believe the objects are rockets. (Joel Carpenter, “Guided Missiles and UFOs: A Tangle of Fear, 1937–53, Part Two”; Swords 21) August 13 — Afternoon. A troop of Boy Scouts in Denmark see a rocket-like object moving quickly at an altitude of 1,600 feet. They can see small side wings and fins. A blue-white light streams from the bottom, and it diverges from a straight course to a 35° curve. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 43) August 13 — 8:00 p.m. A cigar-shaped object flies past a witness at Karlskrona, Sweden, at a distance of only 150 feet. Only 5 feet long, it emits a faint green light and trails smoke from the rear. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 43) August 14 — The New York Times reports that Secretary of State Dean Acheson is “very much interested” in the ghost rockets. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 46 ; “2 Swedes Escape a ‘Ghost Rocket,’” New York Times, August 14, 1946, p. 11) August 14 — 10 :02 a.m. Swedish Air Force pilot Lieut. Gunnar Irholm and his signaler, Cpl. Möller, are flying a B-18A bomber at 650 feet 4 miles northeast of Malingsbo in central Sweden when they see a dark cigar-shaped object approaching on their left. It has no visible wings, rudders, lights, flame or projections of any type. It appears to follow the terrain at 370–430 mph, maintaining the same height, then vanishes into a storm cloud. (“Ghost Rockets over Scandinavia,” Intelligence Review, no. 49, January 9, 1947, US Department of Defense; Don Berliner, Marie Galbraith, and Antonio Huneeus, Unidentified Flying Objects Briefing Document, UFO Research Coalition, December 1995, pp. 33– 35 ; Swords 15– 16 ; “Cigar Sighted from B-19 Bomber,” AFU Newsletter, no. 44 (September 2002): 1–4) August 15 — Night. Several residents of the east side of Waterloo, Iowa, see an object buzzing rapidly around some trees. It gradually ascends, surrounded by a cloud of white vapor, and disappears high in the sky. One person calls it “a great white bird; another, a bomb.” Mrs. Russell Lampman says that the object is “6 feet, 3 inches tall, like a large man, and rather rectangular in shape.” She and her husband watch it for an hour after it starts hovering about 20– 25 feet above a nearby alley. (Al Starr, “Street Scene,” Waterloo (Iowa) Sunday Times, August 18, 1946, p. II- 1 ; “Well, We Saw It First!” Waterloo Daily Courier, July 7, 1947, p. 2; Project 1947, “UFO Reports: 1946”) August 16 — Col. L. H. Johnson, US naval attaché in Stockholm, transmits a “Top Secret Report R334-46 of 13 August 1946 Subject: SWEDEN Guided Missiles Rocket Sightings Over Sweden.” It concludes: “No tangible evidence to date as to nature or origin of rockets reported over Sweden, although Swedish Defense Staff insists that they are rockets.” (Joel Carpenter, “Guided Missiles and UFOs: A Tangle of Fear, 1937–53, Part Two”; Jan L. Aldrich, comp., The Ghost Rocket File, Fund for UFO Research, 2000, pp. 32– 35 ) August 16 — A missile produces an enormous explosion over Malmö, Sweden, that shakes or breaks many windows. Some witnesses think they can see fragments of the object falling to earth. (“Windows Broken by Rocket Bomb,” Manchester Guardian, August 17, 1946, p. 6; Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 50)

Late August — Margaret Sprankle, a civilian employee at Tinker AFB near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is returning from work when she sees, about 300 feet away, a large, metallic, lens-shaped structure about 75 feet in diameter. On the lower right side are 12–14 square windows; in each, visible from the shoulders up, is a figure. Their heads are very round. The object rotates 90° on its vertical axis and silently flies northwest and disappears in seconds. (Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1940–1949, p. 22; Clark III 266) August 18 — 8:00 or 10:00 p.m. An aerial object like a 9-foot cigar is seen moving slowly on the north side of Copenhagen, Denmark. It explodes with extraordinary force. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 53) August 19 — The US military attaché in Moscow reports on the visit of Maj. Stig Wennerström of the Swedish Air Force, who reveals that radar indicates the ghost rocket launch site is at Peenemünde, Germany. The rockets appear to be radio-controlled, carry no warheads, are self-destructive, and are plotted over a range of 620 miles. Sometimes they follow zigzag courses. (Jan Aldrich, “Investigating the Ghost Rockets,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 12) August 19 — Two US experts on aerial warfare, aviation legend General Jimmy Doolittle and British Group Captain Douglas Bader, and General David Sarnoff, president of RCA, arrive in Stockholm, Sweden, ostensibly on private business, and independently of each other. The official explanation is that Doolittle, who is now vice-president of the Shell Oil Company, is inspecting Shell branch offices in Europe, while Sarnoff, a former member of General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s London staff, is studying the market for radio equipment. However, the story indicates that the Chief of the Swedish Defense Staff, Col. C. R. Kempf, makes no secret that he “was extremely interested in asking the two generals advice and, if possible, would place all available reports before them.” However, Doolittle denies the correlation to Barry Greenwood in 1984, and researchers have found no evidence to support a collaboration. (Joel Carpenter, “Guided Missiles and UFOs: A Tangle of Fear, 1937–53, Part Two”; Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., pp. 53 – 54 ; Clark III 527; Swords 21, 24 ) August 21 — The General Staff in Norway issues a memorandum to the press asking it not to mention any ghost rockets seen over the country and to pass on all reports to the military Intelligence Department. In Sweden, the ban is limited to any mention of where the rockets are seen to land or explode. (London Daily Telegraph, August 22, 1946; Good Above, p. 21 ) August 22 — 3:00 p.m. Photographer Gösta Skog takes a color film of a ghost rocket at Getå, 100 miles south of Stockholm, Sweden. The cigar-shaped object appears out of a cloud at 3,000 feet, trailing exhaust. The film turns out to be overexposed. (Clas Svahn, “Spökraketerna: Den Största Gåtan,” Riksorganisationen UFO-Sverige, March 7, 2017; Swords 14–15) August 22 — Director of the Central Intelligence Group (CIG) Lt. Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg writes a top secret memo to President Truman via Adm. William D. Leahy, stating that the “weight of evidence” points to Peenemünde (which has become a Soviet naval base), East Germany, as the origin of the ghost rockets, and that a US military attaché in Moscow has been told by a “key Swedish Air Officer” [Wennerström] that radar course-plotting leads to the conclusion that Peenemünde is the launch site. CIG speculates that the missiles are extended-range developments of V- 1 s being aimed for the Gulf of Bothnia for test purposes and “do not overfly Swedish territory specifically for intimidation; self-destruct by small demolition charge or burning.” (Joel Carpenter, “Guided Missiles and UFOs: A Tangle of Fear, 1937–53, Part Two”; Barry Greenwood, “Significant Ghost Rocket Documents Available,” UFO Historical Revue, no. 15 (June 2015): 1–8) August 23 — The British Foreign Office states that English radar experts, including Reginald Victor Jones, having returned from Sweden, had “submitted secret reports to the British government on the origin of the rockets.” (Good Above, p. 21 ) August 24 — Stockholm Air Attaché Maj. Gen. Alfred A. Kessler Jr. informs the War Department that the Ghost Rockets are an “unintentional hoax which developed naturally but which exploited by Defense staff by implication and lack of frankness possibly interest defense budget and to alert west against east.” (Joel Carpenter, “Guided Missiles and UFOs: A Tangle of Fear, 1937–53, Part Two”) August 24 — Admiral Henry Kent Hewitt, Commander of US Naval Forces in Europe, writes a letter to the US naval attaché in Oslo, Norway, on “Rocket Bombs or Guided Missiles over Norway and Sweden.” Two “missiles” have fallen into a lake near Oslo, and the US Navy is “very interested.” ([Adm. Henry Kent Hewitt], Letter to US Naval Attaché, Oslo, “Rocket Bombs or Guided Missiles over Norway and Sweden,” August 24, 1946) August 24 — Evening. A Norwegian student and a Swedish engineer are boating on a small river “somewhere in Sweden” when a light approaches them from the southeast. It resembles a full moon and emits an intense light: “As it passed immediately overhead, it grew so bright you could see a well as on a sunny day.” The object, about 10 feet long, releases four stars that fall silently to the ground. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., pp. 58–59)

August 26 — The US military attaché in Stockholm reports that the Swedes, possibly worried about a Soviet veto of their application for UN membership, have canceled their request for British radar equipment. (Jan Aldrich, “Investigating the Ghost Rockets,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 13) August 29 — The American embassy in Stockholm tells the State Department that the ghost rockets are probably Soviet missiles. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 63A; [Memo on telegram of August 27, 1946]; Good Above, pp. 22 , 447 )

September — German rocket engineer Walter Ziegler tells Army CIC that 400 men from his former rocket group at Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) in Munich, Germany, are invited by Russian military officers to a fancy dinner, wined and dined, then taken home. Several hours later, all 400 are woken up by the Russians and forced to take a trip. (Ziegler is not among them.) They are transported by train to a small town (“Kubischew”) outside Moscow, Russia, where they remain and work on secret military rocket projects under terrible conditions. (Jacobsen, Area 51, p. 42 ) September 1– 2 — Late night and early morning. Rocket-shaped objects are seen over northern Greece, according to Prime Minister Konstantinos Tsaldaris. Physicist Paul Santorinis is placed in charge of an investigation. He rules out Russian missiles, but the Army ends the investigation in 1947. (Clark III 525; Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., pp. 62 – 63 ; Good Above, p. 23 ) September 7 — British pilot Edward Mortlock Donaldson attains an airspeed record of 616 mph in a Gloster Meteor F Mk 4 at Littlehampton, England. (Wikipedia, “Edward Donaldson (RAF officer)”) September 9 — The scientific advisor to MI6, English physicist Reginald Victor Jones, considers the ghost rockets a social panic phenomenon. An RAF Intelligence report, “Investigation of Reported Missile Activity over Scandinavia,” identifies eight types of ghost rocket sightings: iron cylinder, magnesium-like light, white core surrounded by blue-green, shining ball with tail, torpedo-shape, black object with flame, small rocket, small missile. It takes the daytime reports seriously but concludes are probably only a few genuine reports of actual missiles. (Joel Carpenter, “Guided Missiles and UFOs: A Tangle of Fear, 1937–53, Part Two”; Swords 26– 27 ; Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., pp. 63–64) September 11 — The Chief of Naval Intelligence requires naval attachés to forward information on Soviet rocket research and operations including launches from submarines. (NARA, US Naval Intelligence files; Jan Aldrich) September 11 — Jack Northrop grounds the XB-35, which has suffered gearbox and propeller control problems, until the Army Air Force can fix its propulsion system. (Wikipedia, “Northrop YB- 35 ”) September 11 — 2:00 p.m. Justin B. Rinaldi is standing in a friend’s backyard in Engle, New Mexico, when he hears a loud whirring sound and sees a black object whiz by. It is pointed at one end, has a narrow body, and what appear to be fins on the tail. It is traveling fast at an altitude of 75 feet. Rinaldi sees it hit a clump of trees at a ranch house and the “branches parted like a great force had struck.” He and friends go to the site but can find nothing. (“Flying Disc Tales Bring 2 Reports from Engle Area,” Albuquerque Journal, June 29, 1947, p. 1; Clark III 530) September 12 — Cmdr. Robert A. Winston, acting naval attaché in Stockholm, Sweden, writes to the London naval attaché in a secret air mailgram that he suspects there is a secret British-Swedish collaboration on ghost rocket information designed to keep the US from learning the truth. (Jan Aldrich, “Investigating the Ghost Rockets,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 13) Mid-September — Two luminous globes that shine “like an electric arc” are seen flying in a straight line over Longwy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 66) September 18 — Two greenish globes, one following close behind the other, zoom over Castanheira, Portugal. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 67) September 21 — Chemist Gustaf Ljunggren of the Swedish National Defense Research Institute summarizes for the Swedish Defense staff his analysis of 27 finds of mysterious substances, allegedly from ghost rockets. None are radioactive and all have mundane explanations. (Anders Liljegren and Clas Svahn, “The Ghost Rockets,” UFOs 1947 – 1987 , Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 33 – 34) September 22 — 3:15 a.m. A rocket-shaped object is seen for 90 seconds over Florence, Italy. It makes an abrupt turn, then speeds south toward Rome. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. 69) September 30 — David Sarnoff, in a speech at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, says that the “ghost bombs are no myth but real missiles.” (Joel Carpenter, “Guided Missiles and UFOs: A Tangle of Fear, 1937–53, Part Two”; “Sarnoff Predicts Weather Control and Delivery of the Mail by Radio,” New York Times, October 1, 1946, p. 1, 48)

Fall — 9:00 p.m. Gladys McCage and her 4-year-old son see a yellowish-orange light coming from the northwest at a “terrific speed” toward their farm 8 miles north of O’Neill, Nebraska. Its color changes to red as it approaches, and soon it is hovering above the witnesses. They run toward the house and the cigar-shaped object swings up to the northeast. McCage says it is as big as a football field, has windows, and is making a loud noise. A yellowish- blue-green flame is shooting out near the back, and it is traveling too fast for any plane at the time. (Clark III 530) October — Ray Palmer publishes a letter from Maurice Doreal (pseudonym of Claude D. Dodgin) of the Brotherhood of the White Temple in Denver, Colorado, regarding the “Shaver mystery.” Doreal claims intimate knowledge of the subterranean realms, which he claims are inhabited by the Black Brotherhood and protected by “space-warps.” In 1949 Doreal claims to have visited caves inside Mount Shasta, California, inhabited by Atlantean masters. He equates Shaver’s Dero with an evil group of Lemurians. (Walter Kafton-Minkel, Subterranean Worlds, Loompanics, 1989, pp. 154– 160 ; Charmaine Ortega Getz, “The (Sort of) Amazing Story of Maurice Doreal and the Brotherhood of the White Temple Revealed at Last,” Weird Colorado, September 6, 2015) October 1 — The US Military Attaché in London, England, writes a top-secret memo to the War Department complaining that the British “may not have given us all information on reported rockets over Scandinavia.” (Jan L. Aldrich, comp., The Ghost Rocket File, Fund for UFO Research, 2000, p. 73) October 9 — Evening. George Adamski and some associates are watching a meteor shower associated with Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner when they see a “gigantic spacecraft” hovering above the mountain ridge south of Mount Palomar, California. He claims to meet a military officer a few weeks later who assures him that the object was indeed from another world. Others in San Diego see an object with a long, tube-shaped fuselage, giant wings, and two red lights. The medium Mark Probert later tells the press that he has established psychic communication with the occupants and the object is called the Kareeta. (“Sparks Fly As Comet Passes Earth,” Los Angeles Daily News, October 10, 1946, p. 3; Colin Bennett, Looking for Orthon, Paraview, 2001, pp. 28 – 29 ; Harold T. Wilkins, Flying Saucers on the Attack, Citadel, 1954 , pp. 41– 48 ; Curt Collins, “1946, Before Saucers, Kareeta: UFO Contact in California,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, August 8, 2017) October 10 — 4:00 a.m. Waltraut Anlauf, a telephone operator in Friedland Refugee Camp, Lower Saxony, Germany, sees small, elongated flashes at a great height in the sky. They look like cigars and are luminescent white in front and bluish-white in back. She sees about 10 objects pass per minute. Sometimes there is an interruption of about 10 minutes, and then new groups appear. The sighting lasts one hour. Possibly these are part of the Taurid meteor shower. (Clark III 529) October 10 — The defense staff in Sweden admits it cannot explain the ghost rockets because reports are too vague. About 80% appear to be meteors (“celestial phenomena”), although radar has tracked a few unusual targets. The report concludes that they are not V-type bombs. (“Swedish Inquiry Fails to Solve Rocket Case,” New York Times, October 11, 1946, p. 3; Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., pp. 71 – 72 ; Good Above, p. 23 ) October 21 — Two persons on the shore of a lake in southern Sweden hear a whistling sound in the air, like a “flock of birds.” They see an object moving over the trees at a low altitude. It is dart-shaped and has short wings and a “ball-shaped tip.” It falls into the lake and possibly explodes on impact. (Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed., p. p. 74)

November — The War Department issues a press release on how German scientists are helping out at Wright Field, Ohio. (Dolan, p. 12 ) November 29 — A top secret Air Intelligence report, “Significant Developments of Scientific Warfare in Russia,” designates the ghost rockets as “V-5” weapons produced by the Siebel Works in Halle, Germany. (Jan Aldrich, “Investigating the Ghost Rockets,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 13)

December 3 — The Swedish military reports that about 100 impacts were investigated by the Defense Research Institution and not found to be rockets. (Joel Carpenter, “Guided Missiles and UFOs: A Tangle of Fear, 1937–53, Part Three”) December 10 — Gen. Curtis LeMay answers an inquiry from Assistant Secretary of War for Air Stuart Symington about establishing interim projects at the Air Materiel Center (AMC). LeMay’s answer: The Commander of AMC on his own volition may establish an interim project; however, to continue the project it must be approved for the next budget cycle. (Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell AFB; Jan Aldrich, “Secret Twining Letter: ‘The Reported Phenomena Are Real,’” October 11, 2008) December 23 — Jacobsson’s ghost rocket committee issues its final report on 987 ghost rocket cases, stating that 225 reports had been made in full daylight. More than 100 reports describe spool-shaped objects with or without wings. It concludes: “Despite the extensive effort, which has been carried out with the means available, and seven

months after the first observations, no actual proof that a test of rocket projectiles has taken place over Sweden
has been found.” (Swords 26; Loren E. Gross, UFO ’ s, a History: 1946, the Ghost Rockets, The Author, 1988 ed.,
pp. 75 – 76 ; Anders Liljegren and Clas Svahn, “The Ghost Rockets,” UFOs 1947 – 1987 , Fortean Tomes, 1987, p.
36 )

1947

1947 — Cmdr. Bernard Baruch Jr. makes 44 trips at his own expense to lobby for the implementation of the peacetime Communication Instruction for Reporting Enemy Sightings (CIRES) message system. He meets with DCI Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg, Rear Adm. Roscoe Hillenkoetter, Secretary of the Air Force Stuart Symington, Rear Adm. Earl E. Stone, Vice Adm. Arthur W. Radford, Rear Adm. John E. Gingrich, Adm. DeWitt Clinton Ramsey, Maj. Gen. Robert W. Harper, Lieut. Gen Idwal H. Edwards, Vice Adm. Ralph Riggs, Capt. Richard Burke (USCG), and about 20 other officials. (NICAP, “Capt. Bernard Baruch, Jr.”) 1947 — 11:00 p.m. Air Force pilot Edwin T. Yeoman is returning home with his wife Eva after going to a movie in Sacramento, California. As they drive northeast, they see a stationary light hovering at an altitude of 3,000–4,000 feet above Roseville. After watching it for 5 minutes, the light gets brighter, rises vertically for several thousand feet, makes an abrupt 90° turn, and shoots across the horizon from east to west. (CUFOS case file)

January 1 — The civilian US Atomic Energy Commission assumes responsibility for nuclear energy from the wartime Manhattan Project. The Armed Forces Special Weapons Project assumes responsibility for all aspects of nuclear weapons remaining under military control. (Wikipedia, “United States Atomic Energy Commission”; Wikipedia, “Armed Forces Special Weapons Project”) January 9 — The US Defense Department’s Intelligence Review, no. 49, contains a four-page summary of ghost rocket sightings and suggests some may have been Soviet test missiles or jet airplanes. (“Ghost Rockets over Scandinavia,” Intelligence Review, no. 49, January 9, 1947, US Department of Defense; Don Berliner, Marie Galbraith, and Antonio Huneeus, Unidentified Flying Objects Briefing Document, UFO Research Coalition, December 1995, pp. 33– 35 ) January 16 —11:30 p.m. An RAF Mosquito plane chases an unidentified target detected on radar at RAF Trimley Heath Radar Station [now closed] near Felixstowe, Suffolk, England, moving at a speed calculated to be faster than sound at an altitude of 38,000 feet over the North Sea, 50 miles north of the Netherlands acoast. It descends to 17,000 feet and takes controlled, evasive action. The plane pursues it for 40 minutes, even though the pilot cannot see it visually, until he loses it over the Norfolk coast. (UFOFiles2, p. 29; ClearIntent, p. 151 ; Sparks, p. 16 ; David Clarke, “Operation Charlie,” 2002; Martin L. Shough, “A New Study of the British ‘Ghost Airplanes’ of 1947,” April 2009) January 17 — 11:37 p.m. After two unidentified targets similar to yesterday’s are reported by RAF Neatishead, northeast of Norwich, England, over the North Sea, another radar track enters the Eastern Sector area, and an RAF Mosquito piloted by Flight Lt. William Kent is scrambled to 18,000 feet. Kent attempts to close in, but his onboard radar is unable to keep it on track because the target is “jerking violently” and taking evasive action. After 20 minutes, the target descends below 2,000 feet and is lost from ground radar. Unofficially the radar operators give the intruder a name—Charlie—and when the Air Ministry later begins a concerted effort to solve the mystery, its code name is “Operation Charlie.” (Martin L. Shough, “A New Study of the British ‘Ghost Airplanes’ of 1947,” April 2009) January 20 — In London, Ben Lockspeiser, chief scientist for the UK Ministry of Supply, after meeting with Swedish scientists and air force authorities, informs the American naval attaché in London, England, Cmdr. Jenkins, that the Swedes doubt the rockets are from Russia but prefer that the US and UK continue to think so. Natural phenomena and popular imagination are considered the causes. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 January 1st – June 23rd, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, pp. 3–5) January 23 — Night. Three senior RAF officers are visiting RAF Neatishead in Norfolk, England, for an interception exercise when an unidentified radar target makes another appearance at 28,000 feet. RAF Mosquitos from Yorkshire are scrambled, but by the time the aircraft reach the area, the target is gone. (Martin L. Shough, “A New Study of the British ‘Ghost Airplanes’ of 1947,” April 2009) January 27 — RAF Flying Officer Stewart of the Northern Signals Area, after investigating the Operation Charlie radar incidents at RAF Neatishead, England, issues a report, no longer extant, that suggests that some of the targets are radiosonde balloons released by the USAAF’s 8th Weather Squadron in Downham Market, Norfolk. However,

RAF and Air Ministry sources continue to refer to the sightings as unexplained over the following months. (Martin L. Shough, “A New Study of the British ‘Ghost Airplanes’ of 1947,” April 2009) January 29 — Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson and Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal issue a memorandum that formally establishes the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project, a new agency to take over responsibility for the aspects of nuclear weapons that still remain under the military. It is to be jointly staffed by the Army and Navy. Los Alamos Laboratory’s ordnance engineering Z Division and AFSWP establish themselves at Sandia Base, New Mexico, bringing the strict secrecy that has prevails at Los Alamos. (Wikipedia, “Armed Forces Special Weapons Project”)

February 6 — Around 7:30 a.m., Frederick Walter Flavel and his wife Emma are walking to their house in Lock, South Australia, when they see five gray, oblong objects rise apparently from the sea and move from northwest to southeast. At 9 :00 a.m., Ronald Ernest Ellis and two other railroad workers in Port Augusta, South Australia, watch five white or light-pink egg-shaped objects moving across the sky from north to south at about 6,000 feet. They quiver, cast shadows on the ground, and move out of sight in a few seconds. (NICAP, “Five Objects Cast Shadows”; Chris Aubeck and Martin Shough, Return to Magonia: Investigating UFOs in History, Anomalist, 2015, pp. 329 – 350) February 8 — A US Navy Privateer bomber flying over Sweden picks up signals that might be directing rockets. (Letter from US Naval Forces Europe, London, to Chief of Naval Operations; Jan Aldrich) February 17 — Capt. J. B. Pearson Jr., US naval attaché in London, England, sends an intelligence report to the Chief of Naval Intelligence about his conversation with Col. Westergard, head of the Airplane Design Section for the Swedish Air Ministry. Westergard tells him some 40% of the 1,000 ghost rocket sightings are “reliable.” They seem to originate in Peenemünde, Germany, and fly toward Finland. The best observation is from an artillery officer who sees an object in his optical range finder and follows it for about 90 seconds. It is in level flight at 4.5 miles distance and is about 36 feet long and torpedo shaped. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 January 1st – June 23rd, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, p. 7) February 28 —Capt. Emmet O’Beirne, Chief of the Defensive Air Branch, writes a memorandum to the chief of the USAF Office of Air Intelligence about the branch’s interview with H. W. Flickinger, vice president for exports at Republic Aircraft Corp. after his return from Sweden: “He stated that he had seen one of the Swedish ‘spook rockets’ in flight, which resembled the V-1 buzz bomb but was somewhat smaller. The noise of this missile was more that of a rocket than like a V- 1 .” (Jan Aldrich)

March 21 — A cigar-shaped object with smoke coming from its tail is seen flying from east to west at considerable height over southern Sweden by several witnesses. It looks metallic and is about 60 feet long, flying slowly. The object seems to turn around and fly back eastward briefly. (“‘Phantom Bomb’ Returns to Skies over Sweden,” New York Times, March 22, 1947, p. 8; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 January 1st – June 23rd, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, p. 9)

April — The June 1947 issue of Amazing Stories is devoted in its entirety to “proofs” of Richard Shaver’s claims and includes four of his novellas. Vincent Gaddis has written a prescient article on UFOs, titled “Visitors from the Void.” (David Halperin, “The Shaver Mystery—Richard Shaver, Ray Palmer, and the Quest for Lemuria (Part 2 ),” July 11 , 2 014 ; Richard S. Shaver, “Formula from the Underworld,” Amazing Stories 21, no. 6 (June 1947): 10 – 29; Vincent H. Gaddis, “Visitors from the Void,” Amazing Stories 21, no. 6 (June 1947): 159–161) April — 11 :00 a.m. US Weather Bureau meteorologist Walter A. Minczewski watches a silvery disc through a theodolite while tracking a ceiling balloon in Richmond, Virginia. It is traveling east to west at less than 15,000 feet and has a flat bottom and a dome on top. (NICAP, “Silvery Disc Seen through Theodolite”; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, p. 62 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 January 1st – June 23rd, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, pp. 17– 21 ; Sparks, p. 16 ) April 15 — The US Naval Attaché in Stockholm issues a secret intelligence report, “Sweden: Guided Missiles, Alleged Rockets over Sweden.” Both the naval and military attachés agree that there is nothing to the ghost rocket episode. No foreign missiles have overflown or landed in Sweden, according to the evidence a, vailable. “Swedish officials prefer to dismiss it as an unexplained press sensation.” (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 January 1st – June 23rd, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, p. 16) April 17 — Col. Oliver G. Haywood Jr. of the Atomic Energy Commission writes a memorndum to Harold A. Fidler at the Clinton Engineer Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, saying: “It is desired that no document be released which

refers to experiments with humans and might have adverse effect on public opinion or result in legal suits. Documents covering such work should be classified ‘secret.’” (Advisory Committtee on Human Radiation Experiments, memo, “Documents Retrieved from Oak Ridge Operations: The Atomic Energy Commission’s Declassification Review of Reports on Human Experiments and the Public Relations and Legal Liability Consequences,” December 6, 1994; Wikipedia, “Unethical human experimentation in the United States”) Late April or early May — 12 : 05 p.m. Mrs. William Down and Mrs. H. G. Olavick of Tucson, Arizona, see an unusual, fleecy cloud in an otherwise cloudless sky. Moving around it in “yo-yo fashion” are a number of small discs with a dull-white finish. They move up and down and sideways, occasionally disappearing into or behind the cloud. They watch the objects for 5–7 minutes, then all the discs disappear above the cloud, while a larger object emerges from the cloud and moves eastward. Behind it comes a V-formation of nine of the smaller discs, which then climbs at high speed toward the northeast and disappears in 2–3 seconds. The witnesses assume the objects are some new type of aircraft. (Bloecher, p. ix; Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects and Cloud Cigars,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 4)

May — 9:00 p.m. Harry Bentrup Jr. is on his porch in Jennings, Missouri, when a circular object surrounded by a ring of luminous green lights swoops in quickly from the east, hovers above him for 15 seconds, then takes off to the west. (MUFON case file) May 1? — Mrs. W. C. Clark of Memphis, Tennessee, watches two objects “like tennis balls” fly over her yard. (“Three Memphians Say They Saw Objects,” Memphis (Tenn.) Commercial Appeal, July 7, 1947, p. 2) May 1 — Rear Adm. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter replaces Hoyt Vandenberg as Director of Central Intelligence. May 5 — Hillenkoetter writes to Baruch, saying that his CIRES plan is “on the verge of being put into effect.” (Jan Aldrich) May 10 — Rose Slawuta of Newark, New Jersey, sees a shining, elliptical object with a gold band around it approaching fron the west. (Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger, July 7, 1947; Bloecher, p. I- 2 ) May 14 — 8:30 p.m. A spherical object 3-4 feet in diameter is seen over Budapest, Hungary, passing southeast to northwest at about 3,000 feet altitude in a flat trajectory. (Allied Control Commission for Hungary; George Mitrovic, The Gateways to the Gods, Kindle, 2012) May 15 — 4:11 p.m. A Hermes test missile (V-2) at White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico, goes off course and lands 6 miles east of Alamogordo five and a half minutes after launch. Commanding Officer Lt. Col. Harold R. Turner blames “peculiar phenomena” for the accident. The official explanation is that the V-2 had a defective fin. Trade consultant and former state representative Jon Andrew Kissner finds evidence in 1994 that possibly another object was seen in the vicinity of the rocket after the launch that might have been responsible for the failed test. (“V-2 Goes Astray, Lands in Six Miles of Alamogordo,” Las Cruces (N.Mex.) Sun-News, May 16, 1947, p. 1; Good Need, pp. 55 – 57 ; Wikipedia, “Hermes program”) May 17 or 19 — 8:30 p.m. Byron B. Savage, an RCA field engineer, sees a frosty-white or silvery elliptical object about the size of a B-29 heading northwest at 10,000 feet over Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, at three times the speed of a jet (about 1,800 mph). As it noiselessly passes overhead, it appears to be circular. (NICAP, “Round and Flat Object Observed by Field Engineer”; Oklahoma City Times, June 26, 1947; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 January 1st – June 23rd, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, pp. 27 – 28 ; Sparks, p. 16 ) May 19 — Around 12:30 p.m. Navy veteran Dean A. Hauser and six other Pike’s Peak Railway workers (including Ted Weigand, Marion Hisshouse, T. J. Smith, L. D. Jamison) at Manitou Springs, Colorado, are taking a lunch break when they watch a silver object come in from the northwest, hover overhead, and gyrate at 1,000 feet. The UFO is moving “erratically in wide circles” and reflects light like it is made of metal. After 2 0 minutes it disappears in a straight line to the west-northwest. (“Manitou Vets Relate Story: Another ‘Disk’ Seen,” Denver Post, June 28, 1947 , p. 1; Bloecher, p. I- 1 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 January 1st – June 23rd, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, pp. 29–30) Late May — 11:00 a.m. Colden R. Battey, a physician from Augusta, Georgia, is fishing 10 miles off St. Helena Sound, near Beaufort, South Carolina. He notices a formation of four disc-like objects flying overhead in a southeasterly direction at a terrific rate of speed. The discs appear to be spinning on their axes and are at an estimated altitude of 20,000 feet. They are silvery and appear highly polished, and on their undersides Battey can see a circular rim or projection, about one-quarter of the way from the edges. No sound is heard as they fly overhead. The formation speeds out of view in less than 20 seconds. (NICAP, “Four Discs Flying Overhead”; Bloecher, p. I- 2 ) May 29 — 7:30 p.m. A Hermes II test missile (a modified V-2) is launched from White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico to test the “Organ,” a series of ramjet air intakes designed to take pressure measurements. The missile travels south instead of north and lands in the Tepeyac Cemetery, 3 miles south of Juárez, Mexico, creating an

international incident. It leaves a crater 50 feet wide and 24 feet deep. German scientists Wernher Von Braun and
Ernst Steinhoff are conducting the test. (Wikipedia, “Hermes program”; J. Terry White, “The Hermes II Incident,”
White Eagle Aerospace, May 2, 2011)

June — AMC civilian engineer W. R. Presley takes a muddy photo of a UFO at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. It is most likely a photographic flaw. (Hynek UFO Report, p. 142 ) June 2 — Private pilot Forrest Wenyon is flying over Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and sees a silvery, jar-shaped object cross in front of his plane. It has a silver-white, fiery exhaust. (NICAP, “Jar-Shaped Object Crosses in Front of Aircraft”; Bloecher, p. III- 9 ; Sparks, p. 16 ) June 4 — Project Mogul flight number 4 is allegedly launched from Alamogordo Army Air Field. (Kevin D. Randle, “The Project Mogul Flights and Roswell,” IUR 19, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1994): 6–7, 23; Robert J. Durant, “Project Mogul Still a Flight of Fancy,” IUR 26, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 17– 27 ; David Rudiak, “The Phony Mogul Balloon Trajectory,” 2002; Kevin D. Randle, “Mogul and Roswell,” A Different Perspective,” July 11, 2013; Kevin D. Randle, “A Few Facts about Project Mogul,” A Different Perspective, August 12, 2013; Kevin D. Randle, “Truth about Mogul,” A Different Perspective, April 4, 2016) June 9 — A still-unlocated air intelligence summary is released, alleging that the Soviets in eastern Siberia are producing (or may be able to produce) 1,400 (or 1,800) aircraft based on the Horten brothers’ VIII-type, low-aspect, disc- shaped design by 1952. A Russian aviation historian thinks that the factories in question are at the time producing copies of the German Messerschmidt Me 262 jet fighter. A correct, more detailed summary of the intelligence report is published in December 1948 in Air Intelligence Report Number 100- 203 - 79, “Analysis of Flying Object Incidents in the U.S.” (Jan Aldrich) June 10 — 3:30 p.m. Gyorik Ferenc and others on Arena Street [modern Dózsa György út] in Budapest, Hungary, watch four yellow-red discs moving toward the northwest in a straight-line formation for about 30 seconds. They are about 165 feet apart. The objects make a small arc around a corner of a park before disappearing. (Project Blue Book record; Joe Brill, “UFOs behind the Iron Curtain,” Skylook, no. 76, March 1974, p. 8) June 12 — 6:15 p.m. Lovena Erickson sees two high-speed, round objects at a high altitude over Weiser, Idaho. They move up and down twice and leave a vapor trail that persists for more than an hour. (NICAP, “June 12, 1947, Weiser, Idaho”; Bloecher, p. II- 8 ; Sparks, p. 17 ) June 18 — Day. E. H. Sprinkle is one of a half-dozen Eugene, Oregon, residents who spot a formation of round objects “racing overhead” on a course to the northeast. Watching from Skinner’s Butte outside town. Sprinkle takes a snapshot of the objects with an inexpensive camera as they race over. Enlargements of the photograph show “seven dots” in a formation “shaped like an X or a Y, lined up across the sky.” Newspaper photographers say the dots “might be a fault in the developing process” that sometimes appears on a negative that has not been agitated properly in the developer. (“Local Man Asserts Flights Seen Here,” Eugene (Oreg.) Guard, June 2 6 , 1947, p. 1; Bloecher, p. IV- 3 ) June 19 — USAAF Col. Albert Boyd reaches a world airspeed record of 624 mph in a Lockheed P-80R Shooting Star at Muroc AFB [later Edwards AFB], California. (Wikipedia, “Albert Boyd”) June 19 — Maj. Gen. Stephen Chamberlin, head of War Department Intelligence, authorizes three electronic signals intelligence flights between July 1 and August 1 to look for radio signals over the Baltic Sea. The Swedish military is told that they are training flights. (Jan Aldrich) June 21 — 11:55 a.m. Guy R. Overman watches several silvery objects moving below a plane at Spokane, Washington. (NICAP, “Eight Disc-Shaped Objects As Big As a House”; Bloecher, p. II- 18 ; Sparks, p. 17 ) June 21 — Log salvager Harold A. Dahl is patrolling east of Maury Island, Washington, with his 15-year-old son Charles and two crewmen when he allegedly sees six doughnut-shaped objects. Five of them are circling the sixth, which seems distressed. When it is directly above the boat at 500 feet, it supposedly spews some hot slag-like material that breaks Charles’s arm and kills his dog. Dahl claims he filmed the objects. (Clark III 721; John A. Keel, “The Maury Island Caper,” UFOs 1947 – 1987 , Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 40– 43 ) June 22 — Dahl claims he is visited by a mysterious dark-suited man who knows all about the sighting. He tells his associate Fred L. Crisman, and they allegedly go to the beach to pick up fragments. Dahl mails Ray Palmer in Chicago, Illinois, some fragments. (Clark III 721; Kenn Thomas, Maury Island UFO: The Crisman Conspiracy, IllumiNet, 1999; Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson, “The Maury Island UFO Incident,” February 2014) June 22 — Edward Louis DeRose in Greenfield, Massachusetts, sees a small, round-shaped, silvery-white object moving in a northwesterly direction faster than a speeding plane at an estimated altitude of 1,000 feet. The object stays in view for 8 – 10 seconds until obscured by a cloud bank. It reflects the sunlight strongly as if is made of polished aluminum or silver. (Air Force Base Intelligence Report, “Flying Discs,” July 30, 1947; Kevin D. Randle, “Roswell, Nathan Twining, and the Mini-EOTS,” A Different Perspective, October 6, 2014)

June 22 — 3:30 p.m. G. Oliver Dickson sees a shiny disc “a little like a blimp” flying north to south about 3,000 feet above Mount Franklin just north of El Paso, Texas. He estimates it is about 40 feet across and 5 feet thick. (“More El Pasoans Report Seeing ‘Flying Discs’ in Southwest,” El Paso (Tex.) Times, June 29, 1947, pp. 1–2) June 22 — Evening. Yale University astrophysicist Lyman Spitzer is speaking on WTIC radio in Hartford, Connecticut, and speculates that if life on Mars developed a bit earlier than on earth, it is possible that Martians have been civilized for millions of years. “Unless they had spent some time in a large city or had landed sufficiently recently to be photographed, we would have no record of their being here,” he says, and that “any few men who had seen them would probably not be believed by anyone else.” (“Mars May Be Peopled, Says Yale Speaker,” Hartford (Conn.) Courant, June 2 3 , 1947, p. 1; Clark III 455) June 23 — Afternoon. Disabled stunt pilot Richard Rankin views 10 flat, circular objects flying in a V-formation over his house in Bakersfield, California. About two hours later, 7 of the objects are seen flying in the opposite direction. (Bloecher, p. II- 3 ; Sparks, p. 17 ; Kevin D. Randle, “More Pre-Arnold UFO Sightings,” A Different Perspective, June 30, 2013) June 23 — 9:30 p.m. Richard L. Bitters and his wife Martha are returning from a movie in Wapakoneta, Ohio, when they see a saucer-like object flying an uneven course in the sky. (“Saucer Just Didn’t Fit Editor’s Idea of a ‘Scoop,’” Madison Wisconsin State Journal, July 7, 1947, p. 2; Bloecher, p. III- 6 ) June 24 (or 30) — Afternoon. Bill Schuening, a farmer, is driving his pickup truck down a remote rural road 25 miles north of Pendleton, Oregon, when he hears a loud humming sound. Coming over a rise, he sees in a nearby field a large disc-shaped object hovering 5–6 feet off the ground. He can also see two short (3 feet tall) figures wearing green suits and white helmets standing underneath the object. The figures suddenly vanish, and the craft then shoots towards the Columbia River, makes a big circle, and flies towards the mountains. (NICAP, “Man Sees Figures Standing near Disc”; Clark III 267 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, November 7, 2018) June 24 — 1:50 p.m. Railroad engineer Charles Kastl sees 9 or 10 spinning discs in the air about 12 miles east of Joliet, Illinois. They are a string of flat circular objects “going faster than anything I’ve ever seen.” Kastl can see no connecting link between them, but they act as though the leading disc has a motor in it to power the others, because when it flips, the others do as well. When it rights itself, the others also right themselves. (“Flying Discs Seen by Railroad Man,” Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette, June 28, 1947, p. 2; Schopick, pp. 1–2; NICAP, “Engineer Reports 10 Shiny Flat Discs”; Kevin D. Randle, “The June 23, 1947 UFO Sighting,” A Different Perspective, March 20, 2013) June 24 — 3 :00 p.m. Boise, Idaho, businessman Kenneth Arnold, flying his CallAir Model A-2 from Chehalis to Yakima, Washington, sees a string of nine objects flying in an echelon formation past Mount Rainier, Washington. At first he assumes they are jets, but he can see no trails. They cover the 50-mile distance between Rainier and another peak in 1 minute 42 seconds. He estimates their speed to be at least 1,200 mph. The objects swerve in and out of the smaller peaks, flipping from side to side in unison, dipping, and presenting their lateral surfaces, which reflect the bright sunlight and cause the flashes he saw earlier. They are in view for about two and a half minutes and are last seen heading south over the last high peak of Mount Adams. Arnold tells the airport staff about it in Yakima at 4:00 p.m. and they call ahead to Pendleton, Oregon, to alert them of Arnold’s arrival at an air show and his story. A large crowd awaits him, and a discussion follows. The consensus is that Arnold has seen guided missiles. But no such technology exists at the time that can match the objects’ description and performance, and the late 1990s explanation that Arnold observed a flight of white pelicans is equally improbable. Researcher Martin Shough concludes in 2010: “Examination of the sighting report in detail improves its evident internal consistency, rather than degrading it, and study of the principal contending explanations reveals that they are each very much less attractive when tried out in quantitative detail against the best information than they may appear at first sight.” (Wikipedia, “Kenneth Arnold UFO Sighting”; [Project Blue Book file]; NICAP, “Kenneth Arnold Sighting”; Center for UFO Studies, [clippings and reports]; Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer, The Coming of the Saucers, Palmer, 1952, pp. 9–13; Bloecher, p. I- 2 – 3 ; Patrick Gross, “The Kenneth Arnold Sighting, June 24, 1947 ”; Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987 , Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 48–53; John A. Keel, “Kenneth Arnold and the F.B.I.,” Flying Saucer Review 32, no. 5 (August 1987): 2 – 12; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 1, 1947, The Author, February 1991, pp. 5–9; Bruce Maccabee, “The Arnold Phenomenon: Part One,” IUR 20, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1995): 14–17; Bruce Maccabee, “The Arnold Phenomenon: Part Two,” IUR 20, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1995): 10–13, 24; Michael David Hall and Wendy Ann Connors, Alfred Loedding and the Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947, Rose Press, 1998, pp. 14– 22 ; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 54– 59 ; Martin Shough, “The Singular Adventure of Mr. Kenneth Arnold,” June 2010; Bruce Maccabee, Three Minutes in June: The UFO Sighting That Changed the World, The Author, 2017 ; Nigel Watson, “Was It a Bird? Was It a Plane?” Fortean Times 355 (July 2017): 46– 49 ; Clark III 169 )

June 24 — 3:30 p.m. Idaho Lieutenant Governor Donald S. Whitehead and Justice of the Peace Jacob M. Lampert see an object with a brilliant head and a smoky tail from an office window in downtown Boise, Idaho. It dips from view after about 20 minutes. (“Whitehead, Lampert, Join ‘Disc List,’” Boise Idaho Statesman, July 3, 1947, p. 9; Bloecher, pp. III- 18 – 19 ) June 24 — Afternoon. Fred M. Johnson, a prospector in the Mount Adams, Oregon, area, sees 5- 6 oval objects with tails about 30 feet in diameter. He watches one through a telescope. They are not flying in any sort of formation and as they bank in a turn, the sunlight flashes off them. As they approach, Johnson notices that his compass begins to spin wildly. When the objects finally vanish in the distance, the compass returns to normal. Johnson’s report is the very first “unidentified” case in the Project Sign files. (NICAP, “Prospector Compass Incident”; Bloecher, p. IV- 3 ; Clark III 170 – 171 ; Bruce Maccabee, “The Arnold Phenomenon: Part Three,” IUR 20, no. 3 (May/June 1995): 6 – 7 ; Martin Shough, “The Singular Adventure of Mr. Kenneth Arnold,” June 2010, pp. 106, 109– 110 ; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 58– 59 ) June 25 — Kenneth Arnold goes to the East Oregonian office in Pendleton, Oregon, and speaks with reporters Nolan Skiff and William C. Bequette. Arnold says the “saucer-like” objects were racing over the Cascade Mountains with a peculiar weaving motion “like the tail of a Chinese kite.” Bill Bequette writes the first saucer news story for the newspaper. He does not use the term “flying saucer,” but headline writers in other papers use it (such as the Philadelphia Inquirer on June 26), and reporters start picking it up. (“Impossible! Maybe, But Seein’ Is Believin’, Says Flier,” Pendleton East Oregonian, June 25, 1947, p. 1; “Flying Saucers Puzzle Pilot,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 26, 1947, p. 1; Clark III 170 ; Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer, The Coming of the Saucers, 1952, Palmer, pp. 13–15; Pierre Lagrange, “A Moment in History: An Interview with Bill Bequette,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 15, 20; “Saturday Night Uforia: ‘It Seems Impossible—But There It Is,’” Daily Kos, April 18, 2009; Phil Wright, “The Sighting,” Portland East Oregonian, June 16, 2017) June 25 — Shortly after 12:00 noon. W. I. Davenport is working on the roof of a house at 82nd Street and Holmes Road in Kansas City, Missouri, when he hears the sound of a motor. Looking up, he sees 9 objects approaching from the east. They are aluminum-colored and leave vapor trails. (“Puzzle in Sky Whiz,” Kansas City (Mo.) Star, June 26, 1947, p. 6) June 26 — 2:00 a.m. Mrs. J. M. Harrison watches a large fireball pass toward the northwest from her residence at 4639 South Oakenwald, Chicago, Illinois. It breaks up into two dozen small discs that whirl around rapidly. (“Dr. Urey Scoffs at ‘Atom Angle’ to Flying Disks,” Chicago Tribune, July 6 , 1947, p. 8) June 26 — Kenneth Arnold is interviewed live on KWRC radio in Pendleton, Oregon, by broadcaster Theodore A. “Ted” Smith. (Patrick Gross, “About the June 25, 1947, Interview on WKPG Radio by Bill Bequette”; “Kenneth Arnold Interviewed by Bill Bequette [actually Ted Smith],” Nutsandbolts UFO YouTube channel, December 12, 2010) June 26 — Northrop delivers a second four-engine XB-35 flying wing aircraft to Muroc AFB [now Edwards AFB], California. (Wikipedia, “Northrop YB- 35 ”) June 27 — 9:50 a.m. Mrs. W. B. Cummings is driving about 5 miles southeast of San Antonio, New Mexico, when she sees a bright silver object descending quickly in the east. It leaves a short white trail. White Sands officials say there has been no missile testing since June 12. (“More El Pasoans Report Seeing ‘Flying Discs’ in Southwest,” El Paso (Tex.) Times, June 29, 1947, p. 1) June 27 — Pentagon Army AF Public Relations Officer Capt. Tom Brown says the army has no idea what the discs are. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 1, 1947, The Author, February 1991, p. 16) June 27 — In a United Press dispatch from Pendleton, Oregon, Kenneth Arnold expresses frustration over the furor that his saucer sighting has caused. A preacher has called him from Texas to say that the flying discs are “harbinger of doomsday.” A woman recognizes Arnold in a Pendleton café and runs out shrieking that he is “the man who saw the men from Mars.” He says the whole thing has gotten out of hand: “Half the people I see look at me as a combination Einstein, Flash Gordon, and screwball. I wonder what my wife back in Idaho thinks.” (“Report of ‘Flying Saucers’ Causes Furor; Texas Preacher Calls Flock for World’s End,” Medford (Oreg.) Mail Tribune, June 27, 1947, p. 1) June 27 — Day. Capt. Robert D. Dwan, a pilot out of Alamogordo Army Air Field [now Holloman AFB], New Mexico, is flying a private plane near Engle, New Mexico, at 3,000 feet, when he looks down and sees a “ball of fire, with a fiery blue tail behind it.” The object is about 2,000 feet below him, and he is “certain it is a meteorite.” The object disintegrates as he watches it. (Bloecher, pp. III- 9 – 10 ) June 27 — Afternoon. Clyde Homan sees two groups of loosely bunched objects, rocking back and forth as they fly noiselessly above Woodland, Washington. The objects are bright, flat, and moving at an estimated 600 mph. (Bloecher, pp. II- 1 – 2 )

June 28 — 1:15 p.m. Lieut. Eric B. Armstrong, flying an F- 51 at 6,000 feet 30 miles north of Lake Mead, Nevada, sees a formation of 5–6 objects streak by his plane. They are in close formation at an estimated speed of 285 mph. (NICAP, “Formation of 5–6 Objects Head toward P- 51 ”; Bloecher, p. III- 10 ; Sparks, p. 17 ) June 28 — 9:20 p.m. Two pilots and two intelligence officers (Capt. Wilson H. Kayko, Capt. John H. Cantrell, 1st Lt. Theodore Dewey, and Capt. Redman) at Maxwell Field [now Maxwell AFB] in Montgomery, Alabama, see a bright light zigzagging across the sky for 25 minutes. When it is directly overhead, the UFO makes a sharp 90° turn and disappears to the south. (NICAP, “Object Zig-Zags with Bursts of Speed”; Bloecher, p. III- 3 ; Sparks, p. 18 ) June 29 — 1:15 p.m. Carl J. Zohn, a guided missile expert with the Naval Research Laboratory, is 20 miles east-northeast of Las Cruces, New Mexico, to observe a V-2 rocket launch scheduled for July 3. Between 1:00 and 1:30 p.m., he is riding out to the testing grounds with John R. Kauke and NRL scientist Curtis C. Rockwood (and his wife Nancy) when they see a silvery disc flying at 8,000–10,000 feet. It has no appendages, wings, tail, or propellers. After about 60 seconds it disappears. (NICAP, “Naval Research Lab Rocket Scientists See Silver Discs”; Bloecher, p. III- 18 ; Sparks, p. 18 ; Evelyne Tsezana, “Grandpa Zohn Saw UFOs in New Mexico,” Geni, April 6, 2011 ) June 30 — 9:10 a.m. Naval Lt. William G. McGinty is flying a P-80 from Williams AFB [now Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport], Arizona, near the Grand Canyon when he observes two circular objects diving at inconceivable speed and landing 25 miles south of the canyon. (NICAP, “P-80 Pilot Sees Circular Objects Dive and Land”; Bloecher, p. II- 12 ; Sparks, p. 18 ) June 30 — Eighth Air Force Brig. Gen. Roger M. Ramey and intelligence officer Col. Alfred Kalberer hold a press conference in Fort Worth, Texas, on the flying discs. Ramey thinks people are “seeing heat waves.” Kalberer labels the sightings as “Buck Rogers stuff.” (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 June 24th – July 6th, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, p. 17) June 30 — Around this time the Air Force Research and Development office of the Air Materiel Command organizes an informal project at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, to collect UFO reports in the interests of national security. The project officer at Wright Field is Lt. Col. Edward G. Nabell Jr. (Sparks, p. 13 )

Summer — Naval Cmdr. L. H. Witherspoon sees a disc-shaped UFO flash over the airport at Pittsburg, Kansas. (UFOEv, p. 30 ) Early July — A cyclist near Amfreville-la-Mi-Voie, Seine-Maritime, France, encounters an oval object, 10 feet long and 5 feet high, resting on the road 100 feet in front of her. Two small beings dressed in outfits and headgear are busy around it. When she honks her horn, the entities scurry into the object, entering it through a 20-inch opening. The UFO rises, oscillates, and streaks away. (Clark III 267 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, August 81, 2006) July 1 — Day. Animal ecologist Charles K. Gunn, his wife, and two passengers are driving near North Bedeque, Prince Edward Island, when they see a bright, shapeless object speeding along in the sky for 30 seconds. (Bloecher, p. III- 18 ) July 1 — A target is picked up on radar at Chitose Air Base, Hokkaido, Japan, moving 16 miles north at speeds in excess of 500 mph. The blip instantly reverses course four times, breaks into two objects, then merges into one again. (Col. James F. Olive Jr., “Radar Pick-Ups of High-Speed Targets in the Far East,” Memorandum for Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Washington, D.C., September 26, 1947) July 1 — Col. Alfred Kalberer holds another press conference in Fort Worth, Texas, and brings astronomer Oscar Monnig along to comment that the discs are “an interesting study in human psychology.” (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 June 24th – July 6th, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, pp. 23–24) July 1 — Night. Albuquerque, New Mexico, Chamber of Commerce official Max Hood sees a bluish disc zigzagging for about 30 seconds. (Bloecher, p. III- 17 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 June 24th – July 6th, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, pp. 23) July 1 — 10:10 p.m. Meteorologist Ellwood E. Unger and his wife watch a round, orange, luminous object going about 100 mph after they leave a movie theater in Louisville, Kentucky. (Bloecher, p. III- 2 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 June 24th – July 6th, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, p. 23) July 1? — 11:00 p.m. Mrs. A. M. King is with another passenger on the deck of the Union-Castle Mail SS Llandovery Castle as it is steaming through the Mozambique Channel. They notice a star-like object traveling fast toward the ship. It shines a strong beam of light on the water within 150 feet of the ship, then descends, the beam shortening and becoming brighter as it nears the water. Soon the light switches off and they can see a metallic object that looks like a cigar with the end cut off. It remains about 20 feet above the sea, moving parallel with the ship. King

estimates it is about four times the length of the ship and four times as tall. After a few seconds, a large flame erupts from the rear of the object. It vanishes soundlessly in the darkness. (Lorenzen, FS Hoax, pp. 18– 19 ) July 1–3? — According to Annie Jacobsen’s informant, EG&G engineer Alfred O’Donnell, the upcoming Roswell, New Mexico, crashes are the result of a psychological warfare operation by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to fly into US airspace two disc- or wing-shaped aircraft based on a Horton brothers design obtained at the end of World War II. One craft allegedly contains living dwarves or children (human guinea pigs) who had been surgically altered using similar methods to those used in Auschwitz concentration camp by Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. This aircraft is remotely controlled by the crew of the second craft. The idea is to land the first aircraft in a visible location in the US, perhaps in Washington, D.C. The children would exit the craft and present themselves to the highest echelons of the government. However, the two aircraft crash in the New Mexico desert and, he claims, the Atomic Energy Commission is put in charge of the remains. (Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 367 – 374 ; Kremlin 30–36) July 1– 3 — US Signal Corps radar sites in southern New Mexico and one at Kirtland Air Force Base near Albuquerque allegedly track an object “flitting around” the sky, frequently returning but finally disappearing on the night of July 4. Much of this story originates with now-discredited Roswell witness Frank Kaufmann, who claims he was ordered to bring a group of radar experts to Alamogordo to evaluate unexplained radar targets at White Sands Missile Range. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 159; Kevin D. Randle, A History of UFO Crashes, Avon, 1995, p. 8 ; Jim Wilson, “Roswell Plus 50,” Popular Mechanics 174 (July 1997): 48–53; Kevin D. Randle, “Frank Kaufmann, Roswell Witness,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 8, 17– 19 ; Mark Rodeghier, “Frank Kaufmann Exposed,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 9–11, 26) July 2 — 8:00 p.m. Spectators at a baseball game at the Cincinnati (Ohio) Milling Machine Company watch two slow- moving discs hovering above the field for 10 minutes. (“100 at Ball Game Tell of Seeing Two Mystery Saucers,” Cincinnati (Ohio) Post, July 7, 1947, p. 1) July 2 — 9:50 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. Dan Wilmot see an oval object like two inverted saucers pass over their house moving northwest in Roswell, New Mexico. (Sparks, p. 19 ; Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 159; Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, “When and Where Did the Roswell Object Crash?” IUR 19, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1994): 13–14) July 3 — 8:55 a.m. William F. LeFevre watches a shiny, mirror-like disc zoom over River Drive near West 8th Street in Denver, Colorado, at several thousand feet and make a 45° turn before vanishing toward the southwest. (Denver Post, July 5, 1947; Michael David Hall and Wendy Ann Connors, Alfred Loedding and the Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947, Rose Press, 1998, p. 44) July 3 — Morning. Project Mogul Flight number 8 , a cluster of plastic balloons, is launched from Holloman AFB, New Mexico. (Kevin D. Randle, “The Project Mogul Flights and Roswell,” IUR 19, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1994): 6–7, 23) July 3 — 2:30 p.m. Amateur astronomer John F. Cole watches a group of 10 objects moving northwest near Harborside, Maine, at 600–1,200 mph. Each is 50–150 feet wide. The objects are milling about in loose formation like a “swarm of bees” for 10–15 seconds. (NICAP, “Astronomer Observes Ten Large Objects”; Bloecher, p. III- 18 ; Sparks, p. 19 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, p. 60 ) July 3 — The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Air Research Center at Wright Field, Ohio, and the army intelligence service are looking into the flying discs. An INS dispatch states that Commander of the Army Air Force Gen. Carl Spaatz has asked Wright Field to look into such reports. Air Materiel Command’s Lt. Gen. Nathan F. Twining tells Idaho Evening Statesman reporter David N. Johnson that officials are indeed looking into the discs and that Wright Field has no comparable technology. Lieut. William C. Anderson, Wright Field public relations officer, says there is no confirmation that the discs exist. Maj. Paul Gaynor says the Army Air Force needs more concrete information. German scientists working at Wright Field are asked about the discs, but they say they have heard nothing about any such experiments in Europe. (“Army Gets Around to Checking ‘Flying Discs’ and Is Mystified,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 3, 1947, p. 1; Dave Johnson, “AAF Investigates Reports of Mysterious Air Objects,” Boise Idaho Daily Statesman, July 3, 1947, pp. 1, 9; “Military Says ‘No Results’ in Disc Probe,” Boise Idaho Daily Statesman, July 4, 1947, p. 2; “Weird ‘Flying Saucers’ Seen over 10 States,” New York Daily News, July 4, 1947, Final ed., p. 8) July 3 — 5:45 p.m. Farmer Ewen McNeill in Village Green, east of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, sees a black, rocket-shaped projectile trailing a blindingly white flame and a smoke trail pass overhead as he is working his fields. It seems to be flying at 10,000 feet and is visible for 15 seconds. Around the same time, a resident of Augustine Cove watches an “object the size of an apple” traveling south at high speed. (Bloecher, p. II- 17 ; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 64)

July 3 — 6:30 p.m. Mrs. Walter Johnson and her family see 8–9 discs flying out of the southern sky 6 miles west of Saint Maries, Idaho, over the St. Joe River. The objects came in “very fast, slow down jerkily, then flutter to the ground like leaves.” Mrs. Johnson thinks the objects are about the size of a “five-room house.” When they reach a clearing in the timber, they appear to “settle Down” a few at a time. Mrs. Johnson reports the sighting to intelligence officers at the Spokane Army Air Base [now Fairchild AFB], and an intensive air search is carried out by two missions of the National Guard’s 116th Fighter Group. Local sheriff’s deputies also make a ground search, but no traces of alanding can be found. (“‘Saucer’ Reports Increase As Sky Is Searched in Vain,” Spokane (Wash.) Spokesman-Review, July 7, 1947, pp. 1, 6 ; “Dishman Residents Saw ‘Flying Saucers’ Land,” Spokane (Wash.) Spokesman-Review, July 7, 1947, p. 6; Bloecher, p. II- 12 ) July 3 — 7:30 p.m. Project Mogul Flight number 9, a cluster of plastic balloons, is launched from Holloman AFB, New Mexico. (Kevin D. Randle, “The Project Mogul Flights and Roswell,” IUR 19, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1994): 6–7, 23) July 4 — 3:00 a.m. Lenora Woodruff wakes up in her home at 184 S. Arlington Avenue, East Orange, New Jersey, when several airplanes fly overhead. She looks out and sees a “strange goldenish platter” moving swiftly across the sky. It disappears in a second. (“South Plainfield Woman Reports Seeing ‘Flying Saucer’ Formation,” Bridgewater (N.J.) Courier-News, July 5, 1947, p.1) July 4 — After 4:00 a.m. Mrs. Martin Kole is awakened in her home in Alexandria, Virginia, by something shining through her bedroom window. She sees a large, roiund object hovering in the southwestern sky. She watches it for a few minutes, then goes back to bed. (Bloecher, p. II- 6 ) July 4 — The United Press service rounds up theories about the flying discs. It quotes Army Air Force “experts” saying that the sightings might be caused by weather conditions, or meteorites, or foreign aircraft that it is “our responsibility to know about it and take proper action.” Occultist Ole J. Sneide from San Francisco, California, thinks they are “oblate spheroid space ships from other planets” with hidden bases on the dark side of the moon. This is apparently the first public mention of an extraterrestrial origin for flying saucers in the media. (“U.S. Stops ‘Laughing Off’ Stories of Flying Disks,” Hollywood (Calif.) Citizen-News, July 3, 1947, p. 1; “Flying Disks Said ‘Space Ships’ from Other Solar Systems,” Bryan (Tex.) Eagle, July 3, 1947, p. 8; “Buck Rogers Special,” Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press Democrat, July 4, 1947, p. 2; Curt Collins, “A 1947 Pioneer of the UFO Extraterrestrial Hypothesis,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, December 16, 2021) July 4 — 10:30 a.m. CAA official Irving C. Allen is flying a small aircraft near Moscow, Idaho, when he sees a white disc moving north for 5 minutes as it crosses his path several miles in front of him. (Bloecher, p. III- 10 ) July 4 — 11:00 a.m. C. J. Bogne and other witnesses in a car near Redmond, Oregon, see four discs flying past Mt. Jefferson on a straight course at high speed. (Ruppelt, p. 20 ; Bloecher, p. II- 9 ; Sparks, p. 19 ) July 4 — 11:00 a.m. Harry Hale, production manager of the Portland Oregonian, sees one shiny disc moving swiftly just west of Beaverton, Oregon. (“Air Liner Crew Confirms Flying Disks over State; Many Seen during Day over City,” Portland Oregonian, July 5, 1947; Project 1947, “UFO Reports, 1947”) July 4 — 1:05–5:30 p.m. Many people in Portland, Oregon—including KOIN newsman Frank Cooley, deputy Clark County Sheriff Fred Krives, Portland police officer Kenneth A. McDowell, and Oregon highway patrol Sgt. Claude Cross—view five large discs moving at high speed to the east, two flying south and three to the east, with an oscillating or wobbling motion, sudden 90° turns or zigzagging. Radio reports alert other officers (including Walter Lissy, Robert Ellis, and Earl Patterson, all WWII veterans) who see the metallic objects that look like a disc or hubcap or pie-pan or half-moon flashing in the sun. No vapor trail or noise (except possible humming) is reported. (NICAP, “Seven Discs Observed by Many Witnesses”; Bloecher, pp. II- 9 , III- 15 ; Sparks, p. 20 ; “Air Liner Crew Confirms Flying Discs over State; Many Seen during Day over City,” Portland Oregonian, July 5, 1947; Project 1947, “UFO Reports, 1947”; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, p. 58 ; Michael David Hall and Wendy Ann Connors, “Alfred Loedding: New Insight on the Man behind Project Sign,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 5) July 4 — 2:50 p.m. Seven people at Twin Falls Park, seven miles east of Twin Falls, Idaho, watch a group of discs in a rough V-formation flying at great speed. A second flight of 9–10 objects circle overhead in a loose formation. They gain altitude rapidly and move to the west. (“Flying Saucer Mystery Grows,” Tucson (Ariz.) Daily Citizen, July 5, 1947, p. 4; Bloecher, p. II- 5 ) July 4 — 5:00 p.m. Nova Hart and his wife Marveline are picnicing off Old Saint Charles Road west of Pattonville, Missouri. They see a saucer-shaped object, ribbed like a “parachute canopy,” gliding slowly (50–60 mph) and silently from south to north about 300 feet off the ground. It seems to have a propellor attached to a red conical structure on its underside and is about 20–25 feet in diameter. (Bloecher, p. II- 14 ) July 4 — After 5:00 p.m. Private pilot Dan Whelan and passenger Duncan Underhill are flying at 5,000 feet west of Long Beach, California, when they see a disc about 2,000 feet above them, traveling at 400 – 500 mph. They estimate it

is 40–50 feet in diameter and flying north-northwest. (“‘Air Disc’ Mystery Grows, Baffles U.S.,” Hollywood (Calif.) Citizen-News, July 5, 1947, pp. 1, 3; Bloecher, p. III- 10 ) July 4 — 5:45 p.m. Coast Guard Yeoman Frank Ryman photographs a round disc over his home at 12321 22nd Street NE, Lake City, Seattle, Washington. The object is in sight for 4–5 minutes and is seen by at least 20 others, traveling 500 mph. The photo shows a small, blurred white oval against a background of sky, but when enlarged the object is quite distinct. The Air Force explains it as a weather balloon. (“Observers Report Discs over Entire Western Area,” Salt Lake City Deseret News, July 5, 1947, p. 1; Bloecher, pp. IV- 3 – 4 ; London UFO Research Unit, “Seattle, Washington, America, North America”; Michael D. Swords, “Can You Learn Anything from UFO Photos, Part Two,” The Big Study, July 5, 2012; Kenneth Lloyd Larson, “A Summer 1947 Sighting,” IUR 20, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1995): 19–20) July 4 — 6:30 p.m. United Press correspondent John C. Corlett, along with artist V. H. Selby and their wives, see a white disc speeding over Boise, Idaho, at an altitude of about 10,000 feet. It takes about 3 seconds to disappear. (“View of ‘Flying Saucers’ over Ontario Dumbfounds Veteran Pilot, Other Crew Member of Airliner,” Portland Oregonian, July 5, 1947; Project 1947, “UFO Reports, 1947”) July 4 — 7:00 p.m. George Aster and others at Hauser Lake, Idaho, watch a flying disc for 30 minutes as it hovers with a lateral oscillation about 30° above the horizon at an estimated 20,000 feet. It shoots straight up and vanishes when a small aircraft approaches it. (“Disks Seen Here Today, Is Report,” Spokane (Wash,) Spokesman- Review, July 7, 1947, p. 1; Bloecher, pp. II- 6 – 7 ) July 4 — Sunset. Henry Seay, a farmer living 2 miles north of Fayetteville, Arkansas, watches three yellow discs flying overhead to the southwest, dropping sparks, and frightening his cattle and horses. The following night it happens again and the cows go into a panic, running off to the other side of the pasture. Some kind of dust falls on Seay, although it does not burn. After several seconds, the object rises up vertically 30–40 feet and shoots off horizontally at 50 mph. (Bloecher, p. IV- 1 ) July 4 — Sunset. M. K. Leisy, a junior intern at the Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital at 4 4 th and Market streets in Philadelphia, is reading on the porch of the hospital when he hears a loud roar. A large transport plane passes overhead, but he also sees a dark sphere with a luminous halo around it moving below the clouds at a moderate speed. It disappears into the clouds. (“Flying Discs Seen over City,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 5, 1947, pp. 1, 3; Bloecher, pp. II- 14 – 15 ) July 4 — 9:12 p.m. United Air Lines Flight 105 pilots Capt. Emil J. Smith and First Officer Ralph Stevens are flying from Boise, Idaho, to Seattle, Washington, when they see a formation of five discs over Emmett, Idaho, silhouetted against the sunset. Stewardess Marty Morrow sees them as well. The objects appear to merge and speed away to the northwest. Another group appears and arranges itself in a straight line. The nine objects are seen at least 12 minutes over a distance of 45 miles. (“View of ‘Flying Saucers’ over Ontario Dumbfounds Veteran Pilot, Other Crew Member of Airliner,” Portland Oregonian, July 5, 1947; Project 1947, “UFO Reports, 1947”; NICAP, “ 5 Discs Sighted by United Flight”; Bloecher, pp. III- 10 – 11 ; Sparks, p. 20 ; Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer, The Coming of the Saucers, 1952, Palmer, pp. 18– 19 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 41 – 42 ) July 4 — The first of the special flights from Washington, D.C., arrives at Roswell Army Air Field [now closed], New Mexico (presumably to investigate the radar reports claimed by Frank Kaufmann). On the plane is Warrant Officer Robert Thomas. Thomas and his companions are in uniform upon arrival, but quickly change to civilian clothes. Thomas wants an on-site briefing as soon as it can be arranged. These men remain at RAAF throughout the later retrieval. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994 , pp. 16 0 – 161 ) July 4 — During a thunderstorm near Corona, New Mexico, W. W. “Mack” Brazel hears a tremendous thunderclap that sounds like an explosion but is somehow different from the rest of the thunder. Others in the area report the same phenomenon. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 160) July 4 — 11:27 p.m. Army Signal Corps radar sites in southern New Mexico supposedly continue to track a mysterious object. Kirtland AFB’s commander scrambles a fighter jet piloted by Kenny Chandler to locate the object, but he cannot find it. Before midnight, Frank Kaufmann allegedly sees a brilliant glow on the radar display, pulsates a number of times, then explode in a starburst. The belief is that the object has now crashed. Jim Ragsdale and “Trudy Truelove” supposedly see a bright flash of light and hear a roaring sound that passes overhead. Ragsdale knows that something has struck the ground close to their campsite. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 160; Jacobsen, Area 51, p. 36 ; Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, “When and Where Did the Roswell Object Crash?” IUR 19, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1994): 14; Kevin

D. Randle, “The Truth about the Jim Ragsdale Story,” IUR 21, no. 3 (Fall 1996): 13–16, 29–30; Jim Wilson, “Roswell Plus 50,” Popular Mechanics 174 (July 1997): 48–53; The Roswell Files, “Jim Ragsdale,” April 11, 1998; Kevin D. Randle, “Frank Kaufmann, Roswell Witness,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 8, 17– 19 ; Mark Rodeghier, “Frank Kaufmann Exposed,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 9–11, 26; Kevin D. Randle, “Jim Ragsdale’s Roswell Tale,” A Different Perspective, April 22, 2015) July 5 — 3:00 a.m. Acting on what he claims are orders from Brig. Gen. Martin F. Scanlon of the Army’s Air Defense Command, discredited Roswell witness Frank Kaufmann returns to Roswell Army Air Field from Alamogordo to alert Colonel William H. Blanchard, Roswell AAF commanding officer, about a potential crash. (Jim Wilson, “Roswell Plus 50,” Popular Mechanics 174 (July 1997): 48–53) July 5 — 5:00 a.m. Archaeologists, including William Curry Holden, working the sites around Roswell, New Mexico, stumble across an impact site where an object has crashed. One of them heads to the closest phone to tell Sheriff George A. Wilcox of the discovery of the remains of a crashed aircraft of some kind. Wilcox calls the local fire department to alert them about the crash. One truck, with Dan Dwyer on it, responds to the call. The site is about 35 – 40 miles north of Roswell. The Roswell Fire Department, escorted by members of the Roswell Police Department, makes a run along Pine Lodge Road northwest of Roswell. They are among the first civilians to stumble across the impact site. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, pp. 33– 36 ; Thomas J. Carey, “The Search for the Roswell Archaeologists: Casting the Net,” IUR 18, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1993): 3–8, 23–24; Thomas J. Carey, “The Continuing Search for the Roswell Archaeologists: Closing the Circle,” IUR 19, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1994): 4– 12 ; Kevin D. Randle and Anthony Bragalia, “Two Roswell Witnesses, Reconsidered,” IUR 32, no. 3 (July 2009): 6–8, 24) July 5 — 5:01 a.m. Project Mogul Flight number 10, a cluster of plastic balloons, is launched from Holloman AFB, New Mexico. (Kevin D. Randle, “The Project Mogul Flights and Roswell,” IUR 19, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1994): 6–7, 23) July 5 — 5:30 a.m. According to discredited Roswell witness Frank Kaufmann, a small contingent of men from Roswell Army Air Field in New Mexico drive north on what is now US Highway 285. Near mile marker 132, they turn off the road and began driving across the desert, stopping from time to time to cut the barbed-wire fencing. They discover a heel-shaped craft measuring about 25 feet long and 12 feet wide embedded in a cliff. The soldiers find civilians on the site already. Besides the archaeologists, a local man named Larry Campbell (later called Jack Armstrong or Cactus Jack) also claims to have been there. They escort them off while others secure the area. Five bodies are allegedly found on the site. The impact site is cleaned and secured by 11:30 a.m. Annie Jacobsen has interviewed Alfred O’Donnell, later an engineer at EG&G, who tells her that one of the objects crashed and was recovered by the Joint Chiefs, including the airframe, propulsion equipment, and the power plant. It has no wings or tail. The fuselage is round and there is a dome on top. Inside there are Cyrillic letters stamped or embossed in a ring running around the inside. Army intelligence officers suspect that the craft is the brainchild of German airplane engineers, Walter and Reimar Horten, working for the Russian military. A frantic search to find what happened to the brothers allegedly takes place; informants like Austrian physicist Adolf Smekal of Frankfurt, Germany, provide leads, with confusing results for several months. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 161; Thomas J. Carey, “The Strange Saga of ‘Cactus Jack,’” IUR 22, no. 1 (Spring 1997): 3–11; Jim Wilson, “Roswell Plus 50,” Popular Mechanics 174 (July 1997): 48 – 53; Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 36 – 40 ) July 5 — 10:00 a.m. W/O Robert Thomas and his crew proceed to the impact site. The bodies, originally covered by sheets, are now in lead-lined body bags. Only those with the highest clearance are allowed close to the center of the impact. Guards are posted, facing out, to keep the curious away. According to researcher Kathy Kasten, the dead bodies are taken to Roswell Army Air Field, but one is still alive and taken to Fort Stanton [now closed] in Lincoln, New Mexico, whose Marine Hospital was used to confine troublesome German and Japanese detainees during World War II. Allegedly, aerospace physician William Randolph Lovelace II travels there from Albuquerque to examine the survivor, who reportedly dies one week later and is buried in the Fort Stanton cemetery. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 161 ; Nick Redfern, The Roswell UFO Conspiracy, Lisa Hagan, 2017, pp. 204–221) July 5 — Following the rain the night before, Brazel inspects the pastures surrounding the J. B. Foster ranch house southeast of Corona, New Mexico. Riding with him is the young son of the Proctors, William D. Proctor. During the inspection, Brazel discovers a large debris field. Scattered on the slopes and into the sinkhole and depressions are plastic-like beams, pieces of lightweight balsawood-like material only stronger, light metallic foil (which doesn’t stay bent or folded, resumes its original shape, and won’t tear), and heavy-gauge monofilament. The debris is thick enough that the sheep refuse to cross the field and are driven around it to water more than a mile away. Brazel, taking a few scraps of the material, heads to the home of his closest neighbors, Floyd and Loretta Proctor. He shows them “a little sliver” of material that he can neither burn nor cut. Some of the beams have

symbols on them that reminds Brazel of Chinese ideograms. The Proctors suggest he take it into town to show the sheriff. (Don Schmitt and Kevin D. Randle, “Did a Balloon Crash at Roswell?” IUR 15, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1990): 4 – 5; Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, pp. 27– 32 , 161 ; Michael D. Swords, “Roswell: Clashing Visions of the Possible,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 11–13, 33– 35; Robert A. Galganski, “The Roswell Debris Field: Size Doesn’t Matter,” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000–2001): 14 – 19, 30; Donald R. Burleson, “Roswell Trajectory Feasibility,” Center for UFO Studies; Michael D. Swords, GrassRoots UFOs: Case Reports from the Timmerman Files, Fund for UFO Research, 2005, pp. 125– 127 ) July 5 — 2:30 p.m. Automobile dealer Kjell Qvale and dozens of others see a triangular formation of silvery discs flying south near Auburn, California. They appear directly overhead and are in view for 3–4 minutes, disappearing one at a time, but not over the hdorizon. (“Skeptical Experts Call Disc Reports ‘Mass Illusion,’” San Francisco Examiner, July 8, 1947, p. 1; Bloecher, p. II- 5 ) July 5 — Later that evening, Brazel removes the large, circular piece of the debris from the range. Brazel either loads it into the back of his truck or drags it along behind. He stores it in a livestock shed about three miles north of the crash site. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 163 ) July 6 — Brazel gets up early, completes his chores, and then drives into Roswell, New Mexico, about 75 miles away. He stops at the office of Sheriff George A. Wilcox. Contrary to published reports, Wilcox is excited about the find and suggests the military at the Roswell Army Air Field [now closed] be notified. While waiting for the military officers to arrive, Wilcox dispatches two of his deputies to the ranch. They have only the directions given by Brazel, but both men are familiar with the territory; and Wilcox believes they will be able to find the debris field. KGFL reporter Frank Joyce calls Wilcox, who tells him Brazel is in his office with an interesting story. Brazel allegedly gets on the phone with Joyce and mentions debris and a stench from dead bodies. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, pp. 163– 164 ) July 6 —1:45 p.m. Maj. A. B. Browning and the crew of a B-25 flying over Clay Center, Kansas, see a silvery disc about 30 – 50 feet in diameter slightly lower than their plane. It paces them for a while then shoots off. (NICAP, “ 30 – 50ʹ Circular Object Paces B-25, Accelerates”; Bloecher, p. III- 11 ; Sparks, p. 21 ) July 6 — Day. Army Air Corps Capt. James H. Burniston and his wife watch a round, flat object that oscillates on its lateral axis of travel three quarters of the way across the sky in a few seconds at Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Field [now Travis AFB] near Fairfield, California. (NICAP, “Round Flat Object Size of C- 54 ”; Bloecher, p. III- 3 ; Sparks, p. 21 ) July 6 — 2:45 p.m. David A. Kenney, an aircraft instruments engineer, and two others watch an oval-shaped UFO flying at a high altitude for nearly 2 minutes near Encampment, Wyoming. (Bloecher, p. III- 17 ); David Kenney, “Right Place, Right Time,” IUR 30, no. 4 (August 2006): 28) July 6 — Afternoon. Francis Howell and his wife are in their yard at 317 Ash Street in Tempe, Arizona, when they see an object floating down to the ground with a kite-like motion. It appears to be about 2 feet across and made of aluminum. It disappears behind some trees. The Howells and some neighbors walk toward the place where it apparently has landed, and they see the disc ascend at a 45° angle and move at high speed toward the northwest. (“Tempeans See ‘Disc,’” Phoenix Arizona Republic, July 7, 1947, p. 1; Bloecher, p. II- 13 ) July 6 — Colonel William H. Blanchard, Roswell AAF commanding officer, entrusted with oversight of the first and only atomic-bomb strike force in the world, the 509th Bomb Group, orders Jesse A. Marcel, the air intelligence officer, to investigate the debris report. Marcel immediately drives to the sheriff’s office. Marcel interviews Brazel, examines the pieces of the material that Brazel brought in, and decides he had better visit the ranch to examine the field for himself. Marcel, taking some of the debris with him, returns to the base and reports to Blanchard on what he has seen. Blanchard, convinced that he is in possession of something highly unusual, perhaps Soviet, alerts the next higher headquarters. Marcel and Blanchard all know this is from not any type of balloon. Marcel returns to the sheriff’s office with the senior counterintelligence agent assigned to the base, CIC Captain Sheridan W. Cavitt. They escort Brazel back to his ranch and examine the debris field. Acting on orders from Major General Clements McMullen, deputy commander of the Strategic Air Command, Blanchard obtains more of the debris from the sheriff’s office. It is sealed in a courier pouch and loaded on an airplane to be flown on to the Fort Worth Army Air Field, where it is given to Colonel Thomas J. DuBose for transport on to Washington, D.C. After Marcel and Cavitt leave with Brazel, the two deputies return to say they did not find the debris field but observed a burned area in one of the pastures. There the sand has been turned to glass and blackened. It looks as if something circular has touched down. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, pp. 37– 40 , 164 ; Good Need, p. 89 ; Nukes 482–483) July 6 — 8: 4 5 p.m. Army Staff Sgt. Ira L. Livingston watches a procession of glowing round objects moving at 500 mph over Birmingham, Alabama. A new one appears every 5 seconds. Many others report UFOs in the area between

8:00 and 9:00 p.m. Robert Crossland, a copy reader for the Birmingham Age-Herald, takes a photo that shows two round white spots close together. (Bloecher, pp. III- 3 – 4 , IV- 4 ; Michael David Hall and Wendy Ann Connors, Alfred Loedding and the Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947, Rose Press, 1998, pp. 67– 68 ) July 6 — 9:00 p.m. Because of the distance to the ranch over roads that are less than adequate, Brazel, Marcel, and Cavitt do not arrive until after dark. They stay at the “Hines” house (an old ranch house close to the debris field), eat cold beans, and wait for daylight. Marcel runs a Geiger counter over the large piece of wreckage Brazel has stored in the cattle shed. He detects no sign of radiation. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 16 5 ) July 7 — 2:00 a.m. A special flight (the first) leaves Roswell AAF for Andrews AAF in Washington, D.C. Some of the debris and the bodies are on that flight. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 16 5 ) July 7 — Brazel takes Marcel and Cavitt out to the debris field. It is three-quarters of a mile long and 200 – 300 feet wide. A gouge starting at the northern end of it extends for 400 – 500 feet toward the other end. It looks as if something has touched down and skipped along. The largest piece of debris is recovered at the southern edge of the gouge. The debris is as thin as newsprint, but incredibly strong. There is foil that, when crumpled, unfolds itself without a sign of a wrinkle, I-beams that flex slightly and have some symbols on them, and material resembling Bakelite. Marcel and Cavitt walk the perimeter of the field and then range out looking for more details or another crash site but find nothing else. Finally, they return and spend the remainder of the day collecting debris. They load the rear of Marcel’s car and then the jeep carryall driven by Cavitt. About dusk they begin the trip back to Roswell. (Don Schmitt and Kevin D. Randle, “The Roswell Material,” IUR 16, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1991): 10–11; Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, pp. 27– 29 , 165 ; Kevin D. Randle, “Don’t Bother Me with the Facts…,” IUR 18, no. 3 (Jan./Feb. 1993): 16–17, 24; Robert A. Galganski, “The Roswell Debris: A Quantitative Evaluation of the Project Mogul Hypothesis,” IUR 20, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1995): 3 – 6, 23–24; Charles B. Moore, Robert G. Todd, Mark Rodeghier, and Kevin D. Randle, “Project Mogul and the Roswell Crash: An Exchange,” IUR 20, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1995): 7–9, 19–22; Kevin D. Randle, “Bessie Brazel’s Story,” IUR 20, no. 3 (May/June 1995): 3–5, 24; Robert A. Galganski, “Roswell: Connecting the Debris Field and the Impact Site,” IUR 21, no. 2 (Summer 1996): 11–17; Robert A. Galganski, “The Glue Explanation Just Won’t Stick,” IUR 22, no. 4 (Winter 1997–1998): 3–7; Robert A. Galganski, “An Engineer Looks at the Project Mogul Hypothesis,” IUR 23, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 3–6, 32; Thomas J. Carey, “Will the Real Sheridan Cavitt Please Stand Up?” IUR 23, no. 3 (Fall 1998): 14–21; Kent Jeffrey, “Roswell: Anatomy of a Myth,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 12, no. 1 (1998): 79–101; Michael D. Swords, “A Different View of ‘Roswell: Anatomy of a Myth,’” Journal of Scientific Exploration 12, no. 1 (1998): 103–125; Robert M. Wood, “Critique of ‘Roswell: Anatomy of a Myth,’” Journal of Scientific Exploration 12, no. 1 (1998): 127–140; Thomas J. Carey and Donald R. Schmitt, “Mack Brazel Reconsidered,” IUR 24, no. 4 (Winter 1999): 13– 19 ; Robert A. Galganski, The Roswell Debris Field: An Engineer ’ s Perspective, Fund for UFO Research, 2002; Kevin D. Randle, “Bessie Brazel Schreiber and the Roswell Crash,” A Different Perspective, September 19, 2015) July 7 — AMC commander Lieut. Gen Nathan Twining unexpectedly flies to Alamogordo AAF and Kirtland AAF in New Mexico, remaining there until July 11. Army Air Forces Commander Gen. Carl Spaatz is supposedly “vacationing” in Washington State. He tells reporters he knows nothing about the flying discs. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 16 5 ) July 7 — A hoax in Shreveport, Louisiana. A 16-inch aluminum disc with smoke coming out of it is found. Army investigators find “Made in USA” on the disc. It is one of many homemade gadgets, weather balloon radar targets, circular saws, and other disc-like debris that people find or make in order to have some fun in the press or with gullible saucer-seekers. (Sparks, p. 21 ; “Speaking of Pictures: A Rash of Flying Disks Breaks Out over the U.S.,” Life, July 21, 1947, p. 14; ClearIntent, p. 149 ; Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, “Secret Projects and Open Eyes: A Response,” IUR 19, no. 3 (May/June 1994): 15–17; Kevin D. Randle, “The Hoover Memo Again,” A Different Perspective, July 29, 2015; Maurizio Verga, “Here They Are! Early Crashes of Flying Saucers, a Visual History,” Cielo Insolito, no. 6 (March 2018): 8– 27 ) July 7 — 9:55 a.m. Newspaper editor John Brackett and his wife Wilma see an object streak across the sky in Reno, Nevada, leaving a trail of bluish-white vapor. It is high in the sky and traveling at about 1,000 mph. (“Tiny Speck Whizzes across Sky Here at Unbelievable Rate of Speed; Many Reno Persons See Small Object,” Reno Nevada State Journal, July 8, 1947, p. 14; Bloecher, pp. III- 7 – 8 ) July 7 — 11:30 a.m. Flight instructor Kenneth Jones out of Elkhart, Wisconsin, is practicing take-offs and landings with a student near Koshkonong. They watch a disc descending vertically on edge through the alto-cumulus clouds at 6,000 feet, stop at 4,000 feet, assume a horizontal orientation, and fly horizontally for 15 seconds, covering 2 3 miles at 5,500 mph. At one point it heads straight towards them on a course of about 120°, then stops again

(apparently overhead) and disappears. (Bloecher, p. III- 11 ; Sparks, p. 22; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 July 7th – July 10th, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2001, p. 9) July 7 — Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg’s activity log: 1:10 p.m., answers a Toronto Star reporter’s question about possible secret military aircraft. Vandenberg says no AAF planes are looking for discs, but National Guard planes are looking into the discs on their own. 1:50 p.m., Stephen Leo, public relations officer for AF Secretary Stuart Symington, calls concerning the Shreveport, Louisiana, incident. 1:55 p.m. Leo and Gen. Curtis LeMay discuss the discs. Col. Warren, at Ellington Field [now Ellington Airport] in Houston, Texas, calls concerning the Shreveport disc. 4:20 p.m., Col. Warren calls back and says the incident is a hoax. (David Rudiak, “Lt. Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg and Roswell,” Roswell Proof, 2001) July 7 — 2: 3 0 p.m. Capt. Robert J. Southey and Clem Hackworthy are flying a private aircraft near East Troy, Wisconsin, when they see a fast-moving silver object flying southeast from Eagle to Muskego, covering 17 miles in 20 seconds (approximately 3,060 mph). They try to photograph it, but it quickly disappears, then suddenly reappears about 10 miles away. (Bloecher, pp. III- 11 – 12 ; Sparks, p. 22; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 July 7th – July 10th, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2001, p. 9) July 7 — A meeting is held in the office of Brig. Gen. George F. Schulgen, chief of the Requirements Intelligence branch of Army Air Force Intelligence. It is decided to investigate five flying disc incidents with “qualified” observers and obtain detailed statements: two in Seattle, Washington; one in Boise, Idaho; one in Palm Springs, California; and one in Washington State. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 July 7th – July 10th, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2001, p. 16) July 7 — John Philip Bessor of Zelienople, Pennsylvania, writes to the US Air Force to offer his own theory that UFOs are “a form of space animal, or creature, of a highly attenuated (ectoplasmic?) substance, capable of materialization and dematerialization, whose propellant is a form of telekinetic energy.” (“Report from the Readers,” Fate 4, no. 4 (May/June 1951): 88; John P. Bessor, “Are the Saucers Space Animals?” Fate 8, no. 12 (December 1955): 6 – 12; Curt Collins, “The 1947 ET Hypothesis of John P. Bessor,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, February 15, 2019) July 7 — 5:20 p.m. Radar technician David W. Chase watches a disc-shaped object passing overhead at Medford, Oregon. It appears to be flying at 600–700 mph on edge at right angles to the surface of the earth, though following its contours at 500–1,000 feet. The object gives off a bright light. (Bloecher, p. III- 18 ; Ray Palmer, “New Report on the Flying Saucers,” Fate 4, no. 1 (January 1951): 63 – 81) July 7 — 7:45 p.m. Five students on a practice baseball field at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, see three metallic oval objects flying swiftly and silently in a triangular formation overhead. They seem to be about 10 feet in diameter and are flying east over the Olentangy River. They are out of sight within 10 seconds. (Bloecher, p. II- 6 ) July 7 — 9:00 p.m. Orrin Williams and his wife Albertine, along with Mr, and Mrs. Cecil Grant, are fishing on Great Pond near Rome, Maine, when they see a “spinning rocket” come out of the southern sky and stop abruptly overhead, where it hovers as a ball of fire. A similar object comes from the east, passing close by the first one. A third object approaches from the east and stops by the first object before moving on. The first object then retraces its path to the south at high speed. The display lasts several minutes. (Bloecher, p. II- 10 ) July 7 — 9:00 p.m. William A. Rhodes, an independent scientist and inventor in Phoenix, Arizona, takes two photos of a dark, heel-shaped disc at his home at 4333 N. 14th Street. The photos are reproduced in the July 9 issue of the Arizona Republic. A few weeks later, an Army Air Corps Intelligence officer from Hamilton Army Airfield [now closed] in Novato, California, visits Rhodes and takes the prints and negatives, but Rhodes is unable to get them back. However, Kenneth Arnold obtains them on a later visit to Hamilton, and they wind up with James E. McDonald. Rhodes actually has an informal top-secret clearance because of his invention of a degaussing device for ships. He dies in 2007 at the age of 90. (NICAP, “The Rhodes Photo Case”; Bloecher, p. IV- 4 ; Michael D. Swords, “Can You Learn Anything from UFO Photos, Part Two,” The Big Study, July 5, 2012; Swords 53, 54) July 7 — 9:30 p.m. Charles Crockett, 15, is walking along Western Avenue in Manchester, Maine, when he sees a cluster of luminous objects to the west, just above the treetops on the north end of Cobboseecontee Lake. They are still visible when he arrives home and alerts his mother and grandmother. Possible searchlight beams. (“‘Flying Saucers’ Still Seen Flitting in N.E. Sky,” Bangor (Maine) Daily News, July 8, 1947, pp. 1–2; Bloecher, p. II- 20 ) July 7 — 10 :15 p.m. Louisville Times photographer Al Hixenbaugh is at Preston Street and Bickels Lane in Louisville, Kentucky, when he notices three “fiery balls” in the sky. He takes a 5-second exposure, capturing two of the objects that show as slightly curved streaks. He estimates they are 1–2 miles away, moving at 200 mph, and at an altitude of 1,000–2,000 feet. Robert Delara of 2745 West Market Street also sees the three objects shooting northward. (Louisville (Ky.) Times, July 8, 1947; “‘Flying Liver Pills’ over Kentucky,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July

9, 1947, p. 1; Bloecher, pp. IV- 4 – 5 ; “La Fotografía (y la Pélicula) Al Hixenbaugh 1,” Marcianitos Verdes, February 5, 2017) July 8 — 2 :00 a.m. Marcel stops at home in Roswell to show his wife Viaud and son Jesse Jr. some of the Corona, New Mexico, crash debris. Over the next hour they examine it on the kitchen floor. Marcel Sr. says it is a flying saucer. Marcel is not breaking regulations since nothing has yet been classified. With the help of his son, Marcel loads it into the car to be taken to Roswell AAF. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 166; Robert J. Durant, “C. B. Moore’s Mogul Tape,” IUR 23, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 7–9, 32; Robert A. Galganski, “Probing the Roswell Thin-Strut Debris,” IUR 24, no. 3 (Fall 1999): 8–12, 30; Karl T. Pflock, et al., “Debris Details,” IUR 24, no. 4 (Winter 1999): 28–29) July 8 — 6:00 a.m. Marcel and Cavitt visit with Blanchard in his quarters and tell him what they have seen. Blanchard calls base Provost Marshal Maj. Edwin D. Easley and orders him to post guards on the roads around the debris field. Armed guards encircle the primary areas, denying access to anyone without official business. Easley is directed to locate Brazel and have him escort the MPs to the debris field. Blanchard calls Eighth Air Force headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, and advises them of the new find. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 166) July 8 — 7:30 a.m. The regular 9 :00 a.m. Roswell Army Air Field staff meeting is moved up 9 0 minutes. The main topic for discussion is Marcel and Cavitt reporting an extensive debris field near Corona in Lincoln County, New Mexico, approximately 75 miles northwest of Roswell. A preliminary briefing is provided by Blanchard about the separate impact site approximately 40 miles north of Roswell. Samples of wreckage are passed around the table. Pieces that resemble metal foil, paper-thin yet extremely strong, and pieces with unusual markings along their length are handed from man to man, each voicing their opinion. No one is able to identify the crash debris. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 166) July 8 — 9:00 a.m. Cavitt and Lewis S. Rickett, who has returned from an assignment in Carlsbad, New Mexico, drive a staff car to the impact site north of Roswell, followed by MPs. They are stopped by the guards who are still posted. When they arrive, they see that a small containment of debris remains that Rickett is allowed to examine. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 166) July 8 — 9:30 a.m.– 9 : 2 0 p.m. Five separate UFO sightings take place at Muroc AFB [now Edwards AFB] in southern California, the Air Force’s aircraft testing and development center. Ruppelt says these are the first sightings “that really made the Air Force take a deep interest in UFOs.” At 9:30 a.m., 1st Lt. Joseph C. McHenry and three others see three discs heading in a westerly direction. At 10:10 a.m., XP-84 test pilot Maj. Jowell C. Wise sees a yellowish-white object at 10,000 feet traveling about 200 mph. At 11:50 a.m., Maj. Richard R. Shoop, Col. S. A. Gilkey, and Capt. John P. Stapp are sitting in an observation truck at Rogers Dry Lake and see a round, white aluminum-like object descending from 20,000 feet for about 90 seconds; it has two knobs or thick fins on the top. Around 4:00 p.m., a pilot flying an F-51 some 40 miles south of Muroc sees a “flat object of a light-reflecting nature”; it is flying too high for him to climb up to it. At 9:20 p.m., spherical objects are again seen in the area, this time at 8,000 feet and moving against the wind at 300 mph. (NICAP, “Observers Sight Saucer over Base”; NICAP, “Object Observed by Four Witnesses in Observation”; NICAP, “Object Descends to Ground Level, Rises”; NICAP, “Flat Object with Fin Observed by F-51 Pilot”; Bloecher, pp. III-4, 12; Clark III 783– 784 ; Sparks, pp. 22 – 23 ; Patrick Gross, “The Muroc Army Air Field Incidents”) July 8 — 11 :00 a.m. Col. William Blanchard dictates a press release about the Roswell recovery to Public Information Officer Lt. Walter Haut, who delivers the release to radio stations around noon (the first apparently to Frank Joyce at KGFL) and the newspapers in Roswell, New Mexico. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 16 7 ) July 8 — The Army Air Force issues a press release saying that, based on a “preliminary study,” the flying discs are not secret bacteriological weapons designed by a foreign power, experimental army aircraft, or spaceships. However, Army and Navy officials are not certain what they are. (“‘Saucer’ Dept.—All Designs,” Racine (Wis.) Journal Times, July 8, 1947, p. 6) July 8 — Rep. Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Tex.) requests information on the flying discs from the War Department. Someone from Gen. Carl Spaatz’s office writes back on July 21 to tell him the Army Air Forces are looking into it, but there is “no indication” that the discs are “new or unusual missiles or aircraft.” (Swords 38) July 8? — British radio and TV entertainer Hughie Green is driving across the US. About 250 miles west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he hears an announcement that a flying saucer “had crashed in New Mexico and that the Army were moving in to investigate. Later the program was interrupted again and quite a few details were given.” When he arrives at Philadelphia, there is nothing in the newspapers or on the radio. (“Star Puzzled,” Flying Saucer Review 1, no 1 (Spring 1955): 3; Clark III 319; “Hughie Green: ‘Peripheral Witness to Roswell?’” Above Top Secret forum, October 20, 2012)

July 8 — 1:00 p.m. Marcel goes on a B-29 special flight (the second) to Fort Worth Army Air Field, Texas, with the wreckage to report to Gen. Roger M. Ramey. The pilot is Lt. Col. Payne Jennings Jr. with Lt. Col. Robert Barrowclough riding in the bombardier’s seat. Only a few packages are loaded onto the plane. One, a triangular package about two feet long, is wrapped in brown paper. The other three are about the size of shoe boxes. They are so light that it feels as if there is nothing in them. When it lands in Fort Worth, the enlisted soldiers on the plane are ordered to remain aboard until a guard is posted and Marcel gets off taking one of the packages that he has been carrying on his lap. According to Flight Engineer M/Sgt. Robert Porter, the soldiers go to the mess hall once the guard is posted. The remaining debris is transferred to a B-25 that is flying to Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. Marcel goes to Ramey’s office and puts the package on his desk. They both go to a map room, where Marcel shows him where the debris was found. When they return to Ramey’s office, Marcel sees that the package he brought has been substituted by a torn-up weather balloon. Ramey proposes a plan that possibly originates from his bosses at the Pentagon. Attention needs to be diverted from the more important impact site north of Roswell by acknowledging the Corona location. Too many civilians are involved, and the press is already alerted. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, pp. 16 7 – 168 ; Thomas J. Carey and Donald R. Schmitt, “Flight to Fort Worth: From Complicity to Cover-Up,” IUR 25, no. 2 (Summer 2000): 7–13, 30) July 8 — 2:26 p.m. Haut’s press release about the recovered disc reaches the Associated Press wire. The story announces: “The army air forces here today announced a flying disc had been found” the previous week. It says that the disc is recovered by intelligence officers of the 509th Bomb Group at Roswell Army Air Field [now closed], New Mexico, with the help of local ranchers and the Chavez County Sheriff’s Office. It adds that the disc is being loaned by Maj. Marcel “to higher headquarters.” (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 16 7 ) July 8 — 2:30 p.m. Blanchard decides it is time to “go on leave.” Too many phone callers into the base are asking to speak with him. He, along with a few members of his staff, drive out to the Corona, New Mexico, debris field. Those left at the base are told to inform the reporters that the colonel is now on leave. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 16 7 ; Kevin D. Randle, “When a Leave Is Not a Leave: Col. Blanchard and the Roswell Timeline,” IUR 19, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1994): 18– 20 ; Karl T. Pflock, “Taking Liberties with a Leave,” IUR 20, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1995): 18) July 8 — 2:41 p.m. The press release is put on the United Press wire. July 8 — 3:50 p.m. An Army National Guard pilot flying near Mount Baldy, California, observes a flat object, reflecting light, about the size of a fighter. He gives chase, attempting to keep it in sight, but is unable to do so. (Air Force Base Intelligence Report, “Flying Discs,” July 30, 1947; Kevin D. Randle, “Roswell, Nathan Twining, and the Mini-EOTS,” A Different Perspective, October 6, 2014) July 8 — 4:26 p.m. Thomas Dale is flying a small plane at 2,800 feet over Alton, New Hampshire, with passenger Jere Stetson. They see a metallic object some 2 miles away to the east and some 1,500 feet below their aircraft. It approaches them at great speed before veering to the north. They estimate it is 20 feet long and “not exactly round.” (Bloecher, p. III- 12 ) July 8 — 4:30 p.m. The Roswell Daily Record carries the “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer” story. In Fort Worth, Texas, Ramey issues a statement saying the Roswell officers were fooled and that the material is a Rawin target device suspended by a Neoprene rubber balloon. (“Rawin” is a method of determining wind speed and direction by using radar or radio waves to track a balloon carrying either a radar-sensitive target or radio transponder.). The debris is switched for the newspaper photographer, James Bond Johnson, at a press conference held by Ramey and Col. Thomas J. DuBose in late afternoon. Johnson takes six photos of the debris and leaves after 20 minutes. One of the photos shows Ramey holding a piece of paper (the “Ramey memo”) with words written on it; unfortunately, the resolution is inadequate to decisively “deblur” the text using modern technological methods. A weather officer, Maj. Irving Newton, is called in to identify the debris as from a balloon. A photo of Newton with the debris is taken by another photographer. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, pp. 41– 43 , 168 ; Donald R. Schmitt and Kevin D. Randle, “Fort Worth, July 8, 1947: The Cover-Up Begins,” IUR 15, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1990): 21–23; Donald R. Schmitt and Kevin D. Randle, “The Fort Worth Press Conference: The J. Bond Johnson Connection,” IUR 15, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1990): 5–16; Robert A. Galganski, “Probing the Roswell Thin-Strut Debris,” IUR 24, no. 3 (Fall 1999): 8–12, 30; Donald R. Burleson, “Deciphering the Ramey Memo,” IUR 25, no. 2 (Summer 2000): 3–6, 32; Robert A. Galganski, “The Roswell Debris Field: Size Doesn’t Matter,” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000–2001): 14–19, 30; James Houran and Kevin D. Randle, “Interpreting the Ramey Memo,” IUR 27, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 10–14, 26–27; Donald R. Burleson, “On Blobs and Chiaroscuro,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 24; James Houran and Kevin D. Randle, “‘A Message in a Bottle’: Confounds in Deciphering the Ramey Memo from the Roswell UFO Case,” Journal of

Scientific Exploration 16, no. 1 (2002): 45–66; Barry Greenwood, “An Observation on the Ramey Memo,” UFO Historical Revue, no. 11 (March 2004): 1–8; James Houran, A Search for Meaning in the Ramey Document: From the Roswell UFO Case, Fund for UFO Research, 2006; Dennis Balthaser, “Interview: James Bond Johnson (Roswell Wreckage Photographer),” The UFO Chronicles, March 27, 2006; Barry Greenwood, “Ramey Memo Redux: Line 5,” UFO Historical Revue, no 13 (September 2009): 5–19; Kevin D. Randle, Roswell in the 21st Century, The Author, 2016 ; Nick Redfern, The Roswell UFO Conpsiracy, Lisa Hagan, 2017, pp. 232– 238 ) July 8 — 5 :17 p.m. Special Agent Percy Wyly II in the Dallas, Texas, FBI office sends a teletype headed “Flying Disc, Information Concerning” to J. Edgar Hoover and Strategic Air Command in Cincinnati, Ohio, expressing some doubt about the balloon explanation: “telephonic conversation between [Eighth Air Force] and Wright Field had not borne out this belief. Disc and balloon being transported to Wright Field by special plane for examination.” Wyly receives this information from Maj. Edwin M. Kirton at Fort Worth. Roswell mortician Glenn Dennis, intrigued by inquiries from the base about small caskets, visits the base hospital but is turned away forcibly; a nurse friend (possibly 1st Lt. Adeline “Eileen” M. Fanton) warns him to leave before he gets into trouble and supposedly tells him that three alien bodies had been found. Other witnesses to recovered bodies include T/Sgt Ernest R. Robbins, Maj. Edwin D. Easley, Ruben and Pete Anaya, New Mexico Lieutenant Governor Joseph Montoya, Sgt. Melvin E. Brown (who says the bodies looked Asian), Capt. Oliver “Pappy” W. Henderson, Staff Sgt. Robert A. Slusher, and Charles H. Forgus. ([Wyly’s teletype message]; Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, pp. 168– 169 ; Good Need, pp. 91 – 93 ; Mark Rodeghier and Mark Chesney, “Who’s the Dummy Now? The Latest Air Force Report,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 10; Nick Redfern, The Roswell UFO Conspiracy, Lisa Hagan, 2017, pp. 97– 100 ) July 8 — 6:29 p.m. An Associated Press story goes out that a Fort Worth Army Air Field officer (Newton) has identified the Roswell debris as a weather balloon. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, pp. 46– 52 , 168 ) July 9 — 1:00 a.m. William Valetta sees 5–6 domed discs streaking eastward as he stands outside his house at 4328 South Emerald Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. They make a swishing noise and he sees a blue flame underneath each of them. Smoke seems to be coming from the tops. (Bloecher, pp. II- 13 – 14 ) July 9 — RAAF officers locate Mack Brazel and take him to the base for questioning, then to the Roswell Daily Record and radio station KGPL for a revised, sanitized version of his story, this time saying he found the debris on June 14. Copies of Haut’s original press release are recovered. Three fully loaded C- 54 ’s carry debris to Los Alamos, New Mexico, via Kirtland AFB, according to Robert E. Smith, First Air Transport Unit. A crate allegedly carrying alien bodies is flown from Roswell to Fort Worth in a B- 29 , according to Staff Sgt. Robert A. Slusher, who says he was on board. (Don Schmitt and Kevin D. Randle, “Roswell, July 9, 1947,” IUR 14, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1989): 4–6, 23; Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, pp. 53– 58 , 169 – 171 ; Kevin D. Randle, “Bessie Brazel’s Story,” IUR 20, no. 3 (May/June 1995): 3 – 5, 24; Thomas J. Carey and Donald R. Schmitt, “Mack Brazel Reconsidered,” IUR 24, no. 4 (Winter 1999): 13– 19 ; Kevin D. Randle, “Bessie Brazel Schreiber and the Roswell Crash,” A Different Perspective, September 19, 2015) July 9 — The FBI interviews Capt. Emil J. Smith and copilot Ralph Stevens at Boise (Idaho) Municipal Airport about their July 4 sighting. (ClearIntent, p. 151 ; Good Above, pp. 253 – 254 ) July 9 — US Sen. Glen H. Taylor (D-Idaho) says he hopes the saucers will turn out to be space ships from another planet, whose hostility might end all our “petty arguments on earth.” (“‘Can’t Laugh Off Saucers,’ Says Senator,” Boston Globe, July 9, 1947, p. 5) July 9 — The US Army Air Force issues classified orders requiring reports of any “saucer-like” objects to be investigated and passed on to T-2 Technical Intelligence at Wright Field, Ohio, with summaries sent to the Pentagon. However, most of the early cases still go directly to the Air Force Office of Intelligence at the Pentagon. (Michael David Hall and Wendy Ann Connors, “Alfred Loedding: New Insight on the Man behind Project Sign,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 6) July 9 — 10:30 a.m. President Truman meets with Sen. Carl Hatch (D-N.Mex.). July 9 — 10:3 5 a.m. Assistant Secretary of War for Air Stuart Symington meets with Lt. Gen. James Doolittle and Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg. The conversation is presumably about the flying discs. (Donald R. Schmitt, UFO Crash at Roswell II, Moonset, 2001) July 9 — 10:50 a.m. Doolittle, Vandenberg, and Symington meet in the office of Army Chief of Staff Dwight D. Eisenhower. Maj. Gen. Lauris Norstad, director of the Plans and Operations Department, is also present. (Donald R. Schmitt, UFO Crash at Roswell II, Moonset, 2001) July 9 — 11:58 a.m. Vandenberg calls President Truman. July 9 — 12:50 p.m. Vandenberg and Symington meet with the Joint Chiefs.

July 9 — 12:17 p.m. Idaho Statesman aviation editor and former B-29 pilot David N. Johnson, flying in an Idaho Air National Guard AT-6 Texan, sees a black object standing out against the clouds as he prepares to land at Gowen Field [now Boise Airport], Boise, Idaho. Johnson takes 10 seconds of 8mm motion-picture film (but it shows no trace of the object). It makes a slow roll, then makes a stair-step climb, then disappears into the clouds. (NICAP, “AT-6 Encounters Black Disc”; Bloecher, pp. III- 12 – 13 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 July 7th – July 10th, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2001, pp. 39–43, 55; Sparks, p. 23 ) July 9 — 2: 3 0 p.m. Vandenberg and Symington meet again. July 9 — 4 :17 p.m. Vandenberg meets with Maj. Gen. Emmett O’Donnell Jr., director of information for the Army Air Force. (Donald R. Schmitt, UFO Crash at Roswell II, Moonset, 2001). July 9 — Late afternoon. 1Lt Chester P. Barton, stationed at Roswell Army Air Field in New Mexico, is sent by Maj. Edwin D. Easley to go to the crash site and report back to him about what is going on. He gets no closer than about 50 feet from the wreckage, which appears to have burned. He is convinced it is the remains of a B- 29 bomber. He remains at the site for about 90 minutes then reports back to Easley. (Joseph Stefula, “The Roswell Testimony of Chester P. Barton,” IUR 26, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 21–23, 29–31) July 9 — Brig. Gen. George F. Schulgen, chief of the Requirements Intelligence branch of Army Air Force Intelligence, requests FBI help with the problem of the flying discs from Special Agent S. Wesley Reynolds. Army intelligence claims they are not Army or Navy craft. He says that Air Corps Intelligence is utilizing all its scientists to study the cases to see whether they are natural or artificial or inspired by “individuals of Communist sympathies with the view to causing hysteria and fear of a secret Russian weapon.” (E. G. Fitch, [FBI memo], July 10, 1947; ClearIntent, p. 148 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 July 7th – July 10 th, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2001, p. 14) July 9 — Shortly after 5:00 p.m. Electrician Raymond Edward Lane and his wife are picking huckleberries near Midland, Michigan, when they hear a kind of “puff” noise nearby. Looking up, they see a ball of white, sparkling fire, like a Fourth of July sparkler, about the size of a bushel basket, no more than 100 feet away. It is hovering several feet above a stretch of sand. After about 10 or 15 seconds, the light goes out and the object vanishes. The only thing that remains is a peculiar dark substance on the sand and some metallic fragments. Lane collects fragments of the material in a tin can and brings them the next morning to Robert S. Spencer, a senior researcher at the Dow Chemical Company materials research laboratory in Midland. Spencer goes to the site with Lane and Dow’s internal security chief Edward Fales. Spencer has the Dow spectroscopy laboratory analyze the fragments and reports that the shiny pellets are largely silver mixed with a bit of silicon. They conclude that it consists of fused sand. By the end of September, the lab has analyzed ashlike powder found at the site. It turns out to be thorite that is slightly radioactive, mixed with magnesium hydroxide and other trace minerals. The conclusion is that the sighting is the result of some kind of home-made fireworks experiment, although Dow chemist John Josef Grebe suspects it might have been a small missile. (NICAP, “Object Hovers over Sand”; Bloecher, pp. IV- 2 – 3 ; Joel Carpenter, “The Midland Fireball: Dow Chemical, UFOs, and Evidence,” IUR 23, no. 3 (Fall 1998): 28– 32 ) July 9 — 11:30 p.m. Constable Eric Kearsey sees four yellowish discs flying in close formation above Grand Falls, Newfoundland. He calls other people to watch them as well. They are moving at high speed to the east with a dipping motion. At 11:40 p.m., an egg-shaped object “the size of a barrel head” passes overhead in the same direction. ( St. John’s (Newf.) Evening Telegram, July 9, 1947; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 July 7th – July 10th, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2001, pp. 45 – 46 ) July 10 — FBI agent E. G. Fitch forwards Schulgen’s request to Assistant Director of the Domestic Intelligence Division D. Milton “Mickey” Ladd at FBI headquarters in a memo titled “Flying Disks.” Ladd adds a note saying that the “Bureau does not believe it should go into these investigations” because many cases are “pranks.” Associate FBI Director Clyde Tolson adds, “I think we should do this,” while J. Edgar Hoover writes, “I would do it but before agreeing to it we must insist upon full access to discs recovered. For instance in the La. Case the Army grabbed it and would not let us have it for cursory examination.” (E. G. Fitch, [FBI memo], July 10, 1947; RosRept, pp. 25 – 26 ; Good Above, p. 541 ; Kevin D. Randle, “The Hoover Memo Again,” A Different Perspective, July 29, 2015) July 10 — Roswell debris and bodies have been flown from Fort Worth to Wright Field, according to future Brig. Gen. Arthur Exon, then stationed at Wright Field, Ohio, who says that a special unit is created to study them. The story is slightly corroborated by Jack G. Tiffany Jr., whose father Jack G. Tiffany Sr. is one of the crew members that flies debris from Fort Worth to Dayton. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, pp. 6 1 – 66 ; Thomas J. Carey and Donald J. Schmitt, Inside the Real Area 51, New Page, 2013, pp. 165– 175 ; Nukes 483–486) July 10 — 10:00 a.m. John H. Janssen, aviation editor of the Morristown Daily Record, takes a photo of four luminous objects as he is flying his Piper J-3 Cub at 10,000 feet over Morristown, New Jersey. Three of the objects are silvery white, while the fourth is a dull metallic color. (“‘Flying Saucers’ Invade Morristown; 4 Discs

Photographed near Airport,” Paterson (N.J.) Evening News, July 11, 1947, p. 10; NICAP, “ 07 - 10 - 1947 USA, New Jersey, Morristown”) July 10 — 10:30 a.m. Lt. Gen. Curtis LeMay, deputy chief of Air Staff for Research and Development at the Pentagon, meets with Vandenberg, Maj. Gen. Leslie Groves, and Lt. Gen. Robert Miller Montague. July 10 — 12:15 p.m. Doolittle and Vandenberg meet with Truman. July 10 — 2:40 p.m. Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson meets with Groves and Montague. July 10 — 4:25 p.m. A V-2 launch is aborted at White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico, after 32 seconds due to an early yaw. Gen. Gen. Nathan Twining stops at White Sands before returning to Wright Field, Ohio. July 10 — 4 :47 p.m. University of New Mexico astronomer Lincoln LaPaz, his wife Leota, and two daughters, Jean and Mary, are driving west on Highway 60 near Fort Sumner, New Mexico, when they see a sharply outlined, white ellipsoidal object wobbling in the sky to the west about 25 miles away. They watch it for about 30 seconds, then it disappears behind a cloud, but reappears 5 seconds later further to the right. He estimates its size as 245 feet long and 100 feet thick at the maximum, with a horizontal speed of 120–180 mph and a vertical speed of 600– 900 mph. It moves silently with no vapor trail. It resembles no known aircraft. (NICAP, “200ʹ Ellipsoidal Object Sighted by La Paz Family”; H. B. Darrach Jr. and Robert Ginna, “Have We Visitors from Space?” Life, April 7, 1952, p. 84; Bloecher, p. III- 19 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 July 7th – July 10th, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2001, p. 58; Sparks, p. 24 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, p. 60 ) July 10 — 5:30 p.m. Three civilian airline mechanics (John N. Mehrman Jr., Robert Leidy, and John E. Woodruff) at Ernest Harmon AFB [now Stephenville International Airport] are returning from a fishing trip and driving up a mountain road near Stephenville Crossing, Newfoundland. They see a bluish-black exhaust trail that has cut through some clouds leaving a “hole.” Woodruff sees a disc-shaped object the apparent size of a C-54 transport plane coming out of the clouds and traveling at a terrific rate of speed. The hole remains in the cloud for more than an hour. Leidy takes two Kodachrome photos of the exhaust trail. The sighting later impresses Project Sign personnel to the extent that they ask questions about UFO effects on clouds. (NICAP, “Harmon Field Photo”; Sparks, p. 2 4; Michael D. Swords, “Can You Learn Anything from UFO Photos, Part Two,” The Big Study, July 5, 2012; Swords 38–39; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 1, 1947, The Author, February 1991, pp. 44– 45 ; Chris Rutkowski, “The Cold, Hard Facts about UFOs in Canada,” IUR 34 , no. 1 (Sept. 2011): 8 – 9 ; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 49– 50 ; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 167, 264– 267 ) July 10 — Mac Brazel is still being held at a guest house on the Roswell, New Mexico, base. The officers try to convince him not to say anything about what he has seen. They also try to prevent him talking to reporters. He is given a physical by doctors at the base hospital. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 172) July 11 — Debriefings of all military participants in the debris recovery operation take place. They are taken into a room in small groups and told that the recovery is highly classified and not to talk about it. Military personnel warn civilians around Roswell, New Mexico, that they are not to talk about what happened. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, pp. 72– 76 , 172 ) July 11 — 11 :00 a.m. USAAF Col. Bruce H. Perry and Maj. William E. Geyser, 59th AACS Group, see a round 2–3 foot or 10-foot aluminum or silver-metallic sphere traveling at great speed to the south of Elmendorf AFB [now Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson], Anchorage, Alaska. Estimated altitude is 3,000–4,000 feet. (NICAP, “Round 3ʹ Aluminum Object at Great Speed”; Sparks, p. 24 ) July 12 — Kenneth Arnold is interviewed at the Hotel Owyhee in Boise, Idaho, by Lt. Frank M. Brown and Capt. William L. Davidson, who have flown in from Hamilton Army Airfield [now closed] in Novato, California. He also submits a written statement to Army Air Force intelligence, referring to the objects as “saucer-like.” At the end of the report he draws a picture of what the objects appeared to look like at their closest approach to Mt. Rainier, Washington. He writes, “They seemed longer than wide, their thickness was about 1/20th their width.” As to motion, Arnold writes, “They flew like many times I have observed geese to fly in a rather diagonal chain-like line as if they were linked together.” (James Easton suggests in 2007 that Arnold may have seen pelicans, based on their movements, but this seems unlikely.) While they are at Arnold’s house, Brown and Davidson hear that pilot Emil J. Smith is in Boise on a layover, and all three go to the airport to talk to him. (Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer, The Coming of the Saucers, Palmer, 1952, pp. 21–23; Kenneth Arnold, “Confidential,” Project 1947; Frank M. Brown, “Memorandum for the Officer in Charge,” July 16, 1947; James Easton, “Kenneth Arnold and the Pelicans,” UFO Conjectures, April 4, 2007; Martin Shough, “The Singular Adventure of Mr. Kenneth

Arnold,” June 2010; Michael David Hall and Wendy Ann Connors, “Alfred Loedding: New Insight on the Man behind Project Sign,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 6) July 12 — The FBI conducts a shorter follow-up interview with Capt. Emil J. Smith. (ClearIntent, p. 153 ) July 12 — 6:30 p.m. USAAF Maj. Edward Graham and others at Elmendorf AFB [now Joint Base Elmendorf- Richardson], Anchorage, Alaska, see a balloon-like grayish object, 10 feet long, flying northwest at 100 mph at an altitude of 1,500 feet and following the contour of mountains 5 miles away. It is paralleling the course of a landing C- 47. (Sparks, p. 24) July 12 — 6:35 p.m. Seamen John C. Kennedy and Ben Bobberly are on duty at Naval Air Station Seattle at Sand Point [now closed and redeveloped as Magnuson Park], Seattle, Washington. They notice a silvery disc-shaped object flying overhead to the east at 12,000 feet. At about the same time, Arnold Bergh and James Calahan watch three silvery discs flying quickly north from their location near North 82nd Street and 11th Avenue in Seattle. (Bloecher, p. III- 6 ) July 13 — 5:48 p.m. Warren Baker Eames is driving with his wife Alice on State Highway 2 near Gardner, Massachusetts, when they see a large, silvery, disc-shaped object in the sky ahead, moving west. As they watch, its nearest edge dips down toward them and it accelerates in a sudden burst of speed to the west-northwest. (Bloecher, p. III- 1 ) July 15 — Mack Brazel is returned home after an extensive interrogation at Roswell AAF, New Mexico. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Evans, 1994, p. 173 ) July 15 — 12:15 p.m. Col. Frank A. Flynn is flying a Vultee BT- 13 Valiant over Concord, California, when a group of 12 – 15 objects approaches and passes him. At first he takes them for birds, but he can see no necks or wings and they are moving in excess of 200 mph. They are moving in a see-saw fashion at three different altitudes about 200 feet apart, and they appear to be about 15 feet across, white on the top and gray and black on the bottom. At their closest point, they are about one mile away. Flynn turns his plane around to pursue them, but they outdistance him quickly. (Bloecher, p. III- 13 ) July 16 — An initial report on the Ernest Harmon AFB case in Newfoundland is written up by a base intelligence officer. (Michael David Hall and Wendy Ann Connors, “Alfred Loedding: New Insight on the Man behind Project Sign,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 8) July 19 — The antiaircraft command base of the Chinese Nationalist Government Air Force spots a UFO over Lanzhou City, Gansu, China. It is 50 feet long and has an apparent rudder and two jet pipes in the back. About 8:00 p.m., witnesses in Gansu province watch a red object cross the sky in 2 seconds. (Paul Dong, The Four Major Mysteries of Mainland China, Prentice-Hall, 1984 , p. 3) July 21 — A more detailed report on the Ernest Harmon AFB incident is sent to the Pentagon. (Michael David Hall and Wendy Ann Connors, “Alfred Loedding: New Insight on the Man behind Project Sign,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 8) July 21 — Life magazine publishes a pictorial news story on the flying discs. (“Speaking of Pictures: A Rash of Flying Disks Breaks Out over the U.S.,” Life, July 21, 1947, pp. 14–16) July 22 — Ray Palmer writes to Kenneth Arnold and tells him about the Maury Island, Washington, case, asking him to look into it. (Jason Colavito, ed., “Inquiry into Richard Shaver and Ray Palmer, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1947”; Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer, The Coming of the Saucers, Palmer, 1952, p. 21) July 23 — Day. John H. Janssen, aviation editor of the Morristown Daily Record, is flying his Piper J-3 Cub at 6,000 feet near the Morristown Airport in New Jersey. He sees a flash of light, the engine gives out, and the plane seems to be motionless. Then he sees two UFOs (this time with portholes) and manages to get the propeller going again. This is one of the first cases of “vehicle interference” UFO cases involving an airplane. (NICAP, “ 07 - 10 - 1947 USA, New Jersey, Morristown”; John H. Janssen, “My Encounter with Flying Disks,” Fate 2, no. 3 (September 1949 ): 12 – 16) July 23 — José C. Higgens and some assistants are surveying a field in Campina do Amoral in the Colônia Goio-Bang, located between Luiziana and Mamboré, Paraná, Brazil. On hearing a sharp sound, they see a grayish-white disc- shaped object about 100 feet in diameter, which soon lands and rests on curved metal feet. His assistants flee, but Higgens goes up to examine it. He sees a small, glass window, then two odd-looking beings observing him curiously. A door opens in the craft, and three other hairless beings dressed in transparent overalls. They have large, round eyes with eyebrows and pronounced eyelashes. Their legs are disproportionately long and they are about 7 feet tall. One points a small tube at Higgens. They are speaking in an unknown, sonorous language. He walks toward the door and can see only a small cubicle, bordered by another door, and several portholes. Higgens by gestures asks where they are from and the leader draws a map in the dirt, indicating a seventh planet, presumably Uranus. He eludes them by pretending to look for his wife and goes into a hidden spot in the woods. After 30 minutes the beings climb into the object and take off. (Wikipedia, “Caso José Higgens”; Clark III 576–

577 ; Brazil 21– 23 ; Mark Cashman, “Behavioral Classification System for UFO Occupants,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 18 ) July 25 — Intelligence agents from the Fourth Air Force, Lt. Frank M. Brown and Capt. William L. Davidson, visit Kenneth Arnold in Boise, Idaho, and tell him to contact them if he runs across any interesting UFO evidence. July 25 — A memorandum over the signature of Maj. Lester M. Garrigues states that by order of Col. Blanchard, the nine men who had been assigned duties in the recovery of the Roswell, New Mexico, crash are relieved from duty on that project. However, it is now largely considered a forgery by Frank Kaufmann. Garrigues has assumed duties in China prior to this and is no longer in Roswell. (Kevin D. Randle, “Frank Kaufmann, Roswell Witness,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 8, 17–19; Mark Rodeghier, “Frank Kaufmann Exposed,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 9–11, 26) July 25 — Day. Leonard Robertson is riding his motorcycle northeast of Dumas, Texas, when he sees a flash of light to his left. An oval object like a bubble is floating over a field about one mile away. Suddenly the object explodes, so Robertson takes a side road to the field where he retrieves a piece of metal “lighter than aluminum foil” about 30 inches long and 24 inches wide. There are two small holes in it and the center seems to be burned. (“Perryton Man Displays Proof of Saucer Story,” Amarillo (Tex.) Daily News, August 6, 1947, p. 1; “Salvage from Mystery Blast,” Amarillo (Tex.) Daily News, August 9, 1947, p. 5; Curt Collins, “The Texas UFO Crash Debris Photo from July 1947,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, May 21, 2020) July 26 — President Truman signs the National Security Act, a major restructuring of the military and intelligence agencies. It creates a unified National Military Establishment (Army and Navy) and a Department of the Air Force, both under the new Secretary of Defense. The Joint Research and Development Board becomes the R&D brain center. Each of the three service secretaries maintains quasi-cabinet status. It establishes the National Security Council to advise the president and the Central Intelligence Agency, the first peacetime intelligence agency in the US. The CIA is prohibited from conducting domestic surveillance, but Allen Dulles ensures it can handle “other functions” affecting “national security” without scrutiny from Congress or (sometimes) the president. Much of the CIA’s funding initially comes from wealthy Americans. The act creates the first black military and intelligence budget. (Wikipedia, “National Security Act of 1947”) July 27 — Ray Palmer wires Kenneth Arnold $200 to investigate the Maury Island, Washington, case. (Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer, The Coming of the Saucers, 1952, Palmer, pp. 23–24) July 27 — Capt. Davidson and Lt. Brown interview Richard Rankin. The FBI finds that the CIC agents have also interviewed Kenneth Arnold, Capt. Emil J. Smith, Flight Officer Ralph Stevens, and Boise Stateman Editor David N. Johnson about their UFO sightings. Leverett G. Richards, aviation editor of the Portland Oregonian, informs the FBI of this information. He also calls Lieut. Gen. Nathan Twining, who leaves “the impression that the AAF instituted this investigation to wash out the disc reports since they are definitely not of AAF origin.” (Memo for FBI Director from Mr. D. M. Ladd, August 14, 1947) July 28 — After assessing the Ernest Harmon AFB, Newfoundland, report, Gen. Schulgen orders Col. Howard M. McCoy, deputy commander of T-2 intelligence at Wright Field, Ohio, to send a top-level assessment team (possibly Alfred Loedding or Col. William R. Clingerman Jr.) to Stephenville “immediately” and report directly to the Pentagon afterwards. McCoy suspects German or Russian technology. (Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 33 – 34 ; Swords 39) July 28 — 8:34 p.m. Capt. Charles F. Gibian and First Officer Jack Harvey are piloting United Air Lines Flight 105 and descending above Mountain Home, Idaho, in preparation for landing in Boise. Harvey sees an object that seems to be another aircraft ahead of them and to the south, but it rapidly moves to the northwest in a weaving fashion, diminishing in size and vanishing from view. (“United Air Lines Crew Reports Sighting Flying Saucer between Mountain Home and Boise,” Boise Idaho Daily Statesman, July 29, 1947, pp. 1–2; Bloecher, pp. III- 13 – 14 ) July 29 — A memo from FBI agent E. G. Fitch says that Special Agent Reynolds has met with Gen. Schulgen again, who assures him that “all discs recovered would be made available for the examination by the FBI agents.” (ClearIntent, pp. 149 – 150 ) July 29 — 6:55 a.m. Kenneth Arnold is flying to Tacoma, Washington, to investigate the Maury Island mystery. As he is over Union, Oregon, preparing to land at La Grande to refuel, he sees a cluster of 2 5 small (24– 30 inches) brass- colored discs with a spot in the middle moving at a terrific speed. They come within 1,200 feet of his aircraft before veering away. At La Grande, he phones aviation editor David N. Johnson about his sighting, then reaches Tacoma at dusk. He gets a room (502) at the Winthrop Hotel, where a room and a bath have already been mysteriously reserved for him. Harold A. Dahl visits Arnold that night, then takes him to Fred Crisman’s place to see some Maury Island fragments. Arnold thinks it looks like lava. (Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer, The Coming of the Saucers, Palmer, 1952, pp. 25– 38 ; Bloecher, pp. I- 15 – 16 , III- 14 ; Clark III 720– 721 )

July 29 — 2:50 p.m. Assistant Base Operations Officer Capt. William H. Ryherd and ex-AAF B-29 pilot 1Lt Ward Stewart see two round, shiny, white objects near Hamilton Army Airfield [now closed] in Novato, California. The objects are 15 – 25 feet in diameter and are flying at about 750 mph at an altitude of 6,000–10,000 feet heading south. One object flies straight and level; the other weaves from side-to-side like an escort fighter. (Bloecher, p. III- 5 ; Sparks, p. 25) July 30 — Arnold calls United Airlines pilot Capt. Emil J. Smith and asks him to come listen to the Maury Island, Washington, story. Smith arrives in Tacoma in the afternoon and cross-examines Dahl and Crisman. Smith stays with Arnold at the Winthrop Hotel. Journalist Ted Morello of United Press calls Arnold and says that a crackpot has been calling him, explaining everything that is going on in the hotel room, including conversations with Smith when they are alone. They try but fail to locate a listening device in the room. (Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer, The Coming of the Saucers, Palmer, 1952, pp. 38– 46 ; Clark III 721) July 30 — The FBI issues a policy statement on “Flying Discs,” saying that sightings should be investigated to see whether an “individual might be desirous of seeking personal publicity, causing hysteria, or playing a prank.” (“Flying Disks,” Section B, Bureau Bulletin no. 42, Series 1947, in Black Vault FBI documents compilation, p. 48 ; ClearIntent, p. 150 ) July 30 — A memo with the subject line, “Recovery ‘Flying Discs,’” purportedly written by Maj. Edwin D. Easley, acknowledges that the Roswell, New Mexico, crash could “represent an interplanetary craft of some kind.” However, it is now largely considered a forgery by Frank Kaufmann. (Kevin D. Randle, “Frank Kaufmann, Roswell Witness,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 8, 17–19; Mark Rodeghier, “Frank Kaufmann Exposed,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 9–11, 26) July 30 — The Garrett Estimate, an Air Force Base Intelligence Report on “Flying Discs”—an informal estimate of the situation based on 1 6 reports selected by Collections Officer Lt. Col. George D. Garrett—says that the “flying saucer situation is not all imaginary or seeing too much in some natural phenomena. Something is really flying around.” Also, “Lack of topside inquiries… give more than ordinary weight to the possibility that this is a domestic project, about which the President, etc., know.” The study is passed up the line to Gen. George Schulgen and Hoover at the FBI for comment, subtly indicating that investigating a domestic project is a waste of time. (Air Force Base Intelligence Report, “Flying Discs,” July 30, 1947; Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 32–33, 57– 61 ; Swords 39, 474 – 475 ; Kevin D. Randle, “Roswell, Nathan Twining, and the Mini-EOTS,” A Different Perspective, October 6, 2014) July 31 — Crisman and Dahl bring heavy fragments and white metal from the Maury Island case to the Winthrop Hotel room in Tacoma, Washington. They cannot locate the photos. Arnold calls Brown and Davidson at Hamilton Army Airfield in Novato, California. They quickly depart for Tacoma. Morello calls Arnold and says his informant knows that Brown and Davidson are on their way in a B-25. They arrive in the late afternoon. The five men talk until 11:00 p.m., when Crisman offers to go home and get more Maury Island fragments. He returns with slightly different, more slag-like rock stuffed in a large cereal box, which is loaded into Brown’s army vehicle. Brown and Davidson leave to go back to Hamilton for Air Force Day the next day. Morello calls again and says his informant told him everything about what has just taken place. (Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer, The Coming of the Saucers, Palmer, 1952, pp. 46– 57 ; [FBI teletype, August 6, 1947], pp. 87– 88 ) July 31 — Capt. Edward Ruppelt: “By the end of July 1947 , the UFO security lid was down tight. The few members of the press who did inquire about what the Air Force was doing got the same treatment that you would get today if you inquired about the number of thermonuclear weapons stock-piled in the U.S.’s atomic arsenal… [At T- 2 there was] confusion almost to the point of panic.” (Ruppelt, p. 22 )

August — USAF fighter pilot W. Boyce sees a hovering disc above Media, Pennsylvania. (UFOEv, p. 33 ) August — T-2 Intelligence and Army Air Force Intelligence hold meetings over the next two months and prepare documents requesting an authorized project to investigate UFOs, per General LeMay’s 1946 instructions. August — The Air Materiel Command headquarters replaces T-2 Intelligence with the Technical Intelligence Department, tasked with producing reports and estimates on foreign air weapons. It begins to develop a photoanalysis capability. August — The Denver Post runs a story that claims the military is building a secret base consisting of huge caverns for atomic weapons defense purposes. The article says the new base is in the Manzano Mountains southeast of Sandia Base, New Mexico. The military responds by issuing a statement that operations and construction near Sandia Base are top secret. In fact, however, the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project is building one of several bases around the country that will be used for nuclear weapons storage. The AFSWP code-names the base “Site Able.” (Wikipedia, “Sandia Base”)

August 1 — Brown and Davidson make a stop at McChord Field near Tacoma, Washington, to speak with intelligence officer Maj. George Sander, then board the B-25 for Hamilton Army Airfield [now closed] in Novato, California. It explodes and crashes near Kelso, Washington, at 1:30 a.m., 20 minutes after taking off, when the left engine catches fire. An army hitchhiker and engineer parachute to safety. Brown and Davidson fail to signal distress or bail out. After hearing the news, Arnold calls Palmer and offers to return his money. Palmer says to just mail him some fragments. Arnold and Smith visit Morello and Dahl and Crisman. They talk to Tacoma Times reporter Paul Lantz in the hotel lobby, who writes the article “Sabotage Hinted in Crash of Army Bomber at Kelso.” Debris from the crash is not discovered until 2007. (“Air Force Day Marred As B-26 Crashes Here,” Longview (Wash.) Daily News, August 1, 1947, p. 1; “‘Flying Saucers’ Figure in Two Air Crash Deaths,” Galveston (Tex.) Daily News, August 3, 1947, pp. 1, 5; Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer, The Coming of the Saucers, Palmer, 1952, pp. 57 – 72 ; Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson, “The Maury Island UFO Incident,” February 2014; Leslie Slape, “Marker Placed near Kelso to Honor Pilots in ‘47 Crash,” Longview (Wash.) Daily News, August 3, 2007, p. 9) August 3 — Smith contacts Maj. Sander, who relieves Arnold and Smith of all their fragments. He shows them a smelting lot where he finds similar pieces of slag. Smith and Arnold check out of the Winthrop Hotel in Tacoma, Washington. (Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer, The Coming of the Saucers, Palmer, 1952, pp. 73–84) August 4 — Pilots Capt. Jack Peck and Vince Daly see a smooth UFO northwest of Bethel, Alaska, dead ahead as they are flying a DC- 3 for Al Jones Flying Service. Peck hauls back on his controls to bring his plane up to safer altitude. Now 1,000 feet higher, the pilots glance downward and spot the UFO closer but on a changed course. Still dark against the sky, it looks to be as large as a C-54. Intrigued, Peck dives on the object as it pulls away, doing his best to get a better view, but it speeds up to an estimated 500 mph and is lost to view in four minutes. (NICAP, “Smooth Black Object Crosses Path of DC- 3 ”; Harold D. Johnston, “Matters of National Interest,” August 5, 1947; Sparks, p. 25 ) August 6 — An FBI memo from E. G. Fitch to D. Milton Ladd identifies either Brown or Davidson as a CIC agent on a top secret mission. (Jason Colavito, ed., “Inquiry into Richard Shaver and Ray Palmer, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1947”) August 7 — The Seattle, Washington, FBI office interrogates Crisman and Dahl and announces the Maury Island incident is a hoax. The FBI file notes that Dahl stated that “if questioned by the authorities he was going to say it was a hoax because he did not want any further trouble over the matter.” Dahl’s daughter Louise admits in 2007 that the whole story was made up, as did her brother Charles in the late 1960s, who called Crisman a “smooth-talking con artist.” The affair had started as a joke and blossomed into something worse. Associated Press reporter Elmer Vogel says that Dahl’s wife had compelled him to tell Vogel the truth. Morello also speaks to Crisman, who admits the story is baseless. (Clark III 721; Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer, The Coming of the Saucers, Palmer, 1952, pp. 105–111; Jason Colavito, ed., “Inquiry into Richard Shaver and Ray Palmer, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1947”; Kenn Thomas, Maury Island UFO: The Crisman Conspiracy, IllumiNet, 1999; Anthony Bragalia, “Maury Island No Longer a Mystery: A UFO Hoax Exposed!” UFO Digest, July 8, 2010; Brian J. Robb, “Conspiracy Central: The Life and Lies of Fred Lee Crisman,” Fortean Times 355 (July 2017): 32–39) August 8 — Lt. Col. Donald L. Springer, assistant chief of staff for army intelligence at the Fourth Air Force, who has just returned to Hamilton Army Airfield [now closed] in Novato, California, from Tacoma, Washington, says “there is not sufficient evidence or testimony available to this headquarters to conclude whether or not the reports of so- called flying disks in the Tacoma area or any other area have any basis of fact.” He adds that the Maury Island crash “did not occur.” (“Fourth Air Force Drops Disc Inquiry; Search Held Futile,” San Francisco Examiner, August 9, 1947 , p. 5) August 9 — John Derry, serving as acting general manager of the Atomic Energy Commission, proposes a set of guidelines that restate the proposition that secrecy can be based on reasons other than national security. The definition of Confidential that he proposes goes beyond the Army and Manhattan Project rules: “CONFIDENTIAL: Documents, information or material, the unauthorized disclosure of which, while not endangering the National security, would be prejudicial to the interests or prestige of the Nation or any Governmental activity, or individual, or would cause administrative embarrassment, or be of advantage to a foreign nation shall be classified CONFIDENTIAL.” The Derry memo calls for review by a classification board assembled from the AEC’s regional sites. In September, this board assembles in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The available documentation does not show that Derry’s proposed rules go into effect, but it does show that the Classification Board blesses the illustrations of matter that “should be graded” Secret or Confidential. The former category includes “certain selected human administration experiments performed under MED [Manhattan Engineer District].” (US Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, “Final Report,” October 1995, chapter 13)

August 13 — 1:00 p.m. Albert Clarence Urie and his two sons Billy and Kenneth see a straw hat–shaped, sky-blue object about 10 wide, 10 feet high, and 20 feet long. It has “pods” on the side emitting flames and is flying along the Snake River Canyon six miles west of Blue Lakes Ranch near Twin Falls, Idaho. The UFO is moving up and down towards them at 1,000 mph and an altitude of 75 feet about 1/2 mile away. Urie is about 300 feet from the object, which is about level with him and silhouetted against the canyon wall. It disappears behind a hill about one mile away. Hynek, for Project Blue Book, later identifies it as an “atmospheric eddy.” (“Flying Saucer Reported Flashing Down Canyon at 1,000 Miles Per Hour; Two Others Seen,” Twin Falls (Idaho) Times-News, August 15, 1947, pp. 1, 8; NICAP, “Snake River Case”; Hynek UFO Report, p. 34 ; Sparks, p. 26 ; Story, pp. 337 – 338 ); Patrick Gross, “Snake River, August 13, 1947”) August 13 — The San Francisco Examiner’s Washington Bureau hears a rumor from a US intelligence source that Soviet agents have been ordered to solve the mystery of flying saucers. It reports that the Kremlin believes that the discs are connected with Army experiments in anti-radar weaponry. (San Francisco (Calif.) Examiner, August 14, 1947, p. 1) August 14 — The first Gallup poll on UFOs shows that 90% of Americans have heard of flying saucers; 33% don’t know what they are, 39% consider them hoaxes or misidentifications, 16% consider them US or Russian secret weapons. The ETH is not mentioned. (Project 1947, “August 1947 Gallup Poll”; Robert J. Durant, “Evolution of Public Opinion on UFOs,” IUR 18, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1993): 9–10) August 14 — Shortly after 9:00 a.m. Italian artist and author Luigi Rapuzzi (who uses the pseudonym L. R. Johannis) is hiking along the left bank of the Torrente Chiarzò near Raveo, Udine, Italy, when he sees a vivid red, metallic, domed disc on the riverbank about 165 feet ahead. It is about 33 feet wide and embedded in a cleft in the rock about 20 feet above thqwe stream. Looking around, he sees two “boys” on the edge of a grove of trees. He shouts at them and points to the object, walking toward them, but notices they are actually odd-looking dwarfs who are approaching him stiffly. They are about 3 feet tall and wearing dark blue coveralls with red collars, cuffs, and belts. Their greenish heads are covered in tight-fitting, brownish caps. He looks at them in astonishment for 2– 3 minutes, then waves his geologist’s pick at them and asks where they come from. One of the entities raises its right hand to its belt, which emits a puff of smoke that knocks Rapuzzi to the ground as if from an electric shock. As he is lying there, one of them grabs his pick and he notices its green hand has 8 claws. They climb up the rock and into the disc, which soon shoots straight out and into the air, hovering briefly at an angle, then vanishes. Rapuzzi feels a blast of wind that blows him across the ground. His pick is missing. (NICAP, “Professor Encounters ‘Lens’ and Creatures”; “The Villa Santina Case,” in Charles Bowen, ed., The Humanoids, special issue of FSR, Oct./Dec. 1966, p. 2 ; 1Pinotti 19–30) August 14 — 10:40 a.m. Three men of the 147th Airways and Air Communications Service Squadron at Harmon Field, Guam, see two small crescent-shaped objects zigzagging at 1,200 feet. They disappear in the clouds and another object emerges and proceeds west. (Lt. Col. Donald L. Springer, “Flying Disc,” August 27, 1947; Sparks, p. 26 ) August 14 — The FBI concludes that the plane carrying Davidson and Brown was not sabotaged, nor was it carrying actual flying disc parts. (Memo for FBI Director from Mr. D. M. Ladd, August 14, 1947) August 15 — In response to the August 13 San Francisco Examiner report, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover asks the agency to look into whether Soviet spies are looking into whether the flying discs are a secret US technology. Assistant Director of the Domestic Intelligence Division D. Milton “Mickey” Ladd at FBI headquarters assures FBI Deputy Director Edward Allen Tamm that he is unaware of any such effort. (Memo to Assistant FBI Director E. A. Tamm from Agent D. M. Ladd, August 15, 1947) August 15? — 9:30 p.m. Maj. Elmer H. Hammer of the 28th Bombardment Wing at Rapid City Army Air Base [now Ellsworth AFB] near Box Elder, South Dakota, sees 12 objects flying at 6,000–10,000 feet in a tight diamond formation at 300–400 mph. The objects level off at approximately 5,000 feet and make a gentle large-radius turn of about 110° to the right about 4 miles away. They start climbing at an angle of 30– 40 ° and appear to accelerate rapidly in the climb. The objects are approximately 100 feet long and have a brilliant yellow-white luminous glow. (NICAP, “12 B- 29 - Sized Elliptical Objects Seen”; Hynek UFO Report, p. 40 ; Sparks, p. 26 ) August 17 —A forest ranger at a fire lookout tower on Mt. Josephine, Skagit County, Washington, observes an object shaped like a huge clam that appears to fall tipped at an angle northeast of the fire tower. It slows to a stop, levels off, and floats “leisurely as if suspended by a cord” for a few minutes and finally moves off to the southeast with ever increasing speed. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 1, 1947, The Author, February 1991, p. 61) August 19 — FBI memo to D. M. Ladd from E. G. Fitch on “Flying Discs” mentions SAC Reynolds’s conversation with Lt. Col. George Garrett, who strongly suspects the Army or Navy is testing some new technology, condluding that “there were objects seen which somebody in the Government knows all about.” However Gen. Stephen Chamberlin and the War Department claim to have no involvement. (Memorandum from E. G. Fitch, “Flying Discs,” August 19, 1947)

August 19 — 9:30 p.m. H. H. Hedstrom (executive director of the Twin Falls Housing Authority) and three policemen (Richard A. Frazier, H. E. Roundtree, and Richard Scott) in Twin Falls, Idaho, see a formation of 12 objects flying in diamond formation at terrific speed. (NICAP, “August 19, 1947, Twin Falls, Idaho”; Hynek UFO Report, p. 39 ; Sparks, p. 26 ) August 20 — An Anglo-American intelligence team releases a report on secret German weapons. Foo fighters are said to be caused by a rocket-propelled plane launched straight up from the ground, intercepting Allied bomber formations by firing a spray of rocket shells from the nose. The pilot then parachutes back to the ground, a chute opens on the rocket, and it is recovered for re-use. (New London (Conn.) Day, August 20, 1947; Jan Aldrich) August 22 — Col. Robert Taylor III, Collection Branch of Army Air Force Intelligence, summarizes the findings of Lt. Col. Garrett’s investigations of UFOs in a letter to Gen. Curtis LeMay, Deputy Chief of Air Staff for Research and Development. Taylor requests any information on AAF projects that might give rise to such UFO reports. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 August 1st – December 31st, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2001, p. 27; Swords 39– 40 ) August 24 — The name Joint Research and Development Board is changed to simply Research and Development Board. (Michael Hall and Wendy Connors, “The Research and Development Board: Unanswered Questions,” IUR 26, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 8) August 25 — USMC Maj. Marion Eugene Carl attains a world airspeed record of 651 mph in a Douglas Skystreak at Muroc AFB [now Edwards AFB], California. (Wikipedia, “Marion Eugene Carl”) August 28 — Microwave Early Warning radar on Shika Island off Fukuoka, Japan, picks up a target moving 450– 478 mph at an altitude of 1,500 feet. It changes course, climbs, and is tracked to a distance of 62 miles. (NICAP, “Target Tracked in a Climb”; Sparks, p. 27 ) August 29 — Gen. LeMay answers Col. Taylor’s August 22 request stating that there is no such project as described. (Swords 41) Late August — Brig. Gen. George F. Schulgen passes the updated Garrett Estimate on to Air Materiel Command head Gen. Nathan Twining with a request for a statement on the discs so an authorized UFO project can be requested. Col. Howard McCoy asks for a meeting between Alfred Loedding (aeronautics engineer at T-3), Lt. Col. George Garrett (Collections), and Charles Carroll (a math and missiles expert who has been correlating UFO sightings with approaches of planetary bodies) “in order to set up a system for evaluating the information being received.” These four will later form the core of the ETH-friendly faction at Project Sign. (RosRept, p. 13; Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 33– 35 ; Letter to T-2 from Executive Air Intelligence Requirement Division, September 3, 1947; Sparks, p. 13 ; Swords 42, 43)

September — Astronomer Lincoln LaPaz arrives in Roswell, New Mexico, and rediscovers the area of blackened ground earlier found by two of Wilcox’s deputies. He speaks to some witnesses and determines there might have been more than one object. September 3 — A memo from Col. R. H. Smith at Air Defense Command headquarters at Mitchel Field on Long Island, New York, states that the intent of USAF cooperation with the FBI was to “relieve the numbered Air Forces of the task of tracking down all the many instances which turned out to be ash-can covers, toilet seats, and whatnot.” (ClearIntent, p. 156 ; Michael Hesemann and Philip Mantle, Beyond Roswell, Marlowe, 1997, p. 66 ) September 3 — Dale Edwards and three friends are camping out in the Desolation Wilderness area west of Lake Tahoe, California, when one of them spots a huge gray UFO accompanied by a rush of warm air. The next day they encounter a circle, 40 feet in diameter, of recently burned grass and skunk cabbage. (“True Mystic Experiences,” Fate 2, no. 3 (September 1949): 74 – 82) September 5 — In response to the Garrett Estimate, Gen. Curtis LeMay states in a memo, copied to the FBI, that “a complete survey of research activities discloses that the Army Air Force has no project with the characteristics similar to those which have been associated with the Flying Discs.” (Michael D. Hall and Wendy A. Connors, Alfred Loedding and the Great Flying Saucer Wave of 1947, Rose Press, 1998 , p. 83) September 5 — In Washington, D.C., Alfred Loedding (as Wright Field T- 2 ’s liaison with the Pentagon) meets with Garrett and Carroll. Flying disk reports at the Pentagon are transferred to Wright Field, Ohio, shortly afterwards. (Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 34) Mid-September — Twining passes the Garrett Estimate on to Col. Howard McCoy, Maj. Gen. Alden Crawford (chief of T-3), Gen. Franklin O. Carroll (director of research and development), Col. C. K. Moore (aircraft laboratory chief), Col. Russell Minty (power-plant laboratory chief), and Brig. Gen. Edgar P. Sorenson (Air Institute of Technology commander). They each study Garrett’s report and hold a conference on the discs. (Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 33)

September 16 — An incoming radar target is picked up at Itazuke Air Base [now Fukuoka Airport], Fukuoka, Japan, moving 840–900 mph, then fading out. (Col. James F. Olive Jr., “Radar Pick-Ups of High-Speed Targets in the Far East,” Memorandum for Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Washington, D.C., September 26, 1947) September 17 — The US Senate confirms James Forrestal as the first Secretary of Defense. September 18 — The reorganization of military and intelligence agencies under the National Security Act takes effect. The US Army Air Forces is disbanded and becomes the US Air Force. September 19 — FBI Special Agent Harry M. Kimball in San Francisco passes Col. R. H. Smith’s memo up the chain to Hoover. (ClearIntent, p. 156 ) September 19 — A dubious document, allegedly written on this date by DCI Adm. Roscoe Hillenkoetter and titled “Examination of Unidentified Disc-Like Aircraft near Military Installations in the State of New Mexico: A Preliminary Report,” has been circulated by Timothy S. Cooper. It purports to verify the “recovery of unidentified planform aircraft” in two locations on July 6. (Good Need, p. 95 ) September 19 — 5:30 p.m. A geophysicist employed by the Humble Oil and Refining Company is testing a weather radar at Grand Isle, Louisiana, when the radar detects an object moving in a southwesterly direction at about 1,000 mph. It persists for about one minute, so he records it in his notebook and discusses the sighting with other scientists. No visual sighting is made. (Houston Press, March 24, 1950; Jan L. Aldrich, “Project 1947: A Progress Report,” March/April 1996) September 2 1 — Arrangements are made to transfer UFO files from Garrett’s office in the Pentagon to Alfred Loedding at AMC. (Swords 43) September 23 — Head of Air Materiel Command Gen. Nathan Twining responds to Schulgen’s request for UFO information with a classified letter composed by Col. McCoy with the assistance of Alfred Loedding, “AMC Opinion Concerning ‘Flying Disks.’” Twining notes the discs are “real and not visionary or fictitious.” Reports (based on the cases in the Garrett Estimate) include “extreme rates of climb, maneuverability (particularly in roll), and action which must be considered evasive.” Twining gives three reasons to study the discs: They might represent a deep-black domestic project; to pick up physical evidence; and to find out if they are nuclear- propulsion devices from Russia or elsewhere. The letter lists common descriptions of the objects and recommends that USAF “issue a directive assigning a priority, security classification, and code name for a detailed study of the matter.” This will ultimately result in Project Sign. Henceforth all disc reports are to be sent to the Army and Navy Research and Development Board, the USAF Scientific Advisory Group, the Atomic Energy Commission, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Project RAND, and the Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft project at Oak Ridge. Twining promises a detailed “Essential Elements of Information” (EEI) to be formulated immediately so that all agencies will have guidance. (Lt. Gen. Nathan Twining, “AMC Opinion Concerning ‘Flying Disks,’” September 23, 1947; RosRept, p. 14 ; Swords 42, 476–478; Good Above, pp. 260 – 262 , 476 – 478 ) September 24 — DCI Hillenkoetter, in a letter to AMC, designates T-2 and the Air Intelligence branch of the US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics as National Assets. He indicates that he does not plan to duplicate air technical intelligence assets within the CIA. (Jan Aldrich) September 24 — President Truman meets with Vannevar Bush, chairman of the Research and Development Board, at the White House. Secretary of Defense James Forrestal is also present. (Stanton T. Friedman, Top Secret / MAJIC, Marlowe, 1996 , pp. 68– 69 ) September 24 — A fake memo from President Truman to Secretary of Defense James Forrestal allegedly establishes a top-secret control group, Operation Majestic Twelve (MJ-12), to deal with the UFO problem. (Clark III 360 ; Joe Nickell and John R. Fischer, “The Crashed-Saucer Forgeries,” IUR 15, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1990): 4– 20 ; Ted R. Spickler, “The Truman MJ-12 Letter,” IUR 16, no. 3 (May/June 1991): 12– 13 ; Good Above, p. 551 ) September 24— Col. Miles E. Goll, in a memo signed for Col. McCoy, asks about a radar case in Japan that Charles Carroll had mentioned to Alfred Loedding in their meeting of September 5. (Dr. Carroll’s UFO files; Jan Aldrich) September 25 — A memorandum from Maj. Robert J. Thomas lists the names of nine military personnel in charge of events in the aftermath of the Roswell, New Mexico, recovery. However, it is now largely considered a forgery by Frank Kaufmann. (Kevin D. Randle, “Frank Kaufmann, Roswell Witness,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 8, 17–19; Mark Rodeghier, “Frank Kaufmann Exposed,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 9–11, 26) September 26 — A memorandum from Col. James F. Olive Jr., Chief of Air Intelligence Division, to the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff, A-2, summarizes three radar trackings of high-speed targets in Japan (Chitose Air Base, July 1; and MEW Radar Station, Fukuoka, August 28 and September 16). It concludes that there is insufficient information to state that they involved aircraft or missiles but supports the conclusion that they were not natural phenomena. The report is forwarded to T-2 on September 29. (Col. James F. Olive Jr., “Radar Pick-Ups of High-

Speed Targets in the Far East,” Memorandum for Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Washington, D.C., September 26, 1947 ). September 27 — Hoover notifies USAF Maj. Gen. George C. McDonald, assistant chief of air staff, that he is advising all FBI agents to discontinue all flying disc investigations. (Letter, J. Edgar Hoover to Gen. George C. McDonald, September 27, 1947; ClearIntent, p. 158 ; Michael Hesemann and Philip Mantle, Beyond Roswell, Marlowe, 1997, p. 67 ) September 30 — Vannevar Bush is appointed head of the new Research and Development Board in the National Military Establishment. (Research and Development Board: History and Functions, US National Military Establishment, June 1, 1948)

Fall — Claude Degler, under the pseudonym John Chrisman, publishes a single issue of the first flying saucer fanzine, Weird Unsolved Mysteries. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 August 1st – December 31st, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2001, pp. 56–69; Curt Collins, “Claude Degler, One of the Ufologists That Time Forgot,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, July 15, 2021) Early October — Private pilot Selman E. Graves claims to have witnessed part of the recovery of a crashed UFO in Paradise Valley, Arizona, on property owned by his friend, Walt Salyer. (Good Above, pp. 394 – 397 ) October 1 — Bureau Bulletin 59 ends all FBI cooperation with the Air Force on UFO investigation, although the FBI continues its own inquiries. (ClearIntent, p. 159 ) October 1 — A letter from Truman to Vannevar Bush appears to bear the original Truman signature used in the MJ- 12 fake memo. October 7 — Capt. R. V. A. Therien of the Royal Swedish Navy states at USAF headquarters that some ghost rockets have been observed making 180° turns, and about 33 of the incidents are considered factual. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 August 1st – December 31st, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2001, p. 76) October 14 — Bernt Balchen, Norwegian Airline director and former USAF Colonel, gives USAF headquarters information about two radar locations and a rocket firing incident observed in the Petsamo region (Pechengsky District) of Finland, recently ceded to Russia. Gen. Alfred A. Kessler Jr., former US military attaché in Sweden, disputes Therien’s information. He says only two ghost rocket sightings are possibly factual, but there is no evidence to authenticate them. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1947 August 1st – December 31st, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2001, p. 76) October 14 — Test pilot Chuck Yeager unofficially breaks the sound barrier (670 mph) for the first time in an experimental rocket-powered Bell X-1 at Muroc [now Edwards] AFB, California. (Wikipedia, “Chuck Yeager”) October 20 — A farmer named Britton sees two cigar-shaped UFOs traveling a straight course at high speed about one mile in height in trail formation near Dayton, Ohio. They leave a slight vapor trail then disappear suddenly. (NICAP, “Farmers Observes Two Cigars”; Keyhoe, FSTS, p. 89 ; Sparks, p. 29 ) October 21 — A preliminary EEI document, indicating that the radar detection of UFOs near Fukuoka, Japan, on September 16 has played a role in concerns about disc maneuverability, is circulated to the European Command by Lieut. Col. Malcolm D. Seashore, former acting chief of the Analysis Section at AMC under McCoy. It expresses concern about German/Russian technology and adds disc characteristics of hovering, disappearance, quick grouping, and sudden appearance. (“‘Flying Disc’ Information Request to European Command, October 1947 ”; Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 35; Swords 43, 479 – 484 ) October 21 — The jet-propelled Northrop YB-49 makes its first test flight from Jack Northrop Field in Hawthorne, California, reaching Muroc AFB in 32 minutes. (Wikipedia, “Northrop YB- 49 ”) October 28 — Brig. Gen. George F. Schulgen, Chief of USAF Intelligence Requirements Division, writes a five-page report based on the characteristics listed in the September 23 Twining letter (though in greater detail) and the preliminary EEI of October 21. Titled “Intelligence Requirements on Flying Saucer Type Aircraft: Draft of Collection Memorandum,” it lists things investigators should try to determine about UFO propulsion, control, construction, arrangement, landing gear, and power plant. It considers the objects “to be a manned aircraft, of Russian origin, and based on the perspective thinking and actual accomplishments of the Germans” (page 5, paragraph 4). [However, a fake version of this document has the phrase “it is the considered opinion of some elements that the object may in fact represent an interplanetary craft of some kind… The presence of an unconventional or unusual type of propulsion system cannot be ruled out and should be considered of great interest.” Other deletions and additions are present in the fake document.] (George F. Schulgen, “Intelligence Requirements on Flying Saucer Type Aircraft: Draft of Collection Memorandum,” October 30, 1947 [PDF of real memo, pp. 1–6, PDF of fake memo, pp. 7–12]; RosRept, p. 35 ; Good Above, p. 262 ; Robert G. Todd, “Fake Air

Force Memo Exposed,” The Roswell Files; Robert G. Todd, “Fake Air Force Memo Exposed, Part 2,” The
Roswell Files; Robert G. Todd, “Fake Air Force Memo Exposed, Part 3,” The Roswell Files; Michael D. Swords,
“Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 35– 36 )

November — Former Messerschmidt test pilot Fritz Wendel tells US Army CIC that the Horten brothers were working on an advanced aircraft in Heiligenbeil, East Prussia [now Mamonovo, Russia] right after the war. The airplane is 33 feet long, shaped like a half-moon, and has no tail. It can fly to 12,000 feet. Wendel’s story is corroborated by a German informant named Prof. George, who describes a later Horten craft as able to fly at 1,200 mph because it is propelled by rockets. (Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 41 – 42 ) November 6 — Chuck Yeager again makes an unofficial airspeed record of 891 mph in a Bell X-1 at Muroc AFB, California. (Wikipedia, “Chuck Yeager”) November 10 — Lt. Col. Walker sends a memo to his field commands in Germany in response to the September 23 Twining letter. It calls for a discreet canvass into finding German engineers who might know of similar technology. (“The Walker Memo,” The Roswell Files) November 12 — Early morning. US Navy Second Officer Williamson on the USS Ticonderoga 4 0 miles north or south of Cape Blanco, Oregon, sees two fireballs with fiery tails heading northwest at 700–900 mps. Possible meteors. (Sparks, p. 29) November 18 — Boise Idaho Statesman Aviation Editor David N. Johnson, having heard of the USS Ticonderoga sighting, writes to Gen. George E. Stratemeyer at Mitchel Field, New York, for information and asking eight questions about the Army’s investigation. Stratemeyer passes the query on to Garrett and Taylor. (Swords 43)

December 8 — Pilots observe a reddish light moving at moderate speed over Las Vegas, Nevada. It emits a flash of green light and shoots upwards at a “tremendous speed.” (UFOEv, p. 149 ) December 11 — Garrett and Taylor write a memorandum to the USAF Public Relations Office outlining the proper answers to questions such as Johnson has asked. (Swords 44) Decembre 14 — 12:20 a.m. Six staff sergeants at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, watch a domed disc with a glowing green corona surrounding it moving slowly at a slightly tilted angle. It skims the treeline (causing the tops of the trees to wave slightly) and takes off to the northwest. They estimate it is 50–75 feet in diameter and flying at 200 feet altitude. (Project 1947 case file) December 16 — Army Lt. Col. Harry H. Pretty in Berlin writes a memo to the Deputy Director of Intelligence in Berlin stating that the Horten brothers (Reimer and Walter) have been located in Göttingen, Germany. He says they are eccentric and quarrelsome. Though they were responsible for the Horten Ho 299 (a prototype fighter/bomber flying wing design), his investigation concludes that no saucer design “ever existed nor was projected by any of the German air research institutions.” (Lt. Col. Harry H. Pretty, “Horten Brothers (Flying Saucers),” December 16, 1947) December 17 — US Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Carl Spaatz tells the Idaho Statesman he does not rule out the possibility of the flying disks being “foreign experimentation.” He adds that the Air Force is still investigating and he still wants people to report their sightings. (“Spaatz Leaves Door open on Chance ‘Flying Discs’ Are of Foreign Origin,” Boise Idaho Statesman, December 17, 1947, p. 1) December 18 — Pentagon Col. James F. Olive Jr. (chief of AFOAI) and Lieut. Col. J. E. Thomas of the Offensive Air section (AFOAI-OA) respond to a request by deputy chief of Air Staff for Research and Development Gen. Curtis LeMay on the status of flying disc analysis. They complete their reanalysis of the earlier documents from the Pentagon and Wright-Patterson, rewrite a new EEI indicating a potentially serious but puzzling phenomenon, and turn this over to Chief of Air Force Intelligence McDonald for his signature. (“Analysis of ‘Flying Disc’ Reports,” December 18, 1947; Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 36; Swords 43, 485 – 491) December 19 — The Research and Development Board has its first meeting. December 22 — The final EEI, called “Analysis of Flying Disc Reports,” is issued by Chief of USAF Intelligence George C. McDonald, who concurs with AMC’s recommendation of September 23 and forwards it to director of USAF Research and Development Gen. Laurence Cardee Craigie for a reply. Gen. Charles Cabell, the new chief of AFOIR, signs off on this. (“Analysis of ‘Flying Disc’ Reports,” December 18, 1947; Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 36) December 26 — At the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago, Illinois, University of Iowa astronomer Charles C. Wylie proposes a coast-to-coast sky patrol to report on rockets, meteors, or flying saucers. He says that “mass hysteria” about saucers could have been prevented with a sky patrol in place. (“Sky

Patrol Recommended by Scientist,” Richmond (Va.) Times Dispatch, December 27 , 1947, p. 8; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 1, 1947, The Author, February 1991, p. 76) December — By now, ATIC has received 156 UFO reports. Aerodynamicists at ATIC and AMC agree that no German design can match UFO performance. The USAF Aeromedical Laboratory says that even if such a craft can be built, the human body cannot withstand the maneuvers, and USAF materials specialists say that no known material can withstand them either, as well as the heat of high speeds. Ruppelt later writes, “Why couldn’t these people, whoever they might be, stand these horrible maneuver forces? Why judge them by earthly standards? I found a memo to this effect was in the old Project Sign files.” (Ruppelt, p. 28 ) December 30 — Gen. Laurence C. Craigie, director of USAF R&D and successor to Gen. Curtis LeMay (who has returned to Europe), advises the AMC commanding general that USAF policy is not to ignore UFO reports, but to collect, evaluate, and act on the information. He establishes Project Sign (Project HT-304 under USAF Technical Instruction no. TI-2185) in a memo titled “Flying Discs.” Alfred Loedding, who is convinced that the flying discs are extraterrestrial, may have come up with the “Sign” designation. It carries a 2A restricted classification. (Gen. Laurence C. Craigie, “Flying Discs,” Memorandum to Commanding General, Air Materiel Command, December 30, 1947; Sparks, p. 11 ; Condon, p. 896 ; “Report by the Director of Intelligence, USAF, to the Joint Intelligence Committee on Unidentified Aerial Objects,” April 28, 1949, p. 2; Michael David Hall and Wendy Ann Connors, “Alfred Loedding: New Insight on the Man behind Project Sign,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 24). Craigie, after his retirement from the Air Force in 1955, indicates that he believes UFOs are a waste of time and only approved Project Sign because of internal USAF politics. (Joel Carpenter)

1948

1948 — David T. Keating, an employee of the USAF Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft group, is flying with the 166th Fighter Squadron of the Ohio National Guard out of Lockbourne AFB [now Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base] in Lockbourne, Ohio. While executing a flip of his P-51 at 18,000 feet, he sees a silvery disc zoom above his plane. He goes in pursuit of it at 325 mph and closes to within 240 feet of it. It seems to be 40 feet in diameter and 6 feet thick, with a vertical stabilizer rudder on the end. He keeps flying after it even when he loses sight of it. “About 10 miles south of the Ohio River,” he claims, “I spotted litter on a hillside and a path that had obviously been ripped up by a crashing plane.” Short on fuel, he returns to Lockbourne. He persuades his major to fly over the crash scene, and they send a truck to retrieve the remains. (Helen Knox, “Ridge Newcomer Tells of Game of Tag with ‘Saucer,’” The Oak Ridger, September 18, 1950; Clark III 325) 1948 — An airman stationed in Arizona is called out with a scientific team to examine a flying saucer that has crashed near Taos, New Mexico. When he arrives, the area is roped off and under military guard. The object is metallic with a flat circular airfoil. The cabin at the top center is too small for a normal-sized human. He is told by workers on the scene that bodies of “little men” have been removed from the craft. They discover that the ship is constructed of interlocking sections pinned together, but they cannot locate a power plant, except possibly some electromagnets below the cabin. (L. J[ames] Lorenzen, “Aimé Michel’s Orthotenic Lines,” APRO Bulletin, July 1958, pp. 6–7; Clark III 325) 1948 — British author and ex-MI5 operative Bernard Newman publishes a novel titled The Flying Saucer, the first book to use that phrase in its title. The story revolves around a group of scientists who create a fake Martian threat in order to bring the world together. Plot elements include a trio of staged saucer crashes (in New Mexico, Russia, and the UK), propaganda, and even an alien autopsy. (Bernard Newman, The Flying Saucer, Gollancz, 1948; Andrew May, “The Flying Saucer,” Retro-Forteana, June 30, 2013; Kremlin 43–45) 1948? — Sylvia Hall, 11, wakes up at her home on the corner of Riggs Road and Lateral 1 Road south of Yakima, Washington, when her bedroom fills with bluish-white light pouring in through the closed west window. Some 100 feet above the ground is a huge bright cloud. Gliding down from it in groups of four on something like a ramp are tall people with bluish-silvery robes. She watches them for 10 minutes, then she has an overpowering desire to go back to bed. She tells no one about the experience until she is an adult. (Greg Long, “Strangeness at Yakima,” IUR 19, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1994): 16–17)

January 6 — 3:00 p.m. Bernice Zaikowski, 61, of Chehalis, Washington, hears a “sizzling and whizzing” sound and looks up to see a “birdman” hovering 200 feet above her barn. She watches “a man equipped with long silver wings fastened over the shoulders with a strap” ascend rapidly, hover, bank, then fly away. “He flew in an upright position and appeared to be manipulating controls strapped to his chest.” The wings do not flap; instead they retract close to his body during ascent, and are extended to hover or proceed in horizontal flight. Zaikowski says

five other adult witnesses and a number of children also see the birdman. (“‘Flying Man’ Is Chehalis Report,” Coos Bay (Oreg.) World, January 21, 1948, p. 2; Lyle Zapato, “The Birdmen of Cascadia,” ZPi blog, March 24, 2007; Clark III 270 ) January 7 — 1:00 p.m. Kentucky State Police telephone Commanding Officer Col. Guy F. Hix’s office at Godman Army Airfield in Fort Knox, Kentucky, reporting an unidentified object near Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Another call to Hix comes from state police at about 1:10 p.m. of an observation by a civilian in Madisonville, Kentucky, through a Finch telescope of a cone-shaped object about 100 feet tall by 43 feet wide, at an altitude of 4 miles and moving at 10 mph. This is apparently General Mills Skyhook balloon Flight B, which passes about 40 miles to the southwest of Madisonville. Other reports come in from Lexington and Mannsville, Kentucky. (Sparks, p. 30) January 7 — 1:20–2:10 p.m. Army Flight Service reports to Godman Army Airfield control tower that the object is over Irvington then Owensboro, Kentucky. Godman Tower Operator Tech/Sgt Quinton A. Blackwell, Capt. James F. Duesler Jr., Base Air Inspector Lt. Col. E. Garrison Wood, and other USAF personnel see a round or ice-cream- cone-shaped white or silver object with a revolving red streamer toward the south beginning at 1:50 p.m. Many others see it as well after 2:07 p.m., such as Operations Officer Capt. Cary W. Carter and Col. Guy F. Hix. (Sparks, p. 30) January 7 — 2:50 p.m. Capt. Thomas F. Mantell Jr., a 25-year-old Kentucky Air National Guard pilot, and three others are flying F-51D fighters to Louisville, Kentucky. After Mantell reports his position to Standiford Field in Louisville, Tech/Sgt. Quinton A. Blackwell at Godman Army Airfield at Fort Knox breaks in over the radio to request Mantell to intercept and identify the object. The object maintains a constant angular position as seen from Godman as it apparently moves away at about 240–300 mph at an altitude of 50,000–60,000 feet during most of Mantell’s pursuit. Flying at 300 mph and gradually climbing to about 22,000–23,000 feet, Mantell gradually overtakes the UFO from below, past Bowling Green, Kentucky, at about 3:10 p.m. In one of his last radio reports, Mantell says the UFO “appears to be a metallic object or possibly reflection of sun from a metallic object, and it is of tremendous size.” At 3:15 p.m., at 22,500 feet with oxygen running low, two other F- 51 Ds quit the chase. Mantell continues to 25,000, blacks out, and crashes at 3:18 p.m. about 4 miles south-southwest of Franklin, Kentucky. The UFO disappears from view behind a cloud at Godman at 3:50 p.m. The Project Sign staff, still not yet formally organized, are under pressure to come up with some kind of answer, so they quickly float Venus (offhandedly suggested by Ohio State University astronomer J. Allen Hynek) as an explanation. This implausible explanation is not even believed by the Air Force, but it remains unchallenged for several years. In 1952, Ruppelt reopens the case and identifies the object as a secret Skyhook balloon, although he cannot confirm a launch that day. Army veteran Clifford Stone finds later that there had been no Skyhook launches since late December. However, Barry J. Greenwood and Robert Todd tentatively identify the balloon as one launched from Camp Ripley near Little Falls, Minnesota, on January 6. (Wikipedia, “Mantell UFO incident”; NICAP, “The Mantell Case”; Clark III 706– 710 ; Ruppelt, p. 31 ; Good Above, pp. 262 – 263 ; Good Need, pp. 104 – 105 ; Sparks, pp. 30 – 31; Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 37; “The Mantell UFO: A Smoking Gun, Maybe!” Just Cause, no. 39 (March 1994): 9–10; “The Mantell UFO: A Smoking Gun, Maybe! Part Two” Just Cause, no. 40 (June 1994): 8–12; Christopher D. Allan, “The Mantell Case—50 Years Later,” IUR 23, no. 1 (Spring 1998): 7–9, 31– 32 ; Michael D. Swords, GrassRoots UFOs: Case Reports from the Timmerman Files, Fund for UFO Research, 2005, pp. 137–138; Kevin D. Randle, “The Mantell Analyses,” A Different Perspective, September 21, 2017; Center for UFO Studies, [clippings and documents on Mantell case]; Swords 51–52; Francis Ridge, The Mantell Incident: An Anatomy of a Re-Investigation, The Author, 2010; Flight Handbook, USAF Series F-51D Aircraft, January 20, 1954) January 7 — 4:45–7:06 p.m. USAF 1Lt. Paul I. Orner tracks an unidentified white light with red coloration in a weather theodolite at Godman Army Airfield in Fort Knox, Kentucky, for more than 2 hours. (Sparks, p. 31) January 7 — 7:15 p.m. Air Traffic Controller and pilot Alex A. Boudreaux and VHF Direction-Finding (DF) Operator and amateur astronomer Frank M. Eisele, 103rd AACS Squadron, at Lockbourne AFB [now Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base] in Lockbourne, Ohio, spot a bright object to the southwest of the airfield that appears and disappears intermittently. Fighter pilot USAF Capt. Charles E. McGee sees the object on runway 23 landing approach when he is at about 1,800 feet. The light seems to be at about 3,000 feet to the southwest about 4– 5 miles away, then later on the ground to the west about 6–7 miles away. USAF VHF DF Operator and pilot Albert R. Pickering, Detachment 733, 103rd AACS Squadron, is awakened by the sudden emergence of a lighted amber- colored round or oval object about the size of a C-47 or larger [60+ feet] dropping out of the overcast bank 10,000 feet overhead. Lockbourne Control Tower at the same time radios a report of the object, which then maneuvers over to Commercial Point about 3–5 miles away to the west-southwest, then makes three full 360° circles over one spot in 30-40 seconds per turn over the runway, at a speed of more than 500 mph, leaving a luminous, amber- colored trail or exhaust about 5 times its length. Then the UFO goes to another location and does more 360°

turns. At one point, it disappears into the overcast for one minute, then reappears. Just before departing, it hovers or “appeared to touch down” on the grass extension past the end of the Lockbourne AFB runway for 10 seconds then leaves at 120° (ESE) heading into the overcast. It is also sighted by the pilot of a C-45 at 5,000 feet off the right wing at 7:53 p.m. (NICAP, “Object Circles Base at High Speed / Touches Down”; Sparks, p. 32 ) January 7 — 7:35 p.m. Base personnel at Clinton County AFB [now Wilmington Air Park] near Wilmington, Ohio, where Skyhooks are launched a couple years later, watch a quickly maneuvering object. It dances up and down and changes from red to green before speeding to the southwest. Sgt. LeRoy Ziegler thinks he can detect a faint exhaust trail. Project Sign calls it Venus, because it disappears about the time Venus does. (NICAP, “Object Circles Base at High Speed / Touches Down”; NICAP, “Part 2-11: ‘…Was Not the Planet Venus,” June 4, 2006) January 9 — 11:30 p.m. Eastern Airlines pilot Hugh DuBose, flying a DC-3 aircraft at 3,000 feet altitude near Cartersville, Georgia, observes a circular object with a flat top cross his flight path at the same altitude and then turn earthward. The object is light sky-blue in color and is traveling at an estimated speed of 400 mph. (NICAP, “Object Passes DC-3, Turns”; Sparks, p. 32) January 21 — Col. Riley F. Ennis, chief of the Army Intelligence Division, in a memo reiterates the Schulgen Draft of Collection Memorandum and stresses the need to investigate Soviet development of a jet-propelled flying wing aircraft. (Department of the Army, “Unconventional Aircraft,” Intelligence Collection Memorandum number 7, January 21, 1948) January 22 — Project Sign officially launches at Wright Field. The primary investigators are Capt. Robert R. Sneider (project chief), Alfred Loedding (T-3 engineer), Lawrence Truettner (T-2 engineer), and Col. Albert Deyarmond (analyst in Intelligence Analysis Division). Also involved are Maj. Raymond Llewellyn (chief of special projects branch), Lt. Howard W. Smith, George W. Towles, and others as assigned. How much interest Col. Howard McCoy takes in the project is unknown. Its task is to collect, collate, evaluate, and distribute information on sightings in the atmosphere “which can be considered of concern to national security.” Ruppelt later says that to be considered an “unknown,” it has to come from a competent observer and contain a reasonable amount of data. (Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 36– 37 ; Sparks, p. 11 ; Ruppelt, p. 10 ; NICAP, “Project Sign Begins, 22 Jan 1948”; Michael David Hall and Wendy Ann Connors, “Alfred Loedding: New Insight on the Man behind Project Sign,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 24) January 23 — Col. William E. Clingerman, writing for Col. Howard McCoy at Wright Field, asks Lt. Col. George Garrett of Air Force Intelligence for all files on “Swedish incidents” in 1946 and 1947. He receives at least 44 documents, none of which have been released. (Jan Aldrich, “Investigating the Ghost Rockets,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 13 ; Swords 30) January 26 — Project Sign becomes formally operational as Project HT-304. Lt. Col. James C. Beam becomes its first project director. (Sparks, p. 13 ) January 31 — The Research and Development Board dismisses flying saucers as “a mirage induced by mass self- hypnosis” in stories that appear in newspapers of this day. (“‘Flying Discs’ Book Declared Closed,” Pendleton East Oregonian, January 31, 1948; Project 1947, “UFO Reports, 1948”; Swords 52–53)

February — 2:00 a.m. Glancing out his window while getting a drink of water, farmer C. Bruce Stevenson notices a bight orange-amber glow near his farm buildings a few miles from Circleville, Ohio. He expects to find the buildings on fire, but instead there is a large, domed flying saucer gliding silently over the roof of his pig house about 100 feet away. The UFO, about 60 feet in diameter, maintains a slow speed and low altitude until it disappears from sight. (“Bruce Stevenson Reveals Close-Up View of Saucer,” Circleville (Ohio) Herald, August 2, 1952, pp. 1–2; “Bruce Stevenson Certain Saucer Wasn’t Reflection,” Circleville (Ohio) Herald, August 7, 1952, p. 1; Project 1947, “UFO Reports, 1948”; Pete Hartinger, “America’s First Classic Close Encounter,” Pickaway Quarterly, Fall 1996, pp. 11– 13 ) February 4 — Capt. Richard W. Geuss, acting assistant adjutant general, writes a memo on behalf of Lieut. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer, to ADC and USAF commanding generals on “Investigation and Reporting of ‘Flying Disc’ Incidents.” It specifies that Air Force commanders are charged with evaluating military UFO incidents, in cooperation with CIC personnel and local FBI offices. Even hoaxes are to be passed on to the FBI. (Capt. Richard W. Geuss, “Investigation and Reporting of ‘Flying Disc’ Incidents,” February 4, 1948) February 12 —Brig. Gen. Charles P. Cabell, chief of the Air Intelligence Requirements Division, sends a secret memo to Maj. Gen. Samuel E. Anderson. director of Plans and Operations, stating that the Commanding General of AMC feels that the responsibility for collecting information on “flying disks” should be complemented by a requirement that all USAF installations “provide a minimum of one each aircraft, with necessary crews, on a continuous alert basis. These aircraft should be equipped with gun camera, and such armament as deemed advisable, in order to

secure photographs necessary to the obtainment of all possible data on any reported and sighted unusual phenomena, of the ‘flying disk’ type, in the atmosphere.” (Good Above, p. 263 ) February 18 — 5:00 p.m. A smoke trail begins over Nebraska and runs south. A bolide explodes over Norcatur, Kansas, and the concussion from the blast breaks windows and rocks buildings over a wide area of Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. A huge shower of meteoritic stones fall over a large area of Norton County, Kansas, and Furnas County, Nebraska. Two Army B-29 bombers circle the area until nightfall. A farmer near Stockton, Kansas, sees a hovering object that leaves a bare spot in the ground. Kenneth Arnold is persuaded that reports of the Norton County meteorite fall might actually have been UFO-related. Astronomer Lincoln LaPaz directs the recovery of the massive achondritic meteorite in 1948. More than 100 stones are recovered, including one weighing about one ton. (Wikipedia, “Norton County (meteorite)”; “Norton County,” Meteorite Recon, October 8, 2015; Luna Meteorite Hunters, “Norton County, KS Fall 18FEB1948 More Than 60 Years Ago,” February 26, 2009; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1948, The Author, 1988, pp. 15–16; Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 37 – 40 ) February 20 — 2:00 a.m. In Palm Beach, Florida, lawyer and writer Charles Francis Coe and his son Alan see a globe of light shooting across the sky to the northeast at terrific speed. Coe calls it a “ray or blob of light” and insists it is not a meteor. (“Mystery ‘Globe’ Seen by Editor,” Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, February 21, 1948, p. 1; “True Mystic Experiences,” Fate 1, no. 3 (Fall 1948): 105 – 113; Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer, The Coming of the Saucers, Palmer, 1952, p. 139) February 20 — 1:15 p.m. Six surveyors, including Idaho Power Company surveyor E. G. Hall, see a small flat, heart- shaped UFO flying in the sky at Emmett, Idaho. Through his theodolite it looks fuzzy across its back edge as if “dipped in cream.” He says it was about the size of a Piper Cub airplane and flying point first below the cloud level at between 2,000 and 4,000 feet. (Emmett (Idaho) Messenger, February 26, 1948; Kenneth Arnold, “Are Space Visitors Here?” Fate 1, no. 2 (Summer 1948): 13)

March 3 — Maj. Gen. Samuel E. Anderson, USAF Director of Plans and Operations at the Pentagon, rejects a proposal by Col. Howard McCoy and Brig. Gen. Charles P. Cabell for stationing fighter aircraft at all bases on continuous alert for UFOs. It costs too much and proper interceptions are unlikely. He orders all bases to send UFO information to Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. (Maj. Gen. S. E. Anderson, “Flying Discs,” March 3, 1948; Good Above, pp. 263 – 264 ) March 12 — Maj. Earl S. Browning Jr., in a memo to the European command of the 970th CIC, writes that the Horten brothers have been located and interrogated by US officials. Walter Horten has remained in Germany as an officer in the German Air Force. He thinks that sufficient types of flying wing prototypes existed when the Russians invaded Germany and may have served as models for flying discs. Reimar Horten had emigrated to Argentina when the war ended. (Jacobsen, Area 51, p. 43 ) March 17 — Memo on “Flying Discs” from Maj. Gen. George C. McDonald, director of USAF intelligence, to the AMC commander, considers Col. McCoy’s proposal to maintain fighters on alert for UFOs “unfeasible.” (Maj. Gen. George C. McDonald, “Flying Discs,” March 17, 1948) March 17– 18 — The USAF Scientific Advisory Board meets in Room 3E-869 of the Pentagon, with physicist Theodore von Kármán presiding. Col. McCoy is present and speaks briefly about Project Sign, saying it has over 300 reports, many of them from experienced observers: “I can’t even tell you how much we would give to have one of those crash in an area so that we could recover whatever they are.” (Howard McCoy, “Scientific Advisory Board Conference Held 17–18 March 1948, Room 3E-869, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.”) March 23 — RAF pilot John Cunningham reaches an altitude of 59,430 feet in a de Havilland Vampire turbojet. (Wikipedia, “John Cunningham (RAF officer)”) March 25 — 5:00 a.m. According to writer Frank Scully, who hears the tale from a scientist he refers to as “Dr. Gee” and a Texas oilman, a UFO crashes on a rocky plateau off Hart Canyon Road east of Aztec, New Mexico. When Air Force investigators and government scientists arrive on the scene, they crawl through a broken porthole and find the bodies of 16 small humanlike beings (3–3.5 feet tall) dressed in the “style of 1890.” Their skin is charred a chocolate color, apparently as a result of the rush of terrestrial air through the shattered window. After a thorough study, the scientists conclude that the “vehicle probably flew on magnetic lines of force.” Segments of the craft, as well as the bodies, are supposedly transported to Wright Field in Ohio. Dr. Gee, who claims to have been on the scene, said the UFO is likely from Venus, as Martians “would probably be three or four times as large as human beings.” Soon afterward, a crash occurs in Arizona and 16 bodies are taken from the wreckage. A third spaceship goes down near Phoenix with 2 dead occupants. The story turns out to be a hoax dreamed up by two con men named Silas Newton and Leo GeBauer (“Dr. Gee,” although Scully claims this was a composite character incorporating 8 informants, one of whom is said to be geophysicist Carl A. Heiland). The hoax is loosely based on

a 1949 science fiction film titled The Flying Saucer. GeBauer and especially Newton are in later years involved in
various swindles and fraudulent mining claims. In 198 7 , William S. Steinman and Wendelle C. Stevens release
UFO Crash at Aztec, which draws on speculation, rumor, unnamed informants, and paranoia to defend and
embellish the original story. The latest to champion the Aztec crash is a North Carolina man named Scott
Ramsey, who with his wife Suzanne has spent thousands of dollars looking for and interviewing witnesses and
trying to prove it involves a real UFO crash and coverup in his 201 5 book The Aztec UFO Incident. Ramsey
thinks the object was tracked on radar by Air Force Station P-8 near El Vado Dam. (Wikipedia, “Aztec, New
Mexico UFO hoax”; Frank Scully, Behind the Flying Saucers, Holt, 1950; J. P. Cahn, “Flying Saucers and the
Mysterious Little Men,” True, September 1952, pp. 17–19, 102–112; J. P. Cahn, “Flying Saucer Swindlers,” True,
August 1956, pp. 36 – 37 , 69– 72 ; William S. Steinman and Wendelle C. Stevens, UFO Crash at Aztec, UFO Photo
Archives, 1987; Clark III 1044– 1047 ; William E. Jones and Rebecca D. Minshall, “Aztec, New Mexico—A
Crash Story Reexamined,” IUR 16, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1991): 11–15, 23; Good Above, pp. 388 – 394 ; Good Need,
pp. 117 – 123 ; Jerome Clark, review of The Aztec Incident, in Journal of Scientific Exploration 26, no. 3 (2012):
709 – 716 ; Scott Ramsey, Suzanne Ramsey, and Frank Thayer, The Aztec UFO Incident, New Page, 2015; Curt
Collins, “Flying Saucer Swindlers: Silas Newton and the UFO Crash,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, April 5,
2020 )

Spring — Ray Palmer and Flying magazine editor Curtis Fuller publish the first issue of Fate magazine at Clark Publishing Company in Chicago, Illinois. It features a first-hand story and a 30-page UFO roundup by Kenneth Arnold, as well as a history of unconventional aircraft by Curtis Fuller. Palmer and Fuller use the shared pseudonym “Robert N. Webster.” The issue sells a healthy 50,000 copies. It is still being published in 202 2. (Kenneth Arnold, “I Did See the Flying Disks!” Fate 1, no. 1 (Spring 1948): 4–10; Kenneth Arnold, “The Mystery of the Flying Disks,” Fate 1, no. 1 (Spring 1948): 18–48; Robert N. Webster [Curtis Fuller], “What Were the ‘Doughnuts’?” Fate 1, no. 1 (Spring 1948): 12–17; Clark III 872) Spring — Kenneth Arnold visits the Landing Aids Experiment Station in Arcata, California, and interviews Kenneth W. Ehlers, a radar technician (and later physicist) working on airport operational systems, including radar. He has been accumulating information on unidentified radar targets (he calls them “gizmos”) that cannot be seen with the naked eye and sending reports on their flight paths to Navy meteorologist Florence Van Straten and Luis Walter Alvarez, the inventor of Ground Control Approach System radar. In many cases, the target indicates a small solid target flying around 30 mph. The targets always fly in the same path from northwest to southeast, along the coast. Sometimes they come to a complete halt; at other times they split into two objects, merging later. Ehlers notes that the targets have been attributed to insects, but he is skeptical. Later, he suspects they might be plasmas occurring at the inversion layer, but that does not explain their behavior. (Wesley Price, “The Sky Is Haunted,” Saturday Evening Post 220, no. 36 (March 6, 1948): 13; Ray Palmer, “New Report on the Flying Saucers,” Fate 4, no. 1 (January 1951): 63–81; “Landing Aids Experiment Station,” Transocean Air Lines; Greg Long, “In Search of Gizmos: A 1947 Radar Case,” IUR 19, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1994): 15–20) Spring? — President Truman asks Col. Robert B. Landry, his USAF aide, to provide him with quarterly verbal reports on the state of UFO information and research. He does so to the end of 1952, with possibly 18 briefings in all. (James R. Fuchs, “Oral History Interview with Robert B. Landry,” Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, February 28, 1974) April — Morning. US Weather Bureau meteorologist Walter A. Minozewski at the Richmond, Virginia, weather station and his staff catch sight of a bright metallic, elliptical disc while they are tracking a small ceiling balloon at 15,000 feet. He checks his observation through a theodolite telescope. The disc flies just below the balloon and remains in sight for 15 seconds, appearing much bigger than the balloon. It has a flat, level bottom and a dome on top. It remains on a westward heading at high speed, then vanishes off into the distance. (Ruppelt, p. 41 ; Bloecher, p. I- 1 ) April 1 — 9:55 a.m. USAF 1stLt. Robert W. Meyers is leading a flight of four P-47s from the 67th Fighter Group about 9 miles southeast of Sorsogon City, Luzon, Philippines. At 1,500 feet, he notices an unusual silvery object about 3 miles to the east. Shaped like a flying wing or half-moon with a “turtle back,” it resembles no military craft in use at the time. The object flies below the squadron at 200 mph and an altitude of about 1,000 feet. Meyers estimates it is about 30 feet wide and 20 feet long. When he attempts to contact the other three P-47s, he realizes his radio is dead. As he makes a 2 70 ° left turn to get a closer look, the object makes a 90° left turn and moves away at tremendous speed. It is only visible for about 5 seconds. (NICAP, “P-47 Flight Encounters Half-Moon Object”; Sparks, p. 33) April 5 — Afternoon. At Holloman AFB, near Alamogordo, New Mexico, three highly trained balloon observers (Joseph Olson, Johnson, and Chance) are working on a secret project for the Air Force’s Watson Laboratories. They see

two objects. One observer follows one object, and the others follow the second as they diverge. All are certain that the objects aren’t balloons. They are large, whitish, roundish, very high, faster than any aircraft, and perform rapid, erratic motions. One object is lost at a low altitude. The other goes up quickly and seems to just disappear. The observation lasts about 30 seconds. The case is deemed important enough to send Alfred Loedding and one of Clingerman’s assistants, Lt. Col. James C. Beam (the head of Project Sign), to New Mexico to interview Project Mogul scientist James W. Peoples and the other witnesses. Unfortunately, they are gone when Sign arrives. (They are later interviewed at the USAF Watson Laboratory complex in Red Bank, New Jersey.) The witnesses are very sure of themselves and the case is classed as “Unidentified.” While at Holloman, Loedding and Beam talk with Lt. Herbert G. Markley, who has worked with the Watson team. Markley remembers one of them speaking of unusual radar returns from their equipment, but later the Watson personnel say that these were probably just “angels” (spurious echoes due to atmospheric microstructures, insects, equipment malfunction, or other stimuli). Markley does report that UFOs are seen around Holloman often. He himself has seen a disc in late August 1947 and flat, round aeroforms on at least two further occasions. (NICAP, “Team Watches 35-Meter Disc”; Ruppelt, p. 71 ; Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 40– 4 1; Sparks, p. 33 ; Project 1947, “Holloman AFB UFO Sightings”) April 9 — Viola Johnson of Longview, Washington, and another witness see three “flying men” circling the town. She says they are “dressed in khaki-colored flying suits with helmets over their faces.” (Clark III 777) April 15 — 6:17 a.m. The X-Ray nuclear device is detonated near Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. B-17 pilotless drone aircraft are flown through the cloud, and a drone light tank is used to recover soil samples from the crater. Unfortunately, it becomes bogged and must be towed out 10 days later. (Wikipedia, “Operation Sandstone”) April 23 — A preliminary 25-page report, written by Project Sign’s Col. Howard McCoy and Lt. Col. James C. Beam, summarizes UFO reports received through February 1, with attached memos and documents. It is addressed to Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenberg and Director of Intelligence Charles P. Cabell. The Rhodes photos and 99 other cases are listed. A comment by chemist Irving Langmuir is appended, noting his doubts about the reality of flying discs. (Col. Howard M. McCoy, “Project Sign,” April 23, 1948; Swords 54–55) April 27– 28 — Physicist Joseph Kaplan, a member of the USAF Scientific Advisory Board, visits the Kirtland AFB Office of Special Investigations, AEC’s Sandia Base, and Los Alamos in New Mexico, under orders from Theodore Von Kármán, chairman of the USAF Scientific Advisory Board, to review UFO reports and investigations from the area. Kaplan and Lincoln LaPaz meet with security personnel at Los Alamos. Kaplan reports that “these occurrences relate to the National Defense of the United States” and should be investigated scientifically.” (Good Above, p. 266 )

May — An article on secret Skyhook balloons (without mentioning the project name) by Devon Francis is published in Popular Science. (Devon Francis, “New Balloons Explore Roof of the Airways,” Popular Science, May 1948, pp. 98 – 1 04) May 5 — An Efficiency Rating report is written up for Alfred Loedding from Miles E. Goll, which mentions his work as a monitor for Project Sign. (Miles E. Goll, “Efficiency Rating of Mr. Alfred C. Loedding,” May 5, 1948) May 7 — Afternoon. Mr. and Mrs. Fordyce J. Kaiser and their housekeeper Jean Bray, at 251 W. Waldorf Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee, see 50–60 unusual objects, apparently moving very high and fast, traveling in straight lines with slight zigzagging. They are shiny like bright aluminum with silvery trails. Lt. Col. James C. Beam of Project Sign goes to investigate. On the way back, he consults with astronomer Paul Herget of the Cincinnati Observatory in Ohio, who thinks the objects are meteors and recommends Ohio State University astronomer J. Allen Hynek in Columbus as a project consultant. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1948, The Author, 1988, pp. 28 – 29 ; Sparks, p. 34 ; Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 41; Swords 55–56) May 12 — European Command HQ sends the director of intelligence at the US Forces in Austria a memo alleging that Walter Horten has admitted he has been in contact with the Russians. (Jacobsen, Area 51, p. 43 ) May 14 — Douglas Aircraft Company creates the RAND Corporation, a global think tank to offer research and analysis to the US military. It is financed by the US government, endowments, corporations, universities, and private individuals. (Wikipedia, “RAND Corporation”) May 15 — During the Zebra nuclear detonation at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands, a manned aircraft accidentally flies through the mushroom cloud. Because the pilot and crew “suffered no ill effects,” the Air Force decides that piloted aircraft could collect samples. The Los Alamos, New Mexico, personnel assigned to remove the filters from the B-17 drones have apparently carried out the same procedure on X-Ray and Yoke without problems, but this time three of them suffer radiation burns on their hands serious enough to be hospitalized and need skin grafting. One of the men who carries out the procedure for Yoke is then also found to have burns on his hands and is also hospitalized but is discharged on May 28. Once again, the drone tank gives trouble and bogs in the crater,

but the soil samples are retrieved by the backup drone tank. Both tanks are subsequently dumped in the ocean. (Wikipedia, “Operation Sandstone”; Jacobsen, Area 51, p. 224) May 15 — A piston-driven YB-35 flying wing bomber makes its first and only flight at Edwards AFB in California. (Wikipedia, “Northrop YB- 35 ”) May 17 — Day. William A. Bonneville sees a bright white ball, three times as bright as a locomotive headlight, sail over the hills to the northwest between Plevna and Miles City, Montana. It moves south, then west, repeating these maneuvers for 20 minutes until it flies into a dark cloud. It is silent, and a long, bright light shoots out from beneath. (Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 41– 44 ) Late May — 11:40 a.m. Sgt. T. G. Jones and three other officers and two crew are aboard a York transport aircraft, accompanied by a formation of six Meteor jets, cruising at 10,000 feet above the Oxford/Bicester area in England, bound for RAF Acklington. Visiting US Maj. Robin Olds is in one of the jets. They encounter a 100-foot oval object with three bumps or protrusions on the bottom, as Jones describes it through binoculars. Ground radar tracks the object, which is stationary and above 25,000 feet. Two jets go up to try to get a better look and get within a few thousand feet. The object departs vertically at a speed of 1,500 mph. (Jenny Randles, UFO Conspiracy, Cassell, 1987, pp. 92 – 93 ) May 28 — 3 :00 p.m. USAF Reserve 1st Lt. Alexander Kokolonis is flying a C-47 at 6,000 feet six miles east of Monroe, Michigan, when he sees out of the navigator’s window three discs 2 miles to the left. He estimates they are 300– 400 feet in diameter, silvery-gold, and traveling well over 500 mph. They are seen for only 10–15 seconds. Shortly afterwards, Kokolonis sees two similar objects and he alerts M/Sgt Ernest Davis Jr., who also sees them. (NICAP, “Air Force Transport Buzzed by 3 UFOs”; Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 45) May 31 — 1:20 p.m. A cigar-shaped object moves through the sky from the northwest at terrific speed over Wilmington, North Carolina. Mrs. H. D. Alspach, Mrs. Charles Colvin, and Mrs. Isabell Hufham see the object emit smoke. It appears about 3 feet long. It slows down over the Cape Fear River, veers off to the east, and then speeds away at a high altitude. (NICAP, “Cigar Slows Down Then Speeds Up”; Sparks, p. 34 )

Summer — USAF Maj. Edwin A. Jerome reports that a high-speed radar target appears during an inspection visit at Goose Bay AFB [now CFB Goose Bay], Labrador. It is calculated at going 9,000 mph at an altitude of 60,000 feet. The commanders assume that the US equipment is faulty, but the Canadians have tracked the same target. The following day, an object hovers over the base at 45,000 feet and moving only 10 mph. (NICAP, “Edwin Jerome Radar Case”; UFOEv, pp. 83 – 84 ; Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 151–152; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 51– 52 ; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 264) Summer [possibly 1958] — Early afternoon. Aircraft instrumentation engineer Victor G. Didelot watches an elliptical UFO moving rapidly west to east roughly parallel to the shoreline of Lake Erie in Erie, Pennsylvania. It suddenly and silently ascends vertically at three times its horizontal speed and disappears. (UFOEv, pp. 55 – 56 ) Summer — Physicist Carl A. Mitchell sees three luminescent greenish discs, one second apart, passing across the sky above Easton, Pennsylvania, from north to south. (UFOEv, p. 49 ) June 5 — A jet-propelled Northrop YB-49 crashes north of Muroc [now Edwards] AFB in California after completing a number of maximum forward center-of-gravity tests, killing its pilot, Maj. Daniel Forbes (for whom Forbes AFB in Topeka, Kansas, is named), copilot Capt. Glen Edwards (for whom Edwards AFB is named), and three other crew members. The aircraft suffers structural failure, with both outer wing sections becoming detached from the center section. (Wikipedia, “Northrop YB- 49 ”) June 16 — Soviet test pilot Arkady Ivanovich Apraksin is flying at an altitude of 6.5 miles above a solid layer of clouds south of the Kapustin Yar site, Astrakhan Oblast, Russia. He sees an unconventional aircraft in the shape of a cucumber with cones of light radiating from it descending across his path. The base tells him it has tracked the object on radar and given it instructions to land, but it does not respond. Apraksin is ordered to intercept it and open fire if it refuses to land. When he closes to within 6 miles, the light beams open up like a fan and shine into his aircraft, blinding him. The plane’s electrical systems malfunction. He glides the plane to a safe landing after the UFO disappears. Apraksin is interrogated heavily. (Good Above, p. 221 ; Joe Brill, “UFO’s behind the Iron Curtain,” Skylook, no. 87, February 1975, pp. 14– 15 ) June 18 — The National Security Council issues Directive 10/2, calling for covert action against the USSR, and granting the authority to carry out covert operations against “hostile foreign states or groups” that could, if needed, be denied by the US government. To this end, the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) is created inside the new CIA. Frank Wisner, the head of the OPC, answers not to the CIA director, but to the secretaries of defense, state, and the NSC, and the OPC’s actions are a secret even from the head of the CIA. Most CIA stations have two

station chiefs, one working for the OSO, and one working for the OPC. (“Note on U.S. Covert Actions,” from Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964 – 1968, Volume XII, Western Europe, Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, US Department of State) June 29 — ATIC’s chief of operations, C. A. Griffith, writes to a military representative in Norway to send all UFO reports to Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1948, The Author, 1988, pp. 32 – 33) June 30 — A couple are driving near Hecla, South Dakota, when they see an unusual star. They stop the car and get out, but it is not moving. They drive on and stop again. A few pieces break off the original star and arrange themselves in a triangle formation. They all now look like polished aluminum; they rise to a great height and vanish. (Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 45– 46 ; Sparks, p. 35 ; Swords 57)

July — 1:00 p.m. Former Air Force pilot Don Newman and three friends watch a disc-shaped, domed UFO, about 100 feet in diameter, maneuvering over Pasco, Washington. “The exterior finish appears to be spun or burnished aluminum.” The object slows, then accelerates rapidly, dives, and climbs over the area. (UFOEv, p. 38 ; NICAP, “Summary of letter from Witness to Major Keyhoe, dated March 10, 1958”) July 1 — A Maj. Hammer is flying above Rapid City AFB [now Ellsworth AFB], South Dakota, when he sees 21 brilliant, yellow-white, oval-shaped objects. They are about 100 feet in diameter and flying in a tight diamond formation. They make a high-speed dive, level, make a perfect turn in formation, angle upwards at 30°–40°, and accelerate out of sight. He estimates their cruising speed at 500 mph. (Swords 57–58; Sparks, p. 35) July 4 — Day. Edward E. Thompson watches a brilliant spherical UFO for five minutes while sitting in Johnson Park in Camden, New Jersey, across from the Cooper Free Public Library. (“Report from the Readers,” Fate 1, no. 4 (Winter 1949): 93 – 94 ) July 7 — A silver, disc-shaped object allegedly crashes some 30 miles south-southwest of Laredo, Texas. US servicemen are reportedly dispatched from a nearby military base to cordon off the UFO crash site until a special US retrieval team arrives to examine the wreckage and carry it away to a military base in San Antonio, Texas. Supposedly the badly burned body of a nonhuman entity is recovered from the crash site. Ufologist Leonard Stringfield hears rumors of the crash in 1977, but few further details emerge. Early in 1978, Stringfield describes the humanoid found at the crash site as “about 4 feet, 6 inches tall, completely hairless, with hands that had no thumbs.” That description seems to fit the body shown in two photographs that are mailed to Willard F. McIntyre in December

1978. The body depicted in the photos sent to McIntyre has come to be known as the “Tomato Man” due to its large, roundish head. Many UFO researchers, including Ron Schaffner and Kevin Randle, believe the body is that of a human pilot who is badly disfigured by intense heat following a plane crash. They argue that one of the photos shows a pair of eyeglasses, such as a human pilot would wear, near the body. (William S. Steinman and Wendelle C. Stevens, UFO Crash at Aztec, UFO Photo Archives, 1986, pp. 402–422; Kevin D. Randle, A History of UFO Crashes, Avon, 1995, p. 188; Good Above, pp. 397 – 398 ; “Laredo 1948,” Texas UFO Museum and Research Library, March 8, 2009; Noe Torres and Ruben Uriarte, The Other Roswell: UFO Crash on the Texas – Mexico Border, Roswell Books, 2008) July 9 — Caramia and Carpenter, two officers of the USAF 72nd Reconnaissance Group, are fishing at Fielding Lake, Alaska, when they hear a loud roar and notice about 20 gray discs or spheres moving at 500 mph in loose formation from west-northwest to east-southeast at about 5,000 feet. (Barry Greenwood, “The Estimate of the Situation: Well, Not Exactly!” UFO Historical Revue, no. 16 (July 2015): 5–10) July 9 — 9:47 p.m. While on the ground in Osborn, Ohio, the USAF Project Sign officer who had flown to investigate the Hecla case, sees a self-luminous, yellow-white object flying at 500–600 mph. It seems to pulse its lights at 3- second intervals as it moves away. (Swords 58; Sparks, p. 35) July 14 — Day. Charles W. Shangle Jr. watches two groups of about 16 UFOs maneuvering at 300– 60 0 mph over Boise, Idaho. Two of the objects exhibit a “falling leaf” motion. (“True Mystic Experiences,” Fate 2, no. 1 (May 1949): 75 – 79) July 17 — 4:50 p.m. Two Kirtland AFB sergeants on a fishing trip with their families five miles south of San Acacia Diversion Dam, New Mexico, see a group of 7 aluminum-like, spherical objects approach from the south at 20,000 feet pass overhead at 1,500 mph. They first appear like snub-nosed jet fighters of an unknown type, shifting from V -ormation to L-formation to circular formation to no regular formation. A regular pulsating flashing light appears in the group at 30° from zenith to the north, and at this oblique angle the objects do not appear circular. There is no noise or trail. (NICAP, “Two Military Families Report Seven Objects”; Swords 58) July 20 — The Netherlands government reports that a wingless, cigar-shaped object with two decks of windows is seen flying rapidly on four separate occasions by two Dutch citizens over The Hague (and/or Arnhem). (NICAP, “High V- 2 - Like Craft Observed”; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1948, The Author, 1988, p. 86 )

July 21 — The USAF Research and Development division sends a formal letter to the RAND Corporation authorizing them to select scientists to evaluate the possibility that the flying discs might be human-built spaceships. RAND’s reply is not known. (Swords 58) July 24 — 1:45 a.m. A bright object is seen at Robins AFB in Houston County, Georgia, by ground maintenance crewman Walter Massey, who sees a “stream of fire” in the north. As it moves overhead, it seems more cylindrical. It moves off to the west. (NICAP, “July 24, 1948, 0250E, Warner Robins AFB, Georgia”) July 24 — 2:45 a.m. Capt. Clarence S. Chiles and copilot John B. Whitted are flying an Eastern Airlines DC-3 at 5,000 feet, 20 miles southwest of Montgomery, Alabama, when they see an object about 100 feet long moving rapidly toward them on their right. Torpedo-shaped and wingless, the object has flames jetting 50 feet from its rear. There are two rows of square windows through which a bright light is glowing. They only see it for 5–10 seconds. It is half a mile away and moving at about 700 mph. After it passes the plane it swoops into a cloud bank at 6,000 feet. One passenger, Clarence L. McKelvie of Columbus, Ohio, also sees it. (Wikipedia, “Chiles-Whitted UFO Encounter”; NICAP, “Chiles-Whitted Case”; Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer, The Coming of the Saucers, Palmer, 1952, pp. 90–91; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 42 – 43 ; Clark III 234– 236 ; UFOEv, p. 48 ; Sparks, p. 36; Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 46– 47 ; Swords 58– 60 ; Good Above, pp. 264 , 479 ; Joel Carpenter, “Watershed: The Chiles-Whitted ‘Rocketship’ Sighting,” 2002; Martin Shough, “Analysis of the Chiles-Whitted Sightings, July 24, 1948,” February 2011; Kevin D. Randle, “Chiles/Whitted and Skepticism,” A Different Perspective, January 21, 2016) July 25 — Chief of Air Force Intelligence Gen. Charles Cabell phones McCoy’s office at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. Sign is ordered to get into the field immediately and investigate the Chiles-Whitted case. By that afternoon, Loedding, Deyarmond, and Llewellyn (now apparently director of Project Sign) are flown by Capt. Clarence Groseclose to Atlanta, Georgia. (Sparks, p. 13 ; Swords 60) July 26 — Loedding, Deyarmond, and Llewellyn interview Chiles and Whitted in the Henry Grady Hotel, Atlanta, Georgia. They are impressed with their account. Mulling the case through September, Project Sign is disturbed even more than the Mantell incident, according to Ruppelt. Capt. Sneider considers the shape aerodynamically feasible; consultant J. Allen Hynek says it might be a fireball but considers that “far-fetched.” (Swords 60) July 26 — Aeronautical engineer Molt Taylor speculates to the Associated Press that “If we can build such craft, what is to prevent others from doing so, assuming that a similar order of intelligence exists on other planets? You and I may see the day when we will be united with Russia defending this planet against attack from space.” (“It May Be Men from Mars, Expert Says of ‘Saucers,’” San Francisco Examiner, July 28, 1948, p. 32; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1948, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, p. 65) July 27 — Air Intelligence Memorandum on “Pattern of Flying Saucers” requires that a study be made by the Air Intelligence Division to examine the pattern of tactics of reported UFOs and develop conclusions as to their probability. This leads to the EEI “Analysis of Flying Object Incidents in the United States” (100- 203 - 79) of December 10. The JIC report gives the incorrect date as August 6. (Col. Brooke E. Allen, “Analysis of Flying Object Incidents in the U.S.,” October 11, 1948; “Report by the Director of Intelligence, USAF, to the Joint Intelligence Committee on Unidentified Aerial Objects,” April 28, 1949, p. 2; Jan L. Aldrich, “New Top Secret Document Revealed,” Project 1947) July 29 — 9:18 a.m. James Toney and Robert Huggins, both employees of an Indianapolis, Indiana, rug cleaning firm, are in a truck headed west when they see a shiny, propeller-shaped, aluminum object with 10–12 small cups protruding from either blade. It is 6 – 8 feet long and flying silently above the trees at 30 feet altitude some 300 feet away heading south. It approaches to about 100 feet at its closest. The object glides across the road at 25–30 mph in a slight descent then makes a 20° bank to the east and goes down in a wooded area. Toney and Huggins stop the truck and get out to look, but the object has disappeared behind trees. A later search finds no traces. (NICAP, “Close Encounter with ‘Propeller-Shaped’ Object”; Sparks, p. 36 ) July 31 — 8:25 a.m. Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Swigert of south-central Indianapolis, Indiana, see a cymbal-shaped or domed- disc object to the west of their home. It is about 20 feet across, 6–8 feet thick, white without any shine but shadowing on upper right. It flies straight and level from horizon to horizon, west to east heading 90°. They estimate its altitude as 2,000 feet covering a distance of 5 miles in 10 seconds. It shimmers in the sun as if spinning, is silent, and has no trail. (NICAP, “Cymbal-Shaped Object Observed by Couple”; Sparks, p. 37)

August 5 — This date given by Edward Ruppelt for the lost “Estimate of the Situation,” in which Project Sign concludes that UFOs are interplanetary, is probably too early. See September 30.

August 15 — Morning. Future ufologist Walter H. Andrus Jr., his wife Genevieve, and son Donald see four UFOs flying in formation east to west over downtown, Phoenix, Arizona. They simply vanish in sequence, then the first three reappear one at a time in the northwest where they pass out of sight to the west. (Story, pp. 17 – 18 ) August 21 — A possible Russian rocket trail is seen over Katrineholm, Sweden, that remains visible for three hours “resembling a brilliant star surrounded by streamers of fire like the tentacles of an octopus.” However, there is no known record of a launch on this date of a V-2 or R-1 missile from the Russian base at Kapustin Yar, Astrakhan Oblast, Russia. It may be the same object viewed by Swedish Armed Forces Supreme Commander Helge Jung of an “aerial explosion considered to be some form of guided missile originating from Estonian islands, possibly Dagö or Osel.” (“‘Sky Octopus’ Seen above Swedish Town,” Richmond (Ind.) Palladium-Item, August 23, 1948, p. 2; “Sky Octopus over Sweden,” Fate 2, no. 1 (May 1949): 35; Jan Aldrich, “Investigating the Ghost Rockets,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 14)

September — About this time Capt. Robert R. Sneider becomes a co-chief of Project Sign with Lt. Howard W. Smith. (Sparks, pp. 13 – 14) September 1 — The CIA Office of Policy Coordination is formally established with the responsibility to engage in “propaganda, economic warfare, preventive direct action, including sabotage, antisabotage, demolition and evacuation procedures; subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance groups, guerrillas and refugee liberation groups, and support of indigenous anti-communist elements in threatened countries of the free world.” (Wikipedia, “Office of Policy Coordination”) September 15 — USAF Maj. Dick Johnson reaches an official airspeed record of 671 mph (slightly more than Yeager’s first record) in a North American F-86A-3 Sabre at Muroc [now Edwards] AFB, California. (Wikipedia, “North American F-86 Sabre”) September 16 — Before dawn. Fred Scott, 63, is walking around Grassy Mountain, Malheur County, Oregon, when he looks up and sees two “flying persons” to the south. They are 150–250 feet up, one following the other at a distance of 8–10 feet. Their wings are narrow and rounded at the tip and do not flap. Their legs are unusually short. They remain visible while Scott walks for at least another mile. (Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1940 – 1949, p. 43; Clark III 270 ) September 23 — 9:40 a.m. At Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, a group of people are waiting for an airplane at the landing strip when one of them notices something glint in the sun. It is a flat, circular object, high in the northern sky. The appearance and relative size is the same as a dime held edgewise and slightly tipped, about 50 feet away. (NICAP, “Flat Dime On-Edge Observed by Lab Personnel”; Sparks, p. 38 ) September 26 — 2:00 p.m. P. L. Lewis sees a white object moving rapidly across the sky at Port Hope, Ontario, then disappear when it is nearly overhead. Other white objects follow at about 50 mph in a northeasterly direction, accompanied by strands of spider web. Lewis speculates that the objects are balls of spiders’ threads, held together by thistledown. (P. R. Bishop, “Cobwebs or Flying Saucers?” Weather 4 (1949): 121– 122 ; Philip J. Imbrogno, Files from the Edge: A Paranormal Investigator ’ s Explorations into High Strangeness, Llewellyn, 2010, p. 54) September 30? — Project Sign officer Capt. Robert R. Sneider has decided that the time has come to climax Project Sign’s task and write the required “Estimate of the Situation.” Every intelligence operation’s task is ultimately to present such a best-guess summary, strongly backed with as much fact as possible. Using the Chiles-Whitted case as the core and collecting around it many cases from the summer of 1947 to September 1948, Sneider composes the document. The most recent case known to have been listed in the document is the September 23 Los Alamos National Laboratory sighting in New Mexico. Two prominent USAF intelligence officers (Ruppelt and Dewey J. Fournet Jr.) see the document in 1952. “It was a rather thick document with a black cover and it was printed on legal-sized paper. Stamped across the front were the words TOP SECRET.” Ruppelt says the Estimate concludes that the best evidence indicated an extraterrestrial origin for UFOs. Sneider is probably the primary author. Deyarmond, Loedding, and Truettner almost certainly are part of the writing. Llewellyn certainly looks in. All these people, as well as higher-ups in Clingerman’s and McCoy’s offices, must approve it, at least in some sense. And an Estimate of UFOs as extraterrestrial is no small thing to assent to. The Estimate is probably addressed to Chief of Staff Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg, but it really is meant for Director of Intelligence Gen. Charles Cabell. It is probably sent near the end of September, just before the George Gorman “UFO dogfight” in Fargo, North Dakota, on October 1. It probably lands in Garrett’s Collections office and is hand-carried to Cabell. Cabell may or may not be shocked. With a pro-ETH Wright-Patterson intelligence group on one side, an anti-ETH Pentagon Intelligence Requirements Office on the other, and open-minded collections officers and the powerful Research and Development chief (Gen. Donald L. Putt) in between, Cabell doesn’t want to decide this on his own. He hands the Estimate further upstairs to Vandenberg himself, who rejects it and bats it back to Cabell with a strong

sense of disapproval. Ruppelt adds that some months later the Estimate is completely declassified and “all but a
few copies” are destroyed. (Ruppelt, p. 45 ; Clark III 436– 437 ; Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate
of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 48– 51 ; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 13 – 14 ; Michael D. Swords, “The Lost Words
of Edward Ruppelt,” IUR 20, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1995): 14– 15 ; Swords 62)

October — Vannevar Bush resigns as chairman of the Research and Development Board, passing the job on to Karl Taylor Compton. (Michael Hall and Wendy Connors, “The Research and Development Board: Unanswered Questions,” IUR 26, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 9) October 1 — The first Joint Army-Navy-Air Force Publication (JANAP) 146, based on Bernard Baruch Jr.’s CIRES system, is issued. It consists of instructions for military and civilian personnel on how to report sightings of enemy aircraft, missiles, submarines, and surface vessels. This version does not include UFOs. It is tabled shortly afterward by Maj. Gen. Cabell. (Antonio F. Rullán, “Blue Book UFO Reports at Sea by Ships: Analysis of the Blue Book Ship Database,” December 10, 2002, pp. 8–9; Swords 122) October 1 — 8:30 p.m. 2d Lieut. George F. Gorman of the North Dakota National Guard, flying an F-51 near Fargo, North Dakota, spots an object traveling east to west. He describes it as a light 6 – 8 inches in diameter displaying incredible movements. He repeatedly gives chase beginning at 9:07 p.m., but each time is outmaneuvered by the light, which moves up to 600 mph. On his first pass he gets as close as 500 feet from the light at about 5,000 feet altitude. Gorman climbs to 14,000 feet but stalled out, unable to intercept the light, which is at about 16,000 feet. The light makes evasive and aggressive maneuvers, such as seeming to try to ram the F-51. When it drops to 11,000 feet, Gorman attempts to dive at it, but the light pulls up, rises vertically, and disappears at high speed. The light is also seen by airport control tower operators Lloyd D. Jensen and Manuel E. Johnson, as well as others on the ground and pilot Arthur E. Cannon flying a Piper Cub at 1,600 feet. Jensen watches the dogfight through 6x30 binoculars, the UFO appearing perfectly round with sharp edges and no fuzzy outline. Project Sign personnel arrive within hours and interview the witnesses. Eventually they conclude the object was a balloon, with evasive maneuvers the product of Gorman’s imagination, since ground observers do not see anything comparable. Some ufologists, among them Aimé Michel and James E. McDonald, have rejected the balloon explanation. (Wikipedia, “Gorman dogfight”; NICAP, “Gorman (Fargo) Case”; Ruppelt, pp. 41 – 43 ; Sparks, p. 39 ; Michael D. Swords, GrassRoots UFOs: Case Reports from the Timmerman Files, Fund for UFO Research, 2005, p. 138; Clark III 536– 537 ) October 7 — A document from Project Sign to Garrett and Cabell is an upbeat Sneider report on the initial investigation of the Gorman dogfight, making the object sound extremely unusual and intelligent in behavior. This is almost like a supplement to the Estimate. (Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 50 ) October 7 — A set of letters, composed not by Sneider but actually by Samuel Z. Hunnicutt, a member of T-2 and the Sign team, and approved by MCI heavyweights McCoy, Clingerman, and Leland Money, goes out to the CIA, US Army Intelligence, and the Office of Naval Intelligence. The query: What domestic technological developments do you know of that might explain UFOs and help us differentiate them from inimical (Soviet) foreign developments? (Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 50 ) October 12 (or 22) — Project Sign’s Col. William R. Clingerman writes a letter to USAF Chiefs of Staff requesting a study of UFOs by the RAND Corporation, similar to the one made by USAF R&D in July, especially the possibility that “some of the unidentified aerial objects that have been reported both in the United States and in foreign lands may have been experimental spaceships… it is believed more likely that they represent the effort of a foreign nation, rather than a product from beyond the Earth.” (Col. W. R. Clingerman, “Request for Study by Rand Project,” October 12(?), 1948; Swords 58, 492–493) October 15 — 11:05 p.m. On night patrol, 1st Lt. Oliver “Bud” Hemphill Jr. of the 68th Fighter Squadron is flying a Northrup F-61 Black Widow some 50 miles northwest of Fukuoka, Japan, when the crew picks up an object on radar going 200 mph. As he closes to intercept, the object speeds up to 1,200 mph then slows down again. The plane tries closing in six times, but each time the object speeds away. On one pass the crew sees the object’s silhouette, which looks like a “rifle bullet” 20–30 feet long. The object “seems cognizant of the whereabouts of the F-61 at all times.” Radar operator Barton Halter thinks it is a “new type of aircraft.” (NICAP, “F- 61 ‘Black Widow’ Radar Case”; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 6 9 – 70 ; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 134 – 137 ; Sparks, p. 40 ) October 20 — The US Air Force Security Service is activated at Arlington Hall in Washington, D.C., with the mission of cryptology and communications security. (Wikipedia, “United States Air Force Security Service”)

October 29 — Five US Air Force pilots observe a silvery object over Neubiberg Air Base [now closed] near Munich, Germany. The object disappears at a terrific speed after having remained over the air base more than 30 minutes. A similar object is seen days before by another group of American pilots. (Jan Aldrich, “Early Top Secret UFO Document Discovered,” 2000)

Late 1948 — The search for a suitable US location for nuclear testing, codenamed “Project Nutmeg,” commences under the direction of expert meteorologist and Navy Captain Howard B. Hutchinson. The government is looking for a place where nuclear tests would have little impact on the American people or the American economy. Five primary sites are considered: Dugway Proving Ground, Utah; Alamogordo–White Sands Guided Missile Range, New Mexico; an area in Nevada between Fallon and Eureka; the Tonopah–Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range (the site finally chosen in 1950, now part of Nellis Air Force Base); and the Pamlico Sound area off the coast of North Carolina. (“Project Nutmeg: The Birth of the Nevada Test Site,” National Nuclear Security Administration, June 2004; Philip Howard, “Project Nutmeg,” Village Craftsmen, April 21, 2012; Diane Tennant, “How Outer Banks Almost Became a Nuclear Test Site,” Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, January 27, 2013) November 1 — Radar operator M/Sgt Francis H. Mills at Goose Bay AFB [now CFB Goose Bay], Labrador, tracks an object too large for a bird, too small for a plane, flying at 60 mph. Not confirmed visually. (NICAP, “600 MPH Track at Goose Bay”; NICAP, “October 29, October 30, and November 1, 1948, Incident Nos. 188, 195, and 196: Goose Bay, Labrador,” June 28, 2009; Sparks, p. 42 ) November 3 — Against most predictions, Harry S. Truman wins the US presidential election against Republican Thomas E. Dewey. Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, like everyone else, expects to have a new boss in January. His relationship with Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington has deteriorated, and he has not obtained a budget consensus from the Joint Chiefs. His mental health, physical condition, and authority are deteriorating. He is convinced that “foreign-looking men” are following him and that Symington is spying on him. Secret Service Chief Urbanus E. Baughman begins to think Forrestal is suffering from a “total psychotic breakdown.” November 3 — Gen. Charles Cabell writes a firm letter to Wright Field in Ohio, asking Project Sign for another Estimate. It is possibly composed by Maj. Aaron “Jere” Boggs or Col. Edward H. Porter at the USAF Defensive Air Branch. While admitting that the objects seem real, it also cautions that they are not identified. (Read: You may not identify them as extraterrestrial craft.) (Maj. Gen. C. P. Cabell, “Flying Object Incidents in the United States,” November 3, 1948; Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 50– 51 , 62; Swords 62, 64) November 4 — A USAF Europe document transmits some information on the Swedish ghost rockets. “They have been reported by so many sources and from such a variety of places that we are convinced that they cannot be disregarded and must be explained on some basis which is perhaps slightly beyond the scope of our present intelligence thinking.” One of the objects was observed crashing into a lake by Swedish Gen. Helge Jung and his party. A salvage operation was unsuccessful. USAF officers visit Swedish Air Intelligence officials who have reached the conclusion that “these phenomena are obviously the result of a high technical skill which cannot be credited to any presently known culture on earth.” The document is distributed to the CIA (which in response to a FOIA request claims no record), Armament Intelligence Branch, and AMC. (“USAFE 14, TT 1524, Top Secret,” November 4, 1948; Jan Aldrich, “Early Top Secret UFO Document Discovered,” 2000; Swords 62– 63 ; Good Need, p. 115 ) November 6 — Two UFOs, maneuvering like planes in a dogfight, are tracked on USAF radar over Wakkanai, Japan. (NICAP, “Target Circles Radar Site”; Keyhoe, FS from OS, p. 34 ; Sparks, p. 42 ) November 8 — A letter is sent with Col. McCoy’s signature to Gen. Cabell. Written by Sign operative Albert Deyarmond, it is overtly submissive but covertly rebellious. It contains several comments agreeing with Cabell that the UFO phenomenon is not identifiable and that no concrete physical proof exists to identify it. At the same time it drops all sorts of hints, doubtless the same arguments used in the original Estimate, that the objects really are extra- terrestrial whether the Pentagon thinks so or not: It mentions the ETH; it mentions plotting waves against planetary approaches and finding a correlation; it mentions the books of Charles Fort as indicating that this has been going on for at least a century; it mentions that odd shapes (like the Chiles-Whitted case) can fly but require more advanced power plants than we have. (Col. H. M. McCoy, “Flying Object Incidents in the United States,” November 8, 1948; Michael D. Swords, “The McCoy Letter,” IUR 22, no. 1 (Spring 1997): 12–17, 27; Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 51, 63 – 64 ; Swords 62, 65, 494– 496) November 12 — Project Sign personnel travel to the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C., to attempt to convince Cabell and Vandenberg on the ETH. It includes Sneider, and perhaps Deyarmond, Loedding, Truettner, and McCoy. On the Pentagon side, Boggs and Cabell are there and perhaps Vandenberg, and they are having none

of the ETH. Back at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio, Deyarmond and Truettner begin writing a sanitized Project Sign report. More scientific oversight is requested for Sign personnel. The Scientific Advisory Board and George Valley of MIT are to be made aware of all cases. So too are Boggs’s office, ONI, and maybe even the NBS. Hynek is to be formally commissioned for an assessment, as well as Irving Langmuir and Project Rand. (Col. H. M. McCoy, “Transmittal of Project ‘SIGN’ Incident Summaries,” November 12, 1948; Swords 65; Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 51–52) Mid-November — Late afternoon. Clifford DeWitt Fife hears a whirring in the air near Nevada, Missouri. He looks up and sees a hovering, disc-like object. Two bright objects drop down out of the disc about 200–300 feet, then speed off to the southwest. The large object moves off to the northeast. (Nevada (Mo.) Daily Mail, November 30, 1948; Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects: A Further Look,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 7) November 18 — 10 :00 p.m. USAF Reserve pilot Lt. Henry G. Combs is flying a T-6 Texas combat trainer when he sees an object flying west to east over Andrews AFB, Maryland. It has one continuously glowing white light. He makes a pass to check on it, but it takes evasive action and he duels with it for 10 minutes. The object performs very tight curves and quick accelerations to 600 mph. (NICAP, “The Lt. Combs / T-6 Encounter”; Sparks, p. 4 2; Richard H. Hall, Uninvited Guests, Aurora, 1988 , pp. 236 – 237 ) November 23 — 10:00 p.m. US Army Col. William P. Hayes sees a bright white, round light “larger than a basketball” descend slowly as he is driving 10 miles east of Vaughan, New Mexico. It explodes without a sound some 400– 500 feet above the ground. (NICAP, “Another Object in Vertical Descent Explodes near Colonel”; Sparks, p. 4 3; Clark III 539) November 23 — 10:20 p.m. The first [although see October 15] documented radar-visual UFO case takes place at Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base in Bavaria, Germany. A UFO is seen circling at 27,000 feet. An F-80 pilot sent to intercept it describes it as bright red. It climbs abruptly to 50,000 feet at 900 mph. A second F-80 pilot verifies the report. (NICAP, “Grnd Visual / Grnd Radar Track Object at 27,000ʹ”; Ruppelt, p. 46 ; Sparks, p. 43 ) November 24 — Writer Sidney Shalett has asked for USAF cooperation in writing an article on UFOs for the Saturday Evening Post. In a “Memorandum for the Record,” the USAF Directorate of Intelligence indicates that “publicity of this nature is undesirable but, if such articles are written, they will be less harmful to the national interest if a degree of guidance in their preparation is exercised.” Signed November 24 by Cabell, Director of Intelligence. ([Maj. Gen. Charles P. Cabell], “Memorandum for Record,” November 24, 1948) November 30 — Maj. Gen. Charles P. Cabell, in an Air Staff Summary Sheet, admits that he has tried to dissuade the press from publishing articles like Shalett’s. Cabell has asked Secretary Forrestal for permission to feed Shalett some statistics, but the memo is apparently never sent. (Maj. Gen. C. P. Cabell, “Publicity on Flying Saucer Incidents,” Air Staff Summary Sheet, November 30, 1948; “Memorandum for Mr. Forrestal” [unsent]) November 30 — Letter from Howard McCoy at AMC Dayton to Commanding General, Air Defense Command, Mitchel AFB [now closed], Long Island, New York. “It is requested that all reports of unusual sightings by radar stations of your command be made directly to this Headquarters by the most expeditious means.” (NICAP, “1948 UFO Chronology”) November 30 — An interim report by Project Sign, one that apparently takes seriously the possibility that UFOs represent interplanetary probes, is accidentally destroyed. USAF Intelligence later requests a replacement copy from TID at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. A recent FOIA to the National Archives answers that such a document would be in Project Blue Book files, but it is not. (Jan Aldrich)

December — A first-strike war plan (Sizzle) is developed to use 133 nuclear aerial bombs against 70 cities of the USSR. (“Nuclear ‘Pincher’: The START II Treaty, the American ‘Escalation of Superiority’ Strategy, and Russia’s Strategic Nuclear Forces,” from Sovetskaya Rossiya, April 8, 1995) December 3 — 8:15 p.m. Sgt. Bruce Earlin McFarland, control tower operator at Fairfield-Suisun AFB [now Travis AFB] at Fairfield, California, watches for 25 seconds a round, white light fly with variable speed (200–400 mph) and a bouncing motion, finally disappearing after a rapid, erratic climb to 20,000 feet. (NICAP, “Fairfield-Suisun AFB, Dec. 3, 1948, UFO Report”; Sparks, p. 43 ) December 5 —9:05 p.m. Pilot Capt. William R. Goade is flying a USAF C-47 from Denver to Phoenix. Just west of Las Vegas, New Mexico, he and his copilot Maj. Roger Carter spot a bright green flash. Some 22 minutes later, an identical flash rises from the east slope of Sandia Peak and follows a parabolic curve as the C-47 passes 20 miles northeast of Albuquerque. Capt. Ernest Van Lloyd and the crew of Pioneer Airlines Flight 63 also see the second object, described as first orange, then green. (NICAP, “AFOSI Case 8: AF C-47 Pilot Observes UFO Similar to Green Flare”; Clark III 539; Sparks, p. 43 ) December 6 —Lt. Col. Doyle Rees, commander of the Seventeenth District AFOSI at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, orders an investigation into the previous night’s green fireball. (Clark III 539)

December 6 — Project Sign is ordered to send copies of all its future cases and analyses to Maj. Boggs of the Office of Defensive Air, the ONI, and the USAF Scientific Advisory Board. (Swords 65) December 6 — 10:55 p.m. Atomic Energy Security Service Officer Joseph Toulouse sees a greenish flare one-third the apparent size of the moon at Sandia Base outside Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is visible for 3 seconds before it arcs downward and vanishes. (NICAP, “AFOSI Case 10: AESS Observed Green Flare Directly over Sandia Base”; Clark III 539; Sparks, p. 44 ) December 8 — Two AFOSI officers, Capts. Melvin E. Neef and John J. Stahl Jr., interview every agency that might know something about green-flare operations but come up short. That evening, they are flying a T-7 out of Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, New Mexico, at 5,000 feet when they see a brilliant green light, larger and more brilliant than a meteor or flare, traveling a flat trajectory 2,000 feet above them. They see it for 2 seconds before it burns out. (NICAP, “AFOSI Case 11: Agents in T-7 Observe Intense Green Fireball at 13,000ʹ”; Clark III 539; Sparks, p. 44 ) December 9 — Capt. Neef informs Lincoln LaPaz, director of meteoritics at the University of New Mexico, about the green fireball sightings. He says they do not sound like any meteors he is familiar with. (Clark III 539) December 10 — The revised Project Sign report is issued, Air Intelligence Report Number 100- 203 - 79 , “Analysis of Fly- ing Object Incidents in the U.S.” (AIR 203) [Some copies are confusingly dated April 28, 1949.] This is the cul- mination of Sign’s work since early August, augmented by ONI collaboration over the past two months. UFOs are not extraterrestrial (the idea is hardly noticed). UFOs are probably real, but if so, there is a small chance that they are Soviet and therefore dangerous. All in all, the word “Soviet” dominates the commentary. (US Air Force, Directorate of Intelligence, Analysis of Flying Object Incidents in the U.S.: Summary and Conclusions, Air Intelligence Report 100- 203 - 79, December 10, 1948; copy, dated April 28, 1949; Bruce Maccabee, “Hiding the Hardware,” IUR 16, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1991): 7–8; Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 52; Swords 65– 66 ; Good Above, pp. 265 , 480 – 481 ) December 12 — 9:02 p.m. Lincoln LaPaz and two USAF officers (Sandia Base Intelligence Officer Lt. Allan B. Clark and Sandia’s AF-Civil Air Patrol Liaison Officer Maj. Charles L. Phillips) see a green fireball near Bernal, New Mexico. He calculates that it is flying directly over Los Alamos National Laboratory, and it maintains its horizontal flight at the low altitude (for a meteor) of 8–10 miles. LaPaz arranges with the Atomic Energy Security Service to set up a patrol with Speed Graphic cameras to try to photograph the fireballs. (NICAP, “AFOSI Case 13: LaPaz, Captain, CAP Intel Officer Observed Green Fireball”; Clark III 539– 540 ; Good Above, p. 266 ; Joel Carpenter, “Green Fireball Chronology,” October 6, 2011) December 13 — Project Sign files are sent to the Navy by Col. William R. Clingerman. (NICAP, “Project ‘SIGN’ Files Sent Directly to the Navy,” December 13, 1948) December 13 — Aeronautical engineer James E. Lipp writes an 8-page memo to Brig. Gen. Donald Putt on “Special Design and Performance Characteristics That Are Believed to Distinguish Spaceships.” Rejecting out of hand any links between UFO sightings and space travelers, it later appears as an appendix in the Project Grudge report. (James E. Lipp, “Special Design and Performance Characteristics That Are Believed to Distinguish Spaceships,” December 13, 1948) December 16 — Astronomer J. Allen Hynek is officially tasked by Project Sign with studying UFO cases for astronomical explanations. (AMC contract W33- 038 - 1118). December 16 — Brig. Gen. Donald Putt, Director of USAF Research and Development, orders that the code word Sign be changed to Grudge (since the Air Force bears a grudge against UFO reports, according to Ruppelt), effective in February. Morale plummets. (“Report by the Director of Intelligence, USAF, to the Joint Intelligence Committee on Unidentified Aerial Objects,” April 28, 1949; Sparks, p. 11 ) December 20 — Sneider sends his summary of the Chiles-Whitted case, Air Intelligence Report number 102- 122 - 79, to Cabell. It is later called “The Ghost of the Estimate” by some researchers. (Capt. Robert R. Sneider, [untitled memorandum], December 20, 1948; Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 52) December 20 — In a confidential memo to Lt. Col. Doyle Rees, LaPaz argues that the green fireball he saw on December 12 was no meteor he has ever studied. He writes that the object moved far too slowly to have been a meteor and left no “trail of sparks or dust cloud” as would be typical of meteors flying at low altitudes. Other anomalous characteristics were the intense lime-green color, low altitude of only 8–10 miles yet exhibiting no sound, flat rather than arced trajectory, and turning on and off like a light switch. The interest in green fireballs inspires the creation of an informal group, the Los Alamos Astrophysical Association, whose members, all scientists and engineers with security clearances, are permitted to examine some classified Project Sign reports. This is essentially the beginning of Project Twinkle. (Clark III 540; World History Project, “Project Twinkle Established to Monitor Green Fireball Sightings”)

December 20 — 8:54 p.m. Shortly after they have packed up their Speed Graphic cameras provided by LaPaz to try to photograph the green fireballs, personnel (William D. Wilson, Buford G. Truett, Clifford E. Strang, and George S. Skipper) at an Atomic Energy Security Service post west of Los Alamos, New Mexico, spot a blue-white fireball moving in a nearly flat trajectory. Two objects separate from the main body and trail behind it. Thanks to an independent observation at another site, LaPaz is able to triangulate its flight path as 7–8 miles, west to east toward Los Alamos. (NICAP, “AFOSI Case 14: AESS OP Sighted Green Fireball with Triangulation”; Sparks, p. 46 ) December 29 — The Fourth Army sums up the UFO situation in the southwest in a statement. In December 5–28, there were 23 reports of “flares or moving lights.” All but two are in New Mexico and are an intense white or greenish- white light. (Clark III 540)

1949

1949? — Evening. USAF Brig. Gen. William M. Garland is stationed at Mather AFB [now Sacramento Mather Airport] in Sacramento, California. He and a few other people, including some command pilots, are sitting in their yard when they see a “bright, silvery, round object” going too fast for an airplane. (Jan L. Aldrich, “Brigadier General William Madison Garland, USAF”) 1949 — 1:00 a.m. A group of soldiers of the 2nd Armored Division stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, are tasked with standing guard over a plateau in a remote, fenced-off part of the base. After a few weeks, they see bright lights in the sky. They approach the plateau and descend slowly and silently. Suddenly, part of the plateau opens up and they can see light coming from inside. The lights descend into the opening, which closes over them. (Michael D. Swords, “Timmermania: A Step Too Far into the Timmerman Files?” IUR 27, no. 4 (Winter 2002–2003): 9; Michael D. Swords, GrassRoots UFOs: Case Reports from the Timmerman Files, Fund for UFO Research, 2005, p. 146) 1949 — Day. A student pilot is flying a two-seat Taylorcraft over Los Angeles, California. Just as he turns to a westerly flight heading, he sees an object speeding across the sky from north to south. Suddenly it stops abruptly, and the pilot heads toward the object climbing to within a few hundred feet. An intense flash of white comes from its tail and in less than a minute it is completely out of sight. (“Recently Reported,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 10 (October 1981): 5)

January — Project Sign personnel begin to be reassigned. Loedding disappears from project records. Deyarmond’s attention goes elsewhere. Truettner makes one last serious attempt at interviewing about nuclear propulsion (at Oak Ridge, Tennessee) and is given a negative opinion on UFOs by Col. Ralph L. Wassell. He, too, disappears from the project. The civilian members are relieved of their duties and reassigned to other intelligence tasks within T-2. For Loedding in particular, his role and prestige are never the same. After a few further years of intelligence work, both he and Truettner leave AMC. For the higher military ranks (Llewelyn and Sneider), all we know is that they are soon no longer involved, perhaps not even assigned to the same base. Even Clingerman and McCoy become less involved, perhaps because they have also heard that their tenures will soon be up and they will be sent to school and then transferred. The only persons left active on the project are two of the lower ranks: Lieut. Howard W. Smith and civilian George W. Towles. Their job is reduced basically to collection and filing. In this condition, or worse, the Air Force commitment to a UFO investigation project will remain until the summer of 1951. (Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,” JUFOS 7 (2000): 52 – 53 ) January — Early morning. Sarah Elizabeth Lampe watches an odd, disc-like electrical discharge, about 3 feet in diameter, that persists for “fully two minutes” during the Big Snow, 8 miles from Beatty, Nevada. (“True Mystic Experiences,” Fate 4, no. 2 (March 1951): 84 – 89) January 1 — The CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence is established. Willard Machle becomes assistant director for scientific intelligence. Problems almost immediately involve recruitment and filling positions with competent professionals. (Rear Adm. R. H. Hillenkoetter, “Scientific Intelligence,” January 4, 1949) January 1 — 5:00 p.m. Pilot Thomas A. Rush and his wife are in a private plane flying east of Jackson, Mississippi. They see a cigar-shaped object, 60 feet long and 10 feet wide, cross their path at an altitude of 1,500–1,600 feet. It is only about 500 feet distant. The speed is approximately 200 mph, and it accelerates to 400–500 mph. The object makes a 50° turn and is visible for 10– 12 seconds. (NICAP, “Cigar-Shaped Object Encountered by Bush Pilot”; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1949, January – June, The Author, 1988, pp. 1–2; Sparks, p. 46 ) January 4 — 2:00 p.m. USAF pilot Capt. Paul R. Stoney, on the ground at Hickam Field [now part of Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam] near Honolulu, Hawaii, sees a flat, white, elliptical object about the size of a T-6 aircraft, circle

at about 3,000 feet while oscillating to the right and left. It is apparently several miles off the base and slowly circling. It is bright white on the underside and darker on top and possesses no other structures. It proceeds for 15 minutes to make “rhythmical undulation” maneuvers in a cyclical manner. The “object seemed to maneuver under control at all times completing 360° turns and 90° turns.” The object then “departed climbing (into the northeast) at accelerated speed out of sight.” (NICAP, “Disc Circles, Maneuvers, Climbs into the NE”; Sparks, p. 47) January 5 — The USAF Technical Information Division at Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, Ohio, transmits Project Sign’s list of UFO incidents to the Air Weather Service for analysis and recommendations. (Jan Aldrich) January 6 — 5:30 p.m. PFC Everitt sees a bright-white, diamond-shaped light in horizontal flight from southeast to northwest above the Ordnance section at Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is about 1,500–2,000 feet altitude and flying faster than a jet. Possible meteor. (NICAP, “Diamond-Shaped Light”; Sparks, p. 47) January 7 — The Research and Development Board writes a memo to USAF Intelligence on the green fireballs. It is signed by David Z. Beckley, chief of the R&DB Technical Intelligence Branch. (Michael Hall and Wendy Connors, “The Research and Development Board: Unanswered Questions,” IUR 26, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 10) January 10 — FBI special agent Charlton C. McSwain sends a memo to J. Edgar Hoover enumerating the views of an AMC resident engineer (identified only as “Mr. E”) with the Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft project at Oak Ridge National Laboratories in Tennessee that the flying discs are human-made nuclear missiles originating in Russia. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1949, January – June, The Author, 1988, pp. 6 – 10) January 11 — Angered over his opposition to defense economization policies and meeting secretly with Thomas Dewey’s Republicans, Truman tells Forrestal that Louis A. Johnson will soon replace him as Secretary of Defense. January 13 — Col. Eustis L. Poland of US Army Intelligence (G-2) sends a memo on behalf of the Commander of Fourth Army at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, to the Director of Army Intelligence concerning the green fireballs. It recommends a scientific study because “these incidents are of such great importance, especially as they are occurring in the vicinity of sensitive installations.” (Col. Eustis L. Poland, “Unconventional Aircraft,” January 13, 1949; Good Above, pp. 265 , 482 ) January 24 — An FBI memo from D. M. Ladd to Hoover documents speculation on a Soviet nuclear-powered disc by USAF Col. Clyde D. Gasser of the Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft (NEPA) project at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Gasser reports rumors coming from Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio that nuclear-powered disc-shaped planes might be making incursions into US airspace and returning to the USSR over the North Pole. (D. M. Ladd, “Flying Discs,” January 24, 1949) January 27 — 10:20–11:20 p.m. Capt. Eckerman Sannes, acting chief of the Aircraft Branch at Eglin AFB near Valparaiso, Florida, and his wife are driving slowly on Cortez Road between Bradenton and Cortez, Florida, when they observe a “cucumber-shaped” object. The object, seen through binoculars, seems as long as two Pullman cars, with 7 lighted, square windows. It is throwing sparks and approximately 8–10 miles away. In the first sighting at 10:20 p.m., the object approaches from the south going north, moving from an altitude of 8,000 feet in a gradual descent until lost behind trees. In the second sighting at 11:20 p.m., the object is seen in the north, heading south and making a gradual turn to the west. It descends then climbs with a bouncing motion (up 4,000 feet, down 2,000 feet) at about 400–500 mph, resulting in an overall climb and loss to view at an altitude of around 40,000 feet. The bouncing appears to start after the final 270° course change to the west. (NICAP, “Two Sightings of Object with Lighted Windows”; Sparks, p. 49) January 30 — 5:54 p.m. Hundreds of people see a green meteor come out of the northwest and vanish southwest of Roswell, New Mexico. It is completely silent. (NICAP, “AFOSI Case 18: Green Fireball Event Witnessed in New Mexico”; Commanding Officer, Kirtland AFB, “Nr. OSI- 1 - 90,” January 31, 1949; Clark III 540; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1949, January – June, The Author, 1988, pp. 15 – 16 ; Sparks, p. 49 ) January 31 — Kirtland AFB in New Mexico notifies the Pentagon that it will launch an immediate investigation of the green fireballs, noting that “local commanders [are] perturbed by implications of phenomena.” LaPaz speaks to dozens of witnesses of the January 30 fireball and manages a rough triangulation of the fireball’s 143-mile path from Amarillo to Lamesa, Texas. He estimates its speed at 25,000–50,000 mph, with a beginning altitude of 60,000 feet and a final altitude around 40,000 feet. LaPaz accompanies search teams to bring back any fragments. They end up in the area of Lamesa but give up after a few days of fruitless search. He later tells AFOSI agent Paul Ryan that the fireballs are artificial, perhaps radio-controlled missiles directed by enemy agents in the Southwest. (Commanding Officer, Kirtland AFB, “Nr. OSI- 1 - 90,” January 31, 1949; Clark III 540) January 31 — The FBI field office in San Antonio, Texas, issues a memo on UFOs, “Protection of Vital Installations.” It is sent to Hoover, G-2, ONI, OSI, and mentions a meeting among these groups on UFOs, “considered top secret by intelligence officers of both the army and the air forces.” (SAC, San Antonio, “Protection of Vital Installations, Bureau File #65-58300,” January 31, 1949; ClearIntent, p. 149 ; Good Above, pp. 267 , 483 )

February — Chemist H. Marshall Chadwell, from the New York office of the Atomic Energy Commission, is appointed assistant director of scientific intelligence at the CIA. (Jan Aldrich) Early February — Writer Sidney Shalett is given a guided tour of AMC at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio, a glimpse of low-interest UFO cases, and a few conservative opinions by Air Force personnel. (Swords 73) February 1 — Col. Hanna (?), assistant chief of the Power Plant Laboratory (at Wright-Patterson?) and project engineer for Project Sign, meets with other Project Sign personnel and concludes that nuclear-powered UFOs are improbable. (Project Status Report on Project Sign, February 4, 1949 ; Jan Aldrich) February 8 — UCLA geophysicist Joseph Kaplan meets with LaPaz at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. He finds LaPaz’s understanding of the green fireball reports unsettling. He discusses the matter with Capt. Melvin Neef and Maj. William Godsoe (Fourth Army Intelligence liaison officer at Sandia Base). He promises to alert Scientific Advisory Board chairman Von Kármán and urge an investigation. (Clark III 540) February 11 — Kaplan meets in Washington, D.C., with Von Kármán, who is impressed enough to write Gen. Charles P. Cabell that the green fireballs look like a serious issue that needs to be addressed, perhaps by LaPaz. (Swords 79, 497) February 11 — Project Sign releases a final sanitized report, “Unidentified Aerial Objects: Project ‘Sign,’” Technical Report F-TR- 2274 - 1A, authored by Lawrence Truettner and Albert B. Deyarmond and approved by Col. Clingerman (chief of USAF Technical Intelligence Division) and Col. Howard McCoy (chief of the Intelligence Department). 72 pages are visible in the NICAP copy and 1,537 pages (some illegible) are available on the Blue Book microfilm. Its conclusions are based on 273 reports (243 US and 30 foreign) and it summarizes the characteristics of four types of UFOs: flying discs, cigar-shaped objects, spherical objects, and balls of light. It acknowledges the possibility that “these aerial objects are visitors from another planet” and refers to commentary in Appendix D by James Lipp of the RAND project. “No definite and conclusive evidence is yet available that would prove or disprove the existence of these unidentified objects as real aircraft of unknown and unconventional configuration. It is unlikely that positive proof of their existence will be obtained without examination of the remains of crashed objects… Evaluation of reports of unidentified objects is a necessary activity of military intelligence agencies. Such sightings are inevitable, and under wartime conditions rapid and convincing solutions of such occurrences are necessary to maintain morale of military and civilian personnel. In this respect, it is considered that the establishment of procedures and training of personnel is in itself worth the effort expended on this project.” Truettner and Deyarmond, in a between-the-lines rebuke of Cabell’s order not to consider the ETH, recommend that if enough cases are examined and proven to have no security risks, then the project should be terminated. The report is distributed to AMC, USAF Intelligence Directorate, ONR, Cambridge Labs, Air Weather Services, Hynek at Ohio State University, the RAND Project, and the USAF Scientific Advisory Board. (L. H. Truettner and A. B. Deyarmond, Unidentified Aerial Objects: Project “Sign,” Air Materiel Command Technical Report no. F-TR- 2274 - IA, February 1949; Sparks, p. 12 ; Swords 72) February 12 — Project Sign officially becomes Project Grudge. (Sparks, p. 12 ) February 12 — Another realistic Spanish-language radio version of The War of the Worlds is broadcast in Quito, Ecuador, causing panic, a riot, and a major fire. (John Gosling, Waging the War of the Worlds, McFarland, 2009, pp. 102– 113) February 15 — Maj. Gen. Cabell sets out a revised list of Air Intelligence reporting requirements for “unconventional aircraft.” (Maj. Gen. C. P. Cabell, “Unconventional Aircraft,” Air Intelligence Requirements Memorandum no. 5, February 15, 1949) February 16 — A Conference on Aerial Phenomena is held at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico with military representatives Lincoln LaPaz, Norris E. Bradbury, Marshall Holloway, Frederick Reines, and Edward Teller in attendance. Representatives from Project Grudge are noticeably absent. LaPaz tells the attendees that while most meteors are blue-green, the green fireballs are described as pale green or yellow-green. Normal meteors rarely move in long, horizontal paths with nearly constant velocities. He says there are 10 incidents that strongly fit the pattern and 20 others that might. The scientists agree to set up a series of instrument stations to photograph and analyze the fireballs. Teller thinks the fireballs might be electrical-optical phenomena. Navy Commander Richard S. Mandelkorn, who is in attendance, writes in his report that “there is cause for concern of the continued occurrences of unexplainable phenomena of this nature in the vicinity of sensitive installations.” (Cmdr. Richard S. Mandelkorn, Report of a Trip to Los Alamos, New Mexico, 16 February 1949, February 18, 1949; Lt. Col. Doyle Rees, [Minutes of February 16 Conference on Aerial Phenomena, Los Alamos], March 29, 1949; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1949, January – June, The Author, 1988, pp. 23– 53 ; Swords 79–80; Good Above, pp. 265 – 266 ) February 17 — 5:57 p.m. University of New Mexico Professor of Civil Engineering Marvin May sees a brilliant white object in the west at 6° elevation for less than 6 minutes in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The object is first round

then shifts to an ellipse as it approaches, then it appears to be elongated like a bent pipe with corners, one full moon in length. It makes a slight climbing turn to the north, shifts to peach color as it makes a rapid sharp turning climb to the south, disappearing in cloudless sky by diminishing in size and brightness. At the same time, 100 guards at Sandia Base, New Mexico, including the officer of the guard, see a yellow-orange cigar-shaped object for seven minutes. (NICAP, “AFOSI Case 24: Vertical Climb, Then Leveled Off”; Sparks, p. 50) February 18 — Cabell writes Von Kármán and says he has a transcript of the Los Alamos meeting and that Hynek is studying the green fireballs topic. He adds: “It seems unlikely that domestic incidents can be attributed to the activity of a foreign power or a science unknown to our specialists.” (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1949, January – June, The Author, 1988, pp. 12 – 13) February 18 — A Fourth Air Force letter quotes Project Sign’s requirements for radar reporting, as stated by the Continental Air Command (NORAD’s predecessor) on February 4. The USAF Air Defense Command is subordinate to ConAC at this time. The requirements admit that a “large number of targets appearing on radar screens remain unidentified.” It refers to McCoy’s November 30, 1948, letter on Sign’s preference for radar tracks of aerial objects that show extremely fast or slow speeds, vertical or near vertical ascent or descent, extraordinary maneuverability, and extreme altitudes. (Clark III 810) February 2 3 — McCoy sends Capt. Roger Groseclose and Lt. Howard Smith to Kirtland AFB’s Office of Special Investigations to discuss the green fireballs with LaPaz and Neef and to mollify them for not showing up at the February 16 conference. (Clark III 541) February 24 — Groseclose and Smith have an unpleasant exchange with Neef, LaPaz, Agent Jack Boling, and Army Maj. Godsoe, who says it’s not worth AFOSI’s time to conduct investigations for AMC. The AMC officers retort that the fireballs are not an Army concern. Groseclose and Smith say they are concerned with all anomalous aerial phenomena. Disgusted, Godsoe leaves the room. Groseclose and Smith then turn on LaPaz, criticizing him for only sending AMC raw data and not finished analyses. LaPaz says he is on leave as a volunteer and must go back to the University of New Mexico, unless he sees a contract. However, AMC agrees to set up a network of observation posts with cameras, transits, and trained personnel. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1949, January – June, The Author, 1988, pp. 11, 14– 15 ; Clark III 541) February or March — 4:30 p.m. A representative of the International Petroleum Company, a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey, is driving noth along the Pan-American Highway about 6 miles south of Lima, Peru, when he sees a metallic disc hovering low above the desert on his right. He walks over to it, and three mummy-like creatures about 5 feet tall emerge. They speak to him in both English and Spanish, explaining to him that they come from another star system, are concerned about our use of atomic energy, use solar power, no longer have sex, and reproduce by subdividing. They invite him inside the disc, which from the inside has transparent walls. He sees no instruments, only a padded ledge. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 122–148)

March — Strategic Air Command head Gen. Curtis LeMay delivers the first SAC Emergency War Plan, which calls for dropping 133 atomic bombs on 70 cities in the USSR within 30 days. LeMay predicts that World War III will last no longer than 30 days. (Wikipedia, “Curtis LeMay”) March 2 — Sidney Shalett provides the USAF Directorate of Intelligence a draft of his upcoming article for review. The Air Force is not pleased, objecting to Shalett stating an “official” USAF position, his claim that the Air Force is his sole source of information (although it is), a quote by Irving Langmuir criticizing Project Sign, and any inference that the Air Force and Navy are not cooperating. (Swords 73) March 6– 7 — 8:30 p.m. Army Pvts. Martin Fensterman and Frank Luisi, on security patrol near Killeen Base [now West Fort Hood], Texas, a nuclear weapons storage site, see a flash of pale blue light in the sky to the northeast. At 8:55 p.m., a quarter mile away, Pvt. Harold Moore sees a white light with an orange trail flash across the western horizon. At 9:00 p.m., from inside the base boundary, Sgt. Hubert Vickery and Pfc. John Ransom notice a pale blue-white light streaking across the western sky low over the horizon. Between 1:15 and 2:00 a.m., four more security patrols report burst of lights like a flash bulb. (SAC, San Antonio, “Protection of Vital Installations, Bureau File 65-58300,” March 22, 1949; Clark III 541– 542 ; Sparks, pp. 50 – 51 ; “Fort Hood Sightings, 1949,” Texas UFO Museum and Research Library, February 5, 2014) March 8 — 1:03 a.m. Two infantrymen half a mile apart at Killeen Base, Texas, see apparently separate streaking bright lights (one white, the other yellowish red). The latter one covers 60° of sky, appearing and disappearing at about the same angle above the horizon. Cpl. Luke Sims is able to run 10 paces to a field telephone before it vanishes. All observers insist these are not meteors and are more like flares. (NICAP, “Killeen Base, Camp Hood, Texas, OSI Case 39”; SAC, San Antonio, “Protection of Vital Installations, Bureau File 65-58300,” March 22, 1949; Clark III 542; Sparks, p. 52 )

March 13 — 9:53 p.m. Two MPs guarding the Technical Area at Sandia Base, New Mexico, see a silent, spherical object, bluish- or greenish-white, with a flaming blue tail twice as long as the body, which is apparently half the size of the full moon. (NICAP, “March 13, 1949, Sandia Base, NM, OSI Case 40 ”; Sparks, p. 52) March 15 —A memo on UFOs to Willard Machle by a Dr. Stone from the CIA Office of Scientific Investigation dismisses the idea of UFOs as foreign aircraft and suggests they are misidentifications of other phenomena. (ClearIntent, p. 113 ) March 17 — Seven sightings of large, green, red, and white flares take place at Killeen Base, Texas, including the previously skeptical Capt. Horace McCulloch, assistant G-2 of the Second Armored Division at Camp Hood, who is driving between Camp Hood and Killeen Base to prepare a test firing of some flares to prove that recent sightings are not anomalous. McCulloch puts the entire base on alert. (Clark III 542; Sparks, p. 52 ) March 22 — SAC San Antonio, Texas, sends a memo to FBI headquarters regarding the January 31 communication on Protection of Vital Installations, emphasizing that USAF and the Army consider the matter “secret.” Fourth Army Intelligence is now calling UFOs “unconventional aircraft” and ATIC’s office is now Project Grudge. It also discusses green fireball cases. (SAC, San Antonio, “Protection of Vital Installations, Bureau File 65-58300,” March 22, 1949) March 25 — J. Edgar Hoover sends a memo to a large number of FBI offices indicating that “flying discs are believed to be man-made missiles rather than natural phenomenon,” probably made in Russia. (John Edgar Hoover, “Flying Discs,” March 25, 1949; ClearIntent, p. 161 ) March 28 — James Forrestal leaves office in a formal ceremony. He rides back to the Pentagon with his opponent Stuart Symington, who talks to him about something troubling. Forrestal appears traumatized. Forrestal sits in his office, dazed and incoherent, repeating, “You are a loyal fellow.” March 31 — Forrestal is flown to Hobe Beach, Florida, to stay with his friend Under Secretary of State Robert A. Lovett, where his wife is vacationing. He meets with psychiatrist William C. Menninger (who diagnoses “severe depression” of the type “seen in operational fatigue during the war”) and psychologist Capt. George N. Raines from the Naval Hospital at Bethesda, Maryland. Forrestal has several hysterical episodes when they are there, ranting about Communists following him, and perhaps one suicide attempt. March 31 — CIA’s H. L. Bowers writes a memo to Dr. Machle, “Notes and Comments on Unidentified Aerial Objects— Project Sign,” stating that Deyarmond thinks UFOs will turn out to be another “sea serpent.” Nonetheless, they must be investigated. (Document released to Brad Sparks but not in subsequent CIA FOIA releases; Good Above, p. 330 ) March 31 —11:50 p.m. Lieut. Frederick Davis, on patrol east of Killeen Base, Texas, sees a reddish-white ball of fire passing horizontally above the base airstrip. After 10–15 seconds it disappears without descending. He notes interference on the telephone line when he calls the report in. (NICAP, “Field Telephone Affected by BOL”; Clark III 542; Sparks, p. 53 )

April 2 — Menninger and Raines fly Forrestal to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where he can be treated quietly. On the drive to the hospital from the airport, Forrestal attempts to jump out of the car but is restrained. Forrestal declares he does not expect to leave the hospital alive. He is admitted under the care of Raines, who diagnoses him with involutional melancholia and places him in a VIP suite on the 16th floor. Forrestal’s personal diaries are removed from his old office and taken to the White House, where they remain for a year. April 3 — Broadcaster Walter Winchell announces on his radio program that the “flying saucers, never explained by anyone in authority are now definitely known to have been guided missiles shot all the way from Russia.” (“Anatomy of a Hoax, Part Two,” Saturday Night Uforia) April 5 — 10 :00 p.m. A huge green fireball with a red afterglow is seen streaking approximately 300 feet above the southern slope of Fejarito Mountain, near Los Alamos, New Mexico. It disappears behind the mountain. Another fireball is seen at 11:00 p.m., and the next two nights. (NICAP, “1949 UFO Chronology”; Sparks, p. 54 ) April 8 — In response to Winchell’s claim, the Air Force admits it is impossible to “deny categorically” that the flying saucers originate in Russia. A spokesman says that some unknown incidents are placed in a classified category, denied to everyone except authorized military personnel. (“Air Force Isn’t Committing Self on Flying Disks,” Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette, April 8, 1949, p. 22) April 9 — Forrestal has been treated for one week at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland,with narcosis through sodium amytal. For the next 30 days, he undergoes a regimen of insulin sub-shock combined with psycho-therapeutic interviews. Raines says the treatment occasionally throws Forrestal into a confused state with a great deal of agitation and confusion.

April 14 — Col. Reid Lumsden, commander of the AFOSI district office at Kelly AFB [now Kelly Field Annex] in San Antonio, Texas, hands the Army reports of flares at Killeen Base to Col. William Carpenter, deputy director of special investigations at the Pentagon. Carpenter promises to investigate. (Clark III 542) April 16 and 18 — Mysterious flares are again observed at Killeen Base, Texas. (Brad Sparks and Jerome Clark, “The Southwestern Lights, Part Three,” IUR 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1985): 10; Clark III 542) April 18 — The US Air Force Security Service moves its headquarters from Arlington Hall in Washington, D.C., to Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. (Wikipedia, “Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency”) April 19 — AFOSI at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, sends to USAF headquarters a list of all green fireball reports it has investigated (39 in all) from December 5 to April 12. The common characteristics of most of the incidents are: “a. Green color, sometimes described as greenish-white, bright green, yellow-green, or blue green. b. Horizontal path, sometimes with minor variations. c. Speed less than that of a meteor, but more than any known type of aircraft. d. No sound associated with observation. e. No persistent trail or dust cloud. f. Period of visibility from one to five seconds.” (“The Scientific Advisory Board to the Chief of Staff, United States Air Force, Conference,” November 3, 1949; Clark III 541; Swords 133–135) April 22 — 9:05 a.m. A round, flat, thin, metallic disc is seen traveling west to east, dropping slowly, over Cliff, New Mexico. (Sparks, p. 55 ) April 24 — 10:30 a.m. General Mills meteorologist Charles B. Moore and four Navy Skyhook balloon launch crewmen (Navy Chief Fire Controlman William Akers, Davidson, Fitzsimmons, Moorman) see a white, round object, shadowed yellowish on one side, cross the sky from the south to the east, three miles north of Arrey, New Mexico. Joseph Gordon Vaeth is present as the Navy representative in charge of ground handling. Moore tracks it for 60 seconds on a theodolite. The distance is unknown, but assuming the object is 57 miles away, it would have a velocity of 18,000 mph, a width of 40 feet, and a length of 100 feet; but this is speculative. (NICAP, “White Sands Incident / C. B. Moore Case”; R. B. McLaughlin, [Letter to J. A. VanAllen], May 12, 1949; J. Gordon Vaeth, 200 Miles Up: The Conquest of the Upper Air, Ronald Press, 1951; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 63–64; ClearIntent, pp. 114 – 115 ; UFOEv, pp. 2 – 3 ; Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 72– 73 ; Sparks, pp. 56 – 57 ; Brad Sparks and Jerome Clark, “The Southwestern Lights, Part Three,” IUR 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1985): 8–9; Kevin D. Randle, “Charles Moore, New Mexico UFOs, and the Air Force,” IUR 20, no. 5 (Winter 1995): 3–4; Michael D. Swords, “1952: Ruppelt’s Big Year,” IUR 28, no. 4 (Winter 2003–2004): 10; Michael D. Swords, “Balloons, Missiles, and UFOs,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004):16–17; Swords 84– 85 ; Clark III 541) April 25 — 6:30 a.m. A man named Abreu and a friend are fishing at Springer Lake, northwest of Springer, New Mexico, when they hear a high-pitched whistle and see a number of silvery-white balls passing overhead quickly. They reappear repeatedly over the next hour. (NICAP, “Various Formations Observed”; Clark III 541; Sparks, p. 57 ) April 25 — Lt. Col. Doyle Rees wires AFOSI headquarters to ask if he can send two of his men to AMC to find out if Project Grudge plans to do anything about the green fireballs. Before Rees has a response, Joseph Kaplan arrives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, having been directed there by AF Intelligence Director Maj. Gen. Charles Cabell and Scientific Advisory Board Chairman Theodore Von Kármán, who wants Kaplan to set up a field investigation. They emphasize that Grudge is not to be informed. (Clark III 542; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1949, January – June, The Author, 1988, p. 52) April 27 — Rees, Kaplan, and LaPaz brief Armed Forces Special Weapons Project personnel at Sandia Base, New Mexico. LaPaz outlines plans for a network of visual, photographic, spectrographic, and radar observations covering Los Alamos, Sandia, and White Sands. Scientist William D. Crozier of the New Mexico School of Mines offers to handle air sampling. Rees urges that the Killeen Base in Texas be included. Kaplan, who says the project is “of extreme importance” because “these occurrences relate to the National Defense of the United States,” recommends LaPaz to handle the project. (Lt. Col. Doyle Rees, “Unknown (Aerial Phenomena),” May 12, 1949; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1949 January – June, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, pp. 60– 62 ; Clark III 542) April 27 — USAF Directorate of Intelligence briefs the USAF Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations on UFOs. “Investigations continue in an effort to find definite explanations for the many unidentified aerial objects which have been reported during the past two years.” (“Unidentified Aerial Objects,” Air Brief, Special Study Part Two, April 27, 1949) April 27 — A 22-page memorandum for the press (629- 49 ) on “Project Saucer” is released by the Pentagon Office of Public Information, scheduled deliberately to coincide with part one of Shalett’s article in the Saturday Evening Post. The writer is unknown, but it is more pro-ETH than the current Project Grudge mentality, listing several

solid and dramatic cases. It concludes: “The ‘saucers’ are not a joke. Neither are they a cause for alarm to the population.” The discrepancy between Shalett’s mostly dismissive tone and the positivity of the Project Saucer statement causes Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe to wonder if there is a major disagreement about UFOs within the Air Force. (National Military Establishment, Office of Public Information, “Project ‘Saucer,’” April 27, 1949; Swords 74 – 75) April 27 — 9:20 p.m. Two Army patrolmen southeast of Killeen Base, Texas, see a blinking violet light no more than 1.5 inches in diameter and only 10–12 feet from them, 6–7 feet above the ground. During the 60-second observation, the light passes through the branches of a tree. At 9:25 p.m., 2 miles away, four Army soldiers see a 4-inch light with a 2– 4 - inch metallic cone attached to the back. It silently approaches them in a level flight at 60–70 mph. It disappears to the southwest at a distance of 150 feet. At about 9:37 p.m., a 2-inch-wide white light appears 100 feet away to the northwest, flying in a zig-zag fashion in a level path 6 feet above the ground. It vanishes abruptly. A third light shows up at 9:39 p.m. in the west-southwest. (NICAP, “Close Encounters with Drones/Probes at Weapons Storage Site”; Sparks, pp. 57 – 58 ; Brad Sparks and Jerome Clark, “The Southwestern Lights, Part Three,” IUR 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1985): 10; Clark III 542) April 2 8 — USAF Director of Intelligence Charles Cabell sends a report on “Unidentified Aerial Objects” to the Joint Intelligence Committee. It summarizes the history of Project Sign up to its redesignation as Grudge and adds an appendix on “Unidentified Aerial Objects: Fact and Discussion,” which is basically a short version of the sanitized February 11 Sign report, with some green fireball information added. It recommends sending reports of unidentified “light phenomena” to the scientific community and reports of “atomic powered craft of unusual design” to the AEC. It concludes that “There are numerous reports from reliable and competent observers for which a conclusive explanation has not been made” and that some “involve configurations and described performance which might conceivably represent an advanced aerodynamical development. A few unexplained incidents surpass these limits of credulity. It is unlikely that a foreign power would expose a superior aerial weapon by a prolonged ineffectual penetration of the United States.” This essentially resurrects the ETH as a possibility, without clearly stating it. (“Report by the Director of Intelligence, USAF, to the Joint Intelligence Committee on Unidentified Aerial Objects,” April 28, 1949; Jan Aldrich, “Top-Secret 1949 Document,” IUR 23, no. 1 (Spring 1998): 3–6, 31; Swords 76–77) April 28 — Some printed copies of Air Intelligence Report 100- 203 - 79, “Analysis of Flying Object Incidents in the United States,” bear this date, although it was originally released December 10, 1948. (US Air Force, Directorate of Intelligence, Analysis of Flying Object Incidents in the U.S.: Summary and Conclusions, Air Intelligence Report 100- 203 - 79, December 10, 1948; copy, dated April 28, 1949) April 28 — Kaplan, LaPaz, Rees, and Neef meet with security officers at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico to discuss green fireball observations at that facility. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1949 January – June, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, pp. 62 – 63) April 28 — 8:00 a.m. Businessman and private pilot Leon A. Faber is flying at 3,000 feet near the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana, when he sees a metallic disc moving east about 10,000 feet away. He is chatting with some ham radio operators on the ground during the 5 minutes the object is in sight before it disappears. (NICAP, “Flying Saucer Observed from Aircraft”) April 28 — 5:45 p.m. Howard Hann [Hamm?], a Mr. Hubert [Huber?], and Tex Keahey see a very large, bright, sausage- shaped object travel from northeast to southwest over the rim of the Catalina Mountains near Tucson, Arizona, over a period of 12 minutes. The object is shiny metallic and reflects the sun, apparently revolving as it moves like the “slow roll of an airplane.” There is no noise, nor is there exhaust or a vapor trail. There are no wings or engines or “protuberances of any sort.” It appears to be traveling at 300–600 mph. (NICAP, “Cigar-Shaped Object Observed in Daylight”) April 28 — 8:30 p.m. Several security patrols at Killeen Base, Texas, report nine separate sightings of lights southeast of the base. Most change color from white to red to green. On one occasion, four lights appear together; on another, 8 – 10 show up in each other’s company. No debris or evidence of flares are found. (Brad Sparks and Jerome Clark, “The Southwestern Lights, Part Three,” IUR 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1985): 10; Clark III 543 ; Sparks, p. 58 ) April 29 — The April 30 issue of the Saturday Evening Post with part one of Sidney Shalett’s “What You Can Believe about Flying Saucers” hits the newsstands. The USAF Public Relations Office has cooperated fully with Shalett, who sets out a fairly even-handed introduction to the phenomenon. (Sidney Shalett, “What You Can Believe about Flying Saucers, Part One,” Saturday Evening Post, April 30, 1949, pp. 20–21, 136– 139 ; Swords 73) April 30 — Hynek turns in his astronomical analysis of Sign’s 237 cases. His contract with Sign is over. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 199 – 200 ; Hynek UFO Report, p. 17 ; O’Connell 45)

May 4 — The US Fourth Army creates an operational plan for a green fireball observation and tracking network at Killeen Base in Camp Hood, Texas. Although it lacks cameras, it has four six-man observation posts equipped with instruments to obtain directional bearings. One of the posts serves as the plotting center to coordinate and triangulate UFO sightings. Each day, a roving patrol gets new orders. (Brad Sparks and Jerome Clark, “The Southwestern Lights, Part Three,” IUR 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1985): 10–12; Clark III 543; Thomas Tulien, ed., Proceedings of the Sign Historical Group UFO History Workshop, Sign Historical Group, November 2001, pp. 43 – 44). May 5 — 10:00 a.m. The Fourth US Army has approached AFOSI in San Antonio to offer assistance in investigating green fireballs and the Killeen lights. They arrange a meeting with AFOSI, ONI, CIC, the FBI, and the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project at Camp Hood, Killeen, Texas, the first of several weekly meetings. Army and Navy officials agree that the fireballs remain unexplained. AFSWP personnel believe they are natural phenomena; AFOSI and FBI give no opinion. The Fourth Army urges AFOSI to create an observation system, even though it had just secretly created one of its own on May 4. (Brad Sparks and Jerome Clark, “The Southwestern Lights, Part Three,” IUR 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1985): 10–11; Clark III 543) May 5 — 11:40 a.m. Army officers Maj. Charles D. May Jr., Maj. James N. Olhausen, and Capt. Molloy C. Vaughn on the Waco no. 4 firing range at Fort Bliss, Texas, watch for 30–50 seconds two oblong white discs pass through a field of fire. They are flying at about 200–250 mph at an altitude of 1,000 feet. The objects make a shallow turn. (NICAP, “May 5, 1949, 1140 MST, Fort Bliss, Texas”; Sparks, p. 59 ) May 6 — Soviet test pilot Arkady Ivanovich Apraksin takes a new airplane for a flight at the Kapustin Yar site, Astrakhan Oblast, Russia. At its maximum ceiling of 9.3 miles, he encounters a cucumber-shaped object, similar to the one he encountered on June 16, 1948, that directs cones of light at his aircraft from a distance of 6–7 miles. The lights cause his communications equipment to fail and damage part of his plexiglass cockpit canopy that results in a loss of air pressure. He manages to land on the banks of the Volga River 30 miles from Saratov. He wakes up in a hospital in Saratov. He again undergoes intense interrogation, psychotherapy, and medical procedures. (Good Above, pp. 221 – 223 ; Joe Brill, “UFO’s behind the Iron Curtain,” Skylook, no. 87, February 1975, p. 1 5 ) May 6 — Col. Lumsden of the San Antonio, Texas, AFOSI office informs headquarters that the “matter has reached a fairly serious stage and some positive action is necessary.” He does not send this message to Project Grudge. Headquarters responds quickly and orders him to investigate all sightings but reminds him to inform AMC. (Brad Sparks and Jerome Clark, “The Southwestern Lights, Part Three,” IUR 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1985): 11; Clark III 543 ) May 6 — Part two of Shalett’s article on UFOs appears in the May 7 issue of the Saturday Evening Post, which takes a more skeptical tone than the first part, with the Gorman case receiving a particularly harsh thrashing. However, he treats Chiles-Whitted favorably and ends with some hints on how to make good observations. Within a few days, the frequency of UFO reports hits an all-time high. USAF issues another long press release completely debunking UFOs, but it has no effect. (Sidney Shalett, “What You Can Believe about Flying Saucers, Part Two,” Saturday Evening Post, May 7, 1949, pp. 36, 184–186; Swords 74; Ruppelt, p. 63 ) May 9 — An article in Time magazine reports on the Air Force press release, remarking that “Spinners of yarns about flying saucers, including a score or so of Air Force pilots, stuck stoutly to their stories.” (“Things That Go Whiz,” Time, May 9, 1949; “Anatomy of a Hoax, Part Six,” Saturday Night Uforia) May 9 — Editor Ken Purdy asks Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe to investigate the flying saucer mystery for True magazine, warning him to watch out for “fake tips” from the Pentagon. Keyhoe is initially skeptical, but after talking to his old friends Adm. Delmer S. Fahrney and Adm. Calvin M. Bolster, his opinion changes. (Keyhoe, The Flying Saucers Are Real, Gold Medal, 1950 , pp. 18 – 22 , 44 ) May 9 — Naval Unit Commander Robert B. McLaughlin, with several other officers, witnesses a white object overhead during the launch of a WAC Corporal B rocket at White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico. It disappears “in a blinding burst of speed to the west.” (R. B. McLaughlin, [Letter to J. A. VanAllen], May 12, 1949; Sparks, p. 61) May 12 — Commander McLaughlin writes to his friend, atmospheric physicist James Van Allen, describing the Moore theodolite case and his own sighting a few days earlier. He thinks they must involve technology because they have been seen accelerating and maneuvering. (R. B. McLaughlin, [Letter to J. A. VanAllen], May 12, 1949) May 12 —9:30 p.m. Astronomer Donald H. Menzel leaves Holloman AFB on Highway 70 for Alamogordo, New Mexico. Shortly after noticing the star Antares, he sees another fuzzy object in the sky nearer to the horizon. A second object appears three degrees to the south. Determining that the objects are not Castor and Pollux or reflections, Menzel watches them another 4 minutes. Both objects vanish abruptly. (Donald H. Menzel, Flying Saucers, Harvard University, 1953, pp. 3– 4 , 99 – 100 ; Sparks, p. 62 ; J. Allen Hynek, “Vignettes of UFO History: Dr. Menzel Reports a UFO!” IUR 7, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1982): 11; Clark III 741– 742 )

May 18 — George N. Raines leaves Washington, D.C., for four days to attend a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. He says Forrestal seems “somewhat better,” having regained 12 pounds. May 18 — Walter Winchell, in his “On Broadway” syndicated column, writes: “The N.Y. World-Telegram on Saturday [May 14] confirmed this reporter’s exclusive report of several weeks before—which newspapermen have denied—about the Flying Saucers… Said the front-page piece in the W-T: ‘Air Force people are convinced the flying disc is real. The clincher came when the air force got a picture recently of three discs flying formation over Stephenville, Newfoundland. [The July 10, 1947, hole-in-the-cloud case?] They outdistanced our fastest ships. Some air force men believe the discs are a new type flying machine utilizing gyroscopic principles’… At the time we added that the reality of the flying discs or saucers could not be denied truthfully.” (“Anatomy of a Hoax, Part Two,” Saturday Night Uforia) May 19 — Wright-Patterson Air Material Intelligence Commander Col. Howard McCoy forwards a copy of the Project Sign final report to the Research and Development Board, along with some appendices that later find their way into the Project Grudge final report. (Michael Hall and Wendy Connors, “The Research and Development Board: Unanswered Questions,” IUR 26, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 10) May 19 — The Fourth Army’s observation system near Killeen Base, Texas (without cameras, but with four 6-man observation posts equipped with instruments), is revealed to the intelligence community at one of its weekly meetings. Two trucks serve as a roving Artillery Patrol observation post linked to the Killeen plotting center by radio. AFOSI Lt. Col. Doyle Rees has meanwhile set up a 24-hour visual observation post in the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is equipped with a wide-angle-lens camera fitted with a spectrographic grating. (Brad Sparks and Jerome Clark, “The Southwestern Lights, Part Three,” IUR 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1985): 12; Thomas Tulien, ed., Proceedings of the Sign Historical Group UFO History Workshop, Sign Historical Group, November 2001, pp. 43 – 44 ; Clark III 543) May 21 — 1:30 p.m. An F-82 is dispatched from Moses Lake AFB [now Grant County International Airport] in Washington State to intercept a UFO that is hovering in restricted air space over the Hanford Atomic Works at an altitude of 17,000–20,000 feet. The silvery disc is seen from the ground at Hanford and on radar. Before the F- 82 can take off, the disc speeds away faster than a jet fighter. It disappears from ground radar and the F-82 cannot locate it. (NICAP, “Hanford AEC Plant / F-82/RV Case”; Sparks, p. 6 3; Hynek UFO Report, p. 141 ) May 22 — 1:45 a.m. At the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, Forrestal is awake and refuses a sedative. Five minutes later, the Navy corpsman guarding him finds the room empty. Forrestal’s body is found on a third-floor roof below the 16th-floor kitchen, No suicide note is found other than part of a translation of Sophocles’s tragedy Ajax that he is copying. (Wikipedia, “James Forrestal”; J. C. Hawkins, Betrayal at Bethesda: The Intertwined Fates of James Forrestal, Joseph McCarthy, and John F. Kennedy, The Author, 2017 ; David Martin, The Assassination of James Forrestal, McCabe, 2019) May 24 — 5:00 p.m. Five witnesses (NACA Ames Research Lab employees Don Heaphy, Gilbert Rivera and his wife, Mrs. Roy L. McBeth, and Mrs. William McBeth) on a fishing boat on the Rogue River, Oregon, near Elephant Rock, see a round, silvery object the size of a transport aircraft. It comes from the east, then turns southwest and leaves no exhaust trail. The disc appears flattened and has a wrinkled surface with a vertical stabilizer fin. The time of observation is less than 3 minutes. (NICAP, “The Rogue River Incident”; Sparks, p. 64 ; Swords 83– 84 ; Bruce Maccabee, “An Assessment of the UFO Sighting at Rogue River, Oregon (May 24, 1949),” December 2009 ) May 27 — 2:25 p.m. Pilot and businessman Joseph Shell, ferrying an SNJ trainer for North American Aviation from Red Bluff, California, to Burns, Oregon, sees 5– 8 oval objects, twice as long as wide and one-fifth as thick, around Hart Mountain, Oregon. They fly in trail formation, with an interval equal to 3–4 times their length, except that the second and third are closer together. (NICAP, “Pilot Encounters 5–8 Egg-Shaped Metallic Objects”; Sparks, p. 65) May 31 — The Air Force Office of Special Investigations sends Project Grudge a copy of Rees’s report on Kaplan’s visit on April 28, the trip that USAF Intelligence had arranged to explore the possibility of a clandestine investigation separate from Grudge. Thus AMC learns of the conspiracy to keep it in the dark, but Rees fails to mention the involvement of USAF Intelligence. (Brad Sparks and Jerome Clark, “The Southwestern Lights, Part Three,” IUR 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1985): 15) May 31 — The Navy review board, convened by Adm. Morton D. Willcutts, completes hearings on James Forrestal’s death. The cause of death is remarkably inconclusive, and the investigation leaves many questions unanswered.

Summer — The gouge is said to be still visible in the debris field near Corona, New Mexico. Mack Brazel, having found various scraps and bits for the past two years, mentions to someone in a bar in Corona that he has some material. The next day, a Capt. Armstrong and three others from Roswell Army Air Field supposedly confiscate the pieces.

Summer — 4:00 p.m. The French Navy patrol boat La Rusé (formerly the USS PC- 472 ) encounters a cigar-shaped bluish object about one mile away off Casablanca, Morocco. The crew watches it for 1 minute until it shoots toward the horizon and out of sight. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p, 36) June 6 —9:05 p.m. Two observation posts at Killeen Base, Fort Hood, Texas, spot a hovering orange light. Lts. Virgil Williams and Marvin L. Jones are at one site and Lts. Bernard G. Raferty and Alfred H. Jones are at the other. When they triangulate its location, they find it is 3 miles south of one observation post and 4.5 miles south of the plotting center, hovering 5,280 feet in the air. It is 30–70 feet in diameter. Suddenly it starts moving in level flight, then bursts into small particles. The duration is less than 3 minutes. This observation involves the first real- time triangulation of a UFO sighting. (Brad Sparks and Jerome Clark, “The Southwestern Lights, Part Three,” IUR 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1985): 12; Clark III 543; Sparks, p. 66 ; Thomas Tulien, ed., Proceedings of the Sign Historical Group UFO History Workshop, Sign Historical Group, November 2001, p. 43 ) June 1 4 — 3:35 p.m. A crew of Navy engineers under Capt. Robert Bright McLaughlin is testing an Air Force V-2 rocket at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. When the V- 2 attains a speed of 2,000 feet per second in its upward flight, it is joined by two smaller circular objects that pace it, one on each side. One then passes through the rocket’s exhaust, joins the other, and together accelerate upwards leaving the V- 2 behind. Five other missile observation crews also see the objects. (NICAP, “Two UFOs Pace V-2 Rocket”; Robert McLaughlin, “How Scientists Tracked a Flying Saucer,” True, March 1950, pp. 25– 27 , 96– 99 ; Sparks, p. 66; Swords 92–93) June 22 — Three women (one a schoolteacher, another a biologist working at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and a third who is the wife of a member of the Security Division, AEC, Oak Ridge) observe an odd trio of “flying saucers” for about 15 minutes: “It was described as consisting of two identical rectangular-shaped objects which appeared to be coordinated in movement and which moved in wave-like motion. The third object was circular in shape and appeared to be in level flight between and above the two rectangular objects. The rectangular objects appeared to be bright metal on top but dark underneath, while the color of the circular object was the same as that of frosted glass. The ‘flying saucer,’ when last sighted, was in level flight and was flying in a northwesterly direction. The weather was clear with high cumulus clouds. The ‘flying saucer’ flew at speed of from 10 to 15 mph over an area just about the center of Oak Ridge.” (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1949, January – June, The Author, 1988, pp. 83 – 84 ) June 29 — 6:30 p.m. A former US Air Force tech sergeant observes three separate flights of three V-shaped or triangular objects from his front porch in Baltimore, Maryland. The objects veer sharply into a cloud at 2,500 feet altitude and then fly around it repeatedly. They have the ability to reverse their course 180° instantaneously. Through binoculars, they look like black, open boomerangs. More objects join them until there are 15–20, and he watches them for two hours. The formation moves from southeast to northeast and disappears. Fifteen other witness also see the display. (Marler 126–128)

July 3 — 10:40 a.m. Aeronautical engineer Molt Taylor, airport manager at Longview, Washington, is preparing for an air show when someone points out an object in the sky to the northwest. He announces it over the PA system to the crowd of 150–200 observers, including pilots, who watch a metallic disc cross to the southeast with a falling-leaf motion. Estimated altitude is 30,000 feet at 300 mph, with the approximate size of 100 feet. A second object is seen at 10:49 a.m. for 2 minutes. A third sighting takes place at 11:25 a.m. An object approaches from the west at about the same altitude, oscillating at 48 per minute, and disappears into the sun. (NICAP, “Metallic Discus Object Observed by 150–200 Observers”; Sparks, p. 67 ; Swords 82– 83 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 48 – 49 ) July 13 — Kaplan responds to a July 1 letter from Gen. Charles P. Cabell inquiring about his April visit to Los Alamos, New Mexico. He explains that he has deliberately waited two months to report because he wanted to have a cooling off period from the deep impression the New Mexico witnesses had on him. Moreover, he wants to see if the green fireballs are still reported (they are) before he recommends a full-scale instrumented program. He says that Norris Bradbury, the Los Alamos lab director, has urged that a classified scientific conference be held to discuss the phenomena. Kaplan suspects that the fireballs are an auroral phenomenon, but concedes that their horizontal motion and southern appearance are “difficult to explain.” He recommends a photographic and spectrographic patrol that would stay on to look out for the fireballs. (Brad Sparks and Jerome Clark, “The Southwestern Lights, Part Three,” IUR 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1985): 15) July 24 — 12:03 p.m. Henry Clark, manager of a flying service, is flying a Piper PA-16 Clipper at 19,000 feet 10 miles northwest of Mountain Home, Idaho, when he sees a tight formation of 7 delta-shaped objects, 35–55 feet in diameter near his plane. They make a perfect and unbanked right turn 1,500 feet ahead of his plane, then they turn right again, passing the aircraft at about 450–500 mph. Clark’s engine runs rough during the sighting, which lasts

10 minutes. After he lands, he finds all his spark plugs burned out. When Blue Book investigates the case, they confiscate the spark plugs. (NICAP, “Piper Clipper Encounters Seven Delta-Shaped Objects”; Sparks, p. 68 ) July 24 — 8:30 p.m. An Air Force major and captain watch seven bluish-white lights pass over Fort Worth, Texas, in a V formation, moving rapidly from south to north. The distance between the lights does not vary during the 4– 5 seconds they are visible. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1949 July – December, The Author, 1988, p. 13) July 24 — A green fireball is seen falling close to Socorro, New Mexico. The next day, scientist William D. Crozier collects dust samples from the School of Mines campus at Socorro. The samples contain copper particles of unusually large size. (Clark III 543– 544 ; Sparks, p. 68 )

August — George Adamski publishes Pioneers of Space, detailing his out-of-body visits to the Moon, Mars, and Venus. In private correspondence he later explains “how one may venture from one place to another, while his physical is in one place and he is in another. That is the way I have written this book. I actually have gone to the places I speak of.” (George Adamski [ghost-written by Lucy McGinnis], Pioneers of Space, Leonard-Freefield, 1949; “Palomar Mountain, 1940–1960: From Obscurity to World Fame,” The Adamski Case, September 22, 2019) August — Actor, producer, and director Mikel Conrad, in promoting his soon-to-be-released film The Flying Saucer, claims that the movie contains actual footage of a spaceship recovered in Alaska by government agents. He produces a bogus FBI agent to “confirm” the story. The Air Force Office of Special Investigations interviews Conrad, who admits to perpetrating a publicity hoax. (Jerome Clark, “A Catalog of Early Crash Claims,” IUR 18, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1993): 16; Internet Movie Database, “The Flying Saucer”) August 8 — 1 1:30 p.m. Six airmen and tower operators at Medford Municipal Airport [now the Rogue Valley International–Medford Airport] in Oregon see 1–7 shiny objects traveling at variable speeds at an estimated altitude of 30,000 feet. They fly in formation for a while, then break off and return to formation again. Control tower operators using binoculars seem to distinguish wings on the objects. They remain visible until around 12:30 a.m. (NICAP, “Winged Objects Cavort over Airport”) August 10 — USAF’s AMC issues a final 60 0 - page report, “Unidentified Flying Objects—Project Grudge,” Technical Report 102-AC-49/15-100, or “The Grudge Report,” authored by Lt. Howard W. Smith and George W. Towles. Hynek’s April analysis is included as an appendix. Based on 237 cases, Hynek finds that 32% can be explained astronomically. Others say 12% are balloons, 33% are other misidentifications, hoaxes, or insufficient information. That leaves 23% (55) classed as unknowns. Despite this, witnesses are mostly deluded, hysterical, lying, or crazy, and “further study along present lines would only confirm the findings presented herein.” The report concludes there is little evidence to prove UFOs are real and do not represent a security threat. It recommends that press releases be created to “aid in dispelling public apprehension.” On the other hand, it suggests that military and government agencies interested in “psychological warfare” be informed of the findings. Appendix D is written by USAF Scientific Advisory Board member George E. Valley, who writes that extraterrestrial civilizations “might observe that on Earth we now have atomic bombs and are fast developing rockets. In view of the past history of mankind, they should be alarmed. We should, therefore, expect at this time above all to behold such visitations.” Project Grudge enters a period of dormancy until July 1950. The report is classified Secret until August 1, 1952. (Lt. Howard W. Smith and George W. Towles, “Unidentified Flying Objects—Project Grudge,” Air Materiel Command Technical Report 102-AC-49/15- 100 ; Hynek UFO Report, p. 18 ; Sparks, p. 12 ) August 10 — The National Military Establishment is renamed the Department of Defense to unify the Army, Navy, and Air Force under the Secretary of Defense. It establishes the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (Wikipedia, “United States Department of Defense”) August 17 — Lincoln LaPaz submits the fifth of a series of reports on “anomalous luminous phenomena.” He notes that “Many of the green fireballs now appearing descend in nearly vertical paths, whereas, in earlier months almost all of the green fireballs observed moved almost horizontally. There appears to be a concentration of New Mexico incidents near weekends, especially on Sunday and near the hour of 8:00.” (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1949 July – December, The Author, 1988, pp. 28–29) August 16 — A young girl in Wola Drzewiecka, Poland, sees a dark green object nearby like two bowls put together and about 5 feet in diameter. She walks right up to it and touches its metallic surface with her index finger, getting a mild electric vibration and making her fingertip turn red. The object begins rotating, then rises up and disappears to the south at an altitude of 50 feet. In the distance she sees another object that she says remained in the same spot for several days. (Poland 18–19) August 18 — LaPaz and USAF scientists meet with William D. Crozier to find out about his July 25 dust collection in Socorro, New Mexico. Crozier says he thinks the copper particles may have come from a campus building, although samples from the open country contain the same particles. LaPaz notes that copper is extremely rare in

meteorites, although it might explain the yellow-green color of the fireballs. He suggests that further air and ground samples be taken in areas where the fireballs are seen. (Clark III 543– 544 ) August 19 — Two prospectors, Buck Fitzgerald and Mase Garney, report that a flying saucer crashed near them in Death Valley, California. Two little men jump out and start running. The prospectors chase them over a sand dune, but lose them. (“‘Little Men’ in Flying Disc,” San Francisco Examiner, August 20 , 1949, p. 2; Clark III 269; Patrick Gross, URECAT, August 22, 2006) August 19 — 8:15–11:00 p.m. Rev. Gregory Miller, pastor of the St. Peter and Paul Church in Norwood, Ohio, has purchased from Army surplus an 8-million-candlepower searchlight for his church carnival. Sgt. Donald R. Berger of ROTC of the University of Cincinnati is to operate it. During the festivities, Berger’s sweeping searchlight suddenly flashes across a stationary circular object in the sky. Miller and others join in and observe. When Berger moves the searchlight away, the disc continues to glow. Hundreds of calls are received by Cincinnati Post and Cincinnati Enquirer offices regarding fireballs and comet-like objects all across the Cincinnati area this first night. The searchlight picks up the same or similar objects on nine further occasions, the last being on March 10, 1950. (“More Proof That ‘Saucers’ Exist,” CRIFO Orbit 1, no. 5 (August 6, 1954): 1–2; NICAP, “The Ohio Searchlight Incident”; Patrick Gross, “The Norwood Searchlight Incident”) August 20 — 10 :45 p.m. Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, his wife, and mother-in-law see a formation of rectangular bluish- green lights at Las Cruces, New Mexico, for about 3 seconds. (NICAP, “Tombaugh Observes UFO Formation”; H. B. Darrach Jr. and Robert Ginna, “Have We Visitors from Space?” Life, April 7, 1952, p. 8 9 ; “Dr. Clyde Tombaugh Provides Details on His Own Famous Sighting,” CSI News Letter, no. 10 (December 15, 1957): 27; UFOEv, p. 53; Sparks, p. 70 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 59 – 60 ; Clark III 1129– 1130 ; Swords 81–82) August 29 — 7:00 a.m. The Soviet Union secretly conducts its first successful nuclear weapon test (First Lightning) at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan. The design is very similar to the first US “Fat Man” plutonium bomb. The project is led by physicist Igor Kurchatov. (Wikipedia, “RDS- 1 ”)

September 1 — Col. John W. Schweizer of AFOIN writes to the director of USAF Intelligence: “reports that fall in the ‘fireball’ category will no longer be included in HQ Air Materiel Command and Directorate of Intelligence, HQ USAF, investigative activity on unidentified aerial incidents.” AMC hands green fireball reports over to the USAF Cambridge Research Laboratory at Hanscom AFB in Bedford, Massachusetts. AFOIN rejects an Army request for further facilities to study the green fireballs from field locations. (Clark III 54 3 ) September 14 — The Geophysical Sciences Branch of the Air Force Research and Development orders the new AMC commander Lt. Gen. Benjamin Chidlaw to have the Cambridge Research Laboratory in Massachusetts evaluate the New Mexico and Texas green fireball cases and consider the creation of an instrumented network. AMC is directed to send representatives from Boston to a meeting in New Mexico. (Lt. Col. John McK. Tucker, “Light Phenomena,” September 14, 1949; Brad Sparks and Jerome Clark, “The Southwestern Lights, Part Three,” IUR 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1985): 16; Clark III 544) September 14 — 9:30–10:00 p.m. Two residents of Lubbock, Texas, see 9 clusters of objects “similar to ducks flying in formation,” bright silver and roughly round in shape. There are as many as 50 objects in all the formations except one. They seem to be traveling at 5,000 feet altitude, going north to south. Each light is visible for about 10 seconds, but it takes 30 minutes for all the objects to pass overhead. One witness is convinced the objects are ducks. (Clark III 692– 693 ) September 26 — 6:30 p.m. Lester Wolfe and five others 5 miles southeast of Lexington, Nebraska, are threshing wheat when they see three objects coming from the general direction of the sun (southwest). As the objects move, they give off a dazzling brilliance. They maintain a level flight with two of the objects changing positions as they fly. The power of the illumination remains constant throughout the incident (no pulses or flashes). Once the objects reach a direction northwest of the observers, they make a smooth 90° turn straight upwards and climb rapidly out of sight. Dean Wolfe is a recent graduate of a two-year course in aeronautical design and thinks the objects look like domed discs when viewed face forward, but are more like stubby, wingless, tailless fuselages when seen from the side. About 5 miles away, Don, Minnie, Elmer and Irene Ballheim see two fast-moving objects flying in the distance at level flight before abruptly turning straight up and flying upward. This group of people does not know their distant neighbors. (NICAP, “ 90 - Degree Turn Straight Up”; Swords 83–84) September 27 — 1:30 and 3:00 a.m. At least five observers at Sandia Base, New Mexico, see fireballs of various colors traveling either in an arc or in tangent to the Earth. (Francis Ridge, “The Nuclear Connection Project: The New Mexico Sightings,” September 3, 2005; Sparks, p. 71)

September or October — A Swiss Air Force officer sees a silvery disc 20 feet in diameter with jagged edges above Payerne, Vaud, Switzerland. He observes it flying at about 700 mph for 12 seconds. (Center for UFO Studies, [Payerne case file])

Fall — A radar-tracking UFO case takes place at a key atomic base (probably Los Alamos, New Mexico). The base radar scope covers 200 miles of sky up to 100,000 feet. A legitimate radar contact tracks five apparently metallic objects at a great height moving south and crossing the radar scope in less than 4 minutes (an average of about 4,500 mph). (H. B. Darrach Jr. and Robert Ginna, “Have We Visitors from Space?” Life, April 7, 1952, p. 89) Fall — Night. Donald Bushwell and his wife are traveling along a straight highway in New Mexico. Suddenly a disc about 50–60 feet across comes straight down the road toward them about 4 feet off the ground. It raises up a little before reaching the car and passes overhead. As it does so, his radio turns to static. (Tulsa (Okla.) Tribune, December 10, 1957; Schopick, p. 77) October 10 — 1:07 a.m. A bluish-green fireball is seen moving to the northeast at 45° above the horizon at Sandia Base, New Mexico. Duration is from 4 to 15 seconds. (Francis Ridge, “The Nuclear Connection Project: The New Mexico Sightings,” September 3, 2005) October 11 — The Navy releases only a brief summary of its findings in the death of James Forrestal. The complete transcript is not released until 2004. (Ayn Rand Institute Watch, “The Willcutts Report on the Death of James Forrestal”) October 12 — Columnist Frank Scully writes an article in Variety alleging that the US government has retrieved crashed spaceships in the southwestern desert. (Frank Scully, “Scully’s Scrapbook,” Variety, October 12, 1949; Clark III 595 , 1044 ) October 14 — At another conference in Los Alamos, New Mexico, attended by 16 representatives of AFOSI, AMC (Joseph Kaplan and Maj. Frederic C. E. Oder), Fourth Army, the FBI, AFSWP, and Los Alamos scientists (Edward Teller, George Gamow, and Stanislaw Ulam), the green fireballs are identified as probably atmospheric in origin, but more observational data is needed. LaPaz and Neef speak at length. Oder’s Cambridge Research Laboratory at Hanscom AFB in Bedford, Massachusetts, is selected for a field project, under LaPaz’s supervision. (Brad Sparks and Jerome Clark, “The Southwestern Lights, Part Three,” IUR 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1985): 16; Clark III 544; Swords 81; Good Above, pp. 266 – 267 ) October 14 — 1:15 p.m. Harley C. Marshall, manager of public relations at Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, is driving away from the observatory when he sees a perfect “V of V’s” formation of about 16– 18 silver objects without tails or wings overhead traveling at high speed to the northwest and emitting a sound like jets. He stops and watches them disappear behind the cloud cover. Returning to the observatory, he phones electrician Benjamin B. Traxler, who at 1:20 p.m. sees one dark UFO traveling to the southwest. Marshall checks the Navy Electronics Laboratory Geiger counter on site and sees that the needle has jumped off the scale for several seconds. For the next 10 days, another 21 incidents of off-scale cosmic-ray detector incidents occur at scattered times, fitting a periodic 1.5-hour time schedule, a phenomenon not seen before or after, and unexplainable by equipment failure or radio interference from aircraft. Two representatives of the Office of Naval Research and two from the Naval Electronics Laboratory in Point Loma, California (Joseph P. Maxfield and G. L. Bloom), visit the observatory to investigate the readings, but not before they stop in at Alice Wells’s Palomar Gardens Café on the way in. After George Adamski claims he has seen increased UFO activity in the area (including a sighting about the same time as another observation by Traxler on October 21), they ask him if he would send them any photos he might take with one of his telescopes. He gives them a copy of a telescopic photo he took in February 1949 with his 15-inch reflector. The Naval Electronics Lab later attributes the photo to “electric discharge which frequently occurs in cameras during film pulling in dry or cold climates.” Several Navy aircraft of differing prop and jet types are flown near the observatory using radio, altimeter, and radars on October 21 and November 2 in an unsuccessful effort to trigger the Geiger counter. (NICAP, “Geiger Counters Detect UFO Presence”; Clark III 38, 949 – 950; Sparks, pp. 74 – 75 ; Swords 86–87; Maurice Weekley and George Adamski, “Flying Saucers As Astronomers See Them,” Fate 3, no. 6 (September 1950): 56 – 59; Colin Bennett, Looking for Orthon, Paraview, 2001, pp. 29 – 30) October 23 — 7:15–10:45 p.m. Rev. Gregory Miller has set up his searchlight once again at St. Peter and Paul Church in Norwood, Ohio. Sgt. Berger turns on the light and picks up a large object in the beam. At about 10:00 p.m., the searchlight picks up two distinct groups of five triangular objects that seem to emerge from the main disc. They descend on the beam then turn out of it. The same performance is repeated 30 minutes later. About 50 persons, including newspaper reporters observe the objects. Miller takes several photographs and asks Sgt. Leo Davidson of the Norwood police department to film the display. He uses three rolls, 25 feet each, and a Hugo-Meyer F- 19 - 3” camera with telephoto lens. Davidson also takes 10 still photographs of the large disc-shaped object that flies in

and out of the searchlight beam, using a Speed-Graphic camera with a 14-inch Wallensach telephoto lens. Two of
these are exceptional shots, showing both the parent object and the smaller group. These two pictures are last seen
by Time-Life correspondent Harry Mayo, who has prepared a feature story for Time, which was to include them.
But Mayo’s story and Miller’s photos were not used in Time or Life and, in spite of requests by Miller, these two
photos are never returned. (Harry Mayo, “What Glows on Here? Norwood Muses,” Cincinnati Post, April 6,
1950, p. 1; “More Proof That ‘Saucers’ Exist,” CRIFO Orbit 1, no. 5 (August 6, 1954): 1–2; NICAP, “The Ohio
Searchlight Incident”; Patrick Gross, “The Norwood Searchlight Incident”)

November 3 — Joseph Kaplan brings the green fireball plan to the USAF Scientific Advisory Board at the Pentagon. By this time, he is convinced the fireballs are a rare type of meteor. But others are puzzled by the brightness, trajectories, and soundlessness, Kaplan says, “This high selectivity of direction seems to indicate that some group was trying to pinpoint Los Alamos with a new sort of weapon.” (Clark III 544) November 3 — Karl Taylor Compton resigns as chairman of the Research and Development Board around the same time that Lawrence R. Hafstad succeeds Lloyd Berkner as executive secretary. (Michael Hall and Wendy Connors, “The Research and Development Board: Unanswered Questions,” IUR 26, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 9) November 3 — 11:00 a.m. USAF Capt. William H. Donnelly is driving south about 2 miles north of Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico, with a friend when he sees four objects to the east at a high altitude. All are oval and a metallic white color. They are constantly changing formation, moving up and down, back and forth. The objects continue to fly south rapidly and move in a horizontal line and disappear from sight in 20–40 seconds. (Jan Aldrich) November 11 — 6:30 p.m. USNR Commander J. R. Bodler is in charge of a merchant vessel (possibly the USS Hemminger) in the Strait of Hormuz between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. He observes a huge, pulsating submarine light wheel, some 1,000–1,500 feet in diameter, one mile from his ship. It is revolving around an ill-defined center with streaks of light like searchlight beams moving counterclockwise “like the spokes of a gigantic wheel.” He thinks it is caused by natural phosphorescence, stimulated by some marine life. (J. R. Bodler, “An Unexplained Phenomenon of the Sea,” US Naval Institute Proceedings 72 (January 1952): 66–67; Carl Feindt, waterufo.net) November 27 — 5:49 p.m. Civil Aeronautics Administration Chief Controller W. W. Jones watches a blue-white fireball moving 5°–7° per second over Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico. (Francis Ridge, “The Nuclear Connection Project: The New Mexico Sightings,” September 3, 2005) November 27 — 6:00 p.m. Kirtland AFB Deputy Base Commander Lt. Col. Charles E. Lancaster Jr. is driving near McIntosh, New Mexico, when he sees a green fireball descend near Albuquerque. (Sparks, p. 77)

December — Capt. Bernard Baruch Jr. suggests to Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg that UFOs be added to JANAP 146 as required reporting subjects and that civilian pilots report UFO sightings according to military chains of command. (Swords 122 ) December 2– 3 — The US government releases radioactive fission products at the Hanford Site plutonium production facility in eastern Washington in an operation called Green Run. The radioisotopes are supposed to be detected by US Air Force reconnaissance. Sources cite 5,500–12,000 curies of iodine- 131 are released and an even greater amount of xenon- 133. The radiation is distributed over 500,000 acres encompassing three small towns and causes the cessation of intentional radioactive releases at Hanford until 1962, when more experiments commence. There are some indications that many other tests are conducted in the 1940s prior to Green Run, although this is a particularly large test. Evidence suggests that filters to remove the iodine are disabled during the test. (Wikipedia, “Green Run”) December 4 — 5:00 p.m. Mario Restier is returning home from his father’s place in Volta Redonda, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when he notices a disc land about 32–50 feet from the road. He hears a voice telling him not to be afraid and asking if he wants to know what it’s all about. Two beings about 5 feet 5 inches emerge from the UFO wearing togas and helmets. Restier asks them if they believe in God, and they answer, “God is one.” Encouraged, he enters the craft where he is offered a trip, put in a tub filled with liquid, and taken on a trip to a city on another world. He is shown a screen that depicts human nature, ambitions, and violence. After about 6 hours, he is returned to the spot where he was abducted. Returning to his father’s house, he finds it is April 14, 1950, and has lost nearly four months of earth time. (Brazil 23–24) December 20 — Following consideration by the Defense Department’s Research and Development Board, Joseph Kaplan’s green fireball project is approved by AMC. (Col. B. G. Holzman, “Light Phenomena,” December 20, 1949; Brad Sparks and Jerome Clark, “The Southwestern Lights, Part Three,” IUR 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1985): 16; Clark III 544)

December 24 — The January 1950 issue of True magazine is published, with Donald Keyhoe’s article, “The Flying Saucers Are Real.” Keyhoe argues that the Air Force knows UFOs are real, alien, and covering up information from the public in order to avoid panic: “For the past 175 years, the planet Earth has been under systematic close- range examination by living, intelligent observers from another planet.” The Air Force finds itself buried in letters, telegrams, and phone calls demanding information about flying saucers. (Donald E. Keyhoe, “The Flying Saucers Are Real,” True, January 1950, pp. 11–13, 83–87) December 27 — USAF announces that Project Grudge is terminated. Its files are put into storage. The Grudge report is released again, reiterating that UFOs are the “result of (1) misinterpretations of various conventional objects; (2) a mild form of mass hysteria; or (3) hoaxes.” (Clark III 932– 933 )

1950

1950 — N. Meade Layne publishes The Ether-Ship Mystery and Its Solution, which identifies UFOs as emanating from the etheric world, which coexists with and interpenetrates ours. The etherians must lower their “vibrational” rate in order to enter our realm. UFOs are “thought-constructs” that can take many forms and densities. He considers the etherians benign. (Meade Layne, The Ether-Ship Mystery and Its Solution, Borderland Sciences Research Associates, 1950) 1950 — William Ortiz, a deaf-mute, claims to have the first of three close encounters (the others in 1969 and 1975) with large-eyed aliens in UFOs in Colombia. After the first two events, he finds his hearing temporarily restored. The entities communicate to him using hand signals. (“First Reported CEIII Alien Communicating with Deaf-Mute,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1982): 1, 3)

January — The Ground Observer Corps, an organization of civilians who watch the skies for enemy airplanes, is created by the US Air Defense Command. (Wikipedia, “Ground Observer Corps”) January — On the Seattle, Washington, to Anchorage, Alaska, route, an air freighter is paced for five minutes by a UFO. When the pilots try to close in, the craft zooms away at terrific speed. Later, the airline head reports that intelligence officers quizzed the pilots for hours. “From their questions,” he said, “I could tell they had a good idea of what the saucers are. One officer admitted they did, but he wouldn’t say any more.” (Donald E. Keyhoe, The Flying Saucers Are Real, Gold Medal, 1950 , p. 10 ) January — Keyhoe meets with Gen. Sory Smith, director of public relations for the Air Force; Maj. Jesse E. Stay and Jack T. Shea, press officers; and Maj. Jere Boggs, Pentagon liaison to Project Grudge. Most of the interview involves questions for Boggs. Keyhoe is given two looseleaf notebooks with summaries of “Project Saucer” cases. His request to visit Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio to look at the actual case files is turned down weeks later. (Donald E. Keyhoe, The Flying Saucers Are Real, Gold Medal, 1950 , pp. 147 – 154 ) January 7 — 10:15 p.m. The assistant maintenance officer at Holloman AFB is driving south of Corona, New Mexico, when he sees a green fireball. It descends at a 60° angle, then levels out and travels 10° east before dropping out of sight behind a mountain. When first seen, it is yellowish-white, changes to orange as it descends, then turns bright blue-green as it levels out and disappears. (NICAP, “January 7, 1950, Corona, NM, OSI Case 161”: Clark III 544; Sparks, p. 78 ) January 9 — Time magazine reports on rumors of crashed saucers and small humanoids in New Mexico. (“Visitors from Venus,” Time, January 9, 1950) January 12 — The AF Directorate of Intelligence quietly cancels the special intelligence collection directives to various government agencies for reporting UFO incidents, though routine intelligence channels still require UFO reporting, per AFCIR-CC7, “Reporting of Information on Unconventional Aircraft.” Cancellation is a follow-up to the widely announced closure of “Project Saucer.” AFOIN Director Gen. Charles P. Cabell believes that in fact AMC is taking its UFO project underground by announcing the closure. Months later Cabell discovers that AMC Intelligence under Col. Harold E. Watson is not running a secret UFO investigation, and Cabell is forced to make up for AMC’s negligence by conducting his own UFO investigations via his AF Intelligence staff. (Maj. Gen. C. P. Cabell, “Reporting of Information on Unconventional Aircraft,” January 12, 1950; Swords 498) January 12 — 11 :25 p.m. A B-29 aircraft is flying over the Gulf of Mexico (southwest of Florida) on a course of 260° when three objects are noted on the radar scope orbiting the B-29 from all quadrants. The objects are noticed by the radar operator, aircraft commander, navigator, and bombardier. One object is first sighted on a bearing of 330° traveling south. The objects travel across the scope in approximately 15–20 seconds on the 100-mile range setting. In a few minutes this object is joined by two others, which disappear in a few minutes. At short ranges the object is large and well-defined on the radar scope. The object goes off for about 100 miles, turns and comes in as

if for an attack, passes through the center of the scope, and emerges on the other side. The estimated speed of the object is 2,500–3,000 mph. The one object remains on the radar scope for approximately 30 minutes, following the B- 29 all the time. The radar operator switches ranges on the scope and picks up the object on the 20- and 50- mile settings. Twice the object comes to within 20 miles of the aircraft and then apparently has the ability to hover, because the movement on the radar scope ceases for 5–15 seconds. After altering course the object no longer appears, but the radar is jammed for approximately 10 minutes. The crew makes no visual sighting. (NICAP, “B-29 Radar Tracks Objects”; Clark III 58; Sparks, p. 79 ) January 16 — The AFOSI office at Offutt AFB in Omaha, Nebraska, sends a message that recounts stories from Denver, Colorado, about crashed saucers in the southwest. The metal allegedly “defied analysis.” Bodies are said to be 3 feet tall. (Richard H. Hall, Uninvited Guests, Aurora, 1988, p. 74) January 16 — Tsuneo Saheki of the Osaka Planetarium in Japan sees an explosion on Mars, 60 miles high and 900 miles in diameter. Thomas Dobbins and William Sheehan investigate and find that this and other Martian flashes are likely caused by solar reflections on patches of ice crystals on the surface of Mars. (“‘Terrific Explosion’ on Mars Reported by Japanese Observers,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 27, 1950, p. 13; John J. O’Neill, “Mars Blast Puzzles Science,” Ottawa (Ont.) Citizen, July 16, 1952, p. 30; “Some Curious Objects: Meteoritic Perhaps,” The Strolling Astronomer 4, no. 5 (May 1, 1950): 8–9; Thomas Dobbins and William Sheehan, “Solving the Martian Flares Mystery,” 2002) January 22 — 2:40 a.m. Navy patrol pilot Lieut. Smith makes a routine security flight out of Naval Air Station Kodiak [now Coast Guard Base Kodiak], Alaska. He obtains a radar reading on an object 20 miles north. It quickly vanishes. At 2:48, he tracks a similar object 10 miles southeast. Kodiak radar reports no known aircraft in the vicinity, but they are seeing the same track. At 3:00 a.m., the tug USS Tillamook is south of Kodiak when one of the men on deck sees a “very fast-moving red glow light, which appeared to be of exhaust nature.” The object comes from the southeast, moves clockwise around Kodiak, and returns to the southeast. Another officer sees it for 30 seconds and describes it as a “large ball of orange fire.” At 4:40 a.m., Lieut. Smith picks up another blip moving so fast that it leaves a trail on his screen. His crew sees the UFO close a five-mile gap in 10 seconds, an apparent speed of 1,800 mph. Witnesses report two orange lights that rotate around a common center. The object makes a sharp turn and heads directly towards Smith’s plane. Smith considers this a threatening situation and turns off his lights; the UFO flies by and disappears. At least 35 copies of Smith’s report are sent to FBI, CIA, AFOSI, and the State Department. None are ever officially released or published. (NICAP, “USN P2V3 Patrol Plane and USS Tillamook Encounter”; ClearIntent, pp. 165 – 166 ; Clark III 58; Sparks, p. 80 ; Swords 90–91) January 24 —4:50 p.m. USAF Capt. G. B. Edwards and copilot Theron C. Fehrevach are flying a C-45 transport plane from Pope AFB [now Pope Field], Fayetteville, North Carolina, to Bolling AFB [now Joint Base Anacostia- Bolling], Washington, D.C. While at 5,000 feet near Blacksburg, Virginia, Fehrevach notices a dark, 200 – 250 foot in diameter, hemispherical parachute-shaped object above them about 5–10 miles away. A large black smoky region is below it, possibly obscuring the lower portion of a sphere. The UFO is darker than the 50% cloud cover and “easy to distinguish as not being cloud.” The object moves smoothly without any noticeable turn radius. Edwards puts the C-45 into a climb to 7,000 feet so they are at the same altitude as the UFO and turns to head directly toward it. Army Courier Service passenger 1st Lt. John H. Van Santen is alerted by Fehrevach and also sees the object move right then left again, then they all see the object recede at high speed and disappear. About 90 seconds later the object reappears about 30°–45° to the right of their heading, then oscillates right to left. It moves horizontally to dead ahead again and disappears by receding in the distance at high speed. (NICAP, “C- 25 Transport Crew Encounters Object”; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, “Blackstone, Virginia, USA: January 24, 1950,” September 30, 2015; Swords 91) Late January — Gen. Charles Cabell, possibly inspired by the Kodiak, Alaska, case, sends a letter to ATIC asking why Project Grudge has ended, because he never disbanded it. ATIC responds that Grudge is no longer a special project and that UFO reports will be processed through normal intelligence channels. (Ruppelt, pp. 69 – 70 )

January 26 — 4:00 p.m. Lt. Col. Lester F. Mathison, commanding officer of the 625th Aircraft and Warning Squadron at Elmendorf AFB [now Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson], Anchorage, Alaska, notices three reddish objects above the cirrus cloud layer at 25,000–30,000 feet. They are moving to the north in a sightly curled trail fashion and disappear into some clouds. (“Extract: History of the 57th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, January 1–March 31, 1950 (Elmendorf AFB, Alaska),” UFO Historical Revue, no. 8 (February 2001): 7–8)

February 1 — Harry S. Truman issues Executive Order 10104 and creates the “Top Secret classification” designation. (US Office of the Federal Register, “Executive Order 10104”)

February 1 — A meteor-like object spewing smoke is seen by many people over Tucson, Arizona. The radio operator at Davis-Monthan AFB asks 1st Lieut. Roy L. Jones Jr. to investigate it in his B- 29 , but he cannot catch up with it. Edwin Francis Carpenter, head of the University of Arizona astronomy department, says he is certain the object is not a meteor. (Donald E. Keyhoe, The Flying Saucers Are Real, Gold Medal, 1950 , pp. 10 – 12 ; Sparks, p. 81 ) February 2 — Lincoln LaPaz, citing the press of academic duties, withdraws from Project Twinkle. (Clark III 544) February 5 — 5:10 p.m. Four people at Falmouth Airport [now part of Frances Crane Wildlife Management Area north of Hatchville, Massachusetts] see two illuminated cylindrical objects in the western sky. The witnesses include Marvin R. Odom, owner of the airport, and Lt. Philip Foushee Jr. of Otis AFB [now Otis Air National Guard Base] near Mashpee. As the objects are maneuvering, a fireball drops from one. Five minutes later they both climb at high speed and disappear from view. (NICAP, “Feb. 5, 1950; Teaticket, Mass.”; Hyannis (Mass.) Cape Cod Standard Times, February 6, 1950; Sparks, p. 81) February 8 — AFOSI Letter #85 is issued, directing Air Force personnel to relay UFO sightings to the Pentagon or AMC only if they are of “priority Counterintelligence interest.” (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 5, January – March 1950, The Author, 1983, p. 18) February 20 — LaPaz writes to Peter H. Wyckoff of the USAF Cambridge Research Laboratories in Massachusetts that a “fireball project” ought not be pursued because any objects that are not meteors are probably US test missiles. But he concedes he might be wrong and says in that case, “intensive, systematic investigation of these objects should not be delayed.” (Clark III 544) February 21 — Project Twinkle, with the assistance of Land-Air, Inc., has set up its first operations post, manned by two observers who scan the sky over Holloman AFB, New Mexico, with theodolite, telescope, and camera. (Clark III 544 ; Thomas Tulien, ed., Proceedings of the Sign Historical Group UFO History Workshop, Sign Historical Group, November 2001, p. 45 ) February 22 — Navy pilots and others see two glowing UFOs, confirmed by radar, above the Naval Air Station at Key West, Florida. A plane is sent to investigate but it is “hopelessly outdistanced.” After hovering momentarily at a high altitude (50 miles?), they speed away. (Donald E. Keyhoe, The Flying Saucers Are Real, Gold Medal, 1950 , p. 12 ; Sparks, p. 81 ) February 24 — 7:30 p.m. USAF Cpl. Lertis E. Stanfield and other Holloman AFB Photographic Branch project staff at an observation post at Datil, New Mexico, take five photos (using a Cineflex camera with 3-inch focal length lens) of a circular, luminous white object that changes to red and green. Its angular velocity is greater than 0.5°/min in azimuth calculated by Lincoln LaPaz. The object moves in a smooth straight-line motion from about 8:00–9:30 p.m. to the west, blinking red and green. It disappears at high altitude. (NICAP, “AFOSI Case 175; Datil Observation Post Photographs Object”; Sparks, p. 82) February 26 — 2:45 p.m. Three witnesses observe a bronze-colored object that looks like two cigarette ashtrays placed face to face over Vancouver, British Columbia. It slows down as it passes overhead and wobbles as it moves along. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada ’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 64)

March — James J. Rodgers is named a chief of Project Grudge. (Sparks, p. 14) March — Naval Commander Robert Bright McLaughlin, in charge of a team of Navy scientists at White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico, writes about the Charles B. Moore sighting of April 24, 1949, in a True magazine article and speculates on saucer propulsion systems. McLaughlin writes that the saucers are indeed “spaceships from another planet, operated by animate, intelligent beings.” The Navy, having gotten a preview of the article, removes him from White Sands and gives him an assignment at sea aboard the destroyer USS Bristol. (Robert B. McLaughlin, “How Scientists Tracked a Flying Saucer,” True, March 1950, pp. 25–27, 96 – 99; Ruppelt, pp. 70 – 72 ; Swords 94–95) March — According to Karl T. Pflock, two CIA agents clandestinely visit Aztec, New Mexico, UFO crash storyteller Silas Newton and tell him that, although they know he is lying, they want him to continue spreading the tale as disinformation. The two agents later wind up involved in the Psychological Strategy Board created in 1951. (Kremlin 37–42) March 3 — At Selfridge AFB [now Selfridge Air National Guard Base] near Mount Clemens, Michigan, a lone UFO causes multiple radar trackings and is logged at speeds up to 1,500 mph. (NICAP, “Object Descends Vertically, Levels Out”; Patrick Gross, “Selfridge AFB, Michigan, March 3, 1950”; Sparks, p. 8 3) March 8 — Mid-morning. TWA pilot Capt. W. H. Kerr reports to the CAA that he and two other TWA pilots (D. W. Miller and Malvern H. Rabeneck) are watching a UFO hovering at high altitude near Dayton, Ohio. The CAA has already received about 20 other reports about it from Vandalia, Ohio. ATIC control tower operators at Wright- Patterson AFB pick it up visually and on radar (“a good, solid target”). Four F-51 interceptors are sent up. They see it as a huge, round, metallic object, but clouds move in. The object climbs vertically out of sight at high speed.

ATIC calls it the planet Venus, with radar returns from ice-laden clouds. (NICAP, “Three Aircraft Spot UFO / Radar Track at ATIC”; UFOEv, p. 84 ; Ruppelt, pp. 72 – 75 ; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 5, January – March 1950, The Author, 1983, pp. 32–37) March 9 — 7:45 p.m. A crew of three radar controllers at Selfridge Air Force Base [now Selfridge Air National Guard Base] near Mount Clemens, Michigan, is busy monitoring the night flying units of the 56th Fighter-Interceptor Group. 1st Lt. Francis E. Parker, 1st Lt. Frank K. Mattson, Sgt. McCarthy, and Cpl. Melton observe an intermittent target on the height range indicator (HRI) scope of the CPS-4 radar at 47,000 feet altitude and higher. Further indications of what Parker describes as a well-defined, clear target like an aircraft are picked up with increasing regularity over the next 45–60 minutes. During this time, the target seems to stay in the area where the F-80s are flying, but 20,000 feet above them. The radar operators are monitoring two different systems—a CPS- 5 radar operating on long-wave frequencies at 40,000 feet, and a CPS-4 radar operating on short-wave frequencies—and the target appears on both scopes simultaneously without fade. The speed varies from a hover in low-density air to nearly 1,500 mph, well in excess of the fastest operational jet at the time, and a climb rate of up to 7,000 feet per minute. (NICAP, “The Selfridge AFB Incident”; Sparks, p. 84; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 123 – 125 , 295 – 297 ; Clark III 1047–1049; Martin L. Shough, “Radar and the UFO,” UFOs 1947 – 1987 , Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 215–217) March 10 — A publisher and others see a bright disc hover over Orangeburg, South Carolina, for 15 minutes. It speeds away, leaving a trail. (UFOEv, p. 149 ) March 13 — Early morning. Army Signal Corps (Reserve) Maj. Taylor in Clarksburg, California, is sleeping when an odd droning noise wakes him up. Going outside, he notices the noise is coming from a brilliant light in the sky, one- half the size of the full moon. It sways for about 15 minutes, then moves away. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 5, January – March 1950, The Author, 1983, p. 49) March 1 3 — Day. At the Central Airport in Mexico City, Mexico, Santiago Smith (weather observer for Mexicana de Aviación), J. de la Vega of the airport commander’s office, and others see a total of four UFOs passing overhead. Smith observes one of them through a theodolite, describing it as the shape of a “half-moon.” (UFOEv, p. 44 ; “‘Saucers’ No Illusion: Hundreds See Shy Visitors,” Oakland (Calif.) Tribune, March 14, 1950 , p. 9; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 5, January – March 1950, The Author, 1983, pp. 50 – 51 ) March 15 — An Air Force Captain Hall, flying in Guatemala, hears from other pilots at La Aurora Airport in Guatemala City that large, fast, and highly maneuverable objects have flown directly over the runway. The stories also appear in the local press. When Hall returns to Brookley Air Force Base [now Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley] in Mobile, Alabama, he is interrogated by a USAF intelligence officer and told: “Listen, there is no such thing as a flying saucer. You won’t discuss them.” (Swords 96) March 16 — The efforts of Kaplan and Maj. Oder to start a fireball research project come to fruition when the AF Geophysical Research Directorate headed by Oder issues a letter directive authorizing Project Twinkle. A $20,000 half-year contract is signed with Land-Air, Inc. which operates the phototheodolites at White Sands, New Mexico. Land-Air is to set up a 24-hour watch at a location in New Mexico to be specified by the Air Force, and the phototheodolite operators at White Sands are to film any unusual objects that happen to fly past. The official contract gives April 1 as the starting date. March 16 — Just before 12:00 noon. Chief Petty Officer Charles Lewis sees a flying disc streak across the sky at Naval Air Station Dallas [later Grand Prairie Armed Forces Reserve Complex] near Dallas, Texas. It buzzes a high- flying B-36. It hovers under the bomber for a moment, then flies off and disappears. NAS Commander Capt. Milton Adolphus Nation vouches for Lewis and says that the base tower operators had seen a UFO 10 days before. (NICAP, “Disc Buzzes B- 36 ”; “‘Flying Saucers’ Sighted by Two,” Dallas Morning News, March 18, 1950; Ruppelt, p. 75 ) March 1 6 – 18 — 11 a.m.–noon. Former Army Engineer Capt. and Farmington Times business manager Clayton J. Boddy Jr. and dozens of others watch 12–15 shiny “saucer-like discs” cavorting around the sky over Farmington, New Mexico. They hover, then move in great bursts of speed. The objects appear three days in a row. (NICAP, “The Farmington Invasion”; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 5, January – March 1950, The Author, 1983, pp. 56 – 64 ; Sparks, p. 84 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 47 – 48 ) March 18 — 8:40 a.m. Private pilot Robert Fisher, flying a Beechcraft Bonanza over Bradford, Illinois, encounters an oval object with a metallic sheen. He can still see the object when it flies behind some thin clouds. It moves away at an estimated speed of 600–1,000 mph. (UFOEv, p. 38 ) March 18 — The USAF publicly denies that UFOs are secret missiles or space-exploration devices. (Donald E. Keyhoe, The Flying Saucers Are Real, Gold Medal, 1950 , p. 13 )

March 20 — 9:26 p.m. Chicago and Southern Airlines Capt. Jack Adams and First Officer G. W. Anderson Jr., flying a DC-3 at 2,000 feet and heading west from Memphis, Tennessee, to Little Rock, Arkansas, see a circular disc 100 feet in diameter approximately over Hazen, Arkansas. In the top center of the object is an extremely bright light blinking at an estimated 3 flashes per second. The bottom of the object appears to have 9–12 symmetrical oval or circular portholes in a circle approximately 75% of the distance from the center to the outer edge. The object passes directly in front of the airliner at a distance of not more than 2,640 feet and approximately 1,000 feet higher than the airliner. They watch the object for 25–35 seconds. Adams estimates its speed is greater than 1,000 mph. (NICAP, “DC-3 Encounters 100ʹ Disc”; Little Rock Arkansas Gazette, July 24, 1955; Sparks, p. 85 ; Swords 95 – 96; Tom Howell YouTube channel, “UFO from the 1950s,” October 3, 2006) March 21 — 1:00–1:30 p.m. Sergeant Woods at Sandia Base, New Mexico, reports four round, silvery objects to the northeast. The objects appear to be more maneuverable than any known aircraft. The maneuvers are similar to those in dogfights involving two aircraft, but there seems to be no similarity to a conventional plane. They make right-angle turns and reverse direction instantaneously. The duration is about 30 minutes. Other witnesses at Sandia and Kirtland AFB report similar observations. (NICAP, “Base Personnel Sight Strange Objects”; Sparks, p. 85) March 22 — 11:00 a.m. Eleven sergeants in the 4925th Test Group watch a UFO northwest of Kirtland AFB, New Mexico. The shape is “similar to a flying wing air craft and tan in color, turning to brown around the edges.” It first travels northwesterly at 25,000–30,000 feet, then turns north and disappears with a tremendous burst of speed. (NICAP, “Atomic Test Group Witnesses UFO in Broad Daylight”; Sparks, p. 85 ) March 22 —FBI agent Guy L. Hottel writes to FBI headquarters about a rumor that three UFOs have crashed and are recovered in New Mexico. They are 50 feet in diameter and “each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flyers and test pilots.” It goes on, “According to Mr. [redacted], informant, the saucers were found in New Mexico due to the fact that the Government had a very high-powered radar set-up in that area and it is believed the radar interferes with the controlling [sic] mechanism of the saucers.” The informant is probably Silas M. Newton or Leo GeBauer. On March 25, 2013, the FBI issues a release saying that the Hottel memo was simply a second- or third-hand claim “that we never investigated. Some people believe the memo repeats a hoax that was circulating at that time, but the Bureau’s files have no information to verify that theory.” (Guy Hottel, “Flying Saucers, Information Concerning,” March 22, 1950; Richard H. Hall, Uninvited Guests, Aurora, 1988, pp. 326 – 327 ; Good Above, p. 527 ; Federal Bureau of Investigation, “UFOs and the Guy Hottel Memo,” March 25, 2013; Robert L. Hastings, “The March 22, 1950 FBI Memo on Crashed Flying Saucers,” UFOs & Nukes, April 18, 2011) March 26 — Vice-Admiral Louis Mountbatten, in a letter to his friend Charles Eade, editor of the London Sunday Dispatch, rejects the idea that flying saucers are secret weapons, admitting that “they do not come from our Earth… Maybe it is the Shackletons or Scotts of Venus or Mars who are making their first exploration of our Earth.” (UFOFiles2, p. 37) March 26 — Day. Bertram A. Totten, a clerk at the Library of Congress, is flying his plane at 5,000 feet over Fairfax County, Virginia, when he spots an aluminum-colored disc about 40 feet in diameter and 10 feet thick flying 1,000 feet below him. He dives toward it, but it speeds up into the overcast. It glints when the sun hits it, and he notices a vapor trail. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 5, January – March 1950, The Author, 1983, pp. 79 – 80) March 26 — 4:00 p.m. Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt interviews airline pilots Jack Adams and G. W. Anderson about their March 20 UFO sighting on her NBC television program, Today with Mrs. Roosevelt. (“Anatomy of a Hoax, Part Five,” Saturday Night Uforia) March 26 — 8:50 p.m. CAA Tower operator Marie H. Matthews and United Airlines employees Robert Higbee and Fred Hinkle see a brilliant light northeast of Hubbard Field [now Reno–Tahoe International Airport] outside Reno, Nevada. It hangs motionless for 5–6 minutes, then moves slowly across the sky with a green light on either side of it. It suddenly zooms upward into a cloud bank. (UFOEv, pp. 44 – 45 ) March 27 — 10:30 a.m. USAF antiaircraft radar operator Cpl. Bolfango tracks a stationary target on radar over the Motobu Peninsula, Okinawa, Japan, at 18 miles range for 10 minutes at 13,000 feet. The object then moves on a 220° heading for 16.9 miles in 2 minutes (about 500 mph) to a point over a mountain, where it is lost. (NICAP, “Tracked Stationary Target at 18 Miles”; Sparks, p. 85) March 27 — Radio broadcaster Henry J. Taylor, on his syndicated radio program Your Land and Mine, announces the “wonderful news” that saucers are in fact US secret weapons, which will reassure the nation when the US Air Force confirms it. Within days, the story is twisted to specifically credit the Navy’s alleged “top secret” project the Flying Flapjack Vought XF5U. The story is apparently disinformation planted by ex-Hollywood writers in the

CIA Office of Policy Coordination’s Political and Psychological Warfare staff headed by Joseph Bryan III, a future president and board chairman of NICAP. (“Radio Man Certain U.S. Is Owner of ‘Flying Saucer’ Missile Secret,” Miami (Fla.) News, March 29, 1950, p. 9; NICAP, “1950 UFO Chronology”; Swords 97; Curt Collins, “1950 Disclosure: UFOs Are Made in the USA,” November 9, 2018) March 28 — In response to a request from J. Edgar Hoover to his aide D. Milton (“Mickey”) Ladd on “just what are the facts re ‘flying saucers,’ agent S. Wesley Reynolds interviews Maj. Boggs and Lieut. Col. John V. Hearn Jr. of Air Force Intelligence, who tell him that most UFOs are misidentifications and weather balloons. (Swords 95; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 5, January – March 1950, The Author, 1983, pp. 84 – 85) March 28 — Samuel Eaton Thompson is on his way home to Centralia, Washington, from Markham. He drives through a wooded area between Morton and Mineral and decides to stop to take a break. On foot, he comes upon a large, globe-shaped craft hovering above a clearing. Naked children with dark tans and blond hair are playing on steps that lead from an open door to the side of the UFO. Several naked adults—humanoid, attractive, and also deeply tanned—then appear at the ship’s door. After realizing that Thompson means them no harm, they beckon him closer. The crew consists of 20 adults and 25 children, the latter from about 5–15 years of age. Thompson claims to have spent the next 40 hours with the humanoids. They are from Venus, he learns, and have stopped at Earth despite the fact that other Venusian saucers have been shot at by Earth-based military forces. The Venusians further claims that they are vegetarian and that they never grow ill. Thompson also claims the Venusians are naïve and childlike; they do not know who has built their flying saucers and seem to possess little to no curiosity. He goes back to get a camera and tries to take photos, but the object is too bright to appear on film. Thompson returns home on March 30. (“Centralian Tells Strange Tale of Visiting Venus Space Ship in Eastern Lewis County,” Centralia (Wash.) Daily Chronicle, April 1, 1950; Clark III 1127– 1129 ; Jerome Clark, “The Coming of the Venusians,” Fate 34, no. 1 (January 1981 ): 49 – 55 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, November 16, 2018) March 31 — Syndicated columnist Drew Pearson publishes “Worried about Flying Saucers?” in which he sympathizes with the Air Force, which has to reply to groundless public excitement. His USAF contact has told him, “there ain’t no such animal.” Pentagon Public Relations Officer Maj. DeWitt Searles tells the press that all UFO cases are the result of misinterpretations, mass hysteria, and hoaxes: “As far as the Air Force goes, there’s no such thing as a flying saucer.” (Drew Pearson, “Worried about Flying Saucers?” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, March 31, 1950, p. 5; “Major Debunker of Flying Saucers, Keeps Saying, ‘No, No, 1,000 Times No,’” Rock Island (Ill.) Argus, March 31, 1950, p. 18; Swords 96– 99 )

Spring — Commander Augusto Vars Ortega of the Chilean Navy takes about 1,200 feet of color film of UFOs—one above the other, turning at tremendous speeds—in Antarctica. When NICAP asks the Chilean Embassy about the film in 1956, it tells Keyhoe that the film is classified and not available. (Dan Lloyd, “Things Are Hotting Up in the Antarctic,” Flying Saucer Review 2, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1965): 5) April — Daytime. While working on her lawn in Canby, Oregon, Ellen Jonerson glances over at her neighbor’s yard and sees a 12-inch-tall man with his back turned to her. When he turns around, she sees that he has a heavily tanned face, is of stocky build, and wears overalls and a plaid shirt. There is a skullcap on his head. She dashes inside to call a friend, then runs outside again in time to see the figure “waddling” away. He walks under a parked car and disappears. Kenneth Arnold, who interviews her, is convinced of her sincerity. (Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index, 1950– 1951 , p. 2; Clark III 270) April 1 — Project Twinkle officially begins. April 4 — Presidential press secretary Charlie Ross states that Truman has conferred with his two top military advisers, Rear Adm. Robert Dennison and Brig. Gen. Robert B. Landry, and that they claim the US has no such technology. Furthermore, the Air Force study has concluded there are no such things as flying saucers. Caltech aeronautics professor Clark Blanchard Millikan agrees, saying: “If anyone should know about such a project, I should know—and I know of no development in the aircraft or guided missile field.” (Swords 97– 99 ) April 5 — Sen. Richard Russell Jr. (D-Ga.) states to the press that he is “completely baffled” by flying saucer reports that are made by many pilots who would not be fooled by hallucinations or clouds. Sen. Millard Tydings (D-Md.), chair of the Armed Services Committee, says he thinks saucers might be experimental US aircraft “in embryo stage.” Rep. Albert J. Engel (R-Mich.) thinks the same. Sen. Kenneth S. Wherry (R-Neb.) says the saucers are “like our foreign policy. It is in a state of confusion and no one seems to know what it is all about.” (“Congress Split about Saucers,” Miami (Fla.) News, April 5, 1 9 50, pp. 1, 6; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 6, April – July 1950, The Author, 19 90 , pp. 9 – 10 ; Swords 98) April 6 — 4:45 p.m. Lt. John J. Sevila, a pilot with the 131st Fighter Squadron, hears a sound like a flight of jet airplanes and rushes out of his house in Springfield, Massachusetts, to see them. Instead, he sees a perfectly circular object moving slowly westward at an altitude of 25,000 feet. He watches it for 5 minutes as it moves at a speed of 50–

100 mph. When the sun hits it directly, it shines like a mirror. (The Thunderbolt 1, no. 12 (April 1950): 5; Jan Aldrich) April 7 — A CAA control tower operator at Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, watches a blue light split into two lights that revolve around each other for 10 minutes. (Hynek UFO Report, pp. 65 – 68 ; Sparks, p. 86 ) April 7 — Newsman Edward R. Murrow produces the first extended TV commentary on UFOs, “The Case of the Flying Saucer” on CBS. He begins with the Kenneth Arnold case, mentions Muroc AFB cases and Mantell, and quotes both True magazine and Donald Menzel. Also on the show are Henry J. Taylor, engineer Charles H. Zimmerman, and Charlie Ross, as well as people on the street. (“Transcript of Ed Murrow–Kenneth Arnold Telephone Conversation,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 1 (Feb./March 1984): 3; Edward R. Murrow, “The Case of the Flying Saucer [audio only],” Bryce Zabel YouTube channel, February 24, 2018) April 7 — US News and World Report comes out with a story on saucers that hints they are top-secret, jet-propelled Navy aircraft “that can outfly other planes.” (“Flying Saucers—the Real Story: U.S. Built First One in 1942,” US News and World Report 28, no. 14 (April 7, 1950): 13 – 15; Michael D. Swords, “Balloons, Missiles, and UFOs,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 18) April 7 — The National Security Council presents President Truman with Report 68 (NSC-68), a 56-page top secret policy paper that provides the “blueprint for the militarization of the Cold War.” It advocates a large expansion in the military budget, the development of a hydrogen bomb, and increased military aid to US allies for the containment of Communist expansion. It essentially warns Truman that the US is losing the Cold War. Truman does not approve it until 1951. (Wikipedia, “NSC- 68 ”) April 8 — Paul Limerick, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Shelby, North Carolina, watches a round, aluminum-colored object with four other people for 2 minutes. It follows a horizontal course toward the southwest without making a sound, then shoots straight up and disappears. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 6, April – July 1950, The Author, 1990, p. 13) April 10 — 7:00 p.m. Several University of California, Berkeley, graduate students, including Garniss H. Curtis, Robert Scott Creely, and Louis I. Briggs, watch a bright light moving against the wind at about 10–15 mph at 1,500 feet altitude about 3–4 miles away from Berkeley, California, for two hours. It turns slowly to the south then turns around and heads slowly back. Four high school students in Monterey, California, see a gleaming object over San Francisco in the early afternoon. (NICAP case file; “Saucer Visits San Francisco, Schoolboys Say,” Los Angeles Times, April 12, 1950, p. 17) April 14 — RAND Corporation writer Jean M. Hungerford writes a 32 - page research memorandum for the US Air Force titled “The Exploitation of Superstitions for Purposes of Psychological Warfare.” She uses recent examples of religious miracles that were used in Western propaganda, as well as horoscopes, chain letters, and folklore. (Jean M. Hungerford, “The Exploitation of Superstitions for Purposes of Psychological Warfare,” USAF Project Rand Research Memorandum, RM-35, April 14, 1950) April 17 — Newsweek publishes an article, “Flying Saucers Again,” on crashed saucers. (“Flying Saucers Again,” Newsweek, April 17, 1950, p. 29) April 17 — More than 15 people report seeing a UFO for 20 minutes at 2,000 feet on the eastern horizon at Los Alamos, New Mexico. One scientist watches the object through a telescope and says it looks flat, circular, metallic, and roughly 9 feet in diameter. It moves faster than any conventional aircraft. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 6, April – July 1950, The Author, 1990, p. 26 ; Sparks, p. 86 ) April 24 — 10:00 p.m. Bruno Facchini steps outside his house on the outskirts of Abbiate Guazzone, Varese, Italy, and notices something flashing near a power line. He goes to investigate and encounters a landed disc with an open door and steps leading down. Three or four men in diving suits and helmets are inside. One seems to be welding a pipe. Facchini speaks to them, but they respond with growling sounds. One points a small “camera” at him that emits a beam that knocks him over. Facchini lies still while the repairs are completed, and the UFO takes off. (Pino Carminati Ghidelli, “Un Diaco è Atterrato,” Notiziario UFO, no. 37 (Jan./Feb. 1971): 19–22; Antonio Giudici, “The Case of Bruno Facchini,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 6 (April 1975): 30–32; Ezio Barnardini, “Facchini: Un CE3 Rivisitato,” Notiziario UFO, no. 104 (March 1985/Jan. 1986): 4–7; Clark III 26 7 ; Marcus Lowth, “Bruno Facchini’s Extraterrestrial Encounter in Varese, Italy,” UFO Insight, September 5, 2020; 1Pinotti 30 – 40 ; Patrick Gross, “Abbiate Guazzone, Italy, April 24, 1950”) April 25 — Early morning. Military security patrols at the deactivated Dugway Proving Ground in western Utah view a series of unusual lights and objects moving above an ammunition storage area. One object is “surrounded by an aura of spears of light jutting diagonally from the main body.” (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History, Volume 6: April – July 1950, The Author, 1990, p. 34) April 2 5 — 3:00 p.m. Enrique Hausmann Muller takes a film of a bright, circular UFO with rays of flame spinning off its edge in a pinwheel fashion in Montuïri, Majorca, Balearic Islands, Spain. Probable hoax. (UFOEv, p. 88 ; Loren E.

Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 6, April – July 1950, The Author, 1990, p. 32; Matías Morey Ripoll, “El Caso Hausmann: Una Aproximación desde Ibiza,” UFO Fotocat Blog, September 20, 2019; Centro Ufologico Nazionale, [Hausmann photo]) April 27 — While preparing for an MX-776A Shrike air-to-ground missile test at White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico, Charles Riggs, a member of the Project Twinkle cinetheodolite camera crew supplied by Land-Air Inc., sees, tracks, and manages to film four high-flying objects streaking across the sky. Another station also tracks the objects. The photos show only a smudgy dark object, but the triangulation results in a calculation by mathematician Wilbur L. Mitchell and Capt. Perry Bryant of the objects’ size as 30 feet in diameter and 150,000 feet in altitude. (NICAP, “Cinetheodolite Film Taken by Tracking Station”; Ruppelt, p. 88 ; Clark III 54 4 – 545 ; Sparks, p. 88 ; Thomas Tulien, ed., Proceedings of the Sign Historical Group UFO History Workshop, Sign Historical Group, November 2001, p. 44 ; Good Above, pp. 354– 355 ; Bruce Maccabee, “The White Sands Films,” IUR 21, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 22–25) April 27 — 8:25 p.m. TWA Flight 117 pilot Capt. Robert Adickes and Flight Officer Robert F. Manning are flying near Goshen, Indiana, when they see a bright-red disc-shaped UFO behind their DC-3. It overtakes the plane in about 2 minutes. Stewardess Gloria Henshaw and 11 passengers (including Boeing engineers C. H. Jenkins and Dean C. Bourland and executives E. J. Fitzgerald and S. N. Miller) also see the object. It veers off at 400 mph, drops down to 1,500 feet, and disappears. (NICAP, “Adickes TWA DC-3 Case”; Sparks, p. 89 ; Donald E. Keyhoe, “Flight 117 and the Flying Saucer,” True, August 1950, pp. 24–25, 75– 79 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 46 – 47 )

May 5 — 11:30 p.m. Capt. Marcellus D. O’Sullivan, 1Lt. William J. Reisinger, and three enlisted men of the 625th Aircraft and Warning Squadron at Elmendorf AFB [now Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson], Anchorage, Alaska, see a reddish-orange object hovering in the sky for 5 minuites. It puts on a burst of speed and disappears over the horizon. (“From History: 57th Fighter Interceptor Wing (Alaska), January–June 1950,” UFO Historical Revue, no. 5 (July 1999): 8) May 11 —7:30 p.m. Evelyn Trent, who lives on a farm nine miles from McMinnville, Oregon [near Sheridan, Oregon], is walking back to her farmhouse after feeding rabbits. Before reaching the house, she sees a slow-moving, metallic disk-shaped object heading in her direction from the northeast. She yells for her husband Paul, who is inside the house; he comes out and also sees the object. After a short time, he goes back inside to get a camera and manages to take two photos of the object before it speeds away to the west. Paul Trent’s father briefly sees the object before it flies away. The Trents assume they have seen some exotic military aircraft. They do not develop the film in the camera until they use it up and show the photos only to a few friends. Eventually it reaches the cover of Life magazine, but the Trents show no desire to make any money from the photos. Although the Colorado project initially thinks the photos seem genuine, three Interface Pilote pour l’Analyse de Clichés d’OVNIs researchers in 2013 – 2015 claim to find evidence of a model suspended from a string. Researcher Brad Sparks finds major mathematical and scientific errors in IPACO’s work, which actually supports a UFO conclusion. (Wikipedia, “McMinnville UFO Photographs”; “Farmer Trent’s Flying Saucer,” Life, June 26, 1950, p. 29; NICAP, “Trent / McMinnville Photos”; Story, pp. 223– 226 ; Sparks, p. 90; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 244– 245 ; Condon, pp. 396– 407 ; Bruce S. Maccabee, “On the Possibility that the McMinnville Photos Show a Distant Unidentified Object (UO),” Proceedings of the 1976 CUFOS Conference, Center for UFO Studies, 197 6 , pp. 152– 1 63; Bruce S. Maccabee, “The McMinnville Photos,” The Spectrum of UFO Research, CUFOS, 1988, pp. 13–57; Bruce S. Maccabee, “The Trent Farm Photos,” April 2000; Bruce S. Maccabee, “The Trent Farm Photos Appendix,” April 2000; Bruce S. Maccabee, “The McMinnville Photos,” May 2000; Michael D. Swords, “Can We Learn Anything from UFO Photos? Part Five,” The Big Study, July 15, 2012; Antoine Cousyn, François Louange, and Geoff Quick, “The McMinnville Pictures,” Interface Pilote pour l’Analyse de Clichés d’OVNIs, May 2014; Clark III 702 – 704) May 15 — Afternoon. Architect Enrique Carotenuto Bossa is driving in an isolated region in Bahía Blanca Partido (possibly between Macachín and Estación Hidalgo Ferrocarril Sarmiento), La Pampa, Argentina, when he sees a metallic disc resting on the ground to the left of the highway. He stops the car to investigate, approaches it, and sees an open door in its side. He goes inside and sees a “curved divan with three seats, two of which were occupied by small beings covered from head to foot (except for an opening for the face (in a kind of tight-fitting overall of a brown color.” The bodies are about 4 feet tall, and their faces seem charred or burnt. In front of them is a screen with “rays playing on it,” and on top of the screen is a rotating globe. The engineer runs out and drives back to his hotel. He returns the next day with two companions and finds only an ash heap. But they look up and see three UFOs—one a cigar-shaped object and two discs, hovering above them at 1,800 feet. The discs merge

with the cigar and speed away. (El Universal (Caracas, Venezuela), May 7, 1955; “Man Enters Grounded Disc,” APRO Bulletin, August 1955, pp. 1–3; Clark III 327–328; Willy Smith, “The Curious Case of the Argentine Crashed Saucer,” IUR 11, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1986): 18– 19 ; Roberto E. Banchs and Richard W. Heiden, “Crash Landing in the Pampas,” IUR 24, no. 2 (Summer 1999): 4–10, 30; Roberto Banchs, “General Acha (LP): Un Accidentado Aterrizaje (Priemra Parte),” Marcianitos Verdes, July 4, 2009) May 20 — 12:15 p.m. Meteorologist Seymour L. Hess is strolling the grounds of Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, when he notices a round, gray-colored object approaching from the southeast at about 12,000 feet altitude. He follows it with a 4x spyglass as it passes in front of a small cumulus cloud. Hess estimates it is about 4 feet in diameter and moving about 100 mph. (UFOEv, p. 3 ; Condon, pp. 245 – 248 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 61 – 62 ) May 21 —A second Gallup poll on UFOs is released, showing that 5% of respondents think “these flying saucers” are “comets, shooting stars, something from another planet.” (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 6, April – July 1950 , The Author, 1990, pp. 48 - 49 ; Robert J. Durant, “Evolution of Public Opinion on UFOs,” IUR 18, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1993): 10–11) May 21 — 3:50 p.m. T/Sgt Edward Eles, Earl DuQuoin, and four other airmen of the 18 7 th Fighter Squadron of the Wyoming National Guard are on the airfield at the Municipal Airport in Cheyenne, Wyoming, when they see a V- shaped formation of four round, pure-white discs flying in a northerly direction. In a matter of seconds, the objects change formation and make a sharp right-angle turn, flying single file, and speed out of sight. (Cheyenne Wyoming State Tribune, May 22, 1950, p. 1) May 24 — During an MX-674 Tarzon controllable vertical bomb test at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, Floyd Fannon and other USAF crew members see eight unidentified objects. They separately track and film two of the objects down the North American Aviation missile firing range. Project Twinkle cinetheodolite station P-8 films one object to the northeast for 6 frames (1.0 sec) moving uniformly to the south. Cinetheodolite station P-10, located 5.7 miles down range to the north from P-8 and 7 feet higher, films another object, hence no triangulation is possible. (NICAP, “Cinetheodolite Film Taken by Tracking Station”; Sparks, p. 91 ; Good Above, pp. 354– 355 ; Bruce Maccabee, “The White Sands Films,” IUR 21, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 22–25) May 25 — Lt. Col. Doyle Rees of the USAF Office of Special Investigations writes a confidential memo to Brig. Gen. Joseph F. Carroll, Director of Special Investigations. In part, it states: “In a liaison meeting with other military and government intelligence and investigative agencies in December 1948, it was determined that the frequency of unexplained aerial phenomena in the New Mexico area was such that an organized plan of reporting these observations should be undertaken. The organization and physical location of units of this District were most suitable for collecting these data, therefore, since December 1948, this District has assumed the responsibility for collecting and reporting basic information with respect to aerial phenomena in this general area.” (NICAP, “Summary of Observations of Aerial Phenomena, New Mexico Area, Dec 1949 to May 1950”) May 29 — 9:20 p.m. Capt. Willis T. Sperry, copilot Bill Gates, flight engineer Robert Arnholt, a stewardess, and several passengers on an American Airlines DC-6 airliner headed southwest out of Washington, D.C., en route to Nashville, Tennessee, are flying at 7,500 feet at 250 mph. About 7 miles west of Mount Vernon, Virginia, Gates alerts Sperry to a bright blue or bluish light ahead of them and increasing in size. Sperry makes an evasive 45° turn to the right and the object passes from 11 o’clock to 7 o’clock position to the left at a slightly higher altitude. The light very briefly passes between the aircraft and the upper part of the moon, revealing an object with a long silhouette (somewhat reminiscent of a submarine) without visible wings or empennage. The blue light is on the front of the object. Sperry turns left back onto his original course to get the object back in view, but it apparently stays stationary for about 30 seconds. Gates then notices the object circling around to the right side. Sperry banks right again, while the object paces the airliner about 20–30 seconds before it climbs to the east at a 30° angle at “fantastic” speed and disappears. (Wikipedia, “Sperry UFO Case”; NICAP, “Capt. Willis Sperry Sighting”; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 6, April – July 1950, The Author, 1990, pp. 52 – 53; Project 1947, “UFO Reports 1950”; Sparks, p. 91 ) May 29 — A shiny, bright object streaking across the sky is spotted by two cine-theodolite stations at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, just before firing a test missile. The object is tracked and photographed by both stations. After the films are developed, it turns out that the stations had photographed different objects. Analysts estimate that the objects were higher than 40,000 feet, traveling more than 2,000 mph, and over 300 feet in diameter. (Ruppelt, p. 89 ; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 6, April – July 1950, The Author, 1990, p. 36)

Summer — Physicist Enrico Fermi first formulates the “Fermi Paradox” during a casual conversation (in Los Alamos, New Mexico?) with fellow physicists Edward Teller, Herbert York, and Emil Konopinski. While walking to

lunch, the men discuss recent UFO reports and the possibility of faster-than-light travel. The conversation moves on to other topics, until during lunch Fermi allegedly says suddenly, “But where is everybody?” (although the exact quote is uncertain). (Wikipedia, “Enrico Fermi”) Summer — Evening. An 8- or 10-foot-disc lands in a field behind Mrs. Mason Vaughan’s house in Beaverdam, Virginia. From an open cockpit a “man with unusual goggles or headpiece” looks out. Surprised, the disc takes off abruptly, breaking off a limb from an oak tree on the way up. (Clark III 267 ; Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1950 – 1951, p. 20) June 1 — A pilot on patrol from RAF Tangmere in West Sussex, England, sights a “bright circular metallic object” that speeds past his Gloster Meteor jet fighter at 20,000 feet. As he undergoes a debriefing by squadron intelligence, he finds out that four RAF controllers at the radar station at RAF Wartling near Eastbourne have, at the same time, tracked an “unusual response” that vanishes from their screens, moving at terrific speed. (David Clarke, “Flying Saucer Working Party,” Dr. David Clarke Folklore and Journalism, January 3, 2015) June 8 — Gen. Earle E. Partridge of the Fifth Air Force, responsible for the Korean Theatre, writes to Commanding Gen. George E. Stratemeyer, asking for an analysis of certain UFO cases. (Swords 100–101) June 12 — Eastern Airlines executive Eddie Rickenbacker tells the press that if flying saucers “do exist, you can rest assured that they are ours.” (Swords 100) June 12 — 4:00 p.m. Working in a quarry somewhere in California, geologist John Zimmerman and civil engineer Charles Fisher are watching a jet aircraft speeding through the sky and leaving a vapor trail. Suddenly Zimmerman notices that the vapor trail has been cut. Looking more closely, he notices a metallic disc making vertical loops around the jet. Two other discs come into view and perform the same aerobatics. (Wells Alan Webb, Mars, the New Frontier, Fearon, 1956, p. 124; UFOEv, p. 50 ) June 17 — Oskar Linke and his 11-year-old daughter Gabriele are walking toward Haselbach, Thuringia, East Germany, in the twilight when she notices something about 420 feet away. It appears to be two men dressed in shiny metallic clothing who are stooped over and looking at something on the ground. Linke approaches to 30 feet away, looks over a small fence, and sees a large object about 40 feet in diameter that looks like a huge frying pan. It has two rows of holes in its periphery and a black conical tower about 9 feet high. The two men suddenly jump inside. The inside lights up, the object starts humming and rises slowly from the ground, rotating like a top. It rises from the ground with the aid of a central cylinder and is surrounded by flames, then takes off in the direction of Stockheim. Later he finds a circular depression in the ground at the spot. Linke resettles in West Berlin in

1951. He tells his story to a notary there on July 1, 1952, which is how it turns up in the Western press and explains a confusion in the date of the sighting. (NICAP, “CE III by Two Witnesses / Oskar Linke Case”; Central Intelligence Agency, “‘Flying Saucers’ in East Germany,” July 9, 1952; Andreas Müller, “Das Haselbach-UFO von 1950: Die Augenzeugin spricht,” grenzWissenschaft-aktuell.de, January 26, 2016; Sparks, p. 92 ; Good Above, pp. 513 – 514 ) June 21 — 1:35 a.m. Control tower operators Cpl. Roger G. Pryor and S/Sgt. Ellis R. Lorimer and airways communications staffer S/Sgt. Virgil Cappuro watch a flying disc speeding at 1,000–1,500 mph over Hamilton AFB [now closed] in Novato, California. The object shoots blue flame and makes a roar like thunder as it makes five passes over the base. They observe it through binoculars for 25 minutes. (NICAP, “Disc Makes Five Passes at Control Tower”; Sparks, p. 92 ) June 24 — A cigar-shaped UFO paces a United Airlines plane (Capt. E. L. Remlin, First Officer David Stewart, and observer Capt. Samuel B. Wiper) for 20 minutes near Daggett, California. The object is also seen by the crew of another airliner and a navy transport plane. The Navy pilot sees for 3 minutes a dark gray object with heat radiation at the tail end. He estimates altitude as 50,000–100,000 feet and a speed of 1,000–1,500 mph. The crews discuss the matter with two CAA ground stations. (NICAP, “Three Aircraft Crews Observe UFO”; UFOEv, p. 31 ; Sparks, p. 93 ) June 25 — North Korea invades South Korea, beginning the Korean War. (Wikipedia, “Korean War”) June 27 — President Truman orders US air and sea forces to help South Korea. (Wikipedia, “Korean War”) June 27 — 4:15 p.m. Al Hixenbaugh, a photographer for the Louisville Times, is at the corner of Longest and Everett avenues in Louisville, Kentucky, when he hears the sound of a DC-3 airplane overhead. He looks up and sees the plane as well as a large disc with a slight corona around it. He shoots 50 feet of film with his 16mm movie camera as the object remains motionless for 10 seconds before it starts getting smaller and disappears to the west. (Louisville (Ky.) Times, June 28, 1950, p. 1; “How to Film UFO’s,” Saucers 6, no. 3 (August 1958): 3; Sparks, p.

93. June 30 — Midnight. Rev. Ross Vermillion, a former bomber pilot, and his wife are driving 9 miles west of Kingman, Kansas, when they see a bright red light hovering over US Hwy 54 near Cunningham, Kansas. They estimate it to be about 250 feet in diameter with a small canopy on top. The family of druggist Dwayne Mulnix of Meade,

Kansas, also sees the object and they stop and watch it for about 20 minutes along the highway. They begin to drive closer, but it speeds away. As seen in the bright moonlight, the object looks made of bright metal and has an elliptical body “as big as the cross-section of a B- 29 ” with a rotor turning counterclockwise around its body. (NICAP, “WWII Pilot Tells of Seeing Flying Saucer”; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 6, April – July 1950 , The Author, 1990, pp. 66 – 69) June 30 — 11:15 p.m. Two navy men (Petty Officer Carter and Able Seaman Connelly) at Royal Canadian Naval Air Station Shearwater, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, are pulling duty on radar watch from dusk until dawn. They report four separate radar contacts bearing 160° at 5 miles over 90 minutes. Visual confirmation of two glowing objects is made by a chief petty officer in North Dartmouth. (NICAP, “Navy Men Report Radar Contact”)

July — USAF Director of Intelligence Maj. Gen. Charles P. Cabell orders secret UFO field investigations to be conducted by his staff Technical Capabilities Branch in the Evaluation Division under Maj. Milton D. Willis. These begin this month and last until October 1951 when Cabell is replaced by Gen. John A. Samford. (Clark III 936) July — Editor Curtis Fuller’s article, “The Flying Saucers: Fact or Fiction?” appears in Flying magazine. (Curtis Fuller, “The Flying Saucers: Fact or Fiction?” Flying 47 (July 1950): 16 – 17, 59–61) July — Armed Forces Special Weapons Project concludes a top secret study, named Project Nutmeg, to search for an atomic weapons site in the continental US. AFSWP concludes that a site on the Air Force’s Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range in Nevada is the right place. President Truman approves the location, known as Frenchman Flat. (Wikipedia, “Sandia Base”; “Project Nutmeg: The Birth of the Nevada Test Site,” National Nuclear Security Administration, June 2004) July — Mid-day. Electronics engineer Cliff Booth is having lunch in his office at a private contractor’s building at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, when he gets a call that a UFO has been reported by one of the range stations. Booth and an Askania cinetheodolite operator are asked to drive to another range station with a manually operated Askania and look for the object. Through the finders on the theodolite the object presents a side view to the observers and appears to be cigar-shaped and metallic, with a straw-colored iridescent radiance or luster. It also has fins one-third of the way back from the front of the fuselage and a row of at least three oblong ports extending to the rear of the object and located above the center line of the fuselage. The ports are a dark smoky gray but not luminescent. The object hovers in an almost horizontal position, elevation 20°– 25 °, azimuth northeast. Shortly after the men focus the instrument on the object to take a film, it begins maneuvering. Turning toward the camera, the object moves in, and the men can see the front—a round shape with the fins extending out from the sides. It then drops abruptly, as though beginning to fall, but stops. It moves toward the camera, turns sideways, then drops as before, but this time it exposes the side view again. The operator leaves to report the coordinates to headquarters, and when he returns the object is gone. The men turn over their exposed film to the Data Reduction Division for development and analysis. A week or so later they are called in and questioned by a young first lieutenant unknown to them who asks them over and over again if they have taken pictures and to describe the object they had seen. Then they are asked if they can identify the film of the object they photographed. One of the men becomes angry about the questioning, telling the officer he had seen what he reported, had photographed the object, and is convinced it is some sort of a vehicle from outer space. He is shown a film of 14 frames on a Recordak projector. The black-and-white presentation shows a blurred ellipsoid with a dark center, but no details. (Puzzled about the film, he later talks to a mathematician-analyst employed by Land-Air, Inc.; she conjectured the object had been oscillating in the air, preventing a stable image.) The men are then told by their superiors to forget the whole thing. (Lorenzen, FS Hoax, pp. 27– 29 ; Project 1947, “APRO Files: Coral E. Lorenzen, Holloman Air Force Base UFO Sighting, July, 1950”) July — 1:45 p.m. A Civil Aviation Authority flight engineer observes a “wingless, fuselage-shaped” object maneuvering over Cincinnati, Ohio. The object climbs at a steep angle to 16,000–18,000 feet, hesitates, dives, and speeds away to the west. (UFOEv, p. 45 ) July 2 — Dusk. While picnicking on the shore of Sawbill Bay on Marmion Lake, western Ontario, an anonymous employee of the Steep Rock Iron Mine claims to have seen a UFO resting on the water’s surface. A hatch opens and 10 figures, 3–4 feet tall, emerge, wearing shiny, metallic clothing. They seem to be drawing in lake water with a hose. The object soon rises and hovers, then swiftly takes off. The story appears in the mine’s house newsletter, then gets picked up by some Canadian newspapers and Fate magazine in its February/March 1952 issue. However, Robert Badgley, a Scarborough, Ontario, member of APRO, finds in 1974 that Steep Rock employee Gordon Edwards had written the fictitious tale to entertain readers of the newsletter and to satirize saucer stories. (“Steep Rock Flying Saucer,” Fate 5, no. 2 (February–March 1952 ): 68 – 72; “1950 Steep Rock Lake, Ontario Case Possible Hoax,” APRO Bulletin 26, no. 5 (November 1977): 5; John Robert Columbo, UFOs

over Canada, Hounslow, 1991, pp. 32–41; Patrick Gross, URECAT, January 31, 2007; Hammerson Peters, “The Little Green Men of Steep Rock Lake,” Mysteries of Canada, September 7, 2018) July 4 — Evening. Aerojet engineer Daniel Fry is alone during the holiday at White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico, when a flying saucer appears and hovers just above the ground. Fry approaches and strokes its surface when a voice booms, “Better not touch the hull, pal, it’s still hot.” After some conversation with the disembodied extraterrestrial named Alan, he is invited on board the craft, which flies him to New York and back in 30 minutes. Fry has further encounters and becomes a celebrity on the contactee circuit. He finally meets Alan in person in

1961. (Daniel Fry, The White Sands Incident, New Age, 1954; Clark III 518– 520 ) July 6 — A memo by Lt. Col. F. D. McGarrachy, USAF chief of General Investigations Division, expresses strong interest to acquire motion pictures of UFOs taken by civilians, perhaps in cooperation with the FBI, but not in a way to arouse public suspicion of USAF interest. (Hynek UFO Report, pp. 54 – 56 ) July 7 — Gen. Cabell, through his aide Col. Barber, sends a notice to AMC Intelligence Chief Col. Harold E. Watson, that despite the official closing of Project Grudge, the Air Force still desires to receive UFO reports and take them seriously. Project Grudge begins to be reactivated as Project 10073. (Sparks, p. 12 ; Swords 101–102, 498–499) July 11 — Two Navy aircraft crews from NAS Millington [now Naval Support Activity Mid-South] in Tennessee, across the Mississippi River from Osceola, Arkansas, see a domed disc pass in front of them. Airborne radar confirms it. The object first appears as a round ball; after it crosses their flight path, it appears like an upside-down shallow bowl. (“Millington Men Report Seeing ‘Flying Saucer’ and Tracing It,” Memphis (Tenn.) Commercial Appeal, July 12, 1950, p. 1; NICAP, “Air, Radar/Visual over Arkansas”; Sparks, p. 93 ) July 18 — Bruce Bliven summarizes flying saucer news in a Look magazine article. (Bruce Bliven, “Flying Saucers: Myth or Menace?” Look, July 18, 1950, pp. 12–18) July 19 — A memo by Col. Bruno W. Feiling, chief of the USAF Technical Analysis Division, on “Investigation of Flying Saucer Reports” says that UFO investigation takes up too much time. (Hynek UFO Report, p. 57 )

August — Engineer Eric A. Walker becomes executive secretary of the Research and Development Board. He later refers to a real group called MJ-12 and admits attending meetings at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio concerning “recovered UFOs.” (Michael Hall and Wendy Connors, “The Research and Development Board: Unanswered Questions,” IUR 26, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 11) August — A CIA memo sent to FBI headquarters, “Summary of Aerial Phenomena in New Mexico,” discusses the green fireballs and notes that OSI is concerned with the phenomena seen over sensitive installations. It reiterates that Lincoln LaPaz does not think they are meteors. (ClearIntent, pp. 167 – 168 ) August — Keyhoe’s article on the Adickes case of April 27, “Flight 117 and the Flying Saucer,” appears in True magazine. (Donald E. Keyhoe, “Flight 117 and the Flying Saucer,” True, August 1950, pp. 24–25, 75–79) August — 2:00 p.m. Hugh O’Neill views a cigar-shaped object hovering silently about 2–5 miles off the Big Sur coast at Anderson Creek, California, at an elevation of 500–1,000 feet. It moves swiftly away to the south, then returns less than 2 minutes later and slowly circles above the ocean twice for 90 seconds, disappearing again to the south. (Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, New Directions, 1957, p. 75; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs a History: 1950 August – December, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, p. 3) August 4 — A memo from Army Maj. Ulysses Grant Carlan states that UFOs since July 30 have been seen at the Hanford Site in Washington State. They are above 15,000 feet. Jets attempting interception fail. The AEC says that the investigation is continuing. (Maj. U. G. Carlan, “Flying Discs,” August 4, 1950; Good Above, pp. 267 , 485 ; Nukes 46; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 6, April – July 1950, The Author, 1990, p. 71) August 4 — The crew (Master Nils Lewring, Chief Mate Jacob Koelwyn) of the M/V Marcala in the North Atlantic between Nova Scotia and the US Eastern seaboard watch an aluminum-colored cylinder-shaped UFO, apparently 10 feet in diameter, 50 – 100 feet above the surface. It initially moves 25 mph, makes no noise, wobbles slightly, disappears over the horizon, then reappears. The ship’s captain watches the object through binoculars for 90 seconds. One of the other witnesses describes the sighting as “one of the most frightening experiences I have ever had.” (NICAP, “Object 100ʹ above Sea Observed by Ship MV Marcala”; ClearIntent, pp. 115 – 116 ; Good Above, pp. 340 – 341 ) August 12 — 1:30 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. Bud Oliver are at the state forestry lookout tower on Round Top Mountain north of Medford, Oregon, when they see two UFOs, one disc-shaped, the other oblong. They are about 100 feet apart, and the oblong one is tumbling in the air end over end. (“Lookouts Report Seeing ‘Saucers’ North of Medford,” Medford (Oreg.) Mail-Tribune, August 17, 1950, p. 9) August 14 — 11:27 a.m. Flight Lt. Stan J. Hubbard and two other officers at Farnborough Airfield, Hampshire, England, hear a humming noise. Hubbard looks up and sees a flat gray disc, about 10 0 feet in diameter, at an altitude of

700 – 1 ,000 feet. He watches it for 30 seconds as it flies at a speed of 800–1,000 mph and makes a series of S- turns, oscillating as it moves. The other two officers see nothing. (David Clarke, “Flying Saucer Working Party,” Dr. David Clarke Folklore and Journalism, January 3, 2015; Good Need, pp. 149 – 151 ; David Clarke and Andy Roberts, Out of the Shadows, Piatkus, 2002, pp. 87 – 93 ; UFOFiles2, pp. 40– 42 ) August 15 — 11:30 a.m. Nicholas Mariana and his secretary Virginia Raunig are inspecting the Great Falls, Montana, baseball stadium in preparation for a game. He walks up to the grandstand and notices two fast-moving bright lights “like two new dimes in the sky.” He rushes to his car, parked 60 feet away, and gets his 16mm movie camera from the glove compartment. He films the objects passing behind a water tower, which provides a frame of reference for measuring distance, size, altitude, azimuth, and speed. In October he takes it to an Air Force officer for analysis. USAF notes that two jet interceptors were in the area and might be the objects on the film, but Mariana and Raunig had seen those too. Controversy soon arises when Mariana claims that the first 35 frames of his film—which he says most clearly show the UFOs as rotating disks—are missing. People in the Great Falls area who view Mariana’s film support him. They claim that the missing frames clearly show the UFOs as spinning, metallic disks with a “notch or band” along their outer edges. USAF personnel deny this accusation and insist that they have removed only a single frame of film that was damaged in the analysis. In 1952, Blue Book reviews the film; so does Robert M. L. Baker Jr. in 1954, and the Colorado project in 1967. All studies of the film agree that it was not faked and that the objects appear to be disc-shaped. (Wikipedia, “Mariana UFO incident”; NICAP, “Nick Mariana / Montana UFO Color Film”; “Nick Mariana UFO Footage 1950 Great Falls Montana,” parkerdonaldmusic YouTube channel, September 29, 2012; “Air Force Takes over Films of Flying Disks,” Spokane (Wash.) Chronicle, October 5, 1950, p. 8; “Colored Films on Saucers to Be Shown,” Twin Falls (Idaho) Times-News, October 19, 1950, p. 17; Clark III 767– 769 ; UFOs Yes, 81 – 108; Condon, pp. 407– 415 ; Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, pp. 127– 128 ); Barry Greenwood, “On the Question of Tampering with the 1950 Great Falls UFO Film,” UFO Historical Revue, no. 7 (September 2000): 1–8; Michael D. Swords, GrassRoots UFOs: Case Reports from the Timmerman Files, Fund for UFO Research, 2005, pp. 138–139; Michael D. Swords, “Can You Learn Anything from UFO Photos? Part Three,” The Big Study, July 7, 2012; Patrick Gross, “The Great Falls, Montana, UFO Color Film, August 15, 1950”) August 15 — A top secret meeting on UFOs takes place at the Metropole Building on Northumberland Avenue in London, England. It is chaired by Hugh Young, deputy director of intelligence, and attended by representatives of the Secret Intelligence Service and Wing Commander Myles Formby of the Air Ministry’s technical intelligence branch. Young explains that Henry Tizard, chief scientific advisor to the Ministry of Defence, feels that reports of flying saucers should not be dismissed without investigation and has asked that a working party be set up to look into significant reports. RAF Fighter Command is advised that all future reports of aerial phenomena should go to the Flying Saucer Working Party. (David Clarke and Andy Roberts, Out of the Shadows, Piatkus, 2002, pp. 77– 78 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January 1, 1947 – December 31, 1959, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2003, p. 35 ) August 20 — An FBI informant meets with George Adamski at Alice Wells’s restaurant, the Palomar Gardens Café, south of Mount Palomar, California. In addition to the standard flying saucer tales, Adamski mentions that the Federal Communications Commission has established contact with people from other planets who apparently have a communist economic system. He also predicts that Russia will dominate the world for the next 1,000 years. (Kremlin 63– 7 1) August 23 — FBI memo from Alan H. Belmont to D. Milton Ladd on green fireballs. (A. H. Belmont, “Summary of Aerial Phenomena in New Mexico, Miscellaneous—Information Concerning,” August 23, 1950) August 30 — 10:45 a.m. During a Bell Aircraft MX-776 Shrike missile test (for the later Rascal air-to-ground strategic missile) a USAF M/Sgt and eight Bell Aircraft employees at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, see two glaringly bright circular or elliptical objects maintaining relative position to each other following the B- 50 Superfortress launch aircraft from above on both the dry run and hot run prior to missile release. The objects give a “strong glare at all times” (not reflected sunlight), maneuver at high estimated speeds up to 10 times the B-50 (roughly 2,500 mph) for short distances, leave no vapor trails, hover, accelerate rapidly, and make abrupt “square” turns with apparent size changing to indicate ascent and descent. (NICAP, “Two Objects Filmed during Shrike Missile Test”; Sparks, p. 98 ; Maj. R. G. Illing, “Aerial Phenomena,” September 13, 1950; Swords 115) August 31 — 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. After V-2 missile launch no. 51 at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, Project Twinkle cinetheodolite crews track and film multiple objects sporadically several times from different directions at very high speeds over the course of 3 hours. Cinetheodolite station P-5 films an object using a one-frame-per-second 60 cm focal length camera with 35 mm color film. Frames 593 and 595 (2 seconds of nearly 10 minutes of film) show its elevation angle changing. An attempted interception by four F-86 jets from Kirtland AFB for one hour fails to locate the objects, which apparently return after the jets leave. Cinetheodolite observers note an object

with definite shape and 3D depth but indistinct edges and no smoke or trail. The object seems to “rock or
oscillate.” It is lost when the observer looks away to get an angle reading. (NICAP, “Objects Filmed after V- 2
Launch”; Sparks, p. 99 )

September — 7:00 a.m. Three US Navy planes on a combat mission 100 miles south of the Yalu River in Korea are approached from below by two huge discs, at least 600–700 feet in diameter, traveling at 1,000–1,200 mph. The radar shows them as 1.5 miles away. Suddenly the objects halt, back up, and begin a jittering motion, keeping pace with them, circling above and below. When one pilot readies his guns, the aircraft radar goes haywire, apparently jammed. His radio transmitter is blocked by a buzzing noise. The discs are silvery and shaped like a “coolie’s hat, with oblong ports from which emanated a copper-green colored light which gradually shifted to pale pastel-colored lights.” A shimmering red ring circles the top portion of the disc. The objects soon speed away in the direction from which they had come. (Haines, Korea, pp. 28 – 30 ; Lorenzen, FS Hoax, pp. 30– 32 ) September — The first US Army large-scale aerosol vulnerability test occurs in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, using two types of bacteria (Bacillus globigii and Serratia marcescens) and fluorescent particles. Six simulated attacks are conducted, with the conclusion that it is feasible to attack a seaport city with biological aerosol agents from a ship offshore. The first open-air tests with biological simulants are conducted in 1950 in various locales, one of which is off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia. (Wikipedia, “United States biological weapons program”; David R. Franz, Cheryl D. Parrott, and Ernest T. Takafuji, “The U.S. Biological Warfare and Biological Defense Programs,” in Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare, Office of the US Surgeon General, 1997, chap. 19) September — George Adamski first receives national exposure as coauthor of an article in Fate on his fake UFO photographs. A follow-up article in July 1951 features even more dramatic photos. (Clark III 39; Maurice Weekley and George Adamski, “Flying Saucers As Astronomers See Them,” Fate 3, no. 6 (September 1950): 56– 59; George Adamski, “I Photographed Space Ships,” Fate 4, no. 5 (July 1951): 64 – 74; George Noory, “Fate Flashback: ‘Flying Saucers’ in the 1950’s,” Coast to Coast AM, August 18, 2016) September 5 — 4:09 p.m. Flight Lt. Stan J. Hubbard is standing on the watchtower at Farnborough Airfield, Hampshire, England, with five other officers, one of whom is Wing Commander Frank Jolliffe. They all see, at a range of 10– 15 miles, a light gray disc following a rectangular flight path, consisting of a “falling leaf, horizontal flight, an upward “falling leaf,” then another horizontal stretch. The Working Party concludes they have imperfectly viewed some conventional aircraft. (David Clarke, “Flying Saucer Working Party,” Dr. David Clarke Folklore and Journalism, January 3, 2015; Good Need, pp. 150 – 151 ; David Clarke and Andy Roberts, Out of the Shadows, Piatkus, 2002, pp. 87 – 93 ; UFOFiles2, p. 41) September 8 — Henry Holt publishes Frank Scully’s Behind the Flying Saucers, the first book on UFOs. It sensationally claims that the US government has retrieved a crashed flying saucer and several dead pilots. Rep. Edward H. Jenison (R-Ill.) condemns the book as contributing to mass hysteria during a time of war in Korea. USAF Public Information Officer Clare Welch estimates that 3–4 million people have heard about saucers, thanks to the book. (Frank Scully, Behind the Flying Saucers, Holt, 1950; John L. Cotton, et al., “Flying Saucers and Frank Scully,” in KNW 2333: The Scientific Method, Critical and Creative Thinking (Debunking Pseudoscience), Southern Methodist University; Swords 103; Curt Collins, “Operation Hush-Hush: The UFO Crash and ET Bodies Cover- Up,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, February 9, 2018) September 8 — Air Force Intelligence Collection Division’s Collection Control Branch (AFOIN-CC-1) at the Pentagon issues a new intelligence reporting directive requiring special handling and reporting of UFO incidents, “Reporting of Information on Unconventional Aircraft,” thus reversing the cancellation directive of January 12,

1950. The action reflects the increasing interest by AFOIN Director Gen. Cabell and his dissatisfaction with AMC inaction on UFO study at Wright-Patterson AFB. (NICAP, “1950 UFO Chronology”) September 13 — The Air Force responds to producer Howard Hawks’s request for the use of military locations, personnel, and equipment for his upcoming film The Thing from Another World by refusing to participate and objecting to any display of USAF personnel or equipment on the grounds that “it is our policy not to participate in any proposal that will perpetuate this hoax.” (Swords 103–104) September 15 — Canadian engineer Wilbert B. Smith attends a classified briefing with physicist Robert I. Sarbacher of the US Defense Dept.’s Research and Development Board. Smith asks if there is any truth to the Scully crash- and-retrieval story and Sarbacher replies, “The facts reported in the book are substantially correct.” He says that UFOs are “classified two points higher even than the H-bomb.” In 1983, Sarbacher confirms the comment to Stanton T. Friedman, although he clarifies that he was speaking about crashed UFOs in general. He tells UFO researcher William Steinman in November 1983 that he “was invited to participate in several discussions associated with the reported recoveries” of UFOs, but is unable to attend the meetings. He claims Vannevar Bush,

Eric A. Walker, and John von Neumann are “definitely involved” in the program and probably J. Robert Oppenheimer as well. (Clark III 1029– 1031 ; Good Above, pp. 519 – 521 ; Northern Ontario UFO Research and Study, “Dr. Robert Sarbacher,” March 1, 2010; Wilbert B. Smith, [Sarbacher interview notes], September 15, 1950 ; Dolan II 320; Robert I. Sarbacher, [Letter to William Steinman], November 29, 1983) September 21 —MIT research associate and Air National Guard Maj. Myron Herbert Ligda and Joseph V. Connelly are testing radar near Provincetown, Massachusetts, under contract to the US Signal Corps, when they track an unknown object on a converging course with two F-86s. The clear target passes the planes at a speed of at least 1,200 mph, makes a right turn, then passes directly over or under the F-86s. (NICAP, “SCR-615B Tracks UFO”; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 139 – 141 ; Sparks, p. 100 ; Swords 104) September 25 — JANAP 146(A) is issued: “Communications Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings from Aircraft,” the start of CIRVIS reporting for commercial and military pilots. This adds UFOs to the list of sighting categories. All UFO reports are to be sent to the Air Defense Command at the Pentagon and to the Secretary of Defense. AMC at Wright-Patterson is not mentioned. (Swords 123) September 25 — The Air Force Intelligence office, apparently at the request of Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg, orders all copies of the December 10, 1948, revised Project Sign report destroyed. (Good Need, p. 114 ) September 26 — 10:00 p.m. Policemen John Collins and Joseph Keenan are patrolling on Vare Avenue near 26th Street in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when they see something like a parachute drifting down ahead of them at treetop level. It is about 6 feet in diameter and settles in an open field. After summoning Sgt. Joseph Cook and Patrolman James Casper, they go into the field to investigate. When they turn their flashlights on it, it gives off a purplish glow, “almost a mist, that looked as though it contained crystals.” Collins touches it and it dissolves in his hand, leaving an odorless, sticky residue. It completely evaporates in 25 minutes. This event inspires producer Jack H. Harris to ask his friend Irvine H. Millgate to come up with a story for what eventually becomes the 1958 horror film The Blob. (Clark III 1102; “Flying ‘Saucer’ Just Dissolves,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 27, 1950, pp. 1– 2 ; Rebekah McKendry, “The Supposedly True Story behind the Classic Film The Blob!” 13th Floor, October 21, 2015)

October — Donald Keyhoe’s True article is expanded into a paperback book, The Flying Saucers Are Real, which sells 500,000 copies. It brings many interested civilians and military people to accept UFO reality, government withholding of information, and the extraterrestrial hypothesis. (Donald E. Keyhoe, The Flying Saucers Are Real, Gold Medal, 1950; Wikipedia, “The Flying Saucers Are Real”) October — J[ack?] L. Rohn is named a chief of Project Grudge. (Sparks, p. 14) October — The Flying Saucer Working Party is created in the UK by Ministry of Defence Chief Science Adviser Henry Tizard, assisted by Louis Mountbatten and Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding, both who have quietly concluded that flying saucers are real. It has five members, representing UK intelligence branches. Its charge is to study UFO reports. (Wikipedia, “Flying Saucer Working Party”; Mark Rodeghier, “Britain’s Secret UFO Study,” IUR 26, no. 4 (Winter 2001–2002): 21– 23 ) October 3 — Geochemist J. D. Laudermilk watches a disc moving with a wobbling motion at 750 mph behind a mountain peak near Pomona, California. (UFOEv, p. 49 ) October 5 — A California Central Airlines plane, piloted by Capt. Cecil Hardin and Flight Officer Jack Conroy, is buzzed by a wing-like UFO with 8 bright lights between San Fernando and Van Nuys, California. Bands of blue light are visible across its width. (“Now Add This to Saucer Mysteries,” Los Angeles Daily News, October 6, 1950, p. 2; NICAP, “Mysterious Object Buzzes Airliner”; UFOEv, p. 34 ) October 7 — Walter Bedell Smith takes over as director of central intelligence. October 12 — The Oak Ridger columnist Robert Sharon Allen reports that the Atomic Energy Commission Security Service has issued a questionnaire to be used when UFOs are reported at its installations. (Robert S. Allen, “AEC Wants Info on Flying Saucers Seen near A-Plants,” The Oak Ridger, October 12, 1950; Project 1947, “Robert S. Allen Introduction”) October 12 – November 5 — Some 15 radar and visual sightings of UFOs take place over restricted airspace at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. After the observation on October 23, an unexplained increase in alpha-beta background radiation is detected; after the November 29 sighting, an alpha and gamma ray increase is correlated with unidentified radar targets in the area. (ClearIntent, pp. 171 – 173 ; Memo from Strategic Air Command Knoxville to Director of FBI, “‘Flying Saucers’ Observed over Oak Ridge Area,” October 25, 1950; J. Edgar Hoover, [teletype in response], December 5, 1950; Bruce S. Maccabee, “NCP-14: Saucers over Oak Ridge,” from UFO – FBI Connection, Llewellyn, 2000, pp. 163– 181 ; Francis Ridge, “The Oak Ridge Sightings including All the Tennessee Blue Book Unknowns,” September 22, 2005; Sparks, pp. 100 – 102 ; Clark III 950; Swords 106– 107 ; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 142 – 143 )

October 13 — J. Edgar Hoover sends a teletype message to the Special Agent in Charge in Los Angeles, California, asking him to determine whether Frank Scully is the same man who has been active in communist activities since the 1930s. (Anthony Bragalia, “J. Edgar Hoover’s Saucer Crash Secrets,” UFO Explorations, April 2011) October 15 — 4:20 p.m. After taking off from Raleigh, North Carolina, Miami Airlines DC-4 pilot Capt. George A. Woodward and copilot William Bardsley see four round, metallic objects descending slowly near Pope AFB [now Pope Field] at Fort Bragg. They look like two saucers fitted together and are about 100 feet in diameter, flying in a line about 25 feet apart. The pilots pursue the objects for about 3 minutes, but the objects recede then shoot away at tremendous speed. Around the same time, a similar object crosses the path of an Air Force jet near Pope AFB. (NICAP, “Pilots Report 100-Ft Round Objects”; NICAP, “Aluminum-Like Object Crosses Path of Jet”) October 18 — USAF Brig. Gen. Ernest Moore writes a memo to Col. Harold E. Watson at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio, advising him of the standing policy of releasing no details about UFO case investigations. A form letter is to be used: “We have investigated and evaluated **____** incident and have found nothing of value and nothing which would change our previous estimates on this subject.” (Swords 102 – 103, 500)

November 5 — Four Pan American Airways employees (Fred Wilkinson, Patrick Joseph Maloney, Fred Perrior, and E. Newman) see a bright object fly east to west over Heathrow Airport, London, at 1,000 mph. (London Sunday Dispatch, November 12, 1 9 50; “Saucers over England,” Fate 4, no. 2 (March 1951): 18) November 7 — A military pilot flying a Douglas AD-4Q Skyraider near Lakehurst, New Jersey, engages in a dogfight with a steady white light that he at first mistakes for an aircraft. He gets on its tail, then the light reverses suddenly and passes 100– 200 feet above his plane at incredible speed. He again tails it and the same thing happens. The light continues to “turn about me in wide, climbing turns, making about two orbits to my one.” He abandons chase at 11,500 feet. (NICAP, “Light Makes 5–6 Head On Passes at Navy Plane”; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 68 – 70 ; Sparks, p. 102 ) November 16 — Col. Harold E. Watson at AMC brings in news columnist Bob Considine for an in-depth interview on flying saucers. Watson says: “I’ve seen lots of flying saucers…and every single saucer turned out to be the sun shining off the wing or body of a distant DC-4, or jet, or a weather balloon, or it was a reflection off a water-tank or something else that is readily explainable.” He characterizes witnesses as crackpots, religious fanatics, publicity hounds, or practical jokers. Considine asks him about airline pilot witnesses. Watson accuses them of being fooled by optical tricks and the power of suggestion. (Swords 107–108) November 17 — Telenews Productions releases a 9½-minute short film, The Flying Saucer Mystery, apparently the first UFO documentary. The film’s main focus is on the best new evidence of 1950, the alleged first authentic photographs and motion picture film of flying saucers, the two snapshots by farmer Paul Trent, and the film shot by Louisville (Ky.) Times photographer Al Hixenbaugh on June 2 7 , 1950. It also features UFO witness Arthur Weisberger of Tucson, Arizona, describing his sighting, apparently the only record of the event, as well as Donald E. Keyhoe and Admiral Calvin M. Bolster. The film is apparently only shown for a few months and rotates among the Telenews Theaters across the nation. It is lost for decades until it resurfaces in the 1990s. (“Flying Saucer Mystery,” historycomestolife YouTube channel, July 3, 2010; Curt Collins, “The First UFO Documentary: The Flying Saucer Mystery,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, January 9, 2020) November 21 — Wilbert Smith writes a top secret memo to the Canadian Controller of Telecommunications claiming that he has talked to Canadian embassy staff in Washington, D.C., who tell him that the UFOs are the “most highly classified subject in the US government” (what Sarbacher told him) and that a “concerted effort is being made by a small group headed by Dr. Vannevar Bush.” Sarbacher later verifies the information, saying the small group existed within the Research and Development Board. (W. B. Smith, “Memorandum to the Controller of Telecommunications,” November 21, 1950; NICAP, “The Smith Memo, November 21, 1950”; Good Above, pp. 183 , 464 – 466 ; Michael Hall and Wendy Connors, “The Research and Development Board: Unanswered Questions,” IUR 26, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 10–11) November 2 6 – 27 —11:50 p.m. A “mysterious lighted object” flashing red, white, and green lights is seen above Huron (South Dakota) Regional Airport. Weather Bureau observer Gene Fowler, Winfield Henry of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, and Gordon Moore and Chet Fuqua, ground personnel at Western Airlines, go up to the roof of the airport administration building for a better look. Fowler is able to watch it through a theodolite used for weather balloons for 8 minutes. He says, “The azimuth reading changed from 147 degrees to 161 degrees during that period and went up seven degrees vertically.” The Rapid City weather bureau and Aberdeen CAA in South Dakota estimate the object is 40–50 miles northwest of Bismarck, North Dakota. The object reappears at 1:30 a.m. and is visible, sometimes hovering, until 3:00 a.m. when it disappears to the northwest. In Aberdeen, CAA aircraft communicator William B. Hiller sees a star-like object at 2:00 a.m. and watches it for 90 minutes. It changes colors, glowing white, green, and red alternately. (“Mysterious Sight May Be ‘Saucer,’” Rapid City

(S.Dak.) Journal, November 27, 1950, p. 3; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 7, August – December 1950, The Author, 1982, pp. 59–60) November 27 — Bill Blair, a commercial pilot and flight instructor, watches six elliptical objects in loose echelon formation over Evansville, Wisconsin. They are making noises like a helicopter and are flying at 500 mph at 10,000 feet. (UFOEv, p. 34 )

December — The US seaplane tender USS Gardiners Bay is steaming up the channel from Incheon, South Korea, when the crew sees two mysterious, smoke-trailing objects that strike the water at tremendous speed. Two columns of water rise to 100 feet in height. No aircraft are sighted overhead. (Sanderson, InvRes, p. 43 ; “Sighting Flying Discs Again?” Naval Aviation News 32 , no. 2 (February 1951): 26) December — Science writer Gerald Heard publishes The Riddle of the Flying Saucers in the UK, in which he speculates that with conditions on Mars being severe, the only intelligent beings that can exist there would be advanced insects. A US edition is published in April 1951 as Is Another World Watching? The Riddle of the Flying Saucers. (Gerald Heard, The Riddle of the Flying Saucers, Carroll and Nicholson, 1950; Lyle Zapato, “Of Bees and Men: The Riddle of the Flying Saucers,” ZPi blog, January 27, 2015) December 2 — Cmdr. Charles Peter Edwards, Canadian Deputy Minister of Transport for Air Services, approves Wilbert B. Smith’s proposed plan to use the Department of Transport lab and field facilities during off-hours to gather quality UFO data. It is called Project Magnet. (“What Was the Truth about Project Magnet?” Flying Saucer Review 10, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1964): 29; Clark III 1078; Good Above, pp. 183 – 184 ) December 5 — Engineer Lt. Col. John R. Hood disperses radiation counters around the Oak Ridge, Tennessee, National Laboratory’s restricted area. The intent is to map the presence of any unusual radiation, in the wake of numerous UFO reports over the facility. He also sets up a source of radioactive material to see if its presence has an effect on the air above it. If the air is unusually ionized, it might be the source of the anomalous radar targets. He also mentions using a magnetometer array, but there is no documentation of the result of this effort. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 7, August – December 1950, The Author, 1982, pp. 64 – 65; Swords 107) December 6 — 10:30–11:04 a.m. The ConAC Air Defense Controller notifies the HQ USAF that a number of unidentified aircraft are approaching the northeast area of the United States and that there is no reason to believe they are friendly. By radar contact it is determined that approximately 40 aircraft are in the flight at 32,000 feet on a course of 200° northeast of Limestone, Maine. The White House is notified at 10:31 a.m., and President Truman discusses the reports in a meeting with UK Prime Minister Clement Attlee. (NICAP, “Radar-Inspired National Alert”; Bruce Maccabee, “Immediate Saucer Alert! The Mystery of December 6, 1950,” July 1999; Clark III 824; Sparks, p. 103 ) December 6 — While F-94s are being tested at Dyess AFB near Abilene, Texas, radar catches a UFO on a high-speed intercept course with the planes. Some personnel see the object shortly afterward. Col. Robert B. Willingham claims it is not a missile. It makes 90° turns at high speed. NORAD tracks it and the object is said to crash near the Mexican border near Del Rio, Texas. Willingham and a copilot take a light aircraft to the site but are escorted away. They do see part of the crash field and pick up a small piece of metal from the ground. Willingham takes it to a Marine Corps metallurgy lab in Hagerstown, Maryland, for analysis but never sees it again. (Kevin D. Randle, A History of UFO Crashes, Avon, 1995, pp. 192 – 193 ; Clark III 338; “Del Rio 1955,” Texas UFO Museum and Research Library, March 22, 2010; Kevin D. Randle, “Del Rio UFO Crash and MJ-12,” A Different Perspective, July 21, 2010; Kevin D. Randle, “MJ- 12 ’s Fatal Flaw and Robert Willingham,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 4 – 7 ) December 6 — 5:00 p.m. Former aircraft purchasing agent Harry Lamp and four boys spot a 75-foot silver object hovering at 3,000 feet above the northern part of Fort Myers, Florida. Through 10x binoculars Lamp sees it is 3 – 4 feet thick at the edges and 14 feet thick in the center, which revolves as it hovers. The object has a red rim with two white and two orange jets along it. It flies away at high speed. (NICAP, “Large Object with Bubble on Top”) December 6 — Dubious MJ-12 documents refer to a UFO crash on the Mexico side of the US border in the area between El Indio, Texas, and Guerrero, Coahuila, Mexico. (“El Indio 1950,” Texas UFO Museum and Research Library, February 5, 2014) December 8 — The FBI office in Richmond, Virginia, sends a telegram to FBI headquarters saying that local Army Intelligence has been put “on immediate high alert for any data whatsoever concerning flying saucers.” It adds, “CIC advises data strictly confidential and should not be disseminated.” (Auerbach, [teletype memo], December 8, 1950; ClearIntent, p. 175 ) December 10 — 7:30 p.m. RAF Group-Captain B. S. Cartmel and two friends are at the Wilderness Golf Course near Sevenoaks, Kent, England, when they see a bright light moving east to west in complete silence. It maintains a steady height of 3,000 feet moving at 130–150 mph and is visible for 5 minutes. (Good Above, pp. 28 – 29 )

December 12 — The AFSWP’s Project Nutmeg officially selects the Tonopah–Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range, Nevada, for domestic nuclear testing. (Wikipedia, “Nevada Test and Training Range”) December 13 — 4:55 p.m. J. G. F. Moult and his mother are sitting at their home in Kimberley, South Africa, when they observe a bright object “like a huge mirror in the sky,” hovering, and moving laterally and up and down for about 3 minutes. It goes behind a cloud but can still be seen, appearing like a “piece of magnesium wire burning with a bright, purplish-white light.” It dives through the clouds, turns sharply, and shoots out of sight. (David Marais, “The Outspan Magazine, January 1, 1954”) Late December — USAF Capt. J. E. Broyles sees an aluminum-like oval object with a conical tail moving slowly in the sky near Cheyenne, Wyoming. (UFOEv, p. 20 ) December 26 — Harvard University historian William L. Langer, special assistant for intelligence analysis to US Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, organizes the CIA Office of National Estimates, a forerunner of the National Intelligence Council. (Central Intelligence Agency, “Staff Conference: Minutes of Meeting Held in Director’s Conference Room, Administration Building, Tuesday, 26 December 1950, at 1100 Hours”) December 27 — Sunset. A TWA flight, piloted by Capt. Art Shutts, is enroute from Chicago to Kansas City. Near Bradford, Illinois, Shutts notices a bright white light ahead of the plane, also flashing red and green occasionally. It begins to “wobble and swerve unsteadily,” then streaks back and forth in a north-south line through an arc of 10 – 30 °, changing direction abruptly. He notices that the horizon near the UFO appears to vibrate as if light is distorted, especially after the object puts on a burst of speed. It dims to a pinpoint and begins to slowly move south. Suddenly it lurches, accelerates rapidly, zooms upward at a 45° angle, makes a nearly square turn, plunges downward, and disappears below the horizon to the north. It is visible for 25 minutes. (UFOEv, p. 40 )

1951

1951 — While flying an F-86 Sabrejet over West Germany, USAF pilot Gordon Cooper sees several metallic discs flying at a high altitude. He claims to “have two days of observation of many flights of them, of different sizes, flying in fighter formation, generally from east to west over Europe.” (Gordon Cooper and Bruce Henderson, Leap of Faith: An Astronaut ’ s Journey into the Unknown, HarperCollins, 2000, pp. 80– 81 ; “UFO Sightings by Astronauts,” Syti.net, January 30, 2001; “Astronaut Gordon Cooper Talks about UFOs,” Elhardt YouTube channel, December 27, 2007) 1951 — The intelligence unit of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing puts out periodic intelligence reports through 1953 that cover ground and air operations, unusual incidents, and UFO reports in Korea. The UFO reports are in a different category from unidentified aircraft. Some of these reports do not appear in Project Blue Book. (Jan Aldrich) 1951 — The Atomic Energy Commission uses its parallel system of secret-keeping to conduct controversial research, development, and engineering on aircraft and pilot-related projects, entirely without oversight. 1951 — Marc Thirouin founds the first UFO group in France, the Commission Internationale d’Enquêtes sur les Soucoupes Volantes, in Paris. It begins publishing Ouranos in June 1952 and issues 32 numbers through 1966, reviving in 1972 after Thirouin’s death with a new series that lasts until 1980. (Ouranos, no. 1)

January — Author and journalist Bob Considine’s article appears in Cosmopolitan, debunking all UFO stories as delusions and hoaxes, and quoting a weary Air Force Col. Harold E. Watson, who has replaced McCoy in Project Grudge. It offends people so badly that many pilots afterward refuse to report UFO sightings to the Air Force. USAF Public Information Officer Clare Welch, who has set this interview up, believes the Air Force has better things to do and is out of step with Cabell’s renewed interest. (Bob Considine, “The Disgraceful Flying Saucer Hoax!” Cosmopolitan, January 1951, pp. 32 – 33, 100–102, republished by Project 1947; Swords 113–114) January 1 — 7:00 a.m. Katie Sowell watches an object about 30–50 feet in diameter, like two “upside down saucers” revolving counterclockwise and darting low over her farmhouse near Oak Grove, Louisiana. It has rectangular, opaque windows. It is seen for 15–20 minutes at close range. It banks and disappears, going straight up. (Huntsville (Ala.) Times, February 5, 1974; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1951, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, pp. 1 – 2) January 1 — The Air Defense Command, inactivated since July 1, 1950, is reinstated as a major command at Mitchel AFB [now closed] in Long Island, New York. The HQ is moved to Ent AFB [now the US Olympic Training Center] in Colorado Springs, Colorado, a week later. (Wikipedia, “Aerospace Defense Command”) January 16 — Raymond Dugan and Raymond E. Stiles, members of the General Mills Aeronautical Research Laboratory balloon project, observe a round disc near their Skyhook balloon over Artesia, New Mexico. The balloon is at a height of 112,000 feet. A short time later, Dugan, Stiles, and four civilian pilots at Artesia Airport see two similar

objects circling the same balloon that then fly off to the northeast. (NICAP, “Two Discs Approach Skyhook”; Project Blue Book, [Artesia documents]; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 69 – 70 ; Sparks, p. 104 ; Swords 166) January 20 — 9:20 p.m. Sioux City, Iowa, CAA Control Tower operator John M. Williams sees an odd light in the west. Capt. Lawrence W. Vinther and copilot James F. Bachmeier of Mid-Continent Airlines Flight 9 takes off and Vinther is asked by the tower to look for the light. While still in a climbing turn at about 1,000 feet, the pilots spot the object to the north-northwest at about 8,000 feet and 4 miles away. It looks like a B-29 fuselage with wings but no engines and blinks some lights like running lights. The object comes towards the DC-3, flies across the nose within 200 feet, then suddenly reappears on the other side, paralleling them for 2–3 seconds. The object then flies under them and disappears to the northwest. This is one of the first reports to make it into the CIRVIS system specified by JANAP 146. (NICAP, “UFO Buzzes DC- 3 ”; Lawrence W. Vinther, “Another Saucer Mystery,” Flying 48 (June 1951): 23, 56, reprinted by Project 1947; Ruppelt, p. 84 ; Jan Aldrich; Sparks, p. 104 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 43 – 44 ) January 21 — 4:20 p.m. A UFO that appears to be over the restricted area at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, is sighted on the radarscope of an F-82 fighter. The GCI gives the go-ahead to intercept the target. The radar set on the F- 82 is locked on and the run begins. The interception is unsuccessful, and the fighter returns to base. In all, three passes are made at targets, all with radar indications, but they cannot be completed since the target is over the restricted area that includes the X- 10 plant. (NICAP, “F-82 Attempts Intercept of UFO over AEC Plant / Radar”; Sparks, p. 104) January 22 — 11:00 a.m. USAF pilots Capt. Ernest W. Spradley Jr. of Aerial Photo Lab and Capt. James E. Cocker of All-Weather Flying Division (both based at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio), a General Mills Aeronautical lab project engineer named McAleese, and another airman are flying in a C-47 heading east about 50 miles southeast of Holloman AFB, New Mexico, at about 10,000–12,000 feet, tracking a Project Gopher plastic balloon at about 50,000–70,000 feet, when they see a bright star-like object adjacent to the pear-shaped balloon. As they approach and fly under the balloon, they notice the object descend to the balloon’s level and grow larger in apparent size until about one-quarter to one-half the size of the 70 - foot balloon. It appears to be round and flat like a dime, milky white or silvery in color, with a clear outline. Cocker and McAleese leave the cockpit and go to the astrodome to observe the object. After 3 minutes they see the object separate from the balloon and head west at high speed. After about 1 minute it emits a series of 3 bright photoflashes at one-second intervals and disappears from sight. (NICAP, “C-47 Crew Encounter Object near ‘Gopher’”; NICAP, “White Object Paces Balloon”; Sparks, p. 105; Swords 114–115) January 27 — An Air Force B-50D bomber drops the first atomic bomb, the Able blast, for testing in the US onto a dry lake bed known as Frenchman Flat, inside the Nevada Test Site. (Wikipedia, “Operation Ranger”) January 29 — USAF Lt. Col. Milton D. Willis replies to Robert B. Sibley, president of the Aero Club of New England, who has written Secretary of the Air Force Thomas K. Finletter asking that the UFO project be reinstated because pilots are indeed seeing something that could be extraterrestrial. Willis writes that, although the UFO project is disbanded, the Air Force still investigates incidents and sends them to AMC if necessary, and an officer (Willis himself, who has replaced Boggs) monitors all UFO reports. As an aside to his superiors, Willis in a memo notes that “there have been several incidents, during the last six months, which cannot be explained and further investigation may be necessary.” (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1951, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, pp. 7 – 8 ; Swords 113)

February 9 — 9: 5 5 p.m. The crew (including Lt. Fred W. Kingdon Jr. and US Naval Reserve Lt. Graham E. Bethune) and passengers of a US Navy R5D transport flying west from Keflavík, Iceland, at 10,000 feet about 212 miles northeast of Gander, Newfoundland, observe a large orange-rimmed UFO with a dark center. It is about 400 feet in diameter and first seen moving above the surface of the ocean. As the plane approaches, the object changes colors, executes a sudden 180° turn and disappears over the horizon. Over time, several attempts to disguise the participants have resulted in confusion over the date. (NICAP, “The Bethune Encounter”; NICAP, “Huge Object Rushes up from Ocean Surface”; Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 9– 26 ; “Casebook: February 8, 1951,” UFO Investigator, no. 54 (September 1970): 3; “Casebook: February 8, 1951,” UFO Investigator, no. 55 (October 1970): 3; Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, pp. 78– 79 ; “Unidentified Flying Object: A Provocative Tale,” Naval Aviation News, June 1973, pp. 18–19, reprinted by Project 1947; Good Above, pp. 268 , 486 ; Good Need, pp. 137 – 139 ; Graham E. Bethune, “Lights on the Surface,” 1999; Kevin H. Knuth, Robert M. Powell, and Peter A. Reali, “Estimating Flight Characteristics of Anomalous Unidentified Aerial Vehicles,” Entropy, September 25, 2019 ; Patrick Gross, “The Bethune Flight 124 Airmiss in 1951”)

February 13 — William Webster, chair of the Defense Department’s Research and Development Board, convenes a press briefing at the Pentagon and announces that “Careful studies have been made [referring to the upcoming article in Look]. I don’t believe anyone who has the opportunity to be informed and to look into this thing believes there is a flying saucer as such. As far as I know there is nothing to the flying saucers.” (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 8, 1951, The Author, 1983, pp. 13–14) February 19 — 7:20 a.m. Capt. Jack Bicknell and Radio Officer D. W. Merrifield are flying a Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar aircraft out of Nairobi, Kenya, when they see a bright object hanging motionless about 10,000 above Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanganyika [now Tanzania]. They watch it for 3 minutes, then tell the passengers about it. Bicknell observes it through binoculars and sees a “metallic, bullet-shaped object which must have been over 200 feet long.” It has a vertical fin at one end, and at regular intervals along the fuselage are vertical dark bands. It remains completely stationary for 17 minutes. Two passengers take photos of it. Then it begins rising and moving eastward, disappearing at 40,000 feet. It leaves no vapor trail. (NICAP, “Lodestar Crew Sees Stationary Silver Elongated Object”; “The Flying Saucer: Captain Bicknell’s Own Story,” Nairobi (Kenya) Sunday Post, February 25, 1951, p. 15; Center for UFO Studies, [case documents]; UFOEv, p. 124 ; Sparks, p. 105 ; Patrick Gross. “February 19, 1951, Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa”; Barry Greenwood, “Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanganyika, February 19, 1951: Photo Located,” UFO Historical Revue, no. 16 (July 2015): 1–4) February 19 — Aviation Week praises the upcoming article in Look identifying UFOs as balloons. (Robert H. Wood, “Saucers, Secrecy, and Security,” Aviation Week 54 (February 19, 1951): 50, reprinted by Project 1947) February 20 — The Air Intelligence Training Bulletin publishes a facetious news item on how to recognize flying saucers, but implies they are all reflections. (“Recognition of Flying Saucers,” Air Intelligence Training Bulletin, February 20, 1951) February 25 — Project Twinkle head and chemist Anthony O. Mirarchi at the USAF Cambridge Research Laboratory in Massachusetts tells the Associated Press that he thinks UFOs are not “just balloons” (in response to Liddel’s upcoming article) and urges a full investigation of what could be experiments by a “potential enemy of the United States.” He says that UFO reports show “maneuvered motion” that are not characteristic of a natural phenomenon. He says the “Navy report is erroneous. It lulls people into a false sense of security.” He reminds the nation of the critical installations in New Mexico, including Los Alamos, and argues that they are a target of reconnaissance: “If they were launched by a foreign power, then they could lead to a worse Pearl Harbor than we have ever experienced.” He blasts the US government for a policy of “suicide by secrecy.” The FBI and Air Force mull prosecuting Mirarchi for violating AFR 205-1. (“A.F. Scientist Warns Saucers Major Threat,” Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, February 2 6 , 1951, p. 1; “Scientist Fears Flying Saucers Portend a Worse ‘Pearl Harbor,’” Oklahoma Daily Oklahoman, February 26, 1951, p 1; Swords 119– 120 ; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 8, 1951, The Author, 1983, pp. 18 – 19) February 27 — Physicist Urner Liddel, Office of Naval Research, says in a Look magazine article that there is not a single reliable UFO report that is not attributable to the cosmic [Skyhook] balloons. The article is based on Liddel’s study in ONR’s Research Reviews in March. He claims to have studied “hundreds” of sightings in detail (probably from Project Grudge). As for UFOs sighted by Skyhook scientists themselves, he discounts them because these technicians are not aware of mirages and internal reflections in optical devices. (Richard Wilson, “A Nuclear Physicist Exposes Flying Saucers,” Look, February 27, 1951, pp. 6 0 – 64; Swords 117– 118 ; Urner Liddel, “Bogies at Angels 100,” Research Reviews, March 1951, pp. 1– 6 )

March — A ghost light is seen in Suffolk County, Virginia, and investigated by Nansemond County Deputy Sheriff Hurley Jones, who sees the light three times. It looks like a car headlight 5 feet off the ground, three times. Jeston Reid said his father had seen the light in the 1870s. The location is apparently either Turlington Road or Jackson Road [they intersect] south of Suffolk, since locals say the old railroad along the Jackson and Whaleyville logging road used to run down that way, and the light has also been compared to a locomotive headlight. Some 200 people have been gathering along the road, hoping to catch a glimpse. (“Mystery Light Is a Puzzle in Nansemond,” Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, March 6, 1951, p. 2; “Nansemond’s Mystery Light Is Nothing New to Old- Timers,” Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, March 7, 1951, p. 2; “Mysterious Suffolk Light Has Deputy Believing in Ghosts,” Statesville (N.C.) Daily Record, March 8, 1951, p. 1) March — 11:30 p.m. Operations Officer Robert Wood is aboard the USS Dyess approximately 125 miles southeast of Cape May, New Jersey, when he picks up a radar target coming in from due east at a speed of 98–104 mph and an altitude of 3,000–4,000 feet. It stops and hovers about 30 miles away. Wood notifies the bridge, and the captain orders the ship to change course toward the object. About 30 minutes later, the UFO suddenly takes off toward the north at 3,000 mph, getting to within 35–40 miles south of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, before it zooms

straight up. Altitude-determining radar tracks the object to 100 miles altitude. (“March, 1951: Approximately 125 Miles SE of Cape May, N.J.,” Project 1947) March 14 — A group of nine Bell Aircraft engineers are flying at 15,000 feet in a B-50 Superfortress near Holloman AFB, New Mexico, during a test of a secret Bell aircraft. They spot a group of unknown objects flying in a confusing “swirl” that breaks into a V-formation and back to a “swirl,” then a V again. The objects are slightly higher than the aircraft and seem to be moving at high velocity. The engineers insist the objects are not geese, which actually can fly this high. (This may be the same incident as the August 30, 1950, case at Holloman.) (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 8, 1951, The Author, 1983, pp. 21 – 22) March 15 — 10:20 a.m. George F. Floate, chief engineer of the Delhi Flying Club, and two assistants observe a swirly white cloud moving from north to south at about 4,000 feet altitude near the club’s hanger in New Delhi, India. The cloud is about 700 feet in length. At the end of it a bullet-shaped object appears, approximately 100 feet long and as big around as a C-47 fuselage. The witnesses shout out, and 17 – 20 people rush out of the hanger and see the object. It heads south for about 3 minutes where it makes an apparent loop, coming back over the field. At the top of the loop it is out of sight, but it is seen again in its dive. After recovering straight and level flight, the UFO proceeds to the southwest until it is lost to sight. Its speed is estimated at three times greater than the cruising speed of a British Vampire jet. The total duration is about 7 minutes. (NICAP, “20+ Top Shelf Witnesses / Metallic Cigar”; Sparks, p. 106 )

Early spring — Dusk. US Army Pfc. Francis P. Wall is on maneuvers with the 27th Infantry Regiment near Cheorwon, South Korea, when he sees an orange light like a jack-o-lantern coming down a mountain. Artillery airbursts do not seem to harm it. As it approaches, it turns into a brilliant blue-green disc pulsating with light. Wall asks permission to shoot and fires a round from his M-1 rifle at it. The object starts moving erratically from side to side, flashes on and off, and makes an engine-like noise. It sweeps the soldiers with a beam of light, and they feel a burning and tingling sensation. They retreat to their bunkers and continue to watch the object, which is still lighting up the area, and then it shoots away at a 45° angle. (Haines, Korea, pp. 18 – 27 ; Richard F. Haines, “GI Fires on UFO in Korea,” IUR 15, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1990): 23–24) April 4 — The Truman administration forms the Psychological Strategy Board to coordinate and plan for psychological operations. The board is composed of the Under Secretary of State, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Director of Central Intelligence, or their designated representatives. The board’s first director is Gordon Gray, later National Security Advisor during the Eisenhower administration. The board is created in response to the growth of Office of Policy Coordination covert activities during the Korean War. The PSB is tasked with creating propaganda that will subconsciously turn people away from communism and toward democracy. It is abolished in

1953. (Wikipedia, “Psychological Strategy Board”) April 7 — Howard Hawks’s film The Thing from Another World opens, starring Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, and James Arness, about a crashed flying saucer found in the Arctic. It ends with the haunting lines by Douglas Spencer: “Watch the skies, everywhere! Keep looking. Watch the skies!” (Internet Movie Database, “The Thing from Another World”) April 11 — Air Defense Command issues a memo on “Unconventional Aircraft” to all USAF facilities, encouraging them to report sightings in a timely manner. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 8, 1951, The Author, 1983, pp.

25. April 17 — Project Grudge’s Col. Harold E. Watson notes that JANAP 146 has no provision for UFO reports to be sent to Wright-Patterson AFB under the CIRVIS system. (Jan Aldrich) April 21 — Drones are again used in the series of thermonuclear tests designated Operation Greenhouse at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. During the Easy detonation, two T-33 drones are lost. One receives heavy damage from the shock wave, loses control, and crashes; the other refuses to respond to control signals and crashes on uninhabited Bogullua Island. The Air Force concludes that unmanned samplers are unreliable. (M/Sgt Leland B. Taylor, History of Air Force Atomic Cloud Sampling, US Special Weapons Center, January 1963, pp. 34–37; Jacobsen, Area 51 , p. 225 ) April 23 — Col. Harold E. Watson writes a memo to the USAF Director of Intelligence, explaining his view that “little if any results” have been obtained from Project Grudge other than the objects are not from a foreign power. But since there is still dome doubt, all reports should be forwarded to AMC at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. (Swords 121)

May 21— Wright-Patterson’s Technical Intelligence Department (T-2) becomes the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) and is assigned to the Directorate of Intelligence in the Pentagon. Project Grudge goes along with it. (Sparks, p. 12 ; Clark III 936)

May 22 — 3:20 a.m. American Airlines pilot Capt. W. R. Hunt observes a blue-white, star-like object gyrating around the airplane at 21,000 feet for 20 minutes about 100 miles southwest of Dodge City, Kansas. It moves backward and forward, then up and down, then dives below the plane and speeds away. (“Mysterious Bright Light ‘Plays Tag’ with Airliner over Kansas,” Iola (Kan.) Register, May 22, 1951, p. 1; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 8, 1951, The Author, 1983, p. 26)

June — Project Grudge only has one person on staff to investigate UFO reports, Lt. Jerry W. Cummings, who reorganizes the system and uses a more open-minded approach. (Jacobs, UFO Controversy in America, Signet ed., 1976, pp. 56 – 57 ; Sparks, p. 14 ; Swords 121) June — The UK Flying Saucer Working Party produces its six-page final report for the Ministry of Defence’s Directorate of Scientific Intelligence, DSI/JTIC Report number 7, Unidentified Flying Objects, classified Secret. The CIA’s chief scientist, H. Marshall Chadwell, attends the meeting when the report is delivered. The report admits that no systematic investigation has been undertaken, but from the evidence examined, including reports by RAF pilots, explanations can probably be found for most reports. Copies are also submitted to Canada as well as US and UK officials. (Joe McGonagle, “Flying Saucer Working Party: Commentary,” part 2, The Real UFO Project; Good Need, pp. 149 – 152 ; David Clarke, “Flying Saucer Working Party,” Dr. David Clarke Folklore and Journalism, January 3, 2015; UFOFiles2, pp. 38– 40 ; Mark Rodeghier, “Britain’s Secret UFO Study,” IUR 26, no. 4 (Winter 2001 – 2002): 21– 23 ; Ian Ridpath, “Report of the UK Government’s Flying Saucer Working Party (1951 June),” Ian Ridpath’s UFO Skeptic Pages, January 2021) June 1 — 10 :00 p.m. An ATIC official at Wright-Patterson AFB is driving west near Dayton, Ohio, when he sees a large, bluish-white light moving parallel to the car. It looks like a “stubby cigar.” After 15–20 seconds, it makes a right- angle turn, becomes circular, and rapidly disappears. Its speed is “faster than an airplane, slower than a meteor.” (UFOEv, p. 23 ) June 19 — Day. Mechanic Joseph Matiszewski hears a whistling sound as he is walking in Sønderborg, Denmark, and sees an object land in a nearby meadow. Approaching to within 150 feet of it, he finds himself paralyzed and notices that birds have stopped singing and cows seem frozen in place. Four men with brown skin and wearing black shiny suits and translucent helmets emerge from the object and send Matiszewski some telepathic messages. Eight smaller objects are ejected from the large one and float above it. Other figures inside the craft and on its deck appear to be making repairs. The objects ascend to about 300 feet and climb rapidly after that. The paralysis subsides. (Patrick Gross, URECAT, July 1, 2007) June 22 — Life magazine reporter Robert Emmett Ginna Jr. visits Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio for the first time to gather information on “Project Saucer” for an article. The visit is coordinated by Jack T. Shea, special assistant to the director of public relations. (Jan Aldrich; Michael D. Swords, “1952: Ruppelt’s Big Year,” IUR 28, no. 4 (Winter 2003–2004): 8) June 25 — The UK Flying Saucer Working Party is disbanded. (Good Need, p. 152 )

Summer — A dubious story surfaces in 1956 that three UFOs had appeared above Mexico City International Airport at the same time as a visit by US Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall. (However, there is no record of a visit by Marshall at this time; apparently his first visit to Mexico was a vacation in Cuernavaca in February 1952.) According to the story, Marshall tells a “highly placed American” and “prominent medical scientist” that UFOs are interplanetary and friendly, but they have crashed accidentally on three occasions. In 1965, the American informant is revealed to be Rolf Alexander, who is in fact Allan Alexander Stirling, a New Zealand seaman who had jumped ship in 1920 and entered the US illegally. To support himself he promoted various dubious health cures while concocting a fictitious personal history. His activities were interrupted by prison sentences for mail fraud and embezzlement, and in 1954– 1960 he claimed the ability to break up clouds with his psychokinetic abilities. (“Let’s Talk Space: ‘Flying Saucers’ Are Real,” Flying Saucer Review 2, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1956): 2–4; “Rolf Alexander, M.D.,” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1965): 9; RosRept, p. 99 ) July — The radiation-counter network set up at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, in December 1950 by Lt. Col. John R. Hood hits paydirt when a UFO appears, sighted both visually and on radar over the facility. He finds that the radiation counters have detected a significant rise in some kind of emission. Hood wants to expand the equipment, adding a debris-catching pursuit plane. However, information is lacking on this case and any follow- up. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 8, 1951, The Author, 1983, p. 42) July 1 — 10:50 p.m. Four night pilots of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing in different areas around Seoul, Korea, simultaneously report a large green ball, very bright and trailing streaks of red then blue, passing overhead at 10,000–15,000 feet. (Haines, Korea, p. 31 ; Sparks, p. 106 )

July 4? — 10:00 p.m. Future ufologist Irena Scott and her sister Sue are sleeping at their home in Galena, Ohio, when they wake to see a small glowing light circling their bedroom in a meandering movement, but never bumping into anything. It circles the room three times, maintaining the same shape, brightness, and size (less than one inch). After a few minutes, it moves in tight circles around the chandelier, then spirals downward, makes a noise, and emits tiny lights. Terrified, they rush out of the room and tell their father, who inspects the room but finds nothing. (Irena Scott, “Bedroom Light,” IUR 13, no. 2 (March/April 1988): 14 – 15) July 9 — Day. USAF Lt. George H. Kinmon II, stationed at Lawson AFB [now Lawson Army Airfield] with the 1 1 7th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, is flying an F- 51 over Dearing, Georgia, when he sees a white disc “completely round and spinning in a clockwise direction.” It makes a headlong pass at his aircraft. It travels at “tremendous speed” and leaves no vapor trail. (NICAP, “Aerial Encounter with Disc”; “Saucer Attacked Me, Pilot Declares,” Cleveland Press, July 30, 1952, p. 1, reprinted in Saucer Attack, April 1998; Sparks, p. 107 ; UFOEv, p. 23 ; Richard H. Hall, Uninvited Guests, Aurora, 1988, pp. 328 – 330 ) July 14 — Morning. During a guided missile launch, two radar operators at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, catch a fast-moving object on their scope. At the same time, a tracker watching a B-29 with binoculars sees a large UFO near the bomber. Another observer sights the UFO and, with a 35mm camera, shoots 200 feet of film. The UFO shows on the film as a round, bright spot. The film has never been released. (NICAP, “White Sands Radar/Visual”; Sparks, p. 107 ; Project 1947, “Radar and Visual UFO Sighting, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico—July 14, 1951”; Good Above, pp. 354– 355 ) July 25 — Personnel at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, write a report compiling the results of an organized skywatch of UFOs at the base. Several photos are taken. The report does not conclude what the objects are, but it does establish that some kind of objects have been seen. (“Status of Project Blue Book,” T52-6888, [ 1952 ], p. 1)

August — In an article in Popular Science, the editors ask UFO witnesses what they think the objects are. About 70% believe they are intelligently controlled devices, either man-made or extraterrestrial. (“What Were the Flying Saucers? Eyewitnesses Believe They Saw Secret Aircraft,” Popular Science 159 (August 1951): 74–75, 2 2 8) August 3 — 11:00 p.m. Walter N. Webb, nature counselor at Camp Big Silver on the shore of Silver Lake in southern Michigan, 3 miles south of Pinckney, is showing two boy campers some celestial objects through a reflecting telescope. He sees a glowing, yellowish light moving westward at a low elevation in an undulating path over hills to the south. It disappears behind the hills before he can train his telescope on it. (UFOEv, p. 50 ) August 11 — Former USAF pilot Robert O. Dodge watches three disc-like UFOs in formation over Portland, Oregon. (UFOEv, p. 34 ) August 15 — US test pilot Bill Bridgeman attains an unofficial altitude of 79,494 feet in a Douglas D- 558 - 2 Skyrocket, an air-launched rocket plane powered by the XLR-11 liquid fuel rocket engine. (Wikipedia, “Bill Bridgeman”) Mid-August — 10:30 a.m. Mining engineer Alfred Roos hears a swishing sound at his ranch 10 miles east of Silver City, New Mexico. He looks up and sees two lens-shaped UFOs swooping at tremendous speed then hovering. They go back and forth between his location and Fort Bayard, two miles to the northwest, where they finally disappear into a cloud. (UFOEv, p. 56 ) Mid-August — Midnight. A witness is on his porch in Waco, Texas, looking at the sky when he sees a V-shaped formation of 10–20 round, luminous objects silently pass over from west to east in a matter of seconds. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 41–42) August 17 — 11:30 a.m. Otto Bock, a German scientist with a specialty in optics who came to the US as part of Operation Paperclip, observes a high-altitude, metallic object through his 20x telescope for about 4 hours. He says the sighting is confirmed by four other persons. (Project 1947, “Letter to Donald Keyhoe: Otto Bock, August 22, 1951 ”) August 20 — The CIA, approved by DCI Roscoe Hillenkoetter, starts Project ARTICHOKE to study hypnosis, morphine addiction, and LSD to produce amnesia and other vulnerable states in subjects, as a way of exploring interrogation methods. (Wikipedia, “Project ARTICHOKE”; [Central Intelligence Agency], “Project Artichoke,” declassified(?), January 31, 1975) August 23 — Frank Wisner succeeds Allen Dulles as CIA Deputy Director of Plans in the Office of Policy Coordination, with Richard Helms as chief of operations. In this position, Wisner is instrumental in supporting pro-American forces that toppled Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran in 1953^ and Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala in 1954. Sometime this year he visits Richard M. Bissell Jr. and asks him to finance OPC operations by diverting some Marshall Plan funds, presumably for covert black ops. (Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 45 – 46 ) August 25 — Evening. Joseph Bryant and his wife, at 407 West Powell Street, Brownfield, Texas, see a loose group of glowing lights heading north to south. They are a “little bigger than a star.” A few minutes later a second group flies over, and then a third, which circles around the house. This time Bryant can hear them, and he identifies

them as plovers. When he hears about the Lubbock lights, he is sure the professors are seeing plovers. (Clark III 691 – 692 ) August 25 — 9:10 p.m. Three Texas Technical College professors (geologist Wilbur Irvin Robinson, chemist Aaron Gustav “Gus” Oberg, and petroleum engineer William Lyon Ducker Jr.) are sitting in a backyard at Lubbock, Texas, when they see a fast-moving, semicircular formation of 20–30 lights, as intense as bright stars but larger. Blue-green and silent, they move across the sky in seconds. A second group appears and repeats the performance. Others, including Carl Hemminger at Texas Tech, report seeing the same objects the same night. J. Russell Heitman, head of the Texas Tech journalism department, says he had seen an identical group of lights several days earlier. The professors watch 10–12 such flights through November 1 (including on September 1 and 5), sometimes accompanied by colleagues Ellis Richard Heineman, E. F. George, Grayson Mead, and John Brand. Some researchers, including Ruppelt and Hynek, think the witnesses are seeing migrating plovers attracted to Lubbock’s new vapor street lights, although Ruppelt changes his mind later. (Wikipedia, “Lubbock Lights”; NICAP, “The Lubbock Lights / Carl Hart Photos”; Clark III 688– 690 ; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: Volume 8, 1951, The Author, 1983, pp. 45 – 55 ; Swords 130–132; “Lubbock 1951,” Texas UFO Museum and Research Library, November 15, 1999) August 25 — Around 9: 58 p.m. Hugh Young, a security guard at Sandia Base, and his wife Emily are in their trailer home in east Albuquerque, New Mexico, and watch a large object like a flying wing, but 1.5 times as large as a B- 36 , flying at 80 feet at about 300 mph. It has glowing white lights on the trailing edge of the wing and is completely silent. (NICAP, “Flying Wing over Sandia Base”; Clark III 691; Sparks, p. 108 ) August 26 — 8:28 p.m. A radar station at Larson AFB [now Grant County International Airport], near Moses Lake, Washington, tracks a UFO at 13,000 feet going 950 mph on two different sets, AN/CPS-1 and AN/CPS-4, for about 6 minutes. An F-86 is scrambled, but radar contact is lost before the plane gets off the ground. An electronic signal is received from this object that appears to be a mode-one IFF response from an AN/APX-6 transponder. This response is received twice at approx.115 miles and 80 miles from the radar station. (NICAP, “Two Radars Track 900 MPH Target; Clark III 692; Ruppelt, pp. 96 – 98 , 108 – 109 ; Sparks, p. 108 ) August 27 — At a conference at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, on the green fireballs, Project Twinkle’s Maj. Edward A. Doty expresses skepticism about the project. Meteorologist Bernard “Duke” Gildenberg tells those assembled that he has never seen anything out of the ordinary, nor has astronomer Clyde Tombaugh. The commanding officer at Holloman wants to cease allocating funds for the project. (Clark III 545) August 28 — Project Twinkle personnel talk to LaPaz about the green fireballs and he insists they are not meteors. (Clark III 545) August 30 — 11:30 p.m. A Texas Tech freshman named Carl Hart Jr. sees the same formation of 18–20 lights over Lubbock, Texas, and takes five photos. He gets the roll of film developed the next day and takes it to the Lubbock Morning Avalanche, which puts them out on the Associated Press wire. ATIC examines the photos and notes that the “two rows of spots behaved differently. One row only shows slight variation from a precise V formation throughout, whereas the other now appears to pass from above the first row, through it to a position below.” Biologist James Cecil Cross looks at the Lubbock photos under a microscope and rules out the bird explanation. See also Life, Apr. 7, 1952. While investigating the Lubbock Lights, Ruppelt also learns that several people in and around Lubbock claim to have seen a “flying wing” moving over the city. Among the witnesses is the wife of Dr. Ducker, who reports that in August 1951 she observed a “huge, soundless flying wing” pass over her house. Ruppelt knows that USAF does possess a “flying wing” jet bomber, and he feels that at least some of the sightings are caused by the bomber, although he cannot explain why, according to the witnesses, the wing makes no sound as it flies overhead. Ruppelt says that in addition to Project Grudge investigators, another group of people who, “because of their association with the government, had complete access to our files” (scientists convinced of the ETH) were also looking into the Lubbock cases. In March 1955, Ducker sends Ruppelt a telegram indicating that he has figured out that the lights are a “natural phenomenon” and requests no further publicity in his book. However, Texas Tech mathematics professor Ralph Sylvester Underwood has also observed three flights and estimates the objects are at 2,000 feet altitude and flying at 700 mph—much too fast for birds. (NICAP, “The Lubbock Lights / Carl Hart Photos”; “‘Flying Whatsits’ Stir Dispute in Area,” Lubbock (Tex.) Morning Avalanche, September 6, 1951; Clark III 690– 693 ; Ruppelt, pp. 96 – 110 ; Kevin D. Randle, “Carl Hart and the Lubbock Lights,” IUR 18, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1993): 17– 19 ; Michael D. Swords, “Classic Cases from the APRO Files,” IUR 24, no. 2 (Summer 1999): 22; “Lubbock 1951,” Texas UFO Museum and Research Library, November 15, 1999; Donald R. Burleson, “New Findings on the Lubbock Lights,” IUR 26, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 3 – 5; “Lubbock Lights and Roswell,” Texas UFO Museum and Research Library, December 7, 2005; Michael D. Swords, “Can We Learn Anything from UFO Photos? Part Five,” The Big Study, July 15, 2012; Swords 131– 132 )

August 31 — 12:45 p.m. Mrs. Tom Tilson and one or two other women are driving north on Hwy 70 near Matador, Texas, when they see to the west a pear-shaped object the length of a B-29 fuselage (100 feet). It is aluminum or silver-yellow with a port or some type of aperture on the side, and it moves with its smaller end forward, drifting slowly at about 150 feet altitude. It then shoots up in a circular fashion and out of sight after a few seconds. (Clark III 692; Sparks, p. 109 )

September — 9:00 p.m. Louise McDougall is sitting on the lawn outside her trailer park in Bloomington, California, when she has the feeling someone is watching her. She looks up and sees a flying saucer hovering some 20 feet up. It is lenticular, perhaps 100 feet in diameter, and dull silver metallic in appearance. There are tall, rectangular windows in its lower half, in which can be seen against an amber glow four men, in one-piece “jump suits,” with shoulder- length hair. She turns a spotlight on the saucer, whereupon it shoots off silently at incredible speed. About 15 minutes later it returns, hovering in the same spot, the figures still visible at the windows. After 6 or 7 minutes, it takes off again to the southeast. McDougall’s husband and three other people also see it. (Clark III 267; Patrick Gross, URECAT, September 15, 2006) September 6 — The Air Force issues JANAP 146(B), “Communications Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings from Aircraft.” All UFO reports are to go to the Air Defense Command in the Pentagon (which presumably will send them to AMC at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio), the Secretary of Defense, and to the nearest US military command. (Swords 123) September 10 — 11:10 a.m. At the Army Signal Corps radar center at Fort Monmouth [now closed], New Jersey, a student operator demonstrating radar functions to a group of visiting officers picks up a target that is moving too fast to be tracked automatically. The object seems to be following the coastline. He follows it off and on for 3 minutes, after which it disappears to the northeast, flying at 700 mph. About 25 minutes later, a T-33 jet trainer piloted by Lt. Wilbert S. Rogers, with Maj. Edward Ballard as passenger, spots a “silver-colored object about the size of a fighter plane” flying at 900 mph at 5,000–8,000 feet over Sandy Hook. It makes a 90° banking turn and disappears out to sea. At 3:15 p.m., a second radar tracking occurs, but this slower object turns out to be a balloon. (NICAP, “The Fort Monmouth Radar Incident”; NICAP, “The Sandy Hook / T-33 Incident”; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, p. 66; Clark III 513– 515 ; Sparks, p. 110 ; Thomas Tulien, ed., Proceedings of the Sign Historical Group UFO History Workshop, Sign Historical Group, November 2001, pp. 45 – 46 ; Swords 124– 127 ; Good Above, pp. 269 , 487 ) September 11 — 10:50 a.m. Two radars at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, pick up another object moving at 1,000 mph. At 1:30 p.m., another radar target appears, apparently hovering. Overcast conditions prevent a visual sighting. The radar then shows it ascending at a rapid rate then streaking to the south at 700+ mph. (Clark III 514) September 12 — Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, officials send ATIC and USAF headquarters a three-foot-long teletype describing the sightings. ATIC’s new chief, Col. Frank Dunn, gets a wire from Gen. Charles Cabell, who wants somebody from ATIC to find out what’s going on. Dunn sends Lt. Jerry Cummings (head of Project Grudge) and Lt. Col. Nathan R. Rosengarten (chief of the ATIC Aircraft Performance Section). (Clark III 514 – 515 ; Ruppelt, pp. 93 – 94 ; Swords 126; Good Need, pp. 164 – 165 ) September 1 3 — 9:30 p.m. T/Sgt Warner B. Maupin and Cpl. John W. Green track two objects on radar at Goose Bay AFB [now CFB Goose Bay], Labrador, on a collision course. One of them tries to warn the supposed aircraft of an imminent collision and is surprised to watch one avoid danger by moving to the right. A third unidentified target joins the other two. The incident lasts more than 15 minutes. (Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, p. 53; Sparks, p. 110 ; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 261) September 18 — The Day the Earth Stood Still, directed by Robert Wise and starring Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal, premieres in New York City. The ultimate flying saucer science-fiction movie, the plot revolves around an alien who lands in a UFO in Washington, D.C., and demands that atomic testing cease. Lock Martin, who is more than 7 feet tall, plays the robot Gort. (Internet Movie Database, “The Day the Earth Stood Still”) September 1 8 — 10:20 p.m. USAF B-36 radar operator Maj. Paul E. Gerhart and navigator Maj. Charles J. Cheever are flying northwest at 239 mph over the Hudson Strait in northern Canada when they pick up radar interference coming from an unidentified aircraft moving away from them to the east about 32 miles away. The anti-jamming device on their radar is turned on at 11:20 p.m. but does not affect the jamming on the radar scope. At 11:35 p.m., a UFO is seen visually on the right side of the B-36, which is flying at 18,000 feet over southwest Baffin Island, Nunavut. The object has all-white “unconventional running lights” and two white flashing tail lights, travels about 35 mph faster than the B-36, crosses the front from right to left heading toward the north-northwest, and is in view about 20 minutes. While the object is still visible at 11:50 p.m., the B-36 autopilot and APQ-24 radar set

malfunction, the latter coming back a few minutes later when the object disappears. ECM operators S/Sgt. Donald E. Jenkins and S/Sgt. Doty T. Larimore on two B-36 flights over Labrador on September 1 9 detect carrier wave signals at several frequencies and some radar-like pulses at other frequencies, all below 1,000 MHz. (NICAP, “B- 36 Radar Picks up Object Seen Visually”; Sparks, p. 111) September 23 —At March AFB [now March Air Reserve Base] near Long Beach, California, two F-86 jets try to intercept an object in controlled orbit at around 55,000 feet, but they run low on fuel and have to land. Two more F-86s are scrambled, with the same results. Three of the pilots report seeing a “silver airplane with highly swept- back wings,” although one of them says the UFO looks round and silver. (NICAP, “Swept Wing Aircraft at above 50,000ʹ / Tracked by GCI”; Ruppelt, pp. 94 – 95 , 111 , 113 – 114 ; Sparks, p. 112 )

Fall — Navy pilot Lt. Cmdr. Marvin C. Davies is flying a plane off a CVE class aircraft carrier near Korea when the crew tracks a radar target 3 miles astern. The object has apparently been circling the fleet at an altitude of 5,000 feet and speeds of “slow” to 1,000 mph. The UFO has been tracked on 14 ship radars for 7 hours. It stops circling and takes up a position behind the plane’s wingman, remaining there 5 minutes, then departing at high speed. (Project 1937, “UFO Reports, Korea”; UFOEv, p. 84 ) October — Per Sundh is appointed head of a unit at the Swedish Defence Staff responsible for investigating UFO reports. He remains in charge until October 1954. During that time the department handles 6,000 reports, of which 400 are investigated and 40 remain unexplained. Their astronomical consultant is Bertil Lindblad, an astronomer at Stockholm University, Sweden. Sundh says that his personnel always took even the weirdest observations seriously. (Swords 364– 36 5) October 1 — 10:00 a.m. At the Pentagon, Cummings and Rosengarten brief Cabell, his staff, and a representative from Republic Aircraft Corporation who “supposedly represented a group of top US industrialists and scientists.” The meeting is recorded with a wire recorder. Edward Ruppelt, later head of Project Blue Book, hears the recording before it is ordered destroyed and keeps detailed notes about the meeting. Cabell supposedly learns that Grudge is effectively dead and demands to know “who in hell has been giving me these reports that every decent flying saucer report is being investigated?” Cabell says there is a great deal of doubt in his mind as to what the saucers are and that the Grudge report is the “most poorly written, inconclusive piece of unscientific tripe” he had ever read. He orders Grudge to reactivate itself, and Cummings and Rosengarten go back to Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio to do just that. (Clark III 514– 515 ; Ruppelt, pp. 93 – 94 ; Swords 127–128, 501–502; Michael Hall, “When UFOs Were Serious Business: Then and Today,” IUR 28, no. 4 (Winter 2003–2004): 4) October 4 — 2:00 a.m. Two French aviation officers are camped out several miles northwest of the village of Tessalit, Mali. A luminous dark-yellow disc approaches slowly from the east, loses altitude, makes a 90° turn, accelerates, and ascends at high speed. (Patrick Gross, “Tessalit, Mali, October 4, 1951”) October 9 — 1:42 p.m. A fast-moving, silvery UFO shaped like a “flattened tennis ball” is sighted by a Civil Aviation Administration Chief Aircraft Communicator Roy Messmore at Hulman Municipal Airport [now Terre Haute Regional Airport], five miles east of Terre Haute, Indiana. At 1:45 p.m., private pilot Charles Warren, flying at 5,000 feet east of Paris, Illinois, sees a silvery “flattened orange” object that appears stationary to his left rear. It picks up speed and heads to the northeast. Project Blue Book plots the sighting and concludes that both cases involve the same object. (NICAP, “October 9, 1951, Hulman CAA / Pilot Case”; NICAP, “Pilot Radios Terre Haute: Observes ‘Flattened Orange’”; Sparks, p. 114 ; Swords 129) October 10 — 10:10 a.m. Engineer and pilot Joseph J. Kaliszewski, flying with copilot Jack Donaghue on a Skyhook balloon tracking mission for General Mills 10 miles east of St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, notices a strange object crossing the sky from west to east, much higher and behind the balloon, which is at 20,000 feet. The UFO has a peculiar glow. It comes into sight at a slight dive, then levels off and slows down, makes a sharp left turn, climbs at an angle of 50– 60 ° into the southeast with terrific acceleration, and disappears. It is seen for about 2 minutes. (NICAP, “The Kaliszewski Sightings”; UFOEv, p. 56 ; Sparks, p. 114 ) October 11 — 6:30 a.m. Joseph J. Kaliszewski and Dick Reilly are flying at 10,000 feet north of Minneapolis, Minnesota, observing a balloon when they see a brightly glowing object to the southeast of the University of Minnesota airport moving at high speed from west to east. It has a halo around it with a dark under surface. It crosses rapidly, slows down, and starts to climb slowly in lazy circles. Observers Doug Smith and Dick Dorion at the General Mills tracking station at the University of Minnesota watch the object through a theodolite. They watch another object 2 hours later. (NICAP, “The Kaliszewski Sightings”; UFOEv, p. 56 ; Sparks, p. 114 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 44 – 45 ) October 16 — 11:01 a.m. Air Force pilots flying three F-94 fighters out of McChord AFB [now Joint Base Lewis- McChord] and naval ground personnel see a round, gray object flying soundlessly at high speed and high altitude

west of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Oak Harbor, Washington. Photos taken from the F-94s show the object. After 50 minutes, the aircraft abandon the chase. The Air Force attributes the sighting to Venus. (NICAP, “3 F- 94 ’s Encounter Round Grey Object / Photos Taken”; Clark III 391–392; Sparks, p. 115 ) October 20 — Frank B. Jewett Jr., director of the Aeronautical Research Laboratory at General Mills Corporation, writes to Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Eugene M. Zuckert about UFOs seen by his personnel. ((Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1951, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, p. 51 ) October 22 — Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt officially takes over a revitalized Project Grudge, relieving Lt. Jerry W. Cummings and 2d Lt. Henry Metscher. He learns from some scientists and engineers who visit ATIC frequently that “UFOs were being freely and seriously discussed in scientific circles.” (Ruppelt, p. 114 ; Sparks, p. 14 ; Clark III 933) October 22 — The Directorate of Intelligence provides answers to the problem that Col. Harold Watson identified with the CIRVIS reporting system. (Michael Hall and Wendy Connors, “Flying Saucers: Behind the Cold War Veil of Military Intelligence (Part II),” European Journal of UFO and Abduction Studies 3, no. 1 (March 2002): 32) October 30 — 6:40 a.m. A group of servicemen are preparing to observe the Buster Charlie atomic test at Area 7 of the Nevada Test Site. Just before the blast, they see at an altitude of a few thousand feet a formation of 18 silvery, rotating, disc-shaped objects, each with a dome, arranged in six groups of three stretched out in a horizontal row. They fly low over the test site, hover for 30– 60 seconds, and depart at an angle, disappearing in seconds. (Nukes 68 – 71)

November — Maj. Gen. Cabell is promoted to staff director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is replaced as director of Air Force Intelligence by Maj. Gen. John A. Samford. (Clark III 936) November 1 — The Air Force issues a Ground Observer ’ s Guide for use by members of the Ground Observer Corps, a WWII Civil Defense program reinstated during the Korean War to protect against enemy attack. (US Department of the Air Force, Ground Observer ’ s Guide, AF Manual 50-12, November 1, 1951) November 2 — 7:15 a.m. The crew of an American Airlines DC- 4 is flying east of Abilene, Texas, at 4,500 feet. They see a bright-green, projectile-shaped object, about the same size as their airliner, streak past at about same altitude and same easterly heading. The object leaves a trail then explodes, shooting red balls of fire in all directions. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 92 – 93; Nukes 74– 75 ; Sparks, p. 115 ) November 3 — 9:00 p.m. A green fireball is sighted in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. Capitol Airways pilot H. R. DeHoney is flying at 11,000 feet about 20 miles south of Flagstaff, Arizona, watches the object speed by as a bright blue-green ball that leaves a streak of brilliant red fire. (Nukes 75– 76 ; “Mystery Meteor Startles NM, Arizona,” Santa Fe New Mexican, November 4, 1951, p. 13) November 6 — Ruppelt flies to Reese AFB [now Reese Technology Center] in Lubbock, Texas, to begin his investigation of the Lubbock lights, accompanied by OSI agent Howard Bossert. (Clark III 691) November 7 — Evening. A steamship captain and crew watch an elongated orange object with six glowing “portholes” speed toward Ontario over Lake Superior. (UFOEv, p. 146 ) November 8 — Ruppelt and an officer from Reese AFB visit Brownfield, Texas, to investigate UFO sightings there. (Clark III 691) November 9 — Since October 30, seven green fireballs of exceptional size have been seen over a seven-state area in the American Southwest. Lincoln LaPaz, director of the University of New Mexico Institute of Meteoritics, says that frequency is exceptional: “In fact, there has never been a rate of meteorite fall in history that has been one fifth as high as the present fall. If that rate should continue, I would suspect the phenomenon is not natural.” The fireballs travel in straight lines and are completely silent. (“Southwest’s 7 Fireballs in 11 Days Called ‘Without Parallel in History,’” New York Times, November 10, 1951, pp. 1, 14; Nukes 76– 79 ) November 11 — 8:45 p.m. Thomas Bartis and his older brother Francis are driving through New Haven, Connecticut, when they see a huge yellow fireball with a greenish-blue tail streak through the sky. Probable bolide. (“Second Fireball Is Sighted,” Meriden (Conn.) Record-Journal, November 12, 1951, pp. 1, 10) November 20 — 6:42 p.m. A vivid green fireball is reported from Dodge City, Kansas, and Lubbock and Big Springs, Texas. Two Air Force pilots landing at Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a Trans World Airlines pilot also see the fireball. (Nukes 78) November 24 — 3:53 p.m. Air Force Capt. William Fairbrother is flying a P-51 over Mankato, Minnesota, at 25,000 feet when he sees a white object shaped like a flying wing. It hovers at first, then it passes 100 feet above and to the left of his aircraft. He immediately turns to follow but loses sight of it. (Sparks, p. 115) November 24 — 6:24 p.m. A Capital Airlines Flight 94 pilot and several control tower and other ground observers in four different locations in Michigan (Grand Rapids, Coopersville, Battle Creek, and Selfridge AFB near Mount Clemens) see a large round object flying west at 500–1,000 feet at about 1,000 mph. (Sparks, p. 116; Swords 130)

November 27 — Geophysicist Louis Elterman releases the final report on Project Twinkle. Basically, it admits that the low frequency of occurrence of the fireballs does not justify the $50,000 a year required for a useful monitoring facility. It speculates that “the earth may be passing through a region in space of high meteoric population. Also, the sun-spot maxima in 1948 perhaps in some way may be a contributing factor.” (Louis Elterman, Project Twinkle Final Report, Atmospheric Physics Laboratory, November 27, 1951; Clark III 544– 545 ) November 30 — Project Grudge issues its first Status Report, classified “confidential.” (US Air Force, Projects Grudge and Blue Book Reports 1 – 12, NICAP, 1968, pp. 1– 19 )

December — Ed J. Sullivan, a technical writer for North American Aviation, holds a meeting of engineers, scientists, and journalists in Los Angeles, California, who have been following the UFO phenomenon. They form Civilian Saucer Investigation to collect reports and forward them on to ATIC. Its most prominent member is Walther Riedel, German rocket scientist retrieved by Project Paperclip. (Michael D. Swords, GrassRoots UFOs: Case Reports from the Timmerman Files, Fund for UFO Research, 2005, pp. 139–140; Clark III 241– 242 ) December 5 — Early morning. Swedish Prince Carl Bernadotte and a friend, Berl Gutenberg, are driving near Stockholm, Sweden, when they see a bright flash of light illuminate the sky. Bernadotte stops the car and opens the door to listen for sounds. They go immediately to the Stockholm Criminal Investigation Department, who reports the incident to the Security Police and the military UFO desk. The report is instantly classified, even though the object is probably a meteor. (Swords 366) December 11 — Project Twinkle closes down. (Clark III 545) December 12 — 3:50 p.m. USAF Capt. Donald “Deke” Slayton, flying a P-51 fighter at 10,000 feet, sees a whitish or gray object off his left wing about one mile away and 1,000 feet below his flight level about five miles southeast of Hastings, Minnesota. It looks like a kite at first, then like a weather balloon, then two rapidly revolving discs that overlap with centers about 1 foot apart. He attempts an intercept, but the UFO increases speed and disappears. (NICAP, “‘Deke’ Slayton / P-51 Encounter”; Sparks, p. 117 ) December 19 — Ruppelt travels to the Pentagon with ATIC Chief Col. Frank Dunn. They visit with Maj. Gen. John A. Samford, who has replaced Cabell as USAF director of intelligence and who seems “familiar with the general aspects of the problem.” Samford’s aide, Gen. William M. Garland, tells them that ATIC has the sole authorization to carry out UFO investigations for the entire US military (not exactly true), and they discuss security problems posed by UFOs at sensitive installations. Ruppelt reveals that his preliminary analysis of UFO sighting patterns has uncovered a disturbing correlation of unexplained sightings around nuclear weapons facilities and highly classified nuclear stockpile sites and some SAC strategic air bases. Gen. Samford orders ATIC to conduct an exhaustive statistical study to verify Ruppelt’s findings, using the newly established ATIC Project WHITE STORK contract with the research think tank Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio (which eventually spends $100,000 on the study, Subproject PPS-100, confirming Ruppelt’s pattern). (Ruppelt, pp. 115 – 116 ) December 26– 27 — Ruppelt and Col. Sanford H. Kirkland Jr. of ATIC meet with members of the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, and ask them to help out with the USAF evaluation of UFO reports: first, a study of witness perception and recall, then a statistical study of UFO reports. (“Seven Status Reports for Project Stork,” CUFON; Clark III 929) December 28 — Project Grudge issues Status Report #2 and a Special Report three days later. (US Air Force, Projects Grudge and Blue Book Reports 1 – 12, NICAP, 1968, pp. 21–53)

1952

1952 — The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is established in Livermore, California, as an offshoot of the UC Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley. It is intended to spur innovation and provide competition to the nuclear weapon design laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico. Edward Teller and Ernest Lawrence, director of the Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley, are regarded as its cofounders. Los Alamos and Livermore soon establish a rivalry, fighting for weapons contracts and feasibility-study awards. (Wikipedia, “Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory”) 1952 — José Manuel Rodríguez Delgado, a Spanish physiologist at Yale University, coauthors what he claims is the first peer-reviewed paper describing deep-brain stimulation of humans. Over the next two decades, he implants electrodes in some 25 subjects. Most are schizophrenics and epileptics at the now-defunct State Hospital for Mental Diseases in Howard, Rhode Island, where Delgado’s occasional collaborator Hannibal Hamlin is a staff psychiatrist. Delgado is reticent discussing his experiments on humans. He is more enthusiastic recalling research

on monkeys, chimpanzees, and gibbons, which he kept both at Yale and in open-air compounds in the Bahamas and New Mexico. He explores the effects of stimulation not only on individuals but also on groups. In one demonstration, he implants a stimoceiver (a tiny electrode able to receive and transmit signals over FM radio waves) in a macaque who terrorizes his cage-mates. Delgado installs a lever in the cage that, when pressed, activates the stimoceiver in the bully and pacify him. A female in the cage soon figures out the lever’s significance and yanks it often and with gusto. (John Horgan, “Tribute to Jose Delgado, Legendary and Slightly Scary Pioneer of Mind Control,” Cross-Check, Scientific American blog, September 25, 2017) 1952 — World War II air intelligence records are transferred from the Pentagon to Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama. This shift is probably why Blue Book’s Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt later cannot find anything about foo- fighters during his trips to USAF intelligence to locate reports not forwarded to ATIC. (Jan Aldrich) 1952 — The Argentine Navy establishes a temporary inquiry commission dedicated to the UFO phenomenon at its Puerto Belgrano Naval Base in Punta Alta, Argentina. (Milton Hourcade, “Argentina: UFO Declassification,” U.A.P.S.G.–G.E.F.A.I., July 29, 2020) 1952? — An anonymous occupation soldier in Austria meets a diving suit–clad being who paralyzes him, pulls him inside a UFO, and flies him to an otherworldly place he takes to be Mars. He sees other humans who do not acknowledge him. Then he is returned to his base. (Prince George (B.C.) Citizen, December 11, 1957; Clark 2) 1952 — 6:30 a.m. A carpool of people on their way to work at United Airlines in San Mateo, California, observe five smaller objects merging with a much larger, diamond-shaped object. The big one is about 150–200 feet long, charcoal or gunmetal in color, and is hovering 50–75 feet above some salt flats. The UFOs are directly in front of them to the east, about 1,500–1,800 feet away. One of the witnesses, airplane mechanic Leonard L. Musel, said the smaller objects entered the large object through a “transparent tail or sleeve.” After they were aboard, the bigger UFO turned edgewise and zoomed off at a fantastic speed. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects: A Further Look,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 7) 1952 — Night. USAF Pvt. Sinclair Taylor is on guard duty at Camp Okubo in Uji, on the southern outskirts of Kyoto, Japan, when he hears flapping sounds and sees what seems to be an enormous bird. As it gets closer to him, Taylor sees that it is a winged man well over 7 feet tall with a wingspread of 7 feet. Taylor fires at it repeatedly with his rifle and thinks he hit it, but he can’t find the body. (Clark III 778)

January — Jim and Coral Lorenzen found the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Soon, a man claiming to have an intelligence background becomes an active supporter and tries to lead the Lorenzens into “metaphysical areas of research.” Coral Lorenzen rebuffs these attempts. She discovers what seem to be the impressions of an intelligence report about her on one of his letters. In the summer, two suspicious men posing as building contractors seem to be lurking around her home as well as the homes of the APRO treasurer and secretary the same day. (Lorenzen, Encounters with UFO Occupants, Berkley Medallion, 1976, pp. 1 – 2, 248– 251 ; Clark III 49) January — Some 74% of the CIA’s money goes toward covert operations. It has already infiltrated many US labor, business, church, university, student, and cultural groups, usually channeling the money through foundations. This year it begins HTLINGUAL, a secret project to intercept mail destined for the USSR and China. It also targets domestic peace and civil rights activists. It lasts until 1973, photographing 2 million envelopes and opening 215,000 letters. (Frank J. Donner, The Age of Surveillance: The Aims and Methods of America ’ s Political Intelligence System, Knopf, 1980; Jim Keith, Mind Control, World Control: The Encyclopedia of Mond Control, Adventures Unlimited, 1997; David Wise, The American Police State: The Government Against the People, Random House, 1976) January 1 —10:54 p.m. Warrant Officer W. J. Yeo (a master telecomm specialist) and Sgt. D. V. Crandell watch a silent, reddish-orange object circle and maneuver for nearly 9 minutes at RCAF Station North Bay, Ontario. It appears to be very large and travels at supersonic speed. (“‘Saucers’ Seen Here: 2 Sighted at RCAF Station,” North Bay (Ont.) Nugget, April 15, 1952, pp. 1– 2 ; Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, p. 92) January 3 — Brig. Gen. William M. Garland, Assistant for the Production of Intelligence, writes a secret memorandum for General John A. Samford that lays down the investigative shortcomings of Project Grudge and suggests policies and agendas for the immediate future. Garland mentions that the aircraft inventions and models by the Horten brothers had fallen into the hands of the Soviets at the end of World War II. (Brig. Gen. William M. Garland, “(Secret) Contemplated Action to Determine the Nature and Origin of the Phenomena Connected with the Reports of Unusual Flying Objects,” January 3, 1952; Swords 141–143; Kremlin 34) January 6 — Contactee George Van Tassel, living at Giant Rock in the Mojave Desert near Landers, California, receives the first of many psychic messages from extraterrestrial starship commanders. This one is from “Lutbunn, senior

in command of first wave, planet patrol, realms of Schare. We have your contact aboard 80,000 feet above this place.” Other messages soon come from Elcar, Clota, Totalmon, Latamarx, Noma, Leektow, Luu, Oblow, Kerrull, Locktopar, Molca, Clatu, Hulda, Lata, Singba, and others. One of his contacts, Ashtar, will become a metaphysical superstar, and in the years ahead many contactees will channel communications from him. These aliens seek to raise humanity’s “vibrationary attunement” so that earthlings will not threaten the wise and peace- loving space people. Van Tassel reprints many of these messages in a misleadingly titled book, I Rode a Flying Saucer! (George W. Van Tassel, I Rode a Flying Saucer! The Mysteries of the Flying Saucers Revealed, New Age, 1952; Clark III 1218– 1219 ) January 8 — Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, agrees to help out the Air Force with analyzing UFO reports. (Clark III 929) January 20 — 7:20 p.m. Two master sergeants, both intelligence specialists, are walking down a street at Fairchild AFB near Spokane, Washington, when they notice a large, bluish-white, spherical object approaching from the east. It passes north of their position, traveling horizontally and silently, and disappears in the west. They notice it has a long blue tail. It travels underneath low cloud cover at 4,700 feet at 1,400 mph. (NICAP, “Large Sphere with Blue Tail at 500ʹ,”; Ruppelt, p. 12 ; Sparks, p. 118 ) January 21 — 9:50 a.m. A Navy pilot lieutenant commander in a TBM Avenger chases a white, dome-shaped object over Mitchel AFB [now closed] on Long Island, New York. It accelerates rapidly, makes a 180° turn, and heads out to sea. He estimates it is traveling at least at 300 mph. It looks like a parachute canopy and has a dark undersurface. Although there is a balloon in the area, but its flight path is completely different. NICAP, “TBM Chases Climbing and Accelerating Object”; Ruppelt, pp. 121 – 123 ; Sparks, p. 118 ) January 22 — 12:20 a.m. At a northern Alaska outpost, Murphy Dome Air Force Station, radar captures a UFO traveling 1,500 mph at 23,000 feet. When an F-94 is sent to intercept, the target stops, slows down, reverses course, and heads directly for the radar station. It comes within 30 miles, then disappears from the screen. The F-94 heads back to refuel, and a second fighter is scrambled. This pilot gets a strong radar return. At first, the object is almost stationary, but then it dives suddenly, at which point ground radar picks it up again. A third F-94 is sent up, also tracks the object on radar, and closes to within 900 feet. At this point, the pilot pulls away to avoid a collision, as the UFO is nearly immobile. Since none of the pilots obtained a visual sighting, the Air Force concludes that the radar returns are weather-related, although the pilots strongly dispute this. (NICAP, “Alaskan Radar Case”; Ruppelt, pp. 123 – 127 ; Sparks, pp. 119 – 120 ) January 29 — On his trip to the Pentagon to brief Gen. William M. Garland, Ruppelt visits the AFOIN offices and discovers they have more complete files than ATIC in Dayton, Ohio, does. He arranges to have copies made of the missing files for him at Project Grudge (though multiple visits are required to obtain the copies and Ruppelt probably does not succeed in getting everything). The offices with UFO files include the Technical Capabilities Branch (TCB) of the Evaluation Division and the Collection Control Branch of the Collection Division. (NICAP, “The 1952 Sighting Wave”) January 29 — Brig. Gen. William M. Garland, USAF Assistant for Production of Intelligence, and his staff are briefed at the Pentagon on the status of Project Grudge by Edward Ruppelt, who with his colleagues at ATIC has prepared sighting maps that show a concentration of cases at White Sands and Los Alamos, New Mexico; Killeen Base, Texas; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Dayton, Ohio (where Wright-Patterson AFB is situated). At this meeting, Garland introduces a new intelligence policy that emphasizes the use of instrumentation for intelligence collection, including the detection and tracking of UFOs (the basis for terminating Project Blue Book as an intelligence function). As an interim last-chance measure to prove whether anecdotal sightings have any value, Garland approves Ruppelt’s publicity plan to draw in UFO reports from the public so that triangulations might be obtained. This leads to Garland secretly backing the Life magazine article. Apparently on the same day, Garland gives the welcoming address to the secret MIT Lincoln Laboratory (Ruppelt calls it the Beacon Hill group) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he tells the assembled scientists to study ways USAF intelligence methodology can be revolutionized through the use of technology. (Later Garland sends Ruppelt, Col. Sanford H. Kirkland Jr. of ATIC, and Lt. Col. William A. Adams of AFOIN, to brief the Lincoln Lab scientists on UFOs on March 26 and in April 1952, respectively) (“Status of Project Blue Book,” T52-6888, [1952]; NICAP, “The 1952 Sighting Wave”; Swords 144; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, January – May, The Author, 1993, p. 12) January 29 — Evening. Violet M. Winstead and her husband are at an open-air movie theater on Guam when they and others at the theater see an orange light passing silently overhead. (Violet M. Winstead, Letter, IUR 9, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1984): 3) January 29 — Night. A bright orange, disc-shaped object, also described as a “huge ball of fire,” paces two B-29s on the same night, 80 miles from each other over the towns of Wonsan and Sunchon, North Korea. (NICAP, “Rotating

Light Seen by B-29 Crew”; NICAP, “B-29 Crew Followed by UFO”; Haines, Korea, pp. 33 – 37 ; Sparks, p. 121 ; Patrick Gross, “UFO US Military Reports, Korea, 1952”) January 31 — Ruppelt releases Project Grudge Status Report #3, in which he reviews the geographic distribution of UFO reports, states the project’s obstacle, and includes a list of 15 cases reported to ATIC in January. (Swords 144; US Air Force, Projects Grudge and Blue Book Reports 1 – 12, NICAP, 1968, pp. 55– 64 )

February 2 — 7:35 p.m. Radar operators aboard the aircraft carrier USS Philippine Sea pick up an unidentified target off the east coast of Korea. It is first detected at a distance of 25 miles; when it closes to 20 miles, it makes a wide turn to the east directly away from the carrier, accelerating from 600 to 1,800 mph at 52,000 feet altitude. It splits into two targets 5–12 miles apart on a slightly zigzag course to the north. They disappear about 110 miles away. Observers on the carrier see three exhaust flames. (NICAP, “USS Philippine Sea Tracks Approaching Target”; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 126 – 127 ; Sparks, p. 121 ) February 8 — Dewey Fournet, on the Pentagon’s UFO desk, writes to Ruppelt at ATIC for help in interpreting the Korean sightings. Ruppelt has brought in an expert from Wright-Patterson AFB’s Engineering Division, Peter A. Stranges of the Propulsion Branch Power Plant Group, to help with the analysis, which he passes on to Fournet and Garland. Stranges compares the Wonsan sighting to the foo fighters of World War II. (Swords 144–145). February 20 — 3:00 p.m. Rev. Albert Baller is sitting in a train at the station in Greenfield, Massachusetts, when he sees a “sharp flash of light about 35° or more above the horizon.” Looking upward, he sees three perfectly circular, silver objects approaching in a V-formation. They are moving at about the “speed of a second hand on a watch.” They stop and hover for 10 seconds. The lead object reverses and pulls into a line with the other two between them. Then they depart in a direction at right angles to their approach. (UFOEv, p. 69 ) February 20 — Joseph and Stewart Alsop examine the January 29 Korean incidents in their syndicated column, “Problems of Scientific Development.” They suspect a Russian origin. (Swords 145–146) February 21 — Sen. Richard Russell Jr. (D-Ga.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, requests further information on the January 29 Korean UFO incidents in a letter to Secretary of the Air Force Thomas K. Finletter. (Project 1947, “UFO Documents, 1952, Korea”) February 21 — Far East Air Forces Commander Lieut. Gen. Otto P. Weyland tells reporters that “no conclusive evaluation had been made at the present time” on the Wonsan/Sunchon, Korea, sightings of January 29– 30. (“Nothing Conclusive on Globes: Weyland,” Stars and Stripes, Pacific edition, February 22, 1952; Project 1947, “UFO Documents, 1952, Korea”) February 22 — The now-completed Site Able is renamed Manzano Base, New Mexico, and turned over to the operational control of the Air Force. What appear to be secure bunkers are visible to people (mostly military personnel) who go to a recreational camping area nearby known as Coyote Canyon. The military, however, never officially confirms the nature of the activities at Manzano Base [now part of Kirtland Air Force Base]. At one point, a military spokesman says that Manzano Base has nothing to do with Sandia Base. Manzano has since been identified as the first of six original National Stockpile Sites for nuclear weapons. The other original NSS installations similar to Manzano are: Site Baker at Killeen Base, adjacent to Gray AFB [now Robert Gray Army Airfield] at Fort Hood, Texas; Site Charlie at Campbell AFB [now Campbell Army Airfield] near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and adjacent to Fort Campbell; Site Dog at Bossier Base, adjacent to Barksdale AFB near Bossier City, Louisiana; Lake Mead Base, adjacent to Nellis AFB, Nevada; and Medina Base, adjacent to Lackland AFB [now Joint Base San Antonio], Texas. (Wikipedia, “Sandia Base”) February 23 or 24 — 11:15 p.m. The navigator on a B-29 bomber sees a pulsating bluish cylinder while the aircraft is evading antiaircraft fire near Sinuiju, North Korea. It arrives high and fast, makes several turns, and levels out underneath the aircraft. (Sparks, p. 122) February 2 5 – 27 — Life magazine reporter Robert Emmett Ginna Jr. visits USAF headquarters at the Pentagon to gather information for his UFO article. He talks with Brig. Gen. Joseph F. Carroll, Director of Special Investigations. Brig. Gen. William M. Garland tells him that he has considered firing a guided missile at a UFO to bring it down and requests that Ginna delay publishing an article until the Air Force has come to a more definite conclusion. Ginna also talks to Lt. Col. Doyle Rees of OSI. (Jan L. Aldrich, “Have We Visitors from Space?” Project 1947) February 29 — Project Grudge issues a secret Status Report #4, classified “secret.” (US Air Force, Projects Grudge and Blue Book Reports 1 – 12, NICAP, 1968, pp. 65 – 78 )

March or April — 5:00 a.m. Two women cryptographers in the US Naval Reserve stationed at the US Naval Training Center at Port Deposit, Maryland, are out taking a walk outside the base on a dirt road. They notice a red light off to one side above the trees. It starts moving toward them and stops about 100 feet above the road in front of them, about 300 feet away. The object is a 250-foot black disc with two large red lights at each side, an illuminated

dome, and smaller lights along the rim. A hole opens in the bottom and phosphorescent white sparks drop toward the ground and disintegrate when they hit the road. The two reservists sprint the quarter-mile back to the base. (NICAP case file) March 1 — The 4602nd Air Intelligence Service Squadron is activated under ADC to collect air combat intelligence. (CUFON, “4602d AISS Unit History Sampler”) March 3 — Robert Emmett Ginna Jr. of Life visits ATIC at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio, to obtain material for his UFO article. Walther Riedel, former German rocket scientist at Peenemünde, Germany, tells Ginna he has kept notes on UFO sightings from all over the world: “I am completely convinced that they have an out-of-world basis.” He also meets with visits Air Force UFO spokesman Albert M. Chop. AMC claims it is investigating every serious UFO report, but it can’t find the files he requests. Ginna becomes suspicious. (“Status of Project Blue Book,” T52-6888, [1952]; Jan L. Aldrich, “Have We Visitors from Space?” Project 1947; Michael D. Swords, “1952: Ruppelt’s Big Year,” IUR 28, no. 4 (Winter 2003–2004): 9 ; Swords 120–121) March 5 — The Air Force sends a letter, signed by Lieut. Gen. Nathan Twining, to Secretary Finletter in response to Sen. Russell’s February 21 inquiry. It offers two possible explanations: aircraft exhaust from a Soviet Lavochkin La- 9 or La-11 fighter aircraft, or spotlights carried on enemy aircraft that have intercepted US bombers. (Project 1947, “UFO Documents, 1952, Korea”; Swords 145) March 7 — Physicist Joseph Kaplan visits ATIC to discuss methods of obtaining more information on green fireballs using a special diffraction grid to be placed on patrol cameras that can be used as a field spectrometer. (“Status of Project Blue Book,” T52-6888, [1952]) March 10 — 6:45 a.m. Clarence K. Greenwood, inspector of engineering metals, sees two dark objects come from behind him at an altitude of 5,000–7,500 feet while he is waiting for a bus in Oakland, California. They pick up speed, one of them moving in a pendulum-like motion. He thinks they are about 45 feet long. (UFOEv, pp. 56 – 57 ) March 14 — Evening. US Secretary of the Navy Dan A. Kimball is flying to Hawaii when he sees two discs moving at 1,500 mph. The UFOs circle his plane twice, then move on 50 miles east to another Navy plane carrying Adm. Arthur W. Radford. The UFOs circle Radford’s plane then zoom up out of sight. Kimball sends a report to the Air Force, but hears nothing back, despite USAF demanding reports from all Navy witnesses. Kimball threatens to initiate Naval reports on UFOs through ONR to be kept separate from Blue Book. Keyhoe hears about this from both Kimball and Chief of ONR Adm. Calvin M. Bolster. The report is never made public. (NICAP, “Admiral Radford & Navy Sec. Kimball Planes Buzzed”; NICAP, “Navy Secy Dan Kimball’s Pilot’s Sighting, March 14, 1952 ”; Swords 165) March 19 — Ruppelt and other representatives of ATIC meet with the commander of the Air Defense Command, Gen. Benjamin W. Chidlaw, and Gen. Grandison Gardner and his staff in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on getting radar scope camera films as UFOs are being tracked. “They agreed with it in principle and suggested that I work out the details with the Director of Intelligence for the ADC, Brigadier Gen. Woodbury M. Burgess.” Chidlaw promises to issue a directive to all units explaining procedures in UFO situations, including the scrambling of interceptors. This is issued, apparently in April. Burgess assigns Maj. Vernon L. Sadowski of his staff to be liaison to Project Grudge., and the Ground Observer Corps is brought into the UFO reporting net. (Ruppelt, pp. 128 – 129 ; “Status of Project Blue Book,” T52-6888, [1952]) March 25 — Project Grudge becomes a separate organization under the title Aerial Phenomena Group and is renamed Project Blue Book, apparently by Lt. Col. Charles Cooke, which he thinks has “no overtones.” Ruppelt says it is based on the books provided for taking college tests at Iowa State University. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, January – May, The Author, 1993, pp. 20–21; Sparks, p. 12 ; Ruppelt, p. 131 ; Clark III 916) March 26 — Day. Henry C. Davis is looking out at the ocean through his second-floor window in Long Beach, California, and listening to the radio. He spots two yellow discs in the sky about one mile high and 2 miles away. He thinks they are 1,000 feet apart and moving southeast to northwest at 100 mph. As they pass, his radio goes to static twice. (Schopick, p. 78) March 26 — Ruppelt meets with the MIT scientists he calls the Beacon Hill Group, which recommends that Blue Book use “sound detection apparatus” in areas of UFO activity. (Clark III 916) March 26 — Five trials are conducted through April 21 by the US Army Chemical Corps under Operation Dew. The tests release zinc cadmium sulfide along a 100-to- 150 - nautical-mile line approximately 5–10 nautical miles off the coast of Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Two of the trials disperse clouds of zinc cadmium sulfide over large areas of all three states. The tests affect over 60,000 square miles of populated coastal region. The Dew I releases are from a Navy minesweeper, the USS Tercel. The conclusion is that long-range aerosol clouds can obtain hundreds of miles of travel and large-area coverage when disseminated from ground level under certain meteorological conditions. (Wikipedia, “Operation Dew”) Late March? — Ruppelt meets with two RCAF officers and briefs them on the new procedures. (Ruppelt, p. 130 )

March 29 — 11:20 a.m. Near Misawa, Japan, USAF Lt. David Conant Brigham is flying a T-6 target plane on a practice intercept mission for two F-84s. The first F-84 overtakes him at 6,000 feet when the T-6 pilot notices a small disc gaining on the interceptor. The UFO curves toward the F-84, decelerates rapidly, then flips on edge in a 90° bank. It flies between the two aircraft, pulls away, flips again, passes the F-84, crosses in front, and accelerates out of sight in a near vertical climb. Both pilots notice the object, which comes within 30–50 feet of the T-6. The pilot estimates it is only 8 inches in diameter. There is a ripple around the edge. (NICAP, “Brigham/T6 Case: UFO Makes Pass at F- 84 ”; UFOEv, p. 5 ; Keyhoe, FS from OS, p. 192; Sparks, p. 123 ) March 29 — Two fiery discs are sighted over the uranium mines in the southern part of the Belgian Congo near Elisabethville [modern Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo]. With a diameter of approximately 36– 45 feet, they travel in a precise and light manner, both vertically and horizontally. They emit hissing and buzzing sounds. Changes in elevation from 2,400 to 3,000 feet are accomplished in a few seconds. The discs often move down to within 60 feet of the treetops. A Commander Pierre of the Belgian Air Force sets out in pursuit in a fighter plane from the city airport. On his first approach he comes to within about 260 feet of one of the discs. Suddenly they hover in one spot then takes off in a unique zigzag flight to the northeast at an estimated speed of 930 mph. Pierre gives up his pursuit after about 15 minutes. (NICAP, “Two Discs over Uranium Mines / Jet in Pursuit”; Sparks, p. 123 ; Good Above, p. 512 ) March 29 — 6:40 p.m. Carl J. Henry, chairman of the Industrial Commission of Missouri, along with several others, watches a cylinder-shaped, silver UFO for 2 minutes almost directly overhead in Butler, Missouri. It is moving silently in a northwesterly direction leaving no trail or exhaust. He estimates its length at 100 feet. (UFOEv, p. 68 ) March 29 — 10:45 p.m. Donald F. Stewart and George Tyler III are driving northbound on the Governor Ritchie Highway in Glen Burnie, Maryland. A 50-foot silvery domed disc with two portholes and an apparent hatch appears from the northeast and hovers above their car, causing the engine to fail, magnetizing the wiring, and cracking the paint. Stewart takes a sub-machine gun from the back of the car and debates whether to fire it at the object, which remains in view for 3 minutes before turning n its edge and speeding away to the southwest. Tyler changes his story later, denying he was involved. Possible hoax. (NICAP, “E-M Effects on Car from Domed Disc”; Sparks, p. 124; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 196– 198 ); Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 61–64, 229) March 31 — Battelle begins its UFO study (referred to as P-47S and nicknamed Little Stork) under the supervision of William T. Reid, folding it into Project Stork, an initiative to examine the Soviet Union’s technological warfare capabilities. Almost all of the UFO analysis involves compiling IBM punch cards based on data forwarded by Project Blue Book files. (Clark III 929; Jennie Zeidman, “I Remember Blue Book,” IUR 16, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1991): 7–8; Jennie Zeidman and Mark Rodeghier, “The Pentacle Letter and the Battelle UFO Project,” IUR 18, no. 3 (May/June 1993): 4–12, 19–21; Michael Hall, “Was There a Second Estimate of the Situation?” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 12) March 31 — ATIC Chief Frank Dunn writes to Gen. Garland requesting that Project Blue Book be entirely declassified in order to make it easier to encourage civilian pilots to send in reports. That is a bit too much openness for Garland, who compromises by reclassifying certain case investigations as “Restricted,” a relatively low level. (Swords 146) March 31 — Project Blue Book issues its Status Report #5. (US Air Force, Projects Grudge and Blue Book Reports 1 – 12, NICAP, 1968, pp. 81–94)

Spring — Occultist George Hunt Williamson and his wife Betty move to Prescott, Arizona, and immerse themselves in UFO literature. (Michael D. Swords, “Strange Days,” IUR 30, no. 4 (Aug. 2006): 21) April? — Amateur astronomer W. Gordon Graham sees a UFO “like a smoke ring, elliptical in shape, and having two bright pinpoints of light along its main axis” at London, Ontario. It sails overhead from west to east. (London (Ont.) Free Press, May 1, 1952; UFOEv, p. 49 ) April — Secretary of the Navy Dan Kimball, upset with the way the Air Force has treated his UFO sighting, sets up an independent Navy probe of UFOs under Lt. Commander Fred Lowell Thomas of the Office of Naval Research. The project lasts through 1952, but probably not much longer. (NICAP, “Navy Secy Dan Kimball’s Pilot’s Sighting, March 14, 1952”) April — Ruppelt again meets with MIT Lincoln Laboratory scientists (the Beacon Hill group) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to brief them on Blue Book’s progress. Afterward, he asks them about the flashes seen on Mars in 1951, and a general discussion of life on other planets ensues. Michael D. Swords suspects that some of those present are physicist George Valley Jr., engineer Julius Adams Stratton, physicist Albert G. Hill, and chemical engineer Walter G. Whitman. (Edward J. Ruppelt, “Are There Men on Mars? Or Other Worlds?” IUR 23, no. 1 (Spring 1998): 10–12, 31) April — Albert K. Bender, a factory worker in Bridgeport, Connecticut, announces the formation of the International Flying Saucer Bureau. (Clark III 189 , 623 )

April 2 — On the eve of the release of the bombshell Life magazine article, Ruppelt and his boss, ATIC Technical Analysis Division Chief Col. Sanford H. Kirkland Jr., give an extraordinary briefing, technically unclassified but in fact quasi-classified, to a group of aerospace engineers and saucer buffs organized as Civilian Saucer Investigation of Los Angeles. These include aeronautical consultant Felix W. A. Knoll, technical writer Ed J. Sullivan, and North American Aviation project engineer Walther A. Riedel. The briefing takes place at the Mayfair Hotel in Los Angeles, California, along with national media reporters and the Life magazine reporters who give them advance copies of the Darrach/Ginna article in exchange. (“Minutes of Meeting of Civilian Saucer Investigations Held Wednesday, April 2, 1952, 8:00 PM in the Mayfair Hotel, Los Angeles, California,” April 2, 1952, transcribed by Sign Historical Group; Willard D. Nelson, “When Blue Book Met the Ufologists,” IUR 12, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1987): 21– 24 ; Ruppelt, p. 175 ) April 2 — 9:00 a.m. While on a fishing trip to Lake Mead, Nevada, with his wife and M/Sgt Lester Gossett, M/Sgt Sheldon Smith observes a large silver UFO at a high altitude. It looks like a B-36 without wings. Smith observes it right after a flight of F-86s overfly the area at about 15,000 feet. After watching the hovering object for about an hour at a much higher altitude than the vapor trails from the F-86s, it suddenly disappears. (NICAP, “B- 36 without Wings”) April 3 — The Air Force publicly announces that it has not stopped investigating and evaluating UFO reports. April 7 — Henry B. Darrach Jr. and Robert Ginna’s article, “Have We Visitors from Space?” appears in Life and reports on the revitalized USAF project. It comes close to advocating the ETH, and its primary sources are high-ranking Air Force officers. (H. B. Darrach Jr. and Robert Ginna, “Have We Visitors from Space?” Life, April 7, 1952, pp. 80 – 96; NICAP, “Scholarly Commentary on LIFE Article of April 7, 1952”; Michael D. Swords, “1952: Ruppelt’s Big Year,” IUR 28, no. 4 (Winter 2003–2004): 8– 9 ) April 7 — During war games taking place in the vicinity of Lampasas, Texas, nicknamed Operation Longhorn, the Air Force announces that a new “aerial light” attached to a B- 26 aircraft is in use that makes an “attacking bomber look like a ball of fire in the sky.” It is essentially a bright magnesium searchlight (dubbed a “Hell Roarer” flare) that can illuminate a battlefield for nighttime photography. USAF Public Information Officer Capt. Irving Rappaport implies it could be mistaken for a flying saucer. (“Light Makes Bomber Resemble Ball of Fire,” Chambersburg (Pa.) Public Opinion, April 7, 1952, p. 3; “It’s No Saucer! Strange Objects in the Sky Are Nothing New in Dayton,” Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, November 9, 1952, magazine supplement, p. 7; Curt Collins, “UFOs: Confusing the Public,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, January 27, 2022) April 12 — 8:30 p.m. W/O E. H. Rossell and Flight Sgt. Reginald McRae are driving on RCAF Station North Bay, Ontario, when they see a bright amber disc arrive from the southwest, move across the airfield, stop, and then take off in the opposite direction at an angle of 30° at terrific speed. (NICAP, “Amber Disc Stops, Reverses Direction”; Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 92–94) April 16 — ADC becomes frantic about a possible Soviet attack. Air Force Intelligence warns Brig. Gen. Woodbury Burgess, at ADC Headquarters, Ent AFB [now the US Olympic Training Center] in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that a classified source (possibly an electronic intercept) has provided an “indication” of ominous Soviet military activity. With the simultaneous appearance of two waves of unidentified targets, there is no alternative. At 3:10 a.m., ADC Commander Gen. Frederic H. Smith Jr. orders America’s first nationwide Air Defense Readiness alert. (NICAP, “UFOs and Alert Scare, April 1952”; “Radar Scare,” Miami (Fla.) Herald, April 19, 1952, p. 23; “ 3 Plane Vapors Cause Alert at Alaska Stations,” Long Beach (Calif.) Independent, April 18, 1952, p. 18) April 17 — 12:58 a.m. Four high-altitude contrails heading east-southeast toward Alaska are seen by NORAD defense observers at Nunivak Island, Alaska. (NICAP, “Another Radar-Inspired National Alert”) April 17 — 5:10 a.m. Radar at Caswell Air Force Station [now closed] in Limestone, Maine, tracks five unknown targets headed southwest into the US. Three are later identified as off-course civilian airliners, while two remain unidentified. A nationwide Air Defense Readiness Alert is declared at 5:11 a.m. SAC is notified to prepare launch of nuclear missiles. The alert is canceled at 7:40 a.m. (NICAP, “Another Radar-Inspired National Alert”) April 17 — 12:05 p.m. Air Force T/S Orville Lawson, Rudy Toncer (sheet metal shop foreman), and sheet metal shop workers R. K. Van Houtin, Edward Gregory, and Charles Ruliffson at Nellis Air Force Base, near Las Vegas, see 18 circular objects flying an easterly course that carry them over or very close to the Nevada Test Site. They watch the objects for about 30 seconds. (“Work Crew Spots Flying Saucers over A-Test Site,” Salt Lake Tribune, April 18, 1952, p. 1; NICAP, “April 17, 1952: Nellis AFB, Nevada Large Group of Circular UFOs”; Nukes 83) April 17 — Dewey Fournet Jr. responds to a reporter from the Baltimore Sun who has asked about details of the Blue Book investigation with a two-and-a-half-page memo, vagued up a bit, but essentially saying that “nothing detrimental to our national security has materialized from these incidents.” (Swords 147)

April 18 — 12:07 p.m. Detachment 21 of the 618th Aircraft and Warning Squadron, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, picks up a radar target over the Korea Strait north of Kyushu Island, Japan, moving at 2,700 mph. (NICAP, “Object Tracked at 2,700 MPH”; Sparks, p. 127 ) April 19 — 9:20 p.m. USAF Brig. Gen. Edwin M. Day is reclining on a patio in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, when he sees an object traveling parallel to the ground at a constant altitude (between 10,000 and 20,000 feet) and moving in his direction. Its speed is greater than a jet’s. It breaks into two parts at one point but maintains its constant course. He follows it visually for 5–6 seconds until it disappears to the north-northeast. (“When UFOs Were Serious Business: Then and Today,” IUR 28, no. 4 (Winter 2003–2004): 5–6) April 20 — 9:15 p.m. Naval aviation student Edmund Kogut and his wife Shirley are at a drive-in movie theater in Flint, Michigan, when they see several groups of UFOs fly over. There are 2–9 objects in a group and about 20 groups, all flying in a straight line except for some changes in direction accomplished unlike any known aircraft. They are shaped like conventional aircraft but have an odd reddish glow surrounding them. (NICAP, [Flint, Michigan, case documents]; Sparks, p. 128) April 2 2 — The Canadian Defence Research Board establishes a UFO study group that meets for the first time today. Project Second Storey, formed by Omond M. Solandt, DRB chairman, meets at least five times. It is chaired by astrophysicist Peter M. Millman and includes Wilbert B. Smith and representatives from Naval Intelligence, Military Operations and Planning, and the Defence Research Board. At its April 24 meeting, it decides to meet with the US government on UFO matters. (“Project Second Storey Minutes, 1952.04.24”; Clark III 1078; Good Above, p. 186 ; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, p. 225– 226 ) April 23 — 9:30 a.m. R. C. Munroe, engineering standards section head for Raytheon Manufacturing Company, notices an object near an AT-6 Texan trainer aircraft above Lexington, Massachusetts. He estimates its altitude at 40,000 feet. It decelerates abruptly and goes into a flat turn. He writes, “It is inconceivable to me that any human being could have withstood the deceleration or acceleration displayed by this aircraft.” (UFOEv, p. 57 ) April 23 — 10:45 a.m. Engineers Carl Hawk and Marvin Harvey are at Sandia Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico, when they look up to watch a jet fighter as it shoots to the north above the Sandia Mountains. They also notice a soundless, flat, rectangular, wing-like object streaking through the sky from east to west above Tijeras Canyon. The object is completely black except for a distinct, bright yellow “V” on its bottom. Two slight points extend from its rear corners. Hawk estimates that it is passing overhead at 2,000 feet altitude at 200–400 mph and is roughly 60 feet wide by 20 feet long. They watch it for 10 seconds until it disappears in a cloud above downtown Albuquerque. (“What Soared Against Duke City Sky That Day in April, 1952?”Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Tribune, November 21, 1957, p. 8) April 24 — An Air Force Intelligence memorandum to Col. Frank Dunn, chief of ATIC, transmits nine reports (not released) of unidentified submarine objects reported to the Office of Naval Intelligence. (Good Need, pp. 141 , 145 ) April 25 — 11 :00 a.m. A biochemist and a bacteriologist are driving to their office in San Jose, California, when they see a metallic-looking disc rotating around a vertical axis and wobbling. It is moving slowly over the office and is about 4–5 feet in diameter. It flies in a slow arc. Then they see a black object hovering at a high altitude under an overcast. This one is about 100 feet in diameter. Two identical objects come into view out of the clouds. The three objects “jittered about like boats in a stream.” Then the small disc stops spinning, hovers, then shoots upwards, followed by one of the black objects. The remaining two objects linger another minute or so, then take off separately. The episode lasts 15 minutes. The biochemist calls Moffett Field in Santa Clara County, but hangs up before reporting the sighting, which they describe as a “most disturbing experience.” The object “utilized some propulsion method not in the physics books.” (NICAP, “Scientist Sighting / Extraordinary Propulsion Implied”; Richard H. Hall, Uninvited Guests, Aurora, 1988, pp. 241 – 242 ) April 25 — Battelle releases its first status report on Project Stork, noting that it has selected a panel of consultants, initiated a news clipping service, and devised a coding scheme for UFO reports. (“Seven Status Reports for Project Stork,” CUFON) April 29 — Secretary of the Air Force Thomas K. Finletter issues Air Force Letter 200-5, which directs intelligence officers at every base to report UFOs immediately to ATIC and all major USAF commands. It enables Project Blue Book staff to communicate directly with any Air Force base without going through the normal chain of command, and provides for wire transmission of reports to ATIC, followed with details via air mail. AFL 200-5 is modified by AFR 200-2 in 1953. (Department of the Air Force, “Unidentified Flying Objects Reporting,” Air Force Letter 200-5, April 29, 1952; Ruppelt, pp. 132 – 133 ) April 29 — An Air Force memorandum written to justify a trip by Lt. Col. E. Sterling and Stefan Possony to Europe mentions that their work for USAF Intelligence’s “Special Study Group” is to evaluate Soviet advanced aerial

delivery systems, as well as to shed “some much needed light” on the “vexing ‘flying saucer’ problem.” It adds that the “Air Force cannot assume that flying saucers are of non-terrestrial origin, and hence, they could be Soviet.” (Michael D. Swords, “1952: Ruppelt’s Big Year,” IUR 28, no. 4 (Winter 2003–2004): 10; Swords 151) April 30 — Project Blue Book issues its Status Report #6. (US Air Force, Projects Grudge and Blue Book Reports 1 – 12, NICAP, 1968, pp. 95– 112 ) April 30 — 6:00 p.m. Six members of the 3rd Platoon, Heavy Mortar Company, 180th Infantry Regiment at the front lines around Panmunjeom, Korea, see two silvery wingless objects, one behind the other, flying in a valley in a southeasterly direction. Pfc H. B. Webb thinks they are flying at 900–1,000 mph. Some slower northbound F- 86 Sabre jets pass above them. They make a rumbling sound. (Haines, Korea, p. 63)

May — Army radar specialist Jay Nogle is stationed near Washington, D.C., when he picks up an unknown target on his M33 scope at an altitude of 18,000 feet about 130 miles from the capital (which would put it over eastern Pennsylvania). Two other Army units also detect the object, which remains stationary for 30 minutes before moving. By the time the object reaches the edge of the radar scope, it is traveling at 1,000 mph. The report goes all the way to the Pentagon, where orders are given to fire on it if it returns. Nogle says that radar targets are frequently seen in May or June, and units have their antiaircraft guns loaded after the first incident. When fighters are scrambled from McGuire AFB [now part of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst] in Burlington County, New Jersey, the targets move speedily out of range. (Swords 153) Early May — 10:00 p.m. A senior CIA official is having a lawn party at his home near Alexandria, Virginia, for some VIPs. He and two others notice a light approaching silently from the west. It stops then climbs almost vertically, stops again, then levels out. Then it goes into a nearly vertical dive, levels out, and streaks off to the east. (Ruppelt, pp. 135 – 136 ; Swords 148) Early May — A meeting is held in the Pentagon office of Stefan Possony, acting chief of the Directorate of Intelligence Study Group under Maj. Gen. John A. Samford to hear Harvard University astronomer Donald Menzel express his views. Present are Possony, Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, ATIC chief Col. Frank Dunn, Brig. Gen. William M. Garland, Possony’s assistant Leslie Rosenzweig, and one other officer. Menzel announces that he has solved all UFO reports and claims to have helped out in the development of the cameras in Project Twinkle. His attitude irks everyone in the meeting. When he asks the Air Force to support his views in upcoming publications in Time and Look, Gen. Garland gets angry. Col. Dunn says that Blue Book would have put some money into more formal versions of his experiments, but he can only offer a statement that Menzel has told them of his theory. Now Menzel gets agitated, saying it is no theory. He refuses to leave them a copy of his book to pass on to Joseph Kaplan and J. Allen Hynek. In the evening, Possony speaks with astronomer Francis J. Heyden at Georgetown University, who tells him that Menzel’s work is based on no more than a “couple of meaningless high school physics experiments.” (Clark III 743; Michael D. Swords, “Strange Days, Part 2,” IUR 32 , no. 2 (December 2008): 9; Swords 152) May 1 — 9:10 a.m. Air intelligence officer Maj. Rudolph Pestalozzi and an airman standing outside the Davis-Monthan AFB base hospital, Tucson, Arizona, watch two shiny, round objects overtake a B-36 flying above. The objects slow down to match the plane’s speed and remain in formation with them for 20 seconds. Then they make a sharp, no-radius turn away from the B-36, moving away a bit. Then one of the objects stops and hovers. Both are silent, and the crew estimates they have a diameter of 20–25 feet and a thickness of 10–12 feet. (NICAP, “The Case of the Missing Report”; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 109 – 112 , 292 – 294 ; Sparks, p. 131 ; Good Need, pp. 166 – 167 ) May 1 — 10:50 a.m. At George AFB [now Southern California Logistics Airport] near Victorville, California, five independent witnesses in the base control tower see a group of five white discs moving in formation for about 30 seconds. The objects appear very maneuverable, seem to almost collide, then break away in a right-angle turn. They are traveling an estimated 900–1,200 mph and are 1,000–1,200 feet in diameter. Four miles away at Apple Valley, California, the base’s wing director of personnel, playing on a golf course, sees one of the UFOs at the same time. (NICAP, “George AFB / Apple Valley, CA Radar Case”; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 107 – 109 ; Sparks, p. 131 ; Swords 147– 148 ; Good Need, p. 166 ; Michael D. Swords, “Intelligent Motions,” IUR 33 , no. 1 (March 2010): 10, 15) May 1 — 1:45 p.m. Albuquerque Journal composing room employee Eugene Cline sees four silvery objects seemingly playing tag with a formation of 12 Air Force bombers—either B-29s or B-50s—flying west over Albuquerque, New Mexico. The round objects are keeping up with the planes at the same altitude, moving in a “tumbling or pitching manner.” One object shoots straight up and takes off in a southerly direction. About the same time, workmen (one of them Howard Burgess) erecting an antenna at nearby Sandia Base watch three UFOs pass directly overhead. One comes from the west and moves south; another comes from the north and moves south;

and a third, tan-colored rather than silver like the others, passes low overhead and looks like a “cylinder tumbling end over end.” Burgess and the others are debriefed and sworn to secrecy about what they have witnessed. (“Flying Saucers Play Tag with Bombers over City,” Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Journal, May 2, 1952, p. 2; Nukes 56 – 58 ) May 7 — 12:22 a.m. Mrs. Hanley Marks sees a light-green, ball-shaped object fall from the sky into the Sandia Mountains, New Mexico, from her home in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Albuquerque. (“Fireball Falls near Sandias Early Today,” Albuquerque Journal, May 7, 1952, p. 1; “Green Fireball Falls in Southwest, Three Here Report,” Albuquerque Journal, May 7, 1952, p. 9) May 7 — 12:15 p.m. A Captain Morris and three enlisted men at Keesler AFB, Biloxi, Mississippi, see one or two aluminum or silver cylindrical objects darting in and out of the clouds 10 times. ([Blue Book case report]”; Sparks, p. 131) May 7 — 4:30 p.m. Magazine writer Ed Keffel, in the company of João Martins, takes five photographs of a UFO over Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the first, the UFO resembles an airplane coming directly toward them over a large group of trees. The second shows the object as disc-shaped. The third photo is taken as the object tilts slightly, showing both the top with a slight dome and the now obvious disc shape. More trees, including a very tall palm, can be seen in the photograph. The fourth picture, taken as the object tilts the other way, shows a raised ring on the bottom. The final picture is taken as the object is nearly vertical, seen over part of the ocean and some distant hills. The UFO disappears shortly afterward. NICAP does not see any negatives and is skeptical. The Colorado project finds a “glaring internal inconsistency” in the illumination and dismisses the photos as hoaxes. Today, the best evidence seems to suggest the case is a hoax, perpetrated by two magazine writers who wanted an interesting story. (NICAP, “Barra da Tijuca Photos”; Olavo T. Fontes, “The Barra da Tijuca Disc,” APRO Special Report no. 1 (October 1961): 1–6; Condon, pp. 83, 415 – 418 ; Swords 460–461; Cláudio Tsuyoshi Suenaga, “Os 90 Anos do O Cruzeiro, a Revista que Inaugurou a Era Moderna dos Discos Voadores no Brasil,” October 11, 2018) May 8 — 2:27 a.m. Pan American Airways pilot Clayton C. Gallagher and his copilot, flying a Lockheed Constellation aircraft at 8,000 feet en route from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to New York, see a light, 10 times the size of an airplane landing light, approach them over the Atlantic Ocean east of South Carolina. It streaks past their left wing about a quarter mile away, followed by two smaller orange balls of fire. Probable meteor. (NICAP, “Three UAO Sighted by Constellation Crew”; Sparks, p. 131 ) May 8 — Air Force Secretary Thomas Finletter and his staff (including his special assistant, covert CIA agent Joseph Bryan III) receive a secret one-hour briefing on UFOs from Ruppelt and Lt. Col. R. J. Taylor that covers USAF investigations over the previous five years. Finletter asks questions about some specific sightings. (Ruppelt, p. 138 ) May 10 — 3:00 p.m. USAF Lt. Col. Maurice G. Bechtel and his wife are in the yard of their home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when they see two silvery disc-shaped objects flying straight and level, one after the other, moving southwest to northeast at above 20,000 feet. The first object seems to waver on its axis, the second object follows a similar path but at a higher altitude. The first object is the size of a B-36 at high altitude. Bechtel alerts the radar station but it is unable to track the objects. (NICAP, “Two Discs Observed by Lt. Colonel and Wife”; Sparks, p. 132) May 10 — 8:30 p.m. A British scientist and others at Paphos, Cyprus, see a luminous circular object rise from the sea and waver back and forth before fading from sight directly overhead. (Sparks, p. 132; Good Above, p. 540 ) May 10 — 10:45 p.m. Four employees of DuPont Corporation at the AEC’s Savannah River Laboratory near Jackson, South Carolina, see four disc-shaped objects approach, then two other discs pass high overhead from different directions. They are a luminous yellow-gold color and move at a high rate of speed. One of the discs approaches at such a low altitude that it must ascend to pass over some tall tanks at the facility. One witness says that the objects are weaving from left to right while continuing on a steady course. The case is investigated by the FBI and passed on to the Pentagon and the Atomic Energy Commission. (NICAP, “Objects Sighted near Vital Installation”; Sparks, p. 132 ; Nukes 84) May 12 — 8:45 p.m. A UFO is seen by Walker AFB T/Sgt. Raymond Bare in a car in downtown Roswell, New Mexico. The object is blue-green in color, and its estimated altitude above the terrain is 20,000–30,000 feet. It appears to be about 40 – 50 miles distant over some low mountains east of Ruidosa. The object travels three times over approximately the same south-to-north / east-to-west, swaying, triangular course. Rate of speed cannot be precisely estimated but is faster than that of jet aircraft. Intensity of color brightness varies with the object’s altitude. The Air Force explains it as the planet Venus, but Venus is on the other side of the earth at the time. (NICAP, “High-Speed Object Maneuvers over Mountains”; Clark III 390–391; Sparks, p. 132 )

May 13 — 8:55 p.m. Aeronautical engineer Donald R. Carr sees a meteor-like object descend over National City, California, flying a curving path to the northwest. At 9:25 p.m., Carr watches a similar object, seemingly returning from the north. (UFOEv, p. 4 ) May 13 — 10:33 p.m. James Richardson and three other amateur astronomers (among them Cyril Thomas Wyche and Harry B. Mooney), set up telescopes at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, when they see a diamond formation of 4 oval, reddish-yellow or reddish-brown luminous objects nearly overhead. They disappear after 3 seconds moving through a 12° arc. The apparent size is a half dollar at arms length. They wobble in flight. (NICAP, “Diamond Formation of 4 Objects Observed by Astronomers”; Willy Smith, “Blue Book Pearls: Greenville, S.C.,” IUR 20, no. 3 (May/June 1995): 8–9, 24; Sparks, p. 133 ; Michael D. Swords, “Intelligent Motions,” IUR 33 , no. 1 (March 2010): 10, 15) May 15 — USAF Intelligence Special Study Group Chief Lieut. Col. E. Sterling and Stefan Possony begin a five-week temporary duty trip to Europe to study Soviet missiles and aircraft. As a side project they study “flying saucers” that might be of Soviet origin. No documents have yet been found on this trip’s results. (Swords 151) May 15 — 6:35 p.m. The pilot of an F-51 assigned to the 18th Fighter Bomber Group flying at 9,000 feet over North Korea encounters a silver object estimated to be 50 feet in diameter. It appears ahead of him to the right and begins climbing at 1,000 mph to the east, pauses, then descends into some haze. (Haines, Korea, pp. 39– 40 ) May 15 — 8:00 p.m. Two F-86E pilots of the 61st Fighter-Interceptor Wing are on a mission in North Korea when they see a silvery disc larger than a MiG aircraft 20 miles away and below them at 8,000–10,000 feet. Seen for only 3– 5 seconds, the object is traveling at 1,200–1,500 mph in a rolling maneuver. (Haines, Korea, p. 39) Late May — 1:00–3:00 a.m. Royal Canadian Navy Commander George R. McFarlane is officer of the watch on the Canadian warship HMCS Iroquois in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Guam en route to Korea. He sees many different lights, some single, others in formations of 3, 5, or 6, appearing and disappearing instantly. Suddenly one of the objects appears off the port bow at close range and low elevation. McFarlane and the signalman on watch see that the light is attached to a disc-shaped object with two dozen black windows running along its side. It hovers nearby for at least 15 minutes. (Good Need, pp. 142 – 143 ) May 2 3 — After 11:00 p.m. Lockheed worker Orfeo Angelucci is driving home on Victory Boulevard from his job in Burbank, California, when he senses a force and sees a red, glowing UFO. After a while he begins to follow it, and after he crosses the Los Angeles River and turns onto Forest Lawn Drive, he gets to within 30 feet of it when it hovers. Just before it streaks away, two smaller green globes, 3 feet in diameter, shoot out of it and approach him. He hears a voice saying, “Don’t be afraid, Orfeo, we are friends.” This begins his contact with benevolent beings from other planets. (Orfeo Angelucci, The Secret of the Saucers, Amherst Press, 1955 , pp. 1– 15 ; Bryant and Helen Reeve, Flying Saucer Pilgrimage, Amherst Press, 1957, pp. 222– 232 ; Clark III 127– 129 ) May 25 — 9:27 a.m. An Air Force captain in charge of the navigation section of Combat Crew Training School at Randolph AFB near San Antonio, Texas, his wife, and another pilot see a group of about 12 orange-white, tear- drop shaped lights in 3 groups of 4 moving from west to east at 2,000 mph and 10,000 feet altitude. They hear deep, soft intermittent noise. (Ruppelt, p. 140 ; Sparks, p. 134) May 26 — 3:20 a.m. Ground radar alerts the crew of an F-94 Starfire interceptor jet over North Korea that an unidentified target is on its tail. The jet turns, locks onto the object with onboard radar at 21,000 feet and begins to close. Both the pilot and radar operator see a brilliant white light straight ahead. The UFO performs a steady climbing turn and accelerates away at a tremendous speed. The jet loses the object at a distance of 7,800 feet after 15 seconds of contact. (Haines, Korea, pp. 40 – 44 ) May 28 — 1:45 p.m. Albuquerque, New Mexico, fire department employees Martin Romero and Don Atteberry see two circular objects, one shiny silver and the other orange or light brown, performing fast maneuvers on three different occasions over the course of an hour above the northeast part of the city. (NICAP, [Blue Book case documents]; Sparks, p. 135) May 28 — 8:30–8:40 p.m. A green fireball about one-third the size of the full moon is seen in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from eight ground points and five aircraft. Lincoln LaPaz pinpoints the fall near Santa Fe. Around the same time, the crew of a Flying Tiger Line C-46 near Otto, New Mexico, sees a green fireball rise up and drop steeply down. (“2 Green Fireballs Seen by Many, LaPaz Reports,” Albuquerque Journal, May 29, 1952, p. 2) May 28– 29 — During a night refueling mission at 8:10 p.m., the crews of five USAF B-29 bombers see green spherical objects. The primary sighting takes place near Albuquerque, New Mexico, and involves three B-29s flying at 15,000 feet. Another sighting takes place around 11:30 p.m. about 10 miles southwest of Tulsa, Oklahoma. That crew is flying at 25,000 feet. Three hours later the final sighting takes place near Enid, Oklahoma, also with a B- 29 at 25,000 feet. The aircrews making these reports do not think the objects are meteorites. (NICAP, “Five B- 29 Bomber Crews Observe Green Objects”; Sparks, p. 135)

May 30 — USAF Maj. William D. Leet, copilot on a C- 54 transport mission at 8,500 feet near Oshima, Japan, sees a dark object hovering in clouds for 7 minutes. It disappears, speeding away in seconds. (NICAP, “C-54 Crew Encounters Round Black Object”; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1952 January – May, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2000, pp. 82 – 83 ; Sparks, p. 136 ) May 31 — About 4:00 a.m. Over Cheorwon, South Korea, several US soldiers see a bright UFO that looks like a falling star, except that it stops falling and begins to climb again. It then moves northeast at 150 mph, reverses course twice, then climbs at a 45° angle and fades from sight. One guard hears a pulsating sound. An F-94 attempts to intercept the brilliant white object, which takes clearly evasive maneuvers and pulls away at 30,000 feet. (NICAP, “Jerky Object Observed and Tracked on Radar”; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 87 – 90 ; Haines, Korea, pp. 63– 64 ; Sparks, p. 136 ; Patrick Gross, “UFO US Military Reports, Korea, 1952”) May 31 — Project Blue Book issues its Status Report #7. (US Air Force, Projects Grudge and Blue Book Reports 1 – 12, NICAP, 1968, pp. 113– 130 ) May 31 — 9:30 p.m. Mr. R. Baits is on the beach at Derna, Libya, with three companions when he notices a soft orange- yellow light traveling soundlessly toward them from inland at great speed and in a straight line. Suddenly, as it reaches a point overhead, it swerves to the east over the town, gaining height. After a few seconds it moves to the south and begins zigzagging until it fades away into the background of stars. (Newcastle (UK) Evening Standard, June 13, 1952; Jan Aldrich)

June — Ruppelt has four officers, two airmen, and two civilians on his permanent Blue Book staff (including Lt. Anderson G. Flues, Robert M. Olsson, and Kerry Rothstien), as well as a number of scientific consultants, including Hynek. In the Pentagon, Maj. Dewey Fournet Jr. is a full-time Blue Book liaison. (Ruppelt, p. 140 ) June — In the wake of mass public and governmental interest in UFOs kindled by the provocative Life magazine article, CIA intelligence experts Sidney N. Graybeal (Chief, Guided Missiles Branch, Weapons and Equipment Division, Office of Scientific Intelligence) and Irl D’Arcy Brent (Chief, Ground Branch, W&E Division, OSI) prepare a summary of the UFO subject for the CIA/OSI hierarchy based on the past several years of OSI intelligence (and OSI predecessor documents going back to ghost rockets of 1946) and mentioning sightings going back to the Bible. The possibility of swamp gas in Michigan as an explanation for UFOs is suggested by Brent (foreshadowing the Hynek swamp-gas fiasco in Michigan in 1966). This report has never been acknowledged or released by the CIA despite FOIA litigation. Its existence and contents are revealed in Brad Sparks’s interviews with Brent and Graybeal and other OSI officials in 1975–1976. (NICAP, “The 1952 Sighting Wave”) June — Jet pilots allegedly discover the wreck of a flying disc on Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago, Norway. It is taken to Narvik, where it is identified as either a Russian or extraterrestrial device. Other variants of the legend claim it is a Nazi device or that it is actually discovered on Heligoland, Germany, in the North Sea. Nick Redfern suspects the story is planted by either Soviet or US intelligence. (“Auf Spitzbergen landete Fliegende Untertasse,” Saarbrücker Zeitung, June 28, 1952; Hessische Nachrichten, July 26, 1954; E. W. Grenfell, “First Report on the Captured Flying Saucer,” Sir! September 1954, pp. 16 – 17, 56– 57 ; Le Lorrain, October 15, 1954; Verdens Gang, December 19, 1954; Condon, pp. 90 – 91 ; William Steinman and Wendelle C. Stevens, UFO Crash at Aztec, UFO Photo Archives, 1987, pp. 353 – 366; Ole Jonny Brænne, “Legend of the Spitsbergen Saucer,” IUR 17, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1992): 14–20; Kremlin 45 – 46) June — Sunset. In Tombstone, Arizona, Navy Lieut. Cmdr. John C. Williams, his wife Josephine, and a guest see a “huge circular object” flying toward them from the direction of Tucson. Suddenly it stops in mid-flight, hovers, then reverses direction and retraces its course. A few seconds later it returns, stops gain, and appears to oscillate and tilt from one side to the other. Again it reverses its course, repeating everything 2– 3 more times. (UFOEv, p. 31 ) Early June — 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. Violet M. Winstead and her husband are driving in a narrow valley somewhere between Charleston and White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, when they see a number of lights on a bridge crossing the valley. They begin blinking off, one by one. When they get to the bridge, they see no street lights. (Violet M. Winstead, Letter, IUR 9, no.1 (Jan./Feb. 1984): 3) June 1 — 2:40 a.m. A cargo ship anchored at the wharf in Port-Gentil, Gabon, observes a mysterious object fly from behind the city, make a double loop, pass over the roadstead, and then dive toward the sea. (ClearIntent, p. 119 ) June 1 — Morning. The chief of a radar test section for Hughes Aircraft Company tracks an unidentified target coming across the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles, California. It is moving at 180 mph toward Santa Monica at an altitude of 11,000 feet. The object suddenly triples its speed to 550 mph, turns, and climbs over Los Angeles at 35,000 feet per minute. The target then levels out for a few seconds, goes into a high-speed dive, and levels out again at 55,000 feet. They lose the blip somewhere near Riverside. (NICAP, “Radar Tracks Object Which Suddenly Climbs to 55,000 Feet”; Ruppelt, pp. 141 – 143 )

June 4 — Air Force Secretary Finletter issues a press release about his May UFO briefing, saying, “No concrete evidence has yet reached us either to prove or disprove the existence of the so-called flying saucers. There remain, however, a number of sightings that the Air Force investigators have been unable to explain. As long as this is true, the Air Force will continue to study flying saucer reports.” (Keyhoe, FS from OS, p. 51 ) June 6 — 8:42 a.m. Flight Sgt. Kenneth Dudley Smith from the 77th RAAF Squadron at Kimpo Air Base [now Gimpo International Airport] in Seoul, Korea, observes a dull silver object in the shape of a coin performing spinning and tumbling maneuvers for 4 minutes at 345 mph. Flight Sgt. Kenneth Fawner also sees the UFO for 30 seconds. ([Blue Book case documents]; Sparks, p. 137 ) June 6 — Battelle issues its second status report on Project Stork to ATIC. It describes a “tentative” data sheet for observers to fill out, a more detailed coding scheme, an example of an IBM punch card that will be used, and plans for statistical studies. (“Seven Status Reports for Project Stork,” CUFON; “Seven Status Reports for Project Stork, Part 2,” CUFON; Clark III 929) June 8 — 10:50 a.m. Four flat, round, shiny objects in a diamond formation are seen in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from the ground by Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Markland. The objects are approximately 15,000 feet in altitude and traveling 300 mph. There is no audible sound. They are first seen at about 60 ° above the horizon to the north and are traveling to the southwest at approximately 240°. (NICAP, “Diamond Formation of Flat Objects Observed”; Sparks, p. 138 ; Michael D. Swords, “Intelligent Motions,” IUR 33 , no. 1 (March 2010): 10, 15) June 8 — During a launch of a pibal balloon at Calgary, Alberta, a silvery ellipse with a sharp outline reflecting sunlight and an aspect ratio of 8:1 crosses the field of vision of the observer’s theodolite. (Jan Aldrich; Project Magnet Case V) June 9 — Astronomer Donald H. Menzel writes in Time magazine that most UFOs are light reflections caused by ice crystals, refractions, or temperature inversions. (“An Astronomer’s Explanation: Those Flying Saucers,” Time, June 9, 1952; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, June – July 20th, The Author, 1986, p. 9) June 11 — 6:44 p.m. Two round objects, dark blue with gray centers, are seen moving southwest to northwest for 40 seconds at 500 mph and 6,000 feet altitude several miles east of O’Hare Airport in Chicago, Illinois. One passes the other before disappearing. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, June – July 20th, The Author, 1986, pp. 10 – 11) June 13 — 1:00 a.m. M. Veillot and M. Damiens, air traffic control operators at Paris–Le Bourget Airport, France, watch a prominent orange-red light hover in the sky for about one hour. Eventually it begins moving and crosses the sky southwest of the airport, accelerating rapidly. The light is also seen by M. Navarri, the pilot of an approaching Air France plane. (Michel, Truth About FS, 165 – 166) June 15 — 8:32 a.m. A meteorological assistant on reserve army maneuvers sees a large silver disc in the sky southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It moves southwest for 30 seconds at an altitude of 5,000–8,000 feet and then rises and merges in 2–5 seconds with altocumulus clouds at 11,000–12,000 feet. Its diameter is about 100 feet and speed at least 800 mph. (Good Above, p. 184 ) June 15 — 4:20 p.m. A round shiny object is seen over Gordonsville, Virginia. At 4:25 p.m., the crew of a commercial airliner reports a silver sphere over Richmond, Virginia. At 4:33 p.m., a Marine fighter jet is scrambled from Marine Corps Base Quantico in Prince William County, Virginia, and attempts to intercept a target south of Gordonsville but fails and returns to base. At 5:43 p.m., an Air Force fighter attempts to intercept the same shiny sphere but after reaching 35,000 feet turns back. At 7:35 p.m., a UFO emitting a golden glow is seen over Blackstone, Virginia. Fighter jets from Langley AFB in Hampton, Virginia, are scrambled, but the object is gone by the time they get there at 8:05 p.m. (Ruppelt, pp. 194 – 195 ) June 15 — 11:50 p.m. Edward Duke, a former Navy radar technician, sees an unidentified cigar-shaped object in the vicinity of Standiford Field [now Louisville International Airport], Louisville, Kentucky. It has a light on either side of the fuselage and a reddish hue on the trailing end. The object appears to be moving at about 400–500 mph and maneuvers around in several directions for 15 minutes, then descends and flies away to the northeast. ([Blue Book document]; Sparks, p. 138) June 17 — 1:28 a.m. A USAF F-94 pilot sees a light like a bright star cross the nose of his jet at blinding speed over Cape Cod, Massachusetts, for 15 seconds. (Sparks, p. 138) June 17 — Astronomer Donald Menzel writes in an article in Look magazine about how he creates temperature-inversion UFOs in his laboratory. (Donald H. Menzel, “The Truth about Flying Saucers,” Look 16, no. 13 (June 17, 1952): 35 – 39; NICAP, “The Truth about Flying Saucers, Look Magazine”) June 17 — 7 :30–10:20 p.m. Many witnesses at McChord AFB [now Joint Base Lewis-McChord] south of Tacoma, Washington, see 5–6 yellowish discs, tracked by radar and theodolite. Several F-94s are scrambled. (NICAP, “ 1 – 5 Silver Yellow Objects Stop and Start”; Sparks, p. 138 )

June 17 — 8:45 p.m.. Orville Foster, a US Weather Bureau observer at the Pueblo (Colorado) Memorial Airport, watches a UFO through the bureau’s theodolite. It circles leisurely for 10 minutes, then disappears toward the northeast. (“‘Flying Saucer’ Sighted at Pueblo,” Leadville (Colo.) Herald-Democrat, June 18, 1952; Project 1947, “UFO Reports, 1952”) Mid-June — Ruppelt briefs Maj. Gen. John A. Samford and his staff, two Navy captains from ONI, and “some people I can’t name.” The meeting is contentious. One USAF colonel argues that Blue Book’s investigation is biased against the ETH, which launches an emotional debate. Ruppelt is directed to “take further steps to obtain positive identification” of UFO reports. (Ruppelt, pp. 147 – 149 ) June 18 — 5 :00 p.m. USAF Capt. Erie P. Ashton and 2nd Lt. Clifton Ashley, while flying a B-25 about 100 miles east of March AFB [now March Air Reserve Base] in southern California, sight a silver object at approximately 11,000 feet in altitude off their left wing. The object is longer than it is wide and is in sight for about 39 minutes. (NICAP, “UFO Paces B- 25 ”; Sparks, p. 138 ) June 18 — According to Sgt. Richard Doty’s 1980s disinformation, the living alien retrieved in 1949 (EBE-1) and kept at Los Alamos, New Mexico, dies of unknown causes. (Clark III 3 64) June 19 —2:37 a.m. At Goose Bay AFB [now CFB Goose Bay], Labrador, radar men pick up a UFO track. 2nd Lt. A’Gostino and others outside see a strange, red-lighted object come in over the field. The radar blip suddenly enlarges, as if the device has banked, exposing a larger surface to the radar beam. The watching airmen see the red light wobble or flutter. After a moment the light turns white and quickly disappears. Apparently, the unknown craft has gone into a steep climb. Keyhoe assumes the radar and visual sightings are simultaneous, but Blue Book records indicate they are separate. (NICAP, “Target Suddenly Enlarges”; Keyhoe, FS from OS, p. 52 ; Sparks, p. 139 ; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 55–56) June 19 — 1:30 p.m. Four silvery UFOs are seen by many witnesses in Tacoma, Washington, flying silently at a high altitude. Unofficial sources report that the objects are tracked on radar at McChord AFB [now Joint Base Lewis- McChord] in Tacoma and jets are scrambled. (Tacoma (Wash.) Reporter, June 20, 1952; Shoot 9; Michael D. Swords, “Intelligent Motions,” IUR 33 , no. 1 (March 2010): 11, 15) June 19 — 6:00 p.m. Army Capt. Harold Hermann and his wife see a round, silver UFO speeding across the sky at Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania. (“‘Flying Saucers’ Sighted,” New York Times, June 24, 1952, p. 26) June 19 — 9:50 p.m. A former Army Air Force ground crew member sees a UFO flying in a swirling motion over the backyard of his home in Trenton, New Jersey. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, June – July 20th, The Author, 1986, p. 17) June 20 — 3:03 p.m. A flight of four US Marine Corps captains and pilots (Bobbie Foster, Richard Francisco, Teddy L. Pittman, and Ronnie A. McDonald) of F4U-4B Corsair fighters with the 7302nd Squadron over central Korea see a silvery-white object passing below them, banking into a left turn. As the object circles around, Foster dives toward the object, which appears to be 10–20 feet in diameter. It flies away at an estimated speed of 1,000 mph and disappears toward friendly lines. (NICAP, “F4U-4B Corsairs Encounter Circling UFO”; Sparks, p. 139) June 21 — 12:30 p.m. T/Sgt. Howard Davis, flight engineer of a B-29 bomber flying at 8,000 feet altitude near Kelly AFB [now Kelly Field] in San Antonio, Texas, sees a small, flat object with a sharply pointed front and rounded rear. It is white with a dark blue center and red rim and trails sparks as it dives past the B-29 at a distance of 500 feet in one second. (NICAP, “B-29 Encounters Flat Object with Pointed Front”; Sparks, p. 140) June 21 — 10:58 p.m. A Ground Observer Corps spotter at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, sees a small (6–8 inches in diameter), slow-moving UFO near the AEC plant. GCI radar obtains the target, but it fades from the scope. An F-97 on combat air patrol engages in a “dogfight” with the object, which makes “ramming attacks” at the aircraft. It blinks until it speeds away. (NICAP, “Radar Visual near AEC Plant”; Ruppelt, p. 43 ; Sparks, p. 139 ) June 22 — 10:45 p.m. Two US Marine sergeants see a 4 - foot diameter orange object dive at a runway from the north, dropping from 800 to 100 feet altitude over the west end of the runway at Pyeongtaek military base, South Korea, shooting 2– 5 - foot red flames. It then heads west at about 300–450 mph for 2–3 seconds, hovers briefly over a hill, turns 180° in 45–60 seconds, flashes, heads east a half mile, flashes again, and blinks out. No sound. (Hynek UFO Report, pp. 82 – 83 ; Sparks, p. 140 ) June 23 — 1 :30 a.m. USAF ADC radar operators Lt. A. N. Robinson Jr. and Airman Ray H. Foote, plus 5 other controllers, officers, and maintenance technicians at Kirksville Air Force Station in Missouri, track a hard target with a clear sharp return about the size of a B- 29. It suddenly appears 85 miles north-northwest of the station, moving at a constant speed of about 3,600+ mph on a straight path for about 125 miles for 2 minutes. Then it vanishes. A second target appears at 1:35 a.m. (NICAP, “Seven ADC Men Track 3,600 MPH Target”; Michael D. Swords, “Case Missing,” IUR 19, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1994): 20; Sparks, p. 141 ) June 23 — 3:30 a.m. Secretary Martha Milligan sees a bullet-shaped object emitting a burnt-orange exhaust fly straight and level over Oak Ridge, Tennessee. (NICAP, “June 23, 1952: Oak Ridge, Tenn.”; Sparks, p. 141)

June 23 — 10:00 a.m. National Guard Lt. Col. Oren Laramore Depp [Johnny Depp’s grandfather] sees two objects looking like giant soap bubbles reflecting yellow and lavender colors flying in line over Owensboro, Kentucky. (Sparks, p. 141) June 23 — 4:05 pm. Airport weather observer Rex Thompson sees a round disc with a metallic shine flash and flutter like a flipped coin for 5–7 minutes over Geiger Field [now Spokane International Airport], Spokane, Washington. (NICAP, “June 23, 1952: Spokane, Wash.”; Sparks, p. 140) June 23 — 9:00 p.m. 2d Lt. K. Thompson sees a very large light flying straight and level for 10 minutes at McChord AFB [now Joint Base Lews-McChord] near Tacoma, Washington. (Sparks, p. 140 ; Michael D. Swords, “Intelligent Motions,” IUR 33 , no. 1 (March 2010): 11, 15) June 24 — The first issue of Ouranos is published by the Commission Internationale d’Enquêtes sur les Soucoupes Volantes, in Paris. (Ouranos, no. 1) June 25 — Wilbert B. Smith writes an “Interim Report on Project Magnet,” in which he states: “If, as appears evident, the flying saucers are emissaries from some other civilization, and actually do operate no magnetic principles, we have before us the fact that we have missed something in magnetic theory but have a good indication of the direction in which to look for the missing quantities.” (Good Above, p. 185 ) June 25 — 8:30 p.m. Mrs. Daniel Norbury and Lawrence Matheis see a bright yellow-white, egg-shaped object, sometimes with a red tail, make seven circles over Chicago, Illinois. (NICAP, “June 25, 1952: Chicago, Illinois”; Sparks, p. 141) June 27– 30 — Ruppelt visits McChord AFB in Tacoma, Washington, to look into recent sightings there. Capt. Harnnagy of the 4704 Air Defense Wing Intelligence tells him that the objects are always seen in the northern sky around 8:00 p.m. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, June – July 20th, The Author, 1986, pp. 23–24) June 28 — 1:20 p.m. Two observers at the Cargo Air Service hangar at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New Mexico, see two silvery discs high in the sky and moving to the south. They noiselessly climb nearly vertically at high speed, one going south-southeast, the other heading almost due east. The observation lasts 30 seconds. (J. Allen Hynek, THE UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 68 – 69 ; Sparks, p. 142) June 29 — 5:45 p.m. Three Air Force police officers of the 83rd Air Base Squadron at O’Hare Airport in Chicago spot a flat, oval object as it hovers between two radio towers about 7 miles away. It is bright silver in color, encircled by white haze, and appears about 30 feet in diameter. During the next 45 minutes the object moves to the southwest and then back north. It accelerates instantaneously to a speed faster than a jet fighter. ([Blue Book documents]; Sparks, p. 143) June 30 — Ruppelt says that by this time there is a split in opinion in the military about what to do about UFOs. One group assumes that UFOs are interplanetary, and information must be withheld at a top-secret level. “The enthusiasm of this group took a firm hold in the Pentagon, at Air Defense Command headquarters, on the Research and Development Board, and many other agencies.” (Ruppelt, pp. 152 – 153 )

Summer — Denis Plunkett forms a British branch of Albert K. Bender’s International Flying Saucer Bureau in Bristol, England. When Bender closes down IFSB in late September 1953, the branch becomes the British Flying Saucer Bureau, with his son E. L. Plunkett as president. It publishes Flying Saucer News from Spring 1953 to Spring 1956 and Flying Saucer News Bulletin from February 1955 through 1957. (Flying Saucer News, no. 1 (Spring 1953); Flying Saucer News Bulletin, no. 1 (February 1955)) Summer — Night. Radar at MacDill AFB in Tampa, Florida, picks up a target at 40,000 feet flying at 460 mph. A nearby B-29 volunteers to investigate, searching until midnight. The pilot, a USAF colonel, finally reports a visual sighting of the UFO, flying at 40,000 feet and 250 mph and appearing as a glowing white light shaped like a football. The object changes course and disappears at high speed. (UFOEv, p. 25 ) July — Edgar Jarrold begins the Australian Flying Saucer Bureau in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia’s first civilian UFO organization, following his personal observation of two fast-moving yellow lights in the sky over Fairfield, New South Wales. (“Saucers on His Mind,” Sydney (N.S.W.) Morning Gazette, February 2, 1954, p. 7; Clark III 632 ) July — Afternoon. A man driving a car near Schenectady, New York, sees an oblong object hovering nearby. A gondola lowers from the object and a bunch of “Navy officers in white hats” rush to the windows. All are wearing huge dark glasses. The gondola goes back up, and three smaller UFOs appear and go inside the bigger one. (Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1952 – 1953, p. 10; Clark III 267 ) July — The administration and faculty of Ohio Northern University, in Ada, Ohio, announce the formation of Project A: Investigation of Phenomena, saying that members of the engineering, pharmacy, law, and liberal arts colleges will examine the evidence for UFOs under the direction of Dean Warren L. Hickman. Project A personnel seek reports from the public and collect newspaper clippings. The project receives a disappointing 54 completed

questionnaires, far lower than the 200 they would like for a scientific sampling. However, they do estimate that about 20% involve “unnatural phenomena.” After unsuccessful attempts to obtain reports from Civilian Saucer Investigation in Los Angeles and other groups, the university closes the project down in mid-1954. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, August, The Author, 1986, p. 3; Clark III 916; Curt Collins, “Project A: The Short Life of a UFO Study,” September 21, 2018) July 1 — J. Robert Moskin‘s article appears in Look magazine. It features Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg’s declaration that “we cannot afford to be complacent” about UFOs. Keyhoe says that the article has upset the “silence group” in the Pentagon. (J. Robert Moskin, “Hunt for the Flying Saucer,” Look. July 1, 1952, pp. 37–41; Keyhoe, FS from OS, pp. 52 – 53 ) July 1 — 7: 25 a.m. A Ground Observer Corps spotter sees a UFO headed southwest across Boston, Massachusetts. Two F-94s are scrambled. Erwin W. Nelson and his wife at Lynn, Massachusetts, notice two vapor trails from the climbing jets, look around, and see in the west a bright silver “cigar shaped object about six times as long as it was wide” heading over Boston at a very high altitude. An identical UFO is following the first some distance back. No vapor trails are visible. The witnesses watch the F- 94 s search back and forth far below the UFOs. At 7:30, USAF Capt. Robert E. Metcalf, petroleum officer for the 6520th Test Support Wing, and USAF air policemen M/Sgt James Stiner and M/Sgt Joseph R. Bosh, 6520th Air Police Squadron, at Hanscom Field, Bedford, Massachusetts, see the two jets, look for what they are intercepting, and see to the east a 100-foot-long silvery ellipse “fatter than a cigar” traveling southwest. At two points, the object seems to hover, then continues at about 40,000 feet. The object’s path intersects contrails of the two jets heading southeast. Metcalf loses sight of the object on his way to the tower after a few minutes, then sees it again at about 7:40 a.m., noting it has increased distance “considerably,” but finally loses sight of it at the tower. ([Blue Book document]; UFOEv, p. 160 ; Ruppelt, pp. 150 – 151 ; Sparks, p. 144 ) July 1 — 8 : 40 – 9:15 a.m. Two silvery objects move south along the East Coast and hover near Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, for about 5 minutes at 50,000 feet. As radar at Fort Monmouth detects the objects, they put on a burst of speed and head southwest toward Washington, D.C., confirmed visually. At about 12:00 noon, a physics professor at George Washington University in D.C. sees a grayish UFO hovering and arcing back and forth across the sky for about 8 minutes. He guesses about 500 people are watching the object. (NICAP, “Objects Tracked at 50,000ʹ, G/V”; Ruppelt, pp. 151 – 152 ; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, June – July 20th, The Author, 1986, pp. 36– 37 ; Sparks, p. 144 ) July 2 — 11:10 a.m. As he is driving on a highway seven miles north of Tremonton, Utah, US Navy Chief Petty Officer Delbert C. Newhouse and his wife see a strange object in the sky. Newhouse pulls the car to the side of the road, gets out, and watches 12–14 UFOs at about 10,000 feet. Looking like “two pie pans, one inverted on top of the other,” they are clustered in a loose formation, “milling around.” He takes about 75 seconds worth of film through the telephoto lens of his 16mm movie camera, though the objects have receded a bit to shiny points of light. At one point a single object leaves the pack, heading east, and Newhouse holds the camera still so the UFO crosses the field of view. He repeats the procedure 3-4 times. Blue Book obtains the film and sends it to the USAF Photo- Reconnaissance Laboratory and the Navy’s Photo Interpretation Laboratory. Both analyses eliminate the possibility of aircraft or birds. (NICAP, “The Tremonton, Utah / Newhouse Color Film”; “Delbert Newhouse UFO Footage, 1952, Tremonton, Utah,” parkerdonaldmusic YouTube channel, September 29, 2012; Ruppelt, pp. 220 – 222 ; UFOEv, pp. 88, 112 ; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 235 – 239 ; Condon, pp. 418 – 426 ; “Turner on Tremonton,” IUR 3, no. 5 (May 1978): 6; Swords 149; Clark III 1203– 1204 ; Kevin D. Randle, “Newhouse’s Tremonton, Utah Movie Revisited,” A Different Perspective, December 12, 2013; Patrick Gross, “Tremonton, Utah, UFO Color Film of July 2, 1952”) July 3 — 4:15 a.m. A witness on the Manitou Beach Highway near Rome Center, Michigan, watches two circular lights about 20 feet in diameter flying horizontally at tremendous speed at only a few hundred feet altitude. (NICAP, “July 3, 1952: Selfridge AFB, Mich.”; Sparks, p. 145) July 3 — 11:50 p.m. Mrs. J. D. Arbuckle sees two bright pastel-green discs fly straight and level very fast for 6 seconds over Chicago, Illinois. The next day the Air Force public information office at O’Hare Airport says it has received 16 reports of UFOs over Chicago in the past week. An Air Force spokesman says that jet patrols are on alert 24 hours a day. (Sparks, p. 145; “Deny Reports of ‘Saucers’ Alerts,” Waterloo (Iowa) Courier, July 4, 1952, p. 1) July 5 — 6 :00 a.m. Four commercial pilots flying at 9,000 feet above the Hanford atomic site in Washington State observe a disc just below a deck of wispy clouds directly above their C-46. The witnesses are Capt. John Baldwin, Capt. George Robertson, H. D. Shenkel, and Steven Summers. Baldwin says that the disc stands still at first and then seems to back away and change shape, becoming flat, gaining speed, and then disappearing. Robertson says “we couldn’t pick it up on our radar. We reversed our course and went back, but we couldn’t spot it again.” (NICAP, “C-46 Crew Observe Disc over AEC Plant”; Hynek UFO Report, p. 53 ; Sparks, p. 145 ; Swords 149)

July 5 — 7 :58 p.m. Oklahoma State Patrolman Arthur Myers Hamilton is flying five miles south-southeast of Norman, Oklahoma, in a State Patrol airplane when he sees three dark discs 4–8 miles away at 6,000 feet hover for 15 seconds then fly away, silhouetted against a dark cloud. (NICAP, “Three Dark Discs Sighted from State Patrol Airplane”; Sparks, p. 145) July 7 — Battelle issues its third status report on Project Stork to ATIC. It mentions that Hynek has been consulted on the observer’s data sheet, suggested some changes, and is in the process of interviewing astronomers about any potential sightings made by them. The group has studied and coded UFO reports from 1948. (“Seven Status Reports for Project Stork,” CUFON) July 8 — A commissionaire on duty at an army depot in Ottawa, Ontario, sees a bright orange light about a quarter size of the full moon travel from south to north, turn, and travel south again. (Jan Aldrich; Project Magnet Case X) July 9 — 12:45 p.m. USAF Maj. Claude K. Griffin is driving one mile north of Colorado Springs, Colorado, when he sees a luminous white object shaped like an airfoil moving slowly and erratically like a corkscrew. He estimates its size at 100 feet, distance at 15 – 20 miles, and altitude at 30,000 feet, heading northwest. Griffin stops the car to watch for 12 minutes. USAF Maj. E. R. Hayden and his wife come out of their house and look at the object in a 4x rifle scope. He describes it as rectangular, silver on one side, and black on the other. It flutters as it moves slowly north-northwest above 20,000 feet 20 miles away. It gains altitude and gradually diminishes to a black dot, then accelerates to a high speed and disappears. ([Blue Book documents]; Sparks, p. 145) July 9 — 5 :30 p.m. Farmer John Mittl watches an aluminum, oval-shaped object silently change direction and attitude above his farm 2 miles east of Kutztown, Pennsylvania, finally tipping on end and departing. He manages to take three photos. (Claude Falkstrom and Curt Collins, “John Mittl: From Unsolved UFOs to Astral Encounters,” The Saucers That Time Forgot,” July 13, 2018) July 10 — 8:18 p.m. Capt. James E. Lundy and First Officer Leon Blanks are flying a National Airlines C-60 airplane 15 miles south of Quantico, Virginia, when they see an object resembling an aircraft landing light. The object becomes brighter as it approaches from the north. It then performs a climbing turn away from the aircraft and its appearance changes, resembling a light emitted by a red flare. Visible for 10 minutes, it is flying too fast for any known aircraft. (NICAP, “Light Maneuvers near C-60 Airliner”; Sparks, p. 146) July 10 — Night. A Marine pilot on night maneuvers near Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, spots two green objects shoot straight across the sky at terrific speed at a high altitude. (“Radar Sees ‘Saucers,’ AF Investigating,” July 22, 1952, pp. 1A, 6A) July 10 — Night. Forty crew members of the Canadian destroyer HMCS Crusader off Korea see two shiny discs and track them on radar. The radar fix places them at 10,560 feet altitude and 7 miles distant. (NICAP, “Naval Destroyer Observes Two Discs / Tracks on Radar”) July 11 — The Air Technical Liaison Office, Directorate of Intelligence for the Far East Air Force, prepares Intelligence Report #29-52, detailing Air Force, Navy, and Marine radar UFO reports for 1950–1952 in Korea and Japan. (Capt. Charles J. Malven, “FLYOBRPT: Japan/Korea Area,” IR- 29 - 52, July 11, 1952) July 12 — 8:42 p.m. O’Hare AFB weather observer Capt. W. J. Shea and a civilian, Jane Morrison, watch three lights, one main red light with smaller white lights on each side, traveling 500 mph at 40,000–50,000 feet over Montrose Beach, Chicago, Illinois, from the west-northwest. They accelerate to the south and make a 180° turn heading north-northwest, then disappear. The UFO is seen by 400+ people, with 14 others making reports to the 4706th Defense Wing located at O’Hare Airport. (Ruppelt, p. 153 ; Sparks, pp. 146 – 147 ) July 12 — 9:04 p.m. Two USAF F- 86 Sabre jets with the 62nd Flight Squadron are flying at 22,000 feet on a routine training mission (or on a scramble mission) over Arlington Heights, Illinois. Capt. Robert W. Casey Jr., after coming out of a right turn, sees an oblong yellowish lighted object with an exhaust moving in a straight course about 15 miles away south of Elgin, Illinois, at 22,000 feet traveling at 8 00 mph. The F-86 pursues at maximum speed, but the object pulls away. Both pilots hear a strange radio transmission on their restricted communications channel during the pursuit saying the name of the pursuit pilot, Casey, in an ethereal “ghost-like” monotone. Apparently, this is a prank by Casey’s fighter pilot buddies at the 62nd who are monitoring his channel, though this is later officially denied by the 62nd. (NICAP, “F-86 on Scramble Mission / Strange Radio Transmission”; Sparks, p. 147) July 13 — 4 :00 a.m. Capt. William Bruen, piloting National Airline Flight 611 heading north from Jacksonville, Florida, sees a round ball of bluish-white light about 60 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., hovering to the west then ascending to the airliner’s altitude of 11,000 feet, then parallel course off left wing at about 2 miles distance. It takes off upwards at 1,000 mph when Bruen turns on all aircraft lights. (NICAP, “Light Ascends, Paces Aircraft, Takes Off Vertically”; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 90 – 91 ; Sparks, p. 148 ) July 14 — The Ground Observer Corps expands into Operation Skywatch, consisting of 7 50,000 volunteers aged 7 to 86 years old working around the clock in shifts at more than 16,000 posts and 73 filter centers to detect a sneak

attack against the United States. The expansion follows an Army announcement from a few weeks earlier that antiaircraft guns and personnel are on continuous duty in key areas. (Radomes.org, “Ground Observer Corps,” January 31, 2001; Shoot 21–22) July 14 — 9 :12 p.m. Some 8,000 feet above the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland/Virginia, Capt. William B. Nash and copilot First Officer William H. Fortenberry, flying a Pan American Airways DC-4, see six crimson dots at 30°. The dots are streaking in their direction like tracer bullets. As they get closer, they resolve into reddish-orange circles, about 100 feet in diameter and 15 feet thick, with sharply defined edges. Nash says they are holding a “narrow echelon formation.” When they are nearly underneath the aircraft, “they flipped on edge, the sides to the left of us going up and the glowing surfaces facing right. While all were in the edgewise position, the last five slid over and past the leader so that the echelon was now tail foremost.” Then they all flip over again into a flat attitude. Two new, brighter UFOs join the formation, and the lights of all eight objects blink out then come on again. They all speed westward (Nash estimates 6,000–12,000 mph) and climb in a graceful 45° arc. The entire sighting lasts only 15 seconds. Possible corroboration comes from a sighting in Camden, New Jersey, although the date is uncertain. (Wikipedia, “Nash-Fortenberry UFO sighting”; “Miami Pilots Spot 8 Saucers Flying in Formation,” Miami (Fla.) Herald, July 16, 1952, pp. 1A, 8A; NICAP, “Nash / Fortenberry Case”; Sparks, p. 150 ; William B. Nash and William H. Fortenberry, “We Flew Above Flying Saucers,” True, October 1952, pp. 65, 110 – 112; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, p. 47 ; Clark III 791; Good Above, pp. 269 – 270 ; “The Pilot’s Tale,” Saturday Night Uforia; Swords 149–150; Shoot 22 – 24; Michael D. Swords, “Classic Cases from the APRO Files,” IUR 24, no. 2 (Summer 1999): 21–22; Thomas Tulien, “The 1952 Nash/Fortenberry Sighting Revisited,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 20–23, 27– 28 , reprinted in Project 1947; Michael D. Swords, “Intelligent Motions,” IUR 33 , no. 1 (March 2010): 11, 15) July 15 — The Lorenzens publish the first issue of the APRO Bulletin. (APRO Bulletin 1, no. 1 (July 1952)) Mid-July — Ruppelt says that rumors persist that the Air Force is braced for an expected invasion by UFOs. “Had these rumormongers been at ATIC in mid-July they would have thought that the invasion was in full swing.” He talks to a scientist “from an agency that I can’t name” about the build-up of UFO reports. From his study of reports, the scientist predicts that “within the next few days they’re going to blow up and you’re going to have the granddaddy of all UFO sightings. The sighting will occur in Washington or New York, probably Washington.” Brad Sparks identifies the scientist as Stefan T. Possony, acting chief of the AFOIN Special Study Group and adviser to Gen. John A. Samford. (Ruppelt, pp. 154 – 155 , 157 ; NICAP, “The 1952 Sighting Wave”) July 16 — 9:35 a.m. US Coast Guard photographer Seaman Shell R. Alpert sees several bright lights through a window screen (no glass) from his position inside the photo lab at Coast Guard Air Station Salem [now Winter Island Marine Park], Massachusetts, while cleaning a camera. He watches them for 5–6 seconds, calls out to Hospitalman 1st Class Thomas E. Flaherty from sick bay to see them. The objects dim then brighten suddenly. Alpert grabs a camera and films 4 roughly elliptical irregular blobs of light in formation through the screen, on Super XX cut film 4-by- 5 - inch format. The lights disappear suddenly in a flash. The photo is explained as showing reflections of light sources from inside the building, but this ignores the fact that the window is open, and the camera is not pointed through glass. (UFOEv, p. 88 ; Sparks, p. 151 ; Joe Nyman and Barry Greenwood, “The July 1952 Coast Guard Photo Revisited,” IUR 26, no. 4 (Winter 2001–2002): 3–5, 25–30; Michael D. Lampen, “Mystery Alpert Objects,” IUR 27, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 27; “The Photographer’s Tale,” Saturday Night Uforia, December 3, 2012) July 16 — 9:00 p.m. Paul R. Hill, an aeronautical research engineer, is watching the sky with his future wife, Frances Hoback, on Chesapeake Avenue (near LaSalle Avenue) in Hampton, Virginia, when he notices two amber- colored lights coming in over Hampton Roads from the south at 500 mph. They slow down and make a U turn, moving side by side until they revolve around each other at a high rate of speed in a tight circle 200–300 feet in diameter. A third UFO comes racing up from the direction of Virginia Beach and falls in several hundred feet below the other two, making a V formation. A fourth UFO comes in from up the James River and joins the group, which heads south at 500 mph. “Their ability to make tight circling turns was amazing.” Around 9:03 p.m., the four UFOs have moved out of sight to the south. (NICAP, “Two Pairs of Objects Maneuver Overhead”; [Blue Book documents]; UFOEv, p. 57 ; Sparks, p. 150 ) July 17 — 6:30 p.m. A woman leaving Yarmouth Harbour, Nova Scotia, on the SS Yarmouth watches seven silvery objects in an inverted triangular formation for 2 minutes. They hover momentarily, descend slowly, and disappear. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: D eclassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 268–269) July 17 or 18 — 10 :10 p.m. T/Sgt. Thurman C. Mahone and A/3c Gene A. Jennings at Lockbourne AFB [now Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base] in Lockbourne, Ohio, see an amber-colored, elliptical-shaped object with

a small flame at the rear, periodically increasing in brightness. It moves swiftly, giving off a resonant beating sound. (NICAP, “July 18, 1952: Lockbourne, Ohio”; Sparks, p. 151) July 18 — Early morning. American Airlines pilot Capt. Paul L. Carpenter, First Officer George Fell, and Flight Engineer Quilici watch several dull-red objects with a “yellowish tinge” speeding around in the air at an altitude of 25,000– 30,000 feet near Denver, Colorado, during a non-stop flight from Los Angeles to Chicago. A maximum of three objects are seen at one time over a 2-minute period. Carpenter says they seem to be about 100 miles away. The first object is moving south by southeast. One minute after it disappears, two more come into view going westward and another one eastward. “The two traveling westward disappeared about two seconds then reappeared traveling eastward.” (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, June – July 20th, The Author, 1986, p. 60) July 18 — Capt. Edward Ruppelt tells the press in Dayton, Ohio, that ground radar has tracked UFOs at speeds of 1,500– 2,000 mph, that jet fighters scrambled to intercept them have failed, and that “persons making these reports actually see something in the sky,” but the Air Force does not know what they are. (“‘Saucer’ Sightings Spur AF’s Drive to End Mystery,” Dayton (Ohio) Journal Herald, July 18, 1952, pp. 1, 10; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, June – July 20th, The Author, 1986, p. 66 ) July 18 — 6:10 p.m. André Frégnale is hiking near Lac Chauvet, Puy-de-Dôme, France, when he sees a disc flying west to east in a straight line at constant speed. He immediately takes two photos when the object is at its largest apparent size, then two others when it is moving away to his left. It is in view for 50 seconds. (“Une soucoupe volante,” Le Méridional, July 25 , 1952, pp. 1, 8; Pierre Guérin, “A Scientific Analysis of Four Photographs of a Flying Disk near Lac Chauvet (France),” Journal of Scientific Exploration 8, no. 4 (1994): 447–469; Alain Delmon, “Les Cas Solides: Lac Chauvet, France, 1952,” Les OVNIs: Intelligences non-humaines ou mythe moderne?, December 26, 2003) July 18 — 9:45 p.m. Three Air Force officers and four enlisted men at Patrick AFB, near Cocoa Beach, Florida, see a series of hovering and maneuvering red-orange lights moving in a variety of directions. (NICAP, “Hovering and Maneuvering Lights”; Sparks, p. 151 ) July 19 — 2:55 a.m. An experienced civilian pilot watches an elliptical-shaped object with a light fringe over Williston, North Dakota, for 5 minutes. It descends fast and makes a 360° then a 180° turn. (Sparks, p. 151) July 19 — Lincoln LaPaz tells newspapermen in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that UFOs “can reverse directions and cruise back and forth; they travel at high speeds in wide sweeping circles… They travel at high altitudes and can be followed as long as 3½ minutes.” (“Luminous Objects Flooding Southwest Skies Not Shooting Stars or Meteorites, Says LaPaz,” July 20 , 1952, p. 1; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, June – July 20th, The Author, 1986, p. 67 ) July 19 — 10:00 a.m. Engineer John A. Anderson and other technicians at the Savannah River Atomic Site near Aiken, South Carolina, watch a greenish glowing object dart back and forth silently and erratically at high speed above the plant. It is in view for 2 minutes, moving constantly and changing direction at sharp angles. The object disappears over the horizon at “tremendous velocity.” (NICAP, “Multiple Witnesses Observe Strange Maneuvering Object”; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, p. 51 ; Nukes 47–48) July 19 — 4:30 p.m. Agricultural engineer Pedro Bardi and others on a farm in the Madre de Dios region of Peru see a UFO flying at 3 25 feet shortly after their short-wave radio goes dead. Bardi says it is a bit smaller than a DC- 3 and is making a buzzing sound. It shows up 4 minutes later at Puerto Maldonado, 75 miles away, and Customs Administrator Domingo Troncosco photographs it. The photo shows an elongated object trailing smoke, passing over the top of a tree and in front of a cumulus cloud. (Curt Collins, “The Case of the Smoking Saucer,” In Honor of Jim Moseley, November 3, 2014; Curt Collins, “Jim Moseley: The Case of the Smoking Saucer,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, August 18, 2018) July 19 — 10:00 p.m. Six luminous round objects are seen by a Chicago, Illinois, woman moving horizontally and vertically as they cavort around in the sky. The same night, a UFO is seen by three witnesses at the Ground Observer Corps post at the city hall in Elgin, Illinois. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, June – July 20th, The Author, 1986, p. 68) July 19 — 11:35 p.m. USAF pilot Capt. Charles John Powley and his wife Janet see two star-like lights maneuver, hover, and speed up for 5–7 minutes over Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. (NICAP, “Three Groups of Witnesses See Strange Lights”; Sparks, p. 151 ; Michael D. Swords, “Intelligent Motions,” IUR 33 , no. 1 (March 2010): 12, 15) July 19– 20 — 11:40 p.m. Air traffic controller Edward Nugent at Washington National [now Ronald Reagan National] Airport’s Air Route Traffic Control (ARTC) in D.C. picks up a formation of seven objects on his long-range radar. They are southeast of Andrews AFB [now Joint Base Andrews] in Prince George’s County, Maryland, moving along at 100–130 mph. Two of the targets suddenly accelerate and vanish off the scope within seconds.

One apparently reaches a speed of 7,000 mph. A second, shorter-range radar in the airport control tower (operated by Howard Cocklin and Joseph Zacko Jr.) and another at Andrews AFB has also tracked the objects. For 6 hours, between 8 and 10 UFOs are tracked on radar. Senior Air Traffic Controller Harry G. Barnes says that “They followed no set course, were not in any formation, and we only seemed to be able to track them for about three miles at a time… I can safely deduce that they performed gyrations which no known aircraft could perform.” Several Capitol Airlines pilots (one of them Capt. S. C. “Casey” Pierman) see the objects visually as white or orange lights in restricted air space over the White House and Capitol. Ground observers at Andrews (Capt. Harold C. May, Staff/Sgt Charles Davenport) watch red or orange lights. Radar and visual sightings are also taking place at Bolling AFB [now Joint Base Anaconda-Bolling] in Washington, D.C. By 3:00 a.m., the UFOs are all gone, just as two F- 94 interceptors arrive belatedly from New Castle AFB [now New Castle Air National Guard Base] in Delaware. The jets depart, and the UFOs return, observed by Capt. Howard Dermott, a Capitol Airlines pilot, and Sgt. Davenport at Andrews. Radar trackings continue, the last at 5:30 a.m. Civilian radio engineer E. W. Chambers sees five huge discs circling in a loose formation; they tilt upward and leave in a steep ascent. Blips appear on radar for at least another day, until the evening of July 20. (Wikipedia, “1952 Washington, D.C. UFO incident”; NICAP, “The Washington National Sightings”; NICAP, “Andrews Tower Radar Confirms Washington Target”; “Washington’s Blips: ‘Somethings’ over the Capital Are Traced on Radar,” Life, August 4, 1952, pp. 39–40; Ruppelt, pp. 158 – 161 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 71 – 72; Clark III 1250 – 1252 ; Swords 154– 155 ; Sparks, p. 151 ; Condon, pp. 153 – 157 , 862 – 867 ; Kevin D. Randle, Invasion Washington: UFOs over the Capitol, HarperTorch, 2001, pp. 32– 58 ; Michael D. Swords, GrassRoots UFOs: Case Reports from the Timmerman Files, Fund for UFO Research, 2005, p. 139; Shoot 28–34) July 19 — 12:00 midnight. A part-time farmer named Constantine and a hired hand named Davis are curing tobacco when they see two cigar-shaped objects—one hovering, the other moving to the east—for 3–4 minutes near Centerville, Virginia. Both objects are translucent, lit from within, and emit an exhaust from one end. They both ascend until they disappear. (Sparks, p. 151) July 21 — 10 :00 a.m. Ruppelt first hears about the National Airport sightings in D.C. when he buys a newspaper in the Washington National Airport terminal. He has been to Andrews AFB in Maryland the day before with his boss Col. Donald L. Bower, and no one had said anything. At 1:00 p.m., Maj. Dewey Fournet calls Ruppelt to come to a briefing with Capt. Berkow, a USAF intelligence officer from Bolling AFB in D.C. Ruppelt hears that President Truman is personally interested and wants a full investigation, but Bower orders Ruppelt to return to Wright- Patterson AFB in Ohio. (Ruppelt, pp. 158 – 159 ; Thomas Tulien, ed., Proceedings of the Sign Historical Group UFO History Workshop, Sign Historical Group, November 2001, pp. 46 – 47) July 21 — 10:30 a.m. Radar used to measure wind velocity in the upper atmosphere at Dobbins Air Force Base, Marietta, Georgia, detects an unusual object flying at 50,000 feet. Observing the blip are four radar technicians who state that “it could have been an electromagnetic phenomenon but they did not believe it was.” A second blip appears on the radar moving toward the wind-finding weather balloon and passing through it three separate times. USAF officials report “in private conversations” that the object moves at 1,200 mph, slows considerably for 3– 5 minutes, then disappears. The Civilian Defense director in Atlanta, George M. “Pup” Phillips, receives a report of the object but has “no details.” Col. Murray C. Woodbury, commander of the 35th Air Division at Dobbins, checks with “defense officials in Washington” before telling the press that such reports are sent to the Air Technical Intelligence Center (Project Blue Book) in Dayton, Ohio, for evaluation. Surprisingly, he admits, “We try to intercept such objects and identify them, but so far we have been unsuccessful.” (NICAP, “Blip Makes Passes on Wind-Finding Target”; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 19 52 July 2 1st – 31st, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 200 1 , p. 3 ; Sparks, p. 152 ) July 21 — 6:30 p.m. USAF pilot Capt. Edward E. Dougher and WAF Lt. Josephine J. Stong, separated by one mile on the ground in Wiesbaden, Germany, see 4 bright yellowish lights. Dougher watches them separate, with two climbing and two flying away level in the opposite direction. His wife Barbara joins him as they fly away. Stong sees two reddish lights fly in opposite directions for 10–15 minutes. (NICAP, “Separated Witnesses Observe Maneuvering Lights”; Sparks, p. 152 ; Michael D. Swords, “Intelligent Motions,” IUR 33 , no. 1 (March 2010): 12, 15) July 22 — At Wright-Patterson AFB, Ruppelt meets with ATIC electronics specialist Capt. Roy L. James (who harbors a “personal dislike for UFOs”). He tells Ruppelt that weather conditions caused the Washington radar returns. July 22 — Pikes Peak Broadcasting Company President Joseph H. Rohrer gives a lecture (one of a series) on flying saucers at a chamber of commerce meeting in Pueblo, Colorado. He mixes a few genuine cases with some crashed saucer fiction, claiming that 7 discs have been retrieved by the US government, three of them forced down in Montana. One occupant has survived, he says, a little man 3 feet tall who is later kept alive in a secret site in

California. Rohrer claims he has been inside a 100-foot-diameter disc in 1942, but he has made up these stories for entertainment purposes. (“Flying Saucer Talk Startles Chamber Membership Meeting,” Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftain, July 23, 1952, p. 3; Keyhoe, FS from OS, pp. 111 – 113 ; James W. Moseley and Karl T. Pflock, Shockingly Close to the Truth! Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist, Prometheus, 2002, pp. 90 – 92; Patrick Gross, URECAT, August 6, 2018) July 22 — 10:00 p.m. Eubert T. White and his wife see three silvery objects whizzing across the sky above Worcester, Massachusetts, “like planes in attack formation.” One of the objects has a bluish glow in the front and a reddish tint behind it. (“Strange Objects in Worcester Sky,” Lawrence (Mass.) Eagle, July 23, 1952; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1952 July 21st – 31st, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2001, p. 14 ; Shoot 36) July 22 — 10:20 p.m. A bluish-green UFO is seen over Boston, Massachusetts, and a few minutes later it is picked up by GCI radar. When Ground Control vectors an F-94 toward the UFO, the pilot sees the UFO near Braintree and locks on to it with his own radar. But the object easily leaves the jet behind. (NICAP, “F-94B Chases Object / With Airborne Radar Tracking”; Keyhoe, FS from OS, p. 67 ; Sparks, pp. 154 – 155 ) July 22– 23 — 10:30 p.m. An air traffic control tower operator at MacDill AFB in Tampa, Florida, watches for 30 minutes a red-greenish-blue object to the west-southwest at about 45° elevation with 2 other objects to the north of it, smaller and lower in elevation. He sights another object to the south-southeast about 30° elevation at 11:30 p.m. MacDill radar tracks an object at 12:03 a.m. 37 miles away at 41,200 feet altitude heading almost directly toward the base at 532 mph. It also tracks an object to the south-southeast at an altitude of 41,000 feet (reportedly Navy and CAA radars also track the object). At 12:08 a.m., the pilot and copilot of a B-29 bomber on landing approach are vectored by MacDill tower operator to investigate the UFO. They see a high-speed object at 40,000 feet heading towards MacDill and traveling faster than the B-29. The B-29 fire control radar locks onto the object and prepares to fire just as the UFO changes course and disappears at 4, 600 mph. Four airmen at the MacDill radar site see an object as it passes nearly overhead. MacDill radar loses the object at about 12:15 a.m. Civilians in Tampa also see two yellowish-orange discs maneuvering around the air base. (Sparks, p. 156; Tampa (Fla.) Daily Times, July 23, 1952, p. 1) July 22– 23 — 10:50 p.m. Crews of several USAF F-94 jet interceptors from Dover AFB, Delaware, make 13 visual sightings and one radar tracking of blue-white lights around Trenton, New Jersey, continuing until 12:45 a.m. White, green, and blue lights are seen by ground observers and F-94 pilots moving in arcs and blinking out suddenly. One F-94 crew gets a radar lock-on from 30,000 feet away of an object the size of an F- 94. At 9,000 feet distance, the object makes a sharp right turn, suddenly drops in height, and disappears. (Sparks, p. 156) July 23 — 2 :15 a.m. Seaman Henry J. Arnpriester is on watch at Nahant (Massachusetts) Coast Guard Station [now closed] when he sees two bluish lights approximately 5 feet in diameter. They appear as flat, disc-shaped objects having no aerodynamic features and move without sound or exhaust trail at a speed faster than a four-engine airliner at an altitude of 1,100 to 2,000 feet. When they are approximately 1.5 miles from the point of observation, they execute an extremely sharp turn similar to the path of a ball bouncing off a wall. (Lt. Col. Robert S. Jones, “Spot Intelligence Report,” July 29, 1952; Sparks, p. 156) July 23 — 7:36 a.m. US Navy radar at Jamestown, Rhode Island, tracks a high-speed target heading north at 42,000 feet. It is confirmed by ADC radar at Camp Hero [now closed] at Montauk Point, New York. F-94s and F-86s are scrambled unsuccessfully from Westover AFB [now Westover Air National Guard Base] in Chicopee, Massachusetts. (NICAP, “Jets Scrambled / High Speed Object at 45,000ʹ Feet”; Sparks, p. 156) July 23 — 8:40 a.m. The crews of three USAF F-94 jet interceptors see a large silver object, shaped like a long pear with 2 – 3 squares beneath it, flying at 170–210 mph over Pottstown, Pennsylvania. A smaller object, delta-shaped or swept-back, flies around it at 1,150-1,720 mph. ([Blue Book document]; Sparks, p. 157) July 23 — 12:50 p.m. Crews of two USAF F-94 jet interceptors flying at 35,000–46,000 feet altitude near Altoona, Pennsylvania, see three cylindrical objects in a vertical-stack formation fly at an altitude of 50,000–80,000 feet for 20 minutes. (NICAP, “July 23, 1952: Altoona, Penna.”; Sparks, p. 157) July 23 — 7:00–8:00 p.m. Owner Edwin C. Johnston and more than 20 employees of Aircraft Hydroforming at Culver City, California, see a bright silvery elliptical object that moves northwest over the Northrup aircraft plant in nearby Hawthorne, then stops and hovers. Two small discs emerge and circle around the area before rejoining the mother ship. The object then climbs straight up out of sight at tremendous speed. (“Aircraft Co. Owner Sees ‘Discs’ Four Nights in Row,” Redlands (Calif.) Daily Facts, July 24, 1952, p. 9) July 23 — 7:15 p.m. Many witnesses at Lockbourne AFB [now Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base] in Lockbourne, Ohio, including visiting Capt. Eugene E. McManus from Turner AFB [now Naval Air Station Albany] in Albany, Georgia, observe four round, fluorescent white objects hovering near the base at 75,000 feet. An Air force pilot named Capt. Swartz in Flight Service at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio, radios in the report that the objects

are balloons. Two F-84 jets are scrambled at 8:15 p.m. and identify them as a balloon cluster. The objects, seen over many other areas of central Ohio (Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt says he was called out to see it over Wright- Patterson), are probably USAF reconnaissance balloons sent up from Clinton County Airport in Wilmington, Ohio. (NICAP, “July 23, 1952, Lockbourne, Ohio, UFO Report”; Clark III 395– 398 ) July 23 — Night. Contactee Orfeo Angelucci feels compelled to walk over the Glendale-Hyperion Bridge in Glendale, California. He feels an odd sensation and suddenly sees in front of him a soap-bubble-like object that turns into a metallic craft. He gets aboard and is taken on his first trip into outer space. (Orfeo Angelucci, The Secret of the Saucers, Amherst Press, 1955 , pp. 18– 36 ) July 24 — 3:40 p.m. Two USAF pilots, Lt. Col. John L. McGinn and Lt. Col. John R. Barton, are flying a B-25 out of Hamilton AFB [now closed] in Novato, California, for Colorado Springs. They are over Carson Sink, Nevada, at 11,000 feet when they see three unknown objects make a left bank and fly to within 400–600 yards of the plane. They are three bright silver, delta-wing craft with no tails and no canopies. The pilots see a clean upper triangular wing with a definite ridge that runs from the nose to the tail. They estimate the speed as at least three times that of any conventional jet. (Wikipedia, “Carson Sink UFO incident”; NICAP, “B-26 Crew Encounters 3 Triangular UFOs”; NICAP, “The Carson Sink Case”; Sparks, p. 157 ; Ruppelt, pp. 10– 12 ; Michael Hall, “When UFOs Were Serious Business: Then and Today,” IUR 28, no. 4 (Winter 2003–2004): 5; Michael D. Swords, “Intelligent Motions,” IUR 33 , no. 1 (March 2010): 12, 15) July 25 (or April 25) — 3:00 a.m. Carlo Rossi is on his way to a fishing spot on the Serchio river near San Pietro a Vico, Lucca, Italy. He notices an odd light above the river and finds that it belongs to an enormous disc-shaped object with a transparent dome. It is about 82 feet in diameter and apparently taking up water through a long tube. The object is standing in the river on three legs and has a ladder reaching down next to the tube. Rossi thinks it is hovering by means of propellors. Suddenly a porthole opens, and a human figure looks out and notices him. Rossi begins to leave, but a green ray passes above his head and he feels an electric shock. The object takes off and disappears to the west. (“Le Nostre Analisi: Precisazioni sul Caso di S. Pietro e Vico (1952),” Notiziario UFO, no. 67 (July/Sept. 1975): 4–9; Patrick Gross, URECAT, September 12, 2006; 1Pinotti 42–46) July 25 — Capt. J. W. Titus of the 140th Wing Medical Group sees two oval-shaped objects flying in formation at 400– 600 mph in Portales, New Mexico. They are silent and leave no vapor trail. At one point, they make an abrupt 80° turn and fly off to the north. (Nukes 85–86) July 26– 27 — 8:15 p.m. Flying saucers return to the nation’s capital, only one week after a massive number of radar- visual UFO sightings above restricted air space in Washington, D.C. At 8:15 p.m., pilot Capt. Berkow and a stewardess of a National Airlines flight near Washington National Airport [now Ronald Reagan National] see several objects resembling the glow of a cigarette high above them. The lights move at around 100 mph. Soon, the airport and Andrews AFB in Maryland are tracking a dozen UFOs throughout much of the sky, all traveling 90– 100 mph. By midnight, two F-94s are scrambled from New Castle AFB in Delaware to intercept them. National Airport staff hustle newspaper reporters away from the air traffic control tower, saying that interceptions are classified (but Project Blue Book chief Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt suspects that the Air Force does not want the press around when they finally get a good look at a saucer). The UFOs are seen on radar for 2 hours, but when the jets approach, the blips disappear. When the pilots return to base, they show up again. Reports are reaching Langley AFB about rotating objects that give off alternating colors over Newport News, Virginia. Another F-94 is scrambled, the pilot gets a radar lock, and the target speeds away. At National Airport, the objects reappear shortly before dawn, and two more F-94s are scrambled. The pilots obtain radar locks; again, the objects speed away. USAF press spokesman Albert M. Chop is in the airport radar tower and notes that everyone there believes the targets are “very probably caused by solid metallic objects.” One F-94 pilot, Lieut. William Patterson, says, “I saw several bright lights. I was at my maximum speed, but even then I had no closing speed.” A USAF air intelligence report later states that the radar crew is emphatic that the returns are solid and not temperature inversions. In 1969, however, Colorado project physicist Gordon David Thayer concludes that the radar events involved temperature inversions. He believes the visual sightings were caused by meteors and scintillating stars. University of Arizona atmospheric physicist James McDonald disagreed, arguing that Thayer’s own data did not support his conclusion. Colorado project psychologist Michael Wertheimer interviews many of the radar operators; nearly all disagree with the inversion explanation and maintain that all experienced radar operators have no trouble identifying such phenomena. (NICAP, “The Washington National Sightings”; Richard Hall, “The Washington Invasion, July 26/27, 1952”; Clark III 1252 – 1255 ; Ruppelt, pp. 163 – 167 ; Condon, pp. 157 – 158 , 862 – 867 ; Swords 156–159; Good Above, pp. 270 – 272 ; Patrick Gross, “The Washington D.C. UFO Flap of 1952”; Sparks, p. 158 ; Kevin D. Randle, Invasion Washington: UFOs over the Capitol, HarperTorch, 2001, pp. 68– 76,127–148, 253– 260 ; Shoot 42–47)

July 26 — 5:15 p.m. Air Defense Command radar detects a UFO over Williams, California. An F-94 jet interceptor is scrambled and locks onto the object with its radar. The crew sees a yellow-orange light. As confirmed by ground and airborne radar, the UFO plays tag with the F-94, alternately accelerating away when it gets close, then slowing down until it catches up again. (NICAP, “F-94 Intercept with ADC Detection”; Sparks, p. 158 ) July 26 — 11 :00 p.m. Three women in Oran, Algeria, notice a large, orange-red, luminous patch in the sky. It travels from east to west, halts, then vanishes. It is one of many UFOs seen in the province of Oran over several weeks. (ClearIntent, pp. 120 – 121 ) July 27 — 10:40 a.m. Bowling Green State University biologist Charles H. Otis sees a “flotilla” of UFOs “seemingly floating along, making no sound” at 3724 Dexter Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan. He grabs a pair of 5x binoculars and studies them until they disappear. He counts 15 of them in a loose formation, moving slowly. One object leaves the formation and disappears in a burst of speed. The body of each seems to be elongated but split at the rear. A bright glow is visible in the front, and they have a bifurcated tail streaming out horizontally, never changing in length (UFOEv, pp. 50 – 51 ) July 27 — 6:35 p.m. A group of eight pilots and engineers see a large, silvery object moving rapidly at a high altitude over Manhattan Beach, California. After it makes a turn, the UFO separates into 7 discs that form into groups, circle, and speed out of sight. Former Navy pilot and aircraft engineer J. E. Kempf says the formation looks like a “stack of coins.” (NICAP, “Large Object Separates into 7 Discs”; Sparks, p. 159 ; Michael D. Swords, “Intelligent Motions,” IUR 33 , no. 1 (March 2010): 13, 15) July 28 — Early morning. While napping between shifts as a heavy-equipment operator in the Nevada desert, Truman Bethurum is awakened by 8 small men who “seem to be of Latin extraction.” They take him to a nearby flying saucer where he meets the captain, a “gorgeous woman, shorter than any of the men, neatly attired, and also having a Latin appearance: coal black hair and olive complexion. She appeared to be about 42 years old,” although Bethurum learns that she is hundreds of years old. Her name is Aura Rhanes. Her ship is called a “scow,” and her crew is from the planet Clarion, a world that is always on the other side of the moon. He later tells this story and his later adventures in his 1954 book Aboard a Flying Saucer, ghostwritten by Mary Kay Tennison. (Truman Bethurum, Aboard a Flying Saucer, DeVorss, 1954; Clark III 192 – 194 ) July 28 — USAF Maj. Gen. John A. Samford secretly orders a deemphasis on or elimination of human anecdotal UFO reports. Instead, they would be “going on instruments,” as worded in his briefing, so that he can close down Blue Book. Technological hurdles and budget limits greatly delay the plan, but Blue Book does transition into a propaganda debunking mission over the next 6 months. (Clark III 813) July 28 — Late afternoon. Ruppelt and Maj. Ed Gregory arrive in Washington, D.C., dodging newspaper reporters at the Roger Smith Hotel. Blue Book receives an astonishing total of 50 UFO reports in a single day. UFO inquiries are jamming the Pentagon telephones. Air Force and CIA officials concede that the Soviet Union might take advantage of the confusion. (Ruppelt, pp. 166 – 167 ) July 28 — According to the United Press, the Air Defense Command has alerted jet interceptor pilots to take off instantly in pursuit of any flying saucers. The International News Service amplifies this by quoting the Air Force that orders have been issued to shoot them down if they refuse to land. The Air Force refuses to confirm this, but USAF Deputy Press Officer Lt. Col. Moncel A. Monts states that “jet pilots are, and have been, under orders to investigate unidentified objects and to shoot them down if they can’t talk them down.” (“Air Force Alerted for ‘Discs’: Sightings over Washington Put Jets at Ready,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, July 28, 1952, p. 1; “Jets on 24- Hour Alert to Shoot Down ‘Saucers,’” San Francisco Examiner, July 29, 1952, p. 2; Shoot 49–50; David Rudiak, “1952 Flying Saucer ‘Shoot Down’ Stories,” Roswell Proof) July 28 — In charge of jet interceptions over Washington, D.C., during the big UFO flap, USAF Director of Operations Gen. Roger M. Ramey issues an ambiguous public denial that the interceptors have been ordered to shoot down any saucers. However, newspaper articles and other documents say there was such an order. (David Rudiak, “Background on Gen. Roger M. Ramey,” June 4, 2013) July 28 — President Truman, resting in Kansas City, Missouri, after the Democratic Convention, calls CIA Director Walter Bedell Smith and asks him to investigate the Air Force’s mishandling of the Washington National sightings. Smith later directs, through Deputy Director for Intelligence Loftus E. Becker, that a CIA/OSI group be put together to review the USAF UFO intelligence program at ATIC. Truman’s involvement is meant to be kept Top Secret and is not revealed until 1992. (Clark III 1012) July 28 — Canadian researcher Wilbert B. Smith allegedly shows Rear Admiral Herbert B. Knowles a metallic piece from a saucer that was shot down near Washington, D.C. It is twice the size of a man’s thumb and has been loaned to him by the Air Force, but he must return it to the CIA (or another secret agency). (David Rudiak, “Wilbert B. Smith,” Roswell Proof; Frank Edwards, FS Serious Business, Bantam ed., 1966, pp. 48 – 49 ; Good Above, p. 188 )

July 28 — UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill writes to William Sidney, Secretary of State for Air, and scientific adviser and friend Lord Cherwell, saying, “What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to? What can it mean? What is the truth? Let me have a report at your convenience.” The response, dated August 9 , begins: “The various reports about unidentified flying objects, described by the Press as ‘flying saucers,’ were the subject of a full Intelligence study in 1951” [presumably the report by the Flying Saucer Working Party]. (“Records Show Winston Churchill’s Interest in UFOs,” The Cosmic Report, December 12, 2020; Good Above, pp. 30 , 448 – 449 ; UFOFiles2, pp. 43– 44 ) July 29 — 1:30 a.m. An Air Defense Command radar outside of Osceola, Wisconsin, picks up some unidentified targets. Four F-51s from St. Paul, Minnesota, are scrambled, but the targets are moving around so quickly that it is impossible to vector in on a single target. The F-51 pilots see many lights; one pilot at 25,000 feet sees an object blaze across the nose of his airplane. Two other pilots vainly try to climb up to a hovering light that is in the same position as the radar targets. ATIC’s Robert M. Olsson and Wendell Swanson explain the radar incident as a temperature inversion and the visual sighting as a meteor. (NICAP, “Clusters of Small Targets and One Large Target”; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1952 July 21st – 31st, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2001, pp. 80– 85 ; Sparks, p. 161 ) July 29 — Early morning. CAA radar tracks 8 – 12 UFOs at a time traveling 100 – 120 mph in a 10-mile arc around Washington, D.C. When an Eastern Airlines pilot tries to check on the radar targets at the request of the CAA at 3:00 a.m., he sees nothing. The targets disappear from CAA radar when the airliner approaches then come back in behind him after he passes through the area. (“Air Force Debunks ‘Saucers’ As Just ‘Natural Phenomena,’” New York Times, July 30, 1952, pp. 1, 10) July 29 — 10 :00 a.m. President Truman tells his air force liaison, Robert B. Landry, to find out what is going on with UFOs. Landry calls ATIC and eventually reaches Ruppelt, who tells him that weather may have caused the radar targets, but there is no proof. He later learns that Truman is listening in. There is some evidence that Truman or Landry soon contact the National Security Council directly to find out how to proceed with the UFO problem. (Ruppelt, p. 167 ; Swords 170) July 29 — 10:00 a.m. Several employees of Los Alamos Scientific Labs, New Mexico (including Robert B. Leachman, W. Schafer, E. T. Jurney), see a white object moving east to west with a gyrating motion. Two jet interceptors from Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque arrive 5 minutes later. The object disappears but reappears in front of the jets, makes a 360° turn, comes around in back, follows for 2 minutes, then disappears. (NICAP, “Jets Scrambled from Kirtland”; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 61 – 64 ; Sparks, p. 161 ) July 29 — Four weather observers at Walker AFB [now closed] in Roswell, New Mexico, watch several high-speed discs through a theodolite. (Hynek UFO Report, pp. 114 – 115 ; Sparks, p. 161 ) July 29 — An FBI memo from Victor P. Keay on “Flying Saucers” discusses a classified briefing about UFOs by Cmdr. Randall Boyd Jr. of the Air Intelligence Estimates Division to Norman W. Philcox, an FBI liaison to the Air Force. The Air Force has “failed to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion” on UFOs. Reports are being received from all parts of the US and distant parts of the world. Boyd explains that USAF has made no progress in ascertaining the nature of UFOs, but it is filing them into three classifications: reports by civilians on the ground, reports by commercial or military pilots, and reports by pilots that are confirmed by radar or ground observations. He concludes by writing that it is “not entirely impossible that the objects sighted may possibly be ships from another planet such as Mars,” but he adds that “air intelligence is fairly certain that these objects are not ships or missiles from another nation in this world.” (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1952 July 21st – 31st, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2001, pp. 55 – 56; ClearIntent, pp. 175 – 177 ) July 29 — Ralph L. Clark, acting assistant director of the CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence, sends a memo to OSI Deputy Director Robert Amory Jr., indicating that the agency will be looking into UFO matters a bit more thoroughly, even though it has been collecting cases for the past three years (since 1949): “a special study group has been formed to review the subject to date. D/CI [Walter Bedell Smith] will participate in this study with D/SI [H. Marshall Chadwell], and a report should be ready about 15 August.” It alludes to his meeting with CIA rocket consultant Frederick C. Durant and others the previous day. (Ralph L. Clark, “Recent Sightings of Unexplained Objects,” July 29, 1952, reprinted in “The CUFON 1952 CIA UFO-Related Document Sampler”; Good Above, pp. 330 , 505 ) July 29 — Robert L. Farnsworth, president of the American Rocket Society, urges President Truman and defense officials to restrain the US armed forces from shooting at UFOs. He says that hostile action might alienate us from “beings of far superior powers.” (Robert L. Farnsworth, [Telegram to President Truman], July 28, 1952; “A Pro-Saucer Voice Heard,” New York Daily News, July 29, 1952, p. 2)

July 29 — An orange, oblong stationary object is observed at the airport in Macdonald, Manitoba, in the south- southwestern sky for 2 minutes. It seems to change into a group of small round lights. They all disappear together. (Jan Aldrich; Project Second Storey) July 29 — 4 :00 p.m. The Air Force holds its largest and longest press conference since the end of World War II. Maj. Gen. John A. Samford, director of USAF intelligence, leads it. He is accompanied by Eighth Air Force Maj. Gen. Roger M. Ramey, director of operations and commander of the Eighth Air Force; USAF Col. Donald L. Bower, Technical Analysis Division, Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC), Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio; Project Blue Book head Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt; USAF Capt. Roy L. James, ATIC radar specialist; and Burgoyne L. Griffing, electronics branch, ATIC. Samford says that the Air Force has been monitoring US air space since 1947. Approximately 20% of UFO reports come from “credible observers of relatively incredible things,” which keeps the Air Force concerned. He explains that the Washington, D.C., sightings earlier in July were caused by “weather phenomena” that caused radar beams to bend and pick up objects on the ground. James offers more technical explanations about temperature inversions that cause radar echoes. Pro-UFO Maj. Dewey J. Fournet Jr., USAF public relations officer Al Chop, and Navy radar specialist Lieut. John Holcomb are conspicuous by their absence. (NICAP, “General Samford’s Press Conference,” July 29, 1952; Ruppelt, pp. 168 – 169 ; “General Samford’s UFO Press Conference, Pentagon, July 29, 1952,” knightskross YouTube channel, August 3, 2010; “The Air Force Makes a Pass at the Saucer Stories,” Life 33, no. 6 (August 11, 1952): 35; Swords 159 – 163; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 60 – 63 ; Kevin D. Randle, Invasion Washington: UFOs over the Capitol, HarperTorch, 2001, pp. 77–126; Shoot 53– 57 ) July 29 — 9:15 p.m. Air Force Reserve Lt. Col. Robert G. LeCompte sees a flight of at least 10 luminous objects pass over Albuquerque, New Mexico. At first they appear overhead in no pattern, heading north, then shift to a V formation. They then shift into two rows. (NICAP, “AF Reserve Colonel Observes Rapid Ellipse”; Sparks, p. 163 ; Michael D. Swords, “Intelligent Motions,” IUR 33 , no. 1 (March 2010): 13, 15) July 29 — 9:35 p.m. Marine Pfc Ralph C. Mayher, using 16 mm film exposed at 24 frames per second, obtains footage of a high-speed UFO over Miami Beach, Florida. Retaining a few frames for personal study, Mayher submits the main portion of the film to the Air Force for analysis. The film is never returned, and no analysis report is ever released. Enlargements of a few frames show a fiery looking, roughly circular object, symmetrical, with two small peaks or projection on opposite sides of the disc. The CIA examines the film in 1957 and returns it with no comment or analysis. The Mayher case features prominently in the subsequent lawsuit by Ground Saucer Watch against the CIA and is important because it is a confirmed case of direct interaction of the CIA with a witness, clearly indicating that there was CIA interest in the subject. (NICAP, “Ralph Mayer / Miami Film”; Ralph Mayer, “I Proved Flying Saucers Are Real,” Pic, June 1954; Good Above, pp. 355 – 356 ) July 29 (or July 28) — 9:40 p.m. An Aircraft and Warning Station in Port Huron, Michigan, tracks an unidentified return on radar for 20 minutes. GCI asks Capt. Edward J. Slowinski flying an F-94B on a practice run to investigate. The pilot sees a bright, flashing, colored light in the location of the blip 29 miles west of Port Huron and follows it for 20 minutes. Slowinski is unable to close on the object. (NICAP, “Key Radar Case (CCL #17)”; Sparks, p. 160 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 72 – 73; Center for UFO Studies, [documents and case files]) July 30 — Flight Sgt. Roland Hughes of No. 20 Squadron RAF is on a training flight in a de Havilland Vampire FB-9 jet fighter and returning to base at RAF Oldenburg, Germany, when he sees a “gleaming silver, metallic disc” drop down from above and fly alongside his aircraft for several seconds before speeding off. The object is about 100 feet long. Its surface is shiny “like tinfoil,” highly reflective, and “without a single crease or crinkle in it.” On August 5, Hughes is ordered to fly to RAF Faßberg for further questioning. He arrives and finds a number of officers, including his commander and the UK Minister of Supply, Duncan Sandys (Winston Churchill‘s son-in- law), who asks Hughes how many beers he had before his saucer sighting. The Air Commanding Officer then reveals that the object had also been tracked on radar going faster than any known aircraft. This convinces Sandys that the case is a serious one, a view that he communicates to Lord Cherwell, the government’s chief scientific adviser, in a letter, saying there is “ample evidence of some unfamiliar and unexplained phenomenon.” (UFOFiles2, pp. 44– 46 ; “The UFO Sighting That Convinced a Government Minister,” The Telegraph, May 27, 2012 ) July 30 — Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg tells the press that, although he does not believe there are flying saucers, he dislikes the “mass hysteria” about them. He says the Air Force has had experts investigating them since the end of World War II and never found anything substantial. (“‘Double Vision,’ Vandenberg,” Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press-Democrat, July 3 1 , 1952, p. 6)

July 30 — 1:10 p.m. Willie Vaught of Alexandria, Indiana, sees a strange looking cloud and calls her two teenage daughters (Laura and Patsy) and Laura Oliver to see it. While looking at it, they see six flat, aluminum-like objects streak across the cloud, merge, and disappear within a minute. (“Alexandria Family Reports Seeing ‘Flying Saucers,’” Alexandria (Ind.) Times-Tribune, July 31, 1952, p. 1; Herbert S. Taylor, “Mystery Clouds and the UFO Connection,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 19) July 31 — Brig. Gen. Alfred R. Maxwell of the Research and Development Board prepares a memorandum that generally supports the official position that UFO reports contain no information of value, he writes: “The Air Force has made very little progress in learning what the phenomena or objects are.” (Don Berliner and Stanton T. Friedman, Crash at Corona, Marlowe, 1994, pp. 30 – 31 )

August — Hollywood producer Clarence Greene and a friend see a “sphere of light” in the sky over Los Angeles, California. Visible for 5 minutes, the object alternately hovers and turns before speeding off over the horizon. The next morning, Greene tells his business partner Russell Rouse about the sighting. As he reflects on the experience, he grows ever more irritated by the stigma attached to UFO sightings. (Clark III 1188) August 1 — 10:51 a.m. An Air Defense Command radar site on Campbell Hill at Bellefontaine, Ohio, tracks a target 20 miles NNW of Wright-Patterson AFB, traveling 500 mph against the wind. It vectors two F-86s piloted by Maj. James B. Smith and Lt. Donald J. Hemmer. They make visual contact but climb to 48,000 feet twice without reaching it. Smith gets a weak return on his radar gun sight and shoots a gun camera film of a white or silvery sphere estimated at 60,000 feet. They break off the intercept at 11:13 a.m. about 100 miles west-southwest of Dayton. The film reportedly shows a UFO in the upper right of the frames with noticeable motion to the lower left. Although Blue Book Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt’s assistants Lt. Anderson G. Flues and Lt. Robert Olsson initially declare the case an “unknown,” Ruppelt changes that evaluation a few weeks later after ATIC Technical Analysis Division Chief Col. Donald L. Bower transfers out, explaining it as two separate but coincidental IFOs—a weather balloon and a jet. Ruppelt goes to great lengths to debunk the case in his ADC briefings to the Robertson Panel. (NICAP, “Gun Camera R/V Case”; Condon, pp. 161 – 163 ; Clark III 392– 39 5; Hynek UFO Report, p. 21 ; Sparks, p. 165 ; Patrick Gross, “The Bellefontaine, Ohio, Radar/Visual/Photographic Case, 1952”; Shoot 71–73; Center for UFO Studies, [Blue Book documents and files]) August 1 — Edward Tauss, acting chief of the Weapons and Equipment Division of the CIA’s Office of Scientific Intelligence, writes a letter to OSI Deputy Assistant Director Ralph L. Clark, saying that less than 100 credible reports remain unexplainable. “interplanetary aspects and alien origin not being thoroughly excluded from consideration.” He recommends the CIA continue to cooperate with ATIC, but “no indication of CIA interest or concern reach the press or public.” (ClearIntent, p. 123 ) August 1 — 8:30–9:00 p.m. We, the People, a 30-minute TV news show produced by Life magazine, devotes its airtime to the recent UFO sightings over Washington, D.C. WNBW-TV, which originates the program, rents a DC- 3 airliner, fills it with 20 newsmen, and has the plane circle over Washington, just in case the saucers return. On the ground in the radar room of Washington National Airport there are more newsmen and TV cameras. The show features editors and journalists Frank Blair, David Brinkley, Clay Blair, and various UFO witnesses. (Curt Collins, “UFOs on TV: The 1952 Washington, DC Saucer Flap,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, July 5, 2018) August 1 — 9:50 p.m. Scripps-Howard reporter Howard Doyle Kline sees a cluster of glowing white objects overhead in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The objects shift around into various patterns, including a perfect V at one point. Their shifts in position are incredibly swift and fantastically violent, he says. “They made” a flying saucer believer out of me.” He reports the incident to Lincoln LaPaz, University of New Mexico meteoriticist, and Col. William A. Matheny, commander of the 34th Air Defense Division. The report, which is one probably used in Maj. Dewey Fournet’s Motion Study, is missing from the Project Blue Book files. (New York World-Telegram, August 2, 1952; UFOEv, pp. 69 – 70 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1952 July 21st – 31st, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2001, p. 95 ) August 2 — 3:00 a.m. USAF 1st Lt. W. A. Theil and enlisted man Edwards see a red ball with a trail of blue flame fly straight and level over Lake Charles, Louisiana. (Sparks, p. 165) August 2 [or July 30] — George Hunt Williamson and his wife Betty are visited in Prescott, Arizona, by two other metaphysics enthusiasts, Alfred C. Bailey and his wife Betty of Winslow, Arizona. This evening, in the course of an automatic-writing experiment using a sort of Ouija board, they receive a message from an extraterrestrial in a spacecraft. In the days and weeks that follow, “Nah-9 of Solar X Group” and many other planetary and star people communicate with them. The space people call earth “Saras.” Nah-9 says that the good men of Saras must unite with good space people to avert a calamity. More Ouija sessions take place through August 17. A message comes through that they will be contacted via radio with an International Morse Code message on August 22. Bailey approaches a coworker on the Santa Fe Railroad, a ham radio operator named Lyman Streeter, and asks for

his help in picking up the space signals. (Clark III 1283 ; George Hunt Williamson and Alfred C. Bailey, The Saucers Speak! New Age, 1954; Michael D. Swords, “Strange Days,” IUR 30, no. 4 (Aug. 2006): 21– 22 ; Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, pp. 178–181) August 3 — 3:00 p.m. An Air Force master sergeant on the ship Santa Luisa observes three round, flat, metallic objects hovering at 30,000–40,000 feet some 10 miles away from his position at the mouth of the Rio Guayas near Isla Puná, Ecuador. After 5 seconds, one object dives to the west then turns back northwest. They all disappear after another 5 seconds. (Project 1947, [case documents]; Project 1947, “UFO Reports, 1952”) August 3 — 4:15 p.m. Two huge silvery discs are observed visually and tracked on radar for 1 hour and 15 minutes over Hamilton AFB [now closed] near Novato, California. The ground observers are pilots Capt. Leslie R. Hadley, Capt. Wayne T. Perske, and 2d Lt. Duane A. Swimley. They dive at each other and maneuver as if in a dogfight. After F-86s are dispatched to intercept, 6 more objects appear, take up a diamond formation, and accelerate out of sight. (NICAP, “Eight Huge Objects Observed by 8 Witnesses and Radar”; Sparks, p. 165 ; Project 1947, “Hamilton Air Force Base, Hamilton, California, August 3, 1952”; Project 1947, [Blue Book documents and files]; Michael D. Swords, “Intelligent Motions,” IUR 33 , no. 1 (March 2010): 14, 15) August 3 — 10:20 p.m. Civilian engineer Paul L. Anderson sees 3 light-green cylindrical objects at Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. They are hovering at 45° elevation in an inverted-V formation, switching to echelon when one object moves with a rolling motion along its long axis. It disappears by rapidly rising vertically. The observation lasts 9 minutes. (NICAP, “Three Cylindrical Objects Observed by Engineers”; Sparks, p. 165 ; Michael D. Swords, “Intelligent Motions,” IUR 33 , no. 1 (March 2010): 14, 15) August 5 — 12:25 a.m. A trio of brilliant white dots of indefinite shape, at an altitude of an estimated 5,000 feet, passes over Westover AFB [now Westover Reserve Air Base] in Chicopee, Massachusetts. The second object is half the size of the first, and the third is half the size of the second one. The first one resembles an automobile headlight. The appearance of other two is not given. The three are in a triangular formation. No jet activity is recorded over the airbase at the time and witnesses say the objects are moving “faster than jets.” (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, August, The Author, 1986, p. 23) August 5 — Day. During a daylight observation of Venus, astronomer James C. Bartlett Jr. watches two discs fly overhead in a southerly direction at Baltimore, Maryland. They move away to the east, then two more objects with dome-like protrusions in the center fly past. (“Two Huge UFOs Sighted by Baltimore Astronomer,” UFO Investigator 1, no. 5 (Aug./Sept. 1958): 1, 3) August 5 — 9:46–12:00 midnight. A visual sighting is made at 9:46 p.m. by an observer on the ground at Manassas, Virginia, who spots a brilliant oval flying south. About 10:50 p.m., Andrews AFB in Maryland picks up two unidentified blips moving slowly and steadily away from Washington, D.C., on a course toward Mount Vernon, Virginia. Minutes later the fluorescent screens at Andrews show two more UFOs to the east of the field moving for a short distance, stopping, and then moving again. The speed of the targets is a slow 60 mph. The height of the targets is unknown. Planes from both Andrews AFB and Bolling AFB are sent up to investigate but rainy weather forces them to turn back after they reach 15,000 feet altitude. Around 12:00 midnight yet another target appears on radar, and jets from New Castle AFB in Delaware are scrambled. The jets see no UFOs when they arrived over Washington; however, a spokesman for Andrews radar tells the press that “no radar sightings were made while the planes were overhead.” (“Flock of ‘Saucer’ Objects Again Puzzles Wash. DC,” Visalia (Calif.) Times-Delta, August 6, 1952, p. 1; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, August, The Author, 1986, pp. 23– 24 ) August 5 — 10:45 p.m. Eight residents of Camden, New Jersey, report a bright, round, orange object hovering or moving slowly in the western sky. (“8 City Residents Report ‘Saucers’ on Nocturnal Sweep through Sky,” Camden (N.J.) Courier-Post, August 6, 1952, p. 16) August 5 — 11:45 p.m. A complex radar-visual sighting takes place at Haneda AFB [later Tokyo International Airport], Japan. Control tower operators watch a disc as it passes over Tokyo Bay at about 1,500 feet. It is a dark round shape surrounded by a bright light with a curved outer edge and smaller lights around it. While being tracked on radar, a scramble alert is issued at 11:55 p.m., and an F-94 Starfire jet from nearby Johnson Air Base [now Iruma Air Base] in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, goes after the object. The interceptor, piloted by 1Lt. Wesley R. Holder and Radar Observer 1Lt. Aaron M. Jones Jr., chases the object, which speeds away while being tracked by onboard radar. During the next 30 minutes, the UFO disappears and reappears throughout the sky, vanishes when the jet closes in, performs intricate maneuvers, and at one point splits into three radar targets. The jet searches over Tokyo Bay until 12:33 a.m. when it is recalled. (NICAP, “F-94 Pilots Tracked Object for 90 Seconds”; Ruppelt, pp. 187 – 189 ; Condon, pp. 123 – 126 ; Sparks, p. 166 ; Martin L. Shough, “Radar and the UFO,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 217– 219 ; Patrick Gross, “The Haneda AFB Case, Japan, August 5, 1952”) August 6 — Hynek sends Project Blue Book a report on his interviews with 45 astronomers about their opinions on UFOs at a June meeting of the American Astronomical Society and finds that five (11%) have seen a UFO, seven are

indifferent to the subject, more express at least some interest, and a few are very interested but wary of publicity. (J. Allen Hynek, “Special Report on Conferences with Astronomers on Unidentified Aerial Objects,” August 6, 1952; “Seven Status Reports for Project Stork, Part 2,” CUFON; “Seven Status Reports for Project Stork, Part 3,” CUFON; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, August, The Author, 1986, pp. 83– 85 ) August 6 — 9:00 p.m. James J. Allen sees a UFO 6 feet high, 8 feet long, and lighted inside strike the chimney of his home in West Lumberton, North Carolina. It crashes into his backyard. When he approaches it, the lights go off and he sees a man about 30 inches tall standing next to it. He asks if he is hurt, then the figure reenters the vehicle and it zooms away. (“West Lumberton Event Added to Growing ‘Saucer’ Reports,” Lumberton (N.C.) Robesonian, August 7, 1952, pp. 1, 4; Clark III 326; Curt Collins, “James J. Allen’s Alien Encounter Embarrassment: Aug. 6, 1952,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, January 19. 2018) August 7 — 12:02 a.m. At Kerkrade, Netherlands, marine engineer Will Jansen watches a domed object swoop down to a low altitude, hover, zigzag, then speed away. He sees a similar object hovering further away. It finally tilts up vertically and shoots out of sight. (UFOEv, p. 122 ) August 7 — 9:08 a.m. Mrs. Susan Pzuhl (or Pfuhl) observes over San Antonio, Texas, four round UFOs that give off a color similar to white-hot metal. The objects appear to be approximately 18 inches in diameter and are observed one at a time at intervals of approximately 20 minutes. With the exception of one object that moves slowly, the speed must have been 3 times as fast as a propeller-driven aircraft. No sound can be heard. Their maneuvers consist of radical directional change by the first object, straight and level flight by the second object, a slight directional change by the third object, and a large circular maneuver by the fourth object. An aircraft passes under the fourth object with no apparent reaction by the plane or the object. It vanishes suddenly like an extinguished light. Duration is 70 minutes. (NICAP, “Four 18ʺ UFOs Observed”; Sparks, p. 166) August 7 — 3:00 p.m. Two Ground Observer Corps skywatchers in Silverton, Oregon, Ida Pfeifer and Dorothy Sthamann, see an aluminum-colored object 3 miles away that appears at first triangular, then more saucer shaped. Army and air observers in Portland confirm that jet interceptors are at that moment in pursuit of the object. Replacement skywatchers Sadie Barkhurst and Mrs. Olaf Teglund also see the object at 5:00 p.m. All agree that the UFO is headed east at a moderate speed, but darts “fiercely” toward the interceptor when it approaches. (“Flying Saucer at Silverton,” Salem (Oreg.) Capital Journal, August 9, 1952, p. 14) August 8 — A special CIA/Office of Scientific Intelligence team consisting of Philip Grandin Strong, Ransom L. Eng, and Frederick C. Durant visits Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio for a comprehensive briefing about UFOs from Blue Book staff. This classified visit is in response to secret orders from President Truman to the CIA to investigate the Air Force’s mishandling of UFOs during the Washington National Airport cases. (CUFON, “The CUFON 1952 CIA UFO-Related Document Sampler, Part 1 of 2 Parts,” May 17, 1996; Clark III 397; Swords 172 – 173 ) August 9 — 1: 45 a.m. A/3C Joseph F. Raley is walking to work at Lake Charles Air Force Station [now closed] in Lake Charles, Louisiana, when he observes a disc-like object from a distance away of 3, 000 – 5,000 feet. The object is at an estimated altitude of 5,000 feet. It moves several hundred mph faster than any known jet aircraft. No sound is heard. The object is first seen moving north to south until it crosses the air station, where it stops and hovers for approximately 2 seconds, then takes off to the west. (NICAP, “Faster-Than-Jet Disc Stops, Hovers Two Seconds, Accelerates”; Sparks, p. 167) August 10 — 5:38 p.m. Roy E. Munson is resting in his hammock at 1231 Widergren Drive, Rockford, Illinois, when he sees a disc-shaped object moving west to east and streaking across the sky in 6 seconds. Within minutes, another appears on the same flight path. Some family members and neighbors join him to watch the objects, which keep appearing for the next 90 minutes by which time a total of 54 have gone by. Munson alerts the CAA operator at the Rockford airport, who calls O’Hare Airport in Chicago, which sends two USAF jet interceptors to the area. They appear just as the last of the discs, which seem surrounded by a haze, disappears. Of the 54 objects, 36 appear larger that the others and move faster. Fifty follow the straight west-to-east path out of sight. Three deviate from the path to the north, and one deviates to the south. (NICAP, “Rockford, Illinois, Monday, August 11, 1952 ”) August 11 — A CIA memo refers to a meeting of the newly created study group on UFOs attended by eight operatives. (Central Intelligence Agency, “Minutes of Branch Chief’s Meeting of 11 August 1952”; CUFON, “The CUFON 1952 CIA UFO-Related Document Sampler, Part 1 of 2 Parts,” May 17, 1996; Swords 173) August 12 — 1 :43 a.m. An Air Force F- 94 B jet fighter from Dover AFB in Delaware is flying at 20,000 feet when both the pilot and his radar crewman sight a glowing object 45° to their left and at a lower altitude, with the waters of the Delaware Bay as a dark backdrop. Curious, the jet pilot adjusts his course and heads directly at the object, which is stationary. In an apparent reaction, the object loses some of its brilliance and diminishes in size, apparently moving away. The pilot determines that the object had halted above Cape May, New Jersey, where it

again hovers. Without success, the pilot tries to raise the local CCI station on the radio on F channel to request a radar scan of the Cape May area. Low on fuel, the pilot cannot pursue the UFO any further, so he breaks off the chase and heads for home. The UFO follows the jet, increasing in apparent size as it draws near and overtakes it. Eventually, the UFO loses interest and flies away to the south. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, August, The Author, 1986, p. 36) August 13 — Around 7:00 p.m. Two civilians in the Tampa, Florida, area watch three UFOs. One object changes its course abruptly to the west, moving in excess of 600 mph. The same object hovers for about 5 minutes then moves at an excessive rate back to the east and resumes its course to the north and disappears. The two other objects do not alter course but disappear to the north. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, August, The Author, 1986, p. 39) August 13 — Night. Pioneer Airlines pilot Capt. Max M. Jacoby sees a mystery light while on a routine test flight out of Dallas Love Field, Texas. He tries to intercept it, but the light evades him and disappears. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, August, The Author, 1986, p. 39) August 13 — 9:10 p.m. A witness in Oakland, California, calls Hamilton AFB [now closed] in Novato to notify them he is watching “two balls of fire” making a 10-mile circle and leaving in the direction of Hamilton. When the report is made to Capt. Kenneth Broden, Hamilton AFB Airdrome Officer, he orders an F-94 jet scrambled to search the bay between Oakland and the air base. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, August, The Author, 1986, p. 39) August 13 — 9:45 p.m. In Tokyo, Japan, US Marine Corps pilot Maj. James D. McGough sees an orange light fly a left orbit at 8,000 feet and 230 mph, then spiral down to no more than 1,500 feet, remain stationary for 2–3 minutes, and go out. An attempted interception is unsuccessful. (NICAP, “Orange Light Maneuvers Then Stops in Mid- Air”; Sparks, p. 167) August 13 — 11:10 p.m. USAF Reserve Capt. Stanley W. Thompson sees a formation of lighted objects flying rapidly over Tucson, Arizona. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, August, The Author, 1986, p. 39) August 14 — Australian Minister for Air William McMahon states facetiously in Parliament that flying saucer reports are “probably based on flights of imagination,” but indicates he will “cause a thorough investigation to be made.” (Swords 376) August 14 — The CIA’s special UFO study group meets for the first time and is given a summary (probably written by A. Ray Gordon, project officer of the CIA’s Physics and Electronics Branch) of UFO history, an analysis of Project Blue Book, and a discussion of explained sightings and theories about unexplained sightings. (Central Intelligence Agency, “Flying Saucers,” August 14, 1952; Good Above, pp. 331 – 333 ) August 14 — 7:20 p.m. People on the docks of Phillippeville [modern Skikda], Algeria, see an enormous red disc leaving behind a greenish trail. At 9:15 p.m., two people in Constantine, Algeria, watch a luminous object flying at high speed. It emits a bright light. (ClearIntent, p. 122 ) August 14 — 10:30 p.m. A yellow ball of light undulates up and down and from side to side over the Mathieson chemical plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana. It is also seen to shoot ahead abruptly and come to a halt in the same manner. Witnesses estimate that the ball passes over at 5,000 feet, growing fainter and fainter as it moves away. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, August, The Author, 1986, p. 43) Mid-August — 1 0:30 p.m. John D. Moorman, deputy sheriff of Starke County, is fishing in a boat with Surphin Casper on the Tippecanoe River about 3 miles northwest of Monterey, Indiana. Moorman looks up and sees 7–8 objects hovering. They watch for a few seconds until the objects move away to the west. About half of them return east momentarily, and all of them disappear by blinking out. (NICAP case file) August 15 — 4:20 a.m. Ground Observer Corps observers in Davis, California, see a rainbow-colored, round object hovering in the air. Soon they notice eight more objects of a strange appearance. At 5:30 a.m., two more UFOs are seen, one moving west while the other moves east. The Air Force scrambles a F-94 jet interceptor to search the area at altitudes of 10,000–20,000 feet. The military claims the pilot can see nothing unusual, although the GOC spotters say that the UFOs and the jet are both visible in the sky at the same time and possibly at the same altitude. At 5:00 a.m., in Napa, California, GOC post observer Diane Robinson sights a “cigar-shaped silver thing” traveling at tremendous speed at 10,000 feet toward the southwest. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, August, The Author, 1986, p. 43) August 15 — CIA operative Frederick C. Durant [and/or Ransom L. En] writes a top-secret draft memo for DCI Walter Bedell Smith on the OSI teams visit to Wright-Patterson AFB and a summary of its findings. It offers an analytical description of UFOs going back to the 1946 Scandinavian ghost rockets. It rules out the possibility of Russian secret weapons and mentions the sightings at Los Alamos and Oak Ridge at a time when the “background radiation count had risen inexplicably. Here we run out of even ‘blue yonder’ explanations that might be tenable, and, we still are left with numbers of incredible reports from credible observers.” Yet “even though we might admit that intelligent life may exist elsewhere and that space travel is possible, there is no shred of evidence to

support this theory at present.” (Central Intelligence Agency, “Flying Saucers,” August 15, 1952; CUFON, “The CUFON 1952 CIA UFO-Related Document Sampler, Part 1 of 2 Parts,” May 17, 1996; Clark III 397; Swords 172 – 173 ) August 15 — RAAF Flight Lt. William H. Scott, chief test pilot of the Government Aircraft Factories, is flying a de Havilland Vampire jet between 35,000 and 36,000 feet near Rockhampton, Queensland. Looking east toward the coast, he sees a large, circular light at a lower elevation. It is the color of an ordinary incandescent light bulb. After about 60 seconds, 6–10 smaller lights break off from the main light, surrounding it for 2 minutes before disappearing. After another 2 minutes, the big light also disappears. (Swords 376) August 19 — The CIA/OSI study group prepares an internal 6 - page document of its findings. It has made a study of the Soviet press that shows “not one report or comment” about UFOs, which indicates official censorship. It perceives a danger that the Russians might try to infiltrate civilian UFO groups (such as Civilian Saucer Investigation of Los Angeles) or add UFO disinformation during a nuclear attack: “We give Russia the capability of delivering an air attack against us, yet at any given moment now, there may be a dozen official unidentified sightings plus many unofficial.” It briefs CIA Director Walter Bedell Smith on August 20. (Central Intelligence Agency, “Flying Saucers,” August 19, 1952; CUFON, “The CUFON 1952 CIA UFO-Related Document Sampler, Part 1 of 2 Parts,” May 17, 1996; Clark III 1013; Swords 174) August 19 — 2:38 p.m. Ground Observer Corps observer Albert Lathrop sees two objects shaped like fat bullets flying straight, level, and fast over Red Bluff, California. (Sparks, p. 167) August 19 — 8:00 p.m. An oval disc is seen above Boron Air Force Station [now closed] in Boron, California. Two jet fighters are guided into the area by Capt. Ralph J. Borgerson at the base, but the object speeds away to the east as they close in. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, August, The Author, 1986, p. 49; Sparks, p. 167 ) August 19 — About 10:00 p.m. Scoutmaster D[unham] S[anborn] “Sonny” DesVergers is driving with three scouts on the edge of the Everglades south of West Palm Beach, Florida, when he sees a light in a wild palmetto grove. The boys do not see it, so he drives on. Another boy admits he has seen a light in that direction too, so DesVergers returns to the spot and goes into the grove, telling the boys to stay in the car unless he is delayed. Soon all three boys see red lights flashing in the grove. This alarms them, and they go to a nearby house for help. They return to see DesVergers staggering out of the grove, incoherently saying he has been zapped into semiconsciousness by some kind of red flare coming from a hatch in a red ball of light (and burns his cap as well). An area of flattened and burned grass is found after the event. DesVergers has a reputation as a prankster and hopes to monetize his story somehow, but the scouts do corroborate his story and there are physical traces. Grass samples from the site sent to the Air Force show root damage extending 4 inches or more into the soil, suggesting overheating, possibly by microwave radiation. Karl Pflock thinks it is a hoax, but Jerry Clark isn’t 100% sure. (NICAP, “Florida Scoutmaster Case”; “Attack by Flying Saucer Described by Scoutmaster,” Miami (Fla.) Daily News, August 24, 1952, pp. 1A, 4A; “‘Line Forms at Left’ for That Saucer Yarn,” Miami (Fla.) Daily News, August 25, 1952, p. 1A; “Boy Scout Wants New Saucer Hunt,” Miami (Fla.) Daily News, August 26, 1952, p. 2A; “‘Saucer’ Witnesses Talking,” Miami (Fla.) Daily News, August 27, 1952, pp. 1A, 8A; Clark III 496 – 498 ; Ruppelt, p. 176 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1952 August, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2001, pp. 115– 119 ; Story, pp. 128 – 131 ; Jenny Randles, UFO Reality, p. 143; Karl T. Pflock, “The Best Hoax in UFO History?” 1997; “The Scoutmaster’s Tale,” Saturday Night Uforia, March 27, 2013) August 20 — The CIA/OSI UFO study group briefs CIA Director Walter Bedell Smith, who then orders the preparation of a National Security Council Intelligence Directive for submission to the NSC stating the need for a UFO investigation. (H. Marshall Chadwell, “Unidentified Flying Objects,” December 2, 1952) August 20 — Air Defense Command radar at Congaree AFB [now McEntire Joint National Guard Base], southeast of Columbia, South Carolina, tracks a target traveling more than 4,000 mph some 60 miles from the base. (NICAP, “ADC Tracks Object at 4,000 MPH”; UFOEv, p. 78 ) August 21 — 10:10 p.m. Ground Observer Corps Supervisor D. C. Scott spots a yellowish-white light flying in the sky at 2,000 feet northeast of Elgin, Illinois. Several times it rises to 5,000 feet in three minutes, hovers, then descends again. Scott alerts Capt. Everett A. Turner at the Chicago Filter Center, who tells him to call again when the light settles down. After one hour and 23 minutes the light begins to hover, Scott calls Turner again, and Turner has at least one F-86 Sabre jet scrambled from O’Hare Airport in Chicago. The pilot makes four passes between 10,000 and 2,000 feet. On the fourth pass, it heads directly toward the light, which blinks out. (“Jets Pursue Mystery Light,” Carbondale Southern Illinoisan, August 2 3 , 1952, p. 1; UFOEv, p. 66; Shoot 102 – 103) August 22 — George G. Carey, CIA assistant director for operations, writes a memo to Chadwell on “USSR and Satellite Mentions of Flying Saucers” that reviews mentions of UFOs in the Soviet press during the past two years. (“USSR and Satellite Mentions of Flying Saucers,” August 22, 1952; CUFON, “The CUFON 1952 CIA UFO- Related Document Sampler, Part 1 of 2 Parts,” May 17, 1996)

August 22 — A. Ray Gordon, project officer of the CIA’s Physics and Electronics Branch, provides a briefing document explaining the “Air Force Stand on ‘Flying Saucers’” to CIA Director Walter Bedell Smith, who then briefs President Truman on the CIA UFO study group’s reports at his regular Friday intelligence briefing. (“The Air Force Stand on ‘Flying Saucers’,” August 22, 1952; CUFON, “The CUFON 1952 CIA UFO-Related Document Sampler, Part 1 of 2 Parts,” May 17, 1996; Clark III 1013) August 22– 23 — Evening. Lyman Streeter sees unusual lights near Winslow, Arizona, and hears strange signals on his ham radio. Not long afterward, Lyman, his wife, and Alfred C. Bailey hear a mysterious code coming through the air itself. Eventually, at 2:00 a.m., a Morse Code-like message comes through the radio from Regga of Mars and Zo and Nah-9 from Neptune. Zo refers to Affa from Uranus, who thinks earth is too evil. He also warns them that the evil Orion Solar System is coming to earth in a “square star body.” Williamson arrives from Prescott on August 23. (George Hunt Williamson and Alfred C. Bailey, The Saucers Speak! New Age, 1954; Michael D. Swords, “Strange Days,” IUR 30, no. 4 (Aug. 2006): 22; Clark III 1283– 1284 ) August 23 — Telenews Productions re-releases its 1950 UFO documentary short, The Flying Saucer Mystery, edited and expanded to 12½ minutes with new material. It features footage from the July 29, 1952, press conference given by Air Force Maj. Gen. John A. Samford, the UFO photo taken by Shell Alpert, a photo taken by August C. Roberts, German UFO occupant witnesses Oskar and Gabriele Linke, Frank Scully, and U.S. Army Engineers physicist Noel W. Scott. (“The Flying Saucer Mystery (Full) (1952),” TheUFOVideoChannel YouTube channel, September 1, 2010; Internet Movie Database, “The Flying Saucer Mystery”; Curt Collins, “The Flying Saucer Mystery and the 1952 UFO Flap,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, January 9, 2020) August 24 — 10 : 15 a.m. USAF Col. Gerald W. Johnson is flying an F-84G when he sees two silver balls in the vicinity of Hermanas (a ghost town), New Mexico. They seem to be 6 feet in diameter and 2 miles away. One seems to change into a long, gray object as it is turning to the right. After 3 minutes they disappear, then reappear 7 minutes later, by which time the F-84 is over El Paso, Texas. One after the other, the objects climb straight up 2,000–3,000 feet. (NICAP, “F-84 Encounters Two Silver Balls”; Sparks, p. 168 ; Michael D. Swords, “Intelligent Motions,” IUR 33 , no. 1 (March 2010): 14, 15) August 24 — Williamson, Streeter, and Bailey receive coded radio messages indicating the saucer intelligences intend to land, inviting them to help. (George Hunt Williamson and Alfred C. Bailey, The Saucers Speak! New Age, 1954 Michael D. Swords, “Strange Days,” IUR 30, no. 4 (Aug. 2006): 22) August 25 — 3:40 p.m. At Holloman AFB, New Mexico, plant supervisor Fred Lee and foreman Lawrence A. Aguilar watch a round silver object for 5 minutes. It flies south, turns and flies north, makes a 360° turn, then flies away vertically. (NICAP, “Silver Sphere Maneuvers over Base”; Sparks, p. 168) August 25 — 5:50 a.m. William Squyres, a radio station musician at KOAM [now KKOW-AM] is driving from his home northeast of Frontenac, Kansas, to the station at Pittsburg. He is in his 1952 Jeep station wagon on a rough gravel road about a quarter of a mile from US Highway 160 when he sees a large, disc-shaped object hovering 10 feet in the air on the right side of the road 750 feet away. The UFO looks like two bowls placed together end to end, 75 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 15 feet high in the midsection. Through a window he can see the head and shoulders of a motionless human figure. Along its outer edge are a series of propellers 6–8 inches in diameter, spaced closely together and mounted on a bracket so they revolve “in a horizontal plane” along the edge of the object. He stops and gets out to watch it. As he is walking toward the object, it rises into the air and flies away at great speed. (Hynek UFO Report, pp. 200 – 203 ; Patrick Gross, “Project Blue Book Unexplained Cases”; Sparks, p. 168 ) August 25 — 9:25 p.m. Affa of Uranus contacts the Baileys, the Streeters, and the Williamsons (as well as two students named Ronald Tucker and Betty Bowen) by radio, using 405 or 450 kilocycles. Zo and Um of Neptune, Regga of Mars, and other aliens continue sending messages by both radio and telepathy. Streeter sees a dark spot in the sky that he claims is Affa. Williamson sees a blue light that he thinks is Zo. Everyone signs an affidavit that the events have truly taken place. (George Hunt Williamson and Alfred C. Bailey, The Saucers Speak! New Age, 1954; Michael D. Swords, “Strange Days,” IUR 30, no. 4 (August 2006): 22, 24; Clark III 1284 ) August 27 — 4:45 a.m. Two meteorological officers at Macdonald Airport in Manitoba see a disc-shaped object with shadows on it. It makes two turns around the airfield. When the rotating airport beacon light strikes it, the object glints like shiny aluminum, speeds away to the northeast, and vanishes. (Good Above, pp. 184 – 185 ) August 28 — A family on the ground in Le Roy, New York, sees a disc making tight vertical circles around an airliner. (UFOEv, p. 10 ) August 28 — 9:30 p.m. Three civilians in Chickasaw, Alabama, report to Brookley AFB [now Mobile Downtown Airport] in Mobile, Alabama, their observation of multiple red stationary and maneuvering objects to the south, and another one moving from south to west, all in the direction of Brookley. AFOSI agent Charles A. Robinson arrives in Chickasaw at 9:50 p.m. to investigate and sees the same four objects to the south and southwest at an estimated 8–12 miles distance. One fiery red object is stationary for 15 minutes then drifts 15°–20° to the right

after which it is stationary again. Radar operator A/2C Irl A. Whitaker visually spots a red-green object over Chickasaw to the north. USAF duty officer Capt. William A. Edwards and control tower operators see one object to the southwest to the right and lower than the moon, and another object to the west at 10°–20° elevation. The latter is confirmed by radar as a stationary target at four miles range and 4,000 feet altitude. Robinson and others see one object explode, and another does a figure 8 maneuver. There are 4 – 6 objects larger than a star or planet varying from fiery red, red-blue, red-green, and sparkling diamond appearance. A civilian Air Force employee sees a flat oval shape. (NICAP, “GCA Paints Stationary Target”; Sparks, p. 169) August 29 — 10:50 a.m. Pilot LtJG William A. O’Flaherty and navigator LtJG R. S. Moore are flying a P4Y-2 patrol plane west of Thule Air Base, near Qaanaaq, Greenland. They are following an 85-foot-diameter Skyhook balloon launched from an icebreaker, US Coast Guard Cutter Eastwind, when, upon release of the parachute instrument package from the balloon, they see 3 white discs or globes, about ½ to almost the full apparent size of the balloon, in triangle formation clustered to the right of the Skyhook instrument package at 74,000 feet for some 2– 3 minutes. (NICAP, “Three Objects Shake Up Air Crew”; Sparks, p. 167) August 29 — 8:35 p.m. Civil Air Patrol pilot Carlton A. Magruder sees three aluminum-colored objects with a red-yellow exhaust over Colorado Springs, Colorado. They are 50 feet in diameter and 10 feet high, flying in line at about 1,500 mph. (NICAP, “Pilot Reports Three Objects 50ʹ in Diameter”; Sparks, p. 169 ; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, August, The Author, 1986, p. 80) Late August — Albert and Betty Bailey go to the Palomar Gardens Café in California to visit George Adamski and tell him about their contacts and their friendship with George Hunt Williamson. (Michael D. Swords, “Strange Days,” IUR 30, no. 4 (Aug. 2006): 22)

Late summer — As a Signal Corps employee working the night shift, Vivian Walton handles decoded teletype messages inside a high-security building at the Defense Supply Center near Columbus, Ohio. She walks into the photo lab, where colleague Joe Sheehy is developing photos, one of which he says is a UFO that had landed in the “hill country” somewhere near Columbus. He says the object is 30 feet in diameter and unoccupied, with minimal damage. A few days later, an alert is sounded, allegedly because of danger of attack by UFOs. Walton claims the downed UFO has gone through the depot on the way to Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton. (James W. Moseley, “The Wright Field Story, or Who’s Lying?” Nexus 3, no. 1 (September 1954): 11 – 15; James W. Moseley, The Wright Field Story, Saucerian, 1971 ; Jerome Clark, “A Catalog of Early Crash Claims,” IUR 18, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1993): 18; Irena Scott and William E. Jones, “Crash Claims,” IUR 18, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1993): 21; Good Need, p. 159 ; Clark III 329) September — 10:00 a.m. A radar scope near Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New Mexico, picks up an unknown target approaching at 700 mph then slows down to 100 mph northeast of the airfield. Two F-86 Sabre jets are scrambled but at first cannot locate the target. The second pilot suddenly spots what seems to be a balloon but as he gets closer it looks more like a “doughnut without a hole.” He gets as close as 1,500 feet before the object accelerates. When it is again at a range of 3,000 feet, the pilot begins firing at the object, but it pulls up in a climb and disappears in seconds. Capt. Ruppelt is given this report by an intelligence officer (probably Lt. Glen Parrish) at the base, who is about to forward the incident report to ATIC but the commanding officer (Brig. Gen. William A. Matheny) orders it destroyed. Parrish shows the last copy of the report to Ruppelt during a visit to Kirtland. (Ruppelt, pp. 1– 5 ; NICAP, “F-86 Shooting Incident / 700 MPH Target”) September — UFO witness turned researcher Kenneth Arnold releases The Coming of the Saucers, coauthored by his friend and publisher, Raymond A. Palmer. As publicity, the story “Flying Saucer-y” is prepared by King Features Syndicate and carried in many newspapers as a full-page story. (Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer, The Coming of the Saucers, Palmer, 1952; Curt Collins, “Kenneth Arnold’s 1952 UFO Book Promotion,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, September 28, 2018) September — Civilian Saucer Investigation in Los Angeles publishes the first of only four issues of its CSI Quarterly Bulletin. The final issue appears in early 1954. (CSI Quarterly, no. 1 (Fall 1952)) September — John P. Cahn publishes an exposé of Frank Scully’s Behind the Flying Saucers in True magazine. Scully’s sources are an oil prospector named Silas M. Newton and a mysterious “Dr. Gee,” later identified as Leo GeBauer, a con man with a long arrest record. The tale is a ploy to gain the attention of potential investors in a bogus oil detection scheme allegedly linked to alien technology. Jerome Clark writes that Scully was himself a victim, not a perpetrator. (J. P. Cahn, “Flying Saucers and the Mysterious Little Men,” True, September 1952, pp. 17 – 19, 102–112; Clark III 1044– 1045 ) September 1 — 8:23 p.m. Air Defense Command radar at Yaak Air Force Station in Montana picks up UFOs exhibiting changes of direction as many as five times a minute. Some course changes are 90° and speeds are measured at 1,400–1, 6 00 mph. Six blips at one time appear on the FPS- 3 radar scopes and the strange targets come within 10

miles of the GCI site. So close is the indicated range the radar personnel leave their windowless operations room to check the sky. Six objects can be seen an estimated 10 miles away. When first spotted, the UFOs are in an in- trail formation, and shortly thereafter that changes to an in-line abreast grouping. Finally, the UFOs switch to a vertical stack. S/Sgt. William Kelly remembers tracking the UFOs on the radar executing vertical climbs that exceed the limit of the site’s height-finding equipment. (NICAP, “Radar/Visual at Air Force Radar Site”; Sparks, p. 170 ) September 1 — 10:30 p.m. An ex-artillery officer named Bowman and 24 others at Marietta, Georgia, see a red, white, and blue-green object that spins and shoots off sparks. An unidentified witness using binoculars sees two large objects shaped like spinning tops with red, blue, and green colors, flying side by side and leaving a sparkling trail for 30 minutes. At 10:50 p.m., a former Army Air Force B-25 gunner sees two large white disc-shaped objects with green vapor trails fly in trail formation, merge, and fly away quickly. (NICAP, “Two Discs in Trail Formation”; Sparks, p. 170) September 2 — 12:01 a.m. CAA radar controllers Robert L. Terneuzen (GCA), Ralph L. Frick, Dale E. Warner, Warren J. Weber, and Radar Maintenance Technician Gordon R. Copeland track as many as 30 targets simultaneously at Midway Airport in Chicago, flying in various directions with an average speed of 175 mph at about 2,000 feet. The 755th Aircraft Control and Weapons radar station in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, claims that the Midway Airport Tower supervisor has called them at 2:50 a.m., saying there are 40 targets plotted by airport radar flying from 3,000 to 6,000 feet at a speed of 120–150 mph. The targets are the size of blips from light planes or larger (the best target quality is in the 6– 10 - mile range) and move in no particular pattern—sometimes erratically and sometimes in straight lines up to 15 miles long. In at least one instance, the targets fly in formation with an aircraft. At 5:14 a.m., the Air Defense Command is alerted and authorizes the scramble of two jets from the 4706th Interceptor Wing at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. At 5:55 a.m., a pair of F-86 Sabre jets piloted by Capt. William W. Maitland and Lt. Beverly L. Dunhill, lift off and are vectored right through the targets as shown on radar, making passes at 800 and at 4,000 feet without making contact. The F- 86 s are evidently without airborne radar because they only mention visual descriptions. Maitland and Dunhill later tell the media: “We didn’t hit anything. We didn’t see anything. We went through the target showing on the scope and there was nothing there, not even a cloud.” The jets break off their aerial search at 6:19 a.m. and return to base. By 7:00 a.m. all of the mysterious targets disappear off the scopes toward the south. The Midway radar crews are convinced the targets are returns from tangible bodies, but CAA chief Bob Zeigler overrules them and blames “peculiar atmospheric conditions.” (“Sabre Jets Fly through ‘Object,’” Spokane (Wash.) Spokesman-Review, September 3, 1952, p. 1; NICAP, “40 Targets at Midway Airport”; Sparks, p. 171 ) September 3 — 9:00 a.m. Instructor pilot Donald L. McCraven and N. D. Thomas observe a dark elliptical object reflecting sunlight 6 miles north of Tucson, Arizona. The object makes three well-coordinated turns with no perceptible sound. It moves at tremendous speed during a slight climb and is observed for approximately 90 seconds. (NICAP, “Dark Ellipse Makes Three Coordinated Turns”; Sparks, p. 172) September 3 — 12:30 p.m. Truman meets in the Cabinet Room with Gen. William M. Garland, Col. John Gordon Fowler, and three other USAF officers; Lawrence J. Henderson Jr. and Walter W. Niles from the RAND Corporation; and Robert B. Landry and four others from the National Security Resources Board. The topic is the Washington UFO incident. (Frank Stalter, “The Real Majestic 12: Harry Truman’s 1952 DC UFO Meeting,” The UFO Partisan, 2009) September 6 — 10:10 a.m. Walter Borys and George McCracken, two guards at the Osborn Prison Farm [now Osborn Correctional Institute] in Somers, Connecticut, are with 13 inmates in the yard when they hear an odd motor noise and see a silvery object in the northern sky. It appears to be descending in a zigzag motion but stops and shoots upward at a right angle at terrific speed after releasing a puff of smoke. Other witnesses in the area think it is a jet aircraft. (Hartford (Conn.) Courant, September 7, 1952, p. 1; Audrey H. Hennis, “The ‘Flying Saucer’ Was from a Jet After-Burner,” Hartford (Conn.) Courant, September 19, 1952, p. 18; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, September – October, The Author, 1986, pp. 11– 12 ) September 8 — Wilbert B. Smith and Department of Transport associates launch a large weather balloon with a magnesium flare over Ottawa, Ontario, but it does not inspire any UFO reports. (Clark III 1078; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, September – October, The Author, 1986, pp. 17–18) September 9 — 9:00 p.m. US Air Force civilian illustrator E. J. Colisimo sees a disc with lights along part of its circumference over Rabat, Morocco. It is flying twice as fast as a T-33 jet trainer in a slightly curved path. (NICAP, “Disc Twice As Fast As T- 33 ”; Sparks, p. 172) September 10 — Battelle issues its fifth status report on Project Stork to ATIC. It says that 800 copies of its revised report questionnaire have been sent to the Air Force, many of which were passed on to military witnesses as a trial test.

The group has now examined UFO reports from 1947–1949 and 1951. It decided to discontinue the news clipping service. (“Seven Status Reports for Project Stork, Part 3,” CUFON) September 10 — 2:30 p.m. The wife of a civilian employee at Andrews AFB [now Joint Base Andrews] in Prince George’s County, Maryland, sees a shiny, metallic, elliptical, silent object moving back and forth near the base. It is visible for 2– 3 minutes. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, September – October, The Author, 1986, p. 25) September 11 [or 7 or 17] — CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence Director H. Marshall Chadwell writes a memorandum to Director of Central Intelligence Walter Bedell Smith that sets out two national security implications of UFOs for the government of the United States: the potential for psychological panic by citizens, and demonstrating the nation’s vulnerability by air. It recommends that “A national policy should be established as to what should be told the public regarding the phenomena, in order to minimize risk of panic.” (H. Marshall Chadwell, “Flying Saucers,” September 11, 1952; CUFON, “The CUFON 1952 CIA UFO-Related Document Sampler, Part 1 of 2 Parts,” May 17, 1996; Swords 175–181, 503–507; Good Above, p. 224 ) September 11 — Williamson, Streeter, and Bailey receive a radio message saying, “I hope we might have a landing soon,” and later, “We must make landing contact soon… If you believe us, you will act accordingly.” (George Hunt Williamson and Alfred C. Bailey, The Saucers Speak! New Age, 1954; Michael D. Swords, “Strange Days,” IUR 30, no. 4 (Aug. 2006): 22) September 12 — 1:30 a.m. Two oil well drillers, William Darling and Donald Davis, see a lighted object with windows on one side circling 150 feet above the ground silently for nearly 30 minutes at Bladensburg, Ohio. Suddenly it makes a noise like steam blowing and shoots out of sight. (“Report from the Readers,” Fate 6, no. 2 (February 1953 ): 108) September 12 — Around 7:15 p.m., in Flatwoods, West Virginia, two brothers, Edward and Fred May, and their friend Tommy Hyer (ages 13, 12, and 10 respectively) witness a bright object cross the sky, coming to rest on land belonging to local farmer G. Bailey Fisher. The boys go to the home of the May brothers’ mother, Kathleen May, where they tell the story of having seen a UFO crash land. From there, Mrs. May, accompanied by the three boys, local children Neil Nunley, 14, and Ronnie Shaver, 10, and West Virginia National Guardsman Eugene Lemon, 17, walk to the Fisher farm. At the top of a hill, they reportedly see a large pulsating “ball of fire” about 50 feet to their right. They also detect a pungent mist that makes their eyes and noses burn. Lemon then notices two small lights over to the left of the object, underneath a nearby oak tree and directs his flashlight towards them, revealing a creature, which May reports as bounding towards them. Other sources describe it as emitting a shrill hissing noise before gliding towards them, changing direction and then heading off towards the red light. The group flees in panic. Sheriff Robert L. Carr and his deputy Burnell J. Long search the area separately, but find no trace of the encounter other than the smell. Early the next morning, A. Lee Stewart, co-owner of the Braxton Democrat, visits the site of the encounter for a second time and discovers two elongated tracks in the mud, as well as traces of a thick black liquid. It is later revealed that the tracks are likely those of a 1942 Chevrolet pickup truck driven by local Max Lockard, who had gone to the site to look for the creature some hours prior to Stewert’s discovery. Ivan T. Sanderson interviews the witnesses several days later and concludes that a flight of “intelligently controlled objects flew over West Virginia.” The Air Force concludes that people have seen a meteor and that the monster was only the glowing eyes of a barn owl. Joe Nickell also concludes in 2000 that the bright light in the sky reported by the witnesses on September 12 was most likely a meteor, that the pulsating red light is likely an aircraft navigation/hazard beacon, and that the creature described by witnesses closely resembles a barn owl. Nickell claims that the experience was distorted by the heightened state of anxiety felt by the witnesses after having observed the original meteor. However, Frank C. Feschino has done extensive research to support his hypothesis that the Flatwoods incident was only one small part of a major UFO display involving multiple objects (many of them reported as “meteors” or “balls of fire” or “flaming planes”) passing in westerly and other directions across the eastern and southern United States between 6:50 and 7: 25 p.m. The trajectory of one of these objects (moving first northwest then northeast then south) alone takes it over Baltimore, Catonsville, Frederick, Hagerstown, Cumberland, and Garrett County, Maryland; Preston County, Morgantown, Fairmont, Wheeling, Charleston, Parkersburg, Nitro, Ward, and Chelyan, West Virginia; Selma, Columbus, Zanesville, St. Clairsville, Ohio; it is last seen moving south around Bluefield, West Virginia. Another object is seen over Washington, D.C., heading due west towards West Virginia, apparently landing in Flatwoods. A third object travels southwest over Roanoke and Pulaski, Virginia, possibly landing near Arcadia, Tennessee. Feschino thinks that these three objects had been damaged by fire directed at them by Air Force interceptors. Five other objects are observed in North Carolina in that time period, and these Feschino suspects may have been attempting to look for and assist the damaged objects. He also speculates that the disappearance of an F-94 jet fighter out of Tyndall AFB in Panama City, Florida, piloted by 2Lt John A. Jones and radar operator 2Lt John S. DelCurto, might have involved a tragic

UFO interception that began three hours earlier; the last known contact with the fighter is at 5:43 p.m. over the Gulf of Mexico 70 miles northwest of Tampa, the accident takes place under unusual circumstances, and the wreckage has never been found. Feschino thinks that a UFO damaged in dogfights with many interceptors over the Gulf might have triggered the second battle over the Atlantic seaboard around 7:00 p.m. Then a second wave of multiple objects is observed 8:00–8:10 p.m. in the Washington, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, and West Virginia region that, according to Feschino, involves a search for a second downed UFO. Although Feschino jumps to many conclusions and his documentation for specific incidents and conditions is somewhat confusing, he may well have grasped more truth than the meteor-and-owl explanation of the skeptics. (Wikipedia, “Flatwoods Monster”; Gray Barker, “The Monster and the Saucer,” Fate 6, no. 1 (January 1953): 12–17; Gray Barker, They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers, University Books, 1956, pp. 11– 35 ; Keyhoe, FS from OS, pp. 116– 120 ; Clark III 494 – 495 ; Ivan T. Sanderson, Uninvited Visitors, Cowles, 1967, pp. 39 – 51 ; Northern Ontario UFO Research and Study, “The Braxton Democrat”; Shoot 112– 313 , 320–327; Joe Nickell, “The Flatwoods UFO Monster,” Skeptical Inquirer 24, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 2000): 15–19; Michael D. Swords, “Peeking at Ivan’s SITU Files: The Flatwoods Monster,” The Big Study, April 11, 2011; Frank C. Feschino, The Braxton County Monster: The Cover-Up of the Flatwoods Monster Revealed, Quarrier Press, 2004 ) September 14 — 4:30 a.m. Fred J. Brown is preparing to milk the cows at the Everglades Experiment Station [now the Everglades Research and Education Center] in Belle Glade, Florida, when he spots a circular object about 35 feet in diameter hovering about 100 feet above the ground. It has a row of red and amber lights spaced around the outside rim and the underside. As it descends to about 40 feet, the 13 cows bolt as the object disappears to the west. As Brown is rounding up the cows, the object appears again, moving from south to north at a speed of 30 mph, making a high-voltage buzzing noise, and emitting an odor “like acid or ammonia” that makes Brown’s eyes smart. The cows stampede once again. The object’s glow illuminates the ground as it passes, and it gains altitude and disappears again. (“Cattle Stampeded Twice by Mysterious ‘Object,’” Palm Beach (Fla.) Times, September 16 , 1952, p. 1) September 14 — Exercise Mainbrace begins in the North Sea. It is the first large-scale naval exercise undertaken by NATO and jointly commanded by Admiral Lynde D. McCormick and Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway. It involves the US Navy and the navies of Great Britain, France, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Netherlands, and Belgium. Its objective is to convince Denmark and Norway that they can be defended against an attack from the USSR, and involves 80,000 men, 200 ships, and 1,000 aircraft. The operation lasts through September 25. (Wikipedia, “Exercise Mainbrace”) September 1 4 — 10:13 p.m. The Danish destroyer Willemoes, during the Exercise Mainbrace maneuvers, is north of Bornholm island, Denmark, in the Baltic Sea. Lt.Cmdr. G. Schmidt-Jensen and several members of the crew see an unidentified object, triangular in shape, that moves at high speed toward the southeast. It emits a greenish glow and jets three rays of fire from its rear. Jensen estimates the speed at 9 3 0 mph. (NICAP, “Operation Mainbrace Sightings”; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, September – October, The Author, 1986, p. 28; Marler 128– 129, 265) September 19 — 10:5 3 a.m. During Exercise Mainbrace maneuvers, a silvery, spherical UFO appears near RAF Topcliffe in North Yorkshire, England, following an RAF Meteor jet (possibly piloted by Flight Lt. John W. Kilburn and Flight Lt. Marian Cybulski) about to land. It has been following about 5 miles behind the jet at15,000 feet, swinging like a “falling sycamore leaf” and descending. As the jet turns toward Dishforth, the object follows but begins rotating on its axis then suddenly accelerates and disappears. Several ground crew members of RAF 269 Squadron (Master Signaller Albert Thomson, Sgt. Flight Engineer Thomas Deweys, Flight Lt. R. Paris, and Leading Aircraftman George Grime) and civilians also see it. Prince Philip suggests to RAF Air Marshal Peter Horsley, who is serving as equerry to the duke, that he investigate credible reports of UFOs, especially those by fighter pilots who have seen them. He arranges for RAF Fighter Command to send copies of any reports for examination at Buckingham Palace and begins an informal study that lasts until 1955. (NICAP, “Swaying Silver Object Follows Jet”; Richard Hall, “Operation Mainbrace Sightings”; Good Above, pp. 31 – 32 , 450 ; Nick Redfern, “UFOs and NATO: The Mainbrace Affair,” Mysterious Universe, April 22, 2014; David Clarke, “The Prince and the Saucers,” Fortean Times 406 (June 2021): 18– 19 ; Sparks, p. 173 ; Ruppelt, pp. 195 – 196 ; UFOFiles2, p. 47) September 20? — Sometime during Exercise Mainbrace, at the underground RAF Ash, near Woodnesborough, Kent, England, Senior Aircraftman William Maguire tracks on radar a huge UFO high above the English Channel for 18 minutes. Eventually it splits into three and speeds away, one object to the north, another toward France, and the third toward Eastern Europe. (Good Need, p. 152 ; Nick Redfern, “UFOs, NATO, and Military Encounters,” Interesting and Curiosities, October 28, 2018)

September 20 — Naval personnel on the US aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt in the North Sea observe a silvery sphere moving across the sky behind the fleet. Photographer Wallace Litwin takes three color photos that are developed and examined by naval intelligence officers. Ruppelt says they “turned out to be excellent … judging by the size of the object in each successive photo, one could see that it was moving rapidly.” No balloon has been launched. (NICAP, “Object Photographed during Operation Mainbrace”; Ruppelt, pp. 195 – 196 ; UFOEv, p. 162 ; “In the News 1952,” Saturday Night Uforia, 2013) September 20 — 7:30 p.m. At Air Base Karup in Jutland, Denmark, three Danish Air Force officers see a shiny, metallic UFO pass overhead and disappear in clouds to the east. (Aimé Michel, The Truth about FS, 133) September 21 — Six RAF Meteor jets flying above the North Sea observe a shiny sphere approaching from the direction of the Mainbrace fleet. It eludes their pursuit and disappears. As they are returning, it reappears following one of the jets, but when he turns to chase it, it speeds away. Ruppelt says the Mainbrace sightings forced the RAF to “officially recognize the UFO.” (NICAP, “Six RAF Jets Approached by Shiny Sphere”; Ruppelt, p. 196 ; Sparks, p. 173 ) September 22 — Night. A UFO hovers over the Army’s Camp Drum [now Fort Drum] near Watertown, New York, for 30 minutes. Eight soldiers say the object is 200 feet across, trailing red-orange sparks. (“Mysterious, Gyratuing Object Looks Down on Camp Drum,” Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle, September 27, 1952, p. 1) September 24 — CIA Assistant Director of Scientific Intelligence H. Marshall Chadwell writes a 4 - page memo to CIA Director Walter Bedell Smith, summarizing his earlier memo and stating that since 1947 unexplained sightings were running at 20% and in 1952 they rose to 28%. “I consider this problem to be of such importance that it should be brought to the attention of the National Security Council in order that a community-wide coordinated effort toward its solution may be initiated.” His CIA scientific consultants (Julius Stratton, and perhaps Lloyd Berkner and Howard P. Robertson) think the answer will be found “on the margins of just beyond the frontiers of our present knowledge in the fields of atmospheric, ionospheric, and extraterrestrial phenomena, with the added possibility that the present dispersal of nuclear waste products might also be a factor.” (H. Marshall Chadwell, “Flying Saucers,” September 24, 1952; CUFON, “The CUFON 1952 CIA UFO-Related Document Sampler, Part 1 of 2 Parts,” May 17, 1996; Good Above, pp. 328 – 329 , 506 – 507 ) Late September — Ruppelt visits the headquarters of the Air Defense Command at Ent AFB [now the US Olympic Training Center] in Colorado to brief Gen. Benjamin W. Chidlaw and his staff on the past few months of UFO activity at a lunch at the officer’s club. One of the attendees is Maj. Vernon L. Sadowski, the ADC Intelligence liaison to Blue Book, who says that “no one can understand why Intelligence is so hesitant to accept the fact that something we just don’t know about is flying around in our skies, unless you are trying to cover up something big.” (Ruppelt, pp. 194 – 197 ) September 26 — Syndicated aviation columnist Robert S. Allen writes in his column that the “Air Force has a breathtaking report” ready on UFOs. The study expresses the belief that some reports are genuine and originate from “sources outside of this planet.” The supposed document also says that some sightings involve secret US military devices. The study is allegedly based on more than 1,800 sightings in the past 5 years. (Robert S. Allen, “Report on Flying Saucers,” Los Angeles Mirror News, September 26, 1952, p. 43; Michael Hall, “Was There a Second Estimate of the Situation?” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 10–11) September 26 — 11: 1 6 p.m. The pilot and crew of a USAF C-124 see two distinct green lights to the right and slightly above the plane, about 400 miles north-northwest of the Azores Islands. At one point, they appear to turn toward the plane. They remain visible until the plane sights the islands. (NICAP, “Air Crews Observe Green Lights”; Sparks, p. 174 ) September 27– 28 — Throughout West Germany, Denmark, and southern Sweden, there are widespread UFO reports. A luminous object with a comet-like tail is seen moving irregularly near Hamburg and Kiel, Germany. Once, three satellite objects are reported moving around a larger object. A cigar-shaped UFO moving silently eastward is also seen. (UFOEv, p. 163 ) September 28 — 2:00 p.m. Williamson, Streeter, and Bailey attempt to meet the saucer intelligences for a landing somewhere in the Arizona desert, but apparently get lost. They return to Streeter’s home, where the radio sends sinister-sounding messages about the radio being dangerous, a man coming, and Streeter having a deep secret (perhaps that Streeter has attempted psychic contact once before in 1950). (George Hunt Williamson and Alfred C. Bailey, The Saucers Speak! New Age, 1954; Michael D. Swords, “Strange Days,” IUR 30, no. 4 (Aug. 2006): 22) September 28 — 8:35 p.m.–10:09 p.m. USAF radar operator A/3c Carlton L. Hall, stationed on the southwest coast of Tsushima Island, Japan, notices unusual targets on six separate occasions, each time for a duration of 2–4 sweeps. On two separate outbound tracks from Itazuke Air Base [now Fukuoka Airport], a series of targets appear directly behind aircraft when entering an azimuth of 50 °– 70 ° from nearby Tsutsusaki Lighthouse. The objects appear as

normal aircraft but are rounder in shape, trailing about 2–3 miles to the rear of the aircraft. A/2c Warren D. Grovenstein also observes four of these anomalies with Hall. ([Blue Book report]) September 29 — 6:30 p.m. Capt. Dursemaine, commanding officer of the Gendarmerie Maritime en Allemagne, watches a luminous, egg-shaped object with a black spot in its center flying at an altitude of 3.7 miles above his home 1.2 miles south of Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It emits a low-pitched hum and white exhaust. (Jan Aldrich) September 30 — 10:30 a.m. A North American Aviation Company film crew, headed by Dick Beemer, is at Edwards AFB in southern California to film some tests. They are at Rogers Dry Lake when a B-29 passes overhead. Cameraman Carlos Garcia sees an unusual object moving near the plane. A second object appears. Soon the whole crew is looking up. Beemer says the objects are silent, leave no vapor trail, take turns maneuvering around each other, and look like “flattened spheres.” They have a color motion picture camera with them, but the UFOs are too near the sun. (UFOEv, pp. 57 – 58 )

Fall — Evening. Paul Solem has his first contact with a flying saucer around the Lost River Sinks a few miles from his ranch in Howe, Idaho. After watching a metallic object land, Solem sees a man with long blond hair and dressed in a white uniform standing next to it. He tells Solem to call him “Paul 2.” He says he is from Venus and tells Solem to work with Indians in North America in preparing for a postapocalyptic social order. This will be the first of many contacts for Solem. Over the next 17 years he wanders through the western states, speaking with Indians and contactees, gathers a small group of followers, and generally avoids the limelight. (Clark III 1094) October — The first number of Albert K. Bender’s Space Review is published. (Space Review 1, no. 1 (October 1952); Clark III 189 ) October — Opal Church is driving with her nephew in a car between Salem and Corvallis, Oregon, when they see an 8- foot, heavily built figure walking with “fluid movements” along the road. It is wearing an Arab-style headdress and a uniform, with gloves and boots, of fine metallic mesh. A ribbed belt surrounds the waist. Its face is pale and the huge round eyes, nearly 3 inches in diameter, glow. Inside them are reticulations “resembling the filament in old electric light bulbs.” Church turns around immediately, but the figure is gone, even though the terrain is flat. (Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1952 – 1953, p. 28; Clark III 267 ) October — Andrija Puharich, a medical doctor interested in parapsychology, discovers that a person’s ESP abilities are enhanced when they are placed inside a Faraday cage. His experimental subject is none other than gifted psychic Eileen J. Garrett, whom he has tasked with clairvoyantly perceiving cosmic ray bursts of sufficient magnitude to trigger a signal in a detector. (Michael D. Swords, “Strange Days, Part 2,” IUR 32, no. 2 (December 2008): 8) October — Stanley Glickman, an American artist living in Paris, France, joins a group of fellow Americans at a café, one of whom is CIA mind-control and poison specialist Sidney Gottlieb. A heated political debate ensues, and when Glickman decides to leave, he is offered a drink to soothe ill feelings. Gottlieb surreptitiously slips LSD into Glickman’s drink and it derails his life. Glickman suffers a complete mental breakdown from which he never recovers. In 1977, he learns about Gottlieb and CIA’s LSD experiments on unwitting involuntary subjects from the Kennedy congressional hearings. Glickman sues in 1981, but the trial is delayed 17 years on technical grounds, by which time Glickman has died in 1992. His sister, Gloria Kronisch, pursues the case in the US Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, as his executrix in 1998, but it is thrown out on July 9 because the statute of limitations has passed. (H. P. Albarelli Jr., A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA ’ s Cold War Experiments, Trine Day, 2009 ; Kronisch v. United States, US Court of Appeals, 2d Circuit, July 9, 1998) October — Evening. Aeronautical engineer and former Project Sign liaison Alfred Loedding and his wife Marion see an odd object while driving near Plainsboro, New Jersey. At first, they think it is an aircraft crashing, but the object levels off and flashes away at high speed, emitting a bluish-green light. He estimates it is 100 feet in diameter and 500 – 600 feet high, and it gives off a “weird light like looking at a firefly” while changing shape. Loedding says Rep. L. Gary Clemente (D-N.Y.) is also a witness. (“Flying Saucer Design Practical, WADC Aid Says; U.S. Interested,” Dayton (Ohio) Journal Herald, August 9, 1957, p. 13) October 2? — Shortly before 7:00 a.m. One Thursday this month, Johannes Nordlien is waiting for coworkers when he hears a howling sound. A white, saucer-shaped object, 13 feet in diameter, comes in from the west at high speed and passes him only 325 feet away. It falls with a violent splash into the river Lågen [Gudbrandsdalslågen?] in Norway. When his colleagues show up, the water is still roiling. (Ole Jonny Brænne, “Observations of Unidentified Submarine Objects in Norway,” IUR 20, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1995): 12) October 2 — CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence Director H. Marshall Chadwell writes a memorandum to Director of Central Intelligence Walter Bedell Smith recommending he advise the National Security Council that more research is needed on UFOs to investigate their national security threat. (H. Marshall Chadwell, “Flying Saucers,”

October 2, 1952; CUFON, “The CUFON 1952 CIA UFO-Related Document Sampler, Part 1 of 2 Parts,” May 17, 1996; Good Above, pp. 509 – 510 ) October 9– 11 — At the Optical Society of America meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, J. Allen Hynek presents a paper on “Unusual Aerial Phenomena,” in which he expresses skepticism for most reports, except for nocturnal lights that do “not appear to be readily explainable on an astronomical basis, or by mirages, balloons, or by conventional aircraft.” Astronomer Donald Menzel presents a dismissive paper on radar angels and mirages, while Urner Liddel presents “Phantasmagoria or Unusual Observations in the Atmosphere,” dismissing UFO reports as mass hysteria, fear psychosis, and sensation-seeking. (J. A. Hynek, “Unusual Aerial Phenomena,” Journal of the Optical Society of America 43 (1953): 311–314; Urner Liddel, “Phantasmagoria or Unusual Observations in the Atmosphere,” Journal of the Optical Society of America 43 (1953): 314–317) October 10 — Battelle issues its sixth status report on Project Stork. UFO reports through 1951 have been coded and put on IBM punch cards. About 60% of the reports have been evaluated. The panel has looked at two films and soil and vegetation samples from cases in Florida and Pittsburg, Kansas. The witness questionnaire is further refined and will become the basis for Project Blue Book’s form. (“Seven Status Reports for Project Stork, Part 3,” CUFON; “Seven Status Reports for Project Stork, Part 4,” CUFON) October 11 — A Ground Observer Corps spotter sees a disc hovering in one spot for 20 minutes over Newport News, Virginia. When two interceptors arrive from Langley Air Force Base, the object tilts up, accelerates, and shoots away. (UFOEv, p. 150 ) October 12 — Harold H. Fulton founds Civilian Saucer Investigation (New Zealand) in Auckland. It begins publishing a quarterly newsletter, Flying Saucers, in May 1953, which continues until September 1959 with a name change in 1958 to Space Probe. (Flying Saucers 1, no. 1 (May 1953); Space Probe, Christmas 1958) October 13 — James Q. Reber, assistant director of CIA intelligence coordination, writes a memo to the CIA deputy director of intelligence, arguing that fundamental research into the question of positive identification is the responsibility of the Defense Department and that while investigating Soviet knowledge of UFO phenomena is a “primary concern” for the CIA, it “is far too early in view of the present state of our knowledge regarding Flying Saucers for psychological warfare planners to start planning how the United States might use U.S. Flying Saucers against the enemy.” Reber goes on to recommend that when “intelligence has submitted the National Estimate on Flying Saucers there will be the time and basis for a public policy to reduce or restrain mass hysteria.” (James Q. Reber, “Flying Saucers,” October 13, 1952; CUFON, “The CUFON 1952 CIA UFO-Related Document Sampler, Part 1 of 2 Parts,” May 17, 1996) October 13 — 7:08 p.m. USAF pilot Maj. William D. Leet and his engineer, flying a C-54 troop carrier, watch an elliptical UFO hovering in clouds near Oshima, Japan. It speeds away after 7 minutes. (UFOEv, p. 24 ) October 14 — OSI Deputy Assistant Director Ralph L. Clark writes a memorandum for the record suggesting a meeting on October 20 or 21 to work out a research and intelligence program on UFOs. (Ralph J. Clark, “Flying Saucers Problem,” October 14, 1952) October 16 — George Hunt Williamson is in a state of panic from the messages he and the Baileys have received from space people. He writes an associate doing missionary work in Guatemala that disaster will strike the earth before December 1. He says radio contacts have stopped and that he has been told there will be a direct contact with a spaceman: “Professor George Adamski is in on this too.” The Baileys have already met with Adamski (in August) and now the messages are urging another meeting with him. (Y. N. ibn Aharon [Yonah Fortner], “Diagnosis: A Case of Chronic Fright,” Saucer News 4, no. 5 (Aug./Sept. 1957): 3 – 6 ; Clark III 1284) October 17 — Early afternoon. Residents of Oloron-Sainte-Marie, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France, see a large cigar-shaped structure in the blue sky, inclined at a 45° angle. The witnesses include the family of Yves Prigent, general superintendent of the local high school. A plume of white smoke is escaping from its upper end. At some distance in front of the cylinder, about 30 round, puffy objects with a central red spot are following the same trajectory. The smaller objects move in pairs following a broken, zig-zag path. They leave an abundant trail of a white substance (angel’s hair) behind them, which slowly falls to the ground as it disperses. For several hours, clumps of it hang on the trees, on the telephone wires, and on the roofs of houses. (“Les Soucoupes Volantes vues à Oloron le 17 Octobre,” France-Dimanche, October 26, 1952, in The Spectrum of UFO Research, CUFOS, 1988, p. 114; Jimmy Guieu, Flying Saucers Come from Another World, Hutchinson, 1956, pp. 87 – 92; Jacques Vallee and Janine Vallee, Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma, Regnery, 1966, pp. 120– 121 ; Clark III 123; Patrick Gross, “Documents: Found in the Attic”; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, September – October, The Author, 1986, pp. 73– 74 ; Lotharson, “Unidentified Flying Spiders in Southern France?” Shards of Magonia, March 12, 2017) October 18 — 9:44 p.m. Journalist Keith Hooper is returning home from an assignment for the Adelaide Advrtiser when he sees a greenish-white, cigar-shaped object about the size of a Boeing 707 some 10 miles away over the

Adelaide Hills, South Australia, moving southeast to northwest. The object makes a sharp, right-angle turn upward, recedes, then vanishes at tremendous speed. The duration is 5–7 seconds. (Keith Hooper, “My Flying Saucer,” Sydney (N.S.W.) Morning Herald, March 13, 1965, p. 13) October 21 — Afternoon. Flight Lt. Michael Swiney and a student pilot, Royal Navy Lt. David Crofts, are flying a Meteor T.7 trainer out of RAF Little Rissington, Gloucester, England, for a high-altitude navigation exercise at 35,000 feet. Not long after breaking out of a cloud during a climb at 13,000–14,000 feet, they see three circular, white objects in front of them. As the aircraft get closer and turns to avoid them, the objects become visible as discs. They disappear quickly when the pilot looks away briefly. Two Meteor F.8 fighters are scrambled from RAF Tangmere [now closed] in West Sussex to chase three unknown radar targets moving at 3,000 mph but fail to intercept them. (Wikipedia, “Little Rissington UFO incident”; David Clarke and Andy Roberts, Out of the Shadows, Piatkus, 2002, pp. 98– 102 ; UFOFiles2, pp. 47– 49 ) October 23 — Ruppelt holds a briefing on UFOs at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, New Mexico. Afterward Assistant Director for Scientific Personnel William H. Crew arranges a special meeting for Ruppelt and Col. Bower with seven people from the laboratory. Several of them have evidence that there is a possible correlation between sightings of UFOs and unusual radiation detection. (Edward J. Ruppelt, [Message referring to a December 1 telephone call], December 2, 1952) October 24 — President Truman signs National Security Council Directive 6, a 7-page document that eliminates the Armed Forces Security Agency formed in 1949 to unite all military signal intelligence operations and creates the National Security Agency. Since the memo is a classified document, the existence of the NSA is not known to the public. Due to its ultra-secrecy the US intelligence community refers to the NSA as “No Such Agency.” The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes. NSA inherits Project Shamrock from the AFSA. It also inherits collection of UFO data, at least by 1958, but probably in 1953. (ClearIntent, p. 189 ; Thomas L. Burns, The Origins of the National Security Agency, 1940 – 1952 , National Security Agency, 1990, pp. 97–99) Late October — Night. Radioman Tom Kramer is serving aboard the USS Curtiss, the AEC flagship for Ivy Mike, the first detonation of a hydrogen bomb at Elugelab Atoll in the Marshall Islands. After an onboard movie, Kramer and other crewmen see a round, silent, bright white light that is motionless at first, then starts zigzagging for less than 10 seconds and takes off at high speed. (Nukes 100–101) Late October — 3:45 a.m. Seaman Abelardo Marquez, posted on the USS Fletcher near Eniwetak Atoll for the upcoming Ivy Mike thermonuclear test, is going on duty to the bridge when he notices that the ship is uncharacteristically moving at full speed. Other crew members tell him it is because of a round white light that has been moving above the ship. Marquez sees it descending, then it stops and hovers about 40°–45° above the horizon and perhaps one-half mile from the ship. Capt. Grover L. Rawlings is talking with other officers on the bridge, saying they do not know what the light is, and that is not tracked on radar. After about 4–5 minutes, the light takes off straight up at the same speed it had descended. (Nukes 101–105) October 27 — 2:03 a.m. Customs officer Gabriel Gachignard observes a cigar-shaped object land briefly on a runway of the airport at Marignane, Bouches-du-Rhône, France, 100 meters away, producing a dull sound. The object is dark with four lighted windows. It takes off with a “swish” and a shower of sparks when he runs toward it. (Clark III 243 – 244 ; Jimmy Guieu, Flying Saucers Come from Another World, Hutchinson, 1956, p. 53; Michel, The Truth about FS, pp. 152– 156 ; Jacques Vallee and Janine Vallee, Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma, Regnery, 1966, pp. 6– 11 ; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, September – October, The Author, 1986, pp. 82– 84 ) October 27 — An FBI memorandum to Alan H. Belmont from Victor P. Keay reports that “Air Intelligence still feels that the so-called flying saucers are either optical illusions or atmospheric phenomena. He pointed out, however, that some Military officials are seriously considering the possibility of interplanetary ships.” (V. P. Keay, “Flying Saucers,” October 27, 1952) October 27 — 4 :00 p.m. Residents of Gaillac, Tarn, France, see a formation of 16 disc-shaped UFOs ranged in twos. An elongated cylinder is in the center of the objects, all of which are discharging angel’s hair like glass wool. (Aimé Michel, The Truth about FS, p. 148; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, September – October, The Author, 1986, pp. 84– 85 ; Lotharson, “Unidentified Flying Spiders in Southern France?” Shards of Magonia, March 12, 2017 ) October 29 — 5:10 a.m. Two USAF F-94 crews see a white luminous object maneuvering at high speed for 20 minutes above Hempstead, Long Island, New York. Lt. William F. Hamilton and Lt. Norman W. Booth write: “Based on my experience in fighter tactics, it is my opinion that the object was controlled by something having visual contact with us. The power and acceleration were beyond the capability of any known aircraft.” (NICAP, “Two F- 94 ’s Encounter Controlled Object”; Sparks, p. 177 )

November — Aladino Félix and a friend are climbing a hill near Angatuba, São Paulo, Brazil. When they get to the top, Félix claims they see numerous UFOs flying around. Félix comes back another day by himself; eventually a saucer lands and he is invited inside to meet its crew and examine the technology. Several months later, he is visited at his home in São Paulo by the saucer captain, who claims to come from one or two of the satellites of Jupiter. Félix, under the pseudonym of Dino Kraspedon, writes about his various conversations with the spaceman in Meu Contato com os discos voadores in 1957. He writes other mystical and religious tracts under the names Dunatos Menorá and Sábado Dinotos. In 1967–1968, Félix is operating a right-wing terrorism group that sets off bombs, steals arms and explosives, and robs a bank. He serves three years in prison. (Clark III 661– 662 ; Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, pp. 164–165) November 1 — Nuclear test Ivy Mike is the first successful full-scale test of a multi-megaton thermonuclear weapon (“hydrogen bomb”) using the Teller-Ulam design the size of an airplane hangar. Unlike later thermonuclear weapons, Mike uses deuterium as its fusion fuel, maintained as a liquid by an expensive and cumbersome cryogenic system. It is detonated on Elugelab in the Marshall Islands yielding 10.4 megatons, almost 500 times the yield of the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. The fireball is 3 miles wide and completely destroys the atoll. USAF Capt. Jimmy Priestly Robinson of the 561st Fighter-Day Squadron, is lost near the end of his mission to successfully pilot his F-84G through the mushroom cloud’s stem to collect radiochemical air samples. After re- emerging from the cloud, both he and his wingman, pilot Captain Bob Hagan, encounter difficulties picking up navigational beacons due to “electromagnetic after effects” of the detonation. By the time they are successful in finding the signal four hours later, they are dangerously low on fuel, and before reaching the runway, both have depleted their reserves. While Hagan is able to glide to the runway and achieve a hard landing, Robinson is too far out to follow the same path and therefore attempts to land on water. Neither his plane nor his body has ever been found; his family only learned the truth in 2008 after repeated FOIA requests. (Wikipedia, “Ivy Mike”) November 4 — Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt and Lt. Robert M. Olsson visit Col. John R. Hood Jr., AMC chief of the Nuclear Powered Aircraft Branch of Wright Air Development Center. Hood had contacted ATIC in December 1950 in regard to certain sightings of UFOs at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, in which he and a naval officer attempted to obtain correlation between sightings and peaks in radiation backgrounds. Now there are indications that there may be some correlation present between unknown radar pickups and rises in radiation, and he suggests that ATIC begin an instrumented radiation program. (“Visit to WADC,” November 4, 1952; Patrick W. Hayes, “Unconventional Aircraft,” Spot Intelligence Report, Dec. 1950) November 4 — The National Security Agency is established in Fort Meade, Maryland, in a memo by Secretary of Defense Robert A. Lovett, making the new agency responsible for all communications intelligence. The existence of the NSA is not known to the public at this time. (Wikipedia, “National Security Agency”) November 4– 6 — The Baileys and Williamsons come up together for a visit to the Palomar Gardens Café. Adamski tells them he has been making special trips into the desert in hopes of meeting a saucer. Soon Adamski begins channeling space messages in the presence of the Williamsons and the Baileys. At one of these sessions, a space being declares that a face-to-face meeting will take place soon. Williamson and Bailey ask Adamski to call them before he attempts his next contact. (Michael D. Swords, “Strange Days,” IUR 30, no. 4 (Aug. 2006): 23; Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, p. 357) November 5 — Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected president. November 10 — Battelle’s Project Stork notes in its seventh status report that current UFO reports “are now in more detail and often consist of sightings of one object by more than one individual.” 500 copies of a final version of the sighting questionnaire were delivered to ATIC at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. It expects to have all UFO reports dated before June 15, 1952, processed and evaluated by December 10, ready for IBM analysis later. (Clark III 929; “Seven Status Reports for Project Stork, Part 4,” CUFON) November 16 —Around 5:00 p.m. An air traffic controller at Florence Airport, South Carolina, watches a huge, gleaming disc through binoculars and sees it tilt up sharply before climbing out of sight. About 6 minutes later, people see a group of round, glowing objects north of Landrum, South Carolina. David S. Bunch takes 40 minutes of film with an 8mm camera and telephoto lens before the UFOs disappear to the west. Keyhoe reviews the film along with some Air Force officers. It shows five glowing, oval-shaped objects. (Keyhoe, FS from OS, pp. 4 – 5 ; UFOEv, p. 89 ; Sparks, p. 180 ) November 18 — Date of the fake four-page “Briefing Document: Operation Majestic 12. Prepared for President-Elect Dwight D. Eisenhower: Eyes Only.” It states that UFOs are the product of an extraterrestrial civilization, that several had crashed and came into the possession of the US government, and that the US had custody of an alien for some time before it died. It says that Truman established the MJ-12 group in 1947. Called Majestic-12, the group supposedly consists of CIA Director Roscoe Hillenkoetter, Vannevar Bush, Secretary of Defense James Forrestal (replaced by Gen. Walter Bedell Smith in 1950), Gen. Nathan Twining, Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg, Detlev

Bronk, Jerome Clarke Hunsaker, Sidney Souers, Gordon Gray, Donald Menzel, Gen. Robert Miller Montague, and Lloyd Berkner. (“Briefing Document: Operation Majestic-12, Prepared for President-Elect Dwight D. Eisenhower (Eyes Only),” November 18, 1952; Stanton T. Friedman, “MJ 12: The Evidence So Far,” IUR 12, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1987): 13–17; Joe Nickell and John R. Fischer, “The Crashed-Saucer Forgeries,” IUR 15, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1990): 4– 20 ; Good Above, pp. 257 – 260 , 544 – 550 ) November 18 — President-Elect Eisenhower receives a 43-minute national security briefing on matters that are still classified. Gen. Nathan Twining, Gen. Omar Bradley, Adm. William Fechteler, Gen. J. Lawton Collins, Gen. Lemuel C. Shepherd Jr., and Secretary of Defense Robert A. Lovett are present. (Stanton T. Friedman, “MJ 12: The Evidence So Far,” IUR 12, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1987): 16) November 18 — George Adamski telephones George Hunt Williamson and tells him that the space people have informed him a physical encounter will take place on November 20. (Clark III 1284 ; Michael D. Swords, “Strange Days,” IUR 30, no. 4 (Aug. 2006): 23; Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, p. 358) November 19 — Pilot J. Slade Nash reaches 698.5 mph in a North American F-86D Sabre over the Salton Sea, California. (Bryan R. Swopes, “19 November 1952,” This Day in Aviation, 2018) November 20 — Morning. George Adamski and two associates, Lucy McGinnis and Alice Wells, drive out from the Palomar Gardens Café. They meet the Williamsons and the Baileys at Blythe, California, at 8:00 a.m., and they drive to Desert Center, California, taking Desert Center Rice Road 117 toward Coxcomb Mountain. (Clark III 1284 ; Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, p. 358) November 20 — 1:00 p.m. Adamski’s group picnics along the roadside. At 1:30 p.m., they see a cigar-shaped UFO that appears shortly after a US Air Force B-29 passes overhead going in the direction of Parker, Arizona. Adamski asks Lucy McGinnis, accompanied by Alfred Bailey, to drive him a bit more than half a mile away to a flatter area near the foot of Coxcomb Mountain where he can set up his telescope. The cigar-shaped UFO is allegedly following them. (Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, pp. 54 – 56, 358 – 359) November 20 — 1:57 p.m. Adamski stays behind to set up his equipment as McGinnis and Bailey return to the rest of the group. At 2:04 p.m., another UFO, this time a “Scout ship,” appears near Adamski, who takes seven photos through his telescope. The cigar-shaped UFO is still visible through binoculars. At 2:12 pm., Adamski takes three more photos of the Scout ship with a Kodak Brownie before it disappears behind a hill. Air Force jets circle the area at least twice. (Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, pp. 359 – 360) November 20 — 2:15 p.m. As he is packing up his telescope, Adamski sees a man waving to him from about a quarter- mile away. He walks over to him and meets an entity named Orthon as his 6 companions watch from a distance. Five-and-a-half feet tall, Orthon [could Adamski have thought of this name from Kodak Ortho film?] is a beautiful being with long blond hair and an extremely high forehead. Through gestures, sign language, a few words, and telepathy, Adamski learns that he is from Venus and the Venusians are visiting earth out of concern for nuclear weapons. The conversation lasts about 45 minutes. Orthon declines to be photographed but asks Adamski to borrow one of his unexposed photos. After Orthon leaves in his Scout ship around 3:04 p.m., Adamski finds tracks in the desert floor. His companions rejoin him at the site. Around 3:45 p.m., Williamson takes casts with plaster of paris, which he just happens to carry with him in case he runs into a stray bone. Each track contains within it a distinct set of symbols. After several hours of assessing the situation and waiting for the plaster to dry, the group returns to Desert Center, California. (Desmond Leslie and George Adamski, Flying Saucers Have Landed, British Book Centre, 1953 , pp. 185– 215 ; Adamski Foundation, “The Landing”; James W. Moseley, “Special Adamski Exposé Issue,” Saucer News, no. 27 (October 1957 ); Curt Collins, “Saucer News Presents: The George Adamski Exposé,” In Honor of James Moseley, May 30, 2014; Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, pp. 41–89, 360–362; Clark III 39– 40 , 1 284 ; Michael D. Swords, “Strange Days,” IUR 30, no. 4 (August 2006): 23; Michael D. Swords, “Adamski in the Desert,” IUR 31, no. 3 (October 2007): 22; Rene Erik Olsen, [George Adamski photo analysis], Adamski Foundation; Marc Hallet, A Critical Appraisal of George Adamski: The Man Who Spoke to the Space Brothers, The Author, 2016) November 20 — 9:00 p.m. The Williamsons and the Baileys, with Adamski’s permission, drive to Phoenix, Arizona, and tell the story of their contact to reporters at the Phoenix Gazette. (Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, pp. 363) November 21– 23 — An Air Force review panel meets at ATIC for three days and recommends that a “higher court” be formed to review UFOs. It schedules this tentatively for late December or early January. (Ruppelt, pp. 200 – 201 )

November 22 — 10 :00 p.m. Fr. Carlos Maria, a Capuchin missionary, and five others are driving along the road to Bocaranga, Ubangi-Shari [now Central African Republic] when they notice a large disc speeding overhead. Later, they see four others, motionless. They watch the UFOs for 20 minutes, changing shape and color. (Aimé Michel, The Truth about FS; Jimmy Guieu [pseudonym of Henri René Guieu], Les soucoupes volantes viennent d ’ un autre monde, Fleuve Noir, 1954 ; ClearIntent, pp. 128 – 129 ) November 24 — Andrija Puharich, invited by an Army colonel friend who is chief of the Research Section of the Office of the Chief of Psychological Warfare, delivers a lecture on ESP to high-ranking Pentagon officers in the Army’s Psychological Warfare Research Section and the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations. Col. Howard McCoy is probably present. (Nick Redfern, The Pyramids and the Pentagon, New Page, 2012 ; Michael D. Swords, “Strange Days, Part 2,” IUR 32, no. 2 (December 2008): 8) November 24 — The first printed account of the encounter with Orthon appears in the Phoenix Gazette. The newspaper publishes one of Adamski’s photos as well as a photo of the Williamsons and the Baileys. Adamski becomes instantly famous, and Williamson moves to Palomar Gardens for several days. When he tells Adamski he is planning to write a book about his channelings and contacts, Adamski warns him not to mention the contacts have been largely psychic. Adamski discourages him and they have a falling out. Alfred C. Bailey later says he has seen neither spaceship nor spaceman and doubts that anyone else has either. (Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, pp. 45 – 52, 99, 358 – 363 ; “Palomar Mountain, 1940–1960: From Obscurity to World Fame,” The Adamski Case, September 22, 2019) November 25 — ATIC Col. Donald L. Bower and Maj. Dewey Fournet brief CIA consultants Frederick C. Durant and Edward Tauss on Blue Book’s top three cases: the Tremonton UFO film of July 2; a dubious sighting of an object seen at Presque Isle and Limestone AFB [now Loring International Airport], Maine, on the night of October 10– 11 (which Hynek has already explained as a theodolite miscalibration causing Jupiter and its 4 prominent moons to be visible); and the problematic Florida scoutmaster case of August 19. USAF wants the CIA to think these are good cases until they unravel at the proposed Robertson Panel meeting. (CUFON, “The CUFON 1952 CIA UFO- Related Document Sampler, Part 1 of 2 Parts,” May 17, 1996; Clark III 1014) November 25– 26 — Two UFOs are tracked by defense radar in the Panama Canal Zone. (NICAP, “Two Objects Tracked by A/A Gun Radar”; Condon, pp. 168 – 170 ) November 26 — 5:56 p.m. An F-94B from the USAF 59th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at Goose Bay AFB [now CFB Goose Bay], Labrador, for 15 minutes chases a maneuverable object that changes color from white to red, heading south or southwest. The fighter gets a brief radar lock-on. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1952, November – December, The Author, 1986, p. 44; Sparks, p. 181 ) November 30 — 12:30 a.m. Numerous slow-moving 90–100 mph radar targets appear on the MEW VG-2 radar at Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C. Suggestive of anomalous propagation, but they are unlike the July 1952 cases since there is no visual confirmation, no other radars confirming, and no fighters scrambled. A pilot at 6,000 feet sees nothing. CAA Senior Airways Specialist Austin M. Stapf claims the same thing was observed at same time on November 29 , and that the Andrews AFB watch supervisor could not visually confirm targets over Andrews displayed on the ARTCC radar scope. (Sparks, p. 181)

December — Maj. Dewey Fournet completes a study of UFOs to assess whether their motions are random or ordered. He concludes that their reported movements show that UFOs are under intelligent control. (Ruppelt, pp. 189 – 190 ; Michael D. Swords, “Intelligent Motions,” IUR 33 , no. 1 (March 2010): 8 – 15 ) December 2 — CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence Director H. Marshall Chadwell writes another secret memo to Director Walter Bedell Smith on UFOs: “At this time, the reports of incidents convince us that there is something going on that must have immediate attention. The details of some of these incidents have been discussed by AD/SI with DDCI. Sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense installations are of such nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or known types of aerial vehicles.” Physicist Julius Adams Stratton and economist Max Millikan tell Chadwell that scientists at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory would like to be a part of any scientific study of the UFO phenomenon, perhaps through Millikan’s MIT Center for International Studies. Stratton indicates that Lab Director Albert G. Hill should organize the study. Attached is a draft of an intelligence directive by Chadwell on behalf of Smith to the National Security Council recommending that the CIA “formulate and carry out a program of intelligence and research activities required to solve the problem of instant positive identification of unidentified flying objects.” But Smith refuses to approve or sign the directive because he is briefing the president directly. (H. Marshall Chadwell, “Unidentified Flying Objects,” December 2, 1952; CUFON, “The CUFON 1952 CIA UFO-Related Document Sampler, Part 1 of 2 Parts,” May 17, 1996; Swords 175; Clark III 1013)

December 3 — In another “Flying Saucer” memo, Chadwell admits the Air Force would be suspicious of any MIT Lincoln Lab involvement, and that Princeton or Cal Tech would do, and that “it will be necessary to secure the full backing of the DCI in order that a scientific review of the problem may be laid on.” However, he recommends that this “External Research Project Concerned with Unidentified Flying Objects” be administered by Max Millikan at the MIT Center for International Studies. (P. G. Strong, “Flying Saucers,” December 3, 1952; CUFON, “The CUFON 1952 CIA UFO-Related Document Sampler, Part 1 of 2 Parts,” May 17, 1996; Swords 185 – 186 ) December 4 —The CIA Intelligence Advisory Committee recommends that “the Director of Central Intelligence will ‘enlist the services of selected scientists to review and appraise the available evidence in the light of pertinent scientific theories.’” The meeting, chaired by Chadwell, is attended by Robert Amory Jr., Gen. John Samford, Rear Admiral Carl F. Espe, Gen. John M. Willems, William Park Armstrong, Walter F. Colby, Col. Edward R. Porter, and Col. Jere Boggs. This is to be done “immediately” through a National Security Council Intelligence Directive and is essentially the go-ahead for what will be the Robertson Panel. (Robert Amory Jr., “Intelligence Advisory Committee: Minutes of Meeting Held in Director’s Conference Room, Administration Building, Central Intelligence Agency, on 4 December 1952,” December 4, 1952; CUFON, “The CUFON 1952 CIA UFO-Related Document Sampler, Part 1 of 2 Parts,” May 17, 1996; Swords 184, 186– 187 ; Hynek UFO Report, p. 20 ; Clark III 1013 ) December 4 — 8:46 p.m. USAF pilot Lt. Robert O. Arnold, 3640th Pilot Training Wing, Laredo AFB [now Laredo International Airport], Texas, is flying a T- 2 8 trainer at 6,000 feet when he sees a bright bluish-white glowing object below him at about 1,500–2,000 feet and rapidly climbing to his level. It shows no navigation lights. He tightens his left turn to keep the object in view, but it suddenly climbs to 9,000 feet in several seconds and drops down to his altitude again, then stops and hovers. Arnold pursues but after 2 seconds the object suddenly heads towards him on a collision course at high speed at 8:53 p.m., wavering slightly at about 300 feet. He sees the object as a blurred reddish-bluish haze smaller than his T-28. It rapidly ascends to 15,000 feet then circles left as if positioning for another pass. In fear Arnold turns off his running lights, spirals down to 1,500 feet while keeping the object in sight as it continues to head towards him in a dive, then pulls up and climbs out of sight. A lighted weather balloon is launched at 8:53 p.m. from Laredo AFB but it is not observed near any aircraft. (NICAP, “The Laredo / ‘Earl Fogle’ Case”; Sparks, p. 182 ) December 6 — 5:24 a.m. The 3 - man crew of a USAF B-29 (1st Lt. Norman Karas and 1st Lt. William W. Naumann) over the Gulf of Mexico 100 miles south of Louisiana track five unidentified blips on the bomber’s radar. They maneuver around the plane at a speed of 5,240 mph. The crew sees some flashes of light, but the targets are 20 miles or more away. The five UFOs merge with a huge blip that accelerates and vanishes at a speed of 9,000 mph. Additional crewmen involved are 1st Lt. William W. Naumann, Jr., Staff Sgt B. R. Purcell, Staff Sgt. William J. De Rause, 2nd Lt. Robert J. Eckert, and Staff Sgt. Harry D. Shogren. (NICAP, “B-29 Encounters High Speed Objects over Gulf”; Keyhoe, FS from OS, pp. 161 – 166 ; Sparks, p. 183 ; Condon, pp. 148 – 150 ; Patrick Gross, “B- 29 Radar and Visual Multiple Witnesses Observations, Dec. 6, 1952”) December 9 — Col. Donald L. Bower forbids Ruppelt from visiting the CIA to give its Office of Scientific Intelligence certain UFO cases in preparation for the Robertson Panel in January. CIA consultant Frederick C. Durant learns about this the same day in a phone call to Ruppelt. (Frederick C. Durant, “Unidentified Flying Objects,” December 9, 1952; CUFON, “The CUFON 1952 CIA UFO-Related Document Sampler, Part 1 of 2 Parts,” May 17, 1996; Thomas Tulien, ed., Proceedings of the Sign Historical Group UFO History Workshop, Sign Historical Group, November 2001, p. 47; Clark III 1014) December 10 — H. Marshall Chadwell writes to Walter Bedell Smith that OSI has been working with mathematician Howard P. Robertson of Cal Tech to establish a panel of scientists (including astronomer Thornton Leigh Page) and engineers to review the status of UFOs in January. Somewhere along the line, MIT’s Lincoln Labs and CIS have been eliminated. (Thornton Page, [Letter], December 12, 1952; CUFON, “The CUFON 1952 CIA UFO- Related Document Sampler, Part 1 of 2 Parts,” May 17, 1996; Swords 187–188) December 10 — 7:15 p.m. The pilot and radar observer of an F-94 patrolling from Moses Lake AFB [now the Grant County International Airport] spots a light over the Hanford nuclear plant near Richland, Washington, while flying at 26,000 feet. They contact the ground control station, which reports that they know of no planes in the area and that their ground radar shows nothing. They close in on the object, which is large, white, and round and features a dim reddish light coming from two windows. They lose visual contact then get a lock-on from their ARC-33 airborne radar. As they attempt to close in, the object reverses direction and dives away. They attempt several more times to approach the light and have to alter course to avoid a collision that seems imminent. (NICAP, “F-94 R/V with Round Object”; Ruppelt, pp. 61 – 62 ; Sparks, p. 185; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on

Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, p. 66; Center for UFO Studies, [case file]; Patrick Gross, “Radar Visual Aircraft UFO Encounter near Hanford Nuclear Plant, December 10, 1952”) December 12 — The CIA, having learned that ATIC is withholding significant case reports for the upcoming Robertson Panel, sends a three-man team to Wright-Patterson AFB in order to obtain relevant documents. The team includes Robertson himself, CIA Assistant Director H. Marshall Chadwell, and CIA rocket consultant Frederick C. Durant, a personal friend of Ruppelt who urges him to comply. At ATIC they meet with personnel from Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, which has been studying the UFO data in great secrecy. Battelle requests the CIA to postpone the panel until March so they can finish the study. Robertson agrees to postpone the panel, but is later overruled by CIA Director Gen. Walter Bedell Smith. (CUFON, “The CUFON 1952 CIA UFO- Related Document Sampler, Part 1 of 2 Parts,” May 17, 1996; NICAP, “The 1952 Sighting Wave”; Thomas Tulien, ed., Proceedings of the Sign Historical Group UFO History Workshop, Sign Historical Group, November 2001 , p. 47; Clark III 1014) December 13 — Morning. George Adamski’s scout ship makes a second appearance, this time at the Palomar Gardens Café in California, ostensibly so that Orthon can return the photo he borrowed. The film holder is pushed out of a porthole to the ground. One of the three Venusian photos taken by Adamski, though credited to Jerrold E. Baker, is taken secretly the day before by Adamski, probably of a model. Bill Moore claims in 1985 that the photos resemble the prototype space vehicle described in Mason Rose’s A Simplified Explanation of the Application of the Biefeld-Brown Effect to the Solution of the Problems of Space Navigation, published in February 1952 (Clark III 40; Desmond Leslie and George Adamski, Flying Saucers Have Landed, British Book Centre, 1953 , pp. 217– 221 ; Paul E. Potter, “The Flying Saucer”; “Some New Facts about Flying Saucers Have Landed,” Nexus 2, no. 1 (January 1955): 13–17; James W. Moseley, “Special Adamski Exposé Issue,” Saucer News, no. 27 (October 1957 ); Curt Collins, “Saucer News Presents: The George Adamski Exposé,” In Honor of James Moseley, May 30, 2014; George M. Eberhart, “Postcards with a UFO Theme,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 21; Rene Erik Olsen, “The 13th December 1952 Photos of George Adamski Analysis,” April 23, 2019; Rene Erik Olsen, [George Adamski photo analysis], Adamski Foundation; Marc Hallet, A Critical Appraisal of George Adamski: The Man Who Spoke to the Space Brothers, The Author, 2016) December 15 — 7:15 p.m. Two Air Force pilots get a momentary lock on a strange object above Goose Bay, Labrador. A T-33 and an F- 94 B (piloted by Capt. E. T. Johnson and Radar Observer Lt. H. S. Norris) see a bright red and white light. (NICAP, “Momentary Lock On”; Condon, pp. 126 – 127 ; Sparks, p. 186 ) December 16 — Chadwell tells CIA Acting Deputy Director for Intelligence Robert Amory Jr. that he is unimpressed with the three Blue Book cases, especially since Presque Isle was identified as the planet Jupiter. (Clark III 1014) December 21 — Lyman Streeter and five other witnesses observe a large, cigar-shaped object over Winslow, Arizona. (Michael D. Swords, “Strange Days,” IUR 30, no. 4 (Aug. 2006): 24) December 21 — Evening. J. E. Hawkey, civil commissioner of Fort Victoria [now Masvingo], Zimbabwe, is driving near Mvuma when he sees a bright red light crossing the road about 30 feet in the air, then hovering. Suddenly it shoots straight up and disappears. After a short while it descends some distance away and travels straight down the road. Hawkey follows it at about 80 mph, after which it speeds up and disappears at three or more times the speed. He has the object in sight for about 20 minutes. (Southern Rhodesia Newsletter; Jan Aldrich) December 22 — Ruppelt finds out that the CIA Robertson Panel is back on again after being postponed on December 12. Apparently under pressure from the Air Force, which is setting a trap to embarrass the CIA with sensational IFO cases dressed up as “best” unknown UFO cases, CIA Director Gen. Walter Bedell Smith reverses the decision to postpone the panel meeting till March 1953 or later. Smith orders the Robertson Panel to be carried out immediately. A rush-to-judgment panel will have no time to reflect on the USAF trickery involved in the IFOs-as- UFOs deception and will just react in dismissive skepticism that there is no scientific evidence for UFO reality, and hence no reason for the CIA to intrude into USAF jurisdiction over air intelligence matters such as unidentified aerial threats (UFOs). Ruppelt calls ADC to say that he will not be able to conduct the ADC UFO briefing tour as previously scheduled due to the CIA meeting now tentatively set in early January 1953 (he confirms the call by teletype December 23). (Thomas Tulien, ed., Proceedings of the Sign Historical Group UFO History Workshop, Sign Historical Group, November 2001, p. 48; Clark III 1014) December 22 — 7:30 p.m. An instrument technician driving toward Larson AFB [now Grant County International Airport] near Moses Lake, Washington, stops his car to watch a hat-shaped glowing object rising vertically in odd spurts right and left, then level off at high speed. The object glows white with a red side when it is rotated. Halfway through a roll the light disappears, then it holds stationary in the sky with jumpy movements. Duration is about 15 minutes. (NICAP, “Hat-Shaped Object Observed by Technician”; Sparks, p. 16) December 29 — 7:48 p.m. Col. Donald J. M. Blakeslee, 27th Fighter Escort Wing, while flying near Misawa, northern Honshu, Japan, in an F-84G at 27,000 feet in altitude, observes an object like a rotating cluster of lights colored

white, green, and red. Blakeslee climbs to 35,000 feet, at which point he is level with the unknown object. He attempts a pursuit, but the UFO disappears in 30 seconds. (NICAP, “Col. Blakeslee / F-84 Incident”; Sparks, p. 187 ; Swords 212–213) December 29 — 9:05 p.m. Capt. William T. Bowley and Capt. Herbert T. Lange, both of Perrin AFB [now North Texas Regional Airport] near Denison, Texas, are piloting a B-26 on a training flight headed west at 6,000 feet altitude and 300 mph when they see a large, intense, bluish-white light near Vega, Texas. It is about 350 feet long at their 11 o’clock position, paralleling their course at the same altitude and closing slightly. After 5 minutes, the object suddenly climbs vertically 7,000 feet in 5 seconds (about 2,000 mph) to disappear in thin clouds at 13,000 feet and causing the clouds to glow as if lit by a searchlight. Bowley radios the CAA controller in Tucumcari, New Mexico. Shortly after, the object reappears under the clouds and the CAA controller is told to look for it but he can’t see it (possibly because he is told to look in the wring direction). After 2 minutes, it climbs to the west and disappears. (NICAP, “Object Closing on B-36 Suddenly Climbs”; Sparks, p. 187) December 31 — Project Blue Book issues its Status Report #8, classified “confidential.” (US Air Force, Projects Grudge and Blue Book Reports 1 – 12, NICAP, 1968, pp. 131– 154 )

1953

1953 — During off-shore combat maneuvers, a squadron of carrier-based Navy AD-3 attack planes is approached by a rocket-shaped UFO that swoops down on the flight from above. The object levels off about 1,000 feet overhead, slows, and paces the aircraft. When the Squadron Commander leads his flight in pursuit of the UFO, it turns sharply so that its tail is pointed away and shoots upward out of sight in seconds. (Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 266 – 267 ). 1953 — Midday. A member of the crew of a Shell tanker in Hong Kong harbor, China, watches, along with many others on shore and aboard the ship, a silver-white disc hovering at 6,000–7,000 feet. Within a second or so, it moves a full 45° arc to an area where there are some white clouds at about 5,000 fee. It shines through the cloud cover like the moon through a mist. (J. Allen Hynek, “A Daylight Disc in Hong Kong Harbor,” IUR 2, no. 8 (August 1977): wrap) 1953 — Evening. An Air Force pilot and a student are flying an F- 84 Thunderjet on the home leg of a training flight over North Texas when the student notes an out-of-place light. At first the pilot thinks it’s Venus, but they realize it is moving. The student steers the plane toward the light, but it zooms past them at high speed. The pilot takes the stick and turns the aircraft to follow it. The light, which now looks like a metallic domed disc with windows, passes them again. The pilot accelerates to more than 500 mph and pursues it; the disc roars past them again. The chase goes on for 10–15 minutes until a final pass when the object shines a bright light into the cockpit. The pilot takes an evasive measure and flies back to base. (CUFOS case file) 1953 — Fred P. Stone founds the Australian Flying Saucer Club in Adelaide, South Australia. It later becomes the Australian Flying Saucer Research Society and publishes the Australian Saucer Record from 1955 to 1963. From 1962 to 1971, it publishes Panorama. (Australian Saucer Record 1, no. 2 (2nd Quarter, 1955); Panorama 1, no. 1 (1962))

January — Beams of microwaves, varying between 2.5 and 4 gigahertz, from Soviet sources aimed at the US embassy in Moscow are first detected, increasing in intensity by 1975. Detected by routine background radiation testing, the beams come from a source in a Soviet apartment building about 325 feet west of the embassy, affecting the west façade of the central building, with highest intensities between the third and eighth floors. The microwave transmissions are only five microwatts per square centimeter, well below the power level of microwave ovens and well below what would be needed to heat anything. Shielding is put in place by 1964, but the discovery is kept secret. (Wikipedia, “Moscow Signal”; J. Mark Elwood, “Microwaves in the Cold War: The Moscow Embassy Study and Its Interpretation,” Environmental Health 11 (2012)) January 1 — 8:45 p.m. While driving on Hwy 91 between Craig and Wolf Creek, Montana, Warner E. Anderson, manager of a photo shop with wartime air spotter experience; Mrs. Greta C. Wills, manager of women’s apparel store; and teenager Marlene Wills see a saucer-shaped object above horizon about 5 miles away to the southwest. The object is an estimated 25–40 feet long and 6–8 or 18–25 feet thick and looks like two soup bowls joined at the rims. It has a red glowing bottom and portholes. The object dives low over the Missouri River to within 150–300 feet away then climbs fast horizontally at an estimated 3,600 mph to the northeast. (NICAP, “The 1953 UFO Chronology”; Sparks, p. 188 ) January 3 — The 4602d Air Intelligence Service Squadron (AISS) is created at Ent AFB [now the US Olympic Training Center] in Colorado Springs, Colorado, by Air Defense Command Regulation AFR 24 - 4. One of its missions is to

collect physical UFO evidence. (Brian Skow and Terry Endres, “The 4602d Air Intelligence Service Squadron and UFOs,” IUR 20, no. 5 (Winter 1995): 9) January 6 — 1:05 a.m. The 147th AC&W Squadron at Duncanville, Texas, is notified by the CAA at Meacham Field [now Fort Worth Meacham International Airport] about a UFO northeast of Dallas. Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City reports a radar target 20 miles southwest of Paris, Texas. An arrowhead-shaped UFO with green and white lights is seen by some witnesses in the Dallas area. (NICAP, “Arrow-Shaped Object Tracked at 600 Knots”; “‘Flying Arrowhead’ Seen over Dallas: ‘Not a Star or Plane,’” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 6, 1953, p. 1; Sparks, p. 188 ) January 8 — 7:15–7:30 a.m. USAF ADC 82nd Fighter Interceptor Squadron personnel at Larson AFB [now Grant County International Airport], Moses Lake, Washington, all on the ground, see a green, disc-shaped object about the size of large weather balloon flying to the southwest. It has a vertical bobbing motion and makes sideways movements at about 8,000 feet below scattered clouds. It moves away against the wind until it disappears in the distance. The object is also observed by base personnel at Ephrata, Washington. An F-94 is scrambled at 7:43 a.m. and searches for 30 minutes, but the UFO is gone. (NICAP, “The 1953 UFO Chronology”; Sparks, p. 188 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 50 – 51 ) January 8 — 10:20 p.m. A triangular object with a brilliant reddish glow is seen for 10 minutes at Mosgiel, New Zealand. It fades, then reappears with a rising and falling motion, accompanied by a small white light. (“The New Zealand Sightings,” Flying Saucer News, no. 1 (Spring 1953): 8) January 9 — Howard C. Cross, a senior staff member at Battelle, writes a letter to Col. Miles E. Goll of ATIC, arguing that “agreement between Project Stork [Battelle’s study] and ATIC should be reached as to what can and what cannot be discussed at the meeting in Washington on January 14–16.” He suggests a “controlled experiment” be undertaken by USAF to obtain physical data. This would consist of “observation posts with complete visual skywatch, with radar and photographic coverage, plus all other instruments necessary or helpful in obtaining positive and reliable data on everything in the air over the area.” The suggestion is that “Many different types of aerial activity should be secretly and purposefully scheduled within the area,” meaning that the Air Force would release balloons to generate spurious UFO phenomena. The memo is a desperate effort to buy time for Battelle to finish its statistical analysis. Jacques Vallée speculates that this letter by Cross (to whom Vallée assigns the pseudonym “Pentacle”) could have led to the military setting up artificial UFO waves and simulated cases in selected areas; however, this is clearly not the case, as Jennie Zeidman and Mark Rodeghier elaborately demonstrate in IUR. (H. C. Cross letter to Miles E. Goll, January 9, 1952; NICAP, “The ‘Pentacle Memorandum,’ Including Text of Correspondence with Dr. Jacques Vallee,” August 17, 1993; Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, p. 191 ; The Hynek UFO Report, p. 21; Jacobs, The UFO Controversy, Signet ed., 1976, p. 79 ; Jacques Vallée, Forbidden Science, North Atlantic, 1992, p. 428; Clark III 1214–1215; Thomas Tulien, ed., Proceedings of the Sign Historical Group UFO History Workshop, Sign Historical Group, November 2001, p. 48; Jennie Zeidman, “I Remember Blue Book,” IUR 16, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1991): 7–12, 23; Jennie Zeidman and Mark Rodeghier, “The Pentacle Letter and the Battelle UFO Project,” IUR 18, no. 3 (May/June 1993): 4–12, 19–21) January 9 — The CIA/OSI attempts to get Walter Bedell Smith’s approval for “two series” of scientific panels in January and February, which would buy some time, but the suggestion is rejected. (Clark III 1014) January 9 — Radio station KVET in Kerrville, Texas, blames a 75-second interruption in its operation on a red-orange oval object seen by four junior high school students over the city at the same time. Ivan Young, 13, and Edgar Rasmussen, 14, see the object fly in from the west, circle, and disappear to the north. They see two fins on its end shooting out red and green flames. It is making a buzzing noise. KVET engineer Britt Lamb says the radio interference is the weirdest he has ever seen—heavy static “with a roar that traveled up and down the scale.” (“Fiery Object Jams Radio at Kerrville,” Fort Worth (Tex.) Star-Telegram, January 10, 1953, p. 2; Schopick, pp. 78 – 79 ) January 9 — 6:50 p.m. An F-94 makes radar contact with a UFO at a range of about 13.5 miles over Misawa Air Base, Honshu, Japan. The radar locks on at 15,000 feet and contact is broken at a range of 600 feet. The radar observer reports unusual interference on the set throughout the mission, but the set appears to be operative both before and after. The radar contact lasts approximately 2 minutes. (NICAP, “F-94 Radar/Visual of Rotating UFO”; Sparks, p. 189 ) January 9 — 7:27 p.m. B-29 copilot 1 st Lt. Charles C. Loveless sees a V-formation of bluish-white lights approaching his aircraft over Santa Ana, California. Pilot 1 st Lt. Lowell D. Brandt turns to avoid them. (NICAP, “B-29 Bomber Crew Watch V-Formation”; UFOEv, p. 21 ) January 10 — 4:45 p.m. Retired Air Force Col. Robert McNab and a Mr. Hunter of the Federal Security Agency see a flat object to the northwest of their location 8 miles west of Sonoma, California. It is traveling about 2,400 mph and

makes three 360° right turns in 2–3 seconds each in about 1/8 the radius required for jets (about 1/4 mile) and two abrupt 90° turns to the right and left, each turn 5 seconds apart. It almost stops, accelerates to its original high speed, almost stops again, speeds up again, and finally flies out of sight vertically. (NICAP, “Flat Object at 2,400 MPH”; Sparks, p. 189 ) January 12 — 1:00 p.m. Maurício Ramos is driving on grassy terrain near Santana dos Montes, Minas Gerais, Brazil, when he sees a luminous, metallic disc smaller than a Volkswagen hovering 6 feet from the ground. He approaches to within 6 feet of it, and a door opens. Two entitles shorter than 5 feet tall, wearing lead-colored clothing with shiny balls fitted to the shoes, jump out. Ramos thinks they invite him aboard, but he does not answer because he is getting an increasingly severe headache as he watches. When the headache goes away, the disc and creatures have disappeared. (“Pesquisas sobre Tripulantes de DV,” Boletim SBEDV, no. 55/59 (1967): 1– 2, 8–9; Brazil 25–26) January 14 — 9:30 a.m. The opening meeting of the Robertson Panel convenes in the OSI conference room at CIA Building “M” in Washington, D.C. Present are scientists Howard P. Robertson, Samuel A. Goudsmit, Luis Walter Alvarez, and Thornton Leigh Page. CIA members Philip Grandin Strong, Lt. Col. Frederick C. E. Oder, David B. Stevenson, and Frederick C. Durant are also present. All are skeptical, if not openly hostile to UFO reports. Page later says that “H. P. Robertson told us in the first private (no outsiders) session that our job was to reduce public concern and show that UFO reports could be explained by conventional reasoning.” The panel first reviews the CIA OSI study from August, the ATIC November 21 meeting, the December 4 IAC decision, the visit to ATIC by Chadwell and Robertson, and CIA concern over potential national security dangers. They watch the Montana and Utah films. Lt. Robert S. Neasham and Harry Woo of the Navy Photo Interpretation Laboratory report on their analyses of both films, which conclude that the objects are unidentified. Ruppelt speaks for 40 minutes on the Blue Book method of UFO investigation. It is possibly here that he first suggests using 4602nd AISS field units to conduct Blue Book field investigations. The meeting adjourns at 5:15 p.m. (Frederick C. Durant, “Report of Meetings of Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, January 14–18, 1953,” memorandum for Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, February 16, 1953; Clark III 1014– 1015 ; Michael D. Swords, “Dr. Robertson Requests the Honor of Your Attendance,” IUR 20, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1995): 16–20; Good Above, pp. 335 – 339 ; Swords 188– 192 ) January 15 — The second day of the Robertson Panel. Ruppelt completes his presentation, then Hynek discusses Battelle’s Project Stork. The CIA shows a film of seagulls in flight. Lt. Col. Oder gives a 40-minute presentation on Project Twinkle. In the afternoon, Gen. William M. Garland states his desire to increase the use of thoroughly briefed USAF intelligence officers to investigate UFO reports, declassify as many reports as possible, and enlarge Blue Book. Other USAF representatives discuss the difficulties of setting up instrument watches to monitor sightings. (Frederick C. Durant, “Report of Meetings of Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, January 14–18, 1953,” memorandum for Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, February 16, 1953; O’Connell 87– 89 ; Clark III 1015; Michael D. Swords, “Dr. Robertson Requests the Honor of Your Attendance,” IUR 20, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1995): 16–20) January 16 — The third day of the Robertson Panel. Hynek speaks again, followed by Maj. Dewey Fournet, who talks about his motion studies of UFOs that indicate controlled flight. Physicist Lloyd Berkner joins the panel in the afternoon. In the afternoon, panel members talk about conclusions they have reached, and Robertson agrees to draft a report for review (although it has already been written by Durant prior to the meetings, which Fournet has suspected). (Frederick C. Durant, “Report of Meetings of Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, January 14–18, 1953,” memorandum for Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, February 16, 1953; O’Connell 87– 89 ; Clark III 1015; Michael D. Swords, “Dr. Robertson Requests the Honor of Your Attendance,” IUR 20, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1995): 16–20) January 17 — The final day of the Robertson Panel. The panel reviews Robertson’s draft report (Berkner has already seen it) and puts it into final form. (By 11 :00 a.m., both CIA Director Walter Bedell Smith and Gen. John A. Samford have seen and approved the draft.) The scientists agree that since most sightings can be explained, the rest can be accounted for with further investigation, which is a “great waste of effort.” They reject Fournet’s UFO reports as “raw” and “unevaluated.” The Montana film is said to depict aircraft. They reject the Navy analysis of the Utah film, calling the objects “high reflectivity of seagulls in bright sunlight.” Because the “mass receipt of low-grade reports [tends] to overload channels of communication with material quite irrelevant to hostile objects that might some day appear” (a phony issue invented by Thornton Page), the Air Force should embark on a debunking campaign that would “result in reduction of public interest in flying saucers” with the help of scientific pronouncements (suggested by Hynek) and media, including Walt Disney Inc. animated cartoons. Blue Book should be expanded to 18 staff members (it has 5) so that it can educate and debunk effectively, but this never happens. Civilian UFO groups such as CSI and APRO should be watched “because of their potentially great

influence on mass thinking if widespread sightings should occur. The apparent irresponsibility and the possible use of such groups for subversive purposes should be kept in mind.” The panel and report are kept classified until a brief summary is declassified in 1958, and the CIA’s involvement is kept secret until 1966. (Frederick C. Durant, “Report of Meetings of Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, January 14–18, 1953,” memorandum for Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, February 16, 1953; Clark III 1014– 1016 ; Michael D. Swords, “Dr. Robertson Requests the Honor of Your Attendance,” IUR 20, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1995): 16– 20 ; Swords 192–200) January 17 — 3:55 p.m. Geologist/salesman John Townsend Sackett is riding in a bus with about a dozen passengers near Guatemala City, Guatemala, when he observes a brilliant greenish-gold object, shaped like the Goodyear blimp. It is later described as being about twice the size of a DC-3. The object is traveling at about 400 mph straight and level in a northwesterly direction at about 6,500 feet. It almost stops in mid-flight then rises vertically about 1,500 feet, hovers for about 2 seconds, then immediately resumes flight at a new altitude. The object is lost to view because of intervening terrain. (NICAP, “Blimp-Like Object Sighted by Geologist”; Sparks, p. 189) January 18 — Upon Hynek’s return to Ohio State University from the Robertson Panel, he and his new research assistant Jennie Zeidman come up with the name “Project Henry” to describe his consultancy with the Air Force. It is based on the Flit bug-spray advertisement that has a woman saying, “Quick, Henry, the Flit!” About once a week, a courier from Battelle arrives at Hynek’s office with a manila envelope stuffed with teletype UFO reports for him to examine. Hynek travels to the Blue Book facility in Building 263 at Wright-Patterson about 2–3 times a month, with Zeidman sometimes accompanying him, (Jennie Zeidman, “I Remember Blue Book,” IUR 16, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1991): 7–12, 23) January 20 — Robertson writes a letter to Chadwell, saying “perhaps that’ll take care of the Forteans for a while” and mentions an upcoming meeting with the “NSA group” on February 5. (Swords 189) January 20 — Dwight D. Eisenhower is sworn in as president. January 24 — Ruppelt travels to Ent AFB [now the US Olympic Training Center] in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to brief the 4602nd AISS on how they might help Blue Book investigate UFOs. He also puts in for a transfer to Air Defense Command here. January 26 — Air Force Press Officer Albert M. Chop writes a letter to Keyhoe’s publisher Henry Holt & Co., declaring that all the sighting reports he is using for his upcoming Flying Saucers from Outer Space were cleared and made available to him from Air Technical Intelligence records. (Albert E. Chop, Letter to Henry Holt & Company, January 26, 1953; Good Above, p. 542 ) January 28 — 1:06 p.m. R. W. Love and a Mr. Ferrenti, while engaged in retrieving radio-controlled drones on a boat 1,100 yards offshore and south of Naval Air Station Point Mugu [now Naval Base Ventura County] near Oxnard, California, see a white, flat disc with fuzzy or shimmering edges rapidly approach from the northwest flying straight and level, overtake a jet aircraft, pass overhead, and disappear in the haze to the east. (NICAP, “Flat Disc Observed Overtaking Jet”; Sparks, p. 190) January 28 — 2:20 p.m. Northrop Aircraft test pilot Rex Hardy Jr. is flying over Malibu, California, when he and two other crew members see a formation of four UFOs the size of a B-36. They are circular in shape, aluminum- colored, and flying at 1,200 mph. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 50) January 28 — A Maj. Geyer at Mitchel AFB [now closed] near Uniondale, New York, investigates reports of a UFO seen by both civilian and military witnesses. The UFO is an oval object glowing with different colors and having a tail or projection. He quickly concludes that it is a meteor and submits a report to Blue Book. However, one of the witnesses, author Marie Armstrong Essipoff (Ben Hecht’s first wife), later writes to Keyhoe saying that she had told Geyer that the object wobbled and it had a turret on top. She draws a picture and Geyer says it looks like one of their flight simulators. But it’s “still a meteor,” he says. (Swords 199–200) January 28 — 9:00 p.m. The control tower at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro [now closed], California, spots a large, luminous, red object and asks Maj. Harvey N. Patton to give chase. He pursues it from Newport Beach to Long Beach and has it in sight for 3– 4 minutes but is unable to gain on it. (NICAP, “Marine Fighter Asked to Check on Amber Object”) January 28 — 9:40 p.m. Maj. Hal W. Lamb, USAF senior pilot at Moody AFB in Valdosta, Georgia, apparently sees the setting planet Venus (although this is disputed) changing color and shape while flying a T- 33 (or an F-86). It is also seen by Turner AFB [now Naval Air Station Albany] tower operators in Albany [not Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta], Georgia (with time errors of about 10 minutes). About the same time, two GCA radar maintenance men at Turner AFB radar track three moving targets and a stationary target. At 10: 10 p.m., the GCA reports two stationary targets at 17 and 27 miles, both 300° azimuth. No visual confirmation, though binoculars are used. (NICAP, “Several Radar Contacts”; Sparks, p. 191 ; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1953, January – March, The Author, 1988, p. 66; Marler 129– 130 )

January 29 — Ruppelt still thinks that the Robertson Panel has accepted Garland’s recommendation to expand Blue Book (it hasn’t) and that its education and debunking recommendation means that UFO information should be released to the public (it didn’t). Fournet, Chop, and Col. Teabert (Kenneth E. Thiebaud?) of AFOIN-2 think the same. In Washington, Ruppelt hears that the press has heard rumors about the Utah film, and he decides to release it, focusing on the seagull explanation. (The Hynek UFO Report, p. 236 ) January 29 — A briefing of the Office of Naval Estimates Board by the CIA on UFOs includes the showing of the Utah and Montana films. (Frederick C. Durant, “Briefing of ONE Board on Unidentified Flying Objects,” January 30, 1953) January 29 — 9:55 a.m. A small gray oval-shaped object is seen between Houlton and Chatham, Maine, by 2nd Lt. Fred T. Goetting Jr., pilot of an F-94B. Goetting points out the object to his radar observer, Lt. Howard C. Kelley. The object appears to be 10° above the F-94B, which is at 23,000 feet. Goetting attempts to intercept the object at a speed of 0.8 Mach. This chase continues for 8 minutes without the F-94 gaining, and the chase is broken off because of low fuel. The object is seen by at least two fighter aircraft from other squadrons. (NICAP, “Gray Oval Sighted by 3 Fighter Aircraft”; Sparks, p. 191 ) January 29 — 11:30 p.m. A farmer named Lloyd C. Booth just north of Conway, South Carolina, hears a commotion of animals, grabs his .22 revolver, and sees an oblong-shaped, lighted object 10 feet above the trees moving slowly or hovering, with a low humming sound. He shoots at the object twice. The first bullet bounces off with a metallic sound; at the second shot the object tilts slightly and ascends at a 65° angle to the west at 600–700 mph and disappears. One of his cows had died the previous evening. (NICAP, “Man Fires 0.22 at Hovering Object”; Sparks, p. 191 ; “Conway S.C. Man Shoots Saucer,” APRO Bulletin 1, no. 5 (March 15, 1953): 1, 4– 5 ; Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 64 – 66 ) January 29 — 2:20 p.m. Northrup test pilot Rex Hardy Jr., test pilot Chester Mathews, and Northrup photographer Jim Wilkinson see four metallic, disc-shaped object the size of a B-36 flying in squadron formation over Malibu Beach, California. They estimate their height as 20,000 feet and speed as 1,200 mph. They watch for about 5 minutes. (NICAP, “Four B- 36 - Sized Discs Observed by 3-Man Crew”) January 31 — Project Blue Book issues its Status Report #9. (US Air Force, Projects Grudge and Blue Book Reports 1 – 12, NICAP, 1968, pp. 155– 174 )

February — Albert K. Bender appoints Gray Barker as IFSB’s chief investigator. (“IFSB Forms Dept. of Investigation,” Space Review 2, no. 2 (April 1953): 1; Clark III 1 89) February 1 — 9:30 p.m. A T-33 flying 10 miles west of Terre Haute, Indiana, sights a close group of moving lights changing color from red to blue, to green to yellow. The pilot estimates their altitude to range between 15 ,000 feet to 30 ,000 feet flying in a manner similar to conventional aircraft. Searchlights from the St. Louis, Missouri, area seem to be following the unidentified lights. (NICAP, “T-33 Pilot Observes Unidentified Lights”) February 3 — 8:00 p.m. George Hunt Williamson and his wife Betty Jane watch two UFOs near the ground from their home on Brookside Boulevard in Prescott, Arizona. Another UFO passes over the house at 10:00 p.m. (Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, pp. 363–364) February 4 — 1:50 p.m. US Weather Bureau observer Stanley H. Brown in Yuma, Arizona, tracks with a theodolite a white, oblong object. It is surrounded by a thin white mist and flies straight up and levels off. After 20 seconds, the object is joined by a second one that flies away twice and returns. Both are lost to sight behind clouds to the south-southwest. The sighting lasts 5 minutes. (NICAP, “Theodolite Tracking of Two Elliptical Objects”; Sparks, p. 191; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 62 – 63 ) February 6 — 1:34 a.m. A B-36 aircraft piloted by Maj. Leo J. Moffatt is over Rosalia, Washington, when he sees one round white omnidirectional light at an altitude of approximately 7,000 feet on a southeast course, circling and rising as it proceeds. It is visually observed for a period of 3 – 5 minutes. The B-36 makes a 180° descending turn toward the light, which is estimated to be moving at a speed of 170–230 mph. Blue Book explains it as a weather balloon launched from Geiger Field [now Spokane International Airport]. (NICAP, “B-36 Encounters Light at 7,000ʹ”; Sparks, p. 192 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 67– 68 ) February 7 — 9:22 p.m. A USAF F-94 crew and other witnesses near Nemuro, Hokkaido, Japan, see a bright orange object change color to red and green at intervals and disappear behind a cloud. It is also tracked by ground radar. (NICAP, “F-94 Crew in Air and Ground Radar Tracking”; Condon, p. 122 ; Sparks, p. 192 ) February 9 — Al Chop has written a press release on the Utah film with the approval of Capt. Harry B. Smith of AFOIN. They decide to also release the USAF (possible aircraft) and Navy (self-luminous or light sources) analyses,

otherwise the press might suspect a cover-up. The release would state that, although no positive identification has been made, further analysis will result in an identification. Gen. Garland approves the release, which then goes on to the Pentagon, which “screamed ‘No!’” Ruppelt is ordered into silence. Chop says the CIA “killed the whole program. We’ve been ordered to work up a national debunking campaign, planting articles in magazines and arranging broadcasts to make UFO reports seem like poppycock.” Ruppelt tells Keyhoe that Blue Book must even discredit USAF pilots who report UFOs. “It’s a raw deal, but we can’t buck the CIA.” (Ruppelt, p. 228 ; Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, pp. 70– 71 ; The Hynek UFO Report, pp. 236– 237 ) February 9 — CIA agent Hayden Channing writes a memo to the Domestic Contact Division describing a recent [late January?] public meeting of the Civilian Saucer Investigation group in Los Angeles, California. North American Aviation project engineer Walther A. Riedel is a member of the organization, and he describes the analyses of the UFO reports it receives. Only about 25 sightings are unidentified, and these they forward to Project Blue Book. Channing writes: “Apparently, an eye and interest are also directed to the USSR for reactions to sightings as reported in the PRAVDA.” (Hayden Channing, “California Committee for Saucer Investigation,” February 9, 1953) February 11 (or 19) — 10:00 p.m. At the Naval Auxiliary Air Station [now Northeastern Regional Airport] in Edenton, North Carolina, Marine 1st Lt. Edward Balocco is on intercept stand-by duty when the alert whistle goes off. Minutes later he is in his F9F Panther jet heading north to Virginia Beach, Virginia, while being vectored to an unknown target by the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock, North Carolina. By the time he gets close to the target, it has disappeared from radar at Norfolk, Virginia. After searching the area for 15 minutes, he heads back for fuel. Flying south at 20,000 feet, he notices a light below him on the port side on or near the ocean. After turning his navigation lights back on, he notices that the light has risen to his altitude and is only 2,000 feet away. Closing in on it, he sees it is a disc with blinking red lights. At 350 feet away, his cockpit is bathed in blue-white light and everything seems motionless and silent. He looks at his gloved hand and he can see the bones in his hand like an X-ray. Suddenly there is a flash, and the UFO breaks away as sound and motion return. Balocco tries to pursue it again unsuccessfully. Captain Thomas Riggs, whose F9F Panther has also been scrambled, reports the UFO is moving south along the North Carolina coast. He is debriefed and told not to mention the incident. (“Cherry Point, N.C.,” APRO Bulletin 1, no. 5 (March 15, 1953): 9–10; Good Need, pp. 183 – 184 ; Shoot 60– 61 ) Mid-February — Weapons engineer Chester W. Lytle Sr., deputy director of operations for SAC’s Eighth Air Force Headquarters, is visiting Eielson AFB near Moose Creek, Alaska, with Gen. William H. Blanchard when he finds out his wife is about to give birth in Chicago, Illinois. Blanchard offers to personally fly him in a bomber to an air force base in Illinois so he can get home quickly. During the long flight, their conversation turns to UFOs. Blanchard unexpectedly mentions the 1947 Roswell incident and that a crashed alien spacecraft had indeed been recovered. He tells Lytle that four dead humanoid beings had been aboard. (Nukes 478–481) February 23 — Project Stork’s William T. Reid writes to Miles E. Goll at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio, saying that UFO reports have been processed through October 15, 1952, and evaluations completed for reports through July 31, 1952. (“Seven Status Reports for Project Stork, Part 4 of 4 Parts,” CUFON) February 2 5 — Pentagon press officer Albert M. Chop writes to Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe and verifies that the files on 41 cases investigated by the Air Force for his upcoming book Flying Saucers from Outer Space were indeed cleared for release by ATIC. (Albert M. Chop, Letter to Donald E. Keyhoe, February 25, 1953; NICAP, “The Chop Clearance List”) February 25 — Project Second Storey meets for the last known time, chaired by astrophysicist Peter M. Millman of the Dominion Observatory in Ottawa, Ontario, and consisting of military and intelligence officers, as well as Wilbert Smith. It concludes that, because details of most sightings cannot be adequately confirmed, UFO reports do not lend themselves to a “scientific method of investigation.” It determines that UFOs do not require a Canadian armed forces investigation, but reports should still be sent to the Directorate of Scientific Intelligence. (“Wilbert B. Smith,” Northern Ontario UFO Research and Study; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, p. 229; Good Above, p. 182 ; Story, p. 276 ) Late February — ADC commander Benjamin Chidlaw at Ent AFB [now US Olympic Training Center] near Colorado Springs, Colorado, tells future UFO researcher Robert C. Gardner that he has “stacks of reports about flying saucers. We take them seriously when you consider we have lost many men and planes trying to intercept them.” (Stringfield, 3 - 0 Blue, p. 91; Stringfield, Situation Red, Fawcett Crest, 1977, pp. 137 – 138) February 27 — Project Blue Book issues its Status Report #10, classified “secret.” (US Air Force, Projects Grudge and Blue Book Reports 1 – 12, NICAP, 1968, pp. 175– 198 ) February 28 — Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt transfers out of Blue Book for a seven-month assignment in Denver, Colorado. He is replaced by Lt. Robert M. Olsson, who has one staff member. (Ruppelt, p. 228 )

March — 10:00 a.m. Pilot Howard C. Strand is flying a routine patrol mission in a F- 9 4B out of Selfridge AFB [now Selfridge Air National Guard Base] near Mount Clemens, Michigan, when he is asked to check out a radar target over downtown Detroit. He and his radar operator see tiny specks that seem to be a ragged formation of aircraft. As he approaches, he cannot see any wings or tails. Ground radar has the UFOs as “good, strong targets.” Strand looks at his instruments briefly and when he looks up the objects are gone, though ground radar tracks them another 4 minutes. Gordon Thayer calls it an inferior mirage. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1953 March – July, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2002, pp. 24 – 26; Condon, pp. 151 – 153 ) March — Harvard University astronomer Donald H. Menzel publishes Flying Saucers, in which he explains all UFO sightings as known phenomena such as mirages and temperature inversions. It is the first book-length argument against UFOs, one of the few published by an academic institution, and the first UFO book by a scientist. ATIC personnel are displeased that Menzel has used a few classified reports supplied to him for an examination of patterns, which he has never produced. However, he has an imaginative vision of what Venus looks like, with “warm seas” in which life teems. (Donald H. Menzel, Flying Saucers, Harvard University, 1953; Getty Images, “Dr. Donald H. Menzel, Harvard Professor and Native Denverite, Refers to His Book,” March 13, 1953; Clark III 742 ) March — Gen. John A. Samford is interviewed in See magazine and provides straightforward, factual answers about Project Blue Book, UFOs, and the inadequacy of Menzel’s theories. He claims the view of the Air Force is that “many credible people have seen incredible things.” (Swords 210–211) March 3 — 1:25 p.m. USAF Capt. Roderick D. Thompson, 3600th Fighter Training Group out of Luke AFB near Glendale, Arizona, is an instructor pilot flying an F-84 at 25,000 feet over Blythe, California. He spots am object 300 – 500 feet wide leaving a contrail crossing his path from left to right at about 35,000–45,000 feet at about 400 mph. It is visible only by condensation vapor emitted from its manta-ray shaped flat surface. Student pilots flying two F-84s, Lt. Jack E. Brasher and Lt. Thomas W. Hale, also see the object but do not follow in pursuit. When Thompson turns to pursue it, the object makes a slight dipping turn to the northwest and begins climbing at about 20°. It appears to be very thin and immediately begins to form a heavy condensation trail behind it for roughly 1,000 feet and splits in two. Thompson reaches 30,000 feet and closes to within roughly 5–10 miles to a point over the Colorado River north of Parker Dam on the Arizona border. He takes 151 frames of gun camera film of object with a 16 mm N-9 camera, apparently at 16 fps 1/40 second exposure setting. (NICAP, “Three F-94 Pilots Encounter Manta-Ray, Gun Camera Shots”; Sparks, p. 194 ; Swords 213–214) March 5 — Brig. Gen. Woodbury M. Burgess, commander at Ent AFB [now the US Olympic Training Center] in Colorado Springs, Colorado, sends a memo to Air Defense Command and the director of intelligence at Ent suggesting that field teams of 4602nd personnel interview UFO witnesses. (Maj. Robert C. Brown, “Utilisation of 4602nd AISS Personnel in Project Blue Book Field Investigations,” March 5, 1953; Kevin D. Randle, “UFO Coverup: The Early Days,” A Different Perspective, June 20, 2011) March 8 — Journalist Peter H. Wyden’s interview with Ruppelt appears in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Ruppelt tells him that Project Blue Book “has no evidence of any of these objects being anything other than misinterpretation of known objects… We can’t say positively because our data isn’t good enough. But we’re not worried.” The lengthy article provides a good overview of Blue Book’s investigations and staff of seven, including Ruppelt’s assistants Lt. Anderson G. Flues and Max Futch. (Peter Wyden, “They’re Still Chasing Flying Saucers,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 8, 1953, p. 1G) March 8 — 9:02 p.m. Physics teacher Leigh Van Etten, two other teachers, and 10 students at Kents Hill School, Maine, watch a big red ball of fire moving west-northwest for 12 minutes before it disappears beyond the horizon. He estimates it is about 40–60 miles away. (Jennie Zeidman, “I Remember Blue Book,” IUR 16, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1991): 10) March 14 — 11:43 p.m. Lt. Robert J. Wooten is flying a Navy P2V-5 antisubmarine plane over the Sea of Japan northwest of Nishinoshima, Japan, when he encounters an “electrifying display” of groups of 5–10 colored lights, totaling 90–100, slowly moving to the left side of the aircraft at a range of 3–7 miles and maintaining an extremely precise formation. Some of the objects are also tracked on radar. A 1955 RAND report falsely attributes this to an armada of 100 MiG- 15 fighter aircraft (actually only 11) that menaced four US Navy Panther jets from the carrier USS Oriskany, but this earlier incident took place on November 18, 1952, resulting in damage to one of the MiGs. (NICAP, “Groups of Lights / IFF Signals”; Clark III 53– 59 ; Sparks, p. 195 ; Swords 214) March 15 — The International Flying Saucer Bureau declares today World Contact Day and calls upon the UFO occupants to make a public appearance on earth. (Albert K. Bender, FS and the Three Men, Saucerian, 1962 )

March 17 — An FBI agent and two AFOSI officers interview George Adamski and ask him to draft a statement saying that neither the FBI nor Air Force has approved material used in his speeches. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1953, March – July, The Author, 1989, pp. 4–5; Clark III 44) March 18 — Ohio Northern University’s Project A reports that UFOs are usually disc-shaped, silent, and fast-moving. “Our major conclusion to date is that no one explanation fits all sightings, and about 20% of all the sightings definitely fit the category of unnatural phenomena.” (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1953, March – July, The Author, 1989, pp. 15, 18) March 22 — 2:00 a.m. Sara Shaw and Jan Whitley, who share an isolated one-bedroom cabin in the forest around Tujunga Canyon north of Burbank, California, wake up when an odd light shines through the window. An eerie silence falls over the cabin and neighboring forest. They get out of bed but feel paralyzed. Then suddenly and inexplicably, it is 4:20 a.m. Shaw, who was originally kneeling on the bed, is now sitting on it with her feet on the floor. The two women flee the cabin. As they run, they pass an apparition or “vaporous something” with the “head and shoulders of a long-haired” person. When they return to the cabin two days later, they feel a sense of dread. Shaw can remember nothing more and the two women move apart. In 1975 Shaw watches a UFO documentary that evokes some memories, and she contacts ufologist Ann Druffel. During three hypnotic regression sessions—December 5, 1975; February 26, 1976; and October 22, 1978—Shaw recalls her abduction by black-garbed aliens. She undergoes a physical examination and the aliens show her a cure for cancer. (Ann Druffel and D. Scott Rogo, The Tujunga Canyon Contacts, Prentice-Hall, 1980 , updated in New American Library, 1989 ) March 23 — Gen. Burgess’s 4602nd AISS plan is approved. It is seen as aiding ATIC and giving AISS personnel valuable experience in field interrogations and cooperating with other agencies (Kevin D. Randle, The Government UFO Files, Visible Ink, 2014 , p. 249) March 24 — The Upshot-Knothole Nancy nuclear test at Nevada Test Site Area 4 sends radioactive fallout on livestock across the region, including those grazing at Papoose Lake, Nevada. Sixteen horses and numerous cows belonging to local farmers, the Stewart brothers, die from acute radiation poisoning. The Army compensates them for the horses, but claim the cows died from Vitamin A deficiency. (Wikipedia, “Operation Upshot–Knothole”; Jacobsen, Area 51, p. 102 )

Spring — After 12:00 noon. RAF Flight Lt. Cyril George Townsend-Withers is asked to test some new ECM radar equipment using an experimental English Electric Canberra aircraft. The jet has been stripped of all removable parts to make it as light as possible. With this modification, he is able to leave RAF Boscombe Down [now MoD Boscombe Down] in Wiltshire, England, and soar to 55,000 feet, then a record for the aircraft. Cruising over Salisbury Plain, Townsend-Withers picks up a blip on his screen. It shows an object traveling 5 miles behind him and maintaining a steady course. His immediate reaction is to curse the “anomalous propagation” effects that they have gone to so much trouble to avoid. However, he soon becomes aware that this was an image of something flying right behind them. The science officer goes up to the turret to take a look and sees, glinting in the sun or pouring out a fantastic amount of its own light, a round shape trailing in their wake. Townsend-Withers calls his pilot on the microphone and tells him that he can see an unknown and suggests trying to outpace it. They reach 260 mph but the thing cannot be shaken off, so the pilot executes a sweeping radius turn. As the Canberra comes around from its turn, the object comes into view dead ahead. For half a minute they are on a collision course, swiftly trying to calculate what to do next. The object is round like a thin disc, but with two small tailfins at the rear. It seems to be metallic and enormous, and it is simply sitting there waiting for them to fly right into it. Suddenly, it flips vertically into the air and climbs upwards at an astonishing rate. Leaving no vapor trail, wake, or detectable sound, the object vanishes within just a couple of seconds. (NICAP, “Canberra Crew Encounters UFO / Radar/Visual”; Jenny Randles, “Collision Course,” IUR 27, no. 4 (Winter 2002–2003): 16–18; Jenny Randles, “Scramble, UFO! Part Three, The Team,” Fortean Times 388 (January 2020): 31) April — Wilbert B. Smith is drafting a report on Project Magnet for the Canadian Department of Transport. He writes Keyhoe that their conclusion will probably be that UFOs are alien vehicles. (Clark III 1078) April–June — The US Army Chemical Corps’ Dew II project involves the secret release of fluorescent particles (zinc cadmium sulfide) and plant spores (Lycopodium) from an aircraft over St. Louis, Missouri. (Minneapolis, Minnesota, was a previous target.) It only targets black ghetto sections of St. Louis and arranges for local police surveillance “to minimize the possibility of loss of equipment.” The Army reports “much less curiosity and interference” than Minneapolis. Dew II is described in a 1953 Army report that remains classified at the time of a 1997 report by the US National Research Council concerning the zinc cadmium sulfide dispersion program. (Leonard A. Cole, Clouds of Secrecy: The Army ’ s Germ Warfare Tests over Populated Areas, Rowman & Littlefield, 1988 , pp. 63 – 65 )

April 12 — 4:10 p.m. Ten round, flat, metallic objects changing formation are observed traveling at a high rate of speed at an estimated altitude of 7,500 feet over Sweetwater, Nevada. No trail, sound, or exhaust are noted. The objects pass under the right nacelle of the observers’ C-47 aircraft, which is en route to Stead AFB [now Reno Stead Airport]. The copilot takes control of the aircraft and turns to the right in a tight 300° turn for a better view. The objects are then picked up unassisted by two more members of the crew. The objects are seen in a right turn of a greater radius than that of the C-47 and at a lower altitude. They are observed for approximately 120° of their turn and disappear on a heading of 300°. Observers are unable to estimate the speed of the objects because of the distance and the large turn radius. (NICAP, “Ten Round Flat Objects Changing Formation”; Sparks, p. 197) April 13 — The MKUltra project is launched on the order of CIA Director Allen Dulles and under the direction of Sidney Gottlieb. Its aim is to develop mind-controlling drugs for use against the Soviet bloc, largely in response to alleged Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean use of mind-control techniques on US prisoners of war in Korea. The project attempts to produce a perfect truth drug for use in interrogating suspected Soviet spies, and generally to explore any other possibilities of mind control. Another MKUltra effort, Subproject 54, is the Navy’s top secret “Perfect Concussion” program, which uses subaural frequency blasts to erase memory. However, the program is never carried out. Because most MKUltra records are deliberately destroyed in 1973 by order of then–CIA director Richard Helms, it is difficult, if not impossible, for investigators to gain a complete understanding of the more than 150 individually funded research subprojects sponsored by MKUltra and related CIA programs. A cache of some 20,000 documents survive Helms’s purge, as they are incorrectly stored in a financial-records building and discovered following a FOIA request in 1977. These documents are fully investigated during the Senate Hearings of 1977. (Wikipedia, “Project MKUltnra”; US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Project MKUltra, the CIA ’ s Program of Research in Behavioral Modification, 95th Congress, 1st Session, August 3, 1977; John D. Marks, The Search for the “Manchurian Candidate”: The CIA and Mind Control , Times Books, 1978; Jon Ronson, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Simon & Schuster, 2004; “Project MK-Ultra: The CIA’s Experiments with Mind Control,” ZazenLife.com, December 2011; Stephen Kinzer, Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control, Henry Holt, 2019 ) April 14 — 9:23–11:50 p.m. A Navy P2V Neptune spy plane on an electronic intelligence (ELINT/ferret) mission over the Sea of Japan (about 200 miles southeast of Vladivostok, Russia) is paced and attacked by 10 agile and highly maneuverable UFOs. The encounter takes place with only 400 feet of distance between the aircraft and the sea. The objects make more than “70 aggressive non-firing passes” in “high-speed runs,” many just a few hundred feet directly underneath the Navy aircraft for just over an hour. The UFOs transmit Morse Code light signals (the letter “D”), an unprecedented occurrence in UFO history. The objects are tracked on radar and by the Navy’s ELINT systems (which pick up and analyze radar beams emitted from the objects) for almost two and a half hours. (NICAP, “Two Lights Flashing Morse Code Letter ‘D’”; Sparks, p. 19 8; Clark III 53– 59 ) April 16 — 3:45 p.m. The crew of a commercial Maritime Central airliner flying at 9,000 feet above Chatham, New Brunswick, watches a metallic disc approach their plane and pass underneath. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 64– 67 ) April 19 — 1:00 p.m. Four US Army reconnaissance observers (including pilot Lt. Julius T. Morgan, Lt. James O. Rymus, and Lt. Jack E. Myers) in two aircraft see a white, rounded, delta-shaped object 5 – 7 feet in diameter flying at 60– 80 mph with a “vibrating” motion over Communist territory in Korea. An official G-2 Intelligence Report says the object is in the Old Baldy (Hill 266) and Pork Chop Hill areas. Radar supposedly tracks them also moving faster than sound (>767 mph). (NICAP, [news clippings]; Sparks, p. 199; Jennie Zeidman, “I Remember Blue Book,” IUR 16, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1991): 9 ) April 23 — Gen. Charles P. Cabell becomes deputy director of the CIA. April 23 — 3:00 p.m. Two witnesses in Iberville [now Saint-Jean-de-Richelieu], Quebec, see a disc the size of a car approach their house while they are eating dinner. It stops 250 feet above the Richelieu River a bit more than a half-mile away. The man runs outside for a better look and sees that it as a dome and is spinning as it hovers. After 15 seconds it flies to the southwest and disappears. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 65, 68– 69 , 151)

May — A flawed CAA report states the July 1952 Washington National Airport radar returns were weather targets. (Civil Aviation Authority, A Preliminary Study of Unidentified Targets Observed on Air Traffic Control, Technical Development Report 180, May 1953) May — CIA Assistant Director H. Marshall Chadwell transfers chief responsibility for keeping abreast of UFOs to OSI’s Physics and Electronic Division. Todos M. Odarenko, chief of the division, does not want to take on the problem, saying it requires too much analytic and clerical time. Given the Robertson Panel findings, he proposes to call the project “inactive” and devote only one part-time analyst and a file clerk to maintain a reference file of activities of

USAF and other agencies on UFOs. (Gerald K. Haines, “CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90,” Studies in Intelligence, 1997, p. 72) May — The Air Force publishes, under the signatures of Chief of Staff Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg and Air Adjutant General Col. Kenneth E. Thiebaud, Air Force Manual 200-3, titled Handbook for Air Intelligence Officers. It is classified Restricted. Intended as a general guide for air intelligence officers conducting any type of investigation, the 6-page manual’s only illustration is of an Air Force plane accompanied by three flying saucers; the caption is “The Air Technical Intelligence center is responsible for the prevention of technological surprises.” It is discovered by Keyhoe in 1961 because someone forgot to reclassify the manual as Confidential in November 1953 when the Restricted classification is retired. (Department of the Air Force, Handbook for Air Intelligence Officers, Air Force Manual 200-3, May 1953, chapter 9, pp. 9- 1 – 9 - 6 ; Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, p. 80) May 1 — 11:35 p.m. USAF pilot Capt. R. L. Emberry and radar operator 1Lt J. R. Morin are flying an F-94 interceptor at 24,000 feet about 10 miles south of Goose Bay AFB [now CFB Goose Bay], Labrador. Both men and a control tower operator see a white light with a visible afterburner at 10,000 feet. The F-94 pursues it, both climbing to 40,000 feet, but the object climbs out of sight after 30 minutes. (NICAP, “Unidentified Evades Interception by F- 94 ”; Sparks, p. 199; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 262) May 2 — BOAC Flight 783, a de Havilland Comet 1, crashes in a severe thundersquall six minutes after taking off from Calcutta-Dum Dum [now Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport], India, killing all 43 on board. Witnesses observe the wingless Comet on fire plunging into the village of Jagalgori. A British aviation investigator, J. H. Lett, announces that the plane “collided with a fairly heavy body” and UFO rumors persist for about a year. However, leading investigators suspect structural failure. (Wikipedia, “de Havilland Comet”; Stringfield, Situation Red, Fawcett Crest, 1977, p, 141) May 4 — 1:50 a.m. A witness sees a football-shaped, metallic object caught in the glare of a rotating beacon near Goose Bay AFB [now CFB Goose Bay], Labrador. It is traveling south at high speed and a low altitude, and disappears into low-hanging stratus clouds. She hears a sound “like tins striking together.” (Sparks, p. 199; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 262) May 5 — 9:45 a.m. Chemist Wells Alan Webb is standing in a field near the Vacuum Cooling Company plant, not far from Spain Flying Field and about a mile north of Yuma AFB [now Marine Corps Air Station Yuma] near Yuma, Arizona, when he sees a fuzzy-white oblong object at an angle of 45° in the north. He observes it both with the naked eye and with Polaroid glasses with a greenish tint that he uses for cloud observations. It is about one-half the diameter of the full moon. After 5 minutes, the object moves to a position 30° eastward and suddenly becomes circular in appearance, becoming gradually smaller. Three concentric dark rings appear around the object, the largest about six times its diameter when viewed with Polaroid glasses. Webb thinks that the rings are the result of the rotation of polarized light scattered from the atmosphere (Faraday effect). (NICAP, “Polaroid Glasses Expose Concentric Circles around Disc”; Wells Alan Webb, Mars, the New Frontier: Lowell ’ s Hypothesis, Fearon, 1956, pp, 12 6 – 127; UFOEv, p. 51 ) May 10 — 6:08 p.m. Capt. B. L. Jones is flying an Australian National Airways DC-3 just south of Mackay, Queensland. He radios the local control tower that a “strange object like a lighted glass dome” is maneuvering around his plane. He and his copilot watch the object for about 5 minutes during which time it climbs and dives at a speed of 200 – 700 mph. Finally, it crosses the path of the aircraft and disappears swiftly to the west. A Mr. W. Overell, the officer in charge at Mackay tower, sees the light climbing from about 4,000–5,000 feet in the west at great speed, although the radar shows no other aircraft in the vicinity. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 52; Swords 377–378) May 10 — 11:00 p.m. Capt. Bob Jackson is piloting an Australian National Airways DC- 3 near Woronora Dam, New South Wales, when he sees an object with an orange-colored light at the tail flash past toward the east near Wollongong. The radar tower at Mascot shows no traffic in the area. About 2 minutes later, the object reappears, makes a complete circle around the airliner, and speeds away toward the coast. (Swords 378) May 11 — A declassified MKUltra document indicates hypnosis is a major focus. Experimental goals include: the creation of “hypnotically induced anxieties,” “hypnotically increasing ability to learn and recall complex written matter,” studying hypnosis and polygraph examinations, “hypnotically increasing ability to observe and recall complex arrangements of physical objects,” and studying “relationship of personality to susceptibility to hypnosis.” Experiments are conducted with drug-induced hypnosis and with anterograde and retrograde amnesia while under the influence of such drugs. (Wikipedia, “Project MKUltra”) May 12 — 3:20 a.m. USAF F-94 pilot Lt. D. C. Rogers and radar operator Lt. J. A. Lane track a radar target about 39 miles northwest of Goose Bay AFB [now CFB Goose Bay], Labrador. Rogers attempts to intercept but cannot

make visual contact. (Sparks, p. 199; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 262) May 16 — 8:15 p.m. Photographer Herman Charmanne is near Bouffioulx, Belgium, when he hears a strange metallic vibration. Looking up, he sees a long white trail in the wake of an object that shoots off at a great speed. The object, a luminous sphere, stops and hovers, allowing him to take two photos that depict a fried-egg-looking shape with a long tail. Recent analyses indicate that the photos are likely the result of a chemical reaction during the developing process, perhaps a flammable fluid deliberately poured on the image carrier that is then ignited. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos and Wim van Utrecht, Belgium in UFO Photographs, Volume 1 (1950 – 1988), FOTOCAT Report no. 7, 2017, pp. 12–30) May 18 — 6:55 p.m. A bright, luminous object is seen over Abadan, Iran. It travels very fast and is visible for 20 minutes. It is also seen over oil fields in Khuzestan Province. (ClearIntent, pp. 129 – 130 ) May 20 — At the junction of Jordan and Marble Creeks in Plumas National Forest, northern California, titanium prospector John Q. Black sees a silvery object, 8 feet in diameter, land on a nearby sand bar. On June 20 the saucer returns, along with a barrel-chested “midget pilot” wearing a “forest-green outfit” and a “peak-billed cap with a cord” around it. The UFO is about 40 feet away, resting on a rock, and has tripod-like landing gear. The pilot fills a rubber-like pail with creek water and goes back inside the craft (which has one small window) after hearing Black step on a stick. The craft takes off at a 45° angle with a hissing sound. Black had seen the same object on March 20, for a total of seven times. Black is alone for each sighting, so his partner John Van Allen cannot corroborate the story. The UFO’s expected return on July 20 does not occur, perhaps because scores of sightseers descend on the Brush Creek area (snack bars are set up so that no one goes hungry during the vigil). (Wallace Kunkel, “The Little Man Who Wasn’t There,” Fate 7, no. 5 (May 1954): 48 – 52 ; Clark III 269; Patrick Gross, URECAT, December 15, 2006; Curt Collins, “Flying Saucer Ambush: Brush Creek, CA, 1953,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, November 17, 2017) May 21 — 10:00 a.m. Eight disc-like objects are observed maneuvering in the sky for an hour or so above Prescott, Arizona, by sportsmen’s club president Bill Beers, post office employee Ray Temple, and O. Ed Olson. Two of the discs are stationary, while the other six discs participate in maneuvers similar to a dogfight. The six swoop around in formation, peel off, and shoot directly up and down in a maneuver that cannot be duplicated by a plane. When they move, they vary from very slow to speeds faster than a jet plane. (Prescott (Ariz.) Evening Courier, May 22, 1953; Nukes 87) May 21 — Date of alleged UFO crash and retrieval near Kingman, Arizona. “Fritz Werner” [pseudonym of Arthur G. Stansel Jr.] claims to have worked on the retrieval. An informant in 1977 tells Leonard Stringield that he had seen three alien bodies in a crate at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio after a UFO crash in Arizona. (Leonard H. Stringfield, “Retrievals of the Third Kind: Part 2,” Flying Saucer Review 25, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1979): 6–7; Stringfield, Situation Red, Fawcett Crest, 1977, pp. 171 – 185; Clark III 335– 338 ; Kevin D. Randle, A History of UFO Crashes, Avon, 1995, pp. 57 – 68 ; Good Above, pp. 398 – 400 ) May 23 — Radar tracks a target over Cape Province, South Africa, that makes six passes at more than 1,250 mph at 5,000–15,000 feet altitude. (Aimé Michel, The Truth about FS, p. 123 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 70 – 71 ) May 26 — 5:10 a.m. D. Beyers, driving 80 miles south of Brandvlei in Northern Cape Province, South Africa, sees a bright yellowish-green light in the clouds, then emerges. The light has the appearance of “burning hydrogen” and emits three streaks that maintain a fixed position with regard to the main light. He watches it for 50 minutes. (ClearIntent, p. 130 ) May 30 — After a small, bright-blue object with a strange irregular motion passes overhead at Palmerston North, New Zealand, numerous filaments of a “substance resembling spider webs, white in color and ashy in texture” float to earth. (“Palmerston North, New Zealand,” APRO Bulletin 2, no. 2 (September 15, 1953): 8; Clark III 124) May 31 — Project Blue Book issues its Status Report #11. (US Air Force, Projects Grudge and Blue Book Reports 1 – 12, NICAP, 1968, pp. 199– 214 )

Summer —Two F-94 jets are scrambled at Ernest Harmon Air Force Base [now Stephenville International Airport], near Stephenville, Newfoundland, after base radar picks up an unknown target. One of the pilots gets radar and visual confirmation, then radios that he is going into a steep climb to give chase. The jet crashes into a mountain. The base is supposedly placed on red alert. (Stringfield, Situation Red, Fawcett Crest, 1977, p. 142) Summer — 10:00 p.m. A family is returning home on Scenic Avenue in Central Point, Oregon, when they see three entities along the side of the road only 6 feet away. They stop the car, and the beings glide across the road and

disappear into the woods. They are 4 feet high, white, with satiny fur, and resemble very large geese, but with no beaks or wings. (“No UFO Seen: Just Creatures,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 2 (April/May 1984): 3) June — Night. An F-94C Starfire with classified electronic gear takes off from Otis AFB [now Otis Air National Guard Base] in western Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Piloted by Capt. Suggs and radar operator Lt. Robert Markhoff, the jet takes off in a westerly direction. Shortly after attaining 1,500 feet over the Base Rifle Range, the engine quits functioning and the electrical system fails. The jet’s nose drops and Suggs signals Barkhoff to bail out. Suggs bails out and he and his parachute wind up in a homeowner’s backyard. The jet should have crashed nearby, but neither Markhoff or the airplane can be located, despite months of searching. Although this account comes from M/Sgt Clarence O. Dargie, and investigator Raymond Fowler obtains the accident report from Norton AFB [now San Bernardino International Airport], California, there appears to be no open record of this incident. The F-94C models, especially at first, have fire-control problems and electrical short circuiting. (Raymond Fowler, UFOs: Interplanetary Visitors, Prentice-Hall, 1974, pp. 287–291; Good Need, pp. 189 – 191 ; Bob Pratt, “Conversations with Major Donald Keyhoe,” Mutual UFO Network; Barry Greenwood, “Questions on a 1953 Cape Cod Mystery,” UFO Historical Revue, no. 8 (February 2001): 1– 3 ) June — Secretary of Defense Charles Erwin Wilson abolishes the Research and Development Board for the politically motivated reason that suspected communist sympathizer Robert Oppenheimer is a sitting member. (Michael Hall and Wendy Connors, “The Research and Development Board: Unanswered Questions,” IUR 26, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 9) June — Lt. Robert M. Olsson and J. Allen Hynek visit Coral Lorenzen in Wisconsin and try to convince her that it is in the national interest for her to reduce excitement about UFOs by publishing cases. (Swords 197; Lorenzen, FS Hoax, pp. 82– 83 ) June — Max B. Miller publishes the first issue of Saucers, a digest-sized quarterly of Flying Saucers International in Los Angeles, California. It continues until the Fall 1959 issue. (Saucers 1, no. 1 (1953); Clark III 1033) June 9 — Sidney Gottlieb approves Project MKUltra’s “Subproject 8” on LSD. Experiments include administering LSD to mental patients, prisoners, drug addicts, and prostitutes—“people who could not fight back,” as one agency officer puts it. June 17 — 7:30 a.m. Several witnesses in Galveston, Texas, see a large, cigar-shaped object silently flying in from the Gulf of Mexico. One estimates it to be about 300 feet long and no greater than 150 feet in the air. The object makes a cloud and disappears. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Mystery Clouds and the UFO Connection,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 19) June 24 — 11:30 a.m. A weather observer stationed at remote Simiutaq island, western Greenland, is tracking a weather balloon with a theodolite. He notices a rotating red object flying from southeast to northwest and approaching the balloon, which is at 18,000 feet. The object collides with the balloon, disintegrating it. Afterward, it hovers in a circular motion for 15 seconds and departs into the wind. He watches it another 5 minutes until it is lost to view. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 69–70) June 24 — Night. A flight of US Navy F2H Banshee jets out of NAS Quonset Point [now Quonset Point Air National Guard Station] are on a night training mission over southern Rhode Island when two aircraft in the formation collide in mid-air. The crash occurs at 19,000 feet near or over the Exeter/West Greenwich town lines, and debris is scattered for several miles in all directions. The pilot of one Banshee, Lt. Jg. Jack Oliver Snipes, is killed. An emergency cable sent to the Director of Air Force Intelligence in the Pentagon indicates that “flying objects” are seen by the pilots prior to the accident. Its distribution list includes the fledgling National Security Agency. (“Exeter/West Greenwich, Rhode Island: June 24, 1953,” New England Aviation History, October 2017; Good Above, pp. 272 – 273 , 488 ) June 30 — 11:45 p.m. An orange-colored, oval object is seen for a period of 20 minutes in the northern sky moving to the southeast by at least 10 personnel of the US 912th Air Control and Warning Squadron stationed at Ramore Air Station radar site [now CFS Ramore], 3 miles west of Ramore, Ontario. The first person to see it is A/2c Dean McDonald who comes out of the maintenance room to inspect a power unit that has caused a minor breakdown of the search radar set. He calls two other airmen to witness it. One of the two thinks the object is the moon. The first airman gets hysterical and calls the Charge of Quarters at the Domestic Area three miles to the southwest. At least seven witnesses in that area see the object, and two of them report that the moon is visible and the UFO is distinct and separate. The object soon fades away slowly to the north. ([Project Blue Book file])

July — The 4602nd AISS has taken over nearly all of Blue Book’s field investigations. (Ruppelt, p. 232 ) July — Lt. Robert M. Olsson of Project Blue Book sends five supposedly unsolved UFO cases of 1953 to Cal Tech physicist Howard P. Robertson in an effort to see if any change in the Robertson Panel’s conclusions is warranted. One of them is the Sea of Japan ELINT case of April 14. Apparently, Robertson’s mind is not changed. He is now

heading up the Robertson Committee of the newly formed National Security Agency, tasked with developing better use of intercepted communications and radars in order to provide strategic warning of a military attack by the Soviet Union. (Clark III 55) July 1 — 1:00 p.m. A cowherd, Maximo Munoz Olivares [or Hernáiz], 14, sees a “big balloon” on the ground behind him in Villares del Saz, Cuenca, Spain, after a faint whistling attracts his attention. Shaped like a water jug, the object is metallic. Through an opening come three dwarfs 2 feet tall, with yellow faces, narrow eyes, and oriental features. They speak in a language he cannot understand. They are dressed in blue and have a sort of flat hat with a visor in front and a metal sheet on their arms. One of them smacks the boy’s face, then they reenter the machine, which glows very brightly, makes a soft whistling sound, and goes off “like a rocket.” Footprints and four holes 2 inches deep, forming a perfect square 13 inches in size, are found by police. Possible hoax. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1953, March – July, The Author, 1989, pp. 92– 93 ; Antonio Ribera, “The Landing at Villares del Saz,” in Charles Bowen, ed., The Humanoids, special issue of FSR, Oct./Dec. 1966, pp. 28– 30 ; Clark III 270 ) July 7 — Evening. An Atlanta, Georgia, barber named Edward Watters buys a monkey from a pet shop, shaves and kills it, cuts off its tail, then takes it with two friends, Tom Wilson and Arnold Payne, to US Highway 78 near Leland, Georgia, and waits for the first car to stop. They tell the driver, who turns out to be Cobb County policeman Sherley Brown, that they had seen a flying saucer and accidentally killed one of its occupants. They bring the dead animal to the Atlanta Constitution office, where reporter Thomas McRae notifies the FBI, which alerts the Air Force at Dobbins AFB [now Dobbins Air Reserve Base] in Marietta. The animal is taken to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, where Anatomy Professor Marion Hines identifies it properly as a shaved Capuchin monkey. Watters admits the hoax and is fined $40 by a judge. (Wikipedia, “Martian Monkey”; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1953, March – July, The Author, 1989, pp. 96–102; Clark III 593 ) July 16 — Lt. Col. William F. Barns attains an official world airspeed record of 716 mph in a North American F-86D Sabre over the Salton Sea, California. (Wikipedia, “North American F-86D Sabre”; “ 16 July 1953,” This Day in Aviation History, July 16, 2021) July 19 — 3:00 p.m. After an F-86 has been circling over a particular spot in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a black object emerges from a high white cloud and takes up its position after the plane has left toward Knoxville. “This object was extremely black in color, having an appearance of a deep black metal exterior with a fine gloss. It did not leave a vapor trail or were there any lights of shine noticed. No sound was heard. The object flew east at a tremendous speed for what appeared to be approximately three miles where it stopped. The object was then joined by two more of these same objects. A formation similar to a spread V was formed and the objects, at a tremendous speed flew in an eastward direction.” The report is made by the Atomic Energy Commission and addressed to Army Adjutant General William Edward Bergin in Washington, D.C. (NICAP, “Black Objects Maneuver over Area nr F- 86 ”; “Air Space Violation at Oak Ridge, Tennessee,” July 27, 1953) July 20 — Ed Ruppelt returns to Project Blue Book as either acting chief or consultant until August 31. (Sparks, p. 14; Clark III 55) July 25 — ATIC guide, How to Make FLYOBRPTS, a 68-page manual for officials required to make UFO reports, is published. (Air Technical Intelligence Center, How to Make FLYOBRPTS, July 26, 1953) July 26 — 9:39 p.m. At Perrin AFB [now North Texas Regional Airport] in Sherman, Texas, ground observers see 7 UFOs, each carrying a bright red light, hovering at 5,000–8,000 feet. They are in a formation of two groups of three, and one trailing, then come together to form the letter “Z.” Then they circle, gain altitude, and fade from sight. Citizens in Sherman and Denison also see the objects. Total duration is 16 minutes. This is classified as a “Vital Intelligence Sighting” and sent to the Air Defense Command, the Secretary of Defense, and the CIA. (CIRVIS Report, July 26, 1953) July 30 — Science journalist John Joseph O’Neill observes through a telescope a feature on the western edge of the lunar Mare Crisium that he interprets as a giant natural bridge. The observation is prematurely confirmed by amateur Welsh astronomer Hugh Percy Wilkins. Although it turns out to be an illusion, the location is still known as O’Neill’s bridge. When viewing conditions are poor or the telescope’s aperture is small, the feature resembles a bridge joining the tips of the capes Promontorium Lavinium and Promontorium Olivium. If viewing conditions are good and the instrument is large enough, the feature is seen as two small, eroded crater pits. (The Moon Wiki, “O’Neill’s Bridge”; Andrew May, “The Lost Ruins of the Moon,” Fortean Times 358 (October 2017): 56–57) July 30–August 1 — A large UFO is seen for three nights over Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in California. Park Superintendent Elvind T. Scoyen and his staff observe it once at close range. On August 1, a squadron of Air Force fighters sees the object streaking downward just before midnight. It stops abruptly then shoots upward. (Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, pp. 40 – 41 )

July 31 — Lt. Robert Olsson leaves Project Blue Book. He later tells Ruppelt his 5-month tenure “was like being president of Antarctica on a nonexpedition year.” He is replaced by Airman 1C Max G. Futch. (Ruppelt, p. 228 ; Clark III 55; Sparks, p. 14 ) July 31 — 7:00 p.m. Five Poles and two Germans see a disc-shaped object about 16 feet in diameter land in a field near a railroad track on Wolin Island, Poland. After several minutes it rises up and flies away at great speed. (Bronislaw Rzepecki, “UFOs and Ufologists in Poland,” IUR 11, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1986): 15; Vallée, Magonia, p. 203)

August — Wilbert B. Smith completes his classified report on Project Magnet for the Canadian Department of Transport, writing that it can be deduced that UFOs are 100 or more feet in diameter, they can travel at speeds of several thousand miles per hour, and can reach high altitudes. “It is difficult to reconcile this performance with the capabilities of our technology [and] we are forced to the conclusion that the vehicles are probably extraterrestrial, in spite of our prejudices to the contrary.” The DOT agrees to his proposal to set up an electronic station for a “24-hour watch for flying saucers” in a hut at Shirley’s Bay, off Lake Manitou, Ontario. Equipment includes am ionospheric reactor, electronic sound measurement devices, gamma-ray detector, gravimeter, magnetometer, and radio set. (Clark III 1078– 1079 ) August 1 — The US Air Force Security Service moves its headquarters from Brooks Air Force Base [now closed] to Kelly Air Force Base [now Kelly Field Annex], both in San Antonio, Texas. (Wikipedia, “Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Agency”) August 5– 6 — Around 8:00 p.m. Ground Observer Corps observer Phyllis Killian spots a UFO in Black Hawk, South Dakota. Soon after, radar at Ellsworth AFB near Rapid City tracks a “well-defined, solid, and bright” object. The base scrambles an F-84 and the pilot sees the UFO. Many witnesses see the object accelerate and climb. The F- 84 pursues but can reach no closer than 3 miles. Now low on fuel, the F-84 returns, followed by the UFO. Immediately, another F-84 is sent up. Before long, the pilot receives strong radar returns of a target right in front of him. Fear prevails and he breaks off the chase. The UFO goes off the scope, traveling northeast. Reports soon come from Brunswick of a fast-moving, bright blue object, similar to the Rapid City object. It hovers near an air filter center, performing more maneuvers and disappearing after midnight. Before it leaves, three more UFOs are seen at 10,000 feet for three hours. Ruppelt personally investigates and calls it “the best” in the USAF files, Hynek writes that the “entire incident…has too much of an Alice-in-Wonderland flavor for comfort.” Menzel blames the star Capella. The official file is several hundred pages long. (NICAP, “The Rapid City / Ellsworth AFB Incident (RV)”; Condon, pp. 132 – 136 ; Ruppelt, pp. 232 – 235 ; Sparks, p. 203 ; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1953, August – December, The Author, 1990, pp. 2– 3 ; Swords 215; Jan Aldrich; Patrick Gross, “The Ellsworth AFB Radar Multiple Visual Case, 1953”) August 6 — 5:00 p.m.–12:00 midnight. An estimated 75 objects with lights are seen by many witnesses on the ground around Naval Air Station Barbers Point [now Kalaeloa Airport], Hawaii, from the airport control tower and from the air. Many are also detected by radar. At 9:00 p.m., the crew of a Navy patrol aircraft reports three head-on passes. These close calls alarm the pilot so much he lands immediately. Jet fighters are scrambled and the same night an interceptor pilot sees a “glowing blob” rising rapidly toward him. It comes to a sudden stop just behind his aircraft then accelerates briefly until it is beside him for four more seconds before accelerating away out of sight at several times his own top speed. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, p. 63; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1953, August – December, The Author, 1990, p. 30) August 9 — 9:34 p.m. Supervisor Larry E. Towner and other Ground Observer Corps personnel report a glowing disc about 200 feet in diameter over Moscow, Idaho. At 10:10 p.m., the first of two F-86s is scrambled. The object lingers, with other lights seen, until around 5 :00 a.m. (NICAP, “Three F- 86 ’s Chase Disc Spotted by GOC”; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1953, August – December, The Author, 1990, pp. 3– 4 ) August 10 — Wilbert B. Smith issues another report on Project Magnet, in which he concludes there is a “substantial probability of the real existence of extraterrestrial vehicles” that use a “technology considerably in advance of what we have.” The report is eventually sent to Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent. (Good Above, pp. 185 , 187 ) August 12 — The USSR tests its first thermonuclear device, RDS-6s or Joe 4, at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan. A tenfold increase in explosive power is achieved by a combination of fusion energy and neutron- initiated fission. Scholars dispute the authenticity of RDS-6 as a true thermonuclear device, as it does not manage to produce a yield consistent with a true hydrogen bomb. (Wikipedia, “Joe 4”) August 13 — Paramount Pictures’ The War of the Worlds premieres in New York City. It is a modern retelling of H. G. Wells’s story of an invasion from Mars and features a Northrop YB-49 flying wing dropping an atomic bomb on the invading Martians. The color footage comes from a test flight. The film is produced by George Pal, directed by Byron Haskin, and stars Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. (Wikipedia, “The War of the Worlds (1953 film)”; Internet Movie Database, “The War of the Worlds”)

August 16 — Flying Saucers International holds the first UFO conference at the Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, California, featuring contactee speakers. However, George Van Tassel’s first Giant Rock Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention launches the same day near Landers, California, for three days with speakers Frank Scully, George Van Tassel, Orfeo Angelucci, George Adamski, and the Amazing Criswell. (Story, p. 91 ; Orfeo Angelucci, “A Release: On Flying Saucers First Convention,” Interplanetary News Digest 1, no. 2 (October 1953): 1; “Blast from the Past: UFO Conventions from Giant Rock in Landers,” Palm Springs (Calif.) Desert Sun, July 25, 2014) August 17?— Lina Ivanova Kravets is in her garden in Shtanivka, Ukraine, when she sees a trio of intruders cutting branches off her apple, plum, and cherry trees. Approaching closer, she sees they are 11-foot-tall entities wearing dark overalls, helmets, and gloves. They claim to be extraterrestrials, converse with her about God and their peaceful home world that is prone to natural disasters and somehow affected by the earth’s wars, and insist they are on a mission to rescue a missing scout team. They then point out a silvery sphere hovering just above the ground with similar tall being standing next to it. Before the lengthy encounter ends, the beings offer Kravets a piece of bread the size of a small coin. Breaking it open, she sees something dark and odorless inside, so she refuses it. The beings then walk to the sphere in a peculiar waddling manner, wave as they enter, and take off in the craft at terrific speed. (Peter Rogerson, “INTCAT 1953”; Joshua Cutchin, “The Great Alien Bake-Off,” Fortean Times 332 (November 2015): 44) August 19 — A small, fast-moving, ricocheting fireball rips a foot-wide hole through a metal billboard at Middlestone Avenue and Front Street in East New Haven, Connecticut. IFSB investigator August C. Roberts and Joseph Barbieri steal a piece of the sign during an investigation by Naval Ordnance personnel. IFSB sends the sample to Col. Robert B. Emerson, an Army physicist at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, who contacts friends at Oak Ridge Laboratory in Tennessee to have it analyzed, but nothing else is heard of this sample. APRO arranges for a separate analysis of the deposits on the sign performed by Anderson Laboratories in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the Chicago Spectrographic Service Laboratory. They determine that the fragments consist of copper and copper oxide and are not meteoritic. Michael D. Swords suggests that Roberts’s retrieval of the metal fragments would have attracted the attention of federal officials. (NICAP, “New Haven Signboard Case”; Michael D. Swords, “Tales from the Barker Zone,” IUR 17, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1992): 5 – 7 ; Clark III 728– 729 ) August 20 — 9:05 p.m. The crew of a TB-29 sees a grayish oval object near Castle AFB [now Castle Airport Aviation and Development Center], northeast of Atwater, California. The UFO makes four passes at the plane, then dives vertically as if it consists of two objects. (NICAP, “TB-29 Crew Files CIRVIS Report”; Sparks, p. 203 ) August 21 — Test pilot Lt. Col. Marion Eugene Carl reaches an unofficial altitude of 83,235 feet in a Douglas D- 558 - 2 Skyrocket. (Wikipedia, “Marion Eugene Carl”) August 23 — 12 :00 noon. Tom P. Drury, deputy director of the Civilian Aviation Department at Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, takes 24 frames of 8mm color film of a silvery object that emerges from a cloud and climbs quickly, leaving a vapor trail. The Royal Australian Air Force and USAF intelligence are said to have studied the film, which has since disappeared, with only a few third-generation stills of poor quality remaining. Later researchers suspect a daytime meteor. (NICAP, “Drury Film / Saucer-Like Object Climbing”; Norman Cruttwell, “The New Guinea Sightings,” APRO Bulletin, July 1961, p. 6; Clark III 416– 417 ; Sparks, p. 204; Good Above, pp. 162 – 163 ; Bill Chalker, “The Drury UFO Film Affair: A Study of a Celebrated Australian Case, Part 1,” 2001 ; Bill Chalker, “The Drury UFO Film Affair: A Study of a Celebrated Australian Case, Part 2,” 2001; Herbert S. Taylor, “Mystery Clouds and the UFO Connection,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 17– 18 ; Keith Basterfield and Paul Dean, “Cold Case Review of the 23 August 1953, Port Moresby Visual Sighting and Colour Movie Film,” April 2017) August 24 — Contactee George Van Tassel gets to step, for the first time, inside a flying saucer, when an extraterrestrial named Solganda wakes him up and leads him to a waiting ship, giving him a tour of the interior and a technique for rejuvenating the human body before dropping him off and shooting back into space. (Jody Rosen, “Welcome to the Integratron,” New York Times Magazine, August 20, 2014; Lesla Miller Schnur, “G. W. Van Tassel’s Integraton,” The Haunted Librarian, August 27, 2021) August 26 — USAF issues Air Force Regulation 200 - 2, which tightens UFO reporting and investigating procedures, further restricting the release of UFO information and superseding Air Force Letter 200- 5. It directs that all confirmed UFO reports be sent electronically to air force intelligence. Tangible evidence must go to ATIC in Dayton. It also confines UFO investigations to three groups: USAF intelligence at the Pentagon, the 4602nd AISS, and ATIC (although ATIC only gets reports after they go to the 4602nd). Sightings are only to be discussed with “authorized personnel.” Reports by USAF personnel no longer go to Project Blue Book, which is now only a PR front. Some good cases still go there, but far fewer unidentifieds. Only solved cases are to be discussed publicly; those still unidentified are to remain classified at the Restricted level. (“Unidentified Flying Objects Reporting,” Air Force Regulation 200- 2 , August 26, 1953; Clark III 918; Swords 198–199)

August 27 — 9:45 p.m. A USAF pilot, M/Sgt, and others, all on the ground, see a meandering light for 50 minutes at Greenville AFB [now Mid-Delta Regional Airport], Mississippi. (Sparks, p. 204 ) August 28 — A Ground Observer Corps volunteer watches 14 cigar-shaped UFOs silently moving over San Rafael, California. One appears to be leading the formation at about 200 mph. They are first seen heading west through breaks in the clouds, then turn north and disappear behind clouds. (Good Above, p. 278 ) August 31 — Edward J. Ruppelt leaves Project Blue Book permanently, leaving Max Futch in charge as acting chief through December. (Sparks, p. 14; Clark III 55)

September — George Adamski’s account (ghostwritten by Clara John) of his meeting in the desert with the Venusian named Orthon is appended to an already completed manuscript on modern and historical UFO reports by Irish occultist Desmond Leslie and published as Flying Saucers Have Landed. Leslie asserts that the first spaceman (a Venusian) arrived on earth in 18,617,841 B.C. [in the early Miocene Epoch] and claims that early UFOs were called vimanas in Sanskrit epics like the Ramayana. He also argues that the Great Pyramid and megalithic structures were built with levitation techniques derived from space people. (Desmond Leslie and George Adamski, Flying Saucers Have Landed, British Book Centre, 1953; Clark III 40) September — Airline stewardess Gloria Lee of Westchester, California, begins to hear a voice in her head that identifies itself as “J.W.,” a resident of Jupiter. Lee insists on a physical visit. Not long afterward, as she is hanging wash in her backyard, she hears the voice say, “Well, you’ve been wanting to see me.” She looks up and sees “a saucer, big as life, flying toward Santa Monica.” She has other experiences and founds the Cosmon Research Organization to publish and study J.W.’s teachings, much of which resemble philosophy in the 1882 book Oahspe, produced by automatic writing by John Ballou Newbrough. She goes on the contactee lecture circuit. (Clark III 682– 683 ) September — Genevieve A. Johnston begins publishing the contactee newsletter Interplanetary News Digest in Joshua Tree, California. It continues through spring 1955. (Interplanetary News Digest 1, no. 1 (September 1953)) September — Gray Barker starts publishing The Saucerian Bulletin in Clarksburg, West Virginia, which covers UFO reports, monster yarns, contactee tales, and the latest rumors about Albert K. Bender. It continues through October

1962. (Saucerian Bulletin 1, no. 1 (September 1953); Clark III 178 ) September 7 — British pilot Neville Duke reaches 728 mph in a Hawker Hunter Mk.3 at Littlehampton, England. (Wikipedia, “Neville Duke”) September 7 — 6:30 p.m. Don P. Hollister, a technical writer for Goodyear Aircraft, notices a grayish-blue object heading north directly over his backyard in Cleveland, Ohio, at less than 3,000 feet altitude. It is shaped like an equilateral triangle, but rounded somewhat on the sides and angles. It is rotating on a central axis. The object disappears after 5 seconds. (UFOEv, p. 70) September 15– 19 — Operation Top Hat, a “local field exercise,” takes place at the Army Chemical School [now the US Army CBRN School] at Fort McClellan [now closed], Alabama. The experiments use Chemical Corps personnel to test decontamination methods for biological and chemical weapons, including sulfur mustard and nerve agents. The personnel are deliberately exposed to these contaminants, are not volunteers, and are not informed of the tests. In a 1975 Pentagon Inspector General’s report, the military maintain that Operation Top Hat is not subject to the guidelines requiring approval because it is a line-of-duty exercise in the Chemical Corps. (Wikipedia, “Operation Top Hat”) September 26 — British pilot Mike Lithgow attains an official world airspeed record of 736 mph in a Supermarine Swift F 4 at Castel Idris, Tripoli, Libya. (Wikipedia, “Mike Lithgow”) September 28 — Albert K. Bender confides to Gray Barker and a few others that three menacing men dressed in black suits have called on him, told him the answer to the UFO mystery, and insisted that he will go to jail if he repeats it. The experience allegedly terrifies him, and he decides to close the International Flying Saucer Bureau. Barker immortalizes the episode in a 1956 book, They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers, and Bender breaks his long silence in 1962 with Flying Saucers and the Three Men, in which he claims that the visitors are not government agents but monsters from the distant planet Kazik. Even Barker concedes privately that he cannot swallow Bender’s fantastic tale of abduction to the South Pole by monstrous space beings. Bender does little to promote the book and soon moves to Los Angeles and secures an unlisted telephone number. However, the book does reveal Bender’s long-time obsession with science fiction, horror movies, and the occult. (Gray Barker, They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers, University Books, 1956; Albert K. Bender, Flying Saucers and the Three Men, Saucerian, 1962; Clark III 189 – 192 , 623 ; Story, pp. 50 – 51 ; Michael D. Swords, “Tales from the Barker Zone,” IUR 17, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1992): 6) September 28 — 7:10 p.m. In Palmdale, California, a UFO appears on an F-94C radarscope for a period of 15 seconds. The object is traveling on a 60° course at an estimated speed of 2,3 00 mph. It is 4 miles away when first seen and

compares with a C-47 in size on the radarscope. The F-94 was moving at 3 45 mph at 21,000 feet. The same or another object is observed visually from another F-94C for six seconds at 7:00 p.m. The object is described as round, orange in color, and traveling on the same course as the first object. (NICAP, “F-94C Tracks UFO at 200 Knots”; Sparks, p. 204) Late September — Night. Baltimore, Maryland, astronomer James C. Bartlett Jr. is observing a transit of the star Fomalhaut when he notices four large lights moving slowly in the sky. He looks at them through binoculars and sees that they are on the noses of two enormous cigar-shaped objects at about 3,000 feet altitude. He can also see an apparent cabin and portholes and he hears a sound like a piston engine. (“Two Huge UFOs Sighted by Baltimore Astronomer,” UFO Investigator 1, no. 5 (Aug./Sept. 1958): 1, 3) September 30 — Project Blue Book issues its Status Report #12. (US Air Force, Projects Grudge and Blue Book Reports 1 – 12, NICAP, 1968, pp. 215– 235 )

Autumn — Dusk. Cecil Tenney is driving near Dutton, Montana, when he sees a cigar-shaped object about 200 feet away. Apparently in trouble, it belches fire and smoke, and after a few minutes he hears an explosion. Balls of fire rain down from the sky. He tells the story to a highway patrol officer at a nearby bar before driving on to Conrad, Montana. That evening a colonel from Great Falls AFB [now Malmstrom AFB] calls and tells him to show up at the base in the morning. He is interrogated there for 30 minutes, and on the way out sees soldiers carrying bags that he thinks might contain body parts. (Leonard H. Stringfield, “Retrievals of the Third Kind: A Case Study of Alleged UFOs and Occupants in Military Custody,” MUFON 1978 UFO Symposium Proceedings, Mutual UFO Network, 1978, pp. 77–105; Clark III 342) October — The final issue of Space Review edited by Albert K. Bender states that UFOs are “no longer a mystery. The source is already known, but any information about this is being withheld by orders from a higher source.” (“Statement of Importance,” Space Review 2, no. 4 (October 1953): 1; Clark III 189 ) October 1 — Donald E. Keyhoe’s Flying Saucers from Outer Space is published by Henry Holt. Excerpts appear in the October 20 issue of Look. His message is that aliens are here, the military knows it, and they are covering it up from the public to avoid panic. He has gotten clearance from Ruppelt and Chop to include 51 classified UFO reports from the Air Technical Intelligence Center, which runs Project Blue Book. The Air Force states that Keyhoe is misrepresenting their analyses, so he sends a telegram to USAF Secretary Harold E. Talbott and Gen. Sory Smith, saying that if he really misrepresented anything, as a Marine Corps officer he should be disciplined. The Air Force offers no comment. In the book, he takes note of a curious document (never published and now lost) prepared by USAF Col. William C. Odell titled “Planet Earth: Host to Extraterrestrial Life,” in which he speculates on aliens crossing space in search of new planets to live on once their own fails. (Donald E. Keyhoe, Flying Saucers from Outer Space, Holt, 1953; Wikipedia, “Flying Saucers from Outer Space”; Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, p. 55 ; Michael D. Swords, “Colonel Odell and the Invasion of Earth,” IUR 30, no. 3 (May 2006): 3– 6 ) October 3 — USN pilot James B. Verdin reaches 753 mph in a Douglas F4D Skyray over the Salton Sea, California. (Wikipedia, “Douglas F4D Skyray”) October 9 — 3:50 p.m. A UFO is seen at Caulfield, Melbourne, Victoria, discharging a white trail described as “strange shiney filaments” that cover wires and trees. A sample turns out to be a “nylon-like amorphous mass with traces of magnesuim, calcium, boron, and silicon.” It shrinks from 3 inches to one-half inch in an air-tight container. (“Wispy Threads from Sky,” Australian Flying Saucer Review (UFOIC), no. 9 (November 1966): 12; Brian Boldman, “Angel Hair Physical Analyses: A Review,” JUFOS 9 (2006): 101 ; Keith Basterfield, “Angel Hair: An Australian Perspective,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 6) October 9 — 4:30 p.m. Three unidentified objects are tracked on radar at RAF Bawdsey [now Bawdsey Manor], Suffolk, England, at an altitude of 36,000 feet above the Netherlands. Soon they are tracked flying east to west over the Harwich area. Some jets at RAF Waterbeach [now Waterbeach Barracks], Cambridgeshire, are scrambled but can locate nothing. Airmen at Bawdsey can see nothing but four contrails heading north. The objects then reverse and move back across the English Channel at 32,000–34,000 feet. The apparent speed on the approach is 430 mph, increasing to 483 mph on the short leg over the UK and 564 mph on the return. (NICAP, “Three UFOs Flew over Area, Tracked on Radar”) October 15 — 10:10 a.m. During the tracking of a Project Grab Bag balloon launch, a 40-foot object leaving a brief vapor trail is seen by three General Mills Aeronautical Lab research engineers (James A. Winker, Fletcher L. Bartholomew, and Richard J. Reilly) near Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is traveling south in horizontal flight at 1,100 mph, moving 10° in nine seconds at about 40,000 ft altitude and 25° elevation. The object goes into a vertical dive for about 10-15 seconds, then glows or flashes in the sun two or three times for 1 second each. It is seen in the

theodolite as a gray mass. It levels off and the vapor trail stops. (NICAP, “Project GRAB BAG Sighting”; Sparks, p. 205; Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine eds., 1974, pp. 71– 72 ; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 113 – 114 ) October 16 — Harvard astronomer Donald Menzel writes to USAF Director of Intelligence Gen. John A. Samford that he would like to meet with ATIC officers in Washington, D.C. (Good Above, p. 278 ) October 16 — 4:00–4:30 p.m. Emerson “Slim” F. Morris watches a large, cigar-shaped object as it approaches Brigantine, New Jersey, from over the Atlantic. It releases several smaller objects from both ends. The smaller discs are white, rotating counterclockwise, and rapidly speed away. Before the large object disappears, it emits a blinding ray of light toward the ground that hurts Morris’s eyes. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects: A Further Look,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 7) October 19 — 12:10 a.m. Capt. J. L. Kidd is flying an American Airlines DC-6 between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., when over the Conowingo Dam, Maryland, his copilot sees something gleaming in the moonlight dead ahead and closing rapidly. Kidd blinks on his landing lights and the UFO beams back a blinding light back at the DC-6. Kidd puts the plane into a steep dive. Caught unaware, the passengers are tossed about the cabin, many suffering injuries. Kidd radios Washington National Airport [now Ronald Reagan International Airport] to report a near collision and complain about air traffic. Air traffic control reports no known aircraft in his vicinity. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 60 – 61 ; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1953, August – December, The Author, 1990, pp. 34, 38; Good Above, p. 282 ) October 20 — The NSA Robertson Committee report is completed and classified top secret. It recommends better and faster use of electronic intelligence in radar activity that might indicate an imminent attack, noting that the Air Force is not cooperating with the Army or Navy on these matters. (Clark III 55– 56 ) October 22 — Menzel meets with USAF headquarters personnel (including Col. George E. Perry) and ATIC at the Pentagon. (Good Above, p. 279 ) October 25 — 8:15–8:30 p.m. Air Force weather observers at Lubbock, Texas, notice a V formation of 5–7 dull white lights sweep north to south. In three seconds, the formation goes from a point overhead to 3° above the horizon where they disappear. Other groups of two or more lights follow at about 5-minute intervals. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1953, August – December, The Author, 1990, pp. 35–36) October 29 — USAF pilot Frank Kendall Everest Jr. reaches 755 mph in a North American F-100 Super Sabre over the Salton Sea, California. (Wikipedia, “Frank Kendall Everest Jr.”)

November — Capt. Charles A. Hardin takes charge of Project Blue Book. (Sparks, p. 14 ) November — 6:30 p.m. Trygve Jansen and two other witnesses are driving north on the Gamle Mossevei road at the Gjersjøen bridge, Norway, when they see an object rise from behind a hill, swing out over the lake, and move back to the road, circling and following their car. Suddenly it stops and hovers above the road 30 feet in front of them, emitting a green light. Jansen stops, and all three witnesses experience mild electrical shocks until the object rises and disappears. When he returns home, Jansen’s wife points out that the car’s beige paint has turned a bright green. (Carl Olsen, “Chased by a Flying Saucer!” Flying Saucer Review 2, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1956): 16; K. Gösta Rehn, “Saucer Blocked Road in Norway,” APRO Bulletin, March 1962, pp. 1, 3) November 3 — 10:00 a.m. An RAF NF.10 Vampire pilot (Flight Lt. Terry S. Johnson) and navigator (Flying Officer Geoffrey Smythe) flying at 3 0,000 feet near RAF West Malling [now closed], Kent, England, see a star-like light far above them. Suddenly it moves toward them at tremendous speed. They see it as circular and emitting a bright light around its periphery. The duration is 30 seconds. Air Minister George Ward calls it a “balloon”; when author Desmond Leslie calls him up to suggest this is incorrect, Ward tells him: “I know it wasn’t a balloon. You know it wasn’t a balloon. But until I’ve got a saucer on the ground in Hyde Park and can charge the public sixpence a go to enter, it must be balloons, otherwise the government would fall and I’d lose my job.” It is possible that this object was a Skyhook balloon launched from Holloman AFB in New Mexico on October 27 that failed to drop into the Atlantic after a 12-hour flight. (Desmond Leslie, “Politicians and the UFO,” Flying Saucer Review 9, no. 3 (May/June 1963): 8–9; Good Above, pp. 35 , 53 ; Good Need, p. 154 ; UFOFiles2, pp. 57, 62 – 63 ; David Clarke, “The Prince and the Saucers,” Fortean Times 406 (June 2021): 18) November 3 — 2 :45 p.m. In Lee, southeast London, a solid target is tracked on radar by the 256th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment moving slowly at a distance of 17 miles. Through a telescope it appears to be a circular white object. The target is tracked for 25 minutes by four aircraft technicians, including Sgt. H. Waller, who says it is about 350 – 450 feet in diameter and definitely not a balloon. The War Office claims the object is a radiosonde balloon. (NICAP, “Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment Tracks UFO”; Good Above, pp. 35 – 36 ; Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, p. 79 ) November 5 — President Eisenhower issues Executive Order 10501, abolishing the classification of “Restricted.” UFO sightings are unaffected, as meaningful sightings are classified at higher levels. There are now explicit guidelines for the remaining three classification levels to prevent a systematic flood of classified documents coming from the

Pentagon and other agencies. The Pentagon responds by creating its own “special access” labels to further insulate classified information from outside influence. (“Executive Order 10501”) November 16 — A fluffy material streams out of a UFO over the San Fernando Valley, California, and falls to the ground. A reporter who examines it describes it as “dead-white, almost ephemeral in its delicacy and apparently electrically charged.” A similar fall occurs in the same area on February 1, 1954. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 227 – 228 ; Clark III 124) November 19 — Bacteriologist Frank Olson is a leading scientist at the army’s Chemical Corps, Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick, Maryland. SOD supplies the CIA with an array of deadly microbes and chemicals that cannot be detected in an autopsy. It also supplies delivery methods for anthrax. The CIA pays SOD $200,000 a year for these services until 1969. Olson is duped into a meeting with MKUltra Director Sidney Gottlieb at a secluded cabin. Olson has a very bad trip and still hasn’t recovered after several days. (H. P. Albarelli Jr., A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA ’ s Cold War Experiments, Trine Day, 2009; Stephen Kinzer, “The Secret History of Fort Detrick, the CIA’s Base for Mind Control Experiments,” Politico Magazine, September 15, 2019) November 20 — Australian Minister for Air William McMahon tells Parliament that all UFO reports “are still being investigated closely and recorded as an aid to further research,” but the RAAF’s approach is a bit more ad hoc. (Swords 377) November 22 — Navy Capt. Walter Karig, author of the 1947 novel Zotz!, writes “Operation UFO: The Official Truth about Flying Saucers” for The American Weekly newspaper insert. He covers Secretary of the Navy Kimball’s 1952 UFO sighting and the ONR saucer probe. He emphasizes the Air Force’s 20% unexplained rate and does not rule out the extraterrestrial hypothesis. (Walter Karig, “Operation UFO: The Official Truth about Flying Saucers,” American Weekly insert, San Francisco Examiner, November 22, 1953, pp. 4–5; Swords 217) November 22 — 10:00 p.m. A man who works in the supply transport office of the RAAF Woomera Rocket Range near Woomera, South Australia, sees a green object like a saucer fly to the north between Woocalla and Birthday Siding. It is emitting blue exhaust. Another man driving the same route around 2:00 a.m. about 50 miles from Woomera sees a bluish-green circular object moving north. It is seen again by another man in the same area around 2:30 a.m. A fourth party sees two orange flares dropping from the sky near Pimba at 3:15 a.m. All of the objects are at an altitude of more than 5,000 feet. (Keith Basterfield, “Listing of Reports from Woomera, South Australia,” 2008) November 23 — Evening. ADC radar detects an unknown object moving at 500 mph over Lake Superior. An F-89C Scorpion interceptor, piloted by Lt. Felix Moncla Jr., with radar observer Lt. Robert L. Wilson in the rear cockpit, is dispatched from Kinross AFB [now Chippewa County International Airport], south of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. The jet heads toward the target under radar guidance. At 8,000 feet, 160 miles northwest of the Soo Locks, the blips of the F-89 and the UFO merge then fade from the screen. Nothing more is heard from the plane and no trace of it is found. A Pentagon spokesman claims the UFO was an RCAF C-47 that was never closer than 3 - 4 miles to the F-89, which has crashed for unknown reasons. In 2006, a group of divers claimed to have discovered the F-89 and taken photos on side-scan sonar, but the claim is a hoax. (NICAP, “UFO Intercept / Missing F-89 Case”; Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 13– 23 ; UFOEv, pp. 114– 115 ; Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 106–109; Good Above, p. 273 ; Andrew Griffin, “Missing! Avoyelles Parish Man’s Disappearance Still a Mystery after 50 Years,” Alexandria (La.) Town Talk, July 20, 2003, pp. E1, E3; Clark III 654– 656 ) November 24 — The British Parliament discusses the November 3 Lee case and others. Nigel Birch, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, explains the sightings as experimental weather balloons. MP George Isaacs asks, “Will the Minister agree that this story of flying saucers is all ballooney?” (Good Above, p. 36 ) November 28 — Frank Olson is depressed, incoherent, and uncommunicative after his LSD dose nine days earlier. His CIA contacts take him to a “doctor” in New York City, who prescribes him alcohol. He then plunges to his death from the 10th floor window of the Hotel Statler in New York City. The US government calls it a suicide, the Olson family alleges murder because, especially in the aftermath of his LSD experience, he has become a security risk who might divulge state secrets associated with highly classified CIA programs of which he has direct personal knowledge. A few days before his death, Olson quits his position as acting chief of the Special Operations Division at Camp Detrick [later Fort Detrick] in Frederick, Maryland, because of a severe moral crisis concerning the nature of his biological weapons research. Among Olson’s concerns are the development of assassination materials used by the CIA. The CIA’s use of biological warfare materials in covert operations, experimentation with biological weapons in populated areas, collaboration with former Nazi scientists under Operation Paperclip, LSD mind-control research, and the use of psychoactive drugs during “terminal” interrogations under a program code-named Project ARTICHOKE. Later forensic evidence conflicts with the

official version of events; when Olson’s body is exhumed in 1994, cranial injuries indicate that Olson was
knocked unconscious before he exited the window. The medical examiner terms Olson’s death a “homicide.”
(Michael Ignatieff, “What Did the C.I.A. Do to His Father?” New York Times Magazine, April 1, 2001, pp. 56–
61; H. P. Albarelli Jr., A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA ’ s Cold War Experiments,
Trine Day, 2009; Stephen Kinzer, “The Secret History of Fort Detrick, the CIA’s Base for Mind Control
Experiments,” Politico Magazine, September 15, 2019)

December — Wilbert B. Smith sets up his Department of Transport observatory at Shirley’s Bay, Ontario. His equipment includes an ionospheric reactor, electronic sound measurement devices, gamma-ray detector, gravimeter, magnetometer, and radio set. (Wikipedia, “Project Magnet (UFO)”; Good Above, pp. 185 – 186 ) December — Noall Bryce Cornwell (who uses the pseudonyms Mel Noel and Guy Kirkwood) claims to have been stationed at Lowry AFB [now Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum] in Denver, Colorado, and engaged in several dogfight-type maneuvers with UFOs involving gun-camera film. His stories are bogus, and later he runs phony investment scams and becomes a contactee who describes meeting pink-haired, platinum- skinned, fish-eating Martians said to be running a Mars-Earth transportation system. (Mel Noel, The Mel Noel Story, Saucerian, 1960; Good Above, pp. 273 – 277 ; Kevin D. Randle, “Mel Noel / Guy Kirkwood in the 1960s,” A Different Perspective, December 20, 2010; Adam Gorightly, “Mel Noel’s Phony Flying Saucer Trip to the Stars,” Chasing UFOs, April 17, 2020) December — Australian UFO researcher Edgar Jarrold is visited four times by a mysterious man who swears him to secrecy. What the visitor tells him amazes him “beyond belief,” but he never publicly reveals who the man is. However, it turns out that the man is Gordon Deller, a minor figure in Australian ufology who has some quaint and original theories about the saucers. He believes that UFOs are piloted by etherians from another dimension. He tells Jarrold this, along with some insights into a geological cataclysm and telepathic communication. Harold Fulton, a ufologist from New Zealand, suspects Deller is a nut. However, Jarrold’s obsession with UFOs leads to the breakup of his family and the disintegration of his personal life by 1955. (Clark III 632– 633 ) December 7 — 9:30 p.m. Pfc Alfred V. De Bonise and Sgt1C James Conley of the 89th Anti-Aircraft Battalion at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, spot a white object, “shining like a star.” It makes a noise like an artillery shell in flight. It moves erratically and eventually falls out of sight. (Good Above, p. 280 ; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1953, August – December, The Author, 1990, p. 60) December 7 — Radio Moscow proclaims that saucers are “figments of the imagination of western warmongers.” (Frank Edwards, FS Serious Business, Bantam ed., 1966, p. 156 ) December 8 — The CIA reports that UFO sightings have fallen dramatically in 1953, though there are some of “possible scientific intelligence value.” (Jenny Randles, UFO Conspiracy, Cassell, 1987, p. 45 ) December 9 — 3:45 p.m. Charles Huaut sees a luminous, golden, round object poised motionless at a high altitude over Saint-Émilion, Gironde, France. After 10 minutes it noiselessly changes position and assumes the form of several horseshoes enveloped in smoke trails. Then it disappears. (Central Intelligence Agency, “Sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects,” April 20, 1954, p. 2; ClearIntent, p. 130 ) December 15 — 2:37 p.m. While flying a Transair Sweden DC-3 in the vicinity of Hässleholm, Skåne, Sweden, pilot Ulf Christiernsson and flight mechanic Olle Johansson encounter an “unorthodox, metallic, symmetric, round object” closing in on their aircraft for about 10 seconds. It passes about 1,970 feet under the DC-3 at an altitude of 7,055 feet. Air Force Gen. Bengt Nordenskiöld calls in reports from all relevant Swedish radar stations to identify the object, and the Defence Research Institute spends many hours reconstructing the event. However, the owner of a local perfume company confessed in late December to releasing 300 hydrogen-filled balloons south of Hässleholm as an advertising promotion around 12:30 p.m. that day. (Swords 365) December 16 — The British Air Ministry sends orders to all RAF stations saying that UFO reports are to be classified “Restricted” and personnel must not communicate any sighting information to unauthorized persons. Reports must be sent to the air intelligence branch DDI (Tech) that is now responsible for UFO investigations. (UFOFiles2, pp. 57– 60 ) December 16 — 4:58 p.m. Lockheed Skunk Works chief Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson and his wife Althea (near Agoura, California) and a Lockheed crew (Rudy Thoren, Roy Wimmer, and 3 others) flying the WV- 2 Warning Star aircraft near Long Beach, California, independently of each other observe a black flying-wing (or ellipse or crescent-shaped) object about 170–230 feet wide flying at about 15,000 ±2,000 feet altitude to the west, hovering about 30–60 miles away. At 5:04 p.m., after four minutes (to the Johnsons) and six minutes (to WV-2 crew) the UFO suddenly takes off in a shallow climb accelerating to approximately earth escape velocity (25,000 mph) to the west over the Pacific. It disappears in 10–13 seconds (to WV-2 crew) or in 90 seconds (to Johnson using 8x binoculars) after reaching 90+

miles altitude. (NICAP, “The Lockheed UFO Case”; Joel Carpenter, “The Lockheed UFO Case, 1953,” IUR 26, no. 3 (Fall 2001): 6 – 9, 33; Joel Carpenter, “The Lockheed UFO Case,” 2001; Sparks, p. 206 ) December 17 — After the crew of a Swedish airliner reports a wingless circular UFO over Hässleholm, Sweden, the Swedish Armed Forces orders a full-scale investigation. Capt. Ulf Christiernsson says the object is an “entirely unorthodox, metallic, symmetrical, and circular object.” Later reports claim it is a radiosonde balloon. (UFOEv, p. 121 ; Sparks, p. 206 ) December 17 — A memo from Todos M. Odarenko, chief of the CIA/OSI physics and electronics division, condescendingly reviews the status of various government UFO efforts. (Todos M. Odarenko, “Current Status of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOB) Project,” December 17, 1953) December 23 — USAF Intelligence Col. George E. Perry writes to Gen. Woodbury M. Burgess, ADC Deputy for Intelligence at Ent AFB [now the US Olympic Training Center] in Colorado Springs, Colorado, recommending that when the 4602nd investigates a UFO sighting and it is not a conventional object, personnel should state “The information on this sighting will be analyzed by the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Dayton, Ohio,” and leave it at that. (Col. George E. Perry, Letter to Brig. Gen. W. M. Burgess, December 23, 1953) December 24 — 8:04 a.m. US Navy Lts. J. B. Howard and L. D. Linhard, flying F9F-2 jet fighters, see 10 silver oval objects flying in formation at 450+ mph, straight and level, over El Cajon, California. (NICAP, “Navy Lts. Encounter 10 Oval Objects”; Sparks, p. 206 ) December 26 — The first of a series of articles in the Washington (D.C.) Times-Herald by Richard Reilly questions the Air Force’s openness about UFOs. (Dolan, p. 145 ) December 29 — Keyhoe has a confrontation with Delos Smith, the science editor of the United Press wire service, and a UP executive editor. Smith is preparing a three-part series debunking Keyhoe’s claims because a “certain Air Force general swears your book is a complete fraud.” Forewarned by Frank Edwards, Keyhoe counters his arguments with documentation. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 85 – 88) December 3 0 — 9:05 p.m. Pfc Norman Viet, on guard duty at the tank park in Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, watches a blinking red light about 18 inches in diameter moving slowly over a tree line about 200 feet away. It soon drops down out of sight. Fifteen minutes later it is seen again, rising up and floating toward the tank shed. Viet says it is completely soundless. At 10:15 p.m. it returns, also witnessed by Sgt. Francis R. Salinder, who alerts the base and a combat team searches the area. At midnight, a red light appears above the search area, spooking a guard. (Wilkins, FS Uncensored, Citadel, 1955, p. 202 ; Washington (D.C.) Daily News, January 5, 1954; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1953, August – December, The Author, 1990, p. 75)

1954

1954 — Jim and Coral Lorenzen move from Wisconsin to Alamogordo, New Mexico, to work as civilian employees at Holloman AFB. (Clark III 50) 1954 — Contactee George Van Tassel begins building the Integratron at Giant Rock, California, based on the rejuvenation techniques imparted to him by space aliens from Venus. (Wikipedia, “Integratron”; Jody Rosen, “Welcome to the Integratron,” New York Times Magazine, August 20, 2014; Lesla Miller Schnur, “G. W. Van Tassel’s Integratron,” The Haunted Librarian, August 27, 2021) 1954 — An official in the UK Deputy Directorate of Intelligence (Technical) mentions to investigator Ronald N. Russell that the DDI has 15,000 reports on file since 1947 stored in nine drawers in three wooden filing cabinets with Yale locks, doubly secured by a hinged plate locked with a large padlock. (John Pitt, “‘Tell Us Please, Mr. Birch,’” Flying Saucer Review 2, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1956): 10–13; Good Above, p. 33 ) 1954 — A promotional photo of a Martin B-57 Canberra bomber taken near Edwards Air Force Base in California shows a saucer-like object in the upper right portion of the frame. No one actually reports seeing the object, which seems to be trailing the B-57 in flight. NICAP photoanalyst Ralph Rankow points out that the object has dimension, does not appear to be a scratch or rub on the film, and has a pattern of light and shadow consistent with the rest of the photo. (Story, pp. 36 – 37 ; Robert A. Schmidt, “The Strange Case of the B-57 Photographs,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 6 (August 1971): 1 – 2) 1954 — The powerful Type 80 centimetric radars introduced in the UK this year are plagued by radar “angels” that become a hazard for air traffic controllers. A Fighter Command investigation concludes that most of them are caused by migrating seabirds, and others are the result of “anomalous propagation.” Later computers filter out smaller echoes and increase the strength of those created by aircraft. (David Clarke, “Gremlins and Black Projects,” Fortean Times 291 (August 2012): 26 – 27)

1954 — After RCAF pilots fail to intercept several UFOs in Canadian air space, the Defence Research Board sets up a restricted landing field near the Suffield Experimental Station [now CFB Suffield], Alberta. All RCAF planes and commercial aircraft are restricted from the area. However, the effort is abandoned after the government determines that UFOs are not a national security risk. The project is kept secret until July 1967 when it is revealed by Defence Minister Paul Hellyer. (“UFO Landing Site was 13-Year Secret,” Ottawa (Ont.) Journal, July 20, 1967, p. 5)

January — Ed J. Sullivan‘s Civilian Saucer Investigation Los Angeles disbands. (“CSI Conclusions,” Civilian Saucer Investigation Quarterly Bulletin 1, no. 4 (Winter 1954): 7–9) January — 5:00 a.m. A strange object streaks across the sky over Harts Range, Northern Territory, Australia, seen and heard by four Native Australians. On the same day, an anonymous photographer is taking photos of Mount Gillen, Northern Territory, when suddenly an enormous (150 feet) round object appears from behind it. It moves high, then drops low. He takes a photo, then it shoots off at high speed to the west. The photo, reproduced in the newspaper, shows a dubious-looking round object on edge with six spokes. (Alice Springs Centralian Advocate, January 15, 1954; Alice Springs Centralian Advocate, February 5, 1954; Keith Basterfield, “Cold Case: The Mount Gillen Photograph, Alice Springs, 1954,” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena–Scientific Research, January 12, 2012 ) January 1 — 10:15 a.m. Capt. Douglas Barker, a pilot with Australian National Airways, is at his home in Doncaster East, Melbourne, Victoria. He sees a “metallic, mushroom-shaped object” flying over the Yarra River valley toward the Templestowe brickworks in the northwest. He estimates it is traveling at 700 mph at a height of 2,000 feet. Its apparent size is four times that of a DC-4 aircraft. It is oscillating rapidly in and out of thick cloud. It is elliptical with a “long shaft about the same length as its body hanging below it.” Total duration of the sighting is 12 seconds. (NICAP, “Mushroom Flying over Yarra Valley”) January 1– 2 — 10:35 p.m.–12:05 a.m. Navy pilot Lt. JG George G. Morgan of Naval Air Station Lakehurst [now Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst], Toms River, New Jersey, police chief Richard Clement, police officer Oliver G. Osborne, and other witnesses see 3 – 12 round white objects with fuzzy edges slightly smaller than the full moon hovering in the south for 90 minutes as 2 objects circled around another one. They then switch places. Some witnesses attempt to drive toward the objects to investigate. The objects suddenly depart to the southwest at extremely high speed, growing smaller until they disappear in 1–2 seconds. Multiple independent witnesses across a baseline of at least 12 miles allow for triangulation that locates the objects near Beach Haven, New Jersey, from distances of 15–40 miles. At least five witnesses use binoculars. Hynek calculates a departure speed of 90,000 mph, a hovering altitude of 4 miles, and a diameter of 1,500 feet. (NICAP, “Multiple-Witness Sightings Triangulate Location”; Sparks, p. 207 ; Swords 223– 224 ) January 4 — Shortly after 9:00 p.m. A round luminous machine, coming from the south, lands at the Marignane Airfield [now Marseille Provence Airport], Bouches-du-Rhône, France. There is only one witness present, a fireman at the airport named Chesneau. The machine disappears while he is telephoning the control tower. Careful scrutiny of the runway the next morning turns up a few pieces of metallic debris. The story is confirmed by a Marseille resident who is driving from Arles to Marseille and sees a large, round, reddish fireball, but places the time at 10:45 p.m. (Jimmy Guieu, Les soucoupes volantes viennent d ’ un autre monde, Fleuve Noir, 1954 ; ClearIntent, p. 132 ; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” March 15, 2003) January 6 — The Cleveland Press runs the headline “Brass Curtain Hides Flying Saucers” and reveals that ATIC will no longer allow reporters seeking UFO information into Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. Its reporter is given the runaround on the Utah film. (“Air Force Closes Brass Curtain,” Knoxville (Tenn.) News-Sentinel, January 14, 1954, p. 3; UFOEv, p. 134 ) January 7 — 4:27 a.m. A fiery disk, followed by a luminous trail, is seen in Arras, Pas-de-Calais, France. The disc remains motionless in the sky for an instant, after which it flies away and disappears over the horizon. (ClearIntent, p. 133 ; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” December 4, 2005) January 9 — Three residents of Lunéville, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France, see a round object flying from north to south. The object flies more slowly than a jet plane and leaves a luminous yellow trail. It flies noiselessly, although it appears to be at a low altitude. Several students of the College de Lunéville also see the object. (ClearIntent, p. 132 ; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” December 28, 2004) January 10 — 5:25–5:40 p.m. James E. McDonald, two other University of Chicago meteorologists, and another passenger are driving on Hwy 83 north of Sonoita, Arizona, when McDonald spots a brilliant white stationary object in the southwest above the Santa Rita Mountains about 10 miles away. They lose sight of it as the car moves on. McDonald searches carefully for alternate explanations, but can find none, so he reports the sighting to the Air Force in a 4 - page letter. (Clark III 695; Sparks, p. 207 )

January 13 — Mutual Radio broadcaster Frank Edwards alleges on his show that the wreckage of a flying saucer is being held in a “West Coast military field.” (Clark III 330– 331 ) January 13– 16 — Gen. Woodbury M. Burgess chairs a conference at Ent AFB [now the US Olympic Training Center] in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with 4602nd officers Capt. Joseph A. Cybulski and Capt. Bellovin and emphasizes that it is now the agency responsible to ATIC for investigating UFOs. Cybulski says that “We here in Headquarters will keep a complete file on all the sightings. That’s why we want the information copied. We will file them under separate headings, such as the type of personnel involved, military or civilian, or air-lines. We will record it under the type of object it was eventually determined to be.” Capt. Cybulski leaves for Dayton, Ohio, the next day to coordinate activities more closely. He reports that Hynek is “ready to quit” because he is “ridiculed by members of my profession for chasing these imaginary objects.” But Burgess persuades him to stay. (CUFON, “4602d AISS Unit History Sampler, Part 3 of 7 Parts”; Brian Skow and Terry Endres, “The 4602d Air Intelligence Service Squadron and UFOs,” IUR 20, no. 5 (Winter 1995): 9–10; Capt. Joseph A. Cybulski, “How the Air Force Investigated UFOs,” IUR 20, no. 5 (Winter 1995): 11, 30–32) January 18 — Cosette Weiss of Las Cruces, New Mexico, is visiting the Kilbourne Hole, a maar volcanic crater in the Potrillo Volcanic Field of southern New Mexico, to collect gemstones with a companion, Mrs. Sanders. They discover 25 – 30 disc-shaped tracks in the sand. The largest are about 2 feet in diameter, perfectly round, and consist of four concentric rings. They find more fresh tracks on January 22. Sanders reports this to White Sands Proving Grounds. Two Army security agents, Capt. Ross Orcutt and CID agent Henry Herman, spend the night of February 6 at the location and report that the tracks are “nothing more than a combination of wind, sand, and roots.” The mystery lights seen in the area by Weiss are labeled “vehicular traffic.” (“Report from the Readers,” Fate 7, no. 6 (June 1954): 109 – 129 ; Michael D. Swords, “Fun and Games in the Desert near Las Cruces,” IUR 30, no. 3 (May 2006): 21) January 18 — 1:30 p.m. Many people in Saint-Arnaud [now El Eulma], Algeria, observe an object that leaves a double trail of white smoke, making an immense circle over the town. Several officers at Bordj de la Remonte fort (southwest of Magra) hear the object make a strange sound. It seems to arrive from the north. A meteorological station near Oued Hmimim (southeast of Constantine) observes a double trail of smoke at 2:00 p.m., but it concludes that the smoke comes from a plane flying at great altitude. At 2:30 p.m., inhabitants of Sétif see an object arrive from the east, emitting bluish smoke trails and moving relatively slowly. After circling above the town for several seconds, it suddenly heads back in the direction of Saint-Arnaud at great speed. Witnesses describe it as it being cigar-shaped and flying at high altitude. Finally, at 4:45 p.m., a large, luminous, rectangular- shaped object is seen over Ouled Djellal ( 125 miles southwest of Sétif) for over 30 minutes following a rectilinear course. The object comes from the east and disappears toward the west. (ClearIntent, p. 133 ) January 25 — The British Air Ministry and the British War Office order airmen and soldiers to tell the public nothing about UFOs. (Harold T. Wilkins, Flying Saucers on the Attack, Citadel, 1954, p. 318 ) January 25 — 10:00 p.m. A civilian employee and astronomer, Robert D. Schaldach in the Technical Service Unit at White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico, is setting up his ballistic camera to monitor a missile test. As he looks at the stars to calibrate his instrument, he notices a yellow-white light moving from northeast to southeast in a shallow arc. It pulses in brightness at regular intervals. At the same time, another observer 17 miles to the southeast also sees the object. They perform some triangulation measurements and determine that the object is about 12 miles distant and moving at 12,000 mph. Schaldach says it is not a meteor. Blue Book, no doubt Hynek, labels it as a meteor. (Michael D. Swords, “Fun and Games in the Desert near Las Cruces,” IUR 30, no. 3 (May 2006): 20 – 21) January 27 — The US successfully launches a Redstone surface-to-surface missile that flies 55 miles from Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Wikipedia, “PGM-11 Redstone”) January 28 — Australian Minister for External Affairs Richard Casey suggests there is a correlation between UFO sightings and “periods of intense meteorite activity.” (Swords 374) January 29 — Afternoon. Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Whitaker are driving 6 miles south of Santa Ana, California, when they see a round object emitting a blurry light-blue light moving off a hilly field. It passes over their car at an altitude of 25 feet. The radio goes blank and the motor coughs and continues to act roughly after the UFO had gone. Whitaker estimates it is 60 feet in diameter and traveling at 600 mph. It makes a vertical ascent and disappears. (Schopick, p. 5)

February — Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York is founded by Ted Bloecher, Isabel Davis, and Alexander Mebane. The group holds regular meetings, sponsors lecturers, and begins publishing a CSI Newsletter in February 1955. It disbands in 1959. (Wikipedia, “Civilian Saucer Intelligence”; CSI Publication, no. 0 (April 23, 1954); Clark III 241 )

February — Clara John begins publishing The Little Listening Post newsletter in Washington, D.C. It continues through August 1965. (Little Listening Post, February 9, 1954) February — Mr. and Mrs. Forster of Peekskill, New York, see a UFO on the ground with a woman close by. She holds a tube in one hand and a box in the other, wears luminous clothing and a hood over part of her head. Mrs. Forster has to be taken to the hospital in a state of shock. (Dominick C. Lucchesi, “They Saw a Saucer Woman,” The Saucerian 2, no. 2 (September 1954): 12–17; Vallée, Magonia, p. 205; Clark III 267 ) February — Newlyweds Ernest L. Norman and Ruth E. Norman found a contactee group, the Unarius Academy of Science, in Los Angeles, California. Ernest, a spiritualist medium, wants the group to promote the interdimensional science of life expounded in the books he has written, all of them channeled psychically from extraterrestrial intelligences. Both claim impressive credentials from past lives. Ruth styles herself the Archangel Uriel and after the death of Ernest in 1971, she becomes the public face of Unarius. Before her death in 1993, she predicts a mass landing of flying saucers in 2001 on a piece of scrubland near the Unarius headquarters in El Cajon, California. (Wikipedia, “Unarius Academy of Science”; Clark III 1186– 1187 ; Douglas Curran, In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space, Abbeville, 198 5, pp. 27– 37 ) February 1 — 10:00 a.m. Mrs. W. J. Daily of La Puente, California, sees a silvery, bright, round object through binoculars. It tilts, revealing a fiery-red bottom. The UFO spins and drifts away with an odd-looking vapor trail. A large amount of cobwebby substance falls on her property. She takes three samples to the Mount Wilson Observatory. (San Fernando (Calif.) Valley Times, February 15, 1954; James C. McNamara, “Angel’s Hair,” Pageant 10 (November 1954): 52–56; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1954, January – May, The Author, 1990, pp. 24–25; Story, p. 19; Michael D. Swords, “Angel Hair: Spindrift between Worlds,” IUR 32, no. 1 (August 2008 ): 4 – 5 ) February 4 — 11:00 p.m. A target is detected by the Carswell AFB [now Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth] Ground Control Approach radar, near Fort Worth, Texas, at a distance of 13–15 miles to the southwest. A “mystery aircraft” passes over Carswell tower at just over 3,000 feet. Seen through binoculars, the UFO has a long fuselage, elliptical wings, some kind of stabilizer, a bright light on its nose and tail, two yellowish lights on the bottom, and possible lights on each wing tip. It is silent. The report is sent directly to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, CIA, and NSA. (NICAP, “Radar/Visual with Two Radars”; Good Above, pp. 281 – 282 , 495 – 496 ; Sparks, p. 208 ) February 13 — Jim G. Lucas of Scripps-Howard papers reports that representatives of major US airlines will meet in Los Angeles with Military Air Transport Service intelligence officers to discuss speeding up UFO reporting procedures. “Airline pilots are asked not to discuss their sightings publicly or give them to newspapers.” (“Airline Pilots Sighting 5 – 10 ‘Saucers’ Nightly,” Pittsburgh (Pa.) Press, February 13, 1954, pp. 1, 3; UFOEv, p. 134 ) February 13 — Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh gives a talk to the Astronomical Society of Las Cruces, New Mexico. He predicts an increase in UFO sightings and tells the audience to keep its eyes open and be ready to report sightings. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, p. 99) February 15 — American syndicated columnist Dorothy Kilgallen writes: “Flying saucers are regarded as of such vital importance that they will be the subject of a special hush-hush meeting of world military heads next summer.” (Dorothy Kilgallen, “Voice of Broadway” column, Dover (Ohio) Daily Reporter, February 1 5 , 1954, p. 8 ) February 15 — Aviation Week publishes an article describing new Soviet jet bombers capable of carrying a nuclear bomb to the US. The aircraft is the Myasishchev M-4 Bison. The rumors are soon debated publicly in the press and Congress. The Air Force begins promoting its unfounded myth of a bomber gap, in which the Soviet Union has 500 bombers capable of delivering nuclear weapons. (Wikipedia, “Myasishchev M- 4 ”; David A. Anderton, “Pictures Reveal Reds’ New ‘Sunday Punch,’” Aviation Week, February 15, 1954, pp. 12–13) February 15 — Morning. Stephen Darbishire, 13, and his cousin Adrian Meyer, 8, set off for an expedition to the Old Man of Coniston, a fell in the Lake District, England, armed with a Kodak box camera. Meyer notices an object above Dow Crag with a silvery, glassy appearance, shining like aluminum. It glides toward them and approaches within 400 yards, travelling at tremendous speed, and then stops suddenly and hovers noiselessly, in the sky. Darbishire takes two photos, which resemble those of scoutships taken by George Adamski in the US. A probable hoax, although Darbishire still refuses to say anything explicit about the photos, which no longer exist. (Clark III 42 ; Leonard G. Cramp, Space, Gravity, and the Flying Saucer, British Book Centre, 1955 ; Good Above, p. 377 ; David Clarke and Andy Roberts, “UFO Hoaxing and the Story of Stephen Darbishire,” Magonia, no. 75 (July 2001) February 17 — Commercial airline representatives meet with Military Air Transport Service officers at the Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, California, and are told that pilots are subject to JANAP 146 (CIRVIS) and must radio reports to the nearest airport and make no public statements or face a prison term of 10 years and/or a fine of $10,000. (Good Above, pp. 146 , 283 )

February 19 — CIA agent Morris “Morse” Allen simulates the ultimate experiment in hypnosis: the creation of a “Manchurian Candidate,” or programmed assassin. Allen’s victim is a secretary whom he puts into a deep trance and tells to keep sleeping until he orders otherwise. He then hypnotizes a second secretary and tells her that if she cannot wake up her friend, “her rage would be so great that she would not hesitate to ‘kill.’” Allen leaves a pistol nearby, which the secretary has no way of knowing is unloaded. Even though she has earlier expressed a fear of firearms of any kind, she picks up the gun and pulls the trigger on her sleeping friend. After Allen brings the “killer” out of her trance, she has apparent amnesia for the event, denying she could ever shoot anyone. (John D. Marks, The Search for the “Manchurian Candidate”: The CIA and Mind Control , Times Books, 1978, pp. 182– 186 ) February 20– 21 — President Eisenhower is on a golf vacation at Smoke Tree Ranch in Palm Springs, California, when he breaks the porcelain cap of his “upper left central incisor” and has it repaired by Dr. Francis A. Purcell. However, the incident is not reported in the press, and rumors start buzzing that he made a secret trip to Edwards Air Force Base to view the remains of aliens who had crashed at Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. Later stories claim he actually visited with live aliens and conducted a treaty with them. The lack of any dental record from Purcell’s office has fueled the rumors, but Ike’s dental history is thoroughly covered in the November 1995 issue of the Bulletin of the History of Dentistry. (“‘Object’ Studied at Edwards Air Base as ‘Brass Curtain’ Falls around Saucer Data,” Flying Saucer News-Service Research Bulletin 1, no. 9 (August 20, 1955): 3; Wilkins, FS Uncensored, Citadel, 1955, pp. 45– 48 ; Riley Crabb, Flying Saucers and the Coming Space Probes, The Author, 1959; Michael D. Swords, “Tales from the Barker Zone,” IUR 17, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1992): 4–10; Jerome Clark, “A Catalog of Early Crash Claims,” IUR 18, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1993): 18, 24; James M. Mixson, “A History of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Oral Health,” Journal of the History of Dentistry 43, no. 3 (November 1995): 93–103; Good Need, pp. 208 – 209 ; Juan A. Lorenzo Rivas, “President Eisenhower’s ‘E.T.’ Encounter: What Really Happened at Muroc Base?” Flying Saucer Review 44, no. 3 (Autumn 1999): 2 – 6; Gordon Creighton, “More on the ‘Muroc’ Story,” Flying Saucer Review 44, no. 3 (Autumn 1999): 6–10; Michael E. Salla, “Eisenhower’s 1954 Meeting with Extraterrestrials: The Fiftieth Anniversary of First Contact?” Research Study No. 8, Exopolitics, February 12, 2004; Peter Carlson, “Ike and the Alien Ambassadors,” Washington Post, February 19, 2004; John Joyce, “Ike’s Space Alien Encounter,” The Ike Blog, November 10, 2011; Clark III 330– 331 ) February 23 — Scripps-Howard papers report that the “nation’s 8,500 commercial airline pilots have been seeing a lot of unusual objects while flying at night, here and overseas.” They confirm that plans for a detailed reporting system were agreed upon at the February 17 meeting in Los Angeles, California, so that the Air Force can investigate quickly. Each airline is to have an “internal security specialist” as a liaison with the military. (“Flying Saucers Reports System to Be Organized,” Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Tribune, February 23, 1954, p. 10; UFOEv, p. 134 )

March? — Two Native Australians, employees of Arthur Pope, see a UFO at close range 100 miles south of Alice Springs, Northern Territory. One named Sonny is riding up over a ridge when a spherical object flies directly toward him then veers away. Sonny feels a heavy wind when the UFO passes. Others see the object, which has a glassy appearance, with four trails of smoke coming from each side. (Alice Springs Centralian Advocate, April 2, 1954 ; Keith Basterfield, “Alice Springs: 1954 Encounter,” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena—Scientific Research, February 7, 2012) March — Cincinnati, Ohio, businessman Thomas B. Eickhoff informs Keyhoe that Flying Saucers from Outer Space was “not submitted to the air force for authentication prior to publication,” although it contains official UFO reports. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, p. 108) March 1 — 6:45 a.m. Castle Bravo is the most powerful nuclear device detonated by the US and its first lithium deuteride–fueled thermonuclear weapon. The test’s yield is 15 megatons of TNT, 2.5 times the predicted 6.0 megatons (due to unforeseen additional reactions involving lithium- 7 ), which leads to the unexpected radioactive contamination of areas to the east of Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. At the time, it is the most powerful artificial explosion in history. Fallout, the heaviest of which in the form of pulverized surface coral from the detonation, falls on residents of Rongelap and Utirik atolls, while the more particulate and gaseous fallout spreads around the world. The inhabitants of the islands are not evacuated until three days later and suffer radiation sickness. Twenty-three crew members of the Japanese fishing vessel Daigo Fukuryū Maru are also contaminated by the heavy fallout, experiencing acute radiation syndrome. The blast incites international reaction over atmospheric thermonuclear testing. (Wikipedia, “Castle Bravo”) March 1 — Morning. Airborne Radar Operator W/O Olin H. Hasty is aboard an RB- 36 controller aircraft monitoring the Castle Bravo test at Bikini Atoll. Shortly after the detonation, the RB-36 is flying at 40,000 feet and Hasty picks up two or three unidentified targets operating above 60,000 feet. From the cockpit the pilot and copilot can see the objects, which are flying in holding patterns above the area of the blast. Task force headquarters advises them that

the objects are Canberra aircraft flown by the Royal Australian Air Force on air-sampling missions. However, there is only one British Canberra in the area at the time. (Nukes 110–113) March 1 — An article in American Aviation planted by the Air Force attributes the latest wave of sightings to Keyhoe’s 1953 book Flying Saucers from Outer Space. (“The Saucers Again,” American Aviation 17 (March 1, 1954): 3; Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, p. 104; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1954, January – May, The Author, 1990, p. 49) March 1 — Numerous bathers at the beaches near Montevideo, Uruguay, observe a metallic disc emitting yellowish reflections. It remains stationary for 2 minutes at an altitude of several thousand feet. (ClearIntent, p. 133 ; Lorenzen, The Whole Story, Signet, 1969; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1954, January – May, The Author, 1990, p. 45) March 1 — 2 :30 p.m. Employees at Carrasco International Airport in Montevideo, Uruguay, watch a strange oval object above the northeast horizon. It changes shape and ejects a smaller body that moves below and behind. An operator named de Rizzardo in the control tower sees an oval object with protuberances, accompanied by a pair of smaller bodies. Chief Controller Pedro V. Ocamp is still fumbling with binoculars as the objects speed away. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1954, January – May, The Author, 1990, p. 45) March 5 — Evening. At Nouasseur Air Base [now closed] near Casablanca, Morocco, crews of USAF KC-97 aerial tanker planes and a C-54 transport see one or two white or amber objects or lights make passes at the aircraft on collision courses as they practice ground-controlled approach landings. At 7:15 p.m., KC-97 pilots Capt. G. E. Brown, 1st Lt. L. B. Gordon, and 1st Lt. J. P. Glover, 301st Air Refueling Squadron, 301st Bomb Wing, while flying a KC-97 to a practice landing at 1,500 feet about 5-8 miles southwest of the base, see two white lights to the right on an apparent collision course. The KC-97 takes evasive action. Later [at 8:20 p.m.? 9:20 p.m.?], after landing and takeoff, they see the same or similar two white lights on the same course from the south on a collision course and they made an evasive 360° turn. At 7:38 p.m., pilots Capt. Robert R. Zadnick, Lt. Paul R. Fisher, and Lt. George A. Kerr flying another KC- 97 at 1,500 feet about 5 miles southwest of Nouasseur base see a light at about the same altitude and to the left, apparently headed west on a collision course. As it crosses, they see 2 lights like jets but with no aircraft running lights. One light passes over and one under the KC-97. At 9:55 p.m., senior pilot Capt. William M. Pond, copilot Lt. I. W. Gilchrist, and navigator Capt. James F. Pullen, while flying a C- 54 at 2,000 feet at Nouasseur base see a white or amber light like an aircraft landing light at about the same altitude approaching on a collision course heading west 2–3 miles away. It then turns onto a direct head-on course, passing within 2 miles, then suddenly disappears like turning off a light. It then reappears 10 – 15 seconds later, hovers, descends to the ground, then rises and disappears behind the C-54 after completing its turn onto final landing approach. No radar or other visual contact is made. (NICAP, “Aircraft (2) Encounter Lights on Collision Course”; Sparks, p. 210 ) March 5 — A photo supposedly taken near Rouen, France, by a fighter pilot is actually a retouched photo showing the 1950 McMinnville, Oregon, UFO photo taken by Paul Trent. (NICAP, “RAF Flying Review Photo”) March 8 — 11:07 p.m. A red disc-shaped UFO flies over Laredo AFB [now Laredo International Airport], Texas. It tilts to a vertical orientation and then shoots straight up into the sky. It is reported by a pilot. Ten to twenty nocturnal lights in a crescent formation—possibly a single crescent-shaped object—fly over San Antonio, Texas. They make no sound. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, p. 110) March 10 — JANAP 146 (C), “Communications Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings from Aircraft and Waterborne Sources.” This directive allows waterborne sources for CIRVIS and adds MERINT reports. Civilian pilots must also report UFOs to the Air Force and refrain from talking about it. (Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joint Communications–Electronics Committee, “JANAP 146(C) Communications Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings from Airborne and Waterborne Sources,” March 10, 1954; Good Above, p. 283 ; Antonio F. Rullán, “Blue Book UFO Reports at Sea by Ships,” December 10, 2002) March 10 — Leonard H. Stringfield founds Civilian Research, Interplanetary Flying Objects (CRIFO) in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Clark III 1114) March 12 — 9:35 a.m. USAF 1st Lt. Robert Johnson, flying an F-86 over Nouasseur Air Base [now closed] near Casablanca, Morocco, chases an object at more than 530 mph for 30 seconds, but is unable to catch it. The object appears to be the size of a fighter plane but has neither tanks nor vapor trails. (NICAP, “F-86 Chases Object at 500 MPH”; Sparks, p. 2 10) March 15 — A memo about a recent Project Second Storey meeting show that experiments at Wilbert B. Smith’s Shirley’s Bay detecting station is running experiments correlating UFO reports with magnetic disturbances and gamma radiation. It recommends looking into as yet undiscovered gravity waves. (Good Above, pp. 187 – 188 ) Mid-March — Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, invites probable UFO photo hoaxer Stephen Darbishire to Buckingham Palace in London, England, to relate his story to an aide. A full report of the interview is sent to the duke, who is in Australia. (Good Above, p. 39 )

March 18 — 4:25 p.m. Two conservation officers stationed on Hecla Island in Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba, are driving their snowmobile across the frozen lake when they see a slim silver object 100 feet long and only 8 feet thick. They watch the object as it changes orientation from vertical to horizontal and back again. They estimate it is 15,000 feet high and 10 miles away. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 69) March 23 — Capt. William B. Nash gives a talk at a Greater Miami (Florida) Aviation Association luncheon at the Seven Seas Restaurant and offers his assessment of the Air Force’s handling of UFO investigations. He suspects that the Air Force has concluded that UFOs are a real phenomenon, but they fear creating a state of panic by admitting as much. (Michael Hall, “Was There a Second Estimate of the Situation?” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 11) March 24 — Night. Civil Defense Deputy Coordinator Adolph Wagner sees 13 sharply defined triangular objects moving west to east over Baltimore, Maryland, in a V formation. They are glowing a fluorescent blue. From the north, a larger object approaches and stations itself in front of the V. When a commercial airliner appears, the objects split formation. Six execute a sharp turn, the color shifts to purplish, and they head toward the airplane in single file. The other 8 objects continue flying east. (“Multiple Object Sightings by Creditable Observers Continue,” CRIFO Orbit, July 2, 1954, p. 3; UFOEv, p. 66) March 25 — 3:20 p.m. USMC Capt. Dan C. Holland is flying one of three jets with the 3rd Marine Air Wing on an easterly heading at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at about 26,000 feet and 400+ mph. He sees a gleaming white, ball- shaped object with a gold ring around the lower third, about 2 times size of his jet, descending vertically on a collision course. He takes evasive action and radios the other jet pilots to look. The object suddenly stops 3,000– 4,000 feet above his jet. He banks toward it and activates the gun camera, but the UFO accelerates and disappears to the east at tremendous speed in about 15 seconds. The other two pilots flying ahead of him do not see the object. (NICAP, “Ball with Golden Rings Stops near F-9F”; Sparks, p. 211 ; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1954, January – May, The Author, 1990, pp. 61– 62 ) March 28 — 1:25 a.m. Capt. Willis T. Sperry and his copilot on United Air Lines Flight 600, flying east at 19,000 feet 12 miles east of Cherokee (near Creston), Wyoming, spot a bright green glowing object at 12°– 15 ° above the horizon coming downward at an angle of 30° to the left of vertical and disappearing behind a cloud bank. It is also seen by the pilot of a DC-3 west of Sinclair, Wyoming, at 13,000 feet. (Good Above, pp. 283 – 284 ; Sparks, p. 211 ) March 28 — Following the success of Flying Saucers Have Landed, George Adamski gives a talk to the Detroit Flying Saucer Club at the Masonic Temple in Detroit, Michigan, which draws 4,700 people. (“Palomar Mountain, 1940– 1960: From Obscurity to World Fame,” The Adamski Case, September 22, 2019)

Late spring — Noon. A family living in a cottage on the outskirts of Norco, California, is sitting down for lunch when they hear a metallic droning sound. The mother and daughter go outside and see an object like a rowboat with a transparent dome, 20 feet long and 10 feet wide, pass slowly overhead, then stop and hover over a nearby tree. Inside the dome are five helmeted men staring at the witnesses. Their “rather long faces” are olive-colored, and their eyes and hair are dark. After a minute the droning sound resumes, and the object takes off slowly. (Donald B. Hanlon, “Occupants Observed at Norco,” Flying Saucer Review 14, no. 3 (May/June 1968): 15–16; Clark III 267 ) April — 2:00 p.m. Two male witnesses watch through binoculars a vividly white object hovering high in the sky for 10 minutes above Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. A cone-shaped mist appears on its leeward side, then the object shoots straight up and disappears. (Jessup, The UFO Annual, Citadel, 1956; Nukes 114) April — The Royal Australian Air Force issues its first statement of policy on UFOs, admitting that it does attempt to evaluate reports: “There is no doubt that reliable observers have reported sightings which today are inexplicable within the resources available to the RAAF.” (Project 1947, “The Former Air Board / Department of Air / Current RAAF”) April — Oak Park, Illinois, contactee Dorothy Martin has been channeling entities through automatic writing. One introduces himself as Sananda, who lives on the utopian planet Clarion. She begins typing up the messages in newsletters and distributing them to readers, including Charles and Lilian Loughead from Detroit, Michigan, whom she met in March. (Clark III 717) April 4 — Keyhoe meets with Ruppelt at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Anegels, California, and shares recent UFO reports. Ruppelt agrees to write a letter supporting the claim that Keyhoe has used genuine ATIC reports for his book. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 116 – 1 20) April 4– 5 — Contactee George Van Tassel holds the first Giant Rock Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention at Giant Rock, a huge boulder in the Mojave Desert near Landers, California. Speakers include Orfeo Angelucci, Truman Bethurum, Daniel Fry, and George Hunt Williamson. It draws a crowd variously estimated at 2,500–6,000. (“Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention Draws 6,000,” San Bernardino County (Calif.) Sun, April 5, 1954, p. 9; Clark III 531, 717 )

April 5 — Keyhoe appears on The Betty White Show and asserts that, contrary to what the Air Force claims, some UFO reports are kept secret. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 117–118) April 7 — Leonard H. Stringfield publishes the first issue of CRIFO Newsletter. (CRIFO Newsletter 1, no. 1 (April 7, 1954; Clark III 1114) April 7 — 11:05 p.m. US Navy sailors and Marines, as well as nuclear scientists from Los Alamos and Sandia Laboratories in New Mexico, are aboard the AEC flagship USS Curtiss cruising between Bikini and Enewetak atolls in the Marshall Islands just hours after the Castle Koon thermonuclear test on Bikini. An unidentified oval- shaped luminous object, yellowish-orange in color, passes silently over the ship from bow to stern, traveling at a high rate of speed and low altitude. Once it is clear of the ship, the object performs some zigzag maneuvers before racing away at high speed. (Nukes 107 – 109) April 8 — 4:30–5:00 p.m. Lelah H. Stoker of 3121 N. Sheridan Road, Chicago, Illinois, sees a brilliant white round- topped disc, parachute-shaped, with a humanoid suspended beneath it, skim back and forth over the water of Lake Michigan. Stoker calls the Coast Guard. A cutter appears after 10 minutes, then the UFO approaches the shore. Stoker sees a short human-like occupant in a green, tight, one-piece suit suspended below the object. It gets out in undergrowth along the shore then walks around. When the cutter gives up searching, the occupant returns to the object which moves back over the lake then takes off at high speed to the east. (NICAP, “Lady Observes Saucer / Small Entity Gets Out”; Clark III 270 ; Sparks, p. 211 ) April 11 — Ruppelt’s letter to Keyhoe states that the request to clear classified UFO reports came from both AF Intelligence and the Office of Public Information, after which his superiors cleared them; Keyhoe has correctly quoted the ATIC material; the Utah film analysis is classified; a 1953 letter from Al Chop to Henry Holt & Co. attacking the “silence group” is quoted accurately; and except in a very few cases, ATIC rejects Donald Menzel’s explanations of halos, sundogs, and mirages for UFOs. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 119 – 120 , 307– 308 ) April 14 — Night. Capt. John M. Schidel of United Air Lines Flight 193 is forced to make a sharp climbing turn in order to avoid colliding with an unknown object over Long Beach, California. One passenger (Coles Barber) is thrown to the floor and suffers a knee fracture, and stewardess Naomi J. Penaat breaks an ankle. The object is only in sight for 2 seconds. (“Two Injured As Airliner Banks in Sudden Turn,” Los Angeles Times, April 16, 1954, p. II- 3; Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 130 – 132 ) April 18 — Colin McCarthy and two other men are driving an Austin sedan in the Australian outback near the border of Western Australia and South Australia when a UFO begins pacing them. They snap some 200 photos and take some ciné film of the object. Shortly after they report the incident, a helicopter suddenly appears and lands in front of their car. An RAAF officer gets out, walks over to their car, and confiscates the photos and film. They are never returned. (Stan Seers and William Lasich, “North Queensland UFO Saga, 1966,” Flying Saucer Review 29, no. 1 (October 1983): 20–21; Good Above, p. 163 ) April 18 — Airline pilot William B. Nash writes to his friend Capt. William Joseph Hull about the emphatic denials of UFO reality issued by the Air Force shortly after his March 23 speech. He reveals that in August 1952 he was participating in a TV panel in New York City when someone in the WJZ-TV studio said he had just gotten back from Washington, D.C., where he has been given the “whole story” about the National Airport sightings. He claims the Air Force had operated a radio found in a retrieved saucer and that had caused the flurry of sightings. Nash also admits hearing rumors, especially one from syndicated aviation columnist Robert S. Allen, about a pro- UFO report that USAF was going to release in the fall of 1952 but never did. (Michael Hall, “Was There a Second Estimate of the Situation?” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 11–12) April 22 — 2 :00 p.m. USN Seaman Apprentice James B. Stephens Jr. and Seaman Bernard G. Klein Jr., are driving a vehicle on the Naval Outlying Field San Nicolas Island, California, when they see a 4– 6 - foot long, gray, cigar- shaped object with a pointed nose traveling just above the ground on a near-parallel course. The object suddenly hits the ground, sends up a cloud of dirt, and disappears from sight. They stop and search for 20+ minutes but find nothing. (NICAP, “April 22, 1954: San Nicholas Island, Calif.”; Sparks, p. 212 ) April 2 2 — 10 : 3 0 p.m. Six workers from the Reynolds Metals plant in Jones Mills, Arkansas, are waiting on a carpool near Pearcy, Arkansas, to go to work when they see a gleaming white ball about 10 feet in diameter float 50 feet above a house. It appears alternately as a sphere and an oblong, and sometimes circles and sometimes hovers above the house for a total of 20 minutes. One man claims it approaches him to within a few feet, causing him to duck behind a car. One of the vehicles has a spotlight that they try to point at the object, but it always avoids the beam. (Hot Springs (Ark.) Sentinel-Rhview, April 23, 1954, pp. 1, 3; “Fire Ball Sighted in Arkansas Skies,” Montgomery Alabama Journal, April 23, 1954, p. 11) Late April — Afternoon. Roger Mougeolle and Gilbert Doridant are logging in a clearing in a forest area near Bois-de- Champ, Vosges, France, when they hear a noise above them “like the sound of a train passing over a metal bridge.” They then see three metallic, cigar-shaped objects silently approaching them from over a nearby hill.

Two pass over them, but the third slowly descends above their clearing and stops only a few feet from the ground. It is over 600 feet long. Doridant flees, but Mougeolle walks toward it and touches it. The object is smooth, cold, and hard like steel. He touches it with his woodsman’s axe, and he is instantly thrown about 18 feet away toward the base of a large rock. He feels paralyzed for a few minutes, but the object ascends and disappears, and he can move again. (Joël Mesnard, “The ‘Steel Airship’ at Bois-de-Champ (April 1954),” Flying Saucer Review 32, no. 5 (August 1987): 16–19) April 29 — 10:11 p.m. An unidentified illuminated object is seen above the Second Army Radio Station, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, by the supervisor radio operator and two coworkers, Cpl. Flath and Pfc. Hough. Described as round, the color of the sun, and 3–4 times the size of a star, the UFO appears in the southwest, blinking on and off. As it reaches the station, it stops blinking and disappears by going straight up. The sighting lasts 7 minutes. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1954, January – May, The Author, 1990, p. 86; Good Above, p. 281 )

May — Ruppelt’s article appears in True magazine. (Edward J. Ruppelt, “What Our Air Force Found Out about Flying Saucers,” True, May 1954, pp. 18 – 30, 124–134) May 1 — 11:55 p.m. A large explosion is heard, felt, and seen over an 8-mile area near Logan, Utah. The blast nearly upsets cars, throws open heavy doors, and sends an earthquake-like shock through the area. Some people report seeing a glowing ball before the explosion; other witnesses report a flash of light at ground level. Lincoln LaPaz investigates, along with J. Stewart Williams and Clyde T. Hardy at Utah State Agricultural College [now Utah State University]. LaPaz says it is either a falling object of an explosive nature or buried high explosives set off by pranksters. A crater 16 feet in diameter and at least 6 feet deep is found, but no debris, even though LaPaz digs down 25 feet for five days. Nearly 50 years later, Theron Blazzard admits to the Logan Herald-Journal that as a geology student at Utah State he had detonated some dynamite at the spot because he had to dispose of it in order to move out of state. (“Meteor Sought in Crater after Logan Explosion,” Salt Lake Tribune, May 3, 1954, p. 21; Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 138 – 139; Wilkins, FS Uncensored, Citadel, 1955, pp. 223 – 224 ; “Friday Finishers: When Meteor Mania Struck Cache Valley,” Logan (Utah) Herald-Journal, November 30, 2018) May 5 — 4:45 p.m. Sydney Baker is at a radar post in the RAAF Woomera Range Complex in South Australia when he notices a gray, circular object at 60,000 feet maneuvering around an English Electric Canberra aircraft he is monitoring from about 35 miles away. It appears to be traveling three times as fast as the Canberra. He watches it for about 5 minutes before it shoots out of sight to the south at about 3,600 mph. The same object is apparently tracked on Woomera radar at approximately the same time. (NICAP, [case documents]; Bill Chalker, The Oz Files: The Australian UFO Story, Duffy and Snellgrove, 1996, p. 85; Swords 381– 383 ) May 7 — Naval radar around Washington, D.C., tracks a huge object maneuvering at 90,000 feet and moving down to 15 miles altitude. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 144 – 145 ) May 8 — George King is washing dishes in his flat in Maida Vale, London, England, when he receives a psychic message telling him that he has been chosen to be the voice of the Interplanetary Parliament. Several days later, while he is in a meditative trance, an Indian yoga master enters his flat and tells him he has been selected to act as the Primary Terrestrial Channel for messages from cosmic intelligences who are visiting Earth. (Douglas Curran, In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space, Abbeville, 1985, p. 63) May 12 — 4:45 a.m. Three USAF Air Policemen (A/1C Mason W. Augst, A/1C George F. Wright, and A/1C Elmer A. Cruver) are standing guard next to a hangar at National Airport in Washington, D.C. They see a formation of two UFOs fly over the Capitol building, and again at 5:15 a.m. and 6:10 a.m. The objects are glowing white. They appear just above the horizon to the northeast in a straight line, make a 90° turn, then move away to the south. Each pass takes 45 seconds. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1954, January – May, The Author, 1990, p. 94 ; Sparks, p. 212 ; Edwards, FS — Here and Now!, Lyle Stuart, 1967, pp. 84– 85 ) May 12 — 4:00 p.m. White, silky filaments fall in strands averaging 30 feet in length over Shepparton, Victoria, Australia. A witness gathers some and, although they become wrinkled, they do not disintegrate. An analysis indicates in is a “pure white, silky, odorless, warm on touch like cotton, and different from cobwebs.” The threads are not sticky and stretch easily. It resembles raw silk or nylon, is not water soluble, and burns rapidly. (Keith Basterfield, “Angel Hair: An Australian Perspective,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 6 – 7; Brian Boldman, “Angel Hair Physical Analyses: A Review,” JUFOS 9 (2006): 101) May 14 — Around 12 noon. A flight of Marine Reserve jets led by Maj. Charles Scarborough is headed north near Dallas, Texas. At a point 6 miles west of the city, Scarborough sights 16 unidentified objects in groups of four, dead ahead but at higher altitude, 15° above. He radios Capt. Roy L. Jorgensen, whose jet he has in sight by its contrail. Jorgensen, at a higher altitude, sees the UFOs below his left wing. Just as the two pilots try to box in the UFOs, Scarborough sees them fade from glowing white to orange and disappear, apparently speeding away due north. Triangulation shows that the UFOs were at about 32,000 feet. (“4 Jet Fighters Report Race with ‘Saucers’ over

Dallas,” Dallas (Tex.) Times Herald, May 18, 1954; NICAP, “Four Navy Fighters Encounter 16 UFOs”; UFOEv, p. 32 ; Sparks, p. 213 ) May 15 — Gen. Nathan F. Twining, USAF Chief of Staff, speaking at an Armed Forces Day dinner at Amarillo AFB [now Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport], Texas, says that the Air Force has the best brains in the country working on the “flying saucer problem.” He adds that about 90% of the reports are pure imagination, with the rest unexplained. (“Air Force Looks into ‘Saucers,’” Miami (Fla.) Herald, May 17, 1954, p. 38; Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 145–146) May 18 — Frank Edwards mentions CRIFO on his radio program, and within a week Stringfield gets 6,000 letters. (Stringfield, Situation Red, Fawcett Crest, 1977, pp. 10 – 11) May 20 — FBI officials recommend that Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr. authorize FBI break-ins to install bugs during national security investigations. The FBI would seek the Attorney General’s prior approval, as with wiretaps. Brownell concurs, but concludes that he “would be in a much better position to defend the Bureau in the event there should be a technical trespass if he had not heretofore approved it.” His directive empowers the FBI to break into homes and offices and install surveillance microphones without having to notify him or obtain advance approval in each case. The FBI has carte blanche on this until 1965. (Bernie Horowitz, “Wiretapping and J. Edgar Hoover,” Unredacted, December 20, 2010) May 24 — 12:25 p.m. While flying on a photographic mapping mission 10 miles west-northwest of Richmond, Indiana, in a B-17, USAF Maj. Leo N. Brubaker observes and photographs a bright object below the plane for 45 seconds. The aircraft is flying at an altitude of 18,500 feet at 253 mph. The speed of the object is estimated at 506 mph. The object travels six miles at that speed. The photos are taken with a USAF T-11 mapping camera. Brubaker denies the object is a sundog. (NICAP, “B-17 Photographic Mission Case”; Sparks, p. 213 ) May 28 — Test pilot Arthur W. Murray reaches an unofficial record altitude of 90,440 feet in a Bell X-1A. (Wikipedia, “Arthur W. Murray”) May 29– 31 — The first conference of European and North American political, business, finance, academic, and media leaders later to become known as the Bilderberg group, meets at the Hotel de Bilderberg in Oosterbeek, Netherlands. Its agenda, originally to prevent another world war, is now defined as bolstering a consensus around free market Western capitalism and its interests around the globe. The first meeting is initiated by several people, including Polish politician-in-exile Józef Retinger who, concerned about the growth of anti-Americanism in Western Europe, proposes an international conference at which leaders from European countries and the United States would be brought together with the aim of promoting Atlanticism. Retinger approaches Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands who agrees to promote the idea, together with former Belgian prime minister Paul van Zeeland and the then-head of Unilever, Paul Rykens. (Wikipedia, “Bilderberg meeting”) May 30 — 12:25 a.m. David Reese, Christopher Muir, and four others are at the doorstep of a house in East Malvern, Victoria, Australia, when they see an orange, oval-shaped UFO appear in the sky at close range. The UFO maneuvers in a downward curve and then pulls up. A cloud of yellow smoke and flame is seen at the rear. Three of the witnesses see shapes that look like human-shaped shadows inside the craft. (Bill Chalker, The Oz Files: The Australian UFO Story, Duffy and Snellgrove, 1996; UFO Evidence, “Human Figures Seen in Saucer”; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 January – May, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2002, pp. 46 – 50 )

Summer — George Hunt Williamson spends a few months in Noblesville, Indiana, working at Soulcraft Publications, run by mystic and fascist William Dudley Pelley. Mostly he contributes UFO news for the magazine, but some of Pelley’s anti-Semitic attitudes creep into Williamson’s later writings. (Clark III 1285; Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, pp. 100– 103 ) Summer — Late night. A young girl in Arbutus, Maryland, wakes up when a bright light shines into her bedroom window. Looking outside, she sees a triangle of brilliant white lights parallel to the ground, illuminating everything, hanging in the air, and pointing directly at her. All of a sudden they are gone. Fort the next two days, she has a fever that forces her to stay home from school. (Michael D. Swords, “Timmerman’s Triangles,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 17) June 1 — 9:30–9:40 a.m. TWA pilot Capt. Charles J. Kratovil, copilot W. R. Davis, and flight engineer Harold Raney, on a Paris to New York TWA Constellation heading southwest, spot near Boston, Massachusetts, “a large, white- colored disc-like object” overhead, occasionally losing it behind overlying clouds. Flying into west-southwest headwinds at 300 mph, they conclude it cannot be a balloon, and radio Boston airport control tower, which tells them jets are scrambled. They then see the object at about 10,000 feet higher than their 10,000 feet altitude but cannot close with the object. (NICAP, “TWA Crew Spot White Disc / Kratovil Case”; Sparks, p. 214 ; James E.

McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 68– 69 ) June 1 — The Air Force announces that it only received 87 UFO sightings in January–April. (“Most ‘Saucers’ Explainable,” Traverse City (Mich.) Record-Eagle, June 1, 1954, p. 5) June 5 — 6:23 p.m. Janette Brown, 16, is standing on Princes Highway (M1) at Dandenong, Victoria, Australia, when she hears a loud drumming noise. A large, dark cylinder, about 30 feet long and 15 feet high with a canopy and window on top and a window at each end, appears above a nearby factory. She shines a flashlight on it, and it whirrs toward her. It hovers about 60 feet away. Her friend, Jeanette Johnston, 13, arrives and watches it before it disappears behind trees. Janette’s wristwatch stops, although it starts running again when it is demagnetized. The case is investigated for the RAAF by University of Melbourne physicist O. H. “Harry” Turner. (UFO Evidence, “Teenage Girls See Saucer”) June 7 – 8 — PIO Capt. Robert White at the Pentagon repeats the 87 reports statistic from June 1 and counters that reports are at a three-year-low because of less publicity. Stringfield’s colleague, Cincinnati, Ohio, businessman Tom Eickhoff, storms into the office of ATIC Deputy Commander of Intelligence Col. John O’Mara and demands that ATIC press legal action against contactees Truman Bethurum, George Adamski, and George Hunt Williamson. O’Mara replies that these people are obvious hoaxers and need no special action. But he lets slip that USAF fighters regularly carry movie cameras to take photos of UFOs. Eickhoff says that is a big waste of money if there is nothing to UFOs. O’Mara then states to Stringfield the next day that the Air Force actually receives 700 UFO reports a week, the 87 figure only applies to cases under “special analysis,” over 1,000 leading scientists are working on government UFO projects, the material used by Keyhoe in his book was not cleared through official channels, and the Utah film exists but only shows conventional objects. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 157 – 160; “ 700 ‘Saucer’ Sightings Weekly Reported to Air Force,” CRIFO Newsletter 1 , no. 4 (July 2, 1954): 1 ; “Proof of Air Force Cover-Up,” CRIFO Newsletter 1, no. 4 (July 2, 1954): 1–2; Stringfield, Situation Red, Fawcett Crest, 1977, pp. 85, 167–168; Frank Edwards, FS Serious Business, Bantam ed., 1966, pp. 137– 138 ; Frank Edwards, Flying Saucers — Here and Now! Lyle Stuart, 1967, p. 86 ) June 8 — Contactee Frances Swan of Eliot, Maine, has been in telepathic contact with Affa, a spaceman from Uranus, since 1954. She manages to impress her next-door neighbor, retired Adm. Herbert B. Knowles, sufficiently for him to write Rear Adm. Carl F. Espe, head of the Office of Naval Intelligence. He encloses some of Affa’s transcribed messages and suggests that ONI try to communicate with Affa through Band CMM-306, repeating the signal M4M4 AFFA. Two ONI officers, Captains John Bromley and Harry Baltazzi, visit Swan and through her interview Affa, who agrees to communicate with them by radio on June 10. When that does not happen, Espe writes to Knowles saying that ONI will pursue the matter no further. He turns the letters over to the Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics. (Clark III 1118) June 9 — Col. Frank Milani, director of Civil Defense in Baltimore, Maryland, demands that the Air Force ease its restrictions on UFO information and blasts its policy on Lou Corbin’s radio show. (“A Lot of People Are Upset,” Washington (D.C.) Daily News, June 10, 1954; Project 1947 , “UFO Reports, 1954”) June 12? — Keyhoe and Edwards find out about the O’Mara interview, and Edwards puts it on his radio broadcast, generating more press calls to ATIC. Capt. Charles A. Hardin, head of Blue Book, states that “Colonel O’Mara’s words were misinterpreted. What he meant to say was that if all the sightings were reported to the Air Force, they would total about 700 a week.” (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 157 – 160 ; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1954, June – August, The Author, 1990, pp. 11 – 14) June 12 — 11:30 p.m. Walter L. Tatspaugh of Hyattsville, Maryland, observes a large bluish-green oval or round object circling and hovering in the sky for at least 45 minutes. The Baltimore GOC Filter Center allegedly tracks an object on radar over Wilmington, Delaware, for an hour. Two F-86D fighters are scrambled but cannot reach it. (NICAP, “Object Tracked / Jets Scrambled”; Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 161 – 162 ) June 14 — A UFO is again tracked over Wilmington, Delaware, flying in a rectangular course at 75,000 feet for more than 2 hours. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 161 – 162 ; UFOEv, p. 66 ) June 18 — 7:35 p.m. Monsignor Émile Élie Verhille, Apostolic Vicar of Fort-Rousset [modern Owando, Republic of the Congo], reports in the Brazzaville newspaper La Semaine de L ’ akf that he and others had seen a UFO over Laketi Mission in the Mossaka District. A luminous globe arrives from the north and heads towards Laketi. It suddenly stops, rises and falls, stops again, gyrates, and seems to shake. A noise like that of an airplane engine is heard until the moment when it also stops. Seen through binoculars, the object has a dark mass in the center with light rays of unequal length coming out of it alternately. It goes through its maneuvers for 15 minutes then shoots back over the northern horizon. (ClearIntent, p. 134 ) June 21 — 1:00 a.m. Near Ridgeway, Ontario, Guy and Valeria Baker see a hovering, domed disc about 40 feet in diameter with several rotating, flashing lights around the rim. They drive to get a closer look. The object crosses

the road in front of them and lands in a field. The car stalls, and they watch as the lights move around the area. They find a large, brown, circular spot in the pasture where the disc has been resting. (Schopick, pp. 6–7; Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 2 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 June – August, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2002, pp. 12 – 13) June 21 — 8:14 p.m. An unidentified radar blip located over central Vancouver Island, British Columbia, responds to coded IFF Mode 1 signals from the Naselle Air Force Station radar site [now Fort Stevens Historic Site] in southwestern Washington State, and instantly transmits back the correct coded responses. The blip is tracked on 3 ground radars at both Naselle and McChord AFB [now Joint Base Lewis-McChord] in Tacoma. The UFO splits into two (or consists of two objects in close formation), separates, and outmaneuvers one of two F-86D jet interceptors, both of which also radar-tracked the UFOs. Possible visual sightings of the radar target are called in to sheriff’s offices and news media. The case is forwarded to Project Blue Book, but it does not appear in its files. (NICAP, “Coded IFF Signal from UFO”; Sparks, p. 215 ) June 23 — 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. Pilot Capt. Harry Roe Jr., flying an Ohio Air National Guard F- 51 Mustang fighter at 240 mph from Dayton to Columbus, Ohio, sees a round white object with no exhaust trailing him in the same position a little above and behind at close range, possibly detected on airborne radar. Roe maneuvers to try to lose it or collide with it, but the UFO remains in relatively the same position until it departs to the southeast. S/Sgt Maynard Harris at Wright-Patterson AFB picks up the plane and the UFO on radar. He scrambles two F-86s in the Columbus area to check it out, but they see nothing. At 10:00 p.m., Maj. Frank J. Gshwandtner and 2nd Lt. Robert P. Lommori, flying in the Columbus area in an RB-47E aircraft, observe a white object the size of a baseball at 25,000 feet. The object is extremely fast and makes a gradual turn to begin a slight climb. It then flies out of sight. The duration is 30 seconds. (NICAP, “F-51 Trailed by Object / Lt. Roe Sighting”; NICAP, “Something Follows C-47 and Observed by RB-47 Crew”; Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 167 – 168 ; Sparks, p. 216 ) Late June — Some 300 people in West Berlin, Germany, see three silvery UFOs on several occasions. Moving in a zigzag motion and accelerating at high speed. Rudolf Hermes, a director at Tempelhof Airport [now closed], says the witnesses describe the objects as “shiny.” (“Triangle Saucers Reported Seen near Berlin,” Lancaster (Pa.) Sunday News, July 4, 1954, p. 19) June 26 — 12:40 a.m. The Atomic Energy Commission’s National Reactor Testing Station near Idaho Falls, Idaho, is suddenly lit up by a blinding glow that explodes in the night sky. Kelly Brooks and A. L. Taylor say the source of the light remains motionless for a few seconds, then shoots upwards at a tremendous speed. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, p. 168) June 26 — Around 7:30 a.m. A metallic blob is seen high in the sky near Columbus, Ohio. According to a newspaper article, a crew of an airliner is asked to investigate; the crew circles under the object while the 60 passengers take a look. Zanesville Radio says at 5:55 a.m. a round, silvery object is detected on an azimuth of 80°. At 5:35 a.m., an Air Force charter flight, No. 46 AF 23-24 to Wilmington, Delaware, flying at 3,000 feet observes an object in the Zanesville, Ohio, area at approximately 18,000 to 20,000 feet. (NICAP, “Airliner Investigates Strange Object”) June 27 — The Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant, at the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering in Obninsk, Kaluga Oblast, Russia, becomes the first grid-connected nuclear power plant in the world. The plan achieves criticality on May 6 and now is set up to provide electrical power to Moscow. (Wikipedia, “Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant”) June 29 — 5:03 p.m. A BOAC Stratocruiser leaves New York City bound for London, England. 30 minutes later, Capt. James R. Howard receives directions from Boston Air Traffic Center to hold his position over the Rhode Island coast. Howard circles for 10–12 minutes, after which Boston tells him to detour over Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Around 11:30 p.m. while crossing at 19,000 feet near Sept-Îles, Quebec, Howard, his copilot Lee Boyd, and navigator H. McDonnell see a large cigar-shaped object and six smaller black ovals moving the same speed as his airliner, 265 mph, on a parallel course. The small objects are strung out in a line, changing relative positions but always at the same level. The large object slowly and continually changes shape, “in a way that a swarm of bees might alter its appearance.” They appear opaque, hard-edged, gray in color, with no lights or flames visible. Goose Bay AFB [now CFB Goose Bay], Labrador, orders an F-94 to vector toward the location. Just as Howard is giving the pilot his position, the small objects disappear. McDonnell says they enter the large object. As the F- 94 approaches, the large object dwindles in size and disappears. Howard lands at Goose Bay and is questioned by RCAF and USAF officials (McConnell says they take the flight logs); when he lands in London, the Air Ministry does the same, telling the pilots they viewed a solar eclipse (which took place at 7:00 a.m. on June 30). Howard later hears that there are UFO sightings in Massachusetts while he is in a holding pattern, and he contests in the December 11 issue of Everybody ’ s Magazine that what he saw was solid, not a mirage. Gordon Thayer of the Colorado project identifies the objects as superior mirages, reflections of the “dark terrain below seen against the

bright, ‘silvery’ sky to the left of the setting sun,” a “phenomenon so rare that it apparently has never been reported before or since.” James McDonald disagrees. In 2010, ufologist Martin Shough reexamines the case and concludes that the object might well have been an unusual mirage. (NICAP, “BOAC Stratocruiser Case”; Sparks, p. 216; Clark III 195 ; Condon, pp. 139 – 140 ; James Howard, “We Were Shadowed from Outer Space,” Everybody ’ s Weekly, December 11, 1954; John Carnell, “BOAC’s Flying Jellyfish,” Fate 7, no. 11 (November 1954 ): 16 – 23 ; Leonard Cramp, “Mystery over Labrador,” Flying Saucer Review 1, no. 1 (Spring 1955): 6–8; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, p. 46 ; “Captain James Howard Reflects on His Sighting of 1954 (BOAC),” nutsandbolts ufo YouTube channel, March 7, 2009; Good Above, pp. 189 – 191 ; Phillip Robertson, “Some Considerations on the Seven Isles, Quebec, Canada, Case of June 29, 1954,” May 31, 1991; Martin Shough, “Study of an Unusual Phenomenon Observed by BOAC Aircrew over Labrador, Newfoundland, June 29, 1954,” September 2009; Martin Shough, “The BOAC Labrador Sighting of June 29, 1954,” Caelestia, October 31, 2018) June 30 — 2:17 p.m. Johnny Björnulf and Raun Conradi are aboard one of three Scandinavian Airlines planes flying above the Lifjell plateau, Telemark, Norway, to observe a total solar eclipse. Conradi takes some footage through a window on the north (port) side of one airplane. When developed it shows two small light sources that are fairly obvious window reflections, but media coverage causes much confusion about the circumstances under which the film is shot. (E. Graham, “Scandinavian Eclipse Expedition Films U.F.O.s,” Flying Saucer Review 2, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1956): 6 – 7; UFOEv, p. 5 ; Clas Svahn, “The Björnulf Solar Eclipse Film,” Clas Svahns Blogg, October 6, 2006) June 30 — 6:50 p.m. Four civilians and several military personnel at Brookley AFB [now Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley] in Mobile, Alabama, see a brilliant silver or white object with short stubby wings approach from the south, circle over Mobile, then depart to the northeast. A radar contact at 6:30 p.m. with a stationary object is evidently unrelated anomalous propagation. (NICAP, “Object with Short Stubby Wings Tracked on Radar”; Sparks, p. 216 )

Summer (or Summer 1955) — Evening. Dianne Vezza and two other teen girls are sitting in a backyard in Marietta, Ohio, when they see a star-like light moving at great speed. Suddenly it comes to a dead stop and two other stars speed in and come to an abrupt stop. The three objects form a perfect triangle. An oval object then becomes visible as the starlike objects disappear. Two other oval objects take up the same triangular position with the first. They then begin a light display with wildly colored lights that continues for a few seconds. The lights go out, and each of the objects beams a bright white light to the center of the triangle. The beams meet in the center for a few seconds and then go out. The oval objects disappear and the starlike lights return, but they soon speed off in different directions faster than a jet. The display is completely soundless. (Michael D. Swords, “Another Type of UFO Display,” IUR 30, no. 2 (January 2006): 11) July — A saucer-buff zine titled Nexus is first published by James W. Moseley in New Jersey. (Nexus 1, no. 1 (July 1954); Clark III 1032) July 2 — 11 : 05 a.m. An F-94C Starfire takes off from Griffiss AFB [now Griffiss Business and Technology Park] in Rome, New York, on an operational training mission. It is only a few miles out when the Griffiss control tower orders the plane diverted to intercept an unidentified aircraft. When Pilot Lt. William E. Atkins cannot find the aircraft, the controller tells him about a second unidentified aircraft, which Atkins identifies as an Air Force C-47. The control tower vectors him back to the first target. Atkins cannot see any aircraft above the cloud cover, so he descends below the clouds. During the descent, a furnace-like heat fills the cockpit and the engine plenum chamber fire warning light goes on. Atkins shuts the engine off, but the light remains on. Atkins and his radar man, Henry F. Coudon [or Condon], eject, landing without injury. At 11:27 a.m., the plane crashes into the town of Walesville, west of Utica, striking a building and an auto, killing 4 people, and injuring 5 others. Atkins tells reporters about the heat but clams up under Air Force pressure. The official investigation confirms the fire was caused by a malfunction of the fire detector circuit. There is no evidence of an in-flight fire. Kevin Randle suspects a balloon is responsible for one of the radar targets, because an apparent balloon is sighted later, from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m., in a 25-square-mile area from Rome to Frankfort, New York. (“Abandoned Jet Kills 3 in Car, 1 in House,” New York Times, July 3, 1954, pp. 1, 6; “Jet Plane Crashes in Flames, Kills 3 in Auto, One in House,” Syracuse (N.Y.) Post-Standard, July 3, 1954, pp. 1, 3; NICAP, “The Walesville Incident / F-94 Crash”; Kevin D. Randle, “Walesville Revisited,” IUR 25, no. 3 (Fall 2000): 3–5; Frank J. Reid, “Keyhoe’s Context,” IUR 25, no. 3 (Fall 2000): 6–7, 28 – 29 ; Kevin D. Randle, “Walesville UFO Jet Chase,” A Different Perspective, March 28, 2009; Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 174– 177 ; Condon, p. 161 ; Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, pp. 22– 23 ; “‘Balloon’ Excites Utica,” New York Times, July 3, 1954, p. 13)

July 3 — Nine green spheres hover, speed away at 2,600 mph, and are tracked on radar at 24,000 feet 20 miles north of Albuquerque, New Mexico. (UFOEv, p. 85 ) July 3 — 8:15 a.m. The captain, officers, and 463 passengers of a Dutch ocean liner watch a “greenish-colored, saucer- shaped object about half the size of a full moon” speed across the sky and disappear in clouds. (Ruppelt, p. 237 ) [same as July 29 entry?] July 8 — 9:25 p.m. Amateur astronomer Harold Hill is at his observatory in Orrell, Greater Manchester, England, when he sees a bright star in the southern sky that he at first thinks is a supernova. Soon it resolves itself into a bright, metallic globe with a cluster of 15–20 smaller, dimmer objects moving around. Clouds intervene and when they clear, he sees two bright objects, gyrating and flashing and moving slowly around each other. The objects are at a great altitude, because even through binoculars they have “shown no sensible size.” (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January 1, 1947 – December 31, 1959, The Author, 2003, pp. 80– 81 ; “An Unusual Sky Phenomenon,” Strolling Astronomer 9 (1955): 48) July 9 — Die Weltwoche in Zürich, Switzerland, publishes two letters by psychologist Carl Jung, who says he has been interested in UFOs since 1946, but he has difficulty comprehending what they might be, since they seem to have both subjective and objective properties. (Clark III 636– 637 ) July 11 — UK Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding states in an article in the London Sunday Telegraph that “I am convinced that these objects do exist and that they are not manufactured by any nation on earth. I can therefore see no alternative to accepting the theory that they come from some extraterrestrial source.” (UFOEv, p. 122 ; Good Above, pp. 47 – 48 ) July 14 — A fake memo, supposedly written by or for Robert Cutler, special assistant to President Eisenhower, to Gen. Nathan Twining, indicates that an MJ-12 briefing should take place at the White House July 16. Cutler is in Europe at the time of the memo, although the memo could have been prepared by NSC Executive Secretary James S. Lay Jr. or his associate, J. Patrick Coyne. (Robert Cutler, “Memorandum for General Twining: NSC/MJ- 12 Special Studies Project,” July 14, 1954; Northern Ontario UFO Research and Study, “Majestic- 12 ”; Stanton T. Friedman, “MJ-12: The Evidence So Far,” IUR 12 , no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1987): 14– 18 ; Stanton T. Friedman, Top Secret / MAJIC, Marlowe, 1996, pp. 86– 102 ; “Majestic-12 or ‘MJ- 12 ’ Reference Report,” US National Archives, September 29, 2020) July 20 — Two men are chased in their car by a UFO near Oslo, Norway, and stop to observe it. Afterward, one of the witnesses’ watches stops working and the car’s paint changes color. (Vallée, Magonia, p. 207) July 20– 21 — Ruppelt visits the Project Blue Book office at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio to gather information for his upcoming book. He is told that all UFO publicity is handled by a lieutenant colonel in Air Force intelligence. He writes in an August 3 letter to Keyhoe: “They claim to have gotten the unknowns down to about 10% but from what I saw this was just due to a more skeptical attitude. The reports are just as good as the ones we got and their analysis procedures are a hell of a lot worse.” (Donald E. Keyhoe, “The Captain Ruppelt Letters,” UFO Investigator 2, no. 2 (October 1961): 6; Clark III 1023) July 23 —The US Navy issues a new directive that orders the immediate reporting of UFO sightings (FLYOBRPTs) to the director of AFOSI, ATIC, commanding officer of Eastern ADC, director of Naval Intelligence, commanding officer of the Eastern Sea Frontier, and the commandant of the Potomac River Naval Command. The directive cites JANAP 146, AFR 200-2, OPNAV 3820, and Directive 3820.2 and is intended to plug leaks coming from navy and marine personnel. It is unpublicized but unclassified, so it threatens disclosure of AFR 200-2, which is still classified. USAF begins work on a new version of AFR 200-2 without the “restricted” label. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 188 – 189, 309–311) July 24– 25 — A security officer at the Naval Bureau of Aeronautics develops a personal interest in the Frances Swan contact case and accepts Adm. Knowles’s invitation to Eliot, Maine, to visit with Swan. On his return, he gives the FBI a report on his visit. On July 29 an FBI agent interviews him, and on August 9 J. Edgar Hoover sends an account of the interview to Rear Adm. Carl F. Espe and to the Army’s Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2. Hoover writes, “No further action is being taken in this matter by this Bureau.” (Clark III 1118) July 25 — Policeman J. H. Flanagan and friends see 6 UFOs over Enkeldoorn [now Chivhu], Zimbabwe. Nearly stationary, they are visible for about 20 minutes and disappear when night falls. (ClearIntent, p. 134 ) July 28 — Wilbert Smith, at the invitation of retired Navy Adm. Herbert B. Knowles, visits contactee Frances Swan in Eliot, Maine, his neighbor. Her two space friends, Affa and Alomar, direct Swan’s hand to draw a series of circles demonstrating the use of magnetic fields in spacecraft propulsion. Smith asks the aliens to communicate by radio at an appointed time a few days later, but the message does not come through. Nevertheless, Smith attempts to decipher the alien charts in hopes of learning how to build a saucer for Canada. (Clark III 1079– 1080 , 1118 ) July 29 — Capt. Jan P. Bos and five officers of the Dutch ocean liner Groote Beer see a moon-like object rising out of the Atlantic Ocean 90 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. They watch it through a sextant, allowing them to

estimate its rate of ascent at a half degree in 2 minutes. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1954, June – August,
The Author, 1990, p. 60)

August — 10:30 p.m. An astronomer sees a bright white disc, 20 times the apparent size of the moon, moving from west to northeast at a high rate of speed over Park Hills, Kentucky. The seemingly solid object is about 100 feet in diameter and flying at an altitude of 500 feet. It disappears abruptly after 3–4 seconds. (“Astronomers and UFO’s: A Survey, Part 2, Sightings,” IUR 2, no. 4 (April 1977): 3) August 1 — 11:15 p.m. Desmond O’Reilly and others at Templeogue Tennis Club in Dublin, Ireland, watch an object fly over the Dublin Mountains in the direction of Howth. Initially he thinks he is looking at a meteor because he can only see it when it passes by gaps in the clouds. He watches it split into two pieces. (Irish Times, August 5, 1954; Shane Cochrane, “Ireland vs. the Flying Saucers,” Fortean Times 317 (September 2014): 54) August 1 — 11:30 p.m. P. D. McCormack sees a bluish-white object flying at 1,000 mph at an altitude of 5,000 feet above the Dublin Mountains, Ireland, to the south. The trails seem to “fall away from the object at each side.” Two men fishing in the River Dargle near Powerscourt, County Wicklow, see a rocket-shaped object dropping balls of fire. At 11:35 p.m., on the North Beach in Rush, County Dublin, Mrs. W. Gray and others watch an object “like a bright electric bulb” fly overhead from the mountains and out to sea. Possible meteor. (Irish Times, August 3, 5, 1954; Shane Cochrane, “Ireland vs. the Flying Saucers,” Fortean Times 317 (September 2014): 54) August 2 — The US Joint Chiefs of Staff direct the establishment of a Continental Air Defense Command. Secretary of Defense Charles Erwin Wilson announces the command’s formation publicly later in the month to integrate “the air defense capabilities of the three military departments into an air defense system responsible to the control of one military commander.” (Wikipedia, “Continental Air Defense Command”) August 4 — 11 :00 p.m.–12:00 midnight. Ten firemen and their chief observe two flying saucers over The Hague, Netherlands. The objects are seen in the clear night air at a high altitude. They move at incredible speed, at times remaining motionless for as long as 30 seconds. They are described as flat ovals with whitish-gray light. All agree that the objects are neither aircraft or balloons. (ClearIntent, p. 134 ) August 6 — A bright white ball shoots across the sky over Santa Fe, New Mexico, leaving a luminous trail that persists for 15 minutes. Meteorite expert Lincoln LaPaz says it is not a meteor. It apparently disrupts TV signals and aircraft transmissions, but not ham radio. (Wilkins, FS Uncensored, Citadel, 1955, p. 226) August 7– 8 — One of the first UFO meetings in California is held on the slopes of Palomar Mountain, with lectures by George Adamski, Daniel Fry, Truman Bethurum, and Desmond Leslie. (“Palomar Mountain, 1940–1960: From Obscurity to World Fame,” The Adamski Case, September 22, 2019) August 8 — 3:01 p.m. Project Magnet’s only UFO incident of note occurs when the Shirley’s Bay, Ontario, gravimeter indicates a greater deflection in the gravitational field than a conventional object would cause. Heavy clouds obstruct Wilbert Smith’s view of the sky. (Clark III 1079; “Wilbert B. Smith,” Northern Ontario UFO Research and Study; Good Above, p. 186 ) August 10 — The Canadian Department of Transport officially folds Project Magnet but permits Wilbert Smith to continue using its facility on his own time at no expense to the government. Smith continues his work privately until his death in December 1962. (Story, p. 276 ) August 11 — Frank Edwards is fired by his sponsor at the Mutual Broadcasting Network, the American Federation of Labor. He had offered to resign on August 7, citing a conflict over the type of material he has been required to report on, including AFL interests and George Meany’s personal outlook. His UFO reportage may or may not be an issue. (Clark III 435; Frank Edwards, “The Plot to Silence Me,” Fate 10, no. 6 (June 1957): 17– 23 ) August 1 1 — 8 : 54 p.m. A1C Chase E. Lewis, tower operator at Lawson AFB [now Lawson Army Airfield] in Fort Benning, Columbus, Georgia, sees a strange stationary object in the west. It varies in brightness, changing color from white to red to orange to white again, with seemingly high-speed motions. An Army helicopter piloted by WO R. T. Wade is sent to investigate; he locates the object 20 miles west of Lawson at 2,000 feet. Wade abandons the chase due to low fuel after 2 minutes. At 9:05 p.m., two additional tower operators (including A1C William N. Watson) view the object. A second Army helicopter, piloted by U. S. Tarma, is diverted to the object at 9:27 p.m. He sees it, but it disappears at 9:29 p.m. (NICAP, “Two Helicopters Encounter Venus (CIRVIS)”; Good Above, pp. 284 – 285 ; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1954, June – August, The Author, 1990, pp. 77 – 80; Sparks, p. 219 ) August 11 — 8:55 p.m. P. L. Percharde, electrical engineer and assistant manager of the Moeller Shipwrecker Company, of Okinawa, sees a line of blue lights underneath a blue circle with a black center fly over the SS Docteur Angier off Yoron-Jima, Japan, and climb, illuminating and agitating the clouds. (Patrick Gross, “Disk Seen from SS Docteur Angier, August 11, 1954”; Sparks, p. 219)

August 12 — 2:29 a.m. Four military men on US Army helicopters at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama, see a glowing red disc soar around the base tower. There are both ground and air witnesses, as well as radar-visual confirmation. (Good Above, pp. 284 – 285 , 493 – 494 ) August 12 — An updated version of AFR 200- 2 is issued by the Department of the Air Force and declassified by Air Force Chief of Staff Nathan Twining. The public can now know that the 4602nd Air Intelligence Service Squadron was brought in to assist ATIC (Blue Book) with preliminary and field UFO investigations, and that USAF considers UFOs to be “any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object.” It lists the objectives of UFO reporting as: “First as a possible threat to the security of the United States and its forces, and secondly, to determine technical aspects involved.” (Department of the Air Force, “Unidentified Flying Objects Reporting,” Air Force Regulation 200-2, August 12, 1954; Good Above, pp. 489 – 492 ) August 16 — 5:00 p.m. A green ball is seen in the sky over Tananarive [now Antananarivo], Madagascar, and disappears behind a hill. It reappears a minute later and flies over the higher part of Tananarive. When the object flies in front of them, some witnesses see a lentil-shaped device with a silvery metallic aspect enveloped in electric luminous gas. According to Jean-Luc Bruneau, inspector general at the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, Gen. Charles de Gaulle is concerned about this sighting and quietly approves having a French study group involved with investigating UFO cases. (“1954, Tananarive, Madagascar: Multiple Witnesses to UFOs,” UFO Casebook, July 30, 2008; Gildas Bourdais, “From GEPAN to SEPRA: Official UFO Studies in France,” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000 – 2001): 11; Patrick Gross, “Tananarive, Madagascar, August 1954”) August 20 — Contactee Dorothy Martin of Oak Park, Illinois, and Charles and Lilian Laughead of Detroit, Michigan, send out a 7-page press release announcing that a geological disaster will cause great environmental changes in North America and Europe. It warns that December 20 will be the last available date for evacuation, as a great flood will strike on December 21. Martin and her followers hope to board a landed flying saucer before doom falls. (Clark III 718) August 20 — Morning. Edith Jacobsen, 2, and Åsta Solvang, 32, are on a blueberry-picking trip to Øyfjellet, near Mosjøen, Norway, with their uncle, Halvdan Jacobsen. The two sisters wander off to a fen when suddenly they see a man in the distance. They approach him and he smiles and stretches out his hand, but he only brushes Edith’s palm with it. He has long hair with a natural wave, a dark complexion, and a tight-fitting suit with a wide belt. He begins to talk but they can’t understand him. It does not sound like Norwegian, English, German, Spanish, French, or Russian. He takes out a “little mirror” from a pocket and with something like a pencil draws circles, apparently representing planets. He finally indicates he wants the women to accompany him and he takes them to a landed disc in a clearing. It is gray-blue and looks like two giant pot lids put together. He makes a sign to not come too close, then he opens a hatch on the top, crawls in, and shuts the door. The sisters hear a faint humming and the UFO rises while rotating on its own axis. (Gordon Creighton, “Mosjøen: An Early Norwegian CE-III Case,” Flying Saucer Review 34, no. 2 (June 1989): 1–7; Clark III 267 – 268 ) August 23 — 1:00 a.m. Businessman Bernard Miserey has just parked his car in a garage at Vernon, Eure, France, when he notices a sudden illumination. He sees an object like an enormous (300 feet long) cigar standing on end, hovering above the north bank of the Seine River about 1,000 feet away. Suddenly from the bottom of the object comes a horizontal disc that drops, slows, and suddenly dives horizontally across the river at him. It vanishes at a high rate of speed toward the southwest. Three other discs follow in sequence. A fifth disc drops much lower than the earlier ones and remains still for an instant, swaying slightly. During this time the cigar has faded and sinks into darkness. The spectacle has lasted 45 minutes. Two police officers and an Army engineer also see the display. (Clark III 293 ; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1954, June – August, The Author, 1990, pp. 77 – 80; Sparks, pp. 85– 86 ; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” February 2, 2007; Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects and Cloud Cigars,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 4–5) August 26 — 9:35 p.m. Crowds of people in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland. see an object traveling at great speed over Bray Head. It is a brilliant blue light, traveling at “2,000 miles an hour” toward the sea before changing direction and moving toward Wicklow. (Irish Times, August 27, 1954; Shane Cochrane, “Ireland vs. the Flying Saucers,” Fortean Times 317 (September 2014): 54) August 28 — 8:30 p.m. Several USAF fighter pilots pursue a triangular formation of 15 objects near Tinker AFB, Oklahoma City, tracked by ground radar. As the jets approach, the formation breaks, changes to a semicircle, and the objects speed up and vanish to the west. (NICAP, “USAF Fighters Report Formation Tracked by Radar”; Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 25 – 26 ; Sparks, p. 220 ) August 29 — A witness in Mérida, Venezuela, sees a large, intensely yellow, glowing object moving at great speed from west to east. When it reaches the Sierra Nevada de Mérida, it suddenly stops and two disc-shaped blue objects

emerge from it. All three continue to the east and disappear behind buildings. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 5 8 ) August 29 — 11:05 p.m. First Officer H. G. Gardner and Engineer J. V. D. Whitisy, flying on a Royal Dutch Airlines DC- 4 , see 3–4 dark, lens-shaped objects over Prins Christianssund radio and weather station, Greenland. They veer north and change position in formation. (NICAP, “Lens-Shaped Objects Veer North”; Sparks, p. 220 ) August 31— 7:10 p.m. RAN Lieutenant J. A. “Shamus” O’Farrell is returning to HMAS Albatross Naval Air Station near Nowra, New South Wales, after a night cross-country in a Hawker Sea Fury aircraft. After contacting Nowra, O’Farrell sees a very bright light closing fast at one o’clock. It crosses in front of his aircraft, taking up position on his port beam, where it appears to orbit. A second and similar light is observed at nine o’clock. It passes about a mile in front of the Sea Fury and then turns in the position where the first light was observed. According to O’Farrell, the apparent crossing speeds of the lights are the fastest he has ever encountered. He has been flying at 250 mph. O’Farrell contacts Albatross, which in turn confirms that it has two radar “paints” in company with him. Radar operator Petty Officer Keith Jessop confirms the presence of 2 objects near the Sea Fury on the GCI remote display. The two lights reform at nine o’clock and then disappear on a northeasterly heading. O’Farrell can only make out “a vague shape with the white light situated centrally on top.” The Directorate of Naval Intelligence at the time writes that O’Farrell is “an entirely credible witness” and that he “was visibly shaken by his experience but remains adamant that he saw these objects.” News of the incident leaks out in December, but the official RAN file remains classified until 1982. (NICAP, “‘Sea Fury’ Encounter”; Swords 379–380; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, p. 70; Good Above, p. 162 ; An Adelaide UFO Researcher, “The ‘Sea Fury’ Radar Incident Revisited,” 2017; “The Sea Fury Incident,” Australian Disclosure Project, April 30, 2006; Bill Chalker, “The Australian Government and UFOs,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 18–19) August 31 — Deputy Department of Transport Minister John Baldwin closes the Shirley’s Bay, Ontario, UFO station to save money, although he says Smith can work on his own time. (“Saucer Station Closes,” The Saucerian, no. 6 (Spring 1955): 12; Clark III 1079)

September 1 —The Continental Air Defense Command is established, primarily to defend the continental United States against air attack. It is also tasked to support US commanders in the Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean, Alaska, Northeast, and of Strategic Air Command in their missions to the maximum extent consistent with its primary mission. ADC’s commander, Gen. Benjamin W. Chidlaw, becomes the first CINCONAD, and USAF is designated as the executive agency. (Wikipedia, “Continental Air Defense Command”) September 2 — Dusk. John Jacob Swaim, 12, is working on a tractor at his family’s farm in Coldwater, Kansas, when he sees a small man about 3 feet tall with long, pointed ears and a pointed nose standing in a crouched position about 20 feet away. It is dressed in a shiny garment and has two cylinders strapped on its back. The being floats to a nearby UFO hovering 5 feet from the ground. The next day his father and Sheriff Floyd Hadley find pear-shaped footprints, wide at the toes and tapering to a narrow heel. (“Little Man in Kansas Wheat Field,” The Saucerian, no. 6 (Spring 1955): 12–13; Clark III 270 – 271 ; Curt Collins, “A Flying Cucumber Comes to Kansas, Sept. 1954,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, February 23, 2018) September 3 — 4:30 p.m. USAF Maj. Robert J. Waste and the 9 - man crew of his B-47 bomber are flying at 25,000 feet in the vicinity of Dallas, Texas, on their way to Barksdale AFB in Bossier City, Louisiana. Carswell AFB [now Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth] in Texas directs them to be on the lookout for unusual objects. The crew discovers they are being paced by a missile-shaped object only 100 feet overhead that is slightly larger and longer than their own fuselage. It has two rows of oval-shaped portholes along the sides and an orange exhaust. The bottom of the object seems to be glowing. After pacing the B-47 a short time, it shoots ahead and zooms upward at incredible speed. Carswell tells them to pursue, but they can’t keep up. The UFO then descends to within 300 feet of the bomber and begins circling it. The UFO stays with the plane, pacing it above and below, and performing figure-eights and other maneuvers for over an hour. Two other B-47s in the squadron are behind the lead bomber and also view the object. The UFO finally shoots upward and disappears again. Waste takes 32 frames of 35mm color film of the UFO with his personal camera, but his film and that of his copilot is confiscated during a 3-day debriefing at Barksdale. (Paul Cerny, “Close Encounter at 25,000 Feet: Government Coverup,”: IUR 8, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1983): 6–7) September 7 — 12:30 a.m. Robert Chovel and two others are driving home from the theater in Hirson, Aisne, France, when they see a luminous red-orange disc flying above the railroad tracks. It stops suddenly across the road, 900– 1,200 feet from the ground. When the car reaches the bridge at Buire, the object shoots away at great speed. (ClearIntent, p. 134 ; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” May 12, 2003)

September 7 — 7:15 a.m. Two bricklayers, Emile Renard, 27, and Yves DeGillerboz, 23, see a bluish-gray object floating in midair over a field as they are bicycling between Harponville and Contay, Somme, France. It looks like an unfinished haystack “with a plate turned upside down on top of it.” When they try to approach, it takes off. It has a diameter of 33 feet, and they notice it has a kind of door. The observation lasts more than 3 minutes, at which point the object releases some smoke as it departs straight up. (Aimé Michel, Straight Line, p. 35; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” March 20, 2003) September 8 — 11:00 p.m. Thomas Farquhar sees a “large oval-shaped disc,” crackling and hissing, fly over Derryhubbert, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. He thinks it is about 3 feet wide and flying at a height of 2,000 feet. Daniel McWilliam and James Bingham, in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, see a rocket soar into the sky and explode silently. Mr. L. Hauser is on a boat leaving Belfast when he sees a rocket come up out of the sea and explode when it reaches about 15,000 feet. (Belfast Telegraph, September 9– 11 , 1954; Shane Cochrane, “Ireland vs. the Flying Saucers,” Fortean Times 317 (September 2014): 54) September 9 — 2:20 a.m. Mr. K. M. Gibbons of Nelson, New Zealand, gets out of bed and sees through the window three discs hovering above a mudflat 3 miles away in a V-formation. They radiate a blue-white light from their edges. He grabs a camera with a telephoto lens and takes a photo. After 5 minutes, the discs begin to wobble, tip on edge, then shoot vertically out of sight. Other reports come from the area that morning. The photo shows a blurry oval with a small dark area on top. (UFOEv, pp. 89 , 92 ; Wilkins, FS Uncensored, Citadel, 1955, opp. p. 96 ) September 10 — 8:30 p.m. Antoine Mazaud is walking home from his fields at Mourieras, north of Bugeat, Corrèze, France, when he is confronted by a helmeted being of average height who makes friendly gestures. It shakes hands with him and embraces him while uttering unintelligible words. Then it goes back into the brush, enters a cigar-shaped object about 13 feet long, which takes off to the northwest. A few minutes later, witnesses in Limoges report a disc-shaped, red object leaving a bluish trail. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” June 21, 2005 ; Mark Cashman, “Behavioral Classification System for UFO Occupants,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 18 ) September 10 — Around 10:30 p.m. 34 - year-old metal worker Marius Dewilde comes out of his house at Quarouble, Nord, France, to see why his dog is barking. He hears hurried footsteps on his right and with his flashlight sees two creatures just beyond his fence walking in single file toward a dark object sitting on the railroad tracks. The creatures are about 3.5 feet tall with wide shoulders, short legs, and helmets covering large heads. No faces or arms are visible. When he tries to cut them off and gets within 6 feet, he finds himself paralyzed as a powerful orange beam of light is projected at him from a square opening in the dark object. The creatures continue toward the railroad tracks, a door closes, the dark object rises to 100 feet, hovers, and speeds away. Five imprints on three wooden railroad ties are found, made by an object that an engineer estimates must have weighed 30 tons. French police and the French Air Force investigate the case. (Wikipedia, “Marius Dewilde”; Aimé Michel, Straight Line, 44 – 46 ; Marc Thirouin, “Marius Dewilde n’a pas menti,” Ouranos, no. 25 (1960): 20–25; Vallée, Magonia, pp. 17 – 18 , 209 ; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” July 22, 2004; Jean F. Gilles, “The Bankruptcy of the French UFO Research Body, GEPAN,” Flying Saucer Review 28, no. 5 (June 1983): 15– 16 ; Mark Cashman, “Behavioral Classification System for UFO Occupants,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 18) September 12 or 13 — Late afternoon. A witness is driving a van in the vicinity of Quarouble, Nord, France, when he sees a domed disc descending vertically into a small thicket about 160 feet off the road and land. He can see a kind of gallery around the dome where human-like beings are standing. He stops the car, gets out, and walks toward the object, but when he gets closer the object shines a green ray at him. The disc immediately ascends vertically, then moves gently away. His paralysis ceases. A rush of air shakes him at the time it takes off. (Marc Thirouin, “Marius Dewilde n’a pas menti,” Ouranos, no. 25 (1960): 25; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” March 23, 2006) September 14 — 5:00 p.m. Farm worker Georges Fortin, 34, and more than 200 other witnesses in Saint-Prouant, Vendée, France, watch a cigar or carrot-shaped UFO as it emerges from a cloud, tilts toward the ground, hovers, and then elevates its front end quickly into a vertical position. It emits vapor from its lower end. Next, a metallic disc- shaped object flies out, spins around the cigar, and then reenters the vertical object. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” July 2, 2004; Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects and Cloud Cigars,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 5; Herbert S. Taylor, “Cloud Cigars: A Further Look,” IUR 30 , no. 3 (May 2006): 10 – 12 ; Clark III 293 ; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, “‘Cloud Cigar’ over Saint-Prouant, France,” June 13, 2011) September 14 — Night. Several people see a circular UFO over Helsinki, Finland. Flying at 2,600 feet, it gives off an intense light and leaves a trail of reddish smoke about 3 times its diameter. It is visible 7 seconds. (ClearIntent, p. 134 ) September 15 — Ijapada Chatterjee, the manager of the Kadori mica mine, and hundreds of others watch a disc descend to an altitude of 500 feet over three adjoining villages (Kadori, Barshi, and Mangalda) in the Manbhum district, West Bengal, India. It hovers, then soars upwards at terrific speed, creating a tremendous gust of wind. The UFO

is over a mine that supplies beryllium for the US Atomic Energy Commission. (“800 Biharis See Flying Saucer,” Times of India (Bombay), October 3, 1954; UFOEv, p. 124 ; Project 1947, “UFO Reports, 1954”) September 16 — 6:00 a.m. The radio transmitter for WMEV in Marion, Virginia, fails as a round, shiny object, 10 – 15 feet in diameter, flies over the tower toward the east. (“Flying Saucers Are Sighted in Virginia,” Lancaster (Pa.) Intelligencer-Journal, September 17, 1954, p. 44; Schopick, p. 79) September 17 — Around 4:45 p.m. Hundreds of people see a UFO over Rome, Italy, making staccato thunder sounds as it hovers. It makes a brief dive, returns to position, then zooms straight up, leaving a stream of white smoke behind. Around 5:45 p.m., Lt. Bruno Giustiniani and other personnel at a military unit at Ciampino Airport in Rome see it as a “half cigar” moving at 179 mph at 3,500 feet. Blue Book receives a teletype about the object, saying it is in the shape of a jellyfish when stationary but in the shape of a cigar when in motion. At 6:4 9 p.m., radar at Pratica di Mare Air Base south of Rome picks up a target for 20 – 45 minutes, plotting a slow course along the coast. (Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1954 September, The Author, 1994, pp. 24 – 27 ; 1Pinotti 54–58) September 17 — 7:15 p.m. A widow named Mellé sees a luminous, orange-yellow, cigar-shaped object near her villa in Gelles, Puy-de-Dôme, France. Her neighbors also see it and watch for 5 minutes. Possible contrail. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 11, 2006) September 18 — 8:30 p.m. A round glowing UFO is seen approaching then hovering above Danané, Ivory Coast, by many people: a Catholic priest named Fr. Myard, the local chief of police, a Dr. Mariani, a businessman named Sory Diallo, and a group of women. The object moves again at 9:05 p.m., changes from a circle to an ellipse, then flies away. (Aimé Michel, Straight Line, 61; Loren E. Gross, UFOs, a History: 1954 September, The Author, 1994, pp. 28 – 29) September 18 — 8:40 p.m. A huge green fireball streaks across Colorado and New Mexico. It zooms above Santa Fe, New Mexico, giving off a blinding glare and takes 30 seconds to cross the sky, disturbing TV and radio signals. Lincoln LaPaz remarks that it does not seem to be an ordinary meteor. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 198 – 199; Ruppelt, p. 47 ; Sparks, p. 220 ) September 19 — 10 :00 p.m. Yves David, 28, is riding his moped on the D- 1 road south of Cenon-sur-Vienne, France, when his headlight begins malfunctioning and he feels a prickling sensation like electricity. He sees a 9-foot-long UFO in the road ahead and a small man in a diving suit coming toward him. It touches David on the shoulder, mutters something incomprehensible, and returns to the object. The object emits a green light that temporarily stuns David before it takes off. (Clark III 269 ; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” March 20, 2003) September 20 — 9:00 p.m. Elie Cisterne, a farm worker in the hamlet of La Chassagne, Ussac, Corrèze, France, is returning home on his tractor when he sees a luminous object coming toward him. He jumps off the tractor and lies down, fearful, as the object stops a short distance above the road and hovers silently for several minutes. Cisterne runs away when the UFO starts moving again, flying over his tractor and into the distance. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” December 29, 2005) September 21 — 9:45 p.m. A guard at the Santa Maria Airport in Vila so Porto, Azores, sees a 10 x 5 - foot, light metallic blue, pecan-shaped object with a clear glass or plastic nose and door, poles or aerials on its nose. It hums or whines as it hovers, then lands vertically 50 feet away. A blond man, 5 feet 10 inches tall, appears, speaks in a strange language, pats the guard on the shoulder, gets in the object, hooks up his harness, pushes a button, takes off with the object’s nose pointed up, then levels off and climbs vertically. (NICAP, “Blond Humanoid Reported by Airport Guard”; Sparks, p. 220 ) September 21 — Leonard Stringfield has a private talk for 26 minutes with Lt. Col. John O’Mara, USAF Deputy Commander for Intelligence, who tells him that flying saucers do exist—three types, actually: a craft from outer space, a secret US aircraft, and unexplained natural phenomena. (Leonard Stringfield, “Private Talk with Lt. Colonel John O’Mara, Deputy Commander, Intelligence, Confirms the Existence of ‘Flying Saucers,’” CRIFO Newsletter 1, no. 7 (October 1, 1954): 1) September 2 2 — Shortly after 8:00 p.m. Mme. Gamundi is driving on the N7 north of Fontainebleau, France, when she notices a light in the sky. She stops and gets out and sees a huge luminous ball hanging motionless. It is reddish and surrounded by a luminous, moving smoke. Suddenly, another bright ball emerges from the bottom, falls, slows, turns, and disappears at high speed. At least 4 other objects emerge. When an aircraft from Orly Airport approaches, the ball rises at high speed and disappears. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 9, 2006) September 22 — 11:00 p.m. Jean Besse, a draftsman for a power company in Tulle, Corrèze, France, watches a UFO through binoculars. It changes color three times in a few seconds. Probably astronomical. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” March 23, 2006) September 23 — Afternoon. Several residents of Bayonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France, see three mysterious objects high in the sky. One witness, policeman M. Corrions, says they are arranged in the shape of a triangle. Possible helicopters. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 20, 2006)

September 23 — 9:00 p.m. Irene Vrignolles sees a “flying cigar” that lands slowly in a meadow behind a rectory in Lencouacq, Landes, France. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” December 16, 2005) September 24 — Hoaxed story of an alleged sighting by Cesar Cardoso at Castelo Branco, Portugal, who sees two entities in shining metal suits emerge from a landed UFO and pick up flowers, shrubs, and twigs. (Patrick Gross, URECAT, December 8, 2006; Mark Cashman, “Behavioral Classification System for UFO Occupants,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 18 ) September 26 — 2:30 p.m. At Chabeuil, Drôme, France, Lucette Leboeuf is walking her dog when she sees a short being wearing a translucent helmet and diving suit. She can see large eyes looking at her through the helmet. The creature approaches her, hopping. The dog barks at it and she runs away and hides in a bush. About 15 feet away, she sees an object about 16 feet in diameter resembling a top with a flat top. It rises above the cornfield and takes off at tremendous speed. Other people notice a circular area about 10 feet in diameter where the ground and grass are tightly packed. Tree branches are broken from above. Shocked, she stays in bed for two days. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap”) September 27 — 8:30 p.m. 12-year-old Raymond Romand and two other children on an isolated farm near Prémanon, Jura, France, see a brilliant rectangular object. He sees two occupants and throws stones at them, but he is thrown to the ground by an “ice-cold invisible force.” Raymond confesses 6 weeks later that he made up the whole story, including making some physical trace marks. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” March 7, 2003) September 2 8 — Around 12:00 midnight. Two witnesses at Rixheim, Haut-Rhin, France, watch an elongated luminous object through binoculars. Ten or more smaller luminous points are circling it in all directions. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 1, 2014) September 28 — 10:30 p.m. Vintner M. Mercier of Saint-Armand-Montrond, Cher, France, notices that someone has stolen grapes from his vineyard and decides to stay up late and catch the thief. He sees a luminous object descend and three figures emerge. He is then paralyzed and loses consciousness. There is no sign of anything when he wakes up. Probable hoax. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 5, 2007) September 30 — Gen. Jimmy Doolittle submits a 69-page classified report on clandestine operations directly to President Eisenhower. It negates the Second Hoover Commission’s recommendation on intelligence oversight. It says: “We must develop effective espionage and counterespionage services and must learn to subvert, sabotage, and destroy our enemies by more clever, more sophisticated, and more effective methods than those used against us.” (Richard A. Best Jr. and Herbert Andrew Boerstling, “Proposals for Intelligence Reorganization, 1949–1996,” Report to the US House Select Committee on Intelligence, Congressional Research Service, February 28, 1996, p. 11) September 30 — Aviation pioneer Eugène Farnier watches an unknown object for 20 minutes above his property at Jouy- sue-Morin, Seine-et-Marne, France. It is swinging back and forth over an area of about 984 feet. Farnier thinks it looks similar to the cigar-shaped object seen at Marignane in October 1952. (Patrick Gross, “UFOs in the Daily Press”) September 30 — Around 4:30 p.m. Georges Gatay and his team of construction workers at Marcilly-sur-Vienne, Indre-et- Loire, France, see a disc-shaped object on the ground with a small, helmeted being standing nearby. In his hand he holds an elongated object: “It could have been a pistol, or it could have been a metal rod.” On his chest is a light projector. Gatay tries to run, but he finds himself helplessly nailed to the spot. He is thus “paralyzed” during the whole observation until the object leaves. So are his seven coworkers, in a unique case of collective physiological reaction. Almost certainly a hoax. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” November 8, 2006)

October — London publishing house Frederick Muller publishes a contactee book, Flying Saucer from Mars, allegedly written by one Cedric Allingham, who claims that while vacationing in Scotland in February 1954 he saw a saucer land and talked to its occupant, a human-looking Martian. In 1969, science writer Robert Chapman concludes that no such person as Allingham existed. Christopher Allan and Steuart Campbell allege in 1986 that the book was written by arch-skeptical astronomer Patrick Moore using a pseudonym. His motive was to spoof Adamski and embarrass ufologists, but Moore never admits to the hoax. The photo of “Cedric Allingham” is really Peter Davies, who posed for the photograph with Moore’s reflecting telescope. Davies also edited the book to conceal Moore’s distinctive style of writing. (Cedric Allingham, Flying Saucer from Mars, Frederick Muller, 1954; Clark III 98 ; Robert Chapman, Unidentified Flying Objects, Barker, 1969; Christopher Allen and Steuart Campbell, “Flying Saucer from Moore’s?” Magonia 23 (July 1986): 15– 18 ; Curt Collins, “Contact! A Close Encounter of the Third Kind from 1954,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, October 13, 2017) October — Day. RAF pilot Michael Forrest, stationed at RAF Sek Kong [now Shek Kong Airfield] near Hong Kong is scrambled in a de Haviland Vampire ground attack fighter to intercept a target detected by ground radar approaching from China. The target appears to be the size of an aircraft and traveling at high speed with a

continuous track. Ground control tells him that at times it is stationary, but it has the ability to change direction and height at fantastic speeds. Forrest and another pilot are vectored into the blip at 30,000 feet, but they can see nothing. Ground radar insists the blip is right there with them. After 15 minutes the aircraft break off and head home. On the base, he is told that the blip was caused by “anomalous propagation.” (“‘Scrambled for Bogies’: An Incident at RAF Sek Kong,” Fortean Times 403 (March 2021): 45) Early October — Maxime Pignatelli, 65, is hunting with his dog on the banks of the Durance River near Corbières, Alpes- de-Hautes-Provence, France. He sees a gray object about 12 feet long and 3 feet high on the ground about 130 feet away. Two helmeted figures emerge from a dome. The man flees. His dog also retreats a bit later, walking awkwardly as if partly paralyzed. (Jacques Vallée, “Un siècle d’atterrissages,” Lumières dans la Nuit, no. 103 (December 1969): 7; Francis Schaefer and Pierre Delval, “Un recit d’atterrissage inedit à Corbières,” Phénomènes Inconnus 1, no. 14 (1971): 10–13; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” May 20, 2003) October 1 — The Swedish Defense Ministry allegedly requests a secret investigation into UFOs. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, p. 27) October 1 — 9:20 a.m. An RCAF test pilot is flying at 30,000 feet over Montreal, Quebec, in an F-86 Sabre Mk 5 jet fighter when he notices a contrail high over the north end of Lake Champlain. He climbs to 51,000 feet at 540 mph but is unable to close on the object, which appears to him as a black dot. He turns to a different heading and sees that the contrail makes a similar turn abiut 10,000 feet above him. As he returns to Montreal, the contrail climbs at a 45° angle and disppears to the east. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2002, pp. 91–92) October 1 — 4 :00 p.m. An anonymous man and his dog are paralyzed as a luminous white object dives toward them and climbs away again at Bry-sur-Marne, Val-de-Marne, France. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” March 25, 2003 ) October 1 — 6:45 p.m. Bernard Devoisin and René Condette are bicycling west of Ligescourt in the direction of Vron, Somme, France. They see a glowing orange object shaped like a beehive in the middle of the road. A small entity, about 3 feet tall and dressed in a “diving suit,” is standing close to it. When they get to within 200 feet of it, the object takes off at great speed. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” May 8, 2004) October 1 — 7:50 p.m. Mechanic Ernest Delattre, 19, is riding to his home in Croix d’Épine, Oise, France, on his motor scooter when a bright egg-shaped object lands on the left side of the road 45 feet away. He sees short, dark shapes “like potato bags” moving around the object. He speeds up and the UFO changes its color and takes off. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” March 27, 2003) October 1 — Around 10:00 p.m. Jean Defiz, a factory worker in Bergerac, Dordogne, France, is returning home on his bicycle when he sees a large shooting star. Later, he sees an intense light in his yard and rushes out to see a disc rise with a whistling sound. It becomes luminous and flies off. A neighbor also sees it and estimates it is 10 feet wide. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap”) October 2 — The French Air Ministry allegedly launches a UFO investigation after 267 citizens come forward to report UFOs. (Wilkins, FS Uncensored, Citadel, 1955, pp. 60 – 61 ) October 2 — 3:45 p.m. A teacher, Mlle. Jaillet, along with 23 schoolchildren, see an elongated object in the sky to the southeast at Les Rousses, Jura, France. It approaches rapidly and they see it is a “cloud cigar.” It switches from horizontal to vertical and hovers. At one point, a gleaming yellow disc emerges from it and moves away. The long object switches to horizontal again and moves away to the northwest. The incident lasts 4–5 minutes. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” March 25, 2003) October 3 — Dawn. Stockyard employee Angelo Girardo is going to his job in Bressuire, Deux-Sèvres, France, when he sees a small being wearing a diving suit standing near a circular craft about 10 feet in diameter. It swiftly takes off. Hoax. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” August 3, 2007) October 3 — 7:20 p.m. Villagers of Chereng, Nord, France, are having their Ducasse festival meal when they see a fast, luminous object in the sky suddenly stop, give off sparks, and descend to ground level. As people run to the spot, it takes off again. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” January 9, 2009) October 3 — 11:15 p.m. Young farmer Jean Allary sees a circular object near Ronsenac, Charente, France, that seems to be gliding on or near the ground, has luminous spots, and lights up as it takes off. He finds flattened and scorched grass over an area 25 feet across. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” January 31, 2007) October 4 — 8:00 p.m. In Poncey-sur-l’Ignon, Côte-d’Or, France, Mme. Yvette (or Thérèse) Fourneret sees a luminous orange object about 10 feet wide land in a meadow on her farm. She runs to tell some men, who arrive at the spot with rifles but find nothing. Instead, they discover a strange quadrilateral hole from which soil appears to be sucked up. The roots of plants are not damaged. The French Air Force and local police investigate and learn there are other witnesses. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” March 10, 20 03 )

October 5 — A spindle-shaped UFO is seen for 20 minutes by hundreds of people over El Mahalla El Kubra, Egypt. At Bahnay, aerial cylinders emit dark smoke. One explodes, knocking a farmer to the ground, and kills two cows, whose hides show burn marks. Lt. Tewrik takes a photo of a rotating UFO that emits smoke above El-Qantara el- Sharqîya on the western side of the Suez Canal. He sends it to the Egyptian Army and to Khedivial Astronomical Observatory in Helwan. Adm. Youssef Hammad, director of the Egyptian Ports and Lights Administration, alerts pilots and astronomers to keep watch for UFOs over Cairo. (Wilkins, FS Uncensored, Citadel, 1955, pp. 231 – 232 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 October, The Author, 1991, p. 12) October 5 — 4:00 a.m. M. P. Lucas, a baker in Loctudy, Finistère, France, is getting water from his well when he sees a UFO hovering nearby. A small being comes out of the object; it has an oval head covered with hair and large eyes. The creature touches Lucas’s shoulder and speaks to him in an unknown language. He calls for his boss, and the creature runs into the object and takes off. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” October 3, 2003) October 5 — 7:15 a.m. A road worker named Narcy sees an object near a road in Mertrud, Haute Marne, France. He also sees a hairy dwarf wearing an orange, tight-fitting jacket climb through a porthole on the UFO, which consists of a cigar-shaped section under a flat disc. Tracks are found. Probable hoax. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” March 25, 2003) October 5 — 3:45 p.m. In Beaumont, Puy-de-Dôme, France, witnesses Brun, Marfaron, Douti, and Marplat see a luminous ball moving west to east 1,500 feet away from them. It approaches to within 450 feet, and they feel paralyzed with faintness as a nitrobenzene odor spreads around them. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” March 24, 2006) October 6 — Around 6:00 a.m. Mechanic Joseph Roy is riding to work on his bicycle at Isles-sur-Suippe, Marne, France, and sees a dazzling light at low altitude. It blinks out. When he gets to the spot where it disappeared, he sees a large object like an artillery shell 9 feet long. A small, dark form is standing in front of it. Roy becomes frightened and races to the nearest gendarmerie. Probable confusion, helicopter, and military personnel. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” January 16, 2006) October 6 — 9:30 p.m. Two soldiers at the military barracks in La Fère, Aisne, France, watch a luminous craft in the shape of an artillery shell landed on the ground less than a quarter-mile away. As one soldier approaches it, he becomes paralyzed. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 9, 2006) October 7 — 6:20 a.m. A group of workers at the Renault manufacturing plant at Le Mans, Sarthe, France, are bicycling to work when they feel an unpleasant tickling at the same moment an intense greenish light is emitted from a luminous object hovering above the Route N23 road. They are almost paralyzed, then the UFO leaves, flying low over the fields. (Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, p. 143; Schopick, pp. 8– 9 ; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” October 22, 2004) October 7 — The Italian Air Ministry allegedly sets up UFO detection posts for 24/7 vigilance. (Wilkins, FS Uncensored, Citadel, 1955, p. 232 ) October 7 — 2:30 p.m. Farmer René Margaillon goes to work and notices a mysterious object about 300 feet away in a field between Monteux and Althen-des-Paluds, Vauclude, France. He approaches the object, which is about 8 feet tall and phosphorescent. Suddenly it disappears and he feels suffocated. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 5, 2003) October 7 — Night. Witnesses at Corbigny, Nièvre, France, see a luminous cylinder that appears orange when vertical and motionless, and white when moving forward horizontally. At one point, two small discs emerge from its lower part. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” September 12, 2005) October 8 — 7 :30 p.m. Four children—Gilbert Calda, 12, Daniel Hirsch, 9, J. P. Hirsch, 5, and Robert Maguin, 16—are roller skating at Pournoy-la-Chétive, Moselle, France, when they see a luminous object near the cemetery. It is round, about 8 feet in diameter, and standing on three legs. A dwarf, about 4 feet tall, dressed in black, with a face covered in hair and large eyes, emerges and shines a blinding light at them. It says something in an unknown language. The children run away but look back in time to see the object flying away high in the sky. (Clark III 269 ; Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, 154 ; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” March 7, 2003) October 9 — The US Air Force releases a press statement saying that after studying 3,500 reports, it has found “no authentic physical evidence” that UFOs are spaceships or weapons. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 October, The Author, 1991, p. 22) October 9 — 4:00 p.m. Jean Bertrand is driving near Carcassonne, Aude, France, when he comes upon a metallic sphere in the road ahead. The top half seems to be transparent, and he sees two human-shaped figures inside. As he approaches, the object takes off at high speed. Probable helicopter. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” March 26, 2003)

October 9 — Around 7:00 p.m. Roger Barrault, a worker in Lavoux, Vienne, France, is riding a bicycle when he is stopped on the road by a double beam of light coming from a 4-foot-tall figure that looks like a diver. It wears boots without heels and has brilliant eyes and a large moustache. Hoax. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” March 26, 2003) October 9 — 8:30 p.m. Jean-Pierre Mitto and his two cousins are driving on Road 631 from Toulouse to Briatexte, Tarn, France, at a crossroads known as “La Caiffe” when they see two small figures about the size of 11-year-old children cross the road. They enter a pasture where a convex disc rises vertically and shoots upwards rapidly. It is about 20 feet in diameter and orange. Brown, oily residue is found at the site. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” March 26, 2003) October 9 — 9:20 p.m. Mechanics André Bartoli and Jean-Jacques Lalevée see the sky light up with a yellow-orange glow in Cuisy, Seine-et-Marne, France. Bartoli’s car motor and headlights fail, and they both see a yellow-orange cigar-shaped object moving to the southwest. (Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, pp. 150–152; Schopick, pp. 9– 11 ; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” August 26, 2004) October 9 — 10:15 p.m. Max Favell, a representative of a German firm in Beirut, Lebanon, sees a white flying object land. It takes off vertically, spinning, and is lost to sight. (Vallée, Magonia, pp. 222 – 223 ) October 9 — Evening. As he is driving home from his job as a movie projectionist in Rinkerode [now part of Drensteinfurt], North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany, Willi Hoge sees a blue light to one side of the road. He looks closer and sees four small figures with big heads and chests and small, thin legs, apparently doing repair work on a spindle-shaped machine. All are dressed in one-piece elastic body suits. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 October, The Author, 1991, p. 24 ; Wilkins, FS Uncensored, Citadel, 1955, p. 233 ) October 10 — The Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle announces it will act as a clearinghouse for UFO reports. (Wilkins, FS Uncensored, Citadel, 1955, p. 233 ) October 10 — A cylindrical UFO with red and green lights is seen over Alexandria, Egypt. (Wilkins, FS Uncensored, Citadel, 1955, pp. 232 – 233 ) October 10 — 11:30 a.m. Marius Dewilde, along with his 14-year-old son, allegedly has a second encounter with a UFO occupant at Quarouble, Nord, France. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 3, 2003) October 10 — In a newspaper interview, Alfred Loedding alludes to the 1948 Estimate of the Situation without calling it that. Loedding shows a study of some 100+ UFO reports to one of the “country’s leading scientists,” who glances at it briefly, then declares that “flying saucers are a figment of the imagination.” Shortly afterwards, the skeptics in Project Sign win out, and Loedding’s efforts are ignored. (Trenton (N.J.) Sunday Times-Advertiser, October 10, 1954; Michael Hall, “Was There a Second Estimate of the Situation?” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 13, 32) October 11 — 4:15 a.m. Baptiste Jourdy is delivering milk near Fonfrède, Loire, France, when the truck engine dies and the headlights fail. He gets out to investigate and sees a glowing, multicolored object, moving at great speed, cross the road and disappear in the distance. The headlights return and he starts the truck again. (Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, p. 15 7 ; Schopick, pp. 1 1 – 12 ; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 6, 2003) October 11 — 4:30 a.m. Two merchants, Henri Gallois and Louis Vigneron, are traveling to a fair in a van near Clamercy, Nièvre, France, when they both feel electrical shocks. The van motor dies, and the headlights go out. They become paralyzed and see on the ground, 150 feet away, a round object with three small figures around it. The figures go inside the object, which then leaves rapidly. The headlights come back on, the paralysis ends, and the engine can be restarted. Hoax. (Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, p. 158; Schopick, pp. 12–13; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 7, 2003) October 11 — 6:00 a.m. Baptiste Potin of Méral, Mayenne, France, is riding a bicycle to his workplace when he spots a huge orange ball in the sky that seems to be above Saint-Poix. It apparently descends to the ground as he approaches, barring the road. After watching it 8–10 minutes, it rises slowly and disappears in the northwest. He finds when he arrives at a farm that he is covered in white fluff embedded in his clothes. Probably an observation of the moon, accompanied by plant seeds. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 14, 2003) October 11 — The Romanian magazine Contemporanul claims that UFOs are US propaganda designed to “stir up against Moscow a flying-saucer psychosis.” (“Saucers Are Not!” Cincinnati Enquirer, Oct. 1 2 , 1954, p. 4; Ruppelt, p. 238 ) October 11 — 9 : 5 0 p.m. Julia Juste, Maria Barbereau, and Marion Tanneur are driving along D14 about 1 mile from Chateauneuf-sur-Charente, Charente, France. Two luminous globes, one smaller than the other, appear in the sky ahead of them at low altitude, and their car stalls and the headlights go out. The larger one becomes brilliant white with a reddish halo. After 5 minutes, they move out of sight in the Charente valley. (Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, p. 160; Schopick, p. 13; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 6, 2003)

October 12 — Morning. A UFO supposedly lands in a populous district on the south side of Tehran, Iran. It is said to have tried to kidnap a terrified man, Ghasim Faili, who says that on waking up he sees the UFO within 60 feet of him. It emits a magnetic force to capture him, but he shouts and neighbors gather, forcing the apparatus to take off. Later sources add some dubious details. (Patrick Gross, URECAT, July 20, 2007) October 12 — Afternoon. A French engineer driving to Kenitra, Morocco, sees a small figure in a metallic suit climbing abroad a UFO that quickly lifts off and flies away. The location is said to be Mamora Forest, which could be modern Mehdya, on the coast. (Lorenzen, Occupants, Signet, 1967, p. 95 ) October 12 — Around 2:00 p.m. A math professor at Lisieux named Bon is in Saint-Germain-de-Livet, Calvados, France, when he sees a silvery disc with a diameter of 21–24 feet hovering over a wooden area off the road. It dives toward the ground, then rises suddenly and silently into the sky at tremendous speed. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” October 24, 2004) October 13 — 7:35 p.m. Three witnesses (Olivier, Perano, and a third man) see a reddish disc about 12 feet in diameter near Bourrasol, a suburb of Toulouse, France. A small being about 4 feet tall is standing nearby wearing a diver’s suit. Its head is large, and it has enormous eyes. One witness approaches to within 60–70 feet and is paralyzed. The UFO soon takes off. Definite hoax. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 24, 2003) October 14 — 6:30 a.m. A resident of Shamsabad [which one?], Iran, sees a star-like object about 300 feet away from his house. Approaching to 60 feet, he sees a “short young man” who is standing on a circular piece of metal in the middle of the object and glancing around him. The man seems to be “laughing” at the witness. The UFO shoots up into the air and vanishes. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 October, The Author, 1991, p. 42) October 14 — Keyhoe hears from an informant that the 4602nd AISS has a “crashed object” program. His contact Lou Corbin thinks the Air Force already has some recovered material. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 214 – 215) October 14 — A farmer and his wife see a light green object traveling at tremendous speed, possibly 3,000 mph, in Kenya. (Wilkins, FS Uncensored, Citadel, 1955, p. 234 ) October 14 — 12:00 noon. Farmer Antonio Crepaldi is leading his cows to a pond near Ca’ Pisani, Rovigo, Italy, when an egg-shaped object emitting intense heat swoop over his house at an altitude of 50 feet. The cows panic and run away, apparently suffering burns. Some haystacks catch fire. The sighting lats 2 minutes. (1Pinotti 59) October 14 — 3:30 p.m. Casimir Starovski, a miner, meets a strange figure in Erchin Forest, near Lewarde, Nord, France. It has large, slanted, protruding eyes and a squat, furry body. Its nose is flat, it has thick lips, and it wears a skullcap on its oversized head. (Clark III 269 ; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” December 21, 2005) October 14 — 4:15 p.m. Flight Lt. James R. Salandin of the 604th Fighter Squadron is flying a Gloster Meteor Mk.8 out of North Weald Airfield, Essex, England, at 16,000 feet. He sees three objects heading towards him. Two of them (one gold, one silver) veer off to his port side, while the third closes to within a few hundred yards before veering to his port side. It is saucer-shaped with “buns” on top and underneath, silvery and metallic, with no portholes or flames. The report is sent to the Air Ministry where it disappears. (NICAP, “Gloster ‘Meteor’ Encounters Disc / Salandin Case”; “Week-end Pilot in Near Collision with Flying Saucer,” Flying Saucer Review 1, no. 1 (Spring 1955): 2; “The Famous Salandin Sighting,” Flying Saucer Review 30, no. 2 (December 1984): 13–15; Good Above, pp. 36 – 38 ; Good Need, pp. 154 – 155 ; Patrick Gross, “October 14, 1954, North Weald, Essex, UFO Encounters RAF Meteor Jet”) October 14 — 6:20 p.m. André Cognard is driving on the D60 road to the east of Gueugnon, Saône-et-Loire, France, when a brilliant reddish fireball passes near his car to the west at low altitude. It is so bright that he stops his car. Probable meteor. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 20, 2003) October 14 — Twilight. A witness is riding a moped on the road between Saint-Romain-sous-Gourdon and Les Brosses Tillots, Saône-et-Loire, France. Suddenly his motor fails and, as he gets off the cycle, a bright circular object bursts ahead of him. He walks back with his moped and is able to start it again. (Aimé Michel, Straight- Line, p. 175; Schopick, p. 14; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” September 25, 2004) October 15 — Early in the morning. A large, luminous, red object streaks across the sky above Hungary. A teacher from Györ-Moson-Sopron county takes two photos of what is an apparent meteor. (Hobana and Weverbergh 199 – 201) October 15 — In Boaria Pisani, Padua, Italy, a farmer is leading his cows to a pond when he sees an object fly over his house. The cows panic and run away, knocking a girl to the ground, while the object emits a burst of light. The farmer runs to the house and then faints. Three other persons see the craft depart. It is dark in color but surrounded by short blue and yellow flames. The object is egg-shaped, flies at 50 feet above the ground, and emits intense heat. The little pond is found desiccated, and haystacks catch fire as it flies over while the cattle suffers burns. (Vallée, Magonia, pp. 229– 230 )

October 15 — Afternoon. Farmers near the Po della Donzella river channel, Veneto, Italy, see a disc-shaped object land then take off vertically. At the site is a deep crater about 18 feet in diameter. Poplar trees are partially burned. (Aimé Michel, Straight Line, p. 181) October 15 — Evening. Veterinarian Henri Robert of Londinières in Normandy, France, is driving on route RN 314, near Baillolet, Seine-Maritime, France. He sees four orange objects flying one above the other at 1,000 feet. One floats down like a leaf, landing about 350 feet in front of his car. Robert feels an electric shock and his engine dies for 20 seconds and the object disappears. Robert continues driving. As he is going through the village of Bailleul- Neuville, he sees in his headlights a four-foot-tall bluish-gray figure with arms and legs spread. His headlights go off then on again. He then sees on his left a 27-foot-long cigar-shaped object at the edge of a slope. It takes off vertically and quickly moves toward the north. Possible hoax. (Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, pp. 1 84 – 185 ; Schopick, pp. 15–16; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 7, 2004) October 15– 25 — Thousands of witnesses in the former Yugoslavia report low-flying UFOs and high-flying cigar-shaped objects, especially around Ljubljana, Slovenia; Sarajevo, Bosnia; and Belgrade, Serbia. Yugoslavia announces on October 27 that it intends to launch an official investigation. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 61; Hobana and Weverbergh 90–91) October 17 — Around 9:30 a.m. Guy Puyfourcat is returning from the fields near Cier-de-Rivière, Haute-Garonne, France, with his mare on a halter. The horse suddenly becomes restless and jumpy. A gray object about 4 feet in diameter rises from one side of the road and passes over them. The mare rises about 9 feet into the air and Puyfourcat releases her, and the animal falls to the ground and is unable to move for 10 minutes. The UFO moves away at high speed. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” October 16, 2007) October 18 — 5:30 p.m. A M. Bachelard is driving a light truck southeast of Gelles, Puy-de-Dôme, France. As he goes around a bend, he feels paralyzed and his truck slows down to less than 20 mph. In a nearby field he sees an elongated object about 5 feet high. A few minutes later he reaches the village of Coheix, which is off his normal route, and starts telling people about the event. Later ufologists suspect there may be some missing time involved. (Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, p. 198; Schopick, pp. 16–17; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” March 20, 2003; “The Landing at Gelles,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 5 (June 1971): iii) October 18 — 6:00 p.m. Two farmers near Saint-Cirgues, Haute-Loire, France, watch two bright balls connected by a rod for 15 minutes. They disappear at a fast pace. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” December 21, 2006) October 18 — 9:00 p.m. M. and Mme. Labussière are driving on the N150 southwest of Saintes, Charente-Maritime, France, when they see a balance-shaped object in the sky. One side is red and the other orange, while the rod connecting them is a luminous green. The object pauses above a field near their car, which they pull over to watch more closely. The green rod soon dissipates, and the two balls settle in the field. In the dim light emitted by the objects, the Labussières see a small creature emerge from each, walk toward each other, pass without stopping, and enter the other object. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” December 29, 2003) October 19 — 8:00 p.m. A M. Fillonneau is driving in Criteuil-la-Madeleine, Charente, France, when he sees a bright fireball. His headlights go out and the engine stops, and he finds that his battery is completely dead and the headlight bulbs burned out. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” February 5, 2007) October 1 9 — Around 12:00 midnight. Renzo Pugina has just put his car in his garage at Parravicino, Como, Italy, when he sees a humanoid about 4 feet 3 inches tall in a scaly, luminous suit standing near a tree. The lower part of its body is like a cone. It aims a light beam at Pugina that paralyzes him briefly. He only manages to move some fingers, but with some concentration makes a clenching motion with his fist on the garage keys that he holds in his hand. Freed from the temporary paralysis, he runs to attack the intruder, who flees with a soft whirring sound. A police investigation finds a spot of oil at the location. (Vallée, Magonia, pp. 235– 236 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 October, The Author, 1991, p. 74; 1Pinotti 60) October 20 — 6:30 p.m. Jean Schonbrenner is driving a truck southbound near Turquestein-Blancrupt, Moselle, France, when he sees a bright glow ahead on route N393. He continues to drive but feels paralyzed, his hands glued to the wheel. At about 30 feet away, his engine stops and the yellow-orange glow rises slowly and heads northwest. He feels a sensation of warmth and sees that the glow contains a cone-shaped object. (Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, p. 203 ; Schopick, pp. 17–18; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 21, 2003) October 20 — 9:15 p.m. Jean Lalle (or Jean Lasse) is riding a motorcycle between Biozat, Alliers, and Effiat, Puy-de- Dome, France, when his engine dies suddenly. He sees an egg-shaped object with a bright trail climbing in the sky. The motorcycle restarts once the object has left. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” December 21, 2005) October 21 — A young man hears a rustling sound and sees a landed UFO outside Melito di Napoli, Italy. It gives off a powerful bronze-green light. He then sees an occupant dressed in a diving suit emerge. A dog begins barking and

the entity retreats inside and takes off. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 October, The Author, 1991, p. 74 ; 1Pinotti 61) October 21 — 4:45 p.m. Jessie Roestenburg and her two children observe a disc-shaped, aluminum object hovering above their house in Ranton, Stafford, England. Through two transparent panels they see two men with white skin, having shoulder-length hair and high foreheads. They wear transparent helmets and turquoise-blue clothing resembling ski suits. The object hovers at a tilted angle while the two occupants look at the scene “sternly, not in an unkind fashion, but almost sadly, compassionately.” (Clark III 268 ; Charles Bowen, “Few and Far Between,” in Charles Bowen, ed., The Humanoids, special issue of FSR, Oct./Dec. 1966, p. 4; Gordon Creighton, “The Roestenburg Story (1954),” Flying Saucer Review 38, no. 1 (Spring 1993): 6–9; Curt Collins, “Jessie Roestenburg’s 1954 UFO Encounter and Beyond,” Blue Blurry Lines, October 19, 2018) October 21 — Evening. A motorist is driving on the D220 road with his 4-year-old son between Paillé and Pouzou, Charente-Maritime, France. He feels a tingling like electric shocks all over his body. The child cries, the engine stops, and the headlights go out as a luminous red body with a tail flashes briefly in front of them. (Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, p. 204; Schopick, pp. 18–19; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 21, 2003) October 21 — 9:25 p.m. Three observers at the Woomera Test Range in South Australia see an erratic, dancing light adjacent to rocket Launcher Apron 1, Range B, approximately 500 feet away. The light alternates from deep orange to yellow and is egg-shaped. Its apparent size is three times the magnitude of Venus. (NICAP, “Dancing Light Adjacent to Rocket Launcher”) Mid-October — A merchant and his deliveryman are driving a van northeast of the village of Erquières, Pas-de-Calais, France, when they see a blinding light in front of them. As it passes over the van, the engine stalls and the headlights fail. Both men feel an electric shock. (Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, pp. 20 4 – 205; Schopick, p. 19; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” March 12, 2005) October 22 — Afternoon. Roger Reveillé is walking in the Fôret de Lusigny, Aube, France, when he hears a rustling noise. He looks up and sees an oval-shaped object about 20 feet long at treetop level. At the same time he feels an intense heat that also seems to be creating a thick fog. After a few minutes the object disappears upward, but the heat continues. Although it is raining, the ground underneath where the object had been is dry. (Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, p. 204; Schopick, p. 18; Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” September 28, 2003) October 22 — 3:00 p.m. Principal Rodney Warrick and teacher Mrs. George Dittmar of Jerome, Ohio, Special School watch a large, silvery, cigar-shaped object hanging motionless in the sky. Soon it takes off, and in its wake it leaves a trail of whitish, web-like substance that floats down and begins to hang from wires along the road. It descends in both strands and balls for 45 minutes. Both adults get greenish stains on their hands from it. All of it dissipates, but the substance placed in closed jars dissipates more slowly. (“Strange ‘Flying Cigar’ Puzzles Union Countians,” Marion (Ohio) Star, November 2, 1954, pp. 1, 10; “Web-Spinning Saucer Visits Marysville, Ohio,” CRIFO Newsletter, December 3, 1954, p. 5; Michael D. Swords, “Angel Hair: Spindrift between Worlds,” IUR 32 , no. 1 (August 2008 ): 3 – 4) October 23 — 1:30 a.m. A woman in Cincinnati, Ohio, has fallen asleep listening to the radio. Suddenly it makes a harsh shrieking noise and the volume increases. Dogs begin barking in the neighborhood, so she looks outside and sees a large reddish-orange disc with a halo around it moving in a circle overhead. After a minute it moves off to the south. (“The Fort Wayne and Cincinnati Tie-In,” CRIFO Newsletter 1, no. 9 (December 3, 1954): 5) October 23 — 3 :00 a.m. A farmer named Carmelo Papotto near Tripoli, Verona, Italy, watches a UFO land 150 feet away with a sound like a compressor. It seems to be an oval machine with six wheels and complex machinery. The top half is transparent and flooded with bright light. Aboard are six men in yellowish overalls with human faces. When he touches part of the object, he gets an electric shock. One occupant warns him to stay away. For the next 20 minutes he watches them fiddle with instruments. The object then rises to 150 feet and takes off at a dizzying speed. (Vallée, Magonia, p. 237 ; 1Pinotti 61– 62 ; Mark Cashman, “Behavioral Classification System for UFO Occupants,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 17 – 18 ) October 24 — Rocket expert Hermann Oberth writes in the American Weekly: “It is my thesis that flying saucers are real and that they are space ships from another solar system. I think that they possibly are manned by intelligent observers who are members of a race that may have been investigating our Earth for centuries.” He thinks UFOs might fly by “distorting the gravitational field.” (Hermann Oberth, “Flying Saucers Come from a Distant World,” American Weekly, October 24, 1954, in Cincinnati Enquirer; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 October, The Author, 1991, p. 83; Hermann Oberth, “Lecture Notes for Lecture about Flying Saucers, 1954,” Australian UFO Bulletin, September 1991, pp. 4–9) October 24 — A small man with strange glowing eyes is seen near Aïn El Turk, Algeria, along the coast. (Vallée, Magonia, p. 237)

October 24 — 1:00–6:00 p.m. Officers and men at the Canoas Air Force Base near Porto Alegre, Brazil, watch a number of “circular silver-colored” objects moving at high speed. They are also seen by personnel of Varig airlines and some civilians. There are more than 100 witnesses. The chief military witness, jet pilot Lt. H. Ferraz de Almeida, sees a dull silver object moving apparently slowly above the base in a zigzag fashion. He estimates its altitude as 40,000–45,000 feet and suggests that its real speed must be tremendous. Maj. J. Magalhaes Mota is watching the same object as another one rapidly approaches the first and stops next to it. The second object then moves rapidly, abruptly changes course, and flies off in an arc. When the object is in motion, it is surrounded by a misty halo, and when it stops the halo disappears. Their movements appear mechanical and intermittent. The report is forwarded to the Air Ministry in Rio de Janeiro with a request to investigate. Brazilian Air Force Chief of Intelligence Col. João Adil de Oliviera heads the investigation, which concludes on December 2 that the “saucers appear to be some kind of revolutionary aircraft” that are not “conventional phenomena or illusions.” (UFOEv, p. 119 ; Swords 461–462) October 25 — 6:15 a.m. Several UFOs, some described as spear-shaped and others as egg-shaped, speed over Belgrade, Yugoslavia [now Serbia], trailing bluish tails for about an hour. Witnesses include aeronautical engineer Vladimir Ajvas, AF Capt. Stjepan Djitkol, and staff at the nearby Zemun Polje Airport. The event is a culmination of UFO sightings over Yugoslavia since October 15, few of which make the newspapers. (UFOEv, p. 123 ; Hobana and Weverbergh 90 – 91 ) October 25 — Lucien Jeune, mayor of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Vaucluse, France, following numerous UFO sightings, issues a police order prohibiting “The overflight, landing, and take-off of aircraft, so-called flying saucers or flying cigars, on the communal territory.” The announcement, which also threatens the confiscation of any craft and the arrest of occupants, is done as a publicity stunt. Claude Avril, the city mayor in 2016, refuses to rescind it. (Louis de Gouyon Matignon, “The French Anti-UFO Municipal Law of 1954,” Space Legal Issues, May 29, 2019) October 25 — 7:30 p.m. Farmer Gilbert Hée is gathering pears on his farm at Les-Jonquerets-de-Livet [now Mesnil-en- Ouche], Eure, France, when he sees an elongated object about 7 feet long with a green and a red light at both ends resting in the pasture. Some cows have gathered around it. The object is moving slowly and stops at a barbed wire fence. Hée goes inside. At 11:00 p.m., his son-in-law René Marais and a friend, Jean Chéradame, arrive on a motorcycle. Chéradame agrees to ride into the field and take a look, but he only goes 300 feet along the road before the engine fails. He falls from the bike and sees two short creatures walking stiffly and wearing bright clothes. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 11, 2004) October 26 — 10 :45 p.m. Aimé Bousard is returning on his bicycle from the town hall at Alleyrat, Creuse, France, to his residence at La Vaureille when he sees a figure crouching on the roadway. When he stops, the figure stands up and points two powerful light-blue lights at him. The entity is 5 feet 3 inches tall and dressed in a diver’s suit. It has two green lights on either side of its head. Bousard is paralyzed for 10 minutes while the lights are aimed at him. Then the entity crosses the road and disappears and Bousard can move again. Gendarmes investigate and note that his right hand is swollen and he has difficulty writing. They find a 27-inch circle of disturbed earth at the site. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” September 6, 2007) October 27 — 1:30 p.m. More than 10,000 soccer fans witness two luminous discs during a game at Florence, Italy. A large amount of “white filaments” falls that clings to everything. Engineering student Alfredo Jacopozzi collects samples in a jar and takes it to Prof. Cozzi at the Institute of Chemistry at the University of Florence. The lab finds the samples have a “fibrous structure, with mechanical resistance to contraction and torsion, burns rapidly, leaving a transparent residue.” It contains calcium, silicon, aluminum, magnesium, iron, and boron. (“Italy, Too!” Flying Saucer News, no. 7 (Winter 1954–1955): 6; Brian Boldman, “Angel Hair Physical Analyses: A Review,” JUFOS 9 (2006): 101; Michael D. Swords, “Angel Hair: Spindrift between Worlds,” IUR 32, no. 1 (August 2008 ): 5 – 6 ; 1Pinotti 63– 64 ) October 28 — Hoaxed report of a landed UFO and occupants at Tradate, Italy, near Milan. (Frank Edwards, FS Serious Business, Bantam ed., 1966, pp. 108– 109 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 October, The Author, 1991, p. 89; 1Pinotti 64) October 28 — Three luminous UFOs soar over Rome, Italy, seen by Associated Press reporter Maurizio Andreolo and US Ambassador Clare Booth Luce. Some witnesses report “fine cotton or wool particles” falling from them. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 212 – 213; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 October, The Author, 1991, p. 91; 1Pinotti 64) October 30 — 1:00 p.m. UFO researcher Alberto Perego is driving past the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, Italy, when he notices a crowd of about 100 people gazing up at the sky. He sees two “white dots” moving toward the south then vanish in opposite directions. Later, two other objects appear and move to the north at an altitude of

about 6,500 feet. (Alberto Perego, “The Great ‘Cross’ above the Vatican,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 15 (June 1973): 3) Late October–early November — The UK War Office receives six reports of 40 – 50 unidentified radar targets that appear from nowhere, usually at midday, flying at a height of 12,000 feet. The targets first appear in a U-formation, then converge into two parallel lines and take up a Z-formation before disappearing. The location of the radar trackings is not revealed. (Good Above, pp. 38 – 39 )

November — Gen. John A. Samford summons Col. John O’Mara from Dayton and directs him to clear up any confusion about Keyhoe’s use of USAF data. O’Mara writes Eickhoff and says he had misunderstood and that Keyhoe’s book does contain officially released Air Force UFO reports. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, p. 231 ) November — The Hungarian government gets an “expert” to state that UFOs do not exist because all reports “originate in bourgeois countries, where they are invented by the capitalist warmongers.” (Ruppelt, p. 238 ) November 1 — 6:00 a.m. Jack Holloway sees a large, round object that leaves a vapor trail that sprays sparks and moves at high speed for a few seconds to the south of Salem, Oregon. (NICAP case file) November 1 — 6 :30 a.m. Rosa Lotti Dainelli sets out for the church at the castle of Cennina, Arezzo, Italy. As she passes through a wooded area, she sees a spindle-shaped object standing upright next to a cypress tree. It has two portholes and a little door, through which she can see two chairs. Two little men come out from behind the object; they are dressed in gray suits, cloaks that come down to their waists, and red helmets. They speak in an unintelligible language and snatch flowers from her hands and throw them inside the UFO. Dainelli flees, glancing back only once. (Clark III 228– 229 ; 1Pinotti 65–74; Northern Ontario UFO Research and Study, “The 1954 Cennina Landing and Encounter with Humanoids”; Società Cooperativa Dramatica Filarmonica di Ambra, “Incontro con umanoidi di Rosa Dainelli nei Lotti”) November 1 — 10:40 p.m. Gonzalo Rubinos Ramos is driving at a spot called Curva del Obispo 42 kilometers from A Coruña, Galicia, Spain, when his engine stalls and the lights go out. He sees a large glowing red object near the road. After a while it moves upwards with a “soft explosion.” At the same time, the radio-telegraph station in A Coruña is affected by severe interference and static. Probable meteor. (Antonio Ribera, “A UFO Survey of Spain: More Evidence,” Flying Saucer Review 9, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1963): 16; Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34, no. 1 (Sept. 2011): 18; Juan Carlos Victorio, “El ‘platillo volante’ de Órdenes (A Coruña),” Misterios del Aire, April 17, 2018) November 2 — 10:30 a.m. Taxi driver Maurilio Braga Godoi leaves the streetcar trailer at Santo Amaro, a suburb of São Paulo, Brazil, and starts to walk home. When he arrives at the corner of Rua Andaguara, he is startled to find a glowing, circular object landed in an empty lot. It is about 90–120 feet in diameter and surrounded in a violet glow. He approaches it hesitantly from 60 feet away, feeling like running but he is rooted to the spot and is unable to call for help. The anxiety dissipates, and he walks toward it again, noticing a sliding door on the object. He goes inside, entering a circular room illuminated by a soft light. On a table he sees some maps, including one of South America with mushroom-shaped marks on it. He looks up and sees three humanoids less than 5 feet tall with dark brown skin and dressed in a light gray coverall and a belt that holds what might be a weapon. They appear to be conversing in an unknown language. He tries talking to them, but they don’t understand. He backs out of the object, dragging his feet. He jumps out of the door and runs away. Looking back at the object from 30 feet away, he sees it is hovering 30 feet above the ground then takes off swiftly and silently. Godoi is examined by psychiatrists, who find him neither neurotic nor psychotic. (Lorenzen, Occupants, Signet, 1967, pp. 198– 199 ) November 4 — A laborer named Jose Alves of Pontal, São Paulo, Brazil, is night fishing in the Rio Pardo in a deserted spot. He sees a silvery, glowing UFO like two washbowls placed on top of each other, closing in from a westerly direction and wobbling. It lands near him and three little men emerge from a window, 3 feet tall with dark brown skin. They are dressed in white clothes with tightly fitting skullcaps, and collect samples of grass, herbs, and leaves, as well as water, which they put into a metal tube. They jump back into the object, which takes off vertically. (Patrick Gross, URECAT, November 22, 2006) November 4 (or 7) — 3:15 p.m. A motorcyclist, Gianni Cambosu, sees a silvery, disc-shaped object about 50 feet in diameter land near the road at Monte Ortobene, Sardinia, Italy. He swerves sharply to avoid it and falls off his cycle. A taxi driver, Francesco Tanca, stops to observe the object, which is making a soft whirring sound before it takes off. (Wilkins, FS Uncensored, Citadel, 1955, pp. 237 – 238 ; 1Pinotti 76) November 5 — 10:09 a.m. A witness in La Roche-en-Brénil, Côte d’Or, France, sees an orange object making a noise like a generator land in a nearby pasture. He notices three men standing near it. One is holding a box that emits a beam of light and the other two hold objects that look like weapons. Physical traces are found at the landing site: a white substance and a circle 10 feet in diameter. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 16, 2003)

November 6 — 11:00 a.m. Alberto Perego is in the Tuscolana district in Rome, Italy, when he sees dozens of small, white objects in the sky at a height of 4–5 miles. They are moving at variable speeds, as high as 750–850 mph. At first he calculates that there are about 50 of them, but later realizes there are 100. Sometimes they are single, other times in pairs, threes, fours, sevens, or twelves. Frequently they are in diamond formations of four or V- formations of seven. At 12:00 noon, a formation of 20 objects appears from the east, followed by another 20 moving from the west. The two V-formations converge until their vertices form a St. Andrews cross, with 10 objects to each bar. The convergence takes place over the Trastevere–Monte Mario district above Vatican City. The cross then performs a three-quarter turn on its axis, turning into an X-formation, then breaks off into two separate curves that take off in opposite directions. Another concentration of about 100 objects appears 10 minutes later and Perego notices shining filaments falling from the sky. He grabs a handful of the glassy substance, which evaporates in a few hours. (Alberto Perego, “The Great ‘Cross’ above the Vatican,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 15 (June 1973): 4–5; 1Pinotti 76–80) November 7 — 11:30 a.m. Alberto Perego is returning from the Tuscolana district of Rome, Italy, when he sees more formations of about 50 white objects that remain for about two-and-a-half hours. They arrive from different directions and always in formation. More filamentous material falls from the sky. (Alberto Perego, “The Great ‘Cross’ above the Vatican,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 15 (June 1973): 5 ; 1Pinotti 80) November 8 — 6:00 p.m. Witnesses near Voussac, Allier, France, in the Vacheresse Forest watch a luminous sphere land and then dim, fading to black. Investigators find an area 12–15 feet in diameter where there are no leaves and the ground seems excavated. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” April 18, 2003) November 8 — 7:30 p.m. Blacksmith André Chaillou is riding a moped one mile north of Loublande, Deux-Sèvres, France, when he notices a small blue light in front of him. His engine fails and he nearly falls off the bike. The blue dot is projecting a strong light and hovering about 6 feet in the air. He finds himself temporarily paralyzed with a tingling in his hands. The blue light goes out and he is able to move again and restart his moped, but the light reappears about 450 feet away, seemingly 18 feet long and cone-shaped. It takes off vertically with a whistling sound. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” October 22, 2006) November 10 — An agronomist and his family encounter a landed UFO along a road in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Two men with long hair and one-piece suits emerge and approach them with raised arms. The witnesses speed away. (Clark III 268 ; Lorenzen, FS Hoax, pp. 48– 49 ) November 12 — 11:30 a.m. Alberto Perego watches even more formations of white objects over Rome. He has contacted the Italian air defense office, which tells him that the objects would be out of radar range. This time the objects are also observed by Fr. Zilwes, a Brazilian priest at the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo, Italy. (Alberto Perego, “The Great ‘Cross’ above the Vatican,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 15 (June 1973): 5 – 6 ; 1Pinotti 81–82) November 1 2 — 3:00–6:00 p.m. A white, motionless object appears over Louisville, Kentucky. A radar unit 30 miles southwest of Louisville tracks the object but loses sight about 12 miles northwest of Godman Army Airfield at Fort Knox. It is later sighted at Bedford, Indiana. Kentucky National Guard pilot Lt. Col. Lee J. Merkel notifies Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, Ohio, which sends an F-86 to investigate. The pilot sees nothing and returns to the base. Merkel and another National Guard pilot give chase in F-51 Mustangs, but they are also unsuccessful. Merkel says the object is moving into the wind, which is not likely for a balloon. Henry P. Julliard, deputy director of Standiford Field [now Louisville International Airport] follows the object for 45 minutes on the weather bureau’s theodolite; he says the object has no more motion than a star and that after sundown the object turns amber. (“That ‘Thing’ in the Sky Still ‘Unidentified Object,’” Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal, November 13, 1954, pp. 1, 12; “Louisville Stops Work to Watch Saucer,” CRIFO Newsletter 1, no. 9 (December 3, 1954): 3 – 4 ; NICAP, “Sphere Startles Thousands”; UFOEv, p. 134; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 51– 52 ) November 13 — 2:00 a.m. A witness is driving in Buchy, Seine-Maritime, France, and sees a luminous object take off as he feels a mild electric shock and is paralyzed. His car engine slows but does not stall. The object leaves, the paralysis goes away, and the car returns to normal. (Patrick Gross, “The 1954 French Flap,” October 22, 2006) November 14 — 3:30 a.m. Railroad worker Jose Rodrigues comes across three figures in tight-fitting suits inspecting the ground with the help of luminous objects near railroad tracks near Urai, Paraná, Brazil. They see him and run back into the UFO. (NICAP, “Railroad Men See ‘Men’ Inspecting Tracks”) November 14 — Two or three tractor drivers in Forli, Italy, watch a bright-red, luminous UFO approach them in a farm field. As it approaches, the engine that works by internal combustion fail, but the diesel engine still runs. The men run away; when they return, the UFO has departed. The engine that failed still causes some trouble after the sighting. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 62 – 63, 145) November 14 (or 11) — 7:45 p.m. Near Isola, Spezia, Italy, Amerigo (or Americo) Lorenzini sees a cigar-shaped UFO land and a trio of small creatures wearing diving suits emerge. They walk over to Lorenzini’s rabbit cages and

stare at the animals, talking in a strange language. He runs inside to grab his gun and tries to pull the trigger as they are taking some rabbits to the UFO, but he becomes paralyzed. The UFO takes off, leaving a bright trail. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 November – December, The Author, 1991, pp. 20– 21 ; 1Pinotti 88) November 17 — 4:10 p.m. Iden K. Zimmerman is standing just under the roof of a shed by the railing of gate number six of the Willamette Falls Locks in Oregon City, Oregon. His gloved hands are resting on the railing. He feels something like “icy rain” on his hands. The rain seems to penetrate his clothing and gloves as if his arms are bare. He feels the same thing on his legs, from the knees down. Looking up, he sees a bright orange object as large as the full moon flying in a straight line from west to east. It disappears over the Crown Zellerbach Paper Mill roof across the river. He can find no trace of rain on the wooden deck or cement walks, and the moisture disappears from his clothing. A few minutes later he begins to feel dizzy and has trouble maintaining his balance. The effect wears off in about one hour. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 16 – 1 7) November 17– 18 — Blue Book head Capt. Charles Hardin and Allen Hynek meet with Col. John M. White Jr., commander of the 4602nd AISS at Ent AFB [now the US Olympic Training Center] in order to help out with a guide for investigating and processing UFO reports. (Col. John M. White Jr., “Report of Visit of ATIC Representatives,” November 23, 1954, in History of 4602d Air Intelligence Service Squadron, vol. 1, January 1– June 30, 1955, pp. 55–57) November 21 — 11:30 a.m. Copilot Cmdr. Armando Braulino, pilot Cmdr. Pedro Luiz Teixeira, steward, radio operator, and passengers of National Airlines Douglas PP-ANM airliner at 9,000 feet over Paraíbo do Sul, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, see a UFO formation, described as disc-shaped with cupola or dome on top, like aluminum with a polished surface. The formation is coming from the northeast at 7,200 feet and passes below the airliner at high speed. The duration is 40–50 seconds. (NICAP, “Shiny Objects Encountered by Airliner”) November 22 — Charles Laughead is forced to resign his position at Michigan State College [now Michigan State University] in East Lansing, Michigan, because of his flying saucer activities. (Clark III 718) November 22 — Anor Ferreira da Silva, a bored telegraph operator in Caratinga, Minas Gerais, Brazil, transmits a Morse code message to his friend Geraldo Bastos in Belo Horizonte, claiming that a flying saucer has crashed in a nearby quarry. His messages continue for an hour, repeatedly asking the authorities to defend the city from Martian invaders. Bastos takes the messages seriously, and a friend looking over his shoulder runs out to the nearest newspaper office to relay the news. The telephone system of Caratinga shuts down from all the press inquiries, and soon the Brazilian military investigates, finding nothing amiss in the city. (John Gosling, Waging the War of the Worlds, McFarland, 2009, pp. 114–119) November 22 — 9:45 p.m. At Santa Maria Air Force Base, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, radio operator Arquimedes Fernandez sees a strange cloud above the trees, like an upside-down washbowl. It is a solid body 160 feet across, oscillating with a small light on top. Fernandez radios a report to weather headquarters at Porto Alegre. The object remains in view until his duty shift ends at 1:15 a.m. (Lorenzen, FS Hoax, pp. 51 – 52 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 November – December, The Author, 1991, pp. 28–29) November 23 — Afternoon. A UFO follows three 10-year-old girls (Anne Storedal, Tora Storedal, and Tora Moy Haugo) returning home from school in Torpo, Viken County, Norway. It descends and hovers only 3 or 4 feet away from them. It is round, about 10 feet in diameter, and the bottom is black, trimmed with yellow spots which could have been lights, with a number of small “red jags.” The upper part is a transparent dome; a man who is operating controls is visible inside. He wears black trousers, a black jacket, and immense red goggles over his eyes. He stares at one of the girls. When the craft ascends it collides with a high-tension power line making a shower of sparks, and the girls run away. They notice a smell “like fried sausages.” A “streak” is found in the snow, apparently left by the craft having brushed the surface of the ground. (Clark III 268 ; Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1954, p. 160) November 2 8 — 2:00 a.m. Meat merchants José Ponce and Gustavo Gonzáles are driving a panel truck along Calle Bella Vista in Petare, Caracas, Venezuela. They find their way blocked by a 10-foot-wide, glowing ball hovering 6 feet above the street. When they get out to investigate, they are confronted by a dwarfish creature covered with stiff, bristly hair. Gonzáles grabs it, but it tosses him to one side. Two more dwarfs, gathering dirt and rocks nearby, approach. Ponce sees them and runs to find a police station. Gonzáles recovers in time to see two of the entities climb through an opening in the UFO. The third comes toward him, claws extended, and Gonzáles tries to stab it in the shoulder with his knife, but the blade glances off. One of the dwarfs inside the UFO points a tube at Gonzáles that emits a brilliant beam of energy. He is paralyzed and temporarily blinded but manages to stagger to the police station. A doctor at the emergency room at Esquina de Sálas hospital treats an abrasion on Gonzáles’s left side. Other witnesses to a UFO in the area come forward. (Lorenzen, FS Hoax, pp. 57– 58 ; Lorenzen,

Encounters with UFO Occupants, Berkley Medallion, 1976, pp. 144 – 145 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 November – December, The Author, 1991, pp. 32– 33 ; Michael D. Swords, “Classic Cases from the APRO Files,” IUR 24, no. 2 (Summer 1999): 31; Patrick Gross, URECAT, November 4, 2006) November 28 — A group of peasants at Palmarito, Mérida, Venezuela, see a strange craft land. Three small-statured

beings emerge from it. (Patrick Gross, URECAT, November 5, 2006)

December — Aviation inventor Bill Lear sees a flying disc giving off greenish light near Palm Springs, California. It hovers for 2 seconds then swiftly moves out of sight. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955 January – June, The Author, 1992, p, 22) December — The US Air Force acknowledges that it is contemplating a “New type of jet aircraft, powered by a turbine larger than any now in use, [that] is expected to take off, land vertically, and be able to hover. It may cruise at 1,500 knots and have a range of 15,000 nautical miles.” It speculates: “If the Soviets now have such an aircraft in operational use, would the United States air defense system be able to detect, identify, intercept and destroy a bomber or reconnaissance aircraft moving at a 1,500 knot clip at an altitude of 65,000 feet?” (“The Flying Disc,” Air Intelligence Digest 7, no 12 (December 1954): 6+) December — Contactee Orfeo Angelucci, now working in Twentynine Palms, California, is at Tiny’s Café when he meets someone named Adam, who claims to have read his book and gives him some kind of mind-altering pill. After taking the pill, Angelucci finds himself in an “exalted state” and talks freely with Adam about outer space and politics. Prior to this time, Angelucci has caught the attention of the FBI because he has been approached several times by a group of seeming left-wing agents. (Orfeo Angelucci, The Son of the Sun, DeVorss, 1959; Kremlin 100 – 107) December — Charles Laughead and his wife Lillian meet George Hunt Williamson at a lecture he is giving in Detroit, Michigan. (Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, p. 103) December 1 — President Eisenhower approves the development of the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance plane as a CIA project under the direction of Allen Dulles. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed U- 2 ”) December 3 — Morning. Victoriano Maeso, Luis Brugeda, and Francisco Huertos are at Las Gastanas farm about 3 miles from Granja de Torrehermosa, Badajoz, Spain, when they hear an unusual noise and notice an object in the branches of an oak tree about 165 feet away. It is pyramid-shaped and about 8 feet high and 2 feet in diameter, with four fins and a box suspended from it by apparent ropes. They approach it, but the object rises and disappears toward the west. This observation is the first of about a dozen others reported over the next two weeks in Badajoz, Zaragoza, Teruel, Guipúzcoa, and Huelva provinces that seem to involve wayward balloons released in Germany by Radio Free Europe that carry leaflets intended to be dropped in the Soviet bloc. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos and Juan Carlos Victorio Uranga, “Los ovnis de diciembre de 1954,” Academia.edu) December 5 — 8:15 a.m. Miguel Sevil is hunting in the Montes de Zuera north of Zaragoza, Spain, when he hears a prolonged whistle and sees a luminous, transparent object landed about 165 feet away. It has several rods protruding from it, each apparently with a propeller. Two men about 6 feet tall with blond hair and speaking an unintelligible language enter the UFO through a door on the side. It rises vertically at tremendous speed and disappears. Probable hoax. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos and Juan Carlos Victorio Uranga, “Los ovnis de diciembre de 1954,” Academia.edu) December 7 — A Project Blue Book memo acknowledges the many “Foreign Sightings” in Europe, but attributes the cause to an increase in “meteorite activity” and overseas translations of Keyhoe’s book Flying Saucers from Outer Space. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 November – December, The Author, 1991, pp. 49) December 7 — 1:15 p.m. R. H. Kleyweg, officer-in-charge of the meteorological station at Upington, Northern Cape, South Africa, is looking for a red balloon he has just released. He sees an object just east of the sun, moving slowly west, but when he begins tracking it with a theodolite, he realizes it is white, not red. It looks like a half circle with sunlight gleaming from its sloped top. He follows it for 3 minutes, but then it accelerates and he cannot keep it in sight. (James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, p. 63) December 9 — Giovanni Aquilante, a farmer of Gricignano d’Aversa, Caserta, Italy, disappears after leaving home to work in the fields. His family and police fail to find him. On December 10, near 12:00 midnight, two of Aquilante’s sons and a friend see two mysterious entities with luminous eyes in a field. They quickly vanish. Aquilante returns home on the morning of December 11, silent and shocked, and explains that he met two “dwarfs” in the field wearing multicolored suits. They float him in the air and take him to “unknown places.”

They release him, but promise to come back for him later. Aquilante is terrified of being abducted again. (1Pinotti 89) December 9 — Evening. Farmer Olmiro de Costa e Rosa is feeding his animals at Linha Bela Vista, said to be 2.5 miles from Venâncio Aires, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, when he hears a sound like a sewing machine that causes some of his cows to run. An object shaped like an “enormous polished brass kettle” with a rectangular structure on top is hovering in the air with an oscillating motion. Two small humanoids “enveloped in a kind of yellow sack from head to toe” are standing in a nearby field. As he approaches, one runs toward him and the other raises its arm. The first one kneels down and plucks a tobacco plant from the field, then both jump into the craft, which vanishes within a few seconds. (Patrick Gross, URECAT, December 27, 2007) December 9 — Night. Lorenzo Flores and Jésus Gómez are hunting rabbits near an unfindable town called Carera along the Transandean Highway in Venezuela. They run across a huge red UFO like two washbowls put together hovering above the road with flames spurting out. Four small hairy figures, 3 feet tall, scramble out and grab Gómez and try to drag him toward the craft. Flores strikes one with his gun butt, but it has no effect and feels like striking rock. The wooden rifle butt cracks from the impact. Gómez faints from fright, and both men are scratched and bruised. A passing motorist takes them to a police station, their clothes torn and skin abraded. When they tell their story to the police, it is obvious that their shirts have been shredded into ribbons. (“Hunters Clawed and Beaten,” APRO Bulletin 3, no. 4 (January 15, 1955): 2; Lorenzen, FS Hoax, pp. 56 – 57 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 November – December, The Author, 1991, pp. 5 1 – 52; Mark Cashman, “Behavioral Classification System for UFO Occupants,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 18 ) December 10 — An American petroleum engineer takes a photo of a formation of UFOs over El Tigre, Venezuela. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 November – December, The Author, 1991, p. 52) December 10 — 6:30 p.m. A doctor is driving near Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base in Caracas, Venezuela, when he and his father see two little men running near the road and ducking into shrubbery. Moments later a UFO rises up from the same spot and zooms away. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 November – December, The Author, 1991, p. 52; “Doctor Sees Little Men, Disc,” APRO Bulletin 3, no. 4 (January 15, 1955): 4) December 14 — 11:00 a.m. Three bright lights appear in the sky above Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. Around 12:00 noon, they descend to a lower altitude, and witnesses see they are metallic discs. The Brazilian Air Force scrambles some jets, but they fail to intercept any of the objects. By 1:00 p.m., several groups of witnesses around the city are watching when two of the objects take off to the south, while the third comes closer and approaches some buildings in the city center. Chief of Police Col. Carlos Assunção sees a “reddish and slightly bluish object” moving at incredible speed. Maxim Cicaida, a professional photographer for Foto Heisler, snaps a photo of the disc above a building. He sends the negatives to the Brazilian Naval School in Rio de Janeiro, but they are never returned, and no analysis is released. (Brazil 29–31) December 15 — A man is fishing in a river near Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, when he sees an unusual object landing a few hundred feet away. His dog gets nervous and begins to howl. He uses his telescopic gunsight to get a closer look. He sees two spheres of different sizes, the smaller one revolving around the larger one, which is about 6 feet above the ground and has three balls attached to its underside. Soon he sees small beings come down from the large object, moving rapidly. One is holding a phosphorescent bucket, and another has a metallic tube that is cone-shaped at one end. They use these tools to collect calcareous soil from the riverbank. They take two buckets’ worth inside the craft, which then takes off. The witness later finds square-shaped holes in the riverbank. Col. Adil de Oliveira of the Brazilian Air Force has the soil analyzed and it yields a composition of 61% silica, 19% aluminum oxide, 11% magnesium and iron, with other trace elements. (Lorenzen, Flying Saucer Occupants, Signet, 1967, pp. 19 5 – 196 ) December 15 — Asked about UFOs at a press conference, Eisenhower says that it is “completely inaccurate to believe that they came from any outside planet or other place.” Immediately after the press conference, Eisenhower asks for a full briefing on UFOs. (“President Discounts ‘Saucer’ from Space,” New York Times, December 16, 1954, pp. 1, 26; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 November – December, The Author, 1991, p. 62; Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, p. 238) December 16 — Jésus Paz, Luis Mejia, and another young man are driving home after dinner at a restaurant in San Carlos, Venezuela, when Paz stops to relieve himself in a park. He claims he is jumped by a hairy dwarf from a flying disc (both of which his friends see when he screams). His friends rush the unconscious Paz to a hospital. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1954 November – December, The Author, 1991, p. 60; Mark Cashman, “Behavioral Classification System for UFO Occupants,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 18 )

December 19 — 11:00 p.m. José Parra, an 18-year-old jockey, watches a disc-shaped UFO land in Valencia, Venezuela. Six 3-foot-tall humanoids disembark and set about collecting vegetation samples and loading stones into the disc. When he tries to approach them, he is paralyzed by a violet beam aimed at him by one of the creatures. All the short beings enter the craft and it takes off. The UFO leaves behind ground traces. (Clark III 270 ; “‘Little Men’ Fail in Kidnap Attempt!!” APRO Bulletin 3, no. 4 (January 15, 1955): 3; Patrick Gross, URECAT, November 24, 2006) December 20 – 21 — A group of Dorothy Martin’s followers has gathered at her Oak Park, Illinois, home to await the midnight arrival of a flying saucer that is to rescue them from planetary disaster. They have left jobs, college, and spouses, and given away money and possessions to prepare for their departure. When no spaceman arrives, the group sits in stunned silence. Martin begins to cry, and at 4:45 a.m. she receives a message by automatic writing saying that the God of Earth has decided to spare the planet from destruction. The cataclysm has been called off: “The little group, sitting all night long, had spread so much light that God had saved the world from destruction.” The group begins an urgent campaign to spread its message to a broader audience. (Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken, and Stanley Schachter, When Prophecy Fails, Harper Torchbooks, 1956; Wikipedia, “When Prophecy Fails”; Clark III 718 – 719 ) December 26 — Australian physicist O. H. “Harry” Turner has been tasked with reviewing UFO reports in the RAAF files and writing an assessment for the Australian Directorate of Air Force Intelligence. Now in England, he sends the report to the Secretary, Department of Air, in Melbourne, Victoria. He writes: “If one assumes these Intelligence reports are authentic, then the evidence presented is such that it is difficult to assume any interpretation other than that unidentified flying objects are being observed… Indeed, the superiority is such that it is highly improbable that such objects have a terrestrial origin… the evidence presented by the reports held by the RAAF tend to support the above conclusion—namely that certain strange aircraft have been observed to behave in a manner suggestive of an extra-terrestrial origin.” Turner goes on to recommend appointing at least one full-time investigator; publicity to encourage more people to report sightings; a liaison with the USAF to exchange information and verify Keyhoe’s claims; liaison with the RAF and the possibility of forming a panel to assist in analyzing reports. The Director of RAAF Intelligence checks with USAF on the reliability of Keyhoe’s work, and they ultimately reject it as impractical and unjustified. (Project 1947, “The Former Air Board / Department of Air / Current RAAF”; Bill Chalker, “UFOs Sub Rosa, Down Under: The Australian Military and Government Role in the UFO Controversy,” 1996; “The Project Interviews Harry Turner,” Disclosure Australia Newsletter, no. 16, September 2004) December 26 — 8:30 p.m. Willis St.-Jean, a hoistman at the Agaunico Mine on the shore of Lake Timiskaming northeast of Cobalt, Ontario, sees a bright white light maneuvering in the sky. He calls John Hunt, a reporter at the North Bay Nugget office in Cobalt, to drive 3 miles to the mine to view it. The light is emanating from a large, rotating, slightly wedge-shaped disc. They watch the object for an hour after he arrives there. It circles, moves away, dances in the sky, disappears (apparently when it banks), and returns repeatedly, and at one point it flies over the lake, illuminating the surface. It disappears for good shortly after 10:15 p.m. (John Hunt, “Reporter Sees ‘Saucer’ over Cobalt Mine,” North Bay (Ont.) Nugget, December 27, 1954, p. 1) December 27 — Elizabeth Klarer, having been alerted by her sister May that the local Zulu people are reporting appearances of a mythical lightning bird in the sky, travels from Johannesburg, South Africa, with her children to a hill southwest of Rosetta, KwaZulu Natal, that she later calls Flying Saucer Hill. There she claims to see a star ship descend and hover 8 feet above the ground, emitting a soft hum. Its hull is spinning, though its central dome remains stationary. The friendly extraterrestrial Akon, with whom she has been in telepathic contact, is clearly visible through one of three portholes, but a blast of heat emanating from the ship prevents her from approaching. The UFO leaves by shooting high into the sky. (Clark III 657; Elizabeth Klarer, Beyond the Light Barrier, Howard Timmins, 1980) December 28 — The NSC 5412/2 Special Group, often referred simply as the Special Group, is an initially secret, but later public, subcommittee of the US National Security Council responsible for coordinating government covert operations. Presidential Directive NSC 5412/2 assigns responsibility for coordination of covert actions to representatives of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the President respectively. All proposals pass through the Special Group on the way to Richard Helms at the CIA, who is responsible for covert operations. It changes names several times to avoid public exposure. In 1964, it is known as the 303 Committee, and in 1970 it is renamed the 40 Committee. Within this organization—which includes such familiar names as Nelson Rockefeller, Robert McNamara, McGeorge Bundy, Gordon Gray, and Allen Dulles—is a subcommittee dealing with science and technology. It is here that the connection between the corporate and financial world and government-held technological secrets can be found. (Wikipedia, “Oversight of United States covert operations”)

December 30 — Fifty residents of Lima, Peru, watch a flight of 5 iridescent silver UFOs for at least 5 minutes. (La Nación, December 31, 1 9 54)

1955

Early 1955 — A secure test site is needed for the CIA Project Aquatone (the Lockheed U-2 spy plane). Lockheed test pilot Kelly Johnson sends project pilot Tony LeVier and Skunk Works chief foreman Dorsey Kammerer on a two- week survey mission to scout locations for a new base in an unmarked Beechcraft V-35 Bonanza. CIA official Richard M. Bissell Jr reviews 50 potential sites with USAF liaison Col. Osmond J. Ritland. None seem to meet the stringent requirements of the program. They reject Johnson’s proposed Site I (Mud Lake?) because it is too close to populated areas. Ritland recalls a “little X-shaped field” just off the eastern side of Groom Lake, Nevada, just outside the AEC nuclear proving ground at Yucca Flat. (Peter W. Merlin, “Groom Lake Timeline: The First Fifty Years,” Secret Heroes, November 10, 2021) 1955 — Project Rover, a US project to develop a nuclear-thermal rocket, is initiated at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, New Mexico, and runs until January 1973. It begins as an Air Force project to develop a nuclear- powered upper stage for an intercontinental ballistic missile. The project is transferred to NASA in 1958 after the Sputnik crisis. It is managed by the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office, a joint agency of the Atomic Energy Commission and NASA. Project Rover becomes part of NASA’s Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) project and henceforth deals with the research into nuclear rocket reactor design, while NERVA involves the overall development and deployment of nuclear rocket engines and the planning for space missions. (Wikipedia, “Project Rover”; Wikipedia, “NERVA”; Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 303 – 312 ) 1955 — The US nuclear stockpile totals 2, 422 bombs. (Ryan Crierie, “U.S. Nuclear Stockpile, 1945– 2009 ”) 1955 — Otis T. Carr founds OTC Enterprises in Baltimore, Maryland, to advance and supply technology originating from ideas of Nikola Tesla. Carr claims he met Tesla while working as a night clerk in New York City’s Hotel Pennsylvania, where Tesla was living in the late 1920s. Tesla befriended Carr and revealed to him secrets he was not ready to make public yet. Carr attracts the funding of local businessman Wilfred C. Gosnell. Soon he hires a promotions man named Norman Evans Colton and sends out regular information bulletins to investors. (Clark III 860 ) 1955 — After selling his share of Fate magazine to Curtis and Mary Margaret Stiehm Fuller, Ray Palmer founds a would- be competitor, Mystic (later Search) and several short-lived SF titles. Other Worlds evolves in 1957 into Flying Saucers, a more or less nonfiction magazine that features articles of widely varying credibility and a column of saucer fan-club news. (Clark III 873) 1955 — George Adamski’s Inside the Space Ships, ghostwritten by Adamski follower Charlotte Blodget, is published by Abelard Schuman in the United States and Foster and Scott in Canada. Adamski claims that Orthon arranged for him to be taken on a trip to see the Solar System, including the planet Venus, the location where Orthon said the late Mary Adamski had been reincarnated. He claims that in another voyage he met the 1,000-year-old “elder philosopher of the space people,” who is called “the Master.” Adamski says he and the Master discussed philosophy, religion, and the “Earth’s place in the universe.” Adamski learns that he has been selected by Nordic aliens to bring their message of peace to Earth people and that other humans throughout history have also served as their messengers, including Jesus Christ. Adamski further claims that aliens are peacefully living on Earth, and that he has met with them in bars and restaurants in Southern California. (George Adamski, Inside the Space Ships, Abelard-Schuman, 1955; Clark III 40; Lou Zinsstag and Timothy Good, George Adamski: The Untold Story, Ceti, 1983 ; David Stupple, “The Man Who Talked with Venusians,” Fate 32, no. 1 (January 1979): 30 – 39)

January — George King gives the first public demonstration of his contacts with the Cosmic Masters in Caxton Hall, London, England. After mounting the platform, he enters a trance, and Aetherius (the Cosmic Master from Venus) reveals a plan for human peace and enlightenment. (Douglas Curran, In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space, Abbeville, 1985, p. 63) Early January — Dorothy Martin leaves the Chicago area for Prescott, Arizona, home of the like-minded George Hunt Williamson, after being threatened with arrest and involuntary commitment. She later founds the Association of Sananda and Sanat Kumara. Under the name Sister Thedra, she continues to practice channeling and participate in contactee groups until her death in 1992. (Clark III 719) January 3 — 4:00 p.m. Félix Galarraga and Gerardo Izuesta see a red balloon-like object about 7– 10 feet in diameter land near Oiartzun, Spain. Galarraga rushes towards it, but the UFO rises and speeds away. From a separate location, brothers Miguel and Martín Arraspio also see the object descend. Possibly another Radio Free Europe balloon

with leaflets. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955 January – June, The Author, 1992, p. 4; Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos and Juan Carlos Vistorio Uranga, “Los ovnis de diciembre de 1954,” Academia.edu) January 7 — The Air Force Information Services Letter warns that service members are talking too much about UFOs. (Ruppelt, p. 228 ) January 14 — 5:30 p.m. A luminous UFO drops from the sky near Idyllwild, California. Immediately afterwards, a B- 47 pilot reports to March AFB [now March Air Reserve Base] near Riverside, California, that an “unknown object just hit our wing.” The pilot guides the plane to a landing. No trace of a crashed object can be found. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 247 – 248) January 31 — 2:00 a.m. Peruvian Air Force Commander Guillermo Serpa and Col. Juan Rodriguez Cavero are returning to El Pata Air Force Base near Talara, Peru, by car through the Sechura Desert on the Pan-American Highway 1N when they see a bright light in the sky ahead. The object, a deep red domed disc, draws nearer and Serpa stops the car to observe it. It tilts slightly toward them, making occasional clicking sounds. Several minutes later it accelerates quickly in their direction, changing to a bright orange color then to a bright white as it shoots past them at terrific speed. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs a History: 1955, January – June, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2002, pp. 14–18)

February 1 — 7:55 p.m. Instructor Capt. Delwyn F. Ritzdorf and aviation cadet Frederick W. Miller are flying a TB- 25 bomber-trainer about 20 miles east of Cochise, Arizona, at 13,000 feet and 238 mph when they see a bright round object with red and white hues. It approaches them then hovers off the left wing for 5 minutes about 5° above the horizontal. Radio interference prevents Ritzdorf from reporting the sighting. The object climbs rapidly on a parallel flight track for 3 minutes before pulling away at 500 – 600 mph and disappearing. (NICAP, “Huge Metallic Disc Paces B- 25 ”) February 2 — Aviation inventor Bill Lear, during a press conference in Bogotá, Colombia, states his belief that “flying saucers came from outer space and are piloted by beings of superior intelligence.” He suspects that they might use gravitational fields as propulsion. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955 January – June, The Author, 1992, p. 18) February 2 — 11:15 a.m. A Venezuelan Aeropostal airliner piloted by Captain Dario Celis is flying between Barquisimeto and Valera, Venezuela, at 7,500 feet. Celis and his copilot B. J. Cortes spot a strange, round “apparatus” flying swiftly toward the plane. Rotating counterclockwise, the object shines with a greenish light. Around its center is a red ring or band that emits flashes of brilliant light. Above and below this band are lighted portholes. Hurriedly the pilot cuts in his mike to call the Barquisimeto radio station. After reporting the UFO, he waits for an answer, but the receiver is dead. Later the radio operators state that just as the pilot began his report, communication is cut off. The copilot banks toward the rotating UFO. Instantly the object whirls downward, then levels off, and races away at tremendous speed. (NICAP, “Plane Encounters Saucer and Radio Goes Dead”; Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 249– 250 ) February 6 — Several witnesses in Greymouth, New Zealand, see a dazzling, silvery, cigar-shaped object moving inland at a high speed. Two observers see it consisting of two parts, with the leading part larger than the other. A loud explosion like a thunderclap is heard, causing the earth to tremble slightly. (“World Roundup,” Flying Saucer Review 1, no. 2 (May/June 1955): 8) February 10 — 9:30 p.m. Many residents of Caracas, Venezuela, see a strange object crossing the sky silently from northeast to southwest. José Agustín Díaz in Altamira clocks its time as 6–8 minutes. It looks like a disc with two bright, pulsating, bluish lights on the underside. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 64) February 13 — Midnight. A green fireball shoots across east Texas like a “huge electric arc,” passing from Tyler towards Lufkin. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955 January – June, The Author, 1992, p. 24) February 15 — ATIC sends a memo to Maj. Joseph A. Cybulski, commander of the 4602nd AISS at Ent AFB [now the US Olympic Training Center] in Colorado Springs, Colorado, complaining about the high number of unknowns. It suggests that AISS and ATIC “strive to reach as many case solutions as possible, thereby reducing the percentage of the unknowns to a bare minimum.” As long as there is sufficient information, most cases “will fit to some extent one of the hypotheses.” The probable and possible cases are merged into the “identified” category. (Maj. T. G. Connair Jr., “Evaluation of Unidentified Flying Objects,” February 15, 1955, in CUFON, “4602d AISS Unit History Sampler, Part 7 of 7 Parts”) February 18 — The nuclear Teapot Wasp test takes place at the Nevada Test Site. Ground forces take part in Exercise Desert Rock VI, which includes an armored task force Razor moving to within 3,000 feet of ground zero, under the still-forming mushroom cloud. (Wikipedia, “Operation Teapot”)

February 21 — Early morning. “Cobwebby gray fibers” fall in Horseheads, New York, covering one-half square mile. Some “ragged sheets” are many feet in length. Chemist Charles B. Rutenber of Elmira College in Elmira, New York, describes it as “badly damaged, slightly radioactive cotton fiber” that might have come from a Nevada atomic test. He concludes it is a “short-staple cotton, possibly lint from waste cotton used in industrial plants.” John B. Diffenderfer, a chemist at a local Westinghouse laboratory, finds it is 30% carbon, with calcium, silica, aluminum, iron, and 10 other trace elements. He thinks it comes from powdered milk residue, perhaps from the Dairylea milk processing plant in Elmira. But milk plant chemists Louis R. Hermani and Robert L. Mix say the material is composed of “cotton and wool fibers with pieces of fine copper wire mixed in” and looks like it comes from a carpet sweeper bag. (“Further Tests Made of Fibers Collected in Horseheads Area,” Elmira (N.Y.) Star- Gazette, February 23, 1955, p. 13; Brian Boldman, “Angel Hair Physical Analyses: A Review,” JUFOS 9 (2006): 101 – 102) February 23 — 8:30 a.m. Frederick S. Briggs, a bricklayer and former army sergeant employed at Broadlands, Romsey, Hampshire, England, the manor then owned by Lord Mountbatten, Prince Philip’s uncle, sees a large disc-shaped UFO over a nearby meadow as he is bicycling to work. The object is shaped like a spinning top, metallic, and about 20–30 feet in diameter with portholes around the center. Watching from less than 100 yards away, Briggs estimates that the object is 80 feet above the ground. He sees a humanoid figure dressed in what look like overalls and a helmet descend from the craft on some sort of column with a platform at the bottom. He is then dazzled by a bright blue light from the craft and falls over, unable to move, as if held by a strange force. The UFO then flies off at high speed. Mountbatten takes a personal interest in this incident, interviews Briggs, and searches the area of the meadow over which the UFO is seen. He subsequently has a statement prepared, detailing Briggs’s claims. This story is written up by Desmond Leslie in Flying Saucer Review in 1981. Mountbatten’s signed statement on the incident is held with many of his other private papers at the Broadlands Archive. (Desmond Leslie, “Did Flying Saucers Land at Broadlands?” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 5 (January 1981): 2–4; Good Above, pp. 40 – 42 , 451 – 454 )

March — Technician and businessman Morris K. Jessup publishes The Case for the UFO, the first book to use the relatively new US Air Force term “UFO” instead of flying saucer. He engages in speculation about Fortean phenomena, ancient astronauts, levitating forces to explain megalithic structures, and experiments in ancient times with flight and even space flight. He identifies 1877–1887 as an “Incredible Decade,” in which astronomers observe strange space objects, and meteorologists note strange falls from the sky. He speculates that mysterious disappearances of ship crews might constitute a curiosity among “our space friends” on “what has happened to us since they put us down here.” (Morris K. Jessup, The Case for the UFO, Citadel, 1955; Clark III 634 ; Story, p. 51 ) March — James S. Rigberg, owner of the Flying Saucer Bookstore in New York City, begins publishing Flying Saucer News as the official publication of the Flying Saucer News Club of America, founded in 1953. It is published twice a year until at least May 1982. (Flying Saucer News 1, no. 1 (March 1955)) March — The CIA obtains quantities of Hemophilus pertussis, whooping cough bacteria, from Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland. The agency field tests it covertly along Florida’s Gulf Coast. The incidence of whooping cough triples this year, but the CIA’s role remains unknown until 1979. (Bill Richards, “Report Suggests CIA Involvement in Fla. Illnesses,” Washington Post, December 17, 1979) March 1 — The Douglas Aircraft Company is conducting a study of “Unconventional Propulsion Schemes/Systems” for the USAF Air Technical Information Center from 1954 to 1955, headed by Wolfgang Klemperer, who writes a memo to E. P. Wheaton that says: “Our studies of the possible merit or significance of occasionally appearing publications concerning Unconventional Propulsion Systems have been carefully continuing since the first memo (MTM-622) about the progress to mid-December 1954.” Apparently the project examined some UFO reports (including Willis Sperry’s) and UFO books. (Douglas Aircraft Company, “Unconventional Propulsion Schemes,” MTM-622, March 1, 1955; Keith Basterfield, “Documents Located from that 1955 ‘Secret’ UAP Study by Douglas Aircraft Company,” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena—Scientific Research, January 11, 2019) March 11 — 7:50 p.m. Lawrence Grab and his son see a brilliant flash of light from their home at 714 West Lakeside Street in Madison, Wisconsin, then watch a phosphorescent object speed over the city from southwest to northeast. (“Season’s First Saucer Flies in at High Speed,” Madison Wisconsin State Journal, March 12, 1955, p. 7) March 12– 13 — George Van Tassel’s second Giant Rock Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention in the Mojave Desert near Landers, California, attracts a smaller crowd than the first. This time George Adamski is in attendance, along with Charles Laughead, Dorothy Martin, George Hunt Williamson, Dana Howard, Daniel Fry, Truman Bethurum, and Dick Miller. Retired USAF Project Blue Book head Edward J. Ruppelt is in the audience and writes up a report.

(Edward J. Ruppelt, “Among the Contactees,” IUR 19, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1994): 3–6, 23–24; Clark III 531; “Six Claim Rides on Interplanetary Ships,” Los Angeles Times, March 13, 1955, pp. 3, 4) March 15 — The 4602nd AISS guide to investigating UFOs is complete and gets distributed to appropriate personnel. (4602d AISS, “UFOB Guide,” in History of 4602d Air Intelligence Service Squadron, vol. 1, January 1–June 30, 1955, reprinted in CUFON, “4602d AISS Unit History Sampler, Part 6 of 7 Parts”) March 24 — 2:30 p.m. The pilot of a private Beechcraft plane is flying at 1,500 feet with a student in the Ryukyu Islands, Japan. They see a domed disc with three windows about 900 feet on their left that appears to change color from white to orange and back again. Over the next few minutes, the object flies over, in front of, and under the airplane. When the pilot puts the plane into a dive, the craft stays with it. The plane’s instruments stop working. The pilot makes a steep right turn but the object still paces the plane. When the Beechcraft’s engine begins to stall, the pilot calls Naha Airport on Okinawa, which alerts the US Kadena Air Base. Two jets are scrambled, but by the time they arrive the object is long gone. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 65–66) March 29? — Early morning. A bus driving past Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, Ohio, sees a silver, triangular object hovering above the base for 15 minutes. (“Sightings,” APRO Bulletin, August 1955, p. 9)

Spring — Flying Saucer Review is launched in London, England, as a small-circulation quarterly, with aviation journalist and former RAF pilot Derek Dempster as its first editor. (Denis Montgomery, “How It All Began: Founding the Flying Saucer Review,” May 5, 2004; Flying Saucer Review 1, no. 1 (Spring 1955); Clark III 498 ) Early April — Pentagon press officer Capt. Robert White writes to Claude H. Marck Jr., an interested citizen in Colorado, that Dewey Fournet’s motion studies project was a personal endeavor, that the probability of UFOs being spacecraft is “extremely remote,” and that the Air Force does not try to influence public opinion on the matter. (Swords 209–210) April — U-2 project director Richard M. Bissell Jr. secures a presidential action adding the Groom Lake area in Nevada to the AEC proving grounds for CIA use. Kelly Johnson meets with CIA officials in Washington, D.C., and discusses progress on Project Aquatone, proposing to use the name “Paradise Ranch” for the new base. (Peter W. Merlin, “Groom Lake Timeline: The First Fifty Years,” Secret Heroes, November 10, 2021) April 5 — 9:55–10:15 a.m. Three or four fireballs fall in various places in southern New Mexico. Air Force Sgt. Camilla Saenz is stationed on Sacramento Peak near Cloudcroft when she sees a yellow fireball with a red tail traveling fast from east to west on the south side of the peak. An airplane from Biggs Air Force Base [now Biggs Army Airfield] in El Paso, Texas, sees an apparent meteor strike near Weed, New Mexico, but USAF planes comb the area for 2 hours afterward without finding anything. Bill Watson sees a dark object smash into the earth near Oil Center, New Mexico, but he can find no fragments. Lincoln LaPaz reports that heavy shortwave and TV interference accompany the appearance of the fireballs. (“Fireballs Shower on State,” Alamogordo (N.Mex.) Daily News, April 6, 1955, p. 1) April 5 — Producer Ivan Tors debuts Science Fiction Theatre, a science fiction anthology TV series that presents scientifically plausible stories in an unsensational manner. Many episodes deal with UFO or alien themes, including the season opener, “Beyond,” in which a test pilot bails out and loses his plane because he thinks he’s going to crash into a UFO. The program runs 78 episodes through 1957 and is hosted by veteran announcer Truman Bradley. Each episode opens with Bradley on a laboratory set, sometimes quoting from a recent Scientific American article, and he discusses and demonstrates a scientific principle that plays a role in the story he is introducing. (Internet Movie Database, “Science Fiction Theatre”; Curt Collins, “The UFO Message of Science Fiction Theatre,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, January 18, 2019) April 6 — Night. Three unusual green fireballs pass over New Mexico. Radio and TV interference are reported over a wide area. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, pp. 264 – 265) April 8 — 9:25 p.m. Three residents of Albuquerque, New Mexico, watch a blue-green fireball streak west over the city. It appears to have a rose-orange tail. (“Fire Balls Again Seen over City,” Albuquerque Journal, April 9, 1955, p.

1. April 25 — 1:00–1:30 a.m. Residents and motorists see a brilliant fireball streak across the sky above Council Bluffs, Iowa. State Highway Patrolman John Ebert says the light was as bright as an arc welder. One resident sees the light burst into flame and drop to earth. Witnesses in Nebraska think the fireball descends abut 3 miles southeast of Waverly, Nebraska. (Council Bluffs (Iowa) Nonpareil, April 25, 1955; Nukes 93) April 30 — A member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences tells a radio audience that UFOs do not exist. (Ruppelt, pp. 238 – 239 )

May — The UK Air Ministry announces that the report in March on a five-year investigation into UFOs by the RAF has been submitted to high-ranking officers, but the results cannot be released publicly for security reasons. MP Maj.

Patrick Wall asks the Under-Secretary of State for Air George Ward to confirm whether or not he would publish a report. Ward replies that only 10% of UFO reports are unidentified and that is because of lack of data. (Derek Dempster, [Editorial], Flying Saucer Review 1, no. 2 (May/June 1955): 1; Good Above, p. 43 ; UFOFiles2, p. 60– 61 ) May — 15 - year-old Jacques Vallée and his mother see a “gray, metallic disc with a clear bubble on top” hovering above a church in Pontoise, France. (Jacques Vallée, Forbidden Science, North Atlantic, 1992 , pp. 15– 16 ) May 4 — A survey team arrives at Groom Lake, Nevada, and lays out a 5,000-foot north to south runway on the southwest corner of the lakebed and designates a site for a base support facility. The “Ranch” initially consists of little more than a few shelters, workshops, and trailer homes in which to house its small team. In a little over three months, the base consists of a single paved runway, three hangars, a control tower, and rudimentary accommodations for test personnel. The few amenities include a movie theater and volleyball court. There is also a mess hall, several wells, and fuel storage tanks. (Wikipedia, “Area 51”; Peter W. Merlin, “Groom Lake Timeline: The First Fifty Years,” Secret Heroes, November 10, 2021) May 4 — Afternoon. Lt. Col. Edward J. Stealy, commander of the 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Keflavík Airfield, Iceland, and 1stLt. Joseph Burt see 10–15 flying objects, 60 – 70 feet in diameter, at about 25,000 feet. They fly in loose formation for about 4 – 5 seconds and are traveling at a tremendous rate of speed (perhaps 1,150 mph). (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955 January – June, The Author, 1992 , pp. 5– 58 ; Sparks, p. 226 ; Clark III 376) May 5— ATIC declassifies Battelle Memorial Institute’s 195 1 – 1954 study of UFOs, completed in March 1954, as Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 but does not release it until October 25. (Special Report No. 14: Analysis of Reports of Unidentified Aerial Objects, US Air Force, 1955; Clark III 929– 932 ) May 22 — Journalist Dorothy Kilgallen writes in the Los Angeles Examiner that “British scientists and airmen” have examined the wreckage of a crashed flying saucer. Her informant is a “British official of Cabinet rank,” who tells her that the “saucers were staffed by small men—probably under four feet tall.” Flying Saucer Review editor Gordon Creighton later researches this story in detail and thinks Kilgallen’s source is First Sea Lord Louis Mountbatten. Some suggest that Kilgallen picked the story up at a cocktail party hosted by Mountbatten. Her story is widely dismissed as a hoax, but other events put her claims in a new light. (“U.F.O. Crash in Britain?” Flying Saucer Review 1, no. 3 (July/Aug. 1955): 6; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955 January – June, The Author, 1992, p. 69; Good Above, pp. 43 – 44 ) May 23– 26 — At the Fifth AISS Commander’s Conference at Ent AFB [now the US Olympic Training Center], Colorado Springs, Colorado, an analysis of UFOs and science fiction is presented that notes: “General public not qualified to evaluate material propounded in science fiction. Absurd and fantastic theories given credence solely on the basis of ignorance.” Also, “Abnormal predisposition to attach belief to the more fanciful aspects of UFOBs, e.g. ‘Flying Saucers’ would tend to negate the source’s reliability as a factual observer.” (“Report of Fifth Commander’s Conference, 23 May to 26 May 1955,” in History of 4602d Air Intelligence Service Squadron, vol. 2, January 1–June 30, 1955, reprinted in CUFON, “4602d AISS Unit History Sampler, Part 7 of 7 Parts”) May 24 — 7:48 p.m. GOC spotter Charlotte Whitecotton and another woman at Loveland, Ohio, watch four UFOs in formation pass low over their enclosure, then zoom to the north. They report the incident to the Columbus Filter Center. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955 January – June, The Author, 1992, p. 71; Isabel Davis and Ted Bloecher, Close Encounter at Kelly and Others of 1955, CUFOS, 1978, pp. 145– 146 ) May 25 — Around 3:30 a.m. Robert Hunnicut is driving along the Loveland-Madeira Road in the Branch Hill area of Loveland, Ohio. At the Hopewell Road intersection, his headlights illuminate three short figures kneeling next to the road. They are grayish humanoids with a wide slit for a mouth, an indistinct nose, and normal eyes without eyebrows. The heads are hairless with prominent wrinkles on the forehead. They are wearing one-piece grayish garments. One arm seems longer than the other and the upper torso is lopsided. One of the figures is holding a rod emitting blue-white sparks. Hunnicut gets out of the car and walks towards them. They look towards him and there is a 3-minute standoff. Hunnicut goes to the police station and returns with Police Chief John K. Fritz. No trace of anything is found. (Stringfield, 3 - 0 Blue, CRIFO, 1957, pp. 66–68; Stringfield, Situation Red, Fawcett Crest, 1977, pp. 115 – 116 ; Isabel Davis and Ted Bloecher, Close Encounter at Kelly and Others of 1955, CUFOS, 1978, pp. 138– 148 ; Clark III 270 ; Rob Ryder, “On the Trail of the Loveland Frogman,” Fortean Times 361 (Christmas 2017): 38– 41 )

Summer — 12:30 a.m. Dumitru Coca watches a strange object emitting a ring of white sparks at an altitude of 3,000 feet above Hârşeni, Romania. It is blue with white stripes and flying noiselessly at high speed. He watches it for 3 minutes. (Hobana and Weverberh 229–230; Romania 11)

June — James W. Moseley renames Nexus as Saucer News and it becomes a popular bimonthly UFO magazine. (Clark III 1032 ) June — Cincinnati, Ohio, businessman Thomas Eickhoff buys a copy of George Adamski’s Inside the Space Ships. Upset with Adamski’s statement that his space contacts can be corroborated, he takes steps to take him to federal court to make him prove his story or face fraud for using the US mail system to sell his book. Eickhoff’s lawyer brings in a government adviser who advises them to drop the lawsuit. Eickhoff’s efforts eventually bring a reply from a lawyer for CIA Director Allen Dulles, who says the problem is that Adamski could “prevent anyone from testifying in court concerning this book because maximum security exists concerning the subject of UFOs.” The lawyer says he would be subject to a countersuit. (Stringfield, Situation Red, Fawcett Crest, 1977, pp. 169 – 170 ; Good Above, pp. 341 – 342 ) June 4 — A Boeing RB- 47 reconnaissance aircraft of the Air Force Special Security Service (air arm of NSA?) tracks an unknown object visually and by radar for 9 minutes near Melville Sound, Nunavut, Canada. The crew chief describes it as “glistening silver metallic.” The crew obtains gun camera film, but of poor quality. The object speeds off to the north. (Good Above, p. 285 ; Sparks, p. 226 ) June 5 — 7:30 p.m. François-Gilbert Muyldermans is cycling on a deserted road near Saint-Marc, near Namur, Belgium, when he sees a bright disc moving at a high speed at an altitude of around 4,900 feet. He takes out his camera and snaps a photo. The object descends, then rises again emitting a cloud of white smoke. He takes two more photos. Anomalies in the blurred grain, inconsistencies in orientation, and the circumstances by which the story entered UFO lore suggest a deliberate hoax, perhaps with the help of a journalist. (“A ‘Classic’ from Belgium,” BUFORA Journal 4, no. 12 (March/April 1976): 12–13; Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos and Wim van Utrecht, Belgium in UFO Photographs, Volume 1 (1950 – 1988), FOTOCAT Report no. 7, 2017, pp. 38–69) June 7 —An RB-47 en route to Eielson AFB, Fairbanks, Alaska, registers an electronic contact southeast of Banks Island, Northwest Territories, Canada, at 10,500 feet range. The radar return is small and rectangular. (Good Above, p. 286 ; Sparks, p. 227 ) June 13 — Frank Edwards travels with a TV film producer to the Navy Department at the Pentagon and asks for some unclassified photos of rockets. When the Navy learns that Edwards wants to show them on TV during a panel discussion on UFOs, the office refuses to cooperate. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, p. 269) June 23 — 12:15 p.m. A Mohawk Airlines DC-3 is cruising at 3,000 feet in good daylight visibility about 15 miles east of Utica, New York, on a heading to Albany. Both pilot and copilot see an object come over the top of the aircraft from behind, an estimated 500 feet above their altitude. They estimate the length of the object at about 150 feet. It is described as “light gray, almost round, with a center line … Beneath the line there were several (at least four) windows which emitted a bright blue-green light. It was not rotating but went straight. [The lights] seemed to change color slightly from greenish to bluish or vice versa [as the object receded]. A few minutes after it went out of sight, two other aircraft (one, a Colonial DC-3, the other I did not catch the number) reported that they saw it and wondered if anyone else had seen it. The Albany control tower also reported that they had seen an object go by on Victor-2 [airway]. As we approached Albany, we overheard that Boston radar had also tracked an object along Victor-2, passing Boston.” (NICAP, “150ʹ Object Passes over DC-3 Crew from Behind”; Condon, p. 143 ) June 25 — 10:45 p.m. Two civilian and two military witnesses see a yellow, shining sphere with a trail 4–5 times its length over Hillcrest Heights, Maryland. It appears to oscillate in the air, stops, oscillates again, then finally moves away at high speed. It travels nearly overhead and then is lost in the sky at a 45° elevation. It is visible for 7 minutes. (Michael D. Swords, “Air Force UFO Investigations in the Mid-1950s,” IUR 29, no. 3 (Fall 2004): 8– 10) June 26 — Several civilian and military witnesses in Holt, Florida, see a disc with blinking lights. (Sparks, p. 227 ; Michael D. Swords, “Air Force UFO Investigations in the Mid-1950s,” IUR 29, no. 3 (Fall 2004): 10; Hynek UFO Report, p. 45 ) June 26 — 10:45 p.m. A brilliant round object with a trail 4–5 times its own length approaches National Airport in Washington, D.C., stops, oscillates, and moves off at high speed. Ceiling lights at the airport go out when the object approaches and return to operation when the UFO leaves. Searchlights are trained on the object, but when they catch it in their beams, the searchlights go out. A check with the Silver Hill Observatory in Hillcrest Heights, Maryland, determined that a small weather balloon carrying a magnesium flare was released aboiut the same time as the visual sighting. (Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, p. 236; Schopick, p. 21; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955, January – June, The Author, 1992, pp. 84– 85 ) June 29 — The Second Hoover Commission presents its final report to Congress on streamlining procedures in the executive branch. Gen. Mark W. Clark, heading the commission’s task force on intelligence, notes the CIA’s lack of accountability and recommends establishing an intelligence oversight committee. (Wikipedia, “Hoover Commission”; Richard A. Best Jr. and Herbert Andrew Boerstling, “Proposals for Intelligence Reorganization,

1949 – 1996,” Report to the US House Select Committee on Intelligence, Congressional Research Service, February 28, 1996, pp. 9– 10 ) June 30 — The 4602nd AISS reports that of its 194 preliminary UFO reports for 1955, it has made 23 field investigations and has 25 unsolved reports, or an unknown rate of 13%. Going back to August 12, 1954, and removing cases of insufficient evidence, the percentage of unknowns is lower: 23 unknowns from 306 reports, or about 7.5%. In reality, however, none of these numbers mean much; they reflect the creativity and audacity of the explainers at ADC and ATIC. Late June or early July — Early evening. A 19-year-old Civil Defense worker named Carlos Flannigan is driving a truck across a bridge over the Little Miami River near Loveland, Ohio, when he notices 4 small figures about 3 feet high on the riverbank. A terrible smell hangs over the area. He only watches them for about 10 seconds then immediately drives to police headquarters to report the incident. (Isabel Davis and Ted Bloecher, Close Encounter at Kelly and Others of 1955, CUFOS, 1978, pp. 129– 132 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, February 14, 2008)

July — Construction of the Groom Lake base in Nevada is completed and the CIA begins utilizing it, along with the US Air Force, for Project Aquatone, the development of the Lockheed U-2 strategic reconnaissance aircraft, the nation’s first aerial espionage program. It consists of one paved runway, three hangars, a control tower, a makeshift mess hall, and rudimentary accommodations. A movie theater and volleyball court are added. CIA officer Richard Newton is assigned as base commander. Other key organizations are briefed on Area 51’s existence—the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the US Navy, the National Security Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Agency. A small group of four Lockheed test pilots, two dozen Lockheed mechanics and engineers, a handful of CIA officers who double as security guards, and some of Col. Ritland’s staff take up residence. (Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 5 , 51 – 53 ; Peter W. Merlin, “Groom Lake Timeline: The First Fifty Years,” Secret Heroes, November 10, 2 021 ; “Pilots of the U-2,” Secret Heroes, November 10, 2021) July — 2:00 p.m. Col. William T. Coleman is flying a B-25 out of Miami, Florida, with a copilot, flight engineer, a Lockheed test engineer, and a General Motors jet engine technician. As he is moving northward into southern Alabama, he spots at 2 o’clock high what he calls a “craze” in the windshield. He calls the others’ attention to it. He gives chase to it at low altitude over farmland and sees its shadow on the ground, as well as two vortices coming out of the shiny metallic disc that kicks up dust on the ground. When he tries to cut it off at a maximum speed of 3 45 mph, the object is gone, leaving behind the vortices on the ground. Duration of the sighting is 10 – 11 minutes. (NICAP, “Col. Coleman Case / Chases UFO at Low Altitude”) July 1 — CRIFO Newsletter becomes CRIFO Orbit. This issue reviews several airplane crashes and disappearances that Stringfield thinks might be related to UFO activity. (“World’s Air Forces, in Joint Operations, Challenge Incursion of UFO’s,” CRIFO Orbit 2, no. 4 (July 1, 1955): 1– 2; Clark III 460, 1114 ) July 3 —3:30 a.m. Margaret Symmonds is driving on US 129 seven miles south of Stockton, Georgia, when four small humanoid figures with caps and huge eyes are caught in the headlights. They seem to be digging a hole in the road with some sticks. She yells and swerves the car, driving past them. The figures seem oblivious. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955 July – September 15th, The Author, 1992, pp. 2–3; Stringfield, 3 - 0 Blue, CRIFO, 1957, pp. 63 – 64 ; Clark III 270 ; Isabel Davis and Ted Bloecher, Close Encounter at Kelly and Others of 1955, CUFOS, 1978, pp. 149 – 160 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, February 16, 2008) July 5 — 3:00 a.m. USAF pilot Lt. Homer H. Speer Jr and copilot Lt. Paul Daily, call sign Archie 29, and pilot Lt. Robert W. Schneck and copilot Lt. David Cueldner, call sign Archie 91, are flying Boeing KC- 97 Stratofreighters at 20,000 feet on a refueling mission off the coast of Newfoundland. They see two bright objects at 20,000 feet, apparently stationary. Ground radar picks up several objects, some in a distant cluster flying erratically. Speer is able to maintain visual contact, calling direction change of the object to the radar site by radio. The objects are tracked on radar for 49 minutes. (NICAP, “Archie 29 KC-97 Radar Case”; Sparks, p. 228 ; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 296– 297 ; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 263– 264 ) Late July — A man, a female companion, and two children are picnicking on a Lake Ontario beach in St. Catharines, Ontario, when a silvery disc approaches them rapidly across the water, then hovers above them before heading to another family nearby. It swings back to the original group, “moving like a clock pendulum.” The man flees to his car but finds it will not start. Through the windows of the UFO, just a few feet above the ground, the witnesses see the faces of four pale-faced men with black hoods covering their ears and heads, sitting straight and rigid. The object shoots over the lake, ascends rapidly, and disappears. (Clark III 268 ) July 24 — The Groom Lake “Ranch” in Nebada receives it first delivery of U-2s from Burbank, California, in a C- 124 Globemaster II cargo plane, accompanied by Lockheed technicians on a Douglas DC-3. Regular Military Air

Transport Service flights are set up between Area 51 and Lockheed’s offices in Burbank. To preserve secrecy, personnel fly to Nevada on Monday mornings and return to California on Friday evenings. (Wikipedia, “Area 51 ”) July 26 — A brilliant round object with a trail 4–5 times its own length approaches National Airport [now Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport] in Washington, D.C., stops, oscillates, and moves off at high speed. Ceiling lights at the airport go out when the object approaches and returns to operation when the UFO departs. (UFOEv, p. 135 ) July 29 — President Eisenhower announces a program to launch a scientific satellite during the International Geophysical Year. The program will be run by the National Science Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences, with advice coming from the Department of Defense. (Amy Shira Teitel, “How the Stage Was Set for the Satellite Race,” Popular Science, January 3, 2016; Amy Shira Teitel, Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight before NASA, Bloomsbury Sigma, 2017) July 29 — 8:30–9:30 p.m. An aircraft engineer and four others notice a “2nd magnitude star” in the vicinity of Saturn at Lake Ronkonkoma on Long Island, New York. The star moves in a perfect circle around Saturn, heads east until it gets to the Moon, where it executes a half-circle pass and disappears. The object then appears 120° away and moves horizontally until it takes an abrupt turn vertically. It disappears again at about 70° above the horizon. Then it reappears in a straight dive-like descent until it reacquires its original 30° elevation. It proceeds horizontally again, makes an abrupt angular shift again downwards, and is lost in the trees. Through binoculars the object looks spherical and yellowish. (Michael D. Swords, “We Know Where You Live,” IUR 30, no. 2 (January 2006): 8– 9 ; Swords 227)

August — Hundreds of people gather each night at the Black Arch, on the Antrim Coast Road near Larne, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, to watch a mysterious display of lights at sea. The light flashes three or four times in quick succession, then flashes again about 6 minutes later. The Larne police suspect that the lights are flares dropped from aircraft. (Larne Times, August 18, 1955; Shane Cochrane, “Ireland vs. the Flying Saucers,” Fortean Times 317 (September 2014): 54–55) August — Police from Luzern, Switzerland, investigate a sighting of a shiny metallic disc seen at Waldibrücke and Eschenbach. (“Forscher findet verschollene UFO-Akten der Schweiz,” Grenzwissenschaft-Aktuell, July 8, 2013; “The Swiss X-Files,” Fortean Times 312 (April 2014): 24) August 1 — The first test flight of the Lockheed U-2 takes place at Groom Lake, Nevada. During a high-speed-taxi test in the first U-2, Lockheed’s chief test pilot, Tony LeVier, inadvertently becomes airborne after accelerating the U- 2 to 70 knots. He is unable to land the U-2 on his first attempt, and it bounces back into the air, but he manages to successfully bring it down on a second try. Damage to the prototype U-2 is very minor. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed U- 2 ”; “Area 51 and the Accidental Test Flight,” Central Intelligence Agency, August 6, 2015) August 1 — 8:45 p.m. William M. Sheneman, the owner of a radio/TV store in Willoughby, Ohio, pulls into his driveway and walks across the street to check his mailbox. He sees a red light about 1,000 feet away coming at him at a right angle. He thinks it is a plane about to crash. Then the ground is illuminated with two brilliant lights aimed directly from the object. He runs back into the house as the UFO moves over his garage about 50–100 feet in the air. He sees a big red light at the front and a green light at the rear. Then all the lights turn off and the object moves away over the woods. He and his wife can now see the outline of a dome lit up with tiny lights inside. It hovers there for 5 minutes then moves away. (UFOEv, p. 114; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955 July – September 15th, The Author, 1992, pp. 31– 32 ; Isabel Davis and Ted Bloecher, Close Encounter at Kelly and Others of 1955, CUFOS, 1978, p. 180; Clark III 244– 245 ) August 2 — Frederick C. Durant informs the Sixth Congress of the International Astronautical Federation in Copenhagen, Denmark, that President Eisenhower has decided to back the launch of a US scientific satellite during the upcoming International Geophysical Year. Not to be outdone, Soviet delegate Leonid I. Sedov calls a press conference and announces that Russia can launch an artificial satellite within the next 2 years that will be more sophisticated than the Americans’ efforts. (Amy Shira Teitel, “How the Stage Was Set for the Satellite Race,” Popular Science, January 3, 2016; Amy Shira Teitel, Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight before NASA, Bloomsbury Sigma, 2017) August 8 — The CIA’s Todos Odarenko writes an office memorandum recommending that the CIA should maintain a file of UFO sightings but deny that all investigations are inactive, and separate explainable UFOs from unidentifiable reports. (Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 75 – 76 ) August 11 — 9:30 p.m. A witness in Cairo, Illinois, sees a triangular-shaped UFO low on the horizon above the trees, heading silently north and slightly west. Its front end is dark, its middle section bluish green, and its end very bright. (“Sightings,” APRO Bulletin, August 1955, p. 9)

August 16 — Early morning. Truck driver Ernest Suddard and his 13-year-old son are returning home to Bradford, West Yorks, England, when their headlights light up a small figure in the street. It is 4 feet tall, dressed in skin-tight black clothes, and is hopping forward in a series of jerky movements. A circular, silvery object, perforated with holes, appears on the figure’s chest just below its throat. It approaches the truck then turns away abruptly into a passage. Suddard alerts the police, but they find nothing. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955 July – September 15th, The Author, 1992, p. 50; Patrick Gross, URECAT, February 19, 2008) August 16 — 3:55 p.m. Mechanic Hugh Saunders sees a silver object above a white cloudbank above Cave Hill in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is flat and moves swiftly. (Belfast Telegraph, August 17, 1955; Shane Cochrane, “Ireland vs. the Flying Saucers,” Fortean Times 317 (September 2014): 55) August 19 — 2:00 p.m. A “shining, glittering ball” zigzags across the sky over Lisburn, Northern Ireland. It is seen by many people for about 10 minutes. Jeffrey Moore, 17, says it looks like a steel ball at first, then as it gets closer it appears “cross-shaped.” It moves in a variety of directions before disappearing into the clouds. (Belfast Telegraph, August 20, 1955; Shane Cochrane, “Ireland vs. the Flying Saucers,” Fortean Times 317 (September 2014): 55) August 20 — Pilot Horace A. Hanes attains an airspeed record of 822 mph in a North American F-100C Super Sabre at Palmdale, California. (Wikipedia, “North American F-100 Super Sabre”) August 2 0 — 10:45 p.m. The president of a small Canadian air service and his nightwatchman are checking their seaplanes in their dock at Kenora, Ontario, when they see an object “shaped like two saucers with their open tops touching, one above the other” streaking toward them from the west. It is silvery-white in color and sending out rays from its surface or sparkling “as if some electric force or very hot air was flowing from all the surfaces.” It tilts on its side about 600 feet from them, then straightens out with the flat side parallel with the ground and hovers about 225 feet from them and 40 feet above the surface of the lake. It is completely silent and looks to be only 4–5 feet across. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 111– 112 ) August 21– 22 — About 7:00 p.m. Billy Ray Taylor goes into the backyard of the Elmer “Lucky” Sutton farmhouse 7 miles north of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and sees a bright object come from the south-southwest, pass over, and descend into a gully about 500 feet north and about 35-40 feet lower elevation. Glennie Lankford and 6 other adults (Elmer Sutton, Vera Sutton, John Charley Sutton, Alene Sutton, June Taylor, O. P. Baker) plus 3 children (Charlton, Lonnie, and Mary Lankford), see several gremlin-like creatures float down from trees and approach the house from the dark. They are about 3 feet high with roundish heads, elephantine ears, slit-like mouths extending ear to ear, huge and wide-set eyes, no visible necks, and long arms ending in clawed hands. They wear glowing silver clothing. When they run, they drop on all fours. When one of them approaches the house, Sutton and Taylor fire shotguns through the window screen, scoring a direct hit. The creature is knocked over, but gets up and scuttles off. Taylor walks out the door and one of the creatures grabs at his head. This activity continues the greater part of the night and includes heavy gunfire at times. Sutton fires point blank at it, knocking it from the roof, but it just “floats down.” At about 11:00 p.m. they run out of ammunition, and the entire group flees in terror in two cars and drives at high speed into Hopkinsville to report the incident to the police. A state patrolman leaves the Shady Oaks restaurant 3 miles north of Hopkinsville in a car to respond to the call and sees several meteor- like objects streaking over him sounding like artillery fire. He sees two in a series looking like meteors coming from the southwest, headed towards Kelly from the direction of Fort Campbell, a US Army installation. City, county, state, and military police and reporters drive out to the Sutton farm to investigate from 11:30 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. The UFO entities return at about 2:30 a.m. Glennie Lankford is trying to get to sleep when she sees one outside her window stretching its claw-like hands up to the screen. Elmer Sutton again shoots at them without effect. The last one is seen at about 5 : 1 5 a.m. Clark writes that investigations by “police, Air Force officers from nearby Fort Campbell, and civilian ufologists found no evidence of a hoax”; however, Brian Dunning reports that “the claim that Air Force investigators showed up the next day at Mrs. Lankford’s house has been published a number of times by later authors, but I could find no corroborating evidence of this.” Dunning also observes that “the four military police who accompanied the police officers on the night of the event were from an Army base, not an Air Force base.” Skeptic Joe Nickell notes that the family could have misidentified great horned owls, which are nocturnal, fly silently, have yellow eyes, and aggressively defend their nests. He thinks Taylor and Sutton were drinking heavily. Meteor sightings also occurred at the time that could explain Billy Ray Taylor’s claim that he saw “a bright light streak across the sky and disappear beyond a tree line some distance from the house.” (Wikipedia, “Kelly–Hopkinsville encounter”; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955 July – September 15th, The Author, 1992, pp. 54– 75 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955 July – September 15th, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2002, pp. 18 – 36; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 172– 178 ; Story, pp. 190– 192 ; Clark III 642–

643 ; Isabel Davis and Ted Bloecher, Close Encounter at Kelly and Others of 1955, CUFOS, 1978; Sparks, p. 230 ; “The Close Encounter of the Third Kind at Kelly Re-examined,” IUR 3, no. 5 (May 1978): 4– 6 ; Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 53– 56 ; Joe Nickell, “Siege of ‘Little Green Men’: The 1955 Kelly, Kentucky, Incident,” Skeptical Inquirer 30, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 2006); Brian Dunning, “The Kelly- Hopkinsville Encounter,” Skeptoid podcast no. 331, October 9, 2012; Patrick Gross, “The Kelly-Hopkinsville Case, 1955”) August 23– 24 — 11:50 p.m. Personnel at the Ground Observer Corps tower in Hamilton County, Ohio, notice three white spheres between Columbus and Cincinnati. Tracking the UFOs on radar, they notify SAC at Lockbourne AFB [now Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base], which scrambles jets to investigate. The UFO approaches the tower and hovers in pendulum-like motions directly above it. The interceptors give chase, but the UFO disappears at an incredible speed. The Greater Cincinnati Airport also tracks unidentified blips on radar. To his surprise, Stringfield obtains clearance to write about these sightings in CRIFO Orbit. But when he tries to interest the Cincinnati newspapers, they are not interested. A Wright-Patterson AFB spokesperson denies the incident to the press and claims to know nothing about Stringfield’s relationship with ADC. (Stringfield, Situation Red, Fawcett Crest, 1977, pp. 12 – 14 ; Sparks, p. 230 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955 July – September 15th, The Author, 1992, p. 75) August 25 — 8:30 p.m. Mrs. Lloyd Wright and Mrs. Lester Parsons of Bedford, Indiana, see a huge white object with a black streak down the center. The object seems to expand and contract regularly as it hovers over Mrs. Parsons’s home. The houselights appear to dim and pulsate in rhythm with the object. (Schopick, p. 114) August 29 — RAF pilot Walter Gibb reaches an official record altitude of 65,876 feet in an English Electric Canberra B.2 turbojet. (Wikipedia, “Walter Gibb”) August 30 — 9:30 a.m. Pedro Navarro, 25, takes a photograph of some swirling storm clouds over Dudignac, Buenos Aires province, Argentina. When he develops them, he notes that the disturbance looks more like a giant disc. The newspapers reproduce enhanced versions of the photo, but it is never critically analyzed until several decades later. The best guess is that the photo shows a round cloud. (Vicente-Juan Ballester-Olmos, “Exigesis of the Dudignac Saucer of 1955,” UFO FOTOCAT Blog, December 26, 2021; Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, “Exegesis of the Dudignac Saucer of 1955,” January 2022)

September — Austrian Countess Zoe Wassilko von Serecki writes an article for American Astrology in which she conceives of UFOs as living animals that inhabit the ionosphere and are attracted to electrical sources. (Zoë Wassilko-Serecki, “Startling Theory on Flying Saucers,” American Astrology 23 (September 1955): 2–5; Clark III 1099 – 1100 ) September — Day. Several witnesses see four silver discs flying in formation over Lima, Ohio. (Michael D. Swords, “The Timmerman Files,” IUR 26, no. 4 (Winter 2001–2002): 13) September 2– 4 — 9:05 p.m. Eddy Geddes notices a fireball as he is driving to Kalispell, Montana, from Whitefish. He stops at a Ground Observer post and notifies the women stationed there. Jets are scrambled from Malmstrom AFB in Great Falls and arrive shortly after midnight, long after the object is gone, but another fireball is apparently seen later. The same scenario occurs on September 4 when five F-94C Starfire jets (as well as other aircraft from Great Falls and Spokane, Washington, are sent to the Kalispell area. (“Air Force Jets Called in Search for ‘Fireball’ over Kalispell,” The Missoulian, September 5, 1955, p. 7; “Recent Sightings,” APRO Bulletin, September 15, 1956, p. 19) September 8 — Test pilot Ray J. Goudey reaches an altitude of 65,000 feet in a Lockheed U-2 at Groom Lake, Nevada, a feat not revealed until declassification in 1998. “From where I was up above Nevada I could see the Pacific Ocean, which was 300 miles away.” (Wikipedia, “Lockheed U- 2 ”) September 9 — Capt. Hugh McKenzie of the Air Defense Command in Columbus, Ohio, contacts UFO researcher Leonard Stringfield in Cincinnati and asks for CRIFO’s cooperation in providing them with new UFO reports. He also says that Ground Observer Corps in southwestern Ohio is to report UFO activity to CRIFO for screening. Screened reports are then to be forwarded to the ADC filter center using the code “Fox Trot Kilo 3-0 Blue.” All expenses will be reimbursed by the Air Force. (Stringfield, Situation Red, Fawcett Crest, 1977, p. 11 ; Clark III 1114 ) September 20 — In response to a September 13 letter from Rep. Gordon H. Scherer (R-Ohio) about the contactee claims of George Adamski, CIA Director Allen Dulles replies that the “CIA shall have no police, subpoena, law- enforcement powers, or internal-security functions” over mail fraud related to UFOs. (Allen W. Dulles, Letter to Gordon H. Scherer, September 20, 1955)

October — President Eisenhower gives the CIA control over the U-2 spy plane program and Area 51. (Jacobsen, Area 51, p. 58 ) October — 8:00 p.m. A student at St. Joseph’s Minor Seminary in Peterborough, New Hampshire, sees four glowing, bluish-white objects to the southwest. One appears to be on the ground with 3–4 figures beside it. He goes into the recreation room to find more witnesses. When they go outside, the objects are slowly moving above the school building toward the northeast. (“New Hampshire,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 6 , no. 2 (April/May 1985): 4–5) October 3 — A B-47 from Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona, crashes northwest of Lovington, New Mexico. The lone survivor, 2nd Lt. William Daniel Borggen, says the plane is flying at 15,000 feet when three instruments go out after it breaks away from a refueling plane in a pre-dawn flight. The crew drops 5,000 feet, then the bomber hits something and crashes. (“B-47 Crash Is Probed,” Clovis (N.Mex.) News-Journal, October 3, 1955, pp. 1- 2 ) October 4 — 7:10 p.m. Senator Richard B. Russell Jr. (D-Ga.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, on a trip to the USSR, is on a Soviet train near Baku, Azerbaijan, when he spots a disc-shaped craft taking off near the tracks. Russell sees the “first flying disc ascend and pass over the train” and goes “rushing in to get Mr. Efron [Reuben Efron, his interpreter] and Col. Hathaway [Col. E. U. Hathaway, his aide] to see it,” the report says. “Col. Hathaway stated that he got to the window with the Senator in time to see the first [UFO], while Mr. Efron said that he got only a short glimpse of the first. However, all three saw the second disc and all agreed that they saw the same round, disc-shaped craft…as the first.” A fourth witness is unidentified. “One disc ascended almost vertically, at a relatively slow speed, with its outer surface revolving slowly to the right, to an altitude of about 6,000 feet, where its speed then increased sharply as it headed north,” the report states. “The second flying disc was seen performing the same actions about one minute later. The take-off area was about 1–2 miles south of the rail line.” The Air Force report is written by Lieut. Col. Thomas Ryan, who interviews Russell’s companions in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic], on October 13, after they arrive there from Russia shortly after the sighting. The report remains Top Secret until April 30, 1959 , and Secret until March 1985 when Stanton Friedman manages to get it declassified following a FOIA request. (NICAP, “Senator Russell Observes UFO from Train”; Clark III 1049– 1050 ; Sparks, p. 231 ; Joel Carpenter, “The Senator, the Saucer, and Special Report 14,” IUR 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 3– 7 ; Swords 227– 228 ; Good Above, pp. 224 – 226 ) October 7 — Retired Gen. Douglas MacArthur tells Achille Lauro, the mayor of Naples, that he does not think there will be a war with the Soviet bloc, but that “because of the developments of science all countries on earth will have to survive and to make a common front against attack by people from other planets.” The meeting takes place in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. (“M’Arthur Greets Mayor of Naples,” New York Times, October 8, 1955, p. 7; “Space War Possible Is MacArthur Hint,” CRIFO Orbit 2, no. 8 (November 4, 1955): 1; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955 September 15th – December 31st, The Author, 1993, pp. 15– 17 ) October 10 — The Air Force releases a statement from Fort Worth, Texas, saying that anyone reporting flashing lights for the next two months across the US is seeing wind-driven experimental plastic balloons that might travel as fast as 110 mph. (Keyhoe, FS Conspiracy, p. 206; Keyhoe, FSTS, p. 43) October 18 — CIA Director Allen Dulles informs the joint Intelligence Advisory Committee about Senator Russell’s sighting. (Joel Carpenter, “The Senator, the Saucer, and Special Report 14,” IUR 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 7) October 19 — Wilton E. Lexow, head of the CIA Applied Science Division, notes the similarity of the objects seen by Sen. Russell to the Avro Canada Project Y-2 (Silver Bug), a proposed vertical take-off gyroplane now under development by the US Air Force. (Wikipedia, “Avro Canada”; Wikipedia, “Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar”; Joel Carpenter, “The Senator, the Saucer, and Special Report 14,” IUR 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 8) October 2 5 — Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 is released, months after it is completed by analysts at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, using cases supplied by the Air Force and tabulated on IBM punch cards. The original report by Battelle is about 300 pages, but the Air Force distills this down to 100. It is accompanied by a press release in which Secretary of the Air Force Donald A. Quarles states: “On the basis of this study we believe that no objects such as those popularly described as flying saucers have overflown the United States.” (At the same time, Quarles states that the Air Force is working on radical new aircraft that “are sure to be mistaken for flying saucers.”) Only 1 00 copies are printed initially, but scientist Leon Davidson prints and sells copies of it beginning in 1956, along with his analysis and commentary. The report includes 3,201 reported UFO sightings. Battelle employs four scientific analysts, who divide cases into knowns, unknowns, and a third category of insufficient information. They also break down knowns and unknowns into four categories of quality, from excellent to poor. For a case to be called identified, two analysts must independently agree on a solution; for a case to be called unidentified, all four analysts must agree. A report classified as unidentified is defined as: “Those reports of sightings wherein the description of the object and its maneuvers could not be fitted to the pattern of any known object or phenomenon.” Out of 3,201 cases, 69% are judged to be identified, 22%

are unidentified, and 9% have insufficient information to make a determination. The report further breaks these results down based on whether the identification is considered certain or merely doubtful. For example, in both the astronomical and aircraft IFO categories, 12% are considered certain and 9% are doubtful. Overall, of the 69% listed as IFOs, 42% are thought to be solved with certainty, while 27% are still considered doubtful. In addition, if a case is lacking in adequate data, it is placed in the insufficient information category, separate from both IFOs and UFOs. A key feature is to statistically compare IFOs and UFOs by six characteristics: color, number of objects, shape, duration, speed, and brightness. If there are no significant differences, the two classes are probably the same, the UFOs then representing merely a failure to properly identify prosaic phenomena that can already account for IFOs. On the other hand, if the differences are statistically significant, this suggests IFOs and UFOs are indeed distinctly different phenomena. In the initial results, all characteristics except brightness test significant at less or much less than 1% (brightness is greater than 5%). By removing astronomical sightings from the knowns and redoing the test, just two categories, number and speed, are significant at less than 1%, the remainder having results between 3% and 5%. This indicates that there is a statistically significant difference between the characteristics ascribed to UFOs and IFOs, but perhaps not as significant as the initial results suggested. For two characteristics, brightness and speed, the significance actually increases with the revised test. Hynek later calls the Battelle report a “shamefully biased interpretation of statistics to support a preconceived notion.” Keyhoe asks Ruppelt what he thinks. Ruppelt says the report “was a shock to me. I was the one that had the IBM system tried out. It didn’t prove a thing, and I had written it off as worthless before I left the project… also this report was drawn up in 1953, yet the Air Force released it as the latest hot dope in October, 1955 .” The Air Force releases a second edition, with a new preface and an addendum that brings the subject up to date, in July 1957. In the 1990s, after interviewing three men (Art Westerman, Perry Rieppel, and William T. Reid) who had participated in the Battelle project, Mark Rodeghier and Jennie Zeidman of the Center for UFO Studies conclude that the engineering mindset at Battelle had caused a disconnect between its data and its conclusions. Because the project cannot reverse engineer a UFO from the reports (because of faulty witness testimony, multicausal UFOs, etc.), the engineers conclude that a structured craft does not exist. (Wikipedia, “Identification studies of UFOs”; Wikipedia, “Project Blue Book”; US Air Force Air Technical Intelligence Center, Special Report No. 14; Analysis of Reports of Unidentified Flying Objects, May 5, 1955; Leon Davidson, Flying Saucers: An Analysis of Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14, [ 1956 ], 3d ed., Ramsey-Wallace, 1966; “Plan Radical New Aircraft,” Franklin (Pa.) News-Herald, October 26, 1955, p. 1; Clark III 929– 932 ; Jacobs, UFO Controversy in America, Signet ed., 1976, pp. 123 – 126 ; Keyhoe, FSTS, p. 77 0; Jennie Zeidman, “I Remember Blue Book,” IUR 16, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1991): 7 – 8; Jennie Zeidman and Mark Rodeghier, “The Pentacle Letter and the Battelle UFO Project,” IUR 18, no. 3 (May/June 1993): 4–12, 19– 21 ; Joel Carpenter, “The Senator, the Saucer, and Special Report 14,” IUR 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 3, 9; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955 September 15th – December 31st, The Author, 1993, pp. 30– 63 ; Swords 220–224, 239–241) October 25 — A mysterious object passes over Serbia and is seen throughout the country. Milorad B. Protić and other astronomers at Belgrade Observatory track the object and determine that it is not a meteor. After the launch of Sputnik in November 1957, Protić decides that the object must have been an experimental Soviet satellite. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 68) October 27 — Afternoon. Hosea D. Lambeth, principal of Whitsett Elementary School, North Carolina, and about 100 students watch 10 objects like “steel balls” dart through the sky for 25 minutes. Light-colored wispy material in 2 – 3 - inch strips falls from the sky at the same time. Nearby Burlington Industries tests a sample and declares it not a synthetic material. No spiders are found in the strands. (Clark III 124; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955 September 15th – December 31st, The Author, 1993,pp. 72–75)

November — J. Heinrich Ragaz begins publishing Weltraumbote in Zürich, Switzerland. It continues through June 1961. (Weltraumbote, no. 1 (November 1955)) November 1 — 8:06 p.m. A flying light paces New Zealand National Airways DC-3 Flight 108 west of Waitara, New Zealand, at 8,000 feet for about 5 minutes. Capt. William T. Rainbow and Copilot Stanley G. Trounce spot the object behind them flying along the coast on a parallel course. Changing color from white to yellow to gold to red, it overtakes the aircraft and flies alongside it for 15 miles, then picks up speed and disappears into the distance ahead. Rainbow estimates it is traveling at 850 mph. (UFOEv, p. 125; “1955: ‘Flying Light’ Seen by NAC Captain and Crew,” Ufocus.nz, June 15, 2021) November 20 — 5:20 p.m. Operations Officer Capt. Edward G. Denkler Jr. and 5 men of the USAF 663rd AC&W Squadron see two oblong, bright orange, semi-transparent objects fly erratically at terrific speed toward and away from each other, over Lake City [now Rocky Top], Tennessee. (NICAP, “Seven Witnesses Observe Maneuvering Objects near Oak Ridge Plant”; Sparks, p. 232 )

November 22 — The first Soviet test of a true thermonuclear bomb takes place at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan. (Wikipedia, “RDS- 37 ”) November 30 – December 2 — The New York Herald Tribune and Miami Herald publish two articles by aviation journalist Ansel Talbert in which he lists the names of aerospace firms conducting gravity-control propulsion research, including Glenn L. Martin Company, Convair, Bell Aircraft, Lear Inc., Clarke Electronics, and Sperry Gyroscope Division. The Gravity Research Group indicates these companies have constructed “rigs” to improve the performance of Thomas Townsend Brown’s gravitators through attempts to develop materials with high dielectric constants. Articles about the gravity propulsion research by the aerospace firms cease after 1974. Follow-up studies on Brown’s work and other claims are conducted by R. L. Talley in 1990 and 2013 US Air Force studies, NASA scientist Jonathan W. Campbell in a 2003 experiment, and Martin Tajmar in a 2004 paper. They find that no thrust can be observed in a vacuum and that Brown’s and other ion-lifter devices produce thrust along their axis regardless of the direction of gravity—consistent with electrohydrodynamic effects. (Wikipedia, “United States gravity control propulsion research”; Wikipedia, “Anti-gravity”; Ansel E. Talbert, “Scientists Taking First Steps in Assault on Gravity Barrier,” Miami Herald, November 30, 1955, pp. 1– 2 ; Ansel E. Talbert, “Future Planes May Defy Gravity and Air Lift in Space Travels,” Miami Herald, December 2, 1955, p. 8)

December 11 — 9 :00 p.m. Near Jacksonville, Florida, two airline pilots and ground observers see a fast-maneuvering, orange-red, round object, with ground radar tracking. Two USN jets on a practice night-flying mission are vectored to the object by a Naval Air Station Jacksonville controller. On approach the object suddenly rises up to 30,000 feet then dives back down in a circle, buzzing the jets. (Sparks, p. 232 )

1956

1956 — French ufologist Aimé Michel publishes The Truth about Flying Saucers, one of the best early books on UFOs, originally published in French in 1954. (Aimé Michel, The Truth about Flying Saucers, Criterion, 1956; “First Read: Aimé Michel’s ‘The Truth about Flying Saucers,’” Magonia, February 25, 2012) 1956 — Gray Barker publishes They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers, a bestselling book about the supposed Albert K. Bender mystery and his encounter with three men in black. (Gray Barker, They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers, University Books, 1956; Clark III 178 , 190; David Halperin, “‘They Knew Too Much’: The Book That (Almost) Scared Me under My Bed,” Ms.Horror.com, March 16, 2017) 1956 — Morris K. Jessup publishes The UFO Annual, an anthology of newspaper and magazine articles about UFOs, and UFO and the Bible, the first book-length attempt to connect biblical miracles with space visitors. Jessup is the first writer to use the term “ufology” in his introduction (dated December 31, 1955). (Morris K. Jessup, The UFO Annual, Citadel, 1956; Clark III 106, 634 – 635 ) 1956 — Soviet polar aviator Valentin Akkuratov is flying a Tupolev Tu-4 aircraft near Cape Morris Jesup, Greenland, performing strategic ice reconnaissance. Dropping down below the clouds, he sees an unknown object moving on the port side parallel to his course. It looks like a “large pearl-colored lens with wavy, pulsating edges.” Thinking it is a US aircraft, Akkuratov heads back into the clouds. After flying for 40 minutes to the southeast, the cloud cover ends and Akkuratov encounters it again. He decides to approach the object, which changes course and paces the airplane at the same speed. After 15–18 minutes, the UFO sharply alters course, speeds ahead, and rises quickly until it disappears. (Felix Ziegel, “Unidentified Flying Objects,” Soviet Life, no. 137 (February 1968): 27 – 29; Good Above, pp. 226 – 227 ) 1956 — Fishermen at lake Ozero Blagodati, Primorsky Krai, Russia, allegedly see an enormous silvery object with an apparent diameter of 4,900 feet rapidly flying above them at 1,960 feet. It resembles a hat with red portholes around its rim and is accompanied by loud grinding sounds and black smoke. The object emits numerous thin metal threads resembling horse hairs that the fishermen pick up the next day. The object crashes into the Sea of Japan. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, pp. 113–114) 1956 or 1957 — 7:45 p.m. W. J. Kyncy is aboard the destroyer USS Maddox in the North Pacific between Midway Island and Japan. He and some 30 other sailors on the stern see a steady orange light coming toward them at about 50 mph. It stops for 2 minutes about 1,300 feet away at about 400 feet altitude. It begins moving again at 35 mph then blinks out after 5 – 10 seconds. (“Correspondence,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1982): 6)

January — The US Army Chemical Corps begins classified human experiments at its Edgewood Arsenal facility at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. The Medical Research Volunteer Program (1956–1975) is driven by

intelligence requirements and the need for new and more effective interrogation techniques. Overall, about 7,000 soldiers take part in these experiments that involve exposure to more than 250 different chemicals. Some of the volunteers exhibit symptoms at the time of exposure to these agents but long-term follow-up is not planned as part of the Department of Defense studies. The experiments are abruptly terminated by the Army in late 1975 amid an atmosphere of scandal and recrimination as lawmakers accuse researchers of questionable ethics. Many official government reports and civilian lawsuits follow in the wake of the controversy. The chemical agents include VX, sarin, mustard gas, atropine, scopolamine, 2-PAM chloride, LSD, PCP, cannabinoids, riot control agents, alcohol, and caffeine. (Wikipedia, “Edgewood Arsenal human experiments”) January — Edward J. Ruppelt’s Report on Unidentified Flying Objects is published. His candid opinions about UFOs contradict many of the positions taken on UFOs by the Air Force. He has personally seen the Estimate of the Situation, he confirms the existence of Fournet’s motion study, and he first describes the basic contours of the Robertson Panel. (Edward J. Ruppelt, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, Doubleday, 1956; Michael D. Swords, [Review], JUFOS 3 (1991): 179– 183 ) January 9 — The CIA’s Applied Science Division takes on the job of holding UFO reports. (ClearIntent, p. 135 ) January 13 — UFO researcher Morris K. Jessup receives a letter from someone in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, who calls himself Carlos Miguel Allende [a pseudonym of Carl Allen], who alludes to a US Navy experiment to make a destroyer invisible in October 1943 [the bogus Philadelphia Experiment]. He writes another letter postmarked May 25 that suggests hypnosis or truth serum might bring out more details. (Wikipedia, “Philadelphia Experiment”; Clark III 95; Andrew H. Hochheimer, “The Carl Allen Letters,” The Philadelphia Experiment from A–Z, January 31, 2001) January 15 — An object the apparent size of a washtub is seen falling into the sea 150 feet offshore Busan, South Korea, by large numbers of townspeople. The glow continues for an hour and a half before the object sinks. Korean and American military authorities are alerted. Military Police Cpl. Ben Elliot observes the glow, which resembles burning alcohol or benzene. (Samuel Norman, “Recent UFOs over Japan,” Fate 9, no. 6 (June 1956): 22 – 24 ) January 22 — Jonathan N. Leonard reviews Harold T. Wilkins’s Flying Saucers Uncensored, Keyhoe’s Flying Saucer Conspiracy, and Ruppelt’s Report on UFOs in the New York Times. He calls Wilkins a mystic, Keyhoe “repetitious and unconvincing,” and Ruppelt (most unfairly) “the longest and dullest of the current crop of saucer books.” (Jonathan N. Leonard, “Visitors from Space,” New York Times Book Review, January 22, 1956, p. 25) January 31 — 3:24 p.m. Kentucky National Guard pilot Lt. Col. Lee J. Merkel is flying an F-51 Mustang out of Standiford Field [now Louisville International Airport] in Louisville, Kentucky, on a maintenance test flight. His aircraft crashes 10 miles north of Bedford, Indiana, following some confusing information from various sources about an unknown radar target or visual observation in the vicinity. (ClearIntent, pp. 62 – 63 ; Good Need, pp. 215 – 216 )

February 9 — 1:30 a.m. Patrolmen Marvin Poer and John Freeland see a ball of fire plunge behind the breakwater at Redondo Beach, California. It bobs on the water’s surface before sinking into 15 feet of water some 300 feet off the shore. Five county lifeguards row out to look for it and retrieve a US Army Signal Corps battery light that was dropped from an airplane. (“Sea Cools Mystery of Hot Disk,” Los Angeles (Calif.) Mirror-News, February 9, 1956, p. 8; “Sea-Saucer or Searchlight?” CRIFO Orbit 2, no. 12 (March 2, 1956): 4) February 9 — In a memo, “Responsibility for Unidentified Flying Objects,” the CIA’s Applied Science Division retains files for incoming raw reports that might provide information on foreign weapons R&D. Other (more significant?) reports are forwarded to the Fundamental Sciences Area for review of information on foreign science developments. Still others are to be destroyed. (ClearIntent, pp. 135 – 136 ) February 12 — 10:55 p.m. Two F-89D fighters flying at 20,000 feet, one crewed by pilot Bowen and radar observer Crawford, suddenly see a green and red object 40 miles southeast of Goose Bay AFB [now CFB Goose Bay], Labrador. It rapidly circles thir jet, and the other fighter tracks it on radar but cannot see it visually. About 15 minutes later, operators at Goose Bay paint a stationary target about 40 miles southwest of the base. The two pilots vectot toward the object and obtain radar contact, but it vanishes when they get within 8 miles. (Sparks, p. 233; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 262) February 17 — 10:50 p.m. Air traffic controllers at Orly Airport, Paris, France, see a target appear on their radar screens that is twice the size of a conventional aircraft. It cruises around, hovers, and accelerates at fantastic speeds, and is tracked for a total of 4 hours. When it first appears on radar it is directly above Gometz-le-Châtel, Seine et Oise, and 30 seconds later it is 19 miles away, having moved at nearly 2,500 mph. A second, smaller target appears, identified as an Air France DC-3 airliner flying over the Les Mureaux military base, Yvelines, at 4,500 feet (800 feet lower than the UFO). Orly radios the pilot to alert him to the unidentified target. Radio Officer Beaupertuis sees the object through a window on the starboard side of the plane—enormous in size, indistinct in outline, and

lit in some areas with a red glow. Capt. Michel Desavoye confirms the sighting, saying he and the crew watch the object for 30 seconds and are certain it is no civil airliner. The sighting duration is nearly 3 hours. (NICAP, “Large UFO Tracked on Ground Radar”; “A Saucer Shows Up over Paris and Creates a Stir in a Radar Room and a Cockpit,” Flying Saucer Review 2, no. 2 (March/April 1956): 3; Patrick Gross, “Orly Airport, France, February 1956 ”) February 18 — Stringfield receives a letter from Lord Hugh Dowding that says he doesn’t think there is an official “British attitude to UFOs.” (Stringfield, Situation Red, Fawcett Crest, 1977, p. 165)

March — Mechanix Illustrated publishes a story on the Avro Canada MX-1794 (Y-2, or Silver Bug) vertical take-off gyroplane under development by the US Air Force. The cover proclaims, “U.S. Air Force Reveals Our Flying Saucer.” Through 1958, Avro spends $2.5 million and the USAF $5.4 million funding the project. Numerous models are built, and wind-tunnel testing is undertaken at MIT and Wright-Patterson AFB. The design includes eight Armstrong Siddeley Viper turbojet engines, a very large center rotor/impeller with Lundstrom compressor turbines, with the cockpit mounted in the top center. Control is achieved through eight small exhausts at the outer edge, directed either through the top or bottom, in addition to the main turbine exhaust through the bottom center of the craft. A multiengine test rig is built and tested in 1956, resulting in powerful thrust, a great deal of noise, and vibrations. In 1957, the USAF provides additional funding to extend the project, by then highly classified and designated as Weapon System 606A. The concept developed is for a circular-winged, supersonic aircraft. Over 1,000 hours of wind-tunnel testing are performed. Drawings developed by Avro show an aircraft that appears to be a merging of a flying saucer with more conventional fuselage shapes—a tailless aircraft with circular wings. (Wikipedia, “Avro Canada”; Willy Ley, “How the Flying Saucer Works,” Mechanix Illustrated 52 (March 1956): 78 – 81; Good Need, p. 215 ; Charles Mandel, “A Saucer from Mars? Nope, Canada,” Wired, July 5, 2001) March 10 — British pilot Peter Twiss reaches an official airspeed of 1,132 mph in a Fairey Delta 2 over Chichester, England. (Wikipedia, “Peter Twiss”) March 16 — Stringfield receives a letter from Gen. John A. Samford that ends his affiliation with ADC. (Stringfield, Situation Red, Fawcett Crest, 1977, p. 14)

Spring — The Flying Saucer Discussion Group begins meeting on a more-or-less monthly basis at the YWCA in Washington, D.C. It is begun by Mrs. Walton C. “Clara” John, the publisher of a mimeographed zine called The Little Listening Post, which often covers UFOs. (“‘Toward a Broader Understanding…’: The Story of How NICAP Began,” UFO Investigator, October 1971, p. 2) April — USAF Capt. George T. Gregory succeeds Capt. Charles Hardin as director of Project Blue Book. (Sparks, p. 14 ) April — An annotated copy of the paperback edition of Morris K. Jessup’s The Case for the UFO (1955) is sent in a manila envelope from Seminole, Texas, to Adm. Frederick R. Furth, chief of the Office of Naval Research. The annotations are written in three different colors of ink, apparently by three persons, A, B, and Jemi, who claim to know a great deal about the UFO intelligences. They mention space people, underwater cities, force fields, and much more. The book falls into the possession of Maj. Darrell L. Ritter, USMC aeronautical project officer at ONR, who brings it to the attention of ONR Capt. Sidney Sherby and ONR Projects Officer Cmdr. George W. Hoover, who become interested and get permission (as long as it does not involve official naval personnel) to send the copy to the Varo Manufacturing Company, in Garland, Texas, which has contracts with the military. Varo publishes 25 spiral-bound copies of the book in black and red ink, which shows the annotations. Meanwhile, Jessup has been receiving at least two strange letters (January 13 and May 25, 1956) from someone calling himself Carlos Miguel Allende, which claim that as a result of a strange experiment at sea utilizing principles of Einstein’s Field Theory, a destroyer (identified by some as the USS Eldridge and others by the USS Engstrom, which were not in the Philadelphia Navy Yard at the time) and all its crew became invisible in October 1943, but the sailors showed side effects. Allende says he has witnessed all of this. Sherby talks to Jessup about the Varo edition; Jessup isn’t much interested but tells him about the Allende letters, which talk about the same things as the annotations and are obviously written by the same person. Gray Barker’s Saucerian Press publishes the Varo edition in July 1972. Sometime in the 1970s, Carlos Allende appears at APRO headquarters and confesses that the whole annotations thing was a hoax, but he surfaces a few years later saying that the CIA coerced him into saying it was a hoax. In the late 1970s, Robert A. Goerman identifies Allende as Carl Allen, who lives near him in Pennsylvania. In the October 1980 issue of Fate, Goerman explains the entire mess, saying that Allen had written all three of the annotation types. Bill Moore and Charles Berlitz take the whole thing seriously enough to write The Philadelphia Experiment in 1979, which links the force fields back to T. Townsend Brown, later the founder of NICAP. (Morris K. Jessup, The Case for the UFO, annotated Varo ed., Saucerian, 1972 ; Wikipedia, “Philadelphia Experiment”; Ivan T. Sanderson, “Jessup and the Allende Case,” Pursuit 1, no. 4 (September 30,

1968): 8–10; William L. Moore, with Charles Berlitz, The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility, Grosset and Dunlap, 1979; Robert A. Goerman, “Alias Carlos Allende,” Fate 33, no. 10 (October 1980): 69–75; Clark III 95 – 97 ; Kevin D. Randle, “The Allende Letters,” A Different Perspective, July 5, 2009; Kevin D. Randle, “Chasing Sources: The Philadelphia Experiment,” A Different Perspective, August 9, 2016; Andrew H. Hochheimer, “Carlos Miguel Allende or Carl Meredith Allen or…,” The Philadelphia Experiment from A–Z, August 13, 2016; Andrew H. Hochheimer, “The Varo Edition,” The Philadelphia Experiment from A–Z, December 13, 2016) April 3 — CIA agent Joseph Bryan III writes to Ruppelt, saying that while he served as special assistant to Air Force Secretary Thomas Finletter, he tried to “have him prepare a statement for release when communication was established with a saucer.” Finletter declines to do so. (Michael David Hall and Wendy Ann Connors, Captain Edward J. Ruppelt: Summer of the Saucers, Rose Press International, 2000, p. 10) April 3 — Keyhoe writes a lengthy letter to Sen. Harry F. Byrd (D-Va.), criticizing Air Force secrecy, deconstructing Blue Book Special Report no. 14, and requesting a congressional hearing. Keyhoe asks Byrd to forward his letter to the Air Force for a response, but he forwards it himself anyway, as does Byrd. The Air Force’s Gen. Joe W. Kelly responds, dismissing both Keyhoe and UFOs. (Swords 222– 223 ) April 5 – May 10 — Some 156 overflight missions into Soviet territory by RB-47 reconnaissance aircraft from Thule Air Base in Greenland begin in Operation Home Run. They fly over the North Pole and into Siberia, probing for electronic intelligence. (Wikipedia, “Project HOMERUN”; R. Cargill Hall and Clayton D. Laurie, eds., Early Cold War Overflights, 1950 – 1956: Symposium Proceedings Held at the Tighe Auditorium, Defense Intelligence Agency, 22 – 23 February 2001, Volume 1, US National Reconnaissance Office, 2003 , pp. 2 59 – 313 ) April 7 — Elizabeth Klarer returns to Flying Saucer Hill southwest of Rosetta, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, drawn by a strange compulsion. The spaceship is waiting for her, and Akon takes her in his hands and says, “Not afraid this time?” He leads her on board the craft, which she learns also carries a second alien, who looks much like Akon except he is darker and more muscular. As the ship first rises into space, Akon says he has been watching her for some time. He lets her look at the earth below through a viewing lens that also has x-ray capability. The saucer goes to a “mother ship” filled with friendly space people. At one point a huge video image projected on the wall allows her to view scenes from their home planet, Meton, in the Alpha Centauri system. They serve her a vegetarian meal. Klarer and Akon begin a lifelong romantic attachment that includes sexual activity. (“Landing in South Africa,” Flying Saucer Review 2, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1956): 2–5; Elizabeth Klarer, Beyond the Light Barrier, Howard Timmins, 1980; Clark III 657; Paul Seaburn, “Woman from Earth Claimed to Have Already Been to Proxima b,” Mysterious Universe, August 31, 2016) April 8 — 10:15 p.m. Capt. Raymond E. Ryan, First Officer William Neff, flight attendant Phyllis Reynolds, and many passengers take off on American Airlines Flight 715 from Albany, New York, heading north then nearly due west at 260 mph and 6,000 feet north of Schenectady, when a brilliant white light about 2–3 miles away is spotted about 90° to the left appearing like an airliner heading in to land at Albany. The white light moves about 90° to dead ahead position about 8– 10 miles away at high speed, estimated at about 800–1,000 mph, where it changes color to orange and seems to block the airliner’s path or risk collision. It disappears briefly and reappears as an orange light again but standing still ahead of the airliner to the west. The Convair airliner contacts Griffiss AFB [now Griffiss International Airport], Rome, New York, where controllers ask Ryan to turn his lights off and on to help identify aircraft. He is told the airliner is seen and the orange UFO are to the south. The airliner is ordered to maintain course to follow the UFO to the west, skipping its scheduled landing at Syracuse after nearly 30 minutes of following the object. The promised fighter jet interception is never seen. The object disappears at high speed to the northwest towards Oswego, New York. (NICAP, “Air Force Requests Plane Loaded with Passengers to Chase UFO”; Sparks, p. 236 ; “Cover-Up Suspected in Reported Air–UFO Chase,” UFO Investigator 1, no. 3 (January 1958): 10– 12 ; UFOEv, p. 117 ) April 16 — An interview with Ryan and Neff is taped on the TV show Meet the Millers. They claim that Griffiss AFB “asked us our next point of landing and to identify the aircraft. I told them Syracuse and identified the flight number. Then they told us: ‘Abandon that next landiat-postcardat-postcardng temporarily. Maintain your course and altitude. We’re sending two jets to intercept the object.’” About the UFO, Ryan says, “This was absolutely real. I’m convinced there was something fantastic up there.” Keyhoe obtains a copy of the tape. (NICAP, [transcript of Meet the Millers program, April 16, 1956]) April 28 — At the third Giant Rock Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention near Landers, California, contactee Dick Miller plays tape recordings allegedly made by Mon-Ka, a Martian, in which he asks Los Angeles radio stations to shut down for two minutes at 10:30 p.m. on November 7, 1956, so that Mon-Ka can speak from his spacecraft. As a publicity gimmick, two radio stations (KATY [now KYNS] of San Luis Obispo and KBIA of Los Angeles) go off

the air at that time, and KTTV in Los Angeles sends up an airplane to watch for the approaching spacecraft.
Nothing happens. (Clark III 531, 766 – 767 )

May 1 — USAF Gen. Joe W. Kelly writes to Sen. Harry F. Byrd (D-Va.) that there is a “total lack of evidence that [UFOs] are interplanetary vehicles.” (“How about Those Three Secret Reports, General Kelly?” CSI News Letter, no. 5 (September 21, 1956): 1) May 1 — Air Force Manual section 190-4 goes into effect. It affects all USAF official press releases, statements to Congress and the public, and publications about UFOs. It requires the Secretary of the Air Force Office of Information to “delete all evidence of UFO reality and intelligent control, which would, of course, contradict the Air Force stand that UFOs do not exist.” NICAP is made aware of the regulation in 1962 when former USAF information spokesman Maj. William T. Coleman admits to a NICAP member that Maj. Lawrence J. Tacker’s book Flying Saucers and the US Air Force was reviewed under AFM 190-4. (“Air Force Reveals Censorship Controls,” UFO Investigator 2, no. 4 (July 1962): 1) May 1 — 7:55 p.m. Koto Ward, a factory worker, along with many others, see a large bright object flying low over the rooftops in Tokyo, Japan. Turuko Kurihara, in a different location, sees a greenish object at 7:59 p.m. The object makes no noise but causes severe distortion on the TV sets in the area. (Schopick, p. 103) May 3 — Hollywood producer Clarence Greene releases a semi-documentary about the UFO phenomenon in the US, U.F.O. Edward J. Ruppelt, Dewey Fournet, and Albert M. Chop assist in the production. The principal character is Chop, played by Los Angeles Examiner journalist Tom Towers, and examines his career going from skeptical USAF public information officer to Pentagon UFO press spokesman. The film uses only one professional actor, Harry Morgan, in a voiceover part. UFO witnesses Delbert Newhouse, Nicholas Mariana, and Willis Sperry play themselves, and Los Angeles policemen stand in for Ruppelt, Fournet, and Gen William Garland. The Air Force carefully monitors its reception and readies itself to counter the film’s impact. The documentary analyzes two famous pieces of UFO footage: the Montana film of 1950 and the 1952 UFO Utah film (both shown for the first time in public). It concludes with the famous 1952 Washington, D.C., UFO incident, in which Chop played a central role, and recreates his experiences. At the end of the documentary, Chop states his belief that UFOs are a real, physical phenomenon of unknown origin. (Wikipedia, “UFO (1956 film)”; Internet Movie Database, “Unidentified Flying Objects: The True Story of Flying Saucers”; Robert Barrow, “Unidentified Flying Objects, Accidental Epic,” IUR 30 , no. 2 (January 2006 ): 3 – 6; Robert Barrow, “Tom Towers: The Other Al Chop,” IUR 30, no. 4 (August 2006 ): 17 – 19 ; Clark III 1188– 1189 ; Swords 222; Curt Collins, “Project Blue Book: UFO, the Motion Picture,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, August 24, 2018) May 4 — 9:30 p.m. Rev. Charles Burmeister, an amateur astronomer, sees five “orange blobs” flying in a U-shape formation east to west at high speed over Marinette, Wisconsin. His son joins him to watch. One more object passes in the same flight path, then a group of six, then one more, followed by another. Blue Book classes the sighting as meteors without even consulting Hynek, who later says that meteors do not fly in formation. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955 May – July, The Author, 1993, pp. 2–7; Swords 229–230) May 22 — 11:05 p.m. USAF 1st Lt. Earl D. Holwadel and 1st Lt. Curtis Carley are piloting a T-33 jet at 18,000 feet 58 miles northwest of Monroe, Louisiana, when they see a bright light due east. They see it again in the east at 11:15 p.m. Holwadel banks right to the southeast somewhat behind the object, which is now a great distance away. The object suddenly comes straight at them at high speed, passing in front of the T-33 at about 225 feet away. It flashes an intensely bright white light from a “greenhouse-shaped dome” or cockpit window at its front end that lights up the canopy of the T-33. The object is about 30-40 feet long, elliptical in shape, shorter than a C-47 but wider, a small steady red running light in the center, with no wings, only stubby protrusions extending 3-4 feet and 25 feet long on each side. The bottom surface is like steel with ribs extending down 2–4 feet with a wave-like appearance. It moves away then returns at high speed on a westerly course with “fantastic” maneuverability. It never changes flight attitude at any time. (NICAP, “Elliptical Object Comes Straight at T- 33 ”; Walter N. Webb, “Inside Building 263: A Visit to Blue Book, 1956,” IUR 17, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1992): cover, 5; Sparks, p. 237) Summer? — Morris K. Jessup is invited to the Office of Naval Research to examine the mysteriously annotated version of his The Case for the UFO. He becomes convinced that his correspondent Carl Allen has written all or most of it. Capt. Sidney Sherby and Cmdr. Hoover ask for the Allen letters and these are included in a special printing of the annotated book by the Varo Publishing Company of Garland, Texas. In 1969, Allen confesses to APRO that he had written the annotations, but he retracts the confession later. (Clark III 95– 97 ; Andrew H. Hochheimer, “The Varo Edition,” The Philadelphia Experiment from A–Z, December 13, 2016). Summer — 11:30 p.m. A cigar-shaped UFO with lighted portholes is seen by two witnesses in the southwest part of Springfield, Illinois. The car driven by one of the witnesses quits, and the UFO seems to affect the traffic lights as

well. The object looks slightly smaller than a blimp. After about 30 seconds it moves straight up and disappears.
(Michael D. Swords, “The Timmerman Files,” IUR 26, no. 4 (Winter 2001–2002): 14, 30)

June (or June 1957) — RNZAF Airman Derek Mansell is a passenger in a Bristol 170 Freighter Mk 31M near Wellington, New Zealand, when the aircraft encounters severe turbulence and its compass and other instruments spin wildly. All communications fail and the engine spurts intermittently for 25 minutes before everything returns to normal. When the Freighter lands at RNZAF Base Ohakea near Bulls, the pilot of a Douglas C-47 Dakota lands and asks them whether they had seen a huge metallic disc about 250 feet in diameter with a blue light on top and a red light on the bottom, which he had observed just above the Freighter pacing it. The Dakota crew apparently took photos, but these have not turned up. After a two-hour debriefing, both crews are told never to discuss the matter. (Good Above, pp. 432 – 433 ) June — 10:00 p.m. Two women are driving north toward New Hampshire, Ohio, when a bright light approaches them from a small wooded area. They stop their car to look at it. The light is attached to a large rectangular object resembling a railroad box car that settles near the ground at the edge of the highway opposite to them about 30 feet away. Suddenly the side of the object facing them lights up from inside with a pale green light and they can see three small entities. One is standing next to a console “operating some kind of controls,” and the two others are also active. For 5 minutes, they appear to be observing the women. The entities have dark hair on their heads and arms and are wearing short-sleeved smocks. The object moves up and away toward the southwest and disappears. (“Unreported 1956 CEIII Discovered in Ohio,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 3 (June/July 1982): 4–5) June 13 — Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, an American black-and-white science fiction film from Columbia Pictures, produced by Charles H. Schneer, directed by Fred F. Sears, starring Hugh Marlowe and Joan Taylor, and with special effects by Ray Harryhausen, is released in Los Angeles. The film’s storyline is suggested by Donald E. Keyhoe’s nonfiction Flying Saucers from Outer Space (1953), but bears little resemblance to the content. Keyhoe has sold the rights to Clover Productions in Hollywood. (Wikipedia, “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers”; Internet Movie Database, “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers”; Clark III 434) June 14 — Walter N. Webb visits and interviews Project Blue Book head Capt. George T. Gregory at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohiob. (Walter N. Webb, “Inside Building 263: A Visit to Blue Book, 1956,” IUR 17, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1992): 3–5) June 25 — ATIC’s Col. John Eriksen, writing for Secretary of the Air Force Donald A. Quarles, replies to a query from Rep. John E. Moss (D-Calif.), explaining why USAF is not handing out multiple copies of Blue Book Special Report no. 14 and that it does not intend to withhold UFO information from the public. (Swords 223)

July — Brinsley Le Poer Trench, 8th Earl of Clancarty, takes over as editor of Flying Saucer Review from Derek Dempster. (Flying Saucer Review 2, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1956); Clark III 498) July — US parapsychologist Andrija Puharich and Dutch psychic Peter Hurkos accidentally meet Charles Laughead and his wife Lillian in Acámbaro, Guanajuato, Mexico, both groups in town to view the famous figurines of Waldemar Julsrud, during the time that Hurkos is being studied by Puharich at his medical facility in Glen Cove, Maine. The Laugheads are convinced that Puharich and Hurkos are space people come to assist them, based on the channelings of their associate George Hunt Williamson (although they do not name him). (Andrija Puharich, Uri: A Journal of the Mystery of Uri Geller, Bantam, 1975, pp. xviii–xxiv; Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, p. 104) July 4 — Pilot Hervey Stockman makes the first of eight U-2 flights over Soviet Russia, Mission 2013. He flies from Wiesbaden over East Germany and Poland before crossing the Soviet border near Grodno, Belarus, then over bomber bases at Minsk, Belarus; Leningrad [now St. Petersburg], Russia; and the Baltic states. The mission is tracked by Soviet radar; a number of MiG fighters unsuccessfully try to intercept the U-2. (Spyflight, “Lockheed U- 2 ”; Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 86 – 88 ) July 9 — One early U-2 mission, Mission 2020, flown by Martin Knutson, flies over Engels-2 airfield, near Saratov, Russia, and photographs 20 M-4 Bison bombers on the ramp. Multiplying by the number of Soviet bomber bases, the intelligence suggests the Soviets are already well on their way to deploying hundreds of aircraft. Ironically, the U-2 has actually photographed the entire Bison fleet; there is no bomber at any of the other bases. Similar missions over the next year finally prove that. At least in official circles, the bomber gap is disproven. (Spyflight, “Lockheed U- 2 ”) July 10 — The Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, coastline and suburbs are draped with “angel hair” that hangs from utility lines and trees. It vanishes within hours, but a sample is recovered for analysis by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organisation. It cannot be identified, although six scientists rule out wool, cotton, feathers,

cellulose, and synthetic fibers. (Brian Boldman, “Angel Hair Physical Analyses: A Review,” JUFOS 9 (2006): 102 ; Keith Basterfield, “Angel Hair: An Australian Perspective,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 7) July 16 — 7:00 p.m. Lawyer (or law professor) João de Freitas Guimarães is taking a walk on the beach at Caraguatatuba, São Paulo, Brazil, when he observes a hat-shaped, luminous object leave the sea between São Sebastião and Ilhabela and land only a few yards away from him. A door opens, a metallic stairway emerges, and two tall, human-looking men with long, fair hair emerge wearing green jumpsuits. Through gestures, they encourage him to enter the craft. Inside, the saucer takes off and the crew communicate with him telepathically, telling him about a radiation protection system that exists around the ship and that they have left the atmosphere. They are supposedly from Venus. His alleged trip lasts an hour. When he returns, his watch no longer works. (Luiz do Rosário Real, “Caso Dr. Freitas Guimarães,” April 1976; Clark III 548–549; Vallée, Magonia, pp. 257 – 258 ; Equipe UFO, “João de Freitas Guimarães, o advogado que passeou em um UFO,” Portal UFO, October 1, 2013; Brazil 32–35) July 17 — Elizabeth Klarer takes several photos of a silvery disc as it is hovering around Flying Saucer Hill, southwest of Rosetta, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. (Clark III 657– 658 ) July 19 — President Eisenhower temporarily halts U-2 overflights above eastern Europe. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed U- 2 ”) July 19 — Naval Air Station Hutchinson [now Hutchinson Air Force Station], Kansas, reports tracking “a moving unidentified object” on radar, observed visually by state police as a “teardrop shaped” light source. Witnesses report “noticeable maneuvers of UFO vertically and horizontally over a wide area of the sky.” (NICAP, “NAS Tracks UFO”) July 20 — In a lecture delivered at a meeting of Clara John’s Flying Saucer Discussion Group, author Morris K. Jessup declares that it is time for a new UFO organization. A consensus is reached that a Washington, D.C.–based agency should investigate UFOs, and T. Townsend Brown offers to draft a preliminary proposal. (Clark III 792; “‘Toward a Broader Understanding…’: The Story of How NICAP Began,” UFO Investigator, October 1971, p. 2) July 20 — Three witnesses in the Panorama City neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, independently observe a huge, ball-shaped object from which emerge three beings. They are nearly 6 feet tall and have long, blond hair, and wear tight, green suits. (Donald B. Hanlon, “Questions on the Occupants,” in Charles Bowen, ed., The Humanoids, special issue of FSR, Oct./Dec. 1966, p. 64 ) July 22 — 5:30 a.m. Mrs. Ray Brown sees an egg-shaped object giving off a green-colored light from its rear end over Highway City, California. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 72) July 22 — 11:00 a.m. USAF Maj. Merwin Stenvers is flying at 16,000 feet over Pixley, California, in a Convair C-131D and is suddenly staggered and knocked to the right by a terrific blow. He makes an emergency landing at Kern County Airport [now closed] in Lost Hills. An examination shows that more than half of the left elevator control surface is gone or smashed, leading to speculation that the airplane had been hit by something. However, an accident investigation team finds that a series of rivets had popped, jamming a rod that controls the elevator servotab and causing the elevator to get stuck. (“Plane’s Dive Is Laid to Control Device Failure,” Fresno (Calif.) Bee, July 25, 1956, p. 4-B; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 71– 73 ; Frank Edwards, FS Serious Business, Bantam ed., 1966, pp. 39 – 40 ) Late July — A group of US Navy pilots based at Naval Air Station Los Alamitos [now Joint Forces Training Base–Los Alamitos], California, tell news reporters from Orange County News Service that they have orders to shoot down any UFOs that seem hostile. The pilots say this is a standard command issued to pilots on the US to Hawaii run. (“Unanswered Questions: No. 4, Have UFOs Been Fired Upon?” Flying Saucer Review 3, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1957): 18 – 19) July 26 — Two disc-shaped objects are suspended in mid-air, one above the other, over the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt as it is berthed in the port of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They are 75–100 feet in diameter and have two rows of counter-rotating lights. The upper one releases a ball of fire that drops into the top of the lower one. Within seconds they vanish with tremendous speed. One of the witnesses is Petty Officer 3rd Class (OI) Leon Treadwell, who signs papers agreeing he will tell no one for 20 years. Chief Warrant Officer John C. Hau reports that the ship’s radar tracked a cigar-shaped object the day before or after. (Good Need, p. 231 ) July 26 — 8:20 p.m. Physician J. L. Bennet and his wife watch two spinning, powder-blue lights for 10 minutes outside his home in Kilburn Estate, in District 21 near King Albert Park, Singapore. They dart about the sky “like fish in a tank,” come together, hover, and separate at great speed, disappearing from sight. He manages to take several photos, one of which shows two objects, one a nearly perfect oval, the other blurred. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 73) July 28 — 9:55 p.m. Seven witnesses in Brentwood, California, see a sparkling green light flash through the sky and seemingly land in an orchard. Television reception is briefly interrupted. Sheriff’s deputies and reserve officers search a square-mile area for 3 hours but find nothing. (“Mystery Light Falls in Contra Costa Co.,” Oakland

(Calif.) Tribune, July 29, 1956, p. 1; “Saucer Sightings Mount As Mars Swings Close,” CRIFO Orbit 3, no. 6
(September 7, 1956): 2)

August — FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover launches COINTELPRO (counter-intelligence programs). These are employed against American dissidents and their organizations; the first one targets the American Communist Party. Typical methods are anonymous or fictitious letters, false defamatory or threatening information, forged signatures, and other disinformation. The FBI blackmails insiders to spread false rumors or promote factionalism. It creates bogus organizations to attack or disrupt a bona fide group, and instigates hostile actions through third parties, such as employers, elected officials, and the media. It enables the FBI to investigate any political organization on the pretext of checking for Communists, including the NAACP, women’s rights groups, and gay rights groups. These programs prompt nearly 330,000 FBI investigations and create a Security Index of over 200,000 dangerous Americans to be detained in the event of war. Documents relating to these programs are marked “Do not file,” offering no clues that they exist. (Wikipedia, “COINTELPRO”) August — John P. Cahn publishes a second article in True on the Scully hoax. (J. P. Cahn, “Flying Saucer Swindlers,” True, August 1956, pp. 36 – 37, 69–72) August — George King forms the Aetherius Society in London, England, as the result of what King claims are contacts with extraterrestrial intelligences, whom he refers to as “Cosmic Masters.” The main goal of the believer is to cooperate with these Cosmic Masters to help humanity solve its current earthly problems and advance into the New Age. Life on other planets is described as free from war, hatred, disease, want, and ignorance. According to King, the civilizations of Atlantis and Lemuria both vanished during an atomic war. (Wikipedia, “Aetherius Society”; Clark III 52– 53 ; Douglas Curran, In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space, Abbeville, 1985, pp. 62– 69 ) August — Late night. Two young men are camping near Newark, Ohio, when they see five bright lights in a rigid V- formation. They fly in erratic, sharp-turning patterns for about 5 minutes, including sharp 30° turns. One man takes a photo. They report the sighting to the newspapers and the Air Force, but a USAF officer confiscate both the print and the negatives; the newspaper’s copies are also taken. (Michael D. Swords, “Timmerman’s Triangles,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 16) August 3 — A press leak from the Air Force Association reveals that proposals for two types of UFO-detecting satellites are under development. A television subsystem is cancelled as impractical, but an infrared subsystem requires much lower data transmission rates. Lockheed has signed an Air Force contract. The CIA’s Richard M. Bissell later reveals that the CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence Deputy Director Gen. Philip G. Strong has been pushing the Air Force to develop an infrared tracking satellite. The infrared system actually begins as planned in 1968 , with initial operational status in 1970. (Clark III 813, 1032) August 13– 14 — 9: 30 p.m. A radar-visual UFO sighting begins at RAF Bentwaters [now Bentwaters Parks], Suffolk, England. A blip traveling approximately 4,000–8,000 mph on an east-west course is picked up on radar. It moves in a straight line to a position about 15 miles northwest of Bentwaters. Within a few minutes, about a dozen normal targets are spotted 8 miles southwest, moving northeast at about 100 mph. In front of the targets are three objects in a triangular formation, about 1,000 feet apart. All the targets then appear to converge into one extremely large target (several times the size of a B-36), which continues moving to the northeast, then stops for a few minutes, then resumes, and is lost to radar. The entire sighting up to this point takes 25 minutes. Five minutes later, another solid target appears, flying east to west at 4,000 mph or more, then vanishes when it moves out of range. A T-33 trainer from the 512th Fighter Interceptor Squadron crewed by 1st Lts. Charles Metz and Andrew Rowe is sent to investigate the radar contacts, but sees nothing. No visual sightings of the objects are made from Bentwaters in this period, with the exception of a single amber star-like object which was subsequently identified as probably being Mars. At 10:55 p.m., another target is picked up 30 miles to the east, traveling west at 2,000–4,000 mph. It passes directly overhead and is seen as a white light by both air (a C-47 at 4,000 feet reports it passed underneath him) and ground observers. Bentwaters notifies RAF Lakenheath, also in Suffolk, about what is going on, and Lakenheath personnel see a luminous object stop, then zoom off to the east. Also, two white lights are seen joining from different directions, which are tracked on two screens at Lakenheath. According to T/Sgt. Forrest Perkins, watch supervisor at the Lakenheath radar center, at midnight Lakenheath notifies RAF Neatishead, Norfolk, that a strange object is buzzing the base. A de Havilland Venom night fighter is scrambled, directed by Neatishead radar controller Flight Lt. Freddie H. C. Wimbledon. Perkins and Wimbledon claim the jets are sent up around midnight, but the crews think it is at 2:00 a.m. The Venom, crewed by Flight Officers David Chambers and John Brady from 23 Squadron at RAF Waterbeach [now closed] in Cambridgeshire, finds the object on radar north of Cambridge and sees it as a bright white light, which then disappears. The navigator says it is the “clearest target I have ever seen on radar.” The object, however, is behind the plane and stays there for some time, despite climbs,

dives, and circling. Ground radar operators say that the object is glued right behind the fighter. After 10 minutes, the fighter heads back. The UFO follows briefly, then stops and hovers. Another Venom, crewed by Flight Officers Ian Fraser-Ker and Ivan Logan, is scrambled at 2:40 a.m. but experiences engine problems and aborts. Ministry of Defence officer Ralph Noyes says that one of the Venom pilots has taken a gun-camera film, which was later shown at a briefing in Whitehall. The object is tracked on two radars, leaving the area at 600 mph. The encounter is classified until 1969, when it is analyzed by the Colorado project. Gordon Thayer suggests that the “apparently rational, intelligent behavior of the UFO suggests a mechanical device of unknown origin as the most probable explanation of this sighting.” A later investigation is conducted by David Clarke, Andy Roberts, and Jenny Randles. In contrast to the reports given in the original classified teleprinter message (from 3910th Air Base Group to ADC at Ent AFB, now the US Olympic Training Center) three days after the event and in the accounts of both Wimbledon and Perkins, the air crews now state that the radar contacts were unimpressive and that no “tail-chase” or action on the part of the target occurred. They also assert no visual contacts were made. Chambers and Brady comment that “my feeling is that there was nothing there, it was some sort of mistake,” while Ivan Logan, the second Venom’s navigator, states that “all we saw was a blip which rather indicated a stationary target.” At the time 23 Squadron decides that the radar contact had, if anything, been with a weather balloon. Martin Shough concludes that there are actually several incidents at different times and places and that the relationship between each is unclear. (Wikipedia, “Lakenheath-Bentwaters incident”; NICAP, “Several Incidents of R/V at Bentwaters”; Center for UFO Studies, [case documents 1 , case documents 2, case documents 3]; Condon, pp. 163– 164 , 248 – 256 ; James E. McDonald, “UFOs over Lakenheath in 1956,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1970): 9–17, 29; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, p. 91; RAF Fighter Controller (Rtd.), “UFOs over Lakenheath,” Flying Saucer Review 24, no. 1 (June 1978): 31; Ian Ridpath, “New Light on Lakenheath,” IUR 3, no. 8 (August 1978): 6– 7 ; Martin L. Shough, “Background & History”; Martin L. Shough, “Radar and the UFO,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 219–226; Clark III 665 – 670 ; Good Above, pp. 44 – 46 ; Sparks, p. 238 ; Ivan Logan, [Letter to Dave Clarke], October 23, 2000; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 64– 66 ; UFOFiles2, pp. 66– 69 ) August 15 —The RAND Corporation releases a top-secret 1955 summary detailing more than 143 aircraft incidents in the Far East. (Alexander L. George, “Case Studies of Actual and Alleged Overflights, 1930–1953,” Rand Corporation, RM-1349, August 15, 1956; Clark III 56) Mid-August — 10:15 p.m. North American Aviation research technician Edison F. Carpenter observes a formation of five flat, circular, pinkish UFOs over Boulder City, Nevada. (Center for UFO Studies, [case documents]; UFOEv, p. 58 ) August 16 — The CIA’s Richard M. Bissell assembles a group of advisers to begin work on solving the problem of Soviets tracking the U-2 flights. Among the group are Edwin H. Land, Edward Mills Purcell, and Kelly Johnson. They look into radar-absorbing paint. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed A- 12 ”) August 22 — 3:40 p.m. A man named Sheetz and another civilian in a car chases a 50-foot, black, bell-shaped object bearing two bright, white lights at the top several miles east of Naval Air Station Cecil Field, near Jacksonville, Florida. Their engine stalls when the object hovers 10 feet away. The underside resembles a disc with fins. When a jet takes off from the airfield, the object shoots out of sight almost instantly. The car battery is completely dead. Noise from the object compares to a helicopter, but there is no helicopter in the area. (NICAP, “Car Chases Bell- Shaped Object, Engine Stalls”; Sparks, p. 246) August 22 — 8:50–11:59 p.m. Radars on the island of Bornholm, Denmark, first report 2–3 objects on an easterly heading at 800 mph. Approximately 2 hours later, four objects appear and orbit over the location. About 90 minutes later, the tracks fade. (NICAP, “Objects Orbiting Location and Tracked on Radar”) August 27 — 7:20 p.m. Royal Canadian Air Force pilot Robert James “Chick” Childerhose is flying nearly due west over the Canadian Rockies near Fort Macleod, Alberta. He is flying at 36,000 feet in the second position (far left side) of a formation of four F-86 Sabre jet aircraft. While approaching a large thunderhead (cumulonimbus) at a ground speed of about 460 mph, he sees at a much lower altitude a “bright light which was sharply defined and disc- shaped” or “like a shiny silver dollar sitting horizontal.” He takes a color photo. An analysis suggests that it would have been radiating in excess of a gigawatt of power within the spectral range of the film. (NICAP, “RCAF Pilot Photographs Object Radiating Power”; Jacques Vallée, “Estimates of Power Optical Output in Six Cases of Unexplained Aerial Objects with Defined Luminosity Characteristics,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 12, no. 3 (1998): 346–348; Richard F. Haines, “Analysis of Photograph of a High-Speed Ball of Light,” JUFOS 8 (2003): 27 – 48 ; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 68–69) August 28 — 11:30 p.m. León Febres, Miguel Talavera, Jesús Prada, and Tomás Hernández are returning home in Calabozo, Venezuela, when the ground around them is lit up by a bright white light. Looking up, they see a large disc hovering silently. Several smaller objects emerge from the large disc, leaving behind a wake of

phosphorescent smoke that dissipates quickly. The whole group flies off to the west in a V formation with the large object in the lead. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 74) August 29 — T. Townsend Brown files incorporation papers for a new UFO group, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena in Washington, D.C. (“‘Toward a Broader Understanding…’: The Story of How NICAP Began,” UFO Investigator, October 1971, pp. 2–3; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1956 August, The Author, 1994, pp. 46–56, 82, 85; Clark III 792) August 30 — Day. Two RAF Gloster Javelin interceptors, one piloted by E. H. “Wilbur” Wright, are flying west over the English Channel south of the Isle of Wight, England, when one of the navigators obtains a radar return at 19 miles distance (later calculations indicate it has a diameter of 600 feet). The pilots get permission to abandon their test exercise and investigate the object. Wright turns north toward the object on his right wing, but it has apparently slowed down and is maintaining its position. The second Javelin pilot has caught up from behind and confirms radar and visual sightings. The two aircraft bank steeply so the object is at 15 miles dead ahead on the radar screen They close the distance to 10 miles and see that the object has a metallic gray appearance. At 8 miles distance, the object suddenly climbs vertically too fast for radar to track (estimated at 18,000 mph) and vanishes. After landing at RAF Odiham in Hampshire, the crews are told that ground radar at RAF Sopley [now closed] has tracked the object. They are ordered not to speak about the event. (Jenny Randles, “Scramble, UFO!” Fortean Times 386 (December 2019): 26–27)

September — The General Physics Laboratory of the Aeronautical Research Laboratories (ARL) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, launches an intense program to coordinate research into gravitational and unified field theories with the hiring of Joshua N. Goldberg. The precise rationale for creating the program and justifying its budgets and personnel may never be determined. Neither Goldberg nor USAF Deputy for Scientific and Technical Information Walter Blados can locate the founding documents. Roy Kerr, a former ARL scientist, says the antigravity propulsion purpose of ARL was “rubbish” and that “The only real use that the USAF made of us was when some crackpot sent them a proposal for antigravity or for converting rotary motion inside a spaceship to a translational driving system.” (Wikipedia, “United States gravity control propulsion research”) September — Just before 8:00 a.m. A domed, disc-shaped craft allegedly lands within White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico, just 150 feet away from US Highway 70. Radios and ignition systems of passing cars go dead, as witnesses—including two USAF colonels, two sergeants, and dozens of base personnel—observe the object as it takes off with a whirring sound. All personnel at Holloman AFB are assembled in a hangar, debriefed, and sworn to secrecy. (Ralph and Judy Blum, Beyond Earth: Man ’ s Contact with UFOs, Bantam, 1974; Good Need, pp. 219 – 220 ) September 4 — Several fireball-like objects fly over Copenhagen, Denmark, tracked by radar at about 1,800 mph. (UFOEv, p. 79 ) September 7 — 12:30 p.m. Thomas J. and Maud Hutchinson watch an object drop out of low clouds and land in the middle of a bog at The Loup (near Moneymore), County Derry, Northern Ireland. They wade 600 feet into the bog until they come upon the small (3 feet high, 18 inches in diameter), red, rubbery, motionless object. There are 3 white stripes around the middle and it is pointed at both ends. Hutchinson kicks the object, which rolls over then resumes its upright position. He picks it up and is surprised at its lightness (estimated 2 pounds); the top is spinning while the bottom (a small, saucer-shaped base) remains stationary. It appears to be made of canvas-like material. They try to take it back with them, but Thomas has to put it down to negotiate a hedge, and the object takes off and disappears. (“Irishman Caught a ‘Saucer,’” The Guardian (UK), September 8, 1956, p. 10; Desmond Leslie, “The Strangest UFO Case of All,” Flying Saucer Review 2, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1956): 2–4; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 74– 76 ; Clark III 328) September 7 — Test pilot Iven Carl Kincheloe Jr. reaches an altitude of 126,283 feet in the Bell X-2. (Wikipedia, “Iven Carl Kincheloe Jr.”) September 8 — 9:30 p.m. Frank C. Clark is observing Mars with a 12.5-inch reflector in Las Cruces, New Mexico, when he sees a faint starlike object passing in a direction opposite to the apparent drift of Mars. It is visible for 10 seconds before passing out of the field. Clark moves the telescope and is able to see it again for another 10 seconds. It is a yellowish color. (Frank C. Clark, “An Observation of an Unidentified Celestial Object,” The Strolling Astronomer 10 (May/June 1956): 67– 68 ) September 11 — The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory officially launches Operation Moonwatch, an effort to enlist amateur astronomers in tracking an artificial satellite that the US intends to launch during the International Geophysical Year. The announcement is made at a news conference by Armand Spitz, coordinator of visual satellite observations. The program is largely the brainchild of Harvard University’s Fred Whipple, who recruits J. Allen Hynek as assistant director to help with the central operation. Until professionally manned optical tracking

stations (using Baker-Nunn camera-telescopes) come online in 1958, this network of amateur scientists and other interested citizens plays a critical role in providing crucial information on the world’s first satellites. The team records some 36 UFO reports from 1957 to 1966. The program is discontinued in 1975. (Wikipedia, “Operation Moonwatch”; Walter N. Webb, “Allen Hynek As I Knew Him,” IUR 18, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1993): 4–5; Michael D. Swords, “Gazing at the Moons,” IUR 32, no. 4 (October 2009): 9–16, 24; Center for UFO Studies, “Moonwatch Mystery Satellites, 1958– 1962 ”) September 15 — About 6:30 a.m. A married couple is driving in Salem, Indiana, when they notice a saucer hovering about 100 feet away in a field by the road. They stop the car and get out for a better look. The object is gunmetal gray in color and looks like two shallow bowls with a dark gap between them. Wisps of smoke are coming from the gap. The object looks as large as the town’s courthouse. It begins undulating as it hovers. After 5 minutes, it tips over on its edge and vanishes. (NICAP case file) September 22 — 7:50 p.m. An amateur astronomer in Williston, North Dakota, sees a dull-metallic, elliptical object the size of a small plane, oscillating side to side as it moves at 150 mph above the Missouri River. (Williston (N.Dak.) Plains Register, September 22, 1956; Richard F. Haines and Franklin Carter, “A 1956 Military Aircraft–UFO Close Encounter,” IUR 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 25) September 25 — Leonard Stringfield’s wife Adelia observes several white tufts of angel’s hair floating down in the front yard of their home in Cincinnati, Ohio. She places it in an airtight jar. After the Stringfields contact the Air Force, M/Sgt Oliver D. Hill retrieves the sample on October 12. Analysis was done by C. G. Cocks and L. Leatherland, who find that the fibers are “multifilament bundles” that are characteristic of “regenerated cellulose fibers, either viscose or cuprammonium rayon,” perhaps from a defective filter. (Brian Boldman, “Angel Hair Physical Analyses: A Review,” JUFOS 9 (2006): 102–103)

Fall — More than 30 pilots, navigators, and flight engineers are on their way home from special duty in Europe on a US Navy Super Constellation transport. When they are about 50 miles northeast of Gander, Newfoundland, the pilot notices a cluster of lights beneath the aircraft. Suddenly, the lights dim and spread out, the largest light ascending on an apparent collision course with the transport. As it reaches the plane’s altitude, it tilts, shoots to one side, and paces them at a distance of 300 feet. It is a huge metallic disc, 30 feet thick at the center and 350–400 feet wide, with a blurry glow around the rim. Gradually it pulls ahead, tilts upward, accelerates, and zooms away in 5– 8 seconds. Gander Airport confirms that it had a radar target near them. (Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 16–19; Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, pp. 78– 84 ; Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 104–106) Fall — A man in Falls City, Nebraska, sees a winged human with a demonic face that approaches him from three blocks away. It is about 8–9 feet tall and approaches him closely, hovering in the air about 25 feet away. As it passes over him, the man feels numb and paralyzed. The episode haunts him for the next 23 years when he talks to an investigator. (Clark III 778) Fall or winter — Shortly after 12:00 noon. An Air Force Convair RB-36H of the 28th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing based at Ellsworth AFB, Rapid City, South Dakota, captained by Lt. C. Lenny Marquis, is flying in northern South Dakota at 423 mph when one of the crew sees a metallic disc 100 feet in diameter fly toward the airplane from the left and take up a fixed position on the left wing less than 300 feet away. Other crew members rush to the portholes to take photos. The object has a low dome at the top with three round openings or light sources. The bottom is nearly flat. Its narrow vertical sides are populated by many separate light sources, each a different color. The rest of the disc is a “light golden” hue. After 5–8 minutes, the object suddenly accelerates in parallel with the B-36 and then rises about 30° above the horizontal. The peripheral lights become brighter and turn greenish as it speeds out of sight in several seconds. Both inflight and ground radars detect the object. Substitute navigator Lt. Jimmie Lloyd says the crew turned in all photos, logs, and equipment to an intelligence unit after landing. (Richard F. Haines and Franklin Carter, “A 1956 Military Aircraft–UFO Close Encounter,” IUR 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 22– 25 ) October — Karl L. Veit founds the Deutsche UFO/IFO-Studiengemeinschaft in Wiesbaden, Germany, which publishes the newspaper-format UFO-Nachrichten. (“60 Jahre UFO-Nachrichten,” 2016) October 2 — 3:45 a.m. Harry J. Sturdevant is on duty as a night watchman at Herbert Elkin and Company, a construction firm in Trenton, New Jersey. He sees a cigar-shaped object some 60–100 feet long and 15 feet in diameter swiftly descending toward him. Emitting a red glow, the object is making a hissing noise like steam and generating a foul odor. It swoops past him and vanishes. He loses his sense of taste and smell, possibly permanently. His face is burned to the point where he cannot shave for two weeks. He begins to lose hearing in his right ear. When he returns to work the next day, he finds leaves on the ground that have burned up like tissue paper. Sturdevant applies for workmen’s compensation from the state for his medical expenses. An adjudicator awards him the

money based on the fact that he may have only thought he saw something, but was injured when he went to investigate it, which his job required. (Emil Sloboda, “He Collected on a Flying Saucer,” Fate 10, no. 6 (June 1957): 66– 69 ; Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, p. 7) October 7 — 10:45 p.m. UFO reports by police and civilians around Merced, California, reach Castle AFB [now Castle Airport Aviation and Development Center] and a lighted elliptical object about 100–120 feet in diameter is seen by the tower. Two interceptors are scrambled. The object ducks under and above a narrow cloud bank. The pilots can see it from various angles and as close as a few hundred yards. It appears to be a flattened circular shape. The pilots decide to fly one above and one below the overcast. Ground radar picks up the planes but not the UFO. One pilot breaks off to return but sees that the UFO is now chasing his buddy’s plane. Several officers arrive from another base to debrief the pilots and they appear very knowledgeable about UFOs. They seek “confirmation, not information” and tell the pilots not to discuss the sighting at all. Citizen witnesses are told the pilots were chasing ducks or geese. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1956 November – December, The Author, 1994, pp. 52 , 59; Richard H. Hall, Uninvited Guests, Aurora, 1988, pp. 242 – 244 ; Sparks, p. 239) October 19 — NICAP’s initial board of governors includes T. Townsend Brown (founder), Frank Edwards, Leon C. LeVan, Albert H. Baller, Charles A. Maney, Talbot T. Speer, Abraham M. Sonnabend, Col. Robert B. Emerson, Rear Adm. Delmer S. Fahrney, Gen. William E. Kepner, and Brig. Gen. Thomas B. Catron. Gladys Rose Hackett and Margaret Naylor are hired to do secretarial work, and Martin H. Heflin is hired as public relations specialist. The headquarters are at 1536 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. Incorporation is granted on October

24. (“‘Toward a Broader Understanding…’: The Story of How NICAP Began,” UFO Investigator, October 1971, p. 3; Clark III 792; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1956 September – October, The Author, 1994, pp. 77– 78 ) October 29 — Howard Menger, a sign painter from High Bridge, New Jersey, goes public on the Long John Nebel show on WOR-AM in New York City with a story of his contacts with “Aryan-type” Venusians in spaceships. Menger reports that his contacts started in childhood, when he experienced flashbacks of life on another world and sightings of flying discs. In 1932 he met a beautiful blonde woman who could read his mind, and in 1946 he again sees her stepping out of a flying saucer. She is supposedly 500 years old, although she looks 25. Many contacts follow. (Clark III 738)

November 4 — NICAP issues its first news release. T. Townsend Brown emphasizes the group’s “growing membership of responsible citizens from every walk of life and profession” and stresses that “there does exist more than enough evidence of certain and obvious aerial phenomena to justify independent evaluation.” (NICAP, “Project Skylight,” November 4, 1956) November 11 — 10:00 p.m. Stig Ekberg and Harry Sjöberg are building a house on the island of Väddö, about 56 miles northwest of Stockholm, Sweden. Ekberg is driving his Ford V8 pickup when they see a bright flying object with the shape of a flattened sphere 24 feet wide and 9 feet high approaching from the east. It moves about a half mile in front of them at an altitude of 300 feet. As it makes a sharp turn toward them, the truck engine sputters and dies and the headlights go out. The object starts “slowly gliding down,” rocks back and forth, and comes to a stop in the middle of the road, about 300 feet in front of them, 3 feet above the ground. The object illuminates the surrounding landscape with such a tremendous amount of light that a nearby barn is clearly visible. The air smells of ozone and smoldering insulation. After about 10 minutes the object gets brighter, lifts off the ground, moves to the left and up, makes a sudden turn, and speeds away in the direction it had come. Ekberg restarts the truck and the headlights come back on. Seeing that the grass at the landing site is flattened, they investigate further and find a shiny rock that is hot to the touch. It is a heavy, three-sided piece of metal about the size of a matchbox. After several unsuccessful attempts to have the sample studied, it is taken to the Saab aircraft company where Sven Schalin conducts a thorough analysis. Other tests are later run in laboratories in Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. The general conclusion is that the rock is composed of tungsten carbide and cobalt, consistent with manufactured products. (Jacques Vallée, “Physical Analyses in Ten Cases of Unexplained Aerial Objects with Material Samples,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 12, no. 3 (1998): 365–366) November 14 — 10:10 p.m. Captain William Joseph Hull and his copilot Peter H. Macintosh are flying Capital Airlines Flight 77 from New York City to Mobile, Alabama. While approximately above Jackson, Alabama, they see something like a brilliant meteor flash by the aircraft. The object stops, hovers, and engages in a range of acrobatics (crazy gyrations, lazy 8’s, square chandeliers) for several minutes before shooting out over the Gulf of Mexico at “fantastic speed.” (Sign Historical Group, “Captain Joe Hull’s UFO Sighting”; Condon, pp. 127 – 129 ; Sparks, p. 240 ; Swords 230–231)

November 16 — Morning. Telephones and an automatic railroad block mechanism in Lemmon, South Dakota, fail to operate as a glowing red object about 3 feet in diameter flies over the railroad yards. (Mobridge (S.Dak.) Tribune, November 22, 1956; Schopick, pp. 21–22; Richard F. Haines and Franklin Carter, “A 1956 Military Aircraft– UFO Close Encounter,” IUR 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 25) November 21 — 8:23 p.m. A customs officer named Ueda and a maritime safety officer named Kume are walking along Number 1 Pier, Kobe, Japan, when they hear an explosion. They see something resembling fireworks on the bay and watch as two whirling balls of fire submerge. (Sanderson, InvRes, p. 46 ) November 25 — 4:30 a.m. Police radio at Hot Springs, South Dakota, picks up transmissions made by a jet interceptor from the 54th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Ellsworth AFB in Rapid City that makes three passes at a brilliantly lit UFO bobbing up and down in the sky. On the third pass, the pilot reports that the object registers on his radar. It is rumored that a blip is picked up on ground radar by the 740th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron. A sheriff and deputy at Rapid City watch a green stationary UFO with a flashing red light for 30 minutes; an upward-shining white light appears at intervals. (NICAP, “Gnd/Air/Visual, Jets Scrambled”; “‘Saucers’ Stir Speculation,” Rapid City (S.Dak.) Daily Journal, November 26, 1956, p. 1; “Hills Residents Tell of Shining Objects,” Rapid City (S.Dak.) Daily Journal, November 26, 1956, pp. 1, 7; Pierre (S.Dak.) Capitol Journal, November 26, 1956; UFOEv, pp. 22, 79 ; Richard F. Haines and Franklin Carter, “A 1956 Military Aircraft–UFO Close Encounter,” IUR 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 25)

December — Chemical engineer Leon Davidson begins to distribute privately printed copies of Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14, together with his analysis and commentary. He has become convinced that UFOs are secret devices developed by the US government and that Special Report No. 14 is a clever attempt to hide the fact. Mostly, however, he focuses on discrepancies in the Air Force’s public announcements and the actual data in the report. Davidson publishes further editions in October 1957, July 1966, January 1971, and 1976. (Leon Davidson, Flying Saucers: An Analysis of Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14, [1956], 3d ed., Ramsey-Wallace, 1966; Clark III 930) December 1 — 12:20 a.m. A round object, red to orange in color, is observed moving at approximately 1,000 foot above Valley City, North Dakota. It moves rapidly up, down, sideways, and hovers. A police car approaches it, but the car loses radio contact with the station. Valley City also loses contact with Jamestown, South Dakota. All radio contact returns after the object leaves the area. (NICAP, [Blue Book file]) December 2 — Dorothy Martin sets off from Prescott, Arizona, with the Laugheads, ufologist brothers Ray and Rex G. Stanford, and George Hunt Williamson, his wife Betty, and toddler son Mark. They are acting in response to a series of Williamson channelings that had begun April 18 when Lord Aramu-Muru announced that “those we have commissioned” are to establish a priory of the Brotherhood of the Seven Rays “in a remote area of another country to the south.” After spending some time in Mexico, they head for Moyobamba, Peru, under the direction of their spirit masters. The Laugheads (who apparently were in Mexico in July) and Stanfords leave around this time. After a while, those remaining move to the Valley of Pariahuanca east of Lima, Peru, and set up the Outer Retreat of the Monastery of the Seven Rays, which has some cult-like attributes. There they attract new members, including Williamson’s later coauthor John McCoy. Williamson devotes himself for several years to paranormally guided archaeological expeditions. (Clark III 719– 720 , 1286; Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016 , pp. 105– 115 ) December 10 — 2:00 p.m. A US Air Force pilot sees a silver object with a “straight wing, having engine rods or large wing pods [or] intakes” flying at 56,000–62,000 feet for 15 minutes at Victoria, Texas. The pilot’s description is a dead ringer for a secret U-2 aircraft, which is what Blue Book suspects. (Mark Rodeghier, “The U-2 Spy Plane and Blue Book: Another Look,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 20–21) December 13 — Capt. Karl Hars Dersson and the crew of the Danish ship Dorthe Maersk view an intensely bright fireball giving off weird flashes of light for 2–3 minutes north of Isla La Orchila, Venezuela. It explodes on hitting the water. Afterwards, the surface of the sea shimmers with various colors and is disturbed for 5 minutes. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1956 November – December, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2003, pp. 39–40) December 15 — 11:00 a.m. While out gathering Christmas greens near Derry, New Hampshire, A. G. Horne looks up and sees a 2-foot tall green dwarf with a high-domed head, floppy ears, a face like a bloodhound, and lidless eyes like a snake. His skin hangs in folds like an elephant’s. After a few minutes, the being “started for me with a kind of screeching sound,” and Horne flees. (Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1956, p. 23; Clark III 271) December 17 — 4:20 p.m. Near Itazuke Air Base [now Fukuoka Airport] in Fukuoka, Japan, a USAF pilot flying an F- 86D interceptor picks up a large blip on airborne radar. The pilot sees a tan object, round on top, at 9.2 miles and closes to within 5.7 miles. The object starts to pull away from the fighter and at 13.8 miles all radar disappears.

The pilot estimates its speed as 1,700–2,000 mph. Both the pilot and his wingman report interference resembling ECM (radar jamming). (NICAP, “Radar/Visual from F- 86 ”; Sparks, p. 240 ; “Jet Planes Chased Big Flying Object,” Auckland (N.Z.) Star, October 4, 1957; “Jet Chase of Large Circular Object Investigated by Far East Air Force,” UFO Investigator 1, no. 2 (Aug./Sept. 1957): 1–2; Richard Hall, “Radar/Visual UFOs and Air Force Debunking,” IUR 18, no. 3 (May/June 1993): 15–16) December 17 — Night. Marie Carow goes outside her home in Conashaugh, Pennsylvania, with a flashlight and discovers two little men, 3.5 and 3 feet tall, standing motionless in her back lawn. Both wear helmets and snug-fitting suits of silvery material. Carow shines the light on them for 3 minutes, then runs back to tell her husband. 15 minutes later, they are gone. (Berthold Eric Schwarz, “UFO Occupants: Fact or Fantasy?” Flying Saucer Review 15, no. 5 (Sept./Oct, 1969): 16–18; Clark III 269 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, October 18, 2007)

1957

1957 — Morris K. Jessup publishes The Expanding Case for the UFO, which argues that human “little people” (like the pygmy peoples of the Congo basin) were “planted” from UFOs thousands of years ago. Citing reports of anomalous lights on the moon, Jessup speculates that the pygmy races either colonized the moon or came to the Earth from there. They are the remnants of an advanced civilization that developed levitation, teleportation, and space flight, but had to leave Earth when Atlantis and Mu were sinking into the oceans. (Morris K. Jessup, The Expanding Case for the UFO, Citadel, 1957; Clark III 106–107, 635; Jerome Clark, “Vimanas Have Landed: Ancient Astronautics in Ufology,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 26) 1957 — Metaphysical author George Hunt Williamson writes Other Tongues — Other Flesh (although it bears a copyright date of 1953), the first of three books that set forth an alternative occult history shaped by Atlantis, Lemuria, reincarnation, and space people—both benign and malevolent. He writes that space people first arrived 1 billion years ago [prior to the earliest known multicellular life on land], were 12 feet tall, and built an underground city beneath Lake Titicaca, Peru. Migrants from the “Sirius system” arrive during the Miocene Epoch [23–5 million years ago] looking for terrestrial bodies to inhabit—they select the evolving apes. The next visitation took place in Arizona in 10,000 B.C. [the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution] when Venusians land and interact with the Lemurians. Records documenting earth’s unknown history are hidden in various inaccessible places (“secret places of the lion”) around the globe. Williamson’s book Secret Places of the Lion follows in 1958 and Road in the Sky in 1959. These are among the first ancient astronaut books. In the latter book, Williamson claims that the Hopi’s ancestors are Martians, while their neighbors the Navajo are from Maldek, the planet whose destruction formed the asteroid belt. (George Hunt Williamson, Other Tongues — Other Flesh, Amherst, [1957]; George Hunt Williamson, Secret Places of the Lion, Destiny Books ed., 1996; Clark III 104–106, 1286; Jerome Clark, “Vimanas Have Landed: Ancient Astronautics in Ufology,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 23–26; Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, pp. 113–120, 235–243) 1957 — New Jersey contactee Howard Menger releases an album of “Authentic Music from Another Planet,” featuring a narrative by Menger and bland piano music written by his wife Connie (under her nom de plume Marla Baxter, sister of the blonde spacewoman he had met in 1946). (Discogs, “Authentic Music from Another Planet”; “Authentic Music from Another Planet by Howard Menger,” Libertad450 YouTube channel, February 22, 2016) 1957 — Otis T. Carr announces his invention of a fourth-dimensional space vehicle, a Circular-Foil Spacecraft powered by an Utron Electric Accumulator that makes use of the “free energy of the universe.” (Clark III 860) 1957 — Ground Saucer Watch is established in Phoenix, Arizona, by Ted Starrett. William H. Spaulding is the Western Division Director, with James A. Spaulding as the Eastern Division Director in Cleveland, Ohio. It publishes Ground Saucer Watch Bulletin from 1976 to 1982. By 1979, GSW has analyzed nearly 700 UFO photographs and films, of which they verify 38 as bona fide. (Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, p, 132) 1957 — George Fawcett founds the New England UFO Study Group in Marlborough, Massachusetts. It publishes the New England UFO Newsletter from 1976 to 1982. 1957 — Hayden C. Hewes founds the International UFO Bureau in Edmond, Oklahoma. It publishes the Interplanetary Intelligence Report from 1965 to 1966. 1957 — Engineer Pantelimon Mizof and others see an object in the Bucegi Mountains, Romania, pass over them silently and land. Some of them approach to get a better look, but when they are 150 feet away, it takes off suddenly. (Hobana and Weverbergh 158–159) 1957 — The Victorian branch of the Australian Flying Saucer Research Society becomes a separate organization, the Victorian UFO Research Society. It publishes the Australian UFO Bulletin from 1957 to September 2007, edited

by Les Bristol. (Keith Basterfield, Vladimir Godic, and Pony Godic, “Australian Ufology: A Review,” JUFOS 2 (1990): 24; Australian UFO Bulletin 1, no. 3 (December 1957)) 1957 — The Centro de Estudios Interplanetarios is founded in Barcelona, Spain. From 1970 to 1981 it publishes a quarterly magazine titled Stendek, and since then it has published occasional groups of papers on UFOs. (Stendek 1, no. 1 (June 1970); Papers d ’ OVNIs, no. 1 (1994); Nous Papers d ’ OVNIs, no. 1 (December 2014))

January — Contactee Gabriel Green establishes the Los Angeles Interplanetary Study Groups, which in 1959 evolves into Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America in Los Angeles, California. It assumes that UFOs are piloted by friendly extraterrestrials. Around the same time, Green announces his meeting with flying saucer crewmen from the hitherto unknown planet Korendor, orbiting the triple star Alpha Centauri. At its peak, AFSCA has more than 5,000 members. (Wikipedia, “Gabriel Green”; Clark III 99; Thy Kingdom Come, no. 4 (April/May 1957)) January — Norbert F. Gariety begins publishing S.P.A.C.E. (Saucer Phenomena and Celestial Enigma), a monthly newsletter, in Coral Gables, Florida. It continues until January 1963. (S.P.A.C.E., no. 1 (January 1957) January 1 — Shortly before 12:00 midnight. Herbert Naderson and his wife and sons are driving northeast to their home in Ashby, Minnesota, when they see a triangular object traveling slowly at a high altitude. They watch it for 45 minutes. (Fergus Falls (Minn.) Daily Journal, January 3, 1957; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957 January – March 22nd, The Author, 1995, p. 2) January 14– 16 — T. Townsend Brown has proven so financially inept that the NICAP board asks him to step down. Delmer S. Fahrney replaces him as board chairman, Keyhoe steps in as director, and Fahrney convenes a press conference in which he announces that UFOs are under intelligent control, but that they are not American or Soviet aircraft. Stringfield is made public relations adviser. (T. Townsend Brown, Letter to NICAP Board of Governors, January 16, 1957; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 195 7 January – March 22nd, The Author, 1995, pp. 14–20; “High Speed Objects Reported in the Sky,” New York Times, January 17, 1957, p. 31; Stringfield, Situation Red, Fawcett Crest, 1977, p. 15; Clark III 792) January 16 — 8:00 p.m. The crews of two Air Force B-25s are flying about 90 miles north of Sweetwater, Texas, when they see a round white object make rapid maneuvers. Pilot Lt. Col. Howard T. Wright notes that his radio compass starts pointing directly toward the object, following its movements. The entire object begins blinking on and off. When the aircraft gets within range of Lubbock, Texas, the object flies off on a straight-line course in about 12 seconds. One of the B- 25 s refuels and is sent on a 4-hour search of the vicinity with no results. (NICAP, “Object Maneuvers near B- 25 ’s / EME”; Sparks, p. 241 ; Swords 244–245) January 21 — 10:45 a.m. Near Kagnew Station [now closed], Asmara, Eritrea, five enlisted men of the US Army’s 4th Detachment of the Second Signal Service Battalion (M/Sgt Billy J. Woodruff, Sgt. Frank Haverly, SP2 Robert O. Clewell, SP2 George R. Dean, and SP3 Gerald L. Fennell) watch a large, shiny, metal sphere hovering at about 2,000 feet. It suddenly disappears but reappears later for a few minutes, then disappears again. Later in the day, Woodruff and Capt. Jesse M. Strong see two brownish, disc-shaped objects maneuvering in formation at a high altitude. One breaks away from the other, moving at high speed. (UFOEv, p. 29) January 27 — Former CIA director Rear Adm. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter joins NICAP’s board of directors. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957 January – March 22nd, The Author, 1995, p. 31) January 31 — US Army Order number 30-13, “Sightings of Unconventional Aircraft,” stipulates that personnel involved in sightings must “not discuss or disseminate such information to persons or agencies other than their superior officer(s) and other personnel authorized by the Acting Chief of Staff, G-2, this headquarters,” by order of Col. Charles L. Olin. (“Air Force Sees Plenty: Tells Nothing,” CSI News Letter, no. 8 (July 25, 1957): 7–8)

February — Project MKUltra chief Sidney Gottlieb organizes field trials of psilocybin for injection into 9 black inmates at the Addiction Center in Lexington, Kentucky. Allen Dulles approves psychiatrist Donald Ewen Cameron’s application for mind-control experiments to be administered at the Allan Memorial Institute of McGill University in Montreal, funded through the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology, a CIA cutout organization. Cameron does not know that the money originates from the CIA. In addition to LSD, Cameron experiments with various paralytic drugs, electroconvulsive therapy at 30–40 times the normal power, and sensory deprivation in a “sleep room.” This is a dimly lit dormitory of about 20 beds, which the nurses call “The Zombie Room.” His “psychic driving” experiments consist of putting subjects into drug-induced comas for weeks at a time (up to three months in one case) while playing tape loops of noise or simple repetitive statements. His experiments are typically carried out on patients who have entered the institute for minor problems such as anxiety disorders and postpartum depression, many of whom suffer permanently from his actions. His treatments result in victims’ incontinence, amnesia, forgetting how to talk, forgetting their parents, and thinking their interrogators are their

parents. The Canadian government is apparently unaware of these activities. Naomi Klein argues that Cameron’s research and his contribution to the MKUltra project is actually not about mind control and brainwashing, but about designing “a scientifically based system for extracting information from ‘resistant sources.’ In other words, torture.” (Gordon Thomas, Journey into Madness: The True Story of Secret CIA Mind Control and Medical Abuse, Bantam, 1989; Anne Collins, In the Sleep Room: The Story of the CIA Brainwashing Experiments in Canada, Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1988; John D. Marks, The Search for the “Manchurian Candidate”: The CIA and Mind Control, Times Books, 1978; Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Picador, 2008 ; Jim Keith, Mind Control, World Control: The Encyclopedia of Mind Control, 2014 ) February 13 — 2:30 a.m. The USAF operations director and three tower controllers at two radar sites within Lincoln AFB [now Lincoln Airport, Nebraska], the GCA and NCOIC, track several targets flying behind an airliner at a distance of 5–6 miles and traveling twice as fast. There is no IFF response. The objects hover and move at high speed. One splits into two objects, another executes an 180° turn. The radar blips are the size of a B-47. (NICAP, “Radar/Visual at Lincoln AFB”; Sparks, p. 241; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 96 – 97 ) February 13 — 9:40 p.m. Amateur astronomer Steve Papina is walking south in Placerville, California, when he notices off to his left the ionized track of what he takes to be a meteor. It is about 20° above the eastern horizon, rising at a 70° angle. The trail begins widening at about 35° above the horizon and veers in a westerly direction. Suddenly a black disc appears directly in front of the trail, whose diameter is approximately the width of the trail and the size of a nickel held at a distance of 5 feet. Its surface is not smooth but crisscrossed with grooves. It continues to move from east to west and acquires a white, dusty appearance before speeding directly away from Papina at high speed. (“ALPO Refers Sighting to APRO,” APRO Bulletin, July 1957, p. 3) February 15 — 10:00 p.m. A large, circular object is seen by independent witnesses in Wardle, Lancashire, England. Shortly afterward, a commercial aircraft is seen following the same course as the UFO and displaying unusually powerful lights. Later, at a point along the flight path, a small radio transmitter like those attached to balloons is found, then another piece of meteorological equipment in another spot. In the House of Commons, MP Tony Leavey asks the Secretary of State for Air for an explanation. On March 20, Under-Secretary of State for Air Ian Orr-Ewing responds, saying that the objects were toy balloons illuminated by a flashlight bulb released by Neil Robinson, a laundry mechanic from Rochdale. But on April 17, the Air Ministry sends an investigator to interview the witnesses and tells them not to talk about the sighting. Robinson says he has no idea how to launch a balloon, but there is some evidence that he has considerable technical know-how and a penchant for pranks. (Clifford Thornton, “The Wardle Mystery,” Flying Saucer Review 3, no. 3 (May/June 1957): 4; Geoffrey Norris, “Something in the Sky,” Royal Air Force Flying Review, July 1957, pp. 14–16, 46; Good Above, pp. 46– 47 ; David Clarke, “The Wardle ‘Thing,’” Fortean Times 196 (June 2005): 40–41) February 19 — In testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics officials Hugh Latimer Dryden and Jimmy Doolittle are asked about UFOs. They “flatly denied the existence of such space vehicles.” When asked why they don’t speak out more often, they remark that they “cannot compete with the science-fiction people.” (US House Appropriations Committee, Hearings, Independent Offices Appropriations for 1958, National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, February 19, 1957, pp. 1417– 1419 ) February 26 — UK Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding writes to retired Italian diplomat Alberto Perego that he is most interested in “accounts of intelligible contacts between human beings and the occupants of interplanetary ships.” (Good Above, p. 48)

March 1 — Leonard H. Stringfield publishes the final issue of CRIFO Orbit. (CRIFO Orbit 3, no. 12 (March 1, 1957); Clark III 1114) March 6 — 2:00 p.m. Hearing the family dogs barking in the backyard, a Mrs. Martin who lives on Hope Road near Great Meadows, New Jersey, looks outside and sees the dogs looking at a white hovering object that looks like a “huge derby hat” about 50 feet in diameter. It is rocking slightly in the air and makes a low, rumbling sound. Beneath it are “streamers or lines” that “twinkle like the fragile strands” of Christmas tinsel. (Hynek UFO Report, pp. 150– 154 ; Sparks, p. 241) March 8 — A pilot watches a UFO from the ground at Baudette, Minnesota. It is circular, 15–18 feet in diameter, and its odd glow shines on the snow-covered ground. It is flying so low that it seems to suck the loose snow up under it as it passes. (Keyhoe, FSTS, p. 56; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957 January – March 22nd, The Author, 1995, p. 74) March 8 — 9:45 p.m. Victor Hancock and Guy Miller are flying a DC-3 owned by the Tennessee Gas Transmission Company above Pasadena, Texas, when they see a UFO bearing three brilliant white lights. After the UFO speeds by the aircraft, it slows down. When the DC-3 catches up, it speeds ahead. This cat-and-mouse chase continues

for some 10 minutes. (NICAP, “UFO Maneuvers near DC- 3 ”; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957 January – March 22nd, The Author, 1995, pp. 68–69) March 9 — 4:33 a.m. Capt. Matthew A. Van Winkle, piloting a Pan American World Airways DC-6A airliner at a point over the Atlantic Ocean approximately 350 miles northeast of Jacksonville, Florida, observes a “burning greenish white round object” to the right of the aircraft that appears to be on a collision course. Van Winkle pulls the plane upward in a climb to avoid the object. This sudden maneuver causes four of the passengers to be thrown out of their seats, resulting in injuries. Copilot Dion W. Taylor and Flight Engineer John Washuta also observe the object. Washuta says the UFO is a high-intensity light that appears to stand still for approximately four seconds until it is lost to sight during the evasive action. Ed Perry, piloting Pan Am Flight 269 about 175 miles behind him, also sees it. Miami Air Traffic Control sends a flash message to the Civil Aeronautics Board describing the incident: “Pilot took evasive action, object appeared to have a brilliant greenish-white center with an outer ring which reflected the glow from the center. … Above description fits with what seven other flights saw… Miami reports no missile activity… Original reports of jet activity discounted.” The Air Force quickly explains the sighting as a meteor, but the CAB declares it unexplained after a thorough investigation. (NICAP, “DC6-A Crew Take Evasive Action”; Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 54 – 56; Swords 245–246; Frank Edwards, FS Serious Business, Bantam ed., 1966, pp. 38 – 39 ; Good Above, pp. 282– 283 ) March 22– 23 — Mrs. Robert Beaudoin, the wife of an Air Force officer, along with her 17-year-old daughter Carol Litten, sees a series of unusual lights at 11:15 p.m. northeast of Camarillo, California. First they see a large, soundless, and pulsing light, with something like a pole on top, making fast and erratic motions. She calls a military friend and then 1st Lt. Leonard E. Ott at nearby Oxnard AFB [now Camarillo Airport]. At 12:30 a.m., they see a green object accompanied by two smaller red lights below the horizon of the Los Palos Hills. The green object seems to be hovering over the North American Rocketdyne plant in the Simi Hills. At this time both the green object and the red objects seem to jump around, and the two red objects are zooming past the green object at tremendous velocities. Ott inquires about radar and a Lt. Martin tells him that radar is detecting a stationary object in the same area. The sheriff’s office is contacted, and they send a patrol car. Deputy Sheriffs Segura and Rausch confirm Beaudoin’s report, with the exception that by that time there are five red objects flying well below the green one. All are in motion and constantly changing altitude. Radar calls Ott back and says they have a scramble underway and they will have the aircraft check the area upon their return. Upon the arrival of the interceptors from Oxnard the red objects join the green object and speed away up and to the east. The aircraft are unsuccessful and return to base. At this time two Navy aircraft are sent to the area. Somehow, between the time of this report to Oxnard and the later Air Force investigation by the 4602nd, these red objects are changed, on the report, to stars and the moon above. This happens despite the witness stating that the red lights were below the hills on the horizon. To deal with that, the Air Force adds the theory that a temperature inversion caused light to bend the images of the stars, or, alternatively, the witness saw lights on a barn. Beaudoin herself is judged hysterical due to her pregnancy. The Air Force’s explanation is completed without anyone bothering to interview the teenage daughter or taking anything associated with the airbase into account (for example, the radar returns). (NICAP, “Objects Seen, Radar Tracked, Jets Scrambled”; Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 58 – 61 ; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 53– 54 ; Sparks, p. 242; Swords 246– 247 ) March 23 — Agriculturist Luis Petriera, along with several others, watches a glowing object plunge into Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. No planes are missing. Officials drag the lake but find nothing. (“Report from Venezuela,” APRO Bulletin, July 1957, p. 10) March 28 — AEC physician and Navy Capt. Charles Wesley Shilling releases a press statement saying that “excessively hot baths can be as damaging to the human sex glands as radioactive fallout in the amount received in the last five years from the testing of atomic weapons.” It is intended to counter the antinuclear activism of biochemist Linus Pauling. (“Says Hot Baths As Bad for Sex Glands As Fallout,” Newport (R.I.) Daily News, March 29, 1957, p. 2)

Early April — USAF Brig. Gen. Arno H. Leuhman, director of Air Force information, tells the press that “There’s no valid evidence that there are flying saucers.” (“AF Intelligence Chief Visits Here,” Miami (Fla.) News, April 14, 1957, p. 12A) April — 7:30 a.m. An anonymous resident of Córdoba, Argentina, is motorcycling to Rio Ceballos when his engine stops. He sees a large UFO hovering nearby, from which a human-like occupant emerges. He entices the man to enter the UFO with him. Inside, he sees 5–6 screens and intricate equipment, at each of which a similar occupant is seated. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957 March 23rd – May 2 5 th, The Author, 1995, pp. 63–64) April 4 — Pilot Robert L. Sieker takes a U-2 covered in radar-deflecting paint for a test run out of Area 51 and flies almost 90 miles without incident when suddenly the paint causes the aircraft to overheat, spin out of control, and

crash near Pioche, Nevada. Sieker ejects but is killed when a piece of metal hits him in the head. (Aviation Safety Network, “Wikibase Occurrence #155905”) April 4 — Five unusual radar contacts are detected simultaneously on three tracking radars of the Bombing Trials Unit based at RAF West Freugh [now MOD West Freugh], southeast of Stranraer, Scotland, and followed for 36 minutes. The three radars are located at two different sites near Luce Bay, Wigtownshire, Scotland. The object flashes across the sky at 60,000 feet, dives to 14,000 feet, circles, and speeds away. Wing Commander Walter Whitworth, in command at West Freugh, is ordered to say nothing about the object. (NICAP, “Three Radars Track Maneuvering UFO”; Good Above, pp. 48– 49 ; UFOFiles2, pp. 51– 53 ; Martin Shough, “Study of Unusual Radar Observations near RAF West Freugh, Wigtownshire, SW Scotland, April 4, 1957,” March 2010; Patrick Gross, “The West Freugh Incident, 1957”) April 8 — USAF Maj. Gen. Joe W. Kelly answers a question from Rep. Lee Metcalf (D-Mont.) and denies that the Air Force has muzzled pilots. “Answers are provided on any unidentified flying objects which have attracted national attention.” He admits that interceptors are still sent up “as a matter of security.” (Keyhoe, FSTS) April 10 — Delmer S. Fahrney leaves NICAP’s board of directors for urgent and personal reasons, partially because his wife is seriously ill, but also because of the ridicule generated by his peers in the military. (Clark III 792–793) April 14 — 3:00 p.m. Marie Garcin and Julia Rami are walking along road D24 a half-mile east of Vins-sur-Caramy, Var, France, when they hear a deafening noise and see a 5-foot-tall, 3 - foot-wide, metallic, top-shaped object covered with vibrating sharp spines that is landing near a road sign. The sign starts to vibrate loudly, then the object hops over the road at a height of about 15–30 feet. Another witness, Jules Boglio, is about 1,000 feet away and sees the object land a second time in the adjoining road, then jump over another road sign which then vibrates loudly. Two other witnesses see the object at a much greater distance. (NICAP, “Top-Shaped Object Hovers at 300”; Jimmy Guieu, “Vins-sur-Caramy (Var), 14 avril 1957,” Ouranos, no. 21 (1957): 50 – 52; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 145–146; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 154– 156 ) April 19 — 11:52 a.m. Two metallic discs are seen entering the Pacific Ocean about 300 miles southeast of Tokyo, Japan, by Japanese fisherman aboard the Kitsukawa Maru. A violent turbulence disturbs the ocean after they submerge. The objects are 30 feet long and wingless. (NICAP, “Two Discs Enter Pacific”) April 24 — 6:27 a.m. Project 57 is an open-air nuclear “dirty-bomb” test conducted in Area 13 at the Nellis Air Force Range, Nevada. The high explosives of a nuclear weapon are detonated asymmetrically to simulate an accidental detonation of an XW-25 warhead in an airplane crash. The purpose of the test is to verify that no yield would result, as well as study the extent of plutonium contamination. Some 4,000 galvanized steel pans sprayed with tacky resin are set up around a 10-by- 16 - square-mile block of land to capture plutonium samples. Some 68 air- sampler stations equipped with micropore paper are spread over 70 square miles. Mock-ups of sidewalks, curbs, and asphalt are set up in the desert; cars and trucks are added; giant air-sampling balloons are tethered in place; 9 burros, 109 beagles, 10 sheep, and 31 white rats are put in cages. Afterward, the contaminated area is fenced off and the contaminated equipment buried in place. Data from the test confirms that plutonium has a 24,000-year half-life; many of the test animals are killed, but security guard Richard Mingus manages not to inhale any particles. A radiological survey team detects alpha radiation, but no serious beta or gamma radiation. In 1981, the US Department of Energy decontaminates and decommissions the site. Hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of soil and debris are removed from Area 13 and disposed of in a waste facility at the Nevada Test Site. (Wikipedia, “Project 57”; Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 100 – 116 )

Late spring — Between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m. Airman 2nd Class Wallace Fowler is sitting on the front steps of his barracks at Ellsworth AFB near Rapid City, South Dakota, when a silver domed disc with portholes appears directly above him. Shadows are moving behind the portholes. The UFO is motionless and the size of a house. After about 2– 3 minutes it takes off straight up at high speed. Many others on the base have seen the object as well, and jets are scrambled. The UFO maneuvers around the jets as if toying with them. One of the pursuing jets allegedly goes missing and the wreckage is never found. (Good Need, pp. 218– 219 ) May — NICAP is fed a phony UFO crash story in the Everglades, Florida, by an Associated Press employee who is a “former Signal Corps engineer” with possible ties to the NSA. He admits faking the story but refuses to give any motive. (Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 64–68) May — 4:50 a.m. A truck driver pulls over at the edge of the disused RAF Winkleigh Airfield [now the site of the West of England Transport Collection], Devon, England, to drink some coffee. He notices an object like a metallic, fluorescent-blue submarine with tail fins sitting at the end of the runway. It is about the size of an airliner. He watches it a while, then gets out of the truck and approaches it. He has the object in sight a total of 10–15 minutes and realizes it is hovering just above the ground. When he is 600 feet away, he encounters a type of force field that prevents him from approaching. The object then rises straight up into the sky to about 1,200 feet and shoots

off to the north. The force field disappears. (Ron Toth, “UFO Landing at War-time Aerodrome,” Pegasus 2, no. 3 (May-June 1970): 2–4) May — 6:00 a.m. Frances Stichler is working in her barn in Milford, Pennsylvania, when she hears a whirring sound and sees a bowl-shaped object approaching at a height of 15 feet. It is 15 feet in diameter with a rim about 3 feet wide. It hovers with one side tilted toward her 50 feet away. Its lone occupant, a helmeted figure with a long, olive- colored face and a shiny, light gray suit, gazes at her with a quizzical expression on his tanned face. It is sitting on the far rim with feet and legs hidden by the lower part of the object. Inside the open vehicle, she can see levers. After a minute, the object takes off to the southwest making a spinning sound. Her chickens do not seem disturbed by any of this. (Berthold Eric Schwarz, “UFO Occupants: Fact or Fantasy?” Flying Saucer Review 15, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1969): 14 – 15 ; Clark III 268 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957 May 24th – July 31st, The Author, 1996, p. 10; Patrick Gross, URECAT, December 17, 2006) May? — 3:45 p.m. Two men in Orlando, Florida, see an oval object emerge from a larger cigar-shaped UFO about 75– 100 feet long. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects: A Further Look,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 7, 25) May 1 — 7:00 a.m. A man driving a motorcycle about 9 miles from Pajas Blancas International Airport in Córdoba, Argentina, sees a UFO shortly after his engine fails. It is 65 feet in diameter and 16 feet thick, hovering about 50 feet above the ground. He hides in a ditch and sees the craft come down, making a sound similar to air escaping from a valve. A lift descends from its base almost to the ground. In it is a man of average height who makes friendly gestures. He is dressed in a plastic diving suit. The witness enters the machine and sees several people inside seated in front of instrument panels, lit by an extraordinary light. He is then escorted out, and the disc rises to the northwest. During the next hour, there are 6 other sightings made by independent witnesses. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957 March 23rd – May 2 5 th, The Author, 1995, pp. 61– 64 ; Mark Cashman, “Behavioral Classification System for UFO Occupants,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 19) May 2— 6:55–7:20 a.m. Frank E. Baker, supervisor of civilian camera operators at Edwards AFB, California, sends the standard two-man crews out to their Askania tracking telescopes for their daily shifts. Veterans James D. Bittick and John R. Gettys Jr. are in their pickup expecting a normal day. As they approach their station in the Mojave Desert, they see a bright object in the sky. It is initially at about a 45° elevation and seems to be hovering. They need to get permission from Baker to photograph anything, so they call it in, begin readying the scope, load the film, and wait for the okay. Gettys says the base of the object has a circular appearance when high in the sky. Baker gives them his approval and they begin filming, each viewing the object through spotting scopes while the film rolls. They shoot about 100 feet then stop. During filming, the object moves from 1 mile away to 5 miles. What they see is a disc-shaped object with a low dome on top. They contact the base, which scrambles two jets, but they are too late. After they turn the film in, three officers show up and interrogate them. Future astronaut Gordon Cooper claims he was there that day, involved with the tracking. (NICAP, “Edwards AFB Case”; “Unidentified Flying Object Filmed, Studied,” Miami (Fla.) News, May 12, 1957, p. 2; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 75 – 76; Michael D. Swords, “As Great an Enigma As the UFOs Themselves,” IUR 30, no. 1 (October 2005): 10–12; Sparks, p. 243 ; “Astronaut Gordon Cooper Talks about UFOs,” Elhardt YouTube channel, December 27, 2007; Swords 247–248; Gordon Cooper and Bruce Henderson, Leap of Faith: An Astronaut ’ s Journey into the Unknown, HarperTorch, 2000, pp. 83–86; Good Need, pp. 220– 222 ) May 10 — After 10:45 p.m. At Beaucourt-sur-l’Ancre, Somme, France, a 29-year-old Hungarian refugee named Fekete is cycling when he is “dazzled by a strange projectile.” He sees four men 4–5 feet tall approaching him in a threatening manner. One of them carries a bright light which prevents him from seeing much detail. He flees on his cycle to a nearby home, where others look out and see the occupants 3 00 feet away. The UFO is emitting red and white (or yellow) rays of light alternatively. They watch for about 20 minutes until 11:15 p.m. when the UFO takes off at a 45° angle. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957 March 23rd – May 2 5 th, The Author, 1995, pp. 69–72) May 11 — While attending the Giant Rock Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention in the Mojave Desert near Landers, California, Wayne Sulo Aho goes for a walk and sees a “majestic egg-shaped light.” He directs a telepathic message to it, and the UFO lands 2 miles away. He begins receiving subtle psychic messages on his earthly mission. That night, Aho undergoes a “cosmic initiation.” (Clark III 59; Wayne S. Aho, Mojave Desert Experience, May 11, 1957, New Age, 1972) May 20? (or 1956?) — Near 12:00 midnight. USAF Lt. Milton Torres is flying F-86D Sabre fighters with the 406th Bomber Wing based at RAF Manston [now closed], Kent, England. He receives an order from an RAF controller, who is tracking an unidentified target from Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker [now closed] in Essex, to go

up with a wingman to 32,000 feet over East Anglia in pursuit. Over the radio he receives an order to fire a salvo of rockets at the target; the order is so unusual that Torres seeks authentication before firing. Torres locates the large target on his aircraft radar, but when he closes in on it, it shoots away at tremendous speed, disappearing from the radar screens. The target might be explained by a secret CIA-MoD experiment, codenamed Palladium, to simulate an aircraft blip on Soviet radar screens. On his return to base, Torres is debriefed by a secret service agent and told his mission is top secret. (NICAP, “Milton Torres / Intercept Mission”; UFOFiles2, pp. 69– 72 ; David Clarke, “Intercept and Destroy,” Fortean Times 242 (December 2008): 34–35; Paul Crickmore, “Project Palladium: Testing Soviet Radars,” Tails Through Time, January 3, 2011; Curt Collins, “Area 51, the CIA, and Cold War UFOS: T. D. Barnes,” Blue Blurry Lines, January 9, 2014) May 26 — An article in the UK Empire News on “Flying Saucer Clubs Probe: Peace Messages ‘from Outer Space’” reveals that George King’s Aetherius Society has been publishing channeled messages in its Cosmic Voice newsletter that are antiwar and anti-nuclear. It attracts the attention of Scotland Yard’s Special Branch, thanks to an informant on the newspaper. King writes to explain that his group is religious and not political. A Special Branch officer visits King in his home in London, England, on May 31, and the group’s writings and activities are watched for at least the next two years. (Kremlin 121–126) May 28 — Boltzmann, the first of 29 nuclear tests in Operation Plumbbob, takes place at the Nevada Test Site. At 12 kilotons, it is about the same size as the Hiroshima bomb and causes Area 51 personnel 11 miles away to be temporarily evacuated. Another test blast buckles aircraft hangar doors in Area 51, shatters windows in the mess hall, and breaks a dormitory ventilator panel. The Plumbbob tests continue until October 7, 1957. While most tests contribute to the development of warheads for intercontinental and intermediate range missiles, they also test air defense and anti-submarine warheads with small yields. (Wikipedia, “Operation Plumbbob”) May 31 — 7:17 a.m. A British airliner is flying over Kent, two miles south of Rochester, England, when both the captain and first officer see a brilliant light approaching them. All radio communications cut out. The UFO blinks out and the radio equipment goes back into operation. (Schopick, pp. 122–123; Good Above, p. 50)

June 3 — 9:35 p.m. Shortly after takeoff from Shreveport (Louisiana) Airport, Capt. Lynn Kern and Flight Officer Abbey Zimmerman, flying Trans-Texas Airlines Flight 103, are told by the control tower that a small light is visible nearby. They see the star-like, blue-green object at about 400 feet altitude. It then climbs rapidly to 1,000 feet and parallels the airliner at a higher altitude and about a half-mile away. Kern flashes his landing lights, and the object responds with a beam of light. A second blue-green, pulsating object joins the first on the opposite side of the airliner (then at 9,000 feet). A crew from the air tower confirms that it has both objects on radar and visually through binoculars. The objects head south, climbing to about 10,000 feet, and follow the airliner to Converse, Louisiana, where the pilot queries ADC radar site, England AFB [now Alexandria International Airport], which confirms the two targets in the airliner’s vicinity. The objects disappear from sight in a cloud deck to the southwest. (NICAP, “Flight 103 & 2 UFOs Tracked on Radar”; Sparks, p. 244; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 94– 96 ) June 5 — AEC Commissioner Willard Libby tells Congress that nuclear weapons testing is a “small risk” that must be measured against the “risk of annihilation.” (“Bomb Testing Is Viewed As Risk to Be Compared with Annihilation,” Spokane (Wash.) Chronicle, June 5, 1957, p. 2) June 11 — CIA operative Wallace R. Lampshire sends a memo to CIA operative Richard M. Bissell Jr., explaining that the agency’s involvement with UFOs is passive, handing off reports to its geophysics or former weapons units. Lampshire has talked with Gen. Philip J. Strong, who knows of no Soviet technology that might be responsible for UFOs. (Swords 264–265) June 15 — A report in the UK weekly newspaper Reynold ’ s News claims that the Air Ministry conducts top secret UFO research in Room 801 of one of its offices on Northumberland Avenue, London, England. A ministry spokesman is quoted as saying the room has “something like 10,000 sightings” on file and a large map of the British Isles with thousands of colored pins representing sightings. Flying Saucer Review editor Gordon Creighton says the office belongs to the Deputy Directorate of Intelligence (Technical), which employs UFO researchers full-time. (Good Above, p. 49) June 15 — 5:06 p.m. George Marsden watches a Saturn-shaped UFO with portholes through a telescope at Mawdesley, Lancashire, England. (UFOEv, p. 146; Center for UFO Studies, [case documents]) June 18 — 8:00 p.m. Captain C. G. Wertz and the crew of the Matson freighter Hawaiian Fisherman see two brightly lit objects off the port beam as they are steaming 150 miles off San Francisco, California. A third object joins them at 8:15. They appear as small moons, giving off a cold, white, unchanging light. The three move off in a V formation and pace the ship for a short time. The lights continue their controlled flight as dusk turns to night. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 78)

June 20 — Mysterious radar echoes begin turning up on Bluff Hill, near Invercargill, New Zealand, for several months. The targets are visible from several minutes up to an hour and are located somewhere in the ionosphere. Michael Gadsden of the Imperial College in London is in New Zealand for the International Geophysical Year and he says the targets’ movements are unusual and suspects that ionized particles are the cause. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 81–82)

Summer — P. Craig Phillips, curator of the Miami Seaquarium, and two other scientists witness a fall of angel hair for two hours as they are sailing northward toward the Florida Keys. Assuming them to be cobwebs from migrating airborne spiders, Phillips takes some samples and puts them in a mason jar. But when he uncaps the jar later in his office, no trace of the material is found, which is uncharacteristic of spider web. (UFOEv, pp. 99– 100 ; Brian Boldman, “An Analysis of Angel Hair, 1947–2000,” IUR 26, no. 3 (Fall 2001): 15) Summer — Early morning. Contactee Trevor Constable and an associate named James Woods take many infrared photos of the desert sky over southern California. When developed, the film reveals a variety of shapes from vague blobs and amoeba-like forms to clearly defined discs. Constable calls them “critters” and thinks they are some kind of life form invisible to the naked eye. (Clark III 1102; Trevor James [Constable], They Live in the Sky, New Age, 1958) Summer — Allan Haney and some friends “on a number of occasions” climb onto someone’s roof in Levelland, Texas, to watch 3–4 objects hovering over Reese AFB [now Reese Technology Center] in Lubbock, 26 miles to the east. (Donald R. Burleson, “Levelland, Texas, 1957: Case Reopened,” IUR 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 5) July — The Air Defense Command disbands the 4602nd AISS and reassigns UFO investigative duties to the 1127th Field Activities Group of the 1006th AISS at Norton AFB [San Bernardino International Airport], California. Soon afterwards, the Air Force reduces funds for the unit, impairing its investigative ability. (Clark III 919) July — NICAP publishes the first issue of The UFO Investigator. (UFO Investigator 1, no. 1 (July 1957); Clark III 793) July — NICAP learns that the US Senate Subcommittee on Investigations is considering hearings on UFOs and wants its assistance. Hillenkoetter suggests withholding the best cases, at least initially. Keyhoe asks Ruppelt, who is now an engineer with Northrup Aircraft, to join the NICAP board at a rehearsal for the I ’ ve Got a Secret Show on which he is appearing. Ruppelt considers it an honor. (Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 70 – 79) July 5 — During the 74-kiloton Plumbbob Hood nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site, the Marine Corps conducts a tactical maneuver involving the use of a helicopter airlift, tactical air support, and an amphibian tractor called the LVTP5. Despite the AEC’s assurance that no thermonuclear devices are being tested, Hood is thermonuclear and is the largest atmospheric test in the continental US. All Area 51 personnel are evacuated prior to the blast, but the military neglects to secure the sensitive information in the buildings with security guards. Seventy anesthetized Chester White pigs in military uniforms (as test fabrics) are placed in cages a short distance from ground zero. Several types of wood houses are constructed to see how each handles the blast. The Mosler Safe Company sponsors the construction of a steel vault to withstand the blast. Some 100 soldiers, lying in trenches, are stationed to gauge the psychological impact of the bomb. The flash is visible from Canada to Mexico and 800 miles out in the Pacific. The blast wave reaches Los Angeles 25 minutes later. Afterwards, security guard Richard Mingus has to drive through a highly radioactive ground zero to reach the buildings at Area 51 ten miles away. Area 51 remains an evacuated ghost town until the summer of 1959. (Wikipedia, “Desert Rock exercises”; Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 119 – 123 ) July 10 — George Hunt Williamson, exploring in Peru from his base at the Monastery of the Seven Rays and spurred by his own channelings, rediscovers a wall of petroglyphs [now known as the Petroglyphs of Pusharo, in the Manú National Park] in an area northeast of Cuzco called Cadena del Pantiacolla. (George Hunt Williamson, “Project Scroll,” Flying Saucer Review 3, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1957): 18–19; George Hunt Williamson, Road in the Sky, Neville Spearman, 1959; Brother Philip [Williamson], Secret of the Andes, Neville Spearman, 1961 ; Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, pp. 97–98, 109– 115 ) Mid-July — Keyhoe meets with US Rep. James C. Healey (D-N.Y.) regarding USAF secrecy about UFOs. He shows Healey the 1949 Grudge report and apparently convinces him that the Air Force’s explanations for the 24 cases are “sheer speculation” or “deliberately fitted.” He also presents him Gen. Joe W. Kelly’s April 8 letter to Lee Metcalf, indicating serious interest in UFOs. (Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 81 – 82, 91, 96) July 16 — 1:56 p.m. 1st Lt. Clifford E. Pocock, scope operator A2C Walter Lyons, and control technician A1C Armand Therrien at Las Vegas Air Force Station [now closed] at Angel Peak, Nevada, are using the FPS-3A L-band search radar and track an inbound target at about 6,200 mph when it “stopped abruptly” and “remained stationary” for 12 seconds to the east-northeast 85 miles away to the north of Grand Canyon in Arizona. Then it heads outbound at about 7,000 mph before disappearing at the radar’s maximum range at 224 miles (near Marble

Canyon, Arizona). The target responds to encrypted military IFF transponder signals and transmits encrypted responses. (NICAP, “6200 MPH Target Hovers near Grand Canyon”; Sparks, p. 244) July 17 — Before dawn. The crew of a USAF RB- 47 reconnaissance aircraft is flying out of Forbes Field [now Topeka Regional Airport], Kansas, on an electronic warfare training flight over Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. The RB-47 is carrying a 6 - man crew, of whom three are electronic warfare officers manning ECM gear in the aft portion of the aircraft. Their names are Lewis Dormon Chase, pilot; James H. McCoid, copilot; Thomas H. Hanley, navigator; John J. Provenzano, No. 1 monitor; Frank B. McClure, No. 2 monitor; and Walter A. Tuchscherer, No. 3 monitor. The crew detects on its Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) equipment an airborne radar source that mimics some but not all of the signal characteristics of a common air defense ground radar. Aircraft normally do not carry such high-powered radars. As the key ELINT officer on the RB-47 puts it, “an antenna bigger than the airplane” would be required to emit as strong a signal as he detected from the UFO. Because the UFO signal appears to have comparable or greater received signal strength than the one-megawatt ground radar beam and the UFOs distance is about 5 times closer than the ground radar, a crude estimate of the UFO radar power output using the inverse-square law would be about 40 kilowatts. The maneuvering radar signal coincides in location with a bright UFO. At times the signal moves ahead of the RB-47, then circles around as if airborne, highly maneuverable, and flying faster than the RB-47. The 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing Intelligence report states that the Wing’s director of intelligence “has no doubt the electronic D/F’s coincided exactly with visual observations by a/c numerous times thus indicating positively the object being the signal source.” An air defense radar station near Dallas, Texas, reportedly confirms tracking a UFO at the same location reported by the RB-47 crew but later tries to deny it in an unclassified message to ATIC. The UFO is reportedly tracked by the RB- 47 ’s airborne navigation radar as well, though the crew has differing recollections on this point. Twice the UFO blinks out visually when pursued by the RB-47. At the same time the strange signal disappears, either that, or the ground radar site and the RB-47 onboard radar loses the object from their scopes. At least once, the UFO suddenly reappears visually at about the same time the ground radar regains tracking of the object. The main part of the incident occupies 30 minutes over the Fort Worth, Texas, area from 5:30–6:00 a.m. Some earlier ELINT and visual incidents are noted as early as about 4:30 a.m., but they catch the crew off guard, and consequently reports at the time and later recollections have had to be carefully reconstructed. The UFO may have trailed the RB-47 up to 6:40 a.m. following the main events, for a total duration of possibly more than 126 minutes. The RB

• 47 incident is the first conclusive instrumented proof for the existence of UFOs. Calibrations of the RB- 47 ’s electronic measurements provide an irrefutable case. When the Colorado Project scientists asked the Air Force for the Blue Book file on the RB-47 case, the file could not be found. Ultimately, the case was put together by better file searching at Blue Book, James E. McDonald’s success at locating several crew members and interviewing them, and FOIA searches that located more of the lost documents. Particularly in the George T. Gregory years at ATIC, this sort of rejection of the need to clarify almost any significant aspect of a UFO case was constant. If we did not know, from our earlier information, what Captain Gregory understood to be his duty as chief of Blue Book, we would label this as reckless and incompetent. Colorado project investigator Gordon Thayer declares the case unexplained, and later describes the official USAF explanation (airliner) as “literally ridiculous.” Brad Sparks sums it up in 1998 (and in 2018): “This case certainly now ranks as among the best documented unexplained UFO incidents in history, and it has the potential for further revealing disclosures if records of an extremely highly classified investigation can be found and released. All of the UFO observations by multiple visual observers, multiple ELINT receivers, and multiple radar sets, as well as the serendipitous calibrations of the UFO signals against the separately identifiable Duncanville radar signals, provide a unique, tight, interlocking web of intricately fitted evidence.” (NICAP, “RB-47 Incident”; Sparks, p. 244 ; Condon, pp. 56, 136 – 139, 260 – 266 ; James E. McDonald, “The 1957 Gulf Coast RB-47 Incident,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 3 (May/June 1970): 2–6; Gert Herb, “A Rebuttal to Philip J. Klass’s Analysis of the RB-47 Incident of July 17, 1957,” CUFOS Bulletin, Summer 1977, pp. 3–10; Philip J. Klass, [response to Gert Herb], CUFOS Bulletin, Fall 1977, pp. 7–10; Gert Herb, “Gert Herb Replies,” CUFOS Bulletin, Fall 1977, pp. 9–10; Swords 248–249; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957 May 24th – July 31st, The Author, 1996, pp. 64–71; Center for UFO Studies, [case interviews]; Center for UFO Studies, [case documents]; Center for UFO Studies, [more case documents]; UFOs Yes, 126 – 127 ; Clark III 953– 999 ) July 17 — Flight 655 en route from Dallas to Los Angeles, piloted by Capt. Ed Bachner, has a near collision with an object “at least the size of a B-47” over the salt flats some 100 miles east of El Paso, Texas. Bachner puts the plane into a dive and the object passes only 50 feet above them. Two passengers suffer slight injuries and are taken to the hospital on landing. No known aircraft are in the vicinity. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 79 ; Good Above, p. 283)

July 18 — 10:46 p.m. Capt. Claiborne F. Bickham and a radar crew at Mount Lemmon Air Force Station [now closed] northeast of Tucson, Arizona, using both MPS-7 L-band search and MPS-14 S-band height-finder radars, track a stationary target at 42,000 feet to the northwest about 82 miles away south of Chandler. The target responds to encrypted military IFF Mode 3 transponder signals and transmits encrypted responses that result in “normal Mode 3 paint” on radar scopes. A very slight strobe comes from the object that appears like ECM jamming. (NICAP, “Ground Radar Track Responds to IFF Mode 3”; Sparks, p. 245) July 19 — The Plumbbob John nuclear test at Yucca Flats, Nevada, is the only test of the Air Force’s AIR-2 Genie missile with a nuclear warhead. On the ground, the Air Force carries out a public relations event by having five Air Force officers and a videographer stand under ground zero of the blast, which takes place at between 18,500 and 20,000 feet altitude, with the idea of demonstrating the possibility of the use of the weapon over civilian populations without ill effects. (Wikipedia, “Operation Plumbbob”) July 22 — Night. Capt. G. M. Schemel, the pilot of a TWA Constellation aircraft, is flying at 18,000 feet near Amarillo, Texas, when a big red and green light bears down on his plane in a collision course. He puts the aircraft into a dive and the object passes above him. Schemel has to make an unscheduled landing at Amarillo to hospitalize one passenger who is injured during the maneuver. (“Kenosha Pilot Tells of Mysterious Object,” Kenosha (Wis.) News, July 24, 1957, p. 1) July 24 — Russian antiaircraft batteries on the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia, in the Pacific Ocean open fire on luminous, fast-moving UFOs. No hits are made. The US claims it has no aircraft in the area. However, at 10:0 0 a.m., two USAF pilots flying F-86s are scrambled to intercept a disc-shaped object over the Nemuro Strait, north of Hokkaido, Japan, that is tracked by ground radar and seen by ground witnesses. (Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, p. 42; Sparks, p. 245) July 24 — White Sands Missile Flight Safety Director Nathan Wagner is driving with his wife Alma south of Las Cruces, New Mexico, when they see a large, fast object at high altitude moving east toward the Organ Mountains. They watch it for 30 seconds until it disappears. (“Space Vehicles Sighted?” El Paso (Tex.) Times, July 30, 1957, p. 1; NICAP, “Missile Safety Chief Says Object Unknown”) July 25 — 4:00 a.m. Several workers are taking a break at the Daye Steel Plant in Huangshi, Hubei, China, when they hear a humming sound. They notice a bright spot in the clear sky that is increasing in apparent size. As it comes closer, it is seen as a circular plate giving off a dazzling white light and leaving a white trail. It flies above the observers at an altitude of 3,300 feet and produces a whistling sound that is louder than a jet. As the object approaches the witnesses, the low pitch changes to a high pitch. (Wendelle Stevens and Paul Dong, UFOs over Modern China, UFO Photo Archives, 1983) July 28 — A Douglas Aircraft Company employee named Edward K. Current Jr. makes an emergency landing on the former U-2 airstrip at Groom Lake, Nevada. He claims he has been on a cross-country training flight when he became lost and ran low on fuel. The area is still evacuated for nuclear testing. (Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 125 – 126 ; T. D. Barnes, “False Emergency Landings at Groom Lake,” Roadrunners Internationale, November 22, 2021) July 30 — 10:30 a.m. Jack Stephenson is walking his dog four miles south of Galt, Ontario, when he sees an aluminum- colored object with a dome. It circles, stops, and hovers, then lands in a gulley surrounded by woods. He watches it for 45 minutes as it hovers about 2 feet off the ground. It finally takes off at a 45° angle to avoid a power line, then shoots away. Local residents examine the area and find burned patches on the ground and small tree limbs that are broken. There are four burned or charred areas, each about 1 foot 3 inches in diameter, forming a four- sided figure with these measurements: 20 feet x 20 feet x 6.5 feet x 11.5 feet. Two large three-toed prints are also found, but the relationship of the prints to the object is unknown. (“Boy Reports ‘Saucer,’” Brantford (Ont.) Expositor, August 3, 1957, p. 1; “Says He Saw Flying Saucer for 45 Minutes,” Milk River (Alberta) Review, August 25, 1957; Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 51 – 53)

August — Radar technician Edward Lovick Jr. begins work at Lockheed’s secret Advanced Development Projects facility (the Skunk Works) in Burbank, California. His first assignment is to investigate radar-deflecting technology for the U-2 aircraft. (Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 126 – 127 ) August — Night. A young woman is driving home after work in Peru, Indiana, and notices people standing along the road looking at the sky. She stops, and they point to a large black object hovering above some nearby trees at about 100 feet. It is about 1,000 feet long and has a “soft delta” shape with rounded corners and window-like lighted areas underneath. There seems to be movement within the lighted areas. In the middle of the bottom is a round area that looks like it might be the outline of an entryway. It moves slowly away, making a noise like a quiet vacuum cleaner. (Michael D. Swords, “Timmerman’s Triangles,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 16)

August 1 — The North American Air Defense Command is announced by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. (Wikipedia, “North American Aerospace Defense Command”) August 3 — 7:45 p.m. 1st Lt. Robert J. Springer Jr., T/Sgt. Herman L. Giles, and 16 other air crewmen, while on routine Airborne Operations Center radar early warning patrol over the Pacific Ocean about 175 miles southwest of San Francisco, California, aboard an RC-121D aircraft, detect a radar target on IFF Mode 2 transponder only. At 7:56 p.m., the IFF target becomes a direct radar “skinpaint.” At 8:02 p.m., the IFF equipment APX-6/APX- 7 is turned off, but the target is still tracked on airborne radar. At 8:15 p.m., the target is at a 2 o’clock position 10 miles away when the aircraft starts a right turn to reverse course, putting the target dead ahead. It suddenly takes off to the northwest at very high speed, disappearing 58 miles away. Radar contact is regained at 8:18 p.m. as the target is tracked moving right to left, crossing in front of the aircraft again, and closing distance to 8 miles at 11 o’clock. At 8:20 p.m., the target turns to head on a parallel path. The crew loses contact at 8:24 p.m., 15 miles behind the plane. No visual confirmation. (NICAP, “RC-121D Has IFF Radar Targets”; Sparks, p. 246) August 4 — An Italian Air Force noncommissioned officer on duty in the control tower at Naples International Airport, Italy, and about 30 other witnesses see a number of luminous, disc-shaped objects passing above them. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 80) August 5 — 10:00 p.m. Policeman Ernst W. Akerberg and his wife Karin are at their summer cottage on the island of Gotland, Sweden, in the Baltic Sea when they see a disc-shaped object heading toward them from the sea. When it reaches the shore about 600 feet away, the object changes course and executes a sharp turn at less than 90° of arc and turns on its edge, swaying briefly. The disc moves toward the southeast and makes another sharp turn just over a half-mile away, again turning on its edge and fluttering before passing out of view. A second, smaller object approaches and goes through the same maneuvers. Air currents from both objects make the water surface ripple and the treetops swing. Estimated to be about 80 feet in diameter, the objects seem to be made of shining metal, and the upper part rotates slowly over the lower part. Both objects have a kind of tube with two red lights. They are silent except for a hollow clicking sound. (Story, pp. 152– 153 ; Clas Svahn, “1957 Diskusarna svängde framför polismannen,” Riksorganisationen UFO-Sverige) August 14 — 8:55 p.m. Varig Airlines pilot Capt. Jorgé Campos Araujo and First Officer Edgar Onofre Soares observe a domed disc pacing their C-47 cargo plane at 6,300 feet over Joinville, Santa Catarina, Brazil. The UFO speeds up and crosses just in front of them, hovers briefly, then dives into the undercast at 5,700 feet. When the object hovers, it affects the engines, which cough and wheeze, and dims the cabin lights. (UFOEv, p. 120; Olavo T. Fontes, “Top Secret Report Unveiled,” APRO Bulletin, September 1959, pp. 1, 5; Schopick, pp. 123–127; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957 August – September, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2003, pp. 11–13; Lorenzen, FS Hoax, pp. 153– 155 ) August 20 — 11:28 a.m. Shinichi Takeda takes a photo of a silvery disc near Enoshima Beach, Kanagawa, Japan. The object is also seen by his sister, who calls his attention to it. It gives off a brilliant glow at an estimated altitude of 3 , 000 – 4 ,000 feet, traveling north to south. The object makes a 90° left turn, speeds up, and disappears in the clouds. The photo shows capsule-shaped image near bank of cumulus clouds. A few minutes later, 15 people on the beach report a similar object that passes over at high speed. (NICAP, “Capsule-Shaped Object in Clouds / Takeda Photo”) August 20 or 22 — A member of the Argentine Air Force guarding a downed aircraft is in a tent near Quilinos, Córdoba, Argentina, when he hears a high-pitched hum. Dashing out, he sees a disc slowly descending, making the grass and plants flutter wildly. Reaching for his revolver, he feels that something is preventing him from drawing his weapon, which seems glued in his holster. A voice from the disc tells him in Spanish that spacecraft have a base in the Salta region and that they are here to warn about nuclear energy. The craft rises vertically and speeds off to the north. Probable hoax. (“UFO Bases in South America?” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1965): 30– 31; Patrick Gross, URECAT, December 8, 2006) August 22 — 3:40 p.m. A couple named Sheetz in a car at Naval Air Station Cecil [now Cecil Airport] in Jacksonville, Florida, chase a 50-foot, black, rotating, bell-shaped object bearing two bright white lights at the top. Their engine stalls when object hovers 10 feet away. Its underside resembles a disc with fins. When a jet takes off from the airfield, the object goes out of sight almost instantly. The car battery is completely dead. Noise from the object is compared to a helicopter, although there are no helicopters in the area. (NICAP, “Car Chases Bell-Shaped Object, Engine Stalls”; Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 7) August 27 — Russia makes the first successful long flight of an ICBM, the R-7 Semyorka, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The dummy warhead lands in the Pacific Ocean. (Wikipedia, “R-7 Semyorka”) August 30 — Night. A Capital Airlines pilot is flying a Viscount at 12,000 feet approaching Norfolk, Virginia, with a Northeast Airlines DC-6 directly above on the same heading at 20,000 feet. The Viscount pilot sees a brilliant object that “flew fast and then abruptly halted 20 miles in front of us at 60,000 feet altitude.” The Northeast pilot

tries to acquire the object on radar. With the antenna at 0° elevation, nothing is detected, but with the antenna elevated to 15° he acquires “an excellent blip right where I told him to look for the object.” According to the Viscount pilot, the object “dissolved right in front of my eyes, and the crew above lost it from the scope at the same time. They said it just faded away.” The entire incident lasts several minutes. (NICAP, “Two Aircraft Observe Object / Excellent Blip on Radar”; Condon, pp. 128– 129 ) August 31 — After nuclear test Plumbbob Smokey, Army troops conduct an airlift assault. (Wikipedia, “Desert Rock exercises”) August 31 — Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) sends a letter to a constituent about UFOs, saying, “I, frankly, feel that there is a great deal to this.” (UFOEv, p. 173)

September — Soviet defector Nikolai Khokhlov suffers a sudden and severe illness while attending an anti-Communist meeting in Frankfurt, Germany. He is treated for thallium poisoning and survives. This case is often claimed to be the first radiological attack by the KGB, especially when compared to the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, although it remains unclear what isotope was used, if any. Former KGB officer Stanislav Lekarev claims, however, that Khokhlov is poisoned by radioactive polonium (not thallium), exactly as Litvinenko is later. Litvinenko’s poisoning is also initially mistaken for thallium. A unique mechanism for administering poison is described by a knowledgeable source at the time as a pneumatically operated poison ice “atomizer” that leaves no wound or other evidence of the cause of death. (Wikipedia, “Nikolai Khokhlov”; Andy Wright, “The Russian Spy Who Convinced America to Take ESP Seriously,” Atlas Obscura, January 13, 2017; Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB, Basic Books, 1999; David Kurlander, “Ending in a Fall: America’s Response to the Poisoning of Soviet Defector Nikolai Khokhlov,” Café, September 3, 2020) Early September — Several people fishing near Ubatuba, São Paulo, Brazil, watch a disc dive down from the sky and explode, showering the area with flaming fragments. One of the witnesses writes an anonymous letter and sends three pieces to O Globo, but no witnesses to the event have ever come forward. APRO representative Olavo T. Fontes examines the fragments, which are dull gray, irregular, and strongly oxidized. One sample is shot through with microscopic cracks and shows a fissure running through two-thirds of its length. All three have whitish smears of a powdery substance like cinders. Fontes takes one sample to the Mineral Production Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture for analysis, which shows it to be “magnesium of a high degree of purity.” Chemist Luisa Maria A. Barbosa, who conducts a spectrographic analysis, says that not even trace elements are apparent. Fontes also has it analyzed by chemist Elson Teixeira and the Brazilian Army. The Laboratory of Crystallography conducts some X-ray diffraction work. All conclude that the material is pure magnesium, while one gives it a density of 1.866 (normal magnesium is 1.741). APRO sends a second fragment to the US Air Force, which accidentally destroys it. The third sample is sent to the Colorado Project in February 1968. Roy Craig runs tests on it at the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division of the IRS in Washington and Dow Chemical’s Metallurgical Laboratory. Both determine that the level of purity is not as high as was determined in 1957 (although this is now seen as a major misrepresentation of the actual results). APRO does two further tests with University of Arizona metallurgical engineer Walter A. Walker and Robert W. Johnson of the Materials Research Corporation at Orangeburg, New Jersey. Walker and Johnson both find that the sample “had undergone a directional crystal growth type of manufacture.” Walker concludes that the material was likely exposed to the earth’s atmosphere at elevated temperatures. Researchers Brad Sparks and Michael Swords examine Roy Craig’s archived original notes from the Colorado Project and find that the team had covered up the fact that an abnormal concentration of magnesium isotope Mg-26 had indeed been found and knowingly misrepresented the sample to APRO as “essentially the same as terrestrial magnesium,” blaming them for cherry-picking the Brazilian lab results. Peter A. Sturrock acquires the remnant of the samples from APRO and performs further analysis on two of them in

1997. In 2018, Michael Swords and Robert Powell borrow one Ubatuba sample from Sturrock and arrange for further tests at an accredited lab, finding variations well outside the normal range for magnesium, strontium, copper, and barium. (NICAP, “The Ubatuba Incident”; “Physical Evidence,” APRO Bulletin, March 1960, pp. 1, 3; Olavo T. Fontes, “A Report on the Investigation of Magnesium Samples from a UFO Explosion over the Sea in the Ubatuba Region of Brazil,” 1962; Lorenzen, FS Hoax, pp. 104– 145 ; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 212–216; Condon, pp. 94– 97 , 257 – 260 ; Michael D. Swords, “Analysis of Alleged Fragments from an Exploding UFO near Ubatuba, Brazil: An Introduction,” JUFOS 4 (1992): 1–5; Walter W. Walker and Robert W. Johnson, “Further Studies on the Ubatuba UFO Magnesium Samples,” JUFOS 4 (1992): 6–25; Walter W. Walker, “Scientific Studies of the Ubatuba Magnesium Fragments: A 1992 Perspective,” JUFOS 4 (1992): 26 – 37 ; Peter A. Sturrock, “Letter: Ubatuba,” IUR 18, no. 2 (March/April 1993): 19; Paul R. Hill, Unconventional Flying Objects: A Scientific Analysis, Hampton Roads, 1995, pp. 226–234; Peter A. Sturrock, “Composition

Analysis of the Brazil Magnesium,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 15, no. 1 (2001): 69–95; Pierre Kaufmann and Peter A. Sturrock, “On Events Possibly Related to the ‘Brazil Magnesium,’” Journal of Scientific Exploration 18, no. 2 (2004): 283–291; Clark III 1143 – 1155; Brazil 510– 517 ; Robert M. Powell, Michael D. Swords, Mark Rodeghier, and Phyllis Budinger, “Isotope Ratios and Chemical Analysis of the 1957 Brazilian Ubatuba Fragment,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 36, no. 1 (Spring 2022): 39–48) September — 3:00 p.m. Hélio Penteado and his foreman Zaca Sabiá are repairing a fence on Penteado’s farm in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil, when Sabiá’s dog begins growling at something in the mint field. They hear a loud, irritating sound and see a disc about 50 feet wide landing in the field and supported by three legs with spheres on the end that pierce the ground. Penteado goes closer to investigate and sees two beings about 4 feet tall leave the UFO wearing green coveralls. They seem to float along the ground and take a vessel from under the craft. One of them is carrying something like a gun or flamethrower. They pass through a fence on the way to a river. After 10 minutes the beings return with the vessel apparently full of river water. The entity with the flamethrower shoots it at a jacaranda tree and a eucalyptus tree, damaging their trunks. They reenter the object via the dome, which takes off toward the city. Back at his barn, Penteado notices that all his metallic tools are stacked in a cone, the birds are dead, his monkey is agitated, and his watch has stopped working. The same day, people observe a UFO over a hospital on the Avenida Julio Mesqita, where the object dumps two drops of liquid metal that falls in the street. The UFO goes so low that it hits the corner of a parked truck. An analysis of the metal by an unnamed organization (possibly the Brazilian Air Force) shows that the metal is high in magnesium. Penteado later goes to the landing site and takes plaster casts of the footprints, which he sends to the Agronomy Institute of Campinas. (“Caso do disco proximo de Campinas,” Boletim SBEDV, no. 14 (March 1, 1960): 1–3; Brazil 35–37) September 2 — After the Plumbbob Galileo nuclear shot at the Nevada Test Site, Army troops are tested to determine their psychological reactions to witnessing the nuclear detonation. (Wikipedia, “Desert Rock exercises”) September 4 — Four Portuguese jet fighter-bombers under the command of Capt. José Lemos Ferreira are flying at night at 24,600 feet between Ota, Portugal, and Granada, Spain. Near Granada they turn to head to Portalegre, Portugal. At this point, Ferreira notices a UFO like a bright star with a scintillating, colored nucleus that changes from deep green to blue. The object suddenly grows to 5 or 6 times its original size, then shrinks to a barely visible yellow point. These changes repeat several times, possibly due to changes in position. The UFO maintains its position 90 ° to the left of the squadron. Suddenly a small circle of yellow light emerges from the object and three smaller yellow objects appear, maneuver, then disappear. (NICAP, “Portuguese Air Force Jets Have 40-Min. Encounter / E-M”; Marciano Alves, “Air Force Pilots Spend 40 Minutes with Saucers,” Flying Saucer Review 4, no. 3 (May/June 1958): 2–3; Good Above, pp. 147– 148 ; Kean, p. 50) September 12 — NORAD’s command headquarters is established at Ent Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Canada and the United States agree that the NORAD commander will always be a US officer, with a Canadian vice commander, and Canada “agreed the command’s primary purpose would be…early warning and defense for SAC’s retaliatory forces.” Every continental US military radar UFO case in the Blue Book files from now on is a NORAD case because the subordinate USAF Air Defense Command belongs to NORAD. (Clark III 801; Wikipedia, “North American Aerospace Defense Command”) September 16 — ATIC briefs Howard P. Robertson, now chairman of the Defense Science Board, on Project Blue Book, presumably because he wants to find out how the Air Force is implementing the recommendations of the 1953 Robertson Panel. The briefing book (including Special Report no. 14 as well as reports on Keyhoe and the UFO movie) is delivered by the Pentagon’s Maj. James F. Byrne. (Swords 265–266) September 19 — The Plumbbob Rainier nuclear shot at the Nevada Test Site is the first fully contained underground nuclear test, meaning that no fission products are vented into the atmosphere. This test of 1.7 kilotons can be detected around the world by seismologists using ordinary seismic instruments. (Wikipedia, “Operation Plumbbob”) September 20 — 3:05 p.m. A national defense alert is called when the first of two or three supersonic objects, varying in speed for the next 30 minutes from 800 to 12,000 mph and varying in altitude from 50,000 to 135,000 feet, is picked up over the Atlantic by NORAD radar at Montauk, New York. A second (or same) UFO heads straight toward SAC headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, in what is perceived as a threat trajectory potentially aiming for a nuclear knockout kill of the entire US nuclear force. At 3:10 p.m., interception is attempted by two F-102 jets from Kinross AFB [now Chippewa County International Airport] south of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and later from Truax AFB [now Truax Field Air National Guard Base] northeast of Madison, Wisconsin. At 3:24 p.m., another UFO joins the first on a similar trajectory 150 miles behind. It passes over Ontario, Michigan, Illinois, and Iowa. The UFO sends radio replies to IFF interrogation signals, on different frequencies, confirming its location on the radar plots and making it impossible to explain as a malfunction or interference. Interception is impossible at these speeds and altitudes. SAC goes on high alert and apparently launches nuclear bombers toward

Russia, but the alert is called off when the UFOs disappear. NORAD triggers a White House alert. High-level meetings of CIA and USAF intelligence, and the Intelligence Advisory Committee meet in executive session. The CIA Director of the Office of Scientific Intelligence, Herbert Scoville Jr., suggests that the object might be a maneuverable Soviet cruise missile, but that is not yet in the Soviet inventory. President Eisenhower is briefed multiple times. One year later, NORAD still cannot identify any malfunction that could possibly make the radar targets agree with the IFF signals. (NICAP, “Multiple Radars Track 4,500 MPH Target”; Clark III 802–804, 814– 824; Sparks, pp. 249 – 250 ; Swords 266– 267 ) September 29 — 4:20 p.m. A nuclear waste storage tank explodes spontaneously at the Mayak plutonium production site (Chelyabinsk-40) for nuclear weapons and fuel reprocessing at Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It launches a kilometer-tall pillar of dust and smoke into the sky. Gray radioactive ash and debris settles over the industrial zone. There are no immediate fatalities, though up to 200+ additional cancer deaths perhaps ensue from the radioactive contamination of some 20,000 square miles; 270,000 people are exposed to dangerous radiation levels. Over 30 small communities are removed from Soviet maps between 1958 and 1991. (Wikipedia, “Kyshtym disaster”)

October — Leonard H. Stringfield privately publishes Inside Saucer Post…3 - 0 Blue that summarizes his early years as a UFO investigator and as director of Civilian Research, Interplanetary Flying Objects. (Leonard H. Stringfield, Inside Saucer Post…3 - 0 Blue, The Author, 1957) October — 10:00 p.m. Mrs. James Masterson and her sister Bernice Childers while driving see a reddish-orange disc, 30 feet in diameter, just above the treetops in Allen Park, Michigan. They chase it for a block or two before it streaks off. One of the women sees two figures wearing white Navy uniforms in a window on the lower section. (Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1957, p. 17; Clark III 2 68) October 4 — The USSR launches the first artificial earth satellite, Sputnik 1, which transmits radio pulses for 21 days. Some 4% of Americans claim to have seen Sputnik in orbit. However, what most are actually seeing is the 100- foot-long R-7 rocket core stage, outfitted with reflective panels that make it a first magnitude object, trailing 600 miles behind the 22-inch satellite until October 26 when the batteries run out. The satellite is barely visible at sixth magnitude. (Wikipedia, “Sputnik 1”; Walter N. Webb, “Allen Hynek As I Knew Him,” IUR 18, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1993): 7) October 4 — 10:00 a.m. A tadpole-like UFO is seen at Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. Afterwards, material like spider web falls in great profusion around Saguramachi Middle School for about 2 hours. Chemical analysis reveals that it is organic, dissolvable in hydrochloric acid, and burns. The crystal structure is different from spider web. (“Angel Hair,” Flying Saucer Review 4, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1958): 21; Robert N. Webster, “Things That Fall from UFO’s,” Fate 11, no. 10 (October 1958): 26; George M. Eberhart, “Postcards with a UFO Theme,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 21; Brian Boldman, “Angel Hair Physical Analyses: A Review,” JUFOS 9 (2006): 103; Clark III 124– 125 ) October 5 — 11:00 p.m. Antonio Villas-Boas gets up from bed on his family’s farm near São Francisco de Sales, Minas Gerais, Brazil, to open a window and notices a silvery reflection over the corral. After a short time, it moves towards the window. He and his brother watch as an object approaches and lights up the room. It disappears. (Clark III 1226) October 6 — 4:15 p.m. Amateur astronomer Earl Sydow spots a bright object with the magnitude of the planet Venus through his telescope over Tucson, Arizona. Six other observers also watch the object, which measures approximately 3 minutes in diameter along its major axis and 1 minute along its minor axis. Smaller flat-white or silver-white objects, as many as 6–10, seem to emerge from the primary object as observations continue. The smaller objects are apparently short traces of light at some times and semi-wedge-shaped at other times. The smaller objects disappear from the field of the telescope until only the original object is visible, and it disappears as if moving directly away. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 80) October 8 — Day. Four Fijians in a punt with an outboard motor off Nabouwalu, Viti Levu, Fiji, see a white, circular object, which is hovering about 20 feet above the ocean. They approach it. It appears to be revolving, and they can see the figure of a man standing on the outside. The figure shines a blinding light at their boat, which makes them feel dazed and weak. As they draw closer, the figure disappears and the object rises rapidly upward, disappearing straight up. R. O. Aveling, an official of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, sees a similar object at the same time but at a different location. It is hovering at about 5,000 feet and swinging in a balloon-like fashion. Its color varies from bright white to deep, flashing red. (“Fiji Reports Sighting Object Like Texas Saucer,” Honolulu (Hawaii) Advertiser, November 5, 1957, p. 1; “Strange Object Seen in South Pacific Skies,” Long Beach (Calif.) Press- Telegram, November 5, 1957, p. 3; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 81; Loren E. Gross, The

Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History, 1957, October 1st – November 2nd, The Author, 1997, p. 19; Patrick Gross, URECAT, February 16, 2007) October 9 — Evening. Fire ignites Windscale Pile Number One, an air-cooled, graphite-moderated, uranium-fueled reactor used for plutonium and isotope production at the Windscale facility [now Sellafield] in Cumbria, England. It burns for three days, and there is a release of radioactive iodine that spreads across the UK, contaminating surrounding dairy farms, as well as the rest of Europe. (Wikipedia, “Windscale fire”) October 9 — Night. Radio station CKOV in Kelowna, British Columbia, after reports on Sputnik, rebroadcasts Orson Welles’s 1938 War of the Worlds radio drama. Some 60 phone calls come in from listeners who think that Russians have landed in North America. (“Welles, ‘Moon,’ Terrify Town,” Windsor (Ont.) Star, October 10, 1957, p. 28) October 9 — 7:24 p.m. The tower operator at Naval Air Station South Weymouth [now the Shea Field Naval Aviation Historical Museum], Massachusetts, sights a constant, conical, greenish-blue object with a phosphorescent glow through binoculars. In sight approximately 90 seconds, the observer sees no navigation lights. It is traveling faster than a jet plane on a track from northeast to south-southwest. The object comes out of the horizon and toward the end of its path makes three “crazy” gyrations then vanishes, possibly behind cloud cover. The object has no trail like a meteor. (Walter N. Webb, “Allen Hynek As I Knew Him,” IUR 18, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1993): 7) October 10 — 4:00 a.m. A huge fireball plunges from the sky near Myton, Utah, just missing a US Navy DC-6 transport plane out of NAS Alameda [now closed], California, with 36 persons aboard. Pilot Lt. Cmdr. W. F. Norris reports the incident to Salt Lake City Airport. (“Big Fireball Perils Plane,” Oakland (Calif.) Tribune, October 10, 1957, p.

1. October 10 — The coffee truck driven by Miguel Espanhol Navarrete and his driver stalls northwest of Ceres near Quebra Coco, Goiás, Brazil, as a UFO lands nearby. They see an intense light as they begin a steep ascent, and then realize that the flying object appears to be more than 600 feet long. It lights up the entire area, even though it is gliding at a great height. The driver panics and tries to speed away, but the truck’s engine stalls as the object approaches and flies over the vehicle about 130 feet away. The object is about 3 feet in diameter by 40 inches high and is unevenly oval, with the upper section greater than the lower section. It looks like two superimposed plates separated by a strip 65 feet thick. When it is at an altitude of 20 feet, the UFO stops in the air and its light goes out. It lands, a door opens, and seven apparently human people come out dressed in luminous suits. Then the crew reenters the UFO and takes off, stopping at about 1,650 feet altitude. At that moment a smaller object detaches itself from the larger one and flies north. The larger object follows in a southeasterly direction. Navarrete is interviewed by Judge Gabriel Barbosa de Andrade, then-Secretary of the Interior and justice of the State of Goiás; Joaquim Neves Pereira; and Antenor Gomes, then-Secretary of Public Security for Goiás. (Lorenzen, Occupants, Signet, 1967, pp. 192– 193 ; Clark III 230; “Caso Ceres,” Portal Fenomenum, June 15, 2016; Patrick Gross, URECAT, October 17, 2006; Brazil 40–41) October 12 — 9:15 p.m. Many witnesses see a luminous oval object pass over Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, at great speed. The same or a similar object is seen at Coro at 9:25 p.m. and at Trujillo at 12:00 midnight. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 82) October 14 — 7:00 p.m. The Naval Air Station North Island tower in San Diego, California, directs a Navy S2F-1Tracker anti-submarine aircraft toward a bright light over Point Loma. The aircraft, piloted by Lt. Allen L. Ries, tracks the UFO on airborne radar at some points suddenly moving at 1,700 mph average speed (3,500 mph at peak) and 1,100 mph average relative to the aircraft’s (peak 2,200 mph). Radar indicates the object is about 12 miles ahead. After 3 minutes the aircraft loses the object visually and on radar. Blue Book explains this as the star Arcturus, which is in the wrong direction in the sky, then changes the explanation to a balloon. (NICAP, [Blue Book documents]; Clark III 389–390) October 14 — Around 9:30 p.m. Antonio Villas-Boas and another brother are plowing and see a bright object hovering 300 feet in the air. He approaches it, but it evades him and disappears. (Clark III 1226– 1227 ) October 15 — Afternoon. Robert Moudy sees a glowing object hovering above his combine in Franklin County, Indiana, at about 1,500 feet. It appears to be silver and platter-shaped, perhaps 12 feet in diameter, with a pink flame coming from its base. It makes a loud whirring noise as it hovers. When it starts ascending at a 22° angle, its color changes from pink to light blue and the combine stops working. He notices two stalled cars on a nearby road. (“Indiana Farmer Says ‘Whatsit’ Was Overhead,” Indianapolis News, November 5, 1957, p. 17) October 16 — 1:00 a.m. Antonio Villas-Boas is plowing alone near São Francisco de Sales, Minas Gerais, Brazil, when a red, egg-shaped object appears above him. His tractor motor and lights fail. It lands nearby and something grabs him as he tries to run away. Three small figures bring him into the object, where he is subjected to tests and made to have sex twice with an odd-looking woman. Afterwards, she points to her belly then points to the sky. Then he is given a tour of the craft and taken outside again around 5:30 a.m. (“The A.V.B. Contact Case,” Boletim

SBEDV, no. 26/27 (Apr./July 1962): 7–9; Gordon Creighton, “The Most Amazing Case of All, Part 1: A Brazilian Farmer’s Story,” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1965): 13–17; Gordon Creighton, “The Most Amazing Case of All, Part 2: Analysis of the Brazilian Farmer’s Story,” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1965): 5–8; Gordon Creighton, “Postscript to the Most Amazing Case of All,” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1965): 24–26; Gordon Creighton, “Even More Amazing…: Further Light on the A.V.B. Case,” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1966): 23–27; Gordon Creighton, “Even More Amazing…Part 2: The A.V.B. Case Continued,” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1966): 22–25; Gordon Creighton, “Even More Amazing…Part III,” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1966): 14–16; Gordon Creighton, “Even More Amazing…Part IV,” Flying Saucer Review 13, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1967): 25–27; Olavo T. Fontes, “Even More Amazing…Part V,” Flying Saucer Review 13, no. 3 (May/June 1967): 22–25; Gordon Creighton, “Even More Amazing…Part VI: The Medical Report,” Flying Saucer Review 14, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1968): 18–20; Lorenzen, Occupants, Signet, 1967, pp. 42– 72 ; “Brazil: New Light on a Sexual Abduction,” IUR/Probe, Sept. 1980, p. 79; Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 56–59; Brazil 41–47; Clark III 1227–1229; Mark Cashman, “Behavioral Classification System for UFO Occupants,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 19 ) October 16 — Day. Nurse Ella Louise Fortune is driving north of Tularosa, New Mexico, when she sees a brilliant-white, elliptical object hovering in a deep-blue sky. It seems to have a faint exhaust trail at one edge. She stops her car and snaps a 35mm Kodachrome photo. Analysts generally agree this is a bright lenticular cloud with a trail of ice crystals. (Walter N. Webb, “The Fortune Photo Revisited,” IUR 18, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1993): 14–15) October 16 — Evening. Former Australian Air Marshal George Jones and his wife see a round object like a “flying balloon” moving silently at the speed of a jet over their home in Mentone, Victoria, Australia. It moves from south to north at an altitude of 1,000–1,500 feet. (George Jones, “Former Air Chief Sees Saucers,” Flying Saucer Review 4, no. 3 (May/June 1958): 6) October 21 — 9:18 p.m. Flying Officer D. W. Sweeney is flying a Meteor jet at 28,000 feet on a training exercise from RAF North Luffenham [now St. George’s Barracks] when he nearly collides with an unidentified object over RAF Gaydon [now closed], North Warwickshire, England. After taking evasive action, Sweeney tries to approach the object, whereupon its six lights go out and it disappears. The UFO is tracked on radar at RAF Langtoft [now closed] in South Kesteven. (“UFO over British A-Bomber Base: Air Ministry Baffled,” Flying Saucer Review 4, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1958): 6; Good Above, pp. 50– 51 ) October 22 — The US Continental Army Command sends a memo to the Army Chief of Research and Development indicating its interest in the flying saucer concept and requesting initiation of a feasibility study of a “manned flying saucer.” (Richard P. Weinert, History of Army Aviation, 1950 – 1962, US Army Training and Doctrine Command, November 1976, pp. 220– 221 ) October 25 — On a farm near Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a housekeeper (pseudonym = Anazia Maria) is taking care of a family member who is dying of stomach cancer. She claims that two diminutive, long-haired beings emerge from a landed UFO, come inside the house, examine the girl for an hour with a device that looks like a flashlight, communicate telepathically to the family, cure the girl, and leave behind some medication to give her. (Olavo T. Fontes, “Dying Girl Saved by Humanoid Surgeons,” Flying Saucer Review 13, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1967): 5 – 6) October 30 — 9:00 p.m. Hugh Pulju and Shirley Moyer are driving 10 miles north of Casper, Wyoming, when a round, shiny object appears in the road about 250 feet ahead. Pulju tries to turn around, but the engine keeps stalling. It works well once he reaches a main highway. (“‘Mystery Object’ Is Reported Here,” Casper (Wyo.) Tribune- Herald, November 5, 1957, p. 1; Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, pp. 237–238; Schopick, p. 24) October 31 — Keyhoe meets with Rep. James C. Healey again, who tells him the Air Force has “made a strong attempt to disprove your claims.” (Keyhoe, FSTS, p. 113) October 31 — A businessman and his wife at Longchaumois, Jura, France, see a large lighted object with openings. It hovers close to the ground and takes off with a great increase in brightness, silently, at high speed. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957, October 1st – November 2nd, The Author, 1997, p. 83) October 31 — 8:00 p.m. Barbara Jean Stokes, her husband Paul, and another couple are driving in Lumberton, North Carolina, when they spot an object about 200 feet long in the sky. Suddenly the object rises straight up and flames. As this happens, the car stalls until the object disappears a few seconds later. (“Woman Says She Saw Ball of Fire on Road,” Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, November 5, 1957, p. 1) Late October — Late one afternoon, a British RAF team is planning to return home from the Maralinga, South Australia, nuclear test site where the Operation Antler series of blasts have occurred (September 14, 25, October 9). They go outside and see a silvery-blue, metallic UFO with a flat base and a dome on top. Several squarish portholes are

visible around the center. The object tilts at 45° and hovers. After 15 minutes, the UFO shoots up out of sight
without a sound. One of the witnesses is Derek Murray, later a Home Office photographer. (Bill Chalker, “The
UFO Connection: Startling Implications for Australia’s North West Cape, and for Australia’s Security,” Flying
Saucer Review 31, no. 5 (July 1986): 18–19; Jenny Randles, UFO Conspiracy, Cassell, 1987, pp. 94– 95 ; Good
Above, p. 163)

November — Lt. Gen. John A. Samford succeeds Maj. Gen. Ralph Canine as director of the National Security Agency. November — Gene Duplantier launches the quarterly magazine Saucers, Space, and Science in Willowdale, Ontario. It continues through 1972. (Saucers, Space & Science, no. 1 (November 1957)) November 1 — 9:15 a.m. More than 50 workers at the Luipaardsvlei mine near Krugersdorp, Gauteng, South Africa, watch two UFOs hanging motionless in the air at a great height until the afternoon. A Sabre jet from the South African Air Force is sent up to investigate. It climbs to 45,000 feet, but the objects are still above it. One of the witnesses is Maj. G. Ogilvie-Watson, from an ACF squadron at Pretoria. They move off at great speed. (“Jet Unable to Reach UFO,” Flying Saucer Review 4, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1958): 2; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957, October 1st – November 2nd, The Author, 1997, p. 85) November 2 — 3:30 a.m. Three miles west of Canadian, Texas, S/Sgt. Alfred A. Calvin and a civilian witness see a submarine-shaped object, red and white, about 40–60 feet long and about 10 feet high, at ground level. A figure is near the object holding a white flag. When he stops the car, a flash of light from the object coincides with the sudden failure of the headlights. (NICAP, “Submarine-Shaped UFO, Entity, E-M Case”; Sparks, p. 253; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 11– 12 ) November 2 — 8:30 p.m. A witness is driving between Seminole and Seagraves, Texas, on US Highway 62 when he sees lights on the road ahead. As he approaches them, his headlights go out and his engine dies. A few seconds later, the lights rise into the air and disappear. (Hobbs (N.Mex.) News-Sun, November 5, 1957; Schopick, p. 25) November 2 — 10:50 p.m. Farmhand and veteran Pedro Saucedo and Joe Salaz are driving four miles west of Levelland, Texas, on Route 116 [now 114] south of Pettit (near its intersection with Five Mile Road). They see a flash of light to the right of the road. Then a 200-foot-long, 6-foot-wide blue rocket-shaped object, with yellow flame and white smoke coming from the rear, rises up out of the field, heads straight toward their truck, passes directly overhead at about 200 feet with a loud thundering roar, a rush of wind, and great heat. Their truck engine dies and the headlights to go out. The UFO disappears in the east towards Levelland. The lights come back on spontaneously and the engine restarts. A frightened Saucedo calls the occurrence in to Patrolman A. J. Fowler of the Levelland sheriff’s office. At Pettit, Texas, the same night, two grain combines, each with two engines, fail as a UFO passes overhead. The Air Force calls the Levelland sightings ball lightning or St. Elmo’s fire, even though there are no electrical storms in the area. Donald Menzel calls it a mirage. (Wikipedia, “Levelland UFO case”; NICAP, “The Levelland Sightings / Saucedo”; “Whatnik Sidelines Sputnik, Woofnik,” Fort Worth (Tex.) Star- Telegram, November 4, 1957, pp. 1–2; “The Levelland Case,” APRO Bulletin, November 1957, p. 1; “Did the Air Force Deceive the Public about the November Sightings?” UFO Investigator 1, no. 3 (January 1958): 1, 3; Schopick, pp. 26– 27 , 32; Clark III 683– 684 ; UFOEv, p. 168; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 141 – 142 , 146 – 147 ; Sparks, p. 253; Walter N. Webb, “Allen Hynek As I Knew Him,” IUR 18, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1993): 8; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 67– 70 ; “Levelland 1957,” Texas UFO Museum & Research Library, March 15, 2002; Donald R. Burleson, “Levelland, Texas, 1957: Case Reopened,” IUR 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 4; Antonio F. Rullán, “The Southwestern UFO Wave of 1957,” IUR 31, no. 3 (October 2007): 8–15, 22; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 1 2 – 16 , 43– 55 , 128– 136 , 150– 152 , 215– 217 , 234) November 2 — 11:55 p.m. Two married couples driving near Shallowater, Texas, see a flash of orange light in the southwestern sky. The headlights and radio of their car fail for three seconds as they see the light. The car motor is not affected. (Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 9 ; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 16, 220– 221 ) November 2 — About midnight. José Alvarez is driving along Route 51 in Whitharral, Texas, when he comes across a 200 - foot-long object sitting in the road. His car engine stops as he approaches, and the headlights go out. At that point, the object rises quickly into the air. (UFOEv, p. 168; Schopick, pp. 27–28; Donald R. Burleson, “Levelland, Texas, 1957: Case Reopened,” IUR 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 4; Randle, Levelland, 2021, p. 19) November 2 — About midnight. Jim Wheeler sees a 200-foot-long, egg-shaped, brightly lit object on Route 114 four miles east of Levelland, Texas. As he gets close to it, his engine and lights cease functioning. He gets out of his car as the light ascends; its lights blink out, and his engine and lights resume functioning. (UFOEv, p. 168; Schopick, p. 27; Donald R. Burleson, “Levelland, Texas, 1957: Case Reopened,” IUR 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 4; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 17– 18 )

November 3 — 12:05 a.m. Texas Tech college student Newell H. Wright is driving west one mile west of Smyer, Texas, when the ammeter gauge on his car dashboard starts fluctuating widely. The car motor gradually goes out then the headlights and radio die. He gets out to check and sees a white or aluminum-colored, oval-shaped object flat on the bottom like a loaf of bread, with a bluish-green tint, about 75–125 feet long. After a few minutes, the object suddenly rises up from the road ahead and ascends almost vertically at great speed slightly to the north, disappearing in seconds. Afterward the car can start again. (NICAP, “Oval-Shaped Object & EME on Ammeter”; UFOEv, p. 168; Schopick, pp. 28–29; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, p. 143; Sparks, p. 254; Donald R. Burleson, “Levelland, Texas, 1957: Case Reopened,” IUR 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 4; Swords 253 – 256 ; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 16– 17 , 212– 214 ) November 3 — 12:15 a.m. Frank Williams, a farmer, is near Whitharral, Texas, when he encounters an object described as an egg sitting on the crossroads. The UFO pulsates steadily; each time it glows bright, the car’s power goes on and off. The object leaves with a thunderous sound. (UFOEv, p. 168; Schopick, pp. 29–30; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 143 – 144 ; Donald R. Burleson, “Levelland, Texas, 1957: Case Reopened,” IUR 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 4; Randle, Levelland, 2021, p. 17) November 3 — 12:45 a.m. Ronald Martin is on Highway 116 near Smyer, Texas, when he sees a glowing red UFO land ahead of his truck, then turn to bluish-green. The truck’s electrical system fails. When the UFO takes off, it turns reddish again. (UFOEv, p. 168; Schopick, pp. 30–31; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, p. 144 ; Donald R. Burleson, “Levelland, Texas, 1957: Case Reopened,” IUR 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 4; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 18 – 19 ) November 3 — Around 1:00 a.m. Levelland (Texas) Fire Marshall Ray Jones, while out driving around and looking for some explanation of the many UFO reports, sees a “streak of light” north of the Oklahoma Flat. His headlights dim and engine sputters as he sees the light. (UFOEv, p. 168; Schopick, p. 32; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 145 – 146 ); Randle, Levelland, 2021, p. 21) November 3 — 1:15 a.m. James Long is 5 miles northwest of Levelland, Texas, on a farm-to-market road. He reports a bright object that is egg or oval-shaped, about 200 feet long, 200 feet away, sitting in the road. He hears a “thunderclap.” The car’s lights and motor quit. The object rises quickly and speeds away. (UFOEv, p. 168; Schopick, p. 31; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 144 – 145 ; Randle, Levelland, 2021, p. 19) November 3 — 1:30 a.m. Near the same spot as James Long, Hockley County (Texas) Sheriff Weir Clem and Pat McCullough see a flash of light “like a brilliant red sunset” 300–400 yards to the south of them, lighting up the pavement. (UFOEv, p. 168; Schopick, pp. 31–32; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 145 – 146 ; Donald R. Burleson, “Levelland, Texas, 1957: Case Reopened,” IUR 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 4; Randle, Levelland, 2021 , pp. 19– 21 , 170– 181 , 218– 219 ) November 3 — About 3:00 a.m. Two MPs at White Sands Missile Test Range, New Mexico, Cpl. Glenn H. Toy and Pfc. James E. Wilbanks are making rounds in their jeep when they notice a bright object high in the sky. It drops down to about 150 feet and the light goes out. A few minutes later the light goes on again and it drops to the ground in a bunker area 3 miles away and goes out. The UFO is egg-shaped and about 225–300 feet in diameter. (NICAP, “Three MPs Report Object over White Sands Base”; Schopick, pp. 37–38; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957 November 3rd – 5th, The Author, 1997, p. 6; UFOEv, p. 169; Sparks, p. 254 ; Swords 259; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 23– 27 ) November 3 — 7:00 p.m. Edna Ireland is driving with two friends near Sibbald, Alberta, when a blinking light appears in the sky and passes nearly above the car toward the northwest. Their engine coughs and the headlights flicker. (Winnipeg (Man.) Tribune, November 7, 1957; Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, p. 239; Schopick, pp. 42– 43 ) November 3 — 8:00 p.m. Army Specialist 3rd Class Henry R. Barlow and Specialist 3rd Class Forest R. Oakes, Army Garrison Detachment 5, are in a jeep patrol driving west near the site of the first A-bomb explosion, Trinity Site, in White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico. They see a pulsating red light thar turns to white, possibly 200– 300 feet in size and 4 – 5 miles away. It brightens and dims then sometimes goes out, rising in the sky from the ground or from about 50 feet over the bunker up to about 45° elevation until it looks like a star or point source. They watch it for 25 minutes before it disappears. Possibly Venus in the southwest, which sets at about 8:30 p.m. (Sparks, p. 254; Schopick, p. 38; Randle, Levelland, 2021,pp. 27– 31 ) November 3 — The USSR launches Sputnik 2 carrying Laika the dog. (Wikipedia, “Sputnik 2”) November 4 — Portuguese Air Force Capt. Lenos Ferreira is conducting a training mission at the head of three jet fighters over Grenada, Spain, when he observes a luminous object changing color from an intense green to bright red. The object maintains a constant altitude while oscillating. Ferreira orders a change of course toward Córdoba, but the object follows his group for 40 minutes, dropping four smaller objects that also accompany the jets. Suddenly the objects go into a dive and disappear. (Patrick Gross, “UFO Chasing Jet Fighter Squadron, Lisbon, 1957”)

November 4 — After 12:00 midnight. A young couple are returning to Amarillo, Texas, from Palo Duro Canyon when they see a glowing object in the middle of the road, surrounded by fog. As they drive closer and enter the fog, the car engine and battery die. Another car has to push them into town to get the battery recharged. (Amarillo (Tex.) Daily News, November 4, 1957; Schopick, pp. 43–44) November 4 — 1:30 a.m. Chief Pilot Captain Jean Vincent de Beyssac and his copilot are flying a Varig Airlines C- 46 cargo plane from Porto Alegre to São Paulo, Brazil. They are near Araranguá, Santa Catarina, when de Beyssac notices a red light on his left. It seems to be getting bigger, so he banks towards it out of curiosity. The light gets much bigger then begins to glow more brilliantly. The pilot and copilot smell smoke and, as they are looking for the source, the light disappears. De Beyssac returns to Porto Alegre. It turns out that the right engine’s magneto (or generator), automatic direction finder, and the radio (both receiver and transmitter) have burnt out, allegedly simultaneously. (NICAP, “Aircraft Encounters UFO / ADF, etc. Affected”; Olavo T. Fontes, “Top Secret Report Unveiled,” APRO Bulletin, September 1959, pp. 5–6; Lorenzen, FS Hoax, p. 155; Schopick, pp. 126–127; Patrick Gross, “UFO / Aircraft Close Encounter in Brazil, 1957”) November 4 — 2:00 a.m. Two sentries at the Fortaleza de Itaipu in Praia Grande, São Paulo, Brazil, watch an orange object approaching the fort. It holds its course until it is directly above them. Its diameter is at least as large as the wingspan of a DC-3 and scarcely 300 feet away. Suddenly there is a strange buzzing noise and the men feel a wave of glowing heat. One of them collapses on the spot, but the other succeeds in reaching safety in the shadow of the gun emplacements. His shouts of alarm rouse his comrades inside the fort, where the lights suddenly go out. In the meantime, the emergency power is switched on but immediately gives out. Only a few minutes after the alarm, two other men are out of the fort and at their sides. They too see the UFO, which is now heading out to sea. It leaves a luminous trail as it shoots away across the Atlantic. The two sentries are taken to a hospital in Rio de Janeiro. They suffer second and third-degree burns on large areas of their body, chiefly in areas covered by clothing. Afterwards, Brazilian Army and USAF personnel, along with investigators of the Brazilian Air Force, fly to the fort to interview them. There is some reason to think that Olavo T. Fontes made this case up, as no first- hand witnesses to the event have come forward. (NICAP, “Fort Itaipu Incident”; Wikipedia, “Caso do Forte de Itaipu”; Olavo T. Fontes, “Top Secret Report Unveiled,” APRO Bulletin, September 1959, pp. 6–7; Jules Lemaître, “A Strange Story from Brazil,” Flying Saucer Review 6, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1960): 9–11; Schopick, pp. 135 – 140; Kevin D. Randle, “Fort Itaipu and Footnotes,” A Different Perspective, October 12, 2014; Kevin D. Randle, “Fort Itaipu and Olavo Fontes Revisited,” A Different Perspective, June 15, 2016; Clark 537) November 4 — 3:12 a.m. At Elmwood Park, Illinois, three policemen (Clifford Shaw, Joseph Lukasek, and Dan Diglovanni) see a bright cigar-shaped object in the sky. The headlights and spotlight on the squad car dim. The car chases the UFO for a mile and a half, which dips and rises before speeding off. Fireman Bob Volz also sees a reddish-orange UFO about the same time. (NICAP, “Bright Cylinder Chased by Police, E-M Effects”; Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, p. 239; Keyhoe, FSTS, p. 117; Schopick, pp. 90 – 91 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957 November 3rd – 5th, The Author, 1997, pp. 22– 27 ; Sparks, p. 255) November 4 — 1:10 p.m. James W. Stokes, electronics technician at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, is driving on US 54 about 8 miles south of Orogrande, New Mexico. The car radio fades, and the car slows as if the battery is failing. Stokes notices 6–12 cars ahead of him have also stopped and drivers are out looking at the sky (looking behind him to the northeast), including a Mr. Duncan and Allan D. Baker. Stokes stops and gets out, sees a pearl-white oval or egg-shaped object about 500 feet wide with a slight purplish tinge heading south at an estimated speed of 1,500–2,000 mph. It is below the elevation angle of the Sacramento Mountains ridgeline, descending from about 5,000 feet above ground level in a shallow dive to about 1,500–2,500 feet altitude as it swerves to pass to the south of Stokes and the other stopped cars. At its closest it is about 2–5 miles away. It then circles around headed west and disappears. The same or another object appears in the northeast (as if the object has completely circled) and performs the same rounded course but passing farther to the south of the parked cars and disappears in the west. Duncan takes a 35mm film of the object. Stokes notices a wave of heat from the object at closest approach. Later that evening he is sunburned, but it clears up the next day. The Air Force calls it a hoax based on the Levelland sightings. (NICAP, “Stokes Incident”; “The New Mexico Story,” APRO Bulletin, November 1957, pp. 1 – 2; L. J. Lorenzen, “The Stokes Case,” APRO Bulletin, January 1958, pp. 2, 6; UFOEv, p. 169; Schopick, pp. 39 – 42; Sparks, p. 255; Swords 256– 259 ; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 32 – 42 , 228) November 4 — 7:30 p.m. A Texas state border inspector is driving 3 miles southeast of El Paso Airport in Texas when his car engine stalls and the headlights go dim then out. He gets out and notices an object approaching that is making a whirring sound like an artillery shell. It passes above his car at about 150 feet, heading west and changing altitude occasionally. When it gets to the Franklin Mountains, it lifts into the air vertically. (NICAP, “Egg-Shaped Object Stalls Car”; Hynek UFO Report, p. 181)

November 4 — 10:00 p.m. Jan Boucher, a policeman in Kodiak, Alaska, sees a red ball of fire with a greenish-yellow trail as he is patrolling on Mission Road. It apparently moves 50 feet above a nearby school. He tries to radio in a report but his radio gets interference for 2 minutes after the sighting. (Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News, November 7, 1957; Schopick, pp. 89–90) November 4 — 10:45 p.m. CAA air traffic controllers R. M. Kaser and E. G. Brink see a highly maneuverable 15– 20 - foot egg-shaped object with a white light at its base circle over one end of Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at 150–200 mph. It comes down in a steep 30° dive as if landing on Runway 26 to the north of the tower at about 1,500 feet. Radar tracks part of this maneuver. The object then crosses the flight line, runways, and taxiways heading towards the tower at about 50 mph and 20–30 feet above ground, observed through 7x binoculars until it reaches about 3,000 feet near the northeast corner of the flood-lit restricted Manzano Nuclear Weapons Storage Area and a B-58 bomber service site. It hovers for 20–60 seconds, then heads east again at about 200–300 feet altitude. Suddenly it shoots up in a steep climb. Controllers contact Radar Approach Control, which tracks the object on CPN-18 radar traveling east, then turning south, circling the Albuquerque Low Frequency Range Station. It then heads north, disappearing at 10 miles and reappearing 20 minutes later to follow 1/2 mile behind a USAF C-46 that has just taken off to the south. It continues for 14 miles until both go off the scope. A hovering radar target then appears to the north over an outer marker for 90 seconds before fading. (Wikipedia, “Kirtland AFB UFO sighting”; NICAP, “Kirtland UFO Incident / Radar Case”; Sparks, p. 256 ; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 87– 90 ; Condon, pp. 141– 143 ; James E. McDonald, “The Kirtland Airfield UFO,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1970): 6–8; Swords 259–260) November 5 — 5:10 a.m. The US Coast Guard Cutter Sebago (WHEC-42), Commander Clarence H. Waring Jr., cruising in the Gulf of Mexico about 200 miles south of Mobile, Alabama, tracks a radar target at a range of 22 miles moving at 650 mph. It disappears at 55 miles range. Three other unusual radar contacts are made in the next 10 minutes. A visual object like a brilliant planet is seen at 5:21 a.m. speeding north to south for five seconds by Ensign Wayne Schotley, Lt. Donald E. Shaffer, 1stClass Quartermaster Kenneth Smith, and radio operator Thomas Kirk. The Air Force ascribes it to confused radar operators who mistake ordinary plane blips for a UFO. (NICAP, “The Coast Guard Cutter Sebago Case”; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957 November 3rd – 5th, The Author, 1997, pp. 50–51; Condon, pp. 165– 167 ; Sparks, p. 256; Swords 260 – 262) November 5 — Late afternoon. Grain buyer Reinhold O. Schmidt is driving through the countryside near Kearney, Nebraska, when he notices a large, cigar-shaped object resting in a field. He is soon escorted inside the spaceship, which turns out to be crewed by completely human-looking space aliens, four males and two females, who apparently speak perfect German and claim to be from the planet Saturn. They also claim to be interested in the recently launched Russian sputniks and the satellite-launching plans of the US. Later Schmidt brings local police to view the landing site, where they find deep imprints and some “mysterious green residue.” Schmidt also claims subsequent visits to the spaceship and many friendly conversations with its learned crew. Schmidt notices they drink MJB brand coffee, and also carry in their cigar-shaped craft an ordinary terrestrial MG sports car, which they use for running errands and buying groceries. (A schematic drawing of the ship’s interior in Schmidt’s later booklet depicts a Volkswagen Beetle.) Unlike most spaceships, the Saturnian ship has large propellers at both ends. Eventually Schmidt gets a ride up to earth orbit and a tour of the mother ship. On October 26, 1961, Schmidt is convicted in Oakland, California, for grand theft after bilking a widow out of $5,000 for a worthless mining venture in Tulare County, where he claims to have seen huge quartz crystals from a spaceship. Judge Donald K. Quayle sentences him to 1–10 years in prison. (Clark III 1038–1039; Swords 262; Curt Collins, “The Trial of a UFO Gold Digger,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, August 27, 2020) November 5 — The Department of Defense Office of Public Affairs issues a new UFO fact sheet, emphasizing the high percentage of explained cases and the lack of a threat to national security. (UFOEv, p. 107; Swords 262) November 5 — 6:30 p.m. Larry and Marilynn Beaman are driving near Antioch, Illinois, when they notice a ball of fire fluctuating from white to yellow pacing their car on the right side, about 1,000 feet up. It goes out for a time then switches back on. At its largest, it seems 30 feet in diameter. It follows them all the way to Ringwood and then lands in some trees behind a school building two blocks from where they live. It glitters like a welder’s arc and makes a sound like water swishing. Beaman rounds up some other witnesses and goes back to the landing site, but the object takes off, changes to purple, and moves away to the southwest. TV sets in town dim, finally losing both picture and sound during the same time period. (Schopick, pp. 104 – 109) November 5 — 8:43 p.m. A witness in Woodstock, Illinois, sees a large, red, triangular object with a green light in the front and a yellow light in the rear. It makes a low droning sound and moves west to east. Woodstock police officers and another individual in Genoa City see the same object. At 10:15 p.m., an amber or orange UFO 200

feet long is seen for 5 minutes at Delavan, Wisconsin. Project Blue Book claims it is an aurora or jet aircraft. (Marler 131– 132 ) November 5 — 9:30 p.m. Civil service employee Lon Yarborough is driving along US Highway 81 about 1.5 miles southwest of San Antonio, Texas, when he sees an extremely bright object settle down in a ravine about 600 feet from him. The egg-shaped object is approximately 60 foot long and causes the lights and engine of his car to fail. The object rests a few minutes and finally takes off to the northeast. (San Antonio (Tex.) Light, November 6, 1957; NICAP, “60ʹ Egg-Shaped Object Disables Auto”; Schopick, pp. 44–45) November 5 — 11:00 p.m. Two young men see a red light north of US Highway 62 at a point 38 miles west of Hobbs, New Mexico. They watch for 9–10 minutes, thinking it is an oil flare, but the light suddenly rises straight up. After pacing their car for a few minutes, the light turns toward the car, passes over it, and hovers over the Permian Basin Pipeline plant. As it passes overhead, the car engine sputters, then dies, and the lights go out. After the men coast the car down the road, the motor restarts and they drive away. The battery is found to be dead the following morning and the dashboard clock is stopped. (Schopick, pp. 45– 47 ; Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 12) November 6 — Just after 12:00 midnight. A taxicab company owner, Joe Martinez, and one of his drivers, Alberto Gallegos, sees a UFO approach them in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They hear a humming sound as it comes close. The object is egg-shaped and multicolored. As it passes over their car, the engine stalls and the dashboard clock stops. The UFO then pulls up and moves rapidly into the southeast. One witness later discovers that his wristwatch has also stopped at the time of sighting. (Aimé Michel, Straight Line, pp. 246–247; Schopick, pp. 47– 48; Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 12) November 6 — 4:30 a.m. William Rush II is driving on Long Point Road in Houston, Texas. A brilliant red, egg-shaped UFO kills his car engine and causes static on his radio. (Houston (Tex.) Chronicle, November 6, 1957; Schopick, p. 48) November 6 — 5:40 a.m. Richard Kehoe is driving along Vista Del Mar in Playa Del Rey, California, when his engine fails. Two other cars on the highway are also affected, and the drivers (Ronald Burke and Joe Thomas) all get out. They see an egg-shaped object that seems to be wrapped in a blue haze. It is tan or cream-colored and has two metallic rings around it. Two smallish men, about 5 feet 5 inches tall and wearing black leather pants, a white belt, and a light-colored jersey, exit the object. They ask Kehoe and the others where they are and what time it is in something approaching English. They walk back to the object, which takes off. After it leaves, Kehoe’s car starts with no problem. (Lorenzen, Flying Saucer Occupants, Signet, 1967, pp. 126– 127 ) November 6 — 6:30 a.m. Everett Orain Clark, 12 , of Dante, Knoxville, Tennessee, lets his dog Frisky outside and sees an object like an elongated egg in a field 300 feet away from his house. 20 minutes later, he calls to bring the dog back and sees Frisky with other dogs on the other side of the road close to the object. Clark walks toward the UFO and sees two men and women, apparently dressed in a normal manner. One of the men tries to catch Frisky who grunts and moves away. They are speaking in a foreign language that sounds like German to him. The four people go into the craft by seemingly walking right through the wall. Journalist Carson Brewer goes back to the site with Clark and finds an “oblong ring of pressed grass” 24 feet by 4.5 feet. In the afternoon, two men from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (engineer Wallace Russell Gambill and physicist N. D. Greene) collect soil samples and check for radiation (they find none). (“Scientists Check ‘Space Ship’ Field,” Knoxville (Tenn.) News-Sentinel, November 7, 1957, pp. 1, 12; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957 November 6th, The Author, 1997, pp. 17–19; Clark III 672– 6 73; Patrick Gross, URECAT, August 17, 2006) November 6 — US scientists are “pretty shook up” about the recent UFO sightings, according to astronomer Charles F. “Chick” Capen in the November 7 El Paso Times. However, Capen talks more about missile launches and lunar photography than UFO sightings. (“Sighting ‘Shakes’ Scientists,” El Paso (Tex.) Times, November 7, 1957, p. 21; “El Pasoans Take Look at Sputnik,” El Paso (Tex.) Times, November 7, 1957, pp. 1, 3; Swords 264) November 6 — 5:00 p.m. Two Malay fisherman are in a waterway near Bagansiapiapi, Sumatra, Indonesia, when they see a black and red object swiftly approaching their boat and trailing black and greenish smoke. The top and bottom of the object are curved like discs. When it is 60 feet away it stops in mid-air about 35 feet above the water, and the bottom part continues to rotate as the water foams below it. The object is a triangular shape and white smoke is coming out from each point. The object speeds up and disappears, leaving behind black and greenish smoke lines. (Marler 133) November 6 — Early evening. Varine “Rene” Gilham sees a brilliant object radiating a strong red light as he is using an outhouse on his farm near Merom, Indiana. The whole farm and surrounding area are bathed in the light for 10 minutes. A small object joins the larger one and the light grows more intense. The two objects fly away. The next day, Gilham has “sunburn” in many places. Two days later he is admitted to a hospital for treatment. (NICAP, “Merom/Gilham Incident”; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957

November 6th, The Author, 1997, pp. 67, 72–73. Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957 November 6th, Supplemental Notes, The Author, 2003, pp. 6 – 7; Michael D. Swords, “Messing Around with the Force,” IUR 31 , no. 4 (March 2008): 30) November 6 — 8:02 p.m. Six people in Toronto, Ontario, watch a yellow-white light travel silently from south to north across the eastern sky. One experiences static on his TV set as the object passes, slower than a meteor. (Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, pp. 248–249; Schopick, pp. 80–81) November 6 — Night. Two state policemen in Danville, Illinois, observe a brilliant white light that changes color successively to amber and orange. They chase it for 15 miles because the light appears to be low in the sky. During the chase, their communications radio does not function. The light eventually flies out of sight. (“2 State Troopers See ‘Object,’” Hammond (Ind.) Times, November 7, 1957, p. 12; Schopick, pp. 91–92) November 6 — 9:00 p.m. Jacques Jacobsen and three others are in a hunting lodge on the Baskatong Reservoir, Quebec, listening to a battery-powered radio. Outside, they see a glowing, yellow-white sphere 2–3 miles away to the southwest. It remains in place for 15 minutes. During this time the radio goes off, and one of the men’s shortwave radios is working on only one frequency that emits a strong, rapidly modulated tone that sounds like, but is not, Morse code. The UFO rises into the clouds and the radios function normally again. (Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, pp. 248 – 249 ; Schopick, pp. 79–80; Randle, Levelland, 2021, p. 114) November 6 — 9:43 p.m. Kenneth J. Delano, who is participating in aurora and meteor watches for the International Geophysical Year, is observing the sky at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland, when he sees a brilliant white light in the northwest. He watches it approach until it is nearly overhead. Then a faint, silvery-gray, elliptical disc is visible for a few seconds above the light. It is silent, except for a faint whirring sound. He watches it for a total of 4 minutes until it passes behind some buildings. (Kenneth J. Delano, “UFO over Baltimore,” IUR 32, no. 4 (October 2009): 17–18, 24) November 6 — 11:30 p.m. Olden J. Moore is driving home in Montville, Ohio, when he sees an object like a bright meteor split into two pieces, one of which heads straight up. The other becomes larger while its color changes from bright white to blue green. It hovers about 200 feet above a field and lands with a soft whirring sound, perhaps 500 feet away. Moore watches cautiously for 15 minutes, then approaches it. The UFO is shaped like a “covered dish,” and is about 50 feet in diameter, 15 feet high, with a cone on top about 10 feet high. It is pulsating slowly, and a haze surrounds it. Moore goes home to get another witness (his wife) but when they return the UFO is gone. Mrs. Moore reports the sighting to County Sheriff Louis Robusky the next morning, and a civil defense director, Kenneth Locke, visits the site. Locke finds high levels of radioactivity (a maximum of 150 microroentgens/hour, suggestive of an approximately one-hour radionuclide half-life or less) two perfectly formed holes six inches in diameter, and unusual footprints that come from nowhere and go nowhere. (NICAP, “Olden Moore Case / Close Encounter”; UFOEv, pp. 169– 170 ; Center for UFO Studies, [case files]; Clark III 772 – 773, 950; Sparks, p. 257) November 7 — 1:45–1:55 a.m. Seven airmen at Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, New Mexico—Bradford Rickets, James Cole, Dennis Murphy, Wayne Hurlburt, and Harry Uhlrich—see a UFO while on duty at a salvage yard on the north side of the base. The object makes a whistling noise and turns from white to orange to red. (Lorenzen, FSHoax, pp. 10 0 – 101 ) November 7 — 7:25 a.m. Truck driver Melvin Stevens stops one mile east of House, Mississippi, because a silvery “blimp” about 5 feet high and 2 feet long is blocking the road. He walks toward it, a sliding door opens, and three small, pasty-faced men about 4.5 feet tall emerge. Stevens feels paralyzed. After a short time, the beings make a military about-face and reenter the UFO, which takes off vertically. (Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1957 , p. 32; Clark III 269) November 7 — 9:20 a.m. Trent Lindsey and his wife and son Byron are driving on US Highway 54 near Orogrande, New Mexico, when Byron notices that the speedometer is jumping wildly back and forth from the top to the bottom of its range. It then stops just as suddenly. The three witnesses later see a metallic-appearing UFO high in the sky to the southwest. It continues moving away for three minutes until it was lost from view over the Organ Mountains. The speedometer functions normally after the UFO is gone. (“Family Reports Seeing Large Object over NM,” Albuquerque Tribune, November 8, 1957, p. 1; Lorenzen, FSHoax, pp. 99 – 100 ) November 7 — 9:38 a.m. Mysterious radio signals on the 108 megacycle radio band are recorded by RCA Communications at Riverhead, Long Island, New York. The signal is a continuous, tone-modulated hum at a low pitch of 200 cycles per second. The FCC admits it is baffled, but suspects that it comes from a radio amateur or equipment testing in the New York City area. Another report claims that Vanguard and Federal Communications Commission watchers at 18 monitoring stations throughout the Western Hemisphere are picking up signals at 14.286 megacycles, possibly connected with Sputnik 2. The signal is a long note of low pitch followed after a few

seconds by two short notes. (“Mystery Signals Are Unconnected with Satellites,” Fort Myers (Fla.) News-Press, November 8, 1957, pp. 1– 2 ; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 83) November 7 — 7:46 p.m. Bright, flashing objects hover for 30 minutes over the Atomic Energy Commission’s Pantex Plant 15 miles east of Amarillo, Texas. The UFOs are reported to the State Highway Patrol office by plant guards, and a patrolman dispatched to the plant arrives at 8:15 p.m. and sees a strange light. Guards at the plant are “all shook up” from watching three objects floating 50 feet above the ground. One of the objects apparently lands on Farin Road 2373, three miles north of Highway 60. Guards tell the patrolman they tried to approach the objects by turning off their lights, “but the things would just slip away from them when they got near.” They are unable to estimate the size of the objects but seem positive “they saw more than just lights.” (NICAP, “Lights Shake Up Guards at Nuclear Plant”; Sparks, p. 258) November 7 — Night. Paul Rutledge, a packinghouse worker at Waterloo, Iowa, sees an object hovering above his garage. He can see two figures walking around inside. The object is about 30 feet long and has a shiny bottom and a glass top. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 84; Patrick Gross, URECAT, January 24, 2007) November 8 — 3:03 a.m. Polish-Australian astronomer Antoni Przybylski and Dutch-American astronomer Bart Bok see a vivid pink object moving slowly across the sky at Mount Stromlo Observatory near Canberra, Australia. It is visible to the naked eye for two minutes. Przybylski has just finished observing Sputnik 1 and 2, so it wasn’t a satellite or a meteor. Assistant Director Arthur Robert Hogg thinks it might be circling the earth like a satellite. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957, November 7th – 12th, The Author, 1998, p. 36; Michael D. Swords, “Gazing at the Moons,” IUR 32, no. 4 (October 2009): 10–11; Center for UFO Studies, “Moonwatch Mystery Satellites, 1958– 1962 ”) November 8 — 6:22 a.m. Connie Foster watches a lighted triangular object flying from southeast to northwest over Camarillo, California. It is moving with the base facing forward and has bright lights on the tips of the triangle. She watches it for nearly 30 minutes before it disappears. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957, November 7th – 12th, The Author, 1998, p. 37) November 8 — Spencer Whedon, chief of Air Intelligence at Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, Ohio, tells the press that of 5,700 UFO reports received by his office since 1940, 97% have been identified satisfactorily and the other 8% remain unidentified due to insufficient information. (“Seeing Things? No, Sky Really Red,” Cincinnati (Ohio) Post, November 7, 1957, p. 8) November 8 — 6:00 p.m. Pan Am Flight 7, a Boeing Stratocruiser flying across the Pacific mysteriously crashes midway between San Francisco and Honolulu. One of the crew is UFO witness Capt. William H. Fortenberry. The cause of the crash is never determined. Fortenberry’s journalist son, Ken H. Fortenberry, suspects that the bereaved and mentally unstable purser Oliver Eugene Crosthwaite, has deliberately caused the crash, killing himself and murdering 43 innocent people in the process. (Wikipedia, “Pan Am Flight 7”; Ken H. Fortenberry, Flight 7 Is Missing: The Search for My Father ’ s Killer, Fayetteville Mafia, 2020) November 8 — Night. 12 female and 4 male farmworkers are in a truck on the Newhailes Road returning to Edinburgh from picking Brussels sprouts in a nursey at Musselburgh, Scotland. One of them spots a gray, round object seemingly following the truck at a distance of 60 feet. Mary Horne says it is domed on the top and bottom. It follows them for 5–10 minutes then moves off towards Portobello leaving a double vapor trail. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957, November 7th – 12th, The Author, 1998, pp. 54– 55) November 9 — 12:15 a.m. A man is driving in Sacramento, California, when his car engine and headlights fail. He looks up and sees an elongated egg-shaped object with delta-shaped wings, 150 – 200 feet long and 40–50 feet wide. The wings come back to about 30 feet from the rear of the fuselage. It has a bright bluish hue and leaves a bluish fluorescent trail. The sighting lasts 2–3 minutes. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34, no. 1 (September 2011): 19) November 9 — 9:15 a.m. Eastern Airline pilot Capt. Truman Gile Jr. is preparing to take off from Lafayette (Louisiana) Airport when he sees a big silvery object about 20,000 feet in the air. Gile watches it for 3 minutes and it doesn’t move. He alerts copilot James E. Hall, the stewardess, and the ground agents, and they all watch it another 5 minutes before it fades away. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957, November 7th – 12th, The Author, 1998, pp. 61–62) November 9 — 7:20 p.m. Several witnesses are driving 12 miles northeast of Carrizozo, New Mexico, on US Highway 54 in the vicinity of White Oaks when a large, rapidly moving light approaches their car from the south and apparently causes the vehicle’s lighting system to fail. The light changes course and speeds off to the southwest. Jim and Coral Lorenzen are driving east on US Highway 380 about 10 miles east of Carrizozo when they spot an anomalous light that might be the same object. (Lorenzen, FSHoax, pp, 101– 102 )

November 10 — 1:25 a.m. Leita Mae Kuhn is checking the stove in her Doberman dog kennel at Madison, Ohio, when she notices a glowing, domed disc hovering 60 feet above the rear of the kennel. It is about 40 feet in diameter and emitting puffy clouds of smoke. Her eyes begin to burn after watching it for 20–30 minutes, and she runs back into the house and locks the door. She has rashes and her eyes hurt so badly she visits a doctor. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 11–12; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957, November 7th – 12th, The Author, 1998, pp. 69–71; Michael D. Swords, “Messing Around with the Force,” IUR 31 , no. 4 (March 2008): 30 – 31 ; Michael D. Swords, “Can UFOs Cause Physiological Effects? Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 10) November 10 — Residents of Skaryszew, Poland, watch a huge, radiant, cigar-shaped object slowly moving west. (Poland 20) November 10 — Evening. UFO witness Olden Moore of Montville, Ohio, is visited by Sheriff Robusky, a deputy, and a USAF officer who asks him to go with them to Youngstown to be interviewed by military officers. They drive him to the field where the encounter took place and put him aboard a military helicopter. He is interviewed in Youngstown, then he is returned to the field at 11:00 p.m. (Clark III 773) November 10 — 5:55 p.m. Wilfred S. Hardy, an assistant safety engineer at the Tokyo, Japan, Engineer Supply Center, sees (along with his wife and a Japanese boat boy) a huge cigar-shaped object with lighted portholes above Lake Imba-numa 10 miles away. He estimates it is about 20 0 – 500 feet long. The object lights up the entire lake, then disappears to the south 10 seconds later. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 86) November 10 — 7:00 p.m. Many people see a UFO at Hammond, Indiana. Two policemen (Sgt. Charles J. Mauder, Office Steve Betuslak) see a red and white light hovering 500–1,000 feet overhead. They hear a beeping sound and there is interference on the police radio while the object is in view. Another witness sees a green light on a basket-shaped object; his car radio fails. The lights fly away when anyone tries to approach. (Aimé Michel, Straight-Line, p. 268; Schopick, pp. 92–95; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957, November 7th – 12th, The Author, 1998, pp. 73, 75) November 10 — Night. French astronomer Jacques Chapuis at Toulouse Observatory in France observes a maneuvering, yellow, star-like object for 5 minutes. It ascends straight up out of sight. (UFOEv, p. 50) November 11 — A silvery elliptical UFO is seen flying below Western Airlines Flight 61 over the desert east of Los Angeles, California. Robert D. Hahn, a jewelry designer, is a passenger and describes it as a large, elliptical, metallic object with dark patches zigzagging about 200 feet above the ground. (UFOEv, p. 67) November 13 — An object explodes over the State Hospital at Crownsville, Maryland, and two or three burned pieces of metal fall on the hospital grounds. It is recovered by employees William A. Zick and J. Caswell. The pieces are checked for radiation and confiscated by army intelligence officers at Fort George G. Meade. They are apparently sent to the Air Research and Development Center in Baltimore. An ARD colonel tells NICAP member and WFBR news director Lou Corbin that he has no idea what the metal is. Some of the material is perhaps sent to ATIC. (“Metal Object from Skies Rushed to ATIC for Analysis,” UFO Investigator 1, no. 3 (January 1958): 5–6) November 14 — Afternoon. Evalyn Riead hears a sputtering noise like someone is pulling into her driveway in Tamaroa, Illinois. She looks outside and sees a bright, moon-shaped object with a tail moving above the trees bordering US Highway 51. It disappears after 5–6 booms and 3 flashes of light. As soon as this happens, the lights in her home go out. Electrical power in a 4-mile area between Tamaroa and Du Bois is interrupted for 10 minutes. Power is restored when the company closes an open circuit breaker, but they could find no cause. (“Current Cut Off As Flying ‘Thing’ Appears in Illinois,” Lima (Ohio) Citizen, November 15, 1957, p. 10; Schopick, pp. 140 – 141) Mid-November — The US Senate Committee on Government Operations, chaired by Sen. John L. McClellan (D-Ark.), begins an inquiry into UFOs. Ruppelt is called to give testimony. (Ruppelt, 1960 ed., p. 253) November 16 — Afternoon. Cynthia Appleton blacks out unexpectedly at her home in 87 Fentham Road in Aston, a suburb of Birmingham, England. On November 19, she feels faint again as the light outside dims, and a man with blond hair and wearing coveralls materializes in the center of the room. She hears him speaking to her telepathically. He tells her not to be afraid and that he is from a world he calls Gharnasvarn (which we know as Venus) and he shows her what seems to be a holographic image of two spaceships. She has other visitations by entities on January 7 and February 7, 1958. In September 1958, the spaceman informs her that she is pregnant, which is apparently true, as she gives birth on June 2, 1958, to a boy with blond hair that she and her husband Ron name Matthew. Appleton says the Venusians visited her a few more times, but the trail grows cold in July 1960. (“Birmingham Woman Meets Spacemen,” Flying Saucer Review 4, no. 2 (March/April 1958): 5–6; Jenny Randles, “A Visitor from Gharnasvarn,” IUR 13, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1988): 4–8; Birmingham Sunday Mercury, January 26, 2003; Andy Roberts, “The Space Baby,” Fortean Times 191 (December 2004): 32–38; Bill Chalker, “Flying Saucery, Cosmic Bethlehem, and Midwich Cuckoos: The Cynthia Appleton Contacts (1957–1959),” Australian UFO Researcher Bill Chalker, 2005)

November 17 — An Air Force car with two officers comes to UFO witness Olden Moore’s house in Montville, Ohio. He is told they are taking him to Washington, D.C., for extended questioning. They drive him to a waiting airplane, which stops briefly at Wright-Patterson AFB to pick up one officer and drop another off. In Washington, Moore is housed in a building said to be a federal courthouse [US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces?]. He is kept there and interrogated for several days. Officers watch him constantly, even when he is sleeping. Toward the end of his stay, Moore is shown slides of UFO photos and a UFO film taken from inside a military plane. Moore is asked to sign a document that swears him to secrecy. (UFOEv, p. 114; Clark III 773) November 21 — The Army Chief of Research and Development responds to CONARC’s October 22 request on the feasibility of building a manned “flying saucer,” stating that he had reviewed the Avrocar disc concept and that it looked promising. (Richard P. Weinert, History of Army Aviation, 1950 – 1962, US Army Training and Doctrine Command, November 1976, pp. 220– 221 ; Wikipedia, “Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar”) November 21 — Merchant Hans Haugaard Hansen is driving out of Gesten, Denmark, on the road to Egholt when he sees a triangular UFO moving low over a field some 300–600 feet away. It is emitting a red or orange light and makes no sound. The bottom of the object is solid, but the upper part is transparent, and he can see two figures inside. He stops the car to watch as it moves about 40 mph. Similar objects are seen at Jordrup and Vorbasse. (“Flying Saucer Reports Pour in from Denmark,” Flying Saucer Review 4, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1958): 2; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957, November 13th – 30th, The Author, 1998, p. 56; Willy Wegner, “UFO bogen, Kapitel 19: Rumfolkene viser sig,” Skeptica, September 1, 2004) November 21 — Night. Frank Dickenson and two friends are driving up Reasty Hill near the village of Silpho, North Yorkshire, England, when their car stalls and they see a glowing object in the sky that appears to fall to the ground on a ridge above Broxa Forest. Dickenson leaves the car with a flashlight, climbs up a bank, and finds in a patch of bracken a metallic saucer shaped like a “large flattish spinning top,” 18 inches in diameter and weighing 33 pounds. As he returns to tell his friends, he passes a young couple walking toward the scene. When the tree men return to search for it, the disc is gone. Dickenson places an advertisement in a Scarborough newspaper about the disc, and he is able to recover it for £10 from a man who claims he was the mystery man on the moor. Photos taken by UFO researcher John Dale show that the copper base of the object is inscribed with a mystery script. The top of the disc is made from layers of laminated metal that has been painted with a white substance. The two halves are stuck together with a grayish substance resembling cellulose, and a pencil-thick iron rod runs through a “white metal bearing” in the top. When the bearing is drilled out, they find a heap of ash inside the cavity, as well as pieces of fused glass and a tightly rolled cylinder of copper. Also inside is a tiny booklet of 17 sheets of thin copper foil fastened at one edge. The booklet is engraved with script similar to that found on the outside. The coded script is translated by a café proprietor from Scarborough named Philip Longbottom, who claims the 2,000- word inscription is from an alien named Ulo, with later text added by an apparently female companion named Tarngee. A metallurgist at the University of Manchester analyzes the disc and finds the outer casing is made primarily from lead, and the copper foil is triple laminated an unusually free from impurities. In 2017, David Clarke discovers that five specimens from the Silpho disc have been preserved in a tin cigarette box housed in London’s Science Museum. The specimens were sent to aviation historian Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith in 1963 by Essex ufologist C. C. Stevens for analysis. Gibbs-Smith judged the items to be of terrestrial origin, and they were donated to the Science Museum with his papers after his death in 1981. Veteran Scarborough Evening News editor Mick Jefferson said in 2003 the newspaper had long ago exposed the object as a hoax made from a “domestic hot-water cylinder.” However, the hoaxers have never surfaced. (“The Silpho Moor Mystery,” Flying Saucer Review 4, no. 2 (March/April 1958): 4; “Silpho Moor Controversy,” Flying Saucer Review 4, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1958): 19; Philip Longbottom, “The Silpho Moor Mystery,” Flying Saucer Review 4, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1958): 15– 1 7; Jenny Randles, UFO Retrievals, Blandford, 1995, pp. 77– 82 ; David Clarke, “The Return of the Silpho Moor Saucer,” Fortean Times 364 (March 2018): 42–46) November 23 — 6 :10 p.m. Fighter pilot 1st Lt. Joseph F. Long’s car engine stalls 30 miles west of Tonopah, Nevada. He hears a high-pitched whining noise and sees four 50-foot, domed, saucer-shaped UFOs landed on the right side of the road about 900–1,200 feet away. They are glowing brightly and equipped with three landing gears. Long estimates they are about 10–15 feet tall. When he approaches to within 50 feet of the closest object, the hum increases in intensity and Long’s ears begin to hurt. The objects take off abruptly, retracting the landing gears. The rise about 50 feet into the air and proceed across the highway to the north at about 10 mph. The total time of the sighting is 20 minutes. Shallow, bowl-shaped ground impressions in the shape of a triangle are found at the landing site. (NICAP, “Four Huge Saucers Land near Car, Engine Stalls”; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 182– 186 ; Good Need, pp. 222– 223 , 228 ; Sparks, p. 259; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 101– 10 6) November 23 — 7:30 p.m. Six truck drivers watch a strange object with three lights in a triangular pattern hovering above a field off State Highway 8 just north of the Butler Valley Turnpike exit in Richland Township, Allegheny

County, Pennsylvania. It has a green light at the bottom, a red light at the right corner, and a yellow light at the left corner. They get out of their car and approach the object, but when they are 75 feet away, it moves to the east, then south. They go back to the car and shine their lights on the object, which is about 20 feet above some trees. The lights go out and the object disappears. (“ 3 - Lighted ‘Whatsit’ Floats over Field,” Pittsburgh (Pa.) Sun- Telegraph, November 27, 1957, p. 3) November 25 — 10:00 p.m. All the lights in the town of Mogi Mirim, São Paulo, Brazil, suddenly dim and fail. Numerous people see a circular light traveling directly overhead. Two similar lights follow a short time later. The blackout only lasts 5 minutes, but the power station has no explanation. (Schopick, pp. 141–142) November 27 — The director of an engineering firm and four of his staff members see five black, disc-shaped objects hovering in the French Alps for 8 minutes. The group performs a series of maneuvers, after which a parachute- shaped object emerges from one of them. Suddenly they all shoot away at supersonic speed toward the Swiss border. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 87) November 28 — 8:30 p.m. Regino Lacuesta is driving on the Hawaii Belt Road near Ninole, Hawaii, when his car engine begins missing. Suddenly he sees a bright flash of light 20 feet above the highway in front of him. The engine dies, the headlights go out, and the car rolls to a stop at the point where the light had been. Lacuesta feels numb and cannot move. Soon the headlights come on and the car starts up again, although it is in high gear and he has not touched the starter. He drives straight home. (Schopick, pp. 49–51) November 29 — 2:30 a.m. Capt. Fred Sutton, skipper of the fishing trawler Ella Hewett, is 4 miles off Port Jack, Douglas, Isle of Man, when an orange ball of fire crosses the sky. As it passes over the hull of the small boat, the vessel grows luminous, with firefly-like sparks of luminescence everywhere. The fireball bursts like fireworks, seen by others on the island as well as Scotland. The crew notices that the white paint on the metal railings at the edge of the boat has disappeared, leaving only the red undercoating. At daybreak, however, the paintwork is perfectly normal again. (Jenny Randles, “Mysterious Island: The UFO Legacy of the Isle of Man,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 13–14) November 29 — Two German expatriates, G. R. Miczaika and Eberhart W. Wahl, form Project Space Track in Building 1535 of the Geophysics Research Directorate at the Air Force Cambridge Research Center at Hanscom AFB in Bedford, Massachusetts. Its mission is to track and compute orbits for all artificial earth satellites and space probes, including US and Soviet payloads, booster rockets, and debris. (Wikipedia, “Project Space Track”)

December — National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) 11- 10 - 57 predicts that the Soviets will “probably have a first operational capability with up to 10 prototype ICBMs” at “sometime during the period from mid-1958 to mid- 1959.” The numbers of the missile gap start to inflate. (Wikipedia, “Missile gap”) December — A classified Canadian Department of National Defence memorandum states that the “RCAF has no official policy concerning the subject” of UFOs and “there has never been a serious investigation of any report on file” at RCAF headquarters. (Gregory M. Kanon, “UFOs and the Canadian Government, Part One,” no. 22 (1975): 22) December — Several UFO sightings take place along the Finland-Russia border. A cigar-shaped object is seen by two Finnish farmers moving horizontally at a high altitude from west to east. (Good Above, pp. 307– 308 ) December — Walter K. Buhler launches the Sociedade Brasiliera de Estudos sobre Discos Voadores in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It publishes the Boletim SBEDV through 1988. (Boletim SBEDV, no. 1 (December 1957)) December — Night. Edmund Rucker is awakened by a roaring noise in El Cajon, California, and watches a strange object land near his house. Its windows are lighted and he can see some strange-looking heads inside. An opening becomes visible, and four creatures emerge. They have large heads, dome-like foreheads, and bulging eyeballs. They deliver a message to Rucker in English, saying they have philanthropic and scientific purposes. (Patrick Gross, URECAT, July 28, 2007; Mark Cashman, “Behavioral Classification System for UFO Occupants,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 19) December — Keyhoe is invited to appear on the CBS Armstrong Circle Theater anthology drama TV program hosted by Douglas Edwards to talk about UFOs with Kenneth Arnold and Clarence S. Chiles. Others invited are Edward J. Ruppelt, Donald Menzel, and an Air Force representative. But Keyhoe finds out that it will not be a panel discussion but a scripted conversation, and he will only have 7 minutes. He is promised he will have final say over his part of the script, and he agrees. However, writer Irve Tunick cuts out critical portions of Keyhoe’s material (including references to the Estimate of the Situation and the Robertson Panel), saying it is too long. Ruppelt, Chiles, and Arnold soon withdraw from the program, expanding Keyhoe’s segment to 11 minutes. (Clark III 167 – 16 8) December 1 — 1:30 a.m. Swissair pilot Walter Borner is flying a DC-6B at 18,000 feet over Ras El-Kanayis, Egypt, when he sees a “giant, red, burning cylinder falling down vertically, leaving a yellowish trail.” It is possible that this is

the reentry of the final stage of the rocket that launched Sputnik I. (Luis Schoenherr, “Unknown Missiles,” IUR 19, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1994): 22) December 3 — 2:30 p.m. Z. Thad Fogl, radio officer of the SS Ramsey, claims to have taken a photo of a saucer off the coast of San Pedro, California. The photo appears in Flying Saucer Review in 1959 and Life in 1966. However, in 1967 Fogl admits that he had faked the photo using parts of plastic airplane models. (NICAP, “Disc with Landing Gear Photo / Fogl Case”; “Radio Officer’s Amazing Story: UFO Snapped from Ship,” Flying Saucer Review 5, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1959): 6–7; “A Hoax Exposed,” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1966): 7) December 3 — 7:00 p.m. Many residents of the Menastash Ridge area of Ellensburg, Washington, watch a “strange ball of fire” for 20 minutes. A truck driver sees the light hovering above his truck, causing the motor to cough and sputter. His engine does not stop completely, however, so he drives away. The night is misty, but the object is so bright that it lights up the sky as if it were daytime. (Schopick, pp. 51–52) December 4 — Blue Book Capt. George T. Gregory complains that as a result of pressure from the press and public, “Assistant Secretary of Defense requested that ATIC immediately submit a preliminary analysis to the press” of the Levelland, Texas, cases, even though he has “limited data.” (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, p. 147) December 6 — A letter written to contactee George Adamski on State Department stationery from R. E. Straith, Cultural Exchange Committee, is a hoax concocted by ufologists Gray Barker and James W. Moseley. The letter informs Adamski that the State Department knows his claims are true and they encourage his activities. (James D. Villard, “The ‘R. E. Straith’ Case,” Saucers 6, no. 4 (Winter 1958/1959): 2–6; Clark III 44–45; Saucer Smear, January 10, 19 85; Lou Zinsstag and Timothy Good, George Adamski: The Untold Story, Ceti, 1983, pp. 148–153; James W. Moseley and Karl T. Pflock, Shockingly Close to the Truth! Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist, Prometheus, 2002, pp. 124–127, 381–402; Marc Hallet, A Critical Appraisal of George Adamski: The Man Who Spoke to the Space Brothers, The Author, 2016) December 7 — 10:00 p.m. In western Victoria and eastern South Australia, witnesses see a moon-like object explode with a vivid flash. Unexpected blackouts are reported in the area. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 87) December 8 — 5:30 p.m. A disc-shaped UFO with a dome and three pads on the underside suddenly comes toward a car with three passengers at Woodward, Oklahoma. The car heater, wipers, and radio fail and finally the car stalls out as the UFO hovers overhead at 200 feet. It emits a high-pitched whining sound. It is over 50 feet in diameter and has portholes. The whine increases in pitch after about two minutes, and the UFO rises vertically out of sight. The headlights come on and the engine of the car starts by itself. The driver spends 4 hours with two officers from Kirtland AFB in New Mexico who tell him of similar observations. (Vallée, Magonia, pp. 267– 268 ) December 8 — 9:00 p.m. Eight people traveling together in two cars on Highway 17 between Coulee City and Soap Lake, Washington, see a huge, fiery object pass overhead from north to south. Both cars stall out and their headlights also fail as the UFO passes overhead. In addition, the inside dome lights come on, even though they aren’t turned on. The cars remain stalled until the object passes out of sight. Police say the object stalled as many as six cars along that sparsely traveled road. (Schopick, pp. 52–53) December 11 — Night. Mexican pilot Gilberto Castillo del Valle is flying at 10,000 feet near Mexico City when a brilliant light illuminates his cockpit. He turns off the aircraft lights and sees a large luminous object darting from left to right and back again ahead of him. Passengers and crew also see the light, as do personnel at the Mexico City control tower. (Lorenzen, UFOs; The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 88) December 5 — Morning. An unidentified beeping sound is picked up for three minutes on KBR Rural Public Power Radio in Ainsworth, Nebraska, operating at 72.3 AM. (“Unidentified Beeping Heard on KBR Power Radio on Thursday,” Ainsworth (Neb.) Star-Journal, December 12, 1957, p. 1) December 12 — A USAF pilot attains 1,208 mph in a McDonnell F-101A Voodoo at Edwards AFB, California. (Wikipedia, “McDonnell F-101 Voodoo”) December 12 — 5:45 p.m. At least 13 witnesses see a bright light over the Sea of Japan. The object is tracked on radar and seen through binoculars. At 7:22 p.m., a scramble is ordered and two F-86D’s take off from Misawa Air Base, Japan. Multiple radar and visual sightings take place over the next three days. (NICAP, “Jets Scrambled after Radar/Visual UFO”; Sparks, p. 261) December 14 — Night. Ed Waslashi sees a lighted green object fall into a haystack on his farm at Langdon, North Dakota. He picks out a strange metallic substance from the ashes of the burned hay. The material finds its way to geologist Nicholas N. Kohanowski at the University of North Dakota, who finds that it is light, porous, and mostly magnesium dioxide. (“What Is It?” Winona (Minn.) Daily News, December 17, 1957, p 1; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 87)

December 15 — 1:00–2:00 a.m. Three young men see a huge light in the sky at Almind, Denmark. It is oval-shaped, emits red or orange rays, and appears to be descending. They watch it for 18–19 minutes as it hovers at a 10° angle and quivers. Suddenly it becomes still and from its center emerge two small objects that drift away in a northerly direction and soon disappear. The large object lies on its side and quivers some more. Later it ascends and a fan-shaped tail of light spreads after it. The UFO is seen later along the coast and photographed. (“Flying Saucer Reports Pour in from Denmark,” Flying Saucer Review 4, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1958): 2; Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects: A Further Look,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 25) December 16 — Between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. Mary M. Starr, a resident of Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and a former teacher with a master’s degree from Yale, is awakened by a bright light in her room. A cigar-shaped object, brightly lit and with square portholes, hovers just above her clothesline. She can see men inside. The object is approximately 20–30 feet long and dark gray or black in color, hovering motionless about 5 feet above the ground. Through its lighted windows Starr sees two figures that pass each other, walking in opposite directions. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore, eds, UFOs: A New Look, NICAP, 1969, pp. 27– 28 ; Clark III 269 ) December 17 — Skandinavisk UFO Information is founded in Denmark by Hans-Christian Petersen under the name Sydjysk UFO Information. It publishes the journal UFO-Nyt from 1958 to 2010. (Wikipedia, “Skandinavisk UFO Information”) December 17 — The US conducts its first successful launch of an SM-65A Atlas missile at Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Wikipedia, “SM-65A Atlas”) December 18 — Luis E. Corrales of Caracas, Venezuela, finds an odd luminous streak on a photographic plate recording the passage of Sputnik 2. It is a luminous trail running parallel to the satellite’s trail, then veering away. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957 December, The Author, 1998, p. 57) December 21 — 6:30 p.m. Yvonne Torres de Mendonça, her three small children, and a servant are traveling in a jeep driven by her mechanic, Marcio Gonçalves, towards Ponta Porã, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, along the Paraguayan border. They see a large ball of light about the size of the full moon that starts moving toward them, and they realize that it is two lights flying silently side by side. The lights straddle the road, oscillating from one side to the other in a strange wobbling motion and spinning on their axes. One of them stops in mid-air and dives toward the ground in a falling-leaf motion 60 feet ahead of them, while the other maneuvers in circles around the jeep. The lights are spherical and encircled by a Saturn-like ring at the center. The upper hemisphere and rim are fiery red, while the lower hemisphere is silvery white. The two objects follow the jeep for 2 hours, all the way to town, maneuvering intelligently around them, especially when the jeep stops twice to evaluate the objects. (Olavo T. Fontes, “Shadow of the Unknown, Part II: UAOs Chase Cars,” APRO Bulletin, March 1959, pp. 3–6; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 148–150; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1957 December, The Author, 1998, pp. 60– 63 ; Clark III 245– 246 ) December 30 — Night. George Chowanski is cutting wood at his home in Schooley’s Mountain, New Jersey, when his two dogs begin to bark and howl. He hears a whirring noise like an electric shaver that persists for one minute. Then he sees a saucer-shaped object, 5 feet high and 15 feet wide, hovering about 2 feet above the ground in a grove of trees 100 feet from the back porch. Three individuals come out of the craft and walk about in the clearing. One of them bends over to pick something up and carries something heavy back to the object. After 2– 3 minutes, it slowly rises, spiraling through the tall trees, and flies off. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 88–89)

1958

1958 — The Atomic Energy Commission puts a barbed wire fence around Area 13 at the Nellis Air Force Range, Nevada, where the Project 57 “dirty bomb” had been detonated in April 1957, with signs indicating “do not enter / nuclear material.” (Jacobsen, Area 51, p. 297 ) 1958 — Project Orion, an effort to build a nuclear-powered spacecraft, begins at a maximum-security facility in Area 25 of the Nevada Test Site. Led by Ted Taylor of General Atomics and physicist Freeman Dyson, its initial focus is to send astronauts to Mars and back. The spaceship would be 16 stories tall and piloted by 150 men. Soon ARPA and the Air Force take over the project and redesign it for a space-based battleship that could launch nuclear missiles from space. But no one builds Orion and it is effectively disbanded by the 1963 nuclear test ban. (Wikipedia, “Project Orion (nuclear propulsion)”; Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 304 – 305 ) 1958 — French ufologist Aimé Michel publishes Flying Saucers and the Straight-Line Mystery, an examination of the UFO wave of September–October 1954 in France. The book’s preface is written by Gen. Lionel-Max Chassin, in which he expresses his opinion that UFOs are genuinely mysterious (“That strange things have been seen is now

beyond question, and the ‘psychological’ explanations seem to have misfired”). Michel contends that each day’s sightings, when plotted on a map, occur along straight-line paths, even though different objects seem to figure in each sighting. The alignments, which he calls “orthotenic lines,” do not necessarily correspond to a trajectory. However, Jacques Vallée later concludes that the alignments can be explained by chance alone. (Aimé Michel, Flying Saucers and the Straight-Line Mystery, Criterion, 1958; “An Evaluation of Aimé Michel’s Study of the Straight Line Mystery,” in C. A. Maney and Richard Hall, The Challenge of Unidentified Flying Objects, NICAP, 1961, pp. 90–98; Jacques Vallee and Janine Vallee, Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma, Regnery, 1966, pp. 57 – 82 ; Don Johnson, “New Lines in UFO Research: Orthoteny Revisited,” IUR 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 18 – 19, 32 ; Claude Maugé, “Orthoteny: Lost Cause, or a Redeemed One?” IUR 25, no. 3 (Fall 2000): 24– 28 ; Clark III 747, 858 – 860) 1958 — Trevor James Constable writes They Live in the Sky, which explains UFOs as etheric (good) and astral (bad) entities that are engaged in a battle for control of earthly minds. He bases this on his analysis of occult texts and channeled communications from cosmic informant Ashtar. The astral entities are based inside the earth, but they can leave it through an opening in the South Pole and fly 125,000 miles into space. Only the atomic bomb can penetrate the astral realm, which is why astrals disguised as benevolent Space Brothers argue fervently for nuclear disarmament. The men in black are reincarnated versions of Richard Shaver‘s deros. (Trevor James [Constable]. They Live in the Sky, New Age, 1958; Trevor James [Constable], “Scientists, Contactees, and Equilibrium,” Flying Saucer Review 6, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1960): 19–21; Clark III 1102) 1958 — Night. A sergeant in charge of a fire truck crash crew at an air base in South Korea is positioned near the runway awaiting an emergency landing by an American jet fighter low on fuel. The men see a bright light approaching from across the Yellow Sea. It grows bigger and, within several hundred yards of the shore, stops and hovers. The control tower operators, watching the object through binoculars, do not know what it is. Suddenly the object shines a beam of light straight down on the water. It soon goes out, but the water remains luminescent for a while before fading out. The object again shines a light on the water and turns it off a minute or so later. By this time, the jet that is low on fuel is landing. A second jet is asked to check out the object, which instantly shoots back toward China and disappears in seconds. (Bob Pratt, UFO Danger Zone: Terror and Death in Brazil — Where Next?, Horus House, 1996, online ed., p. 164; Carl W. Feindt, “Beam of Light into a Body of Water,” IUR 33, no. 3 (December 2010): 22)

January — The US Senate Committee on Government Operations asks to meet with representatives from the Secretary of the Air Force Office of Legislative Action to discuss the possibility of holding open hearings on the Air Force UFO program. USAF fears “uncontrolled publicity,” but agrees to go along with it. Soon, however, Richard E. Horner, USAF assistant secretary for research and development, persuades the committee’s chief counsel, Donald O’Donnell, that hearings are “not in the best interest of the air force,” nor necessary for national security. Horner says Project Blue Book has things well in hand, and he tells Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) that allegations about the Air Force withholding information are “entirely in error.” People who report UFOs simply want confidentiality, and the Air Force respects that. (Jacobs, UFO Controversy in America, Signet ed., 1976, pp. 140 – 141 , 144 ) January — Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas, asks for Keyhoe’s permission to use The Flying Saucer Conspiracy to develop a script for closed-circuit broadcast at the base. Keyhoe agrees. (Keyhoe, FSTS, p. 218) January — 1:30 a.m. A woman is driving along the New York State Thruway near Niagara Falls, New York, when she sees an illuminated 50-foot pole in the center parkway ahead. It seems to be retracting and getting shorter. As she closes in on it, her engine stops and the headlights go out. The pole is attached to a saucer-shaped object, and she sees shadowy figures floating around it. The UFO rises and moves away, and she starts the car again. An area of snow a foot in diameter has melted dry where the pole has been. (Michael D. Swords, “Messing Around with the Force,” IUR 31, no. 4 (Mar. 2008): 16) January 3 — Cliff DeLacey, a 23-year-old college student from Vallejo, California, shoots 90 seconds of film of UFOs at Diamond Head, Hawaii. DeLacey sees nine UFOs flashing across the sky and immediately grabs his camera. He is careful enough to shoot the tops of nearby trees, allowing a reference to the height and relative speed of the unknown objects. The objects appear to be about 3–4 miles away from the camera, flying at an altitude of 7,000– 8,000 feet, and moving at a speed slightly greater than that of a jet. The silvery globules appear to be no more than 20 feet in diameter. They are spherical, and no tail fins or protrusions of any kind are visible. The film, in color, is said to be clear and to show at least two of the nine UFOs in considerable detail. (NICAP, “‘Genuine Flying Saucer…Caught on Movie Film’”; Max B. Miller and Norman S. Kossuth, “How to Film Unidentified Flying Objects,” Saucers 6, no. 3 (Autumn 1958): 8)

January 10 — Day. Capt. Chrysólogo Rocha is sitting with his wife on the porch of a house in Guarujá, São Paulo, Brazil, overlooking the South Atlantic. He is trying to focus with his binoculars on what appears to be a small island. When he does get focused, he realizes the island is getting bigger and is in two parts, both a clear, gray color. One part is in the sea, while the other seems suspended above it. Without warning, both parts suddenly sink out of sight. Shortly afterwards, a steamer comes into view, on a course that will take it very close to the object. About 15 minutes later, when the ship is out of sight, the object again rises slowly out of the sea. He now sees clearly that the two parts are joined by several narrow upright shafts or tubes that are bright and visible to the naked eye. These shafts, “like beads on a necklace” pass in a “disorderly and simultaneous movement.” Shortly afterwards the two parts of the object close up again, and it disappears below the waves. Probably an inferior mirage of an island in combination with a towering effect. (Charles Bowen, “A South American Trio,” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1965): 20–21; Wim van Utrecht, “A UFO Dives in and Out of the Ocean,” Caelestia) January 13 — 11:45 p.m. Brian Crittenden sees a dome-shaped light with a long narrow light underneath coming directly towards him as he is leaving a friend’s house southwest of Casino, New South Wales, Australia. He jumps into his car and heads home. The UFO chases his car along Benns Road, practically touching the telephone poles. His car radio develops interference when the UFO approaches him. It follows him all the way to town, 7 miles away. (Schopick, p. 81; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958 January – February, The Author, 1998, p. 21) January 16 — Around 12:00 noon. As the International Geophysical Year research ship Almirante Saldanha is anchored on the south side of Ilha da Trindade, Brazil, 730 miles off the coast in the Atlantic Ocean, the commander and many crew members, including photographer Almiro Baraúna, see a Saturn-shaped object maneuvering over the island. It reportedly comes toward the island from the east, flies towards the Pico Desejado, makes a steep turn, and goes away very quickly to the northwest. Baraúna takes four photos with a Rolleiflex 2.8 model E. Commander Paulo Moreira da Silva of the Brazilian Navy Hydrography and Navigation Department (who technically outranks the ship’s captain, José Santos de Saldanha da Gama), is apparently an eyewitness and states, “the object was encircled by a greenish glow, our [meteorological] balloon was of a red color.” Baraúna is officially there to take photos of the island, underwater photos, photos of the IGY activities, and the ship’s operations. The radar detection of an unexplained supersonic target reportedly occurs the day before, at about 12:05 p.m. There is a power failure on the ship when the object is seen; the power returns upon the object’s departure. Instruments like radio transmitters and apparatus with magnetic needles cease operating while the flying object remains in the island’s proximity. Willy Smith’s April 20, 1983, interview of Baraúna takes on more significance: “I asked if the object had been detected by ship’s radar. He [Baraúna] replied that it hadn’t because all the electrical power aboard ship was out at the time. He was sure of the reality of the power outage because just before the object appeared a launch was being hauled up from the water by electric pulley, and it stopped midway just as the UFO appeared!” The ship’s log is provably incomplete since it does not even mention the UFO photo incident. A 1999 analysis by Martin J. Powell seems to indicate that the object photographed is an airplane, distorted by Baraúna through a double-exposure process. In August 2010, a major TV show in Brazil airs information stating that the original photographer had made hoax photographs in the past. (Wikipedia, “Trindade Island UFO hoax”; Wikipedia, “Caso da Ilha da Trindade”; NICAP, “Trindade Island Photo (E-M, Radar, AR) Case”; Olavo T. Fontes, “The UAO Sightings at the Island of Trindade, Part 1,” APRO Bulletin, January 1960, pp. 5–9; Olavo T. Fontes, “UAO Sightings over Trindade, Part II,” APRO Bulletin, March 1960, pp. 5–8; Olavo T. Fontes, “UAO Sightings at the Island of Trindade, Part III,” APRO Bulletin, May 1960, pp. 4– 9; John T. Hopf, “Exclusive IGY Photo Analysis,” APRO Bulletin, May 1960, pp. 1, 4; “New Evidence on IGY Photos,” APRO Bulletin, January 1965, pp. 1, 3–8; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 205– 210; Willy Smith, “Trindade Revisited,” IUR 8, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1983): 3–5, 14; Willy Smith, “UFOs in Latin America,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 109–111; Martin J. Powell, “The Trindade Island UFO: A Detailed Study of Photos 1 and 2,” Aenigmatis, Summer 1999; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 71 – 77 ; Martin Shough, “The Trindade Island Photographs, 16 Jan 1958,” Aerial Phenomena Studies Index, 2004; Equipe UFO, “Documento raro sobre o caso Trindade ressurge no exterior,” Portal UFO, August 31, 2010; Sparks, p. 262 ; Story, pp. 366 – 369 ; Swords 463– 465 ; Brazil 49– 57 ; Clark III 1132– 1136 ; Patrick Gross, “The Trindade Island Photographic Case of 1958”) January 22 — The “UFO: The Enigma of the Skies” segment of Armstrong Circle Theater airs on CBS. USAF Reserve Lt. Col. Spencer Whedon from ATIC says all UFOs are explainable. Keyhoe comes on and starts reading his script for a few minutes, then shocks everyone by deviating from it, saying “And now, Mr. Edwards, I would like to make a disclosure, something which has never been revealed to the public. For the last six months our committee has been working with a Senate committee which is investigating official secrecy on UFOs. If the

hearings are held, open hearings, I feel it would prove beyond doubt that flying saucers are real—”. Then his microphone is cut off, although the filming continues. Menzel then appears, then USAF spokesman Richard E. Horner comes on afterward and says that the Air Force is not hiding anything about UFOs. Keyhoe later claims this is not censorship by the show, although he thinks it is the Air Force silence group at work. In April, CBS director of editing Herbert A. Carlborg tells NICAP that Keyhoe’s deviation “might lead to statements that neither this network nor the individuals on the program were authorized to release. As a consequence, public interest was served.” (Clark III 167 – 168 ; Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 22 – 23, 155– 165 ; “UFO Archives: Project Blue Book—Col. Spenser Whedon, Dr. Donald Menzel, Major Donald Keyhoe” [audio only], UFO Archives YouTube channel, May 22, 2014; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958 January – February, The Author, 1998, pp. 23, 28–30, 35–39; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958 March – April, The Author, 1998, pp. 10– 17 ; Swords 272; Good Above, pp. 286 – 287 ) January 23 — Capt. G. H. Oldenburgh, public information officer at Langley AFB, Virginia, writes to a NICAP member who has been denied a request to place an ad in the base newspaper asking for UFO reports: “I felt it would encourage Air Force personnel to violate present Air Force policy and specifically AF Regulation 200-2.” (Frank Edwards, FS Serious Business, Bantam ed., 1966, p. 51) January 26 — 4:00 p.m. Some chemical workers at Shimada, Japan, see a bright object land and claim that beings fell from the sky without parachutes. They wear strange suits and speak an unknown language. (“They Are Landing in Japan, Too,” Flying Saucer Review 4, no. 3 (May/June 1958): 33) January 28 — Hillenkoetter announces that “two committees on Capitol Hill” are investigating the UFO controversy. Rep. William Hanes Ayres (R-Ohio) writes a letter to constituent Melvin V. Knapp, saying that “Congressional investigations have been held and are still being held on the problem of unidentified flying objects (UFO’s). Since most of the material presented to the committees is classified, the hearings are never printed. When conclusions are reached, they will be released if possible.” (“Flying Saucer Proof Clouded by Air Force, Private Probers Say,” Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle, August 3, 1958, p. 8; UFOEv, p. 173 ) January 30 — 11:45 p.m. Attorney José Valencia Dongo, his wife, and their nephew feel an electric shock as they are driving between Arequipa and Lima, Peru, at a point (roughly around the Yauca District) along the Pan American Highway 220 miles northwest of Arequipa. Several seconds later the headlights and engine of their car fails. They then see an inverted mushroom-shaped object, about 15 feet in diameter, descending from the sky. It hovers for about 8 minutes at a 150-foot altitude, glowing red. A truck and bus are also affected. (Civilian Saucer Intelligence, “Shapes in the Sky,” Fantastic Universe, 10, no. 4 (October 1958): 111; Charles A. Maney and Richard Hall, The Challenge of Unidentified Flying Objects, NICAP, 1961, p. 82; Schopick, pp. 58 – 59 ; Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 14) January 31 — A meeting is held in the office of Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Richard E. Horner under the auspices of the Subcommittee on Investigations of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, even though Sen. John L. McClellan (D-Ark.) and other senators are absent. The Air Force is represented by Maj. James F. Byrne, Maj. Joseph E. Boland, and Maj. Lawrence J. Tacker who meet with the subcommittee’s FBI liaisons. Tacker declares that USAF does not want a congressional investigation, and the McClellan effort dies immediately. (Swords 275) January 31 — 10:48 p.m. The US launches its first satellite, Explorer 1, from Cape Canaveral Missile Annex, Florida. It is the first spacecraft to detect the Van Allen radiation belt. (Wikipedia, “Explorer 1”)

February — Keyhoe meets again with Rep. James C. Healey and tells him that the Armstrong Circle Theater incident was Air Force censorship. A few days later, Healey tells Keyhoe that the Air Force is claiming that the program proves “there are no such things as flying saucers.” Keyhoe gives Healey the facts about the 1956 Ryan case pointing to USAF ordering a commercial flight to pursue UFOs, citing the Meet the Millers tape from April 16, 1956, which he has obtained. He offers to get the committee a transcript. (Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 166 – 167, 182–184) February — Ufologist Raymond Veillith launches the UFO journal Lumières dans la Nuit in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, Haute-Loire, France. It continues on under various editors until at least 2018. (Lumières dans la Nuit, no. 1 (February 1958); Wikipedia, “Lumières dans la Nuit”; Story, p. 218) February 2 — An elliptical UFO with two porthole-like markings is seen somewhere in New South Wales, Australia. (UFOEv, p. 137 ) February 3 — OTC Enterprises runs a two-page ad in a Baltimore, Maryland, newspaper and distributes a well-printed brochure announcing that Otis T. Carr has approached the US government and offered to build it a working spacecraft called the OTC-X1—circular, 45 feet in diameter and 15 feet high—for $20 million. He sets a date of December 7, 1959, to take a three-man crew on the spacecraft on a round trip to the Moon. Some press accounts treat Carr as if he is a real scientist. (Clark III 860)

February 5 — The Air Force revises AFR 200-2 and recreates the system of air base commanders conducting initial investigations of sightings in their areas. It also continues ATIC’s responsibility to “reduce the percentage of unidentifieds to the minimum.” (Department of the Air Force, “Intelligence: Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO),” Air Force Regulation 200-2, February 5, 1958; Department of the Air Force, “Intelligence: Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO),” Air Force Regulation 200-2A, July 3, 1958) February 7 — In response to the launching of Sputnik, President Eisenhower creates the Advanced Research Projects Agency and houses it in the Pentagon. (Wikipedia, “DARPA”) February 17 — Evening. Flora Evans and Bernice McIntosh twice encounter an intensely brilliant orange light about 15 feet in diameter that sends out peculiar grid-like or diamond-shaped patterns and lights up a canyon northeast of Alcalde, New Mexico, along State Highway 68. The two women are temporarily blinded. Their trip home to Albuquerque inexplicably takes 4 hours instead of the normal 2 hours. Both witnesses are exhausted and have burned or reddened areas on their skin, some on their kneecaps and the back of their lower legs, even though they have not left the car. Evans has a reddened area shaped like a triangle on her back. An acquaintance, Paul Boyett, has a Geiger counter, with which he gets a high radiation count from both women on February 19. The next day Evans, who is working in some capacity in civil defense, goes to her doctor at the Lovelace Clinic in Albuquerque, to see about possible radiation burns and exposure. She overhears a comment about “178 roentgens” exposure, but the doctor says there is nothing to worry about. McIntosh’s symptoms (nausea, vomiting, rash) are initially more irritating but subside substantially, although both women have swellings in their lower legs, and both gain serious weight (some 50 pounds) over the next few months. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958 January – February, The Author, 1998, pp. 60– 64 ; Michael D, Swords, “Can UFOs Cause Physiological Effects? Part 2” IUR 34, no. 1 (Sept. 2011): 4– 5 ; Swords 280 – 281 ; Clark III 1–2, 950) February 19 — 10:30 p.m. Cicero Claudino da Silva, Mustafa Esgaib, Alegario Campos, and João Manuel Vasquez are investigating the Ponta Porã case from December. They are at Porteiro Ortiz, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, along Highway 4 63 and shining their lights in the direction of the Paraguayan frontier when a reddish light appears and becomes larger, as if approaching them. The ground around their car is illuminated for a few seconds, and they realize that another red light is nearing them on the other side of the car. They head for Ponta Porã at breakneck speed. (Olavo T. Fontes, “The Shadow of the Unknown,” APRO Bulletin, March 1959, p. 6) February 24 — 3:05 a.m. Attorney Carlos José de Costa Pereira, Manoel Mendes, and Antônio de Araujo are driving near Santo Antônio de Jesus, Bahia, Brazil. The car engine sputters and fails. All attempts to detect the trouble fail. The next inhabited place is far away, so the travelers decide that the best thing to do is to sleep at that spot, beside the road. Next morning they will try to do something about their situation, getting help from some nearby village or farm. It was then that they notice a large luminous Saturn-shaped object silently approaching to about 240 feet from them and only 90 feet from the ground. It then descends in a falling-leaf pattern to about 12 feet. They can see it is about 60–75 feet in diameter with a rotating center section. Suddenly it climbs vertically to 600 feet, makes a tight circle, then tilts to 45° and makes a number of high-speed maneuvers, then descends again in a falling-leaf motion before shooting up vertically at tremendous speed. After this, the car starts easily and they proceed to Salvador. (Olavo T. Fontes, “The Shadow of the Unknown,” APRO Bulletin, May 1959, p. 7; Schopick, pp. 59–61) February 28 — USAF Director of Information Gen. Arno H. Luehman naively inquires of the McClellan Senate subcommittee whether, based on its “preliminary informal investigation,” it would state that the Air Force is investigating UFOs and not withholding information. (Swords 275) February 28 — Brig. Gen. João Adil Oliveira, chief of the Brazilian Air Force’s General Staff information service, tells O Globo that the UFO phenomenon is a “fact confirmed by material evidence. There are thousands of documents, photos, and sighting evidence demonstrating its existence.” (Good Need, p. 233 ) February 28 — Police detective Faustin Gallegos and his wife Dorothy see something like a “large medicine ball” descend and land in their back yard in Miami, Florida. Outside, he sees a football-shaped object 20 inches long and 8 inches high, lined with “thousands of minute cells resembling those of a honeycomb. It is clear and pulsating. He touches it and his fingers leave marks. They put it in a jar, but it evaporates on the way to the police station. (Faustin Gallegos, “The Pulsing Honeycomb from Space,” Fate 11, no. 9 (September 1958 ): 40 – 43 ; Clark III 1102)

March — The Air Force releases parts of the 1953 Robertson Panel report, a mere three paragraphs recommending that “the national security agencies take immediate steps to strip the Unidentified Flying Objects of the special status they have been given and the aura of mystery they have unfortunately acquired.” (“CIA Evades, Then Denies Charge of Attempted UFO Censorship,” UFO Investigator 1, no. 4 (June 1958): 4)

March — A French Foreign Legionnaire on sentry duty at Bouamama, near Sidi Chami, Algeria, hears a whistling noise and sees an enormous, elliptical-shaped object descend and hover 115–131 feet above the ground 165 feet away. The object is surrounded by pale green light, and a relaxing emerald-green beam of light is coming from its base to the ground. Seemingly paralyzed, he stares at the object for 45–50 minutes. The noise returns, the object rises gently, and flies off at tremendous speed. (Joël Mesnard, “Tranquillizing Visitation at Bouahmama: An Algerian Report of 1958,” Flying Saucer Review 19, no. 3 (May/June 1973): 17–18) March 2 — The Brazilian Navy, after an analysis of the January 16 Ilha da Trindade sighting and photos, offers an ambiguous conclusion: “the existence of personal testimonies and of a photographer, of some value given the circumstances involved permit the admission that there are indications of the existence of the UFO.” (Brazil Department of the Navy, “Clarification of the Observation of Unidentified Flying Objects Sighted on the Island of Trinidad, in the Period of 12/5/57 to 1/16/58,” March 2, 1958) March 3 — Gen. Joe W. Kelly responds to Luehman, falsely stating that the Air Force has done “considerable work” with the McClellan subcommittee. (Swords 275–276) March 8 — A USAF radar site in Korea tracks a UFO slowly descending from 77,000 to 25,000 feet. (UFOEv, p. 80 ) March 8 — Keyhoe appears on ABC’s The Mike Wallace Interview and mentions the Estimate of the Situation, Fournet’s motion study, and the CIA Robertson Panel. Wallace surprises him by saying Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Richard E. Horner told his producers that the Senate Committee “show no interest in any hearings.” This is news to Keyhoe. Wallace also quotes from the Robertson Panel summary that was just released. A few days later, Keyhoe receives two letters from the Senate Committee confirming that it “does not intend to investigate the United States Air Force.” (“Major Donald Keyhoe Interviewed by Mike Wallace (1958),” pfreal1 YouTube channel, August 25, 2012; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958 March – April, The Author, 1998, p. 9; Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 189 – 190 ; Swords 272– 273 ; “Mike Wallace Interview of Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe: A Sequel to the Arnstrong Circle Theater,” Journal of UFO History 2, no. 1 (March/April 2005): 8–11) Late March — NICAP begins a new campaign to open another government UFO investigation. This time it approaches the Department of Justice, the National Security Council, the CIA, and the US Army. It receives rebuffs and denials. (Keyhoe, FSTS, p. 191)

April — Edgar Sievers begins publishing a pro-Adamski newsletter titled Approach in Pretoria, South Africa. It folds in March 1960. (Approach 1, no. 1 (April 1958)) April — 6:00 a.m. At some place along the Brazilian coast between Maceió and Paripueira, Alagoas, Brazil, Wilson Lustosa stops to ask some fishermen what they are looking at. He hears a humming sound and sees a disc-shaped object hovering about 50 feet above the ocean and 120 feet away. It has a small lighted dome on top and a band of square portholes around its midsection through which a red light is shining. Under the UFO the water seems disturbed. The object is visible for an hour. (Gordon W. Creighton, “A Brazilian Sighting,” Flying Saucer Review 10, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1964): 18) Early April — Night. A 2-foot red blinking light frightens children over the Walnut housing area in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania. Police officers Joseph Scala and Emanuel Mavero investigate and watch the bright disc for 10 minutes. Their police radio malfunctions. They try to get closer, but it disappears when they get to the top of a hill. (C. W. Fitch, “Monitoring and Scanning Discs,” APRO Bulletin, September 1964, p. 5) April 9 — A family in Cleveland, Ohio, sees a flight of nine UFOs that suddenly separates into two groups of four and five objects. (UFOEv, p. 15 ) April 9 — 7:15 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. B. Mills are driving on St. Vincent Street in Nelson, New Zealand, when they see a bright-red triangular object with white lights around its perimeter. It is descending from the northeast at a 45° angle and moving across Tasman Bay. They see the object again, somewhat dimmer, around 8:00 p.m. from a friend’s house on Matipo Terrace. (“Triangular Object over New Zealand,” Flying Saucer Review 4, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1958): 6) April 10 — A Danish fighter pilot reports seeing a formation of UFOs. They are also tracked on radar at Skrydstrup Airport in Vojens, Denmark. The pilot attempts to overtake them, but they accelerate and disappear. The commander of Fighter Wing Skrydstrup appeals to the public to report any UFOs. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958 March – April, The Author, 1998, p. 69) April 13 — 9:40 p.m. Lester Billheimer and Carl Kern watch an object shaped like a “solid right angle” glowing like a white neon light over Allentown, Pennsylvania. It travels northwest at first, then turns west and disappears after three seconds. (NICAP case file) April 15 — Day. A witness in Broager, Denmark, sees a large, black, low-flying, triangular object. As it flies over town, a number of horseshoe-shaped objects emerge, emitting a strong light. Twenty other witnesses see a triangular

“spaceship” at the same time. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958 March – April, The Author, 1998, p. 77) April 25 — The officer for UFO investigation in Denmark, Lt. Col. Hans-Christian Petersen, tells the magazine B-T that multiple-witness sightings are commonplace and that the current Danish wave is comparable to that of the US 1952 wave. “Nothing is gained by rejecting all the accounts as fantasy,” he tells reporters. Petersen has founded the Skandinavisk UFO Information group in December with five other Danish military jet pilots. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958 March – April, The Author, 1998, pp. 97 – 99)

May 4 — Dewey Fournet confirms, in a statement to NICAP, the existence of the Estimate of the Situation and his own motion study from 1952. (UFOEv, p. 110 ; Swords 509) May 5 — 3:40 p.m. Experienced pilot Carlos Alejo Rodriguez is flying his Piper Cub in the vicinity of Capitán de Corbeta Naval Air Base [now part of Capitán de Corbeta Carlos A. Curbelo International Airport] near San Carlos, Uruguay, when a brilliant top-like object (symmetrical above and below) suddenly approaches his plane head-on. The UFO is about 45 – 60 feet in diameter, stops about 6 , 500 feet away and “rocked twice, in a balancing motion.” Rodriguez feels strong heat, so he removes his jacket and opens the aircraft windows. The UFO takes off abruptly toward the sea “at a fantastic speed,” leaving a thin vapor trail. (NICAP, “Top-Like Object Heats Up Piper Cub”; UFOEv, p. 120 ; Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, p. 16) May 6 — In a letter to NICAP member George Stocking of St. Petersburg, Florida, Ruppelt says he is “now convinced that the reports of UFO’s are nothing more than reports of balloons, aircraft, astronomical phenomena, etc. I don’t believe they are anything from outer space.” (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958 May – July, The Author, 1999, p. 5) May 7 — Keyhoe’s friend Lou Corbin has received from a military friend of Gen. Nathan Twining news that Twining is still concerned about UFOs. Keyhoe writes to him and receives a note from Twining’s executive officer, Col. James C. Sherrill: “No effective means have been developed for the establishment of communication by radio or otherwise with unknown aerial objects. The technical obstacles involved in such an endeavor, I am sure, are quite obvious to you.” (Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 198 – 199) May 8 — US Rep. John E. Henderson (R-Ohio) writes to Secretary of Defense Neil H. McElroy asking about the status of UFO reports and the USAF investigation. ATIC decides to give Henderson a formal briefing. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958 May – July, The Author, 1999, pp. 5– 8 , 42; Swords 276) May 13 — 12:15 p.m. A Royal Canadian Air Force Dakota DC- 3 is flying to RCAF Station Cold Lake, Alberta, from Victoria, British Columbia. When it changes its heading about 25 miles southwest of Calgary, Alberta, a large, thick, black cloud suddenly appears directly across their flight path at the same altitude. Their VHF communications with Cold Lake and Calgary suddenly cease working. The cloud has indistinct, hazy edges, and it increases in size as they approach at about 155 mph. The pilot unsuccessfully tries to radio Calgary to request a flight path change to avoid the cloud, which is now about 10 miles away. Suddenly he sees a brilliant white pinpoint of light materialize in the dark mass. It grows in size, forming a brilliant ball that quickly approaches the aircraft on a collision course. He braces himself, but the light disappears, and the black cloud vanishes. (Don Ledger, “Two Spherical UAP Cases Witnessed by Pilots in Canadian Airspace,” IUR 33, no. 2 (July 2010): 7–9) May 15 — The Soviets launch Sputnik 3 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (Wikipedia, “Sputnik 3”) May 1 5 — Lackland AFB’s chief of education planning for the officer candidate school, Maj. Warren Akin, suggests, at a meeting of the Junior Chamber of Commerce in San Antonio, Texas, that UFOs are spacecraft. (“Visitors from Outer Space Already May Have Visited Us, Major Says,” San Antonio (Tex.) Express, May 16, 1958, p. 2) May 1 6 — USAF Capt. Walter W. Irwin reaches 1,404 mph in a Lockheed YF-104A Starfighter at Edwards AFB, California. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed F-104 Starfighter”) May 31–June 1 — The fifth Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention takes place at Giant Rock, near Landers, California. Dana Howard, Truman Bethurum, John McCoy, Wayne Aho, Daniel Fry, and Reinhold O. Schmidt join host George Van Tassel for two days of contactee conviviality. (Dana Howard, “Dana Howard Reporting the Giant Rock Convention, 1958,” Flying Saucer Review 4, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1958): 20–21, 25)

Summer — At an unidentified Air Force base in the Southwest US, two jets are vectored in on two UFOs flying together as seen on radar. As the jets close in, one UFO disappears from the radarscope and quickly reappears behind the first jet. The first pilot reverses his course and again tries to close in. The UFO climbs out of range. The second pilot has the same difficulty with the other UFO. (“UFO Chase by AF Jets Revealed to NICAP,” UFO Investigator 1, no. 8 (June 1959): 7)

Summer — Evening. A mechanic at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, allegedly sees a disc-like craft hovering silently above the tarmac. As the object retracts its landing gear, he manages to alert another mechanic in time for them both to see it take off at high speed. The Air Force officers who interrogate them tell them the object was also seen by control tower operators. (Good Need, p. 223 ) June — A USAF officer secretly meets with Keyhoe and gives him three UFO reports and warns him that the Air Force will ask him for “certain UFO information. Think it over carefully before you decide.” NICAP could be in trouble, he says. Two days later, NICAP receives a request from the Air Force requesting any cases that indicate intelligent maneuvers by UFOs. Keyhoe refuses the request, sensing a setup. (Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 199, 232–233) June — Richard H. Hall joins NICAP as executive secretary and associate editor. (Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 30, 208) June — Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas, has prepared a 17-page TV script based on a straightforward interpretation of Keyhoe’s The Flying Saucer Conspiracy, even including the 1953 Moncla case. The script states that “the most logical explanation is that the saucers are interplanetary.” It also says that USAF has “concealed information which was thought to be of danger because of the impending possibility of hysteria and panic.” Keyhoe approves the script, but Lackland withdraws it from consideration by December. (Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 219 – 227 ) June — 4:00 a.m. A woman doctor at a resort at Sinaia, Romania, sees a silvery domed disc traveling slowly and silently toward the southeast at 1,500 feet. On its underside it has a bluish triangular section with rounded points. It passes within 900 feet of her hotel. (Hobana and Weverbergh 159–160) June — 9:00 p.m. B. Muratov and his father are returning home to Chimbay, Uzbekistan, after a fishing expedition to the Aral Sea. They notice a disc-shaped object approaching them directly at low altitude from the northeast. It flies over them and see that its diameter is about 82 feet and it is traveling at 150–180 mph. Its hull is shiny and one side shines with a red color. A pipe is attached to one side, and it gives off a steady “zing zing zing” sound. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, p. 123) June 1 — 11:15 a.m. Bjørn Taraldsen, Nils M. Turi, Kate Julsen, and Rasmus Hykkerud watch a silent “unknown aircraft” like a twin-engine, delta-wing jet with no identifying marks plunge into the Altafjord, Troms og Finnmark, Norway. A column of water rises up, and dead fish float to the surface. The frigate KNM Arendal and the submarine KNM Sarpen, along with divers, search fruitlessly for more than a week, although the Arendal does get a sonar reading of a mobile object. (Ole Jonny Brænne, “Observations of Unidentified Submarine Objects in Norway,” IUR 20, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1995): 12) June 3 — Physicist Freeman Dyson in Princeton, New Jersey, writes a speculative paper on “The Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation” in which he discusses how an advanced civilization might be visible from Earth. He suggests that the logical endpoint of the drive to capture as much energy from a sun would be for engineers to completely enclose it in a hollow sphere. Once the builders have completed it, the only light visible from their star would be the muted infrared glow of radiation heat. Such a structure, which becomes known as a “Dyson sphere,” would be a sure sign of an advanced race. (Freeman J. Dyson, “Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation,” Science 131 (1960): 1667–1668; Wikipedia, “Dyson sphere”) June 6 — Keyhoe writes to NICAP member George Stocking saying that Ruppelt has a job at an aircraft company that contracts with the Air Force and thus might be playing it safe about UFOs. (Clark III 1023 ) June 10 — MP George Chetwynd in the UK House of Commons asks the Air Ministry how many instances of UFOs were reported in the past 12 months and what steps were taken to look into them. Under-Secretary of State for Air Ian Orr-Ewing replies that 54 reports were received and that most were meteors, balloons, aircraft, and satellites. (“Unsatisfactory Answer to M.P.’s Question on UFOs by Undersecretary for Air,” Flying Saucer Review 4, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1958): 5; Good Above, p. 51 ) June 20 — USAF Maj. Joseph E. Boland and Maj. Lawrence J. Tacker brief Rep. John E. Henderson (R-Ohio) for one hour on the status of Air Force UFO investigations in the Capitol building in Columbus, Ohio. Also in attendance are Rep. William C. Cramer (R-Fla.), and Rep. Donald H. Magnuson (D-Wash.). Afterward, the legislators express confidence in the investigation and agree that publicity is unwise, “particularly in an open or closed formal congressional hearing.” (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958 May – July, The Author, 1999, pp. 48 – 50 ; Swords 276–277) June 25 — 8:05 p.m. Rádio Renascença in Lisbon, Portugal, broadcasts a Portuguese-language version of The War of the Worlds with only the names of characters and places changed. The Martians are supposedly landing in Caracavelos, Portugal. A certain amount of confusion results. (John Gosling, Waging the War of the Worlds, McFarland, 2009, pp. 120–129) June 26 — The New York sector becomes the first operational component of the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment, a system of large computers that coordinates data from many radar sites and processes it to produce a single unified image of airspace over a wide area. SAGE directs and controls the NORAD response to a Soviet air attack,

operating in this role from the late 1950s into the 1980s. Its enormous computers and huge displays remain a part of Cold War lore. (Wikipedia, “Semi-Automatic Ground Environment”) June 28 — Otis T. Carr and Norman Evans Colton appear on the Long John Nebel show on WOR-AM in New York City. After Carr praises his mentor, Nikola Tesla, another guest asks Carr to enumerate one or two of his discoveries. Carr feigns a memory lapse, then later is unable to recite even one of Newton’s three laws of motion. (Clark III 860 ) June 28– 29 — Lee Childers Jr., a baker from Detroit, Michigan, speaks at a flying saucer convention near Mountain View, Missouri, in the Ozarks hosted by contactee Buck Nelson. He claims that since April 1955 he has made 21 trips to other planets (and even to “Wolf Star 359 in the Titanian system” that has 2 planets revolving around it) on a saucer piloted by a spaceman named Commander Marcosan. He also went to a space station 2,000 miles in diameter called Trijanon. Other people tell their personal fantastic stories, among them Wayne Aho and Buck Nelson himself. (“Out-of-This-World Ozark Convention,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 6, 1958, p. 71; Clark III 915 ) June 29 — Day. Former RAF Flight Engineer Peter Spencer is flying in an Auster aircraft piloted by Dennis Jackson at 800 feet near the docks at Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England. A large black dumbbell appears below them, flying against the wind. Suddenly it rises up to their height and flies along with them for a while at their speed. Then it accelerates in a terrific burst of speed to a position above them. They try to follow it, but it speeds out over the docks at 1,000 feet and 800 mph. Spencer manages to take three photos of it, but the images show a speed blur. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958, May – July, The Author, 1999, p. 59)

July — President Dwight Eisenhower requests permission from Pakistan to establish a secret US intelligence facility at Badaber (Peshawar Air Station) to fly U-2 reconnaissance missions over the Soviet Union. (Wikipedia, “1960 U- 2 incident”) July — Dusk. Michael D. Swords and his brother Tom are at home in St. Albans, West Virginia, and listening to WCHS- AM radio where someone is calling in a UFO report. They rush to a window and see a domed disc with a revolving top cruise quietly across the landscape. (Michael D. Swords, “We Know Where You Live,” IUR 30, no. 2 (January 2006): 12; Michael D. Swords) July — Night. A 509th Refueling Mission is returning to an Air Force Base in New Hampshire [Pease AFB in Portsmouth?] from Goose Bay [now CFB Goose Bay], Labrador. The crew is flying a KC-97 at about 17,000– 18,000 feet. A light like a “moving star” appears. It approaches below the cloud cover and seems to be spherical and as bright as Venus. It soon becomes the apparent size of the Moon, lighting up the clouds above it. The light is a brilliant blue-white with two dark spots, possibly indicating a structure. The object angles upwards and speeds out of sight in 5 seconds. (Michael D. Swords, GrassRoots UFOs: Case Reports from the Timmerman Files, Fund for UFO Research, 2005, pp. 24–25) July–September — A civilian in Washington, D.C., manages to repeatedly photograph “geometrically shaped flying objects as they passed between his telescope and the moon.” The photos are “remarkably clear and certainly indicated a phenomenon for which he had no ready explanation.” The writer of an October 1 memo, a CIA employee, requests advice on “how we might get our hands on these materials to examine them firsthand and to make a more complete analysis of them.” (ClearIntent, pp. 136 – 137 ) July 17 — Keyhoe writes to Ruppelt to say he is puzzled about his current stance on UFOs, but understands that he might be under pressure from the Air Force. (Michael Hall and Wendy Connors, “The Forgotten Correspondence of Edward J. Ruppelt: The Story behind Report on Unidentified Flying Objects,” pp. 15– 16 ) July 18 — 8:30 p.m. High-school student Chris Kauffman is gazing at the night sky in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when he sees an object shaped like an equilateral triangle pass directly overhead in a north to south direction at 70– 100 mph and 1,000 feet altitude for 10 seconds. It is flying with one point of the triangle as a forward edge and has 12 small orange lights along its edges. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958, May – July, The Author, 1999, pp. 76–77) July 29 — The National Aeronautics and Space Administration succeeds the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. The new agency is to have a distinctly civilian orientation, encouraging peaceful applications in space science. (Wikipedia, “NASA”) July 29 — An Associated Press writer in Alamogordo, New Mexico, sees an abridged version of Carl Jung’s 1954 letters on UFOs in the APRO Bulletin and jumps to the conclusion that the psychologist believes them to be extraterrestrial in origin. (Carl Jung, “On Unconventional Aerial Objects,” APRO Bulletin, July 1958, pp. 1, 5; “Dr. Jung Says ‘Saucers’ Exist: Bars Psychological Explanations,” New York Times, July 30, 1958, p. 13; Clark III 637)

July 30 — Ruppelt writes Keyhoe back, saying he has “always been convinced that UFO’s were nothing more than reports of airplanes, balloons, astronomical phenomena, etc.” He says he is not being intimidated, he is just not interested in UFOs anymore and too busy. (Michael Hall and Wendy Connors, “The Forgotten Correspondence of Edward J. Ruppelt: The Story behind Report on Unidentified Flying Objects,” p. 16) July 30 — MP George Chetwynd presses further questions in the UK House of Commons by asking the Secretary of State for Air George Ward what action is taken to identify unexplained UFOs. Ward replies that the unidentified reports are “not sufficiently precise.” (“More Questions in House of Commons,” Flying Saucer Review 4, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1958): iv; Good Above, pp. 51 – 52 )

August — Polish Air Force pilot Apoloniusz Czernów of the 3rd Fighter Regiment in Warsaw, is returning from an attempted balloon interception in the area around Świdnica, Poland. Flying at 26,000 feet, he sees another possible balloon 9 miles away at a height of 3,200 feet and turns his MiG- 17 toward it. But when he approaches it, he sees it is a cigar-shaped object tilted at a 45° angle, silvery-orange in color, and pulsating with a weird light. He gets closer and the object ascends at high speed, heads north, changes to orange-red, and disappears. Base radar has detected nothing. (Poland 63–64) August 1 — The Teak thermonuclear test, part of Operation Hardtack I, is launched from Johnston Atoll in the North Pacific Ocean and carries a payload of 3.8 megatons. The warhead is carried on a Redstone missile, which has a “program failure,” causing it to go straight up and detonate directly above the island. In a sanitized film record of the event, men in flip-flops and shorts can be seen ducking for cover as a phenomenal fireball consumes the sky overhead. During the Teak test, all crew on and around Johnston Atoll are given protective eyewear to prevent flash blindness from the explosion. Besides the hazard of blindness, thermal radiation is another concern—even at an altitude of 50 miles. A crew member on Johnston at the time is said to have received a slight sunburn from the amount of thermal radiation that had reached the island. While only slight to the crew member, it creates issues for the local fauna. Many birds are seen in distress. Unsure if this is caused by blindness or thermal radiation, the project members decide to take precautions to protect local wildlife during the next test. The explosion can be seen from Hawaii 806 miles away and is said to be visible for almost half an hour. After the explosion, high- frequency, long-distance communication is interrupted across the Pacific. Due to this failure, Johnston Atoll personnel are unable to contact their superiors to advise of the test results until about 8 hours after the detonation. The detonation disturbs Wernher Von Braun so greatly that he leaves the island shortly after comms are restored. The explosion causes the blue sky to turn red, white, and gray, and it creates an aurora 2,100 miles long along the geomagnetic meridian. (Wikipedia, “Operation Hardtack I”; Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 170 – 171 ) August 3 — 2:25 a.m. A sudden violet-orange brightness illuminates the sky over Rome, Italy, for about 3 seconds. Lights in the city dim, failing completely in some areas. Physician Angelo Corsi witnesses it 37 miles southeast of Rome in Sgurgola. After his car radio fails, and the house and streetlights go out, he sees a long whitish trail like a fan in the sky. At 2:22 a.m., in Rieti a sergeant and some guards see a yellow-green cigar-shaped object moving rapidly toward the southeast. It leaves a luminous trail that lights up roads, mountains, and houses for several seconds. A similar sight is seen in Naples. (Schopick, pp. 142 – 143 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958 August – September, The Author, 1999, pp. 1, 3) August 8 — An informal two-hour hearing on UFOs is held by the House Subcommittee on Atmospheric Phenomena, chaired by Rep. William Natcher (D-Ky.), which is part of the Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration, chaired by Rep. John W. McCormack (D-Mass.). Although McCormack wants an extended hearing in closed secret session, unrecorded, ATIC Capt. George T. Gregory persuades him to allow the Air Force to give a briefing, while allowing people like Menzel, Ruppelt, and Keyhoe to offer their opinions later. NICAP as a whole should be excluded, he emphasizes. The main witnesses turn out to be Gregory and Maj. Tacker. The subcommittee, which also includes Kenneth Keating (R-N.Y.) and Lee Metcalf (D-Mont.), commends Gregory for his presentation on Project Blue Book’s “improved” methods. The hearings were to have been extended to the following week, but they decide to call no more witnesses at the suggestion of scientific consultant Dr. Charles S. Sheldon II, who thus maneuvers Keyhoe out of appearing. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958 August – September, The Author, 1999, pp. 5– 27 ; Swords 277– 279 ) August 9 — Carl Jung issues a denial to the Associated Press about his “extraterrestrial” statement, saying that witnesses are “in need of fantasy.” He thinks “something is being seen,” but his interest is more in what they think they are seeing. (“Dr. Jung Says Flying Saucers Are a New ‘Savior Myth,’” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 9, 1958, p. 5 ) August 11 — The Orange thermonuclear test is launched by Redstone missile from Johnston Atoll with a yield of 3.8 megatons. Although Orange is visible from Hawaii, it is not the great spectacle Teak had been. The light from the 28 - mile-high blast is visible for about 5 minutes, but does not cause a large communication interruption; however,

some commercial flights to Hawaii are said to have lost contact with air traffic controllers for a short period of time. (Wikipedia, “Operation Hardtack I”) August 11 — Betty Jane Williamson dies in Lima, Peru, when her husband George Hunt Williamson is on a lecture tour in Europe. Her death is caused by malnutrition generated by an alternative diet regimen. James W. Moseley later circulates an outrageously false accusation that Williamson killed Betty by pushing her off a cliff, but the charge is a complete fabrication. (Clark III 1286; James W. Moseley and Karl T. Pflock, Shockingly Close to the Truth! Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist, Prometheus, 2002, pp. 137 – 138 ; Jerome Clark, “The Trivialist,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 15–19, 29– 30 ; Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, pp. 117, 123– 124 ) August 16 — Around 5:00 p.m. Several persons on Lake Geneva, Switzerland, watch a bright light descending. It comes to hover about 45 feet above their boat. It is saucer-shaped, about 39 feet in diameter, and has a cabin on top with several windows. It causes a noticeable current in the water. After several leaps in the air, it flies off at high speed. (Vallée, Magonia, p. 272 ) August 18 — 7:05 or 7:10 p.m. Typewriter repairman Alex Donald Chisholm is at home at 21950 Cunningham Avenue in Warren, Michigan, with Walter Moilanion and his wife and possibly a young daughter, when he sees a light much brighter than Venus in the vicinity of a flight of four military aircraft. He watches the object through 8x30 mm Japanese artillery-observer field glasses. It looks to be a Saturn-shaped grayish object like a “fried egg in pan.” Later it flips over, and another more elongated ring can be seen surrounding it. The object is about 60 feet long and is stationary for 5-8 minutes. However, the object is probably a Skyhook balloon launched from the University of Minnesota on August 17. (Clark III 392; NICAP, [case file]) August 27–September 6 — In Operation Argus, three nuclear warheads are launched from X-17 rockets from the deck of the USS Norton Sound in the South Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Africa. They explode approximately 300 miles into space. The tests are proposed by Nicholas Christofilos in an unpublished paper of the Livermore branch [now the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory] of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, California, as a means to verify the Christofilos effect, which argues that high-altitude nuclear detonations will create a radiation belt in the extreme upper regions of the Earth’s atmosphere (they do create artificial electron belts that persist several weeks), or an electronic pulse that could hypothetically damage the arming devices on Soviet ICBM warheads (they do not). (Wikipedia, “Operation Argus”)

September — NICAP fires its office manager, treasurer, and typist Rose Hackett Campbell after she gives membership cards to George Adamski and other contactees. Richard H. Hall begins work at NICAP as associate editor. (“Resignations,” UFO Investigator 1, no. 5 (Aug./Sept. 1958): 2; “Richard Hall Becomes Assoc. Editor,” UFO Investigator 1, no. 5 (Aug./Sept. 1958): 2) September — Around 9:00 p.m. The USS Franklin D. Roosevelt is on a shakedown cruise in the Caribbean Sea out of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, when at least 25 of the 3,000 crew members notice a light following the aircraft carrier. Fireman’s apprentice Chester C. Grusinski watches it as it comes close and sees a cigar-shaped object with portholes and figures inside looking out. Grusinki can feel heat coming from the object, and some of the ship’s power apparently goes out. After a few minutes, the object turns red-orange and takes off. (Chester C. Grusinski, “UFOs Seen by Crew of an American Aircraft Carrier (1952–1958),” Flying Saucer Review 40, no. 3 (Autumn 1995): 1–4; Gordon Creighton, “Confirmation of an Important U.S. Naval Sighting,” Flying Saucer Review 46, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 17–20; Good Need, pp. 234 – 236 ) September 8 — 6:40 p.m. At Offutt AFB, Omaha, Nebraska, SAC Operations Officer Maj. Paul A. Duich, plus several officers from USAF Ballistic Missiles Division, Los Angeles AFB in El Segundo, California; many other air base officers and airmen; and Offutt air traffic control tower personnel see a brilliant-white, elongated, cylindrical object hovering in the west just after sunset. The object is oriented vertically with the blunter end highest. After several minutes, the object turns dull orange-red and becomes sharper in outline. A swarm of about 10 “black specks” appears to “cavort” around the lower end of the object for about one minute before disappearing. Then the cylindrical object begins to rotate counterclockwise and starts drifting slowly to the south from due west and drops in elevation angle over about 5 minutes. During the final 5 - minute observation, the object continues angular descent and gradually decreases in angular size, but it begins rotating clockwise until it disappears by fading into the slight atmospheric haze. A USAF colonel takes several color photos with a 35mm camera on a tripod but later claims nothing came out. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958 August – September, The Author, 1999, pp. 59–63; UFOEv, pp. 25 , 27 ; Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects and Cloud Cigars,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 5– 6 ; Sparks, p. 265 ; Swords 280) September 12 — The Operation Hardtack II series of 37 nuclear tests takes place at the Nevada Test Site through October 30 , all within 18 miles of Area 51. (Wikipedia, “Operation Hardtack II”)

September 21 — 3:00 a.m. Mrs. William H. Fitzgerald of Sheffield Lake, Ohio, sees through her east-facing bedroom window a metallic domed disc, 12–22 feet in diameter and 6 feet thick. It sweeps in over the front lawn heading north and descending in a falling-leaf oscillating motion to about 6 feet altitude, then crosses over her driveway, and stops for several seconds about 40 feet away. It then reverses course heading south and hovers 5 feet above the lawn about 25 feet away, making a jetlike sound. The object wobbles and emits gray smoke, makes two tight clockwise turns, then rises and takes off straight up over the house towards the east. Her 10-year-old son also observes the event from another room. (NICAP, “12ʹ Diameter 6ʹ Thick Disc within 40ʹ”; UFO Ev, p. 113; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958 August – September, The Author, 1999, pp. 68 – 72) September 25 — The Project Moonwatch team in Portland, Oregon, is looking at the Moon when they see objects crossing the lunar disc. Occasionally they recognize the transit as a bird, but there are “tiny dark objects” that behave differently. All the object pass in the same direction and in the same location for about one second. Supervisor Alex Geddes, who was not present, sends a supportive letter to the observers, thanking them for the data. (Michael D. Swords, “Gazing at the Moons,” IUR 32, no. 4 (October 2009): 15) September 29 — 5:30 a.m. Pvt. Jerome A. Scanlon, stationed at Nike missile base W- 93 in Derwood, Maryland, is walking from his sentry post to the barracks to sound reveille when he hears a humming sound above him. He looks up and sees a teardrop-shaped object 300 feet up and coming in for a landing at 30 mph. It moves over trees, breaking branches, and lands about 1.5 miles away. Exhaust flames issue from its rear, and its luminous green skin illuminates the terrain. It rises again and disappears. Scanlon runs to inform Riney Farris, the sergeant of the guard, who has also seen the object. They go to the landing site and find broken branches and a scorched strip of earth and vegetation about half a mile long. After the story appears in newspapers, the Air Force explains it as repair trucks doing welding jobs. (“Brass to Hear GI’s Account of Fiery ‘Saucer,’” New York Journal- American, October 7, 1958; “‘Saucer’ Landed, Say Two Soldiers,” Goldsboro (N.C.) Record, October 9, 1958; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 90–91; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958 August – September, The Author, 1999, p. 79)

October — Maj. Robert J. Friend takes over as head of Project Blue Book, relieving Capt. George T. Gregory. About this time, a new USAF fact sheet states that investigative improvements have reduced unsolved sightings to 1.8%. The “refinement” comes from lumping “probable” and “possible” identifications into “identified.” At the same time, a secret staff study by USAF intelligence officers addresses the public relations problems caused by Keyhoe, who is characterized as a “political adventurer” allied with Ruppelt, both of whom are in the UFO “business” strictly for the money. Yet together “they represent a formidable team from which plenty of trouble can be expected.” The study recommends that 18–20 personnel be assigned to temporary UFO investigation duty. They would solve reports that have not been sent directly to Blue Book. Though ATIC urges implementation of the plan, Air Force Headquarters kills it. (Jacobs, UFO Controversy in America, Signet ed., 1976, pp. 146 – 151 ; Clark III 920; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 25 – 27 ; Sparks, p. 14 ) October 1 — NASA begins operations. It includes three major labs: Langley Aeronautical Laboratory [now Langley Research Center] in Hampton, Virginia; Ames Aeronautical Laboratory [now Ames Research Center] in Mountain View, California; and Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory [now Glenn Research Center] in Brook Park, Ohio. It incorporates elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the US Naval Research Laboratory. (Wikipedia, “NASA”) October 2 — Shortly after 5:00 p.m. Naturalist Ivan T. Sanderson sees a dull-gray object, shaped like a pickle with a flat bottom, fly erratically in loops over the Delaware Water Gap near Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. (NICAP, “Nickel- Shaped Object Flies Loops (Sanderson Case)”; UFOEv, p. 52; Sparks, p. 266 ) October 3 — 3:10 a.m. A Monon Railroad freight train is traveling between Owasco and Kirklin, Indiana, when a formation of four odd white lights crosses ahead of the train. The entire crew watch the UFOs turn and traverse the full length of the train, front to back (about a half mile). After passing the rear of the train, the objects swing east, turn back, and follow the train. The bright glow conceals their exact shape, but they appear flattened and sometimes fly on edge. The objects follow the train until the conductor shines a bright light on them. Immediately the objects speed away, but return quickly and continue to pace the train. Total time of observation is about 1 hour 10 minutes. Finally the UFOs move away to the northeast and disappear. (NICAP, “The Monon RR UFO Incident”; “They’re Back Again—in Indiana,” APRO Bulletin, November 1958, 1, 3; Frank Edwards, “UFO Buzzes Train,” Fate 12, no. 2 (February 1959): 25 – 30) October 7 — 2:55 p.m. Joseph Gwooz, master of the SS Nantucket, sees a gray, oval object in the sky at an altitude of 8,000–10,000 feet at the entrance to the Nantucket Channel, Massachusetts. It remains stationary for more than one minute, then shoots up and away to the northeast. (UFOEv, p. 71 )

October 7 — 6:02 p.m. Chemist John R. Townsend, special assistant for research and engineering to the Assistant Secretary of Defense, sees a large, stationary, sharply outlined Saturn-shaped silvery object (with a “gossamer” surface appearance and a rim or girdle around its equator) in a clear sky in Alexandria, Virginia. It rapidly rises at an estimated speed of 1,000 mph and disappears to the south after 40 seconds. At one point a passing Capitol Airlines Flight 407 flies directly between his line of sight and the UFO at 2 miles distance, allowing him to estimate the UFO’s size as about 500 feet. Townsend reenacts the timing by walking the half block down Lee Street to get a better feeling for its distance and size. (NICAP, “Saturn-Shaped Object Observed, Object Confirmed by Pilot”; Swords 282; Sparks, p. 267) October 26 — 10:30 p.m. Alvin Cohen and Phillip Small are rounding a curve on Maryland Route 146 some 600 – 900 feet south of the bridge at Loch Raven Reservoir, Maryland. They see a large (100 feet long) egg-shaped object hanging 100–150 feet above the bridge. When they drive to within 75 feet of it their car stalls and the dash lights turn off. They get out of the car and watch the UFO from behind it for 30–45 seconds. The UFO flashes a beam of white light and they feel heat on their faces. They also hear a dull explosion. The UFO rises vertically and disappears in 5–10 seconds. They are able to start the car and drive into Towson, Maryland, to make a phone call to the Ground Observer Corps and the police. Police Cpl. Kenneth Hartmann and Patrolman Richard Fink drive up and they tell them the story, then they go to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Baltimore and are given a cursory examination for burns. Other people in the neighborhood either see an object at the time or hear the boom. (“Baltimore’s Flying Saucer,” Baltimore (Md.) Evening Sun, December 15, 1958, p. 21; NICAP, “Egg-Shaped Object & E-M Effects over Bridge”; Schopick, pp. 62–63; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958 October, The Author, 1999, pp, 73–86; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974 , pp. 1 32 , 139 – 140 ; Sparks, p. 268 ; Clark III 686)

November — Skandinavisk UFO Information in Denmark begins publishing UFO-Nyt. (UFO-Nyt, November 1958) November 3 — 2:01 p.m. At Minot, North Dakota, M/Sgt. William R. Butler, a medic, sees one bright-green object, shaped like a 10-cent piece, and one smaller, silver round object. The first object explodes, then the second object moves toward the location of the first at high speed. Sighting lasts 1 minute. (Sparks, p. 268 ) November 4 — 9:03 p.m. The pilot of a KB-50 USAF tanker is in the downwind leg of the traffic pattern during a ground- controlled approach to Pope AFB [now Pope Field] in Fayetteville, North Carolina, when he notices an object on a collision course. He and his flight crew also notice that “strange lights were observed in his cockpit while he was on the final approach…” He executes a go-around maneuver and climbs in altitude to await the disappearance of the object. Air Force tower personnel also see the UFO hovering above the airport, watching it through their binoculars for 20 minutes. They are convinced it is not an atmospheric phenomenon. They say that “the UFO presented a hazard to aircraft operating in the area.” (NICAP, “Object on Collision Course with KB-50 Tanker, Circles”; Richard F. Haines, “Aviation Safety in America: A Previously Neglected Factor,” NARCAP, October 15, 2000, pp. 53– 54 ; Sparks, p. 268 ) November 5 — MP Roy Mason asks the Air Minister in the UK House of Commons to what extent official records are kept of UFO sightings and what departments are involved. Air Minister George Ward replies in writing that reports involving national security are investigated but “nothing suggests that they are other than mundane.” (“Come Off It, Mr. Ward! ‘Nothing Suggests That They Are Other Than Mundane,’” Flying Saucer Review 5, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1959): 2; Good Above, p. 52 ) November 9 — Residents of Trinidad, Rio Dell, and other towns in northern California report showers of cobweblike material, some in strands 5–6 feet long. Two fishermen at sea, George Korkan and Jack Curry, say the substance settles on their boat in such quantity that it makes the boat appear “a million years old.” A sample obtained at McKinleyville is examined by biologist Erwin Bielfuss at Humboldt State College. He rules out mold or an animal product and suggests it is plant material or plastic. (“Cobweb Like Substance in Area Mystifies Zoologist,” Eureka (Calif.) Humboldt Standard, November 10, 1958, p. 5; UFOEv, p. 99 ) November 9 — 10:00 p.m. Two carpenters, Stig Ekberg and Harry Sjöberg, are returning from Stockholm, Sweden, to their cabin on Väddö island, about 20 miles to the northeast. About 6 miles north of Älmstä their car engine begins to sputter and fail, and the headlights go out. They see a huge, shining object descending toward them and making a turn above Väddö Bay to the left of the road. It lands in the middle of the road about 300 feet in front of their car, its neon glow illuminating the landscape. They estimate it is 53 feet long and 20 feet high, with a bright glow underneath the object and a dazzling mist surrounding it. They watch the object for about 10 minutes, then it rises from the road and shoots into the sky to their right. Afterward, the air is stifling and hot, but the engine starts up right away. A few minutes later they return to the landing site and find flattened grass and a still-hot, smooth, triangular piece of metal the size of a matchbox, which they retrieve. They submit the metal to several labs over the next few years, apparently without ambiguous results, but in the process it is split into three pieces. Finally, an

engineer in Linköping named Schalin finds the metal has the hardness of sapphire and a specific weight of 15.2. It can take several thousand degrees C. heat without getting red hot. One of the pieces is submitted to the US Air Force and not returned. In the early 1970s, another piece is examined by James Harder at the University of California, Berkeley, who establishes it is composed of tungsten carbide, cobalt, and traces of titanium, and that it has been manufactured. (Christer Nordin, “The Väddö Case,” Nordic UFO Newsletter, no. 1 (1981): 2–6) November 11 — 1:35 a.m. A Mrs. Kinney, who is a Lt. Col. in the Civil Air Patrol in Topeka, Kansas, wakes up when her bedroom floods with an amber-colored light and her three dogs begin barking. The source is a 25-foot diameter sphere that is sitting on the walkway in the yard about 30 feet away. Kinney opens a door to go out on a porch, but the light zooms straight up and out of sight. She goes back to bed and the phone rings; it is a neighbor who has seen the light going toward her house. At 7:30 a.m., the phone rings again; this time it is the controllers at the Philip Billard Municipal Airport, who know her well and tell her about the light they saw. In the evening, she finds there is an electrical failure on the east side of the house. Lights, radios, and refrigerators are not working. Kinney replaces some fuses, but not everything turns on again. An electrician comes and replaces some wiring on November 12, but Kinney’s eyes develop subconjunctival hemorrhages and sensitivity to bright light. She begins to wear sunglasses regularly. Both of her male dogs develop cataracts. (Swords 287–288) November 17 —10:03 p.m. Somewhere in Russia a luminous object hovers and lands. It is seen for 2 minutes. (Vallée, Magonia, p. 273 ) November 30 — Tom Gerber of the Boston Herald features interviews with unnamed Air Force officers who proclaim an “undeclared war on phony organizations that capitalize on the ‘mystery’ of flying saucers.” Supposedly, the Air Force has evidence that “perhaps as many as 100,000 persons belong to these UFO organizations” and are “making a wad of money.” As many as 16% of the UFO sightings investigated by USAF are “hoaxes originated by members or officials of these organizations”—an obvious swipe at NICAP. (Swords 282–283)

December — The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is transferred to NASA from the Army, becoming the agency’s primary planetary spacecraft center. (Wikipedia, “Jet Propulsion Laboratory”) December — Some 450 airline pilots have signed a petition protesting the official policy of debunking UFO sightings. One pilot describes the policy as a “lesson in lying, intrigue, and the ‘Big Brother’ attitude carried to the ultimate extreme.” Of the signatories, more than 50 personally have reported UFO sightings but are told by the Air Force that they are mistaken. USAF warns them that they face up to 10 years in prison under JANAP 146 if they reveal details of their sighting to the media. Because of situations like this, Maj. Friend unsuccessfully requests that Blue Book be transferred from ATIC to Air Research and Development Command on the grounds that UFOs are a scientific, not a military problem. His staff complains that the work is time-consuming and unproductive, and ARDC could speak to the public with authority and persuasiveness. ARDC briefly considers, then declines, the offer. (Good Above, p. 284 ; Clark III 922) Early December — Contactee Lee Childers visits a New York City group called the Bureau of UFO Research and Analysis to present a lecture. By now he is calling himself Prince Neosom of Tythan, which is 8.5 light years from Earth. He also answers to the name Dana. (Clark III 915) December 6 — Between 6:38 and 6:40 p.m. Along the border of Russia and India, an observer sees a bright UFO cross his field of vision through his telescope from north to south as he is observing Mars. He thinks it might be Sputnik 3, but the location and direction of the object do not bear that out. (ClearIntent, pp. 137 – 138 ) December 6 — 5:44 a.m. The first launch of a Juno II, carrying Pioneer 3, at LC-5 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, suffers a premature first-stage cutoff, preventing the upper stages from achieving sufficient velocity. Pioneer 3 cannot escape Earth orbit but transmits data for some 40 hours before reentering the atmosphere. A malfunction in a propellant depletion circuit is found to be the cause of the failure, although the exact nature of it cannot be determined. The circuit is redesigned afterwards. (Wikipedia, “Juno II”) December 19 —John Lester, a writer for the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger, has polled 1,000 US government radar operators over the past month and found that 80% have observed UFOs traveling at fantastic speeds, executing perfect 90° turns, steep vertical climbs, and hovering stops. They fly in formation and manage to stay just ahead of USAF jets scrambled to intercept them. Tacker responds immediately that the UFOs are natural phenomena (“lightning, meteors, and meteorites”). (Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger, December 19, 21, 1958) December 20 — 2:55 a.m. Hans Gustafsson, a 2 4 - year-old truck driver, and Stig Rydberg, a 30-year-old student, claim that while driving home to Helsingborg, Sweden, from a dance they see a strange light in a glade on their right near Domsten. They leave the car and walk up to the object, which turns out to be a disc-shaped vehicle 16 feet in diameter resting on 3 legs. The two are suddenly attacked by four gray creatures about 4 feet tall who try to drag them to the UFO. In January 1959, a medical doctor, Lars-Erik Essén, hypnotizes the men in what is perhaps the first use of hypnosis of a UFO witness, but the two manage to fool Essén. In the late 1980s, Gustafsson’s brother

Artur reveals to ufologist Clas Svahn that before he died his brother had told him the story was a hoax. (Clark III 413 – 414 ; Rob Morphy, “Terrible Flying Jelly Bags aka Domsten Blobs (Sweden),” Cryptopia, May 6, 2018; Swords 366– 367 ; Clas Svahn and Anders Liljegren, Domstensfallet: En svensk närkontakt 1958, AFU, 1989) December 21 — A group of more than 50 commercial airline pilots, all of whom have had at least one UFO sighting, tell reporter John Lester with the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger that the Air Force policy of censorship and denial regarding reports is the “Big Brother attitude carried to the ultimate extreme.” Most express disgust with the USAF methods of interrogating civilian pilots and complain about the gag order about publicly talking about their sightings under penalty of 10 years in prison or $10,000 in fines (JANAP 146). “Nuts to that. Who needs it?” (Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger, December 22, 1958; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1958 November – December, The Author, 1999, p. 55) December 22 — 3:00 p.m. Stanislaw Kowalczewski, a physician, takes a photograph of a dark, disc-shaped object over Muszyna, Poland. (Hobana and Weverbergh 67– 68 ; Wiki Meteoritica, “Muszyna 1958”; Poland 21– 23 ) December 30 — 3:30 p.m. Joseph Bennett, a farmer in Portglenone, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, is out walking and hears a noise like a rush of wind. A black object 7 feet across comes hurtling through the air about 20 feet above the ground. Moving from south to northwest, it crashes into an oak tree, splitting it in two at a height of 10 feet, then ascends and disappears in seconds. The tree has no burn or scorch marks. (“UAOs Collide with Tree, Roof,” APRO Bulletin, March 1959, p. 2; “We’re Not Roswell, We’re Portglenone,” Fortean Ireland, March 17, 2019)

1959

1959? — According to weapons specialist David Middleton, sometime in the late 1950s a few hours prior to a nuclear weapons test at the Nevada Test Site, he and several other technicians watch two silver discs race across then swoop down and maneuver near the detonation tower where the atomic weapon is mounted. The two objects fly a tight circle around the tower before zooming off at high velocity. The test is immediately postponed by senior AEC personnel. Middleton is debriefed and sworn to secrecy. (Nukes 58 – 59) 1959 — The original US Navy Space Surveillance System goes into operation. From 1960 until the early 1990s the system is used in conjunction with a network of Baker-Nunn cameras that can see an object the size of a basketball at 25,000 miles. The system is operated by the US Navy for NORAD from 1961 to October 2004. Initially independent, it is run by Naval Space Command from 1993 to 2002, and then by Naval Network and Space Operations Command from 2002 to 2004, when it is taken over by the Air Force. (Wikipedia, “Air Force Space Surveillance System”) 1959 —The US Army and CIA at Edgewood Arsenal at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, show significant interest in deploying a new drug, 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate (BZ), as a chemical warfare agent. The drug’s effects last for three days, perhaps as long as six. Between 1959 and 1975, some 2,800 soldiers are given BZ at Edgewood. (Reid Kirby, “Paradise Lost: The Psycho Agents,” The CBW Conventions Bulletin, no. 71 (May 2006): 1–5) 1959 — Psychologist Carl Jung publishes Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies in the UK, a translation of Ein moderner Mythus von Dingen, die am Himmel gesehen werden, published in Zürich, Switzerland, in 1958, in which he compares the discs to archetypes, dreams, visions, paintings, and the metaphysical symbol of a mandala: “the rounded wholeness of the mandala becomes a space ship controlled by an intelligent being.” However, he remains puzzled by the physical evidence. (Carl Jung, Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1959; Clark III 637– 638 ) 1959 — Author Hugo Correa founds UFO Chile in Santiago, Chile. Its newsletter appears from August 1967 to May

1969. (Hugo Correa, “¿Que es ‘UFO Chile’?” UFO Chile, no. 1 (August 1967): 1) 1959 — The Soviet KGB has created its own disinformation Department D (Dezinformatsiya) in the First Chief Directorate, which under Yuri Andropov is later renamed Department A (for “active measures”). It specializes in the fabrication and dissemination of forged documents, tapes, letters, manuscripts, photos, rumors, and false intelligence. (Wikipedia, “Active measures”; John Barron, KGB: The Secret Work of Soviet Secret Agents, Bantam, 1974 ; Richard H. Shultz and Roy Godson, Dezinformatsia: Active Measures in Soviet Strategy, Pergamon-Brassey’s, 1984) 1959 — Contactee Howard Menger publishes From Outer Space to You, an account of his meetings with space people. (Howard Menger, From Outer Space to You, Saucerian, 1959; Clark III 739) 1959 — George Van Tassel claims the space people have taught him a method of rejuvenating the human body. Using his new-found knowledge and funds provided by Howard Hughes, he completes the outer structure of the Integraton at Giant Rock, California, a four-story domed structure, 55 feet in diameter, built mostly of wood without nails, screws, iron, or steel. Van Tassel claims it will harness the EMF energy required for recharging the cells in our

bodies. In the course of its construction, Van Tassel discovers that the Integraton functions as a time machine.
(Wikipedia, “Integraton”; Clark III 1219; Douglas Curran, In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer
Space, Abbeville, 1985, pp. 79– 81 ; David Clarke and Tom Clark, “Going ‘Out There’ in SoCal,” Fortean Times
388 (January 2020): 75–76)

January — Leonard Hewins sees a fiery, round object come down near Stratford-on-Avon, England, from the east and land 300 feet away. A blue haze forms and three figures emerge and sit down with clumsy movements. Hewins is unable to move until the UFO takes off. (John D. Llewellyn, “Stratford-on-Avon Landing with Occupants: January 1959,” Flying Saucer Review 13, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1967): 15; Patrick Gross, URECAT, March 9, 2008) January 1 — Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, on holiday in Germany, makes a cryptic statement about the failed launch of Pioneer 3 by a Juno II rocket on December 6, 1958: “We find ourselves faced by powers which are far stronger than we had hitherto assumed, and whose base is at present unknown to us. More I cannot say at present. We are now engaged in entering into closer contact with those powers, and in six or nine months’ time it may be possible to speak with more precision on the matter.” (Good Above, p. 370 ) January 1 — 4:55 p.m. Deputy Fred Gunzelman of the Harbor Department in Corona del Mar, California, spots a bright object outside department headquarters. He summons Deputy Elmer Sandling and Sgt. Bruce Young and the three watch the object through binoculars, where it appears to be a disc-shaped object with a rotating tail. They notify the lifeguard headquarters at Newport Beach, where Lt. Mike Henry, Guard Jack Bell, and Lt. Jim Richards also see the UFO. The planet Venus is clearly visible in the same section of sky. During the 15 minutes it is visible, it starts moving to the southeast and then splits into four parts. Two rise vertically at high speed, another heads southeast, and the last remains stationary. (UFOEv, p. 137; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 95) January 11 — Wilbert Smith speaks on UFOs at the Illuminating Engineering Society’s Canadian Regional Conference in Ottawa, Ontario. He claims that “Various items of ‘hardware’ are known to exist, but are usually clapped into security and are not available to the general public.” (Frank Edwards, FS Serious Business, Bantam ed., 1966, p. 48 ) January 13 — 7:00 a.m. Robert Collins is driving a pickup truck south on Hartstown Road across Pymatuning Lake, Pennsylvania, when he sees a bright light approaching from the east and illuminating the ground. It stops above his truck, hovering 200 feet above it for several minutes. The truck’s electrical system fails, the engine dies, and the headlights and radio go out. The object’s light illuminates an area about 300 feet in front of him. It takes off and disappears in seconds, and the truck begins working again. (“Area Man’s Encounter with Unidentified Flying Object Called Weirdest Experience,” Greenville (Pa.) Record-Argus, January 31, 1959, pp. 1–2) January 17 — George Adamski arrives in Auckland, New Zealand, on the first stop on his world lecture tour where he is received by North Island Adamski Correspondence Group leaders Henk and Brenda Hinfelaar for a 6-week engagement starting with a talk in Kaikohe on January 20. (“World Lecture Tour,” The Adamski Case, October 5, 2019 ; Marc Hallet, A Critical Appraisal of George Adamski: The Man Who Spoke to the Space Brothers, The Author, 2016) January 18? — Eight people see a UFO over Stigsjö, Sweden. The round object, 18–24 feet in diameter, approaches slowly from the south over Lake Länsjön at a height of 900 feet. It is surrounded by a luminous ring 6 feet wide. It is visible for 3 minutes. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 January – March, The Author, 1999, p. 25) January 21 — 6:00 a.m. A flying object is seen crashing into the waters of the harbor at Gdynia, Poland. Rumors later claim that a rust-free fragment is retrieved by divers and, after being examined by the Polish navy, sent to Gdynia Polytechnic University [possibly the Polish Naval Academy]. A few days later, an injured occupant of the craft is allegedly found wandering in the area. He speaks no known language, wears an odd uniform, and apparently has burns on the face. He is taken to a hospital, but he dies when doctors attempt to remove an armband. His remains are said to have been shipped to the Soviet Union. (Hobana and Weverbergh 1–2; Poland 25– 28 , 115) January 21 — MP Roy Mason asks the Air Minister another question in the UK House of Commons: What instructions have been sent to RAF stations about collecting military UFO reports, and what collaboration is there with Canada and the US? Air Minister George Ward replies that RAF units have standing instructions for handling reports, and there is no special collaboration with those countries. (“Roy Mason Asks Another,” Flying Saucer Review 5, no. 2 (March/April 1959): 2; Good Above, p. 52 ) January 28 — At a Symposium on Aerospace Technology by the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences at the Astor Hotel in New York City, USAF Maj. Gen. Donald J. Keirn, assistant deputy chief of staff on development for nuclear systems, talks about nuclear aircraft propulsion. He mentions that if intelligent extraterrestrials do exist, “it is entirely possible that some of them may have passed through our stage of evolution, and may have already

achieved a higher level of social and technological culture than our own.” He suggests using electromagnetic emissions to detect them, as they may be doing with us. (US Congress, Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, Hearings, Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Program, July 23, 1959, p. 153 ) January 31 — The US Ground Observer Corps is deactivated with the advent of automated Army (Missile Master) and Air Force (SAGE) radar systems. (Wikipedia, “Ground Observer Corps”)

February — 9:30 p.m. The people of Digeliotika, Greece, hear a humming noise coming from the direction of the sea. Running out of their homes, many people see a luminous disc circling the village for about 10 minutes. Radios fail to operate and the electrical current in one house fails completely. When the disc flies low over the house of the priest, Papa Costas, there is a loud noise and the whole house shakes. The object moves off to the west. Inspection of the house the next day reveals that many of the roof tiles have been displaced, and others are on the ground. (“UAOs Collide with Tree, Roof,” APRO Bulletin, March 1959, p. 2) February 1 — JANAP 146(D) integrates Canada into the CIRVIS reporting instructions. The Canadian Department of National Defence launches a series of Communications Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings in line with the JANAP procedures. (Gregory M. Kanon, “UFOs and the Canadian Government,” Canadian UFO Report 3, no. 7 (Spring 1976): 17– 18 ; Antonio F. Rullán, “Blue Book UFO Reports at Sea by Ships,” December 10, 2002) February 17 — Hynek wants to start bringing together ATIC and Blue Book personnel for monthly meetings where scientific and PR problems are reviewed. To get it going, he meets with Air Force Intelligence, Secretary of the Air Force officials, and Blue Book staffers in the Pentagon. This meeting includes, besides Hynek, Maj. Robert J. Friend, Col. Leonard T. Glaser, Alex Francis Arcier, Maj. James F. Byrne, Maj. Joseph E. Boland, Maj. Lawrence J. Tacker, and Burgoyne Lee Griffing. The group agrees that eventually the term “UFOs” should be jettisoned and older unsolved cases reexamined in the light of “greater scientific knowledge” that will move them from unknowns to knowns. (Jacobs, UFO Controversy in America, Signet ed., 1976, pp. 148 – 149 ; Clark III 919; Swords 286; “Saucer Reading Fest,” Saturday Night Uforia, January 25, 2019) February 20 — Pfc. Bernard G. “Gerry” Irwin, on leave from Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, is driving near Cedar City, Utah, when he stops to investigate what seems to be a crashing plane. He is later found unconscious in the snow and treated at the Cedar City hospital. He suffers from amnesia, continues to have fainting spells, and returns more than once to the site in some kind of fugue. He soon deserts and perhaps disappears, but not forever, as he is living in Idaho in 2013, where David Booher interviews him about his PTSD-like symptoms. (Coral Lorenzen, “Soldier Sees Flash; Unconscious 24 Hours,” APRO Bulletin, March 1959, pp. 1, 10; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 97– 99 ; Lorenzen, Encounters with UFO Occupants, Berkley Medallion, 19 76 , pp. 347+; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1961 July – December, The Author, 2003, pp. 56–60; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1962 July – December, The Author, 2005, pp. 68–70; Kevin D. Randle, The UFO Dossier, Visible Ink, 2015, pp. 134– 141 ; David Booher, No Return: The Gerry Irwin Story, UFO Abduction or Covert Operation?, Anomalist, 2017 ; Clark III 2) February 20 — Just as the first working models of the Army’s VZ-9 Avrocar are being manufactured, the Canadian government cancels the Avro CF-105 Arrow program. Almost all Avro Canada employees are laid off, including those with the Special Projects Group. However, three days later, many of the Special Projects employees are rehired, but it isn’t quite business as usual. The USAF Project Office devoted to the Avro projects recommends that the WS-606A and all related work (including the Avrocar) be cancelled. However, in May the USAF authorizes Avro to continue its “flying saucer” programs. (Wikipedia, “Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar”) February 24 — 8:20 p.m. Capt. Peter W. Killian is flying an American Airlines flight from Newark to Detroit when he encounters three bright lights flying in a precise line. The initial detection takes place when the aircraft is flying at 8,500 feet and 50 mph about 13 miles west of Williamsport, Pennsylvania. At first Killian thinks he is seeing Orion’s sword, but he can see those stars elsewhere. One of the objects abruptly leaves formation and approaches the plane, slows down before Killian takes evasive action, then rejoins the other two. Killian alerts copilot James John Dee and then announces on the intercom for the passengers to take a look. He also puts out a call to nearby aircraft, and five other commercial airline pilots indicate that they can see the objects. The lights remain at about the 9 o’clock position for 40 minutes, providing an opportunity for many of the 35 passengers to observe them. They are also seen by the crews of two other planes flying much farther to the south, as well as by the tower operators in Pittsburgh. The Air Force quickly identifies the objects as the three Orion stars, changes that to an aerial refueling operation, then accuses Killian of being drunk. But an independent sighting of the UFOs by an Air Force transport plane 150 miles further south confirms Killian’s observation, and no refueling routes exist in central Pennsylvania. Brad Sparks uncovers new evidence in 2016 that supports the witnesses’ story. (NICAP,

“The Killian Case”; UFOEv, pp. 116– 117 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 January – March, The Author, 1999, pp. 58– 60 ; Clark III 385– 387 ; Sparks, p. 270 ; Willy Smith, “Over Pennsylvania,” IUR 23, no. 1 (Spring 1998): 13–14, 29– 30 ; Swords 285; Patrick Gross, “The Killian– Orion Belt Sightings, 1958”) February 24 — 10:00 p.m. A 17-year-old male is home babysitting the family pets and his younger brother in Victorville, California, when he sees a bright light shining in his bedroom window. The dogs begin to howl and run around. He goes outside and sees a luminous object like an “elongated egg,” dull red with purple waves inside it, flying in a descending path toward his house. It passes over the front yard at a height of only 8–10 feet. As the object returns, he goes inside to get a gun, but as he goes outside the object is making a third pass and he goes back inside. When the parents return home, they find the dogs in a terrified state. (Hynek UFO Report, pp. 167 – 170 ; Swords 286–287) Late February–April 15 — George Adamski continues his world lecture tour in Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Brisbane, Australia. (“World Lecture Tour,” The Adamski Case, October 5, 2019) February 25 — 8:30 a.m. Jim Dobbs Jr. is driving south on State Highway 18 south of Hobbs, New Mexico, when he sees an egg-shaped object glowing like radium on a watch dial. He estimates it is 10° above the southern horizon and traveling fast. His radio fades out and produces only a steady succession of two dots and a dash. The object disappears in the east after 30 seconds. (“Hobbs Man Sees Glowing UFO, Hears Signals,” APRO Bulletin, March 1959, p. 1) February 25 — Lt. Col. Lee B. James, chief of the Liaison Branch of the Army Ballistic Agency in Huntsville, Alabama, gives a talk at the Detroit Chapter of the Michigan Society of Professional Engineers on space flight. Because of the recent Killian incident, he is asked about UFOs. Referring to the witness on that aircraft, he says: “If they (35 passengers and several crew members) saw what they really saw, it would have to come from outer space—a civilization decades before ours.” (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 January – March, The Author, 1999, p. 68) February 25 — 7:25 p.m. A pale-yellow light is seen by officials above one of the runways at London Airport [now Heathrow], England. Airport and air defense radars do not pick up any target. RAF Fighter Command Headquarters says the light fluctuates in intensity and is about 200 feet from the ground. It stays in one position for 20 minutes then climbs away at high speed. (Charles H. Gibbs-Smith, “Venus and the Nose-Cone Light: A Study in the Lunacy of Explainistics,” Flying Saucer Review 5, no. 3 (May/June 1959): 10–11, 31; Good Above, p. 52 ; UFOEv, p. 122 ) February 28 — The US Air Force launches Discoverer 1, the first of a series of satellites that are part of the Corona spy program. The mission is a failure due to problems with the Agena upper stage. (Wikipedia, “Discoverer 1”)

March — On the Baltic Sea coast near Kołobrzeg, Poland, soldiers watch the sea become turbulent as a triangular object, 12 feet in diameter, emerges, circles the barracks, and flies away at high speed. (Vallée, Magonia, p. 275 ) March 11 — Rear Admiral George J. Dufek, on his way back from commanding Operation Deepfreeze in Antarctica, tells reporters in Wellington, New Zealand, that he does not think the existence of UFOs can be discounted: “I think it is very stupid for human beings to think no one else in the universe is as intelligent as we are.” Asked years later why he said this, he explains that it was because of sightings related to him by people who worked with him at the South Pole. (Swords 290) March 12 —Several witnesses at Bergen, Norway, see a bright object passing north to south, taking two minutes to move from horizon to horizon. Several minutes later another appears, following the same course. This is soon followed by three more in succession. (ClearIntent, p. 138 ) March 13 — 2:00 a.m. Percy Briggs is driving from Purnong to Mannum, South Australia, with a load of vegetables and Claypans Postmaster C. Towill as passenger. They have just climbed Cournamont Hill near the Purnong Ferry over the Murray River. They see to the left of the road a huge dome-shaped object with 8–9 red and blue lights about 20 feet apart. The UFO soon rises from the ground at a 15° angle and moves away to the southwest. The separate lights merge into one big light. They watch it recede for about 10 minutes. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 January – March, The Author, 1999, pp. 79–80) March 18 — 8:50 p.m. Jesse Wilson of Denville, New Jersey, is taking photos of the Moon through a telescope and captures an image of two groups of multiple objects. (Center for UFO Studies, [case documents]) March 19 — USAF spokesman Maj. Lawrence J. Tacker retracts the dubious Orion explanation for the Killian case and says instead that the pilots saw B-47 bombers refueling in flight from a KC-97 tanker. Killian tells the papers, “I don’t care what the air force says,” he knows what refueling looks like and the UFOs were “at least three times the size of any tanker or bomber we have. They could travel at 2,000 mph. And they were not conventional

aircraft.” (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 January – March, The Author, 1999, pp. 82–84) March 20 — 5:30 p.m. Witold Sambrowski, an electronics engineer, sees two noiseless cigar-shaped, reddish-pink objects flying over Ostroleka, Poland. They are traveling horizontally at a speed greater than a jet. When the two vanish, a third appears and follows the path the others have taken. (Hobana and Weverbergh 211–212) March 22 — 1:30 a.m. Mr. and Mrs. Gary Bond are driving near Ann Arbor, Michigan, when they see an intensely lighted object hovering about 2 miles to the southeast. It is about 200 feet in the air and just south of a main road. Intense shafts of light are shining from two oval ports at the bottom. As they drive closer, they can hear no sound and find it is about 50–75 feet from the road. The UFO parallels their car at first, then the light shafts go out, and a circle of 8 – 10 red lights appear on the bottom. Then it rises rapidly and disappears in seconds. A local radio astronomer, Allen Barrot, claims the couple saw the lights of his telescope. But the Air Force finds that the couple were never looking in the direction of Barrot’s observatory. (Swords 288–289; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 January – March, The Author, 1999, pp. 87–90) March 27 — Lou Corbin has told Keyhoe that Rep. Samuel Friedel (D-Md.) is “all set to hop on this Killian business” and begins to plan for Killian to meet with him. But Killian’s wife now tells Keyhoe that he is under strict orders from the Air Force not to talk to anyone about the sighting or risk losing his job. Soon afterwards, the Air Force releases a statement from Killian that says, “Having never seen night refueling of jets by a tanker, I suppose that could be what we saw.” (Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 27 – 36; UFOEv, pp. 116 – 117 ) March 31 — 11 :30 p.m. Barry Neale, operator of the Port Elliot movie theater, is driving home to Goolwa, South Australia, and sees a dome-shaped, reddish-orange object with a row of evenly spaced portholes around it. He estimates it to be about 15 feet wide, and it is on the ground about 900 feet from the road. He sees it disappear to the east. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 January – March, The Author, 1999, pp. 99–100)

Spring — Keyhoe meets with Hillenkoetter at the New York Yacht Club to discuss NICAP strategy. USAF Public Information Officer Lawrence J. Tacker has sent the organization a letter asking it to stop writing to Air Force personnel about UFOs. Keyhoe tells Hillenkoetter that three scientists have contacted a certain congressman to report UFO sightings. Hillenkoetter advises, “we’ll have to do something to speed things up.” (Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 15, 247–248) Spring — Soviet radar and Air Defense personnel observe UFOs circling and hovering for more than 24 hours above the headquarters of the Tactical Missile Command at Sverdlovsk, Russia. Fighter aircraft sent to intercept them report that the UFOs easily outmaneuver them and zigzag to avoid machine gun fire. (Flying Saucers, no. 47, May 1966, pp. 6–10; Good Above, p. 227 ) Spring — Early evening. A weather officer with the US Fifth Air Force in Tokyo, Japan, is in the operations center when the staff tracks a UFO near Misawa Air Base on the north end of Honshu. One of the officers says this happens frequently, that the objects travel at 2,000 mph, and they often stop in one position and hover for 30 minutes to several hours before taking off westward along the Tsugaru Strait and disappearing in a burst of speed. The center commander orders the pilots of two specially equipped F-106s based at Misawa to intercept the target. One of the planes is having instrumentation problems, but the other goes up. After 10 minutes he is being guided toward the target through Misawa. The pilot says the object is circular and metallic with a cockpit on top. The commander calls the Pentagon for authorization for the pilot to fire on the UFO, and he gets permission for the pilot to make a firing pass. The pilot fires two missiles, but they detonate just at the edge of the object, as if it is protected. The UFO then turns toward the terrified pilot, and the command center watches as the two blips merge into one. The blip disappears. Crews search for wreckage for 4 days but find none. (Bruce Maccabee, “Hiding the Hardware,” IUR 16, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1991): 8–9) April 1 — An Air Force C-118 plane with four on board crashes between Sumner and Orting, Washington, about an hour after taking off from McChord AFB [now Joint Base Lewis-McChord] in Tacoma. Their last radio message indicates that they hit something or that something hit them. Bob Gribble and other UFO investigators find witnesses who claim to have seen two orange or yellow objects closing in on the plane. Best guess is that the plane hit a tree and the UFO observations are unrelated. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 April – June, The Author, 1999, pp. 2–4) April 7 — 8:00 p.m. Control tower operators at CFB St. Hubert [now Montreal/Saint-Hubert Airport], Quebec, spot a red, glowing light hanging in the sky for a few minutes at 3,000–7,000 feet altitude. It suddenly darts to the north at supersonic speed. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 100)

April 11 — Two businessmen at Woodlands, New Zealand, watch a glowing 40-foot-long object with a balloon-like attachment on the underside hovering just above the trees. As they approach it in their car, it speeds off to the north. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 100) April 12 — 8:00 p.m. Control tower personnel and airport officials at St. Hubert Air Defence Command Base [now CFB St. Hubert], Quebec, as well as local residents watch a red ball of light hovering above the airfield at 3,000–7,000 feet. Descriptions vary from a black ball with a red light to a long red cigar. Radar does not pick it up. Suddenly it takes off toward Montreal to the north. (Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 94–96) April 17 — George Adamski meets with Sisir Kumar Maitra, head of the Department of Philosophy and dean of the Faculty of Arts of Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi during a stopover in Kolkata, India. (“World Lecture Tour,” The Adamski Case, October 5, 2019) April 18–May 14 — Adamski arrives in London, England, and appears on the TV show In Town Tonight on April 18 and on the BBC program Panorama on April 20 where he debates with astronomer Patrick Moore, a show that is seen by 9 million viewers. Both Gen. Frederick Browning and RAF Commander Peter Horsley meet with Adamski and Desmond Leslie during their visit to a private address in London. Adamski gives further lectures in Tunbridge Wells, Weston-super-Mare, Bournemouth, at Caxton Hall in London (on April 28), Birmingham University (April 29), Manchester (May 1), and several more around the British Isles. (“World Lecture Tour,” The Adamski Case, October 5, 2019; David Clarke, “The Prince and the Saucers,” Fortean Times 406 (June 2021): 19) April 19 — 3:00 p.m. Otis T. Carr and Norman Colton, who have been in Oklahoma since February, pretend to attempt the launch of their OTC-X1 spacecraft in a gravel pit 6 miles east of the Frontier City amusement park northeast of Oklahoma City. Frontier City obligingly erects a model of the spacecraft as a ride. However, Carr comes down with a mysterious throat ailment and goes to Mercy Hospital on April 17. He invites Long John Nebel to have a brief glimpse of the model, but Nebel thinks it looks like a jumble of unconnected parts. As it turns out, the OTC- X1 develops a “mercury leak” and the launch is delayed then canceled. Those who have come for the April 19 launch hear contactee Dana Howard talk about her trip to Venus, and Margaret Storm (Carr’s “publications editor” in Baltimore) declares that Carr is inspired by the “Divine Master St. Germain.” (“Difficulties Put Off Flying Saucer Test,” Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman, April 20, 1959, pp. 1– 2 , 13; Clark III 860– 861 ) April 20 — Ufologist Morris K. Jessup commits suicide in a Dade County park, Florida, from carbon monoxide poisoning. Some theorists connect his involvement with the Allende letters and the Philadelphia experiment to his death, but friends say Jessup has been discussing suicide with them for several months. (Clark III 635; “Jessup and the Allende Case,” Pursuit 1, no. 4 (September 30, 1968): 8– 10 )

May — The first Avrocar, #58-7055, rolls out of the Avro Malton factory in Mississauga, Ontario. From June 9 to October 7 it is tested in a static hover rig. A second Avrocar is completed in August. (Wikipedia, “Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar”) May 4 — Otis T. Carr and his attorney are summoned to the county courthouse in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to answer questions about stock sales by OTC Enterprises, including a block of 21,000 shares to Frontier City promoter Jimmy Burge, oilman Frank Buttram, and publisher Edward K. Gaylord. Carr pleads the Fifth Amendment. (Clark III 861) May 5 — Hynek’s newly formed UFO Advisory Panel holds its first meeting at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. The panel consists of Hynek, Lt. Col. Richard M. Graham (chaplain), Lt. Col. Theodore J. Hieatt (PR), Maj. Leroy D. Pigg (psychologist), V. J. Handmacher (physicist), and L. V. Robinson (astronomer). (“Saucer Reading Fest,” Saturday Night Uforia, January 25, 2019; Jacobs, UFO Controversy in America, Signet ed., 1976, pp. 148 – 149 ) May 18 — George Adamski has an audience with Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands at Soestdijk Palace in Baarn on his world lecture tour, amid fiercely critical media coverage. The royal audience, scheduled to last 45 minutes, goes on for two hours, making Adamski 20 minutes late for his lecture in The Hague. The royal couple claim that the British royal family, especially Prince Philip, are also keen to meet Adamski. After the audience, Dutch Aeronautical Association president Cornelis Kolff says “The Queen showed an extraordinary interest in the whole subject.” Royal Netherlands Air Force Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Haye Schaper says, “The man’s a pathological case.” (“World Lecture Tour,” The Adamski Case, October 5, 2019; David Clarke, “The Prince and the Saucers,” Fortean Times 406 (June 2021): 19) May 20 — 5:30 p.m. Antonio Sanchez and Ernesto Fogliani are hunting rabbits about 7 miles from Pehuelches station, Buenos Aires, Argentina. They see a saucer-shaped, silvery machine resting on the ground about 980 feet away. They approach to about 490 feet when the object rises into the sky and disappears. At the spot where it was, they

find the grass flattened in the shape of a large oval. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 April – June, The Author, 1999, p. 32) May 22 — The UFO Advisory Panel meets to “determine the type of information which should be used for correlation in bringing Special Report #14 up to date.” (“Saucer Reading Fest,” Saturday Night Uforia, January 25, 2019) Late May — Ruppelt tells Keyhoe he is revising his book to bring it more up to date and requests NICAP’s most recent information. He says the Air Force is giving its full cooperation and he is “middle of the road” on the UFO question. (Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 258 – 260) May 26, 29 — Adamski gives two lectures in Zürich, Switzerland. At the second talk, he meets with organized resistance by a group of 300 students (in an audience of 700) who have been led to believe he will discredit Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky. When a reporter afterwards asks if he will accept an apology, Adamski replies that it should not be given to him, but to the Swiss public. Due to recurring heart problems, Adamski cancels his remaining lectures in Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and Denmark. (“World Lecture Tour,” The Adamski Case, October 5, 2019) May 28 — Otis T. Carr and two OTC Enterprises employees (Lari Kendrick and Charles O. Rhoades) are barred by a federal court order from selling any further stock in the company. The SEC contends that they have been selling unregistered securities fraudulently since November 18, 1955, using the US mail to do so. Contactee associate Wayne Aho escapes arraignment, while Norman Colton has fled the state and cannot be located. (Clark III 861) May 28 — Night. Two observers on a Project Moonwatch team in San Antonio, Texas, see two silvery objects through their telescopes that shoot across the sky in less than one second, one curving away in a parabolic path, the other executing a more gradual hyperbolic curve. (Michael D. Swords, “Gazing at the Moons,” IUR 32, no. 4 (October 2009): 13– 14 ; Center for UFO Studies, “Moonwatch Mystery Satellites, 1958– 1962 ”)

June — The Argentine Navy bottles up a fast, submarine-like object in the Buenos Aires harbor, Argentina. It is shaped like a huge fish, is silver in color, and sports a tail like the stabilizer on a B-17. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 52 – 53) June — The radiation effects reactor at Lockheed’s Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory [now closed] in the Dawson Forest outside Dawsonville, Georgia, is brought up to full power and unsheathed for the first time. It is a water- cooled 10-megawatt nuclear reactor in a shielded underground shaft with the purpose of irradiating military aircraft as well as the forest itself to determine the effects of nuclear war on wildlife. The experiment exposes everything within a 1,000-foot radius to a lethal dose of radiation. Bugs fall from the air, and small animals and the bacteria living in and on them are exterminated, in a phenomenon the technicians call “instant taxidermy.” Oak trees turn brown, yet crabgrass is seemingly unaffected. Pine trees are the hardest hit of all. Clear Coca-Cola bottles turn brown, hydraulic fluid coagulates into chewing gum, transistorized equipment stops working, and rubber tires become rock hard. Documents about the reactor remain highly classified, and the entrance to the underground portion of the facility has been buried. The area is closed in 1971, and only objects left above ground were the concrete foundations on which the buildings and reactors were placed. (Wikipedia, “Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory”; Adam Higginbotham, Midnight at Chernobyl, Simon & Schuster, 2019, p. 30) June 12 — Keyhoe writes an open letter to Ruppelt that lists his past statements on UFOs and urges him not to let the Air Force intimidate him into retracting. (Donald E. Keyhoe, “Capt. Ruppelt Revising His UFO Book: Air Force Rumored to Be Pressuring Former Project Chief,” UFO Investigator 1, no. 8 (June 1959): 5– 6 ) June 13 — Charles S. Sheldon II, technical director of the House Science and Astronautics Committee, writes to Richard H. Hall at NICAP to say that while he thinks UFOs are “extremely interesting,” they do not pose a national security threat.” (Swords 290) June 13 — Adamski, along with follower Lou Zinsstag, meets with diplomat Alberto Perego and Mario Maioli at Ristorante La Cisterna in the Trastevere area of Rome, Italy, then go on an all-night taxi ride around the city. He returns to the United States via Copenhagen, Denmark, on June 17. (“World Lecture Tour,” The Adamski Case, October 5, 2019; 1Pinotti 106) June 22 — 8:00 p.m. A large, luminous UFO passes over Salta, Argentina, and blacks out all electrical power for several minutes. (Bernardo Passíon, “Report from Argentina,” APRO Bulletin, November 1959, p. 9; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 April – June, The Author, 1999, p. 56 ) June 26– 28 — 6:45 p.m. At Boianai Mission, Papua New Guinea, Rev. William Booth Gill and 38 others watch a platform-shaped object with legs that appears in the sky above Venus. It has an electric blue spotlight and is hovering about 500 feet away at a height of 300–400 feet. On top of the object, four humanlike figures, their bodies surrounded by illumination, are busy with some unknown task. The men and spotlight disappear at 7:20 p.m. and the object vanishes into the clouds. It reappears at 8:28 without the men or spotlight but now joined by second, third and fourth objects at 8:29, 8:35, and 8:35–8: 50 p.m., coming and going through the clouds. The

main UFO, “large, clear, stationary,” gives off a red light and disappears overhead into clouds at 9:10 p.m.,
reappears at 9:20, moves across the sea to Giwa appearing white-red-blue, then disappears at 9:30. An overhead
object reappears at 9:46, hovering, disappears behind a cloud at 10:10, reappears in a gap between clouds at
10:30, then is gone at 10:50. The next day, the object returns at 6:00–6:30 p.m. with two others, one to the west and
one overhead. “Two of the figures seemed to be doing something near the center of the deck. They were
occasionally bending over and raising their arms as though adjusting or setting up something (not visible). One
figure seemed to be standing, looking down at us.” Father Gill and another teacher wave their arms, and two of the
figures on the main object wave back. Gill waves a flashlight and the object moves back and forth laterally. Gill goes
in for dinner and a church service; when he returns at 7:45 p.m., the UFO is gone. The next evening at 6:45 p.m.,
some eight objects align themselves across a section of the sky. No occupants are visible. Martin Kottmeyer suggests
that Gill was watching a lighted squid-fishing boat close to shore, but Gill has confirmed the object was over his
head. (“Saucer Men Seen in Flight: Amazing Sighting from Papua,” Flying Saucer Review 5, no. 6 (Nov./Dec.
1959): 7–8; Norman E. G. Cruttwell, “Flying Saucers over Papua: A Report on Papuan Unidentified Flying
Objects,” March 1960; Norman E. G. Cruttwell, “What Happened in Papua in 1959?” Flying Saucer Review 6, no. 6
(Nov./Dec. 1960): 3–7; “Father Gill and the Rev. Lionel Browning,” Flying Saucer Review 7, no. 5 (Sept./Oct.
1961): 23–25; Norman E. G. Cruttwell, “Flying Saucers over Papua,” in Charles Bowen, ed., UFOs in Two Worlds,
special issue of FSR, August 1971, pp. 3–38; Gordon Creighton, “The New Guinea Sightings; A Note on Some
Anthropological Aspects,” in Charles Bowen, ed., UFOs in Two Worlds, special issue of FSR, August 1971, p. 39; J.
Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 167 – 172 , 271 – 273 ; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 216 – 223 ;
Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 April – June, The Author, 1999,
pp. 59–68, 69– 71 ; “Papua/Father Gill Revisited,” IUR 2, no. 11 (November 1977): 4–7; “Papua/Father Gill
Revisited, Part Two,” IUR 2, no. 12 (December 1977): 4–8; Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987,
Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 59– 62 ; Martin Kottmeyer, “Gill Again: The Father Gill Case Reconsidered,” Magonia,
no. 54 (November 1995): 11–14; Bill Chalker, “The Boianai Visitants of 1959,” The Black Vault, May 16, 2016;
Thomas E. Bullard, “Defending UFOs,” IUR 34, no. 2 (Mar. 2012): 31 – 32 ; Swords 383–385; Clark III 533– 536 )

July — The Air Force reassigns UFO investigative duties to the 1127th Field Activities Group stationed at Fort Belvoir, Fairfax County, Virginia, replacing the 1006th AISS. The unit will also be responsible for Project Moon Dust and Operation Blue Fly. (Jacobs, UFO Controversy in America, Signet ed., 1976, p. 134 ; Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, “Secret Projects and Open Eyes: A Response,” IUR 19, no. 3 (May/June 1994): 16–17) July — Contactee Gabriel Green rebrands his group as the Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America and publishes the AFSCA World Report from 1959 to 1961, UFO International from 1962 to 1965, and Flying Saucers International from 196 6 to 1969. (AFSCA Information Sheet, no. 1 (1959); AFSCA UFO International, no. 17 (Sept./Oct. 1962); Flying Saucers International, no. 24 (July 1966); Clark III 99) July 5– 6 — US Navy Cmdr. Julius Larsen, an ONI liaison officer to the CIA’s Photographic Intelligence Center in Washington, D.C., rediscovers the Swan-Knowles-Affa correspondence from 1954 in a file and decides to follow up on it. He goes to Eliot, Maine, to visit Adm. Knowles and interview Frances Swan. Larsen tries his hand at automatic writing and channels a message from Affa. Back in Washington on July 6, Larsen goes to director of the Photographic Intelligence Office, Arthur C. Lundahl, and tells the story to him and his assistant Lt. Robert S. Neasham. They urge Larsen to try to contact the extraterrestrials. Larsen goes into a trance, asks Affa questions, and writes the answers down. When Neasham challenges Affa to appear in person or let them see his spaceship, Larsen stops writing and tells Neasham to go to the window. Lundahl sees nothing unusual, but Neasham insists a spaceship is hiding behind some fluffy clouds. He also insists that he later contacted Washington National Airport and heard from the radar tower that the sector where the UFO appeared had been “blocked out.” Neasham urges Project Blue Book’s Maj. Robert Friend to come over for a briefing. He shows up on July 9 and hears Neasham’s version of the story, and Larsen even channels some messages. Friend goes back to Dayton, Ohio, and prepares a memo for his boss. (Jacobs, UFO Controversy in America, Signet ed., 1976, pp. 153 – 154 ; Clark III 1118– 1119 ; Robert Emenegger, UFOs: Past, Present, and Future, Ballantine, 1974 ) July 8 — Night. Mrs. Napau Abednego and other indigenous people on Prince of Wales Island in the Torres Strait off Queensland, Australia, see a huge, glowing red object land on top of a hill at Port Lihou. The same night, residents of nearby Thursday Island see a green UFO flying low, and a strange object is also reported at Mapoon Mission on the west coast of Cape York. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 July – September, The Author, 2000, p. 13) July 11 — 6:02 a.m. A Pan American Boeing Stratocruiser piloted by Capt. George Wilson flying over the Pacific Ocean about 1,035 miles northeast of Honolulu, Hawaii, encounters a large bright light with 3 – 4 satellite lights in a line below, behind, and to the left of the main object. It makes a sharp right turn and disappears to the south. Copilot

Richard Lorenzen and Flight Engineer Bob Scott also see the UFOs. Another Pan Am flight sees essentially the same phenomenon, as well as an Air Force bomber crew, a Slick Airways plane, and a Canadian Pacific airliner. (UFOEv, p. 125 ) July 13 — 5:30 a.m. Eileen Moreland, a farmwoman in Blenheim, New Zealand, goes to the barn to milk her cows and sees a huge object, about 20–30 feet in diameter, with two intense green lights on its underside descend towards her and hover at rooftop height. It bathes her in green light. Two rows of jets around the middle shoot out orange flames. She can see two men inside, dressed in close-fitting suits of shiny material and opaque helmets. The jets turn on again, the object tilts, and it shoots up vertically at great speed, making a high-pitched sound. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 July – September, The Author, 2000, pp. 25 – 28 ; Richard H. Hall, “Dyad ‘Scout Craft,’” IUR 25 , no. 4 (Winter 2000–2001): 23; Patrick Gross, URECAT, November 2, 2006) July 14 — 8:22 p.m. TV sets in Salisbury, North Carolina, mysteriously go dead as residents see a flash of light and hear a loud vibrato noise. (Schopick, pp. 111–113) July 20 — A shuttlecock-shaped UFO is seen over the RAAF Woomera Range Complex in South Australia. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 100) July 27 — The UFO Advisory Panel meets at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio to discuss trends and statistics and recent sightings. (“Saucer Reading Fest,” Saturday Night Uforia, January 25, 2019) July 28 — 2:10 p.m. Ray Stanford and a friend simultaneously take 8mm and 16mm film footage of three cigar-shaped objects maneuvering in the sky above his parents’ home at 2629 Lynch Street, Corpus Christi, Texas. A fourth UFO appears about 5 minutes later. At one point a jet aircraft appears to alter its course to fly closer to one of the objects. (Ray Stanford, “The July 28 Movies,” Saucers 7, no. 3/4 (Fall/Winter 1959/1960): 20–23; “Out of the Past,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1984): 5– 7 ; “Out of the Past,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 5 (Oct./Nov. 1984): 7– 8 )

August — Stan Seers, president of the Queensland Flying Saucer Research Bureau [now UFO Research Queensland], is contacted by a man who requests a meeting with him in a Brisbane car park and offers him important information on UFOs. At the meeting he finds out that the man is an agent of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, who indicates he knows quite a bit about the group and its officers. By suggesting that ASIO could offer them significant information, the agent subsequently infiltrates the group and causes dissension and confusion. Some QFSRB members are pacifists, apparently, and are seeking to contact Russian scientists about the UFO phenomenon through the Soviet cultural organization VOKS. (Good Above, pp. 164 – 166 ; Kremlin 137 – 144 ) August — 2:00 p.m. A son and his father are driving near Skiatook, Oklahoma. Upon nearing a bridge, the car engine dies. Another car is stopped on the other side of the bridge with its hood up. They see a metallic, domed disc with a flexible hose hovering less than a foot above the water of a creek. They watch it for 5 minutes, then the hose draws in and the disk rises to 10 feet, disturbing the water’s surface into a foot-deep trench. It flies upward and the cars start again. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 July – September, The Author, 2000, pp. 59– 61 ; Michael D. Swords, “Messing Around with the Force,” IUR 31, no. 4 (March 2008): 16–17) August — Kathleen O’Rourke is asleep with her two children in her bedroom in New Matamoras, Ohio, when her son yells her awake. There are a dozen globes of yellow light circling about a foot above his bed. They are about 3 inches in diameter. Then a second group enters the room, passing through the screen. They split, half joining the first and half sailing over Kathleen. They all then move to her bed and circle above her. Not one of the lights goes to her daughter’s bed. She presses the light switch, and the lights turn into straight-edged streaks of light and disappear. There are no holes in the screens. (Michael D. Swords, “A Trick of the Light,” IUR 31, no. 2 (June 2007): 10) August 9 — 7:30 p.m. Petroleum engineer Armando Uribe is returning home from Cerro Sombrero, Tierra del Fuego, Chile, with his wife and an 11-year-old housemaid when their pickup runs out of fuel. As they are waiting for another vehicle, the girl spots a bright blue light around 7:54 p.m. that is swinging in the air with a pendulum-like motion. As it approaches, they see it is an object like a metallic egg standing on end with two shafts of white light projecting from the bottom. A rose-colored, rotating device is on top. The object makes a quick movement when Uribe gets out of the truck, but then moves closer. Uribe points a rifle at it, and it quickly recedes and disappears. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 14 – 16 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 July – September, The Author, 2000, pp. 53– 54 ) August 13 — 4:00 p.m. Pilot Jack H. Goldsberry, flying a Cessna 170 from Hobbs to Albuquerque, New Mexico, at 8,000 feet, notices halfway between Roswell and Corona, that his Magnesyn electric compass has suddenly moved

around a slow 360° rotation in about 4–5 seconds. His other standard magnetic compass is spinning wildly. About this time, he sees three small, gray, and slightly fuzzy elliptical objects in close echelon formation passing in front from left to right and around his plane at a distance about 450–600 feet at a speed of about 200 mph. The Magnesyn compass follows the objects’ position as they circle the plane, and after one full circle they disappear to the rear. Then both compasses settle back to normal. The controller at Albuquerque cancels his flight plan and orders him to land at Kirtland AFB, where he is interrogated by a USAF major, who tells him that he might become ill from the experience. (NICAP, “Former Navy PBY Pilot Encounter / EME”; Clark III 950; Sparks, p. 278 ; Swords 287; “AF Secretly Warns Pilot of Danger,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 1 (March/April 1965): 5 ; Schopick, pp. 127– 128 ) August 13 — Around 9:45 p.m. Orville Shanks is driving with three passengers on Highway 332 north of Freeport, Texas, when they see a bright object with two satellite lights approach at low altitude. The car motor stalls and the headlights go out. The two lights appear to land, the main object follows them, continually changing colors and varying the intensity of its light. The motor and lights come back on when the UFOs cross the road, and Shanks drives on. About midnight they return, and the object is still there. Shanks gets out and approaches, but the UFO starts glowing brightly and making a noise, and they drive off again. (“Object Lands in Texas, U.S.,” APRO Bulletin, September 1959, p. 3; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 July – September, The Author, 2000, pp. 55–60) August 17 — The automatic keys at the power station in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil, suddenly disconnect power to all four trunk lines. A technician at a substation 45 miles away reports that all the keys disconnected as a UFO passes overhead, traveling toward the main station along the power lines. The chief engineer resets all the keys but they turn off again. Outside he sees a bright object approaching at high speed. As soon as it passes, the entire system returns to normal. (Lorenzen, FSHoax, pp. 17 9 – 180 ; Schopick, pp. 143–145; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 152 – 153 ; McCampbell, Ufology, 1976, pp. 66 – 67 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 July – September, The Author, 2000, pp. 66– 67 ) August 25 — 11:00 a.m. At Eveking, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Lutz Holtman walks towards a bright object in a forest and faints after he gets close to it. When he regains consciousness, he sees the UFO take off silently and vertically. The object is circular, has a tripod landing gear and two rows of bright openings, and is about 90 feet in diameter. (Vallée, Magonia, p. 277 )

September — Employees of Lockheed’s Skunk Works are the first to return to Area 51 in Nevada to develop an aircraft that will replace the U-2. The Archangel-12 (A-12) spy plane will be designed to reduce its radar cross section by 50%. Following tests with wooden models at Burbank, California, proof-of-concept tests are to be carried out at Area 51 with full-scale mockups elevated onto 50-foot pylons. The CIA program to develop the follow-on aircraft to the U-2 is code-named Project Oxcart. EG&G agrees to move its radar test facility here. (Jacobsen, Area 51, p. 131 ; Peter W. Merlin, “Groom Lake Timeline: The First Fifty Years,” Secret Heroes, November 10, 2021) September — Waveney Girvan takes over the editorship of Flying Saucer Review from Brinsley Le Poer Trench. (“Trench Resigns,” Flying Saucer Review 5, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1959): 2; Clark III 498) September — Harvard University psychologist Henry Murray begins what are widely considered unethical experiments, in which he uses 22 Harvard undergraduates as research subjects in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Among other purposes, experiments focus on measuring people’s reactions under extreme stress. The unwitting undergraduates are submitted to what Murray calls “vehement, sweeping, and personally abusive” attacks. Specific, tailored assaults on their egos, cherished ideas, and beliefs are used to cause high levels of stress and distress. The subjects then repeatedly view recorded footage of their reactions to this verbal abuse. Among them is 17-year-old Ted Kaczynski, a mathematician who goes on to become the Unabomber, a domestic terrorist targeting academics and technologists for 18 years. Alston Chase’s book Harvard and the Unabomber connects Kaczynski’s abusive experiences under Murray to his later criminal career. His participation in these experiments and his service in the OSS have led many to believe that Murray was a part of the MK Ultra program. His experiments are not so much for observing stress reactions, but for a study of brainwashing and enhanced interrogation techniques. (Wikipedia, “Henry Murray”; Alston Chase, Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist, Norton, 2003 ) September 7 — 2:00 a.m. Rural mail carrier Walter E. Ogden sees a glowing, pumpkin-shaped object about 40 feet above the trees in his pasture at Wallingford, Kentucky. After a minute, a bluish blaze of fire comes from the bottom and it rises about 500 feet, leaving a circular smoke ring. It then zooms away horizontally. Six days later, a 12-foot depressed ring of scorched earth is discovered on the spot, along with a kerosene smell. Air Force investigators show up and declare it a hoax. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 July – September, The Author, 2000, pp. 74–75, 77– 80 )

September 9 — The first Atlas-D ICBM is successfully launched at Vandenberg AFB [now Vandenberg Space Force Base] near Lompoc, California, and Gen. Thomas S. Power, CINCSAC, declares the first ICBM to be operational. Shortly afterward, the first operational Atlas-D ICBM squadron goes on alert at Francis E. Warren AFB, west of Cheyenne, Wyoming. It is equipped with six SM-65D Atlas missiles based in above-ground launchers. (Wikipedia, “Vandenberg Space Force Base”; Wikipedia, “SM-65 Atlas”) September 13 — 9:58 p.m. A radar target is tracked at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New Mexico, moving at 2,300 mph at an altitude of 60,000 feet and heading northwest. A total of four radar stations track the object. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 103) September 14 — Air Force Regulation 200-2 is revised, with additional emphasis on reducing the number of unknowns. This version devotes five full paragraphs to public release of information, which is now restricted to the Secretary of the Air Force’s Office of Information Services at the Pentagon. Local base commanders can release information only if an object is positively identified. Air Force personnel are not to contact private individuals on UFO cases or discuss their operations unless ordered to. (“USAF UFO Program,” September 2 8 , 1959; Clark III 920 – 921 ) September 14 — The CIA emphasizes antiradar study, aerodynamic structural tests, and engineering designs, selecting the Lockheed A-12 over rival Convair’s Kingfish. Edward Lovick’s suggestion for adding cesium to the A- 12 ’s fuel in order to ionize the exhaust and mask it from radar is also persuasive. Lockheed has also added twin canted fins instead of a single right-angle one. Project Oxcart is officially established. The A-12 design, a combination of their A-7 and A-11 submissions, emphasizes low radar cross section, extremely high altitude, and high-speed performance. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed A- 12 ”) September 17 —The first powered X-15 flight is piloted by Albert Scott Crossfield out of the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, California. (Wikipedia, “North American X- 15 ”) September 21 — The Air Technical Intelligence Center is renamed the Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center. (NASIC, “National Air and Space Intelligence Center Heritage”) September 24 — About 4:55 a.m. In Redmond, Oregon, police officer Robert Dickerson sees a bright white light rapidly descending north of the airport. It stops abruptly and hovers about 200 feet above ground for several minutes, lighting up the juniper trees below. Dickerson drives toward it on the Prineville Highway, then turns toward the airport. The object turns reddish-orange and moves rapidly to about 10 miles northeast of the airport to hover again. Dickerson arrives at the airport to report his sighting in person to the FAA Air Traffic Communication Station. Flight Service Specialist Laverne Wertz, Dickerson, and others view the object through binoculars as flat and round with occasional flames extending from its edge. The FAA reports the UFO to Seattle Air Route Control Center in Washington at 5:10 a.m., which in turn reports it to Hamilton AFB [now closed], Novato, California, which scrambles six F-102 jets from Portland to intercept the object. FAA station observers see the object hover and emit long tongues of red, yellow, and green light that extend and retract at irregular intervals. As the jets approach the object from the southeast, it turns into a mushroom shape, emits red and yellow flames from the lower side, and ascends rapidly, disappearing above scattered clouds at about 14,000 feet. The object’s departure forces one F-102 to swerve to avoid collision. Another nearly loses control from the UFO’s turbulent wake. The UFO is tracked on one F- 102 gunsight radar, but the jets cannot intercept. The UFO reappears about 20 miles south of Redmond at about 25,000 feet. The Seattle Center reports at 6:20 a.m. radar contact with the object about 25 miles south. The USAF Air Defense Center radar site at Klamath Falls, Oregon, tracks a large target abruptly changing course and vectors B-47 and F-89 aircraft to identify it. Redmond FAA controllers lose sight of the object. Seattle FAA reports at 7:11 a.m. that Klamath Falls radar still is tracking it at 25 miles south of Redmond but varies in altitude from 6,000 to 52,000 feet. The Air Force claims the UFOs are caused by false radar returns, with excitable witnesses imagining the glow. But locals notice the FAA is checking for abnormal radioactivity, so the Air Force changes its explanation to weather balloon. And NICAP obtains FAA logs showing all the details. The Air Force again changes its explanation to Venus. (NICAP, “Huge Disc Sparks Scramble”; UFOEv, pp. 44 , 48 , 113 – 114 , 138 ; Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, pp. 33– 36 ; WFAA, Dallas, Texas, “Archive 1959: Fighter Jets Sent to Intercept Redmond UFO,” May 12, 2016; Patrick Gross, “The Redmond UFO Incident, USA, September 24, 1959”) September 28 — ATIC issues a staff study by Col. Richard R. Shoop reassessing its UFO investigating role. It recommends that the UFO program be transferred to the Air Research and Development Command, which has better scientific capabilities, and then implement an effective public relations campaign with the goal of “the eventual elimination of the program as a special project.” (“USAF UFO Program,” September 28, 1959; “Saucer Reading Fest,” Saturday Night Uforia, January 25, 2019; Jacobs, UFO Controversy in America, Signet ed., p. 151 )

September 29 — Maj. R. O. Braswell, flying an Air Force C-47 at 6,500 feet over Texas, sees a “large red fire” that looks like a mushroom cloud. It is 5° above his plane, with its base at 12,000–15,000 feet and its top at 16,000 feet. (Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, pp. 160 – 161 ) September 29 — The first attempt to hover a tethered Avrocar is made. After the vehicle becomes airborne, an uncontrollable roll and pitch-coupled oscillation starts that forces each of the three wheels into the ground in turn. The pilot, W. D. “Spud” Potocki, immediately shuts down all engines. Changes are made to the stability system to provide more control authority, while new tethers are investigated to improve the ability to control the problem. (Wikipedia, “Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar”) September 30 — Night. During a training flight with a student over Poznań, Poland, a pilot named Leszczyński sees two large circles of light with another pair some 12 miles away. He makes a close approach, but one of the objects shoots off while the other grows dimmer. After a short while, the dark object moves away. (Poland 63)

October — NICAP continues collecting statements in preparation for potential congressional hearings. It gets statements from USAF pilot and UFO witness Lt. Col. Richard T. Headrick, Sgt. James H. Sawyer, and Sgt. Oliver Dean. (Keyhoe, FSTS, pp. 252 – 254 ; UFOEv, p. 25) October — 10:00 a.m. Fr. Raimundo Nascimento Teixeira, a professor at Don Bosco College, is walking in the Núcleo Bandeirante region in Brasília, Federal District, Brazil, when he sees a crowd watching a strange object moving and stopping in the blue sky. He sees a student of his with a box camera, and he takes six photos of what he calls a flying saucer. A few days later, Teixeira meets with another witness, Israel Pinheiro, president of the New Building Company, who takes the negatives of his three best photos to forward to the Brazilian Navy for analysis. A few months later, the Navy returns different photos and offers no technical report. (Clark III 1 97 ; Roberto Affonso Beck, “Um Fenômeno Desafiador,” September 2005, pp. 35–36) October 1 — 9:20 a.m. A radar target moving at 719 mph on a northwest course is tracked at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At 10:29 a.m., another radar target is detected moving at 1,000 mph to the northwest. Its altitude is 41,000 feet. Two F-89J Scorpion fighters are scrambled to intercept it but they can see nothing. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 103–104) October 2 — 12:20 a.m. For three hours, a Hercules radar site (#13) at McChord AFB [now Joint Base Lewis-McChord] near Tacoma, Washington, tracks a total of five objects that usually appear in pairs. The radar returns are said to be “weak.” Visually, at least one soundless, round. “quarter sized,” blue-white light is seen in the sky. ARTC reports no air traffic in the area of the radar site during the time of contact. The first object on radar is seen at 10° elevation. The last object seen on radar was at 20° elevation. The visual object is at 10° degrees elevation. When last observed, the visual object is 20° elevation. Flight patterns are erratic. Range changes from 12,000 feet to 24,000 feet, and azimuth from 190° to 170°. Objects seem to fade from the scope and visual contact when finally lost. Visual contact is disrupted by intermittent fog. (NICAP, “Hercules Site Tracks Objects for Three Hours”; Condon, pp. 145 – 148 ; Swords 287) October 8 — Night. Two amateur astronomers in Mobile, Alabama, observe an unknown object traverse the Moon’s disk from west to east directly over the crater Copernicus. They watch the fast-moving shape “every night the weather permitted for a period of 33 days.” They write to Project Moonwatch about the observations, but they reply that no other lunar observers have seen the phenomenon, so it must be closer to the Mobile observers. (Michael D. Swords, “Gazing at the Moons,” IUR 32, no. 4 (October 2009): 15) October 12 — 1:00 p.m. Multiple witnesses at Washington, Sharon, and Crawfordville, Georgia, watch “brown or black footballs” traveling southeast to west, followed by angel hair covering a vast area. The substance consists of “threads from 10ʹ to 50ʹ long connected at ¾ʺ intervals by minute particles resembling snowflakes.” The material falls for about 2 hours. Five samples are collected and sent to the Chemicals and Materials Laboratory at Robins AFB, Georgia. No unusual elements are discovered except for high amounts of silver in one and some silver in three others. The conjecture is that “cloud seeding with a silver salt could have caused the phenomenon.” (Brian Boldman, “Angel Hair Physical Analyses: A Review,” JUFOS 9 (2006): 103–104) October 13 — In his syndicated column, Joseph Alsop goes so far as to describe “classified intelligence” as placing the Soviet missile count as high as 1,500 by 1963, and the US will have only 130 at that time. (Joseph Alsop, “True Missile Gap Picture Belies Pentagon Response,” Eugene (Oreg.) Register-Guard, October 13, 1959, p. 10) October 22 — Night. Three witnesses are driving through Cumberland, Maryland, when they see a metallic disc emitting a bluish-green light around its edge. The driver abruptly stops, but leaves the car running. Suddenly the object drops down to 50 feet altitude and hovers 100 feet away in front of the car, making a humming vibration. As two of the witnesses open the door to get out, the car engine, lights, and radio fail. Shortly afterward, the disc shoots straight up, then forward, makes a 90° angle, then disappears in clouds. The car begins functioning normally

again. (Newark (Md.) Evening News, November 5, 1959; Schopick, pp. 67– 68 ; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 104– 105 ) Late October — 6:55 p.m. Electrician Gideon Johansson is at home in Mariannelund, Småland, Sweden, when there is a power failure. He goes outside to look at the power lines when he bumps into his son Rolf, who points out a brilliant white object hovering above a three-story building. The object descends slowly and appears to be heading toward Johansson’s garden. The machine oscillates three times and smashes into the top of a maple tree, descends through the branches and hovers about 18 inches above the ground. Only about 10 feet away, Johansson can see the object has a large window, through which two entities are visible. Their heads have high crown and they have big, friendly eyes. They have mall mouths and pointed chins and are wearing white uniforms with broad black belts. One seems to be working at an instrument panel. They are only the size of a 14-year-old. Soon the object moves up and shoots away in a flash. Glassy deposits are found on some power lines in addition to the damaged tree, and Johansson gets prickly pains in his lower body. (Anders Liljegren, “Mariannelund UFO and Occupants,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1970): 14–17) October 31 — Soviet Col. Georgy Mosolov reaches an airspeed record of 1,484 mph in a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG- 21 over the Soviet Union. (Wikipedia, “Georgy Mosolov”)

November — A full-scale mockup of the A-12 is shipped to Area 51 in Nevada for radar signature testing by EG&G. (Peter W. Merlin, “Groom Lake Timeline: The First Fifty Years,” Secret Heroes, November 10, 2021) November 2 — 12:00 noon. A substance described as angel hair falls from two UFOs seen in Evora, Portugal, and is collected and analyzed under a microscope by a school director, Dr. Amaral, and later by armed forces technicians and scientists at the University of Lisbon. The scientists conclude that the substance is produced by a small insect or some strange kind of single-celled organism about 4 millimeters in length. (Hayley Price, “Evora Angel Hair,” UFO Weekly News; Nicole Guardiola, “An Extraterrestrial Living Being, Captured and Studied Eighteen Years Ago,” translated from El País, October 13, 1978) November 8 — A large, luminous object is seen moving at great speed over Kandahar, Afghanistan, to the northwest. Shortly afterward it explodes with a loud roar in nearby mountains, causing some slight earth tremors. Possible Russian missile test. (Good Above, p. 308 ) November 10 — Requests to transfer responsibility for UFO investigations from ATIC to ARDC are sent to Maj. Gen. Charles B. Dougher (ATIC commander), Col. Philip G. Evans (ATIC Deputy for Sciences and Components), and Maj. Gen. James H. Walsh (AF Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence). (“Saucer Reading Fest,” Saturday Night Uforia, January 25, 2019) November 12 — The first completely free flight of an Avrocar takes place. This test proves the nozzle control system unacceptable. (Wikipedia, “Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar”) November 16 — 8:00 p.m. Czech Air Force officer Commander Duchoň is driving with another officer named Bezák to a Czechoslovakian airfield [now in the Czech Republic] to supervise night-flying exercises. At about 6 miles from the airfield, the car engine begins to stall. Suddenly they see a light sapphire-colored band moving at high speed at an altitude of 1,600–2,600 feet. It is completely silent. Some minutes later they are able to start the car again. Personnel at the airfield tell them they had seen a flaming ball that rotated, made a 90° turn, and passed over the airfield again. The tower tracks the object on radar at an altitude of 3,000 feet during its second pass. The object is about 500 feet in diameter with a glowing ring around it. (“Saucers and the Iron Curtain: A Report from Czechoslovakia,” Flying Saucer Review 6, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1960): 31–32) November 19 — Otis T. Carr is convicted in federal court of selling unregistered securities to Gurney G. Warnberg, a pilot and railroad man in Yukon, Oklahoma, and fined $5,000. Unable to pay, Carr works off his fine in jail at a dollar a day. (Clark III 861)

December — The new edition of Ruppelt’s The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects is published with three new UFO debunking chapters, the last of which is completely different in tone from the rest of the book. He claims there is no Air Force secrecy on UFOs and NICAP is just a bunch of grandstanding nuts. (Clark III 1024; Michael Hall and Wendy Connors, “The Forgotten Letters of Edward J. Ruppelt,” IUR 24, no. 4 (Winter 1999): 20–26, 30, 32; Swords 301) December — The London UFO Research Organisation is founded by Paul Teugells, Nigel Stephenson, Susanne Stebbing, and Roy Stemman, and begins publishing a monthly magazine, LUFORO Bulletin. (LUFORO Newsletter, no. 1 (December 1959)) December — Project Space Track moves to a new building in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the National Space Surveillance Control Center (NSSCC), which is formally dedicated on February 9, 1960. The NSSCC is part of the Air Force

Command and Control Development Division, Air Research and Development Command. Harold O. Curtis of Lincoln Laboratory is the director of the NSSCC. (Wikipedia, “Project Space Track”) December — 5:45 a.m. Larry Jensen is driving to work on US Highway 99 near Proberta, California, when his radio begins making “snapping” noises, and his lights dim. He pulls over to the side of the road and gets out to check his headlights, which he finds are shining feebly. He notices a huge, bright, bluish-green, crescent-shaped object hovering about 60 feet above the road a quarter of a mile behind him. It appears to be 80–90 feet across and 15– 20 feet thick. Suddenly and inexplicably, he finds his clothes are soaked and he feels an alarming feeling as if he is getting crushed inside. He also feels as if he is being sucked up into the object. He grabs for a car door, then collides with a side mirror and staggers backward, but manages to get inside. Looking out the right-door window, he sees the UFO a few miles away, heading northeast and climbing at a shallow angle over the Sierra foothills. It vanishes within 10 seconds. Jensen’s car lights come back on. He resumes driving, but 600 feet away is forced to stop because he smells burning rubber. The battery caps are blown out, and the battery is swollen out of shape, the generator is not working, and the armature and field wires have melted together. Later, he finds it odd that he has not encountered another single car during or after the episode. (Clark III 866; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 October – December, The Author, 2000, pp. 56–59) December 1 — At a NASA news conference in Washington, D.C., Cal Tech geochemist Harrison Brown suggests that boneless animals similar to jellyfish abound in oceans on Venus. The speculation comes in the wake of the discovery that the planet’s atmosphere contains water vapor. (“Scientist Says Jellyfish May Live on Venus,” Wilmington (Del.) News Journal, December 2 , 1959, p. 29) December 2 — A bright, circular object is seen in the sky heading southwest over Ghazni, Afghanistan. It disappears after 2 minutes. (Good Above, p. 308 ) December 5 — After five flights, testing of the Avrocar is temporarily halted, by which time it has logged 18.5 hours of test time in total. (Wikipedia, “Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar”) December 7 — Maj. Gen. James H. Walsh writes to Lt. Gen. Bernard A. Schriever, commander of ARDC, regarding transfer of UFO duties. (“Saucer Reading Fest,” Saturday Night Uforia, January 25, 2019) December 11 — A memo reaches CIA head Allen Dulles’s desk recommending the removal of Fidel Castro. He sets the wheels in motion. December 13 — Karl Lars Dersson is walking on the deck of the Danish tanker Dorthe Mærsk just north of La Orchila Island, Venezuela. He sees a brilliant cone-shaped object descending from the sky and alerts the crew. It gets brighter as it nears the surface of the Caribbean, and the crew hear a loud concussion as it enters the water. The surface becomes turbulent and brilliant with many colors. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 50 – 51) December 13 — Early evening. A rocket project officer at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, is out looking at the Moon with binoculars when a lighted object approaches the Moon very slowly in the six o’clock position. Once nearly in line with the lunar edge, it begins a precision journey, skirting the edge until it reaches three o’clock. It then leaves on a straight track directly away. During the observation, the man calls his wife and two neighbors to watch the performance. (Michael D. Swords, “Gazing at the Moons,” IUR 32, no. 4 (October 2009): 14 – 15) December 15 — USAF Maj. Joseph Rogers attains an airspeed of 1,526 mph in a Convair F-106 Delta Dart at Edwards AFB, California. (Wikipedia, “Convair F-106 Delta Dart”) Late December — 10:00 p.m. Lorentz Johnsen sees a dark, silent object with a row of windows fly slowly by at an altitude of 500 feet, headed in the direction of Namsenfjorden, Trøndelag, Norway. It descends to about 160 feet, grows fiery red, then explodes with a crash and falls into the water. He says that it looks like a cover is torn off in one piece like a “curved sheet of metal.” (Ole Jonny Brænne, “Observations of Unidentified Submarine Objects in Norway,” IUR 20, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1995): 13) December 24 — Maj. Gen. Richard E. O’Keefe, acting inspector general of the Air Force, issues instructions pertaining to “UFO business” to every air base commander in the US. The document is not intended for public distribution, but NICAP obtains a copy. Across the top are the words “UFOs Serious Business.” It says that UFOs “must be rapidly and accurately identified as serious USAF business in the ZI [Zone of Interior]” and specifies that UFO investigators “should be equipped with binoculars, camera, Geiger counter, magnifying glass and have a source for containers in which to store samples.” O’Keefe asks that UFO explanations be “reasonable and knowledgeable.” (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1959 October – December, The Author, 2000, pp. 61, 65– 66 ; Swords 286; Good Need, pp. 226 , 229 )

1960

Early 1960 — Night. Vice Chief of Air Staff Gen. Curtis LeMay is conducting an exercise to test his bombers’ capability to penetrate US air space. An F-89J Scorpion jet instructor pilot and his radar observer, 1Lt. Joe Meyer, have just successfully intercepted a B-47 and are descending to land at James Connally AFB [now TSTC Waco Airport] near Waco, Texas. They notice a pinpoint of light at their level 12 miles away over Waco and decide to approach and attack it as if they are armed. As they approach on a collision course, they see the object has four bright blue- white lights on it and it is stationary. They estimate it is 25–30 feet in diameter. But the object shoots straight up at incredible speed before they reach it. They look up and see the object is bright blue white on its underside. It disappears at about 90,000 feet altitude. (“Pilot Finally Reveals UFO Encounter,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 375 (July 1999 ): 17) 1960 — Jim Lorenzen is hired as senior technical associate with the Kitt Peak National Observatory, so he and Coral move to Tucson, Arizona, from Alamogordo, New Mexico. On their third day in Tucson, an “exterminator” visits them, offering to inspect their rented premises for free. He fails to mention the name of his company, nor does he seem interested in his occupation. He talks with Coral about their reason for moving, where Jim is employed, and UFOs. (Clark III 50; Lorenzen, Encounters with UFO Occupants, Berkley Medallion, 1976, pp. 3, 251) 1960 — Brinsley Le Poer Trench, 8th Earl of Clancarty, publishes The Sky People, in which he claims that Adam and Eve, Noah, and many other characters in the Bible originally lived on Mars. Trench believes that Adam and Eve were experimental creations of extraterrestrials. The biblical description of the Garden of Eden is inconsistent with what Earth is like, and because Mars contains canals, the Garden of Eden must have been located on Mars. He further claims that the north polar ice cap melted on Mars, causing the descendants of Adam and Eve to move to Earth. The Book of Genesis is a symbolic version of what actually happened to groups of people on Mars, he writes, with the Great Deluge referring to the flooding of Atlantis and Lemuria, which were populated with Adamic migrants. (Brinsley Le Poer Trench, The Sky People, Spearman, 1960; Jerome Clark, “Vimanas Have Landed: Ancient Astronautics in Ufology,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 26– 27 ) 1960 — Contactee George Hunt Williamson legally changes his name to Michel d’Obrenovic, said to reflect an ancestral connection to the throne of Serbia. However, John Griffin says the real reason is that Williamson’s sensational claims have rendered his anthropological work (such as it is) completely unacceptable. (Clark III 1287; Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, pp. 119– 124 ) 1960 — Night. During a pause in army maneuvers near Brno [now in the Czech Republic], soldiers see a peculiarly colored light above the city. After hovering a while, it vanishes but reappears in another part of the sky. Their commanding officer tells them to look at it with binoculars and check the radar. Headquarters sends up interceptors to chase the object, but every time one of them gets near, the light disappears from the radar screen, only to turn up elsewhere. The incident goes on for an hour before the light disappears for good. (Hobana and Weverbergh 90) 1960 — The invention of transponders that transmit an electronic identification signal from aircraft to ground control helps to further reduce clutter on air traffic control radars. This means that “aerial phenomena” appear on radar only if they intrude on flight paths and create a near miss of the type investigated by the Civil Aviation Authority. (David Clarke, “Gremlins and Black Projects,” Fortean Times 291 (August 2012): 26 – 27; National Air Traffic Controllers Association, A History of Air Traffic Control, 2019)

January — The first issue of the Australian Flying Saucer Review is published jointly by the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society and UFOIC, edited by Peter E. Norris and Andrew P. Tomas. It will continue until December 1972, various issues confusingly sponsored by each group, plus the Queensland Flying Saucer Research Bureau and the renamed Victorian UFO Research Society. (Australian Flying Saucer Review 1, no. 1 (January 1960)) January — Tests continue with a slightly modified Avrocar. (Wikipedia, “Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar”) January 18 — 10:45 p.m. Leo Haley and Bert C. Baker are driving on US Highway 2, some 9 miles west of Lakota, North Dakota, when the headlights dim just as a brilliant green flash lights up the sky. In a field to the north about 1 mile away they can see a 5–6 foot crescent-shaped object with a 9-foot exhaust tail. (Schopick, p. 69) January 26 — Richard Bissell notifies Kelly Johnson that the CIA is authorizing the delivery of 12 A-12 aircraft that will be five times faster than the U-2 and fly three miles higher. Skunk Works will move into production at Area 51 in Nevada to work on Project Oxcart. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed A- 12 ”; Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 134 – 135 )

February — The US Navy reportedly detects a “dark satellite” thought to be a Soviet spy satellite in orbit. However, a follow-up article alleges that the object was “the remains of an Air Force Discoverer VIII satellite that had gone

astray.” (“Trackers Spot Mystery Object Orbiting Earth,” Washington (D.C.) Evening Star, February 11, 1960; Wikipedia, “Corona (satellite)”) February 5 — The office of the AF Chief of Intelligence is informed of ARDC’s rejection (by Maj. Gen. James Ferguson) of the ATIC proposal. (“Saucer Reading Fest,” Saturday Night Uforia, January 25, 2019) February 5 — 11:15 p.m. Many people see a distinctly round UFO hover and maneuver slowly over or near the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and La Brea Avenue in Hollywood, California. Cars are stopped bumper-to- bumper, according to employees of several businesses around the intersection, with people gaping at the object overhead. Persons on hotel and apartment rooftops go out to see a bright “cherry-red, circular light.” Two service- station attendants at the intersection, Jerry Darr and Charles Walker, say that “hundreds of people saw it— everybody was looking” as the light hovers for at least 5 minutes over a busy drive-in. Pen Meyer, another service station attendant a third of a mile to the north, watches it hovering for about 10 minutes. Harold Sherman, his wife, and two others watch it as it resumes motion very slowly eastward. After proceeding east for a distance of a block or two, it veers southeastward and passes out of sight. No sound is heard over street-noise background. (Los Angeles NICAP Subcommittee case files; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 54 – 57 ) February 6 — 11:15 p.m. The red object reappears over Hollywood, California, this time about one block further east, above Sunset Boulevard and Sycamore Avenue. A number of witnesses observe it hovering for about 10 minutes at an altitude of 500–600 feet. Then with a loud explosion it emits a brilliant bluish-white flash that extends downward and to the west, lighting up the ground all around La Brea Avenue. A mushroom-shaped cloud appears and dissipates. As the red light is extinguished, an object described by most witnesses as long, tubular, and about 70 feet long shoots upwards. A few seconds later, the red light appears about 1,000 feet above Sunset and La Brea for about 8 minutes. It then begins drifting slowly eastward, turns sharply toward the north-northeast, accelerates and climbs steeply, not stopping again until it is at a very high altitude well to the north. (Los Angeles NICAP Subcommittee case file; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 54 – 57 ) February 17 — Hynek writes to Brig. Gen. Benjamin G. Holzman at ARDC in the hopes of interesting him in assessing UFO reports. (“Saucer Reading Fest,” Saturday Night Uforia, January 25, 2019) February 27 —NICAP sends photocopies of O’Keefe’s 1959 “UFOs Serious Business” memo to the media and to committees in the House and Senate, calling for congressional hearings. NICAP Board member Rear Adm. Roscoe Hillenkoetter adds a statement: “Behind the scenes, high-ranking AF officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs. But through official secrecy [AFR 200-2] and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense.” NICAP board member Albert Baller writes: “If the UFOs are believed a threat, it would seem incumbent on the armed forces to waste no time in alerting the people. Any sudden, hostile act against a nation left in relative ignorance could have serious consequences.” (“UFO Warning Issued: Flying Objects ‘Now Serious Business,’” Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star, February 27, 1960, p. 1; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January – June 1960, The Author, 2003, p. 37)

March — The Ottawa Flying Saucer Club begins publishing Topside, edited by Wilbert B. Smith until 1962. It continues until winter 1971. (Topside, no. 1 (March 1960)) March 6 — 5:15–5:27 a.m. Photographer Esse Jansson of Norrtälje, Sweden, goes out early in the morning to try to take a photo of an unidentified satellite, termed 1960 Alpha [however, the designation of 1960 Alpha 1 is reserved for the Pioneer 5 space probe, which isn’t launched until March 11], “which was expected to pass the Stockholm latitude in a southerly direction about 0525 hours.” He sees two objects that come from the north and move in a southeasterly direction. They are similar to phenomena he has seen before, but these objects reverse direction completely. One of his plates shows a third object. The CIA takes note of this and another mystery satellite viewed by a Swedish airplane and reported in Dagens Nyheter, March 8. (Central Intelligence Agency, “UFO’s Sighted, Photographed in Sweden; Unidentified Satellite Seen,” FDD Note 1107, March 17, 1960) March 8 — Holzman forwards Hynek’s letter up the chain of command. (“Saucer Reading Fest,” Saturday Night Uforia, January 25, 2019) March 17 — President Eisenhower signs off on a CIA paper titled “A Program of Covert Action against the Castro Regime.” The order gives the agency authorization to create an organization of exiled Cubans to manage opposition programs, begin a propaganda offensive to draw support for the movement, create an intelligence gathering network inside Cuba, and develop a paramilitary force to be introduced into Cuba to organize, train, and lead resistance groups against the Castro regime. Its budget is $4.4 million. Under the Cuban Project and under

the direction of CIA Directorate for Plans Richard M. Bissell, MKUltra’s Sidney Gottlieb proposes spraying Fidel Castro’s television studio with LSD and saturating his shoes with thallium to make his beard fall out. Gottlieb also hatches schemes to assassinate Castro, including the use of a poisoned cigar, a poisoned wetsuit, an exploding conch shell, and a poisonous fountain pen. (Wikipedia, “Sidney Gottlieb”; Kris Hollington, Wolves, Jackals, and Foxes: The Assassins Who Changed History, St. Martin’s, 2008; Wikipedia, “Operation Mongoose”) March 24 — Two policemen are in the vicinity of Lambert–St. Louis International Airport in Missouri, one on the north side, the other on the south side. A bright light illuminates the entire area. Three objects in a V-formation whisk overhead. They are round, white, and 9 feet in diameter. (Swords 293)

April 8 — Project Ozma, set up only a few days earlier by Frank Drake at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, West Virginia, seems to hit paydirt. As he slews his antenna off Tau Ceti and onto Epsilon Eridani, Drake is greeted with a strong, periodic, pulsed signal on 1420 MHz, the hyperfine transition emission line of interstellar hydrogen atoms proposed for SETI by Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison, and still favored as a promising hailing frequency for interstellar communications. Drake is ready with a second, low-gain antenna. The pulses are there as well, sadly disproving their extraterrestrial origin. But they are not exactly terrestrial interference, either. The rate at which the phantom signal traverses the sky suggests that it is emanating from an aircraft cruising at unprecedented altitude—perhaps 80,000 feet. At the time, no known aircraft can reach the stratosphere. Such an aircraft, as it happens, doesn’t “come into existence” until the following month, when Francis Gary Powers is shot down over the Soviet Union. (Drake wisely decides to withhold publication of this positive result, so he never does receive proper credit for “discovering” the U-2.) The project only lasts through July. (Wikipedia, “Project Ozma”; H. Paul Shuch, “Project Ozma: The Birth of Observational SETI,” in Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Springer, 2011 , pp. 13– 18 ; Seth Shostak, “Project Ozma,” SETI Institute, July 2021) April 9 — The U- 2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers crosses into the Soviet Union from Pakistan and flies over the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan; the Dolon Air Base in Semey, Kazakhstan; a SAM test site near Saryshagan, Kazakhstan; and the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam, Kazakhstan. The plane is detected by Soviet Air Defense Forces but avoids intercepts by a MiG-19 and a Su-9. Powers lands at an Iranian airstrip at Zahedan. A 1994 CIA monograph by Gerald K. Haines, “CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90,” claims that “According to later estimates from CIA officials who worked on the U-2 project and the Oxcart (SR-71, or Blackbird) project, over half of all UFO reports from the late 1950s through the 1960s were accounted for by manned reconnaissance flights (namely the U-2) over the United States.” (Wikipedia, “1960 U-2 incident”; Gerald K. Haines, “CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90,” Studies in Intelligence 40, no. 5 (1997): 67 – 84) April 30 — George Adamski appears on Long John Nebel’s late-night TV show on WOR. (“Long John Nebel, The Flying Saucer Story (George Adamski interview),” ThriftStoreVinyl YouTube channel, September 4, 2018; “Final Years,” The Adamski Case, June 11, 2009) May — The CIA begins to recruit anti-Castro Cuban exiles in the Miami, Florida, area. Infantry training is carried out at a CIA-run base that is code-named JM Trax near Retalhuleu in the Sierra Madre mountains of Guatemala. (Wikipedia, “Brigade 2506”) May 1 — 6:26 a.m. A US U-2 spy plane, flown by CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers, takes off from Peshawar, Pakistan, and performs photographic aerial reconnaissance over Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and Chelyabinsk, Russia. Powers has orders to continue across Siberia to get a look at the new Plesetsk Cosmodrome, but at 8:53 a.m. local time he is hit by an S-75 Dvina (SA-2 Guideline) surface-to-air missile fired by a defense battalion near Kyshtym, Russia. The U- 2 crashes near Sverdlovsk [now Yekaterinburg]. The Soviet Air Defense Forces have anticipated the flight and give orders to “attack the violator.” Powers parachutes safely and is captured. This is the first time in five years of overflights that the US is caught. (Wikipedia, “1960 U-2 incident”) May 5 — NASA issues a press release saying a weather research aircraft has “gone missing” north of Turkey and speculates that the pilot has fallen unconscious and the plane has crashed. Under the impression that the pilot has died and that the plane has been destroyed, a U-2 plane is quickly painted in NASA colors and a photo is shown to the media at NASA Flight Research Center [now the Armstrong Flight Research Center] at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Premier Nikita Khrushchev announces the shoot-down to the Soviet parliament but does not reveal yet that the pilot has survived. (NASA, “U-2,” September 4, 1997) May 7 — Khrushchev now reveals to the Soviet parliament that Powers is alive and much of the U- 2 technologies have survived the crash. May 9 — Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles tells Congress that all U-2 flights are used for aerial espionage and are flown pursuant to “presidential directives.”

May 10 — House Appropriations Chair Clarence Cannon (D-Mo.) reveals to the press that the U-2 is a CIA plane engaged in aerial espionage over the Soviet Union “under the aegis” of the president. The press begins to suggest that Eisenhower has lost control of the intelligence agencies. (Wikipedia, “1960 U-2 incident”) May 13 — 7:00 p.m. More than 100 people at Paracuru, Ceará, Brazil, watch a disc-shaped UFO. Flying about 600 feet in the air at low speed, the silent object maneuvers over the downtown area or a long time. About 60 feet in diameter, it hovers at an angle by a church. A strong bluish light is on top of it. The same day, 20 cities and towns in Céara state, four in Rio Grande do Norte, three in Pernambuco, two in Paraíba, two in Bahia, and one each in the states of Piauí and Maranhão report UFO sightings. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 220 – 221; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January – June 1960, The Author, 2003, pp. 92–93) May 14 — 4:00 a.m. Fisherman Raimundo Ursulino dos Santos sees two metallic discs landed on a sandy hill by the beach at Paracuru, Ceará, Brazil. As he approaches, he sees two humanlike beings outside, talking to each other. They are small and pallid. One is dressed in a blue suit with a helmet. Dos Santos turns and runs away. Marks in the sand are found later. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January – June 1960 , The Author, 2003, p. 93; Patrick Gross, URECAT, September 29, 2007) May 19 — A silver-colored round object, 20–25 feet wide with hanging appendages, hovers 50–100 feet away from Indigenous observers in the village of Ekuk, Alaska, south of Dillingham. It barely clears electric wires 12 feet above the ground. It sucks up two empty five-gallon trashcans and drags them swirling along the ground. It flies between two houses and crosses to the other side of a ridge for 100 yards, drops the trashcans and sucks up some swirling grass, makes a loud sucking sound, then ascends rapidly. Thomas M. Conrow, chief of intelligence at a nearby Air Force Base, interviews the witnesses and concludes that “there still appears to be no logical explanation of the sighting.” At Wright Patterson AFB, Blue Book analysts classify it as a “weather balloon with a radar reflector,” even though it is traveling against the wind. (Hynek UFO Report, pp. 146 – 149 ; Sparks, p. 284 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January – June 1960, The Author, 2003, pp. 99–101) May 22 — 9:33 a.m. An observatory on Majorca, Balearic Islands, Spain, sees a white, triangular object one-quarter the size of the moon spinning on its own axis and maintaining a steady course. It cables a report to NASA in Washington, D.C. (UFOEv, p. 123) May 28 — Engineer Ronald N. Bracewell, suggests that extraterrestrials may already be in our neighborhood through an autonomous interstellar space probe (now called a “Bracewell probe”) sent for the express purpose of communicating with alien civilizations. (Ronald N. Bracewell, “Communications from Superior Galactic Communities,” Nature 186 (1960): 670–671)

Summer — 2:00 a.m. Two brothers are alerted by their journalist brother about an elusive UFO that local police in Walkerton, Ontario, have been pursuing for about an hour. They drive out along country roads until they get within 300 feet of the object, which is hovering around a large tree. The object is circular and apparently about 3 feet in diameter. It is very bright and changes color repeated. It then circles the tree purposefully for several minutes. The brothers climb a fence and approach it, but the UFO suddenly accelerates and disappears to the south. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 54– 56 ) June 1 — Bulkley Griffin, chief of the Worcester (Mass.) Evening Gazette’s Washington, D.C., Bureau, writes a well- reasoned story about the Air Force’s unilateral control of UFO information and its national security implications. He quotes Adm. Hillenkoetter’s opinion that UFOs are intelligently controlled and are neither US nor USSR devices, which is why he is pushing for a Congressional investigation. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January – June 1960, The Author, 2003, pp. 111–112) June 1 2 — 3:00 or 4:00 p.m. Following a sonic boom above Quebec, a fiery object falls from the sky from an altitude of 1,000–2,000 feet and splits into two pieces that fall into the St. Lawrence River near Les Écureuils, about 20 miles upriver from Quebec City, Quebec. A beachcomber runs across the pieces, one closer to the shore and visible at low tide, the other one further out and mostly submerged. He retrieves a smaller piece (800 pounds) and sells it to a scrap-metal dealer, who fails to recognize it as ferrous and possibly ships it to Japan. The other piece is picked up by the Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment [now DRDC Valcartier] near Quebec City. Wilbert Smith’s Ottawa Flying Saucer Club [later the Ottawa New Sciences Club] tells its members that the material is high-strength metal that is 6 feet in diameter and 2 feet thick at the center with an embedded tube, an “electronic potting can,” and a transistor. CARDE’s analysis is said to have revealed an alloy with a high manganese content, although it was identified as the “normal product of a foundry, consisting of slag with semi- molten scrap embedded in it,” likely coming from Sorel Iron Foundries in Sorel, Quebec. Smith rejects those findings and and conducts his own tests (although he is an electrical engineer and not a metallurgist) on a chunk

the club retrieves from the river around July 1, supposedly engaging in a “tremendous amount of detective work on this metal.” In November 1961, Smith tells Ohio UFO researchers C. W. Fitch and George Popovitch: “We are speculating that what we have is a portion of a very large device which came into this solar system…we don’t know when…but it had been in space a long time before it came to Earth; we can tell by the micrometeorites embedded in the surface. But we don’t know whether it was a few years ago—or a few hundred years ago.” In June 1968, the Colorado project’s Roy Craig is in Ottawa and offers to examine the club’s chunk of metal because they had offered it to Condon a year earlier. Craig obligingly takes a piece with him but does not analyze it since there is no connection to a UFO and it looks like foundry slag anyway. Later, the Montreal UFO Society’s Ronald Anstee has a piece of it analyzed by an independent metallurgist, who finds that the composition “does not correspond to any known commercial manganese steel.” In September 1967, Eric Smith of the Canada Department of Energy, Mines, and Resources visits the Ottawa club and examines their large artifact, but fails to report back. In 1969, the National Research Council’s Peter Millman takes a look and is convinced that it is ordinary manganese steel from the Sorel plant. (“The Mysterious Chunk of Hardware at Ottawa,” Topside, no. 20 (Spring 1966): 4–6; Frank Edwards, FS Serious Business, Bantam ed., 1966, pp. 48– 49 ; “The Mystery of UFO Hardware,” Topside, no. 24/25 (Spring/Summer 1967): 10–11; “Unidentified Hardware Mystery Deepens,” Topside, no. 27 (Winter 1968): 4–9; “Latest Report on the Mystery Metal,” Topside, no. 29 (Summer 1968): 11– 12; Condon, pp. 133– 135 ; “Canada’s Mysterious Chunk of Metal,” Spacelink 6, no. 2 (January 1970): 6–9; “More Mystery Added to Ottawa’s Mysterious Chunk of Hardware,” Topside, no. 33 (Winter/Spring 1970): 13–17; “Latest Report on Ottawa’s Mystery Metal,” Topside, no. 34 (Summer/Fall 1970): 22–23; “New Deveopments on Ottawa’s Mystery Metal,” Topside, no. 35 (Winter 1971): 29–33; Story, pp. 208– 209 ; John Robert Colombo, UFOs over Canada, Hounslow, 1991, pp. 53 – 56 ; Roy Craig, UFOs : An Insiders’ View of the Official Quest for Evidence, University of North Texas, 1995, pp. 121–132; Good Above, pp. 188– 189 ; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 166, 229 – 249) June 21 — NICAP sends a confidential report to the US Congress on “Dangers of Secrecy on UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) and Digest of Documented Evidence” urging legislators to go on the record about the reality of UFOs. (Donald E. Keyhoe, “Confidential NICAP Report to Congress: Dangers of Secrecy on UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) and Digest of Documented Evidence,” June 21, 1960) June 22 — 6:20 p.m. John Person is setting up camp at Clan Lake, Northwest Territories, on a prospecting expedition and is waiting for his partner. He hears a noise like an aircraft approaching and something bounces and hits the surface of the lake about 1,700 feet behind him. Person sees an object 4–6 feet wide with arms or spokes is rotating rapidly in the water, but gradually slows down and stops spinning. When his partner arrives, they get into a canoe and travel to the impact area. They find an area of burned grass and another area where grass it cut up in small pieces. They use a pole to probe the lake bottom and find a channel that is one foot deeper at one end and three feet deeper at the other, RCMP Cpl. Matheson flies to the lake in a seaplane on July 19 and August 15 and finds the impact area as Person has described but no submerged object. (Royal Canadian Mounted Police, “Report of Strange Object Striking Clan Lake, Clan Lake Dist., N.W.T.,” July 19, July 25, and August 25, 1960; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 98–102)

July — Members of the US Senate Preparedness Committee and the House Science and Astronautics Committee, as well as the CIA, ask for hearings on USAF’s handling of UFOs. (Clark III 922) July 1 — 10:30 a.m. Four witnesses at the Leefe Mine in Lincoln County, Wyoming, see a shiny disc move in from the south and hover above a slag heap. It has a diameter of at least 185 feet and is 14 feet thick. Five transparent bubbles are visible on the bottom as it rocks gently before moving off to the south at high speed. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 221) July 2 — Early morning. A couple driving in the vicinity of Kankakee, Illinois, see the landscape light up with a bright blue light as a ball of fire approaches out of the south. It passes above their car dragging a trail of bluish light behind it. The inside of the car heats up uncomfortably, waking up their daughter and her husband who are asleep in the back. The light gradually fades and disappears in the north. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 221–223) July 3 — 4:30 p.m. Argentine Air Force Capt. Hugo F. Niotti is driving north near Villa General Belgrano, Córdoba, Argentina, when he notices a dark object hovering to the right of the road. He stops his car, grabs his camera, and takes a photo of the object, which is moving slowly over a field. As he is winding the film to take another shot, the object accelerates and disappears into the clouds. The photo shows a conical object low above the ground, as well as a horse whose attention is attracted to the object. Analysis shows that the object is about 23 feet high, 20 feet in diameter, and 56 feet above the ground. (Guillermo C. Roncoroni and Gustavo J. Alvarez, “Foto de OVNI Avalada por la Fuerza Aerea Argentina,” UFO Press 1, no. 3 (April 1977): 32– 38 ; “Cone-Shaped UFO

Photographed in Argentina,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 8 (December 1980): 1; Johannes Koch, “Correspondence,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 2 (February 1981): 2; Willy Smith, “The Yacanto, Cordoba, Argentina, Photograph, 07- 03 - 1960,” UFO Casebook; Willy Smith, “UFOs in Latin America,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 104–106) July 6 — Responding to NICAP’s “Dangers of Secrecy on UFOs” report, Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Tex.) states that he has ordered the staff of the Senate Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee to keep a close watch on UFO developments. (“NICAP UFO Report: Extension of Remarks of Hon. Leonard G. Wolf of Iowa in the House of Representatives, Wednesday, August 31, 1960,” Congressional Record, Proceedings and Debates of the 86th Congress, Second Session, vol. 106, Part 14, pp. 18955–18956) July 13 — The Air Force gives a preliminary briefing to associate counsel Stuart French, staff member of the Senate Preparedness Committee, who wants to know about USAF explanations for the Washington National Airport and Levelland cases. (Jacobs, UFO Controversy in America, Signet ed., 1976, p. 156 ) July 15 — The Air Force gives a major briefing on UFOs for congressional staffers: Chief Counsel Robert Smart (House Committee on Armed Services); Spencer Beresford, Richard Hines, and Frank Hammill (House Science and Astronautics Committee). Charles S. Sheldon II, technical director of the House Science and Astronautics Committee, is also present. The USAF reps are Robert Friend, Lawrence J. Tacker, Hynek, and Maj. Gen. Arno H. Luehman. CIA officers Richard Payne and John S. Warner are possibly there as well. The staffers are skeptical; Smart accuses the Air Force of withholding information and wants to be kept informed of sightings and investigations. (Jacobs, UFO Controversy in America, Signet ed., 1976, pp. 156 – 159 ; Marcia S. Smith, The UFO Enigma, Congressional Research Service Report No. 83-205, June 20, 1983, pp. 6 5 – 66 ; Swords 291–292; “Saucer Reading Fest,” Saturday Night Uforia, January 25, 2019) July 26 — Lt. Col. Lawrence J. Tacker writes to Stringfield that “There is absolutely no truth in the charge that the Air Force or any other governmental agency is withholding information on the subject of UFOs from the general public.” (Stringfield, Situation Red, Fawcett Crest, 1977, p. 167)

August — The US severs diplomatic relations with the Dominican Republic. The CIA’s Special Group decides to arm Dominicans in hopes of an assassination of generalissimo Rafael Trujillo. The CIA disperses three rifles and three .38 revolvers, but things pause in 1961 as John F. Kennedy assumes office. August 9 — Contactee Gabriel Green announces his candidacy for the presidency of the United States at a press conference at the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel. He publishes his Space Age Platform at the second meeting of his Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America convention in the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, on August 13–14, but soon drops out and lends his support to John F. Kennedy. (Wikipedia, “Gabriel Green”; “Space Age Platform of Gabriel Green: Candidate for the Office of President of the United States,” AFSCA World Report, no. 16 (July/Aug. 1960): 4–7; Clark III 99; S. D. Tucker, False Economies: The Strangest, Least Successful, and Most Audacious Financial Follies, Plans, and Crazes of All Times, Amberly, 2018 , chapter 3, excerpted in “Taxing Credulity,” Fortean Times 367 (June 2018): 52– 55 ) August 10 — The Discoverer 13 Corona KH- 1 photoreconnaissance satellite is launched from Vandenberg AFB [now Vandenberg Space Force Base], California. The primary goal of this series of satellites is to replace the U- 2 spy plane in surveilling the Sino-Soviet Bloc, determining the disposition and speed of production of Soviet missiles and long-range bombers assess. The Corona program is also used to produce maps and charts for the Department of Defense and other US government mapping programs. On August 11, after 17 orbits, the satellite splashes down in the North Pacific and its payload is recovered. It represents the first-ever successful recovery of an object from orbit. (Wikipedia, “Discoverer 13”) August 11 — 3:10 p.m. Ray Hawks is operating a farm tractor at Left Hand Canyon near Altona, Colorado, when he hears a muffled explosion. Looking up, he watches a disc dropping vertically out of the cloud cover. It stops in midair about 650 feet away from him and 200 feet above the ground, wobbling a bit. When it stabilizes, he sees it looks like two concave discs joined together at the rim and dull aluminum in color. Bluish smoke is issuing from an apparent gap in its surface. An electric hum seems to come from inside the object. The section where the smoke is issuing is withdrawn inside, and a new section appears to replace it, settling in with a click. The hum increases in intensity, and the object appears to be surrounded by a heat haze. It then shoots up into the clouds and vanishes. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 223– 225 ) August 12 — NASA’s Echo 1 balloon satellite is launched by a Thor-Delta rocket and becomes the first passive communications satellite. Microwave signals are bounced off the satellite from one point on earth to another. (Wikipedia, “Project Echo”) August 13– 14 — 11:50 p.m.–2:05 a.m. Highway Patrol officers Charles A. Carson and Stanley E. Scott, plus three others at Red Bluff, California, are on patrol when see what they think at first is an airliner about to crash. It turns out to

be a maneuvering, silent red light with five white lights, descending to 100–200 feet altitude. It suddenly reverses course, climbs to 500 feet, hovers, sweeps the ground with a red beam, performs aerial gymnastics, then heads east, chased by the police car. It is joined by a similar object from the south, then it disappears in the east. A local radar operator confirms the UFO at the time but denies it the next day. Tehama County sheriff’s officers also see the UFO and another similar one the same night. (NICAP, “Red Bluff Incident”; “False AF Answer in Red Bluff Case,” NICAP Special Bulletin, October 1960, pp. 1, 4; Schopick, pp. 96–100; Lorenzen, FSHoax, pp. 180– 182 ; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 153– 156 , 225; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 92 – 94 ; Clark III 1002 – 1006 ; Sparks, p. 284; UFOEv, pp. 61– 62 , 112 ; Swords 295–297; “Red Bluff: 1960,” Saturday Night Uforia, February 16, 2017) August 15 — Air Force Information Policy Letter for Commanders, vol. 14, no. 12, is issued by Office of the Secretary of Air Force. In “AF Keeping Watchful Eye on Aerospace,” it states, “There is a relationship between the Air Force’s interest in space surveillance and its continuous surveillance of the atmosphere near Earth for unidentified flying objects—’UFOs.’” (UFOEv, p. 108) August 16 — Night. A woman in Charleston, South Carolina, takes a photo of a mystery satellite that is in the same part of the sky as Echo I, which is also in the photo. (Michael D. Swords, “Gazing at the Moons,” IUR 32, no. 4 (October 2009): 13) August 17 — The trial for downed U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers begins in Moscow. August 18 — The Discoverer 14 Corona KH- 1 spy satellite is launched. It is the first completely successful mission and returns images of the Mys Schmidta airfield in Siberia. (Wikipedia, “Discoverer 14”) August 2 5 — The “dark satellite” is seen and photographed five times by Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation at Bethpage, Long Island, New York. It is supposed to be three times faster than the Echo 1 satellite and travels east to west in a retrograde orbit, rather than west to east. Its inclination to the equator is about 135°. The color of the object varies from “carrot to straw.” The Grumman observers estimate that the object is in an eccentric orbit with an apogee of as much as 4,200 miles and a perigee of about 300 miles. They immediately produce a proposal to the US Air Force to share data in the hopes of plotting a firm orbit for the mystery satellite. (NICAP, “Grumman Mystery Satellite”; Gordon W. Creighton, “Unidentified Satellites,” Flying Saucer Review 7, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1961): 3–6; “The Unidentified Satellite: Grumman Aircraft Writes to One of Our Readers,” Flying Saucer Review 7, no. 2 (March/April 1961): 29; Blue Book files, “Grumman Proposal for Optical Surveillance of the Retrograde Satellite,” 1961; UFOEv, p. 138 ; Michael D. Swords, “Gazing at the Moons,” IUR 32, no. 4 (October 2009): 13; Center for UFO Studies, “Moonwatch Mystery Satellites, 1958– 1962 ”) August 25 — The National Security Council recommends to President Eisenhower the establishment of a top secret National Reconnaissance Office to coordinate USAF and CIA reconnaissance satellite activities because of management problems with the USAF satellite program. (Wikipedia, “National Reconnaissance Office”) August 26 — 9:00 p.m. Director Robert I. Johnson and other staff at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Illinois, observe a faint reddish object in the sky moving from east to west, apparently the same mystery satellite seen and photographed by the Grumman observers. (Michael D. Swords, “Gazing at the Moons,” IUR 32, no. 4 (October 2009): 13; Swords 294; Center for UFO Studies, “Moonwatch Mystery Satellites, 1958– 1962 ”) August 31 — Rep. Leonard G. Wolf (D-Iowa) makes a statement in the House on NICAP’s “Dangers of Secrecy on UFOs” report, saying that it is “imperative to end the risk of accidental war from defense forces’ confusion over UFOs.” He mentions NICAP board member Adm. Roscoe Hillenkoetter’s request that “Congress inform the public as to the facts.” Based on a there-year NICAP study, Wolf states that all defense personnel “should be told that the UFOs are real and should be trained to distinguish them—by their characteristic speeds and maneuvers— from conventional planes and missiles… The American people must be convinced, by documented facts, that the UFOs could not be Soviet machines.” (“NICAP UFO Report: Extension of Remarks of Hon. Leonard G. Wolf of Iowa in the House of Representatives, Wednesday, August 31, 1960,” Congressional Record, Proceedings and Debates of the 86th Congress, Second Session, vol. 106, Part 14, pp. 18955–18956; Good Need, p. 261 ) Late August — Two men in a car near Butte Falls, Oregon, see a pale-white light hovering 300 feet ahead of them. They watch it for 15 minutes, then decide to drive closer. The light then rises to 100 feet and recedes, then changes to orange. No sound is heard. The light performs geometrical maneuvers, creating rectangle paths and other zig- zags. It then accelerates, changes back to white, and zooms off. (Swords 294) Late August or early September — Evening. Rhodes McCarroll and his grandfather, sitting on the upstairs back porch of their home in Memphis, Tennessee, notice a glowing basketball-sized globe in the soil by the hedge. They watch it for 5 minutes, then see a figure standing behind the ball. It is a glowing nude, generally humanlike figure, about 6 feet tall, holding a light at chest level. The figure is square-shouldered and has disproportionately long legs that are narrow and pointed between the knees and ankles. The witnesses watch another 5 minutes, at which point the globe and the entity begin to fade and are gone from sight in another 5 minutes. (Clark III 279 – 280 )

September — Groom Lake in Nevada receives the name “Area 51” when A-12 test facility construction begins, including a new 8,500-foot runway (Runway 14/32) to replace the existing one built for the U-2. (Wikipedia, “Area 51”) September — CIA officer Richard M. Bissell Jr. and DCI Allen W. Dulles initiate talks with two leading figures of the Mafia, Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana. Later, other crime bosses such as Carlos Marcello, Santo Trafficante Jr., and Meyer Lansky become involved in the first plot against Fidel Castro. The strategy is managed by Sheffield Edwards. Robert Maheu, a veteran of CIA counterespionage activities, is instructed to hire the Mafia to kill Castro. The advantage of employing the Mafia for this work is that it provides the CIA with a credible cover story. The Mafia are known to be angry with Castro for closing their profitable brothels and casinos in Cuba. On September 14, Maheu meets with Roselli in a New York City hotel and offers him $150,000 for the “removal” of Castro. James O’Connell, who identifies himself as Maheu’s associate but is really the chief of the CIA’s operational support division, is present during the meeting. Declassified documents do not reveal if Roselli, Giancana, or Trafficante accept a down payment for the job. According to CIA files, it is Giancana who suggests poison pills to add to Castro’s food or drinks. Such pills, manufactured by the CIA’s Technical Services Division, are given to Giancana’s nominee named Juan Orta. Giancana recommends him as being an official in the Cuban government with access to Castro. Allegedly, after several unsuccessful attempts to introduce the poison into Castro’s food, Orta abruptly demands to be let out of the mission, handing over the job to another unnamed participant. Later, a second attempt is mounted through Giancana and Trafficante using Tony Varona, the leader of the Cuban Exile Junta, who has, according to Trafficante, become “disaffected with the apparent ineffectual progress of the Junta.” Varona requests $10,000 in expenses and $1,000 worth of communications equipment. However, it is unknown how far the second attempt goes, as it is canceled due to the launching of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. (Wikipedia, “Sam Giancana”; Wikipedia, “Assassination attempts on Fidel Castro”) September — MKUltra chief Sidney Gottlieb brings a vial of poison concealed in toothpaste to the Democratic Republic of the Congo with plans to place it on Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba’s toothbrush. The plot is abandoned, allegedly because CIA station chief Larry Devlin refuses permission. (Wikipedia, “Patrice Lumumba”) September — The USAF Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence turns down ATIC’s request for one additional staffer for Project Blue Book (raising it to 3) and additional funding. (Clark III 922) September 2 — 11:30 p.m. Richard Ireton and his wife are driving on US Highway 1 in Westbrook, Connecticut, when they notice what seems to be an aircraft about to crash. It veers close to the shore and the Iretons drive to the beach to look for it. They see a triangular-shaped object flying silently at the speed of a Piper Cub airplane, alternately hovering and moving horizontally and vertically. When it reaches the public beach, it takes off at great speed toward Long Island, New York. They see a similar object the next evening around 9:30 p.m. at Chalker Beach in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. (“‘Flying Triangle’ Seen in State,” Hartford (Conn.) Courant, September 17, 1960, pp. 1–2) September 8 — Night. Witnesses in Consett, South Shields, and Newcastle upon Tyne, England, see a triangular formation of lights with a red light in the center. (London Evening Chronicle, September 9, 1960; Marler 76) September 10 — A married couple in Scituate, Massachusetts, sees a trio of brilliant discs parked in a triangle formation in the sky. About 12° to the objects’ left is a huge cylinder. One witness watches them through binoculars, and the brilliance hurts his eyes for two hours. Two more discs seem to be attached to the top of the cylinder. Small domes sprinkle their surface. The large object disappears too quickly for the eye to follow. (Swords 294) September 10 — 9:50 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. M. G. Evans see 2 light-gray glowing objects, saucer or boomerang-shaped, that swish when accelerating, over Ridgecrest, California. (Swords 294; Sparks, p. 285) September 14 — 2:50 a.m. A dispatcher in Lorain, Ohio, is taking a coffee break when he sees a light that he thinks is the Echo 1 satellite. As he watches it, knowing it is not the right time for Echo 1, he sees four objects traveling in a perfectly spaced line of flight. It makes a surprising right turn, after which the objects move on their way, apparently at a great height. (Michael D. Swords, “I’ve Seen the Light…But What Was It?” IUR 32, no. 3 (July 2009): 3; Swords 294–295) September 15 — 7:30 a.m. A witness sees a UFO hovering 300 – 400 feet above the Douglas Aircraft plant in Santa Monica, California, and calls it into the West Los Angeles police station. Desk Officer Don Anderson goes outside and sees a dark triangular object moving slowly to the northeast at 3,000 feet. It disappears in the vicinity of Santa Monica Boulevard and Beverly Glen Street. (“Officer Reports Flying Triangle,” San Pedro (Calif.) News-Pilot, September 15, 1960, p. 1) September 15 — Ruppelt dies of a heart attack in Long Beach, California, at age 37. (Clark III 1024) September 29 — 9:25 p.m. Five people are out looking for the Echo 1 satellite in New Westminster, British Columbia. After they spot it, they remain for a few minutes talking. One of them sees three objects come up from the

southeast, pass overhead, and disappear over the rooftops in 10 seconds. The objects are luminous, round- cornered triangles. (Michael D. Swords, “Timmerman’s Triangles,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 16) September 30 — Tiffany Thayer’s widow Tanagra Thayer formally disbands the Fortean Society. (Clark III 516)

October — Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company begins construction of “Project 51” at the Nellis AFB complex in Nevada with double-shift personal schedules. They mark an Archimedean spiral on Area 51’s dry lake approximately two miles across so that an A-12 pilot approaching the end of the overrun can abort instead of plunging into the sagebrush. Area 51 pilots call it “The Hook.” For crosswind landings, they mark two unpaved airstrips (runways 9/27 and 03/21) on the dry lakebed. (Wikipedia, “Area 51”) October 4 — 6:10 p.m. Rev. Lionel Browning and his wife are looking at a rainbow outside their rectory in Cressy, Tasmania, when they see a gray, cigar-shaped object emerge from a raincloud. It has 4 or 5 vertical, dark bands around its circumference and an aerial array that projects from the top. Browning estimates it to be 100 feet long and about 4 miles distant. It moves north at about 60–70 mph at about 400 feet altitude. After one minute, it stops and is joined by 5–6 smaller objects that emerge from a cloud. After another minute, all the UFOs abruptly reverse back into the rain squall at the same speed. (“Mysterious Ships in the Sky,” Australian Flying Saucer Review 1, no. 4 (February 1961): 1–2; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: July – December 1960, The Author, 2003, pp. 104–107; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January – June 1961, The Author, 2003, pp. 35–36; Clark III 350– 352 ; Bill Chalker, “The Australian Government and UFOs,” IUR 22 , no. 3 (Fall 1997): 19– 20 ; Swords 385– 388 ) October 5 — A formation of UFOs is detected by the new Ballistic Missile Early Warning System at Thule Site J in Greenland. The objects appear to be heading directly toward North America from the direction of Russia. Within seconds, Strategic Air Command headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, scrambles the crews of B-52 bombers armed with nuclear warheads to prepare a retaliatory strike. But at the last moment checks reveal that the objects are spurious radar echoes. Unusual atmospheric conditions create phantoms on the BMEWS that cannot be seen by other radars. (Eric Schlosser, Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Incident, and the Illusion of Safety, Penguin, 2013, pp. 253– 254 , 542 ) October 20 — Australian MP Gil Duthie asks Frederick Osborne, Australian Minister for Air, whether he has read the account of the UFO seen at Cressy, Tasmania. Osborne responds that he has, and he admits that the Department of Air receives UFO reports and shares them with the RAF and the US Air Force. However, all of them are “explainable on a perfectly normal basis.” (Clark III 352; Swords 387) October 31 — Most guerrilla infiltrations and supply drops directed by the CIA into Cuba have failed; these are replaced by a plan to mount an initial amphibious assault with a minimum of 1,500 men.

November 3 — 4:30 p.m. Two 8-year-old boys are walking over a small hill in rural Price County, Wisconsin, when they hear an odd high-pitched, humming noise. The air has become unusually warm. They look back and see an aluminum-colored object on the hill behind them. They run back toward it, but it lifts off and shoots away. They find the soil of the hill to be warm to the touch. (“Small Boys See Warm, Landed UAO,” APRO Bulletin, January 1961, pp. 1, 4) November 4 — House Majority Leader John W. McCormack (D-Mass.) writes to Keyhoe that “it was pretty well established by some, in our minds, that there were some objects flying around in space that were unexplainable.” (“Congressmen Confirm AF Secrecy: Pressure for Investigation Increasing,” UFO Investigator 1, no. 11 (Dec./Jan. 1960/1961): 1; UFOEv, p. 175 ) November 15 — 10:40 a.m. A USAF B-57 Canberra reconnaissance aircraft operating out of RAAF Base East Sale, Victoria, Australia, encounters a UFO 15 miles north of Launceston, Tasmania. Capt. Douglas G. Ludlam and Capt. Joseph W. Ivins say it looks like a balloon about 70 feet in diameter and is flying at 35,000 feet, just below the B-57, and traveling at about 920 mph. It is in sight for 5–7 seconds before it disappears under the left wing. (Bill Chalker, “Australian A.F. UFO Report Files,” APRO Bulletin 30, no. 11 (December 1982):4; Clark III 352; Sparks, p. 285 ) November 18 — Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles and CIA Deputy Director for Plans Richard Bissell brief President-elect John F. Kennedy on the Cuban invasion. Dulles is confident that the CIA can overthrow the Cuban government. November 29 — Eisenhower meets with the chiefs of the CIA, Defense, State, and Treasury departments to discuss the new concept of a Cuban invasion. No one expresses objections, and Eisenhower approves the plans with the intention of persuading John F. Kennedy of their merit.

December 5 — Pentagon UFO spokesman Lt. Col. Lawrence J. Tacker publishes Flying Saucers and the U.S. Air Force, in which he blisteringly attacks critics of Project Blue Book, depicting them all as charlatans and opportunists and gullible believers. (Lawrence J. Tacker, Flying Saucers and the U.S. Air Force, Van Nostrand, 1960; Clark III 922 ) December 5 — Keyhoe debates Lt. Col. Lawrence J. Tacker on the Today show, hosted by Dave Garroway. Tacker says he wrote the book Flying Saucers and the US Air Force because “I felt the Air Force was being set upon by Maj. Keyhoe, NICAP, and other hobby groups who believe in spaceships as an act of pure faith.” Keyhoe repeatedly challenges Tacker, whose statements ring hollow, and even Garroway asks Tacker pointed questions and coolly notes Tacker’s apparent ignorance of basic physics. The show generates numerous phone calls and letters to NBC, most of them critical of the Air Force. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: July – December 1960, The Author, 2003, pp. 129– 135 ; “New Debunking Campaign Backfires,” UFO Investigator 1, no. 11 (Dec.–Jan. 1960/1961): 1–2; “Dave Garroway Show NBC-TV UFO Discussion: Tacker vs. Keyhoe, December 5, 1960,” Journal of UFO History 1, no. 4 (Sept./Oct. 2004): 3–6) December 8 — Richard Bissell presents an outline for the Cuban invasion to the Special Group, while declining to commit details to written records. December 9 —8:30 p.m. Mme. Dhelens in the Château des Mailles (31 miles south of Carignan-de-Bordeaux), Gironde, France, sees a luminous oval object twice the size of an automobile hovering just above the ground in the château’s park. It has two round portholes, behind which she sees indistinct shadows moving. It takes off, leaving a 12-foot circle of yellowed grass, which later dies. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: July – December 1960, The Author, 2003, p. 138) December 14 — The Brookings Research Institute in Washington, D.C., releases a 186 - page report prepared for NASA titled Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs. It is later published as a 272-page Committee Print for the House Committee on Science and Astronautics on March 24, 1961. The report includes a section on “Implications of a Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life.” It is sent to the House Committee on Science and Astronautics for approval by Rep. Overton Brooks (D-La.) and discusses the effects of meeting extraterrestrial life: “It is possible that if the intelligence of these creatures were sufficiently superior to ours, they would choose to have little if any contact with us.” It also speculates on the possibility of finding alien artifacts on earth and the possibility that contact might result in social disintegration. (Wikipedia, “Brookings Report”; Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs, committee print prepared for NASA by the Brookings Institution, Report of the US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 87th Congress, First Session, March 24, 1961, pp. 215– 216 , 225 – 226 (note 34)) December 14 — The first Single Integrated Operational Plan, titled SIOP-62, is completed. It describes a massive strike with the entire US arsenal of 3,200 warheads, totaling 7847 megatons, against Russia, China, and Soviet-aligned states with urban and other targets being hit simultaneously. Nine weapons are to be “laid down” on four targets in Leningrad [now St. Petersburg], 23 weapons on six target complexes in Moscow, and 18 on seven target areas in Kaliningrad. Weapons scientist George W. Rathjens looks through SAC’s atlas of Soviet cities, searching for the town that most closely resembles Hiroshima in size and industrial concentration. When he finds one that roughly matches, he asks how many bombs the SIOP “laid down” on that city. The reply: one 4.5 megaton bomb and three more 1.1 megaton weapons in case the big bomb is a dud. The execution of SIOP-62 is estimated to result in 285 million dead and 40 million casualties in the Soviet Union and China. Presented with all the facts and figures, USAF Gen. Thomas D. White finds the plan “splendid.” Disregarding the human aspect, SIOP- 62 represents an outstanding technological achievement. (Wikipedia, “Single Integrated Operational Plan”; Daniel Ellsberg, The Doomsday Machine, Bloomsbury, 2017, pp. 90– 103 ) December 27 — Blue Book officer Maj. Robert Friend and his boss at ATIC, Philip G. Evans, write a memo to Air Force Intelligence in the Pentagon. Friend complains about civilian UFO organizations supported by people for “financial gain, religious reasons, pure emotional outlet, ignorance, or possibly to use the organization as a ‘cold war’ tool.” He is upset by their accusations that the Air Force is withholding UFO information. (Swords 292)

1961

1961 — The first American to publish on the microwave auditory effect is biophysicist Allan H. Frey. In his experiments, the subjects are able to hear appropriately pulsed microwave radiation from a distance of 328 feet from the transmitter. This is accompanied by side effects such as dizziness, headaches, and a pins-and-needles sensation. (Allen H. Frey, “Human Auditory System Response to Modulated Electromagnetic Energy,” Journal of Applied Physiology 17 (July 1, 1962): 689–692; Wikipedia, “Microwave auditory effect”)

1961 — Ray Palmer begins publishing The Hidden World, a quarterly magazine in trade-paperback format that runs through 1964. It consists of reprints of Richard Shaver stories and readers’ contributions. (Clark III 873) 1961 — George Adamski publishes Flying Saucers Farewell, signaling his intention to refocus his efforts on teaching about life and consciousness. (George Adamski, Flying Saucers Farewell, Abelard-Schuman, 1961; “Final Years,” The Adamski Case, June 11, 2009) 1961 — An Antonov AN-2P mail biplane takes off from an airfield at or near Sverdlovsk, Russia, bound for Kurgan with seven people on board. About 80–100 miles from Sverdlovsk, the aircraft disappears from the radar screen. Ground control cannot regain contact, so a search is launched with helicopters and troops. The aircraft is found in a small clearing in a dense forest, completely intact. The authorities state that it looks like it was placed there gently from above. All the mail is intact, and there is no sign of anyone on board. No marks or footprints are seen. A 100-foot wide, clearly defined circle of scorched grass and depressed earth is found at a distance of 328 feet from the plane. A report by the Moscow Aviation Institute claims that a UFO was tracked on radar at the control tower and that strange radio signals were hear at the time of the disappearance. (Good Above, pp. 228 – 229 ) 1961 — A UFO appears above the iron-ore mine of Catalina Huanca, owned by the Marcona Mining Company, near Apongo, Peru. It hovers for 5–15 minutes, only about 300 feet away from a young mining engineer. It is round and glowing, with windows on the upper part. The engineer gets a look at it through his theodolite, but it still looks fuzzy. The object reappears throughout the day, allowing all the mine workers (about 70) to view it. The following day it follows a supply truck for several hours as it exits the mine heading south over a dirt track. (S. Parker Gay Jr., “Peru, 1961,” IUR 24, no. 3 (Fall 1999): 29)

January — Day. Government topographer Adolfo Paolini Pisani is driving a jeep along the highway between La Victoria and El Vigía, Mérida, Venezuela, when a truck passes him. A few minutes later, a brilliant metallic disc like polished blue steel swoops down and passes dangerously close above the hood of the truck. The truck rises a few feet into the air and overturns in the direction taken by the object, falling in a sandbank with its wheels in the air. The object ascends and is lost to view in a few seconds. Pisani stops his jeep to assist, but fortunately the lone driver has only a few scratches. (Horacio Gonzales, “Disc Upsets Truck,” APRO Bulletin, September 1961, pp. 1, 3) January 3 — President Eisenhower severs diplomatic relations with Cuba. January 3 — 9:01 p.m. An explosion at the US Army’s SL-1 nuclear power reactor in Idaho Falls, Idaho, causes a meltdown, killing three operators. The direct cause is the improper withdrawal of the central control rod, responsible for absorbing neutrons in the reactor core. The event is the only reactor accident in the US that results in immediate fatalities. (Wikipedia, “SL- 1 ”) January 4 — The CIA Deputy Director of Plans Richard Bissell plans for a “lodgement” by 750 men at an undisclosed site in Cuba, supported by considerable air power. January 8 — Pravda asserts that “some regions” (including Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) of the USSR are reporting UFOs. It quotes physicist Lev Artsimovich saying that “it is about time that these tales be stopped no matter how breathtaking they may be.” (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January – June 19 61 , The Author, 2003, pp. 5–6) January 10 — A US Navy A- 1 Polaris missile is launched from a ground pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida. A disc, whose diameter is close to the length of the Polaris, alters its tracking, but does not block the missile firing, since the tracking system continues to follow the object and later returns to again to track the Polaris downrange. The diameter of the disc is approximately 20–25 feet and it is about 6–8 feet thick at its center. It is visually lost to ground observers and the primary witness (Clark C. McClelland, with 10x50 binoculars) as it continues downrange. The original investigation is conducted by McClelland and his Florida NICAP subcommittee. (NICAP, “UFO ‘Alters’ Tracking of Navy Polaris Test”; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January – June 1961, The Author, 2003, pp. 6– 7 ; Sparks, p. 286) January 12 — In a press conference in Moscow, Russia, Minister of Merchant Marine Viktor Bakaev charges that US military aircraft and ships are systematically conducting “provocative actions” against Soviet vessels around Cuba. He is probably referring to close approaches to Cuban airspace by Fort Bliss–based reconnaissance aircraft that are testing the responses of Soviet electronic countermeasures. (Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 155 – 157 ) January 17 — DRC Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba is executed by firing squad near Élisabethville [now Lubumbashi], Democratic Republic of the Congo. CIA Station Chief Larry Devlin has helped direct the search to capture Lumumba for his transfer to his enemies in Katanga, he is involved in arranging Lumumba’s transfer there, and he is in direct touch with the killers the night Lumumba is killed. The Congolese leaders who kill Lumumba, including Mobutu Sese Seko and Joseph Kasa-Vubu, receive money and weapons directly from the CIA. John Stockwell writes in 1978 that a CIA agent had the body in the trunk of his car in order to try to get rid of it.

Stockwell, who knows Devlin well, feels Devlin knows more than anyone else about the murder. However, documents released in 2017 reveal that the US role in Lumumba’s murder was only under consideration by the CIA and never carried out. (Wikipedia, “Patrice Lumumba”) January 17 — Eisenhower delivers a farewell address in a TV broadcast. Perhaps best known for advocating that the nation guard against the potential influence of the military–industrial complex, a term he is credited with coining, the speech also expresses concerns about planning for the future and the dangers of massive spending, especially deficit spending, the prospect of the domination of science through federal funding, and, conversely, the domination of science-based public policy by what he calls a “scientific-technological elite.” (Wikipedia, “Eisenhower’s farewell address”) January 17 — 6:17 p.m. A former weather officer at Holloman AFB is driving with some companions near Cimarron, New Mexico, when they see three different groups of amber UFOs flying in V-formation about 15 miles away at 30,000 feet. There are six lights in the first group and eight in the second and third. They fly away to the southwest and then return to where they first appeared. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 226 – 227) January 19 — A USAF press release proclaims that “not even a minute fragment of a so-called ‘flying saucer’ has ever been found.” (Frank Edwards, FS Serious Business, Bantam ed., 1966, p. 48) January 22 — 4:45 p.m. An elliptical, metallic-looking UFO approaches Eglin AFB near Valparaiso, Florida, from over the Gulf, makes a U-turn and speeds back over the Gulf. Harry Caslar is filming his son on the beach with 8mm movie film and captures the UFO. (UFOEv, p. 95 ) January 28 — President Kennedy is briefed, together with all the major departments, on the latest plan (code-named Operation Pluto) that involves 1,000 men landed in a ship-borne invasion at Trinidad, Cuba, about 170 miles southeast of Havana at the foothills of the Escambray Mountains in Sancti Spiritus province. Kennedy authorizes the active departments to report progress.

February — Forester Vasili Brodski finds a mysterious crater 100 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 10 feet deep on the bank of a frozen lake in Karelia, Russia. It had not been there two days earlier. The base is remarkably smooth, and around the edge are lumps of grass and soil but no trace of the excavated dirt. Six investigators from Leningrad [now St. Petersburg] arrive and find odd, crumbling black pellets on the edge of the lake. Divers discover a 330- foot strip where the soil has been displaced along the floor of the lake, as if something slid along the ground and submerged, ploughing up the soil. Geologist Vsevolod Charmov examines ice, water, and soil samples but cannot explain a green discoloration on some of the submerged pieces of broken ice. The pellets seem to be an inorganic substance. (Hobana and Weverbergh 61–63) February 5– 7 — Many people report strange lights flashing around in the sky over Maine. Some blink and move up and down. A Portland Press Herald editorial, February 9, says: “Mysterious objects ‘lit up like a ball of fire and going fast’ zoom over Portland. Unidentified shapes with green, yellow, and red lights hover over Brunswick, then dart away with ‘unbelievable quickness.’ Strange things are happening… The military had us just about convinced that no such objects existed. The only trouble was that many people—good, reliable observers— continued to see these things.” (UFOEv, p. 138 ) February 28 — 3:20 a.m. Clarence Blackwood and his wife hear a roaring sound in the sky at their home in Lakewood, Massachusetts. They look out the bedroom window and see a fiery cigar-shaped object moving at low altitude to the northeast. It is bright yellow in the middle with a bright red edge and surrounded by thin clouds of black smoke. The object rolls back and forth rapidly and travels slowly to the southwest. It passes directly above their house, illuminating the bedroom. The lights that they have left on in the kitchen dim three times and go out for 4– 5 minutes. The object returns at 3:40 and the kitchen lights repeat their previous actions. (Schopick, pp. 115–117)

March — In an article in Argosy, Maj. Lawrence Tacker says that critics of the Air Force investigation are “absolutely erroneous,” “a hoax,” “sensational theories,” and the work of “amateur hobby groups.” NICAP’s evidence is “drivel,” its claims “ridiculous,” and it is making “senseless accusations.” (Lawrence J. Tacker, “‘Flying Saucers Are Fakes!’ ‘—U.S. Air Force,’” Argosy, March 1961, pp. 58, 125–126; UFOEv, p. 108 ) March — House Majority Leader John W. McCormack tells Keyhoe privately that he has urged the Science and Astronautics Committee, headed by Rep. Overton Brooks (D-La.), to investigate Air Force UFO secrecy. (Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, p. 76) March 16 — 6:15 p.m. Brazilian meteorologist Rubens J. Villela, on the deck of the USS Glacier, watches a tear-shaped fireball over Admiralty Bay, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, in slow, level flight. It leaves a long orange trail like a tracer bullet, then abruptly divides in two as if exploding. It disappears after 10 seconds. (UFOEv, pp. 53 – 54 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying

Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 64 – 65) March 16 — 8:45 p.m. Mr. F. Reynolds and his 15-year-old son Lloyd are camped in their trailer 900 feet from the Murray River, at Bowna, New South Wales, when they see what appears to be a huge trailer with four windows and a red light at the end standing by the water. A fire is visible to the right of the object, and they can see four figures moving quickly between the object and the fire. Reynolds watches through binoculars and sees the entire array moving sideways in a jerking manner. After 45 minutes, it is all gone from sight. In the morning they can find no traces on the soft mud flat. (“UFO Landing?” Australian Flying Saucer Review, no. 5 (July 1961): 1– 2 )

Spring — Late evening. A couple parking in Millville, New Jersey, watch a bright light silently moving northward. It hovers, reverses direction, and maneuvers for 5 minutes. At one point it races directly at a star, abruptly stops, draws a neat, right-angled, half-box around it, and goes racing on. Finally it speeds out of sight in about 5 seconds. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, p. 44; Michael D. Swords, “We Know Where You Live,” IUR 30, no. 2 (January 2006): 10) April — Maj. Tacker is removed from his job as Pentagon UFO spokesman and reassigned to Europe. He is replaced by Maj. William T. Coleman. (“Tacker Replaced As Spokesman,” UFO Investigator 1, no. 12 (April/May 1961): 1 – 2; UFOEv, p. 108 ) April 4 — President Kennedy approves the Bay of Pigs plan (also known as Operation Zapata) for the invasion of Cuba because it has an airfield that does not need extending to handle bomber operations, it is farther away from large groups of civilians than the Trinidad plan, and it is less noisy militarily, which would make any future denial of direct US involvement more plausible. (Wikipedia, “Bay of Pigs invasion”) April 12 — Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to go into outer space when his Vostok spacecraft completes an orbit of the earth. (Wikipedia, “Yuri Gagarin”) April 17 — The Bay of Pigs invasion takes place in Cuba. A counter-revolutionary military (made up of Cuban exiles), trained and funded by the CIA, Brigade 2506 fronts the armed wing of the Democratic Revolutionary Front (DRF) and intends to overthrow the increasingly communist government of Fidel Castro. Launched from bases in Guatemala and Nicaragua, the invading force is defeated within three days by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces under the direct command of Castro. (Wikipedia, “Bay of Pigs invasion”) April 18 — 11:00 a.m. Joe Simonton hears a whining sound on his farm four miles from Eagle River, Wisconsin, and sees a silvery object, 30 feet in diameter and 12 feet high, with exhaust pipes around the periphery, land nearby. A door opens and a man appears, about 5 feet tall and wearing a black, turtle-neck pullover with a white band at the belt, and black trousers with a vertical white band along the side. Two other figures are visible inside. The creature is holding a metallic jug and making gestures suggesting he wants a drink. Simonton takes the jug into his basement, fills it with water, and returns it to the man. Simonton notices one man frying on a flameless grill and motions for some food. Simonton receives four ordinary pancakes or cookies, 3 inches in diameter, perforated with small holes. The object takes off after 5 minutes. Simonton gives one of the pancakes to Judge Frank Wellington Carter, who then passes it on to the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena; another he gives to J. Allen Hynek for Project Blue Book; and the third he keeps for himself. A thorough analysis is performed on one of the pancakes by the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and the food is found to be made of terrestrial but tasteless ingredients, including hydrogenated oil and buckwheat flour. The Air Force concludes that Simonton is honest but has mistakenly conflated the reality of his breakfast with a dream. (Sparks, p. 287; Vallée, Magonia, pp. 23– 25 ; Clark III 421– 426 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January – June 1961, The Author, 2003, pp. 32– 34 ; Center for UFO Studies, [Hynek case documents]; Center for UFO Studies, [case photos]; Center for UFO Studies, [Lex Mebane case files]; Center for UFO Studies, [NICAP case documents]; Jerome Clark, “The Pancakes of Eagle River,” IUR 21, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 3–8, 27; Joshua Cutchin, “The Great Alien Bake-Off,” Fortean Times 332 (November 2015): 42 – 44 ) April 19 — 7:40 p.m. Commanding Officer C. J. Peterson of the minesweeper HMS Maxton sees a swiftly moving object as the ship is 33 miles off San Vito Lo Capo, Sicily, Italy. It is green and leaves an orange trail as it moves higher and disappears to the northwest. The ship’s crew sees a similar object on April 20 at 4:50 a.m. when it is 25 miles south of Capo Carbonara, Sardinia, Italy. (1Pinotti 112–113) April 25 — US Air Force Intelligence Collection Guidance Letter no. 4, originally classified Confidential, describes and provides guidance for Project Moon Dust reporting. Several items of interest appear in the document: classification level of Moon Dust Alerts and reports, focus of Moon Dust on “foreign earth satellite vehicles,” and destination agencies for Moon Dust reports among them. Project Moon Dust is a covert project to exploit the discovery of Soviet hardware when it temporarily lands in American hands. (Department of the Air Force,

“MOON DUST Reporting,” Intelligence Collection Guidance Letter, no. 4, April 25, 1961; Kevin D. Randle, A History of UFO Crashes, Avon, 1995, pp. 157 – 169 ) April 29 — Around 4:00 p.m. Contractor John P. Gallagher is working at a home adjacent to Bailey’s Beach, Newport, Rhode Island. He sees a red spherical object bobbing on the ocean waves about 600 feet from the shore. Suddenly the object rises into the air to 60 feet and moves out to sea at about 100 mph. (“‘Head’ Floats—Flies,” APRO Bulletin, July 1961, p. 4)

May — Rep. Overton Brooks (D-La.) appoints Rep. Joseph Karth (DFL-Minn.) head of a Subcommittee on Space Problems and Life Sciences. Karth and two other members plan for hearings in early 1962. The plan calls for a statement by Roscoe Hillenkoetter. NICAP releases a joint statement by 21 American scientists that calls for an open investigation by UFOs without secrecy. It says the Air Force should have a more straightforward information policy that releases all facts on major UFO sightings. (“Scientists Urge Check on AF Investigation,” UFO Investigator 1, no. 12 (April/May 1961): 7; “UFO Inquiry behind Closed Doors: NICAP Asks Right to Question Air Force,” UFO Investigator 2, no. 1 (July/Aug. 1961): 1) May 5 — Astronaut Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space (for 15 minutes and 22 seconds) when his Freedom 7 capsule is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, as the first manned Project Mercury launch. (Wikipedia, “Mercury-Redstone 3”) May 10 — Late evening. Richard Vogt, driving on a rural road south of Osakis, Minnesota, sees a “ball of fog approximately 3 feet in diameter” swiftly descending toward him at a 45° angle from a clear sky. Unable to take evasive action, Vogt can only stare as the object hits the upper part of his hood and windshield. The noisy impact generates a tremendous amount of heat; the windshield becomes extremely hot to the touch. The object leaves pit marks burned in the windshield, circular tracks on the glass, and burned specks in the finish of the hood. (C. W. Fitch, “Monitoring and Scanning UFOs,” APRO Bulletin, July 1963, p. 5; Clark III 716) May 15 — An order approved by President Kennedy results in the dispersal of four machine guns to insurgents in the Dominican Republic. President Rafael Trujillo dies from gunshot wounds on May 30. In the aftermath, Robert Kennedy writes that the CIA has succeeded where it has failed many times in the past, but in the face of that success, it is caught flatfooted, having failed to plan what to do next. (Wikipedia, “Rafael Trujillo”)

Summer — Near Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, crews are setting up new missile batteries as part of Moscow’s defensive network. A huge disc-shaped object allegedly appears at an estimated altitude of 12.5 miles, surrounded by a number of smaller objects. A nervous battery commander panics and gives unauthorized orders to fire a salvo at the disc. All the missiles explode at an estimated distance of 1.2 miles from the target. A third salvo is not fired, because at that point the smaller objects stall the electrical apparatus of the entire missile base. After the smaller disc rejoin the big UFO, the electrical systems return. (Good Above, pp. 227 – 228 ; Flying Saucers, no. 47, May 1966, pp. 6– 10 ) Summer — Capt. Robert Filler and Lt. Phil Lee, based with the 82d Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Travis AFB in Fairfield, California, are scrambled in their F-102 Delta Dagger jets to intercept a radar target that has been hovering at 50,000 feet for 30 minutes. They get a radar lock-on 20 miles out above the Sacramento Valley. The target is still stationary until they are 5 miles away, then the target moves quickly several times to a higher altitude. Filler estimates it is moving at 36,000 mph. (Good Need, pp. 245 – 246 ) Summer — Day. Glenn E. Bradley watches a group of six metallic discs pass over his farm near Beloit, Ohio, at a low altitude. They are traveling in single file at about 30 mph and are spaced 1–2 miles apart. The objects are each about 60 feet in diameter at the bottom with a 30-foot dome on top. Within a transparent section in the center he can see two figures on each side. The objects begin banking to the left about 200–300 feet away. (“Soup Bowls over Ohio,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 6, no. 1 (Feb./March 1985): 4, 6) June 3 — 6:35 a.m. Giacomo Barra, Giuseppe Pordoi, Filippo Marin, and Silvano Guardinfante are in a motorboat off Savona, Italy, when the boat begins to roll badly. More than one-half mile away, they notice the surface of the sea is “bulging like an enormous ball, with long billows going out.” An object emerges from the sea and stops still for a few seconds at a height of 30 feet and rocks slightly. A halo forms around the base and it shoots away quickly across the sea and vanishes towards the northwest. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January – June 1961, The Author, 2003, p. 50; 1Pinotti 117–118) June 3 — A civilian weather observer sees an object through a theodolite at Mercury, Nevada. It remains in sight for 2 hours at an altitude of 80,000–120,000 feet. Project Blue Book evaluators correctly identify the object as a probable U-2 aircraft flying out of Nellis AFB. (Mark Rodeghier, “The U-2 Spy Plane and Blue Book: Another Look,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 21)

June 4 — Mrs. James W. Annis, a librarian, sees a large, narrow, elliptical object hovering low in the sky to the north of Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania. Farther to the east, a cluster of smaller objects is hovering. She then watches the smaller objects streak across the sky to the larger one. All then move out of sight behind trees to the north- northwest. (UFOEv, p. 71 ; Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects: A Further Look,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 25) June 5 — 2:30 a.m. Patrolman Jaime de Miranda and Astrogildo de Medeiros are called to the scene of a sighting on the Rodovia Anchieta highway 30 miles northwest of Santos, São Paulo, Brazil. When they arrive, they find about 20 cars stopped along the road and people watching a luminous disc-shaped object maneuvering in the area. The patrolmen try to signal the object by shining a spotlight on it, but they get no response. When they focus a red light on it, the object moves toward the cars at high speed. They take cover. Another responder, Marshal José Otavia Leite, is about to shoot at the object but other police prevent him. After 3 hours, the object gets dimmer. At 5:30 a.m., it is still visible through binoculars when it lands on the ground some distance from the highway. By daybreak it is no longer visible. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 227–228) June 9 — A second USAF/NASA flight evaluation of the Avrocar is conducted on a modified second prototype at the Avro facility in Mississisauga, Ontario. During these tests, the vehicle reaches a maximum speed of 20 knots and shows the ability to traverse a ditch 6 feet across and 18 inches deep. Flight above the critical altitude proves dangerous if not nearly impossible due to inherent instability. The flight test report further identifies a range of control problems. (Wikipedia, “Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar”) June 11 — 11:00 p.m. José-Gregorio Darnaude y Rojas Marcos, 28, is lying in a hammock in the front of his house on the Fuenteluega Estate in Sevilla, Spain, when he feels a peculiar pricking sensation throughout his whole body but particularly in his head. His dogs are cowering, the sheep go completely crazy, and the crickets and cicadas become silent. Suddenly, a luminous disc about 15 feet in diameter appears from behind the house, flying from northeast to southwest. It makes an abrupt 90° turn and moves directly toward him, hovering about 40 0 feet away from him and 80 feet in the air, changing colors from white to orange to red to purple several times. Darnaude runs inside, but the disc turns bright white and shots away at enormous speed. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, “Twelfh Night: And a UFO,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 18 (September 1974): 11) June 19 — A flying object hovers for more than an hour above an airport at Exeter, Devon, England. Officials say: “We do not know what it is. It was seen on the radar screen and we have had it under observation for some time. We think it is pretty big. It appears to be shining brightly and is about 50,000 feet up.” (UFOEv, pp. 80 , 139 ) June 30 — 2:00 p.m. Residents of Warsaw, Poland, see a large, luminous, roughly spherical, slowly moving object in the sky. It supposedly remains visible for more than 8 hours. (Poland 29–31)

July or August — Dusk. Florin Gorănescu is staying at a villa in Lacul Roşu, Romania. He and two colleagues notice on top of a nearby high cliff an intensely red light that remains motionless until it begins moving slowly northeast. (Romania 13) July 1 — ATIC is removed from USAF Intelligence and added to the new Air Force Systems Command. Its name is changed to the Foreign Technology Division. Project Blue Book is included in the reorganization. (Sparks, pp. 12 – 13 ; Wikipedia, “National Air and Space Intelligence Center”) July 1 — A new squadron that will become the 1st Aerospace Surveillance and Control Squadron becomes operational under the USAF Air Defense Command at Ent AFB [now the US Olympic Training Center], Colorado Springs, Colorado, part of NORAD’s Space Detection and Tracking System. The first squadron commander is Col. Robert Miller. The Space Track organization at Hanscom Field, Bedford, Massachusetts, assumes a backup role for squadron operations. (Wikipedia, “1st Space Operations Squadron”) July 11 — 10:35 p.m. Jacques Vallée and others at the Paris Observatory in Meudon, France, see a mystery satellite as part of Project Moonwatch. The following day the director of the project confiscates all their data and destroys it, apparently in fear of being laughed at by the press, scientific colleagues, and the Americans. (Jacques Vallée, Forbidden Science, North Atlantic, 1992, pp. 41– 42 ; Michael D. Swords, “Gazing at the Moons,” IUR 32, no. 4 (October 2009): 11–12) July 17 — 2:00 a.m. Two people driving about one mile north of Bonnie Springs Ranch [now the Ranch at Red Rock] in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Nevada, see in the rear-view mirror a low-flying object that overtakes their car, followed by a rush of cold air. It stops, circles the vehicle, flies off, and is lost to sight behind the mountains, where it might have landed, but an investigation by the military finds no trace. (Vallée, Magonia, p. 282 ; Sparks, p. 288)

August — Construction of essential facilities is completed at Area 51 in Nevada; three surplus Navy hangars are erected on the base’s north side. The original U-2 hangars are converted to maintenance and machine shops. Facilities in

the main cantonment area include workshops and buildings for storage and administration, a commissary, control tower, fire station, and housing. The Navy also contributes more than 130 surplus Babbitt duplex housing units for long-term occupancy facilities. Older buildings are repaired, and additional facilities are constructed as necessary. A reservoir pond surrounded by trees serves as a recreational area one mile north of the base. Other recreational facilities included a gymnasium, a movie theater, and a baseball diamond. (Wikipedia, “Area 51”) August 4 — Rep. Thomas N. Downing (D-Va.) advises NICAP that the House Science and Astronautics Committee is considering hearings on UFOs by a three-man subcommittee headed by Rep. Joseph Karth. Meanwhile, Rep. Overton Brooks meets privately with Hillenkoetter and Keyhoe, asking them to prepare the best cases and proof of official censorship for a meeting on August 24. (UFOEv, p. 139 ; Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, pp. 77 – 78 ) August 5 — 8:20 a.m. John Lee-Steere sees a “snowy white meshlike substance” float to the ground from 12 white metallic discs traveling in pairs over the Mount Hale shearing station, 50 miles northwest of Meekatharra, Western Australia. Sheep-shearing contractor Edwin C. Payne picks up the material and it fades away in his hands. (“Discs Trail White Fibrous Stuff,” APRO Bulletin, January 1962, p. 1; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: July – December 1961 , The Author, 2003, p. 23; Keith Basterfield, “Angel Hair: An Australian Perspective,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 7; Clark III 324) August 12 — 9:00 p.m. College seniors J. B. Furkenhoff and Tom Phipps see a large oval object with a fin extending from one edge to the center, like a sled with lighted car running boards, near Old Mission High School on 50th Street in Kansas City, Missouri. It hovers at 50 feet altitude for 3–5 minutes, then flies straight up, disappearing in about 5 seconds. (Patrick Gross, “Kansas City 1961, a Blue Book ‘Unknown’”; Sparks, p. 289) Mid-August — House Committee staff consultant Richard P. Hines visits ATIC in Dayton, where Col. Robert Friend, Hynek, and other officials give him a tour, tell him that Project Blue Book has the UFO problem at hand, and that Rep. McCormack has been pressured by NICAP to hold hearings. Hines leaves ATIC “favorably impressed.” (Jacobs, UFO Controversy in America, Signet ed., 1976, pp. 160 – 161 ; Swords 293) August 16 — George Hunt Williamson, now going by the name of Michel d’Obrenovic, arrives in Japan at the invitation of the Cosmic Brotherhood Association and its contactee leader Yusuke Matsumara. (Zirger and Martinelli, The Incredible Life of George Hunt Williamson, Verdechiari, 2016, pp. 129–130) August 22 — Adm. Roscoe Hillenkoetter signs a NICAP letter to Congress urging “immediate congressional action to reduce the dangers from secrecy about UFOs, including accidental war and the Russians falsely claiming UFOs are Soviet weapons. (Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, p. 85) August 25? — Five people at Toulouse, France, see a luminous, yellow object, 24 feet in diameter, flying about 30 feet above a road. The object has horizontal and vertical bands of darker tone that give the appearance of “windows.” The UFO flies upwards very quickly when the car reaches town. (Vallée, Magonia, p. 282 ) August 28 — Rep. Karth writes a harsh letter to Keyhoe and attacks him for trying to defame and ridicule the Air Force. He had thought Keyhoe would be proving the existence of spaceships, but he knows now he cannot do this. Therefore, he is no longer interested in holding hearings. He tells a newspaper reporter that he will not be part of Keyhoe’s “cheap scheme to discredit the Air Force.” (Jacobs, UFO Controversy in America, Signet ed., 1976, pp. 161 – 162 )

September — A National Intelligence Estimate concludes that the USSR has no more than 25 ICBMs and will not possess more in the near future, effectively discrediting the missile gap myth. (Wikipedia, “Missile gap”) September 2 — 4:40–4:50 p.m. A man named Ziegler is reclining outside his home in the northeast section of Albuquerque, New Mexico, when he sees a shiny round white object moving erratically to the west. At two different times it emits several small silvery objects about one-sixth the size of the main object. It fades out of sight to the south. (NICAP, “Silver Object and Smaller Ones Emitted”; Sparks, p. 289 ; Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects: A Further Look,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 25) September 6 — The National Reconnaissance Office is officially launched with headquarters in Chantilly, Virginia. It designs, builds, launches, and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the federal government, and provides satellite intelligence to several government agencies, particularly signals intelligence (SIGINT) to the National Security Agency, imagery intelligence (IMINT) to the National Geospace-Intelligence Agency, and measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) to the Defense Intelligence Agency. Its existence remains top secret until September 18, 1992. The move creates a protocol that requires the CIA deputy director and the undersecretary of the Air Force to co-manage all space reconnaissance and aerial espionage programs. The public face of the NRO is the Office of Space Systems. (Wikipedia, “National Reconnaissance Office”; Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 168 – 169 )

September 16 — Rep. Overton Brooks dies of a heart attack; the August 24 meeting about UFO evidence has not taken place. He is replaced on the House Science and Astronautics Committee by Rep. George Paul Miller (D-Calif.) who indicates he will not order UFO hearings. (Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, p. 78) September 18 — Fourth Officer G. Gendall of the cargo ship Queensland Star, in the Indian Ocean, sees a white UFO through a cloud formation. It vanishes into the clouds and then reappears, dropping toward the sea. The water in the surrounding area grows intensely bright. Particles of white matter continue to fall into the sea after the object disappears, and the sky and water are illuminated for several minutes. (Sanderson, InvRes, pp. 47 – 48 ) September 19 — 5:22 a.m. The North Concord Air Force Station [now closed] at East Mountain, Vermont, picks up an unidentified radar target at 62,000 feet for 18 minutes. It moves at a slow speed on an erratic course. (NICAP, “Radar Tracks Object before and after Hill Abduction”) September 19 — Keyhoe has smoothed things over with Rep. Karth, who writes: “Now that we better understand each other, I would hope we could properly proceed with a hearing early next year—providing the new chairman [Miller] authorizes hearings.” (“Majority Leader Support Indicates Early Congressional Action: Chairman Karth Backs Open Hearings,” UFO Investigator 2, no. 2 (October 1961): 1–2) September 19– 20 — 10:30 p.m. Barney and Betty Hill are driving home to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from a vacation in Quebec, going south on US Highway 3. Near Groveton, New Hampshire, Betty sees a bright light moving upward and erratically, growing larger. Later, Barney stops the car at a scenic picnic area south of Twin Mountain. Through binoculars, Betty sees a solid object against the moon that “appeared to be flashing thin pencils of different colored lights.” Barney thinks it’s a plane, though it might be “playing games” with them. Barney drives slowly through Franconia Notch, watching the object. At one point it passes near the Old Man of the Mountain. About one mile south of Indian Head (north of Lincoln), the object rapidly descends toward their vehicle, causing Barney to stop in the middle of the highway. The huge, silent craft hovers approximately 80– 100 feet above the Hills’ 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air and fills the entire field of view in the windshield. It reminds Barney of a huge pancake. Carrying his pistol in his pocket, he steps away from the vehicle and moves closer to the object. Using the binoculars, Barney claims see about 8–11 humanoid figures who are peering out of the craft’s windows, seeming to look at him. In unison, all but one figure move to what appears to be a panel on the rear wall of the hallway that encircles the front portion of the craft. The one remaining figure continues to look at Barney and communicates a message telling him to “stay where you are and keep looking.” Barney has a recollection of observing the humanoid forms wearing glossy black uniforms and black caps. Red lights on what appears to be bat-wing fins begin to telescope out of the sides of the craft, and a long structure descends from the bottom of the craft. The UFO approaches to within 50–80 feet overhead and 300 feet away from him. Barney tears the binoculars away from his eyes and runs back to his car. In a near hysterical state, he tells Betty, “They’re going to capture us!” He sees the object again shift its location to directly above the vehicle. He drives away at high speed, telling Betty to look for the object. She rolls down the window and looks up. Almost immediately, the Hills hear a rhythmic series of beeping or buzzing sounds which seem to bounce off the trunk of their vehicle. The car vibrates and a tingling sensation passes through them. At this point in time they experience the onset of an altered state of consciousness that leaves their minds dulled. A second series of beeping sounds return them to full consciousness. They find that they have traveled nearly 35 miles south, but have only vague, spotty memories of this section of road. They recall making a sudden, unplanned turn, encountering a roadblock, and observing a fiery orb in the road. At 5:00 a.m., they arrive home, about two hours later than expected. Barney feels compelled to examine his genitals, and they both take long showers. Betty notices a pinkish powder and a tear in her dress. There are shiny, concentric circles on their car’s trunk that were not there the previous day. Betty and Barney experiment with a compass, noting that when they move it close to the spots, the needle whirls rapidly. But when they move it a few inches away from the shiny spots, it drops down. (Wikipedia, “Betty and Barney Hill”; NICAP, “The Betty and Barney Hill Case”; Clark III 577– 581 ; Sparks, p. 289; John G. Fuller, The Interrupted Journey, Dial, 1966; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 178 – 184 ; Mark Rodeghier, “Hypnosis and the Hill Abduction Case,” IUR 19, no. 2 (March/April 1994): 4–6, 23–24; Robert H. Coddington, “The Hill Experience,” IUR 19, no. 3 (May/June 1994): 18–19; Michael D. Swords, GrassRoots UFOs: Case Reports from the Timmerman Files, Fund for UFO Research, 2005, p. 143; Greg Sandow, “The Hill Case and the Limits of Ufology,” IUR 31, no. 4 (March 2008): 3–7, 19–28; Stanton Friedman and Kathleen Marden, Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience, Weiser, 2007 ; Mark Cashman, “Behavioral Classification System for UFO Occupants,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 19 ) September 20 — 2:14 a.m. Pease AFB [now Pease Air National Guard Base] in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, picks up an unidentified radar blip 4 miles away from the base, with no visual contact. (NICAP, “Radar Tracks Object before and after Hill Abduction”)

September 21– 22 — Betty Hill calls Pease AFB and reports her UFO incident (without mentioning the figures). Maj. Paul W. Henderson of the 100th Bomb Wing calls back with a few questions. September 26 — Betty Hill writes to Donald E. Keyhoe (mentioning the figures Barney remembers seeing) and asks for more information. She mentions that she and Barney are considering hypnosis. (Mark Rodeghier, “Hypnosis and the Hill Abduction Case,” IUR 19, no. 2 (March/April 1994): 4–6, 23– 24 ; Michael D. Swords, “Radio Signals from Space, Alien Probes, and Betty Hill,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 15) September 27 — Allen Dulles resigns as director of central intelligence; John A. McCone replaces him. September 27 — 7:57 a.m. The radar operator on a USAF Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft off the California coast spots five targets on his scope. Four of the objects are on a heading of 90 °, and all of them are moving at a high rate of speed. They soon disappear into sea clutter. Three minutes later, two objects appear heading 70° then also disappear into sea clutter. The speed of one of the objects is measured at about 2, 070 mph over a distance of 230 miles. While the two objects are on the scope, a single stationary object also appears. After remaining stationary for about two minutes, it moves on a heading of 265° at 7 0 mph and is lost in the sea clutter. The objects can only be painted with the IFF on. The radar is an APS- 95. (NICAP, “Uncorrelated Targets on APS- 95 ”; Sparks, p. 290) September 29–October 3 — Betty Hill has a series of intensely vivid dreams in which she and Barney encounter a strange roadblock and are approached by a group of men. She loses consciousness and awakes on board a craft where they are given a medical examination by “intelligent, humanoid beings.” (Clark III 581– 583 )

Autumn — Evening. Emanoil Manoliu, son of the prominent novelist Mihail Sadoveanu, is at the Neamț Monastery west of Târgu Neamț, Romania, when he sees a blinding, multicolored light. After a few seconds it rises quickly and he can see it looks like a disc with a concave base about 20–23 feet long and 10 feet broad. It vanishes “like a tornado in the air” and he feels the rush of wind. The next day he goes to the site with a priest and finds an area of singed grass and a light imprint in the soil. (Hobana and Weverbergh 167–168) October 1 — The Defense Intelligence Agency, created at the request of Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara to integrate all military intelligence operations, begins work with a handful of employees in borrowed office space. Its mission is the continuous task of collecting, processing, evaluating, analyzing, integrating, producing, and disseminating military intelligence for the Department of Defense and related national stakeholders. Other objectives include more efficiently allocating scarce intelligence resources, more effectively managing all DoD intelligence activities, and eliminating redundancies in facilities, organizations, and tasks. (Wikipedia, “Defense Intelligence Agency”) October 2 — Around 12:00 noon. Waldo J. Harris, private pilot and real-estate broker, is getting ready to take off in a Mooney M20A from Utah Central Airport [now closed] in Granger, Utah, when he sees a bright spot in the sky. After he takes off, he notices that the light is still in the same location. He flies toward the object to get a better look, and sees that the UFO has no wings or tail and is hovering with a slight rocking motion. He later estimates the diameter at 35 – 50 feet, with a thickness of about 4 feet, and the appearance of sand-blasted aluminum. Harris estimates he has approached within 2 miles of the object before it rises abruptly and zooms away for 1 0 miles before it resumes a rocking hover. He approaches again, but it departs in about 2–3 seconds. Several other people, including airport controller Jay Galbraith, also see the UFO from the airport. Investigators from Hill AFB near Ogden arrive quickly. Airport attendant Russell M. Woods tells them he thinks the object was at 2,500 feet altitude. On October 9, Douglas M. Crouch forwards the Hill AFB official report, including transcripts of interviews, to Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio, saying “No unusual meteorological or astronomical conditions were present to account for the sighting.” Nonetheless, Blue Book wanders from Venus to a research balloon to a sundog (an assessment James E. McDonald calls “nonsensical”) as explanations. (Clark III 1025– 1028 ; UFOEv, pp. 1 – 2 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 49 – 50 ) October 4– 5 — Two IBM engineers, C. D. Jackson and Robert E. Hohmann, have lunch in Washington, D.C., with Donald Keyhoe, who shows them the letter from Betty Hill. (Michael D. Swords, “Radio Signals from Space, Alien Probes, and Betty Hill,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 15) October 14 — 5:00 p.m. Mrs. Erwin Riley, a summer resident in Two Harbors, Minnesota, sees a large object slide into the water of Lake Superior about one mile from shore and bob about on the surface. She summons a neighbor, Jack Ray, and they both watch through binoculars, but they can’t make out what it is. At dusk, the Lake County Sheriff responds to their call, but he can’t see much due to swells on the lake surface. He calls the Air Force and Coast Guard to make sure it’s not part of a training exercise. Shortly afterward, Riley sees the object rise into the

air and travel southeast at about the speed of a car. A Coast Guard search the next day turns up only a floating log. (“Flying Log?” APRO Bulletin, November 1961, p. 3) October 14 — 5:30 p.m. Mayor Michael Burson and his wife watch two pairs of UFOs move to the east above Sunset, Utah. The first pair looks like puffy cotton joined together by “stringy stuff,” and the second pair are metallic discs. (“More Discs in Utah,” APRO Bulletin, March 1962, p. 2) October 15 — 5:00 p.m. Mrs. John P. Vanicky and Norine Gribble are driving from Marquette, Michigan, to Hurley, Wisconsin, when they see a brown cigar-shaped object spouting fire from its rear and moving southeast. They stop the car and watch for 20 minutes until it disappears. (Duluth (Minn.) News-Tribune, October 19, 1961; “Flying Log?” APRO Bulletin, November 1961, p. 3) October 19 — NICAP secretary Richard H. Hall writes to Walter N. Webb at Hayden Planetarium in Boston, Massachusetts, and asks him to talk to Betty and Barney Hill. (Clark III 578– 579 ) October 21 — 2:00 a.m. A brilliant fireball flashes in front of Richard and Rhonda DuBois’s car on US Highway 60 as they are driving between Datil and Pie Town, New Mexico. It then veers into the sky. Later, as they approach a canyon they see that the light is traveling along in front of them. It breaks into four lights that move along with the car, even as DuBois drives at 100 mph, until they stop at a roadside motel. The lights then zoom straight up and disappear. (“Woman Says Flying Objects Chase Car,” Garden Grove (Calif.) News, October 23, 1961; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 231; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: July – December 1961, The Author, 2003, p. 97) October 21 — Webb, initially skeptical, winds up interviewing the Hills for 6 hours. He finds that their amnesia concerning some parts of the episode has unsettled them, and Betty tells him she had vivid nightmares for six straight nights a couple weeks after the incident. (Clark III 581) October 26 — Walter Webb’s report to NICAP concludes that the Hills are telling the truth. (Walter N. Webb, “A Dramatic UFO Encounter in the White Mountains, N.H., September 19–20, 1961,” NICAP Massachusetts Subcommittee, October 26, 1961; Clark III 581; Mark Rodeghier, “Hypnosis and the Hill Abduction Case,” IUR 19, no. 2 (March/April 1994): 4– 6 ) October 30 — The Soviet RDS-202 hydrogen bomb, the 50-megaton Tsar Bomba, is supposedly the most powerful nuclear weapon ever tested. It is detonated at the Sukhoy Nos Cape of Severny Island, Novaya Zemla, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It flattens entire villages in surrounding areas and breaks windows in Finland 1,000 miles away. (Wikipedia, “Tsar Bomba”)

November 1 — At a small, informal conference on SETI at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s facility in Green Bank, West Virginia, astronomer Frank Drake writes this equation on a chalkboard: N = R fp ne fl fi fc L. The equation, the Green Bank Formula, summarizes the main concepts that scientists must contemplate when considering the question of extraterrestrial life capable of communicating by radio across space. It is more properly thought of as an approximation rather than as a serious attempt to determine a precise number. (Wikipedia, “Drake equation”; Lee Billings, “The Alien-Life Summit,” Slate, September 27, 2013) November 3 — 4:30 p.m. Mr. E. Adkins observes a brilliant object with an orange center flying south over Eyres Monsell, Leicester, England, at an estimated 600 mph. It is triangular in shape and about 300 feet wide. (“Triangular Object over Eyres Monsell,” Flying Saucer Review 8, no. 2 (March/April 1962): 24) November 13 — The AFCIN-1E-0 Draft Policy letter (Betz Memo) is prepared by Lt. Col. Norman M. Rosner for Col. Ward Reid Betz. Among other things, it specifies three peacetime functions of the 4602d Air Intelligence Service Squadron at Ent AFB [now the US Olympic Training Center], Colorado Springs, Colorado: UFO investigations, Project Moon Dust (an exploitation program to locate, recover, and deliver descended foreign space vehicles), and Operation Blue Fly (to facilitate delivery to the Foreign Technological Division of Moon Dust and other items of great technical intelligence interest). These three functions involve “employment of qualified field intelligence personnel on a quick reaction basis to recover or perform field exploitation of unidentified flying objects, or known Soviet/Bloc aerospace vehicles, weapons systems, and/or residual components of such equipment.” (Paul Dean, “The Rejuvenated ‘Betz Memo,’” UFOs: Documenting the Evidence, May 8, 2016) Late November — Evening. A group of four friends are hunting on a Sunday in the area of Harvey, North Dakota. As they are returning in the car, the two men in the front seat notice a descending glowing object in the sky ahead of them. Assuming they are witnessing a plane crash, they rush to the scene of its landing, where they find at 150 yards distance, a “silo-appearing craft which was sticking in the ground with this glow around it.” The men shine a hand spotlight and shine it on the object, whereupon they see four human-looking individuals standing around it. At this point they seem to hear an explosion and “everything went out.” The principal witness wakes up from dozing in the back seat as the car is negotiating soggy ground looking for the craft and crew. They return to the spot where the landing takes place, and they see the figures again, wearing white coveralls and standing 5 feet

high. They get out of the car and one figure waves them away. Eventually, the men agree to return to a small town, possibly Martin, North Dakota, 11 miles away, where they find a police officer, who listens to the story and agrees to accompany them back to the site. They see red lights moving in the field and both cars go in pursuit of them. The lights go out, the police officer drives away, and the four men resume driving home. Two miles down the highway, the silo-like object reappears, landing gently 150 yards away with two of the figures watching them. Two of the men get out of the car again and shine the spotlight on the craft. One of the men is carrying a rifle; he drops on the ground and shoots, apparently hitting one of the figures in the right shoulder. The figure spins around, goes down on his knees, gets help from the other figure, then yells, “Now what the hell did you do that for?” Weirdly, as soon as the men return to the car, the two who have remained inside insist the rifle had not been removed and no shot was fired. The primary witness (who remains in the car) has no recollection of what happened to the craft and figures. By the time they get home, dawn is breaking, and their wives are waiting for them. They all know it has taken longer than it should have to return. A few hours later, around 12:00 noon, the principal witness is at work when three well-groomed, official-looking men visit him. He presumes they are Air Force intelligence officers who say they have a “report” about the previous night’s event. They ask him what clothes he was wearing and what the object looked like, but they never ask about the shooting. Later, they show up at his house and ask to see his hunting gear and boots. They tell him not to say anything more about the incident. In January 1968, US Border Patrol agent [later BATF agent] Donald E. Flickinger manages to interview the primary witness, who works as a supervisor at Minot AFB hospital, and two of the others, one a small-town high school superintendent and the other an active-duty Air Force sergeant. They all are “extremely reliable and responsible,” Flickinger says. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 164 – 165 ; Clark III 825 – 827 ) Late November — 9:30 p.m. Real estate agent Cavalheiro Mendes is walking along the beach in Balneário Pinhal, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, when he sees a huge light 900 feet away. As he walks toward it, he sees it is a huge disc resting on the sand. He feels compelled to approach it and sees two helmeted figures come from behind the object. They seem to be telling him telepathically not to resist. Mendes finds he is completely unable to move. He feels one of them scratching his forearm with an instrument, then he blacks out. When he wakes up, he is nearly back to his beach house and it is 11:30 p.m. After a few weeks he feels anxious and sad for no apparent reason. He refuses to be hypnotized. (Lorenzen, Flying Saucer Occupants, Signet, 1967, pp. 199– 200 ) November 22 — US Navy pilot Robert G. Robinson reaches an airspeed of 1,606 mph in a McDonnell-Douglas F4H-1F Phantom II over Edwards AFB, California. (Wikipedia, “Robert G. Robinson”) November 25 — IBM engineers C. D. Jackson and Robert E. Hohmann interview the Hills. One of them expresses surprise at how long the drive took. They are mysteriously interested in whether nitrates or chemicals containing nitrates are in their car. For the first time, Barney and Betty realize that there are two hours they cannot account for. Also present is a friend of the Hills, retired USAF Maj. James McDonald, a former intelligence officer. He suggests that Betty and Barney consult a hypnotist. (Clark III 583; Mark Rodeghier, “Hypnosis and the Hill Abduction Case,” IUR 19, no. 2 (March/April 1994): 6 , 23– 24 ; Michael D. Swords, “Radio Signals from Space, Alien Probes, and Betty Hill,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 15) November 28 — President Kennedy presides over the dedication of the new CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. (Wikipedia, “George Bush Center for Intelligence”; CIA History Staff, 50 Years in Langley: Recollections of the Construction of CIA ’ s Original Headquarters Building, 1961 – 2011 , January 2012) November 30 — Covert operations against Fidel Castro are officially authorized by President Kennedy after being given the name Operation Mongoose at a White House meeting on November 3. The operation is led by USAF Gen. Edward Lansdale and goes into effect after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. A document from the Department of State confirms that the project aims to “help Cuba overthrow the Communist regime,” including Castro, and it aims “for a revolt which can take place in Cuba by October 1962.” One of Lansdale’s ideas is to project a huge image of the Second Coming of Christ above the island, spread the word that Castro is the anti-Christ, shoot starburst shells from a submarine into the air, and hope far an uprising. US policymakers want to see “a new government with which the United States can live in peace.” (Wikipedia, “Operation Mongoose”; Kremlin 131– 133)

December — Funding runs out for the Avrocar and it and related WS-606A supersonic VTOL programs are officially cancelled by the US military. (Wikipedia, “Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar”)

1962

1962 — According to a “former Project Blue Book Chief” (probably Maj. Friend) gun-camera films obtained during jet interceptor UFO chases are routinely referred to the CIA’s National Photographic Interpretation Center (established in 1961) for analysis. Richard H. Hall writes, “This cannot be documented at present, but I heard him say so to a UFO researcher colleague. None of the photoanalysis data in these cases has been released, nor has the existence of these films ever been acknowledged.” (Richard H. Hall, Uninvited Guests, Aurora, 1988, p. 179) 1962 — The Air Force tries once again to get rid of the UFO program, but its attempts to get NASA or the National Science Foundation to handle the program prove futile. It finally gives up the entire idea. The program remains at FTD as a special project and without expanded resources. (Jacobs, UFO Controversy in America, Signet ed., 1976, p. 164 ) 1962 — Day. An Air Force pilot is flying a brand new B-52 with a full crew out of Wichita, Kansas, headed for an air base in the southwest. He notices a bright flash of sunlight in his left side and turns to see a metallic object “like polished chrome.” It is pacing the aircraft near its left wingtip. The object is 4–8 feet in diameter and has no seams or markings. His First Officer is watching an identical object off the right wing, and the crewman in the tail reports that there is a round shiny metal ball following close behind the B-52. The top and bottom gunners also see spheres above and below the plane. The pilot goes into an evasive maneuver, but after 10–15 minutes the objects are maintaining their positions. He returns to his previous assigned altitude and heading. After a few minutes, the five objects leave, one at a time, first the bottom one, then the top, then the tail. The two objects on the wings shoot away at the same time and climb out of sight parallel to each other. After landing, the crew is told not to talk about the sighting at all. (Richard F. Haines, “NARCAP’s Project Sphere: Are Spherical UAP a Threat to Aviation Safety?” IUR 33, no. 2 (July 2010): 5–6) 1962 — 12:00 midnight. Actor Jamie Farr and his wife Joy Ann are driving through the desert near Yuma, Arizona, when they notice a light moving erratically at the top of a mountain. It zig-zags across the sky as it approaches them, moving to within 150 feet, then 60 feet of their vehicle. They can see two lights, red and blue, revolving beneath the silent object. It paces them for a short time then moves away at incredible speed. (“Jamie and Joy Farr Report UFO Sighting,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 8 (December 1980): 3, 5) 1962 — The Argentine Navy creates a permanent commission for the study of UFOs, and the Argentine Air Force establishes a division for the same purpose. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, “Argentina: UFO Declassification,” UAPSG–GEFAI, July 29, 2020) 1962 — René and Françine Fouéré establish the Groupe d’Étude des Phénomènes Aériens in Paris, France, with an initial group of 60 interested members. The following year GEPA launches a magazine, Phénomènes Spatiaux, which is published through 197 8. In 196 4 , Lionel-Max Chassin, now retired from the army, takes over as president. (Wikipedia, “Group d’Étude des Phénomènes Aériens”) 1962 — French composer Paul Misraki writes Les Extraterrestres using the pseudonym Paul Thomas. He links modern UFO sightings with biblical and mythological tales and claims that angels are aliens, that the Bible and other ancient texts are filled with many UFO flying saucer sightings, and that throughout human history extraterrestrial visitors have intervened in human affairs. Misraki is also one of the first authors to suggest that apparitions may be UFO-related phenomena. (Paul Thomas [Paul Misraki], Les Extraterrestres, Plon, 1962; Jerome Clark, “Vimanas Have Landed: Ancient Astronautics in Ufology,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 28–29)

January — The Federal Aviation Administration expands the restricted airspace in the vicinity of Groom Lake, Nevada, and the lakebed becomes the center of a 600-square-mile addition to restricted area R-4808N. (Wikipedia, “Area 51 ”) January — The IBM 7950 Harvest computer, designed to be used for cryptanalysis, is delivered to the National Security Agency. It includes Tractor, a large automated tape cartridge library. An NSA-conducted evaluation finds that Harvest is more powerful than the best commercially available machine by a factor of 50–200, depending on the task. It remains in use until 1976. One purpose of the machine is to search text for keywords from a watchlist. From a single foreign cipher system, Harvest is able to scan more than 7 million decrypts for any occurrences of some 7,000 key words in under four hours. The computer is also used for codebreaking, and this is enhanced by a system codenamed Rye, which allows remote access to Harvest. (Wikipedia, “IBM 7950 Harvest”; “Timeline of the IBM Stretch/Harvest Era (1956–1961),” computerhistory.org) January 29 — A Royal Dutch Air Force pilot flying an F-86 Sabrejet sights a UFO over eastern Netherlands. The jet’s radar also picks up the object and control tower radar (somewhere) is also tracking it. He attempts to give the object an urgent warning by radio, but it goes unheeded. He arms a Sidewinder rocket and tries to close in, but the

UFO pulls away swiftly before he can fire. (“New Sightings by Navy, FAA, and Airline Observers: Dutch Jet
Pilot Tries to Down UFO,” UFO Investigator 2, no. 5 (Aug./Sept. 1962): 1–2)

February — Richard M. Bissell Jr. leaves the CIA and is replaced as head of the Directorate of Plans by Richard Helms. February — Maj. William T. Coleman is replaced as Pentagon UFO spokesman by Maj. Carl R. Hart. February — Vice-Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter resigns from NICAP, stating that NICAP has gone as far as it can and should no longer criticize USAF investigations. (Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, pp. 85– 86 ) February — The Hills begin making numerous trips over several months to try to find their encounter site but are unsuccessful. (Clark III 583) February — Alec Birch, 14, snaps an out-of-focus photo of five domed discs that he and two friends see hovering 500 feet above his backyard in Mosborough, Sheffield, England. Alec and his father show the photo later to the Air Ministry, which pronounces them “temperature inversions” in October. However, in an interview on BBC- 2 television on October 6, 1972, Alec confesses that he had superimposed images painted on glass over the backyard scenery, fooling even his father. (“Schoolboy Snaps Saucer,” Flying Saucer Review 8, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1962): 4; Gordon Creighton, “‘No Kidding This Time. My Flying Saucers Photo Is Genuine!’ (–Alec Birch),” Flying Saucer Review 45, no. 2 (Summer 2000): 9–11; Clark III 603) February 6 — USAF issues the last of its UFO fact sheets (no. 179-62). In the future it will issue press releases. (UFOEv, p. 108 ) February 10 — CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel on the Glienicke Bridge that connects Potsdam to West Berlin, Germany. February 20 — Astronaut John Glenn pilots the Friendship 7 Project Mercury capsule for three orbits and just short of 5 hours flying time, becoming the first American to orbit the earth. (Wikipedia, “Mercury-Atlas 6”) February 24 — NORAD Requirement 64-73 states that its radar coverage “would provide warning from all directions, not just northern approaches.” (Clark III 811) February 28 —The first A-12 test aircraft covertly arrives at Groom Lake, Nevada, from Burbank, California. (Wikipedia, “Area 51”)

March — Chemical engineer Leon Davidson writes a two-part article in Saucer News explaining how he has become convinced that the CIA, especially under the influence of Allen Dulles, has engineered disinformation about UFOs and even manufactured some seemingly legitimate radar sightings as a tool in the Cold War. Its aim is to cause the Soviet Union to waste time and effort in preparing defenses against fictitious aircraft and weapons that the US might be developing. Furthermore, UFOs can be used to capture headlines, diverting attention from unwelcome news coverage of espionage operations. Davidson writes that Dulles has resorted to using contactees and UFO organizations as a propaganda vehicle. Messages supposedly from spacemen calling for a halt in nuclear testing could influence public opinion in a test ban treaty that, in effect, would benefit the US more than the Russians, since the Soviets were seen as overtaking the American lead in weapons development. Davidson attributes CIA involvement in the claims of George Adamski and Daniel Fry. He also points out that electronic countermeasures (ECM) equipment is capable of creating fake radar returns and goes so far as to say that secret working models of saucers, perhaps piloted by “midgets,” are responsible for some sightings. (Leon Davidson, “An Open Letter to Saucer Researchers,” Saucer News, March 1962, April 1962; Leon Davidson, “ECM + CIA = UFO: Or, How to Cause Radar Sightings,” Flying Saucer Review 6, no. 2 (March/April 1960): 9–12; Gerald K. Haines, “CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90,” Studies in Intelligence 40, no. 5 (1997): 67– 84 ) March — Betty and Barney Hill meet with Patrick J. Quirke, a psychiatrist at the Baldpate Sanitarium in Georgetown, Massachusetts, but he is unsympathetic and discourages them from undergoing hypnosis. (Clark III 583) March 25 — The Hills meet with a psychiatrist (Duncan Stephens of the Exeter Clinic, New Hampshire) who rules out simultaneous hallucination. Around this time, Barney develops a series of warts in an almost geometrically perfect circular ring in his groin but does not associate his malaise with the UFO incident. (Clark III 583– 584 ) March 25 — Evening. Mrs. R. H. Chappell and her sister Janie Kidd watch two triangular objects, one larger than the other, hovering 40–50 feet above the water at Saanich Inlet, British Columbia. They have flashing ruby-red lights. After two minutes, the lights change to orange and they move off silently and gracefully. Mrs. L. Austin Wright sees a stationary flashing yellow light around the same time. (Dan Lloyd, “Are They Really Seeing Things over Canada?” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1966): 27) March 2 7 – 30 — George Adamski claims to attend a Twelve Counsellors Meeting on Saturn that addresses the threat of nuclear war on Earth. In the report that he publishes in June, Adamski writes that the “present explosions of atomic energy are going in the wrong direction, and if these experiments do not stop, the only results will be a lost civilization… This is even affecting their planets.” Ridiculed by many, some of Adamski’s descriptions in the

report about his trip clearly show this was a deeply spiritual experience for him, which may have unbalanced him
for some time. (George Adamski, George Adamski ’ s Special Report: My Trip to the Twelve Counsellors Meeting
That Took Place on Saturn, Mrach 27 – 30, 1962, Science of Life, 1962; “Final Years,” The Adamski Case, June
11, 2009)

Spring or summer — All base personnel on flying status attend a briefing in the theater at the Clinton-Sherman AFB [now the Clinton-Sherman Industrial Airpark] near Burns Flat, Oklahoma. The airmen are shown a short 20– 30 - minute Air Force film showing, spliced together without interpretation, five or six gun-camera clips apparently documenting attempts by aircraft to intercept UFOs. Afterward, the commander of the 4213d Strategic Wing reads a statement (probably JANAP 146(D)) stipulating fines and jail sentences for anyone publicly reporting a UFO sighting and hands out UFO sighting forms in the event of an incident. One technician recalls there is a section on reporting any electronic signature emitted from the UFO picked up by specific ECM devices. (Nukes 123 – 125) April 18 — Evening. A red, glowing object is first seen at a great height over Oneida, New York, heading west silently. There are reports from Kansas and Colorado. NORAD radar picks up the object; ADC alerts several bases, including Nellis AFB near Las Vegas, Nevada. Fighters are scrambled from Luke AFB near Phoenix, Arizona, and the jets are possibly heard over Nephi, Utah, after the object passes overhead. Capt. Herman Gordon Shields, flying a C-119 two miles west of Levan, Utah, sees it as a slender object. A man in Silver City, Utah, claims that the object is a glowing ball of light about the size of a soccer ball. He says it is white with a yellowish tint and a bright yellow jagged flame coming from the rear: “As the object passed over Robinson [in Ogden, Utah?], it slowed down in [the] air, and after, [a] gasping sound was heard, the object spurted ahead again. After this procedure was repeated three or four times, the object arched over and began descending to earth after which the object turned bluish color and then burned out or went dark. After the object began to slow down it began to wobble or fishtail in its path.” Several people see the object over Eureka, Utah, apparently crashing and interrupting electrical service from a power plant close to the landing site. It is described as a “glowing, orange oval which emitted a low, whirring sound.” It takes off a few minutes later, continuing to the west. The object lights up the streets of Reno, Nevada, and then turns to Las Vegas. It blares brightly like a “tremendous, flaming sword” over Nellis AFB and then disappears from their radar scopes at 10,000 feet. Witnesses say the object is traveling almost horizontally northeast of Las Vegas until a final explosion occurs from the direction of Mesquite, Nevada. Sheriff’s deputy Walter Bun, who leads the search and rescue unit, moves the unit into the Spring Mountain area in jeeps to search for wreckage. They search through the night, and when the sun comes up they continue using aircraft. They do not find anything of importance except some ashes that might easily be the remains of a campfire started by a hunter some weeks earlier. When no one reports a downed or missing aircraft, Bun and the other deputies call off the search. The object seems to have changed direction, because at Reno it passes west to east, in Utah it is seem going southeast to northwest, and at Nephi it travels west. The duration of the sighting, from New York to Nevada, is only 32 minutes, giving a speed of 4,500 mph, below the speed of meteors. On May 8, the Air Force sends Hynek and Lt. Col. Robert Friend to Utah with Douglas M. Crouch, chief of criminal investigation at Hill AFB, south of Ogden, Utah. They determine it is a bolide. Blue Book lists it as two sightings: a multiple radar sighting at Nellis on April 18 with no visual (despite hundreds of observers in Las Vegas), and a bolide over Utah that it claims occurs on April 19. In reality, the Utah and Nevada sightings are only minutes apart (8:15 p.m. Mountain Time). However, there is quite a bit of information from numerous sources concerning this major incident, including Project Blue Book documents, and now possible confirmation by a radar man at ATIC. The case is also not explained in a Blue Book monthly sighting listing for April 1962. It is interesting that every one of these states except Utah has or was in the process of obtaining ICBM bases: New York (Plattsburg AFB); Kansas, (Forbes AFB and McConnell AFB); Utah (Minuteman production at Air Force Plant 77 at Hill AFB); Idaho (Mountain Home AFB); Montana (Malmstrom AFB); New Mexico (Walker AFB); Wyoming (F. E. Warren AFB); Arizona (Davis Monthan AFB); California (Beale AFB). (NICAP, “National Defense Alert”; Frank Edwards, Strange World, Ace ed., 1964, pp. 3 8 – 41 ; “Meteor Lands in Utah, Lights Western Skies,” Los Angeles Times, April 19, 1962, p. 15; “Brilliant Fireball Flashes in Skies,” Salt Lake City Deseret News, April 19, 1962, pp. 1, 5; Las Vegas Sun, April 19, 1962; Kevin D. Randle, A History of UFO Crashes, Avon, 1995, pp. 79 – 94 ; Clark III 333– 335 ; Sparks, p. 291 ; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 87– 99 ) April 24 — 7:45 p.m. Alice W. Gasslein and her mother are driving near their home in Springfield, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, when they see a large domed object emitting flashes of green light moving over the roofs of nearby homes. A rotating band around the main body consists of a series of square windows from which come shafts of bright white light. They drive back home to alert her husband, Joseph A. Gasslein, an aviation worker. By that time, the UFO is about a half-mile distant, giving off colored lights. Around 8:10 p.m., the object returns flying

toward the Gassleins’ home (south of Walsh Park) only 20 feet above ground level and passes over their backyard before making a sharp left turn and moving away to the east. (“Out of the Past: A Very Close CE-1,” IUR 10, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1985): 9–10, 14; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January – June 1962, The Author, 2005, pp, 56–57) April 2 5 — The A- 12 is taken on its first (unofficial and unannounced) flight with Lockheed test pilot Louis Schalk at the controls. Intended as only a taxi run, the A-12 unexpectedly takes flight and Schalk lands it 2 miles past the runway. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed A- 12 ”; Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 177 – 178 ) April 26 — Schalk makes another unofficial low-altitude, 40-minute test flight with the A-12. The takeoff is perfect, but after the A-12 gets to about 300 feet it starts shedding all the “pie slice” fillets of titanium on the left side of the aircraft and one fillet on the right. (On later aircraft, those pieces are paired with triangular inserts made of radar- absorbing composite material.) Technicians spend four days finding and reattaching the pieces. Nonetheless, the flight pleases Kelly Johnson. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed A- 12 ”; Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 178 – 179 ) April 30 — Schalk takes the A-12 up to 30,000 feet on its first official flight at Area 51 for 59 minutes. His top speed is 400 mph. (Jacobsen, Area 51, p. 179 ) April 30 — Just before 10:00 a.m. During a free-flight test (Flight 52) of the X- 15 to a height of 246,700 feet (46.7 miles) by NASA pilot Joseph A. Walker from Edwards AFB, California, to Ely, Nevada, the instruments photograph 5 – 6 cylindrical objects. No visual confirmation. On May 11, at NASA’s Second National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space in Seattle, Washington, Walker mentions the objects photographed (and perhaps shows the slides; it is not mentioned in the proceedings). NICAP is unable to obtain the photos. NASA claims the objects are ice flaking off the aircraft (“fireflies”). They are described by a NASA spokesman as “barbell shaped, bright-orange in color, and passing in groups up to six behind the X-15.” Opinion ranges from “definitely something up there,” to “film spots,” to “sun rays on the lens.” Jacobsen implies it was the A-12 test the same day. (“AF Criticizes NASA Release of ‘Mystery Object’ Photo,” UFO Investigator 2, no. 5 (Aug./Sept. 1962): 8; UFOEv, p. 139 ; Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, May 11, 1962; MUFON UFO Journal, November 1989, pp. 6–7; Good Above, p. 366 ; Proceedings of the Second National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space, Seattle, Washington, May 8 – 10, 1962 , NASA Office of Scientific and Technical Information, November 1962; Curtis Peebles, “Fireflies: The X- 15 ‘UFO’ Sighting Controversy,” Magonia 78 (June 2002); Jacobsen, Area 51, p. 205 ) Late April or early May — Three women and a 10-year-old boy are driving home to Granby, Connecticut, when two bright yellow lights appear in the sky ahead. The lights cross the road and disappear behind some shrubbery. Driving nearer and stopping, the witnesses see the lights hovering above a field, one above the other. The objects realign horizontally and move toward the car. The driver starts the car up and speeds away, but the lights are right behind her, only a few feet from the rear window and matching the car’s speed. The yellow lights are only a few feet in diameter and have a reddish patch that rotates. They follow the car for four minutes then turn away. (Swords 299–300)

May 4 — The A-12 achieves supersonic speed of Mach 1.1 at 40,000 feet during a test at Groom Lake, Nevada. May 11 — 7:40 p.m. Argentine Rear Adm. Eladio M. Vázquez and Capt. Aldo Molinari watch a UFO from the US Military Mission at the Comandante Espora Air Naval Base in Bahía Blanca, Argentina. (UFOEv, p. 170 ; “In Argentina,” APRO Bulletin, July 1963, p. 4) May 12 — 4:10 a.m. Three truckers (Valentino Tomassini, Guro Tomassini, and Humberto Zenobi) are driving from Bahia Blanca to Jacinto Aráuz, La Pampa, Argentina, when they see a lantern-like light resting in a nearby field. It brightens and dims alternately. As they slow down, a row of 20–30 lights come on. When they approach to within 210 feet of the object, it rises up and crosses the road at a height of 1 2 feet. Its lights go out, a reddish flame comes from the bottom, and it makes a soft humming noise. The UFO then divides into two parts that fly off in different directions. Navy Capt. Luis Sanchez Moreno, chief of intelligence at the Puerto Belgrano Naval Base, interviews the witnesses. At the landing site, grass is burned over an area 180 feet in diameter, and there are damp, gray-colored patches. These are taken for analysis to either or both the Puerto Belgrano Naval Base and Universidad Nacional del Sur, both in or near Bahia Blanca. It consists of calcium carbonate and potassium carbonate. (UFOEv, pp. 170 – 171 ; “In Argentina,” APRO Bulletin, July 1963, pp. 2–4; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January – June 1962, The Author, 2005, pp. 60– 61 ; Oscar A. Uriondo, “Preliminary Catalogue of Type 1 Cases in Argentina,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 12 (December 1972): 10 ) May 13 — 4:00 a.m. Near Oncativo, Córdoba, Argentina, two women driving from Rosario see a long object flying at moderate altitude and emitting a powerful, multicolored light. They enter a fog and see through the trees a sort of “little house” on the ground, with green, red, and yellow lights set in an arrow-shaped arrangement. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January – June 1962, The Author, 2005, p. 62;

Oscar A. Uriondo, “Preliminary Catalogue of Type 1 Cases in Argentina,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 12 (December 1972): 10) May 21 — Miguel Thomé, a reporter for La Nueva Provincia, takes several photos of a luminous object above Bahia Blanca, Argentina, one of which is exactly at a point when the object changes course. (UFOEv, p. 170 ; ClearIntent, pp. 138 – 139 ; “Un avistaje de OVNI en Bahía Blanca aparece en los archivos de la CIA de Estados Unidos,” La Nueva (Bahía Blanca), February 3, 2016) May 21 — Day. Capt. Gordon Pendleton and First Officer J. P. Murphy are flying an Aer Lingus Vickers Viscount airliner above southern England at 17,000 feet when they see a brown globe-shaped object approaching head-on. It speeds 3,000 feet below the aircraft at about 700 mph. The object has a number of antenna-like projections on its surface. (Irish Times, May 22, 1962; UFOEv, p. 122) May 22 — 7:10–7:45 p.m. A formation of Navy planes, led by flight instructor Lt. Rodolfo César Galdos, near Comandante Espora Air Naval Base in Bahia Blanca, Argentina, observes several UFOs over a 35 - minute period. Witnesses at the control tower also see an object. Student pilot Roberto Wilkinson sees a luminous object trailing his plane. It lights up his cockpit and his radio transmission is disrupted as it passes underneath. (UFOEv, pp. 119, 171 ; Schopick, p. 129; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January – June 1962 , The Author, 2005, pp. 65– 67 ; Scott Corrales, “Saucers in My Backyard: Argentina’s Trancas Case,” Inexplicata, May 8, 2007) May 22 or 24 —A woman is hospitalized after she and her husband see an object land near Winifreda, Las Pampas, Argentina. Two large “robot-like creatures” emerge. Argentine Air Force investigators find a circle of scorched grass. (Lorenzen, Encounters with UFO Occupants, Berkley Medallion, 1976, p. 152) May 25 — USAF Pentagon spokesman Maj. Carl R. Hart tells NICAP that Air Force investigations involve hundreds of intelligence officers, as well as “the best scientific brains available in the laboratories of all government agencies,” also scientific investigators in commercial laboratories, wherever needed. He adds that Hynek has consulted with the “world’s leading scientists.” Around the same time, Lt. Col. Spencer Whedon from ATIC informs NICAP that the Air Force spends about $10,000 on each major sighting investigation. (“AF Admits UFO Probe Still in Full Operation,” UFO Investigator 2, no. 4 (March/July 1962): 2)

Summer — Col. Joseph J. Bryan III, special assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force and advisor to NATO, joins the board of NICAP. In 1959 he had contacted Keyhoe and asked to see some of his “really hot cases.” It is later revealed that he was also founder of the CIA’s psychological warfare staff. Bryan never discloses his CIA background to NICAP or Keyhoe. Although Bryan, the father of later UFO author C. D. B. Bryan, makes strong pro-UFO statements, he is later suspected of helping to discredit Keyhoe and undermine NICAP; his son and Richard H. Hall deny it. (“AF Colonel, Noted Astronomer, Join Board,” UFO Investigator 2, no. 5 (Aug./Sept 1962): 2; “Col. Joseph Bryan,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 8 (May/June 1966): 5; “NI-CIA-AP or NICAP?” Just Cause 1, no. 7 (January 1979): 5 – 13; “CE4K Author C. D. B. Bryan Dies,” Rigorous Intuition, December 18, 2009) Summer — Around 9:00 p.m. Harvey Packard and five other men are fishing near East Peru, Maine, when three orange globes show up across the pond and begin dancing about. The globes move toward the witnesses, who get scared and jump in their car and speed away. The globes follow the car, one in the rear and the others on each side. The objects appear to be transparent, 3-foot spheres that easily pace the speeding vehicle. Occasionally they leave their positions and form into a triangle with squarish bridges between them, then split up and continue the car chase. The car radio is filled with static. Finally, they veer off and fly into the woods. (NICAP case file; Swords 300) Summer — Donald MacKenzie, a shepherd, discovers some strange wreckage in a remote moor near Ardgay, Sutherland, Scotland, that he thinks is related to Sputnik. In October, a team from RAF Kinloss [now Kinloss Barracks] on the Moray Firth arrives to investigate. They find a strange box-shaped object, large enough to have carried a person and containing spaces for cameras and a brass panel that explains, in pictures, what the finder should do in the event of discovery to claim a reward. Buried nearby are a number of bottles of colorless fluid. The team is mystified and suspects something Russian but can’t confirm it. The debris now seems likely to have come from a secret spy balloon, one of many launched in 1955–1956 by the US Air Force from RAF Evanton [now closed], to take reconnaissance photos of Russian military and nuclear facilities. Once clear of Soviet territory, the balloons were designed to drop into the Pacific Ocean where its VHF beacon would guide recovery efforts. (David Clarke, “The Scottish Roswell?” Dr. David Clarke: Folklore and Journalism, July 29, 2012) June 5 — Contactee Gabriel Green runs for the US Senate in California and claims to have received 171,000 votes in the Democratic primary. (Wikipedia, “1962 United States Senate election in California”; S. D. Tucker, False Economies: The Strangest, Least Successful, and Most Audacious Financial Follies, Plans, and Crazes of All Times, Amberly, 2018, chapter 3, excerpted in “Taxing Credulity,” Fortean Times 367 (June 2018): 52– 55 )

June 6 — 11:20 a.m. Six silent objects are seen at intervals over Caroda, New South Wales. A trail of shiny, web-like filaments falls and gradually disintegrates as they drift through the air. Witnesses say they are up to 5 feet long. (Keith Basterfield, “Angel Hair: An Australian Perspective,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 7 ; Keith Basterfield, “A Catalogue and Analysis of Australasian ‘Angel Hair’ Cases,” March 2001) June 7 — A brilliant white light, approximately 20 times brighter than first magnitude stars, is seen at Hallett Station [now closed], Cape Hallett, East Antarctica, at 250 ° (true) azimuth, and 30° elevation. Over 5 minutes it remains stationary and is viewed both with binoculars and the naked eye. It appears circular. It is a dazzling gold color and observed between two mountain peaks. The sun at the time is below the horizon. After 5 minutes it moves in a southerly direction and is lost to view behind a peak. Project Blue Book concludes it is Jupiter, even though that planet’s position is only at 5 ° elevation. (NICAP, [Blue Book documents]; Sparks, p. 292 ; Swords 298) June 25– 26 — 9:00 p.m.–2:00 a.m. John, 14, and James Westmoreland, 12, are camping out in their backyard at 7466 East 18th Street, Tucson, Arizona, with a friend, Ronald Black, 11. About 9:00 p.m. John notices a bright star in the west that moves occasionally, dips, and hovers. Around 11:45, they notice that the star is brighter and has moved closer, taking the shape of a triangle. At 12:15, the object noiselessly emits three green flares that take on a speedy horizontal flight path. They notice a second, ball-shaped object that races from west to east, flips, and stops at a higher elevation than the first. A “flare-like” light approaches the second and seems to be absorbed by it. The first UFO spits out more green flares, two of which disappear into the second object a few minutes later. The second object shoots out a rocket that disappears in the sky. A third whitish object, larger and disc-shaped, appears above Pontano Wash with a cone-shaped superstructure. Three stiltlike protuberances appear briefly then are drawn back in. The third object also drops something like a rope that extends to the ground for 3 – 5 minutes. The boys soon get sleepy and retire after a while, telling the mother, Pansy Westmoreland, about it in the morning. (“Saucers, Rockets Inhabit Night Sky,” Tucson (Ariz.) Daily Citizen, June 26, 1962, p. 17; Coral E. Lorenzen, “Saucers Shoot Rockets over Tucson, Arizona,” APRO Bulletin, July 1962, pp. 1, 3– 4 ; Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 114– 118 )

July — APRO refers to NICAP as merely a “lobbying” effort in APRO Bulletin, while APRO is “gradually drawing the endorsements of the scientific community.” (“Support NICAP?” APRO Bulletin, July 1962, pp. 1–2; Clark III 50) July 7 — Soviet Col. Georgy Mosolov reaches 1,665 mph in a Mikoyan Gurevich Ye-166 (a modified Ye-152) over Russia. (Wikipedia, “Georgi Mosolov”) July 7 — 11:10 p.m. C. B. Taylor, chief scientist at Hallett Station [now closed], Cape Hallett, East Antarctica, sees an intense light followed by two smaller lights pass over the facility in a few seconds leaving a clearly visible trail. Its passage is registered by an all-sky camera used for the study of auroras. Probable bolide. (NICAP, [Blue Book documents]; NICAP, “Object Filmed by All Camera (IFO)”) July 17 — Maj. Robert Michael White is piloting Flight 62 of the X-15 at Edwards AFB, California. He flies it to 314,750 feet (59 miles), qualifying him for USAF astronaut wings. For this, he is featured on the cover of the August 3 issue of Life. At the top of his climb he sees a small grayish object “like a piece of paper” about 30–40 feet away. He exclaims, “There are things out there. There absolutely is!” (“Space: Inside the Sky,” Time, July 27, 1962; MUFON UFO Journal, November 1989, pp. 6–7; Good Above, p. 366 ) July 28 — Before dawn. The skipper of a chartered fishing boat 6 miles southeast of Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, California, sees several stationary lights low in the water dead ahead. Through binoculars he sees a squat, lighted structure in which several men are working, apparently the stern of a submarine with no markings and dacks almost awash. He and another crew member see five men, “two in all-white garb, two in dark trousers and white shirts, and one in a sky-blue jumpsuit.” The craft swept in their direction toward the open sea, still on the surface, and the skipper has to turn hard to keep clear. It makes no noise and leaves no wake. (Marvin Miles, “Report Studied on Soviet Sub off Catalina,” Los Angeles Times, October 25, 1962, pp. 1, 10)

August — 7:00 p.m. Three witnesses are driving south toward San José de Métan, Salta, Argentina, when they see a light against the mountains to the west. It approaches, growing as large as the full moon when it is 300 feet ahead of them. It has a bulge at the top and reddish-pink, green, and white blinking lights. It continues to approach and passes above a Fiat truck in the road ahead of them. The truck stops, and the witnesses stop their car as well, two of them walking into some nearby bushes to observe. The object now seems to be the diameter of a DC- 3 ’s wingspan and is 150 feet in the air. The truck’s lights go out, and the object rocks back and forth, taking off to the north at a great rate of speed. Five minutes later, they drive up to the stopped truck, whose driver is scooping up dirt to cool its overheated engine down. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 157–158) August — Night. Marilyn Chenarides, her younger brother Roger, and their mother Mildred Anderson are vacationing in a cabin on Movil Lake, Minnesota. The two women see a glowing red, domed disc with large windows hovering

above the boat dock 50 feet away. Silhouetted in the windows are three entities who seem to be looking at them. The women shut off the cabin lights for a better look, and the UFO switches off its own lights. Anderson runs out of the cabin toward the object, which lifts and disappears rapidly. (“The 1962 Occupants Case,” APRO Bulletin 21, no. 2 (Sept./Oct. 1972): 6) August 2 — Around 12:00 midnight. Air traffic control operators at Cambá Punta Airport [now Doctor Fernando Piragine Niveyro International Airport], near Corrientes, Argentina, see an unidentified light approaching the airport. They call the airport manager, Luís Harvey, who arrives from home in a hurry and sees the light circling at high speed. Harvey orders a landing strip freed up but the light, apparently a spherical object, comes down, hovering and revolving a few feet above the same spot on the runway for 3–4 minutes, emitting strong blue, green, and orange flashes. Then it climbs and vanishes at staggering speed. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: July – December 1962, The Author, 2005, pp. 18–19; Patrick Gross, “Camba Punta, Argentina, August 2, 1962”) August 7 — Midnight. A contract worker at the not-yet-operational Titan II launch complex of the 570th^ Strategic Missile Squadron near Oracle, Arizona, sees a brilliant light descending over the site. He is joined by a colleague as the light gets larger. Both men go inside and contact Davis-Monthan AFB outside Tucson, which sends out two jet interceptors. When the aircraft arrive, the light takes off to the north and disappears rapidly. After the jets circle and head back, the light returns, descends toward the silo, and takes off vertically. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 235– 236 ; Nukes 220–221) August 17– 19 — Evening. Walking home, diamond prospector Rivalino Mafra da Silva sees two small beings, about three feet tall, digging a hole near Duas Pontes, 17 miles north of Diamantina, Minas Gerais, Brazil. On August 19, Mafra da Silva and his sons are in bed when they are awakened by sounds and see a shadowy figure, apparently floating in the room. In the morning, he and his son Raimundo see two humming balls floating outside. They merge into one larger ball that moves toward Rivalino, enveloping him in yellow smoke. Raimundo says: “Then the yellow smoke dissolved. The balls were gone. The ground below was clean as if the dust had been removed by a big broom.” He tells his story to Lt. Wilson Lisbõa, chief of police at Diamantina, who conducts a search for 10 days. Only a few drops of blood are found. (“The Brazilian Abduction: Boy’s Story Unshaken,” Flying Saucer Review 8, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1962): 10–12; Clark III 418– 419 ; Brazil 123–127; Patrick Gross, URECAT) Late August — 2:00 p.m. Ann Druffel and Aileen Cummings are at Long Beach, California, when they see a small rectangular cloud over the Santa Catalina Channel. Its vapor appears to churn and it doubles in size, then elongates to 20–30 times its original size. (Ann Druffel, “Santa Catalina Island Recurring ‘Cloud Cigars,’” in Proceedings of the 1976 CUFOS Conference, Chicago, 1976, pp. 63–64; Ann Druffel, “Santa Catalina Channel Cloud Cigars,” IUR 31 , no. 1 (January 2007 ): 12 – 13) Late August — 7:00 p.m. Three witnesses are driving in a rural area about 87 miles from Salta, Argentina, when two of them (the third sleeps through the event) see a light against the mountains to the west that grows larger and moves about 300 feet above the road ahead of them. It is a domed disc with flashing reddish-pink, green, and white lights around its perimeter. The object illuminates a truck ahead of them. The truck stops, and the two witnesses get out of their car and hide in some bushes to see what happens next. The object appears to be nearly 100 feet wide and 150 feet above the truck. The truck’s lights go out and the object takes off to the north at a high rate of speed, climbing out of sight within seconds. They drive up to the truck, whose drivers are throwing dirt into its smoking engine compartment and are more concerned about an insurance claim than a UFO encounter. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 12–13) August 26 — 12:05 a.m. Geraldo Bichara, 18, is standing guard at the Escola de Sargentos das Armas in Três Corações, Minas Gerais, Brazil, when an electrical blackout occurs in the city. Suddenly he is paralyzed by a light beam from an unseen object, apparently for a few minutes. In 1980, Bichara undergoes hypnosis and discovers that the incident was an abduction in which he is taken aboard a UFO by beings wearing pumpkin-colored jumpsuits and subjected to a medical examination. He attempts to flee at one point and grabs his rifle lying nearby, but he is still paralyzed. After about 2 hours he is returned to the guardhouse. (Brazil 60–66; “Caso Giraldo Bichara,” Grupo de Amigos que Estudam Mistérios e Ufologia, May 2014) August 26 — 12:30 a.m. Walter T. Jones Jr. watches a triangular formation of 6 white lights and one green light pass silently over Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for 3–5 minutes. (“Another ‘Mother’ Ship?” APRO Bulletin, July 1963, p. 3) August 29 — Afternoon. A U-2 spy plane flying over Cuba spots an SA-2 surface-to-air missile site under construction at La Coloma, eight Komar-class guided missile patrol boats, and a cruise missile site at Banes. (Kenneth Michael Absher, Mind-Sets and Missiles, US Army War College, 2009 )

August 30 — 7:35–7:55 p.m. While having supper at an outdoor restaurant near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, three men, one of whom works for Techint Engineering Company, watch a UFO that approaches and hovers for 20 minutes. The engineer has a portable theodolite with him, and they set it up and track the object. It is a silvery-gray disc, like two rounded hubcaps together, and is spinning on its axis. It has an antenna on the top and exhaust ports all around its mid-line, and it is surrounded by gaseous emissions that run through all the colors of the spectrum. The object flips to a vertical alignment, showing its base, and then tips over so that its original topside is on the bottom. The object silently accelerates and disappears in 5 seconds. Project Blue Book concludes that the men were watching the planet Venus. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: July – December 1962, The Author, 2005, p. 33; Swords 298–299)

September — California contactee Gloria Lee takes channeled blueprints for a spaceship to Washington, D.C., to show to government officials. She gets nowhere, but while in town she gets messages from her space contact J.W. saying that the space people are upset with human wars and nuclear weapons. J.W. orders her to go on a fast for peace until he sends a “light elevator” to take her to Jupiter. Her fast lasts from September 23 to November 28. No one pays attention. After about 66 days without eating, Lee’s husband, aircraft engineer William H. Byrd, summons an ambulance to take her to George Washington University Hospital. She dies there on December 3. Lee continues to channel post-mortem information through a medium named Nada-Yolanda (Pauline Sharpe) in the Miami-based Mark-Age MetaCenter. (Clark III 682– 683 ; Tristan, “The Airline Stewardess Who Starved Herself to Death for Aliens,” Bizarre and Grotesque, December 18, 2016) September — Thomas M. Comella, writing under the pseudonym “Peter Kor,” proposes that UFOs originate, not from space (as he apparently thought when he favored the extraterrestrial hypothesis in the December 1955 issue of Fate), but from a reality “so strange that it cannot be confined to our three-dimensional world.” (Clark III 877; Thomas M. Comella, “Why the Real Saucer Is Interplanetary,” Fate 8, no. 12 (December 1955): 17 – 23 ; Peter Kor [Thomas M. Comella], “The Solution to the Flying Saucer Mystery,” Flying Saucers, September 1962 , pp. 68–74) September 1 — The USSR publicly announces an agreement to supply arms and military technicians to Cuba. Construction begins on SS-5 IRBM sites in Guanajay. (Wikipedia, “Cuban Missile Crisis”) September 5 — U-2 photos reveal for the first time the presence of MiG-21 jet fighters in Cuba. September 15 — Construction begins on Soviet SS-4 MRBM sites at San Cristobal, Cuba. September 15 — 5:00 p.m. Two bright discs are seen over Oradell, New Jersey. At 6:00 p.m., former Navy flying officer J. J. McVickers sees two discs just across the state line near Oradell. At 7:50 p.m., Victor Cipolla sees a glowing object descend toward Oradell. Two other witnesses see one round object with a fin on top and another under it at darting back and forth near Oradell Reservoir. At 7:55 p.m., three teens see and hear a bright, oval object land in the reservoir with a loud splash. A moment later, it lifts off and climbs silently at high speed. (“Disc Landing Reported in New Jersey,” UFO Investigator 2, no. 6 (Oct./Nov. 1962): 3–4; UFOEv, p. 140 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: July – December 1962, The Author, 2005, pp. 48, 49; Sparks, p. 292) September 20 — Construction begins on Soviet SAM sites at Los Angeles, Chaparra, and Juguani, Cuba. September 29 — A CIA U-2 mission over the Isle of Pines and Bay of Pigs, Cuba, reveals additional Soviet SA-2 and cruise missile sites. (Jacobsen, Area 51, p. 183 ; Kenneth Michael Absher, Mind-Sets and Missiles, US Army War College, 2009)

Fall — Arlene Cook is awakened by her young, terrified son, at their home in Anaheim, California. He says something is in his bedroom, so they go to investigate and see a half-dollar-sized light on his bed. The spot stays visible when she puts her hand on the bed or when she removes the covers, but she can find no source for the light. It then just switches off and does not return. (Michael D. Swords, “A Trick of the Light,” IUR 31, no. 2 (June 2007): 8) Fall — Patricia Ellingson is seeing “glowing, flame-like lights” in her bedroom in Azusa, California, every evening. She thinks they appear only when she is mentally calm. The lights are the size of a quarter, sometimes switch off abruptly, and other times fade out slowly. At times they do not appear for months, and she feels sad when they are not there. (Michael D. Swords, “A Trick of the Light,” IUR 31, no. 2 (June 2007): 8) October — The CIA and USAF instruct Lockheed to study a high-speed, high-altitude drone concept. Kelly Johnson specifies speeds of Mach 3.3–3.5, an operational altitude of 87,000–95,000 feet, and a range of 3,500 miles. It would make a one-way trip, eject its camera payload at the end of the mission for recovery, then self-destruct. It has a double-delta wing similar to the A- 12 ’s wing design. The Q-12 is to be air-launched from the back of an A- 12 and uses key technology from the A-12 project, including titanium construction and radar cross-section reduction design features. Johnson wants to power the Q-12 with a ramjet engine modified to operate at high temperatures for at least 90 minutes at high altitude. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed D- 21 ”)

October 2 — Night. A Boeing security guard at an unidentified Minuteman missile site near Moore, Montana [likely the M-01 launch site that is part of Malmstrom AFB complex], sees a tear-shaped object with a blue top and a red bottom. (“Flying Objects Reported in Separated Areas,” Helena (Mont.) Independent-Record, October 3, 1962, p. 7 ) October 2 — Night. Airmen on security patrol at Larson AFB [now Grant County International Airport] near Moses Lake, Washington, see a white light hovering a few hundred feet in the air near where the ICBM storage bunkers are located. It silently shoots into the air as the guards approach it. (“Flying Objects Reported in Separated Areas,” Helena (Mont.) Independent-Record, October 3, 1962, p. 7; Nukes 145–147) October 7 — New U-2 flights show there are now 19 Soviet SA-2 missile sites in Cuba. October 12 — Dawn. An object like an orange or yellow meteor is observed over Forbes AFB [now Topeka Regional Airport], Topeka, Kansas. Its flight path is curved upward, with an occasional jerky motion; it moves quickly at first but slows down as it reaches the zenith. It is visible for 5 minutes before fading out. [Blue Book documents]; Nukes 145) October 14 — A U-2 (loaned to the Air Force by the CIA because the CIA U-2s have better surveillance capabilities) piloted by USAF Major Richard S. Heyser out of Laughlin AFB, Del Rio, Texas, takes 928 pictures on a path selected by DIA analysts, capturing images of what turn out to be an SS- 4 MRBM construction site at San Cristóbal, Pinar del Río Province [now in Artemisa Province], in western Cuba. (Wikipedia, “Cuban Missile Crisis”; “U-2 Pilot’s Cuba Photos Made History,” Wilmington (N.C.) Star-News, October 9, 2005) October 15 — The CIA’s National Photographic Interpretation Center reviews the U-2 photographs and identifies objects that they interpret as medium-range ballistic missiles. The CIA notifies the Department of State. National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy chooses to wait until the next morning to tell the President. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara is briefed at midnight. (Wikipedia, “Cuban Missile Crisis”) October 16 — 6:30 p.m. Kennedy gathers a select group of advisors known as the ExComm (Executive Committee of the National Security Council) to discuss a strategic response. McNamara presents him with three basic options: a political option of approaching Castro and Khrushchev; a naval blockade to stop Soviet ships carrying weapons to Cuba; and “military action directed against Cuba, starting with an air attack against the missiles.” The ExComm’s initial discussions focus on a massive US military assault on the nuclear installations and other bases in Cuba, and whether the Soviets would counterattack in Berlin or elsewhere. Kennedy rejects an attack, favoring a quarantine to buy time to negotiate a missile withdrawal. (Wikipedia, “Cuban Missile Crisis”) October 17 — A U-2 takes the first photo of an IRBM site under construction in Cuba. (“The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962: The Photographs,” National Security Archive) October 22 — 7:00 p.m. President Kennedy addresses the American public for 18 minutes and announces his plan to implement a naval blockade of Cuba. US military alert is set at DEFCON 3, and Castro mobilizes all of Cuba’s military forces. US ambassador to the Soviet Union Foy D. Kohler delivers to a letter from JFK to Khrushchev, saying, “the one thing that has most concerned me has been the possibility that your government would not correctly understand the will and determination of the United States in any given situation, since I have not assumed that you or any other sane man would, in this nuclear age, deliberately plunge the world into war which it is crystal clear no country could win and which could only result in catastrophic consequences to the whole world, including the aggressor.” (Wikipedia, “Cuban Missile Crisis”; John F. Kennedy, Letter to Chairman Nikita Khrushchev, October 22, 1962) October 23 — Khrushchev writes to Kennedy, rebuffing his demand that the Soviets remove the missiles, which the Soviet leader insists “are intended solely for defensive purposes.” Kennedy writes back, bluntly reminding Khrushchev that he started the crisis by secretly sending missiles to Cuba. As US ambassador Adlai Stevenson explains the matter to the United Nations Security Council, US ships already are moving into position in the waters around Cuba. Soviet submarines menacingly move into the Caribbean as well, positioned as if they might try to break a blockade. But Soviet freighters bearing military supplies headed for Cuba stop in their tracks. (Nikita Khrushchev, Letter to President John F. Kennedy, October 23, 1962; John F. Kennedy, Draft letter to Chairman Nikita Khrushchev, October 23, 1962) October 24 — Khrushchev sends an indignant letter to Kennedy, accusing him of threatening the Soviet Union: “You are no longer appealing to reason, but wish to intimidate us.” (Nikita Khrushchev, Letter to President John F. Kennedy, October 24, 1962) October 25 — The US raises the readiness level of SAC forces to DEFCON 2. For the only confirmed time in US history, B- 52 bombers go on continuous airborne alert, and B- 47 medium bombers are dispersed to various military and civilian airfields and made ready to take off, fully equipped, on 15 minutes notice. The Soviet arms freighters turn back toward Europe, but the oil tanker Bucharest approaches the US quarantine zone, directly headed for Cuba. Two American warships, the USS Essex and the USS Gearing, prepare to intercept it, which

could have led to war. Instead, Kennedy decides to let the Bucharest through the quarantine because it isn’t carrying any contraband. (Wikipedia, “Cuban Missile Crisis”; McGeorge Bundy, “Record of Action of the Fourth Meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council,” October 25, 1962; Wikipedia, “Cuban Missile Crisis”) October 26 — Castro sends a letter to Khrushchev, urging him to launch a nuclear first strike against the US, which the Soviet leader disregards. Instead, Khrushchev sends a letter to Kennedy, in which he offers to work with him to deescalate the conflict and ensure that they do not “doom the world to the catastrophe of thermonuclear war.” The CIA reports that the construction of Cuban missile sites is continuing and accelerating. Robert Kennedy meets secretly with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin and agrees after a phone call to the president that the removal of US missiles from Turkey is negotiable as part of a comprehensive settlement. (Fidel Castro, Letter to Chairman Nikita Khrushchev, October 26, 1962; Nikita Khrushchev, Department of State Telegram Transmitting Letter to President John F. Kennedy, October 26, 1962; Wikipedia, “Cuban Missile Crisis”; Daniel Ellsberg, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, Bloomsbury, 2017, chapter 12– 13 ) October 26 — 6:15 a.m. Mrs. Alvie Frank sees several flat, glowing objects moving slowly about 11 miles south of Monte Vista, Colorado. (“Variety of Objects in Colorado,” APRO Bulletin, January 1963, p. 1) October 26 — 7:16 a.m. Bessie Rogers of Fort Collins, Colorado, spots a large, black parachute-shaped object weaving back and forth over the mountains somewhere between the south end of Horsetooth Reservoir and Masonville. It flies around for about 10 minutes, disappears, and then returns. (“Variety of Objects in Colorado,” APRO Bulletin, January 1963, p. 1) Late October — Day. Two Air Force B- 52 Stratofortress bombers are returning to Loring AFB [now the Loring Commerce Centre] near Limestone, Maine, following an Operation Chrome Dome mission. They are on final approach to landing when a huge, metallic-gray, cigar-shaped UFO descends over the flight line and hovers for a few minutes. It stretches halfway across the aircraft ramp area, which would make it half a mile wide. Jet engine mechanic Sgt. Christopher Smith is watching the scenario from the ground and notes that the UFO is silent and has no lights or visible openings. After the second B- 52 lands, the UFO silently zooms away toward the east and disappears. All the ground witnesses and the flight crews do not talk about the incident afterward and act as if nothing happened. (Nukes 132 – 136 , 138– 139 ) October 27 — A U- 2 piloted by Maj. Rudolf Anderson is shot down over Cuba. However, Kennedy correctly concludes that Khrushchev has not himself given the order to shoot down Anderson’s plane. The incident prompts both leaders to realize the situation is spiraling dangerously out of control. Khrushchev sends another letter to Kennedy, in which he demands that the United States withdraw missiles from Turkey as part of the deal. JFK responds by offering to promise not to attack Cuba after the Russians withdraw. In the evening, Robert Kennedy tells Soviet ambassador Dobrynin, “You have drawn first blood… The president had decided against advice … not to respond militarily to that attack, but he [Dobrynin] should know that if another plane was shot at … we would take out all the SAMs and antiaircraft… And that would almost surely be followed by an invasion.” However, he also says that the US already plans to remove its missiles from Turkey but cannot say so publicly. This is the moment when both nations step back from the brink of war. (Wikipedia, “Cuban Missile Crisis”; Nikita Khrushchev, Letter to President John F. Kennedy, October 27, 1962; Anatoly Dobrynin, Cable to the Soviet Foreign Ministry, meeting with Robert Kennedy, October 27, 1962; John F. Kennedy, Letter to Chairman Nikita Khrushchev, October 27, 1962; Daniel Ellsberg, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, Bloomsbury, 2017, chapter 12– 13 ; Christopher Klein, “How the Death of a US Air Force Pilot Prevented a Nuclear War,” History Stores, October 28, 2019) October 28 — In a speech aired on Radio Moscow, Nikita Khrushchev announces the dismantling of Soviet missiles in Cuba and does not insist on his demands concerning the removal of US missiles from Turkey. (Wikipedia, “Cuban Missile Crisis”; Nikita Khrushchev, Letter to President John F. Kennedy, October 28, 1962) October 28 — 7:30 p.m. Mrs. Ellen D. Sylvester is driving with her three children in Norwood, South Australia, east of Adelaide, when they see an orange glow on the ground about 2 – 3 miles away. It has three legs, round windows, and the boy remarks that he can see people in it. One of the “men” gets out and descends to the ground. He appears to be doing something to one of the landing legs. He seems to have some trouble in making it retract, which finally he overcomes. He is about 6 feet tall, as his head reaches the outer fringe of the craft. He wears a helmet like a gas mask. He returns to the UFO, which begins to move slowly away, then very fast, and disappears in a northerly direction. Total time of observation is 40 minutes. (Keith Basterfield, “‘This Is One of the Most Remarkable Cases of a Flying Saucer…,’ Adelaide, 1962,” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena—Scientific Research, September 22, 2014) October 29 — Defense Department Assistant Secretary Arthur Sylvester admits that withholding evidence on UFOs from the public is necessary if the means justifies it. He cites USAF “administrative practices” Air Force Regulation

11 - 30, where withholding information “in the public interest” is allowed, and AFR 11 - 7, which states that sometimes information requested by Congress may not be furnished “even in confidence.” (Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, p. 86; UFOEv, p. 106 ) October 29 — Vera Rogers sees a round, shiny object flying low over Fort Collins, Colorado. The object, heading south, makes a soft, whirring sound followed by a popping noise. (“Variety of Objects in Colorado,” APRO Bulletin, January 1963, p. 1)

November — Evening. A French businessman is driving along a minor road in Var department, southeastern France. It is raining heavily. Rounding a bend, he sees a group of figures in the road 260 feet ahead. He slows down to drive around them and sees that they are actually bizarre animals with the heads of birds and covered in plumage. Terrified, he speeds ahead and stops about 500 feet further ahead. Turing around, he sees the entities heading toward a luminous, dark-blue object hanging in the air over a field on the other side of the road. It resembles two plates upside down. The entities are sucked into the bottom of the object. He hears a “clack,” and the UFO takes off at “prodigious speed.” (Lyonel Trigano, “Strange Encounter in Var,” Flying Saucer Review 14, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1968): 18; Clark III 280 ) November 13 — Two IBM engineers, C. D. Jackson and Robert E. Hohmann, present a paper at the American Rocket Society annual meeting in Los Angeles, California, noting the alleged extraterrestrial signals detected by Nikola Tesla, Guglielmo Marconi, and David Todd between 1899 and 1924. They speculate that the signal source was 11 light years away, perhaps the Epsilon Eridani system. (C. D. Jackson and Robert E. Hohmann, “An Historic Report on Life in Space: Tesla, Marconi, Todd,” paper presented at the 17th Annual Meeting of the American Rocket Society, Los Angeles, November 13–18, 1962; Michael D. Swords, “Radio Signals from Space, Alien Probes, and Betty Hill,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 10–15) November 15 — Stanford astronomer Carl Sagan presents a paper at the American Rocket Society annual meeting in Los Angeles, California, that explores models for the distribution of technical civilizations in the galaxy. Using Frank D. Drake’s equation to suggest that 0.001% of stars in the sky have a planet on them on which an advanced civilization resides, Sagan suggests the nearest such advanced civilization is several hundred light years away from earth. From there, he explores the feasibility of interstellar spaceflight as a means for traversing such distances. The paper ends in consideration of the possibility of extraterrestrial contact with Earth in the past, including the ancient Mesopotamian myth of Oannes (Apkallu), a mythical being who taught mankind wisdom. Berossus describes Oannes as having the body of a fish but underneath the figure of a man. (Carl Sagan, “Direct Contact among Galactic Civilizations by Relativistic Interstellar Spaceflight,” Planetary and Space Science 11 (May 1963): 485– 498 ; Wikipedia, “Adapa”) November 17 — 9:00 p.m. F. L. Swindale, ex-Marine captain, sees three bright, star-like lights approach, hover, and bounce at Tampa, Florida, for about 15 minutes, then fade. (UFOEv, p. 140 ; Sparks, p. 293) November 23 — The Hills attend a meeting at the parsonage of their Unitarian church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where the invited guest speaker is USAF Capt. Ben H. Swett, who has recently published a book of his poetry. After he reads selections of his poetry, the pastor asks him to discuss his personal interest in hypnosis. After the meeting breaks up, the Hills approach Swett privately and tell him what they can remember of their strange encounter. He is particularly interested in the missing time of the Hills’ account. The Hills ask Swett if he will hypnotize them to recover their memories, but Swett says he is not qualified and cautions them against going to an amateur hypnotist, such as himself. (Clark III 584) November 30 — Two teenage boys in Lethbridge, Alberta, see an elliptical object hovering near a school building and decide to throw rocks at it. The object is about 8 feet in diameter and glowing blue. Their stones seem to ricochet off the UFO and forcefully returned, landing on structures behind the teens. (CUFOS case file)

December — Kennedy closes the Cuban Project, the CIA’s Operation Mongoose. (Wikipedia, “Operation Mongoose”) December 1 — Evening. A husband and wife in East Point, Georgia, are watching the first-quarter Moon through a 6-inch reflector. In the dark area, well away from the terminator, the man sees a bright-red spot light up. It gets so bright that he points it out to his wife. She notices it starting to move across the illuminated portion of the Moon, then continues passing in a straight line across the blue Georgia sky, faster and faster until it is gone. (Michael D. Swords, “Gazing at the Moons,” IUR 32, no. 4 (October 2009): 15) December 7 — A full-scale mockup of the Q-12 drone is ready at Groom Lake, Nevada, and has already undergone preliminary tests to measure its stealth quality. However, the CIA is not enthusiastic about the Q-12, mostly because the agency is overextended at the time with U-2 missions, getting the A-12 up to speed, and covert operations in Southeast Asia. The USAF, however, is interested in the Q-12 as both a reconnaissance platform

and a cruise missile and the CIA finally decides to work with the USAF to develop it. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed D- 21 ”) December 12 — 4:30 p.m. Five schoolgirls in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, see a brightly glowing UFO. All five students independently sketch a Saturn-shaped object. (UFOEv, p. 124 ) December 18 — 2:20 p.m. Night watchman Francesco Rizzi is reporting for work at a mill on Via Santa Valeria in Milan, Italy. In the center of the mill’s courtyard he hears a swishing sound and turns to see a domed metallic disc 12– 15 feet in diameter with portholes hovering 3 feet above the ground. A door opens at the bottom and a small man just over 3 feet tall and wearing a luminous overall emerges. The man motions Rizzi to come nearer, but he is frozen with fear. Another small man comes out of the disc, but they both return, the door closes behind them, and the object takes off in a cloud of white smoke. Rizzi reports the sighting to a colleague, the police, and the press, and soon loses his job. (1Pinotti 130–131) December 21 — Ali R. Diaz is aboard a DC-3 tourist plane on a vacation trip to Angel Falls, Venezuela. He obtains color film of a UFO rising from the base of a mountain. The film shows a yellowish teardrop-shaped object rising across the face of Auyán-tepui plateau. The UFO seems to oscillate from side to side until it is lost in clouds. The falls and mountain provide location points throughout. (“Angel Falls UFO Film 1962,” UFO History Group You Tube channel, August 30, 2014; UFOEv, p. 96 ) December 22 — About 3:00 a.m. At Ezeiza International Airport [now Ministro Pistarini International Airport] at Ezeiza Partido in Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, tower operators Horacio Alora and Mario Pezzutto are watching an Aereolíneas Argentinas plane that is about to take off. It is also seen by an approaching DC- 8 jet operated by Panagra, whose captain asks what the object is at the end of the runway. Alora sees a large, round, glowing object that has evidently descended when he is watching the airliner. The UFO immediately rises about 30 feet, hovers, then accelerates on a northeast course. (UFOEv, p. 119 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: July – December 1962, The Author, 2005, pp. 75–76)

1963

1963 — Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev examines the radio source CTA-102, the first Soviet effort in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). He comes up with the idea that some galactic civilizations could be perhaps millions or billions of years ahead of us, and creates the Kardashev scale to rank such civilizations. Kardashev defines three levels of civilizations, based on energy consumption: Type I (planetary civilization) with “technological level close to the level presently attained on earth”; Type II (stellar civilization), “a civilization capable of harnessing the energy radiated by its own star”; and Type III (galactic civilization), “a civilization in possession of energy on the scale of its own galaxy.” Various extensions of the Kardashev scale have since been proposed, including the use of metrics rather than pure power. The idea that the CTA-102 emission is caused by a civilization is later rejected when it is identified as one of the many varieties of quasar (quasi-stellar radio source), a term coined by Hong-Yee Chiu in May 1964 to describe these objects. (Wikipedia, “Kardashev scale”; Wikipedia, “CTA- 102 ”; Nikolai Kardashev, “Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations,” Soviet Astronomy 8 (1964): 217; Frank Edwards, FS Serious Business, Bantam ed., 1966, pp. 84 – 85 ) 1963 — Astronomer Donald H. Menzel and science writer Lyle G. Boyd publish The World of Flying Saucers, a skeptical overview of UFO sightings and a contemptuous treatment of UFO groups. (Donald H. Menzel and Lyle G. Boyd, The World of Flying Saucers, Doubleday, 1963)

January — The A-12 fleet at Groom Lake, Nevada, is now operating with J58 engines built by Pratt and Whitney, allowing for speeds up to Mach 3. January — Night. Brothers Rosauro Antonio, Ricardo, and Victor Domingo López discover a burned area of grass in a field just over a mile from their house in Cañada de Alzogaray, near Burruyacú, Tucumán, Argentina. The burn is in the shape of two rings (each a foot wide and 10.8 feet in diameter) where the grass is burned down to its roots to a depth of 3–4 inches. They find a carbonized residue and whitish powder. Some days previously, a neighbor named Juan Gerónimo Pera, his wife, and children, had seen a luminous oval-shaped object that landed in the field. (Oscar A. Uriondo, “Preliminary Catalogue of Type 1 Cases in Argentina,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 12 (December 1972): 11) January 11 — At 11:00 p.m., at San Pietro Vernotico, Italy, farmer Antonio de Luca is awakened by restless animals and goes out to calm them. Fifteen minutes later he sees a domed disc some 132 feet long land in the village square. Dark figures are moving inside the transparent dome. He tries to approach but is paralyzed at 30 feet away. It ascends in the direction of Brindisi to the north, emitting a vertical beam of green light. (Vallée, Magonia, p. 290 ;

Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January – June 1963, The Author, 2005, p. 8) January 17 — A formation of objects passes over Entre Ríos province, Argentina, and discharges angel hair. Vitreous particles are recovered, which consist of an “amalgam of silicon, boron, calcium, and magnesium.” (Gordon Creighton, “Argentina, 1963–64,” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1965): 15; Brian Boldman, “Angel Hair Physical Analyses: A Review,” JUFOS 9 (2006): 104)

February 11 — The CIA establishes a Domestic Operations Division for its clandestine services, conducted within the US against “foreign targets.” February 15 — 7:10 a.m. Farmer Charles Brew and his son Trevor are in a shed, milking a herd of cows near Moe, Victoria, Australia. Charles sees an object descend very steeply out of the east from a low cloud, at about a 45° angle. The UFO is about 25 feet in diameter, and about 9 – 10 feet high. The lower portion, about 3 feet high, is rotating in an anticlockwise direction and is bluish. The upper portion appears to be stationary, battleship-gray in color, with a transparent dome on top. Protruding out of the dome is something resembling a broom handle. A sound, described as swishing or burbling, is heard by both Charles and Trevor. (NICAP, “Rotating Object and Animal Reaction”; Bill Chalker, “Tully Saucer Nests of 1966, Part Two,” IUR 23, no. 1 (Spring 1998): 15– 16 ; Sparks, p. 293 ; Swords 388–390) February 23 — 9:45 p.m. An oval object is seen in the sky above Highcliffe, Dorset, England. Emerald-green in color and surrounded by a glow, it hangs in the sky for 10 minutes before witnesses see two smaller objects emerge from it. These fly away and disappear over the English Channel. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects and Cloud Cigars,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 10)

March — Austrian ufologist Luis Schoenherr offers a paranormal explanation for UFOs, saying that they either emanate from an unobservable fourth dimension or are time machines. (Luis Schoenherr, “UFOs and the Fourth Dimension,” Flying Saucer Review 9, no. 2 (March/April 1963): 10–12; Luis Schoenherr, “UFOs and the Fourth Dimension, Part 2,” Flying Saucer Review 10, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1964): 16–20, 23) March 3 — The Hills are invited by their Unitarian church to discuss their UFO experience. They speak about it for the first time publicly. (Clark III 584)

April — An article by J. Allen Hynek appears in the Yale Scientific Magazine. (J. Allen Hynek, “Flying Saucers I Have Known,” Yale Scientific Magazine 37 (April 1963): 6–9; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January – June 1963, The Author, 2005, pp. 42–62) April 30 — Adamski arrives in Copenhagen for another scheduled lecture tour of Europe at the invitation of Hans C. Petersen, He attends the Skandinavisk UFO Information Congress in Frederica, Denmark. (“Final Years,” The Adamski Case, June 11, 2009)

May 15 — Sandia National Laboratories conducts the first of four top-secret, dry-surface plutonium-dispersal tests at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, as part of Operation Roller Coaster. The other tests are on May 25, May 31, and June 9. The intent is to investigate exposure of animals (dogs, sheep, and burros) to plutonium dispersal in a non- nuclear scenario. (Wikipedia, “Operation Roller Coaster”; Lt. Col. J. L. Dick, et al., “Operation Roller Coaster: Interim Summary Report (II),” Department of Defense, September 1963) May 24 — An A-12 piloted by Kenneth S. Collins crashes near Wendover, Utah. The CIA thinks it might have been due to pilot error and contracts with a well-known Boston, Massachusetts, psychiatrist with a specialty in hypnosis (unnamed, but possibly Benjamin Simon, of Betty and Barney Hill fame later). After a lengthy investigation it is determined that a tiny, pencil-sized part called a pilot tube, a device that controls the airspeed indicator, froze when the A-12 entered a cloud, causing the aircraft to stall. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed A- 12 ”; Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 190 – 197 ) May 31 — Adamski allegedly has a private audience with Pope John XXIII in Rome, Italy. The pontiff is seriously ill and dies three days later. Adamski claims that he has received a “Golden Medal of Honor” from the pope, but skeptics note that the medal is actually a common tourist souvenir made by a company in Milan, and that Adamski displays it to his friends in a cheap plastic box—which is how it is sold in tourist shops in Rome. Adamski says his meeting is at the request of the extraterrestrials he is in contact with in order to ask for a “final agreement” from the pope because of his decision not to communicate directly with them anymore and to offer John XXIII a liquid substance in order to save him from the gastric enteritis that he suffers from. (Lou Zinsstag and Timothy Good, George Adamski: The Untold Story, Ceti, 1983; Colin Bennett, Looking for Orthon, Paraview, 2001;

“Vatican Visit,” The Adamski Case, October 7, 2019; Marc Hallet, A Critical Appraisal of George Adamski: The
Man Who Spoke to the Space Brothers, The Author, 2016)

Summer — Allen H. Greenfield and Rick Hilberg start publishing Saucer Album in Cleveland, Ohio. It becomes UFO Magazine in mid-1964 and continues through the summer of 1970. After a few years’ hiatus, it returns as UFO Magazine News Bulletin in early 1974 and continues at least until February 1979. (Saucer Album 1, no. 1 (Summer 1963)) June 15 — 8 :39 p.m. In the Indian Ocean southwest of India, 3rd Mate R. C. Chamberlin of the SS Thetis sees in the northwest a luminous disc travel at 1.5 times the angular speed of a satellite. (Sparks, p. 294) June 26 — Around 1:00 a.m. Enrico A. Gilberti Jr. and his wife Janet are awakened at their home on 344 Commercial Street, Weymouth, Massachusetts, by a loud roar. They look out the window and see a Saturn-shaped object moving slowly above the treetops 100 feet off the ground and 300 feet away. Gilberti describes it as “two hamburger buns one on top of another with a sandwiched piece of meat protruding around.” It is about 30–40 feet across and has two brilliant lights. The UFO follows some power lines across a field and disappears to the northeast. “The roar was deafening.” Neighbors hear the noise but do not see anything. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January – June 19 63 , The Author, 2005, pp. 84–85) June 26 — Four glowing greenish objects with halos are seen by a technician and many others at Pinecrest, California. Three objects moving westerly are approached by a similar object from the west. The fourth object stops and hovers as the three approach, split formation, and continue west. Then the fourth object continues east. (UFOEv, p. 140 ) June 28 — 9:30 p.m. A man is driving along the Lyndoch-Gawler Road near Sandy Creek, South Australia, when he comes across a blood-red, glowing object, 25 feet across and 12 feet high, in the road ahead. He is within 12 feet of it when he hits the brakes. The object turns a lighter reddish-yellow and rises up into the air several hundred feet. It turns on its side and speeds away. This and other UFO incidents cause Sen. Jim Cavanagh to ask the federal government to make its UFO dossier public, but Minister for Air David Fairbairn refuses, saying that the vast majority of reports are explainable. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: January – June 1963, The Author, 2005, pp. 86–87)

July — The CIA has synthesized many of the findings from its psychological research into what became known as the “KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation” handbook, which cites the MKUltra studies and other secret research programs as the scientific basis for their interrogation methods. Donald Ewen Cameron regularly travels around the US teaching military personnel about his techniques (hooding of prisoners for sensory deprivation, prolonged isolation, humiliation, etc.), and how they can be used in interrogations. Latin American paramilitary groups working for the CIA and US military personnel receive training in these psychological techniques at places such as the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia. (In the 21st century, many of these torture techniques are used at US military and CIA prisons such as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Abu Ghraib, Iraq.) In the aftermath of the 1975 congressional hearings, major news media mainly focus on sensational stories related to LSD, mind-control, and brainwashing, and rarely use the word “torture.” This suggests that the CIA researchers are, as one author put it, “a bunch of bumbling sci-fi buffoons” rather than a rational group of men who have run torture laboratories and medical experiments in major US universities; they have arranged for torture, rape, and psychological abuse of adults and young children, driving many of them permanently insane. (Central Intelligence Agency, “KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation,” July 1963; Wikipedia, “Unethical human experimentation in the United States”) July 2 — Nineteen-year-old NICAP member John P. Speights of Raleigh, North Carolina, writes a letter questioning the Air Force’s treatment of UFOs to Rep. Carl Vinson (D-Ga.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Vinson forwards it to USAF along with his own request for information on Blue Book. The Air Force treats the request gingerly because of the implication of a congressional hearing and prepares a reply to Vinson on July 18, but there is no evidence that it is sent. USAF Maj. Maston M. Jacks does reply to Speights on August 5. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: July – December 1963, The Author, 2005, pp. 19 – 20; US Air Force, Foreign Technology Division, “Congressional Correspondence on the U.S. Air Force UFO Program, Congressman Carl Vinson”) July 16 — Farmer Roy Blanchard of Charlton, Wiltshire, England, discovers a strange crater on the ground overlapping his potato and barley fields. It is about 8 feet wide and 4 inches deep. A hole in the center is 3 feet deep and less than a foot in diameter. All vegetation inside the circle is burned, leaving only bare earth, and there are four slots in the ground around it, each about 4 feet long and a foot wide. A small piece of metal is found. Astronomer Patrick Moore states that a “shrimp-sized meteorite” has caused the crater. But a military investigation shows no

burn or scratch marks or any trace of an explosion. (Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: July – December 1963, The Author, 2005, pp. 1 2 – 16 ; UFOFiles2, p. 116; Nick Redfern, “The Curious Caper of the Charlton Crater, Part 1,” Mysterious Universe, September 28, 2015; Nick Redfern, “The Curious Caper of the Charlton Crater, Part 2,” Mysterious Universe, September 28, 2015; Matthew Richardson, “The Charlton Crater”) July 20 — An A-1 piloted by Louis Schalk briefly achieves a speed of Mach 3 for the first time. (Jacobsen, Area 51, p. 201 )

August 1 — Evening. A former RAF pilot and flight instructor sees a triangular UFO that lingers for a long time over Garston, Hertfordshire, England, then climbs out of sight. Thousands of other people in the London area, including an air traffic controller four miles away and future UFO researcher Timothy Good in Bcckenham, London, also see the object, which has a tetrahedral shape and glassy appearance when seen through binoculars. A USAF F-100 Super Sabre from RAF Bentwaters [now Bentwaters Parks] in Woodbridge, Suffolk, and another plane from the De Havilland Aircraft Company are sent up to investigate but cannot get anywhere near the UFO, which is at an estimated 90,000 feet. An amateur astronomer in Bushey, Hertfordshire, takes a clear photo. The official explanation is a balloon. (UFOEv, p. 141 ; Good Above, p. 149 ) August 4 — 11:30 p.m. Ronnie Austin and Phyllis Bruce are driving east on State Highway 15 past the Mount Vernon, Illinois, airport when they notice a bright white round object about 20° above the southwest horizon. It seems to be keeping pace with them for several miles. Suddenly it moves about 600 feet in front of them and to the left. When Austin drops Phyllis off at home in Wayne City, it is hanging in the southeast. They continue watching it about 15 minutes, then Austin leaves for home. As he turns east on a gravel road, it shoots ahead of him, taking on an orange hue. At one point it comes within 100 feet of his car, swerves upward, and passes above him as the car radio makes a whining noise and the car engine almost fails. The object then moves behind him from west to east. When he arrives home, it is hovering about 900 feet to the southeast. Ronnie is so shaken, he is given a sedative. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Orville Austin, and brother and sister also see the light, which finally becomes indistinguishable with a star by 1:10 a.m. (NICAP, “The Wayne City Car Chase (EM RA Traces)”; Jeffrey Liss, “The Light That Followed a Car,” Fate 16, no. 11 (November 1963): 26– 35 ; Schopick, pp. 81– 88 ) August 5 — The Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is signed by the USSR, UK, and US governments in Moscow, Russia, before being opened for signature by other countries. The treaty formally goes into effect on October 10. The treaty prohibits all above-ground tests of nuclear weapons. (Wikipedia, “Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty”) August 7 — The first flight of the USAF version of the A-12, the Lockheed YF-12 interceptor, takes place at Edwards AFB in California. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed YF- 12 ”) August 10 — 9:32 p.m. Several airmen of the 91st Bombardment Wing at Glasgow Air Force Base [now closed] near Glasgow, Montana, are walking in the parking lot when a bright light appears above them, bathing everyone in an orange glow. It is coming from a disc-shaped object with a dome that has some odd characters carved in it. The object moves up, then to the right, then down and left. It makes a square, then an X within the square, stopping at all points before moving again. The underside of the object is a large panel of blue light. They watch it for 3 minutes then it disappears. (“Out of the Past,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 6, no. 2 (April/May 1985): 3) August 2 0 — 9:30 p.m. Italian President Antonio Segni’s personal driver encounters a UFO near the entrance of the Castel Porziano Presidential Estate in Rome, Italy. When he sees a metallic domed disc with portholes moving in front of him in the driveway ahead, the driver stops the Fiat 2300 immediately. The UFO, about 65 feet diameter, passes a few feet above the car, making a hissing noise and causing the body to vibrate and the instruments to go crazy, then reverses course and passes over the car again with the same effect. It then tilts 90° and darts away to the west. It leaves behind a smell of heated metal. (1Pinotti 148– 151 ; “Quando gli UFO arrivarona anche in Italia,” Oggi Notizie, November 26, 2011) August 22 — Test pilot Joseph A. Walker reaches an altitude of 353,200 feet (66.9 miles) in an X-15 rocket plane. (Wikipedia, “Joseph A. Walker”) August 28 — After the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, J. Edgar Hoover singles out Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as a major target for COINTELPRO. Soon after, the FBI is systematically bugging King’s home and his hotel rooms, as they are now aware that King is growing in stature daily as the leader among leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. (Wikipedia, “COINTELPRO”) August 28 — 7:00 p.m. José Marcos Gomes Vidal, 7, and his friends Fernando, 12, and Ronaldo Gualberto, 7, are in the Gualbertos’s backyard in Sagrada Familia, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, to wash a coffee strainer in a cistern. Suddenly, Fernando notices a glow coming from the top of an avocado tree. When he looks up, he sees a UFO hovering above the tree’s branches. The craft, which is spherical and has a pair of antennas on top, is completely transparent. It holds four human-like passengers sitting inside, one of whom sits in front of a machine that appears

to be a control panel. The passengers are about 6 feet tall and dressed in spacesuits. They all have only one eye
like a cyclops. Three of them are thin and bald, while the other looks like an overweight woman with blonde hair.
The UFO shoots out two rays of yellow light. One of the cyclops appears between the lights, slowly floating down
onto the ground. Once his boots touched the earth, the creature begins to walk toward José, who is completely
unaware of what is happening since he is still collecting water. Fernando panics and tackles José, who falls to the
ground, and Fernando gets back up and faces the cyclops. Now all three boys are aware of the visitor. The
cyclops moves his head and makes hand signals. It speaks a few sounds in a strange language. The creature then
turns around and stares back at the UFO. Fernando, spotting a brick on the ground, picks it up and aims it at the
cyclops, who turns around and shoots Fernando’s hand with a yellow light from a triangular crest on his chest.
Fernando drops the brick, and all three of the boys become calm and frozen. For a few more minutes, the cyclops
speaks to them, then it points one of his fingers at the moon and begins to walk back toward the UFO. José asks if
he will ever come back. The cyclops shakes his head affirmatively, plucks a plant from the ground, and then
waves his hand at the UFO, which shoots out two rays of yellow light again. The cyclops slowly floats back up
into the vehicle, and the UFO takes off eastward and disappears out of their sight. (Brazil 66–72; Tristan, “The
Alien Cyclops of Sagrada Familia,” Bizarre and Grotesque, March 24, 2016)

September — Lt. Col. Robert J. Friend leaves Project Blue Book and is replaced by Maj. Hector Quintanilla. (Hynek UFO Report, pp. 25 – 27 ; Sparks, p. 14 ) September 7 — Capt. Swett gives a formal lecture on hypnosis to a meeting at the Unitarian Church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. After the lecture, the Hills tell him that Barney was going to a psychiatrist, Duncan Stephens, whom he likes and trusts. Swett suggests that Barney ask Stephens about the use of hypnosis in his case. At his next therapy session, Barney mentions his UFO encounter to Stephens, who recommends Dr. Benjamin Simon, a well- known psychiatrist in Boston, Massachusetts, with much experience in hypnosis. September 12 — Patrick Loreno and 18 other men aboard Texas Tower 2, a USAF radar station 110 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, spot an object 3 miles from their location. They report the sighting to the Coast Guard and request an investigation, but the object sinks before a boat can get there. The object has a controlled light and smoke or steam appears on its surface. The mn watch it for 20 minutes. There is no record of a ship or a submarine in the area. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 53) September 14 — 3:15 p.m. US Forest Service instructor Edward A. Grant and his son see a round object over Susanville, California, that at first seems to be a balloon, but is moving erratically. The movements are very fast and the direction changes very definite. They watch it pass overhead for several minutes. Suddenly, a long cylindrical object with fins along its sides appears from the north and passes overhead toward the south. The round object moves very rapidly to intercept the long object, ejecting a yellowish-brown trail, and merges with it. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects: A Further Look,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 4; Sparks, p. 295 ) September 19 — Adm. Roscoe Hillenkoetter writes to astronomer Donald H. Menzel, saying that his book The World of Flying Saucers has “effectively put to rest all surmises about flying saucers being from ‘outer space.’” (Christopher D. Allan, “Admiral Hillenkoetter: From Believer to Skeptic,” IUR 20, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1995): 17) September 19 — 6:50 p.m. More than 140 residents of Wonthaggi and South Dudley, Victoria, Australia, observe a mystery object like an orange beach ball maneuver in the sky for 25 minutes. At first it hovers, then it begins moving slowly and silently, putting on sudden and intermittent bursts of speed, before disappearing in an easterly direction into the Bass Strait. During the 25 minutes that the object is visible, TV sets malfunction in South Dudley, Wonthaggi, and lnverlock. TV sets variously display white screens, gray screens, double images, or snow and lines. Still other sets go completely blank. After the UFO leaves at 7:15, all TV sets resume normal operation. (“UAO’s Upset TV Reception,” APRO Bulletin, May 1964, pp. 1, 6; Schopick, pp. 109–111) September 19 — 8:00 p.m. Four children in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, see a bright, oval object hover in a field and drop something. Approaching the site, they are confronted by a man about 10 feet tall dressed in a white “monk-like” suit who holds out his hands and makes unintelligible sounds. The children flee, and one girl is admitted to the hospital in shock. (Vallée, Magonia, p. 294; Mark Cashman, “Behavioral Classification System for UFO Occupants,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 18 ) September 27 — Blue Book releases a statement on the Hill case, claiming insufficient information, although they strongly suspect the UFO is the planet Jupiter. (Clark III 581)

October — Maj. Hector Quintanilla is appointed director of Project Blue Book. He is assisted by Sgt. David Moody, who is particularly hostile to UFOs and tends to label every report as “possible” this or that. (Sparks, p. 14 ; Clark III 922 – 923 )

October — A Lisunov Li-2 airliner on the Guangdong to Wuhan, China, air route is chased by three luminous UFOs for 115 minutes. The pilots provide a minute-by-minute report by radio to the Chinese Civil Aeronautics Administration. After landing, the crew is debriefed by air traffic control, and the passengers are told not to discuss the incident with anyone. (Wendelle Stevens and Paul Dong, UFOs over Modern China, UFO Photo Archives, 1983, pp. 44 – 45) October — 9:30 p.m. Five members of a family in Millersport, Ohio, see what seems to be an airplane on fire, but the house-sized object approaches and hovers about 300 feet away. They see a dark disc with a dome and antenna on top and three ball-shaped protrusions on the bottom. Around the rim are evenly spaced openings that emit fiery beams. In the dome, several large windows are visible in which a figure can be seen, at least by the mother. The dome rotates as the object hovers, and it makes a low humming noise. It finally rises slowly and makes a small circle in the air before speeding away. (Michael Swords, “Close Encounters of the First Kind: Do We Really Care? Part Two,” The Big Study, February 15, 2012) October 4 — 1:00 p.m. Connecticut State Representative Luther B. Martin sees a delta-shaped, silvery object leaving a flare-like trail at Hartland, Connecticut. A row of black markings is visible along the blunt forward edge as the object passes from south to north. He estimates its speed at 2,000 mph. (“UFO Sightings Centered in Western U.S.,” UFO Investigator 2, no. 10 (Dec. 1963/Jan. 1964): 3) October 12 — 3:30 a.m. Driving in a blinding rainstorm on the road between Monte Maíz and Isla Verde, Córdoba, Argentina, Eugenio Douglas feels heat and a prickly sensation all over his body. He sees a brilliant light in front of him. Temporarily blinded, he loses control of his truck and ends up in the ditch. Shaken but not injured, he gets out of the vehicle and looks up at the road, which he finds is blocked by an oval-shaped object at least 30 feet high. A door opens on the side and three huge “robots in human form” emerge. They wear helmets with short antennas and are 12–15 feet tall. Douglas takes a few shots at them with his revolver and runs away. The robots return to the UFO, which chases him down the road and eventually flies away. The next day, police find large footprints near the abandoned truck. (Gordon Creighton, “Argentina, 1963–64,” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1965): 16–17; Clark III 280 ; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: July – December 1963, The Author, 2005, pp. 64– 65 ; Roberto Banchs, “Monte Maíz, Cordoba: La Vision Fantasmagorica de E. Douglas (11 Oct 1963),” Visión OVNI, November 10, 2008) October 21 — 9:30 p.m. Yolié del Valle Moreno and her family at Trancas, Tucumán, Argentina, observe six strange objects for 40 minutes in the back courtyard of their house. One UFO hovers at ground level above some railroad tracks, while another with a dome and portholes is near another house. They can see some 40 humanlike figures (silhouettes) moving around within two bright lights linked by a prolongation or tube. When witnesses flash a light at the object, the house is flooded with a strong beam. The temperature rises inside the house and the inhabitants smell a strong sulfurous odor. All six objects are about 24 feet in diameter, have a white and a red beam of light, and leave a cloud of white smoke that does not disperse for 4 hours. Beneath the space where one of the objects has been rocking back and forth, the witnesses find innumerable white balls one-quarter-inch in diameter piled into a cone 3 feet high and within a circle 28–30 feet in diameter. They consist primarily of calcium carbonate. (Gordon Creighton, “Argentina 1963–64, Part II,” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1966): 23–24; Oscar A. Galindez, “Trancas, after Seven Years,” Flying Saucer Review 17, no. 3 (May/June 1971): 14–20, 32; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: July – December 1963 , The Author, 2005, pp. 66– 74 ; Carlos Iurchuk, “Los Asombrosos Fenomenos de Trancas por el Dr. Oscar Galindez,” Visión OVNI, January 1, 2009) October 23 — 11:00 p.m. Driving south of South River, New Jersey, on State Route 18, a man glimpses something like a flashlight off to his left, and three figures, 3–4 feet tall, cross the road in front of him. They are dressed in “tight- fitting silver-gray one-piece suits” that “seem to glow once they hit the headlights.” Their heads are found, but the witness can see no other features. They begin quickly “fluttering” across the road, faster than the “fastest sprinter.” (Center for UFO Studies, [case documents]; Clark III 278) October 31 — Eight-year-old Rute de Souza hears a strange roar and watches a silvery object coming towards her house near Iguape, São Paulo, Brazil. It soars above her, hits a palm tree, gyrates a bit in the air, then falls into the Rio Peropava near the opposite shore. She runs to get her mother and uncle, who also hear the sound. They see the river boiling up in the spot, followed by an eruption of muddy water and mud. Fishermen, including Tetsuo Ioshigawa, also view the event. The UFO is estimated to be 25 feet in diameter. Divers, both equipped and unequipped, fail to find any wreckage in the river, which is only 12 feet deep. (“Disc Submerged in Brazilian River,” APRO Bulletin, January 1964, pp. 1– 2 ; Harry E. Rieseberg, “A Submerged UFO?” Exploring the Unknown 6, no. 2 (December 1965): 64–67; Brazil 517)

November — 5:00 p.m. A man and his daughter are driving just north of Andover, New Jersey, when they see three strange lights in the sky. They are perfect ovals possibly a quarter mile high. The lights take off at a great speed in “perfect unison” toward the north. (Center for UFO Studies, [case documents]) November 1 — A member of the CIA-trained 35th Black Cat Squadron, Republic of China pilot Yeh Changti is flying an American U- 2 reconnaissance aircraft to spy on China’s nuclear program when he is shot down by an SA- 2 missile over Shangrao, Jiangxi, and held in mainland China until 1982. Yeh is incarcerated for four years and undergoes numerous interrogations. Although some claim he was tortured, Yeh later says he was treated humanely. After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, he is released and sent to work on a farm, before being transferred to work at Hanyang Arsenal in Wuhan. (Wikipedia, “Yeh Changti”; Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 216 – 218 ) November 3 — The Hills give a presentation at the Two State UFO Study Group in Quincy Center, Massachusetts. One of the attendees tape-records the session. Another speaker at the session is Capt. Ben Swett of Pease AFB, himself a practicing hypnotist, who tells them he thinks hypnotic regression is a good idea. (Clark III 584) November 12 — The crew of the Argentine Naval auxiliary transport, ARA Punta Médanos, sees a large UFO off its stern [in the Atlantic Ocean?]. It is moving at high speed; when it appears, the needles of the ship’s magnetic compass suddenly and simultaneously swing off course, pointing towards the UFO, which is about 6,000 feet away. The compasses return to normal after the object leaves. (“Argentine Navy Discloses Important E-M Case,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1965): 6; Schopick, pp. 3– 4 ) November 16 — Evening. Four teenagers—John Flaxton, Mervyn Hutchinson, Jenny Holloway, and another youth—are in Sandling Park near Saltwood, Kent, England, when they see a moving reddish-yellow “star” above the woods. It comes down at an angle of 60°, then vanishes. Moments later, they see a bright, golden light in a field about 240 feet away, floating 10 feet above the ground, and seemingly 15–20 feet across. It seems to move along with the teens for a short while. It disappears behind trees, then a dark figure shambles out of the woods. It is all black, about the size of a human but without a head and has bat wings. The teenagers run away. Other witnesses come forward to report strange lights and giant footprints in the woods. (Charles A. Strickland, “Sightings at Saltwood, near Hythe, Kent,” LUFORO Bulletin 4, no. 5 (Nov./Dec./Jan. 1963–1964): 2–3; “The Saltwood Mystery: Strange Happenings in Kent,” Flying Saucer Review 10, no. 2(Mar./Apr. 1964): 11– 1 2; A. Cecil Harper, “A Saltwood Sighting,” BUFORA Journal and Bulletin 1, no. 1 (Summer 1964): 12; Nick Redfern, “An Update on a Sinister Winged Monster,” Mysterious Universe, June 14, 2018; Theo Paijmans, “The Headless Horrors of Sandling Road,” Fortean Times 374 (Christmas 2018): 30– 31 ; Clark III 779) November 17 — Jacques Vallée meets J. Allen Hynek for the first time at his residence in Evanston, Illinois. He begins actively assisting Hynek in his UFO work and helping him analyze Project Blue Book data. (Clark III 1213 ) November 20 — 6:00 p.m. Capt. J. Murray and three members of the crew of the Aberdeen collier Thrift see a flashing red light as they are traveling south in the North Sea from Aberdeen to Blyth, Northumberland, England. It passes within a mile of their port side, 15–30 feet above sea level and suddenly disappears 3 miles astern, presumably into the water. The collier, which puts about and makes for the object’s vanishing point, has 2 radar contacts on its screens, but they disappear as the ship approaches. They search for 3 hours but find no wreckage. (“Mystery at Sea,” Flying Saucer Review 10, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1964): 22) November 22 — President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas, by Lee Harvey Oswald. (Wikipedia, “Assassination of John F. Kennedy”; Wikipedia, “John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracies”)

Winter — A series of at least three incidents at Walker AFB [now closed] at Roswell, New Mexico, involve unidentified aerial craft maneuvering silently above an Atlas missile silo designated Site 9, northeast of Sunset, New Mexico. Three former missile personnel at the base—Jerry C. Nelson, Bob Caplan, and Gene Lamb—relay their experiences to Florida Today reporter Billy Cox in June 2001. (Nukes 147 – 152 ) December 10 — 11:30 p.m. A large, bright, dome-shaped UFO lands at RAF Cosford in Shropshire, England, seen by two student cadets returning late from leave. It bathes the area in intense green light from a height of 10 feet, then disappears behind a hangar. Scorch marks are later found where the object had been. (“A Landing at Cosford? More Confusion at the Air Ministry,” Flying Saucer Review 10, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1964): 17, iv; “The Cosford UFO: The Mystery Deepens,” Flying Saucer Review 10, no. 3 (May/June 1964): 31–32; “The Lesson of Cosford,” Flying Saucer Review 10. No. 4 (July/Aug. 1964): 1–2; Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: July – December 1963, The Author, 2005, pp. 85– 86 ; Good Above, pp. 56 – 58 ; Nick Redfern, “UFO Landing or Much Ado about Nothing?” Mysterious Universe, October 20, 2016) December 14 — The Hills have an initial meeting with Benjamin Simon, a well-known hypnotist in Boston, Massachusetts, recommended to them by Dr. Stephens. It is clear to Simon that the Hills believe they have seen a UFO, but which may have been an experimental aircraft. This has set in motion an anxiety-provoking psychological experience whose sources it might be possible to uncover through hypnosis. (Clark III 584)

December 27 — At Bank’s Stables in Epping, Essex, England, trainee riding instructor Pauline Abbott sees a shiny white UFO on the ground. It is about 8 feet long, 3 feet high at the center, and has what looks like a window on one side that is brighter than the rest of the object. It takes off, flies horizontally for 100 feet, and disappears. Grass is found flattened over a circular area. Marks “like three large fingerprints pushed together into mud” are found, forming a square with 8-foot sides within an 11-foot circular depression that contains a 3-foot central circle. (G. G. Doel, “The Epping Sightings,” BUFORA Journal and Bulletin 1, no. 1 (Summer 1964): 5–6; J. Cleary-Baker, “Evaluation by BUFORA Evaluating Officer,” BUFORA Journal and Bulletin 1, no. 1 (Summer 1964): 6–7)

1964

1964 — MKSEARCH is the name given to the continuation of the MKUltra program. The MKSEARCH program is divided into two projects dubbed MKOFTEN / CHICKWIT. Funding for MKSEARCH commences in 1965 and ends in 1971. The project is a joint project between the US Army Chemical Corps and the CIA Office of Research and Development to find new offensive-use agents with a focus on incapacitating agents. The purpose of the project is to develop, test, and evaluate capabilities in the covert use of biological, chemical, and radioactive material systems and techniques for producing predictable human behavioral and/or physiological changes in support of highly sensitive operational requirements. (Wikipedia, “Project MKUltra”) 1964 — Ray Stanford founds Project Starlight International to document the existence of UFOs. He establishes a Laboratory for Instrumented Research on a 400-acre site northwest of Austin, Texas, that includes two buildings. Equipment eventually includes radar, a laser system, magnetometers, a gravimeter, microcomputer, microphones, video equipment, and still cameras. In the event of UFO activity, the Operation ARGUS (Automated Ring-up on Geolocated UFO Sightings) computer kicks in and automatically telephones all volunteers within the computed visibility radius of the UFO. Volunteers attempt to locate and photograph the UFO visually. On June 8, 1977, the FCC licenses its Raytheon Model 1700 radar system with the call sign K12XBJ. (Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, pp. 259– 260 ; Ray Stanford, “A Technological Approach to UFOs: A Status Report on Project Starlight International, June 30, 1977,” IUR 2, no. 8 (August 1977): 5–7) 1964 — British writer W. Raymond Drake writes Gods or Spacemen?, the first of a series of books espousing his view that the world’s folklore, mythology, and religion are replete with references to space beings who came to Earth in several waves: the Uranids hundreds of thousands of years ago; the Saturnians centuries later; and the Jupiterians who landed near Crete. (W. Raymond Drake, Gods or Spacemen? Amherst, 1964; Wikipedia, “W. Raymond Drake”; Clark III 108 ; Jerome Clark, “Vimanas Have Landed: Ancient Astronautics in Ufology,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 2 7 – 28 )

January — Lionel Beer begins publishing Spacelink, a newsletter of the Isle of Wight UFO Investigation Society. It folds in April 1971. (Spacelink 1 , no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1964)) January 1 — Many witnesses in Shanghai, China, see a huge cigar-shaped UFO flying toward the southwest. MiG fighters are scrambled in pursuit but fail to intercept it. The official explanation is that it is a US missile. (Wendelle Stevens and Paul Dong, UFOs over Modern China, UFO Photo Archives, 1983, p. 45) January 4 — Barney Hill has his first hypnosis session with Benjamin Simon. The sessions will continue until June 6. The Hills undergo sessions separately, and for the most part are instructed not to remember their experiences afterwards. Barney’s sessions are particularly intense. However, by the end of the sessions, although they disagree with Simon on the nature of the experience, both the Hills and Simon agree that the therapy is successful. The stress and anxiety are gone. Simon submits a statement to the Hills’ insurance company, which initially declines to pay, until Simon explains that he was treating them for what will later be called PTSD. (Clark III 584– 585 ) January 23 — The landing craft Loellen M. is in the Gulf of Carpentaria between Cape Grey and Groote Eylandt, Northern Territory, Australia, when a crew member notices the compass is malfunctioning (“haywire”) and the vessel is off course, He notices an odd phosphorescence in the water on the starboard side about 6 feet away from the ship. It is a ghostly, pulsating white light that is rotating in a clockwise direction. It seems to be “miles across.” As the light wheel moves to the ship’s port side, another rotating light approaches the ship’s starboard side. This undoubtedly involves some unusual bioluminescence, but it is significant that it is the first “unknown” in the RAAF’s UFO files. (Swords 390) January 25 — The London UFO Research Organisation merges with the British UFO Association (a consolidation of several UFO groups in the UK) to form the British UFO Research Association. It begins publishing a new magazine, BUFORA Journal, in the summer. (“Editorial: The Problems Facing Us,” BUFORA Journal and Bulletin 1, no. 1 (Summer 1964): 2)

February 3 — 2:00 a.m. Doris Player wakes up to see her bedroom illuminated near Gum Creek, Kangaroo Island, South Australia. Suddenly a 5-foot 3-inch being wearing blue-green coveralls, a brown balaclava, and an open brown jacket appears. He wears elbow-length, black gloves with a cord going from his helmet to his left shoulder. He has a red face and a big nose and holds a black box that buzzes and clicks as he points it. The witness goes back to sleep. (Mark Cashman, “Behavioral Classification System for UFO Occupants,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 19– 20 ; Thomas Brisson, “UBO’s (Unidentified Box-like Objects), Part 2,” Vomanomalous, July 15, 2014; “Documentary on UFO’s, Adelaide, Australia, Part 1,” MaS7eRjEd3ye YouTube channel, February 5, 2009, at 6:05) February 10 — “The Bellero Shield” episode of Outer Limits airs on ABC-TV. It features an alien with wraparound eyes. UFO skeptic Martin S. Kottmeyer alleges that this episode influenced Barney Hill’s hypnotic recounting of events, although Betty Hill says they had never watched it. (Clark III 589; Internet Movie Database, “The Bellero Shield”; Martin Kottmeyer, “Entirely Unpredisposed: The Cultural Background of UFO Reports,” Magonia 35 (January 1990)) February 29 — President Lyndon B. Johnson holds a press conference to announce that the US has repeatedly broken the Soviet’s world record for air speed by a secret aircraft called the A- 11 —a fictitious name for the Air Force’s YF- 12, a twin-seat version of the Lockheed A-12 built as an interceptor. He says the A-11 can fly more than 2,000 mph at an altitude of 70,000 feet. The YF-12A is announced in part to continue hiding the A-12, its still-secret ancestor; any sightings of CIA/Air Force A-12s based at Area 51 in Nevada can be attributed to the well- publicized Air Force YF-12As based at Edwards Air Force Base in California. (Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 232 – 233 )

March — Allen H. Greenfield, Rick Hilberg, and Dale Rettig begin publishing the American UFO Committee Review in preparation for their first Congress of Scientific Ufologists meeting in Cleveland, Ohio. Greenfield publishes the journal in Atlanta, Georgia, for seven issues, until fall 1966. (American UFO Committee Review 1, no. 1 (March 1964 )) March 7 — Betty Hill has her first hypnosis session with Benjamin Simon. Betty’s account closely matches her dreams from 2 years earlier, and her account is consistent with Barney’s. Many abduction elements come to light: telepathic commands, semen extraction, a rectal probe, skin scrapings, a pregnancy test with a needle, the Star Map. The aliens are 5 feet tall with gray skin, oddly shaped heads, and broad foreheads. Simon discounts the possibility of an alien abduction and prefers to think that Betty’s dream influenced Barney’s memories. The Hills do not agree. (Wikipedia, “Barney and Betty Hill”)

April 1 — The UK Air Ministry, Admiralty, and War Office are consolidated into a new Ministry of Defence. The Air Ministry becomes the Air Force Department, within which is a secretariat called S4 (Air) that deals with, among other things, UFO reports from the public. Another office, Defense Secretariat 8, is created under the authority of the Secretary of State and also has authority over UFO reporting. (Wikipedia, “Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)”; Good Above, pp. 58 – 59 ) April 3 — 9:00 p.m. R. Wold, a graduate student in anthropology, and two others see four huge red lights in a rectangular formation, with a white light above, near the ground about one mile west of Monticello, Wisconsin. It tilts and flies away. (Sparks, p. 296) April 11 — 6:30 p.m. Physiotherapist William B. Ochsner and his wife and two children are having a picnic on a hill about 10 miles northwest of Homer, New York. They see an unusually wide vapor trail in the sky stretching from northeast to southwest. At the far end of the white trail is a smoky, spiral portion about one mile long. The vapor trail drifts off. After 10 minutes, Ochsner notices that the spiral portion is still visible, having moved a bit to the west. With binoculars, he sees wisps of smoke streaming out of it. It changes from a horizontal to a vertical position with greater smoke activity. It stops and hangs there for 2–3 minutes before sinking into the clouds. After another 3 minutes, they see a horizontal pencil-shaped object moving from left to right on the horizon. A flash of white light erupts from its end and shoots forward a short distance then stops. It becomes thick in the middle, a cloud of smoke emanates from it, and it shoots backward rapidly. Again it hovers and changes to a saucer shape. It then divides into two parts, one above the other. The top object slowly recedes into the distance, while the bottom objects heads downward at a 45° angle, divides in two again, with the top part fading away and the bottom part assuming a vertical pencil shape, which fades away. The whole display takes 45 minutes. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 60– 61 ; Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects and Cloud Cigars,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 7– 9 ; Sparks, p. 297 ) April 20 — Early morning, During Operation Deep Freeze VII, six members of a US Coast Guard aircraft sight a V-formation of 9 glowing-white objects speeding at an estimated 35,000 feet altitude. They are flying a in a C-130 turbo-prop

transport from McMurdo Station, Antarctica, with supplies. The right-side observer first sees the objects approaching at about 4 60 mph from above and to their right side. When they come abreast of the airplane, they slow to its speed. After a short time, they fly above the airplane and take up position above and to its left side. The pilot attempts to radio the ground but the radio is dead, and their radar also stops working. When the pilot tries to switch to auxiliary power, it too is not functioning. At one point the airplane’s engines stop (the oil begins to congeal in the cold air). Instead of losing altitude, it maintains “a steady altitude and course.” The airplane allegedly continues flying in complete silence, then it enters a “strange haze” (like a white-out) with the air filled with static electricity. There is electrical arcing from one observer’s body to metal inside the fuselage. The haze vanishes after about 20 minutes. The power suddenly returns, and the crew can restart the engines in sequence. The airplane has covered a distance of 305 miles during the 45– 50 minutes at indicated airspeed of 1 84 – 218 knots. (NICAP, “C-130 Crew Encounters UFO / EME to Radio and Radar”) April 22 — 9 :00 p.m. Marie Morrow, Ruth Ovelette, and Morrow’s son are driving west about 10–15 miles east of Lordsburg, New Mexico, when a brilliantly luminous object sweeps about 10 feet above their car from behind, illuminating the interior and emitting a whirring, whining sound. The UFO then rises but maintains its course along the highway before veering toward the north and vanishes. (“Huge Light Buzzed Car in New Mexico,” APRO Bulletin, May 1964, p. 10; Clark III 1091– 1092 ) April 24 — 10:00 a.m. Dairy farmer Gary Wilcox of Newark Valley, New York, is driving a tractor on his property when he sees a shiny object on the inside edge of a nearby patch of woods. He gets off the tractor and approaches the object, which is egg-shaped, 20 feet long, 16 feet wide, and four feet high. It is hovering two feet above the ground and making a sound like a car idling. He touches it and feels a hard metal. Two figures suddenly appear from under the object. They are 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide, dressed in seamless silvery garments. Each carries a tray filled with alfalfa, roots, soil, leaves, and brush. Wilcox hears a voice say, “Do not be alarmed. We have talked to people before.” They ask him what he is doing, and Wilcox says he is spreading manure. One humanoid asks if he can have some and converses some more about space exploration. They claim they are from Mars. After a while, the UFO takes off in a horizontal direction. Wilcox notices some small depressions where the figures were standing, as well as a thin, red, jellylike substance. (Olga M. Hotchkiss, “New York UFO and Its ‘Little People,’” Fate 17, no. 9 (September 1964): 38–42; Berthold E. Schwarz, “Gary Wilcox and the Ufonauts,” in Charles Bowen, ed., UFO Percipients, special issue no. 3 of FSR, September 1969, pp. 20 – 27; Clark III 795– 799 ; Marcus Lowth, “The Gary Wilcox Occupant Encounter: The Fertilizer Case,” UFO Insight, December 27, 2018; Story, pp. 246 – 249 ) April 24 — Around 5:50 p.m. Socorro, New Mexico, police officer Lonnie Zamora, while chasing a speeder, hears a continuous roaring sound and sees a brilliant blue “cone of flame” in the sky to the south-southwest. The bottom of the flame is out of sight behind a hill. Thinking there has been an explosion, he tries to pursue it, turning off to the right on a rough gravel road, but loses sight of it while trying to get the car up a steep hill. By the time he reaches the top, the sound stops and the flame is no longer visible. He then notices a metallic object in a ravine about 450 feet away. At first, he thinks it is an overturned car, but then he sees “two figures in what resembled white coveralls, pretty close to the object on the northwest side, as if inspecting it.” One seems to turn in a startled way as if he hears Zamora’s car approaching. The figures are small, and the object is oval-shaped and positioned so its long axis is horizontal. Zamora loses sight of object as he drives through a dip in the road. He radios headquarters that he is investigating a possible car accident. He stops a second time and gets out, hearing 2 – 3 loud thumping noises like a door shutting hard. He walks three steps to the front of the car to possibly 5 0 feet away from the object when he hears a very load roar increasing in volume and sees a smokeless blue-orange flame coming from beneath. He notes a red insignia or lettering on the side of the object. Zamora thinks it is going to explode and runs away, putting the car between him and the object and dropping to the ground. He feels some slight heat from the flame. The roaring noise stops, and Zamora looks up to see the UFO flying away to the southwest at a level height, just clearing an 8 - foot dynamite shack. He runs back to the patrol car and radios headquarters, just as the object climbs slowly and goes past Box Canyon or Six Mile Canyon Mountain (about 6 miles away). The entire incident takes place in less than 2 minutes. Police Sgt. M. S. Chavez arrives, and they find burning brush (including a badly damaged creosote bush) where the UFO has been, as well as four asymmetrically placed, trapezoidal imprints 12–16 inches long, 6–8 inches wide, and 4–6 inches deep. An FBI agent, D. Arthur Byrnes Jr., who has heard about it on the police radio, speaks with Zamora in the evening. He notifies army intelligence at White Sands Missile Range, who sends Capt. Richard T. Holder. Military police arrive and collect samples, working by flashlight. The next morning, Holder gets a call from a colonel at the war room of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asking for a report. T/Sgt. David Moody from ATIC and Maj. William Conner from Kirtland AFB check the area for radioactivity on April 26. Hynek arrives on April 28 and interviews Zamora and Chavez. Richard H. Hall and Ray Stanford arrive for NICAP and obtain some metal traces on a rock in the landing area; they take the sample to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where metallurgist Henry E. Frankel

agrees to analyze the material. His tentative analysis suggests a zinc-iron alloy, perhaps from a zinc pail. In 1966, Blue Book chief Maj. Hector Quintanilla writes in a classified article in Studies in Intelligence that “This is the best-documented case on record, and still we have been unable, in spite of a thorough investigation, to find the vehicle or other stimulus that scared Zamora to the point of panic.” Some investigators think the case might involve a test of a Lunar Surveyor module from White Sands. (Wikipedia, “Lonnie Zamora incident”; NICAP, “Lonnie Zamora / Socorro Landing Case”; Sparks, p. 297; “UAO Landing in New Mexico,” APRO Bulletin, May 1964, pp. 1, 3–10; “Physical Evidence: Landing Reports,” UFO Investigator 2, no. 11 (July/Aug. 1964): 4 – 5; Coral Lorenzen, “UFO Lands in New Mexico,” Fate 17, no. 8 (August 1964): 27–38; Hector Quintanilla Jr., “The Investigation of UFOs,” Studies in Intelligence 10, no. 4 (February 1966): 95–110; Clark III 1083– 1093 ; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 165– 166 ; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 223 – 229 ; Good Above, pp. 343 – 345 , 371 – 373 ; Story, pp. 341 – 344 ; Lorenzen, Encounters with UFO Occupants, Berkley Medallion, 1976, pp. 8 – 11; Ray Stanford, Socorro ‘ Saucer ’ in a Pentagon Pantry, Blueapple, 1976; “The Socorro, New Mexico, Landing: Additional Witnesses?” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1978): 15; ClearIntent, pp. 139 – 141 ; Kenneth Eugene Firestone and Ronald L. Firestone, “Socorro, New Mexico: Revisited,” Ground Saucer Watch, 1981; Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 62–66; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 78– 80 ; David E. Thomas, “A Different Angle on the Socorro UFO of 1964,” New Mexicans for Science and Reason, 2001; Paul Harden, “The 1964 Socorro UFO Incident,” El Defensor Chieftain, August 2, 2008; Kevin D. Randle, “Socorro UFO Landing Analysis,” A Different Perspective, November 22, 2009; Kevin D. Randle, “The Socorro Symbol: Resolved?” A Different Perspective, October 15, 2016; Kevin D. Randle, “No Socorro Solution by Chief of Project Blue Book,” A Different Perspective, November 7, 2017; Kevin D. Randle, “Zamora vs. People,” A Different Perspective, November 9, 2017; Kevin D. Randle, Encounter in the Desert: The Case for Alien Contact at Socorro, New Page, 2017 ; Justice Fodor, “Ray Stanford and His NASA-Goddard UFO-Metal Cover-Up Claim,” Alien Expanse, February 14, 2019; Center for UFO Studies, [correspondence]; Center for UFO Studies, [case files: Files 1 and 4R, Files 2, Files 3, MiscR, Zamora]; Center for UFO Studies, [Clippings 1 , Clippings2]) April 25 — Morning. J. D. Hatch is driving on US Hwy 70 between Mescalero and Tularosa, New Mexico, when a bright oval object descends and seemingly lands on the other side of Round Mountain east of Tularosa. (Clark III 1092) April 25 — Evening. Two motorists driving on US Hwy 84 between Abiquiu and Espanola, New Mexico, see a strange object that is definitely not an airplane fly straight toward their car before shooting away. All they can see is a blue-flamed exhaust. (Clark III 1092) April 25? — Night. Two Spanish-speaking people 9 miles away from Golden, New Mexico, watch a light come down from the sky and leave three “smelted” circles some 2 feet in diameter and separated from each other by 20 feet. They mention this story to James Scartacinni, 15, and his grandfather visit the site the next day and find the circles, which they estimate must have been subjected to a temperature of 2,300° F. They return to town and call the state police, who notify the military. Almost immediately, men in uniform cordon off the area, dig up the burned areas to a depth of one foot, and carry the material away. (“Hunting Old and New UFOs in New Mexico,” IUR 7, no. 2 (March 1982):12) April 26 — Around 1:00 a.m. Orlando Gallegos steps outside his father’s ranch at La Madera, New Mexico, to chase away some horses in the yard. He sees a peculiar structure in the Rio Vallecitos creek bed some 900 feet away. It looks like a butane tank “as long as a telephone pole” about 14 feet in diameter, metallic, and shooting blue flames out of holes in the sides. As he watches over the next minute, the flames subside. It is still there when he goes inside, where no one else believes him. It is gone the next morning, but state police (including Capt. Martin E. Vigil, David Kingsbury, and Albert Vega) investigate and find the ground still smoldering and scorched with four depressions, one of them 8 by 12 inches in size. The charred area is in the shape of two overlapping circles and about 20 feet across. Hynek is refused authorization to go visit the site. (“Mystery Object Report Is Told,” Albuquerque Tribune, August 27, 1966, p. 1; Lorenzen, FSHoax, pp. 222– 223 ; Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 54 – 55; “Hunting Old and New UFOs in New Mexico,” IUR 7, no. 2 (March 1982):12–13; Clark III 1092; Sparks, p. 298) April 28 — Early evening. A round, whitish object hovers then darts away over Anthony, New Mexico. State policeman Raúl Arteche sees it moving west over the Port of Entry near El Paso, Texas. He says it looks like the object Lonnie Zamora saw. (“Other Recent Sightings,” UFO Investigator 2, no. 11 (July/Aug. 1964): 7) April 28 — Early morning. Don Adams is driving in Edgewood, New Mexico, when his car stalls. He sees a glowing, greenish object 100 feet overhead and fires six rounds from a .32 pistol at it with no effect. He can hear the bullets bouncing off. It silently moves away to the north. (“Other Recent Sightings,” UFO Investigator 2, no. 11 (July/Aug. 1964): 7; “Green Object at Edgewood,” APRO Bulletin, September 1964, p. 3)

April 30 — A B-57 pilot at Holloman AFB, Alamogordo, New Mexico, radios to the control tower that he is watching an egg-shaped, white UFO with markings that match the Socorro object. He continues to watch it as it lands at the base. Coral and Jim Lorenzen insist they heard the story from a reliable source. In addition, a ham radio operator claims to have heard the exchange between the pilot and control tower. Holloman AFB denies the incident occurred. Shortly afterward, an airman walks into a clothing store in Alamogordo and spins an incredible story of a UFO parked in a hangar under heavy guard at Holloman. A couple days later, he returns to the store and denies everything. (Coral Lorenzen, “UAO Landing at Air Force Base,” APRO Bulletin, July 1964, pp. 1, 3–4; Coral Lorenzen, “UFO Lands at Air Force Base,” Fate 17, no. 10 (October 1964): 45–52; Clark III 332) April 30 — 10:30 p.m. Several children living in Canyon Ferry, Montana, see a lighted, egg-shaped object the size of an automobile land about 150 feet away, then take off. The witnesses are Linda Davis, 11, and children of the Harold Rust family. It leaves four 8 x 10 inch rectangular indentations in the ground, 4–8 inches deep, about 13 feet apart, and a burned area. (“Kids Called Hoaxers by U.S.A.F,” APRO Bulletin, July 1964, pp. 1, 5; Lorenzen, FSHoax, pp. 223– 224 ; Sparks, p. 298)

May — NICAP publishes its special 184-page report, The UFO Evidence, but due to a printing delay, copies are not actually available until late June. Copies are sent to the media and to every member of Congress on July 1. Edited by Richard H. Hall, it consists of a summary of hundreds of unexplained reports studied by NICAP investigators through 1963. Sightings are systematically broken down by witness category and special types of evidence. Individual chapters are devoted to sightings by military personnel, pilots and aviation experts, and scientists and engineers. Another chapter is devoted to evidence of intelligent control and another to physical evidence or interactions, such as electromagnetic effects, radar tracking, photographs, sound, physiological effects. Another section examines observed patterns, such as descriptions of shape, color, maneuvers, flight behavior, and concentrations of sightings. House Majority Leader John W. McCormack (D-Mass.) requests two copies, one for his Capitol Hill office and another for his state home office. (Richard H. Hall, ed., The UFO Evidence, NICAP, 1964; Wikipedia, “National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena”; Richard Hall, “NICAP and Lessons from the Past,” IUR 17, no. 3 (May/June 1992): 17, 24) May 5 — 8:30 a.m. Alfred Ernst, a farmer near Comstock, Minnesota, sees a luminous UFO like a child’s top from about 1,500 feet away. It rises straight up and disappears into the overcast sky after a few seconds. Ernst and his brother find a crater-like depression, about 3 feet in diameter and 6 inches deep at the center, at the spot where the object was sitting. A series of smaller holes form an X around the larger depression. The earth seems burned on the perimeter of the hole and a whitish substance is found. (“Physical Evidence: Landing Reports,” UFO Investigator 2, no. 11 (July/Aug. 1964): 5 ; Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 56 – 58 ) May 13 — 10:15 p.m. Mrs. M. Walter McKarley and her children see a large round object that appears in their headlights after they pull into a driveway at Rio Vista, California. It seems to be resting on the ground about a quarter of a mile away. Higher in the sky is a small star-like object (probably Venus). As they drive away, the large object seems to pace their car for a short time. It then moves swiftly to the left and disappears behind a water tank. (“Physical Evidence: Landing Reports,” UFO Investigator 2, no. 11 (July/Aug. 1964): 6) May 15 — Between 11:30 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. Two targets are simultaneously tracked on surveillance and FPS-16 radars at Stallion Site, the most northerly range of the Army-controlled Holloman–White Sands complex a few miles east of San Antonio, New Mexico. The targets are north of the radar site, performing “perfect, precise flight maneuvers” in tandem, involving separations and rejoins and “up-and-down ‘pogo’ maneuvers.” One radar operator obtains a visual sighting of two brown-colored, football-shaped objects that are flying at very low altitude and are lost from view behind buildings at the site. The two targets are displayed as skin paints. However, IFF transponder codes are also received on two different frequencies alternately. (NICAP, “UFO Auto-Tracked, Sends Phony IFF”) May 1 9 — 7:00 a.m. Mike Bizon, 10, sees a square or spindle-shaped, bright-silver UFO on the ground in Hubbard, Oregon, while he is leading a cow out to pasture. The cow, normally eager to be let out, acts very reluctant and nervous. The object is resting on four legs in an adjacent wheat field. It rises slowly off the ground to the height of a telephone pole, then zooms straight up emitting a soft beeping sound. Bizon smells an odor like gas fumes. Three imprints in the shape of an equilateral triangle are found in an area of flattened wheat about 4 feet wide. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 53 – 54 ) May 21 — 4:30 a.m. At Altus AFB, Oklahoma, Missile Site 7, southeast of Ranchland, Texas, a large bright light is seen directly over the facility below 10,000 feet. The light is bright enough to light up the silo cap. Its apparent size is as large as a basketball held at arm’s length. The object is first noticed hovering over the south fence of Site 7 for 8 – 10 minutes. (NICAP, “Light Hovers over Missile Silo”; Nukes 159–160)

May 24 — James P. Templeton, using a Pentacon camera with Kodacolor X stock, takes a photo of his 5-year-old daughter Elizabeth when his family is picnicking on the marshes at Burgh by Sands, Cumbria, England. When the film is developed, a man, encased in a white spacesuit and helmet, is clearly visible behind Elizabeth’s head. Templeton and his family claim they had seen no one when the photo was taken. He tells the Carlisle police, who are puzzled. Kodak is intrigued enough to conduct an inquiry. They rule out a double exposure. However, one possibility is that the image is an overexposed view of the back of Templeton’s wife. After the photo receives some local publicity, Templeton gets a call from someone describing himself as an investigator. Templeton agrees to meet with him and an associate and visit the marsh. Two men dressed in dark business suits show up and drive him to the site. They refuse to give Templeton their names, referring to themselves only as “9” and “11.” They are mostly interested in finding out if any nearby animals had been agitated. Then they insist that the figure was just a passerby, get angry, and drive away, leaving Templeton stranded and having to walk home 5 miles away. (Gordon W. Creighton, “The Mysterious Templeton Photograph,” Flying Saucer Review 10, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1964): 11– 12; Jenny Randles, “The Riddle of the Templeton Photograph,” IUR 20 , no. 4 (July/Aug. 1995): 12– 15 ; “The Templeton photograph” [in color], Flying Saucer Review 46, no. 2 (Summer 2001): inside cover; Jenny Randles, “Casebook: The Solway Spaceman,” Fortean Times 196 (May 2005): 29; Andy Roberts and David Clarke, “Farewell to the Solway Spaceman?” Fortean Times 286 (April 2012): 28–29; Jenny Randles, “Moderations, Part One: Lost and Found Files,” Fortean Times 292 (September 2012): 29; Clark III 1126– 1127 ; Patrick Gross, “The Solway Firth Photograph, 1964”) May 26 — 7:43 p.m. Paul Wańkowicz, RAF pilot and ex-Smithsonian satellite tracker, sees a thin, white ellipsoid, estimated at 15–20 feet in length at 1,000 feet altitude, at Cambridge, Massachusetts. It flies straight and level from nearly overhead to the east-northeast, where it disappears behind the roof of a Sears Roebuck store as viewed from his car in the parking lot to the south. He briefly loses sight of it as it passes behind cumulus cloud cover. No noise or trail. The tops of cumulus clouds are at least 3,500 feet altitude, thus the UFO’s speed is at least 700 mph and length 50– 70 feet. (NICAP, [Blue Book documents]; Sparks, p. 299) May 26 — 10:00 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. Terry Balliet, their family, and two neighbors see two UFOs in the northwest sky near Palmerton, Pennsylvania. One is a large, stationary, dome-like object emitting hazy whitish light from the underside. A smaller disc-like object is intermittently visible maneuvering around the larger one. It finally merges with the large object, which moves away to the east. The large object is seen twice more in the evening, moving back and forth from east to west. (“Other Recent Sightings,” UFO Investigator 2, no. 11 (July/Aug. 1964): 7) May 26 — 11:00 p.m. Rev. H. C. Shaw sees a yellow-orange light shaped like the bottom of a ball in a field at Pleasant View, Pennsylvania, and chases it down the road for two miles. (Sparks, p. 299)

Summer — 10:00 p.m. A meteorologist at Westford, Massachusetts, sees a bright lightning flash 5 miles to the south. At the same time, his car headlights and the headlights of an approaching car go out, as well as his radio. No thunderclap is heard. He notes that the sky is clear and there are no thunderstorms in the entire Boston area. (“Astronomers and UFO’s: A Survey, Part 2, Sightings,” IUR 2, no. 4 (April 1977): 4) June — 2:00 a.m. A young couple is driving home from a dance at a small place north of Santa Barbara, California, when a circular, glowing object silently appears above their car. They stop to watch. It is about 100 feet high and 40 feet in diameter and seemingly emits some heat. It hovers for 2 minutes then speeds off ahead of them, lighting up the valley as it goes and apparently traveling about 1,800–2,400 mph. (“Correspondence,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1982): 3) June — 6:30 p.m. Bert Gammie, his mother, and his daughter Lynn are driving along the northern shore of Green Lake, British Columbia, when they see a light above a mountain across the lake to the south. Soon they notice it is moving and is now almost directly overhead. He stops the car and gets out for a closer look. The object is circular, dull metallic, and has a series of vents in the tail trailing white, blue, red, and orange exhaust. They watch it for 3 minutes moving slowly to the north at about 50 mph and making a whistling noise. It makes a sharp right-angle turn, proceeds west, and disappears from sight. Gammie reports the sighting to the RCAF in Vancouver, and a senior air force officer visits him later and shows him a bulky portfolio of glossy UFO photos, many of them showing detailed features. Gammie tells him that the UFO he had seen did not exactly resemble any of the photos, and the officer tells him that the RCAF would not admit to interviewing him if the case receives any publicity. (“‘That Awful Looking Shooting Star,’” Canadian UFO Report 3, no. 5 (1975): 14) June — BUFOI magazine (Belgian UFO Information) is launched by a George Adamski group in Anvers, Belgium, and edited by May and Patrick Morlet. It runs until 1979. (BUFOI Magazine, no. 1 (June 1964)) June 2 — 4:00 p.m. Charles Keith Davis is outside his grandmother’s home in Hobbs, New Mexico, when a small, tan, top-shaped object with a soot-like trail appears and hovers above the boy’s head, enveloping him in a cloud. He starts crying and screaming, and the object shoots straight up and disappears. His hair is singed and his face and

ears are swollen and burned, although he does not feel any pain. They take him to the hospital, where doctors notice the soot embedded in his flesh. The burns respond well to treatment and he stays 5 nights in the hospital. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 191–192) June 14 — 8:35 p.m. Charles Englebrecht, 18, is watching TV at home in Dale, Indiana, when the house lights and TV suddenly go out. He notices that a small, bright orange-colored, basketball-sized object has landed in his back yard. As he goes out the side door and tries to approach it, he feels a tingling sensation and has difficulty moving. After a few seconds the sphere takes off and goes over the nearby barn. Several items in the backyard have been moved (lawn mower, chicken feeder). He smells sulfur or burning rubber and find three imprints in a triangle with the dimensions of 2 feet by 4.5 feet by 4.5 feet. (NICAP, “The Dale Landing Case”) June 2 7 — Teenage UFO buffs Allen H. Greenfield, Rick Hilberg, and Dale Rettig hold the first Congress of Scientific Ufologists in Cleveland, Ohio. It becomes an annual meeting and changes its name to the National UFO Conference, which runs until 2005. (Wikipedia, “National UFO Conference”; “Ufologists to Meet,” Lexington (Ky.) Herald, June 22, 1964, p. 20; Story, p. 91 ; David Halperin, “Cleveland 2015: ‘Congress of Scientific Ufologists’ 50th Reunion,” davidhalperin.net, June 25, 2015; National UFO Conference, “Congress of Scientific UFOlogists”) June 30 — 1:00 a.m. Beauford E. Parham is driving near Lavonia, Georgia, on his way back from a business trip when he notices a brilliant light in the sky. It is moving towards his car at a 45° angle. In an instant it appears right in front of his headlights, no more than 5 feet away and a foot above the ground. Shaped like a giant top, it emits a “hissing sound like a million snakes.” The amber-colored UFO has a sharp, steeple-like cone rising from its top midsection. It moves above his car leaving a strong odor of embalming fluid and a gaseous vapor that leaves an oily substance over his car, even after repeated washings. After several passes over his car, it starts spinning and takes off vertically. Parham now notices his arms are beginning to burn. He immediately reports his sighting to the mayor of Lavonia, then personnel at the Anderson Regional Airport in South Carolina, where he meets local FAA officials who check his car for radiation. They get readings from the oily stains, as well as both his arms from the shoulder down. (“Man Claims Car Buzzed by an Unknown Object,” Greenwood (S.C.) Index-Journal, July 3, 1964, p. 5; NICAP, “Lavonia / Tallulah Case (Radiation)”; Schopick, pp. 71–72; Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 5– 7 ; Clark III 678– 680 )

July 7 — Around 9:00 p.m. Three members of the Henry Ivester family in Turnerville, Georgia, are watching TV when sudden interference prevents them from further viewing. They go out on the front porch and see an object moving silently above the trees 300 feet away. It stops to hover a few feet above a neighbor’s garden across the highway. Its bottom side is fully visible; on the dark upper side are three lights: red, clear, red. The red lights are blinking. As the object ascends, the lights go out. A brilliant green light then shines from the bottom, illuminating the trees. A foul odor “like embalming fluid or brake fluid” hangs in the air after the object leaves. (“Unearthly Objects Hovering in Sky?” Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution, July 17, 1964, p. 23; Schopick, pp. 72–73; Clark III 679; “An Interesting UFO Story from Georgia,” The Paranormal Effect, October 3, 2010) July 12 — Assistant Professor Vyacheslav Zaitsev is aboard a Tupolev Tu-104 airliner above Bologoye, Tver Oblast, Russia, when he sees a huge disc with a domed cabin suddenly appear below the aircraft, fly a parallel course for a while, then swerve abruptly and speed away. (Felix Ziegel, “Unidentified Flying Objects,” Soviet Life, no. 137 (February 1968): 28; “Russian Scientist Confirms Important Cases,” UFO Investigator 4, no. 5 (March 1968): 6; Good Above, p. 220 ) July 14 — After 11:00 p.m. Atlanta Constitution reporter Tom Winfield sees a top-shaped, misty-orange object circling above the southeast section of Gainesville, Georgia, at about 500 feet. It stops and hovers a few moments then shoots up out of sight. He takes a photo, but nothing registers on the film. (“Unearthly Objects Hovering in Sky?” Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution, July 17, 1964, p. 23) July 15 — MP Arthur Henderson in the UK House of Commons asks the former Secretary of State for Air Hugh Fraser about cooperation between the RAF and USAF in UFO investigations. Fraser says he is aware of the US Project Blue Book, and that 10% of the cases are insufficient evidence. (Good Above, p. 60 ) July 16 — Shortly after noon. Five boys (Edmund Travis, Randy Travis, Floyd Moore, Billy Dunlap, and Gary Dunlap) are playing around an apple tree at Conklin, New York, when they notice a shiny, dome-shaped object in a field along the roadside. Looking for the source of a whistling sound, the boys spot a 3-foot-tall humanoid figure crouching in a tree about 150 feet away. It is dressed in a shiny black uniform, short-sleeved shirt, and black helmet. The whistling appears to emanate from his stomach. The boys throw stones and apples at it, but the figure is too far away. After about 15 minutes, the figure, moving stiffly, falls backwards out of the tree and floats slowly into the bushes. They can see it crawling through the weeds back to the UFO. A round, flattened area is found in the field where the grass is crushed and bushes are broken. In the middle is dried, yellow moss that

apparently has been subjected to great heat. Three depressions are where the UFO legs apparently were. (Clark III 296 – 297 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, July 10, 2007) Late July — 4:30 p.m. Richard H. VanPelt and his teenage son are driving on Beeler Road south of Shawnee High School in Lima, Ohio, when they see a Saturn-shaped metallic object hovering above Breese Road 600 feet away. It is about 1,200–1,500 feet in the air and has a revolving ring around its center. It suddenly starts to move to the southwest, then tips on end and with tremendous speed goes straight up and out of sight. (Richard H. VanPelt, “Letter,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 3 (June/July 1984): 2)

August — 7:00 p.m. Raimo Blomqvist is visiting with his parents at their summer cottage at Kallavesi lake, Finland, when he suddenly notices a strange, colorful ball of light coming from the sky. The light approaches and turns out to be an oval glowing object. While it is hovering above the shallow water of an island he sees something fall from the object and hears a sound resembling hot metal touching cold water. The object shoots straight upward. Blomqvist recovers a 2–2.5-inch piece of stone. In 1975, Blomqvist contacts UFO investigators and gives them the stone. The fragment is x-ray analyzed at Åbo Akademi University in Turku, which states that it appears to be volcanic. Analysts at the University of Turku look at it with a mass spectrometer and conclude it is mostly iron, not a piece of ore, not volcanic, not a meteorite, and not machined, although it has been subjected to a temperature of around 650° C. (“Fragment Fell from UFO,” APRO Bulletin 26, no. 6 (December 1977): 1, 3; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 3 (Mar. 1978): 2) August — Midnight. Air Policeman Arthur McEnaney and other guards see a round UFO hovering above a four-silo Atlas complex near Francis E. Warren AFB, Cheyenne, Wyoming. (Nukes 159) August 9 — 9:00 p.m. Baltazar Flores, Franciso Perez, Ruben Lozaya, and Elpidio Salas are camping near the Cerro Viejo, Sonora, Mexico, where they plan to explore for minerals. Suddenly a “dark, cloud-like object” approaches at high speed. As it passes by, the trees shake and they hear an explosion. They return the next day and less than 2 miles from their campsite they find a compact, gelatinous mass of green-turquoise color about 8 inches long. When they poke it with a stick, the stick becomes covered with a sticky substance like chewing gun. They report the incident to the authorities, but no one is interested. One of the witnesses returns 3 days later and finds most of the mass gone, with some residue on the rocks and grass. (“Strange Gelatinous Fall in Mexico,” APRO Bulletin, November 1964, p. 1; Clark III 1102) August 11 — 5:30 p.m. John Dodson, 15, and Frankie Jimenez, 14, are walking near the railroad tracks south of State Highway 281 east of Defiance, Ohio, not too far from the General Motors foundry. They see a slowly rotating whitish disc apparently hovering above a GM water tank. The object has a lighted flange-like base, a dome on top, and is making a whirring or hissing noise. It begins to move horizontally at a moderate speed, then shoots up vertically and disappears. (“Maney Reports Boys’ Sighting,” APRO Bulletin, November 1964, p. 5) August 18 — 12:35 a.m. USAF Major D. W. Thompson and First Pilot 1st Lt. J. F. Jonke are flying a C-124 transport with the 31st Air Transport Squadron, 1607th Air Transport Wing, 200 miles east of Dover AFB in Delaware at 9,000 feet over the North Atlantic. A blurred reddish-white glare appears ahead and 500 feet below them on a collision course. Thompson takes evasive action, and the light makes a right turn and disappears. Air traffic control shows nothing on their radar in that location. (NICAP, “Object on Collision Course with C- 124 ”; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 50– 51 ; Sparks, p. 300) August 22 — 9:35 p.m. Robert D. Briele, an engineer for WFBR-AM radio, and a friend watch a lighted triangular object pass directly overhead in Baltimore, Maryland. Through binoculars he can see a steady white light at each corner. A small green light is also on one corner and a red light in the center. The object moves slowly and silently from northeast to southwest, disappearing in 10 minutes. (“UFO Sighting Wave Persists,” UFO Investigator 2, no. 12 (Sept./Oct. 1964): 5) August 30 — Night. Clifford Runyon and Connie Thies are driving from Tipton to Bennett, Iowa, when they see a cigar- shaped object with two bright lights hovering 500 feet up in the eastern sky. The UFO climbs as they drive toward it, and their radio goes out and the car engine sputters. (“UFO Sighting Wave Persists,” UFO Investigator 2, no. 12 (Sept./Oct. 1964): 5)

September 4 — Declassified documents show that from 1962 through 1964, the CIA has spent a total of $2.6 million to finance the campaign of Eduardo Frei Montalva for the presidency of Chile and spent $3 million in anti–Salvador Allende propaganda “to scare voters away from Allende’s FRAP coalition.” Richard Helms coordinates the action. The CIA considers its role in the victory of Frei a great success. They argue that “the financial and organizational assistance given to Frei, the effort to keep [Julio] Durán in the race, the propaganda campaign to denigrate Allende—were ‘indispensable ingredients of Frei’s success,’” and they think that his chances of

winning and the good progress of his campaign would have been doubtful without the covert support of the US. Thus, in 1964 Allende loses once more as the FRAP candidate for president. (Wikipedia, “Salvador Allende”) September 5 — 10:00 p.m. Donald Schrum and his friends are bow-and-arrow hunting in an isolated area of Placer County, California, near the Loch Leven Lakes in the vicinity of Cisco Grove. Schrum becomes separated from his companions. At sunset he decides to sleep in a tree for the night. Later he sees a white light zigzagging at low altitude and, thinking it is a helicopter, jumps out of the tree and lights fires to attract its attention. The light turns toward him and stops about 50–60 yards away. The object’s strange appearance frightens Schrum, so he climbs back up in the tree. After a while two humanoid beings and a robot-like creature approach the tree. From then on, Schrum is in a state of siege as the beings try to dislodge him from the tree. At one point a white vapor emanates from the robot’s mouth and Schrum blacks out, but wakes up again, nauseous, and begins lighting matches and throwing them down to frighten the beings away; they back away. Finally, he shoots an arrow at the robot; when it hits, there is an arc flash and the robot is knocked backwards. This is repeated two more times, and the humanoids scatter each time. A second robot appears and a vapor renders Schrum unconscious. When he awakes, he discovers that the two humanoids are climbing up the tree toward him, so he shakes the tree and throws things down at them to ward them off. The same actions are repeated all night. Near dawn, more beings approach and “large volumes of smoke” drift up and he blacks out. He awakes hanging from his belt, and the creatures are gone. Later, when reunited with his companions, Schrum finds that one of the other hunters, who also have gotten lost and separated from their camp, saw the UFO. (NICAP, “Cisco Grove / Alien Encounter”; Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 17 – 23; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 210– 212 ; Sparks, p. 301; Clark III 236– 240 ; Ted Bloecher and Paul Cerny, “The Cisco Grove Bow and Arrow Case of 19 64,” IUR 20, no. 5 (Winter 1995): 16–22, 32) September 14 — 10:55 p.m. Astronomers Luis Ferro and Renato Matteassi at the San Miguel Observatory, Buenos Aires, Argentina, watch an object with the apparent size twice that of the Moon passing across the constellation Lyra. The central portion is white and green, while the rear looks like half-rings of blue. Its speed is estimated as three times the speed of sound. They watch it for 3 minutes moving toward Jupiter. (Gordon Creighton, “Argentina 1963/1964: Part IV,” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 3 (May/June 1966): 28) September 15 — 8:27 a.m. USAF Lt. Robert Jacobs is officer-in-charge of photo-optical instrumentation for the 1369th Photographic Squadron at Vandenberg AFB [now Vandenberg Space Force Base] near Lompoc, California. His crew films an SM-65F Atlas missile launch where a UFO allegedly causes the ICBM’s warhead to malfunction over Big Sur, California. At the time of the filming, apparently no one knows anything about a UFO sighting. But the next morning, Jacobs is ordered to report to the office of Maj. Florenz J. Mansmann, First Strategic Aerospace Division, his commanding officer, where he is shown the film and told to forget it ever happened. Kingston George, the project engineer for the experiments and who probably never saw the film, “identified” the object as “nothing to do with UFOs” in an article in the Skeptical Enquirer. Before Mansmann’s death, and 40 years after the actual event, the major confirms the UFO incident in writing. The controversy centers on the opinions of some researchers who suggest that the telescope imaging system is not adequate enough to produce the results described by Jacobs and Mannsman. However, several other researchers have shown that, with the viewing conditions at the height of the equipment used, and the imaging systems operating at that shoot, the incident could have occurred as described. (NICAP, “The Big Sur Filming / UFO Disables Dummy Warhead?”; Robert Jacobs, “How a UFO Destroyed an American Rocket,” Flying Saucer Review 29, no. 1 (October 1983): 23–24; Kingston A. George, “The Big Sur ‘UFO’: An Identified Flying Object,” Skeptical Inquirer 17 (Winter 1993): 180–187; Robert Hastings, “A Shot across the Bow: Another Look at the Big Sur Incident,” IUR 31 , no. 1 (January 2007 ): 3 – 1 1, 20– 24 ; Mark Rodeghier, “Image Resolution of the Optical System at Big Sur,” IUR 31, no. 1 (January 2007): 20; Robert Hastings, “Answers on Big Sur,” IUR 31 , no. 4 (Mar. 2008): 18 ; Robert L. Hastings, “UFOs Are Stalking and Intercepting Dummy Nuclear Warheads during Test Flights,” UFOs & Nukes, August 23, 2011; Nukes 187 – 217) September 16 — 6:55 p.m. Several teenagers at Little Hulton, Greater Manchester, England, watch a noiseless, pearly white triangular object traveling with its base forward toward the north. (“Manchester Disbeliever’s Testimony,” Flying Saucer Review 10, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1964): 25) September 18– 24 — Numerous high-speed UFOs are reported and tracked on radar in an area between Surabaya, Malang, and Bangkalan, Java, Indonesia. Antiaircraft batteries and Air Force pilots reportedly open fire on them, even though officials suspect they could be British aircraft from the HMS Victorious protecting Malaysia. (Good Above, p. 429 ; Rahadian Rundjan, “Mencari UFO di Langit Indonesia,” Historia, June 19, 2017)

Late 1964 — Deputy Missile Combat Crew Commander 1Lt. Philip E. Moore is on duty in Site 7 (east of Hagerman, New Mexico), one of the 579th Strategic Missile Squadron’s underground Atlas missile launch facilities at Walker

AFB [now closed] in Roswell, New Mexico. He gets a call from an adjacent missile silo around 10–15 miles away, saying that a UFO is hovering and maneuvering over their site. Maj. Dan Gilbert sends three enlisted crew members—T/Sgt. Jack Nevins, Airman1C Bob Garner, and Airman 1C Mike Rundag—above ground to see what is going on. They see a silent light that moves very quickly (instant stop and instant go) back and forth between Site 6 and Site 8. Gilbert goes up and sees the same activity. (Nukes 152–157) October — An engineer and three technicians at the Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, see a triangular- shaped object speed in from the north, make a 90° turn, and disappear in under a minute. They all agree that it moved faster than a jet. (Harold H. Deneault Jr., “UFOs Return to Washington,” Fate 18, no. 7 (July 1965): 48– 49) October 7 — 11:10 p.m. R. Shannon and his wife see a blood-red triangle in the sky above Dulwich, London, England. They watch it for 10 minutes before it begins revolving swiftly, almost to a blur, then explodes silently and disappears. (R. Shannon, “Dulwich De-Materialisation?” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1965): 28) October 22 — Flying Saucer Review editor Waveney Girvan dies, and Charles Bowen takes control and oversees the magazine until 1982, its most influential period. (Charles Bowen, “Our Friend Waveney Girvan,” Flying Saucer Review 10, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1964): 5; Clark III 498 ) October 29 — 12:00 midnight–3:00 a.m. Irene Page watches a sparkling ball of light that maneuvers around her yard, illuminating her property in Brimfield, Massachusetts. When she first sees it, the TV set fades, and lights in the room blink on and off several times. (“Flashing UFO Seen Three Hours,” APRO Bulletin, July/Aug. 1965, p. 7)

November 3 — 8:15 p.m. A barking dog alerts the caretaker of the Butano Creek Girl Scout Camp near Pescadero, California. He goes outside and sees a bright light maneuvering erratically in the northeast. He flashes an SOS signal at it with a flashlight, and the light silently moves toward him. He flashes more SOS signals and it moves even closer, hovering above some trees a half mile away and moving back and forth. It lights up the sky like a full moon. The caretaker and another employee run into a cabin to get their wives. The four watch for a while longer, then flash another SOS. The light approaches again, then retreats, dims, and takes off. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 242) November 5 — J. Allen Hynek writes to a citizen interested in the Socorro, New Mexico, case and affirms his opinion that Lonnie Zamora’s story was “told by a man who obviously was frightened badly by what he did see.” He says he cannot dismiss it as a hoax or hallucination. (Bill Murphy, “The Swamp Gas Aftermath: Some Notes from the Gerald Ford Files,” IUR 33, no. 2 (July 2010): 12–13) November 9 — 8:00 p.m. Trevor Foss responds to his son’s call to watch a light in the northern sky over Kailoa Station, Gisborne, New Zealand. Through night binoculars he sees a ball of light traveling south toward him. It takes 5 minutes to reach the southern horizon and has rotating light beams that project downward and to the rear, as well as 6 jet-like blue flames. (“Farmer Observes Sphere,” APRO Bulletin, January 1965, p. 8) November 14 — Midnight. Astronomers at the San Miguel Observatory, Buenos Aires, Argentina, see an elongated, flat, reddish-orange object crossing the sky from east to west and then back again at a speed 4.5 times that of a satellite. (“Mystery Object over Argentina,” APRO Bulletin, January 1965, p. 2; Gordon Creighton, “Argentina 1963/1964: Part IV,” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 3 (May/June 1966): 28) November 19 — 9:00 p.m. The USS Gyatt destroyer is stationed in the Atlantic Ocean about 220 miles northwest of Puerto Rico when its radar detects a bogey approaching the island from the northeast at speeds exceeding Mach 1. The ship relays a message to Roosevelt Roads Naval Station [now José Aponte de la Torre Airport] in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, which then contacts Lt. Cmdr. K. H. Woodsbury, pilot of an F-8C aircraft of Utility Squadron Eight that is already flying in the neighborhood at an altitude of 30,000 feet. The aircraft reports a stranger closing in very fast. The pilot describes the object as delta-shaped and about the size of a fighter. Its color is black or gray and it has no contrail or lights except for a light source emitting from the tail during periods of acceleration. The pilot pursues the object but cannot intercept. The target accelerates out of sight in a wide starboard turn climbing through 50,000 feet at about an 18°–20° angle in excess of Mach 1. Woodsbury says: “Its speed, acceleration, ceiling and ability to decelerate exceed any aircraft I have ever seen or heard of. There is no reasonable explanation for this target.” During the encounter the SPS-49 radar is jammed for a short period of time. Other radar encounters take place in the Caribbean November 16–18 and 24. (NICAP, “U.S.S. Gyatt Tackles Bogey”; Sparks, p. 302) November 21 — The FBI sends Martin Luther King Jr. a “suicide package” note that contains audio recordings of his sexual indiscretions and a letter telling him, “There is only one way out for you.” The FBI’s COINTELPRO program is also targeting Malcolm X. (Wikipedia, “COINTELPRO”) November 22 — 10:45 p.m. Private pilot George Henry Lissauer is driving near Georgetown, South Carolina, when he sees two large, silvery, oval-shaped UFOs, each accompanied by 6–8 smaller objects. The formations are moving

slowly at about 3,000 feet altitude. After 2–3 minutes, the smaller objects go into the larger objects and disappear. Lissauer goes directly to Myrtle AFB [now Myrtle Beach International Airport] and reports them. (“Increased Landings Hint New UFO Phase,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 3 (June/July 1965): 2; Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects: A Further Look,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 3) November 25 — 12:45 a.m. A 29-year-old woman sees two lighted objects land on a hilltop near New Berlin, New York. Through binoculars she can see some 9 – 11 humanoid beings apparently engaged in repair work on a round object with landing struts for four hours. Some of them are holding boxes filled with unusual gadgets. The next day, she and her husband and father-in-law find two equilateral triangular imprints on the site, as well as a cable with some thin aluminum strips and insulation. Around 4:55 a.m., one UFO shoots straight up and abruptly disappears, while the other rises straight up a minute later and follows the other one. (Berthold E. Schwarz, “New Berlin UFO Landing and Repair by Crew,” Flying Saucer Review 21, no. 3–4 (November 1975): 22– 28 ) November 26 — 11:00 p.m. A family of five in Adams, Wisconsin, is returning home from Thanksgiving dinner when an extremely bright light appears over their car, completely shutting off its headlights and radio. The father jumps out of the car and looks straight up into the light, shading his eyes with his hands, but he is persuaded to come back. Suddenly the light disappears and the electrical systems return. No one talks about the incident for 16 years, when the father says the light was “motionless like a floodlight of gigantic proportion.” (“Recently Reported,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 10 (October 1981): 5; “Out of the Not-Too-Distant Past.” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 6 (Jan./Feb. 1982): 13–14)

December 19 — 3:50 p.m. Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland tracks two large targets on radar moving at 6,900 mph. (Harold H. Deneault Jr., “UFOs Return to Washington,” Fate 18, no. 7 (July 1965): 46–47; Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, p. 87 ; Sparks, p. 303) December 21 — 4:50 p.m. Kenneth Norton Jr., 14, is looking out his bedroom window in Staunton, Virginia, when he sees a “fast-moving object without wings or tail structure.” He describes it as cigar-shaped and about 125 feet in diameter, in view for 5 seconds. (Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, January 15, 1965; “‘Saucer’ Reports Are Flying,” Staunton (Va.) Daily News Leader, January 15, 1965, p. 2; Clark III 493 ) December 21 — 5:00 p.m. Driving east on US Highway 250, Horace Burns is approaching Fishersville, Virginia, when an enormous object appears from the north and descends slowly in a gradual slant. Just before it crosses the highway 200 feet in front of him, the UFO narrowly misses power lines. It is so huge that when it passes nearly in front of him, it fills his entire windshield. The UFO comes down gently and lands in a field to Burns’s right. Meanwhile, Burns’s car engine has shut off. The object appears to be at least 125 feet in diameter and 80–90 feet high. After 60 – 90 seconds, it rises up several hundred feet, makes a sound like rushing air, and shoots off to the northeast, vanishing from sight. A high level of radioactivity is detected at the site December 30 by investigators German professor Ernest G. Gehman and engineer Harry M. Cook. They obtain a Geiger counter reading of 16– 18 milliR/hr. Two Blue Book investigators—T/Sgt. David N. Moody and S/Sgt. Harold T. Jones—visit the site with Gehman on January 12 and take further readings (1.5 milliR/hr on Burns’s left rear car door). They dispute Gehman’s earlier results, but a possible 11x–12x drop in radiation level in 13 days possibly indicates a radionuclide with a 3–4 day half-life. (“‘Saucer’ Reports Are Flying,” Staunton (Va.) Daily News Leader, January 15, 1965, pp. 1–2; NICAP, “Car Engine Fails after Object Lands”; “Opposition Flap 1965,” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 3 (May/June 1965): 3–4; Clark III 491 – 4 94, 950; Sparks, p. 303 ) December 22 — A D-21 drone (renamed from Q- 12 in its transition to Project Tagboard) mounted on an M-21 begins captive flight-testing at Area 51 in Nevada. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed D- 21 ”) December 22 — The first flight of an SR-71 Blackbird takes place at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, piloted by Robert J. Gilliland. The SR-71 reaches a top speed of Mach 3.4 (~2,588 mph) during flight testing. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird”)

1965

1965? — A-12 pilot Ken Collins continues to test A-12s at Groom Lake, Nevada. One night (in 1964 or 1965 maybe), he is awakened by base commander Col. Hugh “Slip” Slater and asked to take an A-12 up to find a Russian reconnaissance balloon that is floating in American airspace in a westerly direction with the prevailing winds. Collins is tasked with finding the balloon visually and using radar. In the air, he realizes it is a wild goose chase because, flying at 2,200 mph, even if he sees the balloon briefly it would be behind him in a second. He identifies an object on radar 350 miles away. He circles it as closely as he can, which is a circle with a radius of 400 miles.

He never makes visual contact and returns to Area 51. Jacobsen says that this Soviet violation of US airspace has “never been declassified.” (Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 19 5 – 196 ) 1965 — USAF Gen. Curtis LeMay writes in his autobiography that some UFOs are not explained very easily: “There is no question about it. These were things which we could not tie in with any natural phenomena known to our investigators.” He expresses his dislike of NICAP’s position that USAF is trying to muzzle the media. “There were some cases we could not explain,” he writes. “Never could.” (Curtis E. LeMay, Mission with LeMay, Doubleday, 1965, pp. 541– 543 ) 1965 — Less than 20% of the public believes in UFOs, according to polls and private Air Force and NICAP estimates. This soon rises to 33% by July. (Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, p. 94) 1965 — John Harney begins publication of the Merseyside UFO Research Group Bulletin in Liverpool, England. (Merseyside UFO Research Group Bulletin, no. 2 (June 1965)) 1965 — Jean-Pierre D’Hondt founds Groupement Nordiste d’Études des OVNI in Lestrem, Pas-de-Calais, France. It publishes Recherches Ufologiques from 1977 to 1983. (Recherches Ufologiques, no. 1 (1977)) 1965 — Jacques Bonabot, Jean-Gérard Dohmen, and Roger Lorthioir found Groupement pour l’Étude des Sciences d’Avant-Garde in Bruges, Belgium. It publishes Bulletin du GESAG. (Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, p. 135) 1965 — G. J. Kok and S. Sluis found the Werkgroep Nederlands Onderzoek Bureau voor UFOs (later UFO-Workgroep Nederland) in Uithuizermeeden, Netherlands. It publishes Tijdschrift voor Ufologie. (Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, p. 215) 1965 — Tomezo Hirata founds the Japan UFO Research Association in Kobe, Japan. It publishes JUFORA from 1967 to 1991. 1965 — Ross Liverton reports a ring of bare earth, 8 feet wide, in the ground on Waiheke Island, New Zealand, where a UFO is seen. It remains visible for 4 years. The site contains some unidentified whitish material that resolves into fibers during a soil immersion test. Vallée says the material is “vegetal in nature.” (Vallée, Invisible College, pp. 36 – 37; Ted Phillips, “Landing Report from Delphos,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 9 (February 1972): 10) 1965 — A couple is driving on a country road in Buenos Aires province, Argentina, when their car engine begins to fail, so they pull over in front of a tree. They notice an object behind the tree that emits a luminous ray toward them that bends at three places, vertically and horizontally, to avoid the tree. The woman’s cheek feels as if something is probing her. (Jean Bastide, La Mémoire des OVNI, Mercure de France, 1978; “Beam of Light with Three Corners,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 6 (Dec, 1983/Jan. 1984): 4 ) 1965 — A short color film of a “huge, windowed, hovering craft” with three smaller objects attached to it “as a kind of tail” is taken by a converted RAAF aircraft during a photo-mapping flight over central Australia. A door on the large object opens—two vertical panels and two horizontally aligned panels slide apart—and the three smaller objects fly inside. A US Air Force sergeant with a top-secret clearance is shown this clip at a CIA screening in Texas in 1967. He says the filmed image of the UFO is extraordinarily clear, filling the entire screen. (Budd Hopkins, Missing Time, R. Marek, 1981, p. 253)

January 5 — 5:56 p.m. NASA engineer Dempsey Bruton, head of the Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, observes a round, bright-yellow light rising from the horizon. The apparent size of the object is that of a nickel held at arm’s length. As the object reaches an overhead position, it disappears. The length of observation is approximately 8–9 seconds. The witness claims that his wife and brother-in-law also see the object. (NICAP, “Bright Yellow Light Flies Ahead”) January 11 — Mrs. Paul Zimmerman Gearhart and her two sons see a triangular UFO that flies slowly out of the southeast and then “suddenly plunged into the sea some miles offshore” at Tillamook Head, Oregon. It leaves behind two trails of fire. (Sanderson, InvRes, p. 50 ) January 11 — 4:20 p.m. At least 12 persons, including six Army Signal Corps communications system specialists, at the Munitions Building at Nineteenth Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., observe 12–15 white oval objects maneuvering erratically at 12,000–15,000 feet altitude above the US Capitol Building. Two delta- wing jets, apparently from Andrews AFB in Maryland, are seen in pursuit, but the objects easily outmaneuver them. Among the witnesses are Paul M. Dickey Jr., Edward Shad, Sam Webb, Jack McBride, and Sam Marrone. The objects are also tracked on radar. The Defense Department denies the incident, but the witnesses publicly maintain their story. The Pentagon forces a TV crew about to interview the witnesses to shut down that evening. (NICAP, “Over a Dozen Ovals Chased by AF Jets”; Harold H. Deneault Jr., “UFOs Return to Washington,” Fate 18, no. 7 (July 1965): 47–48; Frank Edwards, FS Serious Business, Bantam ed., 1966, pp. 67– 68 )

January 12 — 1:00 a.m. Department of Justice Inspector Robert E. Kerringer [or is it Donald E. Flickinger, an agent of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms?] is driving near Lynden, Washington, when he sees a low-flying object, 30 feet in diameter, that avoids collision with his car at the last moment. He gets out and sees it hovering for one minute, then it flies off at high speed with a sound of rushing air. He learns that nearby Blaine Air Force Station [now closed] is tracking the UFO. (NICAP, “Driver Avoids Collision with 30ʹ Object”; Sparks, p. 303; “New Sightings Put AF on Spot,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 1 (March/April 1965): 4; Frank Edwards, FS Serious Business, Bantam ed., 1966, pp. 54– 55 ) January 12 — 10:58 a.m. The Kiwi Transient Nuclear Test is conducted at Area 25 of the Nevada Test Site as part of Project NERVA. The nuclear rocket engine code-named Kiwi is allowed to overheat until it bursts, sending fuel hurtling skyward. Deadly radioactive fuel chunks as large as 148 pounds shoot up into the sky and last as far away as a quarter mile. A radioactive cloud rises up to 2,600 feet, then drifts out over Los Angeles, California, and out to sea. The AEC calls it a “safety test,” but the USSR says it violates the test ban. (Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 309 – 310 ; Wikipedia, “NERVA”) January 12 — 6:30 p.m. A NASA public relations employee named Milliner and her husband are walking toward their house when they see a bright yellow object moving swiftly over the Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island, Virginia. They watch it for 2 minutes. (Harold H. Deneault Jr., “UFOs Return to Washington,” Fate 18, no. 7 (July 1965): 48) January 12 — 8:20 p.m. A Mrs. Jubert in Custer, Washington, sees through her window what seems to be the landing lights of an airplane apparently coming into her yard. She herds her three teenage girls outside in the opposite direction. The four lights merge into one intense white light, which moves in a straight line toward the house, lifts several hundred feet and clears a clump of evergreens, then dips down on the far side and touches the ground. A border patrol officer also sees the object after he is alerted by radio. He is buzzed by the UFO, which is low enough that he stops his car, gets out, and watches it move out of sight. Where the object lands in 16 inches of snow, they find a large circular imprint about 10–12 feet in diameter. The ground beneath the melted snow ring shows evidence of having been scorched. Oval-shaped tracks 8 inches long and 8 inches apart, in a single file, are found leading from the landing site to the evergreens, where they disappear. One month later, the circular area still shows traces. (“New Sightings Put AF on Spot,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 1 (March/April 1965): 4; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 152– 153 ; Ted Phillips, Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings, CUFOS, 1975, p. 34) January 14 — Around 12: 00 midnight. Old Dominion college student James Myers sees a diamond-shaped object rise from the ground to 1,500–2,000 feet near Norfolk, Virginia. He loses sight of it behind a church and when it reappears it looks round, bright, and silvery. (Harold H. Deneault Jr., “UFOs Return to Washington,” Fate 18, no. 7 (July 1965): 49) January 15 — 9:45 p.m. Mathew Rybczyk is watching TV at his home in Manchester, New Hampshire, when the set goes blank. Going outside to see if the antenna is damaged, he sees a flashing light moving across the tree line to the east and making a humming noise. When the light disappears, the TV set comes on again. (Manchester (N.H.) Sunday News, January 17, 1965; Schopick, p. 148) January 15 — 10:00 p.m. Charles Knee Jr., a former newsman, is driving on State Highway 4A between Wilmot and Enfield, New Hampshire, when the radio suddenly stops, the lights on the car go out, and the engine quits. He loses control of the car and pulls to the side of the road and then hears a loud humming sound like a high- frequency electrical whine. He opens the car door, steps out, and sees a bright light below the cloud cover at around 2,000–5,000 feet altitude. It seems to hover for a moment and then takes off to the south. As the light leaves and the whine dies away, the headlights and radio come on and the motor starts by itself. The whole thing lasts about 15–20 seconds. (Manchester (N.H.) Sunday News, January 1 6 , 1965; Schopick, pp. 148– 150 ) January 19 — NICAP Acting Director Richard H. Hall meets with a CIA agent and passes on some UFO case information and other materials to OSI for preparation of a paper on UFOs. Hall is given a direct phone number for the agent’s office. He uses the phone line only once to “report some high-quality UFO sightings to the CIA.” He is also given a CIA security clearance without his consent or knowledge. A January 25 CIA memo confirming the meeting shows an inordinate amount of interest in NICAP, given the CIA’s mandate for acquiring foreign intelligence. (ClearIntent, pp. 231 – 234 ; Richard H. Hall, Uninvited Guests, Aurora, 1988, pp. 11, 354– 358 ; Good Above, pp. 349 – 350 ) January 19 — Hall also meets for 90 minutes with retired Navy Capt. John Lawrence Counihan who is on the staff of Sen. Thomas J. Dodd (D-Conn.). Counihan says that the Committee on Astronautics and Space Science would be considered “nutty” if it took up hearings, but it might be willing to consider an informal briefing by NICAP. (Swords 306)

January 19 — 6:15 p.m. William Blackburn, a draftsman at a General Electric plant, is chopping wood at an archery range east of Staunton, Virginia, in an area known locally as Brands Flats. He sees two saucer-like shapes in the sky at 2,000–4,000 feet altitude. The larger one seems to be about 80 feet across. The smaller one, 20 feet across, descends quickly and silently and lands 45–55 feet away from Blackburn. A door opens, making a slight noise and revealing an interior light. Three figures, each 3 feet tall and wearing tight-fitting metallic-looking suits, emerge. They have reddish-orange skin and piercing eyes. One has an extra-long finger on its left hand. They speak in an unintelligible language, then return to the UFO. The door closes so perfectly that an outline cannot be seen, and the object takes off. The entire episode lasts only 5 minutes. Blackburn sees no traces in the snow, but thinks the object and humanoids are hovering. (NICAP, “Two Humanoids Approach Witness”; Clark III 196 ) January 23 — 8:40 a.m. Two separate cars driving in different direction stall out near the intersection of US Hwy 60 and State Route 614 in Lightfoot, Virginia. One of the drivers, Thomas F. Mains, sees a lightbulb- or mushroom- shaped object 75–80 feet tall and 10–25 feet wide, hovering over nearby field about 4 feet off the ground. It is metallic gray, with red-orange and blue lights and is making a vacuum cleaner noise. It suddenly accelerates horizontally to the west against the wind and disappears. (NICAP, “UFO Hovering over Field Stalls Cars”; Sparks, p. 304) January 25 — Night. Policeman Woody Darnall, his family, and several neighbors see a glowing object hovering on a mountainside near Marion, Virginia. It seems to explode and take off in a shower of sparks. A group of Marion residents and state forest officials climb to the area and find several treetops bent over and one green tree on fire where the UFO was seen. (Harold H. Deneault Jr., “UFOs Return to Washington,” Fate 18, no. 7 (July 1965): 52) January 25 — Night. Nine persons near Fredericksburg, Virginia, see a UFO that resembles a “Christmas sparkler.” One witness says it looks like a spinning top spitting sparks out of the bottom as it moves up the Rappahannock Valley at treetop level. (Harold H. Deneault Jr., “UFOs Return to Washington,” Fate 18, no. 7 (July 1965): 52) January 26 — Evening. Rev. H. Preston Robinson and others in Marion, Virginia, watch an object hovering 600 feet above the city. The object makes a steady buzzing sound and has several lights on its round bottom. Spinning clockwise, it shoots out of sight at fantastic speed. It emits a ball of fire as it disappears. (Harold H. Deneault Jr., “UFOs Return to Washington,” Fate 18, no. 7 (July 1965): 52) January 26 — Evening. Steven Houffer, 16, and six friends are driving on US Highway 250 near Brands Flats, Virginia, when they see a small man walking toward the road from a field. He sits down and peers intently at passing cars. Houffer stops the car and he and his friends get out. When they approach, the being runs up a hill. Two other entities appear and run in the same direction. They are all about 3.5 feet tall, wear silvery one-piece garments, and leave no footprints. Police officers conduct a search with local photographer Charles Weaver, but find nothing. Some time later, Houffer and Weaver see a “glowing aluminum barn,” which they go down to investigate. Weaver is walking around inside when something hits him on the head. The two turn to run after Weaver snaps a photo. In the light of the flashbulb, they see a little man standing by the barn. The photo is allegedly confiscated by government agents. A local man, Donald Cash, 6 feet tall, confesses to dressing up in overalls to pose as an alien, although his story does not completely match the details of the account. (“UFO Posses Hit,” Staunton (Va.) Daily News Leader, January 28, 1965, pp. 1–2; Jerome Clark, “Two New Contact Claims,” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 3 (May/June 1965): 20– 21 ; “Fed Up with Play: Green Man Confesses,” Staunton (Va.) Daily News Leader, January 31, 1965, p. 1) January 27 — 6:00 p.m. NASA research engineer A. G. Crimmins Jr. observes an object at Plum Tree Island Wildlife Refuge, near Poquoson, Virginia, that is approximately 75 feet across and 10–15 feet in height. The object has 3– 7 lights colored red and orange and appears to rotate. It moves approximately a quarter mile west of its original position on a zigzag course and then appears to land on the ocean shore. It remains still for about 5 minutes, then takes off to the north and turns right to depart to the east at a high rate of speed. Crimmins watches it through 20x binoculars. The same object is apparently seen by retired USAF Maj. John R. Nayadley, another NASA research engineer, who observes a V-shaped object with blinking red-orange lights over Hampton, Virginia. (NICAP, “Zig-Zagging Object Lands / Takes Off”; “New Sightings Put AF on Spot,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 1 (March/April 1965): 4; UFOEv II 156) January 27 — 11:15 p.m. Donald Keyhoe and NICAP board member Joseph Bryan III appear on the Les Crane Show and are questioned skeptically by Crane. (Donald E. Keyhoe, “The Crane Show Fiasco,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 1 (March/April 1965): 6) January 29 — In Monterey, California, Mayor George Clemens and his family see a bright light performing acrobatics in the northern sky. It hovers, then shoots straight up about 500 feet, fades, drops down, and hovers again. Then it drops toward the water and disappears. The Coast Guard finds nothing. (Sanderson, InvRes, p. 50) January 30 — 2:00 a.m. TV repairman Sid Padrick is walking along Manresa Beach near his home in Watsonville, California. He hears a jet-like noise and sees a huge UFO moving slowly towards him. He hears a voice saying,

“We are not hostile,” and inviting him aboard. He enters the craft and sees a human in a flying suit who calls
himself “Xeno” and gives Padrick a tour of the ship and other crew members that culminates in a deeply spiritual
experience. Padrick reports his experience to Hamilton AFB [now closed] on February 4 and receives a 3 - hour
visit from Maj. Damon B. Reeder on February 8, and perhaps other officers after that. (Jerome Clark, “Two New
Contact Claims,” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 3 (May/June 1965): 20–21; Clark III 869– 871 ; Good Above, pp.
293 – 298 ; Good Need, pp. 247 – 251 ; Lorenzen, Encounters with UFO Occupants, Berkley Medallion, 1976;
“Contactee Loses Court Case,” UFO Investigator, April 1971, p. 1; Patrick Gross, URECAT, August 19, 2008;
Marcus Lowth, “Sidney Padrick’s California Beach Encounter with ‘Xeno,’” UFO Insight, October 12, 2017;
Curt Collins, “1965: UFO Contact in California,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, December 30, 2021)

February — George Langelaan, ex-secret service officer and author of the short story “The Fly,” gives a lecture at Mourenx, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France, and declares that the Russian and US secret services have collaborated on the UFO problem and concluded that the objects are extraterrestrial. (Good Above, p. 133 ) February 3 — 8:45 p.m. A man sees a light on the beach near Penguin Street, South New Brighton, New Zealand, and gets out of his car to observe it. He hears a modulated whistling sound and sees an object, 22 feet wide, rise from the beach to an altitude of 60 feet. He returns with other witnesses and a dog that gets restless at a spot where grass is flattened. Another witness sees the UFO as it is rising above the suburb. (Vallée, Magonia, p. 305 ) February 11 (or 15) — Night. A Flying Tiger Line cargo aircraft (Flight F-169) en route from Anchorage, Alaska, to Tachikawa Airfield, Tokyo, Japan, encounters three gigantic, glowing, red UFOs, at least 200 feet in diameter, about 4 hours out of Anchorage. The aircraft radar also picks them up about 5 miles off the wing. They pace the plane for 30 minutes, then speed away at 1,380 mph. (NICAP, “Radar/Visual over Pacific Ocean”; Richard H. Hall, Uninvited Guests, Aurora, 1988, pp. 249 – 250 ; Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, pp. 128 – 129 ) February 11 — The Pentagon sends Blue Book chief Maj. Hector Quintanilla to Richmond, Virginia, on a debunking tour. Stressing delusions and hoaxes, he tells reporters that not a single UFO report is genuine. His press conference display includes false UFO photos and fake debris. “I am a facts man,” Quintanilla says. “I cannot explain why people want to see UFOs.” (“AF Misleads Senator,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 2 (May/June 1965): 4) February 16– 18 — Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Richard F. Gordon Jr., Buzz Aldrin, David Scott, and Rusty Schweikart visit Sedan Crater and Buckboard Mesa at the Nevada Test Site to practice carrying out geological observations in preparation for a moon landing. (Nevada National Security Site, “Apollo Astronauts Train at the Nevada Test Site,” July 2019) February 26 — 3:00 p.m. George Adamski takes his last film of a spaceship at Madeleine Rodeffer’s house in Silver Spring, Maryland. (Clark III 41; Good Above, pp. 374 – 377 ; Douglas Curran, In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space, Abbeville, 1985, pp. 42– 48 ; Rene Erik Olsen, [George Adamski photo analysis], Adamski Foundation; Marc Hallet, A Critical Appraisal of George Adamski: The Man Who Spoke to the Space Brothers, The Author, 2016) February 27 — The first conference of Australian UFO organizations takes place in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. It is arranged by W. Howard Sloane of the Ballarat Astronomical Society to share information and remove some of the stigma of UFO research. The conference is held at the Ballarat Municipal Observatory in Mount Pleasant. Representatives of the Perth UFO Research Group, the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society, the UFO Investigation Centre NSW, and the Flying Saucer Research Society of South Australia are in attendance. Witnesses include Rev. William Gill and Charles Brew. Former Air Marshal George Jones attends, and the RAAF is represented by B. G. Roberts, senior research scientist at the Operational Research Office, Department of Air. Roberts says that the RAAF has determined that 90% of reports are explainable, but that only those that might be a threat to national security are worth investigating and “there are no documents, files, or dossiers held by the Department which prove the existence of ‘flying saucers.’” The researchers quiz him on the 1953 Drury photographic case, but Roberts is unaware of that one. Jones insists on keeping an open mind about reports like those by Gill and Brew. (Swords 391–392; “First Australian Convention of UFO Groups,” Australian Flying Saucer Review (UFOIC), no. 8 (June 1965): 13– 15 )

March 2 — 1:55 p.m. John F. Reeves, 65, retired, while walking in the woods east of Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida, sees a bluish-green and reddish-purple object 20–30 feet in diameter, 6 feet thick, saucer-shaped, and with an outer rim and a stairway, two 2 - foot windows on top, landed on the ground on four 4-foot legs about 2,000 feet away. He approaches to 100 feet. After watching the object for 10 minutes, he sees a robot-like being about 200– 300 feet away, about 5 feet tall, wearing a gray-silver uniform, glass dome headgear, wide-spaced eyes, and pointed chin. It walks to 15 feet away from Reeves, stares at him for 1.5 minutes, points a box or 6– 7 - inch black object at Reeves that emits a flash 3 times, then walks back to the landed vehicle and climbs in. The object has

Venetian blind–like blades on the rim that open and close; the rim starts rotating counterclockwise, the landing gear retract, then it takes off with a whooshing-rumbling sound and disappears vertically in less than 10 seconds, dropping two sheets of paper with indecipherable writing, and leaving indentations and footprints in the ground. The case is investigated by MacDill AFB in Tampa. Richard Hall supervises the investigation for NICAP and concludes it is a hoax. (NICAP, “Landed Object and Entity Case / Hoax”; “The Florida ‘Landing’ Incident,” APRO Bulletin, March/April 1965, pp. 1, 3; Joan Whritenour, “UFO Lands?” Interplanetary Intelligence Report 1, no. 1 (May 1965): 4; “Project Blue Book,” Interplanetary Intelligence Report 1, no. 2 (July 1965): 8; Clark III 209 – 218 ; Jerome Clark, “Passport to Moniheya,” IUR 20, no. 3 (May/June 1995): 10– 19 ; Sparks, p. 304 ) March 5 — Two Air Force radar technicians are repairing the height-finder antenna at Benton Air Force Station [now Ground Equipment Facility QRC] in Ricketts Glen State Park near Red Rock, Pennsylvania, when they see a small, saucer-shaped object land nearby. As they approach it, a beam of light comes out and strikes both of them. That is the last thing they remember, and they fail to report to the command post. Their equipment is left behind at the antenna, but air police cannot locate the men. Pennsylvania State Police assist in a search of the area. About 16 hours later, a state trooper locates the two men walking along State Route 487 south of Lopez, about 10 miles away. They seem dazed, so they are taken to a hospital in Williamsport, where they are found to be dehydrated and confused. No alcohol or drugs are found. They are then taken to an Air Force hospital at Stewart AFB [now Stewart Air National Guard Base] in Orange County, New York. Trace amounts of alpha radiation are found on their clothing and strange marks are on their necks. AFOSI special agents interview them, but the men cannot remember anything. After 2 weeks in the hospital, they are released back to their unit. (“Pennsylvania Abduction from Air Force Base,” Filer’s Files, September 9, 1999; Good Need, pp. 251 – 252 ) March 8 — 7:40 p.m. J. H. Martin, an instrument maker for the National Bureau of Standards, and his two sons observe in Mount Airy, Maryland, six lights he estimates to be 1,000 feet away and moving at a speed of 20 mph with no sound. They appear as three pair of lights, all with the same intensity. They are comparable to a traffic signal. The lights pass between the barn and the house at an estimated altitude of 100–500 feet, flying in a straight line toward the hills two miles away. They are in view for approximately 3 minutes. (NICAP, “Six Lights Just Miss House”; Sparks, p. 304) March 15 — Around 1:00 a.m. James W. Flynn is deep in the Everglades in his swamp buggy, somewhere east of Immokalee, Florida, with his four hunting dogs. He sees a hovering object like an upside-down cone about 200 feet above some cypress trees slightly over a mile away. It moves back and forth from its original position. Through binoculars it looks 25 feet high and 50 feet in diameter, with square windows emitting a yellowish glow. Around its base an orange-red glow extends downwards and illuminates the ground some 75 feet around the rim. Some 40 minutes into the sighting, Flynn decides to approach it in his buggy. A high-pitched ringing sound bothers one of his dogs. He stops 600 feet away and walks, waving his arms, toward the UFO, which is hovering 4 feet off the ground. A blast of wind from the object nearly knocks him off his feet. He continues, and at 75 feet from the UFO he waves his arms again. The object beams a light like a “welder’s torch” that hits his forehead. He blacks out twice. When he wakes up he is temporarily blinded. In the morning he finds a symmetrical circle of burned ground. The tops of trees are burned. Flynn makes his way to the home of Henry Osceola (or Henry Billy) later in the day and arrives at his own home in East Fort Myers on March 17 and spends 5 days in the hospital with damage to his right eye, bruises, burns, deep muscle tissue damage, and loss of hearing. His eye damage is permanent. The landing marks and burned trees are verified by the Lee County sheriff’s office. (NICAP, “Everglades / James Flynn Case”; Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 12 – 16; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 192–195; Clark III 438– 440 ; Patrick Gross, “UFO in the Everglades, USA 1965”) March 17 — 10:00 p.m. Walter Jacobs, steward on the freighter Iron Duke, sees a bright orange object with a dent on top and a knot on the bottom off Newcastle, New South Wales. He takes a photograph but it is not published. (“UAO Photographed Clearly in Australia,” APRO Bulletin, March/April 1965, p. 1) March 18 (or 21) — 7:06 p.m. Capt. Yoshiharu Inaba is flying a TOA Airlines Convair 240 from Osaka to Hiroshima, Japan, at an altitude of 6,500 feet. Just after the aircraft passes Himeji, Hyogo, an elliptical luminous object appears and follows the plane. Inaba makes a 60° turn to avoid a collision, but the object makes a similar maneuver then follows along the plane’s left wing for about 56 miles. Emitting a greenish light, the object affects the automatic direction finder and the radio. As copilot Tetsu Majima radios the Matsuyama control tower, he hears frantic calls from Joji Negishi, the pilot of a Tokyo Airlines Piper Apache, who says he is being chased by a luminous object over Matsuyama. The object shoots away and disappears. (NICAP, “Object Paces Japanese Airliner”; “UFO Encounters over Japan,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 1 (March/April 1965): 6; Timothy Green Beckley, “Saucers Chase Japanese Airliner,” Fate 18, no. 8 (August 1965): 32–35; Schopick, pp. 150– 153 ; Good Need, p. 253 ; Patrick Gross, “Aircraft–UFO Encounters, Japan, March 18, 1965”)

April 20 — John Carstairs Arnell, scientific advisor to the Canadian Chief of Air Staff, prepares a four-page “Suggested Statement by the Minister of National Defence,” Paul Hellyer. It reiterates the US opinion that UFOs do not constitute a national security threat because most sightings involve natural phenomena seen by unreliable witnesses. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 16–23) April 24 — 5:30 p.m. Ernest Arthur Bryant is walking toward Scoriton Down near Scoriton (or Scorriton), Devon, England, when he sees a saucer-like object approach him. It stops nearby and a door opens. Three beings appear and beckon to him. He approaches the saucer. Two of the three beings appear to be nonhuman, but the third seems to be a youth in his teens. The youth speaks with an accent that Bryant thinks might be Russian and calls himself Yamski. He says that he is from Venus, and then remarks that he wished “Des” was there, as he would understand what is happening. At the close of their conversation, he says that in a month he will return and bring proof of “Mantell.” Ufologists who eventually hear the story immediately associate Yamski with George Adamski, the controversial contactee who died on April 23. Adamski was of Polish background and had a noticeable accent. If this were Adamski, he has lost any signs of aging. Adamski’s friend Desmond Leslie was a coauthor of his first book. Captain Thomas F. Mantell, piloting an F-51, had been killed in 1948 when he began chasing what he thought was a UFO. According to Bryant, the saucer returns June 7 and leaves some items, including several pieces of metal, allegedly from an F-51. He reports the story to the British UFO Research Association, which launches an investigation. The various items Bryant turns over to the two investigators (a turbine fitting, metal parts, a broken bulb and fitting, a phial containing silver sand, and a piece of paper on which the words “Adelphos Adelpho” are written) prove to be mundane and irrelevant to the F- 51 , according to aeronautical engineer Leonard G. Cramp. In spite of problems with the story, one of the investigators, Eileen Buckle, rushes into print with a book, The Scoriton Mystery. Shortly afterward, Bryant unexpectedly takes ill and dies from a brain tumor on June 24, 1967. The other investigator, Norman Oliver, visits his widow. She says that she is familiar with the story in the book, as her husband had presented it to her first as the script for a science fiction novel. It is only after the investigation is well along that she realizes her husband was trying to sell the story as a real event. She indicates that the supposed items related to Mantell were purchased at a naval surplus store. Alice Wells, head of the Adamski Foundation, dismisses the Scoriton story from the beginning, as does Desmond Leslie. Between their rejection and Oliver’s uncovering of the hoax, few remain to support Bryant except Buckle. (Clark III 1040– 1044 ; Story, pp. 324 – 326 ; Eileen Buckle, The Scoriton Mystery, Spearman, 1967; Norman Oliver, Sequel to Scoriton, The Author, 1968 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, August 19, 2006)

May — Hayden C. Hewes’s Interplanetary Intelligence of Unidentified Flying Objects publishes the first issue of the Interplanetary Intelligence Report, which lasts through September/October 1966. (Interplanetary Intelligence Report 1, no. 1 (May 1965)) May 1 — Pilots Robert L. Stephens and fire control officer Daniel Andre reach a speed of 2,070 mph in a Lockheed YF- 12A at Edwards AFB, California. The YF-12A also reaches an altitude record of 80,257 feet. (Wikipedia, “Robert L. Stephens”) May 6 — 9:10 a.m. The crew of a US Navy ship in the Philippine Sea notices an aircraft approaching. At 9:14 a.m., the SPS-6C air search radar detects four targets at ranges up to 22 miles for the next 6 minutes at extremely high speed (3,500 mph), making various maneuvers. As seen through binoculars, they appear as three lighted objects, one of 1st stellar magnitude the others 2nd magnitude. The objects hover directly over the ship for 3 minutes. There is no IFF response. One object to starboard appears larger on radar. The objects depart to the southeast at extremely high speed. (NICAP, “Radar/Visual by U.S. Flag Ship in the Philippines”; Sparks, p. 305; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 93– 94 ) May 24 — 12:05 a.m. John Burgess, James Tilse, and Eric Judin are playing cards at the Epsom Retreat Hotel near Epsom, Queensland, when their attention is drawn to something on or near the ground. It appears to be a disc- shaped object with banks of lights underneath it to their southeast. Tilse estimates its diameter to be 30 feet, Judin as 20 feet, and Burgess as 6 feet. In the moonlight, its color seems to be charcoal. At times, it seems to approach them, then recede. Finally, it rapidly rises to about 300 feet, then it accelerates away to the northeast. Burgess and Judin heard a buzzing sound. Total duration is 40 minutes. Two days later, a circular depression is found nearby close to a telephone line. Tilse says that “tops of trees appear to be burned.” (“The James Tilse Report,” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1965): 13 – 14; Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, p. 63; “UAO Buzzes Hotel in Australia,” APRO Bulletin, Jan./Feb. 1966, p. 3; Keith Basterfield, “Cold Case Investigation: Eton Ridge, Queensland, 24 May 1965,” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena— Scientific Research, June 13, 2012)

May 28 — 3:25 a.m. An Ansett-ANA DC-6b airliner piloted by Capt. John Barker is flying over Bougainville Reef off the coast of Queensland, Australia, when it is paced for 10–15 minutes by an oblate UFO with exhaust gases coming from it. The copilot and a stewardess also see the object. Barker takes photos of the UFO, but when he lands in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, he is not allowed to have the film processed until he returns to Australia. When he eventually arrives in Brisbane, he is flown directly to Canberra where both the film and the flight recorder are confiscated. The Directorate of Air Force Intelligence in Canberra later denies that any such incident took place. However, an official statement by Barker to the RAAF surfaces, in which he says: “I had always scoffed at these reports, but I saw it. We all saw it. It was under intelligent control, and it was certainly no known aircraft.” (Good Above, pp. 168 – 170 )

June — Systems analyst Jacques Vallée publishes Anatomy of a Phenomenon, which generates particular excitement for its sober, scientific treatment of the UFO phenomenon. Well reviewed, it plays a significant role in the renaissance of interest in UFOs as scientists express a willingness to examine the UFO problem. It is the first book by a working scientist to argue for the extraterrestrial hypothesis. (Jacques Vallée, Anatomy of a Phenomenon, Regnery, 1965; Clark III 1213) June — 6:30 p.m. Mrs. J. Whitehead is in the garden at her cottage in Flasby, North Yorkshire, England, when a large disc-shaped object passes over, making a slight swishing noise. On the underside are three “windows” in a triangular formation. She feels a strange calming sensation as the UFO passes by. (Jenny Randles, “Fake Photographs, Real Sightings,” IUR 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1986): 11) June 4 — During the Gemini 4 mission, astronaut James McDivitt spots an object that he describes as a “white cylindrical shape with a white pole sticking out of one corner of it.” He takes two photos of it. His partner, Ed White, is asleep at the time. McDivitt maintains that it was some unknown but man-made piece of debris, while James Oberg, flight controller at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, argues that it is most likely the Titan II second stage of the craft. (“‘Object’ Astronaut Sighted Still Unidentified,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 3 (June/July 1965): 3; Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, pp. 212 – 213 ; “The Gemini IV Photograph,” Flying Saucer Review 11 , no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1965): 3; Condon, pp. 205 – 207 ; Good Above, pp. 378 – 379 ; “Gemini 4 Astronaut James McDivitt UFO Sighting,” SpaceTimeForum YouTube channel, June 9, 2013; Center for UFO Studies, [case documents]; Lee Speigel, “NASA UFO Files Revealed on Science Channel Special,” HuffPost, March 27, 2012 ; Patrick Gross, “NASA Photographs of Unidentified Objects”) June 7– 8 — 7:50 p.m. Meteorological officer Jorge Stanich is performing a routine observation at the Argentinian Deception Station on Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, when he notices a stationary, bright, yellow light at an altitude of 25° above the horizon. He estimates its distance at 1.2 miles. The object is visible for 5 seconds. Six and a half hours later, at 2:20 a.m., he again sees a stationary light in the northwest at an altitude of 40° above the horizon for 4 seconds. (Daniel A. Perisse, “Deception Island UFO Sightings,” MUFON 1987 International UFO Symposium Proceedings, Mutual UFO Network, 1987, pp. 142– 146 ) June 18 or 20 — 4:20 p.m. The Commander of the Chilean Aguirre Cerda Research Station [destroyed in 1967] on Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, Mario Jahn Barrera, together with Chilean Air Force pilot Lt. Benavidez, a meteorologist, and seven other witnesses, observe a UFO that maneuvers rapidly on an oscillating course for 25 minutes. (Good Above, p. 309 ; Daniel A. Perisse, “Deception Island UFO Sightings,” MUFON 1987 International UFO Symposium Proceedings, Mutual UFO Network, 1987, p. 146 ) June 19 — 4:00 a.m. Two farm boys are stacking hay near Rocky, Oklahoma, when a bright white, circular, wingless craft appears and descends at a 45° angle to the height of nearby telephone wires. The apparent size of the full moon, it moves horizontally across the farmyard. It has numerous lights around the outside and appears to be rotating in a counterclockwise direction. Their dogs start barking at it. They believe it is going to crash, so they run back into the barn after 3 minutes. It is last seen over a small silo. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 104– 106 ) June 25 — The Phoebus 1A nuclear rocket engine is tested at Area 25 of the Nevada Test Site as part of Project Rover. It runs at full power for 10.5 minutes. Unfortunately, the intense radiation environment causes one of the capacitance gauges to produce erroneous readings. When confronted by one gauge that says the hydrogen propellant tank is nearly empty, and another that says it is a quarter full, and unsure which is correct, the technicians in the control room choose to believe the one that says it is a quarter full. But the tank is indeed nearly empty, and the propellant runs dry. Without liquid hydrogen to cool it, the engine, operating at 2,000° C., quickly overheats and explodes. About a fifth of the fuel is ejected and most of the rest melts. The whole decontamination effort takes 400 people two months to complete, and costs $50,000. (Wikipedia, “Project Rover”) June 25 — Frank Stavano and 24 other witnesses hear a loud, inexplicable explosion at his father Joseph’s farm near Carrollton, Ohio. Two days later, Joseph Stavano is cutting hay when he discovers a strange circular formation

from which the wheat is completely missing in the center for a diameter of 26 feet; at the edges the stubble is bent
or broken outward at an angle of 20–30° from the horizontal. No other path leads into the circle but his own. Soil
samples show no evidence of explosives or other foreign matter. (“Photograph of Carrollton, Ohio, Ground Mark
Received at CUFOS,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 6 (October 1980): 1–2)

July — Hynek writes a letter to the Air Force calling for a systematic study of UFOs. He writes that “enough puzzling sightings have been reported by intelligent and often technically competent people to warrant closer attention than Project Blue Book can possibly encompass at the present time.” (J. Allen Hynek, “Are Flying Saucers Real?” Saturday Evening Post, December 17, 1966, p. 20) July — 11:30 p.m.–midnight. Talking on the phone in her second-floor bedroom in Lake Forest, Illinois, Pat Harvey sees a flash and hears a commotion or “rustle” outside. When she finishes the conversation, she looks out the window toward her neighbor’s lawn and sees a transparent bubble of light about 100 feet away. Inside the globe are several individuals who look like normal human beings, though slightly shorter (5 feet tall) and with skin that looks tanned. They are lying down in a somewhat haphazard arrangement. There are no visible instruments or seats. The object bobs up and down slightly, and the beings’ arms are moving in a way that reminds Harvey of “rowing motions.” (Clark III 277 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, June 21, 2008) July 1 — 5:45 a.m. Maurice Masse is farming just north of Valensole, Alps-de-Haute-Provence, France, when he is startled by a whistling sound and sees an elliptical object resting on four legs some 200 feet away from him in his lavender field. Squatting on the ground near the object are two figures about the size of 8-year-old boys, apparently looking at a lavender plant. Masse approaches them to about 20 feet and the figures stand up. They are dressed in gray-green overalls and have smooth, pumpkin-like heads. Their eyes are large and slanted, their mouths have no lips and look like little holes. He hears some grunting sounds, and Masse hints that there is a telepathic communication. One of the figures points a pencil-like object at Masse and he is paralyzed. They enter the UFO through a door and the object shoots off at enormous speed with a whistling sound. It takes Masse another 20 minutes to regain control. Tracks left by the landing gear are found later by Masse and confirmed by gendarmes. (Wikipedia, “Rencontre de Valensole”; NICAP, “Humanoids near Elliptical Object with Legs on Ground”; Clark 1205 – 1207 ; Good Above, pp. 133 – 134 ; G.E.P.A. Investigation, “The Significant Report from France,” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1965): 5–6; Aimé Michel, “The Valensole Affair,” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1965): 7–9; Luis Schönherr, “Luis Schönherr’s Questionnaire,” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 3 (May/June 1966): 21; G.E.P.A. Representative, “A Tentative Reply to Luis Schönherr’s Questionnaire,” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 3 (May/June 1966): 22–23; Aimé Michel, “Valensole—Further Details,” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 3 (May/June 1966): 24–25; Aimé Michel and Charles Bowen, “A Visit to Valensole,” Flying Saucer Review 14, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1967): 6–12; Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 66–69; Patrick Gross, “Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind: Valensole, France, 1965 ”) July 2 — 7:15 p.m. Five garrison members of the British Antarctic Station B [abandoned in 1969] on Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, have a UFO sighting while conducting routine meteorological observations. The witnesses see a light in the north quadrant, zigzagging, hovering, and accelerating at times, and maintaining altitudes between 20° and 45° above the horizon. The light is green and red, at times yellow, and is observed for perhaps 15–20 minutes. The edges of the light resemble those of a bright star. (Schopick, pp. 153– 155; Frank Edwards, FS Serious Business, Bantam ed., 1966, p. 162 ; Good Above, p. 309 ; Daniel A. Perisse, “Deception Island UFO Sightings,” MUFON 1987 International UFO Symposium Proceedings, Mutual UFO Network, 1987, p. 146; Richard H. Hall, “UFO Sightings at Scientific Stations in Antarctica, July 1965”) July 3 — 5:03 p.m. Two meteorologists at the Argentine Orcadas Base on Laurie Island in the South Orkney Islands, Antarctica, observe for 15 seconds a round, bluish-white object moving east to west on a parabolic path. Two variometers (magnetic field measuring instruments) register sudden and strong disturbances. (Schopick, pp. 153– 155; Daniel A. Perisse, “Deception Island UFO Sightings,” MUFON 1987 International UFO Symposium Proceedings, Mutual UFO Network, 1987, pp. 147, 153; Richard H. Hall, “UFO Sightings at Scientific Stations in Antarctica, July 1965”) July 3 — 7 :20 p.m. The meteorologist and eight other witnesses at the Chilean Aguirre Cerda Station [destroyed in 1967] on Deception Island, Antarctica, watch for a total of 20 minutes a bright and apparently solid object zigzagging from the east quadrant to the south quadrant. It maintains an altitude above the horizon between 35 and 20 degrees. It is white and star-like with some orange hues. (Daniel A. Perisse, “Deception Island UFO Sightings,” MUFON 1987 International UFO Symposium Proceedings, Mutual UFO Network, 1987, pp. 147, 153–154; Richard H. Hall, “UFO Sightings at Scientific Stations in Antarctica, July 1965”; Good Above, p. 309 )

July 3 — 7:42 p.m. 17 people (including three visiting Chilean personnel) observe a lens-shaped disc that maneuvers erratically across the sky for about an hour at the Argentine Deception Station in the South Orkney Islands, Antarctica. The object changes colors (red, yellow, green, orange, blue, white) as it zigzags from a position about 30 ° above the horizon in the north-northwest. The object hovers, accelerates, reverses direction, and changes its luminosity. At times it goes behind some clouds, but it is also seen in front of some cirrus clouds. Finally, it disappears to the northwest, decreasing in size and gaining altitude. Cpl. Uladislao Duran Martinez takes 10 color photos through theodolite and field glasses. (“Chile, Argentina Confirm UFO Films,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1965): 2; Dan Lloyd, “Things Are Hotting Up in the Antarctic,” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1965): 4–5; Schopick, pp. 155– 159 ; Daniel A. Perisse, “Deception Island UFO Sightings,” MUFON 1987 International UFO Symposium Proceedings, Mutual UFO Network, 1987, pp. 147, 154; Richard H. Hall, “UFO Sightings at Scientific Stations in Antarctica, July 1965”; Good Above pp. 309 – 310 ; Condon, pp. 99 – 100 ) July 6 — 6:52 p.m. Chief Mate Torgrim Lien of the Norwegian ship TT Jawesta watches a star-like UFO through binoculars in the North Atlantic Ocean about 900 miles southwest of the Azores. He, the captain, and other officers see an intense blue, fiery tongue of light approaching the ship at tremendous speed. As it gets closer, he sees it is a cigar-shaped UFO with a row of square windows. (“‘Cigar’ Passes a Few Hundred Feet above Norwegian Ship,” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1966): 32) July 9 — 4:30 p.m. A white cylindrical object is seen flying over Santa Maria Island in the Azores islands, Portugal. All electric clocks at the Santa Maria Airport stop when the object passes overhead. Weather personnel and other witnesses all agree that the UFO is at an altitude of 24,000–30,000 feet. At no time does it make any sound. According to witnesses, the clocks stop at the same time the UFO reaches the zenith directly over the airport. Attempts to identify it are unsuccessful. (NICAP, “Clocks at Airport Stopped When UFO Passes Over”; “The Portuguese UAOs,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1965, p. 7; “United Press International Reports on Two UFOs,” Fate 18, no. 11 (November 1965): 59–61; Schopick, pp. 160–162) July 9 — 10:00 p.m. Connie Wolferd and other residents of Bunker Hill, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, watch a clam- shaped object, about 10 feet in diameter, with red lights around its rim hover above some nearby trees. Wolferd is sitting on the porch listening to the radio when it suddenly stops functioning. The living room lights flicker (although fluorescent lights in the kitchen and bathroom do not), and a neighbor’s loud TV suddenly stops. She hears something making a “bleep-bleep” sound, looks up, and sees the object. Neighbors find the leaves of nearby trees are singed. (“Bunker Hill Girl Tells of Seeing Unidentified Flying Objects in July,” Lebanon (Pa.) Daily News, August 10, 1965, p. 20; Schopick, pp. 177–178) July 12 — 4:30 a.m. Laura de Freitas Machado Fernandes gets up to go to the well for some water at her home in Porto, Portugal, near the Porto Airport. She notices a luminous red object shaped like a cardinal’s hat coming from the west at high speed. It stops in mid-air and hovers above some nearby woods, rocking back and forth. She rushes back to warn her husband, Manuel Fernandes. They notice that their radio set has started making a loud noise. They estimate the object is about a quarter-mile away. Its top part is orange, and on its brim is a flickering red light. They watch it for 3 minutes before it takes off to the north at full speed. The radio goes back to normal. (“The Portuguese UAOs,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1965, pp. 3, 7; “United Press International Reports on Two UFOs,” Fate 18, no. 11 (November 1965): 59–61; Schopick, pp. 16 2 – 167 ) July 1 5 — 11:00 a.m. An object descends near the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex in Tidbinbilla, Australian Capital Territory, interfering with its tracking of Mariner 4. It is also observed by control tower operators at Canberra Airport. (“Canberra Incident,” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1965): 18–19; Schopick, pp. 167–169; Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, p. 106 ; Randall C. Hecker, “Did UFO Sabotage Mariner IV?” Fate 20, no. 5 (May 1967): 32 – 37 ) July 19 — 5:30 p.m. Denis Crowe, an aircraft artist, is strolling along a beach at Vaucluse, New South Wales, when he encounters a glowing disc resting on legs. It is about 20 feet in diameter and 9 feet high. The top and bottom are silver gray and the rim in between is glowing greenish-blue. A hollow area at the very top seems to be a glass dome. There are no windows or antennae. Dogs in the neighborhood all bark at it. When Crowe is 50–60 feet from the object, it takes off with a sound like air forced from a balloon. He watches it for about 10 seconds until it disappears into the clouds. After the object takes off, the dogs are strangely silent. (NICAP, “Glowing Disc on Legs Freaks Dogs”; Bill Chalker, “Tully Saucer Nests of 1966, Part Two,” IUR 23 , no. 1 (Spring 1998): 16– 17 ; Good Above, p. 531 ) July 26 — 9:35 p.m. Astronomers Robert Vitolniek, Ian Melderis, and Esmeralda Vitolniek at the Baldone Astrophysical Observatory in Latvia are observing noctilucent clouds when they see a star-like object drifting slowly westwards. Through binoculars the light seems to be sharply defined, and through a telescope it looks like an array of three greenish lights around a larger, central sphere. After 20 minutes, the three smaller lights move away from the central one, and they disappear into the distance at 10:00 p.m. (Felix Ziegel, “Unidentified Flying Objects,” Soviet

Life, no. 137 (February 1968): 27 ; Hobana and Weverbergh 286– 287 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 60 – 61 ) July 26 — Night. Adilon Batista de Azevedo, 14, leaves home with two friends to go to a movie theater on the outskirts of Carazinho, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. When they pass a vacant lot on Rua David Canaberra between the Rua 15 de Novembro and the Rua Alexandra de Motta, they see a light beam coming from a cloud illuminating an area about 33 feet in diameter and hear a buzzing noise. The other boys run, but Adilon remains and sees an oval- shaped object landing in the vacant lot and hovering about 3 feet off the ground. Another smaller object descends and hovers next to the first. Two beings about 5 feet tall emerge from the larger object and walk around it. They are wearing dark clothing and light helmets. After 5 minutes, 3 others emerge from the smaller object and converse with the others. The beings reenter the objects, which take off several minute apart. Adilon gets a headache that remains with him for 5 days. Possible helicopters? (“Research in Brazil,” SBEDV Boletim, no. 45– 47 (July/Dec. 1965): 7–9; Patrick Gross, URECAT, April 6, 2008; Brazil 73–74) July 28 — 9:40 p.m. A USAF Reserve major and his wife observe a manta ray–shaped object fly almost directly overhead at Carswell AFB [now Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base], Fort Worth, Texas, below 1,000 feet altitude. The object moves at a constant speed on the same course. The object is approximately 40 feet long and has two brilliant white lights pulsating off and on once every second. It is completely silent and flies directly through the Carswell control zone at low altitude. The sighting is verified by three other persons on duty. The report states: “This sighting was a positive observation, under ideal circumstances, of a definite object of an unconventional nature—possibly of foreign origin, which could be a threat to national security.” (NICAP, “RAPCON Fails to Identify Low Flying Manta Ray”) July 31 — 1:05 a.m. Wynnewood, Oklahoma, police officer Lewis Sikes, 29, reports a UFO to the northeast. A little later, simultaneous radar fixes are obtained at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City and Carswell AFB [now Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base], Fort Worth, Texas. Both Tinker and Carswell track the object to a point 15 miles southwest of Tinker when it disappears. A few minutes later, it is tracked to a point 29 miles south of Tinker when it is lost again. (NICAP, “Gnd/Visual and AF Radar”)

August 1 — 1:30– 4 : 3 0 a.m. Various personnel from Francis E. Warren Air Force Base west of Cheyenne, Wyoming, report more than 70 UFOs near the base’s ICBM Minuteman I launch control facilities (LCFs) and launch facilities (LFs, missile silos). A Lieut. Anspaugh logs the reports and incoming telephone calls for three hours. The reports begin with a “large circular object emitting several colors but no sound” seen by civilians over Cheyenne itself at 1:30 a.m. This results in an alert at the base for all personnel to be on the watch for anything suspicious. Five objects are spotted over the Sioux Army Depot [now closed] in Sydney, Nebraska, at 1:45 a.m. Two UFOs are seen over the Echo LCF southeast of Pine Bluff at 1:48 a.m. Nine more objects are sighted at 2:50 a.m. The Echo LCF reports six UFOs stacked vertically. A Strategic Air Command team at the H-2 LF northeast of Gurley reports a white UFO directly overhead at 3:00 a.m. The Sioux Army Depot reports five objects going east at 3:35 a.m. Reports of white, round- or oval-shaped objects in various formations, continue solidly at the H- 2 LF for the next 40 minutes. At 4:05 a.m., the Warren base commander calls to say that the Quebec LCF southwest of Chugwater has nine UFOs in sight: four to the NW, three to the NE, and two over Cheyenne. Sightings continue to be reported the next two nights at missile sites assigned to Warren AFB, for a total of 148 objects seen by 143 combat defense force airmen, missile maintenance men, and NCOs. The sheer scope and blatant ostentation of the UFOs’ reported aerial displays over a sensitive atomic missile base is remarkable. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974 , pp. 209 – 211 ; Robert L. Hastings, “Remarkable Reports from the Missile Field,” IUR 32, no. 1 (August 2008): 8–14, 23–27; Robert L. Hastings, “Yet Another Nuclear Missile Launch Officer Talks about UFOs at F. E. Warren AFB,” UFOs & Nukes, February 5, 2012; Nukes 223– 238 ) August 1 — 8:08 p.m. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol starts receiving 25–30 visual sightings of UFOs, many by police and highway patrol troopers from Purcell north to Norman to Chandler and back south through Meeker and Shawnee, Oklahoma. The sightings continue through dawn and vary from one to four objects that start and stop, often having a red color and varying to a white and blue luster. (NICAP, [case documents]) August 1 — 9:08 p.m. Four objects, bluish-white with a red haze, are seen from the control tower at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. T/Sgt John R. Lang, 34, is the watch supervisor. All the objects appear at approximately 22,000 feet altitude. One is moving south, and another is moving north at speeds of 150–200 mph. Two of the objects appear stationary. The 746th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron reports radar contact with one object at 10,000 feet in the vicinity of Norman, Oklahoma, 20 miles south of Tinker AFB. The duration is 90 minutes. An Air Force weather observer, who wishes to remain anonymous, looks at a UFO through his

40 x-telescope at Oklahoma City. It is tilted about 45° then straightens out. “It looked like Saturn with a flat top and flat bottom.” (NICAP, “Four Lights Observed, Radar Contact on One”; “UFOs Leave Local Radar Tracks,” Wichita (Kan.) Beacon, August 2, 1965, pp. 1–2; “Radar Didn’t Detect UFOs Spotted in Area,” Minneapolis Star, August 3, 19 65 , pp. 1, 4 ) August 1 — Night. A TWA Boeing 707 airliner flying west of Topeka, Kansas, picks up 12 – 15 targets on Air Intercept Radar flying toward them at high speed on a 50-mile scope. They change to a 20-mile scope and observe the objects approaching in formation. The pilot, copilot, and engineer all witness this clearly. The aircraft passes the objects but cannot see them visually. Two films of the scopes are taken. (NICAP, “707 Picks Up 12–15 Targets”) August 1 — Night. Two rookie police officers in Caldwell, Kansas, speed toward the airport to investigate local sightings when they see an egg-shaped machine about 300 feet long hovering above the ground. They try to get closer, but it disappears behind a hedgerow and shuts its lights off. They return the next day, but find no traces. (“Caldwell Officers Are ‘Believers’ Now,” Wichita (Kan.) Beacon, August 2, 1965, p. 1; Jerome Clark, “The Greatest Flap Yet?” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1966): 27–28) August 2 or 3 —1:30 a.m. Mr. A. L. Smith, accompanied by his 14-year-old son Alan and three other witnesses, watch an unusual, multicolored UFO over Tulsa, Oklahoma. The UFO is slowly moving toward the witnesses. Still several hundred yards away, it pauses briefly and hovers. At that precise moment, Alan snaps a photograph with his inexpensive camera, using ASA 64 film. Alan decides not to try for a second shot. He takes his camera inside the house and runs back outside just in time to see the object rapidly flying away into the night sky. The photo is a probable fake of a color wheel for an aluminum Christmas tree. (NICAP, “The Smith / Tulsa Photo Case”; Michael D. Swords, GrassRoots UFOs: Case Reports from the Timmerman Files, Fund for UFO Research, 2005, p.147; Larry Robinson, “The Tulsa Photo,” MidiMagic, October 25, 2016; Patrick Gross, “Project Blue Book Case 9966”) August 2 — Project Blue Book puts out an official USAF press release declaring the majority of the sightings on August 1 are “most likely” due to the planet Jupiter and the stars Rigel, Capella, Betelgeuse, and Aldebaran, “clearly visible in the eastern sky.” But astronomer Robert Risser of the Kirkpatrick Planetarium in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, counters that Jupiter and the four stars are “on the opposite side of the earth” at the time of the sightings. (“Mystery Flying Objects ‘Seen’ in Eight States,” Los Angeles Times, August 3, 1965, p. 1; Clark III 388) August 2 — 2:30 a.m. Unidentified blips show up on the Weather Bureau radar screen at the Wichita Municipal Airport [now Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport] in Kansas and continue intermittently until after 6:00 a.m. Most of the sightings are in the vicinity of Wellington, Kansas. The altitude ranges from 5,000–20,000 feet. Wichita meteorologist John Shockley tracks several UFOs on the Weather Bureau radar flying at altitudes of 6,000–9,000 feet. His assistant Ellis Pike notes that they look just like airliner blips. They brighten and dim on the screen, moving at 45 mph. At least four citizens see colored glows in the southern sky during the early morning hours. One says: “They were red and exploded in a shower of sparks and at other times fluttered like a leaf in the clear sky.” (NICAP, “Weather Radar Blips and Sky Glows”; Condon, pp. 158 – 160 ) August 2 — 3:00 a.m. KXWI-TV news photographer Robert Campbell hears on his radio a conversation between Oklahoma and Texas highway patrolmen that a UFO has been tracked on radar and is streaking towards the Texas border. Campbell takes his 4-by-5 Speed Graphic camera and drives into Sherman, Texas, where he locates Chief of Police Peter McCollum. Together they search for the object and soon see it hanging stationary one mile east of Bells on US Highway 82. The object has a “Mercury capsule” shape at one end, possibly rounded at the other end. Several distinct bands circle the cylinder, with disc-shaped embossments on the surface. He takes four camera exposures, two minutes each at three-minute intervals. The negatives are carefully examined by USAF scientific advisers and astronomical experts. No acceptable explanation can be found for the object recorded on the negatives. (NICAP, “The Sherman, Texas, Photo Case”; “Sherman 1965,” Texas UFO Museum and Research Library, February 5, 2014; Patrick Gross, “The Sherman Case, Texas, USA, 1965”) August 2 — The crew of the Russian steamship Raduga in the Red Sea watch a fiery sphere emerge from the water 2 miles away, causing an enormous pillar of water to rise and collapse. It hovers above the surface at an altitude of 490 feet. A motorboat with six Arab fishermen is in the area and also sees the object, which is apparently 200 feet in diameter. The object shoots straight up, and the boat is hit by a strong wave that overturns it. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, pp. 59– 60 ) August 2 — As they patrol near Eagle Mountain Lake, two Tarrant County, Texas, deputy sheriffs see an object as bright as burning magnesium land. An extensive investigation by police finds no traces. (Sparks, p. 306 ) August 3 — 12:37 p.m. Los Angeles County Highway Accident Investigator Rex Heflin takes four clear Polaroid photos of a hat-shaped UFO on a lonely stretch of road near Santa Ana, California. The object is silent, and a beam of white light is rotating beneath it. He radios his supervisor, but the radio goes dead. One of Heflin’s coworkers offers to send the photos to Life magazine; he does, but Life declines to use them. Soon, someone from NORAD

shows up demanding the prints and Heflin turns them over. They are not seen again. The photos are most likely a prank hoax by Heflin using a hubcap, complicated by flawed photographic analyses and investigations. (NICAP, “Santa Ana / Rex Heflin Photos”; “Calif. Man Snaps UAO Photo,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1965, pp. 4, 6; “Photo ‘Hoax’ Label Questioned,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 5 (Nov./Dec. 1965): 8; “The Heflin Story,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 6 (Jan./Feb. 1966): 7–8; Schopick, pp. 170–174; Ralph Rankow, “The Heflin Photographs,” Flying Saucer Review 14, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1968): 21–24; UFOEv II 284 – 286 ; Condon, pp. 84 – 85, 437 – 455 ; Robert J. Kirkpatrick, “The Heflin Case: Then and Now,” IUR 11, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1986): 10–13, 23; “Heflin’s 1965 Photos Finally Validated,” RR0; Ann Druffel, Robert M. Wood, and Eric Kelson, “Reanalysis of the 1965 Heflin UFO Photos,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 14, no. 4 (2000): 583–622; Ann Druffel, “Goodbye, Rex Heflin,” UFO, August 2006, pp. 52–63; Mary Castner, unpublished document) August 3 — Before 12:00 midnight. Three young men watch a triangular object with a light at each of its points move from north to south along the Jura Mountains from Biel/Bienne to Vignelz, Canton Bern, Switzerland. Suddenly it stops, changing color from yellow to dark red, makes a 180° turn, then takes off “like lightning” toward the east where it vanishes. (“Bright Pointed Triangle Again,” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1966): iii) August 4 — 1:30 a.m. Don Tenopir, 44, is driving a truck on State Highway 15 about 25 miles south of Abilene (near Elmo, Kansas), when all his lights go out. They come back on intermittently. A UFO passes just above his truck with a wind-like sound and hovers about 100 feet in front of him. Tenopir stops his rig, and the object slowly rises and takes off to the southwest. It seems to be 14–15 feet in diameter, 2 feet thick with a 4-foot hump in the middle, and orange-colored. It is shooting off rays in spurts. He stops in Abilene to report his sighting to Abilene Reflector-Chronicle reporter Ed Corwin. (“Beatrice Trucker Joins UFO Viewers,” Beatrice (Neb.) Daily Sun, August 5 , 1965, p. 1; Jerome Clark, “The Greatest Flap Yet?” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1966): 29 – 30 ; Schopick, pp. 175 – 177 ) August 4 — Night. Radar operators at Calumet Air Force Station [now operated by Keweenaw County] near Phoenix, Michigan, track 7–10 objects in V-formation traveling from southwest to north-northeast at about 9,000 mph over Lake Superior. The same night, radar targets at Duluth, Minnesota, are chased by USAF jets. (Sparks, p. 306; Center for UFO Studies, [case documents]) August 8 — 11:30 p.m. A luminous UFO is allegedly photographed in Beaver, Pennsylvania, by James Lucci, 17. According to estimations by witnesses, the diameter of the UFO is around 42 feet. Lucci is photographing the full moon with his brother John, 23. According to them, a shining object appears from behind a hill. James manages to take two shots before the flying object leaves. His friends encourage him to send the photos to the Beaver County Times, where they are analyzed and declared authentic. However, both the Colorado project and UFO researchers determine the photo is a hoax created by holding a plate up next to the moon with a fist (probably John’s) and blurring it with motion. (Condon, pp. 83 – 84 , 455 – 457 ; Mark Cashman, “The End of a Photographic Case,” IUR 23, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 21–23) August 9 — 6:00 p.m. A professional astronomer and his wife, along with three others, are driving eastward on Long Island, New York, when then see a silvery disc heading slowly south. Its base has a ring of bluish-white lights that make the object appear to rotate. It has a white light on top. After accelerating, the object becomes a white, starlike object far to the east. It moves up and down for another 5 minutes, then rapidly moves south and disappears over the Atlantic Ocean. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 75– 76 ) August 11? — 3:30 p.m. David Gibson is sitting in the front yard of his house in Waverly, Iowa, with his father and sister. They hear a high-pitched whine and see an object descending to the south. The silvery UFO is about 15–20 feet in diameter and looks like two saucers put together. It lands on a tree-lined hill out of view and the whining sound fades away. Gibson walks about a half-mile to take a look and briefly sees a “being,” about 3–3.5 feet tall, watching him from behind a tree at the top of the hill. It quickly vanishes and he hears a rush of air. He reaches the spot but sees no footprints. About 40 feet south of the tree he finds a burned area about 15–20 feet in diameter and three rectangular impressions in the shape of a triangle. (Jerome Clark, “Iowa’s Bashful Humanoid,” Flying Saucer Review 21, no. 3/4 (November 1975): 52–53) August 12 — 11:15 a.m. Maj. Jack D. Bond is sitting in a passenger seat of a T-29 aircraft on a heading of 300° and descending from 4,000 feet to 3,000 feet near Springfield, Ohio. He sees a UFO ascending and descending that is slightly higher than the T-29. It appears to be 5–7 miles away and moving in a general direction of 90°. The object’s speed is highly erratic during the 3 ascents and descents that the object makes. On its third descent the object appears to level off and accelerate at a speed of 690 mph or more. Project Blue Book evaluates this sighting as a solar mirage, even though the position and time of day rule that out. (NICAP, “Object Has 3 Ascents and 2 Descents”; Clark III 388– 389 ) August 13 — 9:30 p.m.? Leonard Chalupiak has just put his car into his garage at Baden, Pennsylvania, when he sees a disc-shaped object about 300 feet in diameter flying in front of the moon toward the north at about 50 mph and

2,300 feet away. It is surrounded with orange lights that weaken as a blue light comes on, which is intense for about 3 seconds. Then all the lights disappear and a sort of “shock wave” that shakes the tree leaves commences. The witness goes into his house and calls the Air Force. About 20 minutes later his vision becomes hazy, his eyes grow painful, and he gradually loses vision in both eyes. He notices his entire body is sunburned. A medical examination indicates exposure to ultraviolet radiation. His vision returns gradually over several days. The Air Force labels it a hoax, perhaps confusing it with the Beaver, Pennsylvania, hoax photo of August 8. (NICAP, “Object Crosses Moon / Medical Effects on Witness”; Vallée, Magonia, p. 313) August 16 — 10:45 p.m.–12:20 a.m. A woman leaves her house on the northwest edge of Sedalia, Missouri, to drive to a drug store. As she is returning home, she sees an unusual figure in the ditch to her right. It turns and waves at her, then stumbles as it climbs out of the ditch. Something (a large bird?) flies up in the air a few feet from the car. She steps on the gas and goes home, where her husband asks her where she has been because it is now 12:25 a.m. In 1977, she undergoes hypnotic regression with hypnotist Ron Owen and recalls an abduction experience where she undergoes some type of examination. (Clark III 278 – 279 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, August 25, 2008) August 18 — 9:50 p.m. Michael S. Henry and another college student are driving 3 miles south of Noblesville, Indiana, when a large red lighted object swoops down on their car. The radio and ignition go dead. The UFO looks like a top, with a large, gray cone and a flat or slightly domed top. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34 , no. 1 (Sept. 2011): 15) August 19 — 3:00 a.m. Thelma B. Schumaker and her mother, Mrs. W. H. Blackburn, are awakened by an explosion in their backyard in Mount Airy, North Carolina. The sound seems to rise and travel west. They see a bright golden cigar hovering in the north. The object moves to the right then to the left, then up and down, left again, then disappears behind some high oak trees. The next morning, the witnesses find a 6-inch-wide circle of depressed sod that is worn down to the soil. The circle is 12 feet in diameter. (Ted Phillips, Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings, CUFOS, 1975, p. 37) August 19 — 8:20–9:00 p.m. Harold Butcher, 16, is milking the cows in his father’s barn in Cherry Creek, New York, and listening to radio station WKBW. Just outside, a 3 - year old bull is tied by its nose to a metal pipe. Harold hears the bull make a noise “like I have never heard come from an animal before.” Looking out the window, he sees the animal is bending the pipe. Simultaneously, he sees a metallic-looking, football-shaped UFO about 50 feet long and approximately 20 feet thick hovering just above the trees an estimated 450 feet from the barn. Slowly, the object descends behind a maple tree, emitting a red vapor from around its edges and a “beep-beep” sound. Meanwhile, the radio is emitting static, even though WKBW usually has a clear signal. Harold calls the house on an intercom, then runs outside. As he approaches the bull, the UFO rises and moves behind some clouds “as fast as a snap of my fingers” emitting red vapor toward the ground, then bounces back to the ship as it hovers about 10 feet in the air. The noise also increases to a level approximating a sonic boom as it goes up. As the UFO disappears, the clouds turn green. Inside, the boy’s mother, Mrs. William Butcher, notes that there is “definite interference” in her radio reception. Harold’s brother, Robert, also goes outside and the two boys see that the UFO has reappeared, this time hovering over a pine grove. It ascends again, emitting the red vapor and turning the clouds green. Others in the house include William Butcher Jr. and Kathleen Brougham, a friend. They do not see the object. It returns twice at 8:45 and 9:00 p.m., finally disappearing to the southwest. Trooper E. J. Haas and a fellow officer arrive on the scene shortly thereafter. As they all walk out to inspect the area of the initial sighting, they notice a pungent odor. Harold and the young daughter suffer from upset stomachs. Mrs. Butcher says the cows produce only one can of milk that evening, as opposed to their usual two and a half cans. Harold discovers a purple, oily-smelling liquid and gives a sample of it to the state police, who turn it over to Capt. James A. Dorsey and five others from Niagara Falls Air Force Base [now Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station], who come to investigate the report the following afternoon. When NICAP investigator Jeffrey Gow arrives on the scene, he notices the foot-tall grass in the area “seemed to be bent over in long curved sweeps.” Radar targets are picked up between 8:00–8:30 p.m. by an AN/FPS-6 Long Range Height Finder Radar of the 763rd Radar Squadron at Lockport Air Force Station [now closed] near Shawnee, New York. The target is sighted near the upper limit of the radar. (NICAP, “Close Encounter Has Radar Evidence”; NICAP, “Cherry Creek (Butcher) Trace Case”; Center for UFO Studies, [case documents]; “Landing Probed by NICAP, AF,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1965): 7; “The Cherry Creek Incident,” APRO Bulletin, Nov./Dec. 1965, p. 7; Schopick, pp. 178 – 184 ; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 170– 172 ; Robert A. Galganski, “Incident at Cherry Creek,” IUR 21, no. 3 (Fall 1996): 3– 12, 27– 29 ; Sparks, p. 307 ; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 118– 124 ) August 30 — Hynek writes to Lt. Col. John Spaulding in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force to suggest that the Pentagon work with the National Academy of Sciences to establish a panel of physical and social scientists to study the UFO phenomenon. (Center for UFO Studies, [Hynek correspondence], p. 1; Swords 306)

September 3 — Around 1: 0 0 a.m. Exeter, New Hampshire, Police Officer Eugene F. Bertrand Jr. comes across a woman parked on State Highway 101. “She was real upset,” he says, “and told me that a red glowing object had chased her.” Around 2 : 00 a.m., while walking home to Exeter on Route 150 (Amesbury Road) near Kensington, New Hampshire, teenager Norman J. Muscarello is terrorized by a large object with four or five bright red lights that approaches from nearby woods and hovers over a field. Horses are spooked. Muscarello gets a ride to the Exeter police station, pale and shaken, and reports the incident at 2:24 a.m. Officer Bertrand drives him back to the field along Route 150 to investigate. When he is called to investigate Muscarello’s report, the earlier incident causes him to pay attention. At first Bertrand and Muscarello see nothing, but when Bertrand flashes a light around the field around 3:00 a.m., a huge dark object with red flashing lights rises up over the trees, moving back and forth, tilts, and comes toward them. They both see pulsating red lights that dim from left to right then right to left in a 5- 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 then 1- 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 pattern. Each cycle takes about 2 seconds. The object hovers for several minutes, and everything is silent except for the dogs and horses. Then it darts, turns sharply, slows down, and begins to move away. Another patrolman, David R. Hunt, pulls up and sees the pulsating lights and the UFO. Bertrand says the lights are always in a line and at a 60° angle; when the object moves, the lower lights are always forward of the others. In the daytime, the police station calls Pease AFB [now Pease Air National Guard Base] in Portsmouth to reconfirm the incident. By 1:00 p.m., 2–4 police officers arrive to interview the three witnesses at length. Journalist John G. Fuller investigates the case during the next month. He finds a huge gap between media coverage and local perceptions. Raymond Fowler finds that the local advertising plane operated by Sky-Lite Aerial Advertising Agency of Boston was not running between August 21 and September 10. (Wikipedia, “Exeter incident”; “UFOs Panic Police, Motorists,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1965): 1, 3–4; “The Exeter, N.H. Case,” APRO Bulletin, Nov./Dec. 1965, pp. 7–8; John G. Fuller, “Outer-Space Ghost Story,” Look, February 22, 1966, pp. 36–42; Clark III 440– 444 ; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 154 – 166 ; John G. Fuller, Incident at Exeter, Putnam’s Sons, 1966 ; Schopick, pp. 197–199; Sparks, p. 307; Jean Fuller, “The Exeter Incidents,” Flying Saucer Review 13, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1967): 25–27; “Tale of an ‘Exeter Terrestrial,’” IUR 8, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1983): 12– 14 , excerpted from Exeter Area High School newspaper, Talon 5, no. 1 (1981); Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 69 – 72 ; Michael D. Swords, GrassRoots UFOs: Case Reports from the Timmerman Files, Fund for UFO Research, 2005, pp. 143–145; Schuessler, “The Exeter, N.H. UFO Case, September 3, 1965: Briefing Document,” October 2002; Martin Shough, “Exeunt Exeter? Should This 1965 New Hampshire Classic Finally Shuffle Off the Stage?” April 2012; Center for UFO Studies, [case documents]; Center for UFO Studies, [John G. Fuller tape-recorded interview transcripts, part one, part two]; Patrick Gross, “The Exeter Cases, 1965”) September 3 — 11:00 p.m. Brazoria County Sheriff’s Deputies Billy E. McCoy and Robert Goode are patrolling Highway 36 between West Columbia and Damon, Texas. They see a dark-gray triangular object, 150–200 feet long and 40 – 50 feet thick at the middle, with a long, bright, pulsing, purple light on the right side and a long blue light on the left side. It approaches to within 150 feet from the highway and 100 feet in the air. Purple light illuminates the ground beneath the object and the interior of the police car, and the object casts a shadow in the moonlight. Goode feels heat on his left arm; an alligator bite on his left index finger is suddenly relieved of pain, later healing rapidly but unnaturally. They drive away in fear but return later that night to find the object still there. (NICAP, “Dark Grey Disc Shadows Police Car”; “UAO Pursues Police,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1965, pp. 1, 3; Clark III 355– 357 ; Sparks, p. 308; Michael D. Swords, “Damon, Texas Comments, by Request from Kandinsky,” The Big Study, March 26, 2011; “Damon 1965,” Texas UFO Museum and Research Library, February 5, 2014; Patrick Gross, “Damon, Texas, September 19 65 ”) September 6 — 9:30 p.m. Capt. Marcelo Cisternas is piloting a DC-6b at 8,500 feet for LAN Chile Flight 904 in northern Chile when he sees a zigzagging object change course and approach his airliner. The UFO follows the aircraft for 13 – 14 minutes at a distance of 1.8 miles. It is emitting a light of an intense color that shifts to radiant white. Cisternas checks with control towers in Arica and Iquque, but no other flights are expected in the area. (Good Above, p. 311 ) September 10 — 8:30 a.m. Farmer Antônio Pau Ferro is working on his farm in São João, near Garanhuns, Pernambuco, Brazil, when he hears a noise and sees two metallic objects descending from the sky about 26 feet away. They touch the ground in a uniform motion, let two humanoids about 2.5 feet tall exit, then rise up again to 16 feet and hover. The beings approach Ferro, then move back to the two UFOs. They pick up a tomato and examine it. The objects descend and envelop them, then take off with a whining and then a low sound. (Clark III 523; Brazil 76; Patrick Gross, URECAT, May 17, 2008) September 14 — 1:00 a.m. Engineer Paul Green is riding a motorcycle south of Langenhoe, Essex, UK, near Langenhoe Hall Lane when he hears a high-pitched humming to the east and notices a pinpoint of blue light moving in his direction. The humming becomes a loud buzzing, and his engine sputters and dies and the headlight goes out. The

light resolves into an enormous domed disc that tilts and slowly descends. The underside of the disc has numerous round items. Green walks toward the object, but he feels paralyzed as the flashing blue light becomes intense, fluctuating in rhythm with his heartbeat. He feels a tingling like an electric shock. The object seems to land in an area with farmhouses. Green notes that another cyclist has had a similar problem, but with some difficulty he gets his cycle started. The next day he notices that his hair and clothes are imbued with static electricity. (Bernard E. Finch, “The Langenhoe Incident,” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1965): 3–4) September 16 — Just after 12:00 midnight. Constables John Lockem and Koos de Klerk are patrolling on the Pretoria- Bronkhorstspruit highway in South Africa when their police van headlights suddenly illuminate a domed, disc- shaped object sitting on the road. The UFO is copper colored and about 30 feet in diameter. Within seconds, the object lifts off the road, emitting tongues of flame from two tubes or channels on the underside. Flames from the macadam road surface shoot up in the air about 3 feet as the UFO departs, blazing long after it is out of sight. Later investigation shows that part of the road is caved in as if from a heavy weight, and the gravel is separated from the tar in a severely burned area about 6 feet in diameter. Lt. Col. J. B. Brits, district commandant of Pretoria North, tells the media that the incident is considered “as being of a highly secret nature and an inquiry is being conducted in top circles.” Samples of the road surface are taken for analysis by a leading scientific agency; the report is never made public. (Philipp Human, “Two Policemen See Saucer on Main Road,” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1965): 9–11; “Police See UFO Blast Off from Highway,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1965): 5; Schopick, pp. 187–192; UFOEv II 1 83 – 184 ) September 17 — A UFO is seen hovering above Medina del Campo, Valladolid, Spain, for several hours. Heliodoro Carrión takes off in his light plane and goes to 15,000 feet. An Iberia Airlines jet passes him on the way up at 24,000 feet. Carrión estimates the UFO is at least 4 times larger than the jet. (“More Sightings over Spain,” APRO Bulletin, Jan./Feb. 1966, p. 1) Late September — 9:15 p.m. Two French submarines, the Junon (S648) and the Daphné (S641), escorted by the logistic support vessel Rhône, are anchored off Fort-de-France, Martinique, when a large luminous object the color of a fluorescent tube arrives slowly and silently from the west. Michel Figuet on the Junon goes into the coming tower and gets six pairs of binoculars that he distributes to companions. There are 300 witnesses, including four officers on the Junon, three officers on the Daphné, a dozen French sailors, and personnel of the weather observatory. All witnesses aboard the Junon see the object as a large ball of light or a disc on edge arriving from the west. It moves slowly, horizontally, at a distance estimated at 6 miles south of the ships, from west to east. It leaves a whitish trace similar to the glow of a TV screen. When it was directly south of the ships the object drops toward the earth, makes two complete loops, then hovers in the midst of a faint halo. Figuet watches the object vanish in the center of its glow “like a bulb turned off.” The trail and the halo remain visible in the sky for a full minute. At 9:45 p.m. the halo reappears at the same place, and the object switches on again. It rises, makes two more loops, and flies away to the west, where it disappears at 9:50 p.m. (Jacques Vallée, “Estimates of Power Optical Output in Six Cases of Unexplained Aerial Objects with Defined Luminosity Characteristics,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 12, no. 3 (1998): 348–350) September 23 — A major blackout in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, coincides with the appearance of a glowing, disc- shaped UFO hovering low over the city. Witnesses include the governor of Morelos state, Emilio Riva Palacio; Valentín López González, the mayor of Cuernavaca; 24th military zone chief Gen. Rafael Enrique Vega; Joaquín Díaz González, president of the Lion’s Club; founder of the Folkloric Ballet of Mexico, Amalia Hernández; and future Mexican President Luis Echeverría. The power only fails as long as the UFO is there. (Frank Edwards, FS Serious Business, Bantam ed., 1966, p. 145 ; Schopick, pp. 192– 196 ; Antonio Huneeus, “UFO Sighting by Mexican President Luis Echeverría,” OpenMinds, October 6, 2011) September 26 — The Centro Ufologico Nazionale is founded in Milan, Italy, as a test of cooperation among several regional UFO groups. It begins publishing Notiziario UFO, edited by Roberto Pinotti, in January 1966. (Story, p. 67 ; 1Pinotti 143–146; Notiziario UFO 1 (1967))) September 28 — USAF Director of Information Gen. Eugene B. LeBailly writes to the military director of the USAF Scientific Advisory Board, saying that Gen. Arthur C. Agan has found Project Blue Book to be a worthwhile program and that the Air Force should continue to investigate UFOs “to assure that such objects do not present a threat to our national security.” The project will remain at the Foreign Technology Division (Wright-Patterson AFB). He also requests that a “working scientific panel composed of both physical and social scientists be organized to review Project Blue Book—its resources, methods, and findings.” (Maj. Gen. E. B. LeBailly, “Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs),” memorandum for military director, Scientific Advisory Board, September 28, 1965)

Fall — 10:30 a.m. A Chesapeake & Ohio train is moving 8 miles south of Fostoria, Ohio, when the fireman and engineer see a large cigar-shaped object in the sky a considerable distance away. It is dark in color and positioned at a 45° angle from the horizon. It appears to be creating its own cloud screen. Suddenly a small object falls out of the tail and descends slowly in a fluttering fashion. Near the ground the small object stabilizes, emits coal-black smoke from its top, and then rises upward faster and faster. Three more objects leave the large one, each taking 10– 12 minutes. They go off in different directions. After the last one leaves, a white cloud forms around the large object, which remains in the sky with other normal white clouds. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects and Cloud Cigars,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 3) October — The Tasmanian UFO Investigation Centre is formed in Hobart, Tasmania, by Robert Burge. It publishes the TUFOIC Newsletter for many years, but the organization folds in December 2015. (TUFOIC Newsletter, no. 7 (1971); Keith Basterfield, Vladimir Godic, and Pony Godic, “Australian Ufology: A Review,” JUFOS 2 (1990): 25 ) October 1 — The Swedish Defense Staff transfers the responsibility for UFO investigation to the Swedish National Defence Research Institute [now the Swedish Defence Research Agency] in Sweden, where it remains. Few civilian reports are classified as secret, but sensitive reports by the military are restricted. (Swords 367– 368 ) October 2 — John G. Fuller summarizes the Exeter sighting in his “Trade Winds” column in the Saturday Review. He writes to his editors beforehand that “reliable, but off-the-record information from the Pease AFB indicates frequent radar blips and fighters are constantly scrambled to pursue these objects. This information is not official, but it comes from a reliable source.” (John G. Fuller, “Trade Winds,” Saturday Review 48, no. 40 (October 2, 1965): 10, 16) Mid-October — 9:30 a.m. Bill Hertzke, a ranch hand on the Circle J Ranch near Cochrane, Alberta, is on his horse in a pasture when he sees an object like a small airplane parked on the ground. It is silver-gray with swept-back wings, about 16 feet long, a wingspan of about 12 feet, and its fuselage is about 4-5 feet deep. He rides over and examines it. The exterior is irregular, “like a waffle.” A transparent dome covers the cockpit. Through it he can see complicated instruments (knobs, dials, and switches), a TV screen, and two transparent (like Plexiglas) bucket seats. There are no visible motors, propellers, jets, insignia, or identifying marks of any kind. It has an exterior door about 2 feet wide and 3 feet high that is open about 2 inches. His horse is extremely skittish, so he ties it to a tree and returns on foot. He spends 10–15 minutes examining it and can see no landing gear (although it seems to be suspended 18–20 inches off the ground) or seams of any kind. He realizes he can go inside the door but is a bit too scared to even touch the object, and has to return to chores anyway. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 87–102) October 21 — 6:10 p.m. Five witnesses are in a car near Saint George, Minnesota, returning to their homes in Gibbon from a bow-hunting trip. Arthur A. Strauch, a Sibley County deputy sheriff, is the first to spot a strange object that seems to be 2,000 feet above the ground and a quarter of a mile distant in the northwest sky. After watching for about 10 minutes from the car, the group drives down the road about a half mile and stops. Strauch observes it both with the naked eye and through 7x35 binoculars. At first they hear no sound, but as the object flies over them, Donald Martin Grewe describes the sound as a “whistling whine.” Strauch snaps a photograph just as the object begins to move. The object then flies into the wind for several hundred feet, then stops for a few seconds, at which time its lights change from bright white to dull orange, alternating several times. It then moves toward the southeast at a high rate of speed and disappears out of sight. (NICAP, “The St. George Multiple-Witness Photo Case”; “Deputy Snaps UAO Color Photo,” APRO Bulletin, Nov./Dec. 1965, pp. 1, 3; Story, pp. 351– 352 ; Patrick Gross, “The St. George Multiple-Witness Sighting and Photograph, USA, 1965”) October 22 — Afternoon. Geof Gray-Cobb, a Canadian technician working with the Deep Space Instrumentation Facility [now the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory] in Gauteng, South Africa, in tracking Mariner 4, is present when the spacecraft’s signal strength begins rising at a point when it should not have. The team alerts the Jet Propulsion Lab. The signal strength is now so high that the instruments are clicking as they max out. Gray- Cobb says the “raw radio energy” is coming in indecipherable “blips and dashes.” Nothing can be seen visually. Eight minutes later, everything goes silent. JPL later asks them to point their dish in the direction it was pointing when they picked up the signal. They do, but forget to correct for the earth’s rotation. Nonetheless, they get the signal again, which means it is a local source. Nothing is visible in the sky, but a sound sweep reveals that the source is a perfect circle 2° in diameter. The team directs a packet of radio pulses at the source, but it falls silent. Two months later, Gray-Cobb discovers that the pages for the event are gone from the log; the tape recording of the event is also missing. The manager tells him that two men with “authorization” had come three days after the event to confiscate the tapes. (Michael D. Swords, “Gazing at the Moons,” IUR 32, no. 4 (October 2009): 16) October 22 — Evening. José Camilo Filho is walking through a field near the city cemetery in Canhotinho, Pernambuco, Brazil, when he runs across two little men only 3 feet high with whitish hair sitting next to a tube 4 feet tall and

resting on the ground. When they see Camilo, they jump up in a disorganized fashion, colliding with each other. One picks up the tube and the other points a straw at Camilo, who runs ahead. He decides to return and take a closer look, but the men and tube are gone. (Gordon Creighton, “The Humanoids in Latin America,” in Charles Bowen, ed., The Humanoids, special issue of FSR, Oct./Dec. 1966, p. 45; Patrick Gross, URECAT, July 27, 2008; Brazil 75) October 23 — Night. KEYL-AM radio announcer James F. Townsend, 19, is driving on State Highway 27 four miles east of Long Prairie, Minnesota, when he slams on his brakes to avoid hitting a rocket-like device resting on three legs or fins. As his car skids to a stop 20 feet from the object, the vehicle’s motor and electrical system die. The object looks like it is made of stainless steel, stands 30–40 feet high, and is 10 feet in diameter. In a circle of light under it, Townsend sees three things that resemble beer cans with “tripod legs and three matchstick arms.” They have no eyes, but Townsend feels as if they are looking at him. He gets out of the car to try to knock one over, but they come over to him and they stand there looking at him. Eventually they turn around and “scoot under the ship,” disappearing into the light beneath it. An ear-splitting humming sound emanates from the UFO, which assumes a bright illumination and shoots off. The Todd County sheriff and UFO investigators assume that Townsend, a deeply religious man, is sincere. (“‘Space Things’ Stop His Car,” Minneapolis Star, October 25, 1965, pp. 1, 4; Sparks, p. 308; “‘Little, Little Men’ in Minn.,” APRO Bulletin, Nov./Dec. 1965, p. 8; Clare John Jansen, “Little Tin Men in Minnesota,” Fate 19, no. 2 (February 1966): 36 – 40; Clark III 280 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, January 5, 2008) October 25 — The Betty and Barney Hill story is publicly revealed in an article by reporter John H. Luttrell in the Boston Traveler newspaper. He has obtained a copy of the tape recording at the Quincy Center UFO group, as well as a tape of an interview the Hills gave to UFO investigators after they completed their therapy. UPI picks up the story the same day. The Hills are caught completely by surprise. (Clark III 585) October 27 — The Air Force issues a press release that gives two basic explanations for the Exeter, New Hampshire, sightings: Some stem from a high-altitude SAC exercise out of Westover AFB [now Westover Air Reserve Base] near Chicopee, Massachusetts; others are explained by temperature inversion that causes the appearance of stars and planets to dance and twinkle. Around the same time, John Fuller hears from an Air Force pilot that pilots have been ordered to shoot down UFOs when possible, but the objects appear to be “invulnerable” and can outmaneuver any aircraft. (John G. Fuller, Incident at Exeter, Putnam’s Sons, 1966, pp. 201 – 202, 205–206)

Early November — The USAF Scientific Advisory Board meets in Houston, Texas, to discuss the UFO investigation and the possibility of an independent study. (USAF Scientific Advisory Board, Special Report of the USAF Scientific Advisory Board Ad Hoc Committee to Review Project “Blue Book,” Brian O’Brien, chairman of the Advisory Board, March 1966) November — 2:00 a.m. Aaron David Kaback is on duty at the motor pool in the Army’s Fort Riley Military Reservation in Kansas when the duty officer takes him to a remote area of the base where they see a landed UFO with an Army helicopter flying above it. He contacts Leonard Stringfield about his story. A subsequent investigation by Citizens Against UFO Secrecy finds many discrepancies in Kaback’s account and very little credibility. (“Ft. Riley Landing: Hoax or Delusion?” Just Cause 1, no. 6 (September 1978): 11–14; Clark III 603– 604 ; Kevin D. Randle, A History of UFO Crashes, Avon, 1995, p. 201) November 5? — Day. Mauritz Löugren and a friend see a triangular-shaped object moving back and forth for 20 minutes over Luleå, Sweden. It disappears silently to the west at great speed. (“World Round-Up,” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1966): iii) November 9 — 5:1 6 p.m. The Northeast power blackout, a significant disruption in the supply of electricity, affects parts of Ontario, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. Over 30 million people and 80,000 square miles are left without electricity for up to 13 hours. The cause of the failure is the setting of a protective relay on one of the transmission lines from the Sir Adam Beck Hydroelectric Power Station No. 2 in Queenston, Ontario, near Niagara Falls. Prior to and coincident with the blackout, there are a number of reports of unusual lights in Syracuse and Niagara Falls, New York, and Holliston, Massachusetts, and there is speculation that the blackout is related to UFO activity in some way. But there is no evidence of a direct connection. (Wikipedia, “Northeast blackout of 1965”; “New Clues to UFO Electrical Interference,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 5 (Nov./Dec. 1965): 3–4; “The Question of the Power Blackouts,” APRO Bulletin, Nov./Dec. 1965, pp. 4–6; John G. Fuller, Incident at Exeter, Putnam’s Sons, 196 6, pp. 230–235; Schopick, pp. 201–203; Condon, pp. 110 – 115 ; Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 130–137; Michael D. Swords, GrassRoots UFOs: Case Reports from the Timmerman Files, Fund for UFO Research, 2005, p. 145; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 99–102)

November 10 — Before dawn. Actor Stuart Whitman is staying in a hotel in Manhattan, New York City, during the Northeast power blackout. He hears a “sound, like a whippoorwill whistling outside my twelfth-story window.” He steps to the window and sees 2 luminous UFOs hovering nearby, one orange, the other blue. He hears voices from the UFOs in his head, telling him they are fearful of earth because humans are messing around with “unknown quantities” that might disrupt the balance of the universe. They claim the blackout is a small demonstration of their power and ask Whitman to do what he can to fight malice, prejudice, and hate on earth. The objects disappear. (“El Paso Blackout Recalls New York Experience to Actor,” El Paso (Tex.) Herald-Post, December 24, 1965, p. 4; Jerome Clark, “The Greatest Flap Yet? Part IV,” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1966): 10; Clark III 1280 – 1281 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, July 25, 2008) November 26 — 8:00–9:00 p.m. Numerous power outages around St. Paul, Minnesota, are accompanied by observations of white or blue lights in the sky. (“Power Outages Accompanied by Flashes,” APRO Bulletin, Jan./Feb. 1966, pp. 3 – 4; Schopick, pp. 199–201) November 30 — 3:30 a.m. Seaman Ian Kinsey is on watch at Canadian Forces Base Cornwallis [now Cornwallis Park] in Nova Scotia. As he is passing a window, he sees a lighted yellow oval object resting on the beach. Five minutes later a sliding door on the object’s side opens, emitting a white light. Then a smaller, cigarette-shaped UFO enters the larger object through the dear. The bigger object rises, pushing rocks and logs away from the center of the beach. It cruises slowly over a mountain and disappears. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 59 – 61)

December 5 — During the Gemini 7 mission, the astronauts mention a “bogey.” James Oberg, based on his trajectory analysis of the mission, describes the astronauts’ comments as referring to booster-associated debris and not a reference to some sort of UFO. Astronaut Frank Borman later confirms that what he saw was not a UFO. When he offers to go on the television show Unsolved Mysteries to clarify, the producers tell him, “Well, I’m not sure we want you on the program.” (Wikipedia, “UFO sightings in outer space”; Condon, pp. 207 – 208 ; Good Above, p. 378 ) December 9 — 4:47 p.m. A large, brilliant fireball is seen by thousands in at least six states and Ontario, Canada. It streaks over the Detroit, Michigan–Windsor, Ontario, area, reportedly drops hot metal debris over Michigan and northern Ohio starting some grass fires and causes sonic booms in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area. It is generally assumed and reported by the press to be a meteor after authorities discount other proposed explanations such as a plane crash, errant missile test, or reentering satellite debris. However, eyewitnesses in the small village of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, claim something has crashed in the woods. A boy sees the object land; his mother Frances Kalp sees a wisp of blue smoke rising from the woods and alerts local radio station WHJB. Another observer reports feeling a vibration and “a thump” about the time the object reportedly lands. Others from Kecksburg, including local volunteer fire department members (Carl Metz and Paul Shipco), report seeing an object in the shape of an acorn and about as large as a Volkswagen Beetle. Writing resembling Egyptian hieroglyphs is also said to be in a band around the base of the object. A reporter and news director for WHJB, John J. Murphy, arrives on the scene of the event before authorities have arrived, in response to several calls to the station from alarmed citizens. He takes several photographs and conducts interviews with witnesses. His former wife Bonnie Millslagle later reports that all but one roll of the film is confiscated by military personnel. WHJB office manager Mabel Mazza describes one of the pictures: “It was very dark and it was with a lot of trees around and everything. And I don’t know how far away from the site he was. But I did see a picture of a sort of a cone-like thing. It’s the only time I ever saw it.” Witnesses further report that an intense military presence, most notably the US Army, is secures the area, orders civilians out, seals the area within 2 hours of the event, and then removes an object on a flatbed truck. The military claims they have searched the woods and can find “absolutely nothing.” The official explanation of the widely seen fireball is that it is a mid-sized meteor, as suggested, for example, by University of Michigan astronomer William P. Bidelman. However, speculation as to the identity of the Kecksburg object (if there was one—reports vary) include an alien craft; debris from Kosmos 96 (James Oberg), a Soviet space probe intended for Venus that fails and never leaves the Earth’s atmosphere (now seen as unlikely); a General Electric Mark 2 Reentry Vehicle launched from Johnson Atoll in the Pacific Ocean on December 7 by the Air Force as a spy satellite (John Ventre and Owen Eichler); and a secret Corona spy satellite, KH-4A 1027, launched from Vandenberg AFB [now Vandenberg Space Force Base] on December 9 (Bob Wenzel Gross). (Wikipedia, “Kecksburg UFO incident”; Stan Gordon, “The Kecksburg UFO Crash: An Interim Report,” Flying Saucer Review 37, no. 1 (Spring 1992): 2–5; Kevin D. Randle, A History of UFO Crashes, Avon, 1995, pp. 95 – 120 ; Leslie Kean, “Forty Years of Secrecy: NASA, the Military, and the 1965 Kecksburg Crash,” IUR 30, no. 1 (October 2005 ): 3 – 9, 28–32; Robert R. Young and Leslie Kean, “Kecksburg Controversy,” IUR 30 , no. 3 (May 2006): 25 – 28 ; Peter Brookesmith, “Rockets, Reptiles, and a Resurrection,” Fortean Times 360

(December 2017 ): 28; Clark III 340; Good Need, pp. 255 – 258 ; “Five Decades Later, the Kecksburg UFO Is Identified (Probably),” Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post-Gazette, December 6, 2015; Matthew Dinkel, “Acorn from Space: The Kecksburg Incident,” Pennsylvania Center for the Book, Fall 2010; Center for UFO Studies, [case documents]; “Missile, Reentry Vehicle, Mark 2,” Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum) December 13 — An amateur astronomer in Fort Worth, Texas, watches a UFO through several different telescopes. It has a recessed ring with small dark objects attached around its edge and a dark cross on its bottom. It moves from directly beneath the Moon and past Arcturus, then suddenly disappears. (Michael D. Swords, “Gazing at the Moons,” IUR 32, no. 4 (October 2009): 14) December 15 — 8:45 p.m. C. M. W. Martyn of Worcester Park, southwest London, England, watches a “candle-wax white” triangular object, about 130 feet wide and completely silent, pass over his home toward the northwest at about 1,200 mph. (“Surrey Deltavolant?” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 2 (March/April 1966): 35) December 19 — 11:45 p.m. Edward A. Bruns is driving his father’s 1962 Ford pickup truck, heading west just south of Herman, Minnesota. He sees a bright, oval-shaped object hovering several feet above the road. It covers the entire road and is shaped like two saucers with a dome on top. A window-like structure surrounds the dome and emits a green light. Suddenly the truck engine stops, the headlights go out, and the vehicle lifts up, spins violently to the right, ending up in a ditch on the other side of the road. Stunned, Bruns stares at the UFO, which makes a whistling sound, emits sparks, shoots upward, and disappears. He runs home, scared and nervous. His father goes to the site of the crash but cannot get the truck out. A reporter later confirms seeing the truck in the ditch with a complete “absence of skid marks in the snow to account for how it got there.” (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, p. 50)

1966

1966 — Jacques and Janine Vallée publish Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma, a general survey of the present state of the UFO problem. The first section gives an analysis of UFO patterns by examining UFO features, the second part deals with sighting frequencies, and the third part analyzes cases according to type. (Jacques and Janine Vallée, Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma, Regnery, 1966; Clark III 1213) 1966 — Cornell University astronomer Carl Sagan coauthors a book with Russian astrophysicist Iosif Shklovsky on Intelligent Life in the Universe (an expansion of Shklovsky’s 1962 book) in which he speculates that Earth might have been visited by aliens many times in the past few billion years, at least once in “historical times.” Discussing the biological as well as astronomical issues of the subject, its unique format—alternating paragraphs written by Shklovsky and Sagan—allows them to express their views without compromise. (I. S. Shklovskii and Carl Sagan, Intelligent Life in the Universe, Holden-Day, 1966; Michael D. Swords, “SETI/ETI and UFOs,” JUFOS 5 (1994): 142 – 145) 1966 — Roger A. MacGowan and Frederick I. Ordway III publish Intelligence in the Universe, discussing cosmology, biological origins and evolution, SETI within and outside the solar system, and speculations on intelligence. (Roger A. MacGowan and Frederick I. Ordway, Intelligence in the Universe, Prentice-Hall, 1966; Michael D. Swords, “SETI/ETI and UFOs,” JUFOS 5 (1994): 145–146) 1966 — Francis Schaefer founds the Cercle Français de Recherches Ufologiques in Forbach, Moselle, France. From 1975 to 1984 it publishes Ufologia. (Ufologia, no. 1 (Nov./Dec. 1975))

January 7 — 4: 1 0 a.m. Police Constable Colin Perks is checking business property along Alderley Road in Wilmslow, Cheshire, England, when he hears a high-pitched whine. He sees a greenish-gray glow in the sky about 300 feet away and 35 feet in the air. It comes from a glowing elliptical object about 30 feet long and 20 feet wide that remains stationary for 5 seconds before moving away quickly to the east-southeast. (J. Cleary-Baker, “Police Constable Observes a UFO,” BUFORA Journal and Bulletin 1, no. 9 (Summer 1966): 5; UFOFiles2, pp. 73– 75 ; Jenny Randles, “Perks of the Job,” Fortean Times 344 (October 2016): 29) January 7 — 3:27 p.m. High school student Gary Finch is driving on the Wilmer-Georgetown Road about 3 miles southwest of Georgetown, Alabama. He sees a large silver ball about 15–20 feet in diameter that descends then hovers about 5 feet above the road. On top of it is a cone with a large green light, and it is making a whining sound. As he approaches it, his car engine cuts out and his watch stops. After 1–2 minutes, it disappears in a gradual climb. (“Mobile Reports Flying Objects,” Selma (Ala.) Times-Journal, January 13, 1966, p. 10; NICAP, “E-M Effects on Car and Watch”; Schopick, pp. 75–76; Hynek UFO Report, p. 42)

January 8 — Night. A luminous, disc-shaped object cruises low from north to southwest among the buildings of Valencia, Venezuela. At 10:00 p.m., two similar objects are seen flying at a higher altitude. (“More S.A. Sightings,” APRO Bulletin, March/Apr. 1966, p. 8) January 11 —7:40 p.m. A nurse and others together in a car near Myerstown, Pennsylvania, see a luminous disc, like one saucer inverted on top of another, at relatively close range as it hovers above their car. After about 5 minutes, the object suddenly accelerates and speeds away. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 102 – 103 ) January 12 — Pilots Alvin S. White and Carl Cross reach a speed of 2,020 mph in a North American XB-70 Valkyrie at Edwards AFB, California. (Wikipedia, “North American XB-70 Valkyrie”) January 14 — 5:55 p.m. After his 11-year-old son runs into the house in Weston, Massachusetts, and says a flying saucer is outside, an associate laboratory director at Massachusetts Institute of Technology goes outside with the rest of the family and sees an erratically moving bright light. They observe it through binoculars for 5–10 minutes. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 43 , 52 – 53 ) January 17 — A B-52G Strategic Air Command bomber collides with a KC-135 tanker during mid-air refueling at 31,000 feet over the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain. The tanker is completely destroyed and the B-52G breaks apart, killing 3 of its 7 crew members. Of the four Mk28-type hydrogen bombs the B-52G carries, three are found on land near the small fishing village of Palomares, Spain. The non-nuclear explosives in two of the weapons detonate upon impact with the ground, resulting in the contamination of a 0.77-square-mile area by plutonium. The fourth, which falls into the Mediterranean, is recovered intact after a 2 1 ⁄ 2 - month-long search. Some 800 individuals with no hands-on expertise improvise search and decontamination procedures. More than 1,400 tons of radioactive soil and plant life are excavated and shipped to the Savannah River plant in South Carolina for burial. (Wikipedia, “1966 Palomares B-52 crash”; Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 297 – 300 ) January 18 — 4:55 p.m. Two surveyors are taking readings at China Lake Naval Ordnance Test Station [now Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake] in the western Mojave Desert, California. The surveyor using a theodolite hears a hum, looks up, and sees a UFO flying nearly straight at him from an angle of 35°–40° and from almost exact north. It passes directly overhead at less than 150 feet, then dives smoothly, turns to the east, then comes to within 10 feet of the sloping ground. The surveyor observes the object through the theodolite until it is lost in front of a lava flow about 2 miles away. Both observers (the other one is in a truck) say it is moving at 150 mph and it is a dull black color and very quiet. They attempt to report the sighting, but the radio is garbled. Their truck has difficulty starting, and the theodolite exhibits an odd change in the gravity reference indicator, requiring it to be re-leveled. (“A Professional Observation,” IUR 7, no. 2 (March 1982): 7–8) January 19 — Around 9:00 a.m. A banana grower, George Pedley, is driving a tractor about one half mile from a farmhouse at Tully, Queensland, Australia, owned by Albert Pennisi. Pedley’s attention is drawn by a hissing sound, clearly heard over the noise from the tractor’s engine. He looks about for the source of the noise and sees an unusual object about 75 feet away. It is some 30 feet in the air, rising vertically, and is shaped like “two saucers face to face.” It is light gray in color, dull, and non-reflective. He estimates its size as 25 feet long by 8 – 9 feet deep. The hissing diminishes as the object rises to a height of 60 feet, then departs, climbing at about an angle of 45 °, extremely fast, to the southwest. The duration of his observation is only 5–6 seconds. The object appears to be always rotating. After its departure, Pedley finds a clearly defined, nearly circular depression in swamp grass, in a water-filled lagoon, at the point where he first saw it. The marking is about 32 feet long by 25 feet wide. The grass on the surface of the water is flattened in a clockwise direction. Royal Australian Air Force intelligence officers find a variety of circles in the area, ranging from 8 to 30 feet in diameter. Within each circle the plant roots are pulled completely out of the soil, as if the ground has been subjected to an intense rotary force. (“The Tully ‘Nests’: How Freakish Can Whirlwinds Be?” Australian Flying Saucer Review (Victorian Edition), no. 5 (July 1966): 3–7; “UFOs No Strangers to Tully,” Australian Flying Saucer Review, no. 9 (November 1966): 15; “1966: Tully…After Tully,” Australian Flying Saucer Review, no. 9 (November 1966): 16–21; Keith Basterfield, Vladimir Godic, and Pony Godic, “Australian Ufology: A Review,” JUFOS 2 (1990): 26–27; Bill Chalker, “The 1966 Tully Saucer ‘Nest’: A Classic UFO Physical Trace Case,” 1997; Bill Chalker, “Tully Saucer Nests of 1966—Part One,” IUR 22, no. 4 (Winter 1997–1998): 14–20; Bill Chalker, “Tully Saucer Nests of 1966, Part Two,” IUR 23, no. 1 (Spring 1998): 17, 31; Clark III 1136– 1138 ) January 19 — 7:55 p.m. Two luminous objects pass over Acarigua, Venezuela, one from the north, the other from the east. When the paths of the two objects cross, the lights go out in the entire city. (“More S.A. Sightings,” APRO Bulletin, March/Apr. 1966, p. 8)

February 3 — A six-member Ad Hoc Committee to Review Project Blue Book, headed by University of Rochester optical physicist Brian O’Brien, meets at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. All but one (astronomer Carl Sagan)

are members of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (psychologist Launor F. Carter, industrial psychologist Jesse Orlansky, rocket scientist Richard W. Porter, computer engineer Willis Ware), and none have any sympathy with the idea that UFO reports represent anything extraordinary. Also attending is Lt. Col. Harold A. Steiner, assistant secretary to the Scientific Advisory Board. They receive a briefing from Quintanilla, review the Robertson Panel report, and examine a few UFO cases. The group recommends that Blue Book “be strengthened to provide opportunity for scientific investigation of selected sightings in more detail and depth than has been possible to date.” Furthermore, USAF should negotiate contracts “with a few selected universities to provide scientific teams to investigate promptly and in depth certain selected sightings of UFOs… The universities should be chosen to provide good geographical distribution.” They also conclude that “perhaps 100 sightings a year might be subjected to this close study, and that possibly an average of 10 man-days might be required per sighting so studied. The information provided by such a program might bring to light new facts of scientific value.” The group recommends that Blue Book data be given “wide unsolicited circulation among prominent members of the Congress and other public persons.” The Air Force ignores their recommendations. ((USAF Scientific Advisory Board, Special Report of the USAF Scientific Advisory Board Ad Hoc Committee to Review Project “Blue Book,” Brian O’Brien, chairman of the Advisory Board, March 1966; Clark III 1191) February 6 — 6:05 a.m. Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth R. Gulley see a tadpole-shaped object about 14 feet long and 2 feet wide with eight yellow-and-red, neon-like lights at 250–500 feet altitude in Nederland, Texas. It casts a pulsating red glow on the lawn. Her house and street lights go out as high-frequency sound assaults the witnesses’ ears. The object blinks out when aircraft pass overhead, then comes on again afterward. It departed to the west about 1.5 miles to the vicinity of the airport, where an aircraft’s landing lights light up the UFO. Then it disappears in a slow climb. (NICAP, “House Lights Go Out When ‘Tadpole’ Flies Over” ; Sparks. p. 309 ; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 103– 104 ) February 6 — Around 8:00 p.m. Several persons in the barrio of Aluche, Madrid, Spain, allegedly see an unusual flying object. Looking out a window, Maria Ruiz Torres watches an object descending. She sees a “gigantic eye” looking at her through a porthole. Another witness, Juan Jiminez Dias, thinks he sees a door open in the craft. Other observers include soldiers at a nearby ammunition dump. Motorist José Luis Jordán Peña gets a close, extended view of the object, which he characterizes as “enormous.” Jordán Peña sends Spanish ufologist Antonio Ribera a sketch of the UFO, which has three legs and a curious symbol on its underside—something like two reverse parentheses with a vertical bar positioned between them. No other witness mentions anything like this. In 1992 , Jordán Peña confesses to hoaxing his sighting, including the landing marks and physical traces, in order to prove his theory that paranoia is much more widespread in Spain that psychiatrists are willing to admit. (Antonio Ribera, “The San José de Valderas Photographs,” Flying Saucer Review 15, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1969): 3 – 10; “Background of ‘Ummo’ and the Sightings,” CUFOS Bulletin, Spring 1977, pp. 2 – 3; Clark III 1183; Scott Corrales, “The UMMO Experience: Are You Experienced?” Strange Magazine, January 31, 2001; Alain Moreau, “UMMO: Une imposture?” Les Cles de l’Inexplique) February 27 — A nationally broadcast public affairs interview program, The Open Mind, presents a panel discussion titled “Are Flying Saucers Only Science Fiction?” Princeton University history professor Eric F. Goldman is moderator. Panelists include astronomer Donald H. Menzel, plant physiologist Frank B. Salisbury, journalist John G. Fuller, psychologist R. Leo Sprinkle, and astronomer J. Allen Hynek. Menzel calls the Exeter police officers “hysterical subjects,” although he cannot remember their names and is unfamiliar with the case. (“Notable Broadcasts of the Past: The Open Mind NBC Public Affairs Presentation, February 27, 1966,” Journal of UFO History 1, no. 2 (May/June 2004): 3–6)

March — Kathleen Reeves and a friend are walking on a rural road near their homes in Toledo, Oregon, when they think they see a neighbor’s field on fire. The fire seems oddly dome-shaped. They continue walking and see another smaller, duller light. Kathleen thinks it might be a prank, so she throws a rock at it. Suddenly, a group of much larger lights come on all around the small one. Frightened, the girls run home. Over the next few months, through October, the Reeves home experiences such poltergeist phenomena as whirring or sawing noises, rose-colored lights inside, small rings of light that crawl over the bedroom walls, and light beams. (Michael D. Swords, “A Trick of the Light,” IUR 31, no. 2 (June 2007): 8) March 5 — The D-21 is first launched from an M- 21 off the coast of California. The drone is released but stays close to the M- 21 ’s back for a few seconds, which seems like “two hours” to the M-21 crew. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed D- 21 ”) March 6 — 2:00 a.m. Ivan de Almeida and other medical staff at the Lourenço Jorge Municipal Hospital in Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, watch an oval object with a bright red-orange light that shines on the ocean waters

below. After 2 hours it climbs up slowly, dims, and disappears. (Olavo T. Fontes, “Report from Brazil: The First UAO Sightings in 1966,” APRO Bulletin, March/April 1966, p. 5) March 12 — 10:40 a.m. A security guard at the Fábrica Nacional de Motores in Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, alerts 10 employees to a mysterious light that is approaching the factory. It descends to 1,500–1,800 feet and hovers above the plant. The object is approximately 18 feet in diameter and emits a brilliant white light that makes it difficult to look at directly. It periodically flashes even brighter. Plant director Col. Jorge Alberto Silveira Martins calls the Army and Air Force. After 30 minutes, the object dims and moves away at tremendous speed before the Army trucks arrive. (Olavo T. Fontes, “Report from Brazil: The First UAO Sightings in 1966,” APRO Bulletin, March/April 1966, p. 5) March 14 — 3:30 –5:30 a.m. Washtenaw County sheriff’s deputies Buford Bushroe and John Foster see highly maneuverable disc-shaped UFOs with flashing red and green lights over Dexter, Michigan. They call in a report that sets off a two-and-a-half hour chase that stretches over three counties and out over Lake Erie. Police from five jurisdictions are involved. Selfridge AFB [now Selfridge Air National Guard Base], near Mount Clemens, reports tracking UFOs on radar over Lake Erie. (UFOEv II 184 – 185 ; O’Connell 177; Patrick Gross, “Michigan 1966: Sheriffs Watch High-Performance Discs, Also Tracked on Radar”) March 16 — 5:45 p.m. Many people see a white, oval object crash into the Atlantic Ocean close to the Ilha Cagarras off Ipanema, Brazil. Some see a few smaller white parachute-shaped objects fall from it. A thorough search turns up nothing in the sea or the island itself. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 54) March 17 — 4:25 a.m. Police Sgt. Neil Schneider and Deputy David Fitzpatrick see top-shaped objects making sharp maneuvers over Milan, Michigan. They alternatively hover, rise and fall quickly, dart around at jet-like speed, dimming and brightening periodically. Two objects are operating together, while a third UFO hovers at a lower altitude. (UFOEv II 185; O’Connell 177; Sparks, p. 310) March 20 — 7 : 3 0 p.m. After his dogs start making a racket, Frank Mannor and his 26 - year-old son Ronald see strange lights over a swampy area in Dexter Township, Michigan. They walk over to the area for a look, taking about 30 minutes, and see a pyramid-shaped object with a rounded top, corrugated surface, and blue, red, and white lights. Mannor’s son-in-law Bob Wagner, back at the house, sees the object light up and rise to 500 feet, then come down again making some noise. Washtenaw County sheriff’s deputies David Fitzpatrick and Stanley McFadden arrive about 9:00 p.m. drive towards the swamp on Quigley Road. They see a brilliant light that dims and then reappears. By this time a crowd has gathered. One man reports that when two flashlights appear in the distance, the object seems to react by flying away at high speed. At another point the object passes directly over the Mannors with a whistling sound like a rifle bullet ricocheting. It remains in the swampy area for 30 minutes. (“Swamp Gas Answer Disproved,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 7 (March/April 1966): 5; UFOEv II 185– 186 ; O’Connell 175– 177 , 184– 185 ; Sparks, p. 310 ; Center for UFO Studies, [case documents]; Patrick Gross, “Hillsdale, Michigan, 1966: The Infamous ‘Swamp Gas’ Case”) March 21 — 10:32 p.m. Cynthia “Pinky” Poffenberger and 16 other Hillsdale (Michigan) College students see a football- shaped object with red, green, and white pulsating lights descend from the sky and pass close to their dorm. It settles in a hollow in the Slayton Arboretum about 1,500 feet away. Some 87 students collect to watch the UFO, then they notify Civil Defense Director William Van Horn, who arrives with police. From the dormitory, the landed lights appear yellowish-white, dimming and intensifying. Only student Barbara Kohn stays most of the night, watching the lights vanish, reappear, and recede. Around 5:10 a.m., Kohn sees a lighted object move away and disappear from sight. Radiation is later detected at the landing area of about 330–600 microroentgens/hr, roughly 10– 20 times the background level. (O’Connell 177– 180 , 185– 188 ; Clark III 950; Sparks, p. 311 ; Center for UFO Studies, [case documents]; Jack Butler, “UFO: In 1966, Hillsdale Had Its Own Close Encounter,” The Collegian (Hillsdale College), March 19, 2015) March 22 — Morning. Contactee George Hunt Williamson sees three large UFOs with brilliant, flashing, blue-white lights hover above him for one minute in Key West, Florida. He hears a familiar buzzing in his head. (Michael D. Swords, “A Little Walk in the Strange Life of George Hunt Williamson,” IUR 26, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 14, 32) March 22 — 10:00 p.m. Several people standing outside the Waterfront Playhouse in Key West, Florida, during an intermission, see three UFOs ringed with flashing blue-white lights hovering nearby. They zoom off over the Gulf. (“Keys Theatre-Goers Report ‘Flying Discs,’” Miami (Fla.) Herald, March 24, 1966, p. 3-C) March 23 — 5:05 a.m. As Sheppard AFB (near Wichita Falls, Texas) civilian instructor William E. “Eddie” Laxson is driving west on US Highway 70 eight miles south of Temple, Oklahoma, he finds the road blocked by a wingless aircraft, shaped like a fish, in the road. It is about 75 feet long, nearly 8 feet high, 12 feet wide, with a Plexiglas bubble on top, and bright lights forward and aft. Laxson stops his car about 300 feet away and walks to within 50 feet, noticing a designation on its side like “TLA138” or “TLA738” or “TL 4768.” He sees a “man” wearing a baseball cap or mechanic’s hat climbing up steps or a ladder on the object. Soon after it lifts off with a hissing or

high-speed drilling sound and heads off southeast at about 700 mph. There are no landing traces. Laxson finds another witness, truck driver C. W. Anderson, parked a mile down the road. Laxson thinks it is some kind of military vehicle. (NICAP, “Wingless Craft Blocks Road / ‘Man’ Observed”; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 208 – 210 ; Clark III 681– 682 ; Sparks, p. 312) March 23 — 5:00 p.m. At least a dozen adults and children in Trinidad, Colorado, see two disc-shaped objects with domes flying in-line, traveling with a bobbing motion over the terrain. (“Discs at Trinidad, Colorado,” APRO Bulletin, March/April 1966, p. 1; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 51 – 52 ) March 23 — 11:50 p.m. John T. King sees a yellowish, elliptical object with a dome-like projection on top just off the ground near Bangor, Maine. It has a yellow-orange light in the center, a bluish light on the right, and a white light on the left. When the object moves toward his car, the car lights dim and his radio stops playing. King says he can hear the elderberry bushes scraping as it approaches and hovers 50 feet away. Frightened, he takes his .22 magnum pistol and fires it four times at the UFO, which glows brightly and takes off at high speed, making a “zinging” sound like the recoil of a spring. (“Close-Range Sightings Increase,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 7 (March/April 1966): 3) March 23– 25 — Hynek spends three days in Michigan, interviewing witnesses in Dexter and Hillsdale, finding the reports contradictory and vague, and encountering a media frenzy. He participates in a police UFO chase that turns out to be the star Arcturus. A photograph taken by Deputy David Fitzpatrick on March 1 7 is obviously a time lapse of the Moon and Venus. He interviews two Hillsdale students, Sara Robechek and Jo Wilson. William Van Horn tells him that he at first thought the lights were marsh gas until they rose into the air 150 feet and he seemed to perceive a “convex-shaped” solid mass between two lights. (O’Connell 183–190) March 25 — Quintanilla needs quick answers, so he schedules a press conference at Selfridge AFB [now Selfridge Air National Guard Base] near Mount Clemens, Michigan, for Hynek to make a statement. Hynek, disappointed with the quality of the sightings and suspecting a mundane explanation, announces: “It would seem to me that the association of the sightings with swamps, in these particular cases, is more than coincidence. No group of witnesses observed any craft coming to or going away from the swamps. The glow was localized there… It appears to me that all the major conditions for the appearance of swamp lights were satisfied.” The swamp gas theory doesn’t go over very well with the witnesses, the media, or the public. (“Termed Marsh Gases by Air Force Expert,” Lansing (Mich.) State Journal, March 25, 1966, p. 11; “Gas Theory Belittled by Viewers of UFOs,” Lansing (Mich.) State Journal, March 26, 1966, p. 1; “Swamp Gas Answer Disproved,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 7 (March/April 1966): 5; O’Connell 190– 198 ; Swords 307; Jennie Zeidman, “I Remember Blue Book,” IUR 16, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1991): 12) March 25 — House Minority Leader Gerald Ford (R-Mich.) issues a press release proposing that Congress investigate the rash of UFO reports in southern Michigan and the rest of the country: “I think the American people would feel better if there was a full-blown investigation of these incidents, which some persons allege have taken place.” (Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, [Ford UFO news releases and other documents]) March 25 — Mrs. R. H. Chappell and her sister Janie Kidd see two triangular UFOs hovering 40–50 feet above Saanich Inlet, British Columbia. Ruby-red lights flash back and forth between them, as if they are signaling. The objects remain motionless for a couple of minutes before moving off slowly and gracefully. (Marler 79) March 25 — Evening. Mrs. Robert Gorisek of LaSalle, Illinois, sees a triangular object hover above her car for more than an hour as she is driving home from work. The object keeps up with them as they drive through several towns. It has red, orange, and white lights. (“UFO Sightings Widespread over Country,” Great Bend (Kan.) Daily Tribune, March 2 5 , 1966, p. 1) March 27 — 5:30 a.m. Both Federal Aviation Administration operators at Muscogee County Airport [now Columbus Metropolitan Airport] and military operators at Fort Benning report a radar-visual sighting of a maneuvering, oblong, green-white object over Columbus, Georgia. The object appears to change shape from cigar to wedge to triangle. (“Glowing Object in Sky Is Sighted in Georgia,” Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, March 28, 1966, p. 14; Center for UFO Studies, [case documents]) March 28 — Gerald Ford writes to George P. Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Science and Astronautics Committee, and L. Mendel Rivers (D-S.C.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, saying he is dissatisfied with Hynek’s explanation of the Michigan sightings. He “strongly recommends” a House committee investigation into the “UFO phenomena.” (Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, [Ford UFO news releases and other documents]) March 28 — University of Arizona atmospheric physicist James E. McDonald writes a 2-page letter to Thomas F. Malone, chairman of the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on the Atmospheric Sciences, urging that a

panel be set up by a scientific body to study Blue Book’s UFO files. He also writes to his legislator Rep. Morris K. Udall (D-Ariz.) about the idea, asking him to pass the letter on in confidence to Gerald Ford (R-Mich.). (Bill Murphy, “The Swamp Gas Aftermath: Some Notes from the Gerald Ford Files,” IUR 33, no. 2 (July 2010): 11, 13 ; Clark III 696) March 28 — 8:00 p.m. A man driving about 60 mph in Fayetteville, Tennessee, encounters a large, lighted object only 3 feet above the road on a hilltop. The object is oval-shaped, 23 feet long, dark gray, and has about 30 lights around its perimeter. As it flies off, his car engine and headlights die. The driver has to replace the light bulbs in his headlights after the incident. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34, no. 1 (September 2011): 19; Sparks, p. 31 2) March 29 — NICAP board member Charles A. Maney writes to Gerald Ford, imploring him to contact NICAP for proof that the Air Force is withholding evidence about UFOs. (Bill Murphy, “The Swamp Gas Aftermath: Some Notes from the Gerald Ford Files,” IUR 33, no. 2 (July 2010): 12) March 29 — 4:15 p.m. A 10 - year-old boy and his Dalmatian are walking familiar paths in a wood lot behind their home near Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. He notices something silver on a ridge and walks toward it. He sees an “L” shaped box, long side parallel to the ground, sitting on tripod legs. His dog runs ahead and sniffs the boxy structure, and then, appearing uninterested, the dog goes off into the woods. The boy stops about 24 feet away, not sure what he is seeing. The object makes intermittent sounds and movements in the following minutes. Then a blast of air from the object sends debris flying. A short high-pitched, then low-pitched, sound is heard as the object lifts off the ground about one foot, stops, swings in a clockwise motion, and settles back on the ground. Intermittent electric-like humming sounds are heard until the object again, with a blast of air stirring up debris and the same sounds as earlier, ascends vertically, this time to about 10 feet, where it pauses, moves horizontally, pauses and rotates clockwise again, then accelerates straight up. On the final ascent, the sound increases in pitch and loudness. The witness’s mother and sister who were at some distance from him also hear the sound. When the object moved horizontally, saplings directly under it swayed. Three elongated imprints are found in the form of a triangle. Reportedly plants do not grow in the area for the next 2 years. (NICAP, “Hampton Area, New Hampshire: March 29, 1966”; Raymond Fowler, “The Flying Box, and Other Cases,” IUR 28, no. 2 (Summer 2003): 15–20, 26) March 29 — 9:15 p.m. Charles Cozens, 13, is strolling in a field behind the Hamilton Mountain Police Station in Hamilton, Ontario. He sees two luminous oval objects about 8 feet in diameter descend and land, making a buzzing sound. The objects have a row of multicolored lights around their rims “flickering like a computer.” He approaches for a closer look and touches the nearest object, which feels hard and smooth like metal, but neither hot nor cold. He then touches an antenna-like projection at the end of one of the objects and receives a shock. Frightened, he runs home. His parents confirm a 3-inch burn mark on his hand and question him thoroughly before reporting the incident to authorities. His first-degree burn is treated at a hospital and heals normally. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 4–5; Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 45–46) March 30 — 8:35 p.m. A woman and her four children watch an oval object crossing the road as they are driving south about 9 miles north of Lewisburg, Indiana. It comes close to the car and she hears a pulsating sound, but it seems to come through the car radio, not directly from the object. She drives away, but the UFO pursues her for 8 miles. It changes from reddish-orange to blue-white before it accelerates away. (Sparks, p. 313) March 31 — 2:00 a.m. Jeno Udvardy is driving home from a late work shift near Vicksburg, Michigan. He sees a cluster of lights on the highway ahead and slows down. When he is within 10 feet, he realizes the lights are on a disc hovering a few feet above the road. It has a brilliant white light, and red, green, and purple blinking lights. Udvardy backs up and his car is buffeted by gusts of wind as the object lifts up. The car motor stalls. He rolls down the window and hears a humming sound. Moments later, the UFO speeds off at a steep angle. (“Close- Range Sightings Increase,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 7 (March/April 1966): 3) March 31 — JANAP 146(E), a joint Canadian–US instruction, adds that photos should be sent to the US Director of Naval Intelligence and adds special CIRVIS reporting instructions for unidentifiable objects. The Canadian Air Defence Command ends its investigation of UFOs and transfers the responsibility to the Directorate of Operations. (Joint Chiefs of Staff, “JANAP 146(E) Canadian–United States Communications Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings,” March 31, 1966; Antonio F. Rullán, “Blue Book UFO Reports at Sea by Ships,” December 10, 2002; Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Canada, Signet, 1981, pp. 171– 172 )

April 1 — 10:40 p.m. A man driving 5 miles south of Tangier, Oklahoma, reaches a hilltop and sees a green object wider than the road flying north at very high speed, emitting a shrieking noise and a “heat wave.” The car engine dies. (Sparks, p. 313)

April 1? — Night. Students at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, see a star-like object that looks football-shaped through binoculars. It moves in geometric angles around two bright stars until it shoots straight up and disappears. (Michael D. Swords, “We Know Where You Live,” IUR 30, no.2 (January 2006): 10–11) April 2 — 2:02 p.m. James Kibel, a Melbourne businessman who is a member of the Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society, sees a shiny, hemispherical object above his garden in Balwyn, Victoria. It looks to be 20–25 feet in diameter and 120 feet in the air. “It seemed to float down towards me,” he says. “It resembled a big mushroom with a stalk pointing towards the earth.” He snaps a Polaroid photo, after which the object takes off and disappears to the north. However, when B. Roy Frieden, professor of optical sciences at the University of Arizona, examines the photo, he finds a jagged line of discontinuity running across the center of the image suggesting there are separate photos joined together and rephotographed. In 2017, Canadian researcher François Beaulieu reexamines the original and notices the reflection of the house below in the shiny object, and he finds that the discontinuity is actually caused by the Polaroid developing chemicals spreading unevenly across the photo. (“V.F.S.R.S. Member Snaps a UFO,” Australian Flying Saucer Review (Victorian Edition), no. 5 (July 1966): 2; “Report on UFO Photographed at Balwyn,” Australian Flying Saucer Review (Victorian Edition), no. 6 (December 1966): 11–12; Story, p. 40 ; Keith Basterfield and Paul Dean, “Stage One Report on the 2nd April 1966, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, UFO Observation and Photgograph by James Johnson Kibel,” 2016; Keith Basterfield and Paul Dean, “Stage Two Report on the 2nd April 1966, Balwyn, Melbourne, Victoria, Visual and Photographic UFO Sighting by James Johnson Kibel,” 2016; François Beaulieu, “A Re-evaluation of the Balwyn UFO Photograph,” February 23, 2017) April 4 — 7:50 p.m. Businessman Ron Sullivan is driving about 60 mph near Burkes Flat, Victoria, Australia. In the distance he sees a light near the road. Suddenly, the headlights of his vehicle bend to the right and light up a nearby fence. He brakes his car. In the middle of an adjacent field, he sees a column of light some 25 feet high and shaped like an inverted ice cream cone, 3 feet wide at the bottom and 10 feet wide at the top. It then rises to a height of 20 feet, after which the whole light complex disappears. There is no associated noise. Sullivan drives on to Wycheproof, where he checks his lights but finds nothing wrong. On the night of April 7 , 19-year-old Gary Taylor is killed at the same spot when the car he is driving leaves the road and hits a tree. Police find a circular impression about 2–5 inches deep and 5 feet in diameter in the freshly plowed field. (NICAP, “Bent Headlights Case”; Bill Chalker, “The Bent Headlight Beam Case Revisited,” UFO Research Australia Newsletter 5, no. 3 (May/June 1984): 17–29) April 5 — 1:30 a.m. A woman in Durhamville, New York, is awakened by a flash. She thinks her trailer heater has exploded, but everything is in order. The next day, three witnesses tell her a pulsating, luminous object had flown directly above her trailer. (Vallée, Magonia, p. 327 ) April 5 — 3:00 a.m. Lillian Louis, in Lycoming, New York, sees a spinning object from her kitchen window. It seems to be 10 feet in diameter and is shooting exhaust 20 feet above the ground near her house. It departs suddenly, leaving a trail. (Sparks, p. 313) April 5 — The House Armed Services Committee conducts the first public hearing by the US Congress on the topic of UFOs. Air Force Secretary Harold Brown testifies that while USAF has done an excellent job on UFOs, perhaps there is room for “even stronger emphasis on the scientific aspects.” Hynek recommends that a “civilian panel of physical and social scientists … examine the UFO problem critically for the express purpose of determining whether a major problem exits.” Quintanilla is the only other witness. After Committee Chairman L. Mendel Rivers expresses some enthusiasm for the idea, Brown suddenly realizes that maybe he has found a way to get the Air Force out of UFO investigations. Shortly after the hearing, Brown tells the USAF Office of Scientific Research to accept the February 3 O’Brien recommendation to seek a university that will accept a contract to study the 600 officially unidentified UFO sightings. (US House Committee on Armed Services, Hearing, Unidentified Flying Objects, 89th Congress, 2nd Session, April 5, 1966; Clark III 1192) April 5 — Midnight. W. Smith and another man in Alto, Tennessee, stop to watch a 100 - foot long UFO hovering 15 feet above a swamp. They try to follow it, but it flies away, flying between a high-tension power line and a row of trees. Cows, dogs, and horses are restless in all the areas where the object passes over. (Sparks, p. 313) April 6 — Around 11:00 a.m. A class of students and a teacher from Westall High School [now Westall Secondary College] in Clayton South, Victoria, Australia, are just completing a sport activity on the main oval when they see an object, described as a gray saucer-shaped craft with a slight purple hue and about twice the size of a family car. Witness descriptions are mixed: Andrew Greenwood, a science teacher, tells The Dandenong Journal at the time that he saw a silvery-green disc. According to witnesses, the object is descending and then crosses and flies over the high school’s southwest corner, going in a southeasterly direction before disappearing from sight as it descends behind a stand of trees and into a paddock at The Grange in front of the Westall State School (primary students). After about 20 minutes, the object—with witnesses now numbering over 200—then climbs at speed and

departs towards the northwest. As the object gains altitude, some accounts describe it as being pursued from the scene by five unidentified aircraft that circle it. Some describe one disc, others claim to see three. The Victorian Flying Saucer Research Society arrives on the site on April 8, speaks to students, and views the ground marking, originally described as a large patch of yellow, flattened grass with a swirly pattern. (“Audio Reveals Creepy Details of Australian UFO Mystery,” Melbourne Herald Sun, August 7, 2018; Wikipedia, “Westall UFO”) April 6 — NICAP Assistant Director Richard Hall writes to Gerald Ford, congratulating him on his call for a congressional investigation, saying, “History will record the important role you have played in helping to bring about a rational study of UFOs and public enlightenment on the subject.” (Bill Murphy, “The Swamp Gas Aftermath: Some Notes from the Gerald Ford Files,” IUR 33, no. 2 (July 2010): 10, 13) April 8 — 8:05 a.m. Mike Dorsey and Gary Hunt, both 12, are walking along Redcoat Road in Norwalk, Connecticut, when they see sunlight reflecting off a distant object to the west and behind them. It zooms toward them in a flash, passes overhead from west to east, turns, makes a second pass from east to west, turns again, and makes a third pass. It makes a low humming sound when it passes about 15 feet above them. The boys run to the Holy Ghost Seminary nearby and hide under a nearby bridge abutment as the object continues to maneuver. When it hovers, it does so edge down and makes a fluttering motion. The disc looks metallic, 8 feet in diameter, has a black spot on top near its rim, and a red light on top of an antenna-like protrusion. Red and white lights appear to rotate counterclockwise. Nearly 2 hours later, the object takes off in a burst of speed. (“Boys Chased by UAO,” APRO Bulletin, May/June 1966, p. 5) April 17 — 5:00 a.m. Portage County Deputy Sheriff Dale F. Spaur and Deputy Wilbur Neff are 4 miles east of Randolph, Ohio, when they see a moving light through some trees at the top of a small hill along the road. The light is headed in their direction. They have heard of a UFO reported over police radio that night and figure this must be what was seen. The object hovers 50–100 feet in the air, bathing the two officers in a bright light. Spaur’s eyes water up. They rush to the cruiser and radio the station; the dispatcher says to wait there until a car with a camera arrives. The object makes some sharp maneuvers, and Spaur drives toward it cautiously. The UFO is 18–24 feet thick and about 35–45 feet in diameter. The object is so bright he hardly needs his headlights to drive. It speeds up whenever Spaur accelerates, and soon he is driving at 80 mph. As the UFO reaches Mahoning County, the pursuit is being broadcast over police radios in three counties. As they reach East Palestine, Ohio, Patrolman H. Wayne Huston sees the UFO and follows Spaur and Neff, at times reaching 100 mph. Just before 5:30 a.m., two police officers in Salem, Ohio, see the UFO as a “bright ball” much larger than a jet. They also see three jets following it, apparently Air Force Reserve planes from Youngstown, Ohio. Police officer Frank Panzarella in Conway, Pennsylvania, sees the UFO, very bright and in the “shape of a half of a football.” He hears on his radio that a jet interception is in progress. Now in Pennsylvania, Spaur and Neff are given orders to abandon the chase. For most of the event, the object has remained at 1,000 feet, but now it rises to 3,500 feet and hovers. Then it shoots even higher and disappears. In 30 minutes, many police and civilians have seen the UFO. Panzarella alerts the Rochester, Pennsylvania, police operator, John Beighey, and asks him to contact the Greater Pittsburgh International Airport. Beighey calls Panzarella and says the Air Force wants to talk to the police witnesses. Spaur, Neff, and Huston go to the Rochester, Pennsylvania, police station and Spaur phones the USAF station at Pittsburgh. Spaur speaks to some colonel who tries to convince him he has seen something conventional. NICAP’s William B. Weitzel, a philosophy professor, begins his own investigation, tracking down witnesses. Within a few weeks, he or his NICAP associates have interviewed all the police officers, as well as several others who have figured in the UFO chase, either as dispatchers or as those who overheard the radio communications. NICAP members also interview some civilians who claim to have seen a UFO at the same time of the chase and/or had monitored police scanners. (NICAP, “Portage County UFO Chase”; Sparks, p. 314; “Saucer Chase Sets Probers Humming,” Akron (Ohio) Beacon-Journal, April 18, pp. 1–2; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 113– 124 ; Patrick Gross, “1966 Portage County UFO Chase by Policemen”; William B. Weitzel, “The P-13 UFO: Summary Report on April 17, 1966, UFO ‘Chase’ from Portage County, Ohio, into Conway, Pennsylvania,” June 28, 1966; William B. Weitzel, “The Portage County Sighting,” April 8, 1967; NICAP, [case photos and drawings]; Michael D. Swords, [case files and clippings]; Center for UFO Studies, [Gerald Buchert photo case file]; Center for UFO Studies, [clippings, part one, part two]; Clark III 906– 914 ) April 18 — The Air Force begins a cursory investigation into the Portage County, Ohio, police chase case. Initially they telephone local news outlets, seeking information. However, local newspapers and radio have only vague outlines of the case. Air Force investigators also interviewed meteorologists and weather agency personnel, hoping to learn that a weather balloon was launched in the area during the UFO chase. They learn that there were no weather balloons launched that morning, and also that the wind had been so mild that the police would have had no difficulty catching up with any wind-borne object. Quintanilla calls Spaur to ask him about “this mirage you saw.” Spaur insists he has seen a clearly defined metallic object maneuvering at very low altitudes. When

Quintanilla asks if they watched the object for more than a few minutes, Spaur asserts that he and Neff chased it for over half an hour, and that Huston saw the object for much of that period, and that Panzanella too had seen it. Quintanilla then, as Spaur said, “kind of lost interest.” (Clark III 910) April 18 — An egg-shaped object, 80 feet in diameter and 15 feet high, is observed from a distance of 80 feet by a 42- year-old witness driving a car near Battle Creek, Michigan. The object supports a cockpit with windows and three rows of lights, emits red flames, and makes the same noise as a heavy truck on wet pavement. The object follows the car for some time. (Vallée, Magonia, p. 329 ; Sparks, p. 314) April 19 — 10 :4 5 p.m. In Peabody, Massachusetts, witnesses report an oval object with red, green, and white body lights, oscillating up and down when in motion. The object appears to land in a field off State Highway 114. At 12:00 midnight, two men driving along that route see the lighted disc rise and fly away. (Vallée, Magonia, p. 329 ) April 21 — William Dean Howe, MP for Ottawa, Ontario, urges a serious investigation of UFOs in the Canadian House of Commons. (“Canadian Projects,” UFO Investigator 4, no. 10 (Feb./March 1969): 6) April 22 — Quintanilla announces in a press release that the Portage County, Ohio, UFO is an Echo satellite, with later observations (in Pennsylvania) of Venus. Quintanilla calls Spaur’s superior, Portage County Sheriff Ross Dustman, to give him this explanation, and Dustman laughs out loud. (Clark III 910) April 22 — Lt. Col. Robert R. Hippler of the USAF Directorate of Science and Technology is tasked with recruiting a university for the UFO project suggested by the O’Brien committee in February. He assembles a panel of experts that suggests he bring in H. Guyford Stever, head of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. Stever queries MIT, Harvard, the University of California, Northwestern University, and the University of North Carolina, but all refuse to deal with UFOs. (Swords 307–308) April 22 — 9:00–9:45 p.m. Witnesses in Beverly, Massachusetts, including two police officers, see a platter-shaped object the size of a large automobile with 3 red-green-white lights hover silently over Beverly High School then depart to the southwest. At one point, witnesses see the object only 20–30 feet above the head of another witness. (Condon, pp. 266 – 270 ; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974 , pp. 106 – 108 ; Roy Craig, UFOs: An Insiders ’ View of the Official Quest for Evidence, University of North Texas, 1995; Sparks, p. 314 ; Patrick Gross, “The Case in Beverly, Massachusetts, USA, on April 22, 1966”) April 23 — 10:45 p.m. On hearing a listener call in a live UFO sighting on WMEX radio, Jeanne Kalnicki of Dorchester, Massachusetts, goes to the window with her two daughters and sees an oval, domed UFO with a ring of blinking red lights bobbing up and down above a building across the street. A yellow light is on top of the dome and alternately flashes on when the red lights blink off. It moves across the street and appears to be moving directly toward them at eye level. Humming, the object moves between their apartment building and the one next door, where it hovers for a few minutes. When the yellow light goes off, Kalnicki can see a glow within the dome. The object then moves erratically away to the east. The family goes to bed, but at 5:00 a.m., 11-year-old Judy Kalnicki is too upset to sleep, She wakes up when she sees a light coming in her window and realizes that the UFO is right outside, bobbing up and down, looking about the size of their 1955 Lincoln automobile, and flashing its lights as before. Thinking it is going to come inside her bedroom, Judy screams. Seemingly in response, the object speeds up its bobbing motion, and she hears a heavy thudding sound. The windows rattle, Judy’s bed rocks, and all the lights in the house go off. Downstairs, their German shepherd is whining and scratching at the door. The entire family rushes to the back porch, where they watch the object for about 12 minutes moving to the north toward Boston. The lights come back on. NICAP’s investigation shows that the power failure affected 2,500 homes in the area and was caused by two cables burning out a block away from the Kalnicki apartment. One particle on the window sill registered a strong radiation reading of .025 millimentgens per hour from a Geiger counter. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 46–47) April 24 — Night. Marvin and Viola Swartwood are driving in a rainstorm on State Highway 34B near Fleming, New York, when a “brilliant, flashing ball of fire” appears three feet above the front and slightly to the right of their car. The fire ball lights up the surrounding area, falls onto the car with a loud snap, and vanishes. As the ball lightning hits, Viola feels a shock in her neck and an impulse in her right arm. They drive to the sheriff’s office and then to a local hospital because the right side of Viola’s body is partially paralyzed. She is in satisfactory condition 5 days later. There is no damage to the car or any reports of normal lightning in the area. (“‘Ball of Fire’ Hits Car; Woman Passenger Hurt,” Syracuse (N.Y.) Post-Standard, April 2 8 , 1966, p. 38; “Ball-of-Fire Victim’s Condition Improving,” Binghamton (N.Y.) Press and Sun-Bulletin, April 29, 1966, p. 3C; Mark Rodeghier, “UFO/Vehicle Very Close Encounters,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 24) April 25 — 8:52 p.m. Florida Gov. W. Haydon Burns’s campaign airplane is paced by a UFO. Copilot Herb Bates first notices the UFO when the Convair takes off from Orlando, Florida, headed for Tallahassee. It appears as two bright yellow globes side by side. In the vicinity of Ocala, at about 6,000 feet, everyone on board is alerted and watches the object pacing the plane on the right side. The lights fluctuate in brightness but are very distinct. Burns

orders the pilot to turn toward the UFO, and the lights quickly begin a steep climb then disappear. (Bill Mansfield, “I Was with Burns and Saw ‘Flying Saucer,’” Miami (Fla.) Herald, April 27, 1966, p. 1; “Florida Governor Sights UFO,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 8 (May/June 1966): 3; “Governor Haydon Burns Sees a UFO,” Educating Humanity, April 26, 2016) Late April — When he learns that Rep. J. William Stanton (R-Ohio) has expressed an interest in the UFO chase, NICAP investigator William B. Weitzel writes him a detailed letter, outlining the inconsistencies and shortcomings of Quintanilla’s explanations. Portage County (Ohio) Judge Robert Eugene Cook (an acquaintance of Spaur and Neff) also writes to Stanton, defending the police officers’ judgment and characterizing the Air Force investigation as “grossly unfair” to Spaur and Neff. Stanton fails to get an answer from the Air Force, so he contacts USAF Chief of Community Relations Division Lt. Col. John Spalding, who promises to send an investigator. Stanton later writes to Defense Secretary Robert McNamara about Blue Book’s treatment of his constituents. (Clark III 911)

May 4 — 4:30 a.m. An FAA air traffic controller tracks an unidentified non-transponding target for about 5 miles at Charleston, West Virginia. The crew of Braniff Airline Flight 42, headed east at 33,000 feet, sees a white-blue object giving off brilliant, flaming light of alternating white-green-red colors. The radar shows the object veering 8 – 10 miles away at the 10 o’clock position, then approaching the Braniff airliner to a distance of 3 miles. It then makes a 180° left turn to the northwest within a diameter of 5 miles at 1,000 mph, which the Braniff crew confirms as the object descends from 20° above the horizon. (NICAP, “Charleston R/V Case”; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 83– 86 ) May 8 — A Gallup Poll taken April 14– 19 reveals that 46% of Americans who have heard about UFOs think they are real, although only 7% think they are from outer space. 5% of US adults have seen a UFO. (“Five Million Say They’ve Seen Saucers,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 8 (May/June 1966): 7; Robert J. Durant, “Evolution of Public Opinion on UFOs,” IUR 18, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1993): 11–12; Lydia Saad, “Eyewitnesses to Flying Saucers,” Gallup Vault, April 12, 2016) May 8 — Quintanilla calls Spaur again and tells him to be ready for an interview the next day. May 9 — Weitzel is at Portage County police headquarters in Ravenna, Ohio, to record Spaur’s interview and has brought two reporters and UFO researcher David Webb. Dustman is there too. Quintanilla asks Weitzel and Webb to leave, and the reporters leave as well. The interview becomes heated at times. (“Interview with Deputy Sheriff Dale Spaur, 1966,” SpaceTimeForum YouTube channel, March 28, 2013; Clark III 911– 912 ) May 10— The documentary “UFOs: Friend, Foe, or Fantasy?” appears on CBS Reports, hosted by Walter Cronkite and narrator Bill Stout. Guests include Carl Sagan, Donald Menzel, Harold Brown, Lawrence Tacker, Donald Keyhoe, and J. Allen Hynek. The tenor of the show is to debunk UFOs, although Cronkite says the CIA has been secretly tracking UFO sightings around the world, even as it denies doing so. Air Force Capt. Gary Reese claims that NORAD’s satellite-tracking radar covers altitudes from 100,000 feet to 2,000 miles up but never finds any UFOs. He neglects to mention that UFOs are found in the atmosphere below 100,000 feet. (Even so, NORAD has been detecting occasional Unidentified Satellites, USATs, for years.) Reese makes a broad statement that the Air Force has never substantiated a “flying saucer” despite NORAD’s covering “nearly every square foot of the US” on its radar. USAF Maj. Albert Morse of NORAD spacetrack network supports Reese. A handwritten letter by Robertson Panel member Thornton Page, discovered in the Smithsonian’s archives by Michael Swords, confirms the CIA’s long-suspected role in the CBS program. In the September 10, 1966 , letter, Page relates to Frederick C. Durant that he “helped organize the CBS TV show around the Robertson Panel’s conclusions.” Quintanilla has spent 3 days editing and censoring the TV program’s script to make sure it conforms to USAF public relations policy. (“UFOs: Friend, Foe or Fantasy? 1966” nutsandbolts ufo YouTube channel, February 15, 2013; “Columnists Hit NBC Documentary,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 8 (May/June 1966): 8; Clark III 808; Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 206 – 207 ; Terry Hanson, “Close Encounters of the Nuclear Kind,” Online Journal, March 31, 2009; Swords 195– 196 , 308) May 17 — Weitzel writes to Quintanilla with another critique of the Blue Book explanation. Even Hynek urges FTD to change the designation to “unknown.” May 21 — 3: 15 p.m. William C. Powell is flying a light Luscombe aircraft over Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, with one passenger, Muriel McCrave. He spots a bright-red circular disc with a dome on top as it is apparently following an outbound flight of Navy jets from NAS Willow Grove [now NAS Joint Reserve Base Willow Grove] at 4,500 feet. The object makes a sharp turn without banking and approaches his plane on a near-collision course, passing below the starboard wing about 300 feet away and disappearing to the rear. They both get a good look at the object, which has no wings or visible means of propulsion. (NICAP, “Domed Disc Observed by Pilot and Passenger (Powell Case)”; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on

Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 45 – 46 ) May 22 — A witness driving between Blue River, British Columbia, and Jasper, Alberta, sees a gray object the size of a car and shaped like a bowl land on the road and make a whining noise. After it silently takes off, the object leaves three impressions of landing pads about 4 feet square. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Nihgt, 2022, p. 184)

June — Broadcaster Frank Edwards publishes Flying Saucers — Serious Business, and it becomes one of the best-selling UFO books of all time. (Frank Edwards, Flying Saucers — Serious Business, Bantam, 1966; Clark III 435; Nick Redfern, “Spying on the Saucer Writers,” Mysterious Universe, February 20, 2012) June — 3: 15 a.m. Edward Argerake is asleep at his home in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, when his bedroom explodes in light. He hears a pinging noise a light source begins pulsing with diffraction rings outside his window shades. He begins to feel numb and weak, but the sounds grows louder and he lapses into unconsciousness. He wakes up at 6:15 a.m. and the light and noise are gone. Because of this event he becomes interested in UFOs and joins NICAP’s Massachusetts subcommittee. (Michael D. Swords, “A Trick of the Light,” IUR 31, no. 2 (June 2007): 10 – 11) June 1 — 10:30 p.m. On Lake Ontario, off Clarkson, Ontario, former RCAF pilot Richard H. Plewman and Jack Grant are cruising on the lake when they see lights on the water ahead. They can see a disc with a dome on top casting an oval reflection on the lake surface. Around the dome is a row of bright yellow lights; blue-green lights are visible around the lower perimeter. After hovering briefly, the UFO takes off at high speed and disappears. (“New Reports by Space Experts Add to UFO Proof,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 9 (Aug./Sept. 1966): 5) June 2 — 7:30 p.m. Harold Harper is talking with neighbors in his front yard in Massillon, Ohio, when they see a large lighted object coming from the southwest. It is about 50–60 feet in diameter, smoky in color, and cigar-shaped with a ball on one end. It stops and hovers at about 1,000 feet altitude. Then three smaller objects appear to come from it; they gain altitude, separate, and disappear at terrific speed in different directions. The large object goes straight up at terrific speed. (Massillon (Ohio) Evening Independent, June 3, 1966; Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects: A Further Look,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 25–26) June 6 — James McDonald has obtained a small amount of money from the Office of Naval Research to travel to Wright- Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio, and examine the Blue Book files. On his first visit, he is steered to an unedited copy of the Robertson Panel report. As it has not been released, McDonald is disturbed, seeing it as evidence that the CIA is directing a cover-up. (Clark III 1017) June 6– 10 — The US Army releases Bacillus globigii into the tunnels of the New York City Subway system during peak travel hours as part of a field experiment on the vulnerability of subway passengers in New York City to covert attack with biological agents. (“How the U.S. Government Exposed Thousands of Americans to Lethal Bacteria to Test Biological Warfare,” Democracy Now!, July 13, 2005) June 8 — McDonald visits Hynek at the Lindheimer Astrophysical Research Center in Evanston, Illinois, saying heatedly that he should have spoken up about the CIA cover-up and all the absurd explanations that he made up: “Allen, how could you have sat on this data for 18 years and not let us know about it?” Hynek’s then-associate Jacques Vallée has to intervene. Hynek replies that if he did, the Air Force would just replace him and he would lose access to all the files. McDonald says Hynek should have spoken up in 1953 and cannot get Hynek to agree that he is even a little bit timid. (O’Connell 201; Clark III 696) June 8 — X-15 pilot Joseph A. Walker is killed when his F-104 Starfighter chase aircraft collides with a North American XB-70 Valkyrie. At an altitude of about 25,000 feet, Walker’s Starfighter is one of five aircraft in a tight group formation for a General Electric publicity photo when his F-104 drifts into contact with the XB- 70 ’s right wingtip. The F- 104 flips over, and, rolling inverted, passes over the top of the XB-70, striking both its vertical stabilizers and its left wing in the process, and explodes, killing Walker. The Valkyrie enters an uncontrollable spin and crashes into the ground north of Barstow, California, killing copilot Carl S. Cross. Its pilot, Alvin S. White, ejects and is the sole survivor. (Wikipedia, “Joseph A. Walker”) June 11 — Early morning. Several witnesses driving from Dabajuro to Coro, Falcón State, Venezuela, stop to watch a triangular object that stops and hovers in midair for short intervals. The object gives off a beam of light in various directions. (“The South American Scene,” APRO Bulletin, July/Aug. 1966, p. 8) Mid-June — 1:30 a.m. Student pilot Joseph Gambucci is flying near Hibbing, Minnesota, when he sees a bright, elliptical light making three 360° turns to the left at approximately 3,000 mph. The light is white, mixed with green and red. It climbs to 40° above the horizon then disappears at a height of 31,000 feet. Gambucci checks with Duluth Air National Guard Base, which reports having a UFO on radar at the same position as his aircraft. Other radar units in northern Minnesota and southern Canada are said to track the object. (NICAP case file)

June 16 — Dusk. Several witnesses in Uniopolis, Ohio, watch a domed black disc with lights and a powerful light beam shining from its bottom. One of the observers is alerted by his dog barking persistently and looking to the south. The object flies directly over the house, heading north, and is also seen by his wife, a neighbor, and the neighbor’s children. The light beam shines into a nearby wood, lighting up the trees. (Michael D. Swords, “The Timmerman Files,” IUR 26, no. 4 (Winter 2001–2002): 13–14) June 19 — 12:05 a.m. A group of Boy Scouts camping out at Mount Mitchell State Park, North Carolina, sees three red pulsating lights in a triangular pattern approach, then hover until about 5:00 a.m. The lights blink at different speeds, with the center one turning white every fifth pulsation. At sunrise, the object lifts up, appearing red and bell-shaped through binoculars. Six smaller objects are hovering nearby on either side of the larger object, changing formation. The group then disappears behind a mountain. When the Scouts start to explore in the direction of the objects, about 60 feet from their camp they discover trees with broken branches and some crushed undergrowth, plus three holes in the ground forming an equilateral triangle. (Fred Merritt, “A Preliminary Classification of Some Reports of UFOs,” IUR 28, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 10 ; Sparks, p. 315) June 23 — 3:42 a.m. NASA contract flight engineer Julian Sandoval and two independent witnesses see a glowing elongated object with a blunt end. It has a series of four body lights varying from brilliant green to a bluish tinge, and is hovering at an estimated 12,000 feet near Placitas, New Mexico. When the object moves its glow brightens, and it appears to be a powered craft. The witnesses watch the object for an hour and a half, after which it climbs vertically, accelerates to a high velocity, and disappears to the northeast in about 12 seconds. In a report to NICAP, Sandoval estimates the departure speed at “Mach 6 or better.” (“New Reports by Space Experts Add to UFO Proof,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 9 (Aug./Sept. 1966): 3) June 25 — 9:30 p.m. Several objects violate the air space over the Ellsworth AFB H-01 missile launch facility southwest of Union Center, South Dakota, setting off the vibration sensors. Helicopters attempt to chase the objects, but they fly away quickly to the north-northeast. Other sightings take place over the next week. (National UFO Reporting Center, [case report]; Nukes 241–245) June 30 — On James E. McDonald’s second visit to Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio, his request for a photocopy of the Robertson Panel report is denied. (Clark III 696) June 30 — Richard Helms becomes director of central intelligence. He is the first DCI since Dulles to push hard for results in the mind-control field. Operation MKSearch goes into overdrive. Old projects are resurrected, abandoned projects reactivated. The safe houses are told to expect a steady supply of Viet Cong expendables to experiment on. One of the projects to be revived is the less than successful Operation Mindbender. Renamed Operation Spellbinder, the assignment is to create a sleeper killer, a real-life Manchurian Candidate. A hypnotist is recruited from the American Society of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. He becomes known to the CIA staff as “Dr. Fingers” and is selected because his file states that he has no qualms about conducting potentially terminal experiments. The intended victim of the experiment is Fidel Castro. After attempts to program several would-be assassins, the operation is discontinued and written off as a complete failure. (Sid Taylor, “A History of Secret CIA Mind Control Research,” Nexus, April/May 1992; “Project Spellbinder,” in Brad Steiger and Sherry Steiger, Conspiracies and Secret Societies: The Complete Dossier, 2nd ed., Visible Ink, 2012)

July — 11:00 a.m. An Air Force Douglas C-47 Skytrain is flying 25 miles southwest of Provo, Utah, when the pilot snaps two color-slide photos of a reddish disc-shaped object that briefly comes into view before speeding away. The Condon commission declines to examine the photos in detail, noting some discrepancies. (Condon, pp. 270 – 273 ; Patrick Gross, “UFOs Photographed”) July 4 — The Freedom of Information Act, requiring the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the US government, is signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. (Wikipedia, “Freedom of Information Act (United States)”) July 7 — In a Blue Book briefing, Brig. Gen. William C. Garland, deputy chief of USAF Public Information at the Pentagon, again denies that NORAD radars have picked up any “spaceships,” interplanetary “interlopers,” or “extraterrestrial vehicles.” (Clark III 808) July 9 — 2:00 p.m. Kenneth Arnold takes a 16mm film of a UFO over Idaho Falls, Idaho. The object looks like a weather balloon, but it is flying at a speed of 45–75 mph into a north-northwest wind. (Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, p. 53) July 13 — 2:00 a.m. Railway linesman Camillo Faieta is on duty at the crossing in Fornacette, Pisa, Italy, when he is dazzled by a powerful light coming from the Emissario Canal. The light goes out and he sees an object hovering above a small islet in the canal. Two little men emerge, but the bright light comes on again and the object takes off. Police turn up other witnesses, but Italian and US air force officers from the nearby Camp Darby military complex tell Faieta not to speak about the incident any further. (1Pinotti 147–148)

July 18 — 9:00 a.m. Service station personnel in Baytown, Texas, see a white object shaped like two saucers face-to-face with a row of square windows in between. The object is hovering above a store about 300 feet away, then it begins moving, rapidly accelerates, and speeds away. (James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 57 – 58 ) July 19 — MP John Langford-Holt asks UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson in the House of Commons whether, since the Defence Secretary is responsible only for air defense implications of UFOs, he would allocate the assessment of their wider implications to another department. Wilson says he will not, but that reports are taken seriously when there is adequate information. (Good Above, p. 60 ) July 20 — James E. McDonald’s third visit to Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. He is again denied a copy of the Robertson Panel report because it has been “reclassified.” He is convinced that USAF has done a lousy job of investigating UFOs and that UFOs are actually good evidence for the ETH. (Clark III 696) July 22 — 9:00 p.m. W. J. Norton, curator of the Ludlow Museum, and his family see a UFO shaped like a silver isosceles triangle to the east of Llandrindod Wells, Powys, Wales. It hovers for 30–40 seconds and emits a low hum. (“Llandrindod Triangle,” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1966): 32) July 22 — 11: 25 p.m. While driving his son home from the railway station in Fremont, Indiana, a realtor and retired WWII Navy officer see an illuminated, 25-foot diameter disc with portholes on its lower convex surface. The object descends low over the car and hovers above it. They have it in view about 5–8 minutes. When two other cars approach, the object extinguishes its lights, then shoots straight up into the sky, leaving a trail of bluish light. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 108 – 109 ) Late July — Col. J. Thomas Ratchford, an AFOSR scientist, approaches the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, about contracting with the Air Force for a UFO study. Its director, Walter Orr Roberts is interested, but William W. Kellogg, associate director of the Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics, is not. Roberts suggests the University of Colorado. Ratchford talks to prominent University of Colorado physicist Edward U. Condon, who hesitates but finds the $300,000 offered by the Air Force (plus $13,000 in operating expenses) attractive. (Clark III 1192) Late July — 7:00 p.m. Raquel Jodorowsky is in a traffic jam in Mexico City, Mexico, as people are getting out of their cars and looking to the sky. A large glowing object is hanging at 45° above the horizon to the east. The object ejects smaller bright objects that fly away. After 30 minutes the large object dims, becomes smaller, and disappears. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 11) July 29 — J. Allen Hynek writes to a citizen interested in UFOs and says that he thinks the Portage County, Ohio, case should be labeled unidentified and has told the Air Force as much. Its evaluation as a satellite or Venus has not originated with him as a mere consultant. (Bill Murphy, “The Swamp Gas Aftermath: Some Notes from the Gerald Ford Files,” IUR 33, no. 2 (July 2010): 12) July 30 — The fourth and final launch of a D-21 drone from an M-21 ends in disaster 150 miles off the coast of California. Unlike the three previous launches, this one is performed straight and level, not in an outside loop to assist in the separation of the drone from the aircraft. The D-21 suffers engine problems and strikes the M- 21 ’s tail after separation, leading to the destruction of both aircraft. The two crew members eject and land at sea. The pilot, Bill Park, survives, but the launch control officer, Ray Torrick, drowns. Johnson decides to refit the D-21 to launch from a B-52 bomber in order to not endanger any more M-21s. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed D- 21 ”)

August 1 — Jacques Vallée meets, through his friend Aimé Michel, with physicist Yves Rocard and gives him a copy of outstanding Blue Book UFO reports, but the contact goes no further. (Jacques Vallée, Forbidden Science, North Atlantic, 1992, pp. 55, 198 , 201 – 202 ) August 1 — 7:45 p.m. Several children are playing outside in Rushville, Indiana, when they see an object hovering above a tree near them. Its altitude is about 75 feet. They describe it as round, brighter than the moon, silver, and about 4 times larger than the full moon. It has a fuzzy edge and rocks slightly as it hovers. One girl, Donna Glosser, calls it to the attention of others who are about a half-block away. When she does, the object changes to reddish- orange, seems to revolve, and moves across a road so fast it seems to jump. It stops abruptly over some trees on a hill about one block away. At least one adult watches the object for 5 minutes. The same object is apparently seen by a group of teens at the Dairy Delight Drive-In about a mile and a half away. It becomes brighter after 45 seconds and speeds away. (“Children Watch Object in Central Indiana,” APRO Bulletin, July/Aug. 1966, p. 8) August 7 — The Washington Star runs an article on UFOs by retired USAF Lt. Col. Charles Cooke saying that he has analyzed first-hand UFO encounters by Air Force pilots that show strong support for the ETH. August 9 — Robert J. Low, assistant dean in the University of Colorado Graduate School, is also interested in the UFO project. He consults with several scientists and reports on what they tell him in a memo to E. James Archer, dean

of the graduate school, and Thurston E. Manning, university vice president. The memo, which is not sent to Condon and is intended to show university officials that the project will not embarrass them, says: “Our study would be conducted almost exclusively by nonbelievers who, although they couldn’t possibly prove a negative result, could and probably would add an impressive body of evidence that there is no reality to the observations. The trick would be, I think, to describe the project so that, to the public, it would appear a totally objective study but to the scientific community, would present the image of a group of nonbelievers trying their best to be objective but having an almost zero expectation of finding a saucer.” He recommends stressing the psychology and sociology of the witnesses rather than physical evidence. The memo stays under wraps for a year and a half. (Robert J. Low, “Some Thoughts on the UFO Project,” memo to E. James Archer and Thurston E. Manning, August 9, 1966; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, p. 239; Clark III 1192) August 15 — Office of Scientific Intelligence Deputy Director Karl H. Weber writes to Col. Gerald E. Jorgensen, chief of the USAF Community Relations Division, that “We are most anxious that further publicity not be given to the information that the [Robertson] panel was sponsored by the CIA.” Weber notes that there is already a sanitized version available to the public. (Gerald K. Haines, “CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90,” Studies in Intelligence 40, no. 5 (1997): 67– 84 ) Mid-August — Rep. J. Edward Hutchinson (R-Mich.) introduces HR 866 for an investigation into Project Blue Book’s methods. August 16 — Iraqi Air Force Col. Munir Redfa defects by flying a MiG-21 to Israel. In what is considered one of Mossad’s most successful operations, Redfa’s entire extended family is smuggled safely out of Iraq to Israel. The MiG-21 fighter is evaluated by the Israeli Air Force and later loaned to the US for testing and intelligence analysis at Area 51. Knowledge obtained from analysis of the aircraft is instrumental to the successes achieved by the Israeli Air Force in the Six-Day War. (Wikipedia, “Munir Redfa”) August 16 — The chief of the Australian Directorate of Public Relations writes to the Directorate of Air Force Intelligence requesting reconsideration of its decision to stop making summaries of UFO sightings reported to the Department of Air available to the public. DPR hopes the summaries will be useful in responding to public inquiries and thinks that restricting them will reinforce the theory that the government has something to hide. The summaries continue to be published erratically through the end of the 1970s. (Swords 393–394) August 19 — 4:50 p.m. US Border Patrolman Donald E. Flickinger, in the process of taking two prisoners back to Canada, sees a silvery domed disc floating down the side of a hill near Donnybrook, North Dakota, about 10 feet off the ground. It moves across a valley and climbs to 100 feet, hovers over a reservoir, then appears to land in a field 250 feet away. It tilts on edge and rises into the clouds at high speed. Flickinger finds three odd indentations in the field in the form of a triangle with sides of 10–12 feet. Some stones alo seem to have been moved recently. (Hynek UFO Report, photo betw. pp. 152 – 153 ; Condon, pp. 273 – 274 ; Sparks, p. 317 ) August 20 — Afternoon. Some boys looking for a lost kite on the Morro do Vintém in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, discover the bodies of two dead males and report them to the authorities. The Morro do Vintém is a hill with difficult terrain, and the police are unable to reach the bodies until August 21. When a small team of police and firefighters arrive, they encounter an odd scene: the bodies are resting next to each other, partly covered by grass. Each one is wearing a formal suit, a lead eye mask, and a waterproof coat. There are no signs of trauma or struggle. Next to the corpses, police find an empty water bottle and a packet containing two wet towels. A small notebook is also identified, on which were written the cryptic instructions, “16:30 be at the specified location. 18:30 ingest capsules, after the effect protect metals await signal mask.” The two men are identified as Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana, two electronic technicians from Campos dos Goytacazes. Following an investigation, police reconstruct a plausible narrative of the men’s last days. On August 17, Cruz and Viana leave Campos dos Goytacazes saying that they needed to purchase some materials for work (although they tell others they are on a secret mission). The two men then board a bus to Niterói and arrive at 2:30 p.m. Evidence shows that the waterproof coats were purchased at a shop there, and one bottle of water from a local bar. Upon being interviewed, the waitress from the bar described Miguel as “very nervous,” and noticed he frequently checked his watch. That is the last time they are known to have been seen alive; it is presumed they go directly from the bar to the spot where they were discovered. One theory revolves around the testimony of a friend of the two men, who claims that they are members of a group of “scientific spiritualists” who are apparently attempting to contact extraterrestrials or spirits using psychedelic drugs. Believing that such an encounter would be accompanied by blinding light, the men cut metal masks to shield their eyes and may have died of drug overdoses. This account is corroborated by the esoteric diary entry found at the scene and by mask-making materials and literature concerning spirits found at the men’s homes. In April 1980, Jacques Vallée locates the exact spot where the bodies were found and notes that no vegetation is growing there. (Wikipedia, “Lead Masks Case”; Charles

Bowen, “The Mystery of the Morro do Vintem,” Flying Saucer Review 13, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1967): 11–14; Clark III 774– 775 ; Jacques Vallée, Confrontations: A Scientist ’ s Search for Alien Contact, Ballantine, 1990 , pp. 3– 15 ) August 22 — Phil Klass asserts in Aviation Week that the Exeter UFO was a plasma discharge from high-voltage power lines. (Philip J. Klass, “Plasma Theory May Explain Many UFOs,” Aviation Week and Space Technology 85 (August 22, 1966): 48–61) August 24 — 10:00 p.m. Airman 3d Class Michael D. Mueller reports by base radio seeing a multicolored light high in the sky above the Minot AFB M-6 Minuteman launch site southeast of Norma, North Dakota. A team goes to his location and confirms the object and sees a second white object passing in front of clouds. The base radar detects the object, which is tracked at about 100,000 feet (20 miles). The object rises and descends a number of times, and each time Maj. Chester A. Shaw Jr., in charge of the M- 6 missile crew, finds his radio transmission interrupted by static, even though he is 60 feet underground. The UFO gradually descends to ground level 10– 15 miles south of the base. The Air Force sends a strike team to check on it. When they are within 10 miles of the site, static disrupts their radio contact. Five to eight minutes later, the glow diminishes and the UFO takes off. Another UFO is sighted and tracked on radar; the first object flies underneath this second one. The two objects disappear separately. The entire episode lasts about 4 hours and is confirmed by two other missile launch sites, M- 4 and N-7 (near Mohall). Another report from the same time period mentions that some missiles went off alert for 24 hours after a UFO sighting at the N-1 missile alert facility. (NICAP, “Minuteman Site Jammed by UFO”; Condon, pp. 274 – 277 ; Sparks, p. 317 ; Robert L. Salas and James Klotz, Faded Giant, BookSurge, 2005, p. 5– 6 ; Nukes 238– 240 , 248– 251 ) August 27 — Hynek releases to the press a letter rejected by Science magazine in which he reports a pattern to UFO sightings that “suggests that something is going on” and disputing seven misconceptions about UFOs. (“Expert Criticizes Scientists for Dismissing UFOs,” Miami (Fla.) Herald, August 28, 1966, p. 5-C) August 31 — Col. Ivan C. Atkinson, deputy executive director of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, formally approaches the University of Colorado with a request to conduct a comprehensive and independent examination of the UFO problem. August or September — Mid-afternoon. Two men are returning home from bowling in Norwood, Massachusetts. The Moon is visible in about three-quarter phase in the sky. Both glance up and see a group of 6–7 disc-shaped objects moving horizontally toward the Moon. When they reach a position just below the Moon, they loop around it in an upward, back, and onward motion, then continue on their way. (Michael D. Swords, “We Know Where You Live,” IUR 30, no. 2 (January 2006): 9–10)

Early September — Night. Bank official Gerardo Bagnulo is on a pleasure outing with members of his family when he sees two objects moving across the sky on the coast of the Gargano promontory in southern Italy. He manages to take one color photo before the objects disappear near the northwest horizon. The photo shows both a round object and a cylindrical object. (Roberto Pinotti, “The Gargano Peninsula Cigar,” IUR 9, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1984): 6 ; “As is often the case,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 6 (Dec. 1984/Jan. 1985): 8; Roberto Pinotti, “Evidence for UFOs in the Italian Past,” The Spectrum of UFO Research, CUFOS, 1988, pp. 115– 116 ; 1Pinotti 154 – 156) September — Early morning. A UFO is seen hovering at low altitude by all personnel at Heathrow Airport Air Traffic Control in London, England, at a time when no aircraft are in motion. The UFO is tracked on radar and its speed at departure is clocked at 3,000 mph. The Ministry of Defence is notified, and investigators arrive on the scene and tell the witnesses that they have seen nothing, threatening to charge them under the Official Secrets Act if they reveal the sighting publicly. (Good Above, pp. 71 – 72 ) September — 1:30 a.m. Airman 1C Patrick McDonough is working on an astro-azimuth observation at one of the Malmstrom AFB missile launch facilities near Conrad, Montana, when a UFO comes in from the north and stops directly overhead at 300 feet. It is about 30 – 50 feet in diameter and disc-shaped, with dim lights outlining it and a white light emanating from the center. It remains about 20–30 seconds, then shoots away noiselessly to the east at tremendous speed. Montana Highway Patrol dispatchers in Pondera County receive more than 20 UFO reports that morning. (Nukes 247–248) September — 4:00 a.m. Deputy Sheriff Ed Korenek is driving north of El Campo, Texas, on State Highway 71 when he sees something like a car on fire ahead of him. Suddenly he notices that another object is pacing him, He hits his brakes and reaches for the radio, but it is dead. He sees another flaming object above Wharton Regional Airport to the east. He accelerates toward the object ahead of him, which slides off the highway to the right, sucking its flame up behind it as it moves away. The object above the airfield disappears, and when Korenek turns his car around, his radio begins working again. (“The Texas Flap,” APRO Bulletin, Jan./Feb. 1967, p. 3 )

September 3 — Science columnist John Lear receives a declassified (sanitized) copy of the Robertson Panel report and publishes a version of it in the Saturday Review. He calls for the release of the full document. (John Lear, “The Disputed CIA Document on UFOs,” Saturday Review, September 3, 1966, pp. 45– 50 ; Clark III 1017) September 5 — 2:00 p.m. Franz Trautsamwieser takes a photo of the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, Italy, from the other side of the canal. He does not see anything, but the developed photo shows a UFO-shaped whitish object next to the tower. (“UFO over Venice?” Flying Saucer Review 13, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1967, cover, 17) September 12 — The Air Force turns down a proposal Hynek has made for them to create a computer program to put Blue Book’s UFO reports into a machine-readable format, ostensibly because it is too preoccupied with the Vietnam War. (Center for UFO Studies, [Hynek correspondence], p. 2) September 13 — 7:30 a.m. 11-year-old Randy Rotenberger, near Stirum, North Dakota, sees a silvery domed disc hover about one mile away, approach, then land within 900 feet, making a low-pitched whine. It takes off so fast it just vanishes.” An Air Force investigator finds landing indentations 7 inches deep and [possibly] radiation level of 100 microroentgens/hour. Electrical power is off in the area for about 4 hours. (NICAP, “Domed Object Leaves Traces”; Sparks, p. 319; Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 58 – 59; Clark III 950) September 17 — 4:45 a.m. Mr. and Mrs. Ronald MacGilvary see a glowing cigar-shaped object oriented vertically, tilted at times, for about an hour near the edge of the water at Crane Beach, Ipswich, Massachusetts. Two smaller glowing objects approach the larger object, moving around erratically, with an up-and-down skipping motion. The two rendezvous with the larger object, then a third smaller object is seen. The smaller objects periodically leave the larger object and flies around the area. One flies low over Ipswich Bay toward the witnesses’ home. At closer range it shows an elliptical shape illuminated by a faint glow. (“‘Satellite’ UFO Landing Case in Massachusetts,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 10 (Oct./Nov. 1966): 4) September 19 — Air Force Regulation 200-2 is replaced by AFR 80-17, which orders members of the military who investigate UFO reports to release information if there is an explanation, but if there is none to withhold the information, even from the Colorado project (explicitly modified November 9). Radarscope photos are automatically classified. However, it does require that every Air Force base have an official with scientific background responsible for investigating UFOs. (US Department of the Air Force, “Research and Development: Unidentified Flying Objects,” Air Force Regulation 80-17, September 19, 1966) September 21 — 6:30 a.m. Eight RCAF airmen are refueling an aircraft in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada, when they see an object in the east moving at great speed. It comes to a complete stop, descends, and hovers for 20 minutes. It then shoots up and disappears quickly. At about the same time, fishermen Ivan Collicut and Patrick O’Halloran are out for an early morning catch at Burton, Prince Edward Island, when they see a rapidly moving light. (“Near-Landing Observed by RCAF,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 10 (Oct./Nov. 1966): 4) September 21 — At a meeting of the University of Colorado psychology department, Stuart W. Cook announces that the university is considering taking on the UFO project, with Condon directing. Cook says it will need the help of psychologists. William A. Scott and David R. Saunders are interested. Around this time, Condon agrees to an informal question-and-answer session about the project. George Gamow and Richard Sigismond are in attendance. Gamow is surprised that Condon has never heard of the Trindade Island UFO photos. Sigismond applies for an opening on the committee and is accepted, but he declines the offer after a 20-minute interview with Condon, whose negative bias on the subject is unyielding. (Richard Sigismond, “A Confrontation with Dr. Condon: Prelude and Aftermath,” IUR 8, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1983): 3–5, 16; “Condon Confrontation Continues,” IUR 9, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1984): 9; Clark III 1192) September 22 — 3:00 a.m. Police from several vantage points in Deadwood, South Dakota, see a large white hovering object, changing color to green to red then back to white. It hangs motionless for 15 minutes. When a spotlight is shone on it, the object blacks out. Two smaller white objects operating independently approach and hover nearby. The large object bobs around and emits blue light beams toward the ground, and finally speeds away in 3 seconds. (NICAP, “Satellite Objects, Sept. 22, 1966, Deadwood, SD”; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 49 – 50 ) September 22 — Psychologist Michael Wertheimer tells Cook he will participate in the Colorado project. (Clark III 1193) September 22 — Hynek appeals to Secretary of the Air Force Harold Brown to create a program to put UFO reports into a machine-readable database. He also recommends a more scientific approach to data acquisition that will make the Air Force look better to the public and the scientific community. (Center for UFO Studies, [Hynek correspondence], pp. 3–5) September 24 — 3:30 a.m. A man named Gaines is driving his girlfriend home in Peoria, Illinois, when they see a large, luminous, blue sphere hovering low in the sky. It shoots off, so he drops the girlfriend off. On the way home the blue ball returns; his car begins to pick up speed, the brakes won’t work, and the doors won’t open. He races on

this way for a few blocks, then the UFO takes off. (Michael D. Swords, “Messing Around with the Force,” IUR
31 , no. 4 (Mar. 2008): 17)

Autumn — Night. A young couple parking in a rural area near Rockford, Illinois, see a bright light that appears over some nearby trees. It is so intense that it hurts their eyes, so they start the car up and drive down a gravel road. The light is gone, but near where it had been they can now see two gray figures with large slanted eyes and wearing clothing with a square insignia on the torso. As they leave the area, they smell a pungent, metallic odor. (“Letter,” IUR 9, no. 2 (March/April 1984): 6, 9; “Out of the Past,” IUR 9, no. 2 (March/April 1984): 8–9) October — Hynek’s lengthy letter about UFOs and Project Blue Book is published in Science magazine. It addresses seven misconceptions about UFOs. “I cannot dismiss the UFO phenomenon with a shrug,” he concludes. (O’Connell 201–204) October — The Canadian Directorate of Operations issues Canadian Forces Administrative Order 71-6, “Reporting of Unidentified Flying Objects,” to make it easier to obtain UFO reports from military bases and police forces. (Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Canada, Signet, 1981, p. 173) October 1 — James E. McDonald writes to Thomas Ratchford of the USAF Office of Scientific Research to tell him that he will soon speak out for radical changes in the handling of UFO reports. (Clark III 697) October 2 — 8:20 p.m. Mrs. Everett Steward is talking on the telephone at her home in Cincinnati, Ohio, when she smells a foul odor in the room. She goes to her bedroom, but she has a feeling of being watched. Looking out the window, she sees an oval-shaped object with portholes and red, green, and white lights revolving around it. It is 75 feet in diameter and hovering at 100 feet. She wakes up her husband, who also sees it, and calls her married daughter, Mrs. Janet Emery, a mile away; the Emerys also see it, and a neighbor with binoculars can see that it has square windows glowing yellow. Janet goes outdoors and sees the UFO eject a red ball, which maneuvers while the first UFO takes off southward. The red ball flies 75 – 100 feet over Janet’s head; its underside is shiny like aluminum foil. Mrs. Steward goes to bed, but the odor is still in the house. After some time, the room is filled for an instant with brilliant white light; then this vanishes and a globe of light about 21 inches in diameter appears at the foot of her bed. Inside are 5 “non-human, hairless heads” with oval, sunken eyes. Instead of noses, there are slits, and they have no mouths. Telepathically, they repeat several times: “We have made contact.” Mrs. Steward screams and the globe disappears. She is so disquieted by the experience that she goes under psychiatric care for the next 2 years. (Stringfield, Situation Red, Doubleday, 1977, pp. 33–36) October 3 — Phil Klass has another article in Aviation Week on plasmas as an explanation for UFOs. (Philip J. Klass, “Many UFOs Are Identified as Plasmas,” Aviation Week and Space Technology 85 (October 3, 1966): 54–73) October 4, 18 — Excerpts of John G. Fuller’s book about the Betty and Barney Hill abduction case, Interrupted Journey, appear in a two-part article of Look magazine. (Wikipedia, “Barney and Betty Hill”; John G. Fuller, “Aboard a Flying Saucer, Part I,” Look 30, no. 20 (October 4, 1966): 44–48, 53–56; John G. Fuller, “Aboard a Flying Saucer, Part II,” Look 30, no. 21 (October 18, 1966): 111–121; Clark III 585) October 4– 5 — 5:00 a.m. Jack Jones is delivering newspapers on John Street in Connersville, Indiana. He notices a group of lights in a field to the west past the dead end. He thinks it might be a new light installation and moves on. The next day, Jones is with another paper carrier, Don Doe, and he suggests they go see the new lights. Jack sees the lights, but they are in a different position somewhat to the north. Both boys sit on their bicycles and watch a dark disc-shaped object with flashing red, green, and white lights on it that is apparently on the ground some 840 feet into the field. They estimate it is 27 feet in diameter and 10 feet high. They hear a high-pitched whirring sound and smell a faint odor of sulfur and tannic acid. After watching it a few minutes, they hear a new sound as if someone is walking slowly toward them through some thick weeds. They take off on their bicycles and don’t look back. Some days later, investigators find three holes, 8 feet apart in an equilateral triangle, where the object was seen. The holes measure 7 inches at the top and 1 inch at the bottom. (“UAO Landing in Indiana,” APRO Bulletin, Nov./Dec. 1966, pp. 1, 3) October 5 — At a University of Arizona Department of Meteorology colloquium, James E. McDonald gives his views on the reality of UFOs and the Air Force’s concealment of information. His colleagues respond negatively, and McDonald acknowledges to Gerard Kuiper that what he is doing is professionally risky. Nevertheless, the university’s Space Sciences Committee gives him a $1,300 grant toward his research expenses. (“UFOs Are ‘Real,’ Physicist Asserts,” Arizona Daily Star, October 6, 1966, p. B-1; Clark III 697) October 6 — Thurston Manning signs the University of Colorado contract with the Air Force. The project is to run from November 15, 1966, to January 1968. (Clark III 1193) October 7 — The Air Force publicly announces the creation of the University of Colorado UFO project. Low is made project coordinator. The primary team will be Saunders, ESSA astronomer Franklin Roach, Wertheimer, chemist Roy Craig, University of Arizona electrical engineer Norman Levine, administrative assistant Mary Lou

Armstrong, University of Arizona astronomer William K. Hartmann, physicist Frederick Ayer, and psychologists Dan Culberson and James Wadsworth. (Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs), “Air Force Selects University of Colorado to Investigate Unidentified Flying Object Reports,” October 7, 1966, release no. 847 - 66, in Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 222–224; “UFO Probe Given to Colorado U.,” San Francisco Examiner, October 7, 1966, p. 42; Clark III 697, 1193 ) October 7 — McDonald speaks to the media about the secret Robertson Panel report. The CIA has ordered the Air Force to debunk UFOs, he says. (“UFO Hush Blamed on CIA Men,” Phoenix Arizona Republic, October 7, 1966, pp. 21 – 22) October 8 — Condon is widely quoted in the media as saying it is “highly improbable” that UFOs exist. “The view that UFOs are hallucinatory will be a subject of our investigation, to discover what it is that makes people imagine they see things.” (Chesly Manly, “UFOs Prober Keeps Open Mind and Door,” Chicago Tribune, October 16, 1966, pp. 1, 4) October 8 — 7:00 p.m. Loch Ness monster researcher Frederick William “Ted” Holiday is fishing on the lifeboat slipway at Tenby harbor, Pembrokeshire, Wales, when he and other fishermen notice a small, bluish, luminous cloud moving in a circle about three times its own diameter above them. After a short time, he resumes his fishing, but 10 minutes later a dark object emerges from the cloud and beams down a brilliant ruby light on them. The cloud moves west and the object moves southwest. By the time he retrieves binoculars from his car, both objects are gone. (F. W. Holiday, “Was God at Aberfan?” Flying Saucer Review 18, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1972): 3–4) October 10 — Hynek discusses UFOs in Newsweek. (“UFO’s for Real?” Newsweek, October 10, 1966, p. 70) October 10 — 9:15 p.m. Police Sgt. Benjamin Thompson of the Wanaque (New Jersey) Reservoir Police watches a bright light performing fantastic maneuvers over the reservoir. He notices a slight mist in the wake of its movements. It descends to 150 feet above the water, then shoots up. Thompson has also seen UFOs at the reservoir in January and March. Some teenagers see a UFO in the area 2 nights later. (“UFOs Return to Wanaque Reservoir,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 10 (Oct./Nov. 1966): 6; Sanderson, InvRes, pp. 58 – 62; Center for UFO Studies, [case files]) October 11 — 9:45 p.m. Two boys in Elizabeth, New Jersey—Martin Munov and James Yanchitis—are walking home on 4th Street near East Jersey Street, adjacent to the elevated New Jersey Turnpike. Yanchitis tells his friend that there is someone following them. They turn and see a man standing behind a high wire fence separating them from the turnpike 30 feet above them. The fence is 8 feet high and the embankment running up to it is steep. John Keel interviews the two boys three days after the incident. They tell him that the man is 7 feet tall, has a dark complexion, and is wearing a green work suit. He has a bald head, large eyes, and a huge grinning mouth full of white teeth. (John Keel, Strange Creatures from Time and Space, Fawcett, 1970 , p. 176) October 15 —4:45 a.m. Forester Jerry H. Simons is driving home from a camping expedition, notices a reddish glow behind him, and stops his car near Split Rock Pond, south of Newfoundland, New Jersey, to investigate. A flat- bottom, red-orange disc with a dome on top is hovering above and behind his car. Near panic, he flees the area with the object following him. When the light from the object illuminates the ground around him, his car engine, dashlights, and headlights all fail. When the object recedes, his lights and engine function normally. This sequence is repeated three times, strongly demonstrating a direct correlation between the light from the UFO and the failure of his car’s electrical system. Shortly after the sighting, Simons begins experiencing a recurring illness (the reason for his story appearing in a medical journal); it is characterized by fatigue, anorexia, soreness, muscle weakness, chills, and significant weight loss. After about 6 months he has fully recovered. (Berthold Eric Schwarz, “UFOs: Delusion or Dilemma,” Medical Times 96 (October 1968): 967–981; UFOEv II 37; Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 2,” IUR 34 , no. 1 (Sept. 2011): 14) Mid-October — Keyhoe is stressed by Condon’s statements, so he calls both Condon and Low. Both assure him they were misquoted and ask for NICAP’s support. He expresses his doubts to Saunders, who with Richard Hall convinces him to lend his support to the project, for now. (UFOs Yes, 117) October 19 — James E. McDonald speaks to the Washington, D.C., Chapter of the American Meteorological Society on the inadequacy of military UFO investigations and the need to take seriously the “possibility that these aerial objects may be some type of extraterrestrial probes.” (James E. McDonald, “The Problem of the Unidentified Flying Objects,” October 19, 1966; Clark III 697) October 20 — Hynek visits Franklin Roach in Boulder, Colorado, to meet Condon and other Colorado project members. He notes that Condon has a “basically negative attitude.” (Clark III 1193) October 20 — 11:50 p.m. A telecommunications technician in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, sees a strangely behaving nocturnal light. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, p. 45) October 21 — Hynek’s letter on misconceptions about UFOs is belatedly published in Science. (J. Allen Hynek, “UFO’s Merit Scientific Study,” Science 154 (1966): 329)

October 21 — Night. Three junior high school students are standing at one end of their street in Amsterdam, New York, when they notice a star-like light to the right of the Moon. The star proceeds to draw aright-angle step around the Moon and continues northward, where it joins two other objects. The three objects then form 90° angles, equilateral triangles, and other geometrical figures. Two of the students go home for binoculars, and while they are away the sky show stops. They remain in the sky, but stationary. The objects look spherical through binoculars with some sort of lighted, colored areas that rotate. (Michael D. Swords, “We Know Where You Live,” IUR 30, no. 2 (January 2006): 10) October 26 — 11:50 p.m. A man is driving in a rural, wooded area near Takoma Park, Maryland, when he sees a disc that seems about to land in a clearing. It puts on a red-and-green light show as it hovers. A large central beam of light shines onto the field below. The car radio bursts with static, and he hears a whirring sound coming from the object. He tries to accelerate the car, but it won’t move. Radio and drive functions resume when the UFO moves away. (Michael D. Swords, “Messing Around with the Force,” IUR 31 , no, 4 (March 2008 ): 17, 29) October 28 — The Space Defense Center’s satellite-tracking Delta I computer system at Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, becomes operational. (Wikipedia, “Space Defense Center”) October 31 — Night. An observer in Gloucester, Massachusetts, notices a particularly bright star in the southwestern sky that is moving in a wide arc. When it reaches Ursa Major, it paces along the Big Dipper, then turns and takes an approximately parallel course to the front of the constellation. (Michael D. Swords, “We Know Where You Live,” IUR 30, no. 2 (January 2006): 10)

November 1 — The University of Colorado UFO project officially launches. Michael D. Swords writes: “It was one of the most peculiar scientific grants of all time. Normally a governmental grant goes to a scientist who has initiated it or is at least vitally interested and experienced in the field, and essentially knows exactly what he is going to do. This grant was to a scientist who was pushed into it, had little interest and apparently no experience, and, despite his brilliance, ‘didn’t have a clue.’ Because the reports of the UFO phenomenon are so complex and multidimensional, this short-term ‘backwards grant’ was doomed to fail before it was even signed.” (Swords 309– 312) November 1 — 8:00 p.m. Mrs. Ray Tibbetts is talking on the phone in her home at Newfields, New Hampshire, when her son, Dale, yells that there is a strange light outside. Her foster daughter, Anita Purrington, joins Dale and they both get excited. Mrs. Tibbetts runs to a window when the house lights begin blinking on and off. She goes to her son’s room and sees a huge object with two tiers of four windows from which a strange, yellow-green light is shining. The size of one of the windows is as big as her living room wall. An apparent ceiling line is visible in the bottom tier. Suddenly an intense white light shoots out from the object at Mrs. Tibbetts, who is knocked backward and gets spots before her eyes. When her vision clears, the UFO is gone. She has pains in her eyes the next two days and they are extremely sensitive to light. She drives to a clinic in Exeter, New Hampshire, which finds a spasm in the eyelid and tearing, but it attributes this to the cobalt therapy she has been getting. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 10–11) Early November — Low and Hynek make the Colorado project’s first field trip, to Minot and Donnybrook, North Dakota. November 2 — 7:25 p.m. Woodrow Derenberger is driving his panel truck home to Parkersburg, West Virginia, on Interstate 77 when a low-flying dark object about 35 feet wide cuts in front of him and forces him to stop. It hovers a foot above the ground, only 20 feet ahead. The object has a profile similar to a kerosene lamp chimney flattened on the bottom side. A door opens and a smiling man of dark complexion descends, wearing a topcoat (“blue and quite shiny, having a glistening effect”) over shiny blue trousers. Without opening his mouth, which bears a fixed grin, he addresses Derenberger telepathically, asking him to open his window. For the next 10 minutes he conducts a telepathic conversation, first asking Derenberger’s name and saying that his own is “Indrid Cold” from a planet called Lanulos in the “Ganymede galaxy.” He tells Derenberger not to think of him as an alien and concludes by saying, “We will see you again.” After admitting Mr. Cold, the UFO rises vertically and disappears. A truck driver named Walter Vanscoy is going north on I- 77 and sees, in apparent confirmation of the encounter, a truck parked on the berm of the southbound I-77 lanes with a man wearing a knee-length coat standing by the passenger side. Derenberger’s space adventures are only beginning. (“The Woodrow Derenberger Interview, November 3, 1966,” The MothMan Wikia; “Parkersburg Salesman Speaks with Spaceman,” Beckley (W.Va.) Raleigh Register, November 4, 1966, pp. 1–2; John A. Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, Tor ed., 1991, pp. 50– 52 ; Woodrow W. Derenberger and Harold W. Hubbard, Visitors from Lanulos, Vantage, 1971; Clark III 402 – 403 ; Jerome Clark, “The Adventures of Woody Derenberger,” IUR 20, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1995): 7– 8 ; Taunia Derenberger-Bowman, Beyond Lanulos: Our Fifty Years with Indrid Cold, The Author, 2016 ; Theo Paijmans, “The Terrible Grinning Men,” Fortean Times 397 (October 2020): 32– 34 )

November 4 — Derenberger has another encounter when he lapses into a trance while driving a truck with a colleague along US Highway 50 near Parkersburg, West Virginia. He starts speaking, sometimes mumbling, other times conveying messages about “ships.” Derenberger later says that Cold was sending him a telepathic message that his ship was directly above the truck. A sighting of a UFO “like two glass chimneys from a kerosene lamp welded together at their widest or bulging ends” at 6:45 p.m. by Irma Hudgins and her daughter Pamela Sue near the intersection of I-77 and State Highway 47 seems to confirm some UFO activity. Derenberger has further meetings with Indrid Cold and his companion Carl Ardo, who often pass undetected among earthlings, through the early 1970s and in 1984. (John A. Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, Tor ed., 1991, pp. 54– 55 ; Clark III 404– 410 ; Jerome Clark, “The Adventures of Woody Derenberger,” IUR 20, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1995): 8–11, 20–23) November 5 — Condon tells the press that he knows “some people [McDonald] who believe the air force is misleading us, but I don’t think so. Maybe they are. I don’t care much.” (Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, p. 113 ) November 6 — 6:30 p.m. A driver on State Highway 47 near Parkersburg, West Virginia, sees a UFO and gets out to watch it. At first it looks like two lights near the American Viscose plant across the Little Kanawha River. The object crosses the river and the highway then turns off its lights at about 100–150 feet altitude. The lights come back on and it starts moving toward the witness, stopping right over his car and focusing a bright beam of light on him for 10 seconds. It shuts off and the object moves leisurely away to the south. (Clark III 405) November 11 — Hynek and Vallée give an extended briefing to Condon and his staff. Hynek urges the project to adopt a rating system, by which if a sighting emerges as both strange and credible, it will be deemed worthy of further investigation. Vallée recommends standardized report forms that ask all the right questions. They both sense that Low, not Condon, is “clearly the decision-maker.” Hynek tells Craig that the project must recommend that scientific investigation of UFOs be continued. (Clark III 1193; UFOs Yes, 50– 61 ; Sparks, p. 5) November 13 — Barber and amateur astronomer Ralph Ditter Jr. of Roseville, Ohio, takes several “spectacular” photos of a daylight disc. Later, Raytheon deals with the photographic analysis of the photos. The report states that the object in the photos is 3–4 inches in diameter, not 30 feet as claimed by Ditter; the object is not at a considerable distance, but a mere 3–4 feet from the camera lens; and the photos are not taken in rapid succession, but approximately 70 minutes has elapsed between photos. Also, the numbers on the backs of the photographs are out of sequence with Ditter’s story. (NICAP, “The Ditter Photo Hoax”; Center for UFO Studies, [Ditter photos]; Center for UFO Studies, [case documents, part one, part two]; E. L. Merritt, “Photogrammetric Analysis of a Non-Synchronous Pair of U.F.O. Exposures,” June 1967) November 14 — Quintanilla, Lt. William Marley, and Col. Robert Hippler of AFOSR brief the Colorado project staff. Quintanilla contradicts Hynek’s account of the swamp gas explanation. (UFOs Yes, 61) November 15 — 11:30 p.m. Two young couples from Point Pleasant, West Virginia—Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette—are joyriding in an area outside of town known as the “TNT area” [the site of a former World War II munitions plant and now part of the McClintic Wildlife Management Area] when they encounter a large gray creature whose eyes glow red when the car’s headlights pick it up. Scarberry describes it as shaped like a man but nearly 7 feet tall. They describe it as a “large flying man with 10-foot wings” that are folded against its back. Terrified, they drive away but pass a similar creature on a hill by the road. As they pass it, it spreads its wings, rises into the air, and pursues their car, keeping pace at even 100 mph. The entity does not pursue them into town, but they drive directly to the Mason County Courthouse, where they tell their story to Deputy Millard Halstead, who accompanies the witnesses back to the site. He hears strange static disturbances coming from his radio, but they find no evidence of the encounter. On November 16, Sheriff George E. Johnson holds a press conference to discuss the sighting, the press begins calling the creature “Mothman” based on a comic book character. The Scarberrys and Mallettes go back to the site in the daylight and find odd-looking tracks like “two horseshoes put together.” After this sighting, more people begin reporting encounters, and hundreds of cars swarm out to the TNT area at night in search of a Mothman sighting. In May 1976, representatives of the Ohio UFO Investigators League reinterview several witnesses, all of whom stick to their stories and sometimes add interesting details. (John A. Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, Tor ed., 1991, pp. 59– 61 ; Clark III 779– 781 ; “Scarberry and Mallette’s Mothman Sighting,” The MothMan Wikia) November 17 — 4:00 a.m. Two police officers see a round, glowing object with a wide, flat rim around the center resting on the ground near Gaffney, South Carolina. They estimate the diameter to be about 20 feet. As they watch from less than 50 feet away, a door opens and a small humanoid being descends. The observation lasts several minutes. Footprints are found at the site. (John A. Keel, “The Little Man of Gaffney,” Flying Saucer Review 14, no. 2 (March/April 1968): 17–19)

November 22 — McDonald informally visits several Colorado project members. He explains radar complexities and mirage effects and tells them that they will soon be “confronting astonishing evidence of mishandling of the UFO problems by your sponsoring agency.” (UFOs Yes, 64) November 22 — 9:00–10:00 a.m. A biochemist and consultant to a logging company and his wife are traveling on State Highway 58 through the Willamette Pass, Oregon, when he decides to stop and take photos of some scenery. He stops at the Diamond Peak overlook, takes 2 photos, then pauses to take a third. Suddenly, he claims, a disc- shaped object with a domed top ascends into his field of view. After stopping for 3 seconds, it shoots off toward the right and disappears into a cloud bank. When he develops the roll of film, the photos show a blurred disc- shaped object with two black bands beneath and sitting atop a seeming column of vapor. NICAP is given the photo but is not impressed. In 1989, physicist Irwin Wieder performs a detailed analysis of the photo and determines that it is a blurred photo of the “Diamond Peak” sign taken from a passing car. (Clark III 1281 – 1283 ; Irwin Wieder, “The Willamette Pass Oregon UFO Photo Revisited: An Explanation,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 7, no. 2 (1993): 173–198; Irwin Wieder, “The Willamette Pass Photo Explained,” IUR 18, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1993): 18– 19 ) November 22 — 10:00 a.m. A deer hunter searching for game near Roaring River State Park, Missouri, returns to his group’s camp and becomes alarmed when he sees smoke rising from it. He finds their tent and other camping equipment destroyed. The tent is still smoldering, one of the aluminum tent poles is singed, and the aluminum cots are melted. The tent is set up under two trees, but their leaves show no traces of damage at all. About 15 feet away is a dead tree with its top still burning. The witness then heasr a low humming sound and sees an object rising from the valley about 300 feet away. He is able to take a photograph of it as it ascends and manages a second photo a few seconds later. It is an aluminum-colored disc, about 25 feet in diameter and 8 feet thick, with a band around its center and some kind of projection at its rear. The humming sound intensifies as the object picks up speed and disappears in 20 seconds. (CUFOS case file; Ted Phillips, Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings, Center for UFO Studies, 1978, p. 44; B. J. Booth, “UFO Encountered, Photographed, Roaring River, Missouri, 1966,” UFO Casebook) November 22 — 4 :20 p.m. At least eight employees of the American Newspaper Publishers Association in New York City watch a UFO from their offices on the 17th floor at 750 Third Avenue. The UFO is a rectangular, “cushion- shaped” object whose bright, reflective surface first catches the eye of Assistant General Manager Donald R. McVay. They go outside onto the terrace and watch the object move southward over the East River, then hover above the United Nations building. It flutters and bobs “like a ship on agitated water.” It rises slowly and moves south then west. One of the other witnesses is the manager of the Publications Department, William H. Leick. (“Major Sighting Wave,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 11 (Jan,/Feb. 1967): 4; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, p. 54 ) November 28 — At Saunders’s invitation, Hall and Keyhoe brief the Colorado project members. They meet with Low and show him some strong NICAP reports like the 1959 Redmond, Oregon, case. Low dismisses it as too old because the witnesses “wouldn’t remember the details.” Keyhoe focuses on the cover-up, while Hall argues that the best way to assess UFO evidence is to look at the aggregated evidence. (Clark III 1193; UFO Yes, 62 – 63 ; Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, pp. 108 – 110 ) November 28 — 12:10 a.m. Spanish contactee Enrique Villagrasa receives by telephone his first message from inhabitants of the planet Ummo. The caller speaks in a slow monotone and with a foreign accent, answering questions about history and science. Villagrasa has the impression he is talking to an “electronic brain.” Other messages follow, and Villagrasa passes them on to Fernando Sesma, an employee of the Spanish telegraph service and head of Amigos de los Visitantes del Espacio. (Clark III 1184) November 28 — Night. Janis Bodungen, 17, is on her way home on Farm Road 1300 northwest of El Campo, Texas, when she sees teo bright lights coming toward her. As they approach, the two lights turn into one large golden light as tall as the trees. She turns the car around and speeds away. (“The Texas Flap,” APRO Bulletin, Jan./Feb. 1967, pp. 3, 5) November 30 — 4:35 p.m. J. G. Hockenberry is flying a Cessna 150 near New Kingstown, Pennsylvania, when he sees a saucer-shaped object, about 30 feet in diameter, approach and hover beside the aircraft. It has a dull, gray-white finish and one blinking red light. When the pilot flies into a cloud layer, the object rises straight up and out of sight. (NICAP case file)

December — Low visits NICAP headquarters in Washington, D.C. He admits that Condon thinks the early reports are worthless. Keyhoe tells Low that before he wastes any time supplying them with reports, he wants to know what

Condon thinks of the 1965 cases they already provided. Otherwise, NICAP might pull out. (Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, p. 112 ) December — Colorado project member and psychologist William A. Scott devises a witness questionnaire. One page is devoted to the UFO, the other 20 are about the psychological profile of the witness. When he discovers that the witness is not the project’s main focus, he goes home. (UFOs Yes, 67–69) December 2 — Wertheimer goes to Washington, D.C., to interview witnesses of the National Airport radar-visual sightings of 1952. Virtually every witness disputes Gen. John A. Samford’s explanation of temperature inversions. (UFOs Yes, 72–74) December 7 — A TAP Air Portugal airliner piloted by Capt. Henrique Maia is paced by two luminous objects near Luanda, Angola. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 24) December 15 — 5:30 p.m. Four witnesses driving northwest toward Woodstown, New Jersey, see a triangular object with rounded corners and three blinking lights. It is moving slowly in the opposite direction. When they leave Woodstown to the southeast at 6:15 p.m., it reappears and passes over the car. (Marler 134) December 17 — Hynek’s article, in which he states that hundreds of puzzling UFO cases exit and urges a serious inquiry, appears in the Saturday Evening Post. (J. Allen Hynek, “Are Flying Saucers Real?” Saturday Evening Post, December 17, 1966, pp. 17–21, transcribed by NICAP) December 21 — Lockheed test pilot William C. Park flies an A-12 for 10,198 statute miles in only 6 hours, at an average speed of 1,660 mph. (“William C. Park Jr.,” Roadrunners Internationale) December 28 — The Defense Department makes a recommendation to President Johnson to terminate the A-12 program due to budget concerns and because of the development of the SR-71 Blackbird. It is to be phased out by June

1968. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed A- 12 ”) December 30 — 8:15 p.m. A physics professor named Galloway [possibly Louie A. Galloway III] is driving through a wooded area near Haynesville, Louisiana, and sees a bright, pulsating glow, changing from orange to white, in the woods about one mile away. He estimates its visible light power output at about one megawatt. Coming back the next day, he locates traces of burns and calls the USAF and University of Colorado UFO project. (Condon, pp. 61, 277 – 280 ; Sparks, p. 320 ; Jacques Vallée, “Estimates of Power Optical Output in Six Cases of Unexplained Aerial Objects with Defined Luminosity Characteristics,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 12, no. 3 (1998): 350– 352 )

1967

1967 — The US nuclear stockpile reaches its peak at 31,255 bombs. (Ryan Crierie, “U.S. Nuclear Stockpile, 1945– 2009 ”) 1967 — Night. Miss E. R. East, of Gibsons, British Columbia, is awakened by a banging noise and sees a brilliant orange- red light soaring above hills behind the town. As she watches, its color changes to glowing white and the object moves toward the Strait of Georgia. Suddenly, a 10-foot-wide beam of light shoots down to the water. As it strikes the surface, it bends and lies flat on the surface, lighting up the wharf on Keats Island. As she stares at it, her eyes begin to sting. (John Magor, Our UFO Visitors, Hancock House, 1977, pp. 37– 38 ) 1967 — A French government UFO project, to be led by former inspector general at the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique Jean-Luc Bruneau, is approved. Bruneau recommends that the study first become a project of the Centre Nationale d’Études Spatiales, and later a European initiative. But the project is postponed because of the political crisis in France in May 1968. (Gildas Bourdais, “From GEPAN to SEPRA: Official UFO Studies in France,” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000–2001): 11) 1967 — Robert M. Wood, physicist and aerospace manager for McDonnell Douglas Corporation, is assigned the task of exploring breakthroughs in gravity propulsion. The project includes laboratory evaluation of hypotheses, field observations, and examination of UFO literature. At one point there are 4 full-time and 3 part-time employees involved in the effort, code-named BITBR (“Boys in the Back Room”). Wood networks with James E. McDonald, J. Allen Hynek, Carl Sagan, and the Colorado project. The initiative is terminated in 1969 at Wood’s recommendation due to its inability to project a technological payoff. (Robert M. Wood, “A Little Physics…A Little Friction: A Close Encounter with the Condon Committee,” IUR 18, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1993): 6– 10 )

January — Night. French rocket scientist Jean-Pierre Morin is driving three members of a launch team to the tower at Interarmy Special Vehicles Test Center at Hammaguir, Algeria. When they arrive at a row of buildings, they notice a light in the sky silently coming toward them. Their car engine sputters and fails. It stops and hovers at an elevation of 45° about 1,600 feet away. Morin thinks it is attached to a black, cylindrical object 980–1,300 feet in length and 100 feet in diameter with “flames” of different colors along its side. The light begins moving slowly

again, and a car with astrophysicists stops and watches it for another 20–30 minutes before it ascends and disappears. (Good Need, pp. 296 – 297 ) Early January — 7:30 p.m. Robert Blaine is driving with five other witnesses on State Highway 55 two miles southeast of Farwell, Minnesota, when his headlights and engine suddenly go out. He sees an orange flash to his left at the level of his hood and tiny beads of light cross in front of the windshield. A passenger sees an orange-and-red flash go by on the driver’s side at window level. The car coasts to a stop, then the engine and headlights go back on again by themselves. (“Car Buzzing Incidents on Increase,” APRO Bulletin, May/June 1967, p. 5) January 3 — 2:00 a.m. A dome-shaped object hovers for several miles and 10–15 minutes above a car in New Richmond, Michigan. It illuminates the road, and the car draws to a stop with loss of steering control and the radio failing. Examination of the car by Fred Hooven and David Moyer, engineers at the Ford Motor Company, two months later shows no faults unexplainable by ordinary causes. (Condon, pp. 102 – 106 , 282 – 285 ; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 65–66) January 5 — Hynek writes to Condon, telling him that he, Jacques Vallée, and William T. Powers are devoting more personal time to the UFO problem and are setting up a file area in the Lindheimer Observatory at Northwestern University in Evansto, Illinois. He mentions that there is enough underground interest in UFOs among his scientific colleagues that he is thinking of creating an informal “invisible college” to discuss the subject quietly. He mentions that he sat in on a hypnosis session a few weeks previously with Benjamin Simon and was allowed to question Betty and Barney Hill. He also suggests that the Colorado project recommend that police squad cars carry cameras that can document ongoing UFO reports. (Center for UFO Studies, [Hynek correspondence], pp. 6– 7) January 5 — An A-12 flown by pilot Walter Ray is lost during a training flight near Leith Canyon, Nevada. Due to a faulty fuel gauge, the aircraft runs out of fuel 70 miles from Groom Dry Lake. Ray glides to a lower altitude to perform a controlled bailout but cannot separate his parachute from his ejection seat. He is the first pilot to be killed in an A-12 accident. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed A- 12 ”) January 6 — Hynek speaks to an overflow crowd at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He says he has had to revise his thinking on UFOs, urges scientists to take an active role in investigations, and confirms reports that NORAD and SAC radar has tracked UFOs, citing a case in which SAC radar tracked a UFO at 4,000 mph on an erratic flight path. (Story, p. 413 ) January 9 — Two teenage brothers of Mount Clemens, Michigan, Daniel A. and Grant P. Jaroslaw, take some Polaroid photos from the backyard of their home of a domed object moving slowly above Lake St. Clair. After they release the images to a wire service, the Air Force requests the originals for analysis. They refuse to relinquish them but give an officer at Selfridge AFB [now Selfridge Air National Guard Base] some copies. Maj. Raymond Nyls attempts to recreate the photos at the original site using a block of wood hanging from a string on a children’s swing set. USAF turns the copies and Nyls’s recreations over to the National Photographic Interpretation Center, which takes a serious look and suspects a hoax but cannot prove it conclusively. (“Two Brothers Photograph Circular Object in Michigan,” Northern Ontario UFO Research and Study; Joey Del Ponte, “Formerly Secret Memo Shows How the Air Force Investigated UFO Sightings,” Muckrock, February 14, 2018; Curt Collins, “Dr. Hynek and the UFO Photo Investigation of 1967,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, October 21, 2021) January 12 — The USAF advisory committee holds a special briefing in Boulder, Colorado. Condon discusses project plans and asks the Air Force where the project should place its emphasis. Lt. Col. Hippler, along with Col. Raymond Sleeper, Blue Book’s boss as Foreign Technology Division Commander, says the project is not required to prove or disprove anything, but that “we don’t want any recommendation from you unless you feel strongly about it.” He rejects Wertheimer’s suggestion that the project should concentrate on witnesses, not sightings. Hippler and Ratchford do not adequately respond to Low’s question about what USAF wants from the project. (“Air Force Advisory Panel Briefing,” January 12, 1967; Roy Craig, UFOs: An Insiders ’ View of the Official Quest for Evidence, University of North Texas, 1995, p. 235; Michael D. Swords, “The USAF-Sponsored Colorado Project for the Scientific Study of UFOs,” 1995 MUFON Symposium Proceedings, MUFON, 1995; Clark III 1194 ; Swords 314– 315 ) January 12 — 7:30 p.m. A luminous object crosses the sky off Agadir, Morocco. It leaves a white trail that turns into a rainbow and falls into the sea with a deafening sound. The US Defense attaché in Rabat, Naval Capt. C. G. Strum, says the sighting “could be valuable in pursuit of Project Moon Dust.” (US Department of Defense, “UFO Sighting over Agadir, Morocco,” January 18, 1967) January 13 — Condon and Low visit Cheyenne Mountain, NORAD’s underground Space Defense Center complex in Colorado, for a “classified briefing” by orbital analysts 1Lt. Henry B. Eckert Jr. and Capt. Dick A. Cable of the 9 th Aerospace Defense Division’s 1 st Aerospace Control Squadron about NORAD’s radar network, hours after another classified briefing for Condon and staff at Boulder concludes. The Cheyenne Mountain briefing is the first

in a series of tactical moves designed to discourage Condon’s project staff, Hynek, and McDonald from using NORAD as a source of UFO data or resource for future investigations or instrumentation. (Clark III 804– 805 ; UFOs Yes, 66) January 13 — Early morning. Sgt. Norman Finley of the Joplin, Missouri, police alerts fellow officers about an unexplained object overhead. Pittsburg, Kansas, police dispatcher James Cunningham notifies the Joplin police that a UFO has been seen over Pittsburg. He describes it as an object with bright colors of “vivid blue-green with flashing lights.” Cunningham alerts the Joplin station because the object seems to be leaving Kansas and heading for Missouri. After receiving that call, Joplin’s Lt. Charles Hickman drives to Stone’s Corner near the Joplin airport. He waits for nearly an hour before spotting a UFO in the sky, which he watches for more than an hour. It is about 1,000 feet high and seems about as big as two houses. It makes turns and maneuvers “as if it were being controlled.” For the next three days, there are more sightings in the early morning hours at Coffeyville, Kansas; Joplin, Springfield, and Newton County, Missouri; and northeast Oklahoma. (UFOs Yes, 109 – 110 ; Condon, pp. 286 – 290 ) January 13 — 10:00 p.m. The crew of a Lear Jet flying at 41,000 feet over southwestern New Mexico sees a flashing red luminous object in their 10 o’clock position. The object splits into four smaller red objects vertically several times, each separated by about 2,000 feet and each emitting a “red ray.” It then retracts the lowest objects into the top object. Albuquerque radar tracks a target 39 miles ahead of the Lear Jet moving on the same heading, with no transponder signal. At that moment the object blinks off visually for 30 seconds then blinks back on. The UFO floods the jet with an intense red light so bright that the pilot has difficulty seeing his instrument panel. It maintains its position in front for a few minutes then blinks out, comes on again, and falls back behind the left wing. It then pulls forward again. Albuquerque radar reports that it looks like the target had merged with the jet. Both the UFO and the jet make left turns over Winslow, Arizona, after which Los Angeles Center radar picks up both targets. Past Flagstaff, the object climbs at a 30° angle and disappears to the west in less than 10 seconds. (NICAP, “R/V”; Sparks, p. 321; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 82– 83 ) January 15 — 5:45 p.m. Helen Godard and her two nieces see a domed disc with white light emanating from portholes in its base in Granville, Massachusetts. They hear a humming sound, and the sky and ground are illuminated by white light. Red flame jets appear at one end when the object moves. Speed is variable. At one point, all the lights go out, and when they come back on the portholes are showing red light. The object is seen three times within 20 minutes before it disappears over a mountain to the east. (“Major Sighting Wave,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 11 (Jan./Feb. 1967): 4; Condon, pp. 285 – 286 ) January 1 6 — Hippler writes to Condon, saying that “No one knows of a visitation. It should therefore follow there has been no [extraterrestrial] visitation to date.” Moreover, Condon should “consider the cost of the Air Force program on UFOs, and determine if the taxpayer should support this for the next decade.” (Lt. Col. Robert H. Hippler, Letter to Edward U. Condon, January 16, 1967; Kevin D. Randle, “The Hippler Letter,” A Different Perspective, March 21, 2007) January 17 — Night. Francis Bedel Jr. is driving on State Highway 135 five miles north of Freetown, Indiana, when a glowing white light darts into his field of vision. It hovers above the road for a few seconds, then slowly reverses its course. Bedel is so busy staring at the spectacle that he loses control of his car, which goes off the road and is badly damaged. Phil Patton and his wife apparently see the same object, about 30 feet in diameter, that comes within 100 feet of their car on the same road. It has a brilliant red light and flashing ywllow and white lights on its perimeter. (NICAP, “The 1967 UFO Chronology”; “UFO Caused Car Wreck?” APRO Bulletin, Jan./Feb. 1967, p. 1 ) January 18 — 6:00 p.m. A family in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, watches through binoculars a disc with a red light on a projection at the rear approach them at about 400 – 500 feet altitude. As it nears, the object emits two pinkish-white light beams downward at about a 45° angle from its forward edge. It then turns, rises suddenly, joins a second object, and both speed away. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., UFOs: A New Look, NICAP, 1969, Appendix D) January 19 — 9:05 a.m. Tad Jones is driving a truck in Dunbar, West Virginia, when he sees a dull, aluminum sphere about 20–25 feet in diameter hovering about 4 feet above the road some 500 feet ahead of him. It has two antennae protruding from the top and two legs beneath it, with a propellor between them that rotates slowly when hovering (but faster when flying). There is a window at the top and a flange in the middle. When he gets to about 10 feet of it, the object ascends swiftly. (“Major Sighting Wave,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 11 (Jan./Feb. 1967): 4) January 20 — 6:30 p.m. Three girls (Kimberly Lodge, Ellen Kenney, and Janice Shafer), 16–17 years old, are driving near Methuen, Massachusetts, when they see a string of 9–10 bright red lights on a dark object that is moving over a field. The object hovers and swings around, revealing lights of a different color and configuration. When the girls stop to watch, their car stalls and the radio and lights go off. It has four glowing lights in the shape of a trapezoid,

with red lights on top and white lights forming the base. The lights appear to be reflecting off a metal surface. The object starts moving slowly and then shoots away at high speed. A second car about 3 miles away also sees 7 – 8 bright lights flying low. (NICAP, “Car Stalls after Girls See UFO over Field”; “Major Sighting Wave,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 11 (Jan./Feb. 1967): 3–4; Raymond Fowler, UFOs: Interplanetary Visitors, Prentice-Hall, 1974, pp. 138–143) Late January — McDonald is lobbying Frederick Seitz, president of the National Academy of Sciences, with some mild criticisms of the Colorado project and the establishment of a UFO research panel. Seitz is not convinced. (Clark III 698) January 24 — 5:25 p.m. A 14-year-old boy in Yorba Linda, California, sees an object shaped like a top hat apparently hovering above houses across the street. It seems large and cylindrical, dull metallic, and has four legs. He grabs a camera and snaps a photo of the object, which has started moving away. (Ann Druffel, “The Yorba Linda Photograph,” in Charles Bowen, ed., UFO Encounters, special issue no. 5 of FSR, November 1973, pp. 26–35; UFOEv II 286– 287 ; Patrick Gross, “Yorba Linda, California, January 24, 1967”) January 25 — Condon gives a talk in Corning, New York, and says: “It is my inclination right now to recommend that the government get out of this business. My attitude right now is that there’s nothing to it … but I’m not supposed to reach a conclusion for another year.” Keyhoe is astonished by Condon’s remarks. (“Most UFOs Explainable, Says Scientist,” Elmira (N.Y.) Star-Gazette, January 26, 1967, p. 19; UFOs Yes, 117– 119 ) January 25 — 6:35 p.m. Betty Andreasson has her first abduction experience in South Ashburnham, Massachusetts. Placed under hypnosis on several occasions in 1977, Andreasson relates that following the appearance of the creatures every member of the family except her enters a state of paralysis “as if time had stopped for them.” A Christian evangelical, Andreasson thinks they must be angels. The culminating event is when Andreasson witnesses a giant phoenix-like bird burn up and reappear from the ashes as a giant worm. Further hypnotic probing brings forth apparent memories of lifelong interactions with extraterrestrials. Raymond E. Fowler’s 1979 book about the case contains the first reference to an implant in abduction literature, a motif that later becomes much more common. (Clark III 114– 122 ; Raymond E. Fowler, The Andreasson Affair, Prentice-Hall, 1979 ; Raymond E. Fowler, The Andreasson Affair: Phase Two, Prentice-Hall, 1982 ; Raymond E. Fowler, The Watchers, Bantam, 1990 ; Raymond E. Fowler, The Watchers II, Wild Flower, 1995; Raymond E. Fowler, The Andreasson Legacy, Marlowe, 1997 ; Betty Andreasson Luca and Bob Luca, A Lifting of the Veil, The Authors, 2017 ; Mark Cashman, “Behavioral Classification System for UFO Occupants,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 19 ; Marcus Lowth, “The Extraordinary Claims of Betty Andreasson,” UFO Insight, March 24, 2018) January 26 — 8:30 p.m. The teenage daughter of a lieutenant colonel residing on a US Army base in Heidelberg, Germany, hears a strange pulsating sound. She tells her father, and they look out the window to see a dirigible- shaped object about 50–60 feet long hovering about 150 feet off the ground above a motor vehicle shed. Before long, a crowd of 50–60 people gather around their apartment building to watch the object, which is only 100 feet away. Some observers with binoculars say it is metallic and has lights that alternate in red, blue, and green colors. After about 20 minutes, US Air Force jets approach in response to a call from the base, and the UFO’s lights increase in intensity and it speeds away. (“Around the Globe,” APRO Bulletin, May/June 1967, p. 4) January 28 — 1:45 p.m. Alex Butler, 10, and five young friends are playing on Studham Common as they are making their way to Studham Lower School, Bedfordshire, England. Suddenly a flash of lightning strikes nearby, and Alex sees a little blue man about 3 feet tall with a high bowler hat and beard standing motionless on the opposite bank. It is clothed in a one-piece garment with a broad black belt and black box in front. A dim glow envelops him, giving him a blue color. The other boys see it too. They begin to run toward the creature, but it disappears in a puff of smoke. The little man appears in a different spot, and the boys start running there, but again he disappears. As the vanishing act repeats again, the boys hear a deep-toned sound emanating from two spots nearby. At that point the school bell sounds, and the boys rush off to class. Miss Newcomb, the school headmistress, interviews the boys and collects their written reports in a scrapbook (now lost). (R. H. B. Winder, “The Little Blue Man on Studham Common,” Flying Saucer Review 13, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1967): 3–4; Theo Paijmans, “In Search of the Little Blue Man,” Fortean Times 339 (May 2016): 56 – 57) January 30 — 8:04 a.m. Commercial pilot Delton Schwanz is with his wife Della and three children 5 miles southwest of Crosby, North Dakota, when they see a bright-white, sharply outlined, lozenge-shaped object to the west. It momentarily hovers, then moves in level flight to the left, with a smooth climb in the southwest. It drops white “strips” of light that descend vertically and disappears to the south by ascending to about 30°–45° elevation. At around the same time, George Larsen (Larson?) and Larry Pateof (Pace?) are driving by car 20 miles west of Crosby near the intersection of Highways 5 and 85 and see a large white light moving rapidly from west to south dropping something and disappearing suddenly. (Sparks, p. 321; Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 73– 74 )

January 30 — 6:45 p.m. Reinhardt N. Ausmus and his wife Ruth are driving north on State Highway 99 in Sandusky, Ohio, when they spot a bright light in the sky. Stopping their car, they watch it hover for several minutes before it is suddenly extinguished. (“UFO over NASA Station,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 12 (March/April 1967): 6) January 31 — Saunders stops in at NICAP in Washington, D.C., to pick up some case material. Keyhoe and Hall show him a clipping about Condon’s statements in Corning, New York. Saunders suggests that Condon is misquoted. But several NICAP members had been in the audience and one has already resigned to protest NICAP’s support of a sham investigation. (Clark III 1194)

February — Although a UFO wave is in progress, practically no one at the Colorado project has the knowledge or resources to perform a serious investigation. Other than Low and the junior staff, nearly everyone lacks basic equipment, questionnaires, cameras, or tape measures. (UFOs Yes, 110) February — John A. Keel speaks with USAF Col. George P. Freeman, who tells him that “Mysterious men dressed in Air Force uniforms or bearing impressive credentials from government agencies have been silencing UFO witnesses.” The Air Force is unable to find out anything about them because this is a federal offense. (John A. Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, Tor ed., 1991, p. 25; Nick Redfern, “MIB Are Not from the Government,” Mysterious Universe, June 23, 2015) February — Soviet cosmologist Felix Ziegel writes an article revealing that “UFOs have been seen all over the USSR; the craft of every possible shape, small, large, flattened, spherical. They are able to remain stationary in the atmosphere or shoot along at 100,000 kilometers per hour. They move without producing the slightest sound, by creating around themselves a pneumatic vacuum that protects them from burning up in our stratosphere. Their craft have the mysterious capacity to vanish and reappear at will. Besides, they are able to affect our power resources, putting to a halt our electricity-generating plants, our radio stations, and our engines, without, however, leaving any permanent damage. So refined a technology can only be the fruit of an intelligence that is indeed far superior to ours.” The article is regarded in the West as the first-ever evidence that the Soviets are aware of UFO phenomena too. (CIA translation of Felix Ziegel, “UFOs: What Are They?” Smena, no. 7 (February 1967): 27– 29) February 1 — In Boulder, Colorado, Saunders confronts Condon, who confirms the Corning quote and wonders why Saunders is making a fuss. After 30 minutes, Saunders persuades him that he is having a negative effect. Finally, Condon writes Keyhoe saying that his words were taken out of context and that he will look at the NICAP case files. (Clark III 1194) February 2 — 6 :30 p.m. Capt. Oswaldo Sanvitti is flying a Faucett Perú DC-4 airliner from Chiclayo to Lima, Peru, when the crew and passengers notice a bright light coming toward them from the west. Sanvitti estimates it is about 9 miles away, but it soon reaches the aircraft and hovers above it. The cabin lights dim, the plane’s compass fluctuates, and the radio gives off static. The UFO speeds away to the east, increasing its luminosity by 50%, but reappears 5 minutes later with another object. Both UFOs trail the aircraft until 5 minutes before it lands at Jorge Chávez International Airport in Callao. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 24–25; Good Above, p. 533; Patrick Gross, “Aircraft Encounters with UFOs”) February 5 — Evening. A young man in Hilliard, Ohio, hears a strange noise and a barking dog. He looks up and sees an object approaching at a low altitude over a road shoulder. It lands on three legs in a field. The object is egg- shaped and about 75 feet long and 45 feet high. An “elevator-like” shaft opens and beings emerge carrying small, circular balls that they place on the ground around the UFO. The human-like creatures appear to be waiting for something. Then a man approaches from across the field and talks to them, apparently by telepathy. The witness accidentally steps on a twig, and the beings hear it. One runs toward him and catches him by the back of the neck, leaving a burned wound. Another being comes and both drag him toward the object. As they get close, the beings look at each other, seemingly panic-stricken. They drop the witness, collect the balls, and run inside the UFO, which takes off. (“Startling Cases Investigated,” UFO Investigator 4, no. 1 (May/June 1967): 6) February 6 — The mission of the Space Defense Center’s satellite-tracking radar (useless for UFOs) moves from Ent AFB [now the US Olympic Training Center] in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to “adjacent to the NORAD command center” (air defense UFO trackers) in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. However, they are separated from each other by partitions and use separate computers. (Wikipedia, “Space Defense Center”; Clark III 808) February 8 — 6:43 p.m. Mary McCarthy and five of her young nieces and nephews see a glowing object as they are eating dinner at their farm 3 miles south of Deep River, Ontario. The television immediately stops working properly. About a quarter of a mile away on a hill is a circular “craft” with a large core of dazzling, pulsating yellow lights in its center. From this core, red lights pulsate outward toward the rim, somewhat like neon lights. They have it in view for 40 minutes. After the object leaves, the TV starts working again. A Canadian Forces

spokesperson says the lights were airplanes shooting flares in the area. (Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 124–126) February 9 — Condon recommends NICAP’s UFO Evidence to geophysicist Merle Tuve. (Swords 319) February 9 — 6:30 p.m. George Kawalski, a section foreman for the Great Northern railroad, sees an object hovering above the depot in Chester, Montana, from his home two blocks away. The object disappears straight up after bathing the depot in light. (“Third Report of UFOs Heard from Chester Area,” Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune, February 11, 1967, p. 5) February 10 — 3:42 a.m. Erie County Constable Gary Butler is patrolling in the area of NASA’s Plum Brook Station [now the Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility] in Sandusky, Ohio, when he sees a bright, bluish disc moving toward the southwest some 2 miles away. As it was disappearing behind some trees, he tries to radio in a report, but experiences some interference. (“UFO over NASA Station,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 12 (March/April 1967): 6) February 10 — 5:30 p.m. Two separate groups of four and three people in Woodstock, Connecticut, see a triangular object with a white light at each apex. It is moving with its blunt end forward from northeast to southwest at 1,000 feet altitude. The object is silent when hovering but makes a rumbling or roaring sound when it moves. The family TV set reception is disrupted when it passes by. (Marler 135–136) February 10 — 7:30 p.m. A couple in Alton, Illinois, sees a round, rotating, 25-foot diameter luminous object that changes color from red to white with occasional flashes of green. The object also has white lights in a triangle on the bottom. It flies, hovers, and passes over the witnesses. While hovering, a humming or droning sound is heard. (St. Louis Globe-Democrat, February 11, 1967) February 13 — 5:58 p.m. Sachio Sakuma is taking photographs of the Moon with a Petri V6 camera in Tokyo, Japan. On developing one image, he finds a luminous, oval-shaped object with a slight trail a short distance above the lunar crescent. (“Report from Japan,” APRO Bulletin, May/June 1967, p. 1) February 13 — 10:00 p.m. Mrs. James Thompson is driving through Bigfork, Montana, with her two children when her pickup’s engine fails and the lights go out. Getting out, she sees overhead an intense greenish-blue light. She feels heat coming from the object. It changes direction abruptly, veering to the right as it changes to reddish-orange. As it moves away, the truck starts up on its own. (Brad Steiger and Joan Whritenour, New UFO Breakthrough, Universal, 1968, p. 40) February 14 — 7:00 a.m. A farmer in Miller County, Missouri, notices that his cows are all staring in one direction. He goes to investigate and sees a landed object about 360 feet away. He sees several entities moving around it, so he picks up some stones and approaches it. From about 30 feet away, the object looks like a hovering parachute or a grayish-green shell. The creatures, apparently wearing overalls, scurry behind the craft and go inside. The farmer throws one stone, but it stops in midair about 15 feet away and drops to the ground. He throws the other stone to try to strike the top of the object, but it bounces off something. When he gets to 15 feet away, he walks into an invisible wall and can’t see the object at all. (CUFOS case file) February 15 — Night. A Guatemalan Aviateca airliner piloted by Col. Alfredo Castaneda and Col. Carlos Samyoa encounters an object like a flying top as they are flying over Mexico at 10,000 feet. They put the aircraft into a sharp turn in order to avoid a collision, just before the object zooms out of sight. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 25) February 16 — 11:4 3 p.m. S/Sgt Max Recod and his wife are driving along Route 66 south of Kingman, Arizona, when they see a formation of four lights, three red and one green, approaching their car at low altitude. The lights are attached to an object that emits a light beam from its bottom center that moves around and illuminates the desert. The lights disappear, but a few minutes later the UFO reappears from behind a hill a mile away, followed by two white lights flying in step formation, one of which lands or nearly lands. The remaining light merges with the large object. (“Sighting Evidence Grows,” UFO Investigator 4, no. 3 (Nov./Dec. 1967): 3) February 17 or 18 — Around 10:00 p.m. Contactee Stella V. Lansing takes motion picture footage on a borrowed Keystone 8mm Capri camera of some yellow-orange lights on Ware Road near the junctions of Old Warren Road and Flynt Street in Palmer, Massachusetts. Suddenly a white light shoots upward in a zigzag motion and she is able to film some of its maneuvers. Subsequent frames seem to show low-contrast images of four human-like beings apparently conversing. Lansing is later studied by New Jersey psychiatrist Berthold E. Schwarz, who finds her repeat UFO sightings, further UFO films, and photographs showing superimposed clock-like patterns a subject of some interest. (Story, pp. 202 – 204 ; Berthold Eric Schwarz, “Stella Lansing’s UFO Motion Pictures,” Flying Saucer Review 18, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1972): 3 – 12, 20; Berthold Eric Schwarz, “Stella Lansing’s Movies: Four Entities and a Possible UFO,” in Charles Bowen, ed., UFO Encounters, special issue no. 5 of FSR, November 1973, pp. 3 – 9; Berthold Eric Schwarz, “Stella Lansing’s Clocklike UFO Patterns,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 4 (January 1975): 3–9; Berthold Eric Schwarz, “Stella Lansing’s Clocklike UFO Patterns—Part 2,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 5 (March 1975): 20–27; Berthold Eric Schwarz, “Stella Lansing’s Clocklike

UFO Patterns—Part 3,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 6 (April 1975): 18 – 22; Berthold Eric Schwarz, “Stella Lansing’s Clocklike UFO Patterns—Part 4,” Flying Saucer Review 21, no. 1 (June 1975): 14 – 17; Berthold Eric Schwarz, “UFO Contactee Stella Lansing: Possible Medical Implications of Her Motion Picture Experiments,” Journal of the American Society of Psychosomatic Dentistry and Medicine 23 , no. 2 (1976): 60– 68 ) February 20 — Condon, Saunders, Low, William Price of AFRSTA(?), and Thomas Ratchford, USAF senior scientist, visit the CIA’s National Photographic Interpretation Center in Fort Belvoir, Fairfax County, Virginia, to meet with its founder Arthur C. Lundahl and acquaint themselves with the CIA’s analysis capabilities. NPIC personnel will be available to perform work of a “photogrammatic nature, such as attempting to measure objects imaged on photographs,” but it will be strictly technical and no written comments or documentation is to be made public. After lunch, the group meets in the Pentagon with Brig. Gen. Edward B. Giller, director of the AF Special Weapons Center at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico. (Wikipedia, “Arthur C. Lundahl”; ClearIntent, pp. 141 – 142 ) February 21 — 8:30 p.m. Sherry Kohler is driving east on Western Avenue in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, when she sees a greenish spherical object with a wispy white trail flying at airplane speed on her right side for about 10 seconds. A second witness, Richard R. Dern Sr., sees a similar object about 10 minutes later. (Center for UFO Studies, [case documents]) February 22 — 6:30 a.m. As Mrs. James A. Clevenger stands by her kitchen sink in Milton, Indiana, her collie dog jumps against the window and races around, barking and jumping. She notices an oval object with a row of bright lights. She lets the frightened dog inside and it promptly hides. She goes out to the end of her front walk and sees the UFO moving slowly at 100–200 feet altitude, following the course of a creek. She runs inside and calls her neighbor Mrs. Judd Alford, who can see a ring of white lights at 200 feet. Her fox terrier runs inside at full speed and hides under a chair. The object disappears behind trees a few minutes later. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, p. 34) February 23 — Lt. Col. Robert Hippler says that Secretary of the Air Force Harold Brown has established the policy that all USAF information on UFOs classified up to and including Secret is to be provided to the University of Colorado project. (NICAP, “Declassification of UFO Reports”) February 24 — Paul Santorinis, civil engineer of the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, gives a lecture to the Greek Astronautical Society, stating that a “world blanket of secrecy” surrounds UFO reports and describes his experience with ghost rockets over Greece in 1946. (Good Above, p. 23 ; Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, p. 117) February 24 — A well-known engineer in Osorno, Chile, sees a disc-shaped object land near him. Seconds after touching down, a strange being, about 4.5 feet tall and wearing a transparent outfit, emerges. It has a white face and hands, a pronounced jawbone, and no neck. When it sees the man looking, it gets back into the object and takes off. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 59) February 25 — 7:50 p.m. Two teenage boys in Fargo, North Dakota, see a round or disc-shaped brightly illuminated object only a few feet in diameter. It moves higher, accelerates, and flies away to the northeast. (Fargo (N.Dak.) Forum, February 25, 1967; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, p. 56; Center for UFO Studies, [Hynek correspondence], pp. 27–29)

Early March — Low writes a position paper that expects the Colorado project will fail to support the ETH. Before sharing his paper with project members, he shares his views in talks with the Rand Corporation, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Boeing. Despite his attempts to “build the record,” the project’s failure to move quickly has forced it to prepare a proposal to extend its contract. (UFOs Yes, 130–133) March — Low calls Keyhoe and reveals that none of the Blue Book cases have been spot-checked for inaccuracies because “Condon hasn’t found any AF explanations he considers untrue.” Low later visits NICAP in Washington and Keyhoe asks him how many NICAP cases he has examined. Low says, “Probably four or five.” Low says he ultimately hopes to review 85–90 cases. (Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, p. 120 ) March — Members of the Colorado project visit APRO headquarters; the Lorenzens give them some case leads that are never followed up because they are old. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 196) March — Michel M. Jaffe, a ham radio operator in Mountain View, California, begins publishing Data-Net Report, a UFO newsletter for radio enthusiasts that continues to 1973. (Data-Net Report, no. 1 (March 1967)) March — Day. Augusto Arranda is taking photographs of the scenery in the Huascarán mountains near Yungay, Peru. He takes three photos of a disc-shaped object and one photo showing two objects. A Kodak employee sends one to ufologist Richard Greenwell, and APRO obtains the other three in 1969 from Eastman Kodak’s International Division. The circumstances of the sighting remain unknown. (Patrick Gross, “The Yungay Photographs, Peru, 1967 ”)

March — Cuban air defense radar controllers report a UFO approaching Cuba from the northwest, moving at 660 mph at an altitude of 33,000 feet. Two MiG-21s are scrambled and are guided to within 3 miles of the object. The flight leader radios in that the UFO is a bright metallic sphere with no visible markings. He is unable to establish radio contact with it and Cuban air defense orders him to shoot it down. The flight leader reports that his radar is locked and missiles ready. Seconds later, a wingman screams into the radio that the flight leader’s MiG has disintegrated. The UFO then accelerates and climbs above 90,000 feet, heading towards South America. The US 6947th Security Squadron headquartered at Homestead AFB [now Homestead Air Reserve Base] in Miami–Dade County, Florida, is monitoring the incident and sends a report to the NSA at Fort George G. Meade in Maryland. NSA orders the squadron to ship all tapes and data to them and list the airplane loss as “equipment malfunction.” The details sound like it might be the CIA’s Oxcart A-12, the Air Force version of which is the SR-71, which are known to overfly Cuba. (NICAP, “The 1967 Cuban Jet Incident”; ClearIntent, pp. 195 – 201 ; “1967: Two Cuban Jets Pursue a UFO, the UFO Destroys One Jet,” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1978): 11–13; Good Above, pp. 421 – 422 ) March — 11:00 a.m. A group of students at the Ramón Martín Middle School in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, watch a triangle-shaped object above a nearby mountain. It has a cupola on top and flies around silently before vanishing. (Jorge Martín, “Triangular UFOs over Puerto Rico,” Flying Saucer Review 44, no. 3 (Autumn 1999): 22) March — 11:00 p.m. A luminous hemispherical object is seen over Dry Creek Basin, San Miguel County, Colorado, moving slowly, then accelerating. The witness’s car engine, radio, and lights experience interference. (Condon, pp. 295– 297 ) March 1 — Lt. Gen. Hewitt T. Wheless, USAF assistant vice chief of staff, circulates a memo on “Impersonations of Air Force Officers,” which outlines Rex Heflin’s accounts of the NORAD impostor and another case in which it reports that “a person in an Air Force uniform approached local police and other citizens who had sighted a UFO, assembled them in a school room and told them that they did not see what they thought they saw and that they should not talk to anyone about the sighting.” All USAF personnel hearing about such incidents should report them to AFOSI. (ClearIntent, p. 237 ) March 1 — Many residents of Valparaiso, Chile, watch four bright domed objects, flashing blue and red lights, move south to north above the city. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 59) March 2 — 10:25 a.m.–1:30 p.m. Two radars at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, plot 20 silver objects, radar blips at an altitude of 7 miles. A news blackout is invoked by the military. Twenty-nine people report seeing one or more objects in groups, ranging in appearance from silvery objects flying overhead to a saucer-shaped object. Intermittent unexplained radar targets are seen during this time. (NICAP, “Two Radars Plot 20 Objects”; Condon, pp. 150 – 151, 291 – 295 ; Sparks, p. 322 ) March 5 — 1:25 a.m. Lenny and Tommy Söderström are returning home to their farm in Lövåsen, Vilhelmina, Sweden, when they notice a “spaceship” behind a barn. They rush inside and wake their parents and a sibling. Looking through the kitchen window, they see a dark, cigar-shaped object, 82–130 feet wide, silhouetted against the sky. Wobbling slightly on its axis, it hovers 24 feet in the air. After someone turns on the kitchen light, the UFO shoots off toward the north, emitting a whistling sound, as a smaller object appears from behind it. This UFO is a silvery globe about 20–40 feet in diameter; it turns and approaches the farmhouse. When it passes above a power line, it stops and hovers for 4 minutes. It takes off toward the northeast. (“Two from Sweden,” APRO Bulletin, March/April 1967, p. 9; Clas Svahn, “Skräcknatten i Vilhelmina,” Riksorganisationen UFO-Sverige; Clark III 246 – 247 ) March 5 — 5:30 p.m. John and Miriam Coyle take a series of six photos of a silvery UFO at Hallam, Victoria, Australia. The object circles them slowly. (“U.F.O. Photographed over Hallam,” Australian Flying Saucer Review, no. 7 (September 1967): 15; Keith Basterfield, Vladimir Godic, and Pony Godic, “Australian Ufology: A Review,” JUFOS 2 (1990): 25– 26 ) March 5 — ADC radar at Minot AFB, North Dakota, tracks an unidentified target descending over the Minuteman ICBM missile silos of the 91st Strategic Missile Wing. Base security teams see a metallic, disc-shaped object ringed with bright flashing lights moving slowly, maneuvering, then stopping and hovering about 500 feet above the ground. The object circles directly over the launch control facility. F-106 fighters are scrambled, but at that moment the object climbs straight up and disappears at high speed. (NICAP, “Disc Hovers 500ʹ over Missile Silos / ADC Radar Confirms”; Sparks, p. 322 ; Donald E. Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet, 1974, pp. 8 – 9 ) March 5 — Night. The Russell Carter Jr. family is traveling about 10 miles east of Hayes, South Dakota, on US Highway 14 when a bright light follows their car. The V-shaped object approaches from far away and is lower than the telephone wires, bathing the road and an area around the car in a brilliant light. They hear a humming sound and experience a feeling of numbness at its closest approach. (“Pierre Family Sees UFO in Hayes Area,” Rapid City (S.Dak.) Journal, March 7, 1967, p. 1; “Car Followed by Flying Object,” APRG Reporter, no. 56 (May 1967): 5)

March 7 — 12:30 a.m. Lucille Drzonek and her daughters, ages 24 and 17, are driving northwest on US Highway 20 just past Keeneyville, Illinois. Their beagle is with them. They see a solid object, estimated at 15 feet in diameter, outlined in bright white lights and with two big beams in front. As it nears the ground it takes on a disc shape and begins flashing red and green lights. The beagle is so frightened that its hair stands up straight on its back. As they turn off the highway toward Bartlett, Illinois, the object descends into a woods, lighting the trees with a red glare. It projects two white light beams into the rear window of their car. As they pull into their home, the UFO is hovering about 10 feet above a tree in their yard. A strange, localized gray mist appears and when it dissipates the UFO is gone. The beagle is visibly upset for the next two days. A veterinarian suggests he might have heard a noise inaudible to humans. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 34–35) March 8 — 1:05 a.m. Mr. and Mrs. William L. Wallace are returning home to Leominster, Massachusetts, when they pass through a dense fog near St. Leo’s Cemetery and notice a bright light on the left. Wallace turns the car around and heads back for a closer look. The glow is from a light that is hovering 400–500 feet above the cemetery. Intrigued, Wallace places the car in neutral, pulls the emergency brake, and steps outside. As he points toward the light, something pulls his arm back and drops it on the roof of the car, which then stalls and the electrical system goes out. He remains immobile for more than 30 seconds even as his wife is trying to pull him back. As the lights and radio come back on, the UFO rocks back and forth, rises with a humming sound, and disappears. Wallace goes back into the car, which now starts normally. Wallace still feels “slow and sluggish” on the drive back, and he collides with the garage door as he pulls into his driveway. They return to the cemetery 10 minutes later, but the fog is gone. (“Driver Shocked, Paralyzed,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 12 (March/April 1967): 7; Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 7–8; Michael D. Swords, “Can UFOs Cause Physiological Effects? Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 10; Clark III 251; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 139 – 142 ) March 8 — Many people in Comas, Peru, watch 15 discs circle noiselessly low above town for 15 minutes. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 59) March 9 — 9:05 p.m. Jack Lindley sees a bright white saucer-shaped light, as big as an airliner, fly straight and fast to the east over Onawa, Iowa. (Sparks, p. 323) March 11– 13 — Night. Red, green, and white lights are observed in the air by several witnesses at Tillamook, Oregon, including police and sheriff’s deputies. Radar contact is made in the same area as the visual sightings by the radar station at Mount Hebo Air Force Station [now closed]. On March 11, objects are observed for one hour. On March 12, they are again observed for one hour. On March 13, the objects are seen for four hours and 35 minutes. The radar returns show hovering and rapid movement of the targets. The visual sightings also show rapid movement of the objects at times. One radar sighting shows a rapid distance change from 39–48 miles within one minute. (NICAP, “Colored Lights and Radar Returns”; Condon, pp. 122 – 123 ) March 12 — 7:15 p.m. Larry Burke sees an object with red, green, and white flashing lights southwest of McIntosh, South Dakota. He picks up three friends—Dick Makens, Junior Edinger, and Charles Warren—to go investigate. On a country road one mile west of town they see four blinding, fluorescent-green lights low above the road ahead. As they are driving up a hill, the car engine stops. Frightened, they let the car coast back down the hill, and the engine starts again. The witnesses disagree on the size, shape, and altitude of the lights. (“Car Buzzing Incidents on Increase,” APRO Bulletin, May/June 1967, p. 5) Mid-March — Night. Future UFO researcher Robert Hastings has a part-time job as a janitor in Malmstrom AFB near Great Falls, Montana. One night as he is cleaning out the Radar Approach Control center, one of the FAA controllers calls him over to look at 5 unidentified targets that two jet fighters have gone up to intercept. Soon he is asked to leave and clean the room later. Later on, he hears that the targets ascended vertically, leaving the jets far behind, and that the incident takes place in the Judith Basin area many miles to the south. (Nukes 6–7, 279, 282 – 286 ) March 16 — 8:30 a.m. At the Malmstrom AFB Echo-Flight missile launch facility between Winfred and Hilger, Montana, 1Lt Walter Figel, deputy crew commander of the Missile Combat Crew, sees one of his Minuteman missiles go into “no-go” status. He calls the missile site to see if there is scheduled maintenance and is told no. The guard tells him of a large, round object over the site. Within seconds, the nine other missiles shut down. Strike teams are dispatched to the two Launch Control Centers, where maintenance and security personnel tell them about the UFOs. The missiles are offline for the greater part of the day. (Robert Salas and James Klotz, Faded Giant, BookSurge, 2005; Robert L. Hastings, “The Echo and Oscar Flight Incidents,” UFOs & Nukes, November 12, 2012; Nukes 254– 258 , 265– 268 ) March 16 — 7:00 p.m. Beryl Dux sees two white cloud-like objects over Belvedere, New Jersey. She calls her sister Olive to watch, and suddenly a dull orange object comes out of the cloud on the right. It is spinning rapidly and

descending quickly, but it goes into the white cloud on the right. The two clouds merge and vanish gradually. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Mystery Clouds and the UFO Connection,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 19) March 20 — 11:00 p.m. A man and his daughter living in Butler, Pennsylvania, take the car out to go looking for lights his wife had seen in the sky earlier. After stopping with the car lights off for a while, he sees two yellowish-white globes of light at 200 feet altitude, which start moving toward the car in a parallel course. The objects descend a quarter mile away, then shoot toward the witnesses at 70–80 mph. The daughter hears a “chorus of voices” in her head saying “don’t move” repeatedly. The man switches on the headlights, the lights disappear, and the voices stop. Moments later, 10 feet from the car, they see five figures standing in an irregular semicircle. The man gets into the car but the daughter continues staring at the figures, which have slits for eyes and mouths. All have long blond hair and are wearing something like baseball caps. They wear loose-fitting clothing. The witnesses drive away quickly and go to their minister’s home. (Robert A. Schmidt, “Humanoids Seen at Butler,” Flying Saucer Review 14, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1968): 5–6; Clark III 277 – 278 ) March 21 — A Brazilian military aircraft with 14 passengers encounters a glowing-red, oblong object over the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, while on its way to Salgado Filho Airport near Gravataí. The control tower operator there alerts pilots of a Cruzeiro do Sul aircraft coming in from the southwest. Minutes later these pilots see apparently the same object, which follows them for 25 minutes before zipping up into the sky. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 58–59) March 21 — Night. Mary Beth Neufeld and three other teenagers are driving on US Highway 56 one mile west of Hillsboro, Kansas, when they see a bright object “like an upside-down cup on a saucer.” They start driving toward it, but it approaches them and hovers above the car for a few seconds. The car starts rocking and the engine quits. When the UFO leaves, they are able to start it up again. (“Car Buzzing Incidents on Increase,” APRO Bulletin, May/June 1967, p. 5) March 22 — 11:00 p.m. Ann-Lis Danielsson is driving home to Tjuvkil, Västra Götaland, Sweden, when she notices a greenish illumination outside her car. Slowing down, she sees a disc about 15 feet in diameter hovering 500 feet away at an altitude of 1,500 feet. It begins to circle the area slowly, rising and sinking and giving off a whining noise. After pacing her for 15 minutes, it climbs vertically with an oscillating motion. (“Girl Reconnoitred by Disc,” APRO Bulletin, March/April 1967, p. 9) March 24 — 5:30 a.m. USAF S/Sgt Johnny Ferguson is traveling with his wife and three children near Loco, Texas, where they are terrified by a mysterious bright blue-neon light that chases them at high speed along the road. It finally splits into two, changes to a reddish color, and disappears behind a hill. Ferguson reports the incident to Deputy Sheriff George Hooten, then drives into nearby Wellington. (Curt Collins, “Contact in Texas: The Lost UFO Photos,” Blue Blurry Lines, November 18, 2021) March 24 — 8:45 a.m. An airline pilot watches a small silvery-white disc hovering for 10 minutes above Los Alamos, New Mexico. Then it moves across the sky and disappears into clouds. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, p. 64) March 24 — 10:45 a.m. An astronomer at the Catalina Station observatory on Mount Bigelow 18 miles northeast of Tucson, Arizona, sees a white oval disc the apparent size of the moon moving silently in a straight line from northwest to northeast. It slowly changes from an elongated shape to a more circular one. He estimates its speed as 600 mph, size as 230 feet, and distance as 6– 12 miles. It disappears after 50 seconds. (“Astronomers and UFO’s: A Survey, Part 2, Sightings,” IUR 2, no. 4 (April 1977): 4) March 24 — Late evening. An airman with the Malmstrom AFB Oscar-Flight Launch Control Center for the SAC USAF 341st Strategic Missile Wing south of Roy, Montana, sees a star-like object zigzagging high above him. Soon, a larger and closer light appears and behaves similarly. He calls his NCO and the two men watch as the lights streak through the sky, maneuvering in impossible ways. The NCO phones his commander, 1Lt. Robert Salas, who is below ground in the LCC. Salas is dubious and tells them to let him know if they get any closer. A few minutes later the NCO calls him again and shouts that a red, glowing UFO is hovering outside the front gate. Salas tells him to make sure the site is secure while he phones the command post. Meanwhile, one of the guards is injured when he approaches the UFO and has to be evacuated by helicopter. As Salas briefs Lt. Fred Meiwald, an alarm rings through the small LCC and both men see a “no-go” light turn on for one of the missiles. Within seconds, 4 – 7 more Minutemen nuclear ICBMs go offline in succession. The USAF investigation includes full-scale tests on- site, as well as lab tests at Boeing’s Seattle plant. No cause for the shutdown can be found. (“‘Echo Flight’ Missile Incident”; Sparks, pp. 4, 323; Jim Klotz and Robert Salas, “The Malmstrom AFB UFO/Missile Incident,” November 27, 1996; Robert L. Hastings, “Remarkable Reports from the Missile Field,” IUR 32, no. 1 (August 2008): 9–10; Robert Salas and James Klotz, Faded Giant, BookSurge, 2005; Nukes 259– 263 , 268– 277 ; Kevin D. Randle, “Robert Salas and Me,” A Different Perspective, May 19, 2013)

March 24 — 9:00 p.m. Truck driver Ken Williams driving northwest on US Highway 87/89 sees a dome-shaped object emitting a bright light land in a ravine near Belt, Montana. As he approaches, it takes off and settles back, hidden from the highway. Numerous other reports come in from this area. At dawn, police and a helicopter from Malmstrom AFB conduct a search without success. (NICAP, “Dome-Shaped Object Lands in Ravine”; Sparks, p. 323 ; Robert L. Hastings, “Remarkable Reports from the Missile Field,” IUR 32 , no. 1 (August 2008 ): 9 – 10 ) March 26 — 4:00 p.m. Five witnesses in New Winchester, Ohio, see an oval object, like copper or brass with the sun shining on it, fly from southeast to northwest with a tumbling motion. (Sparks, p. 323; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, p. 74) March 27 — Day. The crew of a Brazilian Air Force C-47 and the crew of a Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul photo- mapping aircraft see a UFO in the vicinity of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The BAF crew describes it as a “reddish-colored full moon” that is flying in circles. They report the sighting to the tower at Salgado Filho International Airport, which asks the mapping aircraft to identify the object. The Cruzeiro plane follows the UFO for 15 minutes before it disappears. (Good Above, p. 311 ) March 28 — 2:25 a.m. Electrical worker David Morris, 20, is driving home to Munroe Falls, Ohio, from nearby Kent when he sees a glowing red-orange object shaped like an inverted cone hovering just above the ground. The object is about 12 feet wide at the base and 25 feet high, with a ball-shaped object at its top. Looking at the road ahead, Morris sees four or five large-headed humanoids moving rapidly back and forth about 50 feet ahead. He slams on his brakes, but it is too late. He feels a thump against the right front corner of his car and sees an arm with a thumbless mitten fly up, then down. The car stops 10 feet later; Morris thinks about providing assistance, but the otherworldliness of the situation causes him to get away quickly. In his rearview mirror he sees a group of the entities position themselves around something lying on the ground. In the morning, Morris finds three dents in the front bumper and right headlight ring of his car. (“Youth’s Car Strikes UAO Occupant,” APRO Bulletin, March/April 1967, pp. 1–4; Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 28–29; Clark III 782– 783 ) March 28 — A second briefing for Robert Low by NORAD analysts effectively diverts researcher attention away from NORAD’s 500 defense radars and onto its useless handful of space defense satellite-tracking radars and cameras (referred to as “spacetrack” and are the least likely to detect UFOs). Low tries to find out if NORAD can help with identifying satellites that might be misreported as UFOs and whether NORAD can’t track a UFO entering the atmosphere from outer space (or just aren’t), but the analysts are evasive. NORAD says its satellite-tracking radars (with non-ballistic maneuvering and erratic flight paths) actually can “see” UFOs, but no one will ever know because the data that does not fit satellite or ballistic trajectories are thrown out automatically by system computers. No mention is made of NORAD’s high priority for not ignoring unpredictable, UFO-like maneuverable cruise missiles or hypersonic space planes. This discussion is distributed as a briefing paper to all Colorado project members on June 6, including Condon. (Clark III 804– 810 ) March 31 — 10:30 p.m. Farmer Carroll Wayne Watts reportedly sees a cylindrical object about 100 feet long that is hovering just off the ground near Loco, Texas, and emitting a motor-like sound. A voice addresses him from within the object requesting that he undergo a physical examination so that he can go on a flight. When Watts refuses to do so, the craft takes off. Watts has another encounter, an apparent abduction, on April 11. In a series of other experiences and sightings, on June 7, 11, and 13, he manages to take Polaroid photographs. In all, he haw 10 photographs of the cylindrical UFO in flight, and another shot of a little man from the ship. Most of Watts’s pictures are black and white, but at least three of them are shot in color. He later admits the observation is a hoax. (“Another UFO Visit Reported from Loco,” Wellington (Tex.) Leader, April 6, 1967, p. 1; Curt Collins, “UFO Contact: April 1, 1967, from Loco, TX,” Blue Blurry Lines, March 31, 2017; Kevin D. Randle, “Carroll Wayne Watts Contact/Abduction,” A Different Perspective, April 25, 2020; Curt Collins, “Contact in Texas: The Lost UFO Photos,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, November 18, 2021)

Spring — Psychologist David R. Saunders, a principal investigator for the Colorado project, launches UFOCAT, a computerized database of UFO cases, after researcher Jacques Vallée gives the project 3,000 cases from his own collection. Saunders codes the cases with such parameters as source, date, time, location, state and county, country, witness names, age, gender, special features, duration, and other elements. (Center for UFO Studies, “UFOCAT- 2009 ”) Spring — The United Aerial Phenomena Agency begins publishing Flying Saucer Digest, edited by Allan J. Manak in Cleveland, Ohio. Rick Hilberg takes over as chief editor in 2003. It continues until at least fall 2017. (Flying Saucer Digest 1, no. 1 (Spring 1967)) Spring — Night. Centenary College Instructor John O. Williams has taken his astronomy class to an open field on the Shreveport, Louisiana, campus to observe the sky. The see a bright orange light precisely due west of them at an

elevation of about 30° approaching at a modest angular rate of 1° per second. It remains silent even as it passes above them. A second light, much fainter and blue in color, is following it. The second light turns away and moves south into the distance. The orange light continues eastward, then performs a tight 180° turn and returns to their zenith. It accelerates west and disappears from view. After about 20 minutes it disappears, followed by a thread of rippling blue light. The thread breaks into 7–8 individual blue lights, which exit in several directions. (John O. Williams, “Louisiana Lights in 1967,” IUR 22, no. 4 (Winter 1997–1998): 10–11) April — Brinsley Le Poer Trench founds Contact (UK) in London, England, to promote contact between ufologists internationally. It launches a newsletter first called International Sky Scouts Newsletter, then retitled Awareness, which continues through 2012. (International Sky Scouts Newsletter, no. 1 (April 1967); Story, p. 89) April 4 — The Federal Aviation Agency issues N 7230.29, requiring air traffic controllers to forward UFO reports to the Colorado project. (US Federal Aviation Agency, “Reporting of Unidentified Flying Objects,” FAA Notice N 7230.29, April 4, 1967) April 4 — Carlo Cammarata watches a metallic object about 100 feet in diameter hovering some 20 feet above the terrace of his house in San Cataldo, Caltanissetta, Sicily, Italy. He also sees three humanoids wearing silvery suits and green belts with lights on them. They seem interested in the birds Cammarata is keeping caged on the terrace, touching them occasionally. They ascend into the object on a luminous beam and speed away. (1Pinotti 157) April 5 — 7:45 p.m. Justice of the Peace John H. Demler is driving north on State Highway 72 just south of Lickdale, Pennsylvania, when his car’s engine sputters and stops and the lights go out. He sees an object approaching about 20 feet above the road. It is about 30 feet across and looks like “it had lights in back of a painted black glass.” It flies over the car as Demler lowers his window and he notices a smell of sulfur and oil. It emit a sound like an electric motor, which grows louder as it leaves the area. The UFO shoots off sparks similar to that of “grinding on an emory wheel.” The UFO comes to a stop alongside the car, tilts, starts off slowly, then puts on such a terrific burst of speed that Demler and his automobile seem to be pulled to it. The car settles down so fast that he is moved all the way across the front seat. When he looks up again, the object has “turned to a bluish tinge” and is far in the distance. The next day, the skin on his hands and feet begin to peel and Demler is a nervous wreck. His coworkers confirm he is in a state of physical or psychological shock for many hours. (“Startling Cases Investigated,” UFO Investigator 4, no. 1 (May/June 1967): 6) April 6 — The Arizona Daily Wildcat publishes an interview with James E. McDonald, who says he has found “almost no correlation between so-called ‘evaluations or explanations’ that are made by Blue Book and the facts of the case.” He adds that the good cases have been “swept under the rug in a most disturbing way by Project Blue Book investigators and their consultants” and that “nobody there with any strong scientific competence is looking into the problem.” (“The UFO Phenomenon: A New Frontier Awaiting Serious Scientific Exploration,” Arizona Daily Wildcat 58 , no. 110 (April 6, 1967): 4–8) April 6 — 12:45 p.m. Robert Apfal, a teacher at Crestview Elementary School in Opa-locka, Florida, is in the schoolyard with six students, facing northeast. They spot a metallic, slightly reflective, disc-shaped object hovering about 60 feet above the ground over a telephone pole about one mile away. The object disappears as they watch. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 112) April 6 — 9:45 p.m. A Pacific Western Airlines pilot and crew see a dull orange-red object that flies erratically as it paces the aircraft, then speeds away. Confirmed by radar at Edmonton, Alberta, International Airport. (Condon, pp. 130 – 131 ) April 7 — 10:00 a.m. Some 200 children at morning recess at Crestview Elementary School in Opa-locka, Florida, see an oval-shaped object hovering above some trees to the north of the school. It seems to move toward the school and then drop below a pine tree. Some of the kids notice an antenna-like structure, while others think there are two objects. The UFO is also seen by teachers Virginia Martin, Marian Waters, and Robert Apfal, who has his students sketch what they had seen. The drawings depict a turreted structure in the treetops. The Air Force claims a helicopter is in the area practicing takeoffs and landings. (“10 Chaotic Minutes, and the Kids Screamed,” Miami Herald, April 8, 1967, p. 1-B; “AF Says ‘It’ Was Copter; People Who Saw It Say No,” Miami Herald, April 11, 1967, p. 1-B; NICAP, “Teachers, 200 Children See UFO in Broad Daylight”; “The North Dade Affair,” APRO Bulletin, March/April 1967, p. 10 ; Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 112) April 8 — Four college students on a double date in Banner Elk, North Carolina, notice a greenish fluorescent glow on the ground 180 feet away. Their car engine fails and the radio is flooded with static. An object passes near the car and disappears into the distance. The witnesses panic then push the car to a main road where they are able to restart it. They find three round imprints, about 6 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep, in the shape of an equilateral triangle. (Fred Merritt, “A Preliminary Classification of Some Reports of UFOs,” IUR 28, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 10) April 10– 11 — A bright white object circles one Minuteman launch site near Malmstrom AFB, Great Falls, Montana, for prolonged periods. It eventually ascends to an altitude higher than the capabilities of Air Force interceptors. The

local radio station is told to keep quiet about it. (Raymond Fowler, Casebook of a UFO Investigator, Prentice- Hall, 1981, p. 187) April 12 — 8:59 p.m. In Phoenix, Arizona, a bell-shaped object approaches a car from the left side, glowing red-orange with yellow-orange pulsations. It hovers over a streetlight, then makes a pass at the car. At that point, the car engine stops. The UFO banks eastward, then westward, and flies away. The three witnesses continue their trip and see the same object eight more times, plus another whitish object. The car engine continues to operate normally throughout the remaining sightings. (Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 34; Randle, Levelland, 2021, p. 142) Mid-April — Dusk. Gary Statenberg is working with a tractor on Jamie Ediger’s farm in Dayton, Oregon, when he sees an object moving toward him down the river basin at about 500 feet altitude. It stops, descends to 100 feet, and hovers about 600–700 feet away. He shuts off the tractor but can hear no sound coming from the object, which has red flashing lights around its base. There is a small dome with portholes on the top. Suddenly it takes off to the north, the lights changing to green as it does so. Statenberg returns home badly shaken. (Robert Low papers, American Philosophical Society, June 14, 1967) April 16 — Businessman Guillermo Roldan and his daughter Chichita see a glowing, egg-shaped object fly across the sky above Boraure, Venezuela, at great speed. It stops abruptly then descends and lands. Roldan rushes toward the spot, but the object takes off at high speed. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 60) April 17 — 2:20 a.m. SP4 Robert M. Harkinson of the US Army’s 524th Military Intelligence Detachment is stationed in Saigon [now Ho Chi Minh City], Vietnam, when he sees five bright-white, oval-shaped objects traveling in close formation at high speed across the sky. They flash by in about 5 seconds and disappear behind a cloud. He estimates their speed to be about five times that of any jet aircraft. About 5 minutes later, he sees several jets flying on the same course as the objects. (John J. Stahl Jr., “Unidentified Flying Objects,” case report, April 17, 1967) April 17 — 9:00 p.m. School principal John L. Metz and three teachers in separate cars are driving home in Jefferson City, Missouri, and see a 350–400 foot, bluish-white, WWI-helmet–shaped object come over the Missouri River bluff and move directly above their cars, bathing them in intense light. Metz observes it through 8x binoculars. The object hovers above power lines for about 10 minutes then heads toward the airport. Two smaller objects emerge from its base; they are disc- or helmet-shaped and the size of a DC-3. Metz drives to the airport on Highway 94 and finds two more witnesses. Jefferson City Memorial Airport employees watch a flat, circular, star- like orange light flashing an intermittent red-blue through a 30x 40mm telescope around 9:40–10:08 p.m. The Ozark Airliner Flight 319 crew sees two large round objects moving in various directions below their airplane during its final landing approach. (Sparks, p. 324; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 110 – 111 ) April 21 — 1:30 a.m. Two couples see an unexplained light near Ephrata, Washington, and chase it in their car. They came upon a UFO sitting on the road and have to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting it. The object takes off, moves behind the car, and follows it for 5 minutes, then disappears as traffic became heavier. The witnesses are badly shaken by the experience. (NICAP, “The 1967 UFO Chronology”) April 21 — Robert J. Low issues a position paper that outlines, after months of discussions and briefings, a framework for the Colorado project’s goals and procedures. It includes acquiring data on new cases, contracted reviews on such special topics as radar and mirages, a special section on photo cases, and a statistical treatment of bulk data. He divides the research question into three tiers: “Are there really sightings that are unexplained?” “Are any of these external stimuli solid objects?” and “Are any of these objects extraterrestrial spaceships?” He asks the group to discuss criteria for answering those questions. (Swords 317–318) April 21 — Coup d’état in Greece. Although there are persistent rumors about an active support of the coup by the US government, there is no evidence to support such claims. The timing of the coup apparently catches the CIA by surprise. (Wikipedia, “Greek military junta of 1967”) April 21 — 8 : 55 p.m. Clifton N. Crowder, manager of the Mobil Chemical Company warehouse in South Hill, Virginia, leaves the warehouse and starts home. About 50–75 yards down a narrow asphalt highway his headlights fall on an object 400 feet away on the road ahead. It is pewter-colored, shaped like a storage tank, about 12 feet in diameter, and 15–16 feet high. It is standing on legs about 3–3.5 feet long. He switches to his bright lights and the object belches a white burst of flame from the bottom and ascends rapidly. Meanwhile, the road is on fire. After it dies out, Crowder drives to South Hill and contacts police. They return and find a kidney-shaped black spot on the road, about 3 feet wide at the widest point. William T. Powers, assistant to J. Allen Hynek of Northwestern University, arrives on the scene to examine the spot. Using kerosene, gasoline, and a blowtorch, he attempts to simulate the black spot, but has no luck. Where each leg of the machine rested he finds two spike holes, similar to those made by football cleats. They are about 6 inches apart, 7/8 inch in diameter, and about one inch deep. The

four feet are about 11.5–12 feet apart and the diagonals are 16 feet 1 inch and 16 feet 6 inches, respectively. Powers concludes that the center of gravity is above the firepoint and notes that the intersections of the diagonals deviate 2 degrees from 90°. (“South Hill, Va. Landing,” APRO Bulletin, May/June 1967, p. 11; Sparks, p. 324; Fred Merritt, “A Preliminary Classification of Some Reports of UFOs,” IUR 28, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 10; Gordon Lore, Flying Saucers from beyond the Earth: A UFO Researcher’s Odyssey, BearManor, 2018, pp. 60 – 64 ) April 22 — At the annual meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Washington, D.C., James E. McDonald says of Donald Menzel, “when he comes to analyzing UFO reports, he seems to calmly cast aside well-known scientific principles almost with abandon, in an all-out effort to be sure that no UFO report survives his attack.” He also says, “I have learned from a number of unquotable sources that the Air Force has long wished to get rid of the burden of the troublesome UFO problem and has twice tried to ‘peddle’ it to NASA—without success.” (James E. McDonald, “UFOs: Greatest Scientific Problem of Our Times?” April 22, 1967; Clark III 699 ; “Our Speaker(s) Tonight: James E. McDonald, Donald H. Menzel, Hector Quintanilla,” Saturday Night Uforia) April 24 — After reading a March 7 column by Drew Pearson that alleges the US attempted to assassinate Fidel Castro, President Johnson directs CIA Director Richard Helms to conduct an investigation. The result is a 133 - page report by CIA Inspector General John S. Earman, transmitted on April 24 to Helms, that clearly shows the CIA was in contact with and cooperated with Maj. Rolando Cubela Secades of the Cuban military in plans to assassinate Castro. The operation is known as Project AMLASH. After receiving the report, Helms orally briefs the President about its contents. According to his testimony before the Select Committee, when asked if he has told the President “that efforts to assassinate Fidel Castro had continued into Johnsonʼs presidency, Helms replied, ‘I just can’t answer that, I just don’t know. I can’t recall having done so.’” (US Department of State, Office of the Historian, “Document 315,” in Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Volume XXXII, Dominican Republic; Cuba; Haiti; Guyana) April 28 — Condon recommends J. Allen Hynek and Richard H. Hall to Encyclopedia Britannica as excellent persons to write UFO entries. (Swords 319) April 28 — 11:30 a.m. Brian F. Jenkins and seven other coast guards at Brixham, Devon, England, watch a huge, cone- shaped object through 25x binoculars mounted on a tripod. The object is hovering at 15,000 feet and seems to be revolving. Jenkins says the cone is pointing down, and the object seems made of glass or highly polished metal: “Near the bottom there was a triangular-shaped opening or door with a white rim on the top that reflected a lot of sunlight. The bottom was crinkled, very white, and seemed to consist of strips of metal hanging down.” It drifts to the northwest, rising to 22,000 feet and 8 miles away. At 12:40 p.m., a jet aircraft approaches it, flies above it, passes it, turns, and approaches it from below before it disappears from sight. Possible balloon. (“British Radar/Visual Case,” UFO Investigator 4, no. 1 (May/June 1967): 8; Good Above, pp. 60 – 62 ) April 29 — 7:40 p.m. Ian McGregor and two other oil drillers drive out to an airstrip near Mount Whaleback, Western Australia, to look for a UFO that has been appearing in the area for several nights. Toward the southeast a bright haze appears that turns into an inverted cone of light that is followed by an orange disc that rises vertically, turns on its edge, and approaches them. They flash their headlights and the object stops moving. It then returns in the direction it came from and lands in the same spot. Their compasses are not working accurately. They wait iuntil 11:30 p.m., but do not see it again. (L. J. Locke, “UFOs in Western Australia: From Mayanup to Mt, Newman,” Australian Flying Saucer Review, no. 8 (1968): 16)

May — The CIA launches the Phoenix Program in Vietnam to gather information on the Viet Cong, whose members would then be neutralized (captured, converted, or killed). Emphasis for the enforcement of the operation is placed on local government militia and police forces, rather than the military. Heavy-handed operations—such as random cordons and searches, large-scale and lengthy detentions of innocent civilians, excessive use of firepower, torture, and targeted killings—have a negative effect on the civilian population. Between 1968 and 1972, Phoenix “neutralizes” 81,740 people (26,369 are killed) suspected of belonging to the National Liberation Front. The reported torture is carried out by South Vietnamese forces with the CIA and special forces playing a supervisory role. (Wikipedia, “Richard Helms”) May — A man identifying himself as Maj. Richard French visits a woman in Owatonna, Minnesota, who has had a UFO encounter the previous November. He is 5 feet 9 inches with an olive complexion and hair too long for an Air Force officer. He is wearing a fashionable gray suit, white shirt, and black tie. At one point, French complains of stomach problems, and the woman recommends Jell-O. He says he will return if the symptoms persist, so he shows up the following morning. The woman sits him down with a bowl of Jell-O, which he tries to drink. “I had to show him how to eat it with a spoon,” the woman tells John A. Keel. (John A. Keel, UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse, Manor Books ed., 1976, pp. 171– 173 ; Clark III 734)

May — 12:30–3:15 p.m. During a reconnaissance exercise in Madagascar, a detachment of 23 officers and men serving with the French Foreign Legion watch a bright object landing in a “falling leaf” motion. When it touches down on tripod legs, the glow dissipates. The egg-shaped craft is 23–26 feet high and has no visible markings except for openings at the base through which flames are visible. The witnesses seem paralyzed or at least extremely distracted while the UFO is on the ground. When they recover their senses, they find that 2.75 hours have elapsed. For 2 days afterward, they all have violent headaches, a buzzing in their ears, and a throbbing in their temples. (H. Julien, “A 1967 Landing in Madagascar,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 1 (June 1977): pp. 29–30; Good Need, pp. 297 – 298 ) May — Evening. A woman in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, sees a light shining through her basement window. Across the street she notices a large object beaming with three colored lights and rotating. She goes outside with another woman and watch the slight slowly spin for 20 minutes above a neighbor’s house. When she tries to call the neighbors, all she gets is a busy signal, and when she looks outside again, the object is gone. The next day, the neighbor tells her that there was nothing wrong with the phone and that all evening she had been playing cards with friends and talking about UFOs. (Michael D. Swords, “Timmermania: A Step Too Far into the Timmerman Files?” IUR 27, no. 4 (Winter 2002–2003): 8) May — Evening. A farmer near Holbæk, Denmark, is working outside when he sees a strange lilac-colored light. Approaching, he sees a domed object with windows. Something is moving behind it. He goes home but returns to the spot the next day and finds an odd substance. It looks like “cotton wool,” but is finer than cotton. He leaves it in the same spot, but it dissipates over the next three days. There is also a depressed area where the object had been, and some wire is pulled away from some pylons. (“Denmark: Flying Saucer Landed in a Field outside ‘Holbak’?????” Saucer Scoop 2, no. 4 (July 1967): 4; Michael D. Swords, “Angel Hair: Spindrift between Worlds,” IUR 32, no. 1 (August 2008): 7) May or June — A couple captures on an 8mm film camera 10 frames (2.5 seconds) of footage of an unusual object at Alberton, South Australia. The UFO is enveloped in a striking blue light that gives the appearance of a searchlight moving around its circumference. The developed film appears to show a craft with portholes and a sweeping searchlight. (David Reneke, “The Australian UFO Photo File,” UFO Research Australia Newsletter 2, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1981): 10 – 15; Keith Basterfield, Vladimir Godic, and Pony Godic, “Australian Ufology: A Review,” JUFOS 2 (199 0 ): 26; Patrick Gross, “The Alberton UFO Footage, Australia, 1967”) May 1 — The Colorado project issues a press release calling for photos of UFOs taken by private citizens and provides recommendations to the photographers and the information it should include. The release is basically a rewrite of a document prepared by NPIC staff and approved by Lundahl on March 24. (Peter A. Sturrock, The UFO Enigma, Warner, 1999, p. 48) May 1 — Night. A man’s car engine fails while he is driving near Peeltree, West Virginia. He sees a 40-foot-long elliptical object emerge from behind a shed and hover 15 feet from his car. It tilts toward the car at a 30° angle. He hears static on the radio, and the dashboard temperature gauge goes off the dial. He feels an intense wave of heat when he puts his head out the window, and his hands burn when he touches the horn rim and dashboard. He also reports headaches and a partial loss of vision. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34, no. 1 (Sept. 2011): 19) May 5 — Condon, Low, Hartmann, Ratchford, and Charles Reed of the National Research Council are briefed by an unnamed specialist [probably Everitt L. Merritt of the Autometrics Division of the Raytheon Company of Alexandria, Virginia] at the NPIC on a photogrammetric analysis he had carried out on the November 1966 UFO photo case from Roseville, Ohio. The analysis debunks the photo. The committee is again impressed with the technical work performed, and Condon remarks that for the first time a scientific analysis of a UFO will stand up to investigation. (Wikipedia, “Arthur Lundahl”; E. L. Merritt, “Photogrammatric Analysis of a Non-Synchronous Pair of U.F.O. Exposures,” June 1967; Peter A. Sturrock, The UFO Enigma, Warner, 1999, pp. 48– 49 ) May 5 — Indonesian Air Marshal Roesmin Noerjadin admits that sometimes UFOs pose a problem for the country’s air defense, and sometimes the military is forced to fire on them. (Good Need, p. 254 ) May 6 — 11:00 a.m. A mechanical engineer and his daughter are driving on the Durango–Mazatlán Highway in Mexico. They spot a disc-shaped object landed on the ground off the highway. They stop the car and he takes three photos as the object takes off. The first photo shows the object at treetop level, partially hidden by a tree, with a portion of its landing gear visible. The second object shows the object in flight against a clear sky. The third photo shows nothing. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 65) May 7 — 2:00 a.m. Ricky Banyard, 17, and four others watch and follow a spherical object with a spinning top and bottom and with red and green lights for 4 hours in Edmonton, Alberta, in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery. As it hovers at about 200 feet, a light beam comes from the bottom of the object, illuminating the ground. They hear a muffled whistling noise as the object hovers, then a screaming noise like a jet engine starting up. All its lights go

out, and the object takes off in a flurry of explosive sounds. Black streaks are later found on the charred road surface. (“A UFO in Detail,” Edmonton (Alberta) Journal, May 8, 1967, p. 33; “Eerie Object in Graveyard,” APRO Bulletin, May/June 1967, p. 7) May 7? — A couple are driving through the state of Tabasco, Mexico, when they see a bright point of light in the sky. It descends to a spot about 500 feet away and gives off an intense white-orange light from its cone-shaped body. The couple stops and shuts off their headlights. When the object approaches closer, the man turns the headlights on again. The UFO stops in midair and blinks its light off and on twice. The couple become frightened and drive to the nearest town. Several people return with them to the spot and the object is still there. When they turn their headlights off and on, it approaches them. Some of the men run to the object with weapons raised, and it takes off into the sky within seconds. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 60) May 10 — Richard Helms goes to the White House to give President Lyndon Johnson the answers to the questions he’d been asked seven weeks earlier. The only account of that meeting is Helms’s own. He says he described the [inspector general’s] conclusions and that Johnson said: “Then you were not responsible for Trujillo, ‘No.’ Correct answer. ‘Diem?’ ‘No.’ Correct answer. ‘Castro, he’s still alive, okay.’” At the same meeting Helms also tells Johnson about the mail interception program “and some other things that were going on.” Johnson’s response to that was equally laconic; he just nodded and said something along the line of, ‘But be careful, don’t get caught.’” (Thomas Powers, The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA, Random House, 1979, pp. 156– 157 ) May 13 — 1:43 a.m. Michael Campeadore is driving in Arizona about 17 miles southwest of St. George, Utah, when he hears a loud humming sound. After stopping the car and getting out, he notices a huge object, 45–50 feet in diameter, hovering 25–30 feet above him. He reaches into the car and gets a .25 caliber pistol, loads it, and fires point blank at the object. He hears the bullets hit and ricochet as they strike. Before he has finished the clip, the object begins moving off and disappears in seconds. (“Car Buzzing Incidents on Increase,” APRO Bulletin, May/June 1967, p. 6) May 13 — 4:40 p.m. An object is picked up on radar at the Colorado Springs, Colorado, airport. A Braniff flight is coming in for a landing on runway 35. The track of the object behaves like a ghost echo, perhaps a ground return being reflected from the Braniff aircraft. The blip appears at about twice the range of the Braniff blip. When the Braniff airliner touches down, however, the situation changes radically. The UFO blip pulls to the right (east) and passes over the airport at an estimated height of about 200 feet. The object track passes within 1.5 miles of the control tower. The object is not visible even through binoculars by personnel in the control tower. The Colorado project finds this to be one of the most puzzling radar cases on record. (NICAP, “Invisible UFO Tracked on Radar”; Condon, pp. 170 – 171, 310 – 316 ) Mid-May — 11:00 p.m. Patricio Hanessian and Alfredo Padilla are driving in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico, and see a flat-bottomed, domed object in the sky. The central part is bright white and the edge is bright pink or red. It holds its position for 2–3 minutes then moves away, reappearing about 500 feet in front of their car, where it hovers for 2 minutes before speeding off. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 60–61) May 16 — CIA Director Richard Helms makes one last pitch for the A-12 Oxcart program to President Johnson, saying the aircraft are essential for finding the SAM missile launch sites responsible for shooting down pilots in North Vietnam. They can’t want for the Air Force’s SR-71 to become operational. Johnson authorizes A- 12 ’s to deploy to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, before the monsoons start. (Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 265 – 266 ) May 16 — 10:10 p.m. Ship Master Donald W. Dee and 3rd Mate Homer Hawthorne, seamen Earle Bradley and Eric Koster, all crew of the Pacific Coast Transport ship SS Point Sur, see six red point-source lights that seem to be pacing the ship over the Gulf of Mexico. One object is confirmed by sporadic radar returns as at 12,000 feet, 11 miles away. Through 7 x 50 binoculars, the objects appear brilliant yellow with red lights across upper two-thirds, but to the naked eye, the colors blend to reddish-orange point sources. They pulsate with a 4.5-second period and an approximate 1 :3 brightness ratio. The lower objects rise and fall near the horizon. (NICAP, “SS Point Sur Case”; Sparks, p. 325) May 17 — The first official Soviet UFO Study Group is launched in a preliminary meeting at the Moscow Aviation and Cosmonautics Center with Maj. Gen. Porfiri Stolyarov at the helm and cosmologist Felix Ziegel as his deputy. Also in attendance are Heinrich Ludwig, Nikolai Zhirov, Igor Bestuzhev-Lada, Valentin Akkuratov, Leonid Reino, Georgi Uger, Georgi Zevalkin, Grigory Sivkov, Yekaterina Ryabova, and Natalia Kravtsova. (Wikipedia, “Felix Ziegel”; Good Above, p. 570 ; Felix Ziegel, “Unidentified Flying Objects,” Soviet Life, no. 137 (February 1968): 29) May 20 — 12:15 p.m. Stefan Michalak is quartz prospecting near Falcon Lake, Manitoba, when he sees two red, glowing, cigar-shaped objects in the sky. One object begins to hover then move away, while the other lands on a large, flat rock 160 feet away. The landed object is more than 35 feet wide and 10 feet thick with a 3-foot high cupola. It

goes through several color changes then appears like hot stainless steel with blinding purple-colored lights coming through slits in the cupola. It is making a whirring sound and warm air seems to be coming from it. Michalak sits and sketches the object for 30 minutes, then a small door opens on the side, revealing a lighted interior. Michalak walks to 60 feet away and hears voices inside. Thinking it is a US aircraft, he steps forward and shouts. “Okay, Yankee boys, having trouble? Come on out and we’ll see what we can do about it.” He says the same thing in five other languages. There is no response, so he puts green lenses over his glasses and looks inside, where he sees a series of flashing lights. He pulls his head back, noting that the wall is 18 inches thick. Almost immediately the opening closes. When his glove accidentally touches the surface, it burns and melts. The UFO angles upwards and he sees a 9-by-6 inch gridlike vent with a uniform pattern of small holes. A blast of hot gas erupts from the grid, searing his chest, sending him reeling backwards, and burning his shirt and undershirt. He rips the flaming clothing off just as the UFO ascends in a rush of air. It heads off to the west, the same direction the other UFO has gone. Michalak now has a headache and severe nausea, so he starts driving back to his motel. He eventually gets to Misericordia Hospital in Winnipeg and receives a sedative. His chest burn heals, but the gridlike burn lesions on his abdomen persist. The symptoms continue well into 1968, when Michalak visits the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, staying there 2 weeks and undergoing outpatient treatment. He relocates the landing site on June 30, 1967, and the RCAF visits it in July, noting a 15-foot circle of cleared vegetation on the flat rock. Michalak obtains metal samples of unknown provenance from the site in 1968. (Wikipedia, “Falcon Lake Incident”; NICAP, “Falcon Lake / Michalak Encounter”; Stephen Michalak, My Encounter with the UFO, Osnova, 1967; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, pp. 195–198; Condon, pp. 316 – 324 ; Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 37–45; Chris Rutkowski, “The Falcon Lake Incident, Part 1: Prologue 1967,” Flying Saucer Review 27, no. 1 (June 1981): 14–16; Chris Rutkowski, “The Falcon Lake Incident, Part 2,” Flying Saucer Review 27, no. 2 (August 1981): 15–18; Chris Rutkowski, “The Falcon Lake Incident, Part 3,” Flying Saucer Review 27, no. 3 (November 1981): 21–25; Chris Rutkowski, “Burned by a UFO? The Story of a Bungled Investigation,” IUR 12, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1987): 21–24; Edward M. Barker, “Letter,” IUR 13, no. 2 (March/April 1988): 21–22; Good Above, pp. 195– 200 ; Chris Rutkowski, “The Falcon Lake Case: Too Close an Encounter,” JUFOS 5 (1994): 1–34; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 81– 86 ; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 72–93; Chris Rutkowski, “The Cold, Hard Facts about UFOs in Canada,” IUR 34 , no. 1 (September 2011 ): 10, 22; Clark III 475 – 481; Chris Rutkowski and Stan Michalak, When They Appeared: Falcon Lake 1967, August Night, 2019 ; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 107–118, 154– 157 ) May 20 — A bizarre announcement is published in the Spanish newspaper Informaciones declaring that soon a spacecraft will land in Madrid, Spain, and fly earthbound terrestrials back to their home planet Ummo. (Clark III 1184) May 26 — 10:15 p.m. Three teenagers (Bobby Grant, Joseph Romero, and Johnny Sanchez) are driving along Atrisco Drive NW, north of Central Avenue in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A white light seems to follow them, weaving back and forth over the road. Finally it catches up with the car and hovers silently above it. The engine quits and the headlights fail. The teens leap from the car and the object suddenly flies off to the southwest. They can start the car again. (“Car Buzzing Incidents on Increase,” APRO Bulletin, May/June 1967, p. 6) May 30 — A-12 spy planes begin Operation Black Shield in North Vietnam out of Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, Japan, locating and photographing surface-to-air missile sites that are shooting down US pilots. The A-12s fly at 80,000 feet and at about Mach 3.1, carrying out 22 sorties in 1967. However, the Russians monitor the flights and the Vietnamese move their SAM sites immediately after flyovers. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed A- 12 ”) May 31 — Fernando Sesma, president of the Amigos de los Visitantes del Espacio, speaks to an audience of 40 persons gathered at a café in Madrid, Spain. He says that the Ummites (who have been supplying him with messages since 1965 describing in excruciating detail life on the planet Ummo, which revolves around a star 14.6 light years away) have given him a startling printed message predicting that a spacecraft will appear on the evening of June

1. The space people have supplied the exact geographical coordinates: the area of San José de Valderas, Madrid. All the Ummite messages, passed on to Sesma by his associates Enrique Villagrasa and Alicia Araujo, are usually postmarked in Madrid, but as time goes by, other postmarks indicate mailings from London, Germany, Austria, New Zealand, Yugoslavia, and Canada. (Clark III 1184– 1185 ; Fernando Sesma, UMMO, otro planeta habitado, Gráficas Espejo, 1967) May 31 — 11:30 p.m. A woman at a farmhouse near Beausejour, Manitoba, sees an intensely bright red light with a smaller blue light on the bottom that approaches from the south and hovers about 375 feet away. A white light on the bottom becomes brighter as the object hovers, its glow illuminating the ground. The object lands and leaves a burning area 90 feet by 150 feet in size with radioactive soil. The area is still smoldering on June 15, despite several rains. (“Second Landing in Canada,” APRO Bulletin, May/June 1967, p. 2)

June — Low says he wants the Colorado project to compile a case book of its best UFO reports. Richard Hall is invited for 2 days of consulting and narrows the case list to 100. A small team agrees to go over the list and decide which ones deserve more intensive analysis. By August, Saunders becomes the lone staffer selecting cases and he only has 12. (UFOs Yes, 81 – 83) June — The newly formed Surrey Investigation Group on Aerial Phenomena publishes the SIGAP Newsletter in Camberley, Surrey, England, until June 1969. It revitalizes the newsletter as the New SIGAP Bulletin from 1977 to 1979. (SIGAP Newsletter, no. 1 (June 1, 1967); SIGAP Bulletin, no. 15 (August 1, 1968); The New SIGAP Bulletin, no. 1 (July 1977)) June — Night. Giuseppe Aldini, 17, is with his family in Montalcino, Siena, Italy, when he sees a round, luminous object from his window. Later he notices a glowing red light on a nearby hill. The next day he goes to the spot and finds a circular burned area 100 feet in diameter with four imprints in its center. Inside are many black minerals that are analyzed by the University of Florence’s Mineralogical Institute and found to be quartz crystals. (1Pinotti 157) June 1 — The UFO seen by José Luis Jordán Peña in Aluche, Madrid, Spain, allegedly reappears in the neighborhood of San José de Valderas. This time, Jordán Peña plays UFO investigator, taking statements from witnesses who describe a low-flying disc-shaped object with the same strange symbol on the underside. An anonymous man takes several photographs that he drops off at a photo lab on June 2. He then calls newspaper photographer Antonio San Antonio, telling him where to pick them up. All but one show an edge-on view of what appears to be a large, squat disc with a rim through its midsection. One photo shows the bottom of the UFO with the Aluche symbol, this time with a horizontal bar crossing the verticals and linking the two arms. In August, another photographer calling himself Antonio Pardo produces two more photos of the edge-on disc taken the same day, as well as some hard green-colored plastic strips bearing the distinctive Aluche symbol supposedly found in a capsule that leaflets by a “Henri Dagousset” predicted in June would be found. Jordán Peña later confesses to hoaxing the plastic strips, which are made of Tedlar (polyvinyl fluoride) produced by DuPont for the US space program. Independent analyses by French space scientist Claude Poher and the US group Ground Saucer Watch determine that the San José de Valderas photo with the Ummo symbol is a small model—an 8-inch plate suspended by a string or fishing line— held close to the camera. The symbol apparently is drawn in ink. (Wikipedia, “Ummo”; Antonio Ribera, “The San José de Valderas Photographs,” Flying Saucer Review 15, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1969): 3– 10 ; Oscar Rey Brea, “Algo sobre las fotografias del sepuesto OVNI de San José de Valderas,” Stendek 3, no. 9 (August 1972): 5–11; Antonio Ribera and Rafael Farriols, Un caso perfecto, Plaza y Janés, 1976; Fred Adrian, “Ground Saucer Watch Computer Photographic Analysis (Critique), San José de Valderas, Spain, 1967,” CUFOS Bulletin, Spring 1977, pp. 11–13; Claude Poher, “Remarks on Aluche, San José de Valderas, and the ‘Ummo’ Affair: A Monstrous Hoax!” CUFOS Bulletin, Spring 1977, pp. 3– 10 ; Scott Corrales, “The UMMO Experience: Are You Experienced?” Strange Magazine, January 31, 2001; Clark III 1183) June 3 — The town of St. Paul, Alberta, officially dedicates a UFO landing pad as a public park and as a safe place for aliens to land. Minister of National Defence Paul Hellyer flies in by helicopter to launch the pad. It consists of a raised platform with a map of Canada embossed on the back stop, consisting of stones provided by each province of Canada. (Wikipedia, “St. Paul, Alberta”; “World’s First UFO Landing Pad,” Atlas Obscura, April 19, 2010; George M. Eberhart, “Postcards with a UFO Theme,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 20; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 240– 243 ) June 7 — James E. McDonald speaks before the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs meeting in New York City on the “International scientific aspects of the problem of the unidentified flying objects.” UN Secretary-General U Thant has arranged for the lecture, based on conversations he has had with John G. Fuller and J. Allen Hynek in early 1966. McDonald urges the UN to undertake a systematic global study of the UFO problem, but it does not act on the recommendation. (James E. McDonald, Letter to UN Secretary-General U Thant, June 5, 1967, p. 1 ; James E. McDonald, “Statement on International Scientific Aspects of the Problem of the Unidentified Flying Objects,” presented to the UN Outer Space Affairs group, June 7, 1967, pp. 2 – 3; Clark III 698, 1189 ; Patrick Gross, “Scientists Taking Position”) June 9 — Day. Two Spanish Air Force pilots flying Lockheed T-33s at 4,000 feet encounter a UFO over the Extremadura region, Spain. Attempts at radio contact fail, and when they fly above or below the object, their radios cease to function and emit interference noises. The UFO soon moves off, easily outstripping the jets, stopping and waiting for them to approach, then moving on again, The two pilots notify the Talavera la Real Air Base in Badajoz and Torrejón Air Base in Madrid, from which two faster fighters are scrambled. The new fighters experience the same radio interference and maneuvers until the object shoots straight up at high speed. (Antonio Ribera, “Spanish Jets Chase UFO,” Flying Saucer Review 14, no. 3 (May/June 1968): 26–27)

June 12– 13 — The Colorado project plays host to 34 Air Force officers having UFO responsibility at various bases. Low and Saunders try to get them excited about reporting UFOs to the project, but aren’t very successful. (NICAP, “UFO Investigators Meeting 12 and 13 June 1967”; UFOs Yes, 125 – 126 ) June 13 — 2:30 a.m. Carmen Cuneo, a mine worker in Caledonia, Ontario, steps out of the mine headquarters building and sees two strange objects near a pond in the vicinity of the mine dump. One is cigar-shaped and about 36 feet long with four windows along the side; a boom-like aerial protrudes from one side. The other is disc-shaped and about 15 feet across. Both are hovering 12 feet above the ground. Three small men wearing what look like miners’ hats with four amber lights are underneath the boom. After watching for 10 minutes, Cuneo goes back to find another witness, but when he returns the men are gone. The two objects, however, remain until 3:05 a.m. when they take off to the southwest, flashing multicolored lights. (“June Sighting of Occupants in Canada,” APRO Bulletin, Nov./Dec. 1967, p. 4) June 18 — Several people in Mulluri, [perhaps near Viña del Mar], Chile, see three discs flying in a V formation above the town. They flash orange and blue lights alternately and make no sound. They maneuver for 10 minutes before disappearing at high speed. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 61) June 18 — Late evening. A family is returning home by boat near Clearwater Bay on Shoal Lake, Ontario, when they notice a bright oval object hovering 50 feet above the treetops about a half-mile away. As they approach, the object turns an orange tinge and suddenly sweeps toward their boat at great speed. They beat a hasty retreat to the other shore, while the UFO returns to its original position. The same thing happens when they approach the object again. After about 15 minutes, the object takes off at an incredible speed to the northwest. One resident, who is not aware of the UFO, reports later that the static on his radio was so bad that he had to turn it off. Wilted leaves on the top of birch, hazel, and chokecherry trees are discovered in the sighting area. Leaf samples are analyzed by the Canadian Department of Forestry, which cannot find an explanation for their condition other than heat. The University of Manitoba finds evidence of fungus on one sample but not on others. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 150 – 152 ; Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 31– 34 ; Christ Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 55– 56 ) June 22– 25 — Condon attends, at the invitation of James W. Moseley and against the better judgment of the rest of the Colorado project staff, the Congress of Scientific Ufologists at the Hotel Commodore in New York City for the 20 th anniversary of the Kenneth Arnold sighting. Speakers include Gray Barker, John A. Keel, Moseley, Art Ford, Gordon Evans, actor Roy Thinnes, and Ivan T Sanderson. Kenneth Arnold and Raymond A. Palmer are originally scheduled but cancel. (Swords 316, 320; James W. Moseley and Karl T. Pflock, Shockingly Close to the Truth! Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist, Prometheus, 2002, pp. 209–218; Karl Machtanz, “Saucer News NYC Convention Memories,” In Honor of Jim Moseley, February 3, 2014; Rick Hilberg, “Jim Moseley’s Giant UFO Show,” In Honor of Jim Moseley; Curt Collins, “The National UFO Conference,” In Honor of Jim Moseley, March 11, 2014; Curt Collins, “The UFO Anniversary and the Giant New York Convention of 1967,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, June 22, 2018) June 23 — Broadcaster Frank Edwards dies of a heart attack. (“Death of Frank Edwards,” UFO Investigator 4, no 2 (October 1967): 8) June 24 — 10:00 p.m. At Paso de los Libres, Corrientes, Argentina, policemen see 8–10 bright lights that fly in formation over a military post at an estimated 15,000 feet altitude. Other groups of UFOs are seen the same night at Yapeyú and Santo Tomé in Corrientes; Oberá in Misiones; and Resistencia and Barranqueras in Chaco, Argentina. All are observed for at least 1–2 minutes. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 61– 62 ) June 24 — In Asunción, Paraguay, many residents see six objects in formation maneuvering over the city. Communications interference is reported by the airport control tower director. (NICAP, “The 1967 UFO Chronology”) June 24– 25 — The Centro Ufologico Nazionale holds the first UFO conference in Italy at Riccione, Rimini. (1Pinotti 143 – 146) June 2 7 — McDonald is in Australia, financed by a small grant from the Office of Naval Research, to do cloud-physics research. Earlier in June, in a memo to Low, he said he planned to do some UFO investigating and lecturing. Low forwards the letter to Philip Klass in December. (Clark III 700) June 28 — A NASA management instruction issued by Kurt H. Debus, director of Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, on “Processing Reports of Sightings of Space Vehicle Fragments” notes that “Under no circumstances will the origin of the object be discussed with the observer or person making the call,” including “reports of sightings of objects not related to space vehicles.” (John F. Kennedy Space Center, “Processing Reports of Sightings of Space Vehicle Fragments,” NASA Management Instruction KMI 8610.4, June 28, 1967)

June 30 — Condon, David Saunders, Norm Levine, Franklin Roach, Mary Lou Armstrong, and visiting journalism grad student Herbert Strentz hold a meeting about a “case book” of significant cases. Condon tries to dissuade Saunders and Levine from pursuing this, but they prevail. (Swords 320)

July — Even though the Colorado project is requesting UFO reports from NICAP, Keyhoe is withholding them. Roy Craig discovers the Low memorandum while searching for unrelated information in the files. He shares it with Norm Levine and David Saunders, who realize that it clearly implies that the project is a “whitewash noninvestigation.” The memo makes the rounds of project personnel, then gets refiled. (Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, p. 121; UFOs Yes, 135) July — 10:00 p.m. A witness sees an intense orange light through the window of her home in the Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia. She calls her mother and they go outside to watch a cigar-shaped light hovering, moving up and down slightly, and turning over on its side. It has portholes around its lower edge. After 20 minutes, it moves off to the western horizon at a high rate of speed. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 6 (June 1978): 2) July 1 — The Denver Post reveals that the Colorado project has requested an additional $280,000 to extend it into September. Condon is upset. USAF ultimately approves an additional $183,155, plus $29,750 for expenses, bringing the total to $525,905. (UFOs Yes, 182) July 3 — 5:30 p.m. Warren Smith and two friends hiking in the mountains near Highwood Ranger Station, 50 miles southwest of Calgary, Alberta, take two color photos of a daylight disc that appears to be about 25 feet in diameter. The disc appears from less than 2 miles away and at an altitude of approximately 2,000 feet. It travels toward the hikers, gradually losing altitude, then at a distance of about one-half mile it hovers for a moment and an object appears to fall from it. It disappears from sight at treetop level at great speed. The photos are examined by both Canadian and American authorities; Hynek describes them as some of the best photos on record at the time. An analysis by Canadian National Defence finds the object is an oblate ellipsoid with a diameter of 40– 50 feet and a thickness of 11–14 feet. The witnesses sign statutory declarations to the effect that the photos are not a hoax; if proven false, they would be subject to prosecution under the Canada Evidence Act. Nevertheless, the Colorado Committee thinks the object could be a hoaxed hand-thrown model. Ground Saucer Watch declares it genuine. (Canada, National Research Council, [case documents], 1967, pp. 13–33; Condon, pp. 469 – 475 ; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 197 4, pp. 67 – 68 ; Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 9–13; Wendelle C. Stevens, “Hikers near Calgary Photograph a UFO in 1967,” OpenMinds, November 24, 2010 ; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 119– 125, 158– 159 ) July 3 — 7:15 p.m. Joe Ferriere sees a large, cigar-shaped object about 75–100 feet long hanging low in the sky above Woonsocket, Rhode Island. A peculiar piston-like apparatus appears to be pumping in and out of its left end. It is moving right to left in the manner of a pendulum. Before it moves off to the east, it releases a glowing disc- shaped object, about 12–15 feet in diameter. He takes a total of 6 photos of the objects. (“Long Rectangular UFOs: Five Different Cases of Similarly Shaped Objects,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 9 (September 1981): 1) July 3 — 9:15 p.m. Thomas H. Nicholl, his family, and another couple, Mr. and Mrs. John Dowd, are sitting on the Nicholls’s porch in Leawood, Kansas, when they see an unusual orange-red light approach from the north- northeast. It is bright metallic in color, about 50 feet in diameter, and traveling 100 mph at an altitude of 2,000– 3,000 feet. The red-orange color emanates from three lights on the rear side. After 5 minutes, the object blows up, leaving in its wake a “nearly pure white” cloud that dissipates. The witnesses see fragments falling to earth. (“Exploding Disc,” UFO Investigator 4, no. 11 (May 1969): 7–8; Clark III 340– 341 ) July 4 — 5:15 a.m. At least five witnesses from two independent locations about 5 miles west of Corning, California, see an oblong, metallic-appearing object with a brilliant light on top and a smaller light on the bottom near the front. Jay Munger, proprietor of an all-night bowling alley, and two police officers, Frank Rakes and James Overton, describe it as a dark-gray flattened sphere with a brilliant light beam on top directed upward, and a smaller and dimmer light on the bottom directed downward. A dark band circles the midsection. Two men north of Corning independently see the object. The witnesses estimate a diameter of 50–100 feet. At first the object appears to be hovering, then it moves slowly a few hundred feet above the ground, finally picking up speed and disappearing from view to the south after being visible for about 10 minutes. (James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, p. 74) July 5 — 4:20 a.m. A motorist on State Highway 31, near the Depot Road area of Coventry, Connecticut, sees an orange ball of light that appears to be hanging from a tree. He drives into Coventry and reports the matter to the police but the object is gone when they arrive on the scene. Investigators from the University of Colorado and APRO

find an area of grass some yards from the location that appears to have been swirled flat as if subject to a rotating force. A photograph taken of the scene turns out black. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 63 ; Condon, pp. 329 – 331 ) July 5 — Night. A witness is driving five miles north-northeast of Murray Bridge, South Australia, on the Karoonda Highway when he notices interference on the car radio, which becomes a high-pitched whine. He turns the radio off. Within 300 – 450 feet, his car engine stops by itself. The ignition is on but the warning lights on the dash come on. Looking up, he sees a distinct break in the fog with stars visible and a “large dark shadow” at a height of 20 feet. The shadow seems 120 feet thick. Above it is a grayish-blue glow. The top of the shadow appears convex. He stops the vehicle and gets out to look, but the shadow and light are gone. There is no sound, and the object has vanished. The witness returns to the vehicle, tries the ignition, and the motor works. There is no longer radio interference. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34, no. 1 (September 2011): 19) July 6 — The Colorado project staff meet again to nominate the first set of UFO reports for its “case book.” Condon refuses to nominate a case, but Low proposes the Red Bluff police report of August 1960, which is far outside Condon’s concept of limiting cases to no more than a year old. (Swords 120) July 6 — 6:00 p.m. An Air Canada DC-9 Vanguard has just taken off from its stop in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and is heading east. Air traffic controllers notice an unexpected radar return, also heading east, near the aircraft. In the space of 70 seconds, they watch the target accelerate from 800 to more than 4,000 mph before it zips off the scope near the town of Vivian. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 126) July 6 — 9:24 p.m. A radar operator in the airport at Kenora, Ontario, notes an unidentified target heading northeast. It approaches to about 40 miles, then turns and retreats to 50 miles away. At 9:35 p.m. another target appears, following an Air Canada flight; it turns northeast and disappears from the scope. At 9:53 p.m., an additional blip follows another Air Canada airliner before veering away to the northeast. None of the pilots see anything unusual. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 127–128) July 7 — 7:00 p.m. Air traffic controllers at Winnipeg International Airport in Manitoba, while monitoring an eastbound Air Canada flight on radar, notice a target moving at high speed toward Kenora, Ontario. At 9:24 p.m., the same or a similar object is detected on the Kenora Airport radar headed northeast. For three hours the object executes various maneuvers, including 180° turns and twice follows Air Canada flights before resuming its northeast course and disappearing off the scope. (Gregory M. Kanon, “UFOs and the Canadian Government,” Canadian UFO Report 3, no. 6 (1975): 21; Good Above, p. 200 ; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 57) July 7 — 11:30 p.m. Antonio Brambilla and another man watch a UFO land on some grass in a deserted part of the Rondò-Torretta quarter in Milan, Italy. A glow comes from the object, which is about 21 feet in diameter and 8 feet high. It has a dome on top and four telescopic legs with spheres on their tips. They feel a strange vibration that makes them weak, but the feeling dissipates as the legs of the UFO retract and it takes off. (1Pinotti 157) July 13 — 11: 26 p.m. Robert Richardson and Jerry Quay are driving near Whitehouse, Ohio. When rounding a bend, they encounter a brilliant blue-white light blocking the road. It appears to be a triangle 8 feet tall and 21 feet wide. Richardson brakes and close their eyes. They feel a bump but can see nothing. The local police do not take the incident seriously. However, the accident is investigated by the state police and highway patrol, who find only skid marks at the scene. The next day Richardson returns to the site and finds a piece of metal in the road. Marks on his car hood and bumper suggest a collision with an object taking off. On July 18 and 23, Richardson is visited by mysterious men, those on the second occasion being foreign-looking, who make a threat against his wife. Roy Craig of the Colorado project conducts a test on the metal and finds it consists of iron and chromium, with traces of nickel and manganese. Fibrous material from the front bumper is 92% magnesium, 5% aluminum, 2% zinc, and 1% manganese. (“UAO Struck by Automobile in Ohio,” APRO Bulletin, July/Aug. 1967, pp. 1, 3; Condon, p. 93 ; Mark Rodeghier, “UFO/Vehicle Very Close Encounters,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 25–26) July 17 — 11:25 p.m. Emma Funk is driving on State Highway 22 north of Millerton, New York, when a black, shiny object the size of a baseball flies into her headlight beams. It heads toward the windshield, brushes against it, then veers off to the left. As it brushes, her car lights up “like a great electric light bulb,” her engine quits, and the headlights go out. Funk is stunned, and when she regains her senses, the car is facing the opposite direction, toward the south. The engine starts up normally, but there is a cracked area in the windshield the size of a fist. She can’t account for about 15 minutes. (“Object Hit Car in Millerton; Engine Stalled, Lights Went Out,” Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal, July 19, 1967, p. 6; Mark Rodeghier, “UFO/Vehicle Very Close Encounters,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 24–25) July 20– 21 — 11:30 p.m. Barbara Fawcett is driving alone on North Key Largo, Florida, near Jewfish Creek. She sees a large light in her rear-view mirror apparently following the car. The burning yellow light seems to be floating 6– 8

feet off the ground, and it stays over the road. She accelerates to 100 mph as the light overtakes her car and seems to be about to land on top of it. As a car approaches in the opposite direction, the object emits a bright yellow glow that lights up the road and then disappears. She decides to return home to Pompano Beach with her sister the same morning, and at 2:30 a.m. they are on US Highway 1 near the same spot when she sees the light again, rising from a swamp and moving toward them 15 feet above the ground. Her sister’s toy poodle is terrified. The light veers away from the road and appears to land on a sand dune. (“Landing in Florida,” APRO Bulletin, July/Aug. 1967, p. 7) July 21 — Ronnie Hill, 14, of Pamlico County, North Carolina, sends a color photo of what looks like a little man in a spacesuit standing in front of a spherical UFO to a New York magazine editor. It winds up in the hands of John A. Keel. Hill tells him the UFO landed in his backyard. Keel gathers affidavits from Ronnie’s teachers, parents, and the local 4-H club, and submits the photo to “several professional photographers” in New York, who cannot find evidence of a hoax. Soon, however, Keel has doubts and the photo is revealed to be that of a small model positioned in front of an egg. (John A. Keel, “The ‘Little Man’ of North Carolina,” Flying Saucer Review 15, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1969): 15–16; Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, p. 230; Clark III 603; Aaron Sakulich, “The Strange Tale of Ronnie Hill,” The Iron Skeptic, January 13, 2007) July 26 — 8: 3 8 p.m. Capt. Shindler is piloting Pacific Western Airlines Flight 748 westbound near the Westfall River in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia. He notices a small pink light moving erratically at about 16,000 feet. It zips away after 18 minutes. Radar operators in Kamloops also observe the object. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 128) July 30 — 6:15 p.m. The Naviero, a ship of the Argentine Shipping Lines Company, is 120 miles off the coast of Garopaba, Santa Catarina, Brazil, when Office Jorge Montoya notices a strange object in the ocean about 50 feet away on the starboard side. Capt. Julián Lucas Ardanza comes to the deck and sees a cigar-shaped UFO about 110 feet long, glowing blue and white. It paces the ship for 15 minutes, then suddenly dives and passes underneath the ship, vanishing in the depths. Chief Officer Carlos Lasca describes the object as a “submergible UFO with its own illumination.” (Oscar A. Galíndez, “Crew of Argentine Ship See Submarine UFO,” Flying Saucer Review 14, no. 2 (March/April 1968): 22) July 30 — 10:17 p.m. George and Brownie Petyak see a bright yellow star-like light at about 65° elevation to the east of Kernville, California. It is later joined by a second similar object appearing to try to “steer” the first onto a “definite course.” Through binoculars the first object appears bright blue. A second independent observation from Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in the Mojave Desert locates an object visually and/or on radar to the west over Walker Pass (about 20 miles) and is reported to Edwards AFB. Thus the visual sighting lines intersect from opposite directions. A controller at Edwards uses RAPCON (Radar Approach Control) radar (or Boron AFS FPS-35 search radar) and confirms the visual report at China Lake but tries to dismiss the 115 mph target as merely civil aircraft that “frequently” fly over the area. The Kernville witnesses report by phone during their sighting to the Boron AFS ADC radar site. Blue Book claims the date of the sighting is in question because the questionnaire sent to the Petyaks uses the military time (Greenwich Meridian Time or Zulu time) instead of local time. (NICAP, “Radar/Visual and Sighting Lines Intersect”; Sparks, p. 326; Condon, p. 122; Clark III 392) July 31 — 10:15 p.m. Sidney Zipkin is driving a truck on Main Street in Churchville, New York, when he sees a cigar- shaped object about 50 feet long in a parking lot. It has greenish blinking lights underneath it, on or near the ground. He shines the truck headlights on the object and sees two small men in shiny black uniforms board the object, which takes off straight up. (“UFOs in Churchville?” Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle, August 3, 1967, pp. 1B–2B)

August — At the request of President Johnson, the CIA sets up Operation CHAOS to gather intelligence about foreign influence on American dissent. Its mission is to gather and evaluate all information about foreign links to racial, antiwar, and other protest activity. The operation is launched under DCI Richard Helms and counter-intelligence chief James Jesus Angleton, and headed by Richard Ober. The program runs through 1973, amassing 10,000 files on more than 300,000 individuals and 100 domestic groups. The operation also infiltrates foreign intelligence targets and domestic radical organizations. The NSA assists in the surveillance with its own Project MINARET. Operating between 1967 and 1973, over 5,925 foreigners and 1,690 organizations and US citizens are included on the Project MINARET watch lists. NSA Director Lew Allen testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1975 that the NSA has issued over 3,900 reports on the watch-listed Americans. At some point, the NSA is tasked with monitoring the overseas telephone calls and cable traffic of two prominent members of Congress, Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) and Sen. Howard Baker (R-Tenn.). The FBI begins COINTELPRO–BLACK HATE, which focuses on Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as well as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Revolutionary Action Movement, the Deacons for Defense and Justice,

Congress of Racial Equality, and the Nation of Islam. BLACK HATE establishes the Ghetto Informant Program and instructs 23 FBI offices to “disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities of black nationalist hate type organizations.” (Wikipedia, “Operation CHAOS”; Wikipedia, “Project MINARET”; Wikipedia, “COINTELPRO”; Matthew M. Ald and William Burr, “Secret Cold War Documents Reveal NSA Spied on Senators,” Foreign Policy, September 25, 2013) August — 2:00 a.m. A man is returning to his mother’s home in Wapakoneta, Ohio, when he sees a strangely bright star to the left of Polaris. As he watches, it grows a bit brighter and begins to move directly beneath Polaris and then continues to the right. It repeats this in reverse and then goes under Polaris and stops. The star then migrates north and south, tracing out the elements of a large cross. It does this several times rapidly. Then it comes back below Polaris and just sits there. After nearly 3 hours, the witness decides to stop watching. At that, the star goes up to Polaris and shoots away to the left. (Michael D. Swords, “We Know Where You Live,” IUR 30, no. 2 (January 2006): 11) August 3 — 8:00 p.m. Amauri Barbosa da Silva and Jonil Faydit Vieira are driving on the road to Japeri from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when they see several yellowish lights that eventually extinguish themselves, one at a time. Later, they see similar lights positioned directly in front of them. Da Silva blinks his headlights, and the lights respond similarly. The lights maintain their position in front of them, moving from one side of the road to the other. When they are approaching Miguel Pereira on a mud road between Arcádia and La Chaumiere, they see two bright beams of light, one yellow and one blue, about 1,000 feet away from them on the right, apparently attached to the dome of a disc. The object follows them for at least 40 minutes and is seen by Nelson Gonçalves Ferreira at their destination in Miguel Pereira. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 16–21) August 3 — 11:30 p.m. A married couple and their teenage son are sleeping in their car outside their home in Caracas, Venezuela. They wake up and see a white, disc-shaped object hovering 100 feet above a nearby palm tree. Within a few minutes, an opening appears in the UFO, and a smaller lightbulb-shaped object emerges and drifts downward, stopping just inches from the ground near their front porch. A door slides open and a small, glowing figure steps out, who bends over, picks up some stones, examines them, and looks up at the larger object, apparently communicating with someone. He looks toward their car frequently. After a few minutes, the figure reenters the small object, which returns to the large disc and enters it. The disc speeds away and disappears in seconds. (“Occupants Seen at Caracas,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1967, p. 12) August 4 — Early morning. An engineer, Hugo Sierra Yepez [or Yepes], is fishing from his boat in the sea about 15 miles north of Arrecife [or La Guaira], Vargas, Venezuela, when he feels a vibration and the water begins to boil “in big bubbles, in a circle about six meters in diameter.” A gray-blue, flat globe emerges. As it hovers close to the surface, dripping water, he notices a revolving rim with triangular windows of blue and red. It ascends in a curve then shoots upward. (“The Question of Submerging UFO’s,” UFO Investigator 4, no. 5 (March 1968): 5; Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 54) August 4 — Night. A bright object appears in the sky in the area of Morro do Policia in Porto Alegre, Brazil, for 30 minutes and is photographed by Brazilian Air Force technician Otacilio Freitas Dias. It flies in an erratic zigzag path, sometimes slowly, at other times at high speed, and sometimes hovering. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 67–68) August 5 — Morning. After a night of heavy rain, Edgar Schielke finds a circular mark more than 30 feet in diameter in his cow pasture near Duhamel, Alberta. A UFO group from Edmonton visits the field and finds three additional rings. An RCAF team from CFB Namao [now CFB Edmonton], along with Gareth H. S. Jones of the Defense Research Establishment Suffield [now DRDC Suffield], visits the farm on August 11 after much of the evidence has been trampled. Jones finds two more rings. The marks vary from 5 to 7 inches wide and from 31 feet 9 inches to 36 feet 3 inches, and each is incomplete on its western side. He is puzzled as to what made the marks, can find no evidence of a hoax, and seriously considers whether an aerial object could have made them. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 162 – 165, 197 – 205) August 6 — Office worker Antonio Neri Perez and several others watch three glowing red discs take off in V formation from a field near their house in Tetepango, Hidalgo, Mexico. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 65) August 6 — 7:55–8:20 p.m. Formations of lights in groups of 3–5 are seen in many states of Mexico, including Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Hidalgo, Veracruz, and Lake Pátzcuaro in Michoacán. Most are generally moving west to east. Many people at the Mexico City International Airport watch a group between 8:10 and 8:20 p.m. Technicians in the control tower can make out 9– 10 objects through binoculars. Capt. Angel Fojo Ceballos and Capt. José Luis Espejo are flying an Aeronaves de México [now Aeroméxico] DC-9 at 23,000 feet over Salamanca, Guanajuato, Mexico. They see three bright points flying in formation from northwest to southeast an estimated 30–40 miles away. They cross the horizon at 55,000–60,000 feet in 40–45 seconds. One of the objects

appears to break formation and approach the aircraft, showing a round shape and metallic composition, but then it veers away and out of sight. The events are thought to be the reentry of the Pioneer 7 rocket body that had launched from Cape Canaveral on August 15, 1966. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 65– 67 ) August 6 — 8:00 p.m. A Peruvian airliner piloted by Capt. Samuel Sanguaza, copilot César Jordan, and subofficers Oscar Guevara and Jorge Sarguaza encounters a globe of light while flying between Lima, and Pisco, Peru. The light changes color from red to orange and blue as it paces the aircraft for 15 minutes, bobbing up and down, moving closer and receding, before it zooms away as the airplane nears Pisco. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 21–22) August 8 — Evangelical pastor Estanislao Lugo Contreras is on the shore at Catia La Mar, Vargas, Venezuela, when he sees the water stirring up in a vast round area. The water begins to turn light blue, then whitish, yellowish, then brilliant orange. An orange disc rises out of the sea about 1,650 feet from shore, hovers, then rises obliquely and disappears. It makes an intense buzzing sound. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 54–55) August 8 — 8:40 p.m. An object shaped like a sharply outlined asymmetrical crescent flies over the Kislovodsk Mountain Astronomical Station near Kislovodsk, North Caucasus, Russia. The object is slightly smaller than the moon with a color described as reddish by some observers, yellow by others. It flies from west to east about 20° above the horizon, moving from the Big Dipper to Cassiopeia in about 30 seconds at a uniform speed. The witnesses are Anatoli Sazanov, a specialist in the ionosphere; V. A. Tsion of the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute; and seven members of a biological expedition. (Felix Ziegel, “Unidentified Flying Objects,” Soviet Life, no. 137 (February 196 8): 28; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, p. 61 ; Hobana and Weverbergh 288– 289 ; Jacques Vallée, UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union: A Cosmic Samizdat, Ballantine, 1992 , p. 192) August 10 — 9:30 p.m. Harry E. King and Michael Swartz see a bright round ball, about 50–60 feet in diameter, in the air about 1,300 feet away near Winter Haven, Florida. It hovers for 3–4 minutes, then moves slowly for a quarter mile, rises, shoots away, and disappears in one second. At 10:00 p.m., they watch a bright light descend for 5 minutes, move back and forth for one minute, then suddenly disappear. (NICAP case file) August 1 2 — 2:30 a.m. Robert P. Miedtke and his wife are sleeping in a camper on property belonging to some relatives on County Highway I some 11 miles west of Ogema, Wisconsin. They are awakened by their dog barking outside. They look out the window and see a large, fluorescent, half-moon-shaped object in a neighboring pasture about 450 feet away. It is shining a beam of light at a milk house only 25 feet from their camper. The dog has stopped barking and they can hear none of the usual night sounds. After about one hour, they hear the sound of someone walking in the gravel and sand outside. Three times the footsteps are heard going from north to south. The Miedtkes remain in bed, hoping no one would know they are in the camper. After another hour, just before dawn, they hear the dog whimpering and barking, followed by the muffled noise like a huge generator that fades away after 6–8 seconds. (“Possible Landing in Wisconsin,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1967, p. 11) August 13 — 8:00 p.m. Between Pilar de Goiás and Crixás, Goiás, Brazil, a plantation worker at the Estancia de Santa Maria, Ignácio da Souza, is returning home from work when he and his wife see an object in the form of an upside-down basin 115 feet in diameter sitting on the landing strip of the ranch. They initially think it is some flying machine tested by the ranch owner, Ibiracy de Moraes, a wealthy man and former president of the Bank of Brazil. Between the object and the couple, there are three humanoid, child-size beings that they initially think are naked children before realizing that they are hairless creatures wearing a tight suit of yellow. The beings seem to be playing around silently, but then move quickly towards them. Da Souza tells his wife to lock herself up in their house. He is armed with a rifle and frightened, so da Souza shoots the closest of the beings. At the same time, the UFO emits a ray of green light that hits him, throwing him to the ground unconscious. Seeing her husband fall from the kitchen window, his wife runs onto the scene shouting, interposes herself between the beings and the body of her husband, and picks up his rifle. But during this time the beings have retrieved the one that had fallen to ground and quickly flee to enter the craft. After a short time, it slowly rises vertically while emitting a buzz similar to that of a swarm of bees. Taken to the hospital of Goiânia, the state capital, de Souza suffers from nausea and a general numbness. Burns are noted, initially attributed to a toxic plant, but when de Souza and de Moraes hear the erroneous diagnosis and are told what had happened, doctors perform a blood analysis that returns with a diagnosis of advanced leukemia with life expectancy of two months. Da Souza quickly deteriorates, suffers, develops yellowish spots, and dies on October 11. In accordance with his instructions, his wife burns the bed, the mattress, and the clothing that he has used. (Clark III 353– 354 ; Brazil 85– 88 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, August 15, 2006)

Mid-August — About 12:00 noon. Electrical engineer Albert Fulton and superintendent Sherman Anderson are making rounds at the Nova Scotia Light and Power substation in Caledonia, Nova Scotia. They notice steam rising from one of three large transformers, then Fulton spots two silvery disc-shaped objects maneuvering around the sky some distance away. The pair watches them a they zip back and forth in different directions from horizon to horizon in 3–4 seconds. Each time they leave a silvery line about 10 times their length behind them, which disappears when the objects stop. They watch this spectacle for about one minute, then both discs come to a common point in front of a suddenly visible gray, cigar-shaped object. After stopping briefly the two smaller objects merge into the cigar, taking 12–15 seconds. The large object disappears. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects: A Further Look,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 4–5) August 18 — A CIA report summarizes interviews with unnamed Russian astronomers that may possibly have been conducted by members of the Condon commission. (Central Intelligence Agency, “Report on Conversations with Soviet Scientists on Subject of Unidentified Flying Objects in the USSR,” August 18, 1967; Good Above, pp. 230 – 231 ) August 22– 31 — Low, Roach, and Hynek attend the XIIIth General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. Low wastes an opportunity to meet with Charles Bowen in London, England, and instead goes to Loch Ness, Scotland, “because neither the Loch Ness monster nor UFOs exist.” (Michael D. Swords, “The USAF-Sponsored Colorado Project for the Scientific Study of UFOs,” 1995 MUFON Symposium Proceedings, MUFON, 1995; Swords 321 ; Good Above, p. 230 ) August 23 — 4:00 a.m. Stanley Moxon is driving on Ontario Highway 15 between Joyceville, Ontario, and Pine Grove Road when he sees a green light in a field to the south. He turns off his lights and drives down a side road to get closer. Minutes later, he turns on his lights again and they shine on a huge metallic disc hovering just above the ground. Two entities, 4 feet tall and dressed in white suits and helmets, appear to be startled and hurry back into the craft, which takes off at tremendous speed. (“Occupant in Ontario,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1967, p. 14) August 23 — 8:00 p.m. Two 15-year-olds are strolling around the Kolmården ridge area in Östergötland, Sweden, when they see a reddish glow moving back and forth in the nearby woods. Continuing home, they run across a locked, deserted shack that seems to have some yellowish lights moving around in one room and noises like muted thuds. The red glow reappears moving close to the ground from the west. Suddenly it turns brilliant white and appears to land on the other side of a brook. They run home and see a huge light like a flashlight hovering 13 feet above the ground near the house. They hear a whistling sound coming from the brook and what seem to be footsteps coming toward them. They run to a ravine where they see, about 35 feet away, a small being with a disproportionately large head and wearing dark clothing. It lifts its arms and seems to be holding a box-like apparatus with a tube. Two thin, wire-like bands appear around the creature’s ankles and give off an intense white light. They run home again. The next day they return to where the being was and find some odd three-toed footprints about 6 inches long. (“‘Monster’ Report from Sweden,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1967, pp. 1, 5) August 24 — 5:00 p.m. Ron Hydes is riding his motorcycle near Wodonga, Victoria, Australia, when he is surrounded by a blinding blue-white light that illuminates the road. As he stops, a bright lens-shaped domed disc, estimated to be 25 – 30 feet in diameter, descends within a few feet of the ground about 100 feet away. Two humanoids about 5– 5.5 feet tall with round helmets and silver coveralls emerge. One steps nearer to the witness, who flees. The object, surrounded by a pinkish glow, follows the motorcycle at about 100 feet off the ground. Hydes can hear a humming sound above the motorcycle’s engine. He stops again and the object hovers, the hum subsiding. After 30 seconds, the color around the object changes from pink to brilliant red, and it tilts up at a 45° angle, then shoots away. (“Occupants Attempt to Lure Motorcyclist,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1967, pp. 13– 14 ) August 25 — 5:00 p.m. Ruben Norato sees a “precipitous movement of the water” from the beach at Catia La Mar, Vargas, Venezuela, from which arise “three huge plate-shaped discs” that streak out of sight. (“The Question of Submerging UFO’s,” UFO Investigator 4, no. 5 (March 1968): 5) August 27 — David Saunders proposes to the Colorado project team that they issue technical reports on whatever phase or case they have concentrated on. These will be circulated among the staff for review but not for veto. They would stand as the author’s own work without censure. Appropriate disclaimers would be attached before they are issued to the public. A final report might be cobbled together from these technical reports. Condon and Low apparently disapprove of this immediately. (Swords 323) August 2 7 — 11:20 p.m. Kenneth Flack is passing a car near Texas Creek, Colorado, when his engine and car lights fail. He pulls to the side of the road, along with the car he is passing and a camper-trailer. He sees a large object in a field some 900–1,200 feet away. It is football-shaped and silvery. He approaches it on foot and is hit by a bright light coming from the object that knocks him out. Bystanders from other cars carry him back to the roadside and tell him that he had been frozen in a standing position for 5 minutes. Flack is intensely cold and sleepy, so another unidentified driver gives him a ride back to Pueblo in a camper (“1967 Landing in Colorado,” APRO Bulletin,

March/April 1969, pp. 3–4; Lorenzen, The Shadow of the Unknown, New American Library, 1970, pp. 138–139; Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34 , no. 1 (September 2011): 21 ; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 143– 144 ; CUFOS case file) August 28– 29 — 11:30 p.m.–1:10 a.m. Leslie and Jacqueline Dowdell see a 3–4 dancing lights zigzagging to the northeast over Rivers, Manitoba. The lights resolve into one object the color of a mandarin orange that hovers for 2 – 3 minutes, changing colors, before zooming away to the north. At 12:30 a.m., Cpl. A. Fedun of CFB Rivers [now closed] sees a round ball of orange light moving northwest. At 12:45 a.m., Commissionaire G. Stefanson hears a loud noise, and LAC J. Hebert and Judy Ross, driving one mile east of Rivers, watch a white flashing light that remains stationary for 30–50 seconds. They later find some odd dust on their car and some bubbling of the paint on the top. At 1:00 a.m., Cpl. K. McArthur hears another loud blast that rattles windows on the base. At 1:10 a.m., LAC K. Taylor, 8 miles east of Rivers, sees a red ball of flame trailed by a blue light at 3,000–4,000 feet. An investigating team from RCAF Trainiong Command Headquarters in Winnipeg immediately comes out to investigate. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 251–260) August 29 — 10:30 a.m. François Delpeuch, 13, and his sister Anne-Marie, 9, are herding cows at Cussac, Cantal, France. They see four small black beings about 47 inches tall with large heads and pointed chins around a landed sphere 15 feet in diameter. As the UFO begins to take off, the beings are sucked into it head-first, and it leaves very quickly in a blinding light. The police note “sulfur odor and the dried grass” at the landing spot. The case is reopened and studied in depth by Claude Poher. (Wikipedia, “Close encounter of Cussac”; Jöel Mesnard and Claude Pavy, “Encounter with Devils,” Flying Saucer Review 14, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1968): 7–9; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story. Signet, 1969, pp. 280– 282 ; [Claude Poher], “Enquête sur l’Observation du 29.08.67 de Cussac (Cantal),” Groupe d’Étude des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés, Centre Nationale d’Étude Spatiales, 1978; Gildas Bourdais, “The Death and Rebirth of Official French UFO Studies,” IUR 31 , no. 2 (June 2007): 16 )

September? — Saunders and Levine visit Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio to look at the Project Blue Book files. They find cases stored adjacent to the official files, and some in a classified safe. Saunders also finds problems when he examines the statistics in Blue Book Special Report no. 14. Plus all of Battelle’s original IBM cards have been thrown away. (UFOs Yes, 115 – 116) September or October — 4 : 45 p.m. Some 40 soldiers and officers at an antiaircraft artillery unit stationed at Floreşti, Romania, watch an aluminum-colored object hovering about 2,400 feet in the sky. The unit commander reports it to the General Command in Bucharest, who order him to shoot it down if it makes any hostile maneuvers. The object stays in position for more than two hours, but disappears after a white cloud passes in front of it. (Romania 16 – 17) September — 1:30 a.m. Capt. Grigory Demyanovich Oleynikov of the Russian fishing boat Kama is in Vyborg Bay in western Russia when he notices a luminescent, milky-white disc descending through the cloud layer. It stops and hovers at an altitude of 1,300 feet and seems to have a diameter of about 50 feet. The bottom portion contains nozzles that emit flames. Athen in complete silence it takes off straight up. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, p. 153) September — The Midwest UFO Network publishes its first issue of Skylook. September — The CIA staff’s frank opinions on Vietnam are sometimes modified before reaching President Johnson. At one point the CIA analysts estimate enemy strength at 500,000, while the military insists it is only 270,000. No amount of discussion resolves the difference. In September 1967, the CIA under DCI Richard Helms goes along with the military’s lower number for the combat strength of the Vietnamese Communist forces. This leads a CIA analyst directly involved in this work to file a formal complaint against Helms, which is accorded due process within the agency. (Wikipedia, “Richard Helms”) September — Afternoon. Paul Stehlin, military aviator and vice-president of Bugatti, is flying his own plane near Vélizy- Villacoublay, Yvelines, France, when he sees a silver, cigar-shaped object beside him. The object accompanies the aircraft for a few minutes, then it accelerates and leaves the plane behind at terrific speed. (NICAP case file) Early September — Evan Evanson, 18, is returning home in a pickup truck on Highway 36 south of Taber, Alberta, when his engine heats up and he pulls to the side of the road to let it cool off. Through the driver’s window he sees a soundless, green, glowing object like two plates put together. It seems near enough to touch. The music on the truck radio is replaced with a beeping sound. Suddenly the object disappears, and Evanson notices that the truck engine has stopped. (“First Sighting of UFO Reported at Taber,” Calgary (Alberta) Herald, September 5, 1967, p. 49) September 1? — The Colorado project obtains a third-hand report of a UFO sighting at Edwards AFB, California, on or around this date. A civilian employee at the base has seen the report, mentions it to a relative, who then discusses it with a scientist cooperating with the project. According to the story, 6 UFOs follow an X-15 as it lands. When

project members call Edwards, they get a runaround. After 2 weeks of phone calls, they find that no X-15 flew on September 1. (There are flights on August 21, 25, and October 3 and 4, however.) But no one denies that a UFO sighting took place. (UFOs Yes, 124 – 125; Condon, pp. 341 – 342 ) September 4 — 5:10 a.m. Police officer P. A. Andrade is on duty at city hall in Valencia, Venezuela, when he hears a humming noise and footsteps in a nearby garage. He meets a dwarf, 3 feet tall, with a big head and bulging, reddish, glowing eyes, wearing a silver-colored, metallic-looking coverall. Andrade points his automatic weapon at the creature, but a voice from a hovering disc says in Spanish that he should not harm the creature. The dwarf then tries to convince Andrade to “come to their world,” adding it is “very distant and much larger than the Earth, and with many advantages for Earthlings.” When Andrade declines, the creature flies back into the object, which takes off. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 82; Vallée, Magonia, pp. 351– 352 ; Mark Cashman, “Behavioral Classification System for UFO Occupants,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 18) September 4 — Dawn. A paperboy in Clevedon, England, discovers a 5-foot-wide, saucer-shaped, metallic object in a field. He calls the police, who send it to the guided weapons division of British Aerospace, whose chief design engineer declares it an expensive hoax. Soon five identical objects are found in fields and golf courses in the southern part of England. The sites lie on a straight path 220 miles long that spans 1° of latitude, running west to east from Clevedon to the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. A USAF intelligence officer takes photos of one in Welford, Berkshire, and chemists with Britain’s Home Office analyze samples of a foul liquid that is seeping from one of the objects. But the objects are a prank involving 15 engineering apprentices, primarily Christopher Southall and Roger Palmer, at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough. The objects are made of fiberglass, and the smelly liquid is a fermented mixture of flour and water. (Wikipedia, “1967 British flying saucer hoax”; Clark III 604– 605 ; Jenny Randles, UFO Retrievals, Blandford, 1995, pp. 108 – 111 ; John Keeling, “Invasion 1967,” Fortean Times 228 (November 2007): 32–41; “The Great Saucer Invasion: The Day Six ‘Spaceships’ Landed in England,” BBC News, September 3, 2017; Curt Collins, “The UK Saucer Invasion of 1967,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, August 30, 2019) September 4 — The Industrial Psychologists’ section of the American Psychological Association sponsors a program on “Problems and Methods of Gathering Data on UFOs.” Participants include Harold Greenwald, Richard H. Hall, Gustave J. Rath, R. Leo Sprinkle, and David Saunders. (Story, p. 413 ) September 5 — Saunders suggests to Low that his academic commitments might require a reorganization of project duties, namely that Low, Roach, and himself report directly to Condon, with others reporting to them. Low blows up. Low ultimately agrees but replaces Roach with Norm Levine. (UFOs Yes, 139 – 140 ) September 6 — 9:50 p.m. Several witnesses at Meir, Stoke-in-Trent, England, see a vertically oriented “sausage-shaped cloud” in the eastern sky, behind which a light flashes for about 20 seconds at irregular intervals. A bright, glowing orange oval then emerges from the cloud and heads southeast at “fantastic speed.” A light again flashes in the cloud for about 10 seconds, then stops. The mode of disappearance of the cloud is not reported. (Roger Stanway and Anthony R. Pace, Flying Saucer Report, UFOs: Unidentified, Undeniable, Newchapel Observatory, 1968, pp. 14– 15 ; Herbert S. Taylor, “Cloud Cigars: A Further Look,” IUR 30, no. 3 (May 2006): 12) September 9 — A 3-year-old saddle horse named Lady [not Snippy] belonging to Nellie Lewis of the Harry King Ranch in the San Luis Valley, Colorado, just south of Great Sand Dunes National Monument, is found dead a couple days after it has gone missing. The animal appears to have been skinned from the neck to the shoulders, which are nothing but bleached bones. The cut in the neck looks smooth and surgical. The soil beneath the horse is damp, and there is a medicine-like smell. A nearby bush is flattened oddly. Alamosa County Sheriff Ben Phillips blames Lady’s death on lightning. A few days later, rangers at Great Sand Dunes arrest John Henry Altshuler, a pathologist at Ross Medical Center in Denver, for trespassing after dark; he has actually gone to the area to look for UFOs. When they find out he is a specialist in blood coagulation, they say they will drop the arrest record if he takes a look at the dead horse. He finds that Lady’s lungs, heart, and thyroid are completely missing and finds the complete absence of blood distressing. Altshuler begins to think the dead horse has something to do with the UFOs he had seen when he was in the Great Sand Dunes. Nellie Lewis also admits she has been watching something in the sky every night. Duane Martin, a US Forest Service ranger, records a pulse of unusually high radioactivity near Lady’s carcass, although others think it is only background radiation. The Pueblo Chieftain reports on the case in its October 5 edition and it gets picked up by the AP. Pathologist Robert O. Adams, chief of surgery at Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, investigates Lady for the Colorado project and concludes that bacteria, birds, and coyotes are responsible for the lack of blood and organs. He finds an infection in the horse’s right flank that could have killed it; the cut at the neck might have been someone’s mercy killing. “Exhaust marks” found are probably fungal infestations, and indentations are probably weathered hoofprints. Alamosa veterinarian Wallace Leary later finds evidence of two bullet holes in Lady’s rump. (“The Snippy Case,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1967, pp. 1, 6; “Colorado Horse Death Ruled No UFO Case,” UFO

Investigator 4, no. 2 (October 1967): 4; Donald Merker, “The Appaloosa from Alamosa,” Fate 21, no. 3 (March 1968): 35, 45–52; Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 148–158; Condon, pp. 344 – 347 ; UFOs Yes, 155 – 169 ; “Town Gets Snippy about Skeleton of Mutilated Horse,” Denver Post, December 8, 2006; Greg Newkirk, “Death on the Great Sand Dunes: The Strange Case of Snippy the Horse, the First Cattle Mutilation,” Week in Weird, January 8, 2013; Sylvia Lobato, “After 50 Years, Snippy Still a Mystery,” Alamosa (Colo.) Valley Courier, September 29, 2017; Clark III 130– 132 ) September 10 — Several residents of Bruzual, Apure, Venezuela, watch a white, luminous disc following the course of the Apure River from west to east at low altitude. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 69) September 11 — Richard H. Hall resigns as assistant director of NICAP for personal reasons and is replaced by Gordon I. R. Lore. (“Assistant Director Hall Resigns, Is Replaced by Gordon Lore,” UFO Investigator 4, no. 2 (October 1967): 2) September 11 — 3:30 p.m. About a dozen employees of the Douglas Point Nuclear Generating Station near Kincardine, Ontario, watch a UFO pass over the plant in an easterly direction. At one point it hovers above Lake Huron about a mile and a half offshore and drops something into the water. Other plant workers see similar objects over the lake or above the plant on five succeeding nights. The plant isn’t operational for another year. (Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 122–123) September 11 — 9:30 p.m. During a raging storm near Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina, a family watches a huge, glowing orange object hovering in a field about 1,000 feet away from the farmhouse. The object emits brilliant beams of light. After 4 hours it ascends and is lost to sight in seconds. The next day, the witnesses find a sootlike material on the ground and tracks about 2 inches wide in the flattened grass. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 69) September 11 — 10:42 p.m. According to radar operators at Kincheloe AFB [now Chippewa County International Airport] south of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, more than 20 radar targets appear and disappear over the middle of Lake Superior over an 80-minute period, tracked at speeds of up to 2,000 mph, sometimes turning at sharp right angles and involving separation and merging of distinct targets. Radar at Duluth, Minnesota, has also picked up the targets. The Colorado project sends John Ahrens and Norm Levine to investigate. They check out rumors of visual sightings at Sault Ste. Marie, but these do not conform to the radar trackings. At Duluth, they draw a complete blank with denials all around. (NICAP, “17 Unknowns in 80 Minute Period”; UFOs Yes, 123 – 124 ; Condon, pp. 164 – 165 ; Sparks, p. 326 ) September 13 — Condon gives a dinner speech at a spectroscopy symposium at the National Bureau of Standards in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and talks primarily about contactees and crackpots. (UFOs Yes, 247 – 248 ) September 14 or 17 — 10:50 a.m. “Fábio Jose Diniz,” 16, is walking along an asphalt path near the deserted grounds of an isolation unit at Hospital da Baleia on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He notices an object in an adjacent football field. It is shaped like a mushroom with a domed top and surrounded by a row of portholes and a thick central “stalk” in contact with the soil. A hazy screen like a force field drops around the object, and a door appears out of nowhere and slides upward along the column. Two humanlike figures, 6 feet tall, emerge, dressed in one-piece diving suits of greenish material and helmets. One of them carries a tube-like implement, and the other has a probe sticking up from his helmet and talks to Diniz in Portuguese, telling him not to run away. He starts running anyway, but the figure tells him to come back the next day or they will take his family. The figure reenters the UFO, which takes off vertically. He sees psychologist and UFO researcher Hulvio Aleixo, who says he is in severe shock. At the landing site, police find some foul-smelling black material that crumbles easily. This is examined by geophysicist Roberto Murto, who finds it is made of iron, magnesium, and silica. An impression like a large footprint is also found. Aleixo subjects the boy to psychological testing and he finds no disorder. The UFO fails to return the next day. (“Flying Saucer Is Reported,” Baltimore (Md.) Sun, September 25, 1967, p. 3; Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 85; Jenny Randles, UFO Conspiracy, Cassell, 1987, pp. 97 – 99 ; Clark III 177– 178 ; Brazil 88– 91 ; Mark Cashman, “Behavioral Classification System for UFO Occupants,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 18 – 19 ) September 15 — Astronomer William Markowitz publishes an article in Science magazine that declares extraterrestrial UFOs to be a priori impossible because they do not follow the laws of physics. (William Markowitz, “The Physics and Metaphysics of Unidentified Flying Objects,” Science 157 (1967): 1274–1279) September 15 — 8:50 p.m. Separate witnesses in Winsted, Connecticut, see a large glowing, pulsating object hovering nearby and several small beings with large heads moving around it. The object’s light dims when cars approach. (“Flap Continues in the States,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1967, p. 9; Condon, pp. 347 – 351 ) September 17 — Roach resigns from the Colorado project in order to pursue academic interests. (UFOs Yes, 140) September 1 8 — Saunders, Low, and Condon meet for 3 hours to discuss Saunders’s suggestions for improving the public image. Saunders argues that the public can tell the project is headed toward a negative conclusion. Condon says

that if they find extraterrestrial evidence, he would not disclose it to the public. (UFOs Yes, 140 – 141 ; Swords 324) September 18 — 1:00 a.m. Russell Hill is stationed as a forestry lookout at the Raspberry Ridge station near Mount Burke, Alberta. He hears a strange pulsating sound as a green light sweeps the walls of the lookout cabin. He sees an object hovering to the southwest and giving off a greenish glow. He attempts to radio the nearby Highwood Ranger Station, but the radio ane lights do not work. The object turns white and shoots up straight into the sky. (“Object Photographed in Canada,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1967, p. 11) September 20 — NICAP provisionally withdraws its support from the Colorado project. Saunders tells Low about it. (UFOs Yes, 141 – 142) September 20 — 8:30–9:30 p.m. Seven people in Stoke-on-Trent, England, see a large, bright, silver-colored, oval-shaped object almost overhead and moving slowly to the northeast. It stops and hovers, then 2– 3 smaller silvery objects emerge from the larger one and move rapidly away in different directions. The large UFO moves off to the northeast and slowly disappears. (Roger H. Stanway and Anthony R. Pace, Flying Saucer Report, UFOs: Unidentified, Undeniable, Newchapel Observatory, 1968, p. 16; Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects: A Further Look,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 26) September 20 — 10:30 p.m. Mrs. Charles Pasko notices a peach-pink glow in the woods outside her home near Winsted, Connecticut. Thinking it is a fire, she wakes up her son Jack and they watch it for a while. Three days later her husband and a forest ranger try to find the burned spot. They locate a burned and depressed teardrop-shaped area about 35 feet in diameter. They also find three triangular imprints forming an equilateral triangle with sides 10 feet long, and a fourth depression in the center. Other witnesses had seen a UFO coming in at a slant, breaking and burning tree leaves. Several tall trees in the area are broken off at the top. (“September Landing in Conn.,” APRO Bulletin, Nov./Dec. 1967, p. 4) September 22 — 8:00 p.m. Simon Williams and his son Eugene, 14, are starting a pickup truck with jumper cables in Allen [or Fittstown], Oklahoma, when they see a disc with a brilliant silvery light and smaller flashing lights around the rim heading west. It seems to come closer and hover above a highway. Eugene thinks he can see the headlights of passing cars reflected on its bottom surface. It then proceeds slowly west. (“Flap Continues in the States,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1967, p. 9; Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 168) September 25 — Saunders, Low, and Condon have another meeting at Condon’s home. Saunders tells Condon that the problems with NICAP would not have arisen if Condon had been more circumspect with his negative remarks. Condon says he understands but offers no change. (UFOs Yes, 142) September 27 — BUFORA researchers Anthony R. Pace and Roger H. Stanway visit the S4 UFO desk at the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall, London, England. They talk to a Mr. Cassells, who assures them that all UFO reports are treated seriously but the Ministry’s interest is solely in national defense. He adds that no person from the Ministry ever makes on-the-spot inquiries or field investigations. (Roger H. Stanway and Antony R. Pace, Flying Saucer Report: UFOs Unidentified, Unidentifiable, 1972 ; Good Above, pp. 67 – 68 ) September 27– 29 — The Rocky Mountain News publishes a commentary by Condon wherein he debunks UFOs and disparages NICAP’s contributions. It quotes Low in a similar vein. Condon talks to the project staff and retracts nothing, only saying that he was misquoted about being disenchanted about the project. Project members hold a meeting without Low and Condon to decide what to do. Levine pushes for mass resignation. Craig is the sole dissenter. Saunders sides with Levine but wants to explore other strategies. Ultimately, they decide to prepare their own report, one “so compelling that Condon would be forced to accept it on its merits.” (UFOs Yes, 142 – 146 ; Swords 325) September 28 — 1:30 a.m. Omar Amaya T., chief dispatcher at the Maiquetia International Airport [now the Simón Bolívar International Airport], Venezuela, watches three luminous disc pass across the sky from north to south. Suddenly one lags behind and dives toward the sea but veers up just before contact. Resuming its position in the formation, it joins the other objects as they disappear to the east. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 70) September 28 — 4:00 p.m. Many people in Caracas, Venezuela, watch a luminous metallic disc cross the sky with an oscillating motion and appear to land on Cerro El Ávila. A Similar object is seen taking off from the same spot about 2 hours later. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, p. 70) September 29 — 8:30 p.m. Four workers in a restaurant at Wernersville, Pennsylvania, are alerted by a neighbor to go outside and watch nine red, pulsating, cigar-shaped objects flying northeastward. A large triangle-shaped object, also pulsating red, flies into view. The triangle stops and changes colors to white, green, then back to red. It takes off in a zigzag motion to the northeast. (R. G. Shunk, “Letter,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 6, no. 1 (Feb./March 1985): 4)

October — The DOSAAF Cosmonautics Committee invites the Soviet UFO Study Group to function under its auspices. (Wikipedia, “Felix Ziegel”) October — 8:30 p.m. David R. Smith watches a diffuse object with a series of 5– 6 lighted square and oval windows about 450 – 600 feet away at treetop level near Homer, Louisiana. It rises and heads south. After 50 seconds, the lights blink out. (NICAP case file) October 3 — Pilot William “Pete” Knight reaches a speed of 4,519 mph (Mach 6.72) in a North American X-15 rocket plane, a record that stands today. (Wikipedia, “William J. Knight”) October 4 — From early evening until 11:30 p.m., numerous independent witnesses observe unexplained aerial activity in Nova Scotia. Near Sambro at 9:00 pm, Capt. Leo Howard Mersey and 20 crewmembers of the MV Nickerson see four brilliant red lights in a rectangular formation that appear to be on or just above the water. Occasionally one flares up so brightly that it causes an afterimage in their eves. The objects are also tracked on ship’s radar. They file a report with the Lunenburg CMP office. Between 11:00 and 11:30 pm, northwest of Brier Island, the captain and crew of a fishing vessel see a brilliant white light the size of the moon. As they watch, three brilliant yellow lights emerge and form a triangle around the larger light. The satellite objects then move across the sky and back at high speed. Observations are also made by other vessels. Five miles southwest of Weymouth, a policeman and three game wardens see an orange-colored light just above the tree line moving silently and slowly with spark-like objects emanating. At about 11:20 p.m., just west of Shag Harbour, Laurie Wickens and four other teenagers driving in a car along Highway 3 see an object flying low, flashing four lights one after the other, in a straight line. It appears to be slowly descending at a 45° angle. Multiple witnesses hear a whistling sound “like a bomb,” then a “whoosh,” and finally a loud bang. When next seen by the teens, the object has hit the water’s surface 820 – 980 feet offshore. It drifts on the surface, showing a pale-yellow light. Wickens contacts the RCMP detachment in Barrington Passage and reports he has seen a large airplane or small airliner crash into the waters off Shag Harbour. Within about 15 minutes, 10 RCMP officers arrive at the scene. Concerned for survivors, the RCMP detachment contacts the Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax to advise them of the situation and ask if any aircraft were missing. Before any attempt at rescue can be made, the object starts to sink and disappears from view. A rescue mission is quickly assembled. Within half an hour of the crash, local fishing boats go out to the crash site in the waters of the Gulf of Maine off Shag Harbour to look for survivors. No survivors, bodies, or debris are found, either by the fishermen or by a Canadian Coast Guard search and rescue cutter, which arrives about an hour later from nearby Clark’s Harbour. By the next morning, RCC Halifax has determined that no aircraft are missing. The same morning, RCC Halifax also sends a priority telex to the Air Desk at Royal Canadian Air Force headquarters in Ottawa, which handles all civilian and military UFO sightings, informing them of the crash and that all conventional explanations such as aircraft or flares have been dismissed. The head of the Air Desk, Squadron Leader William Bain sends another priority telex to the Royal Canadian Navy headquarters concerning the “UFO report” and recommends an underwater search be mounted. The RCN in turn sends another priority telex tasking Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic with carrying out the search. A detachment of RCN divers from Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic is assembled on the HMCS Granby on October 6 and for the next three days they comb the seafloor looking for an object. The final report says no trace of an object is found. In the 1990s, researcher Chris Styles finds evidence that there is a second crash the same night. Witnesses see American naval exercises in Shelburne Harbour 30 miles to the northeast. Speculation is that the original object may have traveled underwater from Shag Harbour to Shelburne. (Wikipedia, “Shag Harbour UFO incident”; Sanderson, InvRes, pp. 38 – 39; Condon, pp. 351 – 353 ; Good Need, pp. 279– 282 ; Don Ledger, “UFO Crash at Shag Harbour,” IUR 22, no. 4 (Winter 1997–1998): 8–9, 20; Don Ledger and Chris Styles, Dark Object, Dell, 2001; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 94–98; Chris Rutkowski, “The Cold, Hard Facts about UFOs in Canada,” IUR 34 , no. 1 (September 2011 ): 9 – 10; “The 1967 Shag Harbour UFO Crash: Documents Related to Crash,” Roswell Proof; “Shag Harbour News Articles,” Roswell Proof; Clark 284 – 285; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 129– 137 ) October 5 — 9:30 p.m. Colorado Superior Court Judge Charles E. Bennett and his wife Christina spot three circular, red- orange objects traveling from the east to the southeast in a triangular formation over Denver, Colorado. They can hear a distinct humming or whirring sound. They move out of sight in 6 seconds. (“Flap Continues in the States,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1967, p. 10) October 6 — 7:00 p.m. Radar at Vandenberg AFB, near Lompoc, California, detects a very large stationary object some miles over the Pacific Ocean off the Northern California coast. Later, radar detects numerous small but strong targets traveling eastward in irregular flight. (NICAP, “Condon Case 35”; Condon, pp. 171–172, 353 – 365 ) October 7 — 8:00 p.m. Russell Hill is sitting down to dinner at the Raspberry Ridge Lookout Station in Alberta when the cabin lights begin to flicker. He goes out to check the generator and sees an odd green light moving slowly up the valley from south to north. It approaches to within 500 feet of the cabin. The object is about 75 feet in diameter

and looks like two bowls clamped together. Around the rim is a pulsating green light that seems to come from a neon tube. Another green light is rotating slowly inside the top portion, and there are porthole-shaped indentations in the side. Suddenly the light on the rim is extinguished, the upper gfreen light turns white, and the object ascends at a terrific speed, trailing jets of flame. (“Object Photographed in Canada,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1967, p. 11) October 7– 9 — Capture and death of Che Guevara in Bolivia. Félix Rodríguez, a Cuban exile turned CIA Special Activities Division operative, advised Bolivian troops during the hunt for Guevara in Bolivia. In addition, the 2007 documentary My Enemy ’ s Enemy alleges that Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie advised and possibly helped the CIA orchestrate Guevara’s capture. (Wikipedia, “Che Guevara”) October 9 — 5:40 p.m. The 13-year-old son of a prominent businessman is riding a bicycle along a wash in the back of his home in the area of the Tucson Speedway in Arizona. He comes across a cylindrical metallic object standing on end and sitting on two legs about 44 feet away from him. The legs end in circular pads and are joined by a curved bar. The object, which is making a low-pitched hum, is about 8 feet tall and more than 2 feet wide. The boy approaches it for a better view, but it takes off vertically and disappears in 12 seconds. He finds two impressions in the hard surface of the wash, 13.4 inches across and about 42 inches apart (measuring from the outer edges). (“Landing at Tucson,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1967, pp. 1, 4) October 10 — The Lorenzens visit the Colorado project and find its investigatory procedures “sadly lacking,” with no standard report form or methodology. They also meet with Boulder Daily Camera journalist R. Roger Harkins, who has been covering the Colorado project. They give him a 7-point rationale on why the CIA might be interested in UFOs, just to see if it gets published. Harkins dictates the story to the Associated Press, but it is never published. The Lorenzens suspect the project has a CIA mole. (Low did work for the CIA in 1949 when it was aiding Albanian resistance fighters.) (UFOs Yes, 129, 175 – 176; Lorenzen, Encounters with UFO Occupants, Berkley Medallion, 1976, p. 5 ; Robin W. Winks, Cloak and Gown: Scholars in the Secret War, 1939 – 1961 , Morrow, pp. 396 – 397 ) October 11 — Rex Heflin is visited by a strange group of men in air force uniforms. He obtains their names. They ask him about his 1965 photos and topics like the Bermuda Triangle. He notices a figure in the back seat of their car and a violet glow. Heflin thinks he is being photographed or recorded. The FM radio acts strangely. October 11 — 8:00 p.m. Nora Tibbs is driving on Highway 2 near Aldersyde, Alberta, when the headlights, radio, and car engine stop. She notices an oval-shaped object with a turret on top that begins to circle her car. It has two white lights and a lighted-up underside. It circles the car four or five times at a height of 1,000 feet, then flies away. The witness feels cold during the sighting. The car engine starts by itself as the object leaves. (“Object Photographed in Canada,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1967, p. 11; Ted Phillips, Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings, Center for UFO Studies, 1978, p. 37) October 12 — Night. Comedian Dick Gregory is at a party with friends at Big Sur, California, when three lights appear in the sky. One is fiery red, while the other two are bright green. The objects dart about sideways, backwards, in circles, in jagged lines, and in formation. When Gregory’s writer, Jim Saunders, signals with a flashlight, the objects seem to respond by moving in the same direction as the beam. The partygoers watch the lights for about 40 minutes. Gregory takes two Polaroid photographs that show a red object at the top and two green ones at the bottom. (Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, p. 131) October 13 — McDonnell Douglas aerospace engineer Robert M. Wood briefs the Colorado project on UFOs. Subsequently, Wood writes Condon a critical but polite letter listing his concerns about the project’s shortcomings. He later learns that Condon has contacted CEO James Smith McDonnell and tried to get him fired. (Robert M. Wood, “A Little Physics…A Little Friction: A Close Encounter with the Condon Committee,” IUR 18, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1993): 6–10) October 14 — 2:30 a.m. Physicist Lewis E. Hollander Jr. and his wife and son are driving near Mendota, California, when they see a reddish-orange light source hovering close to the road. They then notice a triangular shape beneath the light. Thirty seconds later it moves upward to the west, increasing its speed. The triangular shape fades, and Hollander notices a white glow (“definitely an ionization color”) behind it. It disappears at an extreme altitude after 3 minutes. (NICAP case file) October 14 — 7:45 p.m. A father and son are returning from a fishing trip when they notice an odd orange object like a “haystack on fire” landed in the desert near Ouray, Utah. They stop, get out of the car, and watch. The object lifts off immediately, looking like a half-moon in shape and size. It then goes over to the Moon and flies a loop around it, keeping its flat side down. Then it flies across the Moon’s face and leaves to the northwest. (Frank B. Salisbury, The Utah UFO Display, Devin-Adair, 1974, pp. 53 – 55; Michael D. Swords, “We Know Where You Live,” IUR 30, no. 2 (January 2006): 10)

October 17 — Rep. Louis C. Wyman (R-N.H.) submits House Resolution 946 for a full UFO investigation by the House Committee on Science and Astronautics. (“Investigation of Unidentified Flying Objects,” Congressional Record, House, 90th Cong., 1st Sess., October 17, 1967, vol. 113, part 21, p. 28949) October 18 — 400 individuals attend the first meeting of the UFO Study Group of the All-Union Committee on Cosmonautics of the Russian DOSAAF. Retired Soviet Air Force Maj. Gen. Porfiri Stolyarov is elected chairman and Felix Ziegel agrees to be deputy chairman. Members include author Alexander Kazantsev, engineer Arkady Tikhonov, a cosmonaut, 18 scientists, and 200 qualified observers stationed throughout the country. (“Late News: Official Russian Move on UFOs,” Flying Saucer Review 13, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1967): 2; Hobana and Weverbergh 35; Good Above, p. 232 ) October 21 — 6:16 a.m. Two control tower operators and an observer at the south end of the runway at Blytheville Air Force Base [now Arkansas International Airport] in Blytheville, Arkansas, see two dark oblong objects flying east to west at about 1,200–1,500 feet. They are tracked by RAPCON radar for 2 miles. They make a turn to the southwest and disappear. (NICAP, “RAPCON Tracks Object, Two Objects Observed from the Ground”; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 60, 75 ) October 21 — 10:00 p.m. Ivan Ritter, Jerry Bennet, and two other teens are driving east out of Duncan, Oklahoma, on the new State Highway 7. They see something in the road ahead, far out of the range of their headlights. When the driver turns on his high-beam lights, they see three men who seem to fly off the road and disappear. They are about 4 feet tall and wearing tight-fitting blue-green clothing. Their faces appear human, but with large ears. The next morning, Ritter and Bennet look around for evidence at the landing site, but all they find is a small, four-toes footprint in the muddy bottom of a creek bed about 300 feet from the road. (Lorenzen, UFOs over the Americas, Signet, 1968, pp. 84–85) October 22 — Night. Edward Fortney and another real-estate agent are locking up for the night in Charleswood, a suburb of Winnipeg, Manitoba, when they notice a formation of brilliant red, pulsating lights above an adjacent field. They are joined by six other people who have stopped their car to look at the lights. Two similar lights appear and take up a position near the formation. The objects then rise and move away noiselessly in formation. Floating above Canada Highway 100, they appear to change positions, forming a perfect triangle. Fortney looks at them through binoculars and sees dark rectangular objects that the lights are attached to. The formation dips and bobs toward a line of high-voltage towers half a mile away. The three lights in triangular formation break up and form a single file, the wires and towers lighting up with a red glow as they speed over them. They are last seen traveling northwest. On his way home, Fortney experiences a “skullbuster” headache that lasts until midnight. The next day, he visits the site in the field and finds child-like footprints in the moist soil, 7 inches long and under 3 inches wide, leading to and from a peculiar circular pile of fist-sized stones. The heel marks seem deeply impressed in the soil. Fortney also experiences leg and back pain, sunburn on his face and hands, and a yellow- green coating on his tongue. (Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 47 – 50) October 24 — 4:00 a.m. Two police constables, Roger Willey and Clifford Waycott, chase a bright cross-shaped light in their patrol car at 90 mph between Holsworthy and Hatherleigh on the A307 road, Devon, England. The object appears to land behind some trees, but takes off before they can reach the site, though they approach to within 120 feet of the object. The UFO is later observed to rendezvous in the sky with a similar object. Other policemen report a UFO on this day and the following day. (Bernard Wignall, “The Okehampton Incident,” Flying Saucer Review 13, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1967): 5; UFOFiles2, pp. 75– 76 ; Geoff Falla, “The Flying Cross Episode,” BUFORA, 2012; Ian Ridpath, “Devon ‘Flying Cross’ of 1967 Revisited,” Ian Ridpath’s UFO Skeptic, March 2021 ) October 24 — 9:30 p.m. Donald Chiszar, 13, and Pat Crosier, 10, are sitting on the Crosier front porch in Newfield, New York, when they see a bright disc-like object approach them with its leading edge tilted toward them. On top is a knob-like protuberance with an antenna and hanging beneath the object is a “square box” full of red, green, and white lights. Two humanoid figures and control panels are visible through windows. The object then tilts back and shoots out of sight. Their hand-held radios produce loud static during the sighting. (“Flap Continues in the States,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1967, p. 10; Richard H. Hall, “Dyad ‘Scout Craft,’” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000 – 2001): 23– 24 ; Condon, pp. 375 – 379 ) October 25 — 3:15 p.m. R. G. Putnam, a brakeman on a train running from Truro, Nova Scotia, to Moncton, New Brunswick, when he sees a disc with green vapor billowing from it pacing the train at treetop level near Wentworth Station, Nova Scotia. Putnam feels an intense blast of radiation, forcing him to cover his face with his hands to look at it. The object soon drifts away from the train, tips to a 45° angle, then turns to a vertical poistion. A jet arrives, seemingly in pursuit, and the object levels out, taking on the appearance of a cigar-shaped cloud. Both fly out of sight to the west after 35 minutes of observation. One week later, the hair on the back of Putnam’s

hands disappears, his hands shrivel up, and his eyes are sore and swollen. Two weeks later, his chest and throat get sore. He reports the sighting to the RCMP and the Canadian Forces, but apparently gets no response. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’ s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 104–105) October 26 — 11:25 a.m. J. B. W. “Angus” Brooks, a former BOAC pilot and photo interpreter, is walking his Dalmatian and German shepherd at Moigne Downs near Ringstead Bay, Dorset, England. An odd-looking craft descends and hovers at an altitude of 200–300 feet at a distance of about a quarter mile from them for 22 minutes. The German shepherd has been foraging for game; when she returns she seems “distraught” as she stands beside Brooks. Her ears are pricked, indicating she is worried about the sounds she is hearing, although Brooks can detect no sound from the object. The odd-shaped craft has a central round chamber estimated to be 25 feet in diameter and 12 feet thick. Four long slender fuselages (estimated 75 feet long and 8 feet wide) extend from the central chamber. In flight, one of the 4 fuselages leads, while the other three are together in the rear. As the object slows to hover, the fuselages move to form a cross. The object rotates 90 °, then remains motionless for 22 minutes despite strong winds. Upon departure, the leading fuselage is not the one that led on approach. The remaining 3 fuselages come together in the rear as on the approach, and the object climbs away with increasing speed. The craft appears translucent, taking on the color of the sky above it. There are dark shadows along the bases of the fuselages and the center chamber. On future visits to this area, the German shepherd appears nervous. (Angus Brooks, “Remarkable Sighting near Dorset,” Flying Saucer Review 14, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1968): 3–4; R. H. B. Winder, “Comment on the Angus Brooks Sighting,” Flying Saucer Review 14, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1968): 4–5; “‘Flying Cross’ UFOs over Britain,” UFO Investigator 4, no. 3 (Nov./Dec. 1967): 3; “Important New Details on Flying Cross,” UFO Investigator 4, no. 4 (Jan./Feb. 1968): 4–5; Good Above, pp. 63 – 64 , 455 ; UFOFiles2, pp. 77– 79 ) October 27 — 3:00 a.m. Charlie Little, the pilot of a Piper-Twin Comanche, with two other pilots and a passenger on board, is flying over the Atlantic northeast of Jacksonville, Florida. They see a bright light, which becomes visible as six huge, round, bright-white lights in a horizontal row on a darker object. It approaches on a collision course and is seen to be a gray equilateral triangle with a triangular opening at its center. The object makes an unbanked 180 ° turn, then takes off and disappears in a flash. (Willy Smith, “A Huge ‘Open’ Triangular UFO,” IUR 9, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1984): 4– 6 ; Philip J. Klass, “Letter,” IUR 10, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1985): 13; “Charles Little Responds,” IUR 10, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1095): 13) October 27 — 3:00 a.m. A waitress driving home in Parshall, North Dakota, sees a large, round, revolving object with alternating triangular areas of coloration. The object is low and moving horizontally an estimated two blocks away. As it paces her car, she sees 2 – 3 white light beams coming down vertically from the object. Her car drives like it has flat tires or rocks that are hitting the bottom of the chassis. A second witness, police Lt. Glen G. Brunsell, sees a low-altitude, bright round light like a welding-torch that illuminates the ground. The object moves slowly with vertical oscillations and changes color from blue to green-white. It departs vertically, disappearing in 5 seconds. (“AF Log Reveals Wave,” UFO Investigator 4, no. 7 (July/Aug. 1968): 6– 7 ; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 101– 102 ) October 27 — 3:30 a.m. Truck driver Chris R. Helgesen observes a spinning, reddish, round object, about 100 feet in diameter, pace his truck for about half a mile on US Highway 83 north of Max, North Dakota. The object then hovers above a field, paces the truck again, hovers, paces the truck again (stopping when it stops), turns blue, picks up speed, turns green, then shoots away to the southeast, turns yellow, and vanishes. Helgesen has it in view for about one hour. (“New Close-Ups, Pacings,” UFO Investigator 4, no. 5 (March 1968): 3) October 27 — 2:20 p.m. Timothy Robinson, 13, and his family are startled by the roar of a jet aircraft overhead at Winchester, Hampshire, England. He dashes out into the garden and sees two English Electric Lightning fighters fly low overhead. Ahead of the aircraft is a black, mushroom-shaped object streaking away to the west. It changes direction abruptly to the northwest and disappears into a cloud, climbing steeply and outmaneuvering the Lightnings. (Good Above, p. 62 ) October 3 0 — 9:30 p.m. Alexander Spargo is traveling alone in his car on the Mayanup–Kojonup road about 10 miles east of Mayanup in Western Australia at a speed of about 60–65 miles per hour. He is approached by a lighted object from the sky. A beam of light comes from a “tube” on the object and immerses the car. Almost immediately, the car stops dead. However, there is no feeling of deceleration. The vehicle’s motor, lights, and radio go off. Spargo hears no noise. The tube seems 2–3 feet in diameter. It is not uncomfortable to the eyes. After about 5 minutes, the tube closes off and the object disappears. His vehicle is suddenly going at 60–65 miles per hour again, with no feeling of acceleration. The object is only seen from underneath, but he estimates its diameter as 30 feet and about 100 feet up in the air. It glows an iridescent blue. (Keith Basterfield, Vladimir Godic, and Pony Godic, “Australian Ufology: A Review,” JUFOS 2 (1990): 27– 28 ; Keith Basterfield, “Cold Case Investigation: Boyup Brook WA, 30 Oct 1967,” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena—Scientific Investigation, September 23, 2012; Keith

Basterfield, “Police Report on the Boyup Brook Encounter, Uncovered,” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena—
Scientific Investigation, August 29, 2017)

November — Ufologist Ted Bloecher privately publishes a massive Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, detailing 853 reports gleaned from his years of research into newspaper archives in June–July 1947. The preface is written by James E. Mcdonald. (Ted Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, The Author, 1967) November 2 — 9:30 p.m. Navajo ranch hands Willie Begay and Guy Tossie, both 23, are driving south of Ririe, Idaho, on US Highway 26 when they are blinded by a flash of light. Their car comes to a stop, and immediately in front of them they see an object 6–8 feet in diameter and 3 feet thick, hovering 5 feet off the ground and shaped like two saucers joined together. Around the rim is a row of alternately flashing orange and green lights. On top is a transparent dome, where two small entities are visible. The dome flips open, and one occupant floats out and approaches the car. It is 3 feet tall, bald, with ears set high on its head, round eyes, and a mouth like a slit. It is wearing tight-fitting coveralls and carries a pack on its back. It opens the car door and sits behind the wheel as Begay and Tossie move in horror to the right. The car begins to move as if fastened to the craft into a field of wheat stubble where Tossie gets out and runs toward the farmhouse of Willard Hammon for help, followed by another entity apparently holding a light. Begay stays in the front seat of the car with the first entity, who tries to communicate with him, twice saying something in a high, chirruping voice. The second entity returns, and the two float back to the craft, which rises and departs, a yellow flame-like light coming from the bottom. Hammon lets Tossie inside his farmhouse, where he eventually calms down and tells his story. They go back to the site, where they find Begay in a state of shock in the car. At 11:30 p.m., an anonymous witness driving between Ririe and Rigby, Idaho, sees a landed UFO with a small occupant who stops the car and taps on the side window. (“NICAP Panel Studies Occupant Reports,” UFO Investigator 5, no. 1 (Sept./Oct. 1969): 5–6; Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 23–27; Clark III 1009– 1010 ; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 145– 147 ) November 6 — 1:30 a.m. On a section of the A338 road [now B3347] south of Sopley, Hampshire, England, truck driver Karl Farlow (or Barlow) finds that the lights on his diesel truck have failed. As he pulls over, he sees a glowing, 15 - foot-wide, egg-shaped UFO that moves slowly across the road from the right, passes slowly to the left, then speeds up and disappears. The object makes a sound like a refrigerator and gives off a smell like a drill boring through wood. Before it goes away, a Jaguar sports car comes from the opposite direction, and its engine stalls and lights fail. The UFO glows a vivid green color. The diesel engine is not affected. The driver of the Jaguar is a veterinary surgeon, and he and Farlow call the police from a nearby call box. The witnesses note that there are marks on the ground and the road surface seems to have melted. The veterinarian’s girl passenger is taken to a hospital suffering from shock. A week later, Farlow notices that a 200-foot stretch of the road at the encounter site has been completely resurfaced and the call box has been repainted. (NICAP, “Disabled Engine Continues to Run”; Roy Winstanley, “Now the UFOs Are Stopping the Traffic,” Spacelink 5, no. 1 (December 1967): wrap; “Landings on Increase,” APRO Bulletin, Nov./Dec. 1967, pp. 1, 3; Good Above, pp. 64 – 65 ) November 8 — 3:30–4:00 a.m. A business executive is driving near Lake Elsinore, California, when his lights go out, the car stops, and the radio goes out. He feels a strong pressure on his head and shoulders. He then notices a red- orange object 30 feet in diameter hovering in the road ahead at about 160 feet in altitude. The object hovers about 90 seconds before it takes off into the fog. (Condon, pp. 380 – 385 ; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 66–67) November 8 — MP Peter Mills asks about UFO sightings in Devon, England, in the UK House of Commons and receives assurances from Under-Secretary of State for Defence Merlyn Rees, who says that the October 24 police chase involved either aircraft or the planet Venus. Mills asks if the ministry consulted scientists about the sightings, and Rees replies that both scientists and psychologists have been consulted. (Good Above, pp. 65 – 66 ) November 8 — Through unrelenting pressure by British ufologist Julian J. A. Hennessey, the Ministry of Defence and RAF UFO files are no longer discarded every five years as of transitory interest. The MoD confirms that it will retain its remaining UFO documents. Further pressure to retain files comes in 1970 from MP John Langford-Holt. (UFOFiles2, pp. 114– 115 ; David Clarke, “Briefing Document: Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs),” August 2011) November 10 — Stolyarov and Ziegel, speaking on Russian Central TV, encourage viewers to send their first-hand accounts in to the newly formed Soviet UFO Study Group. The response is overwhelming and embarrassing to the DOSAAF All-Union Committee of Cosmonautics. Army Gen. A. L. Getman dissolves the UFO Study Group by the end of November. (Wikipedia, “Felix Ziegel”; Good Above, p. 233 ; Joe Brill, “UFOs behind the Iron Curtain,” Skylook, no. 86, January 1975, p. 14) November 13 — Condon, Low, and editor Harriet Hunter meet to discuss the final University of Colorado report. Condon deliberately excludes the other senior staff because he is now insisting on no old cases and no “case book.” He

insists on including everything in which the Colorado project participated in, even phone calls. He wants to write a section on the harm done by irresponsible UFO authors. The meeting ends with a roughed-out list of subject sections and authors. Condon reserves writing the summary and methodology sections himself. He assigns to Hunter the job of selecting which cases are included and how they are written up (perhaps he no longer trusts Low to do this). (Swords 326–328) November 14 — Keyhoe writes separate letters to Condon and Low, asking if they will agree to examine NICAP’s cases. November 15 — Canadian Forces Wing Commander Douglas F. Robertson prepares a 28-page briefing document, CDS Briefing on Unidentified Flying Objects, on the status of UFO sightings in Canada to Gen. Jean Victor Allard, Chief of the Defence Staff. It reviews facts and procedures and describes cases that have been handled within the ministry, including the Falcon Lake and Shag Harbour cases, as well as the Warren Smith photo. Robertson advises that UFO sightings are taking up too much of the military’s time, but that the scientific community, specifically the University of Toronto Institute of Aerospace Studies, might find them interesting. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 24–59) November 15 — The crew of Quebecair Flight 650 sees a bright object at the end of the runway at Sept-Îles Airport, Quebec. It is as large as a star and stationary. (Good Above, p. 200 ) November 17 — 6:00 p.m. David Seewaldt, 13, is crossing a vacant lot in Calgary, Alberta. He hears a high-pitched sound and sees a slivery gray UFO the size of a house about to land. A beam of light shoots from it, putting him in a “trance” and pulling him into the craft, where he meets two hideous-looking entities with brown crocodile skin, slits for mouths, and holes for noses and ears. They wear no clothes and have hands with only four fingers. They take Seewaldt’s clothes off and lead him into another room where one studies his hair, eyes, and nose. An orange ceiling light is directed on him and he is given a shot with a small needle. The entities dress him again and beam him back to the field. He runs home in a state of terror and hides under the bed. All conscious memory of the event vanishes until 5 months later, when it returns in a dream. In 1968 he is hypnotically regressed by a Dr. Masson of the University of Alberta. (W. K. Allan, “Crocodile-Skinned Entities at Calgary,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 6 (April 1975): 25–26; Clark III 280 ; “David Seewaldt,” etcetrasetcetras, June 13, 2008) Late November — Night. A large, illuminated hemispherical object appears low over the shore of the Baltic Sea near Liepāja, Latvia. Its light is difficult to look at with the naked eye. Later it begins to move and quickly vanishes over the horizon. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, p. 171) November 2 1 — 4:30 p.m. David V. Marin sees an object that looks like an upside-down candle from his backyard at the edge of Poienarii Burchii, Romania. He watches it for 10 minutes as it hovers at about 90 feet. It starts moving slowly northwest and its tail elongates. (Romania 15–16) November 22 — Saunders pays Keyhoe a surprise visit in Washington, D.C., and allows him to photocopy the Low memorandum, saying it should be shared with the NICAP board. Roger Harkins hears about the memo about the same time. (UFOs Yes, 17 9, 193–194) November 22 — MP Patrick Wall asks the UK Secretary of State for Defence Merlyn Rees what exchange of UFO information between the UK, US, and Russian governments is taking place. Rees replies that the ministry is in touch with the Americans but not the Russians. (Good Above, p. 66 ) November 22 — 12:30 p.m. Ladislau Schmidt is sitting in his kitchen in Petrila, Romania, with the outside door open. Suddenly his chickens run inside the house, terrified. Looking up, he sees a silvery disc-shaped object with a dome and antennas hovering at 15,000 feet. It rotates and moves away at high speed to the northwest until it is out of sight. (Hobana and Weverbergh 166–167) November 22 — 4:25 p.m. US Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. John Rich Butler and copilot Lt. John H. Gould are flying 10 miles off the New Hampshire coastline when they see an object like a white rocket flying with a lateral motion. It first moves upward for 2 seconds at the rear of the aircraft. It reappears and disappears twice, then another object that looks like a light aircraft with an unusual white, flashing light passes above them at a distance of 100–200 feet. Gould has the impression it has swept wings. (NICAP case file; Jan L. Aldrich, “Updated Draft Catalogue of UFOs/USOs Reported by Seagoing Services, NavCat 2,0, 1964–2007,” 2015) November 24 — Canadian Wing Commander D. F. Robertson, after advocating that the RCAF transfer its UFO files to the National Research Council, writes a memo urging the NRC to work with the University of Toronto and the Department of National Defence in investigating Canadian UFO reports. (Good Above, p. 192 ) November 30 — Allen R. Utke, Wisconsin State University–Oshkosh assistant professor of chemistry, writes Gerald Ford in support of House Resolution 946 sponsored by Rep. Louis C. Wyman, remarking that the UFO “phenomenon could be of great importance and concern to this country.” (Bill Murphy, “The Swamp Gas Aftermath: Some Notes from the Gerald Ford Files,” IUR 33, no. 2 (July 2010): 14)

Late 1967 — The Institute for Aerospace Studies at the University of Toronto, Ontario, begins a UFO study. By October 1968, it is on the verge of collapse for “lack of something to investigate.” The study terminates in 1970, but no report on its findings is ever released. (Arthur Bray, “Government Cover-Up Exposed,” Canadian UFO Report 3, no. 2 (1975): 20) December — The Soviet Academy of Sciences’ Physics Department, led by Lev Artsimovich, passes a resolution denouncing studying of UFOs as such. The Soviet UFO Study Group is effectively neutered. (Wikipedia, “Felix Ziegel”; Hobana and Weverbergh 36–37) December 1 — Condon and Low write Keyhoe back separately and do not commit to looking at his reports, although they praise NICAP’s assistance. (“The Colorado Project Report,” UFO Investigator 4, no. 4 (Jan./Feb. 1968): 5) December 2 — 9:30 p.m. A lieutenant-major in the Romanian army is on duty in the radar station at Băneasa Airfield [now Aurel Vlaicu International Airport] near Bucharest, Romania, when he goes outside to observe an airplane. But the supposed aircraft is a strong, stationary light 30–40° in the north that descends rapidly, ascends again, moves left to right, then descends again. Through binoculars it looks conical or bullet shaped. Dozens of other personnel watch it until it disappears around 11:30 p.m. (Hobana and Weverbergh 176–177) December 3 — Early a.m. Police Sgt. Herbert Schirmer checks on restless cattle twice at a barn near Ashland, Nebraska. At 2:30 a.m. he is driving on US Highway 6 when he notices some red lights along State Route 63 that might be a stalled truck. He drives a short distance up that road and stops with his headlights shining on the object. The red lights are blinking through the windows of a disc hovering at a tilt 150 feet away and 6–8 feet above the road. It looks made of shiny, polished aluminum. It ascends slowly with a sort of siren sound and emits a flamelike substance from the bottom. His head sticking out the window, Schirmer watches it pass overhead then shoot up out of sight. He drives back to the police station and writes in the log book, “Saw a flying saucer at the junction of highways 6 and 63. Believe it or not!” He is puzzled to see it is 3:00 a.m. He gets a headache and a buzzing noise in his head. He also has a red welt below one of his ears. In the morning, Chief Bill Wlaskin goes to the site and finds a piece of metal that he shows to Colorado project investigators. It turns out to be composed of iron and silicon. On February 13, 1968, Schirmer is hypnotized in Boulder, Colorado, by R. Leo Sprinkle. During the session he remembers that his car engine and radio failed, and a blurry white object came out of the UFO and communicated with him telepathically. He is taken on board by aliens (who first ask him, “Are you the watchman over this place?”). They are humanoids, 4–5 feet tall with long heads, gray-white skin, and cat-like eyes. They wear silver-gray helmets with small antennas on the left side of the ear area. Their uniforms and gloves are the same color. An unusual feature of this case is the emblem of a winged serpent on the left breast of each entity’s uniform. The Colorado project comes to a predictable conclusion: “Evaluation of psychological assessment tests, the lack of any evidence, and interviews with the patrolmen left project staff with no confidence that the trooper’s reported UFO experience was physically real.” Schirmer undergoes hypnosis again on June 8, 1968, and more details emerge. (Clark III 1034– 1038 ; Condon, pp. 389 – 391 ; Michael D. Swords, “Too Close for Condon: Close Encounters of the 4th Kind,” IUR 28, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 3– 4 ; Story, pp. 318 – 319 ; Kevin D. Randle, “The Schirmer Abduction,” A Different Perspective, October 13, 2008; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 147– 149 ) December 5 — 10:30 p.m. Six teenagers returning from a basketball game in Concordia, Kansas, detour to drive by a cemetery. They see a light blinking in the sky ahead, moving in an up-and-down motion to the north. It appears to be flashing different colors or rotating. They follow it for about two miles, hoping for a better look. (Condon, pp. 391 – 394 ) December 8 — 7:40 p.m. Marilyn Wilding, 15, goes out on her front step in Idaho Falls, Idaho, to look for a friend. A light reflecting on the snow on the ground causes her to look up, and she sees a brightly lit circular object “about as big as a car” hovering above the house. The object then tips and rotates so she can see it has a transparent dome on top. Inside the dome are two indistinct figures. The object rotates clockwise, maintaining its inclination. It begins moving away; as it recedes into the distance, its light dims and turns orange. (UFOEv II 459 ; Northern Ontario UFO Research and Study, “Circular Object with Dome and Two ‘Figures’ Inside”; Patrick Gross, “Falls, Idaho, December 8, 1967”) December 10 — 7:30 a.m. Psychologist Adina Păun is walking past the Republic Factories in Bucharest, Romania, when she sees a bluish-green object above the plant at about 45°. It has projecting, tapered spines that are as long as half its diameter. It is higher than rain clouds that sometimes obscure it, but lower than high-altitude, fast-moving white clouds. She continues watching it for 15 minutes as she walks along, but it drifts out of sight when she gets home on Magnet Strada. (Hobana and Weverbergh 180) December 12 — Levine, Saunders, and Mary Lou Armstrong bring Hynek together with James McDonald to discuss forming a new group after the project ends, no matter what its conclusion is. The meeting goes fairly well. After Hynek leaves, McDonald brings up the Low memorandum. He has apparently heard about it from Keyhoe.

Saunders gives him an official copy. Levine approaches Craig about a separate report, but Craig considers it mutiny. (UFOs Yes, 179 – 180) December 12 — The British Embassy in Moscow, Russia, is directed by London to look into British-Russian cooperation in the investigation of UFO reports with Stolyarov’s Soviet UFO Study Group. The embassy does not hear back and does not pursue the subject. (Good Above, pp. 234 – 235 ) December 12 — 7:00 p.m. Rita Malley is driving home from work on Route 34 in Newfield, New York, with her young son. She notices a red light behind her. As it draws closer, she sees it is a disc-shaped object as large as a boxcar moving at about 90 feet above the road. Then it passes overhead and causes the car to go off the road into a ditch, and Malley became terrified. Her son in the back seat looks immobilized with his eyes “bugged out.” A white beam emanates from the humming object above her and she hears voices in her head saying that her son would not remember this and that a friend of hers has been killed in a car accident. (This turns out to be true.) The car then moves out of the ditch and back onto the road facing the wrong way. She finds that she can control the car again and speeds home. (Lloyd Mallan, “Ithaca’s Terrifying Flying Saucer Epidemic,” Science and Mechanics 39 (July 1968): 30–33, 96–97; T. M. Wright, “UFO’s over Ithaca,” Fate 22, no. 2 (February 1969): 44–52) December 13 — 2:00 a.m. As a man is driving near Edmonton, Alberta, his car lights dim and engine sputters. He pulls to the side of the road and opens the hood, when he notices a dome-shaped object hovering 450 feet away. It is metallic, has lights around the edge, and is about 50 feet high. The object rocks back and forth within a range of 10 – 15 feet but remains above the road. Over the next hour, the car body heats up and the witness’s hair gets hot. His flashlight fails to work. Finally, the object shoots straight up and vanishes in 2–3 seconds. His headlights come back on, but he starts the motor only with difficulty. (Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 39 ) December 15 — The Silver Bridge over the Ohio River between Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio, collapses under the weight of rush-hour traffic, resulting in the deaths of 46 people. (Wikipedia, “Silver Bridge”) December 16 — Philip Klass, who has heard of McDonald’s UFO activity in Australia from Low, starts a letter-writing campaign directed at the Office of Naval Research, wanting to know who approved his funding and whether they are funding his forthcoming trip to Europe and Russia. His campaign continues for the next 18 months, bluntly attacking McDonald’s integrity and calling him a habitual liar. (Clark III 700) December 19 — 10:30 p.m. A witness is driving westbound on the east edge of Belleville, Illinois, when he sees a triangular object with a row of square lights on one side. He tries following it and manages to stay roughly beneath it until he loses track of it near Southwestern Illinois College. Because it appears to be heading toward nearby Scott AFB and the witness is familiar with the base, he goes to the control tower there to see if they have tracked anything unusual but they have not. (Marler 204– 208 , 270) December 24 — Evening. A couple driving near Tucson, Arizona, see a star-like object fall to earth. Two minutes later, they spot a blob of red light. Their engine and headlights fail. The object approaches the car, passes overhead, then moves away to the south. The engine and lights come back on as it departs. (Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 39) December 24 — 8:30 p.m. A faculty member of the Harvard Medical School and several members of his family in Belmont, Massachusetts, see a silently moving, bright orange light. It is joined by a second light one minute later, and a third about 30 seconds after that. He retrieves some binoculars and watches all three. The first two stop about 15°–25° above the horizon and remain still; the third is still moving. Three or four more lights arrive, some hovering, others moving. Two or three of the hovering lights appear to drop smaller lights that flash as they fall. All are orange in color. After about 20 minutes, they have all disappeared. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 45– 48 ) December 27 — 9:00 p.m. Two people are traveling along a back road in Wells Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, when they see three lights on the horizon. They stop the car as the lights approach. They are attached to a domed disc that is following the road at a height of 300–400 feet. As it approaches to within about 3,000 feet, it makes a banking movement that reveals square, fluorescent panels on the bottom. The dome light in their car turns on spontaneously as the whole bottom of the UFO flashes. The two witnesses get back in their truck and drive on, but the object follows them for a while, then moves off toward Elmira, New York. About 20 minutes later, the parents of one witness experience a power failure in their home on Elmira’s south side. (Michael D. Swords, “Unusual Experiences from the Timmerman Files,” IUR 27, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 23) December 29 — 10:35 p.m. C. J. McCready, his wife, and daughter see a round, glowing, sparkling, red object above their home on Briarcliff Road, Atlanta, Georgia. It hovers and drops several trails of a white substance that appear to fall like a liquid as the object moves slowly northwest. It is visible for 5 minutes. (NICAP case file)

1968

1968 — NORAD has control of continental-scale Over the Horizon radars that cover virtually the entire Eurasian continent looking for Russian and Chinese missile launches. (Clark III 807) 1968 — Presbyterian religious scholar Barry Downing publishes The Bible and Flying Saucers, in which he equates Jesus and angels with space visitors and burning bushes, clouds, and Ezekiel’s chariot with spacecraft. Downing also believes that Jesus left earth in a flying saucer to another planet, or perhaps another spatial dimension, and that a flying vehicle operated by intelligent alien beings was responsible for the parting of the Red Sea. (Barry Downing. The Bible and Flying Saucers, Lippincott, 1968; Clark III 109; Jerome Clark, “Vimanas Have Landed: Ancient Astronautics in Ufology,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 29) 1968 — Science-fiction author Otto Binder publishes Flying Saucers Are Watching Us, which borrows liberally from the theories of engineer Max W. Flindt (cofounder of the Ancient Astronaut Society), who contends that extraterrestrials had conducted genetic engineering on our apelike ancestors to create modern mankind. Binder writes that space people return every few centuries to interbreed with humans to improve the stock. He follows this up with Mankind — Child of the Stars in 1974, coauthored with Flindt. (Otto O. Binder, Flying Saucers Are Watching Us, 1968; Clark III 109; Jerome Clark, “Vimanas Have Landed: Ancient Astronautics in Ufology,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 29) 1968 — Italian author Renato Vesco writes Intercettatelli Senza Sparare, making a case that the Germans had developed anti-gravity devices at the end of World War II, testing disc-shaped and tubular craft that were responsible for foo fighters. After the war, these concepts were acquired by the US and Russia, leading directly to functional flying saucers. (Renato Vesco, Intercept — But Don ’ t Shoot, Zebra/Grove, 1971; Marcello Pupilli and Giuseppe Stilo, “Solitudine di un uomo: Le teorie ufologiche e la vita di Renato Vesco (1924–1999),” UFO Forum, no. 18 (August 2001): 33– 39 ) 1968 — UFO skeptic and electrical engineer Philip J. Klass publishes his first UFO book, UFOs — Identified, in which he theorizes that sightings are caused by ball lightning and anomalous free-floating plasmas. Klass’s plasma hypothesis is not well received by anyone on either side of the UFO debate, who note that Klass is using one unverified phenomenon (his hypothetical plasmas) to explain another unverified phenomenon (UFOs). Klass and physicist James E. McDonald engage in a bitter, 18 - month-long debate, leveling a variety of charges and accusations at one another. In September 1968, Klass writes to McDonald’s superiors at the US Navy (McDonald is formally retired from the Navy, but often works with the Office of Naval Research), questioning how McDonald could spend so much time on UFO research and still fulfill the requirements for his atmospheric research grant. This does not result in McDonald losing ONR funding, but it does draw some criticism of Klass from members of the UFO community. (Philip J. Klass, UFOs — Identified, Random House, 1968; Clark III 659) 1968 — Vladimir Godic and Crystal Walsh found UFO Research South Australia, a group committed to use scientific methodology in investigation and research. (Keith Basterfield, Vladimir Godic, and Pony Godic, “Australian Ufology: A Review,” JUFOS 2 (1990): 25) 1968 — An Australian nuclear physicist attached to the Directorate of Scientific and Technical Intelligence (part of the Joint Intelligence Bureau) cooperates with other defense intelligence scientists to form a “rapid intervention team” to investigate UFO incidents involving physical evidence. The effort lasts until a wave of UFO reports takes place in Western Australia and he is denied further access to RAAF files. (Bill Chalker, “The UFO Connection: Addendum,” Flying Saucer Review 31, no. 5 (July 1986): 20; Good Above, p. 166 ) 1968 — The Canadian National Research Council, from its base at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Ottawa, Ontario, takes over the collection of UFO reports from the Department of National Defence. It partners with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to do the actual investigations. The NRC’s primary interest is in tracking meteors and meteorite falls. Non-meteoric sightings are kept in a separate file but transferred to the Public Archives of Canada [now Library and Archives of Canada] at the end of every year. (Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Canada, Signet, 1981, p. 175; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 9– 10 ) 1968 — Fabio Zerpa founds the Organizacion Nacional Investigadora de Fénomenos Espaciales in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It publishes a monthly magazine, Cuarta Dimension. (Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, p. 233) 1968 (or 1969) — 9:00 p.m. A Polish Air Force pilot takes off from Warsaw Modlin Airport, Poland, in a MiG-21 for a short, routine mission. Soon he sees two identical white discs, about 6–10 feet in diameter, moving at the same altitude and speed as his MiG. His wingman also sees them. He approaches to within 50 feet of them. During the 5 - minute encounter, radio contact with the controller is lost and contact between the two pilots deteriorates. Four UFOs follow the two MiGs for another 3–6 miles, then they accelerate and overtake them, disappearing ahead. (Poland 65)

Early 1968 — Four artillerymen stationed at the naval garrison at Lüda [now Dalian], Liaoning, China, see a luminous, gold, oval-shaped object that leaves a thin trail in the air. It climbs steeply at high speed and disappears. When it begins to climb, all communications and radar systems fail, nearly causing an accident in the fleet. The naval patrol goes on alert, and the fleet commander orders his men to prepare for combat. After 30 minutes, comms and radar return to normal. A two-man coast guard patrol allegedly sees the UFO land on the south coast and fires at it with automatic weapons. (Wendelle Stevens and Paul Dong, UFOs over Modern China, UFO Photo Archive, 1983, pp. 48–49)

January — John Harney and Alan W. Sharp launch a new publication, Merseyside UFO Bulletin (MUFOB), in Liverpool, England, as an independent publication from the openly skeptical newsletter begun by the Merseyside UFO Research Group. John Rimmer assumes the post of associate editor with the third issue. (Merseyside UFO Bulletin 1, No. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1968); Clark III 706; “History of Magonia,” Magonia Archive) January 15 — The USAF Air Defense Command is renamed the Aerospace Defense Command. (Wikipedia, “Aerospace Defense Command”) January 15 — 7:25 a.m. Two farmers driving a truck near Three Hills, Alberta, see an object that looks “like a stunted dill pickle,” greenish-blue in color and silent. Another truck stops and they point out the object to the others, who say it looks like a flying saucer. They contact the Calgary Airport, but officials there have had no reports. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 6 0 – 62 , 63 – 64 ) January 15 — 9:00 p.m. Janice, Denise, and Lori Achzehner are playing records in Villa Park, Illinois, when their father’s “Saucer Seeker” UFO detector goes off. They run outside and see a large orange light hovering near the house. For 45 minutes they watch as a series of 6 objects fly in and out of the area. Through binoculars they can see that the objects are triangular or cone-shaped, no more than a mile away, and 500–1,500 feet high. As they watch, one of the objects approaches a commercial airliner, makes a 180° turn without slowing, then follows the aircraft until they are out of sight. (“Use of Detectors in Spotting UFO,” APRO Bulletin, March/April 1968, p. 7) January 19 — McDonald calls Low on the phone and expresses his concerns about the project. The two reach an impasse. (UFOs Yes, 185 ; Swords 328) January 20 — 6:00 p.m. Police deputies Bias Fortes and Pinheiro Chagas are driving 9 miles outside of Brasília, Brazil, when they see a triangular UFO. They stop and get out to observe it better and watch it hover for 5 minutes. It accelerates suddenly and speeds to the southwest, (“First Sightings of 1968 in Brazil,” APRO Bulletin, Jan./Feb. 1968, p. 3) January 20 — 11:00 p.m. Robert Ballard and his wife Lynn are visiting his parents near Vermillion, South Dakota. Robert goes outside to warm up his car for the trip home. He sees a large object and calls to his father to come outside. They watch a big ball of red and orange fire to the east. At first they think it is the moon and go inside, but as Robert and Lynn are leaving, the object gives off a flash, and one of the dogs begins barking vigorously. They drive toward the object, which seems to be flickering in a field. It seems to be spinning and is 20 feet above the ground, sometimes less. When Ballard turns onto State Highway 50, the UFO, about 30 feet in diameter, starts following them. He accelerates to 60 mph and the object jumps to just behind their car. At one point it is hovering only 3 feet above an intersection. It keeps following them at telephone height, even though Ballard speeds up to 110 mph. After another car goes by them, the object speeds up and heads straight toward them from behind. Soon it rises and disappears to the east. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 37–38) January 21 — A fire breaks out in the navigator’s compartment of a USAF B- 52 near Thule Air Base, Greenland. The bomber crashes 7 miles from the air base, causing the non-nuclear explosives aboard to detonate and rupturing and dispersing its nuclear payload of four hydrogen bombs carried on an ongoing (since 1960) Operation Chrome Dome alert mission to deter a Soviet nuclear first strike. The recovery and decontamination effort is complicated by Greenland’s harsh weather. Contaminated ice and debris are buried at the Savannah River plant in South Carolina. Bomb fragments are recycled by Pantex, in Amarillo, Texas. The incident causes outrage and protests in Denmark. USAF Strategic Air Command Chrome Dome operations are discontinued immediately after the accident, which highlights the safety and political risks of the missions. Safety procedures are reviewed and more stable explosives are developed for use in nuclear weapons. A BBC News report in 2008 seems to confirm through declassified documents and interviews with those involved that one nuclear bomb was lost. However, the Danish Institute for International Studies concludes in August 2009 that there is no missing bomb and that the US underwater operation was a search for the uranium- 235 of the fissile core of a secondary, a small object one half meter long. For the first time, the report is able to present an estimate of the amount of plutonium contained in the pits of the primaries. (Wikipedia, “1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash”; Wikipedia, “Operation Chrome Dome”)

January 22 — In response to a question by MP Teddy Taylor, UKSecretary of State for Defence Merlyn Rees writes that the total number of reports for 1967 “reflects a wave of public interest in UFOs, reaching a peak toward the end of the year,” and that unexplained sightings (only 46 out of 362) are due to lack of sufficient information. (Good Above, p. 66 ) January 26 — A-12 pilot Jack Weeks is dispatched from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, on a sortie to locate the USS Pueblo, which has been captured by North Korean forces on January 23. His photographs pinpoint the Pueblo’s exact location in the harbor of Changjahwan Bay near Wonsan, North Korea. Instead of war plans, the US proceeds with negotiations for the return of the crew. (Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 271 – 274 ) January 31 — McDonald sends Low a 7-page, single-spaced letter, citing Condon’s negative statements, his preoccupation with crackpot elements, Condon’s failure to conduct any investigations himself, the lack of communication between Low and Condon and the active investigators, and the failure of the project to take seriously any assertions of cover-up. He mentions Low’s memorandum, saying “I am rather puzzled by the viewpoints expressed there.” He concludes: “I am not opposed to negative findings—on UFOs or other scientific questions; what bothers me is that it appears that these negative findings were being adumbrated as early as January 1966, and perhaps even earlier.” He sends a copy to the project’s open files. (UFOs Yes, 185–187) January 3 1 — Morning. At Lajes Air Base on Terceira in the Azores, a Portuguese military watchman, Serafim Vieira Sebastião, notices a strange interference on his transistor radio. Looking around, he sees an oval metallic object surmounted by a transparent tower on top of which is a small balustrade on which two beings are leaning. The silhouettes of two more beings are visible in the tower. The object is hovering above a munitions dump. Serafim phones one of the other sentries then shines his flashlight on the machine. As he does so, the men on the tower see him. The object emits a cloud of gaseous dust that overpowers him. When his colleague finds him a few minutes later, the object has vanished. (“OVNI com quatro seres ataca guarda açoriano,” Insólito, no. 13 (June 1976); Nuno Alves, “O Caso Ilha Terceira (31 de Janeiro de 1968) Serafim Vieira Sebastião,” UFO Portugal, October 28, 2017)

February — Canada’s National Research Council agrees to become the official government archive for existing and future UFO reports. The files are kept in an office of the Council’s Upper Atmosphere Section (Astrophysics Branch) in Ottawa, Ontario. But the NRC does not investigate reports. (Good Above, p. 192 ; Gregory M. Kanon, “UFOs and the Canadian Government,” Canadian UFO Report 3 , no. 7 (Spring 1976): 18) February — Felix Ziegel, Soviet cosmologist and assistant professor at the Moscow Aviation Institute, Russia, writes an article on UFOs for Soviet Life with reports supplied by Novosti. He mentions four UFO reports and concludes that they could be extraterrestrial in origin. He thinks the 1908 Tunguska event is a remarkable UFO case and reveals that the USSR established a “UFO Section of the All-Union Cosmonautics Committee” in October 1967. Ziegel soon afterwards receives a letter from Edward Condon, the director of the University of Colorado UFO Project, suggesting that the Soviet and the American groups should cooperate, starting with an information exchange. Ziegel and 12 other members of his group sign a letter requesting the Soviet government to create a state-sponsored organization that would coordinate all the UFO research in the country. Next month he receives an official negative response. (Wikipedia, “Felix Ziegel”; Felix Ziegel, “Unidentified Flying Objects,” Soviet Life, no. 137 (February 1968): 2 7 – 29; Central Intelligence Agency, “Nothing But the Facts on UFOs, or Which Novosti Writer Do You Read?” April 9, 1968) February 4 — 7:20 p.m. About 200 residents of Redlands, California, see or hear a huge, low-flying, disc-shaped object as it passes overhead. The UFO is about 50 feet in diameter, with seven lights on its base emitting bright orange flame. Some 8– 10 other lights on its rim alternate red and green, giving the impression that the object is rotating. A minister recording his sermon captures a high-pitched, modulated, whining sound from the UFO on tape. The UFO apparently descends just west of Columbia Street and north of Colton Avenue, then proceeds to the northwest for about a mile at an altitude of 300 feet. Coming to a stop, it hovers briefly, jerks forward, hovers again, then shoots straight up in a burst of speed. The object is not detected on radar at Norton AFB [now closed] near San Bernardino or March AFB [now March Air Reserve Base] in Riverside County. An investigation is conducted for APRO by four University of Redlands faculty: Philip Seff (geology), Judson Sanderson (math), Reinhold Krantz (math), and John Brownfield (art). They conclude that the object is not attributable to any known phenomenon or aircraft, but that the recorded sound comes from an emergency vehicle. (Sparks, p. 327; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, pp. 52 – 53 ; Story, pp. 299 – 300 ; William F. Krupke, “Sonic Analysis of the Redlands UFO Tape Recording,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 30, no. 2 (2016): 175–198)

February 5 — McDonald’s letter arrives in Boulder, Colorado. Low is out of town and the staff read it first. Low does not see it until 4:00 p.m. the following day when Mary Lou Armstrong shows it to him. He explodes, saying whoever gave the memo to McDonald should be fired. Condon is also furious. (UFOs Yes, 188) February 7 — Low summons Saunders to Condon’s office, asking him if he knew McDonald had a copy of the memo. Saunders said yes, and didn’t think he needed to alert anyone, since McDonald is a friend of the project. Condon says, “For an act like that, you deserve to be ruined professionally!” Saunders avoids admitting he was responsible (indirectly) for McDonald’s having the memo. When Norm Levine arrives, Saunders is ordered to leave. Levine tells him the memo’s release is a group effort. Condon tells Levine not to discuss this meeting or communicate further with McDonald. Levine says he can’t do that, Condon tells him he is no longer useful, and Levine walks out. Condon and Low meet with other staff members the rest of the day. (UFOs Yes, 188 – 192) February 8 — Condon and Low meet with Thurston Manning and Stuart W. Cook from the University of Colorado’s Psychology Department. Condon tells Mary Lou Armstrong that Saunders and Norm Levine will be fired. Low types the letters himself and Condon signs them. Condon also writes a letter to Hynek asking him to provide 10– 15 of the best cases from his files. (UFOs Yes, 192 – 193 ; Center for UFO Studies, [Hynek correspondence], p. 10) February 9 — Condon and Low meet with Craig, who admits knowing about the memo and says he was concerned about it. He leaves the meeting “deeply concerned” about the project’s viability. Roger Harkins writes up the events at the project for the Boulder Daily Camera; when he interviews Condon, he realizes that Condon “honestly didn’t know anything about that memo until a couple of days ago.” Condon admits, in contrast to his statements earlier, that Saunders and Levine were fired for insubordination, not incompetence. (UFOs Yes, 194 – 195) February 14 — Hynek replies to Condon, saying that he will send him some of his best cases over the next few weeks, but requests that in return they be given a “thorough investigation.” He even offers to go to Wright-Patterson AFB and send him copies of good Blue Book cases, since Quintanilla has scrupulously been sending him copies of only those he asks for. (Center for UFO Studies, [Hynek correspondence], pp. 11–12) February 14 — F. Robert Naka, USAF chief reconnaissance scientist at MITRE Corporation, tells Robert Low that, contrary to what NORAD had briefed him on in 1967, NORAD radars can and do track UFOs “coming in from outer space.” He does not deny that NORAD has already tracked such objects on occasion. (Clark III 804) February 16 — Novosti Science Commentator Villen Lyustiberg writes “Flying Saucers? They’re a Myth” in the newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets. Novosti releases an English translation on March 12. It explains US reports as either misobservations or misreporting by the media. (Central Intelligence Agency, “Nothing But the Facts on UFOs, or Which Novosti Writer Do You Read?” April 9, 1968) February 18 — 12:00 midnight. Teenagers Richard Frombach, Boone Powers, and Chris Beachner are parked next to a pond in a gravel pit near Vashon, Washington, when they notice a glowing oval object resting on a hill to the east. They drive into town to pick up an additional witness, Joseph Frabush, and return to the area, park on the main road, and walk into the pond area. The object has moved to the east. Frabush thinks it is metallic and about 30 feet long. They drive back into town for more witnesses, but when they return the light is gone and the 100-foot pond is completely frozen over. Temperatures in the area have been above freezing for several days. Small puddles and mud patches surrounding the pond are not frozen at all. The pond ice is dry, even though it has been raining all night. Investigators find that the ice is 3 inches thick in some spots, composed of 2 – 5 layers, and riddled with bubbles filled with air and dirt. (“The Strange Case of the Frozen Pond,” APRO Bulletin, March/April 1968, pp. 1 – 3) February 19 — 11:55 a.m. Martha Heggs is in her farmhouse kitchen about 10 miles west of Bengough, Saskatchewan. She hears a high-pitched whine that has such a penetrating intensity it is similar to a mild electric shock, causing a tingling sensation throughout her body. Looking out, she sees an object 300 feet away circling around a pole with an electric transformer on it. The object is shaped like two saucers edge-to-edge, surmounted by a dome with 6– 7 ports, rounded at the top and extending straight down to the base of the dome. These ports are indented and white in color, resembling frosted glass. The saucers are about 8 feet wide and the dome about 4 feet wide. The body of the object looks like dull aluminum. There is a smaller, vented structure on top of the dome and an antenna on top of that. When the object first appears, a dog is seen cowering and lying in the snow, trying to cover its ears with its paws. Sixteen head of cattle, loose in the farmyard, bolt when the object moves into the area. They enter the cattle sheds and do not emerge until at least 30 minutes after the object disappears. The object moves about the farmyard, sometimes hovering, its altitude ranging from 3 feet to 20 feet. After 20 minutes, still 9–12 feet above the ground, the object leaves the farm through a windbreak and moves north until lost to view. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., UFOs: A New Look, NICAP, 1969, Section IV, pp. 11– 12 ) February 20 — The US Embassy in Moscow sends an unclassified airgram to the US Department of State drawing attention to Felix Ziegel’s article in the February 1968 issue of Soviet Life, which refers to the Soviet UFO Study

Group and concludes that international cooperation in studying UFOs is vital. (Felix Ziegel, “Unidentified Flying Objects,” Soviet Life, no. 137 (February 1968): 2 7 – 29; Good Above, pp. 235 , 473 – 474 ) February 22 — Mary Lou Armstrong tells Condon that the staff has no confidence in Low as project coordinator, that Low has no interest in UFO sightings or reports, and that the staff has come to a radically different conclusion. (UFOs Yes, 199) February 23 — Hynek writes another letter to Condon, saying that he has reconsidered his decision to send him his best cases, as he thinks the Colorado project will be unable to investigate them adequately before its contractual period is up. He does send him a catalog of recent Blue Book cases and offers to help him obtain from Wright-Patterson any of the unidentified or insufficient evidence cases that he wants to see. (Center for UFO Studies, [Hynek correspondence], pp. 14–17) February 24 — Armstrong resigns from the Colorado project, citing an “almost unanimous lack of confidence” among senior staffers in Low’s competence. She also complains that Low has been less than honest about the radical difference between staff views of UFOs and the views Low and Condon are expressing. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 239– 241 , 274 – 282 ; Clark III 698, 1197 ). February 27 — 4:30 a.m. A brilliant flood of light from her window abruptly awakens a woman named Bernor in Templeton, Massachusetts. She becomes paralyzed, her face is immobile, and her hands and feet ache. The light goes on and off about 7–8 times, ending around 5:00 a.m. She slowly recovers over the next few days. (Michael D. Swords, “A Trick of the Light,” IUR 31, no. 2 (June 2007): 11) February 27 — 6:55 p.m. Truck driver Andrew Perry is driving from Bideford to Cullompton, Devon, England, when he sees a bright light appear at the crest of a hill. As he gets closer, he sees the light is coming from a mushroom- shaped object. As he reaches about 900 feet away from the object, he stops the truck and climbs to the top of the cab to get a better view. He sees about 4–5 figures about 4 feet tall spread out around the object. Suddenly they scramble toward the UFO and disappear inside. The object emits a high-pitched whirring sound that causes his truck to vibrate. Perry gets upset and climbs back into the truck, driving it fast down the road. Meanwhile, the UFO has risen about 200 feet into the air and is passing above his truck, making a noise so loud he can’t hear the engine running. Suddenly the truck engine cuts out. A few seconds later, the noise stops and Perry sees the UFO moving away in the distance. He drives to the nearest police station to report the incident. (UFOFiles2, pp. 126– 127 ) February 28 — Condon has a slight heart attack. (Center for UFO Studies, [Hynek correspondence], p. 19) February 29 — Chairman of the Soviet Astronomical Services Evald Rudolfovich Mustel, president of the All-Union Astronomical and Geodetic Society D. Marynov, and Secretary of the National Committee of Soviet Physicists V. A. Leshkovtsev write an article in Pravda claiming that there have been no unexplainable sightings of UFOs on Russian soil. UFOs are “anti-Soviet products of decadent capitalistic warmongering.” (Good Above, pp. 235 – 236 )

March — EG&G technician Thornton D. Barnes arrives in Area 51 in Nevada to reverse-engineer the Soviet MiG- 21 acquired through defecting Iraqi fighter pilot Munir Redfa. Soviet-built radar systems acquired in the Middle East are installed around Groom Lake (to aid stealth testing of the SR-71), and Barnes is also assigned to evaluate them as well as the ECM capabilities of the MiG. (Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 290 – 293 ) March — Swiss author Erich von Däniken writes Erinnerungen an die Zukunft, translated into English as Chariots of the Gods?, the first of several books setting out the “ancient astronaut” hypothesis in which ancient gods are space visitors, Homo sapiens was created by cross-breeding or genetic engineering, nuclear wars were fought in the ancient world, and monuments were built by levitation. (Erich von Däniken, Chariots of the Gods? Bantam, 1973; Wikipedia, “Chariots of the Gods?”; Clark III 110; Jerome Clark, “Vimanas Have Landed: Ancient Astronautics in Ufology,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 29– 30 ) March 1 — Boulder, Colorado, police arrest Colorado project officer Jim Wadsworth for possession of marijuana. He pleads no contest and resigns. (UFOs Yes, 200) March 1 — An Over the Horizon Forward Scatter Radar System 440L/Program 673A is turned over to NORAD’s Cheyenne Mountain facility in Colorado by Air Force Intelligence. It has been previously used to collect intelligence on Soviet missile launches since it was built in 1960–1962. It soon picks up unidentified radar returns. (Clark III 811) March 2 — A magnetic monitoring device with a film camera set up by the Queensland Flying Saucer Research Bureau at Horseshoe Lagoon, Tully, Queensland, is triggered around the time that an airliner flying at 6,000 feet from Cairns to Iron Range is paced by a UFO. About 50 feet of film is exposed. On March 4, another 16 feet is exposed during a local UFO sighting. The film is apparently intercepted by the RAAF after Victor Mele, the owner of the film, sends it to a Kodak processing facility in Melbourne, Victoria. (Good Above, pp. 170 – 172 )

March 3 — 8:30 p.m. Several witnesses are traveling east on Knud Drive in Columbia, Tennessee, when they notice a large rectangular object approaching them silently from behind. When they stop the car, the object is directly overhead and moving east. It has hundreds of small, dimly lit points of light in 5–6 rows on its base. Witness Norman E. Bryant thinks it is 1,000 feet long, 250 feet wide, and flying at an altitude of 2,000 feet. It passes them in a matter of seconds. (“Out of the Past,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 5 (Oct./Nov. 1983): 4–6) March 4 — 6:15 p.m. A cigar-shaped object approaches a car in West Seneca, New York, and passes in front of it. The object is 50–60 feet long with blinking yellow lights. The witness tries to speed up, but the accelerator does not respond. The object disappears instantly. (Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 40) March 4 — 9:00 p.m. A man is driving his new Triumph Spitfire up a country lane near Glossop, Derbyshire, England, when two golden objects shoot over the top of his car, killing his headlights, radio, and engine. Moments after the objects pass to the north, the headlights come back on, but the radio still fails. He is able to restart his car engine after the lights come on. A BUFORA investigator takes the radio to his workplace at British Aerospace and finds that two key transistors have burned out, seemingly due to a power surge. Once the transistors are replaced, the radio works again. (Jenny Randles, “Flappy Valley, Part 4,” Fortean Times 328 (July 2015): 30) March 8 — The first SR-71s arrive at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan, to replace the Oxcart A-12s. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird”) March 10 — 6:00 p.m. Valentina Flores is bringing in her llamas on her farm between Opoco and Uyuni, Bolivia, when she discovers that her sheep pen is covered with a net made of some plastic-like material, and that inside the pen is a helmeted being, 3.5 ft tall, who is engaged in killing her sheep using a tubular instrument with a hook on the end. Flores throws stones at the being, whereupon he walks over to an instrument resembling a radio and, moving a wheel on it, quickly absorbs all the netting. The woman approaches the pen with a cudgel, upon which the being throws its instrument at her several times; it returns to him like a boomerang, after it inflicts superficial cuts on her arms. The entity picks up the machine, which has absorbed the net as well as a bag containing sheep entrails, and puts them into a rucksack on his back. Two legs emerge from the rucksack and extend down to the ground, at which time the entity rises straight up into the air with an extraordinary sound and vanishes. 34 sheep are found dead; from every one, “certain small portions of the digestive organs were missing.” (Oscar A. Galíndez, “Violent Humanoid Encountered in Bolivia,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1970): 15–16; Clark III 138 – 139; Patrick Gross, URECAT, November 9, 2007) March 12 — James E. McDonald presents a paper, “UFOs: An International Scientific Problem,” at an astronautics symposium of the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute, analyzing in depth Philip Klass’s plasma theory of UFOs and rejecting it as “superficial.” (James E. McDonald, “UFOs: An International Scientific Problem,” March 12, 1968; Story, p. 414 ) March 19 — 8:30 p.m. 12-year-old Gregory L. Wells is walking toward the trailer home of his parents in Beallsville, Ohio, when he sees an oval-shaped, bright red object hovering above some nearby trees and illuminating the road. It has a band of dimmer red lights around its midsection. Suddenly a big tube emerges from the object and moves around until it is pointed at him. A light beam shoots out and hits the upper part of his arm, knocking him down. His jacket catches fire and he rolls around, screaming with fright. His mother and grandmother come out to help, and they both see the red UFO, which just fades away after 10 minutes. The boy is taken to a hospital and treated for second-degree burns. His scars are still visible three months later. (“Boy Burned by UAO in Ohio,” APRO Bulletin, March/April 1968, pp. 1, 3; James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, p. 79 ) March 26 — McDonald addresses the question, “Are UFOs Extraterrestrial Surveillance Craft?” in a talk at the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics. (James E. McDonald, “Are UFOs Extraterrestrial Surveillance Craft?” March 26, 1968; Story, p. 414 ) March 29 — 4:00 p.m. Meteorologist Ştefan Bălaşa and a group of skiers watch a shiny object 75°–80° in the sky near the weather station on Semenic Mountain, Romania. Through binoculars it appears cone-shaped. Bălaşa continues to watch it until 6:40 p.m. when it begins to dim and move slowly to the east-northeast. The same or similar object appears in the same area on the evening of March 30. (Romania 17– 18 ) March 29 — 6:50 p.m. Spectators at a football match in Tismana, Romania, see a stationary, bright-blue-green conical object that changes its color to red and disappears by 7:30 p.m. (Hobana and Weverbergh 237–238; Romania 18) March 29 — 7:30 p.m. Two students and two teachers in Târgu-Jiu, Romania, see a whitish-blue isosceles triangle in the southeast sky. It changes color to orange then red and departs to the southwest. (Hobana and Weverbergh 134– 135; Romania 18)

March 30 — 2:30 a.m. Teofil Iorga and 120 other construction workers at the Banat Mine in Oraviţa, Romania, see a luminous globe in the sky. At 6:10 a.m., a stationary yellowish-white object appears in the northeast. Iorga takes a photo of it at 8:00 a.m. and looks at it through a theodolite at 8:15 a.m. It is shaped like a truncated cone with one side exposed to the sun. At 9:00 a.m., the object ascends and moves to the south. (Hobana and Weverbergh 129– 130; Romania 18) March 30 — 8:00 a.m. Meteorologist Vasile Coţoi and Ingeborg Vityi observe a white conical object maneuvering slowly against the wind at the weather station on Ţarcu Peak, Romania. They watch it for 2.5 hours before it disappears. At 1:00 p.m. it is logged by the weather station near Berzasca about 1 mile inland from the Danube River. At 4:00 p.m. it reappears at the Semenic Mountain weather station and is also seen at Caransebeş, Romania, and other places. (Hobana and Weverbergh 131–138; Romania 19 – 20)

Spring — Two prospectors, Ed Sampson and Bill Johnson, are sleeping in the Anza Borrego Desert, California, when they wake up at the sound of an explosion. The sky above is filled with a fading red light, and they see flashes on the western horizon. The two climb to the crest of a hill and look down. Sampson sees a “red, circular flying saucer” hovering over the valley, while entities with glowing red eyes march in single file close to the ridge of an adjacent canyon. Something like a church bell rings out at intervals, and mechanical clanking is also audible. After noticing two glowing-eyed creatures standing behind them, they take off running. (Clark III 557) Mid-April — Evening. Engineer Gu Ying is sent to a military construction regiment in the north Gobi Desert, China, when the entire battalion notices a huge, luminous, red-orange disc with a flashing light landing in the sand. It is about 9 feet in diameter. The commander dispatches a team of motorcycle troops to approach it. As they get closer, the object shoots up into the sky and disappears. The UFO leaves ground traces like a “seared cross.” The soldiers assume it is a Russian device. (Wendelle Stevens and Paul Dong, UFOs over Modern China, UFO Photo Archive, 1983, pp. 49–50) April 4 — 8:1 5 p.m. Two young men in Cochrane, Wisconsin, see a UFO hover above a car ahead of them; its headlights suddenly go out. The object appears metallic and glows orange when standing still, but gets redder and brighter when moving. The object then comes toward their car and the engine conks out. It hovers overhead for a moment, during which time the witnesses feel increased heat and weightlessness. The object departs over a nearby field, emitting a cloudy haze all around its periphery. (Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 40) April 27 — The May 14 issue of Look magazine contains an article by John G. Fuller on the Low memorandum and the near-mutiny at the Colorado project. (John G. Fuller, “Flying Saucer Fiasco,” Look 32, no. 10 (May 14, 1968): 58 – 63) April 29 — Low tells the press Fuller has quoted him out of context. Condon and Low spend the morning talking to legal counsel. April 30 — Rep. J. Edward Roush (D-Ind.) denounces the Colorado project in Congress based on the Look article and raises doubts about its scientific integrity. He writes to Air Force Secretary Robert Seamans to ask for his comments on “this deplorable situation” and he writes to the Comptroller General Elmer B. Staats to investigate the use of public funds for the project. (UFOs Yes, 201 – 202 ; “Congressional UFOing,” Wall Street Journal, May 3, 1968) April 30 — Keyhoe and the NICAP Board of Directors write to President Lyndon Johnson, enclosing the Low memo and other evidence and urging that he create an entirely new commission. Col. Bernhard M. Ettenson, from the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, writes back to say that “we expect that Dr. Condon will fulfill the terms of the agreement.” (“The Inside Story of the Colorado Project,” UFO Investigator 4, no. 6 (May/June 1968): 5)

Early May — Five UFOs are seen diving into the ocean off Arrecife, Vargas, Venezuela. (“Current South American Flap,” APRO Bulletin, May/June 1968, p. 8) Early May — Night. Gerardo Vidal and his wife are driving home from Chascomús to Maipú, Buenos Aires, Argentina. They are just outside Chascomús when their car is enveloped in a thick green fog. The next thing they know they are driving on a road near Mexico City in broad daylight, 4,400 miles to the northwest. Their watches have stopped, and they discover that two days have passed. They visit the Argentine embassy in Mexico City, where Vidal calls a relative in Maipú to report that they are well. However, a June 4, 1968, Reuters dispatch from Mexico City contains a denial of the incident by the Argentine embassy, and subsequent inquiries can find no one in Maipú that could be the Vidals. Finally, in October 1998 Argentine film director Aníbal Uset admits to researcher Roberto E. Banchs that he had invented the Chascomús teleportation as a publicity stunt to spread a fantastic story based on the plot of his upcoming film Ché OVNI. The movie’s poster even shows a UFO carrying off an automobile. (La Razon (Buenos Aires), June 3 , 1968; Oscar A. Galíndez, “Teleportation from Chascomús

to Mexico,” Flying Saucer Review 14, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1968): 3–4; “Further News on South America,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1968, pp. 7–8; Internet Movie Database, “Ché OVNI”; Jacques Vallée, Confrontations: A Scientist ’ s Search for Alien Intelligence, Ballantine, 1990, p. 96; Roberto E. Banchs, “The Chascomús Teleportation Hoax,” Fortean Times 351 (April 2017): 56– 57 ) May 10 — 10:00 p.m. Grant Callison of Galesburg, Illinois, looks out his kitchen window and sees a giant bird illuminated by a streetlight. He and his wife Wilma rush outside for a better look and see three of them flying in a V-formation at an altitude of 500 feet. They look like they have metallic feathers or scales. They are flying with a graceful, fluttering motion. They then see two objects to the south with pulsating red lights moving in the same direction at the same speed (about 25–35 mph). On May 20, around 9:00 p.m., the Callisons have another odd sighting of a single bird-like creature. (Grant Callison, “Winged Creatures over Illinois,” UFOexperiences, February 6, 2006; Clark III 655 ) May 11 — A farmer in Brinkley, South Australia, notices strands of material about 65 feet long falling on his property. He says it is like asbestos rope and as wide as a pencil. On the same day, web-like “fine woven cotton” is seen on a lawn and draped over wires and a fence in Cheltenham, Adelaide, South Australia. (Keith Basterfield, “Angel Hair: An Australian Perspective,” IUR 27 , no. 1 (Spring 2002): 7) May 13 — George H. Estabrooks, a Canadian-American psychologist and former consultant for the FBI and CIA, tells the Providence Evening Bulletin that the key to developing an effective spy or assassin is by creating a multiple personality with the aid of hypnosis, a procedure he describes as “child’s play.” Estabrooks suggests that Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby could have been controlled in this manner. “This has and is being done. I have done it. It is child’s play now to develop a multiple personality through hypnotism.” (Providence (R.I.) Evening Bulletin, May 13, 1968; Colin A. Ross, Bluebird: Deliberate Creation of Multiple Personality by Psychiatrists, Manitou, 2000, p. 162; Phil Kirby, “Event / TV Times: The Prisoner: Free for All,” The Culture Vulture, May 10, 2018) May 15 — Low is relieved of 90% of his duties with the Colorado project, effective May 24 and will go back to his job as assistant to Thurston Manning. (UFOs Yes, 204) May 1 7 — 5:00 a.m. Caetano Sergio dos Santos is returning home from his job as a night watchman at Caconde, São Paulo, Brazil. In the courtyard of his house he sees a cylinder-shaped object, about the size of a powdered-milk can, stuck in the ground. At each end are dials, one with a black band, the other with a red one. They are encased under a glass or plastic lens with embossed figures arranged in a semicircle. Above each figure is something like an Arabic numeral. Dos Santos takes the object into the house and studies it for 90 minutes, then puts it on a windowsill in the bathroom before going to bed. He goes back to work, then at about 1:00 a.m., he returns home and notices that the object is lighting up the house, with his wife and son, very agitated, standing outside with neighbors. She tells him that a loud buzzing and intense heat had wakened her, both emanating from the object. Dos Santos goes inside and finds a hole in the roof, tile scattered over the floor, and the object gone. (“Brazilian Object Real Puzzler,” APRO Bulletin, July/Aug. 1968, pp. 1, 3; Walter Buehler, “The Mysterious Caconde Case,” Flying Saucer Review 15, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1969): 18–19; Clark III 339) May 21 — Philip J. Klass attempts to refute James E. McDonald’s criticisms of his plasma theory of UFOs in a privately circulated paper. (Phillip J. Klass, “Dr. James E. McDonald’s ‘Mathematical Proof,’” The Author, May 21, 1968, pp. 4–5) Late May — Condon hires science writer Daniel S. Gillmor to edit the final project report. Gillmor receives editorial help from Joseph H. Rush, a physicist from the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Also assisting is associate editor Harriet Hunter and several specialists from the local lab of the Environmental Science Services Administration (including Gordon David Thayer). Franklin Roach returns to work on astronaut sightings. By June 1, the date on which the investigative phase ends, there is a substantially new crew. May 27 — 9:45 p.m. A man is driving near Punta Gorda, Florida, when his headlights and engine fail. As he gets out to check, he sees a light slowly descending at treetop level. The object is shaped like a Pilgrim’s hat with a green glow and bluish color surrounding it. A few minutes after landing, it takes off at high speed, disappearing in the northwest. The car starts once it is gone. The witness notices that his watch has stopped. (Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 41) May 31 — McDonald speaks to the Chicago Chapter of the American Meteorological Society on UFOs. (James E. McDonald, “UFOs: Atmospheric or Extraterrestrial?” May 31, 1968; Story, p. 414 )

Summer — Three teenagers notice an irregular triangular object flying to the west over housing in Stazic street in Rzeszów, Poland. It is dark with some brighter bulges on the bottom and emits a buzzing sound. (Poland 32)

June 3 — McDonald addresses the Burro Club (Democratic Congressional Administrative Assistants and Aides) in the Rayburn Building in Washington, D.C., on the question “Does Congress Have a Responsibility to Investigate the UFO Problem?” (Story, p. 414 ) June 4 — A-12 pilot Jack W. Weeks is lost over the South China Sea near the Philippines during a functional checkout flight after the replacement of one of its engines. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed A- 12 ”) June 6 — Capt. U. Tiviroli, commander of an Argentine Airlines Avro, sees a UFO, along with his copilot and 18 passengers, for 5 minutes during a night landing at Punta Arenas airport, Chile. An unusually bright object, long and spindle-shaped, appears above the plane. It moves in a course parallel to the plane and stops suddenly in midair. Then it swerves in a right angle back to the plane. It is also seen by airport observers. (“Argentinian Pilot Reports UAO,” APRO Bulletin, May/June 1968, p. 3) June 11 — Philip J. Klass attempts to refute James E. McDonald’s criticisms of his plasma theory of UFOs in another unpublished paper. (Philip J. Klass, “Does Dr. James E. McDonald Really Speak with Authority?” The Author, June 11, 1968, pp. 8–9) June 11 — MP John Langford-Holt asks UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson whether he is aware that some UFO reports are made to the Ministry of Defence, while police reports are made to the Board of Trade. Wilson replies that reports going to the Board of Trade are passed on to the Ministry of Defence. (Good Above, p. 67 ) June 14 — Shortly after 12:00 midnight. Isidro Puentes Ventura is on guard duty in Cabañas, Artemisa, Cuba, when he sees on the ground a brilliant domed UFO with several antennas on top. He approaches to within 165 feet and fires about 40 machine gun rounds into it, convinced it is American. The object turns orange and emits a whistling sound as Puentes loses consciousness. At dawn, an Army patrol finds him still unconscious and takes him to a hospital in Pinar del Rio, where he remains in shock for 6 days, unable to speak. He is then taken to a Naval hospital in Havana, where he remains in shock another week. At the site, Cuban and Soviet intelligence specialists find 48 spent cartridges and 14 bullets flattened by impact with something solid, as well as equally spaced indentations on the ground. Tests reveal that the soil has been exposed to a high temperature. (Jacques Vallée, UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union: A Cosmic Samizdat, Ballantine, 1992, pp. 82– 85 ) June 15 — 1:0 5 a.m. María Elodia Pretzel, daughter of the owner of the Motel La Cuesta on National Highway 20 east of Villa Carlos Paz, Córdoba, Argentina, is locking up for the night when she encounters a strange-looking man in the dining area. He is 6 feet tall and dressed in a blue helmet and a suit that glows with an eerie light and seems made up of scales. In his left hand he is holding a glassy sphere that is radiating a coherent light that lights up the room. She feels somewhat paralyzed and is getting a mental message not to be afraid. The entity raises its other arm, which is emitting beams of light, and she feels helpless, falling backward. The entity walks slowly toward the outside door, putting one foot directly in front of the other, arm extended and holding the now extinguished sphere, and passes outside. Still shaken, María goes to the laundry room and drops on the floor, head and arms on a divan. A few minutes later, her father, Pedro Jacobo Pretzel, arrives and discovers her. Minutes earlier, he had seen two odd, stationary red lights about 5–6 feet from the ground off Highway 20. Maria is conscious but very disturbed, a condition that lasts for several days. (Oscar A. Galíndez, “The Anthropomorphic Entity at Villa Carlos Paz—Part 1,” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 5 (January 1981): 8–17, 29–31; Oscar A. Galíndez, “The Anthropomorphic Entity at Villa Carlos Paz—Part 2,” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 6 (March 1981): 15–18) June 15– 17 — Night. Allied forward spotters along the eastern part of the Demilitarized Zone in Vietnam see about 30 strange slow-moving lights. At the time they are interpreted as North Vietnamese Russian-built M-14 Hound helicopters ferrying men and materiel over the border. The lights appear the following evening, and several US 7th Air Force Phantom fighter-bombers soon arrive on the scene and fire on the intruders, supported by anti- aircraft ground fire. During the Allied attack the presumed helicopters move down the east coast and out to sea. The destroyers HMAS Hobart, USS Edson, and USS Theodore E. Chandler are ordered to undertake surveillance missions around Cồn Cỏ (Tiger Island) along the north central coast. Around 3:14 a.m. on June 17, the ships are involved in a friendly fire incident in which the Hobart is hit by 3 missiles from one of the Phantoms, causing major damage and killing two of the crew. (Jon Wyatt, “HMAS Hobart Hit during Vietnam UFO Enciunter?” AUFORN Special Report, no. 34 (April 2003), reprinted in UFO Evidence) June 16 and 19 — Night. Chief of Provincial Police German Rocha and Police Maj. Niceforo Léon observe a round object with a vivid blue light near El Choro, Poopó, Bolivia. It lands, leaves a strange, powerful odor, and burns grass and shrubs. (Gordon Creighton, “A New South American ‘Wave,’” Flying Saucer Review 14, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1968): 23–24; Oscar A. Galíndez, “South America Revisited,” Australian UFO Review, no. 10 (December 1969): 41) June 18 — Jorge Raul Scassa Sutter and Ruben Andrawos are flying a Cessna 182 from Villa Dolores, Córdoba, Argentina, to La Guardia, Catamarca, Argentina. They see an object looking like an overturned soup plate with a cupola on top. The object is grayish-blue with no windows, and its diameter is about 90 feet. The object is at the

same altitude as the aircraft, 7,500 feet, and at a distance of 330 feet. It disappears by flying to the north at a fantastic speed. There is a possible VHF interference (“frequency fading”) when the object approaches the aircraft in front. (La Gaceta de Tucumán, June 19, 1968; NICAP, “Cessna 182 Encounters UFO / VHF I/FF”) June 20 — The US Seventh Air Force holds a “joint service conference on the UFO problem” in Hawaii after a series of tragic incidents on June 15– 17 , including a missile attack on “unidentified helicopters” that hit the Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Hobart, killing two sailors. An investigation reveals that the Air Force is in the midst of a wave of sightings of things that are not enemy helicopters in central Vietnam, just south of and within the DMZ. (Clark III 1051; Sparks, pp. 327 – 328) June 20 — Following the publication of their book Flying Saucer Report: UFOs Unidentified, Unidentifiable, British researchers Anthony R. Pace and Roger H. Stanway visit the UK S4 (Air) UFO desk in Whitehall, London, again and meet with Leslie Akhurst, John Dickison, and Alec Cassie. Their request to record the interview is denied, but they are impressed with Cassie’s ability to recall UFO cases mentioned in their book. (Good Above, p. 68 ) June 20 — A husband and wife encounter an array of lights that hover above their car near Roswell, New Mexico. Both have a feeling of great peace. When the UFO vanishes, the wife finds that the arthritis in her neck has been healed. (Michael D. Swords, “Can UFOs Cause Physiological Effects? Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 23) June 26 — An Argentine Trotskyist using the pseudonym J. Posadas, who formed a movement in 1962 based on the inevitability of nuclear war, has proclaimed an interest in UFOs as entities with the ability to master sophisticated technologies that are compatible with socialism. If UFOs exist, they might be helpful in addressing some of the major problems in the earth. In his pamphlet, Les Soucoupes Volantes: Le processus de la matière et de l ’ energie, la science et le socialisme, Posadas pleads that “We must call upon beings from other planets when they come to intervene, to collaborate with the inhabitants of the Earth to overcome misery. We must launch a call on them to use their resources to help us.” (J. Posadas, Flying Saucers: The Process of Matter and Energy, Science, the Revolutionary and Working-Class Struggle, and Socialism, June 26, 1968; A. M. Gittlitz, I Want to Believe: Posadism, UFOs, and Apocalyptic Communism, Pluto, 2020 ; Ian Parker, “Believe It or Not!” Socialist Resistance, May 1, 2020)

July — British physicist Reginald Victor Jones publishes a skeptical view of UFOs in Physics Bulletin, but supports genuine scientific inquiry. (R. V. Jones, “The Natural Philosophy of Flying Saucers,” Physics Bulletin, July 1968, pp. 225–230) July — A CIA team flies into Saigon [now Ho Chi Minh City] to experiment on three Viet Cong prisoners at Biên Hòa Hospital. Working in an enclosed compound, the team’s neurosurgeon and neurologist insert tiny electrodes into their brains. Behaviorists then experiment on the men, arming them with knives and trying to induce violent behavior in them using direct electrical stimulation. After a week of experimentation that fails to incite the men to attack each other, they are shot dead and their bodies burned. (Sid Taylor, “A History of Secret CIA Mind Control Research,” Nexus, April/May 1992) July — A man is driving on Blacketts Lake Road southwest of Sydney, Nova Scotia, when he sees a saucer-shaped object descending below the tree line near the lake. He parks his car and runs along a trail to get closer. He is about 75 feet from the object, which is only 6 feet above the ground in a clearing. The UFO suddenly rises and flies away. The RCMP blocks access to the site during its investigation. (“Former RCMP Officer Photographs UFO near Sydney, N.S.,” Journal UFO 2, no. 4 (March 1981): 15) July — 1:00 a.m. Walter Rizzi is taking a nap in his car by the road just south of the Gardena Pass, South Tyrol, Italy, when he wakes to the smell of something burning. He sees a light about 1,600 feet further downhill shining through the mist. The mist parts, and he sees an enormous object that suddenly reminds him of an encounter he had with a strange hermit on the island of Rhodes in Greece when he was in the Italian army in World War II. The hermit had predicted he would someday meet with advanced beings from the cosmos who would provide him with the assurance of life throughout the universe. Rizzi makes his way downhill toward the object, which is silvery, some 260 feet in diameter, standing on three legs, bathed in fleecy white light, and emitting a burning odor. He gets within 10 feet and cannot go further. He sees two beings inside a transparent cupola on the top who are looking down at him. To the right of the object is a robot about 8 feet tall with three legs and four arms. A beam of light comes from the center of the object, and Rizzi sees another being dressed in a tight-fitting suit and glass helmet descending. They communicate telepathically about other planets and the universe. Eventually the entities reenter the object and take off. Rizzi claims there are landing marks, effects on the grass, and his watch starts losing time. (Gordon Creighton, “Introductory Comments on the Rizzi Case,” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 3 (September 1980): 21–22; Walter Rizzi, “Close Encounter in the Dolomites,” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 3 (September 1980): 22–27; 1Pinotti 158–169)

July 1 — NASA publishes a Chronological Catalog of Reported Lunar Events, by Barbara M. Middlehurst, Jaylee M. Burley, Patrick Moore, and Barbara L. Welther. Moore invents the term “transient lunar phenomena” to describe short-lived changes in brightness, color, or appearance on the surface of the moon. (Wikipedia, “Transient lunar phenomenon”; Barbara M. Middlehurst, Jaylee M. Burley, Patrick Moore, and Barbara L. Welther, Chronological Catalog of Reported Lunar Events, NASA Technical Report R-277, July 1, 1968 ) July 1 — 12:30 a.m. Three boys are sitting on the main gate of the UNESP Hospital das Clinicas of the Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil. Suddenly they see a large object “as big as a house” sitting about 1,150 feet to the west of them. It has a large tripod undercarriage and a ladder reaching down to the ground. The boys can hear a weird “tinging sound on a high note.” They start to yell as the UFO retracts its tripod and ladder and rise into the air and speed off to the east, reaching a great altitude. Alerted by their shouts, other witnesses see the object moving away. A student named Antônio Alegre examines the landing site shortly afterward and finds marks forming an isosceles triangle, two sides measuring 20 feet and one side 23 feet. (Nigel Rimes, “Landing at Botucatu,” Flying Saucer Review 14, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1968): 21–24) July 2 — 11:25 a.m. Oscar Heriberto Iriart, 15, sees two men of normal height motioning to him at Sierra Chica, Buenos Aires, Argentina. They have short, white hair and red clothes. They also have semi-transparent legs because he can see through them to the grass behind. Near the men is an elliptical, silvery machine, 6.5 feet long, 2 feet high, with three legs 19 inches high. The men give him an envelope they telepathically say contains an important message, telling him to dip it in water before reading, then they fly off. Iriart dips the envelope in a puddle and finds that both the envelope and his hands are dry. The message is written in Spanish in a crude handwriting: “You are going to know the world. F. Saucer.” The witness’s horse and dog are paralyzed for several minutes. The boy arrives home terrified. The family goes to the landing site and finds three holes, each about 5 inches deep and forming an isosceles triangle, the base side measuring 6.5 feet and the other 2 sides 5.2 feet wide. At 11:15 p.m., five skeptical men (including Police Sgt. Raúl Coronel) from the Sierra Chica Social Club visit the landing site and declare the holes to be fake. However, they see a zigzagging light a few feet from the ground and heading their way. They drop to the ground, it passes over them, and then shoots away straight up. (Gordon Creighton, “A New South American ‘Wave,’” Flying Saucer Review 14, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1968): 26–27) July 2 — 10:00–10:30 p.m. Fred Coulthard Jr. and his brother Wayne are at a family get-together in the backyard of their father’s home in Wooler, Ontario, when they see an object with rotating red lights that agitates the family’s horses and cats. Around 11:30 p.m., poltergeist-like disturbances (a shattered window, objects thrown around, a strong odor of roses) begin in the house and continue for several days. “Fairy rings” are discovered on the ground in a wooded valley north of town. (Mrs. W. Greystone, “Canada’s UFO Poltergeist,” in Charles Bowen, ed., Beyond Condon, special issue no. 2 of FSR, June 1969, pp. 66–68, 70) July 9 — 9:35 p.m. Witnesses at Long Beach, California, see a huge, glowing, cloud-like mass over the Santa Catalina Channel for 90 minutes. Five smaller objects are seen maneuvering around it. (Ann Druffel, “Santa Catalina Island Recurring ‘Cloud Cigars,’” in Proceedings of the 1976 CUFOS Conference, Chicago, 1976, pp. 62–74; Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects and Cloud Cigars,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 9–10; Ann Druffel, “Santa Catalina Channel Cloud Cigars,” IUR 31 , no. 1 (January 2007 ): 13 – 14 ; Wim van Utrecht, “‘Mother Ship’ over California,” Caelestia, August 5, 2009) July 13 — 10:00 p.m. Irena Scott and her sister Sue Postle are traveling west of Boston, Massachusetts, on State Highway 9 when they see an unusual object to the south. They watch it intermittently after turning south on State Highway 128 and I-95. It is moving in an erratic pattern and blinking. Then they see a basketball-sized object 20–50 feet away, near the ground, and constantly changing colors. Scott pulls over to the side of the road, loads her camera, and takes five photos, only one of which shows the light. (Irena Scott, “Fear and Ambiguity in Massachusetts,” IUR 13, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1988): 14–17; Irena Scott, “UFO Studies in the Scientific Literature,” IUR 15, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1990): 18; Irena Scott, “A Photograph and Its Aftermath,” IUR 15, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1990): 12–14, 23) July 17 — Late evening. A civil servant is allegedly snatched off the São Paulo Highway in Brazil and taken into a UFO by four green entities wearing devices that look like headphones. While he is in a state of paralysis, they question him via telepathy about human customs, physiology, and reproduction. The creatures depart abruptly as if in response to instructions. (Gordon Creighton, “Physical Examination by ‘Miniature Martians,’” Flying Saucer Review 15, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1969): 32, 34; Clark III 279 ) July 18 — 1:05 a.m. RCMP Constable W. J. Whyte and his wife spot a yellow circular object at high altitude moving west to east near Truro, Nova Scotia. It looks like a satellite, but turns reddish before disappearing in the distance. At 1:10 p.m., a couple near Onslow Mountain a few miles to the north see a rosy red light in the southwest hovering just above the trees. They watch it for 15 minutes before it moves and accelerates out of sight. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 70–71)

July 20 — After 12:00 midnight. Three 14-year-old girls at a summer camp at Kaarnajärv, near Otepää, Valga County, Estonia, see a swiftly moving star and a cigar-shaped object in the distance that quickly disappears. Somewhat disturbed, they decide to retire to bed. Through a window they see a bright object about 165 feet away. It is surrounded by reddish-orange and yellow beams of light. Soon it goes out, leaving only a dark greenish nebula with a blue-green ring around it that illuminates the surrounding woods. They watch it for about 5 minutes until it blinks out. One of the girls goes outside and sees a female figure, less than 5 feet tall and wearing a silver ribbon, standing where the object had been. It vanishes. The next morning, they find a circular burnt area about 6 feet in diameter and four wedge-shaped prints in the soil. (Juri Lina, “UFO Landings in Estonia,” Flying Saucer Review 24, no. 1 (June 1978): 3–4) July 22 — Around 12:00 midnight. Off-duty police constable Martyn Johnson is walking with his girlfriend in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, when they see two lights approaching them from above a nearby park. They are giving off many colored lights. As they hover above a nearby house, the couple’s poodle becomes agitated and runs off. The two lights then become four and arrange themselves in an oblong formation. All at once they vanish at terrific speed, following a railway to the northeast. A few hours later, Johnson is awakened and told to report to police headquarters, where there are two “government men” waiting to quiz him about the sighting. They desperately try to convince him that he has seen an aircraft or helicopter. They tell him he is sworn to secrecy for the next 25 years. When he asks what he has seen, they tell him, “What you have seen is an unidentified flying object or UFO. Some people call them spaceships, and if the people of the world knew how many genuine sightings there were like yours, there would be total panic.” (UFOFiles2, pp. 82– 83 ) July 22 — 1:20 a.m. Adela Casalvieri de Panassiti, 45, night nurse at the Dr. Carlos Pereyra Neuropsychiatric Hospital at Ituzaingó 2837, Mendoza, Argentina, hears a loud, penetrating, humming noise outside in the hospital courtyard. Going out to see what it is, she observes a mushroom-shaped landed object only 65 feet away. It is luminous and sitting in the middle of the courtyard. A bright red beam comes from the object and strikes her, and she finds that her legs are paralyzed. Putting her hands up to her face for protection, she discovers she is completely unable to move. She remains immobilized for a number of minutes until the red beam is extinguished. At this time, the object ascends vertically then flies off rapidly to the south, barely clearing the wall that surrounds the courtyard. Before it disappears, she is able to observe several human-looking figures through square portholes that encircle the craft. These beings move back and forth, passing each other, and are visible from the waist up only. A lead- gray stain, 31 x 12 inches, that smells of sulfur is found at the landing site. It persists for two days. Several small potted trees are burned. Casalvieri de Panassiti has first-degree burns on her face and hands (an allergic reaction?), and parts of her nurse’s cap and clothing are singed. In addition, her watch, which has stopped at 1:30 a.m., is found to be radioactive, as is her ring. The daughters of a garrison commander witness a luminous, egg- shaped object at the same time from the garrison casino. (“Argentina: Hospital Landing at El Sauce,” Flying Saucer Review 14, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1968): 32; Roberto Banchs, “Mendoza: Agitacion por Apariciones de OVNIs (22 Julio y 09 Ago 1968),” Visión OVNI, November 11, 2008; Scott Corrales, “1968: A Nurse Burned by an Alleged UFO (CE-2),” Inexplicata, July 25, 2011) July 23 — 1:00 a.m. Daíldo de Oliveira, a night watchman for the CESP electrical substation near Bauru, São Paulo, Brazil, confronts three intruders who overpower him outside a control center building. A large UFO 50 feet tall is resting nearby on the ground; it takes off in a zigzag pattern towards the city of Lins. (Clark III 183– 185 ; Brazil 93 – 98 ) July 25 — 2:00 a.m. Juan Sivori, his wife, and a daughter see a silver object shaped like a spinning top a they are driving along Highway 226 near La Pastora, Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is only 115 feet from them and the size of a truck. The engine of their car stops running as the UFO hovers for about 5 minutes at a height of 33 feet. When it rises into the air and vanishes, the car engine starts up again. (Oscar A. Uriondo, “Preliminary Catalogue of Type I Cases in Argentina, Part 4,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 16 (August 1973): 11) July 28 — 12:00 midnight. A farmer, his wife, and two children near Upton, Quebec, are awakened by the barking of their dog. When he gets up to investigate, he sees a sparkling, rotating “cloud” in the yard. It flies just over him and goes into a nearby field. About 12 feet in diameter, it is dark on the bottom but luminous on top. The cows in the field are being chased by 4 or 5 small entities, perhaps 3 feet tall with heads shaped like bottles. As the UFO flies above them, they disappear. The cattle seem ill for weeks afterwards. (John Brent Musgrave, UFO Occupants and Critters, Global Communications, 1979; Clark III 280 ) July 29 — The hearings that Rep. J. Edward Roush and NICAP have been calling for are held as a “Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects” before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics. Rep. George P. Miller (D-Calif.) is chairman of the committee, but Roush directs most of the proceedings. Hynek, McDonald, Sagan, Robert L. Hall (University of Illinois at Chicago), James A. Harder (UC-Berkeley), and Robert M. L. Baker Jr. (UCLA) give testimony. Hynek is introduced by Rep. Donald Rumsfeld (R-Ill.). Menzel, R. Leo Sprinkle, Garry

C. Henderson, Stanton T. Friedman, Roger N. Shepard, and Frank B. Salisbury offer prepared papers. NICAP representatives are not permitted to testify. Many witnesses parrot the NORAD party line that its radars only look in certain directions (when indeed it looks for many types of potential attacks in all directions). Harder states: “On the basis of the data and ordinary rules of evidence, as would be applied in civil or criminal courts, the physical reality of UFOs has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt.” McDonald makes the biggest impression, presenting 30 pages of UFO reports. He states: “my own present opinion, based on two years of careful study, is that UFOs are probably extraterrestrial devices engaged in something that might very tentatively be termed ‘surveillance.’” Menzel concludes that UFOs merit no more scientific study than “the concept of ghosts, spirits, witches, fairies, elves, hobgoblins, or the devil.” The symposium has no lasting impact, as Congress does nothing about the problem. (Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968; “Congressional Hearings on UFO Problems: Scientists Urge Unbiased National Investigations,” UFO Investigator 4, no. 7 (July/Aug. 1968): 1–5; Clark III 811 ) July 30 — 2:00 a.m. A land surveyor and his wife in Claremont, New Hampshire, are preparing to retire when they see a dome-shaped object in a field about 230 feet behind their house. It is about 20 feet wide and moving slowly 10 feet above the ground, creating shadows on the freshly cut hay. The UFO shines a 20-foot wide gray-colored beam of light onto the ground. Their children moan and cry out in while they are sleeping and their dogs are whining loudly. They hear a high-pitched humming sound like a utility pole transformer. A few minutes later the object moves 25 feet to the east, the humming growing louder. At one point, a projection from the object descends to the ground. Around 4:30 a.m., the object goes brighter and slowly moves off toward the west. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 38–40) July 31 — 9:00 a.m. Farmer Luce Fontaine is collecting grass for his rabbits at La Plaine des Cafres on the island of Réunion (in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar), when he sees an oval-shaped object about 75 feet away. It is sitting about 15 feet from the ground on a flange of metal; a similar structure protrudes from its top. The cylinder has two blue ends and a transparent center through which he can see two humanoids less than 3 feet tall in metallic helmets and dressed in puffy suits like the Michelin Man (the tire company mascot). Seemingly sensing Fontaine looking at them, they turn their backs and the object disappears in a sudden flash of light and a burst of hot air. The incident is investigated by Capt. Maljean of the local Gendarmerie and Capt. Léopold Legros of the Civil Protection Service, who detect an abnormal amount of radioactivity at the site and on Fontaine’s clothing 10 days afterward, as well as six apparent landing marks in the ground. A country club called “La Soucoupe Volante” (Flying Saucer) is later built on the site. (“Contact Casualty on Réunion,” Flying Saucer Review 15, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1969): 8, 11; Jean-Claude Bourret, Le Nouveau Défi des O.V.N.I., France-Empire, 1976; Antonio Huneeus, “The ‘Michelin Man’ Encounters on Réunion Island,” Open Minds, July 30, 2010; Patrick Gross, “Plaine des Caffres, La Réunion, July 31, 1968”; La Soucoupe Volante Country Club, Facebook page)

August — The US Air Force Weapons Laboratory begins to set up a field instrumentation lab at Con Thien combat base near the Demilitarized Zone, Quang Tri Province, Vietnam, specifically for the purpose of investigating and tracking unidentified aircraft. The first project name is HAVE FEAR. At least 500 UFO sensor trackings via radar-visual, laser range-finder, video camera, infrared, nightscope, and telescope are investigated through April

1969. The UFOs, often seen as red lights, usually travel at speeds of 30–80 mph at altitudes of 1,200–1,600 feet. After several days of tracking, the red blinking lights extinguish when under radar surveillance. They are only seen at night and only in certain places. In mid-August, Project LETHAL CHASER is added, using portable manpack radars. The findings involve 99% UFOs and only 1% IFOs, primarily because the system does not include human anecdotal accounts. Pacific Air Forces’ unit history clearly states the investigation is about UFOs, not enemy helicopters. (Clark III 1050– 1054 ; Sparks, p. 328) August 4 — 4:15 a.m. Three witnesses in Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan, watch a luminous object, about 25 feet in diameter, as it hovers for several minutes. Later it circles above the house 300 feet away. A 4 - foot circle of barren grass is found, although an 18-inch circle in the center is undamaged. (Ted Phillips, Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings, Center for UFO Studies, 1978, p. 57) August 7 — McDonald addresses the Boeing Management Association in Renton, Washington, on “UFO Investigations: Past, Present, and Future.” (Story, p. 414 ) August 7 — 8:10 p.m. As a young man and woman watch from the end of a dock at Buff Ledge Camp [now closed] along the shore of Lake Champlain north of Burlington, Vermont, a bright light appears in the southwest sky and swoops down in a long arc until it stops and assumes a horizontal position. It now resembles a white, glowing, cigar-shaped object, possibly as far away as the Adirondack Mountains more than 10 miles from the witnesses. According to the young man, three tiny white lights emerge one at a time from the right-end bottom of the UFO. As soon as the third is expelled, the object retreats along its original path and vanishes seconds later. The three

smaller objects perform a series of spectacular maneuvers, all the while moving closer. After 5 minutes the objects assume a horizontal triangle formation, and two head off in opposite directions, one to the north, the other to the south, making a sound like “thousands of different tuning forks.” The remaining object (40–50 feet across) moves toward the witnesses. It ascends and vanishes in three seconds, only to reappear moments later as it descends along the same trajectory and plunges broadside into the water. A sudden wind blows waves across the heretofore placid surface. Animals up and down the shore howl and shriek. A few minutes later the UFO surfaces and moves toward the witnesses. It stops 60 feet from them, hovering about 15 feet above the water. The young man can see two figures with large heads, oversized oval eyes, and small mouths. Visible to the waist, they are short and clothed in skintight gray or silver uniforms. Thus begins an abduction experience that was only uncovered through separate hypnotic sessions with each of the witnesses by Walter N. Webb years later. Webb’s background checks, buttressed by psychological analyses, convinces him that there is no question of a hoax. (Walter N. Webb, Encounter at Buff Ledge: A UFO Case History CUFOS, 1994; Richard F. Haines, [Review], JUFOS 6 (1995/96): 248–251; Clark III 220– 222 ; B. J. Booth, “The Buff Ledge Abduction,” UFO Casebook) August 15 — 12:00 midnight. Dick Skewes is driving west with his wife Anne and babysitter Gail Yemm about 20 minutes east of Springhill, Nova Scotia, on the Trans-Canada Highway. After driving up a hill, he sees a group of 5 – 6 lights hovering 50 feet above some trees on his left. Another light is approaching at high speed to join the others. One of the objects breaks away and descends silently over the highway in front of them, its yellow lights flashing brilliantly, on an apparent collision course. When it is 40–50 feet away it veers upward and disappears to the east. Skewes continues down the highway and loses sight of the objects when he rounds a bend. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 79–81) August 16 — 2:51 a.m. The crew of a Canadian Forces Hercules C-150E are flying above Regina, Saskatchewan, when they see a cigar-shaped object cross their flight path. It has 6 rectangular patches on its side. It is visible with the naked eye for about 90 seconds, then it rapidly shrinks and disappears to the southwest very rapidly. (Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, p. 112) August 16 — 6:00 a.m. A farmer doing barnyard chores at La Serra d’Almos, Catalonia, Spain, glimpses a light more than half a mile away. He thinks someone’s car has stalled, so he walks over with his dog intending to help. But he finds a globe-shaped, glowing object hovering 3 feet above the ground. On the other side of it, he sees two creatures of an octopus-like appearance. Light-colored, 3 feet tall, they are running on “four or five legs” toward the UFO, which abruptly takes off. Reporters and UFO investigators find a considerable area of burned grass at the site. Those who visit the site shortly afterwards find their watches stop mysteriously. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, A Catalogue of 200 Type I UFO Events in Spain and Portugal, CUFOS, 1976, pp. 14–15; Clark III 280 – 281 ) August 17 — 8:21 p.m. Capt. Benjamin Gabrian is flying an Ilyushin Il-18 airliner at 22,800 feet in the vicinity of Oradea, Romania, when he sees an oval object on his right about a half-mile away and 900 feet higher. It is moving at high speed and emitting a bright green light. They watch it for 10–15 seconds before it accelerates and disappears to the west. (Hobana and Weverbergh 180–182; Romania 21) August 18 — 1:20 p.m. Technician Emil Barnea, his girlfriend Zamfira Matea, and two other friends are picnicking in the Hoia Baciu forest near Baciu, not far from Cluj-Napoca, Romania, when they see a round, metallic, luminous object moving slowly through the sky. Its brilliance increases and decreases as it maneuvers around for 2 minutes. Barnea succeeds in taking four photos of the object before it suddenly accelerates and shoots upwards. (Hobana and Weverbergh 99–107; UFOEv II 287 ; Adrian Pătruţ, “Phenomena in the Hoia Baciu Wood near Cluj-Napoca,” Flying Saucer Review 53, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 10; Chris Hill, “Hoia Baciu: Romania’s Haunted Forest,” Fortean Times 38 2, August 2019, pp. 32– 36 ; Patrick Gross, “Emil Barnea’s Photographs, Cluj, Romania, 1968”; Romania 21 – 27 ) August 21 — 6:58 a.m. The Canadian destroyer HMCS Mackenzie is on a mission in the Pacific Ocean about 930 miles off the coast of California. Four of the ship’s crew, including Maj. W. J. Draper, see a group of starlike lights approaching from the northeast, initially only 10° above the horizon. They are flying in a row, and one in the middle of the line seems larger and has a white glow around it. Within 5 minutes, the procession of 20 objects passes nearly overhead, heading west. They maintain a steady course until they are lost to view 13 minutes later. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 73–74) August 22 — 5:40 p.m. Capt. Walter Gardin and Capt. Gordon W. Smith are flying over Zanthus, Western Australia, at 8,000 feet in a Piper Navajo single-engine airplane when they see a large cigar-shaped object surrounded by five smaller ones. The formation maintains a constant angle from their own flight path for more than 10 minutes, while they are flying at 224 mph. The large object then opens up its center and the smaller objects fly to and from the larger object. Ground air control reports no known air traffic in the area. At this point the radio fails at all frequencies until the objects fly away. (“Pilots See Formation over Australia,” APRO Bulletin, Jan./Feb. 1969, pp.

1, 4; Paul B. Norman, “‘Motherships’ over Australia,” Flying Saucer Review 24, no. 5 (March 1979): 9–10; Paul B. Norman, “Countdown to Reality,” Flying Saucer Review 31, no. 2 (January 1986): 19–20; Good Above, pp. 172 – 173 ; Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, “The BOAC Labrador Sighting of June 29, 1954: Similar Reports,” Caelestia, October 31, 2018) August 25 — 5:00 a.m. Hospital assistant Maria José Cintra of the Serafim Ferrreira sanitarium in Lins, São Paulo, Brazil, hears a noise like the braking of a car. Cintra readies herself to meet people needing medical assistance. She opens a glass door and asks the visitor if she is a patient. The visitor, just over 6 feet tall, answers in an unknown language. The visitor is wearing a blue satiny cape, matching shoes, and a dress with a high collar and long sleeves. She shows Cintra a vessel with engraved ornaments, and Cintra fills it with water from a fountain and offers her a doughnut. The visitor walks to the door of the sanitorium and through some flowerbeds. At this point Cintra notices a semicircular “pebble-like” light on the ground and a UFO floating 1–2 feet above the grass. She feels the force of an invisible rotating movement and notices that the visitor is no longer there. The UFO rises into the air, making soft sounds like those she heard when the visitor arrived. Later, she and the sanitorium manager and his wife find high-heeled footprints on the freshly waxed floor near the door. On the lawn they discover a spot of scorched grass that persists for 4 months. Subsequent investigation reveals a depression in the ground 5– 7 inches deep, apparently made by a vehicle with a diameter of about 6.5 feet. From his bed, another patient has seen the UFO land some 260 feet from the fence of the sanitorium and remain there for 15 minutes. (“Mulher Extraterrestre Pede Água, em Lins, Est. de São Saulo,” SBEDV Boletim, no. 66/68 (Jan./June 1969): 72–74; Nigel Rimes, “Another Hospital Visited,” Flying Saucer Review 15, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1969): 4–6; Gordon Creighton, “Confrontation at Lins,” Flying Saucer Review 15, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1969): 22–23; Clark III 684–685; “O Fantástico Caso Lins,” Portal Fenomenum, June 15 , 2016; “O Fantástico Caso Lins,” Oarquiva; Brazil 99– 104 ) August 26 — 7:50 p.m. Pearl Christiansen is unchaining the driveway to her ranch near Gleeson, Colorado, when she notices a round, silver disc. She watches it for 5 minutes, then a second object appears, “very shiny and gold.” Both are hovering above 7,200-foot high Brown’s Peak. They remain for several hours, then just after midnight they back away behind the mountain. Mr. and Mrs. Willard Mayfield also see the objects. Daily Citizen reporter Cecil James and photographer Dan Tortorell visit the apparent site and find erratic burned patches of Dasylirion plants (charred at the base but not at the top) and grass. Rocks show evidence of high heat and are still hot to the touch two days later. (Cecil James, “Gleeson UFO Leaves Traces,” Tucson (Ariz.) Daily Citizen, October 19, 1968, Olé magazine, pp. 10, 22)

September 1 — 3:42 a.m. Juan Carlos Peccinetti and Fernando José Villegas are driving home after getting off work at a casino in Mendoza, Argentina. On the Calle Neuquén, their car stops and the lights go out. They find themselves unable to move and several humanoid beings standing near an enormous landed UFO. They receive telepathic messages from the aliens who make marks on the windshield and one side of their car and see a screen full of dystopian images. The beings prick their fingers and take blood samples before gong back to the UFO. However, the two later admit to making up the story. (Charles Bowen, “One Day in Mendoza,” Flying Saucer Review 14, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1968): 2–5; Clark III 601) September 4 — Hynek receives a letter from Col. Raymond S. Sleeper, commander of the Air Force Foreign Technology Division. Sleeper notes that Hynek has publicly accused Project Blue Book of shoddy science, and further asks Hynek to offer advice on how Blue Book could improve its scientific methods. Hynek later declares that Sleeper’s letter is “the first time in my 20 year association with the air force as scientific consultant that I had been officially asked for criticism and advice [regarding] … the UFO problem.” (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., pp. 189– 190 ) September 4 — Two US Air Force pilots flying in the vicinity of Goose Bay AFB [now CFB Goose Bay], Labrador, spot a spherical metallic object flying in a southerly direction at 33,000–41,000 feet. It crosses behind them, stops, performs two 360° turns and disappears after 5 minutes at 30° above the horizon. (Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, p. 115) September 4 — 10:30 p.m. A scoutmaster and 12 River Scouts are having a camp-out by bonfire in the mountains near Caracas, Venezuela, when they see two intensely glowing red discs, each about the size of the full moon, as they rise one at a time from some low hills, hover momentarily, and descend again. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 299) September 5 — Night. Thousands of people in Madrid, Spain, see a bright object in the sky, causing a monumental traffic jam. The Spanish Air Force scrambles an F- 10 4 jet to intercept it. The pilot climbs to 50,000 feet but the object is still above him, and he has to return for fuel. Air Force radar tracks the UFO moving slowly at 90,000 feet. A photo taken through a telescope at the Royal Observatory of Madrid shows a triangular object, apparently solid on one side and translucent in some sections. The object disappears at great speed. The Madrid Weather Bureau says

it has no meteorological balloons aloft. (“Triangle-Shaped Object over Madrid,” APRO Bulletin, Sept./Oct. 1968, p. 4; Good Above, pp. 149 – 151 ) September 6 — 9:30 p.m. John Dow and Paul Franklin are driving on Springfield Road in Taradale, New Zealand, when they notice 20–30 red and green lights flying aimlessly above the city dump. They pull off the road to watch, and a “thunderous explosion” rips through the air, shaking the car. Immediately, the lights begin to group, take off vertically, and disappear. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, p. 48) September 10 — Evening. John Dow and Paul Franklin are on the Omarunui Road southwest of Taradale, New Zealand. They see a circular object with a red and green light that is only a few feet in diameter and glowing white. Heading toward the source, they watch as the UFO disappears behind a cloud. After crossing a bridge, they see the object again, hovering on the opposite side of the river. The object glows intensely and speeds toward the automobile from the rear. Panicking, they try to jump out of the car, which is traveling at 35 mph, but get tangled up and the car veers out of control. Both of them fall out the left door as the bright UFO hovers 2 feet above the car roof. The car crashes into the store of a fruit dealer on Gloucester Street. A crowd gathers around the two young men, still dazed and shocked. Nearly 24 hours later the witnesses are treated for “bruises and abrasions” at the Napier Hospital outpatient clinic because “their clothes were sticking to them.” Dow is charged with reckless driving, but the circumstances convince the court to drop the charge and the insurance company pays for the damages. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 48– 50 ) September 13 — Condon calls together Craig, Gillmor, Roach, and Rush to discuss what the project’s recommendations should be. He writes the recommendation section shortly afterwards. (Roy Craig, UFOs: An Insiders ’ View of the Official Quest for Evidence, University of North Texas, 1995, p. 213) September 15 — 10:00 p.m. Farmers in the area around Carora, Lara, Venezuela, have a difficult time controlling their cattle and horses when a saucer-shaped object with flickering yellow lights flies over the area at high speed and low altitude. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 299) September 15 — 10:00 p.m. Mathematician Miron Oprea is driving with his wife and two nephews northwest of Ploieşti, Romania, when they see a cylindrical object emitting a bluish light and descending slowly to the west near the Vega oil refinery. (Hobana and Wverbergh 183 – 184) September 16 — A car-racing contest at Barquisimeto, Lara, Venezuela, is disrupted when a low-flying disc flies above the grandstands. A photographer gets a snapshot that shows a sausage-shaped object about 12–15 feet above the heads of the crowd on the uppermost tier of bleachers. (Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 299) September 17 — 1:00 a.m. Two air control tower operators at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, watch a bright light moving in a way they cannot explain. (J. Allen Hynek. The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, p. 44; Sparks, p. 329) September 18 — Farmer Marius Magnan sees three dull metallic, gray, football-shaped UFOs at an altitude of 2,500 feet and 2 miles away at Ste. Anne, Manitoba. They are traveling northwest to southeast in a vertical orientation at tremendous speed. The UFOs are discharging white substance from the upper surface just like popcorn. The white substance streams upward from two of the objects and downward from the third. After they disappear, a white, fibrous substance falls and settles on foliage, buildings, and power lines. The University of Manitoba analyzes a sample and finds it to be “cellulose-like and unstable,” with a uniform fiber diameter of 5 microns, and probably rayon coated with a gummy substance. (Brian Boldman, “Angel Hair Physical Analyses: A Review,” JUFOS 9 (2006): 104–105) September 18 — 4:15 a.m. Patrolman Arthur H. Byrd sees an object flashing red, blue, and yellow lights on Hunter Road in San Marcos, Texas, approaching at great speed. He follows it along Interstate 35 toward Luling and San Antonio, and at Redwood Road it comes to a stop. It slowly fades away by 7:15 a.m. (“UFO Said Followed for Hours,” Austin (Tex.) American, September 19, 1968, p. 68) September 19 — 3:15 p.m.–7:15 p.m. A lighted white object is seen by many witnesses over Cluj-Napoca and other towns in northwestern Romania. Some of the sightings are attributable to a balloon, but others seem to be moving against the wind and internally lit. (Hobana and Weverbergh 139–149; Romania 27–29) Late September (or late September 1969) — Night. A teenager is putting hay in a rabbit pen at his home in the East Linden neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. He hears a clapping noise and sees an entity dressed in a black uniform with a silver belt walking in the woods nearby. Its head has an eerie yellow glow. Scared, he runs into the house to get his parents, but the entity is gone when they go out to look for it. The next morning a neighbor stops by to ask if they had seen any lights in a field the night before. The families go to the field and find a large oval place where the grass, weeds, and bushes have been pressed down. (Irena Scott, “Observation of an Alien Figure,” IUR 12, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1987): 20, 25) September 26 – 27 — 6:00 a.m. Industrial chemist Henrique Schneider Jr. gets up and checks the fire in the kiln next to his house in Vila Baumer in the northern part of Joinville, Santa Catarina, Brazil. He comes across a strange object in

the pottery yard about 16 feet away. It is a cone-shaped device about 13 feet high sitting on a tripod under which a bluish light illuminates the ground, and it has a rectangular opening through which comes a treadmill. On the treadmill are two squared cylinders standing on end, both motionless. Schneider feels paralyzed and begins to converse telepathically with the nearest cylinder, which answers his questions clearly and briefly about where they come from, which is another star system, and they are investigating global warming on earth. Soon the treadmill goes back up into the object, the entrance closes, and it takes off with a hissing sound. The next day, Schneider finds a burned circle of grass just over 2 feet in diameter at the landing site. Inside this is a smaller circle of compressed grass and three holes where the tripod stood. (Carlos Varassin, “O Estranho Caso da Vila Baumer,” SBEDV Boletim, no. 94/98 (September 1973/June 1974): 41– 44 ; “Contato Imediato em Joinville,” Portal Fenomenum, June 15, 2016; Brazil 141– 145 ) September 29 — Night. Amateur astronomer Hermanus Voorsluys and ex-police officer Reginald Neal take several photographs of a UFO that they have seen for several nights above Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt at the southern tip of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. One photo shows a large object surrounded by four smaller luminous objects that have emerged from it, as well as a fifth object that has just appeared. After a zig-zagging descent, the smaller objects return to the level of the parent object and disappear. (“Mystery over Naval Base,” Canadian UFO Report 1, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1969): 4–7) September 30 — Philip J. Klass writes a letter to Robert A. Frosch, wanting to know who has financed James E. McDonald’s visits to Australia to investigate UFOs and who would fund his upcoming trip to Europe and the USSR. In late 1967, McDonald had secured a modest grant from the Office of Naval Research in order to study cloud formations in Australia. While there, McDonald conducts some UFO research on his own time. Klass mounts an extended, concerted campaign against McDonald, arguing that he has squandered government funds. The ONR responds by announcing that they had known of McDonald’s UFO interests and have no objections to his personal hobbies. The University of Arizona comes to McDonald’s defense, announcing that his UFO research was done on his own time, and has no adverse impact on his regular teaching and research duties at the university. (Clark III 700)

October? — A 7-page National Security Agency thought piece on UFOs is written by an unnamed NSA analyst around this time. It is declassified in 1984 with a disclaimer saying that it does not represent NSA policy. It discusses various hypotheses for UFOs (hoaxes, hallucinations, natural phenomena, secret earth projects, and extraterrestrial intelligence) and speculates what each answer would mean for the human species, placing credence in the ETH. ([US National Security Agency], “U.F.O. Hypothesis and Survival Questions,” [October 1968]; Good Above, pp. 423 – 424 ) October — Brazil’s System of Investigation of Unidentified Aircraft, created by the Fourth Air Zone Command of the Brazilian Air Force and sponsored by Brig. Gen. José Vaz da Silva and coordinated by Maj. Gilberto Zani de Mello, goes into operation to investigate UFO sightings, especially physical trace cases. The operation lasts until the end of 1972. (Wikipedia, “SIOANI”; Clark III 1072–1073) October 2 — 6:20 a.m. While oiling his tractor’s engine at the end of Avenida da Saudade in Lins, São Paulo, Brazil, Turíbio Pereira sees only a few feet away a golden cigar-shaped object hovering one foot above the ground. It is about 16 feet long and 10 feet wide. There is a platform around it and on the top a transparent dome is open. Inside there are four stools and an instrument panel. Pereira sees four beings around it wearing blue tunics and red skirts. One is on the platform with a weapon in its hand, another is picking up earth samples, the third is looking at his tractor’s engine, and the fourth is inside the object at the instrument panel. The being with the weapon fires it and a luminous ball hits Pereira in the stomach, paralyzing him. The entities go inside, and a transparent dome encloses them. The object ascends and shoots off at high speed. With difficulty, Pereira climbs off the tractor and stumbles to the road where a friend takes him home. Later he is given a medical examination by Antônio Geris and summoned to a Brazilian Air Force facility where he is questioned and held for three days. (Gordon Creighton, “Confrontation at Lins,” Flying Saucer Review 15, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1969): 22– 23 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, December 22, 2006; Brazil 105–107) October 5 — 7:52 p.m. John D. Hickey and his family are driving near West Morehead Street in Charlotte, North Carolina. While stopped at a traffic light, he sees a black object like a short cigar moving on his left, but it stops and hovers above a low building about 500 feet away. Suddenly three large gray-white lights shaped like television picture tubes turn on, each about 22 inches in diameter. A small black arm-like device moves slowly out of one end, extends a few feet, then stops. A blue light is at one end. The three large lights begin to blink slowly, then rapidly for 25 seconds. The blue light goes out, the arm retracts, the large lights blink more slowly until they stop. The lights go out and the object moves to the east. (“Nocturnal Light Becomes CE-I in Charlotte, NC,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1984): 1, 8)

October 7 — Hynek responds to Col. Sleeper’s request with an extended commentary prefaced by a succinct, eight-point critique of everything Project Blue Book has done wrong: the project suffers from (1) inadequate execution, (2) inadequate staff, (3) lack of open consultation with scientists outside the Air Force, (4) laughable statistical methods, (5) too much time spent on routine cases and not exceptional cases, (6) inadequate data provided by local Air Force base investigators, (7) biased evaluations, and (8) inadequate use of the project’s own scientific consultant. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 197 4, pp. 202– 206 , 283 – 305 ; Clark III 925) October 18 — 5:00 p.m. Hundreds of witnesses view a conical object that appears above Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, traveling from northwest to southeast. The UFO at first appears bright blue then changes first to a whitish-blue then to red. When it reaches a point just south of Sarajevo and northeast of the city of Mostar, the object turns to the east. It remains in view from 90 minutes to two hours. Members of the Akademski Astronomsko-Astronautiki Klub take photos of the object and, six months later, issue a report on their investigation of the incident. It estimates that the UFO was flying at an altitude of 16 miles and a speed of 20 mph, probably guided by air currents and not self-propelled, and most likely was a military reconnaissance balloon. (Hobana and Weverbergh 84–90) October 24 — 2:15– 5 : 18 a.m. Sixteen military personnel stationed throughout the Minuteman ICBM missile complex at Minot AFB, North Dakota, report a very large, brightly illuminated aerial object, alternating colors from brilliant white to orange-red and green, with the ability to hover, accelerate rapidly, and abruptly change direction. Ground radar tracks an unidentified target correlated with a visual orange glow and radios it (saying, “Someone is seeing flying saucers again”) to the attention of the USAF crew of a B-52H Stratofortress bomber at 2,000 feet as a UFO target 24 miles to the northwest. It shifts to 15 miles at 3:35 a.m. RAPCON alerts the pilots (instructor pilot Maj. Bradford Runyon and copilot Maj. James Partin) to the location of the UFO near Bowbells, North Dakota, which the B-52 navigator Capt. Patrick D. McCaslin observes on the radarscope maintaining a three-mile distance throughout a standard 180° turnaround. Radar navigator Maj. Charles Richey captures the tracking on film. As the B-52 starts its descent back to Minot AFB, the UFO appears to close distance to one mile at a high rate of speed, pacing the aircraft for nearly 20 miles before disappearing off the radarscope. Both B-52 UHF radios cannot transmit during the close radar encounter with the UFO and when the radarscope film is recorded. Shortly afterwards, RAPCON provides vectors for the B-52 to overfly a stationary UFO on or near the ground. After turning onto the downwind leg of the traffic pattern, the pilots observe a large, illuminated UFO ahead of the aircraft for several minutes, before turning onto the base leg over the UFO while observing it at close range. After the B-52 lands, both outer and inner-zone intrusion alarms are activated at the remote missile Launch Facility Oscar-7. The duration of the reported observations is over three hours. Other witnesses include Capt. Thomas Goduto, S/Sgt James F. Bond, S/Sgt William E. Smith, A1C Robert O’Connor, A1C Joseph P. Jablonski, and A1C Gregory Adams. The chief of the 862nd Combat Support Group, Lt. Col. Arthur J. Werlich, is designated as Blue Book liaison and he calls the report in at 4:30 p.m. after SAC investigations, an analysis of the radarscope film, and the B-52 crew debriefing. Werlich provides Blue Book with selected data through October 31. On November 13, Blue Book chief Lt. Col. Hector Quintanilla completes his evaluation and forwards the final report to SAC headquarters. It is a single-page letter providing several possible explanations for the various reports, along with 11 pages of attachments cobbled together in support. He attributes the B- 52 radar contact and loss of UHF transmission to “a plasma similar to ball lightning.” (NICAP, “Minot Tracks Object, B-52 Sees and Tracks UFO”; Sparks, p. 330; Clark III 748–763; Thomas Tulien, “A Narrative of Events at Minot Air Force Base,” Sign Oral History Project; Hynek UFO Report, pp. 137 – 139 ; Martin Shough, “Minot Air Force Base, Oct 24 1968,” 2006; Nukes 319–323; Thomas E. Bullard, “Defending UFOs,” IUR 34, no. 2 (Mar. 2012): 32 – 33 ; “The Minot AFB B-52 UFO Incident,” Above Top Secret forum, February 24, 2010; “New Witness to UFO Incursion at Nuke Missile Complex,” The UFO Chronicles, October 17, 2017) October 24 — 6:47 p.m. The Romanian oil tanker Arg eş is steaming through the Mozambique Channel when Third Officer Ştefan Anton and Commander Nicolae Ştefanescu see a bright orange-yellow disc half the diameter of the Moon moving swiftly and emitting blue-green rays from its center. At one point it stops abruptly for a moment andchanges course to the east. By sextant they estimate it is 15.5 miles away and 56 feet in diameter. (Hobana and Weverbergh 250–251) October 31 — The Colorado project delivers its report, Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects, to the Air Force. The first two sections, conclusions and recommendations, are written by Condon himself. He concludes that “further extensive study of UFOs probably cannot be justified in the expectation that science will be advanced thereby.” It is a clear signal to shut down Project Blue Book. Yet 30% of its cases are unexplained. Condon says a UFO cover-up is unthinkable because no one could keep such a secret for so long. He refutes the claim that the CIA has installed an agent within the project. He disapproves of UFO “amateurists,” especially NICAP. The project ignored old cases because they only offered witness testimony, are probably misidentifications, and it

makes little sense to reinterview witnesses. But this means ignoring the most compelling cases of the past 20+
years. Condon rejects the ETH because it is so unlikely that aliens can get here from there. This attitude suggests
that Condon’s approach is fundamentally antiempirical. The report also includes summaries of field studies,
photographic evidence, direct and indirect physical evidence, optical and radar cases, and astronaut sightings. In
the field studies section, Roy Craig concedes that some of the older cases suggest something extraordinary (Great
Falls, RB-47). William K. Hartmann divides photo cases into fabrications, misidentifications, poor image quality,
and clear images that lack sufficient data. Great Falls and McMinnville are the only two that he considers unusual.
Gordon Thayer discusses the predominance of anomalous propagation in radar cases. In finding natural
explanations, Thayer often disregards witness testimony. The rest of the report is mostly padding. (Wikipedia,
“Condon Committee”; Michael D. Swords, “The University of Colorado UFO Project: The ‘Scientific Study of
UFOs,’” JUFOS 6 (1995/96): 149– 184 ; Swords 329–332)

November — Two children are playing in the garden of their father’s hotel in Southampton, England, when they notice a “speck” come out of the clouds. It grows in size and comes closer, moving above the hotel roof. The shape is a large flattened disc with black square windows on the side. It moves to a point about 10 feet directly above them and hovers for 30 seconds, then it speeds up and disappears behind some trees. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 6 (June 1978): 2) November 2 — 3:55 a.m. A partially paralyzed Algerian veteran, Dr. X, has suffered an injury to his leg while chopping at a stump on his property in a village in the south of France on October 29. He is lying in bed when he is awakened by his crying 14-month-old son. He sees two luminous objects outside his house. They are coming close together and merging about 590 feet away. A vertical beam of light is aimed at him for a second as the object tilts, and then the display vanishes with a sort of explosion, leaving behind a slowly dissolving cloud. Shortly afterwards, the man’s leg heals and his war wound is better. He also experiences nightmares, stomach pains, and a red pigmentation appears around his navel, forming a triangle. He goes to a dermatologist but does not mention the UFO; the doctor is stumped. The man’s son also develops a red triangle. In November 1984, a French radio reporter records the gradual reappearance of the triangle on X’s abdomen. (Aimé Michel, “The Strange Case of Dr. X,” in Charles Bowen, ed., UFO Percipients, special issue no. 3 of FSR, September 1969, pp. 3 – 16; Aimé Michel, “The Strange Case of Dr. ‘X,’ Part 2,” Flying Saucer Review 17, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1971): 3– 9; Clark III 410– 413 ) November 6 — Two teenage boys see a disc-shaped UFO about 200 feet in diameter discharging angel hair over the Spring Branch West area of Houston, Texas. C. E. “Gene” Senter investigates and recovers a twig with angel hair that he puts in a plastic bag and freezes. A chemist analyzes the substance in a petroleum-industry lab but finds out little other than it is sticky and fibrous. (Brian Boldman, “Angel Hair Physical Analyses: A Review,” JUFOS 9 (2006): 105) November 15 — The Air Force sends the Colorado report to the National Academy of Sciences for review by an 11- member panel, chaired by Yale University astronomer Gerald Maurice Clemence and charged with an independent assessment of its scope, methodology, and findings. (Clark III 1197– 1198 ) November 20 — 5:45 p.m. Milan and Doris Milakovic and their son are driving southwest out of Hanbury, Staffordshire, England, when several rabbits run across the road from their left. Suddenly they see a brilliant object. They stop the car and watch as it rises from a field on their left, silently pass over the car, and move toward a solitary house about 300 feet away on the right where it stops and hovers, “quivering like jelly.” The air temperature seems to drop. For approximately 5 minutes, they see what appear to be several humanoid figures walking across the bright top of the UFO, which is as wide as the house. Intermittently, some of the figures bend down as though looking at something in the part of the object below the rim. Then the UFO begins moving up in a pulsating or jerky movement. The intensity of its light increases and Milakovic feels like his eyes are burning. Thoroughly frightened, Milakovic pushes his wife and son back into the car and speeds away from the scene. (W. Daniels and N. M. H. Turner, “The Milakovic Report,” Flying Saucer Review 15, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1969): 2–3, 24; Patrick Gross, “UFO with Humanoid Occupants, Hanbury, England, November 20, 1968”) November 23 — 8:05 p.m. An accountant named Jones is driving his 1967 Ford Custom along the road between Newton and Albany, Georgia. When he rounds a bend he sees a brilliant yellowish-white light about 200 feet ahead of him and 50–75 feet above the road. As he approaches, the car radio fades into static. Then the object emits a beam of well-defined light about 5–6 feet across that illuminates the trees and causes his engine and radio to cut out as it passes over his car. The object changes color to orange-red and ascends at a high rate of speed, disappearing in less than 15 seconds. The car engine starts spontaneously afterward. (Hynek UFO Report, pp. 189– 191 ) November 25 — 6:00 p.m. Elaine Pelchy is driving with her 2-year-old son and dog on Highway 174 south of Marcellus, New York, when they see an object with five red, blinking lights about 100 feet in front of her car and heading

southeast. The radio gets a lot of static and the English setter begins to get nervous, clawing at the window and putting its head over its eyes and ears. The boy starts crying, then the car engine begins to sputter. The object executes a U-turn and moves to the northwest as the lights change to blinking blue and white. Suddenly, the UFO stops and changes to a white, dome-shaped object with a “fluorescent star” next to it. The larger object merges into the star and disappears. Pelchy drops her son off at her mother-in-law’s, then returns on the same route. The dog starts to whine again as a light the size of a basketball fluctuates in intensity and zigzags across the sky. She goes home but returns to the scene with a neighbor and the light is still visible and maneuvering. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, pp. 40–41) November 26 — 5:40 p.m. Three control tower operators (Jack Wilhelm, Jack Reeves, and John Fischer) at Bismarck (North Dakota) Airport observe two swiftly moving round objects traveling in opposite directions. They reverse course and approach each other, hover together, then instantly zoom off to the northeast. Air Force radar at Great Falls, Montana, picks up “foreign objects” at the same time 85 miles northeast of Bismarck. The objects are also seen by Robert Watts, who is flying a Cessna 150. (NICAP, “Air Force Radar Tracks Objects”; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 43– 44 , 51 – 52 ) November 27 — A 41-page paper by George Kocher of the RAND Corporation, “UFOs: What to Do?” is produced as an internal document. It notes the likelihood of intelligent life in the universe, speculates UFOs may well have been around for a long time, looks at some compelling reports, and assesses the difficulty of estimating the number of sightings worldwide “because of the lack of suitable data collection means.” (George Kocher, “UFOs: What to Do?” RAND Corporation, November 27, 1968)

December — David R. Saunders (along with journalist R. Roger Harkins) explains his version of the Colorado project in UFOs? Yes! (David R. Saunders and R. Roger Harkins, UFOs? Yes! Where the Condon Committee Went Wrong, Signet, 1968) December — The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics announces that it has formed a UFO Subcommittee to study the UFO phenomenon objectively. Joachim P. Kuettner of ESSA Research Laboratories is the chairman; other members include Jerald M. Bidwell of Martin Marietta, Glenn A. Cato of TRW Systems Group, Bernard N. Charles of Aerospace Corporation, Murray Dryer of ESSA Research Laboratories, Howard D. Edwards of Georgia Institute of Technology, Paul MacCready of Meteorology Research, Andrew J. Masley of Douglas Missile and Space Systems Division, Robert Rados of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and Donald M. Swingle of the US Army Electronic Command. It announces in Astronautics and Aeronautics that the UFO issue “cannot be resolved without further study in a quantitative scientific manner and that it deserves the attention of the engineering and scientific community.” (“AIAA Committee Looks at UFO Problem,” Astronautics and Aeronautics, December 1968, p. 12) December 26 — The Spanish Air Ministry’s press office issues a release inviting citizens to report UFO cases to the air force. A few days later, Second Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mariano Cuadra Medina issues the first regulations in Spain on how to handle UFO reports. The information is rated confidential. (Swords 423) Late December — 11:30 a.m. Traumatologist Sebastian José Tarda is on vacation in Patagonia and leading a group of secondary school students on a motorboat field trip on Nahuel Huapi Lake, Argentina. Tarda is taking photos of the lake shore near Puerto Blest, but does not notice anything unusual. When one slide is developed, it shows a blurry white object against a mountainous background. An analysis by the Argentine UFO group Circulo de Investigación Cientifico Espacial states that the image is not caused by a lens flare, damaged emulsion, or a known object. Another analysis suggests that the object moved while the shutter was depressed. Ground Saucer Watch considers it a lens flare. (“UFO Appears in Photo over Nahuel Huapi Lake, Argentina,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 1 (February 1982): 1– 2 ; “Dr. Tarda 1968 Photograph Judged Lens Flare by GSW,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 2 (April 1982): 3)

1969

1969 — The CIA’s Operation Often is initiated by the chief of the CIA’s Technical Services Branch, Sidney Gottlieb, to “explore the world of black magic” and “harness the forces of darkness and challenge the concept that the inner reaches of the mind are beyond reach.” As part of the operation, Gottlieb and other CIA employees visit with and recruit fortune-tellers, palm-readers, clairvoyants, astrologers, mediums, psychics, specialists in demonology, witches and warlocks, Satanists, and other occult practitioners. (Wikipedia, “Project MKOFTEN”) 1969 — Gérard Lebat founds Groupe d’Études des Objets Spatiaux, which publishes GEOS International from July 1969 to July 1970, then Les Extraterrestres from November 1970 to October 1979, then Hypothèses Extraterrestres

from January 1980 to July 1981, in Rebais, Seine-et-Marne, France. (GEOS International, no. 1 (July 1969)); Les Extraterrestres, no. 9 (Nov./Dec. 1970); Hypothèses Extraterrestres, no. 13 (January 1980)) 1969 — In Passport to Magonia, Jacques Vallée proposes a radically revisionist argument that UFOs are better understood when related to folk traditions about supernatural creatures (elementals, fairies, angels, demons) than to astronomers’ speculations about life in outer space. He says science cannot adequately deal with such matters, although he does not specifically disavow the scientific method. It is the first book to question the ETH and the first to lay the groundwork for the psychosocial hypothesis, which sees UFOs as largely the product of unusual mental states and perpetuated by social acceptance. He argues that ostensible otherworldly manifestations are fantastic images propelled via psychic technology from humanity’s future to generate myths and religions that will change fate. In time the book leads to a new school of ufology whose advocates hold that UFOs and other anomalous experiences are internally generated and shaped entirely by cultural processes as opposed to nonhuman intelligences. Jerry Clark writes that the “genius of Passport, a genuinely brilliant work, is its success in placing UFOs into not only cultural but experiential context.” (Jacques Vallée, Passport to Magonia, Regnery, 1969; Clark III 939 – 940, 1214 ) 1969 — Contactee Ted Owens writes How to Contact Space People. Owens, who calls himself the “PK Man,” attributes his psychic and precognitive abilities to UFO occupants who operated on his brain when he was a child, a modification that made him half-human, half-alien. He claims to be in two-way contact with saucer intelligences. (Ted Owens, How to Contact the Space People, Saucerian, 1969; Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, pp. 235– 236 ) 1969 — Spanish ufologist Antonio Ribera receives his first Ummo communication, a letter postmarked from Paris, Franca. An Ummo cult has begun to form, and books—both journalistic accounts and anthologies of Ummo writings—find an avid readership. (Clark III 1185) 1969 — Night. During its extended deployment to Vietnam with the 7th Fleet, the destroyer USS Leary is navigating fishing waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. Ensign Will Miller is alerted by the lookout about a possible light from a fishing boat in the water ahead. But the light suddenly moves from above the water to below the surface and heads rapidly toward the ship at 45° to the bow, passing below the vessel. The sailors run to the starboard side to see whether it will emerge, but it does not. Nothing is tracked on radar or sonar or by the ECM system. (Good Need, pp. 284 – 285 )

January — John Magor begins publishing the quarterly Canadian UFO Report in Duncan, British Columbia. It persists through the summer issue of 1979. (Canadian UFO Report 1, no. 1 (January 1969)) January 6 — 7:15 p.m. Future president Jimmy Carter is preparing to give a speech at a Lions Club meeting at Leary, Georgia. One of the guests calls his attention to a strange object visible about 30° above the horizon to the west of where he is standing. Carter describes the object as being bright white and about as bright as the moon. It appears to have closed in on where he is standing but stops beyond a stand of pine trees some distance from him. The object changes color, first to blue, then to red, then back to white, before appearing to recede into the distance. Carter feels that the object is self-illuminated and not solid in nature. Carter’s report indicates that it is witnessed by about 10–12 other people and is in view for 10–12 minutes before it passes out of sight. Skeptic Robert Sheaffer concludes that the object is a misidentification of Venus. Ufologist Allan Hendry does calculations and agrees with the assessment of the object as Venus. A member of the Carter family thinks it might have been a barium cloud produced by rockets launched from Eglin AFB near Valparaiso, Florida. (Wikipedia, “Jimmy Carter UFO incident”; Clark III 225; Good Above, pp. 368 , 516 – 517 ; Robert Sheaffer, “President Jimmy Carter’s Sighting of a UFO”) January 8 — The National Academy of Sciences releases its review of the Colorado project report, giving its enthusiastic approval. In a letter to Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Alexander H. Flax, Frederick Seitz expresses the hope that the review would “be helpful to you and other responsible officials in determining the nature and scope of any research effort in this area.” (National Academy of Sciences, “Review of the University of Colorado Report on Unidentified Flying Objects by a Panel of the National Academy of Sciences,” January 8, 1969; Story, pp. 244 – 245 ) January 8 — Science reporter Walter Sullivan writes that the soon-to-be-released Colorado project report will debunk the extraterrestrial hypothesis and dismiss “demands of some scientists and laymen for a large-scale effort to determine the nature of such ‘flying saucers.’ Such a project, the report says in effect, would be a waste of time and money.” Sullivan dismisses the project’s critics as “UFO enthusiasts.” (Walter Sullivan, “U.F.O. Finding: No Visits from Afar,” New York Times, January 8, 1969, pp. 1– 2 ) January 9 — The Colorado project report is released to the public in a 965-page Bantam Books edition. (Edward U. Condon, scientific director, Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects, Bantam, 1969; [HTML version])

January 11 — Keyhoe, Saunders, and McDonald hold a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to criticize the Condon report. (Jacobs, UFO Controversy in America, Signet ed., 1976, pp. 216 – 217 ) January 21 — The Lucens reactor in Vaud, Switzerland, suffers a loss-of-control accident that leads to a partial core meltdown and massive radioactive contamination of its cavern, which is sealed. (Wikipedia, “Lucens reactor”) January 22 — Elements of the Ninth Marine Division go more than a mile into Laos to protect the flanks of a major combat operation. The New York Times reveals the operation on February 12. Though American combat involvement in Laos is not officially acknowledged until 1969, the US is known to have organized, trained, and equipped a clandestine army of Laotian irregulars since the early 1950s, under the direction of the CIA. (Seymour M. Hersh, “Secret 1969 Foray into Laos Reported,” New York Times, August 12, 1973, p. 1, 5) January 25 — 12:30 a.m. A young couple is driving near Plattville, Illinois. The woman sees a bright object like an ice- cream cone low in the sky ahead, traveling big end first. They get within a quarter mile and the object turns point up and only 30 feet off the ground. Security lights on a nearby farmhouse go off. The object spins and flashes, and the car engine and lights go off. The front end of the car lifts 3 feet off the ground. The UFO moves away and the car drops and regains its power. (Michael D. Swords, “Messing Around with the Force,” IUR 31 , no. 4 (March 2008 ): 16) January 31 — After a series of UFO sightings and radar trackings beginning in October 1968, the US Air Force and Army set up another UFO observation network in the West Central Highlands near Pleiku, Vietnam, using pulse acquisition radar, continual wave acquisition radar, and illumination radar. The system picks up 365 unidentified tracks through April. (Clark III 1052–1054)

February — 2d Lt. Carmon L. Morano replaces Lt. Col. Hector Quintanilla as head of the moribund Project Blue Book. (Sparks, p. 14 ) February 7 — 7:30 a.m. Tiago Machado, 19, wakes up at his home in Pirassununga, São Paulo, Brazil, and hears a neighbor shouting about a silvery-blue object landed on a hill on the grounds of the Zootecníca. He watches it for a time, then goes in to get binoculars. He goes off to the hill and approaches the object until he is about 33 feet away. It is a disc made of silvery metal with a dome on top. It is about 13 feet in diameter and stands on three legs. A door opens and two men come floating down to the ground. Machado can see two other beings inside. The men walk toward him, making signs. They are wearing silver diver’s suits, have black teeth and thin-lipped mouths, and one eye is lower than the other. Each has a kind of burn or cicatrice on each cheek. Machado is nervous, so he lights a cigarette. The beings apparently think this is funny, so he tosses the cigarette pack toward them. One of them leans sideways and stretches out his hand. The pack floats 8 inches up to his hand and disappears. Suddenly one of Machado’s friends calls out to him, and the beings walk back to the UFO, still facing him, and jump up to the door. The last one in pauses and pulls out a kind of weapon, points it at Machado, and a flame like a welding arc comes out of the barrel and floats toward him, hitting him in the thigh. He feels faint and paralyzed as the UFO takes off. His friends carry him to a neighbor’s house and find a red swelling on his leg. Later, investigators find three imprints in an equilateral triangle at the site, each about 5 inches in diameter. Soil samples taken show no radioactivity. (Nigel Rimes, “The Pirassununga Landing,” in Charles Bowen, ed., UFO Percipients, special issue no. 3 of FSR, September 1969, pp. 39 – 45; Brazil 109–114; “Caso Tiago Machado,” Portal Fenomenum, June 15, 2016) February 12 — McDonald presents “A Dissenting View of the Condon Report” to the DuPont Chapter of the Scientific Research Society of America in Wilmington, Delaware. (James E. McDonald, “A Dissenting View of the Condon Report,” February 12, 1969; Patrick Gross, “Scientists Take Position”; Story, p. 415 ) February 13 — McDonald speaks on “UFOs: A Challenge to Observation” at the American Meteorological Society in Washington, D.C. (James E. McDonald, “UFOs: A Challenge to Observation,” February 13, 1969; Story, p. 415 ) February 18 — Morning. Barbara Smyth, a teacher in a small town in Alberta, is driving to school when she sees on her right a “gigantic, bright pinky-red coloured” object “about seven times the size of a steel granary of 14ft. diameter.” It looks like two rounded layers divided by a thin blue line. There are two flashing white lights on the top and a tent-like structure that pulsates and changes color from silver to fiery yellow. The UFO starts spinning counterclockwise and jumps over to the next hill. Suddenly, her car is no longer under her control as it floats down a very bumpy road. After three minutes the UFO disappears, and the car returns to normal. (W. K. Allan, “A UFO and the Car Which ‘Floated Along,’” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 6 (August 1971): 8, iii; Clark III 250) February 19 — 12:30 p.m. Two telephone linemen are working atop a pole near Lebel-sur-Quévillon, Quebec, when the see a gray, metallic cylinder with four fins at its end moving slowly west to east over the trees and about 150 feet above the ground. The object is 100 feet long and only 15 feet in diameter. The men watch it for a few minutes as it glides slowly out of sight. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 72)

March — Secretary of the Air Force Office of Information representative Maj. David J. Shea attends a meeting in the Pentagon in which “there was no doubt that Project Blue Book was finished.” (Clark III 926) March 3 — The US Navy establishes its Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun) to teach fighter and strike tactics to selected aviators and officers at Naval Air Station Miramar [now Marine Corps Air Station Miramar] in San Diego, California. Its focus is on combat training against MiG fighters, now that MiG testing at Groom Lake, Nevada, has been successful. (Wikipedia, “United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program”) March 3 — Hynek submits a UFO research proposal to Col. George R. Weinbrenner, FTD Commander, in which he reveals that out of the approximately 10,000 reports in the Project Blue Book files, he estimates that 1,000–3,000 (10%–30%) are “interesting” unexplained cases (“unknowns”). (J. Allen Hynek, “Preliminary Proposal for Subject Investigation,” March 3 and 19, 1969) March 4 — 6:40 a.m. William Overstreet, 50, is driving his truck on Missouri J between Elmer and Atlanta, Missouri, when he sees a bright reddish-orange light about 100 feet in diameter and floating along at 40 mph. It begins to follow the road and beams a strong, cone-shaped white light on to the road from a height of 50 feet. Overstreet can feel the heat. The object changes from red to a blue sphere surrounded by a red ring. He attempts to drive through the beam, but his motor and radio die when he gets to within 6 feet. The beam moves away a bit, he tries again, and the same thing happens. The UFO moves about a mile away, turns back to red, switches off the beam, and cruises away. (NICAP, “100ʹ Object Affects Radio and Truck Engine”; “E-M Effect on Truck in Missouri,” APRO Bulletin, May/June 1969, p.4; Michael D. Swords, “Messing Around with the Force,” IUR 31 , no. 4 (March 2008 ): 15 ) March 4 — 10:00 p.m. RCMP Constable R. J. Shannahan is on foot patrol near 24 Sussex Drive, the Prime Minister’s residence in Ottawa, Ontario. He looks up and sees two bright flashing red lights above and slightly inside the gates to Rideau Hall. One light moves east and is lost to view in one minute, while the other moves west and is visible for 5–6 minutes. No jets are scrambled, and there is no indication that radar installations are asked about unidentified targets. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Decl assified, August Night, 2022, pp. 75–77) March 6 — 10:30 a.m. A woman is driving with her St. Bernard dog between Glenwood and Lancaster, Missouri. The dog becomes agitated and she sees a bright blue-white beam of light illuminating the road and a domed disc 1,000 feet in the air. The dog jumps into the front seat and become quite panicked. She tries to drive through the beam, but the car slows from 50 mph to 8 mph but manages to get to the other side when the car picks up speed. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, p. 32; Ted Phillips, “UFO Events in Missouri, 1857–1971,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 8 (December 1971): 11; Michael D. Swords, “Messing Around with the Force,” IUR 31 , no. 4 (March 2008 ): 15 – 16) March 17 — Two pilots are flying a Cessna 150 between Phoenix and Lake Havasu, Arizona, when the pilot in the right seat rises up and sees maybe 2 dozen oval, white discs on the left side of the plane, flying very low and in a rough formation. Each has the hint of a blister near the front. The speed is 200–300 mph, and the only maneuver they make is pitch and roll, all done simultaneously, in unison. For 20 seconds, both pilots watch the objects pass below their aircraft and beyond. (Michael D. Swords, “We Know Where You Live,” IUR 30, no. 2 (January 2006): 11–12) March 18 — The US begins a covert SAC bombing campaign, Operation Menu, in eastern Cambodia that lasts until May 26, 1970. An official USAF record of US bombing activity over Indochina from 1964 to 1973 is declassified by President Bill Clinton in 2000. The report gives details of the extent of the bombing of Cambodia, as well as of Laos and Vietnam. The Menu bombings are an escalation of what has previously been tactical air attacks. Operation Freedom Deal immediately follows Operation Menu. Under Freedom Deal, B-52 bombing is expanded to a much larger area of Cambodia and continued until August 1973. (Wikipedia, “Operation Menu”)

April — Hynek writes a review of the Condon report for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, calling it a “strange sort of scientific paper [that] does not fulfill the promise of its title… [It] leaves the same strange, inexplicable residue of unknowns which has plagued the U.S. Air Force investigation for 20 years.” (J. Allen Hynek, “The Condon Report and UFOs,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 25 (April 1969): 39–42) April 12 — During a Fouga Magister aircraft training mission at Pori Airport, Finland, a Finnish Defence Forces flight controller tells pilot-in-training Tarmo Tukeva to investigate seven air balloons that are floating at approximately 5,000–9,800 feet above the airport. Tukeva reports that the objects are ball or disc-shaped but cannot determine how far away they are. Tukeva sees the objects accelerate away from him “at great speed.” Indeterminate radar images are also later reported 125 miles away in Vaasa. A second pilot-in-training, Jouko Kuronen, overhears the radio communications between the flight controller and Tukeva and sees the UFOs as well. According to the Finnish Armed Forces magazine Ruotuväki, the reports are similar to other cases occurring over bodies of water

during ongoing military exercises and may have been due to “transnational spy planes or aircraft.” (Wikipedia, “Finnish Air Force UFO sighting”; “1969: Pilots Report 7 Yellow Spheres at Pori Airport, Finland,” UFO Casebook, August 13, 2013; “Ruotuväki: Ilmavoimien lentäjät tekivät merkittävän ufo-havainnon 60-luvulla,” Ilta-Sanomat, May 8, 2012) April 17 — Morning. T. J. Hefferman of Bungawalban, New South Wales, wakes up and notices that his dogs are “strangely subdued.” Outside, he finds a flattened area in a sacaline (Reynoutria sachalinensis) forage crop on his property. A roughly circular area is flattened in four distinct patches, the largest 60 by 15 feet. All the stalks lie in one direction, north to south. The previous night, two men working night shift on a flood mitigation dredge a quarter mile north of the farm had seen a glow in the sky, and a neighboring farmer had seen two “toplike objects” moving about for a number of nights. G. Testa, an independent investigator from Lismore, visits the site on April 20 and takes 25 feet of 8mm color film to document the damage. (Bill Chalker, “1969: The Great UFO Daze of Oz,” The Oz Files, September 19, 2020; Clark III 1138– 1139 ) April 19 — Evening. Two witnesses 5 miles east of Hill City, Kansas, watch a multi-colored object approach to within 100 feet of their car. The car engine fails. The object hovers at 75 feet above the ground for 3 minutes, then slowly moves away. The car then restarts without trouble. (Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1982, p. 46) April 20 — 7:30 p.m. A woman out walking at Harwood Island, New South Wales, sees and hears a large patch of 2-year- old cane rustling and waving on a still night. A powerful beam of light switches on across the top of the cane path, and it slowly turns in a half circle before going out and being replaced by a “low beam” and “cabin lights.” A UFO is above the cane and she feels a powerful force lifting her up and pulling her toward the object when the “high beam” is on. The helmet-shaped object is 20–28 feet long and 22 feet wide. At its closest the UFO is 40– 50 feet away. It disappears suddenly. (Bill Chalker, “1969: The Great UFO Daze of Oz,” The Oz Files, September 19, 2020; Clark III 1139) April 22 — 8:00 p.m. Three witnesses are driving in heavy rain near Hammond, Ontario, when they see an object like a huge “drinking cup turned upside down.” It has two bright lights directed horizontally and appears to have a row of portholes with pink light coming from within. They estimate it is 5 feet off the ground, 20 feet long, and 200 feet away. They can hear a whining noise like a generator. After 15 minutes, the object turns and zooms over some nearby power lines, over the trees, and out of sight. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 77) April 23 — 2:00 a.m. Virginia A. Guinn and a boarder are awakened by loud howlings and yowlings from the dogs and cats at her farm in Silver Spring, Maryland. Going outside, the witnesses see a round UFO “as large as two rooms” that is a bluish-white color like the glow around a welder’s arc. The object is moving beyond the barn to the north-northeast. They heard a humming noise and the object blinks out and the animals quiet down. Guinn discovers later that morning that the horses in the barn had broken free of their stalls and knocked harnesses off the walls. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, p. 32) April 25 — 7:30 p.m. A woman and her 11-year-old daughter are travelling by taxi past Roberts Park in Greenacre, New South Wales, when they spot a “Japanese lantern” above some trees. One minute later, as the taxi turns a corner, they see it again, 100 – 130 feet away, apparently in the same spot. The driver stops the taxi, and they can see what looks like a metallic craft, approximately 33 feet in diameter, with the appearance of “two soup bowls joined rim- to-rim.” There is a steady red light on top. The object seems to be noiselessly rocking backwards and forwards, at a frequency of 1–2 rocks per second. A “depressing blue glow” can be seen through a window that takes up most of the upper part. A humanoid figure is apparently operating controls near the window. Another figure is pointing at the witnesses. A third seems to be walking toward a back door. All three are apparently human-sized and are either wearing tight black clothing, are black skinned, or seen in silhouette. After 15 seconds or less, the driver speeds off down the road, drops the couple off, and drives off quickly without taking their fare. At 8:00 p.m., the woman and her daughter return to the park. The UFO is not to be seen. (Bill Chalker, “1969: The Great UFO Daze of Oz,” The Oz Files, September 19, 2020) April 26 — Condon speaks publicly for the first time after the end of the Colorado project in an address to the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on “UFOs I Have Loved and Lost.” He concludes by saying, “Let me say that where corruption of children’s minds is at stake, I do not believe in freedom of the press or freedom of speech. In my view, publishers who publish or teachers who teach any of the pseudosciences as established truth should, on being found guilty, be publicly horsewhipped, and forever banned from further activity in these usually honorable professions.” (Henry W. Pierce, “Professors Threaten Own Free Speech,” Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post-Gazette, May 10, 1969, p. 21; Jacobs, UFO Controversy in America, Signet eds., 1976, p. 224 )

May — Rod B. Dyke launches the monthly UFO Newsclipping Service in Seattle, Washington, which soon becomes a primary source for media reports on UFOs and related phenomena. The service is largely run by Lucius Farish as co-editor in Plumerville, Arkansas, beginning in July 1977. Farish publishes it on his own from January 1991 until November 20 07 , when Dyke reacquires it and keeps it going again with co-editor Chuck Flood until December 2008. The final editor is David Marler, who runs the service from January 2009 to August 2011, when it ceases publication. (UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 1 (May 1969)) May — John A. Keel begins publishing an unscheduled, free newsletter titled Anomaly in New York City. It continues until April 1974. (Anomaly, no. 1 (May 1969)) May 1 — 5:30 p.m. An illuminated triangular object moves soundlessly from south to north over Negru Vodă, Romania. After 20 minutes of hanging motionless it disappears swiftly to the east. (Hobana and Weverbergh 161–162) May 4– 9 — 3:00 p.m. A 24-year-old Brazilian soldier named José Antônio da Silva is fishing by himself at Bebedouro (apparently a small lagoon in the Área de Proteção Ambiental do Carste de Lagoa Santa) near Matozinhos, Minas Gerais, Brazil, when he begins dozing off. He perceives figures moving around him, and he feels himself shot with something that paralyzes his legs. Two small humanoid beings, joined by a third, drag him off into a strange machine shaped like two saucers joined together by a thick, vertical cylinder. The machine lifts off, and after a long interval it lands. Da Silva is carried by his armpits into a large quadrangular room, where he finds himself with his original three captors and a fourth being—also humanoid, with red hair and a beard that comes down to his waist—who seems to be their leader. He remembers afterward that all four have mouths that look like fishes’ mouths. The room is made of stone. Inside, on a low shelf seemingly fashioned out of stone, da Silva sees the bodies of four human men lying stretched out side by side. Naked, rigid, and positioned on their backs, the bodies bear no visible wounds, but it is obvious that they are dead. One is a well-built black man and another has light brown skin. Two others, more slightly built, are Caucasian, one of them very blond “like a foreigner.” The beings do not speak any Portuguese but, using pictures, the leader manages to convey to da Silva that they want him to be their guide and weapons provider for what he supposes is a subsequent invasion of Earth. He refuses, fingering his crucifix, which the angry leader rips from his hand. Out of nowhere, da Silva sees appear in front of him a human figure who stands motionless, gazing at him in a friendly fashion. The figure, about five and a half feet tall, is Caucasian, slender, bearded with long fair hair, and dressed in a friar’s cassock. Amazingly, the little men seem oblivious to his presence. Speaking in Portuguese, the figure gives da Silva certain “revelations” that he afterward insists on keeping secret. He apparently knows who the figure is but he does not reveal that either, saying only that he wasn’t Jesus. The figure vanishes, and the beings who have abducted him start quarreling among themselves. They carry da Silva back to their machine; there follows another flight, another landing. Da Silva awakens in the dawn of what turns out to be May 9, four and a half days after his abduction, some 300 miles to the east of the place where he had been abducted. He supposedly bears the physical marks of his ordeal— wounds on his neck, lameness in one leg—for days afterward. (Húlvio Brant Aleixo, “O Caso ‘Bebedouro,’” SBEDV Boletim, no. 94/98 (Sept. 1973/June 1974): 7–22; Húlvio Brant Aleixo, “Abduction at Bebedouro,” Flying Saucer Review 19, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1973): 6–14; Húlvio Brant Aleixo, “Bebedouro II: The Little Men Return for the Soldier,” Flying Saucer Review 21, no. 3/4 (November 1975): 32–35; Walter Buhler, “Thoughts on the Bebedouro Case,” Flying Saucer Review 21, no. 3/4 (November 1975): 36–38; “O Caso de Bebedouro,” Portal Fenomenum, June 15, 2016; David Halperin, “Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman: ‘Descent into Hell’ and the Bebedouro Abduction,” davidhalperin.net, July 27, 2018; Clark III 185 – 189 ; Brazil 116–121) May 11 — 2:00 a.m. Near the village of Chapeau, Quebec, on L’Isle-aux-Allumettes in the Ottawa River, farmer Leo Paul Chaput is awakened by his dog barking. He looks out the window and sees a brilliant light close to the ground. The light source seems to be a domed craft with a flat bottom (like a World War I helmet) about 500 feet away. He looks away briefly, and the object is gone, although he can hear the diminishing sound of a motor. When Chaput gets up in the morning, he finds a large circular indentation in the ground, 600 feet from his house. The impression is 32 feet in diameter and is surrounded by a ring of scorched grass 2.5 feet wide. Inside, the vegetation is not damaged, but there are three holes that form a perfect equilateral triangle, 15 feet on a side. The holes are 8 inches in diameter and 3 inches deep. He finds a second, slightly smaller circle to the southwest, again with scorched grass and 3 indentations. A third ground marking, a semicircle, is near the second. (Donald E. Keyhoe and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., Strange Effects from UFOs, NICAP, 1969, p. 45; Brian C. Cannon, “UFO Alert in Ontario,” Canadian UFO Report 1, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1969): 19–21; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1 9 74, pp. 153 – 154 ; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 103–104) May 12 — The DARPA Pandora Project committee discusses plans to move forward with eight human subjects who will be exposed to microwaves similar to the Moscow Signal and then given a full battery of medical and psychological tests. The committee recommends “gonadal protection be provided” to the male test subjects;

however, human testing is not pursued. The program is shut down later in 1969, with an effect of the signal on behavior and/or biological functions deemed “too subtle or insignificant to be evident.” (Wikipedia, “Moscow Signal”) May 18– 20 — Evening. A localized power blackout cuts off electricity at the Lester Kaiser farm near Rising Sun, Indiana, for 2 hours. The next night, George Kaiser watches a hairy, muscular, bipedal creature that flees upon being seen. It leaves tracks showing three toes and a big toe. On May 20, a neighbor sees a glowing, greenish-white UFO as it hovers for several minutes. (John Keel, Strange Creatures from Time and Space, 1 970 , pp. 94–95; Clark III 556; Patrick Gross, URECAT, May 29, 2007) May 22 — 11:00 p.m. Graham Longey sees a large, brilliant, circular white object hovering a few feet off the ground at Glenorchy, Tasmania. Windows encircle its midsection. It begins to move rapidly upward, and by the time he dashes out of his house it is gone. On the site, Longey finds an elliptical area of burned grass 18 feet by 12 feet. A small tree nearby is scorched and has limbs broken. He notices an oily smell. (Clark III 1139) May 23 — 6:35 p.m. A 13-year-old boy in Cloverdale, Western Australia, notices a moving light to the south and about 10° above the horizon. He calls his mother, who sees a steady red light on top of a more diffuse blue-white light darting haphazardly in a zigzag pattern but in general moving to the north until it disappears behind their house. The witnesses shift their position and can still see the light hovering in the northwest. The light is now seen as circular with hazy edges and about half the diameter of the full moon. At about 7:00 p.m. it moves at high speed to the north. The mother calls the radar station at Kalamunda, which simultaneously gets a request from Perth Airport to check out an unidentified echo on their meteorological radar. The Kalamunda operator sees a large echo some 9 miles away, which reappears for short durations on 5 further occasions and is last seen at 7:42 p.m. (Swords 397– 398 ; Bill Chalker, “1969: The Great UFO Daze of Oz,” The Oz Files, September 19, 2020) May 28 — McDonald presents a talk that is critical of the Colorado project at the Sacramento, California, section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. (James E. McDonald, “A Very Creditable Effort?” May 28, 1969; Story, p. 415 ) May 31 — The Midwest UFO Network (later Mutual UFO Network) is founded in Quincy, Illinois, by Walter H. Andrus Jr., who leaves APRO and takes many of its members with him. It is conceived as a grassroots organization with state and local leaders overseeing activities and investigations. Allen R. Utke, associate professor of chemistry at Wisconsin State University, is selected as the first MUFON Director (Clark III 784)

June — Although President Richard Nixon does not trust J. Edgar Hoover, he accepts the FBI’s help through an “intelligence letter” program, codenamed INLET. This program is not only intended to provide the president with domestic and international security issues, but also, “items with an unusual twist or concerning prominent personalities which may be of special interest to the President.” Nixon orders seven wiretaps on his staffers. (John Greenewald, “INLET (Intelligence Letters) Reports, 1960s and 1970s,” The Black Vault, May 7, 2020) June 10 — McDonald gives a public talk sponsored by NICAP in Washington, D.C., on “UFOs Unsolved: A Scientific Challenge.” (James E. McDonald, “UFOs: Unsolved: A Scientific Challenge,” June 10, 1969; Story, p. 415 ) June 11 — McDonald meets privately with representatives on the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in Arlington, Virginia, urging a new look at the UFO problem. (Story, p. 415 ) June 17 — 2:00 a.m. Kaneto and Kioko Nobutoshi witness a “brilliantly illuminated window” hovering in the air in Ibiúna, São Paulo, Brazil. It appears to be 30 feet in diameter, 10 feet high, and illuminates a small part of the ground. The sighting lasts 45 minutes, with the object stationary all the time. It then vanishes. Later examination of the ground underneath reveals a circle of flattened grass, 25 feet in diameter, swirled counterclockwise, with some small secondary swirls. (Hans Bemelmans, “Reports from Ibiuna,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1970): 15–19; Terry Wilson, “1969: Ibiuna,” Old Crop Circles) June 17 — Turkish Air Force pilot Süleyman Tekyildirim is ordered to intercept a UFO above his base in Turkey in a US- built F-5A Freedom Fighter. He flies above it, thinking it is a meteorological balloon because it looks gray and like an upside-down light bulb. However, it moves to his left and takes off at fantastic speed. He tries to reach it, but it eludes him and speeds away. (Good Need, p. 299 ) June 19 — 12:25 a.m. Radio/TV engineer Robin Peck is driving a van just north of Bircham Newton, Norfolk, England, when his headlights and motor fail. He looks under the hood, feels some “static electricity,” and his hair stands on end. He looks up and sees a bluish, upside-down-mushroom-shaped object hovering 100–150 feet over the trees on a nearby farm. It has an orange glow around it. Peck feels that the air is electrified. His luminous wristwatch glows intensely and unnaturally. After about one minute the object takes off and disappears rapidly. The van’s electrical system returns to normal. (Peter Johnson, “Auto-Stop near Docking,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 5 (June 1971): 1–2; UFOFiles2, p. 81)

June 19 — 11:50 p.m. Arthur Hendry, 17, is getting ready to cycle home near Docking, Norfolk, England, when he hears a strange whistling noise above him that intensifies and becomes a powerful throbbing. His muscles feel frozen or paralyzed as if he is receiving a severe electric shock. After a few seconds the noise stops, and he feels normal again. (UFOFiles2, p. 81) June 26 — 2:30 p.m. Sr. Benedito, a justice of the peace, is walking along a trail about 4 miles northwest of Ibiúna, São Paulo, Brazil, when he hears a humming noise like a swarm of bees. He sees an odd object rocking from side to side that suddenly drops into the brush out of sight. Thinking it is an accident, he approaches to within 20 feet and sees the landed object, which then ascends, hovers a moment, and takes off in a gentle climb. He hears the humming sound again and feels a blast of air as it moves away. The Brazilian Air Force investigates the landing, and UFO investigator Hans Bemelmans finds some scorched grass in the thickly tangled brush. (Hans Bemelmans, “Reports from Ibiuna,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1970): 15– 19 )

July — After a series of UFO sightings and landing traces are reported in the area around Ibiúna, São Paulo, Brazil, the Brazilian Air Force informs local officials who are investigating the reports that they must not “under any circumstances give any information on UFO activity to any press, radio, or television reporter or representative. This is a matter of national security, and all press releases will be made by the Brazilian Air Force Public Relations Department.” (Hans Bemelmans, “Reports from Ibiuna,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1970): 15; “Brazil: Censorship of UFO Reports,” Flying Saucer Review 19, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1973): 29) July or August — 1:00 a.m. A US Marine private named Earl Morrison is on guard duty with other soldiers in a bunker near Da Nang, Vietnam, when they see a black, naked woman with bat-like, glowing wings moving through the air toward them. It flies about 6–7 above their heads. She soon starts flapping her wings and flies away. (“Don Worley, “The Winged Lady in Black,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 10 (June 1972): 14– 16 ; Clark III 779 ) July 4 — 8:00 p.m. Two children, Mauricio Gnecco and Enrique Osorio, in Anolaima, Colombia, see a glowing object about 900 feet away. It approaches to within 180 feet and the children run over the hill to tell other children and adults. Thirteen people, including their father, return to see the object. Arcesio Bermúdez takes a flashlight with him and returns in terror after seeing a small person and a craft that lights up and flies away. Within 2 days, Bermúdez loses all appetite, his skin temperature drops, blue spots appear on his skin, and his stools become bloody. Within a week, two Bogotá physicians, unaware of his UFO experience, concludes he has gastroenteritis. Within hours of his exam, Bermúdez dies. His doctor claims he has previously been in good health. His injuries suggest a fatal whole-body ionizing radiation dose of 300–500 rems. Likely only X-rays, gamma rays, or neutrons could travel a distance of 45 feet through the air. (“UFO Observed at Farmhouse in Colombia,” APRO Bulletin, July/Aug. 1969, pp. 1, 4–5; Story, pp. 23– 25 ; Clark III 253 , 950; “Colombia: Arcesio Bermúdez, the Man Killed by a UFO,” Inexplicata, December 14, 2015; Cristian Ávila Jimenez, “La misteriosa muerte de columbiano 3 días después de ver supuesto OVNI,” El Tiempo (Bogotá), August 20, 2021) July 11 or 18 — 8:30 p.m. Economics student Tim Oliver is near a golf course on the outskirts of Beaufort, Victoria, Australia, when he sees a red “star” over a hill about a mile away. On closer inspection, it proves to be a hovering UFO. He quickly goes home, and by the time he returns with his mother in the family car, the UFO has been joined by another identical object. They are moving about 20 mph to the southeast, 50 feet in the air, 200 feet apart, and nearly parallel to some high-powered electrical lines. As they drive to right outside the golf course, both UFOs apparently respond to their presence by turning toward them but soon resumed their parallel course when Oliver turns the car engine off. Oliver walks to within 50 feet of the leading object. Each is about 30 feet in diameter, saucer-shaped, with an upper flat-topped cupola and about 24 square windows through which comes the bright red light. They are completely silent. Both he and his mother (who has watched from the golf course fence) see the UFOs disappear to the southeast, still flying parallel to the power lines. (Bill Chalker, “1969: The Great UFO Daze of Oz,” The Oz Files, September 19, 2020) July 12 — Contactee Paul Solem, who has been speaking to Shoshone-Bannock Indians at Fort Hall Indian Reservation in Idaho about a migration of Indian peoples and the coming of a True White Brother, publicly calls for the appearance of the flying saucer beings. Many people, including Idaho State Reporter Barbara Boren, see two “star-like moving lights” high in the air. (Barbara Boren, “Blast Rocking North America to Start Indian Migration, Says Self-Styled Seer,” Pocatello Idaho State Journal, July 16, 1969, pp. 1, 8; Clark III 1094) July 1 2 — 11:00 p.m. Patti Barr and Kathy Mahr, two teenage cousins, hear a loud roaring noise at Van Horne, Iowa, while upstairs in their house. They look out the window to see a reddish-orange ball of light rotating and spinning counterclockwise above the adjacent soybean field. The next morning, they tell Pat’s father, farmer Warren Barr, who then discovers a 24-foot-diameter, nearly bare oval in the soybean field. The plants’ leaves are severely dehydrated, dry, and brittle. This case was investigated by several groups at the time; localized intense heat or

radiation is listed as most likely cause. (“Sight UFO over Benton County Farm,” Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette, August 6, 1969, p. 4C; NICAP, “The 1969 UFO Chronology” and [photos]; “UFO over Iowa Bean Field,” APRO Bulletin, July/Aug. 1969, pp. 1, 4; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 149– 150 ; Kevin D. Randle, “The Iowa UFO Landings,” Official UFO, July 1976) July 13 — Early morning. Edgar Paquette and Mrs. Leo Edwards are driving near Petawawa, Ontario, when they see a bright star that lights up the Ottawa River next to them. Convinced the light is following them, Paquette turns off the headlights, which makes the object appear to hesitate. But he gets out of the car, causing the interior light to go on, and the object descends to within 60 feet of the ground. When he starts signaling it with a flashlight, it comes even closer, and Paquette sees that it is 8 feet in diameter with two legs beneath it. Both of them panic and drive home, dragging their teenage children out of bed to look at the light. Ontario police officers Jack McKay and Grant Chaplin follow the light for 38 minutes as it travels at a high altitude. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 83–84) Mid-July — Bernard O’Brien is cutting grass in a field with his tractor near Manotick, Ontario, when a small cloud of smoke rises from the ground as he passes over a particular spot. He notifies the field’s owner, John Fox, who comes out for a look. Fox finds three near-perfect circles in the field, two together and the third nearly 150 feet away. Each of them are rings of affected grass 15–20 feet in diameter and about a foot wide. Grass is flattened inside the circle, but the rings themselves are dark and contain a crystalline substance. Peter Millman of the National Research Council claims that the circles are caused by the fairy ring mushroom (Marasmius oreades) because an analysis of the crystalline substance shows no evidence of mineral content or radioactivity. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 187–190) July 16 — 3:30 p.m. Sylvia Annola, 10, sees a large gray object with blinding lights descending above a well on her family’s farm near Abee, Alberta. She looks directly at the object, which is only about 10 feet away, and experiences a temporary loss of vision. (Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 50–53) July 21 — The Apollo 11 Lunar Module lands the first astronauts on the moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. (Wikipedia, “Apollo 11”)

August — 1:45 p.m. James D. Appleman is driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike when he notices a dome-shaped, metallic object hovering in the clouds ahead. He stops the car and gets his camera out of the trunk, but by that time the object is gone. (“Did a Twin Photograph a Twin UFO?” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 1 (January 1981): 1) August 22 — The National Amateur Astronomers Association hosts an open forum in Denver, Colorado, “Science and the UFO,” with presentations by James A. Harder, R. Leo Sprinkle, J. Allen Hynek, David Saunders, James McDonald, and Frank Salisbury. When asked how many of the 500 people assembled have had a UFO sighting, about 75 hands go up. (“Scientists Urge New UFO Studies,” Fate 23, no. 4 (April 1970): 38 – 48; George W. Earley, “Astronomers Raise Their Hands,” IUR 24, no. 4 (Winter 1999): 29–30) August 29 — 6:20 a.m. Norman Vedaa and a passenger are driving along Interstate 80S [now Interstate 76] about 70 miles east of Denver [putting them roughly near Fort Morgan, Colorado]. They notice a brilliant, yellow-gold object hovering high in the air. They manage to take two photographs before it speeds away. Ground Saucer Watch concludes from its density profile in the photos that it is a solid object. (William H. Spaulding, “Observational Data of an Anomalistic Aerial Phenomenon,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 1 (May 1976): 12–17) August 30 — Afternoon. Future ufologist Bill Chalker, 17, is relaxing on a surfboard in the middle of the Clarence River in Grafton, New South Wales. He notices streams of fine filament coming down out of the sky over the river. He collects some samples, seeing no spiders, but the material dissipates into nothing. He later learns that other people, including his parents, watched an elongated white UFO moving at right angles to the filament fall. (Keith Basterfield, “Angel Hair: An Australian Perspective,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 7; Clark III 124– 126 ; Bill Chalker, “1969: The Great UFO Daze of Oz,” The Oz Files, September 19, 2020) August 30 — 7:30 p.m. Ion Hobana is at the North Railway Station in Bucharest, Romania, when he sees a triangular object rise from behind the station building. It is a dull orange color and moves with one of its sides facing forward. Three smaller globes trail it in a straight line. The object travels to the right and disappears after a few seconds. (Hobana and Weverbergh 179–180) August 31 — Day. An RAAF Canberra bomber chases but fails to catch a UFO over northern New South Wales. The plane is dispatched from RAAF Base Amberley near Ipswich, Queensland, after hundreds of people in Kygole and along the Darling Downs report the object, which is shaped like an aluminum Zeppelin. Some witnesses observe the object for 3 hours as it hovers above towns and farms. The UFO speeds away when the Canberra tries to close in on it. (“RAAF Chase UFO over Darling Downs,” UFOIC Newsletter, no. 26 (December 1969): 4)

September 4 — A farmer, Bert O’Neil, discovers a circular patch of dead and silvery-white manuka plants (Leptospermum scoparium, tea tree) in the midst of otherwise green and lush growth on a remote section of his farm near Ngatea, New Zealand. Near the center of the circle, he finds three ground indentations, positioned so as to form the inside points of a triangle. Off to one side is the taller stand of tea tree, also bleached and dead. He remembers seeing this from afar three weeks earlier, arousing his curiosity. The dead scrubweed within the circle is still standing and undisturbed. It looks as if some large object has come down from the sky and landed on three long stilts. At first, O’Neil only discusses his find within the family, but the news quickly leaks to the local radio and press. (Harold H. Fulton, “The Ngatea Mystery Circle, 1,” Flying Saucer Review 1 6, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1970): 27 – 28; Harold H. Fulton, “The Ngatea Mystery Circle, 2,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 3 (May/June 1970): 32– 33; Harold H. Fulton, “The Ngatea Mystery Circle: Terrestrial or Extraterrestrial?” UFOcus NZ, 2010)

October — NICAP obtains a copy of a chapter of a textbook in use at the US Air Force Academy, Introductory Space Science, for the academy’s Physics 370 course. The last chapter is on “Unidentified Flying Objects” and concludes that the “UFO phenomenon appears to have been global in nature for almost 50,000 years” and considers the “unpleasant possibility of alien visitors to our planet, or at least of alien controlled UFO’s.” It recommends keeping an “open and skeptical mind.” (“AF Academy Teaches Students UFOs Real,” UFO Research Newsletter 1, no. 1 (April 1971): 1; ClearIntent, pp. 13 – 14 ; Good Need, p. 230 ) October 3 — After 8:00 p.m. RCMP Constable S. B. Barrie and his wife Vivian are driving 5 miles west of Rennie, Manitoba, on a poor highway in bad weather. He stops to clean mud off the headlights and noticees a light to the east hanging just off Highway 44 and over the trees. He continues driving and he sees the light as a light-pink inverted saucer moving with a jerky motion. Now only 500 feet away, it seems to be 20 feet in diameter with an odd white tail that snakes toward the ground. Suddenly the car’s windshield wipers stop working, the headlights go out, and the engine stalls. Barrie gets out of the car and the object zooms silently to the southwest and is lost to sight. He senses the air has a strange, heavy odor, but he is able to get the car started again. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 81–82) October 8 — A large area of St. Louis, Missouri, is blanketed by a pure-white, sticky substance ranging from dime-size to 10 - foot-long streamers. The majority of it sublimates on ground contact. The Smithsonian concludes it is caused by ballooning spiders, even though only one spider specimen is found. When a sample is tested by Wayne E. Black of the St. Louis County Health Department, he finds the samples test negative for protein, the basic composition of spider web. (Washington Post, March 28, 1970; “A Classic Case of ‘Angel-Hair,’” Pursuit 3, no. 4 (October 1970): 72–73) October 20 —Brig. Gen. Carroll H. Bolender, USAF Deputy Director of Development, writes a draft document saying that the “continuation of Project Blue Book cannot be justified either on the ground of national security or in the interest of science.” Bolender adds that “reports of unidentified flying objects which could affect national security are made in accordance with JANAP 146 or Air Force Manual 55-1 and are not part of the Blue Book system.” This is a clear indication that Blue Book is only a front for a classified UFO project. (Brig. Gen. C. H. Bolender, “Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO),” October 20, 1969; Swords 336) October 24 — 12:43 a.m. A Chilean Navy destroyer is moving north at 20 knots in the South Pacific Ocean about 350 miles south of Valparaiso, Chile. The radar officer reports a target rapidly approaching the ship, apparently moving 213 miles in one minute, which would indicate a speed of 12,780 mph. At 12:47 a.m., the target is only 12 miles away, and it suddenly breaks into six targets. The officer in charge and five other personnel can now see one massive and five smaller lighted objects approaching the ship. The large UFO looks like a big box with semicircles on the side, and it is bigger than the ship, which is 360 feet long. The five smaller objects are egg- shaped, bluish, and no more than 8 feet long and 5–6 feet wide. At about 6,000 feet from the ship, the smaller objects move away from the larger one, three to portside and two to starboard, and begin flying in ellipses between the ship and the large object. At 900 feet away, the officers can hear the object make a humming noise. The ship’s power and instruments go dead as the large object passes overhead. Bright red lights under the UFO seem to be moving back and forth inside the craft, visible through a half-circle on the bottom. “Corn cobs” with green or turquoise pulsating lights are on the side. When the UFO is 600 feet away, the power comes back on. The smaller objects, never coming closer than 1,500–3,000 feet, fly around the ship and join up with the large object on the other side. All 6 objects vanish about 2 miles away. At least 8 minutes have passed, with three radar technicians tracking the UFOs. The ship’s commander orders everyone to keep silent about what they have seen. The sighting is deleted from the ship’s log. The six witnesses are debriefed for two days in Valparaiso by two Chilean Navy officers and four Americans who are allegedly naval attachés with the US Embassy. (NICAP, “Six Objects Observed and Tracked by Destroyer”; Bill Chalker, “EM UFO Incident off Chile in 1969,” APRO

Bulletin 33, no. 3 (January 1986): 7–8; Bill Chalker, “An Extraordinary Incident off Chile,” IUR 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1985): 4–6; Bill Chalker, “EM UFO Incident off Chile in 1969 (Conclusion),” APRO Bulletin 33, no. 5 (April 1987): 5–6) October 24– 27 — The Turkish Air Force is inundated with reports of UFOs over Ankara, Turkey. Jet fighters are scrambled from Mürted Air Base [now closed] northwest of the city and close to within 7.5 miles, but the objects always pull away and climb higher. Even the base commander, Ercüment Gökaydin, flies with the interceptors to 35,000 feet, but the UFO is at a height of 50,000 feet. It is a silvery, oval disc. The jets take gun-camera film, which has never been released. One pilot says the object has three round portholes. (Good Need, p. 299 ) October 27 — NICAP Assistant Director Gordon I. R. Lore Jr. writes board member Joseph B. Hartranft Jr. an 1 1 - page letter outlining the organization’s difficulties. He alerts the board of directors to the growing financial crisis brought on by Donald E. Keyhoe’s failure to keep adequate books and records. He urges the hiring of a business director. In the summer he had gotten permission from Keyhoe to fire five of NICAP’s eight employees as a cost- saving measure. (Clark III 794) October 30 — 10:00 a.m. Mr. and Mrs. Chapin are driving at their mine site near Redding, California, when they see a rattlesnake in the road. As they get out to go to the mine and kill the snake, they find the area oddly hot. They notice a disturbance in the brush some 60 feet away in a flattened area of mine tailings. An egg-shaped object rises noiselessly a few feet off the ground and takes off down the canyon, swaying but not striking small trees. Soon it zooms upward at a sharp angle and is out of sight in seconds. They find a shallow, oval, depressed spot less than 2 inches deep and 10 feet across in the mine tailings. A conical pile of unusual-looking sand is also discovered, and two days later they find a metallic glob about the size of a fist nearby. They have the material analyzed in 1977. Scattered about in the unusual sand pile are irregular bits of pale-green glass-like material made of nearly pure silicon. The metal glob is completely black on the outside and 77% copper in the interior, combined with tin and traces of silver, chromium, and other metals. Both are considered foreign to the geology of the mine site. (“The Redding, California CE II Case,” IUR 3, no. 3 (March 1978): insert)

November 8 — Australian physicist O. H. “Harry” Turner has been working with other scientists to set up a “rapid intervention team” for the RAAF to investigate UFO physical evidence. In a memo to the director of the Joint Intelligence Bureau, he indicates he is working with John Morton of Australian National University, John Symonds from the Australian Atomic Energy Commission, and Michael Duggin of the National Standards Laboratory. The plan is soon dropped by the JIB. (Bill Chalker, “The Australian Government and UFOs,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 21; Swords 396–397) November 9 — The D-21 drone makes its first reconnaissance mission over China, launched from a B-52. It flies over the Lop Nur Nuclear Test Base in Xinjiang but strays off course into Siberia and crashes. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed D- 21 ”; Jacobsen, Area 51, p. 223 )

December 3 — The NICAP board of governors demands Keyhoe’s resignation. He retires, under protest, at age 72. Leading the effort is board chairman Col. Joseph Bryan III, who takes over as acting president. (“Major Keyhoe Retires,” UFO Investigator, May 1970, pp. 1, 3; “NICAP Redeploys,” UFO Investigator, May 1970, p. 1) December 5 — Bryan dismisses NICAP Assistant Director Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., replacing him with G. Stuart Nixon as secretary-treasurer. (“Major Keyhoe Retires,” UFO Investigator, May 1970, pp. 1, 3; Clark III 794) December 17 — Air Force Secretary Robert Seamans announces the termination of Project Blue Book, based on the Condon report, the NAS endorsement, and “past UFO studies.” He repeats the Bolender wording that Blue Book “cannot be justified either on the ground of national security or in the interest of science.” Technically, Blue Book does not terminate until January 30, 1970. Blue Book records are moved to Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama, in a building that requires security clearance to enter. Eventually, the files, minus the witness names, are consigned to the Modern Military Branch, Military Archives Division, National Archives, Washington, D.C. (Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense, “Air Force to Terminate Project ‘Blue Book,’” December 17, 1969; “Air Forces Closes Study of U.F.O.s,” New York Times, December 18, 1969, pp. 1, 41; “The Book Is Closed,” UFO Investigator, May 1970, p. 3; Sparks, p. 3) December 18 — Condon is quoted in the New York Times that his investigation “was a bunch of damn nonsense,” and he is sorry he “got involved in such foolishness.” (“Air Forces Closes Study of U.F.O.s,” New York Times, December 18, 1969, pp. 1, 41) December 26 – 27 — The American Academy for the Advancement of Science holds a special two-day segment on “Unidentified Flying Objects” at its annual meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, at the Sheraton Hotel. The program is arranged by Thornton Page (NASA Manned Spacecraft Center), Philip Morrison (MIT), Walter Orr Roberts (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research), and Carl Sagan (Cornell). Rising to the occasion, James E.

McDonald presents an excellent critique of the Air Force and Colorado project investigations as well as an in- depth examination of the RB-47 and Lakenheath-Bentwaters cases. Donald Menzel attempts to show that all UFO sightings can be explained, even though some of his “explanations” are complex. Morrison discusses the nature of hard evidence and concludes that reliable UFO reports would stand up both in a court of law and in the rigors of science. Cornell University Press publishes the proceedings, UFOs — A Scientific Debate, in 1972. (James E. McDonald, “Science in Default: Twenty-Two Years of Inadequate UFO Investigations,” December 27, 1969; Walter N. Webb, “Allen Hynek As I Knew Him,” IUR 18, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1993): 9–10; Clark III 100– 101 ) December 28 — A man named Patric is driving from Midland to Windsor, Ontario, on heavily snowed roads after an accident has blocked the main highway. Suddenly, his car engine, headlights, and radio fails, and he crawls to a halt in front of a star-like glow with a prismatic, multi-colored aura 100 feet ahead. Inside the glow is a domed object. A loud humming noise commences and the object shoots into the sky. The car comes back to life, but Patric inexplicably reaches Windsor one hour late. (Jenny Randles, “The Twelve UFOs of Christmas,” Fortean Times 374 (Christmas 2018): 29)

1970

1970 — Ivan T. Sanderson publishes his last UFO book, Invisible Residents, which compiles reports of unusual objects seen in or around bodies of water. He speculates that such cases need not involve the presence of extraterrestrials, but possibly an indigenous intelligence that evolved independently in the oceans. (Ivan T. Sanderson, Invisible Residents, World, 1970; Clark III 1028) 1970 — John A. Keel publishes UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse, in which he presents a theory that UFOs are produced by ultraterrestrials—beings who are able to manipulate matter and our senses and who in the past manifested themselves as fairies or demons. (John A. Keel, UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse, Manor Books ed., 1976; Wikipedia, “Operation Trojan Horse (book)”) 1970 — The CIA is testing a small drone aircraft in the shape of a bird at Groom Lake, Nevada. Called Project Aquiline, the agency wants to fly a reconnaissance UAV over key intelligence targets, such as ICBM sites and nuclear test grounds in the Soviet Union and China, without detection. At least one of the prototypes is flown from Area 51 more than 20 times. The project is cancelled in 1971 before deployment and has never been declassified. (Wikipedia, “Project AQUILINE”; David Hambling, “Area 51’s Robotic Spy Bird,” Wired, November 6, 2007) 1970 — UFO-Sverige is formed as the first nationwide UFO organization in Sweden; it is essentially an association of 20 UFO groups in different parts of the country. The secretary’s office is located in Skånninge. It publishes the magazine UFO-Information from 1969 to 1980, then UFO-Aktuellt beginning in 1980. (Wikipedia, “UFO- Sverige”; UFO-Information, no. 1 (October 26, 1969); C. Göran Norlén and Johan Gustavsson, “Tidskriften UFO-Aktuellt,” Riksorganisationen UFO-Sverige) 1970 — The crew of a US Air Force C-5A Galaxy transport, flying at 500 mph at 37,000 feet, encounters a UFO over Moula Idris, Saudi Arabia [=Moulay Idriss Zerhoun, Morocco?]. An RAF officer on detachment is flying the aircraft, and he describes the object as like two saucers joined together, surrounded by red, green, and yellow and flying at 75,000 feet. (Good Need, pp. 298 – 299 ) Early 1970 — 10:00 p.m. A peasant in the Taijiang(?) District of Fujian province, China, sees a metallic, pan-shaped object land behind a hill. It radiates a brilliant green light, and a strange musical tone emanates from it. After he reports it, the local army commander mobilizes hundreds of soldiers who attempt to surround the object. After about one hour, the object emits a bright white light and takes off vertically. (Wendelle Stevens and Paul Dong, UFOs over Modern China, UFO Photo Archive, 1983, p. 56) Early 1970s — 2:30–3:00 a.m. Two young men in Furnace Creek, California, are followed by a red ball of light the size of a beach ball. They get scared and run ahead to their house, slamming and locking the door behind them. The ball stops at the edge of their yard, hovering and oscillating in size. After 4–5 minutes, the ball moves away and creates a vortex, causing stones to rise and circle in the air. They can hear the sound of the stones hitting together. Then the light blinks out, and the rocks crash down onto the road. (Michael D. Swords, “Timmermania: A Step Too Far into the Timmerman Files?” IUR 27, no. 4 (Winter 2002–2003): 9)

January 1 — 5:00 a.m. Registered nurse Doreen Kendall is looking out a window at the Cowichan District Hospital in Duncan, British Columbia, and sees a bright, Saturn-shaped object about 50 feet in diameter hovering one story above her, about 60 feet off the ground and 40 feet away. It has a row of lights around its middle. She can see two humanoid figures in dark, tight-fitting clothing and wearing headgear in the upper portion. One stands at an instrument panel, with the other behind it. The second being looks directly at Kendall, then touches the first being,

who moves a lever, apparently causing the craft to tilt down and provide a view of its interior. Kendall calls for other witnesses, who arrive in time to see the UFO leave. (“Human-Like Pair in Saucer,” Victoria (B.C.) Daily Times, January 5, 1970, pp. 1–2; “UFO Occupants Seen near Hospital,” Canadian UFO Report 1, no. 7 (Summer 1970): 3–12; UFOEv II 459 – 460 ; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 139– 146 ) January 7 — 4:45 p.m. Two skiers, lumberjack Aarno Heinonen and farmer Esko Viljo, at Imjärvi, Finland, watch a disc- shaped, buzzing UFO approach them and hover. It is so close to Heinonen that he could touch it with his ski pole. From an opening in the center of the object’s bottom, a bright light beam is emitted, creating an illuminated area of 3 feet in diameter on the snow beneath it, edged with black. A red gray mist descends again; when it clears, both men can see, only 10 feet away, a 3-foot tall humanoid creature standing in the illuminated area, carrying in its hands a black box with a pulsating yellow light. Its arms and legs are very thin, its face pale like wax, and its nose hooked; it wears a light green coverall with darker green knee boots, white gauntlets, and a conical metallic helmet. Then the mist again descends, and long red, green, and purple sparks float out from the lighted area. A sort of flame rises from this spot and enters the UFO; then the mist and the UFO vanish. After this experience, Heinonen finds his right leg numb, and he vomits and passes black urine; Viljo also suffers severe physiological effects. Heinonen claims, two years later, a series of contacts with a female spacewoman. (Sven-Olof Fredrickson, “Finnish Encounter in the Snow,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1970): 31–32; “Finns Observe UFO Occupant,” APRO Bulletin, July/Aug. 1970, pp. 6–7; Sven-Olof Fredrickson, “A Humanoid Was Seen at Imjärvi,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1970): 14–18; Sven-Olof Fredrickson, “More on the Imjärvi Case,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1970): 22; Anders Liljegren, “The Continuing Story of the Imjärvi Skiers, Part 1,” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 3 (September 1980): 15–17; Anders Liljegren, “The Continuing Story of the Imjärvi Skiers, Part 2,” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 5 (January 1981): 18–20; Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 75– 79 ) January 21 — The UFO Subcommittee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics sponsors a panel that meets in New York City to discuss differing viewpoints on UFOs. Among the panel members are Hynek, McDonald, Thornton Page, Gordon D. Thayer, and Philip Klass. The subcommittee, led by Joachim P. Kuettner, consists of scientists with no previous position on UFOs and reaches several middle-of-the-road conclusions. It criticizes the NAS position that the ETH is the least likely explanation and rejects McDonald’s position that it is the “least unsatisfactory.” It criticizes the Condon report, in which the conclusions do not match the data, and recommends a moderate-level, ongoing study of UFOs. (“UFOs, an Appraisal of the Problem: A Statement by the UFO Subcommittee of the AIAA,” Aeronautics and Astronautics 8, no. 11 (November 1970): 49– 51 ; Clark III 101 – 102 ) January 29 — A Uruguayan professor of socioeconomics takes a photo of a cigar-shaped object in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Analysis shows that it was probably a streetlamp. (“A Street Lamp, or Sign, Or,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 3 (June/July 1983): 1; “Rio de Janeiro 1970 Photograph Termed Streetlamp,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 6 (Dec. 1983/Jan. 1984): 3, 7) January 30 — 3:30 p.m. Project Blue Book’s doors close as its office is staffed for the last time. The files have been packed in boxes and are on their way to the Air Force Archives at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama. (“The Book Is Closed,” UFO Investigator, May 1970, p. 3)

March 28 — 11:00 p.m. About 30 UFO spotters gathered on Cradle Hill, just outside Warminster, Wiltshire, England, see a flashing purple light. One of their sensors buzzes, indicating a strong magnetic field, and one observer (Norman Foxwell) takes photos that appear in the July/August 1970 Flying Saucer Review. But the UFO is actually a light beam from a high-intensity purple spot-lamp operated by a group of UFO debunkers, among them physicist David I. Simpson. Foxwell himself is part of the skeptical group (having pre-exposed a spurious UFO image), as is the individual who operated the bogus magnetic-field sensor. The hoax is revealed six years later. (John C. Ben, “Photographs from Cradle Hill,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1970): 4–5; Percy Hennell, “The Warminster Photographs Examined,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1970): 6–7; Charles Bowen, “What the Eye Sees,” Flying Saucer Review 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1970): 7; Pierre Guérin, “Warminster Photographs: A Tentative Interpretation,” Flying Saucer Review 15, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1970): 7–8; Charles Bowen, “Progress at Cradle Hill,” Flying Saucer Review 17, no. 2 (March/April 1971): 11–12; S. E. Scammell, “A Surveyor’s Criticism,” Flying Saucer Review 17, no. 2 (March/April 1971): 13; John E. Ben, “Continued Investigations at Warminster,” Flying Saucer Review 17, no. 2 (March/April 1971): 14–16; Terence Collins, “A Further Examination of the Warminster Photographs,” Flying Saucer Review 17, no. 2 (March/April 1971): 16– 18; Michael Samuels, “Unexpected Photographic Effects at Warminster,” Flying Saucer Review 17, no. 2 (March/April 1971): 18–21; David I. Simpson, “Experimental UFO Hoaxing,” MUFOB, new series 2 (March

1976): 3–6, 11–12; David I. Simpson, “Controlled UFO Hoax: Some Lessons,” Skeptical Inquirer 4, no 3 (Spring
1980): 32–39; David Clarke, “The Warminster Syndrome,” Fortean Times 331 (October 2015): 40– 47 ; David
Clarke, How UFOs Conquered the World, Aurum, 2015 ; Steve Dewey and Kevin Goodman, History of a
Mystery: Fifty Years of the Warminster Thing, Swallowtail, 2015 ; Clark III 602– 603 )

April 29– 30 — Around midnight. Several independent groups of witnesses to the west of Lake Anten, Västra Götaland, Sweden, watch a red, glowing sphere fly around the lake and neighboring areas. It occasionally sends out a beam of light to the ground. Some of the observers get the impression that the beams originate on the ground rather than from the object. The next morning a few of the observers get into boats and sail to the spot where the sphere was seen hovering. In one corner of the garden of an isolated farmhouse named Enebacken, they find three round marks, one foot in diameter and 1.5 inches deep, burned into the ground in the shape of an equilateral triangle. A UFO group in Gothenburg, Sweden, takes soil samples to a laboratory for gamma-ray testing and finds significant non-background radiation at a peak that seems to derive from cesium-137, a radioactive isotope. (Sven-Olof Fredrickson, “A Landing near Lake Anten?” Flying Saucer Review 17, no 1 (Jan./Feb. 1971): 13–17)

May 5 — Although the Air Force is no longer involved with UFOs, the Foreign Technology Division at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio continues to contract Hynek’s services as a “special consultant” on atmospheric phenomena. He reports to Col. George R. Weinbrenner, whom he visits every once in a while in Dayton. He continues with the contract through 1974. (Jennie Zeidman, “I Remember Blue Book,” IUR 16, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1991): 12, 23; Thomas J. Carey and Donald R. Schmitt, Inside the Real Area 51, Tantor Media, 2013, pp. 203–213) May 14 — 9:45 p.m. A graduate engineering student in Bangor, Maine, notices two nocturnal lights in the Ursa Major constellation moving in a counterclockwise circle around a common center at a constant velocity. They abruptly stop moving, leaving them in a north-south position. After a short time, they move away from each other, then the light moving south suddenly halts. The other light is moving slower than a meteor but faster than a jet aircraft. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 48– 49 ) May 29 — John L. Acuff, an experienced manager but not a UFO researcher, becomes the new president of NICAP. He is the former executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Society of Photographic Scientists and Engineers [now the Society for Imaging Science and Technology], which has cooperated with NICAP on photoanalysis but also has military and CIA connections. Acuff and G. Stuart Nixon dismantle the NICAP system of affiliates and state subcommittee system that have promoted the organization for years. Regional members are told to operate independently from one another; cooperation is discouraged. Criticism of the government’s UFO policy is no longer permitted and NICAP turns into a mere “sighting collection center.” Nixon is appointed executive director. (“NI-CIA-AP or NICAP?” Just CAUSE 1, no. 7 (January 1979): 5–13; Richard H. Hall, “The Quest for the Truth about UFOs: A Personal Perspective on the Role of NICAP,” in 1994 MUFON UFO Symposium Proceedings, MUFON, 1994, pp. 185– 201 ; Clark III 794)

June — Contact (UK) begins publishing The UFO Register, a journal edited by J. B. Delair that focuses on sightings and data. It continues sporadically until 1995. (The UFO Register 1, part 1 (June 1970)) June — 12:45 a.m. A truck driver is approaching Emerald Beach, New South Wales, when he sees a bright light on he ocean side of the highway. A circular object rises from behind some woods 1,600 feet from the road. It hovers for 30 seconds at an altitude of 66 feet. Relative to the trees, the object appears to be about 33 feet in diameter, and flames seem to shoot from its base. It slowly returns to the ground, where it is partially obscured by trees, but it continues to emit beams of light from its top and sides. Fearful, the driver leaves the area. Ufologist Bill Chalker accompanies the witness to the landing site, where they discover six circles of dead grass of varying sizes and burned trees. (Bill Chalker, “Physical Traces,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, p. 190) June 13 — MUFON holds its first annual conference in Peoria, Illinois. Shortly afterwards, Walt Andrus succeeds Utke as MUFON director. (John F. Schuessler, “A Brief History of MUFON,” November 28, 2018) June 27 — 11:40 a.m. Aristeu Machado, his wife and children, and João Aguiar of the Brazilian Federal police, see a metallic, domed disc resting on the surface of the Atlantic Ocean about a half-mile off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Two humanoid figures are standing on the rim. After a while the object skims the surface of the water and takes off, lights flashing from the underside. Once airborne, the wife can clearly see the two occupants sitting inside. (UFOEv II 460 ; Brazil 128– 130 )

July — Afternoon. John and Mary Pilichis see a huge cigar-shaped object over their home at Rome, Ohio. At the same time, their daughter Bonnie and a friend are at a swimming pool about one-half mile away when they see 3 silvery discs flying end-to-end in the direction of their home. The parents then see the discs as well. The cigar and the

discs form a line and move into a large, peculiar cloud. After 3–4 minutes, the cloud begins to break apart, with no UFOs showing. (Ohio UFO Reporter, Sept./Nov. 1971; Herbert S. Taylor, “Cloud Cigars: A Further Look,” IUR 30, no. 3 (May 2006): 12) July 4 — 3:00 a.m. A 33-year-old Port Monmouth, New Jersey, housewife wakes up and sees a “big round ball” with an “eerie white glow” hovering over the meadows across the street. She watches it bouncing back and forth for 15 minutes as a series of red lights flash in sequence across it. The size is about 25–30 feet wide. The streetlight has gone out and comes back on when the object leaves. Her son and brother-in-law later find three imprints 30– 40 feet apart in the shape of a triangle in the meadow. They also find circles impressed in the grass, the largest 15– 20 feet in diameter. Then they find tracks “going to the creek like they had dragged some small round thing into the ditch” as well as “two sets of a dozen imprints which were about two feet apart. They were curved like raindrops. It was very visible, the grass was all crushed down, there was mud on the banks of the creek, and there were signs of the tracks in the mud.” One week later, the light returns and crosses the field across the street. The family television, the car ignition, and the telephone behave strangely for days afterward. (Berthold E. Schwarz, “The Port Monmouth Landing,” Flying Saucer Review 17, no. 3 (May/June 1971): 21–27; Clark III 2 51 – 252 ) July 23 — President Nixon makes it clear that he wants a major effort against domestic dissidents. At an Oval Office meeting in June with the Inter Agency Committee on Intelligence (H. R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, Tom Charles Huston, J. Edgar Hoover, Richard Helms, Adm. Noel Gaynor, and Lt. Gen. Donald W. Bennett), Nixon hears suggestions for expanded mail openings, resumption of illegal break-ins, electronic surveillance, and expanded counterintelligence. He approves the plan in July but will not sign it; neither will Haldeman or Ehrlichman. The plan was originally put together by Huston. Hoover torpedoes it when he announces that he will go along with it as soon as he gets written authorization from Nixon for all those break-ins and wiretaps. (Wikipedia, “Huston Plan”) July 25 — 5:30 p.m. A witness comes across a landed domed disc, about 20 feet in diameter and 10 feet high with windows in the dome and portholes in its side, sitting on 4 legs near Jabreilles-les-Bordes, Haute-Vienne, France. He is blinded by a yellow-orange light beam and paralyzed by fright. As the object ascends with a whistling sound, he feels a wave of heat. At 330 feet altitude, the object jumps vertically and disappears behind a mountain. Four imprints are found forming an irregular figure on the hillside. (MM. Gaille, J. Gorce, and J. F. Gorce, “Atterrissage près de Jabreilles-les-Bordes (Haute Vienne), part 1,” Lumières dans la Nuit, no. 113 (August 1971): 11–14; MM. Gaille, J. Gorce, and J. F. Gorce, “Atterrissage près de Jabreilles-les-Bordes (Haute Vienne), part 2,” Lumières dans la Nuit, no. 114 (October 1971): 9–14; Ted Phillips, Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings, CUFOS, 1976, p. 71)

August — Day. A group of Russian hydrologists are conducting research on a motorboat on Kronotsky Lake, Kamchatka Krai, Russia. Suddenly, about a half-mile away a dome of water rises up and a gray-colored oval object rises up. It is roughly 165 feet in diameter, rises to about 500 feet, and hovers nearly overhead. The engine of the motorboat stalls. The team watches for another 90 seconds before they row away, but the object moves away at reat speed and disappears. The boat’s motor starts working again. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, pp .82–83) August 7– 12 — Evening. Contactee Paul Solem, who has managed to convince a number of Hopi Indian elders, among them Chief Dan Katchongva, that he is a true prophet heralding the coming of a True White Brother, publicly summons his space brother friends telepathically for 15 minutes in Prescott, Arizona, where UFOs have been reported over the previous few days. After Solem announces that “they’re here,” a “star” appears that had not been there before and Solem receives a message from space brother Paul 2, who tells him that the saucers are appearing because of a Hopi prophecy. Others see zigzagging lights in the sky over the next few nights, and Prescott Courier photographer Chuck Roberts takes a time-lapse photo of one. (Jerome Clark, “Indian Prophecy and the Prescott UFOs,” Fate 24, no. 4 (April 1971): 54–61; John A. Keel, “America’s First UFO Experts: The Hopi,” UFO Report, Summer 1974; Armin W. Geertz, The Invention of Prophecy, University of California, 1994 ; Clark III 1094– 1095 ) August 13 — 10:50 p.m. Police officer Evald Hansen Maarup is driving 5 miles south of Haderslev, Denmark, when he is surrounded by a bluish-white light. His engine stops and the car lights and radio go out. Heat inside the car increases. He sees a conical light coming from the bottom of a large, silent, gray object. After a few seconds, the light is drawn into the UFO, a process that takes about 5 minutes. It speeds away vertically. (“UFO’et ved Haderslev,” UFO-Nyt, 1970 no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1970): 211–213; “Et mærkeligt ‘Tysk Militærfly,’” UFO-Nyt, 1974 no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1974): 205–206; “The Haderslev UFO,” BUFORA Journal 8, no. 4 (September 1979): 26–27; Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 72– 75 ; “Dansk Politibetjent stoppet af UFO,” UFO-Sandheden, February 1, 2007; Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports,

Part Two,” IUR 34 , no. 1 (September 2011 ): 15 – 16 ; Lon Strickler, “The Maarup Encounters,” Phantoms and Monsters, September 5, 2012; Patrick Gross, “Close Encounter in Denmark, August 13, 1970”) August 14 — 8:45 p.m. Residents of Little Heart’s Ease and St. Jones Within on the Southwest Arm in Newfoundland watch a blood-red fireball 8–10 feet long with a trail of lighter color for about 5 minutes as it passes overhead to the northeast. It makes a rushing noise before it crashes into the water near the mouth of the harbor at Little Heart’s Ease. When the RCMP arrive to investigate, they go out in a boat but can find no submerged object. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August North, 2022, p. 102) August 29 — 11:15 p.m. Several witnesses in Enebacken, Sweden, see a bright, round, red light maneuvering around the ground, emitting beams of yellow-white light. Three round landing marks in a triangular formation are found in the garden of Richard Johansson’s small farm near Lake Anten. Soil samples are taken and analyzed, with the results showing an increased level of gamma radiation in the test samples from one of the landing marks. (Sven- Olof Fredrickson, “A Landing near Lake Anten?” Flying Saucer Review 17, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1971): 13–17) August 30 — 11:30 a.m. A 7-year-old girl in Vincennes, Indiana, sees a metallic disc in the east-northeast hovering over Wheatland Road. She tells her parents, and her father goes outside and sees it too. He re-enters the house to get his 7x50 binoculars. The object is about a quarter of a mile away and looks like a squared-off conning tower about 30 feet in diameter. They watch it for 90 seconds, after which it leaves in a swooping dive to the north-northeast. (NICAP, “Domed Disc Observed in Broad Daylight / MADAR Connection”)

September — 9:00 p.m. While walking home from a high school football game in Jessup, Pennsylvania, Frank Scassellati, 16, observes a glowing white, apparently metallic, silvery disc in the southeast sky moving from left to right. Around the dome on top is a row of rectangular windows; three spheres and a flat circle are visible on the underside. The object moves out of sight behind local terrain. Though he does not report the sighting to any authorities, Scassellati says that a few nights later he notices a limousine parked outside of his house with four men in black suits and hats sitting in it. They reappear for several nights but he has no interaction with them. (Center for UFO Studies, [case documents]) September 8 — Dusk. A farmer near Zillah, Washington, is dismounting from his tractor when he sees a triangular object hovering in the air. Steel gray in color, it has a red light at each of its bottom corners and white lights in its center. It eventually moves upward and out of sight. (“Sighting Advisory,” UFO Investigator, January 1971, p. 1)

October 24 — 1:00 a.m. Gerald Adams and Donna Martin are parked on a dirt road 3–4 miles north and a half-mile west of MacGregor, Manitoba. They notice a bright light approaching from about a half-mile away. When it lands 15 0 feet from them, they notice it is an oblong object 8 feet in diameter with 9 “rods” and a red light on top. Adams takes Martin home but returns to the site. The object has moved farther away and is hovering above the ground. As he drives closer, he sees a humanoid entity about 4 feet tall dressed in a helmet and a silver metallic uniform crossing the road about 50 feet in front of him. He brakes, but the entity has gone. The UFO slowly lifts vertically from the ground and speeds away to the northwest. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 146–150, 160) October 29 — 5 : 40 p.m. Reidar Salvesen is driving about 2 miles east of Helleland, Rogaland, Norway, when a dazzling light forces him to stop the car. He looks up and sees a globe about 60 feet in diameter approaching noiselessly. It stops about 18 feet in front of the car and hovers for 50 seconds about 30 feet up. Suddenly the object shoots straight up into the air, causing Salvesen to fall on the pavement. He hears a sharp crack caused by his front windshield shattering. About 3,200 feet in the air the globe changes to a fireball, which quickly disappears. After sweeping up the shards of windowpane glass, he drives on, but feels a numbness in his tongue a few minutes later. He also has an abrasion on his hand from falling down, but the skin sloughs off as if burned, and he has a redness around his eyes when he returns home. His travel clock starts keeping time badly. (“I Met a ‘Flying Saucer,’” Scandinavian Newsletter, no. 1/2 (April 1971): 4–7)

November — The UFO Subcommittee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics publishes a formal statement in its journal Aeronautics and Astronautics. It recommends “a continuing, moderate-level effort with emphasis on improved data collection by objective means and on high-quality scientific analysis” as the “only promising approach” to solving the UFO problem, and sharply criticizes the Colorado project’s conclusion that studying the subject will not add to scientific knowledge. (“UFOs, an Appraisal of the Problem: A Statement by the UFO Subcommittee of the AIAA,” Aeronautics and Astronautics 8, no. 11 (November 1970): 49–51; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974, pp. 249– 251 ) November 5 — 9:00 p.m. Albert Formiller is fishing for bass in Cholla Bay, Sonora, Mexico, when he sees a light in the sky coming from a saucer-shaped object, which stops and hovers about 200–300 feet above the surface. A light

from a tube on the bottom illuminates a broad stretch of water about one half-mile wide. It changes from a broad floodlight to a sharp spot on the surface, apparently as it is raised or lowered. After a few minutes, a cloud forms around the object. After 5 minutes, the searchlight is turned off and a similar light appears on top of the UFO, illuminating the upper part of the cloud. The object then moves west and is visible for 20 minutes in all. (Carl W. Feindt, “Beam of Light into a Body of Water,” IUR 33, no. 3 (December 2010): 23) November 1 — 10:30 p.m. Stewart Wilkinson and his wife are driving on the Trans-Canada Highway just west of Pense, Saskatchewan, when they see an disc-shaped object with a beam of light extending down to the road. It follows his car about 20 feet to the right at an altitude of 1 0 – 15 feet. At one point it moves ahead and hovers above a truck parked a half-mile away. When he comes alongside the truck, the object moves to the left side of his car about 30 feet away and almost on the ground. Wilkinson slows down and comes to a stop, and the object follows suit, hovering for another 10–15 seconds before disappearing into the lights of Moose Jaw to the west. It has followed his car for 12 minutes and 10 miles. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 85 – 86) November 16 — Evening. One adult and four teenagers are leaving a basketball game at Beckemeyer (Illinois) Elementary School when they notice a triangular object with orange and white lights moving in an erratic manner to the south. They watch it for 10 minutes, and a smaller object emerges from the triangle. (“UFO Sighted,” Breese (Ill.) Journal, November 19, 1970, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 20 (December 1970): 2) November 17– 20 — At a Radar Meteorology Conference in Tucson, Arizona, McDonald presents a paper on “Meteorological Factors in Unidentified Radar Returns.” (James E. McDonald, “Meteorological Factors in Unidentified Radar Returns,” November 1970; Story, p. 416 ) November 29 — 6:30 p.m. A 17-year-old student at Oizumi High School is riding his bicycle home at Tatebayasi, Gunma Prefecture, Japan, when he sees 5–6 objects flying in formation on a straight path from northeast to southwest. Seconds later, a solitary object appears to the north and approaches swiftly. The student parks his bicycle and runs up some steps to a raised enclosure for a better view. The single UFO changes course and circles several times, descending slowly. It then hovers, climbs, and disappears. The student gets back on his bike and sees a bright flash of white light to the southeast, which startles him and he pedals home quickly. The student returns the next day to the enclosure, which is actually a raised tombstone. He finds four circular patches of flattened grass. (Takao Ikeda, “A Close Encounter in Tatebayasi,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 10 (June 1972): 10– 11, 13)

December 14 — 1:30 a.m. Belgian writer Julian Weverbergh and his wife are awakened in Bucharest, Romania, by a bright red glow, which changes to white. A spherical light is hovering above a bus before disappearing. (Hobana and Weverbergh 271)

1971

1971 — Unhappy with NICAP leadership, Raymond E. Fowler (and most of his Massachusetts Subcommittee) transfers his allegiance to MUFON. (Clark III 517) 1971 — A secret computer database of the NORAD Unknown Track Reporting System (NUTR) that logs air defense unknowns is launched and maintained for assessment of “airspace sovereignty.” (Clark III 801)

January 3 — 6: 15 a.m. Maun and Matta Talana are drinking coffee when they see a brilliant light approaching from the lake outside their home at Saapunki, Kuusano, Finland. It is about 33 feet in diameter and moving against the wind. Their electricity goes off briefly. Looking out the window, the Talalas see their whole yard bathed in light caused by a huge fireball about 60 feet away, which rises up and disappears after a few seconds. Around 8:30 a.m., their son Timo asks them what the marks are in the snow outside. He has noticed a spot of hard green ice that is not covered with snow. Mauno takes some green ice and melts it into dark green water. The melted area is about 20 feet long by 10 feet wide, in the middle of which are ice needles as big as fingers with a ball of ice on top and some soot. The following day, he tells the newspaper, which sends a photographer to the site. UFO researchers from Oulu arrive on January 6 and take samples from the melted area and measure radiation. (Elis W. Grahn, “Saapunki UFO and Green Ice,” Flying Saucer Review 17, no. 2 (March/April 1971): 2–3, 27; “Green Water from Saapunki: Result of Water Sample Analysis,” Flying Saucer Review 17, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1971): 26– 27 ; Ahti Karavieri, “The Saapunki UFO: Results of Investigations,” Flying Saucer Review 17, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1971): 23– 26 )

January 7 — Two boys independently observe a metallic object with an orange glow flying over Dennis, Massachusetts. It descends and disappears over some trees and looks as if it is about to fall into Scargo Lake. One boy sees a hole in the ice on the lake; steam is rising from it, and the water in the hole looks agitated. NICAP investigator Walter N. Webb visits the lake on January 10 and reports that the hole “was formed by a rather sudden melting process.” (“NICAP Probes Crashed Object Report,” UFO Investigator, February 1971, p. 1; “NICAP Probes Crashed Object Report: Search Still Hampered by Bad Weather,” UFO Investigator, March 1971, p. 3; Clark III 339) January 23 — The Porto Alegre, Brazil, newspaper Correiro do Povo notes UFO sightings are recurring in a rural location close to the federal capital of Brasília. An unnamed local peasant is quoted as saying that the “state governor” shows up regularly and looks for “little stones” in the nearby woods. Always dressed in black, he arrives via an airplane “made of two dishes, like, one atop the other, and when it goes up in the air it changes color and then disappears quicker than a flash.” (Gordon Creighton, “South American Roundup, 1971, Part 1,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 10 (June 1972); 8) January 25 — 9:30 a.m. Gunar Gruenzner is taking photos of the scenery near Praia da Armação beach in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil, when he claims to see an intense light beginning to descend. He snaps a photo but can no longer see the light. The photo shows a circular light with a dark aura. Probably a film defect. (“Observations diverses à l’étranger: Photographie au Brésil,” Lumières dans la Nuit, no. 120 (October 1972): 13–14; Wim van Utrecht, “Shiny Cigar Photographed over Brazilian Beach,” Caelestia)

February — The Borderline Science Investigation Group is founded in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England, by Ivan A. W. Bunn. It publishes Lantern, a newsletter that continues for 40 issues through late 1982. (Lantern, no. 3 (Autumn 1973)) February 5 — 3:00 p.m. Petter Aliranta and Esko Juhani Sneck are working in the woods around Kangaskylä, near Kinnula, Finland, when they see a 15-foot object descend to a clearing 50 feet away. As it lands, a small entity just under 3 feet tall glides to the ground from an opening on the underside. Through 3 windows on the UFO, three more entities can be seen. The entity approaches Aliranta, who turns on his chain saw. Suddenly, the being turns around and heads back to the UFO. As the humanoid is rising back up into the air, Aliranta grabs it by the heel of its boot with his bare hand. It burns him like a hot iron, and he has to let go. The burns are clearly visible 2 months later. The humanoid gets back inside, and the UFO takes off with a hum. Before the two men go back, they look at markings in the snow. At the end of each landing foot there had ben a round plate. These plates have penetrated the full depth of the snow (1.3 feet), leaving four round prints forming an even square 6.5 feet on each side. Circular footprints left by the entity are clearly visible, about 6 inches wide. Possible hoax. (Tapani Kuningas, “The Humanoid at Kinnula,” Flying Saucer Review 17, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1971): 18–19; Patrick Gross, URECAT, April 5, 2007) February 23 — 7:00 p.m. Thousands of people in Turin and other places in Piedmont, Italy, observe a conspicuous red cloud in the western sky, just above the crest of the Alps, moving majestically and changing shape slowly. Someone takes a photograph of it from Caluso. The following day, the French Office National d’Études et de Recherches Aérospatiales announces that the cloud was caused by a Tibere, an experimental three-stage rocket for atmospheric reentry tests. (Sofia Lincos and Giuseppe Stilo, “La lunga notte della nube rossa,” CICAP, November 5, 2020)

March 2 — James E. McDonald testifies as an expert in atmospheric physics at the House Committee on Appropriations hearings on the Concorde supersonic transport and its potentially harmful effects. His opponents question his credentials and ridicule him as someone who believes in “little men flying around in the sky.” (Clark III 701) March 8 — The Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI burgles an FBI field office in Media, Pennsylvania, takes several dossiers, and exposes the FBI COINTELPRO program by passing this material to news agencies. (Wikipedia, “Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI”) March 14 — 4:00 p.m. Five silver objects, four of them in a box formation with a fifth leading, are seen over Christies Beach, Adelaide, South Australia. Filaments fall. (Keith Basterfield, “Angel Hair: An Australian Perspective,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 7) March 15 — 3:10 p.m. Several silvery-white balls are seen in the air over Maslin Beach, Adelaide, South Australia. White “fairy floss” is found on the ground that tends to melt and disappear when picked up. It is extremely light and tenuous. (Keith Basterfield, “Angel Hair: An Australian Perspective,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 7)

April — Industrial Research magazine publishes the results of a survey in which 80% of its members reject the Condon report, 76% believe that the government is concealing UFO facts, and 32% accept the ETH. (Keyhoe, Aliens from Space, Signet ed., 1974, pp. 234 – 235 )

April — UFO Research Associates in Washington, D.C., begins publication of the UFO Research Newsletter, edited by Gordon I. R. Lore Jr. It runs until September 1980. (UFO Research Newsletter 1, no. 1 (April 1971)) April — Hoover terminates the COINTELPRO program, but the FBI continues to use similar tactics from time to time. (Wikipedia, “COINTELPRO”) April — James McDonald shoots himself in the head, leaving him blind, and is committed to the psychiatric ward of the V.A. Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona. He has been depressed about his disintegrating marriage. He signs himself out in June. (Clark III 701) April 2 — After 10:00 p.m. Following several sightings of a bright light in the sky at West Kempsey, New South Wales, an aboriginal man at Greenhill sees a hairless face pressed up against his kitchen window. Immediately he is “sucked out” through the window and falls 7 feet to the steps below. Frightened but largely unhurt, he runs away and his wife pursues him. She takes him to the hospital where a cut on his hand is treated. (Eileen Buckle, “Defenestration at Kempsey,” Flying Saucer Review 17, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1971): 20–21) April 14 — CIA Director Richard Helms gives a rare public address in which he insists that the CIA does not surveil domestic mail. However, the HTLINGUAL program, which is still in effect until 1973, does so. The New York City component of the program alone examines more than 2 million mailed items every year, photographs 30,000 envelopes, and opens 8, 000 – 9,000 letters. (Wikipedia, “HTLINGUAL”)

May — Oswald G. Villard Jr., Antony C. Fraser-Smith, and R. P. Cassam write an article at the request of the Office of Naval Research and the Advanced Research Projects Agency that explores whether long-delayed radio echoes could be attributable to an extraterrestrial probe. They consider it possible but inefficient. (Oswald G. Villard, et al., “Long-Delayed Echoes: Radio’s ‘Flying Saucer’ Effect,” QST 53 (May 1969): 38; Oswald G. Villard, Antony C. Fraser-Smith, and R. P. Cassam, “LDEs, Hoaxes, and the Cosmic Repeater Hypothesis,” QST 55 (May 1971): 54 – 58; Michael D. Swords, “Radio Signals from Space, Alien Probes, and Betty Hill,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 12 – 13) May — The Société Belge d’Étude des Phénomènes Spatiaux is established in Brussels, Belgium, by Lucien Clarebaut. It publishes the journal Inforespace from 1972 to 2007. (Comité Belge d’Étude des Phénomènes Spatiaux, “Qui sommes-nous?”; Inforespace, no. 1 (1972)) May — 6:00 a.m. A 16-mm film is allegedly taken of retrieved UFOs at Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, New Mexico. It supposedly shows “three disc-shaped craft,” one of which lands and the other two fly away. A door opens on the landed vehicle and three human-sized beings emerge with an odd, gray complexion and pronounced noses. They wear tight-fitting jump suits and thin headdresses that appear to be communication devices. In their hands they hold a “translator.” A Holloman base commander and other Air Force officials go out to meet them. (Linda Moulton Howe, An Alien Harvest: Further Evidence Linking Animal Mutilations and Human Abductions to Alien Life Forms, Howe Productions, 1989 ; Clark III 357 ) May — 7:30 p.m. Alojz Krz comes across a UFO sitting on three legs in a shallow hollow in a field near Stara Cerkev, Slovenia. He approaches within 65 feet of it, and it frightens him considerably. Around 8:00 p.m., 17-year-old Angela Rajhs is bicycling in the same area and watches the landed object for 4–5 minutes. As she is cycling away, the object takes off, turning in a wide spiral. Rajhs returns to the scene with her parents the next day and finds several pointed holes in the ground about 6–8 inches in diameter. The nearby grass seems burned. (Milos Kremelj, “Close View of Landed Craft,” Canadian UFO Report 4, no. 4 (Summer 1977): 9– 1 0) May 23 — 12:30 p.m. Rudi Nagora and his wife are driving near Sankt Lorenzen ob Eibiswald, Styria, Austria, for a Sunday outing. Nagora gets out of the car and hears a whizzing sound and sees a silver, metallic object overhead moving in a zigzag pattern. He takes 11 consecutive color photographs of it over a 10-minute period. (Richard F. Haines, “An Analysis of Multiple UAP Photographic Images (May 23, 1971, Austrian Alps),” JUFOS 9 (2006): 31 – 70) May 24 — 12:10 p.m. Retired artist Julio Suárez Marzal is in the first-floor dental office of Walter Griehl on the Avenida Pedro Molina in Mendoza, Argentina, when they see a flattened, Saturn-shaped object about a half-mile away to the south. Griehl goes to retrieve some binoculars and misses most of the sighting. It is an incandescent dark orange in color and moving from east to west. It begins floating down with a rocking movement and approaches to within 2 30 feet. Suárez Marzal sees that it is revolving because of a small circular mark on its rim. A dense cloud issues from the object and surrounds it, turning it pearly gray with a faintly bluish sheen. As it gets closer, the circular mark seems to extend like a bronze-colored cylinder and has a handle-like protuberance on top. At one point it moves away to the northeast and disappears for 4 seconds but reappears even closer, only 130 feet away. It remains stationary for 10 seconds, and the cylinder seems deliberately pointed toward the short-wave antenna on the nearby central post office. He estimates it is 18–20 feet in diameter. It continues rocking and changes shape from a globe to a hat to an oval. Then after being visible for 90 seconds it takes off suddenly to the

south, leaving a trail of vapor. (Antonio Baragiola, “A Remarkable Case from Mendoza, Argentina,” Flying Saucer Review 18, no. 2 (March/April 1972): 7–11; François Lagarde, “Note on the Mendoza Report,” Flying Saucer Review 18, no. 2 (March/April 1972): 11–12) May 25 — 2:00 a.m. Mr. C. Archer is woken up in his home at Lynchford, Tasmania, by his dogs barking and a strange humming noise like a generator. He can’t see anything outside and after 30 minutes the humming stops. The next day, a flattened area of grass and blackberries is found about 600 feet from the house. It is about 30 by 15 feet with a spiral pattern in the middle and 6 regularly placed indentations. Later, another set of similar indentations is found, roughly in the shape of a triangle. (W. K. Roberts, “Burst of UFO Activity in Tasmania,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 9 (October 1971): 13)

June or July — 8:30 p.m. The aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy is completing an Operational Readiness Exercise in the Caribbean Sea when an incident occurs following an 18-hour period simulating General Quarters. Yeoman Third Class James M. Kopf is in the Communications Center monitoring messages on various teletypes. Suddenly all the messages begin coming in garbled and he hears that all ship communications are out, including the radar, compasses, and electrical systems. A signalman from the deck tells them over the intercom that something is hovering above the ship. Kopf and others rush topside and see a huge, pulsating, orangish sphere stationed silently above the ship at a 60°–70° angle. The object remains about 20 minutes, but Kopf sees it only one minute before General Quarters sounds and he needs to return to his battle stations. The two F-4 Phantom jets on high readiness alert cannot take off. Soon the messaging returns to normal and the crew stands down after 2 hours. Kopf thinks only about 18 men witnessed the object out of the 5,000 on the carrier, because everyone is exhausted from the exercise. He hears that commanding officer Capt. Ferdinand B. Koch is frustrated by the event, but two days later Koch reminds the crew that certain events are to be considered classified. (Good Need, pp. 285 – 288 ) June 9 — Evening. Esther Clappison sees a light through her windows in Rosedale, Alberta, and goes out onto her porch and sees a rectangular object on the ground. One end of it is open, revealing a diffused, white light. Two human- like forms are moving about inside. A third figure is outside in a crouched position, picking up rocks. They all appear to be wearing drab-green coveralls. She goes inside briefly, but the object is gone when she returns. (Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 67–69) June 13 — 11:40 a.m. James E. McDonald is found dead along a shallow creek in Tucson, Arizona, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A suicide note nearby notes his domestic problems. (Ann Druffel, “Remembering James McDonald,” IUR 18, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1993): 4–6, 23–24; Clark III 701) June 13 — The New York Times begins publishing excerpts of the Pentagon papers, leaked by former military analyst Daniel Ellsberg, which detail the secret history of the US political-military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to

1967. (Wikipedia, “Pentagon Papers”) June 29 — 3:00 a.m. A man is hiking in Delamere Forest east of Chester, England, when an “electric blue light” appears ahead and moves toward him, dancing erratically in and out of the trees. He walks toward it but before taking 20 steps he finds himself walking calmly back. The object then moves along a mud track and disappears into a small “garage” in the bushes. After wandering around in a disoriented state for some time, he searches for the “garage” but cannot find it. (Jenny Randles, “Much More Than Marsh Gas,” Fortean Times 3 11 (March 2014): 27)

July 7 — 6:00 p.m. Spanish physician Guillermo Arguello de la Motta is a guest of his friend Antonio Arocha at San Juan de los Morros, Guárico, Venezuela. They suddenly see two men dressed in black, both wearing red ties and black berets. They emerge from a brand-new red Ford Mustang, at a distance of 1,600 feet from the house. They stand there waiting for 5 minutes, then begin to put on orange belts, talking together animatedly. Suddenly a shining object appears in the sky, descends, and stops at a height of 2 feet from the ground. It is circular, bell-shaped underneath, and has a “turret” on the top. The object changes rapidly in color from orange to blue and to white. Suddenly a small staircase is dropped from the object, enabling the two men from the Mustang to enter the UFO. The staircase is drawn in, then the object takes off at an impressive speed. (Gordon Creighton, “South American Round-Up, Part 1,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 10 (June 1972): 9) July 8 — 1:15 p.m. Miner Claude Girard is parked on the road near the bridge over the Hurricana River in Joutel, Quebec, when he sees a circle 15– 20 feet in diameter on the surface of the water with a jet of water in the center reaching a height of 20 feet. When the water jet settles down, Girard can see a cylindrical object, 6–8 feet in length and rusty black in color, beneath the surface. It slowly begins to lean to one side and sinks in less than a minute. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 103) July 17 — 10:45 p.m. Tea planter Parl Abeywickrema, his two assistants Oswin de Alwis and Nimal Dunuwille, and the driver Sirisena Wijesinghe are driving between the Hope Estate in Rikillagaskada, Sri Lanka, and the Rockwood Estate in Hewaheta when they see a bright object larger than the full moon above the hilly horizon. Soon it

approaches the, and Abeywickrema orders the driver to stop. They watch the object, now hovering about one- quarter mile away at an altitude of 1,000 feet. After 10 minutes it silently swoops toward them at high speed and stops 300 feet away at a height of 100 feet. The object is about 25 feet in diameter with two “tapering wings” on either side and casts a fluorescent yellow glow. After a few more minutes, the UFO moves toward the southwest at a 45° angle after drawing its two wings inside the main body. Some 50 witnesses report the same or similar objects in the same area that night, and both Abeywickrema and Wijesinghe report seeing UFOs around 2:00– 3:00 a.m. after returning home. (Story, pp. 169 – 170 ) July 29 — A CIA internal memo reports that a citizen named Vartorella has expressed the opinion that the CIA used the Colorado project as “whitewash to cover a CIA-initiated program begun prior to January 1953.” The writer runs through a brief history of the Robertson Panel and suggests the following response: “We’re sorry, but we have had no interest in the UFO matter for many years, have no files or persons knowledgeable on the subject, and hence are unable to respond to his charges and questions.” (ClearIntent, p. 142 ) July 29 — Night. A woman living on a farm outside Saint Hyacinthe, Quebec, watches as two dark circular objects with red rotating lights hovering above her potato field. It quickly disappears. The next morning, her husband finds two 11 - foot-wide circular patches of crushed and burned potatos where the UFO had hovered. Investigators estimated the object had burnes or irradiated the field from a height of 15 feet. (Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, p. 143)

August 16 — Jan-Ove Sundberg sees a landed UFO in a cleared area above Foyers, Inverness, Scotland, on Loch Ness. Three human-shaped figures in gray coveralls emerge from some bushes and enter the craft, which then takes off. Sundberg snaps a photo, then contacts writer and monster researcher Frederick William “Ted” Holiday, who is looking for a UFO connection with the loch. However, Sundberg eventually confesses that he made up the story. (F. W. Holiday, “Exorcism and UFO Landing at Loch Ness,” Flying Saucer Review 19, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1973): 3 – 7, 13; Roland Watson, “Ted Holiday’s Final Days,” Loch Ness Monster, May 31, 2008; Clark III 600– 601 )

September 3 — G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt break into the office of Lewis J. Fielding, Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. (Wikipedia, “Daniel Ellsberg”) September 4 —8:25 a.m. Pilot Omar Arias is flying a twin-engine Canadian Aero-Commander F680 at a height of 10,000 feet above Lago de Cote, Costa Rica, taking aerial photos as part of a preliminary study for future hydroelectric projects. On board are photographer Sergio Loaiza, a specialist in aerial photography, plus geographer Juan Bravo and topographer Francisco Reyes. Loaiza was using a R-M-K 15/23 camera, specially made for cartography and using high-resolution black-and-white film, strapped on the bottom of the aircraft and taking automatic photos with an intervalometer. No one sees a thing while they are up in the air, but when Loiaza reviews his images, he discovers in frame 300 what seems to be a huge metallic disc against the dark background of the lake. The object does not appear in the previous or following frames. Jacques Vallée obtains a copy of the negative and examines it with Richard Haines and concludes that the photo shows “an unidentified, opaque, aerial object was captured on film at a maximum distance of 10,000 feet. There are no visible means of lift or propulsion and no surface markings other than darker regions that appear to be nonrandom.” (Richard F. Haines and Jacques Vallée, “Photo Analysis of an Aerial Disc over Costa Rica,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 3, no. 2 (1989): 113–131; Richard F. Haines and Jacques Vallée, “Photo Analysis of an Aerial Disc over Costa Rica: New Evidence,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 4, no. 1 (1990): 71–74; Mick West, “1971 Lake Cote / Lago de Cote UFO Aerial Photo,” Metabunk,org, May 10, 2021; Bryce Zabel, “The Best UFO Photo Ever Taken?” Medium: The Trail of the Saucers, May 10, 2021) September 12? —7:00 p.m. Juan Rodríguez Domínguez, 82, who goes by the nickname of Juan el de la Palmareña, is in his hut on the Los Lunarejos farm just over a mile from Aznalcóllar, Seville, Spain, when he sees a bus-sized object landing near an abandoned well 1,000 feet away. More than 50 “soldiers” in blue “uniforms” emerge. They march in formation into a hollow in the field and are lost to view. Juan can now see only five or six “chiefs” standing on a slope and staring in his direction. When they shine a light at him, he ducks behind the hut. A bit later he looks out again and they shine the light once more. Frightened, he flees to Aznalcóllar to inform his employers, who do not take him seriously. He later insists that the object and the “soldiers” have left marks in the ground, but police do not bother to follow up. (Ignacio Darnaude, “An ‘Army of Humanoids’ Stated to Have Landed in Spain,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 3 (December 1974): 19–21; Ignacio Darnaude, [case clippings]; Clark III 282) September 19 — 3:30 a.m. Arthur Honke, Alec Honke, and Gordon Campbell are driving north just outside Winnipeg, Manitoba, to do some hunting. They see a bright flash as something passes overhead and in front of the car. It now appears ahead of them on the right side of the road. Honke pulls alongside it and steps out of the car. They

can hear a low-pitched humming from the object only about 150–225 feet away. It is shaped like two saucers, one on top of the aother, and has flashing green and red lights and one white statonary light. The object hovers for 30 seconds, then starts moving slowly to the southeast. But as the men drive north again, the object begins following them at a distance for about 45 minutes. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 8 6 – 87, 152) Late September — 7:30 p.m. Chen Chu, a member of a People’s Liberation Army unit stationed in Dingzhou, Hebei, China, is on assignment in a small valley north of the city when he and other soldiers notice a ball-like object rising slowly to the north of their quarters. It is emitting mist, and after a few seconds it spurts out a large jet of smoke and rises in the air. It hovers a few more seconds then rises to a higher level. Soon it drops down toward the ground and disappears. The unit dispatches a motor vehicle to find the object, but due to the ruggedness of the mountain roads, it turns back after more than 3 miles. (Wendelle Stevens and Paul Dong, UFOs over Modern China, UFO Photo Archives, 1983, p. 72)

Autumn — Gene and Geneva Steinberg begin publishing Caveat Emptor, a newsletter on UFOs and other anomalies, in Charleston, South Carolina. It runs until October 1974, then goes on hiatus until late 1988 when it is again edited by the Steenberg’s, this time in New Jersey. It persists until fall 1990. (Caveat Emptor 1, no. 1 (Fall 1971)) October 2 — 6:30 a.m. An ex-Air Force man is driving from Caro to Watrousville, Michigan, and spots a triangular UFO with a large white light at the bottom and many smaller red lights around it. It makes sharp turns at fantastic speed and moves quickly out of sight. (“Sighting Advisory,” UFO Investigator, December 1971, p. 3) October 2 — 7:50 p.m. Two students, Vània, 9, and Vera, 21, are sitting down outside their residence on a busy street in the populous neighborhood of São Cristóvão in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when they see a luminous, yellow, silent object above a building across the street some 260–300 feet away. They run out into the street to alert others, and the object follows them above the roofs of houses. Another student, Nelson Calmon Schubsky, 23, and his fiancée rush into the street along with many others to see the object. Chbosky has a Leica camera and takes two photos without having time to adjust the settings. The UFO has three luminous appendages (white, yellow, and red) and is rose-colored in the center with a red outline. It pulsates rapidly, changes color, and disappears behind a nearby tower. Chbosky’s photos are blurry. (“UFO é Fotografado no Rio de Janeiro (RJ),” Portal Fenomenum, June 15, 2016; Clark III 1007–1009; Brazil 146– 149 ) October 5 — Early morning. While on the downwind leg of the pattern to runway 20L at the Santos Dumont Airport in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, four pilots on board a single-engine Cessna airplane watch as a “huge star” approaches them on their starboard side. The object descends to their altitude and slows rapidly to their air speed, smoothly changing its direction to fly parallel with them at an estimated distance of 98 feet. It looks like an “inverted dish” with a small rounded protrusion centered on its upper surface that seems to contain oval windows. What appears to be the head of a person is seen in one window looking at them. The UFO is seen for about 85 seconds. The object descends at high velocity toward the water’s surface, turns sharply left without any hesitation and disappears from sight in several seconds. The reporting witness is Chief Flight Instructor José Américo C. Medeiros, 23, pilot of the Cessna. (Richard F. Haines, “Airplane Pacing in Rio,” IUR 34, no. 2 (Mar. 2012): 3 – 6, 26 – 29)

November 2 — 7:00 p.m. Ronald Johnson, 16, is tending sheep on his family’s farm at Delphos, Kansas, when he hears a rumbling sound and sees (75 feet away in a small grove of trees) an object become suddenly illuminated with a mass of blue, red, and orange colors. Nine feet in diameter and 10 feet high, the UFO is slightly domed at the top and is hovering 2 feet above the ground. He and his dog stare at the object while the sheep are bellowing. After several minutes, the glow at the base becomes more intense and the object takes off at an angle, clearing by no more than 4 feet a shed attached to the sheep pen. The rumbling is replaced by a high-pitched wail. Johnson is temporarily blinded but recovers his sight a few minutes later and sees the object still there. He runs into the house to tell his parents, and they also see the light in the southern sky moving off into the distance. At the site where the UFO has been is a glowing, gray-white circle where the soil seems to be crystallized. After the parents touch the soil, it turns their fingers numb, persisting for several weeks. Johnson takes a photo of the circle. Seven separate soil analyses are conducted. Soil samples taken from the ring so not absorb water, have a higher acid content, and contain more soluble salts and calcium. They also produce less seed growth than control samples and are coated with a hydrocarbon of low molecular weight that is difficult to remove. A second substance is also found that is composed of white, crystalline fibers. (NICAP, “Delphos, Kansas, November 2, 1971”; “Landing Case in Kansas,” APRO Bulletin, Nov./Dec. 1971, pp. 1, 3; Ted Phillips, “Landing Report from Delphos,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 9 (February 1972): 4–10; Vallée, The Invisible College, Dutton, 1975 , p. 35; Clark III 400– 402 ; Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 79– 82 ; Erol A.

Faruk, “The Delphos Landing: New Evidence from the Laboratory,” IUR 12 , no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1987): 21–25; Erol A. Faruk, “The Delphos Landing: New Evidence from the Laboratory, Part Two,” IUR 12, no. 3 (May/June 1987): 19–21; Erol A. Faruk, “The Delphos Case: Soil Analysis and Appraisal of a CE-2 Report,” JUFOS 1 (1989): 41– 65 ; Michael D. Swords, “Research Note: Delphos, Kansas, Soil Analysis,” JUFOS 3 (1991): 115; Michael D. Swords, comp., “Soil Analysis Results,” JUFOS 3 (1991): 116– 133 ; Erol A. Faruk, “Further Comment on the Delphos Data,” JUFOS 3 (1991): 134–137; 8 (2003): 1– 25 ; Ted Phillips and Jennie Zeidman, Delphos: A Close Encounter of the Second Kind, UFO Research Coalition, 2002 ; Phyllis A. Budinger, “New Analysis of Soil Samples from the Delphos UFO Case,” JUFOS 8 (2003): 1– 25 ; Erol Faruk, “The Delphos CE2 Case: A New Appraisal of the Data,” Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, November 2021) November 3 — The Ugandan representative to the United Nations, Grace Ibingira, asks the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space to encourage astronauts who encounter UFOs to treat them respectfully. He wants to insert a clause to that effect into a UN statement on space exploration, but his colleagues are unmoved. (Clark III 1189)

December — At Tooligie Hill, South Australia, farmer Robert Habner finds a single-ring crop circle 10 feet in diameter in a wheat paddock. Another family had seen a red ball of light in the area the previous night. (Allen Tiller, “Tooligie Hill UFO Crop Circle,” Eidolon Paranormal, 2010) December 20 — Prior to the launch of a Black Arrow rocket, an unidentified aircraft is seen by a trained meteorological observer over prohibited airspace at the RAAF Woomera Range Complex in South Australia. The RAAF explains it as reentering space debris, although it is impossible to confirm. (Swords 401) Last week of December — After sunset. Norman W. Kasting is flying on a commercial airliner between Dallas, Texas, and Denver, Colorado. He notices something approaching the plane from behind on the west side. It passes within a few hundred yards of the aircraft and 10–20 feet below its level, flying faster than the plane. The object is metallic and shaped like an upside-down bowl about 30–40 feet in diameter and 15 feet tall. It has orange or amber lights around the edge. (“Out of the Past,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 5 (Oct./Nov. 1984): 5)

1972

1972 — Betty Hill begins making numerous trips to a rural area near Kingston, New Hampshire, where she claims to see 6 – 7 UFOs every night, often at close range. Saucer-seeking pilgrims join her on these vigils. CUFOS field investigator John Paul Oswald joins her occasionally and is convinced she is only seeing airplanes and, on one occasion, a streetlight. She claims no further abductions or CE3s, but many ufologists think her celebrity has clouded her judgment. (Clark III 586) 1972 — Oscar A. Uriondo and Roberto E. Banchs found the Centro de Estudios de Fénomenos Aéreos Inusuales in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, p. 55) 1972 — The Centro de Estudos Astronomicos e de Fenómenos Insolitos is founded in Porto, Portugal. It begins publishing a monthly journal, Insolito, in 1975. (Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, p. 56) 1972 — Alberto Romero founds Grupo de Pesquisas Aérospaciais Zenith in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. It begins publishing Boletim G-PAZ annually. (Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, pp. 136– 137 ) 1972 — Luis do Rosário Real founds the Sociedade Pelotense de Investigacão e Pesquiso de Discos Voadores in Pelotas, Rio Grande de Sul, Brazil. It publishes a Boletim SPIPDV. (Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, p. 296) 1972 — Kilbjørn Stenødegård founds the Norsk UFO Center in Trondheim, Norway. It publishes UFO Forum from 197 3 to 19 78. The Norsk UFO Center in Bergen publishes Rapportnytt from 1974 to 1981. (UFO Forum, no. 1 (1973); Rapportnytt, no. 1 (1974))

January — Air Commodore Anthony Norman Davis becomes the first head of the British UFO desk to appear on TV to explain how the ministry investigates sightings. The program is part of the BBC’s Man Alive series and includes the “man from the ministry” engaging in debate with a panel of experts and taking questions from the audience. The program is filmed in Banbury, England, town hall following a wave of UFO sightings in Oxfordshire. Davis says all reports received by the Ministry of Defence are “examined with an open mind and without prejudice” but denies that the MoD possesses any evidence that can prove the existence of extraterrestrial visitors. (UFOFiles2, pp. 84– 85 ) January — Night. High school senior Donna Wilkins is driving in a rural area near Bartelso, Illinois, with a boyfriend when they see lights traveling back and forth in an odd pattern in the distance. Suddenly a luminous triangular object appears right next to them and they speed up. It maintains the same position above their car even though

they accelerate to 85 mph. The underside seems to be composed of metal beams. It disappears beyond a tree line
as they enter town, (“They Still Keep Seeing UFOs in Carlyle,” East St. Louis (Ill.) Metro-East Journal, May 31,
1972, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 38 (June 1972): 5)

Early February — 7:00 p.m. Sarajevo International Airport in Bosnia picks up an unidentified radar target traveling at about 37 mph. It appears visually as a triangular object. When a Jat Airways Convair approaches the target, it accelerates and vanishes. (Milos Krmelj, “Report from Ljubljana, Slovenia,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 13 (February 1973): 14)

March — Victor Marchetti, who has worked as an analyst for the CIA from 1955 to 1969, announces his plans to write a nonfiction book about the agency and completes a draft of an article for Esquire which, according to a later CIA account, includes “names of agents, relations with named governments, and identifying details of ongoing operations.” The CIA receives a copy of the article and decides to seek an injunction against its publication. The basis for seeking an injunction against Marchetti is the secrecy agreement which he signed when beginning employment at CIA. The agency presents the agreement and the parts of the draft article it considers in violation of the agreement, to Judge Albert Vickers Bryan Jr. of the US District Court for Eastern Virginia, who grants a temporary restraining order in April. The case proceeds to trial, at which Bryan finds for the CIA and issues a permanent injunction requiring Marchetti to submit his writings to CIA for review prior to publication. Marchetti appeals the injunction to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which upholds Bryan’s restraint but limits it to classified material. The appeals court also finds that Marchetti is entitled to timely review of materials he submits to the CIA. Marchetti appeals again to the US Supreme Court, but SCOTUS rejects Marchetti’s appeal in December. Marchetti continues work on his book with a coauthor, John D. Marks, and signs a book contract with publisher Alfred A. Knopf. In August 1973, they submit their manuscript to the CIA. After reviewing the manuscript, the agency responds with a list of 339 passages that it claims are classified information and demands their deletion. Marchetti and Marks reject the demand and indicate they will go to court to print the manuscript as written. The CIA then withdraws its objections to 171 of the items but stands firm on the remaining 168. The trial is held again before Judge Bryan. This time, however, he rejects all but 26 of the deletions requested by the CIA on the grounds that the information in them is not properly or provably classified. The CIA appeals Bryan’s ruling, and ultimately the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upholds all 168 of the deletions. The book is published by Knopf in 1974 as The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence. It is printed with blanks for deleted passages and boldface type for the 171 deletions that CIA originally requested and later withdrew. It is the first book the federal government of the United States ever goes to court to censor before its publication. (Wikipedia, “Victor Marchetti”) March 8 — President Nixon legitimizes the use of special access controls and the “special access program” is finally made official. These are security protocols that provide highly classified information with safeguards and access restrictions that exceed those for regular (collateral) classified information. SAPs can range from black projects to routine but especially sensitive operations, such as COMSEC maintenance or Presidential transportation support. In addition to collateral controls, an SAP may impose more stringent investigative or adjudicative requirements, specialized nondisclosure agreements, special terminology or markings, exclusion from standard contract investigations (carve-outs), and centralized billet systems. (Wikipedia, “Special access program”) March 12 — The tabloid newspaper The National Enquirer announces a $50,000 reward to “the first person who can prove that an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) came from outer space and is not a natural phenomenon.” It has appointed five experts to a blue-ribbon panel that will evaluate all the entries: J. Allen Hynek, R. Leo Sprinkle, Frank B. Salisbury, James A. Harder, and Robert F. Creegan. The deadline for evidence is January 1, 1973. On May 23, 1973, the panel announces that none of the entries examined warranted the full prize, but it has decided to award $5,000 to the Johnson family of Delphos, Kansas, for submitting the 1971 landing trace evidence. The panel awards seven other UFO cases with a portion of the reward, the last going to Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson in

1980. (Isaac Koi, “Concensus Lists: National Enquirer Panel,” UFOs and Rationality, April 1, 2008; Curt Collins, “The Blue Ribbon UFO Panel of the National Enquirer,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, September 13, 2019) March 19 — 10:00 p.m. A boy named Mario goes out onto his patio at Santa Maria Acuexcomac, Puebla, Mexico, to look for a broom when he sees a bluish light, which gets larger as if it is approaching the ground. He sees that the thing is descending into a vacant lot and, thinking it is a hot air balloon, runs towards it. When he reaches the lot, he sees the thing is a kind of luminous sphere giving off a blue light like that of a welding torch. Mario now becomes frightened and runs to call his mother. As he goes in the house, two neighbors, Zacarian Mendoza and Manuela Carlotta de Mendoza, also see the object. When Mario comes out again accompanied by his mother Josefina, the object, which has been on the ground for 7 minutes, begins to rise up, producing a hum and casting off more blue

sparks. Gradually the light and sound are lost in the sky. The next day, Mario goes to the site and finds four deep
tracks, about 8 inches deep, separated exactly from each other in the form of a square of 8.2 feet. At an equidistant
point in the center of the tracks there is a black burnt mark on the ground. (Ted Phillips, “Landing Traces:
Physical Evidence for the UFO,” in MUFON Symposium 1973 , Midwest UFO Network, 1973, p. 26)

April 1 — 11:00 p.m. Two students are driving between Cacuso and Lucala, Angola, when suddenly their vehicle’s engine and lights fail. They check the batteries and fuses, which are all normal. Then they see two bright lights. Shortly afterward, they hear a whistling noise coming from an object about 130 feet away. It is about 130 feet across, partly lit up, and has three legs hanging from it. It rise to a height of 40 feet, where it hovers briefly, retracts its legs, whistles again, and turns on edge as it moves away. As soon as it leaves, the vehicle’s lights come back on and the engine returns to normal. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34, no. 1 (Sept. 2011): 19) April 14 — Evening. At least four adults in various parts of Waterbury, Connecticut, spot a triangular-shaped UFO moving silently. The witnesses estimated its width at about 130 – 195 feet. (“Sighting Advisory,” UFO Investigator, December 1972, p. 4) April 24 — Day. A man in Willow Point, British Columbia, on the Inside Passage takes a photo of a disc-shaped object spinning “like a top” and hovering in the sky above Quadra Island. The object has a dull sheen like dirty chrome and lights flashing around its rim. The UFO wobbles, tilts, and shudders, then shoots straight upward about 1,000 feet. It then takes off to the north on a zigzag course. The photo is blurry, but shows a disc. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 72– 73 , 152)

May 26 — President Richard Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty at the 1972 Moscow Summit. Under the terms of the treaty, each party is limited to two ABM complexes, each of which is to be limited to 100 anti-ballistic missiles. Ratified by the US Senate on August 3, the treaty remains in force until June 2002 when the US withdraws. (Wikipedia, “Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty”)

Summer — Early morning. The Musson, a Russian scientific ship, is in the North Atlantic roughly 300 miles from Bermuda. The electrician, radio operator, and one of the navigators see an elliptical object moving slowly through the cloudless sky at high altitude from north to south. It changes shape to a wheel and then to an elongated, silvery-white ellipse, then it disappears from view. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, p. 60) June — Edward Harris begins publishing Cosmology Newslink, a monthly newsletter on UFO and contactee topics, in Dunmow, Essex, England. It persists until the Summer 1994 issue. (Cosmology Newslink, no. 1 (June 1972)) June 6 — New York City artist and psychic Ingo Swann visits the Stanford Research Institute [now SRI International] in Menlo Park, California, to begin remote viewing experiments. He is brought by Harold E. Puthoff and other scientists to a building where, several floors below, is a heavily shielded magnetometer whose sole function is to measure quarks. One scientist asks him to “perturb” the device. As Swann sits there trying to visualize the magnetometer, a scientist monitoring it tells the group that the needle is moving wildly and malfunctioning. The scene is repeated several more times, each time when Swann is imagining the device. Puthoff is intrigued. He writes up his findings and a few weeks later he is visited by two CIA intelligence analysts who want Puthoff and SRI to investigate remote viewing for espionage purposes. (Wikipedia, “Ingo Swann”; Jim Schnabel, Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America ’ s Psychic Spies, Dell, 1997; Annie Jacobsen, Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government ’ s Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis, Little, Brown, 2017 , pp. 130– 136 ; Edwin C. May and Sonali Bhatt Marwaha, eds., The Star Gate Archives, Volumes 1 – 4, Reports of the United States Government Sponsored Psi Program, 1972 – 1995, McFarland, 4 vols., 2018– 2019 ) June 17 — 2:30 a.m. The White House Plumbers are arrested in the process of burglarizing and planting surveillance bugs in the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate Building Complex in Washington, D.C. (Wikipedia, “Watergate scandal”) June 22 — 2:00 a.m. Javier Bosque, a seminarist of the order of St. Joseph Calasanz, is reading in bed at his room at the Colegio Escolapios in Logroño, La Rioja, Spain, when he notices a bright light outside through the half-closed shutters of his window. To his surprise, the window begins opening by itself and a 2-foot-long, football-shaped, metallic, luminous object enters his room and approaches the foot of his bed. His radio begins to emit a loud, continuous sound. He reaches over and turns on a cassette tape recorder. The object descends from about 6 feet above the floor to 15 inches above it. A beam of solid light extends from the object, touching the radio twice, retracts, then touches the cassette recorder. Bosque grabs the recorder and holds the microphone in his lap. The object ascends to about 6 feet above the floor and moves out the window and up. The radio sound weakens. The

8 - minute sound recording is analyzed by laboratories in Spain, Brazil, France, and the US. It contains some pure tones at first, followed by modulations in amplitude. Robert H. Coddington finds, after an analysis of the tape, that it most likely is a recording of the chance reception of an ordinary test transmission from a terrestrial broadcast station and does not match Bosque’s narrative. (Albert Adell and Pere Redón, “UFO Enters and Inspects a Room,” Flying Saucer Review 19, no. 2 (March/April 1973): 10 – 13, iii; “Bosque Spanish UFO Tapes Deemed Non-Startling,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 8 (December 1980): 4; Willy Smith, “A Bizarre Event at Logroño: A Taped UFO Sound,” IUR 7, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1982): 8– 10 ; “Logroño (Spain) Tape Recording Explained,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 2 (April/May 1983): 5–7; Robert H. Coddington, “Further Analysis of the Logroño Tape,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 2 (April/May 1983): 7–10; Michael D. Swords, “A Trick of the Light,” IUR 31, no. 2 (June 2007): 10) June 26 — 8:00 a.m. Bennie Smit, the new owner of Braeside Farm 9 miles from Fort Beaufort, Eastern Cape, South Africa, is alerted to a “fiery red ball hovering at tree-top level” by his hired hand Boer de Klerk. Its color changes to bright green and then to whitish yellow, with flames shooting out. Smit dashes home, grabs a rifle, and calls the police. He shoots at the object, but the bullets have little effect. At 10:30 a.m., police sergeant Piet C. Kitching and warrant officer P. R. van Rensburg arrive at the spot where the UFO is still hovering. As the object moves away, Smit fires at it an eighth time; this time he hears a thud, and the object moves up and down and stops changing colors. Smit and Kitchin fire at it some more, after which it disappears and reappears about 60 feet away looking gunmetal gray in color and somewhat oval-shaped. After they fire two final shots, the object moves away through the trees around noon. The next day, van Rensburg leads a team of police officers to the site, looking for evidence. They find nine circular imprints of its supposed landing gear found in damp clay soil. On June 28, Brig. A. Vosloo, divisional commander of police for the Eastern Cape, takes soil samples and plaster casts of the imprints. (Wikipedia, “UFO Sightings in South Africa”; Charles Bowen, “A Hot Reception at Fort Beaufort,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 11 (August 1972): 1–7; Philipp Human, “Fort Beaufort Tailpiece,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 11 (August 1972): 7; Clark III 510– 511 ) June 29 — 10:00 p.m. A dark, wedge-shaped UFO passes directly over several witnesses at 200–500 feet altitude in Buffalo, South Dakota, at a slow speed. About 100 feet long, it has two brilliant white lights at the front and two orange-white lights in the rear. It moves with the blunt edge forward and hovers intermittently for 40 minutes. It emits a sound like rushing air. (Glenn McWane and David Graham, The New UFO Sightings, Warner, 1974; Marler 85)

July — J. Allen Hynek publishes The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry, in which he charges the Air Force with indifference and incompetence in its UFO investigations. He also critiques the Condon report and details well- documented reports of six types of UFOs: nocturnal lights, daylight discs, radar/visual observations, and close encounters of the first, second, and third kind. It is an “articulate challenge to his colleagues to tolerate the study of something they cannot understand,” according to a reviewer in Science. (J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine ed., 1974; Clark III 620) July 3 — 9:15 p.m. Maureen Puddy, 27, sees a disc-shaped object on the Mooraduc Road near Frankston, Victoria, Australia. The object is a huge blue disc that hovers above her car. (Keith Basterfield, “Present at the Abduction,” IUR 17, no. 3 (May/June 1992): 13–14, 23) July 4 — 10:10 p.m. Girl guide leader Claudine Dieupart alerts 43 other girl guides and Belgian missionary Rev. Fr. Quertemont, who are sitting around a campfire at Lamonriville, Malmédy, Belgium, to a triangle of white lights moving overhead. They watch the lights for 5 minutes. At 10:30 p.m., several witnesses at a bus stop in Liège view a triangle of bright globes of light moving slowly from west to east. They pass through a cloud bank, illuminating it. About the same time, other witnesses in the western suburbs see a similar display. At 10:31 p.m., a factory worker in Flawinne watches a triangle of three bright lights ascending vertically. At 10:40 p.m., a couple in Spy observe a triangular display of lights surrounded by bluish sparks. At 10:45 p.m. a farmer in Ellezelles notices three bluish beams of light shining down from a luminous cloud. (Marler 85–86) July 4 (or July 4, 1973) — 11:15 p.m. Capt. Erling Bakke and his wife see a peculiar vessel on the water east of Sundsøya, Trøndelag, Norway. It is black, about 25 feet long, 6 feet high, and traveling about 60 mph. It rises up at a 45° angle, then disappears. (J. O. Sundberg, “Stor Expedition till Nansenfjorden,” UFO Information, 1 975, no. 3, pp. 9 – 10; Ole Jonny Brænne, “Observations of Unidentified Submarine Objects in Norway,” IUR 20, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1995): 13) July 5 — 12:10 p.m. A witness in Belgium is parking his car when he notices a dozen whitish objects flying about randomly at a low altitude. A neighbor describes them as vaguely shaped, fleecy, and rotating slowly. They seem to be moving around a dark triangular object. (Marler 87)

July 19 — 10:35 p.m. Herbert and Mady Mathar and their two children are walking in Faymonville, Belgium, when they see a red-orange point of light slowly moving toward them. Closer, they see that it is hat-shaped. Mathar runs inside to get a camera and takes two photos before the object disappears. Ballester Olmos and van Utrecht conclude that the photos show the Moon setting in the southwest. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos and Wim van Utrecht, Belgium in UFO Photographs, Volume 1 (1950 – 1988), FOTOCAT Report no. 7, 2017, pp. 99–113) July 25 — 9:15 p.m. Maureen Puddy sees the same object she had seen on July 3 at almost the same spot. This time it seems to drain power from the car, causing it to stop, the car steering itself off the road. A voice in her head tells her, “All your tests will be negative. Tell media, do not panic. We mean no harm.” Several months later, she is “mentally” abducted into a room where she sees an entity. This event occurs while two other people are present with her, but they only report that Puddy lapses into unconsciousness. On a later occasion, the entity appears as she is driving the car. (Judith M. Magee, “The Close Encounter of Maureen Puddy,” Australian Annual Flying Saucer Review, 1983, pp. 4–9; Judith M. Magee, “The Close Encounter of Maureen Puddy,” Victorian UFO Research Society, 1996; Keith Basterfield, “Present at the Abduction,” IUR 17, no. 3 (May/June 1992): 13–14, 23 ; Mark Cashman, “Behavioral Classification System for UFO Occupants,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 20) July 27 — The Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Oceans and International Environment holds hearings on Senate Resolution 281, proposing an international treaty to ban weather modification as a weapon of war. Dartmouth environmental scientist Gordon J. F. MacDonald opposes the bill, saying that research needs to be unfettered, but he mentions weapons that might use electrical waves, created by the differential between the ionosphere and the surface of the earth, “that would be tuned to the brain waves… About ten cycles per second… You can produce changes in behavioral patterns or in responses.” (Prohibiting Military Weather Modification, Hearings before the Subcommittee on Oceans and International Environment, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, 92nd Cong., 2nd Sess., on S. Res. 281, pp. 72–76)

August — Ingo Swann returns to the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California, as do the two CIA intelligence analysts. With Swann in a Faraday cage, the SRI team conducts a series of what’s-in-the-box tests in which office supplies hidden inside a box are presented to Swann, who is asked to identify the objects inside. During a lunch break one of the CIA agents walks outside and collects a small brown moth, capturing it alive, and sealing it inside a box. When Swann looks at the box, he sees “something small, brown, and irregular, sort of like a leaf… Except that it seems very much alive, like it’s even moving.” (Annie Jacobsen, Phenomena, Little, Brown, 2017, p. 136) August — The Archives for UFO Research (Arbetsgruppen för Ufologi) is founded in Södertälje, Sweden, by Håkan Blomqvist, Kjell Jonsson, and Anders Liljegren. Its specialized research library for UFO literature is established in 1974, and in 1979 AFU moves to Norrköping. It publishes Ufologen from 1972 to 1974 and the AFU Newsletter from March 1975 to October 2008. In April 2013 it changes its name to the Archives for the Unexplained. Its holdings in 2020 include a reference library of more than 20,000 titles, more than 50,000 magazine issues, some 500,000 clippings, and more than 50,000 European UFO cases. (Wikipedia, “Archives for UFO Research”; Archives for the Unexplained, “About AFU”; Ufologen, no 1 (July 1972); AFU Newsletter, no. 1 (March/April 1975); AFU Annual Report, 2014) August 9 — 2:30 a.m. A married couple, both college professors, are camping out in a garden in the backyard of some friends’ home just off the road to Nîmes at Saint-Jean-du-Gard, Gard, France. The woman is walking outside and sees a shiny white ball the size of a small car sitting in a nearby parking lot. She hears footsteps behind her and sees a dark shape about 4 feet tall in the shape of a parallelepiped topped by an oval where a head would be. It has 2 white circles for eyes, but no visible arms or legs. It turns toward her and she feels an extraordinary fear. After a few seconds, she runs back inside the tent. (Patrick Gross, “Saint-Jean-du-Gard, France, August 9, 1972”) August 10 — 2:29 p.m. An earth-grazing meteor passes 35 miles above the Earth’s surface, entering the atmosphere above Utah at 9.3 miles/second and passing northward, leaving the atmosphere over Alberta. It is seen by many people and recorded on film and by space-borne sensors. An eyewitness to the event, located in Missoula, Montana, sees the object pass directly overhead and hears a double sonic boom. The smoke trail lingers in the atmosphere for several minutes. (Wikipedia, “1972 Great Daylight Fireball”; “A Meteor That Missed Mountain States May Have Had Hiroshima Bomb Force,” New York Times, July 4, 1974, p. 8) August 12 — 2:00 a.m.–5:00 a.m. About 30 young members of the Taizé Community in Taizé, Saône-et-Loire, France, are having a discussion in a rustic theatre circle to the northwest of the community buildings. Renata Faa is the first to see a star-like object come out of the sky in the west. It lands on the ground on a ridge facing them. Eventually, after more yellow lights appear on the object, they see it as cigar-shaped and about 100 feet long. Five other white lights emit luminous beams that extend progressively across the ground. Two cupolas are visible on its left side. Three small white discs appear on the right side, apparently emerging from the main object, and

perform complex maneuvers. Some of the witnesses feel a tingling in their fingertips and knees. Faa and three of the other witnesses decide to walk through the fields and approach the object. Around 3:00 a.m., a multitude of red particles appear in the air around the approaching witnesses and in the ground around them. The lights on the object constantly change their patterns of display and movement. The four witnesses see a dark mass like a haystack on their left about 30 feet away. A small red light is moving haphazardly around it. When one of them shines a flashlight on the haystack, the beam travels horizontally for a bit then is directed perpendicularly upward. Finally, toward 5:00 a.m., the large object rises up and moves off to the south, following the terrain. (J. Tyrode, “Taizé: A Case Right out of the Ordinary,” Flying Saucer Review 19, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1973): 16–21; F. Lagarde, “A Few Words about Taizé,” Flying Saucer Review 19, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1973): 22) August–October — Numerous UFO sightings are reported throughout rural areas of Puerto Rico, as well as in San Juan and Ponce. People travel to the small town of Adjuntas, where the objects are seen frequently. One Friday night, the mayor of Adjuntas is traveling with a group of people in three cars along a lonely stretch of road in Barrio Garzas when he sees three bright discs moving through the sky. Their light changes in color and intensity. Sightings also center on the town of Utuado, where the Air National Guard has scrambled F-104s to chase the objects. A teacher at Utuado High School is driving back from town with his brother when they see a bright light off in the bush 300 feet from the road. They get out of the car and approach the light, which is sitting in a clearing. It is a flattened disc about the size of a small house and has a set of small, dark rectangles evenly spaced around its edge. It is brilliantly lit and its colors are constantly changing. They watch the object for a few minutes until it vanishes like “someone turning off a light.” (Salvador Freixedo, “UFOs over the Caribbean,” Flying Saucer Review Case Histories, no. 14 (April 1973): 9– 10 ; Henry Cordova, “Encounter in Puerto Rico,” IUR 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 20–21)

Early September — Just after midnight. Vasile Cărăbuş, a night watchman at an agricultural cooperative in Valea Plopului, Romania, sees a yellow star with a trail crossing the sky. It then hovers and appears to land in an orchard on the Odaia hill about 1 mile away. A couple days later, Cărăbuş and other locals visit the orchard and find a circular area 15 feet in diameter where all the stems are broken off about 3 feet from the ground. In the center of the circle is a mound of earth about 2 feet in diameter and 15 inches high. In the middle of this is a round hole at least 6 feet deep, around which are three identical impresions 4.5 feet apart. Hundreds of curious onlookers visit the site, among them engineer Justin Capră, who detects a substantial increase in gamma radiation in the center of the circle. Ufologist Călin Turcu notes that the vegetation on the mound of earth is completely absent for the next 4 years and frail after that. (Hobana and Weverbergh 276–279; Romania 34–35) September — 8:00 p.m. While commuting home by train from nearby Debrecen, Hungary, workers see about 7 luminous, orange-colored ellipses floating high above Nyírábrány. The phenomena are still there as they are walking home from the train station. The lights are as bright as the full moon and remain in position in a formation of three rows. The spectacle lasts for 30 minutes. The display is seen for the next four evenings in a row in the same part of the sky west of the village. On the last night, one of the lights disappears but returns to the same position in the formation. (Karoli Hargitai, “The UFO Phenomenon in Hungary,” IUR 14, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1989): 13) September 10 — 12:45 p.m. Greengrocer Allan James is checking a load on his truck prior to descending from the top of a hill west of Georges Creek, New South Wales. He notices a huge, cigar-shaped object with smaller objects emerging from each end. They group into an arrowhead formation before moving southeast. The large object then climbs at a high rate of speed and disappears. The duration is about 10 minutes. (Eileen Buckle, “Is Kempsey a UFO ‘Window’?” Flying Saucer Review 21, no. 6 (April 1975): 3–4; Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects: A Further Look,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 26) September 14 — 4:20 a.m. An unidentified target is detected on radar at the Palm Beach (Florida) International Airport by FAA air traffic controller C. J. Fox. Fox describes the contact as a “good clear target.” The object is tracked for over an hour when at approximately 6:00 a.m., NORAD is alerted. Two F-106 jet fighters are dispatched from Homestead AFB [now Homestead Air Reserve Base] in Miami–Dade County to locate and identify the object. The UFO disappears from radar scopes shortly before the jets arrive. At the airport, FAA watch supervisor George Morales views the object through binoculars and describes it as silver-white in color and cigar-shaped. Officials at Miami International Airport, which also tracks the strange object, report no aircraft are known to be in the area where the UFO was spotted. (NICAP, “Ground/Visual; Two 106’s Scrambled”) September 14 — 4:00 p.m. David Owen is sitting on his patio in Bateau Bay, New South Wales, when he notices a distinct “red arrowhead” moving from southwest to northwest in a slow climb. After watching it for several minutes, he takes a color photo with his Instamatic, which shows a disc reflecting light. (“Australian Arrowhead Photograph Reveals Unseen Possible UFO,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 2 (February 1981): 1–2)

September 14 — 8:00 p.m. A married couple in Houston, Missouri, watches an unusual bright object after their portable TV is disturbed by interference. It is larger than a star and persists for several minutes before it disappears in a burst of speed. At 3:00 a.m. they are awakened by their dogs barking at something in a nearby woods. They see a bright flash of light at ground level. The next morning, they find an evergreen tree about 300 feet from the house that is yellow on one side and normal-looking on the other. Next to it is a 20 feet x 14 feet oval area of depressed grass. In the center are three small imprints, each sowing an extension or “toe.” The imprints are about 2.5 inches long; one is 1.5 inches deep. A blackened area in the shape of a triangle is in the center of the imprints. (Ted Phillips, Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings, CUFOS, 1976, p. 86) September 20 — 12:45 a.m. A man is driving near Rougemont, Quebec, when he sees a Saturn-shaped object about 100 feet in diameter moving with a pendulum motion toward Mont Rougemont. It climbs to the top of the hill and settles in for 4 minutes. He watches it increasingly brighten from a row of windows at the upper dome and glow pink on the bottom side. He flashes his lights at it, and it rises and dives at his car, passing just 30 feet above it. The engine stalls, the radio goes off, and the headlights dim. A wave of heat passes over him, then the UFO races away. ((Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 144–146; Michael D. Swords, “Messing Around with the Force,” IUR 31 , no. 4 (Mar. 2008): 29) September 25 — 1:00–1:30 a.m. Near Anderstorp, Sweden, a witness is driving his Opel at 25 mph when the car radio stops working. A couple minutes later, a very bright blue-white light appears behind the car, enveloping the entire vehicle in light at the same time as all electrical equipment in the car ceases to work. The headlights go out and the engine and wipers stop. The light persists for 5 minutes, and the temperature inside the car rises. Suddenly the light is gone, and the electrical system works again. The car starts at the same time as the witness smells a strong odor of ammonia or ether. The witness drives home quickly, terrified. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34, no. 1 (Sept. 2011): 19) September 27 — 5:40 a.m. Teodoro Merlo, maintenance man for the Ika-Renault factory in Santa Isabel, Córdoba, Argentina, is making early rounds at the plant. He enters a previously locked washroom and sees a man sitting on one of the basins who is nearly 8 feet tall and wearing a close-fitting, dark-blue, one-piece garment tight at the wrists. It has a bald head with high, pointed ears, and very white skin. As Merlo approaches, the light by the janitor goes out and a light near the entity goes on spontaneously. Merlo hears a noise like “a metal object striking glass,” and the entity disappears. (Oscar A. Galíndez, “The Anthropomorphic Phenomena at Santa Isabel, Part 3,” Flying Saucer Review 21, no. 5 (February 1976): 14–16; Oscar A. Galíndez, “Argentina: The Anthropomorphic Phenomena of Santa Isabel,” Inexplicata, September 22, 2011; Patrick Gross, URECAT, February 23, 2007)

October — Harry Belil begins publishing Beyond Reality, a newsstand magazine devoted to parapsychology and (sometimes) UFOs, in New York City. It continues through November 1980 and publishes several special UFO issues. (Beyond Reality, no. 1 (October 1972)) October 1 — The CIA awards the Stanford Research Institute [now SRI International] in Menlo Park, California, a contract for $49,909 for an eight-month research project on remote viewing. It is given the name Biofield Measurements Program. (Annie Jacobsen, Phenomena, Little, Brown, 2017, pp. 136–137) October 2 — A letter from the Canadian Department of National Defence states that UFO reports received by the Canadian military are passed on to the National Research Council to determine whether a scientific investigation is warranted. It notes that “certain reports suggest that they exhibit a unique scientific or advance technology that could possibly contribute to scientific or technical research.” (Good Above, pp. 193 , 467 ) October 8 — 12:00 midnight. Security guard John Byrne is patrolling Cairo Mill, an old factory at Waterhead, Lancashire, England, that has been converted to an electronics system testing facility for jet aircraft. Near the bicycle shed he hears a deep humming noise like a generator inside a closed room. The sound bores into his head. He looks up and sees a huge object parked at a height of 300 feet adjacent to the tower end of the mill. It resembles a glowing bell shape turned on end with the flat base vertical to the sheer wall of the tower. The object is giving off a blue, fluorescent glow that falls like a curtain of solid light. Byrne watches for several minutes until the object turns sharply on edge and moves straight up into the sky until it is only a blob of light. (Jenny Randles, “Beam Me Up,” Fortean Times 381 (July 2019): 30) October 9 — 7:30 p.m. Ralph and Grace Clapp are driving along Middle Country Road near Selden, New York, when they see a bright white light. It is joined by a red and a green light. They continue driving, and around 7:55 p.m. at the top of a hill west of Coram, the white light hovers into view above the treetops to heir left. Grace sees rectangular windows and no wings on a triangular object that is at least 100 feet across and moving slowly and continuously through the sky. (Ted Bloecher and Sylvia Meagher, “The Seldon UFO,” IUR 32 , no. 2 (December 2008 ): 11 – 14)

October 23 — 6:30 p.m. Capt. Daryle Brown and two copilots are flying a Wardair airliner at 22,000 feet some 180 miles northwest of Churchill, Manitoba, when they see a bright streak of light approaching from the west. As it comes closer, it appears to be a bullet-shaped object larger than a Boeing 727 and adorned with a cluster of multicolored pulsating lights. Brown notifies the 15 passengers aboard and turns out the interior lights so they can see the object better. Almost a dozen portholes are visible, while red and yellow lights are flashing on the top. At the rear of the object is a fog-like cloud and orange sparks. It takes up a position about 2,500 feet in front of the jet and on the same flight path. The object shines a beam of light at the airplane, bathing it in light that is bright enough to read to, and stops in mid-air directly in front of the jet. Before Brown can take evasive action, it moves off to the right. A dense fog engulfs the object as it disappears in the distance. (Jeff Holt, “Rencontre avec un UFO dans le Grand Nord Canadien,” UFO-Quebec, no. 9 (1977): 13–14; Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 167–169) October 28 — 10:15 p.m. Cpl. Juan Fuentes Figueroa and four other Uruguayan Navy seamen are stationed at the lighthouse on Isla de Lobos, off Punta del Este, Uruguay. Fuentes goes to inspect the electrical generators and discovers some odd lights, which prompts him to retrieve a handgun from his room. When he returns, he notices an object in the shape of an inverted bowl with several white, yellow, and violet lights on top of a 20 - foot terrace. An entity is next to the object and two others (one much taller) are descending from the UFO. They all notice Fuentes and face him from about 89 feet away. He raises his gun to shoot but feels strangely paralyzed and confused. The beings reenter the UFO, which moves straight up emitting a humming noise. When it reaches a height of 150 feet, it tilts, belches a bright fireball, and silently disappears at tremendous speed to the southeast. (Willy Smith, “Alien Encounter at Isla de Lobos, Uruguay, 10- 28 - 1972,” UFO Casebook; Willy Smith, “UFOs in Latin America,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 106–109)

November 7 — Contactee Gabriel Green runs for US President as a candidate of the Universal Party, with Daniel Fry as his running mate, on the ballot in Iowa. The party offers solutions recommended by extraterrestrials for national and international problems. He gets less than 200 votes and subsequently retires from public life. (S. D. Tucker, False Economies: The Strangest, Least Successful, and Most Audacious Financial Follies, Plans, and Crazes of All Times, Amberly, 2018 , chapter 3, excerpted in “Taxing Credulity,” Fortean Times 367 (June 2018): 52– 55 ) November 10 — 11:00 p.m. A 19-year-old is riding his Yamaha 250cc Twin motorcycle near Heathfield, East Sussex, England, when suddenly the headlights dim and go out and the engine fails, emitting an “electrical arcing” odor. He looks up and sees a white blob about 100 feet away hovering above some trees. It is about 60 feet high, 30– 40 feet in diameter, and glowing white but fuzzy in appearance. After a few seconds it zooms away at about 100 mph in a straight line and is lost to sight. The motorcycle starts by itself. (Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 55) November 12 — 8:00 p.m. Three soldiers (Petrus Nel, Fanie Rosseau, and Gerrie Buitendag) are guarding a petrol dump at Rosmead, East Cape, South Africa, when they see a red light moving in circles above the tennis court adjacent to the primary school. At nearby Middelburg police station, Sgt. John Goosen and Constable Koos Brazelle are looking towards Rosmead with binoculars and see an odd light above the town. School Principal Harold Truter sees the light moving vertically up from his home near the tennis court. The court is churned up with huge chunks of surface tar dug up, so he calls the Middelburg police about it. Goosen and Brazelle respond. There are 5 holes in the court, the largest 10 feet in diameter. Two spike holes are also found. The only entrances to the court are still locked up and there are no vehicle tracks inside or outside. A eucalyptus tree at the end of the court has suddenly begun to die and appears scorched. District Police Commandant Col. B. J. van Heerden unsuccessfully tries to duplicate the damage with shovels. (Jenny Randles, UFO Conspiracy, Cassell, 1987, pp. 100 – 101 ) November 13 — Two witnesses watch an unknown aircraft maneuver along Sognefjord, Vestland, Norway. Thirty Norwegian Navy vessels, plus NATO forces, are already investigating a mystery submarine reported in the fjord. The same night, four other witnesses observe a “bright object” on the water. (Ole Jonny Brænne, “Observations of Unidentified Submarine Objects in Norway,” IUR 20, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1995): 13) November 17 — 8:50 p.m. Two RCMP officers see an object 12 feet in length heading northwest near McIvers on the Bay of Islands, Newfoundland. It disappears in the water with a loud splash. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 102)c November 20 — 1:00 p.m. An unidentified submerged object is seen near Kyrkjebø, on Sognefjord, Norway, as it heads away from Mårenlandet toward the fjord’s southern end. Around 1:15 p.m., it is seen by five police officers on Kvamsøy. Norwegian Navy frigates drop mines on the object. (Ole Jonny Brænne, “Observations of Unidentified Submarine Objects in Norway,” IUR 20, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1995): 13) November 20 — CIA chief Richard Helms comes to Camp David to an interview with Nixon about what he thinks is a “budgetary matter.” Nixon’s chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, also attends. Helms is informed by Nixon that his

services in the new administration will not be required. On Helms’s dismissal William Colby later comments that “Dick Helms paid the price for that ‘No’ [to the White House over Watergate],” distancing the CIA from the scandal. Helms begins a CIA clean-up, closing down Operation Often and other sensitive programs. (Wikipedia, “Richard Helms”) November 21 — Night. Four witnesses see four rockets shooting up from the water at Hermansverk, Vestland, Norway. They are silent and resemble small red balls of light. They are also seen the following day, and the Norwegian Navy fires an antisubmarine missile at the intruders. (Ole Jonny Brænne, “Observations of Unidentified Submarine Objects in Norway,” IUR 20, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1995): 13) November 28 — 2 :00 p.m. A witness at Glenelg, Adelaide, South Australia, sees lengths of glistening material wrapped around a signpost and on looking up sees that more is falling from the sky. He collects a small sample of the thickest section, but the strands dissolve in his fingers. (Keith Basterfield, “Angel Hair: An Australian Perspective,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 7) November 30 — 11:15 p.m. A motor mechanic named Maxwell is out testing his vehicle in Murray Bridge, South Australia, when the engine dies and lights go out as he is coming over a rise in the road. The lights come back on but vary in intensity several times. He decides to stop the car. To his left he sees a “diamond shape with the top cut off” noiselessly sitting on the ground 148 feet away in a paddock. His car radio starts making a noise like a “computer on TV,” a constant rhythm. He tries the ignition key but nothing happens, not even the oil light comes on. He tries the wipers and the electric air horn but they do not work either. He locks all the doors and winds up the windows and just sits there for the next 45 minutes. After this time the object leaves, and he finds he can restart the car. An inspection of the vehicle the next day reveals no cause for the electrical problems. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34, no. 1 (Sept. 2011): 19–20)

December — Night. Romanian Air Force pilot and writer Lt. Col. Doru Davidovici is at an unnamed military base in Romania when he sees an oval UFO flying parallel to the ridge of a roof. It traverses 50°–60° of horizon in 45– 50 seconds and disappears among some trees. It is egg-shaped, a white-violet color as if wrapped in a cloud of bright light, and leaves a long trail behind, but it changes to red-orange before disappearing. Radar at the base tracks the object flying north to south at 3,700 mph at a height of 43 miles. (Romania 103) December 2 — 11:30 p.m. Four witnesses in Hinojos, Huelva, Spain, see a fiery, square-shaped object flying close to the ground, lighting up the terrain. The headlights in two cars die. The car with a gasoline-powered engine also stalls, but the car with the diesel engine keeps running. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34, no. 11 (Sept. 2011): 20) December 13 — 7:04 p.m. Fritz Abbehusen is watching TV in Dias d’Ávila, Bahia, Brazil, when his set experiences some interference. He goes out on the porch and sees a huge, round luminous object descending to a hill approximately 3 miles from his home. After a while, he goes to get binoculars, and with these he can see that the luminous shape is hovering a several feet above the ground. Its lower part is glowing like a neon light, while the upper part has a row of orange-red portholes. His wife Margarida and servant join him to look at the display. Suddenly, three blinking lights emerge from the object. One of these lights slowly moves in the direction of his house. After 15 minutes, the moving light has arrived within 165 feet in back of the house. Three small beings emerge from it, wearing what appears to be a one-piece suit of whitish or light-gray color. The beings keep their elbows close to the body when walking, as if on tiptoe, raising their knees exaggeratedly at each step. They go away, but the big object remains on the hill until around midnight. At one time it emits a beam that sets the brush on fire. (Patrick Gross, “Dias d’Ávila, Brazil, December 13, 1972”) December 24 — 3:00 a.m. The Romanian ship Moldoveanu is in the Labrador Sea off Labrador, Canada, when the crew notices a shiny object headed at high speed straight toward their vessel and flying low over the waves. It stops above the ship, changing its shape and color. After an hour, it shoots into the sky and disappears. (Hobana and Weverbergh 279) December 24 — 9:40 a.m. L. J. Reeves is stationed at the PIN-1 Distant Early Warning site at Clinton Point, Northwest Territories, on the Amundsen Gulf. He sees an object like a bright star that moves west to east, stops, then continues on and fades into the distance after 5 minutes. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p.73) December 30 — A man driving on the A4155 from Henley to High Wycombe, England, rounds a bend and sees an object resembling a vertical cone. What seem to be fluorescent strip lights run down the side, and it emits an intense, high-pitched whistle. The next thing he knows, he is driving through Marlowe in total silence with no memory of how he got there. Some 90 minutes have vanished from his memory. (Jenny Randles, “The Twelve UFOs of Christmas,” Fortean Times 374 (Christmas 2018): 29)

1973

1973 — NORAD now has infrared sensor satellites covering 100% of the earth’s surface from geostationary orbits on a 24 - hour basis. (Clark III 807) 1973 — Most Project MKUltra records are deliberately destroyed by order of CIA Director Richard Helms. A cache of some 20,000 documents survives Helms’s purge, as they are incorrectly stored in a financial-records building and discovered following a FOIA request in 1977. These documents are fully investigated during the Senate Hearings of 1977. HTLINGUAL and the NSA’s Minaret programs are shut down to avoid exposure during the Weathermen trial. (Wikipedia, “Project MKUltra”) 1973 — Dr. Joseph C. Sharp of Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, while in a soundproof room, allegedly hears spoken words broadcast by “pulsed microwave audiogram.” Broadcast in a range between 300 MHz to 3GHz, Sharp is able to identify words that are broadcast without any form of electronic translation device—by direct transmission to the brain. (Jim Keith, Mind Control, World Control: The Encyclopedia of Mind Control, 2014, p. 220) 1973 — The Midwest UFO Network changes its name to the Mutual UFO Network and focuses on building a national grassroots UFO investigation network. 1973 — David Duquesnoy founds the Association des Amis de Marc Thirouin in Valence, France, named in honor of the founder of the first UFO organization, Commission Internationale d’Enquêtes sur les Soucoupes Volantes, in France in 1951. It begins publishing UFO Informations, edited by Michel Dorier, in March 1974 and continues it through 1983. (UFO Informations, no. 1 (March 1974)) 1973 — Suomen Ufotutkijat ry, the Finnish UFO Research Association, is founded in Tampere, Finland. Over the years it has published a Quarterly Report, an Annual Report, and a member newsletter Ufotutkija beginning in 1997 (now called Yhteydeksi). (Wikipedia, “Suomen Ufotutkijat”; The UFO Research of Finland Annual Report, 1981)

January 1? — After 12:00 midnight. A married couple is driving in Osorno, Chile, when their car stalls just as a disc- shaped object with flashing red and green lights flies overhead. The engine comes to life again after the object disappears. (“Shape-Changing UFO Stops Car,” Flying Saucer Review 19, no. 3 (May/June 1973): 29) January 3 — NASA announces that Project NERVA has been terminated, even though the project to build a nuclear rocket has been proceeding well. Annie Jacobsen claims that some failed nuclear tests that have never been declassified could have been responsible. (Wikipedia, “NERVA”; Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 311 – 313 ) January 11 — 9:00 a.m. Building surveyor Peter Day is driving near Cuddington, Bucks, England, when he sees an orange light in the north, moving eastwards. He finds a convenient place to stop, wind down the window, and point his movie camera at the object. He captures 20 seconds of the orange blob on color film as it pulsates and passes behind distant trees before disappearing suddenly (in a single frame). (Jenny Randles, UFO Conspiracy, Cassell, 1987, pp. 160 – 161 ; Jenny Randles, Fire in the Sky: Case History Number 2, The Buckinghamshire UFO Movie Film, BUFORA, 1989)

February 2 — Richard Helms is abruptly dismissed and James R. Schlesinger is named director of central intelligence. February 19 — President Richard Nixon meets on the 18th green of the Inverness (Florida) Golf and Country Club with entertainer Jackie Gleason. Gleason has long been a fan of UFOs. He later becomes a subscriber to the newsletter Just Cause (Citizens Against UFO Secrecy). Gleason has a collection of 1,700 books on parapsychology, UFOs, and the unknown. Gleason’s second wife, Beverly McKittrick, says that Nixon took Gleason to a heavily secured area at Homestead AFB [now Homestead Air Reserve Base] in Miami-Dade County where he views the remains of small aliens in a top secret repository. McKittrick relates this story in an unpublished manuscript of Gleason called “The Great One.” Larry Bryant, editor of Just Cause, the newsletter Gleason had a subscription to, files a Freedom of Information Act request with Homestead AFB. Bryant requests documentation on the repository and Gleason’s visit there to see the alien bodies. Homestead replies that “no such records existed.” Bryant also sends an advertisement to the Homestead AFB newspaper soliciting information. The public affairs officer at Homestead denounces the Bryant advertisement and “forbade its publication.” At the same time Bryant writes Gleason providing him with a draft affidavit. He asks Gleason to execute the affidavit so it can be used as part of a growing accumulation of evidence Bryant is collecting in preparation for taking the government to court to release all information on alien crash retrievals. Gleason does not reply. Shortly before his death in 1987, one story says Gleason confirms the story about seeing the bodies at Homestead. The person who Jackie Gleason tells the story to is Larry Warren, who is a member of the Air Force Security Police at RAF Bentwaters [now closed] near Woodbridge, Suffolk, one of two bases in England where in late December 1980, three days of bizarre UFO incidents take place. Warren says that Gleason and Nixon enter a room with 6–8 glass-topped freezers. Inside

“were the mangled remains of what I took to be children.” On closer inspection, he sees that some of the figures look old and injured. Gleason cannot sleep or eat for three weeks after the visit. The director of the Secret Service under President Clinton, Lewis C. Merletti, claims that the idea of a president escaping his secret service agents only happens in the movies. In response to a question by reporter Joan London about the possibility of the president escaping his protection to go out and secretly do something, Merletti claims, “all Hollywood. There’s no sneaking out. It has never happened.” Marty Venker, a Secret Service agent who worked with Merletti under Presidents Ford and Carter, however, tells a different story. In his book Confessions of an Ex-Secret Service Agent he explains that not only can the president disappear, but it has happened. Venker states that in the exact year of the Homestead incident with Gleason, 1973, Nixon tries to cut his secret service protection. Venker also states that it was not uncommon for Nixon to try to elude his Secret Service detail. The agents working on the Nixon presidential detail were warned about it. Nixon is familiar with Homestead AFB, which is only minutes from his Biscayne Bay compound. There is no proof that Nixon escorted Jackie Gleason to view alien bodies at Homestead, but everything checked out indicates it could very well have happened. It would have been very easy in terms of distance for the Gleason/Nixon alien event to have occurred. (presidentialufo.com, “President Nixon, 37th President, January 20, 1969–August 9, 1974”; Brian J. Robb, “The Entertainer, the President, and the Aliens,” Fortean Times 366 (May 2018): 30–36) February 21 — Night. Clearwater High School basketball coach Reggie Bone and five players on his team are driving back to Clearwater after a game. On US Highway 60 near Ellsinore, Missouri, Bone notices a “bright shaft of light beaming down out of the sky.” A few miles later, near Brushy Creek, student Randal Holmes notices another light, and Bone pulls over for a closer look. They see lights about 600 feet away from the road hovering over an open field at about 400 feet altitude. The lights seem to be portholes, each a different color: red, green, amber, and white. According to student Cary Barks, they watch it for 10 minutes before the lights rise up noiselessly and disappear over a hill. Around 10:00 p.m., Edith Boatwright of nearby Mill Spring sees a similar object flying low near her farmhouse. (“Mysterious Lights Keep Piedmont in the Dark,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 23, 1973, p. 1; MUFON, “Piedmont Missouri Case, 1973”; Harley D. Rutledge, Project Identification: The First Scientific Field Study of UFO Phenomena, Prentice-Hall, 1981, pp. 6– 7 ; Marler 15–16)

March 2 — Schlesinger appoints William Colby head of the CIA’s clandestine branch. March 20 — 7:15 p.m. Lucie Vandervoort is looking out a window of her house in Tarcienne, Belgium, when she sees a bright light approaching. It passes over the roof of a nearby house, then banks, makes a 90° turn, and begins to blink as it disappears to the east. Similar objects appear every 10 minutes, continuing until 9:15 p.m. The objects’ slow speed allows her to take photos. At one point she looks through her late husband’s World War I trench periscope and sees a humanoid figure dressed in shiny, tight-fitting clothes and standing in the front of one of the objects. Only one photo turns out and shows a squarish light against a dark sky. Analysis suggests that the objects were probably aircraft taking off from the military base at Florennes a few miles away, the humanoid figure was imaginary, and the photo was a blurry streetlight. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos and Wim van Utrecht, Belgium in UFO Photographs, Volume 1 (1950 – 1988), FOTOCAT Report no. 7, 2017, pp. 172 – 183) March 24 — 7:30 a.m. Arthur de Weerdt is watching a distant airliner in Borgerhout, Belgium, when he notices another sunlit object pacing the aircraft at a higher altitude. Suddenly the object stops and remains motionless for about one minute, then moves at a greater speed, making an angle of 70° before coming to another wobbling halt for about 8 minutes. De Weerdt manages to take a color photograph of the object, which shows a whitish spot. Ballester Olmos and van Utrecht suspect the witness saw a weather balloon and that the photo is the result of a development flaw. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos and Wim van Utrecht, Belgium in UFO Photographs, Volume 1 (1950 – 1988), FOTOCAT Report no. 7, 2017, pp. 183–196) March 28 — 7:00 p.m. Two witnesses see an object with a rough triangular shape hovering at about 200 feet above trees on Stony Lane in Exeter, Rhode Island. It glows with brilliant white lights and has smaller green and red lights at the points of the triangle. The object makes a slight buzzing sound as it moves away. (“Flap over Rhode Island,” APRO Bulletin 21, no. 6 (May/June 1973): 9)

April — Scottish author Duncan Lunan claims he has identified and deciphered a hidden radio message sent as long delayed echoes by an alien space probe that had been detected in 1927. Published along with an accompanying editorial disclaimer, Lunan maintains that the putative message comes from an object at the L5 point in the same orbit as the Moon, sent by the inhabitants of a planet orbiting Epsilon Boötis. He says the message reads, “Start here. Our home is Epsilon Boötis, which is a double star. We live on the sixth planet of seven, coming from the sun, which is the larger of the two. Our sixth planet has one moon. Our fourth planet has three. Our first and third planets each have one. Our probe is in the position of Arcturus, known in our maps.” (“Spaceprobe from

Epsilon Boötis,” Spaceflight 15, no. 4 (April 1973); Duncan Lunan, Man and the Stars: Contact and Communication with Other Intelligence, Souvenir, 1974) April — Southeast Missouri State University physics professor Harley Rutledge hears of numerous reports of unidentified lights in the sky around Piedmont, Missouri, and decides to subject these reports to scientific analysis. He puts together a team of 620 observers with college training in the physical sciences, including a large array of equipment at 158 different viewing stations: binoculars, RF spectrum analyzers, Questar telescopes, low-high frequency audio detectors, an electromagnetic frequency analyzer, cameras, sound recorders, Geiger counters, and a galvanometer to measure variations in the Earth’s gravitational field. The resulting Project Identification commences in April, logging several hundred hours of observation time and 157 documented sightings over the next 7 years. This is the first UFO scientific field study, able to monitor the phenomena in real-time, enabling Rutledge to calculate the objects’ actual velocity, course, position, distance, and size. Observation of the unclouded night sky often reveals “pseudostars”—stationary lights camouflaged by familiar constellations. Some objects appear to mimic the appearance of known aircraft; others violate the laws of physics. The most startling discovery is that on at least 32 recorded occasions, the movement of the lights synchronize with actions of the observers. They appear to respond to a light being switched on and off, and to verbal or radio messages. Rutledge publishes a final report, Project Identification, on his field research in 1981. (Harley D. Rutledge, Project Identification: The First Scientific Field Study of UFO Phenomena, Prentice-Hall, 1981 ; Mark Rodeghier, “Book Review: Project Identification,” IUR 7, no. 1 (January 1982): 14– 16 ; Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, p. 249; Greg Little, “Why Do Ufologists Largely Ignore the Most Scientific Field Study of UFOs Ever Conducted?” Alternate Perceptions, no. 146 (March 2010)) April 9 — Physicist Peter A. Sturrock mails questionnaires to all 1,175 members of the San Francisco, California, Chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics asking their opinions on the UFO phenomenon. He receives 423 responses from scientists who have seen things they thought could be UFOs. (Peter A. Sturrock, “UFO Reports from AIAA Members,” Astronautics and Aeronautics 12 (May 1974): 60–64) April 27 — Ingo Swann, in a remote-viewing experiment at Stanford Research Institute, concentrates on the Pioneer 10 space probe on its way to Jupiter. Monitored by Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ, Swann yields 13 specific factors about Jupiter, none of which are scientifically anticipated—including the existence of a planetary ring. (Wikipedia, “Ingo Swann”; Ingo Swann, Penetration: The Question of Extraterrestrial and Human Telepathy, Ingo Swann Books, 1998, pp. 1 8 – 23 )

May — A series of meetings takes place between USAF representatives (Col. William T. Coleman and Col. George Weinbrenner) and two well-connected Hollywood figures: documentarist Robert Emenegger and producer Allan Sandler. The colonels encourage the pair to make a documentary on the UFO phenomenon and the question of extraterrestrial life. Not only will they have the military’s full cooperation, they will also have access to their files, including those of the Department of Defense. Upon arriving at Norton Air Force Base [now San Bernardino, California, International Airport] the two men are immediately taken to a “clean room used by the CIA,” designed so that “there was no way anyone could eavesdrop” on events taking place inside. Here the proposal takes place, including the promise of using 3,200 feet of a 1971 UFO landing footage at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, that shows several of the “alien visitors” and their meeting with the representatives from the US government. Paul Shartle, chief of requirements for the Norton AFB audiovisual program, promises to get the Holloman footage. Emenegger is told that the military is monitoring signals from an alien group that their extraterrestrial visitors know nothing about. At the last minute, permission to use the film is withdrawn, though Emenegger and Sandler are encouraged to describe the Holloman landing as something that might happen in the future or could have happened. Emenegger goes to Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio to talk to Weinbrenner, who while haranguing about the need to find out about Soviet Mig-25s, hands Emenegger a signed copy of Hynek’s The UFO Experience. (presidentialufo.com, “Disclosure Pattern 1972– 75 ”; Clark III 357 ) May 9 — Schlesinger orders all CIA officials to report on any activities that “might be construed to be outside the legislative charter of this Agency.” The CIA Office of the Inspector General compiles these into a 693-page report on “potential flap activities,” including surveillance of journalists, Operation Chaos, MKUltra, and mail interception. These come to be known as the Family Jewels. (Wikipedia, “Family Jewels (Central Intelligence Agency”) May 18 — Two men at Miliscola Beach, Bacoli, Naples, Italy, see a bright disc with a dome 165 feet away over the sea. It hovers at a height of 10 feet and then moves closer. Their car engine and lights fail. The dome is bright like a white neon light, and a red light is rotating around it. After 3–4 minutes, the object lifts off and the car can be restarted. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34, no. 1 (Sept. 201 1 ): 20)

May 19 — Strange, nylon-like patterns are seen in the sky above Gawler, South Australia. After falling, they vaporize when touched. (Keith Basterfield, “Angel Hair: An Australian Perspective,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 7) May 22 — 3:00 a.m. Onilson Pátero, an organizer of public libraries for the State of São Paulo, Brazil, is just outside Catanduva, after giving a ride to a stranger. First his car radio gets static and the engine begins to fail. Suddenly he notices a blue circle of light about 8 inches in diameter moving around inside his car. It passes in front of the dashboard and he sees it is transparent. Then a beam of blue light shines on him from the top of the hill he is driving up. He pulls over to avoid a collision, but the light keeps coming toward him. Overcome by a sensation of heat and stuffiness, he steps out of the car and hears a buzzing noise. The UFO is a gray structure about 25 feet thick and 36 feet wide, resembling two soup plates attached rim to rim. A tube stretches out from its base toward the ground. Pátero panics and runs about 100 feet when something holds him back. Turning, he sees that a rod of blue light from the UFO is moving above his car. The light seems to make the car transparent, allowing him to see the contents of the trunk, the wheel gears, the engine, and the interior of the body. Pátero faints. An hour later, two young men drive by and see him lying on the ground in gushing rainwater. They speed on into Catanduva and return with a policeman, Clóvis Queiros. Turning Pátero over, he regains consciousness and they take him to the hospital, where he is soon released. However, the next day he feels an itchiness on his back and stomach. Irritated patches of his skin turn purplish blue. Later, these spots turn yellow and eventually disappear. Subsequent medical examinations show no cause for the discoloration, and Pátero seems in good mental health. He experiences another encounter on April 26, which some investigators think might be a fantasy. (“Close Encounter in Brazil,” APRO Bulletin 21, no. 6 (May/June 1973): 1, 3; “Caso do Automovel que Ficou Transparente,” SBEDV Boletim, no. 94/98 (September 1973/June 1974): 30–40; “Caso de Onilson Pátero,” SBEDV Boletim, no. 99/103 (July 1974/April 1975): 2–18; Gordon Creighton, “The Car That Turned Transparent,” Flying Saucer Review 21, no. 3/4 (November 1975): 14–15; Brazil 154 – 163) May 24 — 9:20 p.m. Harley Rutledge and three other members of his Project Identification team at the municipal airport in Farmington, Missouri, see a configuration of four lights (white, red, red, white) flying silently overhead at an altitude of about 2,500 feet. Through binoculars, Rutledge can see the white lights reflecting off a metallic structure that could be anywhere from 368 to 2,600 feet across. The array moved quickly out of sight. (Harley D. Rutledge, Project Identification: The First Scientific Field Study of UFO Phenomena, Prentice-Hall, 1981, pp. 77 – 99 ) May 27 — 2:00 a.m. A Mrs. Geni, 57, is preparing some wedding cake at her home in São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, Brazil. Through her balcony window she sees a reflection of some kind in her walled-in backyard. When she goes to her porch door, she sees a flying object hovering above the roof of one of the rented buildings on the ground floor in the back some 50 feet away. The object is white-metallic and luminous on the bottom, about 6.5–13 feet wide and 3–6 feet high, with a kind of credenza behind which three entities can be seen. They are small with large round heads, big eyes, protruding lips, dark brown skin, small ears, long flat noses, small arms, and wearing a cap with a ball in the center. Each holds a device like a flashlight that emits a beam of different colors: green on the left, red in the middle, and orange on the right. The object emits a noise like a motor as it sways above the building, then after a few minutes it moves away beyond the horizon. Mrs. Geni goes back to work, but she now has pains in her knees, legs, and head. She screams in pain, and the young woman who rents the building in the back arrives to help. She also has heard the motor noise and confirms that Mrs. Geni’s face is swollen with bloodshot eyes that last for 3 days. At about 5:00 a.m., Mrs. Geni suffers a prolapsed uterus, for which she has to undergo surgery on June 8. She gradually loses hearing in her right ear, her vision deteriorates, and spots appear on her skin. A clock in the kitchen begins to behave erratically. In the backyard, a dwarf coconut tree and a jabuticaba tree both lose their leaves prematurely. (“Caso dos Anões de São José do Rio Preto,” SBEDV Boletim, no. 121/125 (March/Dec. 1978): 15– 19 ; Brazil 163–166)

June 4 — 2:00 a.m. Jill Cotmore wakes up in her home near Tyringham, New South Wales, with an uneasy feeling. She lights a cigarette and the room is immediately engulfed in a bright light, even though the windows have heavy curtains. It is so bright that she can’t even see a cupboard 3 feet away from her. Outside, her horse is going berserk. Suddenly, the light is gone. The next day, she finds the horse frothing, and it had apparently been running around the house during the night. This takes place in the middle of a concentration of UFO reports in the area. (Bill Chalker, “An Australian Chronicle, Part Two,” APRO Bulletin, June 1976, p. 4) June 28 — 12:30 a.m. University of Missouri animal care technician James G. Richards, 41, and his daughter Vanea, 16, hear a loud, persistent, thrashing sound outside their house trailer in Columbia, Missouri. Richards moves to the window and sees two bright, silver-white light beams about 5 feet apart from each other and 50 feet away from his window. The beams disappear, and a glowing bright oval form appears, about 12–15 feet in diameter, lighting up the area. The thrashing sound is apparently made by trees moving as if blown by wind, and after the oval form

appears, this sound suddenly ceases. As Richards moves from window to window, he notices his dogs lying very
still near the corner of the trailer that is nearest to the oval object. The dogs are large security animals that are not
easily frightened. Richards thinks it strange they are not barking at all the noise and the bright lights. The object
moves away to 200 feet from the window and hovers, and now, less bright to the eye, the witnesses can see a blue
band of light and an orange glow extending around the outer edge of the oval. The oval moves back near its
original position and disappears by growing smaller before police arrive at 1:45 a.m. Later searches uncover
broken tree limbs, damaged foliage, scorched leaves up to a height of 35 feet, and impressions on the ground as
deep as 2 feet. (NICAP, “Columbia, Missouri: June 28, 1973”; Ted Phillips, “Landing at Columbia, Missouri,”
Flying Saucer Review 19, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1973): 18–25; Richard H. Hall, Uninvited Guests, Aurora, 1988, pp.
268 – 270 ; UFOEv II 61 – 62 )

July — David Rockefeller founds the Trilateral Commission in Tokyo, Japan, to foster closer cooperation between Japan, Western Europe, and North America. It initiates its biannual meetings in October in Tokyo. (Wikipedia, “Trilateral Commission”) July 7 — 10:00 p.m. A Mrs. Good is closing the curtains of her house at Porthcothan Bay, Cornwall, England, when she sees two dark semi-cigar-shaped objects hovering over the bay. They are positioned on either side of a glowing, symmetrical ring. After a few seconds, the ring enters the left object and the two shoot off at terrific speed upward. The remaining object follows the same path a short time afterward. She reports the sighting to the nearby RAF St. Mawgan, which explains the sighting as “sun dogs.” (UFOFiles2, pp. 86– 87 ) July 12– 16 — A fire destroys some 16–18 million official military personnel records at the Military Personnel Records Center in Overland, Missouri. The losses to federal military records collection include 80% loss to records of US Army personnel discharged November 1, 1912, to January 1, 1960; 75% loss to records of US Air Force personnel discharged September 25, 1947, to January 1, 1964, with names alphabetically after Hubbard, James E.; and some US Army Reserve personnel who performed their initial active duty for training in the late 1950s but who received final discharge as late as 1964. None of the records have duplicate copies, nor are there microfilm copies. No index of these records was made prior to the fire. (Wikipedia, “National Personnel Records Center fire”; Kevin D. Randle, “Military Records,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 5) July 25 — 1:35 p.m. A Canadian Pacific Air Lines DC-8 is flying west at 31,000 feet above the eastern coast of Baffin Island, Nunavut, when the pilot sees a “large balloon in close proximity” and radios air traffic control to report it. He says it is 200 feet in diameter and 3 miles away and has been paralleling their course for 5–6 minutes at a speed of 575 mph. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 89) July 26 — A secret US State Department airgram on “Guidance for Dealing with Space Objects Which Have Returned to Earth” refers to Project Moon Dust: “the designator MOONDUST is used in cases of non-US space objects or objects of unknown origin.” (Christopher D. Allen, “Dubious Truth about the Roswell Crash,” IUR 19, no. 3 (May/June 1994): 14) July 27 — A 16-year-old UFO buff finds and photographs some strange marks on the ground near Lago d’Idro, Brescia, Italy. In 1977 he undergoes hypnotic regression and realizes he has been touched by a human shape that makes him lose consciousness. When he wakes up he is being sucked into an aerial object through an opening at its base. He finds himself in a round room with four beings. Then a woman comes in and the entities begin moving around and touching him. He is paralyzed and can only move his eyes. He is then taken to another room and directed to sit on a chair as the UFO lands in the spot where he had been before. He then leaves the object and watches it take off. He picks up his camera and photographs the ground traces. (Paolo Fiorino, Gian Paolo Grassino, and Antonio Chiumiento, “Abductions in Italy,” IUR 14, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1989): 15)

August — 10:30 p.m. Three people are sitting in their front yard in West Seneca, New York, when they hear a low hum coming from an object above their garage. It is a silvery half-egg with glowing orange-and-blue overtones. It begins a slow descent toward the roof, and when it is only 5 feet away, one of the witnesses yells for it to stop. The object stops, hovers briefly, and shoots away straight upward. One of the witnesses hears the same hum at about the same time two days later, and the same object appears, moving down the street. The object is only 3– 4 feet above the pavement and covers the width of the road. The witness approaches it, and it stops at the end of his driveway. He walks toward it and gets only 4–5 feet from it without feeling any heat. When his dog barks, he backs away. The object waits a moment, then slowly moves 20 feet down the street, quickly rises, and vanishes rapidly at a 45° angle. (Michael D. Swords, “Unusual Experiences from the Timmerman Files,” IUR 27, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 23–24) Between August 3– 6 — Night. A woman and her children are watching the stars in their backyard in San Antonio, Texas. Two “very perfect” cumulus clouds move into view low above them. A perfectly round sphere with a green glow

slowly emerges from the top of the cloud on the left. Soon they see lightning going back and forth from the two clouds but never toward the ground. One lightning bolt hits the sphere and red sparks fly out, whereupon the sphere slowly reenters the cloud. The clouds remain stationary for 35–40 minutes until the sphere disappears, then they float on. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Mystery Clouds and the UFO Connection,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 18) August 28 — 10:00 p.m. Journalists Titus Zăgrean and Ion Moise are driving near Budacu de Jos, Romania, when they see a big milky-white light in the sky approaching the road they are on. As it crosses the road, they see it is rotating and about 3 feet in diameter. Moving to the west, it veers sharply to the north, accelerates, changes color to yellow-orange then red, and departs at fantastic speed. (Romania 40)

September — Jenny Randles and David Rees found the Manchester Aerial Phenomena Investigation Team in the Greater Manchester area, England. It publishes the Skywatch newsletter through early 1982. (Skywatch, no. 1 (September 1973)) September 4 — William Colby is named director of central intelligence to succeed James R. Schlesinger, who leaves on July 2 to become Secretary of Defense. September 11 — Chilean President Salvador Allende is overthrown by the armed forces and national police in a coup d’état with the covert support of the CIA. (Wikipedia, “United States intervention in Chile”) September 17 — 9:00 p.m. Anne Taylor is walking to her farm in Romford, Essex, England, after walking her three dogs when she sees a green light near the cowshed. She continues watching the light, which starts moving toward her slowly. Her two terriers are whining and cringing. The light approaches to within a few feet of her, about 12 feet above the ground. It is completely silent. Her watch has stopped, and her spine begins to tingle. She hears a jet plane in the distance, and the light goes out. She hears an “electric whirring” and the green ball shoots straight up. Her dogs return to normal behavior, and her watch starts up again when she returns to the house. (UFOFiles2, p. 86 ) September 23 — 5:00 a.m. A truck driver is driving to work near Tyler, Texas, when a small “cub airplane” seems to fly directly in front of another car on the highway, nearly causing a wreck. The plane flies up over the side of the road and hovers above some trees. Then it changes into a cigar shape with lights. The driver gets out of his truck to watch. The cigar moves off then returns with a new, round shape. It lights up with many multicolored lights and moves above a nearby house. It makes a low, “loop-loop-loop” thumping sound. Then a large, bright, square light descends and swings from the other object. It approaches the truck, then swings back and forth. He tries to jump back in the truck but apparently passes out. He later notices he has some marks on his hip and shoulder. He does remember seeing the UFO change from a round shape into a triangle, and then move out of sight. (Michael D. Swords, “Unusual Experiences from the Timmerman Files,” IUR 27, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 24; Michael D. Swords, “Timmerman’s Triangles,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 17)

Autumn — Late night. 1st Lt. Walter F. Billings is a deputy crew commander at the Francis E. Warren AFB Golf launch control capsule missile site northwest of Sidney, Nebraska. Over UHF radio, he hears the crew at LCC India, southwest of Sunol, Nebraska, order its security guards to investigate an alarm at one of India’s 10 launch sites. The guards find that the inner security alarm has also been triggered, meaning that something has penetrated the security fence surrounding the site. They find a large, bright UFO hovering above the site. One minute later, the UFO moves off slowly for several thousand feet then zooms off at a high rate of speed. All crews on duty that night are told not to say anything to the public or media about anything they heard on UHF radio that night. (Nukes 338–339) October — J. Allen Hynek and Sherman J. Larsen establish what will become the Center for UFO Studies in Evanston, Illinois, with Larsen’s existing Public Education Group as a base. (Clark III 627; Sherman J. Larsen, “The Founding of CUFOS,” IUR 11, no. 3 (May/June 1986): 13– 14 ) October — Night. Sgt. Michael D. Jenkins of the 96th Security Police Squadron is stationed at Dyess AFB southwest of Abilene, Texas, when a major alert goes off at the base after a large ball of light is reported hovering 100–150 feet above igloo bunkers housing nuclear weapons. Twelve police with M-16s are sent to the Weapons Storage Area, and an incoming C-130 is asked to do a fly-by of the area to get a look at the object. Three K-9 teams that normally patrol the perimeter report that their dogs are afraid and acting up. An order to fire on the object comes from Strategic Air Command Headquarters Offutt AFB near Bellevue, Nebraska. Jenkins hears gunfire and sees a bluish-white streak as the object speeds off. As it leaves, it drops a trail of “angel hair” all the way from the weapons area to the southwest perimeter of the base. The angel hair hangs around on the area ropes and buildings for three days. On the third day it rains and the material dissolves, completely disappearing. (Robert L. Hastings, “UFO Fired Upon As It Hovered over Nuclear Bomb Storage Facility, Says Former USAF Security Policeman,” UFOs & Nukes, December 1, 2017)

October 6 — 12:45 a.m. A couple strolling along a country road near St.-Mathias-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, see a bright light like a projector emanating from a nearby field. Later, at 11:30 a.m., the woman is hanging clothes on a line in her backyard when she notices a column of smoke rising from fields in the north. She calls over two workmen doing repairs at her home, and they see a yellowish object like a tent near the smoke. Soon a square, yellow object resembling a bulldozer emerges from the tent and travels about 180 feet to a small spring. Between the two objects, moving around in the field, are five “little people” about 4 feet tall performing various actions. Assuming them to be boy scouts, the witnesses notice they are wearing some kind of helmets and clothing that is the same color as the tent. The witnesses return to their work and 20 minutes later someone notices that the objects and figures have disappeared. The couple’s daughter returns in half an hour and goes to check the location. She finds a large, circular patch of burned and crushed grass about 45 feet in diameter, as well as two tracklike marks, each about 6 inches wide. Returning, the daughter feels ill with headache and nausea. A month later, UFO investigators arrive and find additional marks in the shape of a triangle. (Wido Hoville, “Un atterrissage á Saint-Mathias de Chambly,” UFO-Quebec, no. 1 (1975): 6–9; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 106– 107 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, November 7, 2007) October 8 — Evening. A police officer near Laurel, Mississippi, chases a yellow object shaped like a top and making “exhaust-like” noises for several miles. As he approaches within 200 feet, his car stalls and the radio and headlights die. When the object moves away, the lights and radio come back, but the engine will not start for several minutes. (Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 58) October 10 — 7:00 p.m. A family in Niantic, Connecticut, watches two greenish discs and a white sphere maneuvering over a nearby lake. Odd clouds seem to be accompanying the two discs. One disc and its cloud disappear, while the other disc flies in and out of its cloud as if playing “peekaboo.” (Herbert S. Taylor, “Mystery Clouds and the UFO Connection,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 18) October 11 — Around 7:00 p.m. Two men, 19-year-old Calvin Parker and 42-year old Charles E. Hickson Sr., both of Gautier, Mississippi, are fishing in the Pascagoula River when they hear a buzzing noise behind them. Both turn and are terrified to see a 10-foot-wide, 8-foot-high, glowing egg-shaped object with blue lights at its front hovering just above the ground about 40 feet from the riverbank. As the men, frozen with fright, watch, a door appears in the object and three strange beings float just above the river towards them. The two become numb and paralyzed as the entities carry them into the UFO. Some kind of “eye” device scans them before they are released 20 minutes later. They first contact Keesler AFB in Biloxi, but no one is interested; then they drive to the offices of the Mississippi Press Register a few blocks away, but it is closed. So they call the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office to report their encounter, and they arrive there at 10:30 p.m. At one point during 2 hours of intense grilling by Sheriff Fred R. Diamond, they are left alone in an interrogation room where they are unknowingly tape recorded while they continue to speak to each other about the abduction, emotionally distressed. (Wikipedia, “Pascagoula Abduction”; NICAO, “The Hickson/Parker Incident”; “The Pascagoula Affair,” APRO Bulletin 22, no. 2 (Sept./Oct. 1973): 1, 3–4; Clark III 893– 898 ; Charles Hickson and William Mendez, UFO Contact at Pascagoula, Wendelle C. Stevens, 1983; Calvin Parker, Pascagoula: The Closest Encounter: My Story, Flying Disk, 2018 ; Calvin Parker, Pascagoula: The Story Continues: New Evidence and New Witnesses, Flying Disk, 2019 ) October 11 — 7:40 p.m. Parole Officer Raymond Broadus, Pascagoula City Councilor Emmanuel P. Sigalas, and an unidentified woman are driving on US Highway 90 west of Gautier, Mississippi, when they see a large, swiftly moving object that descends and hovers a few hundred yards above the ground and meanders toward the Pascagoula River. (Clark III 895) October 11 — 9:00 p.m. Larry Booth of Pascagoula, Mississippi, finishes watching TV and checks the front door. He sees a huge round object hovering 5–8 feet above a nearby streetlight. It has red lights that are moving in a clockwise motion around it. It slowly moves away. (Clark III 895 ) October 12 — 4:00 a.m. A commercial pilot is flying a Piper PA-32 Cherokee Six near Mount Baldy, Arizona, at an altitude of 2,500 feet. He notices a red flashing light on the ground in a remote area, and circles around for a closer look. As he does so, the light begins moving too and reaches a speed about the same as his plane, 170 mph. It is flashing regularly at 2-second intervals. The object is skimming over the ground, apparently following undulations in the landscape. He changes course again to intercept the light, which accelerates instantaneously to 800 mph, moving up and over Mount Baldy, following its contours. The pilot follows it for a few minutes, about 50 – 60 miles. After about 5 minutes the light makes a right-angle turn and accelerates vertically. After 8– 10 flashes, it disappears into the upper atmosphere. (Mark Rodeghier, “Out of the Past: An Incredible Light,” IUR 9, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1984): 7–8) October 16 — At a press conference in Illinois, USAF Chief of Staff Gen. George Scratchley Brown states that sightings of what were presumed to be enemy helicopters during the Vietnam War took place, always at night, and

prompted shooting by US ground forces. A Combat Air Activities file of 16 such incidents between 1967 and 1969, especially around Pleiku in February 1969, documents some of this activity. (Barry Greenwood, “Air Force Vietnam Era UFO Reports Surface,” UFO Historical Revue, no. 14 (May 2015): 3–10) October 16 — 7:30 p.m. Upon arriving home at Albany, Ohio, Mary Geddis sees a “ghost-like” figure floating about 50 feet above the ground at 1,000 feet distance; it is about 4 feet tall and thin, “like a person draped in a close-fitting sheet.” It is seen only briefly when she notices a bright white object moving about, and approaches to within 200 feet before going away. The object is about 20 feet in diameter and about 25–30 feet off the ground. Later, as she is making supper, she sees a “little blue-green thing” about 2.5 feet tall and with a face with “spiky things at the tops and the sides of the head” looking in an open door; it has stumpy arms (she sees no legs) and quickly disappears from sight. UFO sightings occur around the same time in nearby Athens, Ohio. (George M. Eberhart, “The Little ‘Electric’ Man,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 5 (March 1975): 10–12) October 16 — 7:45 p.m. A 50 - foot-wide bluish object hovers 2–3 feet above US Highway 82, seemingly suspended on a beam of light, near Eupora, Mississippi, 300 feet from a car. The engine and headlights fail as the object lands. Another object hovers about 60 feet above the first, illuminating it. A “catfish-like” creature emerges with flippers for hands, a wide mouth, and feathers on its back. It holds onto a handrail on the craft and never goes down to the ground. It gets back in and the object rises into the air. The driver restarts the car. (Columbus (Miss.) Triangle Advertiser, October 24, 1973; David Webb, 1973: Year of the Humanoids, CUFOS, 1976, p. 14) October 16 — Night. William and Donna Hatchett are driving down a country road near Mannford, Oklahoma, when she sees a bright light coming from the south. They first think it is a security light on a pole, but then realize the object is pacing them and descending. When the Hatchetts stop the truck, the light also stops in front of them. As the object hovers, it gives off a blinding light and a penetrating low-pitched hum. They have a feeling that there are occupants who know everything they are thinking. Donna is so afraid that she twice leaves the truck cab and goes into the back. William manages to persuade her to return, and they set off, the object rising up in the opposite direction. (Kevin D. Randle, The UFO Casebook, Warner, 1989, pp. 143–144) October 16 — Midnight. Single mother Pat Roach is dozing on the couch with her 5-year-old son Kent in an isolated house on the outskirts of Lehi, Utah. Suddenly, Kent wakes up screaming that he has seen a “skeleton.” Roach has a vague memory an intruder and a bright light. Suspecting a prowler, she phones a neighbor, who calls the police at 12:10 a.m. A few minutes later, officers arrive, talk to Roach, find nothing amiss, and leave. Roach then checks on her other children. Two of them, Bonnie and Debbie, tell her they had seen a spaceman who had come into the house and taken them on a spaceship. Debbie remembers being told not to tell anyone, as well as seeing a line of people waiting to go on board. Disturbed, Roach takes her children and spends the rest of the night at a friend’s house. In 1975, Roach sees an article by Kevin Randle on UFO abductions and contacts him. Randle arranges for an interview and hypnosis sessions with APRO’s research director James A. Harder. An abduction tale slowly emerges that involves some elements that are little known in 1975, among them the aliens’ clinical coldness, their curiosity about human emotion, their interest in gynecology, and human participants in the physical examination. However, Randle now believes that Roach underwent sleep paralysis, was influenced by some abduction accounts over the years, and was led into the narrative by Harder’s leading questions during hypnosis. (Clark III 1011– 1012 ; Story, pp. 309 – 310 ; Lorenzen, Abducted! Confrontations with Beings from Outer Space, Berkley, 1977, pp. 9 – 24 ; Kevin D. Randle, “Alien Abduction and Leading the Witness,” A Different Perspective, March 28, 2005) October 17 — Ohio Gov. John J. Gilligan and his wife Mary are driving near Ann Arbor, Michigan, when they see an amber-colored vertical beam of light. When asked to confirm the sighting, he tells reporters: “I saw this. It wasn’t a bird or a plane.” (“Gilligan Spots Strange Object,” Hamilton (Ohio) Journal News, October 17, 1973, p. 1) October 1 7 — Paul Brown is driving on US Highway 29 near Danielsville, Georgia, when his car radio suddenly goes wild with strange sounds. He sees a silver, oval-shaped object about 300 feet ahead on the road. He stops and sees two beings with red faces and white hair. Brown grabs a pistol and steps halfway out of his car, but the beings return to the object, which takes off with a whooshing sound. (Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald, October 18, 1973; “First Flap in Six Years Resurrects UFOs As National Controversy,” UFO Investigator, November 1973, p. 4) October 17 — After 10:00 p.m. Falkville, Alabama, Police Chief Jeffrey Greenhaw responds to a phone call about a UFO on the outskirts of town. On a gravel road, he sees a 5-and-a-half-foot-tall, silver-suited figure in his headlights. He stops, gets out, and talks to the figure, all the while taking Polaroid photos of it. It steps towards him and Greenhaw turns on the red rotating police car light. The figure runs away and although Greenhaw pursues it in his car, it eludes him. The photos quickly become a national news story. NICAP investigator Marion Webb and others strongly suspect this is a hoax. (NICAP, “Falkville, Alabama, Entity / Jeff Greenhaw Case, Oct. 17, 1973”; “Police Chief’s Nightmare: Real or Contrived?” UFO Investigator, October 1974, pp. 1–2; “Police Chief Hoaxes UFO,” UFO Investigator, January 1977, p. 4; Clark III 482; Good Above, pp. 301 – 302 ;)

October 18 — 3:30 p.m. A witness in Hamilton, Illinois, sees a huge gray oval or oblong UFO. A second object appears that resembles the first but seems to be covered in “cobwebs” on its upper surface. About 15 minutes later, “cotton-like” material is found that when handled becomes a “small ball which melted as it was touched.” The next morning, a collected sample has totally sublimated. (Brian Boldman, “An Analysis of Angel Hair, 1947– 2000,” IUR 26, no. 3 (Fall 2001): 19) October 18 — 11 : 0 0 p.m. Army Reserve Capt. Lawrence J. Coyne (with his crew 1st Lt. Arrigo Jezzi, Sgt. John Healey, and Spec5 Robert Yanacsek) is flying an Army Reserve UH-1 Huey helicopter at 1,200 feet from Columbus to Cleveland, Ohio. Healey notices a steady, southbound red light. It looks like the port-wing light of an aircraft but seems brighter and carries none of the other FAA-required lights. He watches it disappear behind the helicopter and doesn’t tell the others. A couple minutes later, Yanacsek sees a bright red light on the eastern horizon and watches it for 90 seconds, realizing it is pacing the helicopter. He mentions it to Coyne, who tells Healey to watch it. Soon the light turns and comes towards the helicopter. Coyne takes the controls from Jezzi and puts the helicopter into a descent. He calls Mansfield (Ohio) Approach Control but fails to get a response. The red light is now closing on them at a dangerous rate of speed, possibly 684 mph. Coyne pushes the stick down, forcing the helicopter to descend quickly. When he gets to an altitude of 650 feet above the treetops, Coyne looks up and sees the object covering the entire front windshield. The red light is on its nose and a white light is on the tail of this cigar-shaped, metallic structure. Under the tail, a green beam sweeps a 90° arc and shines through the windshield. It hovers above them for 10–12 seconds before accelerating and heading northwest. The bright white light just snaps out. Coyne looks at the altimeter and realizes they have been ascending and are now at 3,500 feet, but the stick is still down. He pulls the stick up and the helicopter levels out at 3,800 feet. Reviewing his instruments, Coyne notices that the magnetic compass is rotating slowly, while the Radio Magnetic Indicator is functioning normally. They make radio contact with Akron and fly on to Cleveland without further incident. Other witnesses on the ground have seen the incident. (NICAP, “Coyne Helicopter, E-M / Magnetic Compass Encounter”; Jennie Zeidman, “UFO–Helicopter Close Encounter over Ohio,” Flying Saucer Review 2 2, no, 4 (November 1976): 15– 19; Jennie Zeidman, “More on the Coyne Helicopter Case,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 4 (January 1978): 16– 18; Jennie Zeidman, A Helicopter-UFO Encounter over Ohio, CUFOS, 1979 ; Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 82–85; Jennie Zeidman, “Green Light over Mansfield,” IUR 13 , no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 198 8 ): 13–14; Jennie Zeidman, “The Coyne Case: Correction and Update,” IUR 14, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1989): 17–18; Michael D. Swords, GrassRoots UFOs: Case Reports from the Timmerman Files, Fund for UFO Research, 2005, p. 145; Patrick Gross, “The Coyne Incident, Mansfield, Ohio, USA, 1973”; Kevin D. Randle, “The Coyne Helicopter UFO Case,” A Different Perspective, August 5, 2014; Kevin D. Randle, “The Coyne Helicopter Encounter–Explained?” A Different Perspective, May 1, 2018; Good Above, pp. 302 – 303 ; Clark III 309– 312 ; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 159– 161 ) October 18 — 11:30 p.m. A group of people in Wooster, Ohio, notices a bright, pulsing, triangular object with three colored lights at each apex, pulsating at different rates. When the object moves, the red light becomes brighter. It moves right, left, up, and down for 25 minutes. The UFO then dips down and shoots straight up into the sky. (Michael D. Swords, “Timmerman’s Triangles,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 15) October 20 — 1:00 a.m. Two women driving in a Volkswagen near Fort Smith, Arkansas, see a glowing object approach them from the south. It descends within 6 feet of their car, at which point the headlights, radio, and engine all fail. The object is about 8 feet in diameter, shaped like a disc, and emits a “computer-like” sound. After about 5 minutes, it moves away quickly. (Fort Smith (Ark.) Southwest Times Record, October 21, 1973; Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 59) October 20 — 2:00 a.m. Sam Richerson and his wife awaken in their home in Campbellsville, Kentucky, when a barking dog disturbs his young son from a deep sleep. When his wife attends to him, she notices a glowing object across the street. They stand and watch the object for 15 minutes. It is a triangular-shaped object the size of two cars hovering at treetop height 300 feet away. (Campbellsville (Ky.) News-Journal, October 25, 1973; Marler 89–90) October 20 — 6:50 a.m. A conductor on a Louisville & Nashville Railroad train moving northeast out of Mount Vernon, Indiana, sees a bright white light coming out of the north and heading east. When they reach Caborn, Indiana, he notifies the rear conductors, who can now see a bright light (possibly another train) behind them. The train’s automatic blocking system is showing a red light, indicating there is a train to the rear. When the train reaches Belknap, the engine stops because a rear diesel unit has apparently overheated. The yardmaster in Evansville informs them that there never was any train behind them. The conductor hits a reset button and the train starts with no trouble. The light in the rear seems to be moving away, and the blocking system turns to an amber signal. (NICAP, “UFO Disables Train”; Randle, Levelland, 2021, pp. 161–162)

October 20 — A UFO passes over Round Valley Reservoir, Clinton Township, New Jersey. Three people who are driving by and watching the object experience car failure. (Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 59) October 20 — 8:00 p.m. A witness sees a triangular-shaped object with bright white lights hovering above Milton Road in Alton, Illinois. A second triangle is above the first. (“Latest UFO over Milton (Road),” Alton (Ill.) Telegraph, October 22, 1973; Marler 90, 209) October 21 — 2:30 a.m. Reafa Heitfeld wakes up in her trailer on the west side of Cincinnati, Ohio, and notices a bright light shining outside. The source is a row of six lights forming an arc outside her window, as well as another bright light over the parking lot. Outside the second light she can see a gray “apelike creature” that seems to be fixing something. In the process of calling the police, she hears a loud, deep, booming sound, and the object and creature are gone. Investigator Leonard Stringfield finds that a fire alarm had gone off at the same time in a nearby warehouse only 150 feet away, although firemen can locate nothing that set it off. (Clark III 554) October 22 — June Margolin sees a shiny globe dropping web-like substance in large amounts over Sudbury, Massachusetts. It drapes over trees and telephone lines. She collects a sample and puts it in the refrigerator, but the substance still dissipates into strong white threads. The University of Massachusetts field station examines a sample. It is not spider web, but there is not enough of it for a chemical analysis. X-ray fluorescence and diffraction analysis indicates sodium, aluminum, silicon, sulfur, chorine, potassium, calcium, iron, nickel. The substance is 95% organic. Two other analyses indicate slightly different composition. (“UFO ‘Angel’s Hair’ Still Remains a Mystery,” UFO Investigator, March 1974, pp. 1, 3; Brian Boldman, “Angel Hair Physical Analyses: A Review,” JUFOS 9 (2006): 105– 106 ; Brian Boldman, “An Analysis of Angel Hair, 1947–2000,” IUR 26, no. 3 (Fall 2001): cover) October 22 — 6:50 p.m. A man is farming in Upton, Indiana, when he notices an object that looks like it is going to land. He and his daughter walk toward the other side of the field to investigate. They can see an object with red, white, and green lights near the railroad tracks. As a train passes through, the object dims and hovers near it for one minute, then takes off to the southeast. An object is seen flying above a train at Maunie, Illinois, the same evening. (NICAP, “The 1973 UFO Chronology”) October 22 — 9:45 p.m.–after midnight. Dewayne and Debbie Donathan are driving toward their home 9 miles east of Hartford City, Indiana, when they see two strange-looking figures 30 feet ahead of them on the road. Four feet tall, they are dressed in tight-fitting silver suits and wear boxlike shoes. They move in a clumsy fashion, their arms flopping oddly along their sides. Debbie accelerates and drives past the figures. The witnesses alert the sheriff’s office, and two officers and a civilian friend, Gary Flatter, investigate. They see no figures but hear an odd, high-frequency sound. Around midnight, Flatter hears the sound again south of the original encounter and notes wild animals leaving the area. His headlights pick up two 4-foot figures 20 feet off the side of the road. He can see a hose going from their egg-shaped helmets down to their chests. Three times they rise 3 feet into the air then float down. The fourth time, they fly away, still standing erectly. (“Occupants in Indiana,” APRO Bulletin 22, no. 2 (Sept./Oct. 1973): 1, 3; Clark III 278) October 23 — Bonnie Collier observes two metallic cigar-shaped objects over Midway, Texas. She photographs one of them. About 20 minutes later, she notices monarch butterflies are getting entangled in “sheets of a web-like substance” falling to earth. She retrieves a grapefruit-sized sample from a mesquite tree and stores it in a box. Some 20 years later, the sample is analyzed by two engineering students at the University of Texas at Austin. A neutron activation survey indicates high concentrations of sodium, potassium, zinc, and lanthanum. Other tests indicate the sample is spider silk produced by a cribellate orb weaver spider. (Brian Boldman, “An Analysis of Angel Hair, 1947–2000,” IUR 26, no. 3 (Fall 2001): 14; Brian Boldman, “Angel Hair Physical Analyses: A Review,” JUFOS 9 (2006): 106) October 24 — 9:00 p.m. David Simpson’s car engine stops and the headlights go out when an oval object, 12 feet wide by 8 feet high, lands close by near Dobson, North Carolina. He sees a humanoid with balls of fire for eyes looking into the car. After the creature leaves, the car engine and lights come back on without his having to start the ignition. (David Webb, 1973: Year of the Humanoids, CUFOS, 1976, p. 17) October 25 — FBI Director Clarencc M. Kelley explains in a letter to a resident of La Habra, California, that the investigation of UFOs “is not and never has been a matter that is within the investigative jurisdiction of the FBI.” (Good Above, pp. 253 , 475 ) October 25 — 7:15 p.m. Lt. Commander Moyer is traveling south from Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt, a restricted US National Security Agency station along Murat Road on North West Cape, north of Exmouth, Western Australia, when he sees a large, black object in the sky 5 miles to his west at an altitude of 2,000 feet. After about 20–25 seconds, the object accelerates at speed to the north. It is first seen at about 20° elevation, to the west. Moore estimates its angular size as half a degree. It is initially stationary and there is no associated noise

at any point, no trail or exhaust. It is last seen at 45°– 50 ° elevation. At about 7:20 p.m., William Gordon Lynn, an Australian civilian and US Navy employee fire captain, notices a large, stationary, black object in the clear sky. It has a halo around the center, which appears to be either revolving or pulsating. He watches it for an estimated four minutes, after which it takes off speedily in a northerly direction and disappears after a few seconds. He thinks it is about 30 feet in diameter and hovering at 1,000 feet over the hills west of the base. On this same date, the base is communicating a DEFCON III alert to conventional and nuclear forces in the region during the Yom Kippur War (an NSA misreading of a Syrian message to the USSR had indicated a Soviet build-up). (NICAP, “Black Sphere Observed / DEFCON-3 Reached”; Bill Chalker, “The North West Cape Incident: UFOs and Nuclear Alert in Australia,” IUR 11, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1986): 10– 11 ; Bill Chalker, “The UFO Connection: Startling Implications for Australia’s North West Cape, and for Australia’s Security,” Flying Saucer Review 31, no. 5 (July 1986): 16– 18; Good Above, pp. 174 – 175 ; Bill Chalker, “UFOs Sub Rosa Down Under, Part 4,” 1996; Swords 403–405) October 25 — 9:00 p.m. A 22-year-old man and two 10-year-old boys allegedly see a bright-white, dome-shaped UFO about 100 feet in diameter land in a field near Uniontown, Pennsylvania. “Screaming sounds” emanate from somewhere nearby. The UFO makes a lawnmower-like sound. Suddenly they see two large apelike creatures with glowing green eyes walking along a fence, one in front of the other. The older witness fires a tracer slug with his rifle over the creatures’ heads, but they continue moving forward, seemingly communicating by making whining sounds. The tall and closer of the two, about 8 feet tall, is running its left hand along the fence, while the smaller one is struggling to keep up. The older witness fires three bullets into the larger creature’s chest. It whines and reaches toward the smaller creature. The UFO vanishes and the lawnmower sound ceases. The area where the UFO had been is now glowing brilliant white. The hairy creatures head toward the woods. A policeman arrives at 9:45 p.m. and finds the landing spot still glowing slightly. They hear something moving in the woods nearby and smell a sulfur-like odor. The officer and the witness panic and jump into the police car and drive about 150 feet. Stan Gordon shows up at 1:30 a.m. with four members of his Westmoreland County UFO Study Group. In the company of the witness and his father, they walk around the field until the witness undergoes a violent emotional attack, during which he growls like an animal and throws his father and an investigator to the ground. During his attack, he has an apocalyptic vision in which he receives a dire warning from a man in a black hat and cloak. The older witness undergoes hypnosis with psychologist Berthold Eric Schwarz, who says he has visions about the impending end of the world and after the event he “felt like an animal.” (Berthold Eric Schwarz, “Berserk: A UFO-Creature Encounter,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 1 (July 1974): 3–11; Clark III 556) October 28 — 1:15 a.m. Truck driver Dionisio Llanca is changing a tire along Highway 3 some 11 miles from Bahía Blanca, Argentina, when a UFO lands and three humanlike beings, two men and a woman, approach him. Nearly paralyzed by the light from the UFO, Llanca lets one of the beings take a blood sample and later remembers going on board the craft, whose occupants warn him that humans are headed towards disaster. He loses consciousness and wakes up in a railyard 5.5 miles away, then finds himself in a hospital. However, Argentine UFO investigators find major discrepancies and consider Llanca’s story an invention devised to make some money. (“Occupant Encounter in Argentina,” APRO Bulletin 22, no. 3 (Nov./Dec. 1973): 7–8; “Possible Hoax,” APRO Bulletin 22, no. 4 (Jan./Feb. 1974): 11; Gordon Creighton and Charles Bowen, “The Extraordinary Case of Dionisio Llanca and the Ufonauts,” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 4 (November 1980): 2–10; Guillermo Roncoroni, “Dionisio Llanca: El Informe Solari,” UFO Press, no. 19 (Jan./March 1984): 32–35; “The Case of Dionisio Llanca in Argentina,” Flying Saucer Review 30, no. 2 (December 1984): 25–26; “The Abduction of Dionisio Llanca,” Above Top Secret forum, February 4, 2016; Clark III 601– 602 ) October 2 8 — 11 :30 p.m. Karl Fichtinger watches an odd orange-yellow light to the south of Bad Traunstein, Austria, that projects two beams of light that creep slowly upward like a pair of snail feelers. After moving up a short distance, they begin curving outward. After 7–10 seconds when they reach a certain height they stop moving, the two tips turn green for 2–3 seconds, a green mist falls down sideways, and the beams disappear. After 2–5 seconds the process repeats again and again. Around 12:30 a.m. he wakes his friend Johann Pritz in another house and they continue to watch the display for several hours. At 2:00 a.m. the light emits a red “missile” that moves east, stops, turns yellow-orange, and produces a similar pattern of signals. Then they notice a third object in the west that looks more like a dark domed disc, and it is also sending thin feelers up light upward. Three more smaller lights join the one in the east. At 3:30 a.m., the missile in the east stops and takes off to the south but the others remain. The witnesses go home at 4:30, and all the objects are gone by 6:00 a.m. They estimate that the first object has given off 1,200 signals, the domed disc some 550, and the missile a minimum of 360. (Ernst Berger, “Luminous ‘Snails’ near Traunstein, Austria,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 2 (October 1974): 12 – 18 )

November — 1:00 a.m. A witness in Sauk Village, Illinois, is sitting in her dark living room when a light outside causes it to get brighter. She sees a lighted domed disc hovering in the front yard. A central section is filled with alternating

blue and gold rectangular lights. It appears to be revolving, except for the dome, which is stationary. Her husband joins her and they continue watching it for 10 minutes. It quickly takes off straight up in 10 seconds. (“Illinois,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 6, no. 2 (April/May 1985): 5, 7) November 2 — 2:45 a.m. Lyndia Morel, a masseuse in Manchester, New Hampshire, leaves work and begins driving on State Highway 114 to her home in nearby Goffstown. On the outskirts of Manchester, she sees an odd light in the sky that is flashing different colors. The light vanishes when she reaches Goffstown, but it reappears twice more, seemingly brighter and closer. She sees that it is an orange-and-gold globe covered with hexagons like a honeycomb, with an oval window on the upper left. The red, green, and blue flashes come from somewhere near the center of the object, and she hears a high-pitched sound. Suddenly she is unable to remove her hands from the steering wheel. She feels that the object is taking control of her and the car and pulling them in. Her car speeds up against her will as she passes Westlawn Cemetery. The object is now only a few hundred feet away, and through a window she sees a smallish humanoid figure standing behind a console. The figure has a round, grayish head, a wrinkled face, a downturned slit of a mouth, and two large eyes with dark pupils. She feels that he is sending her a telepathic message to be unafraid. Somehow, she slows the car and turns into the driveway of a house just past the cemetery. She jumps out and runs to the kitchen door of the house, ignoring a German shepherd dog that growls and barks at her. She pounds on the door and rings the bell and yells for help as the UFO moves to a position across the street, hovering and watching her, still emitting a high-pitched sound. The residents, Mr. and Mrs. Beaudoin, come to the door and find a terrified woman who is covering her ears and claiming that a UFO is after her. The Beaudoins cannot see or hear anything, but Mrs. Beaudoin calls the police. Investigator Walter N. Webb finds that the position of the UFO corresponds too closely to the planet Mars, at least in the later stage of the sighting, to rule that explanation out entirely. (“Occupant Encounter in New Hampshire,” APRO Bulletin 22, no. 4 (Jan./Feb. 1974): 5–7; “The 1973 UFO Encounter of Lyndia Morel,” UFO Casebook) November 2 — Night. Police officers looking into reports of a “strange animal” seen in the area of Midland, Pennsylvania, spot a large, disc-shaped object in the sky overhead. At least 100 other people also see the object. (Clark III 556) November 3 — Day. At the bottom of a gully in an isolated section of the woods near Midland, Pennsylvania, two hunters find a 42-foot ring impressed in the grass. Investigator Stan Gordon finds a trail of three-toed footprints— 11 inches long and 5 inches wide—some 250 yards from the ring. (Clark III 556) November 6 — 9:00 p.m. Off-duty patrolmen Gary Steinberg and Thomas Brown are sitting in an unmarked patrol car in Freeport, New York, facing east. They see a bright light in the sky that is not the helicopter they think it is at first. They watch it for 5 – 10 minutes before it moves away to the southeast. Steinberg tries to get closer in the patrol car, while Brown stays behind and directs him by radio. He gets to within 300–400 feet of it, as it is 700–800 feet in altitude. It now appears football-shaped and 100 feet long. He watches it for 10–15 minutes as it glows silvery blue with an occasional yellow-red pulsating tint. The object then moves off to the southwest, stopping occasionally. A smaller object comes up on his right and drifts up to the larger object and merges with it. The larger object dims in sections (about 16), one after the other, and it takes off to the southwest and disappears in a couple seconds. (Dick Ruhl, “Merging UFOs over Long Island,” APRO Bulletin 22, no. 4 (Jan./Feb. 1974): 1, 3– 4 ; Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects: A Further Look,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 5– 6 ) November 6 — 9:45 p.m. A USAF security policeman at the eastern portion of Kirtland AFB near Albuquerque, New Mexico, sees a large, glowing object hovering 100 feet above the Manzano Nuclear Weapons Storage Facility. It is an oblate spheroid, 150 feet in diameter, gold in color, and absolutely silent. Nine other air policemen are alerted, and four F-101 Voodoo Air National Guard interceptors are scrambled from Kirtland. The UFO begins moving east and passes out of sight at treetop level in the Manzano Mountains. (R. C. Hecker, “New Mexico Reports,” APRO Bulletin 23, no. 2 (Sept./Oct. 1974): 5; Good Need, p. 321 ) Mid-November — Evening. Two sentries at a lookout post on the perimeter of Istrana Air Base, Veneto province, Italy, see two beings, about 4 feet 11 inches tall, dressed in white. Further away they see an unconventional craft. The beings run to the UFO and speed away. Marks are found at the landing site. (“Italy: Top Secret,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 5 (March 1975): iii; Good Above, pp. 143 – 144 ) November 16 — 7:00 p.m. Two 11-year old boys are outside in Lemon Grove, California, intending to play in a vacant lot or field in the neighborhood. When they arrive, there is a dark object hovering about 18 inches above the field. It seems inactive. One of the boys cautiously approaches and raps it with his flashlight, making a sound like metal on metal. Instantly, the object’s dome lights up in a brilliant red light that illuminates the entire area. It rises three or four more feet off the ground, and a row of green lights light up around its perimeter, flashing in sequence. The thing begins rotating and making a “woooo woooo woooo” sound. The object is easily visible now and appears as a domed disc. The dome is large and tall (about equal to half or more of the disc height) and glowing bright red, then flashing intermittent red. The boys are now frightened and start to run away as the object takes off toward the

southwest. At the site are found three marks forming an equilateral triangle within an area of grass swirled in a counterclockwise pattern. A magnetometer at La Posta Astro-Geophysical Observatory in Campo, California, allegedly registers a perturbation at 7:20 p.m. (NICAP, “Object Hovers 18ʺ off Ground / Magnetometer Perturbation”; “Boys Encounter Landed Object,” APRO Bulletin 22, no. 4 (Jan./Feb. 1974): 7–8) November 17 — 6:00 p.m. Johann Pritz notices an oblong object emitting lights upward (similar to those he had seen on October 29) as he is driving near Ulltichschlag, Austria. He drives home to Bad Traunstein and continues watching the display to the south. He gathers several other witnesses in town, and they continue watching until the object fades out after 7:00 p.m. (Ernst Berger, “Luminous ‘Snails’ near Traunstein, Austria,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 2 (October 1974): 16–18) November 18 — About 6:00 p.m. Four women are driving south from Tracy, Quebec, to Contrecoeur when they see a “watermelon-sized” ball of yellowish light suddenly appear above a pylon a quarter of a mile ahead of them. As they pass, it starts moving westward over the St. Lawrence River. The object seems to change shape as it flies, becoming alternately larger and smaller, dimming and growing in intensity. The light follows them as they weave in and out through wooded areas. Eventually the object is lost to sight as the women drive into Montreal. At one point they encounter a large volume of traffic that seems to be slowed by an odd pink cloud lying across the highway. They also see a small human figure standing in the middle of the road. (Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 107–108) November 2 2 — 2:00 a.m. A woman living in an isolated area near Joliette, Quebec, notices a white object outside her kitchen window. She moves closer to the window and sees a 4-foot-tall being with huge glowing eyes. Around its head or helmet there is a halo; its shoulders slope at a 45° angle from the head. After 15 seconds, the figure withdraws. She alerts her husband, who goes outside to investigate but only finds the dog “scared to death.” The following night the cat is spooked. (Claude Macduff, “The November 1973 UFO-Invasion of Quebec,” The UFO Register 7, no. 1/2 (1976): 12–15; Clark III 496 ; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 108– 109 ) November 28 — A Gallup poll shows that 51% of Americans believe UFOs are “real,” as opposed to 27% who think they are “imaginary.” And 11% claim to have seen a UFO, extrapolating into 15 million Americans. (“51% in Gallup Poll Believe in U.F.O.’s: 11% Note Sightings,” New York Times, November 29, 1973, p. 45; Robert J. Durant, “Evolution of Public Opinion on UFOs,” IUR 18, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1993): 12) November 30 — 7:00 p.m. Pilot Riccardo Marano is about to land at Caselle Airport, Turin, Italy, in a Piper Navajo, when the controller notifies him that there is a UFO about 1,320 feet above the runway. He sees a luminous, multicolored ball of light changing from violet to blue to dark red. “When I got closer and had a better view, the object at once made off, flying in a most irregular fashion, maneuvering in a way I have seen no plane do, making fantastic lateral deviations, and sudden vast jumps to and fro, as if it enjoyed playing hide-and-seek. Its speed was as high as” 540 mph, Marano says. Col. Rustichelli, commandant of the Caselle military airfield, sees the UFO on his own radar screen. “It was something solid, lit up, like a plane on my radar.” Commander Tranquillo, pilot of an Alitalia Air Line DC-9 en route from Turin to Rome, calls to the control tower: “I see a shining thing giving out intermittent flashes of light, four miles from me. I dare not approach. I give way.” Commander Mezzalami in another Alitalia DC- 9 reports: “I was able to observe the object … notified by the control tower just as I was about to touch down. I had a good view of it… I can offer no theories as to its significance and can only say that it was something very strange indeed.” (NICAP, “UFO Darts To and Fro, Observed from 3 Aircraft and Gnd Radar”; Story, p. 373 ; F. Lagarde, “Italie: Turin 30 Novembre et Suza 24 Novembre 1973,” Lumières dans la Nuit, no. 133 (March 1974): 5–6; Gordon Creighton, “The Italian Scene Once More,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 2 (October 1974): 27; 1Pinotti 185– 186 )

December — Kansas is quietly undergoing an epidemic of strange cattle deaths. The incidents first receive wide publicity in the December 22 Kansas City Times, which takes note of the fact that most of the deaths are Black Angus. They have died within a few miles of US 81 in a dozen counties in north-central Kansas. Many show knife marks on the carcasses, including the apparent butchering of sex organs. The lack of blood and footprints is also puzzling. Sheriffs from the affected counties meet and decide that cultists are responsible. But according to the Kansas State University Veterinarian Laboratory in Manhattan, the animals have died of bloat and coyotes have eaten the soft parts. Many ranchers reject the explanation. Mystery helicopters are also linked to the mutilations. (Clark III 1 33; “Cattle Mutilations Baffle Kansas Farmers, Officials,” Kansas City (Mo.) Times, December 22, 1973, pp. 1–2, 16; Jerome Clark, “Strange Case of the Cattle Killings,” Fate 27, no. 8 (August 1974): 79 – 90; Roberta Donovan and Keith Wolverton, Mystery Stalks the Prairie, THAR Institute, 1976 )

December — Donald E. Keyhoe publishes Aliens from Space, in which he continues to ignore occupant cases but finally admits that the CIA, not the Air Force, is the primary perpetrator of the UFO cover-up. (Donald E. Keyhoe, Aliens from Space: The Real Story of Unidentified Flying Objects, Doubleday, 1973; Clark III 649 – 650 ) December — The Société Varoise d’Étude des Phénomènes Spatiaux in Toulon, France, begins publishing the journal Approche in conjunction with the Société Vauclusienne d’Étude des Phénomènes Spatiaux in Vedene, France. (Approche, no. 1 (December 1973)) December 3 — James Yorke and his family watch a triangular UFO with colored lights on the bottom for 15 minutes two miles north of Parrsboro, Nova Scotia. It is over Minas Basin and crossing the water very slowly. (Don Ledger, “The Flying Triangle Phenomenon,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 7) December 6 — 6:45 p.m. Witnesses at Fabrègues, Hérault, France, see a landed domed disc on legs with a brightly lit “blister” on top, flashing red and white lights around the rim and making a humming sound. A door opens and a ladder unfolds, causing the witnesses to flee. The craft changes to an orange glow and chases them. Later, four imprints in a 51-inch square are found, along with ladder marks. The area appears “swept” as if by a blast. (Yves Herbo, “Décembre 1973: Atterrissages avec traces à Fabrègues,” Sciences Faits et Histoires, November 21, 2014) December 8 — While harvesting, farmer Kevin O’Connell finds seven sections of his oat crop flattened into circles 3 miles west of Bordertown, South Australia. They are spread over 20 acres and the largest is 14 feet in diameter. The oats are flattened counterclockwise. (Terry Wilson, “1973: Bordertown,” Old Crop Circles) December 15 — A single crop circle is found in a wheat field at Wokuma, South Australia. The wheat has been flattened counterclockwise and there are two bare patches. (Terry Wilson, “1973: Wokuma,” Old Crop Circles) December 20 — 2:15 a.m. Michael Wagner and Robert B. Klinn of Pacific Palisades, California, see a yellow, glowing blob hovering in the south-southeast. Through a telescope, the blob is seen to be a precise arrangement of round, yellow-gold lights. It fades away after 75 minutes. (Ann Druffel, “Santa Catalina Island Recurring ‘Cloud- Cigars,’” Proceedings of the 1976 CUFOS Conference, Center for UFO Studies, 1976, pp. 67 – 68; Ann Druffel, “Santa Catalina Channel Cloud Cigars,” IUR 31, no. 1 (January 2007 ): 15 )

1974

1974 — The French government decides to systematically gather UFO reports from the gendarmerie and transmit them to the Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES). At the time, the gendarmerie has about 300 reports and is getting 100 new ones each year. A committee of the Institut des Hautes Études de Defense Nationale recommends the creation of a special UFO investigation agency. (Gildas Bourdais, “From GEPAN to SEPRA: Official UFO Studies in France,” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000–2001): 11; Gildas Bourdais, “The Death and Rebirth of Official French UFO Studies,” IUR 31 , no. 2 (June 2 007 ): 12) 1974 — Perry Petrakis founds the Association d’Étude sur les Soucoupes Volantes in Aix-en-Provence, France, and soon establishes branches in Vevey, Switzerland, and Kalmthout, Belgium. It begins publishing the AESV bulletin through June 1981. AESV continues under the name SOS-OVNI in 1990. (AESV, no. 6 (April 1978)) 1974 — Contact (UK) expands to Contact International, after establishing many overseas branches in Turkey, Colombia, and elsewhere. It has an international membership of 2,000. (Story, p. 89 ) 1974 — John Hind establishes the Irish UFO Research Centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It publishes the Irish UFO News from 1976 to 1980. (Irish UFO News 1 no. 2 (July 1976)) 1974 — UFO skeptic Philip J. Klass publishes UFOs Explained, taking on some difficult UFO cases but finding none worthy of attention. Ufologists take vigorous issue with his representation of cases and publish numerous refutations that are little noticed outside the UFO community. (Philip J. Klass, UFOs Explained, Random House, 1974; Clark III 659) 1974 — The UFO Subcommittee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics is disbanded. (Story, p. 8 ) 1974 — Bob Gribble, a Seattle, Washington, fireman, establishes the National UFO Reporting Center, with a hotline phone number that is shared with Federal Aviation Administration offices. (“Profile,” IUR 7, no. 2 (March 1982): 15 – 16 ) 1974 — John Rimmer has moved from Liverpool to London, England, in 1973, but John Harney moves there this year to work for the Kew Observatory. MUFOB continues in London, with Rimmer taking over the bulk of the editorial work. (“History of Magonia,” Magonia Archive) 1974 — 12:30 a.m. Two women are driving along Hamilton Road, Quakers Hill, New South Wales, when the car suddenly shakes violently and stops. The radio will not turn on. The driver gets out of the car to get her children out of the back seat when she looks up and sees a massive disc-shaped object at an altitude no greater than the nearby power pole. It is surrounded completely by lights and has a dome in the middle on the top. The object is

gun-metal gray and the size of half a football field. It silently moves over the dairy farm next to the road. Then it
stops and shoots up into the air. The car starts up with no problems afterward. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on
Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34, no. 1 (Sept. 2011): 20)

January — Don Berliner of the Fund for UFO Research does an exhaustive review of the then unreleased Project Blue Book files at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, which include many witness names that are later redacted for public release. (Sparks, p. 6) January — Since 1968, Marjorie E. Fish, a schoolteacher in Oak Harbor, Ohio, has been fascinated with the star map drawn by Betty Hill after her abduction. If she could figure out what stars are on the map, she might be able to determine where the UFO came from. With much difficulty and many failed attempts, Fish creates a 3D map that indicates the relevant stars are the two in the Zeta Reticuli binary system, 39.3 light years from earth. She first publishes her results in Pursuit. Later observations reveal some interpretations in Fish’s map to be inaccurate, and she rejects her hypothesis in 2011. (Wikipedia, “Betty and Barney Hill”; Marjorie E. Fish, “Validation of the Betty Hill Map,” Pursuit 7, no. 1 (January 1974): 4–8; Terence Dickinson, “The Zeta Reticuli Incident,” Astronomy 2, no. 12 (December 1974): 5 – 18; “Update on the Betty Hill Star Map,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 2 (Jan./Feb. 1981): 16, 29; Allan Hendry, “UFO Road Map: or, Lost in the Stars,” Fate 35, no. 2 (February 1982 ): 56 – 63; David J. Eicher, “The Zeta Reticuli (or Ridiculi) Incident,” January 31, 2001; Brett Holman, “Goodbye, Zeta Reticuli,” Fortean Times 242 (December 2008): 50–52; Colin Johnston, “The Truth about Betty Hill’s UFO Star Map,” Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, August 19, 2011; Clark III 586–487) Winter — 10:30 a.m. Harry Charlton and his wife have just driven east through Melrose, New Mexico, when they see two objects moving on their left at about 1,500 feet altitude. They have no wings, tail sections, or engine nodules. Both are dull gray, like galvanized sheet iron. The larger one is in front, with a slightly smaller one about 600 feet behind. Charlton thinks they are about a half-mile away, but he can hear no noise or see any smoke. When the objects are about abreast of the car, a sliding door opens on the larger one near the front end. A large, shiny sphere (like polished aluminum) about 15–20 feet in diameter emerges, moves toward the smaller object, and enters it after a door opens near the rear end. After they move out of sight in a few minutes, Charlton sees two F-111s take off in their direction from Cannon Air Force Base near Clovis. (Harry Charlton, [Letter], CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 5 (May 1981): 3. January 3 — 9:30 p.m. Two young student teachers are driving home near Leek, Staffordshire, England, when a green mass appears to follow them. The couple feels a presence. Despite being on a lonely road, they get out of the car to watch a dark mass low above their heads, with arcs of blue and green light encircling them. In terror, they head off over the moors, but moments later they run over a cattle grid, inexplicably finding themselves in Ilam 12 miles away. Seconds later there is another bump and they reach a developed area that turns out to be a town 20 miles to the north. They find a police station to report the incident and find that it is now 3:30 a.m. (Jenny Randles, “The Twelve UFOs of Christmas,” Fortean Times 374 (Christmas 2018): 29) January 7 — 8:40 p.m. A man’s car suddenly dies as he is driving near Warneton, Belgium. He sees a landed domed disc with a flat bottom like a WWI helmet, 23–33 feet in diameter and 7–10 feet wide. It has a flange around its base and three legs. White and orange alternating bands are on the glowing object. Two humanoid beings approach him. They have broad shoulders, heads shaped like inverted pears, long arms, large eyes, and no noses. One is about 4 feet tall, the other somewhat taller; a third being remains near the craft. They wear internally lit cube- shaped helmets with the face visible, gray jumpsuits, and gloves. The taller being comes within 12–15 feet of the vehicle, then opens and closes its mouth. The witness feels a shock to the back of his head and hears a low- pitched sound. The two humanoids quickly return to the craft, which now pulses with an electric blue color, and departs. (MM. Bazin, Bigorne, and Bodin, “Atterrissage à Warneton (Belgique): Contact avec les Ufonautes,” Lumières dans la Nuit, no. 139 (November 1974): 3 – 6; “The Robots at Warneton,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 5 (March 1975): 6–9; UFOEv II 493) January 8 — 3:00 a.m. John E. Justice leaves the Ohio Masonic Home in Springfield, Ohio, when his headlights dim and the engine dies. He sees a display of aerial lights descending a short distance in front of him. The blinking lights are multicolored “like a rainbow.” Suddenly they blink out and are replaced by a blinding steady white light about 6 feet ahead of and 3 feet above the car. The light is coming from the inside of the object, where he can see a lighted room with a golden aisle and five occupants seated on the left-hand side in a straight row. Each seat is a different color, and the garments of the occupants match the color of the seat. Each has long brown hair that reaches the floor. The object departs suddenly, the interior blinking out and the colored lights reappearing. The car engine starts without difficulty. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34 , no. 1 (Sept. 2011): 16)

January 18 — 4:30 p.m. Giuseppe Cardelli is driving between Milan and Bologna, Italy, when he sees a “strange shining ball” in the sky. He stops his car, gets out, and photographs it. He submits the photo to NASA, which replies on June 18 that it has no explanation. A consultant wonders whether the photo shows a reflection in the car window and finds the “wiggly clouds to the right” interesting. (“Italian Photo Unexplained,” APRO Bulletin 24, no. 3 (September 1975): 1, 4) January 23 — 8:30 p.m. Witnesses at Llandrillo, northern Wales, see a bright object followed by a luminous tail and (according to one witness) a blinking blue light. The object is motionless for several minutes, during which time it dims then becomes very bright. It appears to crash around Cadair Bronwen mountain, east of the village. Many people hear a terrific explosion and a violent shaking of the ground recorded up to 60 miles away. Astronomers at Leicester University, England, record at least three fireball meteors this evening. The British Geological Survey identifies the source of the explosion as an earthquake. Police and a mountain rescue team from RAF Valley in Anglesey, Wales, are in the area almost immediately and cordon off access to the supposed crash site on a barren hilltop. They find no trace of a crash the next day, but a nurse on the way to the crash site after being telephoned by police headquarters is on her way up the mountain with her daughters when she sees something sitting on the ground ahead of her. It seems to be intact and is large, circular, and glowing orange. The nurse and her daughters are within a few hundred feet when police and military forces show up and clearly tell her to leave the area. Researcher Tony Dodd is reportedly approached by a retired military man using the name of “Robert Prescott” who tells him that he and some others were assigned to transport two oblong crates from the crash site to a place called Porton Down where the UK Ministry of Defence’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory is located. They are instructed not to stop for anyone. Military personnel open the crates and Prescott sees two humanoid figures, apparently dead, about 5–6 ft tall, very thin, almost skeletal in nature with a covering skin. These are placed in decontamination suits. Other units supposedly transport live aliens from the crash site. At 10:00 p.m., a man watches a luminous sphere descend into the sea near the Dee Estuary about 25 miles north. Nick Redfern speculates that a UK version of Project Moon Dust might be in activation, which could explain reports of mystery helicopters in the area in prior weeks. Jenny Randles hears later from a former UK government official that a crashed UFO is being kept in a military base in South Wales. In May, Welsh MP Dafydd Elis-Thomas asks Defence Minister Brynmor John if any official investigation was made; John says the only official investigation was made by the RAF Valley team. National Archives files released in 2005 show that the MoD consulted the Meteorological Office and DI55, which says the meteor explanation is the likeliest. (Wikipedia, “Berwyn Mountain UFO incident”; Jenny Randles, “The Night the Mountain Exploded,” IUR 21, no. 4 (Winter 1996): 9– 11, 32; Nick Redfern, A Covert Agenda: UFO Secrecy Exposed, Simon & Schuster, 1997, pp. 116 – 124 ; Andy Roberts, “Fire on the Mountain: The Berwyn Mountain Incident,” IUR 24, no. 3 (Fall 1999): 16–23, 30; UFOFiles2, pp. 90– 91 ; “Files Released on 1974 ‘Welsh Roswell,’” BBC News, August 5, 2010; Andy Roberts, UFO Down? The Berwyn Mountain UFO Crash, CFZ Press, 2010; Clark III 287– 288 ) January 24 — While the RAF rescue team is still operating around Cadair Bronwen, three family members see a bright object in the sky near the mountain. Through field glasses, they see a disc-shaped object divided into red, green, yellow, and purple sections. After 10 minutes they call the police and the object disappears behind a cloud. January 26 — 2:59 a.m. Capt. Lars Berglund and the crew of a Boeing 727 airliner flying near Lisbon, Portugal, see a V- formation of 10–15 luminous orange discs. Berglund rules out a satellite reentry because of its precision. After the formation passes, another Portuguese aircraft reports the same objects to ground control. A Norwegian and a British aircraft also report the same phenomenon. (“Formation Seen by Air Crews,” APRO Bulletin 22, no. 5 (March/April 1974): 7–8; “Airliner Met 15 UFOs over Lisbon,” UFO-Sweden Special Report, 1974 no. 4, pp. 3– 4)

February — Hynek visits the APRO headquarters in Tucson, Arizona, asking for a contact list of APRO investigators for the Center for UFO Studies to make use of in a cooperative fashion. Coral Lorenzen is suspicious of Hynek’s background and does not provide him the list. (“Hynek: UFO Movement Basically Amateurs,” APRO Bulletin 33, no. 2 (January 1986): 6–7) February 6 — Late evening. A woman watching TV in rural Fayette County near Uniontown, Pennsylvania, hears a “rattling of tin cans” on her porch. She grabs and loads a shotgun, turns on the porch light, and steps into the doorway of the porch, where she encounters a 7-foot-tall apelike creature with its hands raised in the air. She fires into his midsection and it “just disappeared in a flash of light.” Her son-in-law, who lives in a trailer 100 feet away, hears the shot, grabs a revolver, and heads for her house. Along the way, he sees “shadows of four or five hairy people” who approach him. They have “fire red eyes that glowed in total darkness.” About 1,500 feet away, a red, flashing light hovers above the trees. Investigating police arrive and find no tracks but notice that the animals seem terrified. The son-in-law tells investigator Stan Gordon that he had encountered a similar apelike

creature in November 1973. (Clark III 556–557; Stan Gordon, “UFO’s, in Relation to Creature Sightings in Pennsylvania,” MUFON 1974 UFO Symposium Proceedings, MUFON, 1974, pp. 132– 154 ) February 8 — 7:25 a.m. Ten girls from the orphanage school in Vălenii de Munte, Romania, watch two yellow-orange spheres above a hill to the southwest of town. After 10 seconds, they merge into one object and take the form of an elongated oval with an orange dome. It begins moving slowly toward the west-southwest, then accelerates and disappears behind the treeline after 40 seconds. Fresh marks are found in a plowed field at the site where the object was seen. (Romania 36–37) February 8 — Sunset. Mullah Umar Siddiq, merchant Ibrahim Khaleb, and physician Muhammad Watif are standing on the roof of the Al-Hud Mosque in Al Mukalla, Yemen, when they see three large white discs gliding slowly downward. They gather some provisions, hire three camels, and head for the Wadi Jawlan 32 miles to the east, where they estimate the objects have landed. At dawn, they dismount to say prayers, and a vivid glow lights up the eastern sky above the Wadi Jawlan for a few seconds. The light is yellowish-white and comes from three beams that are stabbing upwards and fanning out into the sky. Although the light dies down, the beams are still visible, eventually growing paler. They find deep, clear-cut tracks of caterpillar-track vehicles all over the rugged area. At three places, about 325 feet apart, they find numerous scoop marks, about 33 inches wide, in an area in the form of a triangle with sides 17 feet wide. The rock has been fused and melted and the grass and thorn-scrub is burnt. (Gordon Creighton, “An Arabian Landing?” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 3 (December 1974): 12–13) February 14 — 4:25 a.m. Two brothers are transporting their parents’ furniture in a U-Haul truck near Ely, Nevada, when they notice a round, orange object that paces them, then approaches. They feel as though they are “hit by a blast of wind or force field.” The engine and lights give out, the steering goes, and the truck seems to momentarily float, come back down, and coast to a stop. Ahead of them, just over a hill, they see a large, round object with a domed top and wings. The other object approaches again. One brother points a flashlight at it, whereupon they both get an intense feeling of isolation that lasts about 20 minutes. Since the truck appears to be damaged, they flag down a passing car and call for a tow truck. When the tow truck hauls it away, the rear wheels fall off. It needs new tires, a rear axle, outside housing, and gears. (“Car Disabled by UFO?” APRO Bulletin 22, no. 6 (May/June 1974): 4 – 5 ; UFOEv II 218 – 219) February 21 — French radio journalist Jean-Claude Bourret interviews French Defense Minister Robert Galley for his France Inter radio program, OVNIs: Pas de panique! Galley says his department has been interested in UFO reports since the French wave of 1954. Ministry records contain many baffling radar/visual cases. He speaks of the strong quality of the evidence and that people must regard UFOs with a “completely open mind.” The mass of UFO reports “from the airborne gendarmerie, from the mobile gendarmerie, and from the gendarmerie charged with conducting investigations,” all of which are forwarded to CNES, would make people see that it is “pretty disturbing.” (“French Minister Speaks on UFOs,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 2 (October 1974): 3–4; Good Above, p. 129 ; Gildas Bourdais, “From GEPAN to SEPRA: Official UFO Studies in France,” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000–2001): 11; Yves Herbo, “OVNIs et divulgation: Le Ministre des Armées françaises l’a fait en 1974,” Sciences Faits et Histoire, February 2, 2015)

March — About 9:00 p.m. A missile launch officer with the 564th Strategic Missile Squadron is on watch at the Malmstrom AFB Romeo Flight missile alert facility near Brady, Montana, when both the outer and inner alarms go off. A security alert team arrives and sees a large, brilliantly self-illuminated object hovering above the Romeo-29 launch facility. Suddenly, the missile starts a countdown. The officer quickly flips the inhibit switch, which puts the system offline. Then the system spontaneously restarts and the missile goes into launch mode again, followed by an inhibit order that does not work. But the launch code is false and the missile remains in its pad. Meanwhile, the UFO moves away straight up at high speed. An F-106 interceptor attempts unsuccessfully to reach it, and Malmstrom AFB radar tracks the UFO. Later he learns that the ground electronics in Romeo-29 are fried as if from a surge. (Nukes 353– 355 ; Robert L. Hastings, “Former U.S. Air Force Missile Launch Officer Says a UFO Activated One of His ICBMs—Twice!” December 7, 2014) March 9 —9:58 p.m. Fiat Corporation pilot Alfonso Isaia chases a luminous, saucer-shaped object with colored rings near Milan, Italy. The UFO is confirmed by Milan radar. (MUFON UFO Journal, March 1989, p. 19; Massimiliano Aiello, “L’avvistamento del Pilota del Agnelli,” Massimiliano Aiello, January 17, 2013; 1Pinotti 188– 189 ) March 13 — An Argentine Airlines plane en route from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Córdoba, Argentina, is flanked by two glowing objects that pace it for several minutes, then speed away. (UFOEv II 121 ) March 17 — The crew of a TWA airliner over Taiwan sees a shiny oval or cigar-shaped object and four smaller, spherical, satellite objects. (UFOEv II 415 ; Richard F. Haines, “A Review of Selected Sightings from Aircraft from 1973 to 1978,” in 1979 MUFON UFO Symposium Proceedings, MUFON, 1979, p. 127)

March 2 0 — 11:00 p.m. Adrian Sánchez Sánchez, a salesman, is driving near El Castillo de las Guardas, Seville, Spain, when he sees a large metallic UFO, 450–600 feet long, with three smaller ships shaped like yo-yos. It flies silently and has no windows but towers above and below. One of the objects silently pursues Sánchez and disappears as he enters a village. (Eileen Buckle, “Spanish UFO Fiesta,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 3 (December 1974): 3; UFOEv II 345) March 23 — 3:00 a.m. The chauffeur of the president of the Cádiz Provincial Commission is driving on the highway in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, when he sees a “luminous, metal-like” object moving upward with great brilliancy. As he approaches it, he feels a strange sensation. His car comes to a near stop, wavering back and forth like a feather. (UFOEv II 346) March 23 — Night. A young man (pseudonym Harald Andersson) comes out of the parish house in Markim, Stockholm County, Sweden, when he hears a voice in his head telling him to follow a dark forest road. Just after passing a small cottage, he sees two runestones by the side of the path. Suddenly a blinding light knocks him to the ground where he lies unconscious for a while, then wakes up on the doorstep of his villa in Lindholmen, Vallentuna. His wife, disturbed by his condition (bleeding from his forehead and a burn on his cheek), takes him to Danderyds Hospital where hypnotherapist Ture Arvidsson regresses him to the time of the incident (twice, on April 1 and May 20). He discovers that a beam of light has floated him up into the air while tall, hooded figures touch his head with an unknown device, saying they will meet again in the future. Extraordinary abilities follow, including his ability to disrupt a compass needle, see vibrant auras, and premonitions. The incident is apparently witnessed by another man a short distance away. The Swedish Home Guard assigns 50 of its personnel to work with 15 ufologists to examine the region. The group reports a few odd lights in the sky. (Håkan Blomqvist, “An Abduction in Sweden?” Flying Saucer Review 32, no. 5 (August 1987): 14–16) March 23 — 11:30 p.m. A French doctor allegedly photographs an odd object near Albiosc, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France. The color image shows a red object like a domed disc and four bright, beamlike extensions. UFO investigator Jean Bedet receives the slide anonymously on April 14, with a note pinned to his car windshield when he is visiting the town of Tavernes, Var. Bedet says his wife and others had seen a similar object at 11:00 p.m. the same night. The consensus among researchers in France is that the photo is a hoax perpetrated by Bedet to confirm the visual sighting. (Michel Monnerie, “La Veillée Nationale d’Observation à Barjols (Var),” Lumières dans la Nuit, no. 138 (October 1974 ): 22– 26 ; Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, “An Approach to UFO Pictures in France,” FOTOCAT Report no. 6, [2009], p. 33) March 26 — 2:00 a.m. Truck driver Maximiliano Iglesias sees a strange object like a plate placed above another large, round object hovering above the highway in Valdehijaderos, Salamanca, Spain, 650 feet away. Another object is 60 feet away. Two beings come out of the first UFO, point to the truck, then go in again. Both objects fly away. At 11:30 p.m., the same witness watches three silver ships parked on the highway with a floodlight. He stops his engine as some figures approach. He runs and they follow. They are about 6.5 feet tall, with arms and legs, but he cannot see their faces. On March 27, the Guardia Civil investigate and find a hole in the ground. (Pere Rédon, “Valdehijaderos, de Nuevo,” Stendek 5, no. 18 (December 1974): 12–16; Eileen Buckle, “Spanish UFO Fiesta,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 3 (December 1974): 4–6; UFOEv II 346) March 27 — Antoine, Jerri, and Terry Betz investigate a small brush fire near their residence on Fort George Island, Florida, and come across a metal sphere the size of a bowling ball and weighing 22 pounds. They think the sphere could be a 16th-century cannonball and decide to take it home. Several days later, while Terry is playing the guitar, the sphere seems to react to the music and makes a throbbing noise. Later, the sphere rolls and stops on its own and changes direction. The sphere makes a noise when hit with a hammer, and Terry finds that it moves after being shaken and placed on the ground. In 2012, an analysis by Skeptoid indicates that the sphere is a ball check valve produced by the Bell & Howell company. Its size, weight, and metallurgical composition match those of the company’s check valves. The ball is almost perfectly balanced, and it takes only a small stimulus to make it move or change direction. New Mexico artist James Durling-Jones, who collects scrap metal for his sculptures, remembers loading ball check valves into the rooftop luggage rack of his Volkswagen van and driving through the Jacksonville, Florida, area around Easter of 1971. A few of the balls rolled off the luggage rack and were not retrieved. Skeptoid concludes that this is the sphere’s origin. (Wikipedia, “Betz mystery sphere”; Brian Dunning, “The Betz Mystery Sphere,” Skeptoid podcast, no. 334, October 30, 2012) March 27 — Night. A large, brightly shining, spindle-shaped object that remains stationary in the air is seen by numerous witnesses in Málaga, Spain, and photographed by Sr. Salas, picture editor of the Sur newspaper. (Eileen Buckle, “Spanish UFO Fiesta,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 3 (December 1974): 4–5) March 29 — 1:45 a.m. A French vacationer and a local female friend are lying on a sloping beach near Lomé, Togo, when they hear a high-pitched whine and see an unlighted cylindrical object above the ocean. It heads toward them on a level flight path until it gets to 500 feet away. It stops, and within moments a tidal wave washes over the two

witnesses. Wave after wave crash over them as they hold onto a nearby tree. The UFO emits powerful beams of light, and the Frenchman can see the waters parting in a deep trough. They remain paralyzed for 20 minutes until the UFO turns off its lights and flies out to sea. The water surface returns to normal. Over the next few days, the man feels strangely exhausted and has a ringing in his ears. (Joël Mesnard, “UFO over Sea Causes Surge of Tidal Waves,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 6 (April 1977): 4–5, iv; Clark III 250– 251 ) March 30 — 9:30 p.m. Motorists are blinded by a bright yellow-green object on or near the ground along a road near Ombreiro, Lugo, Spain. Car engines fail, headlights go out. After 3–4 minutes, the UFO rises silently and moves away horizontally. It makes a soft buzzing or whistling sound. (UFOEv II 454)

April — A woman military staffer at the GEC-Marconi contracting company in Frimley, Surrey, England, learns that a break-in has occurred the previous night. A guard suffers a nervous breakdown, is taken to an unnamed hospital, and is not seen again. Later, she hears a discussion in her supervisor’s office and describes it to Nick Redfern: “We have no way of keeping these beings out. We just don’t know what to do next. If they can get in here, they can get in anywhere.” She learns that the guard had seen an alien sifting through files and papers. A blue light emanated from its helmet, and the being dematerialized before the guard’s eyes. (Nick Redfern, A Covert Agenda: UFO Secrecy Exposed, Simon & Schuster, 1997, p. 126 ; Nick Redfern, “An Extraterrestrial 007?” Mysterious Universe, December 9, 2013) April — 3:00 a.m. A staff sergeant assigned to the 355th Security Police Squadron stationed at Incirlik Air Base, Adana, Turkey, witnesses a white, glowing UFO hovering silently over the nuclear storage area about 500 feet above the ground for one hour. It appears to be the size of a Volkswagen. At 4:00 a.m., the UFO suddenly and silently accelerates toward the city. The witness sees the object from the Security Police dormitory about 2 miles away. The next day, other security personnel tell him that the only measures taken are “to set up their M-60 machine guns, and that they were not to fire on the object unless it initiated a hostile act.” (Brian Vike, “Sgt. Reports Bizarre Events at WY Missile Base,” Rense.com, July 7, 2004) Early April — A couple driving on a country road in east Hancock County, Ohio, spot a low light in the northeastern sky. They drive toward it, but it shoots up into the air so they can see its underside. As the man alerts people to the object on his CB radio, he sees the object lower a box, seemingly to take samples. Then the object approaches the couple and they drive away quickly, but it follows them for 47 miles. At 2:15 a.m., they pull into a Wigwam restaurant, where a man rushes up to them and asks them, “What did you see in the sky?” He denies having a CB radio, and talks in a strangely slow and choppy manner. The man continues to bother them, so they drive away from the Wigwam. Soon they are followed by some strange lights and an orange ball. They stop the car where the road ends and see a “little man on a little black object.” The lights follow them all the way home to Findlay, Ohio. (Clark III 731– 733 ) April 4 — Two 12-year-old girls in A Estrada, Galicia, Spain, see a noiseless metallic object that stops for a few seconds 30 – 40 feet from the ground, then moves off. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, A Catalogue of 200 Type I UFO Events in Spain and Portugal, CUFOS, 1976, pp. 47–48) April 1 3 — 2:00 a.m. Julio Acosta Bertol (a teacher), his wife, and a student at Herrera de Alcántara, Cáceres, Spain, observe a luminous rhomboid object with a pink-yellowish semicircle on its upper left. The student hears a prolonged, alarm-like noise. They watch the UFO for 5–6 minutes from a distance of 900 feet before it moves off. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, A Catalogue of 200 Type I UFO Events in Spain and Portugal, CUFOS, 1976, p. 49 ; Nick Redfern, “Spain’s UFO Wave: 1973–1974,” Mysterious Universe, August 28, 2018) April 15 — Passengers on a ferry on the Strait of Gibraltar between Ceuta and Algeciras, Spain, see a round, intense torch-like light rise out of the water near a huge rock, travel at low altitude, then fall into the water again. This happens once again. (UFOEv II 346) April 15 — A photojournalist takes four photos of a round object over A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. (Dolan II, 24) April 15 — 4:30 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. George Torres observe a flat, round object moving to the north over the low hills in back of their home in Tijeras Canyon, New Mexico. It is in the apparent area of the Manzano Nuclear Weapons Storage facility attached to Kirtland AFB. The object changes course to the east at an altitude of 2,000 feet and appears to be 50–75 feet in diameter. It is rotating silently on a central axis. The object turns abruptly to the south, passes behind a small mountain peak, turns east again, and vanishes over the Manzano Mountains. (R. C. Hecker, “New Mexico Reports,” APRO Bulletin 23, no. 2 (Sept./Oct. 1974): 5–6) April 1 6 — 12:50 a.m. Mauro Bellingeri, 26, and his wife Carla Farè, 23, are returning to their villa in Santa Maria del Tempio, Alessandrino, Italy, when they notice a bright object that dives abruptly toward them, stopping at a height of 40 feet above the villa. The Bellingeris get out of the car to look at the motionless object. It has a transparent dome and a central ring of revolving red, green, and yellow lights. Inside the dome are three human- like beings with large, round, opaque, grayish helmets. At the base of the headgear is a hoselike apparatus. One

being turns in their direction, then moves back. All three beings then rotate in unison. At this point, 3–4 jets of flame appear beneath the craft, the central portion begins to revolve rapidly, and they hear a whistling sound and feel a blast of air. The UFO speeds away, continuing to whistle. (UFOEv II 460 – 461 ; 1Pinotti 189–191; Carlo Pirola, UFOs: Reinvestigation in Italy, Lulu.com, 2019, pp. 68– 76 ) April 19 — About 9:30 p.m. Ruth Currie and her daughter Laurie see a bright light that seems to be only several hundred feet from their house in Altamont, New York. Curious, they walk toward it until they are within about 200 feet. An oval object is resting on the roadway. It appears to have large windows in the top half, from which comes a brilliant golden glow. Changes of contrast in this light give them the impression that something is moving around within. Currie sends her daughter to get a neighbor, Rose Curtis, and they return shortly. Currie then retreats to her home and phones her husband, who drops what he is doing and hurries over. He can see an object rising up. It shifts speeds and accelerates out of sight. During the bulk of this encounter, the neighborhood dogs are putting up a continuous volley of barking. The next morning, the witnesses get together and go to the site, where they find an area of burned grass 50–75 feet in diameter. (Center for UFO Studies, HUMCAT Index 1974, p. 40; NICAP, “The 1974 UFO Chronology”) April 29 — Roy Hiltner discovers an odd imprint in his soybean field near North Creek in northwestern Putnam County, Ohio. It is a depression 8 feet in diameter and 12 inches deep, with seven 4-foot-long grooves radiating from it. In the center are two holes, each 12 inches in diameter and 12 inches apart. Local and state officials examine the site and cannot determine a cause. (“Two Physical Trace Cases in Northwest Ohio Unexplained,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 6, no. 3 (June/July 1985): 4)

May — 2:00 a.m. Iuliu Marian and his wife wake up abruptly in their home in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Outside they see a bell-shaped object or silhouette with a light tube in the center that seems to be waiting for them. Marian grabs a sports sword he keeps under the bed and goes outside, but the object is already moving away. He follows it around a corner of the house and the object is nowhere to be seen. Marian senses the object is still there somehow because he feels some kind of force field. Against his will he returns to his bedroom, the forcefield disappears, and he goes right back to sleep. (Romania 128–129) May — 3:30 a.m. US Army Pfc R. Jack Phillips is assigned to the 193rd Military Police Battalion guarding Area 3 of an Army Ordnance Depot [now returned to Germany] where surface-to-surface Pershing missiles are stored near Fischbach bei Dahn, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Suddenly waking up, he watches an extremely bright star above him for about 15 seconds. Suddenly it approaches very quickly and hovers just beyond the depot fence line about 300 feet away. The light now looks like a domed disc about 60 feet in diameter with a concave indentation on its underside. It is covered in a greenish glow and completely silent. After 5 seconds the object gets much brighter for a second then dims again. The security lights in the complex go out. Phillips tries to report this, but his field phone is out. The backup generators fail to turn on. Some 30 seconds later, the object takes off so swiftly that he can’t tell in which direction it leaves. The lights come back on and all the bunker alarms go off. A roving unit needs to come by to reset all the alarms manually. Phillips admits that most of the guards sleep on duty, and that is probably why no one else has seen the object. (Nukes 343–346) May 5 — 5:30 p.m. David Dorn and Troy Warton, both 11, leave home in Lincolnshire, Illinois, to play basketball. As they walk down the street, they notice a dark object in the western sky. It comes closer, drops to a height just above the treetops, hovers slightly, then rises up and disappears. David has a new camera and he snaps six photos with his Kodak X-15 camera. The color pictures reveal a distinct dark object in the clouds and over the trees. Unfortunately, he discards the negatives. (“Boy’s New Camera Records UFO,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 5 (September 1980): 1) May 7 (possibly 1973) — 9:00 p.m. Margaret K. Roffe, nurse’s aide at the Coatesville (Pennsylvania) Veterans Administration Hospital, hears tree branches swishing and swaying nearby and sees a UFO descend and land on the roof of Building no. 1 about 150 feet away. Four silver-colored legs emerge from the object, followed by a ramp with steps. Three small figures climb down backwards. They are speaking to each other in high, squeaky voices that sound like “so many birds.” She says “The being nearest the edge of the roof had a very elongated head, grayish=looking skin, arms that extended well below his knees, and what looked like long claws instead of fingers. His legs appeared rather short.” He is bald and looks old. The scene is well lit by an illuminated dome on the roof of the building. When one of the entities notices the witness, they reenter the object, which takes off slowly over the trees, which are again violently agitated. The legs withdraw as it takes off. (Clark III 277) May 7 (or 9) — 7:00 a.m. Businessman Amadeo Villar is driving with his wife and daughter near Altos de Cabrejas, Cuenca, Spain, when they see a bright orange object for 40–50 seconds. It darts behind the clouds, where it is still dimly visible. (José Vicente Avila, “Spain: A UFO over Cabrejas, Witnessed by Three (1974),” Inexplicata, October 28, 2015)

May 9 — The documentary film UFOs: Past, Present, and Future is released along with a paperback book of the same title by Robert Emenegger. The film shows stock footage of Holloman AFB, Alamogordo, New Mexico, and a recreation of a landing at a hypothetical military base. (Wikipedia, “UFOs: Past, Present, and Future”; Robert Emenegger, UFOs: Past, Present, and Future, Ballantine, 1974; Internet Movie Database, “UFOs: It Has Begun”; “UFOs (It Has Begun) Past, Present, and Future documentary,” Jaded Truth YouTube channel, September 29, 2017; Clark III 357 ) May 15 — A businessman and a teacher in Pedroche, Córdoba, Spain, see a round object the “size of a table” that chases their car and obstructs their path on the road. They turn the car around rapidly and flee. (UFOEv II 346) May 17 — 10:10 p.m. Electronic scanning equipment at the Manzano Nuclear Weapons Storage Facility attached to Kirtland AFB near Albuquerque, New Mexico, registers a burst of energy in the upper atmosphere in the 250– 275 MHz range. The burst throws all the facility’s instruments off. A trajectory of an apparent falling object is plotted, and a recovery team is dispatched to an area southwest of Chilili, New Mexico, that is cordoned off. A few hours later, a circular, metallic object about 60 feet in diameter is dismantled and transported into a hangar at Kirtland AFB. (R. C. Hecker, “New Mexico Reports,” APRO Bulletin 23, no. 2 (Sept./Oct. 1974): 6) May 20 — 7:00 p.m. A baker named Le Meur, with his wife and two children, is traveling on a small road toward Landévennec, Finistère, France, when they notice a powerful light ahead at ground level. It consists of a string of 7 – 8 spheres, each about one foot in diameter and arranged horizontally, about 3 feet above the road. Le Meur turns around and heads to the local Gendarmerie station in Telgruc-sur-Mer to report it. The police examine the site the next day and find a patch of ferns that appear abnormally wilted. They collect some plant and soil samples and send them to a lab in Paris for analysis. The wilted, brown ferns are found to be without chlorophyll and an unknown element (indicating pheophytins associated with the degradation of chlorophyll) shows up in the chromatography in ultraviolet light. (Joël Mesnard, “Landévennec, May 20, 1974,” IUR 32, no. 4 (October 2009): 20 – 21 ; Jérôme Frasson, “An Attempt to Learn about the Trauma Undergone by the Ferns,” IUR 32, no. 4 (October 2009): 21) May 22 — The wife of a journalist on Ibiza, Balearic Islands, Spain, photographs an object described in a US Defense Department report as “somewhat like a top.” It remains stationary for a while, then rises and disappears. (Dolan II 24) May 28 — Day. A resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico, sees a large glowing object moving across the western face of the Sandia Mountains. It is so bright that no structure is visible. The witness opens his window to listen for noise coming from the object, but there is none. As he watches, the object appears to land on a nearby hill where it remains for an hour before it shoots into the air and vanishes. Three young men are camping in the Sandia Mountains that day around noon. They notice a silver-white UFO on the ground on the east side of Tramway Boulevard NE, between Menaul Boulevard and Copper Avenue. Next to it is a silver, triangular-shaped object with odd rune-like symbols on one of the pointed ends. After reporting the sighting, they wind up being taken to Kirtland AFB for interrogation by civilian intelligence agents. They are told they have witnessed a “Soviet incident” and are to keep their mouths shut, which they do for 34 years before talking to Linda Moulton Howe in 2007. Around 9:00 p.m., a family sees a large, glowing, football-shaped disc moving across Albuquerque toward the Sandia foothills. They jump in their car and try to follow the object, using dirt roads on the east side of Tramway. They are stopped by a state police officer, beyond whom they can see the UFO hovering low next to a rocky hill. It is surrounded by armed military personnel. (“Recent Sightings Reported in New Mexico,” UFO Investigator, July 1974, p. 3; Linda Moulton Howe, “Glowing Disc Encounter with Military in Albuquerque, NM,” Earthfiles, November 29, 2007) May 31 — 2:30 a.m. A prolonged Peugeot-pacing case from Mvuma to Beitbridge, Zimbabwe, takes place along the A4 highway, during which motorists experience electromagnetic effects, loss of steering control for their vehicle, abnormal cold and silence, translocation from one place to another, altered appearance of the terrain, humanoid encounter, and amnesia. (Carl Van Vlieden, “Escorted by UFOs from Umvuma to Beit Bridge,” Flying Saucer Review 21, no. 2 (August 1975): 3–8)

Summer — Late evening. A witness living southwest of Lodi, Wisconsin, sees an intensely bright light that is illuminating a hill on an adjacent golf course. It covers an area the size of a football field, but he cannot see a beam or light source. A few hours later, a couple driving on State Highway 113 south of Lodi observe a triangular object with red and blue circular lights suspended beneath it. The object passes silently less than 20 feet above their car, hovers momentarily, and resumes its slow pass overhead. It is twice the size of their car. They watch as the lights shut off and the object is gone. At 1:00 a.m., a man in Lodi sees what he thinks are headlights pulling into his driveway. He sees three bright points of light fixed horizontally in the black sky. He goes in to get his brother who has a telescope, and they attempt to spot the lights (only two now) with the scope. It takes a while, and when they

look straight up they see a large, triangular object right above them. No lights are visible, but its undersurface is clearly defined and metallic. It moves over the house, tips upward at a 45° angle, and shoots away. (Don Schmitt, “The Belleville Sightings, Part Two,” IUR 13, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1988): 17) Summer — Between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. California Gov. Ronald Reagan and his pilot Bill Paynter in his Cessna Citation see a bright white light zigzagging through the sky near Bakersfield, California. They follow the light for several minutes. Paynter says it “was a fairly steady light until it began to accelerate, then it appeared to elongate.” Then, “to our utter amazement, it went straight up into the heavens. When I got off the plane I told Nancy all about it… And we read up on the long history of UFOs.” (presidentialufo.com, “Ronald Reagan, 40th President, January 20, 1981 – January 20, 1989”) June — MUFON pledges its cooperation with CUFOS, offering its network of investigators to secure raw data for analysis. (Skylook, June 1974) June — The Circulo de Argentino de Investigaciones Ufológicas in Córdoba, Argentina, publishes the first issue of OVNIs: Un Desafio a la Ciencia, edited by Oscar A. Galíndez. It runs for 10 issues through February 1976. (OVNIs: Un Desafio a la Ciencia, No. 1 (July 1974)) June — Astrophysicist Michael H. Hart formulates the basic points of Enrico Fermi’s “Fermi Paradox” for an article in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society. The paradox is the apparent contradiction between the lack of evidence for extraterrestrial civilizations elsewhere in the Milky Way galaxy and various high estimates for their probability (such as those that result from optimistic parameters for the Drake equation). (Wikipedia, “Fermi paradox”; Michael H. Hart, “Explanation for the Absence of Extraterrestrials on Earth,” Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 16 (June 1975): 128– 135 ) June 9 — Night. Maj. Shiro Kubota and Lt. Col. Toshio Nakamura are flying an F-4EJ Phantom II interceptor over the northern perimeter of Japan, apparently to intercept a Soviet aircraft. Ground control explains that they are to investigate a bright orange-red light reported by ground witnesses and tracked on radar. Leveling off at 30,000 feet, they see the light a few miles ahead. It appears to be about 33 feet in diameter, with square-shaped marks around its side. The object dips in a shallow turn as they approach. Suddenly the object reverses direction and shoots straight toward them. Nakamura forces the aircraft into a sudden dive to avoid it, missing the UFO by “inches.” The object then makes high-speed passes at the plane, drawing closer. Then, allegedly, the UFO strikes the F-4, forcing the two pilots to eject. Nakamura’s parachute catches fire and he falls to his death. (Good Above, pp. 430 – 431 ) June 12 — Alfred A. Knopf publishes The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence by Victor Marchetti and John D. Marks, which discusses how the CIA works and how its original purpose (collecting and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and persons in order to advise public policymakers) has, according to the authors, been subverted by its obsession with clandestine operations. Marchetti uses the expression “cult of intelligence” to denounce what he views as a counterproductive mindset and culture of secrecy, elitism, amorality, and lawlessness within and surrounding the CIA in the service of American imperialism. (Wikipedia, “The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence”; Victor Marchetti and John D. Marks, The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, Knopf, 1974) June 14 — 5:30 a.m. Santiago Pulido Romero is driving in Medellín, Badajoz, Spain, near the Castillo when he sees a pot- shaped object rapidly approaching him 300 feet above the ground. He turns off his car lights, but the object follows his car parallel to the road about 210 feet away to the right. When he switches his headlights back on, the object begins approaching again, so he switches them off and the object retreats. When he arrives at his father’s property, the object hovers over the barn, moving up and down, so he runs into the house. Later Pulido goes outside to check, and the object is still hovering, lighting up the entire area like daytime. Three humanoid beings are visible inside the object. Early the next morning at sunrise, the object abruptly speeds away. Other witnesses in separate locations also see a UFO. (Eileen Buckle, “Spanish UFO Fiesta,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 3 (December 1974): 6–7; “Un OVNI repond à des signaux lumineux en Espagne,” Inforespace, no. 22, August 1975 , pp. 14– 15 ; “1974: UFO with Occupants Hover over Farm,” ThinkAboutIt, April 6, 2021) June 15 — Mountain guide Keo Wha Unan is inspecting the outer perimeter of a rock formation near Mount Dhajar (apparently in the Bayan Har Mountains, Tibet) to make certain it is safe for the next day’s climb. He emerges from a cave and sees a silvery disc hovering about 4 feet above the ground behind a crest of high rocks. It is windowless and shiny with no protrusions. He sees three humanoid figures gathering snow and rocks and putting them inside the UFO. After 5 minutes, they climb a ladder into the craft. The object rises a few feet and shoots straight up like a flash. (Harry Hill, “The Bizarre Ancient Astronauts of Tibet,” UFO Update!, no. 5 (Winter 1980): 49, 64) June 16 — 5:00 a.m. A farmhand is driving near Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain, when a bright object illuminates the highway. He sees three tall, helmeted figures standing inside the craft. When the witness turns off his headlights,

the UFO moves away; when he turns them back on, the UFO approaches and follows him home about 230 feet above his car. He turns off his lights again, and the UFO slowly flies away. (UFOEv II 346) June 25 — 1:15 a.m. A witness is up late in his trailer home at St.-Cyrille-de-Wendover, Quebec, when he hears a “bumm, bumm, bumm” sound, as if something very heavy has fallen onto the ground. He looks out the living room window and sees a UFO hovering low above a near field. It is a disc with a red domed area and an orangish lower area punctuated by oval windows from which comes white light. He sees a 6-foot-tall robot that has apparently emerged from the object and is now only 15 feet from his window. He and his wife see three more robots near the trailer next door. The observation lasts 3 hours as the couple peek out of the window periodically. At one point, they see 15 robots standing in line together close to a creek for 5 minutes. As if on command, they suddenly move together; when they look out again at 4:20 a.m., the craft and the robots are gone. (Marc Leduc, “Un atterrissage et des humanoïdes á Drummondville,” UFO-Quebec 1, no. 1 (1975): 10 – 12)

July 2 — 3:30 p.m. Some fishermen at Praia dos Navegantes beach, Santa Catarina, Brazil, see a disc with small thrusters on its sides descend and fall into the ocean about 328 feet away. Thinking it is an aircraft, the men head to the splashdown site to help survivors. As Ubelino Severino gets closer, the object sinks, leaving only foam at the surface. (Brazil 517–520) July 9 — Early morning. An elliptical object with rows of alternating red and green lights hovers about 200 feet above a park in Kingston, New York. A hazy white glow emanates from the underside. The object moves to within 500 feet of a police car. When officers James Wallace and Richard Ramsdell turn their spotlight on, a brilliant beam lights up the cruiser. The beam switches off and the object races away at high speed. (“Hovering Object Shines Spotlight on Police Car,” UFO Investigator, October 1974, p. 3; UFOEv II 45 ) July 9 — Psychic Pat Price accurately remote views the Soviet URDF-3 facility adjacent to the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan for the Stanford Research Institute [now SRI International] in Menlo Park, California. In another experiment, Puthoff and a skeptical scientist named Earl Jones drive to 9 separate metropolitan areas, all chosen by Jones. Back in the SRI lab, Targ monitors Price, who describes 7 of the places accurately —in some cases before Jones and Puthoff even reach the target or before Jones has decided on a target. Price also claims to sense four underground alien bases, volunteering the data outside the SRI experimental parameters. The bases are located under Monte Perdido, Huesca, Spain; Mount Nyangani, Zimbabwe; Mount Hayes, Alaska; and Mount Ziel in Australia’s Northern Territory. (Jim Schnabel, Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America ’ s Psychic Spies, Dell, 1997 , pp. 113, 118 , 148 – 151 ; Annie Jacobsen, Phenomena, Little, Brown, 2017, pp. 166– 171 ) July 14 — 3:36 p.m. A Scandinavian Airlines flight en route to Burlington, Vermont, is flying at 35,000 feet 35–40 miles southeast of Quebec City, Quebec. Capt. Korsvold and the crew notice a triangular object moving southwest and has it in sight for 7 minutes. Radio interference is reported. At the same time, C. W. Bacon is flying a private jet about 35 miles southeast of Quebec City and sees the same triangular object, but it seems to be stationary. Air traffic control at CFB Bagotville in Saguenay, Quebec, reports strong interference on a frequency of 121.5 MHz, a frequency reserved for aircraft in distress. The signal is also disrupting transmissions for 10 minutes at RCAF Station Mont Apica [now the Lac Castor Canadian weather radar station]. All is quiet after both the UFO and interference are gone. (Good Above, p. 200; Arthur R. Bray, The UFO Connection, Jupiter, 1979, pp. 45–46; Patrick Gross, “Files Obtained from the National Archives of Canada”; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 89– 90 ) July 15 — Two unregistered helicopters, a white helicopter, and a black twin-engine aircraft open fire on Robert Smith Jr. while he is driving his tractor on his farm in Honey Creek, Iowa. This attack follows a rash of cattle mutilations in the area and across the nearby border in Nebraska. (Wikipedia, “Cattle mutilation”)

August 8 — President Richard Nixon resigns in the wake of the Watergate scandal. August 11 — 3:23 a.m. Police officers Mark E. Paine and Michael Alden watch three luminous UFOs in a triangle formation between Tilton and Concord, New Hampshire. A fourth object, a domed ellipse, rises from the trees and approaches their car. As the officers signal the object, it signals back, then veers away. (UFOEv II 175) August 12 — 11:30 a.m. A 15-year-old boy sees a disc maneuvering near a hedgerow at La Brousse, Charente-Maritime, France. It is about the size of a medium car, dull-lead in color, with a green reflective dome. One of three windows open “exactly like the shutter of a vanishing headlight on a sports car.” The lower part of the object rotates, but the dome does not. Later, three sharply defined circles of burnt straw form an isosceles triangle within an oval area of crushed straw. Within each imprint are two small pieces of lead. (M. Chasseigne, “Atterrissage à La Brousse, près de Matha,” Lumières dans la Nuit, no. 140 (December 1974): 5–6) August 16 — 8:00 p.m. David Bates, 8, Steven Stillie, 10, and Henry Stillie, 7, are taking a shortcut past an abandoned sandpit close to their homes in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. Suddenly they hear a high-pitched whine and

the cat Bates is carrying panics and escapes his hold; it runs several yards and then stops abruptly. They then see an object with a red light on top and flashing green and white lights on either end. Moving slowly, the UFO reverses course and with an undulating motion heads for the clearing where the sandpit lies and lands there, about 150 feet away. The whine becomes intense. As the object settles down, it releases a blast of hot air that blows dust on he boys. It extends three short legs and blue sparks leap up from the ground. The boys run home. Investigator Graham Conway finds residual material present in three indentations at the site. Analysis shows that it contains an abnormally high amount of zinc. (Graham Conway, “Close Encounter,” Canadian UFO Report 3, no. 4 (1975): 8 – 11; Graham Conway, “Close Encounter,” UFO*BC; Graham Conway, “CE2 Secrets,” IUR 17, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1992): 24) August 23 — 9:00 p.m. John Lennon and May Pang watch a rotating, oval-shaped disc with a red light on top from the roof of his penthouse apartment on East 52nd Street in New York City. It is flying less than 100 feet away and moves off soundlessly as they watch it. Lennon mentions it in a liner note to his 1974 Walls and Bridges album. (David Halperin, “John Lennon, May Pang, and the UFO (1) Their Story,” davidhalperin.net, February 11, 2016) August 25 — After 10:00 p.m. A document is leaked to UFO researchers in the US and UK in 1992 and is apparently composed by someone within the US intelligence community who either personally knows about the case or who has run across top-secret documents. Now known as the “Deneb Report,” the document alleges that the following incident took place. Military radar at Corpus Christi, Texas, detects an unknown target moving toward the Texas Gulf coast. Traveling at a speed of 2,500 mph at an altitude of 75,000 feet, the UFO is first spotted over the Gulf of Mexico about 200 miles east of Corpus Christi. After going through maneuvers suggesting intelligent control, the object quickly turns south along the Texas coast, avoiding entry over land, and seems headed toward Brownsville. As the disc continues to hug the Texas coastline, it exhibits controlled descent, calculated turns, speed reductions, and other clear indications of control. The object descends from 75,000 feet to about 45,000 feet by the time it crosses over land into northern Mexico, about 40 miles south of Brownsville. Its speed is down to 2,000 mph and it is slowing very gradually. Zigzagging around mountain peaks that tower above 5,000 feet, the UFO continues to descend, although its speed is still near 2,000 mph at the time that it encounters another aircraft headed toward it on a collision course. Somewhere over a vast desert plain known as El Llano near Coyame, Chihuahua, Mexico, a mid-air collision occurs with a small aircraft flying from El Paso to Mexico City. Debris from the crash rains down on the desert plain below, and efforts are soon underway by both Mexico and the US to recover the remains. Mexican spotter planes first locate the wreckage of the aircraft, even as US electronic surveillance personnel listen in on the rescue activities from across the Texas border. The Americans hear the Mexican spotter planes say that the small craft is almost totally destroyed and that they have found a second crash site nearby with the remains of a nearly intact, shiny, silvery disc. The object is 16 feet, 5 inches in diameter, and equally convex on both upper and lower surfaces. There is an outer rim around the central circumference. The height is slightly less than 5 feet. They see no visible portholes, doors, or markings. In addition, no lights of any kind are apparent. There is also no obvious mechanism for propulsion. The external surface of the disc is like silvery polished steel. Mexican troops recover the crashed disc, winching it up onto the bed of a large military truck. They also retrieve fragments of the crashed civilian aircraft, although there is not much left of it. (“Presidio 1974,” Texas UFO Museum and Research Library; Noe Torres and Ruben Uriarte, The Coyame Incident, Roswell Books, 2013)

September — Author Charles Berlitz writes The Bermuda Triangle, in which he popularizes the concept of the Bermuda Triangle as an area of ocean prone to disappearing ships and airplanes. He quotes his friend J. Manson Valentine, who has reported several UFO sightings in the area. He also perpetuates a fake radio transmission from Lt. Charles Taylor of the missing TBM Avenger bombers in December 1945 containing the warning, “Don’t come after me… They look like they are from outer space.” Berlitz’s claims of unusual EM effects occurring in the Triangle are also fabrications. (Charles Berlitz, The Bermuda Triangle, Avon, 1974; Story, p. 51 ) September 1 — 11:00 a.m. While he is driving a swather to harvest his rapeseed crop near Langenburg, Saskatchewan, farmer Edwin Fuhr, 36, notices a metallic-appearing dome-shaped object about 50 feet away and stops to investigate. Walking to within 15 feet of it, Fuhr sees that it is spinning and swirling the grass beneath it. This frightens him and he backs away. Climbing back on the swather, he looks around and sees four more identical domes “like brushed stainless steel” arranged in a rough semicircle, all hovering and spinning about a foot above the ground. Whether from fear or an EM effect, Fuhr cannot get the throttle and steering wheel of the swather to respond. One object suddenly takes off, quickly followed by the other four, ascending in a step formation. At about 200 feet they stop, each emitting a puff of gray vapor from exhaust-like extensions at the base. The vapor extends about 6 feet, followed by a downward gust of wind which flattens the rapeseed in the immediate area. The objects then form a straight line, hover for a minute or two, then suddenly ascend into the low cloud cover and

disappear. Fuhr goes to the landing area and finds five rings of depressed grass swirled in a clockwise fashion. There is no evidence of heat or burning. Some additional circles are found in the area later that month. Fuhr later learns that cattle in a nearby field bellowed and broke through a fence about the time of the sighting. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Ron Morier, quoted by Canadian Press, says: “Something was there and I doubt it was a hoax. There’s no indication anything had been wheeled in or out and Mr. Fuhr seemed genuinely scared.” Later Morier tells an investigator, “There is no way that this is a hoax. Whatever was in there, it came out of the air and departed the same way, as far as I could tell.” (Ted Phillips, Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings, CUFOS, 1975, p. 104; Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 22–24; Chris Rutkowski and John P. Timmerman, “Langenburg, 1974: A Classic Historical CE2 and a Crop Circle Progenitor?” IUR 17, no. 2 (March/April 1992 ): 4 – 11; Michael D. Swords, GrassRoots UFOs: Case Reports from the Timmerman Files, Fund for UFO Research, 2005, pp. 148 – 159 ; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 110–113; “Interview with Edwin Fuhr 37 Years Later: The Langenburg UFO Case,” AboveTopSecret forum, January 20, 2017; Mark Melnychuk, “The Farmer Who Saw and the Mountie Who Believed: Sask.’s Most Famous UFO Sighting,” Regina (Sask.) Leader-Post, September 29, 2017; Clark III 673– 675 ; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, pp. 192– 196 ) September 9 — 8:30 p.m. Professor Andrei Antalffy and his wife are in their summer cottage near Târgu Mureş, Romania, when she notices a silvery-white light behind the house. They go outside and see a rectangular “wall of opaque light” about 82 feet long and 550 away from them. In front of the wall on the ground are four orange spheres about 18 inhes in diameter and grouped two-by-two. They continue to watch the display from inside the cottage until midnight when they retire for the night. (Romania 41) September 16 — Around 9:30 p.m. Mrs. A. Richards is driving a 1968 Toyota a few miles northwest of St. Helens, Tasmania, with her two children. The car radio suddenly turns to static as she is passing over a bridge and the sky ahead lights up. The car then loses power as it travels up an incline, and everything goes dead—car lights, radio, heater, and engine. The landscape is lit up by a bright area of light ahead. The mother tries to start the car without success. A deafening vibrating noise then seems to envelop the car. About the same time all three of them feel electric shocks like vibrations for one minute, and a choking smell fills the car so that they leap from the car and flee the scene, leaving the car and the glow in the sky behind. After nearly 2 miles, they reach a house whose resident gives them a ride back to the car to see what is wrong. The hood is warm, but the car starts up and there is no sign of a light. A check at the local garage finds water in the radiator low, otherwise both radio and electrical systems are in working order. The mother suffers from swollen arms and fingers the following day. The right side of her face is numb and she has red marks above her right eyebrow. (“Auto-Stop,” TUFOIC Newsletter, no. 14 (1975): 10–11; “UFOs and Auto-Stops,” TUFOIC Newsletter, no. 91 (February 2002): 6) September 21 — 10:00 p.m. A Swedish army officer is driving with his family near Knutby, Uppsala County, Sweden, when a blinding light approaches the car from the right at an altitude of about 30 feet. The car stops and the radio and headlights go out. The UFO passes the road ahead and then lands on the left side about 250 feet from the road. A large area is lit up by the blinding, green-shimmering light from the object. The witnesses hear a sound like a swarm of bees. Through binoculars, the officer sees an egg-shaped structure some 33 feet long and around 10 feet high. The car engine still does not work. He gets out of the car, then hears a deafening roar. The UFO is taking off vertically with a rocking motion. It flies off slowly at about 100 feet altitude for a few hundred yards, then takes off and disappears in a fraction of a second. He gets back in the car and the radio is playing music and the car starts easily. (Boris Jungkvist, “Swedish Army Officer Experiences Landing and EM Effects,” AFU Newsletter, no. 17 (Oct./Dec. 1979): 11–13; Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34, no. 1 (September 2011 ): 16 – 17) September 26 — 9:30–10:00 p.m. More than 100 people in north Zealand, Denmark, watch unusual objects and lights in the sky. One driver is suddenly surrounded by a dazzling red light that illuminates the area. The engine, lights, and radio fail. After several attempts, he restarts the car and turns on the lights. A cone of white neon light descends toward the car. A bumping noise and a sound like broken glass is heard on the roof, and then a foot-long spurt of flame erupts from the car radio. The engine and lights fail again. After about 6 seconds a distinct “click” is heard, and everything works normally again. The car engine and radio are undamaged. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34, no. 1 (Sept. 2011): 20) September 27 — An 1 1 - year-old boy and an older friend are on a farm near Jindabyne, New South Wales, when they notice a bright white light about one-half mile away for about 30 minutes. In 1983, the younger man begins to have “vivid memories” of that evening and realizes that both experienced about two hours of missing time. Soon the memory of an abduction emerges in which both witnesses undergo an examination of some kind. (Mark

Moravec, “The Jindabyne UFO Abduction Case,” UFO Research Australia Newsletter 5, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1984): 6 – 10; MUFON UFO Journal, February 1988, pp. 13– 16 ) September 30 — Newsweek brings the issue of cattle mutilations to a national audience. Noting that “more than 100 cattle have been found dead and gruesomely mutilated in Nebraska, Kansas, and Iowa,” it lists possible culprits: witchcraft cultists, UFOs, helicopter-borne rustlers, marijuana smugglers, and predators. In months and years to come, the scare spreads from the Midwest to the West to the South. (Clark III 133 )

Autumn — 10:00 a.m. A metallic disc some 300 feet across approaches a South Korean antiaircraft shore battery. The commander launches an MIM-23 Hawk guided missile which is immediately shot down by a “white ray” from the UFO. The second ray is directed at the battery, melting the remaining two Hawk missiles into an unrecognizable mass. (Soviet Military Review, June 1989 ; Stringfield, Situation Red, Fawcett Crest, 1977, pp. 135 – 136 ) October 10 — 10:10 p.m. John Breen, a Canadian armed forces pilot, is paced by a UFO over Grand Falls, Newfoundland, in his Cessna 1 72 , en route from Deer Lake to Gander. A passenger first notices a strange light following the plane when they are 50 miles away from Gander. Every time Breen looks at the light it seems to turn off, but finally he gets a better view: “It seems to be sort of a triangle—or delta-shaped, luminescent greenish light following us.” It stays on for 3–4 seconds, then goes off for a bit, then on again. Gradually it remains steady. About 25–30 miles from Gander, Breen radios the airport, which has no traffic in the area. The object’s reflection is clearly visible in the water of Gander Lake. Breen says: “I started a right turn and then cut hard left. Gander then picked up the object for two or three sweeps, which would have been about 10–12 seconds. When we turned around, I just saw it going off the other way and then I lost it because of the back of the airplane.” (Gregory M. Kanon, “‘Something’s Up Here with Us!” Canadian UFO Report 4, no. 6 (Winter/Spring 1978): 3–4; Good Above, pp. 200 – 201 ; Patrick Gross, “Files Obtained from the National Archives of Canada”; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 90– 91 ) October 11 — 4:15 a.m. The captain and crew of a Capital Airlines DC- 8 descending into Gander, Newfoundland, watches as a UFO flashing red and white lights draws alongside the plane as it flies at 290 mph at 7,500 feet. It maintains a parallel course until it finally disappears in cloud cover about 5 miles from Gander. Air traffic control at Gander confirms there is no other aircraft in the vicinity. (Good Above, p. 201 ; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 91) October 11 — 4:10 p.m. An astronomer in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, is driving a pickup truck when he sees a silver-gray domed disc behind him to the west. It moves from southeast to northwest on a level, straight course, but in the last 2 – 3 seconds it turns upward, accelerating rapidly. The witness’s truck stalls out when he tries to accelerate, but the tape deck keeps operating. (“Astronomers and UFO’s: A Survey, Part 2, Sightings,” IUR 2, no. 4 (April 1977): 4) October 11 — Robert Spencer Carr is the guest on a local radio show to promote the upcoming Flying Saucer Symposium by PSI Conferences in Tampa, Florida. During the interview, Carr makes the shocking disclosure of the US government’s cover-up of the UFO crash in Aztec, New Mexico, in 1948 with 12 dead aliens aboard. The Air Force allegedly is storing the bodies at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio, in Hangar 18. The announcement creates a media sensation that lasts for months in print and broadcast news. (Dave Casey, “UFOs and 12 Little Men,” Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) News, October 12, 1974, p. 1; Curt Collins, “Robert Spencer Carr and Hangar 18,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, May 29, 2018; Curt Collins, “Inside Hangar 18 with Dr. Robert Carr,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, June 1, 2018) October 11 — The Energy Reorganization Act dissolves the Atomic Energy Commission and splits responsibility for its functions, assigning to the Energy Research and Development Administration [now the US Department of Energy] the responsibility for the development and production of nuclear weapons, promotion of nuclear power, and other energy-related work, and assigning to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission the regulatory work, which does not include regulation of defense nuclear facilities. (Wikipedia, “Energy Reorganization Act of 1974”) October 14 — 9:09 p.m. Air Force security personnel assigned to the Bomber Alert Area of Grand Forks AFB near Emerado, North Dakota, see two large, solid black, oval shapes hovering at 1,500 feet altitude in the northwestern sky. Although each of the unlit objects has five small lights arrayed across its surface, the UFOs approach to within one-quarter mile of the alert area before they are noticed. Within a 3-minute period, 14 security police sentries, two military pilots, and a B-52 maintenance supervisor independently report the objects to their respective control locations. Static on radio and other communications networks are noted. After hovering for 2 minutes, the UFOs slowly move in tandem toward the south, making a faint humming sound as they fade from view. (Nukes 347–348) October 15 — Night. Five witnesses in Ramona, California, watch a mysterious round object as it maneuvers over the Santa Maria Valley. It lands on a hillside and turns ruby red before becoming a brilliant white light. As it passes

over, horses act up and a dog tries to grab one witness by her sleeve back into the house. Another dog, chained, runs in and out of the doghouse repeatedly, and the chickens and goats are agitated as well. Radio and TV reception is disrupted, and a compass points to the object as it is moving. The object hovers briefly, then shoots away, emitting a noise like something between a hum and a foghorn. (NICAP, “Object Lands / Animal Reactions / Compass Deviates”; Bob Gribble, “Looking Back,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 258 (October 1989): 24) October 25 — 4:15 p.m. Oil-well digger E. Carl Higdon Jr. is hunting elk on the northern edge of Medicine Bow National Forest southeast of Rawlins, Wyoming, when he sees five elk standing motionless. He attempts to shoot one, but the bullet falls about 50 feet from him as if hitting an invisible obstruction. He goes to pick it up, then hears a twig snap and sees a humanoid being (more than 6 feet tall) under a tree about 50 feet away. Its hair is sticking up “like wheat straw,” it is bow-legged, and it is wearing a black coverall suit and black shoes. Two belts cross its chest, and another is wrapped around its waist. The being asks Higdon how he is doing and whether he is hungry, after which it tosses him a package of pills. It tells him to take one, saying it will last for four days. Higdon looks up the hill and sees a transparent, lighted cubicle. Suddenly he finds himself inside it, strapped to a seat with a helmet on his head. Two humanoids are also inside, as well as four seats, a control panel, a mirror, a map, and several elk, frozen in a cage. The craft takes him to what seems to be another planet with a mushroom-shaped tower, 100 feet tall. He and one of the humanoids float to the tower, go down an elevator, pass down a corridor, and go into a room with a platform. After being screened by a “glassy shield,” Higdon is told he is “not any good for what we need” and is taken back to the original location, where he rolls down a hill, hurting his head, neck, and shoulder. Around 6:30 p.m., Higdon radios his boss, Roy Fleming of the AM Well Service in Rawlins, with his location and asks for assistance. At 11:40 p.m., Higdon is found by a rescue party, which includes Fleming, the Carbon County sheriff, a deputy, and three other men in several four-wheel-drive pickup trucks. He seems confused, so he is taken to Carbon County Memorial Hospital, unable to remember his own name. He does not recover his memory until the evening of October 27. Many details emerge after Higdon is hypnotized by R. Leo Sprinkle on November 2 and 17. (Clark III 573– 576 ; Lorenzen, Abducted! Confrontations with Beings from Outer Space, Berkley, 1977, pp. 25– 37 )

November — The Centre for UFO Studies–Australian Co-Ordination Section is founded by Harry Griesberg and David Seargent in Gosford, New South Wales, as a clearinghouse for UFO reports throughout Australia. It publishes the ACOS Bulletin through December 1979. (ACOS Bulletin, no. 1 (March 1975)) November — 8:00 p.m. Claire Haser, on an isolated ranch northeast of Goldendale, Washington, sees a yellowish-white glow in the sky on the ground to the north. At 11:00 p.m., as visitors are leaving, she steps outside and sees it again, closer and more intense. Suspended in the air only 10 feet away from the porch and 15 feet above the ground is a “cylinder” about 3 feet long and 14 inches in diameter, standing with its end pointed toward the ground. Projecting from the object is a long, narrow, beam of light about 2 inches in diameter and 3 feet long. The end of the beam is diffuse, and it is slowly rotating clockwise. She watches it for 10 minutes. Not wanting to approach the object, everyone goes back inside. The object is gone 30 minutes later. (Greg Long, “Strangeness at Yakima,” IUR 19, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1994): 17 ) November — Night. A witness is traveling in his 1971 Mitshubishi Colt near the Sideling hill in northeastern Tasmania when he notices a huge flame-colored glow lighting up the bush to the north. It looka larger than a house. The headlights, radio, and motor of his car all cut out and he is left watching the glow for several minutes. He notices his luminous watch dial has become brighter and that the car’s clock is running 2 minutes slower after the sighting. The mass of light moves back and forth, rises up and away from the witness, and disappears. The witness then able to start his car and continue on his journey. Afterward, the front left mudguard changes color from red to more of an orange. (“UFOs and Auto-Stops,” TUFOIC Newsletter, no. 91 (February 2002): 6) November 2 — Robert Spencer Carr gives a lecture at the Flying Saucer Symposium at the International Inn in Tampa, Florida, on the 1948 Aztec, New Mexico, crash/retrieval and the aliens allegedly stored in Hangar 18, calling it the “worst-kept secret in the world.” Carr’s hour-long lecture is short on specifics, but in the question-and-answer session afterward, he is asked about his sources for the information. Carr says there are three witnesses, but they must remain unnamed. He says that the US government will end the coverup, admit that UFOs are really spacecraft from other worlds, and it will happen soon—before the end of the year. Curt Collins writes, “Part of the reason Carr’s story took hold was that it was so familiar, people wanted something like it to be true, and that it seemed to come from an authority figure, a university professor with official governments contacts and sources It also struck a chord with the public, capitalizing on their distrust of the government following the Vietnam war and Watergate scandal.” (“UFOs and 12 Little Men,” Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) News, October 12, 1974, p. 1; “Symposium Hums with UFO Talk,” Tampa Bay Times, November 4, 1974, p. 1 - D; Curt Collins, “Ufology 1974: The Flying Saucer Symposium in Tampa,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, May 25, 2018; Curt Collins, “Robert

Spencer Carr and Hangar 18,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, May 29, 2018; Curt Collins, “Inside Hangar 18 with Dr. Robert Carr,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, June 1, 2018; Curt Collins, “The Day after Saucergate,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, June 4, 2018) November 4 — 11:00 p.m. A witness is driving near Scottsdale, Tasmania, when he sees a large, silent UFO. His car engine and radio cut out and his watch dial lights up brightly. The object moves away and abruptly ascends vertically. The left-hand mudguard changes color permanently from red to orange. (Ted Phillips, “Vehicle Effects,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 446 (June 2005): 15) November 5 — 7:30 p.m. Jesse and Johanna Chilton are driving south on Provincial Highway 2 near Olds, Alberta, when they see a disc about 9 feet in diameter and 50 feet away on their right at a height of 25 feet. It turns and passes them in the opposite direction and they note several exhaust ports emitting yellow flame. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 226–227) November 5 — 8:30 p.m. Harold Verge is driving between Mahone Bay and Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, in the pouring rain when he sees three bright amber lights appear in his rear-view mirror. Suddenly they move to the rigt side of his car and pace it for 30 seconds before disappearing abruptly. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 83) November 7 — 3:00 p.m. Two schoolgirls are biking home from school in Waterford, Connecticut, when they see a ball of fire in the sky. They ride to one of their homes and go out in a car, hoping to take a photo. When they get to the shore of Niantic Bay, they see it again with several other people who have stopped. The object is now shaped like a triangular space capsule with rounded corners. Flames shoot from the back as it performs elaborate rolls and maneuvers. Then it takes off. (Michael D. Swords, “Timmerman’s Triangles,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 15) November 11 — Night. Police officers Zachary Space and Lester Nagle watch an object hovering level with high-tension wires east of Madison, Ohio. It comes down above the wires for 15–20 seconds, rises up slowly out of sight, then appears again. Along with a deputy sheriff, they watch the object for 20 minutes. It leaves like a flash. (Fort Worth (Tex.) Cross Country News, January 8, 1975; Marler 90–91) Mid-November — 5;30 p.m. Giovanna Sensoli is attending to her animals by her farmhouse near Castelleale, Romagna, Italy, when she notices her chickens and rabbits seem terrified. She notices a man seated on a box that is suspended in the air above her house, rocking to and fro, and only about 12 feet from her. He seems to be about 6 feet 6 inches tall and dressed in a shiny, one-piece garment with green, red, and white markings, and a pair of ski boots with square toes and heels. A helmet covers his face, but he seems to be looking for something. The box has a control rod with colored stripes. The man moves a bit further away to the east on his box. Sensoli sees a bright light to the north and she is overcome by heat. The house is lit up for a few seconds. Sensoli follows the man, trying to understand his gesticulations, but he departs to the east, followed by the light. The incident has lasted 15 minutes. (Gianfranco Lollino, “The ‘Flying Man’ at Castelleale (Italy),” Flying Saucer Review 32, no. 4 (June 1987): 25–27; 1Pinotti 193–197) November 17 — 9:00 a.m. A businessman is taking a walk along the shore of Nørresø in Viborg, Denmark, when he notices an object above the eastern bank of the lake. He snaps a photo of it as it hovers in the air about 1,600– 3,300 feet away. He looks around to see if there are other witnesses, but when he looks back the object is gone. The photo shows a circular object with an estimated diameter of about 65 feet with some cloudy filaments hanging from its base. Investigators suspect it may be a rare instance of a small cumulus cloud that has developed from a black smoke ring. (Wim van Utrecht, “Jellyfish UFO Photographed over Denmark,” Caelestia, May 17, 2008) November 22 — 7:30 p.m. At two-minute intervals, three bright red lights are seen climbing very quickly from the horizon at Madeira, Canary Islands, after which they create brilliant concentric circles. A reporter in Funchal takes a few photos. The lights are probably Poseidon missiles launched by the submarine USS Mariano G. Vallejo several hundred kilometers to the west. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos and Ricardo Campo Pérez, “Navy Missile Tests and the Canary Islands UFOs,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 3) November 28 — 11:43 a.m. Hugo W. Feugen is flying his own Aeronca Champion aircraft on a bright day over Shabbona, Illinois, and he is checking his position on the aeronautical map to determine if he was still on course. When he looks up, he notices that the magnetic compass is rotating counterclockwise at a rate of four revolutions per minute. He looks to his right side and sees nothing but the town below him. When he turns to his left, he sees a disc or ellipse flying parallel to his aircraft at the same speed (75–80 mph) and altitude, pacing him at 120° at an estimated one-quarter of a mile distance. He estimates its size as 120 feet long and 30 feet thick. After pacing him for 8 – 10 seconds, the object tips slightly and he sees that it is not an ellipse but round in shape. As it tips up at an angle, it accelerates to a fantastic speed toward the east and is out of sight in less than one second. (NICAP, “Pilot Says Compass Affected”)

Late 1974 — President Gerald R. Ford creates the Nuclear Emergency Support Team, a group of scientists, technicians, and engineers operating under the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Its task is to be “prepared to respond immediately to any type of radiological accident or incident anywhere in the world.” Since 1975, NEST has been warned of 125 nuclear terror threats and has responded to 30. All have been false alarms. (Wikipedia, “Nuclear Emergency Support Team”; Jeffrey T. Richelson, Defusing Armageddon, Norton, 2009) December — Astronomy magazine editor Terence Dickinson writes an open-minded article about Marjorie E. Fish’s analysis of Betty Hill’s star map and solicits comments from scientists about it. Virtually every issue of the magazine in 1975 carries letters debating the pros and cons of the map, including one by Cornell astronomer Carl Sagan. (Terence Dickinson, “The Zeta Reticuli Incident,” Astronomy 2, no. 12 (December 1974): 5–18; David J. Eicher, “The Zeta Reticuli (or Ridiculi) Incident,” January 31, 2001; Clark 587 ) December — 7:30 a.m. A witness sees a vertical object floating above Wemeth Low, a hill near Higher Chisworth, Derbyshire, England. It has a flattened upper end and a tapered base. It changes shape from round to oval and cigar and back to oval before it disappears and discharges several small spheres from its blunt end “like soap bubbles.” (Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects and Cloud Cigars,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 10) December 2 — 10:30 p.m. Dairy farmer William L. Bosak is driving back to his house southeast of Frederic, Wisconsin, on County Road W when he sees an object reflected in his headlights on the westbound side of the road in front of him. It is a disc-shaped UFO, the bottom half obscured by the fog. But what holds his attention is something inside the object’s “curved front of glass.” Inside stands a figure with its arms raised above its head. He thinks the figure is as scared as he is because its eyes are protruding. It is generally human in shape, but its body is covered in dark tan fur except on the face and chin. Its head hair seems to be swept back, and the calf-like ears stretch out about 3 inches. The mouth and nose seem flat. Bosak speeds past the object and his car lights suddenly go dim. He hears a whooshing sound and the UFO is lost to view. (“Occupant Case in Wisconsin,” APRO Bulletin 23, no. 4 (Jan./Feb. 1975): 1, 4; Jerome Clark, “The Frightened Creature on County Road W,” Flying Saucer Review 21, no. 1 (June 19 75): 20–21; Clark III 557– 558 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, October 20, 2006) December 9 — 10:30 p.m. A married couple in Bad Traunstein, Austria, watch for more than 30 minutes a triangular object that hovers above a nearby pylon and sends out beams of green, blue, and red light. (Ernst Berger, “The ‘Snails’ Are Still Around,” Flying Saucer Review 21, no. 5 (February 1976): 29) December 11 — 1:22 a.m. Teacher Călin Turcu hears his dog barking insistently in the backyard of his home in Vălenii de Munte, Romania. Beyond a river about a half-mile away he sees a pulsating, dazzling white light like that coming from a welding machine that illuminates the trees for miles around. In the next 3–4 minutes he takes 7– 10 photos. The light persists for 12 minutes until it ascends and fades slowly out. (MUFON UFO Journal, no. 114 (May 1977); Augustin Moraru, “Phénomène Lumineux Photographie au-dessus de Valenii de Munte,” UFO- Quebec, no. 13 (March 1978): 18– 19 ; Romania 38) December 17 — 2:30 a.m. John Wagner is in his farmhouse near MacNutt, Saskatchewan, when he notices a large, bright glow to the west that lasts for 25 minutes. The next morning, he finds a circular ring in the snow about 20 feet in diameter. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 190–191) December 18 — 7:00 p.m. Executive Engineer Mohammad Riaz and others see a circular light appear above the V-shaped mountain overlooking the approach to Pattan, Pakistan, for about 25 minutes. It is also seen in Chitral, Pakistan. An earthquake (Hunza Earthquake) centers on the area on December 28, so this could be a type of earthquake light. (Col. William S. Gilliland, “Balls of Fire Memo,” US Department of Defense Intelligence Information Report, December 18 , 1974) December 22 — Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reveals some of the contents of the CIA “Family Jewels” in a front-page New York Times article. Covert action programs involving assassination attempts on foreign leaders and covert attempts to subvert foreign governments are reported for the first time. In addition, the article discusses efforts by intelligence agencies to collect information on the political activities of US citizens. (Wikipedia, “Family Jewels (Central Intelligence Agency)”) December 31 — The CIA Family Jewels reports describe numerous activities conducted by the CIA during the 1950s to 1 970s that violate its charter. According to a briefing provided by CIA Director William Colby to the Justice Department, these include 18 issues that are of legal concern. The documents are released on the CIA website on June 25, 2007. (Wikipedia, “Family Jewels (Central Intelligence Agency)”) December 31 — The Privacy Act, signed into law by President Gerald R. Ford, establishes a Code of Fair Information Practice that governs the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of personally identifiable information about individuals maintained in systems of records by federal agencies. The act also provides individuals with a means by which to seek access to and amend their records, and it sets forth various agency record-keeping requirements. Each agency must file an annual report on its FOIA requests to Congress. Citizens can also petition

courts to render decisions on whether or not to release documents from agencies. FOIA soon disproves the longstanding denial of interest in UFOs by the CIA, FBI, and military agencies. (Wikipedia, “Privacy Act of 1974 ”; ClearIntent, p. 5 ) December 31 — Night. Dave Percy and two other security guards at the Pickering, Ontario, Nuclear Generating Station are preparing to greet the new year when they see a cluster of bright red spheres over Lake Ontario to the south. One of them moves closer and hovers over the Number 3 and 4 reactor buildings. It is about 30 feet across. The object hovers for 6–7 minutes, then after a bright flash it takes off. (Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, p. 120)

1975

1975 — MUFON moves its headquarters from Quincy, Illinois, to Seguin, Texas. 1975 — John A. Keel publishes The Mothman Prophecies, an investigation into sightings of a winged creature called Mothman in the area around Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in 1966–1967. It combines these accounts with his theories about UFOs and various paranormal phenomena, ultimately connecting them to the collapse of the Silver Bridge across the Ohio River on December 15, 1967. (Official investigations in 1971 determine it was caused by stress corrosion cracking in an eye bar in a suspension chain.) Other entities that Keel chronicles are not-quite- human individuals (men in black) who intimidate witnesses and seem linked with UFOs. Sometimes, he writes, they threaten witnesses who have not told anyone else about their sightings. Usually they wear dark suits, sometimes with turtle-neck sweaters, and have dark complexions and Oriental features. Others are pale and bug- eyed. Their behavior is frequently odd, as if they are operating in an environment alien to them. In many cases they drive black Cadillacs or other limousine-like vehicles. (John A. Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, Saturday Review, 1975; Wikipedia, “The Mothman Prophecies”; Clark III 640, 729– 730 ) 1975 — Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman publish The Unidentified, one of the first books to reject the notion of alien involvement in UFO experiences and maintain that UFO visions and other paranormal experiences are the psyche’s attempt to escape the stranglehold that rationalism has on human consciousness. Clark later comes to believe his own conclusions are unverifiable, ill-conceived, grandiose, and dismissive of physical evidence. (Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman, The Unidentified: Notes toward Solving the UFO Mystery, Warner, 1975; Clark III 942) 1975 — Jacques Vallée publishes The Invisible College, in which he speculates that the UFO phenomenon is a “control system” in which UFOs have been conditioning the human species throughout history using a thermostat-like precision. He believes that it is producing a silent change in human consciousness. (Jacques Vallée, The Invisible College, Dutton, 1975; Story, p. 90 ; Clark III 1214) 1975 — Wido Hoville founds the UFO-Quebec organization in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec, and begins publishing the journal UFO-Quebec, edited by Norbert Spehner. It continues until December 1981. (UFO-Quebec, no. 1 (Jan./April 1975)) 1975 — Pierre Monnet founds the Groupement de Recherche et d’Étude du Phénomène OVNI in Sorgues, Vaucluse, France. It publishes Vaucluse Ufologie from 1977 to 1981. (Vaucluse Ufologie: Bulletin d ’ Information du GREPO, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1977)) 1975 — Gilbert Peyret founds Groupement Langeadois de Recherches Ufologiques in Le Puy, France. It publishes OVNI 43 from 1978 to 1980. (OVNI 43, no. 1 (January 1978)) 1975 — Martial Robé founds Groupe Privé Ufologique Nancéien in Nancy, France. It publishes Réalité ou Fiction from 1975 to 1987. (Réalité ou Fiction, no. 0 (1975)) 1975 — The Centro Investigador de Objetos Volantes Extraterrestres begins publishing Vimana, edited by Julio Arcas Gilardi, in Santander, Cantabria, Spain. It continues through 1980. (Vimana, no. 1 (1975)) 1975 — The German-speaking MUFON Central European Section begins publishing a monographic series of reports on specific ufological topics. Edited by Illobrand von Ludwiger in Feldkirchen-Westerham, Bavaria, Germany, the first is titled Die Erforschung unbekannter Flugobjekte. The 12 th title is published in 2009. Von Ludwiger publishes two further monographs under the imprint of the Interdisziplinäre Gesellschaft zur Analyse anomaler Phänomene in 2017 and 2019. (“Die Erforschung unbekannter Flugobjekte,” Bericht, Mutual UFO Network – Central European Section, no. 1 (1975); “Rätselhafte Lichter und Objekte am Himmel,” IGAAP-Bericht, no. 1 (2017)) 1975 — ATF agent Donald E. Flickinger, acting on information supplied to him by a writer who has been investigating animal mutilations, launches an investigation into a supposed Satanist network said to be behind the cattle

mutilations. He determines the story is a scheme hatched by a federal prisoner to get leverage to be transferred to a county jail. (Daniel Kagan and Ian Summers, Mute Evidence, Bantam, 1984, p. 40; Clark III 133 ) 1975 — Night. Sgt. Eric Slater is flight security controller at the Francis E. Warren AFB Tango- 1 missile launch facility southeast of Wheatland, Wyoming. He sees a bright white light coming over the mountains from the Romeo- 1 launch facility northwest of Meriden, hugging the contour of the landscape. It stops about 3 miles away and hovers for 1–2 hours. At one point a light beam shoots down from the UFO into the valley below. Then it comes straight for Tango-1. Slater sees it has a dome on top and small, alternating red-and-blue lights on each side. It only leaves when two F-4 Phantoms from Denver enter base airspace to pursue it. (Nukes 336–337)

January? — Kevin D. Randle and Robert C. Cornett prepare a catalog of “Unknown” cases from the Project Blue Book files before they are withdrawn from public access in April. About 40 of these cases are not in the Don Berliner version. (Sparks, p. 6) January 1 — 6:25 a.m. Four Spanish Army soldiers (Manolo Aguera, Felipe Sánchez, Ricardo Iglesias, and José Laso) are driving near Quintanaortuño, Burgos, Spain, when Aguera sees a light fall from the sky at great speed. He stops the car and all four get out and watch a bright yellow object just above the ground some 1,300 feet away where the light has fallen. It has the form of a truncated cone and emits white jets of light toward the ground. The light goes out suddenly and four others appear in a straight line, lighting up in succession. Driving on toward Burgos, the soldiers stop two more times to watch the lights. Investigator Malo Martínez later finds two parallel scorched areas where there are numerous randomly spaced holes where the grass has been burned all the way to the ground. (“Aqui Vimos el OVNI,” Stendek, no. 18 (December 1974): cover; Pere Redon, “Burgos: Primer Caso de 1975,” Stendek, no. 19 (March 1975): 3–9; Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, A Catalogue of 200 Type I UFO Events in Spain and Portugal, CUFOS, 1976, p. 53; Pere Redon, “The Landing near Burgos,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 2 (August 1977): 22–24, 27; Swords 433) January 1 — Just before sunrise. Actor Warren Oates is with four friends (Lee Clayton, Trina Mitchum, Judy A. Jones, and Ted Markland) in the desert about 20 miles northeast of Palm Springs, California, when they see an object moving in a semicircle through the night sky. They describe it as an oval, metallic object flashing yellow, green, and white lights, with one large orange light in the center. Clayton, watching it through binoculars, sees a bell shape on the top, and estimates it is about 3–5 miles away at an altitude of 2,000 feet. It stops and hovers momentarily before moving off behind the mountains. (Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, p. 226) January 2 — 2:45 p.m. Michael Lindstrom and his wife are relaxing on the beach near the Kauai Sands Hotel on the east side of the island of Maui, Hawaii. His wife notices a strange object moving southward over the beach toward her, and she runs to tell her husband, who is walking nearby. It is soundless, has a square shape, its center is white or silver, and it has a black stripe along its perimeter. A row of lights is visible along the lower edge. He estimates that it is flying at 5,000 feet altitude traveling diagonally to the direction of the wind, and is about one mile away. Before it disappears to the southwest after two minutes, Lindstrom takes three photographs (slides), which show a spherical object bisected by a black square and topped by five bright dots. (Bruce Maccabee, “A Rare Photo Coincidence,” IUR 15, no. 3 (May/June 1990): 4–9, 22) January 2 — 11: 0 0 p.m. An officer and several soldiers on a military patrol at the Las Bardenas Reales firing range near Arguedas, Navarre, Spain, see a group of intense lights moving slowly then remaining stationary on the ground for 25 minutes. Through binoculars, they see an object shaped like “half an orange” that rises and slowly disappears on the horizon. Some 30 observers view the lights for 3–4 minutes. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, A Catalogue of 200 Type I UFO Events in Spain and Portugal, CUFOS, 1976, p. 53; Gordon Creighton, “UFO Lands on Spanish Air Force Target Range,” Flying Saucer Review 24 , no. 5 (March 1979): 17–18; UFOEv II 87; Swords 433– 434 , 526; Good Above, pp. 151 – 152 , 459 ) January 4 — 3:30 a.m. Carlos Alberto Diaz is walking home from a bus stop along Daniel de Solier street, Ingeniero White, near Bahía Blanca, Argentina, when he is blinded and paralyzed by a beam of light. He revives inside a UFO where three greenish, 6-foot-tall creatures, are plucking hair from his head and body. Diaz faints and wakes up in the afternoon in Buenos Aires some 400 miles away, where someone takes him to the Hospital Ferroviario. However, an extensive investigation by ufologist Roberto Enrique Banchs uncovers numerous discrepancies that strongly indicate a hoax. (Roberto Enrique Banchs and Richard W. Heiden, “Carlos Alberto Diaz Is a Hoaxer,” APRO Bulletin 26, no. 2 (August 1977): 8; Lon Strickler, “The Carlos Alberto Diaz Abduction,” Phantoms and Monsters, March 2, 2012; Clark III 602) January 12 — 2:45 a.m. George O’Barski is driving home through North Hudson Park, New Jersey, when he hears static on his CB radio. Through the window he sees a dark, round object with brightly lit windows hovering over the ground about 100 feet away. Ten small (3.5-feet tall), helmeted figures dressed in coveralls emerge from the

UFO, dig up soil, and collect it in bags for about 3 minutes before returning to the craft, which takes off with a humming sound. O’Barski returns to the site the next day and finds holes that had been left. Hudson County Police Officers Thomas Feldhan and John Mackanics investigate and file reports. Months later, O’Barski relays the story to an acquaintance, Budd Hopkins, who is interested in UFOs. Hopkins and two others associated with the Center for UFO Studies find independent witnesses, including a doorman at the high-rise Stonehenge apartment building, Bill Pawlowski, who sees a UFO with multiple lights in the park the same time. Hopkins, Ted Bloecher (then the director of New York MUFON), and Jerry Stoehrer, also of MUFON, investigate the incident and take soil samples. (Wikipedia, “Stonehenge (building)”; Ted Bloecher, “The Stonehenge Incidents, January 1975 ,” Proceedings of the 1976 CUFOS Conference, Center for UFO Studies, 1976, pp. 25 – 38 ; Ted Bloecher, “The ‘Stonehenge’ Incidents of January 1975,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 3 (October 1976): 3–7; Ted Bloecher, “The ‘Stonehenge’ Incidents of January 1975, Part 2,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 4 (November 1976): 5–11; Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 64 ; Budd Hopkins, Missing Time, R. Marek, 1981, pp. 34– 50 ; Clark III 1109– 1112 ) January 20– 22 — At the 13th Aerospace Sciences Meeting of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Pasadena, California, physicist Peter A. Sturrock organizes a UFO symposium that features talks by astronomer J. Allen Hynek, ufologist Jacques Vallée, psychologist David R. Saunders, Hynek associate Fred Beckman, and ufologist Ted Phillips. (Clark III 102) January 27 — A US Senate committee to investigate abuses by the CIA, NSA, FBI, and IRS is created by a vote of 82–4. Chaired by Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho), the committee is part of a series of investigations into intelligence abuses in 1975, dubbed the “Year of Intelligence,” including its House counterpart, the Pike Committee, and the presidential Rockefeller Commission. It conducts 800 interviews and 250 executive and 21 public hearings. The committee’s efforts lead to the establishment of the permanent US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 1976. (Wikipedia, “Church Committee”) January 28 — Afternoon. Eccentric and contactee Billy Meier sees a disc-shaped spacecraft in Switzerland and takes several photographs of it. The ship lands in a nearby meadow, and a beautiful, pale-skinned, amber-haired spacewoman steps out and approaches him and talks to him for an hour and a half. Her name is Semjase from the planet Erra in the constellation Lyra (although they have since emigrated to the Pleiades), and she is the granddaughter of a being named Sfath, who had contacted Meier in 1944. Many other contacts continue, and Meier produces more photos so that he becomes a regional occult celebrity. (Wendelle C. Stevens, UFO Contact from the Pleiades, The Author, 1982; Gary Kinder, Light Years: An Investigation into the Extraterrestrial Experiences of Billy Meier, Atlantic Monthly, 1987; George M. Eberhart, “Photographs and Red Faces,” IUR 12, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1987): 19; Bruce Maccabee, “Pendulum from the Pleiades,” IUR 14, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1989): 11– 12, 22; Derek Bartholomaus, Billy Meier UFO Case website) January 31 — Night. Mike McKenna, security guard at the Pickering, Ontario, Nuclear Generating Station, sees 6 balls of light from his position at the east gate. They vary in color from bright red to almost white and remain in the area for nearly 2 hours. Two move in from Lake Ontario and hover above the plant’s service center. After remaining motionless for 30 minutes, they take off straight up at a rocket-like speed. (Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 120–121) January 31 —10: 2 0 p.m. Alan Lott is walking his dog in Caversham, Berkshire, England, when he sees a group of bright lights to the east. He calls his wife, Clarice, and they both view the lights through binoculars. They are moving slowly and silently in a straight line from east to west and are now directly above the Lotts’ house. The three brightest lights are orange-yellow and arranged in an equilateral triangle formation. There are two smaller lights, one red and another white. After 5 minutes, the formation vanishes behind houses and trees. (UFOFiles2, pp. 88– 90 )

February —Domestic birds, ducks, goats, rabbits, geese, cattle, pigs, and sheep are found dead throughout Puerto Rico with what one veterinarian characterizes as “strange wounds.” The deaths typically occur in the early morning hours and are caused by a sharp instrument that can punch through flesh and bone, usually in the neck region. Around this time and through July, some Puerto Ricans see large, unidentified birds, as well as UFOs. (Sebastian Robiou Lamarche, “UFOs and Mysterious Deaths of Animals, Part 1,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 5 (February 1977): 15–18; Sebastian Robiou Lamarche, “UFOs and Mysterious Deaths of Animals, Part 2,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 6 (April 1977): 6–10; Clark III 139 ) February — New York City psychic Ingo Swann receives a phone call from a friend in a government agency who tells him that he will be contacted by a “Mr. Axelrod.” One morning in March at 3:00 a.m., Axelrod calls Swann and asks him to be in Washington, D.C., at 12:00 noon. This leads to an unlikely adventure involving Swann’s remote viewing of a secret extraterrestrial base on the hidden side of the Moon and his “shocking” experience with a

sexy, scantily dressed female alien in a Los Angeles, California, supermarket. He concludes that extraterrestrials are living on Earth in humanoid bodies. Swann deduces that there are many extraterrestrials, that many are “bio- androids,” and that they are aware their only foes on Earth are psychics. Later, Swann and Mr. Axelrod take a flight to an unknown northerly destination, deduced by Swann as possibly Alaska. Along with two twin bodyguards, Swann and Axelrod attempt to secretly watch a recurrent UFO appear and suck up the water of a lake. Axelrod discloses that the silent, growing, oscillating triangle is simultaneously scanning the area and eliminating any animals, and that the silent beams emanating from the object are “blasting deer or porcupines from the woods or something.” The bodyguards realize they are discovered and the group is attacked by the UFO. Swann is thrown to safety by his colleagues and sustains a minor injury. (Wikipedia, “Ingo Swann”; Ingo Swann, Penetration: The Question of Extraterrestrial and Human Telepathy, Ingo Swann Books, 1998, pp. 23– 61 , 85 – 100 ) Early February — Night. A farmer is walking to his barn north of Lundar, Manitoba, when a red ball of light, 14– 16 inches in diameter, swoops low over his head. As he gazes up at it, he feels as if hot plastic is being poured on his head. He suffocates and cannot think clearly while it is above him. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 172) February 4 — Night. Three Pickering, Ontario, ambulance drivers, a Durham regional police constable, and Andy Parks, music director of radio station CHOO in Agincourt, watch pulsing, multicolored objects maneuvering above the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. Parks says they are “floating around, zipping this way and that.” (Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 121–122) February 10 — 7:00 p.m. Two 15-year-old boys in Annadale, Staten Island, New York, see a glowing ball, 20 feet in diameter, hovering about 400 feet away above some trees near a frozen pond. The brilliant orange mass compresses itself from football-shaped to basketball-shaped over a period of 10 minutes then suddenly disappears. Another witness who is walking a German shepherd dog around the same time reports that the dog reacted very nervously to something in the woods. The boys return early the next morning and find that some trees, ranging 5– 20 feet in height, have been sheared off and some are coated with a carbon-like substance. NICAP investigators have dirt and wood samples analyzed at a scientific laboratory and find that the trees are only superficially burned on their bark but that the fire is oil-based. They suspect the glowing object is a low-temperature fuel fire. (“Converging Ball of Light Mystifies Witnesses,” UFO Investigator, April 1975, p. 1) February 14 — 12:05 p.m. Antoine Séverin, 21, is on the slope of Piton du Calvaire, a hill outside Petite Île on the southern coast of Réunion in the Indian Ocean, when he hears a deafening beeping sound, feels a blast of heat, and sees a bright metallic object hovering about 5 feet above the ground. A ladder with three steps appears on the underside, and a small being like the “Michelin man” emerges. He is holding a shining object. Two other beings emerge, all with antennae on their heads. A fourth is visible through a porthole. Then Séverin is hurled onto his back by a powerful flash of light. The beings run up the ladder and withdraw it, then the UFO takes off, emitting a loud whistle. For several days he has blurred vision, impaired speech, and a medical diagnosis of shock. The Gendarmerie investigate the case and judge him to be mentally sound. (Lt.-Col. Lobet, “Atterrissage à Petit Île (Réunion) le 14 Février 1975,” Lumières dans la Nuit, no. 147 (Aug./Sept. 1975): 4–10; Lt.-Col. Lobet, “Another Close Contact on Réunion, Part 1,” Flying Saucer Review 25, no. 2 (July 1979): 6 – 10; Lt.-Col. Lobet, “Another Close Contact on Réunion, Part 2,” Flying Saucer Review 25, no. 2 (September 1979): 7 – 10 ; Patrick Gross, “Petit-Île, La Réunion, February 14, 1975”) February 17 — 9:00 p.m. Wheatland County Sheriff Richard Egebakken sees a bright, round object hovering about 500 feet near the Malmstrom AFB K- 01 Minuteman missile alert facility 1.7 miles east-northeast of Harlowton, Montana. When Deputy Larry Clifford drives to a point about one mile from the site, the object suddenly shoots up to 2,000 feet, stops, and hovers again. State Game Warden Gene Tierney says it is not an aircraft. Commissioner Edgar Langston, also a pilot, sees the object through binoculars from his ranch 15 miles south of Harlowton and sees an antenna-like protrusion on the top. Deputy Herb Lynn stops his pickup truck a few miles out of town to watch and sees it flitting around the sky in all sorts of crazy directions. Deputy Russ Mill, within a mile of K-01, describes a blue object bobbing up and down. Radar at Malmstrom AFB does not track anything. (UFOEv II 45 – 46) February 23 — Night. Glenn E. Bradley sees two large cylindrical objects like grain silos floating above Matachewan, Ontario. Both are shining white floodlights downward to the ground and have bright lights at the top. They are traveling to the west at about 30 mph. Bradley begins following them in his pickup truck. Outside the lights of the town he notices that the two silos are accompanied by smaller UFOs about 50 feet in diameter, all darting about at high speed. They appear to be entering and exit the larger silos. (“Silos over Ontario,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 6, no. 1 (Feb./March 1985): 5–6)

February 26 — 8:45 p.m. A former RAAF crewman and a companion are on a fishing trip to Lake Sorell, Tasmania, when they see three glowing objects in the northeast sky, one smaller than the other two. Two of the UFOs move closer and hover, then recede, intermittently obscured by clouds. Each has a pulsing red light on its base. The main larger object is an elongated disc with a row of twinkling red lights around the rim. After a bank of clouds go through with a passing storm, the object reappears, glows brightly, and suddenly zooms toward the witnesses at “phenomenal speed.” It stops abruptly about 2,900 feet away at a height of 490 feet, its lights dimming. It projects a brilliant, cone-shaped light beam toward the lake and sweeps it toward the terrain, illuminating the side of a mountain. Then it sweeps back across the lake beneath the object and fades out. The lake’s surface glows a fluorescent blue-white. The object then shoots away to the northeast. A second object, which has been hovering to the north toward Mount Penny, speeds off in the same direction. (“UFO and Light in Tasmania,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 6 (April 1977): 30–31; Story, pp. 344 – 345 ; UFOEv II 219 – 221 ; CUFOS case files)

March 2 — A police officer in Phillips, Wisconsin, hears odd noises on his patrol car radio, then he sees a disc-shaped object with a rounded hump on its top and bottom, along with red and orange lights on the bottom edge. He estimates the object is 30 feet in diameter. When he directs his spotlight on it, the object rapidly ascends. (Richard F. Haines, CE- 5 : Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind, Sourcebooks, 1998, p. 109) March 2 — 10:30 p.m. A couple and their daughter see a large, yellowish, egg-shaped light moving erratically in short spurts outside their home in the Great Swamp Management Area near West Kingston, Rhode Island. It then stops and hovers for 5 minutes. They then see two orange-white, ball-shaped objects drop from the large UFO and move northward at the approximate speed of an aircraft, disappearing over the horizon. The large object again moves erratically toward the southeast, gradually picking up speed. (“Object Ejects Small Spheres,” APRO Bulletin 24, no. 2 (August 1975): 4) March 7 — The US Embassy in Algiers, Algeria, sends a report to US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, stating that strange “machines” have been maneuvering over Algerian airspace since January, some near military installations and usually around 7: 00 – 7:30 p.m., often by multiple witnesses. An object with a bright light has been seen near Oran, Bechar, and off the coast on March 6 (when it is also confirmed on radar). (ClearIntent, pp. 79– 80 ) March 18 — 1:30 p.m. Pat McCarthy, 19, is in a quarry off Ontario Highway 5 near Waterdown, Ontario, trying to take photos of hawks. He is about to leave when he sees a dark object resembling a Frisbee. It is moving swiftly, and he takes four photos of it, capturing the object 3 times. He estimates the object is twice as long as a DC-8. He takes the camera to the Hamilton Spectator, which processes the film in its darkroom. (Hamilton (Ont.) Spectator, March 18–19, 27, 1975; “Canadian Photo Case,” APRO Bulletin 24, no. 4 (October 1975): 1, 3, 6; Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 15– 18 ) March 22 — 10:30 p.m. Two young men and three girls are driving along the Mount Flora to Dingo Beach Road about 50 miles from Nebo, Queensland, when they see a strange light in a gravel storage area to the left of the road. The object is a box-like mass, 8 feet high and 9 feet wide, with a row of flashing white-to-yellow lights about 3 feet above the ground and a circular mass above it. As they stop the car, the object emits a tremendous bang like a shotgun. They are startled and drive on, feeling that the circular mass is watching them, then they return to the original location, but the girls in the back seat are terrified. They drive 9 miles further and find a road construction crew and tell them about the UFO. The two men convince one of the workers to return to the spot, but the object is gone and they find unusual ground marks. On March 25, two investigating officers from RAAF Base Townsville examine three oval-shaped areas, one roughly circular area, and one rectangular area, all apparently recent and produced by a heavy weight or pressure. (Swords 405– 406 ; Bill Chalker, “Physical Traces,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 190– 192 ) March 28 — Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) writes, in response to an inquiry from UFO researcher Shlomo Arnon: “The subject of UFOs is one that has interested me for some long time. About ten or twelve years ago I made an effort to find out what was in the building at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base where the information is stored that has been collected by the Air Force, and I was understandably denied this request. It is still classified above Top Secret. I have, however, heard that there is a plan underway to release some, if not all, of this material in the near future.” (Good Above, p. 2 ; Nick Redfern, “UFOs and Senator Barry Goldwater,” Mysterious Universe, May 1, 2014)

April — Blue Book files are withdrawn from public access by Air Force Archives at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama, as the security classification and privacy review panel begins reviewing them, sanitizing witness names, and destroying or removing certain documents thought embarrassing. The redactions are made on the original paper files. (Sparks, pp. 6 – 7 )

April 1 — The Federal Aviation Administration approves cooperation with the Center for UFO Studies, authorizing air traffic controllers and other personnel to report UFO sightings as their workload permits. (Story, p. 417 ) April 3– 9 — Some 57 separate UFO sightings involving triangular or delta-shaped UFOs occur in the area around Lumberton, North Carolina. Many cases involve an object hovering silently at low altitude, accelerating instantly, and turning without banking. They are often seen at treetop level and with a bright and maneuverable spotlight. Among the witnesses are 48 police officers. (“Witnesses Discount Theory That UFO Was Airplane,” Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer, April 5, 1975, p. 19; “UFO ‘Mystery’ Returns with New N.C. Sightings,” Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer, April 6, 1975, p. 1; Jennie Zeidman, The Lumberton UFO Report: UFO Activity in S. North Carolina, April 3 – 9, 1975, CUFOS, 1976 ; “Landing Reported in N. Carolina,” Skylook, May 1975, pp. 3– 5 ; UFOEv II 347 – 348 ; Marler 91– 94 ) April 14 — Tage Eriksson, head of UFO investigations at the Swedish National Defence Research Institute, finds the work a waste of time and tries to get it transferred back to the Defense Staff. His request is denied. (Swords 368) April 20 — Night. Stationary beams of light are seen at San José de Jáchal, San Juan, Argentina. In a remote area, three imprints are found forming a 12-foot equilateral triangle surrounding a large smoke blot. Nearby plants are burned and stones are blackened. Some footprints are noted. Seven mushrooms nearly 8 inches tall are found growing there the following day. (Fred Merritt, “A Preliminary Classification of Some Reports of UFOs,” IUR 28, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 9) April 26 —2:00 a.m. Two young witnesses see a light descend briefly behind a school in Chomedey, Laval, Quebec, for a few seconds. They find a piece of metal and a hole in the ground. (Ted Phillips, Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings, CUFOS, 1975, p. 106)

May 3 — 8:00 a.m. A professional photographer is taking pictures of the Irma kød company south of Copenhagen, Denmark, when he sees a bright flash off to his right. When he develops one photo, the image shows an odd object tilted at an angle and slightly out of focus. (Kim Møller Hansen, “Danish UFO-Photo?” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 6 (Dec. 1984/Jan. 1985): 1–2) May 3 — 1:34 p.m. Carlos Antonio de los Santos Montiel is flying a Piper PA- 24 Comanche from Zihuatenejo, Guerrero, Mexico, to Mexico City at about 15,000 feet. While passing over Laguna de Tequesquitengo in Jojutla, Morelos, he feels a strange vibration in his airplane. Then he sees to the right, pacing alongside, a 1 0 - to 12-foot-diameter disc with a dome on top. Another appears to the left of the plane, and a third disc approaches head-on, dropping beneath the plane. Carlos feels a jolt as if the object has impacted. He pulls the landing gear lever, but it fails to operate. The plane feels as if it is pulled or lifted, and the controls refuse to respond. Although badly shaken, Carlos notifies Mexico City by radio, describing what is happening. At the same time, air control radar is showing unexplained objects near his plane that are capable of sharp turns, unlike normal aircraft. Finally, their blips merge on the radar screen and speed away toward Popocatépetl volcano. After the objects leave, Montiel is able to lower his landing gear manually and land safely. Aviation personnel who know him testify to his sobriety and trustworthiness. A week later, de los Santos is invited to discuss the sighting on a TV talk show. As he drives to the interview, a large black Cadillac limousine pulls in front of him on the freeway. An identical car appears behind, forcing him to the side of the road. Four tall, broad-shouldered, pale-skinned men in dark suits jump out and approach him, still in his car. Speaking Spanish in a mechanical tone, one warns him to keep quiet about the sighting “if you value your life and your family’s too.” He breaks his appointment, and does so a month later after another visit by the men in black before an interview with J. Allen Hynek. (NICAP, “UFOs ‘Escort’ Mexican Aircraft / Radar Confirmed”; “UFOs ‘Escort’ Mexican Aircraft,” APRO Bulletin 24, no. 2 (August 1975): 1, 3–4; Jerome Clark, “Carlos de los Santos and the Men in Black,” Flying Saucer Review 24, no. 4 (January 1979): 8–9; Clark III 730; UFOEv II 133 – 134 ; Patrick Gross, “Piper P24 Paced by Three Flying Discs, 1975”) May 3 — 9:15 p.m. Alois Olenick, 48, is driving west on Mogford Road south of San Antonio, Texas, when an amber- colored object rises up from a grove of trees. The object approaches him quickly, the light on its front changing from amber to red. When it hovers over his pickup for 10–20 seconds, the lights go out and the engine goes dead. He can see two occupants through a clear dome on the top of the UFO. They are bald with long prominent ears and long noses. The bottom of the object is “highly polished metal” that casts a reddish glow. Olenick hears no engine noise, only a shriek of wind. The object takes off straight up and vanishes instantly. (Gary Graber, “Two Occupants in Craft,” Skylook, no. 99 (February 1976): 3–4; Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34 , no. 1 (September 2011 ): 17 ; UFOEv II 461 – 462 ) May 4 — Before midnight. Paul Dedieu, his brother, and a friend are driving near Haywood, Manitoba, when they see an odd star. Red lightning seems to light it up and it zooms away, dripping molten metal and crashes in the vicinty of Lake Manitoba to the north. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 103)

May 6 — Day. A pilot testing some new equipment in his airplane southeast of Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, Ohio, sees three silvery UFOs with portholes flying in formation ahead and closing in on his aircraft. The pilot descends to 1,000 feet, but they keep pace, one on each wingtip, the third above the plane. The pilot levels off and climbs quickly to 3,000 feet, but the objects match his maneuvers for another 60 minutes. All the control panel instruments go haywire, and the pilot loses all sense of time. The UFOs are confirmed by base radar. (Stringfield, Situation Red, Fawcett Crest, 1977, pp. 145 – 146) May 12 — 11:30 p.m. Lyle Carson is in his farmhouse 2.5 miles east of Peesane, Saskatchewan, when he and his wife observe a green light for 10–15 minutes. On May 14, Carson is checking some fences and he comes across a perfectly round circle of burned grass, 5 feet in diameter and 6 inches thick on the outside edge. The RCMP take photos and samples. (Ted Phillips, Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings, CUFOS, 1975, p. 107; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 190) May 13– 14 — 11:30 p.m. Multiple witnesses see a bright light a few miles north of Carman, Manitoba, where it has been appearing so frequently since April 10 that it has been nicknamed “Charlie Redstar.” CKY-TV station employees Bill Kendricks and Allen Kerr see a light on the western horizon that rises up, moves slowly south, flashes brilliantly, then shoots straight up. Newspaper editor Howard Bennett and others see a smoky red light above some tall trees. Bennett leads investigators to a potential landing site. Using a radiation survey meter, they find a few radioactive hot spots about 255 feet apart, each with a radius of 25 feet. (Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 124– 126 ; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 161, 171 – 181 ) May 16 — Three men wander away from a party on the shore of Stephenfield Lake, Manitoba, when they see a “moon- shaped” object hovering over a dam on the far shore. As they watch, a beam of light shoots from the object to the surface of the lake. A glowing object appears underneath the surface and begins moving toward the witnesses. When it is about 20 feet away, one of them throws a rock at it. It appears to break into pieces and return to its original location, and the beam goes out. (Chris Rutkowski, Visitations? Manitoba UFO Experiences, Winter Press, 1989, p. 18; Carl W. Feindt, “Beam of Light into a Body of Water,” IUR 33, no. 3 (December 2010): 23) May 26 — 7:45 p.m. Didier Burr, 17, photographs a dark, disc-shaped object outside his second-story window in Nancy, France. The sighting only lasts 10–15 seconds. The photo shows a slightly blurry disc above a nearby building. (Patrick Gross, “Nancy, France, May 26, 1975”) May 30 — Russell Worobetz is cultivating some stubble near Hazel Dell, Saskatchewan, when he finds two burned areas in the center of his field. They are 5 feet in diameter and 4 feet apart. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 190)

Summer — Around 12:00 midnight. An orange object appears several times above two fishing trawlers one mile off the coast of Topsail Beach, North Carolina. (Cordy Hieronymus, “Out of the Past,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 1 (Feb./March 1984): 6) June — Historian David M. Jacobs publishes The UFO Controversy in America, based on his Ph.D. dissertation in history. It becomes a classic history of UFOs and the investigations of the Air Force and other government agencies. (David M. Jacobs, The UFO Controversy in America, Indiana University, 197 5 ; Clark III 629) June 20 — 11:10 p.m. A Royal Canadian Mounted Police constable patrolling on Grand Valley Road northwest of Brandon, Manitoba, notices a bright white light to the northwest, apparently in the area of Kirkham’s Bridge. Another RCMP in the bridge area sees the light 10 minutes later, apparently 220–300 feet above the ground. One officer attempts to close with the light unsuccessfully until he is 3 miles southeast of Hamiota. It flashes red and disappears at 12:15 a.m. (Patrick Gross, “Files Obtained from the National Archives of Canada”) June 23 — 12:37 p.m. A British naval vessel is stationed off the west coast of Ireland in a thick fog when the radar operator picks up an echo, presumably a surface vessel closing in on the ship. However, the blip accelerates to an “impossible” speed in one minute. The operator notifies the captain, who files a report. The case is investigated by the Ministry of Defence. (Peter Bottomley and Gordon Clegg, “MoD Tracks UFO on Radar,” BUFORA Journal 4, no. 12 (March/April 1976): 8–10; Nick Redfern, A Covert Agenda: UFO Secrecy Exposed, Simon & Schuster, 1997, pp. 128– 129 ) June 30 — The USAF Aerospace Defense Command becomes the US executive agent in NORAD. Its Continental Air Defense Command, which it had taken over in 1957, is disestablished and transferred to the Aerospace Defense Command. (Wikipedia, “Aerospace Defense Command”)

Early July — 3:00 a.m. Four young people camping out on the shore of the Charvak Reservoir in Uzbekistan wake up in terror for no apparent reason. They see a glowing sphere rise silently from under the water about one-half mile

from shore. Concentric circles of varying thickness and brightness form around it. They watch it for 7 minutes, completely terrified. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, pp. 121–122) July — François Breuil begins publishing L ’ Insolite in Mâcon, Saône-et-Loire, France. It continues until January 1982. (L ’ Insolite, no. 1 (July 1975)) July — 2:00 a.m. Margareta Ivanciov is walking from the train station in Teremia Mare, Romania, when she sees a bright yellow-orange globe nearly 2 feet in diameter floating about 90 feet in front of her and 7 feet above the pavement. It speeds up when she approaches it, keeping the same distance. She notices that it is composed of thousands of bright dots emanating the same color light. It disappears around a corner, anticipating her route, and follows her home, where it hovers briefly before moving into a neighbor’s yard. (Romania 41–42) July — 9:30 p.m. A family of four is driving home along the Tasman Highway near Hobart Airport, Cambridge, Tasmania. The interior of the car becomes hot, the engine stalls, and they roll to a stop. Although there is no smell in the air, the family feels that they can taste something like gasoline. Then they see an object hovering above the road ahead of them. It seems 650 – 980 feet distant and 65 feet in the air. It looks round, is colored a metallic grayish-white, and has its own irridescence or glow. The diameter is close to the width of the road, perhaps 16 feet. They stare at the object for 2 minutes. Suddenly, in a spiraling take-off, the object speeds away to the south. The husband is a car mechanic, and he finds nothing wrong with the car. He gets back in, starts the car, and they go home without further incident, although the object still is visible several more minutes as a diminishing light. (“UFO Reports from Around Australia,” ACOS Bulletin, no. 12 (December 1977): 11) July 1 — Day. A Dutch couple on vacation snap a photo of the panoramic landscape of the Pyrenees mountains just after leaving El Pas de la Casa, Andorra. They have the roll developed in Calafell, Catalonia, Spain, and are surprised to see a strange, yellow-and-orange object in motion in the foreground and casting a distinct shadow. Investigators from the Netherlands UFO group NOBOVO determine that the object is really a road sign photographed directly from their slow-moving vehicle (the speed of the car was estimated to be no more than 22 mph). (Wim van Utrecht, “Spinning UFO Photographed during Take-Off,” Caelestia) July 6 — 5:00 p.m. Joe Borda is doing farm chores at Mount Pleasant, Ontario, when he sees a domed metallic cylinder landed in a tobacco field. Thinking it is probably a tank truck, he continues and goes home. On July 8, he comes across a circular crushed patch of tobacco plants about 30–40 feet in diameter. Inside the circle are two spots of some substance, reddish purple in color, that feels slippery and oily. The provincial police remove some soil samples; they are not radioactive and do not contain oil. (Graham Conway, “Strange Voice Heard after UFO Landing,” Canadian UFO Report 3, no. 8 (Summer 1976): 1–2) July 14 — Ground Saucer Watch of Phoenix, Arizona, headed by William Spaulding, files a FOIA request with the CIA for copies of all of its UFO documents or investigations. (ClearIntent, p. 113 ) July 1 5 – 16 — 8:15 p.m. David Burgess, an official at Khami Prison in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and a friend see from their car an orange object, almost circular with a flat bottom and a rounded top, hovering above the prison about 1– 2 miles away. At 8:45 p.m., another official sees an object in the same place. The following night at 7:30 p.m., a bright silvery object is seen hovering motionless 2–3 miles northeast of the prison by a Mr. and Mrs. Rossiter and their three children. It then moves rapidly to the east. (“Southern Africa Reports Several UFO Sightings,” Skylook, October 1975, pp. 14 – 15 ) July 22 — 5:00 p.m. A young boy on holiday with his family in Wales wanders by himself to the top of Wylfa Hill, south of Machynlleth, Powys, Wales. At the top he sees an apparently landed object. About 4 0 feet wide, it is comprised of a 7-foot round base and surmounted by a clear plastic–like, hemispherical dome. Large round lights about 5 feet in diameter are spaced evenly around the base, about 7 of which are visible, shining in strange colors. Each seems to be recessed into the silvery, metallic base. Clearly seen within the dome is a 7-foot-tall, 15-foot-wide, metallic unit, Two “jelly-like” entities are seen next to it, one on each side. They are approximately 7 feet tall, a whitish-translucent color, amorphous, and constantly changing shape. Inside each entity are hundreds of 6-inch, white, disc-like forms, similar to doughnuts. When another of these entities floats toward the object, the boy flees the scene and unsuccessfully tries to persuade his father to take a look. Returning alone, the boy sees the object carrying the entities disappear by pulsing in and out and changing color rapidly to match those of the surrounding sky and grass. It then “merges” into them. Immediately afterward, the boy suffers acute shock and what a doctor diagnoses as hysterical blindness in one eye that persists for months. (Andrew Collins, “Jelly-like Entities at Machynlleth,” Flying Saucer Review 24, no. 4 (January 1979): 14–16) July 26 — 3:00 p.m. Three Dutch hikers are about to take on the last kilometers of a two-day mountain trip in the Swiss Alps when they allegedly encounter a circular object hovering in the air in front of them. It seems to be made of “some sort of metal, not unlike aluminum,” is dull gray in color, and resembles an inverted soup plate. The strange contraption is approximately 50 feet in diameter and appears to be suspended over the small village of Zwischbergen, Valais, Switzerland, some 328 – 1,640 feet away. One of them succeeds in taking a color slide of

the phenomenon. Immediately after the photo is taken, the object starts to move and glides behind the trees, where it disappears from view. Possible hoax. (“The Saas Fee Photo,” IUR 20, no. 3 (May/June 1995): 19 ; Wim van Utrecht, “The Zwischbergen ‘Saas Fee’ Photo,” Caelestia, July 15, 2000) July 31 — 7:30 a.m. Farmer Danie van Graan goes to inspect his sheep enclosure at Loxton, Northern Cape, South Africa, and sees a silvery disc with prong-like legs. He approaches to within 15 feet of it. Through a large window he can see 4 people, one standing near a panel of flashing colored lights, the other three apparently looking at some device. The entities are about 5 feet tall, thin and pale, and are wearing whitish coveralls with hoods hanging down around their necks. They have fair-colored hair, slanted eyes, and sharp, pointed chins. They all suddenly look up at him, and van Graan hears a “tick” noise as a light beam hits him in the face. Ill and confused, he tries to avoid the beam. His nose bleeds and he starts vomiting. The humming increases to a sharp whine, and the object takes off at a sharp angle. Later investigation reveals 4 marks on the outside perimeter of a circle 30 feet in diameter impressed in the ground, with crisscrossed central markings. A deposit of small, green granules is found near the center; analysis shows this to be carbon dust, grit, shale with feldspar inclusions, and thaumasite. Nothing grows in the affected area later. (UFO EvII 493–494) Late July or early August — 9:00 p.m. A married couple and their small son are driving in the country near Pittsburg, Kansas, when the wife notices an object moving quickly toward them. It comes across the highway at about telephone pole height. The object is round and glowing intensely, with even more intense, small panels inset all around it. It is as wide as the highway and remains hovering. The man pulls the car over and the UFO begins to pull away. They continue following it, but the object changes its motion frequently. Finally it picks up speed and blinks out. (Michael D. Swords, “Unusual Experiences from the Timmerman Files,” IUR 27, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 21 – 22)

August — The Aviation and Air Defense division of the Swiss Army draws up a seven-page report on UFOs. (“Forscher findet verschollene UFO-Akten der Schweiz,” Grenzwissenschaft-Aktuell, July 8, 2013; “The Swiss X-Files,” Fortean Times 312 (April 2014): 24) August 13 — 1:15 a.m. Sgt. Charles L. Moody, stationed at Holloman AFB, is out in the desert near Alamogordo, New Mexico, awaiting a meteor shower. He sees a metallic disc drop from the sky some 300 feet in front of him. It is about 50 feet long, 20 feet wide, and faintly luminous. It stops descending at 20 feet altitude and begins approaching Moody. Uneasy, he gets in his car and turns the ignition on, but the engine is dead. Moody can see an oblong window in the UFO and shadow figures moving within. He hears a high-pitched sound like a dental drill for a short time, then he feels numb. The next thing he knows, the UFO is ascending and disappears from sight within seconds. The car starts and he drives home, where he notices the time is 3:00 a.m., representing about 90 minutes he can’t account for. Moody gets a pain in his lower back in the afternoon. Soon he is put in touch with APRO’s Jim Lorenzen, who calls him on August 21. Moody now has a heat rash on his lower body. His memories about the incident eventually return, and the Lorenzens visit him in 1976 at an overseas post where he narrates an abduction scenario with shortish, human-like aliens with big heads and wearing coveralls. (L. J. Lorenzen, “The Moody Case,” APRO Bulletin 24, no. 12 (June 1976): 6; L. J. Lorenzen, “The Moody Case,” APRO Bulletin 25, no. 1 (July 1976): 2, 5–6; Lorenzen, Abducted! Confrontations with Beings from Outer Space, Berkley, 1977, pp. 38– 51 ; Good Need, pp. 323 – 325 ; Story, pp. 233 – 234 ; Clark III 770– 771 ) August 14 — 9:35 p.m. Maj. Claude Riddle is flying a helicopter at 900 feet while approaching Stockton (California) Metropolitan Airport. Suddenly, air traffic controller Joe Savage sees flashing lights closing in on him in a collision course. When he advises Riddle to take evasive action, the object turns orange and shoots up to 5,000 feet, where it hovers. Riddle looks behind him and sees another light trailing him a mile or so away. When he swings around, he sees it shimmering like a diamond and as big as a jetliner. Two blue beams come out from the sides. Dan Long, another controller sees the object through field glasses at an altitude of about 2,000 feet, then it moves upward while emitting a glow of green-tinted smoke and flashing red lights. Gary Duran and two friends also see the object while walking near the airport. After 5 minutes of hovering near the airport, the object turns bright red and shoots off. (“California Pilot Encounters UFO,” Skylook, no. 99, February 1976 , p. 16) August 20 — Evening. Police stations in the area of Albany, New York, receive numerous calls about UFO sightings. State Trooper Michael Morgan is dispatched to the scene of one of the sightings, where a police detective is observing a blimp-sized object hovering at 500 feet over Lake Saratoga. As the reddish, glowing UFO flashes on and off, two smaller objects approach and merge with it. Air traffic controllers at Albany Airport locate the object on a radar scanner. After a few minutes, the two smaller objects break away and leave in the direction from which they had come. The first object moves toward the two policemen who see a brilliant white light shining from the center of its base as it passes over them. Silently, the craft turns and moves away slowly. Suddenly, the UFO disappears. After tracking the target for 45 minutes, the radar operators lose contact with it. However, within a

short time, they receive a call from the pilot of a military airplane who warns them that he has just seen a red fireball 1,000 feet above him headed toward the airport. The controllers locate the object just as it enters the 50 - mile range of one of their radarscopes. The anti-clutter device is thrown to ascertain whether or not the blip is a radar angel, but the image still comes through clearly. The controllers estimate its speed to be 3,000 mph. About five miles outside Albany, the target vanishes. The controllers speculate that it has either accelerated to a speed of 5,000 mph or has executed a seemingly impossible vertical maneuver at high speed. During the same time as the Albany sightings, large discs and bright lights are seen at low altitude less than 50 miles north over the South Glens Falls area and as far north as Lake George. The case is investigated by Ernest Jahn, who contacts the Smithsonian Institution in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They are unable to give any explanation for the sightings. (Margaret Sachs, UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, pp. 10– 11 ) August 26 — 3:15 a.m. Terry O’Leary, his girlfriend Jackie Larson, and Jackie’s mother Sandy Larson leave Fargo, North Dakota for Bismarck, which they plan to reach around 7:00 a.m. Forty-five miles into their trip on Interstate 94, they see a brilliant flash of light and sounds like thunder. About 50 yards away on their left, they watch 8– 10 orange, glowing objects heading south to east. One is distinctly larger than the others. The lights descend in a straight line at a 30° angle until they stop over a grove of trees. Suddenly one of the objects splits in half and others shoot away. At this point, the witnesses feel peculiar sensations of being unable to move. Jackie finds herself sitting in the back seat (she had been in the front seat with the others) and the lights are gone. The witnesses drive on to Tower City, North Dakota, where Sandy notes the time is 5:23 a.m., an hour later than it should have been. Through a mutual friend, Sandy eventually contacts ufologist Jerome Clark, who puts her in touch with psychologist R. Leo Sprinkle, who has used hypnotic regression in abduction cases. Sprinkle conducts three hypnotic sessions with Sandy and Jackie Larson on December 4–6. Sandy remembers a 6-foot-tall entity that looks like a mummy, various medical procedures, and a journey to a place with sand. She has further regressions with Sprinkle in January and February 1976, and she describes an otherworldly journey with three beings on a UFO. Clark writes: “What makes the Larson story interesting, in retrospect, however, is its anticipation of many abduction motifs which, though barely noted or entirely unknown in 1975, had become repeatedly demonstrated aspects of the experience by the late 1980s. (Clark III 675– 678 ; Lorenzen, Abducted! Confrontations with Beings from Outer Space, Berkley, 1977, pp. 52– 69 )

September? — 10:30 p.m. Lt. Rafael Muñoz Pastor is returning to Jerez air base [now Jerez Airport], Jerez de la Frontera, Cádiz, Spain, piloting a Grumman AN-1 antisubmarine aircraft with four other crew members. He is flying at 3,500 feet and is already on the landing approach to Jerez, when he receives a call from the Seville air traffic center asking him if he can see any aircraft over Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Cádiz, where they have a radar target. The crew is seeing a “round light, brilliant red in color and with yellowish edges” in the area, so they are ordered to get closer. When they are 4–5 miles from Sanlúcar, the red ball ascends vertically from 1,000 feet to some 10,000–20,000 feet. Numerous residents of Sanlúcar also see the object from cafes. An F-5A fighter is scrambled from Morón Air Base in Seville province, which also spotted the object, and the Grumman returns to Jerez after viewing the light for an estimated 45 minutes. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, “Spanish Military UFO Encounter,” IUR 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 7–9) September 3 — 8:00 p.m. Three witnesses in Tujunga, California, see two helicopters following a UFO. The top of the object is a vibrant blue green, the middle portion white, and the bottom part red. It appears to change to a saucer shape and zigzags around the sky. Shortly before 11:00 p.m., the witnesses see the lights go on at a nearby Nike missile base in the mountains. Afterward, the witnesses’ eyes turn red and painful. (Ann Druffel, “California Report: The Mystery Helicopters,” Skylook, no. 99, February 1976, pp. 8 – 9 ) September 11 — Sen. Floyd K. Haskell (D-Colo.) contacts the FBI and relates his concern about dead and mutilated cattle found in Colorado and other western states. The mutilations involve loss of ears, eyes, and genitalia, with most of the blood drained from the carcasses. Haskell estimates there have been 130 mutilations in 9 states during the past two years. He has also heard that US Army helicopters have been seen near the sites of some of the mutilations. (Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Animal Mutilation Part 1 of 5,” FBI Records: The Vault, pp. 12–18) September 14 — Calling themselves The Two (or Bo and Peep), Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles hold a meeting in a hotel in Waldport, Oregon. When 20 of the 300 audience members disappear after the meeting, the Oregon State Police launch an investigation. Other audience members think the topic is vague but involves something about leaving in a UFO from a camp somewhere in Colorado. (Clark III 565) September 27 — The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics hosts a symposium, “Hypotheses Concerning the Origin of UFOs,” sponsored by the Los Angeles, California, section. The proceedings are published under the title Thesis and Antithesis. (Story, p. 417 )

Fall — A married couple and the husband’s business partner purchase an abandoned ranch property in a remote rural area of western Colorado, hoping to turn it into a working cattle ranch. Not long after moving in, numerous weird events start taking place that last for a two-year period: whirring noises, UFOs, strange footprints in the snow, hairy bigfoot-like creatures, and UFO occupants. The witnesses eventually move back to Denver, where they are interviewed by geologist John S. Derr and psychologist R. Leo Sprinkle, as well as R. Martin Wolf, Steven Mayne, and Jerome Clark. (John S. Derr and R. Leo Sprinkle, “Multiple Phenomena on Colorado Ranch,” APRO Bulletin 27, no. 1 (July 1978): 5–8; John S. Derr and R. Leo Sprinkle, “Multiple Phenomena on Colorado Ranch, Part 2,” APRO Bulletin 27, no. 2 (August 1978): 7 – 8; John S. Derr and R. Leo Sprinkle, “Multiple Phenomena on Colorado Ranch, Part 3,” APRO Bulletin 27, no. 3 (September 1978): 6–8; John S. Derr and R. Leo Sprinkle, “Multiple Phenomena on Colorado Ranch, Part 4,” APRO Bulletin 27, no. 4 (October 1978): 5–8; John S. Derr and R. Leo Sprinkle, “Multiple Phenomena on a Rocky Mountain Ranch, Part 5,” APRO Bulletin 27, no. 5 (November 1978): 5 – 8; John S. Derr and R. Leo Sprinkle, “Multiple Phenomena on a Rocky Mountain Ranch, Part 6,” APRO Bulletin 27, no. 6 (December 1978): 7–8; John S. Derr and R. Leo Sprinkle, “Multiple Phenomena on a Rocky Mountain Ranch, Conclusion,” APRO Bulletin 27, no. 7 (January 1979): 5–8; Clark III 558–559) Fall — Evening. Two soldiers of a Chinese People’s Liberation Army unit stationed in Jianshui County, Yunnan, China, encounter a huge saucer-shaped object circling above their heads and emitting beams of soft orange-colored light. One of the men runs into the camp to sound an alarm, while the other stays to watch it. A few minutes later, the camp commandant and about a dozen armed men run up to the barracks entrance and find no trace of the soldier who had stayed behind. The commandant orders all officers and enlisted men to search, but they do not find him. A few hours later, four soldiers taking over sentry duty suddenly hear the sound of someone moaning behind them. They see the missing man, who has reappeared. His eyebrows, beard, and hair have grown extremely long. When he fully regains consciousness, his memory is completely gone. His wristwatch shows that it had stopped long ago. His weapons and watch are found to be slightly magnetized. (Paul Dong, “Extracts from Paul Dong’s Feidie Bai Wen Bai Da (Questions and Answers on UFOs),” Flying Saucer Review 29, no. 6 (August 1984): 17; Clark III 653) Fall — 4:00 a.m. A couple driving east toward Toppenish, Washington, see a bright white light that appears overhead and slightly ahead of them. At first they think it might be a helicopter with a searchlight, but then an area about one mile in diameter lights up around their car, their radio becomes noisy, and their headlights dim. The flood-lit area suddenly goes out and the light speeds up in the sky and disappears. When they reach Ahtanum, Washington, about 25 miles from the first incident, the bright light again appears overhead briefly, then streaks away and disappears. (W. J. Vogel, “The Yakimas and ‘Earthlights,’” IUR 9, no. 3 (May/June 1984): 3) October — University of Montana sociologists Robert Balch and David Taylor locate the followers of Applewhite and Nettles in Arizona and join the group clandestinely. The Two make themselves scarce, fearing an infiltration and possible assassination. Balch and Taylor describe the cult in a Psychology Today article in October 1976 and articles in sociological journals. (Robert W. Balch and David Taylor, “Salvation in a UFO,” Psychology Today 10, no. 5 (October 1976): 58–62, 66, 106; Robert W. Balch and David Taylor, “Seekers and Saucers: The Role of the Cultic Milieu in Joining a UFO Cult,” American Behavioral Scientist 20, no. 6 (July/Aug. 1977): 839–860; Robert W. Balch, “Waiting for the Ships: Disillusionment and the Revitalization of Faith in Bo and Beep’s UFO Cult,” in James R. Lewis, ed., The Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds, State University of New York, 1995, pp. 137–166; Clark III 565– 566 ) October 7 — 8:00 p.m. After his sister calls and alerts him to a “fiery glow” near his barn on Three Mile Lake Road north of Bracebridge, Ontario, Robert Suffern, 27, drives to the spot and finds no fire. However, when he starts going back to his sister’s house he finds a large disc-shaped object resting in his path. The UFO quickly ascends and is lost to sight. When he turns around and starts heading to his own home, a small figure wearing a helmet and silver-gray walks in an “ape-like fashion” in front of his car, causing him to hit the brakes. It runs into a field. Suffern gets out and puts his hands on a post and he seemingly becomes weightless, making it easy to jump over the fence. Later that night he sees an “orange fluorescent light” in the pasture of his property. Moments later, he receives two phone calls telling him not to interfere. On October 12 at 3:00 a.m. Suffern receives a phone call from a “Lt. Colin Hunter” from the White House and leaves a number to call him back. He calls the number later and talks to a military officer claiming to be Lt. Col. Waters. A month later, he and his wife are given a thorough examination by Canadian military doctors. (Patrick Gross, URECAT, September 13, 2006; “The Robert Suffern UFO Encounter,” Above Top Secret forum, September 26, 2009; John Greenewald, “Suffern Three Mile Lake Incident: UFO Lands on Road, White House Reportedly Calls,” The Black Vault, July 6, 2017; Clark III 358 ) October 17 — Morning. Masaki Machida, a TV reporter for the Akita Broadcasting Company, is at Akita Airport in Akita Prefecture, Japan, when he sees a disc-shaped object descending in the east. Air traffic controllers and passengers watch the golden disc with white lights hover 5,000 feet above the ground some 5 miles from the airport.

Telecommunications officer Kenichi Waga warns all pilots to watch out for the UFO. Toa Domestic Airlines pilot Capt. Masarus Saito says the object looks like two plates put together. After 5 minutes, it flies off to the west. (Margaret Sachs, UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, p. 10 ) October 18 — 12:30 a.m. John Struble is driving his truck 25 miles northwest of Helena, Montana, when he notices a large object, 50 feet in diameter and 25 – 30 feet in the air. The object passes over his truck from the rear and then stops and hovers about 3 00 feet ahead of him. It directs a very bright light at him, causing the truck’s lights and engine to go out. The UFO remains for about 5 minutes before it moves away. The object makes a noise like a big jet and then rockets straight up into the sky and moves away to the east at an incredible speed. When the UFO disappears the truck’s lights and engine come back on. Struble notices that his nonelectric watch has stopped for 5 minutes, the duration of the sighting. (ClearIntent, p. 33 ) October 20 — An NBC-TV movie, The UFO Incident, on the Betty and Barney Hill abduction case airs, starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons. It is based on the book The Interrupted Journey by John G. Fuller. (Wikipedia, “The UFO Incident”) Late October — 2:45 a.m. James D. Appleman of Bensalem, Pennsylvania, sees two large condensation trails making a giant X just above the moon. For several nights he has been noticing two unusual stars forming different shapes, and he thinks this might be related. He grabs his camera and takes three black-and-white photos. Two of the photos show two irregular light blobs, which he does not remember seeing when he exposed the film. In 1980, he sends a copy of the photos to the Center for UFO Studies because they resemble the lights in two undated photos taken from an airplane by J. Allen Hynek that appeared in his book The UFO Experience. (“Did a Twin Photograph a Twin UFO?” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 1 (January 1981): 1; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, Ballantine, 1974, opp. p. 151) Late October — Near 12:00 midnight. An incident occurs near Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, the home of the National Combat Operations Center, that triggers a Security Option 5 Alert. According to an informant at the center interviewed by Francis Ridge, nobody is allowed to enter the base, except cleared, high-ranking officers or cleared security patrols. No one is to leave. Those personnel on base who have just completed duty are rolled out of bed. Jet interceptors are scrambled. Unidentified targets are tracked on radar for at least 20 minutes. In fact, everything they put in the air for an attack on the US is airborne. The base stays on alert through 6:00 a.m. (NICAP, “Security Option 5 Alert at NORAD”) October 27 — 3:00 a.m. Factory workers David Stephens and Glen Gray are sitting in a trailer they share in Norway, Maine, when they hear something explode outside. Briefly puzzled, they decide to go for a drive to nearby Thompson Lake. A short distance down the road, their vehicle abruptly turns onto a back road leading into Oxford, Maine. Gray no longer has control of the steering. Two minutes later, they pass through Oxford, a trip that normally takes 10 minutes, and down the eastern side of Thompson Lake. A mile south of Oxford, they see a herd of cows resting on the ground and shaking their heads from side to side. A few seconds later, they see two white lights on their left in a cornfield. The lights suddenly rise into the air. Gray stops the car, rolls down the windows and listen for the sounds of an engine, but the lights are soundless. Now they have a good view of a huge, cylinder-shaped object 20–30 feet away. Around its body are green, blue, and yellow lights that suddenly go out when the object ascends above a row of trees. Gray starts the car and roars down the road, followed by the UFO. The next thing they know, they are a mile farther down the road, the car stopped. Their eyes feel like they are on fire and appear orange. The UFO is visible in the eastern sky. They drive into West Poland, Maine, turn around, and go back the way they came. After a few minutes the UFO disappears, and they decide to go south again. For no reason, Gray turns onto a gravel road leading to Tripp Pond, where the engine stalls and the radio goes out. They can see the cylinder-shaped UFO in the sky about 500 feet away, which moves farther away as soon as they notice it. Some 45 minutes later, two disc-shaped objects with colored lights appear, and a thick fog rises out of Tripp Pond, engulfing the car. The radio abruptly turns on, and as they drive further, they receive a mental impression indicating that “We’re not done with you yet. We are coming back for you.” It is now 6:30 a.m. At 7:00 a.m., they arrive at Stephens’s parents’ house in Oxford, suffering from burning eyes, sore throats, and aching teeth. They are not speaking coherently. Gray has some hallucinations later in the day while watching TV. Maine ufologists Shirley Fickett and Brent Raynes soon hear about the case and meet with the two on the evening of October 28. Many unusual events take place that night and the next day, so Fickett contacts hypnotist Herbert Hopkins, 58, in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. He conducts eight hypnosis sessions between December 1975 and March 1976. Gray becomes upset early in the investigation, so only Stephens’s testimony is complete. It indicates an abduction scenario similar to other cases. (Brent M. Raynes, “The Twilight Side of a UFO Encounter,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 2 (July 1976): 11–14; Shirley M. Fickett, “The Maine UFO Encounter: Investigation under Hypnosis,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 2 (July 1976): 14–17; Berthold Eric Schwarz, “Comments on the Psychiatric-Paranormal Aspects of the Maine Case,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 2 (July

1976): 18 – 22; Lorenzen, Abducted! Confrontations with Beings from Outer Space, Berkley, 1977, pp. 70– 79 ; Marcus Lowth, “The Disturbing Alien Encounter of David Stephens,” UFO Insight, August 29, 2018; Clark III 861 – 865 ) October 27 — 7:45 p.m. S/Sgt. Danny K. Lewis is patrolling the weapons dump at Loring AFB [now Loring International Airport] near Limestone, Maine, when he sees an unidentified aircraft approaching the north perimeter at an altitude of about 300 feet. It has a red navigation light and a white strobe light. The craft enters the perimeter of the base. In the control tower, S/Sgt. James P. Sampley of the 2192nd Communications Squadron is on radar duty and gets a return from an unknown target 10– 13 miles east-northeast of Loring. Sampley makes numerous attempts by radio on all available communications bands, civilian and military, to contact the craft, but he gets no response. The unidentified craft circles and comes within 300 yards of the restricted nuclear storage area at a low altitude of 150 feet. Back at the weapons dump, Lewis notifies his Command Post at the 42 Bomb Wing that an unknown aircraft has penetrated the base perimeter. The base is immediately put on major alert status, a Security Option 3, and Security contacts the tower. (ClearIntent, pp. 16 – 26 ; Nukes 361– 363 , 369– 371 ) October 27 — 8:45 p.m. Sgt. Grover K. Eggleston of the 2192nd Communications Squadron is on duty at the Loring AFB [now Loring International Airport] tower near Limestone, Maine, when the call from the Command Post comes in. He observes the unknown target. Six minutes later, Eggleston notes that the target appears to be circling approximately 10 miles east-northeast of the base. This action lasts for 40 minutes when, suddenly, it disappears from the screen. Either the object has landed or it has dropped below the radar coverage. The Wing Commander arrives at the weapons storage area 7 minutes after the initial sighting. Immediately other units of the 42nd Police begin pouring into the area. Security vehicles with blue flashing lights are converging from all over the base. Through the Loring Command Post, the Wing Commander requests fighter coverage from the 21st NORAD Region at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base, Syracuse, New York, and the 22nd NORAD Region at North Bay, Ontario. However, fighter support is denied by both regions. The Wing Commander then increases local security posture and requests assistance from the Maine State Police in trying to identify the unknown craft, which they presume is a helicopter. They make a call to local flight services for possible identification, without results. The 42nd Security Police conduct a sweep of the weapons storage perimeter inside and out. An additional sweep is made of the areas that the craft has flown over. All actions produce no results. The craft breaks the circling pattern and begins flying toward Grand Falls, New Brunswick. Radar contact is lost in the vicinity of Grand Falls, 12 miles from Loring. Canadian authorities are not notified. (NICAP, “UFO Circles Weapons Storage Area”; ClearIntent, pp. 16– 26 ; Nukes 361–363, 369– 371 ) October 28 — 7:45 p.m. While patrolling the weapons storage area, S/Sgt. Danny K. Lewis, along with Sgt. Clifton W. Blakeslee and Sgt. William J. Long, again spots the lights of an unidentified aircraft approaching Loring AFB near Limestone, Maine, from the north at an altitude of about 3,000 feet. It approaches to within about 3 miles of the base perimeter and is seen to have a flashing white light and an amber or orange light. Lewis reports the sighting to his Command Post, and the Wing Commander comes out to the weapons storage area to see for himself. He reports seeing an object whose speed and motion are similar to that of a helicopter. The craft is also observed on radar and observed over the flight line by Sgt. Steven Eichner, Sgt. R. Jones, and others. They see an orange and red object shaped like a stretched-out football hovering in mid-air. It turns out its lights and then reappears making jerky motions, then hovers about 150 feet over the end of the runway. It is about four car- lengths long, solid, reddish-orange, with no doors or windows, and with no visible propellers or engines. It is completely silent. The base goes on full alert and a sweep is made by security, but the object turns off its lights and is not seen again. Radar picks up a target moving in the direction of Grand Falls, New Brunswick. SAC Headquarters is again notified. October 29 — 1:00 a.m. Another unidentified helicopter is seen near the weapons storage area at Loring AFB, Maine. October 29 or 30 — 4:00 p.m. A radar-visual UFO sighting takes place at Wurtsmith AFB [now Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport] near Oscoda, Michigan. (NICAP, “Shiny Disc Hovers over Restricted Area”) October 30 — 10:10–11:00 p.m. A series of unidentified helicopter sightings take place in a secure area in Wurtsmith AFB [now Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport], Michigan, by security police on the ground and by the crew of a KC- 135 tanker returning from a refueling mission piloted by Maj. Frederick Pappas and 5 crew members. The tanker at 2 ,700 feet has visual and skin paint over Lake Huron for about 20 miles heading southeast. The light hovers and moves up and down in an erratic manner. The tanker follows the object for 1–2 hours, but never get close enough to see anything other than a single, steady orange light. (NICAP, “UFO Chased by KC-135 Tanker”; Nukes 371– 372 ; Skinwalkers 124) October 31 — 11:17 p.m. A visual sighting of an unidentified object is reported 4 miles northwest of Loring AFB, Maine. The alert helicopter is launched to identify the object but is unable to make contact and is launched again at 1:46

a.m., in response to a slow-moving target picked up by RAPCON radar. (NICAP, “RAPCON Tracks Slow-
Moving Target during Loring Intrusions”)

Early November — 8:00–9:00 p.m. Bill Jackson, a reporter for the Sterling (Colo.) Advocate, his wife Cheryl, and their young child are driving on State Highway 61 halfway between Otis and Sterling, Colorado, when they see a red light in the sky ahead of them. As it approaches, they see it is a huge object (as big as a 747) with a dozen rows of multicolored lights, perhaps hundreds of them. It passes slowly over their car, so close that Jackson thinks he can hit it with a stone. They drive at high speed the rest of the way to Sterling. (Richard Sigismond, “A CE-I, a Lonely Road, a Black Night,” IUR 9, no. 3 (May/June 1984): 5, 9) November 2 — Night. Witnesses in Medford, Minnesota, including Helen Kay, see a brilliant orange-red light go behind a building, where they suspect it has landed. At the location, they find a bare spot, 12 feet square, of burned grass and ashy residue. At some distance away they see a red ball of light above the trees and try to catch up with it by car but it eludes them. Soil samples from the alleged landing site are submitted to geologist Edward J. Zeller at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, who subjects them to an examination using thermoluminescence and finds the readouts normal for the center of the trace but severely elevated at the edges. He suspects that the edges have been subjected to hard ionizing radiation, but this is not conclusive. (“UFO Sighting Noted,” Fergus Falls (Minn.) Daily Journal, November 5, 1975 , p. 22; Edward J. Zeller, “The Use of Thermoluminescence for the Evaluation of UFO Landing Site Effects,” Proceedings of the 1976 CUFOS Conference, Center for UFO Studies, 1976, pp. 301 – 308 , reprinted in IUR 28, no. 4 (Winter 2003–2004): 19–22, 28) November 3 — 5:45 a.m. Ontario Police constables in Haileybury, Ontario, see a round object with fingers of white light emanating from it hovering northeast of town. Another object to the north of it has red, green, and white lights. After about 1 hour both objects begin moving slowly south and gaining altitude. They are still visible at 7:00 a.m. (Patrick Gross, “Files Obtained from the National Archives of Canada”) November 3 — Late night. Unknown individuals penetrate the flight line at Grand Forks AFB north of Emerado, North Dakota. At least two KC-135 aircraft are hit by small arms fire. Security forces pursue the intruders but apparently do not apprehend them. (ClearIntent, pp. 48 – 49 ) November 5 — 12:30 a.m. Jim Divall is driving north of Redwater, Alberta, when he comes upon a large, black, revolving object in the road ahead. He has to drive his vehicle into a ditch to avoid hitting it. The object is 40 feet in diameter. He gets out to watch it for a few minutes as it makes a rushing sound, then it disappears. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 185) November 5 — Just after 6:00 p.m. Travis Walton and six fellow log cutters finish a long day of thinning undergrowth in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest near Snowflake, Arizona. Heading up Mogollon Rim Road, Walton soon notices something shining among the branches off to the right. The others see it too. They turn up Old Verde Road toward Turkey Springs. The spaces between the trees flash by too quickly to make out what the object is, but a clearing reveals a yellowish glow that washes across the road in front of them. The driver speeds up to get a closer look. They reach the clearing, and about 110 feet away a glowing disc hangs in the air, making a high- pitched buzz and floating motionless between the trees, only 15 feet off the ground. The truck slams to a halt and Walton opens his door to get a better look. There is no sound. One of the cutters shouts: “My God! It’s a flying saucer!” Walton then steps out of the cab and walks toward the object. The others beg him to get back in the truck, but he feels compelled to get a close-up look. He approaches the craft cautiously, glancing back to the truck now and then as his friends continue to plead with him. Coming within 6 feet, Walton stops and stares up at its glowing underside. Suddenly, the silence gives way to what Walton later describes as the thunderous swell of a turbine engine. A narrow beam of light fires from the bottom of the disc and strikes Walton in the chest. It lifts him up, then knocks him unconscious to the ground like a thunderbolt. In a panic, the rest of the crew speeds away toward the main road, terrified. When the men regain their senses, they return to the clearing to rescue Walton, but the craft is gone and so is Walton. Despite a thorough search of the area, they find no trace of him and drive home. When they report what happened, the authorities discount the men’s tale as a ridiculous attempt to cover up a murder and launch an extensive search for Walton’s body. They search for several days and find nothing. Walton reappears outside Heber, Arizona, on November 10 and corroborates their story, with the addition of what happened aboard the spacecraft. Walton awakes in a hospital-like room, observed by three short, bald creatures. He fights with them until a human wearing a helmet leads him to another room, where he blacks out as three other humans put a clear plastic mask over his face. He remembers nothing else until he finds himself walking along a highway, with the UFO departing above him. In the days following, The National Enquirer awards Walton and his coworkers a $5,000 prize for “best UFO case of the year” after they pass polygraph tests administered by Cy Gilson of the Arizona state police (repeated in 1993), the Enquirer, and APRO. A private investigator named John McCarthy tests Walton using an outdated procedure with a polygraph in 1975

and finds him deceptive. (Wikipedia, “Travis Walton UFO Incident”; Lorenzen, Abducted! Confrontations with Beings from Outer Space, Berkley, 1977, pp. 80– 113 , 161 – 190 ; Travis Walton, Fire in the Sky, Marlowe, 1996 ; Geoff Price, “Lie Detection in UFO Controversies,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 15–16, 31; Kevin D. Randle, “The Truth about Polygraphs,” IUR 22, no. 4 (Winter 1997– 1998 ): 28; Michael D. Swords, GrassRoots UFOs: Case Reports from the Timmerman Files, Fund for UFO Research, 2005, p. 145; Clark III 1234– 1249 ) November 6 — US Attorney General Edward H. Levi issues a set of guidelines to limit the activities of the FBI. These guidelines require the FBI to show evidence of a crime before using secret police techniques like wiretaps or entering someone’s home without warning. November 7 — 3:00 p.m.–November 8, 9:53 p.m. Remote electronic sensors trigger an alarm at Malmstrom AFB, Great Falls, Montana, indicating that something is violating security at several missile launch sites. Underground, in the launch control facility, two officers note the signal, but there is no TV surveillance topside. A missile security helicopter checks the area and Sabotage Alert Teams consisting of 4 – 6 men are ordered to proceed to the areas. One SAT team drives down the highway and onto a dirt road that leads to the K-7 area near Judith Gap, Montana. About a mile away, the team sees an orange, glowing object. As they close to within half a mile, they can see that the object is tremendous in size. They radio to the launch control facility that, from their location, they are viewing a brightly glowing, orange, football field-sized disc that illuminates the missile site. The SAT team is ordered to proceed into the K-7 site. However, they refuse to go any farther, clearly fearful of the intimidating appearance of the object. It begins to rise, and at about 1,000 feet, NORAD picks up the UFO on radar. Two F- 106 jet interceptors are launched from Great Falls and head toward the K- 7 site. The UFO continues to rise. At about 200,000 feet, it disappears from NORAD’s radar. The F-106s are never able to get a clear sighting of the several UFOs, which play cat-and-mouse with the aircraft, extinguishing their illumination when they approach, and re-illuminating after the fighters return to base. All members of the SAT team are directed to the base hospital, where they are psychologically tested. No one can identify the object, but the members of the SAT team obviously have been through a traumatic experience. Targeting teams, along with computer specialists, are brought to the launch site to examine the missile and the computer in the warhead. When the computer is checked, they find that the tape has mysteriously changed target numbers. The reentry vehicle is then taken from the silo and brought back to the base. Eventually the entire missile is changed out. Radar and visual sightings continue for the next 31 hours. (NICAP, “Malmstrom AFB Incident (1975)”; ClearIntent, pp. 27 – 29 ; Richard Sigismond, “Four Huge Orange Discs and the Case for the UFO,” IUR 8, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1983): 7–8; Thomas E. Bullard, “Defending UFOs,” IUR 34, no. 2 (Mar. 2012): 11 – 12 ; Nukes 358–361) November 10 — 10:15–11:20 p.m. A bright light passes over Minot AFB, North Dakota, moving west to east at 1,000– 2,000 feet. (ClearIntent, p. 48 ) November 11 — 6:15 a.m. A spherical object is observed from Canadian Forces Station Falconbridge [now closed] in Valley East, Ontario. The object appears to be rotating and has a surface similar to the moon. The object ascends and descends. The object is observed on height-finder radar at altitudes from 42,000–72,000 feet intermittently for 6 hours. Two F-106 jets are sent from Selfridge AFB [now Selfridge Air National Guard Base] near Mount Clemens, Michigan, but report no visual or radar contact. Other lights are seen periodically over the next few days, including at least seven members of the Ontario Police in Sudbury. (NICAP, “Spherical Object Tracked on Height Finder Radar”; ClearIntent, pp. 50 – 51 ; Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 152–156; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 114– 121 ; Good Above, pp. 202 – 203 ; Patrick Gross, “Files Obtained from the National Archives of Canada”; Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 207– 219 ) November 11 — A Montana Fish and Game Department employee at Freezeout Lake, Montana, sees a light flying directly behind a B-52 bomber. Using his rifle scope to get a better look, he notes that the strange object seems to be pacing the aircraft. The object then briefly attaches itself to the B-52, detaches, and climbs out of sight. The sighting is reported to Sheriff Pete Howard of Choteau County. Howard conducts follow-up interviews with military personnel and learns that as the object attaches itself to the B-52, the plane’s radar equipment goes out. (ClearIntent, p. 35 ) November 11 — A confidential NORAD communication reveals that Air Guard helicopters, Strategic Air Command helicopters, and NORAD F-106s are scrambled during the recent UFO sightings over Northern Tier military bases. They fail to produce positive identifications. In a priority message sent from SAC headquarters in Offutt AFB near Bellevue, Nebraska, to numerous Air Force bases during the same month, the Air Force reveals its continuation of a policy to deny USAF interest in the subject: “News media queries concerning such unidentified overflights are properly the concern of the Air Defense Command, and queries should be referred to CINC- NORAD/OI… Remarks should be confined to personal experiences and care should be taken to avoid speculation or to imply Air Force interest beyond security of the installation.” (Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia,

Putnam, 1980, p. 347; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 87– 90 ) November 11 — Evening. Capt. Keith Wolverton of the Cascade County Sheriff’s Department and a deputy are returning to Great Falls from Missoula, Montana. Suddenly a large orange light descends out of the northern sky, lighting up both sides of the road. It passes directly over the cruiser at about 200 feet. It goes from horizon to horizon in 4 seconds. (ClearIntent, pp. 34 – 35 ) November 17 — 7:00 p.m. Suzanne Erenberger and Dave Vardeman are driving on US Highway 30 about one-quarter mile west of Mount Vernon, Iowa, when they see white lights in the southwestern sky. They stop the car and get out to watch for a while. Frightened, they drive into town to notify the police. The police chief describes Erenberger as “terrified, nearly hysterical.” An officer accompanies the two students back to the location but sees nothing unusual. Erenberger tells a reporter from the Cedar Rapids Gazette that they were only 30 feet away from one of the lights, which was only 25 feet off the ground. She makes a drawing of a domed object for a high-school newspaper. UFO investigator Kevin D. Randle interviews Erenberger on November 27, and she tells him there is a bright light coming from a 30-foot-wide disc-shaped object with a huge glass dome. She thinks she can see two humanoid shapes behind it. But Vardeman separately tells Randle that he only sees lights in the distance and nothing else. Randle also talks to an additional witness, Richard Manson, who has seen a red light about the same time. Randle concludes that the lights come from aircraft landing at the Cedar Rapids Municipal Airport and that Erenberger’s details are confabulations. (“Coed: ‘No Doubt about What I Saw,’” Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette, November 19, 1975, p. 3C; Kevin D. Randle, “UFOs on Memory Lane,” IUR 26, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 9–11, 30) November 20 — Michel, Robert, and Claude Souris found the Centre d’Études et de Recherches des Phénomènes Inexpliqués in Saintes, France. It publishes a CERPI Circulaire newsletter from February 1976 to 1981. (CERPI, no. 1 (February 1976)) November 30 — Unit One of the Leningrad [now St. Petersburg], Russia, nuclear power plant is being brought back online after scheduled maintenance when it begins to run out of control. A partial meltdown occurs, destroying or damaging 32 fuel assemblies and releasing radiation into the atmosphere over the Gulf of Finland. The official line is that a manufacturing defect caused the destruction of only one fuel channel, but the accident is really caused by an uncontrollable increase in the steam void coefficient. (Adam Higginbotham, Midnight at Chernobyl, Simon & Schuster, 2019, pp. 66–67)

December — The Air Force panel finishes reviewing the Blue Book files and turns over the sanitized version to the National Archives, apparently without yet physically moving the files to NARA facilities. These files now include an added set of AFOSI files of UFO investigations from 1948 to 1968 released by AFOSI in December 1975. (Sparks, p. 6) December 12 — Robert Suffern and his wife meet with two military officers, one Canadian, the other American, at his home near Bracebridge, Ontario. They tell him the October 7 incident was a “mistake” caused by the malfunctioning of an extraterrestrial spacecraft. The officers show him close-up photos of UFOs and say that their governments have been cooperating with aliens since 1943. (Clark III 358 ) December 14 — Late evening. A man is driving his truck on a gravel road along Toppenish Ridge in the Yakama Indian Reservation in Washington State when he sees a cow and two calves running toward him as if fleeing from something. Moments later he sees three figures in the ditch. One jumps up on the road, covering 15 feet in a single slow-motion leap, its arms above its head. The witness describes it as a skinny, 7-foot-tall man with a narrow, pale face and long, pointed nose. It is dressed in close-fitting black clothing and boots. On its chest there is a white trapezoid insignia. The entity is carrying something purple it its left hand that has a wire on it that runs down its arm. The other two creatures remain on the side of the road. The witness speeds up, swerving around the figure. A few moments later, a bright, elongated UFO appears behind him. The interior of the truck is flooded with light. Suddenly he becomes aware of a “shadow” in the passenger seat. From the shape of the head and coat, the man “knows” it is a friend of his. The friend looks at him, leans forward and looks up at the light, falls back, wipes his eyes, and vanishes. At that moment, the light disappears. The next morning, he learns that his friend has been killed in a shooting. (Greg Long, Examining the Earthlight Theory: The Yakima UFO Microcosm, CUFOS, 1990 , pp. 56– 60 ; Clark III 281 ) December 15 — Jacques Vallée and J. Allen Hynek publish The Edge of Reality, which discusses how the extraterrestrial hypothesis does not seem to explain UFOs fully. Although they acknowledge the UFO phenomenon is real, its reality skirts the edges of accepted science, and they both lean toward an interdimensional hypothesis. (J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallée, The Edge of Reality: A Progress Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, Regnery, 1975)

1976

1976 — David Saunders gives his UFOCAT computer file to the Center for UFO Studies in Evanston, Illinois, where it is updated by Fred Merritt. The database is kept on an IBM mainframe computer at a nearby computer facility with a magnetic tape backup. In 1982 it proves too expensive for CUFOS to maintain on a mainframe, so it is removed from active use and stored on tape. (Fred Merritt, “UFOCAT: A Unique Tool for Research,” IUR 1, no. 2 (December 1976): 14–15; Center for UFO Studies, “UFOCAT- 2009 ”) 1976 — US writer Bill Kaysing publishes a book claiming that NASA lacks the technical expertise to land astronauts on the moon and that numerous optical anomalies in the Apollo photos show that the moon landings are faked in a studio or at Area 51. The book launches a host of similar moon landing conspiracy theories. (Wikipedia, “Moon landing conspiracy theories”; Bill Kaysing, We Never Went to the Moon: America ’ s Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle, Health Research, 1976) 1976 — Ancient astronaut author Zecharia Sitchin writes his first book of many, The 12th Planet, proposing an explanation for human origins involving extraterrestrials. Sitchin attributes the creation of the ancient Sumerian culture to the Anunnaki, which he claims was a race of beings from a planet beyond Neptune called Nibiru. He asserts that Sumerian mythology suggests that this hypothetical planet of Nibiru is in an elongated, 3,600-year- long elliptical orbit around the Sun. (Zecharia Sitchin, The 12th Planet, Avon, 1976) 1976 — In his book Gods of Aquarius, author Brad Steiger introduces the concept of “Star People,” human beings tied by physiology, past lives, or both, to extraterrestrials who came to earth long ago and are preparing them for a societal transformation. (Brad Steiger, Gods of Aquarius: UFOs and the Transformation of Man, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976; Clark III 90– 91 ) 1976 — Author Roberta Donovan publishes Mystery Stalks the Prairie with Cascade County Deputy Sheriff Keith Wolverton of Great Falls, Montana, documenting his investigations of cattle mutilations with a suspected cult involvement. They are not sure whether mystery helicopters and UFO s are related to the mutilations, but either way federal government officials seem to know what is going on. (Roberta Donovan and Keith Wolverton, Mystery Stalks the Prairie, THAR Institute, 1976; Wikipedia, “Cattle mutilation”; Nukes 365–369) 1976 — Historian Nicolas Greslou launches the Comité Savoyard d’Études et de Recherches Ufologiques in Chambery, France. It publishes a quarterly newsletter, Le Phénomène OVNI, from 1977 to 1985. (Le Phénomène OVNI, no. 1 (Oct./Dec. 1977)) 1976 — Meteorologist Sture Wickerts replaces Tage Eriksson as head of UFO investigations at the Swedish National Defence Research Institute. (Swords 368) 1976 — In Worlds Beyond, Ian Ridpath discusses ETI, life and human development, life in the Solar System, the feasibility of interstellar travel, and the possibility that alien probes have already visited Earth. (Ian Ridpath, Worlds Beyond, Harper and Row, 1976; Michael D. Swords, “SETI/ETI and UFOs,” JUFOS 5 (1994): 146 – 147) 1976 — 9:30 p.m. A man who lives on a hill overlooking the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, notices lights hovering above the building at the south end of the plant. Suddenly the lights shoot straight up in the air and move to the north end of the plant, dropping down and hovering again. It then makes a quick arc and hovers about 900 feet above the witness’s house. The object is circular with a curved low top, sides that slope inward, silent, and a continuous row of windows separated every 10–15 feet by thin vertical supports. A yellow or amber light is at the top. It is about 50 feet in diameter and 12–15 feet high. He can see 3–4 images moving back and forth inside the craft. After about 3 minutes, the object moves toward Lake Washington and disappears in 4 seconds. (“UFO Seen Inspecting Seattle Boeing Plant,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 6 (Dec. 1984/Jan. 1985): 3)

January 4 — A technician driving home is stuck in rush hour traffic at Sale, heading toward Altrincham, Cheshire, England. Suddenly his radio begins to hiss and crackle, and flashes of light spark out, dancing across the windshield. As he looks out through the steady rain, two angular, ice-blue lights pass slowly across his field of view. Moments later they are gone, the sparking stops, and the radio works again. (Jenny Randles, “The Twelve UFOs of Christmas,” Fortean Times 374 (Christmas 2018): 29) January 6 — 11:15 p.m. Mona Stafford and two friends, Louise Smith and Elaine Thomas, are driving southwest on Highway 78 between Stanford and Hustonville, Kentucky, when they see an intense red glow in the east. It grows larger, then descends rapidly to the right of the car at tree-top level. As it hovers, they can see a disc shape with round windows with rotating, blinking red lights around each of them; yellow lights stretch below these, and a luminous blue dome is on top of the object. The UFO moves closer, flips on its side, and shines three beams of bluish-white light on the road, and another into their vehicle. Smith, apparently dazed, gets out of the car, but Stafford pulls her back in. There is a “dead silence,” their skin tingles, and they start getting severe headaches. They find the car has started back up on its own and is moving at 85 mph with no help from Smith. Stafford feels

as if it is being pulled. Moments later, they find themselves 8 miles away, just outside Hustonville. When they get home to Smith’s trailer in Liberty, Kentucky, around 1:25 a.m., they find they are missing about an hour and a half of time. All three of them experience odd physical and psychological symptoms. The women are hypnotized by ufologist R. Leo Sprinkle, who finds that they have generally compatible memories of an abduction event. Over time, their memories of the missing time period grow more elaborate, but their story contains elements and images echoed in other accounts before and since. (“The Kentucky Abduction,” APRO Bulletin 25, no. 4 (October 1976): 1, 3–6; Lorenzen, Abducted! Confrontations with Beings from Outer Space, Berkley, 1977, pp. 114– 131 ; “The Kentucky Abduction,” IUR 2, no. 3 (March 1977): 6–7; Story, pp. 192 – 195 ; John Greenewald, “The 1976 Stanford, Kentucky, Abductions,” The Black Vault, April 26, 2016; Clark III 643– 648 ) January 21 — Before 3:55 a.m. Security police see two UFOs near the flight line at Cannon AFB, southwest of Clovis, New Mexico. The objects are 75 feet in diameter, gold or silver in color, with a blue light on top, a hole in the middle, and a red light on the bottom. An Air Force officer calls the UFO Education Center in Wisconsin to report he “had a very close sighting and was able to witness a type of vehicle that did maneuver and that was unlike any type aircraft he has ever seen.” One observer claims to see a dozen UFOs through a Starlight Scope from the flight tower. A Clovis policeman sees a cigar-shaped object with pulsating red, white, and blue lights. (“UFOs Continue Clovis Visits,” Las Cruces (N.Mex.) Sun-News, January 25, 1976, p. 1; Rear Adm. J. G. Morin, “Report of UFO, Cannon AFB, NM,” January 21, 1976; “Cannon AFB: UFOs, Burned Circles, and Cows Found Mutilated,” UFO Info; Good Above, p. 524 ; Good Need, p. 349 ) January 23 — 6:00–10:30 p.m. “Scores” of UFO sightings take place around Clovis, New Mexico. Town Marshal Willie Ronquillo of Texico follows a silent object with green, yellow, and blue lights 900 feet above his car before it speeds away to the north. A police dispatcher in Artesia sees 6–7 flashing lights in the sky at 750–1,000 feet altitude. They hover for a while, then move away at high speed toward Carlsbad. Members of the UFO Study Group, composed of employees of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratories, arrive in Clovis at 11:30 p.m. to investigate. (“UFOs Continue Clovis Visits,” Las Cruces (N.Mex.) Sun-News, January 25, 1976, p. 1) January 31 — 3:30–5:00 a.m. UFOs are spotted by security police over the radar site at the Armament Development and Test Center at Eglin AFB, southwest of Valparaiso, Florida. Photos are taken. (Brig. Gen. Fred A. Treyz, “Unidentified Flying Object Sighting,” January 31, 1976)

February — Ufologist James W. Moseley launches an eight-page newsletter of UFO information and rumor. Its title varies, but by July 1981 Moseley has settled on Saucer Smear. It is sent out for free every month or so to several hundred UFO buffs whom Moseley calls “nonsubscribers.” (Clark III 776) February — 7:20 p.m. Ruby Breslin is driving along Central Expressway in Dallas, Texas, when her daughter sees an object just as she takes the exit ramp to the Northwest Highway. It has windows and a flashing red light on top, and hovers for 4–5 minutes before shooting straight up. (“Out of the Past,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 5 (Oct./Nov. 1984): 6) February — Night. A married couple living near the Tasman Highway in Tasmania have retired for the evening. The woman is already asleep and the man has just turned off the light when he sees three 7–8 feet tall entities passing through the closed door of the bedroom. One touches the man’s leg and he goes numb to the waist. He lets them attach some kind of glowing sack to his body, but when they start to approach his wife, he lashes out with one arm that hasn’t gone numb. His wife wakes up and starts struggling too. The entities exit through some kind of orange portal outside the closed window and disappear. (Michael D. Swords, “A Trick of the Light,” IUR 31, no. 2 (June 2007): 11) February 19 — The National Archives starts microfilming the redacted Project Blue Book files through the commercial firm Fuller & Dees Marketing Group in Montgomery, Alabama. (Sparks, p. 7) February 20 — In answer to a request by UFO researcher Robert Todd, the National Security Agency states that the NSA “does not have any interest in UFOs in any manner.” (ClearIntent, p. 181 ) Late February — 1 :00 a.m. A man in Kettering, Tasmania, is awake tending to a child when he looks outside to his east and sees what he thinks is an aircraft descending at 45°. After watching for a couple of minutes, he goes outside. The object comes down behind a small bank on the far side of a sports field opposite his house. He crosses the field, climbs the bank, and sees from about 82 feet away, a dome-shaped object emitting a bright-white to yellow light from three or four windows. When he looks through the object’s windows he can see a tall cylinder (that he likens to a ship’s compass mounting), motionless gray shapes (like car seats with headrests seen from the rear), and perhaps entities. He hears a humming noise. The object takes off to the east with the noise increasing in volume. It climbs away at 60° and recedes to a point source and disappears. The total duration is 6 – 7 minutes. The next day he returns to the spot and notes the rough grass beyond the sports field has been scorched in a circular patch. This grass later dies. On October 24, 1977, the Tasmanian UFO Information Centre takes soil samples of

this area that are examined by Geoff Stevens using a thermoluminescence test. His investigation reveals no
significant, systematic differences in the thermoluminescence content of soil and mineral particles taken from
within the affected area, and control samples taken from outside this area. (Geoff Stevens, “Thermoluminescence
Measurements of Soil Samples Affected by a UFO,” CUFOS Bulletin, Spring 1978, pp. 1, 3– 6 ; Keith Roberts and
Geoff Stevens, “The Kettering, Tasmania, Landing: A Study,” Flying Saucer Review 24, no. 3 (November 1978):
18 – 21 ; “Tasmanian Landing in 1976,” IUR 31, no. 2 (June 2007): 21)

March — Werner Walter and Hansjürgen Köhler found Centrale Erforschungsnetz Auβergewöhnlicher Phänomene [later Himmelsphänomene] in Mannheim, Germany. The first issue of its somewhat skeptical, anti-ETH, monthly CENAP-Report is published, continuing until May 2007. (Wikipedia, “Centrales Erforschungsnetz Auβergewöhnlicher Himmelsphänomene”; CENAP Report, no. 1 (May 1976)) March 3 — Night. Claude Bosc, a student pilot flying a French Air Force T- 33 on a training mission at 19,500 feet, sees a rapidly approaching bright light in the distance near Tours, Indre-et-Loire, France. In 1–2 seconds, the object speeds toward him and his plane is surrounded by a green phosphorescent light that illuminates the aircraft for several seconds. The green sphere, only 3–6 feet in diameter, avoids a collision at the last minute and passes over his right wing. The radar shows nothing, but two other pilots see the encounter from a distance. (Comité d’Études Approfondies, Les OVNI et la Defense: A Quoi doit-on se Préparer? (UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare for?), July 16, 1999, pp. 10– 11 ) March 11 — An Iberian Airlines pilot flying above Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain, watches an elongated object, shaped like a dirigible gondola and lighted from within through several window-like openings, pace his aircraft with occasional bursts of speed. (UFOEv II 122, 146) March 15 —10:14 p.m. Two objects are tracked on radar flying over the landing strips at Simón Bolívar Airport near Caracas, Venezuela, at 3,000 mph. Tower operators ask the unidentified craft to identify themselves. Instead they take off and disappear over the Caribbean Sea. (Richard H. Hall, “UFOs Tracked on Radar at Venezuelan Airport,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 110 (January 1977): 3 ) March 22 — 5:42 a.m. A couple are stopped in their car outside a hotel in Nemingha, New South Wales, deciding on directions. Suddenly a bright, greenish-yellow light descends and completely envelops a nearby white car, which drifts to the wrong side of the road, wrapped in a thick ball of white haze. Its headlights go out. After 2 minutes the haze dissipates, and a woman gets out of the car and wipes a white substance off the windshield with a yellow cloth. She is about to get back in when its lights come back on by themselves. She throws the cloth on the roadside, drives a short way, and the yellow cloth bursts into flame. When the white car passes the couple, they notice it is covered in a thick white substance, except for the windshield. (Bill Chalker, “Road Hazard Down Under?” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 5 (February 1977): 28–32; Bill Chalker, “Postscript to the Nemingha Case,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 3 (October 1977): 22, 27) March 26 — The CIA responds to the Ground Saucer Watch FOIA request, claiming that its only involvement with UFOs was with the 1953 Robertson Panel. (ClearIntent, p. 113 ) March 31 — During a campaign stop in Appleton, Wisconsin, Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter is asked by Thomas Heiman, associate director of the UFO Education Center, whether he would make public all the UFO files if he became president. Carter answers, “Yes, I would make these kinds of data available to the public, as President, to help resolve the mystery about it.” (Grant Cameron, “Jimmy Carter, the Nobel Prize, and Extraterrestrials”)

April — DARPA names Lockheed the winner of a competition to build a stealth bomber. Immediately it begins manufacturing two flying Have Blue prototypes in Skunk Works Building 82 in Burbank, California. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed Have Blue”) April — Michel Monnerie and Raymond Bonnaventure begin publishing Ufologie Contact, a newsletter intending to reach all the UFO groups iaround Paris, France. It soon falls under the auspices of the Société Parisienne d’Étude des Phénomène Spatiaux et Étranges in Marly-le-Roi, Yvelines, France, and continues through at least 1981. (Ufologie Contact, ser. 1, no. 2 (May 1976)) April 2 — 1:50 a.m. Detective Sgt. Norman Collinson is driving home along the M62 and M66 motorways near Bury, Greater Manchester, England. As he turns north onto the M66 he observes a white disc of light moving very fast, crossing the path he is traveling. The object is heading toward Knoll Hill, east of Bury. The UFO makes a right- angle turn onto a south-southeast heading. Puzzled, the officer stops his vehicle and gets out to look at the light. As he does so, the light stops and hovers nearby. It then begins to perform a series of spectacular right-angle box turns, after which it moves off in the direction of Heywood, with Collinson following it in his car. The object stops a second time and again repeats the angular movements before streaking away at a tremendous speed. The

incident is reported to the MOD and Manchester Airport. (Jenny Randles and Peter Warrington, “Police Encounter at Bury,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 2 (August 1977): 13, 15) April 3 — 4:30 a.m. Several residents of Quixadá, Ceará, Brazil, during an outdoor physical education session, see a large disc-shaped object that glides silently a few feet from the ground emitting an intense light. At about the same time in another part of the city, Luis Barroso Fernandes is preparing to travel to a site a few kilometers away on his donkey cart. He soon hears a buzzing sound, and a flying object 10 feet in diameter positions itself above him. It slowly descends in front of his cart about 100 feet away. The device emits a beam of light that strikes the donkey and Barroso, who immediately become paralyzed. A door opens on the UFO and two small beings emerge. One holds something like a flashlight and aims a beam that strikes Barroso in the face, causing him to lose consciousness. He wakes up in a different spot, dizzy and suffering from a burning sensation on his face, and a headache. The left side of his body is reddish, and he has difficulty getting into his cart and getting it moving. He asks his wife to take him to Dr. Antônio Moreira Magalhães, who prescribes a tranquilizer. He continues to feel sick, his eyes burn continuously, and the left side of his body is red. A few days later, his hair turns gray and he suffers memory lapses. After his symptoms worsen and other doctors fail to help, his family checks him into a psychiatric hospital in Fortaleza. His condition deteriorates, and he dies in April 1993. (Elias Bruno, “Brazil: The Barroso Case,” Inexplicata, April 29, 2012; Clark III 180–182; Brazil 179–184) April 14 — A heavily redacted CIA memo shows a reference to someone’s having sought “guidance from CIA UFO experts as to material in his report that should remain classified.” (ClearIntent, p. 143 ) April 17 — June and Vicky Melling, on vacation in Mawnan, Cornwall, England, see a large winged creature hovering above the tower of St. Mawnan and St. Stephen’s Church. They are so frightened by the sight of a large “feathered bird-man” that their father Dan Melling cuts short the vacation. Magician and showman Tony “Doc” Shiels investigates the case, and one of the girls provides him with a drawing of the creature, which he dubs “Owlman.” Other sightings emerge over the next few years. Occult historian Gareth J. Medway suggests that the whole thing is a hoax by Shiels, who has a reputation for hoaxing. Medway notes that witnesses claiming encounters with the legendary monster “were either Doc Shiels, or friends of Doc Shiels, or relatives of Doc Shiels, or reported their sightings to Doc Shiels (and to no one else), or else wrote letters describing what they had seen to newspapers and were never interviewed by anyone.” (Wikipedia, “Owlman”; Robert J. M. Rickard, “Birdmen of the Apocalypse!” Fortean Times 17 (August 1976): 14–20; Doc Shiels, “To Wit! To Woo? Some Thoughts about Owlman,” Fortean Times 27 (Autumn 1978): 44– 46 ; Jonathan Downes, The Owlman and Others, Domra, 1997; Clark III 602) April 2 2 — 1:45 a.m. RCMP Constable Bill Toffan sees an apparent vehicle with its lights flashing ahead of him as he is driving on Canada Highway 16 west of Terrace, British Columbia. As he rounds a curve, he sees it is actually in the air 300 feet above the trees. Suddenly there is a blinding flash and he nearly loses control of his car. After a brief report appears in the press, the RCMP orders Toffan not to discuss the incident. (“Mountie ‘Ordered’ into Silence,” Vancouver (B.C.) Sun, April 26, 1976, p. 8; Good Above, pp. 194 – 195 ; Patrick Gross, “Files Obtained from the National Archives of Canada”) April 22 — 11:00 p.m. Police officer George Wheeler, on duty at Elmwood, Wisconsin, notices a glow at the top of Tuttle Hill. He drives closer and sees an object as high as a two-story house and 250 feet across with an orange-white light at the top and six bluish-white lights on the side. It is 500 feet away and about 100 feet off the ground. He thinks he can see, though an open side panel, something moving inside it. The object has several partially extended legs and a long, black, hose-like appendage. Suddenly the object rises straight up. He sees some kind of flash and his car lights go out, the motor stops, the radio goes dead, and he becomes dazed. A second police car arrives, noticing that the car door is open, and takes the witness to a hospital, from which he is released four days later. Some people in the area have difficulty with TV reception at the same time as the encounter. (“Sighting Reports,” CUFOS News Bulletin, June 1976, pp. 5– 6 ; Patrick Gross, “George Wheeler’s Close Encounter, 1976”) April 23 — 2:40 a.m. A 1st Lt. is on communications duty aboard a US Navy destroyer in the Atlantic southwest of Bermuda. The lookout calls his attention to a green light dead ahead through light fog three miles away at 10° above the horizon. Radar reports no target and the sonar room hears no engines. The crew watches the green light dip to 30–40 feet above the surface and approach the ship. The lieutenant orders a course change to starboard, and the green light becomes much larger, making a comparable turn to port in order to pace the ship. The ship and the object both make subsequent turns, with the light now only 50-60 feet away. Suddenly a large blip appears on the radar scope. The destroyer returns to its original heading and the light stations itself on the port beam. When the captain comes on deck, the light circles the ship twice. Then once again off to port, it becomes a brighter green, tilts at an angle, and submerges. The next day the captain tells the crew not to discuss the incident. (Donald R. Todd, “Ship’s Crew Sees UFO,” APRO Bulletin 26, no. 11 (May 1978): 1–2)

April 30–May 1 — The Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal is launched at a specially convened conference of the American Humanist Association. Paul Kurtz, James Randi, Martin Gardner, and Ray Hyman take seats on the executive board. The committee will be funded with donations and sales of their magazine, Skeptical Inquirer. (Wikipedia, “Committee for Skeptical Inquiry”) April 30–May 2 — The Center for UFO Studies holds its first conference on UFO research at the Hyatt House in Lincolnwood, Illinois. The proceedings are published later in the year, featuring papers on sighting waves, exosociology, and humanoid reports. Presenters include Ted Bloecher, Ann Druffel, Loren Gross, Richard H. Hall, David M. Jacobs, James McCampbell, David Saunders, R. Leo Sprinkle, David Webb, and Ray Stanford. (Charles Bowen, “The Editor Goes West,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 2 (July 1976): 26– 28 ; Richard F. Haines, “CUFOS Holds Its First Technical Conference,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 3 (October 1976): 13– 17 ; Proceedings of the 1976 CUFOS Conference, Center for UFO Studies, 1976)

Mid-May — The US National Archives publicly releases the redacted Project Blue Book paper files at its College Park, Maryland, branch. (Sparks, p. 7)

June — Ground Saucer Watch issues its first newsletter, which is published through December 1982. (Ground Saucer Watch Bulletin, no. 1 (June 1976)) June 11 — 1:15 a.m. Hélène Guiliana is driving through Chatuzange-le-Goubet, Drôme, France, when her car engine misfires and stalls and the headlights go out. Some 80 feet away near the Pont du Martinet bridge she sees an orange light in the form of a “dome.” She experiences fear and covers her face with her hands. After what seems a few seconds, the light disappears. Driving home upset and afraid, she misses a familiar sign and drives a mile out of her way. When she arrives home, it is 4:00 a.m. Under hypnosis on July 22 (repeated on August 18), she tells of meeting two waist-high dwarves with large eyes, dressed in black overalls. They carry her toward the light, which she enters through an iron door. Inside a high, round room, they place her on a table, putting handcuffs on er hands and feet. After an examination, she is returned outside and the craft departs straight up noiselessly. (“L’Etrange Rencontre d’Hélène Guiliana,” Ouranos, new ser. 18 (Jan./Mar. 1977): 5–7; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 1, no. 2 (December 1976): 10) June 20 — After 1:00 a.m. A young married couple and their 4-month-old child are detained and examined by entities as they are traveling near Goodland, Kansas, en route to Colorado. UFO investigator Richard Sigismond meets repeatedly with them in July–October 1976 using hypnotic regression techniques to enhance their memories. The experience is traumatic for them, and they require counseling. (“Abduction in Western Kansas,” IUR 1, no. 2 (December 1976): 12; “Abduction in Western Kansas,” IUR 2, no. 10 (Oct. 1977): 4–7) June 21 — 12:40 a.m. Police officer Th. Brandt-Jensen sees a bright, blue-white light cross the road behind him in Ringsted, Zealand, Denmark. He thinks it might be an airplane in trouble. He speeds up to 90 mph toward a crossroad where he can pull off the highway. The object catches up to within 165–250 feet and its light strikes his car, the engine and lights going out immediately. He guides the coasting vehicle to the road shoulder, gets out, and catches a glimpse of the object as it disappears behind the horizon. It resembles a glider with a ray of light coming from it that swings back and forth as it passes his car. It makes a slight whistling sound and appears to be about 50 feet long. (“UFO Rapporter Danmark,” UFO-Nyt, 1976 no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1976): 186–187; Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34, no. 1 (Sept. 2011): 20) June 22 — 9:27 p.m. Dr. Don Francisco-Julio Padrón León and Santiago del Pino are traveling in a taxi when they see a gigantic ball of light 200 feet ahead of them between Gáldar and Agaete, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands. The taxi radio cuts out. Inside the light, which is actually like a transparent soap bubble, they see some panels and two enormous beings on a platform. The humanoids are some 9–10 feet tall, wear black diving helmets and red tight- fitting coveralls, and are moving levers about. Their hands are enclosed in black cones. The backs of their heads are disproportionately large, and their legs are short. The taxi driver switches the headlights on, and the UFO rises as a bluish gas is emitted from a tube and expands the size of the sphere to a 20-story building. The driver turns the car around and goes to a nearby house. The inhabitants say their TV set just blacked out. They continue watching through a window. When the sphere stops expanding, they hear a high-pitched whistle and the object speeds off to the northwest. (J. M. Sanchez, “Canary Islands Landing: Occupants Reported,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 3 (October 1977): 4– 7 ; Good Above, pp. 153 – 154 ) June 22 — 10:30 p.m. A bright red light like a rocket emerging from the sea at a distance climbs diagonally and turns into a brilliant semicircular dome over the Canary Islands. It is transparent with a bluish-white hue. The crew of the corvette Atrevida watches the object for 40 minutes, during which time a foreign tourist takes a photo. 400 miles to the south, the crew of the ship Osaka Bay also sees the luminous phenomena in the shape of a sphere. Maj. Antonio Munáiz Ferro-Sastre investigates the sightings for the Spanish Air Force and rejects the hypothesis that

the light is from a naval missile launch. However, two Poseidon missiles are launched in the area around the same time by the submarine USS Von Steuben. (J. M. Sanchez, “Canary Islands Landing: Occupants Reported,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 3 (October 1977): 4– 7 ; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 91– 97 ; Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos and Ricardo Campo Pérez, “Navy Missile Tests and the Canary Islands UFOs,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 3 – 4 ) June 23 — 11:30 p.m. Paulo Coutinho, 18, is returning home from a night class in Aricanduva, São Paulo, Brazil, when he sees a light in the sky moving westward. Suddenly he feels paralyzed as the light approaches and descends about 25 feet away. A short being emerges with a big head, large eyes, pointed ears, small mouth, and an upturned nose like a pig. It is bald, has no eyebrows, and wears a tight one-piece bluish-gray suit with an emblem on its chest. Coutinho rises into the air toward a huge cigar-shaped object, in which he undergoes an abduction experience. Coutinho is still missing the next morning. A friend finds his books and notebooks scattered on the street and brings them to his parents. A police search fails to find him. In the evening of June 24, Coutinho is discovered lying on the steps of the garden door in a semiconscious state. He is cold as if he has been there some time. He is later revived at a nearby hospital. The police officer who carries him to the ambulance later feels a strong irritation in his arms. Ballpoint pens in Coutinho’s pockets are radioactive. (“O Caso dos Añoes Extraterrenos de Vila Aricanduva São Paulo, Capital,” SBEDV Boletim, no. 116/120 (July 1977/Feb. 1978): 6–18; “Caso Paulo Coutinho,” Portal Fenomenum, June 15, 2016; Brazil 185–194) June 26 — Spanish journalist Juan J. Benitez interviews Gen. Carlos Castro Cavero, commander of the Canary Islands division, who tells him: “The nations of the world are currently working together in the investigation of the UFO phenomenon. There is an international exchange of data. Maybe when this group of nations acquires more precise and definite information, it will be possible to release the news to the world.” He says the Spanish Air Ministry investigates UFO cases, including those involving pilots. He admits that he has watched a UFO for more than an hour at his ranch. It remains stationery for that length of time, then shoots off towards Ejea de los Caballeros, Zaragoza, covering 12.5 miles in less than 2 seconds. Cavero believes UFOs are “spaceships or extraterrestrial craft.” (Gordon Creighton, “Important Statement by Spanish Air Force Chief,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 3 (October 1976): 2; Patrick Gross, “Documents: 50 Years of UFO Disclosure”)

July — The New England UFO Study Group publishes its first newsletter, which lasts through September 1982. (New England UFO Newsletter, no. 1 (July 1976)) July 11 — Two Indian Air Force MiG 21 jets are scrambled near the Pakistani border to intercept what appears initially on radar to be a Pakistani jet. But the object is moving at 2,600 mph, and the two pilots see the target is an amber- colored disc that pulls away before they can catch up to it. (Good Need, p. 303 ) July 12 — The National Archives makes available the 94 reels of 35mm microfilm with redacted Project Blue Book files. (Sparks, p. 7) July 14 — Before dawn. For a period of two hours, two brightly shining UFOs perform fantastic maneuvers at the Gobernador Edgardo Castello Airport in Viedma, Rio Negro, Argentina. At dawn, the sunlight neutralizes the bright lights of the UFOs, but the observers see them leave the area at high speed. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 1, no. 1 (November 1 9 76): 2) July 23 — J. Allen Hynek arrives on the set of Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind in Mobile, Alabama, and gives a lecture on UFOs to some of the actors who are interested (Bob Balaban, Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, and 30+ others. At some point his cameo is filmed. (Bob Balaban, Spielberg, Truffaut and Me: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, an Actor ’ s Diary, Titan, 2002) July 28 — Capt. Eldon W. Joersz and Maj. George T. Morgan Jr. attain a world airspeed record of 2,193 mph in a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird over Beale AFB near Marysville, California. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed SR- 71 Blackbird”) July 28 — 3:45 p.m. Adult counselor Ira Leifer and 13 teenage boys are resting from a hike in the woods at Camp Delaware [now Greenwood Trails] west of Winsted, Connecticut, when they hear a high-pitched whine. They see a silvery, flat-bottomed UFO 15–25 feet in diameter through a clearing in the trees. A purple haze surrounds it and on top they see a red glow. The object is hovering at a steep angle. After 15–25 seconds the whine returns, and the object takes off and is lost to sight in a second or two. (“Daylight CE I Seen by 14 Witnesses in Connecticut,” IUR 1, no. 1 (November 1976 ): 6 – 7; Clark III 247) July 30 — 1:30–3:45 a.m. Patrols at different locations in the US Army’s Fort Ritchie [now closed], in Cascade, Maryland, see objects over the base. One crew sees three oblong objects with a reddish tint. Another watches a UFO over the ammunition storage area at an altitude of 300–600 feet. In another spot, an Army police sergeant sees an aerial object the size of a two-and-a-half-ton truck. (Brig. Gen. L. J. LeBlanc Jr., “Reports of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs),” National Military Command Center, July 30, 1976)

July 30 — 9:00 p.m. A British Airways Trident 2E piloted by Capt. Dennis Wood is flying at 29,000 feet over the North Atlantic about 40 miles south of Lisbon, Portugal, when air traffic control radios a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar that is flying near them and asks for a confirmation of a radar target. Wood and his crew look up and see a stationary bright light. They announce the sighting to their passengers. After several minutes watching the light, two cigar- shaped objects appear below and to the right of the light. A Portuguese airliner in the vicinity also observes the objects. Wood confirms the sighting, saying, “There is no way this is a star or planet.” Fighters are immediately scrambled from Lisbon. (NICAP, “Battleship-Sized Object Tracked by 3 Airlines”; Jenny Randles, “Casebook: The Portugal Sighting,” Fortean Times 199 (September 2005): 27) July 31 — 11:45 p.m. Debbie Focken and other witnesses see an oblong object with illuminated windows hovering about 100 feet above Eldon’s Standard Service Station in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Apparently the UFO causes extensive electrical damage to a CB radio, a burglar alarm, an adding machine, a cash register, and a vending machine. The owner and employees claim that lightning has caused the damage, and that is what they report to the insurance agency, but there is no thunderstorm that evening. (“Gas Station Damaged by UFO?” IUR 1, no. 2 (December 1977): 13; “Council Bluffs CE II,” IUR 2, no. 3 (March 1977): 7)

August — American SF novelist George H. Leonard publishes Somebody Else Is on the Moon, which records his observations, drawings, and NASA photos of lunar pipes, conduits, gears, gas nozzles, flares, huge rigs for sifting through dust, hovering vehicles, odd lights, and electromagnetic towers on the lunar surface—all of it indicating alien mining operations. Leonard argues that NASA secretly knows of alien activity on the Moon. It is possible that Leonard has written the book as a spoof. (George H. Leonard, Somebody Else Is on the Moon, McKay, 1976) August — 10:17 a.m. A Swedish J-5 jet pursues six delta-shaped silver objects in formation until they accelerate out of sight over Lake Bolmen, Sweden. (“Swedish Air Force Colonel Reports Six Delta-UFOs,” AFU Newsletter, no. 18 (Jan./Mar. 1980): 9–10) August — Day. A man is working on his mobile home in the forested hills near Medford, Oregon, when he sees two intensely bright lights “like burning magnesium” silently move across the sky, side by side. They appear to be discs, curved on the top and flat on the bottom, and in between them is a third object, which seems to be a World War II–era bomber. The tips of each wing appear to be resting on the discs, and its propellors are not turning. The three objects pass overhead and move beyond the hill behind him. (Michael D. Swords, “Timmermania: A Step Too Far into the Timmerman Files?” IUR 27, no. 4 (Winter 2002–2003): 8) August — A. Troitsky and six others observe a silvery disc over the Pirogovskoye Reservoir north of Moscow, Russia. It is about 8 times the apparent size of the full moon and is moving slowly at an altitude of perhaps 120 feet. The object has two revolving stripes along its side and a black hatch on its underside from which a small cylinder protrudes, its lower portion rotating. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, pp. 10–11) August 2 — 3:30 a.m. A domed UFO is seen at an altitude of 15–18 feet at St.-Pierre-sur-Mer, Hérault, France. It has orange lights that go on and off slowly. (M. Grazioli, “Enquête dans l’Hérault,” Lumières dans la Nuit, no. 166 (June/July 1977): 26–27) August 3– 4 — 11:25 p.m. The pilot of Tunisair Flight Tu8953, en route from Monastir to Tunis, Tunisia, sees a flying object at 3,200–3,900 feet moving north to south. At 11:27 p.m., five objects showing red and green lights are seen over Monastir and confirmed on radar. From 12:24 a.m. to 4:00 a.m., five separate radar returns are tracked and visually confirmed. (ClearIntent, p. 80 ) August 4– 5 — 10:43–10:52 p.m. An Air France pilot en route to Monastir, Tunisia, is followed by an unidentified object. (ClearIntent, pp. 80 – 81 ) August 6 — 12:20 a.m. Police at La Soukra, Tunisia, see four lighted objects that disappear one by one until 1:45 a.m. (ClearIntent, p. 81 ) August 6 — 10:00 a.m. A family is driving in Gaspésie National Park, Quebec, when a beam of red light penetrates the fog and creates a six-inch circle on the road ahead. The beam paces ahead of them for several miles, then collapses and withdraws upwards. A dazzling white light then approaches and stops ahead. Strong heat builds up in the car, so the father stops the vehicle. The headlights and radio fail, and the engine dies. All four get out and walk toward the object, which now appears as a scallop-shaped craft on landing legs, stretching across the road. The wife notices a massive “face” looking at them. Two 7-foot tall beings are apparently floating near the UFO, dressed in close-fitting, khaki-brown suits. The witnesses flee back into the car. The object moves away in a flash of light and burst of heat. The car starts again. All four suffer from itching for the next 10 hours. (Jean Ferguson, Les Humanoides: Les Cerveaux qui Dirigent les Soucoupes Volantes, Leméac, 1977; NICAP, “Gaspesian Park, Quebec: Humanoids/E-M Case”; Michael D. Swords, “Messing Around with the Force,” IUR 31 , no. 4 (March 2008): 29 – 30 )

August 7 — 10:00 p.m. Mark Ziegelbauer, 15, of Malone, Wisconsin, and his father Orville see multicolored lights fly past their new silo and land in a distant hayfield. Mark drives over to the spot and shines his headlights into the field. He sees an object the size of a “camper-trailer” and two green men, one about 5 feet 7 inches, the other shorter. They put their hands up and “disappeared somehow.” (“Youth Claims Seeing 2 Green Men from UFO,” Fond du Lac (Wis.) Reporter, August 10, 1976, p. 26; Clark III 279 ) August 7 — 11:48 p.m. The control tower at the Djerba-Zarzis International Airport, Tunisia, tracks a UFO on radar to the northwest. The sighting is confirmed by a Tunisair pilot, who says it is a lighted object that seems to touch down near the airport then turn south after climbing up. (ClearIntent, p. 81 ) August 8 — 7:50 p.m. Radar at Sidi Ahmed Air Base at Bizerte Airport, Tunisia, tracks a target going east to west. It turns south and disappears. Tunisian authorities contact the US State Department asking whether the US Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean can shed any light on the incidents. (ClearIntent, p. 81 ) August 10 — 5:00 a.m. Teresa de Tejero wakes up suddenly in her room at the Hotel Da Balaia in Albufeira, Portugal, and sees a vivid luminous rectangle on the window curtains. She wakes up her husband Francisco, who goes to the window and sees an object with six reddish lights that appears to be on another wing of the hotel. One of its lights seems to be directed straight into their bedroom. They go back to sleep. In the morning, Francisco looks out the window and finds there is no hotel wing where he thought the UFO was. He realizes that the object must have been huge to masquerade as two floors of the hotel. (Ignacio Darnaude, “Spies in the Supernumerary Attic?” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 3 (October 1977): 20–21) August 11 — 11:00 p.m. Two boys aged 13 and 14 are standing on the beach in La Linea de Concepción, Spain, facing the Strait of Gibraltar when they see a yellowish-white UFO approaching from over the Mediterranean. It seems to have an axis that bisects it. The object climbs rapidly, changing color to whitish and then a vivid yellow. It approaches another, larger object and enters it. While they watch it, the light of a nearby lighthouse goes out temporarily. The larger object remains in place. (“UFO Blacks Out Lighthouse,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 1 (June 1977): iii) August 13 — 8:30 a.m. The pilot of a Piper Arrow PA- 28 is flying at 3,500 feet between Diepholz and Petershagen, Germany, when he notices a strange light approaching from the northeast. After 3–5 minutes, the object comes closer and takes a fixed position off the left wing. The object is oval-shaped and very bright yellow in its center with an indistinct flame-orange boundary. Suddenly the Piper goes into two rapid 360° clockwise rolls from which the pilot must recover manually. He discovers that he has dropped about 500 feet during the roll-and- recovery maneuver. When he next checks his instrument panel, he discovers that his magnetic compass is spinning in a clockwise direction so fast that he can’t read the number in its square window. Looking outside again, he sees that the UFO is still behind him, suggesting that he has lost the same amount of altitude. The pilot climbs back to his cruise altitude and calls on the radio to flight control at Hannover airport. The air traffic controller tells him that the radar shows both his airplane and another object nearby. The controller says that an aircraft will be sent to investigate. Little more than 4 minutes later, two USAF F-4 Phantom jets arrive on either side of him travelling 400–500 mph. The jet on the right side is slightly lower, closer, and ahead of the jet on the left. The pilot is certain they are American planes. Just as the jets arrive, the UFO accelerates forward and then upward at about a 30° angle above the horizontal and turns right, passing in front of his aircraft. It quickly outdistances its pursuers and is out of sight in a matter of seconds. The compass eventually returns to normal operation after the UFO departs. The pilot is interrogated after his landing by “military men.” (Richard F. Haines, “An Aircraft/UFO Encounter over Germany in 1976,” IUR 24, no. 4 (Winter 1999): 3–6) August 14 — 6:30 p.m. A couple out walking along a road on Cartmel Fell in Lake District National Park, Cumbria, England, see a bright light in the sky. Through binoculars, it looks like a silver disc reflecting light from its top surface. After 30 seconds, it becomes smaller as if it is moving away. Two other witnesses see a similar object at the same time. (“Report 7670,” Northern UFO News, no. 28 (September 1976): 7) August 15 — 3:00 a.m. A distant bright light appears above El Real de la Jara, Seville, Spain, as 20 automobiles stop on the highway to watch it. Taxi driver Pablo Garcia García blinks his lights at it, and the object appears to approach much closer. García stops signaling, but the other drivers panic and drive away rapidly. (Gordon Creighton, “Some Recent Spanish Reports,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 6 (April 1977 ): 28 – 29) August 20 — Brothers Jim and Jack Weiner, with friends Charles Foltz and Charles Rak, claim they are abducted by aliens during a camping trip near Allagash, Maine. According to the four men, hypnotic regression allows them to recall being taken aboard a circular UFO and being “probed and tested by four-fingered beings with almond- shaped eyes and languid limbs.” In a later interview by the St. John Valley Times, Charles Rak changes his story, saying he did see strange lights during the camping trip, but the abduction part of the story is a total fabrication, and he went along with the narrative for financial gain. The other three members of the group stand by the abduction story. According to Jim Weiner, “Jack, Charlie, and I, after all these years, are still in agreement with

the Eagle Lake event as we (three) remember it. We also accept the results of the hypnotic regression sessions and subsequent polygraph tests as supportive of an abduction scenario.” (Raymond E. Fowler, The Allagash Abductions, Wild Flower, 1993 ; Jessica Potila, “Subject of 1976 UFO Incident Casts Doubt on ‘Allagash Abductions,’” Fort Kent (Maine) Fiddlehead Focus, September 10, 2016) August 21 — 10:30 p.m. A 90-foot-long cigar-shaped object descends from 4,000 feet over the Forêt de Molière to the east of Poitiers, France. Witnesses hear a humming sound and smell an odor. It ascends and disappears. (Michel Figuet and Jean-Louis Ruchon, OVNI: Le premier dossier complet des rencontres rapprochées en France, Alain Lefeuvre, 1979, p. 627) August 22 — Midnight–4:00 a.m. Eleven witnesses see a luminous orb, 9–21 feet in diameter, with antennae, flying over Dossenheim-sur-Zinsel, Bas-Rhin, France. (Ph. Wiedenhoff, “Dans le Bas-Rhin,” Lumières de la Nuit, no. 166 (June/July 1977): 17–20) August 25 — 12:30 p.m. Three children see beings in polished-silver suits and a UFO rising upward from a schoolyard in North Reddish, Stockport, Manchester, England. (David Rees, “‘Floating’ Entity at Reddish,” Flying Saucer Review 25, no. 2 (July 1979): 29 – 3 1)

Early September — Three men watch a dense white cloud hover low above Rua Cajati in São Paulo, Brazil. It dissipates, revealing a disc-shaped object that emits light beams of various colors. When policemen arrive and draw their weapons, they become paralyzed like statues. The smoke cloud reappears and envelops the disc, which takes off. (O Dia (Rio de Janeiro), September 8, 1976; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 1, no. 2 (December 1976): 10) September — The Cambridge UFO Research Group is founded by Bonnie Wheeler in Cambridge, Ontario. She produces a bimonthly newsletter through September 1994. (Cambridge UFO Research Group Newsletter 2, no. 3 (September 1980)) September 1 — 10:35 a.m. A witness is walking with her dog in a field off Larimer County Road 76H northwest of Larimer, Colorado. She looks up and sees a large (100 feet long), silver-colored, silent cylinder flying at about 50 mph to the south. It is only 200–250 feet in altitude and has two rings around it towards each end. She watches it for several minutes. (“More Letters,” IUR 8, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1983): 16 ; “More Similarities Begin to Appear,” CUFOS Associate Bulletin 4, no. 6 (Dec. 1983/Jan. 1984): 1) September 1 — Day. A retired science teacher watches a circular glowing object while walking on a beach near Aguada, Puerto Rico. The object moves slowly, hovers, then falls abruptly, tumbling over and over, until it nearly enters the ocean. It then rights itself and moves slowly westward. It has a dull gray finish and appears to be quite distant. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 1, no. 1 (November 1976): 2) September 3 — Early morning. A witness in Bethel, Alaska, hears a high-pitched whine and looks out at the tundra where a small (2.5– 3 - inch diameter) white beach ball seems to be moving just above the ground. After a while it tilts so that she can see it is a disc with a rotating “platinum-shiny” area in the middle. The object arcs upward, then back down, and seems to disappear into the ground, whereupon the whine stops. She can find no ground markings. (Michael D. Swords, “Unusual Experiences from the Timmerman Files,” IUR 27, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 24) September 3 — 7:00 p.m. Farm laborer João Romeu Klein, 19, returns home to Brusque, Santa Catarina, Brazil, after visiting a friend. As he approaches the house, he spots a flying object in the shape of a deep dish that rotates slowly counterclockwise. The upper part of the object is flattened, and a luminous light on top varies according to the speed of the craft’s movement and vacillates from red (high speed) to orange, from yellow to light green, and finally to white. When the craft is still, the intensity of the light diminishes. The object itself is gray in color and nearly 10 feet in diameter. The UFO moves toward Klein, passes 33 feet above his head, and then hovers in front of him about 16 feet from the ground. A bright, red light shines from the center of its base, through which three small beings about 3 feet tall slowly descend. The humanoids form a line across the entire width of the road and prevent him from passing as the UFO moves behind him some 33 feet away and 26 feet above the ground, close to some trees. The beings open their arms in an apparent blocking gesture, communicating with each other in an unfamiliar language. Klein draws his knife and tosses it toward the beings; it whizzes through the air, but at one point appears to float before falling to another spot. Each being wears a staff at its waist. The crew member in the center reacts by waving his staff toward Klein. The staff fires a beam of bluish-white light that hits Klein in the left thigh. He faints on being struck and is later found by his neighbors. His leg is paralyzed, so he goes to Azambuja hospital in Brusque, where doctors find no sign of injury. He recovers after a few days. (“Os Tripulantes da Serra do Moura, Novo Trento, Brusque, Estado de Santa Catarina,” SBEDV Boletim, no. 136/145 (Sept. 1981/April 1982): 1 0 – 12; Clark III 218– 220 ; Luis Lopez, “Quase 40 Anos Depois, Homem Relata Experiência com Extraterrestres em Brusque, SC,” Novos Insólitos, May 12, 2016; Brazil 194–198) September 3 — 9:00 p.m. Two women, one 63 and the other an 18-year-old relative, are returning from a family visit in Fence Houses, Durham, England, when they see a peculiar object resting on a mound of earth in a section of

mining wasteland. They walk toward it, feeling a sort of attraction, and see that it is an oval object about 3 feet high and 5 feet long and standing on chrome or steel runners. The main compartment is glasslike with an orange section on top. When they reach the object, they sense the wind and traffic noise have stopped. The older woman touches the glassy side, which feels warm. At this point two strange entities are seen within the craft with long white hair parted down the middle, large eyes, and claw-like hands. They are both the size of a large doll, perhaps 1 – 1.5 feet tall. Frightened, the two women hurry away, noting that the street noise has returned. The object then takes off at great speed, making a humming noise. (William D. Muir, “UFO Landing at Fencehouses, County Durham,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 6 (April 1977): 2–3) September 8 — Leoncio Torres and Elena Bedjara are driving a truck on the road between Ollachea and Ayaviri, Peru, when a UFO lands 90 feet in front of them. Two strange creatures about 6 feet tall approach the blocked truck with flashlights. The creatures touch the couple’s backs and they feel a burning sensation. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 1 (January 1977): 2) September 9 — About 2:00 a.m. Farmer Hermelindo da Silva is making his way home from the bar he owns in Vargem Grande, Minas Gerais, Brazil, when his dog grows agitated. A flash of light illuminates the area, followed by a strange buzzing sound. He sees a bright object about 4 feet in diameter above him. The dog begins barking nonstop until it receives some type of shock, apparently from the craft, and flees in terror. The light goes out, and da Silva runs back to the bar and flattens himself against the outside wall. The object lights up again, scaring him, so he picks up a piece of wood and throws it at the object. The light goes out again and the buzzing ceases, only to be replaced by a hiss. He feels a blow to his shoulder and falls to the ground, then he runs toward his house with the object 10 feet above him. Cables and hooks descend from the UFO, accompanied by a small creature about 3 feet tall. Da Silva hits its shoulder, causing it to jump and fall, then gets into a fight with it for 15 minutes. Finally, the creature loops a cable around da Silva’s ankle and hoists him screaming into an opening on the craft. His brother-in-law hears him and sees him ascending. Da Silva manages to get loose from the cable and falls 20 feet into a plant. He runs to the house, bruised. (Clark III 1220– 1221 ; Brazil 198–200) September 9– 10 — Around 3:00 p.m. A worker at the Liangshan Cotton Mill south of Longwangmiao, Shandong, China, sees a spherical object at 45° elevation about 9, 800 – 13,000 feet away. The upper part is bright silver, and the lower part is dark gray. It moves in the direction of the sun. It reappears on September 10, although it seems larger. It shrinks in size toward 12:00 noon and finally appears like a twinkling star in the daytime. It reverts to its former size in the afternoon, and then in front of more than 1,000 witnesses it flies away and disappears around 5:00 p.m. (Wendelle Stevens and Paul Dong, UFOs over Modern China, UFO Photo Archives, 1983, p. 88) September 10 — 12:54 a.m. Bill Pecha Jr. is watching TV in his home 3 miles southwest of Colusa, California, when suddenly the picture crackles, fades, and blacks out, and the air conditioner dies. He goes outside to check on the circuit breaker and feels an electrical sensation. He looks up and sees an object 85 feet in diameter hovering above a TV antenna near the barn about 50 feet away. The main body of the craft is a disc shape, which appears to be rotating in a clockwise direction, with a large dome that remains stationary on top. The object makes little or no sound, and is silver or gray in color, except for the very bottom, which has a “porcelain” look about it. Two hook- like cables are hanging down. Pecha approaches until he is just under one edge. The UFO moves slowly away and retracts its cables. Two hatches open on either end, revealing a “spotlight.” He goes inside and wakes up his wife Lenda, who also sees the object. Pecha can now see two other objects over high-tension power lines a mile to the west, emitting light beams at the tops of the transmission towers. The first UFO is moving closer and passes over a neighbor’s house, shining a light on it. Frightened, Pecha grabs his two children and he and his wife speed away in their pickup. They stop at a friends’ house and draw their attention to the distant light. The encounter ends at 1:03 a.m. (Paul Cerny, “UFO Hovers over California Farm,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 197 (October 1976): 3– 8; Center for UFO Studies, [case files]; “The UFO Finalist,” IUR 2, no. 1 (January 1977): 6–8; Clark III 294 – 296 ; Micah Hanks, “Tentacles and Telephone Lines: The Colusa, California, UFO Incident of 1976,” Mysterious Universe, February 22, 2019) September 1 0 — 6:00–7:00 p.m. British European Airways Flight 831 from Moscow to London is cruising at 33,000 feet over Lithuania when a blinding, stationary light is seen on the starboard side of the airliner, apparently 10– 15 miles away and 5,000–6,000 feet below. The light resembles a yellowish sodium vapor lamp and is too intense to view directly. It lights up the top of the cloud layer below. The pilot asks the Soviet authorities to identify the source, but they come back with a negative response, saying he should not ask questions. The light is visible for 10 – 15 minutes. (“Aerial Observation of Intense Source of Light,” CIA Foreign Intelligence Information Report, November 18, 1976) September 11 — 8:00 p.m. Herbert Hopkins, the hypnotist investigating the 1975 Oxford abduction case, is alone in his home in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. The telephone rings, and the caller identifies himself as vice president of the nonexistent New Jersey UFO Research Association. He wants to come and discuss the Oxford case. Hopkins

consents, telling him to come right over. As soon as he switches on the back light, he sees a man in dark clothing walking up the porch stairs. Hopkins unthinkingly opens the door right away. The stranger is wearing a black derby, black jacket, black tie, white shirt, gray gloves, black trousers, and black shoes. The crease in his pants is razor sharp. The man never introduces himself but sits down and removes his hat. He is completely hairless, devoid of eyebrows and eyelashes, but his lips are a vivid red. The stranger speaks in a monotone. After Hopkins discusses what he knows about the David Stephens case, the man remarks, “That’s just what I thought,” and abruptly changes the subject. “You have two coins in your left pocket,” he says. Hopkins acknowledges he has a dime and a penny. The stranger tells him to take one out and hold it in his palm. He does and is shocked to find that its color has changed to bright silver, then light blue. It grows blurry and fuzzy and finally fades away in a vapor. The stranger says that no one else “on this plane will ever see that coin again.” The stranger then asks if he knew why Barney Hill died, saying “He died because he knew too much. He died because he had no heart, just as you have no coin.” He orders Hopkins to destroy all the audiotapes of Stephens’s hypnosis sessions, as well as any other UFO literature he has sitting around, or he will suffer the same fate as Barney Hill. The stranger gets up, speaking slowly, and says his energy is running low. He gets up slowly and walks down the porch steps one foot at a time. Hopkins sees a bright light outside, rushes to the kitchen window, and sees the light and the man are gone. About 90 minutes later, Mrs. Hopkins and two of their sons arrive home from a movie. He tells them what happened, and one of the sons finds a series of marks in the narrow driveway that look like a small tractor tread. They are gone the next day. Hopkins burns all his tapes, correspondence, and literature at the urging of his family. (Berthold Eric Schwartz, “The Man-in-Black Syndrome, Part 1,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 4 (January 1978): 9 – 15; Berthold Eric Schwartz, “The Man-in-Black Syndrome, Part 2,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 5 (February 1978): 22–25; Berthold Eric Schwartz, “The Man-in-Black Syndrome, Part 3,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 6 (April 1978): 26–29; Clark III 863– 864 ) September 11 — Night. Three members of the Hood family are driving back along a country road to their home in Little Britain, Ontario. Paul Hood notices a flashing light in the treetops. When their car approaches, it darts off. Days later, Paul and Don Hood find a 30-foot-diameter circle of burned ground and grass swirled in a counterclockwise direction near a split-rail fence in a swamp less than a quarter-mile from their home. Six holes the size of grapefruits are also present. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 1 (January 1977): 2) September 13 — Ranch worker George Aguerre sees an object like an upturned funnel with windows landing for 3– 4 minutes near Tacuarembo, Uruguay. It emits two brilliant beams of light from the top and is about 45 feet in diameter. Police find landing marks and a burned area. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 1 (January 1977): 2) Mid-September — 4:00 p.m. A copilot of a Boeing 727 for the Brazilian Varig airline sees a disc-shaped object about 120 feet in diameter over the Amazon forest between Manaus and Belém, Brazil. The aircraft’s radar confirms the sighting. The pilot is carrying a camera and snaps a photo of the UFO, which starts jumping from one side to the other in front of the plane, causing the crew to panic. The sighting lasts about 5 minutes. (Clark III 198; Brazil 535 – 536) September 16 — 9:15 p.m. Six witnesses in Modesto, California, see a rolling orange ball of light heading slowly south. Possible balloon. (“Case 1- 1 - 6,” IUR 1, no. 1 (November 1976): 5) September 16 — 9:45 p.m. A witness in Eureka, California, sees a large orange light at treetop level that rushes overhead, then stops and hovers for 5 minutes. (“Case 1- 1 - 7,” IUR 1, no. 1 (November 1976): 5) September 18– 19 — 10:30 p.m. Residents of the northeast portion of the city of Tehran, Iran, watch a multicolored aircraft hovering a few thousand feet in the air. Some of them call the nearby Mehrabad Airport, reaching night supervisor Houssain Pirouzi, who goes outside at 11:15 p.m. to look. With his binoculars, he sees a bright object flashing colored lights and changing positions at an altitude of 6,000 feet. Around 12:30 a.m., Pirouzi alerts the Iranian Air Force command post. Deputy Gen. Nader Yousefi also sees the object and scrambles an Air Force F- 4 Phantom II interceptor piloted by Capt. Aziz Khani and 1stLt. Hossein Shokri from Shahrokhi Airbase [now Hamadan Airbase] to the west at 1:30 a.m. They close in on the object, but the jet’s radio and instruments give out. Only when Khani pulls away does functionality return. Squadron Cmdr. Parviz Jafari takes off in a second jet with 1stLt. Jalal Damirian in pursuit at 1:40 a.m. Some 27 miles from the UFO, Jafari picks the object up on radar, the return indicating something the size of a Boeing 707. Visually, it is flashing like a strobe with intense red, green, orange, and blue lights (in a diamond shape) so bright that Jafari cannot see its body. He approaches within 70 miles, then the object jumps 10° to the right, then twice again the same amount. Suddenly a smaller round object comes out of the large object and heads straight toward the interceptor at a high rate of speed. Jafari tries to fire an AIM-9 heat-seeking missile at it, but his weapons control panel malfunctions, as well as his radio and instruments. Jafari turns to the left to avoid an impact with the small object, which approaches to 4 miles distance, then stops. It returns to the large object, which emits another smaller object. Jafari is ordered back to the base, but the light follows him. During final approach, another object (a thin rectangle with three lights) appears at

low altitude in front of his plane. Gen. Yousefi then orders Jafari to approach the light and get a look. When he is within 4 miles, the radio and instrument panel go out again. The light disappears from view after Jafari lands. Base Commander Gen. Abdulah Azerbarzin claims the complete investigation records are turned over to the US Air Force, which insists it only has one memo from USAF Lt. Col. Olin R. Mooy, who sat in on one of the pilot interviews. A US Defense Intelligence Agency evaluation rates the case High (of major significance). The sighting is apparently tracked by a US Defense Support Program satellite. (Wikipedia, “1976 Tehran UFO incident”; NICAP, “Iranian F-4 Phantom Jet Chase, Radar/Visual/E-M/IAD Signal”; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 1, no. 1 (November 1976): 2; “The U.S. Government and the Iran Case,” IUR 3, no. 1 (January 1978): 6–7; “Review of Iranian UFO Reports,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 2 (Jan./Feb. 1981): 14–15; “Now You See It, Now You Don’t!” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 1 (February 1982): 3; Center for UFO Studies, [case documents]; Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 85–88; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 98– 104 ; Clark III 624– 626 ; Kean, pp. 86 – 92 , 149 – 150 ; Swords 340–341; Good Above, pp. 318 – 321 , 497 – 500 ; Good Need, pp. 302 – 303 , 315 – 317 ; A. Meessen, “Deux jets F-4 rencontrent un ovni à Téhéran,” April 30, 2007) September 19 — 1 :00– 2 : 0 0 a.m. A silvery, luminous circular object is seen flying southwest to northwest (parallel to the coast) at an altitude of 3,200 feet in multiple locations in Morocco, including Agadir, El Kelaa des Sraghna, Essaouira, Marrakesh, Casablanca, Rabat, Kenitra, Meknes, and Fez. It gives off an intermittent trail and is completely silent. The US Embassy in Rabat forwards a summary to the US State Department, asking for more information. A reply comes in October from Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who cites the Condon study and natural causes, although he rules out meteors and reflections from a polar-orbiting satellite. (ClearIntent, pp. 86 – 88 ) September 19 — A TAP Air Portugal Boeing 707 nearly collides with a UFO shortly after takeoff at Lisbon, Portugal. The oval object is glowing blue with a horizontal row of red and white lights. It is also seen by an air traffic controller who says that the object does not show up on radar. (“[Aerial Emergency in Lisbon Due to a ‘Flying Disc’]” La Crónica (Buenos Aires), September 23, 1976; Good Above, p. 154 ) September 22 — 10:30 p.m. A 10-year-old-boy in Regal, Minnesota, sees a 3.5-foot-tall creature with a large bald head, large red eyes, and green skin floating outside his bedroom window. A couple minutes later, the creature floats down to a cube-shaped craft, which he enters. (“Case 1- 1 - 27,” IUR 1, no. 1 (November 1976): 5) September 24 — 2:30 a.m. A conservation officer and his wife watch a dark object fly over Lake Red Rock near Otley, Iowa. It moves noiselessly at 40 mph and about 600 feet altitude. Binoculars reveal a blinking red light flanked by pairs of amber lights. (“Case 1- 1 - 35,” IUR 1, no. 1 (November 1976): 5) September 24 — 7:30 p.m. John Hopkins, the son of hypnotist Herbert Hopkins, and his wife Maureen, meet two odd individuals, “Bill” and “Jane,” who have arranged a meeting at a fast-food restaurant near their home in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. The conversation is uncomfortable and strange but does not involve UFOs. (Clark III 864 – 865 ) September 25 — Night. Vera White and three others traveling by car between farms in the Karawinna area to the west of Mildura, Victoria, Australia, notice a strange object on the ground in a paddock. It takes off vertically and hovers silently for about 5 minutes. They return to the site in the daytime and find a circle of flattened, discolored grass about 30 feet in diameter. (Melbourne Sun, September 29, 1976; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 1, no. 2 (December 1976): 10)

Autumn —2:00 a.m. Missile Combat Crew Commander Bruce Fenstermacher is on alert duty at one of the underground launch capsules at Francis E. Warren AFB near Cheyenne, Wyoming, with another crewman, when the officer-in- charge at the launch facility asks two security guards to report anything that seems unusual. A few seconds later, one of them reports seeing a pulsating white object in the sky. He can see flashing red and blue lights between the pulsations. It is about 10 miles north of their position and close to the launch control facility itself. The UFO is hovering about 100 feet above the building and looks like a “fat cigar” about 50–60 feet long. It begins to move away but stops close to one of the missile silos. Over the next 2 hours or so, the UFO hovers near several more missile silos. The security guards are terrified and refuse to approach any missile site that has the UFO over it. Sometime around 4:30 a.m., the object zooms away and disappears in seconds. (Nukes 340–343) October — The head of the UFO desk at the Swedish National Defence Research Institute, Sture Wickerts, travels to Målilla, Kalmar County, Sweden, to conduct a search for an unknown object thought to have crashed in the woods. He supervises diving operations into a water-filled hole possibly connected to the incident. Nothing is found but old logs. (Swords 369)

October — Guillermo Carlos Roncoroni begins publishing UFO Press in Buenos Aires, Argentina, until November 1986. (UFO Press, no. 1 (October 1976); Willy Smith, “UFOs in Latin America,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 99– 100 ) October — George J. Myers and his wife are traveling 3 miles southeast of Winnebago, Nebraska, on US Highway 73 [now US 75] when they notice a large patch of cornfield with no corn growing. It is on sloping ground and in the shape of a perfect circle 100 feet in diameter. They learn from local farmers that it had appeared earlier in the year while the corn was still quite short, killing off growth later in the summer. A light “like lightning” was seen shortly before the damaged area was noticed. Myers takes photographs of the circle and soil samples, which are later taken to the University of Nebraska and show evidence of a chemical spill. (“Large Circular Physical Trace: Is It Common?” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 5 (Oct./Nov. 1982): 1; “Large Physical Trace Identified,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 1 (Feb./March 1983): 3–4) October 12 — 7:30 p.m. Multiple independent witnesses in Sonora, California, are drawn outside by a loud noise like “six jets.” They see a large red oblong UFO hovering with a wobbling motion. After 5 minutes, the UFO shoots upward and disappears. The next day, angel hair strands are found and sent to David Miletich at the University of Chicago. They are found to be “whitish, fibrous material of uniform composition being quite fine with frequent branching.” The primary constituents are carbon and nitrogen, but it is not spider web. A sample tested at the Michael Reese Hospital Microbiology Lab shows it to be contaminated with a low level of radioactive tritium. (“Angel Hair: Under Analysis,” IUR 2, no. 8 (August 1977): 4, 8; “Angel-Hair Analysis Complete,” IUR 3, no. 3 (March 1978): insert; Brian Boldman, “Angel Hair Physical Analyses: A Review,” JUFOS 9 (2006): 106–107) October 17 — 10:40 a.m. A brilliant golden disc hovers south of Akita Airport, Japan, for 5 minutes. Kenichi Waga, telecommunications officer in the control tower, says “It was disc-shaped, larger than a car, but smaller than an airplane.” Capt. Masara Saito, 34, Toa Airlines [now Japan Air System] pilot, is preparing to take off when he notices “a strange looking disc-shaped object 5,000 feet from the ground.” Tazawa Takumi, air traffic controller on duty, who observes the object through binoculars, says it looks like “two plates placed together, with the top one inverted.” The unidentified object finally flies away toward the sea. (NICAP, “Disc Hovers near Japanese Airport”; UFOEv II 134) October 19 — An object like a silver, luminous mercury lamp is seen over Paso de Los Toros, Durazno, Uruguay. The UFO allegedly causes the deformation of a metal refrigerator, the discharge of three car batteries, and the bursting of a refreshment bottle. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 3 (March 1977): 2) October 19 — 9:35 p.m. A group of people at the southwest end of Lake Harriet in Minneapolis, Minnesota, watch a yellow cone of light with a row of windows at the bottom hover below the cloud cover for 2 minutes, disappear, and reappear in a new location. This repeats 4–5 times before the object shoots up into the clouds. (“Case 1- 2 - 20,” IUR 1, no. 2 (December 1976): 11) October 22 — 1:20 a.m. Paul Thompson is driving home from his job on Interstate 494 where the highway turns to the northeast in Woodbury, Minnesota. He sees yellow and red lights about 2 miles ahead on the north side of the road. As he moves closer, he finds that the lights are actually two objects suspended in the air above a marshy area behind some woods about 300–400 feet north of the interstate. They are soft rounded triangles with red glows at the tip of the triangle and yellow pulsating lights protruding from the blunter ends. The objects are apparently metallic, about 20– 25 feet in their longer dimension, and hover without making a sound. Thompson gets out of his car to watch. A truck approaches and one object rises vertically and zooms away. As the truck is abreast of his position, the second object ascends and flies directly over them. A CUFOS investigator examines the marshy area two days later and finds an oblong area, 40 feet by 20 feet, devoid of cattails and heavy grass. Inside the oblong is a smaller, irregular area where he finds exposed soil is and a few round holes the size of a quarter. He takes soil samples, which are sent to University of Kansas geologist Edward J. Zeller for thermoluminesce testing. The soil from the site center shows essentially no thermoluminescence, indicating t had been subjected to strong heat. (CUFOS case file) Late October — 7:30 p.m. Four physicians and a diplomat in an undeveloped region of Algeria south of Algiers watch a bright oval light on the horizon heading toward them. The object casts a faint beam downward, sweeping the ground, as it darts around the sky silently. It is bright when in motion, but faint when it stops. After an hour it fades, leaving a glowing space in the dark sky. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 4 (April 1977): 2) October 23 — 4:00 p.m. Three men—Nicholas Flaskas, Frank Zonaras, and Bill Zonaras—waiting to film a solar eclipse at Taola Point in Ben Boyd National Park, New South Wales, notice two unusual objects on the horizon close to the ocean. The UFOs alternately move toward and away from them. The men take both motion picture and still photos, showing one bell-shaped object and another discoid in shape. They turn their attention to the eclipse and when it is over, the objects are gone. (David Reneke, “The Benboyd UFO Movie: History and Evaluation,” UFO

Research Australia 1, no. 2 (March/April 1980): 19–23; Keith Basterfield, Vladimir Godic, and Pony Godic, “Australian Ufology: A Review,” JUFOS 2 (1990): 31) October 30 — Spanish journalist Juan J. Benítez receives the first batch of some 300 pages of UFO reports from the Spanish Air Ministry in Madrid, Spain. The documents include photos and clips of gun-camera film taken by air force pilots. (Gordon Creighton, “The Spanish Government Opens Its Files,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 3 (October 1977): 3; J. J. Benítez, OVNIs: Documentos oficiales del gobierno español, Plaza y Janés, 1977 ; Good Above, p. 152 )

November — The first issue of the International UFO Reporter (IUR) is published by the Center for UFO Studies, with J. Allen Hynek as editor-in-chief and Allan Hendry as managing editor. (IUR 1, no. 1 (November 1976); Clark III 567 – 568, 627) November — Dominique Delille founds Groupe d’Études du Phénomène OVNI in Saint-Symphorien-de-Lay, Loire, France. It publishes a quarterly newsletter, Siècle Inconnu, which continues under the names GEPO Informations and OVNI et Cie through 1983. (INFO OVNI, no. 1 (November 1976)) November 4 — 8:30 p.m. A married couple in Martinsburg, Ohio, see two irregularly shaped objects, rounded on the bottom, hovering low near their car. One descends, flying over some woods, while the other is seen above the telephone wires by the road. Both have a red light on top, a whiter flashing light on the bottom, and a revolving red light. Around 9:30 p.m., three similar objects are seen by a woman 4 miles away, slowly changing formation for 5 minutes in the east. (“Case 1- 2 - 62,” IUR 1, no. 2 (December 1976): 11) November 5 — 8:08 p.m. A young woman is watching television at her home in Rives, Isère, France. She sees a bright light outside and calls her father. From their balcony they watch an intense white light speed across the sky from northwest to southeast and disappear in the mountains. The father thinks the light is spinning. At the same time a French physicist is driving 7 miles away near Voreppe. He sees a luminous disc brighter than the full moon and stops his car to watch it. The object is white in the center, bluish-white at the periphery, and is surrounded by an intense green halo. It is moving silently southeast but stops for a few seconds before moving off 30° from its previous course at a much greater speed. It passes in front of the Massif du Taillefer before it disappears behind Mont Néron. The sighting lasts 20–25 seconds. (Jacques Vallée, “Estimates of Power Optical Output in Six Cases of Unexplained Aerial Objects with Defined Luminosity Characteristics,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 12, no. 3 (1998): 352–354) November 8 — 8:45 p.m. Two 14-year-old girls in the northern part of Belmont, North Carolina, see a round gray object about 20–30 feet in diameter “on edge.” It hovers several hundred feet in the air for 5 minutes, then moves east over the trees. It emits a beeping noise and is covered in flashing white lights and red steady lights. More than 100 people report seeing UFOs in nearby Gastonia on November 10. (“Case 1- 2 - 75,” IUR 1, no. 2 (December 1977): 11 ; “106 People ‘Saw UFOs,’” Gastonia (N.C.) Gazette, November 11, 1976, p. 11) November 10 — 8:20 p.m. A teenage girl driving alone near Putnam, Connecticut, passes underneath two dark metallic objects about 50 feet in diameter, one flying at an angle behind the other. Both objects have a red light in front, two on the sides, and a blue light in the back, all blinking. One banks slightly before it goes out of view, revealing a row of illuminated windows around the circular edge and a smaller circle like a “hatch” underneath. (“Case 1- 2 - 79,” IUR 1, no. 2 (December 1977): 11) November 14 — 9:00 p.m. Joyce Bowles and Ted Pratt are driving down the A272 near Winchester, England, when their car starts to jolt and shake and then veers off the road into a grass verge by the roadside. The car is subject to electrical interference as the engine roars, and the lights seem to shine brighter than usual. They spot what appears to be an orange, cigar-shaped craft, 15 feet in length, with three entities behind a window. As they watch, a bearded humanoid wearing a silver suit comes out of the object, walks to the car, and looks in on the witnesses. He then disappears and the couple are able to drive off. (Leslie Harris, “UFO and Silver-Suited Entity Seen near Winchester,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 5 (February 1977): 3–6; Richard Nash, “UFO and Occupants Reported near Winchester,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 5 (February 1977): 7–8; Jenny Randles, “Questions and Comments on the Nash Interview,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 5 (February 1977): 8; Frank J. Wood, “Alleged CE-III at Winchester: Vehicle Examination,” Flying Saucer Review 22, no. 5 (February 1977): 9–14; Good Above, pp. 70 – 71 ) November 15 — 1:15 a.m. Six distant objects with brilliant white lights are seen performing unusual patterns in the sky at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. They seem to have a metallic texture and make an intermittent sound like a “belt sander on metal.” (“Case 2- 1 - 1,” IUR 2, no. 1 (January 1977): 5) November 16 — Lockheed’s first Have Blue demonstrator stealth aircraft, HB1001, after going through numerous tests and getting a visual camouflage makeover, is flown from Burbank, California, to Area 51 in Nevada. After four taxi tests, HB1001 is ready for test flights. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed Have Blue”)

November 19 — President-Elect Jimmy Carter meets with CIA Director George H. W. Bush to discuss certain “exotic and very closely held items relating to sources and methods.” At one point, Bush and his aide Jennifer Fitzgerald take Carter and Vice President Walter Mondale aside to describe particularly sensitive CIA programs. Congressional Research Service Policy Analyst Marcia S. Smith claims that part of the debriefing is about UFOs, which Carter has asked about. But Bush explains that this “information was information that existed on a need to know basis only. Simple curiosity on the part of the President wasn’t adequate.” Carter determines to replace Bush with his Naval Academy classmate Stansfield Turner after the inauguration. (presidentialufo.com, “President Carter, Daniel Sheehan, and Donald Menzel: The Congressional Research Service UFO Studies for President Carter”) November 19 — Commandante Angel Parreno, the pilot of an Iberian Airlines Boeing 727 on a flight from Santiago de Compostela to Madrid, Spain, watches an unknown object accompany his aircraft for 20 minutes. Possible barium cloud released by a rocket. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 4 (April 1977): 2; Good Above, p. 154 ) November 19 — 7:15 p.m. Witnesses from aircraft and ships around the Canary Islands watch a point of light climbing into the sky in a spiral motion, expanding to a diameter 3–4 times that of the moon. It has a semicircular shape and gives the impression that it is resting on the horizon. Among the witnesses are Gen. Carlos Dolz de Espejo, chief of staff of the Canary Islands Air Zone, and the crew of the Spanish Navy school ship Juan Sebastian Elcano. Maj. Antonio Munáiz Ferro-Sastre again investigates, concluding that it was a “craft of unknown origin endowed with an unknown propulsion energy.” The time correlates with four Poseidon missile launches by the submarine USS Alexander Hamilton. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos and Ricardo Campo Pérez, “Navy Missile Tests and the Canary Islands UFOs,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 4 – 5) November 19 — 8:00 p.m. Three women watch a large yellow-orange light slowly and silently meander 150 feet above a church in St. Peter, Minnesota. They drive to a police station, where officers also see the now distant light head from west to east. (“Case 2- 1 - 16,” IUR 2, no. 1 (January 1977): 5) November 23 — 3:30 a.m. A lounge owner and an employee are frightened when an object 3 times the size of a helicopter flies over their car from the south in Kenner, Louisiana. It has flashing red, green, and white lights. The object hovers above some trees in the distance for 2 minutes, then heads slowly east toward Moisant Airport [now Louis Armstring New Orleans International Airport]. (“Case 2- 1 - 25,” IUR 2, no. 1 (January 1977): 5) November 24 — 10:30 p.m. An Indiana Gas serviceman sees a 12 - foot white cone of light with sparklers at its base diminish to a blinding point source alongside his pickup truck outside New Albany, Indiana. It follows him from the Kentucky border and moves silently ahead into the eastern sky when he reaches town. Other witnesses see it as a distant point of light; when they leave, the object rushes back over the serviceman’s house and disappears into the northwest. (“Case 2- 1 - 27,” IUR 2, no. 1 (January 1977): 5) November 25 — 9:00 p.m. A couple in Beecher, Illinois, watch an oblong, glowing, orange object 45° in the western sky for 5–6 minutes. Holding stationary, the object diminishes to a point source and returns to its original shape, larger than the moon. (“Case 2- 1 - 29,” IUR 2, no. 1 (January 1977): 5)

Early December — Afternoon. Eero Lammi is on his way home from school in Oulu, Finland, when he sees a 15-foot ball of light move across toward him from across the Gulf of Bothnia and land in a nearby field. When he approaches it, the object shoots out a beam of light that hits him in the chest. He feels a searing pain and blacks out. His parents think it is a prank until a doctor finds slight burns on his chest and back. The case is investigated by the Swedish Military High Command. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 2 (February 1977): 2) December 5 — 2:30 p.m. Several witnesses at Sollefteå, Västernorrland, Sweden, observe an elongated object (an estimated 148 feet long) with round openings along the fuselage. A blue-green light is shining from the openings, a red light at the front, and a diffuse orange glow from the underside. The object hovers above a military base built into the mountainside at an elevation of about 165 feet. After a while, the object moves on and hovers above a nearby power station. Then it moves jerkily sideways, jumping rapidly between different positions. After hovering for 15 minutes, it tilts up and rapidly speeds upwards and out of sight, disappearing at 3:30 p.m. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 4 (April 1977): 2) December 14 — 2:00 a.m. Panoramic radar at an air force base at Contrexéville, Vosges, France, picks up unknown targets at 2:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m., and 3:30 a.m. Seven air traffic controllers are the witnesses. The radar paints the targets as 10–15 miles apart every 10 seconds, meaning their speed is estimated at 4,200–6,200 mph, a supersonic speed of Mach 5 to 8, at an altitude of 6.5 miles. (Claude Poher, “A Case of Radar Detection of UFOs in France,” IUR 29, no. 3 (Fall 2004): 13 – 14, 27) December 15 — 7:00 a.m. Arnold Barker is driving south on Alberta Highway 46 [now Highway 63] nearly 3 miles south of Boyle, Alberta, when he sees two bright flashing lights flying west to east. As the object passes overhead, he realizes it is not an airplane. He jumps out of his truck to get a better look and sees that the lights are now red,

zigzaging, and attached to each other by a faint connection. The object appears to be landing silently in a field to the east of the road, but it stops about 6–10 feet from the ground and 100–150 feet away. Barker takes a few steps toward it, but it takes off and moves north. He gets in his truck again to turn around and the object follows him, again as a white light. He speeds up to 75 mph and outdistances it. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August North, pp. 185–187) December 15 — 9:20 p.m. A driver in Holland, Massachusetts, sees a cigar-shaped object twice the width of the moon hovering low in the east about 500 feet away. Human-like forms are visible through a row of windows on the side. It disappears in a bright red flash. (“Case 2- 2 - 1,” IUR 2, no. 2 (February 1977): 5) December 1 6 — 12:15 p.m. Michael Winterborne, meteorological officer for the Kalgoorlie Airport in Western Australia, sees a white, football-shaped object, glowing and pulsating with fuzzy edges, rush from the northeast horizon to the northwest horizon at great speed. At 2:45 p.m., he sees it again, arching overhead toward the west. Both incidents are timed by stopwatch at 12 seconds. Dave Bower, at the Scotia nickel mine about 50 miles to the north, sees a UFO drifting slowly westward at about 1,000 feet altitude. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 3 (March 1977): 2) December 18 — 12:55 a.m. On Wood Canyon Road east of Soda Springs, Idaho, police officer Dennis Abrams has a close encounter with a 30-foot diameter, oval-shaped UFO. It lacks any seams or windows and has the bulk of three to four cars. It emits a light green light and hovers only 60 feet away. It makes no sound when hovering but makes a whistling “wind” sound when in motion. (“CE-I Seen by Independent Policemen in Idaho,” IUR 2, no. 2 (February 19 77): 6–7) December 18 — A Flugfélag Íslands [now Air Iceland Connect] airliner in flight from Akureyi to Reykjavik, Iceland, picks up a clear radar target at 18,000 feet over the Mælifell volcano. It tracks the object for one minute as it rushes 2 miles below the aircraft at 3,600 mph. The object is not seen visually. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 3 (March 1977): 2) December 18 — 5:20 p.m. Several children in Newfolden, Minnesota, see an object speeding across the sky then stopping. It has 6–9 orange and white lights flashing on and off around the perimeter. (“Case 2- 2 - 9,” IUR 2, no. 2 (February 1977): 5) December 18 — 8:30 p.m. A group of witnesses see a red-orange oval light pass overhead in Miami, Florida, about 250 feet up. It turns west in a smooth, even motion. (“Case 2- 2 - 12,” IUR 2, no. 2 (February 1977): 5) December 19 — The first KH-11 Kennen reconnaissance satellite (codenamed Key Hole) is launched by the US National Reconnaissance Office. It is the first American spy satellite to use electro-optical digital imaging that offers real- time optical observations. The capabilities of the KH-11 are highly classified, as are images they produce. The satellites are believed to have been the source of some imagery of the Soviet Union and China made public in 1997; images of Sudan and Afghanistan made public in 1998 related to the response to the 1998 US embassy bombings; and a 2019 photo, revealed by President Donald Trump, of a failed Iranian rocket launch. (Wikipedia, “KH-11 KENNEN”) December 19 — 6:20 p.m. A witness in Concord, California, sees a silent, star-like light moving northward in an erratic fashion: zigzagging, up and down, in circles, backing up, speeding up for 1 minute. Then it speeds up and moves downward in a curve, zooming out of sight in 1 second. (“Case 2- 2 - 13,” IUR 2, no. 2 (February 1977): 5) December 19 — Night. Neil Brennan and Dean Gibbs step outside when they hear a whirring noise near Aquinas College, Salter Point, Western Australia. Brennan sees a bright disc, 2 feet in diameter, hovering 30 feet in the air behind his house. It then disappears toward the west. (Perth News (W.A.) News, December 20, 1976; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 2 (February 1977): 2) December 29 — Mr. and Mrs. Chapin, who had the previous experience in October 1969, again notice that their mine site near Redding, California, is unseasonably warm. Chapin walks carefully down toward the creek as his wife remains in the car. When he shouts and tells her to bring the gun, she observes a similar object to the one they had seen seven years earlier, except more pock-mocked on the surface, some 175–200 feet away from Mr. Chapin. It moves rapidly in the air and zaps both of them, knocking them to the ground. Chapin hits his head against the canyon wall and his wife falls to the road. They remain unconscious for about 15 minutes. (“The Redding, California CE II Case,” IUR 3, no. 3 (March 1978): insert)

1977

1977 — J. Allen Hynek publishes The Hynek UFO Report as a review of and commentary on Project Blue Book records. It is largely ghostwritten by Elaine M. Hendry, Allan Hendry’s wife and a graduate student in astronomy at Northwestern University. (J. Allen Hynek, The Hynek UFO Report, Dell, 1977; Clark III 620)

1977 — Constitutional attorney Daniel P. Sheehan, at the request of Congressional Research Service researcher Marcia S. Smith, visits the brand-new Madison Building at the Library of Congress to look at the “classified sections of Project Blue Book.” He claims to have seen photos of a flying saucer embedded in snow and surrounded by USAF personnel wearing parkas. There are symbols on the side of the crashed craft. (presidentialufo.com, “President Carter, Daniel Sheehan, and Donald Menzel: The Congressional Research Service UFO Studies for President Carter”) 1977 — Lawrence J. Fenwick, Joseph Muskat, and Harry Tokarz found the Canadian UFO Research Network in Willowdale, Ontario, to investigate reports and inform the public. It begins publishing the CUFORN Bulletin in late 1979, lasting until the summer of 1999. (CUFORN Bulletin 1, no. 2 (January 1980)) 1977 — José Jean Pereira de Alencar founds the Centro de Estudos Ufologicos in Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil, and publishes the journal UFOnotas. (Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, p. 56) 1977 — Fernando António Milhano Patinha founds OVNIGrupo 7 in Lisbon, Portugal. It publishes a quarterly magazine, OVNI. (Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, p. 235) 1977 — Roger Thome founds Groupe d’Étude et de Recherche sur les OVNI Haute-Marne/Meuse in Chaumont, Haute- Merne, France, which publishes five issues of Groupe 5255 in 1980–1982. (Groupe 5255, no. 1 (February 1980)) 1977 — California State University, Long Beach, English professor Alvin H. Lawson, along with technical writer John DeHerrera and physician William C. McCall, carries out a study in Anaheim (California) Memorial Hospital to determine if the abduction stories told by “real” abductees under hypnotic regression resemble the stories told by others who are asked to imagine an abduction under hypnosis. After the experiment, carried out by student volunteers, Lawson declares that the imaginary accounts are all but identical to the real accounts. He then formulates a Birth Memories Hypothesis, which argues that abductions are nonphysical, archetypal fantasies in which the witness’s birth memories play a central role. However, Lawson’s methodology and results are later critiqued severely. (Alvin H. Lawson, “What Can We Learn from Hypnosis of Imaginary ‘Abductees’?” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 120 (November 1977 ): 7 – 9; Alvin H. Lawson, “What Can We Learn from Hypnosis of Imaginary ‘Abductees’? Part 2,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 121 (December 1977 ); Alvin H. Lawson, “What Can We Learn from Hypnosis of Imaginary ‘Abductees’? Part 3,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 122 (January 1978 ); Alvin H. Lawson, “Hypnosis of Imaginary ‘Abductees,” in Curtis G. Fuller, ed., Proceedings of the First International UFO Congress, Warner, 1980, pp. 195 – 213; D. Scott Rogo, “Imaginary Facts: The Case of the Imaginary Abductions,” IUR 10, no. 2 (March/April 1985): 3–5; D. Scott Rogo, “Birth Traumas from Outer Space,” IUR 10, no. 3 (May/June 1985): 4–5, 16; Clark III 944– 945 ) 1977 — An Australian soldier is traveling on the Nullabor Plain in South Australia when he and a companion, an American soldier, watch the descent of a purple-green fireball. They drive to the impact site and see a crashed UFO. The Australian goes inside and sees two aliens, one dead and the other making a squealing sound. They are about 5 feet tall and pot-bellied, with long, thin arms and large, black eyes. When he comes out again, he finds that military personnel have arrived. They arrest him and his friend and keep him in custody for two weeks. (Bill Chalker, “UFO Crash/Retrieval Stories: The Australian Experience,” 1998; Clark III 345) 1977 — Maj. Gen. Hideki Komura, an adviser to Japan’s Cabinet Research Office, admits that UFO investigations are carried out at a top level. He says that in the 1950s, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force encouraged reports from the public, but they had too many reports to analyze. Now he admits they cooperate closely with the US government’s Foreign Technology Division. (Good Above, p. 431 )

January — The Roper Organization asks two questions about UFOs in a survey: 44% “believe in” life elsewhere in the universe and 29% in UFOs as extraterrestrial. (Robert J. Durant, “Evolution of Public Opinion on UFOs,” IUR 18, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1993): 12) January — Peter A. Sturrock of Stanford University releases the results of his survey on UFO sightings and beliefs of professional American astronomers. He has mailed out 2,611 questionnaires, with half (1,356) completed and returned. Sixty-two respondents (nearly 5%) say they have witnessed or obtained an instrumented record of an event they could not identify and that might be related to UFOs. Some 53 % prefer additional scientific study of UFOs. (“Sturrock Reports His UFO-Survey Results,” Physics Today 30 (May 1977): 112; “Astronomers and UFO’s: A Survey,” IUR 2, no. 3 (March 1977): 3– 4 ) January — Alfred Webre joins the Center for the Study of Social Policy at the Stanford Research Institute [now SRI International] in Menlo Park, California, as a senior policy analyst. He intends to develop an “extraterrestrial communication” project with White House backing. He plans to establish a comprehensive UFO database, hire scientific advisers to evaluate the data, and issue policy recommendations, including one to end military and intelligence secrecy. He is referred to an unnamed female staff member of the White House Domestic Policy Staff, who is supportive of his proposal. He is promised approval of his proposal, but never hears back from the

White House again. The request is terminated in September. (Steven M. Greer, Disclosure: Military and Government Witnesses Reveal the Greatest Secrets in Modern History, Crossing Point, 2001, pp. 441– 4 46; Dolan II 142) January 1 — 8:00 p.m. François Perez and his wife are chased in their car by a 33-foot long oval object in Valence, Drôme, France. They retrace their route one hour later after telling police. They see the oval object again, about 1,200 feet from them in a field. It appears to be 90–120 feet in diameter and surrounded by a halo of white light. After 10 minutes, the object begins flashing and rises up into the air at a 45° angle. They complain of eye pain and conjunctivitis for 48 hours afterward, and Perez’s watch stops working. (“French Couple Report Being Chased by ‘Big Glowing Star,’” Los Angeles Times, January 9, 1977, p. 28; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 2 (February 1977): 2) January 6 — 1:15 a.m. Florida Malboeuf is sitting at her window at 6420 Casgrain Avenue in Montreal, Quebec, when she sees an oyster-shaped, flat-bottomed metallic object with a row of white lights around its base. It flies in from the north and lands on the rooftop of a three-story apartment building across the street from her only 60 feet away. Immediately two figures appear on the roof; they are over six feet tall and thin, with long arms. They are wearing white one-piece uniforms with their heads covered with tight “bath helmets.” They stand looking at the street, then at the sky, then they apparently return to the object. A moment later they disappear, and the UFO rises from the roof about 20 feet and flies off to the east. Her son André goes over to the rooftop in question and finds a large, elliptical-shaped crust of ice, about 18 feet in diameter, on top of the snow. He also finds four small footprints only 6.5 inches long. (Marc Leduc and Wido Hoville, “Un UFO sur une maison,” UFO-Quebec, no. 9 (1977): 6– 10 ; Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 6 2 – 66 ) January 10 — 12:00 noon. Horse farmer William McCarthy is looking out his window at the falling snow when he is surprised to see a hole in his pond in the town of Wakefield, New Hampshire. The pond, 105 by 75 feet, was frozen solid just the day before. He goes outside for a closer look. The hole is perfectly round and cuts smoothly through 14 inches of ice. Eight inches of slush surrounds the hole. Peering into the hole, McCarthy sees something that looks like a one-foot-square box. He races back to the house and brings family members over for a look. Then he goes to the barn to pick up a rake, hoe, and pole. Back at the pond, McCarthy sees that the box has sunk three feet into the muck at the bottom. Frustrated in his attempt to retrieve the object, he calls a friend, Bob Palmer, who arrives around 2:30 p.m. Concerned that they might be dealing with radioactive satellite or aircraft debris, Palmer notifies the police, who soon arrive in the company of a local Civil Defense representative. The Geiger counter indicates a reading alarmingly above normal ( 3 roentgens per hour versus normal background radiation of .001 roentgen). The McCarthys are warned to stay away from the water, and the CD man and the police leave to inform their superiors. By 4:00 p.m. the circle of slush has expanded to 10 feet. When McCarthy observes the pond in the morning, he discovers a second hole, this one about 50 feet from the original. Not long afterwards, someone from the attorney general’s office warns McCarthy not to let his animals drink from the pond; he reappears later in the day to express concern about possible water seepage. He also directs McCarthy and his family not to discuss the affair with anyone else until the official investigation is completed. The next day the pond is frozen over again. Disregarding warnings, McCarthy walks out on it and looks down through the clear ice where the hole has been and to the pool bottom. A fresh 6 - inch-wide trench stretches from beneath the first hole all the way to the second. To all appearances, the object that entered via the former has left via the latter. State police escort all but the officially connected off the farm. Investigators try unsuccessfully to drain the pond, then see a 6 - by- 3 - foot opening where the original hole had been. Distant observers think they see the searchers retrieve a black object and place it inside a van, which quickly leaves the area. By the end of the day, a statement from the governor’s office declares that more sophisticated equipment has found no abnormal radioactivity in the pond and the surrounding area. The black object, the authorities contend, is a container filled with soil and stone samples collected for analysis. (“What’s Going On? N.H. Pond Mystery Called False Report,” Boston Globe, January 14, 1977, p. 3; Allan Hendry, “The Wakefield Incident: Telling a UFO from a Hole in the Ground,” IUR 2, no. 2 (February 1 977): 8; “Wakefield Wrap-Up,” IUR 2, no. 2 (February 1977): insert; Clark III 1233– 1234 ) January 10 — 4:00 p.m. A driver stopped at an intersection in Biloxi, Mississippi, watches a disc on edge descend at an 80° angle, growing larger. When it reaches treetop level, it banks in a curve into the trees. As it leaves, it presents a round face as large as the full moon. (“Case 2- 2 - 48,” IUR 2, no, 2 (February 1977): 5) January 11 —The crew of an Indian Air Force jet transport is flying 42 miles west of Varanasi, India, when it encounters three luminescent discs that fly past, circle once, then continue east. Apparently, thousands see the objects from the ground over a period of 45 minutes. (Good Need, p. 303 ) January 13 — 12:30 a.m. A driver is paced by a UFO shaped like a flattened football with a dark equator in Plantation, Florida. The noiseless object is glowing with a steady white light underneath. It moves erratically in front of the

car, and turns a corner as she pulls into her home. As she jumps out, she sees a second object join it in the northeast, and both speed toward the east in 5–6 seconds. (“Case 2- 2 - 52,” IUR 2, no. 2 (February 1977): insert. January 15 — 8 :15 p.m. An unusually bright light is seen bobbing up and down low in the southern sky of Charleston, Oregon, for 30 minutes. It gradually drops below the horizon. (“Case 2- 3 - 2,” IUR 2, no. 3 (March 1977): 5) Mid-January — 3:00 a.m. Eino Maki is out grooming the ski slopes at the Briar Mountain Lodge near Norway, Michigan. He notices that a nocturnal light UFO (seen frequently in the area since November 1976) is keeping pace with him as he moves up and down the slopes, edging closer. At first it is about 2 miles away at treetop level; now he can see red lights on the object. A bit unnerved, Maki goes back to the lodge and positions himself behind it. The light moves out of sight, and Maki goes back to work about 15 minutes later. Soon the light returns and it is below him on the same ski run, shining brightly. He decides to go home in his pickup truck. One week later, around 11:00 p.m., the same thing starts happening again, but Maki decides to run home right away. (Kenneth Schellhase, “UFOs on the Ski Slopes of Northern Michigan,” IUR 7, no. 2 (March 1982): 10) January 21 — 3:15 p.m. An observer in Aspen, Colorado, watches a stationary object for more than an hour. Through binoculars it looks like a 3:1 rectangle with rounded corners of blue-green light. It fades from view in the same position. (“Case 2- 3 - 12,” IUR 2, no. 3 (March 1977): 5) January 21 — 4:45 p.m. Three female factory workers in Bridlington, Yorkshire, England, are walking to work on Bessingby Way when they see a hazy oval object hovering above the Britax PMG factory roof just before it begins moving to the right and stopping again. Almost immediately they spot another hazy object hovering above the adjacent K. B. Dixon woodyard. It begins moving forward at a slow pace then stops above a ventilation pipe in the Dixon factory wall. As it hovers the haze disappears, and the object’s features become more distinct. It is larger than a double-decker bus and shaped like a rugby ball. All three are able to see through a row of windows on the side that reveal a corridor inside. On one end is a tube-like structure or pole. Soon it moves over some community gardens and hovers briefly at about 6 feet altitude, lowers its “pole,” and appears to suck up a polythene bag. Both objects now move off to the west. The sighting duration is 5– 10 minutes. The witnesses are terrified during the event, experiencing a cold sensation sweeping over them and a prickly irritation in their eyes. They develop sore throats and colds. (Robert Morrell, “UFOs over Bridlington Factories,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 3 (October 1977): 8–10, 21) January 21 — 8:45 p.m. Robert Melerine and Irwin Menesses are doing some hunting along a dike canal about one mile northeast of Yscloskey, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, one in a boat and the other walking along the shore. Melerine sees a bright red light in the sky. Suddenly the light seems right around him as the boat is engulfed in the glow, which extends to the surrounding landscape. There is no noise, and the light flies away into the woods. Menesses is already back at camp and has not seen the light. They both get into the boat and move down the dike canal, using the outboard motor. The light reappears and moves closer to them. Although the motor is running the boat is not moving, seemingly held in place. Then the light quickly leaves and the boat lurches forward with great force, causing both men to fall. The light again flies at low level into the trees and continues on until they lose it. They estimate that the light is about 15–25 feet in diameter, roughly circular, faceted, and strikingly fast when it moves toward them. Both men report nausea, stomach aches, and fever for 2 days after the incident (it is flu season). (“Mysterious Hovering Light Observed by Yscloskey Men,” St. Bernard (La.) News, January 26, 1977; “Mysterious Hovering Light Still a Mystery,” St. Bernard (La.) News, February 9, 1977; Ted Peters, “Warm Light Stops Everything!” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 111 (February 1977): 3– 6 ) January 21 — Night. Capt. Gustavo Ferreira and the crew of Avianca flight HK-1273 see an extremely bright white light in front of his plane. They are 7 minutes out of the El Dorado Airport in Bogotá, Colombia, westbound at 20,000 feet. At the same time, airport radar operator Jorge Jimenez watches a target moving at 27,340 mph in a zigzag motion. Ferreira watches the light change color in response to his turning on his landing lights and head south after 3 minutes. Jimenez sees the target cut 90° to the south at the same time. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 7 (July 1977): 2; UFOEv II 135) January 27 — 1:05 a.m. A 19-year-old trucker is driving on State Highway 329 southeast of Prospect, Kentucky, when he spots a rectangular, orange-red object coming down near his jeep. His radio fails 15 seconds into the sighting. He feels compelled to watch the object, which stays in the vicinity only a short time. When he arrives home, he discovers that it has taken 45 minutes to complete a 7-minute trip. Later under hypnosis, he relates being taken inside the object and examined by three strange creatures who are shaped like machines (looking like a giant one- armed tombstone, a 7-foot teletype machine, and a man-sized Coke machine). The electrical system on his jeep goes haywire the day after the abduction. (“Single Witness Abduction in Kentucky,” IUR 2, no. 4 (April 1977): 6 – 7 ; Carla L. Rueckert, “Kentucky Close Encounter,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 3 (October 1977): 15–16, 19)

January 28 — 10:05 p.m. Students in Platteville, Wisconsin, watch an orange “fuzzy oval” object larger than a full moon descend from a low angle above the southern horizon into distant trees. (“Case 2- 3 - 22,” IUR 2, no. 3 (March 1977): 5) January 29 — 9:30 p.m. A patrolman and an unnamed couple in East Haven, Connecticut, see a horizontal row of 5– 6 white lights, rotating left to right. The object hovers for 6 minutes, rises from 45° in the east to 80°, drops lower, executes left and right 90° turns, and fades low in the southern sky. (“Case 2- 3 - 23,” IUR 2, no. 3 (March 1977): 5)

February — 10:30 p.m. A Danish serviceman is walking to his quarters at Naval Station Grønnedal [now Kangilinnguit] in Greenland pauses to look at the Northern Lights. He retrieves a camera to take photos and notices an elliptical dark object below the aurora. The object appears on only one of his time-exposure photos. Possible altocumulus cloud. (Kim Møller Hansen, “Elliptical Object over Greenland Naval Station,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 3 (June/July 1984): 1) February — An Italian Air Force F-104 is followed for 23 minutes by a UFO that is brighter than the moon. It remains about 2,400–2,700 feet behind the plane. The base authorizes him to intercept it, but when he climbs to 12,000 feet, the UFO paces him then disappears. February 1 — 8:30 p.m. Two helicopter pilots flying south at 60 mph near Carthage, Missouri, watch a northbound light pass beneath them and climb to their altitude at 2,000 feet and 300–500 feet away. It appears to be a dark, vertical cylinder 10–15 feet high, 5–8 feet wide, and with struts and a light on the bottom. As the helicopter circles, the object rises higher and heads southeast, disappearing in a second or two. (“Case 2- 3 - 33,” IUR 2, no. 3 (March 1977): 8) February 1 — 9:05 p.m. A police sergeant in Glendale, California, sees a bright red light 45° in the west. He drives “within a block” of the light and sees it as bigger than the full moon, perhaps 100–150 feet in diameter, and hovering silently for 3–4 minutes. It moves at incredible speed away to the west. (“Case 2- 3 - 35,” IUR 2, no. 3 (March 1977): 8) February 2 — Farmer Zbigniew Tuszewski finds a strange disc 1.6 feet in diameter and weighing 66 pounds in his field in Dalabuszki village, north of Gostyń, Poland. Concave on one side, flat on the other, the find does not appear to be from a satellite. A spectroscopic analysis shows the presence of nickel, cobalt, niobium, molybdenum, vanadium, and tellurium; however, another analysis shows no evidence of nickel. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 9 (September 1977): 2) February 4 — 6:30 a.m. A woman and her daughter step outside their house in Senožeti, Slovenia, and see a glowing orange ellipse about four times the size of the moon hovering about 10° above the forest. It is silent and has 4– 7 brighter spots on it. Walking along, they watch the object disappear and see a glow arising from the woods as if there is a fire in a nearby village. They run to the spot but find nothing there. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 9 (September 1977): 2) February 4 — Around 12:00 noon. Fifteen children, mostly 10-year-old boys, at Broad Haven Primary School in Pembroke, Wales, are playing football when they see a silvery cigar-shaped UFO in a field behind the building, partially hidden by trees and shrubs. Two in the group say it has a silver dome with a flashing light at the top. Six of them claim to see a silver man with pointed ears next to the craft. The school’s headteacher Ralph Llewellyn asks them to draw the UFO and is amazed at how similar the drawings are. Local UFO enthusiast Randall Jones Pugh brings the story to the attention of the national media and soon sightings of UFOs and alien occupants spring up within a 20-mile radius of Broad Haven, especially near RAF Brawdy [now Cawdor Barracks], east of St. Davids. (Peter Paget, The Welsh Triangle, Granada, 1979; “Broad Haven UFO Sightings Marked 40 Years On,” BBC News, February 4, 2017; Peter Paget, The Welsh Triangle Revisited, The author, 2018 ; David Clarke, “Close Encounters of the Playground Kind,” Fortean Times 357 (September 2017): 16– 18 ; UFOFiles2, pp. 94– 95 ) February 6 — UFO researcher Larry W. Bryant writes a letter to President Jimmy Carter, suggesting that he look into the roles played by military and civilian intelligence agencies in the UFO cover-up. He receives the standard USAF brush-off letter, saying that UFOs are no longer being investigated. (Larry W. Bryant, UFO Politics at the White House, Invisible College, 2001 ) February 9 — 5:20 a.m. A high-altitude light is seen hovering for several minutes above Bondi, New South Wales, Australia, before shooting off to the east. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 5 (May 1977): 2) February 9 — 8:45 p.m. A deputy sheriff and constable in Flora, Mississippi, watch a UFO six times the size of their car hover 20–50 feet above them for 30 minutes. (“Case 2- 3 - 48,” IUR 2, no. 3 (March 1977): 8; “Close Encounter in Mississippi,” IUR 2, no 4 (April 1977): 7) February 10 — 12:45 a.m. Tom Thibault is alone on the road to Southville, Nova Scotia, when his car is pushed back 250 feet by a 30 - by-60 foot object hovering silently 10–12 feet above the road. A blue light emerges from the object that creates an electric shock and an unbearable noise. Thibault suffers a memory loss and gets headaches when

he drives by the scene afterward. (Digby (N.S.) Courier, February 24, 1977; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 5 (May 1977): 2) February 11 — 8:40 p.m. Health service cook Slavka Gorsek and her two children see an intense beam of light come through a bedroom window in their home in Gaberke, Slovenia. It illuminates the room briefly then goes out. The light is coming from an egg-shaped object about 8–11 feet wide that has landed only about 50 feet away behind a chicken coop. It is bright white with a green or blue center. For 2–3 minutes they can see and hear nothing, until the object flashes again and takes off. Three days later Gorsek notices a “glimmering dust” at the landing site and the marks of five landing gear. An analysis is performed but with ambiguous results. (Milos Krmelj, “UFO Landing in Yugoslavia,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 118 (September 1977): 6–8) Mid-February — 10:30 p.m. Another nocturnal light mimics Eino Maki’s movements as he grooms the ski slopes at Brian Mountain Lodge near Norway, Michigan. After going away once, it reappears right over him, illuminating him and a large area around him. He races his tractor at top speed (15 mph), maneuvering under struts and wires so it can’t get at him. Assistant Manager Jake Malone hears the tractor gearing up outside and sees a huge brilliantly lit object the “size of a boxcar” following Maki up the slope. When he reaches the top, the UFO hovers, silently bouncing up and down, about 500 feet from the lodge. Maki estimates the object is about 60–80 feet long. Some 10 – 15 people exiting the lodge begin to see the display as well. (Kenneth Schellhase, “UFOs on the Ski Slopes of Northern Michigan,” IUR 7, no. 2 (March 1982): 10–11) February 16 — Morning. Four boys and one adult at Penlee Secondary School in Plymouth, Devon, England, independently see a cigar-shaped object flying horizontally above the school playground before it climbs into a cloud and disappears. (David Clarke, “Close Encounters of the Playground Kind,” Fortean Times 357 (September 2017): 16) February 16 — Afternoon. Nine children, age 8–11, are playing netball with their teacher, Mair Williams, at Rhosybol School in Anglesey, North Wales, when they see an object flying north. It has a black dome on top and a silver, cigar-shaped base. It remains in sight for 3 minutes, goes behind the only cloud in the sky, reappears for one minute, then disappears. The teacher takes them back inside, separates them, and tells them to draw what they have seen. The sighting is reported to RAF Valley in Anglesey, which can offer no positive identification. (David Clarke, “Close Encounters of the Playground Kind,” Fortean Times 357 (September 2017): 16) February 16 — 9:00 p.m. A commercial pilot standing outside his truck in Canton, Mississippi, watches a cylindrical object about 40 feet long pass alongside him a few hundred feet away at 30 mph. It has one steady white light in front and makes a noise like a wheezing turbine. It recedes into the west after 5 minutes. (“Case 2- 4 - 6,” IUR 2, no. 4 (April 1977): 5) February 16 — 9:15 p.m. A woman in Utica, Michigan, watches for 2 minutes a vertical cylinder of white light that is pointed at the top. It is stationary, silent, shrouded in white haze, and about 10 times as long as the full moon. (“Case 2- 4 - 7,” IUR 2, no. 4 (April 1977): 5) February 20 — 10:15 p.m. A domed disc is seen for 1–2 minutes by a man and his son in Victorville, California. It is silver in color with three windows, three legs or wheels, and two hooks at both ends. It hovers above houses 3 – 4 blocks away, then recedes toward the northwest after attaching itself to the top of a second object to form a sphere. (“Case 2- 4 - 15,” IUR 2, no. 4 (April 1977): 5) February 22 — Severe corrosion of the KS 150 reactor in Jaslovské Bohunice, Czech Republic, causes a release of radioactive material into the plant area, requiring a complete decommission. (Wikipedia, “KS 150”) February 22 — 9:30 p.m. Antonio Serena, his wife Francesca Castellanos, and their three children are followed by a bright light for one hour and a distance of about 25 miles. The light is first spotted as they are driving northwest of Llíria in Valencia province, Spain, and follows them through the town of Vilamarxant. The car experiences some engine and light problems and des not seem to be able to accelerate. When they approach the village of Cheste, the light seems to move ahead of them, get much closer, and extend some legs in preparation for landing. One of the daughters gets sick from anxiety. The object moves away when a second auto approaches from the opposite direction. Despite the seeming drama of the incident, the light seems to have been Venus and the engine problems are due to a drained battery, as Ian Ridpath points out. (Story, pp. 327 – 330 ; Ian Ridpath, “A Spanish Close Encounter Re-examined,” Ian Ridpath’s UFO Skeptic Pages, January 2021) February 25 — 7:45 p.m. A 16-year-old bicycling near Cyprus College in California is followed by a star-like object that appears in the west, 45° up. The light enlarges to a thin cigar-shape, 4–5 times the width of the moon, after rushing toward him in 5 seconds. He cycles away, frightened, and has to be driven home in tears by friends. His friends and family see the object as a “star” that sets in the west in 25 minutes. Possibly Jupiter. (“Case 2- 4 - 19,” IUR 2, no. 4 (April 1977): 5)

February 26 — 9:00 p.m. An accident investigator in Ontario, California, sees a white triangle with rounded sides as big as the full moon. It moves silently and slowly from overhead toward the east, 45° up. It changes course twice in the next 4–5 minutes before it disappears in the distance. (“Case 2- 4 - 21,” IUR 2, no. 4 (April 1977): 6)

March 4 — 6:00 a.m. Ludwig Siegal is driving on Provincial Road 201 about 4 miles west of Sundown, Manitoba. He sees a shimmering oval object ahead of him and silently hovering about 15 feet above the highway. It is yellowish cream around the outer edge, darkening to more yellowish in the middle. He passes directly underneath the object, which does not appear to be solid. Two miles further, Siegal sees three entities, 5 feet tall and shaped like bowling pins, in the glare of his headlights. They are arranged in a row along the left side of the road and have bulbous heads, narrow necks, and flared bodies. Unable to stop in time, he crashes into the group but feels no impact. They simply disappear as they touch the car’s bumper. Looking in his rear-view mirror, he sees all three of them reappear behind his car, shrink to a small size, and vanish. Siegal calls the RCMP from a nearby friend’s house. They find skid marks, but no traces of blood or any impact marks on Siegal’s car. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 166, 221 – 223) March 7 — 8:34 p.m. French Air Force pilot Maj. René Giraud and navigator Capt. Jean-Paul Abraham, flying a Dassault Mirage IV supersonic bomber over Chaumont, Haute-Marne, France, see a huge UFO. The light appears bigger and bigger as it approaches their aircraft from the rear right. The pilot is flying at Mach 0.98 and makes a turn to the right and then to the left to make sure the light is not a reflection of some sort in the cockpit. As he does these maneuvers, both crew members can distinguish that the light is on the front of a dark, solid object. Despite the evasive maneuver, the unidentified object manages to stay exactly behind them for a few seconds, a very dangerous situation if the unknown object is hostile. Then the object makes a turn to the northwest at an estimated speed of Mach 2 , and flies away to the left of the Mirage IV. (Kean, pp. 123 – 124 ; Good Need, pp. 304 – 305 ; Patrick Gross, “Mirage IV Jet Bomber Encounters UFO, France, March 7, 1977”; “L’Observation d’OVNI du Colonel René Giraud (1977),” OVNI et Extraterrestre, November 10, 2014) March 8 — 7:30 p.m. Eleven witnesses in six groups (including Thelma Lowe, Harold Wilson, Sara Green, Mrs. Everett Miller, Mrs. W. E. Runge II, and Robert Smyth) watch a red ball of fire the size of the full moon drift over their houses and alight on the ground south of Gatchellville, Pennsylvania. It leaves a large patch of burning grass (100 feet long by 30 feet wide), with a mysteriously unscathed area delineated by three holes at the vertices. (“Case Number 2- 4 - 44,” IUR 2, no. 5 (May 1977): 6–7; “Close-Out on the Gatchellville, PA CE II,” IUR 3, no. 3 (March 1978): insert) March 9 — 12:34 a.m. Captain Assapa, Flight Officer Berehan, and Flight Engineer Negassa of Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET- 701 are flying near Qarun Lake, Egypt, when they see a formation of eight lights, with two larger ones in the lead, flying southeast. They are the color of “arc welding.” (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 5 (May 1977): 2) March 9 — 3:10 a.m. Brian Grimshaw and his friend Jeff are driving to a textile factory in Nelson, Lancashire, England, when they see a cigar-shaped, metallic object in the sky. They stop the car for a better look. The UFO has lights at either end that are changing color, and the entire object is surrounded by a gray mist. The witnesses hear a sound they describe as like the tide coming in and going out. As the object comes closer, the car engine stops and the headlights dim. After five minutes, the object flies off and the car restarts. Both witnesses come down with headaches shortly afterward. (Tony Grimshaw and Jenny Randles, “Frightening Car-Stop near Nelson,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 2 (August 1977): 3–5, 12; UFOEv II 223– 224 ; Jenny Randles, “Flappy Valley, Part 4,” Fortean Times 328 (July 2015): 28–29) March 9 — 7:20 p.m. Susanna and Maria Stratford watch a shiny saucer with a red light on top and a rounded bottom descend to 30 feet above the ground and hover for 20 minutes, veering left and right above the trees in Saanich, British Columbia. It disappears toward the east. (“Night UFO: It Came Back to See Us,” Victoria (B.C.) Times, March 11, 1977, p. 17) March 9 — 10:40 p.m. Four adult witnesses in Long Grove, Illinois, are attracted outside by a loud crackling noise. Searching around with a powerful spotlight, they see an object 60° up in the northern sky about 1,000 feet up. It is a white, tapered rectangle with a black silhouette behind it about the size of the full moon. They watch it maneuver within the spotlight beam and watch it sporadically for 30 minutes until it vanishes within the beam; the noise stops immediately. (“Case 2- 4 - 46,” IUR 2, no. 5 (May 1975): wrap) March 10 — 7:40 p.m. Ten crew members of two oil tankers anchored one mile apart at the Arjuna Oil Field in the Java Sea, Indonesia, see an object the apparent size of the full moon. It is primarily dark with a red light in the middle and emits beams of yellowish-white light in two directions. It is only about 1,000 feet above the surface of the water. Coming from the west, it circles the offshore oil field twice and then speeds off to the east after 5 minutes. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 2 (February 1978): 2)

March 11 — Rancher B. T. Bray discovers a 14-foot diameter, circular ring in a paddock at Brayfield Station, southwest of Port Neill, South Australia. No UFO is seen. The topsoil, soft everywhere else, is surprisingly hard in the ring, with the grass in the center undisturbed. (Adelaide (S.A.) Advertiser, March 12, 1977; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 8 (August 1977): 2) March 12 — 9:05 p.m. United Airlines Flight 94 is flying south of Syracuse, New York, on a course toward Boston’s Logan Airport in Massachusetts. Suddenly the airplane starts a gradual, smooth (15° bank angle) turn to the left by itself. Within 5 – 10 seconds both captain Neil Daniels, 57, and the flight officer turn and look to their left side and see an “extremely bright white light at about their own altitude.” It is perfectly round and almost 3° arc in apparent diameter. Daniels estimates its distance to be about 3 ,000 feet and probably as big or bigger than a DC- 10 in size. Its intensity is like that of a flashbulb. Boston Center calls them and asks, “United 94, where are you going?” Daniels replies, “Well, let me figure this out. I’ll let you know.” Then they notice that “the three compasses were all displaying different readings. The FO’s compass was within 20° arc of the compass in front of the captain and was not rotating. It was then that the FO uncoupled the autopilot and flew the airplane manually.” Meanwhile, the UAP “followed right along with us” for about 4 – 5 more minutes then “it took off and picked up speed very rapidly and just disappeared, over about 15 seconds, back towards our 8:00 o’clock position and slightly upward.” Daniels asked ATC if they have any radar traffic in the area and they reply, “no.” Later, ATC tells Daniels, “So whatever it was, we don’t know. But it did cause a disruption in the magnetic field around the aircraft to the point where it did pull the aircraft off course.” (Richard F. Haines, “Aviation Safety in America: A Previously Neglected Factor,” NARCAP, October 15, 2000, p. 80; “Air Force Pilot Neil Daniels Sighting,” Riddlept YouTube channel, October 8, 2013) Mid-March — Observers at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, Iran, see 20–25 UFOs flying from the desert toward the city. The pilots and passengers of an Iranian airliner flying at more than 6 miles altitude about 87 miles from the city describe them as yellow in color. A Japanese pilot the same distance south of Tehran switches on all his lights when he sees a huge object in front of his plane. He claims 15–20 smaller objects fly out of the large one directly toward the pilot, who changes course and heads for Mehrabad. (“Review of Iranian UFO Reports,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 2 (Jan./Feb. 1981): 15) Mid-March — Around 11:00 p.m. James Ferguson and Tom Patton are in the desert about 2 miles west of Tucson, Arizona, preparing to take night photographs of saguaro cacti using flash-lighting effects. As they are getting ready to take a photo, the floor of the desert around them suddenly brightens. They see a large mass of light rise from behind a distant range of hills and hover for many minutes just above the horizon. Quickly, they turn the camera on its tripod toward the light and take a time exposure. Several minutes pass and suddenly the light moves rapidly to the north and disappears in the distance. The trail of light on the photo shows the light’s departure. (“ 1977 Nocturnal Light Photograph Reported,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 1 (May 1980): 1; “Tucson 1977 Nocturnal Light Remains Unidentified,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 4 (August 1980): 2) March 19 — 8:00 p.m. Sylvia Laidler and her daughter Darlene are driving eastbound on Highway 401 near Belleville, Ontario, when a red streak appears in the north. The object stops abruptly over the highway in front of her car, maintaining a red, pulsating glow, then approaches them, flying on the south side of the road at tree-top level. It is triangular with turquoise lights, red flashing lights, and a golden light flashing at the bottom. It hovers silently above them briefly then moves off to the south. (“UFO Hovered over Car,” Belleville (Ont.) Intelligencer, May 6, 1977; Marler 96–97) March 22 — 10:20 a.m. Tom Evison and his wife watch for 15 minutes a bright stationary light an estimated 10 miles north of their location in Seatoun, a suburb of Wellington, New Zealand. Seen through a telescope, it appears as elongated with black vertical lines. It slowly fades away in place. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 5 (May 1977): 2) March 24 — 8:50 p.m. Witnesses on La Palma and Tenerife, Canary Islands, see a reddish light emerge from the sea, climb very fast, move in a zigzag fashion, and leave behind a huge, bright halo that lasts 10 minutes. Several minutes later, a Scandinavian DC-8 passing over Ad Dakhla on the coast of Western Sahara observes a luminous cloud to the west. A South African Airways jumbo jet describes the same phenomenon. 310 miles to the south, Capt. M. Brackenridge and the crew of the merchant ship Kinpurnie Castle witness a luminous semicircle on the horizon, with a small bright arc inside. In only 3 minutes it has reached colossal dimensions. Seven minutes later, it has completely dispersed, after a second luminous spot appears above it. The sighting correlates with the launch of two Poseidon missiles from the USS Woodrow Wilson. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos and Ricardo Campo Pérez, “Navy Missile Tests and the Canary Islands UFOs,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 4) March 29 — 12:30 a.m. A witness in a rural area near West Decatur, Pennsylvania, sees an “upside-down teardrop” object 100 – 200 feet long and 60 feet wide drift in from the east at treetop level. With the point of the teardrop pointing upward, the gray-brown object features a large panel of fluorescent green light on the bottom. Drifting west into a

field, the object makes a sound like a “rope spinning in the air.” Climbing at a 45° angle to a half-mile up in 15
seconds, it levels off and accelerates to the southwest in 8 seconds. (“Case 2- 5 - 43,” IUR 2 , no. 5 (May 1977): 5)

April 1 — 10:40 p.m. A woman is driving her three young children south on the west side of DeRuyter, New York, when she finds herself overtaking and driving underneath a 35– 40 - foot object hovering 30 feet above the maple trees. The UFO has three outer red and blue lights and a sequential series of red lights in two rows on the center bottom. One mile away, two other witnesses go in search of a red glow without being able to overtake it. (“Case 2- 5 - 46,” IUR 2, no. 5 (May 1977): 5) April 5 — 2:17 p.m. A pilot driving on I-94 northbound near Deerfield, Illinois, sees an object coming toward him (southbound) first in the distance then directly above him later on. It is a silver mushroom three times the apparent size of the moon, and it moves silently toward Chicago against the wind. (“Case 2- 5 - 51,” IUR 2, no. 5 (May 1977): 5) April 5 — 9:00 p.m. A young couple and others in Lincolnton, North Carolina, see 5–6 red-orange lights hovering 200 feet away. (“Case 2- 5 - 52,” IUR 2, no. 6 (June 1977): wrap) April 8 — 2:00 a.m. A domed disc-shaped object flies around two witnesses in Cedar Springs, Michigan, hovering and flashing over some nearby trees. Ring ground marks are later found. (“Case 2- 5 - 57,” IUR 2, no. 5 (May 1977): wrap) April 8 — 8:08 p.m. A teenager and his mother in St. Louis, Missouri, watch a flat disc four times the width of the moon silhouetted against the clouds. It has three steady white lights around its edges and moves silently from a high angle in the east to a low angle in the west. (“Case 2- 5 - 58,” IUR 2, no. 6 (June 1977): wrap) April 8 — 10:35 p.m. A cigar-shaped object glowing red at each end darts north to south across Interstate 64 in Lexington, Kentucky, several times. (“Case 2- 5 - 80,” IUR 2, no. 6 (June 1977): wrap) April 10 — 2:30 a.m. Martha and Olof Eriksson watch a yellow light with a red “textile-like” appendage hanging below it at Flykälen, Jämtland, Sweden. It is 100 feet in diameter and moving from south to north. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 8 (August 1977): 2) April 14 — 2:00 a.m. Captain Scherrer, Senior First Officer Schmid, and hostess Rothenhofer are on board Swissair Flight SR-798 near Maastricht, Netherlands. Schmid notices the first of four “lightning-like lights” in an otherwise clear sky. Ground radar calls the plane’s attention to a target 15 miles away at their 1 o’clock position. The crew sees two targets briefly at that position but only on radar. Then all three of them see another flash. Maastricht radar watches the target fall back east of the plane and rush at high speed back to a 1 or 2 o’clock position only 3 miles away. There is still no visual contact. A few minutes later, a third silent lightning-like flash is seen just in front of the airliner. Maastricht radar watches the target playing with the plane behind its tail and right wing, where the fourth flash is seen. A military radar places the speed of the target when moving fast at Mach 4 or 5. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 6 (June 1977): 2) April 17 — 4:00 p.m. A woman in La Louvière, Hainaut, Belgium, watches a flat cylinder with faceted sides move from the southwest to northeast. The object is dark, seems solid, and emits no smoke or trail. It moves in a straight line with an oscillation in the same direction as the wind. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 8 (August 1977): 2) April 17– 23 — An International Congress on the UFO Phenomenon is held in Acapulco, Mexico, organized by Mexico City businessman Guillermo Bravo. Speakers include J. Allen Hynek, Jacques Vallée, John A. Keel, William Spaulding, Walt Andrus, and Dennis Hauck. Prime Minister Eric Gairy makes a strong plea for a United Nations program to investigate UFOs. (J. Allen Hynek, “‘First’ International Congress on the UFO Phenomenon,” IUR 2, no. 5 (May 1977): wrap) April 18 — About 12:05 a.m. George Thrupp and Margaret Mancour of the weather office at Vancouver International Airport in British Columbia have just gotten off their shift when they see a “blue flash” over the airport. It appears in the south sky above Richmond. The light is coming from a cigar-shaped object larger than a Boeing 747 jumbo jet that is orange on the top half and blue on the bottom half with dark portholes along the side. (“Pair Sight UFO at City Airport,” Vancouver (B.C.) Sun, April 19, 1977, p. 35) April 18 — White House Press Secretary Jody Powell states in the “Washington Whispers” column of US News and World Report that “before the year is out” there will be “unsettling disclosures” about UFOs, “based on information from the CIA.” Later, the White House claims the story is a “misunderstanding” by Powell. (Robert Scheaffer, “‘UFO Disclosure’ Happening Again This Year,” Skeptical Inquirer 40, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 2016): 16– 17) April 19 — Santiago Laco Ozano, 32, is milking cows in Rocha, Uruguay, when he hears a strange noise as the area around him is illuminated. Looking up, he sees a small object giving off a powerful beam of light. He faints, and on recovering about 5 minutes later, notices his hair is slightly burned. He is admitted to a nearby hospital, whose personnel verify the singeing and that his scalp has no lesions. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 1 (January 1978): 2)

April 19 — Early morning. Rosa Granville, proprietor of the Haven Fort Hotel in Little Haven, Pembroke, Wales, is disturbed by a strange humming noise. She looks out a window and sees an oval-shaped object “like the moon falling down” land behind her home. Two tall humanoids appear in front of the UFO, which is about the size of a minibus. They have blank faces and pointed heads and are wearing white outfits like boiler suits. They appear to “take measurements or gather things” and climb a grassy bank in a field. When she returns to the window after calling other family members, the object and the figures have vanished. (UFOFiles2, p. 96) April 2 1 — 7:15 p.m. A couple in Towson, Maryland, sees a gray capsule with short, stubby wings, two yellow headlights, and no windows. Several times the full moon, the object flies silently from low in the east to above their car in 4 minutes. (“Case 2- 6 - 5,” IUR 2, no. 6 (June 1977): 3) April 22 — 3:10 a.m. Three witnesses in Washburn, Wisconsin, see a flat, round object with five white lights on its rim and two red lights on its bottom. It pursues their car for three-quarters of a mile, even around curves and driving at 90 mph. The object overshoots them, slows down, and moves only 30 feet in front of them. After 4 minutes it accelerates in a steep climb toward the southwest. (“Case 4- 22 - 77,” IUR 2, no. 6 (June 1977): 3) April 23 — 9:30 p.m. Pilot William Sorum and copilot Richard Drzal are flying a DC-10, Northwest Orient Flight 27, from Seattle, Washington, to Anchorage, Alaska. About 50 miles east of Middleton Island, Alaska, they see a bright white star moving smoothly from the southern horizon across their field of view to the northern horizon for about 40 seconds. It passes in front of them at a 45° above them at their altitude of 39,000 feet. Radar Approach Controller Terry Siegrist and others at Anchorage International Airport see a linear flight of four separate unidentifiable blips suddenly appear on radar screens at 30 miles distance from the city, covering 10 miles in 6– 12 seconds (3,600 mph). Correlation between the two observations is not established. (“Radar/Visual in Alaska,” IUR 2, no. 7 (July 1977): 4) April 25 — 3 : 45 a.m. Eight soldiers camped on a military patrol 3 miles from Putre, Arica y Parinacota, Chile, suddenly see two bright violet lights nearby. The soldiers’ dog and horses remain still while the lights hover nearby. The leader of the group, Corporal Armando Valdés Garrido, orders the other soldiers to put out their campfire. The two large lights are about a half-mile away and hovering close to the ground. Valdés approaches the lights, ordering them to identify themselves. At this point a bright light envelops Valdés and he apparently vanishes in a mist in plain view of the others. The soldiers frantically begin searching for him but are unable to find him. At around 4:15 a.m., Valdés suddenly reappears. He has a strange look on his face and he gives out a sinister laugh, asking several times where his mother is. Then he says, again in a very sinister sounding voice, “You will never know who we are and where we come from.” The others notice that he appears to have a week’s growth of beard, whereas he had been clean-shaven just an hour ago, and his digital watch indicates the impossible date of April

30. He is almost in hysterics and one of the soldiers has to slap him, at which point Valdés faints. One of the other soldiers, Raúl Salinas, who has been standing a few feet in back of the others, notices a strange humanoid creature behind some nearby rocks. He describes it as half animal and half human; no facial features are visible, but it seems to be wearing a helmet and is carrying a red light. Salinas is stunned to see the creature appear at several places simultaneously. He thinks that there might be several humanoids. He does not mention this to the others at the time, since they are already scared, but the others do not see the humanoid or humanoids. When Valdés wakes up he cannot remember where he has been. In 2013, Valdés, now an evangelical pastor, admits that no one on the patrol saw aliens—only that they saw something that frightened them. He claims he only left the group to go urinate. Many ufologists now feel that the Chilean government encouraged the abduction scenario to mask the presence of troops and horses in northern Chile in the event of a war with Argentina or a regional conflict. (Wikipedia, “Caso Cabo Valdés”; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 7 (July 1977): 2; “The Chilean Abduction,” APRO Bulletin 26, no. 1 (July 1977): 1, 3; “Cabo Valdés se confiesa: ‘Nunca me abdujeron,’” La Cuarta, February 18, 2018) April 26 — Pauline Coombes reports seeing a luminous silver figure 7–8 feet tall looking into her window at Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, Wales, for an hour. She doesn’t say anything until her son notices it too. Humanoid in form, the figure’s face is black and featureless; it vanishes when a neighbor drives up. Two weeks earlier, a yellow sphere had chased her car; she accelerated to 80 mph to escape it. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 8 (August 1977): 2) April 29 — Manuel Lopez, the pilot of a single-engine plane, is allegedly blinded in flight by a UFO near Bogotá, Colombia. Circling in the air for 2 hours, Lopez’s calls for help are recorded and played on a local radio station: “I’ve lost my sight; I don’t know what to do!” Four aircraft surround him and talk him down to a safe landing at El Dorado International Airport by radio. He is rushed to a military hospital suffering from shock. (“Colombian Pilot Says UFO Blinded Him,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 7, 1977, p. 2)

April 29 — 11:45 p.m. A woman and her daughter are driving north of Oxford, Ohio, when a white light begins pacing their car on the left about 180 feet away. They speed up and pass it after 3 minutes. The mother only sees a light, but the daughter perceives a “saucer with a vertical cone.” (“Case 2- 6 - 34,” IUR 2, no. 6 (June 1977): 3)

May — Leonard H. Stringfield’s Situation Red: The UFO Siege! is published, supporting the thesis that the US military has acquired extraterrestrial hardware and possibly bodies. The book immediately prompts dozens of alleged first- hand witnesses of crashed UFOs or alien bodies to contact Stringfield with their stories. One of his informants is a medical doctor (“Doctor X”) who says he has conducted medical tests on alien cadavers at a major medical facility in the eastern US. Stringfield is later able to visit Doctor X and a colleague of his, Doctor Y, who has examined an alien tissue sample under a microscope. The aliens are said to be 3.5–4.5 feet tall, weighing 40 pounds, with large heads. They have slender torsos and long, thin arms. Their skin is tan or gray, elastic, and reminiscent of reptilian skin. A colorless liquid is present in the bodies; there are no red cells. The eyes are slanted without pupils, and they have heavy brow ridges, apertures in place of ears, small noses, and slitlike mouths. They have no teeth. Doctor X avoids Stringfield’s later questions. (Leonard H. Stringfield, Situation Red: The UFO Siege! Doubleday, 1977; UFOEv II 593) May — A young radio technician is lying in bed during a power blackout in Gloggnitz, Austria. Suddenly a hollow globe about 1.6 feet in diameter and made up of separate red bars of light appears over the bedroom floor. It begins moving slowly and silently toward a glass door. The witness jumps out of bed, bumping into the ball of light with his leg. He feels nothing and there are no aftereffects. The bars of light begin to shrink in diameter, causing the ball to dim and disappear. No traces are left behind. (Michael D. Swords, “A Trick of the Light,” IUR 31, no. 2 (June 2007): 9) May 1 — 2:00 a.m. Amateur astronomer Lev Boethin sees a red-brown oval object 10 times the size of the moon near Mudeng, Philippines. It moves silently from the southeast to the northwest parallel to the ground 20° above the horizon. He estimates it is only 300 feet away and moving faster than an aircraft. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 6 (June 1977): 2) May 1 — The Groupe d’Etude des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non Identifiés (GEPAN) is founded as a section of France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales on the initiative of CNES Director Yves Sillard. Its purpose is to quiet public fears about a flurry of UFO sightings, as well as to coordinate reports of the Gendarmerie, civil aviation, the Air Force, and the meteorological service. Its first director is aeronautical engineer Claude Poher. GEPAN sets up a Scientific Council of astronomers and other scientists and professionals to put in place data- collection systems for UFO reports from official agencies and investigate cases already reported. (Jean-Pierre Petit, “The Truth about G.E.P.A.N.,” Flying Saucer Review 35, no. 4 (December 1990): 22–24; Mark Rodeghier, ed., “The 1999 French Report on UFOs and Defense,” IUR 25, no. 2 (Summer 2000): 20– 21 ; Gildas Bourdais, “From GEPAN to SEPRA: Official UFO Studies in France,” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000–2001): 11– 13 ; Gildas Bourdais, “The Death and Rebirth of Official French UFO Studies,” IUR 31 , no. 2 (June 2007): 12– 13 : Swords 440 – 442 ; Good Above, pp. 135 – 136 ; Clark III 546) May 3 — 3:55 a.m. A caller tells police in Hainault, northeast London, that a strange object is above the small lake in Hainault Forest Country Park. Two policemen are dispatched, and they see a “large bright red light” on the eastern shore. They exit their vehicle and notice an object like a “bell tent” about 900 feet away that continuously pulsates from dull to very bright red for the next 2–3 minutes. The UFO seems to be hovering silently. Then the object appears to “dissolve on the spot.” The officers decide somewhat reluctantly to go across the lake and investigate. Then one of them looks up and briefly sees a thin, large, white crescent hanging in the sky. This also dissolves on the spot. Reaching the location of ground zero, they find nothing except a strong burning smell. They make a report to the local UFO group, the Essex Hotline, and investigator Barry M. King interviews one of the officers that night. The next day, one large bush is found damaged: flattened in the center and slightly burned. A gorse bush appears to have borne a heavy weight, because almost all the limbs are snapped off the central branch and displaced in an outward-radiating splay. No radiation or magnetic anomalies are found. (Barry M. King, “Landing at Hainault Seen by Police,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 2 (August 1977): 8–11; Andrew Collins, “Follow-Up at Hainault,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 2 (August 1977): 11–12) May 3 — 6:35 p.m. Several people in the eastern part of Jakarta, Indonesia, are watching the sky with binoculars when they see a round UFO that traverses the sky in one minute. It carries flashing red, green, white, and blue lights located in circles around the rim. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 2 (February 1978): 2) May 3 — 9:20 p.m. A woman in Wilcox, Pennsylvania, sees a large silver sphere with many blue lights around its equator. The object hovers close to the west side of her house, casting a spotlight on the ground. It begins moving and disappears straight up in one second. Her two dogs refuse to go near the spot afterward and are fussy about eating. (“Case 2- 6 - 53,” IUR 2, no. 6 (June 1977): 3)

May 7 — Night. Jenny Nordin and a companion in Undersåker, Jamtland, Sweden, watch a triangular object with its apex pointing downward shining and gleaming above a woods. A string of lights appears around its base and the object changes to a rectangle with a pointed top. The display continues for 2 hours until a spotlight shines down from the right side, illuminating the trees. An enormous object with three large windows rises up in the light; both objects hover and gradually extinguish. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 11 (November 1977): 8) May 8 — 2:00 p.m. A couple driving west on Interstate 80 in Joliet, Illinois, watch an object like a silver straw hat move silently eastbound over their car. At 2:30 p.m., see a silver sphere with a Saturn ring or halo around it. (“Case 2- 6 - 64” and “Case 2- 6 - 65,” IUR 2, no. 6 (June 1977): 8) May 10 — 5:10 a.m. Phylis Barlow watches a triangular UFO circling slowly in the sky above Rome, Georgia. It is flying at a tilt, and on the bottom is a circle of foggy light surrounding a triangle of intense bright light. She watches it with a friend for 10 minutes as it makes a second pass over the area. It descends silently to 1,000 feet and they can see it has a grayish-silver color and three creamy yellow, honeycombed lights. It moves off to the southeast at great speed. (Rome (Ga.) News-Tribune, May 10, 1977; Marler 97– 98 ) May 11 — 3:00 a.m. A woman and her son are awakened in their home in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, by a loud humming sound. They see a green, glowing sphere with a dark equator hovering for 30 minutes near the house. It shoots straight up and away and the hum stops. The 11-year-old boy stays home from school for several days because he is scared. (“Case 2- 6 - 77,” IUR 2, no. 6 (June 1977): 8) May 11 — 4:45 a.m. Three witnesses in Fresno, California, see a bright yellow light rise erratically from the northern horizon to a fixed position overhead in one minute. A second light, flashing white 3 times a second, rises from the west to a 50° position above the western horizon. Both are stationary for 3 minutes. The yellow object sways back and forth. The white light disappears and the yellow light fades into the overcast. (“Case 2- 6 - 79,” IUR 2, no. 6 (June 1977): 8) May 11 — 9:45 p.m. An adult couple near Bonner Springs, Kansas, see a silent disc-shaped object with white windows hovering for 7 0 – 80 seconds, then fly away slowly. (“Case 2- 6 - 84,” IUR 2, no. 6 (June 1977): wrap) May 15 — 4:30 a.m. A driver in Clarksville, Tennessee, sees a round object with 7–8 blue-green lights flashing in its center. It appears to drop 7–8 red flares as it is flying southbound in a straight path. (“Case 2- 7 - 1,” IUR 2 , no. 7 (July 1977): 3) May 16– 17 — 11:00 p.m. Officers M. L. Davidson and F. E. Bartlett of the Memphis Police Tactical Squad spot a triangular UFO near Old Allen Road and Frayser-Raleigh Road in Memphis, Tennessee. At 3:45 a.m., officers T. L. Todd and J. W. Jeter watch a similar object, 300 feet long, near the Norris Road exit of Interstate 240. It is hovering about 200 feet above the ground near some power line towers and is in the shape of a perfect triangle standing on edge. Later, Jeter watches it through his rifle scope flying horizontally then taking off at great speed. A Tennessee State Highway patrolman has also seen a triangular object in Collierville. (“Triangular Red, Green, Flying Object Sighted,” Brownsville (Tex.) Herald, May 17, 1977, p. 1; Marler 94–96) May 17 — The Joint Chiefs of Staff re-release JANAP 146 (E), specifying “unidentified flying objects” as something that must be reported by military personnel. It distinguishes UFOs from other types of known aircraft. (Joint Chiefs of Staff, “Change No. 2 to JANAP 146 (E),” May 17, 1977) May 19 — 10:45 p.m. A travel agent driving in Clayton, New Jersey, watches a blindingly bright round object composed of many small white lights packed together and three main lights in front. It hovers for nearly a minute over telephone wires, then the lights begin flashing and the object ascends in a steep climb. (“Case 2- 7 - 15,” IUR 2, no. 7 (July 1977): 3 ) May 20 — 11:00 p.m. Three 14-year-old boys are in a field near Bayview Avenue and Willow Pass Road, West Pittsburg [now Bay Point], California, about a half mile from Suisun Bay. They see a saucer-shaped object surrounded by a row of white, rectangular windows that flash on and off. A blue light zigzags near the object. It is hovering near the ground between railroad tracks and the bay, then it shoots across the water in a matter of seconds and returns equally fast, moving silently toward them and stopping about 150–300 feet away. One minute later, they see three figures advancing toward them from near the lights. They are dark human forms, about 5-foot-6 to 6 feet tall, surrounded by mist and moving with a stiff, limping walk. The boys run across the street and look back in time to see the figures fade from view. (“UFO with ‘Dark Figures’ in California,” IUR 2, no. 7 (July 1977): 4) May 21 — 9:30 p.m. A family in St. Louis, Missouri, sees a “comet” with a long tail moving in the northeast. (“Case 2- 7 - 25,” IUR 2, no. 7 (July 1977): 3) May 21 — 10:20 p.m. Three airmen stationed at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, England, observe a triangular-shaped light moving erratically in the sky. Within minutes the light is tracked on radar at RAF Patrington [now closed], moving in a zigzag pattern. The target registers on radarscopes for 4 minutes until the screens are “partially obliterated by high-powered interference” that returns to normal once the target disappears. (Good Need, p. 305 )

May 26 — 1:15 a.m. The crew of an RAF Avro Vulcan B.2 bomber piloted by Flight Lt. David Edwards is flying at 28,000 feet over the Bay of Biscay off the coast of France at a speed of Mach 0.86 when they observe bright lights coming from the west. The lights resemble aircraft landing lights, but they soon blink out leaving a large orange glow with a bright-green fluorescent spot. An object emerges from the glow, moving to the west, climbing at an angle of 45°, and leaving a thin contrail. The radar operator reports jamming-type interference. Camera film from the aircraft’s radar records a “strong response” from the direction of the sighting, consisting of three separate radar returns at varying distances, the third made up of three targets all 600 feet wide. On the film the UFO appears as an “elongated shadow.” (Good Need, pp. 305 – 307 ; UFOFiles2, pp. 92– 94 ) May 26 — 8:45 a.m. Two witnesses in Detroit, Michigan, see three blue teardrop-shaped objects moving in a V- formation. They move from a high angle in the north to a low angle in the northwest, hovering “like helicopters” for one minute. They pull out of formation, swoop low, regroup, and climb again in formation at a 40° angle, fading from view. (“Case 2- 7 - 35,” IUR 2, no. 7 (July 1977): 3) May 26 — 4:10 p.m. A 39-year-old radio announcer and his wife are watching an eastbound jet overhead at Dowagiac, Michigan. Suddenly a brown, cigar-shaped object, distinctly outlined, rushes from the rear left side of the plane to a position “one plane length” behind it. The object is 1.5 times as long as the jet. It follows for about 30 seconds and then rushes ahead of it and is gone in 3 seconds. (“Case 2- 7 - 36,” IUR 2 , no. 7 (July 1977): 3–4)

Summer — Around 2:00 a.m. Senior Airman James M. Dunn is on K-9 security patrol at the Weapons Storage Area at Loring AFB [now Loring International Airport] near Limestone, Maine, when he gets a call from a sergeant at Entry Control about a bright light above his truck. He sees an intense light, which is directed onto the truck at a 45° angle. The interior of the truck cab seems to glow with a greenish hue. About 5 seconds later the light goes out. Dunn talks to the sergeant, who seems a bit stunned. A few minutes later, two F-106 interceptors shoot above the WSA, apparently looking for a radar target. (Nukes 373–375) Summer — Physicist Bruce Maccabee uses FOIA requests to obtain some 400 pages of UFO-related documents, mostly from 1947–1955, from the FBI by the end of the year. (Bruce S. Maccabee, “UFO Related Information from the FBI File, Part 1,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 119 (October 1977): 13– 15 , reprinted in UFO Investigator, November 1977, pp. 1–4) June 6 — 11:30 p.m. Mark Henshall is riding his motorbike home at Lartington, Teesdale, England, in the pouring rain when he sees two purple lights to his side. He notices he is losing power as he rides up a small hill. A car is just starting to pass him, and it too is slowing down. Suddenly, both bike and car are enveloped in a nearly blinding, fuzzy, ultraviolet light. Henshall feels his bike being pulled up the incline and notices steam pouring off his back and legs, which are getting unbearably hot. The motorcycle and car stop just as the misty violet glow overhead vanishes. The car driver tells Henshall that he lost all engine power for 30 seconds and yet was pulled forward. The metal side of the motorbike is far hotter than normal and impossible to touch without risking serious burns. The brakes are found to be so badly worn that they need a complete resetting. When Henshall returns home, his mother notices that his face is sunburned and hot to the touch. He also experiences nausea for a few days. (Brian Straight, “Vehicle Stop near Barnard Castle,” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 5 (February 1978): 6–7) June 10 — A woman in Deerfield, Illinois, watches a gray-white light projecting “dots of color” that are drawn back to the source. It remains stationary in the low southwestern sky for 15 minutes, then shoots off in a slight climb in a matter of seconds. (“Case 2- 7 - 87,” IUR 2, no. 7 (July 1977): wrap) June 14 — President Jimmy Carter is allegedly given a UFO briefing at the White House and bound to secrecy. According to former USAF Capt. Robert M. Collins, an MJ-12 officer meets with Carter. A reconstruction of the conversation is known as “Executive Briefing: Project Aquarius” and later leaked to UFO researcher William Moore. However, there is no hard evidence that such a briefing has taken place. (Robert M. Collins, ed., “Executive Briefing: Project Aquarius”) June 14 — Prime Minister Eric Gairy of Grenada opens the Organization of American States General Assembly with a call for a n international investigation of UFOs. He says he was asked by participants at the UFO conference in Acapulco, Mexico, to continue his efforts. He asks OAS members to support the issue when it comes up at the United Nations. (“Caribbean Government Calls for UFO Probe,” IUR 2, no. 7 (July 1977): wrap) June 17 — 12:00 noon. José Francisco Rodrigues is flying a Portuguese Air Force Dornier Do 27 light plane over the Castelo de Bode dam in central Portugal. When he emerges from the clouds, he sees a dark object against a backdrop of white stratocumulus clouds, slightly to the right of his plane. Thinking that the object is a cargo plane, he banks to the left and immediately radios to ask if there is any traffic in the vicinity. Air controller Sgt. Jose Vicente Saldanha replies in the negative. As Rodrigues completes a turn to port, the object suddenly appears at his 11 o’clock position no more than 20 feet away. It is definitely not a cargo plane. The upper section, partially concealed by cloud, is black, and on the lower section there are four or five panels. The object is about 42 – 50 feet

in diameter. Suddenly it accelerates and vanishes from what the pilot believes is an initial stationary position. The Dornier begins to vibrate violently and goes into an uncontrolled dive. Struggling to regain control, Rodrigues pushes the control column forward. Air speed increases to 1 60 mph then 207 mph as the ground comes nearer. He regains control when almost “touching the tree tops” and the plane lands in one piece with a badly shaken pilot. During the encounter the directional electric gyroscope (connected to a magnetic compass) rotates wildly, and by the time the plane lands it has deviated by 180° relative to the magnetic compass. (Willy Smith, “Unknown Intruder over Portugal,” IUR 10, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1985): 6–8; Good Above, pp. 154 – 156 ) June 17 — Dusk. Five individuals—Dale Schexnaider and his wife, their two daughters, Jena, 14 , and Krissy, 11, and a close family friend—are breaking camp and preparing to go home from the Cotile Lake Recreation Area, Louisiana. Just before they reach the clearing that leads to the road, the male friend begins feeling a “low frequency vibration” in his bones. Looking upward, he sees the outline of a huge, disc-shaped UFO hovering completely still, surrounded with points of light. The friend estimates it is about 75 feet across and 50 feet tall. The two daughters have been talking, but they too notice the humming noise and see the UFO. The object then floats almost directly above them, and the middle of the craft starts to glow. Several rays or beams of blue light shoot from the UFO, striking them in the solar plexus. It is an intense, electric, silver-blue, thin beam. They hear crackling sounds in the air and they can’t move. Slowly they force their heads down to see their arms glowing with electric blue light. Movement is difficult—as in a dream, slow and heavy. After about 10 seconds, all the lights vanished instantly, along with the force field. The craft begins to glide away over the treetops. The children are frantic, and the male friend is inwardly terrified. The parents are back at the camp and see none of this. The case is reported to J. Allen Hynek by a friend, and he later visits the witnesses and speaks to all three. (“A CE-II As a Picnic Guest,” CUFOS Bulletin, Summer 1980, pp. 1, 3; “An Electric-Blue Close Encounter,” CUFOS Bulletin, Spring 1981, pp. 4–5, 10, 12) June 20 — A committee of advanced workshop participants from the Institut des Hautes Études de Défense Nationale has been tackling the UFO situation for the French government since at least 1976. It produces a report titled Rapport sur les “Phénomènes Aeriens Non Identifiés, which is translated into English by Bonita Samuelson and published by the Center for UFO Studies in 1980 under the title Report on Unidentified Aerial Objects. The committee members are divided about the existence of true UFOs, but they agree that the UFO theme can be used in psychological warfare. (Claude Maugé, “GEPAN and COMETA,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 26) June 24– 26 —Fate magazine holds an International UFO Congress at the Pick-Congress Hotel [now the Congress Plaza Hotel] across from Grant Park in downtown Chicago, Illinois, in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Kenneth Arnold sighting. Some 1,500 people attend to hear speakers Ted Bloecher, Jerome Clark, Jacques Vallée, Stanton T. Friedman, Kenneth Arnold, Jim and Coral Lorenzen, David M. Jacobs, Frank Salisbury, J. Allen Hynek, Ted Phillips, Dennis Hauck, Betty Hill, and R. Leo Sprinkle. Fate editor Curtis G. Fuller publishes the presentations in paperback format in May 1980. (“Chicago UFO Conference,” IUR 2, no. 7 (July 1977): wrap; Curtis G. Fuller, ed., Proceedings of the First International UFO Congress, Warner, 19 80 ) June 25 — A man is driving on the A303 with his partially sighted fiancée near Warminster, Wiltshire, England, when they see a triangle of white lights ahead of them. When the lights get near to the car, they break away, one to the side of the road, and the two others on either side of the witnesses. They dance in the air for a while, then an orange globe emerges from the center of each. All the lights move to the rear of the car and disappear behind it. (UFOFiles2, p. 90) June 25– 26 — The Centro Ufologico Nazionale holds its Second National Conference in Toscolano-Moderno, Brescia, Italy, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Kenneth Arnold’s sighting. Speakers include Roberto Pinotti, Antonio Ribera, Ion Hobana, Florin Gheorghiţă, W. Raymond Drake, Ernest Ameglio, Roberto Farabone, Roberto Villamil, Gianni Settimo, Sergio Conti, Francesco Izzo, Renzo Cabassi, Stelio Asso, and Mario Pagni. (“ 2 o Congresso Nazionale di Ufologia,” Notiziario UFO, no. 75/76 (July/Dec. 1977): 1–32) June 26 — 2:45 a.m. Two witnesses see a flashing light source pass swiftly across the sky twice in about 10 minutes in Greece, New York. (“Case 2- 8 - 26,” IUR 2, no. 8 (August 1977): 3) June 27 — 11:00 p.m. A woman and three children in Genesee, Wisconsin, drive toward a structure composed of three parallel cylinders until they are underneath it. The hovering object looks as big as the full moon, with two steady white lights in front and a red light on top. When she stops her car, the object moves off to the southeast. (“Case 2 - 8 - 36,” IUR 2, no. 8 (August 1977): 3) June 28 — Night. A man with a flat tire is stopped on the highway between Abadan and Ahvaz, Khuzestan, Iran, when he suddenly feels heat from a nearby “huge, bright object” that changes from red to green to purple to blue. Its lights go off, and as the witness sits in the car to sleep, the light returns, even closer. When he turns off his car headlights, the UFO extinguishes its lights. (“Review of Iranian UFO Reports,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 2 (Jan./Feb. 1981): 15)

July–December — Numerous UFOs are reported in Colares, Pará, Brazil. Residents claim that scars on their bodies are caused by lights in the sky that they call “Chupa Chupa” (literally “sucker-sucker”). Believing it will keep the lights away, residents of Colares organize night vigils, light fires, and ignite fireworks. Mayor José Ildone Favacho Soeiro officially requests help from the Brazilian Air Force. The operation, a historic military operation in the Amazon basin, is commanded by Capt. Uyrangê Bolivar Soares Nogueira de Hollanda Lima. In late 1977, several photos of the lights are recorded, but the military remains skeptical. After approximately four months, the operation is closed after the Air Force can identify no unusual phenomena. The official documents can be seen in the Brazilian National Archives. According to ufologist Jacques Vallée, a number of individuals are reportedly killed as a result of the “lightning” fired at them by the UFOs, and injuries are consistent with radiation effects from microwaves. Other ufologists claim that the lights from UFOs have sucked blood from 400 people. In 1997, two decades after the operation, Capt. Hollanda gives an interview to ufologists Ademar José Gevaerd and Marco Antônio Petit where he recounts his experiences living alongside his men. Three months after the interview, he is found dead in his home “after he seemingly hung himself using the belt of his bathrobe,” attracting the interest of conspiracy theorists. (Wikipedia, “Operação Prato”; Jacques Vallée, Confrontations, Ballantine, 1990, pp. 136– 139 , 220 – 226 ; Good Need, pp. 367– 368 ; Timothy Good, Unearthly Disclosure, Century, 2000, pp. 187–200; “Caso Chupa-Chupa e Operação Prato: Entrevista com o Coronel Hollanda,” Portal Fenomenum, June 15, 2016; Brazil 442–493; Clark III 838– 857 ; Patrick Gross, “Colares 1977”; Skinwalkers 117– 118 ) July — Howard Gontovnick begins monthly publication of UFO Canada in Laval, Quebec. It continues until April 1979. (UFO Canada 1, no. 1 (July 1977)) July — Flight Lieutenant A. M. Wood sees two luminous, round objects, 4–5 times the size of the full moon, hovering 5,000 feet in the air over the sea off RAF Boulmer near Alnwick, Northumberland, England. Two other base personnel, a Cpl. Torrington and a Sgt. Graham, watch the objects with Wood for almost 2 hours. They are tracked on base radar and at RRH Staxton Wold. The objects separate, one moving west of the other and “as it maneuvered it changed shape to become body-shaped with projections like arms and legs.” (“RAF Boulmer: Reports of UFO Sightings Were Hushed Up,” Northumberland Today, January 28, 2005) July 1 — 3:00 a.m. Electronic alarms suddenly sound at NATO’s Aviano Air Base north of Pordenone, Italy. Something has set off the magnetic and motion detectors in the high hurricane-type fence protecting the compound. Simultaneously a power outage occurs at the Victor Alert facility that houses fighter aircraft, and though a back- up system immediately kicks in, minor power fluxes go on for the next 15 to 20 minutes. An American soldier named James Blake sees a large bright light hovering at a low altitude above a soybean field about 600 feet beyond the fence line of the compound. Many soldiers see the object, which appears to be domed, spinning, and changing colors. It is 150 feet in diameter and making a noise like a “swarm of bees.” USAF security and a unit from the Italian National Police are dispatched, but the object moves away before the units arrive. (Antonio Chiumiento, “UFO Alert at a NATO Base in Italy,” Flying Saucer Review 30, no. 2 (December 1984): 2–5; Good Above, pp. 144 – 145 ; Jerry Rowles, “The Mystery of Aviano,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 334 (February 1996): 3 – 6 ; John S. Derr, “Quake Light?” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 336 (April 1996): 19– 20 ; Gerald E. Rowles, “Update on Aviano,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 367 (November 1998): 19; 1Pinotti 199– 204 ; Patrick Gross, “Aviano AFB, Italy, July 1st, 1977”) July 2 — 12:45 p.m. A woman driving her car in Benton Harbor, Michigan, sees a silent silver disc, edge on, with the apparent diameter of the full moon. It is hovering motionless with its left side tilted down. Trees obscure her vision for about one minute; when they clear, the object is gone. (“Case 2- 8 - 51,” IUR 2, no. 8 (August 1977): 3) July 3 — 7:30 p.m. Jennifer F. Canfield and her husband are sitting on their front porch in Pennsylvania across the Delaware River from Callicoon, New York, when they notice a brilliant light coming slowly and silently up the river from the southeast at 1,000–1,500 feet. Through binoculars, it appears to be a domed elliptical object with two headlights and apparent windows. The object suddenly blinks out. (“1977 Sketch/Sighting and 1981 Sketch Similarity: Another One,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 5 (Oct./Nov. 1983): 1, 7) July 3 — 9:30 p.m. A man in Clarksburg, West Virginia, briefly watches a silver rectangular object fly under a low cloud cover toward the north. It climbs at a 30° angle and is lost in the clouds. (“Case 2- 8 - 54,” IUR 2, no. 8 (August 1977): 3) July 4 — 9:30 p.m. Ten witnesses in different parts of Rapid City, South Dakota, observe three dark objects moving silently toward the west. Each has a row of closely spaced red lights randomly flashing. Two of them seem to merge in the distance, and the remaining pair disappears into a cloud bank. (“Case 2- 8 - 55,” IUR 2, no. 9 (September 1977): wrap) July 6 — 6:30 p.m. At Bondowoso, East Java, Indonesia, a ham radio operator reports a UFO that moves from west to east in about seven minutes. The object is flat, but positioned directly overhead it appears round in shape and

yellowish-green in color. It hovers for about 5 seconds, then resumes its movement and disappears in the distance. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 2 (February 1978): 2) July 7 — 8:30 p.m. As some 3,000 people are attending an outdoor screening of a Romanian film in Zhangpu County, Fujian, China, two objects appear in the sky, flying low. They emit an intense orange glow and are only a few feet apart, traveling in complete silence for a few seconds before speeding out of sight. A panic ensues, and allegedly 300 people are injured and two children killed. (Anthony Lee, “UFO Reports from China (2),” Flying Saucer Review 28, no. 4 (March 1983): 24–25) July 7 — 11:00 p.m. The Russian motor ship Nikolay Ostrovsky is going north through the Strait of Tartary, off the east coast of Russia, when the crew sees a cloud-like formation in the shape of a rectangle, moving at the same speed as the ship, about 980–1,300 feet to the east. Radio operator O. Dereza has an eerie feeling of being watched. It disappears at 11:32 p.m. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, p. 115) July 9 — 2:30 a.m. A 38-year-old singer sees a dull-silver, saucer-shaped UFO hovering on the left side of Telegraph Road in Flat Rock, Michigan. It is only about 200 feet above the ground and 150 feet from the road. It has many red and green lights around its rim, and a beam of light illuminates the ground for 2 minutes. The object floats away over the treetops, moving toward the southwest. (“Case 2- 8 - 72,” IUR 2, no. 8 (August 1977): 3) July 12 — Night. A man and his daughter in Quebradillas, Puerto Rico, see a small humanoid in a green inflated suit with a pointed helmet that has a light on top. When the daughter switches on an outside light, it seems to be scared and activates a backpack that lets it climb upward over a neighboring farm and trees. The cows react by making a racket. Another person in the area reports an illuminated UFO. (Jenny Randles, “Superman vs. Airbus,” Fortean Times 323 (February 2015): 31) July 13 — 12:30 a.m. A couple in Dinwiddie, Virginia, see a large silvery star stationary in the sky as rolling storm clouds pass overhead. It “skips” in position slightly once and increases in brightness when lightning flashes. It disappears when another lightning strike occurs. (“Case 2- 8 - 84,” IUR 2, no. 8 (August 1977): wrap) July 15 — 11:45 p.m. Adult witnesses on a boat on the Colorado River near Blythe, California, watch an oval light, 3– 4 times the size of the moon, darting silently above them in all directions and on both sides of the river. It stops abruptly, comes close to the boat, then curves around the river. (“Case 2- 9 - 2,” IUR 2, no. 9 (September 1977): 3) July 16 — 11:15 p.m. As Air India Flight 9, piloted by Capt. Dingra, makes its final approach to Dum Dum Airport [now Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport] in Kolkata, India, air traffic controllers notice a second object closing in on the Boeing 747. Witnesses on the ground report a saucer-shaped object rushing toward the airliner. When it gets dangerously close, the passengers and crew can see it. It departs 2 miles from the aircraft’s final touch-down. (Good Need, p. 304 ) July 16 — Before 12:00 midnight. A bright light in the west above Baton Rouge, Louisiana, moves 10°–15° from its original position and back again. The object remains in the same position, even though the stars have shifted by the time it is last seen at 1:15 a.m. (“Case 2- 9 - 4,” IUR 2, no. 9 (September 1977): 3) July 17 — Romanian ufologists Călin Turcu, Valeriu Niculescu, Adrian Pătruţ, and Augustin Moraru establish an informal group called “Romanian UFO Researchers” (RUFOR). It publishes 27 issues of a RUFOR newsletter between 1979 and 1986 and 21 issues of a RUFOR magazine in 1994–1996. (Romania 38–39) July 18 — 12:05 a.m. An intense blue-white glow hovers 200–300 feet above a creek near Fairview, Pennsylvania. After 4 seconds, it jumps to the north with a hum “like a hair dryer” and is lost to sight. (“Case 2- 9 - 8,” IUR 2, no. 9 (September 1977): 3) July 21 — Frank Press, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, writes to Robert A. Frosch, NASA administrator, and explains that the White House is receiving numerous inquiries about UFOs and wonders if NASA could form a small panel to follow up on the Condon report to see if there are any new findings. Press also suggests that NASA become the focal point for further UFO inquiries. (Story, p. 242 ; Clark III 787; Good Above, pp. 368 – 369 ) July 21 — 10:05 p.m. Witnesses in Glenview, Illinois, watch a light move from the north to the southeast in about 3 seconds. It stops for 1 second, hooks backward, and stops again. When the witnesses look back, it has disappeared. (“Case 2- 9 - 19,” IUR 2, no. 9 (September 1977): 3) July 23 — 12:45 a.m. A 26-year old woman and her 13-year-old niece look out their bedroom window in Lindley, New York, before retiring and see 11 or 12 white lights in a dipper-shaped formation that are moving about in the sky. One bright light appears on a hill 900 feet away. They hear a whooshing sound, then two lights rise into the air. They next hear footsteps from Morgan Creek about 300 feet away and see two small figures floating up and down in front of a tree. Then they see several more figures at various spots carrying what seem to be flashlights. They wear tight-fitting, “skin diver” suits with glowing green belts. One of the witnesses sees a luminous red rectangular object that approaches the creek and then backs away. At this point both witnesses develop severe headaches. Then a figure on a distant hill on a neighbor’s farm shines a light on a tombstone there, and the stone

seems to rise up into the air and move back and forth. A figure taller than the others, who are less than four feet tall, stands near the light on the hill and calls out an “ooh, ooh” signal. The others all approach him and, 5 minutes later, deploy back into adjacent fields. One of them approaches the house. He comes under the second-story window and drops to the ground, as if to conceal himself, then approaches the door and rattles the handle. By this time, 3:45 a.m., the older witness has called her mother, who notifies the state police. All of the lights and figures disappear just prior to the arrival of the police, the lights in the sky indistinguishable from stars. Both witnesses believe only an hour has passed but in fact more than three hours has elapsed. They complain of burning eyes and headaches that last for two days. The witnesses find three footprints in the powdery dust of their driveway. Further incidents occur on July 25 and August 1. (Allan Hendry, “The Lindley Episodes: CE III’s in New York State,” IUR 2, no. 9 (September 1977): 5–7) July 26 — 10:10 p.m. Astronomer Zhang Zhousheng and others watch a strange spiral object in the air above a northern suburb of Chengdu, Sichuan, China. At its center is a yellowish light, with the arms of the spiral blue and greenish. The object is 60° in the air and moving in a straight line at a constant speed. It is visible for about 5 minutes before it is covered up by clouds. The object is visible to other witnesses in localities along a 110-mile, north-to-south line, for as long as 10 minutes. (Wendelle Stevens and Paul Dong, UFOs over Modern China, UFO Photo Archives, 1983, pp. 99–102) July 30 — Early morning. Airmen on the night shift at RAF Boulmer in Alnwick, Northumberland, England, are alerted by a call from a civilian who is watching two bright objects hovering above the North Sea. Duty controller Flight Lt. A. M. Wood and others on the base can also see them, hovering close to the shore at about 4,000–5,000 feet. They move apart slowly as they climb into the sky. The object on the west side is conical with its apex at the top. It seems to be rotating and changes its shape to an arrowhead. It is apparently 4–5 times the size of a Whirlwind helicopter. After the objects move away out to sea, radar at RAF Boulmer picks up two targets 20–30 miles out, corroborated by radar at RAF Patrington in Yorkshire. (UFOFiles2, p. 92) July 31 — 6:30 p.m. A university art professor in Normal, Illinois, calls his wife and secretary to see a silver “stretched cigar” three times its apparent diameter in length. The object flies in a slow, straight path from southwest to northeast and is lost in the trees. (“Case 2- 9 - 68,” IUR 2, no. 9 (September 1977): 3)

August — 9:30 p.m. Graham Niven sees two green objects in the southern sky at Raeford, North Carolina. They are moving swiftly to the north. (“One Reporting Witness: Two Reported Sightings,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 10 (October 1981): 1–2) August 1 — 9:30 a.m. An 11-year-old boy playing baseball in Springfield, Ohio, sees a white cigar-shaped object flying southbound from low in the western sky for 15 seconds. (“Case 2- 9 - 70,” IUR 2 , no. 9 (September 1977): 8) August 2 — Marauding UFOs destroy the town of Chester, Illinois, according to a hoax concocted by Official UFO magazine editor Myron Fass. (Allan Hendry, “Sleep Well, Chester, Illinois: It’s Ufology That’s Hurting,” IUR 3, no. 1 (January 1978): wrap; Clark III 599 ) August 3 — Afternoon. NASA astrophysicist Richard C. Henry is one of several persons asked to attend a meeting to discuss what to do about Frank Press’s recommendation. The group decides to turn the issue over to Space Science Director Noel W. Hinners. At the end of the meeting, Henry lets Hinners know that he has some relevant expertise on UFOs (as a consultant to APRO). (Richard C. Henry, “UFOs and NASA,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 2, no. 2 (1988): 93–142; Clark 787 – 788 ) August 3– 18 — Italian researchers Giovanni and Piero Mantero of the Centro Internazionale Richerche e Studi sugli UFO in Genoa hold a 15-day skywatch on Monte Verrugoli west of La Spezia, Italy. The mountain is known for reports of strange phenomena. During the skywatch a total of 108 nocturnal lights are observed, 82 appearing as points of light, 7 oblong in shape, 7 spherical, one like a tilted plate, 3 discoid, one like a half-moon, and 7 other miscellaneous forms. Most are yellow, but some are reddish or blue. Occasionally the unidentified lights seem to increase in luminosity in response to signals made with a flashlight. During their presence, dogs in the neighborhood bark almost constantly. The objects disappear when conventional aircraft appear in the sky. Sounds of breaking tree branches are heard, unidentified voices are registered on a tape recorder, wristwatches malfunction, and areas of flattened grass are found. On one of the last nights of the project, Giovanni Mantero claims to have seen a strange aerial entity with a transparent face. (Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, pp. 232– 233 ) August 4 — The offices of the Energy Research and Development Administration and the Federal Energy Administration are dissolved and become the cabinet-level US Department of Energy, with the oversight of policies on energy and safety in handling nuclear material. Its responsibilities include the nation’s nuclear weapons program, nuclear reactor production for the US Navy, energy conservation, energy-related research, radioactive waste disposal, and

domestic energy production. It also directs research in genomics; the Human Genome Project originated in a DOE initiative.(Wikipedia, “United States Department of Energy”) August 4 — 9:10 p.m. A man in Teddington, southwest London, England, is outside watching the sky when he sees a small light traveling fast to the right of a well known Heathrow Airport flight path. Watching it through binoculars, it looks like a metallic submarine shape with five portholes. It hovers for 20 seconds almost on the flight path. It moves away quickly when an aircraft approaches. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 6 (June 1978): 2) August 6 — 8:55 p.m. A young woman close to Port Columbus Airport [now John Glenn Columbus International Airport] in Columbus, Ohio, stops her car to watch two cylindrical objects with bulbous ends approach her from the southwest. They are dark gray or green and have bright white lights on opposite ends. They appear to bank and twist for 10–15 seconds. One ascends, stops, and vanishes; the other does the same maneuver one second later, all “too fast for airplanes.” (“Case 2- 9 - 81,” IUR 2, no. 9 (September 1977): 8) August 7 — A nearly perfect circular ring, 12 feet in diameter and 8 inches wide is discovered in someone’s backyard on an island in the Mississippi River near Galena, Illinois. The ring is caused by a substance composed of tiny beads that discolors the grass and leaves on the ground. A similar ring is found near Chesterton, Indiana, on August 12. Analysis by the University of Chicago shows that the rings are caused by slime mold. (Allan Hendry, “A Physical Trace Doth Not a CE II Make,” IUR 2, no. 9 (September 1977): 4) August 9 — 2:00 p.m. A witness in Wheaton, Illinois, sees 8–16 pinpoints of light “like magnesium burning” silently maneuvering in and out of the overcast clouds. They appear to be approaching very fast from 60° in the north. Looping and swooping, they move apart after about 15 seconds. (“Case 2- 9 - 85,” IUR 2, no. 9 (September 1977): 8) August 10 — 8:50 p.m. Two adult couples in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey, watch a bright, blue-green star silently loping from low in the west toward the northeast for 30–45 seconds. (“Case 2- 9 - 87,” IUR 2, no. 9 (September 1977): wrap) August 11 — 8:05 p.m. A 37 - year-old police detective in South Brunswick, New Jersey, watches a silent disc-shaped object come over the horizon. Four other witnesses also see it. There is something that looks like a rotating “radar mast” on the object. It rises into the clouds and shoots off toward the north-northeast after 3.5 minutes. (“Case 2 - 9 - 88,” IUR 2, no. 9 (September 1977): wrap) August 11 — 8:45 p.m. A couple are driving near Hayden, Alabama, when they see an object hovering silently about 150 feet in the air. A blue-gray light in its center turns on and they can see its disc-like shape and size, which is about 65 feet in diameter. The object shoots north like a bullet, then stops a short distance away. Keeping it in view, they drive home and call the police. The woman sees the UFO circle around them three times and land. A second object comes out of the hills to the northeast and stops directly above the first object at about 400 feet. The lower object rises up to join the other briefly, and they can see a blinking red light on top. The objects accelerate to the south and vanish from sight. Total duration is 5 minutes. (“Case 2- 9 - 89,” IUR 2, no. 10 (October 1977): wrap) August 13 (approximately) — Night. At Nocero Umbra, Perugia, Italy, several witnesses, including Bruno Vitali, see a cone-shaped object “more than a meter high.” Vitali tries unsuccessfully to hit the object with his car because as he speeds forward, the object maintains the same distance. Students who investigate the site later find a stone that is intensely hot 2 days after the encounter. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 12 (November 1977): 2; Mark Rodeghier, “UFO/Vehicle Very Close Encounters,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 32) Mid-August — Between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. Canute Jensen, 13, and Kevin Rurka, 12, are in a treehouse on the Chris Jensen farm 27 miles north of Edmonton, Alberta. They are taking photos when they see a large, dark, block- shaped object moving through the sky. Canute snaps three photos before the object disappears upward in the clouds. (“UFO Photographed from a Tree-House in Canada,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 7, no. 8 (August 1981): 1, 6) August 15 — The Big Ear Radio Telescope in Delaware, Ohio, in searching for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations, detects a strong, intermittent signal lasting for 72 seconds that stands out distinctly from the background noise. The team quickly rules out a terrestrial origin or a broadcast from a satellite. Nevertheless, the signal is so powerful and unusual that Jerry Ehman, the astronomer who analyzes the data print out, annotates the signal with the word “Wow!” The Big Ear team continued to observe the same part of the sky, as have others, but the Wow! signal never returns. In 2020, using the Gaia 3D star database developed by the European Space Agency, amateur astronomer Alberto Caballero identifies a Sun-like star in the region of the sky where the Wow! signal originated. (Wikipedia, “Wow! Signal”; Daniela Breitman, “Wow! Signal Explained after 40 Years?” EarthSky, June 7, 2017; “Sun-Like Star Identified As the Potential Source of the Wow! Signal,” Physics ArXiv Blog, November 19, 2020 ) August 17 — 2:00 p.m. James R. Leming is driving on Interstate 70 westbound about 15 miles west of the Nebraska– Colorado state border. He sees a strange object moving swiftly in the sky and pulls over to watch. It moves to the

north, then veers back to the highway and runs a parallel course along the interstate. Directly over the road it remains stationary for 3 minutes, and Leming is able to take three photographs, only one of which is not blurry because the object began speeding away. He estimates it was 600 feet away, its altitude at about 500 feet above the road, positioned at a 40° angle above the horizon, and 40–45 feet from tip to tip with a downward curve at each end. Ground Saucer Watch explains the photo as a chip in the glass of Leming’s windshield, but Leming contests that. (“1977 Photograph/Sighting and 1982 Sketch Similarity,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1983): 1; Fred Adrian, “Letter,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 5 (Oct./Nov. 1983): 2– 3 ; James R. Leming, “Letter,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 6 (Dec. 1983/Jan. 1984): 2)) August 28 — 12:10 a.m. For more than 20 minutes, police (including PC Ian MacKenzie, PS James Trohear, PC Alexander Inglis, and PC David Wild) and citizens in Windermere, Cumbria, England, watch a large lighted object in the shape of a “stingray fish” (triangular). It flies slowly at 1,500 feet altitude, hovering occasionally. All witnesses describe it as silent, except for one, who hears a “quiet hum.” (Nick Redfern, A Covert Agenda: UFO Secrecy Exposed, Simon & Schuster, 1997, pp. 131–133) August 28 — 12:38 a.m. Two witnesses on a deserted rural boulevard near Hayward, California, see an odd triangular object with red, blue, and white lights. They drive toward it, overtake it, and pass underneath, and they see that it is much larger than the full moon. Then it turns abruptly and follows them, but they accelerate to 65 mph and evade it. (“Case 2- 10 - 35,” IUR 2, no. 10 (October 1977): 3) August 28 — 8:40 p.m. The same couple in Hayden, Alabama, who saw a UFO on August 11 see a similar bright object 2 miles away from the previous site. It has several beige lights, and it darts toward their car in seconds when they stop to look. All the lights go out and come back on at the same time. (“Case 2- 10 - 37,” IUR 2, no. 10 (October 1977): 3) August 31 — 12:30–3:15 a.m. A total of seven witnesses see a lighted cylindrical object at the top of a disused quarry on the road between Sturno and Frigento, Avellino, Italy. Near the object is an entity about 7 feet 10 inches tall. It has two red-orange lights in a spot where its eyes might be and is wearing metallic-looking coveralls, a possible helmet, a metallic belt, and a black box on its arm. At one point the entity shines a bright beam of light at them. The duration of the sighting is due to the original two witnesses going back and forth to a nearby village to collect additional observers. A triangle of depressions is found that indicates something as heavy as 40 tons has landed there. Some of the witnesses are regressed hypnotically and recall the same narrative. (Maurizio Verga, “Seven Scared Witnesses and a Humanoid,” Flying Saucer Review 25, no. 1 (May 1979): 17–19, 22; 1Pinotti 205–210)

Fall — 5:20 p.m. A female police constable in Isfield, Sussex, England, sees a silent object flying at 300 feet altitude while waiting for a bus. On an impulse, she waves at the object, which then approaches her. It seems to be made of light greenish-gray metal with a moderately reflective surface. On top of its dome is a blue-green light, and underneath the object is a dense, black, circular section. At its closest approach, it is no further than 50 feet away. Her memory is unclear after this, but when the bus arrives, she feels numb and uncoordinated and seems to have lost 20 minutes of time. (Good Above, pp. 115 , 457 ) September — Lt. Gen. Akira Hirano, chief of Japan’s Air Self-Defense Forces, admits that UFOs are seen frequently in Japan and that they are quietly investigated. However, the following day his staff denies that he intended to comment on official investigations. (Good Above, p. 430 ) September 4 — 3:30 p.m. Farmer Luis Sandoval, 74, is resting in a hammock near Corozal, Puerto Rico, when he decides to get up and move to another spot. He hears some popping noises and sees an object like an elongated, bright blue candle. It moves toward him, making an increasingly loud roaring-engine noise, then drops down beside him. The object abruptly turns into a 3-foot-high dwarf, dressed in jacket and tie, with an ugly face. He speaks encouragingly, says he is an extraterrestrial, and gives Sandoval a complete physical examination. The dwarf steps away to admire the scenery and says, “How nice Puerto Rico is.” He then turns into a flaming blue candle and vanishes upward in a flash. Other dwarf sightings take place in the area. (Gordon Creighton, “A New Medicare?” Flying Saucer Review 24, no. 2 (August 1978): 9) September 6 — NASA administrator Robert Frosch responds to Frank Press, saying that he is “inclined to agree” with his recommendation on a new UFO panel; however, NASA wants to be assured that an inquiry is “justified,” and that if funding is provided, it could hire a project officer to review reports from the past 10 years. (Clark III 787) September 7 — 10:24 p.m. A white glow is seen rushing silently three times over a 15-minute period in Tooele, Utah. It first travels to the south but executes a 90° turn toward the west. Five minutes later it returns, moving east. Ten minutes later it reappears, slower and lower, moving to the northeast. (“Case 2- 10 - 58,” IUR 2, no. 10 (October 1977): 3)

September 8 — 12:30 a.m. An ex-pilot sees a dark, bullet-shaped object while walking his dog in New Orleans, Louisiana. It rushes silently to the east and changes course slightly to the southeast. (“Case 2- 10 - 60,” IUR 2, no. 10 (October 1977): 3) September 9 — Grenada Prime Minister Eric Gairy meets with President Jimmy Carter in the White House for 45 minutes. Carter gives Gairy a copy of the Condon report. (Dolan II 143) September 14 — Press again asks Frosch for help with Carter’s UFO mail problem and repeats his suggestion for a scientific UFO panel to investigate reports. (presidentialufo.com, “President Jimmy Carter”) September 15 — 2:15 a.m. A 33-year-old bus driver named Antonio Bogado La Rúbia leaves his home in Paciência, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to catch a bus. As he is walking by a deserted field, he sees a UFO “like an enormous hat.” He takes two steps back and is grabbed by two men. Suddenly he is floating inside the UFO, surrounded by two rows of a dozen men each, about 5 feet 5 inches tall. They are wearing football-shaped helmets with a wide band running across the broad portion and are cut into mirror-like sections from which blue flashes are emitted. They seem like robots, but La Rúbia can hear them breathing. A typical abduction scenario follows. (“Brazilian CE4 Case,” APRO Bulletin 26, no. 4 (October 1977): 1–4; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 11 (November 1977): 2, 8; “Ufonautas Unipedais (Robôs) Seqüestram Motorista de Ônibus no Rio de Janeiro,” SBEDV Boletim, no. 121/125 (March/Dec. 1978): 20–44; Brazil 211–224) Late September — 1:00 a.m. A witness working as a receptionist at the Paralela 45 Motel on Highway 1 north of Ploieşti, Romania, sees a large object 3–4 times as large as the Moon, which is visible in another part of the sky. It has an orange-red core with a yellowish-red halo at the edges. It stands motionless for 3–4 minutes, then descends slowly toward the southwest before shooting away at an nicredible speed. (Romania 42–43) September 17 — 2:00 a.m. A couple driving near Kargowa, Poland, notice two unusual lights in the sky. They drive a half mile further, then the lights approach them at incredible speed and hover above the car. The driver stops to look at them and notices that one light is bigger and whiter than the smaller yellowish light. When he drives away, the lights continue to pace them for 6 miles, keeping 10–30 feet away from the car until they reach Wolsztyn, where they rise up and speed away. (Poland 32–33) September 20 — 3:00 a.m. The watch officer of an Alfa-class nuclear submarine in the White Sea off Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, notices an object moving swiftly to the southwest. It seems to stretch out, turning into a long, glowing ribbon. As it flies over him, it looks like a cylinder with one of the ends becoming asymmetrical. The cylinder ejects small objects that fly off in different directions. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, pp. 13–14) September 20 — 4:00 a.m. A large “star” sending out beams of light appears moving slowly over Petrozavodsk, Karelia, Russia. It is last seen as a semicircular glow, bright red in the middle and white on the sides. The total duration is 10 – 12 minutes. Scientist Mikhail Dimitryev describes it as a “giant jellyfish.” The phenomenon is seen over a vast territory, from Copenhagen, Denmark, and Helsinki, Finland, in the west to Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai, Russia, in the east. Government officials from northern European countries send letters to Anatoly Alexandrov, president of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, expressing concern about whether the observed phenomenon is caused by Soviet weapons testing and whether it constitutes a threat to the region’s environment. Col. Boris Sokolov reveals that the phenomenon is observed from 12:00 midnight by military men along the Finnish border; when they try to report it, all their communications fail. All communications are restored after the phenomenon ceases. Since 1977, the phenomenon has often (though not universally) been attributed to the launch of the Soviet satellite Kosmos- 955. In the same year, a preliminary report for the Academy of Sciences of the USSR contains an immense body of visual observations, radiolocation reports, physical measurements, and accompanying meteorological data. It concludes that “based on the available data, it is unfeasible to satisfactorily understand the observed phenomenon.” (Wikipedia, “Petrozavodsk phenomenon”; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 10 (October 1977): 2; Gordon Creighton, “A Russian ‘Jellyfish,’” Flying Saucer Review 23, no. 4 (January 1978): 19–20; Good Need, pp. 351 ; Enrique Vicente, “UFOs in the Soviet Union,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 118 – 119 ) September 21 — Ground Saucer Watch files a complaint, spearheaded by lawyers Peter Gersten and Henry Rothblatt, with the CIA for failure to produce materials on the 1952 Ralph Mayher incident and the Durant report on the 1953 Robertson Panel. (“CIA Sued over UFO ‘Cover-Up,’” IUR 3, no. 1 (January 1978): wrap; “CAUS Picking Up Where GSW and NICAP Left Off,” Just Cause 1, no. 1 (April 1978): 1– 4 ) September 21 — 8:47 p.m. A student notices a flashing light in the northern sky in Phoenix, Arizona. Suddenly, a formation of 8 triangles with rounded edges appears, 7 of them in a straight line, equally spaced. The eighth is slightly forward. They shoot noiselessly overhead and are lost in the glare of the southern sky. One crosses the face of the Moon. (“Case 2- 11 - 9,” IUR 2, no. 11 (November 1977): 3)

September 22 — 5:25 a.m. Capt. George Didlake, piloting Continental Airlines Flight 954, is climbing to 33,000 feet out of El Paso, Texas, when he sees an elongated object rapidly overtaking his DC-10. It has a row of brightly illuminated windows running front to rear and is blow the aircraft at roughly 12,000 feet. First Officer Jack Forsythe and Second Officer Russ Goodenough see the object as well. It passes the aircraft at a speed “beyond comprehension,” makes a 90° turn, and shoots up out of sight. (Dave Kenney, “Airline Crew Spots UFO,” APRO Bulletin 26, no. 3 (September 1977): 1, 3) September 22 — Four FAA radar controllers in Omaha, Nebraska, track a large formation of unidentified objects. They are gone from the scope in less than a minute at an estimated speed of 17,000 mph. (MUFON UFO Journal, March 1983, p. 6) September 22 — 10:25 p.m. A police detective in Ardmore, Oklahoma, watches a pulsating star rush about erratically. (“Case 2- 11 - 12,” IUR 2, no. 11 (November 1977): 3) Late September — 11:00 p.m. Ethel May Field is in her backyard in Parkstone, Poole, Dorset, England, when she hears a humming nose and looks up. A circular object with a dome on top is approaching from the south-southwest. Its surfaces are gray, and a brilliant blue-yellow light is streaming from the underside. It is about 20 feet in diameter, and Field can see two humanoid figures visible almost to the waist inside the dome. The object hovers above her garden, its light so brilliant that she puts her hands up to shield her eyes. She can feel the heat on her hands and a vibration in the ground for a second or two. The occupants have silver suits and headgear. The figure on the right appears to be operating controls, while the one on the left is looking directly at her, making a gesture as if pointing downward. Alarmed, she runs back to the house and the object speeds away to the northwest. In the following week, she develops a skin irritation on the palms of her hands. (Leslie Harris, “Parkstone UFO and Occupants,” Flying Saucer Review 24, no. 2 (August 1978): 6 – 8) September 27 — 4:36 a.m. A witness is driving toward Kirksville, Missouri, about 6 miles west of town when he notices a light behind him to the left. It is a yellow-orange object with flashing red lights, as big as the Moon, and is following him about 500 feet away at treetop level. He increases his speed to 120 mph, but the UFO keeps the same pace. As he reaches town the object climbs slightly and shoots off out of sight in 2 seconds. (“Case 2- 11 - 22,” IUR 2, no. 11 (November 1977): 3) September 27 — 12:15 p.m. A dredge master and four crew members see a UFO that remains visible for one minute off the northwest coast of Wowoni Island, Sulawesi, Indonesia. Consisting of a cone of translucent material with dark spots, the object emits violet, white, and red light from its top. It has a forward, undulating motion against the wind and is spinning on its axis at about 9,000 feet altitude. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 2 (February 1978): 2) September 28 — 2:45 p.m. A grocery store clerk watches a distant bright light moving west over Burlington, Iowa. A second point of light appears, catches up to the first one, and both weave a figure 8 at least 6 times as they pass nearly overhead to the west. (“Case 2- 11 - 24,” IUR 2, no. 11 (November 1977): 3)

Early autumn — 5:20 p.m. A woman police constable is waiting at a bus stop near Lewes, East Sussex, England, when she notices a large, silent object at about 300 feet altitude. On impulse, she waves at the object, which then comes closer. It seems to be made of a light greenish-gray metal with a moderately reflective surface. A blue-green light is coming out of its dome, and underneath the object is a dense, black, circular section. At closest approach, the UFO is no more than 50 feet away. She experiences a sense of timelessness, and she later cannot account for about 20 minutes of time. When the bus arrives, she feels a numbness as she fumbles for change. When she gets to the top deck, the object is gone. She develops an acute headache that lasts into the following day. Her eyes burn and water for a week afterward, and she suffers recurring gastric discomfort. (Good Above, pp. 115 – 116 , 457 ) October — The Petrozavodsk phenomenon in Russia contributes to the creation of the Setka program—Soviet research into anomalous atmospheric phenomena, proposed by scientist Anatoly Alexandrov. Two research commissions are set up: the Setka-MO, under the orders of the Ministry of Defense and composed mainly of military personnel, and the Setka-AN, under the orders of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and composed of scientists. The first group has the task of studying the military aspects of the problem, such as the possible influences of the UFOs on the malfunctioning of military devices and installations; the ministry names special officers in all military units who are tasked with the responsibility of watching out for unusual phenomena. The second group studies physical effects related to UFOs and tries to understand the causes. The coordination of the first commission is entrusted to Col. Boris Sokolov, that of the second commission to Prof. Vladimir Migulin, supported by Dr. Yulii Platov as deputy coordinator. According to one of his aides, Igor Sinitsin, it is KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov who initiates these programs. (Wikipedia, “Programma Setka”; Good Above, p. 237 ; Good Need, pp. 351 – 352 ; Nick Paton Walsh, “KGB Chief Ordered 4m Soldiers to Keep Watching the Skies for UFOs,” The Guardian, March 23, 2003)

October 1 — 7:00 p.m. Leo and John Girardeau are hunting 3 miles west of Libau, Manitoba, when they see an object approaching from the west at an altitude of 500 feet. As it approaches, the witnesses go into their truck and turn on the lights. The object, about 75–100 feet wide and 25 – 30 feet high, reverses direction and moves westward. One of the men fires a shotgun to lure it back; when this fails, they pursue it in their truck. Running out of road a few miles later, they stop and watch it move out of sight. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 12 (December 1977): 2) October 4 — 2:45 p.m. A group of 10 children see a strange object hovering between two trees while they are playing at Upton Primary Junior School in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England. Their teacher, Mrs. Hindmarsh, immediately separates them and asks them to draw what they have seen. Their drawings are consistent, so she passes them on to the Cheshire police, who take the report seriously and check with the Manchester Airport, which reports that nothing unusual was detected on radar. (UFOFiles2, p. 97 ) October 5 — 10:40 a.m. TV cameramen Manuel Juarez and Oscar Tobar are videotaping a car commercial in Guatemala City, Guatemala, when a UFO comes into view. Instead, they videotape the UFO, which is in view for 51 seconds moving at about 100 mph. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no. 11 (November 1977): 8; “First Photos of Guatemala Videotape,” IUR 3, no. 1 (January 1978): 7–8) October 7 — Prime Minister of Grenada Eric Gairy addresses the UN General Assembly urging the recognition of UFOs as a serious international scientific problem. He says that he has seen a UFO and was “totally overwhelmed” by the experience. (UFOEv II 20) October 7 — The Soviet submarine repair ship Volga is in the Barents Sea when its radar picks up an unknown target approaching at a distance of 60 miles. Captain Tarankin goes to the bridge and sees 9 bright discs moving in from the northeast. They arrive and circle around the ship’s masts for 18 minutes. During this time, all of the ship’s communications links no longer work. Captain Tarankin tells his men to remember the incident, so that no one will be able to say their captain is drunk or crazy. After the discs depart, communications is restored. The incident raises some concern in the Soviet Navy, and Fleet Admiral Nikolai Ivanovich Smirnov issues a directive on mandatory reporting of UFO sightings by Soviet hydrographic, scientific research, and reconnaissance ships. The directive is written by naval officer and ufologist Vladimir G. Azhazha and signed by Naval Deputy Chief of Staff Petr Nikolayevich Navoytsev. (Jacques Vallée, UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union: A Cosmic Samizdat, Ballantine, 1992, pp. 29 – 30 ; Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, pp. 11–13) October 9 — 8:30 p.m. Holly Prunchak is working as a security guard at the French-Hecht plant east of Walcott, Iowa, when she sees flashing lights rising straight up from distant trees in the northwest. They level off and move toward her. They are blinding in intensity and flash on and off like a beacon, apparently surrounded by a dark oval shape. Her FM radio goes silent, and her walkie-talkie fails. All animal sounds go quiet when the object is in view. The object looms about 300 feet away, passing near a streetlight that extinguishes for at least one minute. The object drops down onto trees of an adjacent farm. At this point she hysterically calls for help on a telephone intercom system, but no one takes her seriously. (“CE II in Iowa,” IUR 2, no. 12 (December 1977): 4, 8) October 11 — 7:55 p.m. A farmer in Fairfield, Vermont, hears an odd noise and looks out his window. He and his family watch a bright light source (a bright red light flashing next to a dimmer white light) hovering above a swamp. The object shines a light beam down into the swamp as if searching for something. A second red light approaches from over a nearby house and comes within several hundred feet of the first object; both continue to hover and circle. One vanishes at 11;30 p.m., while the other persists until 1:30 a.m. when the sky becomes cloudy. (“Case 2 - 11 - 53,” IUR 2, no. 11 (November 1977): wrap) October 13 — 3:55 p.m. A retired police officer and ex-pilot in Toledo, Ohio, watches, along with other young men, a “star” in clear daylight rush from south-southeast to north-northeast, passing east of overhead in a straight path without sound or trail. The estimated speed is Mach 1, but it slows down and stops for the last 10–15 seconds before vanishing. (“Case 2- 11 - 60,” IUR 2, no. 11 (November 1977): wrap) October 13 — 10:15 p.m. S/Sgt Steven N. Haidinger is in his backyard at Chanute AFB [now closed] near Rantoul, Illinois, where he is looking at the moon through his telescope. He hears what sounds like wind passing around a building and looks straight up. About 500 feet in the air is an object slowly moving from the west-northwest. He trains his telescope on it and tries to follow it. The object looks rectangular, about 150 feet long, and 10 feet across. It has small, square indentations in patterns along its sides and it rotates as it moves, about once every 2 seconds. It moves out of sight in about 12 minutes. (“Correspondence,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 1 (January 1981): 2) October 14 — 7:00 p.m. A physician in Toledo, Ohio, watches a red-orange object moving silently east, passing overhead, and disappearing in the distance. Possible balloon. (“Case 2- 11 - 63,” IUR 2, no. 11 (November 1977): wrap) October 15 — 6:45 p.m. British diplomat Alan K. Rothnie is driving near Rolvenden, Kent, England, when he sees a glowing bluish object in the sky traveling fast from south to north and shaped “somewhat like a flattened avocado

pear.” The blunt leading end seems to be rimmed with a shining metal, and the back end is trailing sparks. The object moves away in 90 seconds. (UFOFiles2, pp. 87 – 88 ) October 17 — A woman and her children watch a blindingly bright red light from their first-floor porch in Uccle, Belgium. It is stationary and silent for one hour in the southwest at an estimated 1,000 feet altitude. Finally, the object moves toward the west, then north, and disappears in the distance. An independent group of witnesses several streets away also watch the light. A half-hour later, the daughter of the original family sees another pair of similar objects in the south about 400–500 feet off the ground. These circle for 30 minutes and then disappear to the south. One hour later, the family watches another bright light maneuvering in the southwest before disappearing. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 3 (March 1978): 2) October 20 — Several witnesses in San José, Costa Rica, see lighted objects around Pico Blanco, a mountain to the south of town. One physician sees a “squat, orange object” for 20 minutes until it ascends at great speed and disappears. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no 12 (December 1977): 2) October 20 — 8:15 p.m. Keith Kilford and Philip Staff watch a small orange triangle over a house in Bromley, Kent, England, that grows to twice its size, shrinks again, and moves rapidly away until it disappears. It reappears about 10 minutes later and disappears again. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 2, no 12 (December 1977): 2) October 22 — 2:40 a.m. A half-moon-shaped orange cloud, 3 times the size of the Moon, is seen hovering and descending at Irondequoit, New York. Chunks “like teardrops” are seen falling off. (“Case 2- 12 - 16,” IUR 2, no. 12 (December 1977): 3) October 23 — 3:30 a.m. A glowing triangular white cloud is seen in Rochester, New York, receding to the southwest. (“Case 2- 12 - 17,” IUR 2, no. 12 (December 1977): 3) October 24 — 2:00 a.m. A musician watches a saucer-shaped object at Cerrillos, New Mexico, approaching at a low angle from the south. It moves across his view for 15–30 seconds, stops for 15–20 seconds in the southwest, and zooms away. (“Case 2- 12 - 25,” IUR 2, no. 12 (December 1977): 3) October 25 — 5:30 p.m. Three witnesses, including two deaf 14-year-olds, Johny Myhr and Frank Sverre Mandt, view a disc-shaped object some 33 feet in diameter that hovers and then descends behind some bushes at Åsbygda, Ringerinke, Norway. After about 10 seconds it rises into the air again. The boys run to the nearby Alm school. They notice the object ascending at a 40° angle and see several windows in the craft. What appears to be a human-looking person is behind one of the windows. Tracks are later found in the newly plowed field. Each track is rectangular with rounded corners, and measures 5.5 inches by 1.2 feet with a depth of 4 inches. The tracks are arranged in a triangular shape. (“Strange Aircraft Spotted in Åsbygda,” Nordic UFO Newsletter 1, no. 1 (1981): 16 – 18) October 26 — 12:45 p.m. En route from Dyess AFB near Abilene, Texas, to Dallas, cruising at 15,000 feet in a T-38 jet trainer, 1st Lt Seth Bryant (instructor pilot) and 1st Lt Choate (student pilot) overhear transmissions from Fort Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center to another pilot who has seen a red object he cannot identify. Choate then sees the red object and informs the pilot of its position. The object is flying at 10,000–12,000 feet and seems stationary. The distance is estimated to be about 2 3 miles away. Initially, the light is brilliant and appears to be closing rapidly. An evasive maneuver is considered but deemed unnecessary. The pilot contacts Fort Worth Center, giving the position of the object and asks if he is tracking anything on radar, but he isn’t. The size of the red light decreases, similar to a very slowly rotating beacon, and is lost to sight. The total duration is less than a minute. Choate recalls static over his headset at the time. (NICAP, “Near Collision with T-33 / Radio Static”) October 27 — 5:35 p.m. At Cagliari Elmas Airport on Sardinia, Italy, three helicopters of the Italian Army’s Aviazione Leggera dell’Esercito are followed for more than 5 minutes by an orange disc. It is seen and tracked by both military and civilian witnesses and from the airport control tower. Air Force Col. Giomaria orders a jet interceptor to take off but it fails to catch up to the intruder. Maj. Francesco Zoppi and copilot Lt. Riccardelli manage to approach to within 1,000 feet. The sighting causes a feverish exchange of messages between airport personnel, the NATO base at Decimomannu, Sardinia, the USS Saratoga, and several military planes in flight. Col. Mario d’Angelo, commander of the airport’s Air Force base, sends a detailed report to Attilio Ruffini, the Italian Minister of Defense, who orders an investigation. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 4 (April 1978): 2; “Italian Government Report,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 146 (April 1980): 15; Good Above, pp. 145 – 146 ; 1Pinotti 211– 213) October 29 — 7:30 a.m. A patrolman in North East, Pennsylvania, spots a brown, cigar-shaped object moving towards him. He can see a tail fin. It changes direction to the southwest and disappears, (“Case 2- 12 - 37,” IUR 2, no 12 (December 1977): 3) October 29 — 4:00 p.m. Four men at a gas station in downtown Hagerstown, Maryland, watch a round white object half the size of the Moon. It silently orbits counterclockwise around a cloud, emerging from behind, crossing in front, then disappearing behind. (“Case 2- 12 - 38,” IUR 2, no. 12 (December 1977): 3–wrap)

October 29 — 7:45 p.m. Two young teenagers in North East, Pennsylvania, notice a light flashing different colors in the west. They think they see a dark “pancake” body twice the Moon’s diameter attached to the light. They go into their house where they are babysitting, and the object shines a spotlight down to the spot where they were originally standing. It hovers about 10 feet above some grapevines, then swoops toward the house and moves into trees to the north. They call police, but every time one visits the house, all they can see is a distant light. (“Case 2- 12 - 39,” IUR 2, no. 12 (December 1977): wrap) October 29–November 3 — Police and citizens in the area of Erie, Pennsylvania, report multiple sightings of star-like lights, some flashing. Some are likely aircraft. (“Mini-’Flap’ in Northwestern Pennsylvania: But of IFOs?” IUR 2, no 12 (December 1977): wrap) October 31 — The National Enquirer sends a series of questions to Secretary of the Air Force John C. Stetson about the 1975 Northern Tier UFO incidents. The Air Force admits they do not know what the objects were. (ClearIntent, pp. 23 – 24 ) October 31 — David Williamson Jr., a NASA assistant administrator for special projects, drafts a memorandum of a proposed letter to be signed by Noel W. Hinners and sent to Robert A. Frosch. The letter mentions a revival of interest in UFOs and paranormal phenomena, as well as new sightings. It mentions a lack of tangible evidence to analyze and a lack of protocols for investigating UFOs as hindrances to NASA setting up an investigatory panel: “All in all, undertaking a formal study at this time appears to be fraught with peril.” Williamson sees two choices: refuse the project, or have NASA review the best cases from civilian UFO organizations and new cases. He foresees problems with workload, peer pressure, and prejudgment—an enormous expenditure of resources. However, he recommends examining the best cases from the civilian groups. The inquiry will be handled by Hinners, Williamson, and NASA administrator Kenneth D. Chapman. (Clark III 788) October 31 — 9:35 p.m. Several students in Placentia, California, watch a disc with four lighted portholes hovering and eclipsing the moon for a few seconds. It shoots away toward the north. (“Case 2- 12 - 46,” IUR 2, no. 12 (December 1977): wrap)

November 1 — Afternoon. Students Johnny Myrh and Frank Sverre see a flying object approaching from the north as they are walking home from a school bus station in Nybygda, Ringerike, Norway. The light-green object lands about 300 feet away in a newly ploughed field. They see a human-like figure inside the object behind one of its windows. After 10 seconds, the object lifts off, leaving three equally spaced marks in the ground, 1.2 feet long and 3–7 inches wide. Each imprint is made by something with a curved bottom. The sighting is partially corroborated by one of the attendants at the school who sees a shining object at the same time and place but at a much greater distance. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 1 (January 1978): 2) November 2 — Italian Air Force pilots and pilots of two German Air Force F-101G Starfighters, as well as the tower personnel at Cagliari Elmas Airport on Sardinia, Italy, see a circular or elliptical ball of fire flying at tremendous speed. (Good Above, p. 146 ) November 10 — 4:31 p.m. UFO researcher Ray Stanford sees a stationary metallic gray object in the southwestern sky as he is walking his dog in Austin, Texas. Its smaller end is at the top and there is a slight variance around the larger, lower end of the object, which seems to be vibrating. After several seconds, it seems to elongate and rotate. After another 10 seconds, it appears in the shape of a Coke bottle, then disappears quickly. (Ray Stanford, “Letter,” IUR 7, no. 3 (May/June 1982): 3–4) November 12 — Evening. William J. Hermann sees a disc-shaped object chasing a Cessna aircraft over Charleston, South Carolina. (Clark III 570) November 16 — 10:59 p.m. An alarm sounds at the Ellsworth AFB L- 09 missile site 7 miles southwest of Nisland, South Dakota. Two security men, Airmen 1st Class Kenneth Jenkins and Wayne E. Raeke, are dispatched to the scene from Ellsworth. As Raeke is inspecting the rear fence line, he (allegedly) sees a helmeted figure in a glowing green metallic suit. It points a weapon at Raeke’s rifle and causes it to disintegrate, burning his hands and arms. Jenkins helps him back to their security vehicle. When Jenkins goes back to the rear fence line, he sees two of these beings. They ignore his command to halt, so he opens fire on them. His bullets strike one on the shoulder and the other in the helmet. The figures run over a hill and Jenkins pursues them. He sees them entering a 20-foot- diameter saucer-shaped object that shoots away over the horizon. As Raeke is air-evacuated from the scene, investigators discover that the missile’s nuclear components have been stolen. A follow-up investigation by Bob Pratt of the National Enquirer determines that Jenkins and Raeke are real and on active duty, but everything else about the incident is bogus. Raeke has suffered no injuries and does not even know Jenkins. (“Incident/Complaint Report,” November 16, 1977; Clark III 358 – 359 ) November 17 — Close Encounters of the Third Kind, directed by Steven Spielberg, premieres in New York City. The plot involves benevolent aliens who make their presence known to selected individuals and world governments

through escalating UFO waves. The film culminates in a spectacular landing and contact hidden from the public by an ingenious cover-up. (Jennifer Henderson and George M. Eberhart, “30 Years of Close Encounters,” IUR 31, no. 3 (October 2007): 16–18, 28; Clark III 259 ; Internet Movie Database, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”) November 18 — 5:30 a.m. A hunter sees an object 4–5 times the size of the full moon ascending about 900 feet away in a wooded area near Richmond, Virginia. It is smoky-gray and egg-shaped with one white light at the top and two flashing lights on the bottom. Possible balloon. (“Case 3- 1 - 12,” IUR 3, no. 1 (January 1978): 3) November 18 — 9:17 p.m. A bright white light moving at a high rate of speed comes alongside a small aircraft flying at 13,000 feet between Vichy and Troy, Missouri, and paces the airplane for 3 minutes. The light then moves away at high speed. The pilot reports that while the light is abreast of his aircraft, one of his transponders stops working. After the UFO pulls away, the transponder resumes its normal operation. The object paces the aircraft for 3– 4 miles at a distance of 17 miles and is fairly high above the aircraft. The pilot turns on his other transponder and nothing happens, then the object takes off on a 120°–130° heading and shoots out of sight. The second transponder recovers, but the pilot can never get the first one to work again. He has no trouble with the other instruments. (NICAP, “UFO KO’s Transponder”) November 24 — 10:00 p.m. A polygraph examiner with experience as a pilot and sailor is sitting on her porch in Smyrna, Georgia, when she notices an object the size of a distant aircraft fly out ion front of the moon. The object is white, intensely luminous, and shaped like a hemisphere. It hovers for a few seconds, shoots straight up, hovers again, and then tilts back (showing its bottom portion with two Saturn-like rings of light) and flies back in front of the moon and disappears. (“Case 3- 1 - 20,” IUR 3, no. 1 (January 1978): 3) November 27 — William J. Hermann chases another disc-shaped UFO in Charleston, South Carolina, in his car and takes four photographs. He has other sightings on December 2 and 4 and on January 22, 1978, when he snaps eight photos. (Clark III 570) November 28 — Wellington Friday, UN ambassador at large for Grenada, addresses the United Nations on the seriousness of the UFO phenomenon and the need for global cooperation in investigating them. He is aided in his statement by ufologist Leonard Stringfield. Friday appeals to UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim to convene UFO hearings. The next two days are focused on preparation of a draft resolution to be presented to the General Assembly on November 30. The United States says that it can “sympathize” with Grenada’s efforts but cannot support the draft resolution. On November 30, the US delegates, Coast Guard Cmdr. John Feigle and John Krindler, meet with Grenada Prime Minister Eric Gairy in a closed-door session to make the resolution more moderate. (Leonard H. Stringfield, “Inside Look at Grenada’s UFO Mission at the United Nations,” IUR 3, no. 2 (February 1978): 6– 7 ; MUFON UFO Journal, October 1978 ; Antonio Huneeus, “Rare Footage of Famous 1978 UN UFO Hearing Found,” Open Minds, May 13, 2011)

December — GEPAN’s Scientific Council holds its first meeting. The group is given a two-volume report of 290 pages, including three general presentations, three detailed investigations, an analysis of two UFO photos, and five statistical analyses of samples and cases. The council reaches conclusions and recommendations for further study. (Gildas Bourdais, “From GEPAN to SEPRA: Official UFO Studies in France,” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000– 2001): 12) December — Jim and Coral Lorenzen publish Abducted!, a collection of 20 years of UFO abduction cases. Most of the aliens they describe are small with large heads and eyes, no hair, and communicate by telepathy. They suggest that abductions are the latest logical step in an alien information-gathering process. Each abductee, they believe, has specific information of value to the aliens. (Coral and Jim Lorenzen, Abducted! Confrontations with Beings from Outer Space, Berkley, 1977) Early December — 5:15 p.m. A witness is driving from Falck to Brettnach, Moselle, France, when he notices three lights on a triangular object hovering silently. It disappears abruptly. (Marler 98) December 1 — The Have Blue HB1001 stealth aircraft is tested for the first time at Area 52 in the Tonopah Test Range by pilot Bill Park. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed Have Blue”) December 1 — 8:28 p.m. An electrician is driving east out of Elm City, North Carolina, when a large object drifts into view from the north. It has one intense headlight in front, 4–6 blue lights around the edges, and many red and white lights forming portholes along the sides. It is shaped like a torpedo with four swept-back fins at the back with a round band connecting them, and it is making a humming sound. (“Case 3- 1 - 30,” IUR 3, no. 1 (January 1978): 3, wrap) December 2 — Night. A farmer in the Waimata Velley of New Zealand wakes up when his dogs bark loudly in their kennels. He goes to the back door and sees a landed saucer-shaped craft in a paddock about 100 feet away. It is about 50 feet in diameter and bright red with two open doors in the side. By the kennels he sees two humanoid beings about 4 feet 8 inches in height with slim builds. They are carrying one of the dogs, which appears

comatose. The farmer shoots and hits one of the creatures, apparently startling them into dropping the animal. The being that is hit runs off into the bushes, and the other runs into the UFO, which then ascends vertically. The dog remains dazed for a few minutes and then becomes agitated. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 6 (June 1978): 2) December 6 — 7:30 p.m. Three people in a car near Tatapouri Point, New Zealand, see a red disc coming from the direction of the ocean. It seems to follow their car for about one mile until the driver stops. At that instant, the object veers off into the hills northwest toward the Waimata Valley. They note their car lights are much dimmer than usual, and on arriving at their destination discover that the car battery has no water in it. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 6 (June 1978): 2) December 6 — 9:05 p.m. A man in Big Sandy, Tennessee, sees an unusual configuration of lights outside his bedroom window in the east-northeast. They are oriented like a telephone pole with a red light on top and many white and blue lights down both sides. He and his wife watch the object for 10 minutes as it hovers, drops down, and glides to another hovering position. Eventually it moves out of sight behind trees. (“Case 3- 1 - 40,” IUR 3, no. 1 (January 1978): wrap) December 7 — The United Nations draft resolution on UFO investigations is shelved until next year’s General Assembly. (“United Nations Shelves UFO Involvement,” IUR 3, no. 1 (January 1978): wrap; Leonard H. Stringfield, “Inside Look at Grenada’s UFO Mission at the United Nations,” IUR 3, no. 2 (February 1978): 7) December 8 — 8:00 p.m. Air traffic controllers at Oxnard, California, track 4 UFOs about 3–5 miles north of Laguna Peak. They watch the targets for nearly 3 hours. Around 9:00 p.m., a Golden West commuter aircraft reports two large bright lights maneuvering around it for 15 minutes. The pilot says the object approaches so close that it “scared the hell out of me.” (MUFON UFO Journal, March 1983) December 13 — The UN General Assembly adopts Decision 32/424, which acknowledges Eric Gairy’s resolution, forwards it to member states, and shelves the matter until the next general assembly one year later. (Leonard H. Stringfield, “My Advisory Role for Grenada’s UFO Mission at the United Nations,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 120 (November 1977): 10 – 11 ) December 13 — The National Enquirer publishes Bob Pratt’s well-researched article, “UFOs Spotted at Nuclear Bases and Missile Sites” about the Northern Tier cases. He lists names and dates that can be used for a FOIA request, which UFO researcher Barry Greenwood promptly files. (ClearIntent, pp. 5 – 6 ) December 17 — 3:34 a.m. Radar facilities in Colorado and South Dakota track two UFOs that give strong returns, moving at more than 1,000 mph. They are tracked for the next 30 minutes, during which time one of the objects makes a close head-on pass at an aircraft. A third radar station is unable to function while the unknowns are in the area. One of the other facilities is put out of operation when the main shaft holding the radar antenna is severely bent by an unknown force. (MUFON UFO Journal, March 1983) December 17 — 4:00 p.m. Marguerite Camp is in her pickup truck on State Highway 2 near Kenyon, Rhode Island, when she spots an “ovoid, plate-like” object that is tilted slightly to the west. She stops and gets out to watch the UFO, which is 3–4 times the size of a B-29 in diameter and glowing blue-white. She sees 4–5 dark windows and its bottom half is blurry. Another woman, driving an AMC Gremlin, pulls up behind her. While they are watching the object, the engines of both vehicles stall. The object turns up on its edge and climbs vertically, and hovers for 10 more minutes. The second woman gets back in her car, starts it up, and drives away. The object speeds off to the west, takes on a pinkish glow, and fades in the distance. (Dan Todd, “Large Objects Stalls Autos,” APRO Bulletin 27, no. 1 (July 1978): 4–5) December 17 — 7:45 p.m. A red, luminous object is seen by Kenny and Carol Drake of Council Bluffs, Iowa, falling to earth near the northern city limits. At the scene, they find an area covered by molten metal that is glowing orange- red, igniting the grass. Police and firemen who arrive 15 minutes later all see the fallen mass, estimated at 35– 55 pounds. An investigation concludes that it is not space debris, a meteorite, or a hoax. Two of the 11 witnesses to the fall describe a round object hovering in the sky, edged by blinking red lights. The retrieved material is composed of solid metal and slag with white ash inclusions. (Jacques Vallée, “Physical Analyses in Ten Cases of Unexplained Aerial Objects with Material Samples,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 12, no. 3 (1998): 367– 372 ; Keith Basterfield, “Vallée–Nolan, et al., Peer Reviewed Analysis of Unusual Materials Paper Published,” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena—Scientific Research, December 11, 2021; Garry P. Nolan, Jacques F. Vallée, Sizun Jiang, and Larry G, Lemke, “Improved Instrumental Techniques, Including Isotopic Analysis, Applicable to the Characterization of Unusual Materials with Potential Relevance to Aerospace Forensics,” Progress in Aerospace Sciences 128 (January 2022)) December 21 — NASA administrator Robert A. Frosch sends a response to Frank Press at OSTP, saying that NASA would be willing to continue to answer public inquiries and examine any bona fide new physical evidence that comes in, but declines to set up a panel to investigate cases. (Story, pp. 242 – 243 ; Clark III 788– 789 ; ClearIntent,

p. 193 ; presidentialufo.com, “President Jimmy Carter”; “NASA Letter Declines UFO ‘Research Activity,’” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 120 (November 1977 ): 6) December 27 — A White House press release states that it accepts NASA’s evaluation of the UFO situation and will not pursue its initiative any further. December 27 — 10:54 p.m. Police officers Ron Arey and Howard Dellinger are flying in a Bell Jetranger police helicopter at 1,100 feet in Charlotte, North Carolina, when they see two lights approaching from the northwest. They pass the chopper to the right at an estimated 200 feet. Charlotte FAA air traffic controller Ray Bader confirms two unknown targets on radar. Later on, the object circles the helicopter at an estimated distance of 200 feet. The UFO looks like a globular white light reflecting upward into a silver, parachute-like object with ribs connecting the light to it. Possibly a prank balloon. (“Object over N.C. on Dec. 27, 1977,” APRO Bulletin 26, no. 8 (February 1978): 1, 5); “A Radar-Visual in Charlotte: UFO or Prank Balloon?” IUR 3, no. 3 (March 1978): 7– 8 ) December 30 — Stanford astrophysicist Peter A. Sturrock writes to Frosch, offering to make available physical evidence “such as films, material samples, etc.” obtained by his Study Group on Anomalous Phenomena. (Clark III 789) December 30 — A white, oval light about 27 feet in diameter paces a car 90 feet away near Keith, South Australia. The two witnesses, a brother and sister, report that as they slowed their car to 5 – 10 kph, the engine begins misfiring. They stop, and the light continues on its course. After it is gone, the car can be started again and driven with no difficulties. (Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981, p. 72)

1978

1978 — A Gallup survey this year shows that 57% of Americans think UFOs are real, 9% have reported a sighting, and 51% think there is intelligent life on other planets. A Roper Organization survey finds that 7% have seen a UFO. (“A New Gallup Poll on UFOs,” IUR 3, no. 6 (June 1978): insert; Robert J. Durant, “Evolution of Public Opinion on UFOs,” IUR 18, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 199 3 ): 13) 1978 — Gene Duplantier publishes one issue of Ufolk in Willowdale, Ontario, a compendium of photos of many ufologists active in the mid-1970s. (Ufolk, no. 1 (1978)) 1978 — After many years of informal contacts with the Italian military, Centro Ufologico Nazionale succeeds in obtaining from the staff of the Italian Department of Defense the first official dossier of UFO sightings reported by Italian military personnel during 1977. (Story, p. 67 ) 1978 — Brazilian ufologist Irene Granchi begins publishing a quarterly magazine titled OVNI Documento in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, p. 235) 1978 — Timothy Green Beckley begins publishing a somewhat sensational UFO Review in New York City. It runs at least until 1994. (UFO Review, no. 1 (1978))

January — Playboy publishes a “panel discussion” on UFOs that features essays by J. Allen Hynek, R. Leo Sprinkle, James A. Harder, Frank Salisbury, Jacques Vallée, Philip J. Klass, and Ernest H. Taves. (“Playboy Panel: UFOs,” Playboy, January 1978, pp. 67 – 98, 128, 249–250) January — The Russian Academy of Sciences releases a report, translated by Richard F. Haines and published by the Center for UFO Studies as Observations of Anomalous Atmospheric Phenomena in the USSR: A Statistical Analysis, written by Lev M. Gindilis of the Sternberg State Astronomical Institute in Moscow. Data processing and bookkeeping is performed by I. G. Petrovskaya and most of the text is written by engineer-physicist D. A. Menkov. Significantly, the report is approved for official publication by Academician Nikolai Kardashev, one of the USSR’s top experts in SETI. Its reports and data come from a sample of 256 Russian cases compiled by Felix Ziegel. According to space historian James Oberg, many of the sightings in the report correspond to Soviet tests and reentries of the Fractional Orbital Bombardment System, a nuclear weapons delivery system developed in the 1960s. (Wikipedia, “Petrozavodsk phenomenon”; L. M. Gindilis, D. A. Men’kov, and I. G. Petrovskaya, Observations of Anomalous Atmospheric Phenomena in the USSR: A Statistical Analysis, CUFOS, June 1980; “Russian Report on UFOs,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 2, no. 5 (July/Aug. 1980): 16–17; James E. Oberg, “The Great Soviet UFO Cover-Up,” MUFON UFO Journal, October 1982; Swords 458– 460 ) January — During the flight of a Yakolev Yak-40 airliner between the Medvezhye gas field and Nadym, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia, the crew notices a bright round object that approaches rapidly and sometime later appears in front of the aircraft, apparently much larger. A crash appears imminent, but the object soars up in front of the nose of the airliner. (Paul Stonehill, “Pilot and Cosmonaut Pavel Popovich and UFOs,” Open Minds, June 12, 2014)

January — Night. Police Sgt. Tony Dodd and Constable Alan Dale are driving near Cononley, North Yorkshire, England, when the road in front of them lights up. They stop the patrol car, look up, and see an object about 100 feet away and moving silently at 40 mph. It has three large spheres below it, portholes around the perimeter, and a dome on top. The object passes overhead and seems to land in a wood on a distant hillside. (Good Above, pp. 116 – 117 ) January 1 — 12:45–1:00 p.m. Pilots Floyd P. Hallstrom (in a Cessna 170A) and Jim Victor (in a Mustang II 4954) are flying over Santa Monica, California, at 7,500 feet when they see an object approaching at high speed. As the UFO passes about 6,000 feet to his left, Hallstrom is looking down on it an angle of about 30°– 45 ° and its true form suddenly becomes clear to him. He is able to make out the complete form of a saucer and can see the dome, also very vividly clear, including all the windows, about 16–20 evenly spaced around the circumference of the dome, located just above the base. The dome appears to be a perfect hemisphere about 20 feet in diameter resting on the base, which is about 30 feet in diameter. The UFO continues on a course opposite to the pilot’s with no sign of rotation, oscillation, pitch, roll, or yaw. Neither is there any sign of a propulsion system. The sun reflects off the dome as a bright spot when the UFO passes. After about a minute, the object disappears from view behind the Cessna. (NICAP, “Cessna Encounters Disc with Dome and Windows”: “An Air-Visual Sighting of a Daylight Disc in California,” IUR 3, no. 4 (April 1978): insert; UFOEv II 136–138) January 2 — 11:00 p.m. Four young men are driving through an isolated area known as Simonswood Moss, between Rainsford and Kirkby, West Lancashire, England, when they realize they have taken a wrong turn onto a narrow dirt road bordering a ditch. They suddenly see a 7-foot tall figure with red eyes appear in the glare of the headlights 26 feet ahead. The being is wearing a white fluorescent one-piece suit with boots, it has no discernible facial features, and it has short arms ending in claws. On its chest is a box with two flashing red lights. The figure takes two steps towards the witnesses and suddenly stops. The witnesses panic and leave the area, driving to a nearby farm where they notify the police. A later investigation suggests that they have seen a cow wandering down the lane, the car’s headlights reflecting in its eyes. (Peter Hough, “UFO Occupants,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 129– 130 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, September 11, 2008) January 10 — 12 :25 a.m. A 31-year-old paramedic is driving to pick up her husband (a policeman) from work in Chicago, Illinois, when her 3-year-old son draws her attention to a “moving star” nearly overhead. At her destination a few seconds later, she notes a silver disc-shaped object (“with teacups on top and bottom of saucer”) as large as a full moon moving forward with yellow-orange trail behind as it moved. The object stops, reverses direction, moves forward again, and moves off behind a building. The trail is only visible while the object is in motion. Duration is 1 – 2 minutes. (“Case 3- 2 - 39,” IUR 3, no. 2 (February 1978): 3) January 14 — 8:30 p.m. Four witnesses inside a house in Delavan, Wisconsin, see an orange ball half the size of the full moon descend into view through a window. They watch the sphere hover for one minute, move 10° to the north, hover, and then move off quickly to the northern horizon. (“Case 3- 2 - 50,” IUR 3, no. 2 (February 1978): 3) January 17 — As a response to Sturrock’s letter, NASA astrophysicist Richard C. Henry writes to Noel Hinners suggesting that examination of any UFO evidence could be assigned to the Astrophysics Division at Goddard Space Flight Center managed by Program Scientist Frank Martin. He suggests as project scientist Stephen P. Maran at Goddard. Henry gets no response. (Clark III 789) January 18 — 3:00–5:00 a.m. A security policeman at McGuire AFB [now Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst] in Burlington County, New Jersey, is called to help investigate a low-flying UFO over the neighboring Fort Dix army base. An Army MP pursues the object, but his radio transmission is cut off just as a grayish, 4 - foot-tall being with fat head, long arms, and a slender body appears in front of his car. The MP fires five rounds into the being and one round into the object above. The UFO shoots upward and joins 11 others high in the sky, and the being runs into the woods toward the Fort Dix fence line. A security patrol finds its dead body near the McGuire AFB runaway, giving out a foul, ammonia-like stench; then AFOSI arrives and ropes everything off. Retired USAF Maj. George Filer III, who later serves as MUFON New Jersey director, asserts that he was stationed on the base at the time and that the story is true, although he did not see the alien. (UFOEv II 97–98; Leonard H. Stringfield, “The Fatal Encounter at Ft. Dix–McGuire: A Case Study: Status Report IV,” 1985 , in MUFON UFO Symposium Proceedings, 1985 ; Leonard Stringfield, “The Chase for Proof in a Squirrel’s Cage,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 153–155; MUFON UFO Journal, June 1987; John L. Guerra, Strange Craft: The True Story of an Air Force Intelligence Officer ’ s Life with UFOs, The Author, 2018 ; Erik Larsen, “In New Book, Retired Air Force Major Claims Alien Was Killed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst,” app, September 3, 2019; Clark III 511– 513 ; Keith Basterfield, “NIDS Investigated the Reported Shooting of a Non-Human Entity: Fort Dix/McGuire AFB, 18 January 1978; the NIDS Investigation,” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena—Scientific Research, December 17, 2019)

January 19 — Citizens Against UFO Secrecy files a request with the US State Department for classified UFO documents and includes the date and time information, transmittal numbers, and message serial numbers, but the department replies that it cannot locate the specified information. (ClearIntent, pp. 193 – 194 ) January 23 — 7:40 p.m. A carpenter is standing on his front porch in Toledo, Ohio, when he notices a stationary saucer- shaped object about 30° above the horizon in the eastern sky. It is lit by the reflection of the city lights and the Moon and is slightly larger than a distant aircraft. It has dark, outlined windows and a small structure on top. The object then moves off rapidly to the south and blinks out. (“Case 3- 3 - 14,” IUR 3, no. 3 (March 1978): 3) January 24 — The Soviet reconnaissance satellite Kosmos 954 reenters the Earth’s atmosphere while traveling on a northeastward track over western Canada. At first the USSR claims that the satellite has been completely destroyed during re-entry, but later searches show debris from the satellite has been deposited on Canadian territory along a 370-mile path from Great Slave Lake to Baker Lake. The effort to recover radioactive material from the satellite is dubbed Operation Morning Light. Covering a total area of 48,000 square miles, the joint Canadian–US team (consisting of the emergency Nuclear Emergency Support Team) sweeps the area on foot and by air through October 15. They are ultimately able to recover 12 large pieces of the satellite, 10 of which are radioactive. (Wikipedia, “Kosmos 954”; Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 314 – 316 ) January 26 — 12:31 a.m. A policeman in Williamston, North Carolina, watches a round light the size of the full Moon at 60° in the northwest. The light moves quickly toward the south then hovers 10–15 seconds before changing course. A windstorm is in progress and the object is beneath the clouds. Another officer 3 miles away also watches the object for 10–20 seconds before it disappears. (“Case 3- 3 - 19,” IUR 3, no. 3 (March 1978): 3) January 27 — 12:00 midnight. A flight instructor is flying his Cessna 172 to Opalocka, Florida, when he sees a formation of six objects with no lights over Key West. Each object is disc-shaped and reflects the moonlight. They are flying in a ragged straight line, approximately equidistant, at 7,000 feet, then disappear in the distance. (“Case 3- 3 - 24,” IUR 3, no. 3 (March 1978): 3) January 27 — Early morning. Four men on the banks of the River Weaver see a silver balloon-shaped object land in a meadow near Frodsham, Cheshire, England. It emits a strong purplish glow that makes it hard to look at. Two entities of normal height emerge. They wear silvery suits and have miners’ lamps on their heads, and these glow purple. Cows on a nearby field seem to become paralyzed, unable to move. Using a metal cage, the entities pen in one cow and seem to measure it. The witnesses become frightened and run from the area, and as they run they feel a strange tingling sensation in their groins. One of the men develops sunburn-like marks on his leg. (Jenny Randles, Alien Abductions: The Mystery Solved, Inner Light, 1988 , pp. 66– 67 ) January 27 — Cheryl DeSanctis sees a blinking red and white light hovering above some trees near Barry Drive in Vineland, New Jersey. She watches it for 5 minutes, then a red ball moves from behind it, descending to just a few feet above the rooftops where its light reflects off the houses. After 10 minutes, the red ball moves to the north and the first light departs to the south. (“Vineland Is Beset by UFO Sitings,” Atlantic City (N.J.) Press, February 3, 1978, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 105 (April 1978): 2) January 31–February 1 — 6:15 p.m. Four boys are playing on the ice of the Montvale (N.J.) Memorial Elementary School playing field. They notice an “airplane” that passes slowly over the field; moments later, another object arrives, shaped like a square with large yellow lights in each corner, with a slight dome on top and a red light underneath. It emits a red beam of light toward the ground but stops short before touching it. They next notice several humanoid figures moving around the school park, walking stiffly. They are about average height and bald-headed, dressed in bright yellow outfits with boots and gloves. One of them looks different, because he has a larger head that seems “creased” down the middle and has on a brown cape over the yellow suit. As the boys watch, they note an uncanny silence and an unpleasant sulfur-like odor. The figures walk away toward the nearby Public Works Garage. The boys then notice another figure, this one a woman standing in the parking lot. She has medium long brown hair and wears a dark suit with blue fur around her shoulders. She walks in slow motion and sits down on a low fence and raises her arm very slowly, pointing to the sky at another hovering square object. The woman then walks toward the Public Works building and at one point seems to appear and disappear as a police vehicle drives by near her. A similar scenario occurs the next evening. (Ted Bloecher, “CE-III Report from Montvale, N.J.: Preliminary Report,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 123 (February 1978): 4–7; “A Possible Close Encounter of the Third Kind in New Jersey,” IUR 3, no. 4 (April 1978): 3, 7; Patrick Gross, URECAT, December 6, 2008) January 31 — 11:00 p.m. Pat Martinelli is outside her home on North Maple Drive in Vineland, New Jersey, when she sees an object silently hovering above the nearby trees. It is a triangle with the point at the back and many red and white lights. (“Vineland Is Beset by UFO Sitings,” Atlantic City (N.J.) Press, February 3, 1978, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 105 (April 1978): 2)

February — 2:00 a.m. A State Police officer is on foot patrol between Ornontowice and Chudów, Poland, when he notices that his dog is acting strangely. He looks up and sees a black cigar-shaped object with small windows moving above him. He hears a slight humming noise like a vacuum cleaner. It moves off to the northeast. (Poland 109– 110) February 1 — Night. Six teenagers are driving north on Hance Bridge Road in Vineland, New Jersey. They see a series of four large lights low in the sky approaching them. It swerves about 500–600 feet in altitude and a mile distant, and they can see that the object is triangular with a light in each corner. It returns the way it came, so they decide to follow it for 6–7 miles before pulling over and stopping the car. When they turn their headlights off, the object’s lights go out. When they turn the headlights back on, the UFO lights up again. (“Vineland Is Beset by UFO Sitings,” Atlantic City (N.J.) Press, February 3, 1978, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 105 (April 1978): 2) February 2 — Citizens Against UFO Secrecy supplies the US State Department with more information regarding UFO documents that it knows exist, but are stonewalled for months until they are sent a photocopy of an article in UFO Investigator that includes some of the documents. As Barry Greenwood writes, “the only way to get documents released was to have them in the first place so that one could mail them back to the agency as proof that they existed.” (ClearIntent, p. 194 ) February 2 — 9:30 p.m. Brian Mosychuk is walking in a neighborhood of Edmonton, Alberta, when he sees a car-sized object with blue lights on front and back approaching from the northwest. It hovers above him making a rumbling sound, then a beam of light shoots toward him. Mosychuk leans back to avoid the beam, but it shines on his feet in the snow. He runs away, and when the looks back the object is flying away to the northeast, leaving behind a red trail. He tells his father, who goes out and finds a round circle in the snow. They call the police, who find a melted hole about 28 inches in diameter. Samples of snow, including some with carbon spots, are taken to CFB Edmonton for a contamionation check. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 191) February 4 —3:30–4:00 a.m. A weird humming sound awakens Claire Semaza and her two children in Orange, California. The sound increases in volume until it hurts her ears, and the family dog barks frantically, punctuated by an odd pause for several seconds. Outside, they see an oval or cigar-shaped object not far above the trees about one half-mile away. Below and around it is a layer of gray haze. It begins slowly rising, leaving the haze behind. The object has a bright red light at each end that sends shafts of light toward the ground. Several bluish-white lights are visible between the two red ones. It rises higher, flashes a brilliant white light on and off for 3 seconds, then quickly disappears. Meanwhile, the dog has been taking her 7 puppies one by one and hiding them behind the drapes on the second floor. (Idabel Epperson, “Canine Mother Hides Puppies from UFO,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 122 (January 1978): 7; “Unusual Animal Reaction in California NL Case,” IUR 3, no. 4 (April 1978): insert) February 5 — 6:00 p.m. Two Bradley University security guards in Peoria, Illinois, are making their rounds when their car lights up. An intensely bright object is ahead of them and about 45° up in the east. They drive another two blocks to an open areas and get out of the car to watch two objects, the larger of which is as big as the full Moon. They are both changing colors from green to red to white. The smaller one abruptly disappears as the larger object is flying loops, dropping down behind the houses, moving back up, and maneuvering abruptly. They discuss the UFOs with some passing students. The object remains visible for at least 45 minutes. (“Case 3- 3 - 62,” IUR 3, no. 3 (March 1978): insert) February 9 — A carbon copy of an apparent USAF incident report is received at the office of the National Enquirer in Lantana, Florida. Accompanying the document is an unsigned letter dated January 29 and “revealing” the Ellsworth AFB incident of November 16, 1977. (Bob Pratt, “The Truth about the ‘Ellsworth Case,’” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 191 (January 1984): 6 – 9 ; Clark III 358 ) February 10 — WJR-AM radio personality Marc Avery is on his way to the Detroit Metropolitan Airport on I-275 when he and his wife see two lights hovering above their car for 30–50 seconds. He calls the radio station and speaks on air, asking if anyone else has seen the lights. Two men in the area of Merriman Road and Michigan Avenue in Wayne, Michigan, call in to say that 5 minutes earlier they had seen a large UFO traveling east to west at treetop level. (“Forty Years Ago This Weekend, a WJR Radio Personality May Have Encountered a UFO,” Michigan Radio, February 9, 2018) February 12 — 11:00 p.m. David Mace and his wife are driving on Tennant Way approaching Lake Sacajawea in Longview, Washington, when they see an orange triangle with a hole in it silently hovering above the lake near Washington Way. They watch it for 15 seconds before it takes off to the west. (“Couple Reports UFO above Lake Sacajawea,” Longview (Wash.) News, February 13, 1978, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 104 (March 1978): 6)

February 19 — 1:20 p.m. Radar operators on two separate systems in Minnesota track a large, solid object, which starts ascending rapidly as soon as one operator switches his system to manual. It seems to take evasive action by stopping, starting, and descending. The operator tracks it traveling about one mile in one second (3,600 mph) and moves vertically “instantaneously.” (MUFON UFO Journal, March 1983) February 19 — The television series Project U.F.O. debuts in the US on NBC-TV. Running for two seasons of 13 episodes each, the show is based loosely on the real-life Project Blue Book. The show is created by Jack Webb, who pores through Air Force files looking for episode ideas. The first season stars William Jordan as Maj. Jake Gatlin alongside William Caskey Swaim as Staff Sgt. Harry Fitz. Former USAF Col. William T. Coleman is a producer. (Wikipedia, “Project U.F.O.”; Internet Movie Database, “Project U.F.O.”) February 22 — 9:40 p.m. Brian Metcalfe, an FAA air traffic controller, is driving northeast on Interstate 80, approaching Newcastle, California. Seeing two intense lights moving slowly in the sky, he pulls over and gets out to look. The only sound he can hear is a low hum. The object moves southwest along the freeway at about 30–40 mph at an altitude of 2,000–3,000 feet. He notices it is delta-shaped. Other witnesses in the area also see the object over Auburn, California, just before 10:00 p.m. (“More Reports Confirm Sighting Strange Craft in Placer Area,” Auburn (Calif.) Journal, March 1, 1978, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 105 (April 1978): 9) February 23 — 11:45 p.m. A couple hears interference on their car radio in Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Italy. When the man gets out to investigate, a warm, violet light envelops him. He sees four shapes and lights all around. After walking around the car, he goes back inside and finds his girlfriend crying. Twenty minutes of missing time has passed. (Paolo Fiorino, Gian Paolo Grassino, and Antonio Chiumiento, “Abductions in Italy,” IUR 14, no. 4 (July/Aug.1989): 14 – 15) February 28 — Stanton Friedman has discovered retired Maj. Jesse A. Marcel in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and interviews him about the 1947 Roswell, New Mexico, incident. Marcel says the debris was like nothing on earth. Friedman has also interviewed Lydia Sleppy, who worked at Albuquerque radio station KOAT and remembers the military intervention on the story. William L. Moore and Friedman compare notes from two separate interviews Friedman has conducted about the crash. By 1980, Friedman and Bill Moore have interviewed at least 62 witnesses to the Roswell incident. (Charles Berlitz and William L. Moore, The Roswell Incident, Grosset & Dunlap, 1980; Kevin D. Randle and Anthony Bragalia, “Two Roswell Witnesses, Reconsidered,” IUR 32, no. 3 (July 2009): 6–8, 24; Clark III 320)

March 9 — Pilot Luciano Ascione is flying northbound at 2,600 feet 75 miles away from Vicenza, Italy, when a green, rocket-shaped object appears on his right about 1 mile away. Other planes in the area report a green flash. (ClearIntent, pp. 92 – 93 ; 1Pinotti 214–215) March 11 — Sundown. Two men from L’Île-Perrot, Quebec, are camping near the shore of Reservoir Baskatong when they see a comet-like, bright blue object leaving a fiery trail plummeting toward the surface of the lake. It disappears behind trees, and the men jump up, grab their cameras, and run to the lake. The object is hovering silently above the surface, where it remains stationary for 30 seconds before moving to the other side of the lake. One of them starts snapping photos, but after 5 seconds the object rises swiftly and disappears like a flash into the sky. (“UFO Said Photographed,” Tampa (Fla.) Times, March 13, 1978, p. 1; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 4 (April 1978): 2; Wido Hoville and Don Donderi, “RR2 au Lac Baskatong,” UFO-Quebec, no. 16 (December 1978): 8–10, 15–22; Yurko Bondarchuk, UFO Sightings, Landings, and Abductions, Methuen, 1979, pp. 4– 9 ) March 11 — 10:40 p.m. Four witnesses in the Waimata Valley, New Zealand, watch a red and green object shaped like a top hat. Two of them approach in their car to about 100 feet, but the object shuts off all its lights and disappears. The same object reappears twice more the same evening. (Gisborne (N.Z.) Herald, March 16, 1978; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 5 (May 1978): 2) March 12 — Early morning. A mill worker at Kawerau, New Zealand, is driving back to Gisborne when a brilliant orange light illuminates the interior of his car. He sees a large oval object floating alongside about 50 feet away. He thinks it is as large as a five-story building and has thousands of small lights on the sides. Slowly it rises to 300– 400 feet and floats away. (Gisborne (N.Z.) Herald, March 1 6 , 1978; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, np. 5 (May 1978): 2) March 16 — 9:00 p.m. Mayor Mark M. Millis of Arroyo Grande, California, and Mayor Al Dutra of Grover City are leaving a meeting at Arroyo Grande City Hall when they see a triangular-shaped lighted object the size of a Boeing 747 moving slowly to the southwest about one mile in the air. Capt. Antony Wood of the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Department also sees the object at Oceano, and other witnesses as far north as Morro Bay report the UFO, which has two bright lights in front and smaller ones in the back. (“Mayors, Police, Others See UFO in South County,” Santa Maria (Calif.) Times, March 17, 1978, p. 12)

March 17 — 11:30 p.m. Service engineer Ken Edwards is driving back from a union meeting in Sale, Greater Manchester, England, on Daten Avenue, Risley, past the UK Atomic Energy Authority site. As he is approaching the roundabout near the Universities Research Reactor building and the UKAEA fire station, he notices a 7-foot-tall silver figure coming down a steep embankment to his left. Stopping his van, Edwards watches the figure descend with an unnatural stiff-legged gait. The figure walks across the road only 15 feet from him. As he passes Edwards, the figure looks at him and two beams of light shoot from its eyes and dazzle him. It continues walking toward the security fence surrounding the UKAEA site. The figure raises an arm (one of two that seem to come out of its chest) and walks through the 10-foot-tall, barbed wire-topped, chain link fence, disappearing into the darkness. He later drives to the Pudgate police station to report the sighting. Police accompany him to the site where they find a group of UKAEA constabulary officers gathered at the spot, but since there is no hole in the fence, they discount his story. However, years later investigator Glen Vaudrey discovers that the tall figure was a 6 foot, 5 inch fireman dressed in a high-temperature fire suit who was trying to scare some students in an isolation building across the road. (Jenny Randles, “Man on the Moss,” Fortean Times 305 (October 2013): 29; Glen Vaudrey, “Atom Age Alien? Solving the Mystery of the Risley Silver Man,” Fortean Times 397 (October 2020): 36– 41 ; Jenny Randles, “Silvery Ships from the Stars,” Fortean Times 403 (March 2021): 30– 31 ) March 18 — Around 4:00 p.m. Leo Giampietro and his wife are driving 15 miles west of Palm Springs, California. He pulls over when he sees a brown-colored domed disc the size of a distant aircraft moving in a straight path over the mountains in the southwest. It hovers for a few seconds and he can hear a humming sound. He manages to snap tree photos. The noise stops and the object shoots straight up and disappears. (“Case 3- 5 - 18 ,” IUR 3, no. 5 (May 1978): 3; “Case Update,” IUR 3, no. 8 (August 1978): 8 ) March 18 — 9:15 p.m. William J. Hermann is out looking for UFOs near Charleston, South Carolina, when he sees apparently the same UFO he has photographed frequently before. He starts running toward it when it suddenly swoops toward him and directs a paralyzing blue-white beam at him. Hermann loses consciousness. When he wakes up again, it is 12:05 a.m. and he is in a field in Summerville, 15 miles from his home. He sees the UFO departing in its characteristic zigzag pattern. He calls the police, who drive him home. The next few nights he suffers from nervousness, headaches, and insomnia. Not long afterward, he is hypnotized by James A. Harder, an engineering professor affiliated with APRO. He recalls an abduction/contact experience on board a spacecraft with beings from Zeta Reticuli. The leader tells him that if mankind persists in its warlike ways, civilization will be destroyed. Hermann continues to experience contacts and he begins to channel alien writings. (Wendelle C. Stevens and William J. Hermann, UFO Contact from Reticulum, Wendelle C. Stevens, 1981 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, April 18, 2012; Clark III 570– 571 ) March 22 — 7: 0 0 and 8:45 p.m. Two waves of UFO sightings are reported over a wide area between Cumberland, Wisconsin, and Newport, Minnesota. UFO investigator Robert E. Engberg traces the first wave beginning around Chisago City, Minnesota, and moving east between Dresser and St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin. The second wave originates near Cumberland and follows an 85-mile course to St. Paul, Minnesota. Witnesses see formations of red lights, single round objects with red body lights, and orange globes in straight-line and oblique formations. Some disc-shaped objects are also reported with rows of body lights. (“Valley UFO Sightings of March 22, 1978, Described,” Taylors Falls (Minn.) The Dalles Visitor, May 1979, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 119, pp. 7– 9 ; “A Mini-Flap in Minnesota: UFO or Helicopters?” IUR 3, no. 5 (May 1978): insert) March 22 — 11:00 p.m. Gary Oickle, David Oickle, and two friends are sitting around a campfire in Patapsco Valley State Park, Maryland, near the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad tunnel. They see a strange object in the southeastern sky that moves around for 10 minutes before it disappears behind a ridge. Another object soon appears over their campsite from behind a ridge to the north; this time it is a triangular shape about 150–200 feet on each side with large windows, three white lights at each corner, and a red light on top. Three of the witnesses think they see the silhouette of a figure in the windows. It moves very slowly, hovering at times, to the southeast. Another star-like object appears in the south after the triangle moves away. It changes colors repeatedly from blue to green to yellow to red. (Joe and Doris Graziano, “Object over State Park,” APRO Bulletin 26, no. 10 (April 1978): 1) March 24 — In one case documented by New Mexico police and the FBI, an 11 - month-old cross Hereford-Charolais bull, belonging to Manuel Gomez of Dulce, New Mexico, is found mutilated. It displays “classic” mutilation signs, including the removal of the rectum and sex organs with what appears to be “a sharp and precise instrument,” and its internal organs are found to be inconsistent with a normal case of death followed by predation. The animal’s heart, as well as bone and muscle samples, are sent to the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory for microscopic and bacteriological studies, while samples from the animal’s liver are sent to two separate private laboratories. Los Alamos detects the presence of naturally occurring Clostridium bacteria in the heart but is unable to reach any conclusions because of the possibility that the bacteria represent postmortem contamination. They do not directly investigate the heart’s unusual color or texture. Samples from the animal’s liver are found to be completely

devoid of copper and to contain 4 times the normal level of zinc, potassium, and phosphorus. The scientists performing the analysis are unable to explain these anomalies. Blood samples taken at the scene are reported to be “light pink in color” and “did not clot after several days” while the animal’s hide is found to be unusually brittle for a fresh death (the animal was estimated to have been dead for 5 hours) and the flesh underneath is found to be discolored. (Wikipedia, “Cattle mutilation”; Amanda Push, “Underground Aliens and Cattle Mutilations: Dulce, New Mexico, Has Long Been the Site of Strange Activity and Conspiracy Theories,” DGO, February 26, 2019) March 24 — Just after 12:00 noon. Luis Carlos Serra, 16, is picking guava in the forest just west of Penalva, Maranhão, Brazil, when he hears a sharp noise like a car horn. He looks up and sees a bright white light about 20 inches wide high above the palm trees. Suddenly he falls flat on his back, paralyzed. After a short time, he starts rising in the air toward a round UFO with four balls on the bottom, a dome on top, and three windows. He floats through one of the windows head-first. Inside he drops to the floor, still paralyzed, and sees three entities about 3 feet high and wearing “diving suits.” He is taken somewhere with no trees and tall grass and subjected to an examination. Soon he loses consciousness and wakes up three days later in a scrub forest. A nearby fisherman, José Ribamar dos Santos, hears his cry, finds and recognizes him, and takes him back to town. Serra is examined in the hospital by Dr. Linda Macieira, who finds that he has four teeth missing and is completely bald with his hair burned off. He has a general loss of motor control and a lack of sensitivity to pain. He does not eat, so he is fed intravenously for the 7 days he is hospitalized. On March 30 he is transferred to the Serme Hospital in São Luis, where 6 doctors examine him, including neurologist Antônio Saldanha, who finds that Serra still cannot speak and is generally unresponsive and in shock. Two psychiatrists, Renato Barcelar and Barcelar Viana, examine him after he recovers his ability to speak a few days later. He repeats his story without variation every time. He is discharged on April

7. (Clark III 899– 901 ; “Caso Luis Carlos Serra,” Galáxia Mundo GAEMU, April 2014; Brazil 251–255) March 27 — Astronaut Gordon Cooper appears on the Merv Griffin Show and discusses UFO stories from government insiders. Merv Griffin asks him about occupant reports, and Cooper thinks they are credible. From what he has heard (although he has never been briefed on the matter), the aliens look no different from ordinary humans. (Thomas O’Toole, “Cooper: UFO Stories from ‘Credible’ Sources,” Washington Post, April 7, 1978) March 27 — During a 9-hour period near San Diego, California, an F-14 Tomcat aircraft loses control and makes touch- and-go landings; an A-4 Skyhawk crashes into the Pacific 50 miles to the west; and an S-3A Viking anti- submarine aircraft from Naval Air Station North Island explodes and crashes into the ocean 6 miles from the base. On March 28, a college art instructor and a shipping company owner are talking on the phone when they are interrupted by another conversation on the line. Someone is apparently giving a briefing to a general about aircraft losses, instruments going haywire, and something that crashed near Palm Springs that the news media was told was a meteor. A “General Kelley” [Lt. Gen. Robert E. Kelley at Eglin AFB? Lt. Gen. John R. Kelly Jr. at the Pentagon?] is said to be on his way to the site. No agency admits to having such a conversation. (ClearIntent, pp. 194 – 195 ) March 28 — 12:00 midnight–1:30 a.m. Irene Bigelow is outside her home in Denver, Colorado, when she sees three bright-orange UFOs motionless in the air for more than an hour. She estimates they are as large as her garage’s double door. At 1:30, they break formation, with the light on the right moving to the right. The other two remain stationary at first, then all three ascend into the sky in different directions. (Richard Sigismond, “Four Huge Orange Discs and the Case for the UFO,” IUR 8, no. 2 (March/April 1983): 8) March 29 — 7:30 a.m. Christopher Kloppenborg and Geoffrey Kloppenborg are out mustering sheep near Albury, New South Wales, Australia. They see a very bright, stationary, chrome-colored light that is casting a shadow on a hillside. They use binoculars to watch it for 5 – 8 minutes. It appears to have black shapes along its side and is shaped like a short cigar. Geoffrey returns to the house to get a camera, and on his return he sees a second, smaller object, traveling over the hills toward the first object. It turns in front of the bigger object, and then both depart over the hills to the east. (Melbourne Herald, April 8, 1978; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 7 (July 1978): 2) March 31 — 8:30 p.m. A young man is walking his dog in a field in Dublin, Ireland, when he spots a silver cigar-shaped object hovering about 45° above the horizon. For the next 20 minutes, a doorway repeatedly (about 20 times) opens, releasing a red light, the door closes again, the red light returns to the object, and the door opens and readmits it. The object remains motionless another 10 minutes, then shoots upward at fantastic speed. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 7 (July 1989): 2)

April — Citizens Against UFO Secrecy is formed by W. Todd Zechel, Brad Sparks, and Peter Gersten. Its purpose is to uncover UFO data through the Freedom of Information Act, lawsuits against government agencies, and investigation of high-quality UFO reports. It launches a newsletter, Just Cause. The group brings a lawsuit against the CIA using the Freedom of Information Act for release of UFO documents. It receives more than 900 documents from the CIA in 1979 but are refused 57 because of “national security considerations.” Just Cause

lingers on until January 1982 under the title UFOrmant. (Wikipedia, “Citizens Against UFO Secrecy”; “CAUS Picking Up Where GSW and NICAP Left Off,” Just Cause 1, no. 1 (April 1978): 1–4; ClearIntent, p. 192; Clark III 240) April — An Iranian airline pilot is flying between Ahvaz and Tehran, Iran, when he sees a glittering flying object. He manages to photograph it, but civil aviation authorities prohibit its release. Radar controllers at Mehrabad Airport track a target 20 times the size of a jumbo jet on their screens. (ClearIntent, p. 89 ) April 2 — Morning. A loud explosion on Bell Island, Newfoundland, causes damage to some houses and electrical wiring in the surrounding area. A number of TV sets in Lance Cove and other communities explode at the time of the blast. It is initially thought to be caused by ball lightning. Meteorologists state that atmospheric conditions at the time are not conducive to lightning, although some witnesses report balls of fire and streaks of light in the sky. The boom is heard 34 miles away in Cape Broyle. The incident is investigated by John Warren and Robert Freyman from Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, New Mexico, as a possible a “superbolt”—an unusually large bolt of lightning. A 2004 documentary on the History Channel about electromagnetic pulse weapons, The Invisible Machine, investigates the possibility that it may have been the result of top-secret experiments. However, on April 23, 2019, hundreds of people on the island hear another explosion, which is almost immediately determined to have been a massive section of rock breaking away from the northern part of the island and impacting the ground and sea with extreme force. Large cracks almost two feet across were observed developing in the area in the years prior to the collapse, and signs were placed to warn visitors to stay away from the unstable features. (Wikipedia, “Bell Island (Newfoundland and Labrador)”; ClearIntent, pp. 96 – 97 ; Brian Dunning, “The Bell Island Boom,” Skeptoid podcast no. 190 (January 26, 2010); B. Jessee, “The Bell Island Boom,” Medium: The Mysterious Miscellany, December 23, 2019) April 2 — 1:40 p.m. Warren Smith is 8–9 miles northwest of Calgary, Alberta, when his border collie starts running in circles and looking up. Smith looks out his window and sees a silent, grayish-silver disc slightly larger than the full moon. It moves straight up and down, in and out of the cloud layer three times for about 30 seconds. Each time the object comes out of the clouds it remains visible for about 10 seconds. Smith notices a large number of “lightning rods” that move in and out on its surface. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 5 (May 1978): 2) April 2 — 8:30 p.m. Lee Robinson is riding her motorcycle on Sunset Road toward Henderson, New Zealand, when she stops to watch floating lights approaching her from the distance. She makes out a wedge-shaped form, broad at the front and narrow at the back, with two red lights, a green light, and a glass front. It stops 600 feet away, hovering. Two figures in dark robes can be seen from the waist up looking down at her. She stares at it petrified for several minutes until a car approaches and the object flies off. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1978): 2) April 6 — 7:30 p.m. Vicki Burns is standing outside the stable on her farm near Prince George, British Columbia, when a narrow beam of light, 2 inches in diameter, comes from above some trees and shines into her barn for 5 seconds. She hears her horses scream, and inside they seem dazed and frightened. She and her mother notice a bright white light moving in the sky, darting back and forth. Some neighbors come over for 3 hours to watch the light for and attend to the horses. An odd circle is found on either side of the filly’s neck. A veterinarian, Dr. McKee, examines the horses the next day, and they still appear to be in shock. He explains the circle as ringworm, but cannot account for the animals’ fatigue or behavior. (Chris Rutkowski, C anada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 223–226) April 6–June 24 — Six cattle are found mutilated on farms near Elsberry, Missouri. Orange lights and “flashing stars” are seen in the vicinity. (“Background on the Elsberry Events: Are UFOs Linked with Cattle Mutilations?” IUR 3, no. 8 (August 1978): 5– 6 ; Marler 19– 20 ) April 9 — 10:10 a.m. A single witness looking out his bedroom window in Toronto, Ontario, watches a silver shiny cigar traveling eastbound for 10 seconds. The object is brighter than the moon. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 5 (May 1978): 2) April 11 — The crew of the HMAS Adroit, operating out of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, in the Timor Sea, watches a UFO hover and sink to the horizon several times before disappearing. It is large and bathed in bright red lights. At one point it seems to be close to the ship and at another point it flickers on and off. (Swords 406) Mid-April — Many residents of Mumbai, India, sight a bright white, streak-like light moving at several hundred miles per hour from north to south at an altitude of about 2,000 feet. A similar object is seen the following day, moving south to north. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 6 (June 1978): 2) April 19 — Day. Police officer Mark Coltrane is on patrol in Colfax, Wisconsin, and stops by the side of the road to eat lunch. His radio has some static. He then notices a metallic-looking disc rising into the sky a short distance from the parking space. While the object seems to move toward him, Coltrane picks up his Polaroid camera, comes out of the car, and snaps some photographs. The object is so close in one of the images that some details of its lower

surface are visible. The total observation lasts a few minutes, the object soon accelerating and fading into the distance. (Patrick Gross, “Colfax, Wisconsin, USA, April 9, 1978”) April 26 — 11:00 p.m. Debra Gairns, her husband, and a friend are driving in Welland, Ontario, when a triangular object with red, blue, and white blinking lights hovers briefly and silently above their car. It moves away and stops above a grove of trees. (Marler 102) April 27 —Two witnesses near the Ciampino–G. B. Pastine International Airport in Rome, Italy, watch a small green object shoot out of a larger green object. The display moves smoothly from directly overhead to about 45° in 15 minutes. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 7 (July 1978): 2) Late April — 10:00 p.m. A dog staying with a couple living on Michigan Avenue in Dearborn, Michigan, near the Ford Motor plant lets out an awful howl. The woman goes outside to see what the matter is and notices a large round object, perfectly silent, about 500 feet above the garden. It hovers a minute or two then moves toward the Ford plant. It is about 125 feet in diameter and has a row of windows circling the bottom that emit colored light. It stops every 2–3 minutes and never travels more than 25 mph. They watch it for a total of 15 minutes, and their landlady sees it as well. (“Correspondence,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 1 (May 1980): 4) April 29 — Night. Ten persons call the Aurora, Illinois, police department to report a UFO. One couple believes they have had a close encounter with the object, which they describe as a domed disc the size of a football field. The police alert the Center for UFO Studies and Allan Hendry interviews some of the witnesses. He learns that some connect TV interference and power failures with the UFO’s appearance. An 11-year-old boy is so frightened that he hides behind the back seat of the family car. However, Hendry identifies the source of the sighting as an advertising plane owned and operated by a Chicago firm. (Allan Hendry, “The Case for IFO Study: A Recent Example,” IUR 3, no. 6 (June 1978): 6–7; Clark III 568)

May — Red Army officer Anatoly Malishev is allegedly confronted near Pirogovskoye Reservoir, Mytishchinsky District, north of Moscow, Russia, by two entities wearing dark suits who communicate with him by telepathy and take him on board their craft. He is given a salty-tasting drink, but requests an alcoholic drink, only to find that the entities do not imbibe. He asks why, and they reply, “Perhaps if we did, we would not be such an advanced civilization.” They take him on a trip to the dark side of the Moon (where they have a base) and to their home planet 3 light years away then back to Earth, all taking about 40 minutes. Malishev reports his experience to his superior officers, who threaten a court martial. However, he is subjected to hypnosis and passes a lie detector test and apparently does not go through a trial. (Nikita A. Schnee, “Contact Reported near Pyrogovskoye Lake,” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 6 (March 1981): 6–8; Heikki Vertanen, “Soviet Contact Case near Pyrogovskoe Lake: The Missing Pages,” Flying Saucer Review 28, no. 3 (January 1983): 20) May 6 — 4:15 p.m. An object crashes into the southern slope of El Taire mountain on the Rio Bermejo along the border of Bolivia and Argentina. It produces a sonic boom that is heard 120 miles away and shatters windows in villages 30 miles away. Argentinian border police search for wreckage, while reporters visit the town of Aguas Blancas, Bolivia, to interview witnesses. Velez Orozco is one of the witnesses to the fall, and he thinks the object was 15 feet in diameter and conical. Border Patrol Cpl. Natalio Farfan Ruiz says the object “made the earth tremble” as it passed over. The Bolivian Air Force dispatches three airplanes and discovers the crash site on its side of the border. One of the flights includes a Bolivian astronomer, who sees a rockslide that may have been caused by the crash. On May 14, police from Tarija, Bolivia, find the object, a dull metallic cylinder 12 feet long with a few dents. A telex sent by US Ambassador Paul H. Boeker to the State Department requesting an explanation. In a secret telex on May 18, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance replies that “appropriate government agencies” have been consulted, but there is no correlation with known re-entries. He refers Boeker to the 1973 Project Moondust order. The US military attaché in La Paz sends a message to Wright-Patterson AFB and USAF headquarters at the Pentagon, claiming that the Bolvian Army has found nothing, but would send two USAF officers to Tarija to investigate. Col. Robert Simmons and Maj. John Heise arrive with a Bolivian Air Force officer. On May 23, three Bolivian Air Force officers and a guide set out on horseback to the mountain, locating the rockslide on May 25. Parallel to the slide is a 325-foot trench, 10–12 feet wide at the top. Some of the large rocks appear burned, and the grass around it is brown and withered. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 8 (August 1978): 2; ClearIntent, pp. 201 – 205 ; Kevin Randle, The Government UFO Files, Visible Ink, 2014, pp. 279–280; Michael Hesemann, “UFO Crash in Bolivia Witnessed by Thousands of People”) May 7 — A squadron of 40 UFOs circle dozens of times in formation over San Luis province, Argentina, in the midst of a luminous bluish-green light. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 8 (August 1978): 2) May 10 — Early morning. Farmer Jan Wolski is out driving a horse-drawn cart in Emilcin, Poland, when he is jumped by two “short, green-faced humanoid entities” about 5 feet tall. They jump onto Wolski’s cart, sit next to him, and start to speak in a strange language. At first, he mistakes them for foreigners because of their “slanted eyes and

prominent cheekbones.” Wolski drives his cart, with the two beings aboard, to a clearing where a large white object is hovering about 16 feet in the air. It is about 15–16 feet high and as long as a bus. Four black objects on the surface generate a humming sound. A platform descends to the ground, and he is taken on board by the two entities, along with two additional ones. There are about 8–10 benches situated around the craft, each for one person to sit in. There are some rooks in front of the door, one of which is moving its legs and wings but seems to be immobilized. Wolski is then examined with a tool that resembles two dishes or “saucers.” After this, he is ordered to get dressed again, and then he notices there are no lights or windows on the craft, only the daylight coming through the door. The entities eat and offer him something like icicles, but he refuses them. The UFO’s interior is black with a grayish tint, similar to that of the creatures’ outfits. Wolski returns home to his family and notifies them of what has happened, urging them to come see the floating craft. He tells his sons, who call to other neighbors, and together they go to investigate the site. The grass where the craft had been shows signs of usage, trodden down and “covered with dew and paths coming in all directions.” Wolski goes home, leaving the rest of the neighbors and family at the site. His sons claim there are footprints left behind by the beings, though they do not describe them well. (Wikipedia, “Emilcin Abduction”; “Story of a Polish CE-III,” IUR 8, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1983): 13– 14 ; Poland 35–40; “The Jan Wolski Case: An Amazing Close Encounter (Poland, 1978),” History Disclosure, May 25, 2019) May 10 — Evening. Numerous people watch a moon-sized oval object with clearly delineated edges, no trail, and an intense white light in Clavarazza, Genoa, Italy. It remains stationary high in the sky for three minutes, pulsates for 7 minutes, then blinks out. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1989): 2) May 13 — 3:32 a.m. Police officer Manuel J. Amparano is on the outskirts of Kerman, California, when he sees a reddish glow ahead. Getting closer, he observes an oval-shaped object, smaller in apparent size than the full moon, hanging silently in the sky. It is a very bright crimson-red color, which despite its brightness does not hurt his eyes. It shoots out a beam of blue light similar to a camera flash, then recedes and is gone. Amparano feels “a tingling sensation” in his body as he drives to the station, but he is not concerned. When he gets out, the 6 witnesses at the station note that he is sunburned “as red as a lobster.” His skin shows this condition for about 4 hours before returning to normal, even in areas underneath his uniform. However, no burn is present where the car door is between him and the flash. Also, he has no burn on his back, which is away from the car window as he peers out. Although the redness fades, there are areas where the skin is actually burned (arms, face, neck). These are noted on a visit to Fresno Community Hospital. These burns are visible for 2 days. The day following the encounter, “fever blisters” break out on his face and in places on his arms, and these last a week. Allegedly, doctors at the hospital tell the officer that the burns look like they are caused by microwave radiation. (“California Policeman Burned by UFO,” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1978 ): 10 – 11 ; “A Classic CE2P: Kerman, California, 1978,” IUR 33 , no. 4 (May 2011): 11 – 12 ; Jason Marzak, “1978 Kerman UFO Burning: 061401,” Fringe Republic, June 11, 2014; Kevin D. Randle, “May 13, 1978: Kerman, California,” A Different Perspective, June 15, 2015; Kevin D. Randle, “Kerman, California UFO Case: An Update,” A Different Perspective, June 20, 2015; Kevin D. Randle, “Kerman Police Officer Adds His Perspective,” A Different Perspective, August 26, 2015) May 13 — 4:00 a.m. A 16-year-old student, Jamshid Saiadipour, is staying up late studying for exams in Shiraz, Iran. He looks through his window and sees a glowing, hat-shaped UFO, hovering motionless. He takes a photo of it, which appears in the May 18 issue of Tehran Magazine. The article winds up in US Defense Intelligence Agency files and is released through FOIA in 1980. (“Matching Photo from Iran Found in CUFOS Files,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 8 (August 1981): 4; “Sheraz, Iran, October 8, 1978,” Popular Mechanics, July 1998, p. 64) May 13 — 10:45 p.m. A teen couple are sitting on a porch in Northport, Alabama, when they see an intensely bright pale- yellow light. It is oblong in shape and the size of the full moon. It hovers in the east for about 15 minutes, rocking slightly black and forth. They see three tripod legs on the underside. The girl’s mother comes out and notices her daughter is pale and shaking with fear. The object falls a short distance and remains stationary again for a few seconds before moving slowly away beyond trees on the horizon. (“Case 3- 6 - 29,” IUR 3, no. 6 (June 1978): 3) May 14 — 10: 00 p.m. SK- 1 Robert J. Clark, the duty officer at the US Navy Pinecastle Electronic Warfare Range in Ocala National Forest, Florida, receives a call from Rocky Morgan reporting an oblong-shaped UFO with an intensely bright, flashing light near Silver Glen Springs. Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Control Center reports no aircraft in the area. Clark and the base air controller, Gary Collison, climb an observation tower and contact external security to alert radar technician Timothy Collins. They watch a cluster of stationary lights at an estimated altitude of 1,600 feet to the west-northwest perhaps 3 miles away. Collins activates the MSQ- 102 Radar. After a 20-minute warmup, the radar detects an unidentified blip fluttering over the tower. The tracking computer is put on the target, which is showing very little movement. At 11:20 p.m., his radar locks on to it at treetop level. It seems to be as large as a jetliner. 10–15 minutes later it vanishes from both sight and radar, but at

11:40 p.m. he sees a similar object 15° to the north. Collins tries to train the radar on the object, but it disappears suddenly. Around midnight, another object is seen 3 miles to the northwest. For 5 seconds it moves at 575 mph, then accelerates for 2 seconds, and executes a hairpin turn in one second—a radical reversal of direction. Now the UFO is shooting northward toward the base, slowing to a mere 3 mph. Collins finally locks on this object. Shortly afterward, the target vanishes. A dozen naval personnel visually observe red, green, and white lights from the control tower for more than an hour. The captain of the Lisa C on the Apalachicola River also witnesses the lights at 10:30 p.m. (or 1:00 a.m.). (NICAP, “Radar Confirms Unidentified Lights”; “Flying Object Baffles Computer with Maneuvers in Florida Sky,” International Herald Tribune, May 18, 1978; “Navy Says Unusual Sighting Was Just an Object Flying Unidentified,” Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel, May 18, 1978, p. 4-C; “Navy Radar-Visual in Florida, Part I,” IUR 3, no. 6 (June 1978): 4–5; “Case 3- 7 - 1,” IUR 3, no. 7 (July 1978): 3; “UFO Sighting at Pinecastle Elecytronic Warfare Range,” UFO Investigator, September 1978, pp. 1–2; Second Look, April, May, June, October 1979; Clark III 829–830) May 15 — Evening. Ignacio Sanchez Munoz, 19, is walking along the road between Cuajimalpa borough and Álvaro Obregón, Mexico City, Mexico, after finishing work at a nearby restaurant. He observes a hovering, multicolored, luminous, cube-shaped object that is making a buzzing sound and emitting a yellow beam. He then receives telepathic thoughts telling him that the cube is not occupied, but soon human-like beings will arrive on Earth. After conversing with the voice for about an hour he is told, “soon we shall return to chat with you.” (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 7 (July 1978): 2; Patrick Gross, URECAT, April 30, 2010) May 17 — 8:00 a.m. A 71-year-old farmer is driving his horse-drawn carriage through a wooded area about 37 miles outside Lublin, Poland. By the roadside he sees 2–4 men about 5 feet tall wearing tightly fitting black “diver suits.” The men have green faces, slanting eyes, and webbed fingers; they move in a jumping motion and invite him into a “bus-shaped” white rectangular vehicle hovering nearby. The interior looks like a completely black room outfitted only in benches. He is examined by an apparatus that looks like an X-ray machine, and the men offer to share with him a transparent substance that they are eating, but he declines. The farmer later returns to the site with some villagers and finds rectangular footprints in the muddy road bank. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 7 (July 1978): 2) May 30 — 11:00 p.m. Two witnesses are stargazing with a telescope 5 miles west of Tulsa, Oklahoma, when they see four gray-white ovals in a fixed sword-like formation pass silently overhead in a straight line from the southwest. They are lost behind trees above the northeast horizon. Each oval is about the size of the moon and flying in a 45° angle to the direction of travel. (“Case 3- 7 - 54,” IUR 3, no. 7 (July 1978): 3–4)

Summer — Day. Eligio Macchini is taking photos from the rail of a river excursion boat on the Rhine River, Germany. When the film is developed, he notices a dark spot on one print. Years later, he sends it to the Center for UFO Studies, which determines it is not an emulsion defect or processing flaw. (“Möglicher UFO ist über dem Rhein photographieren,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 2 (April 1982): 1) June — Peter Gersten, on behalf of Ground Saucer Watch, files a discovery motion requesting UFO files from the CIA. His motion consists of 635 interrogatory questions, nearly 300 requests for documents, and includes 60 CIA documents attached as exhibits. (Richard Hall, “Lawsuit Filed against CIA,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 126 (May 1978): 9 ) June — GEPAN’s Scientific Council meets for the second time. This time, a five-volume report totaling 670 pages is prepared. The first volume is a synthesis written by Claude Poher. Volumes 2–4 contain 10 detailed field investigations and the fifth volume gathers other studies and less detailed cases. The reports are never published. According to Jean-Jacques Velasco, Poher’s assistant, the statistical study evaluates 678 reports and classifies them into four categories: perfectly or probably identified (26%), insufficient information (36%), and unidentified (38%). The council asks for a deeper study on statistical methodology, models of propulsion, and the psychology of perception. (“First Summary of the Work of the French Government’s ‘GEPAN’ UFO Organization,” IUR 3, no. 10/11 (Oct./Nov. 1978): 22; Gildas Bourdais, “From GEPAN to SEPRA: Official UFO Studies in France,” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000–2001): 12) June or July — 10:15 p.m. Graham Niven and friends are listening to the radio in Raeford, North Carolina, when it picks up some strange interference for about 10 minutes, They see a rectangular UFO with rounded edges coming toward them from the south. (“One Reporting Witness: Two Reported Sightings,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 10 (October 1981): 2–3) June 2 — 10:00 p.m. A married couple driving toward Hameenlinna, Finland, watch a formation of 7–9 bright lights in the eastern sky. After 8 seconds, they disappear behind trees. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 5 (May 1978): 2) June 10 — 9:30 p.m. A dark, silent wedge-shaped object with a square formation of white lights in the back and a triangular formation of red and white lights in the front paces a car driven by two students, ages 21 and 19, as they

travel east on State Highway 299 near New Paltz, New York. The UFO turns south toward them and passes over their car. The male student gets out and runs underneath it, noting it is as large as his outstretched hand at arm’s length. It shoots off toward the southwest horizon in a few seconds. (“Case 3- 7 - 1 21,” IUR 3, no. 7 (July 1978): 4) June 1 1 — 10:30 p.m. Capt. Namdar, the pilot of a Boeing 707 flying from Shiraz to Tehran, Iran, is descending to 25,000 feet over Isfahan. He sees a huge, purple form passing below him at amazing speed. The Tehran airport cannot confirm a radar tracking. Suddenly the plane’s cabin is flooded with brilliant yellow light radiating from two sources. It feels as hot as “a sunny day in summer in Spain.” The purple light continues to follow the plane until a portion of the UFO separates from it and moves toward the southeast side of the witnesses. Then the original object vanishes. (“Review of Iranian UFO Reports,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 2 (Jan./Feb. 1981): 15) June 11 — 11 :28 p.m. After hearing reports of unidentified aircraft from two previous sentries, Gunnery Sgt. Brininger and PFC Johnny Johnson, go on sentry patrol at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Standing outside on an 80-foot tower, the two men watch a distinctly outlined, illuminated white ball with a short conical tail approach from the south. Within 5 seconds, the object moves west of their position and 20°–30° up Briniger estimates that the ice-cream cone shaped UFO is as close as 300 feet away and 200 feet in the air, flying parallel to the fence line. He directs a spotlight at the object, which abruptly makes a sharp turn to the west. It is in sight for 8–10 seconds. (“Case 3- 7 - 130: Three UFOs over High Security Military Base?” IUR 3, no. 7 (July 1978): 4–5) June 15 — Before 3:00 a.m. The Russian motor ship Novokuznetsk is departing from the Gulf of Guayaquil, Ecuador. The crew sees from the bow four rapidly departing bright white trails about 66 feet in length. At the same time, two other trails 33 feet long approach the vessel. Later, straight ahead of the ship, a white luminescent sphere rises up from the water, flies around the ship, hovers for a few seconds at an altitude of 60 feet, flies higher, zigzags, and dives back into the water, (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, pp. 66 – 67) June 17 — 4:30 a.m. Patrolmen Robert Fiorentino and Amthony Puglio of the Maplewood (New Jersey) Police Department see a soundless triangular UFO, twice the size of the full moon, while on patrol. It has a white light on each tip and red lights in the center. The object circles them twice and shines bright lights down on them. (“It’s Unidentified, Flies, But Doesn’t Scare Cops,” New York Daily News, June 24, 1978, p. 4JL) June 17 — 1:20 p.m. Photographer Linda Arosemena is taking photos of President Jimmy Carter’s helicopter taking off from Fort Clayton [now closed] near Balboa, Panama. Her final frame shows an oval object that she has not visually noticed. Arosemena, who works for the Defense Mapping Agency at Fort Clayton, sends the photo to Carter with an explanation of the circumstances. Brenda Reilly and Sandra Chandler report seeing a similar object on June 16 while fishing at nearby Fuerte Amador. (“UFOs Breach Presidential Security!” UFO Update! no. 2 (Winter 1979): 15, 56; Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, p. 50) June 18 — 10:45 p.m. Manford Hammond, a water superintendent in Elsberry, Missouri, watches an object “like two hubcaps put together” that alternately hovers and maneuvers slowly and silently from the vantage point of his home on Black Street. (“Case 3- 8 - 12,” IUR 3, no. 8 (August 1978): 3) June 19 — 1:30 a.m. Franck Pavia and Jean-Marc Guitard are stopped on the side of a road in Gujan-Mestras, Gironde, France, to repair a turn signal when suddenly all the lights in the town go out. A powerful rumble startles them, and they notice an oval, red object surrounded by white flames flying toward them at an altitude of 11,000 feet. Jean-Marc is unable to breathe and faints. The object then changes direction and shoots away. They knock on the door of a baker named Varisse to tell their story, visibly terrified. At about the same time, a restaurant manager named Bachère is driving toward Bordeaux when he sees a large orange ball, very bright, hovering above La Réole at about 1,000 feet before disappearing. It reappears at the same spot one minute later. (Jacques Vallée, “Estimates of Power Optical Output in Six Cases of Unexplained Aerial Objects with Defined Luminosity Characteristics,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 12, no. 3 (1998): 354– 356 ) June 22 — 1:30 a.m. A woman in Pacific Palisades, California, watches an irregularly shaped oval glow with shifting green-yellow-gray colors like a “TV glow.” Moving slowly eastward at first, it speeds up until it recedes to a star size, then arcs back in two minutes and disappears in the northwest. Two other witnesses also see the UFO. (“Case 3- 18 - 18,” IUR 3, no. 8 (August 1978):3) June 24 — 10:48 p.m. The pilot and passenger of a commercial charter plane flying northwest between Madison and New Lisbon, Wisconsin, see a distant bright light making extremely fast back-and-forth motions. At one point it passes above the plane. The object is tracked on radar by air traffic controllers Glen Wonnacott and Wayne Nurenberg at the Aurora (Ill.) Air Route Traffic Control Center. (“Radar-Visual in Wisconsin,” IUR 3, no. 8 (August 1978): 11 – 15) June 26 or 27 — 11:00 p.m. The 77-year-old mother of a prominent TV commentator is dazzled by a white, rotating globe of light on a rooftop terrace across from her inner house court in Vienna, Austria. The light appears to be breaking

into pieces that fall down. Then a spotlight cone moves along the gutter of the terrace from left to right toward the
light, and both lights go out. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 10/11 (Oct./Nov. 1978): 2)

July — 7:30 a.m. Seamen on the Russian vessel Yargora in the Mediterranean not far off the coast from Algiers, Algeria, observe a pearly white flattened sphere moving to the west. On its underside it has three antenna. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, p. 52) July — 1:00 p.m. A witness and his father are driving a U-Haul truck north on Interstate 65 near Ardmore, Alabama. Just after passing the welcome center, they look up and see a large silver ball on the tree line to the east. After disagreeing on whether it is a weather balloon, they stop the truck and get out to look. A door slides open in the bottom of the object and a smaller silver ball emerges and moves to their right, and a second comes out and moves to the left. They both hover for about 5 minutes, then return one at a time to the larger object, which stands motionless a few more minutes before slowly moving away to the northeast. Suddenly it shoots away at great speed. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects: A Further Look,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 6– 7 ) July 2 — 8:00 a.m. Verlee Carson is sitting in her house in Ely, Nevada, and notices two jets flying overhead to the south. One is followed closely by four white balls and the other is followed by three balls. (Viril Staff, “Letter,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1983): 2) July 3 — 9:00 p.m. A Mrs. Jenkinson and a friend are playing tennis in Louth, Lincolnshire, England, when they spot a flat, silver oval in the sky reflecting sunlight and moving in a straight line northward in the western sky. They watch it for 5 minutes. Another object is seen a few minutes later in moving north in the eastern sky. (“Case 7887,” Northern UFO News 52 (September 1978): 8) July 4 — 3:15 p.m. A small domed disc, about 3–4 feet in diameter with rotating parts on top, makes a head-on pass at 800 mph toward Floyd Hallstrom and Keith Sorensen, who are flying a Cessna at 120 mph and 3,500 feet altitude near Santa Paula, California. Its dome is a bright chrome with two protrusions. Hallstrom turns the plane around and the object makes a second pass before disappearing. (“Case 3 - 8 - 80,” IUR 3, no. 8 (August 1978): 4) July 4 — 3:45 p.m. A 34 - year old school principal in Schaumburg, Illinois, watches a distinctly outlined metallic sphere the size of airplane rush in from the east at a speed faster than an aircraft and exceptionally high. The object stops dead over his house and remains stationary for 2–3 minutes. Then it starts rising with a slight veer to the south until it is out of sight. (“Case 3- 8 - 81,” IUR 3, no. 8 (August 1978): 4) July 4 — Two Italian Air Force sergeants (Franco Padellero and Attilio di Salvatore), an Italian Navy NCO (Maurizio Esposito), and Antonina di Pietro are driving in the Parco dell’Etna, Sicily, Italy, when they spot a triangular formation of three red pulsating lights above Monte Sona. They stop the car for a better look. One of the lights breaks away from the group and approaches as close as 980 feet before disappearing. They drive in that direction and stop by a ravine to look at a luminous disc that gives off a yellow light about 325 feet away. Five or six very tall entities are standing next to it. Two of them walk up the ravine to within 16 feet of the witnesses. They are dressed in tight-fitting white coveralls and have shoulder-length hair. The two smile, and one points to the disc, which is radiating multicolored lights. The lights go out temporarily when another car drives by. Duration is 35 minutes. All the witnesses feel a euphoria, even 36 hours afterward. Richard Hall notes that the witnesses have satisfied their curiosity and drive away without more concern; he indicates that they have been exposed to the lectures of contactee Eugenio Siragusa, although the witnesses seem to be responsible people. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 8 (August 1978): 2; Good Above, pp. 146 – 147 ; Maurizio Verga, “La vague italienne de 1978,” Lumières dans la Nuit, no. 207 (Aug./Sept. 1981): 33; Richard H. Hall, “Italian UFO Wave of 1978,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 153 (November 1980): 12–13; Patrick Gross, URECAT, November 12, 2009; 1Pinotti 216– 217) July 5 — Many cattle mutilations are occurring on the ranch owned by Manuel Gomez near Dulce, New Mexico. State Police Officer Gabe Valdez, having heard that certain cows might be marked in some way before being mutilated, pens 120 of Gomez’s cattle in a corral and moves them through a squeeze chute under a series of ultraviolet lights. The examination reveals that five of the animals have a “glittery substance on the right side of the neck, the right ear, and the right leg.” Valdez and Gomez remove the substance, along with control samples, and send them to Robert Schoenfeld at the Schoenfeld Clinical Laboratories in Albuquerque. Schoenfeld finds “highly suspicious” deposits of potassium (70 times above normal), magnesium, calcium, and aluminum. (Tommy Roy Blann, “UFO Connection in Dulce and Taos, New Mexico?” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 138 (August 1979): 14; Greg Valdez, Dulce Base: The Truth and Evidence from the Case Files of Gabe Valdez, Levi-Cash, 2013) July 6 or 7 — Between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m. The fiancée of Robert Garbauskas is in Sandwich, Massachusetts, taking photos of a ship in the Cape Cod Canal when she sees a small, rust-colored, apparently solid object hovering about 35° in the sky for 3 – 4 minutes. She snaps a photo of it, which shows a dark object with a yellow arc of light

above it. (“1978 Object with Arc of Light Photographed,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 4 (August 1980):

1. July 7 — At the urging of Grenada Prime Minister Eric Gairy, the Grenada delegation to the United Nations issues a statement calling for “open discussions on the very important subject [of UFOs] … a matter of great significance at this time for all mankind.” (“U.N. Background,” IUR 3, no. 10/11 (Oct./Nov. 1978): 5; Clark III 1189) July 7 — The CIA agrees to let Ground Saucer Watch amend its complaint to include requests for virtually all CIA- related UFO records. The lawsuit opens in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. (“Update on the Ground Saucer Watch (GSW) Lawsuit Against the CIA,” IUR 3, no. 7 (July 1978): 8 ) July 11 — 11:20 p.m. A man driving alone in a remote area on State Highway 100 three miles south of Waterbury, Vermont, sees a beam of light descend from the trees. It is about 1.5–2 feet in diameter but spreads out into a cone that covers the entire street and moves toward his car, illuminating the interior like “40 flash cameras.” The reflection off the car hood is dazzling. Petrified for 45 seconds, he finally sticks his head out the door and feels considerable heat. The light shrinks and dims, revealing the silhouette of a saucer darker than the sky and about 80 – 100 feet in diameter. The object is at treetop level and has small steady white lights on each side and a rib-like structure on the bottom. After hovering above the car a few seconds, it moves southwest about 200 yards and then takes off almost simultaneously. (“Case 3 - 8 - 129,” IUR 3, no. 8 (August 1978): 4) July 13 — Todd Zechel, research director of Ground Saucer Watch and director of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy, files a FOIA request with the CIA that includes information about a crashed spacecraft. (“GSW + FOIA + CIA = 1,000 Pages of UFO Information,” IUR 3, no. 8 (August 1978): 9) July 14 — Dawn. A Spanish Army unit on an exercise in Mazarrón, Murcia, Spain, watches an unfamiliar group of lights for two hours above a road: a red light that vanishes occasionally, two greenish-white lights that shine sporadically, and four white lights that appear irregularly and fly without any specific formation. Their height over the terrain is estimated at 13–100 feet. The lights oscillate and move forward, leaving the road and moving around obstacles like houses and hills, then coming back to the road in front of the group of soldiers. A reconnaissance of the area the following night reveals nothing unusual, except the antenna of a meteorological station that probably was not the source of the lights. (Swords 434) July 14 — Eric Gairy, accompanied by ufologists J. Allen Hynek, Jacques Vallée, David R. Saunders, Leonard H. Stringfield, and Claude Poher, meet with UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim to organize a steering committee to develop plans for possible UN involvement in UFO research. (Clark III 1189; “UFOs in the U.N.,” IUR 3, no. 8 (August 1978): 9) July 16 — Residents sleeping on their terraces in the northern pat of Tehran, Iran, spot a “strange glowing object” floating southwest toward Saveh. One witness claims it is hovering directly above him. The control tower at Mehrabad Airport confirms the existence of the light. An air crew reports unusual readings on their instruments. (Tehran Journal, July 18, 1978; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1978): 2; Good Above, pp. 321 – 322 , 501 – 502 ) July 1 9 — 9:30 p.m. A teacher is driving with his wife through Hudson, New York, when they spot a motionless, amber- colored, curved object in the sky as wide as a full moon. It remains behind them as they drive to a friend’s house, where they join another couple to watch it. The light suddenly goes out, and 30 seconds later they hear a roar that moves off to the southeast. (“Case 3- 9 - 19,” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1978): 6) July 20 — 1:20 a.m. A soldier on duty at the main gate of the military section of the Logroño-Agoncillo Airport in La Rioja, Spain, sees a strange object in the air. A second lieutenant and a corporal get to the gate in time to watch for 5 minutes an object moving slowly and noiselessly east to west some 3,300 feet above the ground. Two of the witnesses describe it as lozenge-shaped, while the other two say it has the shape of a triangle. All agree that there is an intense white light flashing at one-second intervals in the center, while other lights appear in various parts of the dark object. It continues to fly steadily until it disappears from sight. (Swords 434) July 21 — 9:30 p.m. Chloene Bechdolt notices a bright red light near the ground in the north field of her farm near Uniopolis, Ohio. She goes inside and around 10:00 p.m. notices that the light is still there and larger in size. She goes back outside and approaches the light, thinking it might be poachers. She thinks she hears someone talking, so she shouts a warning at it. The object makes a hum and shoots straight up. On July 23, she and her nephew find a 100-foot circular area of cut beans in the field, and the timothy stubble looks like it has been scorched about one inch from the ground. (“Large Circular Physical Trace: Is It Common?” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 5 (Oct./Nov. 1982): 1–2) July 2 1 — 10:15 p.m. A couple in Davyhulme, Greater Manchester, England, observes a dark disc hovering in the twilight sky. It is surrounded by an aura, from which 30–40 beautiful purple rays shoot out at various angles like spokes from a wheel, extending to about 12 times the diameter of the central disc. After about 90 seconds, the “rays” collapse inward in sequence, and the object slowly extinguishes itself. During the sighting, the couple notice with

some puzzlement that the normally busy street is strangely quiet and devoid of people and traffic. (Clark III 866; Jenny Randles, UFO Reality, R. Hale, 1983) July 22 — 1:15 p.m. A retired couple in Ventura, California, is attracted outdoors by an odd noise and see a silver form moving overhead. It has lines across its surface and is making a noise like a card flapping against bicycle spokes. It flies straight away and disappears in the northeast. (“Case 3- 9 - 28,” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1978): 6) July 26 — 9:40 p.m. Chinese Air Force flying instructor Sha Yongkao is piloting a plane with a student at an airfield in Shangxi province, China. They are flying at 9,800 feet when they see two glowing objects circle the airport twice before moving off. Yongkao attempts to pursue the objects unsuccessfully and is told no other aircraft are being tracked in the vicinity. (Paul Dong, “Extracts from Paul Dong’s Feidie Bai Wen Bai Da (Questions and Answers on UFOs),” Flying Saucer Review 29, no. 6 (August 1984): 14) July 27 — 12:45 a.m. Clora E. Winscher is driving a 1974 Mercury Comet east on US Highway 50 on the east side of Union, Missouri, at about 45 mph. She notices in her rearview mirror a brilliant light approaching from behind at high speed. She feels a “terrific shove” and the rear end of the car lifts up and gets moved along the road for 3 00 feet, completely out of control. As she approaches a bridge, the car drops down again, and she sees the light rise over the roof and disappear upward to the left. Two dents, 22 inches apart, are found in the upper edge of the trunk, but the paint is not fractured. About the same time, 12 miles west in Beaufort, Missouri, Velma Clines watches a dull red-orange, round UFO fly toward her house before it speeds away. (UFOEv II p. 278; “Case 3- 9 - 59,” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1978): 7) July 27 — 7:46 p.m. Three men are flying a radio-controlled model airplane in a field in Marshall, Michigan, when they spot a silver cylindrical object with black lines across its surface. It moves eastward from directly overhead to a position 45° up in the east and vanishes. (“Case 3- 9 - 68,” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1978): 8) July 27 — 10:45 p.m. Two witnesses in Sheffield, Ohio, watch a “silver banana” with a red and blue flashing light about a half-mile away, low in the east. They hear a wavering hum. It approaches their car to within 600 feet; the car’s electrical system fails, and the engine stops and cannot be restarted for another 90 minutes. After about 15 minutes the light shoots away to the west. (“Case 3- 9 - 65,” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1978): 7) July 28 — 8:28 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. Gruss of Benton Harbor, Michigan, see a long, brightly lit, silver cylinder at about 6,000 feet altitude. It stays stationary for 30 minutes, then moves southwest. (“Complete Details on the Michigan- Wisconsin Coast Guard Sightings,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 14) July 28 — 11:45 p.m. The Ludington, Michigan, Coast Guard station gets a phone call from a man whose daughter and boyfriend have seen a strange object over Lake Michigan. Coast Guardsman Don Clark and others see a cluster of white lights, one flashing, and one steady green light near the shoreline. It is very bright, proceeds westerly past the Big Sable Point Lighthouse, and then accelerates silently over the horizon “faster than a plane.” Clark radios the Coast Guard station at Two Rivers, Wisconsin, about the light. (“Complete Details on the Michigan- Wisconsin Coast Guard Sightings,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 14) July 28 — 11:57 p.m. Six members of the Two Rivers, Wisconsin, Coast Guard station, including Doug Wangen and Seaman Gary Randall, see a lighted object with flashing white, red, green, orange, and blue lights coming from Lake Michigan and moving toward Rawley Point. It stops abruptly, and Randall snaps 10 photos. The object then “slingshots” to the northwest in seconds. (“Complete Details on the Michigan-Wisconsin Coast Guard Sightings,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 14) July 28 — 12:00 midnight. Personnel at the Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, Coast Guard station watch a similar light for 4 minutes moving swiftly from west to northwest. (“Complete Details on the Michigan-Wisconsin Coast Guard Sightings,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 14) July 29 — 12:01 a.m. A second westbound light is seen by Coast Guard at the Ludington, Michigan, station. It has red lights and very bright strobes flashing erratically. The Two Rivers, Wisconsin, station spots an object 3 minutes later, but it is moving north. (“Complete Details on the Michigan-Wisconsin Coast Guard Sightings,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 14) July 29 — 12:25 a.m. Coast Guard observers at the Grassy Island Range Lighthouse in Green Bay, Wisconsin, report to Two Rivers that they are seeing a UFO heading to the west at high speed with white and red flashing lights. (“Complete Details on the Michigan-Wisconsin Coast Guard Sightings,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 14 – 15) July 29 — 12:45 a.m. Seaman Gary Randall and another witness at the Two Rivers Coast Guard station see another UFO closing in from the southwest. It approaches for 40 seconds then stops for 1 minute. Then it flies northeast and shoots straight up and out of sight in 20 seconds. (“Complete Details on the Michigan-Wisconsin Coast Guard Sightings,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 15) July 29 — 2:40 a.m. A Coast Guard vessel in Lake Superior among the Apostle Islands, Wisconsin, sees a large, yellow- white, oblong object that appears and reappears briefly in a slightly different position each time. (“Complete Details on the Michigan-Wisconsin Coast Guard Sightings,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 15)

July 29– 30 — The 1978 MUFON UFO Symposium takes place in Dayton, Ohio. Ufologist Leonard Stringfield announces that he has collected more than 50 sources with “information relative to the subject of retrievals or storage of alien craft, and/or deceased alien humanoids recovered from the craft.” He presents 17 witness testimonies to the audience as evidence of some 9–10 possible retrievals of crashed or downed UFOs, although his refusal to provide their names embroils him in controversy. This is the first of his seven “status reports” on accounts and rumors about UFO crash/retrievals. (Leonard H. Stringfield, “Retrievals of the Third Kind,” 1978 MUFON UFO Symposium Proceedings, MUFON, 1978, pp. 77 – 105 ; Richard H. Hall, Uninvited Guests, Aurora, 1988, pp. 75 – 76 ; Leonard Stringfield, “The Chase for Proof in a Squirrel’s Cage,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 145– 147 )

August — Bank manager Serrano Silva and a Columbian Navy officer suffer temporary paralysis when a flying object buzzes their car on a highway between Tunja and Bogotá, Columbia. The car’s engine and headlights die. (“South America: Hotbed of Bizarre UFO Sightings,” Windsor (Ont.) Star, November 14, 1978, p. 20) August 3 — 7:20 p.m. An engineer, his wife, and his daughter are driving toward Nurmijärvi, Finland, when a 6-foot oval with clear black contours and a light-colored center flies silently in front of them, moving from right to left in 5– 10 seconds before vanishing. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 10/11 (Oct./Nov. 1978): 2) August 3 — 10:50 p.m. During a mini-flap of UFO sightings in Lowell, Massachusetts, a couple watch an oval light that has rising bands of shifting colors hovering above trees to the northwest. The man jumps in the car to drive to it as the woman continues watching and sees a smaller light appear to its right. A third light appears to the left, which swings above the first light and joins the second one. All of the lights vanish. (“Case 3- 9 - 104,” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1978): 8) August 4 — 9:30 p.m. A 12-year-old boy in East Leroy, Michigan, hears a noise and looks out his window to watch a silver cigar drop vertically downward to a position 100 feet away and 15 feet up. It snaps into a horizontal position and hovers for 5–10 seconds. A white, steam-like exhaust emits from a funnel at its rear and steams up the boy’s window. After a few more seconds it zooms off into the sky. (“Case 3- 9 - 107,” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1978): 8) August 5 — 9:50 p.m. A family on the shore of Lake Sorell, Tasmania, watch a glow behind a hill to the south. Within minutes, the whole area lights up and a small white light appears, moving back and forth at tree level. It remains visible 20–30 minutes, then disappears suddenly. Earlier in the day, another group had reported a brown, cigar- shaped object over nearby Lake Crescent. (Launceston Examiner, August 12, 1978; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1978): 2) August 5 — 11:15 p.m. A TV director is driving northwest on State Highway 5 about 2 miles southeast of Laurie, Missouri. He and his son watch two red lights rise up about 25 feet off the road to their left to an altitude of 30 feet. They are attached to a triangular object that flies over their car to their right, cut back to the top of a hill, turn around, and approach them again, only to descend behind trees. The rear dimension of the triangle is about 10– 15 feet across. (“Case 3- 9 - 120,” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1978): 8) August 7 — 10:00 p.m. A couple is driving west on War Memorial Drive to a First Assembly of God church in Peoria, Illinois when they see a shooting star fly across their view. Five minutes later, they arrive at church and, walking behind it, see a bright white light with flashing red and blue lights hovering about 40 feet in the air for 5– 7 minutes. It shoots off to the east in a split second. (“Case 3- 9 - 132,” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1978): 9) August 8 — A group of tourists along the shore of the Sea of Azov near Henichesk, Ukraine, see a flying disc three times larger than the moon. It has protrusions on the top and bottom, two rows of portholes, and is surrounded by a bright orange glow. Every 15 seconds, smaller discs (a total of 15–20) fly out from the lower protrusion, accompanied by a blinding explosion. They hover for a few seconds then depart rapidly to the south. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, p. 176) August 8 — 9:40 p.m. Witnesses in Belton, Missouri, and several military personnel at nearby Richards-Gebaur Air Reserve Station [now closed] witness the flyover of a UFO that is also briefly tracked on radar. Joseph Staudinger Jr. sees the object at about 2,800 feet in altitude and looking like two white strobe lights in front and back with three rows of red lights that are rotating around its middle. The encounter lasts 45 minutes. A cattle mutilation has been discovered earlier that day in Elsberry, Missouri. (“Heavily-Witnessed Radar-Visual Case near Kansas City,” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1978): 3–6) August 10 — CIA Information and Privacy Coordinator Gene F. Wilson asks Todd Zechel of CAUS to suspend his FOIA request until he has a chance to look at the 1,000 pages of documents that are currently under review for release. Most of these files are from the Office of Scientific Intelligence in the 1950s, leading CAUS to suspect that they will mostly consist of Air Force and Navy UFO reports, plus some records of unauthorized CIA investigations. ((“GSW + FOIA + CIA = 1,000 Pages of UFO Information,” IUR 3, no. 8 (August 1978): 9)

August 11 — 11:59 p.m. A deputy sheriff and four youngsters are driving on Chancellors Run Road in Great Mills, Maryland, when they see a silvery, blimp-shaped light hovering at treetop level above some trailers. It appears larger than a full moon. The deputy shines the cruiser’s spotlight toward it and scans the length of the object, yet the beam does not light up the large shape. She drives closer, but the UFO begins to get cloudy on its underside and moves slowly behind the trees. (“Case 3- 9 - 184,” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1978): 9) August 12 — 9:25 p.m. A young couple in Niceville, Florida, are driving on a dirt road when a lighted object that looks like an eye moves toward them. The center part is like shiny black glass and the body is metallic silver with two antennae on top. It fills half the windshield in angular size as it moves over the roof of the car. They hear no noise and feel no rush of wind. (“Case 3- 9 - 187,” IUR 3, no. 8 (September 1978): 9) August 16 — Air traffic controllers at Gatwick Airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, see a UFO but decline to say exactly what it is. (Good Above, p. 72 ) August 17 — Assistant US Attorney for the District of Columbia William Briggs asks Peter Gersten of Ground Saucer Watch to identify broadly all categories of UFO documents to enable the CIA to search for all its UFO records. Based on a draft by Brad Sparks, Gersten prepares a stipulation that requests the CIA to conduct a reasonable search of 22 CIA component branches. US District Court Judge John H. Pratt makes the order a binding one, giving the CIA until mid-December to complete the task. (“GSW + FOIA + CIA = 1,000 Pages of UFO Information,” IUR 3, no. 8 (August 1978): 9–10) August 17 — 10:30 p.m. Radars of the Air Self-Defense Corps at Nemuro Radar Site on Hokkaido, Japan, pick up a target flying from the north to south-southwest at about 40 mph more than a half-mile above Nemuro Channel south of Kunashir Island. It approaches the eastern end of Hokkaido and is later picked up by radars at Cape Erimo. Two F-4EJ Phantom jets are scrambled from Chitose Air Base about 10 minutes later and are guided to the targets, now in the vicinity of Nakashibetsu. But the pilots can see nothing on their airborne radars and return empty- handed. The target persists on ground scopes, moving south toward Kushiro. Twice more, jets are sent up but fail to detect a blip. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 9 (September 1978): 2) August 18 — 11:20 p.m. A relative staying at the home of UFO researcher Douglas Dains in Port Crane, New York, notices the reception on the television is disrupted shortly before a UFO detector (a magnetic field instrument) starts buzzing. Dains himself is not at home. The relative steps outside and sees a domed UFO with a red light on top of an antenna approach from the northwest to a position 50 feet behind a tree and 45 feet in the air. It hovers there for 30 seconds. It then departs to the southwest, disappearing behind a mountain. (“The Absent UFO Researcher,” IUR 3, no. 12 (December 1978): 13) August 20 — 1:30 a.m. A nurse is sitting in her car on Oberlin Street in Maplewood, New Jersey, when she sees an object shaped like a car fender with four blue lights moving toward her from the east. She gets out of her car as it flies overhead. Then it stays in place, rocking silently back and forth, before taking off to the northeast, making a machine-like noise. (“A Huge ‘Car Fender,’” IUR 3, no. 12 (December 1978): 13–14) August 20 — 7:30 p.m. A 64-year old security guard is on patrol in downtown Toledo, Ohio, looking at a “large plane” approaching from the north. As it passes overhead at a uniform speed, about 1, 500 – 2 ,000 feet up, it is seen as a cigar with small brackets. It is dull silver, distinctly outlined, and twice the angular size of the full moon. It then continues its straight path southbound to the horizon. (“A Daylight Urban ‘Cigar,’” IUR 3, no. 12 (December 1978): 14) August 21 — 5:00 p.m. A witness sketches an oblong UFO over an open area near Banksville, New York. It is at least 150 – 200 feet long with while and blue colors, two lights in front, and silent. It disappears over a golf course t the northeast. (“Long Rectangular UFOs: Five Different Cases of Similarly Shaped Objects,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 9 (September 1981): 1) August 21 — 5:30 p.m. A 33-year old housewife, in the company of her children, 8 and 10, watches a silver Frisbee-like object from their front porch 3 miles north of downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. Standing outdoors, they see the saucer in the southeast, much larger than a full moon would look, perhaps as large as a car. The Frisbee has a sharp outline and metallic appearance. No sound can be heard over the heavy traffic noise. According to the children, it then shoots over to the southwest in two seconds. Finally, it moves straight up out of sight in an instant. Duration is 5–8 minutes. (“A Daylight ‘Frisbee,’” IUR 3, no. 12 (December 1978): 14) August 21 — Night. The Madagascar Interior Ministry announces that a UFO has crashed and exploded in the marketplace at Fort-Dauphin. Radio Madagascar says that the cigar-shaped object had lit up the ground before plunging downward. Locals rush out of bed to put out the flames. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 10/11 (Oct./Nov. 1978): 2) August 22 — 7:03 a.m. Four men are driving in a carpool from Moscow, Pennsylvania, to work at the Tobyhanna Army Depot in Coolbaugh Township on I- 380. They watch a small circular “cloud” descend suddenly in the south. It changes to a bright silver and hovers, rocking from side to side. It now looks solid and metallic. It rises slightly

and flies off to the southeast at an estimated 800–900 mph. (“A Daylight ‘Cloud,’” IUR 3, no. 12 (December 1978): 14) August 22 — An oval-shaped translucent object ringed by a halo of light flies silently over the Andes Mountains in Neuquen province, Argentina, in a 300-mile path. (“Close Encounters Thrill Latins,” Detroit (Mich.) Free Press, November 22, 1978, p. 6C) August 23 — 8:04 p.m. P. A. Hadden is on board the tanker MV Ficus in the Indian Ocean [or the South China Sea] 260 miles from the Malacca Strait. He watches an elongated triangle formation of three lights moving in from 60° above the northeast horizon. When they reach 75°, nearly overhead, the lights suddenly stop. He estimates them to be 100 miles high. The light in the right rear continues moving in the opposite direction of the ship and off to its left at great speed, disappearing in the distance; the light in the left rear shifts over to occupy the position in the formation it had occupied. After 5 seconds of remaining still, it shoots back to the left again and departs at high speed. The remaining light rushes forward, following the same path as the first light. Total duration of the sighting is 1 minute 20 seconds. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 3, no. 10/11 (Oct./Nov. 1978): 2) August 24 — 10:00 p.m. A 54-year old cook is driving north from her brother’s house about 10 miles south of Ottumwa, Iowa. She is on Cliffland Road alongside the Des Moines River in a wooded, rural area. A full-moon-sized red- orange light shoots silently from the east to the west in several seconds. As it flies across the front of her car, her windshield fogs up and the car stalls out to a stop. The interference lasts only a few seconds, and the car restarts without her turning the key; the window defogs as quickly as it had steamed up. She last sees the light against a background of trees up ahead, lower than the treetops. (“Car Interference in Iowa,” IUR 3, no. 12 (December 1978): 14) August 24 — 11:40 p.m. Two 19-year old girls, driving west near tiny Ginghamsburg, Ohio, watch two oddly colored orange lights twice the size of aircraft landing lights. A humming sound can be heard both from the lights and from the car radio. The driver can’t get the car to go faster than about 20 mph. The lights are coming from the left, one directly over the other. They look away momentarily and the lights are gone; they look again, and the lights are moving above the car. From the south they have moved to the northwest over a field. A rod or a light beam comes down from one ball of light and shines a light at the witnesses for one second. The driver tries to flash the car lights at it, to no avail. They look away briefly and do not notice how the lights vanish. (“Car Interference in Ohio?” IUR 3, no. 12 (December 1978): 14) August 27 — 1:40 p.m. Arthur Silva is flying a Cessna 150 about 10 miles north of Provincetown, Massachusetts, with Harold Johnson as passenger. Johnson sees a bright reflective object at the same altitude (2,500 feet) directly ahead about 4 miles away. It moves closer, picking up speed and shooting by them at about 600 mph, apparently missing the plane by 1,000 feet. It is a silvery-white, metallic sphere with no wings and about 18 feet in diameter. (“Daylight Sphere over Massachusetts,” IUR 3, no. 12 (December 1978): 15) August 27 — 4:45 p.m. A Korean War veteran in Gloucester, Massachusetts, watches a bright yellow cylinder approaching him from low in the north. At an altitude of 2,000 feet, it appears smaller than an F-100 fighter. It moves off to the south, flying faster than a jet. (“And Then, 3 Hours Later,” IUR 3, no. 12 (December 1978): 15) August 28 —Six papers are presented at the American Psychological Association Symposium in Toronto, Ontario, relating to the topic of using hypnosis to investigate UFO experiences. The presenters are H. Kent Newman, R. Leo Sprinkle, James Harder, Alvin Lawson, W. C. McCall, and Michael Persinger. (“Ufologists Meet the Social Scientists,” IUR 3, no. 10/11 (Oct./Nov. 1978): 19–21) August 30 — 8:45 p.m. A witness is standing outdoors at a suburban shopping center in Nashua, New Hampshire, when she spots a formation of 6–8 white lights arranged in a circle and moving from southeast to north. (“Meanwhile, a Little Ways North,” IUR 3, no. 12 (December 1978): 15) August 30 — Late night. Residents of Lisbon, Portugal, see a large round object with bright red and white lights flying about 600 feet above the ground. (“Portuguese Welcome UFO,” Oshkosh (Wis.) Daily Northwestern, August 31, 1978, p. 2) August 30 — 11:00 p.m.–midnight. A 38-year-old man is driving a pickup on State Highway 38 a half-mile west of Nisula, Michigan, when a cone-shaped object flies toward him from the east. It has two steady red lights at the ends and one steady white light in the middle. It flies low and silently over the truck, which then stalls for one second. He gets home and he and his wife watch the red lights in the distance, still moving slowly up and down from east to south. (“Another Vehicle Stalled,” IUR 3, no. 12 (December 1978): 15–16) August 30 — 11:10 p.m. A man in Gloucester, Massachusetts, looks out his window to see what is causing a loud sound in 5 - second bursts. He sees over Ipswich Bay an elongated, fiery red rectangle moving north to south at around 100 mph. One end is dipped down 45°. It stops, hovers for 10 seconds, and moves out of sight behind trees. (“Again, 3 Hours Later,” IUR 3, no. 12 (December 1978): 15)

September — GEPAN organizes a large gathering of about 100 people from more than 40 civilian UFO groups, but cooperation does not last. Criticism comes from both skeptics and the conspiratorial-minded. (Gildas Bourdais, “From GEPAN to SEPRA: Official UFO Studies in France,” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000–2001): 12) September — Chris Rutkowski begins publishing the Swamp Gas Journal newsletter in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It continues until summer 1997, with six special issues thrown in. (Swamp Gas Journal, no. 1 (September 1978) September — UFOs are reported around Heathrow Airport in London, England. A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority denies that any are tracked on radar, but adds, “It’s in the interest of national security that not too much fuss is made about this sort of thing.” (Good Above, p. 72 ) September 1 — After 8:00 p.m. Several villagers in Llanerchymedd, Anglesey, Wales, including some teenagers and a man hunting rabbits, watch a bright white light descend slowly behind a new housing estate. An egg-shaped object is seen hovering and illuminating the trees. Other independent witnesses see a large silvery sphere above a field and watch the cows panic and hear neighborhood dogs start barking furiously. A Mrs. Parry and her young daughter look out from an upstairs bedroom and see three tall men in gray uniforms with caps or helmets attached to their suits walking across a field. Some of the teens run to the village to alert the police, who upon their arrival find the village in an uproar, thinking it has been invaded. At 10:00 p.m., Vivienne Roberts sees a purplish object with a mass of yellow lights above the vicarage. Her horses begin to panic and sweat profusely. Later, UFO investigators triangulate the position of the supposed landing site and find a circular patch of flattened barley and a path leading up to it. (Martin Keatman, “The Llanerchymedd UFO,” Flying Saucer Review 25, no. 5 (March 1980): 16–23; Story, p. 211 ) September 2 — 8:00–8:1 5 a.m. Roberto Pozzi, 14, hears a noise like ducks and hissing combined in a western suburb of Alessandrio, Piedmont, Italy. He sees an object over a nearby cornfield. It stops making noise, swings laterally, and shoots up into the air. He finds a 22-by- 10 - foot depressed area of cornstalks bent down halfway up the stalk. Two rows of stalks are bent to the east, a third row to the west. Other sightings take place in the same area around Alessandrio on September 3, 6, 7, and 13. (“UFO Flap 1978: Italian Style,” IUR 4, no. 3/4 (Sept./Oct. 1979): 14; 1Pinotti 217) September 3 — David W. Swift of the University of Hawaii Department of Sociology presents a paper prior to the American Sociological Association meeting in San Francisco, California, on the disconnect among scientists’ support for SETI research and their disdain for UFO research. (“Scientists’ Selection of New Areas for Investigation: UFOs or ETI?” IUR 3, no. 10/11 (Oct./Nov. 1978): 21–22) September 3 — 10:00 p.m. Edilia Cresta Gallo and three other women see a strip of white light descend between a road and a maize field in Alessandrio, Piedmont, Italy. The strip morphs into a bright fireball about 5 feet wide. It disappears and reappears twice more. The women complain of a burning sensation in their eyes. (“UFO Flap 19 78: Italian Style,” IUR 4, no. 3/4 (Sept./Oct. 1979): 14–15) September 4 — 12:15 a.m. A university professor in Gordon, Wisconsin, sees a flashing, pale-yellow ball of light as he is driving north on US Highway 53. It crosses the road in front of him only 50 feet away at an estimated 160 mph. It makes a sharp 90° turn parallel to the road, descending to about 15 feet, and travels parallel to his car at 60 mph about 150 feet west of the road. As he slows down to 20 mph for a better look, the light also slows down. When the light is 250 feet ahead, it goes out. (“A Professorial Witness,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 11) September 6 — 6:45 a.m. Juan O. Perez, 12, goes to gather a herd of horses near Venado Tuerto, Argentina. As he rides his horse, he senses something flying overhead. Several objects appear and begin maneuvering and shooting out beams of multicolored light. His horse panics, and Perez manages to ride home. His father berates him and tells him to go back. When he returns, he finds a large domed object with windows on the ground. A door opens and a 7 - foot-tall being wearing gloves and a cylindrical helmet appears. It seems to be attached to the object by some type of breathing apparatus. It invites Perez inside the craft, so he ties his horse to a ladder protruding from the bottom of the object and climbs in. His horse is panicked again and keeps kicking the object, injuring its leg. Inside, he sees a panel with buttons and some tables. A robot-like entity is cutting some animal bones into pieces. Perez tries touching the tall being and objects inside but is prevented by an invisible barrier. Perez jumps out the door and back to the ground. The tall being follows him outside. Perez asks for one of the giant’s gloves as proof of his experience. When it takes off the glove, Perez sees a green, claw-like hand with blue metallic nails. The tall being then pricks Perez’s right arm and apparently extracts some blood. As Perez rides home with the glove, two flying objects catch up to him and emit a small slab and sphere that descend and brush by the horse. They pull the glove up with a magnetic force. The wound on Perez’s arm stays open for many years and seeps a transparent liquid. A scar remains six years later when Perez has a medical check-up for military service; he is declared unfit because of the story he tells about its origin. After the event, Perez begins having premonitory dreams about unfortunate events. (Jacques Vallée, Confrontations: A Scientist ’ s Search for Alien Contact, Ballantine, 1990 , pp. 153 – 156 ; “Jacques Vallée: The Juan Perez UFO Case,” Above Top Secret, October 20, 2019; David Metcalfe,

“Witness of Another World: Exploring the Soul of a Phenomenon,” Exploring the Outer Edges of Society and Mind, October 21, 2019; Mark Pilkington, “The Gaucho Also Cries,” Fortean Times 391 (April 2020): 38–40; Internet Movie Database, “Witness of Another World”) September 6 — Late evening. Two witnesses at the San Michele boarding house in Sassello, Savona, Italy, see two round black objects close enough to form a figure 8. The are making sounds like incomprehensible radio chatter. They depart at great speed, leaving circular imprints behind. (“UFO Flap 1978: Italian Style,” IUR 4, no. 3/4 (Sept./Oct. 1979): 15) September 7 — 1:00 a.m. A college student in Dayton, Ohio, sees two bright orange lights, closely spaced horizontally. They remain stationary for 2 minutes, then dim and begin to move for 2–3 minutes. (“This One’s 50-50,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 11) September 7 — 8:40 p.m. Many people in the San Michele boarding house in Sassello, Savona, Italy, see a large luminous object hovering above La Carta to the east. The boarding house owner, Piera Viacava, switches on the TV, but the picture is distorted. The light moves south for a few minutes. Franco Viacava drives off in a Fiat with two friends toward the light, but their engine loses power and slows down. The radio and tape player also malfunction briefly. A French woman driving in the area has her car stopped as the object hovers suddenly above her. Her dog barks until the light goes away and the car resumes working. (“UFO Flap 1978: Italian Style,” IUR 4, no. 3/4 (Oct./Nov. 1979): 15) September 9 — 8:35 p.m. Airline pilots flying over the Mediterranean about 88 miles east of Barcelona, Spain, watch some unidentified lights for 35 minutes. Personnel from Barcelona Air Control Center maintain a conversation with the pilots but detect no targets on their radar screens. (Swords 434–435) September 10 — 8:30 p.m. Richard Renne is flying his single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza at 9,500 feet southeast at 170 mph near Bakersfield, Missouri, when he sees a yellowish-white light descending from 15,000 feet. It follows him behind his right wing, then shoots up to 20,000 feet in a perfectly straight trajectory. It moves back to his 3 o’clock position before it shoots off upward. (“But This One’s Good,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 11) September 10 — 10:15 p.m. A stationary formation of several dozen lights is seen at Dearborn Heights, Michigan, for 15 minutes before it disappears. (“Michigan NL,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 11–12) September 13 — 9:30 p.m. Angelo Ciompi watches a reddish disc moving in the eastern sky above Spinetta Marengo, Italy. It stops abruptly, drops down, and is lost to sight behind some houses. A column of flames rises up from the spot. Ciompi and others rush to the area and see a fire burning in the brushwood-covered wasteland. Firemen put out the blaze, but the area is overflown by lights in the evening that descend and ascend at the site. (“UFO Flap 1978: Italian Style,” IUR 4, no. 3/4 (Oct./Nov. 1979): 15) September 14 — 6:00 a.m. Hundreds of witnesses all over Italy, from Sicily to Florence, watch a luminous projectile moving northward. Italian ufologists are calling it a UFO rather than a meteor because a few accounts have it moving in a different direction or appearing to stop briefly. Probable meteor. (“UFO Flap 1978: Italian Style,” IUR 4, no. 3/4 (Oct./Nov. 1979): 15) September 15 — 2:30 a.m. A 31 - year-old woman is lying in bed awake for 30 minutes at her home in Delano, Tennessee, when a funny feeling makes her look outside. She stands at the south window looking out at fields and sees a bright moon and an object with lights in a long shape, red and pink as if on fire, in the southwest. Two “normal” men dressed in white suits can be seen about 300 feet from the window, but it is too dark for details. They start moving toward the house, but then stop and turn back. The UFO comes in fast at this point very close to the ground, then leaves quickly, climbing to the west. (“Tennessee Humanoids?” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 12; Patrick Gross, URECAT, May 15, 2010) September 15 — 4:00 a.m. A 26-year-old secretary is awakened in Carpentersville, Illinois, by a whirring sound. She goes to the bedroom window to look outside. The noise stops, but then she sees the figure of a 6 - foot tall man. He is dressed in a silvery suit. Several feet away from him she sees a small, silver, domed disc (about 3 feet wide by 2 feet tall) sitting on the edge of the grass. It is opaque and smooth and the source of the whirring sound. The witness then screams at her husband to wake up, and her dog starts barking furiously. They both try to phone the police but the phone is not working. When the police arrive 15 minutes later, both the visitor and the UFO are gone. (“Stuffing a 6-Foot Ufonaut into a 2-Foot UFO,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 12; Patrick Gross, URECAT, October 27, 2009) September 16 — 1:30 a.m. Stephen Colclough and his girlfriend are driving through Dilhorne, Staffordshire, England, when they notice a red and white light moving across the sky. Suddenly an enormous black object looms up in front of them, completely silent, and shoots a powerful searchlight beam for at least 3 seconds. (“UFO Shot a Beam of Light at Our Car: Claim,” Stoke-on-Trent (UK) Evening Sentinel, September 16, 1978; Marler 102) September 17 — 8:00 p.m. Hairdresser Rivo Faralli hears an explosion like a rifle shot at Torrita di Siena, Italy. He goes to visit his mother on the other side of town, who has also heard the noise and seen a flash of light that causes the

lights and TV to go out. When Faralli is driving home at 9:00 p.m. on the Via Pié agli Orti, the engine and lights of his car die. He feels paralyzed as he watches a domed disc come near and float inches from the ground. The dome opens up and two 3.5-foot-tall beings emerge, floating 4 inches from the ground. They are wearing green one-piece suits; their helmets have clear visors and two small spiraling antennas. Their faces look like green- skinned skulls through the visors. Faralli watches them make a full circle around the car without noise or gesture, then return to the UFO, which rises up several yards, seemingly propelled by three red, orange, and blue-colored beams, and shoots off vertically. The car starts on its own. He returns to the site the following day and finds three burn marks in the unpaved road. Digging into the ground, he finds the earth carbonized to a depth of 8 inches. Soil samples are taken to the European Atomic Energy Community labs at Ispra, which finds that the road material has been burned by a temperature less than 500° Celsius, and not by a bonfire or hydrocarbon fuels. (Roberto Pinotti, “Landing, E.M. Effects, and Entities at Torrita di Siena,” Flying Saucer Review 25, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1979): 3–6; Maurizio Verga, “Another CEIII Report from Italy,” Flying Saucer Review 25, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1979): 6–7; “UFO Flap 1978: Italian Style,” IUR 4 , no. 3/4 (Sept./Oct. 1979): 15–16; Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34 , no. 1 (Sept. 2011): 18 ; UFOEv II 495 – 496 ; 1Pinotti 220–223; Patrick Gross, URECAT, January 15, 2012) September 18 — 3:30 p.m. Giorgio Filiputti is fishing in the Corno river at the point where the Zumiel irrigation canal runs into it south of San Giorgio di Nogaro, Udine, Italy, when he hears a whistling sound, sees vegetation rustling, and feels a blast of air. Climbing up the riverbank to investigate, he sees a domed disc about 13–16 feet in diameter that is resting on a mudflat 6 6 feet away. The object is brassy or yellowish metallic with telescopic legs that terminate in flat pads. A figure about 3.5 feet tall appears from behind the dome, walking around the rim. It wears tight-fitting coveralls of scaly, silvery material that sparkles in the sunlight. It wears boots, has two containers at waist level, and white gloves. Its face is dark bronze with almond-shaped eyes and large pupils. The entity stares at the shocked Filiputti. After a few minutes it begins walking again, stoops down, and works on a horseshoe-shaped protrusion on the dome. Finally, it continues walking around to the other side. Filiputti hears a rumbling sound and a piercing whistle as the object begins to rise, withdrawing its landing gear. The underside looks like it has a grid pattern, and it emits a bluish glow like a tongue of flame. When it reaches an altitude of 33 feet, it turns on edge and speeds out of sight to the southwest. He has been watching it for about 6 minutes. Three circular imprints about 20 inches in diameter are found in the dry mud and sand. (Antonio Chiumiento, “‘The Little Oriental Airman’: Another Remarkable C.E.III Case in Italy,” Flying Saucer Review 28, no. 5 (June 1983): 3 – 8; UFOEv II 497–498; 1Pinotti 223–230) September 20 — 3:40 p.m. G. W. Schoen is spreading fertilizer on a farm near Westminster, Maryland, when he notices a gray, pear-shaped object tilted at an angle and flying above the edge of a wooded area. He can see plates, girders, cylinders, and other structures on it. Schoen senses that it is exerting a mild “pulling” force on him. It is visible for 30–35 seconds before it passes behind a cloud. He estimates it is 340–350 feet long. (“Correspondence,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1982): 4) September 20 — 5:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m. Hundreds of people watch a white, roughly triangular object over Tuscany, Italy. It moves northeast and turns red. Probable balloon. (“UFO Flap 1978: Italian Style,” IUR 4, no. 3/4 (Oct./Nov. 1979): 16– 17 ) September 21 — 8:00 p.m. A young man walking near a yard in Cosenza, Calabria, Italy, sees the area illuminated as if by daylight. The surrounding blocks are lost to view. On a hill he sees an oval object and a human shape with two antennae. Frightened, he runs away but falls as four humanoids come closer to him by jumps. He faints, and when he comes to he is surrounded by four entities wearing buttoned jackets, a rucksack, and helmets with antennae. Their hands look like pincers. He faints again and walks up at 8:30 p.m., but the UFO and entities are gone. (Paolo Fiorino, Gian Paolo Grassino, and Antonio Chiumiento, “Abductions in Italy,” IUR 14, no. 4 (July/Aug.1989): 15) September 23 — 4:30 a.m. Carlos Acevedo and Angel Moya are driving a Citroën CG on the flat pampas south of Buenos Aires, Argentina, stragglers on the final leg of a 39-day stock car race. They notice a yellow and violet light shining in their rear-view mirror, approaching fast. Suddenly, the engine and headlights quit, then the car is lifted 15 feet off the road and set down again one minute later 75 miles north. The gasoline tank is also allegedly drained. (San Diego (Calif.) Union, November 14, 1978; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 2) September 23 — 1:28 p.m. A man is driving past a cattle lot 2 miles north of Dexter, Iowa, when he sees a silver cigar- shaped object 150 feet above the ground. He jumps out of his truck and tries to get underneath it as it hovers, but it moves off to the northeast and is gone in less than a minute. (“Another Daylight Cigar,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 12) September 23– 24 — Around 12:00 midnight. Two cable car technicians at the Bâlea Lake resort, Romania, are awakened by a red light visible through dense fog. It is apparently coming from an object some 30 feet outside their

window. The light disappears. At the same time, at a military barracks on the site where soldiers have been assigne dwork duties, Cpl. Ioan Dörr gets up and goes outside for a drink of water from a tap at the corner of the building and sees a dark, motionless silhouette only a few feet away. It persists for at least another 5 minutes. The next evening at 11:45 p.m., Sgt. Ion Radu notices a dark figure about 8 feet tall moving slowly on a mound some 65 feet away. Noticing that something had broken open the shutters of their barracks windows, some of the soldiers begin throwing stones at it. Radu approaches to within 4 feet of the figure and raises a club to hit it, but he feels a hot blast and falls backward into the snow. Two other soldiers with him remain paralyzed for a few seconds. The entity moves away with kind of a floating motion. Radu remains unconscious for about 10 minutes as the soldiers try to resuscitate him. Five soldiers see a “wreath of lights” at the spot where the figure had stood and others hear mysterious scratching at the window shutters. The next morning they find four parallel scratches on the shutters about 4 inches apart. The soldiers all decide to spend the next night at a nearby resort. (Romania 130 – 132) September 24 — 5:30 p.m. Two witnesses see a silver oval moving from east to west in Vineland, New Jersey. (“Daylight Oval,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 13) September 26 — 12:05 a.m. A 19-year-old grocery worker is driving on Lunn Road in Strongsville, Ohio, when she sees on her left a flat-domed disc edge on. She stops her car, and the object moves closer. When it is right in front of her car over the road, her FM radio gets lost in static for 10–15 seconds and her headlights flash off for one second. Then the object slowly rises up and flies off out of sight to her right. (“Another EM Story,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 13) September 27 — 8:00 a.m. Katarzyna Kolińska is on her way to school in Przyrownica from Magnusy, Poland, when she sees a bright flash of light near a mountain. The children who arrive at the school before classes go to a small nearby grove of trees to play. There they encounter a strange man, 5.5 feet tall with a green face and dark costume, who is walking through the forest 30 feet away. He turns to face the children, and they panic and run back to school, one child losing his shoe in the rush. The teacher returns with some of the children to the spot, but student Anna Jarocińska goes in the wrong direction and meets only 480 feet from the school a being whose face is a “featureless mask.” (Poland 43–45) September 27 — 1:00 p.m. Henryk Marciniak is picking mushrooms in the forest near Golina, Poland. He notices a strange landed object standing on four legs about 330 feet away in a clearing. When he rides over to investigate, a door opens and two small beings with unpleasant faces and greenish skin emerge, walking down some steps that have appeared. They approach him, one poking at the motorcycle and the other holding a device like a camera. The first one takes his bag of mushrooms. Marciniak shakes hands with them and tries to indicate the mushrooms are edible and the bike is for riding. Suddenly a buzzing sound comes from the object. The two entities go back inside and the object takes off and disappears. Many years later Marciniak denies the story, possibly because he wants to be left alone. (Poland 45–46) September 27 — 7:25 p.m. Two witnesses see a formation of lights above a suburban forest preserve in Gurnee, Illinois. One steady red light is on top, two steady yellow lights are below them, and one blue flashing light is seen briefly. It suddenly drops halfway to the ground and back up again in 5 seconds before moving off to the north. (“Illinois NL,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 13) September 28 — 2:00 a.m. Two women driving south through a residential area of Omaha, Nebraska, sees a dark cone- shaped object approaching her from the right. It has three bright white lights on the bottom. The object slows down, flying low, and the witnesses pass by it. A pre-recorded tape in the car’s player gets completely erased as this happens, even though other tapes in a box are not affected. (“A ‘Zapped’ Cassette,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 13) September 28 — 7:20 p.m. A man in Kettering, Ohio, spots a grayish cigar reflecting the light of the setting sun. Flying silently with its long dimension in the direction of travel, it seems to be 10,000 feet or lower. (“What’s Going on in Ohio? Another Daylight Cigar!” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 13) September 29 — A resident Indian woman sees a disc-shaped object take off from the Groendal Nature Reserve near Uitenhage, Eastern Cape, South Africa. (MUFON UFO Journal, October 1978)

October — John Acuff’s mismanagement of NICAP (destruction of the reporting network, loss of members, paying himself a $20,000 contractor’s fee) leads to his resignation as director. Acuff remains on the board and keeps the case files in his personal possession. He is replaced by Alan Hall, a retired CIA employee who accepts the position after a number of other ex-CIA men are offered the job. Support for Hall on the NICAP board comes from Charles Lombard, an aide to Sen. Barry Goldwater and a former covert CIA employee. Lombard and John Fisher are voted onto the board. (Richard H. Hall, “The Quest for the Truth about UFOs: A Personal Perspective

on the Role of NICAP,” in 1994 MUFON UFO Symposium Proceedings, MUFON, 1994, pp. 185–201; ClearIntent, p. 207 ) October? — 12:00 noon. Two Chilean F-5 aircraft piloted by Capts. Hernán Gabrielli Rojas and Danilo Catalán Farias are on a training mission near Mejillones, Chile. Both pilots see a radar target that gives a return equal to 10 aircraft carriers. Ground radar at Cerro Moreno airport [now Andrés Sabella Gálvez International Airport] in Antofagasta picks up the object and confirms its large size. The pilots continue to fly south between 30,000–35,000 feet. At a distance of 20 miles, they see an object “like a plantain banana” swathed in smoke. They approach it cautiously with their gun cameras on, but the UFO disappears at a huge speed to the west, heading toward Easter Island, vanishing from all three radar screens. Duration is 5 minutes. (Martin Shough and Wim van Utrecht, “Antofagasta, Chile: October 1978,” Caelestia, October 31, 2018) October 2 — 11:15 a.m. Four students, ages 12 – 16, from Despatch, Eastern Cape, South Africa, are hiking in the Groendal Nature Reserve when they see a silver object on the ground. About 900 feet to the west of it are two beings in silver suits that seem to glide without walking. A third being joins them, holding a silver “suitcase,” and they glide along a fence along a steep incline a short way before vanishing. The silver object disappears too. Later, three forest workers find 7-inch oval footprints about one mile from the site. On October 18, three South African police officers and two trackers visit the encounter site and find a large area of depressed grass with 8 symmetrical marks around its perimeter and 4 marks within the oval area. (“South African CE III,” IUR 5, no. 1a (January 1980): 7) October 6 — 3:00 a.m. Two witnesses driving west on US Highway 87 halfway between Capulin and Des Moines, New Mexico, see an octagonal object several times larger than the moon with light shining through sections of it. As it passes above their car, it seems to be metallic. (“The Octagonal Tank,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 14) October 7 — A woman is driving with her 13-year-old nephew near San Cataldo, Sicily, Italy, when one of her tires has a blow-out. She repairs the tire but cannot start the car again. Above at an altitude of 50 feet, she sees a silver object resembling a plate turned upside down, about 65 feet in diameter. It emits a strong light, and the bottom has a transparent door through which she can see three or four shadows passing behind it. The UFO leaves quickly with a humming sound after 5–10 minutes. (Maurizio Verga, “La vague italienne de 1978 (Deuxième Partie),” Lumières dans la Nuit, no. 210 (December 1981): 32; Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part Two,” IUR 34, no. 1 (Sept. 2011): 20; Patrick Gross, URECAT, November 17, 2009) October 7 — 6:30 p.m. Two truck drivers on US Highway 224 near Lodi, Ohio, see a tight formation of pink/red lights flashing on and off floating toward them to the north. They both stop to get out and look. All four lights break formation and move off in different directions, disappearing in seconds. (“Intriguing Ohio NL’s,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 14) October 8 — 7:00–9:00 a.m. A very small object is seen resting in a field 300 feet from the Marlett Sturgell farmhouse near Jenkins, Missouri. For 2 hours it is watched intermittently by his wife Dora, son Norman, son-in-law, and two others, all members of the Sturgell family. At 9:00 a.m., it ascends and moves off to the northwest. The witnesses then notice a larger, more distant object, wingless, hovering in the sky. The small object heads directly toward it and either flies under it or enters into it. It moves away rapidly and disappears. (“Physical Trace Case in Missouri,” IUR 3, no. 12 (December 1978): 11–13; Donald L. Seneker and George M. Koch, “Missouri Landing- Trace Case,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 135 (May 1979): 3 – 7 ; Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects: A Further Look,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 26) October 8 — 10:30 a.m. Teenager Franklin Youri takes a photo of an unusual object behind his home near Lake Urmia, Iran. It appears just above the line of the roof, and its shape is similar to the May 13 Iranian photo. (“Interesting Newly Discovered Photo from Iran,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 7 (July 1981): 1, 3; “Sheraz, Iran, October 8, 1978,” Popular Mechanics, July 1998, p. 64) October 8 — 5:11 p.m. A couple in Huntington Park, California, watch a huge black disc at a high altitude moving toward the Sierra Madre Mountains in the northeast. (“Who Else Saw This Monstrous Disc?” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 14) October 8 — 7:10 p.m. A student takes a photo of a distant daylight disc from his home, 2 miles east of Anderson, South Carolina. (“UFO Photo,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 14–15) October 8 — 10:40 p.m. Elfed Williams is driving south on the A5025 near Penysarn, Anglesey, Wales, when he sees an orange light that passes overhead and hovers in the southwest. He stops at a friend’s house in the village and they continue to watch the light, which increases in size and is still hovering silently at about 200 feet. At first it looks like two saucers joined at the rims by a black band, but when it begins approaching the witnesses, it takes on the shape of an orange-hued triangle. It moves away then shoots off at a fast speed, (Kevin Babbs, “Expanding UFO over Anglesey,” Flying Saucer Review 25, no, 1 (Jan./Feb. 1979): 23–24)

October 8 — 11:30 p.m. A Mr. and Mrs. Trantor are driving along the A580 near Lowton, England, when their headlight beams catch a figure standing in the grassy strip between the two lanes. It is well over 6 feet tall and dressed in a silver-foil reflective suit. It is immersed in orange light. Stunned, they drive past it. (Jenny Randles, “Fake Photographs, Real Sightings,” IUR 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1986): 8– 9 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, April 26, 2012) October 10 — 6:35 a.m. A chemistry professor in Agoura Hills, California, goes outside to observe Jupiter and sees another bright object to the south of it. It is moving slowly and soon splits into two lights, one brighter than the other. They spread apart and move away at different speeds. (“Another Nocturnal Light That Split Up,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 15) October 10 — 9:30 p.m. A Mrs. Grime and her two sons, 15 and 21, see a silvery disc ringed by flashing white lights near their home in Leigh, England. They can see three bumps on its underside. It makes a faint humming sound as it moves overhead. (Jenny Randles, “Fake Photographs, Real Sightings,” IUR 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1986): 9) October 20 — Dusk. Kate Chmurny, an archaeologist at Plymouth State College in New Hampshire, watches a triangular object flying at 30 mph northward along Interstate 93 at a height of 100 feet above the Pemigewasset River floodplain in Campton, New Hampshire. It is about 20 feet wide and completely silent, moving by raising and lowering one side. The object has a single bright white light on the underside and rows of red and greenish lights along the edges that reflect against a metallic surface. (Joseph K. Long, “Letter,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 2 (April/May 1983): 5–8) October 21 — 7:06 p.m. Australian pilot Frederick Valentich, 20, is on a 145-mile training flight in a Cessna 182L light aircraft over Bass Strait between Moorabbin, Victoria, and King Island. He radios Melbourne air traffic control to report that an unidentified aircraft is following him at 4,500 feet. He is told there is no known traffic at that level. Valentich can see a large, unknown aircraft that appears to be illuminated by four bright landing lights. He is unable to confirm its type but says it has passed about 1,000 feet overhead and is moving at high speed. Then he says the aircraft is approaching him from the east, thinking that the other pilot might be purposely toying with him. The other aircraft is “orbiting” above him. It has a shiny metal surface and a green light on it. Then he begins experiencing engine problems. Asked to identify the aircraft, Valentich radios, “It’s not an aircraft.” His transmission is then interrupted by unidentified noise described as being “metallic, scraping sounds” before all contact is lost. A sea and air search is undertaken that includes oceangoing ship traffic, an RAAF Lockheed P- 3 Orion aircraft, plus eight civilian aircraft. The search encompasses more than 1,000 square miles. Search efforts cease on October 25 without result. A Department of Transport investigation into the disappearance is unable to determine the cause, but it is “presumed fatal” for Valentich. In 1983, an engine cowl flap is found washed ashore on Flinders Island. In July 1983, the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation asks the Royal Australian Navy Research Laboratory about the likelihood that the cowl flap might have traveled to its final position from the area where the aircraft disappeared. The bureau notes that “the part has been identified as having come from a Cessna 182 aircraft between a certain range of serial numbers.” which includes Valentich’s aircraft. At least 15 other UFOs are reported between midday and 9:00 p.m., six in Victoria, one on King Island, and others further away. Roy Manifold, vacationing at Crayfish Bay, Cape Otway, Victoria, inadvertently takes two photos of peculiar black objects just 20 minutes before Valentich reported his sighting. (Wikipedia, “Disappearance of Frederick Valentich”; “Fred Valentich: The Missing Australian Pilot,” IUR 3, no. 12 (December 1978): 2–10; Bill Chalker, “The Missing Cessna and the UFO,” Flying Saucer Review 24, no. 5 (March 1979): 3–5; Bill Chalker, “Vanished? The Valentich Affair Re-examined,” Flying Saucer Review 30, no. 2 (December 1984): 6–12; Richard F. Haines, Melbourne Episode: Case Study of a Missing Pilot, L.D.A. Press, 1987; Keith Basterfield, Vladimir Godic, and Pony Godic, “Australian Ufology: A Review,” JUFOS 2 (1990): 31– 32 ; Good Above, pp. 175 – 182 , 461 – 463 ; ClearIntent, pp. 93 – 96 ; UFOEv II 138–140; Kean, pp. 54 – 58 ; Richard F. Haines and Paul Norman, “Valentich Disappearance: New Evidence and a New Conclusion,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 14, no. 1 (2000): 19– 33 ; Clark III 1208– 1212 ) October 23 — 6:30–8:30 p.m. Some 200 people involved in 67 sighting reports watch a lighted delta-shaped UFO over Leicestershire, England. (“Throwing a Light on UFO,” Leicester (UK) Mercury, December 2, 1985, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 199 (February 1986): 12; Marler 103, 120) October 23 — 10:04 p.m. Chinese Air Force pilots are attending an outdoor film screening at Lintao Air Base, Gansu province, China, when an elongated object with two searchlights and a glowing tail appears in the sky moving to the west. Chinese Air Force pilot Zhou Qingtong says it is large and close to the ground. They watch it for 2– 3 minutes as it circles above them. A report in the CIA files indicates it is flying at 20,000 feet, varying from witness reports. (“UFO Report from China,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 2 (February 1981): 5; “A Close Encounter with Unpleasant Consequences,” Flying Saucer Review 28, no. 4 (March 1983): 25; Good Above, pp. 213 – 214 ; Wendelle Stevens and Paul Dong, UFOs over Modern China, UFO Photo Archives, 1983 , pp. 119–120)

October 25 — 5:00 a.m. Giuseppe di Giovanni, a 51-year-old farmer, is in search of a stray cow in the hills of San Donato di Tagliacozzo, Abruzzo, Italy, when he comes to an open field and spots a large light-brown object shaped like a shoeshine box on the ground. Lighted windows surround the craft. He approaches to within 3 feet and sees 6 – 7 humanoid beings inside. They are small and humanlike, both male and female. The women are blonde and have beautiful pink skin. They smile at him. The men are uglier, have darker skin, and appear elderly. They ignore him. Frightened, he runs behind a bush. When he looks out again, the object is gone. (“UFO Flap 1978: Italian Style,” IUR 4, no. 3/4 (Sept./Oct. 1979): 17– 18 ; 1Pinotti 238–239) October 25 — The US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act creates a “secret federal court” (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court) for issuing wiretap warrants in national security cases. This is in response to findings from the Watergate break-in, which allegedly uncovers a history of presidential operations that has used surveillance on domestic and foreign political organizations. (Wikipedia, “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act”) October 2 6 — Night. RCMP Constable James Blackwood receives a report about a UFO hovering above Random Island across from Clarenville, Newfoundland. He heads down to the waterfront and sees an object about 200 feet above the sound. He observes it for nearly two hours with binoculars and a high-powered scope. It is soundless, oval, and has a fin on its tail. When Blackwood flashes the lightbar on his cruiser, the object mimics it by flashing some lights of its own. (“ICYMI: Story of UFO Sighting in Newfoundland Town Is in Mint Condition,” Saltwire, October 8, 2020) October 28 — 10:45 p.m. Joyce Blackburn is putting out milk bottles on the step of her bungalow on the south side of Warrington, England. She sees a strange light hovering above the Fiddler’s Ferry Power Station. Her husband and two children also watch the UFO until it starts pulsating and moving away. Its glow is so bright that their eyes hurt in looking at it through binoculars. It vanishes, then reappears heading toward them at an angle. They can see it is a disc with a dome on top, tilted slightly toward them. As it passes over their heads, they hear a faint humming noise and can see three orange bumps in a triangular formation on its underside. It moves away to the northeast toward another power station. Total duration is 7 minutes. (Jenny Randles, “Fake Photographs, Real Sightings,” IUR 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1986): 10–11) October 2 9 — 11:15 p.m. Janet Fletcher is stopped at a traffic light in Woolston, England, when she gets static on her radio for a few seconds. She sees a bell-shaped object to the east hovering above a rail line. It has a bright light on top and rings of light circling the base, which has three glowing inset lights or bumps. After 30 seconds, it tilts at an angle and begins to move away, apparently descending. She moves forward when the light changes, but she does not see it again. (Jenny Randles, “Fake Photographs, Real Sightings,” IUR 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1986): 9) October 30 — 6:30 p.m. Two teenagers see a triangular UFO over a field in Sherman, Texas. The object shoots a blue light at the witnesses, temporarily blinding them. (“Sherman Youth ‘Sights’ UFO,” Denison (Tex.) Herald, October 31, 1978, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 114 (January 1979): 1)

November — A new civilian UFO “initiative group” holds its inaugural seminar at Moscow University in Russia. It is directed by former navy officer and ufologist Vladimir G. Azhazha with the assistance of Nikita A. Schnee. Launched under the auspices of the A. S. Popov Scientific and Technical Society for Radio, Electronics, and Television, the group calls itself BPVTS for short. Members include Lev M. Gindilis of the Sternberg State Astronomical Institute in Moscow, Vice Admiral M. M. Krylov, space technician Y. G. Nazarov, and cosmonaut Yevgeny Khrunov. At the seminar, some individuals storm into the auditorium and disrupt the meeting; university officials ask the group to leave. Schnee claims that Felix Ziegel is responsible for the disruption in order to thwart the activities of civilian researchers. (Nikita A. Schnee, “Ufology in the USSR,” Flying Saucer Review 27, no. 1 (June 1981): 8–10) November 1 — The Air Force decides to produce an F-117A stealth fighter based on the mostly successful tests of Have Blue aircraft at Tonopah Test Range in Nevada. The contract goes to Lockheed’s Skunk Works. (“Lockheed F- 117 Nighthawk”) November 1 — 7:45 p.m. Jenny Randles’s father is getting static on his VHF radio channel at their home in Irlam, Greater Manchester, England. Shortly afterward, they both hear a loud roar. She looks out the window and sees a row of four white lights that drift slowly past from west to east. An hour later, Randles goes outside and talks to 9 children who have been playing outside. They have seen the object too. It is diamond shaped and framed by lights that do not flash. Some report three lights or bumps on the underside. (Jenny Randles, “Fake Photographs, Real Sightings,” IUR 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1986): 9–10) November 7 — 9:30 p.m. A witness traveling west on US Highway 20 near South Bend, Indiana, notices a bright light in the sky, much larger than a star. Suddenly it moves directly to the south of her location at a fast rate of speed. As it approached, it disappears and she hears a tremendous roar that shakes the ground. Suddenly, an object banks directly in front of her car about 90 feet away and no more than 20 feet above the ground, making a slow,

deliberate turn, then hovering or moving slowly and silently in front of her, then passing behind her car. It is ringed with small windows and has alternating and flashing blue and red lights near each window. She turns around but loses sight of it. (“Recently Received Sighting Reports,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 4 (April 1981): 6) November 8 — 5:30 p.m. While fishing in the Adriatic Sea off San Benedetto del Tronto, Marche, Italy, on board the Exodus, three fishermen—Flaviano Mattiucci, Gennaro Mattiucci, and Dino Focaracci—see, at low altitude and for a few seconds, a red and yellow spherical light. After emerging from the sea, it seems to return into it, after rising and falling from the sky. About one hour later, the radar of another fishing boat, the Andrea Padre, reports a moving submerged object, which appears to follow the vessel. (NICAP, “Ship Tracks Submerged Object / Boat Observes Light”) November 9 — The CIA contacts the NSA with a referral of 15 UFO documents for review for possible declassification through the GSW lawsuit. (ClearIntent, p. 181 ) November 9 or 10 — A cylinder-shaped UFO “bigger than a jumbo jet” with a large dome and flashing lights appears over the northern oil fields of the Kuwaiti Oil Company at Umm Al-Aish, Kuwait, causing the pumping station to automatically shut down. It lands and remains on the ground for seven minutes. When the UFO vanishes, the pump starts working again. There are seven witnesses, one of them an American. This and other sightings compel the government of Kuwait to appoint a committee of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research to investigate the reports. (NICAP, “Major UFO/E-M Incidents over Kuwait”; “UFOs over Kuwait,” APRO Bulletin 27, no. 7 (January 1979): 1; “Kuwaiti Landing,” IUR 5, no. 1a (January 1980): 6; ClearIntent, p. 90 ; Clark III 662) November 13 — 4:00 p.m. Elizabeth McKibben, a British nurse at the Inuit settlement of Black Tickle, Labrador, sees a red-orange light to the west hanging motionless at 1,000 feet above some houses for 30 minutes. A second light appears suddenly and moves underneath the first, and both begin a slow descent and disappear. Several young students also see the object and make drawings of it. A fire had broken out 2 miles west on the tundra about 3 hours before the sighting, apparently caused by “fireballs” hitting the ground. Teacher Stephen MacDonald goes to help put out the fires at Martins Pond, where the tundra is burning in patches [methane outgassing?]. (“Canadian Trace?” IUR 5, no. 1a (January 1980): 6) November 15 — Four military aircraft are flying over eastern Washington State when an unknown object is detected on radar at 13,000 feet some 40 miles away. One of the jets is ordered to approach the object. The pilot gets a visual confirmation but cannot lock on with his in-flight radar. The interceptor comes within 8 miles of the object but is forced to turn away by low fuel. (MUFON UFO Journal, August 1983) November 20 — 9:30 p.m. A female medical technician, her sister, daughter, and two housemaids experience a power failure in their home in a northern suburb of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. They see a bright light in the sky that shoots out bright blue rays. It moves off behind a hill, and two small lights, one yellow, the other reddish, approach from the same hill. The witnesses run upstairs and watch from a window. The lights stop next to a road, the Avenida de los Martires, as a car comes along and illuminates them with its headlights. The women now see that the lights are attached to the abdomens of two flying entities, which appear to be cone-shaped, twice as tall as a normal-sized man, and wearing white translucent sheets. Three silhouettes cross the car’s headlights, and all the lights (including the car’s) go out. The witnesses hear a metallic noise like a garage door. Then the two lights turn on again and fly off. The power in the house returns. The episode lasts 45 minutes. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 2; Patrick Gross, URECAT, December 3, 2009) November 21 — 5:30 a.m. A UFO appears over a Kuwaiti oilfield at Al-Sabriyah near the Iraqi border. An employee of the company takes photos of it as it passes a water tower and then hovers over the site for 30 minutes. Long- distance communications cease functioning. The internal phone system works, however, and workers are able to alert their boss, who steps outside and sees the object. (“UFOs over Kuwait,” APRO Bulletin 27, no. 7 (January 1979): 1, 3; “Kuwaiti Landing,” IUR 5, no. 1a (January 1980): 6; Clark III 663) November 22 — 5:30 p.m. Elsie Oakensen is driving home to Church Stowe, Northamptonshire, England, on the A5 when she passes beneath a hovering object shaped like a dumbbell with red and green lights. As she turns onto Main Street, her foot is flat on the accelerator but there is no sound from her engine and her car coasts to a halt. Her car lights fail as circles of light dance around the road, illuminating a nearby farmyard. The car restarts, but she only drives about 300 feet when it stops again. She claims the “natural light” disappears and she is enveloped in pure darkness. Then suddenly a white circle of light approximately 3 feet in diameter shines on the road, as if someone has pressed on a switch, the normal light returns, and she drives the car normally. She estimates she has about 15 minutes of missing time. Later, at 7:10 p.m., she feels a tightening sensation around her forehead, one that she remembers having felt just prior to the encounter. At 7:20 p.m., four young women driving through the nearby village of Preston Capes see red and green lights and beams shooting out from clouds as their car engine temporarily loses power. After trying hypnosis with minimal results, Oakensen tries creative visualization at the

scene and recovers some abduction memories. (Patrick Gross, URECAT, November 13, 2011; Jenny Randles, “Much More Than Marsh Gas,” Fortean Times 311 (March 2014): 27) November 24 — 11:45 a.m. Angelo d’Ambros, 61, is out gathering firewood in a copse near Gallio, Vicenza, Italy, when he comes across two entities just a few feet away from him. One is about 4 feet tall, the other about 8 inches shorter. They are suspended in the air about a foot off the ground. They are extremely thin and have a yellowish skin that is stretched tightly over their bones. Their heads are bald, and at the sides are enormous ears that rise vertically and end in points. Their eyes are large and white, without eyelids. Their large noses extend down to the lower lip of a sizable mouth from which extend two tusks. They wear tight-fitting coveralls. The smaller one starts moving back and forth from right to left in very quick jerks. Its motion causes a stir in the air, and vegetation rustles as the tips of its ears touch the lower branches of nearby trees. Incomprehensible grumblings come from the mouth of the shorter entity. The taller being reaches one of its long hands to take away d’Ambros’s pruning knife. D’Ambros holds on to it tightly, but he feels a strong electric shock. He grabs a large branch and takes a swipe at them as they take flight. D’Ambros runs after them, and he watches them make for a domed UFO resting in a clearing 100 feet away on four landing pods. The entities climb aboard, and the object takes off horizontally at a dizzying speed in absolute silence and disappears behind high fir trees. The next day he returns to the clearing and finds a nearly circular area about 12 feet in diameter in which the grass appears black, pressed, and whirled in a counterclockwise direction. D’Ambros discovers two U-shaped traces about 8 inches long. (“Two Humanoids in Gallio,” IUR 8, no. 3 (May/June 1983): 8– 11 ; Antonio Chiumiento, “Gallio: Faccia a faccia con due ufonauti,” Notiziario UFO 3, no. 4/5 (April/May 1980): 4–9; Antonio Chiumiento, “Umanoidi a Gallio, Seconda Parte,” Notiziario UFO 16, no. 99 (May/Dec. 1981): 16–19; 1Pinotti 241– 250 ) November 27 — J. Allen Hynek, Jacques Vallée, Stanton T. Friedman, Lawrence J. Coyne, and Grenada Ambassador at Large Wellington Friday speak before the UN Special Political Committee. Grenada seeks to interest the UN in a three-member panel to initiate a formal UFO study program, but its efforts are unavailing. (Clark III 1190; J. Allen Hynek, “Ufologists and the United Nations: A Novel Moment in the History of UFO Research,” IUR 3, no. 10/11 (Oct./Nov. 1978): 3–18)

December — Alan N. Hall, a retired CIA employee, officially becomes president of NICAP among baseless charges that a sinister CIA conspiracy has undermined the organization. He operates out of his home without access to the files. (“To Our Readers,” UFO Investigator, April 1979, p. 3; Richard H. Hall, “The Quest for the Truth about UFOs: A Personal Perspective on the Role of NICAP,” in 1994 MUFON UFO Symposium Proceedings, MUFON, 1994, pp. 185– 201 ) December 1 — President Jimmy Carter establishes the Information Security Oversight Office through Executive Order 12065, “National Security Information.” The office is under the jurisdiction of the National Archives and Records Administration, and its mission is to provide for an informed American public by ensuring that the minimum information necessary to the interest of national security is classified and that information is declassified as soon as it no longer requires protection. (Wikipedia, “Information Security Oversight Office”) December 2 — A civil servant takes a photo of a UFO as he is walking along a beach in Kuwait. It shows a domed disc with a self-luminous tube protruding from the bottom. Other witnesses also see the UFO. (“UFOs over Kuwait,” APRO Bulletin 27, no. 7 (January 1979): 3; Clark III 6 63 ) December 4 — The CIA passes on three other UFO documents to the NSA for declassification review. (ClearIntent, p. 181 ) December 6 — 11:30 p.m. While patrolling at Marzano, near Torriglia, a village northeast of Genoa, Italy, 26-year-old night watchman Piero Fortunato Zanfretta notices four lights moving in a courtyard. He gets out of his car holding his pistol and flashlight, moving cautiously along a house wall. Something pushes him forward and he falls. When he gets up, his head hits something and he points his flashlight upward to see a 6-foot-tall creature with an ugly face. Terrified, he runs to the car and is blinded by a yellow, triangle-shaped object taking off from behind the house. He calls for help on the radio. When his colleagues arrive at 1:00 a.m., they find him lying in a nearby lawn in a confused state of mind. On December 23, Zanfretta is hypnotized by a medical doctor. An abduction scenario emerges in which he is taken to a bright room by giant entities who put a hot and painful helmet on his head. The humanoids are green-skinned and have yellow triangular eyes, red veins on their heads, pointed ears, and rounded fingers. Further abductions and memories emerge over time, finally ceasing in 198 0. (“UFO Flap 1978: Italian Style, Part Two, December,” IUR 4, no. 5 (November 1979): 13– 15 ; Paolo Fiorino, Gian Paolo Grassino, and Antonio Chiumiento, “Abductions in Italy,” IUR 14, no. 4 (July/Aug.1989): 15– 16 ; Rino Di Stefano, The Zanfretta Case: Chronicle of an Incredible True Story, The Author, 2014; Jason Charbonneau, “Zanfretta Abductions, 1978–1981,” Think Anomalous, May 6, 2017; 1Pinotti 253–258)

December 8 — The United Nations meetings on UFOs conclude, resulting in UN Decision 33/426 relating to the “establishment of an agency or a department of the United Nations for undertaking, coordinating, and disseminating the results of research into unidentified flying objects and related phenomena.” Beyond newspaper publicity, the meetings have no impact and no other nation backs Grenada. (“Grenada UFO Item,” WikiLeaks, [telegram], December 8, 1978) December 8 — 11:00 p.m. Two young men walking along a mountain slope near Milanere, Torino, Italy, see a blue-white light among the trees. One of them walks toward it, but he disappears. A few minutes later the light takes off into the sky. The other man goes for help and a group of people comes to search for the missing man. He is found in a different direction, unconscious, cold, and weak. Both witnesses suffer from conjunctivitis for several days. The one who vanished has a strange scar on his leg. He only remembers approaching a pear-shaped light when he sees 3 – 4 human shapes with pumpkinlike heads silhouetted against the light. He becomes paralyzed and can vaguely remember being touched and raised. (Paolo Fiorino, Gian Paolo Grassino, and Antonio Chiumiento, “Abductions in Italy,” IUR 14, no. 4 (July/Aug.1989): 15) December 10 — The weekly Parade magazine carries a story by Michael Satchell summarizing the UFO events at Loring, Malmstrom, Wurtsmith, and other Northern Tier bases. (Michael Satchell, “UFO’s vs. USAF: Amazing (But True) Encounters,” Parade magazine, December 10, 1978, pp. 8– 11 ; ClearIntent, p. 54 ) December 14 — As a result of the Ground Saucer Watch lawsuit, the CIA releases some 340 of its own UFO-related documents, 900 pages in all. The letter, signed by CIA Information and Privacy Coordinator George Owens, states that 57 documents are being withheld for national security purposes. Also, 196 other documents originating from other agencies are forwarded to them for response to GSW. The CIA had faced a deadline of December 1977 to produce the documents but were granted an extension by US District Court Judge John H. Pratt. (“The GSW vs. CIA Lawsuit,” IUR 4, no. 3/4 (Sept./Oct. 1979): 20– 22 ; Good Above, pp. 327 – 328 ) December 16 — 8:00 p.m. Radar detects a UFO at 10,000 feet in the region around Calama, Chile. Three F-5Es are sent from Antofagasta to intercept it and they see a large triangular object some 50 times the size of their planes. (“Select Triangular UFO Cases,” Bob Pratt Files) December 20 — US Rep. Samuel S. Stratton (D-N.Y.) expresses concern to his Armed Services Investigations Subcommittee about the “alleged ability of unknown aircraft to penetrate airspace and over above SAC bases, their weapons storage areas, missile sites, and launch control facilities, and the inability of Air Force equipment and personnel to intercept and identify such aircraft.” Stratton sends a letter to USAF Maj. Gen. Charles C. Blanton requesting incident reports. (ClearIntent, p. 54 ) December 21 — 12:30 a.m. Capt. John B. Randle is flying an Argosy cargo plane from Blenheim to Christchurch, New Zealand, when he notices white lights in the sky above the mouth of the Clarence River at Waipapa Bay. He contacts Wellington Air Traffic Control, which confirms that it has five oscillating objects on its scopes. The lights are also seen on the ground. (“The New Zealand UFO Films, Part I,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 3; Clark III 799 ) December 21 — 3:30 a.m. Wellington Air Traffic Control contacts Capt. Vern Powell, pilot of a freight aircraft about to make the Blenheim to Christchurch run, New Zealand, alerting him to the position of the objects, which have stayed in position. He ascends to 7,500 feet and sees one white light, tinged with red, through the clouds. It follows Powell’s plane, and Wellington radar tracks it for 12 miles before it disappears. As they near Christchurch Airport, Powell and his copilot Ian Pirie notice a return on their onboard radar. By the next sweep it has moved one mile closer, moving at about 8,000 mph. They cannot confirm anything visually, but the radar indicates the object has streaked off to the left and disappears. Then Powell and Pirie see a flashing light in front of them. (“The New Zealand UFO Films, Part I,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 3– 4 ; Clark III 799) December 22 — Peter Gersten of CAUS files a request with the NSA for copies of the 18 UFO-related documents the CIA has referred to it. NSA’s Chief of Policy Roy R. Banner later declines their release on the basis of national security. (ClearIntent, p. 181 ) December 24 — 6:50 p.m. Benito Franchi, 45, is working in the power station at Pietracamela, Terama, Italy, in a room with two AC generators, one connected to power and the other disconnected, when he suddenly feels ill and faint. The working generator’s dial hands register an overload on the network, and the dial hands on the disconnected generator are also waving. This continues for about one minute, leaving the dials badly out of calibration. Franchi feels paralyzed and falls to the ground. Suddenly everything stops, and out of the window he sees three or four bright flashes coming from a ball of brilliant red light that hurts his eyes. The object takes off and disappears to the southwest. Franchi suffers from severe conjunctivitis, and the generator dials must be calibrated again. Shortly afterward, a large luminous UFO is seen hovering above the Gran Sasso massif to the southwest. (1Pinotti 259) December 30 — 7:30 a.m. Erwin Vitelli sees a steely-blue object hovering in the southern sky above Zuchwil, Solothurn, Switzerland. It appears in the shape of three globes merging with one another, each one with a light source

directed downward. The object is visible for about one minute. (“Early Morning, Late December, Swiss Sighting,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 1 (Feb./March 1983): 1, 3) December 31 — 12:10 a.m. Quentin Fogarty, a reporter for Melbourne’s 0/10 Network assigned to do a story on the Vern Powell sighting 10 days earlier, has chartered an Argosy cargo plane, piloted by Capt. William Startup and First Officer Robert Guard. While flying from Wellington to Christchurch, New Zealand, with David Crockett and his wife Ngaire as camera crew over the Cook Strait near the site of the Powell sighting, Startup and Guard see 6– 7 bright, pulsating lights like Chinese lanterns above the sea off Kaikoura. They fade and disappear, then return to view. Crockett starts filming. Wellington is tracking a target a mile behind the aircraft that stays on the screen for about one minute without moving. Another, stronger target appears to the right of the plane. Fogarty manages to crack, “Let’s hope they’re friendly!” Twice, Startup vainly attempts a 360° turn to get a glimpse of the object. After landing at Christchurch, Startup invites the passengers to accompany him back to Blenheim. Fogarty, Crockett, and another journalist, Dennis Grant, agree to do so. The plane flies out at 2:15 a.m., and within 2 minutes aircraft radar picks up a target 37 miles away. Startup turns toward it, but it moves to the right and vanishes almost immediately. Other radars pick up targets intermittently. The object returns in view of the plane, moving toward it, then drops out of sight to the right. Afterward, Fogarty notices a strange light that seems to be coming from the cargo hold. Two pulsating white lights soon appear on the port side of the plane. One settles into a rolling, turning pattern and falls at an incredible speed. This sequence Crockett captures on film. Bruce Maccabee spends 10 days in New Zealand and Australia interviewing witnesses and analyzing the film, which he concludes does not have any mundane explanation. (Wikipedia, “Kaikoura lights”; “The New Zealand UFO Films, Part I,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 4–8; “The New Zealand Film Analysis, Part II,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 3–6); Story, pp. 392– 395 ; W. C. Chalker, “A Re-Viewing of the Great Nocturnal Light,” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 1 (June 1980): 12– 18 Quentin Fogarty, Let ’ s Hope They ’ re Friendly! Angus and Robertson, 1983 ; Bruce Maccabee, “Analysis and Discussion of the Images of a Cluster of Periodically Flashing Lights off the Coast of New Zealand,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 1, no. 2 (1987): 149– 190 , slightly revised in January 2002 ; Bruce Maccabee, “Atmosphere or UFO? A Response to the 1997 SSE Review Panel Report,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 13, no. 3 (1999): 431 – 443 ; Clark III 799– 801 ; “How the 40-Year-Old Mystery of a UFO in New Zealand Lives On,” News.com.au, December 19, 2018) December 31 — 4:00 a.m. Bobby Hines wakes up at her home in Demopolis, Alabama, because her dogs are barking outside. She sees a large, bright object hovering above the trees 1,800 feet from the house and wakes her husband. The UFO is the size of a small house and triangular in shape. It approaches the witnesses, moving in a zigzag pattern and hovering 50 feet off the ground for 30 minutes. Two police officers respond to their call and watch the UFO as well, which finally moves off to the southeast making a funny noise. (Marler 103–104) December 31 — 7:00 p.m. Hundreds of people in the United Kingdom see a bright light with a long trail behind it streak across the heavens from northwest to southeast. RAF Fylingdales in the North York Moors, England, quickly identifies it as the reentry of a booster rocket that launched a Russian satellite, Kosmos 1068, into orbit on December 26. Jenny Randles examines reports of the reentry, which in general accurately reflect the event, and compares them to UFO reports, concluding that it is unlikely that all UFOs are IFOs in various degrees of exaggeration. (Jenny Randles, “The Case Against the IFO,” IUR 10, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1985): 4–6; Jenny Randles, “Jenny Randles Replies,” IUR 10, no. 3 (May/June 1985): 8–9, 15; UFOFiles2, pp. 98– 99 ; Jenny Randles, “The Twelve UFOs of Christmas,” Fortean Times 374 (Christmas 2018): 29)

1979

1979 — British science fiction author David Langford publishes an allegedly nonfiction novelette, An Account of a Meeting with Denizens of Another World, 1871. It is an account of a UFO encounter, as experienced by a man in Buckinghamshire, England; in its framing story Langford claims to have found the manuscript in an old desk (the story’s narrator, William Robert Loosley, is a genuine ancestor of Langford’s wife). But no ufologists take it seriously. (David Langford, An Account of a Meeting with Denizens of Another World, 1871, David and Charles, 1979; Clark III 599 – 600 ) 1979 — Jacques Bonabot founds the Studiegroep voor Vreemde Luchtverschijnselen in Antwerp, Belgium, as the Flemish counterpart to the Groupement pour l’Étude des Sciences d’Avant-Garde in Bruges. It publishes SVL Tijdschrift from January 1982 to October 1987. (SVL Tijdschrift 1, no. 1 (January 1982)) 1979 — Patrick Geoffroy founds the Association Dijonnaise de Recherches Ufologiques et Parapsychologiques in Ruffey-lès-Echirey (later in Quetigny), Côte-d’Or, France. It begins publishing Vimana 21, a journal that continues until early 1989. (Vimana 21, no. 1 (1979))

1979 — The Argentine Air Force creates another group to study UFOs within the Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales. It lasts until 1987. (Milton W. Hourcade, “Argentina: UFO Declassification,” UAPSG–GEFAI, July 29, 2020) 1979 — The Uruguayan Air Force creates CRIDOVNI, a special commission to investigate all UFO sightings within the country. It includes freelance ufologists but seems to have disbanded in the mid-1980s. (Willy Smith, “UFOs in Latin America,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, p. 100) 1979 — The English-language Sri Lanka UFO Register begins publication in Weligama, Sri Lanka, edited by Ananda L. Sirisena. It continues through 1988. (Sri Lanka UFO Register, no. 2 (Oct./Dec. 1979))

January — In an article in Just Cause, researcher Todd Zechel claims that Keyhoe’s National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena has long been riddled with CIA-friendly or covert board members and staff, among them Joseph Bryan III, Karl T. Pflock, Stuart Nixon, John Acuff, and Roscoe Hillenkoetter. Because of NICAP’s current acute financial crisis, he concludes that if the CIA had wanted to “destroy the leading anti-secrecy organization of the 1960s, they couldn’t have done a better job.” Richard H. Hall disputes this analysis. (Todd Zechel, “NI-CIA-AP or NICAP?” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 133 (Jan./Feb. 1979): 6–9) January — Axel Ertelt begins publishing Mysteria, a journal of UFO and ancient astronaut information, in Halver, North Rhine–Westphalia, Germany. It continues through at least April 1987. (Mysteria, no. 1 (1979)) Early January — About 6:00 p.m. A1C John W. Mills III is with a second lieutenant conducting a below-ground azimuth alignment procedure at the Ellsworth AFB Delta-3 missile site southwest of Cottonwood, South Dakota, when the security guard bangs on the ladder and tells them to come up. Going topside, they hear a loud, low-frequency hum permeating the launch facility. The guard leads them out of the gate where they see a dark object with straight edges in the sky. It seems to be shaped like a parallelogram, but they can’t tell how high it is. The guard is upset, but the other two men are oddly calm, even though they are not supposed to be outside the gate, and they return to the missile and descend the ladder to continue the alignment. Then the lights go off, the truck engine stops running, the radio goes out, and the missile site goes off alert. The hum is gone, but they can still see the dark object. Some 10 minutes later the lights come back on and they notice the object is gone. Targeting teams from two other launch sites report similar experiences. (Nukes 377–387) January 1 — 5:00 a.m. Former USAF UFO spokesman Albert M. Chop and his wife and daughter watch a triangular UFO moving slowly eastward over the mountains southeast of Palm Desert, California. It is about 10 times as bright as the background stars. It is in sight for about 45 minutes, by which time it has become a small, distant light in the eastern sky. (Margaret Sachs, The UFO Encyclopedia, Putnam, 1980, p. 61) January 4 — Just after 12:00 midnight. Meagen Quezet and her son André go looking for their dog that has just run barking away from their home in Krugersdorp, Gauteng, South Africa. Driving along a remote country road, they find the dog standing 60 feet away from a lead-colored, egg-shaped object with landing gear. Five or six dark- skinned entities are standing in front, wearing white or pink suits and shoes. One with a beard bows to Quezet and says something unintelligible. André runs to get his father, whereupon the beings enter the craft, which takes off making a purring sound. Quezet undergoes hypnotic regression by Bernard Levinson on June 21, where she remembers the “leader” cajoling her to come on board, which she does with her son, seeing lights, panels, chairs, and a table. They jump out again, protesting that they can’t go. (“Another South African CE III,” IUR 5, no. 1a (January 1980): 7–8) January 5 — 6:20 p.m. Anmarie Emery is driving near Auburn, Massachusetts, when she notices three, red-glowing, triangular objects flying over woods to her left. As she rounds a corner, she sees them hovering above the road directly in front of her. The radio goes dead, the car slows to a stop (although the engine continues to run), and she feels completely paralyzed. The closest object is only 30 feet away. She feels heat on her face and smells an unpleasant odor. When another car approaches, the three objects shoot straight up, one at a time, and everything returns to normal. When she returns home to Cambridge, Massachusetts, she notices her face is reddened. She develops a rash and peeling skin the next day. (Richard H. Hall, Uninvited Guests, Aurora, 1988, pp. 302 – 303 ; Raymond E. Fowler, “Close Encounters with E-M and Physical Effects,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 134 (March/April 1979 ): 8 – 9 ) January 6 — 10:30 a.m. A journalist aboard the Japanese icebreaker Fuji in Antarctic waters sees an object resembling a bluish-white kite moving silently at a high rate of speed. Witnesses guess the altitude as 2–3 miles, with differences of opinion on whether its course s straight or zigzag. The crew reports further sightings of a similar object. (Asahi Shinbun (Osaka), January 23, 1979; “Foreign Forum,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 2) January 16 — Gen. Emiliano Alfaro Arregui, chief of staff of the Spanish Air Force, writes to the Ministry of Defense to say that whenever a UFO sighting is reported to the authorities, an Informing Judge is appointed by the

corresponding Air Region to proceed with a proper investigation. Some reports are caused by natural phenomena, while others are unidentified. (Swords 424, 513) January 18 — 7:07 p.m. Brinsley Le Poer Trench, Lord Clancarty, has put down a motion for debate in the House of Lords on the official policy of the UK government on UFOs. He begins the debate by launching into a history of UFOs and stresses the international character of the phenomenon. He concludes with a request for the Minister of Defence to be interviewed on national TV. Lord Trefgarne rejects the proposal on the grounds that there are many things that can masquerade as UFOs, plus the Bible has nothing to say about extraterrestrials. Lord Kimberley agrees that a parliamentary group should be set up. Lord Oxfuird and Lord Davies agree there should be future investigations to settle the question. The Bishop of Norwich expresses concern that a UFO cult could compete with Christianity. Lord Gladwyn deems the evidence inconclusive, but Lord Kings Norton favors an investigation. Lord Rankeillour states emphatically that UFOs exist, and they might be dangerous. Lord Gainford relates a personal sighting of a nocturnal light over Argyll, Scotland, the previous December 31. The Earl of Halsbury provides a list of natural causes for UFOs, and Lord Hewlett paraphrases debunking arguments. The Earl of Cork and Orrery lashes out at Trefgarne’s skepticism. Lord Strabolgi firmly rejects the request for an official investigation on the grounds that all UFO reports can be explained conventionally. Clancarty winds it up by saying, “Nothing is impossible in this world or this universe. It is just that the seemingly impossible takes a little time to come about.” (“Unidentified Flying Objects,” Hansard Lords Debate, vol. 397, cc1246–1316, January 18, 1979; Allan Hendry, [House of Lords UFO Debate], IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 9– 11 ; Good Above, pp. 73 – 75 ; UFOFiles2, pp. 99– 104 ; Clark III 616 – 618) January 18 — 11:30 p.m. A car driven by a 42-year-old woodcutter stops abruptly in Lusiana, Vicenza, Italy. Its lights go out and the doors open by themselves. An orange ball is sitting in the road ahead, and two 3-foot-tall, copper- colored humanoids emerge from a door. They are wearing metallic-looking, scaled coveralls. Their hands are long and end in pointed nails. They invite him on board by gestures and he follows them into a small room with electronic-looking gadgets and a screen. They begin undressing him, but he resists. The wall opens and an overall garment is shown to him. He refuses to wear it and he implores them to let him go. One of the beings gives him a small box with writing on it. A door opens and the man leaves. Suddenly the orange light disappears and his car lights come on again. (Paolo Fiorino, Gian Paolo Grassino, and Antonio Chiumiento, “Abductions in Italy,” IUR 14, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1989): 14) January 20 — The Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research committee releases its report on eight UFO sightings in Kuwait from November to December 14, 1978. The report rejects the idea that the UFOs are espionage devices, but it remains equivocal about whether they are extraterrestrial. The committee recommends that the government take all measures to protect the country and its oilfields. (“‘UFO’ Sightings Cause Security Concern in Kuwait,” WikiLeaks, [telegram], January 29, 1979; ClearIntent, p. 90 ) January 21 —Front-page stories of another UFO sighting in Kuwait appear the day after the committee’s report. (ClearIntent, p. 90 ) Late January — The Setka-AN group of the USSR Academy of Sciences publishes a skeptical article in the weekly publication Nedelya that tries to show that all UFOs are natural phenomena that UFO enthusiasts are popularizing through their inept investigations as anomalous. Setka-AN hopes to have a solution to the UFO problem “in a few months.” (Nikita A. Schnee, “Ufology in the U.S.S.R.,” Flying Saucer Review 27, no. 1 (June 1981): 8; Good Above, p. 237 ) January 29 — Peter Gersten appeals the NSA’s decision to withhold the 18 UFO-related documents forwarded to the NSA by the CIA but is again denied. (ClearIntent, p. 181 )

February — Mississippi House Resolution No. 14, proposed by Rep. Horace Buckley of Jackson and calling for a complete US Senate investigation of UFO sightings, dies in committee. (Allan Hendry, “UFOs and Government: 1979,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 7–9) February — A woman and her aunt in Shelby, Ohio, are just sitting down to watch television when a bright light shines outside their window. It is hanging in the air behind their dog kennel. When the woman goes out to investigate, two more lights appear and enter the original one. Then that light disappears and is replaced by red and green lights that resolve into a large number of lights of both colors on an object. As she approaches, the UFO begins to move toward her and passes overhead. It is as big as a jetliner, with bolts on its base as large as volleyballs. Her dog begins whining and cowering, and she gets a severe pain in her head that causes her to fall on her knees. As the object moves away with a soft whirring noise, she gets back on her feet. She estimates she was only outside for 5 minutes, but she and her aunt cannot account for an additional 45–50 minutes. Her headache persists for several weeks. (Michael D. Swords, “Unusual Experiences from the Timmerman Files,” IUR 27, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 22)

February 5 — 9:50 p.m. A man is driving on the Lyell Highway near Lawitta, Tasmania, when his car radio stops. Seconds later, an intense white light envelops the car, and he cannot see beyond the hood. The car’s lights and motor fail at the same time. The next thing he knows, he is getting stopped in Hobart by police for driving his car without headlights. The police find that he does not know his name, where he has come from, or where he is going. He is taken to the hospital and examined, where he is found to be in a state of shock. It is only at the Royal Hobart Hospital that his memory of the preceding events returns. His vehicle, a Ford Cortina 71TC, is inspected and found to have a dead battery and low oil level. The cut-off switch on the alternator needs replacing, as does some wiring, especially for the headlights. Radiator water is also found to be low. (“Sightings,” TUFOIC Newsletter, no. 27 (May 1979): 2) February 9 — Joseph J. F. Clark, associate director, Legislative Liaison for the Air Force, responds to Rep. Samuel S. Stratton (D-N.Y.) saying that “permanent” UFO files are not maintained, but includes some memos, messages, and log entries from the Northern Tier cases that have already been released through FOIA requests. Stratton fails to follow up. (ClearIntent, p. 55 ) February 9 — 9:00 p.m. Peter Hathaway is driving on the Bruce Highway north of the Liverpool Creek bridge near Cowley Beach, Queensland, when he sees a “little white light” sitting on the edge of the asphalt. As he approaches within 100 feet, he notices a dark beehive-shaped object behind it, which now rises vertically off the surface about 3 feet. Hathaway is momentarily blinded by a flash of light. Opening his eyes, he sees that his car headlights and engine have stopped. He coasts to a truck rest stop, where his lights come back on and the engine starts perfectly. (“1979,” Australian UFO Research Network; Richard H. Hall, Uninvited Guests, Aurora, 1988, pp. 304 – 305) February 16 — New Mexico State Police Officer Gabe Valdez informs the FBI that cattle in New Mexico are “being shot with some type of paralyzing drug and the blood is being drawn from the animal after an injection of an anti- coagulant.” In some cases, the animal’s legs have been broken, perhaps by clamps being placed on them. Helicopters without any identifying numbers are seen in the area of these mutilations. Valdez tells the FBI that he thinks it is a clandestine operation either by the CIA or the Department of Energy (although in 1980 he tells journalist Linda Moulton Howe that he thinks aliens are responsible). (Federal Bureau of Investigation, [cattle mutilation documents]) February 16 — Peter Gersten again files a FOIA request with the NSA, this time requesting all documents in its possession or under the control of the NSA relating to UFOs. (ClearIntent, pp. 181 – 182 ) February 22 — 4:00 p.m. Two 14-year-old girls, Lynsey Tebbs and Susan Pearson, are tobogganing down the slopes that surround their housing complex in Meanwood, Leeds, England. They are startled by a loud whining noise coming from an object that is descending nearby. After it lands, the noise changes to a hum, which then fades as it rests on the snow. It is gray and egg-shaped, with two fins on either side, and is the size of a small car. Frightened, the girls run up the hill but pause to take another look. The object rests on the ground for about 3 minutes, then starts humming and approaches the girls, landing again on the slope about 80 feet away. After another few minutes, it wobbles and takes off. Investigators from the Yorkshire UFO Society visit the site on February 25 and find odd indentations in the snow in two places. (Mark Birdsall and Graham Birdsall, “Landing and Possible Traces near Leeds,” Northern Ufology, no. 62 (July 1979): 9–10; Good Above, pp. 72 – 73 ) February 25 — 2:00 a.m. Both Circulación Aérea Militar Operativa (CAMO) radar and radar at the W-8 military station detect an unidentified target 52 miles to the southeast of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, flying at an altitude of 14,400 feet. An Iberia airliner in the area is alerted, and the pilot reports an intense, elongated light above his position. The W-8 local radar detects a transponder signal. (Swords 435) Late February — 9:10 p.m. Chinese Air Force flight instructor Sha Yangkao is flying a night fighter over Houma, Shanxi, China, when he sees a bright luminous object shoot across the sky from south to north, apparently flying supersonically at an altitude of 3,300 feet. (Paul Dong, “Extracts from Paul Dong’s Feidie Bai Wen Bai Da (Questions and Answers on UFOs),” Flying Saucer Review 29, no. 6 (August 1984): 14)

March — 9:00 a.m. Two Republic of Korea Air Force F-4D Phantom II jets, piloted by Lt. Col. Seungbae Lee and Col. Byungsun Lim, are flying at 15,000 feet while returning from the annual Team Spirit military exercise to Daegu Air Force Base, South Korea. Near Palgong Mountain in the Taebaek Range, a star-like, stationary object appears in the distance that grows in size as the jets approach. Neither the aircraft nor the base can register the object on radar. When they reach within 15 miles of the light, it shoots away to the east and hovers again. The disc is as big as a jumbo jet and radiates bright golden light from top to bottom. Red and blue lights sparkle from its rim. After the jets circle twice above the object, it speeds away to the east. (Good Need, p. 310 ) March 2 — Early morning. Witnesses in Rivera, Uruguay, see an oval-shaped object with portholes. One witness, Ernesto Fagundez, watches the UFO circle a transmitting tower he is working on then stop. Through the portholes he can

see entities with large heads that are wearing transparent helmets. The object dives over a truck carrying farm workers before it rises into the air, leaving a fiery trail and a column of smoke. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 4, no. 2 (Aug. 1979): 2) March 3 — The Spanish Joint Chiefs of Staff meet and decide to formally define UFO information as classified, rather than confidential. The reason is that the civilian UFO group Centre d’Estudis Interplanetaris in Barcelona had solicited King Juan Carlos I in January to provide access to UFO information collected by the Spanish armed forces. (Swords 424, 514) March 5 — Dusk. Many residents of the Canary Islands are captivated with the sight of a strange sunset. Multicolored concentric rings or bright zigzag trails are seen on the horizon towards the west, forming an enormous cloud. A few minutes after 8:00 p.m., a point of light is seen to ascend, leaving a luminous jet that appears to expand, developing into a huge, bright dome. Independent sets of clear photos are obtained from distant points of view. The phenomenon is even seen from Safi, Morocco. Maj. Pedro Ortega García and Capt. José Juan Abad Cellini investigate for the Spanish Air Force and conclude that the luminous cloud was 320 miles in diameter at an altitude of 40 miles. They again reject the missile hypothesis, but the US Navy has launched four Poseidon missiles from the USS Kamehameha around the same time that probably account for the phenomena. (Vicente- Juan Ballester Olmos and Ricardo Campo Pérez, “Navy Missile Tests and the Canary Islands UFOs,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 4 – 5) March 6 — 7: 3 0 p.m. Ben Chastain watches a round, luminous object about 12 feet in diameter skimming low over treetops in Westminster, South Carolina, arousing the dogs. At one point the object comes within 150 feet, its glow illuminating the area. Oconee County Deputy Sheriff Jimmy Roach and his wife see the object from a distance. About 8:00 p.m., Bill Osborne watches a larger object (80 feet long and 25 feet wide) that sweeps the area with a light beam. (Iris Harrelson Maack, “Press Reports,” APRO Bulletin 27, no. 12 (June 1979): 7–8) March 13 — 11:00 a.m. An uncorrelated radar target is detected over the Mediterranean Sea north of Algeria by radar in the Pegaso control room at Torrejón Air Base in Madrid, Spain. It is traveling at 970 mph on a northwest course toward Spain. Three minutes later a scramble is ordered, and a Dassault Mirage III fighter takes off from Manises Air Base [now Valencia Airport] to identify the target, but the track soon vanishes from the radar. It has moved about 71 miles in that time. Four minutes later, the target reappears in another position, this time motionless. The Mirage is vectored toward the new position. When the fighter is about 9 miles from the target, it moves in a northwest direction, accelerating to 840 mph and climbing to more than 15 miles. Six minutes later, it changes course to the northeast, and in two minutes it is gone. The Mirage never gets a visual contact. (Swords 435–436, 527) March 13 — While Grenada Prime Minister Eric Gairy is at the United Nations, the New Jewel Movement led by Maurice Bishop launches an armed revolution and overthrows the government. Gairy stays in exile in the US until 1983. March 28 — 4:00 p.m. Reactor number 2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, suffers a partial meltdown, resulting in a radiation leak. The accident begins with failures in the non-nuclear secondary system, followed by a stuck-open pilot-operated relief valve in the primary system, which allows large amounts of nuclear reactor coolant to escape, contaminating the containment building with thousands of gallons of radioactive water. The staff has no choice but to vent radioactive gases directly into the atmosphere. The mechanical failures are compounded by the initial failure of plant operators to recognize the situation as a loss-of-coolant accident due to inadequate training and computer interface oversights relating to ambiguous control room indicators. In particular, a hidden indicator light leads to an operator manually overriding the automatic emergency cooling system of the reactor because the operator mistakenly believes that there is too much coolant water present in the reactor and causing the steam pressure release. No one is harmed by the released radiation, which is contained entirely in a cloud of short-lived isotopes of inert gases that drift out over the Atlantic Ocean. (Wikipedia, “Three Mile Island accident”; Mike Gray and Ira Rosen, The Warning: Accident at Three Mile Island, Norton, 1982; Grace Halden, Three Mile Island: The Meltdown Crisis and Nuclear Power in American Popular Culture, Routledge, 2017 )

Spring — UFO investigator Raymond E. Fowler publishes The Andreasson Affair, introducing the story of Betty Andreasson, a Massachusetts housewife who recounts a 1967 abduction encounter with short humanoids having large heads and eyes. (Raymond E. Fowler, The Andreasson Affair, Prentice-Hall, 1979) April 9 — Two Apache tribal officers on patrol near Dulce, New Mexico, see a round, silent craft hovering 50 feet above the ground, with a searchlight aimed downward on cattle below. (Wikipedia, “Cattle mutilation”) April 12 — Early evening. A family is driving home from the grocery store at Brockton, Massachusetts. They see a piano- shaped object with lights all over it. A spotlight is beaming down, and there is one red light on top. They lose

sight of the object, but suddenly all four car windows go down and back up; then they go down halfway and back up. The same thing happens when they stop at a red light. They see the object again, which is now following them. They park near their house, and the UFO hovers across the street. The man shuts off Michael D. Swords, “Messing Around with the Force,” the engine and the windows act up again as the UFO moves directly overhead. The father and son get out of the car, and the UFO shoots a beam down at each of them in turn. It then moves down the street and away. (Michael D. Swords, “Messing Around with the Force,” IUR 31 , no. 4 (March 2008 ): 17) April 19 — 11:30 p.m. John Milroy and his mother are driving from Ardersier to Croy, Inverness, Scotland, when he sees headlights in the distance. The lights get larger and rise above the road. Thinking it is an airplane crash, they get out of the car and experience an abnormal silence; they can no longer hear the car engine or the door slam when they flee. Everything reverts to normal when they reach a ditch. The mother is so excited she needs to be sedated the next day. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 2) April 20 — Former astronaut and US Sen. Harrison Schmitt (R-N.Mex.) and US Attorney R. E. Thompson convene an informal public hearing on cattle mutilations in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Its goal is to show that criminal activity is taking place involving many states and it requires federal action. About 200 people attend, including Fort Worth (Tex.) Star-Telegram reporter Jim Marrs. Thompson warns law enforcement officers not to reveal any evidence that might be used at a later trial. (Thomas P. Deuley, “Mutilation Hearings Held in New Mexico,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 137 (July 1979): 8 – 9; Christopher O’Brien, Stalking the Herd: Unraveling the Cattle Mutilation Mystery, Adventures Unlimited, 2014) April 21 — Late night. A helicopter pilot and a mechanic are returning by car to their unit in the Blonie area, Poland. A light descends rapidly and silently over the road, resolving itself into 4 large lights attached to a solid object more than 100 feet long. It stops and hovers at 300 feet and then shoots upward instantaneously. (Poland 68–69) April 25 — Retired FBI agent Kenneth M. Rommel Jr. begins a major investigation of cattle mutilations. Financed by grants from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration and the Santa Fe, New Mexico, District Attorney’s office (which has been designated as the coordinating state investigative agency for cattle mutilations), the inquiry focuses on New Mexico cases, though it pays some attention to incidents in other states. (Wikipedia, “Cattle mutilation”; Clark III 133 )

May — Victor Marchetti, former special assistant to the Deputy Director of the CIA and author of the 1974 book The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, writes an article in Second Look on “How the CIA Views the UFO Phenomenon.” He asserts that “we have, indeed, been contacted—perhaps even visited—by extraterrestrial beings, and the US government, in collusion with other national powers of the Earth, is determined to keep this information from the general public.” He claims that the CIA does not discuss UFOs openly because they are deemed “sensitive activities,” but he has heard rumors of crashed UFOs and extraterrestrial signals picked up by the National Security Agency. Attempts by the government to deny the reality of UFOs have all the hallmarks of a classic coverup, he writes. (Victor Marchetti, “How the CIA Views the UFO Phenomenon,” Second Look 1, no. 7 (May 1979): 2– 7 ; Nukes 490–491) May 1 — 4:00 a.m. YPF company engineers at the Vizcacheras oil fields in a remote area of Argentina’s Mendoza province accessible only to employees are awakened by goats bleating in a corral. When they go outside to investigate, they see a UFO hovering silently about 230 feet from the encampment and 65 feet above the ground. They wave a lantern and the UFO seems to respond by blinking a light, then slowly lands nearby. More light signals are exchanged, then the UFO takes off and disappears toward the Andes mountains at 4:35 a.m. After the sighting, the goats (about 1,500) refuse to return to their corral. The engineers go to inspect the landing spot and find a large circle in which the sand has been petrified or hardened into chunks. Soil samples are taken to a Professor Corradi for analysis. Corradi, identified as director of the Institute for Extrahuman Studies, says the samples are being analyzed by the Office of Mining. Corradi remarks that that the “permanent presence of the UFOs over the uranium mines of La Pintada and Cuesta de los Terneros in San Rafael and now in Vizcacheras, is not a coincidence.” (Richard H. Hall, “Extraterrestrial Psychology,” 1988; “Argentine Oil Field Landing,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 139 (September 1979)) May 7 — 10:00 a.m. Two witnesses on an airliner about one hour south of Chicago, Illinois, notice two bright-white rectangular objects slightly higher than the airplane. They gradually fade from view. (“Long Rectangular UFOs: Five Different Cases of Similarly Shaped Objects,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 9 (September 1981): 2 ) May 9 — Early morning. A fleet of 10–15 UFOs alarms people in Choconta, Colombia. Eight of the objects have lights that change from red to blue to orange and yellow. An electrical blackout takes place, and dogs, chicken, and cattle get disturbed and run away. The objects examine the Telecom satellite tracking station before ascending rapidly and disappearing in the clouds. (“Foreign Forum,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 2)

May 16 — 10:30 a.m. Arlindo Gabriel dos Santos is hunting with two friends in a forest near Baependi, Minas Gerais, Brazil, when he becomes separated from the others. He sees an object descend towards the ground in a clearing. He approaches to within 600 feet and sees that the object is shaped like a telephone booth about 3 feet tall. He takes a photo of the object before it abruptly disappears in plain sight. He walks to the clearing and sees another object shaped like a toy top and a little larger than the previous object, descending swiftly. It has a small propeller on top and a long, pointed protrusion on the bottom. As he tries to photograph the second object, he hears a whooshing sound, and the craft is quickly enveloped in smoke. He notices a third craft descending overhead. This one is barrel-shaped and hovers for a bit before landing. It also has a large propeller at one end and is covered with red stripes. It vanishes when he tries to approach. Dos Santos finally sees a huge, white, egg-shaped object descend. It has a pointed top and fin-like protrusions on each side. Next to the fins are several windows. As it descends it makes a horrific noise like a choking motor and puts out four landing pods. He approaches and tries to take another photograph, but there is a sudden flash that temporarily blinds him and leaves his eyes irritated. Frightened, he drops the camera and runs, but is only able to get about 30 feet before he is can no longer move. Behind him he notices two men wearing helmets with transparent visors and gloves. They grab him, each taking one arm. He begs them to let him go in the name of God, but they answer, “In the name of God, we are all brothers; we don’t harm anybody.” The voice comes from a box-like apparatus on their backs. He is taken toward the landed UFO. As he gets near, he can feel an intense cold surrounding it. Another helmeted figure stands by a ladder extending from the craft, looking from side to side. The man asks dos Santos if he has seen a “Zurca.” Dos Santos thinks he is referring to one of the smaller objects. The man extends a gloved hand and pulls dos Santos inside the craft through a square doorway. The atmosphere inside the craft is pleasant and cool, and there is a smell like “baby powder” in the air. Other men wearing dark, tight-fitting outfits are sitting on seats. The men have large slanted eyes, thin noses, and large mouths, and they are operating some type of machinery. They stand up and begin conversing in an unknown language. Suddenly, a heavyset woman emerges from another room. She wears a white uniform, gloves, but no helmet. Dos Santos describes her as good looking, tanned, with long light fine hair. The woman and one of the men then take him into a corridor. He enters a room where he sees a square object in the middle. The man pushes a button on the wall and the object rises. It resembled a large piece of marble. The woman takes out a long wand and points it at the object. On the object dos Santos sees an image of the planet Earth and other planets. At this point, the man removes his helmet revealing short, light-colored hair. When dos Santos leaves the craft, he is told to cover his eyes and not look as the object leaves. He follows these instructions and does not see the object depart. (NICAP, “May 16, 1979: Near Baependi, Minas Gerais State, Brazil”; “Grandes Manobras Extraterrestres na Fazenda do Sobrado, Baependi, MG,” SBEDV Boletim, no. 132– 135 (Jan./Aug. 1980): 28 – 71; Jackson Luiz Camargo, “O Caso do Embornal,” Portal Fenomenum, June 15, 2016; Brazil 258–266) May 19 — 2:27 a.m. Tailor Mike Sacks and his brother Ray are on the moors near Stacksteads, Lancashire, England, looking for the UFO that Mike had already seen twice the previous winter. They have staked out the hills with a camera and suddenly hear a muted howling noise echoing through the night. The noise is coming from a white, glowing light falling toward them. The glowing mass slows down and the howling stops. Now directly overhead, the object is hovering just feet above a stream. They see a dome on top that emits electric blue sparks, a middle section, and a rim with a translucent metallic glow. The object tilts to reveal intricate detail on its underside, then accelerates and disappears. The men take a dozen photos, but they only show black sky when processed. (Jenny Randles, “The House on Haunted Moor,” Fortean Times 322 (January 2015): 23) May 20 — 8:00 a.m. A scientist, Ron Kruppa, sees a large UFO emitting smaller objects in Davao City, Philippines. (“Stretching the Truth in the Philippines,” IUR 5, no. 1a (January 1980): 7) May 22 — 10:00 p.m. A man walking in a park in Piastów, Poland, sees two bright yellow beams of light coming from a dark object about 10 feet wide floating just above the ground. Walking to within 1 0 feet of the object, he can see a third beam of light below it. Green geometrical shapes appear and vanish along the side of the UFO. A blinking red light shines out on the upper surface, in between the vertical bars of an H-shaped sign taking up almost the entire top. Suddenly the object shines with a white-blue light, and the man’s face feels like it is burning. Frightened, he runs away and does not look back. The next morning, he feels as if something heavy is pressing on his head; two weeks later, sores containing dried blood break out on his face. (Bronislaw Rzepecki, “UFOs and Ufologists in Poland,” IUR 11, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1986): 15– 16 ; Bronislaw Rzepecki, “UFOs in Poland,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, p. 124) May 26 — 12:05 a.m. The pilot of a private airplane flying near Hailey, Idaho, spots five orange objects flying in a horizontal line. They tilt, spread out, and regroup in a vertical formation. As they pass to his left, his magnetic compass and direction finder begin spinning, the radio is filled with static, and the engine sputters. One of the

objects approaches at high speed, and the pilot begins a climb and loses sight of the UFOs. (NICAP, “Compasses,
Radio, Engine Affected on Aircraft”)

June — In Messengers of Deception, Jacques Vallée claims that a shadowy human group, some of whom have infiltrated UFO organizations like NICAP and CUFOS, is manipulating UFO myths for its own purposes, while the UFO phenomenon operates as a control system—manifested in “intense activity followed by quiet periods—intended to lead human consciousness into a new concept of reality.” On the other hand, he argues that the UFO phenomenon is ancient and that the message has changed with the times. He claims the current concept of flying discs originated in Germany in the 1930s, with the unknown private group gaining control of them after World War II. Contactees are manipulated by human programmers. Many ufologists think Vallée has gone too far in his anti- ETH approach and is conspiracy mongering. (Jacques Vallée, Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults, And/Or, 1979; Vincent White, “A Critique,” APRO Bulletin 27, no. 12 (June 1979): 3–5; Clark III 1214) June — 3:00 a.m. A woman doctor is in the TV room of her parents’ home in Boardman, Ohio, suffering from insomnia. She sees something flashing outside the window, illuminating the entire area outside. A cylinder-shaped light comes through the closed window and passes three feet from her face. It then comes to look more like a paperclip that flashes on and off, meandering about, apparently not interested in her. She runs into the bedroom and does not see it again. (Michael D. Swords, “A Trick of the Light,” IUR 31, no. 2 (June 2007): 9) June 10 — 4:40 p.m. A family in Milford, Connecticut, watches a disc “like two plates put together” approach from the south. It is silver on top and dark on the bottom and seems to have a band around the edge and triangular markings. After it passes silently behind the trees to the north of them after 1 minute, they jump into a car and drive after it. It seems to be traveling at 20–25 mph, and they are able to overtake it flying parallel to the road. It seems to be flying at an altitude of 1,000 feet, and disappears to the north. (“Case 4- 1 - 40,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 10) June 12 — 8:45 p.m. Members of a rock band practicing in a barn in Pine Ridge, South Carolina, step outside to watch an unusual form hovering low over the containment building and smokestack of the Carolina Power and Light nuclear power plant one half mile away to the northeast. An ovoid-shaped object, seen primarily by its lights, shines two bright yellowish-white beams of light. After hovering motionless for 2–5 minutes, all the lights fade except a blue light. The UFO moves off and is gone almost instantly. After about 5 minutes, a second object is seen hovering for 2–5 minutes to the right of the nuclear power plant and directing a beam of light at it. It flies off toward the northwest. No one at the power plant reports seeing anything unusual. (“Case 4- 1 - 47,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 10) June 14 — 8:30 a.m. A woman in St. Petersburg, Florida, sees an object with a long transparent trail. (“Case 4- 1 - 51,” IUR 4, no. 1 (July 1979): 10) June 17 — 10:00 p.m. A witness in North Prairie, Wisconsin, watches a star, slightly dimmer than Jupiter, move silently across the sky from east to west, passing overhead. It suddenly makes a 90° turn to the north and is lost in the cloud cover. Ten minutes later, he and his family watch a similar light transit the sky, again from east to west, in 10 – 15 seconds. (“Wisconsin NL,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 13) June 19 — 10:02 p.m. A witness in Clarksville, Tennessee, is walking his dog when he sees a metallic egg-shaped object, surrounded by a glow, approaching from the west. It appears to be at 8,000 feet altitude. It comes to a stop for 30 seconds, then picks up speed slowly for 7 seconds, and blasts off with a shower of sparks trailing behind it, disappearing in the southeast. (“Rocketing ‘Egg’ over Tennessee,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 13) June 26 — 3:00 a.m. A 77 - year-old man in Wheeling, Illinois, is awakened by his border collie and goes outside. When he opens the back door he sees a uniformly glowing “balloon,” 6 – 7 feet in diameter and sharply outlined. His dog steps forward and watches it as it hovers rock-steady at 60 feet up and 100 feet away or less. After 4–5 minutes it moves slowly behind the trees to the southwest. Running to the front of his house, he sees an identical form 70 feet up and moving silently to the northwest. It goes behind trees in 3–4 minutes. Duration is 10 – 13 minutes. (“Two Glowing Globes,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 13) June 26 — 3:20 p.m. A sharply outlined “mushroom” is seen moving out of the south by a group of eight neighbors in the northeast section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is smaller than the full moon, but at one point they can detect four “domes” on its rotating underside. The object is illuminated with colors ranging from burgundy to silver. At one point it makes a 90° turn and circles around completely, becoming a minty green color. It continues slowly north and disappears. (“An ‘Adamski’ Mushroom?” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 13) June 28 — Security guard Antonio Carlos Ferreira is allegedly abducted from his workplace, a furniture factory in Mirassol, São Paulo, Brazil. He is approached by three humanoid figures who tranquilize him and take him aboard a small ship that ferries him to a larger craft further away. There he is put in front of a large TV screen and presented with a variety of images before being forced to mate with a female alien. He is tranquilized again and

returned to the ground. The aliens are approximately 4 feet tall with pointed ears, slanted eyes, and human-like
mouths. They lack eyebrows or eyelashes and speak in a language that superficially resembles Japanese. Some
have dark skin and red curly hair, while others have light skin and straight black hair. The ship is spherical with
three legs protruding from the bottom, and the interior is lit by bright red and green lights. Ferreira states that he
encountered the aliens again in 1982, with the craft supposedly landing close enough for him to see the female
alien and a childlike alien observing him from a distance. He experiences a third encounter later in 1982 in which
he is taken into the hangar of an alien craft by a green beam of light before being injected with a yellow
substance. He is then taken to meet the two aliens once more, the younger of whom he is led to believe is his own
child. Other encounters follow, to a total of 16 or 20 between 1979 and 1989. (Wikipedia, “Caso Mirassol”; Ney
Matiel Pires, “ 3 - Sexto Contato com Ufonautas de Antônio Carlos Ferreira,” SBEDV Boletim, no. 158– 161
(May/Dec. 1984): 14–54; Walter K. Buhler, Guilherme Pereira, and Ney M. Pires, UFO Abduction at Mirassol,
UFO Photo Archives, 198 5; Clark III 764–765; Aileen Garoutte, “Contact at Mirassol,” UFOexperiences, May
22, 2005; Brazil 277–282)

July 1 — 3:40 p.m. A factory supervisor and his wife are driving in Crystal Lake, Illinois, when they see an aluminum- colored ellipse hovering in the north-northeast at an estimated 1,000 feet. It moves with jerky movements to the east-southeast, drops down to 500 feet, and remains stationary over a stand of trees about one mile away for 2– 3 seconds. It ascends and descends about five times. (“Daylight Disc in Illinois,” IUR 4, no. 2 (August 1979): 13) July 4 — 1:30 a.m. A Swedish man is walking along a dark road after leaving a tavern not far from Monastiri Beach, Poros, Greece. He hears a powerful buzzing or shushing noise overhead. Not more than 25 feet above the trees on the uphill side of the road is a black, disc-shaped object, about 25 feet wide, that is blocking out the light of the stars. Within seconds a bright light beams down at him from the center of the object. He feels an electrical sensation and a general lightness. The light blinks out and the man begins running away, but the disc is descending and following him. The beam of light blinks on again when it is 50–60 feet above him. Two backpackers witness this and come running to aid him. The light blinks out again and four blinking red and green lights appear at the edge of the disc, which moves ahead another 150–200 feet. The UFO then rises to 400– 500 feet and flies steadily until it disappears behind a hill. (“High Adventure in Greece,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 6 (Jan./Feb. 1982): 15–16) July 17 — 6:00 a.m. A couple in a rural area northeast of Des Moines, Iowa, are fixing breakfast when through their window they see a small, circular light source to the northeast. It hovers silently for 5 minutes. It starts moving slowly upward at a 70° angle, then breaks into two smaller objects that shoot out of sight. (“Iowa UFO Splits in Two,” IUR 4, no. 3/4 (Sept./Oct. 1979): 10) July 25 — 11:30 a.m. Farmer Federico Ibáñez Ibáñez, 54, leaves the village of Turís, Valencia, Spain, to gather grapes from his vineyard. He finds an egg-shaped, white, metallic object resting on two feet in the access road to his field. Two small beings run from behind a carob tree on his left and enter the craft. They are wearing white outfits “puffed up with air” with protruding black tubes. The UFO suddenly ascends at great speed, stirring up a whirlwind. The case is investigated in depth in 1979 and reinvestigated in 2008. It features unique shapes for both the landed craft and its occupants. The one witness is apparently credible. Ground traces are found as circumstantial evidence. Spanish investigator Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos concludes: “My considered impression is that the witness sincerely believes in the tangible reality of his experience, and I have not found any reasonable evidence of a lie or episode of fantasy, nor any proof that he embellished his account.” Ballester Olmos’s latest thought is, “Did the witness invent or hallucinate the event under the influence of the current publicity for the Star Wars movie?” (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, “Imagination or Reality? The Landing at Turís, Revisiting a 1979 Spanish CE3,” IUR 33, no. 1 (March 2010): 3–7, 22– 24 ; Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, “Imagination or Reality? The Landing at Turis,” Academia.edu, [2013]) July 27 — 11:10 p.m. Gary Hull is on the patio of his in-laws’ home in Stamford, Connecticut, when he sees an orange light in the northwest. He calls his wife Kathleen and others, and they watch it move silently across the sky at treetop level. After 5 minutes, it stops and hovers. Four or five white flashes erupt from its right side, followed by 4 – 5 faint sounds like firecrackers. At 11:19, a commercial jet flies overhead and under the UFO, which accelerates almost straight up in 5–10 seconds, diminishing to a pinpoint. Other witnesses 3.5 miles to the north and a few miles to the west watch similar objects. (“Independent Witnesses in Connecticut,” IUR 4, no. 3/4 (Sept./Oct. 1979): 10)

August — Harry Griesberg and David Seargent form the Australian Centre for UFO Studies from the CUFOS Australian Co-Ordination Section. (Keith Basterfield, Vladimir Godic, and Pony Godic, “Australian Ufology: A Review,” JUFOS 2 (1990): 28)

August — Dusk. A witness in Halifax, Nova Scotia, watches through a telescope a round object with 12– 18 lights around its base approaching from the southeast. It hovers for about 30 seconds. He calls to his wife to verify the observation, which has now moved directly overhead. The lights give off constant beams downward. (“Correspondence,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1982): 3) August — Evening. A resident of Człuchów, Poland, is rowing his boat on a lake when he sees a “dark oblong object” moving rapidly and soundlessly along the surface of the water without disturbing it. It disappears behind some lakeside vegetation. Another witness on shore sees it apparently land, so he calls his two dogs and heads toward the spot. About 65 feet from the shore he can see two entities in dark suits walking toward the forest. The dogs run toward them and they stop and turn around. The dogs stop in their tracks, bark, and retreat in terror. The witness watches the entities as they continue walking. They are about 5 feet tall and sealed in diving outfits. At the level of their eyes is a glass plate through which they can apparently see. Their hips are unnaturally wide and each has a hump between the back of the neck and the shoulders. The witness calls out to them, but they begin running into the trees. A luminous rectangular object floats up from the treetops about 325 feet away and hovers 100 feet from the ground. A blue-green light is along its sides, shading away into white in the middle. The UFO speeds away, leaving no findable landing traces. The witness claims his dogs’ front legs become paralyzed 6 months later and he has to put them to sleep. (Bronislaw Rzepecki, “UFOs and Ufologists in Poland,” IUR 11, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1986): 16; ; Bronislaw Rzepecki, “UFOs in Poland,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 124 – 125 ) August 1 — 1:35 a.m. Westchester County police officer William Shaughnessy sees apparently the same white ball of light at the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, New York, as that reported by several citizens of Lewisboro the same night. It passes southeast directly over his car, at 600–800 feet altitude. It stops above some treetops, makes a complete right turn, and disappears to the west. 12 minutes later, it comes flying back, hovers, shoots over his car again, and is gone quickly. During this time, Shaughnessy cannot reach his station by either low-band FM or portable radio. (“Cop Ridiculed for NL Sighting in New York,” IUR 4, no. 3/4 (Sept./Oct. 1979): 10–11) August 1 — US Air Force Intelligence is redesignated the Electronic Security Command. (Wikipedia, “Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Agency”) August 1 — The Fund for UFO Research is established as a nonprofit corporation in the District of Columbia to raise money to support scientific UFO research and public information projects. It remains active through 2011. (Fund for UFO Research Quarterly Report, Oct./Dec. 1983; Clark III 520) August 1 — Astronomer Allan Hendry publishes The UFO Handbook, a harshly pessimistic assessment of his investigative experience with the Center for UFO Studies in Evanston, Illinois. The first part covers IFOs, showing how normal objects can be misinterpreted as UFOs. The remainder of the book covers techniques that can be used by UFO investigators. (Allan Hendry, The UFO Handbook, Doubleday, 1979; Clark III 569) August 2 — Morning. A teen who mows the lawn finds a strange design on the lawn of an 8-acre estate about 8 miles north of Chagrin Falls, Ohio. The owner waits a week before reporting it to the police, who alert the Center for UFO Studies, which investigates the marking on August 22. The trace is visible as flattened, yellowed grass in a semicircle between two straight lines forming a 120° angle. An analysis of the soil sample indicated nothing unusual in the chemistry, and no herbicides or petroleum. (“1979 Ground Mark Remains Unidentified,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 2 (June 1980): 1–2) August 2 — 11:30 p.m. Multiple witnesses watch a triangular object flying from south to north over Herndon and Atwood, Kansas; and Culbertson and McCook, Nebraska. (Marler 104–106) August 4 — 10:35 p.m. Maria Artura and her grandson see a domed, disc-shaped object approach from the west over Canoga Park, Los Angeles, California. Two humanoid beings with oversize heads are inside. The object stops and hovers above an apartment building on the other side of the street. It tilts to one side, returns to horizontal, then flies behind a tree, stops, and tilts the other way. Finally, it flies away to the west. (“California Humanoids?” IUR 4, no. 3/4 (Sept./Oct. 1979): 11; Richard H. Hall, “Dyad ‘Scout Craft,’” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000–2001): 25; Patrick Gross, URECAT, December 25, 2007) August 5 — 7:00 p.m. A man driving 20 miles north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sees five large red lights suddenly appear in front of his car. They are in a V-formation, four in one row, the fifth forming the other. They move downward toward the horizon, where they vanish. (“Strange Formation in Wisconsin,” IUR 4, no. 3/4, Sept./Oct, 1979): 11) August 10 — Two large metallic spheres are found in Bolivia, one near Enconada and another near Buen Retiro, just hours after reports of a fireball in Bolivia and northern Chile. Newspaper reports at the time focus on the reentry of a satellite or rocket stage as the possible cause, suggested by Col. Ariel Coca, director of the Bolivian Air Force Academy. The Defense Attaché of the US Embassy in La Paz promptly informs the US Defense Intelligence Agency via telexed Moon Dust reports, which include translations of two Bolivian newspaper reports. Moon Dust is the unclassified name of a cold war USAF program to obtain Soviet space hardware that survives reentry. In

2014, amateur satellite tracker Ted Molczan presents strong circumstantial evidence that the spheres are debris from the reentry of the Delta rocket second stage 1979-072B that launched Westar 3 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the same day. (“Moon Dust, Object Found near Santz Cruz U,” August 17, 1979; “Moon Dust, Additional Object Reportedly Found near Santa Cruz U,” August 21, 1979; Ted Molczan, “Re-Entry Sightings and Debris Recovery of 1979-072B, Bolivia: 1979 August 10 UTC,” Visual Satellite Observer, July 30, 2014; Ted Molczan, “Bolivia: Spheres Found August 1979, La Prensa Article,” Visual Satellite Observer; Good Above, pp. 322 – 323 ) August 10 — 9:00 p.m. Two witnesses are on the shore of a lake near Czluchow, Poland, when they see an object gliding swiftly along the surface and vanishing behind some vegetation on the bank. One witness collects his dogs and approaches the spot, but before he gets there, he encounters two entities dressed in black who are moving toward the woods. The dogs run toward them barking, but the entities turn to face them and the dogs stop barking and go back. The beings are dressed in coveralls. They have wide hips, a lump at the base of their necks, and curved forearms, and they are gliding rather than walking. They vanish, and while searching for them the witness sees a rectangular object hovering about 300 feet away and flashing beams of white and blue-green light. It vanishes suddenly. (Bronislaw Rzepecki, “UFO Reports from Poland,” Flying Saucer Review 33, no. 1 (March 1988): 5–6; Poland 46–48) August 11 — 9:41 p.m. A graduate student and a friend are taking an evening drive in a semi-rural area in Northfield Township, Michigan. They notice two white stationary lights about 300 feet from the road and 500 feet in the air. They turn the car around and see another formation of white lights and a flashing red light to the west. A total of three sets of lights appear heading south. They follow one group, which hovers above some power lines. The couple continues to pursue and be pursued by the similar formations of lights for 30 minutes. At the intersection of Joy and Whitmire Lake Road, one set of lights flies directly above them at 1,000–1,500 feet altitude, making a noise like a jet or the wind. (“Scientists Chase Michigan UFOs?” IUR 4, no. 3/4 (Sept./Oct. 1979): 11–12) August 11 — 11:00 p.m. Two 18-year-olds, a male college student and a female telephone company employee, are sitting in a car near Bergen Park, Colorado, looking at the homes at the base of a small mountain on Soda Creek Road off Interstate 70. They see a white light about two-thirds of the way up the mountain. It grows bigger, four times the brightness of the houselights at the base of the mountain. It seems to become a cluster of four lights with a dark space in the middle. After 3 minutes, the light silently rises over the mountain, hovers for 3 seconds, and drops down behind it. A glow remains over the mountain. (“Colorado Landing,” IUR 4, no. 3/4 (Sept./Oct. 1979): 12) August 12 — 2:00 a.m. Engineer Y. Podvyazniy and two companions are on the shore of the Black Sea west of the microdistrict of Khosta near Sochi, Krasnodar Krai, Russia. They notice a brightly illuminated object approaching erratically from the sea. Suddenly it skips to within one mile of the witnesses, who take 9 photos, estimate its size as 165–330 feet, and notice four glowing lights that look like portholes. The object is only 16 – 65 feet above the water when it slowly moves away to a distance of 9 miles. A patrol boat uses its searchlight to illuminate the object, which appears to be spherical. When the object lights up and dims, the searchlight and the patrol boat’s lights also dim. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, pp. 133–134) August 12 — 10:00 p.m. Two teenage brothers are driving 9 miles west of Rolla, Missouri, in an undeveloped area. A red light and a blue light appear over the car, apparently circling each other. The two lights seem to blend into one, forming a soft white color. Sparks shoot out, and the single light source arcs upward and vanishes in the western sky. Both feel strange sensations of both pressure and floating as this occurs. These effects, along with involuntary body movements and trouble speaking and breathing, last 10 minutes. (“Teens Claim Bizarre Effects,” IUR 4, no 3/4 (Sept./Oct. 1979): 12) Mid-August — Night. Hospital administrator Jon Linnell and his wife are driving home from Northwood, North Dakota, to Warren, Minnesota, when they see bright lights over a field to the left. 15 seconds later the lights come toward them and hover above their car. Linnell slows the car down and the object takes off to the north. It is silent and too bright to look at. (“Deputy’s UFO Story Evokes Other Tales,” Minneapolis Star, September 11, 1979, pp. 1, 5; Clark III 716) August 16 — 4:22 a.m. A male nurse is driving south on US Highway 19 seven miles south of Washington, Pennsylvania. Ahead of him on the left is a large, luminous object that looks like a football. It appears to be 60 feet up as he drives underneath it. It remains stationary as he drives away. (”Pennsylvania ‘Football,’” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 4) August 16 — 4:30 p.m. A silver, pan-shaped object flies past an eastbound truck near Providence, Kentucky, at 2,000– 3,000 feet altitude. It tumbles in flight, turning over sideways before disappearing behind a hill. (“Kentucky Daylight Saucer,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 4)

August 17 — 9:00 p.m. Elma l’Abbe is flying above Saint-Jovite, Quebec, in a Piper PA-28 Cherokee Warrior piloted by a friend. She looks out the window and notices that both wings are turning red. The pilot says his controls are jammed, but both feel the aircraft being pulled upward. They then see a large red ball of energy nearly 300 feet in diameter and 50 feet thick close to the right wing. It speeds away rapidly and appears to have a white light on its tail end. The aircraft falls about 1,000 feet and levels out at 4,000 feet. The object disappears into a cloud, where it rotates, showing red on one side and white on the other. The ball of light disappears into the orange sky of the sunset. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 92–95) August 19 — 10:20 p.m. A witness at his home 16 miles southeast of Dallas, Texas, sees a shimmering light with amber portholes silently darting around near some radio towers. (“Texan NL,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 4) August 20 — 7:30–9:00 p.m. Some 119 people in northern and eastern Poland observe several different types of cylindrical or spherical UFOs. Reports come from Sopot, Jurata, Gdańsk, Bydgoszcz, Malbork, Jastrzębie, Olsztyn, Świecie, and Warsaw. Vacationers in Sopot and Jurata see a cigar ejecting a smoky trail and flames. In Gdańsk, the objects are cigar-shaped or oblong changing into a sphere. Bogdan Śmiech from Malbork watches 9– 10 balls of light 3–4 miles above the ground. (Poland 72–73) Late August — 10:00 p.m. Mrs. H. M. Dickinson and another witness see a small, transparent object shaped like a lightbulb moving west to east just outside the window of her home in Surry, Maine. Inside it is an entity sitting on a box and facing what seems to be a control panel. The object is lighted from within and blinks out after 5 seconds. (“Seated Occupant in Light-Bulb-Shaped 1979 Maine CE-III,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 2 (April/May 1984): 1, 3) August 23 — 8 : 15 p.m. Two fishing boats belonging to the Szomborg family, the Hel-125 and Hel-127, are in the Baltic Sea some 46 miles off the Hel peninsula, Poland, when their radar malfunctions and the TV set reception fails. Lucjan Szomborg on the Hel- 127 notices two bright-red lights in the air less than a mile away. Suddenly another larger, pulsating light appears abut 1,500 feet in front of the boat and the original two lights, which are apparently attached to a dark object, move silently toward it. A white light emerges from the two smaller lights, which then disappear in the distance. The pulsating light begins flashing erratically, emitting strong vibrations, and Szomborg steers his boat closer. The red light places itself directly in the Hel- 127 ’s path three times, matching the boat’s course changes. The crew members begin to get nervous, some getting severe headaches, chest pains, and nausea. The navigator, Henryk Elwardt, is gripped with pain, affected by the pulsing vibrations. Szomborg, feeling symptoms of paralysis and temporary blindness, manages to change course and warn his father on the Hel-125 of danger. All the on-board equipment has suddenly stopped working. After 20 minutes, Szomborg notices that the red sphere has moved further away. The boats safely return to Hel by 4:00 a.m., and the equipment is working again. Doctors, neurologists, and psychiatrists examine the crew and find nothing physically wrong, but they are prescribed sedatives and the Polish Navy prohibits them from going out to sea for 3 weeks. (Poland 122–124; “UFO nad Bałtykiem 23 sierpnia 1979 r.,” UFO-Relacje.pl, August 4, 2019) August 25 — 3:30 p.m. Three witnesses in a boat at Balsam Lake, Wisconsin, watch an object with a metallic surface move downward in an oscillating manner and maneuver for 6–7 minutes. (“Wisconsin DD,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 4) August 27 — 1:40 a.m. Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson is on duty in the west end of Marshall County, Minnesota, driving on County Highway 5 west of Stephen when he sees a light through his side window. The light is to his south, shining from a grove of trees standing along State Highway 220 near the Red River. He thinks it might be from a downed drug-smuggling airplane. He turns south on 220, accelerates to 65 mph, and moves closer. The light moves toward him, traveling so fast that it crosses the 1.5 miles separating them almost instantaneously. It makes no sound and still looks just like a blinding light. Johnson hears glass breaking and sees the inside of the patrol car light up. After the light hits, he loses consciousness. When he wakes up, his head is resting on the steering wheel and his eyes are staring at the red “engine” light on the dashboard. He looks out the window and sees the car has skidded sideways across the northbound lane and now faces eastward. The front tires are touching the gravel on the shoulder. He can see only with difficulty and feels like he is moving in slow motion. At 2:19 a.m., he radios headquarters and asks for assistance. Deputy Greg Winskowski arrives on the scene shortly. Johnson is still inside the car with a red bump on his forehead, so he calls an ambulance. At the hospital, Dr. W. A. Pinsonneault examines Johnson’s eyes, but the probe light hurts so much that Johnson cannot stand it more than a few seconds at a time. Pinsonneault suspects corneal flash burns and covers his eyes with bandages. Sheriff Dennis Brekke drives Johnson’s 1977 Ford LTD patrol car back to the garage. The inside light on the driver’s side is smashed. On the hood, 4 feet 4 inches behind the smashed light and close to the windshield, is a flat-bottomed, circular dent, half an inch in diameter. A crack in the windshield on the driver’s side about 18 inches behind the dent runs top to bottom, with four apparent impacts; it looks as if a cluster of small objects, stones perhaps, have done the damage. The car’s battery-powered clock, set correctly at 7:00 p.m. when Johnson came on duty, is 14 minutes

late. So is Johnson’s wind-up wristwatch, set at the same time. The red plastic lens covering the roof light on the driver’s side shows a triangular puncture, and the lens is dislodged from the housing. A radio antenna shaft is bent over at a 60° angle. The large “bubble” lamp just inches in front of the antenna is unscathed. The trunk antenna for CB radio is bent at 90°. Brekke, after calling the Center for UFO Studies in Evanston, Illinois, takes Johnson to Grand Forks, North Dakota, at 11:00 a.m. for an eye examination by ophthalmologist Leonard Prochaska, who finds that Johnson’s problems have cleared up. Allan Hendry of CUFOS determines that the car damage is inconsistent with anything an airplane could have caused. Meridan French, a windshield expert with the Glass Division of Ford Motor Company, concludes that a flat-ended object had made a forceful impact with the hood and then tilted toward the windshield. A team of engineers at Honeywell’s materials testing laboratory indicates that flying particles were responsible for the damage to the headlight glass and lamp plastic. (Wikipedia, “Val Johnson incident”; NICAP, “Val Johnson Case”; “Deputy’s UFO Story Evokes Other Tales,” Minneapolis Star, September 11, 1979, pp. 1, 5; “Minnesota CEII: The Val Johnson Story,” IUR 4, no. 3/4 (Sept./Oct. 1979): 4–9; “Minnesota CEII: The Val Johnson Story, Part Two, Laboratory Analyses and Conclusion,” IUR 4, no. 5 (November 1979): 4– 11 ; Chris Rutkowski, “Special Report: Stephen, Minnesota; Not Proof, But…” Swamp Gas Journal 1, no. 6 (April 1980): 1–4; Mark Rodeghier, “UFO/Vehicle Very Close Encounters,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 25; Clark III 713– 716 ) August 27 — 2:30 p.m. Flying instructor Laurie Adlington has just left Blackbushe Airport in Yateley, Hampshire, England, with Lt. James Plastow from Sandhurst Military College for his pilot’s license test in a Cessna 150. They are at 2,000 feet heading toward Basingstoke when Adlington suddenly grabs the controls and throws the Cessna into a steep bank and descent to avoid a collision. An object suddenly speeds past the front of the aircraft, coming within a few feet of the windshield. The rotating object is about 12 inches in diameter, shaped like a doughnut, reflects light with a silvery glow “like a blob of mercury,” and has a honeycombed surface. They can make out the hint of an aerial on one side. The object begins flying around the plane for a short time before it flies underneath it and then streaks upward and away to about 3,000 feet. Possible early use of a drone. (Omar Fowler, “Mini-Disc over Blackbushe,” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 1 (June 1980): 18–19) August 27 — 11:00 p.m. A family in Smithtown, New York, watches a round object with a band around its equator and many small orange lights fly toward them from the north. They remain outside after it disappears, hoping it will return, and it does, flying from west to east and rising up sharply and silently. (“New York NL Appears Twice,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 5) August 29 — 2:00 a.m. Russ Johnson is driving on Highway 50 on the western outskirts of Vermillion, South Dakota, when he spots a blinding headlight in front of him. It is stationary for 2 seconds, then it streaks toward him and engulfs his car. Johnson closes his eyes and hits the brakes, skidding the car to a stop, spinning sideways until it faces east. He opens his eyes and sees the light heading away west. The next day, the still-shaken Johnson goes to the site with Robert Adams at the University of South Dakota, who sees the skid marks. (Clark III 716; “Case 4- 5 - 2,” IUR 4, no. 5 (November 1979): 11) August 29 — 8:00 a.m. A woman is in her alfalfa field 10 miles north of Pasco, Washington, when she sees what appears to be a post sitting a half-mile away. It is about 4–5 feet tall. About 10 minutes later she sees that the object is now in the air, flying slowly in a horizontal position, land bullet-shaped, looking black on its flat end and silver on its rounded end. A neighbor also sees the object before it disappears in the west. (“A Flying Fence Post in Washington State,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 5) August 29 — 7 : 3 0 p.m. A married couple is taking their dog on a duck hunt between Dziki and Ernestowo, Poland, when they notice a “strange orange ball” coming from behind a hill about 3 miles away. The husband studies it through binoculars, estimating its speed as about 95 mph. The ball proves to be the front of a huge steel-colored cigar- shaped object, which stops 1,300 feet away and hovers above some buildings for about 10 seconds. They can see five large, square windows with rounded corners; the three in the front glow with orange light, while the other two seem covered by a shade. The object moves forward about 40 feet and stops. Half a minute later, sparks shoot from the rear and the UFO vanishes over the horizon. An orange glow remains behind. Alojzy Pawlik sees the same object in Laskowice at about the same time. (Bronislaw Rzepecki, “Encounters in Poland,” IUR 12, no. 3 (May/June 1987): 17) August 29 — 10:00 p.m. A 47 - year-old housewife sees the lower corner of a gigantic “mothership” outside her living room window in a southwest suburb of Chicago, Illinois. The blimp-like UFO is so huge she can’t see the whole length or height. It extends the whole block of houses at treetop level. She reports four different kinds of humanoid creatures (7 in all) visible through the hull, which is luminous and yellow in color. She hears a loud humming sound. The duration is 45 minutes. (“Two That Got Away,” IUR 5, no. 1 (January 1980): 5) August 29 — 10:30 p.m. Charles Weeden and his father see an orange light moving erratically in the sky to the west over Sycamore, Illinois. They call the police, and Deputy Berna Van Vlerah looks outside the station 2.5 miles west of

the Weedens and sees the orange light to her southeast, low above the horizon. Using binoculars, she sees a flat- bottomed orange dome shape within the light. She watches it for 5 minutes, then drives to the Weedens and watches it there to the west. (“Orange NL in Illinois?” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 197 9): 5) August 29 — 11:15 p.m. Harry Joe Turner is driving a 1974 Kenworth tractor-trailer loaded with mustard and ketchup on US Highway 17 two miles from Warrenton, Virginia. His CB radio starts acting up, giving out a noise that gets louder and louder. Something grabs him tightly on his left shoulder. He sees a large object looming over his cab and hears two thumps. Even though he is going 70 mph, he sees a figure standing outside. When it throws open the door, Turner grabs his .32 automatic pistol and fires 8 rounds at it with no effect. He then blacks out. Turner wakes up in the passenger seat at 3:00 a.m. at his destination in a Fredericksburg warehouse but can’t remember how he got there. The odometer indicates he has only traveled 17 miles, not 80, yet he has used 114 gallons of fuel. The top 2 inches of the CB antenna are melted off, and 30 inches of the AM/FM antenna has broken off. A filmy substance covers the truck. He drives back home but is confused and his eyes are overly sensitive to light. Turner wakes up in a Winchester hospital diagnosed with a broken blood vessel in his left eye. He begins to remember more about the experience and recalls his truck being lifted into a UFO piloted by two humanlike figures dressed in white shirts and pants, one of whom is named Alpha La Zoo Loo. He seems to take a trip in space to a planet beyond Alpha Centauri. On September 3, after taking valium, Turner is arrested for speeding. He thinks aliens are chasing him. Turner continues to undergo anxiety attacks. Allan Hendry and Fred Whiting from the Center for UFO Studies are unable to corroborate Turner’s story, and the two antennas appear to be deliberately altered. (Iris Maack, “Truck, Rig, Abducted (?),” APRO Bulletin 28, no. 6 (December 1979): 1–3; Clark III 1139– 1141 ) August 30 — 2:30 a.m. A student camping out at Slip Bluff County Park near Lamoni, Iowa, is awakened by her dog barking. She sees a formation of lights on an oval object about a city block away. It moves away horizontally, still close to the ground. (“Landing in Iowa?” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 6) August 30 — 4:00 p.m. During a thunderstorm, three passengers and the driver watch a 2-foot yellow and green ball of light rush down from the north only 5 feet in front of a Metropolitan Transit Commission bus on the southwest side of Minneapolis, Minnesota. It hits the pavement and erupts into a shower of sparks and smoke with a loud explosion. The shocked bus driver runs over the point of impact as the vehicle is shaking. No lasting effects can be found in the pavement after the storm. (“Case 4- 5 - 3,” IUR 4, no. 5 (November 1979): 11)

September — Citizens Against UFO Secrecy is losing momentum due to lack of money and public support. Search fees have become prohibitive: In response to a CAUS request for data on UFO trackings, NORAD informs them that it will require 18,383 hours and $294,157. (MUFON UFO Journal, October 1979) September 3 — 7:30 p.m. Two witnesses watch an “aluminum oil drum with wings” flying silently above Oroville, California, in a straight line. (“California Flying Drum,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 6) September 3 — 9:30 p.m. Two couples in Balsam Lake, Wisconsin, see a red disc hovering in the western sky as they are driving from their cottage. The dashboard and engine lights fail, so the driver pulls over. The lights come back on but go off again when the car moves forward again. This happens again 5–6 times in less than a minute. Once their view of the light is blocked, the lights come back on. The object moves on to the southwest at incredible speed. (“Car Interference Case,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 6) September 3 — 10:40 p.m. Two witnesses in Cape Charles, Virginia, see a bright light zigzagging in an unusual manner for one minute in the northeast. (“Virginia NL,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 6) September 4 — 7:45 p.m. Three men are driving north along Richmond Township Road A near New Richmond, Wisconsin, when they see a silver disc 500 feet to the west over some treetops. It moves toward the road and crosses it at 10 mph behind their pickup, then pausing to hover above a field 10 feet up. They jump out to watch the UFO wobbling about 300 feet away. Two more cars stop to watch. The object moves off to the east, still wobbling. (“DD and Independent Witnesses,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 7) September 4 — 8:15 p.m. Two boys in Ashland, Wisconsin, watch a cone-shaped object with a slightly curved bottom flopping around and tumbling in the sky. They chase it on their bicycles but it outdistances them. (“Tumbling Cone in Wisconsin,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 7) September 5 — 3:40 a.m. Dr. Barbara Anaczkowska-Piazza, a driver, and a stretcher bearer are taking a pregnant patient in an ambulance from Żuławka Sztumska to the hospital at Sztum, Poland. As they are passing through Tropy Sztumskie, they notice a large orange-red ball on their left that seems to parallel them as they turn toward Kalwa. At one point it looks so close that the driver fears it will block their way. It seems to have two dark, horizontal bands across it. They turn back to a railway crossing and alert the guards to the object, which is now less bright and soon turns dark. The observation lasts 20 minutes. Although there are some discrepancies in the accounts of its movement, Wim van Utrecht and others are certain that it was the full moon setting. (Emma Popik, “Under

Intelligent Control?” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 6 (March 1981): 2–4; Poland 55–57; Wim van Utrecht, “Lunar Terror in Poland: A Doctor’s Dilemma,” CENAP UFO-Forschung, October 31, 2020) September 5 — 10 :45 a.m. Lawrence Hogan is driving on County Road MM one mile east of Dresser, Wisconsin. A black dot moves over the trees ahead of him about 50 feet up, slowing down 600 feet away and descending below the tree line. He stops his truck to watch it move east. He sees that the object is metallic and silent. He chases it, alternately moving and hovering, for 5 minutes. (“Then, the Next Day,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 7–8) September 9 — 4:30 a.m. A driver sees a bright amber light through her windshield to the west in Streamwood, Illinois. It approaches, then moves back to the west, dipping left and right. It approaches again, floating downward and growing brighter. Red and yellow spikes of light emanate from a bright white center. When she feels her face growing hot, she pulls sharply onto another street. Looking through her rear-view mirror, she sees the light make an abrupt turn to the left and disappear in the north in a few seconds. By noon, her face is sunburned and sore; the skin flakes off the next day and she quickly recovers. (“Case 4- 5 - 4,” IUR 4, no. 5 (November 1979): 12) September 9 — 7:30 p.m. A salesman and some customers are outside in Richfield, Minnesota, when they notice a silver form shaped like a truck tire with a flat underside moving to the south. It hovers for 4–5 seconds before moving off only 80–90 feet away from them. (“Minnesota Daylight CE I,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 8–9) September 11 — 5:40 p.m. Donald Schultie watches a blue-gray object approach him from the east in Millsboro, Delaware. His son and councilwoman Dorothy Grey also see it. The UFO is an oblate sphere with a flashing white light. He estimates it is 10 feet wide. It hovers 300–500 feet away in a nearby field for 5 minutes then moves up and away to the northwest. (“Delaware DD,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 9) September 12 — 8:45 p.m. A complete power failure takes place in Huaihua, Hunan, China. At 9:00 p.m., a bright object appears overhead, emitting a vertical stream of white rays. It flies upward at an angle and vanishes soundlessly a minute later, leaving two masses of hemispherical luminous clouds about 32 8 feet across. (Paul Dong and Wendelle C. Stevens, UFOs over Modern China, UFO Photo Archives, 1983, p. 132) September 12 — 11:00 p.m. A fire lookout at the Satus Peak tower on the Yakama, Washington, Indian Reservation sees a large orange ball of light between the Goat Rocks Wilderness Area and Mount Adams. It remains below the skyline for the most part, slowly moving in a number of different directions before fading from view. An hour and 15 minutes later, two more orange balls appear in the area of Simon Butte. Moving erratically. They are joined by a third light, and all fade away after 45 seconds. The third ball apparently makes another appearance 5 minutes later and is visible for 45 seconds. (“More NLs in Yakima,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 9) Mid-September — 4:30 a.m. Teenagers Holly Travis and Debbie LaRose wake up at the Travis house in Sanford, Maine, and see through a window a huge, orange, round object whose underside is clearly visible as it slowly (10– 15 mph) passes overhead, gently spinning on its axis, at about 500 feet elevation. It slowly descends behind the roof of the neighbor’s house. (Richard Sigismond, “Four Huge Orange Discs and the Case for the UFO,” IUR 8, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1983): 6–7) September 16 — Night. Curtis Olson is mowing hay on his farm near Lake City, Minnesota, when he finds a circle of flattened corn 50 feet in diameter. The stalks are flattened in a pattern radiating from the center of the circle, and some are charred. He finds a path leading to another circle 18 feet away. At first, he thinks lightning caused it, but then he considers the possibility of a UFO. County Extension Agent Matt Metz thinks it might have been a combination of wind and decay. In 1987, Curtis’s uncle David Olson admits to creating the circles as a practical joke, using his burlap-covered feet and a posthole tamper. (“Farmer Says UFO Caused Field Damage,” Minneapolis Tribune, September 19, 1979, pp. 2B, 4B; “Not Everyone in Lake City Accepting Prankster’s Confession in UFO Mystery,” Minneapolis Star and Tribune, April 8, 1987, pp. 1B, 6B; Clark III 602 ) September 17 — 9:00 p.m. A witness driving in Portsmouth, Virginia, sees a large star approaching her until it is only 30 feet up and less than a block away. She says it seems as large as a three-story house and looks like a gigantic faceted wedding cake with three layers. She hears a muffled sound of a motor. One small green light is on the object’s side, while the underside floods the ground with light. After 2 minutes, it moves slowly off to the left. (“A Faceted Wedding Cake?” IUR 4. No. 6 (December 1979): 9–10) September 19 — Peter Gersten, on behalf of Ground Saucer Watch, meets with CIA attorneys and Judge John H. Pratt at US District Court for the District of Columbia. The CIA has moved for summary judgment, asserting that the GSW requests for UFO files are an “undue burden” and that the papers released so far are of little importance. Pratt gives GSW 60 days to provide a written response to the CIA motion. (MUFON UFO Journal, October 1979) September 20 — 5:30 a.m. A woman is driving in Poplar Grove, Illinois, when a pear-shaped blue light, surrounded by a white haze, engulfs her van in blinding light. Her AM radio is racked with static. She floors the accelerator to get away but can’t get past 40 mph. She recalls a sense of lightness as if she and the van are floating. The next thing she remembers is driving almost 6 miles further ahead at the intersection of Beaverton and Poplar Grove Road.

She stops a police car for help, and her husband comes to pick her up. She sleeps abnormally and exhibits bouts of hysteria for a while after the event. (“Case 4- 5 - 5,” IUR 4, no. 5 (November 1979): 12) September 26 or 27 — 8:45 p.m. Pat Gagliardo and another woman watch a single, blinking white light moving above the treetops near Norwich, Connecticut. They drive home to get two binoculars and another witness, then see the light approaching them from the east, now visibly attached to a boomerang-shaped object with the concave side toward them. It stops, tumbles end over end, and moves toward them again, slowly passing overhead, then shoots off to the east. (“Connecticut NL,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 10) September 29 — 8:45 a.m. A screenwriter sees two bright silver spheres moving above Hollywood, California. Each is somewhat smaller than a full moon and are revolving counterclockwise around a common axis between them. (“A Different Kind of Hollywood Spectacle,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 10)

Fall — MUFOB changes its name to Magonia, with a nod to Jacques Vallée’s book Passport to Magonia. It continues until April 2009. (Magonia, no. 1 (Autumn 1979); Clark III 706; “History of Magonia,” Magonia Archive) October — Construction for an F-117A Nighthawk support facility begins at Tonopah Test Range inside Area 52, Nevada. The facility at Area 51 serves as a model for the Tonopah project. (Jacobsen, Area 51, p. 343 ) October — In a remote area near Melville, Saskatchewan, a CUFOS investigator is looking into a cattle mutilation when his truck begins swerving uncontrollably. He stops and gets out as he hears a low humming noise in the nearby bush. Walking toward it, he feels sharp pains in his back and his knees collapse. The hum becomes louder as he crawls back to the truck and drives away. He loses his sense of direction and hears a rapid clicking noise. The speedometer needle fluctuates wildly between 10 and 85 mph. Suddenly his disorientation leaves and he drives home. (“Two CE-IIs in Western Canada,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 4 (August 1980): 6–7) October — Day. Cornel Alexandru Olteanu is gathering mushrooms in a forest near Valea Berii near the source of the Teleajen River in the Ciucaş Mountains, Romania. He notices a gray object like a car in a clearing under a high cliff about 320 feet away. He walks toward it and sees it looks more like a metallic disc with a turret and is sitting on 3–4 legs. Nearby are two little men about 4 feet tall who seem to be working on something. They have large eyes, bald heads, and yellowish skin, and they are dressed in a one-piece suit. Noticing him, they turn toward Olteanu, who is suddenly unable to move. The men turn around and climb up a ladder into the object. Flashing white lights come on and the object takes off into the sky and over some trees, which bend over as if they are going through a hurricane. After it is gone, Olteanu can move again. He notices a yellowish stain at the landing site. (Romania 132–133) October 4 — 12:00 noon. A sales manager watches a silver, domed-shaped object with a black flat bottom from a 38th- floor window on Madison Avenue and 26th Street in New York City. It is seen by three others on the same floor and two others on the floor immediately below. It moves north and makes a sharp turn before apparently hitting the Empire State Building. It clears the Pan Am building and flies off along the Hudson River at a high altitude. (“The UFO That Almost Hit the Empire State Building,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 10–11) October 6 — 7:30 p.m. A couple driving south on County Road 46 near Amery, Wisconsin, see two red, luminous globes, each as large as the full moon, hovering above the southeast horizon. They drive on another 2–3 miles watching them before the two objects join together and hovers 250 feet above the field to their left, bathing it in a pinkish glow. (“Red Globes in Wisconsin,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 11) October 6 — 9:30 p.m. A couple are driving on Interstate 35 east of Barnum, Minnesota, when they see a ball of light 3 – 6 feet in diameter approaching low over some trees. It rolls and bounces silently over the top of the car in about 10 seconds. After driving another 500 feet, the car’s engine dies and the headlights malfunction. The battery is so dead that it can’t be jump-started. The alternator also has to be replaced. The mechanic who does the repair work says that the interior looks like a fire has gone through it (though not the exterior). (“Case 4- 5 - 6,” IUR 4, no. 5 (November 1979): 12; Mark Rodeghier, “A Summary of Vehicle Interference Reports and a Description of a Possible Natural Phenomenon Causing Some Events,” The Spectrum of UFO Research, CUFOS, 1988, p. 165) October 16 — 6:10 p.m. Two witnesses on the east side of Saint Paul, Minnesota, near Interstate 694 see a silvery domed disc with a flat bottom traveling toward the southwest, moving up and down and drifting about. (“Another Minnesota DD,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 11) October 20 — 12:30 a.m. A 15-year-old boy in a farmhouse in Baldwin, Wisconsin, sees two intese white lights circling counterclockwise over a hayfield about 1,200 feet away. He goes outside for a closer look, but the lights disappear. Three days later, the family finds a 30 foot-by-45 foot triangular area of brown and dried vegetation in the hayfield. (“Wisconsin CE II?” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 11) October 25 — 5:56 p.m. A young man and his sister are driving through Westmont, Illinois, and see a flat-bottomed object. Bright luminous white in the middle, its outer edge is more yellow. It moves back and forth, somersaults, and disappears. (“Illinois Flipping Disc?” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 11–12)

October 27 — 6:15 a.m. Lou Blackburn takes three photographs of his friends’ fishing boat coming out of the Motunau River on the South Island of New Zealand. After it is developed, one of the slides shows a cluster of about 19 blue-white lights in the sky. (Fred and Phyll Dickeson, “The Motunau, New Zealand, UFO Photograph,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 6 (June 1981): 1, 3–4) October 27 — Three Russian aircraft approaching Khatanga, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, encounter a large UFO about 850 feet long and only a half-mile away with three spheres attached to it. Each sphere has three portholes. The pilot of an Antonov An-26 transport cannot get his compass to work properly unless it is directed at the object, which paces the aircraft, flying over and around it. A similar object is seen shortly afterward at Alykel Airport near Norilsk, and the Messoyakha Gas Field. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, p. 95) October 29 — In Hayden v. National Security Agency/Central Security Service the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rules that the records of the National Security Agency are so sensitive to national security that they are afforded a “special dispensation” from adversarial scrutiny through FOIA. (Hayden v. National Security Agency / Central Security Service, US Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, October 29, 1979)

November — During rocket tests at the Kapustin Yar site, Astrakhan Oblast, Russia, a Col. Gen. Sapkov and other officers see a bright-green elliptical object, occasionally changing hues, hover over the range for 30 minutes. Sapkov claims to see the same phenomenon in 1986 and is assured by officers that this is a common occurrence. (Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal Encounters behind the Iron Curtain, Quadrillion, 1998, p. 51) November 8 — 7:00 p.m. Five teenage girls in West Palm Beach, Florida, watch a round object with multiple lights, a door, and a bubble roof descend to the east and hover there for 5 minutes. It rises again, flies over a store near the witnesses and disappears over the southern horizon. (“Palm Beach Puzzle,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 13) November 9 — 10:30 a.m. Robert Taylor, a 61-year-old forestry worker, is out one night working in the Dechmont Woods near Livingston, Scotland. Taylor and his dog are on duty when he spots a UFO hovering completely motionless and silent above the ground. Described as approximately 20 feet across and 12 feet high, the strange object is made of a “dark gray metallic material.” Taylor thinks the UFO is possibly going transparent from time to time in order to disguise itself. A ring or platform encircles the object with spikes topped with propellers. Two more small spiky spheres come from the craft and make a sound as their spikes move across the ground. Taylor is then grabbed by these two smaller objects and dragged to the UFO. As this is happening, he can smell a strong, sickening odor. Soon after this, he loses consciousness and remains passed out about 20 minutes. He is woken up by his dog, which is running around and barking in a panic. He hears a kind of hissing sound and realizes that the craft is beginning to leave. Seconds later the UFO disappears. Taylor is unable to walk or talk properly after the event. He suffers from a headache, sickness, and pain in his chin for some hours afterward. Authorities are appointed to investigate the site and find tracks where Taylor says the smaller spheres were dragging him. (Wikipedia, “Robert Taylor incident”; NICAP, “Taylor Incident”; Steuart Campbell, “Close Encounter in Scotland,” Journal of Transient Aerial Phenomena 1, no. 2 (March 1980): 43–46; Martin Keatman and Andrew Collins, “Physical Assault by Unidentified Objects at Livingston, Part I,” Flying Saucer Review 25, no. 6 (April 1980): 2–7; Martin Keatman and Andrew Collins, “Physical Assault by Unidentified Objects at Livingston, Part II,” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 1 (June 1980): 25–28; Martin Keatman and Andrew Collins, “Physical Assault by Unidentified Objects at Livingston, Part III,” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 3 (September 1980): 1–4; “A Scottish Abduction?” IUR/Frontiers of Science 2, no. 5 (July/Aug. 1980): 15–16; Steuart Campbell, “Close Encounter at Livingston,” ed., Charles F. Lockwood and Leslie W. Bayer, BUFORA Case History No. 1, July 1982 ; Patrick Gross, “Dechmont Woods, Scotland, November 9, 1979”) November 11– 12 — 11:00 p.m. Flight JK-297, a TAE Supercaravelle outbound from Salzburg, Austria, has just made a refueling stop on Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain, before setting course toward Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. Pilot Francisco Javier Lerdo de Tejada and his crew notice a set of red lights that are fast approaching the aircraft. They appear to be on a collision course, alarming the crew. The captain requests information about the lights, but neither the Pegaso Defense Radar Center in Torrejón Air Base, Madrid, nor the flight control center in Barcelona can provide any explanation. In order to avoid a possible collision, the captain changes altitude. However, the lights mirror the new course and stay about 1,600 feet away from the plane. Since the object is violating all elementary safety rules and the crew considers an evasive maneuver impossible, the captain decides to go off-course and make an emergency landing at the Manises airport in Valencia. The lights abandon the pursuit just before the aircraft lands. However, three new UFO targets are detected by the radar, each one with an estimated diameter of 650 feet. The objects are seen by several witnesses. One of the UFOs passes very close to the airport runway, and emergency lights are lit by the land crew in case the object happens to be an unregistered flight experiencing difficulties. Because the object answers no attempts to communicate, a Mirage F-1 takes off at

2:10 a.m. from the nearby Los Llanos Air Base in Albacete to intercept the object. The pilot, Spanish Air Force captain Fernando Cámara, has to increase his speed to 920 mph just to achieve visual contact with what he sees as a truncated cone-shaped object. Despite his initial efforts, the object quickly disappears. Cámara is told of a new radar target, indicating that another object might be near Sagunto. When he is close enough, the object accelerates and disappears again. This time, though, the UFO seems to respond, and the Mirage has its electronic flight systems jammed. At last, and after a third intercept attempt, the UFO finally disappears, heading for Africa. After 90 minutes of pursuit, the pilot is forced to return to the base with no results. (Wikipedia, “Manises UFO incident”; NICAP, “Spanish Radar Visual Case? Probably Not”; “Spanish Radar Visual Case,” IUR 4, no. 6 (December 1979): 14 – 15; Good Above, pp. 156 – 157 ; Juan José Benitez, “Jetliner ‘Intercepted’ by UFO near Valencia,” Flying Saucer Review 25, no. 5 (March 1980): 13–15; J. J. Benítez, Incidente en Manises, Plaza y Janés, 1982; J. Plana Crivellén, “Encounters in Spanish Air-Space between Aircraft and UFOs,” Flying Saucer Review 34, no. 1 (March 1989): 22–23) November 14 — 8:10 p.m. A witness near Killaly, Saskatchewan, sees a white light land in a field about a quarter mile to the south of her house and then go out. Her dogs keep snarling and barking all night long. The next morning her husband passes the field and notices that it is emitting a dense cloud of smoke. He finds a ring of smoldering grass some 30 feet in diameter, but with snow still visible in the center. The unburnt grass next to it is flattened. (“Two CE-IIs in Western Canada,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 4 (August 1980): 6–7) November 15 — 5:00 p.m. A group of children playing in Chiraleș, Romania, see a milky-white object that looks like a mace head with protuberances moving silently from north to south about 50 feet from the ground. It appears to be 3 feet in diameter and lands at a nearby mound. The children run toward the mound but stop when they see two glowing objects land on it with tripod legs. Two little men 2.5 feet tall, dressed in metallic costumes with antennae, come out of one of the objects through a door and walk around with a bouncing motion. The children keep approaching, so the men run back into the craft, which takes off in a burst of red-orange flames. Small circular impressions are found, although they get disturbed by curious onlookers. (Romania 134–135) November 15 — 9:00 p.m. Two teenage boys in Gadsden, Alabama, see a domed disc the size of a house approach them from the south until it is 900 feet away and 750 feet in the air. The light underneath it is so bright that it illuminates the entire object. It makes a U-turn and passes overhead as it moves south with a jerky motion. (“Alabama Saucer,” IUR 5, no. 1 (January 1980): 4) November 17 — 2:30 p.m. A 13-year-old boy is walking home from school through a clearing in the woods in Pound Ridge, New York, when he sees what looks like a solid, 3-foot-tall maple tree surrounded by an electric glow. It hovers for 3 seconds only 12 feet away from him, then shoots straight up into the sky, changing color from green to red. (“A Flying Tree in New York?” IUR 5, no. 1 (January 1980): 4) November 17 — 4 :20 p.m. The underground Pegaso Defense Radar Center at Torrejón Air Base in Madrid, Spain, detects an unknown target some 25 miles south of Motril, Grenada, and a Mirage F1 is scrambled from Los Llanos Air Base in Albacete, Castilla–La Mancha. By the time the jet arrives in the vicinity, the target has disappeared. At 6:16 p.m., the pilot is heading back to Los Llanos when he sees three powerful red-yellow lights in the shape of a triangle about 12 miles away. They do not register on radar. In spite of chasing the lights at 720 mph, the Mirage cannot close the gap. During his descent into Los Llanos, some childish, laughing voices break into the UHF- 1 channel linking him to Pegaso: “Hello, how are you? Hello, hello,” they say in Spanish. The interference lasts 30 seconds. (“El OVNI que sobrevoló la ciudad de Motril,” OVNI: ¿Mitologia o Realidad?, May 24, 2019) November 18 — 1:15 a.m. A man in Antioch, California, watches a bright red light flying from east to the northeast. It stops for 3–5 seconds and changes to purple then pale blue and moves off. (“Fast NL in California,” IUR 5, no. 1a (January 1980): 4) November 26 — 5:00 a.m. A phone call to police in Pontoise, Val d’Oise, France, brings officers to the apartment of Jean-Pierre Prevost, 25, a clothing seller, who has claimed that a colleague, Franck Fontaine, has been abducted by a UFO. Fontaine reappears on December 3, claiming to remember only that a luminous fog had descended on his car and he woke up later in a cabbage field. GEPAN investigates and finds the story problematic. On July 7, 1983, Prevost confesses that the story was a hoax intended to promote a spiritual message. (Enquête GEPAN 79/07: A propos d ’ une disparition, Note Technique no. 6, Groupe d’Étude des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non- identifiés, Centre Nationale d’Étude Spatiales, March 3 1, 198 1 ; “French Abduction: ‘Travis Walton’ Style,” IUR 5, no. 1 (January 1980): 3; Jacques Bonabot, “1979 Fontaine Case Now Admitted to Be a Hoax,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 190 (December 1983): 10; “Cergy-Pontoise Hoax,” Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology; Clark III 230– 232 ) November 27 — A 13-year-old girl (“Christelle”) in France is terrorized by the landing of a UFO and the sight of one of its crew. GEPAN investigates the landing traces. Grass is flattened for several days after the incident, and samples are taken to Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse for analysis. Prof. André Touzé of the university’s Center for

Plant Physiology says there is no “unequivocal evidence of chemical of biological disturbance of the samples.” (Enquête GEPAN no. 79/06, Note Technique no. 8, Groupe d’Étude des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non- identifiés, Centre Nationale d’Étude Spatiales, October 26, 1981; Peter A. Sturrock, The UFO Enigma, Warner, 1999, pp. 97– 98 ) November 27 — 4:25 p.m. Yvette Godfrey is assistant manager of a spa in the Barker Shopping Plaza off State Highway 82 near the Connecticut Turnpike in Norwich, Connecticut. She sees a cigar-shaped object hovering at an angle directly above the Norwich Sheraton Motor Inn about 30 feet above the Sheraton sign on the roof. Other women at the spa observe it too. It moves a bit to the south and stops again for a minute before turning west into the clouds. (“Connecticut Cigar,” IUR 5, no. 1 (January 1980): 4) November 30 — 8:00 p.m. At Playa el Combate beach outside Pole Ojea, Puerto Rico, Ramonés Torres and his wife are watching television when they see a bright light hanging at a height of 100 feet above the sea about 900 feet from their house. After about 30 minutes it moves down toward the sea, flares up, and goes out. Torres goes back to the TV set, but after 15 minutes the light returns, this time shining brightly through the window. The light is on a platform floating on the sea only 130–140 feet away, approaching at about 8 mph, and they can see a small man on it about 4 feet high wearing silvery-white coveralls and a big helmet. Suddenly the platform reverses and the light goes out. (Jorge Martín, “A Small Alien Being Seen in Puerto Rico,” Flying Saucer Review 44, no. 3 (Autumn 1999): 21–22)

December — The Moscow City Committee of the Soviet Communist Party forbids all activities of the BVPTS civilian UFO group, but it persists into the 1980s. (Nikita A. Schnee, “Ufology in the USSR,” Flying Saucer Review 27, no. 1 (June 1981): 8–10; Nikita A. Schnee, “Comments,” AFU Newsletter, no. 27 (Jan./Dec. 1984): 21) December 1 — The US Strategic Air Command assumes control of the ballistic missile warning system and all Space Surveillance Network facilities from the deactivating Aerospace Defense Command, with data streams continuing to flow to NORAD. NORAD retains the radar networks and operates many radar sites jointly with the FAA as Semi-Automatic Ground Environment. (Wikipedia, “Strategic Air Command”) December 3 — 7:45 p.m. Chris and Ralph Smith of Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia, see a shiny, semicircular object with red and yellow fire beneath it hover for 5 minutes before it disappears into the sea. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 102–103) December 3 — 10:20 p.m. Former Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer John Pushie takes 7 photos (four of which turn out) of a bright light from his home 7 miles west of Sydney, Nova Scotia. The light hovers in one spot then moves quickly away at one point. He shows them to the commanding officer of CFS Sydney Radar Base [now closed] in Lingan Road, who says he wants to send them to the National Research Council. One month later they are returned with a note saying that Pushie had photographed the star Vega. (“Former RCMP Officer Photographs UFO near Sydney N.S.,” Journal UFO 2, no. 4 (March 1981): 13–14) December 4 — 5:00 p.m. Two witnesses are driving on State Highway 32 near Mansfield Depot, Connecticut, when they see a bright, football-shaped “cloud” hovering low over the trees to the north, turning slowly. The driver stops just north of the intersection with US Highway 44. The object is now seen to have a complex shape with multiple lights as it hovers above some power poles to the west. It starts moving slowly to the south. The witnesses try to follow it but lose sight of it. (“Six Days Later in Connecticut,” IUR 5, no. 1 (January 1980): 4–5) December 5 — 5:55 p.m. Norma White watches a bright star from her restaurant in Ansted, West Virginia. It remains stationary for 15 minutes at a height of 2,000 feet over the mountains to the north. Then it approaches her, passing overhead at 100 mph. It hurts her eyes to look at it. Then the light goes out, allowing her to see a Y-shaped object emitting a dull green light. Clusters of red lights are at the three points of the Y. It silently turns and flies off to the east. Other lights appear in the sky (18 or so) and are observed by police officers Charles Crosier and Dan Cohenour. (“The Mini-Flap of West Virginia,” IUR 5, no. 1a (January 1980): 4) December 6 — 6:29 a.m. An Archuleta County deputy sheriff is driving west on US Highway 160 in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, when he sees an orange-gold light in the western sky. It quickly grows to the size of a fuzzy full moon in 2–3 seconds. Holding its position, it vanishes without a sound. (“Colorado UFO: Head On?” IUR 5, no. 1 (January 1980): 5) December 7 — 10:10 p.m. A couple sees a milky-white object while driving through Madison, Connecticut. They pull over on Bishop Lane and watch it make abrupt changes of direction for a few minutes before it fades from sight. (“Connecticut Disc,” IUR 5, no. 1a (January 1980): 4–5) December 9 — 9:15 a.m. French Air Force Capt. Jean-Pierre Fartek and his wife observe an oscillating UFO hovering near the ground in front of a row of apple trees at his home in a village near Dijon, Côte d’Or, France. It looks like two “reversed saucers pressed against each other,” gray-metal above and dark blue below, with no lights or portholes. He describes the sighting to Gen. Denis Letty, who includes the case in the 1999 COMETA report.

(“1979: Air Force Captain Jean-Pierre Fartek Spots UFO,” UFO Casebook, September 14, 2010; Kean, pp. 124 – 126 ) December 9 — 9:45 p.m. US Coast Guard Storekeeper 1st Class Michal Williams sees a stationary white light above the Mississippi River near the dam in Keokuk, Iowa. It lights up the river below it. The light moves straight up at high speed, changing from white to red and coming to an abrupt stop. The light goes out. Williams and a radioman see it again in the northeast and view it through binoculars. It has two red lights and a white light flashing irregularly. It flies around the dam and into the west-northwest in a matter of seconds. (“Coast Guard Sighting in Iowa,” IUR 5, no. 1a (January 1980): 5) December 11 — 11:45 a.m. Flight instructor Leslie Groves is tutoring a pupil aboard a Cessna 150 flying at 4,500 feet south of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, when he spots something strange that appears to come out of a cloud above Winter Hill. It is clearly a solid ball of white light that is passing in and out of the clouds. He asks the student to bank in order to minimize any risk of a collision. By now the object is pulling away in an arc described as a “well-controlled swooping motion” at about 2,500 feet. (Ron Sergeant and Jenny Randles, “Aircraft in Encounters over Bolton,” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 1 (June 1980): 19–21) December 13 — 4:00 a.m. Two truckers (Wang Dingyuan and Wang Jianming) are driving separate vehicles on the Lanxi-Xin’angiang Highway near Longwangmiao, Zhejiang, China, when they see a bright beam of light ahead. When the lead driver sees two “unusual human beings” standing on the highway, he stops. They are short, perhaps 4.5 feet tall, and wear what look like spacesuits. The second driver also stops but does not see the beings, which soon vanish. The drivers decide to switch vehicles. A few miles down the road, the new lead driver sees the same entities, and the men again stop the trucks. The drivers turn their lights off and on, but the beings remain. When one of the drivers emerges with a crowbar, they disappear. (Paul Dong and Wendelle C. Stevens, UFOs over Modern China, UFO Photo Archives, 1983 , pp. 140– 141 ; Good Above, pp. 214 – 215 ) December 20 — 4:30 a.m. A pilot and two other witnesses are driving near Therien, Alberta, when they see an elongated object drop from 1,000 feet to 200 feet, turning red as it descends, for about 5–10 minutes. It crashes into the ground not too far away from their car. They can feel the impact. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 103) December 23 — 3:30 p.m. A salesman exiting the Orange Freeway at Riverside in Northeast Anaheim, California, sees an object silently pass over him at 300 feet up. The front part is octagonal and the rear is a rectangle. (“A California ‘Whatsit.’” IUR 5, no. 1a (January 1980): 5) December 27 — 11:15 a.m. Two construction workers are driving south on Knott Street in Coquille, Oregon, when they see a bright flash in the southern sky. It is caused by a reflection off a thin, metallic, domed object wobbling nearby. It is about 40–50 feet in diameter and 6–7 feet thick. The object descends to about 1,000 feet. The witnesses try to drive closer and look at it through inexpensive binoculars as it flies down the valley before it disappears to the south. (“Daylight Disc in Oregon,” IUR 5, no. 1a (January 1980): 5) December 27 — Night. A car factory worker at Halewood, Merseyside, England, is walking home when he senses something behind him. Turning around, he sees a floating white sphere, several feet in diameter, heading silently toward him. He watches it pass, and the tingling at the back of his neck intensifies. When it is about 20 feet ahead, it stops and shoots to the southwest at a 45° angle. The man’s hair remains charged with static for two days. (Jenny Randles, “The Twelve UFOs of Christmas,” Fortean Times 374 (Christmas 2018): 29) December 30 — After presenting his findings to the GEPAN Scientific Council, Claude Poher resigns as director. His position is not made public, but it meets with strong opposition from the media. Poher then takes a one-year leave of absence from CNES to sail around the world with his family in a boat he has built himself. Mathematician Alain Esterle replaces Poher as GEPAN director, remaining until 1983. Under his direction, GEPAN is productive, issuing a series of detailed technical notes on cases. (J. Allen Hynek, “GEPAN: France’s Official UFO Agency,” IUR 5, no. 1 (January 1980): 6–8; Gildas Bourdais, “From GEPAN to SEPRA: Official UFO Studies in France,” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000–2001): 12– 13 ; Clark III 546) December 31 — 4:00 a.m. A family in Demopolis, Alabama, wakes up to the sound of their dogs barking wildly. When one witness goes outside to quiet them, he sees a bright, triangular object the size of a house hovering above trees about 1,200 feet away. It approaches in a zigzag path. (Demopolis (Ala.) Times, January 4, 1979; Marler 172)

1980

1980 — Ann Druffel and D. Scott Rogo publish The Tujunga Canyon Contacts, a report on their investigations into a series of abductions and UFO-related events in California involving several women over a period of 25 years. (Ann Druffel and D. Scott Rogo, The Tujunga Canyon Contacts, Prentice-Hall, 1980; Clark III 415)

1980 — Richard F. Haines, an aerospace psychologist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, publishes Observing UFOs, a technical book on analyzing UFO reports. (Richard F. Haines, Observing UFOs: An Investigative Handbook, Nelson-Hall, 1980) 1980 — Alejandro Agostinelli and Juan Carlos Zabalgoitia establish the Centro de Estudios de Fenómenos Aéreos No Convencionales in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and publish three issues of a boletín informativo. (CEFANC Boletin Informativo, no. 1 (Jan./March 1980)) 1980 — An All-Russian Research Public Organization is launched informally by Russian science-fiction writer Alexander Kazantsev, aerospace engineer Vadim Chernobrov, astronaut Georgy Beregovoy, and other enthusiasts to explore the mysteries of the universe and nature, research new ways of space technology development, and collect information about UFOs and anomalous events in the Soviet Union. (Wikipedia, “Kosmopoisk”) 1980 — Donald Goldsmith and Tobias Owen publish The Search for Life in the Universe, an open-minded textbook on SETI. (Donald Goldsmith and Tobias Owen, The Search for Life in the Universe, Benjamin/Cummings, 1980; Michael D. Swords, “SETI/ETI and UFOs,” JUFOS 5 (1994): 147 – 151) 1980 — During interception exercises, seven MiG-12s from the Mierzęcice Air Base [now Katowice Airport], Poland, notice a saucer-shaped object with flashing lights approaching them. It has a blue-gray cupola on top and is three times bigger than any of the aircraft. It flies to each of the MiGs and maneuvers around them. (Poland 65)

January — The Gemeinschaft zur Erforschung unbekannter Phänomene (later Gesellschaft zur Erforschung des UFO- Phänomens) publishes the first issue of Journal für UFO-Forschung in Lüdenscheid, North Rhine–Westphalia, Germany, which is still in operation in 202 2. (Journal für UFO-Forschung, no. 1 (January 1980); Journal für UFO-Forschung website) January — 11:00 p.m. A Brazilian electronics businessman and 9 others see a disc-shaped object shine a light down on the water near the eastern bank of the Rio Tapajós 30 miles south of Santarém, Brazil. The man, his family, and some relatives are camping at a beach. Several teenagers are still awake, lying in hammocks and talking, when they see the UFO come across the river, stopping about 30 yards from the beach and shining a light on the water 60 feet below. The UFO hovers briefly then begins moving north, parallel to the shore. It travels more than half a mile, with the spotlight shining straight down before it disappears. The light beam leaves a trail of luminescence for several hundred yards. (Bob Pratt, UFO Danger Zone: Terror and Death in Brazil — Where Next?, Horus House, 1996, pp. 146 – 147 ; Carl W. Feindt, “Beam of Light into a Body of Water,” IUR 33, no. 3 (December 20 10): 22– 23 ) January 10 — The NSA’s Roy R. Banner releases two UFO-related documents to Peter Gersten, but states that the original 18 he has requested are exempt from release because of national security, adding that the NSA is reviewing 79 other documents originating with other federal agencies. (ClearIntent, pp. 182 – 187 ) January 13 — 9:00 p.m. Brenda Simanski and Janine Mattson quit their shift at the Seminary Nursing Home on Pioneer Road in Red Wing, Minnesota. Standing in the parking lot, they see a star making a bizarre zigzag pattern. It moves above them and they see it is a triangle 15 feet wide and 20 feet long with two white lights in front, blue lights in two of the corners, and a red light between the blue ones. Three other witnesses come out of the building and also watch the object, which leaves slowly and silently to the north-northwest. (“5 Watch Tree-Hovering UFO for 6 Minutes, ‘Won’t Say It’s from Space,’” Red Wing (Minn.) Republican Eagle, January 15, 1980, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 128 (March 1980): 3) January 14 — 6:05 a.m. Truck driver William Barrett is on an early delivery run from Burnley to Todmorden, West Yorkshire, England, when he hears a deep humming sound. Looking ahead, he sees a machine with flames underneath hovering at a lay-by off the roadside. He slows his truck to a near crawl and moves past the object, which looks like a “toast rack” with curved sides and three red glows emerging from the edge to create a misty fuzziness obscuring the base. Now only 25 feet away, he sees that it has a bell- or tortoiseshell shape with a metallic sheen and a tube sticking up from the top. The red glows emerge from under a rim that runs around the lower part of the object. He can now see two figures standing in front of the object, one standing erect and wearing a uniform with a peaked cap, and the other crouched forward, wearing a silvery-gray jump suit. As he passes, the arc lights on the object start flickering like a disco. His headlights go out, and his mind gets hazier and he loses consciousness. He experiences missing time until he jerks awake sometime around 8:30 a.m. (Jenny Randles, “Close Encounter in UFO Alley,” IUR 26, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 3–8, 28–29) January 17 — 10:30 p.m. Chilean astronomer Fernando Noël is at his home in the eastern suburbs of Santiago, Chile, when he sees a luminous point of light at 20° elevation moving from southwest to west. It is silent and resembles a satellite. He calls two other witnesses, during which time the object disappears. At 10:45 p.m., he sees a bright light moving slowly toward the zenith. Looking more closely, he sees it is actually a group of 30 objects in a V- formation. Each individual light of the group is pale white with a slight tint of yellow. The formation moves from

20° above the western horizon to about 20° above the eastern horizon before disappearing gradually. The duration is approximately 2 minutes. (“Unidentified Atmospheric Phenomena Observed by an Astronomer,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 7 , no. 4 (1993): 439– 441 ) January 21 — 11:40 p.m. Seven women are driving home in two cars from a bridge game near Council Bluffs, Iowa. The first car with six witnesses, including Marilyn Anderson, sees a cluster of lights in the western sky as they are driving on Pioneer Trail. The lights are hovering about 200–300 feet above a bluff less than a city block away. When they stop the car to get out for a closer look, the lights speed away to the southwest. The seventh woman, in a separate car behind them, does not see the lights, but Anderson tells her about them when she pulls up. She continues driving home, but when she gets to Longview Drive, her car stalls, and the radio and lights go out. She restarts the car, but it stalls out another quarter-mile away. A bright orange light appears in a cornfield about 900 feet away with an intensity that hurts her eyes. Scared, she locks herself inside the car and passes out. When she wakes up, her car is turned sideways across the road, but she is able to drive it home. She can still see the orange light from her kitchen window, but she has some blotches and redness on her skin that fades by 4:20 a.m. (“Possible Abduction in Iowa,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 2, no. 5 (July/Aug. 1980): 13–14) January 23 — Peter Gersten files an appeal with the NSA to release more UFO material. (ClearIntent, p. 187 ) January 24 — 1:00 p.m. A. Golotikin is working as a mechanic aboard the Brilliant, a Russian fishing trawler operating 20 – 30 miles off the coast of Western Sahara. He and the rest of the crew see a black, cigar-shaped object moving slowly toward the ship in complete silence. They watch it for 5–7 minutes through binoculars, then it disappears as it gets closer to the ship. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, pp. 15–16)

February — The Australian Centre for UFO Studies begins publishing the Journal of the Australian Centre for UFO Studies, edited by Harry Griesberg and Keith Basterfield, until at least November 1985. (Journal of the Australian Centre for UFO Studies 1, no. 1 (February 1980)) February 7 — 9:50 p.m. Daryl Browne, a ranch hand at the Glenalta horse ranch near Stirling, South Australia, is watching TV when he hears dogs howling and timber crashing outside. His two guard dogs are howling in fear. Outside he sees a yellow half-moon-shaped object about 25–30 feet long. It is 100 feet up in the branches of a 230 - foot-tall cypress tree, branches bending under its weight. The trunk shows large gouges. Browne calls the police, but the object is gone by the time they arrive. For 2 days, Browne’s dogs refuse to go near the tree. (“UFO Smashes Tree in Australia,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 2, no. 5 (July/Aug. 1980): 16) February 21 — 11:15 a.m. An 11-year-old girl getting ready for bed in Stamford, Connecticut, looks through a window and sees a large white oval of light low in the west-northwest sky, apparently four times the size of the moon. Her grandmother joins her and watches the object, which is swinging with a pendulum motion. It is still visible about 30 minutes later. The family’s German shepherd dog barks continually at it while it is visible and for 20 minutes after it is last viewed. (Allan Hendry, “Unusual Backyard Visitor,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 2 (June 1980): 3) February 25 — 2:30 p.m. Oil worker Rusty Pennington is watching a pump a quarter mile west of Youngsville, Pennsylvania. Suddenly he hears an explosion that lasts only a split second and sees a domed disc to the left of his truck. He estimates the object is 20 feet wide and 6–8 feet high. Flying at treetop level, it streaks silently downward from southwest to northeast and disappears in the distance. (“Daylight Disc in Pennsylvania,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 2, no. 5 (July/Aug. 1980): 14) February 28 — The National Enquirer runs an article, “Former Intelligence Officer Reveals ‘I picked up wreckage of UFO that exploded over U.S.’” that includes a portion of a December 1979 interview by Bob Pratt with Jesse Marcel Sr. as a pre-publication teaser for Berlitz and Moore’s forthcoming book. (Patrick Gross, “Roswell 1947: First Ufologists Investigations”)

March — Nanotechnologist Robert A. Freitas Jr. advocates searching for alien probes or artifacts on planets, satellites, and asteroids because it is more cost-effective than looking for distant radio signals. (Robert A. Freitas Jr., “Interstellar Probes: A New Approach to SETI,” Journal of the British Interplanetary Society 33 (1980): 95– 100 ) Early March — 9:45 p.m. Fred Wirth Jr. steps outside his home in Bulverde, Texas, and sees a large orange glow 45° up in the northern sky about 100 feet above his property, lighting it up with an orange glow. After hovering silently, it shoots up in the air and stops, now appearing as a red, blinking dot. His wife joins him but instantly becomes nauseous and throws up. He starts sweating profusely. (“Strange Reactions to Huge Glow,” IUR/Probe, September 1980, pp. 74–75) March 7 — 12:10 a.m. Former Navy pilot Larry Crawford sees a star-like light moving 700–800 mph at 30,000 feet above Memphis, Tennessee. While he is watching it move for 10 seconds, it executes a hairpin turn. (“Pilot: ‘No Human Could Have Survived Turns Like That!’” IUR/Probe, September 1980, pp. 75, 78)

March 12 — 12:45 a.m. At least 10 witnesses, including city police and county sheriff deputies, watch an odd light maneuvering, climbing, and descending in the sky above Gladstone, Michigan. (“Much Ado about Little?” IUR/Probe, September 1980, p. 78) March 13 — 7:50 p.m. A subcontractor on a job is driving near Haselor, Warwickshire, England, when he sees a white, cigar-shaped object with a steady red glow on either end pass in front of his windshield. The steering wheel instantly becomes hot, causing him to lift his hands off the wheel. He maneuvers the car off the road until it cools enough to steer. (Tony Green, “Witness Burned by Passing UFO,” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 5 (January 1981): 32–33) March 15 — 8:00 p.m. A couple in Bannock, Ohio, Spot a bright light in the southwestern sky. They watch it for 20 minutes before it approaches their home. The light is a spotlight attached to a large cigar-shaped object with red and blue lights along its length. The spotlight switches off as it passes overhead and moves to the northwest. (“Chief Investigator Allan Hendry Reports: Huge Cigar UFO in Ohio,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 4 (August 1980): 5) March 22 — Stringfield meets with two new sources in Erie, Pennsylvania, who show him three photos allegedly showing an alien cadaver encased in glass in Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, Ohio. He is suspicious and tries to verify them. (MUFON UFO Journal, December 1980) March 22 — 10:00–11:00 p.m. Burlington (Vermont) International Airport radar tracks three small objects that join with a larger, brighter object then separate again. They are apparently over Malletts Bay. Speeds of up to 1,500 mph are recorded, and the objects quickly disappear to the west. Traffic controller Donald Kernan says the lights “did a kind of dance.” (NICAP, “Satellite Objects on RADAR”) March 24 — The NSA issues a general denial of releasing all of its UFO materials to the public as requested by Peter Gersten. (ClearIntent, p. 187 ) March 24 — 7:30 p.m. When his dog starts barking furiously, James Balkcom notices a bright light moving along the railroad tracks in James, Georgia, at treetop level. It comes to a stop and hovers above the home of Benton Evans. The Evanses go outside to watch the light, which has colored lights blinking inside it. After 5–10 minutes, it begins moving along the tracks again with a pulsing “shh-shh” noise. (“Low-Flying Georgian Globe,” IUR/Probe, September 1980, pp. 78–79) March 25 — 10:15 p.m. Debbie Harris and Sheri Gustafson are driving on the Dayton–Xenia Road three miles east of Dayton, Ohio, when Harris notices bright, beaming lights in the sky. They assume it is an illuminated tower, but when they pull over, it appears to be about 25 feet above the ground and 210 feet away. The lights seem to come from an airplane-sized object with a green light, a red light, and crossed white beams. After hovering to their north for about 2 minutes, it shoots off rapidly to the northeast and disappears behind a hill. (“Ohio Close Encounter,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 3 (July 1980): 3)

April — A farmer in central Texas is walking through his pasture to check on a cow that is about to give birth. Instead, he sees two nonhuman creatures carrying a calf between them, each holding one of its limbs. They are about 4 feet high and light yellow-green in color. He runs away and does not return to the location for two days, whereupon he finds the carcass of the calf. It looks as though it has been turned inside out, and only the head, feet, and hide remain. Researcher Tom Adams says the farmer is extremely reluctant to discuss the incident any further. (MUFON UFO Journal, July/August 1984) April 6 — 9:00 p.m. William Meara and his wife Brenda are driving on I-84 just south of its intersection with I-90 in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, when they see a red blur above a road sign. The blur resolves into a disc about 30 feet in diameter with smaller discs surrounding it. The object passes silently above their car, moving northeast. The duration is 3 minutes. When Meara tries to start his car 30 minutes later at home, it acts completely dead but works again normally the next morning. (“Connecticut Close Encounter,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 2, no. 6 (Sept./Oct. 1980): 14) April 10 — A businessman driving on the Philadelphia Church Road near Lincolnton, North Carolina, sees a red, disc- shaped object approach and hover above his car. It directs a light toward the ground. When he stops his car and rolls down the window, he hears an intense humming sound. He watches it for about 5 minutes until it takes off at a 30° angle and heads south, leaving a thin exhaust trail. (“Those Funny Lights in the Sky,” Hickory (N.C.) Focus, May 1, 1980, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 130 (May 1980): 7) April 11 — 7:15 a.m. Personnel at the La Joya Air Base [part of the Mariano Melgar Airport], Arequipa, Peru, see a strange object flying in the vicinity. The base commander orders a Sukhoi Su-22 fighter-bomber to destroy the target, assumed to be a Chilean balloon. Lt. Oscar Santa María Huertas commands the scrambled aircraft. As soon as the object is in his sights some 1,800 feet above the ground, he fires 64 rounds from his 30mm guns at it. The bullets seem to hit the object without causing any damage. The UFO then hurls skyward at tremendous speed.

Huertas follows, putting the Sukhoi into Mach 1.2. As he approaches, the object makes a sudden stop and the Sukhoi flies past it at 36,000 feet. Further maneuvering takes place, and Huertas finds the object chasing him at one point at 62,000 feet. He abandons the mission 52 miles away from the base. After he lands 22 minutes later, the object reappears at the base and remains visible nearly 2 hours. A Department of Defense information release gives an erroneous date of May 9, 1980. (Kean, pp. 93 – 98 , 150 – 151 ; Dolan II 214; Good Above, pp. 324 – 325 , 503 – 504 ; Yohanan Díaz Vargas, “Peru: La Joya AFB, the Perfect UFO Case (1980),” Inexplicata, November 14, 2016) April 13 — A witness is driving on the eastern outskirts of Halifax, Nova Scotia, when he sees an unusually bright light. As he drives 5–6 miles closer, it resolves into two lights side by side. After driving another 20 miles closer, he sees the two lights are attached to one object. When directly underneath, it appears to be 1,000–1,200 feet long and cigar-shaped with lights on the front and back and one side. A truck driver has also pulled over to watch the UFO. (“Correspondence,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1982): 3–4) April 17 — Day. Michael Romanowski, 8, sees a white boomerang-shaped object in Buffalo, New York. (“Crescent Reports from New York and Illinois,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 4 (August 1980): 4) April 20 — 5:30 a.m. Richard A. Jokinen, an electrical engineer, is driving north on I-280 in San Mateo, California, on a fishing trip with his 18-year-old son. They see five bright, apparently metallic, Saturn-shaped objects flying very fast in formation at low altitude. The objects are traveling about 500 feet above the Crystal Springs Reservoir and are visible against trees of the coastal mountains west of the reservoir. The sighting lasts about 5 seconds, during which the objects cross 120° of viewing angle. (Allan Hendry, “Five ‘Saturns’ in California,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 5 (September 1980): 3; UFOEv II 164–165) April 20 — 8:20 p.m. Sam Puccinelli is parking his car in his garage in Palatine, Illinois, when he sees a crescent-shaped, gray-black object with flashing white lights. He looks at it with his binoculars with his 13-year-old son for 7 minutes before it disappears. (“Crescent Reports from New York and Illinois,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 4 (August 1980): 4) April 20 — 9 : 0 0 p.m. A group of nine family members are on their front lawn in Hyderabad, India, and see a bell-shaped cloud forming at about 2,000–3,000 feet altitude. It remains stationary and they look away, but soon they see three smaller bell-shaped clouds forming evenly spaced below the first and forming an equilateral triangle. The smaller clouds then merge with the larger one and form an orange ball bright enough to throw a shadow on the roof near them. It shoots off at great speed toward the airport, then disappears after breaking into four smaller orange balls of light. The duration of the sighting is 15 minutes. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Mystery Clouds and the UFO Connection,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 18–19) April 22 — 10:00 p.m. Police Officer Manuel Medina and dispatcher Sedilla of Springer, New Mexico, are parked on a traffic watch when one of them notices a bright star in the west at about 45° moving like a balloon with a start- stop motion. Medina shines his car’s spotlight on the object, which drops to a lower elevation. He turns the light off and the object ascends again. He turns the red cruiser light on, and the object seems to respond with a reddish hue. The light disappears over the Cimarron Mountains 20 miles away at 11:10 p.m. (Allan Hendry, “Familiar Description,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 2 (June 1980): 3) April 26 — 11:00 p.m. Two witnesses in Holton, Indiana, watch a luminous flashing form in the northwest sky. Golden- colored and triangular in shape, it appears larger than the full moon. The object hovers, then shoots straight up in seconds. It zigzags before vanishing in the northwest. (“Golden Triangle in Indiana,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 5 (September 1980): 3)

May — Citizens Against UFO Secrecy’s attorney Peter Gersten brings a lawsuit against the National Security Agency to compel it to release 135 documents it has withheld from FOIA requests. The suit also includes the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration (which it claims conducted an inadequate search for its UFO records). (Fred Whiting, “CAUS Goes to Court,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 2, no. 6 (Sept./Oct. 1980): 18) May — Early afternoon. Thousands of base personnel and their families are congregating at Ellsworth AFB in Rapid City, South Dakota, to watch an SR-71 Blackbird take off after a refueling stop. A1C John W. Mills III and a few other airmen are on top of the barracks for a view. They see an odd, triangular object above the B-52 Alert Pad about half a mile away. It begins to move down the flight line, and they see it is a gray-black delta shape at an altitude of 500 feet. For some reason it is not visible through the pair of binoculars they have. It makes a right turn and suddenly disappears above a parachute-rigging building. The SR-71 does not take off. Later in the day, an official “flash” message goes out to base personnel telling them not to talk to the press in case they had seen anything. (Nukes 387–392) May — The Chinese UFO Studies Association is established under the auspices of Wuhan University, with branches in Beijing, Shanghai, and the provinces of Guangdong, Sichuan, Shanxi, Hubei, and Guangxi. It is headed by Cha

Leping, a 26-year-old astrophysics student. The association later is incorporated into the China UFO Research Organization as an official branch of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. (Paul Dong, “Letters,” IUR 7, no. 2 (March 1982): 3; Good Above, p. 206 ) May — Late afternoon. Two witnesses are driving through Manlius, New York, when they catch a glimpse of a disc- shaped object the size of a football field hovering above a patch of trees. The driver stops the car and steps outside. Yellow, red, and green lights are rotating around its perimeter. A commercial aircraft and news helicopter are also visible in the sky. The object is still not moving and soundless. Then two jet fighters, apparently scrambled from Griffiss AFB [now the Griffiss Business and Technology Park] in Rome, New York, fly toward the object, which takes off like a bullet and disappears. (Dolan II 211) May 2 — 10:15 a.m. A Santa Clara County park ranger and another county employee are in the hills east of San Jose, California, when they see a shiny, mirror-like spherical object moving north to south. They take turns studying it through binoculars. The object has a blue-green band in the center and is orange at the bottom. It makes rapid up- and-down motions as it moves forward and spins faster as its speed diminishes. The object stops and spins toward Lick Observatory to the east of their position for 10 seconds. Then it accelerates rapidly and speeds away to the south. The sighting duration is 3–4 minutes. (UFOEv II 226) May 5 — As she is driving home from Oklahoma to Eagle’s Nest, New Mexico, Myrna Hansen and her 6-year-old son see several UFOs in a field near Cimarron, New Mexico, after which they suffer confusion and a 4-hour loss of time. Paul Bennewitz, an Albuquerque, New Mexico, owner of humidity equipment company Thunder Scientific and a UFO investigator, on May 11 brings psychologist R. Leo Sprinkle in to meet Hansen. He hypnotizes them and gets a detailed abduction story from the mother, who also remembers watching the aliens mutilate a calf. Hansen also remembers being taken by the UFO to an underground area in New Mexico (leading Bennewitz to suspect it is the Manzano Weapons Storage Area at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque) where she sees tanks of water with cattle body parts, as well as a human arm. (Linda Moulton Howe, An Alien Harvest: Further Evidence Linking Animal Mutilations and Human Abductions to Alien Life Forms, Howe Productions, 1989 , pp. 112–116; Linda Moulton Howe, Facts and Eyewitnesses, The Author, 1993, pp. 234–245; Greg Bishop, Project Beta, Paraview, 2005, pp. 15– 28 ; Marcus Lowth, “The Chilling and Bizarre Abduction Encounter of Myrna Hansen,” UFO Insight, May 19, 2018; Clark III 359 – 360 ) May 6 — Leonard Stringfield finds an article in UFO Sightings by David McCarthy titled “Quest for Teleportation,” which features a photo of an alien cadaver similar to the ones he was given in March. (David McCarthy, “The Quest for Teleportation,” UFO Sightings 1, no. 1 (July 1980): 40–45; MUFON UFO Journal, December 1980) May 7 — Day. X-ray technician Ruth Weaver experiences interference on her car radio while driving near Valdese, North Carolina. It blacks out completely and she sees a huge object move beneath the cloud cover directly ahead of her car. It makes a U-turn, then it banks, revealing the shape of an upside-down soup bowl with a dome on top. A red triangle is on the underside. It looks like a Stetson hat as it moves away. (UFOEv II 452; George D. Fawcett, Human Reactions to UFOs Worldwide (1940 – 1983): What We Have Learned from UFO Repetitions, The Author, 1986, p. 16) May 7 — 3:50 p.m. A Dutch KLM airliner is flying just over 30,000 feet above the Dachstein Mountains in the Austrian Alps. The pilot sees a gray spherical object flying overhead, which he reports to the Air Control Center in Vienna, which contacts the Austrian Air Force. Maj. Karl Schwarz orders three Saab 105 aircraft to intercept. Once they make visual contact, two of the jets attempt the intercept while the third takes film footage. The UFO’s erratic movements, however, make it impossible to follow, and the object is soon out of sight. At 5:50 p.m., a German Lufthansa airliner comes in close contact with a similar object, Schwarz orders two more fighters to scramble. The Saab 105 pilots think the object’s variable speed means it is playing with them. It is flying some 9,800 feet above them, but they cannot maneuver well enough to catch it. (Terry Hooper, “UFO Interceptions Attempted,” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 4 (November 1980): 21) May 9 — 9:00 p.m. A woman is driving home with her daughter in Bargersville, Indiana, when bright red flashes of light illuminate the inside of her truck and the surrounding area. The flashes are caused by red balls of light about the size of lemons in the empty fields around them. The balls blink on and off in succession, climbing up one telephone pole. Moving down, and crossing the road to perform the same motion on another pole. They approach the truck, forcing her to back up the truck. Finally, the phenomenon ceases and she drives home. When they get there, her German shepherd dog starts whining and barking. Her husband steps outside to see what’s going on. Suddenly, their two daughters start screaming as small red balls of light move across their mother’s back and behind her hair. She does not feel anything, but the dog runs to the barn and stays there all night. (“Allan Hendry Reports: A Spooky Experience in Indiana,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 6 (October 1980): 3) May 14 — 3:30 a.m. Howard and Julia Pickrel are driving on US Highway 49 through Simpson County, Mississippi, when they see a glowing disc high in the sky. A beam of light from the disc makes a spot of light on the ground as

wide as their car. As they drive through the light beam, their lights go on and off 7–8 times. After they are out of the beam’s path, the lights do not flicker again. (Richard H. Hall, Uninvited Guests, Aurora, 1988, pp. 307 – 308) May 14 — 9:15 p.m. John Ray spots three dark discs while he is driving in the rain through a rural area near Mars Hill, Maine. Each is larger than the full moon and has numerous white lights on the bottom. They pass silently above his car and hover ahead of him in close formation about 500 feet up. Suddenly they take off and disappear. (“Close Encounter in the Rain,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 7 (November 1980): 2) May 16 — 3:00 p.m. A civilian pilot is flying a Pirat glider near a cement mill in Działoszyn, Poland, when he notices an object maneuvering across the fumes from factory chimneys below. Seconds later it moves in front of the glider, and he takes evasive action. It is an isosceles triangle shape with a side length of 30 feet and a dull brownish- green. At one point it turns up one of its corners at an angle of 45° in an apparent attempt to correct its flight. Then it changes orientation to the horizontal, shrinks in size, and disappears. A similar object is seen the same day near Wielún. (Poland 69) May 22 — 11:05 p.m. The Air Transit Control Center at Gran Canaria Airport in the Canary Islands detects some unidentified traffic toward the southwest moving at 685 mph. A few minutes later, an aero-taxi pilot reports a bright object passing to his left and descending toward the ocean. A Spanish Air Force officer investigates and concludes the object is unknown, even though its position observed by the pilot matches that of Venus. A false radar echo is also possible. (Swords 436, 528–529) May 23– 25 — The first Rocky Mountain Conference on UFO Investigation, organized by psychologist R. Leo Sprinkle to bring contactees together, is held in Laramie on the University of Wyoming campus. Barely 20 people show up, but Sprinkle notes they are average, normal people, though highly susceptible to hypnotic suggestion. Most claim some psychic abilities, and many report a feeling of being monitored or experiencing continuing contact with UFO entities. They feel anxiety about the state of the human race and worry about a coming cataclysm. The conferences continue to at least 1996, attracting as many as 200 attendees. (Clark III 300– 301 ) May 28 — Denver KMGH-TV investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe releases A Strange Harvest, a 2 - hour documentary that suggests unusual wounds found on cattle are the work of extraterrestrial beings who harvest body parts required for their survival or research, and that the US government is complicit. The documentary wins a Regional Emmy award in 1981. She interviews Denver surgeon Arlen Meyers on excising tissue with a laser; and Lou Girodo, chief investigator for the District Attorney’s Office in Trinidad, Colorado. The show also features a hypnotic regression session by R. Leo Sprinkle on Judy Dorarty, who says she witnessed a mutilation outside Houston, Texas, in May 1973; under hypnosis, she describes seeing a calf drawn up in a pale yellow beam of light into a UFO. (Internet Movie Database, “A Strange Harvest”; Clark III 363 ; “Alta Loma 1973,” Texas UFO Museum and Research Library, February 1, 2003) May 30 — The CIA moves for summary judgment in Peter Gersten’s lawsuit for UFO documents. The court grants it, despite the 57 remaining UFO documents the CIA admits it is withholding. CAUS appeals on June 24. (“CAUS Update,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 1 (Nov./Dec. 1980): 15–16)

Early summer — Two women see a green, miniature airplane outside a house in Matsbo, near Hedemora, in central Sweden. (Clas Svahn, “Green Miniature Airplane Hovers in Front of a House,” IUR 29, no. 3 (Fall 2004): 6 – 7) June — NICAP is disbanded after the last issue of the UFO Investigator is published, and its files are eventually turned over to the Center for UFO Studies in Evanston, Illinois. (UFO Investigator 11, no. 6 (June 1980); Clark III 794) June — Citizens Against UFO Secrecy is reorganized after the departure of W. Todd Zechel, with Peter Gersten as director and Lawrence Fawcett as assistant editor. (Clark III 240) June — Kenneth Rommel releases Operation Animal Mutilation, a long report that devastatingly debunks popular theories. The animals have died of natural causes, he contends, and the mysterious aspects can be explained prosaically. He cites ornithologist Kenneth Sager: “The larger the animal, the more difficult it is for the scavenger to gain access to the food supply below the tough surface. [Thus they attack the] softer points of entry, namely the eyes, anal openings, and the soft underbelly areas, especially the udders of female bovines.” L. D. Kuttner of the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine says that many scavengers can make as clean a cut as “might be done by a surgeon with a knife.” (Wikipedia, “Cattle mutilation”; Kenneth M. Rommel Jr., Operation Animal Mutilation, Report of the District Attorney, First Judicial District, State of New Mexico, prepared for the US Criminal Justice Department, 1980; Federal Bureau of Investigation, Animal Mutilation documents, 1974– 1980, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5; Clark III 133 ) June — Leonard H. Stringfield publishes The UFO Crash/Retrieval Syndrome: Status Report II, New Sources, New Data, presenting the accounts and rumors he has heard of crashed UFOs retrieved by the military. He has contacted four different military sources claiming to have seen a movie film depicting a crashed saucer and small alien bodies.

(Leonard Stringfield, “The Chase for Proof in a Squirrel’s Cage,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, p. 147) June 2 — Stringfield receives eight more prints showing an alien cadaver encased under glass. One photo shows a hand with four fingers and clawlike nails. His source claims they were obtained from a secret study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania. (MUFON UFO Journal, December 1980; Leonard Stringfield, “The Chase for Proof in a Squirrel’s Cage,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 147– 148 ) June 3 — R. Leo Sprinkle arrives at Paul Bennewitz’s house in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for another hypnotic session with Myrna Hansen. Bennewitz, now very paranoid, meets him at the door with a gun, saying he needs to protect himself from aliens. A strained and brief hypnosis session follows, after which Sprinkle returns to Wyoming. (Greg Bishop, Project Beta, Paraview, 2005, pp. 24– 25 ) June 11 — An unknown cigar-shaped object passes close to a commercial aircraft near Venice, Italy. (Nick Redfern, A Covert Agenda: UFO Secrecy Exposed, Simon & Schuster, 1997, p. 162) June 14 — Evening. Many residents of Moscow, Russia, see a huge, reddish-orange, horseshoe-shaped object accompanied by swirling luminous gases. Some 250 miles to the west, Lt. Col. Oleg Karyakin hears a low- frequency booming noise and sees a bright object less than 500 feet away. He runs toward it, feels some resistance, but continues until he is about 150 feet away. It gives off a high-pitched sound and briefly emits three white rays, then ascends rapidly, hovers for 2 seconds, then moves to the northwest and vanishes. Shortly afterward, he sees a large, reddish UFO above some treetops. Another bright object is accompanying the first, flying horizontally and leaving a fiery trail. Some 30 others witness this event. Soviet investigators conclude that the objects were the launches of two communications satellites, a Gorizont and Kosmos 1188. (Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal Encounters behind the Iron Curtain, Quadrillion, 1998, p. 59; Good Above, pp. 238 – 241 ) June 14 — 7: 00 – 8:00 p.m. A flurry of UFO sightings by numerous witnesses takes place in Córdoba, Jorge Newbery and Ezeiza airports in Buenos Aires, and Rosario, Argentina, including airport personnel and meteorologists, with extensive newspaper coverage. Objects appear singly and in “fleets” and are described variously as “luminous oval-spherical,” “spinning top,” spindle-shaped, and a sphere that emits “an intense luminous ray that illuminated the surface of the river.” At Pajas Blancas Airport in Córdoba, a UFO causes operations to be stopped for several minutes after it follows the landing pattern of aircraft into the airport. Sightings occur around the same time in Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, and Paraguay. CUFOS suspects many of the observations might be due to a high-altitude barium cloud produced by a rocket launch. (“The UFO ‘Flap’ in South America,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 2, no. 6 (Sept./Oct. 1980): 15–16) June 15 — 2:00 a.m. A 70-year-old woman in Oak Park, Illinois, sees an object like a white half-moon with a serrated edge. At first she thinks it is the moon, but it begins moving to the east and disappears in 5 minutes. (“Allan Hendry Reports: A Lunar Impostor,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 4 (August 1980): 2) June 15 — 2:30 a.m. Security Policeman Charles P. Wagner and two others at RAF Bentwaters [now closed], near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, watch a 2 - foot diameter spherical object maneuver above several A-10 aircraft parked at the base. Moments later, the orb suddenly splits into three smaller spheres, all of which vanish in a flash of light. (Robert L. Hastings, “New Bentwaters UFO Witness Goes on the Record,” UFOs & Nukes, November 22, 2015) June 15 — 11:30 p.m. Students Kevin Smith and Jill Harper are walking along Hidden Beach in Rio Del Mar, California, when a 4-foot-long, 10-inch-wide cigar-shaped object passes about 30 feet above them moving southwest over the water and landing in the ocean without a splash. As it bobs about, a light comes on in the interior. Smith yells at it and the light goes out. (“Romance under a UFO,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 2, no. 5 (July/Aug. 1980): 14) June 17 — 11:00 p.m. Two women driving with four young children north on Interstate 75 near Grayling Army Airfield in Grayling, Michigan, when they see two lights moving from right to left in front of their car. Two minutes later, three more lights (two blinking, one steady) appear to the right and pace the car at 85 mph, moving closer until they are about 100 feet directly above them. They are completely silent and possibly attached to an oblong-shaped object. (“Michigan Close Encounter,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 3 (July 1980): 2) June 20 — 9:00 p.m. While descending through 15,000 feet for a landing, a senior Kuwait Airways pilot and crew observe a huge, brightly illuminated hemispherical object with a flat base moving steadily eastward over Kuwait City at a slightly lower speed than his aircraft. “When I turned north at Wafra, the phenomenon was still clearly visible and remained so until we descended below the haze layer and started to approach the runway.” The crew of another airline flight 90 miles away reports sighting the same phenomenon. Radar does not detect the object. (American Embassy, Kuwait, “Investigation of Unusual ‘Light Phenomenon’ Seen in Kuwait’s Skies,” telex, July 1980 , in “U.S. State Department ‘UFO’ Documents, Reviewed and Released 7 Feb 2000”)

June 21 — 1:30 a.m. Janet McLeod notices two large, orange, domed discs circling low about four blocks west of her home in Assumption, Illinois. They stop and hover at treetop level. The top one gradually fades out from top to bottom. The lower one turns on its side and shines a beam toward the ground for 5 minutes. Then it goes back to the horizontal and fades out in the same way. When she steps outside 5 minutes later, she notices it is dead quiet, the natural sounds resuming after 2 minutes. (“Twin Domed Discs in Illinois,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 2, no. 5 (July/Aug. 1980): 14) June 28 — Two civilian pilots, José L. Maldonaldo Torres and José A. Pagán Santos, are flying an ERCO Ercoupe 415-D at 1,500 feet over the Mona Passage between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. They send out a mayday message saying they are looking at a “weird object” that makes them change course three times. Their plane disappears and no wreckage is found. (Good Need, pp. 312 , 320 )

July — AFOSI special agent Sgt. Richard Doty writes an anonymous letter to APRO claiming that a Civil Air Patrol cadet named Craig R. Weitzel had seen and photographed a UFO landing near Pecos, New Mexico. Weitzel takes photos and is debriefed at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque. An alien, a man in a dark suit from Sandia Laboratories, and crashed UFOs stored at the Manzano Nuclear Weapons Storage Facility are also mentioned. But the letter is disinformational bait to see whether the Lorenzens might prove to be “useful idiots.” Weitzel admits to investigator William Moore and, later, Benton Jamison in 1985 that he had seen a UFO in 1980, but it was a classic daylight disc and took place in the southeast, not New Mexico. Much later on, Doty admits to Moore that he had composed the letter as disinformation. (Clark III 361 – 362 ; Greg Bishop, Project Beta, Paraview, 2005, pp. 54 – 57 , 64 – 66 ; Good Above, pp. 406 – 408 ; [Richard Doty], Craig Wetzel letter, July 1980) July 12 — 11:00 p.m. A professor and his wife are getting ready for bed in Urbandale, Iowa, when they notice three round light spots in a triangular formation high in the southern sky. The lower two are like bright stars, while the upper ones seem larger. The smaller lights are zig-zagging and coming together under the larger light for 20 minutes until all three abruptly disappear. (“Meandering Lights in Iowa,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 6 (October 1980): 5) July 21 — Farmer John Scull discovers a circular swathe of flattened oats in his field near the Westbury White Horse in Wiltshire, England. He discovers a second circle on July 31 and informs the media on August 13. (UFOFiles2, p. 117 ; Terry Wilson, “Case Study 1: Westbury 1980,” Men Who Conned the World, December 24, 2018)

August — Another set of photos allegedly showing part of an alien cadaver is released by Charles Wilhelm and Dennis Pilichis, who receive them through UFO researcher Willard McIntyre, apparently from an anonymous US Navy source. William Spaulding of Ground Saucer Watch analyzes them and suggests they show a monkey used in early rocket tests. (Leonard H. Stringfield, “Status Report on Alleged Alien Cadaver Photos,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 154 (December 1980): 11– 16 ; Leonard H. Stringfield, “The Puzzling Case of the Cadaver Photos,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 163 (September 1981): 15 – 19 ; Juan-Vicente Ballester-Olmos, “The Tomato Man in Retrospective,” UFO FOTOCAT Blog, March 13, 2022) Early August — Thousands of witnesses see UFOs for several days in a row over Tianjin, China, and the Bohai Sea. One large object keeps appearing and vanishing like a will-o’-the-wisp. Occasionally objects are tracked on radar. (Paul Dong, “Extracts from Paul Dong’s Feidie Bai Wen Bai Da (Questions and Answers on UFOs),” Flying Saucer Review 29, no. 6 (August 1984): 18) August — 10:00 p.m. Two students at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, see a brilliant oval object in the sky near the Summer Palace. It has several lights that flash on and off 2–3 times per second. The object itself is shaped like “two straw hats placed brim to brim” with a brilliant center line. It stops hovering and ascends vertically, disappearing in 3–4 seconds. (“The Chinese Connection…and Some Wholesome Chinese Philosophy,” IUR 7 , no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1982): 13) August 8 – 9 — Before 12:00 midnight. Three security policemen on the eastern side of the Manzano Weapons Storage Area adjacent to Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New Mexico, see a bright light descend in a restricted area about 3 miles to the north-northeast. It travels quickly and stops suddenly over Coyote Canyon. At 12:20 a.m., a Sandia guard observes a disc-shaped object with a bright light hovering behind a building. He approaches it with a shotgun and attempts to use his radio, but it has stopped working. The object shoots straight up. These and other incidents result in a report being filed with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations at Kirtland. The incident is subsequently investigated by agent Richard Doty, who files a preliminary report on the incident. The document is leaked to William Moore in January 1982 and obtained in a subsequent FOIA request by Barry Greenwood. Moore and Bruce Maccabee both interview Doty, who says there are most likely other documents including a longer report that he had written up. However, after Noah Lawrence at AFOSI Headquarters tells Maccabee there are no other documents on file, Doty begins to backtrack. Maccabee also meets Russ Curtis inside the Manzano

area who says that the incident never took place (which contradicts Curtis’s statement to Moore in 1982). (Clark III 362 ; Good Above, pp. 405 – 406 , 522 – 523 ; Good Need, pp. 322 , 329 ; Bruce Maccabee, “UFO Landing near Kirtland AFB: Welcome to the Cosmic Watergate,” 2000; Robert L. Hastings, “UFOs Filmed Hovering over U.S. Air Force Nuclear Weapons Storage Area,” UFOs & Nukes, May 13, 2012) August 15 — UFO skeptic Philip Klass sends a letter to A. G. McNamara of the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Ottawa, Canada, which serves as a repository for Canadian UFO reports for the Canadian National Research Council. Klass characterizes New Brunswick ufologist Stanton Friedman as a snake oil salesman and UFO guru whose lectures are filled with falsehoods, disparaging his credentials, his ego, and his modus operandi. He warns McNamara that the astronomers at the institute will soon be the targets of Friedman’s coverup accusations. (Dolan II 221–222) August 17 — 1:15 a.m. Security guard Phil Battle is driving his truck in the parking lot of the Teledyne-Ohio Steel plant in Lima, Ohio, and sees an unusual bright light in the sky. He steps out and watches a round, silvery form about 270 feet away. It has little holes on the surface, a flashing yellow light, and white floodlights all around it. It hovers for about 5 minutes, moving back and forth. Battle’s CB radio does not work when he tries to alert others. Suddenly a yellow light shoots out at Battle, knocking him back against his truck, scarring his knee and hurting his back and kidneys. The beam also reddens his left eye. The UFO then takes off. He and other guard look for the object and see a light about 1,200 feet to the north, slightly larger than the moon, which drifts westward after 15– 20 seconds. (“Knocked Back by a Light Beam,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 2, no. 6 (Sept./Oct. 1980): 14; “Correspondence,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 1 (January 1981): 2– 3 ) August 20 — 10:30 p.m. A college student is driving on a rural road about 5 minutes east of Mossy Head, Florida, when he becomes aware of an array of lights hovering above a hill ahead of him. They move low over the area from right to left, 300–600 feet ahead of him. It disappears, but another cluster of lights rushes by him on his left side with a quiet whoosh sound. Inadvertently he begins driving more slowly, slumped over the steering wheel. He continues driving to Jacksonville, where he notices his bare feet are red and inflamed. The redness fades away by the evening of the following night, leaving only some apparent bites marks that are sore to the touch. (“A CE I— or II—or III in Florida,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 7 (November 1980): 5 ) August 24 — 4:08 a.m. Three tourists camping out in the Changping District near the Juyong portion of the Great Wall of China take a photo of an unusual object. The photo reportedly looks like three stars in an inverted T shape with a surrounding halo of light. (“First UFO Spotted in China,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 3 (March 1981): 4; “Chinese UFO Study,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 3 (March/April 1981): 14)

September — Charles Berlitz and Bill Moore publish The Roswell Incident, the first major review of the 1947 Roswell crash, based largely on Stanton Friedman’s research. (Charles Berlitz and William L. Moore, The Roswell Incident, Berkley, 1980; Clark III 320) September 1 — NSA attorneys move for a summary judgment in the CAUS-initiated lawsuit, asserting that the 135 documents are being justifiably withheld. (“CAUS Update,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 1 (Nov./Dec. 1980): 16) September 3 — 3:00 p.m. Margaret Lambert and her family are parked at a scenic overlook along Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia when they notice a bright reflection. She is taking a photo of her son and the reflection seems to be pulsating as she focuses her camera. It appears as a small round light behind her son’s head in the photo. (“‘Glowing Object’ Photographed on Virginia Hillside,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 5 (May 1981): 6) September 4 — 1:15 p.m. Flight instructor Lloyd List is flying northbound at 138 mph in a Cessna 172 at 6,500 feet about 5 miles south of the airport in Red Bluff, California. His passenger, a school official, calls his attention to a shiny object ahead of them. For the first 5–6 seconds, the object grows larger in angular size. Then it stops getting larger, as if it has adopted the Cessna’s speed and direction. They close in on the object and watch it shoot right by the airplane’s left wingtip only 30 feet away. It looks like a metallic football no larger than 3 feet in size. It is silent and the surface has a mirror finish. It exhibits no wobble as it passes through the plane’s turbulence. List descends to 6,000 feet and turns to the south to look for it but cannot find the object. (“Plane’s Near Collision with Mini-UFO,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 1 (Nov./Dec. 1980): 11–12) September 6 — UFO proponents and debunkers square off at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., for a day- long debate on the merits of UFO sightings. The proponents include Bruce Maccabee, J. Allen Hynek, and Allan Hendry; the debunkers are Philip J. Klass, James E. Oberg, and Robert Sheaffer. The debate is moderated by Frederick C. Durant. The most heated exchanges occur between Klass and Hendry over the Val Johnson close encounter case of 1979. (Stuart Rohrer, “Tempest in a Saucer,” Washington Post, September 8, 1980, p. B-1; J.

Allen Hynek, “Encounter at the Smithsonian,” CUFOS Bulletin, Fall 1980, pp. 6–10; Jerome Clark, “Phil Klass vs. the ‘UFO Promoters,’” Fate 34, no. 2 (February 1981): 56 – 67 ; Clark III 1081– 1082 ) September 6 — 9:15 p.m. Ufologist Jenny Randles and a friend are riding a motorcycle north on the M4 after attending the Farnborough Airshow in Hampshire, England, when they see three lights that appear one after another then line up in a triangular formation hovering above a distant hilltop. As they drive past, one light blinks out, leaving two side by side. (Jenny Randles, “Mass Market Media Saucery,” Fortean Times 361 (Christmas 2017): 29) September 8 — After doing a radio show in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Bill Moore is contacted by phone from someone at Kirtland Air Force Base. He meets the man he calls “Falcon” (described as elderly and gaunt) later at a restaurant, beginning a long-running relationship between Moore and 10 members of a shadowy group connected with military intelligence and supposedly opposed to the coverup of UFOs. The story soon emerges that the Roswell incident involved alien bodies and that in 1949 another alien, this one still alive, was found and housed at Los Alamos until its death in the early 1950s. It is called an Extraterrestrial Biological Entity (EBE) and is the first of three that the government would have in its custody. Moore decides to cooperate with these AFOSI sources and provide them with information. They tell him there is considerable interest in Paul Bennewitz and that he is to spy on Bennewitz and APRO as well, inundating them with disinformation that Doty and others will supply. (Clark III 360 ; Greg Bishop, Project Beta, Paraview, 2005, pp. 59– 63 ) September 8 — Doty writes and signs a fake two-page AFOSI complaint form, titled “Kirtland AFB, NM, 8 Aug–3 Sept 1980, Alleged Sightings of Unidentified Aerial Lights in Restricted Test Range,” which describes several UFO sightings at Manzano and at the Coyote Canyon section of the Department of Defense Restricted Test Range, as well as an alleged report of a UFO landing on August 10 by a New Mexico state patrolman. (Clark III 362 ) September 9 — 8:00 p.m. Barbara Kaisler is driving home with her daughter in Portsmouth, Virginia, when they see a dark disc some 5–6 stories higher than the rooftops in the north. When they stop at an intersection, they can see the disc tumbling end over end, now climbing at a 30° angle. It disappears in clouds to the northeast. (“Dark Disk in Virginia,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 3 (March/April 1981): 14) September 11 — 4:20 a.m. Jerry McAlister is awakened in his bedroom in Anderson, South Carolina, by a loud screech. He goes to the window and sees a round object about 70 feet wide hovering above his backyard trees 110 feet away. Hundreds of steady bright white lights surround its perimeter, rotating in a clockwise direction. A row of square white windows is also visible. McAlister wakes up his wife Faye, who also watches the object, which, after tilting on its side, is now receding to the east-northeast at a good rate of speed. The UFO settles into place as a distant white light source that persists until dawn at 7:05 a.m. McAlister claims his ears ring for another 3 days from the initial noise. (“South Carolina’s Giant UFOs,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 2, no. 6 (Sept./Oct. 1980): 11– 13) September 11 — 8:05 a.m. Larry Garrett is working on his car in Easley, South Carolina, when he hears a sound like a swarm of bees. Looking north, he sees a large metallic UFO with black, square windows. He guesses it is 80– 100 feet in size. It hovers above a hill then drifts off to the north behind some trees. (“South Carolina’s Giant UFOs,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 2, no. 6 (Sept./Oct. 1980): 13–14) September 11 — 9:25 p.m. Milton Shippee and his family are driving south on State Highway 32 near I-84 in West Willington, Connecticut, when they see a “pancake”-shaped object in the southeast. It is tilted on one side as it moves about 50 mph. (“‘Domed Pancake’ over Connecticut,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 1 (Nov./Dec. 1980): 12) September 12 — A bright, round object radiating red and white colors from all sides is reported south of Bojnord, North Khorasan, Iran. It moves very quickly for one hour above the city. (“Review of Iranian UFO Reports,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 2 (Jan./Feb. 1981): 15) September 13 — Night. Some people camping near Hamilton, Texas, wake up when their tent is lit up with a yellow glow. Outside is a loud humming sound and above them at no more than 125 feet is a triangular object. The underside is grayish or greenish, and two lights appear at each tip in a combination of yellow-white, red-green, and blue-white. The object is moving north very slowly but stops for about 10 seconds and begins to pulsate, almost sounding as if it will stall. It starts up again, heads north, and is soon gone. Thirty minutes later, the group hears a loud explosion, and some people see sparks above the top of a hill. (MUFON UFO Journal, January 1981) September 21 — 7:00 p.m. A witness is driving west on a county road near Lima, Ohio. She looks up and sees a square opening in the clouds that looks like a picture frame. A vivid orange or red object that looks like the bottom of an Army tank with runners on two sides appears in the opening, remaining stationary for a few seconds before disappearing back into the opening, which then fills up with clouds. (“Army Tank in the Clouds in Ohio,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 7 (November 1980): 2) September 22 — 3:43 a.m. Pan Am Flight 440, flying at 39,000 feet and piloted by Capt. Dave Garber, nearly collides with an unidentified blue-green cigar-shaped object over the Caribbean Sea south of Haiti. The UFO has a

horizontal row of 5–6 steady lights, which the flight crew presumes are windows. The distance between the Pan Am flight and the UFO at its closest approach is less than a mile. The estimated length of the UFO is 50 feet. It changes course when the plane flashes its landing lights. The event is witnessed independently by the crew of two other airliners in the area. (“‘Chiles-Whitted’ Revisited: UFO Sighting Confirmed by Three Flight Crews,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 1 (Nov./Dec. 1980): 12– 14 ) September 26 — 4:30 a.m. Susan Southerland, Debbie Riley, and Kim Conolty are driving in Washington, Indiana, when they see a streetlight-shaped light source slightly above the treetops. It begins moving toward them. Even after their car turns, the light stays on their left side. They drive to the police station and ask officers Tim Roark and Don Grannon to look at it through binoculars, and they are convinced it is something unusual. (“UFO Mini-Flap in Southern Indiana,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 3 (Mar./Apr. 1981): 11) September 26 — 2:26 p.m. A woman watches a Saturn-shaped object approach her home in Blythe, California, from the east and pass overhead for 2–3 minutes and shoot straight up out of sight. (“Daylight ‘Saturn’ over California,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 1 (Nov./Dec. 1980): 14) September 30 — 1:00 a.m. George Blackwell, a farmer near Rosedale, Victoria, Australia, is awakened by a noise and his disturbed livestock. Getting up, he goes outside and sees a 24-by- 15 - foot sphere passing by, some 6–9 feet off the ground and 450 feet distant. It stops above a water tank, then settles to the ground. Blackwell rides a motorcycle to the spot and stops 45 feet from the landed object. It is making a loud whistling sound. After 3 minutes, the UFO emits a louder noise, gives off a blast of air, and moves off to the east. A 30-foot doughnut-shaped ring is found where the object rested, and Blackwell experiences health problems the next week. The 10,000-gallon water tank is mysteriously drained of water. (NICAP, “Rosedale, Victoria, Australia: September 30, 1 980 ”; Keith Basterfield and Bill Chalker, “Rosedale, Victoria: A Close Encounter,” UFO Research Australia Newsletter 2, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1981): 17–22; Bill Chalker and Keith Basterfield, “The Rosedale Landing with Physical Traces,” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 6 (March 1981): 4–5; “Physical Trace in Australia,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 3 (March/April 1981): 14–15; “From Foreign Lands,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 5 (July/Aug. 1981): 17; Bill Chalker and Keith Basterfield, “Landing with Physical Traces near Rosedale, Victoria, Australia,” APRO Bulletin 29, no. 12 (December 1981): 3 – 5; Keith Basterfield, Vladimir Godic, and Pony Godic, “Australian Ufology: A Review,” JUFOS 2 (1990): 31) September 30 — UFO researcher William Moore meets for the first time with AFOSI officer Richard Doty (whom Moore refers to as “Sparrow”). Doty is the middleman for an Air Force colonel (later called “Falcon” by Moore) who Moore first contacted on September 5. (The identity of the colonel has not been established, but it may possibly be Doty’s superior officer, Col. John Barry Hennessey.) Doty claims that Stanton T. Friedman and Brad Sparks know him personally and will vouch for him (untrue). (Brad Sparks and Barry Greenwood, “The Secret Pratt Tapes and the Origins of MJ-12,” in MUFON 2007 International UFO Symposium Proceedings, MUFON, 2007, pp. 92 – 159)

October — Leonard Stringfield, who now has about 20 first-hand informants to various crash/retrievals, begins to encounter resistance and silence from some of them, who are apparently under increased suspicion and surveillance. (MUFON UFO Journal, December 1980) October — James W. Allen, 14, is photographing Ben Vrackie mountain in Perthshire, Scotland. As he is walking home he hears a weird humming noise, sees a disc-shaped object, and takes a photo of it. Analysis of the photo points to a hoax photo of a helium-filled balloon. (“Young Scottish Photographer Sends Photograph,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 10 (October 1981): 1 , 6; Steuart Campbell, “Investigation Report on 1980 Photograph at Pitlochry, Scotland,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 6, no. 1 (Feb./March 1985): 1–2) October or November — Ground-based radar at RAF Neatishead, near Norwich, England, tracks an aerial object executing aerial maneuvers that “defied all convention.” A very bright light is seen by the pilot of an RAF F- 4 Phantom II aircraft. It vanishes as quickly as it has appeared. (Nick Redfern, A Covert Agenda: UFO Secrecy Exposed, Simon & Schuster, 1997, p. 136) October 1? — A group of people go to Lucky Point, east of Monroe City, Indiana, to look for UFOs. High in the eastern sky they notice a dark triangle, as large as the full moon and possibly surrounded by a light glow. As it moves overhead, they hear a voice announce, “the time is now.” It changes direction slightly and accelerates to the northwest. The group reports a tingling sensation and a humming noise on their FM scanner radios. (“UFO Mini- Flap in Southern Indiana,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 3 (Mar./Apr. 1981): 12) October 5 — 3:00 a.m. Five off-duty metalworkers at the Dagang Oilfield, Tianjin, China, see a cone-shaped, red, glowing object that lights the area below. Workers feel a scorching heat as it flies by and disappears over Bohai Bay. (Paul Dong and Wendelle Stevens, UFOs over Modern China, UFO Photo Archives, 1983, p. 190)

October 6 — 5:50 p.m. A retired man is resting on his sundeck in Ipswich, Massachusetts, when he sees a silver object tumbling end-over-end. He grabs binoculars and watches as it passes overhead and continues, appearing to descend as it disappears behind trees toward the Sagamore Hill Solar Radar Observatory [now relocated to Millstone Hill, Westford] in South Hamilton. (“Tumbling Daylight UFO,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 2 (Jan./Feb. 1981): 11) October 7 — 11:30 p.m. Witnesses near Yelm, Tenino, and Offutt Lake, Washington, report a large object shaped like a triangle or diamond with red and green lights. (“Thurston County Logs Some Mysterious Night Sights,” Olympia (Wash.) Daily Olympian, October 9, 1980, p. 1) October 15 — 11:30 p.m. A Knox County, Indiana, deputy sheriff stops by the side of a road to stretch his legs. Out of the east comes a black triangular form, as big as a house and 10 times the angular size of the full moon. He estimates it is 250 feet away and 200 feet up at its closest. Five figures are visible from the waist up through a long window on one side of the triangle. Large slanted unblinking eyes, white skin, and a straight-line mouth are visible on their elongated heads. He thinks they look afraid, so he tries to telepathically assure them not to be afraid. They respond by asking him, “Why do you hate the Iranians?” The object draws closer the speeds away to the northeast. During the sighting, his police radio displays intermittent interference and his patrol car’s engine and headlights pulsate. The deputy feels light-headed and sluggish, and his eyes water. (“UFO Mini-Flap in Southern Indiana,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 3 (Mar./Apr. 1981): 11–12) October 15– 20 — According to analyst Gary Sick, meetings are allegedly held in Paris, France, between emissaries of the Reagan/Bush campaign, with future CIA Director William J. Casey as a key participant, and “high-level Iranian and Israeli representatives” to make a secret deal with Iran to delay the release of the American hostages until after the election. In return for this, the United States purportedly arranges for Israel to ship weapons to Iran. Sick is never able to prove his claims, but the evidence suggests that the Reagan administration ships arms to Iran, both through Israel and directly, from 1981 to 1987 as payment for Iranian cooperation. (Wikipedia, “October Surprise conspiracy theory”; Gary Sick, October Surprise: America ’ s Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan, Times Books, 1991 ) October 16 — Evening. Operators at Tianjin Binhai International Airport, China, are observing the movements of Flight 402 on radar when an unexplained echo shows up. When the airliner is about 6,500 feet from the runway, the plane’s blip disappears for 7 seconds. The mystery target gives a strong, distinct return, and it seems to cause strong radio interference as the airliner touches down. Other anomalous targets show up later that night, but none are seen visually. (Good Above, pp. 215 – 216 ; Paul Dong, “Extracts from Paul Dong’s Feidie Bai Wen Bai Da (Questions and Answers on UFOs),” Flying Saucer Review 29, no. 6 (August 1984): 18) October 19 — 7:50 p.m. Donald Shive, his wife Star, and two children are driving west near Albion, Michigan, when they see an object with two white lights on the sides and a red and blue light on the front and back. It is moving at about 25 mph at an altitude of 200–500 feet when it moves over the car at an intersection. The car stalls and the lights go out briefly. (“UFO Stalls Van in Michigan?” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 1 (Nov./Dec. 1980): 14) October 21 — 8:35 a.m. Betty Long and a friend see a formation of three egg-shaped objects in the northern sky over San Diego, California. The bright sun makes them seem uniformly white and featureless. After moving to the right for three minutes, they turn 90° to the left and move away from the witnesses. The formation retains its triangular shape throughout the sighting. (“Daylight ‘Eggs’ over California,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 8 (December 1980): 5) October 23 — 8:55 p.m. Randall Rogers and Larry Mortensen, employed at the Phelps-Dodge Corporation’s copper smelting site at Morenci, Arizona, go outside to pick up three other employees for an evening meal break. They notice a boomerang-shaped object approaching the north smokestack at 1,500–2,000 feet altitude and a very slow speed. It stops and hovers briefly, then comes down to 700–1,000 feet, just above the stack. A brilliant light erupts from the forward angle and shines directly down into the interior of the stack. 10 seconds later it goes out and the object moves south to hover above the south stack and shine the bright light inside. It then moves off at 5–10 mph to the south, then suddenly takes off at great speed to the southwest. A very short time later, it returns and hovers above the slag dump. The object is seen as dull black and perhaps 1,320 feet from wingtip to wingtip. Eight reddish lights are on each wing about 75 feet apart and connected by a white tube of light. Greenlee County Sheriff Ralph Gomez also observes the object, as do about 100 members of the Morenci High School band. (“UFO over Copper Smelter,” APRO Bulletin 29, no. 7 (1981): 1–3) October 26 — Paul Bennewitz over a number of months has become convinced that he has uncovered evidence of aliens controlling humans through electromagnetic devices, and furthermore claims that UFOs are regularly flying near Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque and the nearby Manzano Nuclear Weapons Storage Facility and Coyote Canyon Test Area. He is also convinced there is an alien base beneath Archuleta Peak northwest of Dulce, New Mexico. After failing to convince APRO (who considers him deluded), Bennewitz contacts AFOSI special

agent Sgt. Richard Doty at Kirtland Air Force Base, who meets with him at his home today along with Jerry Miller, Kirtland’s scientific advisor for the Air Force Test and Evaluation Center. (Clark III 359 ; Greg Bishop, Project Beta, Paraview, 2005, pp. 34– 35 , 135 – 137 ; Robert L. Hastings, “UFOs Filmed Hovering over U.S. Air Force Nuclear Weapons Storage Area,” UFOs & Nukes, May 13, 2012; Alejandro T. Rojas, [Bennewitz/Kirtland AFB documents]; Alejandro T. Rojas, “Ex–Air Force Law Enforcement Agent Claims He Hoaxed Major UFO Mythologies,” June 29, 2019; Dolan II 225 – 229 ) October 26 — 7:00 p.m. An oddly shaped UFO is observed by a husband and wife on their farm 2 miles southeast of Bloomfield, Indiana. The object looks like two full moons spaced about 12 feet apart with a flashing red light in back like a lopsided triangle. Each white light is about 3 feet in diameter, and the white is intense but nothing around lights up. The object is at treetop level and passes to the right of a security light. There is no reflection of metal anywhere. The woman gets the impression that the lights are connected to something huge, saying: “The object passed about 20 feet above the barn making no sound and lights making no light. When it was over the barn roof, the sows with baby pigs in the barn jumped up and began wild grunting and knocking about in their pens. They settled down immediately after the object cleared the roof. The object is now coming very slowly towards the front of our house and yard. My husband had gone back into the house to watch from the front windows, my children are crying, and I am on the back porch having the time of my life.” The UFO disappears behind the roof line of the house. (“Tractor-Chasing Saucer,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 5 (July/Aug. 1981): 14 – 15; “October UFO in Indiana Reported,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2 , no. 8 (August 1981): 6; “Greene County, Indiana, 1980 CE II,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 6, no. 2 (April/May 1985): 1, 6, 8; John P. Timmerman, “Greene County Close Encounter,” IUR 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 10–12) October 31 — Day. The airport control tower at Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, detects a UFO on its radar. An F- 5 squadron has just landed, with the exception of one plane, whose pilot requests authorization to pursue. He sees a bright gold object right in front of him and accelerates to approach, but the object immediately speeds up. The control tower loses the object on its radar. The pilot continues to pursue for 2 minutes before the UFO speeds off over the ocean. (Clark III 206– 207 ; Brazil 555–556)

November 2 — 12:42 p.m. A couple driving westbound on US Highway 50 some 20 miles east of Montrose, Colorado, notice a silver, oblong object in the distance. As the highway starts to curve, it is seen against a background of mesa. They stop the car for a better look for another 10 seconds. It banks like an aircraft to the right and its shape changes to an oval. It disappears by shooting up over the top of the mesa toward the northeast. (“Daylight Disc in Colorado,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 3 (March/April 1981): 14) November 2 — 3:00 p.m. Mike Clampett and his wife are stepping out of a Toyota showroom on Solano Avenue in Vallejo, California. They see a group of people looking at the sky where a Piper Cub seems to be on a collision course with a cigar-shaped object. The plane is moving north to south while the UFO flies silently from high in the east to the west. The object is rotating or spiraling about once every second. It takes nearly 10 minutes for the object to reach nearly overhead, dropping in altitude all the while. It remains stationary in the zenith about 5 minutes then moves to the south at a higher altitude. (“A Spiralling Daylight Cigar,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 2 (Jan./Feb. 1981): 11–12) November 5 — 8:45 p.m. A private pilot named Dennis is flying a Piper PA-32R-301T Turbo Saratoga SP at 8,000 feet near Lake Berryessa, California. He spots an orange, bullet-shaped light that is keeping even with him at 212 mph. The light brightens and begins to pulse with an increasing frequency, then shoots forward and makes a perfect right-angle turn upward. Five minutes later, it reappears behind him and performs a similar maneuver. The sighting is corroborated by a commercial airliner. (“A Twin ‘Déjà vu’ Sighting?” IUR 7, no. 1 (January 1982): 5) November 6 — Peter Gersten files a reply to the NSA’s September request for summary judgment. (“CAUS Update,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 1 (Nov./Dec. 1980): 16) November 6 — 7:55 a.m. Nancy Parker is a passenger on a Western Airlines flight passing over Monterey Bay, California. She takes three photos of the scenery below, but when she develops the film, a bright, disc-shaped object appears on the second photo. Probable reflection or lens flare. (“Reflection or Object? Photo from Airliner Being Studied,” CUFOS Associates Newsletter 2, no. 3 (March 1981): 1) November 10 — Paul Bennewitz visits with a small group of officials—including Brig. Gen. William Brooksher, base AFOSI head Maj. Thomas Cseh, and scientists from the USAF Phillips Weapons Lab—at Kirtland AFB in New Mexico to present his film, photos, and electromagnetic findings. (Clark III 359 ; Greg Bishop, Project Beta, Paraview, 2005, pp. 41– 44 ; Alejandro T. Rojas, [Bennewitz/Kirtland AFB documents]) November 10 — 9:00 p.m. A man observes a stationary white light some 30° up in the western sky near the intersection of State Highway 30 and Interstate 270 in Sunset Hills, Missouri. A second object, orange in color, silently circles

it for several minutes before taking off to the west. (“Orbiting Lights near St. Louis,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 1, no. 8 (December 1980): 5) November 11 — 6:40 p.m. Seven commercial aircraft—four Iberia Boeing 727s, a British airliner, an air-taxi, and a Transeuropa aircraft—encounter an unusual green object over Barcelona, Maella, Palma de Mallorca, and other points in northeastern Spain. Spanish journalist Juan J. Benítez investigates and determines that either 7 identical UFOs are involved or a single object is responsible, one capable of traveling hundreds of miles within minutes. Comandante Ramos, one of the Iberia pilots, says that the object is “like an enormous soap bubble” that is coming straight for his aircraft. He puts it into an evasive dive. When it passes close to the plane, they see a second smaller ball. (Juan J. Benítez, “Anniversary Aerial Encounters,” Flying Saucer Review 26, no. 6 (March 1981): 12 – 14; Good Above, pp. 157 – 159 ) November 17 — Sgt. Richard Doty tells Bennewitz that AFOSI has decided against any further investigation of his claims. The same day, Doty forges a communication (later called the “Aquarius document”) from AFOSI headquarters at Bolling AFB in Washington, D.C., to the Seventeenth District AFOSI office at Kirtland and gives it to Bill Moore. It mentions, briefly and cryptically, analyses of a UFO film apparently taken in October. It also mentions MJ- 12 and a government UFO investigation “outside official intelligence channels” called the Aquarius Project. Bill Moore calls it a retyped version of a real AFOSI message with a few spurious additions. Doty tells Moore to pass it on to Bennewitz, which he does eventually. In 2005, Doty tells radio host Art Bell that AFOSI’s interest in Bennewitz has nothing to do with aliens; rather, it is to protect the technologies and activities at Kirtland AFB. (Good Above, p. 528; Greg Bishop, Project Beta, Paraview, 2005, pp. 43, 120 – 129 ; “Greg Bishop and Richard Doty, Coast to Coast AM with Host Art Bell, Interview Transcript,” February 27, 2005; Clark III 3 62) November 18 — For the resolution of the CAUS v. NSA, the National Security Agency creates two affidavits to explain why UFO information is to be withheld from the public. The affidavits are written by the chief officer of policy for the NSA, Eugene F. Yeates. The first of the two is the “unclassified, softened-down” version released to CAUS and the public. The affidavit says that it is in the NSA’s direct interests not to have the documents published, as they can compromise national security because they contain sensitive intelligence regarding the interception of foreign communication; and no meaningful amount of information can be declassified without giving foreign intelligence information regarding US time and methods of information interception. The second affidavit is for Judge Gerhard A. Gesell only, classified “top secret,” which the judge can read with an “in camera” clearance. The judge sides with the NSA after reviewing the affidavit (released to CAUS through an FOIA request with 95% redactions, later released in 1997 with only 25% redacted, and in 2014 with a bit less missing). Gesell states that “the public interest in disclosure is far outweighed by the sensitive nature of the materials and the obvious effect on national security their release may well entail.” CAUS fashions an appeal to the US Supreme Court. (Wikipedia, “Citizens Against UFO Secrecy”; Eugene F. Yeates, In Camera Affidavit, Citizens Against Unidentified Flying Objects Secrecy v. National Security Agency, US District Court for the District of Columbia, October 9, 1980; J. Allen Hynek, “A Cosmic Watergate?” IUR 9, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1984): 10 – 12 ; ClearIntent, pp. 187 – 188 ; Good Above, pp. 417 – 419 , 535 – 539 ); John Greenewald, “UFOs: The National Security Agency (NSA) Collection,” The Black Vault, September 10, 2016) November 18 — 7:30–11:00 p.m. Many people living in northern Missouri and northeastern Kansas, from Edina, Missouri, to Fairview, Kansas, report a formation of unusual lights traveling slowly and noiselessly. An airport and the police department in Kirksville, Missouri, receive 25 calls or so. The basic description is a triangular formation with two bright headlights. Rick Hull, a 20-year-old photographer from Trenton, Missouri, watches the lights pass overhead four different times; the underside shows a diamond-shaped array of white lights with a steady red beacon in the middle. There are also two bright headlights and an apparent dome with seven green lights around it. He manages to photograph the array only once out of several attempts. Most people provide an estimated altitude for the lights as 300–400 feet, but a Trenton witness puts it at 1,000–1,500 feet, and Missouri Highway Patrolman Bob Lober guesses 1,500–1,800 feet in Edinburg, Missouri. The lights change direction frequently. Radar technician Franklin West, located at a remote radar station of the Kansas City Air Route Traffic Control Center at Sublette, Missouri, finds a radar target in the same direction and distance as visual reports that local witnesses alert him to. It passes through the Kirksville area 4–5 times in a 2–3 hour period. He estimates its speed at 45 mph. A pilot landing at the Olathe, Kansas, Air Route Traffic Control Center says he recognizes the UFO as a refueling tanker with jets following it, which matches an established refueling track in the area. The Center for UFO Studies confirms that Altus AFB in Oklahoma, flew a huge C-5A cargo aircraft behind a KC- 135 tanker from Grissom AFB in Peru, Indiana, that evening. The two planes flew in tandem at 20,000 feet at an indicated air speed of 250 knots beginning at 8:00 p.m. and ending around 11:00 p.m. However, there are a few discrepancies with the reports. (“North Missourians Report Strange Lights in Night Sky,” Chillicothe (Mo.)

Constitution-Tribune, November 19, 1980, pp. 1, 12; Joe and Doris Graziano, “Press Reports,” APRO Bulletin 29, no. 5 (June 1981): 6; “Radar-Visual Light Form Seen by Independent Witnesses,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 3 (March/April 1981): 12– 14 ; Marler 109– 112 ) November 19 — 11:45 p.m. A couple is driving home to Longmont, Colorado, from Denver when they hear a loud “whish” and a beam of blue light strikes their car. Their headlights begin to dim and the radio emits static before fading out. The back wheels of the car leave the pavement and the car rises at an angle into the air. They lose consciousness and wake up as the car is resuming its 50 mph journey down the road. More than one hour of time is missing. The next day, the woman finds a rectangular mark on her abdomen and soon has vivid dreams of a craft and an entity. She develops a nearly fatal case of pneumonia and finds out she is pregnant. The man discovers a melanoma on his legs, but it improves. Under hypnosis they recall seeing a hovering domed craft, a luminous entryway, and a humanoid with a large head, gray skin, thin fingers, and shiny golden garb. (Richard Sigismond, “CE-IIIs: New Dimensions in Investigations,” IUR 7, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1982): 9–15) November 24 — Around 10:00 p.m. A teenager in New Lenox, Illinois, sees two green light sources from his bedroom window. They move back and forth in the southern sky and disappear briefly when a plane flies below them. (“UFOs—or IFOs over Joliet?” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 2 (Jan./Feb. 1981): 12) November 25 — Early morning. Policemen in New Lenox, Manhattan, Joliet, and Ellwood, Illinois, watch a bright white light that fluctuates in brightness and mostly remains stationary. Probable sightings of Venus. (“UFOs—or IFOs over Joliet?” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 2 (Jan./Feb. 1981): 12) November 25 — 6:40 a.m. A glowing orange ball is seen maneuvering around the Ninian Northern oil platform in the North Sea. It is large enough to be seen by workers at the Brent oil platform 12–15 miles away. An RAF Hawker Siddeley Nimrod aircraft is sent to the area, but no public conclusions are reached about its nature. (Nick Redfern, A Covert Agenda: UFO Secrecy Exposed, Simon & Schuster, 1997, p. 136) November 26 — Doty receives a call from former astronaut Sen. Harrison Schmitt (R-N.Mex.) who asks him about AFOSI’s role in Bennewitz’s claims. Doty tells him they are not investigating. But Doty later admits what he tells Schmitt is not true. AFOSI has told him to make Bennewitz believe there is an impending alien invasion because Bennewitz is actually observing secret Air Force projects. According to Doty, the Air Force wants to discredit Bennewitz so no one will figure that out. However, Doty claims that in doing so, he created hoaxed documents that are given to Bennewitz and other UFO researchers, and that he broke into Bennewitz’s house and office. (Alejandro T. Rojas, “Ex–Air Force Law Enforcement Agent Says He Hoaxed Major UFO Mythologies,” Huffington Post, May 13, 2014; Clark III 359 – 362 ) November 29 — 5:00 a.m. While checking reports of cattle wandering around a local council estate in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, England, Police Constable Alan Godfrey allegedly sees a bright light ahead on Burnley Road that appears to be a hovering, rotating object. He sees twigs and leaves swirling around beneath it. He experiences missing time of approximately 25 minutes, during which he splits a boot and acquires an itchy, red mark on his foot. Via hypnotic regression, he recalls being medically examined by alien creatures. In May, Godfrey had investigated the death of Zigmund Adamski, who had been missing for five days before his body was found on top of a coal pile. According to the coroner, Adamski died of a heart attack. Godfrey tells reporters at the time that he believes it possible that Adamski was abducted by aliens and placed on the coal pile “by someone or something.” Godfrey self-publishes Who or What Were They? in 2017, a book that includes his speculations regarding the Adamski case, abduction claims by Travis Walton, and his own UFO sighting. In 2014, a partial witness to the event surfaces, a bus driver on Burnley Road who around 4:55 a.m. experiences one of the physical effects Godfrey describes—an oddly localized whirlwind buffeting debris and leaving a swirled road surface beneath. (Wikipedia, “Alan Godfrey”; Jenny Randles, “The Alan Godfrey Abduction, November 28, 1980,” UFO Casebook; “Alan Godfrey,” Northern Ontario UFO Research and Study; Jenny Randles, The Pennine UFO Mystery, Granada, 1983 , pp. 122– 135 , 147 – 168 ; Good Above, pp. 118 – 119 ; Jenny Randles, “Flappy Valley: Part One,” Fortean Times 325 (April 2015): 27; Jenny Randles, “Flappy Valley: Part Two,” Fortean Times 326 (May 2015): 27; Jenny Randles, “Flappy Valley, Part 3,” Fortean Times 327 (June 2015): 29; Jenny Randles, “Flappy Valley, Part 4,” Fortean Times 328 (July 2015): 28– 30 ; Alan Godfrey, Who or What Were They? The Author, 2017) November 29 — Mechanic Granger Taylor, 32, of Duncan, British Columbia, a man obsessed with aliens and UFOs to the point of building his own full-size model in his backyard, announces to his friends and parents that he is going to board an alien spacecraft and take a 42-month interstellar voyage. He is never seen again. In 1986, truck fragments and bones are found at a blast site on Mount Prevost. Though DNA testing is not in common use at the time, pathology work by the coroner attributes the adult human bones to Taylor. Fragments of clothing found amid the decayed material are from a shirt owned by Taylor, as confirmed by his mother. Representatives from the auto division of the RCMP confirm the truck is his. A report by the B.C. Coroners office officially declares

Taylor dead. A CBC-TV documentary about Taylor, Spaceman, is released in 2019 but fails to come up with a
likely explanation. (Tyler Hooper, “The Man Who Went to Space and Disappeared,” Vice, July 1, 2016; Mike
Taylor, “What Happened to Granger Taylor?” Vancouver (B.C.) Times Colonist, February 3, 2019; CBC-TV,
“Spaceman,” 2019)

December — Army Lt. Col. John B. Alexander discusses in Military Review how psychotronic weapons could be developed by studying the paranormal. He discusses the remote-viewing studies of Russell Targ and Harold E. Puthoff and their potential military applications. As for psychotronic weapons, he sees much potential, saying, “with development, these weapons would be able to induce illness or death at little or no risk to the operator. Range may be a present problem, but this will probably be overcome if it has not been already.” As an example, he cites work by the Soviets, who have “examined the effects of electromagnetic radiation on humans and have applied those techniques against the US Embassy in Moscow.” (John B. Alexander, “The New Mental Battlefield: ‘Beam Me Up, Spock!’” Military Review 60, no. 12 (December 1980)) December 3 — 8:30 p.m. On State Highway 57 about 10 miles south of McLain, Mississippi, Robert and Janice Lowrey [or Lawrey?] see a luminous, blue-white ball of light to the east. The FM radio of their car quits, the car’s headlights dim, and the car heater quits when light comes briefly over the right side of the hood. They estimate the light to be about a foot in diameter and only 3 feet away. The seat belt alarm also comes on during the encounter. The light just vanishes. (“Vehicle Affected by Mini-UFO?” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 2 (Jan./Feb. 1981): 12–13) December 4 — 8:38 a.m. Graham Moyle and other controllers at the Perth, Western Australia, airport report watching “silver tumbling discs” two or three times through 11:00 a.m. Danielle Russell, 12, sees four objects with lights that change color from red to blue to green moving quickly north to south at 11:00 a.m. There is a reported paint on the radar 7 miles distant at a speed of 138 mph and a height of 5 miles. The target is lost in the radar’s cone of silence. The RAAF scrambles a Macchi jet, but it cannot find the objects. At 1:20 p.m., a target is detected on the radar at 21 miles, due south. The tower tracks an object high above one of the runways. Five minutes later, the radar returns another target. (“Jet Hunt for Australian UFOs,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 2 (Jan./Feb. 1981): 14) December 5 — 10:00 p.m. Two teenagers parked next to a swimming pool in a subdivision of Normal, Illinois, see a stationary bright white light about half the size of the full moon in the western sky. Suddenly it splits into two smaller halves that rejoin, growing small and fuzzy, then brighten and enlarge. Three small lights shoot out and snap back in again. They watch the display for about one hour. During the last 15 minutes, their ears begin to hurt simultaneously. The pain shifts from their right ears to their temples, and they both feel a pea-shaped lump under their skin. They return home. The next day the lumps are gone but they have headaches. On December 8 at 8:45 p.m., the boy returns to the same spot alone and sees another light for about one minute. When he calls his girlfriend again to tell her, both regain the painful lumps in their temples. (“Youths Link Pain with UFO,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 2 (February 1981): 6) December 6 — 12:45 a.m. A man is driving westbound a few miles north of Edwardsville, Illinois, when a disc-like object cuts across his view from the south about 100 feet away. It seems to be 40 feet in diameter and 9–13 feet thick. Five intense, steady, blue-white lights illuminate its dark shape. He sees windows at the center. The witness tries to drive toward the object, but his car engine fails for 1–2 minutes. The object zips off after a few minutes. (“Current Sighting Reports,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 3 (March 1981): 6) December 6 — 9:01 a.m. Jean Findley of Poole, Dorset, England, is waiting for a bus and feels the urge to look up. She sees a disc-shaped, domed UFO hovering above nearby trees. Feeling “spellbound” and experiencing a sensation of “peace, calm, and warmth,” she watches the object emit a beam of light, rotate once, and fly away at a great rate of speed. She looks at her watch and sees that 4 minutes have elapsed, seemingly in the space of a few seconds. Even though it is rush hour, she sees no one else around. (Clark III 866; Jenny Randles, UFO Reality, R. Hale, 1983) December 13 — 5:47 p.m. James Garrigus sees an oblong, pulsating orange glow descending at a 30° angle in the northeast as he is driving in Lima, Ohio. Suddenly it curves back upward in a backwards “J,” continuing to move in the same direction. The light increases speed, still bobbing and spinning, and finally shoots upward. (“Nocturnal Light in Ohio,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 2 (February 1981): 6) December 15 — 3:00 p.m. About 40 witnesses at the Orpington Hospital redevelopment site in London, England, watch a UFO that alternately hovers, moves slowly, shoots across the sky, and finally divides into three and disappears straight up at 4:15 p.m. The object is an elongated triangular shape with a reddish-orange nose, silvery body, and diamond-blue rear section, with its nose pointing southeast. Peter McSherry, clerk of works for Lovell (Southern) Ltd estimates its height at 50,000 feet. A video of the object is taken in the presence of other witnesses at Seal

Chart near Sevenoaks, Kent, and although it shows only a point of light in a cloudless sky, it does corroborate the sighting. (Good Above, pp. 76 – 79 ) December 25 — 9:00 p.m. Soviet spy satellite Kosmos 749 re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere, breaks into several pieces, and creates a spectacular fireworks display over northwest Europe. Police stations, coast guards, and the RAF receive hundreds of calls reporting four or five “comet-like objects leaving bright trails.” Astronomers also record three fireball meteors the same night, the largest and brightest appearing at 3:00 a.m. (UFOFiles2, p. 105) December 2 6 — 3:00 a.m. A series of reported sightings of unexplained lights near Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England, have become linked with claims of UFO landings. The events occur just outside RAF Woodbridge [now MOD Woodbridge], used at the time by the United States Air Force. USAF personnel, including deputy base commander Lieutenant Colonel Charles I. Halt, claim to experience a UFO event. A security patrol (A1C John Burroughs and S/Sgt Budd Steffens) near the East Gate of RAF Woodbridge sees lights apparently descending into nearby Rendlesham Forest. These lights are attributed by astronomers to a piece of natural debris seen burning up as a fireball over southern England at the time. The observers initially think it is a downed aircraft but, when others (S/Sgt James Penniston, Burroughs, and A1C Edward Cabansag) enter the forest to investigate they see, according to Halt’s memo, a glowing object, metallic in appearance, with colored lights. As they attempt to approach the object, it appears to move through the trees, and “the animals on a nearby farm went into a frenzy.” Penniston later claims he and Burroughs encountered a “craft of unknown origin” while in the forest, which he photographs and touches, although there is no publicized mention of this at the time and no corroboration from other witnesses. (Burroughs only reports a blinding white light.) Shortly after 4:00 a.m., local police are called to the scene, but they report that the only lights they can see are those from the Orfordness Lighthouse, a few miles away on the coast. After daybreak, Burroughs and Penniston return to a small clearing near the eastern edge of the forest and find three small impressions on the ground in a triangular pattern, as well as burn marks and broken branches on nearby trees. At 10:3 0 a.m., the Suffolk Constabulary are called out again, this time to see the impressions, which they think could have been made by an animal. Georgina Bruni, in her book You Can ’ t Tell the People (2000), publishes a photo of the supposed landing site taken on the morning after the first sighting. December 27 — 9:30 p.m. Construction workers skating in Yantan Park, Lanzhou, Gansu province, China, notice a red triangular object moving slowly in the eastern sky. It moves above them and they notice it has a misty circle surrounding it and a dark red center. It also has a gray protuberance that shines a brilliant light, and the outer edge emits regular flashes of yellow light. They watch it for 7 minutes until it disappears in the northwest. (“The Chinese Connection…and Some Wholesome Chinese Philosophy,” IUR 7, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1982): 13) December 28 — 1:48 a.m. RAF Woodbridge Deputy Base Commander Charles Halt visits the alleged December 26 landing site with 20 – 30 servicemen (including John Burroughs, Sgt. Adrian Bustinza, Sgt. Bobby Ball, and Sgt. Monroe Nevels). They take radiation readings in the triangle of depressions and in the surrounding area using an AN/PDR-27, a standard US military radiation survey meter. Although they record 70 – 100 microR/hr at the landing site, in other regions they detect only 30–40 microR/hr, around the background level. Furthermore, they detect a similar small “burst” over half a mile away from the landing site. Halt records the events on a microcassette recorder, the “Halt tape,” released to UFO researchers in 1984 by Col. Sam Morgan, who has succeeded Ted Conrad as Halt’s superior. The tape chronicles Halt’s investigation in the forest in real time. During this investigation, a flashing light is seen across the field to the east, almost in line with a farmhouse, as the witnesses had seen on the first night. The Orfordness Lighthouse is visible further to the east in the same line of sight. Later, three star-like lights are seen in the sky, two to the north and one to the south, about 10° above the horizon. The brightest of these hovers for 2–3 hours and seems to beam down a stream of light from time to time. Astronomers have explained these as merely bright stars. In June 2010, retired Col. Charles Halt signs a notarized affidavit, in which he again summarizes what happened, then states he believes the event to be extraterrestrial and covered up by both the UK and US military. Contradictions between this affidavit and the facts as recorded at the time in Halt’s memo (dated January 13, 1981) and tape recording (made December 28) have been pointed out. In 2010, base commander Col. Ted Conrad provides a statement about the incident to UFO researcher David Clarke. Conrad states that “We saw nothing that resembled Lieutenant Colonel Halt’s descriptions either in the sky or on the ground” and that “We had people in position to validate Halt’s narrative, but none of them could.” In an interview, Conrad criticizes Halt for the claims in his affidavit, saying “he should be ashamed and embarrassed by his allegation that his country and Britain both conspired to deceive their citizens over this issue. He knows better.” Conrad also disputes the testimony of Sgt. James Penniston, who claims to have touched an alien spacecraft; he had interviewed Penniston at the time and he had not mentioned any such occurrence. Conrad also suggests that the entire incident was a hoax. December 28– 29 — Around 12:00 midnight. USAF A1C Larry Warren claims he is on patrol at RAF Woodbridge with other servicemen who are bringing lighting equipment to a large clearing called Capel Green. At 12:30 a.m., he is

directed into the woods to “investigate a disturbance.” They soon come to a large field where about 40 military personnel are gathered. They are ordered to surround what appears to be a bright fog or mist. When his group enters the field, Warren sees it is a glowing, yellow-green, circular object not more than 12 inches in height. Two officers walk around it with Geiger counters, someone takes photos, and another operates a movie camera. He hears shouts of “Here it comes!” and sees a small red light that quickly approaches his group at 1:30 a.m. The basketball-sized object makes a downward arc and hovers at 20 feet above the ground. It then explodes in a blinding flash that gives off no heat. Instantly, about 25 away, Warren claims he sees a large, pyramid-shaped object topped by a glowing red light. Covering the entire surface are what look like boxes and pipes. An officer orders Bustinza and Warren (now feeling nauseous) to approach within 10–15 feet of the object. Before long they are ordered further back. A staff car arrives, carrying Col. Gordon Williams and his staff. From far behind the object comes a bright bluish ball of light. Warren claims he can see large-headed beings inside. He sees Col. Williams approach the beings and stare at them. Warren arrives back at Security Control at 4:30 a.m. Most ufologists find Warren’s account unreliable, and the book he coauthored, Left at East Gate, is withdrawn by the publisher, Cosimo, in 2017 after finding “inaccurate or embellished” testimony. In 2010, Jenny Randles, who first reported the Rendlesham case in the London Evening Standard in 1981 and coauthored with local researchers the first book on the case in 1984, Sky Crash: A Cosmic Conspiracy, emphasizes her previously expressed doubts that the incident was caused by extraterrestrial visitors. While suggesting that an unidentified phenomenon might have caused parts of the case, she notes: “Whilst some puzzles remain, we can probably say that no unearthly craft were seen in Rendlesham Forest. We can also argue with confidence that the main focus of the events was a series of misperceptions of everyday things encountered in less than everyday circumstances.” The most plausible skeptical explanation is that the sightings are due to a combination of several factors. The initial sighting on December 26 , when the airmen saw something apparently descending into the forest, coincides with the appearance of a bright fireball over southern England; such fireballs are a common source of UFO reports. The supposed landing marks are identified by police and foresters as rabbit diggings. According to the witness statements from December 26, the flashing light seen from the forest lay in the same direction as the Orfordness Lighthouse. When the eyewitnesses attempted to approach the light, they realized it was further off than they thought. Timings on Halt’s tape recording indicate that the light he saw, which lay in the same direction as the light seen two nights earlier, flashed every five seconds, which was the flash rate of the Orfordness Lighthouse. The star-like objects that Halt reported hovering low to the north and south are thought by some skeptics to have been misinterpretations of bright stars distorted by atmospheric and optical effects. No evidence has emerged to confirm that anything came down in the forest. However, Nick Redfern in The Rendlesham Forest UFO Conspiracy alleges that the events were created by US and UK military as part of a series of top-secret experiments involving ball lightning and the “use of sophisticated holograms and hallucinogens” to test the reactions of the personnel exposed to them. (Wikipedia, “Rendlesham Forest incident”; NICAP, “Rendlesham Forest Encounter / Halt Case”; Brenda Butler, Dot Street, and Jenny Randles, Sky Crash, Grafton, 1984; Jenny Randles, “Mystery at Rendlesham,” IUR 9, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1984): 10–11, 15; “A Flashlight in the Forest,” The Guardian (UK), January 5, 1985, p. 9; Robert H. Coddington, “An Analysis of the Rendlesham Forest Incident Tape,” IUR 10, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1985): 9–13; Jenny Randles, “The Cover-Up in England,” IUR 12, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1987): 9–12, 20; Jenny Randles, “A Fire in the Forest: New Light on the Rendlesham Landing,” IUR 13, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1988): 4–17, 21; Jenny Randles, “Rendlescam,” IUR 14, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1989): 16–18; Good Above, pp. 79– 96 , 456 ; Nick Pope, Open Skies, Closed Minds, Simon & Schuster, 199 6, pp. 141– 165 ; Larry Warren and Peter Robbins, Left at East Gate: A First-Hand Account of the Bentwaters-Woodbridge UFO Incident, Its Cover-Up, and Investigation, Marlowe, 1996 ; Jenny Randles, UFO Crash Landing? Friend or Foe? The Full Story of the Rendlesham Forest Close Encounter, Blandford, 1998; Jenny Randles, “Seeing the Forest for the Trees: New Twists in the Bentwaters Case,” IUR 23, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 16–19, 29–30; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 105– 111 ; Georgina Bruni, You Can ’ t Tell the People, Sidgwick & Jackson, 2000 ; Jenny Randles and Richard Hall, “The Rendlesham Forest Case: Point/Counterpoint,” IUR 25, no. 3 (Fall 200 0 ): 8–15, 30; Jenny Randles, “Rendlesham Forest: The British MoD File,” IUR 26, no. 3 (Fall 2001): 21–25, 30– 32 ; Ian Ridpath, “The Rendlesham Forest UFO Case,” Ian Ridpath, February 28, 2003; “Rendlesham: UFO Hoax,” Inside Out: BBC, June 30, 2003; Dave Cosnette, “The Bentwaters Rendlesham Forest Incident,” January 2005; Michael D. Swords, GrassRoots UFOs: Case Reports from the Timmerman Files, Fund for UFO Research, 2005, pp. 145–146; Kean, pp. 169– 173 , 179 – 188 ; UFOFiles2, pp. 105– 115 ; Nick Pope, with John Burroughs and Jim Penniston, Encounter in Rendlesham Forest, Thistle, 2014; Jenny Randles, “Rendlesham Forest Genesis: Part One,” Fortean Times 336 (February 2016): 24–25; Jenny Randles, “Rendlesham Forest Genesis: Part Two,” Fortean Times 337 (March 2016): 28–29; Jenny Randles, “Rendlesham Forest Genesis: Part Three,” Fortean Times 338 (April 2016): 26–27;

Jenny Randles, “Rendlesham Forest Genesis: Part Four,” Fortean Times 339 (May 2016): 26–27; Jenny Randles, “Rendlesham Forest Genesis: Part Five,” Fortean Times 340 (June 2016): 28–29; Andrew Pike, The Rendlesham File: Britain ’ s Roswell? Flying Disk Press, 2017; Nukes 403–443; Clark III 950; Matt Salusbury, “Rendlesham Revisited,” Fortean Times 387 (Christmas 2019): 28–29; Jim Penniston and Gary Osborn, The Rendlesham Enigma: Book 1, Timeline, The Authors, 2019; “Colonel Charles Halt Returns to Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK, Sept. 8th 2019,” David Young Paranormal Dimensions Radio Presenter YouTube channel, October 6, 2019; Nick Redfern, The Rendlesham Forest UFO Conspiracy, Lisa Hagan, 2020; Jim Penniston and Gary Osborn, “The Full Report,” The Rendlesham Forest Incident Official Website; Jim Penniston and Gary Osborn, “Witness Statements,” The Rendlesham Forest Incident Official Website; Jim Penniston and Gary Osborn, “Others Involved,” The Rendlesham Forest Incident Official Website; Center for UFO Studies, [Rendlesham case documents]) December 29 — 9:00 p.m. While driving through the Piney Woods of East Texas near Huffman, about 40 miles northeast of Houston, Betty J. Cash and her two passengers notice a bright light ahead. As they draw within about 130 feet, they are confronted by a fiery diamond-shaped object, emitting flames down toward the road. What happens after that is mind-boggling. Betty Cash and Vickie and Colby Landrum suffer apparent radiation illness after watching a flame-spewing UFO and mystery helicopters. Eventually, Cash and Landrum contact their US Senators, Lloyd Bentsen and John Tower, who suggest that the witnesses file a complaint with the Judge Advocate Claims office at Bergstrom Air Force Base [now Austin-Bergstrom International Airport]. In August 1981, Cash, Landrum, and Colby are interviewed at length by personnel at Bergstrom and told that they should hire a lawyer and seek financial compensation for their injuries. With attorney Peter Gersten taking on the case pro bono, the case winds its way through the US courts for several years. Cash and Landrum sue the federal government for $20 million. On August 21, 1986, US District Court Judge Ross N. Sterling dismisses their case, noting that the plaintiffs have not proved that the helicopters are associated with the government and that military officials have testified that US armed forces do not have a large, diamond-shaped aircraft in their possession. Although there is no doubt that the incident occurred, it is now considered by many to be a non-UFO case. In December 2018, Brian Dunning investigates the case and reports his findings on the Skeptoid podcast. He finds that the notes taken by Cash’s cardiologist, Vasudev B. Shenoy, attribute her hair loss to the autoimmune disease alopecia areata, that her other symptoms could be caused by illnesses that started before the incident, and that Landrum’s only documented illness is developing a cataract in one eye. He suspects that “Cash and Landrum wrongly, but honestly, placed the blame for their health problems onto whatever they saw; and even pushed the truth a bit trying to get the Air Force to pay for it.” (Wikipedia, “Cash-Landrum incident”; NICAP, “Cash/Landrum Case”; “Burns Follow UFO Incident,”APRO Bulletin 29, no. 8 (1981): 1–4; “Physical Effects, Helicopters, and a Fiery UFO,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 4 (May/June 1981): 13–14; John Schuessler, “Cash-Landrum Case Closed?” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 222 (October 1986): 12, 17; John Schuessler, “Medical Injuries Resulting from a UFO Encounter,” The Spectrum of UFO Research, CUFOS, 1988, pp. 58–69; John F. Schuessler, The Cash-Landrum Radiation Case, Project VISIT, 1998 ; “Huffman 1980,” Texas UFO Museum and Research Library, December 11, 2006; Michael D. Swords, “Can UFOs Cause Physiological Effects? Part 2,” IUR 34 , no. 1 (September 2011 ): 4 – 5 ; Good Above, pp. 303 – 305 ; ClearIntent, pp. 106 – 108 ; Good Need, pp. 335 – 337 , 345 – 346 ; Clark III 226– 228 ; Curt Collins, “The Cash-Landrum Case UFO Document Collection,” Blue Blurry Lines, October 3, 2019; Project VISIT, [case articles and clippings])

1981

1981 — New York artist Budd Hopkins publishes Missing Time, which first describes his research into abductions that show they are far more plentiful than anyone suspects, biological in purpose, and perhaps lifelong in scope. Hopkins also shows that a period of unexplained missing time is a typical aspect of the abduction experience. The information comes primarily from hypnotic regression performed by licensed psychologist Aphrodite Clamar, who also conducts psychological tests on the abductees. (Budd Hopkins, Missing Time: A Documented Study of UFO Abductions, R. Marek, 1981) 1981 — Center for UFO Studies researcher Mark Rodeghier publishes UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, a comprehensive catalog and analysis of 441 cases where UFOs seem to affect cars or motorcycles. He finds that most of these cases occur in the late evening or early morning hours, and that in 35% of the cases, witness estimate they are within 100 feet of the object. Rodeghier also notes a high concentration of four characteristics: the presence of a light beam, loss of control of the vehicle, a physiological effect on the witness, and the UFO chasing the vehicle. (Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, CUFOS, 1981)

1981 — A husband and wife are sleeping in their farmhouse near Newark, Ohio, when their dogs start barking loudly. They can hear people talking outside their window in a “foreign” language. They do not investigate, but in the morning they find three sets of footprint-like traces outside. They look like elongated scratch marks about 12 inches long, are uniform in shape, and go all the way to the fence line and through it. The couple begins to see a “perfectly round white circle of light,” about 1.5 inches in diameter, moving slowly around in their bedroom each night. The light is seen for about a month, no matter how the blinds and curtains are arranged. Sometimes it would stop moving for hours. (Michael D. Swords, “A Trick of the Light,” IUR 31, no. 2 (June 2007): 9) 1981 — The Norsk Institutt for Vitenskapelig Forskning og Opplysning in Trondheim, Norway, begins publishing the NIVFO Bulletin, edited by Gunnar Bertelsen and Kilbjørn Stenødegård. It continues through spring 1995. (NIVFO Bulletin, no. 1 (1981))

January — A. Bindas observes a radiant object above the city of Khatanga, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, during the polar night. It disappears and reappears abruptly, hovers, and directs a wide beam of light on the ground. After 5– 7 minutes it zooms off in a spiral-shaped trajectory. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, p. 97) January 8 — 5:00 p.m. A well-documented case of physical effects from a UFO takes place in Trans-en-Provence, Var, France. Renato Nicolaï, a gardener, hears a strange whistling sound while doing agricultural work on his property. He then sees an object in the shape of two saucers, one inverted on top of the other, about 8 feet in diameter land about 150 feet away at a lower elevation. It has a thick band around the middle section, two circles that look like trapdoors, and two feet that extend about 8 inches below the body of the machine. The object takes off almost immediately, rising above the tree line and departing to the northeast. The case quickly comes to the attention of the police and is soon investigated by GEPAN, the French government’s scientific team of UFO investigators. The physical traces include evidence of vegetation and soil heating, skid marks, and circular ground marks. The chemical analysis reveals that the soil has been heated to 300°– 600 ° C. Jean-Jacques Velasco thinks that the object could have weighed between 4 and 5 tons. Trace amounts of phosphate and zinc are found in the sample material, and an analysis of wild alfalfa near the landing site shows chlorophyll levels 30%–50% lower than expected. The police report says that the trace, which appears on an active road, looks like one made by a car tire. This explanation is dismissed by GEPAN because of Nicolaï saying otherwise. (Wikipedia, “Trans-en-Provence Case”; NICAP, “Disc Leaves Extensive Ground Traces”; Enquête 81/01: Analyse d ’ un Trace, Note Technique no. 16, Groupe d’Étude des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés, Centre Nationale d’Étude Spatiales, March 1, 1983; Michel Bounias, “Biochemical Traumatology As a Potent Tool for Identifying Actual Stresses Elicited by Unidentified Sources,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 4, no. 1 (1990): 1–18; Jean-Jacques Velasco, “Report on the Analysis of Anomalous Physical Traces: The 1981 Trans-en-Provence UFO Case,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 4, no. 1 (1990): 27– 48 ; Jacques Vallée, “Return to Trans-en-Provence,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 4, no. 1 (1990): 19– 25 ; Michel Bounias, “Further Quantification of Distance-Related Effects in the Trans-en-Provence Case,” JUFOS 5 (1994): 109–121; Peter Sturrock, The UFO Enigma, 1999, pp. 257– 297 ; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 112– 120 ; Swords 443– 445 ; 2Pinotti 53– 56 ) January 12 — Citizens Against UFO Secrecy files an appeal against the CAUS v. NSA decision. (ClearIntent, p. 188 ) January 15 — 9:30 p.m. People in Terre Haute, Indiana, begin reporting a string of about a dozen lights in the sky to a local television station. The lights are stationary then disappear by shooting straight up. (“UFO Mini-Flap in Southern Indiana,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 3 (Mar./Apr. 1981): 12) January 15 — 10:15 p.m. Three sets of witnesses in Prairieton, Indiana, driving past two different fields on the same road, see 7–11 four-foot-tall humanoids that appear to be searching for something. Some witnesses think they are naked; others report they are wearing “tight-fitting suits.” Most witnesses are within 20 feet of the creatures, usually watching for 15– 2 0 seconds before racing off. At 10:30 p.m., two women in a different area of town get a fleeting glimpse of a 6– 7 - foot tall creature with fur and luminous red eyes. (“UFO Mini-Flap in Southern Indiana,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 3 (Mar./Apr. 1981): 12) January 17 — 10:00 a.m. A witness at a construction site near Virginia Beach, Virginia, sees two silver cigars moving northbound in the eastern sky. Each has distinct outlines, a surface like aluminum, and pointed ends. They are flying with a slight up/down motion but horizontally at about 1,000–2,000 feet. (“Current Sighting Reports,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 3 (March 1981): 6) January 22 — Many witnesses see a brilliant triangular object with multiple red lights descending swiftly above the treetops just southeast of Jesup, Georgia. It is only visible for a few seconds. (Marler 171–172)

February 7 — The Larry King Show carries a three-hour program on UFOs with a panel consisting of Richard H. Hall, Bruce S. Maccabee, and Don Berliner. The first hour consists of Larry King interviewing the panelists; then he takes phone calls for two hours. (MUFON UFO Journal, March 1981, p. 3) February 12 — Night. About 25–30 people on an interstate highway in Flagstaff, Arizona, see a cigar-shaped object like a blimp, white in color with dark veins. A small white object is at one end. After 2 minutes, the small object takes off at a high rate of speed and disappears. Meanwhile, a fog surrounds the blimp and it drifts away. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Cloud Cigars: A Further Look,” IUR 30, no. 3 (May 2006): 12–13) February 28 — The Center for UFO Studies can no longer afford to keep Allan Hendry on as a full-time investigator, so his affiliation ends. It closes its Evanston, Illinois, office and moves to Allen Hynek’s home. (Clark III 569)

March — The Centro Ufologico Nazionale begins a newsletter to supplement its official journal, Notiziario UFO, edited by Roberto Pinotti. Titled Quaderni UFO, it is edited by Gianfranco Neri in Bologna, Italy, and continues through at least May 1983. (Quaderni UFO 1, no. 1 (Mar./Apr. 1981)) March — The Journal of UFO Research is first published by China’s UFO Research Organization. (Paul Dong, “Letters,” IUR 7, no. 2 (March 1982): 3) March — 4:30 a.m. A witness is driving toward a pancake house in Memphis, Tennessee, for a cup of coffee when she sees three shining objects in the sky. She is so engrossed in watching that she passes by the restaurant. Suddenly the objects disappear into what look like puffs of smoke. A minute later, one reappears directly over the street in front of her. She turns into the Admiral Benbow Inn parking lot and alerts the night watchman, who sees the object hovering above her car and then rise above the inn. (“UFOs in a Puff of Smoke,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 5 (July/Aug. 181): 15–16) March 6 — 1:00 a.m. A registered nurse living on West Granville Avenue on the north side of Chicago, Illinois, watches a triangular array of three white lights outside her south-facing window. The lights seem to be connected by “spokes.” The array is rotating in a clockwise direction. (“Nocturnal Triangle in Chicago Night Sky,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 6 (Dec. 1984/Jan. 1984): 6) March 17 — 4:03 a.m. Sgt. Russell Yokum of the St. Helens, Oregon, police is on patrol on US Highway 30 on the edge of town when he sees a bright light apparently above the Columbia River. He goes to the Columbia County Courthouse for a better view, where he is joined by other police, but the object is no longer visible. Meanwhile, they are conversing via CB radio with Donald Atkins, who is in nearby Ridgefield, Washington, and watching a stationary light over the river. Atkins transmits a faint humming sound the object is making through his CB radio to officer Ricky Cade, who captures it on a cassette recorder. Yokum and Cade look to the south and see a bright orange-red light about 80–100 feet above the river, apparently the same one that Atkins is watching. (“An Orange(!) Ball at St. Helens for St, Patrick,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no 4 (May/June 1981): 11–13; Mark Rodeghier, “St. Helens Revisited,” IUR 7, no. 3 (May/June 1982): 12– 14 ; J. Allen Hynek and Howard R. Schechter, “Narrow-Band Acoustic Analysis of a Recorded UFO Sound,” The Spectrum of UFO Research, CUFOS, 1988, pp. 1 – 12; Julie Thompson, “The Strange Case of the St. Helens UFO,” St. Helens (Oreg.) Chronicle, October 11, 2017) March 18 — NORAD becomes the North American Aerospace Defense Command. (Wikipedia, “North American Aerospace Defense Command”) March 20 — 9:30 p.m. Larry Tilman is on Neil Road southwest of London, Ohio, hoping to get a UFO photo. He notices a small orange light over the city moving in a zig-zag fashion. It moves closer to his location, so he takes a time exposure photo as the light blinks out. (“Nocturnal Lights, March 20–21, 1981, London, Ohio,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 2 (April/May 1984): 4) March 21 — 7 : 0 0 p.m. Larry Tilman again takes time-exposure photos of orange balls of light east of London, Ohio, near Madison Lake State Park. One appears to be the size of a car. (“Nocturnal Lights, March 20–21, 1981, London, Ohio,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 2 (April/May 1984): 4–5) March 21 — 11:35 p.m. A friend is driving Alba Dunlap home northbound on Runnymede Road in Toronto, Ontario. They see a disc-shaped object directly ahead and above them that has a red light on a central dome and white flashing lights around its perimeter. It seems to be 30–40 feet in diameter. They watch it for 2 minutes, then it moves slowly west and disappears. (“Correspondence,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 6 (June 1981): 2) March 30 — 10:00 p.m. A huge bright light hovers over trees for 10 minutes in Alton, Illinois. The UFO moves towards two witnesses at about 10 mph. Frogs stop croaking and dogs begin barking excitedly. The object appears oval and is black except for lights on the circumference. A large circular opening is visible in the bottom of the black disc. Inside the opening the witnesses see “this churning motion of bright white light with yellow and orange colors in it…like gases rolling around in there.” After about 20–30 minutes it takes off rapidly. Shortly thereafter a

jet flies over. Another UFO is seen coming across the trees a good 5 minutes later with the same results.
(“Another World,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 5 (July/Aug. 1981): 16)

April 3 — 9:30 p.m. Some 50 people driving on National Route 35 north of Santa Rosa, La Pampa, Argentina, watch an object hovering about 300 feet directly over the Escuela Agrotécnica de Santa Rosa for several minutes. It is a saucer-shaped craft about 100 feet in diameter that is radiating light over its circumference due to an intense white light at its center. It speeds away to the west and disappears. (“A New Radio Link,” CUFOS Bulletin, Spring 1981, p. 3) April 8 — 3:00 a.m. A private pilot named Dennis is flying a Piper PA- 28 - 181 Archer II near the San Luis Reservoir, California, when a bullet-shaped object pulls alongside the airplane. Simultaneously, Dennis’s distance-measuring equipment, navigation and communications radios, and transponder go out. The object shoots ahead of the plane by about 1,500 feet and executes some erratic motions. Then, slowly drifting back, it paces him. The object is glowing orange and has a whirling bluish ring around it. The object pulsates and shoots forward about 4–5 miles ahead of the plane, and makes an instantaneous right-angle turn upward, in somewhat of a repeat of his November 5, 1980, sighting. (“A Twin ‘Déjà vu’ Sighting?” IUR 7, no. 1 (January 1982): 6) April 15 — 7:30 p.m. Walking through the parking lot of the P&C grocery store in Windsor, Vermont, Linda Kingsbury and Lucy Slothower notice two bright lights in the sky moving toward them. They are part of a dark, triangular object with additional blue and yellow lights on the underside. As it passes overhead, they hear a heavy humming. (“UFO Cruises Windsor,” White River Junction (Vt.) Valley News, April 17, 1981, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 142 (May 1981): 4; Joe and Doris Graziano, “Press Reports,” APRO Bulletin 29, no. 8 (August 1981): 7) April 16 — 9:30 p.m. Engineer Eugene A. Fucci is driving southeast on Interstate 89 in Grantham, New Hampshire, when he notices two bright stars, one of which descends to just above the horizon. Shortly afterward, a huge triangular- shaped object with colored lights on the underside and a bright white light on top flies over his car. He estimates the object is about the size of five B-52s and moving at 2,000 feet altitude at 200 mph. It appears to be all metal and black in color. It passes to the west-southwest. (“Mount Sunapee UFO Supports Area Sightings,” West Lebanon (N.H.) Valley News, April 22, 1981, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 143 (June 1981): 4; “Triangular UFO, April 16, 1981, at Grantham, N.H.,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no 2 (April 1981): 2, 4) April 25 — 7:00 a.m. Du Shengyuan notices a curious object circling in the sky above Beijing, China. After unsuccessfully calling media outlets, he goes back outside and finds the object is now directly overhead at more than 6,500 feet. Through binoculars he can see it is bullet-shaped and varies its speed, sometimes hovering. The middle part is white, and the bottom is luminous green. It moves out of sight at 7:25 a.m. Some 20 other people also watch the UFO. (Paul Dong and Wendelle Stevens, UFOs over Modern China, UFO Photo Archives, 1983, pp. 216– 218 ; Good Above, pp. 217 , 470 )

Early May — Merle Shane McDow is attached to the US Navy Atlantic Command Support Facility in Norfolk, Virginia, when a UFO is tracked moving at high speed on at least five radar scopes up and down the Atlantic coast. The UFO sets off a Condition Zebra alert in the Naval Command Center, and Adm. Harry D. Train II gives the order to force down the object and recover it. US jets chase the UFO for more than an hour as far north as Greenland, sometimes confirming it visually, but it evades them. During the event, KH-11 reconnaissance satellites take photos of the object. The object moves from Nova Scotia to Norfolk in one sweep of the radar. Eventually it moves off at tremendous speed. (Steven M. Greer, Disclosure: Military and Government Witnesses Reveal the Greatest Secrets in Modern History, Crossing Point, 2001, pp. 238 – 245; Stephen Erdmann, “Dr. Greer’s Greatest UFO Query,” UFO Digest, June 1, 2018; Good Need, pp. 337 – 338 ; “Condition Zebra: UFOs Overhead, Merle Shane McDow,” Abundance of Energy YouTube channel, October 7, 2013) May 4 — 2 :00 p.m. As he is pulling up to his home in Danville, Pennsylvania, on a motorcycle, William F. Hummer notices “cobwebs” hanging over houses, telephone wires, and parked cars. Wispy material is falling from the sky. He sees something moving around in the sky and goes in to get binoculars. He and another man watch several flying discs as they dart overhead in groups of twos and threes. One pauses and he can see it is round and metallic with a dome and “kind of peak on it.” His sister joins them and says they can see big masses of material floating around for 30 minutes. (Clark III 126) May 5 — 6:00 p.m. Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Kovalyonok is orbiting in the Salyut 6 space station over South Africa and moving toward the Indian Ocean. After doing some gymnastic exercises, he notices through a porthole an elliptical object resembling a “melon” with two clouds like a “barbell,” moving in the same direction as the Salyut in a suborbital path. Then a “kind of explosion happened, very beautiful to watch, of golden light.” One or two seconds later, a second explosion follows, and two golden spheres appear. Soon the Salyut enters the Earth’s terminator and he cannot see them any longer. James Oberg speculates that the object could have been a South

African test of an Israeli Jericho-class solid-fuel missile from the Denel Overberg Test Range near Arniston, Western Cape. (Pegasus Research Consortium, “Russian Cosmonaut Sees UFO While in Orbit Aboard Salyut- 6 Space Station,” 2002; Mori, “The Amazing Story of the Salyut-6 UFO Encounter,” forgetomori, April 16, 2011; James Oberg, “Have Cosmonauts Seen Launches?” December 18, 2016) May 5 — 9:30 p.m. The Earl Richards family in Tewksbury, New Jersey, notices lights moving outside after their television goes off and the electric lights dim. Earl Jr. sees dozens of green, blue, and red lights buzzing in the southern sky, apparently accompanying an enormous flying object covered with hundreds of lights. It is elongated and he can see an outline of wings. (“UFO Reported in Tewksbury,” Hunterdon County (N.J.) Democrat, May 14, 1981, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 143 (June 1981): 6) May 14 — Cosmonauts Victor Savinykh and Vladimir Kovalyonok, aboard the Salyut 6 space station, supposedly observe a strange spherical object with 8 windows and well-lit inside. At first it is 1/2 mile away but it eventually approaches to 300 feet. Inside, the cosmonauts see three brown-skinned beings with slanted bright blue eyes, straight noses, and bushy eyebrows. At a distance of 100 feet, they resemble mechanical robots. Their facial expressions remain emotionless. They seem to be requesting closer contact with the Soviet craft. The object shifts around erratically and from time to time it vanishes, but then reappears in an instant. It seems to be metallic, but it has no doors, no solar batteries, no optical systems, no antennae, and no marks or writing of any kind. The cosmonauts also notice normal-looking armchairs, some devices, and walls inside the craft. Using a pair of powerful binoculars, the cosmonauts see the beings showing them what appears to be a star map. Allegedly the cosmonauts film the event and the film is later shown to party leaders by cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy. (Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal Encounters behind the Iron Curtain, Quadrillion, 1998, pp. 67–68) May 16 — 2:30 p.m. A man is fishing in the Thompson River near Kamloops, British Columbia, when the water about 300 – 450 feet away starts bubbling up. A 15– 20 - foot UFO rises out of the water and slowly approaches the witness at a 45° angle, passes directly above him, accelerates upward, and speeds away. Pellets from the UFO, apparently from the object, fall around him. (“A Submarine UFO,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 5 (July/Aug. 1981): 13–14) May 20 — 1:30 a.m. A witness is driving south on Shawnee Road southwest of Lima, Ohio, when he notices lights on his left less than a mile ahead. He sees an object hovering silently about 150–200 feet away and 75–100 feet in the air. He watches it from his car for 3 minutes. It has a glowing lavender-colored area around its outer edge and a dim white light radiating from the center of its flat base. The object moves to the northeast and accelerates. He loses interest and drives away, but another object begins moving parallel to his car about 300 feet to his left. He speeds up, but it maintains its pacing until it veers to the southwest. (“Recent Close Encounter with UFO in Ohio,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 7 (July 1981): 6) May 22 — Evening. Several hundred people in Florida, Uruguay, watch a drum-like UFO with red lights on the rear and green and red lights on each side. Its appearance coincides with an electrical blackout due to a power overload in the area. (“A New Radio Link,” CUFOS Bulletin, Spring 1981, pp. 2–3)

Summer — William Moore gives Paul Bennewitz an altered version of the Project Aquarius document from 1977. Moore had seen the original in November 1980 and has had his own copy since February 1981. He gives Bennewitz this document on behalf of Air Force Intelligence, knowing it has been altered, in order to retain his access to inside information. The document is the first time that the term MJ-1 makes its appearance. According to Moore, the original said that the NSA had altered Bennewitz’s photos and incidentally found them to be authentic. In the altered memo, NSA becomes NASA. (Greg Bishop, Project Beta, Paraview, 2005, pp. 120– 123 ) Summer — Chinese UFO researcher Paul Dong (Moon Wai), a resident of California, becomes the editor of the China UFO Research Organization’s Journal of UFO Research and goes on a month-long lecture tour all over China. He collects hundreds of UFO cases from the period 1978–1981. In the next few years, hundreds of other cases (some dating back to 1940) are published in the journal. Many of them are published in UFOs over Modern China, by Wendelle C. Stevens and Paul Dong, 1983. (Paul Dong, “Letters,” IUR 7, no. 2 (March 1982): 3; Good Above, pp. 206– 207 ) June 5 — 10:00 p.m. Ding Shiliang and other students at Xi’an University, Shanxi, China, see a luminous flying object that splits into two parts, then three, then four. Shortly afterward, two of the units on either side vanish, leaving the other two segments still in position. Another UFO appears and the objects merge into one, splitting into two again later. It vanishes 20 minutes later. (Paul Dong and Wendelle Stevens, UFOs over Modern China, UFO Photo Archives, 1983, pp. 219–220) June 10 — 12:15 a.m. An Indian couple on the Yakama Indian Reservation in Washington State are driving west when the immediate area around their vehicle is illuminated. Overhead they see a large “badge-shaped” object about 35

feet in the air. Its periphery is marked by small, multicolored flashing lights. There are three large pale-yellow lights, one on each side and one centered between these. The object follows them for about one mile and then ascends vertically at a rapid speed and disappears into a cloud-like mist of its own making. (“Yakima Reservation Report,” IUR 8, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1983): 11) June 10 — 5:19 p.m. A worker at Sandia Laboratories is in the back yard of his home on the east side of Albuquerque, New Mexico, when he sees an object flying west at a high altitude, 20,000–30,000 feet. It begins to tumble erratically. A second object with a bright light appears slightly above it, moving 2–3 times faster than a commercial airliner. The witness can hear no sound. The duration is 5 minutes. (“What the Bombardier Saw,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 6 (Jan./Feb. 1982): 12) June 12 — Farmer Chen Kang and his wife watch an object with twinkling lights in southern Taiwan. After hearing a strange sound, they look up and see a crystal object shaped like a reversed cone gliding downward. It lands behind a tree and continues whirling like a top and emitting fog. It flies off after about 10 minutes without leaving any traces. (South China Morning Post, June 14, 1981; “UFO Lands in Taiwan,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 7 (July 1981): 3) June 18 — The first YF-117A stealth fighter makes its maiden flight at Groom Lake, Nevada. The aircraft remains a tightly held secret for much of the 1980s. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk”)

July 4 — 4:45 p.m. Captain Phil Schultz is flying TWA Flight 842, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar commercial airliner, east at 37,000 feet over south-central Lake Michigan not far from Muskegon, Michigan, when a silvery disc darts into view ahead and above it. Expecting a mid-air collision, they brace themselves for impact. The object then moves rapidly in an arc down to the left and rolls, presenting a side view with six evenly spaced black portholes along the edge. It then disappears to the north. Schultz estimates the disc is moving at 1,000 mph. (Richard F. Haines, “Commercial Jet Crew Sights Unidentified Object: Part 1,” Flying Saucer Review 27, no. 4 (January 1982): 3 – 6; Richard F. Haines, “Commercial Jet Crew Sights Unidentified Object: Part 2,” Flying Saucer Review 27, no. 5 (March 1982): 2–8; UFOEv II 141–142; Kean, pp. 59– 61 ) July 11 — 10:30 p.m. A camp director at Girl Scout camp headquarters near Port Byron, Illinois, suddenly hears his dog barking in a warning manner. Through the trees that screen the camp swimming pool, he sees bright lights. He moves to an unobstructed view of the pool and notices the pool lights are not on. Instead, directly above the pool, and higher than the regular lights, is a brilliant light. Suddenly the lights go out. He hears a whirring noise that rises in pitch as it apparently rises into the sky. When he turns on the lights, he notices the pump is not running and the water level is down three feet, meaning some 30,000 gallons of water are gone. (“Encounter at the Pool,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 6 (Jan./Feb. 1982): 11–12) July 12 — 12:50 a.m. Mr. and Mrs. Ken Thew are driving east along a back road from Pleasant Point to Temuka, New Zealand, with their three young daughters when they are confronted by a brilliant, bright green, gold, and red object coming from the opposite direction. It stops abruptly about 600–900 feet away, then changes direction and begins silently pacing the car. Mrs. Thew, who is driving, becomes frightened and speeds up to 65 mph in an effort to reach a lighted area of town. The UFO keeps pace and moves closer, allowing the witnesses to see more details, such as two slots like vertically elongated rectangles and a row of square portholes. After a while it shoots away to the east. When they arrive home in Temuka at 1:20 a.m., they are surprised to see the object about 1,000 feet overhead. It remains visible another 40 minutes. (UFOEv II 49–50) July 15 — 10:55 p.m. Four witnesses, three of them fire control lookouts, on the Yakama Indian Reservation in Washington State, see a large, bright-white object make two passes over the reservation. One witness sees a rocketlike flame coming out of the object. On a second pass, the object is moving south when it makes an almost right-angle turn and disappears to the west. (“Yakima Reservation Report,” IUR 8, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1983): 11, 14) July 15 — 2:30 p.m. Robert H. Nelson is flying a kite on the west side of Westfield, Massachusetts, when he notices a white rectangular object motionless in the southeast. After 20 seconds it emits swirls of vapor along its entire length that gradually dissipate. Another similar object appears in the north at the same altitude and also emitting vapor or smoke. (Robert H. Nelson, “Letter,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1983): 3–4) July 16 — Before midnight. Two teenage boys are driving south on Highway 2A past CFB Penhold [now Red Deer Regional Airport]. A cube-shaped object 100 feet long with flashing lights approaches them from the front, stops about 15 feet off the ground, circles their car, and moves out of sight. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 227) July 19 — 8:27 p.m. Malcolm Smith is traveling on a boat up the Mahakam River in Borneo, Indonesia, when he sees an odd star that begins to blink, move in an arc, fade, and go out. It reappears 2 minutes later, moving and blinking more frequently, then it veers away and fades out. (Malcolm Smith, “Enigmatic Objects,” IUR 20, no. 5 (Winter 1995): 30)

July 19 — Around 11:45 p.m. Chrystal Jackson and her son Chris are driving north on State Highway 17 near Sugar Camp, Wisconsin, when they see a large, reddish-orange, elliptical object hovering near some pine trees less than 500 feet away on their right. One minute later, their car’s speed unaccountably reduces from 55 to 30 mph. The car seems to be dragging, even with the accelerator pressed to the floor. The object keeps the same distance from the car for 10–15 minutes and another 10 miles when they turn west on State Highway 70, although it appears to be stationary. The car regains engine power after another 2 miles. A mechanic later finds that the two fuses controlling the brake lights and tail lights have blown, and the battery is leaking. A few days later, they discover that the thermostat in the engine is broken. (Mark Rodeghier, “Two People, a Car, and a Strange Object,” CUFOS Bulletin, Summer 1981, pp. 9–10, 2) July 22 — 3:10 a.m. Al Wagner, toll booth operator at the Mississippi River bridge in Muscatine, Iowa, goes out to feed some wild rabbits that hang around the bridge, when he notices six of them lying flat as though paralyzed with fear. Wagner sees an orange, nearly spherical object rising from behind the trees on the Illinois side of the river. It is about 30 feet in diameter and is glowing with an internal yellow light, which goes out as the object approaches. The object clears the highest part of the bridge by about 10 feet, making a wheezing sound. At its closest, it is 150 feet above the ground and 750 feet away from Wagner. It disappears above a small hill to the west. (“The Case of the Paralyzed Rabbits,” IUR/Frontiers of Science 3, no. 6 (Jan./Feb. 1982): 13) July 23 — 8:45 p.m. Louise Betulius is fishing in a lake near Evansville, Indiana, when she sees the reflection of a large object in the water. It is a large sphere about 10–12 feet in diameter and moving silently west to east. Shortly afterward, it returns over some trees to the east, moving slowly toward the lake. It comes down about 3 feet off the ground and hovers 4–5 feet from the edge of the water, then moves slowly back to the east. (“Correspondence,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 5 (Oct./Nov. 1982): 2–3) July 23 — 10:30 p.m. James L. McCabe is sitting outside his home on Highland Avenue in Dover, New Jersey, looking for satellites with binoculars. Suddenly, two flashing white lights appear above the southern horizon. Their flashes become more frequent when their speed increases. One speeds away, but the other approaches, slipping in and out of the clouds for 20 seconds. He estimates it is at 1,500 feet when overhead, has a flat bottom, a strange raised center section, and a flat metallic color. Its top has a rippled appearance. The upper section has two windows. (“Cast Metallic Object Reported over Dover, New Jersey,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 2 (April/May 1983): 4 – 5 ) July 30 — Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.Mex.) meets briefly with Sgt. Richard Doty at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New Mexico, about AFOSI investigations into Paul Bennewitz’s claims. He then dashes off to talk to Bennewitz. However, he soon loses interest and drops the matter. (Clark III 359 ; Alejandro T. Rojas, [Bennewitz/Kirtland AFB documents]) July 30 — 8:30 p.m. Jennifer Lindsey and her three children are driving near Berwick, Mississippi, when they notice an object with bright lights moving back and forth across the sky. As they arrive home, the object is moving at a low altitude above the house. It is bigger than an airplane, shaped like an arrowhead, and appears to be metallic. Behind it is a red light traveling in tandem. It passes over the house again 30 minutes later, moving west, without the trailing red light. (Doris and Joe Graziano, “Press Reports,” APRO Bulletin 30, no 1 (February 1982): 8) July 31 — An interview with Russian UFO expert Felix Ziegel appears in the Italian weekly magazine Gente, followed by a second part in the August 7 issue. Ziegel claims he has 50,000 UFO reports on file in the Moscow Aviation Institute and has compiled eight volumes of research material that are still unpublished. He believes there are three basic types of UFO occupants: spacemen (tall beings), humanoids (human-like), and aliens (short and like the “greys”). He says that UFOs carry crews of androids that possess the ability to appear and disappear at will and “seem to be deliberately constructed in order to confound all our notions of space, matter, time, and dimension.” (Good Above, pp. 240 – 241 ) July 31 — 8:50 p.m. Two men in a motorboat on lake Mönninselkä near Pielisjärvi, Finland, see a dark spot in the sky. Four lights suddenly appear above them, and a fog forms in front of the boat. They lose the ability to move and soon lose consciousness. When they wake up, they are differently placed in the boat, the time is 4:10 a.m., and the boat is drifting. They go back ashore to their cottage, their heads begin to ache, and they feel very sleepy. Their hands tremble for nearly 2 weeks afterward, and their sense of balance is disturbed. (“The Pielinen Event,” UFO Research of Finland Annual Report, 1981, p. 10) July 31 — 9: 15 p.m. A husband and wife are driving along a bumpy road near Kinston, North Carolina, when their headlights and dash lights go out and the engine stops. They open the doors and get out to push the car to the side of the road (noticing later that it is odd that they can see the road on a moonless night) and the lights suddenly come on again. They start the car up again and drive the short way home. Mechanics tell them they don’t know why a car would do that, so they assume there was a UFO involved. (“Cars That Go Stop on the Night,” IUR 7, no. 1 (January 1982): 9–10)

July or August — 11:00 p.m. A man is camping with the Red Cross in a small town to the southeast of San José, Costa Rica. He sees a well-lit, triangular object about 1,200 feet away and perhaps 1,000 feet above the ground. It is completely silent. After hovering, the object turns, moves, makes a sharp angular turn, and then another to draw a triangular path in the sky. Then it moves rapidly high, then low, back to its original location. A second triangle approaches, and they hover in close proximity to each other for 30 minutes. Then they split up and disappear rapidly. (Michael D. Swords, “Timmerman’s Triangles,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 15–16) August — Three mysterious flattened circles appear in a cornfield within a natural amphitheater known as The Devil’s Punchbowl at Cheesefoot Head near Winchester, Wiltshire, England. The central circle is 55 feet in diameter; two smaller circles are arranged on either side. Ufologist Pat Delgado examines the field and is struck by the sharply defined edges of the circles and the manner in which the cornstalks are flattened in a clockwise swirl. He suspects UFO activity. (Pat Delgado, “Cheesefoot Head Mystery Rings,” Flying Saucer Review 27, no. 5 (March 1982): 13 – 15; Pat Delgado and Colin Andrews, Circular Evidence, Guild, 19 89, pp. 20– 21 ; Pat Delgado, “1981: Cheesefoot Head Triplet,” The Croppie, July 11, 2016) August 8 — 6:15 p.m. A witness is on the beach with some friends at Chalupy on the Hel peninsula, north of Gdynia, Poland. He leaves them briefly to go back to a camping area and sees, 500 feet in front of him, “two boys in dark suits” dashing into the bushes on his right. A moment later they reappear, standing on the path in front of him. They are 5 feet tall, wear green suits, and have green faces with big, almond-shaped eyes and slits for mouths. He can see dark boxes, violet and yellow cables, and tapes and spirals hanging from belts on the entities. He notices a silvery object and receives a telepathic message to “not be afraid.” He walks closer to them and hears another message: “Keep walking. Don’t stop.” The witness has the curious sensation of “passing through the interior of a ball.” He walks past them, looks back, and they have disappeared. On his right, the silvery disc, 6 feet high and 16 – 20 feet long, is hovering only 3 feet above the ground. Investigators later find seven odd oval marks where the object had been. (Bronislaw Rzepecki, “Encounters in Poland,” IUR 12, no. 3 (May/June 1987): 18, 21; Bronislaw Rzepecki, “UFO Reports from Poland,” Flying Saucer Review 33, no. 1 (March 1988): 6–7; Poland 48 – 50 ) August 10 — 3:30 a.m. Russell Matson is driving west on 150th Street in Apple Valley, Minnesota, when just west of Pilot Knob Road he sees a hexagonal object nearly overhead, at perhaps a distance of 500 feet. It has two green, two red, and white lights on its corners. It is 60 – 90 feet across. The object pivots, making a 90° turn while stationary, then descends and approaches the witness. It makes a soft whooshing sound as it passes, like gas escaping from a propane tank. (“The Investigator’s Dilemma,” IUR 7, no. 1 (January 1982): 13–14) August 12 — 2:15 a.m. Rupert Pring is several miles outside of Anderson, Indiana, taking time-exposure photographs of the Perseid meteor shower with a camera attached to a tripod. He notices a distant light flashing like a strobe far to the south; it is soon joined by a second strobing light, and both move northeast in a straight line. The lights are as bright as a “halogen automobile headlight at 50 feet.” They stop moving briefly twice near the star Eta Tauri, then make a sharp right turn to the southeast. When Pring first notices the lights, he gets out of his car for a better sight, but freezes abruptly, “like something heavy was pushing down on my head and shoulders.” He experiences nausea for three days afterward and has a temporary, day-long memory loss. Meanwhile, the camera has captured much of the 6-second flight path of the lights in an 8-minute time exposure. Further investigation prompts Pring to reveal that he and his wife had an abduction experience with missing time later that morning. As for the photo, the lights were most likely caused by Pring failing to close the shutter of his camera as he removed it from the tripod and thus picked up two mercury-vapor lights at a farmhouse about a half-mile away. (“A Nocturnal Light Close Encounter,” IUR 7, no. 2 (March 1982): 5– 7 ; Mark Rodeghier, “March-April Cover Photo Mystery Solved,” IUR 7, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1982): 4– 5 ) August 15 — 6:00 p.m. Twenty workers returning from the fields at the Forestry Commission Station of La Rochelle, 5.5 miles northeast of Mutare, Zimbabwe, see a ball of light moving around at a low level. Clifford Muchena is in charge of the group, and he watches the 5-foot fireball maneuver around the grounds then move up to an observation tower, entering through the top window before it bursts into flame. As Muchena is ringing a warning bell, he sees the fireball come back down the tower, go past him, and burst into flame again at an outbuilding. Muchena goes to douse the fire but stops when he sees three men wearing silver coveralls. The light is too bright to see clearly, and after it goes out the beings are gone. Women in the compound have seen the fireball and the entities and run out into the bush, thinking they are ghosts. (Cynthia Hind, “Entities at New Rochelle,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 183 (May 1983): 6 – 10; Cynthia Hind, “UFOs and the African Tribal System,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 94– 96 ) August 16 — A huge object approaches the island of Cyprus. Radar at a Sovereign British Base, either Akrotiri or Dhekelia, track it at 30,000 feet going 900 mph. It comes to a sudden stop and hovers above the base for 45

minutes. Witnesses take many photos of a bright white triangle more than 700 feet long. Allegedly, the Ministry
of Defence had sent an encrypted message to the base prior to the sighting, ordering a “complete stand-down of
aircraft in the event that any strange ‘aerial phenomena’” are sighted. On August 17, a man and woman arrive at
the base, stay for 6 hours, then leave with all the photos and other evidence. Shortly afterward, according to an
informant, US and UK Air Force personnel meet at RAF Lakenheath in England to discuss the case. (Nick
Redfern, A Covert Agenda: UFO Secrecy Exposed, Simon & Schuster, 1997, pp. 157–158)

September — The Association d’Étude sur les Soucoupes Volantes renames its AESV Bulletin as OVNI Présence and moves its publishing operation to its Swiss office in Vevay, Switzerland. Yves Bosson takes over as chief editor. The magazine continues until February 1995. (OVNI Présence, no. 18 (September 1981)) September 10 — 11:15 p.m. Denise Bishop, 23, is returning to her home in Weston Mill, Plymouth, England, when she sees some lights behind the house. As she goes to the back of the bungalow, she sees an enormous metallic-gray UFO hovering above houses on top of a hill. Six or seven broad shafts of light are shining down on the rooftops beneath it. As she grabs the doorknob to go inside, a lime-green pencil of light comes from the object and hits the back of her hand and she cannot move. The light remains for 30 seconds; when it switches off, she opens the door and goes inside. The UFO then lifts into the sky and moves away. An hour of so later, she notices a burn mark on her hand. The next day she visits Bob Boyd, an investigator with the Plymouth UFO Research Group, who takes photos of her hand, which has a patch of shiny dermis with spots of blood and bruising. On September 12, Boyd visits her with a nurse, who persuades her to see a doctor. Scab tissue forms on September 15, followed by a scar that is still visible in July 1982. (Good Above, pp. 98 – 101 ) September 18 — 8:45 p.m. Six members of a family in Simi Valley, California, watch a light approach and see a triangular object with five bright white lights on the front and sides. The unlit center portion appears to be like brushed aluminum with a grid pattern. As it passes overhead, they hear a low-pitched hum. A blinking, red-orange light is at the rear. Two or three smaller lights are following in its path. (UFOEv II 229) September 18 — 9:15 p.m. John Sharwath and Randy Bandurant are driving north on the Moorpark Freeway north of Thousand Oaks, California, when they notice three bright lights like floodlights on the horizon to the north. As they approach the end of the freeway in Moorpark, the light resolves into five separate lights, three in a row above and two below. When they pass nearly under the lights, they notice two triangular bodies that the lights are associated with. At 9:25 p.m., Cherie Thompson and Joyce Bandurant are driving on the Moorpark Freeway some distance behind the other car, and they see two triangular lighted objects. The lowest passes over their car at 50– 100 feet altitude near the Olsen Road interchange. They stop along the freeway to watch, but the objects are disappearing behind the hills. (MUFON UFO Journal, January 1982; UFOEv II, 229– 231 ) September 25– 27 — The Center for UFO Studies holds a second conference in Chicago, with talks by J. Allen Hynek, Budd Hopkins, Bruce Maccabee, and Mark Rodeghier. Presented papers are printed in The Spectrum of UFO Research. (“CUFOS Symposium in Chicago Well-Attended,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 11 (November 1981): 1, 6; Mimi Hynek, ed., The Spectrum of UFO Research, CUFOS, 1988; Ron Westrum, [review], JUFOS 1 (1989): 172–174) September 26 — Mountaineers Reinhold Messner and Doug Scott watch a UFO the size of the full moon for nearly 3 hours during an unsuccessful attempt on the main peak of Mount Chamlang in the Himalayas near Makalu in Nepal. The object at first is moving slowly southward, then shifts to the east, northwest, and finally north, making irregular movements before it disappears somewhere over Tibet. (“Top Climber: I Spotted UFO,” Montreal (Quebec) Gazette, October 10, 1981, p. 26; “From the Heart of Asia: Two UFOs, a Half Century Apart,” IUR 7, no. 1 (January 1982): 10) September 28 — Hungarian-American filmmaker and UFO hobbyist Colman VonKeviczky, founder of the Intercontinental UFO Galactic Spacecraft Research and Analytic Network, writes a five-page letter to President Ronald Reagan, claiming that UFOs are an extraterrestrial task force that will destroy earth unless world leaders collaborate. It is the third time he has written, and it includes 17 documents that illustrate the “potential threat of the UFO forces.” In response to VonKeviczky’s letter to Reagan, Maj. Gen. Robert L. Schweitzer, White House chief military advisor, writes: “The President is well aware of the threat you document so clearly and is doing all in his power to restore the national defense margin of safety as quickly and prudently as possible.” VonKeviczky shows the letter to the Associated Press, which contacts Schweitzer, who says the letter is a mistake and thought the threat refers to the Soviets. Schweitzer is fired on October 21 for making unauthorized belligerent statements about Russia. (presidentialufo.com, “Ronald Reagan, 40th President, January 20, 1981–January 20, 1989”; “A Top General Talks of War, Is Reassigned,” Boston Globe, October 21, 1981, pp. 1, 8)

October — NORAD refuses to waive fees for FOIA requests from Citizens Against UFO Secrecy because of “cumulative and recurring” requests. (ClearIntent, p. 10 ) October — USAF Airman Simone Mendez, 21, trained as a telecommunications specialist, is working at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, Nevada, with a top-secret clearance. One of her coworkers gives her a top-secret message with a copy of a classified document stating that NORAD has been tracking UFOs entering the Earth’s atmosphere. She holds on to it until January 1982 when she attempts to return the document to Nellis. She is told that the document must be destroyed. One thing leads to another, and Mendez finds herself under interrogation by the FBI and AFOSI. This includes polygraph tests, which she fails because she finds them very distressing. This leads to an emotional breakdown, hospitalization, and medication. There are more interrogations over the next few months, and another hospitalization. Eventually, the Air Force clears her of criminal charges, but her security clearance is stripped, and she is transferred to another base. (“The Simone Mendez Case,” Alien Expanse, September 18, 2018; Paul Carr, “Conversation 18: Simone Mendez,” Aerial Phenomena Investigations, September 23, 2018) October 2 — Afternoon. Three days after a nighttime UFO sighting, Grant Breiland goes down to the business district in Victoria, British Columbia, to meet a friend. When the friend does not show, Breiland calls him up from a pay phone. Immediately afterward, he sees two men watching him. Dressed in dark suits, they have suntanned, expressionless faces and unblinking eyes. When they speak, their lips do not move. The first one asks his name, then the second asks for his address and phone number. He does not respond, and after 5 seconds, the men leave through the main door and walk in perfect synchronization to a nearby roadway. Breiland follows them and sees them enter a muddy plowed field some 80–90 feet across. Three-quarters of the way across, the men vanish, leaving no footprints behind. During the entire time the men are visible, no other human beings are in view and no cars pass by. (P. M. H. Edwards, “M.I.B. Activity Reported from Victoria B.C.,” Flying Saucer Review 27, no. 4 (January 1982): 7–12; Clark III 733) October 8 — 11:00 a.m. Hannah McRoberts is taking photos with her family at a rest area some 30 miles north of Kelsey Bay, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. She snaps a color photo of one of the mountains to the west that has an interesting cumulus cloud above it. When the photo is developed, it shows a silvery disc to the right of and above the peak. UFO researcher Richard F. Haines examines the original and determines that the image shows an unknown three-dimensional object positioned at least 30 feet away from the camera. (NICAP, “Daylight Disc Photo”; Richard F. Haines, “Analysis of a UFO Photograph,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 1, no. 2 (1987): 129 – 147 ) October 15 — 7:30 p.m. Many citizens of Hällefors, Sweden, observe a huge cigar-shaped object “as large as a truck” that appears suddenly in the north gliding along just above the treetops. Four oblong windows are apparent, through which a blue-white light shines, and a red light is in the rear. A clear and piercing engine noise is evident as it slowly moves south for more than an hour. Former Chief Constable Björn Fagrell describes it as like two connected railway cars. The object makes a slow clockwise turn around the village, after which a flame comes out of the rear of the object. (“‘Flying Truck’ Seen over Hällefors for 75 Minutes!” Nordic UFO Newsletter, 1982, no. 1, pp. 6–8; Stig Aggestad, “The Hällesfors Incident Continues to Grow: Giant UFO Still Unidentified,” Nordic UFO Newsletter, 1983, no. 1, pp. 2–3; Christer Nordin, “The UFO over Hällefors: A Smuggled-In Airship, Says ‘Magasinet,’ a Channel 2 TV Program,” Nordic UFO Newsletter, 1983, no. 1, pp. 3–5) October 19 — Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) responds to constituent Lee M. Graham asking about rumors of alien technology and bodies at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. He writes: “I have long ago given up acquiring access to the so-called blue room at Wright-Patterson… this thing has gotten so highly classified, even though I will admit there is a lot of it that has been released, it is just impossible to get anything on it.” (“The Color Blue and UFO’s,” Above Top Secret forum, March 30, 2011; Nick Redfern, “UFOs and Senator Barry Goldwater,” Mysterious Universe, May 1, 2014) October 28 — An appeal of the CAUS v. NSA case is heard by a three-judge panel (J. Skelly Wright, Roger Robb, and Norma Holloway Johnson) of the US Court of Appeals, District of Columbia. In a brief decision issued barely a week after oral arguments, the judges uphold the lower court’s decision without comment. (“Suit Seeks to Lift Secrecy Veil from Agency’s Documents,” Washington Post, December 3, 1981; William A. Moore, “CAUS vs. NSA Lawsuit Goes to US Supreme Court,” APRO Bulletin 30, no. 1 (February 1982): 2–3)

November — Residents of the Hessdalen valley, Norway, begin reporting frequent sightings of unusual lights that hover (sometimes for as long as an hour) and sometimes streak off at speeds that render them all but invisible. On many occasions the lights are below the horizon, either just beneath the tops of nearby mountains or not far from the ground or the rooftops of nearby houses. The lights come in various shapes, but three predominate: a bullet or cigar, a sphere, and an “upside-down Christmas tree.” They are usually yellow or white. Sometimes a small red light appears in front of the others, the various lights maintaining a fixed position, leading observers to suspect

they are all attached to a single, dark object. More often than not, they are seen at night moving from north to south; but daylight sightings also occur, usually during the winter. Anomalous sounds are sometimes reported. Especially frequent activity occurs between December 1981 and mid-1984, when the lights are seen 15–20 times per week, attracting many tourists. (Wikipedia, “Hessdalen lights”; “Project Hessdalen: The Colored Lights of Norway,” IUR 8, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1983): 6–8; “Project Hessdalen,” IUR 10, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1985): 14; J. Allen Hynek, “Tracking the Hessdalen Lights,” IUR 10, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1985): 10– 11 ; Clark III 571) November 3 — The US District Court for the District of Columbia issues a per curiam judgment that denies an appeal of the CAUS case against the NSA. (“Federal Court Upholds Decision Against CAUS,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 2, no. 12 (December 1981): 6; ClearIntent, p. 188 ) November 12 — 6:00 p.m. Air traffic controllers at the Greek-American NATO base in Chortiatis, Greece, pick up unidentified targets on their radar screens. Six pursuit aircraft are scrambled, but the UFOs disappear as soon as the planes approach. At 6:45 p.m., luminous objects appear over Edessa, Greece, and maneuver for 30 minutes. Other objects are spotted at Kalochori, Michaniona, Giannitsa, Larissa, Ptolemaida, and Lagyna. (“The Hide-and- Seek of the UFOs and the Six Jets That Went after Them,” IUR 7, no. 1 (January 1982): 11–12) November 24 — 9:30 p.m. Power company employee Dale Spurlock sees a red pulsating domed disc at treetop level while driving just north of Darco, Texas, on the Darco Cutoff Road near a small lake and some power lines. It has four colored lights—a row of red, blue, green, and amber lights—at the base of the dome. It makes no sound as it passes left to right just above the tress, and then hovers. The object tilts and two headlights from the front of the UFO shine directly down on Spurlock’s pickup truck. The object is revolving counterclockwise and moves off to the east. The truck’s electrical system (alternator and battery) is damaged. (“Nocturnal Rural Encounters,” IUR 7, no. 3 (May/June 1982): 5– 8 ; “1977 Sketch/Sighting and 1981 Sketch Similarity: Another One,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 5 (Oct./Nov. 1983): 1)

December — A triangular object appears between Royton and Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. The UFO has a light on each corner; one of the lights detaches and flies off. (Marler 137) December 4 — President Ronald Reagan issues Executive Order 12333 extending the powers of US intelligence agencies. It is regarded by the American intelligence community as a fundamental document authorizing the expansion of data collection activities and later is employed by the National Security Agency as legal authorization for its collection of unencrypted information flowing through the data centers of internet communications giants Google and Yahoo! It repeats a prohibition against state assassinations. (Wikipedia, “Executive Order 12333”) December 8 — 7:30 p.m. Alma Hobbs is driving with her two children on State Highway 12 three miles southwest of Reserve, New Mexico. An enormous UFO shaped like an orange ball, estimated to be 750 feet in length, makes a number of turns in the sky. They arrive at a restaurant near the intersection of State 12 and US Highway 180, where Dan Luscomb and Rosie Tafoya also see the object, which executes a 90° turn near Luna Mountain as a jet aircraft chases the UFO out of sight. (“Hunting Old and New UFOs in New Mexico,” IUR 7, no. 2 (March 1982): 13 – 14; “Update on the Reserve, N.M. ‘Tube-Like’ UFO,” IUR 7, no. 3 (May/June 1982): 15) December 15 — After sunset. Ali Ozel sees an extremely bright light hovering at a distance of 650–980 feet above his car in Aksaray, central Anatolia, Turkey. It performs some maneuvers and disappears to the southwest. (“‘Mysteries of Turkey’: UFO Activity Revealed,” IUR 8, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1983): 9) December 20 — 7:00 p.m. Journalists Nils Kåre Nesvold and Per Holden see a shiny, spherical object at Vongraven, Norway, the apparent size of a large star. It is steady and intense with no halo. It is flying nearly 3 miles distant and about 3,300–6,500 feet above a mountain. Its speed is irregular, and it changes both course and altitude. Suddenly it disappears as though it is switched off. (Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 89–90) December 2 1 — Captain O. Celen and other people in Aksaray, Turkey, see a huge, glittering, silent, egg-shaped object shedding a greenish light over the building site of the Aksaray Engine Factory. It is hovering at 800–1,000 feet and shoots away to the southwest. (“‘Mysteries of Turkey’: UFO Activity Revealed,” IUR 8, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1983): 9) December 28 — 10:30 a.m. G. W. Schoen and two others are talking outside a stable on a farm south of Westminster, Maryland, when they see a grayish-black object flying east to west against the wind and below the clouds at 1,000 feet. It is shaped like a lightbulb, with visible ribs and dark black lines. It climbs slowly and gradually disappears from sight. (“Correspondence,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1982): 4) December 29– 30 — William Moore meets twice with AFOSI officer Richard Doty in a restaurant in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Doty provides Moore with copies of three documents, one of which is a “fake” to test Moore. Another is the one-page Aquarius teletype. (Brad Sparks and Barry Greenwood, “The Secret Pratt Tapes and the Origins of MJ-12,” in MUFON 2007 International UFO Symposium Proceedings, MUFON, 2007, pp. 92–159)

1982

1982 — Richard Mingus is coordinating security operations for Livermore in the Area 6 section of the Nevada Test Site when, just as an unsecured, live nuclear weapon is being lowered into an 800-foot-deep shaft prior to testing, an alert goes off that the facility is under attack. It turns out that Wackenhut Security has decided to conduct a mock helicopter attack on an access point to Area 51 to test the system for weaknesses but neglects to inform the Department of Energy beforehand. (Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 333 – 338 ) 1982 — The National Security Agency, through the Department of Justice, covertly misappropriates a Prosecutors Management Information System (PROMIS) developed by private firm Inslaw to aid prosecutors in tracking cases. Inslaw claims that the feds withheld payments on the software, then pirated it, making modifications to allow it to monitor intelligence operations, then giving or selling it to Israel and 80 other countries through Earl W. Brian, a man with close personal and business ties to President Ronald Reagan and then-presidential counsel Edwin Meese. The NSA uses it to covertly conduct real-time electronic surveillance of the flow of money to suspected terrorists and other perceived threats to US national interests. Fabrizio Calvi and Thierry Pfister in 1997 claim that NSA has been “seeding computers abroad with PROMIS-embedded SMART (Systems Management Automated Reasoning Tools) chips, code-named Petrie, a Trojan horse capable of covertly downloading data and transmitting it, using electrical wiring as an antenna, to US intelligence satellites” as part of an espionage operation. (Wikipedia, “PROMIS (software)”; Ryan Gallagher, “Dirtier Than Watergate,” New Statesman, April 20, 2011) 1982 — Audits and Surveys, in a report sponsored by Merit Report, finds that 49% of Americans definitely or probably think extraterrestrial UFOs have been here. (Robert J. Durant, “Evolution of Public Opinion on UFOs,” IUR 18, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1993): 13) 1982 — Brazilian ufologist Irene Granchi founds the Centro de Investigação sobre a Natureza dos Extraterrestres in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The group is eventually taken over by her daughter Chica Granchi. (Claudio Tsuyoshi Suenaga, “Entrevista: Irene Granchi, a Grande Pioneira da Pesquisa Ufológica no Brasil,” Portal UFO, May 4, 2018) 1982 — The Royal Australian Air Force grants permission to UFO researcher Bill Chalker to examine its UFO files. Chalker visits the archives in Canberra, A.C.T., and reviews more than 1,000 reports in 53 RAAF files through 1984, allowing him to compile a detailed summary covering the years 1950 to 1980. He concludes that the existence of some interesting cases in the files is not suggestive of an RAAF coverup. (Keith Basterfield, Vladimir Godic, and Pony Godic, “Australian Ufology: A Review,” JUFOS 2 (1990): 33)

January 2 — Writer Bob Pratt flies out to Arizona to meet William Moore, who has called him to propose a non-fiction book project about UFOs. Moore tells him about MJ-12, Project Aquarius, and other alleged revelations. Pratt secretly tapes his conversations with Moore, which reveal his contacts with Richard Doty and other agents of disinformation. (Brad Sparks and Barry Greenwood, “The Secret Pratt Tapes and the Origins of MJ-12,” in MUFON 2007 International UFO Symposium Proceedings, MUFON, 2007, pp. 92–159) January 3 — Two Brazilian Air Force F-5 fighters flying at about 5,000 feet over Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, see a dark metallic-looking object about 66 feet long, 55 feet high, and 3,000 feet away. The control tower cannot see anything in the vicinity. The F-5s get closer, but the object ascends and stays above them. They stay in this position for 30 seconds and then the UFO accelerates and disappears. (Clark III 205; Brazil 552) January 5 — The Society for Scientific Exploration is founded by Peter A. Sturrock at a meeting held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., in order to study phenomena “generally regarded by the scientific community as being outside their established fields of inquiry.” (“Professors Join in UFO Study Forum,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1982): 1, 3; Clark III 1082– 1083 ) January 9 — 8:20 p.m. Carl (Eddie) Cox III steps outside his rural home near Washington, North Carolina, to photograph the rising full moon with a new 35mm camera using high-speed color film. He sees and takes 8 photographs of a strange, tubular object moving from the northeast. The photos show a double tube with varying configurations of white and red-orange lights. The final photo shows the tops of nearby trees and distant condensation trails. Analysis suggests that the sighting is due to a distant aircraft passing through a condensation trail. (“Tubular UFO Photographed, January 9, 1982,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 3 (June/July 1982): 1, 4; “January UFO Photos Become Identified FOs,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 6 (Dec. 1982/Jan. 1983): 5– 6 ) January 15 — 7:05–11:35 p.m. Three sightings occur one after the other in Turkey. An object resembling a tray is seen at 7:05 p.m. over Niğde in central Anatolia. At 9:35 p.m., two UFOs are reported at Havsa, Edirne, accompanied by reported malfunctioning TV sets in the town. Around 11:30 p.m., a reported UFO causes the citizens of İzmir, western Anatolia, to panic. When the UFO hovers above the Buca forest it takes on a flaming appearance, causing

fire brigades to rush to the scene, keeping watch over the object for 45 minutes until it vanishes. (“‘Mysteries of
Turkey’: UFO Activity Revealed,” IUR 8, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1983): 8–9)

February — William Moore receives a plain envelope from one of the intermediaries of “Falcon.” Inside are Air Force documents signed by Richard Doty regarding unexplained lights over Kirtland AFB and Manzano in New Mexico from 1980. Moore and Bruce Maccabee examine the documents and conduct a detailed on-site investigation, finding no contradictions. (Greg Bishop, Project Beta, Paraview, 2005, p. 209) February 2 — 8:00 p.m. Susanne Anderson, 18, is jogging in Skövde, Sweden, when she notices two intense blinking lights that seem to be coming toward her. She hears no sound and gets frightened. After speeding up to a full run, she turns around and sees a metal-blue, saucer-shaped object with a blinking red light on the bottom. Terrified, she hides in a school building. (“A Short Tale of a Swedish CE-1,” IUR 7, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1982): 14) February 8 — Capt. Gerson Maciel de Britto, piloting a Boeing 727 for VASP Flight 169, notices an intense light source while flying over Petrolina, Pernambuco, Brazil, on a southern course. It starts accompanying the aircraft in a parallel course, keeping the same distance. But the object soon begins changing its speed, moving ahead of the plane and then allowing it to catch up. As it approaches Belo Horizonte, the object approaches the plane, allowing crew and 150 passengers to view its lenticular form. At this point, the light emanating from the UFO penetrates the interior of the cabin and illuminates it with a bluish tint. The UFO is still in clear view as the aircraft begins landing at Galeão Airport in Rio de Janeiro. Some witnesses on the Rio-Niterói Bridge also see the object. (“The Climactic UFO Case of the Winter 1982 Brazilian ‘Flap,’” IUR 7, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1982): 11–13; Luiz Augusto da Silva, “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena: The VASP-169 Flight Brazilian Episode Revisited,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 27, no. 4 (2013): 637– 654 ; Patrick Gross, “UFO-Aircraft Encounters”; Clark III 198–200; Brazil 537– 541 ) February 10 — 11:35 p.m. Tammy Utt and two other 17 - year-old girls are driving in a car on I Road and 18th Road west of Escanaba, Michigan, when they encounter a low-flying domed disc. The mist from the rear of the object looks like “lit up snowflakes.” The rim around the bottom of the UFO has red windows all the way around it, and a red light shines through the windows. The sighting lasts seven minutes. (“Nocturnal Rural Encounters,” IUR 7 , no. 3 (May/June 1982): 8– 11 ; Kenneth C. Schellhase, “A Unique Triad of CE-I Sightings,” IUR 7, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1982): 4) February 12 — 5:45 p.m. Civil engineer Robert A. Sproat is driving south on Gouger Road just south of County Road 7 in Lockport, Illinois, when he sees a light similar to an aircraft landing light over the Lockport locks and dam. It begins a smooth banking turn to the left at about 1,000 feet, and he can make out a structure about 40 feet square. (Robert A. Sproat, “Letter,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 3 (June/July 1983): 2) Mid-February — 9:00 p.m. Aubre Brogden is driving along Vermont Highway 36 near Bakersfield, Vermont, when she sees a lighted triangular object in the sky approaching her. As she pulls into her driveway, it hovers above her backyard about 25 feet away then silently moves directly above her. She estimates it is as large as a football field. The object moves away noiselessly. (“Recurrent Sightings on Vermont Highway,” APRO Bulletin 31, no. 7 (July 1983): 4–5) February 19 — 4:54 p.m. A strange radiance is noticed in the sky above the frozen Lake Onega, from Petrozavodsk in the Republic of Karelia, Russia. The glow is pale blue and is shaped like a cloud, inside of which is an elliptical bright spot. After a few minutes, the bright spot disappears behind the forest, but the luminescent cloud remains in the sky for a time. Around 5:00 p.m., two more spots appear, moving together. One of them resembles the first object but is smaller. The other is a luminous sphere moving in a spiral. As it moves, it leaves a hazy trail that quickly disappears. At 5:15 p.m., a bright arrow-shaped object flies directly above the city a great speed, leaving a trail. None of the objects make any sound. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, p. 152) February 24 — 5:15 a.m. Neillsville, Wisconsin, police officer Chuck Urban is patrolling 12 miles west of town when a bright light approaches him on his left. He stops his squad car, turns off his headlights, grabs a camera, and takes a picture that turns out poorly. He hears no sound from the object. The light follows him as he returns to Neillsville. The light is so bright he can see the road plainly. At one point the light crosses the road ahead of him for a few miles, then recrosses to the other side. He loses sight of it as he enters town. (“Nocturnal Rural Encounters,” IUR 7, no. 3 (May/June 1982): 11; “Neillsville Revisited: The Cop and the Light That Turned Night into Day,” IUR 7, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1982): 14–15)

March 4 — Brinsley Le Poer Trench, the Earl of Clancarty, asks in the House of Lords how many UFO reports the Ministry of Defence has received in the past 4 years, Viscount Long replies that there were 750 sightings in 1978, 550 in 1979, 350 in 1980, and 600 in 1981. Clancarty thinks the totals must be higher, but Long explains that not

all reports reach the MoD. The Earl of Kimberley asks how many of those remain unidentified, and Long replies that he does not have those figures as they “disappeared into the unknown before we got them.” Peter Hill-Norton asks whether all UFO reports received by the MoD before 1962 were destroyed because they were of “no defense interest,” and if so, who decided that. Long says that all reports have been preserved since 1967. (Good Above, pp. 101 – 102 ) March 6 — Night. A cylindrical object passes above the Stadium Morenão in Campo Grande, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, during a soccer game attended by more than 24,000 people. (Brazil 290–293) March 8 — Peter Gersten’s 84 - page petition (filed in early 1982) for the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of CAUS v. NSA is dismissed by the US Supreme Court, which declines to hear the case because releasing the files “could seriously jeopardize the work of the agency and the security of the United States.” (ClearIntent, pp. 188 – 189 ) March 8 — 8:15 p.m. Two highly technically trained people separated by more than a mile observe a silent object near Bethel, Connecticut. (“The Case of the Rumbling Leviathan,” IUR 7 , no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1982): 8–10) March 17– 20 — The Project Hessdalen team manages to take four photos of oblong lights passing in front of Finnsåhøgda and Fjellbekkhøgda mountains near Hessdalen, Norway. (“Project Hessdalen: The Colored Lights of Norway,” IUR 8, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1983): 7–8) March 21 — 8:30 p.m. Karl Stewart is driving eastbound on the Ohio Turnpike in northwest Ohio when he sees what appears to be a jet aircraft to the south at about 500 feet altitude. Its lights are much brighter than normal landing lights, and there are no airports in the vicinity. Pulling over to watch it, he sees it has three arms, small windows, and red and green strings of running lights. It gains altitude before banking north over the highway. (“A New Model UFO?” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 1 (Feb./March 1983): 3) March 23 — 2:00 a.m. Tim Miron, 18, is driving north on I Road northwest of Escanaba, Michigan, when he sees an orange-red light, which gets bigger and begins flashing red beams from its underside after he turns on I.5 Lane. The object keeps moving closer and he sees it directly behind a telephone pole to his left 125 feet from the road, hovering 10 feet above the ground. Miron arrives at his family’s farm, jumps out, and sees the UFO moving directly toward him. He wakes up his mother and the two of them watch the object for the next 30–45 minutes as it maneuvers over a wide area around the farm, finally disappearing behind some trees. (Kenneth C. Schellhase, “A Unique Triad of CE-I Sightings,” IUR 7, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1982): 5–7) March 26 — Leading investigators from UFO-Norge hold a town meeting in Ålen, Norway, near Hessdalen. Of the 130 residents who attend, 17 say they have seen a yellow spherical light, 12 a cigar-shaped object, and 6 an oblong object with one red and two yellow lights. Later in the week, two officers from Værnes Air Station in Trondheim interview some witnesses and conclude that Hessdalen residents have been seeing these lights since 1944 and their accounts are credible. (Clark III 571; Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 89, 90) March 30 — 11:15 p.m. Nanette Morrison is driving home in Charlottesville, Virginia, when she spots a large, brilliant light in the sky hovering several hundred feet in the air and a quarter mile away. It approaches as she makes a turn and flies right over her car, later pacing her as she drives the remaining 15 blocks. She pulls up to the curb, and the UFO stops and hovers above a house across the street less than 400 feet away. The object reverses direction and moves away as she runs up to her house. (J. Allen Hynek, “A Remarkable Double Encounter,” IUR 8, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1983): 4– 5 ; “Double Encounter Questioned,” IUR 9, no. 2 (March/April 1984): 15)

April 1 — 7:15 p.m. Three men are repairing a jeep in Petrolia, Pennsylvania, when one of them notices a bright object with a flashing red light just above the trees. A few minutes later they see it has risen much higher. After they turn on the jeep’s headlights, the bright object moves toward them. When they turn the lights off again, the object backs away. The lights go on again, and the UFO passes over their heads at 250 feet. Its bright lights go out, and its triangular shape becomes clear, as well as its gun-metal color and the luminescent mist surrounding it. A red light is on the front, with white and amber lights on the other angles. Two bright lights shoot away from the triangle, one going north and the other south. When a jet approaches from the east, the object stops and becomes bright. Then it rises straight up until it is out of sight. For several days, the witnesses have severe headaches, and one has diarrhea. Other triangular UFOs are seen in the Pittsburgh area from March 22 to May 19. (Stan Gordon, “Pennsylvania Low-Level UFO Sightings,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 172 (June 1982): 3 ) April 1 — 11:30 p.m. Nanette Morrison looks out her front window and sees a bright, fluorescent object hovering a few hundred feet above the tree line and a short distance away from her home in Charlottesville, Virginia. She tells her mother to come and look. As she does, the object flares up brightly and zips away at an incredible speed. (J. Allen Hynek, “A Remarkable Double Encounter,” IUR 8, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1983): 5 , 15; “Double Encounter Questioned,” IUR 9, no. 2 (March/April 1984): 15)

April 2 — President Reagan issues Executive Order 12356, which eliminates response time limits on FOIA requests. Searches for UFO documents show significantly more delays of 2 years or more, and search fees rise dramatically. (Wikisource, “Executive Order 12356”) April 3 — 3:00 a.m. A woman schoolteacher in Bolingbrook, Illinois, is awakened by a high-pitched sound “like a blender running in a box.” She looks outside and sees a bright blue, domed, disc-shaped object land next to some power lines. It lifts off and then lands a second time. The UFO has blue lights around the rim and is only about 150 feet away. The blue lights illuminate the area as bright as day. A streetlight goes out. The police receive calls of power outages and blue flashes at the same time. (Fred Merritt, “A Blue Domed-Disc for Bolingbrook,” IUR 7, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1982): 6–8) April 7 — The Earl of Cork and Orrery asks in the House of Lords how many of the 2,250 sightings of UFOs reported to the MoD in 1978–1981 are still classified. Viscount Long says none are and there is no reason why anyone could not come and look at the reports in the MoD archives. (Good Above, pp. 102 – 104 ) April 8 — 11:50 p.m. Angie Parrotta and Nancy Hanson, both 18, are driving south on County Road 533 west of Escanaba, Michigan. They notice a bright star to the southwest, which soon becomes two huge yellowish-white “headlights” attached to an object. It descends and moves toward them. They speed up but the object keeps pacing them on their right. They become frightened when they see a blinking red light on the craft. They watch the UFO move swiftly toward Escanaba in the east and quickly lose sight of it. (Kenneth C. Schellhase, “A Unique Triad of CE-I Sightings,” IUR 7, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1982): 7–8) April 22– 23 — Night. A group of Polish Air Force pilots during missions over northwest Poland in the area from Elbląg to Ostróda and Olsztyn encounter a weird light at 47,500 feet that does not appear on their radar. It looks like a cloud with the central part a raised-up cupola and is emanating beams of light from the underside. Around it is some kind of vapor. (Poland 66) April 23 — 5:15 a.m. Officials at the Head Office of Meteorology in Ankara, Turkey, observe two UFOs that are maneuvering over the city for an hour. They are elliptical and disappear in the direction of the Eskisehir Highway around 6:15 a.m. (“‘Mysteries of Turkey’: UFO Activity Revealed,” IUR 8, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1983): 10) April 27 — Citizens Against UFO Secrecy files a request with the National Security Agency for all legal documents used to prepare its case in CAUS v. NSA, especially any portion of the top-secret Yeates affidavit of November 1980. (ClearIntent, p. 189 )

May 18 — NSA Director of Policy Eugene Yeates releases a highly redacted portion of his 21 - page affidavit used in the CAUS v. NSA lawsuit. An unredacted section reveals that the NSA holds 79 UFO documents referred by other agencies as well as 160 documents originating with the NSA, four of which have already been released. (ClearIntent, pp. 189 – 190 ) May 22 — 11:00 p.m. Liberty County Deputy Sheriff John McDonald notices two bright lights above tall pine trees near Cleveland, Texas. He points his spotlight toward them as they sink out of sight, but they reappear and pass over his head at about 1,000 feet. He shines his spotlight again and sees a diamond shape with four rounded corners. The object is large, silent, and grayish in color. Seconds later he hears a high-pitched whine as it quickly departs. (John F. Schuessler, “Policeman Encounters Diamond-Shaped UFO,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 182 (April 1983 ): 3 ) May 24 — 10:15 p.m. An orange-colored light is seen by many tourists moving at a slow speed at an altitude of 4,900– 6,500 feet toward Marmaris, Muğla, Turkey. It hovers for about 5 minutes over the sea, moves to the south, speeds up, and ascends. (“‘Mysteries of Turkey’: UFO Activity Revealed,” IUR 8, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1983): 10)

June — Leonard H. Stringfield issues his third status report, UFO Crash/Retrievals: Amassing the Evidence. (Leonard H. Stringfield, UFO Crash/Retrievals: Amassing the Evidence, Status Report III, The Author, 1982) June 1 — Two UFOs allegedly hover above the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, for 14 seconds, one of them directly above launch pad number 1. On June 2, bolts and rivets are found that supposedly have been sucked out of the support towers, and welded sections have come apart. The other UFO hovers above the adjacent housing complex, knocking out thousands of panes of glass or making fine holes in them. The cosmodrome is said to be put out of action for two weeks. (Gordon Creighton, “Russia: Naughty Henry Gris Says It Again! ‘Soviet Space- Centre Knocked Out by UFOs,” Flying Saucer Review 28, no. 6 (August 1983): 27–28) June 3 — Night. The examining magistrate and bailiff at Demirköy, Kirklareli, Turkey, watch an object with orange lights at an altitude of 160–200 feet. It has two lighted hemispheres with a dark rectangular mid-section. The poplar trees underneath it are shaking violently. (“‘Mysteries of Turkey’: UFO Activity Revealed,” IUR 8, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1983): 10)

June 10 — Three witnesses in Madbury, New Hampshire, see a wedge-shaped object with bright white lights and smaller blue-green-red body lights hovering about 50 feet above the Bellamy Reservoir, its lights reflecting on the surface of the water. As they try to move to a better viewing location, the object moves away, almost instantly. They see it again hovering above a house with an oscillatory motion. A red light beam shines down on the house and then on the car. After a while the object approaches the car from behind and passes above it by about 30 feet. (UFOEv II 41) June 12 — Everyone on board a British aircraft sees a large translucent object 500 feet long flying at 41,000 feet altitude over Dinkelsbühl, Bavaria, Germany. It has the form of a “double rectangle surmounted by a globe (egg-shaped) crowned by a silver one.” (Nick Redfern, A Covert Agenda: UFO Secrecy Exposed, Simon & Schuster, 1997, p. 162) June 18 — 9:1 0 – 10 : 53 p.m. Five Chinese Air Force pilots are flying on patrol over the northern military frontier in Hebei province, China. At 10:06 p.m., a large yellowish-green object appears in the northern sky, whirling fast and creating rings of light. After 10 seconds, the center of the ring explodes “like a hand grenade.” It grows larger than the apparent size of the full moon, and black spots appear near its center. The aircraft lose their communications and navigational systems and are forced to return to their base. (NICAP, “Five Chinese Pilots Encounter Object / EME”; Good Above, pp. 217 – 218 , 471 ; Paul Dong and Wendelle Stevens, UFOs over Modern China, UFO Photo Archives, 1983, pp. 243– 245 ) June 25 — 2:30 a.m. Kathy Freeman watches a bright star that makes two right-angle turns near Libertyville, Illinois. (“Correspondence,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 3, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1982): 5) June 27 — Following a screening of E.T.: The Extraterrestrial at the White House, President Reagan leans over to director Steven Spielberg and comments, “You know, there aren’t six people in this room who know how true this really is.” (presidentialufo.com, “Ronald Reagan, 40th President, January 20, 1981–January 20, 1989”)

July 1 — The Center for UFO Studies discontinues its toll-free 1-800 number distributed to police offices across the country. (“Discontinue 800 #, Report Quality Low,” IUR 7, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1982): 13) July 6 — 7:30 p.m. A man driving alone near Hampshire, Tasmania, finds that his car is gradually losing power and stops. He turns off the ignition and the lights, then gets out of the vehicle when he notices a stationary, noiseless object that looks like a large army helicopter about the size of a bus. It is blue-black in color and seems to be gradually moving to the west for about 90 seconds. He starts the car’s engine and leaves the area. An inspection of the car finds nothing to account for its behavior. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 19)

Early August — A man is in a meadow near a forest on the shore of the Vistula River a few miles northwest of Warsaw, Poland. Suddenly he hears a sound like an electric motor and sees a rectangular, black, domed object above the treetops that rises and sails slowly beyond the river. Windows in the dome cast a flickering light (Bronislaw Rzepecki, “Encounters in Poland,” IUR 12, no. 3 (May/June 1987): 17)

September — Rosalind Reynolds-Parnham and her boyfriend Philip are driving through the northwestern outskirts of Sudbury, Suffolk, England, when they see an object with an oval mass of orange lights moving through some pylons and causing sparks. They can smell a noxious odor. They drive on, and when they are near Cavendish on the A1092 some lights approach them from behind and the car loses power. When they arrive at their destination, they realize they have lost four hours of time. Rosalind begins to recall an abduction experience, aided by some disturbing dreams and odd scars on her abdomen. (Jenny Randles, “Abduction and Physiological Effects,” IUR 20, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1995): 4–6, 23; Carl Nagaitis and Philip Mantle, Without Consent: A Comprehensive Study of Missing Time and Abduction Phenomena in the United Kingdom, Ringpull, 1994; “Aliens Cost Me My Boyfriend and Kids,” London Express, August 24, 2016) September 2 — 7:15 p.m. John T. Sery notices an object following a Cessna aircraft at an altitude of 1,500 feet above Minneapolis, Minnesota. It matches the pace of the airplane until it reaches a point about 4 miles away when it descends. His two daughters also view the UFO. The bottom and top of the object are jet black, and it has an equatorial band that is silvery metallic with a hint of rainbow reflections. (“Minnesota Flying Black Hamburger,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 6 (Dec. 1984/Jan. 1985): 6 – 7) September 9 — A partial meltdown occurs at Chernobyl nuclear power plant Unit One in Pripyat, Ukraine. Officials deny that an accident has taken place, but radioactive contamination reaches the town and spreads as far as 9 miles from the plant. It includes iodine-131, fragments of uranium dioxide fuel, and hot particles containing zinc-65 and zirconium-niobium-95 consistent with partial destruction of the reactor core. Contaminated areas around the plant

are simply sluiced with water and covered with soil and leaves. Lenin Square is discreetly covered with a new layer of asphalt. (Adam Higginbotham, Midnight at Chernobyl, Simon & Schuster, 2019, pp. 69–70) September 17 — 9:00 p.m. Capt. Stefan Freitag and the crew of the Romanian cargo ship Bosca are steaming 200 miles off the coast of Brazil in the South Atlantic when they see an object like a full moon, accompanied by a smaller, star-light object, which grows brighter and larger in size. Both objects disappear, leaving behind a shiny cloud. Then another moon-like object appears, during which a silent explosion takes place and an orange object is ejected. A fourth moon appears and approaches the ship, causing the crew to panic and the ship’s dog to howl. A fifth object appears briefly, leaving a glow that persists for 30 minutes. A Geiger counter indicates a radiation level of 5– 7 rads on the ship. A similar phenomenon is seen by another ship in the general area at 11:03 p.m. and on the following night. (Gerhard Cordier, “Adventure under the Equator,” UFO Research Australia Newsletter 4, no. 3 (Nov./Dec. 1983): 3; MUFON UFO Journal, May 1985; Marine Observer 53 (1983): 132) September 18 — 3:00 p.m. Villagers in Suchowola, Poland, see a triangular UFO with lights at its tips. (Poland 75–76) September 30 — 1:30 a.m. A man and his son finish picking fruit in their orchard on Wolicka street near Czerniaków Hill in Warsaw, Poland. It is well after curfew, so they make their way toward home stealthily. Near the Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych building they smell smoke and see a strange object 20 feet in diameter hovering 3 feet above the ground. A faint orange glow is emanating from its base, causing the grass to smolder. Two thin beings are near the object. One has a device that projects an orange glow. The witnesses leave the scene carefully. (Poland 51; “Bliskie spotkanie w Warszavie w 1982 roku,” UFO-Relacje.pl, February 12, 2020) September 30 — 10:15 p.m. Four women, all management personnel of New England Bell Company, are returning to Exeter, New Hampshire, after a trip to a county fair to the north. They are riding in a Mercedes owned by the driver, Mary Ann Poland. She and the passengers (Rose Messina, Mary LaMontagne, and Nicky LeClair) see a low-flying bright light approaching. Poland pulls the car over and they all jump out, as if the object has a compelling influence on them. The object is egg-shaped with swirling red lights around its equator and a white beam of light coming down from the side. After a few minutes it sinks down behind the tree line. (“Exeter Revisited,” IUR 8, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1983): 4–7)

October — A generator explodes at Reactor Number One of the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant in Armenia. The turbine hall burns down, and an emergency team is airlifted from the Kola Peninsula in northwest Russia to help save the core. (Adam Higginbotham, Midnight in Chernobyl, Simon & Schuster, 2019, p. 70) October 2 —8:00 p.m. The North Arkansas Community College volleyball team (and their coach Sue McDonald) is returning from a game in Kansas and are near Springfield, Missouri, when they see an object with two brilliant white lights and a blinking red light. It hovers 100 – 150 feet nearly above the bus. The underside is in full view and about 40– 50 smaller lights are plainly visible. (“CE-I for a Volleyball Team,” IUR 8, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1983): 12 – 14 ) October 4 — 4:00–8:00 p.m. Russian Army Lt. Col. Vladimir Plantonev witnesses an hours-long UFO sighting near an IRBM missile base outside the village of Belokorovichi, Ukraine. It looks “just like a flying saucer,” but with no portholes and a smooth surface. It soundlessly makes a turn on its edge. Suddenly, an unspecified number of nuclear missiles spontaneously go into an automated launch sequence by themselves, proceeding to a countdown of 15 seconds before aborting and returning to standby status. (NICAP, “Russian Base Loses Control of Nuclear Missiles”; Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal Encounters behind the Iron Curtain, Quadrillion, 1998, p. 8 1 ; Robert L. Hastings, “Remarkable Reports from the Missile Field,” IUR 32, no. 1 (August 2008): 25– 26 ; Antonio Huneeus, “Soviet Nukes and UFOs,” Open Minds, January 26, 2010; Nukes 445 – 452 ) October 12 — Nova presents the documentary The Case of the UFO ’ s, which is criticized as a biased perspective. The participants on the US version of this BBC production include skeptics Philip Klass, James Oberg, and Michael Persinger, with only brief appearances by Bruce Maccabee and Allan Hendry. (Nova: The Case of the UFO ’ s, Time-Life, 1982; J. Allen Hynek, “Nova and UFOs,” IUR 7, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1982): 3– 5 ; J. Allen Hynek, “An Editorial Apology,” IUR 8, no. 3 (May/June 1983): 3) October 14 — 2:00 a.m. Four residents of Alta, Troms og Finnmark, Norway, see three points of light appear above the mountains to the south-southeast. Each point of light is made up of several smaller lights bunched close together. They move in a northerly direction at a great speed, apparently about 43 – 50 miles in 5 seconds, or about 35,000 mph. Suddenly light rays flash down toward the ground simultaneously from all three objects. The rays are made up cones with an opening angle of about 15°. Their color is a powerful white with a bluish hue, especially at the sides. After 20– 2 5 seconds, the rays begin to widen just as the light begins to diminish in strength. In 2 – 3 seconds the cones became “an ocean” of light with an opening angle of some 180°. Then they move off one by one with a separation time of one second. At the same moment as the lights go out there appears an ellipsoid object that gives

off a faint light, but nevertheless is distinctly visible. Its color is pink with a deeper color tone that becomes gray just underneath the object. It is motionless, hanging in the sky for 30 minutes, then it suddenly disappears. All of the observers feel a strange, dead silence during the entire observation. (Elbjørg Feldbjerg, “Extraordinary Observation from Alta,” Nordic UFO Newsletter, 1983, no. 2, pp. 15–18) October 15 — 1:35 p.m. A witness at the Diamond Shamrock plant at Lamar [now Botham Jean Boulevard] and Lenway Street in Dallas, Texas, sees a domed, metallic disc that apparently has risen up from the Trinity River bottom and is heading east. He estimates it is 60 feet wide and flying at 3,000–4,000 feet. It has bright red lights on top. (“Letter,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1983): 2) October 18 — 7:50 p.m. A couple is driving along Quinpool Road near Armview Avenue in Halifax, Nova Scotia, when they see an object about 8 times the size of the full moon traveling silently south to north at about 50 mph and 300 feet altitude. It is cigar-shaped with a steady green light in front and a flashing green light in back. They have it in sight for 15 seconds. (“Correspondence,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 1 (Feb./March 1983): 2) October 19 — Night. A US Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft monitoring Soviet military activity is buzzed by a huge object (larger than the RC-135) over the eastern Mediterranean Sea. British personnel at RAF Troödos on Cyprus listen to the radio calls of the American crew for 90 minutes as the encounter unfolds at 35,000 feet. The UFO, described as a multitude of lights flashing 20 at a time, is picked up on the aircraft’s radar as it approaches from the south about 2 miles away. It circles around the plane and closes in. Two US Navy F-14 fighters are scrambled from an aircraft carrier, and an RAF Phantom is diverted from a night flying exercise to intercept the object south of Cyprus. As the three interceptors approach, the RC-135 crew sees the object depart to the south. The fighter pilots can see nothing. Following the incident, British authorities launch a secret investigation, the results of which (including a transcript of the RC-135 crew’s conversation with ground controllers) are sent to the US Department of Defense in November. One senior RAF official strongly suspects that the object is a mirage effect from lights on the coast of Israel or Lebanon. (David Clarke, “A Cold War Close Encounter,” Fortean Times 357 (September 2017): 17) October 21 — 12:3 5 p.m. An oval object about 3 feet in diameter descends into a garden in Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France, and hovers about 3 feet off the ground. After 20 minutes the object takes off silently. The witness, a cellular biologist, reports that when the UFO rises up, the grass under it stands up straight. In the afternoon, the witness notes that two amaranth plants located near the UFO have desiccated, withered leaves. The witness calls the Gendarmerie, who inspect the garden and take some samples of the amaranth plants. The analysis of the samples made by GEPAN finds that the plants are dehydrated, but there is no evidence of radiation. (Enquête 86/06: L ’ Amarante, Note Technique no. 17, Groupe d’Étude des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés, Centre Nationale d’Étude Spatiales, March 21, 1983; Swords 445–446) October 24 — 9:20 a.m. Pilot Michael Davis and his father (a student pilot) are flying a 1968 Piper PA-28 Cherokee 140 about 10 miles southeast of Lowell, Indiana. Just after reaching their cruising altitude of 2,300 feet, they encounter an object they at first think is a malfunctioning parachute. At one point, the UFO flicks across their nose, veering to its left and missing the aircraft’s right wingtip by no more than 10 feet. It has no exhaust trail. At the instant that it passes, the vortex hits them so hard that the plane’s airframe groans in protest, and the altimeter goes “wacky.” It continues to curve to the left, still accelerating and eventually beginning to climb until it finally disappears into the distant haze. (NICAP, “Pilots Encounter Object over Indiana / EME”; Mark R. Remaley, “An Incredible Close Encounter from Credible Pilots,” IUR 8, no. 3 (May/June 1983): 4–7) October 27 — Early evening. Bonnie McCrory and her father, Maurice Smith, are driving south on the Richardson Highway near Summit Lake, Alaska, when their pickup stops with a frozen gas line. After about 20 minutes, they notice a huge ball on the ridge to the east. It is silver-colored and looks like a geodesic dome. Within the next hour it changes color from silver to yellow to orange to fiery red-orange. It slowly moves up the ridge until it moves out of sight. Possibly the full moon. (Richard Sigismond, “Alaska Close Encounter,” IUR 9, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1984): 8– 9 ; Hobart Gregory Baker, “Sail Along, Silvery Disc,” IUR 10, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1985): 16, 20 ; Richard Sigismond, “Sail Along, Silvery Disc: A Response,” IUR 11, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1986): 20)

November — After 12:00 midnight. A man and his wife are camping in Davies Valley, Imperial County, California, when they are awakened by a surge of static electricity. A huge object shaped like a manta ray 200 feet across is hovering above them. It makes a humming sound as it slowly passes over them, heading east. (Doris and Joe Graziano, “Press Reports,” APRO Bulletin 31, no. 8 (August 1983): 8) Early November — 6:15 p.m. Rachel Morton is waiting for a bus in Whitby, North Yorkshire, England, when a triangular-shaped object with a domed covering passes noiselessly overhead. Two small white lights are at the front and three lights at the top. (Whitby (UK) Gazette, November 12, 1982; Marler 114)

November 2 — 10:50 a.m. Capt. Júlio Miguel Guerra is flying a DHC-1 Chipmunk in the region of Serrea de Montejunto and Torres Vedras, Portugal, near Ota Air Base [now Military and Technical Training Center of the Air Force] in Ota, Alenquer, Portugal. He encounters a metallic disc at 4,900 feet that engages in evasive maneuvers and circles his plane. The object is 7 feet in diameter and its lower hemisphere is reddish. A circular dark area is visible on the bottom and something looking like a grid encircles its middle. The pilot of another Chipmunk trainer sees the same object at 11:05 a.m. The object continues circling between the two aircraft for 10 minutes, when it makes a pass at the second plane and speeds off to the southwest. (José Sottomayor and Antônio Rodrigues, “Close Sighting by Portuguese Air Force Pilots (November 1982),” Flying Saucer Review 32, no. 5 (August 1987): 12– 13; Júlio Miguel Guerra, “Circled by a UFO,” IUR 33 , no. 3 (December 2010): 3, 21; Kean, pp. 47 – 51 ; UFOEv II 108 – 109 ) Late November — Senior Coastguard Bernard O’Reilly watches a lighted triangular object hovering silently for several minutes over Skegness, Lincolnshire, England. It moves away to the southeast. (Lincolnshire (UK) Daily Echo, December 1, 1982; Marler 114) November 25 — Day. US Army Military Policeman Christopher Grooms is on guard duty in Tower 5 at the Army Special Weapons Depot at Kriegsfeld, a nuclear weapons storage and maintenance site in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. He watches for over 10 minutes a dark triangular-shaped craft fly slowly in a straight line from the southwest, over the valley, over the town of Gerbach, and directly over his watchtower, flying toward the northeast. After approaching for about 7 minutes, it flies directly overhead and Grooms steps out onto the tower landing with M- 16 in hand and looks straight up at the object. It is completely silent and has no markings. As it passes over, the object rotates 360° nose down, pointing directly at him, then rotates back into its original position. Grooms has “the overwhelming feeling that it was acknowledging my presence with this maneuver or was ‘checking me out’ as it did it.” (Robert L. Hastings, “Triangular UFO above a U.S. Army Nuclear Weapons Depot Performs a 360- Degree Roll,” UFOs & Nukes, January 26, 2015) November 27 — 5:00 a.m. A luminous object with brilliant lights brightly illuminates a police patrol car driven by Cmdr. Michael McDonald near the intersection of West Northwest Highway and Smith Street in Palatine, Illinois. Two other officers (Ron Roszak and Dennis Somsel) in two other patrol cars on Lincoln Avenue see a domed, disc- shaped object 30 feet in diameter, which emits a light beam toward the ground, then changes direction when pursued. The white disc is later seen to the east, with a light beam extended toward the ground, as it descends behind the tree line, seemingly landing in Busse Woods (Ned Brown Forest Preserve). The entire episode lasts about 12 minutes. (Mark Rodeghier, “A Police Puzzler from Palatine,” IUR 8, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1983): 10– 14)

December — During naval exercises in the Black Sea near the port of Sevastopol in the Crimea, Russia, an unidentified target is detected over the Balaklava District at a low altutude. It has a sharp nose and sparks coming from its tail section. The object does not respond to attempts at communication, so jet interceptors are scrambled. The object descends into the water when they approach. Soviet naval ships cannot detect it underwater. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s US O Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, pp. 133–134) December 8– 12 — The Third International Congress of Extraterrestrial Science is held in Rosario, Argentina, with representatives from Spain, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and the US, as well as Argentina. (“Third International Congress of Extraterrestrial Science,” IUR 8, no. 3 (May/June 1983): 3, 7, 13) December 10 — 7:55 a.m. Stephen Eric Alexander is waiting for a school bus with his daughter in Rosedale, Queens, New York City, when he sees an object among a flock of birds. The birds disperse and leave the object alone, drifting silently at 25 mph. After 15 seconds, it tilts and veers to the southwest and disappears. He estimates the object is 11 feet wide and 5 feet tall, 150 feet away from him, and 210 feet above the ground. Its ends pointed slightly downward. (“1977 Photograph/Sighting and 1982 Sketch Similarity,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1983): 1–2) December 21 — A witness driving from Échallens to Orbe, Vaud, Switzerland, notes a red globe 5–6 inches in diameter closely following his car. The light spreads inside the car as the object apparently settles down on the rear seat. He experiences about 8–10 minutes of missing time. (“Newspaper Item from Bern, Switzerland, January 12, 1983,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1983): 4) December 31 — Around 11:50 p.m. An off-duty police officer and his family see a boomerang-shaped object drift slowly over their home near Kent Cliffs, New York. They can see a solid structure with roughly 15 red, green, and white lights anchored to its underside. It maintains a constant altitude of about 490 feet, moves at a gentle walking pace, and makes only a faint hum. As it passes over, he feels a deep vibration in his chest. At one point, the lights go out and three blinding white lights in the shape of a triangle appear in their place. About 5 seconds later, the colored ones return, and the object drifts out of sight. Warehouse foreman Edwin Hansen, 55, sees what appears to be the same object as he is driving down Interstate 84, just moments later. Hansen, among others, stops on the

side of the road after spotting a boomerang-shaped formation of lights that project a bright beam of light to the
ground. It is so large that it fills the sky in front of him, and it makes slow, tight circles in the air. Just as he thinks
he’d like to get a closer look, the object moves in his direction. He panics as it approaches, but then hears a voice
in his head that tells him not to be afraid. At the same time, the object turns away and the beam goes out. Hansen
says that he “felt thoughts that weren’t [his] own,” and believes that he has received a telepathic communication
from the UFO. (NightSiege 5 – 9 )

1983

1983 — Since 1966, some 6,700 Ummo communications have been received. The early ones are written in Spanish, but over time they are composed in French, though certain grammar and punctuation oddities indicate that Spanish, not French, is the writers’ first language. Other analyses indicate a British origin. (Wikipedia, “Planetary objects proposed in religion, astrology, ufology, and pseudoscience”; Wikipedia, “Ummo”; Jacques Vallée, Revelations: Alien Contact and Human Deception, Ballantine, 1990, pp. 90– 121 ; Bob Rickard, “The Ummo Mystery,” Fortean Times, no. 149 (September 2001): 34–35; Reinaldo Manso, Ummo: Un Historia de un Obsesión, Megustaesscribirlibros, 201 5 ; Reinaldo Manso, “Were the Ummites British?” Fortean Times 336 (February 2016): 58–59; Clark III 1185– 1186 ) 1983 — Philip J. Klass writes UFOs: The Public Deceived for Prometheus Press, claiming that all significant government documentation has been released and that UFO reports are nothing but hoaxes, misidentifications, and distortions. He personally attacks Hynek, Maccabee, Richard Hall, and others. (Philip J. Klass, UFOs: The Public Deceived, Prometheus, 1983)

January — The first issue of Cuadernos de Ufologia, edited by José Ruesga Montiel and featuring case investigations by many Spanish ufologists, is published in Seville, Spain, by the Colectivo Cuadernos (and beginning in 19 97 by La Fundación Anomalía). It continues through April 2012. (Cuadernos de Ufologia, no. 1 (January 1983)) January 10– 11 — CAUS director and attorney Peter Gersten has two meetings with Richard Doty in New Mexico. During the first meeting, with Bill Moore in attendance, Doty is guarded in his comments. At the second meeting with Gersten alone, he speaks openly about the 1977 Ellsworth AFB “incident” that he claims AFOSI and the FBI are investigating. He tells Gersten that the US government knows why UFOs appear in certain places and that “beyond a doubt they’re extraterrestrial” and come from 50 light years away. He mentions Project Aquarius, which he says is the government’s top-secret involvement in communications with aliens. He speaks of documents that tell of agreements between the US government and extraterrestrials under which the aliens are free to conduct animal mutilations and land at a certain base, in exchange for information about advanced UFO technology. (Clark III 363 ) January 12 — 4:30 p.m. A man and his two sons encounter a short entity in a gray “wetsuit” uniform holding a glowing L-shaped object in a swampy area near their house in Pine Township, Porter County, Indiana. Both are floating 2– 3 feet above the ground. A second being is peering over a fence at them. The encounter lasts about 5 minutes, and no UFO is seen. (R. A. Busse, “An Indiana CE-III,” IUR 8, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1983): 6–9) January 14 — 5:54 p.m. Amateur astronomer Todd Lohvinenko in Winnipeg, Manitoba, observes a “perfectly black orb” traversing the Sun in 3 seconds. (Todd Lohvinenko, “A Mysterious Object,” National Newsletter of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada 77, no. 2 (April 1983): L19) January 14 — 7:53 p.m. A bright object appears in the sky above Adana, Turkey, and many people stop their cars to look at it. Soon the object is joined by two US Air Force jets from Incirlik Air Base. One of the jets flies in tight circles around the UFO, which dwarfs it in size and is described as a disc with a dome on the underside. The object accelerates and disappears over the Mediterranean Sea with the jets in pursuit. Only one jet returns to base, although the other could have been lost during an unrelated search-and-rescue mission. (Good Need, pp. 312 – 313 ) January 19 — 6:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. South Wales police begin to receive reports of UFOs. Two detectives in Swansea observe a silent, triangular object with three pulsating lights at 1,000 feet altitude. Carole Griffiths and her husband are driving home in Cardiff when they see a large triangular object in the sky and pull over to watch. It has 11 lights around it. Similar objects are seen in Porthcawl and other Welsh localities. (Marler 114–117) January 27 — 7:00 p.m. Peggy Iery sees a large central white light with two flanking lights over some power lines as she is returning home 2 miles north of Marquette, Michigan. Suddenly it appears over her car and seems so huge that it blocks out the sky. Its shape is a perfect pentagon with a small white light at each of the corners; the bottom is

silvery and flat. She drives home quickly, and she and her husband see four lights nearby, which gradually recede
beyond the trees. (Kenneth C. Schellhase, “The Marquette Pentagon,” IUR 8, no. 3 (May/June 1983): 11–13)

February 7 — 8:19 p.m. A witness in Coffeen, Illinois, sees a triangular object with bright lights. A similar object is seen by a police officer 10 miles southwest of Brighton, Illinois, around 8:27 p.m. (Marler 209) February 11 — The Parisian newspaper Le Figaro cites unnamed specialists who say that GEPAN exists only because it reflects the enthusiasm of former President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and that it costs too much, even though it is only a small percentage of the CNES budget. (Clark III 547) February 26 — 8:30 p.m. Monique O’Driscoll and her 17-year-old daughter are driving near the frozen White Pond in Putnam County, New York, when they see a silent, multicolored, boomerang-shaped object about 200 – 300 feet wide. It has many lights, which seem to respond to their thoughts. It has a crisscross lattice structure and tubes on its underside. Their CB radio just has static. Another independent witness, Rita Rivera, probably sees the same object, a V-shaped array of 50 lights with amber, red, and blue colors. (NightSiege 8 – 14 ; Philip Imbrogno, George Lesnick, and Chris Clark, “Boomerang Update,” IUR 8, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1983): 8–9)

Spring — 10:00 p.m. A woman hospital employee is driving to work near New London, Connecticut, when she sees a light flick by quickly in the sky ahead. It stops above the treetops and shines a searchlight-like beam down on the woods. She pulls over to watch. Abruptly the object moves directly in front of her. There is no other traffic, although the road is usually busy. The object is round and has blue, yellow, red, and white lights flickering in a circle. She blacks out for a short time and finds that the engine, lights, and radio have been shut off. The window has been rolled down. The car stalls when she tries to start it, but the engine finally catches and she drives to work, where she arrives uncharacteristically late at 11:05. (Michael D. Swords, “Unusual Experiences from the Timmerman Files,” IUR 27, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 23) March 8 — President Ronald Reagan delivers a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals in which he refers to the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” and the “focus of evil in the modern world.” He asserts that the Cold War is a battle between good and evil. (Wikipedia, “Evil Empire speech”) March 11 — Reagan authorizes National Security Decision Directive 84, which substantially increases governmental control over federal employees, particularly their relationships with the media. It mandates that all employees with access to sensitive information are now subject to lifetime censorship of their writings and speeches on these topics. (“Safeguarding National Security Information,” National Security Decision Directive 84, March 11, 1983; Frederick W. Whatley, “Reagan, National Security, and the First Amendment: Plugging Leaks by Shutting Off the Main,” CATO Institute Policy Analysis no. 37, May 8, 1984) March 11 — Richard Mull finds a large star-shaped hole in his bean field west of Wauseon, Ohio, around which the dirt is mounded up. It has six long points 19 feet long and four shorter points 9 feet long. In the center is a depression 8 feet in diameter and 8 inches deep, and at the center of this depression is a small hole 2 inches in diameter that goes down to a depth of 6 feet. (“Two Physical Trace Cases in Northwest Ohio Unexplained,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 6, no. 3 (June/July 1985): 4–5) March 15 — 5:00 p.m. An unidentified target is tracked by USAF radar at RAF Upper Heyford [now closed], Oxford, England, until 9:15 p.m. Sgt. Byrd Cormier says they do not have radio contact with it. A slow, brilliant white light is seen by some civilians in Berkshire. Cpl. Candellin at RAF Brize Norton, Oxford, claims that RAF radar cannot pick up the object. (“UFO Alert As Mystery Light Passes over Berks,” Reading (UK) Evening Post, March 16, 1983, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 165 (April 1983), p. 13; Good Above, pp. 104 – 105 ) March 17 — 7:00–10:00 p.m. Hundreds of people see a boomerang-shaped object moving slowly and hovering over I- 84 near Brewster, New York. (Philip Imbrogno, “Boomerang over Three Counties,” IUR 8, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1983): 11; Philip Imbrogno, George Lesnick, and Chris Clark, “Boomerang Update,” IUR 8, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1983): 9– 10 ; NightSiege 18 – 25 ; Patrick Gross, “The Hudson Valley UFO Flap”) March 23 — In what later becomes known as his “Star Wars” speech, President Ronald Reagan announces his plans to develop an anti-missile capability to counter the threat of Soviet ballistic missiles and to make these nuclear weapons “impotent and obsolete.” This paves the way for a Strategic Defense Initiative as an alternative to a proliferation of missiles under the concept of mutual assured destruction. SDI is derisively nicknamed by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) as “Star Wars,” after the 1977 film by George Lucas. By the early 1990s, with the Cold War ending and nuclear arsenals rapidly reduced, political support for SDI collapses. SDI officially ends in 1993, when the administration of President Bill Clinton redirects the efforts towards theatre ballistic missiles and renames the agency the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. BMDO is renamed the Missile Defense Agency in 2002. (Wikipedia, “Strategic Defense Initiative”)

March 23 — Night. Russian Major V. Gorsky is stationed in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia when he sees, along with two of his commanding officers, a silvery disc at an altitude of 1,300 feet and 1–2 miles away. Its colors seem to be changing constantly, and it is surrounded by a blue halo. A narrow beam of light descends from it, illuminating the area. More than 30 other soldiers witness the display. It studies the area another 4 minutes, then the beam disappears, the halo vanishes, and the object is gone instantly. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, pp. 127–128) March 24 — 7:30 p.m. A corporate executive in Bedford, New York, sees a half-circle of lights hovering behind some trees near a commuter-bus station. There is no sound. After watching for 5 minutes, he goes inside his house to alert his family, but when they come outside, the lights are gone. (Clark III 1277 ) March 24 — 8:00 p.m. Four persons in Carmel, New York, see a half-circle of red and white lights and the vague outline of a larger object to which they are attached. The lights are hovering above trees several hundred yards away. They drift to the east and are lost to view, but almost immediately a family living a quarter mile away sees them drift into view. Through binoculars they can see a “huge object” with a dull-green metallic color connecting the lights. When the UFO turns slightly, they see it has a V shape. At that moment a brilliant beam of white light shoots down from the center of the object, and in it a small reddish object descends then shoots off “very, very fast toward the north.” The beam is shut off and the object turns and heads slowly east. (Clark III 1277 ) March 24 — 8:30 p.m. Police officers in Yorktown, New York, say that their switchboard is flooded with calls reporting a large, boomerang-shaped UFO with red, blue, and green lights. Police in the nearby villages of Millwood and New Castle receive a flood of calls as well, describing an object as large as a football field. William Hele, a meteorologist for the National Weather Corporation, sees an asymmetrical V-shaped object about 1,300 feet long, with 6 – 7 lights as he is driving south on the Taconic Highway. The object descends from about 2 , 0 00 to 980 feet altitude and slows as it approaches. Hele realizes that the lights are all changing colors at different times, as if lit by a rotating prism within the structure. Suddenly, all the lights go out, leaving nothing in their place, as if whatever object was supporting them has simply disappeared. The lights reappear 30 – 40 seconds later, and a few seconds after that, the object turns to the north and flies away, as the lights change to a slime green. At the same time, people 15 miles north in Putnam County see a smaller object exhibiting similar behavior. Ruth Holtsman describes a silent object that hangs motionless in the sky. While it is in view, a driver pulls up and stops almost directly underneath it. The lights start to flash in a wild sequence up and down its “wings.” The driver jumps into his car and speeds away. Then the UFO approaches Holtsman’s car, which is bathed in a blinding white light as it speeds under the boomerang. John Miller sees the object hovering above a pond near his home in Brewster, New York. It is aiming two very bright searchlight beams over the surface of the water. He hears a faint whooshing sound. (Philip Imbrogno, “Boomerang over Three Counties,” IUR 8, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1983): 10–11; Philip J. Imbrogno and Chris Clark, “Boomerang Saga Continues,” IUR 9, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1984): 4– 6 ; Philip J. Imbrogno, “Westchester Boomerang: March 24, 1983,” IUR 9, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1984): 9– 12 ; NightSiege 15–16, 25, 30–35, 39, 41–42; Marler 117–119; Clark III 1277– 1278 ) March 24 — 8:45 p.m. Several dozen diners at a ski-resort restaurant near Stormville, New York, see white lights in a boomerang shape hovering over a utility pole 600 feet away. Three other people driving near the pole stop by it. The driver, a corrections officer, gets out and studies the object about 200 feet above him. It is silent, and the structure that holds the lights is dark and nonreflective. After watching it for 20 minutes, he heads back to his jeep, at which time the UFO moves down the road. He follows it to Interstate 84 and all the lights go out, allowing him to see the boomerang shape. The lights come back on and he follows the object for more than an hour, clocking it speed at 20 mph. (Chris Clark, “Boomerang!” IUR 9, no. 3 (May/June 1984): 10; Clark III 1278) March 24 — 10:00 p.m. The last sighting of many this night is by an IBM executive who sees a lighted object “larger than a 747” hovering over pine trees near his home in Danbury, Connecticut. (Clark III 1278 ) March 28 — Radar at the airport at Gorky [now Nizhny Novgorod], Russia, tracks an unidentified target flying at 110– 125 mph at an altitude of 1,310–1,970 feet. Flight Controller A. Shushkin sees the cigar-shaped object, which is similar to an aircraft in size but has no wings and is metallic. It is in view for only 10 seconds. (Good Above, p. 243 ); Paul Stonehill, “Pilot and Cosmonaut Pavel Popovich and UFOs,” Open Minds, June 12, 2014)

April 9 — Linda Moulton Howe flies to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to interview Sgt. Richard Doty for an HBO series she is working on, UFOs: The ET Factor, but Doty does not show. She calls Jerry Miller, chief of reality weapons testing at Kirtland AFB, whom she knows from an earlier conversation about Paul Bennewitz’s claims. Miller drives her to his home and calls Doty, who arrives promptly. Doty’s attitude is defiant and nervous, but Howe asks him about the alleged 1971 Holloman AFB landing. Doty says Robert Emenegger got the date wrong and that it was actually April 25, 1964, shortly after the Socorro landing. Transferring to his office at Kirtland, Doty is reluctant to talk about the 1977 Ellsworth landing. He shows her a bogus, undated document, A Briefing Paper for

the President of the United States on the Subject of Unidentified Flying Vehicles. The document lists UFO crash/retrievals and states that UFOs are piloted by extraterrestrials from a nearby solar system and have been on earth for many thousands of years. Through genetic manipulation, they have influenced the course of human evolution and helped shape our religious beliefs. Roswell and the 1949 living alien are mentioned, as well as Projects Snowbird (retroengineering a crashed UFO), Aquarius (umbrella project involving all ET contacts), Sigma (an ongoing electronic communications effort with aliens), and the defunct Garnet (investigation of ETs on human evolution). Doty promises Howe thousands of feet of film of crashed discs, bodies, EBE-1, and the Holloman landing for her documentary. He says that a similar release of data through Emenegger and Allan Sandler was halted because “political conditions were not right.” When she tells her HBO contacts about this, they ask her to secure a letter of intent from the US government with a legally binding commitment to secure the promised film footage. HBO wants the film, but Doty now stalls. In June, Doty tells her he is officially off the project. Further contacts up to March 1984 are fewer. In 2008, Doty claims that the intelligence community targeted Howe to find out who her inside sources were. (Linda Moulton Howe, An Alien Harvest: Further Evidence Linking Animal Mutilations and Human Abductions to Alien Life Forms, Howe Productions, 1989 , pp. 143 – 156 ; Dolan II 299– 307 ; Good Above, p. 425 ; Clark III 363 – 3 65) April 10 — 8:30 p.m. Two drivers near Ross, Ohio, see a large, bright, oval object that seems to land. The property owner at the location also sees a white light on a hillside behind his home and watches the object ascend slowly before moving away at speed. The drivers’ car lights flicker, and the engines nearly stall. The landowner reports flickering houselights and TV problems. Investigation of the landing site indicates that a heavy circular object about 50 feet in diameter has landed, producing a 3-foot burn mark in the center. (NICAP, “Ross, Ohio: April 10, 1983 ”; Charles J. Wilhelm, “Ross, Ohio, Landing Case,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 186 (August 1983): 3 – 7; UFOEv II, p. 65) April 26– 27 — Day. For two days, a UFO is seen above Nuremberg, Germany. Amateur astronomer Walter Schwarz takes a photo that apparently shows a balloon. A local radio station hires a Lear jet to approach it, reaching 12,300 feet, but it is still too far away to identify it. Eckard Pohl, the astronomer at the Nuremberg Observatory, tracks it and says that it looks like a deformed pyramid with a pointed top and estimates it is flying at an altitude of 14.3 miles. The object is later identified as a balloon launched from eastern Europe. (Hans-Werner Peiniger, “‘UFO’ bei Nürnberg aufgeklärt,” Journal für UFO-Forschung, no. 27 (May/June 1983): 68–69; Hans-Werner Peiniger, “UFO über Köln identifiert,” Journal für UFO-Forschung, no. 28 (July/Aug. 1983): 99 – 100; “Excitement Chasing a Mysterious Flying Object,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 6 (Dec. 1983/Jan. 1984): 3; “Nurnberg UFO Becomes IFO,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 1 (Feb./March 1984): 4) April 27–May 2 — Divers see an object like a submarine conning tower in Husnesfjorden, Hordaland, Norway. By 1:00 p.m., a search team from Norwegian Defense is at the site, consisting of the corvette KNM Sleipner, two submarines, and one Orion aircraft equipped with antisubmarine weapons. The next day the KNM Oslo and two more frigates join the search. At 4:55 p.m., the Oslo has a first sonar contact south of Leirvik on Stord island. At 5:21 p.m., it fires a Terne rocket as a warning. On April 29, a possible sonar contact is recorded in Selbjørnfjord. On the afternoon of April 30, the Oslo, after another sonar contact, fires a Terne rocket and drops a mine. Five minutes later it launches four more rockets, but then the sonar contact is lost. Around 4:00 p.m., five Terne rockets are fired at nearby Halsenøy. Near midnight, a sonar contact south of Leirvik results in another rocket firing. On May 1, at 4:20 p.m., another sonar contact takes place and six Terne rockets are fired. They hit the water and plunge deep before detonating. Immediately afterward, an Orion aircraft drops a mine at the same spot in Skåneviksfjorden. At 5:20 p.m., the Oslo again attacks with six rockets. Five minutes later it launches four more rockets, and the sonar contact is lost. At 8:30 p.m., an Orion aircraft has the last sonar contact. The aircraft drops mines at the entrance to the Høylandssundet. On May 2, mines are dropped in the Selbjørnfjord. (Ole Jonny Brænne, “Observations of Unidentified Submarine Objects in Norway,” IUR 20, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1995): 13)

May 4 — 3:50 a.m. Police officer James Philips sees a silent, yellowish-orange ball of light over the outskirts of Lawrence, Kansas, hovering 350 feet over a power line pole. It flies away toward the northeast slowly at 3 0 – 40 mph. The sighting lasts three minutes. (“A ‘Yorg’ in Kansas,” IUR 8, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1983): 14) May 12 — 1:50 a.m. Three police officers on the Warrenville Heights, Ohio, police force see four dim lights moving silently in a wedge formation from south to north. They smoothly transition to a diamond formation as they near the constellation of Ursa Major. They shift into another formation again before speeding off in two different directions. (“Multiple Witness: Multiple UFO Sighting,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1983): 5 – 6) May 20 — Sam Meadows and another ranch hand discover a perfect circle of disturbed grass in a pasture on the Teas Ranch in Hemphill County near Canadian, Texas. The circle is 29 feet in diameter, with an outer circle of much

shorter and greener buffalo grass that is 4 inches wide. This is a characteristic of new grass that comes up after a fire has burned the old grass. A prickly pear cactus pad is found at the edge of the ring; the side closest to the ring is devoid of spines, while all the spines facing away from the ring are undamaged. No UFO is seen. (W. Clark Ellzey, “A Ring on a Panhandle Ranch, and Others,” IUR 8, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1983): 10–11) May 23 — 7:30 p.m. A high school art teacher and his daughter watch a disc-shaped object with a black top, blue sides, square windows, and a reddish golden metallic bottom maneuvering over trees in McHenry, Illinois. It then rocks violently, levels out, and flies off following the contour of the land. (“‘I Know What I Saw…But I Don’t Know What I Saw,’” IUR 10, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1985): 7– 8 ) May 23 — Night. Farmer Alcineu Sousa is aboard his twin-engine airplane returning from a visit to a farm near Corumbiara, Rondônia, Brazil. As he is about to land on his farm near Porto Velho, Rondônia, he sees an opaque light about 30 feet in diameter on his left that begins to approach and shine more brightly. His airplane instruments start to go haywire. He pulls the plane sharply to the right, but the UFO does the same but more moderately. A few seconds later, the light disappears over the horizon. (Clark III 200– 201 ; Brazil 541) May 24 — 6:00 p.m. A schoolboy is in his parents’ backyard in Jüchen, Germany, when he sees a red ball shoot down and hover above a nearby electric power line. It ejects a pyramid-shaped array of colored lights toward the ground. A few minutes later, the array disappears from the object downward to the ground. The object then speeds away into the sky toward its point of origin. (Hans-Werner Peiniger, “CE 2–Fall in Jüchen,” Journal für UFO-Forschung, no. 30 (Nov./Dec. 1983): 161–168; “CEII Case in Jüchen, West Germany,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 1 (Feb./March 1984): 1–2)

Summer — Richard Haines founds the short-lived North American UFO Federation, an effort to unite MUFON, CUFOS, and other groups (except APRO) to standardize UFO investigations, educate the public, and resolve the UFO mystery. Insufficient funding dooms the effort to failure. (MUFON UFO Journal, September 1983) June 3 — Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish ufologists launch Project Hessdalen under the directorship of Leif Havik, Odd-Gunnar Røed, Erling Strand, Håken Ekstrand, and Jan Fjellander. They secure technical assistance from the universities of Oslo and Bergen, as well as cameras with grating filters, a seismograph, Geiger counter, radar, infrared viewer, laser, magnetograph, and spectrum analyzer. (“Project Hessdalen: The Colored Lights of Norway,” IUR 8, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1983): 6– 8 ; Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, p. 90; Clark III 572 ) June 5 — 5:00 a.m. Retired restaurant manager Mario Claretto wakes up because his dogs are barking outside his home at Varzi, Pavia, Italy. He sees a shining object with an orange headlight on a hill across the road from his house. It is hovering low above an alfalfa field. Its upper portion is slowly rotating, showing a silver section, a dark section, then the orange light. After finishing some work in the kitchen, Claretto goes outside for a closer look. He sees another person walking toward the object; after approaching very near, the person runs away, escaping down the road. Claretto points the object out to a neighbor, Bruno Stafforini, who has also woken up because of the dogs. The UFO rises after skimming the grass for a few feet, its dome recedes, and it emits a vapor. It seems to change its form to cigar-shaped. Suddenly it speeds off to the south-southwest. (Antonio Chiumiento, “Un U.F.O. a Varzi,” Notiziario UFO, no. 101 (Sept./Oct. 1983): 4–10; Antonio Chiumiento, “Close Encounter at Varzi,” IUR 9, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1984): 4–5, 13; Antonio Chiumiento, “A Landing at Varzi in Northern Italy,” Flying Saucer Review 30, no. 6 (August 1985): 2–9; Antonio Chiumiento and Paolo Toselli, “L’atterrissage de Varzi (Italie),” Lumières dans la Nuit, no. 257/258 (Nov./Dec 1985): 32– 37 ; 2Pinotti 61– 68 ) June 20 — Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) replies to UFO researcher William S. Steinman regarding government knowledge of UFOs: “I have no idea of who controls the flow of ‘need-to-know’ because, frankly, I was told in such an emphatic way that it was none of my business that I’ve never tried to make it my business since.” (Kean, p. 243 ) June 22– 27 — At the International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, the Los Alamos National Laboratory puts forward a proposal for a 3,500-square-foot (with plans for extending it to 6,000 square feet) National Underground Science Facility beneath the Nuclear Test Site in Nevada. (Michael Martin Nieto, “Physics at the Proposed National Underground Science Facility,” Los Alamos National Laboratory, June 1983)

July — Statistician Jean-Jacques Velasco replaces Alain Esterle as director of GEPAN. Esterle is dismissed, apparently because of potential scandal about GEPAN’s apparent collaboration with the French Army on magnetohydrodynamic propulsion experiments, done without the knowledge of GEPAN’s resident expert, Jean- Pierre Petit, who has suggested such a project. (Wikipedia, “Groupe d’études des phénomènes aérospatiaux non identifiés”; Clark III 547; Gildas Bourdais, “From GEPAN to SEPRA: Official UFO Studies in France,” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000 – 2001): 12– 13 )

Early July — Debbie Jordan-Kauble (using the pseudonym of “Kathie Davis”) and her mother see a light about 2 feet in diameter moving around the family pool house in Indianapolis, Indiana. Some days later they notice a section of their backyard has turned brown, a circular area about 8 feet in diameter. She contacts Budd Hopkins, who speaks with Debbie and her family and uncovers a pattern of events that have affected them for years. It appears that Debbie, her mother, and two of her children have been abducted at different points of their lives. Debbie and her mother have identical scars on their lower legs from apparent childhood abductions, and Hopkins believes that Debbie and her son have implants inserted near their brains, one through the nasal cavity and another through the ear. Hopkins conducts numerous hypnotic regression sessions, revealing apparent pregnancies induced by aliens. (Budd Hopkins, Intruders: The Incredible Visitations at Copley Woods, Random House, 1987 ) July 7 — An unauthorized target appears on the radar screens at Darłowo Airport, Poland, corresponding to a rotating, oblong object with a steel-colored covering flying at 11,0000 feet. Polish Air Force Captain Praszczałek and another pilot go up to intercept it and get within 660 feet. He sees a solid hull, 50 feet long and 6 feet across. Just after they are ordered to shoot it down, the object shoots up to 30,000 feet, too high to pursue. (Poland 64–65) July 12 — 9:30 p.m. A police officer answers a call at a location southeast of Danbury, Connecticut, where several people are standing outside looking at a circular pattern of lights that are flashing red, blue, and green. The lights appear to be attached to a silent object 300 feet in diameter and less than 500 feet in altitude. The officer shines a spotlight on it, and the object projects a brilliant flash of white light downward. It then moves quickly to the north and is lost behind trees. At 10:55 p.m., Danbury Police Chief Nelson Macedo, his brother-in-law Charles Yacuzzi, his son Michael, and retired policeman Jim Lucksky are boating on Candlewood Lake north of Danbury. They notice a circular gray object silently hovering high in the sky. 20–30 bright blue, red, orange, and green lights moving in a circular pattern are visible on the object. The men turn off the boat lights and the object shuts off its own lights. After several minutes, Yacuzzi turns the lights on again, and the UFO switches on bright lights and moves off behind the mountains. (NightSiege 96 ; Richard Haines, CE- 5 : Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind, Sourcebooks, 1998, pp. 132–133) July 22 — 12 : 4 0 a.m. Police constables Raymond Ellens and Peter Ferguson are on car patrol east of Melton, Melbourne, Victoria, when they see a bright, stationary light over the center of the town. As they approach, they discern that it is composed of two lights. The object turns west and hovers about 200 feet above the Melton Regional Shopping Centre. Soon the object flies off to the southeast, making a high-pitched humming sound. After rising to about 500 feet, the UFO moves off to the north and is lost to sight. The UFO is picked up on radar at Tullamarine Air Traffic Control in Melbourne. The constables see it again at 2:40 a.m. when it appears to be on the ground at the rear of the Toolern Vale stables (they inspect the paddock but find no traces), then it is lost to view until 4:30 a.m. when they are again at the shopping mall. At some point police Sgt. Barry Harman and Chief Inspector Hickman also see the UFO above the shopping center. The constables follow the object, this time with more lights visible. Between their position and the object is the Australian Army Rockbank Receiving Station, and it seems to be headed directly toward the antenna array. Before reaching it, the object turns and arcs again to the north. Ellens and Ferguson lose sight of it at about 6:00 a.m. Their written report states that over time the UFO flew in a triangular pattern bounded by Melton, Rockbank, Sydenham, and Diggers Rest in a counterclockwise path between 200 and 1,600 feet in altitude. The Australian Signal Intelligence facility at Rockbank is alerted that its security has been breached. (Bill Chalker, “The Australian Government and UFOs,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 21 – 22; Keith Basterfield, UFOs: A Report on Australian Encounters, Reed Books, 1997 , pp. 84– 86 ) July 25 — 5:15 a.m. Tom Jackson is getting ready for work in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, when he sees a bright light outside his bathroom window. He opens it and sees a huge object hovering above pine trees about 750 feet away. It is metallic gray, possibly 300 feet long, and elongated but with the front and back ends dropping down. It has two rows of evenly spaced windows. After 5 minutes it moves toward the town’s sewage plant. Other residents report a brilliant orange light over the sewage plant. Still others hear a loud, high-pitched sound so intense that it causes headaches and disturbs neighborhood dogs. (MUFON UFO Journal, October 1983)

August 1 — 12:15 a.m. Terry Conner is at the intersection of West County Line Road and South Ashland Avenue about 1.5 miles southwest of Beecher, Illinois, when he sees a cluster of red flashing lights. They are coming from an object in a farmer’s field about 450–600 feet away. It appears to be 30 feet tall with 40–50 continuously flashing red lights in the shape of a vertical U. After 2 minutes, two large steady red lights appear to rise until they are even with the top of the U. After 10 seconds, all the lights go out at once. (“Beecher, Illinois, Nocturnal Lights Remain Unexplained,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 5 (Oct./Nov. 1984): 1) August 12 — Around 1:00 a.m. Alfred Burtoo is fishing along the Basingstoke Canal in Aldershot, Hampshire, England, when a disc-shaped UFO lands nearby. Two humanoid beings approach him. They are 4 feet 6 inches tall, dressed in green overalls, and wear helmets with visors. They gesture at Bertoo to follow them, and he goes up a stairway

into the craft. He is made to stand under an amber light. The beings speak to him in broken English, telling him that he is too old and infirm for their purposes. They then let him go. (Good Above, pp. 106 – 112 ; Marcus Lowth, “The Bizarre Ordeal of Alfred Burtoo: The Abduction That Wasn’t,” UFO Insight, August 7, 2017; Solomier, “ 08 - 12 - 1983: The Alfred Burtoo Incident,” dtube: Hive Blog, 2020) August 12 — 11:10 p.m. In the Maraponga neighborhood of Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, João de Lira Pessoa Neto is riding his motorcycle with his friend Plínio Couto de Alencar Júnior to a party. The cycle breaks down, so they push it home and head back on foot to the party. They pass the train tracks and the Cavan poles factory, where they notice that a transformer that always buzzes is silent. Stray dogs do not bark, and the lights on the poles are blinking intermittently. A strong light blinks near them and they see a disc-shaped object about 325 feet above the Lagoa da Maraponga, its shape reflected in the dark water. The object moves, and the two witnesses run off. Party hosts Roberto de Lira Pessoa Neto and his wife Rejane, Rejane’s sister, and a sailor named Cal are intrigued and decide to return to the site together. They look around and see the UFO landing on the lake shore. The disc has large round windows and a brightly lit interior. Inside they see human-looking beings moving about and looking out the windows. Roberto sees three humanoid figures beside the UFO. They seem to be covered in a plastic cloak and have a wobbling gait. Plínio thinks the object disappears and reappears like a mirage. The witnesses begin running away when another similar UFO appears above them and causes a gale. It disappears, and everything returns to normal, with dogs barking and the transformer buzzing. Later at home, João has a strong urge to return to the scene. The object is still there, and he has a compulsion to meet the occupants. He suddenly gets dizzy and nauseous and falls to the ground unconscious. He revives 2 hours later and finds himself in a soccer field and cannot remember how he got there. He goes home, but his behavior changes, becoming ruder. On May 21, 1989, João drowns under mysterious circumstances in a lagoon in Uruoca, Ceará, Brazil. (Reginaldo de Athayde, “Seqüestro por ETs no Nordesté e reavaliado,” Portal UFO, December 1, 1995; Clark III 710– 712 ; Brazil 297– 303 ) August 26 — 4:00 a.m. A Mrs. Zurwaski is awakened by brilliant white flashes of light reflecting off the trees to the east of her house in Cedar Lake, Indiana. She gets up, thinking a thunderstorm is approaching, and she sees the screen on the front door flooded with intense light. Her husband is also awake by now, and he describes the light as yellowish. Through a picture window, Mr. Zurwaski sees an object hovering 4–5 feet off the ground in their yard. Mrs. Zurawski hears a swoosh and a crackle and notices a ribbon of light moving southeast. Five days later, they discover in their yard a ring of dead grass in a perfect circle 13 feet in diameter. (Mark Remaley, “The Light and the Ring,” IUR 9, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1984): 4–6) August 27– 29 — The British UFO Research Association holds its Third International UFO Congress in High Wycombe, London, England. (“3d International UFO Congress, August 1983,” BUFORA Bulletin, no. 11 (November 1983): 8 – 21; “3d Bufora International UFO Congress,” IUR 8, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1983): 9, 16)

September — British ufologist Jenny Randles publishes UFO Reality, in which she defines the “Oz Factor,” the “sensation of being isolated, or transported from the real world into a different environmental framework.” She suggests that this feeling, often reported by UFO witnesses, “is almost suggestive of the witness being transported temporarily from our world into another, where reality is but slightly different.” (Jenny Randles, UFO Reality: A Critical Look at the Physical Evidence, R. Hale, 1983; Clark III 866) September 1 — GEPAN is reorganized by transferring it to a smaller department in CNES. The seven members of its scientific council are given different assignments, leaving Jean-Jacques Velasco in sole charge with no scientific advisers. GEPAN’s resources and personnel are drastically reduced. During the following years, the scientific council no longer meets, despite repeated demands by one of its members, Christian Perrin de Brichambaut, general inspector of the National Meteorology Office. A last meeting of the council takes places in 1987. (Gildas Bourdais, “From GEPAN to SEPRA: Official UFO Studies in France,” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000–2001): 1 2 – 13) September 1 — Korean Air Lines Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet interceptor over the Sea of Japan near Moneron Island (just west of Sakhalin island) while flying over prohibited Soviet airspace. All 269 passengers and crew aboard are killed, including Rep. Larry McDonald (D-Ga.) and president of the anticommunist John Birch Society. (Wikipedia, “Korean Air Lines Flight 007”) September 3 — Day. Wiesław Machowski, his daughter, and a friend are fishing in a coastal lake near Wicie, Poland. They notice an orange sphere with another object below it and keep their eyes on it for 30 minutes or so. The larger light emits a smaller one that stops and returns to the bigger one; the sequence keeps repeating. When they return to their boarding house, they see it again but much closer to the coast. Machowski grabs a camera and takes three photos that shows the large object looking like a hat standing on its brim, and the object disappears shortly afterward. (Poland 57–58)

September 26 — Midnight. The Soviet orbital missile early warning system (SPRN), code-named Oko, reports a single intercontinental ballistic missile launch from the US. Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov, who is on duty during the incident, correctly dismisses the warning as a computer error when ground early warning radars do not detect any launches. Part of his reasoning is that the system is new and known to have malfunctioned previously; also, a full-scale nuclear attack from the US would involve thousands of simultaneous launches, not a single missile. Later, the system reports four more ICBM launches headed to the Soviet Union, but Petrov again dismisses the reports as false. The investigation that follows reveals that the system indeed has malfunctioned, and false alarms are caused by a rare alignment of sunlight on high-altitude clouds underneath the satellites’ orbits. (Wikipedia, “1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident”)

October — Odd-Gunnar Røed begins publishing the Project Hessdalen Bulletin in Duken, Norway, in English. It updates readers on the latest sightings of nocturnal lights around Hessdalen, Norway. It continues through April 1985. (Project Hessdalen Bulletin 1, no. 1 (October 1983)) October — Flying Saucer Review editor Gordon Creighton writes an essay on his beliefs about UFOs, which he thinks are piloted by Islamic jinns. (Gordon Creighton, “A Brief Account of the True Nature of the ‘UFO Entities,’” Flying Saucer Review 29, no. 1 (October 1983): 2–6; Clark III 499 ) October — 6:45 p.m. Paula E. Green, 12, undergoes her first abduction experience as she is walking through Judy Woods in Bradford, England, with a 14-year-old friend. It is the first of some 52 further incidents. (Daily Star Sunday, May 9, 2021; Nigel Watson, “Fifty-two Shades of Grey: Paula’s Story,” Fortean Times 407 (July 2021): 30–31) October 13 — 8:30 p.m. Catherine Burk is driving to her home in Altoona, Pennsylvania, when she sees a large, silvery disc pass about 30 feet above her car. The force of the UFO lifts the right side of her car briefly off the road, causing her lights to blink out and the engine to stall. She suffers hearing loss in her right ear, has severe headaches, and develops problems with her shoulder, chest, and spine. Local police investigate and find her “visibly shaking.” (UFOEv II 232; MUFON UFO Journal, November 1983) Late October — Evening. Villagers in Hollesley, East Suffolk, England, witness a triangular object with three powerful white lights on its base that illuminate the ground below it. Ron Marco says the lights form a triangle and remain perfectly still, until it moves above his head and other witnesses. Debbie Foreman and Pauline Osborne report headlight and engine trouble when the UFO appears. (Nick Redfern, A Covert Agenda: UFO Secrecy Exposed, Simon & Schuster, 1997, pp. 160–161; Stacia Briggs and Siofra Connor, “Weird Suffolk: Hollesley, the UFO Hotspot,” East Anglian Daily Times (Ipswich), April 13, 2018) October 25– 29 — The US and a coalition of six Caribbean nations attack the island nation of Grenada. Codenamed Operation Urgent Fury, the intervention results in an American victory in a matter of days. It is triggered by the strife within the People’s Revolutionary Government that results in the house arrest and execution of the previous leader and second Prime Minister of Grenada Maurice Bishop, and the establishment of the Revolutionary Military Council with Hudson Austin as chairman. The invasion results in the appointment of an interim government, followed by democratic elections in 1984, and serves as a tune-up for the US military, which has been out of action for 10 years. (Wikipedia, “United States invasion of Grenada”) October 26 — 9:00 p.m. David Keener is driving on US Highway 321 northeast of Hickory, North Carolina, when a diamond-shaped object, red in front, bright green in the rear, hovers low over his car and then rises up again. The observation lasts about 5 minutes and the object is silent throughout. He reports the incident to the sheriff’s department. (MUFON UFO Journal, April 1984) October 28 — 2:15 a.m. Biomedical engineer Jim Cooke is driving by the Croton Falls Reservoir on his way back to Mahopac, New York, when he sees “aircraft lights” approaching and dropping very fast. Oddly, they seem to hover for a while, then blink out. Cooke gets out of his car, walks toward the shoreline, and spots a triangular object hovering less than 15 feet above the water and 200 feet away. After a few minutes, 9 red lights come on from its sides and a red beam of light from the underside probes the water. The UFO moves to four locations above the reservoir, each time shining the red light on the water and remaining at a steady altitude. Each time a car drives by, its lights go out. Cooke estimates the object is 100 feet long at the base and 30 feet at the apex. After 10–15 minutes, it lifts upward at a 30° angle and disappears. (NightSiege 2 – 4) October 28 — 10:00 p.m. Two men are driving in the countryside near Ithaca, New York, looking for signs of deer in order to plan their hunting activities. They see a lighted area low in the sky ahead of them. Through binoculars, they see that the light is cast by a round object with three rows of lighted window panels and an illuminated rotating dome that is bright enough to reflect off the low clouds. They estimate it is 15–25 feet in diameter, It stays visible for about 5 minutes as it moves slowly and noiselessly over the ridge of a hill. (CUFOS case file)

November — The Project Hessdalen team goes to Hessdalen, Norway, and explains their project to the locals. (Clark III 572 ) November — The captain and crew of the Russian diving support vessel Sprut are in Kola Bay, northern Russia, when they observe an ellipsoid object slowly moving over the surface at an altitude of 1,640–3,280 feet for 90 minutes. The object separates into three parts, each of which increases in speed and flies to the west. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, p. 145) November 7– 11 — NATO carries out a command post exercise code-named Able Archer 83. Its purpose is to simulate a period of conflict escalation, culminating in the US military attaining a simulated DEFCON 1 coordinated nuclear attack. Coordinated from the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) headquarters in Casteau, Belgium, it involves NATO forces throughout Western Europe. The Soviet leadership is concerned that this could be a ruse for an actual US nuclear strike and moves to a high alert. Historians such as Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, and Tom Nichols, a professor at the Naval War College, argue that Able Archer 83 brought the world close to a nuclear war. (Wikipedia, “Able Archer 83”) November 18 —The National Endowment for Democracy is founded in Washington, D.C. It is managed by such individuals as Henry Kissinger, Sally Shelton-Colby, Barbara Haig, and others. Although furnished with $80 million in funding from Congress, its private status keeps it safe from FOIA requests. Among its programs are: destabilizing Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines and Manuel Noriega in Panama; supporting the Nazi PAN party in Mexico; channeling money to the Contras; and supporting operatives in the Medellin drug cartel. (Wikipedia, “National Endowment for Democracy”) November 28 — 8:40 p.m. A woman in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, notices a ball of light approaching her. She goes inside to get her boyfriend and two children. They watch the light approach to within 400 feet, where it hovers at treetop level. It appears to be half the size of the house. Three smaller objects come from behind it and travel southeast, apparently landing in a swampy area near a manufacturing plant. The woman and children run toward the object on foot, while the boyfriend jumps in a car to pursue it. At one point he sees the object hovering above a small lake less than 200 feet away. But within seconds it vanishes. All four witnesses later experience eye irritation, and the boyfriend’s face and hands turn red and feel sore. (MUFON UFO Journal, April 1984) November 29 — Robert Sarbacher replies to a query by UFO researcher William S. Steinman about crash-retrievals in the late 1940s. He confirms he was “invited to participate in several discussions associated with the reported recoveries” of UFOs, although he was unable to attend the meetings. He described the retrieved saucer material as “extremely light and very tough,” and he had heard that the aliens “were constructed like certain insects we have on Earth.” (Dolan II 320; Good Above, pp. 525 – 526 )

December — A witness walking his dogs at Sherlocks Farm in Groombridge, East Sussex, England, sees a triangular UFO with an orange light at each apex. It makes a low droning sound as it passes by. (Marler 137) December 7 — 9:00 p.m. A woman and her son and daughter stop at the Pioneer Road exit off I-43 near Cedarburg, Wisconsin, to watch a brightly lit object silently descend and maneuver in front of them for 5–6 minutes. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 1 (Feb./March 1984): 5; Richard Heiden, Jeffrey Paul, and Donald Schmitt, “CE-I with an ‘Orgy’ of Lights,” IUR 9, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1984): 8–9, 15) December 12 — 6:30 p.m. Mike and Jeff Goodwin and Robert Blanchard are driving in Byron, Illinois, when they see a triangular “falling star” that starts moving horizontally at treetop level. At one point it seems to nearly collide with a similar object. They both have blinking red and white lights. (Doris and Joe Graziano, “Press Reports,” APRO Bulletin 32, no. 6 (September 1984): 8) December 14 — 8:00 p.m. Realtor Antônio Nelso Tasca is driving about 4 miles north of Chapecó, Santa Catarina, Brazil, when he feels compelled to turn onto a dirt road. After about 5 minutes he encounters a white and green object like a bus about 33 feet long and 10 feet high in the road ahead. He stops 100 feet from it, turns off the headlights and engine, and walks toward it. It has 10 squarish windows and is floating just above the ground. A few feet away he begins to feel heat and decides to return to his car. Suddenly a beam of white-red light strikes him and somehow pulls him toward the object. He wakes up inside the UFO and an abduction scenario takes place, compete with sex with a light-haired alien female who says her name is Cabala. She gives him a message warning that continued deployment of nuclear weapons will lead to bad things for Earth. Tasca wakes up around 6:00 a.m. at a different spot from where he had the encounter. A medical examination reveals a strange burn on his ribs and other odd marks on his backbone. (Brazil 303– 311 ; Patrick Gross, URECAT, March 15, 2007) December 27 — 10:30 p.m. A small disc-shaped object with eight green lights lands in an open field across the street from the home of a witness in Indianapolis, Indiana. After 10 seconds, the lights go out. The witness continues to watch from her home for an hour before retiring. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 1 (Feb./March 1984): 5)

December 30 — 6:30 p.m. Four witnesses are driving along Illinois Highway 70 near Eddie Road about 8 miles northwest of Rockford, Illinois, when a red domed-shaped object emerges from what looks like an explosion and moves to the south. It vanishes when it reaches an unusual configuration of parallel stars. (“Letter,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 4 (Aug./Sept. 1984): 2)

1984

1984 — Daniel Kagan and Ian Summers publish a 500-page book titled Mute Evidence, arguing that animal mutilations are a made-up mystery. Only veterinary pathologists, not regular veterinarians, are truly qualified to determine the cause of an animal’s death, they write. They do admit there are some real mutilations of two kinds: copycat incidents where pranksters cut up the bodies of already dead cattle, and ritualistic killings by cult members. The latter incidents occur mostly in Idaho. (Daniel Kagan and Ian Summers, Mute Evidence, Bantam, 1984; Clark III 140 – 141 ) 1984 — UK researcher Hilary Evans publishes Visions, Apparitions, Alien Visitors, which equates a wide range of entity experiences, including UFO events, and explains them all as psychosocial manifestations because percipients psychologically need them for some reason. He follows up with a sequel in 1987. (Hilary Evans, Visions, Apparitions, Alien Visitors, Aquarian, 1984; Hilary Evans, Gods, Spirits, Cosmic Guardians, Aquarian, 1987; Clark III 943– 945 ) 1984 — UFO Research Australia is formed as an informal information-exchanging network. (Keith Basterfield, Vladimir Godic, and Pony Godic, “Australian Ufology: A Review,” JUFOS 2 (1990): 34) 1984 — A Hispanic male living in the Reseda neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, encounters odd lights in his house and missing time. Although not his first abduction experience, his memories are uncovered through hypnosis sessions conducted by parapsychologist D. Scott Rogo, who gives him the pseudonym of “Sammy Desmond.” The case is significant for the marks on the witness’s body and the many sexual elements of the story. (D. Scott Rogo, “The Abduction of Sammy Desmond,” IUR 12, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1987): 4– 13 , reprinted by Aileen Garoutte, “The Abduction of Sammy Desmond” and “The Abduction of Sammy Desmond, Final,” UFOexperiences, July 5 and 7, 2005) 1984 — The F-117 completes testing at Tonopah Test Range in Nevada and begins formal operations under the 4450th Tactical Group. The 4450th is absorbed by the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing in 1989. In 1992, the entire fleet is transferred to Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, under the command of the 49th Fighter Wing. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk”) 1984 — 9:45 p.m. Brazilian Air Force Col. Marcelo Hecksher of the 1st Squadron of the 10th Aviation Group (Poker Squadron) is flying back to Santa Maria Air Force Base from Rio de Janeiro. When he begins descent preparations over the city of Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, he notices a strong, slightly bluish light on his right. Radar in Curitiba and Santa Maria do not have it on their scopes. The light then accelerates forward, rises, and disappears. (Clark III 207– 208 ; Brazil 557–559) 1984 — An antiaircraft defense system near Astrakhan, Russia, tracks a spherical object flying along the Caspian Sea coast at 6,500 feet. It does not respond to radio contact. Two fighters are scrambled but they fail to catch up with it. When the pilots fire at the UFO, it descends to 325 feet. When it approaches Krasnovodsk [now Türkmenbaşy], Turkmenistan, a helicopter gunship is scrambled to make another attempt to shoot the object, which then ascends to a height beyond the copter’s capabilities. The UFO then heads for the Caspian Sea and disappears from sight. (Vadim K. Ilyin, “KGB’s ‘Blue Folder’ Reveals Shootings, Landings in USSR,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 403 (November 2001): 8; “KGB Blue Folder,” Above Top Secret forum, November 1, 2005; Good Need, pp. 353 – 354 )

January — Project Hessdalen sends out a report form to 3,300 households in and around Hessdalen valley, Norway. January — Seven oil field workers in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, see a silvery disc flying at a high altitude. (Stars and Stripes, January 28, 1984; “U.S. Armed Forces Publication Tells of Lebanon UFO,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 2 (April/May 1984): 8) January — A luminous triangle preceded by a flashing light passes over Guildford, Surrey, England, silently moving to the east. (Marler 137) January 3 — 4:14 a.m. A woman wakes up in her home near Port Washington, Wisconsin, when a bright light shines through the bedroom window. She sees a strange object with three circular lights in a fixed position about 50 feet from the shore of Lake Michigan. The center light, as bright as a searchlight, rotates north, casting an illumination on the water, which is seen to be turbulent. All three lights are rotating clockwise around a 30-foot body. She

wakes up her husband, who suggests that it is a Coast Guard helicopter. But the object is completely silent. After a short time, a smaller object also with three lights appears over the first one, hovers a few minutes, then disappears. The searchlight periodically shines directly in the window. The object moves about 20– 30 feet then hovers there another 10–15 minutes. At 5:15 a.m., it moves away and disappears to the southeast. The woman goes back to bed, but soon feels a powerful electric shock penetrate her body with a buzzing sound. (Donald R. Schmitt and Richard W. Heiden, “People Who Live in Glass Houses…See UFOs,” IUR 9, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1984): 3, 16) January 8 — 3:15 a.m. Three people are traveling southeast in a van at mile marker 236 on I-80 southeast of Cozad, Nebraska, when the highway lights up and they see a huge disc as big as a baseball diamond 75–100 feet above and slightly to the right of the road. Bright lights are evenly spaced around the rim, most of them white, but others pink or blue. As the car passes it at a slow speed, they can detect no motion and can hear no sound. They attempt to communicate by Citizens Band radio, but the radio picks up strange interference like an “intermittent bleeping.” (J. Allen Hynek, “Nebraska Close Encounter,” IUR 9, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1984): 10– 12 ; “Addendum to Nebraska Encounter,” IUR 9, no. 3 (May/June 1984): 3) January 9 — 10:30 p.m. Two witnesses driving on State Highway 208 near Hawthorne, New Jersey, see an object with lights descend then move away from their car. After driving another 300 feet they spot another object over the road. They drive directly under the object, which is moving slowly at an altitude of 200 feet. The driver pulls over, and the object moves toward the first UFO. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 1 (Feb./March 1984): 5) January 20 — 9:30 p.m. A mother and two children are driving near Jasper, New York, when they see a large, gold, oval object that seems to be pacing their car. It lands on a nearby ridge and after a few seconds ascends into the sky. It repeats this maneuver several times, speeding up and slowing down when she does the same. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” IUR 9, no. 2 (March/April 1984): 7) January 2 1 – February 26 — Project Hessdalen sets up three fieldwork stations, the primary one on Aspaskjolen mountain, and two smaller ones at Hersjøen and Litlefjellet, Norway. This group secures technical assistance from the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment, the University of Oslo, and the University of Bergen. Over the course of one month, investigators see numerous lights, take photos of many of them, and track them instrumentally. On three occasions, lights are seen visually and tracked on radar simultaneously, casting a reflection on the radar screen so strong that a Norwegian defense expert later says that if that is not a solid object, then it must be a “strongly ionized gas.” One of the lights is tracked moving at 19,000 mph. On another occasion, a light under constant visual observation shows up on radar only on every second sweep. In most instances (33 in all), when radar shows something, the eye or a camera sees nothing. On two occasions the researchers direct a laser beam on passing lights. Out of a total of nine times, the lights respond all but once in a curious way, changing from a regular flashing light to a double-flashing light. The total number of sightings in this period is 188, although some may be attributable to passing aircraft. Only four of the photos taken through the special lens grating come out well enough to show light spectra, and only two of these are useful for analysis. Changes in the magnetic field are recorded in 40% of the sightings, but the Geiger counter and infrared viewer prove unhelpful. Researchers categorize the phenomenon into three different types: a white or blue-white flashing light, high in the air; a yellow light with a red light on the top, sometimes flashing; and a slow-moving, yellow or white light that maneuvers, stops for an hour or more, and continues maneuvering. (“Project Hessdalen” website; “Description of the Phenomena,” Project Hessdalen; Erling Strand, “Project Hessdalen 1984: Final Technical Report,” Project Hessdalen, January 5, 1985; “Hessdalen: 18 February 1984,” Project Hessdalen; “Project Hessdalen: 1984,” Project Hessdalen; “Norway Lights Continue: Update on Project Hessdalen,” IUR 9, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1984): 9, 12; Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, p. 90; Clark III 572– 573 ) January 22 — 7:09 a.m. A witness in Huntington, West Virginia, observes a brilliant orange ball of light about 900 feet hovering above a neighbor’s house. Its glow illuminates the ground. After a minute, it speeds away to the west. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” IUR 9, no. 2 (March/April 1984): 7) January 22 — 7:25 a.m. The cabin crew of United Flight 729 is flying westbound 30 miles east of Toledo, Ohio, at 43,000 feet. They see a blurry, bright-red object the size of a DC-9 move from northeast to southwest for a few seconds. It leaves a contrail that they pass through. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” IUR 9, no. 2 (March/April 1984): 7) January 22 — 7:00 p.m. A young couple parking near Waycross, Georgia, spot a large object approaching their car at treetop level. It crosses a logging road near their car, goes across an open area to a stand of trees, then turns around. The driver begins speeding away, but the object moves directly over the car. It has an L-shaped light pattern on its underside with two red lights and one green light. The glow from the red light illuminates the car

interior. The object follows them for about 75 down a county road before it moves away at high speed. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” IUR 9, no. 2 (March/April 1984): 7) January 22 — 7:00 p.m. Two witnesses in a car in Arnold, Missouri, see a circular object with three brilliant white lights and a corona of white light surrounding it. As it approaches the car, the driver makes an evasive turn, only to have the object pace them within 150 feet for 3 minutes. A vertical shaft of light comes from the top of the object. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” IUR 9, no. 2 (March/April 1984): 7) January 27 — 5:40 a.m. Four witnesses at Valley Center, California, see five stationary white lights in the northern sky about 2 miles away. Four are in a diamond formation while the fifth is in the center. After watching the display for several minutes, they notice smaller white lights maneuvering around the larger ones. They seem to increase to as many as 100. Suddenly the formation, small lights as well, moves away to the northwest and the witnesses can hear a soft humming sound. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” IUR 9, no. 2 (March/April 1984): 7) January 27 — 6:15 a.m. Two boys delivering papers in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, see a circular object with lights around its edge hovering above houses about two blocks away. After a few seconds it ascends at a 45° angle. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” IUR 9, no. 2 (March/April 1984): 7) January 28 — 6:30 p.m. A young couple in Flemington, New Jersey, notice an orange ball descending through the cloud layer and appear to land on a ridge behind the tree line. At 6:50 a.m., the husband sees a bright object ascend from the same ridge, pause in mid-air, then move away horizontally in the distance. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” IUR 9, no. 2 (March/April 1984): 7) January 30 — 9:00 p.m. Nine men working on an oil platform in the Big Cypress National Preserve about 40 miles west of Miami, Florida, see a bright orange object descending at a high rate of speed about five miles away. At about 10,000 feet, it comes to an instant stop. The orange glow fades and they can see an object with a chrome dome and dozens of flashing lights on the underside. All witness estimate it to be at least 200 feet in diameter. It remains stationary for 10 seconds, turns orange again, and speeds away to the east. Witnesses in Jensen Beach and the Miami area also see the object. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” IUR 9, no. 2 (March/April 1984): 7)

February — The Commission for the Investigation of Anomalous Atmospheric Phenomena is established in Moscow, Russia, although its announcement in the West is delayed until May. Affiliated with the Committee for the Protection of Natural Environment of the All-Union Council of Scientific Technical Societies, the commission is made up of scientists and academicians and is headed by former cosmonaut Pavel Popovich, who tells the trade union newspaper Trud that there have been hundreds of reports in Russia each year, most of which can be explained away. (Good Above, p. 243 ) February — The Centro Ufologico Nazionale begins a newsletter, Notizie C.U.N., to replace Quaderni UFO. It is edited by Gian Paolo Grassino in Turin, Italy, and continues until September 1985. (Notizie C.U.N., no. 0 (February 1984)) February — Night. The commander of a group of soldiers in the 103rd Regiment guarding warehouses at Przasnysz Airfield, Poland, sees a light silently coming in his direction. It is attached to a huge oval object 70 – 100 feet across that is moving soundlessly 150 feet above the ground. He and his assistant feel unexplained terror and paralysis, remaining rooted to the spot. Noticing a light at its rear end, he considers taking an AK-47 and shooting it out, but receives a mental command not to do so or he would be paralyzed. (Poland 67) February 7 — 4:00 a.m. A witness in Atco, New Jersey, awakes to a loud humming sound and finds his room illuminated by a bright light. He goes to the window and sees a bright circular object with a hump on top in a stationary position about four feet above his neighbor’s yard and 200 feet away. It is about the size of a small car. A human- like “image” is standing next to it, but that vanishes and the object ascends in a zigzag pattern, then moves away at a high rate of speed. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” IUR 9, no. 2 (March/April 1984): 7) February 20 — 6:12 p.m. Leif Havik is standing in the snow outside the Project Hessdalen headquarters on Aspaskjolen, Norway, when a red light flies around his feet and disappears. It is also witnessed by Age Moe. (Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, p. 90) February 22– 23 — Night. Witnesses in Flushing, Michigan, see objects with triangular lighting patterns that shine beams of light to the ground. The lights approach the car of one witness who sees they are part of a cigar-shaped object 100 feet above the ground. A jogger reports a light so intense that it hurts his eyes. Another witness sees an object with triangular-shaped lights hovering less than 200 feet above the ground, illuminating the area behind her house and panicking her cats. Two more objects pass above her house. Investigator Shirley Coyne locates 12 people who have seen the lights, but only three will fill out a report. (MUFON UFO Journal, April 1984) February 23 — 4:00 p.m. Five witnesses, all with PhDs, report an upside-down-ice-cream-cone-shaped object over the Ohio State University campus in Columbus, Ohio. It seems to be surrounded with a fog, but it changes its appearance about every 60 seconds, at one point looking rectangular. It is seen for 20 minutes, heading in the

direction of Port Columbus Airport [now John Glenn Columbus International Airport]. (Irena Scott, “Description of an Aerial Anomaly Viewed over Columbus, Ohio,” Ohio Journal of Science 88, no. 2 (1988): 23; Irena Scott, “UFO Studies in the Scientific Literature,” IUR 15, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1990): 18) Late February — 3:30 a.m. A driver in Everett, Washington, sees a huge, silvery green, egg-shaped object moving toward his car from a wooded area. Within a few seconds it bounces from one side of the road to the other, passing over his car. (MUFON UFO Journal, April 1984) February 29 — 9:00 p.m. A woman in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, sees a dark, diamond-shaped object approach her at no more than 50 feet above the ground. White lights are at the front and back, blinking red lights at the sides, and smaller lights between each of the four points. It is “longer than a tractor trailer and wide as two tractor trailers.” It wobbles and passes over trees to the southwest. (MUFON UFO Journal, April 1984)

March 4 — The UK Ministry of Defence, for the first time ever, releases UFO reports to the public. Sixteen reports, most of which are severely redacted and missing key data, are sent to the British UFO Research Association. When he is asked about possible landing cases, such as the 1980 Rendlesham incident, Defence Undersecretary for Procurement John Lee replies that these are not distinguished from other reports of aerial phenomena. In any event, he says, “none of these reports was of any defence significance.” (Good Above, pp. 112 – 113 ; Nick Pope, Open Skies, Closed Minds, Simon & Schuster, 1996 , Appendix 1) March 6 — 10:00 p.m. Two police officers, Tom Jensen and Gary Myers, watch a large boomerang or U-shaped UFO west of Norris, South Dakota, after having been alerted by a citizen 10 minutes earlier. At its closest approach, Myers sees it as a pattern of lights in an inverted L pattern. As it passes, it blocks out the sky and stars. (J. Allen Hynek, “A CE-I, a Lonely Road, a Starry Night,” IUR 9, no. 3 (May/June 1984): 6–9) March 9 — MP Patrick Wall asks in the UK House of Commons that the Secretary of State for Defence provide statistics on UFO landings, unexplained cases, and radar sightings for 1980–1983. John Lee responds that there were 350 UFO reports in 1980 (dodging the question of whether or not the MoD could identify them), 600 in 1981, 250 in 1982, and 390 in 1983. (Good Above, p. 113 ) March 11 — After 12:00 midnight. A mother and her daughter see a large cylindrical object just a few feet away through the window of their home in Wolcott, Connecticut. For 7 minutes it hovers about 7 feet above the ground, then moves away silently. (MUFON UFO Journal. April 1984) March 21 — 7:45 p.m. A truck driver driving on Interstate 87 south of Albany, New York, sees a boomerang-shaped UFO about 100 feet altitude that looks larger than a Boeing 747. It has red, white, and green lights. It paces his truck for five minutes then vanishes. (NightSiege 71 – 73) March 21 — 8:00 p.m. A mother and daughter driving south on Perry Road near Claxton, Georgia, notice an unusual light through the trees. As they top a hill, they slow the car to a near stop when they see three boomerang-shaped objects, with wings pointing downward, hovering above a field. Each has two bright lights in the top center and a row of small, multicolored lights that blink in rapid sequence. One object is larger (at least 40 feet wide) than the others and moves over their car in perfect silence. Its underside appears dark metallic. (“Local Woman, Daughter Report ‘Close Encounter,’” Claxton (Ga.) Enterprise, March 29, 1984, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 177 (April 1984): 6) March 24 — 5:50 a.m. Five nuns at the Sainte-Marie Cistercian Abbey in Boulaur, Gers, France, see a bright oval object about 16 feet long and 6.5 feet tall from the first-floor balcony. It is hovering at first, then starts moving up and down and right and left “at the speed of lightning.” It stops about 100 feet above the cemetery and 325 feet away from the witnesses. There is no sound. Then it takes off in the direction it came from. (Groupe d’Études et d’Informations sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés, “Notes d’Enquête, Boulaur (32) 24.03.1984,” June 30, 2014; Swords 447) March 25 — 8:55 p.m. A driver in Santa Monica, California, sees a bright red ball of light, about 10 inches in diameter, maneuvering around her car with a bouncing motion. It approaches to within a foot of her car, lighting up the hood and windows for one minute. (MUFON UFO Journal, April 1984) March 25 — Night. Hundreds of people see low-flying lights over the Taconic State Parkway near Peekskill, New York. The lights seem to be attached to a slow-moving, boomerang-shaped object with six intense white lights and a green light in the center. A photographer estimates the object is about 300 feet long and flying at 30 mph. It moves over some water and the lights go out. He videotapes the incident, but nothing shows up on the tape. (NightSiege 78 – 83) March 28 — 8:00 p.m. A triangular object passes above a car in West Nottingham, New Hampshire, at an altitude of 50 feet. It has two bright lights and is silent. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” APRO Bulletin 32, no. 3 (May 1984): 5)

Spring — A Soviet pilot in a MiG-23 is scrambled to intercept an object flying at supersonic speed from north to south over the Mikha Tskhakaya Airfield south of Senaki, Georgia. The MiG-23, flying at 16,400 feet in full afterburner at Mach 1.2, is unable to close in on the object. By the time the interceptor is approaching the coastline of the Black Sea, it is flying at Mach 1.6. The pilot activates his infrared search and track system when he is 7.5 miles away from the target and sees the largest “bloom” he has ever encountered. By the time he reaches Mach 2, he has to break off due to lack of fuel, never having acquired a visual target. (Good Need, pp. 352 – 353 , 365 ) April 10 — Night. While driving down a country road near Rhinelander, Wisconsin, two witnesses see a stationary, cigar- shaped object about 225 feet from the roadway. It has a row of lighted windows, and several spokes protrude from the surface. Each spoke has a white light on the tip. While hovering at treetop level, the object pivots 360° and then stops. After observing it for 4 minutes, the witnesses drive past it and go home. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” IUR 9, no. 3 (May/June 1984): 16) April 12 — 2:10 a.m. Air traffic control radar at Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados tracks a large group of unknown targets moving at about 100 mph in “loose but distinct formation” 30 miles southeast of the island. Authorities notify Prime Minister Tom Adams, the Barbados Defense Force, and the police commissioner. The BDF is put on Red Alert. By 2:20 a.m., the formation is 14 miles off the coast when two targets veer off to the island’s west side, two others move to the east, while the remainder keep on moving north. Police are deployed to the beaches. At 3:30 a.m., the BDF launches a patrol boat and scrambles a Cessna but does not find anything. Radar is still tracking objects at 4:00 a.m. over the northern part of the island. By 4:10 a.m., they disappear to the west. A temperature inversion is a possible cause. (“1984: UFOs Place Barbados Defence Force on Full Alert, This Really Happened,” Notes from the Margin, March 13, 2008) April 13 — 10:00 p.m. While boating on a lake near Gainesville, Florida, two witnesses see a stationary oval-shaped object at an altitude of 100 feet about 300 feet from their boat. The object shines a cone of bright white light onto the surface of the water. After about 3 minutes, it hovers out of sight behind some trees. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” IUR 9, no. 3 (May/June 1984): 16) April 15 — 12:00 midnight. Some 20 witnesses (farm workers, a police officer, venture scouts) at Llangernyw, North Wales, see a pink-orange ball that drifts to the ground and explodes in a shower of purple sparks. Out of the shower emerges a white disc that appears to land out of sight behind a ridge. A large army helicopter and two military trucks apparently perform a search of the area beginning at daylight. (Jenny Randles, “Anatomy of a UFO Wave,” IUR 11, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1986): 4–5) April 18 — 9:30 p.m. A married couple is driving on a road near RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, England, when they come upon a huge rectangular object straddling the road ahead. It has at least 60 lights arrayed in rows on its frame. Red and green lights are at its edges, but the majority are white. The object remains absolutely still and silent about 100 feet in the air. They are anxious to get home, so they do not see the object leave. (Jenny Randles, “Anatomy of a UFO Wave,” IUR 11, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1986): 5) April 19 — 8:05 p.m. A family in Llano, Texas, watches a huge dome-shaped object pass over their house at an altitude of only 200 feet. It has red lights around it. A jet aircraft appears to be pursuing it. The mother says she can hear a humming sound coming from it. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” IUR 9, no. 3 (May/June 1984): 16) April 20 — 10:04 p.m. Four people in a car in Beaverton, Oregon, see a large, pulsating, yellow light high in the sky. The driver stops, and a small, bright-blue object comes into view, moving toward the yellow object at high speed. Suddenly, a “fast red thing” shoots out of the blue object and knocks the yellow object in half, one part disintegrating and the other part falling to the ground. Two other objects, yellow and blue, appear with the blue object chasing and apparently shooting down the yellow object. The blue object then climbs at a high speed vertically and vanishes in the clouds. The observation lasts 20 minutes. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” IUR 9, no. 3 (May/June 1984): 16) April 22 — 10:10 p.m. A woman and her mother are watching TV at a trailer park in Saltfleet, Lincolnshire, England, when they see a dome-shaped object with circle of white lights, a small group of red lights above, and a brilliant white light on top. It is hovering nearby and about 500 feet in the air. More lights turn on and the object begins to revolve. As its speed increases, the colors blend into one another. The object moves away to the south, but over the next hour it circles the trailer park in wide loops that take it several miles out to sea before returning over their heads. It switches a searchlight beam off and on. The woman’s two dogs are looking fearfully at the UFO. At one point the object drops to 100 feet and hovers in absolute silence above the witnesses. The searchlight comes from two headlight beams projecting forward. The UFO has a “smoky glass” dome on top. Dogs are howling for miles around. The object switches off all but four of its lights and climbs vertically before heading out to sea to circle for a few more minutes. (“The Saltfleet Encounter,” Northern UFO News, no. 113 (May/June 1985): 10–11; Jenny Randles, “Anatomy of a UFO Wave,” IUR 11, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1986): 7)

April 25 — 6:00 p.m. A woman is in her garden at Blairgowrie, Scotland, working on a tapestry when her dog leaps up and runs indoors. A ball of light appears in the air and seems to enter her body. She is blinded for a few seconds but feels calm. A white cloud rises from her head and hovers above some bushes. It blinks twice and climbs into the sky toward a large silvery object shaped like a house key. The cloud moves along the length of the key, flashing and lighting up bits in turn. She calls her son, who arrives just as the UFO sways from side to side and vanishes in a sudden pink flash. (Jenny Randles, “Anatomy of a UFO Wave,” IUR 11, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1986): 7– 8) April 25 — 9:55 p.m. Three witnesses driving on American Canyon Road south of Napa, California, see a huge triangular object the size of a football field hovering 100 feet above the road. They drive beneath it, and after 5 minutes the object moves out of sight. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 195 (May/June 1984 ): 11; Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” IUR 9, no. 3 (May/June 1984): 16) April 26 — On a visit to the 6513th Test Squadron, Red Hats at Groom Lake, Nevada, USAF Lt. Gen. Robert M. Bond requests to fly a MiG-23 BN fighter-bomber, a newly acquired supersonic Soviet aircraft flown for testing. Instead of the usual 2 weeks of training, Bond is given a cursory briefing while sitting inside the cockpit with an instructor. Just as he is flying at 40,000 feet and over Mach 2 speed, a hydromechanical inhibitor activates, preventing him from disengaging the afterburner. Bond loses control, makes a distress call, and is killed while ejecting. The MiG-23 crashes on Jackass Flats in Area 25, still contaminated from NERVA rocket testing. Bond’s body is discovered by a USAF sergeant on his way to work, who removes the rank insignia from Bond’s flight suit with a pocketknife before going to get help. The USAF does not confirm or deny that Bond was flying a MiG when he died and states that he was flying “an Air Force specially modified test craft,” but it leaks the information on the MiG testing program to journalist Fred Hoffman. There are fears that the publicity will also lead to the exposure of the F- 117 program, still secret and also based at Tonopah, but this does not happen. (Wikipedia, “Robert M. Bond”) April 26 — 9:45 p.m. Terri West spots an odd light in the sky from her home on Belmont Lane, Stanmore, Greater London, England. At 10:15 p.m., she joins her neighbors Ruth and Bruno Novelli to watch the light, which is moving back and forth and constantly changing colors from blue to green to pink. Soon it emits a large ball of light that shoots toward the ground. The witnesses call the police at 10:22 p.m. A team of police arrives and watches the object for about 2 hours. Police Constable Richard Milthorp says the light is originally at 45° but after 15 minutes it moves up and to the right. He draws a sketch of the object, which is circular in the middle with a dome above and below. It has different colored lights on the top and bottom. One of the officers takes photos, but they do not come out well. Some others chase the UFO by car, but it is already fading from view. (Good Above, pp. 114 – 115 ; UFOFiles2, p. 130) April 27 — 9:45 p.m. Linda Braga and her daughter Piper see a starlike object that follows their car along West Ridge Road in Cornville, Maine. About 35–45 feet in diameter, the red and yellow object comes almost within touching distance. When they reach their driveway, it backs off and hovers above a field, then moves around to the other side of the house. It disappears in the distance. (“Recently Received Sighting Reports,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 5, no. 5 (Oct./Nov. 1984): 4)

May 2 — Australian Minister of Defence Gordon Scholes announces that the RAAF will fully investigate only those UFO sightings that “suggest a defence or national security implication.” (Bill Chalker, “The North West Cape Incident: UFOs and Nuclear Alert in Australia,” IUR 11, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1986): 11; Good Above, p. 182 ; Swords 408–409) May 4– 6 — The Centro Ufologico Nazionale holds its Third International Congress in Genoa, Italy. Speakers include J. Allen Hynek, Roberto Pinotti, and Antonio Ribera. (Roberto Pinotti, “Italian Report,” IUR 9, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1984): 3, 16; 2Pinotti 70) May 5 — 2:55 a.m. A witness in Piedmont, South Carolina, hears a loud pulsating sound and looks out the window in time to see a large metallic object passing above his house at about 750 feet. Described as bigger than an Air Force C-5A transport, the object is shaped like a flattened football. A car stops along the road, and the driver gets out to watch it. All of the dogs in the neighborhood are howling as it is in view for 2 minutes. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” IUR 9, no. 3 (May/June 1984): 16) May 5 — 7:30 p.m. An ultrasensitive orbiting US Defense Support Program spy satellite detects the entry of an unknown object that passes 15 miles in front of it only 1.8 miles away, and then flies below it over the Indian Ocean. The encounter lasts 9 minutes. An alert is triggered at NORAD. The object is moving at 22,000 mph, changes course, and flies back into outer space. (NICAP, “DSP Satellite Tracks Fast Walker”; Ronald S. Regehr, How to Build a $125 Million UFO Detector, 1998, pp. 27–28, 84) May 5 — 9:45 p.m. Five workers on a garbage truck are near the Rio Seco, Tucumán, Argentina, when they see a strange light like a fireball. The truck stops, and later it is found that the fuses have burnt out. The upper part of the object

is giving off a red light and the lower part a blue light, and it hovers above the truck for 20 seconds. It then moves away silently and disappears. Residents of Rio Seco also see the light, which illuminates the village. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 19) May 6 — 10:30 p.m. A 13-year-old boy is washing out dog pens in Williston, Florida, when he hears a humming sound behind him. The dogs start whimpering and running around the pens. Suddenly, the area turns red and looking up, the boy sees a bright red circular object that hovers for about 5 seconds at only 20 feet altitude before it shoots across a field and stops again. He goes inside to get his mother, who sees the object moving across the field before vanishing. The dogs remain agitated afterward. (Bob Gribble, “UFO Hotline Reports,” IUR 9, no. 3 (May/June 1984): 16) May 29 — J. Allen Hynek gives a presentation on “Properties of the UFO Phenomenon” at a special session on “The Edges of Science” of the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in New York City. He presents a summary of 400 UFO cases by responsible witnesses, “some of whom were independent of each other but observed the same event (and sometimes in daylight) which defied both common sense and common physical sense.” (J. Allen Hynek, “The UFO Phenomenon,” IUR 9, no. 4 (July/August 1984): 3–5, 16) May 29 — A huge disc with a flat base and two vast searchlights passes silently over Fairy Cottage, near Laxey, Isle of Man. (Jenny Randles, “Mysterious Island: The UFO Legacy of the Isle of Man,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 14) May 31 — 8:15 p.m. A V-shaped formatio60659gme n of 15 lights, estimated to be the size of a Boeing 747 airliner if all are connected to one object, passes directly over the home of John Burdett, an IBM engineer in Hawthorne, New York. It makes no sound as it passes overhead except for a faint humming. All lights simultaneously turn blue and then it makes a tight 180-degree turn and flies off to the north. At 8:30 p.m., the object is seen from Route 117 in Pleasantville, New York, and follows a car down the Taconic State Parkway. At 8:45 p.m., David Boyd in Yorktown, New York, sees a V-shaped formation of lights turn and fly away to the west. (Philip J. Imbrogno, “More Nocturnal Lights,” IUR 9, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1984): 6– 8 )

Summer —Day. A Mrs. Danuta takes her 2-year-old son to a playground in the Podwisłocze district of Rzeszów, Poland. A green-metallic object with a bright cupola 8 feet tall approaches, brushing a tree, and the woman picks up her son and hides behind a tree. It is making a loud noise and hovering 30–50 feet above the ground. It then moves toward some nearby apartments, shoots up, and disappears. (Poland 59) June 14 — 10:15 p.m. New York State Power Authority security police at the Indian Point Nuclear Plant near Buchanan, New York, watch 10 or more bright lights arranged in a boomerang pattern hovering for about 15 minutes a quarter mile away. Behind them is a dark mass about 300 feet long that blocks out the lights of a plane that flies behind it. (Philip J. Imbrogno, “Incident at Indian Point,” UFO Evidence; Clark III 1278 ; NightSiege 162 – 164 ) Mid-June — 4:10 p.m. Seaman Alexander Globa and mate of the watch Sergey Bolotov are beginning their watch on board the Russian tanker Gori in the Mediterranean Sea 20 nautical miles east of Gibraltar. They see what seems to be an airplane with its landing lights on and flying toward them at an altitude of 4,920 feet about 2 miles away. It is shaped like a “frying pan turned upside down” with a shiny, metallic surface. It emits bright, irregular flashes of light. In two minutes it reaches the ship’s position, turns south, and keeps pace with the ship, gyrating for 3 minutes. The object is perfectly round and about 75 feet in diameter. There is a round, black spot on the bottom, and a cylindrical “tailpipe” is seen at the junction of two segments that are rotating in opposite directions. At 4:20 p.m., another ship approaches to the left, and the object flies quickly toward it and hovers above it. Capt. Sokolovsky contacts the vessel, an Egyptian dry cargo ship enroute to Greece, and it confirms the presence of the UFO. After 90 seconds it quickly moves back to the Gori, ascends at an angle of 40°–45°, veers to the right, and eventually disappears. Total duration of the sighting is 12 minutes. (Sergey Romanav, “Disk with Rotating Cupola Observed near Straits of Gibraltar by Russian Ship in 1984,” IUR 18, no. 3 (May/June 1993): 17–18; Paul Stonehill, “Questions about a Russian Case,” IUR 18, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1993): 21; Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, pp. 69 – 70 ) June 21 — 9:30 p.m. Investigators Dick Ruhl and Richie Petracca are on Interstate 84 in Dutchess County, New York, when they see a brilliant white wedge-shaped object floating and turning in the sky. The lights suddenly turn red, and as the object continues to turn, they see red, green-blue, and white lights. They stop and get binoculars out, then notice another object on the left. Both objects glide slowly and maneuver, constantly changing from white as they approach, and to red as they turn away. They finally form up into a boomerang shape. Ruhl and Petracca suspect they are seeing the “Stormville pilots,” so they drive to the Stormville airport. After waiting in the snack bar a short time, people see lights in the direction of the Green Haven Correctional Facility. It turns out they are six Cessna Skyhawks, apparently with mufflers on the engines, and they land one by one on a nearby runway. Ruhl photographs the serial number of one of the planes, N76106. (Dick Ruhl, Richie Petracca, Sal Giamusso,

and Gerry Arena, “The Westchester Sightings,” APRO Bulletin 32, no. 6 (September 1984): 5–6; Philip J. Imbrogno. “The Hudson Valley Sightings: A Reply to Dick Ruhl and APRO,” IUR 10, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1985): 16) June 21 — 9:44 p.m. Witnesses see unidentified lights over the Wanaque Reservoir in New Jersey for more than two hours. The manager of a tavern on Ringwood Avenue in Haskell sees an egg-shaped object moving faster than a blimp. (“E.T. Circling Area?” Wayne (N.J.) Today, July 4, 1984, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 181 (August 1984), p. 7) June 25 — Night. A huge, slow-moving object with many lights is seen near Bethel, Connecticut, for 20 minutes. It looks like a big Ferris Wheel on its side. (NightSiege 98)

July — Prentice-Hall publishes Clear Intent by Lawrence Fawcett and Barry J. Greenwood, a history of Air Force, FBI, and CIA involvement in UFO investigations and secrecy, including many FOIA-released recent reports and documents. The book immediately sells out and is unavailable for most of the summer. A second printing in late August also sells out immediately. (Lawrence Fawcett and Barry J. Greenwood, Clear Intent: The Government Coverup of the UFO Experience, Prentice-Hall, 1984; George M. Eberhart, “‘Clear Intent’ Reviewed,” IUR 9, no. 4 (July/August 1984): 6–7, 16) July 10 — Four members of the Italian Parliament—Giancarlo Abete, Publio Fiori, Alessandro Scajola, and Martino Scovacricchi—present a question to the government on whether it would consider involving private and civilian experts as future consultants on UFOs. Minister of Defence Giovanni Spadolini emphasizes the role of the Italian Air Force in UFO investigations and denies the necessity to involve outsiders, although it does not rule out cooperation with Italy’s National Research Council. (2Pinotti 71) July 13 — 4:30 p.m. A mysterious object comes into view above Rzeszów, Poland, remaining stationary for a long time. A flight controller from Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport estimates it is at 6,500 feet and is slowly moving to the northwest. Mielec Airport air traffic controller Kasimierz Lubertowicz scrambles an Iskra jet trainer on a scouting mission. As pilot Henryk Bronowicki approaches the object at 24,600 feet, he realizes it is not a weather balloon and is moving away from him. He gives up the chase, but the object descends and he approaches it again, failing to reach it as it retreats. (Poland 74– 75 ; Arek Miazga, “Pilot kontra UFO nad Mielcem 13.07.1984,” Spotkania z Nieznanym, June 1, 2019) July 19 — 10:00–11:00 p.m. Police in Danbury, Bethel, Brookfield, and New Fairfield, Connecticut, receive reports of a low-flying, slow-moving object “as large as a football field.” It directs intense beams of light toward the ground and gives off heat felt by those beneath it. It has white lights in a circular pattern. (“Area Police Get Reports of UFOs,” Danbury (Conn.) News-Times, July 20, 1984, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 181 (August 1984), p. 1 ) July 24 — 9 :00 p.m. Security police at Indian Point Nuclear Plant at Buchanan, New York, again see a UFO with a semicircle of lights. The lights first flash yellow, then white, then blue. Far to the rear is a blinking red light. The dark mass behind the lights blocks out the stars as it approaches steadily. The plant’s movement-detecting sensors and alarm systems fail, as does the computer responsible for security and communications. By the time it gets to 500 feet away, the police can see an ice-cream-cone-shape and a solid body the length of three football fields. As it passes over the Unit 3 reactor, at one point getting as close as 30 feet, it is moving so slowly that the police can keep up with it by walking. An officer inside the plant watching security monitors is instructed to film the object using a camera atop a 95-foot pole; the camera has to pan almost 180° to cover the entire length of the object. One officer notices two hollow spheres or portals in the bottom. The UFO takes 5 minutes to pass over them. By the time the security police call Camp Smith, a National Guard base 10 miles away, and ask for an armed helicopter, the UFO is gone. Many other people in the area also report seeing the UFO over the plant. Police in Peekskill receive quite a few calls that evening. Police Sgt. Hoffman goes out to investigate and sees a giant UFO with more than a dozen white lights in a V formation slowly move toward the power plant. On July 25, the security guard supervisor tells them to forget what happened. Video and audio records of the event are removed, and in the next two days representatives of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission oversee a shakeup of the plant’s security operations. (Philip J. Imbrogno, “Incident at Indian Point,” UFO Evidence; Clark III 1278 ; NightSiege 159 – 168 ) July 24 — 10:20 p.m. Electronics executive Bob Pozzuoli shoots a videotape of a large object with a ring of 6 lights in the sky over Brewster, New York. It moves behind a pine tree then emerges as a string of rotating multicolored lights and a flashing red light in the rear. The video also shows airplanes flying in formation. The tape is analyzed by Lew Allen at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who is apparently unable to explain it adequately. (NightSiege 117 – 124)

August — J. Allen Hynek moves to Scottsdale, Arizona, from Evanston, Illinois, under the influence of entrepreneurs Tina Choate and Brian Myers, who introduce him to wealthy Englishman Jeffrey (or Geoffrey) Kaye with the

promise of funding a new UFO organization (the International Center for UFO Research in Phoenix), publications, and a TV series about Hynek’s life. The CUFOS office moves to Glenview, Illinois, where Sherman J. Larsen operates it. (“UFO Expert Moving to Arizona,” Chicago Tribune, August 21, 1984, Sec. 2, p. 1; Keith Basterfield, “Why Did J. Allen Hynek Move to Scottsdale?” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena—Scientific Research, October 8, 2017) August 20 — 9:00 p.m. Irene Lunn and her daughter are driving near Deer Trail Drive in Mahopac Falls, New York, when they notice triangle-shaped UFO with an unusual L-shaped tailpiece. They stop to observe it more carefully. The object has one red light, one green light, and eight white lights, and is moving south when it makes a sudden 90° turn and slowly moves toward them. They drive the short way home where they retrieve some binoculars. She can clearly see a dark, metallic object, which moves off to a neighbor’s yard and hovers. A rectangular object with white lights in each corner comes into view and moves in front of the first UFO for 5 seconds, then vanishes. The triangular object continues to hover, then silently moves off out of sight. (“Multiple Sightings in New York,” APRO Bulletin 32, no. 11 (May 1985): 1–2) August 23 — Afternoon. Military radar at Otopeni Airport [now Henri Coandă International Airport] near Bucharest, Romania, picks up a target flying above Alexeni Air Force Base [now closed] east of Urziceni at 13,000–14,700 feet. The target, the size of a small plane or helicopter, appears out of nowhere and is tracked by 4–5 different radars in separate locations on different frequencies. After 15 minutes, the object is spotted visually. Through a telescope it appears oval, metallic and shiny, and about 9 feet long. During its appearance, the base notices a strong interference on VHF and short wave radios. The target climbs and descends about 7–8 times to altitudes ranging from 6,500 feet to 34 miles as it moves west at speeds up to 7,450 mph, making zigzagging movements and turning at sharp angles. It is under observation for 40 minutes and is lost at a height of 62 miles as it disappears into space at 620 mph. (Romania 104–105) August 25 — Philip Imbrogno and Peter Gersten convene a public meeting on the Hudson Valley sightings in a middle school in Brewster, New York, and 1,500 people show up. Hynek attends, as well as news media, various people from the FBI, Air Force officers from Pease AFB [now Pease Air National Guard Base], and a mysterious man who has met with Imbrogno and claims to be from the National Security Agency. The Pozzuoli videotape is shown and 900 people fill out UFO sighting reports. (“Strange Sights Brighten the Night Skies Upstate,” New York Times, August 25, 1984, p. 25; NightSiege 135 – 147; MUFON UFO Journal, October 1984)

Late summer — 8:00 p.m. Kazimierz Lubertowicz, chief of air traffic control at Mielec airfield, Poland, reports that a pilot and 30–40 airfield workers and military personnel are watching a motionless red-orange light for 2 hours. It is actually floating very slowly to the southeast at an altitude of 1,300–1,600 feet. (Poland 68) September — Lawrence Fawcett and Barry Greenwood launch a new series of Just Cause newsletters to continue their documentation of government involvement in UFOs discussed in Clear Intent. The newsletter continues until November 1997. (Just Cause, new series, no. 1 (September 1984)) September — Marc Leduc begins publishing Bulletin d ’ Information Ufologique in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Quebec, until June 1986. (Bulletin d ’ Information Ufologique 1, no. 1 (September 1984)) September 2 —7:28 p.m. Physicist Bruce Maccabee is standing near the Light Street Pavilion in the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland, when he sees a black spot in the air to the southeast. It moves slowly north for 7 minutes at a steady rate until it disappears. (Bruce Maccabee, “‘Black Hole’ over Baltimore,” IUR 10, no. 2 (March/April 1985): 6–9) September 7 — 4:10 a.m. While approaching Minsk, Belarus, the pilots of a Soviet Aeroflot Tu-134 airliner are startled to see a strange, brightly glowing shape that appears to their right and follows their path closely for several minutes. The glowing object changes shape repeatedly, appearing first as rays, then concentric circles, then as a cloud, and finally as an amorphous mass. While copilot Gennady Lazurin sketches the object, Captain Igor Cherkashin contacts air traffic officials, who report that radar shows a strange “double” object, believed to be the airliner and the unidentified object. Years later, reports surface of a second flight crew traveling in the opposite direction who also see the glowing object. At the same time that the pilots in the first craft notice the UFO, a Soviet missile is launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Lazurin’s sketches of the object closely parallel sketches made by other witnesses at rocket launches, including amateur observers of the Soviet missile launch watching in Finland. (“Soviet Airliner Given ‘Escort’ by UFO,” Houston (Tex.) Chronicle, January 31, 1985, pp. 1, 10; Richard H. Hall, “Soviet Sky Spectacular,” IUR 11, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1986): 11–14; Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal Encounters behind the Iron Curtain, Quadrillion, 1998, pp. 88– 89 ; Good Above, pp 243 – 247 ; Dmitry Sudakov, “USSR’s Most Renowned UFO Sighting Linked to Ballistic Missile Launch?” Pravda, August 9, 2009)

Late September or early October — 9:00 p.m. Militia Capt. Boris Ivanovich Vladimirov is riding in the right seat of a patrol vehicle with another policeman in Bayramgulovo, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, when they notice an unusual triangular pattern of colored lights about 80 feet away on the right side of the road in a freshly plowed field. There are 11 lights on the left and right sides of the object and 13 lights up the center. The lights on the edge flash sequentially like a theater marquee. After a bit, all the lights turn off. The next day, Vladimirov returns to the field and finds three round depressions in the soil about 10 inches deep and 36 inches in diameter. They are at the corners of an equilateral triangle 26 feet apart. (Richard F. Haines, “CE2 in the Eastern Urals,” IUR 17, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1992): 11–13)

October — 11:45 p.m. Five witnesses, including missile technician Shamil Yuaihmetov, see a metallic cigar-shaped object slowly descending at a 45° angle near the Kattakurgan tactical nuclear missile base in Uzbekistan. It emits a hissing sound. The next day, three apparent landing-gear marks in an equilateral triangle pattern are found in a nearby vineyard in an area of damaged vines measuring 100 by 260 feet. Each depression is 20 inches deep. The case is investigated by S. P. Kuzionov of the Russian Geographical Society. (Ted R. Phillips, “Physical Traces Associated with Unidentified Flying Objects,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 445 (May 2005): 5; Nukes 452– 453 ) October 5 — 1:00 a.m. Science teacher and UFO investigator Philip J. Imbrogno and Fred Dennis are returning from an interview with witnesses in Peekskill, New York, on US Highway 9 when they see, near Ossining, New York, a large half-circle of 6 bluish-yellow lights connected to a partially illuminated structure. Suddenly it flips on its side and turns like a Ferris wheel. After 30 seconds, it is lost behind some trees. (Philip J. Imbrogno, “Incident at Indian Point,” UFO Evidence; Clark III 1277 ) October 8 — 7: 4 0 a.m. Giuseppe Cocozza goes into his alfalfa field near Prata di Principato Ultra, Avellino, Italy, to get some fodder for his cow. On the beaten-earth path to the field he encounters an entity about 4 feet tall, wearing a blue helmet on its head and carrying a blue box on its back that features tubes running into the helmet and the entity’s back. Its body is covered with long, dark-brown hair, and it appears to be using a T-shaped instrument to explore the ground. There is a wide, aluminum-colored slit around its eyes. After noticing Cocozza, the entity moves toward a clearing among some hazel bushes, emitting small bluish flames from its sides. The witness backtracks and loses sight of it, but sees a UFO ascend at an angle from the bushes, turn, and shoot away toward a mountain range. Cocozza returns with a shotgun and finds some hoof-like footprints and holes left by the strange instrument, as well as landing marks apparently caused by the object. (Umberto Telarico, “Close Encounter at Prato di Principato Ultra (Italy), October 1984,” Flying Saucer Review 32, no. 1 (December 1986): 9–18; 2Pinotti 72 – 83) October 9 — 3:30 a.m. A beam of light coming in through a window wakes up Isidoro Ferri in his residence on the Via della Tessaia in Polcanto, northeast of Florence, Italy. He sees that it is coming from the forehead of a dark figure on a nearby hill across the road. Suddenly the figure and light vanish, and Ferri sees a stationary ink light with three jets projecting downward. After several minutes, this light disappears and an extremely bright white light approaches and floods the area. Ferri gets up and approaches the window but finds himself paralyzed for a few seconds. The light then withdraws, and he finds he can move again. The white light is replaced by a red lens- shaped light that hurts his eyes then moves on to the northwest. Ferri’s dog has not barked through the entire encounter, refuses food for the next several days, and stays in its doghouse for 2 weeks. Three circular holes 4 inches in diameter and 1 inch deep are found in an area of somewhat flattened grass. (Edoardo Russo, “Italian Update 1984,” Flying Saucer Review 30, no. 4 (May 1985): 26; 2Pinotti 84–92; Patrick Gross, URECAT, February 1, 2007)

Fall — The UK Ministry of Defence is reorganized, making the group Sec. AS (2a) its main focal point for receiving public UFO reports. Its mission is to “determine whether or not UFOs present a threat to the security and defence of the United Kingdom.” It has no other budget than minor staff costs and its records are unclassified. However, Timothy Good uncovers evidence that the U.K Provost and Security Services at RAF Rudloe Manor [now MOD Corsham] northeast of Bath, England, are conducting more serious and secret UFO investigations. More recent declassified files have revealed that RAF Rudloe Manor was a filter center for UFO reports in the 1950s. The British Police Force’s elite Special Branch in 1997 opens files on two UFO researchers in the UK who are collecting data on the Rudloe Manor operations—Robin Cole and Matthew Williams. (“Churchill Ordered UFO Cover-up, National Archives Show,” BBC News, August 5, 2010; Nick Redfern, A Covert Agenda: UFO Secrecy Exposed, Simon & Schuster, 1997, pp. 193, 203, 210; Good Above, pp. 70 , 121 – 126 ); Nick Redfern, The Roswell UFO Conspiracy, Lisa Hagan, 2017, pp. 35–37)

November — Discover magazine publishes a cover story on the Westchester County sightings, which claims that the UFOs are actually a group of pilots from Stormville, New York, who fly ultralight aircraft in a tight formation and use their lights in such a way as to create boomerang or circle patterns. The author, Glenn Garelik, notes that single-engine planes, even when directly overhead, are barely audible at ground level when they are flying above 3,000 feet. However, it fails to disclose that many witnesses are much closer to the object than that, nor does it mention the hovering for extended periods. In his 1987 book Night Siege, Philip J. Imbrogno lists 12 reasons for rejecting the explanation of the Stormville pilots. On those occasions when witnesses see both a plane and a UFO, the plane is clearly audible and the UFO is not, even if it is much closer. The UFO also appears on nights when the Stormville pilots are not in the air. The UFO’s maneuvers simply are beyond the capacity of most aircraft, and the power and intensity of the lights is far beyond the power capacity of small planes. (Glenn Garelik, “The Great Hudson Valley UFO Mystery,” Discover 5 (November 1984): 18– 24 ; NightSiege 1998 ; Clark III 1278 – 1279 ) November — British UFO researcher Timothy Good interviews astrophysicist Pierre Guérin on the future of GEPAN. Because it is under the aegis of CNES, which is ill-disposed toward UFOs, Guérin says, it is doomed. (Good Above, pp. 136 – 139 ) November 14 — As the space shuttle Discovery approaches the dysfunctional satellite Westar VI on the STS- 51 - A mission, its video camera records for 2 seconds a gray blob that seems to materialize near the top center of the frame and move in a curved path across the right side of the frame. Bruce Maccabee says the blob could be a “reflection of something in a window or a small nearby particle.” (“UFO Appears during NASA STS- 51 - A Mission November 1984,” Real UFO Files Disclosed YouTube channel, July 10, 2020)

December — Bob Gribble, who operates the National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle, Washington, discontinues sending UFO reports to MUFON and sends them to Michael Hart’s Compufon for posting on the Usenet bulletin board. (MUFON UFO Journal, October 1985) December — Night. A married couple are up late watching TV in Trafford, Pennsylvania, when they hear a tapping on the window. They see a red ball of light about as big as a basketball that moves away from the window. They turn on the outside lights to watch the ball, which has black marks among the red and gives off beams and sparks. It floats over a neighbor’s house. They go back to watching TV, but the red light taps on the window once more before going away. (Michael D. Swords, “A Trick of the Light,” IUR 31, no. 2 (June 2007): 10) December 11 — North Hollywood, California, film producer Jaime Shandera receives an unmarked package in the mail containing an undeveloped roll of 35 mm film with the faked 1952 Eisenhower briefing document and the 1947 Truman MJ-12 memo. He tells researcher William Moore, and they have the roll developed. Postmarked Albuquerque, New Mexico, the package is most likely sent by individuals in AFOSI at Kirtland AFB, including special agent Master Sgt. Richard Doty, to plant disinformation in William Moore’s UFO research. They wait until 1987 to release the document. (Michael Hesemann and Philip Mantle, Beyond Roswell, Marlowe, 1997, p. 90 ; Clark III 365 – 366 )

1985

1985 — Near the town of Krasnovodsk [now Türkmenbaşy], Turkmenistan, a radar station under the command of Captain L. Valuev tracks a disc-shaped object at an altitude of 60,000 feet and apparently more than one-half mile in length. The object is stationary, and some time later a small disc about 16 feet in diameter flies out of it and then lands on a lengthy spit on the Caspian Sea. Patrol boats rush to that area, but when they reach a distance of 325 feet from the object, it takes off and flies more than one-half mile away. This happens five times. Then the object ascends at a huge speed and reaches the larger disc, which rises up and disappears. (Alexander Dremin, “Soviet Army Fought UFOs,” Pravda, January 2004; Good Need, p. 354 ; Vadim K. Ilyin, “KGB’s ‘Blue Folder’ Reveals Shootings, Landings in USSR,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 403 (November 2001): 8)

January — Jerome Clark begins to take over as editor of the International UFO Reporter as Hynek distances himself from operations at the Center for UFO Studies. (Clark III 628) January — A Roper Organization poll finds that 25% of Americans think that UFOs come from somewhere else in the universe. (Robert J. Durant, “Evolution of Public Opinion on UFOs,” IUR 18, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1993): 13, 20) January 10 — US physicist Bernard Eastlund files a patent on a “Method and apparatus for altering a region in the earth’s atmosphere, ionosphere, and/or magnetosphere,” that proposes a 40-square-mile radio transmitter using Alaskan natural gas to generate current to create electromagnetic radiation to excite a section of the ionosphere. The patent speculates on “possible ramifications and potential future developments” including magnetotelluric surveys, local

weather modification, and missile defense. Eastlund later claims that HAARP is built using his patents, prompting Nick Begich Jr. to charge in 1995 that HAARP is capable of secretly controlling the weather. According to HAARP program manager John L. Heckscher, “HAARP certainly does not have anything to do with Eastlund’s thing, that is just crazy. What we have here is a premier scientific research facility with military applications.” (US Patent, “Method and Apparatus for Altering a Region of the Earth’s Atmosphere, Ionosphere, and/or Magnetosphere,” granted August 11, 1987) January 13 — Journalist James Bamford reveals the existence of the still-secret National Reconnaissance Office in a New York Times article. (James Bamford, “America’s Supersecret Eyes in Space,” New York Times Magazine, January 13, 1985, Sec. 6, p. 39) January 13– 27 — Project Hessdalen II is launched to study the recurring lights of Hessdalen, Norway, with the participation of J. Allen Hynek, who arrives on January 26, but little light activity is noted. The phenomenon ceases in 1986. Investigators disagree on what the Hessdalen lights are. Odd-Gunnar Røed thinks they have some complex natural cause. Erling Strand finds it odd that the lights are so localized in time and space and must be an unknown phenomenon. Paul Devereux is convinced that they are earthquake lights resulting from seismic activity (even though the seismograph recorded no tremors). University of Oslo physicist Elvand Thrane says the lights remain a mystery. (J. Allen Hynek, “Tracking the Hessdalen Lights,” IUR 10, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1985): 10–11; “Projekt Hessdalen, Teil II,” Journal für UFO-Forschung 48 (Nov./Dec. 1986): 164–170; Kim Hansen, “UFO Casebook,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 90–92; Gerson S. Paiva and C. A. Taft, “Hessdalen Lights and Piezoelectricity from Rock Strain,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 25, no. 2 (2011): 265–271; Clark III 573; G. Pascoli, “Are Hessdalen Lights a Reality, an Illusion, or a Mix of the Two?” Journal of Scientific Exploration 35, no. 3 (2021): 590– 622 )

February — 2:35 a.m. Freight train #1702, consisting of 70 empty cars and a locomotive, is paced by a strange object for 31 miles from Essoyla station through Suoyarvi, Karelia, Russia, for 1 hour and 20 minutes. It comes from the side and crosses the railway about 100–160 feet ahead of the train. The men feel as if hypnotized and stare at an object about 13 feet in diameter that moves silently above the ground as if drifting. When the train is approaching the Novye Peski station, Engineer Sergei Orlov switches on his portable radio and contacts a woman on duty who goes out to meet the approaching train. She is surprised to see the shining ball followed by the vibrating object looking like an “upturned basin.” The train appears, moving at about 37 mph. She thinks the ball might hit the station, but right before the switch, it suddenly separates from the locomotive and passes around the building. When it returns, the object moves again toward the train, which speeds up as if the UFO is pulling it. The train manages to stop only near the Zastava station and the ball disappears behind the forest. The crew has to wait for a train coming from the opposite direction toward Petrozavodsk. Conductor Mironov gets out of the cab to examine the wheels, and as soon as he walks around the locomotive he feels a strange force press him against the train. He cannot move, but eventually it lets up; he reaches the cab and the train starts off as if it is waiting for him to take his seat. The train keeps moving for some time until the ball disappears behind trees. Automatic recorders on the locomotive and other official documents corroborate the testimony. The shining ball is noticed earlier at the Kutizhma station even before it is spotted by the train. (NICAP, “Objects Pull Train”; Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal Encounters behind the Iron Curtain, Quadrillion, 1998, p. 95)

March — Noon. At a military shooting range at Mălina, west of Galaţi, Romania, Doru Voloşeniuc is sent to collect compasses from a military vehicle when he sees a flat, silvery object hovering about 5 feet above the ground. It becomes shrouded with a blue-green mist as it increases its rotation. He hears an unusually strong and penetrating ringing sound and he is lifted off the ground more than 12 inches and slams into the road face down. Looking up, he sees the object is no longer there. (Romania 93–94) March 7 — 11:40 a.m. A witness is driving south on North Stevens Street between 12th and 16th streets in Tacoma, Washington, when he sees a long, glowing, oval object to his left less than 2 miles away. The object, the width of four full moons, begins banking to the northeast. At a traffic light, the witness is able to take three photographs of the distant object, and he drives another mile toward the UFO, taking a fourth photo before it shoots straight up and out of sight. The photos only show a blur of distant light. A day later, the witness develops a rash on his face. (“Sighting Report from Tacoma,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 6, no. 3 (June/July 1985): 6–7) March 21 — Philip J. Imbrogno and his team of investigators (Sheila Sabo and George Lesnick) see a UFO immediately after leaving the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut, where they took part in a call-in TV show about the Hudson Valley sightings. They see a circular structure ringed in 7 brilliant lights hovering over a 15-story building, watch it turn in the sky, and chase it down Interstate 95. The object glides effortlessly across the sky. The FAA later tells them that the sighting involves pilots flying in an illegal formation. (NightSiege 189 – 194)

May 2 0 – 25 — Army Col. John B. Alexander (Howard Blum gives him the pseudonym “Harold Phillips”), director of advanced concepts at the US Army Laboratory, forms a UFO working group titled Advanced Theoretical Physics Group made up of scientists and officers throughout the defense and intelligence community. His intent is to credibly gain access to actual deep-black military programs on UFOs or provide consultants for them. It meets for the first time this week, with only three other meetings: August 6–7, 1985; April 24, 1986; and November 18,

1987. They meet at BDM McLean Secure Facility in Virginia, and the last time at the Pentagon. This first meeting’s attendees include Robert M. Wood (McDonnell Douglas), Lt. Col. Ronald F. Blackburn (Air Force), Milt Jansen (or Janzen), Don Keuble (Lockheed), Harold E. Puthoff (SRI), Ed Speakman (Army Intelligence), Howell McConnell (NSA), William S. Wilkinson (CIA), and others. The group’s effort appears to be connected to an engineering project under retired Adm. Bobby Ray Inman. Wood says the meetings are top secret, but he hears “nothing that was truly classified.” Wood gives a presentation on UFO propulsion. Other people supposedly connected to the group are Maj. Gen. Albert Stubblebine, Jack Houck (Boeing), and remote viewer Ed Dames. Alexander states that one of ATP’s goals is: “Study of the UFO data could provide a potential for a leap in technology. This would not require access to a craft, but could be derived from scientific examination of the reports determining the theoretical physics required to achieve such results.” The group dissolves in 1988, since no government agency wants to openly fund it. (Howard Blum, Out There: The Government ’ s Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials, Simon & Schuster, 1990; John B. Alexander, UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities, Thomas Dunne, 2011 ; Good Need, pp. 340 – 341 ; Dolan II 382– 384 ; Jacques Vallée, Forbidden Science 3 , Anomalist, 2017 ) May 23 — 10:35 p.m. A Soviet bomber regiment carrying out a scheduled mission spots an oval, orange object over the Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. Radar does not track it, but observers estimate it is traveling close to 350 mph. A light halo surrounds it. The sighting lasts 13 minutes, during which time the object occasionally descends and remains motionless. Two hours later, a similar object is seen at high altitude for 10 minutes, emitting beams of light. (Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal Encounters behind the Iron Curtain, Quadrillion, 1998, p. 76) May 26 — 9:30–10:15 p.m. More than 100 people around Newtown and Southbury, Connecticut, see a low-flying, silent, circular formation of lights that passes over Interstate 84, causing many cars to pull over for a look and some to lose power. Commercial airline pilot Randy Etting sees the lights as he is driving along I-94. He pulls off the road and snaps a photo of the formation. He is sure there is a solid object behind the lights. (Philip J. Imbrogno, “1985: Close Encounter on Interstate 84, Connecticut,” UFO Casebook; NightSiege 200–201)

Summer — Midnight. Biochemist Kary Mullis (who in 1993 won a Nobel Prize for his work on the polymerase chain reaction) is outside his cabin in Mendocino County, California, when he sees a glow next to a fir tree. Pointing his flashlight in that direction, he sees that the glow is coming from a raccoon with black eyes. The raccoon speaks to him, saying, “Good evening, doctor.” He gives a friendly reply, and a moment later it is suddenly morning and he is walking on a road uphill from the cabin with no idea how he has gotten there. His clothes are clean and dry. Mullis goes back to the cabin for some sleep. Later, he returns to the area near the fir tree and experiences an irrational panic. In 1987, he sees the cover of Whitley Strieber’s Communion and feels a vague sense of recognition. His adult daughter Louise, who has also experienced missing time at the cabin, has the same reaction. Mullis has no memory of seeing a UFO or having an abduction experience, but he insists the experience is real. (Kary B. Mullis, Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, Pantheon, 1998, pp. 130– 136 ; Bill Chalker, “An Interesting Aside,” 1999) June 11 — 10:40 p.m. A Chinese Boeing 747 airliner encounters a UFO on its flight from Beijing to Paris that almost forces the captain to make an emergency landing. Flight CA 933 is over Lanzhou, Gansu province, China, when Captain Wang Shuting and his crew first observe the object. The UFO crosses the path of the airliner at an altitude of 33,000 feet at a very high speed. The object illuminates an area of 25 – 30 square miles and is huge, with an apparent diameter of 6 miles. It is elliptical in shape and has an extremely bright spot in the center, with three horizontal rows of bluish-white lights on the perimeter. The sighting lasts for 2 minutes. Passengers do not see the object. (“Translation from China of June 11th UFO over Dung Kou,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 6, no. 3 (June/July 1985): 6; Good Above, p. 218 ) June 27 — During startup of the first reactor at the Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant, Saratov Oblast, Russia, a relief valve bursts and superheated steam at 572° F. escapes into the annular compartments surrounding the reactor well. Fourteen men are possibly boiled alive. The incident is covered up by Soviet authorities. (Adam Higginbotham, Midnight at Chernobyl, Simon & Schuster, 2019, pp. 70–71)

July — 3:00 p.m. As a pilot is flying a Grumman AA TR-2 toward the Port Columbus International Airport [now the John Glenn Columbus International Airport] in Ohio, the airport gives him authorization to investigate a “second sun” about two-thirds the size of a football field a few miles to the northwest. It is not tracked on ground radar. As he approaches, he sees it is a huge bright light that switches off as he gets closer, revealing a gray sphere. The object apparently consists of “millions” of clearly visible, pentagon-shaped, partially translucent crystals. The pilot estimates they are 6 inches in diameter, all spaced identically about 12 inches apart. He decides to penetrate the mass with his left wing, hoping he can knock some to the ground. As his wing slices through, he hears what sounds like a hailstorm on a tin roof and he sees hundreds of crystals breaking along the wing. The aircraft turbulence does not disturb the small objects, but their impact on the wing nearly destabilizes him. Later, he looks for fragments embedded in the wing, but does not find any. (George Filer, “Filer’s Files,” #12-2005, March 16, 2005) July 14 — 12:56 a.m. Brian McMullan Sr., Brian McMullan Jr., and a third member of the rock band C.E.IV (because of their interest in UFOs) are in the garden outside the home of their bass player in a northern suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, when they see an amber ball skipping along the sky. It crosses the sky in 25 seconds, slowly changing color to red. They estimate it is about 60 feet across and vanishes toward Fenwick Moor. The band remembers being “paralyzed with awe” for several minutes after the sighting. (Jenny Randles, “Cosmic Rock,” Fortean Times 397 (October 2020): 31) July 18 — Jaime Shandera and William Moore discover the unsigned, carbon-copy 1954 Cutler-Twining memo in Box 189 of Record Group 341 in the National Archives in Washington, D.C., between two file folders. July 22 — 5:45 p.m. Two Hawk jets of the Zimbabwe Air Force piloted by C. Cordy-Hedge and T. R. Van Rooyen are scrambled from Thornhill Air Base in Gweru, Zimbabwe, following sightings in Bulawayo and five other cities in Matabeleland South. The object is seen and tracked on radar at Bulawayo Airport. It looks orange and round with a short cone on top. When the jets arrive at Bulawayo, the object is hovering at 7,000 feet, but it suddenly accelerates to a height of above 70,000 feet in less than a minute. The Hawks level off at 31,0 0 0 feet and return to Thornhill, where the object is seen for a few moments before disappearing horizontally at high speed. Air Commodore David Thorne states: “As far as my Air Staff is concerned, we believe implicitly that the unexplained UFOs are from some civilization beyond our planet.” UFO researcher Cynthia Hind speaks to some Bulawayo witnesses who think the object is a balloon coated with reflecting material, but radar operators say it is clear it is no balloon. (Good Above, pp. 433 – 434 ; MUFON UFO Journal, November 1985; Cynthia Hind, “Report on the UFO Sighting in Zimbabwe: July, 1985,” BUFORA Bulletin, no. 21 (May 1986): 5–9)

August — Several dozen Chinese scientists gather in Dalian, Liaoning, China, to exchange views on UFO research for the first time. Some 40 papers are presented and 17 of them are selected to be published in the proceedings. An article in China Daily reports that there is an enormous interest in UFOs in China and that the China UFO Research Organization has a membership of 20,000. The organization’s chairman, Liang Renglin of Jinan University in Guangzhou, says that more than 600 reports were made in the past 5 years. (“UFO Conference Held in Darlian,” China Daily, August 27, 1985; Good Above, pp. 219 , 472 ) August 5 — 8:15 p.m. Antiaircraft batteries open fire on a UFO that is flying from west to east over northeastern Tehran, Iran. They apparently miss. The batteries believe the object is an Iraqi warplane. (“Iran Fires on Shining Object in Sky,” Newport News (Va.) Daily Press, August 7, 1985, p. 12) August 10 — The Russian nuclear submarine K- 431 is refueling at the Chazhma Bay naval facility near Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai, Russia. A reactor tank lid is improperly replaced, which quickly results in a thermal explosion. There are 10 fatalities, and 49 other people suffer radiation injuries. The explosion releases a massive amount of radioactivity and contaminates large areas of land and water. The disaster is kept secret for many years. (Wikipedia, “Soviet submarine K- 431 ”) August 15 — 4:05 p.m. Greek Olympic Airways Flight OA 132, piloted by Christos Stamulis, is flying from Zürich, Switzerland, to Athens and is just passing the Swiss-Italian border at 25,000 feet when a wingless projectile passes 200–500 feet below them from left to right. The object is about 6 feet long, dark brown or black, and is coming from the Italian side of the border. Italian and Swiss military deny any tests. (Clas Svahn and Anders Liljegren, “Close Encounters with Unknown Missiles,” IUR 19, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1994): 12) August 17 — Afternoon. For several hours, witnesses throughout central Chile see distinct, luminous spots in the sky, sometimes motionless, sometimes moving slowly. Television crews film the objects, astronomers in Santiago photograph them, and the Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport tracks them on radar. Early explanations by the Chilean Air Force center on weather or research balloons, but a Chilean Civil Aeronautics report states that the sightings remain an enigma. (J. Antonio Huneeus, “A Chilean Overview,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 218 (June 1986): 5 – 6 )

August 18 — Four civilian pilots are flying a Cessna on a southerly course at 3,200 feet altitude near Söderhamn, Gävleborg, Sweden, when they spot a missilelike object, some 20 feet long, going in the opposite direction. They see it is a metallic missile with steering fins in the back. It occasionally changes its course according to the terrain. The pilot dives down a bit to follow it, but they can’t keep up. The Swedish military spends 6 months trying to identify it. (Clas Svahn and Anders Liljegren, “Close Encounters with Unknown Missiles,” IUR 19, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1994): 12; Swords 369–370)

September 9 — 12:05 p.m. British pilot David J. Hastings is flying a Cessna 337 Super Skymaster with his instructor, US pilot David Patterson, south of Las Vegas, Nevada, with the Mojave Desert in California just coming into view, when they nearly collide with an oblong-shaped object that suddenly appears directly in front of them. They duck beneath the instrument panel. When they get up, they sense something moving on the port side of the plane, so Hastings takes two photos in that direction. When the film is developed, one shot shows a blurry image of a UFO. (David J. Hastings, “Across the USA in a Cessna Skymaster,” Pilot, June 2000, pp. 56–59; UFOFiles2, pp. 132– 133 ; Good Need, pp. 399 – 400 ) September 13 — The US P78- 1 Solwind solar observation satellite is destroyed in orbit at an altitude of 326 miles by an ASM-135 ASAT missile launched from a USAF F-15 Eagle fighter aircraft. The test results in 285 cataloged pieces of orbital debris. (Wikipedia, “Solwind”; Wikipedia, “ASM-135 ASAT”) September 27 — Two police officers in Long Clawson, England, are the latest witnesses of a triangular-shaped object that has been seen multiple times in the area around Leicester since August. (“Throwing a Light on UFO,” Leicester (UK) Mercury, December 2, 1985, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 199 (February 1986): 12)

Autumn — 8:30 p.m. A father and son are driving in Cannock Chase toward Rugeley, Staffordshire, England. As they round a bend in the road, they see a large, black, triangular object stationary 150 feet in the sky about 100 feet away. A bright light appears at each point of the triangle. After a short time, it shoots away at incredible speed. (“Tale of a Chase Hi-Tech Triangle,” Wolverhampton (UK) Cannock Chase Post, December 21, 2000, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 383 (June 2001): 13) October — The Russian motorship Baltiysky- 35 is in the Baltic Sea bound from Lübeck, Germany, to Riga, Latvia, when the crew observes a bright dot in the sky emanating concentric circles of a light-green color. Researcher Konstantin Khazanovich considers this to be the result of a Soviet ballistic missile laiunch from the Murmansk area. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, p. 172)

November — GEPAN has received 1,615 UFO reports from the Gendarmerie in France dating as far back as 1974. (Clark III 546) November 3 — 8:30 p.m. Two men in a small vessel in the waters off Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai, Russia, notice a high- altitude object in the north looking a bit larger than a star, rapidly moving toward them. It sends a beam of light to earth at a sharp angle, although the beam does not reach the ground. As the UFO approaches the boat its engine stops. The captain restarts the engine, but it dies again when the object is overhead. The UFO moves off toward the city and disappears. The men use oars to return to shore. (Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal Encounters behind the Iron Curtain, Quadrillion, 1998, pp. 77–78) November 16 — Mark Rodeghier is named deputy scientific director of the Center for UFO Studies. (“To Our Readers,” IUR 10, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1985): 18) November 19 — At the 1985 Geneva Summit between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, Reagan remarks during a toast that if the people of the world were to find out that there was some alien life form that was going to attack the Earth approaching on Halley’s Comet, then that knowledge would unite all the peoples of the world. (presidentialufo.com, “Ronald Reagan, 40th President, January 20, 1981– January 20, 1989”) November 19 — 11:00 p.m. A woman is returning to her home near Madison, Wisconsin. Suddenly she sees three lights above a row of trees descending toward a house on the north side of the street. She pulls over to the curb and sees the lights make a sharp, 90° turn toward her car. Then it rises several feet in front of the car avoiding the power lines. Triangular and black, the object is the size of a large car with a light on each side. Sweeping to the north, the triangle stops and hovers directly over a house. She leaves and calls the Madison police department. (Don Schmitt, “The Belleville Sightings, Part Two,” IUR 13, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1988): 17– 18 ; Marler 163) November 22 — Hynek writes a letter to International UFO Reporter Editor Jerome Clark, effectively resigning as editor-in-chief, citing health reasons. He also states that his connection with Tina Choate, Brian Myers, and the ICUFOR operation in Phoenix, Arizona, is “null and void.” Funding from the British investor Kaye has fallen

through, and Choate and Myers are more interested in the commercial aspects than UFO research. (“Dr. Hynek Resigns,” IUR 10, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1985): 20; O’Connell, 2017, pp. 332–338) November 22 — After 5:00 p.m. A Wisconsin state employee is driving north on County Highway CV near DeForest, Wisconsin, when he notices three white lights hovering 20–30 feet above a farmhouse. He exits the highway for a closer look. The UFO is roughly triangular, dull gray, 40 feet across, and its bottom is sloped into contours. It is hanging stationary over a 60-foot-high tree as the witness pulls his car past it. He gets out of his car about 200 feet away, and the object moves closer toward him to about 100 feet over the road. Smoothly and quickly it moves away to the west. (Don Schmitt, “The Belleville Sightings, Part Two,” IUR 13, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1988): 18)

December — Some members of the Centro Ufologico Nazionale, including Paolo Toselli, Gian Paolo Grassino, and Edoardo Russo, are dissatisfied with its administration and priorities. They break off and form the Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici. The newsletter Notizie C.U.N. becomes Notizie UFO with the same editor, Gian Paolo Grassino, in Turin, Italy. It changes the name in February 1998 to UFO Notizie and is now published as Notizie CISU. (Notizie UFO, no. 11 (December 1985); UFO Notizie, no. 57 (February 1998); Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici, “Notizie CISU”; 2Pinotti 96– 97 ) December 23 — 3:10 a.m. The merchant ferry Manuel Soto, owned by Transmediterránea Company, is sailing from Las Palmas to Arrecife in the Canary Islands when the third officer on duty sees a light on the horizon ahead. Initially he identifies it as the star Antares but soon realizes the position is wrong. He takes measurements of its height and azimuth. It remains in the same spot for 15 minutes, after which it begins moving quickly. Other crew members see the light approaching the ship and reaching the zenith 2 minutes later. The object’s outline does not resemble an airplane or helicopter, and it has an intense white light at its center, a weaker red light near it, and another soft light set apart. The object is flying low and silently. (Swords 436) December 26 — Night. Novelist Whitley Strieber undergoes a bizarre UFO abduction in his cabin in upstate New York. After he is awakened by a peculiar noise, he opens his eyes to see a small, inhuman creature rushing toward his bed. The next thing he knows it is morning, and he is feeling disoriented and angry but can’t tell why. Later, the full story of missing time, terrifying flashbacks, and intrusive examinations by entities he calls the “visitors” unfolds under the direction of Budd Hopkins in hypnosis sessions by Donald Klein of the New York Psychiatric Institute beginning in March 1986. Strieber tells the story in his 1987 book Communion. (Whitley Strieber, Communion: A True Story, Avon, 1987; Clark III 1112–1113; Nick Redfern, “Whitley Strieber’s Communion at 30,” Mysterious Universe, March 2, 2017)

1986

1986 — NORAD technical intelligence works on 813 initial Unknown targets this year (whittled down quickly from an even greater number of Uncorrelated Targets). Nearly two-thirds are pursued by fighter interceptors and more than one-third of the scrambled cases are successfully intercepted and identified. Almost half of the total are identified by further Air Traffic Control correlation, leaving 123 Remaining Unknowns at the end of the year. This is reduced further in early 1987 to 87 “Not Identified” REMs by additional intelligence correlation analysis, leaving roughly 10% of the initial amount unidentified. (Clark III 801) 1986 — Night. Dissident Chinese writer Ma Jian has escaped from custody and is making his way through dangerous terrain in Lancang Lahu Autonomous County in southern Yunnan, China. Suddenly, a ball of light the size of a cantaloupe appears in the darkness. It rises from a stream and floats through the trees, then stops by some branches 30 feet away. It drops to his eye level and he follows it through the forest, guiding his way for 12 miles until dawn. (Ma Jian, Red Dust: A Path through China, Pantheon, 2001 , p. 279; Clark III 652–653)

January — Jimmy Goddard begins publishing Amskaya, a newsletter of the contactee-oriented STAR Fellowship, in Weybridge, Surrey, England. It continues through July 2018. (Amskaya, no. 1 (January 1986)) January 1 — The Usenet bulletin board service ParaNet is launched, managed by James J. Speiser in Arizona. It quickly develops into a thriving community where a full range of researchers, skeptics, and cranks can post articles. Dale Goudie takes over the online information service Computer UFO Network. Operating out of Mercer Island, Washington, it functions as a UFO bulletin board using a voice and data line connected to an IBM personal computer. CUFON receives most of its reports from Bob Gribble of the National UFO Reporting Center. In Seattle. By late 1986, Goudie has more than 1,700 members and is receiving many calls per day, mostly IFOs. (MUFON UFO Journal, February 1986; MUFON UFO Journal, July 1986; Walt Andrus, “Director’s Message,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 223, November 1986, pp. 19, 18; Dolan II 380–381)

January 7 — A UFO emitting beams of light toward the ground is seen in Butler, Pennsylvania. In Pittsburgh, 20 minutes later, a silver-gray disc is seen hovering. Mist forms around it, the object tilts, and it moves out of sight. (MUFON UFO Journal, December 1986, p. 7) January 9 — 9:00 p.m. Multiple cars stop along Interstate 84 in Hartford, Connecticut, to watch a silent boomerang- shaped object, estimated to be the size of a Boeing 747, with white, red, blue, and green lights. It moves low through the sky then hovers for 15 seconds before heading off to the west. The boomerang is also seen by dozens of witnesses in Torrington, Connecticut. A family sees the UFO, with 10 white lights, hover directly over their house, engulfing their home in a brilliant white light. They are so frightened they flee to the basement. The building inspector for Torrington sees a “cigar with square windows” near Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks. The FAA claims the object is a blimp, although there are no blimps flying in the area. (NightSiege, 5 – 6, 194) January 29 — 7:50 p.m. Inhabitants of Dalnegorsk, Primorsky Krai, Russia, see a reddish ball about half the size of the full moon. The ball is flying soundlessly parallel to the ground. It is later determined that its speed is approximately 34 mph and that it is about 2,3 00 – 2,625 feet in altitude. When the object reaches Height 611 (also known as Mount Izvestkovaya) it starts to descend and then crashes into the hill. All witnesses but one agree there is no sound when the object reaches the ground. Some say the object falls with a flash and is not visible after that; others claim it oscillates at altitude above the hill, radiating light of varying intensity as it goes up and down. The light given off by the object is described by some as a forest fire, which lasts for approximately one hour. A scientific team led by Valery Dvuzhilny, head of the Far Eastern Commission for Anomalous Phenomena, arrives on the site on February 3. Some rocks at the impact site have drops of silvery metal, which are later determined to be lead. The type of lead found on Height 611 is different from lead found in local lead deposits. Also, black, glassy, drop-shaped beads and mesh fragments are found at the site. In all, approximately 70 grams of lead, 5 grams of mesh fragments, and 40 grams of beads are discovered. The radiation level of the landing ground is normal. Photos of the site using two different cameras all develop as blank. Chemical analyses of the beads show they are mostly composed of lead, silicon, and iron. Some of the drops contain significant amounts of zinc, bismuth, and rare earth elements. An analysis of the soil, rocks, and burned wood taken from the landing ground shows that the chemical composition is similar to the composition of samples taken from the site of the 1908 Tunguska event. The mesh fragments are also analyzed; the material does not dissolve in strong acids and organic solvents, even when exposed to high temperatures for prolonged periods of time. One of the mesh fragments is discovered to be composed of scandium, gold, lanthanum, sodium, and samarium. An analysis of another mesh fragment shows gold, silver, and nickel. After that fragment is heated in a vacuum, the analysis no longer shows these elements; however, molybdenum and rhenium are detected. The concentration of gold found in one of the mesh fragments is equivalent to 1,100 grams per metric ton. This is much higher than gold deposits in the region, which become economic to extract when the concentration of gold reaches 4 grams per metric ton. There are no gold deposits in Dalnegorsk that contain gold at concentrations high enough to extract. (StealthSkater Archives, [Dalnegorsk articles]; Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, Russia ’ s Roswell Incident, Flying Disk Press, 2017 )

February 4 — 3:00 a.m. A woman in Reseda, California, wakes up with a sinus headache. She hears animals in the neighborhood barking, growling, and howling. Looking outside, she sees above a power line a black object hovering with a peculiar vibrating motion. It is “like a black mirror with a small, white fluorescent aura around it.” After 3–4 minutes, it emits orange bands of light. She wakes her husband, who manages to see a thin, white mist floating away. A strong wind comes up for 5 minutes afterward. (Mark Rodeghier, “From the CUFOS Files: 1986 Reports,” IUR 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1986): 14) February 6 — 8:30 p.m. Valery Dvuzhilny reports that two yellow globes appear in the north and approach the Dalnegorsk crash site, circle it four times, and disappear in a flash. (StealthSkater Archives, [Dalnegorsk articles]) February 8 — 7:00 p.m. Matthew Woodard, 16, and Melinda Hays, 17, are driving toward Lima, Ohio, from the west on State Route 117. As they are crossing the bridge over the Ottawa River, they see a large, dark object about 50– 60 feet long hovering above some trees on the right side of the road. It parallels them as they turn left on Seriff Road. It has a rectangular upper section with a single steady white light on top and sloping sides with a red and blue light on the lower left. The object eventually disappears in the distance behind trees and houses. (John P. Timmerman, “A Giant Triangle,” IUR 11, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1986): 9) February 12 — 12:33 a.m. A woman who lives on the northwest edge of Lima, Ohio, is awakened by a loud sound. She looks out and sees a “strange dark object” in the southeast sky. It is triangular in shape, has white lights in the two lower corners and a red light in the top corner, and is hovering about 250 feet away. She goes to wake her husband, but when she returns the object is gone. (John P. Timmerman, “A Giant Triangle,” IUR 11, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1986): 10)

February 26 — 7:30 p.m. Charles, the Prince of Wales, is returning to London, England, after a tour of Dallas, Texas. While flying over the Irish Sea, the pilot of his Vickers VC10 observes a bright red flash in the sky. Charles does not see it, but several other aircraft in the vicinity also report a reddish ball of fire with a tail (undoubtedly a meteor or space debris reentry). (Jenny Randles, “Nonencounter with a non-UFO,” IUR 11, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1986): 7–8) February 28 — 11:30 p.m. Multiple witnesses in New Castle, Pennsylvania, watch a 50-foot-long lighted object, with two apparent legs for landing, hovering and moving up, down, and sideways. A dog becomes completely agitated. (MUFON UFO Journal, December 1986, p. 8)

March 18 — Two triangular objects flying one behind the other with their points forward are seen near Newport, South Wales. The first is covered with multicolored lights, while the second has three lights at each point. Both are a few hundred yards long. (Marler 138) March 26 — Night. Some 500 witnesses in Kingston, New York, see an object “like a giant Ferris wheel” the size of a football field. It makes a humming sound and has intensely bright lights, mostly white but also red, yellow, green, and blue. A dark mass behind the lights blots out the sky. Suddenly the object flips on its side before moving away. A police officer who sees the UFO says it cannot be “a bunch of guys flying in planes.” (NightSiege 197 – 198)

April 22 — After 10:00 p.m. Medical technicians taking an injured man in an ambulance to Debrecen, Hungary, see a huge, luminous, orange sphere flying silently above the right side of the road at Hajdudorog and moving along with them. It is about 325 feet away from them, floating at 100–130 feet. The sphere is surrounded by a ring, and flames appear on its surface from time to time. Two flames blaze on opposite sides, while another moves to and fro along its middle. The sighting lasts for 15 minutes for a distance of nearly 12 miles. When the ambulance reaches Hajdúböszörmény, the object speeds up, stops above a forest, and slowly descends while radiating a bright light that illuminates the trees. It goes out shortly afterward. On the return from Debrecen, the huge sphere returns over Józsa, this time with 6–7 flames instead of 3. It speeds over the village and “waits” on the other side for the ambulance, following it again to the north. The perplexed technicians decide to stop the ambulance. The UFO slows down, but does not stop, moving over a power line and illuminating the cables below. The ambulance recommences its journey, with the object following for another 10 minutes. A short time later, covering the same route, the technicians notice that the forest where the sphere landed is on fire. They find the grass all wet, with 5- foot flames (natural gas?) emanating from the ground. (Karoli Hargitai, “The UFO Phenomenon in Hungary,” IUR 14, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1989): 14) April 22 — 11:00 p.m. Two people are driving on the Via Flaminia near Pesaro, Italy, when their car engine stops. After hearing a strange sound, they see 3 discs 65 feet in diameter with domes and tripods standing on the left of the road. They have white and blue lights. After hovering for 20 seconds, the discs emit a strong whistle, accelerate, and disappear. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 19) April 25 — 9:05 p.m. A private pilot sees a V-shaped configuration of approximately 12 spherical nocturnal lights for about 15 seconds in Memphis, Tennessee. He estimates they are moving at 300 knots at an altitude of under 1,000 feet. (Mark Rodeghier, “From the CUFOS Files: 1986 Reports,” IUR 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1986): 14) April 26 — 1:23 a.m. The Number 4 nuclear reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant at Pripyat, Ukraine, has a power surge during a backup generator test. Flawed reactor design and inadequately trained personnel lead to the fuel rods overheating, causing an explosion and meltdown, necessitating the evacuation of 300,000 people from the area. Around 5% of the core is released into the atmosphere, dispersing radioactive material across Europe. The reactor explosion kills two of the reactor operating staff. In the emergency response that follows, 134 firemen and station staff are hospitalized with acute radiation syndrome due to absorbing high doses of ionizing radiation. Of these 134 people, 28 die in the days to months afterward, and approximately 14 suspected radiation-induced cancer deaths follow within the next 10 years. Among the wider population, an excess of 15 childhood thyroid cancer deaths are documented as of 2011. The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation at multiple times reviews all the published research on the incident and finds that at present, fewer than 100 documented deaths are likely attributable to increased exposure to radiation. Determining the total eventual number of exposure-related deaths is uncertain based on the linear no-threshold model, a contested statistical model that is used in estimates of low-level radon and air pollution exposure. (Wikipedia, “Chernobyl disaster”; Adam Higginbotham, Midnight at Chernobyl, Simon & Schuster, 2019) April 26 — About 4:30 a.m. During the nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, Mikhail Varitsky and other technicians observe a fiery sphere, similar in color to brass, within 1,000 feet of the damaged

Unit 4 reactor at the height of the fire. Two bright rays shoot out from the object, directed at the reactor. It hovers in the areas about 3 minutes, then the rays vanish as the UFO moves slowly away to the northwest. Radiation levels taken just before the UFO appears read 3,000 milliroentgens/hour; after the rays, the readings show 800 milliroentgens/hour. (Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal Encounters behind the Iron Curtain, Quadrillion, 1998, pp. 68– 69 ; “UFO Prevents Blast at Chernobyl Nuclear Plant,” Pravda, September 16, 2002) April 27 — J. Allen Hynek dies in Scottsdale, Arizona, from a malignant brain tumor. (Mark Rodeghier, “Good-bye, Allen,” IUR 11, no 3 (May/June 1986): 3, 12)

May 6 — Several witnesses are driving from Worthing to Billinghurst in West Sussex, England, when they see a trapezium-shaped object with two square lights in front, and two green and one red light in the rear. Making a dull humming sound, it hovers above the road then zigzags behind their car. After they step out of their vehicle, the object comes straight at them, turns, and proceeds to the north. (Marler 138) May 8 — UFO researcher Lee M. Graham, who has met several times with Bill Moore and received documents about Project Snowbird and Project Aquarius, writes to the Defense Investigative Service about Moore’s contacts. Moore had sported an ID badge that is identical to other DIS badges Graham has seen. Moore says his superior was named “Richard,” which probably indicates USAF intelligence agent Richard C. Doty. (MUFON UFO Journal, June 1989; Dolan II 406– 407 ) May 19 — 6:30 p.m. 2ndSgt Sergio Mota da Silva, airport flight controller for São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil, sees two luminous objects about 6,500 feet above the city and 9 miles away. Through binoculars, the objects have distinct borders and intense multicolored flashing lights in the lower part. At 7:00 p.m., flight controllers at Brasilia and São Paulo confirm three primary radar targets above São José dos Campos. Around 7:30 p.m., da Silva sees more lights, predominantly red, but changing to yellow, green, and orange. May 19 — 7 : 4 0 p.m. Visual UFO sightings continue over São José dos Campos, with objects remaining motionless for long periods of time. By 8:00 p.m., CINDACTA radars in Brasilia track 8 unidentified targets on their screens. May 19 — 9:00 p.m. A Xingu light airplane piloted by Col. Ozires Silva, an aeronautical engineer and a manufacturing CEO for Petrobras, is preparing for a landing at São José dos Campos. His copilot Cmdr. Alcir Pereira da Silva receives a call from CINDACTA in Brasilia asking them to confirm some unidentified targets. They look and see bright red or red-orange lights “not at all like stars or planes.” Aborting the landing, they attempt to pursue one of the objects, which blinks on and off irregularly, appearing in a new location each time as if changing position rapidly. After about 30 minutes, they give up the chase and land. The Xingu makes three other attempts to land, but each time is diverted toward looking at other unidentified lights and targets. May 19 — 10:23 p.m. By this time, the Air Defense and Air Traffic Control Center is on full alert, radar screens showing numerous unidentified targets. Three F-5E fighter jets are scrambled from Santa Cruz Air Force Base near São Paulo. One of the pilots, Capt. Marcio Brisola Jordão, is able to approach within 12 miles of an unidentified target, visible to him as a strong, constant light that is changing colors continuously from white to green. He breaks off contact when the object moves away out to sea. Another F-5E, piloted by Lt. Kleber Caldas Marinho, chases a very intense red light that changes to white, then green, then red again. Running low on fuel, he has to return to base. Both ground and airborne radar are tracking the objects. After the F-5E pilots make visual contact, more jets are scrambled from Anápolis Air Force Base, Goiás, about 10 :50 p.m. This second flight consists of three Mirage III fighters equipped with Sidewinders and Martra missiles. One of the pilots, Capt. Armindo Sousa Viriato de Freitas, is vectored toward 10– 13 unidentified targets at a distance of 20 miles. Radar controllers see the objects surrounding his plane, 6 stationed on one side and 7 on the other, and later following his plane at a distance of two miles, but only see them visually once when they are climbing vertically. During the night, a total of 21 luminous objects, apparently spherical and ranging in size from 165 to 330 feet in diameter, are seen, captured on radar, and pursued by jet fighters. Activity ceases around 11:20 p.m. The Air Force Minister, Brig.Gen. Octávio Júlio Moreira Lima, makes the events public at a press conference and allows the pilots and radar officers to submit to news media questioning in Brasilia. (NICAP, “Brazilian Aircraft / UFO Encounter / Radar-Visual”; Wikipedia, “Noite dos discos voadores”; Willy Smith, “The Brazilian Incident,” IUR 11, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1986): 4– 6 ; MUFON UFO Journal, September 1986; J. Antonio Huneeus, “UFO Alert in Brazil,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 223 (November 1986): 6 – 7, 9, 15; Willy Smith, “UFO Chase in Brazil (May 1986),” Flying Saucer Review 32, no. 1 (December 1986): 6–8; Willy Smith, “UFOs in Latin America,” UFOs 1947 – 1987, Fortean Tomes, 1987, pp. 111–113; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 121– 127 ; Kean, pp. 199 – 202 ; Good Above, pp. 427 – 428 ; Clark III 830 – 835; Brazil 417– 441 ; Patrick Gross, “Jets Chase UFOs over Brazil in 1986”)

June — The Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici in Turin, Italy, begins publishing its official journal UFO – Rivista di Informazione Ufologica through autumn 2017. (UFO – Rivista di Informazione Ufologica, no. 1 (June 1986)) June 26 — 9:49 p.m. A husband and wife see two objects traveling from southwest to northeast, about as bright as Venus, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They move on parallel paths below a scattered cloud cover. After a minute, they appear to begin rotating, then stop and move out of sight. (Mark Rodeghier, “From the CUFOS Files: 1986 Reports,” IUR 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1986): 14)

July 11 — A Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft crashes in Sequoia National Forest, California, killing pilot Maj. Ross E. Mulhare and starting a fire. The Air Force establishes restricted airspace around the site. Armed guards prohibit entry, including firefighters, and a helicopter gunship circles the area. All F-117 debris is replaced with remains of a F-101A Voodoo crash stored at Area 51. (Jeffrey T. Richelson, “When Secrets Crash,” Air Force Magazine, July 1, 2001) July 15 — 12:00 midnight. A single witness walking home from the bus station in Watertown, Massachusetts, is watching airliners land at Logan Airport when he sees a string of three bright-orange lights. They are moving along the same glide path as the incoming jets but seem to slow down, come to a dead stop, then vanish instantly. (Mark Rodeghier, “From the CUFOS Files: 1986 Reports,” IUR 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1986): 13)

August — 2:00 a.m. Meteorologist Ion Lazeanu is making routine radar observations at the National Meteorological Administration in Bucharest, Romania, when he picks up a stationary target that appears to be above the city of Sofia, Bulgaria, at an altitude of 18.6 miles. It suddenly disappears and relocates 3 miles lower down. After a short while it relocates to its original position. Over the next 3–4 weeks, he detects the same target every night he is on duty for periods of 3–20 minutes. He discovers another target above Cluj-Napoca, Romania. In February 1988 it reappears above Sofia, and in March 1988 he tracks it moving horizontally toward Varna, Bulgaria. At one point he locks the radar directly on the target and the system is temporarily disabled. He estimates that the target has a length of at least 4,920 feet. (Ion Lazeanu, “Unusual Phenomenon Observed with Radar Device in Romania,” European Journal of UFO and Abduction Studies 1 no. 1 (March 2000): 33 – 34) August 11 (approximately) — 6:00 p.m. A retired factory worker and his wife are sitting in their driveway in Lima, Ohio, when they see a rotating, diamond-shaped object about 20 feet in diameter pass nearby. They watch it for less than 2 minutes. It is flying low, passing behind several trees as it moves from west to northeast and out of view. (Mark Rodeghier, “From the CUFOS Files: 1986 Reports,” IUR 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1986): 13) August 12 — 12:00 midnight. A single witness in Cridersville, Ohio, sees two UFOs, one while watching the Perseid meteor shower, and the other 7 hours later while driving to work. The first object is a white ball of light seen for about 60 seconds; the second is a circular bluish object in the western sky seen for 1–2 minutes. (Mark Rodeghier, “From the CUFOS Files: 1986 Reports,” IUR 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1986): 13) August 13 — 7:50 p.m. A family of three observes a metallic, hamburger-shaped object through a sixth-floor hospital window in Indianapolis, Indiana, for 4–5 minutes. It passes above an airliner going in the opposite direction. The object tips on its edge at one point, and it has a haze of pale green along one side. (Mark Rodeghier, “From the CUFOS Files: 1986 Reports,” IUR 11, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1986): 13) August 15 — 11:00 p.m. A married couple on vacation in Calalzo di Cadore, Belluno, Italy, are sitting near a wood outside town when they see a bright light descend. It soon becomes a disc-shaped, domed object, blue in color and luminescent. They see it land, then their awareness ceases until two hours later. By this time the object has disappeared, and only a dark circular trace is left on the ground where grass is bent and blackened for a diameter of 30 feet. Strange dreams and difficulty sleeping, as well as the memory of two humanlike beings in coveralls, persuade them to be hypnotized on August 23–24 by a physician in Pordenone. They relate that a being had come out of the disc and took them on board without touching them. Inside they are laid down and given a medical examination of some kind. The entities have long, oval-shaped heads with phosphorescent eyes, pointed ears, and narrow mouths. (Paolo Fiorino, Gian Paolo Grassino, and Antonio Chiumiento, “Abductions in Italy,” IUR 14, no. 4 (July/Aug.1989): 16) August 31 — 2:30 a.m. A man is driving home when his car engine stops in Manzuno, Italy. He gets out to find out what happened, hears a sharp whistle and dogs barking, and sees two bright lights. The objects descend and remain visible for more than 15 minutes. He sees their shape as rectangular with a luminous trail. The engine comes back on as the objects disappear. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 19)

September — Vicki Ecker and Sherie Stark launch a newsstand magazine, California UFO, which becomes one of the most widely read periodicals in ufology. It soon changes its name to just UFO, varying its frequency from

quarterly to bimonthly, to erratically with the final issue of 158 appearing in 2012. (Wikipedia, “UFO Magazine”; Clark III 1155) September — George M. Eberhart publishes UFOs and the Extraterrestrial Contact Movement, a comprehensive, two- volume bibliography of all UFO literature known up to this time. (George M. Eberhart, UFOs and the Extraterrestrial Contact Movement: A Bibliography, Scarecrow, 1986, vol. 1 and vol. 2; Clark 358)

Fall — USAF Lt. Col. Ernie Kellerstrass (Hawk), who works at the Foreign Intelligence Division at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio, invites several individuals—Harold E. Puthoff (Partridge), John B. Alexander (Chickadee), C. B. Scott Jones (Hummingbird, an aide to Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-R.I.), USAF Capt. Robert M. Collins (Condor), William Moore, and Jaime Shandera—to his home in Beavercreek, Ohio, to discuss UFOs, extraterrestrials, and Area 51. Kellerstrass claims to know USAF Lt. Col. Robert R. Hippler (allegedly an officer in a top secret Air Force UFO study), physiological studies of actual aliens, and the presence of an alien base on Area 51. The group meets several times. Moore and Shandera become concerned that their telephones are being monitored, so they decide to assign a bird name to anyone they discuss UFO military activities with. Others in the “Aviary” are forensic medical doctor and CIA officer Christopher (Kit) Green (Blue Jay), Defense Intelligence Agency officer Dale E. Graff (Owl), CIA agent Harry Rositzke (Falcon, according to Greg Bishop), and USAF OSI agent Richard C. Doty (a Falcon substitute). Another, only known as Raven (alleged to be DIA scientist Jack Verona, Richard Helms, or possibly Henry Kissinger), appears to be the most connected. (Robert Collins and Richard Doty, Exempt from Disclosure: The Disturbing Case about the UFO Coverup, Peregrine, 2005, pp. 8, 86 ; Bruce Maccabee, “Hawk Tales,” June 2005; Dolan II 384– 386 , 466) Fall — Night. A group of five lights maneuver at high speed above the Malmstrom AFB Alpha-01 missile alert facility southeast of Belt, Montana. Air Force Security Policeman Joseph C. Pscolka watches them make sharp-angled turns and stop at the same time instantly. Other launch control facilities in the same sector call in to report the lights. Soon five more lights descend from the clouds to join the others. They stop momentarily, then all 10 dart around “like crazy fireflies” for a minute before moving close to the ground. They zip off at high speed in all directions. (Nukes 396–397) October 10 — 1:30–2:00 a.m. Witnesses see strong lightning-like flashes in the sky northeast of Fürjes, near Békéscsaba, Hungary. The flashes do not go lower than some 700 feet from the ground. The flashes are vertical, yet 5 times “thicker” than lightning. The flashes stop and a shining, metallic-blue, misty phenomenon appears and floats about for 5–6 minutes until it gradually fades away after breaking into several parts, each about 30–80 feet long. The display is followed by an unusual odor that persists for 20–30 minutes. (Karoli Hargitai, “The UFO Phenomenon in Hungary,” IUR 14, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1989): 13) October 14 — 11:00 p.m. A couple driving north on US Hwy 45 near Bristol, Wisconsin, sees red and white lights flickering on the road ahead. They drive cautiously forward and see a large, triangular object hovering 30 feet above the pavement. The lights are running along its outer edges. They pull up almost directly underneath it, park, and step out of the car. They see a grid structure on its lower surface. Two minutes later the UFO drifts slowly toward the southeast and vanishes. (Don Schmitt, “The Belleville Sightings, Part Two,” IUR 13, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1988): 18– 19 ; Clark III 247) October 28 — UK researcher Jenny Randles receives a call from a British military man who refuses to give his name or phone number. He says his commanding officer has given him her phone number and suggests she might want 600 pages of UFO reports that have come into his possession. One document appears to be a report from 1948 that uses the term “befabs” to describe “beings from alien objects.” Another file, from Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio in 1977, is titled “Elimination of Non-Military Sources.” Randles is suspicious but intrigued. The two speak again on October 30 and agree to meet at a local pub a couple hours later. She brings along a colleague, Peter A. Hough. The informant (“John”) is in his late 20s and a former member of the Royal Army Corps. In 1983, his commanding officer had befriended a USAF computer technician at Wright-Patterson AFB who had accidentally tapped into UFO files. The British officer copied many of the files but is arrested for being in a secure area without permission. During questioning, the technician withholds the fact that he still has copies of the files and manages to tell the British officer where they are and request he take them out of the US. For 2 years, his commanding officer shows “John” some of these reports until he leaves active duty in 1985. In August 1986, “John” returns for a reservist training camp, and his former commander gives him a key to where the documents are stored and tells him to take them, read them, and offer them to Randles. The pub meeting ends with an agreement for “John” to deliver the files the next time they meet on November 7. “John” never shows up but writes a letter to Randles saying that he has been detained at a base and interrogated about the documents, which he is informed was the “creation of an educated prankster.” He apologizes for letting her down, and she never hears from him again. (Jenny Randles, “The Cover-Up in England,” IUR 12, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1987): 9–12, 20)

November — Brilliant Pebbles, a non-nuclear system of satellite-based interceptors designed to use high-velocity, watermelon-sized, teardrop-shaped projectiles made of tungsten as kinetic warheads, is conceived by physicist Lowell Wood at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Livermore Director John Nuckolls describes the system as “the crowning achievement of the Strategic Defense Initiative.” Though regarded as one of the most capable SDI systems, the Brilliant Pebbles program is canceled in 1994 by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. (Wikipedia, “Brilliant Pebbles”) November 16 — 9:00 p.m. Between Nocera Umbra and Valtopina, Perugia, Italy, two witnesses see a dark disc, 26 feet in diameter with a blue dome, fly over their car. The car stops and restarts after the object goes away. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 19) November 17 — 5:10 p.m. Japan Air Lines Flight 1628, a Boeing 747 cargo plane with a crew of three, is in the vicinity of Fort Yukon, Alaska, on its way to Anchorage. The jet is carrying a cargo of French wine and is flying at 35,000 feet through darkening skies, a red glow from the setting sun lighting one horizon and a full moon rising above the other. Capt. Kenju Terauchi and First Officer Takanori Tamefuji, along with Flight Engineer Yoshio Tsukuda, see two small objects and one huge Saturn-shaped object visually and on radar for more than 30 minutes. The objects follow the airplane for about 350 miles. The pilot changes course and altitude several times, with FAA permission, in an effort to identify the objects. Two rectangular-appearing objects sparkling with arrays of lights suddenly loom directly in front of them, one above the other. After a few minutes they abruptly change position and appear side by side. They move quickly, stop suddenly, and swing from side to side in unison, as if linked together. VHF radio communications are occasionally garbled at this time and cease when the two objects move away to the left of the aircraft. Two flat white lights continue to pace the airplane, then drop back and are lost from view both visually and on radar. About 5:30 p.m., while in the vicinity of Fairbanks, Terauchi checks a white light behind the plane and sees “a silhouette of a gigantic spaceship.” It is walnut-shaped, symmetrical above and below, with a central flange. He says, “It was a very big one—two times bigger than an aircraft carrier.” At its closest point, the large object casts such a bright light that it illuminates the cockpit, and Terauchi can feel heat on his face. Radio communications again became garbled during the close approach. The crew becomes frightened by the large object and requests permission to change course. After the course change, they look back and see the object still following them. Increasingly fearful, they request a descent to get away from the UFO (“We had to get away from that object”). After they descend and turn again, the object disappears. The FAA at first confirms that several of its radar traffic controllers had tracked both the 747 and the large object, and that USAF radar has also done so. Later official statements back away from this and try to ascribe the radar targets to weather effects. On December 29, the FAA issues a report stating, “We are accepting the descriptions of the crew, but are unable to support what they saw.” (Wikipedia, “Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1628 incident”; NICAP, “Fantastic Flight of JAL 1628”; Bruce Maccabee, “The Fantastic Flight of JAL 1628,” IUR 1 2, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1987): 4–23; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 128– 132 ; Kean, pp. 218 – 229 ; Swords 342; Good Above, pp. 432 , 532 ; Good Need, pp. 400 – 401 ); “JAL Flight 1628 over Alaska,” UFO Evidence; Clark III 630– 632 ) November 24 — 11:00 p.m. Dale Goretske is driving in Waukesha, Wisconsin, when he notices some flashing red lights in the sky to the southeast about 450 feet away. They are attached to a flattened triangle about 75 feet wide with pairs of flashing red lights at each corner. On the sides are pairs of steady white and red lights. The object is rotating silently. He tries to approach it in his car, but it moves away and is lost to sight. (Joe and Dorie Graziano, “Press Reports,” APRO Bulletin 33, no. 7 (September 1987): 8) November 25 —Afternoon. Civil and military personnel in Magadan Airport, Russia, notice an unidentified radar target. Since there is another aircraft in the vicinity, air traffic control asks the pilot to be aware of an unknown object. The plane and UFO “pass clear of each other,” although no details are given. Afterward, the object turns east and speeds up to 1,800 mph over the water toward Kamchatka and disappears from radar screens. (Vadim K. Ilyin, “KGB’s ‘Blue Folder’ Reveals Shootings, Landings in USSR,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 403 (November 2001): 8)

Mid-December — Navy Commander “Sheila Mondran” is on duty at the US Space Command’s Surveillance Center inside the Cheyenne Mountain Complex near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Sensors detect something tripping the US Navy Space Surveillance System (the Space Fence), a multistatic radar system built to detect orbital objects passing over the US. The intrusion occurs above Lake Kickapoo, Texas. Mondran’s team tracks the object’s maneuvers, including loops, backtracks, crash dives, and fast climbs. She sends a flash alert to the Commander- in-Chief of NORAD, but the object immediately disappears. Two searches are ordered: one by NORAD’s Space Detection and Tracking System, the other by a network of sophisticated telescopes. Nothing turns up. The flash

alert is recalled the following day. A summary of the incident is sent to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and President Ronald Reagan for his daily briefing. Reagan recommends a follow-up investigation, but none is known to have occurred. The story has not been verified. (Howard Blum, Out There: The Government ’ s Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials, Simon & Schuster, 1990, pp. 25– 32 ) Late December — 2:30 a.m. A road-maintenance engineer is driving on the highway between Hajdúböszörmény and Debrecen, Hungary, when he sees a “trailer with lit-up windows” landed in a field about 900 feet away. An orange light is flooding through the windows. The object is in the same spot where the sphere chasing the ambulance in April had passed above power lines. (Karoli Hargitai, “The UFO Phenomenon in Hungary,” IUR 14, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1989): 14–15)

1987

1987 — Abduction researcher and folklorist Thomas E. Bullard publishes UFO Abductions: The Measure of a Mystery, a two-volume comparative analysis of nearly 300 alleged abduction cases up through 1985, 103 of which offer both extensive information and reliable investigation. Bullard’s study summarizes key episodes and descriptive elements of the abduction narrative and attaches percentages to each to indicate how often a given feature occurs. He finds that the classic abduction story consists of eight possible episodes—capture, examination, conference, tour of the ship, journey or otherworldly journey, theophany, return, and aftermath. Few reports contain every episode; only capture and return are universal. He also examines features of the entities’ behavior and appearance, the UFO involved in the abduction, and the methods of mental and physical control. Bullard examines the literalist and reductionist hypotheses for abduction events, critiquing each. (Thomas E. Bullard, UFO Abductions: The Measure of a Mystery, Fund for UFO Research, 1987; Thomas E. Bullard, “Abductions in Life and Lore,” IUR 12, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1987): 14–19; Thomas E. Bullard, “Hypnosis and UFO Abductions: A Troubled Relationship,” JUFOS 1 (1989): 3–40; Thomas Bullard, The Myth and Mystery of UFOs, University Press of Kansas, 2010 ; Clark III 13– 33 ) 1987 — Fortean Tomes publishes UFOs 1947 – 1987, edited by Hilary Evans and John Spencer and sponsored by the British UFO Research Association, in an attempt to place current knowledge about the UFO phenomenon in perspective. (Hilary Evans and John Spencer, eds., UFOs 1947 – 1987 : The 40-Year Search for an Explanation, Fortean Tomes, 1987; Mark Rodeghier, [Review], JUFOS 1 (1989): 169–172) 1987 — Thomas F. McDonough discusses the possibility of extraterrestrial life in The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, addressing UFOs in a largely negative and uninformed chapter. (Thomas F. McDonough, The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: Listening for Life in the Cosmos, John Wiley, 1987; Michael D. Swords, “SETI/ETI and UFOs,” JUFOS 5 (1994): 151 – 155)

January 9 — 2:30 a.m. A road-maintenance engineer is on a routine checking tour between Hajdúböszörmény and Debrecen, Hungary, at the same point where his colleague had seen a “trailer” in December. He sees a “farmhouse” with the windows lit up, but knowing there is no farmhouse in that location, he stops the truck. The object is sitting near the overhead power lines between two stacks of straw. It is about 50 feet in diameter, disc- shaped, and rounded off at the rim. Through the center line runs a row of 8–10 portholes with warm, yellow light emanating from them. Between each window is a grayish-white streak of light. He can see an open door about 5– 6 feet high under the row of windows, through which he can see light and a floor with transverse ribs. Then he notices two entities wearing dark coveralls standing outside the object, while another appears in the door opening. Yellowish flashes erupt every 2–4 seconds from the top of the object. The witness flees the scene. (Karoli Hargitai, “The UFO Phenomenon in Hungary,” IUR 14, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1989): 15–16) January 15– 16 — 8:00 p.m. Police officer Glen Kazmar and Jeff Furseth watch a triangular configuration of red, white, and blue blinking lights that remain stationary in the southwestern sky over Belleville, Wisconsin. At 2:50 a.m., they are driving along Quarry Road west of town and see a “close-knit cluster of red, blue, and white lights.” After 15 minutes, they alert the Dane County Sheriff and are soon joined by a deputy from Verona and two Green County sheriff’s deputies, all of whom leave after debating what to do about reporting the lights. At 3:20 a.m., Kazmar and Furseth see the object move to the southwest. They call the FAA Center in Aurora, Illinois, which admits it has a slow-moving target in the area that won’t respond. Other witnesses near Monroe, New Glarus, and Verona also see lights. (Don Schmitt, “The Belleville Sightings, Part One,” IUR 12, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1987): 4– 6 ; UFO Wisconsin, [Belleville articles]; “The Other UFO Days: Belleville, WI,” UFO Days, August 13, 2019) January 27 — The National Security Agency responds to a letter from Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) stating that the NSA’s Project Aquarius does not deal with UFOs, but that “Apparently there is or was an Air Force project by that name

which dealt with UFO’s.” (Dale Goudie and Christian Lambright, “The Ice Documents Press Conference,” June
25, 1987)

February — Horror-fiction writer Whitley Strieber publishes Communion, the first-person account of his abductions and encounters recovered through hypnosis, as well as his lifelong involvement with mysterious events. The book remains on the bestseller list for a long time, and Ted Seth Jacobs’s cover illustration of an alien with large black eyes jars many people to recall their own apparent encounters with similar creatures. Strieber follows up on his experiences in seven subsequent books, in which he elaborates on his belief that the human species is in the process of being ushered into a higher level of understanding and existence. (Whitley Strieber, Communion: A True Story, Avon, 1987; Wikipedia, “Communion (book)”; Clark III 5, 1112– 1113 ; Whitley Strieber, Transformation: The Breakthrough, William Morrow, 1988; Whitley Strieber, Breakthrough: The Next Step, HarperCollins, 1995; Whitley Strieber, The Secret School: Preparation for Contact, HarperCollins, 1997; Whitley Strieber and Anne Strieber, eds. The Communion Letters, HarperPrism, 1997; Whitley Strieber, Confirmation: The Hard Evidence of Aliens among Us?, St. Martin’s, 1998; Whitley Strieber, The Key: A True Encounter, Jeremy Tarcher, 2001 ; Whitley Strieber, Solving the Communion Enigma, Jeremy Tarcher, 2012 ) February 6 — 7:30 p.m. Jeff Zweifel is walking home from work near Belleville, Wisconsin. He sees an object nearby with a bright white directional light aimed at a right angle to him. A red light is also visible, then a blue light. As he continues to walk, the object approaches him. When it is directly in front, a white light comes on. From left to right, red, white, and blue lights flash. A short gray trail of smoke is coming out the back. The object continues moving slowly and silently east at the same altitude. (Don Schmitt, “The Belleville Sightings, Part One,” IUR 12, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1987): 6) February 16 — At a conference in the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev discloses that President Reagan had raised the possibility of an alien invasion during the Geneva Summit in 1986: “I shall not dispute the hypothesis, although I think it’s early yet to worry about such an invasion. It is much more important to think about the problems that have entered our common home.” (“Russians Worried UFOs Could Trigger Wars,” UFO Evidence) February 25 — 4:10 p.m. Filmmaker Paul Davids is at work in his home office in East Los Angeles, California, when his children call him to see a “flying saucer.” Looking outside, he sees a metallic, domed disc making its way silently and smoothly across the sky over the valley in front of his house. They open the window and go out on the roof for an unobstructed view and spend the next 4–5 minutes watching it. At its closest point, about 500 feet away, it hovers in one position for about 2 minutes, wobbling with an even, slow oscillation. Its bottom seems to transform from silver to pitch black and back to silver again. Then it flies away at a faster but uniform speed. (Paul Davids, “Starry Night,” IUR 14, no. 3 (May/June 1989): 13–15, 23)

March — The Society for Scientific Exploration publishes the first issue of its Journal of Scientific Exploration, edited by astronomer Bernard Haisch. (Journal of Scientific Exploration 1, no. 1 (1987); Clark III 1082– 1083 ) March — San Antonio, Texas, freelance journalist Ed Conroy begins to find himself a target of an unmarked Bell 47 helicopter that hovers around his apartment building. The instances increase as he researches Whitley Strieber’s abduction story for a possible article. Black helicopters and CH-47 Chinooks also appear in his vicinity, and someone repeatedly changes the outgoing message on his home answering machine. Several people close to him begin to tell him about their nighttime experiences with entities and balls of light. These occurrences continue through 1988. (Ed Conroy, Report on Communion, Avon, 1989 ) March — 3:00 a.m. A British Army communications officer is sleeping alone on the moors near Bishop Monkton, North Yorkshire, England, during a military exercise. He sees a strange red light in the sky circling slowly and silently around him. He watches it for 20 minutes as it makes three circuits that are precisely the same. Two F-4 Phantom II jets appear and give chase to the light, which plays cat and mouse with them. This continues for 5 minutes, then the light shoots away at great speed. The jets remain a few more minutes before returning. (“Brief Cases,” Northern UFO News, no. 157 (October 1992): 13; Nick Redfern, A Covert Agenda: UFO Secrecy Exposed, Simon & Schuster, 1997, pp. 163–164) March 6 — 5:30 p.m. County surveyor Harvey Funseth and Fred Gochenauer are driving north of Belleville, Wisconsin, and spot four peculiar objects one above the other in the western sky. They take a side road to get a better look and stop alongside an open field. The main cigar-shaped object is silhouetted against the sunset, standing vertically above three smaller sections. The objects are all about a quarter mile away at low altitude. As they watch, the top object moves away from the smaller ones toward their right. It looks like an airplane fuselage without any markings, wings, or tail. It has a flashing light on top and two red glowing areas on the back, followed by a short vapor trail. Funseth estimates it is about 2,000 feet altitude. It picks up speed and streaks away

to the northeast. The remaining smaller objects are now obscured by a mist. Witnesses in other parts of town also see a similar display. (Don Schmitt, “The Belleville Sightings, Part One,” IUR 12, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1987): 7–8) March 7 — A family of three in Pingwu county, Sichuan, China, is awakened by a loud, high-pitched hum. They go outside and are blinded by a beam of light coming from a huge reddish object shaped like a straw hat that is hovering above them. They pass out and wake up later to find themselves strapped to steel tables in a circular room occupied by humanoid entities with 3 eyes and standing 3 feet tall. The aliens take blood samples from them and probe them with needles, also making an incision on the child’s thigh. The next thing they know, they are walking down a road 7 miles from their home. (Chris Saunders, “UFOs over China,” Fortean Times 331 (October 2015): 32)

March 12 — Gallup releases a report indicating that there are three adult Americans who believe that “UFOs are real” for every two skeptics. (“1 Person in 2 Now Believes in UFOs,” Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press-Democrat, March 12, 1987, p. 13; Robert J. Durant, “Evolution of Public Opinion on UFOs,” IUR 18, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1993): 20) March 12 — 9:15 p.m. Cmdr. Alvaro de Camargo is flying a Transbrasil Boeing 737-300 from Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil, to Manaus, Amazonas, when his radar detects an object directly in front of him. The Rio Branco tower says it has nothing on its radar. Suddenly the blip disappears from the screen, just as three orange lights appear on the left side of the airplane’s wing. Some passengers now can see the lights, flying parallel to each other and to the plane for about 20 minutes. (Clark III 201; Brazil 542) March 20 — 1:00 p.m. Police in Verona, Wisconsin, view a triangular pattern of red, white, and blue flashing lights from the police station. The on-duty officer takes a squad car to investigate as the object moves behind a hill and hovers above a field. Within a minute, the lights move to the southwest and soon are out of sight. (Don Schmitt, “The Belleville Sightings, Part One,” IUR 12, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1987): 8). March 23 — Evening. A woman hears a crash outside her home in Concord, North Carolina, and goes outside to investigate. She sees a domed disk in her backyard about 75 feet away, partially obscured by a tree. The dome is about 6 feet in diameter on top of an object about 25 feet high. The dome is projecting an intensely bright orange light that creates shooting pains in her eyes and lights up the entire yard. The lower part of the object is blue-silver and an 18–20 foot wide ramp extends down from it. Her eyes still hurt, so she does not see the UFO leave. No ground markings are found the next day, although two days later she discovers that a metal post on her dog lot has been magnetized. (Michael D. Swords, “Unusual Experiences from the Timmerman Files,” IUR 27, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 22–23)

April — UFO abduction researcher Budd Hopkins publishes Intruders, an account of his investigation into the abduction experiences of Debbie Jordan-Kauble (using the pseudonym of “Kathie Davis”) an Indianapolis woman whose long series of abductions include an instance when the beings impregnate her by artificial insemination aboard a UFO, then return a few months later to remove the fetus. During a subsequent abduction several years later, the beings introduce her to a frail little girl, half-human, half-alien, and tell her this girl is her daughter. (Budd Hopkins, Intruders: The Incredible Visitations at Copley Woods, Random House, 1987; Jerome Clark, “A Conversation with Budd Hopkins,” IUR 13, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1988): 4–12)

May — William Moore announces that for the past six and a half years he and some associates “succeeded in establishing a cooperative relationship with a number of well-placed contacts within the American intelligence community.” He provides a copy of one page of the MJ-12 briefing document, with some text blacked out FOIA-style. (MUFON UFO Journal, June 1987) May 1 — The Center for UFO Studies moves from Glenview, Illinois, to 2457 West Peterson Avenue in Chicago. (“CUFOS Is Moving,” IUR 12, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1987): 26) May 31 — British ufologist Timothy Good has also received a copy of the MJ- 12 briefing document (the same one received by Moore and Shandera) in March and shares it with the press, adamantly refusing to say who sent it to him. The first mention appears in the London Observer, and soon it is the subject of pieces in the New York Times, Washington Post, and ABC-TV’s Night Line. Many ufologists denounce the documents as a forgery. Good admits to researcher Richard Dolan in 2008 that the source was probably “connected to” Richard Doty. (Good Above, p. 544 ; Dolan II 398; Clark III 366 )

June — Moore provides photocopies of all the pages of the Majestic-12 briefing document. Certain areas that had been blacked out are now readable, although redacted sections still exist. Moore has done his own redacting. He also reveals the Cutler-Twining memo. (MUFON UFO Journal, July 1987)

June 9 — 7:00 p.m. At RAAF Base Learmonth, near Exmouth, Western Australia, observers see a white light at 5,000 feet about 16 feet in diameter moving silently in a zigzag fashion from east to west. It hovers at the north end of the airstrip for 6–7 minutes, changes from white to amber, moves up into a cloud, then speeds off to the northeast. A Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport that takes off during the observation has difficulty establishing VHF radio communication. (Swords 409–410) June 1 1 — Bill Moore, Jaime Shandera, and Stanton Friedman hold a press conference on the MJ-12 briefing document and the Cutler-Twining memo, asserting that they appear to be genuine. Friedman has found that Eisenhower did attend a briefing in Washington on November 18, 1952. He has also uncovered evidence that astronomer Donald Menzel was also a leading cryptographer and an elite member of the intelligence community. (Stanton T. Friedman, “MJ 12: The Evidence So Far,” IUR 12, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1987): 13–17; Dennis Stacy, “ 18 th International Symposium,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 232 (August 1987): 7) June 19 — 11:00 p.m. Brazilian Air Force Capt. Faria de Sousa is landing his aircraft at Anápolis Air Base ALA 2, Goiás, Brazil, when the control tower asks him to investigate “strange traffic” nearby. When he arrives at the location, his onboard radar registers the presence of another aircraft close by and his cockpit lights up. He sees a huge ball of light about 10 feet in diameter above his plane, but the light does not register on his radar. After 3 minutes he lands because he is running out of fuel. (Clark III 206; Brazil 554–555) June 25 — Capt. William Cantrell and the crew of Delta Airlines Flight 1083 are near Charleston, West Virginia, when they see a small missile heading straight for the aircraft before it swerves to the side about 500–600 feet below. Cantrell describes the projectile as short, squatty, and homemade looking, about 4–6 feet long with large fins. It appears to be descending and unpowered. (Clas Svahn and Anders Liljegren, “Close Encounters with Unknown Missiles,” IUR 19, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1994): 12–13)

Summer — UK researcher Timothy Good publishes Above Top Secret, containing clean copies of the MJ-12 documents. The book is an international exposé of UFO investigations and secrecy by the governments of the UK, US, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Australia, Canada, China, and Russia. (Timothy Good, Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-Up, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1987 ) July 22 — The Military Archives Division of NARA issues a list of 10 problems with the Cutler-Twining memo: it was incorrectly filed; no other researchers have found information on MJ-12; the classification “Top Secret Restricted Information” was not in use until the Nixon administration; the memo does not bear an official letterhead or watermark; it does not match the paper Cutler used at the time; no records are found of an NSC meeting on July 16, 1954; another memo is found saying that NSC members were called to a civil defense exercise on July 16; and there is no entry in Eisenhower’s appointment books on a special meeting. (National Archives, “Majestic 12 or ‘MJ- 12 ’ Reference Report”; “The MJ-12 Fiasco,” Just Cause, new series, no. 13 (September 1987): 1– 22 ) July 27 — 12:00 midnight. Witnesses in Accra and the Volta Region of Ghana see a large and apparently silent object over the Gulf of Guinea. Some people report the sound of explosions associated with it. A Ghana Air Force pilot views the missile-shaped object from the ground near Accra, traveling south over the ocean. It displays a yellow light at its trailing end, similar to a rocket. It appears to be at least twice as large as a Boeing 747. It stops descending and begins to climb, gaining altitude. Eight smaller, bluish lights appear in circular formation, seemingly the result of the object’s propulsive power. (Dolan II 413–414) Late July — 9:00 p.m.–5:00 a.m. A married couple and their daughter are riding in a horse cart, returning to their home near Będzienica, Poland. They notice two huge red spheres, apparently attached to each other, descending toward the northeast a few miles away and disappearing behind the horizon. After arriving home a few minutes later, the area outside their house becomes flooded in white light. The family rushes outside and sees two groups of three white lights silently floating low above a field less than one mile away to the northeast. The man alerts his neighbor and they return to the road to watch the lights for several minutes. Soon they notice a large red triangular light moving up and down in the northeast less than 2 miles away. After 6 minutes they hear a high-pitched sound like a car horn and the red light disappears. They continue watching the white lights, but soon notice that another neighbor’s barn about 1,000 feet away seems to be on fire. The man goes home to get his motorcycle and two daughters, but when they get to the barn there is no fire and the light is coming from another set of white spheres to the south. By this time it is after 10:00 p.m., and they ride the motorcycle to a nearby hill to watch the lights. Soon one of the daughters sees a large object like a vertical white TV screen 10 feet high approaching from the east about 60–100 feet above the ground. Two humanoids with angular heads and in green coveralls are visible against the screen, one large and one smaller. The man restarts the motorcycle with difficulty and returns home. Some 300 feet from their farmhouse, they see another object, a fireball with a tail descending in the area where they had seen the red triangle. Tired, the daughters and his wife go to sleep around 11:00 p.m., but the man stays up to watch the UFO activity. Around 4:00 a.m. the original two sets of white objects rearrange into a complex

group of 7 lights and remain that way for another hour. The next day, the man feels sick with heart problems and
is taken to a hospital for a short stay. (Arek Miazga, “Z historii UFO na Podkarpaciu: Bliskie spotkanie w
Będzienicy–Nockowej (1987),” Spotkania z Nieznanym, July 3, 2011; Poland 77– 80 )

Early August — A Soviet soldier serving with the military contingent in Leningrad [now St. Petersburg] is dispatched with four others to northern Karelia, where they join up with another unit. Their job is to guard a UFO that soldiers had recently discovered near Vyborg. A military plane had taken it to Monchegorsk, Murmansk Oblast, and deposited it in a former fuel depot. The guards get a close look at the object, which is more than 50 feet long, 16 feet wide, and 9 feet high, grayish-tan in color, smooth, and seamless. It is tube-shaped, with fins extending from the mid-section all the way to the rear. At the tip of its nose are outward-pointing triangles in a triangular formation. One week later, senior officers show up and attempt to enter the craft unsuccessfully. The craft is moved to a hangar and all but one of the soldiers are sent back to Leningrad. In September, a successful entry is made, according to the remaining officer. Inside, they discover two armchairs, two steering wheels, and a featureless control panel. The cockpit is so small that two adults can hardly fit inside. Investigators who collect “rod-like items” from inside experience mild burns on their hands (though gloved). (Clark III 345; Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal Encounters behind the Iron Curtain, Quadrillion, 1998, pp. 96– 9 7) August 4 — 10:00 p.m. Gordon Baker and two others watch two cross-shaped objects pass slowly and silently over his home from northeast to southwest in Exmouth, Devon, England. Describing it like a “flying fairground” at 38,000 feet, he watches a jet aircraft fly underneath it. They watch it for 15 minutes until it disappears on the horizon. Observers in Lympstone and Budleigh Salterton also see the object. Two huge, delta-shaped objects are seen making successive passes over Plymouth, Devon, between 10:30 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. Observations were also made in Bude, Cornwall, and Exeter, Devon, where they were apparently tracked on radar. (“‘Flying Fairground’ Is Seen over Town,” Exmouth (UK) Herald, August 7, 1987; “Whitehall Silent over Flying Fairground,” Exmouth (UK) Herald, August 14, 1987, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 222 (January 1988): 16; Marler 139) August 11 — A witness in Osbornville, New Jersey, sees a shiny, oval object that hovers, becomes brighter, and takes off like a shot, leaving a white trail. It then stops abruptly, maneuvers, flashes more lights, and shoots straight up out of sight. (UFOEv II 30) August 11 — Several people see a triangular object with three lights over Sevastopol, Crimea, Russia. A yellow light surriounds the perimeter, and a bright white light is seen inside. The object hovers and maneuvers for 3 hours with a trajectory that changes unpredictably. It disappears, reappears, and smaller objects separate rom it and take off at great speed. It finally takes off quickly away from the shoe. (Stonehill and Mantle , Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, p. 136) August 23 — 2:00–3:00 a.m. A witness sees a circular, white object west of Hajdúböszörmény, Hungary, flying slowly to the north. A thin, orange-colored light beam sweeps from it several times from west to east. Suddenly it “jumps” with tremendous speed from one place to another and remains stationary, still sweeping its light beam for at least 30 minutes. Then it suddenly disappears. (Karoli Hargitai, “The UFO Phenomenon in Hungary,” IUR 14, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1989): 16) August 30 — William S. Steinman makes another attempt to contact possible crashed-saucer insider Eric A. Walker, whom Robert Sarbacher has indicated was a behind-the-scenes participant. Steinman calls Walker, saying he is inquiring about “meetings that you attended at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in/around 1949–1950, concerning the military recovery of flying saucers, and bodies of occupants.” Walker replies: “Yes, I attended meetings concerning that subject matter.” Walker agrees they are talking about recovered aliens and seems nonchalant about the subject. Walker adds: “Yes, I know of MJ-12. I have known of them for 40 years… You are delving into an area that you can do absolutely nothing about… Forget about it!” Walker tells Steinman that he would consult his notes on the topic and hints he might cooperate further. Steinman writes Walker on August 31, sending him the MJ-12 briefing document and asking about Project Aquarius. Three weeks later, Walker replies, saying, “Some things you have right and some things you have very wrong.” He admits a machine was recovered and is still stored near “Wright Field.” Four normal looking males were found at the site, very much alive. “They learned the English language within a few hours and it was our decision not to make public spectacles of them, but to allow them to be absorbed into American culture.” Each of the four, Walker alleges, became highly successful in technology, sports, and finance. (Grant Cameron and T. Scott Crain Jr., UFOs, MJ-12, and the Government: A Report on Government Involvement in UFO Crash Retrievals, Mutual UFO Network, 1991, pp. 7 – 15) August 31 — 10:55 p.m. A dark, domed, disc-shaped UFO with a mast or antenna on top comes down quickly over the high-security Naval Submarine Base Bangor [now Naval Base Kitsap] on the Kitsap Peninsula, Washington,

which houses the Trident nuclear ballistic submarine fleet. It hovers over a playground. Randy Springsteen, 8, and
Dennis Mauer, 10, sons of military personnel, are sitting on the swings and see an entity with a big head, big
pointed “cat” ears, wrinkled skin, and a greenish complexion in an open hatch. It has a thin, spindly body, long
webbed fingers and toes, and tabs or suction cups on the ends of its fingers and toes. It also has a wrinkled mouth
“like an old grandma’s.” The boys estimate the being is about 6 feet tall. It points a device that directs a beam of
energy at the two boys on the swings, causing the levitation of the metal swings. The boys flee quickly into the
Springsteen home and get Charlene Springsteen, who sees a row of lights in the sky as the UFO takes off and flies
away. Charlene then has the boys draw separate sketches of both the UFO and the alien, which are remarkably
similar. (Donald A. Johnson, “The Bangor CE3,” IUR 14, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1989): 4–6, 23)

Early autumn — Evening. Rich and Kathy Dicenzo, their children, and a family friend are sitting outside their weekend residence in the southern Ohio hills in front of a campfire. Suddenly a dark shape appears passing from in back of them from the north over the roof of the house and blotting out the stars in a precise boomerang shape. The perimeter of the shape is covered with 12–20 individual lights. All sounds from insects, tree frogs, and distant dogs stops. The campfire flame rises straight up, frozen. The aspen tree in the front yard stops “quaking” and the children gasp. The soundless object is low, and it extends beyond the 72-foot length of the house. After one minute, the light configuration wobbles, the lights change from amber to red, and the object splits into three sections, spreads out, and dissipates. (Jennie Zeidman, “Strangeness in the Night,” IUR 14, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1989): 5 , 22) September — The final issue of the APRO Bulletin is published by Jim and Coral Lorenzen. (APRO Bulletin 33, no. 7 (September 1987)) September — Three witnesses in Taunton, Somerset, England, observe a triangular object with bright white lights at each point and red lights underneath, rotating to the left. Its size is estimated to be comparable to three C-130 aircraft. (Marler 139) September 11 — 8:15 p.m. Lydia B. Lövendal-Papae and her husband are walking between Herăstrău Park [now King Michael I Park] and Aviators Square in Bucharest, Romania, when they see a large, reddish-orange star hovering above the nearby Arcul de Triumf. After a minute, it moves to right above them and stops for a couple minutes before it sways back and forth. Suddenly it makes large zigzag movements toward the Romanian National Television building and disappears to the northeast. After 5 minutes, her husband sees a white beam shooting briefly from the direction it has gone. (Romania 45–46) September 13 — A radioactive contamination accident takes place in Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil, after a forgotten radiotherapy source is taken from an abandoned hospital site in the city. It is subsequently handled by many people, resulting in four deaths. About 112,000 people are examined for radioactive contamination and 249 of them are found to be contaminated. In the cleanup operation, topsoil has to be removed from several sites, and several hundred houses are demolished. All the objects from within those houses, including personal possessions, are seized and incinerated. (Wikipedia, “Goiânia accident”) September 14 — 6:05 p.m. A man and his daughter are walking in Debrecen, Hungary, when she sees a “flying log.” The man looks up and sees a cylindrical object flying very slowly to the north. After 3 minutes it disappears without a trace. (Karoli Hargitai, “The UFO Phenomenon in Hungary,” IUR 14, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1989): 16) September 22 — 9:00 p.m. A young couple is sitting outside in Bossier City, Louisiana, when they see a large, conical or triangular object pass silently in the sky. It has sparsely distributed lighting on its base and seems metallic and solid. They estimate it is several football fields in length. On October 6, the man sees the object again, moving in the same direction toward Barksdale Air Force Base. (Michael D. Swords, “Timmerman’s Triangles,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 16)

Mid-October — 6:00 p.m. A man is driving up Candlewood Lake Road, near Brookfield, Connecticut, when he sees a low-flying aerial object that passes over the trees to the left. After making a turn, he notices four cars stopped with no lights on off the side of the road. He flashes his headlights and his car’s radio and electrical power dies. All the other drivers—three men and a woman—are out of their cars. They tell him that their vehicles stopped as a large, bright aircraft flew over and passed silently over a hill in the west. It had all white and amber lights and was triangular in shape. Two other cars drive by at that time and their engines sputter but they do not stop. He notices a glow in the woods. He wants to investigate it, but no one will accompany him. Grabbing a flashlight, he walks into the woods for about a quarter of a mile, watching the glow get brighter. As he climbs a hill, the glow turns deep red and then off-white. As he reaches the top of the hill, he sees a lighted object, but trees block his view. He climbs down the hill to a clearing and sees an object like a dark triangle hovering silently in (not above) the trees. He hears a noise and sees a figure wearing a helmet and a dark suit with glowing metallic stripes around the arms

and waist approaching the object. It reaches the UFO and looks in the witness’s direction. He hears thoughts in his
head saying that he shouldn’t come closer. As he watches, the figure raises its hand as if to say goodbye and
vanishes in a flash of red light. The object then blinks out as if someone has just turned it off. (NightSiege 201 –
203)

November 11 — 5:00 p.m. Edward Walters, president of a construction company in Gulf Breeze, Florida, has his first alleged encounter with a UFO. He sees a glowing, top-shaped craft with a row of portholes across the midsection and a luminous ring on the bottom. He rushes in and grabs a Polaroid camera and snaps a photo just as the UFO is moving from behind a tree. He takes three more photos as the object, 150 feet away, drifts in a northeasterly direction. As he is taking more photos, the object moves above him, and Walters is hit by a blue beam that paralyzes him and lifts him several feet off the ground. After hearing a computerlike voice and a female voice, he sees images of dogs. Then he falls hard on the pavement and the UFO is gone. Over the next few months, Walters (initially concealing his identity as “Mr. X”) and his family claim a bewildering variety of close encounters, including abduction incidents, and Walters continues to produce more photos of the UFOs plaguing him. The veracity of his claims causes a rift in ufology, with MUFON championing the case and CUFOS very skeptical. California ufologist and songwriter Zan Overall produces evidence that Walters knew how to double-expose photos well before his UFO pictures. In June 1990, a model UFO, seemingly a prototype for a fake UFO in his photos, is found in the wall of the house formerly occupied by Walters. One week later, Tom Smith Jr., 22, comes forward claiming he has seen Walters fake some of the photos. Photoanalyst Bruce Maccabee continues to support Walters’s claims, coauthoring a book with him in 1997. (Wikipedia, “Gulf Breeze UFO incident”; MUFON UFO Journal, March 1988; Donald M. Ware, Charles D. Flannigan, and Walter H. Andrus Jr., “The Gulf Breeze, Florida, Photographic Case: Supplement to Part I,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 240 (April 1988): 13 – 14, 21; Jerome Clark, “Editorial: Ill Breeze,” IUR 13, no. 2 (March/April 1988): 3, 23; Dennis Stacy, “Gulf Breeze: A Note to the Skeptical,” IUR 13, no. 2 (March/April 1988): 10–11; Mark Rodeghier, “Gulf Breeze: A Note to the Committed,” IUR 13, no. 2 (March/April 1988): 12–13, 23; Mark Rodeghier and Robert D. Boyd, “Gulf Breeze, Florida: The Other Side of the Coin,” CUFOS Bulletin, April 1988, pp. 1–4; Jerome Clark, “Editorial: Breeze from the Gulf,” IUR 13, no. 3 (May/June 1988): 3; MUFON UFO Journal, June 1988; MUFON UFO Journal, July 1988; MUFON UFO Journal, August 1988; Bruce Maccabee, “A History of the Gulf Breeze, Florida, Sighting Events,” in MUFON 1988 International UFO Symposium, MUFON, 1988, pp. 113– 204; Richard H. Hall and Willy Smith, “Balancing the Scale: Unanswered Questions about Gulf Breeze,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 248 (December 1988): 3– 7 ; Dan C. Overlade, “Psychological Evaluation of Mr. Ed,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 248 (December 1988): 7–8; Bruce Maccabee, “The Scale Remains Unbalanced,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 252 (April 1989): 3 – 24; MUFON UFO Journal, May 1989; Bruce Maccabee, “Billy, No; Ed, Yes,” IUR 14, no. 3 (May/June 1989): 16–19, 24; Wim van Utrecht, “How to Take Your Own Gulf Breeze Photos,” IUR 14, no. 3 (May/June 1989): 20–21, 24; MUFON UFO Journal, May 199 0 ; Ed Walters and Frances Walters, The Gulf Breeze Sightings, Morrow, 1990; Zan Overall, Gulf Breeze Double Exposed: The ‘ Ghost-Demon ’ Photo Controversy, CUFOS, 1990; Craig Myers, “Gulf Breeze UFO Model Found,” Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, June 10, 1990, pp. 1, 8; Craig Myers, “I Saw UFO Photos Faked, Witness Says,” Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, June 17, 1990, pp. 1, 4; Bruce Maccabee, “The Gulf Breeze Lights,” IUR 17, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1992): 4–12; Art Hufford, “The Gulf Breeze Lights, Continued,” IUR 17, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1992): 11– 12; Zan Overall, “The Gulf Breeze RUFOs,” IUR 17, no. 2 (March/April 1992): 14– 18 ; Barbara Becker, “The Invention of a Gulf Breeze UFO,” IUR 17, no. 2 (March/April 1992): 19 – 21, 23; Bruce Maccabee and Ed Walters, UFOs Are Real: Here ’ s the Proof, Avon, 1997; James W. Moseley and Karl T. Pflock, Shockingly Close to the Truth! Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist, Prometheus, 2002, pp. 287– 297 ; Clark III 550– 552 ) November 18 — The US Congress issues its investigative report on the Iran–Contra Affair. It concludes that “the central remaining question is the role of the President in the Iran–Contra affair. On this critical point, the shredding of documents by Poindexter, North, and others, and the death of Casey, leave the record incomplete.” (Wikipedia, “Iran–Contra affair”) Mid-November — 7:00 p.m. Jim Dawes is one of the witnesses of an object in the shape of the supersonic airplane Concorde at Wolverhampton, England. When it reaches overhead, he sees it is composed of many different lights in a triangle shape. (“Mystery of ‘Concorde shape UFO,’” Wolverhampton (UK) Express-Star, December 2, 1987; Marler 120) November 23 — 8:25 p.m. Rick Devine goes out the back door of his home in Shreve, Ohio, to round up the family dogs and cats. He glances up and sees four blobs of cool-white light maneuvering in a cloverleaf pattern (elliptical orbits with a common center of flight, meeting at the center) in an area of sky a few hundred feet in diameter. The objects move slower at the outer edges of the orbit and faster as they near the center. Devine shoos the animals

inside (no reaction to the display) and calls to his wife Janet. She joins him and they continue to watch the objects. She describes the lights as rectangular. They cross the street into a schoolyard to get closer to the lights, which move away as if in response. At no time does the brightness or color or altitude of the lights change. Seemingly, the display covers an area equivalent to a baseball diamond. It moves back across the road, and the Devines follow. As they watch, the four blobs of light come together in the center, move outward and continue onward, disappearing 90° from each other. The sighting lasts 35 minutes. (Jennie Zeidman, “Strangeness in the Night,” IUR 14, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1989): 4–5) November 28 — 9:10 p.m.–12:00 midnight. 33 unknown objects fly at low altitude over the coast of Primorsky Krai, Far Eastern district, Russia, on the Sea of Japan. Witnesses describe various shapes—cylinders, cigars, globes—all moving silently. Thirteen UFOs are seen above Dalnegorsk. The objects cause a 2-minute disruption of electrical circuits, including TVs and computers. More than 100 witnesses are questioned by the Far Eastern Commission. (Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal Encounters behind the Iron Curtain, Quadrillion, 1998, p. 94)

Winter — Night. Air Force Security Policeman Joseph C. Pscolka is awakened by the night shift flight security controller at the Malmstrom AFB N-01 missile alert facility northwest of Grassrange, Montana, who tells him that an alarm response team responded to a security alert at the N-06 launch site and had not been heard from for nearly an hour. Pscolka assembles a security response team and joins them to drive to the site. The security lights are out and the alarm team’s vehicle parked 50 feet from the wide-open gate with its lights out and engine off. Pscolka drives up to the vehicle when his own Peacekeeper APC loses power. At that moment, the alert team bursts from its vehicle and runs to the APC, begging to be let in. Their vehicle had shut down entirely, even the flashlights. The entire launch facility, up to 20 feet outside the gate, is devoid of snow, even though the snow outside is knee- deep. Pscolka goes up to the facility alone after posting guards. When he gets to the snow-free zone, he notes the temperature is warmer, even hot. Everything within the facility is warm to the touch, including the soil. But there are no intruders. A few more APCs approach down the access road, and suddenly all the facility and vehicle lights come on again. After the incident, the teams are debriefed and ordered not to tell anyone about it. (Nukes 397– 401) December — Barry Greenwood calls the MJ-12 documents hoaxes, most likely contrived by Richard C. Doty, who has apparently been Moore’s source for much of his UFO information. He cites the disparity between the briefing document’s extensive discussion of the Roswell crash and the mere 7 lines of text on the 1950 Texas crash. Greenwood also charges that the Cutler-Twining memo had been planted, as it had been found in a virtually empty box in the National Archives containing a small number of non-UFO documents. Bruce Maccabee thinks the Cutler-Twining memo is genuine. (MUFON UFO Journal, December 1987; MUFON UFO Journal, July 1988) December — John Grace founds the Leading Edge International research group after receiving the “Dulce Papers,” a set of documents allegedly disclosing unethical experiments on humans—such as breeding techniques, DNA manipulation, and genetic modification—at an underground base in Dulce, New Mexico. The papers inspired and are included in The Matrix series of six books published from 1988 to 2007 by Grace under the pseudonym Valdamar Valerian. These huge compilations of supposed documents and insider information discuss the alien visitors and treaties with earthly governments, harvests of human body parts, friendly and unfriendly alien species, the creation of humans and culture by aliens, acquisition of alien technology, and the dangers of an alien takeover. (Darryl Smith, “The Dulce Papers,” Crowded Skyes; “Leading Edge International,” UFO-Alien Database; Clark III 9–10) December 1 — 7:15 a.m. A former London policeman (pseudonym Philip Spencer) is walking across Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire, England, to visit his father-in-law in East Morton. He was walking up a small hill when he notices an odd-looking figure in the trail ahead of him. It is dark green and about 4 feet tall with an oversized head and long, thin arms. The creature makes a gesture at Spencer, which he takes to be a warning telling him to stay away, but he takes out his camera and snaps a picture. The creature then runs away and Spencer follows it. He loses the creature in the fog but then sees an object rise from the moor and disappear into the sky. It is a whitish color and consists of two saucer-shaped parts on top of each other. He hears a loud hum. He fails to take a photo of the object. Rather than continue with his planned route, Spencer heads to another town that was about 30 minutes away. When he arrives, he finds that it is about two hours later than he expects it to be. Additionally, the compass he has taken with him is pointed in the opposite direction than it should be. While the photo is getting examined by experts, Spencer has strange dreams. Following ufologist Peter Hough’s advice, he attends a session of regressive hypnotherapy carried out by Jim Singleton on March 16, 1988. Under hypnosis, Spencer’s original account of the incident changes. Singleton calls it a genuine recall. Spencer now remembers that when he saw the

creature on the hill he was instantly paralyzed, lifted up a few feet, and pulled into the craft. When he enters, a voice tells him to be calm. A group of green aliens then performs medical experiments on him, inserting items into his nose and mouth. He is given a tour of the craft and shown a film with apocalyptic imagery, including nuclear explosions, famines, and floods. He is then shown a second film, but he never reveals the contents of this film, saying that the aliens who abducted him do not want humanity to know. Following this, Spencer is returned to Ilkley Moor, where he then takes his photograph. He claims that the alien is actually waving goodbye to him, not telling him to stay away, as in his original account. (Wikipedia, “Ilkley Moor UFO incident”; Peter Hough, “The Green Alien of Ilkley Moor,” Fate, March 1999, pp. 35–41; Matty Sweeney, “Ilkley Moor Alien Photograph,” The Paranormal Guide, October 7, 2014; “Picture Post: When Ilkley Moore Became an Alien Landing Site,” Yorkshire Post, October 13, 2014; Nick Redfern, Top Secret Alien Abduction Files, Red Wheel/Weiser, 2018; Patrick Gross, “The Ilkley Moor Encounter of the 3rd Kind, 1987”) December 9 — Night. Oddly moving lights in the sky appear over Nottingham, England, traveling quickly and emitting a deep hum. A triangular object about 250 feet long covered in 150 red and white lights is observed over a farm near Hull around the same date. Similar UFOs are seen in Staffordshire and Long Eaton, Derbyshire. (“Mystery of City UFO Sightings,” Nottingham (UK) Evening Post, December 10, 1987; Hull (UK) Daily Mail, December 11, 1987; Long Eaton (UK) Trader, December 23, 1987; Marler 121) December 14 — 9:30 p.m. A gray, oval-shaped object lands on the road ahead of a Mercedes car near Launceston, Tasmania. The engine and lights fail instantly, and the driver brakes to a stop. Intense light comes from the base of the object that is painful to the driver’s eyes. He leaves the car and gets sick, hiding behind a tree from where he watches his car being dragged about 33 feet, as if attracted by a magnet, and leaving tire marks on the road. A Land Cruiser approaches the scene and its lights fail, but the diesel engine continues to operate. The object takes off with a whirring sound. The car is covered with melted specks of asphalt, and serious electrical problems must be fixed after the incident. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 19 ) December 29 — Lear Jet heir John Lear, based on stories by Albuquerque businessman Paul Bennewitz, claims in a statement on ParaNet that he has independent confirmation of a secret underground base near Dulce, New Mexico, populated by gray aliens and humans. Direct communication between one alien group and the US government took place at Holloman AFB in April 1964. Lear alleges that the MJ-12 group entered into a relationship with possible ET intelligences between 1969 and 1971 and in exchange for super technology, gave carte blanche to the ETs to conduct experiments and abductions on unsuspecting human beings. Lear also claims that the ETs, with our government’s knowledge, are mutilating domestic cattle and sheep, and in some cases even humans are the victims. In 1972–1973, a secret underground facility at Groom Lake, Nevada, was built “for and with the help of” the ETs. Lear claims that William Moore is being used as a conduit by MJ- 12 (which includes Edward Teller, Henry Kissinger, Bobby Ray Inman, and possibly John Poindexter) to release information about the alien presence on earth. Many ParaNet members question his assertions. (Wikipedia, “Dulce Base”; “Statement Released by John Lear,” December 29, 1987; Don Ecker, “Driven to Destruction,” Fortean Times 121 (April 1999): 40– 43 )

1988

1988 — Michael Corbin becomes administrator of ParaNet, which runs through the mid-1990s. 1988 — College instructor Karla Turner and her husband are in counseling to learn why they are feeling physical symptoms of stress. She reads Missing Time by Budd Hopkins and Communion by Whitley Strieber and soon recalls having seen an odd light in the sky as a girl and begins to dream about UFOs. Having learned hypnotic regression techniques from her therapist, she regresses her husband, whereupon he remembers several childhood experiences with gray aliens. Several nights later, Karla awakens to sounds of clicks and bumps in the house, followed by disembodied voices in her bedroom. She later remembers a nightmare from her childhood in which an insect-like being holds her hand and tells her it is her mother. Soon she and her husband undergo regression by an Oklahoma UFO researcher, which produces accounts of repeated abductions since childhood and evidence that her whole family was involved. After one session, Karla, her husband, and a third person see a lighted, disc- shaped craft hovering above them. Two weeks later, she again hears voices in the night and loud knocking sounds. She wakes to find small punctures on her inner wrist and three white circles on her abdomen. Into 1989, more body marks appear, including a solid red triangle on her arm, puncture wounds, scratches, and bruises. Poltergeist phenomena occur. The Turners begin to notice a white car parked near their house, and unmarked

helicopters seem to follow them. They begin to suspect the US military is monitoring them. (Karla Turner, Into
the Fringe: A True Story of Alien Abduction, Berkley, 1992)

January — A family in the vicinity of Pasadena, California, notices a large, perfectly circular brown spot, 13 feet in diameter, in their backyard in the midst of their lush, well-cared for St. Augustine grass. It seems to have appeared the morning after the wife awakens to see a small, gray-skinned entity standing beside her and probing her torso with medical instruments. She had seen a strange light beam one month earlier. The brown area slowly fills in with Bermuda grass after 6 months. The Los Angeles County agricultural pathologist who examines a soil sample finds four southern chinch bugs (Blissus insularis) that he says can cause similar damage, although the progression is much slower and requires many more insects than four. (Ann Druffel, “CE3—and CE2?” IUR 14, no. 3 (May/June 1989): 10–12, 23) January 5 (or 15) — 5:00 a.m. Cristian Tuţă is doing mandatory military service in a unit at Roşu, Romania, on the shore of Lacul Morii. While on guard duty, he notices an oval light positioned vertically 30 feet above the bridge to the only island on the lake. He estimates it is 45 feet high and 15 feet wide. Inside are four much brighter lights in the shape of a cross. At first it remains motionless, but begins quickly moving up and down along the bridge like a sine wave for 30 minutes. It stops abruptly and moves slowly to the southwest at an altitude of 60 feet. When it comes to a clump of trees, it changes its shape to two discs put together. In a split second it zooms away to the west. (Romania 46–48) January 12 — Ed Walters produces his most famous photo—a brightly lit structured craft hovering above a road near his home in Gulf Breeze, Florida. (Ed Walters and Frances Walters, The Gulf Breeze Sightings, Morrow, 1990) January 19 — 5:00 p.m. A father and daughter are driving to pick the mother up from work in Benton, Louisiana. When they pull into the mall parking lot, the daughter notices a streak of light in the sky that suddenly moves right in front of them about 150 feet away and 50 feet above the ground. It is a dull silver disc with “turbines” or openings around its perimeter that are spinning like a slowly moving fan. From the top of the object emerges a sheath with rotary blades, although the blades do not rotate. The disc is about the size of an automobile, around 5 feet tall, and completely silent. For 90 seconds, all the noise of the mall seems muted. Then the device begins to move and zips away quickly. (Michael D. Swords, “Unusual Experiences from the Timmerman Files,” IUR 27, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 21) January 20 — 4:10 a.m. Faye Knowles and her three sons Patrick, Sean, and Wayne are en route along the Eyre Highway from Perth, Western Australia, to Melbourne, Victoria, by car, when they observe a bright, egg-shaped object ahead of them on the road near Mundrabilla, Western Australia. Sean is driving and has to swerve to miss the object. The egg-shaped object then begins to follow their station wagon. At some point, Sean does a U-turn to approach the object, but soon goes back to driving eastward. The family becomes disoriented, and the sequence of events is difficult to reconstruct. They roll down the windows and a “grayish-black mist” enters into the car. Faye reaches out the window to touch the roof and feels something warm, soft, and rubbery that covers her hand in black dust. They hear a thud on the roof and come to believe that the object has lifted their car off the road. They are let down suddenly and the right rear tire blows out. A truck driver named Graham Henley is driving ahead of the Knowles’s car; he sees a bright light in his rearview mirror for about 5 minutes. Shortly after Henley pulls into Mundrabilla, the Knowles family arrives in a state of disorientation. He inspects the damaged tire, sees dents in the roof, and smells something burnt. Henley and another trucker drive back to the scene and find skid marks and footprints. In the afternoon, the family report to police in Ceduna, South Australia, who note their distress and the dents in the roof. Samples of the black dust are collected for forensic analysis. The police tests are never done, but at least half of the material is obtained by ufologists Keith Basterfield and Ray Brooke, who take it to a laboratory. The analysis reveals ordinary materials: sodium chloride, sodium, aluminum, magnesium, sulfur, potassium, silicon, chlorine, clay particles, and calcium. The Seven Network pays the Australian Mineral Development Laboratories to test the vehicle for radioactivity, but there is none above background. AMDEL states that the car tire has failed due to being underinflated, and the dust, smell, and smoke is due to the blowout. Another set of samples is taken from the car by the Victorian UFO Research Society and sent to two different labs, again with commonplace results. However, one analysis by Richard Haines in the US concludes that the interior dust is different from the exterior dust, which contains a possible trace of astatine, a radioactive chemical element. Faye’s hand became red and swollen in the days after the event. (Keith Basterfield and Ray Brooke, “The Mundrabilla Incident,” UFO Research Australia Newsletter 6, no. 1 (April 1988): 3–20; Keith Basterfield and Ray Brooke, “The Mundrabilla Incident: An Update,” UFO Research Australia Newsletter 7, no. 1 (May 1989): 3–9; Keith Basterfield, Vladimir Godic, and Pony Godic, “Australian Ufology: A Review,” JUFOS 2 (1990): 36-37; Keith Basterfield, “Samples from the Mundrabilla CE2,” IUR 15, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1990): 12–13; UFOEv II 232 – 237; Siani, “UFOs on the Nullarbor Plain (Part 1),” Strange Days, September 27, 2007; Siani,

“UFOs on the Nullarbor Plain (Part 2),” Strange Days, September 27, 2007; Brian Dunning, “The Knowles Family UFO Incident,” Skeptoid podcast, no. 715, February 18, 2020) January 21 — 8:00 p.m. Ex-Navy Lt. Dan McIndoe and his family are at their home 5 miles north of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington, when they see a white light with red and blue flashes. They watch it maneuvering for 2 hours. (Donald A. Johnson, “UFOs in Washington Skies,” IUR 13, no. 2 (March/April 1988): 4–6)

February 4 — 8:10 p.m. A woman is driving between Bacup, Lancashire, and Todmorden, Yorkshire, England, when she sees an intense orange, egg-shaped light to the south-southeast above Tooler Hill when she is crossing the border between the two counties. Its interior is like a “swirling liquid (or fire embers) with constantly changing patterns.” She stops to watch it as it hovers for another 2–3 minutes. As she drives away it starts to move, so she pulls over again and watches it (now dimmer) move away to the southwest. It speeds up as it descends below the level of the hillside. (Jenny Randles, “Another Pennine Earthlight?” Northern UFO News, no. 137 (June 1989): 15) February 9 — 8:00 a.m. A man looking for farm work near Oswestry, Shropshire, England, sees a dog run from a parked car he is passing. The dog crosses the road and runs barking straight int a swirling, yellowish, glowing mist about 45 feet in diameter that straddles a hedgerow. The mist is making a noise like rushing air. The dog owner gets out of the car, and the witness follows her toward the glow and tries to calm her down. As they approach, their hair stands on end, their skin begins tingling, and they smell sulfur as an eerie stillness envelops them. Moments later, the glow disappears as if it is melting away. The dog is lying on the ground looking ill. Its eyes are red and its coat is soaking wet, yet the moisture is evaporating rapidly with steam visibly rising. The man carries the dog back to the car and the woman drives off with it. He later finds out that the dog recovered after an hour or so but died a few weeks later. (Jenny Randles, Time Storms: Amazing Evidence for Time Warps, Space Rifts, and Time Travel, Piatkus, 2001, p. 11; Jenny Randles, “UFOs Can Damage Your Health, Part Two,” Fortean Times 365 (April 2018): 27) February 10 — 7:45–8:30 p.m. Numerous independent observers on the border of Cambria and Somerset counties near Johnstown, Pennsylvania, see a 60-foot object with several rows of lights that make it look like a “cruise ship in the sky.” The object passes over cars and trees at an altitude of 50–100 feet. It emits a slight humming sound and projects multiple beams of light toward the ground. (“Number of UFO Reports in State Unprecedented in ‘88,” Latrobe (Pa.) Bulletin, January 9, 1989, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 235 (February 1989): 11–12)

March 3 — 8:30 p.m. The brothers Farisano are returning home from a soccer championship near General Belgrano, Buenos Aires, Argentina, when they notice some strange lights above a nearby bridge. As they approach the lights, their vehicle engine suddenly stalls. They try to restart it but cannot, so they remain in their truck watching the lights. They now see that the lights are on a spherical object with a large red light on the top and several white lights in a row on the bottom section. The object hovers close to the ground. Inside the transparent midsection the witnesses can see a shadow-like figure moving about. The object suddenly moves slowly out of sight, after which the truck engine restarts and they drive home. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 19) March 4 — 8:35 p.m. Sheila and Henry Baker and their three children are driving home to Eastlake, Ohio, after going to dinner. As they near the waterfront, Sheila notices something hovering above Lake Erie, so they drive down to the beach to investigate. A huge, metallic-gray, football-shaped object like a blimp is silently rocking back and forth, blinding white light emanating from both ends. It begins circling, moving overhead at about 1,300 feet. Somehow it causes the lake ice to rumble and crack. The Bakers get nervous and drive home, where they can still see the UFO with red and blue blinking lights along the bottom edge. 5–6 bright triangular lights detach from the side, hovering at first, then darting and zigzagging around at high speeds. Each is smaller than a Cessna and cross 50- mile stretches low over the ice “in the snap of a finger.” They make several passes toward the Perry Nuclear Power Plant about 20 miles away. The Bakers alert the Coast Guard, and Seaman James Powers and Petty Officer John Knaub drive to the beach, where the triangular objects approach them. They give a blow-by-blow radio report to the Coast Guard base in Detroit. Other witnesses in different locations also see the triangles. Suddenly the smaller objects return to the large one, which seems to be landing on the ice. They reenter it, the ellipse flashes a series of red, blue, and yellow lights, and the light at the end turns from white to red. Suddenly the lights go out and the ice booming stops. The witnesses assume the object has gone beneath the surface. The Coast Guard report the next day suggests that the lights were Venus and Jupiter. (NICAP, “Eastlake Close Encounter”; Richard P. Dell’Aquila, “Ohio Flap,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 249 (January 1989): 15 – 17; Dolan II 428–431; John Lasker, Technoir: 13 Investigations from the Dark Side of Technology, the US Military, and UFOs, The Author, 2010, pp. 23– 28 ; Marcus Lowth, “The Baker Family UFO Encounter over Lake Erie,” UFO Insight, August 2,

2018; Michael Lee Hill, “Never Before Heard! Famous 1988 Lake Erie Coast Guard UFO Event Update: Audio Witness Testimony!” Michael Lee Hill blog, August 18, 2018; Patrick Gross, “Lake Erie, USA 1988”) March 5 — Richard Doty writes to ufologist Larry W. Bryant that he had never promised film footage to Linda Moulton Howe. (Clark III 365 ) March 7 — During a campaign rally in Rogers, Arkansas, vice president and presidential candidate George H. W. Bush is approached by a UFO buff named Charles Huffer, who asks him if he will tell the truth about UFOs. He sort of promises to declassify the information. Later, Huffer declines to send him any UFO cases because “you’re a CIA man. You know all that stuff.” “I know some,” Bush replies, “I know a fair amount.” (presidentialufo.com, “George Bush, 41st President”)

April — William Steinman again contacts Eric A. Walker at his Florida residence and asks about the current members of MJ-12. Within a week, Walker mails Steinman’s handwritten note back to him from Penn State, not Florida. At the top of the letter, Walker has written, “Must reply, did code (–1),” and placed numbers from 1 to 26 above certain words in Steinman’s letter. Later in the month, T. Scott Crain calls Walker, who says he cannot talk about the UFO subject. (Grant Cameron and T. Scott Crain Jr., UFOs, MJ-12, and the Government: A Report on Government Involvement in UFO Crash Retrievals, Mutual UFO Network, 1991, pp. 16–22) April 12 — Coral Lorenzen, founder of APRO, dies in Tucson, Arizona. CUFOS had been attempting to purchase the APRO archives, but is thwarted by someone who convinces Coral’s son, Larry Lorenzen, that this is a bad move and that the APRO board should reconsider. He wants the archive to stay in Arizona. Tina Choate and Brian Myers, with their dubious International Center for UFO Research, convince the APRO board that they are the most logical recipients. In 1989, the board gives them the archives free of charge. Former APRO board member Robert Dean later realizes Choate and Myers are scam artists. They immediately bar anyone from using the files and move them to a garage at an undisclosed location in Scottsdale or Sedona, Arizona. It is not known if the paper archives still exist, although fortunately APRO case files prior to 1957 have been preserved digitally. In 2010 – 2 012, Choate and Myers are involved in a fraudulent scheme to acquire and illegally sell a valuable collection of fossils. (“Obituary: Coral Lorenzen,” Flying Saucer Review 33, no. 3 (September 1988): 15; Clas Svahn, “Unique UFO Archive Hidden in Warehouse (APRO Archives and Files),” UFO Evidence; Jamie Ross, “Collector Sues over $25M in Fossils,” Courthouse News Service, May 17, 2010; Isaac Koi, “Rare Microfilms of UFO Documents Now Online: APRO, US Air Force, etc. (PDF archives),” Above Top Secret forum, December 15, 2014)

May 4 — MUFON Director of Investigations Dan Wright poses a set of open questions for John Lear, nearly all of which concern Lear’s sources. Lear claims that most of his information comes from confidential sources within the intelligence community, while a lesser portion comes from open sources and his own “informed speculation.” (Richard P. Dell’Aquila, “Who Is John Lear?” UFONet.it, 1988) May 4 — During a question-and-answer session following a speech to the National Strategy Forum in Chicago’s Palmer House Hotel, President Reagan is asked about the most important “need” in international relations. He replies: “I’ve often wondered, what if all of us in the world discovered that we were threatened by an outer– a power from outer space, from another planet. Wouldn’t we all of a sudden find that we didn’t have any differences between us at all, we were all human beings, citizens of the world, and wouldn’t we come together to fight that particular threat?” (presidentialufo.com, “Ronald Reagan, 40th President, January 20, 1981–January 20, 1989”) May 16 — 9 : 30 – 10:00 p.m. Eileen Ballard and four friends are outside in Stafford, England, when they notice two spotlights in the sky. The objects they are attached to position themselves side by side, one above the other, and fly slowly and silently across the sky. Red and green lights are visible on the undersides. BUFORA initially attributes the sighting to two US Air Force F- 117 stealth fighters, an aircraft that had not yet been acknowledged, but this is considered unlikely as other witnesses come forward. (“Did Mystery Lights Reflect Secret Flights of F- 19?” Stafford (UK) Newsletter, May 20, 1988, p. 3; “After MP’s Plea, More Tell of UFO Mystery,” Stafford (UK) Newsletter, July 1, 1988; Marler 121– 123 , 139– 140 )

June 1 — 8:10 p.m. A Boeing 737 pilot, on a final approach to the runway at El Tepual Airport in Puerto Montt, Chile, suddenly encounters a large white light surrounded by green and red. The light is coming straight toward the airplane, and the pilot makes a steep turn to the left to avoid a collision. The object is also seen by air traffic control personnel. (Kean, pp. 194 – 195 ; “1988: La historia del Ovni de El Tepual, Puerto Montt,” Prensa Vértice TV YouTube channel, August 17, 2012; Rodrigo Bravo Garrido and Juan Castillo Cornejo, “Incidente del Boeing 737 del Vuelo Lan Chile 045 con un F.A.N.I. el 01 de Junio de 1988,” Parinacota UFO Arica, October 10, 2015)

July — Cynthia Hind begins publishing UFO Afrinews in Harare, Zimbabwe. It continues until July 2000. (UFO Afrinews, no. 1 (July 1988)) July — Walter Corrêa do Prado of Boqueirâo, Paraiba, Brazil, undergoes about one hour of missing time after seeing a strong light illuminating three blocks in his neighborhood. After witnessing other UFOs over the next month or so (one with his wife that leaves traces of burned grass), he begins reading UFO literature. In April 2000, do Prado is hypnotically regressed by Mario Rangel, and an abduction narrative surfaces. (Clark III 308– 309 ; Brazil 329– 333) July — The Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici launches another newsletter, Rassegna Casistica, edited by Alessandro Cortellazi in Turin, Italy. It continues through December 1991. (Rassegna Casistica, no. 1 (July 1988)) July 17 — Night. Several witnesses see two objects with red and green flashing lights make two crisscross passes near the generating station in Homer City, Pennsylvania. Later one object drops from the sky and makes two passes about 200 feet from the ground. It is circular in shape and about the size of a large car. It has four leg-like structures with lights on them that protrude from the bottom. A hissing noise can be heard as the object passes close by. (“Number of UFO Reports in State Unprecedented in ‘88,” Latrobe (Pa.) Bulletin, January 9, 1989, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 235 (February 1989): 12)

August — After eight years of stress, fear, and paranoia, Paul Bennewitz has turned over his business to his sons and barricaded himself in his house. His family, convinced his sanity and health are in danger, commits him to the Anna Kaseman Hospital in Albuquerque, where he stays for a month. After his release, his family keeps him away from ufology and ufologists. (Greg Bishop, Project Beta, Paraview, 2005, pp. 217– 218 ) August — José Semitiel Martínez begins publishing the newsletter Búsqueda in Gerona, Spain. It folds in March 1995. (Búsqueda, no. 1 (August 1988)) August 3 — 11:15 a.m. Kaye Stricker is stopped at a traffic light at the corner of Gadsden Avenue and West Avenue K in Lancaster, California, when she sees a shiny object in the sky coming from the northwest. It hovers briefly over the Sierra Highway before “evaporating.” (“Van Driver Reports Sighting UFO in Sky over Lancaster,” Palmdale (Calif.) Antelope Valley Press, August 4, 1988, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 232 (November 1988): 1)

September 2 — Afternoon. A man sitting by a pond on his rural residence near Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, is startled to see an object come out of the sky from the north and hover 50 feet away from him about 30 feet above the ground. It is spherical and about 15–20 feet in diameter. The upper section is red and the underside orange-red. The center is divided by a glass-like, amber-colored window, and lights can be seen flashing inside. The object emits a mist toward the ground. It silently hovers for about 2 minutes before moving off to the north. Later, the man finds a depressed area in the tall grass about 12 feet in diameter where the grass is swirled counterclockwise. (“Number of UFO Reports in State Unprecedented in ‘88,” Latrobe (Pa.) Bulletin, January 9, 1989, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 235 (February 1989): 12) September 15 — An agent of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations contacts the Dallas, Texas, office of the FBI and supplies the Bureau with a copy of the MJ-12 documents. The set is obtained from a source whose identity AFOSI has decided must remain classified. (Kremlin 181–182) September 25 —10:30 p.m. A man is driving along State Highway 113 in Lorain County, Ohio, when his car stalls. He sees two other stalled cars on the side of the road, so he gets out and talks to the four people from the other cars for a few minutes. They realize there are lights nearby in the woods that come from a silvery triangular object with a rim and rounded base. The treetops above it seem to be moving, although it is a calm night. After 15– 20 minutes the object rises at an angle and moves away slowly and silently, passing overhead. It seems wider than the road. From the center of the base there is a white light like a fluorescent lamp. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 19)

October 8 — After speaking to John Lear by phone for the first time on October 4, conspiracy theorist Milton William Cooper receives in the mail a number of Lear’s writings, as well as the dubious “O.H. Krill” document, allegedly written by a USAF NCO named John Grace, claiming that the US government has a long-standing relationship with an alien civilization; a version of Abraham Zapruder’s John F. Kennedy assassination film enhanced to show Secret Service Agent William Greer shooting a pistol at Kennedy; Lear’s transcription of statements by a former Green Beret captain named William English regarding a nonexistent Project Grudge Report number 13 that refers to alien bodies; and a paper on Project Excalibur regarding underground facilities that was supposedly written by Bob Lazar while working at Los Alamos. (O. H. Krill [John Grace], “A Situation Report on Our Acquisition of Advanced Technology and Interaction with Alien Cultures,” IllumiNet BBS, June 1988; Don Ecker, “Freedom of Disinformation,” Fortean Times 122 (May 1999): 28–31; Dolan II 443– 447 )

October 13 — Former Sen. Barry Goldwater appears on Larry King’s syndicated radio show and responds to a caller who asks him whether the story about a secret Blue Room at Wright-Patterson AFB is true. He says his friend Gen. Curtis LeMay got quite angry at him when he tried to gain access to the room, which is said to hold evidence related to UFOs. (Nukes 488–489) October 14 — Bill Moore and his associates cooperate with “Falcon” and others in the “Aviary” to present a nationally televised two-hour special titled UFO Cover-Up? Live! Host Mike Ferrell interviews Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum, and finally “Falcon” (or someone pretending to be him) and “Condor” (identified by some as DIA employee Col. Robert Collins), who appear in silhouette with voices altered. They embarrassingly proclaim that the ETs have a preference for Tibetan music and strawberry ice cream. Robert Emenegger also appears, claiming he is convinced of the reality of the alleged UFO contact at Holloman AFB. Paul Shartle describes the Holloman film footage, saying it shows aliens emerging from a disc-shaped craft. (presidentialufo.com, “Disclosure Pattern 1972 – 75 ”; Internet Movie Database, “UFO Cover-Up? Live!”; Don Ecker, “Driven to Destruction,” Fortean Times 121 (April 1999): 40–43; Greg Bishop, Project Beta, Paraview, 2005, pp. 200 – 202 , 211 – 212 ) October 25 — 5:00 a.m. A Miami, Florida, couple is on their balcony terrace when they see 3 yellow lights moving erratically from west to east. They pass behind the only cloud in the sky then disappear. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Mystery Clouds and the UFO Connection,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 19) October 25 — The Dallas, Texas, office of the FBI transmits a 2-page secret Airtel to headquarters that says the MJ- 12 documents have been getting local publicity and asks if the documents are still classified. (Kremlin 182) October 26 — Jim Speiser ejects both Milton William Cooper and John Lear from ParaNet for bad behavior and peddling probable disinformation. (Don Ecker, “Freedom of Disinformation,” Fortean Times 122 (May 1999): 28– 31 ) October 26 — 9:00 p.m. Many residents of the San Joaquin Valley around Fresno and Kingsburg, California, see a low- flying object with three red lights in a V-formation. It seems to be circling and is visible for 45 minutes. (“Unidentified Object Steals across Valley Sky,” Fresno (Calif.) Bee, October 28, 1988, pp. 1, 16) October or November — Pilot Robert Hopkins is flying a USAF RC- 135 S Cobra Ball reconnaissance aircraft east of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia when he is notified that the USSR has launched an RSD-10 Pioneer IRBM toward the Kura Missile Test Range at Klyuchi, Kamchatka Krai. The 1988 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty allows the Soviets to test-fire IRBMs into the sea, rather than breaking them up. Moving into position to collect telemetry information from the launch, Hopkins observes a “translucent, milky white wall moving from the left, over the USSR, to the right, over the Northern Pacific Ocean. It covered the entire sky from ground level to as far up as we could see looking out the front windows of the airplane.” The wall of light passes at an estimated 6,200 mph, disappearing eastward and leaving darkness behind it. Some analysts at the USAF Foreign Technology Division think it is caused by something in the first-stage fuel of the RSD-10; others suggest it is produced deliberately to dazzle US observation satellites. Some speculate that Russia has a secret Dome of Light weapon that has been observed several times since and that might involve a plasma that can temporarily disrupt electronics and blind a satellite. (Tyler Rogoway, “U.S. Spyplane Pilot’s Account Indicates Soviet Russia Tested a ‘Dome of Light’ Superweapon,” The Drive: The War Zone, February 6, 2019)

November — GEPAN is renamed Service d’Étude des Phénomènes de Rentrées Atmosphériques (SEPRA), but the Scientific Council is still closed, and no more technical reports are produced. Velasco is still tasked with studying UFO reports, but not in making analyses. (Gildas Bourdais, “From GEPAN to SEPRA: Official UFO Studies in France,” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000–2001): 13; Gildas Bourdais, “The Death and Rebirth of Official French UFO Studies,” IUR 31 , no. 2 (June 2007): 13; Clark III 5 47 ; Swords 448) November 10 — Assistant Secretary of Defense J. Daniel Howard holds a Pentagon press conference and reveals the existence of the F-117A stealth fighter. After the announcement, pilots can fly the F-117 during daytime and no longer need to be associated with the LTV A-7 Corsair II for training, flying the T- 38 supersonic trainer for travel and training instead. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk”) November 11– 12 — 5:00 p.m. A truck driver returning from Utah to Baker, California, goes through a series of bizarre and inexplicable experiences, some of them ufological, that leave him convinced that his truck is possessed and “they” have been in control of him all along. The experiences end shortly after midnight before he returns to Baker and leave him terrified. During the drive he has been drinking copious amounts of coffee, which may have contributed to his hallucinatory excitement. (Ann Druffel, “The Caffeine Zone,” IUR 13, no. 3 (May/June 1988): 18 – 22) November 12 — Aviation designer Brad Sorensen attends an air show at Norton AFB in San Bernardino, California, and is taken to a huge hangar by a former high-ranking Defense Department official to view the Lockheed Pulsar, nicknamed the Aurora, that allegedly can be anywhere in the world 30 minutes after launch. Behind a big black curtain are three flying saucers hovering above the floor. The small saucer is about 24 feet in diameter. The next

biggest one is 60 feet in diameter at the base, and another one is 130 feet. They are referred to as Alien Reproduction Vehicles. A videotape shows the smallest of the three vehicles making three little, quick, hopping motions; then it accelerates straight up and out of sight, completely disappearing from view in just a couple of seconds. There is a cut-away illustration that shows oxygen tanks and a robotic arm that can extend out from the side of the vehicle for collecting samples in space. (Mark McCandlish, “Alien Reproduction Vehicles,” Filer’s Files, # 19 - 2011, May 4, 2011; Dolan II 457–461) November 22 — The Northrup Grumman B-2 stealth bomber is first publicly displayed at United States Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, where it is assembled. This viewing is heavily restricted, and guests are not allowed to see the rear of the B-2. However, Aviation Week editors find that there are no airspace restrictions above the presentation area and take aerial photographs of the aircraft’s then-secret rear section with its suppressed engine exhausts. (Wikipedia, “Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit”; Steve Pace, B-2 Spirit: The Most Capable War Machine on the Planet, McGraw-Hill, 1999 ) November 28 — Physicist Edward Teller allegedly calls the out-of-work physicist and electronics technician Robert Lazar and gives him the name of a contact in Las Vegas, Nevada. Lazar makes contact, and later receives a call from EG&G, a high-tech company with contracts at Groom Lake, Nevada. (Dolan II 475) November 30 — An arranged meeting takes place in Washington, D.C., between AFOSI and FBI agents, who request information about the MJ-12 documents. The Air Force tells the FBI the documents are completely bogus and the FBI should cease its inquiry. (Kremlin 182–183)

December 1 — Robert Lazar allegedly interviews at EG&G, but is informed that he is overqualified for the position in question (Dolan II 475) December 1 — 11:00 p.m. A captain of the Brazilian Air Force flying a Mirage fighter jet is returning from a mission and is over Jaboãtoa dos Guararapes, Pernambuco, Brazil, when his radar indicates traffic about one mile from his position. He requests permission to intercept and goes after the brilliant disk-like object that has a dull glow like copper. The CINDACTA III radar still finds nothing. The UFO begins to approach the jet and suddenly his instruments begin to fail. A red light in the center begins to grow stronger and the pilot arms his missiles; but the missiles do not respond to his command and the UFO flies off in mere seconds. But the chase continues another 10 minutes, during which time the UFO plays with its pursuer. After landing, the pilot is told that another aircraft has seen a strange object about 15 minutes earlier in the state of São Paulo more than 1,242 miles away. (Clark III 207 ; Brazil 556–557) December 4 — 5:25 a.m. A police officer en route to his station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, notices a brilliant glow in the sky ahead of him. It is so bright he can hardly see as he drives down a four-lane road, and he swerves and blocks two lanes. About 150 feet in the air is a 75-foot-long, highly polished silver object shaped like an ellipse. It is emitting a humming sound and casting light into and all around his car. It moves left and right, then shoots straight up into the sky, stopping again briefly before departing. The officer’s eyes hurt badly from the brightness and he feels ill. There is a sunburn-like rash on his face, and he has severe eye irritation, headache, and neck pain after the incident. He notes that the paint on his car has been dulled and an unusual powder-like substance is found on the exterior. (“Number of UFO Reports in State Unprecedented in ‘88,” Latrobe (Pa.) Bulletin, January 9, 1989, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 235 (February 1989): 12) December 5 — Robert Lazar interviews at EG&G again for what seems like a part-time position. (Dolan II 475) December 6 — Lazar reports to work at the EG&G building at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada. There he meets with a security officer named Dennis Mariani, who escorts him on a flight to Area 51 at Groom Lake, where Lazar signs a secrecy agreement that requires intensive monitoring of his activities. He and Mariani board a bus with blacked-out windows and ride for 30 minutes down a dirt and gravel road. They arrive at a base near Papoose Dry Lake known as S- 4. Lazar’s ID is prepared, he is given a physical and treated for allergic reactions to unknown substances, then he begins work at S-4. Lazar claims he only visits S-4 on six or seven occasions between December 1988 and April 1989 to learn about Project Galileo, which deals with gravity and propulsion, and training on an “antimatter reactor.” He also reads about a second project, Looking Glass, concerned with seeing back in time. (Dolan II 475; Jacobsen, Area 51, p. 11 ) December 18 — Milton William Cooper surfaces on CompuServe online network, claiming that while working as a quartermaster with an intelligence team for Adm. Bernard A. Clarey, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet, he had seen two documents, Project Grudge Special Report 13 and an MJ- 12 briefing. He elaborates on Moore’s and Lear’s tales of crashes and alien bodies, adding that the aliens are called Alien Life Forms (ALFs) and that he has seen photos of aliens that supposedly landed at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, in 1964 or 1977. (Dolan II 452– 453; Clark III 367 )

December 28 — 7:45 p.m. Many people in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, see a huge, bright-yellow triangular object in the sky. Mañuel Marcado watches as two F-14 Tomcats (probably from an aircraft carrier) approach the object from either side then cross in front of it. The light stops in mid-air and absorbs both planes, according to Marcado. The object moves over Lago Samán, then divides itself into two triangles, one of which shoots off to the east and the other to the north. Allegedly, the triangular objects were tracked on US Navy radars. (Good Need, p. 379 )

1989

January — Leonard Stringfield issues his fifth Status Report. (Leonard H. Stringfield, UFO Crash/Retrievals: Is the Coverup Lid Lifting? The Author, 1989) January — The Long Island UFO Network begins publishing the Long Island UFO Reporter, which soon changes its name to the Long Island UFO Update, edited at first by George McLain in Center Moriches, New York. It continues through December 1992. (Long Island UFO Reporter 1 no. 1 (January 1989)) January 28 — Evening. A triangular UFO is seen over Tiptree, Essex, England. Its color changes from bright to dull white before it shoots to the southwest. Other triangular UFOs are observed in southeast Essex in January. (Marler 124)

February — Numerous witnesses in Gloucestershire, England, report a noiseless triangular UFO “ablaze with lights.” One report describes a series of light beams emanating toward the ground that give it a “tripod effect.” (Wilts & Gloucester Standard of Cirencester, February 24, 1989; Marler 124–125) February 8 — 3:40 a.m. A man in Gulf Breeze, Florida, wakes to the sound of dogs barking outside. He sees a small object descending low over a nearby lot. It appears to be two connected discs, one on top of the other, not more than 3 feet in diameter. A white light is on top, and many other lights are blinking in shades of red, orange, and green. He approaches it, but it disappears in a flash of light. The duration is about 12 minutes. (NICAP, “Gulf Breeze, Florida: February 8, 1989”) February 10 — 8:42 p.m. A woman in Grove Oak, Alabama, tells the Fyffe, Alabama, police department that she has been watching a curved object for more than an hour with a pair of binoculars. It has a red light on each end and a white light in between, with the top of the curve outlined in green light. Police Chief Junior Garmany and Assistant Chief Fred Works drive to the site and see the object at 1,000–1,500 feet, completely silent. It begins moving away as they approach. The officers drive after the object, following it for 12 miles when it suddenly reverses direction and flies over their patrol car at 300–400 mph. It is soon seen by law enforcement officers to the south in Crossville, Geraldine, and Collinsville, Alabama. The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office receives more than 50 calls from citizens in surrounding communities, including Dawson and Dog Town, Alabama, and Lick Skillet, Tennessee, regarding a “silent thing streaking through the dark.” (“Friday Night UFO Remains a Mystery,” Fort Payne (Ala.) Times Journal, February 14, 1989, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 236 (March 1989): 10; Meghan Mitchell, “Alabama’s UFO Capital Still Has a Story to Tell,” The Crimson White (University of Alabama), October 2 8 , 2019) February 13 — 9:00–10:00 p.m. A large, low-flying, cylindrical UFO is reported by many witnesses in the North Caucasus region of Russia. It has spotlights in front and back, porthole-like openings along the sides, fins on its tail, and travels at about 65 mph. As it flies over Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, it drifts down to an altitude of 1 50 feet then flies off. (Jacques Vallée, UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union: A Cosmic Samizdat, Ballantine, 1992, pp. 32– 33 ) February 15 — Fyffe, Alabama, police officer Dennison Scott and two other officers investigate a citizen’s report of a strange object in the sky, flashing multicolored lights for more than an hour before it moves away toward the northwest. (Dolan II 472–473)

March — The Center for UFO Studies launches a new series of its Journal of UFO Studies, edited by Michael D. Swords, who examines the literature relating to extraterrestrial intelligence in order to provide a basis for judging the ETH as an acceptable concept for use in analyzing UFO phenomena. (Michael D. Swords, “Science and the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis in Ufology,” JUFOS 1 (1989): 67–102) March — Robert Lazar allegedly sees a disc on his third visit to S- 4 at Groom Lake, Nevada. It is a classic-looking flying saucer, resting on three legs in a hangar. It is about 35–40 feet in diameter, 15 feet tall, and the color of pewter. During his stay at S-4, he sees a total of 9 flying saucers, each distinctive in design and size. His assignment, however, involves just one craft he nicknames the “sport model,” which he is allowed to examine on his fourth visit to S-4. The disc has three levels, and he is cleared for the lower two. Lazar crawls underneath the craft and sees three “gravity amplifiers” that focus a “Gravity A” wave from the “total annihilation” reactor in the center

level of the craft. In this level, he sees a control panel and very small chairs—too small for human pilots. He discovers that part of the skin of the craft can become transparent, allowing one to look through it like a window. According to Lazar, the fuel for the craft is Element 115 [later synthesized in 2003 and named moscovium in 2016 , but this is much different than what Lazar describes], housed in the reactor where it undergoes bombardment and spontaneous fission, producing antimatter particles that are converted to electricity with 100% efficiency. This power operates the amplifier, distorts the surrounding gravitational field, causes the craft to be invisible, and shortens the distance to a charted destination. Speed-of-light limitations are irrelevant. But Element 115 cannot be manufactured on Earth. The aliens have left only 500 pounds of it, but just 223 grams (half a pound) can fuel a craft for a long time. On another occasion, Lazar witnesses a demonstration of the craft, which lifts off the ground, moves left and right, and sits back down. He has access to and reads more than 100 documents dealing with the craft, its propulsion, and alien technology, as well as photos of gray alien bodies. The aliens are allegedly from the Zeta Reticuli 1 and 2 star system. The Reticulans claim to have genetically corrected human evolution up to 65 times over the past 10,000 years using viruses. They have given humans religion to prevent them from self-destructing and claim to be able to exert mind control on people when they are relaxed or sleeping. Lazar allegedly catches a glimpse of a small, gray alien standing between two men in white coats in a small room inside the secret S-4 facility. The documents also mention an exchange of information and hardware between the US government and the Reticulans until 1979, when some kind of conflict occurred. This is when the aliens leave and the military begins reverse-engineering what alien tech they have acquired. Then in May 1987, some scientists take an antimatter reactor to an underground Nevada test facility, where they are killed when attempting to cut the reactor open. Lazar claims he was hired as a substitute for one of these men. (“Billy Goodman Happening, Nov. 21, 1989,” transcript of call-in radio show, KVEG-AM, Las Vegas, Nevada; MUFON UFO Journal, June 1990; Grant R. Cameron, T. Scott Crain, and Chris Rutkowski, “In the Land of Dreams,” IUR 15, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1990): 4– 8 ; “S-4 Papoose Lake,” Bob Lazar Debunked; “New High-Def Photos of S-4,” Bob Lazar Debunked; “Element 115,” Bob Lazar Debunked; Dolan II 475–478; Jacobsen, Area 51, p. 12 ) March 1 — Albuquerque, New Mexico, ufologist Robert Hastings issues a 13-page statement with 37 pages of appended documents and mails it to many prominent individuals in ufology. He claims “Falcon” is Richard Doty and “Condor” is Robert Collins, and that Doty and Moore are spreading disinformation. (Clark III 370 ) March 9 — Night. Susan Stockman, a reporter for the Rainsville (Ala.) Weekly Post, is with general manager Teri Baker when she snaps three time-lapse photographs of a distant UFO just above the treetop level, showing a movement unlike that of an airplane that appears shortly afterward. (Susan Stockman, “Section Native Says UFOs Are Real,” Rainsville (Ala.) Weekly Post, March 9, 1989; Susan Stockman, “A First-Hand Glimpse of the UFO,” Rainsville (Ala.) Weekly Post, March 16, 1989, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 237 (April 1989): 3 – 6) March 12 — 7:30 p.m. Gary Coker of Skirum, Alabama, sees a large UFO with red and green flashing lights on the side and two white lights about 6 feet in diameter on the bottom hovering about 5 miles away. Another man in Geraldine, Alabama, sees an object the size of a football field hovering above his chicken house at about the same time. In both cases, the object disappears after the witnesses go inside to get a camera or binoculars. (“Some Say UFO Is As Big As a Football Field,” Rainsville (Ala.) Weekly Post, March 16, 1989, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 237 (April 1989): 3 ) Late March — 9:20 p.m. After a training exercise at Mihai Kogălniceanu Air Force Base [now Mihai Kogălniceanu International Airport] in southeast Romania, 18– 20 aircraft pilots of Regiment 57 are inside a building at the base planning future exercises; outside, Col. Aurelian Dobre notices multiple lights appear above some nearby trees. He alerts the oher pilots to come out, and they see a triangular formation of objects at an equal distance from each other, all bathed in a silver light, moving south to north at a height of 4 miles. Dobre hears a noise like the rustle of a flight of birds; unlike his colleagues, he thinks the lights are on a single object the size of a football stadium. Col. Dan Aloanei is flying a MiG-29 and sees them as a V-formation of neon lights that disappear to the northeast. The next day, all the witnesses are required to submit written reports. (Romania 105–109) March 22 — 8:30 p.m. After telling writer Gene Huff and pilot John Lear about his UFO secrets, Lazar and his wife Tracy drive Lear’s RV to Tikaboo Peak, Nevada, off Highway 375 to view a test flight of a flying saucer at S-4. Lear sees an elliptical-shaped light through Lear’s Celestron telescope for 7 minutes. Lear videotapes the encounter, and the tape shows a bright light apparently maneuvering. When the camera zooms in close to the object, it seems to be spinning. They watch it descend behind a mountain. (Tom Mahood, “The Robert Lazar Timeline,” Other Hand, January 1997; Susan Wright, UFO Headquarters: Investigations on Current Extraterrestrial Activity, St. Martin’s, 199 9 ed., pp. 1 86 – 209 ) March 25 — The Soviet Mars probe Phobos 2 takes an infrared photograph of what appears to be a large and long cylindrical object very close to Mars moonlet Phobos. If this Phobos Mystery Object is at the same distance as the moonlet itself, it would be roughly 1.2 miles wide and 15 miles long. Its surface brightness is the same as Phobos.

Its sides are parallel and both of the ends are rounded. The end toward Phobos narrows slightly; the other end has a short protrusion. This is the last image taken by the probe. On March 27 it fails to reestablish communications with Earth due to an onboard computer malfunction and goes into a spin. (Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal Encounters behind the Iron Curtain, Quadrillion, 1998, pp. 70–73; Patrick Gross, “Soviet Probe Meets UFO on Phobos Mission”) March 29 — Bob and Tracy Lazar, Gene Huff, John Lear, and Jim Tagliani drive to Tikaboo Peak, Nevada, to observe another flight test. They videotape a moving light.

April 5 — Robert Lazar, Tracy Lazar, her sister, Gene Huff, and John Lear make a third trip to view a flight test along Groom Lake Road, Nevada. They are discovered by guards and questioned by the Lincoln County sheriff. April 6 — Lazar is prevented from going to work at Groom Lake and is taken to Indian Springs Air Force Base [now Creech AFB] for questioning. He is told he is no longer employed by EG&G, and if he comes near Groom Lake again he will be arrested for espionage. He is allegedly given a transcript of Tracy’s telephone conversations which indicate she is having an affair. (Jacobsen, Area 51, pp. 12 – 13 ) April 13 — The Kerry Committee report, the result of an investigation led by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, shows that Lt. Col. Oliver North and other members of the Reagan administration had set up a private network involving the National Security Council and CIA to deliver military equipment to the Contras, US-backed right-wing rebel groups in Nicaragua. This has not been authorized by Congress, and much of the funding comes from drug trafficking. DEA agent Celerino Castillo testifies that from 1985 to 1987, he discovered that the Contras were transporting cocaine through El Salvador’s Ilopango Airport. Castillo tried to bust the operation, but discovers that the traffickers were protected by the CIA. The subcommittee determines that there is “substantial evidence of drug smuggling… on the part of individual Contras, Contra suppliers, Contra pilots, mercenaries who worked with the Contras, and Contra supporters.” It does “not find that Contra leaders were personally involved in drug trafficking.” (Wikipedia, “Kerry Committee report”) April 15 — 5:30 p.m. A father and his 16-year-old son watch from their front lawn in Novato, California, a slowly descending object shaped like “two spheres connected by together like a stem.” They are golden with a white halo around them. Through binoculars, they can see four smaller objects, golden discs, maneuvering near the original dumbbell-shaped UFO. The father notes a “strange absence of kids and dogs at the time.” (Richard F. Haines, “Daylight Dumbbell,” IUR 14, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1989): 12–13, 23) April 24 — 10:55 p.m. An object described as three times the size of an aircraft hovers above Cherepovets, Vologda Oblast, Russia, at a height of 1,000 feet. (Jacques Vallée, UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union: A Cosmic Samizdat, Ballantine, 1992, p. 11)

May 2 — Pilot Manoel Luiz Christóvão, flying a small plane about 6 miles west of Arapongas, Paraná, Brazil, sees a huge circular light in the sky as he is preparing to land. Another plane flying nearby cannot see the light. Christovào continues to land, but the light positions itself in front of the plane, forcing him to make a sudden maneuver. The object moves in front of him again, forcing him to maneuver again. The pilot decides to head directly toward the light, after which the UFO accelerates abruptly and disappears. The maneuvers last approximately 10 minutes. (“Piloto se arrisca em prova de fogo no Paraná,” Portal UFO, December 1, 1995; Clark III 201; Brazil 542–543) May 7 — Hoaxed South African Air Force documents purport to describe a UFO crash in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana 50 miles north of the South African border. Two Mirage fighter aircraft allegedly pursue a fast-moving UFO and shoot it down with an experimental “thor 2 laser cannon.” However, UFO researcher Cynthia Hind notices ludicrous errors in the documents, not least among them that they are in English, not Afrikaans. (Wikipedia, “UFO sightings in South Africa”; Clark III 1096– 1098 ) May 15 — Robert Lazar is first interviewed by George Knapp on KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, Nevada, in silhouette, using the pseudonym “Dennis.” Lazar discusses his purported employment at S-4, a subsidiary facility he claims exists near in Area 51. He says the S-4 facility is adjacent to Papoose Lake, which is located south of the main Area 51 facility at Groom Lake. He claims the site consists of concealed aircraft hangars built into a mountainside. Lazar says that his job was to help with reverse engineering the antigravity propulsion system of one of nine flying saucers, which he alleges are extraterrestrial in origin. Lazar claims one of the flying saucers, the one he terms the “sport model,” is manufactured out of a metallic substance similar in appearance and touch to stainless steel. (Tom Mahood, “The Robert Lazar Timeline,” Other Hand, January 1997; Grant R. Cameron, T. Scott Crain, and Chris Rutkowski, “In the Land of Dreams,” IUR 15, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1990): 4–8; Don Ecker, “Freedom of Disinformation,” Fortean Times 122 (May 1999): 28–31; George Knapp and Matt Adams, “I-Team: The Man Who Sent Shock Waves through UFO Circles 30 Years Ago,” KLAS-TV, May 15, 2019)

May 23 — Milton William Cooper produces a 25-page document titled The Secret Government, in which he claims that an unscrupulous group of covert CIA and other intelligence operatives actually runs the country. He says they were responsible for murdering one-time Secretary of Defense James Forrestal in 1949 because he threatened to expose the UFO cover-up. He claims there have been at least 16 downed alien craft, 65 bodies, and one live alien retrieved between 1947 and 1952, with at least 10 more crash/retrievals during the Eisenhower years. Cooper says aliens from a dying planet orbiting Betelgeuse landed at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, in 1954 and reached an agreement with the government. A second meeting took place with President Eisenhower at Edwards AFB, California, and signed a formal treaty with an alien ambassador, His Omnipotent Highness Krill. But, he claims, the aliens broke the treaty, abducting humans, conspiring with the Soviets, and manipulating society through secret organizations. Cooper also claims that Eisenhower had created a scientific advisory group in 1960 called the Jason Group to “discover the truth of the alien question.” Much more spurious and outlandish tales develop. (Milton William Cooper, The Secret Government: The Origin, Identity, and Purpose of MJ- 12 , The Author, May 23, 1989; Clark III 367 – 368 ) May 30 — 3:46 a.m. TAM Airlines Flight 573 in the vicinity of Americana, São Paulo, Brazil, is contacted twice by the local control tower to ask if they can see an aircraft in their vicinity. Both times the pilot answers no, but at 3:52 a.m. the pilot says he can now see a strong light near the airplane. It maneuvers near the aircraft and one of the pilots estimates its size as about 164 feet. About 8 minutes later, they lose visual contact. (Clark III 201; Brazil 543) May 30 — 9:15 p.m. A man and his son in Winnipeg, Manitoba, observe a “silvery, metallic hot dog,” oriented vertically and moving steadily west. After several minutes, the object is lost in the distance. (Chris Rutkowski, “The Canadian UFO Wave of 1989,” IUR 14, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1989): 7)

June — Jacques Vallée presents “five arguments against the extraterrestrial origin” of UFOs at the eighth annual conference of the Society for Scientific Exploration in Boulder, Colorado. (1) There are too many close encounters to explain them as a physical survey of the earth. (2) The humanoid body structure is unlikely to have originated elsewhere and is not biologically adapted to space travel. (3) The behavior of alien abductors contradicts the idea that advanced aliens are conducting genetic or scientific experiments. (4) UFOs have been recorded throughout human history. (5) The apparent ability of UFOs to manipulate space and time suggests different and richer alternatives to the ETH. Vallée cites the earthlight theory, the control system hypothesis, and travel via wormholes as viable explanations. (Jacques Vallée, “Five Arguments Against the Extraterrestrial Origin of Unidentified Flying Objects,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 4, no. 1 (1990): 105– 117 ) June — Robert Hastings lines up an impressive case against Bill Moore, saying that the Project Aquarius message was altered by Moore, that Richard Doty had forged the Ellsworth AFB document, that Doty’s typewriter at Kirtland AFB was implicated in the July 1980 Craig R. Weitzel letter, that Doty had given data to Linda Moulton Howe that contradicted data in the Eisenhower briefing memo, and that Moore admitted to faking a government ID card and passed himself off as an intelligence operative for two years. (MUFON UFO Journal, June 1990) June 2 — Paul Paulsen Frøyen sees two “U-boats” in Sognefjord between Lavik and Vadheim, Vestland, Norway. He watches them for two-and-a-half minutes, noting their periscopes and towers. When they submerge, he can see the spray. The Norwegian Air Force sends two jets to look for them, and the Coast Guard is also alerted. (Ole Jonny Brænne, “Observations of Unidentified Submarine Objects in Norway,” IUR 20, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1995): 13) June 4 — 7:45 p.m. A security guard and an air traffic controller at Air Force Facility 42 in Palmdale, California, witness a silver flying object and three orb-shaped UFOs during testing of the B1-B bomber. There is also a rumor of an abduction occurring on this date at the same facility. (MUFON UFO Journal, November 1990) June 6 — School children near the village of Konantsevo, Vologda Oblast, Russia, see a luminous dot in the sky. It gets larger, turns into a shining sphere, lands in a meadow, and moves to the Reka Kubena river about a quarter mile away. It seems to split, and a “headless person in dark garb” appears. The entity and sphere become invisible. Three more spheres are said to land later in the same meadow. (Jacques Vallée, UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union: A Cosmic Samizdat, Ballantine, 1992, pp. 11– 12 ) June 24 — 12:00 midnight. A. N. Olkhovay goes out on her balcony in Kyiv, Ukraine, and sees a dim, twinkling, rectangular object shaped “like a loaf of bread” hovering above the Obolon neighborhood. She calls her neighbors, and one of them named Ivanitsky hastily takes two photos. The film is developed in the offices of the Pravda Ukrainy newspaper but it shows nothing. (V. D. Musinsky, “Letter: Soviet Ufology,” IUR 15, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1990): 21) June 30 — 9:30 p.m. G. I. Lerman and his wife Ann watch a fiery object with a tail over Lake Radunka in Kyiv, Ukraine, flying at an altitude of 1,640–3,280 feet, first slowly, then speeding up. After a minute or two the flames die out

and they see a silver-white object. During the sighting they feel their own movements slowing down. (V. D.
Musinsky, “Letter: Soviet Ufology,” IUR 15, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1990): 21)

Summer — Night. Edward Chard sees some odd lights hovering in Essex, England. He looks at them through binoculars and sees a large triangular object. (Nick Redfern, A Covert Agenda: UFO Secrecy Exposed, Simon & Schuster, 1997, p. 183) July 1 — Bill Moore makes a stunning presentation at the MUFON UFO Symposium in Las Vegas, speaking candidly for the first time about his part in counterintelligence operations against Paul Bennewitz. Moore says he provided Doty with information about Bennewitz’s thinking and activities. Moore suggests that Doty was chosen by the real Falcon as a liaison person. He says that by mid-1982 Bennewitz had put together the story that contained all the elements later circulated by Lear and Cooper. Moore decided to go along with the disinformation game in order to keep in good graces with people who knew something about UFOs and national security. He withheld and blacked out certain portions of UFO-related government documents. He says he stopped cooperating in 1984 because he realized the documents he was receiving from AFOSI were faked, much of the scenario similar to the alien-contact mythos later spun by Lear and Cooper. All of it originated in the disinformation directed at Paul Bennewitz. He gives the names of others who “were the subject of intelligence community interest between 1980 and 1984”: Leonard H. Stringfield, Pete Mazzola, Peter Gersten, Lawrence Fawcett, Jim and Coral Lorenzen, and Larry W. Bryant. Moore leaves the stage through a back door, his reputation in ruins. (Don Ecker, “Freedom of Disinformation,” Fortean Times 122 (May 1999): 28–31; Clark III 370 – 372 ; Curt Collins, “Bill Moore and UFO Disinformation Accusations,” Blue Blurry Lines, April 29, 2022) July 4 — Twilight. Two women are walking with a 6-year-old girl along the Dnieper River in a park near Kyiv, Ukraine, when they see a “boat” with three beings on board. The entities have absolutely identical faces—extremely pale, long blond hair, large eyes, and collarless silver shirts that look like nightgowns. They tell the women they are from another planet and want to show them their spaceship. The women walk with them but experience odd physical sensations and beg to be let go. They see a ship behind some trees, and the little girl gets frightened. The beings relent and board the craft by a ladder that then retracts. The door closes silently, and the craft departs. (V. D. Musinsky, “Letter: Soviet Ufology,” IUR 15, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1990): 20–21; Jacques Vallée, UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union: A Cosmic Samizdat, Ballantine, 1992, pp. 37 – 39 ) July 4 — Night. Members of the Iskuskovs family are on vacation in the Podgortsy section of southern Kyiv, Ukraine. They watch silver-suited beings emerge from a landed UFO. (V. D. Musinsky, “Letter: Soviet Ufology,” IUR 15, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1990): 21) July 6 — 7:00 p.m. Yasuhiko Hamazaki takes an 8mm videotape recording of a brightly luminous object that passes nearly overhead in Hakui, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. At one point he uses a zoom lens to get a clearer image. The object has a central ring like the planet Saturn, except that it is squarish and dome-shaped. About one minute of the video captures the object descending rapidly at a shallow angle, then suddenly changing direction and rising at a steep angle at very high speed. Bruce Maccabee’s photo analysis shows that the object is not an airplane, balloon, kite, or model airplane. (UFOEv II 297–298; Bruce Maccabee, “A Rare Photo Coincidence,” IUR 15, no. 3 (May/June 1990): 4–9, 22) July 26 — 2:40 p.m. R. H. Stepanian, air traffic controller at Sochi International Airport, Krasnodar Krai, Russia, receives information from a Tupolev Tu-154 airliner crew flying from Simferopol, Crimea, that they have seen UFOs from a distance of 20–30 miles. According to the pilots, first one, then two “strange objects” pace them on their left. One is almost exactly square, while the other is the shape of an elongated rhombus. At the time of the radio transmission, the two objects are swiftly moving away and beginning to separate. Apparently two other flights report multiple UFOs to the airport. (Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal Encounters behind the Iron Curtain, Quadrillion, 1998, pp. 74– 76 ; Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, pp. 134– 135 ) July 28– 29 — 11:20 p.m. A domed disc-shaped object is seen over the rocket weapons depot at Kapustin Yar, Astrakhan Oblast, Russia. The object is flashing an intensely bright light from its underside. It hovers above the site at a height of 65 feet. Roughly 13–17 feet in diameter, its hull is illuminated with a dim green, phosphorus-like color. It circles two or three times and moves toward a railway station, still flashing its light, then returns to the weapons depot at a height of 200–230 feet. Soviet soldiers Levin and Klimenko say the object performed acrobatic maneuvers, at one point dividing into three shining points and taking the shape of a triangle. A fighter jet is scrambled, but the object evades it. Two other objects appear at low altitudes of 980–1,300 feet. The last one to appear, a cigar-shaped object, gives off flashes of red light at constant intervals, then lights of all colors. At around 1:30 a.m., it flies to the southwest and disappears. (Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 133– 138 ; Good Need, pp. 354 –

355 , 363 ; Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal Encounters behind the Iron
Curtain, Quadrillion, 1998, p. 79; Nukes 453–456)

August — Day. A man is walking his dog in a nature preserve between Wolverhampton and Dudley, England, when he sees a tennis-ball-sized “soap bubble” that has a white, feathery mass inside floating slowly about 12 feet above the ground. It floats into a field where there are several horses, which do not seem concerned about it. Suddenly the object changes direction and moves into a strong wind, coming straight toward him. In moments it is just inches away from him, seemingly surveying him. At close quarters he could see that the object has an oily look. At the instant he thinks about popping the bubble, it speeds off to the east, covering about 30 feet in one second, and disappears. (Jenny Randles, “Don’t Forget the Y-Files,” Fortean Times 405 (May 2021): 29) August 2 — Richard L. Huff in the FBI Office of Information and Privacy affirms in a letter to researcher Larry W. Bryant that it keeps a classified personal file on Stanton T. Friedman and denies access to it. (Nick Redfern, Body Snatchers in the Desert, Paraview, 2005, p. 191) August 2 — The Russian tanker Volgoneft- 161 is in the Sea of Japan off the region of Primorsky Krai, Russia, when rew members notice an unusual shere about 35° above the northern horizon. It is pale yellow and surrounded by a hazy luminescence. The object movres t the northeast, ascending, and is visible for 5 minutes. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, p. 116) August 10 — 9:00 p.m. William Heijster, a Dutch military psychologist who works at the Ministry of Defence at The Hague, Netherlands, is driving with his family near Estepona, Spain, when they see an object hovering over a mountain. Heijster stops the car and videotapes the object off and on for the next hour. The incident is plausibly explained by Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos as the flight of a Transmediterranean research balloon launched from Sicily in a joint operation by CNES (France), INTA (Spain), and the Italian space agency. (UFOEv II 298 – 299; Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, Expedientes Insólitos, Temas de Hoy, 1995, pp. 125 – 130 ; “El caso ovni acaecido en Malaga en 1989,” El Blog de Malaga, October 1, 2012) August 22 — 2:40 p.m. A circular, flashing light is in view for about 5 minutes near Sunderland, England. At first it is stationary, but then it moves rapidly upward, leaving a hole in a cloud that then glows red. (Mark Rodeghier, “Another Hole in the Cloud,” IUR 33, no. 2 (July 2010): 24) August 28 — Larry W. Bryant files suit in District Court for the District of Columbia for the FBI to release its files on Stanton T. Friedman. (Nick Redfern, Body Snatchers in the Desert, Paraview, 2005, p. 191) Late August — 12:00 midnight. A woman is driving north of La Salle, Manitoba, when she sees a “cloudlike boomerang” pass over her car. (Chris Rutkowski, “The Canadian UFO Wave of 1989,” IUR 14, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1989): 7) Late August — While working as an engineer on the jack-up barge GSF Galveston Key in the North Sea, Chris Gibson and another witness see an unfamiliar isosceles triangle–shaped delta aircraft, apparently refueling from a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker and accompanied by a pair of F- 111 fighter-bombers. Gibson and his girlfriend watch the aircraft for several minutes until they move out of sight. He subsequently draws a sketch of the formation. (Christopher Bellamy, “Oil Rig Engineer Sketches Secret US Spy Aircraft,” The Independent (UK), December 14, 1992; Bill Sweetman, “Secret Mach 6 Spy Plane,” Popular Science 242 (March 1993): 56 – 63 , 98 – 101 ; Bill Sweetman, Aurora: The Pentagon ’ s Secret Hypersonic Spyplane, Motorbooks, 1993, pp. 12– 15 , 88 – 89 ; Susan Wright, UFO Headquarters: Investigations on Current Extraterrestrial Activity, St. Martin’s, 1999 ed., pp. 1 54 – 155 ; Simon Gray, “Chris Gibson’s Aurora Sighting,” Secret Projects forum, November 1, 2007; UFOFiles2, p. 144 ; Marler 178–180)

September — CAUS devotes all of one issue of its Just Cause newsletter to a harshly critical review of Moore’s activities. (“A Majestic Deception,” Just Cause, new ser., no. 21 (September 1989): 1–16; Clark III 371 ) September — Marc Leduc begins publishing a newsletter, Lettre d ’ Information Ufologique, in Lac-Beauport, Quebec. It runs until June 1993. (Lettre d ’ Information Ufologique 1, no. 1 (September 1989)) September 6 — 11:13 p.m. Tong Yuwei, a worker in Ürümqi, Xinjiang Autonomous Province, China, sees a dark cloud light up with a yellow flash. A rotating, saucer-shaped object with a black gap on its edge appears. It makes a noise louder than a car engine. After hovering for a minute, the red-and-yellow glowing object moves out of sight at high speed to the southwest. (Central Intelligence Agency, “UFO Sighted over Urumqi Evening of 6 Sep,” [memo on Xingua news report], September 13, 1989) September 13 — A woman is returning home from the grocery store in Protvino, Moscow Oblast, Russia, when two tall women in tight, silvery suits jump out from behind some boulders and paralyze her. The women have light blonde hair, gray-green skin, and hats with antennae. They take her to a small, disc-shaped craft by the side of the road and invite their captive for a ride, which they insist will not last long. She hesitantly accepts. Inside are three chairs, one of them occupied by a man. The woman offers them some of the bread she has just purchased, but the

women decline, offering her some of their own bread. Without thinking, she reflexively pops a piece into her mouth and swallows. She later describes the taste as a lightly sweet rye bread. The craft ascends and flies over Protvino before dropping the woman off at her apartment. The space people tell her they will meet again. (Vladimir Azhazha, Inaya Zhizn ’ , Golos, 1998; Joshua Cutchin, “The Great Alien Bake-Off,” Fortean Times 332 (November 2015): 44) September 15 — 3:40 a.m. A woman in eastern Winnipeg, Manitoba, is looking out her kitchen window when a deltoid- shaped object sails past. It has lines of “Christmas lights” spreading out from its leading edge and moves silently out of view in 4–5 seconds. (Chris Rutkowski, “The Canadian UFO Wave of 1989,” IUR 14, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1989): 8) September 15– 19 — The Center for UFO Studies conducts the first expedition to the Roswell debris field site near Corona, New Mexico. The 10-member team includes Mark Rodeghier, Mimi Hynek, Donald R. Schmitt, and Kevin Randle. They find no unusual debris but survey the site and take soil samples. (Mark Rodeghier, “Roswell, 1989,” IUR 14, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1989): 4– 8 , 23) September 16 — Night. A female employee at a meat packing plant in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, steps outside for a quick break when a beam of light strikes her from above. Looking up, she sees a hovering disc-shaped craft about 130 – 260 feet in diameter. She feels no fear and has a euphoric feeling as she begins rising up into the air toward the object. She also hears a voice extolling her to “fly with them.” Other workers come to the scene and begin yelling and running toward the woman. The beam disappears, and the UFO flies away. (Jacques Vallée, UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union: A Cosmic Samizdat, Ballantine, 1992, p. 36) September 27 — 6:30 p.m. Several children playing at a park in Voronezh, Russia, see a pinkish aerial glow approaching them. As it passes overhead, they see that it is a deep red, ball-shaped object. The object flies around in circles for a few minutes and then leaves. When it returns, it hovers briefly, and then descends close to the ground. A hatch opens and a heavy-set figure emerges. The being moves very slowly and looks around. It has a small head resembling that of a doorknob, set in between the shoulders. It has three luminous eyes, the middle one moving around like “radar.” On its chest is a shield-like object. The being then closes the hatch and the object lands gently on four legs. The hatch opens again and three huge humanoids with small knob-like heads step out. They wear silvery coveralls and bronze-colored boots. A strange robot-like creature accompanies the giants. All four walk around the object several times. A beam of light comes out of the chest of one of the beings and strikes the ground, creating several luminous triangles that later fade away. At one point the craft and beings become briefly invisible but then reappear. One of the boys screams in fear. Then one of the beings looks at the boy and points a tube at him. A luminous beam comes from the tube and hits the boy, which makes him disappear. The boy later reappears after the beings and the objects have gone. Subsequent information reveals that on the craft’s hull and on the landing prop of another craft is the letter or symbol “zhe,” reported as similar to the “Ummo” insignia reported in Western Europe in the 1970s. In a work published by Socialist Industry slightly after the incident, a self-proclaimed UFO specialist asserts the marks left by the supposed landing were simply scorch marks from a burnt hay-bale. (Wikipedia, “Voronezh UFO incident”; “UFO Lands in U.S.S.R.: Read All about It in Tass,” Philadelphia Daily News, October 9, 1989, p. 5; “A Tass Bulletin: Knobby Aliens Were Here,” New York Times, October 10, 1989, pp. 1, 10; “U.F.O. Landing Is Fact, Not Fantasy, the Russians Insist,” New York Times, October 11, 1989, p. 6; “Aliens Visit Voronezh,” Moscow News, no. 43 (October 1989), via UFO Newsclipping Service, November 1989, p. 12; Jacques Vallée, UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union: A Cosmic Samizdat, Ballantine, 1992, pp. 40– 61 ; Clark III 1229–1231) September 28 — Night. Long Island UFO Network founder John Ford claims that a UFO is shot down and retrieved at Moriches Bay, Long Island, New York. Although UFOs are observed on the southern coast of Long Island, the crash/retrieval seems to be an exaggerated fantasy. Ford is convinced the nearby Brookhaven National Laboratory is part of a UFO coverup and is developing ET-related weaponry. On June 12, 1996, Ford and LIUFON member Joe Mazzachelli are arrested in a sting operation on conspiracy charges to poison John Powell, the head of the Suffolk County Republican Party, who Ford believes is covering up UFO retrievals and engaging in illegal activities, by putting radium in his toothpaste. Ford is convicted without a trial and sent to a mental institution because of his paranoid conspiracy obsession. (John Ford, “The Moriches Bay Case of September 28, 1 989 ,” Long Island UFO Reporter 1, no. 3 (November 1989): 2–6; John Ford, “The Chairman’s Corner,” Long Island UFO Reporter 2, no. 1 (February 1990): 2–4; John Ford, “UFO Captured at Moriches Bay?” The East Ender, February 9, 1990, via UFO Newsclipping Service, April 1990, p. 7; Elaine Douglass, “The Ordeal of John Ford,” John Ford Defense Committee; “The John Ford Affair,” UFO UpDates, November 26, 1998; Dolan II 489– 492 )

October — Night. Hundreds of residents of Omsk, southwestern Siberia, Russia, report seeing a UFO. Major V. Loginov sees an object about 1.5 the size of the full moon passing overhead at an altitude of several kilometers. It projects

four bright lights, some downward, others parallel to the horizon. Loginov watches it for 5 minutes hovering above the civil airport before descending. The lights turn off, and a whirling plume trail appears around the sphere. Pilots taking off from the airport can see the object, but it is not visible on radar screens. (“USSR: Media Report Multitude of UFO Sightings,” Foreign Press Note (Foreign Broadcast Information Service), November 22, 1989, p. 4) October 6 — 11:30 p.m. A woman driving near Tyndall, Manitoba, sees a bright light flash upward out of sight in front of her car. (Chris Rutkowski, “The Canadian UFO Wave of 1989,” IUR 14, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1989): 8) October 9 — 2:50 p.m. A couple and their child are getting into their car at a wildlife sanctuary in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They see a white “boomerang-shaped” object hanging silently and motionless in the east over the city. The mother puts the child in the back seat for safety. The man continues to watch as the object tilts and moves, revealing a bulge on its underside. It moves away, and the object goes home. (Chris Rutkowski, “The Canadian UFO Wave of 1989,” IUR 14, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1989): 8) October 9 — 11:30 p.m. Carl Weselak is observing a meteor shower from his third floor apartment in downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba, when he sees a large boomerang-shaped object flying north to south over the city. Over the next few hours he sees more UFOs ranging from balls of light to other boomerangs. He telephones a newspaper to have a reporter verify the sightings. However, UFOROM discovers that several aircraft takeoffs and landings at the airport correspond to some of Weselak’s observations. (Chris Rutkowski, “The Canadian UFO Wave of 1989,” IUR 14, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1989): 8) October 11 — A 16-year-old girl in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia, sees a “net” fall from the sky, apparently surrounding her, in the center of which is a bright point. She tries to push it away but gets a shock. She screams, but her voice sounds distorted. Her family rushes out of the house and sees a flying disc hovering less than 50 feet away. It soon vanishes. The girl remains paralyzed a while, the tips of her fingers burned and enlarged, and she is taken to a hospital. (Jacques Vallée, UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union: A Cosmic Samizdat, Ballantine, 1992, pp. 36– 37 ) October 11 — 7:30 p.m. Brad Schmidt, 13, Todd Weinheimer, 13, Paul Goddard, 12, Kevin Still, and one other boy are skateboarding outside the town pool in Centennial Park, Langenburg, Saskatchewan, when they see an object with multicolored lights approaching them from the east. They wave their skateboards at it, and the lights hover silently 400 feet away at 100–200 feet in the air. They duck down in the tall grass. The object moves away over nearby Parkside School, pauses for a moment, then takes off to the west. The boys alert two teachers in the school, Bob Markham and Mark MacMurchy, and they go out to all watch the object for another 10–15 minutes. One of the teachers says the object has a bright flashing light on top and a red light on the bottom. It is more than half a mile away and only 650 feet in the air. The top light flashes every 15–20 seconds. Soon it moves away to the west. (“Strange Lights over the Park,” Regina (Sask.) Leader-Post, November 4, 1989, pp. C1–C2; Chris Rutkowski, “The Canadian UFO Wave of 1989,” IUR 14, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1989): 8) October 12 — 12:20 a.m. A shift worker in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is returning home through a park when he sees a “shimmering boomerang” in the sky. He goes closer and hears a high-pitched whine coming from it. The object starts to move slowly then shoots away making a noise like a sonic boom. (Chris Rutkowski, “The Canadian UFO Wave of 1989,” IUR 14, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1989): 8) October 13 — 10: 2 0 a.m. Rose Neumeier is in her kitchen 7 miles southwest of Langenburg, Saskatchewan, when she sees a flash of light near a shed about 50 feet away. An object like “two pie plates rim to rim” is motionless in the air about 50 feet above the shed. It is shiny and metallic, 30 feet long and 10 feet thick, and has a flattened top and “corrugated” bottom. Light is shining brightly from the joint between the two halves. It is silent and the dog and cattle are not disturbed. After a few minutes, it rises slowly, moves north, curves through the hayfield, circles the barn, and moves away across the pasture. (“Object Hovers over Garage,” Regina (Sask.) Leader-Post, November 4, 1989, p. C2; Chris Rutkowski, “The Canadian UFO Wave of 1989,” IUR 14, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1989): 8– 9 ) October 16 — 7:45 a.m. A woman is driving near Langruth, Manitoba, when she sees a “star with a tail of smoke going up” in the east. After a few minutes, the object takes on a dome shape and its tail is no longer visible. (Chris Rutkowski, “The Canadian UFO Wave of 1989,” IUR 14, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1989): 9) October 16 — 7:45 p.m. A man in Langenburg, Saskatchewan, is driving with his daughter when they observe an object “as wide as a small airplane is long” with colored flashing lights. It coasts silently over the highway “right over our heads.” (Chris Rutkowski, “The Canadian UFO Wave of 1989,” IUR 14, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1989): 9) October 21 — Witnesses in Burkhala, Magadan Oblast, Russia, watch a red, shining sphere maneuvering near an electric power transmission line for 30 minutes. About 7–9 lights are seen along its edge. One witness estimates its speed as 600 mph. (Vadim K. Ilyin, “KGB’s ‘Blue Folder’ Reveals Shootings, Landings in USSR,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 403 (November 2001): 9 )

October 25 — 7:45 p.m. A resident of Gilbert Plains, Manitoba, sees a large object with red flashing lights. It is moving slowly and silently at an altitude of 200 feet. (Chris Rutkowski, “The Canadian UFO Wave of 1989,” IUR 14, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1989): 9)

November 1 — 6:50 p.m. A pilot flying a small airplane 20 miles north of La Ronge, Saskatchewan, sees a pair of blinking lights moving across his path at 8,500 feet. Air traffic control confirms there are no other aircraft in the area at the time. (Chris Rutkowski, “The Canadian UFO Wave of 1989,” IUR 14, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1989): 9) November 4 — 5:30 p.m. A couple and their two children are sitting in front of a large living room window in Hall Beach, Nunavut, watching television. The family dog begins barking, and soon the man’s attention is drawn to a strange object in the sky. The family watches the UFO, which looks like an upside-down cup and saucer. The bottom portion has a red light in the center, and three windows emitting white light are across the middle. After only a couple of seconds, the object departs, seemingly straight up, and disappears. A local employee of the Department of Public Works also sees the object. (Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 142–143) November 7 — 12:40 a.m. Two women in their 40s are driving on Interstate 70 west of Goodland, Kansas, when they encounter a UFO and lose 2 hours of time. They experience anxiety, insomnia, irritability, and bewilderment as a result. Neither women claim any interest in UFOs. They initially believe that they never left their car or observed anything further. Hypnotic regressions (obtained independently) reveal abduction scenarios with at least 40 direct correlations between their accounts. (John S. Carpenter, “Double Abduction Case: Correlation of Hypnosis Data,” JUFOS 3 (1991): 91–114) November 10 — KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, Nevada, identifies and interviews Robert Lazar, unmasked and using his real name. Lazar claims that during his onboarding to the Area 51 program, he read briefing documents describing the historical involvement of Earth for the past 10,000 years with extraterrestrial beings described as grey aliens from a planet orbiting the twin binary star system Zeta Reticuli. The Zeta Reticuli system was previously claimed by Barney and Betty Hill as the origin of aliens they allegedly encountered in their abduction. Lazar’s story quickly garners enormous media attention, controversy, supporters, and detractors. Lazar admits he cannot support with evidence his core claim of alien technology. (Tom Mahood, “The Robert Lazar Timeline,” Other Hand, January 1997; Don Ecker, “Freedom of Disinformation,” Fortean Times 122 (May 1999): 28– 31 ) November 10 — Communion, a feature film based on abductee Whitley Strieber’s book of the same name, premieres in the US. Directed by Philippe Mora, Strieber is played by actor Christopher Walken. (Internet Movie Database, “Communion”) November 13 — The FBI releases a handful of its files on Stanton T. Friedman as a result of Larry Bryant’s lawsuit. (Nick Redfern, Body Snatchers in the Desert, Paraview, 2005, p. 191) November 18 — Early evening. A large, black, boomerang-shaped object glides over downtown Lancaster, California. Low-intensity lights, similar to stars, outline its frame. Witness Robert Puskas estimates its size as 800–900 feet wide. Off its left tip he sees a silvery metallic disc about 30–40 feet in diameter, reflecting the streetlights. (MUFON UFO Journal, November 1990) November 20 — 5:30 a.m. A couple in the rural town of Marieville, Quebec, wakes up to the sight of a strange blue light shining through the curtains. They hear a noise like an electric generator and feel a vibration. But looking outside they can see nothing. About 900 feet down the road, a neighbor is also awakened by the bright light and observes four blue objects over the other couple’s house. He also feels a vibration and describes the lights as intermittent, blinking out and reappearing in a different spot. At one point, the streetlights along Route 112 weaken when one of the objects gets too close. He thinks the lights are about 30 feet off the ground. Two other witnesses also see the lights interact with power lines. One reports that her power goes out for 10 minutes. On November 22, a strange pattern is discovered about 150 feet from the first couple’s residence—a perfectly round circle, 65 feet in diameter, of flattened (not burned) grass. The RCMP visits the circle on November 23 and 28, noting a striking difference in color of the flattened grass within the circle and the straight grass outside it. (Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 149–150) November 22 — The USAF SR-71 Blackbird program is officially terminated. The odd thing is that there is no dissension in the military about this. The alleged additional savings of $300 million is insignificant. Analysts point out that satellites, though useful, simply cannot perform the type of missions for which the Blackbird is suited. Some observers suspect there is a secret, better replacement. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed SR- 71 Blackbird”; Bill Sweetman, Aurora: The Pentagon ’ s Secret Hypersonic Spyplane, Motorbooks, 1993, p. 4) November 29 — 5:15 p.m. While patrolling on the road between Eupen, Belgium, and the German border, two federal policemen, Heinrich Nicoll and Hubert von Montigny, see an intense light in a nearby field. Above the field is a triangular object with three spotlights shining down and a red flashing light in the center. Without making a

sound, it moves slowly toward the German border for 2 minutes and then suddenly turns back toward Eupen. Nicoll and von Montigny follow it. (Patrick Vantuyne, “Mystery Craft: Eupen, Belgium,” Patt Nayeu & Son, June 12, 2010; Kean, p. 24 ) November 29 — 5:24 p.m. About 250 witnesses, in 143 separate observations, watch the same or similar triangular or delta-winged craft maneuvering overhead at Eupen, Belgium. Two police officers in a patrol car are illuminated by a brilliant light beam from a dark triangular object hovering at 600–900 feet and making a faint humming noise. The light is so dazzling that “we could read a newspaper under it.” The UFO moves slowly away to the southwest, where it hovers near the Lac de la Gileppe dam for 45 minutes. Policemen Heinrich Nicoll and Hubert von Montigny watch it repeatedly emit two red beams with a red ball at the spearhead of both beams; the beams soon disappear, leaving the red balls, which return to the object. Then around 7:23 p.m., it moves further to the southwest and is seen over Spa for 30 minutes before it disappears. (UFOEv II 50–51; MUFON UFO Journal, July 1990, pp. 3–7; Société Belge d’Etude des Phénomènes Spatiaux, Vague d ’ OVNI sur la belgique: Un dossier exceptionnelle, SOBEPS, 1991; Auguste Meessen, “The Belgian Sightings,” IUR 16, no. 3 (May/June 1991): 4–5; Wim van Utrecht, “Triangles over Belgium: The SOBEPS Report,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 286 (February 1992 ): 5 – 6; Steven M. Greer, “UFOs over Belgium,” MUFON UFO Journal, no, 289 (May 1992): 8 – 12; Auguste Meessen, “Étude approfondie et discussion de certaines observations du 29 novembre 1989,” Inforespace, no. 95 (October 1997): 16–70; Auguste Meessen, “The Belgian Wave and the Photos of Ramillies”; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 137 – 144 ; Kean, pp. 24 – 27 ) November 29 — 6:45 p.m. Gendarmes Heinrich Nicoll and Hubert von Montigny see another object near Eupen, Belgium, which appears from behind a wood and makes a forward tilting maneuver. It has a dome on top with rectangular windows. It then departs to the north. (Joël Mesnard, “The UFO ‘Wave’ of November/December 1989 over Eastern Belgium,” Flying Saucer Review 35, no. 2 (June 1990): 4; Kean, p. 25 ) November 29 — 6:45 p.m. A man is driving alone in his car on the Rue Mathieu de Lexhy at the intersection with the Rue Hector Denis near Grâce-Berleur, Belgium, when he sees to his left an immense stationary object at about 325 feet altitude and 1,600 feet away. He slows down, lowers his window, and hears a soft sound like an electric motor. The object is larger than a Boeing 707. It has flashing red, green, and white lights and a light beam directed toward the ground. He drives away while the UFO is still visible. (Patrick Vidal and Michel Rozencwajg, “The Belgian Wave,” IUR 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1991): 7) November 29 — 7:20 p.m. Two federal policemen, Dieter Plummans and Peter Nicoll, see a triangular UFO near a monastery [Kloster Garnstock?] north of Eupen, Belgium. The object has three very strong spotlights and a flashing red central light. It is at an altitude of about 250 feet and about 300 feet away. It is immobile and silent, but it suddenly emits a hissing sound and its lights fade a bit. Simultaneously, a red ball comes out of the center and heads straight downward, but soon veers horizontal and disappears behind some trees. The object then passes above the police car, moving northeast. They follow it for 5 miles before losing it. (Kean, pp. 25 – 26 ) November 30 — 3:15 a.m. New York City resident Linda Napolitano (pseudonym “Linda Cortile”) is allegedly abducted by aliens from her 12th-story apartment on the lower east side of Manhattan. Five aliens come into her bedroom while she is still awake. They paralyze her and move her into the living room. Linda and three of the five aliens are floated out through her living room window, directly through the window, to a large hovering UFO. Three independent witnesses to the abduction are two security intelligence agents (“Richard” and “Dan”), who see the UFO and abductees from a car near the Brooklyn Bridge, and a VIP political dignitary later identified as UN Secretary General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, who does not confirm any involvement. The UFO then dives into the East River. Budd Hopkins delves into the case, although he never meets the two security guards or even confirms their existence. Music critic Greg Sandow writes an insightful analysis of the case in 1997. Hopkins’s former wife Carol Rainey has been critical of the quality of his abduction research in this case and in that of singer Phoebe Snow, which he never publicized. (Budd Hopkins, “The Linda Cortile Abduction Case,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 293 (September 1992): 12 – 16 ; Budd Hopkins, “The Linda Cortile Abuction Case, Part II: The Woman on the Bridge,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 296 (December 1992): 5– 9 ; Joseph J. Stefula, Richard D. Butler, and George P. Hansen, “A Critique of Budd Hopkins’ Case of the UFO Abduction of Linda Napolitano,” January 8, 1993; Jerome Clark, “Saucer Smearers,” IUR 18, no. 2 (March/April 1993): 3, 22–24; “The Claims in Question,” IUR 18, no. 2 (March/April 1993): 4–5; Donald A. Johnson, “Why the Linda Case Is a Hoax,” IUR 18, no. 2 (March/April 1993): 5, 22; Willy Smith, “The Impossible Testimony of Janet Kimball,” IUR 18, no. 2 (March/April 1993): 6–7, 21; Budd Hopkins, “House of Cards: The Butler/Hansen/Stefula Critique of the Cortile Case,” IUR 18, no. 2 (March/April 1993): 8–14, 21; David M. Jacobs, “A Matter of Ethics,” IUR 18, no. 2 (March/April 1993): 15–16; John E. Mack, “Stirring Our Deepest Fears,” IUR 18, no. 2 (March/April 1993): 17, 21; Willy Smith, et al., “The Linda Case,” IUR 18, no. 3 (May/June 1993): 22– 23 ; Linda Cortile [Napolitano], “A

Light at the End of the Tunnel,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 302 (June 1993): 12– 17 ; Budd Hopkins, Witnessed:
The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge UFO Abductions, Pocket Books, 1996; Greg Sandow, “The Linda Cortile
Case Analyzed: Part 1,” IUR 22, no. 1 (Spring 1997): 18–23; Greg Sandow, “The Linda Cortile Case Analyzed:
Part 2,” IUR 22, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 3–10, 35– 36 ; Kevin D. Randle, “A Response to Budd Hopkins,” A
Different Perspective, February 18, 2011; Carol Rainey, “The Singer’s Hybrid Daughter, Part I,” The UFO Trail,
February 5, 2016; Carol Rainey, “The Singer’s Hybrid Daughter, Part II,” The UFO Trail, February 22, 2016;
Sean F. Meers, “The Linda Cortile UFO Abduction Case: Abstract,” February 27, 2012).

December 1 — Weather forecaster Francesco Valenzano and his young daughter are walking in the Square Nicolaï in Ans, Liège, Belgium, when they see a large, slow-moving craft approaching at low altitude. The object silently makes a tour of the square; when it passes over their heads, they notice it has a delta shape with three lights in a triangular position and a red rotating light in the middle and positioned lower than the belly of the object. (Kean, pp. 27 – 28 ) December 1 — 6 : 5 0 p.m. An amateur photographer is sitting in his living room at Eupen, Belgium, when he sees a lozenge-shaped UFO with two white lights at each corner. He draws a sketch but fails to take a photo. He sees a similar object on January 10, 1990. (Auguste Meessen, “The Belgian Sightings,” IUR 16, no. 3 (May/June 1991): 8 – 9) December 2 – 3 — President George H. W. Bush and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Malta, just weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall. During the summit, Bush and Gorbachev declare an end to the Cold War, although whether it is truly such is a matter of debate. (Wikipedia, “Malta Summit”) December 5 or 12 — 9:50 p.m. A couple is driving on the Trierer Strasse in Aachen, Germany, when they see a flying object cut across the road in front of them to the right. It has two headlights in front, emitting beams that slant downwards. There is a flashing orange light on the underside. The same object reappears at their home around 11:15 p.m. (Auguste Meessen, “The Belgian Sightings,” IUR 16, no. 3 (May/June 1991): 9–10) December 11 — 6:30 p.m. A 12-year-old boy and his family in Trooz, Belgium, watch a domed, triangular object for 15 minutes. It is hovering at first, then passes above their house. (Kean, p. 28 ) December 11 — 6:45 p.m. Lt. Col. André Amond of the Belgian Army and his wife spot a strange aerial object while they are driving on the deserted Rue de Sart Ernage between Ernage and Gembloux, Belgium. It looks like a series of 3 – 4 panels of light traveling north to south at an altitude of 650–980 feet. Beneath the series of panels, and close to the center, is a rotating red lamp. Amond stops where the road dead ends and watches the UFO pass for 2– 4 minutes. Then the object abruptly changes course and silently heads in his direction. Only an enormous spot of white light is visible now, “much bigger than the spotlight of a big air carrier.” They both are frightened, so Amond starts the car again. The big light disappears, and three smaller white spotlights become visible, which form a more or less equilateral triangle. The rotating red light is still there, now seen in profile. The object then performs a turn of 180° to the left. The distance between the white luminous points is estimated at approximately 33 feet. They cannot distinguish any solid object around this triangle of three lights. The maneuver is majestic and slow. Next, the luminous points disappear. Only the red rotating light is still visible, and it takes off in a south- southwesterly direction. The duration of the sighting is about 5–8 minutes. (Kean, pp. 28 – 29 ; Wim van Utrecht, “The Lieutenant-Colonel and the UFO,” Caelestia, January 7, 2016; December 12 — 2:15 a.m. A man in Jupille-sur-Meuse, Belgium, wakes up to a dull throbbing noise coming from outside. He sees an enormous oval object seemingly jammed between two fir trees. On its circumference, small lights are changing color from blue to red and back. The object is metallic, with an oar or paddle at its rear. In the front is a window or cockpit. On the front part is a logo consisting of several ellipses crossing themselves. After a few minutes, the object rises slightly, the sound it emits changing slightly. It moves toward a neighbor’s meadow, shining down three beams of lights. Some moments later, it emits an intense and well-defined shaft of light into the sky. The witness goes back to bed. The next morning, he reports his sighting to the Gendarmérie, which investigates and finds a gigantic circular trace in the meadow. At the center, the grass has been cut off, but the cuttings are nowhere to be seen, and the grass within the circle is yellow. (Patrick Vidal and Michel Rozencwajg, “The Belgian Wave,” IUR 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1991): 6–7) December 21 — Belgian Minister of Defense Jean-Pol Poncelet states that there have been many UFOs reported and that the ministry and the Army have no idea what they are. (Swords 456–457) December 24 or 25 — 3:00 p.m. Pilot Vladimir Kuzmin sees a dark gray, cigar-shaped object hovering southwest of Chelyabinsk, Russia, while he is flying a two-seat Aero L-29 Delfin. He estimates its altitude at 4.6 miles. The sighting lasts more than 8 minutes with the object in direct view for over 4 minutes. Within hours, Kuzmin experiences a strange, crustlike skin rash on the exposed portion of his face that lasts for more than 11 days.

(Richard F. Haines, “UFO Activities in the Soviet Union,” IUR 16, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1991): 14; Richard F. Haines,
“Encounter over Siberia,” IUR 16, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1991): 12–13, 21–22)

1990

1990 —The NORAD Unknown Track Reporting database includes 7,000 incidents since 1971, averaging about 350 a year, representing objects still unidentified after jet interception, but before ATC analysis and NORAD/FTC intelligence whittles down the numbers further to about 10%. NORAD Unknowns are effectively equivalent to Project Blue Book unknowns—high-strangeness UFOs that cannot be rated until full details are released. (Clark III 801– 802 ; Swords 348) 1990 — Donald Johnson obtains a copy of UFOCAT on 10 3.5-inch diskettes from David R. Saunders, courtesy of John S. Derr of the US Geological Survey. Derr has created the diskette version from one of the tape backups for use in his own research. Unfortunately, he is unable to read the first portion of the tape, so it is lacking the first 10,000 records. Fortunately, the Center for UFO Studies has another backup copy, and Johnson is able to merge the two sources and recreate the database as it existed in 1982. Since then, more than 10,000 additional records have been added. (“UFOCAT Is Back!” IUR 16, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1991): 24) 1990 — A Gallup survey this year indicates that the belief in “real” UFOs has declined to 47% from a peak of 57% in 1978 and 54% in 1973. Only 27% report a belief that extraterrestrial UFOs have actually visited earth, while 14% report they have seen a UFO. (Robert J. Durant, “Evolution of Public Opinion on UFOs,” IUR 18, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1993): 20) 1990 — Jerome Clark publishes volume one of the first edition of his UFO encyclopedia. (Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia: UFOs in the 1980s, vol. 1, Apogee, 1990; Michael D. Swords, [review], JUFOS 2 (1990): 189– 191 ) 1990 — Mathematician Arne Gjärdman replaces Sture Wickerts as head of UFO investigations at the Swedish National Defence Research Institute. He holds the position until 1999. During this time, the institute starts sharing information and ideas with UFO-Sweden, creating an atmosphere of understanding and cooperation. (Swords 370) 1990 — Journalist and lawyer Marek Rymuszkoz establishes the magazine Nieznany Świat in Warsaw. (Poland 81)

Early January — 10:30 a.m. Two women are driving southwest near Thimister-Clermont, Belgium, when they see a bizarre object on their right, moving at an altitude of 980–1,300 feet. Dark and massive, it resembles an iron seen from underneath. After a few seconds, it disappears behind a farmhouse. (Patrick Vidal and Michel Rozencwajg, “The Belgian Wave,” IUR 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1991): 7) January — David Gotlib begins publishing the Bulletin of Anomalous Experience (at first under the title of Ratchet Patrol) in Toronto, Ontario, focusing on abduction experiencers. It folds in December 1994. (Ratchet Patrol 1, no. 1 (January 1990); Bulletin of Anomalous Experience 1, no. 3 (March/April 1990)) January 20 — 1:15–1:20 a.m. A silvery dome-shaped object with two rows of lights flies just ahead of a car for two to three miles on Highway 446 at Boyle, Mississippi. The engine and lights fail until the object departs. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33 , no. 4 (May 2011): 16) January 22 — 10:00 a.m. UFOs approach the Santa Cruz Air Force Base, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Air traffic controllers spot them on their radars but cannot identify them because they do not make movements like an airplane or helicopter. Interceptors approach, but the objects move away and disappear. They return about 40 minutes after the interceptors land. Two other fighters are assigned to chase the objects, which are at an altitude of 4,800 feet. The case is investigated by an internal commission of the Brazilian Air Force, which can find no explanation. (Clark III 205– 206 ; Brazil 553) January 26 — British-Armenian orchid hunter Habib “Henry” Azadehdel (pseudonym “Armen Victorian”) calls Eric A. Walker and has an extended conversation about an alleged South African UFO crash with insect-like aliens. Walker hints that there has been governmental collaboration with aliens in the past. (Grant Cameron and T. Scott Crain, UFOs, MJ-12, and the Government: A Report on Government Involvement in UFO Crash Retrievals, Mutual UFO Network, 1991, pp. 27–35)

February — Arranged by Norio Hayakawa, Robert Lazar is interviewed in Las Vegas, Nevada, by Nippon TV for 3– 4 hours. Hayakawa and the TV crew drive out to Tikaboo Peak, where they film an orange light maneuvering above Groom Lake. (Jacobsen, Area 51, p. 14 )

February — The Sauvegarde et Conservation des Études et Archives Ufologiques is established in Brunoy, France, by Jacques Scornaux. Its goal is the preservation and conservation of ufological documents and information. It publishes a SCEAU Bulletin from 1991 to 2008. (SCEAU Bulletin, no. 0 (1991)) February — The Centre d’Études et de Recherches sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux in Marseille, France, begins publishing Aérospatial-Météorologie-Astronomie (A.M.A.), edited by Bernard Hugues. It continues until September 1994. (Aérospatial-Météorologie-Astronomie, no. 1 (February 1990)) February 1– 4 — An invitation-only research conference on abductions is held at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, organized by Rima E. Laibow and Daniel Schneck. (Rima E. Laibow, Robert N. Sollod, and John P. Wilson, eds., Anomalous Experiences and Trauma: Current Theoretical, Research, and Clinical Perspectives, Center for Treatment and Research of Experienced Anomalous Trauma, 1992; Michael D. Swords, [review], JUFOS 4 (1992): 201– 205 )

February 21 — Sundown. Norio Hayakawa, a Nippon TV journalist, takes a crew to the Area 51 Mailbox Site (near the 29 ½ mile marker, Highway 375, Tikaboo Valley) to watch the test flight of an object from Groom Lake, Nevada. The group sees an orange-yellow light appear above the hills. They get a second sighting later that evening when an object moves to the right, descends, performs a back turn and a 5,000-foot sudden descent, more or less instantly. (Michael Hesemann, UFOs and Area 51: Secrets of the Black World, Lightworks video, 1995; “Norio Hayakawa,” Dreamland Resort) February 21 — 9:07 p.m. A woman, her mother, and son are driving through Koblenz-Karthause, Germany, when they notice two lights beaming down at them at a 45° angle. The woman pulls to the side of the road at an angle to watch. The object bearing the lights stops almost directly overhead. She sees a large triangular object, stationary and noiseless, at rooftop height. The sides of the triangle measure about 65 feet. Three milky, yellowish-white lights are at each of the corners. In the center is a larger, primarily gray-blue light, although its colors change as something rotates on the UFO. The object itself has a metallic appearance. It has some structures that look like riveted plates. The object remains for 2–3 minutes then departs suddenly to the southwest behind the roofs of nearby houses. The woman succeeds in locating two other witnesses at nearly the same time. (Auguste Meessen, “The Belgian Sightings,” IUR 16, no. 3 (May/June 1991): 10–11) February 28 —7:30 p.m. Gary Schultz goes to the Area 51 Mailbox site in Nevada with his wife Pearl. He leaps out of his lawn chair when he spots the first object. Every 45 minutes, a new object arrives, 6 in all. Two or three of the craft are bright, pulsing, ellipsoid objects. He takes photos, one of which clearly captures an object shaped like a bell. (“Unknown Craft over Area 51 in 1990, Photographed by Gary Schultz,” Norio Hayakawa YouTube channel, January 25, 2010; Michael Hesemann, UFOs and Area 51: Secrets of the Black World, Lightworks video, 1995)

March — Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine breaks the news that the term “Aurora” has inadvertently been included in the 1985 US budget, as an allocation of $455 million for “black aircraft production” in FY 198 7. According to Aviation Week, Project Aurora refers to a group of exotic aircraft and not to one particular airframe. Funding of the project allegedly reaches $2.3 billion in fiscal 1987, according to a 1986 procurement document obtained by Aviation Week. In 1994, Ben Rich, the former head of Lockheed’s Skunk Works division, writes that the Aurora is the budgetary code name for the stealth bomber fly-off that resulted in the B-2 Spirit. (Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos, Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed, Little Brown, 1996, pp. 309– 310 ; UFOFiles2, pp. 143– 144 ; “Aurora Timeline”) March — A classified US Department of Defense document, Joint Staff Information Report #5049, “Belgium and the UFO Issue,” states that “Numerous UFO sightings have been made in Belgium since Nov 89. The credibility of some individuals making the reports is good… Investigation by BAF [Belgian Air Force] continues.” It notes that Belgian General Wilfried De Brouwer asked whether the objects were American B-2 or F-117 military aircraft, stating that he made the inquiry despite knowing that “the alleged observations did not correspond in any way to the observable characteristics of either US aircraft.” The US Air Force does confirm to the Belgian Air Force and Ministry of Defense that no US stealth aircraft were operating in the Ardennes area at the time.” (Nick Redfern, “Belgium and the UFO Issue,” Mysterious Universe, February 11, 2016) March 1 — The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches the first stealth satellite in STS- 36 for the National Reconnaissance Office. Nicknamed “Misty,” little is known about it other than it has visual and radar stealth characteristics, making it difficult to detect. The satellite is seen and tracked later in 1990 and in the mid-1990s by amateur observers. The second satellite is launched on May 22, 1999, and by 2004 the launch of a third satellite is planned for 2009. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the third satellite might be the payload of the Delta IV Heavy launch designated NROL- 1 5, which is launched in June 2012. That launch deposits a payload into

geosynchronous orbit but, given the stealth/deception hypothesis, there remains the possibility of other, undetected payloads. (Wikipedia, “Misty (satellite program)”) March 7 — A woman feeding her infant in Gulf Breeze, Florida, notices a beam of white light about 3 feet in diameter descend to the ground beyond her window. She feels a slight vibration and 2 seconds later the object is gone. The next morning her husband finds a circle of burned grass 11 feet in diameter near the window. Several people detect a strong “perfume” odor from the scorched area. (MUFON UFO Journal, May 1990) March 8 — Henry Azadehdel calls Eric A. Walker a second time. Walker provides some vague and bizarre information involving MJ-12, ESP, and technology from crashed UFOs. A third conversation on August 18 is much more guarded. (Grant Cameron and T. Scott Crain, UFOs, MJ-12, and the Government: A Report on Government Involvement in UFO Crash Retrievals, Mutual UFO Network, 1991, pp. 27–35) March 12 — Night. Large, shining discs appear in the sky along the Yaroslavskoye Shosse outside Moscow, Russia. Their place is taken by three groups of objects, some like pineapples (with platelets) but about 18 feet long. Others are like “triangular milk cartons,” and the third group are like upside-down basins about 40 feet across. (“UFO’s Reported near Moscow,” [telegram], April 15, 1990) March 21 — 8:00 p.m.–12:00 midnight. UFOs are seen over a wide area of Russia encompassing Novoselye, Sergiyev Posad, Yakovlevo, Dubki, Kablukovo, Fryazino, Khabarovsk, and Kirzhach. Radar stations and aircraft are put on alert. At 9:38 p.m., a UFO is seen at 6,500 feet altitude over Pereslavl-Zalessky, Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia. Lt. Col. A. A. Semenchenko is sent up in an interceptor to find it. At 10:05 p.m., he sees the object ahead and to the right. He tracks it on the in-flight radar as it flashes two white lights and changes speed and altitude. It does not respond to a radio challenge to identify itself. The pilot turns steeply and flies 1,600–1,900 feet above the UFO, but he can see only a vague shape. Between 8:00 p.m. and midnight, UFOs are also seen over a wide area. Witnesses in Khabarovsk watch bright red spheres flying in complete silence and darting above the icebound Amur River, and a black cigar-shaped object 160 feet long with a ruby-red exhaust is seen traveling low above the ground. Radars do not register it. The commanding officers of several antiaircraft defense units around Moscow gather more than 100 visual reports from their subordinates, which are forwarded to the chief of the antiaircraft defense headquarters, Gen. Col. Igor Maltsev, who says that the object is a disc between 325–650 feet in diameter with two blinking lights. It turns on its axis and its course is “snakelike.” (“UFOs on Air Defense Radars,” Rabochaya Tribuna, April 19, 1990; MUFON UFO Journal, June 1990; V. D. Musinsky, “Through the Secrecy Barrier,” IUR 15, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1990): 14– 15 ; Central Intelligence Agency, “USSR: UFO Sightings No. 2—General Maltsev Comments,” Foreign Broadcast Information Service PROD Group, May 24, 1990; Patrick Gross, “FOIA Declassified Documents”; Antonio Huneeus, “Airplane Pilot UFO Encounters in the USSR and CIS, Part 2,” OpenMinds, August 20, 2010; Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, p. 116) March 28 — 11:20 p.m. A silent UFO is seen about 25 miles north of Chongqing, China. It is about 65 feet long with orange and pale green lights, and it flies toward the northeast at an altitude of 150 feet. (Defense Intelligence Agency, [unclassified report], The Black Vault, p. 11) March 30– 31 — 11:00 p.m. The Glons (Belgium) Control Reporting Center receives reports that three unusual lights are moving toward Thorembais-Gembloux, Belgium, constantly changing color, in the shape of an equilateral triangle. It requests the Wavre gendarmerie to send a patrol car to investigate. Ten minutes later, a second formation moves toward the first. Traffic Center Control at Semmerzake tracks one object only on its radar, and an order to scramble two F- 16 fighters from Beauvechain Air Base is given. Throughout this time, in reports after the event, some people claim that the phenomenon is visible from the ground, describing the whole formation as maintaining relative positions while moving slowly across the sky. Over the next hour, the two scrambled F-16s attempt 9 separate interceptions. On three occasions, they manage to obtain a radar lock for a few seconds, but these are later shown to be radar-locks on each other. The pilots never see any of the claimed visual sightings or the claimed maneuvers, and they never get a lock on any objects apart from the other F-16. Investigator Wim van Utrecht suspects that the lights in the sky that triggered these scrambles were misperceptions of bright stars and planets. The other contacts are all the result of a well-known atmospheric interference called Bragg scattering, in which an aircraft’s own radars interfere with each other. After 12 :30 a.m., radar contact becomes much more sporadic and the final confirmed lock takes place at 12 :40 a.m. Following several further unconfirmed contacts, the F-16s eventually return to base shortly after 1:00 a.m. Members of the Wavre gendarmerie sent to confirm the original report describe four lights as arranged in a square formation, all making short jerky movements, before gradually losing their luminosity and disappearing in four separate directions at around 1:30 a.m. They also hear a low engine noise and that it seems to have a stick coming out one end with a turbine on it, which many claim shows it was a helicopter. (Wikipedia, “Belgian UFO wave”; NICAP, “Three Lights in Triangle Are Also Picked Up on Radar”; NICAP, “Three Lights in Triangle Are Also Picked Up on Radar”; “Remarkable Military Encounter in Belgium,” IUR 15, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1990): 23; Joël Mesnard, “Belgium Haunted by Huge

Triangular Craft, Part II,” Flying Saucer Review 35, no. 4 (December 1990): 2–6; Auguste Meessen, “The Belgian Sightings,” IUR 16, no. 3 (May/June 1991): 4– 8 ; Bob Pratt, “The Great Belgium UFO Flap,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 267 (July 1990); Marie-Thérèse de Brosses, “F-16 Radar Tracks UFO,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 268 (August 1990): 6 – 7; Marie-Thérèse de Brosses, “An Interview with Professor Jean-Pierre Petit,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 273 (January 1991): 3 – 9; Kean, pp. 37 – 38 ; Swords 457; Jean-Michel Abrassart, “In Defense of the Psycho-Sociological Hypothesis: Another Reply to Auguste Meessen,” SUNlite 3, no. 4 (July/Aug. 2011): 9– 12; Patrick Gross, “The Belgium Flap Official Reports,” the full version of the Belgian Air Force report by Major Lambrechts, VS3/Ctl-Met 1, February 22, 2001; Patrick Gross, “The Belgium Flap Official Reports,” summary report on observations 30–31 March 1990, February 22, 2001; Marler 20– 23 ; David Clarke, “Echoes and Angels: UFOs on Radar,” Fortean Times 403 (March 2021): 44–45) March 31 — Night. Lucien Clerebaut (secretary general of the Belgian UFO group SOBEPS), film director Patrick Ferryn, and José Fernandez take four photos, using high-sensitivity film, of one of the triangular objects passing directly overhead about 19 miles southeast of Brussels, Belgium. Ferryn estimates its altitude is only 1,000 feet with a diameter six times that of the full moon. As a control, he photographs an ordinary airplane several minutes later in the same spot, using all the same camera settings. The spotlights on the UFO, which seemed very bright to the observers, are barely discernible on the photos. The triangular shape, clearly visible to the naked eye, is also lost on the film. At the same time, the airplane lights come out brighter than those on the UFO, appearing just the way it looked from the ground, even though the UFO was much closer to the observers than the airplane. Lab experiments show that this is probably due to the effect of infrared light around the UFO. (Marie-Thérèse de Brosses, “Un OVNI sur le Radar du F16,” Paris-Match, July 5, 1990)

Early April — Many observers, including a journalist with Sovetskaya Estoniya, see UFOs hovering above power lines along the Tallinn Highway, Estonia, on several occasions. Maj. V. Stroynetskiy and several hundred other witnesses repeatedly observe UFOs over the Yaroslavl Highway in Russia, many of which look like large “triangular milk cartons.” The objects are flying at altitudes of 1,600–2,600 feet. At times, the entire body of an object “scintillates,” while at other times it becomes iridescent with “lights of various colors.” The objects fly at great speeds, make sudden stops in mid-air, and suddenly break off in lateral directions from the line of flight, “at which time they emitted rays.” (Central Intelligence Agency, “USSR: UFO Sightings No. 2—General Maltsev Comments,” Foreign Broadcast Information Service PROD Group, May 24, 1990) April 4 — Patrick Maréchal, a young worker at Petit-Rechain, Belgium, takes a photo of a delta-shaped object on which three lights are visible at each corner. Maréchal admits the photo is a hoax in an interview for RTL on July 26, 2011. He and some friends take a sheet of Styrofoam, cut it into a triangle, paint it black, embed a flashlight in each corner, then hang it from a string. Maréchal shows reporters many trial photos they had taken trying to get the perfect look. (Wikipedia, “Belgian UFO wave”; NICAP, “Petit-Rechain, Belgium Photo”; “Classic Belgian Photos a Fake?” IUR 34 , no. 1 (September 2011 ): 6 ; Wim van Utrecht, “Battle over Belgian UFOs,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 292 (August 1992): 20 ; Wim van Utrecht, “Famous Belgian UFO Photo a Hoax,” Caelestia; Kean, pp. 29 – 31 ; Auguste Meessen, “The Belgian Wave and the Photos of Ramillies”; Patrick Ferryn, “La photo de Petit-Rechain: Un état de la question,” Inforespace, no. 111 (December 2005): 4–21; André Marion, “Nouvelle analyse de la diapositive de Petit-Rechain,” Inforespace, no. 111 (December 2005): 22 – 27; Benôit Mussche, “Le rapport SeerSight,” Inforespace, no. 111 (December 2005): 28 – 41) April 5 — 8:15 p.m. A motorist driving near the shore at Gulf Breeze, Florida, sees what looks like a jet fighter about to crash. Two military jets approach from the north, and the original object immediately shoots laterally southward, halting 1–2 miles away. The man gets out of his car to watch. The object appears to be a white disc with red and green lights spaced evenly around the side and an unlit dome on top. Slowly, it begins to rise. He calls a friend and the sheriff’s office. Two deputies arrive on the scene, and for the next 2 hours all three witnesses watch a bright light continue to ascend slowly. (MUFON UFO Journal, May 1990) April 10 — A couple driving north on the Pensacola Bay Bridge in Florida see an object that looks like a long isosceles triangle with a centered red light on the bottom and pairs of white lights at the three apexes. As they near the end of the bridge in Pensacola, the object moves toward the west. It hovers, then moves off over the bay and out of sight. (Dan Wright, “Current Case Log,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 268 (August 1990): 22 – 23 ) April 10 — A triangular UFO is seen for 10 minutes over Abakan, Republic of Khakassia, Russia. (Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal Encounters behind the Iron Curtain, Quadrillion, 1998, p. 110) April 11 — Evening. Several residents of Gulf Breeze, Florida, watch a red light move toward the southwest and out into the Gulf of Mexico before winking out. Some think they can see clusters of balloons associated with the light, but others disagree. (MUFON UFO Journal, June 1990)

April 12– 13 — Night. Two witnesses see a bright red light hovering above Little Sabine Island off Pensacola Beach, Florida. It stays there for several minutes before blinking out. It reappears the next night to the west of Gulf Breeze. (MUFON UFO Journal, June 1990) April 14 — At least seven people report a red light to the north of Gulf Breeze, Florida. It approaches from the east at high speed and comes to a dead stop. It hovers, moves back and forth several times, then ascends out of sight. Other red lights appear and are seen in various locations around Pensacola by other groups of people. Some of these sightings are undoubtedly hoax balloons. (MUFON UFO Journal, June 1990; Dan Wright, “Current Case Log,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 268 (August 1990): 21 – 22 ) April 22 — Before 12:00 midnight. Two workers in a factory courtyard in Basècles, Belgium, watch two enormous spotlights illuminate the area. A huge trapezoid-shaped “platform” moves slowly and silently above a smokestack, at one point covering the entire courtyard, 330 by 200 feet. They observe six lights on the object, which is grayish. Structures on the bottom of the platform look like “an aircraft carrier turned upside down.” (Kean, p. 31 ) April 26 — Mikhail Gorbachev is visiting the Uralmash plant in Sverdlovsk, Russia, when he is asked for the first time whether the USSR studies UFOs. He answers vaguely that “there are scientific organizations which study this problem.” However, he later tells a group of workers that the “UFO phenomenon is real and we should approach it seriously and study it.” (Pravda, April 27, 1990; Sovetskaya Molodezh, May 4, 1990)

May 4 — 11:15 p.m. A retired archaeologist in Stockay, Liège, Belgium, is about to return home after checking his greenhouse when he hears neighborhood dogs barking. He sees, in a field about 325 feet away from him, a pyramidal or conical illuminated object topped by a “bright white mushroom cone” floating about 1 foot off the ground. He approaches to about 165 feet and watches the object change color from white to orange as its upper part rises. He calls his wife to watch the UFO too. She sees two small antennas on top. They leave to get their son, but when they return the object is gone. The next day, he finds four circular holes about 3 feet in diameter with a thin layer of yellowish powder sprayed on the grass. Some days later, the traces vanish after a rainstorm. (Patrick Vidal and Michel Rozencwajg, “The Belgian Wave,” IUR 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1991): 4) May 21 — A joint Russian and Chinese endeavor to study UFOs is initiated in Dalnegorsk, Primorsky Krai, Russia. An agreement is made to share videos and photos of new sightings. (Central Intelligence Agency, “USSR, PRC Scientists in Joint Study of UFO’s,” May 21, 1990) May 25 — Day. A giant reddish-orange disc some 980 feet in diameter and with portholes around its rim is seen hovering at an altitude of 3,300 feet above Mary, Turkmenistan. Col. Anatoly Kurkchy, chief of the Air Defense Division of the Russian 12th Army, orders three ground-to-air missiles fired at it. The UFO makes a slight horizontal maneuver, and three beams of light coming from its port side destroy the missiles. Kurkchy then scrambles two jet interceptors, but at a point about 3,200 feet from the disc, the jets are allegedly thrown to the ground and destroyed, killing the four pilots. Kurkchy is removed from his post and transferred to a remote location. (Good Need, pp. 356 – 357 )

June — Raymond E. Fowler continues his exploration of the Betty Andreasson Luca abduction case in The Watchers, which reveals that Luca is often having an out-of-body experience during her abductions. She sometimes encounters human-like entities with blonde hair, blue eyes, and white robes who are apparently “in charge” of the other aliens. Luca feels that the human race is being “watched” by these beings, who tell her they foresee serious problems in the future regarding the survivability of the human species. (Raymond E. Fowler, The Watchers: The Secret Design behind UFO Abduction, Bantam, 1990) June 5 — Robert Lazar is arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada, for aiding and abetting a prostitution ring. The charge is reduced to felony pandering, to which he pleads guilty on June 18. At sentencing on August 20, he is ordered to do 150 hours of community service, stay away from brothels, and undergo psychotherapy. June 10 — Reporter Craig Myers announces in the Pensacola (Fla.) News-Journal that a foam UFO model, seemingly a prototype for a fake UFO, has been found by new homeowners in the attic of the former residence of Gulf Breeze, Florida, UFO photographer Ed Walters. Myers writes a series of articles showing how Walters likely hoaxes some photos using a double-exposure technique. In late June, Tom Smith Jr., 22, a former Gulf Breeze resident, comes forward and claims that he has seen Walters fake some of the photos, the entire Walters family is in on the hoax, and they had tried to enlist his help unsuccessfully. Investigators apply a voice stress analysis (VSA) test to Smith’s taped testimony, which he passes. A controlled VSA test has also been successfully applied to testimony by Ed Walters, in which he denies perpetrating a hoax. (Craig Myers, “Gulf Breeze UFO Model Found,” Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, June 10, 1990, pp. 1, 8; Craig Myers, “I Saw UFO Photos Faked, Witness Says,” Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, June 17, 1990, pp. 1, 4; UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 252 (July 1990): 1–6;

Geoff Price, “Lie Detection in UFO Controversies,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 31 ; Kevin D. Randle, “The Truth
about Polygraphs,” IUR 22, no. 4 (Winter 1997–1998): 29– 30 )

Summer — The crew of a Russia ship harbored in the Anadyr’ River off Ust-Belaya, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, sees a perfectly circular opening in the cumulus clouds above the village. Groups of objects enter the circle and fly away. Watch officer Aleksandr Polorotov begins taking photos of them until his camera malfunctions. When the film is developed, a luminous cigar-shaped object can be seen on some of the photos, but the open circle of sky is not on any of them. Some crew members experience severe headaches after the episode. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, pp. 109 – 110) July 6 — Day. Anna Dmitrievna Yerygina is herding goats on a lonesome road near Zvarykino, Belgorod Oblast, Russia, when a woman appears, seemingly out of thin air. Dressed in a light-gray, loose-fitting outfit with a hood, she seems somewhat tall and lean. The woman greets her and asks whether goats’ milk is tasty. Yerygina says it is, but she prefers cows’ milk. The woman then abruptly invites her on a brief excursion that will last no longer than three hours, touching her on the shoulder and saying, “Do not be afraid.” She takes Yerygina to a large oval craft in a nearby field, A man awaits them and helps them aboard. Yerygina sits in the dimly lit interior, then suddenly finds herself in another room with others dressed in the same gray coveralls. She feels as if she has been transported to another world. The entities radiate spiritual warmth and hospitality. One of them offers her some tasty bread and a strange liquid. After she finishes the meal, her memory goes blank and she finds herself back in the field with her goats, the strange woman by her side. The woman says goodbye with a smile, promising to meet her again. (Priyma Alexey, XX vek. Hronika Neobyasnimogo: Fenomen za fenomenom, AST Olympus, 2000; Joshua Cutchin, “The Great Alien Bake-Off,” Fortean Times 332 (November 2015): 42) July 9 — 4:00 a.m. A witness is traveling toward Germany and makes a stop east of Brzózka near the bridge over the Bóbr River southwest of Krosno, Poland. He goes for a short walk in the woods when he hears an odd sound and sees a landed object like an overturned bowl. He estimates it is nearly 17 feet across and 80 feet tall, and has a nauseating odor like burned chocolate. About 15 entities resembling mummies are in front of the UFO, poking plants with a prod and hopping about like kangaroos. They are about 4.5 feet tall and wear deep-green uniforms and headgear like welding masks. Their fingers resemble claws. At some point the witness coughs and loses consciousness, waking up an hour later. (Poland 82; “Bliskie spotkanie w Brzózce w 1990 roku,” UFO-Relacje.pl, February 12, 2020) July 11 — Belgian Air Force Col. Wilfred De Brouwer gives a public talk on UFOs at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. He states that the March 30–31 sightings were highly unusual, witnessed by gendarmes and others, and necessitated the scrambling of two F-16 fighters. He says the target was detected on radar and conformed to ground visual observations. The objects remain unidentified. (Swords 457) July 19 — Shortly after 12:00 midnight. The base perimeter at Fort Allen Training Center in Juana Díaz, Puerto Rico, is suddenly illuminated by a powerful white light. An officer orders that all personnel must remain in the barracks or other base facilities and not come out under any circumstances. From a window, the officer can see a brightly lit, circular, metallic object over the base. It has windows around a central rim, with yellowish-white lights revolving in them. On the underside there is a round, turbine-like protrusion with many colored lights around it. A bright beam of pinkish-white light is coming from the underside, as if searching for something—this is the light illuminating the perimeter. Two F/A-18 Hornets (probably scrambled from Roosevelt Roads Naval Station) fly at high speed over the base toward the UFO, which departs at high speed to the west with the jets in pursuit. The officer later tells UFO investigators that Fort Allen personnel have been briefed on UFOs with training films that show crashed UFOs, and it is just the most recent of several briefings since the 1988 Cabo Rojo incident. (Good Need, pp. 380 – 381 ) July 26 — 10:35 p.m. A married couple is driving south through Grâce-Hollogne, Belgium, when they see a triangular object hovering in the sky. It seems to measure about 39 feet on each side. A belt of white light like a large neon tube runs along two sides. The witnesses see three spotlights beaming down, apparently detached from the object but connected to each other by a support “bracket.” Two flashing lights, one red and one green, are on the underside. The man flashes his car lights twice, and two white lights at the base of the triangle rotate, tilt toward the car, and flash on and off three times. Keeping these lights pointed at the moving car, the object moves with its base forward and positions itself 330 feet away at a height of 200 – 300 feet, It makes a banking turn and paces the car, moving with the terrain and maintaining a constant height above the sloping ground at the same speed as the car (around 40 mph). When they approach the bridge at Seraing, the object crosses the Meuse River right next to them, ascending silently and moving back toward Grâce-Hollogne. (Kean, pp. 32 – 34 )

Early August — Many witnesses in Rostock, Greifswald, and the islands of Rügen and Usedom, Germany, see groups of luminous spheres that accelerate rapidly and abruptly. One witness, Gerald Schwab, watches the lights stand still for 3 minutes before they accelerate rapidly forward. (Illobrand von Ludwiger, “The ‘Greifswald Lights,’” MUFON Central European Section, May 2000) August 4 — Day. Two hikers near the A9 near Calvine, Perthshire, Scotland, see a diamond-shaped object that appears to be shadowed by an RAF Harrier jet. The object is visible for about 10 minutes. One of the hikers takes color photographs of the incident. Desk officers from DI55 suspect the image might show a US Air Force black project aircraft. The prints are sent to the Glasgow Daily Record newspaper, which forwards them to the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre at RAF Brampton [now closed] for scrutiny. The prints subsequently disappear and the MoD claims there is no surviving record of the conclusions reached about the investigation. However, in October 2020 the Ministry of Defence blocks release of the photos from their scheduled declassification on January 1, 2021, until 2072 without any explanation. Former MoD official Nick Pope, one of the few people to see the photos and the analysis, says the photos are authentic and show a material device of unknown origin that has no wings, no fuselage, no tail, no visible engine, and bears no inscription. Compared to elements in the landscape, the object appears to be about 98 feet in diameter. The British government continues to deny that its US ally has ever been allowed to operate experimental aircraft in UK airspace, but David Clarke discovers that a dossier of evidence was shared with US intelligence after the British expressed “concern about a possible stealthy platform flying in UK airspace.” A 1992 letter from the British Defence Staff in Washington, D.C., reveals that one of the Calvine photos was brought to the US by British Intelligence officials to be examined by their US counterparts. (UFOFiles2, pp. 148– 149 ; Paul Sims, “Alien Mystery: Government Bans Release of Secret UFO Dossier about Calvine for 50 Years,” Scottish Sun, October 10, 2020; Nick Pope, “‘Dark Forces’: I’ve Seen Top Secret Photos of Calvine UFO Sighting—It Left Me Shell-Shocked,” Scottish Sun, October 10, 2020; David Ramasseul, “Ovni de Calvine: L’interminable secret,” Paris Match, October 13, 2020; David Clarke, “The Jox Files: Was a US ‘Special Project’ Captured on Film in Scotland?” Fortean Times 409 (September 2021): 52– 53 ; Simon Houston, “What Was the Calvine UFO Sighting and Are the Photos Real?” Scottish Sun, May 2, 2022) August 24 — 8:35 p.m. Many witnesses in northern Germany see a formation of seven luminous objects over the Baltic Sea. They hover for nearly 30 minutes near Peenemünde (on Usedom) and the Soviet-built nuclear power plant at Lubmin [shut down soon afterward]. Five people, including nuclear physicist Ludmilla Ivanova, videotape the event from Greifswald, enabling researchers to triangulate the lights and reconstruct their positions. Ufologist Illobrand von Ludwiger’s group MUFON-Central European Section obtains 6 videos and 11 photos from different observers and interviews more than a dozen witnesses. They conclude that two groups of luminous spheres hovered nearly motionless for about 30 minutes over the sea. The brighter and closer group forms a circle of 6 spheres. The second group is in the shape of a “Y,” with some spheres performing individual movements. Some of them move back and forth between the two groups. They are able to move extremely fast, estimated by one witness as “supersonic velocity,” then come to an abrupt stop when reaching the formation. (Jacques Vallée, “Estimates of Power Optical Output in Six Cases of Unexplained Aerial Objects with Defined Luminosity Characteristics,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 12, no. 3 (1998): 356– 357 ; Illobrand von Ludwiger, “The ‘Greifswald Lights,’” MUFON Central European Section, May 2000)

September — New York Times journalist Howard Blum publishes Out There: The Government ’ s Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials, describing his investigation—after a tip given him by a National Security Agency official—of a mysterious agency called the UFO Working Group, a top secret, interagency body headed by “Col. Harold E. Phillips” of the Defense Intelligence Agency (actually a pseudonym for Col. John B. Alexander). Founded in 1987, according to Blum, after a flurry of suppressed UFO sightings, including the tracking on radar of a UFO by the US Space Command Space Surveillance Center, the UFO Working Group, calling on CIA, FBI, and other resources, has come up with nothing solid. It has, however, dug into many of the major events of ufology. Blum also claims that NORAD deep-space radars (the Defense Satellite Program) have tracked about 500 UFOs (fastwalkers) entering Earth’s atmosphere every year. (Howard Blum, Out There: The Government ’ s Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials, Simon & Schuster, 1990; Mark Rodeghier, “In the Black,” IUR 15 , no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1990): 9 – 11, 23) September — US journalist Tim Weiner publishes Blank Check: The Pentagon ’ s Black Budget, based on his articles on black-budget spending at the Pentagon and CIA for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Weiner shows that the funding is classified above top secret and that few, if any, federal oversight investigators have the security clearances to audit this budget. He estimates its size as at least $35 billion (although by 2012 is has increased to $52.8 billion,

according to information revealed by Edward Snowden), three times the estimated total of what it was in 1981. (Tim Weiner, Blank Check: The Pentagon ’ s Black Budget, Warner, 1990 ) September 2 — Early morning. Residents of Murmansk Oblast, Russia, see a large illuminated ball above the Arctic Ocean. It is at a high altitude, gives off no electronic signals, and moves slowly toward the Kola Peninsula. Soviet Air Defense thinks it resembles a large airship. Finally, the order is given to destroy it, and it turns out to be an enormous weather balloon. (Central Intelligence Agency, “Airship-Like UFO Sighted over Murmansk,” September 4, 1990) September 13 — Shortly after 12:00 midnight. A Soviet radar unit in Samara, Russia, tracks an approaching object that apparently causes the equipment to malfunction and go blank. Going outside, the operators see a flying black triangle giving off three bright rays pass directly overhead at no more then 30 feet. It lands nearby and gives off more bursts of energy for 90 minutes. Cpl. S. Dudnik sees it knock out a radar aerial with a light beam. Two sentries, A. Blazhis and A. Varenitsa, allegedly disappear and reappear with no memory of the event and without realizing they have been missing. The ground where they were standing guard seems to be blasted by an explosion. Their wrist watches are running nearly 2 hours slow. Capt. D. Rudzit tells a military reporter from Za Rodinu who is investigating the incident that nothing has happened. In November, Deputy Minister of Defense Gen. Ivan Tretiak claims the incident was all a newspaper hoax. (Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal Encounters behind the Iron Curtain, Quadrillion, 1998, p. 50; Good Need, pp. 358 – 360 , 364 ) September 19 — The KNM Stavanger has a sonar contact with an unknown “U-boat” in the Norwegian Sea off Ona lighthouse, Husøya, Norway. The ship sends international warning signals but gets no response, so it drops hand grenades into the water. At 5:30 p.m., it shoots off three Terne rockets. The sonar contact ends, and the next day the search is called off. (Ole Jonny Brænne, “Observations of Unidentified Submarine Objects in Norway,” IUR 20, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1995): 13, 17) September 27 — 10:50 p.m. Cosmonauts Gennady Manakov and Gennadi Strekalov are aboard the Mir space station. When Strekalov is looking down at Newfoundland through a clear atmosphere, he sees a glittering, iridescent, perfect sphere. He calls Manakov and together they study the object. Strekalov says it “shone like the balls that hang on trees at Christmas, greenish in color and all shimmering.” It appears to be 12–18 miles above the Earth. They watch it for 10 seconds when it disappears abruptly. (Central Intelligence Agency, “Take 1 of 3—Foreign Press Note—FB PN 91- 014 —USSR,” January 11, 1991; Good Need, p. 360 ; 2Pinotti 119–122)

October 1 — William Scott writes an article in Aviation Week on 45 sightings of strange aircraft over the southwestern part of the United States. Some of the objects move as slowly as 20 mph, then accelerate to supersonic speed. He concludes that there are at least two types of vehicles beyond the F-117A and B-2. One is a “triangular-shaped, quiet aircraft seen with a flight of F-117A stealth fighters several times since the summer of 1989.” Another is a “high-speed aircraft characterized by a very deep rumbling roar.” A third is a high-altitude, high-speed aircraft, typically observed as a bright, pulsating light, moving much faster than other aircraft, giving no engine noise or sonic boom. He also writes about some “exotic” propulsion systems used in new aircraft and comes very close to stating that these might be antigravity devices. (William Scott, “Multiple Sightings of Secret Aircraft Hint at New Propulsion, Airframe Designs,” Aviation Week and Space Technology, October 1, 1990, pp. 22–23) October 8 — 11:00 a.m. Near Grozny, Chechnya, Russia, an unidentified target appears on ground radar screens. Commander S. Prokoshin orders an interceptor jet scrambled and pilot Maj. P. Riabishev takes off in pursuit. Something makes him turn his head and he sees to his right rear two large, cigar-shaped objects. The length of the first is about 6,500 feet and the second about 1,300 feet. They are too distant to make out details. When he starts closing on them, both disappear from his field of vision, although ground radar continues to track them. (Central Intelligence Agency, “Take 1 of 3—Foreign Press Note—FB PN 91- 014 —USSR,” January 11, 1991; Good Need, pp. 360 – 361 ) October 14 — 7:00 p.m. Frau Wengere and her husband are driving from Lostorf to Zürich, Switzerland, when she sees two motionless, bright white lights ahead of them to the left over a range of mountains. Her husband can’t stop because there is no place to pull over. The lights of an approaching aircraft are much smaller and paler. They lose sight of the lights while driving through a village, but they see them again a little higher in the sky to the right of the road. A third light is now visible a bit to the left of the others and they watch it moving closer to the other two lights, which move from a 45° angle to horizontal, keeping the same space between them. The witnesses see two chains of red and green lights joining the two. They drive on and lose sight of the lights. (Auguste Meessen, “The Belgian Sightings,” IUR 16, no. 3 (May/June 1991): 1 1 , 22) October 21 — 10:05 p.m. Mme. Henquinet and her 15-year-old son Stephane are at the intersection of NB47 and N30 near Rachamps, Belgium, when two lights suddenly drop toward them. But the lights disappear, and as they turn

south on the N30, another light appears behind a hedge bordering the right-hand side of the road, about a dozen yards from the car. The light paces the car at the same speed, slowing down when she does. When they reach the end of the hedge, Mme. Henquinet brakes, and Stephane runs out of the car to look. They see a dark mass, more than 50 feet across, rise up rapidly and silently into the sky. On the lower part of the object is a circle of 7– 8 lights. (Patrick Vidal and Michel Rozencwajg, “The Belgian Wave,” IUR 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1991): 5) October 23 — 5:30 a.m. A young woman in Athus, Belgium, wakes up, looks out the window, and sees a light 1,300 feet away on or just above a nearby hill. It consists of two bright headlights directed at her. A smaller blue light is between the two white ones. About 10 minutes later, the lights rise together and move in toward her. The ground below lights up as they pass. A few moments later, the object passes silently over her house. She notices a small red light on its underside. The object then veers left in the direction of Luxembourg and disappears in the distance. (Patrick Vidal and Michel Rozencwajg, “The Belgian Wave,” IUR 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1991): 5) October 23 — 9:25 p.m. Four witnesses, ages 15–17, see an unusual object with very bright lights in Pepinster, Belgium. The have the impression that the object is taking off at a low altitude about 1,640 feet away. The object moves silently to the northeast, displaying on its lower part three bright white lights in the form of a triangle. At the center of the triangle is a steady red light. The object is shaped like a pyramid with the apex pointing forward. The sighting lasts for about 30 seconds. (Patrick Vidal and Michel Rozencwajg, “The Belgian Wave,” IUR 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1991): 5)

Late 1990 — A US Army captain is stationed in the Iraqi desert with his unit during Operation Desert Shield. He is informed by a superior officer that his unit is not to fire on any objects that might appear within a specific, rather restricted, area of the sky. A few nights later, he and his men see several bright objects maneuvering in an extraordinary fashion. “We could not have shot them down if we had tried,” he said. He does not know what they are, although UFOs are primary suspects. (Dolan II 555) November 3 — The Center for UFO Studies and the Santa Barbara Centre for Humanistic Studies cosponsor a conference on “The UFO Phenomenon in the 1990s” at the Lobero Theater, Santa Barbara, California. (“The UFO Phenomenon in the 1990s,” IUR 15, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1990): 18) November 5 — Around 6:00 p.m. The pilot and copilot of a British Airways flight from Rome to Gatwick Airport notice a large, silver-shaped object over the North Sea. They bring two crew members into the cockpit to observe it with them. Ground radar sees nothing unusual. (Nick Redfern, A Covert Agenda: UFO Secrecy Exposed, Simon & Schuster, 1997, p. 169; Good Need, pp. 382 – 383 ) November 5 — 6:00 p.m. Two RAF Tornados over the North Sea encounter two large round objects, each with five blue lights and several white lights around the rim. As the jets close to investigate, one of the UFOs heads for one of the jets, which is forced to take evasive action. The two objects then head north and disappear. Nothing shows up on the jets’ radar. Commercial aircraft also report odd lights over the North Sea. Other high-speed contacts take place along the border of Germany and southern Belgium. (Paul Whitehead, “Special Report to FSR (May 1991),” Flying Saucer Review 36, no. 2 (Summer 1991): 10; Good Need, pp. 383 – 384 ; Nick Pope, Open Skies, Closed Minds, Simon & Schuster, 1996, p. 177; UFOFiles2, pp. 140– 142 ) November 5 — 7:00 p.m. French pilot Jean-Gabriel Greslé is standing outside a gym in Gretz-Armainvilliers, Seine-et- Marne, France, with six of his martial arts students when a massive UFO comes into view. His first impression is of a huge crane with many lights. It is about 2,600 feet away at an altitude of 985 feet, moving downward. Another witness sees it level off and turn. It is projecting two very long, divergent beams of solid light that do not quite touch the ground. The object itself is at least 1,000 feet long and 200–250 feet thick with triangular substructures and many lights. Its rear section is trapezoidal. When it flies above them at no more than 100 mph, t somehow tunes out all surrounding noise as if carrying a “zone of silence.” As Greslé moves around a tree to view it better, it dims and moves away, disappearing into a cloud. (Good Need, p. 382 ) November 5 — 7:00 p.m. Two different explosions are heard in the area around RAF Rhendahlen in Mönchengladbach West, North Rhein–Westphalia, Germany. Two RAF Phantom jets are performing practice intercepts under strict radar control. After the second explosion at 10:00 p.m., one of the crews sees UFOs heading north in “finger” formation. (Paul Whitehead, “Special Report to FSR (May 1991),” Flying Saucer Review 36, no. 2 (Summer 1991): 10; Good Need, pp. 383 – 384 ) November 5 — Night. Witnesses report a large, cigar-shaped object, some accompanied by spheres, over many localities in southern Poland. Hundreds of people in Opole see a group of 15 – 20 spheres emitting bright trails. (Poland 73– 74) November 7 — 7:15 p.m. An American woman tourist is swimming in the rooftop pool of the International Hilton Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Montreal, Quebec, when she sees a yellowish, oval object hovering directly overhead. Other hotel guests come to view it, as well as the pool lifeguard, who describes it as “a lighted object

with six lights on the perimeter of a large circle with a ray of light emitted from each one.” Municipal police and the RCMP are called and they also view the UFO. Around 9:00 p.m., Marcel Laroche, a journalist from La Presse, takes some photos. The object disappears around 10:10 p.m. due to increasing cloud cover. Other people around the city and at the airport also report seeing unusual lights. (Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 172– 174 ; Wim van Utrecht, “Large Stationary Object over Montreal,” Caelestia, September 28, 2007; “OVNI du Hilton-Bonaventure (17 Nov 1990),” Réseau OVNI Alerte / UFO-Alert Network Facebook page, November 7, 2018) November 9 — Soviet Deputy Minister of Defense Ivan Tretyak speaks with a writer from Literaturnaya Gazeta and confirms that fighter-interceptors have encountered UFOs in Russian air space. However, most are explainable as natural phenomena, rocket launches, or satellites. He admits that some pilots report UFOs apparently of artificial origin, but their real nature remains unknown. (Central Intelligence Agency, “Take 1 of 2—Foreign Press Note— FB PN 91- 003 —USSR,” January 5, 1991) November 22 — 5:28 a.m. Mme. Bouffioux is lying awake in bed at her home in Fleurus, Belgium, when she senses an intense light. She looks out the window, which is covered in vapor, and sees the light about 80 feet away behind the wall bordering her neighbor’s garden and in an abandoned field. After a while, the light turns off, and she sees bluish flashes erupting from a spot to the right of where the object was last seen. (Patrick Vidal and Michel Rozencwajg, “The Belgian Wave,” IUR 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1991): 7)

December 9 — 9:30 p.m. Mme. Cortvriendt and her husband are at the Waterloo exit of the Brussels Ring Road near Belle-Vue, Belgium, when they see a luminous triangle off to the right at an altitude of 160 feet. On its circumference are a multitude of white lights that are “bright as diamonds.” Stretching from the center of the object are four brass-colored arms in the shape of a cross. They lose sight of it as it travels away from them to the northeast. (Patrick Vidal and Michel Rozencwajg, “The Belgian Wave,” IUR 16, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1991): 8)

1991

1991 — Milton William Cooper publishes Behold a Pale Horse, an elaborate collection of conspiracy theories and a manifesto of the militia movement. According to sociologist Paul Gilroy, Cooper claims to explain the “Kennedy assassination, the doings of the secret world government, the coming ice age, and a variety of other covert activities associated with the Illuminati’s declaration of war upon the people of America.” Political scientist Michael Barkun characterizes it as “among the most complex superconspiracy theories” and one of the most influential due to its popularity in militia circles as well as mainstream bookstores. Historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke describes the book as a “chaotic farrago of conspiracy myths interspersed with reprints of executive laws, official papers, reports, and other extraneous materials designed to show the looming prospect of a world government imposed on the American people against their wishes and in flagrant contempt of the Constitution.” (Milton William Cooper, Behold a Pale Horse, Light Technology, 1991; Wikipedia, “Milton William Cooper”) 1991 — Mark Rodeghier, Jeff Goodpaster, and Sandra Blatterbauer conduct a study on the psychosocial characteristics of 27 abductees for the Center for UFO Studies in Chicago, Illinois. They conclude from the data that the subjects cannot be classified as fantasy-prone personalities or as especially hypnotically responsive. However, a cluster analysis of MMPI scales reveals two types of abductees, one with higher fantasy-prone scores, more loneliness as adults, lower levels of happiness, more problems sleeping, and a greater incidence of sexual abuse as children. (Mark Rodeghier, Jeff Goodpaster, and Sandra Blatterbauer, “Psychosocial Characteristics of Abductees: Results from the CUFOS Abduction Project,” JUFOS 3 (1991): 59–90) 1991 — Psychic Sean David Morton begins going to Area 51 in Nevada. He and a friend tape a glowing, disc-shaped object that approaches within a few hundred yards. Several times it shoots up then descends with a falling-leaf motion. They return with burned faces and mild radiation poisoning. Morton later shoots more video showing glowing objects with extraordinary acceleration and maneuverability. Area 51 insiders allegedly contact him, including someone who claims he transported large disc-like and bell-shaped objects that he concludes are alien. He speaks of numerous underground levels, alien bodies in liquid tanks, and even several humanoid aliens from the Pleiades. Later Morton leads tours around Area 51 and suggests that the aliens there are from “Krondac,” a planet 800 light-years away. Morton is the subject of an article by the website UFO Watchdog, “The Shameless Psychic and His Prophecy of Lies.” which throws doubt on many of his claims. Morton sues the site for libel but the case is dismissed. In 2010, Morton and his wife are charged with securities fraud by the SEC. In February 2013, Morton is ordered by a judge to pay $11.5 million to the SEC within 14 days. They are arrested in 2016 and

begin serving federal sentences in 2017. (Wikipedia, “Sean David Morton”; Carole Masciola, “Mysterious Earthlings Scour the Desert for Space Alien Tourists,” Seattle Times, May 2, 1993; Royce Myers III, “The Shameless Psychic and His Prophecy of Lies,” February 2001) 1991 — The Argentine Ministry of Defense creates a small office devoted to the study of UFO sightings within the Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de las Fuerzas Armadas, a federal agency in charge of scientific research and development. It lasts until 1997. (Milton W. Hourcade, “Argentina: UFO Declassification,” UAPSG–GEFAI, July 29, 2020) 1991 — Visión Ovni, a national UFO research organization, is launched in Victoria, Entre Rios, Argentina, by Silvia Pérez Simondini. (Wikipedia, “Visión Ovni”) 1991 — The Soviet Union launches the Thread III Project, a wide-ranging scientific and technical analysis of unusual space phenomena conducted by more than 15 separate military units, scientific institutes, and the Ministry of Defense. The organization driving it is an ambiguously named group called Soveit Military Unit 73790. (Skinwalkers 1 15 – 117)

January — The SOS-OVNI group (formerly Association d’Étude sur les Soucoupes Volantes) begins publishing Phénomèna, edited by Perry Petrakis, in Aix-en-Provence, France. It continues through 2001. (Phénomèna 1, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1991)) January 6 —6:00 p.m. Four family members driving along the E411 motorway near Spontin, Belgium, watch a gigantic, plate-shaped UFO with many lights and a cupola pass overhead heading northwest. At 6:30 p.m., a family driving south on the A4 in Beez, Belgium, see three lights attached to an object hovering above a quarry. An army veteran named Hardy estimates the UFO to be about 260 feet long and 30–50 feet high, with the forward three lights in the form of a rectangle and a red light on the lower rear end. The bottom part is bulged out and dark gray in color. On the side, 15 portholes are lit up in white light. After parking their car on the side of the road, the witnesses watch the object for another minute or so. As soon as Hardy turns on his headlights, the object moves away to the northeast. (Patrick Vidal and Michel Rozencwajg, “The Belgian Wave,” IUR 16 , no. 4 (July/Aug. 1991): 8, 23)

February — 1:00 a.m. A security camera at Birchwood Shopping Mall four miles east of Warrington, Cheshire, England, picks up a white light, seemingly tennis-ball sized, moving around an open walkway. It appears to inspect a garbage bin, climbs a wall, and at one point approaches the camera. The security guard zooms the camera in on it, revealing a white, doughnut shape. It flies away, hovering above a tree to the south, and vanishes. About 8 minutes has elapsed. (Jenny Randles, “UFOs in Focus,” IUR 18, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1993): 15–16) February 6? — Evening. A woman is walking with two friends near the Etang de l’Ursine in Chaville, Hauts-de-Seine, France, when they see a large and brilliant star in the west. At nightfall, they return to their homes. One, named Sylvia, who lives on the Rue Alexis Maneyrol, goes back to look for the star and notices now that it is moving in a triangular motion. While walking back through the woods, she is struck by a beam. Suddenly, she is enveloped by a beam of light that seems to be trying to trap her, but she escapes back to her house. She goes to sleep but is surprised by an intruder in her house, a small figure in a watery-green cosmonaut suit who points to a screen showing the interior of a spaceship. The screen and figure dissolve. The next day, near a bus stop, she sees a strange figure wearing a cape who scowls at her terrifyingly. (Joël Mesnard, “A Failed Abduction at Chaville?” IUR 32 , no. 3 (July 2009): 21 – 22, 24) February 18 — Richard Haines meets with members of the Expert Group on Anomalous Phenomena of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow to discuss UFO events in the US and USSR. (Richard F. Haines, “UFO Activities in the Soviet Union,” IUR 16, no 2 (Mar./Apr. 1991): 13–14) February 22 — 12:45 a.m. Three youths driving home from a school reunion at Maids Moreton, Buckingham, England, see a white, cigar-shaped object glowing with numerous lights. It comes closer with an unsteady, jerky motion. They park the car in a field to watch the object, which approaches to within 100 feet. As they try to leave, their engine and headlights fail to respond. A brilliant beam of light envelops the car and they hear a faint humming sound. The light beam and sound disappear suddenly, along with the UFO, and they restart the car and drive away. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 19)

March 6 — 7:58 a.m. A glowing turquoise, cigar-shaped object on an easterly course crosses the path of Air Charter Flight 866 near Kingston, Ontario, stops ahead of the airliner, then proceeds to the north. (UFOEv II, 127) March 12 — On two occasions an object is seen over the Tihange Nuclear Power Station, Belgium. One witness reports a UFO directly above the red lights on one of the plant’s huge chimneys, where it hovers about 1 minute, beaming one of its lights on the outside structure while another light points directly down one of the chimneys. After its

inspection, it flies straight through the enormous white plume of steam before disappearing in the dark. (Kean, p. 32 ) March 15 — Night. An electronic engineer in Auderghem, Belgium, wakes up and hears a barely audible, high-frequency, whistling tone. He looks outside and sees a large rectangular object at a low altitude with irregular structures on the bottom. He walks upstairs to an upper-level terrace and watches the dark-gray object drift overhead slowly without lights. The whistling noise has stopped. (Kean, pp. 31 – 32 ) March 18 — Captain Zho, the pilot of a regional airliner over Kunshan, Jiangsu, China, sees a ring-shaped object, two rectangular objects moving back and forth, and a red blaze of light coming from the ring. (UFOEv II, 127) March 31 — For two nights in a row a couple in Palmarejo, Puerto Rico, hears their two Dobermans howling as if frightened, apparently upset by a peculiar sound like a phonograph record played at the wrong speed. It seems to move around the house, but the sound source cannot be located. Suddenly one of the dogs shrieks, and the husband runs outside to find two strange beings on his patio. They are 3–4 feet tall, gray, with big heads, big black eyes, and a slit for a mouth. The beings flee. The female Doberman is unharmed, but the male is found killed, with empty eye sockets and internal organs missing. (Clark III 139 )

April 11 — 7:00–9:00 p.m. A bright, oval-shaped object that changes color from blue to red flies over the Complexo Penitenciário da Papuda, a federal prison in São Sebastião in the Federal District of Brasilia, Brazil. The object is seen by dozens of residents of the Lago Sul area and by more than 20 police officers on duty that night. The first to see the UFO is Lt. Damasceno of the Independent Company of the Military Police. He calls colleagues and is greeted with jokes. But he persuades them to go outside and see the UFO. He says the object is blue when vertical but turns red when it changes position. It appears to be no more than 1,650 feet above the prison. It flies up and down and horizontally without leaving a trace, and the intensity of its lights and colors vary. Carloads of people descend upon Papuda and dozens of people observe the UFO. After 100 minutes, a strange haze begins to engage the UFO, which disappears about 20 minutes later. Damasceno informs Sgt. Petronius, a CINDACTA flight controller, that he is seeing a “strong blue light that changed to red in the direction of three hours to the right.” Petronius is following the object on radar; it seems to be rectangular and moving at about 435 mph. CINDACTA confirms that the object has been tracked over much of the Lago Sul area and close to the Brasilia airport. Later, it identifies the object as a meteorological balloon, deemed an inadequate explanation by witnesses. (Clark III 874– 875 ; Brazil 336–338) April 19? — Afternoon. Two militiamen on patrol in Almaty, Kazakhstan, notice a flare at the top of Kok Tobe Mountain. They watch flames go up and down and then see an array of red light beams. They drive to within 650 feet of a hovering UFO. At that point, a few rays sweep across the car and it stops dead. The object then dims its lights and disappears. The men return to the police station but cannot recall how they did so. (Central Intelligence Agency, “Alma-Ata Patrolmen Report UFO Sighting,” from Tass, April 19, 1991) April 21 — 8:00 p.m. Captain Achille Zaghetti and his copilot are flying a McDonnell Douglas MD- 80 Alitalia airliner with 57 passengers. They are over the English Channel just off the coast of Romney, Kent, England, and preparing to land at Heathrow Airport, London, when they see a round object or missile, about 10 feet long, approaching from their left. It is less than 100 feet away. The control tower confirms a radar target, which is now behind them. The British Army denies firing any missiles. The British Civil Aviation Authority concludes that “extensive enquiries have failed to provide any indication of what the sighting may have been.” Nick Redfern notes that the description of the UFO is consistent with a pilotless drone of the type used for defense practice. (Clas Svahn and Anders Liljegren, “Close Encounters with Unknown Missiles,” IUR 19, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1994): 13 – 14 ; Nick Redfern, A Covert Agenda: UFO Secrecy Exposed, Simon & Schuster, 1997, pp. 170–172; Nick Pope, Open Skies, Closed Minds, Simon & Schuster, 1996 , p. 196 ; “Britain Releases UFO Files, Dispels Some Mysteries,” KPIC, Roseburg, Oregon, October 19, 2008; UFOFiles2, pp. 135– 137 ; 2Pinotti 113–116) April 26 — A different security camera at Birchwood Shopping Mall near Warrington, Cheshire, England, records a similar object to the one detected in February in a location several hundred yards away. The camera records it for 20 minutes as it moves across the ground, passes by a road sign, climbs onto the roof of the mall, and vanishes in the sky above the M6 motorway. The camera operator lets the object enter the camera’s infrared spot beam, then switches the beam off; the light vanishes, then returns when the beam is turned back on. Investigators suspect that the light was caused by an insect interacting with the beam. (Jenny Randles, “UFOs in Focus,” IUR 18, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1993): 16–17)

May 1– 7 — Wendelle C. Stevens holds the First World UFO Congress in Tucson, Arizona, which brings together UFO researchers, witnesses, and others from Spain, Italy, Japan, Russia, Germany, the UK, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, Brazil, Canada, and the US. (2Pinotti 117–118)

May 12 — 7:00 p.m. Farmer Moisés Campelo is walking home from his brother’s house in Campo Redondo, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, when a bright light approaches and stops right above his head, spinning slowly. His eyes begin to burn and he feels paralyzed, as if he is being sucked into the light. He remains suspended under the light for about 5 minutes, after which he is dropped to the ground. Campelo starts crawling home, but the light returns and levitates him again. This time he is suspended for 15 minutes before being dropped. He remains traumatized and sustains an eye injury. (Bob Pratt, UFO Danger Zone: Terror and Death in Brazil — Where Next?, Horus House, 1996, pp. 9 – 13 ; Brazil 340–342) May 17 — 1:30 a.m. A nurse in Braine l’Alleud, Belgium, hears an intense hum and looks out her window to see a large triangular object moving slowly overhead. At the front of the triangle, there is a group of lights located symmetrically along the edges. They are grouped toward the front point of the triangle. At least four of these lights are white and flickering quickly, with approximately two lights on the left and on the right flickering each second, but never reproducing the same sequence. She thinks there is also a steady red light. Slightly back from the central axis, she sees a ray of light, inclined on 45°, coming from an opening that is larger than the diameter of the flickering lights. This beam projects to the ground onto the street, and traced a brief series of figure 8s. Suddenly, after 5 seconds the UFO instantly reappears far away, its blinking lights (but not the ray) still visible. (Vague d ’ OVNI sur la Belgique, Tome 2: Une énigme non-resolué, SOBEPS, 1994, pp. 16–19; Patrick Gross, “The Belgium Flap”) May 22 — A husband and wife in Nottingham, England, see an array of lights in an “elongated triangle” formation. The same object is seen 15 minutes later by another man in the area. He estimates it is about 1,000 feet high and gives off a low humming noise. (Nick Redfern, A Covert Agenda: UFO Secrecy Exposed, Simon & Schuster, 1997, p. 184) May 22 — Col. Alvaro Fernández Rodas, head of the Flight Safety Section of the Spanish Air Staff (where the UFO archives are kept), issues an Informative Note to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. Ramón Fernández Sequieros titled “The UFO Archive and Its Possible Release.” The note is the result of meetings between Vicente- Juan Ballester Olmos, who is developing a catalog of UFO observations by military personnel and police officers; Maj. Ramón Alvarez Mateus, head of the Air Force Public Relations Office; and the Flight Safety Section. It mentions that no investigations have been made since 1980 and that since 1988 cases are not even archived. The note recommends that UFO cases be declassified. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, “The Spanish Air Force UFO Files,” IUR 18, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1993): 13; Swords 424–425, 515)

June 1 — 2:38 p.m. A Britannia Airways Boeing 737 is descending for a landing at 8,000 feet near Heathrow Airport, London, England, when the pilots see an unknown object for 1–2 seconds through the windshield. It disappears rapidly on the left. The missile has a yellow-orange cylindrical body with a “wrinkled” appearance and is about 10 feet long. (Clas Svahn and Anders Liljegren, “Close Encounters with Unknown Missiles,” IUR 19, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1994): 14) June 8 — 6:00 p.m. Pilot Cesar Escobar and Copilot Angel David Farina are flying two passengers to Asunción, Paraguay, in his Cessna 210. While monitoring airport frequencies near Concepción, he overhears a conversation between the control tower and a Líneas Aéreas Paraguayas airliner, with the pilot reporting a brightly lit object approaching on a convergent course. The object is also showing on airport radar. He hears the pilot exclaim as the UFO speeds past. A few minutes later, Escobar sees a bright, blue-white light approaching on his right side. Just then radar control radios to ask if he has traffic on his right, and he replies affirmatively. The object paces his plane for 25 minutes within about 1,300 feet. Its intense light tends to conceal its exact shape, but it appears to be oval. Several times it moves in closer, as if playing a game, and Escobar becomes frightened. When it approaches, his instruments go crazy, including his automatic direction finder, which drifts around aimlessly. As he begins descending into Asunción Airport at 7:22 p.m., the object stops following and hovers. Anibal Gavigan, the air traffic control specialist on duty, is called by radar control and informed that a strange object has followed the Cessna 210 into the airport. He is asked if he can see it, and he can see the luminous object. After the Cessna lands, the airport lights are turned off to better identify the glowing object, which remains motionless over the field. At one point a luminous, yellow ray briefly shoots from the object to the western horizon. When it departs, the object accelerates so rapidly that it disappears after one sweep of the radar scope. (Jorge Alfonso Ramirez, “UFO Intercepts Aircraft over Paraguay,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 310 (February 1994): 8–10; UFOEv II, 144 – 145; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, p. 145) June 16 — 1:30 a.m. A businessman stops by the side of the road to relieve himself near The Bridestones, Cheshire, England, a Neolithic site with standing stones. He sees a golden beam of light above the stones from which emerges a shower of sparks. He returns to the car, but the engine will not start. He begins to run away when a

large, glowing ball heads from the sparks straight toward him. It is so bright that it causes pain in his eyes and he feels rooted to the spot. He blacks out and regains his senses several hundred yards away from his car. He is naked above the waist and his shoes are missing. As he tries to get up, he brushes down his trousers and finds that they are charged with static electricity, causing sparks to jump from his body. After staggering around, he finds his car with the keys still in the ignition. Next to the door are his shoes and shirt, folded on the ground and warm to the touch. The car starts without trouble and he drives away, realizing that it is now 3:05 a.m. (Jenny Randles, “Much More Than Marsh Gas,” Fortean Times 311 (March 2014): 27) June 17 — 6:30 p.m. Walter Leiss and three other passengers on board Dan Air Flight DA 4700 from London (Gatwick Airport) to Hamburg, Germany, see a wingless projectile below and to the left of the plane flying at an altitude of 4,000–5,000 feet with no vapor trail. The object is slender, gray, and cigar-shaped. The crew does not see it. (Clas Svahn and Anders Liljegren, “Close Encounters with Unknown Missiles,” IUR 19, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1994): 14– 15)

Summer — An effort is made by Raven to encourage the Bush administration to reveal the US government’s interactions with aliens and crashed saucers. Meetings are allegedly held in safe rooms at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Washington, D.C., with administration officials and cabinet and agency heads. Much seems to depend on the confirmation of Robert Gates as CIA director. A meeting to brief President Bush on the topic is scheduled for August but canceled due to the Soviet military coup. (Robert Collins and Richard Doty, Exempt from Disclosure: The Disturbing Case about the UFO Coverup, Peregrine, 2005) July — Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt publish UFO Crash at Roswell, disclosing the results of their interviews and reconstruction of the Roswell incident of 1947. They publish an update in 1994. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, UFO Crash at Roswell, Avon, 1991; Richard Hall, “Roswell Matters,” IUR 18, no. 3 (May/June 1993): 23; Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell, Avon, 1994; Clark III 951) July — Leonard Stringfield issues his sixth status report, UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum. (Leonard H. Stringfield, UFO Crash/Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum, The Author, 1991) July 5 — Customs and bank regulators in seven countries raid and lock down records of branch offices of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, which has been investigated for being involved in massive money laundering and other financial crimes and illegally gaining the controlling interest in a major American bank. In addition to violations of lending laws, BCCI is also accused of opening accounts or laundering money for figures such as Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noriega, Hussain Muhammad Ershad, and Samuel Doe, and for criminal organizations such as the Medellín Cartel and Abu Nidal. William von Raab, a former US Commissioner of Customs, tells the Kerry Committee that the CIA holds “several” accounts at BCCI. According to a 1991 article in Time magazine, the National Security Council also has accounts at BCCI, which are used for a variety of covert operations, including transfers of money and weapons during the Iran–Contra affair. (Wikipedia, “Bank of Credit and Commerce International”; Peter Truell and Larry Gurwin, False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, the World ’ s Most Corrupt Financial Empire, Houghton Mifflin, 1992 ; David Sirota and Jonathan Baskin, “Follow the Money: How John Kerry Busted the Terrorists’ Favorite Bank,” Washington Monthly, September 2004) July 11 — 12:21 p.m. While many people in Mexico City, Mexico, are looking to the sky to see the last total solar eclipse of the 20th century, they also notice a bright object hovering in the sky. Videos are recorded as far south as Puebla and Oaxaca. Skeptics claim the object is the planet Venus, but the full eclipse lasts just under 7 minutes, and the object is seen for more than 30 minutes—before, during, and after the event. Guillermo Arragin, a reporter, videotapes the object, and Jaime Maussan, host of the Mexican version of the CBS TV show 60 Minutes, shows the Arragin footage a week later. He asks his viewers to share any sightings they had during the eclipse. Fifteen videotapes are submitted, each taken by a witness in a different location. Maussan enlists the help of the station’s video experts for digital enhancement and enlargement. The videos show solid, metallic-looking objects that reflect light. Maussan looks into balloons, helicopters, and other conventional objects, but comes up empty. The enhancements reveal a “hockey puck” shape, and many of the recorded objects pass in front of clouds. (Unsolved Mysteries Wiki, “Mexico City UFO”; Tim Printy, “The July 11, 1991, Mexico City UFOs: Basic Astronomy Ignored,” February 2003) July 15 — 5:45 p.m. The copilot of a Britannia Airways Boeing 737 on a flight from Crete to Gatwick Airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, sees a small, black, lozenge-shaped object about 1.5 feet in diameter, smooth, and some 1,600 feet ahead and above. It is on a collision course, and within 2 seconds it passes the aircraft’s wing at a distance of only 325 feet. The London Air Traffic Control Center picks up a target moving away from the plane to the southwest at 100 mph. (Clas Svahn and Anders Liljegren, “Close Encounters with Unknown Missiles,” IUR 19, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1994): 15; UFOFiles2, p. 137)

July 26 — Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. Ramón Fernández Sequieros passes instructions to the Spanish Air Regions to centralize all UFO registers into Madrid Air Force headquarters. (Swords 425, 515)

August 4 — Night. Seven hikers near Lacul Bucura in the Retezat Mountains in west central Romania see a bright red light approaching them from behind. Thinking it might be a lost tourist, they wave their flashlights at it, but it starts zigzagging and increasing its speed. Soon they see other lights of varying colors, shapes, and configurations, all moving in the Valea Rea. Through binoculars they take on the shape of discs with luminous portholes. (Romania 55–57) August 10 — US freelance writer Danny Casolaro is found dead in a bathtub in room 517 of the Sheraton Hotel in Martinsburg, West Virginia, his wrists slashed 10–12 times. The medical examiner rules the death a suicide. His death becomes controversial because his notes suggest he is in Martinsburg to meet a source about a story he calls “the Octopus.” This centers on a sprawling collaboration involving an international cabal, primarily featuring a number of stories familiar to journalists who worked in and around Washington, D.C., in the 1980s—the Inslaw case, about a software manufacturer whose owner accused the Justice Department of stealing its work product; the October Surprise theory that during the Iran hostage crisis, Iran deliberately held back American hostages to help Ronald Reagan win the 1980 presidential election, the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, and Iran–Contra. Casolaro’s family argues that he has been murdered; that before he left for Martinsburg, he told his brother that he frequently received harassing phone calls late at night; that some of them were threatening; and that if something were to happen to him in Martinsburg, it will not be an accident. They also cite his well-known squeamishness and fear of blood tests, and state they find it incomprehensible that if he were going to commit suicide, he would do so by cutting his wrists a dozen times. A number of law-enforcement officials also argue that his death deserves further scrutiny, and his notes are passed by his family to ABC News and Time magazine, both of which investigate the case, but find no evidence of murder. (Wikipedia, “Danny Casolaro”; Kenn Thomas and Jim Keith, The Octopus: Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro, Feral House, rev ed., 2003; Cheri Seymour, The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro ’ s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal, TrineDay, 2010; “Danny Casolaro’s Files and Notes”)

September — 10:45 p.m. Security policeman T/Sgt Anthony W. Keel is working as an alert response team leader at the Ellsworth AFB Oscar Flight area 30 miles west of Opal, South Dakota, when he is dispatched to a missile launch site with multiple alarms. They arrive, clear the site, and reset the alarms. Then he gets another call for a different site with the same alarm pattern, which they then reset. On the way back to the Oscar Launch Control Facility, he gets another call, and the team can see a blue, pulsating light above the site experiencing the alarm. The light moves away as they pull in to secure the site. The light is the size of a small helicopter, semicircular and oblong, and completely silent. (Nukes 468–469) September 9 — Self-professed pranksters Doug Bower and Dave Chorley make headlines claiming they started the UK crop circle phenomenon in 1978 with the use of simple tools consisting of a plank of wood, rope, and a baseball cap fitted with a loop of wire to help them walk in a straight line. To prove their case, they make a circle in front of journalists; cerealogist (advocate of paranormal explanations of crop circles) Pat Delgado examines the circle and declares it authentic before it is revealed as a hoax. Inspired by the Tully, Australia, crop circle accounts from 1966, Bower and Chorley claim to be responsible for all circles made prior to 1987, and for more than 200 crop circles in 1978–1991 (with 1,000 other circles not being made by them). After their announcement, the two men demonstrate making a crop circle. According to University of Oregon fractal expert Richard Taylor, “the pictographs they created inspired a second wave of crop artists. Far from fizzling out, crop circles have evolved into an international phenomenon, with hundreds of sophisticated pictographs now appearing annually around the globe.” (Wikipedia, “Crop circle”; William Tuohy, “‘Crop Circles’ Their Prank, 2 Britons Say,” Los Angeles Times, September 10, 1991, p. 14; Jenny Randles, “Round and Round in the Circle Game,” IUR 16, no. 6 (Nov/Dec. 1991): 17–18, 22– 23 ; Richard Taylor, “Coming Soon to a Field near You,” Physics World, August 2011, pp. 2–7; UFOFiles2, pp. 120– 123 ; “Necrolog: Doug Bower,” Fortean Times 371 (October 2018): 28– 29 ; “The Man Who Launched a Million Conspiracy Theories,” Daily Mail (UK), October 20, 2019) September 15 — One of the cameras on Space Shuttle Discovery Flight STS- 48 captures several anomalous, glowing objects that float along and then sharply change direction, apparently in response to a flash in the lower left portion of the picture. NASA explains the objects as ice particles reacting to a Space Shuttle thruster firing. Astronomer Philip C. Plait discusses the issue in his book Bad Astronomy, agreeing with NASA. However, physicist Jack Kasher and Mark Carlotto dispute that explanation, arguing that there are two groups of correlated object motions involving at least a dozen distinct events. Kasher’s analysis reveals that the objects behaved oddly for any type of particle, ice or otherwise, and Carlotto indicates that no thruster was fired in that timeframe.

(NICAP, “STS Video Footage of Possible UAP Phenomenon in Orbit”; Wikipedia, “STS- 48 ”; Mark J. Carlotto, “Digital Video Analysis of Anomalous Space Objects,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 9, no. 1 (1995): 45– 63 ; Jack Kasher, “Anomalous Images on Videotape from Space Shuttle Flight STS-48: Examination of the Ice- Particle Explanation,” JUFOS 6 (1995/96): 80– 148 ; Lan D. Fleming, “Examination of the Trajectories of Anomalous Objects Imaged during the STS-48 Space Shuttle Mission,” JUFOS 9 (2006): 71– 98 ) September 19 — 6:35 p.m. Maria Kulis is visiting Medjugorje, Bosnia, and takes a photo of St. James Church from a distance of about 500 feet. When she has the film developed, she notices an odd dark object in the sky almost above the church. The image is sharp and silhouetted against a purplish-blue sky. The object would be about 6.6 feet long if it was at an altitude of 1,000 feet. (Bruce Maccabee, “The Medjugorje UO,” IUR 17, no. 2 (Mar./Apr. 1992): 12–13, 23; UFOEv II 301–302;)

October — Following a request by Russian cosmonaut Pavel Popovich, the KGB declassifies several documents from its so-called “Blue Folder.” The material is obtained by Vadim K. Ilyin from the late Vyacheslav Shtyepa of the Ufological Committee of the Russian Geographical Society. (Good Need, p. 353 ) October 1 — The Air Force’s Electronic Security Command is redesignated the Air Force Intelligence Command and reacquires the Foreign Technology Division. (Wikipedia, “Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Agency”)

November 6 — The small near-Earth Object 1991 VG is discovered by American astronomer James Scotti at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The uncertainty of the object’s origin and its small size (16–39 feet), combined with rapid variation in the object’s brightness in images obtained during its close passage with Earth in early December 1991, leads to some speculation that 1991 VG might be a spent rocket fuel tank from a space mission, or even an alien artificial object. However, a detailed analysis of the available evidence confirms that there is no compelling reason to believe that 1991 VG is unnatural. (Wikipedia, “1991 VG”; Duncan Steel, “SETA and 1991 VG,” The Observatory 115 (1995): 78–83; Mark Rodeghier, “Alien Probe Detected in Solar System?” IUR 20, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1995): 9–10; Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos, “Dynamical Evolution of Near-Earth Asteroid VG 1991,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 473 (2018): 2938–2948)

1992

1992 — A man is driving near Alton Barnes, Wiltshire, England, when he sees a bright glow approaching from the opposite direction. Thinking it is from a speeding motorcycle, he stops the car and leaves the engine idling. As it approaches, the light changes direction and passes over the roof of the car. The engine stalls. The object seems to be emitting light all around it, but a few seconds later it disappears. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 19–20) 1992 — Jerome Clark publishes the second volume of the first edition of his UFO encyclopedia. (Jerome Clark, The Emergence of a Phenomenon: UFOs from the Beginning through 19 5 9, Omnigraphics, 1992; Michael D. Swords, [review], JUFOS 4 (1992): 181–183) 1992 — El Ojo Crítica, an independent and skeptical newsletter, begins publication in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. (El Ojo Crítica, no. 1 (1992); “(Pre) Historia de El Ojo Crítica”) 1992 — The Research Institute on Anomalous Phenomena is established in Kharkiv, Ukraine, to study UFOs and extraterrestrial visitation. It has Russian and Ukrainian ufologists on its board, and it publishes RIAP Bulletin (in English, edited by Vladimir Rubtsov) from January 1994 to June 2006. (RIAP Bulletin 1, no. 1 (Jan./March 199 4 ); Vladimir Rubtsov, “Ukraine Research Institute on Anomalous Phenomena,” IUR 18, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1993): 15– 16 )

January 15 — The Spanish Air Force transfers responsibility for handling UFO reports to the Air Operative Command (whose head is Gen. Alfredo Chamorro Chapinal) at Torrejón Air Base in Madrid, Spain, which updates the procedures for reporting and investigating UFO sightings by military personnel. The added responsibility is placed in the intelligence section, commanded by Lt. Col. Ángel Bastida. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, “The Spanish Air Force UFO Files,” IUR 18, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1993): 13; Swords 425, 517)

February — 4:00 a.m. Near Tennant Creek, Northern Territory, Australia, five people are in a car driving around a bend when they encounter a huge area lit up from above. The engine, headlights, and dash lights cut out. They stop the

car, restart it, and drive on, but 2 minutes later the same thing happens, then again 2 minutes after that. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 20) February 15– 16 — The Center for UFO Studies and the Fund for UFO Research hold the Plains of San Agustin Conference in the Sofitel Chicago Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois, in order to examine the nature and quality of the evidence for a reported crash of a UFO and the recovery of aliens—both dead and alive—on the Plains of San Agustin, New Mexico, in July 1947. A focal point for the discussion is the testimony of Gerald Anderson, who contacted investigators Kevin Randle and Stanton Friedman with his claim that he had been present on the Plains when he was 5 years old. The separate stories of archaeologists and Grady L. “Barney” Barnett at this retrieval are also considered. Moderator Michael D. Swords concludes that the evidence for the Plains of San Agustin crash is “single-witness testimony with no physical or instrumental evidence to support the story” as well as problematic and inconsistent testimony. A summary report on the conference is published in June 1992. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, UFO Crash at Roswell, Avon, 1991, pp. 31–32, 87–90; Thomas J. Carey, “The Search for the Archaeologists,” IUR 16, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1991): 4–9, 21; Stanton T. Friedman, Thomas J. Carey, Kevin D. Randle, and Donald R. Schmitt, “The Search for the Archaeologists: An Exchange,” IUR 17, no. 3 (May/June 1992): 6 – 12, 22–23; Donald R. Schmitt and Kevin D. Randle, “Second Thoughts on the Barney Barnett Story,” IUR 17, no. 3 (May/June 1992): 4–5, 22; Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, “Missing Time,” IUR 17, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1992): 21–23; The Plains of San Agustin Controversy, July 1947: Gerald Anderson, Barney Barnett, and the Archaeologists, CUFOS/Fund for UFO Research, 1992; Mark Rodeghier and Mark Chesney, “Who’s the Dummy Now? The Latest Air Force Report,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 8–9; Kevin D. Randle and Karl T. Pflock, “Barney Barnett’s Crashed Saucer: Where Did It Come From?” IUR 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 15–18, 24– 25)

March — US historian David M. Jacobs publishes Secret Life, in which he lays out a detailed study of abduction phenomenology based on his research with numerous abductees. He finds many accounts of hybrid making and clues that the aliens exploit human genes to repopulate their planet or perhaps plot a takeover of the Earth. (David M. Jacobs, Secret Life: Firsthand Accounts of UFO Abductions, Simon & Schuster, 1992; Mark Rodeghier, [review], JUFOS 4 (1992): 184– 189 ; Clark III 8) March or April — 4:30 a.m. S/Sgt Joseph M. Brown is posted to a security team at the Malmstrom AFB A-3 flight launch facility outside Sluice Box Canyon near Monarch, Montana. Due to an alarm-system malfunction, two men are staked out in a security camper. Just after arriving at the site, Brown sees a bright white light moving erratically through the sky with sudden direction changes and abrupt stops and starts. He watches it for 15–20 minutes, then the light moves closer to the facility. He wakes up his partner, who also watches the light. Another security team at A-10 about 10 miles away can also see the light, which is less than a mile away. They continue to watch the light until about 6:30 a.m. when it shoots up into the sky and stops. With more daylight, they see a black area around the light. (Nukes 457– 461 , 466– 468 ) March 3 — 7:50 p.m. Roger Cross is driving on Highway 3A in Concord, New Hampshire, when he hears an unusual drumming sound. He pulls to the side of the road and sees an immense triangular object with pulsating lights flying 400–500 feet above the road. (Marler 217) March 4– 5 — UFO sightings at the Benito Juárez International Airport in Mexico City, Mexico, are confirmed by radar. (Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, p. 146) March 5 — 6:30 p.m. Military Policeman Luis Ribeiro and a colleague are hunting in the interior of Ceará state, Brazil, when a domed disc lands nearby. Five 4.5-foot tall humanoids emerge and take Ribeiro inside the craft. The beings communicate with him in Portuguese and tell him they are from “Catandório.” After a 5 - hour abduction experience, he is returned to the encounter site. (Brazil 342–344) March 20 — 3:51 a.m. Patrolman Luis Delgado has just checked the doors on a local business at Haines City, Florida, and turns onto 30th Street. He sees a green light in his rear-view mirror. The light seems to come from a small plane that is about to crash. Just seconds later, the interior of his patrol car is illuminated with a green glow. The object begins to pace his car which is traveling about 40 mph. The object moves from the right side to the front of the vehicle several times. When it has moved to the front for the third time, Delgado slows his car and pulls off the roadway, fearing he might collide with the object. It is a color of green he had never seen before that seems to flow over the surface. It is 15 feet long with a 3-foot-thick center. The object hovers approximately 10 feet off the ground. The engine, lights, and radio on his patrol car cease to function. The object hovers in front of his car and then shines a bright white light into the interior. He exits and begins to walk backwards away from the object. He tries to radio Haines City dispatch on his radio, but it does not function. The air around him has chilled to the point that he can see his breath. The object is hovering about 20 feet northeast of his car, then it speeds away after

approximately 2– 3 seconds. It departs the area in a northeasterly direction at 10 feet altitude. Delgado loses sight of the object in only seconds. (UFOEv II 193 – 194 ; Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33 , no. 4 (May 2011): 15) March 23 — Near Amarillo, Texas, radio hobbyist Steven Douglass photographs a “donuts on a rope” contrail and links this to distinctive sounds. He describes the engine noise as “strange, loud pulsating roar… unique… a deep pulsating rumble that vibrated the house and made the windows shake… similar to rocket engine noise, but deeper, with evenly timed pulses.” In addition to providing the first photographs of the distinctive contrail reported by others, Douglass also reports intercepts of radio transmissions: “Air-to-air communications… were between an AWACS aircraft with the call sign Dragnet 51 from Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, and two unknown aircraft using the call signs Darkstar November and Darkstar Mike. Messages consisted of phonetically transmitted alphanumerics. It is not known whether this radio traffic had any association with the ‘pulser’ that had just flown over Amarillo.” (Wikipedia, “Aurora (aircraft)”) March 31 — The Spanish Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen. Ramón Fernández Sequieros, issues Instrucción General 40 - 5, a 28-page set of procedures for UFO investigations that is issued to all units in June. Lt. Col. Ángel Bastida admits it is inspired by several questionnaires that Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos has supplied, including those used by the US Air Force. (Swords 426, 520)

April 13 — Gen. Alfredo Chamorro Chapinal signs a proposal for full UFO document disclosure to the Spanish Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen. Ramón Fernández Sequieros. (Swords 426, 518) April 22 —The Spanish Joint Chiefs of Staff downgrade UFO documents from secret to “internal reserve” (confidential). (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, “The Spanish Air Force UFO Files,” IUR 18, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1993): 13; Swords 426, 519) April 28 — A crop circle appears in a rapeseed field at Sutton Scotney, close to Winchester, England. (Chris Talarski, “Going around in Circles,” IUR 17, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1992): 4–9)

May — The Roper Organization releases the results of its “Unusual Personal Experiences” survey of nearly 6,000 US adults devised by Budd Hopkins, David Jacobs, and Ron Westrum, and conducted in 1991. Its intent is to determine how widespread the abduction phenomenon might be. Five indicator questions in the survey assess the respondents’ sleep paralysis, dreams of flying, missing time, observations of unusual lights inside a room, and puzzling body scars. The poll, financed by the Bigelow Holding Corporation, suggests that 2% of adult Americans (more than 3.7 million) think they have been abducted by aliens. (Geraldo Fuentes, “Abductions: A Report on the Roper Analysis Data”; Robert L. Hall, Mark Rodeghier, Donald A. Johnson, “The Prevalence of Abductions: A Critical Look,” JUFOS 4 (1992): 131– 135 ; Robert J. Durant, “Evolution of Public Opinion on UFOs,” IUR 18, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1993): 20– 22 ; Susan Blackmore, “Abduction by Aliens or Sleep Paralysis?” Skeptical Inquirer 22, no. 3 (May/June 1998): 23–28; Mark Rodeghier, “Counting Abductees: What Can Surveys Tell Us?” IUR 25 , no. 3 (Fall 2000): 20– 21 ) May 1 — University of Connecticut psychologist Kenneth Ring publishes The Omega Project, in which he argues that ostensible aliens, angels, and otherworldly entities exist in an imaginal realm, a “third kingdom” between reality and fantasy that is accessible through certain altered states of consciousness that undermine ordinary perception and conceptual thinking. Through extensive psychological testing, Ring finds that abductees and those who have near-death experiences are emotionally indistinguishable, with childhoods that typically involve episodes of abuse, trauma, and serious illness. One consequence is the development of a dissociative state as a means of coping with stress; it is the key to experiencing the imaginal realm, a shamanic journey through which symbolic language and images are expressed. (Kenneth Ring, The Omega Project: Near-Death Experiences, UFO Encounters, and Mind at Large, Morrow, 1992; Kenneth Ring and Christopher J. Rosing, “The Omega Project: A Psychological Survey of Persons Reporting Abductions and Other UFO Encounters,” JUFOS 2 (1990): 59–98; David A. Gotlib, “Abductions: Imagined or Imaginal?” IUR 17, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1992): 18–20; Clark III 886)

Summer — An unnamed family from Albuquerque is hiking and prospecting about 12 miles from Horse Springs, New Mexico, in the general area of the Plains of San Agustin, when they discover an odd piece of metal. They unsuccessfully try to cut it, burn it, and bend it. The discovery remains unconfirmed. (Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, “The Hatch Enigma,” IUR 18, no. 2 (March/April 1993): 18) Summer — Héctor and Jaime Feliciano watch a gigantic silent triangle pass over Salinas, Puerto Rico, heading toward the MATES Camp Santiago military base. It is a metallic dark gray with a rough undersurface containing multiple small colored lights and two large white lights. White beams shine down from the object at three points. (Jorge Martín, “Triangular UFOs over Puerto Rico,” Flying Saucer Review 44, no. 3 (Autumn 1999): 24)

June 1 — The US Strategic Command is established as a successor to the Strategic Air Command in response to the end of the Cold War. Its principal mission is to deter military attack and, if deterrence fails, to counter with nuclear weapons. (Wikipedia. “United States Strategic Command”) June 13– 17 — The Massachusetts Institute of Technology hosts an Abductions Study Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, chaired by David E. Pritchard and John E. Mack, with presentations, panels, and discussions about the UFO abduction phenomenon. UFO researchers like Budd Hopkins, David Jacobs, and Mack hold forth beside relative novices and abductees themselves. Representative non-US research is also contributed (Brazil, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia). Even skeptics are represented and speak. The conference marks the cracking apart of the public unity of American researchers into at least two major schools of opinion, which deeply disagree to this day. Both continue to believe that the phenomenon is extraterrestrial. Hopkins, Jacobs, and others are present to elaborate what some have come to refer to as the “Dark Marauders” view of abductions. But conference co- organizer and Harvard psychologist John Mack presents an entirely different spin: These experiences are extraterrestrially caused but are positively transformational for the human spirit. Despite the severe disagreements that follow, this gives researchers like Joseph Nyman a foundation stone authority figure around whom to rally. The so-called pessimist and optimist schools take shape right before the attendees’ eyes. A third major position exists within the US research community, the “probably extraterrestrial but I don’t know the details” viewpoint, represented at the conference in the persons of Mark Rodeghier, Stuart Appelle, and David Gotlib. Kenneth Ring also presents his interesting view comparing abductions and near-death experiences, and David Hufford does likewise regarding the “Old Hag” imagery of sleep paralysis. (Andrea Pritchard, et al., Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference Held at MIT, Cambridge, MA, North Cambridge, 1994; Michael D. Swords, [review], Journal of Scientific Exploration 11, no. 1 (1997): 101–104; John E. Mack, “Helping Abductees,” IUR 17, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1992): 10–15, 20; C. D. B. Bryan, Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: Alien Abduction, UFOs, and the Conference at M.I.T., Knopf, 1995; Stuart Appelle, “The Abduction Phenomenon at MIT,” IUR 20, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1995): 20– 21 , 24; Thomas E. Bullard, [Book reviews], JUFOS 6 (1995/96): 231– 248 ; Ralph Blumenthal, The Believer: Alien Encounters, Hard Science, and the Passion of John Mack, University of New Mexico, 2021)

July 9 — A 450-foot “Snail” pictogram appears in a wheatfield at Alton Barnes, Wiltshire, England. (Chris Talarski, “Going around in Circles,” IUR 17, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1992): 4–9) July 17– 19 — The First International Conference of the Center for Crop Circle Studies is held at King Alfred’s College in Winchester, Hampshire, England. (Chris Talarski, “Going around in Circles,” IUR 17, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1992): 4– 9) July 23 — 7:30 a.m. An abduction event takes place in a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, involving a rare case of physical evidence. Businessman Peter Khoury had at least one previous abduction experience in 1988 that left him so disturbed that in 1993 he forms a support group to help others like him. The details of his 1992 abduction slowly emerge through extended conversations with Australian ufologist Bill Chalker. Khoury wakes up suddenly and finds two nude females seated on his bed, one blonde and the other dark-haired with some Asian features. They are human-like but have some odd physical characteristics: narrow heads and large eyes. Khoury says that what happens next feels weird and dreamlike, “like looking through binoculars, but through the back of my own head.” The blonde reaches out and forces him towards her. Before he knows what he is doing, he takes a small bite out of her and swallows it. There is no blood or screaming. The two beings look at each other in a puzzled way, then vanish. Khoury has a coughing fit and goes to the bathroom where he discovers a blonde hair wrapped around a body part. He turns the hair over to Bill Chalker for mitochondrial DNA analysis in 1999 (by Horace R. Drew of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. The results are startling: DNA from the shaft of the hair reveals very rare and unusual Asian signatures common to the isolated Lahu people of China and Thailand, but DNA from the root shows sequences indicating rare Basque/Gaelic and Asian results—suggesting advanced cloning techniques and possible hybrid characteristics. (Bill Chalker, “Strange Evidence,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 3– 13 ; Anomaly Physical Evidence Group, “Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Analysis of a Shed Hair from an Alien Abduction Case,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 13–16, 31; Bill Chalker, “Aliens, Hair, and DNA,” IUR 29, no. 3 (Fall 2004): 3 – 5, 10; Bill Chalker, Hair of the Alien: DNA and Other Forensic Evidence of Alien Abduction, Simon & Schuster, 2005 ; Bill Chalker, “Peter Khoury and the ‘Hair of the Alien’: 20 Years On,” TheOzFiles, July 29, 2012; Clark III 651– 654 )

August — Crop circles appear in wheatfields near Ipswich and Strathclair, Manitoba. (Chris Rutkowski, “‘A Looney a Look’: Crop Circles in Western Manitoba,” IUR 17, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1992): 9–12)

August 5 — 1:45 p.m. Pilots of United Airlines Flight 934 are flying at 23,000 feet some 50 miles northeast of George AFB [now Southern California Logistics Airport], Victorville, California, when an unusual aircraft comes directly toward them and passes underneath at an estimated distance of 500–1,000 feet. It resembles the forward fuselage of a Lockheed S-71, without wings but with a sort of tail. The size is about 50 feet long and its speed is supersonic. (Aviation Week and Space Technology, August 24, 1992; Clas Svahn and Anders Liljegren, “Close Encounters with Unknown Missiles,” IUR 19, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1994): 15) August 19 — 1:00 a.m. A witness is driving near Tucson, Arizona, when he notices a strange light in the distance. As it approaches from the northeast, it descends rapidly, moves across a field, and hovers. A cone of light emerges from the bottom that completely bathes the area, illuminating the ground. At this point the witness is about 600– 900 feet away and is able to see that it is a solid object that looks like a manta ray with a dull-black matte finish. He pulls over and can hear no sound coming from it. The object moves directly overhead, and the witness gets back in the car and speeds away. He sees the object again as it stops 15 feet above a nearby farmhouse. Again a bright light comes from its base, engulfing the entire house for 20 seconds. It moves away and illuminates a large area of trees behind the house. (“Current Cases,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 296 (December 1992): 18)

September — The first Spanish Air Force UFO document is declassified. The process lasts until 1999, when 84 files (covering 122 cases between 1962 to 1995) are disclosed. (Swords 427, 521–522) September 18 — The existence of the US National Reconnaissance Office is declassified by the Deputy Secretary of Defense, as recommended by the Director of Central Intelligence. (Wikipedia, “National Reconnaissance Office”) September 23 — The last US underground nuclear test, Divider, takes place at the Nevada Test Site. (Wikipedia, “Operation Julin”)

October — The first official Spanish UFO reports are declassified, leaving only witness names redacted. (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, “The Spanish Air Force UFO Files,” IUR 18, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1993): 14) October 9 — 7:50 p.m. A fragment of the Draconid meteor stream strikes a 1980 Chevrolet Malibu owned by Michelle Knapp while she is home in Peekskill, New York. She goes outside after hearing a crash and discovers a hole in the trunk of the car and a 6-inch crater in her driveway. The stony fragment (oval shaped and about 1 foot in length) is in the crater, along with pieces of the car. The rock is still hot and weighs about 30 pounds. (Wikipedia, “Peekskill meteorite”; “A Hot Rock from Outer Space? Meteorite May Have Hit Teen’s Car,” Yonkers (N.Y.) Herald Statesman, October 11, 1992, p. 28; Mark Rodeghier, “UFO/Vehicle Very Close Encounters,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 5) October 15 — 6:00 p.m. Witnesses in Lubbock, Texas, see a gray cigar-shaped object that becomes visible for about 20 minutes after a cloud disappears. It moves close enough to them so that they can see windows on the object. The cloud reappears and the object is no longer visible. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Mystery Clouds and the UFO Connection,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 19) October 27 — Just before 12:00 midnight. A1C Michael R. Reager and A1C Jason H. Barrier are approaching the operations hanger of the 44th Field Maintenance Missile Squadron at Ellsworth AFB, Rapid City, South Dakota. A group of bright white lights suddenly appears in the air, moving rapidly in rigid formation. Witnesses assume the lights are attached to a large, dark aircraft. It hovers briefly above the hangar at 300–500 feet then moves away. (Nukes 470–472)

November — Night. A man in Brighton, England, calls the RAF to report a brightly lit UFO shaped like a “squashed rugby ball” hovering above his house. Through windows in its side, he can see two men wearing beige uniforms standing in front of machinery. When one of the crew members appears to notice him, the object’s lights go out and the UFO zooms away over the English Channel. (UFOFiles2, p. 128) November — After 10:00 p.m. Three Romanian military helicopters are flying at an altitude of 328 feet at a speed of 93 mph on a night exercise near Buzău, Romania. Col. Marcel Smoleanu notices a silent, bright-red sphere about 60 feet in diameter to his left that begius to fly parallel to the helicopters. The other pilots confirm the sighting. After a minute or so, the object accelerates sharply, makes a 90° turn, and cuts across their flight path. The helicopters slow to a hover and the object disappears suddenly. The flight exercise is scrapped and the helicopters return to the military airfield at Buzău. One of the pilots, Lt. Col. Doru Drăgoi, is called into the radar room where operators show him more than 10 unidentified targets on the screen making odd movements northeast of Buzău, including sharp 180° turns near Săpoca. Drăgoi also sees bright objects crossing overhead from east to west at an amazing speed. (Romania 110–113) November 16 — Lt. Col. Ángel Bastida, head of the Intelligence Section of the Spanish Air Operative Command, establishes an informal agreement of cooperation with Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos to act as a civilian consultant

on the declassification of UFO reports and establish a direct contact procedure for future cases. This allows him to
personally view, handle, and copy all of the agency’s original UFO case files. It ensures that all reports in official
custody are released, increases the momentum of the process, and secures copies of all related documentation.
(Swords 428–429; Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, “Monitoring Air Force Intelligence (Spain’s 1992–1997 UFO
Declassification Process),” MUFON 1997 International UFO Symposium Proceedings, pp. 139 – 178 )

December 16 — Night. Werner Noeske observes a large, brightly illuminated disc with a large triangular window in the base over Leipzig, Germany. Additional witnesses come forward, but an investigation reveals that two unrelated incidents contributed to the sightings: a “sky tracker” searchlight common in European discos, and a cargo plane that makes routine flights at the same hour. A photograph confirms the latter interpretation. (Hans-Werner Peiniger, “UFO-Beobachtungen,” Journal für UFO-Forschung, no. 86 (Mar./Apr. 1993): 3–4) December 24 — 6:09–8:15 p.m. Twenty civilian witnesses and police south and west of Monroe, Louisiana, watch a silent, boomerang-shaped UFO with bright beams of light pass over cars in a forested area and bounce up and down for 6 minutes. The object is videotaped by one of the witnesses, Cecil Cullipher, in West Monroe. (W. L. Garner Jr., “UFOs Compete with Santa for Christmas Eve Limelight,” IUR 18, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1993): 8–11, 23)

1993

1993 — Jean-Jacques Velasco coauthors OVNIs: La science avance, with journalist Jean-Claude Bourret, in which he admits the physical reality of UFOs and the probability of their extraterrestrial origin. He stresses that it’s his personal opinion, although he has been authorized by CNES to write the book. Its foreword is written by astrophysicist Jean-Claude Ribes, president of the French Astronomical Society. (Jean-Claude Bourret and Jean- Jacques Velasco, OVNIs: La science avance, Laffont, 1993; Gildas Bourdais, “From GEPAN to SEPRA: Official UFO Studies in France,” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000–2001): 13) 1993 — The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) facility begins construction north of Gakona, Alaska, just west of Wrangell–Saint Elias National Park, funded by the Air Force, Navy, University of Alaska Fairbanks, and DARPA. Its original purpose is to analyze the ionosphere and investigate the potential for developing ionospheric enhancement technology for radio communications and surveillance. As a university- owned facility, HAARP is a high-power, high-frequency transmitter used for study of the ionosphere. The most prominent instrument at HAARP is the Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI), a high-power radio frequency transmitter facility operating in the high frequency band. The IRI is used to temporarily excite a limited area of the ionosphere. Other instruments, such as a VHF and a UHF radar, a fluxgate magnetometer, a digisonde (an ionospheric sounding device), and an induction magnetometer, are used to study the physical processes that occur in the excited region. (Wikipedia, “High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program”; University of Alaska Fairbanks, “About HAARP”)

January 1 — 1:30 a.m. A taxi driver has just dropped off revelers at a remote house in Hethersgill, Cumbria, England. She heads home down a remote track toward the main road when suddenly her CB radio begins to crackle then fades entirely. Moments later her car engine and lights fail, and she coasts to a stop. She gets out, hoping to walk back to the house, when she sees a ball of light low over the road heading towards her. It swoops over her car and shoots into the sky, causing her skin to tingle. The headlights come back on, the car lurches forward, and she hears her sister talking on the CB asking where she has been for the past 30 minutes. (Jenny Randles, “The Twelve UFOs of Christmas,” Fortean Times 374 (Christmas 2018): 29) January 14 — 7:00 p.m. Residents of Jerzmanowice, Kraków County, Poland, see a flash of light just before limestone debris falls around them, breaking window panes and plunging through roofs. A local rock formation, Babia Skała, has been shattered by an apparent lightning strike, although some in the village have seen one or two bluish objects colliding with the rock face. Although the blast is seen in Kraków, registered on seismic equipment, and observed by the fight controller in Balice, the Polish Army refuses to disclose any further details. (Poland 119– 120; “Babia Skała,” Rowerowa Matopolska, May 26, 2015) January 19 — Night. Jackie Chown and her family see a huge triangular object with flashing lights above their home in Ellastone, West Midlands, England. They chase after it in their car but lose track of it. (“UFO Spotters Chase Mysterious ‘Flashing Triangle,’” Ashbourne (UK) News Telegraph, January 21, 1993, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 283 (February 1993): 13) January or February — Night. T/Sgt John W. Mills III is driving back to Malmstrom AFB near Great Falls, Montana, with another tech sergeant. Near Monarch, Montana, they watch a bright light in the sky for about 5 minutes. Suddenly

it makes a sharp banking maneuver. Thinking it is a helicopter, they drive on toward Belt, Montana, where they
encounter a roadblock with cars backed up for miles. The base dispatcher asks if they saw anything on their drive.
When they answer yes, he tells them to proceed to the Alpha-01 missile launch facility not far away. They are
redirected to Malmstrom, where they find that many “anomalies” have been reported zooming over missile sites
that night. The “anomaly” they had seen apparently came down and landed near the highway west of Belt.
Another light reportedly flew in and out of the open doors of the base vehicle barn; at least 4 witnesses say it was
the size of a softball and flew at a height of about 10 feet. At least six balls of light maneuver around the flight
line of the base at high speed and different altitudes. (Nukes 462–466)

February 1 — 9:00 p.m. A witness is driving in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, when he sees a large, black, triangular UFO hovering above a water tank. The object has 9 lights, including a row of lights on one side. Two police officers had seen bright beams of lights in the vicinity earlier. (Marler 218) February 4 — 6:35 p.m. Kevin Crump and his grandmother, Betty Barnick, spot an object in the sky near Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, that spits out a blue glowing ball from its tail end, which hangs in the sky over an old school. Crump gets out and sees the UFO almost directly overhead. The moonlight reflects off its black metallic surface. It has the shape of an “oblong triangle” with a light at each point—a red light and a blue light at the front and a white light in the back. The UFO eventually moves away but returns with another bright blue light below it. (Marler 218 – 219 )

March — US Rep. Steven Schiff (R-N.Mex.) writes to Defense Secretary Les Aspin, asking the US Air Force to declassify and provide him with all material relating to the Roswell crash. There is no response. After a second request, USAF Col. Larry G. Shockley refers him to the National Archives, which has no information. March 12 — Paramount premieres Fire in the Sky, a feature film directed by Robert Lieberman that is based on abductee Travis Walton’s book of the same name. Walton is portrayed by actor D. B. Sweeney. (Internet Movie Database, “Fire in the Sky”; Chris Talarski, “Film Review: Fire in the Sky,” IUR 18, no. 3 (May/June 1993): 21) March 16 — A couple who are viewing aerial activity from a hill adjacent to Area 51 in Nevada see strange lights that seem to transform themselves into an automotive vehicle. After the encounter, the witnesses sense that 30 minutes are unaccounted for. They undergo hypnosis and recall an abduction by gray-skinned aliens. The man is taken into a craft, while the woman is taken into a white van. Inside the van are two men dressed in black with black baseball caps. They administer intrusive procedures in her eyes, ears, and elsewhere. She remembers seeing electronic instruments and automatic rifles inside the van. (William F. Hamilton, “Area 51 Encounter,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 304 (August 1993): 14 – 17 ; Clark III 734) March 31 — 1:10–1:15 a.m. Dozens of people across Devon, Cornwall, South Wales, Shropshire, and central Ireland see triangular UFOs speeding across the sky. An MoD police patrol sees the lights from RAF Cosford in Shropshire, England. The UFO passes over the base “at great velocity … at an altitude of approximately 1,000 feet.” It looks like two white lights with a faint red glow at the rear, with no engine noise. The RAF police report also contains details on other civilian UFO sightings that they had learned about in the course of making enquiries with other military bases, civil airports, and local police. The police call ahead to alert the meteorological officer at nearby RAF Shawbury that the UFO is coming his way. The officer at Shawbury sees the object moving slowly across the countryside toward the base at a speed of no more than 30– 4 0 mph. He sees the UFO fire a narrow beam of light (like a laser) at the ground and watches the light sweeping backwards and forwards across the field beyond the perimeter fence, as if it is looking for something. He hears and feels the vibrations from an unpleasant low- frequency humming sound coming from the craft. He estimates its size as midway between a C-130 Hercules transport aircraft and a Boeing 747. The light beam retracts in an unnatural way, then the object accelerates to the horizon many times faster than a military aircraft. Ministry of Defence UFO Officer Nick Pope says there are multiple sightings at different times that cannot be attributed to the reentry, concluding on April 16 that “It seems that an unidentified object of unknown origin was operating in the UK Air Defence Region without being detected on radar; this would appear to be of considerable defence significance, and I recommend that we investigate further, within MoD or with the US authorities.” However, Jenny Randles suspects that the sightings are caused by the Soviet Tsyklon rocket booster 22586U, which launched the Kosmos 2238 radio satellite into orbit the previous day. Pope later comes around to that viewpoint after hearing about sightings at the same time in Ireland and France. (Jenny Randles, “A New Broom at the Ministry,” IUR 19, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1994): 18–20; Nick Pope, Open Skies, Closed Minds, Simon & Schuster, 1996 , pp. 134– 141 ; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, p. 146; David Clarke, “The Cosford Case,” Fortean Times 199 (September 2005): 30 – 31; Kean, pp. 165 – 167 , 251 – 252 ; Good Need, pp. 384 –

385 , 431 – 432 ; UFOFiles2, pp. 142– 143 ; Jenny Randles, “Irish Mid-Air Spectacular,” Fortean Times 375
(January 2019): 33; Nick Pope, “The Cosford Incident,” 2019)

April — Michael D. Swords examines the position of establishment astronomers on the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life in the first six decades of the 20th century, especially regarding Mars, Venus, and deep space. He then speculates on the likely advice received by the USAF intelligence community by astronomical experts in the early days of the UFO phenomenon. (Michael D. Swords, “Astronomers, the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis, and the United States Air Force at the Beginning of the Modern UFO Phenomenon,” JUFOS 4 (1992): 79–129) April — Spanish communications technician José Luis Jordán Peña confesses for the first time to hoaxing the Ummo letters as well as the UFO sightings at Aluche, Spain, in 19 66 and San José de Valderas in 1967. He says that he used the word “Ummo” because it suggests the Spanish word humo (smoke) and randomly chose Wolf 424 as the home star for the imaginary planet. “I wrote the reports on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, and I took advantage of my trips to France, England, Mozambique, etc., or those of friends, to send letters from there.” However, other hoaxers begin copying his style, and after he receives an invitation to an Ummo conference in Cuba, he decides to admit the hoax he had started 25 years earlier. (Wikipedia, “Ummo”; Jim Keith, Casebook on the Men in Black, IllumiNet, 1997) April — Didier Gomez begins publishing UFOmania in Paris, France. It continues through April 2015. (UFOmania, no. 1 (April 1993)) April — The Centro de Estudios de Fenómenos Aéreos Inusuales in Buenos Aires, Argentina, publishes the first issue of Los Identificados, a journal focusing on Argentine occupant cases. It is edited by Roberto E. Banchs and runs for 15 issues until 1998. (Los Identificados, no. 1 (April 1993)) April 26 — 11:20 p.m. A witness in Muskegon, Michigan, is taking her dog for a walk when she notices two red lights and one white light arranged like a triangle above Muskegon Lake. The lights separate, and the white light shoots across the sky. The two red lights move back and forth like a pendulum before heading south. Another witness in Whitehall, Michigan, sees a similar display at the same time. (“Two See Unidentified ‘Triangle of Lights,” Muskegon (Mich.) Chronicle, April 28, 1993, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 287 (June 1993): 5) April 28 — 11:50 p.m. Jefferson County Air Unit police officers Kenny Graham and Kenny Downs are on helicopter patrol over General Electric Appliance Park in Louisville, Kentucky, when Graham sees something like a small fire off to his left. Downs shines his spotlight on the light, which begins to drift back and forth as the spot washes over it. Then it gradually floats up to the helicopter’s altitude at 500 feet, where it hovers for a few seconds before moves away at high speed, making two counterclockwise loops and doubling back to the rear of the helicopter. Graham pushes his speed up to 100 mph. The object passes them and climbs hundreds of feet into the air before descending again toward the helicopter. Graham tries to close the gap, but it eludes him. As it approaches again on a parallel course, the object releases three fireballs. Fearing a collision, Graham banks away. When his move is complete, the light has vanished. Two officers in their squad cars, Mike Smith and Joe Smolenski, also see the light and the fireballs. Smolenski tries to follow the light for a full minute before it disappears. (“Police Officers Describe ‘Dogfight’ with a UFO,” Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal, March 4, 1993, pp. 1, 5) April 29 — A Rockwell-MBB X- 31 experimental jet fighter designed to test thrust-vectoring technology successfully executes a rapid minimum-radius, 180° turn using a post-stall maneuver, flying well outside the range of angle of attack normal for conventional aircraft. This maneuver has been called the “Herbst maneuver” after Wolfgang Herbst, a Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm employee and proponent of using post-stall flight in air-to-air combat. It looks nothing like a triangular UFO and cannot match the performance of the Belgian triangles. (Wikipedia, “Rockwell-MBB X- 31 ”)

May 9 – September 20 — Artist and ceramicist Filiberto Caponi has a series of encounters with a humanoid alien near his home in Pretore, Ascoli Piceno, Italy. He takes six Polaroid photos of the creature in seemingly painful physical conditions. (Timothy Good, Unearthly Disclosure: Conflicting Interests in the Control of Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Random House, 2001, pp. 140– 206 ; Patrick Gross, “The Filiberto Caponi Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind, 1993”)

June 3 — Ordinary Conversations about Extraordinary Matters, a documentary film by Allen Ross, premieres at the theatre of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Illinois. It features interviews with attendees at R. Leo Sprinkle’s 12th Rocky Mountain UFO Conference in Laramie, Wyoming, in 1991. (“New Abduction Documentary Debuts,” IUR 18, no. 3 (May/June 1993): 21; George M. Eberhart, “Postcards with a UFO Theme,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 22)

June 3 — 6:00 p.m. A passenger on a flight 15 minutes out of Los Angeles International Airport in California sees a small cloud moving in the opposite direction of the aircraft, which has leveled off at 30,000 feet. He watches it fly in between two vertical columns of clouds, then when it approaches to a point directly in line with his window, it dives into the cloud mass below at a 30° angle and disappears. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Mystery Clouds and the UFO Connection,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 19, 26) June 5 — Reinhard Nühlen founds Deutschsprachige Gesellschaft für UFO-Forschung in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, and begins publishing DEGUFOrum in January 1994. It is currently (2020) edited by Nikolaus Bettinger in Würselen, Germany. (DEGUforum, no. 1 (January 1994)) June 26 — 4:00 a.m. Witnesses in Hartcliffe, Bristol, England, see a large cigar-shaped object (a possible blimp) drifting slowly and silently over the rooftops. large white light (the planet Venus) in the southeast climbing slowly upward. It fades into the lightening sky shortly before dawn. One witness takes many minutes of video of this object, compressing several hours of its appearance. The same light appears at the same time for weeks. (Jenny Randles, “UFOs in Focus,” IUR 18, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1993): 14–15)

July 22 — Richard L. Huff in the FBI Office of Information and Privacy informs researcher Nick Redfern that it has a file on Majestic-12, although it is in “closed status.” The file title is labeled “Espionage.” (Kremlin 191–192)

August — Day. A witness takes a video of an odd figure on a beach at Rhyl, Clwyd, Wales. As the camera pans through the crowd on the beach, a strange semi-transparent figure in a silver suit becomes visible for a couple of seconds standing and facing a wooden fence. Looking up, he cannot see the figure, which appears to have vanished. Investigators suspect it is merely someone in odd clothing. (Jenny Randles, “UFOs in Focus,” IUR 18, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1993): 15) August 1 — MARAUDER (Magnetically accelerated ring to achieve ultrahigh directed energy and radiation) is, or was, a USAF Research Laboratory project to develop a coaxial plasma railgun. It is one of several US efforts to develop a plasma-based projectile. It began development in 1990, and its first published experiment takes place on this date. The project’s initial success leads to it becoming classified, and only a few references to MARAUDER appear after 1993. No information about the fate of the project is published after 1995. (Wikipedia, “MARAUDER”; C. R. Sovinec and R. E. Peterkin Jr., “Phase 1b MARAUDER Computer Simulations,” 1990 IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science, Abstracts) August 8 — Early morning. Kelly Cahill and her husband Andrew are returning from a party in Narre Warren North, in the Dandenong Foothills of Victoria, Australia, and are near Eumemmerring Creek south of Belgrave when they see a huge lighted object with windows in front of them on the road. It seems to have people in it, but it quickly shoots off to the left and disappears. They continue driving, and about one kilometer ahead they encounter another bright light. Her husband continues driving, and they do not recall anything else until they get home. They agree they saw a UFO but can’t agree on whether they had missing time or saw people. They both can smell vomit and feel stomach pains. Kelly notices a triangular mark below her navel, which is bleeding a bit. Kelly has a strange dream immediately after the encounter, and two subsequent dreams in September, October 23, and January 1994 —all involving entities and a “strange physical dimension.” A few weeks later, both of them start remembering that the UFO has landed in an adjacent field and that they get out of the car to look at it. An abduction scenario ensues involving tall black beings. They also recall that there is another car stopped by the road with at least two people in it. By November 17, Phenomena Research Australia has located the couple in the other car and a woman who was with them. They have also undergone an abduction experience and have missing time. These witnesses, unknown to the Cahills, confirm the UFO landing site, and their drawings of the UFOs and entities closely coincide with Kelly’s. The second group also recalls seeing a third car with one male who is gazing fixedly toward the encounter site. Unfortunately, Kelly’s account of the incident is the only one that has come to light. (Bill Chalker, “An Extraordinary Encounter in the Dandenong Foothills,” IUR 19, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1994 ): 4 – 8, 18–20; Bill Chalker, “Aliens, Hair, and DNA,” IUR 29, no. 3 (Fall 2004): 3 ; Kelly Cahill, Encounter, HarperCollins, 1996 ; Bill Chalker, The Oz Files: The Australian UFO Story, Duffy and Snellgrove, 1996 ; Bill Chalker, “The Kelly Cahill Case Revisited: An Extraordinary Lost Opportunity,” TheOzFiles, March 2, 2016) August 12 — 12:30 a.m. Two friends are watching the Perseid meteor shower in a dark school yard in North Lethbridge, Alberta, when they see a dark, gray-black, triangular object pass quickly and silently overhead for 4–5 seconds. Each point of the triangle has a red light on it. As it disappears to the south, it flips upward at a 45° angle. Another witness in a different location watches a similar object around the same time. Local radar does not show any unusual traffic. (David Thacker, “Flight of the Triangle,” IUR 19, no. 3 (May/June 1994): 4–8, 23) August 13 — Night. Costin and Mariana Popa are driving with their daughter Diana in a rural area a few miles south of Telega, Romania, when their car engine stops unexpectedly and the headlights go out. Examining the engine, they

are suddenly hit by a “wall of air” and see a fog-like rectangular screen on the right side of the road floating 18 inches above the grass. It is pulsating every 2–3 seconds with a yellowish-white light. They hear no noise and feel no heat. After about 20 minutes the screen begins to move across the road and stops in front of them, having become a narrow band of light 90 feet long and 3 feet wide. Soon it becomes brighter and shoots into the sky and disappears. The car starts normally again. (Romania 58–59) August 14 — 1:56 a.m. Four UFOs with red and green flashing lights are seen flying at low altitude above Henri Coandă International Airport at Otopeni, Romania. They first turn up on radar, then are seen visually and observed through binoculars. (Romania 75)

September 2 —6:00 a.m. A black-and-white security camera at a private company in West Manchester, England, captures a pulsing ball of white light that appears in the northwest, moving toward the north, for several minutes. The camera operator also sees it visually. Estimates place its speed as low as 50 mph. Possible blimp. (Jenny Randles, “UFOs in Focus,” IUR 18, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1993): 15) September 16 — 4:00 p.m. Pilots of two airliners preparing to land at Benito Juárez International Airport in Mexico City, Mexico, see an object like a balloon, but it is going too fast. One pilot describes it as looking like a praying mantis. (Jaime Maussán, “OVNIs sobre la Terra,” La Epoca (Mexico), November 19, 1993; Antonio Huneeus, “UFO Chronicle: UFOs and IFOs from Mexico, Part II,” Fate 47, no. 12 (December 1994); Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, p. 146 )

October — Rep. Steven Schiff asks Charles Arthur Bowsher, head of the US General Accounting Office, to prepare a report on the status of records related to the 1947 Roswell incident in New Mexico. (Mark Rodeghier, “Roswell and the GAO Investigation,” IUR 19, no. 2 (March/April 1994): 3, 24) October — The Foreign Technology Division becomes the National Air Intelligence Center. (Wikipedia, “National Air and Space Intelligence Center”) October 12 — Air Force Col. Richard L. Weaver tells researcher Nick Redfern that USAF considers both the MJ- 12 group and its documents to be “bogus.” However, he concedes that there are “no documents responsive” to his request on how such a determination was made. (Kremlin 183–184) October 18 — A memo on “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Study” from a UK wing commander to the Sec(AS)2, the Air Staff deputy director, proposes a secret government study of UFOs, which will become Project Condign in 1997–

2000. Paragraph 2 reads: “I am aware, from intelligence sources, that xxxxx believes that such phenomena exists and has a small team studying them. I am also aware that an informal group exists in the xxxxxxxxxxx community and it is possible that this reflects a more formal organization.” Leslie Kean suspects that the first redacted word is “Russia” and the second is “US intelligence.” (“Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Study,” October 18, 1993, UK UFO Documents, Part 1, pp. 198–199; Kean, pp. 238 – 240 ) October 25 — 5:30–9:30 p.m. Multiple sightings of diamond- or triangular-shaped objects with multicolored light occur around La Louvière, Hainaut, Belgium. (Patrick Gross, “The Belgium Flap”)

December — The RAAF formally concludes its UFO investigations in a revised “RAAF Policy: Unusual Aerial Sightings.” (Bill Chalker, “The Australian Government and UFOs,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 22) December — Héctor Escobar begins publishing Perspectivas Ufológicas in Mexico City, Mexico. The periodical continues until February 1996. (Perspectivas Ufológicas, no. 1 (December 1993)) December 1 — The European Parliament considers a resolution that enables the French UFO agency, Service d’Expertise des Phénomènes de Rentrée Atmosphérique (SEPRA), to carry out UFO investigations throughout the member countries of the European Community. The resolution was first proposed in 1991 by Belgian deputy Elio Di Rupo in the wake of the Belgian UFO wave to set up an all-European agency to study UFO reports. The EP’s committee on industry, external trade, research, and energy, chaired by physicist Tullio Regge, holds several meetings on the proposal in consultation with SEPRA’s Jean-Jacques Velasco, and approves the motion for a resolution. However, the Parliament does not have the necessary votes to implement and fund the resolution, the agency is never created, and SEPRA has its own funding problems. (George M. Eberhart, “The European Parliament,” IUR 19, no. 2 (March/April 1994): 19; 2Pinotti 137 – 140) December 17 — The first operational Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is delivered to Whiteman AFB, south of Knob Noster, Missouri, where the fleet is based. (Wikipedia, “Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit”)

1994

1994 — A video of a UFO is taken by a ground radar station at the Tolicha Peak Electronic Combat Range, part of the Nellis Range northwest of the Nevada Test Site. At times the UFO appears to be four globes tied together; at other times it appears to be a fuzzy, gaseous cloud. The film is genuine, according to Steven Greer, who shows it at CSETI’s Congressional Briefing on April 9, 1997, in Washington, D.C. It is aired by the Fox TV show Sightings and a few other TV networks. (Patrick Gross, “The Nellis Test Range UFO Video”) 1994 — More than 300 pages of Army CIC documents relating to Operation Harass are declassified after researcher Timothy S. Cooper files a FOIA request. There is a concentration on frantic wartime efforts to find the Horten brothers, as well as an “Intelligence Requirements on Flying Saucer Type Aircraft: Draft of Collection Memorandum,” undated but prepared prior to October 20, 1947. (“FOIA: Army CIC UFO Files Various Subjects Including ‘Horten Brothers: Flying Wing,’” Above Top Secret forum, December 17, 2007) 1994 — Mark Rodeghier, Stuart Appelle, David Gotlib, and Georgia Flamburis develop and publish an “Ethics Code for Abduction Experience Investigation and Treatment.” It is approved by the CUFOS and MUFON boards. (“News from the Field,” IUR 19, no. 3 (May/June 1994): 3; David Gotlib, Stuart Appelle, Georgia Flamburis, and Mark Rodeghier, “Ethics Code for Abduction Experience Investigation and Treatment,” JUFOS 5 (1994): 55– 81 ) 1994 — Wim van Utrecht founds Caelestia in Antwerp, Belgium, to collect, investigate, and document UFO reports. (Wim van Utrecht, “About Caelestia,” July 2007) 1994 — Karla Turner writes Taken, in which she describes accounts from eight women, none of whom know each other, all of whom consciously recall a large portion of their abduction experiences without the aid of hypnosis. She is disturbed to find that at least 10 people close to her seem to have a pattern of alien intrusions and disturbances. The women describe a variety of alien types: grays, insectoids, humanoids, blue humanoids, and dwarves. Several of the women describe not only hybrid nursery rooms, but also cloning rooms in which living but inert humans are suspended in liquid-filled cylinders. There are accounts of aliens apparently taking human souls and placing them into a box. One alien group appears to harvest “negative emotional energy.” Not all experiences are harmful or exploitative; some women claim to have had miraculous healings by aliens. Still, Turner suggests that this does not make the aliens humanity’s benefactors. If they cared for humans, it could be the way in which a farmer cares for cattle. Four of the women describe being abducted by human military personnel and taken to underground military facilities. Human and alien workers are sometimes described as being there. The abductees remember being questioned by military types who ask “What do you know about the alien agenda? What have they told you? What implants have you received? What procedures have they carried out on you?” A number of medical problems develop, apparently related to the abductions: cancer, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, sexual dysfunction, and suicide. One thing that perplexes Turner is why military groups would need to interrogate abductees about alien intrusions. (Karla Turner, Taken: Inside the Alien-Human Abduction Agenda, The Author, 1994)

January 4 — RAAF Wing Commander Brett Biddington informs civilian UFO groups in Australia that the number of UFO reports submitted to the RAAF has declined significantly in the past 10 years, saying “there is no compelling reason for the RAAF to continue to devote resources to recording, investigating, and attempting to explain [Unusual Aerial Sightings].” He says that reports will be forwarded to civilian groups. (Bill Chalker, “The Australian Government and UFOs,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 22, 36; Swords 411–412) January 12 — Rep. Steven Schiff (D-N.Mex.) tells the press that he has been stonewalled by the US Defense Department when he requested information about the 1947 Roswell incident on behalf of his constituents and witnesses. Schiff calls the lack of response “astounding” and indicative of a cover-up. (“Roswell Declaration 1994,” IUR 19, no. 2 (March/April 1994 ): 21) January 15 — President Bill Clinton issues an executive order to create an Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments to investigate US government records on radiation studies done at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Certain records involving programs in and around Area 51, Nevada, are excluded on the basis that the president does not have a need to know. (Wikipedia, “Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments”) January 28 — 1:14 p.m. Air France pilot Jean-Charles Duboc and two members of his A320 airliner crew briefly observe over Coulommiers–Voisins Aerodrome, Seine-et-Marne, France, an elliptical UFO, reddish-brown in color and possibly of large size. Radar at CODA, the Taverny air operations center, tracks the object for 50 seconds but places the target closer to the airplane than the pilot’s estimate. SEPRA investigates the case and determines that based on the radar trajectory the UFO is about 750 feet long. (Joel de Woolfson, “UFO ‘Evidence’ Grows,” This Is Guernsey, February 5, 2007; Gildas Bourdais, “The Death and Rebirth of Official French UFO Studies,” IUR 31 , no. 2 (June 2007): 16 ; Kean, pp. 135 – 136 ; Good Need, pp. 401 – 402 ; “ 1994 - 01 - 28: Sighting of Air France

Pilot Jean Charles Duboc,” Tom Owens YouTube channel, June 16, 2019; Patrick Gross, “UFO Sighting of Flight AF- 3532 ”) Late January — The Secretary of the Air Force’s office of Security and Special Program Oversight directs its research and classification team to locate any official records on the Roswell incident. (Swords 351)

February — Leonard Stringfield releases his seventh and final status report on UFO crash/retrievals. (Leonard H. Stringfield, UFO Crash/Retrievals: Search for Proof in a Hall of Mirrors, Status Report VII, The Author, 1994). February 9 — Richard Davis, director of the National Security Analysis group at the General Accounting Office, writes to Secretary of Defense William Perry that the GAO is initiating a review of “DOD’s policies and procedures for acquiring, classifying, retaining, and disposing of official governmental documents dealing with weather balloon, aircraft, and similar crash incidents” to find out whether “proper procedures to ensure government accountability” were followed. (Mark Rodeghier, “Roswell and the GAO Investigation,” IUR 19, no. 2 (March/April 1994): 3, 24; Swords 351) February 15 — 11:00 p.m. Kerstin Hallman is on her way home from work near Grillby, Sweden, when she sees an oblong light with spikes on top. The car lights go out and the engine fails. (Clas Svahn and Jorgen Granlie, “The Light That Stopped a Car,” IUR 22, no. 4 (Winter 1997–1998): 12; Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33 , no. 4 (May 2011): 16 – 17 )

March — In response to Steven Schiff’s getting stonewalled by the US Defense Department over information on the 1947 Roswell incident in New Mexico, airline pilot Kent Jeffrey circulates the Roswell Declaration, a statement calling for an “Executive Order declassifying any US government information on the existence of UFOs or extraterrestrial intelligence” and a release from the security oaths taken by military or civilian personnel involved in UFO cases. Promoted by CUFOS, MUFON, and the Fund for UFO Research, the declaration is signed by more than 20,000 people interested in finding out the truth. (“Roswell Declaration,” International Roswell Initiative; “The Roswell Declaration,” IUR 19, no. 2 (March/April 1994): 20–21) March — Night. A married couple are driving in Bestwood Village, Nottinghamshire, England, when they see a huge triangular object hanging in the sky. It has three steady white, green, and red lights and is apparently only 200 feet from the ground. Its base has a ribbed pattern. It moves off slowly to the northwest, then accelerates, changing direction to the south. (“UFO Sighting Convinces Hucknall Man,” Hucknall (UK) Dispatch, March 11, 1994, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 298 (May 1994): 16) March 6 — 4:30 p.m. Two men flying an ultralight aircraft 250 feet over Termoli, Campobasso, Italy, see a small, spherical object flying northward. Approximately 4 miles from them, it is lost to sight in a few seconds. Earlier in the afternoon an unknown dark object crashes on Monte Mutria, Campobasso. The witness, Angelo Gianbattista, 18, tells his father, police officer Franco Giambattista, that an airplane has fallen. Franco goes outside and spots with binoculars two dark shadows in a ravine. The military police are notified and converge on the site. At 8:00 p.m., guided by a powerful light beam, eight volunteers climb the mountain. Three helicopters hover overhead. Nothing is found, even conventional objects that might be mistaken for something else. (Renzo Cabassi, “UFO Crash at Guardioaregia?” Italian UFO Reporter 2, no. 4 (October 10, 1996): 2 – 4; Clark III 345; 2Pinotti 140– 141 ) March 8 — 9:15 p.m. Residents of Holland, Michigan, begin observing odd lights in the sky. To some, the lights appear to be attached to one another, or at least coordinated in their movements. The commonest description is of four lights strung together, high in altitude, moving from southeast to southwest. The Graves family sees a disk with lights turning clockwise on its underside. Police officer Jeff Velthouse is dispatched to investigate, and he watches some lights through binoculars around 9:40 p.m. The Allegan County sheriff’s office contacts the Muskegon National Weather Service radar station about 30 miles to the north to ask whether they have any targets. They do, and the radar operator gives a live report, recorded by the police, of the returns he is tracking. The majority of the returns are of three, well-separated targets, sometimes in line, both usually in a triangular array. An intermittent fourth signal blinks in and out. The visual sightings last until 11:00 p.m., but the weather radar continues to see targets for another 20–30 minutes. (Michael D. Swords, “The Holland, Michigan, Radar- Visual Case, 1994,” IUR 24, no. 3 (Fall 1999): 3– 7 ; Don Berliner, with Marie Galbreath and Antonio Huneeus, UFO Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence, Dell, 2000, pp. 146– 147 ; Swords 343)

April — The UK government introduces a Code of Practice on Access to Government Information, a limited right to access government records from the previous 30 years, as a precursor to a full freedom of information act. (Campaign for Freedom of Information, “Code of Practice on Access to Government Information: Guidance on Interpretation,” April 1994, second ed., 1997)

May — The Dean of Harvard Medical School, Daniel C. Tosteson, appoints a committee of peers to confidentially review Department of Psychiatry Head John E. Mack’s clinical care and clinical investigation of the people who had shared their alien encounters with him (some of their cases are written up in Mack’s 1994 book Abduction). Angela Hind writes, “It was the first time in Harvard’s history that a tenured professor was subjected to such an investigation.” Upon the public revelation of the existence of the committee (inadvertently revealed during the solicitation of witnesses for Mack’s defense, 10 months into the process), questions arise from the academic community (including Harvard Professor of Law Alan Dershowitz) regarding the validity of an investigation of a tenured professor who is not suspected of ethics violations or professional misconduct. Concluding the 14-month investigation, Harvard then issues a statement stating that the dean has “reaffirmed Dr. Mack’s academic freedom to study what he wishes and to state his opinions without impediment,” concluding “Dr. Mack remains a member in good standing of the Harvard Faculty of Medicine.” (Wikipedia, “John E. Mack”; John E. Mack, Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens, Wheeler, 1994) May — Research psychologist Susan Marie Powers publishes a study on 20 abductees to explore the presence of PTSD symptoms. The results show that 45% of the abductees manifest PTSD symptoms and 70% manifest dissociative symptomatology. A content analysis of the narratives suggests that sexual abuse could be at the root of some of the stories. (Susan Marie Powers, “Thematic Content Analyses of the Reports of UFO Abductees and Close Encounter Witnesses: Indications of Repressed Sexual Abuse,” JUFOS 5 (1994): 35– 54 ; Susan Marie Powers, “Dissociation in Alleged Extraterrestrial Abductees,” Dissociation 7, no. 1 (March 1994): 44– 50 ) May 21 — 11:00 p.m. A witness in Plauen, Germany, is watching TV when she notices a light outside. She sees a disk with several rings of lights illuminating a tree and causing it to whip around violently. It is about 30 feet in diameter, and its top and bottom halves are rotating in opposite directions. After it hovers silently for a minute, it stops shaking the tree and moves behind a building and shoots away, leaving a hole in the clouds above. Two other witnesses see the disc from a different perspective and feel a strong wind. (Illobrand von Ludwiger, Best UFO Cases: Europe, National Institute for Discovery Science, 1998)

June — The TNS Emnid Institut in Bielefeld, Germany, conducts a one-question survey on UFO beliefs among 1,069 Germans. Although the question is ambiguous, 22% respond yes and 78% no, in both the former West and East Germanies. The belief is much stronger in younger populations. (Mark Rodeghier, “Do Germans Believe in UFOs and Extraterrestrials?” IUR 21, no. 2 (Summer 1996): 25, 30) June — Day. An object like a balloon suddenly appears in the sky above US Highway 22 and East Kemper Road in Symmes Township, Ohio, outside Cincinnati. It remains perfectly stationary until after dark. One witness takes at least three photos of it. At one point it ascends to a higher altitude. The object is approached and circled three times by local air traffic. (Patrick Gross, “The Symmes Township Orb, USA, June 1994 ”) Early June — A tree farmer named Meng Zhaoguo is at Red Flag logging camp near Wuchang, Heilongjiang, China, with two other workers when they see a strange light in the sky. Thinking it is either a downed satellite or helicopter, Meng goes to retrieve the wreckage. However, at some point he is hit in the forehead by a shining light and knocked unconscious. He wakes up at home some time later, with no recollection of how he got there. A few nights later, he wakes up in his bed to find that a 10-foot-tall female alien with six fingers and braided leg fur is in his room. He and the alien have sex for 40 minutes before it disappears, leaving a 2-inch scar on his thigh. He also claims that on July 17 , he levitates through a wall and meets with a group of three-eyed aliens on their ship. He asks to see the female alien again but is rebuffed. The aliens show him images of Mars (or Jupiter), which they claim is their home world, and tell him that “on a distant planet the son of a Chinese peasant will be born in 60 years.” His story is examined by the UFO Enthusiasts Club at Wuhan University throughout 1997. They conclude that while the initial contact may have occurred, the subsequent reported events are almost certainly untrue. However, other UFO groups in China think that his ongoing story is true. In September 2003, Zhang Jingping and the state-sponsored Chinese UFO Association give Meng a medical exam, a lie detector test, and a hypnotic regression session to prove his claims. The results supposedly confirm his story. (John Kohut, “UFO Group Probes Claims of Sex with Jupiter Visitor,” South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), October 30, 1994; Teresa Poole, “Close Encounters of an Intimate Kind: Peking Days,” The Independent (UK), March 17, 1995; “Calling Occupants of Inter-planetary Craft,” China Daily, October 31, 2010; “One of the Strangest Alien Abduction Cases in China Ever Told,” Before It’s News, July 20, 2014; Chris Saunders, “UFOs over China,” Fortean Times 331 (October 2015): 28–30; Michael Meyer, “Meet the Chinese Lumberjack Who Slept with an Alien,” HuffPost, October 16, 2015; Bill Chalker, “The Untold Story of UFOs in China: Lost in Translation or the Devouring Dragon?” New Dawn Special Issue 14, no. 1 (January 2020))

June 24 — 2:40 a.m. Three gendarmes at La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, Seine-et-Marne, France, notice a bright set of lights in the sky. They drive closer and find that the source is a stationary object with three yellow-white lights. Its underside is triangular with a central pyramidal spire that points downward. They stop their patrol car, and the object moves slowly toward them until it stops directly above the vehicle. There is no noise, smoke, or odor. As soon as they start the car again, the object moves west at high speed and becomes a speck on the horizon within a second. The total duration is 10 minutes. The police radios stop functioning, and the car becomes hot even though the windows are open. (“Ussy-sur-Marne (77) 24- 06 - 1994,” GEIPAN, March 22, 2007; Swords 449)

July 2 — 1:30–1:45 p.m. A resident of Limelette, Belgium, is at home in the Petit-Ry neighborhood when he looks out a window and sees a group of 10 white vertical structures with rounded edges moving back and forth about 180 feet above a vacant lot. They are all about 15–26 feet high and somewhat translucent, moving in an erratic pattern. The dry grass below has risen up into the air, forming a tornado shape and spinning anticlockwise. He watches it for 2 – 3 minutes, and the phenomenon moves slowly to the north and disappears. Possibly a wind devil. (Wim van Utrecht, “Dancing Ice-Lollies over a Waste Ground,” Caelestia) July 3 — The first flight of a CIA-developed Predator drone takes place at the El Mirage Field in the Mojave Desert, California. (Wikipedia, “General Atomics MQ-1 Predator”) July 31 — Roswell, a made-for-TV movie directed by Jeremy Kagan and produced by Paul Davids, premieres on Showtime. It stars Kyle MacLachlan, Martin Sheen, and Dwight Yoakam, and is based on UFO Crash at Roswell by Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt. (Paul Davids, “Roswell: The Movie,” IUR 19, no. 2 (March/April 1994): 15–18)

August 23 — 5:40 a.m. A delivery man and other early risers observe a V-shaped object low in the sky above the business district of a western suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. Strobe lights emerge from the object at both its top and bottom, shining continuous beams of light on the object both while it is hovering and in flight. It disappears behind some buildings to the south. (Marler 175) August 31 — 8:30 p.m. Six witnesses in Mongo, Indiana, see a light glowing through the treetops to the southwest at a low altitude. It looks somewhat like the Moon, but it starts moving from behind the trees into an open area near a road and hovers. It looks like a domed disc with a white strobe light on top of the dome. A bright red light on the bottom flashes 3 – 4 times like a strobe, then the object it disappears to the south east within 2 seconds. One of the witnesses takes at least four good pictures with a Vivitar fully automatic 35 mm camera with a standard lens and loaded with 400 ASA color film. Dogs do not react to the object. (NICAP, “The Mongo Photos”; Patrick Gross, “The Mongo Multiple Visual and Photographic Case, August 31, 1993”)

September 8 — In response to Rep. Steven Schiff’s request for information, Col. Richard L. Weaver, director of security and special program oversight of the USAF Office of Special Investigations, publicly releases the Report of Air Force Research Regard ing the “Roswell Incident,” a 23 - page executive summary (dated July 27) that concludes that “the material recovered near Roswell was consistent with a balloon device and most likely from one of the Mogul balloons that had not been previously recovered.” (Report of Air Force Research Regarding the “Roswell Incident,” in Col. Richard L. Weaver and 1Lt. James McAndrew, The Roswell Report: Fact versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert, US Air Force Headquarters, July 1995, pp. 5–32; Mark Rodeghier and Mark Chesney, “The Air Force Report on Roswell: An Absence of Evidence,” IUR 19, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1994): 3, 20–24; Karl T. Pflock, “Roswell, the Air Force, and Us,” IUR 19, no. 6 (Nov./Dec. 1994): 3–5, 24; Swords 351) September 13 — 5:30 p.m. As Larry Gardea is hunting for bear near Luna Canyon in Mora County, New Mexico, he sees a cow lying dead some 30 feet away. In the place where its rectum should be is a large, cylindrical hole. Ten feet beyond that cow is another one, apparently alive, sitting on its knees. At that moment a dozen cattle stampede in the opposite direction, and Gardea hears a loud humming noise coming from the nearby woods. A third cow is suddenly propelled through the air nearby at near ground level, as if carried by an invisible beam. Gardea fires two shots and the humming stops. (Clark III 138 ) September 14 — 8:50–9:05 p.m. A brilliant ball of fire with a long trail of sparks is seen over a wide range of territory in Zimbabwe, Botswana, and southern Zambia, followed by a sonic boom. Some people see three large lights in front, with from 8–20 smaller lights behind. Many report that the objects are traveling very fast from north to south; others see it moving slowly, and one man says he walked along with it more than 320 feet. Geologists Euen Nisbet and Kathy Silva, working in Zvishavane, Zimbabwe, report that the display takes a minute to cross the sky on a path angled about 10° away from north to south. Witnesses at Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe, variously see three orange-red lights with trails, a bright link with a dark center and 14 lights flashing around it, a light flying at treetop level, a row of green lights with a trail, and an object several times larger than a Boeing 747. Possibly

debris from the rocket that launched the Russian satellite Kosmos 2290. (Cynthia Hind, “UFO Flap in Zimbabwe,” UFO Afrinews, no. 11 (February 1995): 4–18; Cynthia Hind, “UFO Flap in Zimbabwe,” IUR 20, no. 3 (May/June 1995): 20– 21 ; James Oberg, “Zimbabwe: 1994 Sep 14 near 18:51 UTC,” PowerPoint presentation) September 16 — 10:00 a.m. Some 60 children in a grassy playground outside Ariel School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe, see three or four objects landing in the “rough bush area” about 330 feet away. An entity of some kind emerges from the largest object and stands on top. It has long, straight, black hair tied back with a headband around its larger than normal head, stands about 3 feet tall, and is dressed in black. Some of the younger African children are afraid it is a Tokoloshe, a folkloric entity. After 15 minutes, the craft and entity fade from view. The headmaster asks each child to draw what they saw. Researcher Cynthia Hind interviews them on September 17 and psychologist John E. Mack several months later. (Cynthia Hind, “The Children of Ariel School,” UFO Afrinews, no. 11 (February 1995): 19– 25 ; “Never-Before-Seen Photos Reveal Extraordinary Wedge-Shaped Impressions,” Daily Mail (UK), May 20, 2022; Internet Movie Database, “Ariel Phenomenon”) September 26 — An aircraft crash at RAF Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, England, appears closely linked to US black missions, according to a report in Air Forces Monthly. Further investigation is hampered by USAF aircraft flooding into the base. Special Air Service personnel arrive in plainclothes and in an Agusta 109 helicopter. The crash site is protected from view by fire engines and tarpaulins, and the base is closed to all flights soon afterwards. A USAF C5 Galaxy is redirected to the station, which takes the disassembled aircraft back to the US. (Dreamland Resort, “RAF Boscombe Down’s Black Day,” April 12, 2005)

Fall — Terry and Gwen Sherman purchase a 512 - acre ranch in western Uintah County, southeast of Ballard, Utah. The couple soon encounter various types of UFOs and paranormal phenomena, including cattle mutilations, bigfoot, flying orbs, discarnate voices, crop circles, poltergeist activity, electromagnetic anomalies, orange portals, and a giant wolflike creature. Colm Kelleher and coauthor George Knapp subsequently write a book, Hunt for the Skinwalker (2005), in which they describe the ranch being acquired by Robert Bigelow’s National Institute for Discovery Science in 1996 for $200, 000 to study the sightings at the ranch, soon dubbed the Skinwalker Ranch after the shape-shifting creature in Navajo folklore. Between June and August 1997, NIDS personnel observe anomalies on every occasion they are at the ranch, but they are unable to prove anything scientifically. Among those involved are retired US Army Col. John B. Alexander who characterizes the NIDS effort as an attempt to get hard data using a “standard scientific approach.” However, the investigators admit to “difficulty obtaining evidence consistent with scientific publication.” (Wikipedia, “Skinwalker Ranch”; Colm Kelleher and George Knapp, Hunt for the Skinwalker, Paraview, 2005; Gildas Bourdais, “Hunt for the Skinwalker: New Challenge for the ETH?” IUR 31, no. 1 (January 2007): 25– 31 ; Clark III 1073–1075; John B. Alexander, “From Los Alamos to Skinwalker Ranch,” Fortean Times 363 (February 2018): 39–41) October 1 — TV host Larry King broadcasts “Larry King Live at Area 51,” which includes a prerecorded interview with former Sen. Barry Goldwater, who says: “I think the government does know. I can’t back that up, but I think that at Wright-Patterson field, if you could get into certain places, you’d find out what the Air Force and the government knows about UFOs… I called Curtis LeMay and I said, “General, I know we have a room at Wright- Patterson where you put all this secret stuff. Could I go in there?’ I’ve never heard him get mad, but he got madder than hell at me, cussed me out, and said, ‘Don’t ever ask me that question again!’” (“UFOs: Oct 1, 1994, Filmed Outside Area 51,” SmokingMan47 YouTube channel, November 28, 2015) October 7 — 10:00 p.m. Jerzy Bulczyński and his family in Biskupice, Poland, see two identical large discs with rotating rings consisting of smaller spheres, all grayish-green in color and around 6–8 times the size of the full moon. (Poland 88) October 8 — 8:00 p.m. Military personnel at Poligon Nadarzyce airbase near the village of Nadardyce, Poland, report a spherical UFO surrounded by a ring of lights. It changes shape to a triangle and an ellipse. In reaction to the initial report, Krzesiny AFB sends two MiG-21 interceptors that allegedly experience technical malfunctions during their pursuit. The Polish Army concludes that the phenomena were caused by a laser searchlight operated by the local Olimpia Circus. (Poland 87–89)

December 1 — A strong, flaming light with a train-like rumbling noise causes destruction to 1,700 square feet of woodland in the Guiyang Baiyun Duxi Forest Farm near Guiyang, Guizhou province, China. Trees are broken off at the same height and some roofs are damaged. Although a probable airburst from a meteor, some Chinese researchers argue it could be a ufological event. (Bill Chalker, “The Untold Story of UFOs in China: Lost in Translation or the Devouring Dragon?” New Dawn Special Issue 14, no. 1 (January 2020)) December 29 — 9:45 p.m. A mother and her six children are driving northwest on Zaring Cutoff Road west of Dusty, Washington. To the east she sees three bright yellow lights that appear to be sitting in a snow-covered field. She

stops the car to look and realizes that the lights are attached to triangular objects, each with stubby wings and a
bright light on the nose. They move slowly and pass in front of the car to a field on the left. Suddenly they pivot
90° and move parallel with the road toward the southeast, maintaining the same configuration. Each has a window
on the bottom that emits a bluish light and a buzzing sound. (Marler 225–226)

1995

1995 — Astronomer Carl Sagan publishes The Demon-Haunted World, in which he aims to explain the scientific method to laypeople and encourage them to learn critical and skeptical thinking. He explains methods to help distinguish between ideas that are considered valid science and those that can be considered pseudoscience. Sagan states that when new ideas are offered for consideration, they should be tested by means of skeptical thinking and should stand up to rigorous questioning. He argues that the chances of extraterrestrial spacecraft visiting Earth are vanishingly small. However, he does think it plausible that Cold War concerns contributed to governments misleading their citizens about UFOs, and writes that “some UFO reports and analyses, and perhaps voluminous files, have been made inaccessible to the public which pays the bills … It’s time for the files to be declassified and made generally available.” He cautions against jumping to conclusions about suppressed UFO data and stresses that there is no strong evidence that aliens are visiting the Earth either in the past or present. He worries that fake news and conspiracy theories will become the reality of the future, predicting: “I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.” (Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark, Random House, 1995; Wikipedia, “The Demon-Haunted World”) 1995 — The National Research Council of Canada announces that it will no longer accept UFO reports for analysis. As a consequence, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigations on its behalf ceases. Ufologist Chris Rutkowski casually suggests that the NRC could forward any non-meteoric sightings it runs across. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 11) 1995 — The China UFO Research Organization in Beijing has now collected more than 5,000 reports of UFOs in Chinese airspace. (Good Need, p. 403 )

January 6 — 6:48 p.m. Capt. Roger Wills and First Officer Mark Stuart are piloting a British Airways Boeing 737 aircraft with 60 passengers when they are buzzed by a bright wedge-shaped object as they are preparing to land at Manchester Airport, England. The object appears only yards in front of the airliner as it flies at 4,000 feet. It is so close that Stuart instinctively reacts by ducking down inside the cockpit. It has small lights, makes no attempt to change course, and makes no discernable sound or turbulence. The object does not appear on radar. Possibly a fireball meteor. (David Boras, “UFO Nearly Collides with British Airliner,” IUR 21, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 26– 27 ; “UFO Near Miss over the Airport,” Manchester (UK) Evening News, February 18, 2010; Good Need, pp. 402 – 403 ; UFOFiles2, pp. 137– 139 ; Marler 140–143, 266– 269 ; Patrick Gross, “Air Misses”) January 12 — Around 5:00 a.m. Farmer Beto Lima is hunting armadillos on his property near Feira de Santana, Bahía, Brazil, when he finds an object the size of a Volkswagen beetle floating on a pond. He manages to pull it to the shore when suddenly liquid flows from it and two creatures emerge. One of them is hairy and clawed like a sloth, the other is apparently dead and looks like a child. The object is lightweight, and Lima carries it into his house. Brazilian soldiers allegedly retrieve the wreckage and the creatures. (“O caso Roswell nordestina: Queda da UFO na Bahia, em janeiro de 1995,” UFOs-Wilson, May 20, 2012; Brazil 521–529)

February — A Boeing 737 is starting a landing approach at 7,900 feet at Guiyang Airport [now Guiyang Longdongbao International Airport], Guizhou province, China, when its anti-collision system detects an object rushing toward the aircraft. Some 6,000 feet away, the pilot sees a UFO changing from a rhomboid to a circular shape and from yellow to red. The pilot lands safely, even though the object remains on his radar screen for some time before disappearing to the south. (Good Need, p. 403 ; Patrick Gross, “Air Misses”) February 20 — In briefing notes on the safety implications of UFO close approaches for the Joint Airmiss Working Group in the UK, former British Airways Capt. Graham Sheppard comments: “It would not be surprising to discover

that, in the past, unexplained aeroplane losses have been caused by instinctive maneuvering to avoid a conflicting UFO… The commercial sensibilities of the airlines should now be set aside along with the media’s inability to give serious treatment to the subject. Otherwise this discrete and notifiable hazard to aircraft safety will continue to be concealed and thus gratuitously omitted from the briefing syllabus.” (Good Need, p. 404 ) February 22 — Researcher Timothy S. Cooper receives a document purporting to be the first annual report of the Majestic 12 Project, supposedly written in 1951 and referring to possible virus contamination stemming from retrieval of the Roswell aliens. Nick Redfern has examined it and says it is definitely a hoax, though it could possibly represent disinformation from Russia. (Timothy S. Cooper, “Research Synopsis on the Majestic Documents,” The Author, December 30, 1999; Nick Redfern, “Why the Majestic 12 ‘1st Annual Report’ Is a Hoax,” Mysterious Universe, July 30, 2019; Kremlin 202 – 208 )

March 8 — A military radar installation near Luzern, Switzerland, detects a series of anomalous radar targets that, taken together, appear to make up the straight-line trajectory of an unidentified object traveling at a speed near Mach 3. The consistency in velocity and direction of the three track segments strongly suggests that it is a single object traveling about 150 miles in just over 4 minutes, which corresponds to an average velocity of about 2,147 mph. Another track going in the same direction was picked up 70 seconds after the first one dropped off the radar, separated by a few miles. This time the system recorded six consecutive returns, each registering a radial speed component of about 2,088 mph. Again the system dropped the track. A minute later the Luzern radar records hits on yet another object, loses it again, and detects it three more times over 40 seconds before it is dropped for the final time. (Bruce Maccabee, “Atmosphere or UFO? A Response to the 1997 SSE Review Panel Report,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 1 3, no. 3 (1999): 421–459) March 14 — 3:40–4:00 a.m. Ismailovich Borovkov wakes up to a bright light shining in his home on Serebristy Boulevard in St. Petersburg, Russia. He sees a bright orange light hovering outside the window for 10 minutes, then it suddenly diminishes to a point and disappears. Borovkov hears a loud ringing in his right ear. Around 4:00 a.m., another resident sees a UFO over the Pulkov Highway. (“Close Encounters over St Petersburg, March 14, 1995,” IUR 20, no. 5 (Winter 1995): 12) March 14 — 7 :00–8:00 p.m. A further cluster of UFO sightings, some of them close encounters and one a radar case, take place around St. Petersburg, Russia. (“Close Encounters over St Petersburg, March 14, 1995,” IUR 20, no. 5 (Winter 1995): 12–15) March 30 — 8:30 a.m. Farmer Jan Pienaar, 45, is driving in the North West Province, South Africa, when his truck stops dead. About 240 feet ahead is a huge object on three landing pads. It has the form of two inverted soup plates with a pudding bowl on top, and the upper level has portholes. The object buzzes like a “giant electric beater.” He gets out of the car but feels paralyzed as if a magnet is holding him. After 3–5 minutes the UFO takes off, and he regains his senses and the car starts up. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33 , no. 4 (May 2011): 17)

April — The Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici begins publishing UFO Forum, edited by Giuseppe Verdi in Vittoria, Italy. It continues through at least October 2001. (UFO Forum, no. 1 (April 1995)) April 10 — 7:30 a.m. An 11-year-old boy is on his way to school with his mother and two younger sisters near Merweville, South Africa, when they see a strange object on a side road. It looks like a cloud but is stationary. Then it moves north, although the prevailing wind is to the west, and disappears behind some clouds. The object is about the size of a large truck. (Marie van Staden, “A Peculiar Cloud-Like Object,” UFO Afrinews 13 (February 1996): 10–13) April 14 — President Bill Clinton issues Executive Order 12,958, which establishes a system to automatically declassify information more than 25 years old, unless the government takes discrete steps to continue the classification of a particular document or group of documents. The order takes effect on October 14, 1995. (US Department of Justice, “FOIA Update: Executive Order 12,958,” 1995) April 18 — 9:00 p.m. A woman in Prospect, Chebucto Peninsula, Nova Scotia, sees a large, brilliant, white light hovering in the sky to the northwest. She can see its reflection on the surface of the still water. She calls her husband, who gets binoculars and determines there are two lights side by side. After several minutes or so, his mother on the floor above says she can see the light too. As soon as they switch the deck lights off for a better view, the two lights start moving directly toward their house, and he watches it slowly fly about 100 feet above the house. It seems to be a rectangular object about 200 feet long by 100 feet wide. It disappears behind the tree line. (Don Ledger, “The Flying Triangle Phenomenon,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 7)

May 5 — 4:15 a.m. A senior master sergeant and an airman are patrolling the perimeter of the Ghedi Air Force Base near Brescia, Italy. Suddenly they notice an unusual yellow light zigzagging and maneuvering in the sky, much bigger than a star and heading toward the northern part of the airfield. After several minutes it increases in size and becomes a round, orange object as big as the full moon, moving at least 186 mph before hovering a while and zooming away. It returns and leaves twice more, the last time descending to 65 feet above their patrol vehicle. They think this time it will land, but it ascends and zooms away again. They prefer not to report the incident. (2Pinotti 150–151) May 25 — 10:30 p.m. An America West B-757 airliner is cruising at 39,000 feet near Bovina, Texas. To their right and somewhat below their altitude, Capt. Gene Tollefson and First Officer John J. Waller see a row of bright white lights that sequence on and off from left to right. Waller contacts the Albuquerque FAA Air Route Traffic Control Center while the sighting is in progress and checks with military installations in the area, but no explanation can be found. As the airliner proceeds to the west and the object begins dropping behind, the crew sees it against a background of thunderclouds. When the background clouds pulse with lightning, the UFO appears as a dark, wingless, elongated cigar-like object around the strobing lights. Though they do not know the exact distance, Tollefson and Waller estimate the object to be 300–400 feet long. One of the air traffic controllers at Albuquerque contacts NORAD, which confirms an unidentified radar target in the vicinity. But this later proves to be a small aircraft whose transponder is not initially operative. (NICAP, “America West Airlines Flight 564 / NORAD/ F- 111 Incident”; Walter N. Webb, Final Report on the America West Airline Case, May 24 – 25, 1995, Fund for UFO Research, July 1996; “1995: The America West UFO Sighting,” ufocasebook.com; Patrick Gross, “Texas, May 1995 ”)

June 15 — 2:30 a.m. A triangular UFO with two other brightly lit round objects is seen over RAF West Drayton [now closed], England. (Marler 143) June 22 — 1:00 a.m. Soldiers guarding a military ammunition dump in the southern Carpathian Mountains near the Buzau River, Romania, notice several bright lights in the valley below. They are attached to an object that begins ascending and approaching them from the southwest. It is a flat triangular object with rounded edges that passes straight above their unit, illuminating the ground from a height of about 150 feet. They can hear a loud buzzing noise. It glides to the northeast over the mountains near Întorsura Buzăului and disappears. The next day the unit is rounded up and told never to speak about the sighting. (Romania 94–95)

July — USAF Headquarters publishes, through the Government Printing Office, The Roswell Report: Fact Versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert, by Col. Richard L. Weaver and Lt. James McAndrew, blaming the Roswell debris on a top-secret Project Mogul balloon array sent aloft to detect signs of Soviet nuclear explosions. The first part of the 1,000+-page document is an introductory summary, supported by 31 attachments, by Weaver that was released in September 1994. The second part is a synopsis of Project Mogul balloon research findings by McAndrew, with additional attachments and appendices. A photo section includes photos of various Air Force personnel and Mogul scientists. The report claims Mogul flight number 4, launched on June 4, 1947, was responsible for the Roswell debris. The attachments and appendices are mostly memos dealing with the Air Force requests of its departments for Roswell records; statements and interviews with persons connected with Project Mogul; and New York University progress reports on the Constant Level Balloon project (a study to determine how balloons and their payloads could be maintained at high altitudes for long periods of time). About 95% of the report is padding. (Robert A. Galganski, “The Roswell Debris: A Quantitative Evaluation of the Project Mogul Hypothesis,” IUR 20, no. 2 (March/April 1995): 3–6, 23–24; Charles B. Moore, Robert G. Todd, Mark Rodeghier, and Kevin D. Randle, “Project Mogul and the Roswell Crash: An Exchange,” IUR 20, no. 2 (March/April 1995): 7–9, 19–22; Col. Richard L. Weaver and 1Lt. James McAndrew, The Roswell Report: Fact versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert, US Air Force Headquarters, July 1995; Mark Rodeghier and Mark Chesney, “The Final(?) Air Force Report on Roswell,” IUR 2 0, no. 5 (Winter 1995): 5– 6 ; Richard Hall, “Fact vs. Fiction in the Pentagon,” IUR 2 0, no. 5 (Winter 1995): 7 – 8 ; Swords 352–354; “Air Force Reports on the Roswell UFO Incident,” Military Wiki; Clark III 32) July 1 — Dusk. As a Varig Airlines flight is descending about 37 miles from Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, the commander sees a very bright disc-like object spinning in the sky in a curious way. The UFO is about 215 feet in diameter and emits a bright white light. As they approach the landing, the light speeds up and crosses in front of them. (Clark III 201; Brazil 543–544) July 15 — 2:45 p.m. Two witnesses (an emergency room nurse and her husband) are driving home (probably along State Highway 8, adjacent to the Naugatuck River) after a fishing trip to Harwinton, Connecticut. A shadow crosses the road as they are driving north, and they look up to see a large metallic disc about 500 feet in diameter at an

altitude of about 200 feet, over trees about a half mile away. The object is traveling 65–70 mph and its surface is metallic gray with a band of apparent panes of dark glass and facets on its upper portion. It passes behind trees to the right in about 10–15 seconds. A group of independent witnesses at another location does not observe the object. (Mark Cashman, “The Harwinton Daylight Disc,” IUR 25, no. 2 (Summer 2000): 14–19) July 28 — The US General Accounting Office releases Results of a Search for Records Concerning the 1947 Crash near Roswell, New Mexico, which says that all administrative records from Roswell Army Air Field in New Mexico from March 1945 to December 1949 have been destroyed, as well as outgoing messages from October 1946 to December 1949. This is perhaps not unusual for the time, as record retention and disposition procedures were unclear; however, Nick Redfern suggests the possibility that the records were destroyed or removed to hide evidence of unethical radiation and other experiments on unwilling human subjects. The GAO agrees with the Air Force that the wreckage was most likely from a Project Mogul balloon train. The report is in response to a request by Rep. Steven Schiff (D-N.Mex.). (Results of a Search for Records Concerning the 1947 Crash near Roswell, New Mexico, General Accounting Office, July 1995, reprinted in IUR 20, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1995): 3–6; Mark Rodeghier and Mark Chesney, “What the GAO Found: Nothing about Much Ado,” IUR 20, no. 4 (July/Aug. 1995): 7–8, 24; Swords 354– 355 ; Nick Redfern, The Roswell UFO Conspiracy, Lisa Hagan, 2017, pp. 134 – 139 ) July 29 — 12:15 a.m. Five witnesses in Low Bradfield, South Yorkshire, England, watch a triangular object, “bigger than a commercial airliner, “ flying flat side forward. A low humming sound is heard. (Marler 143– 1 44) July 31 — 6:10 p.m. Aereolíneas Argentinas Flight 734, a Boeing 727 with three crew and 102 passengers, is in the landing pattern for San Carlos de Bariloche Airport, Rio Negro, Argentina. Capt. Jorge Polanco suddenly sees a white light bearing down on the aircraft before halting only 300 feet away. The object then makes a turn and flies parallel to the 727. It looks like an inverted flying saucer as large as the airliner, has two green lights at each end and a flashing orange light in the center, and very powerfully illuminated, according to the captain. As Polanco begins to land, the runway and airport lights go out, so he is forced to climb back to 9,800 feet, accompanied by the UFO. Airport chief Maj. Jorge Orviedo reports that the airport’s radio support is cut off, and there is a blackout in many parts of the city. When the ground lights come back on, the UFO shoots away at tremendous speed. The object is also observed by a Gendarmeria Piper PA- 31 - 310 that is flying 1,900 feet above the 727. (Good Need, pp. 403 – 404 ; Patrick Gross, “Air Misses”)

August 8 — Two airliners, one from TAM and the other from Rio Sul Serviços Aéreos Regionais, watch a UFO over Macapá, Amapá, Brazil. TAM Cmdr. Marcos Aurélio de Castro reports that he and his copilot see a metallic glow ahead of them to the right. The air traffic center cannot see anything but notes that the Rio Sul flight has reported something similar 5 minutes earlier. Suddenly the silvery object approaches the TAM aircraft. The sighting lasts about 10 minutes. (Clark III 201– 203 ; Brazil 544–545) August 14 — 11:55 p.m. An enormous, roughly triangular object is seen by three family members near the Brighton Racecourse, Sussex, England. (Marler 144) August 27 — 9:30 a.m. Tim Edwards shoots a video of a disc-shaped object hovering then darting about the sky over Salida, Colorado. A series of ripples or moving lights are seen to rotate from left to right on the object, which stays just above the sun while Edwards, his daughter, and four construction workers also watch. UFO investigators are not impressed with the video, which might be spider web or cottonwood fluff. Bruce Maccabee thinks it might be a genuine UFO. (“UFO Video Salida Tim Edwards 1995,” UFOvideodotcom YouTube channel, October 4, 2012; “Colorado Man and His Films Bring UFO Meet Back to Earth,” Salt Lake City Deseret News, November 30, 1995; Jennie Zeidman, “The Will to Believe: Gnats, Moths, and Cottonwood Fluff from Outer Space,” IUR 21, no. 4 (Winter 1996): 14– 1 7; Bruce Maccabee, “Salida: An Analysis of the Video,” IUR 21, no. 4 (Winter 1996): 17– 19 ) August 28 — Fox TV broadcasts for the first time the “alien autopsy film,” a 17 - minute black-and-white film supposedly depicting a secret medical examination of autopsy of an alien by the US military. The program, hosted in the US by Jonathan Frakes, is given the title Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction. The film is broadcast by Channel 4 in the UK as a segment of “The Roswell Incident.” London-based entrepreneur Ray Santilli presents it as an authentic autopsy on the body of an alien recovered from the 1947 crash of a flying disc near Roswell, New Mexico. The film footage is allegedly supplied to him by a retired military cameraman who wishes to remain anonymous. Experts, including pathologist Cyril Wecht, special effects specialist Stan Winston, and cinematographer Allen Daviau, are shown commenting on the film’s authenticity. The program causes a sensation, with Time magazine declaring that the film has sparked a debate “with an intensity not lavished on any home movie since the Zapruder film.” Fox rebroadcasts the program twice, each time to higher ratings. But even segment director John Jopson tells producer Robert Kiviat that he suspects the entire film is a fake, but Fox makes it clear that such suspicions will not be allowed. Mike Maloney, a former photographer for the London tabloid Daily Mirror, says it is the

same footage that he saw in the late 1970s at a private viewing in the Los Angeles house of a Disney executive. In
2006, Santilli admits the film is not authentic but rather a staged reconstruction of footage (using sheep brains and
jelly stuffed into puppets made by a UK sculptor John Humphreys) he claims to have viewed in 1992, but which
has deteriorated and become unusable by the time he made his film. The military cameraman is portrayed by a
homeless man in Los Angeles. Santilli claims that a few frames from the original are embedded in his film, but he
never specifies which ones. Producer Spyros Melaris claims that he has made all the auxiliary footage, including
that of the homeless man. The existence of an original filmstrip of the alleged autopsy has never been
independently verified. Philip Mantle of BUFORA has spent 25 years examining both the footage and the story
surrounding it. (Wikipedia, “Alien autopsy”; Internet Movie Database, “Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction?”; “Alien
Autopsy,” Orbitalmedia YouTube channel, February 14, 2013; Richard Corliss, “Autopsy or Fraud-topsy?” Time,
November 27, 1995; Joseph A. Bauer, “A Surgeon’s View: Alien Autopsy’s Overwhelming Lack of Credibility,”
Skeptical Inquirer 20, no. 1 (January 1996): 23–24; Michael Hesemann and Philip Mantle, Beyond Roswell: The
Alien Autopsy Film, Area 51, and the US Government Coverup of UFOs, Marlowe, 1997, pp. 182– 210 ; “Eamonn
Investigates: Alien Autopsy,” UFOHighway YouTube channel, September 19, 2010, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4;
Philip Mantle, Alien Autopsy Inquest, The Author, 2007; Philip Mantle, “Alien Autopsy Film, R.I.P.,” IUR 32, no.
1 (August 2008): 15–19; Nathalie Lagerfeld, “How an Alien Autopsy Hoax Captured the World’s Imagination for
a Decade,” Time, June 24, 2016; Philip Mantle, Roswell Alien Autopsy: The Truth behind the Film That Shocked
the World, Flying Disk Press, 2017 , revised ed., 2020; Stu Neville, “Effects, Lies, and Videotape: 25 Years of the
Alien Autopsy,” Fortean Times 395 (August 2020): 32–36; Nigel Watson, “Alien Autopsy: The Interview,”
Fortean Times 395 (August 2020): 37– 40 )

September 21 — The USAF Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory issues a Report on Project Mogul by 1 Lt. James McAndrew. (1Lt. James McAndrew, Report on Project Mogul: Synopsis of Balloon Research Findings, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, September 21, 1995) September 29 — 8:50 p.m. A witness in Stanley, Durham, England, watches a strange triangular object through binoculars. It flies pointed-end forward and has a pulsing red light on its front tip and steady white lights on its other tips. (Marler 144) September 29 — 9:30 p.m. Near Vejle, Jutland, Denmark, a 24-year-old man is driving when the dashboard lights behave erratically, the wipers go on, and his dog gets agitated. Then the engine goes completely dead. Without warning, a powerful light explodes over the vehicle, coming from a huge disc directly above the car. (“Bilstop med Effekter,” UFO-Nyt 1996, no. 1, pp. 4–5; Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33 , no. 4 (May 2011): 17 – 18)

October 1 — 11:00 p.m. Fernando Beserra and Wilson da Silva Oliveira are fishing off the Ilha do Major, a mangrove area near the Rio Piaçabuçu adjacent to São Vicente, São Paulo, Brazil, when a bright yellow object approaches swiftly and silently, landing on a nearby islet. Their boat engine fails as the UFO passes over, but they restart it and flee the area. They return the next morning and find an area of dry vegetation twisted clockwise in a circle 18 feet in diameter. Four marks of apparent landing gear are also found, each measuring 4 by 6 inches and half an inch deep. Researchers from the Instituto Nacional de Investigações de Fenômenos Aeroespaciais find that in the soil samples obtained within the burned area seeds germinate easily, but those planted in the samples harvested outside the circle do not germinate and are attacked by fungi. (Thiago Luiz Ticchetti, “UFO Landing in São Vicente: UFO Lands and Leaves Marks on Ground,” Nexus Newsfeed, October 2, 2019; “Caso de OVNI avistado em São Vicente completa 25 anos,” Diário do Litoral (Santos, São Paulo), March 9, 2020; Brazil 354–360)

November 27 — 6:20 p.m. Mohammad Ahsan and four colleagues see two triangle-shaped objects emitting laser-like blue rays splashed with red over Dubai, United Arab Emirates. They are silently moving from the al-Hamriya Fish Market southeast toward Dubai International Airport. (“UFO Sighting in UAE Reported,” Saudi Gazette, November 28, 1995, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 317 (December 1995): 16)

December — Real-estate developer Robert Bigelow founds the National Institute for Discovery Science in Las Vegas, Nevada, to research and advance serious study of various fringe science and paranormal topics, especially ufology. It holds its first organizational meeting in December. Bigelow soon hires retired US Army Col. John B. Alexander part-time and biochemist Colm Kelleher as deputy administrator. Alexander puts together a Scientific Advisory Board that includes ufologist Jacques Vallée, parapsychologist Harold E. Puthoff, astronaut Edgar Mitchell, mathematician Gian-Carlo Rota, physicist O’Dean Judd, physicist Johndale Solem, astronaut and Senator Harrison Schmitt, psychologist Albert Harrison, and Christopher (Kit) Green as chair. The first official

board meeting takes place in January 1996. NIDS disbands in October 2004. (Wikipedia, “National Institute for Discovery Science”; John B. Alexander, “From Los Alamos to Skinwalker Ranch,” Fortean Times 363 (February 2018): 38– 39 ; Skinwalkers 14–15, 31) December 12 — 2:30 p.m. Farmer Egon Kratz and his son-in-law, Adilson Marcílio, are working on their Bela Vista Farm off Highway 227 about 5 miles from Ituporanga, Santa Catarina, Brazil, when a bright, silent, disc-shaped object appears low above some nearby trees, moves swiftly about 30 feet from the ground, and disappears into a valley. On December 15, Marcílio and some friends return to look for traces and find much of the vegetation scorched. Technicians from the Federal University of Santa Catarina arrive on December 20 to collect soil samples and rocks. Kratz notes in January that much of the foliage and vegetation where the UFO has passed is dead or defoliated. (Brazil 350–353)

1996

1996 — The Institut des Hautes Études de la Défense Nationale, a French strategic planning agency, decides to create a 12 - member COMité d’ÉTudes Approfondies (COMETA) to review well-documented UFO cases and cooperate with agencies in other countries to assess national security factors. It is chaired by French Air Force General Denis Letty and begins by interviewing French witnesses, consolidates the best information, and presents its research to appropriate French agencies. (Wikipedia, “Rapport COMETA”) 1996 — Nick Pope, a former Ministry of Defence official who served on the Sec (AS) 2a UFO desk in 1991–1994, publishes a memoir titled Open Skies, Closed Minds that recounts his conversion from UFO skeptic to believer due to his investigation of cases that seem to be evidential. He concludes that “extraterrestrial spacecraft are visiting Earth and that something should be done about it urgently.” (Nick Pope, Open Skies, Closed Minds, Simon & Schuster, 1996; Wikipedia, “Open Skies, Closed Minds”) 1996 — La Fundación Anomalía is created by a group of Spanish ufologists headed by José Ruesga Montiel in Santander, Cantabria, Spain. It takes over publishing Cuadernos de Ufologia from the Colectivo Cuadernos in 1997 and publishes a new journal, Anomalía, from September 2000 to 2011. (Anomalía, no. 1 (September 2000))

January 13 — Oralina Augusta de Freitas is watching TV in her home near Varginha, Minas Gerais, Brazil, when she sees a UFO hovering over the cattle, which are agitated. She calls her husband, Eurico Rodrigues, and they watch the object, which is the size of a microbus and the shape of a submarine. For 40 minutes the object flies less than 20 feet above the ground, heading toward town. The object has a hole in its structure through which white smoke is billowing. Pieces of its fuselage sway in the wind. (“ET de Varginha: Caso completa 20 anos com mistérios e incertezas,” G1, January 20, 2016; Clark III 1222) January 13 — 4:00 a.m. Businessman and pilot Carlos de Souza is driving from Très Coracões to Varginha, Minas Gerais, Brazil, along Highway 491. About 3 miles from Varginha, he hears a sound like an engine rumbling, so he stops by the side of the road and gets out of his vehicle. He sees a cylindrical airship 33–40 feet long and 13–16 feet in diameter flying about 395 feet above him toward Varginha. It is metallic, polished, and reflects the morning sunlight. He notices a hole in the right side of the ship and white smoke pouring out. After it crosses the highway, de Souza gets into his car and starts chasing it. When it crashes into the woods, he finds a dirt road that leads him to the scene, which is covered with debris that looks like tinfoil. He picks up a larger piece that is thin and light. When he kneads it, he is amazed to see that it returns to its original state. Further away, he sees an Army helicopter, two tarpaulins, an ambulance, and three cars. He smells a powerful ammonia odor and is startled by a military police officer who approaches him and shouts, “Go away, you saw nothing.” Two more soldiers appear and force him to leave, so he returns to his car, drives away, and stops at a restaurant. A man approaches him and asks if he is Carlos de Souza, He replies yes, and the man calls him over and says, “What you saw, I saw too. You should not talk to anyone about it.” The man then relates details about de Souza’s private life. Meanwhile, two soldiers from the Escola de Sargentos das Armas in Très Coracões contact ufologists Ubirajara Franco Rodrigues and Claudeir Covo about the incident to tell them that the area has been cordoned off and that trucks are loading odd material. There are rumors that NORAD has alerted the Brazilian authorities that it has tracked a large number of UFOs over the western hemisphere and that one has penetrated Brazilian airspace. (Wikipedia, “Incidente de Varginha”; Clark III 1222; Good Need, pp. 369 – 376 ; Roger K. Leir, UFO Crash in Brazil: A Genuine UFO Crash with Surviving ETs, Book Tree, 2005; “ET de Varginha: Caso completa 20 anos com mistérios e incertezas,” G1, January 20, 2016; Patrick Gross, “The Varginha Affair”) January 20 — 8:00 a.m. The Varginha, Brazil, fire department receives a call from someone who asks them to investigate a strange creature seen in a park north of the Jardim Andere neighborhood. At 10:00 a.m., firefighters arrive

expecting to find a wild animal, but they encounter a 5-foot-tall bipedal entity with red eyes and brown skin. Fish peddler João Bosco Manoel comes across firefighters Sgt. Palhares, Cpl. Rubens, and soldiers Santos and Nivaldo, who are carrying a net with a strange being inside it. One of its feet is brown, and the firefighters are trying to conceal it from curious onlookers. A smell of ammonia permeates the scene. (Clark III 1222–1223) January 20 — Afternoon. According to testimony by an ex-soldier, uniformed military men open fire while they are sweeping the small forest near Varginha, Brazil, where the creature had been found earlier. A soldier becomes frightened when he sees a creature apparently helping a wounded comrade. Two shots strike its belly and one its chest. A fourth shot hits its shoulder. These two creatures differ from the earlier one and have black hair. Immediately afterward, soldiers come out of the woods carrying the creatures in two black sacks. Something is moving in one of them. (Clark III 1223) January 20 —3:30 p.m. Sisters Liliane Fátima da Silva, 16, and Valquíria Aparecida da Silva, 14, and their friend Kátia Andrade Xavier, 22, are crossing a vacant lot at Rua Dr. Benevenuto Bráz Viêrira in the Santana neighborhood of Varginha, Brazil, when they encounter a thin, hairless, dark-skinned creature with dark veins, two legs with enormous two-toed feet, two arms with only three fingers, a huge head two three bony protrusions (one on each side and one in the center), and huge red eyes crouching beside a wall. At first they think it is a statue, but then it turns its head and they think it is a devil. They run home and call their mother, Luzia Helena da Silva, but when they return to the vacant lot, all they find is two footprints and an awful stench. (Wikipedia, “Incidente de Varginha”; Clark III 1223– 1224 ; “ET de Varginha: Caso completa 20 anos com mistérios e incertezas,” G1, January 20, 2016; “Caso Varginha Minuto a Minuto,” João Marcelo YouTube channel, July 13, 2016; Brazil 494– 509) January 20 — Around 6:00 p.m. After a hailstorm halts the search for several hours, the Varginha, Brazil, search units venture back into the woods. Two plainclothes officers of the Military Police Intelligence Service, one of them Marco Eli Chereze, locate and capture a fourth creature, forcing it into the back of their car. They bring it to a health clinic but are turned away, so they take it to the Hospital Regional do Sul de Minas, where the first examinations are performed. (Clark III 1224) January 21 — 2:00 a.m. Marco Eli Chareze returns home to his mother’s house to change clothes because his are drenched with rain. He begins to fall ill. (Clark III 1225) January 21 — The strange creatures are transferred to Hospital Humanitas Unimed in Varginha, Brazil. There are many reports of unusual movements of the Army, the police, and the fire department between the two hospitals. Vehicles are also seen arriving at a hospital in Belo Horizonte, where allegedly one of the creatures dies. (Clark III 1224) January 22 — The Brazilian military uses three trucks and several other vehicles to move the covered bodies. The trucks are parked on the side of Hospital Humanitas Unimed, and a series of cover-up operations are performed involving doctors, nurses, soldiers, firemen, and military police. The bodies inside the three trucks go to the Escola de Sargentos das Armas in Très Coracões, Brazil. (Clark III 1224) January 23 — 4:00 a.m. A military convoy leaves the Escola de Sargentos das Armas for Campinas, Brazil. (Clark III 1224) January 23 — 9:00 a.m. The creatures are delivered in a metal box punctured with holes to the University of Campinas in São Paulo, Brazil, where doctors Fortunato Badan Palhares and Conradín Metz begin performing autopsies. Lab workers are prevented from entering the site. According to three military sources, at least one creature is taken to underground labs located at the university. Another creature is referred to the Legal Medical Institute at the Cemitério dos Amarais in Campinas. Army officials continue making decisive movements around Campinas through April. There are rumors that metal fragments of an unknown origin are taken to the Brazilian Departamento de Ciência e Tecnologia Aeroespacial in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, where they are examined in secret underground facilities. The same day, a cargo aircraft takes off from Canoas Air Force Base, Rio Grande do Sul, transporting three containers, a box, several soldiers, and a sophisticated radar system to be deployed near Varginha. (Clark III 1224) January 25 — The US military arrives in Campinas, Brazil, by helicopter, where the entire university is on standby. (Clark III 1224–1225) January 26 — Several scientists and military personnel linked to NASA arrive at the University of Campinas, Brazil. The cover story is that US scientists are choosing Brazilian scientists to take part in future space missions. (Clark III 1225)

February 6 — Marco Eli Chereze, 23, one of the military policemen involved in the Varginha, Brazil, creature capture, begins exhibiting strange symptoms and notices inflammation and a small abscess under his left arm. At the

barracks infirmary, physician Robson Ferreira Melo performs surgery to remove the abscess, found to be due to staphylococcus. Then Chereze develops a fever and pain all over his body. (Clark III 1225) February 11 — Chereze is admitted to Hospital Bom Pastor in Varginha, Brazil. February 12 — Chereze is transferred to the emergency room of the Hospital Regional do Sul de Minas, Brazil, suffering from intense pain in the lower back and fever. February 15 — Chereze wakes up very tired and in a state or torpor, with signs of cyanosis. He is transferred to intensive care, where his condition deteriorates rapidly. Chereze dies at 11:00 a.m. An autopsy confirms septicemia caused by a urinary infection, but the cause of death is unclear, according to Dr. Cesário Lincoln Furtado, who says it is highly unusual for a young man to quickly acquire an immunodeficiency followed by an attack of three kinds of virulent bacteria. Doctors order his body to be cremated immediately, but his family will not allow it. The death certificate gives the cause of death as acute respiratory failure, sepsis, and pneumonia. The family begins a legal challenge to have the records released. (A. J. Gevaerd and Ubirajata Franco Rodrigues, “Varginha Case: New Revelations,” translation of “Novas revalações agitaram Varginha,” UFO Brazil, no. 102, August 1, 2004; Clark III 1225)

March 1 — 6:00 p.m. A man driving past a field in Southport, Merseyside, England, sees a triangle-shaped object with a white light in each corner and a green light in the center. It stays motionless for 5 minutes before it starts circling the field. Then it stops and the lights merge into one long green light. Without warning, it takes off and disappears. (“Mystery in the Evening Skies,” Southport (UK) Visitor, March 8, 1996, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 325 (August 1996): 13) March 9 — 10:50 p.m. Two groups of motorists at Gallows Corner, Romford, East London, England, watch a triangular UFO as large as a soccer field with a white light in each corner and a pulsating orange light in the center. (Marler 220 – 221) March 12 — Two hunters are snowmobiling near Trout Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada, when they come upon two metallic “spaceships” blocking their trail. Both objects are about 300 feet in diameter, with a bright light on their tops and windows on their sides. One stands on three legs while the other hovers. As the hunters drive around the objects, the lights go out. Later, Trout Lake officials find large rectangular impressions in the snow. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada—1996,” IUR 22, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 32)

April 21 —Around 9:00 p.m. Terezinha Gallo Clepf is celebrating her 67th birthday at the restaurant at the Parque Zoobotânico Municipal Dr. Mário Frota in Varginha, Brazil, when she steps onto a porch to smoke a cigarette. She looks to her left and sees a strange creature with bright red eyes and a yellow helmet on its head. It is behind a fence that circles the porch. They stare at each other. Clepf goes back into the restaurant but soon comes back out and the creature is still there. She gets her husband to take her home. (Clark III 1225) April 29 — Luzia Helena da Silva is visited in Varginha, Brazil, by four men in suits who do not identify themselves. After hearing her daughters’ story of their January 20 encounter, they offer the family a large sum of money to record a video denying what they had seen that day and claiming the whole thing was a joke. (Clark III 1225)

May 8 — Brig. Gen. Sergio Pedro Coelho Lima, commander of the Escola de Sargentos das Armas in Très Coracões, Brazil, reads a statement saying that no officer at the school has participated in the alleged operation. He insists to journalists that nothing unusual has happened in the city. When asked what the ESA military was doing on January 20, he replies that the military was “working for the sake of the Army and the nation.” In 1999, the story is amplified when a Major Calza says a “dwarf, disfigured and mentally retarded,” was behind some of the creature reports in Varginha. (Clark III 1225, 1226) May 17 — 8:00 p.m. Hildo Lúcio Gardino, 20, is traveling from Très Coracões to Varginha, Brazil, when she sees a strange creature on the side of the road. She dims her headlights and speeds past as the creature places its hands over its eyes and flees into the woods. (Clark III 1225) May 22 — 3:30 p.m. A motorist on the West Tamar Highway near Bradys Lookout State Reserve in Tasmania, notices an upright, vapor-like trail to the north. The trail changes into an upright, bronze-colored cigar shape that disappears in front of their eyes. (“Northern Flap,” TUFOIC Newsletter, no. 79 (October 1996): 3; Herbert S. Taylor, “Cloud Cigars: A Further Look,” IUR 30, no. 3 (May 2006): 13) May 29 — About 1:00 p.m. A vertical, misty cloud is seen against the clear blue sky above Launceston, Tasmania. It forms into a vertical upright cylinder that seems to have a long hole. The witness and a friend look away for a second, and the object is gone. (“Northern Flap,” TUFOIC Newsletter, no. 79 (October 1996): 3; Herbert S. Taylor, “Cloud Cigars: A Further Look,” IUR 30, no. 3 (May 2006): 13)

June 17 — 10:30 p.m. A witness is driving east on East Kingsfield Road in the northern part of Pensacola, Florida, when he sees a large, black triangular object. He pulls to the side of the road to watch, as does a truck in front of him. The object has a single white light at each corner and hovers directly above the road. A red blinking light is at the center. (“Triangular Shaped Craft Hovers over Witness,” Pensacola Beach (Fla.) Islander, July 10, 1996, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 325 (August 1996): 5) June 24 — Day. Spasso Maximovitch notices an unusual object in the western sky over Rosh HaAyin in central Israel. He grabs his video camera to film it, just as a glowing white oval-shaped object appears some 20° west of the object and streaks toward it at high speed. Within 3 seconds it strikes the stationary orb, causing a huge explosion in the sky that seemingly destroys both objects. Stunned, Maximovitch stops filming immediately after capturing the explosion. (Patrick Gross, “UFO Mid-Air Crash—or Military Drill—Filmed in Israel”)

July — Day. A private pilot is flying his Piper Cherokee PA- 28 - 140 from Waterville, Nova Scotia, to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, at 3,500 feet. While over Cape Blomidon, Nova Scotia, the pilot’s father-in-law (next to him in the right seat) spots a chrome-colored sphere 60 feet in diameter about 2 miles away and traveling at the same speed as the aircraft but about 500 feet lower. The pilot banks gently in its direction, and the sphere speedily darts toward Springhill, Nova Scotia, 20 miles away, and hovers there as a bright dot, then disappears. The pilot is distressed about the encounter and is distracted for the rest of the flight. (Don Ledger, “Two Spherical UAP Cases Witnessed by Pilots in Canadian Airspace,” IUR 33, no. 2 (July 2010): 9, 22) July 4 — John P. Timmerman investigates a mystery crop circle found in a wheat field belonging to Dan Arend off County Road 126 near Paulding, Ohio. (John P. Timmerman, “The Paulding, Ohio, Crop Circle,” IUR 21, no. 3 (Fall 1996): 24–26) July 9 — 12:30 a.m. Police Sgt. Marian Mancu and volunteer guard Maricel Rusu are patrolling on the main road through Cerțești, Romania. Rusu sees a lighted object descending silently, causing nearby neon lights to vary in their intensity. Mancu hears a whistling sound and sees an object with flashing blue and red lights hovering 2 feet above the pavement. Three small people with elongated heads, white faces, big eyes, and scaly bodies are moving around inside it. The object is top-shaped, 15–20 feet across and 8 feet tall, and has a girdle of lights around the edge like a rainbow. After 2 minutes it rises vertically, its lights become brighter, and nearby streetlights go out. It turns northwest and departs with tremendous speed. Other residents of the town witness unusual light phenomena. (Romania 135–146) July 17 — Dusk. A woman near Langruth, Manitoba, is startled to see a disc-shaped object moving quietly and slowly through her farmyard. The object, 9–12 feet in diameter and 2.5 feet thick, has slitlike lights along its edge. The next morning, she finds three circular patches of deep green growth in the area where the object had been. She thinks her well water has been affected by the incident. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada—1996,” IUR 22, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 32)

August — Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) attends the fifth meeting of the National Institute for Discovery Science scientific advisory board in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jacques Vallée delivers the main presentation. Reid stays in frequent contact with Robert Bigelow afterward. (Skinwalkers 15) August 12 — 9:40 p.m. A witness in Smithton, Illinois, sees a faint, dull-red, glowing triangular object as he is looking for the Perseid meteor shower. It appears from the south, flies north above his house, and vanishes after 10 seconds. (Marler 171) August 17 — A couple camping in Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba, see a strange blue light dancing behind a hill. When they investigate, they find an object moving along the ground, occasionally emitting fames from its base. After a short while, it zips into the sky, then returns and hovers near them. It then shines a beam of light around the ground, illuminating them at one point. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada—1996,” IUR 22, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 32) August 18– 20 — Journalist Gary Webb publishes his “Dark Alliance” series in the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News, with one long article and one or two shorter articles appearing each day. It claims that “For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.” This drug ring “opened the first pipeline between Colombia’s cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles” and, as a result, “The cocaine that flooded in helped spark a crack explosion in urban America.” The Mercury News continues to pursue the story, publishing follow-ups to the original series for the next three months. Other papers are slow to pick up the story, but African Americans quickly take note, especially in South Central Los Angeles where the dealers discussed in the series are active. They respond with outrage to the series’ charges. By the end of September, three federal investigations are announced: an investigation into the CIA

allegations conducted by CIA Inspector-General Frederick Hitz, an investigation into the law enforcement allegations by Justice Department Inspector-General Michael Bromwich, and a second investigation into the CIA by the House Intelligence Committee. After his resignation from The Mercury News, Webb expands the “Dark Alliance” series into a book that responds to the criticism of the series and describes his experiences writing the story and dealing with the controversy. A revised version is published in 1999 that incorporates Webb’s response to the CIA and Justice Department reports. The February 2000 report by the House Intelligence Committee in turn considers the book’s claims as well as the series’ claims. Webb’s reporting in “Dark Alliance” remains controversial. Many writers discussing the series point to errors in it. The claim that the drug ring of Meneses- Blandón-Ross sparked the “crack explosion” has been perhaps the most criticized part of the series. Webb commits suicide in 2004. (Wikipedia, “Gary Webb”; Wikipedia, “Dark Alliance (book)”; Gary Webb, Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, Seven Stories, 1998, revised ed., 1999) August 29 — 8:00 p.m. A mechanic notices a white mass of light at Port Arthur, Tasmania. His car acts up a bit, but the light vanishes, and it returns to normal. At 9:30 p.m., on the return trip, the white mass returns and paces the car for several kilometers. The engine misses and the headlights go out. He can now see a cigar-shaped object about 650 feet away, so he gets out, checks the engine, and finds nothing wrong. The UFO moves off and the car starts again. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 20)

September 10 — The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. It opens for signature in New York on September 24 and is signed by 71 states, including five of the eight then- nuclear states. The treaty will enter into force 180 days after the 44 states listed in Annex 2 of the treaty have ratified it. These “Annex 2 states” are states that participated in the CTBT’s negotiations between 1994 and 1996 and possessed nuclear power reactors or research reactors at that time. As of 2016, eight Annex 2 states have not ratified the treaty: China, Egypt, Iran, Israel, and the United States have signed but not ratified the treaty; India, North Korea, and Pakistan have not signed it. (Wikipedia, “Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty”) September 16 — Day. A witness is repairing a fence on his property near Valley, Ohio, when his dog starts barking loudly. Going over to his dog, he looks up to see a low-flying space-capsule-shaped UFO hovering and moving slowly over one of his cow pastures. He takes six photos of the object. Black to dark green in the photos, the cone-shaped object, when enlarged, shows a black Teflon-like covered bottom and a flange or rim that goes around near the top. In each photo the UFO is shown at a slightly different position and altitude, making it more difficult to hoax. (Patrick Gross, “Mysterious Photos”)

October — Psychologist Stuart Appelle evaluates factors of deception, suggestibility, personality, sleep phenomena, psychopathology, psychodynamics, environment, and event-level alien encounters as origins of the abduction experience. He argues that no one theory enjoys enough empirical support to be accepted as a general explanation. (Stuart Appelle, “The Abduction Experience: A Critical Evaluation of Theory and Evidence,” JUFOS 6 (1995/1996): 29–78) October 5 — 2:00 a.m. Police Constable David Leyland in Skegness, Lincolnshire, England, sees some rotating colored lights in the sky and reports them to the coast guard. Police in nearby Boston see a single, stationary bright light, while the crew of an offshore tanker report another colored light. Air traffic control radar at Claxby by Normanby, Lincolnshire, picks up a strong target over Boston, and RAF Waddington near Lincoln also picks up an unidentified target in another position. Talk of a UFO wave becomes embellished in the media, and MP Martin Redmond calls for an investigation by RAF Air Defence. Wing Commander Norman Hutchinson conducts an in- depth investigation of all the sightings and radar targets, producing a 23-page report that he completes on November 13. It’s pretty clear that the mysterious radar blips are a permanent radar echo caused by the 273 - foot steeple of St. Botolph’s Church in Boston, the stationary white light is Venus, and astronomer Ian Ridpath identifies the rotating colored lights as misobservations of Sirius and Vega. (UFOFiles2, pp. 159– 162 ; David Clarke, “The 1996 East Anglian UFO Flap,” Fortean Times 223 (July 2007): 28 – 29 ) October 5 — 10:00 a.m. Businessman-pilot Haroldo Westendorff is flying a single-engine EMB-712 Tupi (Piper PA- 28 Cherokee) over Ilha da Sarangonha, near São José do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, when he sees a gigantic object about the size of a football stadium. It is pyramidal in shape with 8 sides, on each of which are 3 protruding domes. Westendorff follows it for 2 minutes. The UFO is revolving slowly on its own axis and moving toward the ocean. A hatch opens on top of the object and three disks emerge and fly away quickly. When Westendorff tries to get closer, the UFO emits reddish rays, causing him to maneuver about 650 feet away. Soon the object begins to rise at great speed. Operators at the Infraero control room at Pelotas Airport visually confirm the observation. (“Caso Ufológico Haroldo Westendorff, 1996,” Canal Fenomeno OVNI YouTube channel, January 18, 2015;

“Completam-se 20 anos do Caso Haroldo Westendorff,” Portal UFO, October 5, 2016; Clark III 203; Brazil 545– 548) October 15 — 11:00 p.m. A couple is driving near Trois Rivières, Quebec, when they see three strange triangular objects flying in the northern sky. One object, shaped like a “topper” and much larger than an airplane, aims an intense white light at their car for 20 minutes. They feel like “time was stopped.” Dozens of other people in the region see UFOs that same night. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada—1996,” IUR 22, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 32) October 16 — 8:30–9:00 p.m. Many people over a wide area of south-central Ohio and northern Kentucky phone police to report strange lights in the sky. A husband and wife watch a fiery orange object near Ripley, Ohio, for 20 minutes. Charles Fite and Bill Adams in Aberdeen, Ohio, see several lights to the north in a “T” formation. A man in Tollesboro, Kentucky, reports 8–10 objects in a group that blink out and reappear in three-minute intervals. An airport operator in Jackson, Ohio, receives two calls describing a group of red lights moving erratically in the northwestern sky. Terry Howard, between Waverly and Chillicothe, Ohio, videotapes a group of glowing objects at about the same angle of altitude as the moon. Ohio UFO investigators suspect that the sightings are a result of military maneuvers by the Ohio Air National Guard. (Terry Endres and Ron Schaffner, “UFO Flare-Ups in Ohio,” IUR 23, no. 3 (Fall 1998): 9–13) October 25 — 2:00 a.m. A family sees a bowl-shaped disc with five rectangular windows in Gypsumville, Manitoba. It is seen through binoculars as it directs a beam of light down at a lake it is hovering above. Two nights later it returns, moving high above the lake. They drive to the home of a neighbor who joins them outside to watch four objects flying in formation. Two of the objects suddenly change direction and disappear from view, then the other two shine beams of light on the lake again and disappear by moving into the clouds. (Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 195–196)

November 16 — During an exhibition by the Brazilian Air Force’s Smoke Squadron over the coastline of Santos, São Paulo, Brazil, one of the EMB-312 Tucano aircraft’s wings breaks off and causes it to crash. A piece of the wing falls on a swimmer and kills him. A video taken at the time of the accident shows a small spherical object approaching the aircraft from behind and passing just at the point where the wing breaks off. Ufologist Reginaldo de Athayde analyzes the video images and finds that the object is real, metallic, reflective, and boasts a speed five times greater than the airplane. It measures about 3-by-3 feet in diameter and has a speed of 746–932 mph. It passes about 6.5 feet from the wing of the plane. (Clark III 205; Brazil 549–551)

December — 11:00 p.m. T/Sgt Anthony W. Keel is engaged in a field training exercise about one mile from the Weapons Storage Area at Ellsworth FB near Rapid City, South Dakota. He looks at the top of a hill and sees a light bobbing around and moving west to east. About 10 minutes later, he looks up again and sees it moving east to west and then back several times. It now moves in a straight line east away from Ellsworth but stops and hovers 2–3 miles from the base. Then it makes several short darts in different directions. After about 5 minutes, the radio operator announces that all flights from Ellsworth are grounded. The light eventually blinks out. (Nukes 469–470) December 11 — 7:00–8:30 p.m. At least 31 people in the Yukon Territory, Canada, witness a giant UFO. Indications are that it may be the size of several football stadiums. The sightings principally take place in four locations in the central Yukon: Fox Lake, Carmacks, Pelly Crossing, and Mayo, with 6, 9, 8 , and 8 witnesses respectively. (NICAP, “Dec. 11, 1996: Yukon Territory”; Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 188– 194 ; Chris Rutkowski, “The Cold, Hard Facts about UFOs in Canada,” IUR 34 , no. 1 (September 2011): 22– 23 ) December 19 — A Boeing 757-200 operated by China’s Southern Airlines takes off from Beijing on a routine flight south to Wuhan. As the jetliner reaches an altitude of 31,500 feet, the copilot spots a bright flash in the sky just ahead of them. A silver-gray metallic UFO strikes the top of the 757’s cockpit, cracking the outer windshield. The pilot immediately declares an in-flight emergency and radios Beijing’s Capital International Airport, requesting permission to land. The plane lands safely 10 minutes later. (Patrick Gross, “Air Misses”)

1997

1997 — In his 1997 article “Dead Cows I’ve Known,” cattle mutilation researcher Charles T. Oliphant speculates that cattle mutilations are the result of covert research into emerging cattle diseases and whether they can be transmitted to humans. He suspects the NIH, CDC, or other federally funded bodies are involved, and they are supported by the US military. Pazrt of this is based on allegations that human pharmaceuticals have been found in mutilated cattle, and that necropsies show cattle mutilations commonly involve areas of the animal that relate to

“input, output, and reproduction.” To support his hypothesis, Oliphant cites the 1990 Reston Ebola virus case in which plainclothes military officers, traveling in unmarked vehicles, entered a research facility in Reston, Virginia, to secretly retrieve and destroy animals that were contaminated with a highly infectious disease. (Wikipedia, “Cattle mutilation”; Ted Oliphant III, “Mad Cow Disease and Cattle Mutilations?” Our Strange Planet, 1997; Ted Oliphant III, “Dead Cows I’ve Known, Part 3,” 1998) 1997 — Contactee Billy Meier’s ex-wife Kalliope in Switzerland tells interviewers that his photos are of spaceship models he has crafted with items like trashcan lids, carpet tacks, and other household objects (verifying the allegations made by California skeptic Kal R. Korff in 1981), and that the stories he told of his adventures with the aliens were similarly fictitious. She also says that photos of purported extraterrestrial women “Asket” and “Nera” are really photos of Michelle DellaFave and Susan Lund, members of the singing and dancing troupe The Golddiggers. It is later confirmed that the women in the photographs are members of The Golddiggers performing on The Dean Martin Show. (“Asket and Nera Photo Deconstruction,” Billy Meier Case) 1997 — Douglas Torr and Timir Datta are involved in the development of a “gravity generator” at the University of South Carolina. According to a leaked document from the Office of Technology Transfer at USC and confirmed to Wired reporter Charles Platt in 1998, the device would create a “force beam” in any desired direction and that the university plans to patent and license this device. No further information about this university research project or the “Gravity Generator” device is ever made public. (Wikipedia, “Anti-gravity”; Charles Platt, “Breaking the Law of Gravity,” Wired, March 1, 1998) 1997 — Chile sets up a new government agency tasked with studying UFO reports. (Kean, p. 116 )

Winter — 3:00 p.m. Sgt. John F. Duffy is serving as loadmaster and radio operator aboard a KC- 130 R Hercules cargo plane flying at an altitude of 24,000 feet north of the Horne Islands in the South Pacific. He notices a white object on the left side of the aircraft. At first it seems stationary, then appears to jump behind a nearby cloud, moving in a horizontal direction and disappears after only 2 seconds. (Richard F. Haines, “South Pacific Sighting, 1997,” IUR 24, no. 2 (Summer 1999): 11 – 12 ) January 10– 12 — Roswell witness Jesse Marcel Jr. undergoes a second series of hypnosis sessions, this time with Washington, D.C.–area clinical psychologist Neil Hibler. They are paid for by Roswell Declaration author Kent Jeffrey, who concludes that Marcel is indeed describing weather balloon debris. However, this interpretation is disputed. January 13 — Morning. A woman driving on Highway 1 from Abbotsford to Chilliwack, British Columbia, notices a fluffy cloud in a clear sky that “bursts downward” with a bright white light three times in succession. It dissipates, leaving behind a black bar. After 5 minutes, a solid stream of white light comes downward from it and another black bar appears, about 45° below the first one. They both start moving east in a wavy motion. She loses sight of them when she gets off the freeway at the Sardis exit. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects and Cloud Cigars,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 26) January 27 — 10:40 p.m. A man is driving on a quiet back road just south of Llangynidr, Powys, Wales, when he sees a “massive star” moving toward him. His car radio fails, and he is unable to use his mobile phone to call for help. He stops and gets out of the car. The glowing tube of smoky gray and blue light descends and encircles the car, remaining for 5 minutes. The witness can move around in the cloud but can hear no sound associated with the object. After the glow vanishes, he remains frightened and a bit sick. The car is coated with dust of unknown origin. He drives home to Newport, and the following morning he notices a skin rash. (Jenny Randles, “A Sprinkling of Star Dust,” Fortean Times 392 (May 2020): 33)

February 22 — Near Aklavik, Northwest Territories, Canada, two silver-gray objects follow five people along a road. They hover above the highway then glide smoothly down to the snow behind them. The objects have rows of windows with bright blue light shining through them. After 15 minutes, the objects are lost to view as the witnesses turn along an ice road. (Chris Rutkowski, “1997 Canadian UFO Survey,” IUR 23, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 15) February 27 — 7:30 p.m. A luminous blue sphere appears over Aviano Air Base, Italy, and hovers. After it disappears, a larger, orange-yellow-red sphere appears, and six fighters are scrambled to intercept it. The jets circle around the sphere but it disappears. (2Pinotti 155)

March — Cheltenham, England, researcher Robin Cole and his UFO group named Circular Forum have looked into the activities of the nearby Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) facility known as the Oakley Installation. He issues an unpublished report on their findings, titled “GCHQ and the UFO Cover-Up,” which includes information on radar/visual encounters reported by RAF personnel in the 1950s, evidence that GCHQ

studied gun-camera footage of UFOs taken by British military pilots, the fact that the GCHQ library contains numerous UFO publications, and evidence that GCHQ still monitors military UFO encounters. Shortly afterward, he is visited by two Cheltenham policemen who ask him about a UFO group called the Truth-Seekers. It turns out they are actually from the Special Branch of the Metropolitan Police, a counter-terrorism division. (Wikipedia, “GCHQ”; Nick Redfern, “Paranoia or Surveillance?” IUR 30, no. 3 (May 2006): 7–9; Nick Redfern, “UFO Encounters, Saucers, and Secrets,” Mysterious Universe, August 23, 2018; Nick Redfern, “UFO Researchers: What Can Happen When You Go Looking for Secrets,” Mysterious Universe, September 18, 2020) March 3 — The Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy, chaired by Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.), after conducting an “investigation into all matters in any way related to any legislation, executive order, regulation, practice, or procedure relating to classified information or granting security clearances,” issues its final report. It concludes that secrecy is a form of government regulation; that excessive secrecy has significant consequences for the national interest when policy makers are not fully informed, the government is not held accountable for its actions, and the public cannot engage in informed debate; that some secrecy is important to minimize inappropriate diffusion of details of weapon systems design and ongoing security operations as well as to allow public servants to secretly consider a variety of policy options without fear of criticism; that the best way to ensure that secrecy is respected, and that the most important secrets remain secret, is for secrecy to be returned to its limited but necessary role; that secrets in the federal government are whatever anyone with a stamp decides to stamp secret; and that a new statute is needed to set forth the principles for what may be declared secret. Moynihan reports that approximately 400,000 new secrets are created annually at the highest level, Top Secret. (Wikipedia, “Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy”; Donald R. Burleson, “UFO Secrecy and the Law,” IUR 28 , no. 4 (Winter 2003–2004): 16– 17 ) March 6 — 6:45–10:30 p.m. Dozens of UFOs descend from the sky and briefly hover above Aviano Air Base, Italy. They zoom toward Venice Marco Polo Airport before heading toward Istrana and Treviso air bases, where they remain hovering in the sky for a while before returning to Aviano. The display repeats several times, despite Italian and US fighters attempting to intercept them. (2Pinotti 156) March 8 — 3:00 a.m. Folkestone Herald journalist Sarah Hall is driving through Burmarsh, Kent, England, when she sees a large triangular object descend and hover above a field some 700 feet away near Dymchurch. It has a disc attached to it on the back and a big light on the front. When she pulls to a stop, it shoots away to a spot about 1,500 feet away and hovers. It does this four times, making a humming sound, and moving westward in increments for only a few seconds at a time. The UFO seems to be twice the size of an airliner. Other witnesses to a strange object come forward after Hall writes an article about her sighting. The residence of Conservative Home Secretary Michael Howard in Lympne is one epicenter. (Good Need, pp. 385 – 387 ) March 13 — 6 : 55 – 10:30 p.m. Aerial lights of varying descriptions are seen by thousands of people (many of whom are looking for Comet Hale-Bopp) in a space of about 300 miles from Henderson, Nevada, at 6:55 p.m., through Phoenix to the edge of Tucson, Arizona. Tim Ley and his family at first see a tiny arc of five white lights just after 8:00 p.m. in the northwestern sky. They slowly draw nearer (around 30 mph), and Ley discerns a V-formation flying no more than 100 feet above the ground. The lights hold this pattern for more than 15 minutes, leading him to believe they are on one structure. Ley’s report is the most detailed, but there are many others. There are two distinct events involved in the entire incident: a triangular formation of lights seen to travel around 8:10– 9 :30 p.m. from Paulden to Tucson, passing over Prescott and Phoenix. Some witnesses see a huge carpenter’s square-shaped UFO, containing five spherical lights or possibly light-emitting engines. Gov. Fife Symington is one witness, although he does not reveal this until 2007; he calls the object “otherworldly.” One overriding characteristic prevails: The UFO is a massive solid object, not merely lights, and it appears low in the sky, blocking out the stars behind it. Many witnesses say it is the size of multiple football fields and up to one mile long. Reports vary in terms of the number and color of lights and their movements. The second group of events is a series of stationary lights seen in the Phoenix area around 10:00 p.m. The Air Force identifies this group as magnesium LUU2 flares dropped by A-10 Warthog aircraft in a training exercise at the Barry Goldwater Range in southwest Arizona as part of Operation Snowbird; news coverage later shows a video taken around 10:00 p.m. by an amateur photographer that clearly shows the flares, not the earlier UFO. Phoenix city councilwoman Frances Emma Barwood is the only elected official to launch a public investigation, but she receives no help from any level of government. She speaks to more than 700 witnesses who call her office, including police officers, pilots, and former military personnel. Minimal coverage is provided at the time by the media, even in Phoenix. (Wikipedia, “Phoenix Lights”; NICAP, “The Phoenix Lights Case: More Than Lights and Flares?”; Tony Ortega, “The Great UFO Cover-up,” Phoenix New Times, June 26, 1997; Bruce Maccabee, “Report on Phoenix Lights Arrays,” 2000; Donald R. Burleson, “UFO Secrecy and the Law,” IUR 28, no. 4 (Winter 2003–2004): 16; Lynne D. Kitei, The Phoenix Lights: A Skeptic ’ s Discovery That We Are Not Alone, Hampton Roads, 2004; “Former Arizona

Governor Says He Saw ‘Phoenix lights’ UFO,” American Chronicle, March 18, 2007; Thomas E. Bullard, “Defending UFOs,” IUR 34, no. 2 (March 2012 ): 12 – 13 , 30; Kean, pp. 247 – 249 , 253 – 261 ; Good Need, pp. 387 – 390 ; Clark III 901– 905 ; Patrick Gross, “The Phoenix Lights, Arizona, USA, March 14, 1997”) March 15 — 5:00 p.m. An object explodes in the air and crashes to the ground near Węgorzewo in northeastern Poland. The debris is allegedly retrieved by soldiers. The Polish Army denies all knowledge of the incident, but Col. Zdzislaw Czekierda of the General Staff admits there is a special division that has gathered information about UFO sightings since the early 1980s. (Good Need, p. 391 ; Poland 117 – 118) March 21– 23 —A Space and UFO Science Symposium is held at Cosmo Isle Hakui, a museum of space history in Hakui, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. Symposium speakers include Richard F. Haines, Jesse A. Marcel Jr., Bruce Maccabee, R. Leo Sprinkle, hypnotherapist Derrel Sims, podiatrist Roger K. Leir, and crop circle researcher Colin Andrews. (Richard F. Haines, “The 1997 Space and UFO Science Symposium at the Cosmo Isle–Hakui Center, Japan,” IUR 22, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 15–18, 36) March 24 — 10:00 p.m. Reports come in from the public that there is a low-flying aircraft over Howden Moors, Yorkshire, England. These reports soon turn into accounts of bright flashes, loud booming noises, and “several plumes of black smoke” rising from somewhere in the woodlands of the open countryside. Several search operations from several different counties are launched, both on foot and in the air. These continue through the night. The main concern is that a light aircraft or a helicopter has come down. However, no survivors or any wreckage is discovered during the search, which goes on well into the following day. At one stage, no-fly zones are put in place, an action that some UFO researchers later find suspicious—particularly when there are commercial airliners “stacking” as a result. Despite all of this activity, the official word from the military is that there is no crash at all. It is simply a mistaken sighting—despite many reports from the general public. Soon, rumors circulate from the many volunteer searchers. The most prominent comes from a unit of Yorkshire Water workers who happen to be in the area. They see a wrecked pile of metal in a clearing and a “military presence” that is loading “body bags” onto a Sea King helicopter. When the military is confronted with this, they claim they are merely moving equipment. An explanation remains elusive, although a military exercise did take place, at least 3 groups of observers reported UFO-like sightings, the sonic events did take place, and at least 1–2 civilian aircraft are reported in the area. (David Clarke and Martin Jeffrey, “The Mystery of Howden Moors: Part One,” IUR 24, no. 2 (Summer 1999): 13–20; David Clarke and Martin Jeffrey, “The Mystery of Howden Moors: Part Two,” IUR 24, no. 3 (Fall 1999): 24–28) March 26 — 3:30 p.m. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office takes a 911 call from a man later identified as Richard Ford, reporting a group suicide in a house in Rancho Santa Fe, California. Two deputies find 39 bodies of identically dressed, androgynous-looking men and women. Autopsies establish that each had drunk a lethal combination of vodka and barbiturates then smothered themselves with a plastic bag. Videotaped statements left behind explain that the suicides, members of a religious millenarian cult called Heaven’s Gate, were leaving their “earthly vehicles” behind and expect to board a spacecraft trailing Comet Hale-Bopp. It was founded in 1974 and led by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles (formerly called Bo and Peep). (Wikipedia, “Heaven’s Gate (religious group)”; Clark III 566– 567 ) March 30 — A mother and her three children are chased along a highway near Whitehorse, Yukon, by an object “like a small satellite dish.” At one point, the object is directly above the car at treetop level. (Chris Rutkowski, “1997 Canadian UFO Survey,” IUR 23, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 15) March 30–April 1 —Aerial lights are seen for several nights west of Arica, Chile, and over the Pacific Ocean, causing some alarm. Witnesses include civil servants and aeronautical experts at Chacalluta International Airport. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation issues a public statement confirming the observations. (Kean, pp. 190 – 191 )

April 10 — Rear Adm. Thomas R. Wilson, vice director of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, meets in a Pentagon conference room with former astronaut Edgar Mitchell and UFO Disclosure founder Steven M. Greer to discuss the rogue nature of certain “special access programs” (SAPs) connected to the study of alien technology that are dominated by private contractors. Others allegedly there are retired Cmdr. Will Miller, Adm. Mike Crawford, Gen. Patrick Hughes, Shari Adamiak (Greer’s assistant), and Stephen Lovekin. Greer claims he has extracted a pledge from Wilson during the meeting to investigate SAPs involving UFO technology. But Wilson soon reports that he doesn’t have the proper security clearance to inspect those files. As Greer informs a Portland, Oregon, audience in 2001, Wilson says, “‘I am horrified that this is true. I have been in plenty of black projects, but when we tried to get into this one,’ he was told, and I quote, ‘Sir, you do not have a need to know.’ The head of intelligence Joint Staffs. You don’t have a need to know. Neither did the CIA director, and neither did the president.” In a July 4, 2008, appearance on Larry King Live, Mitchell tells the audience he had learned the admiral “had found the people responsible for the cover-up and for the people who were in the know and were

told, I’m sorry, admiral, you do not have need to know here and so, goodbye.” Shortly afterward, Wilson admits meeting with Mitchell but denies he was ever refused access. (Steven M. Greer, “Dr. Steven Greer Disclosure Project Talk, Sept. 2001, Portland, Oregon,” UFO Evidence; Steven M. Greer, Hidden Truth, Forbidden Knowledge, Crossing Point, 2006, pp. 158– 160 ; “Astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell Recounts Admiral Wilson Story on CNN’s Larry King Live, 7/4/08,” The Black Vault YouTube channel, June 17, 2020; “Admiral: Never Looked for UFO Data,” Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune, August 6, 2008; Dolan II 538–539; Kean, pp. 234 – 235 ; Joe Murgia, “The Wilson/Davis Documents: My Twenty-Three Year Journey, Part 1,” Part 2, UFO Joe, June 21, 2020 ) April 20 — 1:40 p.m. A woman is sitting on a park bench along the St. Clair River in Sarnia, Ontario. A grayish-white object suddenly appears in front of her, suspended vertically, with the bottom party positioned 25° above the horizon. The object has tubelike shape, rounded at both ends. She then notices a white spherical object that seems to have been ejected from the first. It travels a short distance north to Lake Huron and vanishes. The original object then disappears after another few seconds. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Satellite Objects: A Further Look,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Spring 2004): 26)

May 18 — Day. A tradesman sees a “flying entity” near Ponte a Mensola in the hills northeast of Florence, Italy. It descends vertically and lands in a field not too far away. He approaches it and sees that it is a man wearing black overalls with a red belt, helmet, and dark glasses, and with no apparent flying apparatus. The intruder notices him and disappears in the long grass, which is flattened where the man has landed. (2Pinotti 156–157) May 30 — About 11:20 a.m. Writer Georgina Howell is crossing the tarmac at Kirkwall Airport in Orkney, Scotland, to board British Airways Flight 8773 to Aberdeen when she notices a silvery chevron about 45° in the sky to her left. She thinks it is odd, but suspects it is some kind of aircraft. Suddenly she falls down on her face, sustaining some minor scrapes and bruises. Asked why she fell, she says she was looking at a sky object, but it is no longer there. Later, she hears about chevron-shaped objects over Phoenix. (Good Need, pp. 390 – 391 )

June — US Army Col. Philip J. Corso writes, with William J. Birnes, The Day after Roswell, a tell-all memoir about the Roswell, New Mexico, crash and retrieval. Much of the book is an account of Corso’s claims that he was assigned to a secret government program that provided some material recovered from a crashed spacecraft to private industry (without saying where the items came from) to reverse engineer them for corporate use. Corso was a special assistant to Lt. Gen. Arthur Trudeau, who headed Army Research and Development, and was in charge of the Foreign Technology Desk. In this position, he would take technological artifacts obtained from Russian, German, and other foreign sources and have American companies (including IBM, Hughes Aircraft, Bell Labs) reverse engineer that technology. The book contends that several aspects of modern technology such as fiber optics and integrated circuits were developed by using information taken from the craft. Corso also claims the world was “at war” with extraterrestrials and that the Strategic Defense Initiative project in the 1980s was part of that campaign successfully concluded in Earth’s favor. The book concludes with information about Project Horizon, a 195 9 US Army plan to construct a base on the Moon. When first released, the book contains a foreword written by Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), for whom Corso had served as an aide. Thurmond writes, “He has many interesting stories to share with individuals interested in military history, espionage, and the workings of our Government.” The foreword does not mention anything about UFOs, since Thurmond has assumed the book is a straightforward memoir. When he learns about the book’s contents, Thurmond asks for his foreword to be retracted, saying, “I know of no such ‘cover-up,’ and do not believe one existed.” (Wikipedia, “The Day after Roswell”; Philip J. Corso with William J. Birnes, The Day after Roswell, Pocket Books, 1997; George M. Eberhart, [review], IUR 22, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 22–24; Good Need, pp. 424 – 425 ; Nick Redfern, The Roswell UFO Conspiracy, Lisa Hagan, 2017, pp. 145– 151 ) June — Roswell Declaration author and pilot Kent Jeffrey announces that he is unable to find sufficient evidence of an extraterrestrial crash in New Mexico in 1947 and that the Corona debris was probably from a Project Mogul balloon. (Keau Davidson, “UFO Fan: Roswell Saucer Story Is Bunk,” San Francisco Examiner, June 23, 1997; Kent Jeffrey, “Roswell: Anatomy of a Myth,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 350 (June 1997): 3 – 17; Kent Jeffrey, “Roswell: Anatomy of a Myth,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 12, no. 1 (1998): 79–101; Michael D. Swords, “A Different View of ‘Roswell: Anatomy of a Myth,’” Journal of Scientific Exploration 12, no. 1 (1998): 103– 125; Robert M. Wood, “Critique of ‘Roswell: Anatomy of a Myth,’” Journal of Scientific Exploration 12, no. 1 (1998): 127 – 140) June — Night. Two police officers responding to an emergency call in Daniec, Poland, see two bright spheres maneuvering 1,000 feet to the left of their patrol car. The lights stop, then accelerate, and make sharp turns in the

air. One of the lights approaches them to about 40 feet away, while the other is still circling above a field. Suddenly, both lights depart at high speed. (Poland 110–111) June 6 — The Gomzyakov family is traveling on the Krutikha River, Altai Krai, Russia, when they see a luminous flying object moving at a speed of 300 mph. The object turns around over the Ob River and flies north. An hour later, they arrive at the vilage of Krutikha, where they see another object engulfed in brownish gas and emitting powerful floodlights toward the ground. Another crescent-shaped object appears carrying a light that is 8 times as big as itself. The family watches the display for 15 minutes, after which all the objects move off to the north, leaving behind an odor reimiscent of blast furnaces ar a steel factory. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, p. 127) June 8 — A former police officer sees a turquoise object that seems to land in a field near a highway he is driving along at Treherne, Manitoba. It remains on the ground for 10–15 minutes and appears to have a light on its front and back. The witness is inexplicably frightened. (Chris Rutkowski, “1997 Canadian UFO Survey,” IUR 23, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 15) June 18 — USA Today breaks the media silence about the Phoenix, Arizona, UFOs in a front-page story. NBC and ABC evening newsrooms pick up the story and nickname the object(s) the “Phoenix Lights.” (Richard Price, “Arizonans Say the Truth about UFOs Is Out There,” USA Today, June 18, 1997, p. 4; “1997 NBC News Report on the Phoenix Lights w/ Tom Brokaw and Robert Hager,” Roadside Television YouTube channel, March 8, 2019 ) June 18– 19 — Evening. Grzegorz Nowak and four friends are visiting the monument to the Battle of Annenberg in Góra Świętej Anny, Poland, when they see glowing fireballs playing about on the hill and a large orange sphere. They try to communicate with the fireballs by flashing their headlights on and off; one of the lights responds with a similar signal. They watch other aerial objects and two of the youths have some missing time of more than an hour. The next night, they improve their headlight signaling. An enormous cigar-shaped object appears, shooting out multicolored lights that hover almost directly above them. Some of the orange spheres seem to transform into cloaked beings, each carrying a light ball. Some Polish researchers consider this a concocted episode amplified by fantasy proneness. (Poland 85–87; “Seria dziwnych zdarzeń w Opolu w 1997 roku,” UFO-Relacje.pl, February 13, 2020) June 19 — Arizona Gov. Fife Symington calls a press conference, stating that “they found who was responsible” for the Phoenix Lights. He proceeds to make light of the situation by bringing on stage his 6-foot-4 chief of staff Jay Heiler dressed in an alien costume and proclaiming him “the guilty party.” He jokes that the media is taking the story “entirely too serious” as Heiler removes the mask. Symington also notes that he requested information from the commander of Luke AFB near Glendale, Arizona, the general in charge of the Arizona National Guard, and the head of the Arizona Department of Public Safety. But none of them have an answer for what. In 2007, Symington responds to an Air Force explanation that the lights were flares: “As a pilot and a former Air Force Officer, I can definitively say that this craft did not resemble any man made object I’d ever seen. And it was certainly not high-altitude flares because flares don’t fly in formation.” In a December 10, 2008, episode of the television show UFO Hunters called “Arizona Lights,” Symington says that he contacted the military asking what the lights were. The response was “no comment.” (“Symington Claims He Saw UFO in Phoenix Sky,” Tucson (Ariz.) Citizen, March 24 , 2007, p. 4; Kean, p. 249 ) June 24 — 7:30 p.m. A woman in Lachlan, Tasmania, is home alone in her kitchen when she notices a bright light source on the window blinds. Looking outside, she sees a large circle of light seemingly at ground level, some 550 feet to the east of the house. The circle is in a paddock at a higher elevation and in front of the trees and the other end. She goes outside, but can’t see any further details or head any sound. The light does not reflect on any of the nearby trees. Later, the light disappears. (“UFOs in Tasmania,” IUR 22, no. 4 (Winter 1997–1998): 28) June 24 — USAF releases The Roswell Report: Case Closed, by Capt. James McAndrew, stating that any alien bodies found at Roswell, New Mexico, were really anthropomorphic test dummies carried aloft in high-altitude balloons, and the unusual military activities were balloon launch-and-recovery operations. Although the dummy tests occurred several years after 1947, witnesses had been confused about the exact date. Claims of alien bodies at Roswell Army Air Field hospital are a combination of two incidents: the June 26, 1956, crash of a Boeing KC- 97G Stratotanker at Roswell-Walker AFB in which 11 crew members die; and a May 21, 1959, manned balloon mishap, in preparation for Project Excelsior, at Holloman AFB, Alamogordo, in which Capt. Joseph Kittinger is injured. The Project Mogul balloon is still invoked to explain the 1947 debris field at Corona, New Mexico. (Capt. James McAndrew, The Roswell Report: Case Closed, Headquarters US Air Force, 1997; Mark Rodeghier and Mark Chesney, “Who’s the Dummy Now? The Latest Air Force Report,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 7–10; Swords 355– 357 ; “Air Force Reports on the Roswell UFO Incident,” Military Wiki; Clark III 321)

June 28 — Four witnesses in Blind River, Ontario, watch the flight of a triangular red object with jagged edges and a “square forward section.” Within seconds of its disappearance, an egg-shaped object appears in the same location and flies along a similar path, flaring every two seconds into a bright white from a dull gray. (Chris Rutkowski, “1997 Canadian UFO Survey,” IUR 23, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 15) June or July — Twilight. A Polish passenger on a ferry to Stockholm, Sweden, watches a large ball of light, 30 feet across, follow the ship’s course low over the surface of the Baltic Sea. As many as 10 smaller spheres emerge from the upper part of the object and remain 10 feet away from it. Some darker colored spots can be seen rotating on the surface of the original light. After several minutes, the lights go off. (Poland 121– 1 22)

July — Witnesses, one of whom is an Air Force and Coast Guard veteran, at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, see a “square of eight lights” in the sky. Fifteen minutes later, a silent boomerang-shaped object glides above them “like a huge bat” at low altitude. Its underside is covered with hundreds of small, dim, rectangular lights. (Chris Rutkowski, “1997 Canadian UFO Survey,” IUR 23, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 15) July 3 — Two witnesses driving along Highway 16 near Nojack, Alberta, see a “black ring” with faint lines hanging down into a motionless “big puff of smoke.” It is in view for 5 minutes. (Chris Rutkowski, “1997 Canadian UFO Survey,” IUR 23, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 15) July 14 — 10:49 p.m. Air traffic controllers at Henri Coandă International Airport at Otopeni, Romania, are supervising the landing of an airliner when they notice a light about 3 miles distant between Buftea and Corbeanca and well below the scattered cloud layer. It does not appear on radar. The duty officer turns the airport video cameras toward the UFO and records its image for 2 hours. Through binoculars the light is seen to have a horizontal band colored white, orange, and red. When the airport lights are switched on for another landing, the light blinks out and reappears in a different location, this time looking like two light balls joined together. The lights appear brighter when the airport lights are on and dim as soon as they are turned off. The lights disappear abruptly at 1:10 a.m. (Romania 75–77)

August 3 — The New York Times ’ s William J. Broad reports on a study, “The C.I.A.’s Role in the Study of U.F.O.’s, 1947 – 90,” by National Reconnaissance Office historian Gerald K. Haines in a CIA journal, Studies in Intelligence, that Project Blue Book had known that more than half of UFO reports in the 1950s and 1960s by citizens and aviation experts were based on “fleeting glimpses of U-2 and SR-71 spy planes.” Rather than acknowledging their existence, Blue Book came up with “false cover stories” like ice crystals and temperature inversions. Not a single linkage of a reconnaissance flight to a UFO report is provided. These allegations are treated uncritically in the news media. One-time Blue Book head Robert J. Friend says the story is “laughable” and denies ever having to conceal U-2 sightings. Bruce Maccabee points out that the greater number of UFO sighting are at night when U-2s cannot be seen, and even in the daytime a U-2 flying at 72,000 feet is “essentially invisible.” Haines also reveals that in the 1970s and 1980s CIA analysts devoted some time to “counterintelligence concerns that the Soviets and the KGB were using US citizens and UFO groups to obtain information on sensitive US weapons development programs (such as the Stealth aircraft), the vulnerability of the US air-defense network to penetration by foreign missiles mimicking UFOs, and evidence of Soviet advanced technology associated with UFO sightings.” (Gerald K. Haines, “CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90,” Studies in Intelligence, 1997, pp. 67–84; William J. Broad, “CIA Admits Government Lied about UFO Sightings,” New York Times, August 3, 1997, p. 12; Mark Rodeghier, “The CIA’s UFO History,” IUR 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 3–6, 36; Bruce Maccabee, “CIA’s UFO Explanation Is Preposterous,” 2000; Swords 349–350; Clark III 926– 927 ; Kremlin 187–188) August 4 — Two forest rangers in different towers near Hadashville, Manitoba, simultaneously observe a silver ball that hovers above the trees some distance away. A second object approaches the first and the two travel away together. (Chris Rutkowski, “1997 Canadian UFO Survey,” IUR 23, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 15) August 9 — 5:07 p.m. Swissair Flight 127 to Zürich, Switzerland, is flying northeast over Queens, New York, near John F. Kennedy International Airport, when pilots Capt. Philippe Bobet and First Officer Kurt Grunder see a cylindrical, glowing-white object, about the size of a fuselage of a small light aircraft, heading toward the Boeing 747 at high speed. The airliner is in level flight at 20,000 feet and cruising at 390 mph in a cloudless sky, and the UFO is 100–200 feet above it. There is no noise from the object, and no trail or wake disturbance is detected. The near collision lasts about only one second. The object is not detected on radar, and it does not trigger the aircraft’s collision warning system. The object is explained as a weather balloon, which is spotted by a United Airlines pilot in nearly the same location and height 72 minutes after the incident. (NICAP, “Swiss Air Has Near Miss with UFO”; Don Berliner and Robert J. Durant, Near Miss with a UFO: Swissair Flight 127, UFO Research Coalition,

1999; Robert J. Durant, “Swissair jet Has ‘Near Miss’ with UFO,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 377 (September 1999 ): 3 – 9 ; Good Need, pp. 405– 406 ) August 12 — 1:00 a.m. Two police officers are on patrol near Lacock Road in Corsham, Wiltshire, England, when a triangular object flies past them at only 30 feet altitude and 45–50 mph. It heads to the northeast and is joined by a second object that seems to be following it. Their speed increases as they are lost to sight within seconds. (Marler 144 – 145)

September — Didier Charnay begins publishing UFO Log in Grenoble, France. It continues through autumn 2000. (UFO Log, no. 1 (September 1997)) September 29–October 3 — Through the auspices of the Society for Scientific Exploration and funded by Laurance Rockefeller, who has a long-time UFO interest, English physicist Peter A. Sturrock holds a workshop at the Pocantico Conference Center in Tarrytown, New York, in which UFO researchers present their best data to a panel of scientists agreeable to hearing them out. The panel is charged with deciding whether the available physical evidence can produce results that will lead to the resolution of the UFO question. For the panel, Sturrock recruits astronomers (and SSE members) Thomas E. Holzer and Charles R. Tolbert, electrical engineer Von R. Eshleman, geophysicist J. R. Jokipii, photoanalyst François Louange, geologist H. Jay Melosh, atmospheric physicist James J. Papike, radiation physician Günther Reitz, and plant biologist Bernard Veyret. To present the UFO evidence, Sturrock brings in aviation psychologist Richard F. Haines, German ufologist Illobrand von Ludwiger, CUFOS director Mark Rodeghier, retired NASA engineer John F. Schuessler, Norwegian ufologist Erling Strand, science professor Michael D. Swords, computer scientist Jacques Vallée, and SEPRA director Jean-Jacques Velasco. The panel makes several observations: The UFO problem is not a simple one, and it is unlikely that there is any simple, universal answer; whenever there are unexplained observations, there is the possibility that scientists will learn something new by studying them; studies should concentrate on cases that include as much independent physical evidence as possible; continuing contact between the UFO community and physical scientists could be productive; and institutional support for research in this area is desirable. After four days of presentations and discussions, Sturrock announces that the panel will issue a statement to be drafted later that encourages UFO study by scientists. (Michael D. Swords and Mark Rodeghier, “The History-Making Sturrock Workshop,” IUR 2 3, no. 3 (Fall 1998): 3– 8 ; Peter A. Sturrock, et al., “Physical Evidence Related to UFO Reports: The Proceedings of a Workshop Held at the Pocantico Conference Center, Tarrytown, New York, September 29–October 4, 1997,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 12, no. 2 (1998): 179– 229 ; Peter A. Sturrock, The UFO Enigma: A New Review of the Physical Evidence, Warner, 1999; Clark III 1115– 1117 )

October 3 — The Chilean Comité de Estudios de Fenómenos Aéreos Anómalos begins operations in Santiago, Chile. Air Force Gen. Gonzalo Miranda has created the agency within the Department of Civil Aeronautics after the series of sightings in Arica earlier in the year. CEFAA is charged with compiling, analyzing, and studying every incident involving anomalous aerial phenomena observed by any aviation personnel, civil or military. (Kean, p. 191 ) October 17 — In an effort to gauge the vulnerability of military satellites to laser attacks, the US military tests a directed energy weapon, Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser (MIRACL) developed by the US Navy in 1980, against an aging USAF reconnaissance satellite. From its location at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, MIRACL sends two blasts of its deuterium fluoride laser against MSTI-3 at a distance of 238 miles. The Pentagon claims mixed results because a computer glitch prevents the satellite from reporting back that the second shot has struck the target. (“Call it a MIRACL,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 54, no. 1 (Jan./Feb. 1998): 5–6)

November 4 — 6:00 p.m. Between Minehead and Porlock, Somerset, England, a man driving home in foggy conditions sees three white beams of light that suddenly permeate the fog from above and converge into a circle on the hood of his car. The electrical system fails, and he cannot restart it. After about 5 minutes the light beam disappears suddenly and the headlights come back on, so he resumes driving. When he gets home, he finds that his watch and car clock are 5 minutes slow and that a compass placed near the car gives a reading 90° from true. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 20) November 13 — Night. Two witnesses are driving home near Lac La Biche, Alberta, when they see a diamond-shaped object, consisting of three white lights in the front and one red light in the rear, suddenly “turn on.” It hovers above trees about 900 feet away, and they can see the bottom of the object. (Chris Rutkowski, “1997 Canadian UFO Survey,” IUR 23, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 15) November 17 — Night. A woman sees an “inverted triangular object with no wings” outside her home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It has many rows of lights across its surface and is “lavender and steel gray” on one side, which is illuminated. (Chris Rutkowski, “1997 Canadian UFO Survey,” IUR 23, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 15)

November 28– 30 — The panelists from the Sturrock workshop reconvene in a San Francisco, California, hotel to draft a statement on science and UFOs, but the language continues to be hashed out and debated for months. The process goes on until April 27, 1998, when the report is sent to the editorial office of the Journal of Scientific Exploration. The report’s release engenders a mostly positive press response, but with little effect on scientists’ continuing refusal to examine UFO reports. (Clark III 1117)

December — Retired Sergeant-Major Cherd Chuensamnaun is deep in Buddhist meditation at his home in Nakhon Sawan, Thailand, when he begins receiving communications from space aliens. The following day his skeptical son and son-in-law Jaroen Raepeth are lifted up from the living room sofa and thrown outdoors into the yard. His daughter Wassana sees a 33– 50 - foot long UFO outside at treetop level. Cherd continues to transmit messages from the extraterrestrials (who hail from Pluto and another planet named Loku) until his death in 2000. His family now continues the tradition, and nearby Khao Kala hill regularly attracts crowds of meditating UFO enthusiasts. According to the opinions of a theologian from Silpakorn University, this cult is based on a combination of beliefs in ghosts, god, aliens, and Buddhism combined. (Wikipedia, “UFO Sightings in Thailand”; Richard S. Ehrlich, “The UFO Seekers Flocking to a RemoteThai Hilltop in Search of Buddhist Aliens,” CNN, October 6, 2019; “Buddhist Aliens,” Fortean Times 388 (January 2020): 6) December 7– 14 — The first World Forum of Ufology takes place in Brasília, Brazil, coordinated by the Brazilian Ufologists Commission. The coalition of researchers is comprised of Claudeir Covo, from the National Institute of Aerospace Phenomena Investigations (INFA); Rafael Cury, from the Núcleo de Pesquisas Ufológicas (NPU); Reginaldo de Athayde, from Ufological Research Center (CPU); Marco Antônio Petit, from Fluminense UFO Research Association (AFEU); and Ubirajara Franco Rodrigues and Ademar José Gevaerd, both from the Brazilian Center for Flying Saucer Research (CBPDV), the largest UFO group in the country. The event culminates in the Brasilia Letter, a document signed by nearly all ufologists present, representing their nations and research entities. The letter conveys the position of ufologists to the Brazilian government to take the necessary steps required to clarify the UFO question. (A. J. Gevaerd, “Brazilian Researchers Organize the Biggest UFO Conference Ever,” UFO Updates, December 8, 1997; Clark III 209 ; 2Pinotti 161) December 8 — Night. After two brightly lit objects fly above Surrey, British Columbia, a large, disc-shaped, pewter- colored craft spins and bobs around in the sky. The witnesses give chase in their car, but lose sight of it. (Chris Rutkowski, “1997 Canadian UFO Survey,” IUR 23, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 15) December 14 — Seven people in Vancouver, British Columbia, see an object shaped like an “@” sign. It zooms into view and stops in mid-flight, appearing as a “flattened silver pyramid.” It bobs up and down then disappears suddenly. (Chris Rutkowski, “1997 Canadian UFO Survey,” IUR 23, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 15) December 22 — An object like an “airplane wing cross-sectioned” is seen by a witness near Halifax, Nova Scotia. It has a solid appearance and is slow-moving, disappearing after 8 minutes. (Chris Rutkowski, “1997 Canadian UFO Survey,” IUR 23, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 15) December 31 — 11:30 p.m. Many people in the area of Rzeszów, Poland, watch a spherical orange object. Jan Skobran and Maciej Robert see it briefly before it disappears. At 11:50 p.m., it reappears and they videotape it on VHS. After about 40 seconds it disappears, but another shows up at 12:20 a.m., pulsating with an intense orange glow. Seconds later it disappears, but another light appears over the Słocina forest. (Poland 153–154)

1998

1998 — The Roper Organization conducts a second survey on abductions, using the same indicators as its 1991 survey. This one is commissioned by Robert Bigelow’s National Institute for Discovery Science. Results indicate that the number of potential abductees has dropped from more than 3.7 million in 1991 to 2.2 million in 1998. (Mark Rodeghier, “Counting Abductees: What Can Surveys Tell Us?” IUR 25, no. 3 (Fall 2000): 21–23) 1998 — Podiatrist Roger K. Leir publishes The Aliens and the Scalpel, in which he reviews his investigation of alien implants since 1995. Leir has performed surgery to remove small objects from the feet and hands of 17 abductees. Robert Bigelow’s National Institute for Discovery Science provides the funding for the analysis of these objects. Some of the findings are potentially noteworthy—the objects are found on the left side of the body, most of them fluoresce under ultraviolet light, some are magnetic, and most appear metallic and seem to emit radio signals. Calcium, copper, and iron are the most common constituents. Critics dismiss the objects as tiny slivers of metal or glass embedded in tissue and find no evidence for radio emissions. None of the objects reveal any apparent technological structure. (Roger K. Leir, The Aliens and the Scalpel: Scientific Proof of Extraterrestrial Implants

in Humans, Granite, 1998; Roger K. Leir, “Alien Implants and Physical Evidence,” MUFON 2005 International
UFO Symposium Proceedings, MUFON, 2005; Clark III 11)

January — David Jacobs’s book The Threat expresses his belief that the aliens are not doing research; rather, they are carrying out a deliberate and massive breeding program using individuals from childhood onward and families for generations. The aliens create pregnancies, steal fetuses, and grow hybrids in vats and incubators. When those hybrids become children, they require emotional nurture from humans to thrive, so the aliens bring abductees back to touch and interact with the children. The abductees report seeing hybrids that look less and less like the gray aliens. Another series of hybridizations occurs as the aliens breed or engineer early-stage hybrids into progressively more human late-stage hybrids, who are all but indistinguishable from ordinary people (blond, blue- eyed Nordics). Some adult hybrids assist the aliens in their work, while others live on earth and mingle with humans for a time. Jacobs raises the alarm that apparent benevolence from the aliens is a con to lull us into complacency and hide their true intentions. (David M. Jacobs, The Threat: Revealing the Secret Alien Agenda, Simon & Schuster, 1998 ; Thomas E. Bullard, “Apocalypse in Gray,” IUR 23, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 20– 27 ; Clark III 9, 10) January 2 — 9:30 p.m. Fernando Mariano de Oliveira and Luciene da Cunha Lopes are in a townhouse on the Rua Luis Augusto Ferreira in the Capão Redondo neighborhood of São Paulo, Brazil, when they see a small luminous sphere about 8 inches in diameter moving up and down in the sky at variable speeds about 500 feet away from them. Other family members join them to watch the silent white light, and the neighborhood dogs bark constantly. Fernando’s brother, Alan Bruno de Oliveira, 10, picks up a camcorder and films the light with the help of his cousin Katiuscia da Cunha Lopes for 4.5 minutes. The light disappears around 10:00 p.m. (Brazil 385–392) January 11 — 1:00 a.m. A pair of dark triangular objects appear to merge together over Cuddington, Cheshire, England. (Marler 145)

February — Night. Two young men are driving from Opole to Niemodlin, Poland, when the car radio goes off and the engine of their Polski Fiat 125p fails just as a large object flies over them. The lights, radio, and engine come back on by themselves after the object is gone, but they can still see it in the west as it apparently descends toward the road a mile or two ahead. From the top of a hill, they see it emitting a dazzling light and hovering above the trees. Suddenly it approaches them, flying 65–100 feet off the ground, and they speed ahead into town. (Poland 84–85) February 17 — An Army intelligence document summarizes the “Bioeffects of Selected Nonlethal Weapons,” including microwave, acoustic, and radio-frequency directed energy devices. As for RF energy, “There is no sound propagated through the air like normal sound. This technology in its crudest form could be used to distract individuals; if refined, it could also be used to communicate with hostages or hostage takers directly by Morse code or other message systems, possibly even by voice communication.” And, “The phenomenon is tunable in that the characteristic sounds and intensities of those sounds depend on the characteristics of the RF energy as delivered. Because the frequency of the sound heard is dependent on the pulse characteristics of the RF energy, it seems possible that this technology could be developed to the point where words could be transmitted to be heard like the spoken word, except that it could only be heard within a person’s head. In one experiment, communication of the words from one to ten using ‘speech modulated’ microwave energy was successfully demonstrated. Microphones next to the person experiencing the voice could not pick up the sound. Additional development of this would open up a wide range of possibilities.” (US Army, “Bioeffects of Selected Nonlethal Weapons,” February 17, 1998)

Early March — William Weitzel and the Fund for UFO Research discover and later secure copies of the unsanitized, pre- redaction record copy 16mm microfilm of the Blue Book Files, filmed at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama, in February 1975 that the National Archives inadvertently makes available at the Archives II facility in College Park, Maryland. (Sparks, p. 6)

April 22 — 9: 2 0 p.m. A former Canadian F-104 pilot watches a UFO embedded in a cloud of green light fly toward the south over his car as he is driving near Whistler, British Columbia. It is visible only a few seconds. Other witnesses further south see the UFO stop over Puget Sound for 5–10 seconds, jump instantly to another location, and hover again before speeding away to the south. (George Filer, “Washington Large Disc with Hole in Its Center,” Filer’s Files, #34-2007, August 22, 2007; Nukes 495) April 22 — 9:2 3 p.m. Civilian Larry Swanson sees a disc-shaped UFO fly silently north to south at about 300–400 feet altitude over the center of Naval Submarine Base Bangor [now Naval Base Kitsap] on the Kitsap Peninsula, Washington. At one point, the disc tilts slightly, allowing Swanson to view its underside, which is glowing white

except for a central circular area about 30 feet in diameter. It slowly glides out of sight. (“Sighting Report,”
National UFO Reporting Center, January 28, 1999; Nukes 494– 498 )

June 5 — 10:30 p.m. Paul Best and his girlfriend are driving near Llanidloes, Powys, Wales, when they notice three triangular objects that are rounded on the bottom. They remain stationary for 6–7 minutes, then begin moving slowly before shooting away at high speed. (“UFOs Spotted near Llani,” Welshpool (UK) County Times, June 12, 1998, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 351 (October 1998): 14) June 25 — 2:00 p.m. A witness and her children in Cleveland, Ohio, see 8 white, balloon-like objects moving across the sky into a large cloud, pausing before entering it one by one. They watch the cloud and follow it to the horizon, but the objects do not emerge. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Mystery Clouds and the UFO Connection,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 16) June 26 — Early morning. Two witnesses spot a triangular UFO hovering above Corbett Hospital in Stourbridge, England. The object has white lights at each corner and projects a white beam of light onto the buildings. (“Strange Shape in Sky,” Wolverhampton (UK) Express and Star, July 10, 1998, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 351 (October 1998): 11)

July 2 — 8:00 p.m. A couple working outside in their yard at Ticonderoga, New York, see a soundless, wingless object moving swiftly through the sky. The man takes a video of it as it flies past the eastern side of St. Mary’s Church. Probable aircraft. (Bruce Maccabee, “‘Flying Peanut’/Double UFO Video Seems to Be Authentic,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 369 (January 1999): 3–7; Wim van Utrecht, “Luminous Peanut over Ticonderoga, New York,” Caelestia) July 21 — 11:19 p.m. An object the size of a small trailer appears suddenly over Napoleon, Ohio. It is emitting a dense fog and stays stationary for 7 minutes, then branches out and grows until 5 smaller craft are seen circling it. The large object seems to dissolve and disappear, the smaller objects still circling for another few minutes. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Cloud Cigars: A Further Look,” IUR 30, no. 3 (May 2006): 13)

August 10 — 12:00 noon–1:00 p.m. At least four witnesses at Quirindi, New South Wales, see “20 silver balls” performing complex maneuvers. Angel hair streams from the objects during acceleration and right-angle turns. The substance consolidates into long, white strands that slowly fall to earth, draping on telephone lines and trees. It is white, cotton-like, and strong, requiring a good tug to break, but quickly sublimates to nothing on handling. A sample is sent to UFO researcher Bill Chalker for analysis. Microscopic imaging by indicates it is spider web. Another witness in Piallaway, New South Wales, reports similar material at 2:00 p.m. (Brian Boldman, “An Analysis of Angel Hair, 1947–2000,” IUR 26, no. 3 (Fall 2001 ): 10; Keith Basterfield, “Angel Hair: An Australian Perspective,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 7; Brian Boldman, “Angel Hair Physical Analyses: A Review,” JUFOS 9 (2006): 107–108) August 21 — Israeli-American astrophysicist Mario Livio speculates that extraterrestrials are not particularly rare, it’s just that the most likely time for them to have developed was 3 billion years ago. (Mario Livio, “How Rare Are Extraterrestrial Civilizations and When Did They Emerge?” arXiv, August 21, 1998)

September 13 — A sensationalized TV documentary, The Secret KGB UFO Files, is released in the US and hosted by actor Roger Moore, who recounts a dubious story about a Soviet crash/retrieval in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, in March 1969 that involved an alien autopsy. (Internet Movie Database, “The Secret KGB UFO Files”; “The Secret KGB UFO Files, 1998,” M TUFONC YouTube channel, September 24, 2019) September 14 — Lt. Col. Enrique Rocamora, in charge of declassification of UFO reports for the Spanish Air Force from 1993 to 1999, enters the 57th staff course at the Escuela Superior del Aire in Madrid, Spain. Along with consultations and contributions from Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, he creates a massive monograph, “The Process of Declassification of UFO Documentation in the Air Force,” with 10 chapters and 16 attachments amounting to 296 pages. (Swords 428, 523) September 28 — UFO researchers Ion Hobana, Harald Alexandrescu, and Dan D. Farcaş establish the Asociația pentru Studiul Fenomenelor Aerospațiale Neidentificate (ASFAN) with offices in the Admiral Vasile Urseanu Astronomical Observatory in Bucharest, Romania. (Romania 69 – 70 ; “Association for the Study of Unidentified Space Phenomena (ASFAN), Romania”)

October — Scott Corrales begins publishing Inexplicata: The Journal of Hispanic Ufology. It persists through December 2004 but continues as a blog in December 2005. (Inexplicata: The Journal of Hispanic Ufology, no. 1 (Fall 1998); Inexplicata blog)

October 18 — 12:40 p.m. Dave Rose is at Sandwell Valley, West Midlands, England, with his parents when they see a motionless sphere in the sky. After 20 minutes another object, a metallic-looking triangular UFO, also appears. The triangle moves from side to side in short bursts before vanishing completely. The sphere dwindles to a dark spot in another 10 minutes. (“Did You See This UFO?” Wolverhampton (UK) Express and Star, October 29, 1998, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 353 (December 1998): 12) October 19 — Four different radar stations in Hebei province, China, pick up an unknown target moving above a military flight training base near Cangzhou. At least 140 observers at the base see the object as a small star that grows larger and larger as it descends. It has a mushroom-shaped dome on top and a flat bottom covered with rotating lights. The base commander scrambles a Shenyang J-6 fighter, which gets to within 2.5 miles of the UFO over Qing County, whereupon it abruptly shoots upward. The UFO plays cat and mouse with the jet, appearing and reappearing. Permission to fire on the UFO is denied by ground control. The fighter is forced to return after running low on fuel, and the UFO disappears before other aircraft arrive. (Good Need, p. 393 )

November 6 — 3:00 a.m. A man is driving with his wife near Childers, Queensland, when he sees an object moving quickly across the road. Five minutes later he sees a green beam of light shining down from the sky. The light source seems to be about 3,000 feet above them. Both he and his wife, who is asleep in the car, experience swelling in the hands and lips, as well as headaches. They both feel compelled to take their wedding rings off and sense that something else will happen to them. (“Australian CE2,” IUR 24, no. 2 (Summer 1999): 12) November 6 — 7:00 a.m. A witness in Bothell, Washington, sees a thin, horizontal cloud that tilts and descends. A taller horizontal cloud tilts to the left, but it soon appears to be a dark, cylindrical object. Two small oval clouds emerge from a larger cloud. All of the objects slowly descend past the Cascades Mountains. A few jets fly toward them one at a time, until 9:30 p.m. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Mystery Clouds and the UFO Connection,” IUR 29, no. 4 (July 2005): 26) November 11 — 11:55 a.m. Two daylight discs are seen by Ms. R. M. Jones as she is driving through Alexander, Arkansas: “The first was larger, more white, more stationary and lasted longer. The second was a white cigar sort of thing, sort of shimmery.” (“UFOs Dominate Night Sky over Arkansas,” UFO Roundup 3, no. 49, December 7, 1998) November 27 — 7:00–7:30 p.m. A woman is driving east on 25 Mile Road north of Mount Clemens, Michigan, when she sees a “highly intense,” basketball-sized ball of white light coming directly at her from the right at high speed. There is no sound and no time to avoid a collision. The object hits the car with a low thud, but the car’s motion is not affected. She does not see it again and continues driving home. Upon inspecting her car, she finds a cream- colored residue where it hit the car, forming a streak about 12–13 inches long that is broken in several spots. The residue is saved and after several months it is sent to analytical chemist Phyllis Budinger for tests and analysis. The results show prominent components of kaolin (aluminum silicate), a hydrated metal (perhaps manganese) oxide, and a celluloidal material. Only the oxide is not attributable to the car’s own finish. There is no evidence of heat transferred to the car’s paint. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFO/Vehicle Very Close Encounters,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 3–5) November 30 — Night. Bright blue-white lights are seen throughout Sussex County, Delaware. One man reports a “large blue light that was moving all over erratically,” with smaller lights coming from the larger one. Local researcher Jane Segal receives reports that “fighters from Dover Air Force Base were flying all over the region.” (“UFOs Seen by Many in Southern Delaware,” UFO Roundup 3, no. 49, December 7, 1998)

December — 5:45 p.m. Christopher Cabrera is at the end of his patrol shift at Area 2 in Nellis AFB in Nevada and chatting with a few other guards. All four of them notice three extremely bright amber lights in front of them in the southeast blinking sequentially in a vertical, triangular formation. The bottom two lights are about 100 feet off the ground and a quarter-mile away. They seem to be attached to one solid object that blocks out the stars behind it. It remains eerily silent. The event lasts about 10 seconds and the lights are so bright that it looks like daytime. The guards report the incident to the Flight Chief, who tells them not to repeat the story to anyone or they will be eligible for dishonorable discharge. (Robert L. Hastings, “Triangular-Shaped UFO Sighted at the Nellis AFB Nuclear Storage Area,” UFOs & Nukes, April 23, 2015) December 2 — Night. UFO activity in Brisbane, Queensland, consists of a bright white light, an orange ball of light, and a missing time experience, all by different witnesses. (“UFOs Converge on Brisbane,” UFO Roundup 3, no. 49, December 7, 1998) December 3 — 11:30 p.m. A witness is driving in Kirkland, Washington, when she notices a cluster of four white lights and one red light to the south. They seem to be approaching, and when she arrives home she sees they are attached to a large equilateral triangle that passes overhead. (Marler 227–228)

December 11 — During mission STS- 88 , the crew of Space Shuttle Endeavor takes photos of an unusual dark object in low earth orbit. Conspiracy theorists claim it is an alien satellite, dubbed the Black Knight, in polar orbit around the Earth. However, the object is later identified as a thermal blanket that became dislodged and lost during a December 9 EVA by astronauts Jerry L. Ross and James H. Newman during their installation of antennas on the International Space Station. (Wikipedia, “Black Knight satellite conspiracy theory”; Lorenzen, UFOs: The Whole Story, Signet, 1969, p. 220; James Oberg, “Phantom Satellite?” PowerPoint presentation; Martina Redpath, “The Truth about the Black Knight Satellite Mystery,” Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, July 18, 2013)

1999

1999 (or 2000) — Retired NASA psychologist Richard F. Haines founds the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena as a place for pilots, crews, and air-traffic controllers to report their UFO sightings on a confidential basis. Ted Roe is executive director and Haines is the chief research scientist. (“New Organization Promotes Aviation Safety in UFO Sightings,” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000–2001): 22, 30; Richard F. Haines, “NARCAP’s Project Sphere: Are Spherical UAP a Threat to Aviation Safety?” IUR 33, no. 2 (July 2010): 4–5; Clark III 553) 1999 — Austrian astrobiologist Helmut Lammer and his wife Marion publish MILABS: Military Mind Control and Alien Abduction, a review of people claiming to have been abducted by military personnel who interrogate them about their UFO experiences, remove or insert implants, and perform medical examinations and memory eradication. (Helmut Lammer and Marion Lammer, MILABS: Military Mind Control and Alien Abduction, IllumiNet, 1999; Helmut Lammer, “Preliminary Findings of Project-MILAB: Evidence for Military Kidnappings of Alleged UFO- Abductees,” October 16, 1996; Helmut Lammer, “Further Findings of Project-MILAB: Looking behind the Alien/Military Abduction Agenda,” August 13, 1997; Malcolm Robinson, “MILABS: Military Mind Control and Alien Abduction,” Strange Phenomena Investigations England, 2001) 1999 — Harvard University psychologist John E. Mack publishes a second book on abductions, Passport to the Cosmos, in which he continues to focus on the experience as transformative and ultimately benevolent. Much of the experience consists of a life lesson in symbolic form, Mack asserts. The hybrids combine the human and alien in a shared mission to save the Earth. The nurturing of hybrid children emphasizes the importance of emotion, and the otherness of the aliens awakens a sense that humans are not the apex of existence. The shock and terror of kidnap by unearthly beings breaks the illusion that the world is under our control. Although Mack hears the usual accounts of examinations and reproductive procedures from dozens of other experiencers, he still reads these events as symbolic agents of the larger purpose to save Earth from humans and humans from themselves. Whether or not the abductors are extraterrestrial hardly matters. (John E. Mack, Passport to the Cosmos: Human Transformation and Alien Encounters, Crown, 1999; Clark III 9, 10)

January 22 — Peter Gersten, executive director of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy, files a FOIA lawsuit in federal district court in Phoenix, Arizona, to release documents relating to the Phoenix Lights and (later) the St. Clair Triangle in Illinois in 2000. The Department of Defense files a motion to dismiss the suit. Assistant US Attorney Richard Patrick says the department has conducted a reasonable search for information requested by Gersten’s group and cannot find any records. (“UFO Lawsuit to Get Hearing,” Phoenix Arizona Republic, February 4, 2000) January 22 — 7:03 a.m. A witness driving south on State Highway 3 near the off-ramp to Naval Submarine Base Bangor [now Naval Base Kitsap] on the Kitsap Peninsula, Washington, sees an orange volleyball-sized light 20 feet above the overpass moving at 60–70 mph toward the base. (“Sighting Report,” National UFO Reporting Center, February 11, 2003; Nukes 498)

February 3 — A British Debonair Bae146 charter jet encounters a “long cylindrical object” the size of a battleship while flying at 28,000 feet over the North Sea off Denmark. The captain observes rows of square portholes on the UFO just before it bathes the airliner in incandescent light. The object comes to an abrupt halt, then accelerates past the airplane at an incredible speed. RAF radar stations track the object, which is also seen from three other nearby aircraft. A Civil Aviation Authority source says the object is tracked by a military radar station in Yorkshire after it enters British air space. (“North Sea Encounter,” IUR 24, no. 2 (Summer 1999): 31)

March — Kevin D. Randle, Russ Estes, and William Cone publish The Abduction Enigma, offering a rigorous critique of the alien explanation for the abduction phenomenon and arguing instead that abductee personalities, cultural ideas, and investigator influences have coalesced to create false memories. (Kevin D. Randle, Russ Estes, and

William Cone, The Abduction Enigma: The Truth behind the Mass Alien Abductions of the Late Twentieth Century, Forge, 1999; Thomas E. Bullard, [review], JUFOS 7 (2000): 94– 106 ) March 5 — Midnight. A diamond-shaped UFO is blamed for the unexplained collapse of a theatre roof in Kimberley, British Columbia. An object covered with flashing lights is seen by several witnesses prior to the incident. (East Kootenay (B.C.) Weekly, March 23, 1999; “Recent UFO Cases,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 31) March 24 — Night. Five people in the towns of Brinsley, Nottinghamshire, and Crich and Belper, Derbyshire, England, watch a flying object that looks like a black wedge with two bright headlights. The blunt end of the wedge is facing forward as it flies at about 35 mph. (“‘Black Wedge’ Seen in Skies over Town,” Belper (UK) News, March 24, 1999, via UFO Newsclipping Service, no. 360 (July 1999): 13)

April 2 — Two Chilean national police officers see a UFO hovering above Mount Balmaceda in Puerto Natales, Tierra del Fuego, Chile. They see red, green, and yellow lights on the object, which performs several side-to-side displacements as it hovers near the summit. (La Tercera (Santiago), April 4, 7, 1999; “Recent UFO Cases,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 31) April 7 — 10:58 p.m. A woman is looking through the second-story window of her home in East Falmouth, Massachusetts. She sees strange, double, white lights resembling car headlights attached to a triangular object silently moving across the sky through the maple trees. It is in view for only 4–5 seconds. (“Recent UFO Cases,” IUR 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 31)

June 9 — A huge fall of “white filamentous threads” covers hedges, trees, and power lines over 10,000 square kilometers in Esperance, Western Australia. Some strands are 30 feet in length. Witness Marilyn Burnet has a sample analyzed and finds copper, aluminum, zinc, iron, sodium, manganese, silicon, and other minerals. (Brian Boldman, “Angel Hair Physical Analyses: A Review,” JUFOS 9 (2006): 108; Keith Basterfield, “Angel Hair: An Australian Perspective,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 7–8) June 30 — 11:00 a.m. Two witnesses are walking their dog in the Park Zachodni in Wrocław, Poland, when they see a blue-gray, disc-shaped object with a row of blue lights pass over the trees to the northeast. Another similar object follows a similar path shortly afterward. (Poland 83–84)

July 2 — Abduction researcher and folklorist Thomas E. Bullard expands on his description of the abduction experience in an examination of 437 reports from the literature. He looks at location and duration, the sequence of the episodes and common events within each, the appearance and behavior of the entities, interior and exterior descriptions of the UFO, and the mental and physical controls the aliens use on the abductees. (Thomas E. Bullard, “What’s New in Alien Abduction? Has the Story Changed in 30 Years?” MUFON 1999 International UFO Symposium Proceedings, MUFON, 1999, pp. 170–199; Clark III 13–22) July 16 — A 90-page report, Les OVNI et la Defense: A Quoi doit-on se Préparer? (UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare for?), is published as the result of an in-depth study of UFOs carried out over several years by an independent group of former advanced workshop participants at the Institut des Hautes Études de Défense Nationale in Paris, France, and by other experts. Before its public release, it is sent to President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. The report is prefaced by Gen. Bernard Norlain of the Air Force and begins with a preamble by André Lebeau, former president of the Centre National d’Études Spatiales. The Comité d’Études Approfondies (COMETA) group, collective author of the report, is presided over by Gen. Denis Letty of the Air Force. The report analyzes various UFO cases and concludes that UFOs are real, complex flying objects, and that the extraterrestrial hypothesis has a high probability of being the correct explanation for the UFO phenomenon. The study recommends that the French government should adjust to the reality of the phenomenon and conduct further research. (Comité d’Études Approfondies, “UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For?” part 1 and part 2, July 16, 1999; Gildas Bourdais, “The French Report on UFOs and Defense: A Summary”; Swords 449–450; Mark Rodeghier, ed., “The 1999 French Report on UFOs and Defense,” IUR 25, no. 2 (Summer 2000): 20–22, 30; Gildas Bourdais, “From GEPAN to SEPRA: Official UFO Studies in France,” IUR 25, no. 4 (Winter 2000–2001): 10) July 27 — Day. Several people living near the shore of Lake Backsjön, near Gunnarskog, Värmlands, Sweden, see and hear a rocket-shaped object plunge into the water. The object is 6–10 feet long and descends at high speed, creating a splash in the water before sinking. One witness contacts the rescue station at Arvika, who in turn contact the police and military. Stellan Jansson, chief of staff for the I 2/Fo52 Värmland Regiment, interviews the witnesses. In September, the army begins an intensive search of the lake under the code name Operation Sea Find using divers, sonar equipment, and a mini-sub. The operation conducts a 10-day search and examines 75% of the lake, but the search is discontinued on September 16 after finding no evidence. On October 1, a secret report is

completed for military intelligence in Stockholm. (Clas Svahn and Eileen Fletcher, “The Swedish Military and
UFOs,” IUR 25, no. 3 (Fall 2000): 16– 17 ; Swords 370)

September — The peer-reviewed European Journal of UFO and Abduction Studies is launched in Southampton, England, by Totton College psychology professor Craig A. Roberts. Its editorial board features UFO researchers in the UK, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, France, and Italy. It continues through the September 2002 issue. (European Journal of UFO and Abduction Studies, launch volume (September 1999)) September 30 — 10 :35 a.m. A serious criticality incident takes place in the Tokaimura uranium processing facility operated by JCO in the village of Tokai, Iberaki Prefeccture, Japan. The accident occurs as three workers are preparing a small batch of fuel for the Jōyō experimental fast breeder reactor, using uranium enriched to 18.8% with the radioisotope uranium- 235 (with the remainder being the fertile uranium- 238 ). It is JCO’s first batch of fuel for that reactor in three years, and no proper qualification and training requirements appear to have been established to prepare those workers for the job. A precipitation tank reaches critical mass when its fill level, containing about 35 pounds of uranium, reaches about 11 gallons. The two technicians who receive the higher doses die several months later. (Wikipedia, “Tokaimura nuclear accidents”)

October 9 — The last flight of a temporarily reactivated SR- 71 Blackbird takes place. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed SR- 71 Blackbird”) October 9 — 7:57 p.m. While fishing off Fort Pickens near Pensacola, Florida, an ex-Air Force security policeman and a city police officer watch a triangular UFO with high-intensity blue arcing lights traveling west over the Gulf of Mexico in a zigzag fashion. It is about 200 feet in the air, a quarter of a mile distant, and moving at 115–350 mph. At least four times it seems to hover for 30 seconds. After 15 minutes, it moves away to the west. (George Filer, “Florida Triangle with Blue Ionization near Gulf Breeze,” Filer’s Files, # 43 - 1999, October 18, 1999) October 10 — 11:45 p.m. A couple in Lewiston, Michigan, see a hazy, pulsing object outside their bedroom window. Other lights seem to be flying around it, so that it resembles moths flying around a light bulb. They watch it for 45 minutes, then go back to sleep. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Cloud Cigars: A Further Look,” IUR 30, no. 3 (May 2006): 13) October 29 — 5:45 p.m. A man and woman in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, see a nickel-colored object emerge from a strange contrail-like cloud and fly back into it. A few seconds later, it shoots out again and circles around it for 15 minutes. About an hour later, they see jets flying around, apparently searching for the object. (Herbert S. Taylor, “Cloud Cigars: A Further Look,” IUR 30, no. 3 (May 2006): 13)

November 11 — A sample of “angel hair” is recovered from a fall in Sacramento, California, and sent to analytical chemist Phyllis Budinger for Fourier Transform infrared spectrometry analysis. She finds that the fibrous material is not spider web but consists of a silk-like substance containing secondary amide linkages similar to protein. It also contains volatile hydrocarbons. (Brian Boldman, “An Analysis of Angel Hair, 1947–2000,” IUR 26, no. 3 (Fall 2001): 14 – 15) November 11 — 8:30 p.m. Two men are loading gravel onto a truck in Tomelilla, Skåne, Sweden, when they see a boomerang-shaped object flying overhead, blocking out the stars. The object is solid and observed for 5– 10 seconds. UFO-Sweden researchers Clas Svahn and Anders Persson check with the Swedish military for their radar data at the time and find that it has recorded many targets. They conclude that a flock of migrating birds, probably eiders, flying in formation is responsible. (Clas Svahn and Eileen Fletcher, “The Swedish Military and UFOs,” IUR 25, no. 3 (Fall 2000): 17–18)

December — Cao Gong, a middle-aged man from Beijing, China, claims he is abducted by aliens and flown to Qinhuangdao, Hebei province, in a UFO. The entities look like humans but have large hands and are very pale. Zhang Jingping of the World Chinese UFO Association begins to investigate the Cao case in April 2000 and has him hypnotically regressed by a psychologist from Suzhou. Cao also passes a lie detector test at the Beijing Bureau of Public Security. Cao remembers meeting in the spacecraft a Chinese girl who looks about 13 years old. She tells him the aliens cured her of a disease. Zhang brings Cao to the Tangshan Bureau of Public Security in July 2000, where the police construct a computer reconstruction of the girl’s face according to his description. In November 2002, Zhang leads a group of students from Beihang University on a trip to Qinhuangdao to look for the girl. They arrive in Qinglong County and begin a blind search among the area’s 400,000 inhabitants. On the second day, an old man recognizes the girl in the image. They locate her and she turns out to be 15 years old. Zhang brings her back to Beijing to meet Cao Gong, who identifies her as the girl he met. (Bill Chalker, “The

Untold Story of UFOs in China: Lost in Translation or the Devouring Dragon?” New Dawn Special Issue 14, no.
1 (January 2020))

2000

2000 — Ufologist Richard H. Hall completes a sequel to NICAP’s 1964 report to Congress. The UFO Evidence, Volume II covers UFO sightings since 1964. (Richard H. Hall, The UFO Evidence, Volume II: A Thirty Year Report, Scarecrow, 2000) 2000 — Walter Andrus retires as director of MUFON and is replaced by John Schuessler. 2000 — Ufologist Chris Rutkowski and Ufology Research of Manitoba begin receiving UFO reports made to Canadian agencies, allowing them to create a yearly statistical report on sightings in Canada. (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, p. 11) 2000 — Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos launches UFO FOTOCAT, a project to create a worldwide catalog of UFO photos. He eventually accumulates close to 13 , 00 0 cases in the database. Based on its content, Ballester Olmos releases eight research reports as of August 2020. (“The Year 1954 in Photos (Expanded)”; “Argentina: The Year 1965 in Photos”; “Avistamientos OVNI en la Antártida en 1965”; “Norway in UFO Photographs: The First Catalogue”; “Spheres in Airborne UAP Imagery”; “An Approach to UFO Pictures in France”; “Belgium in UFO Photographs, vol. 1 (1950–1988)”; and “The Marfa Lights: Examining the Photographic Evidence (2003–2007)”) 2000 — The National Nuclear Security Administration is created by Congress in the wake of the Wen Ho Lee spy scandal and other allegations that the Department of Energy’s lax administration has resulted in the loss of nuclear secrets to China. It is a semi-autonomous agency within the Department of Energy responsible for safeguarding national security through the military application of nuclear science. (Wikipedia, “National Nuclear Security Administration”) 2000 — Polish journalist and author Igor Witkowski publishes Prawda o Wunderwaffe, describing a purported top-secret Nazi technological device or secret weapon called Die Glocke (“The Bell”). It is later popularized by military journalist and author Nick Cook in The Hunt for Zero Point, who associates it with Nazi occultism, antigravity, and free energy research. Mainstream reviewers have criticized claims about Die Glocke as being pseudoscientific, recycled rumors, and a hoax. Die Glocke and other alleged Nazi “miracle weapons” have since been dramatized in video games, television shows, and novels. (Wikipedia, “Die Glocke (conspiracy theory)”; Igor Witkowski, The Truth about the Wunderwaffe, European History Press, 2013; Nick Cook, The Hunt for Zero Point: Inside the Classified World of Antigravity Technology, Broadway, 2002) 2000 — The results of the Russian Setka program are disclosed by Boris Sokolov, coordinator of Setka-MO, and Yulii Platov, deputy coordinator of Setka-AN, in an article in the Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences. According to them, 90% of the anomalous atmospheric phenomena observed in Russian territory can be explained by the effects of human activities (especially rockets and weather balloon launches), while the remaining 10% are unexplained. For the latter cases, they could be rare or still unknown natural phenomena. However, no evidence is found of UFO landings, crashes, close encounters, or alien abductions. No evidence of an extraterrestrial UFO origin has emerged either. Paul Stonehill, a Russian UFO scholar, believes that only the results of Setka-AN ’ s studies are disclosed, while those of Setka-MO still remain secret. Stonehill further claims there is nothing to indicate that anyone in the Setka program attempted to seriously analyze the cases that remain unexplained. (Paul Stonehill and Philip Mantle, The Soviet UFO Files: Paranormal Encounters behind the Iron Curtain, Quadrillion, 1998, pp. 43, 52; Pyotr N. Rybalko, “Bureaucratized Pseudoscience,” RIAP Bulletin 6, no. 2–3 (Apr./Sept. 2000): 11 – 12; Boris Sokolov and Yulii Platov, “A History of State UFO Research in the USSR,” Skeptical Briefs 10, no. 4 (December 1, 2000)) 2000 — Mathematician Karsten Jöred replaces Arne Gjärdman as head of UFO investigations at the Swedish National Defence Research Institute. He holds the position until 2006. (Swords 370) 2000 — Alleged abductee Stan Romanek of Loveland, Colorado, claims his first UFO experience. He has many experiences with aliens since then, allegedly discovering mysterious wounds on his body that glow under a black light and claiming electronic communications with aliens. He also claims aliens have followed his car, visited his home, and communicated with him telepathically. In 2003, he claims he woke up and found himself wearing a ladies’ flannel nightgown, which makes him suspect he has been abducted and returned in woman’s clothing. Romanek eventually comes to suspect that the clothing belongs to another supposed abductee, Betty Hill. When asked if the gown has been tested for Hill’s DNA, Romanek claims that it has not because the test is too expensive. Appearing on ABC Primetime in 2009, Romanek makes the unsubstantiated claims that he underwent hypnosis by R. Leo Sprinkle, a psychologist who specializes in alien abduction cases. Romanek claims

that under hypnosis he wrote out the Drake equation, a formula used to estimate the number of communicative
extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy, and then added “x100” to it. Skeptic Joe Nickell suggests the equation
is written through simple memorization. On August 8, 2017, Romanek is found guilty of felony possession
of child pornography. (Erik Dofge, “New Alien Video Shines (Photoshopped) Light on UFO Hoaxers,” Popular
Mechanics, June 8, 2008; Alan Scherstuhl, “In Kansas City, Celebrity UFO-Filmer Stan Romanek Finds an
Audience of Believers—and One Reporter,” The Pitch (Kansas City), August 13, 2009; “Man Claims Aliens Send
Him Messages,” ABC News, August 18, 2009; Joe Nickell, “Abductions or Hoaxes? The Man Who Attracts
Aliens,” Skeptical Inquirer 34, no. 3 (May/June 2010): 19– 20 ; Jack Brewer, “Ufology Indicted,” The UFO Trail,
August 7, 2016)

January 5 — Shortly after 4:00 a.m. The “St. Clair Triangle,” “UFO Over Illinois,” “Southern Illinois UFO,” or “Highland, Illinois UFO” sighting takes place over the towns of Highland, Dupo, Lebanon, Shiloh, Summerfield, Millstadt, and O’Fallon, Illinois. Five on-duty police officers around these locales, along with various other eyewitnesses, report a massive, silent, triangular or rectangular craft operating at an unusual treetop-level altitude and speeds. One of the police officers manages to get a single yet ambiguous Polaroid photograph of the object. The incident is examined in the ABC special Seeing Is Believing with Peter Jennings, an hour-long Discovery Channel special UFOs Over Illinois, an episode of the 2004 Syfy series Proof Positive, and a 30-minute independent documentary titled The Edge of Reality: Illinois UFO, January 5, 2000 by Darryl Barker Productions. (Wikipedia, “Black triangle (UFO)”; “Police Officers in St. Clair County Report Seeing Early- Morning UFO,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 9, 2000, pp. D1–D2; “UFO Sighting Brings Media Attention, Investigative Team to Southern Illinois,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 12, 2000, pp. A1, A6; “UFO Baffles Observers,” Waterloo (Iowa) Republic-Times, January 12, 2000, p. 2; “Buffs Baffled by UFO,” Chicago Sun- Times, January 20, 2000; David B. Marler, “Illinois Police Officers Track UFO near Scott AFB,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 383 (March 2000): 3–8; Internet Movie Database, “UFOs over Illinois”; “Illinois UFO, January 5, 2000,” IUR 26, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 16; “Hypothesis: The Illinois Flying Triangle Is a Department of Defense, Not an ET Craft,” National Institute for Discovery Science, July 2002; Darryl Barker, “The Illinois Triangle? Do We Have the Technology?” Darryl Barker Productions, August 2, 2002; Internet Movie Database, “Proof Positive,” Episode 108, November 24, 2004; Internet Movie Database, “Peter Jennings Reporting: UFOs, Seeing Is Believing”; “UFOs: Seeing Is Believing (2005), ABC Documentary,” Movie Buff Guy YouTube channel, June 18, 2019; Thomas E. Bullard, “Defending UFOs,” IUR 34, no. 2 (March 2012): 33; Marler 26– 60 ; Skinwalkers 106 – 108 ) January 5 — Bill Sweetman writes in Jane ’ s International Defence Review that there are approximately 150 “special access programs” within the Pentagon at the close of 1999, many of which are unacknowledged. They often have completely independent systems of classification, with total control exercised by the program manager. He concludes that most are dominated not by Defense personnel but by private contractors. He has no idea how they are funded. (Bill Sweetman, “In Search of the Pentagon’s Billion Dollar Hidden Budgets: How the US Keeps Its R&D Spending under Wraps,” Jane ’ s International Defense Review, January 5, 2000) January 10 — 9:00 p.m. A young man near Sézanne, Marne, France, encounters a bright white light near the town water tower. His engine cuts out and the radio stops working. (Mark Rodeghier, “Vehicle Interference near Sézanne,” IUR 33 , no. 3 (December 2010): 8 – 9)

March 1 — In a campaign press conference in Stockton, California, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) acknowledges that the Phoenix Lights incident “has never been fully explained, but I have to tell you that I do not have any evidence whatsoever of aliens or UFOs.” (Kean, p. 250 ) March 30 — 5:00 a.m. Leah Isaac, a friend, and their small boy are driving on the Klondike Highway at the west end of Little Fox Lakes, Yukon Territory, when they spot a 40-foot wide disc hovering some 300 feet away. The UFO shoots across the road at “incredible speed,” then stopped abruptly for a split second before shooting off at a 90º angle. The car’s headlights dim and the tape deck ceases working when the UFO is nearby. Leah’s analog watch stops, and her friend’s digital watch goes blank. (Martin Jasek and Mark Rodeghier, “Vehicle Interference at Little Fox Lake, Yukon,” IUR 25, no. 2 (Summer 2000): 23–24, 32) March 30 — US District Court Judge Stephen M. McNamee dismisses the CAUS lawsuit seeking documents on the Phoenix Lights in Arizona, concluding that “a reasonable search was conducted” by the Department of Defense, even though no information was found. (Kean, pp. 251 – 253 )

April — Sergio Sánchez and Diego Zúñiga launch the UFO magazine La Nave de los Locos in Santiago, Chile, which continues until October 2006. (La Nave de los Locos, no. 1 (April 2000))

Early July — Evening. Ceri Kenyon is walking home in Littleborough, Greater Manchester, England, when he sees a flickering object in the sky. As he approaches, he hears a buzzing sound and sees that it is a triangular object surrounded by lights. (Marler 223–224) July 17 — 10:50 p.m. A witness in Silverdale, Washington, sees four orange lights descending to the west over the Olympic Mountains. When the second to last light is gone, the witness sees a flash like an explosion. About 15 minutes later, another orange light appears, moving south to north at a speed too slow for a meteor. It descends behind the same mountain. A Blackhawk helicopter is visible in the same area at the same time. (“Sighting Report,” National UFO Reporting Center, February 11, 2003; Nukes 498– 499 )

August — Two police officers in Halifax, Nova Scotia, watch a large, triangular-shaped object hovering just above the trees. It is about 660 feet on each side. (Don Ledger, “The Flying Triangle Phenomenon,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 7) August 5 —11:30 a.m. A witness spots a silver disc in the sky over Old Noarlunga, South Australia, and calls out his wife to watch. Over the next 90 minutes they see 3 whitish additional balls and something that looks like a helicopter, all traveling west to east. Long, silver, cobweb-like substance falls in large wads or strands. Once touched with a stick, it shrivels up and evaporates. Similar material falls on Moana and Aldinga Beach, where one witness also sees a bright light. (Keith Basterfield, “Angel Hair: An Australian Perspective,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 8) August 20 — 3:09 p.m. Two blurry round objects appear in a photograph hovering above the copse of trees next to the High Water Mark of the Rebellion Monument on the Gettysburg Battlefield, Pennsylvania. They are not noticed at the time the photo is taken. (Patrick Gross, “Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA, 2000”)

September — UFO researchers Karl Pflock and Peter Brookesmith organize an invitation-only symposium to re-evaluate the Betty and Barney Hill abduction case in depth. It takes place at the Indian Head Resort in Lincoln, New Hampshire, near the site of the abduction event itself. The other researchers are Dennis Stacy, Marcello Truzzi, Thomas E. Bullard, Hilary Evans, Robert Sheaffer, Joe Firmage, and Greg Sandow. Betty Hill joins the group for an evening’s entertainment and a morning tour of the site where the abduction took place. The essays written by participants, along with reflections by Walter N. Webb and an appendix by Martin S. Kottmeyer, are compiled in Encounters at Indian Head. (Karl T. Pflock and Peter Brookesmith, eds., Encounters at Indian Head, Anomalist, 2007; Robert Sheaffer, “Betty Hill’s Last Hurrah: A Secret UFO Symposium in New Hampshire,” Skeptical Inquirer 31, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 2007); Greg Sandow, “The Hill Case and the Limits of Ufology,” IUR 31, no. 4 (March 2008): 3–7, 19–28) September 3 — 9:30 p.m. A man is out walking in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England, when he sees a large and unusual aircraft looming up over the skyline. It is black with no discernible tail section and is shooting three powerful beams of light from dome-like globes set in a triangular pattern on its underside. Small red lights appear on the tips of its swept-back wings. (UFOFiles2, pp. 139– 140 ) September 27 — 9:45 p.m. Four men are camped in a trailer at a rural hunting camp near Challis, Idaho. One goes out to the truck for food and sees a massive, dark, triangular object hovering motionless above him. He yells for the others to come out, lights on the object turn on, and it slowly moves toward the nearby mountains. When it reaches one, it tips upward and ascends the side of the mountain vertically. When it reaches the top, it tips forward and disappears from sight. (Marler 228–229)

October 15 — Richard Haines’s National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena releases a 90-page report that summarizes more than 100 UFO incidents reported by pilots and their crews, including 56 near misses, all affecting aircraft safety. Most cases involve multiple witnesses, and many are backed by ground radio communications and radar corroboration. Experienced pilots present accounts of objects, ranging from silver discs to green fireballs, flying loops around passenger aircraft, pacing planes despite pilots’ evasive attempts, or flooding cockpits with blinding light. Haines documents cases with electromagnetic interference on navigation and operating systems. He writes that a crew’s ability to perform its duties safely is disrupted when the crew is faced with “extremely bizarre, unexpected, and prolonged luminous and/or solid phenomena cavorting near their aircraft.” The primary danger is in the human response, since the objects do not appear to be hostile and seem to be able to avoid collisions using extraordinary maneuvers. (Richard F. Haines, “Aviation Safety in America: A Previously Neglected Factor,” National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena, October 15, 2000) October 31 — After sunset. A woman delivering pizzas in Cygnet, Ohio, is stopped along Cygnet Road when she sees an elongated, football-shaped object clearly visible just beyond a thin grove of trees ahead of her. It is slowly moving westward toward and above Interstate 75, which is busy with cars and large trucks. It hovers for a few seconds

and turns brighter, then shoots off westward in a streak of light. Two men driving north on I-75 also see the
object. (John P. Timmerman, “Possible Close Encounter in NW Ohio,” IUR 25, no. 3 (Fall 2000): 18)

November — 7:00 p.m. A retired law enforcement officer and several friends are cooking dinner over an open fire in a wooded area near Elsberry, Missouri, when they see a huge flying wing with white lights on each end. It seems to be flying completely silently at 3,000 feet. They watch it for 30 seconds before it disappears into the southeast. November 4 — Two witnesses near the Del Lago Golf Club north of Vail, Arizona, see a teardrop-shaped object flying at 300 feet. It has multiple lights around its perimeter. They drive toward it, flashing their lights, and the object climbs another 300 feet and moves west along some railroad tracks. Two A-10 Thunderbolt II fighter aircraft appear and try to follow the object, but it accelerates and loses them. (George Filer, “Arizona Formation of Flying Triangles,” Filer’s Files, #49-2000 (December 11, 2000)) November 4 — 8:45 p.m. A family in Scottsdale, Arizona, sees a triangular formation of three bright lights in the southern sky blinking irregularly. The object they are attached to is larger than a commercial airliner that happens to pass by. (George Filer, “Arizona Formation of Flying Triangles,” Filer’s Files, #49-2000 (December 11, 2000)) November 20 — 8:45 p.m. An 11-year-old boy on the north side of Phoenix, Arizona, watches three dark triangle-shaped objects maneuvering and hovering. (George Filer, “Arizona Formation of Flying Triangles,” Filer’s Files, #49- 2000 (December 11, 2000)) November 28 — 7:00 p.m. Jason Ingraham sees a flying triangle with a deep red blinking light on each point in Phoenix, Arizona. It moves northwest for about 10 seconds, then it leans to the left and begins to rotate in a clockwise motion. It makes a full rotation before disappearing behind some distant trees. There are 6 normal airplanes in the sky at the same time. (George Filer, “Arizona Formation of Flying Triangles,” Filer’s Files, #49-2000 (December 11, 2000)) November 30 — The UK Freedom of Information Act 2000 is given royal assent but will not come into full force until

2005. The legislation creates a public “right of access” to information held by public authorities. (Wikipedia, “Freedom of Information Act 2000”)

December 1 — 6:45 p.m. A witness in Avondale, Arizona, sees a bunch of lights in the shape of a triangle to the southeast. Helicopters seem to be flying around it. (George Filer, “Arizona Formation of Flying Triangles,” Filer’s Files, #49-2000 (December 11, 2000)) December 4 — The UK Ministry of Defence notes in a “loose minute” that DI55, the space weapons section of the Defence Intelligence Staff, has completed a study of UFO reports, concluding that there is nothing of value in its assessment of “threat weapons systems” and will carry out no further investigations. It will be released in 2006 as the Project Condign report. (UK Defence Intelligence Staff, “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP): DI55 Report,” December 4, 2000, in David Clarke, comp., Project Condign documents, pp. 46– 47 ; David Clarke and Gary Anthony, “The British MoD Study: Project Condign,” IUR 30, no. 4 (August 2006): 7 – 11) December 13 — 10 :00 pm. A group of five people is traveling in a Volkswagen on a dirt road 9 miles from Iturama, Minas Gerais, Brazil—João Caiana, his wife Valdeir Martins, daughter Magui Martins, a 3-year-old granddaughter, and an 18 - year-old friend. Some odd colored lights in the sky seem to follow them for 2 miles. Suddenly the interior of the car begins to get hot, and a light gray entity with big eyes approaches them. Everyone loses control and seems to be sucked into a UFO for an abduction scenario. (Laura Maria Elias, “Caso Caiana: Desdobramentos de um clássico de Ufologia Miniera,” Portal UFO, February 1, 2015; Brazil 393 – 396) December 19 — 6:10 a.m. Reporter Alfondo Reyes is observing the eruption of Popocatépetl southeast of Mexico City, Mexico, and taking time-exposure photographs. On one 20-second exposure he catches a bright luminous object that contrasts with the smoke of the eruption and seems to make a turn toward the crater. He does not actually see the object and only discovers it after the photo is developed. (Patrick Gross, “UFOs Photographed over Erupting Mexico Volcano”) December 24 — 7:00 p.m. A woman living in the Baranówka neighborhood of Rzeszów, Poland, sees a light outside her window on the 4th floor of an apartment building. It makes unusual maneuvers like a figure-8 and zigzags, and is joined by another light that flies at a constant speed. Both are about 5 feet in diameter. She snaps two motion-blur photos with her Minolta that shows an object hovering above the apartment block opposite her. The second object approaches the first one and they fly away together. (Poland 151–153)

2001

2001 — Gérard Brachet, the new director of CNES, decides to audit SEPRA. It is conducted by an outsider, François Louange, an expert in photoanalysis who has participated in UFO studies at CNES. (Gildas Bourdais, “The Death and Rebirth of Official French UFO Studies,” IUR 31 , no. 2 (June 2007): 13)

January 1 — 12:01 a.m. Five people driving along Highway 3 south of New Plymouth, New Zealand, spot an orange object about 30–50 feet in diameter pacing their car 100 feet above them. They pull over to watch and see three similar objects hovering and swaying around. They look like they are changing color from metallic glowing orange to metallic deep purple and shades of blue. One more larger object appears on the horizon and speeds toward the other four. Each seems to react in a way similar to an army unit and forms a line and disappears almost instantly to the south. As they leave several minutes later, they realize they haven’t seen any traffic for 30 minutes and only see some as they enter New Plymouth. (George Filer, “New Zealand Discs Start New Millennium,” Filer’s Files, #2-2001 (January 9, 2001)) January 5 — 10:30 a.m. A white, “self-lit” cigar-shaped object with a small vapor trail is seen at Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Its hops forward in its progress through the sky before it moves out of view behind a mountain. It returns and flies back again. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2001,” IUR 26, no. 4 (Winter 2001–2002): 17) January 14 — Late afternoon. Witnesses on both sides of the hill see a small object appear to strike the telecommunications mast on top of Snaefell, Isle of Man. Two women on horseback see a 20-foot-long object that crashes in a shower of sparks and smoke. The emergency services think a small plane has crashed, because they have lost power and are using a backup generator. As light fades, however, helicopter crews can see damage to the mast, but no sign of wreckage. The UK government blames a model aircraft. (Jenny Randles, “Mysterious Island: The UFO Legacy of the Isle of Man,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 14 ) January 2 2 — 12:30 a.m. Barnaul Airport in Altai Krai, Russia, shuts down after a slightly tilted, oscillating, disc-shaped object is detected hovering above its runway. The crew of an Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane refuses to take off, claiming they can see a luminous object. An incoming Yakovlev Yak-40 passenger plane also sees an object at Barnaul and lands at another airport. Sergei Kurennoi, the chief airspace controller at Barnaul, sees the object at an elevation of 15°–20º above the horizon above the end of the track. With his binoculars, he distinguishes a solid structure that radiates light of various colors (red, green, purple). Nothing is tracked on radar. The UFO noiselessly takes off to the northwest, changes direction to the southwest, and vanishes after 90 minutes. (Patrick Gross, “UFO Shuts Down Russian Airport”) January 25 — In the UK House of Lords, Peter Hill-Norton asks the Ministry of Defence what is the “highest classification that has been applied in any MoD document concerning UFOs.” Its reply is: “A limited search through available titles has identified a number of documents graded Secret. The overall classification of the documents was not dictated by details of specific sightings of UFOs.” (David Clarke and Gary Anthony, “The British MoD Study: Project Condign,” IUR 30, no. 4 (August 2006): 32) January 31 — 3:30 p.m. As many as 10 witnesses observe two cigar-shaped “shining lights” in the sky, hanging motionless over the horizon at Gjoa Haven, Nunavut. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2001,” IUR 26, no. 4 (Winter 2001–2002): 17) January 31 — The entire USAF Solid State Phased Array Radar System goes into operation at five units worldwide including Beale AFB near Marysville, California; Cape Cod Air Force Station in Massachusetts; Clear Air Force Station, Alaska; RAF Fylingdales in north Yorkshire, England; and Thule Airbase in Greenland. These radars are designed primarily to detect ICBM or sea-launched cruise missiles directed at the US. (Wikipedia, “Solid State Phased Array Radar System”)

February — French ufologist Dominique Weinstein creates a massive catalogue of 1,305 UFO sightings by pilots from 1916 to 2000. She finds that 606 cases (36.7%) are sightings by military pilots and crews; 444 cases (26.9%) are by civilian pilots; and 196 cases (11.8%) are by private pilots. In 200 cases (12.1%) the visual observation is confirmed by on-board or ground radar. And in 57 cases (3.45%) the pilots note electromagnetic effects on one or more of the plane’s transmission systems. (Dominique F. Weinstein, “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena: Eighty Years of Pilot Sightings, a Catalog of Military, Airliner, and Private Pilots Sightings from 1916 to 2000,” National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena, February 2001)

March 11 — 6:30 p.m. An irregularly shaped object like a cluster of red spheres flies against the wind above a witness in Calgary, Alberta, who manages to take a photograph. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2001,” IUR 26, no. 4 (Winter 2001–2002): 17)

April 1 — 10:30 p.m. Farm manager George Hofer and several children from the Rosedale Hutterite Brethren Colony near Etzikom, Alberta, see a brilliant fireball falling and apparently striking the Earth only a few miles away. On April 16, Ken Masson, who farms 13 miles south of Etzikom, discovers a circular, crater-like formation on his land. On May 1, Pano Karkanis of the University of Lethbridge Department of Geography visits the site, interviews the witnesses, measures the crater, and takes soil samples. The crater is 6 inches deep, with an inside diameter of 7.9 feet, surrounded by a mound of dirt 16 inches high. He notes four indentations inside the circle that he suspects are caused by rainwater. The dirt inside is cracked and sere, and he finds some odd reddish-brown particles of dirt on the mound. He concludes the crater was formed by a meteorite fragment that vaporized, leaving only the reddish-brown particles. Meteorite impact expert Alan Hildebrand the University of Calgary doubts the crater was made by a meteorite. (Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 204–206)

May — Christian Morgenthaler founds the Sciences et Phénomènes Insolites du Ciel et de l’Aéronautique in Odratzheim, Bas-Rhin, France. It publishes the SPICA News from January 2002 to December 2010. (SPICA News, no. 1 (January 2002 )) May 3 — In the UK House of Lords, Peter Hill-Norton asks the Ministry of Defence why the UFO documents it referred to in January were classified secret. Its answer is, “One document was classified ‘Secret’ with a ‘UK Eyes Only’ caveat because it contained information about the UK air defence ground environment that could be of significant value to hostile or potentially hostile states. Associated correspondence was given the same classification. Generally, however, notifications of and correspondence on the subject of UFO sightings are unclassified.” (David Clarke and Gary Anthony, “The British MoD Study: Project Condign,” IUR 30, no. 4 (August 2006): 32) May 9 — Twenty government workers from military and civilian organizations speak about their experiences regarding UFOs and UFO confidentiality at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The press conference is initiated by Steven M. Greer, founder of the Disclosure Project, which has the goal of disclosing alleged government UFO secrecy. The purpose of the press conference is to build public pressure through the media to obtain a hearing before the US Congress on the issue. Aerospace illustrator Mark McCandlish testifies that gravity control propulsion research started in the 1950s and successfully reverse engineered the vehicle retrieved from the Roswell, New Mexico, crash site to build three Alien Reproduction Vehicles (ARVs) by 1981. McCandlish describes their propulsion systems in terms of Thomas Townsend Brown’s gravitators and provides a line drawing of its interior. The diagram closely resembles the drawing provided earlier in Milton William Cooper’s book Behold a Pale Horse. Another Disclosure Project whistleblower, Philip J. Corso, states in his book The Day after Roswell that the craft retrieved from the second crash site at Roswell had a propulsion system resembling Brown’s gravitators. Corso’s book also features several gravity control propulsion statements made by Hermann Oberth. Although major American media outlets report on the conference, interest quickly dies down, and no hearing takes place. (“Group Calls for Disclosure of UFO Info,” ABC News, May 10, 2001; “UFO Spotters Slam ‘US Cover-Up,’” BBC News, May 10, 2001; Jean-Pierre Petit, “I Have a Doubt about ‘Disclosure,’” March 19, 2003; Wikipedia, “United States gravity control propulsion research”)

Early June — A Hellfire missile is successfully launched from an MQ-1A Predator drone on a replica of Osama bin Laden’s Afghanistan Tarnak residence in Area 51, Nevada. A missile launched from a Predator explodes inside one of the replica’s rooms; it is concluded that any people in the room would have been killed. However, the armed Predator does not go into action before the September 11 attacks. (Wikipedia, “General Atomics MQ- 1 Predator”) June 23 — 9:45 p.m. Three witnesses are sitting in their yard in Fernandina Beach, Florida, when they see a bright white light with a bluish tinge descend and hover about 2,000 feet due east of them above the ocean. After one minute it emits a mist from three points on its underside so that it appears to be sitting on a cloud. Then it emits mist from its upper area and becomes enshrouded with the light shining through. Then the light blinks off, leaving only a cloud that stands there for about one minute. It disappears 5–10 seconds afterward. (“Sighting Report,” National UFO Reporting Center, February 11, 2003; Nukes 506– 507 ) June 30 — 10:30 p.m. Electrical power goes off in the small village of Năneşti, Romania, even though the lights in neighboring villages are still on. A number of witnesses notice a red, round ball moving slowly in the air. When it stops it begins to spin, turning into a rotating segmented ring of pale yellow light. The ring becomes larger in diameter, coming closer to the ground where it gets as large as 600 feet in diameter. After a short period of time it climbs again, still rotating but shrinking and turning into a red dot that moves around in the sky until it starts rotating again and repeating the cycle some 8–20 times over the course of 45 minutes. Some witnesses see it as a

dark red cloud lit from inside by squares of light. The display ceases sometime after midnight and the power
returns mysteriously at around 2:00 a.m. (Romania 70–73)

July 9 — 11:30 p.m. A man and his daughter watch six orange, oval objects flying in a V-formation toward the west at Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2001,” IUR 26, no. 4 (Winter 2001–2002): 17) July 14– 15 — Evening–night. Dozens of Staten Islanders and residents of Carteret, New Jersey, observe lights in the southwestern sky on a clear, cloudless night. The lights appear in various formations at about 45 ° above the horizon. Witnesses view the scene from Arthur Kill Road and the West Shore Expressway on the New York side. The Waterloo Cafe, located opposite the Blazing Star Burial Ground on Arthur Kill Road, provides the most significant witnesses. The consensus of their testimonies reveals a series of lights, numbering from 4 – 5 to as many as 16 – 20 , bright orange or orange-red in hue, and appearing as solid round objects. Witnesses number about 50 , including the owner of the cafe, but not all come forward. Those who do, agree that there was no sound emanating from the lights, and no one can see any wings. The lights are often no more than 1,000 feet in the air, often described as flying in an inverted V-shaped configuration. Unknown targets without transponders, some at heights of 99,000 feet, are picked up on radar at Newark International Airport. (Dennis K. Anderson, “The Arthur Kill Sightings, July 14 – 15, 2001,” IUR 28, no. 2 (Summer 2003): 3 – 6, 26 – 27)

August 3 — Day. A Brazilian Air Force pilot and four others are taking supplies from Belém to Salvador, Brazil, aboard a C-130 Hercules transport. One of the military officers draws the colonel’s attention to a disc-shaped object that is accompanying the plane about 6t0 feet away. Ground control cannot detect anything on radar. The object has a brushed gray color and is the size of a bus. It has a dome at the top and flat at the bottom. The sighting lasts about 10 minutes. (Clark III 208; Brazil 559–560) August 6 — Afternoon. Two Turkish Air Force pilots from 122 Squadron are practicing maneuvers in a Cessna T-37B Dragonfly jet trainer over the Gulf of Çandarli, an inlet of the Aegean Sea in western Turkey. 1Lt. Ilker Dinçer and his student Lt. Arda Gunyel are surprised by an extremely bright object, shaped like something between a disc and a cone, with a pod on its lower part. Ground control has nothing on its radar. The UFO approaches the Cessna at high speed, then positions itself alongside, behind, and above the jet. It plays cat and mouse with the plane for some minutes before it disappears at high speed. The Turkish Air Force announces that it is a weather balloon. (Good Need, pp. 393 – 394 ) August 12 — 12:25 a.m. Five people watch seven gray objects flying in a straight line over Victoria, British Columbia, which change position in flight into a hexagonal formation and ascend into the sky. They are lost to view after 15 minutes. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2001,” IUR 26, no. 4 (Winter 2001–2002): 17) August 17 — 9:30 p.m. An astronomer in Mitchell, Manitoba, hears loud booming sounds and runs outside to see three steady lights in triangular formation moving east to west. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2001,” IUR 26, no. 4 (Winter 2001–2002): 17) August 20 — Dozens of passengers on the Rogalin ferry returning from Sweden to Gdansk, Poland, with 50 passengers on board watch an object 10 feet in diameter rise to the surface about 500 feet away. It approaches the boat, submerges, and maneuvers underwater. After three minutes, the ferry leaves it behind. (Poland 121–122) August 25 — 3:27 p.m. An astronomer and others at St.-Laurent, Quebec, watch two solid-appearing objects moving slowly through the clear sky. They take some photos. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2001,” IUR 26, no. 4 (Winter 2001–2002): 17)

September 6 — 10:00 p.m. Police on patrol in Sampacho, Cordoba, Argentina, receive an alert on their car radio about several UFOs above the Cerro Sampacho. They appear to be silently hovering at an altitude of 5,000 feet. (“UFOs Seen in Argentina,” IUR 27, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 4) September 9 — 10:30 p.m. A family traveling in a pickup truck between Achiras and Sampacho, Argentina, notice an intense red light in the sky moving from the southwest. It looks like an intense red beam with bright flashes behind it. In the front is something like an arc of light. The object seems as if it about to fall on top of them, but it changes course and heads toward the mountains. (“UFOs Seen in Argentina,” IUR 27, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 4)

November 5 — Apache County sheriff’s deputies attempt to arrest Milton Willian Cooper at his Eagar, Arizona, home on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and endangerment stemming from disputes with local residents. After an exchange of gunfire during which Cooper shoots one of the deputies in the head, Cooper is fatally shot. Federal authorities report that Cooper has spent years evading execution of a 1998 arrest warrant for tax evasion. According to a spokesman for the Marshals Service, he vowed that “he would not be taken alive.”

(Wikipedia, “Milton William Cooper”; “Arizona Militia Figure Shot to Death,” Los Angeles Times, November 7, 2001, p. 24) November 11 — An oval object with several lights flies on an irregular path above Policeman’s Point, Yukon Territory. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2001,” IUR 26, no. 4 (Winter 2001–2002): 17)

December — Peru sets up a new Air Force agency, the Departamento de Investigación de Fenómenos Aéreos Anómalos (DIFFA), tasked with studying UFO cases. It is founded and directed by Comandante Julio Chamorro because “these anomalous events had occurred frequently enough over national territory to create a danger, and we recognized that they needed to be taken seriously.” It is first publicly acknowledged in February 2003 by Col. José Raffo Moloche, but it closes in 2008 (“Perú reabre oficina para recopilar datos sobre ovnis,” BBC News, October 20, 2013; Kean, p. 189 ) December 11 — 8:06 p.m. Pilots of a commercial airliner flying above Craik, Saskatchewan, see lights that they think belong to another aircraft at a higher altitude, but air traffic controllers have no other aircraft on their radar. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2001,” IUR 26, no. 4 (Winter 2001–2002): 17)

2002

January 18 — The Sirius UFO Space Sciences Research Center opens in Istanbul, Turkey, with an exhibition area that showcases UFO incidents in both Turkish and English. (“International UFO Museum Opens in Turkey,” IUR 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 28)

February 2 — 2:53 a.m. A witness is driving down a road in Clermont, Florida, when he sees a silent, bright light over Lake Minnehaha. The object passes over his car at about 15–20 feet in the air, and his engine dies. It shoots off like a slingshot and disappears. The car starts again. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 18) February 20 — 8:15 a.m. A witness aboard a cruise ship off the southern coast of Puerto Rico sees an irregularly shaped object like a cloud high in the sky. He takes a photo, then leaves to attend a meeting. Analysis indicates that the object is most likely a Tethered Aerostat Radar System airship used to provide radar data in support of the US drug interdiction program. (John P. Timmerman and Mark Rodeghier, “Snapshot from a Cruise: An Aerostat Sighting,” IUR 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 13–14)

March 15 — 9:30 p.m. Lisa Stone is driving with her 16-year-old son when she sees a triangular object with white lights that is maneuvering around Magazine Hill, outside Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The object is massive, perhaps the size of a university football field. She drives directly underneath, and “hail” starts falling from it. The object does a figure eight before heading in the direction of Fall River to the northeast. (Don Ledger, “The Flying Triangle Phenomenon,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 7, 23)

April — Skandinavisk UFO Information begins publishing UFO-Mail in Ringsted, Denmark. (UFO-Mail, no. 1 (April 2, 2002))

Summer — Two men see an object over Mosinee, Wisconsin, that shines a straight, 5-foot-wide beam of light on the Wisconsin River like a searchlight. The beam does not change shape as the object goes higher above the water. (Carl W. Feindt, “Beam of Light into a Body of Water,” IUR 33, no. 3 (December 2010): 23. July 26 — 1:00–1:55 a.m. Near Andrews AFB, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C., independent witnesses 8 miles apart become aware of unusual and persistent aircraft activity. In both locations, witnesses see odd lights or objects pursued by one military jet. Two pairs of fighters take off from Andrews at 1:00 a.m., remain airborne for 50 minutes, fly at low altitude using afterburners over residential areas, and pursue an unidentifiable light on three occasions. Gary Dillman, working late shift at a sand-and-gravel operation in Brandywine, Maryland, sees the first two fighters at 1:00 a.m., then at 1:30 a.m. and 1:40 a.m. he sees a glowing, round, hard-edged orange object that one of the fighters is chasing. The pursuit takes place between broken clouds at about 4,000 feet and a light overcast at about 6,000 feet; the unknown object and fighter are about 1–2 miles away. In Waldorf, Maryland, around 1:35 a.m. Renny Rogers feels the walls of his home rattling from a low-flying aircraft and goes out to see a single jet fighter. At 1:40 a.m., he sees a bright, pale-bluish light in the north-northeast moving at a high rate of speed. He calls a neighbor to come watch the display. Soon a fighter comes over his house in obvious pursuit of the light and about 1,000–2,000 feet behind it. The four fighters return to base around 1:50 a.m. (Kenny Young,

“UFO Violates D.C. Airspace,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 413 (September 2002): 11; Joan Woodward, “The
Washington, D.C., Jet Chase of July 26, 2002,” IUR 27, no. 4 (Winter 2002–2003): 3–7, 22–25; Good Need, pp.
394 – 396 )

August — The Roper market research firm conducts a telephone poll, sponsored by the Sci-Fi channel, to ask a national sample of adult Americans a series of questions about UFOs and abductions. The results indicate that two-thirds think there are other forms of intelligent life in the universe, 56% think that UFOs are something real, 48% think that UFOs have visited Earth in some form, 11.6% have seen a UFO at close quarters, 72% think the US government is not telling everything it knows about UFOs, and 21% think that humans have been abducted by other life forms. (Mark Rodeghier, “Attitudes toward ETI, UFOs, and Abductions,” IUR 27, no. 4 (Winter 2002– 2003): 10–14) August — Day. Three witnesses in Szczuczyn, Poland, watch a V-shaped object with brilliant white lights at each of its corners moving slowly from west to east with its flat point forward. (Poland 99) August 5– 18 — A third team of Italian researchers, code named EMBLA and led by Massimo Teodorani and Gloria Nobili, visits Hessdalen, Norway, and collects evidence pointing to an unknown atmospheric light phenomenon “able to produce a luminous power of up to 100 kW.” However, a 2003 analysis by Matteo Leone demonstrates that the lights reported by the EMBLA team are consistent with automobile headlights. (Massimo Teodorani, “A Long-Term Scientific Survey of the Hessdalen Phenomenon,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 18, no. 2 (2004): 217 – 251; Matteo Leone, “A Rebuttal of the EMBLA 2002 Report on the Optical Survey in Hessdalen,” 2003) August 13 — 2:15 a.m. A woman watching the Perseid meteor show in Cow Bay, Nova Scotia, sees a large meteor with a long tail appear out of Ursa Major and arch over her head to the southeast. Suddenly it disappears as if it has passed behind something. She also sees a straight, black line advancing trough the sky, then a “perfect black triangle of gargantuan proportions” crossing directly over the clearing around her house. It is pitch black and enormous, moving only about 10 mph and taking 5 minutes to disappear over the trees to the northwest. Ufologist Don Ledger investigates and finds that radar at Moncton Center in New Brunswick had picked up an unidentified target at that time and place. (Don Ledger, “The Flying Triangle Phenomenon,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 3– 7 )

September 6 — 10:00 p.m. Police in Sampacho, Cordoba, Argentina, receive an alert about a mystery light. They see 7– 8 objects over the Cerro Sampacho hovering silently at about 5,000 feet altitude. They have them in view for several minutes. (“Argentinsk politi ser åtte UFOer,” UFO-nytt, 2002 , no. 2, p. 21) September 9 — 10:30 p.m. A family is traveling in a pickup truck northward along Provincial Highway 24 between Achiras and Sampacho, Cordoba, Argentina. In the vicinity of Cerro Aspero, they begin noticing “a very intense red light in the sky” in the southwest. The object looks like an intense red beam with an arc of light on its front section. The observation lasts for several minutes as the light approaches then heads towards hills in the south. (“Another UFO Spotted near Sampacho, Argentina,” UFO Roundup 7, no. 39 (September 24, 2002) September 16– 24 —Scientists from the University of New Mexico initiate an archaeological dig at the debris field site near Corona, New Mexico, funded by the Sci-Fi channel. The team finds a small number of artifacts of unknown provenance and some soil deformation anomalies, but no furrow or unusual debris. (Sci Fi Channel, Sci Fi Declassified: The Roswell Dig Diaries, Pocket Books, 2004 ; “The Roswell Dig Diaries,” IUR 28, no. 4 (Winter 2003 – 2004): 11) Late September — 5:45 p.m. Security Policeman Christopher Cabrera is on guard an entry control point at the Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field [now Creech AFB] in Clark County, Nevada. He looks toward the base and sees an amber/red object hovering above it. He stares at it for about 2 minutes then suddenly a red beam shoots out from the orb and hits the side of the nearest mountain. The beam lasts about one minute and Cabrera notices what looked like molten rock dripping from the mountain. The beam abruptly ceases and the orb just disappears. A few seconds later, the molten effect on the mountain also dissipates. (Robert L. Hastings, “Triangular-Shaped UFO Sighted at the Nellis AFB Nuclear Storage Area,” UFOs & Nukes, April 23, 2015)

October — A “three-foot diameter orb” quickly moves along the perimeter fences of Area 2, a weapons storage area of the Nevada Test Site [now the Nevada National Security Site]. It eventually outpaces the security teams that attempt to pursue it in Humvees. (Nukes 513) October 1 — The US Strategic Command is restricted by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, merging with the US Space Command and assuming all duties for full-spectrum global strike, operational space support, missile defense, intelligence, and planning. (Wikipedia, “United States Strategic Command”) October 4 — 7:06 p.m. A rotating CCTV camera at Terminal 2 in Kota Kinabalu International Airport, Sabah, Malaysia, records a video of an oblong object passing by in seconds. No unusual object is tracked by the airport radar. A

security guard sees the object moving silently west to east before disappearing in the hills. (Patrick Gross, “Radar/Visual/Camera UFO Case at Airport in Malaysia?”) October 10 — Day. A military pilot off the coast of Southern California or Baja California, Mexico, is looking down at the ocean at a 78° angle and sees, at a 7,238-foot visual slant range, a submerged, white, egg-shaped object about 20 – 50 feet below the surface. It is about 130 by 200 feet in size and appears silent and stationary. (Keith Basterfield, “A BAASS Data Report of a 2002 Submerged Egg-Shaped Object in the SOCAL OPEAREA,” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena—Scientific Research, May 13, 2022) October 16 — Rear Adm. Thomas R. Wilson, who has retired as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency on July 29, has a meeting in Paradise, Nevada, with Eric W. Davis of EarthTech International Inc., an astrophysicist who is a member of the National Institute for Discovery Science and an associate of Harold E. Puthoff. He talks about his previous meetings with Cmdr. Will Miller, in which he admits he was denied access to an Unacknowledged Special Access Program dealing with reverse engineering an alien craft. Davis takes 15 pages of notes, which are leaked to researcher Grant Cameron and others in April 2019. (Eric W. Davis, “Eric Davis Meeting with Adm. Wilson” [notes], Imgur, April 19, 2019; Richard Dolan, “The Wilson Leak: Latest Developments,” Richard Dolan Member Forum, June 19, 2019; “The Admiral Wilson Leak: Evidence of USAPs (Unacknowledged Special Access Programs) and Reverse Engineering of Extraterrestrial Technologies,” Metallicman, December 23, 2019; Joe Murgia, “The Wilson/Davis Documents: My Twenty-Three Year Journey, Part 1,” Part 2, UFO Joe, June 21, 2020 ) October 18 — A fall of angel hair covers a large area of Alessandria, Italy, including roofs, cars, and trees. A sample is recovered and examined by the Consiglio Nazionale delle Richerche in Parma and shows “unequivocally” that the filaments are not organic, but similar to synthetic polymer textile fibers. They have a clear alternation of bright and dark segments. The Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione Ambientale in Turin disputes the finding and proclaims the material spider web. (Brian Boldman, “Angel Hair Physical Analyses: A Review,” JUFOS 9 (2006): 108) October 23 — 7:40 p.m. Pilot Thomas J. Preziose takes off from Mobile, Alabama, in a Cessna 208B single-engine cargo plane en route to Montgomery. Six minutes later, he collides with an unknown object at 3,000 feet and descends uncontrolled into swampy water in the Big Bateau Bay in Spanish Fort, Alabama. The pilot’s final words are: “Night Ship 282, I needed to deviate, I needed to deviate.” A strange red residue (“transfer marks”) is found coating at least 14 different areas of the downed airplane that are widely separated in location both inside and outside the aircraft. The engine block has been split. The final NTSB report indicates that the accident is caused by pilot disorientation. However, an independent investigation finds numerous discrepancies with regard to both the FAA documentation and the NTSB investigation. The composition of the red residue is variously found to be tere- and isophthalate polymer with possible presence of inorganic silicate compounds; and epoxy material with some inorganic silicate filters. (“NTSB Solves Riddle of ‘02 Small-Plane Crash,” Washington Post, January 11, 2006; Kean, pp. 61 – 62 ; Marcus Lowth, “Just What Did Happen to Tom Preziose? Contact, or Cover-Up?” UFO Insight, November 8, 2017) October 31 — Astronomers Margaret C. Turnbull and Jill Tarter publish a catalog of nearby habitable stellar systems, each at least 3 billion years old, stable, and supporting liquid water on the surface of a habitable planet. (Margaret C. Turnbull and Jill C. Tarter, “Target Selection for SETI: 1. A Catalog of Nearby Habitable Stellar Systems,” arXiv, October 31, 2002)

November — After an audit, photoanalyst François Louange recommends the reactivation and redevelopment of SEPRA. The report is picked up by the French press. (Gildas Bourdais, “The Death and Rebirth of Official French UFO Studies,” IUR 31 , no. 2 (June 2007): 13) November 8 — The Sci Fi channel sponsors a symposium on “Interstellar Travel and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena: Science Fiction or Science Fact?” at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Speakers include astrophysicist Richard Conn Henry, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, astrophysicist Bernard Haisch, computer scientist Jacques Vallée, aviation expert John Callahan, and physicist Peter Sturrock. (“GWU’s SciFi UFO Symposium,” IUR 27, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 22) November 16 — A boomerang-shaped object surrounded by mist is seen in the Old Town district of Rzeszów, Poland. (Poland 92) November 21 — 7:00 p.m. James Bunnell sees a pulsating light on the side of a mesa near Marfa, Texas. It is yellow and hovers for 8–10 minutes, then begins descending, blinks out, and reappears as a bright red light that lasts only 2– 3 seconds. (James Bunnell, Hunting Marfa Lights, Lacey, 2009 , pp. 67– 68 ) November 28 — Night. Two policemen in Buenos Aires, Argentina, see a large light maneuvering in the sky and emitting colored sparks before it approaches their patrol car. The light reverses its course, and the engine and headlights

fail. About 30 minutes later, the object moves away, the car starts again, and the siren suddenly comes on. The
UFO paces them to one side before it finally disappears. Five police cars are involved in the incident. (Herbert S.
Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 20)

December 2– 13 — The Sci Fi channel airs a fictional miniseries about UFOs and abductions titled Taken, produced by Steven Spielberg. The show takes place from 1944 to 2002 and follows the lives of three families: the Crawfords, who seek to cover up the Roswell crash and the existence of aliens; the Keys, who are subject to frequent experimentation by the aliens; and the Clarkes, who sheltered one of the surviving aliens from the crash. (Wikipedia, “Taken (miniseries)”; Internet Movie Database, “Taken”) December 26 — Roswell, New Mexico, witness Walter G. Haut signs an affidavit that asserts he had seen bodies recovered from the 1947 crash in a temporary morgue at Roswell Army Air Field. Haut dies December 15, 20 0 5, and the affidavit is released by his family. (Thomas J. Carey and Donald R. Schmitt, Witness to Roswell: Unmasking the Government ’ s Biggest Cover-Up, New Page, 2007 , pp. 215–217)

2003

*January 31 — 10:30 p.m. Two witnesses in Villeneuve, Alberta, watch a large white object described as “two saucers rim to rim” move slowly through a farmyard and over some houses, then out of sight. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2003,” IUR 28, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 13)

February 8 — 1:00 a.m. Carlos Eduardo Montilho wakes up in his home in Guará I, Brasilia, Brazil, to tend to his dog in the backyard. An intense white light comes down about 23 feet in front of him that is attached to an oval object abut 10 feet in diameter. The grass stirs beneath it as if blown by wind, and it is making a humming sound. His wife starts screaming for him to get back inside. He retreats to the kitchen, where they both watch the object for 3 minutes before it rises slowly and disappears. The dog is asleep the entire time. (Brazil 400–402) February 12 — 9:02 p.m. A dark triangular object with some sort of structured undercarriage is seen flying over Vancouver, British Columbia. It is in view for 3 minutes by two witnesses. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2003,” IUR 28, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 13) February 15 — The National Air Intelligence Center becomes the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC), which coordinates a “wide variety of complex space/counterspace analytical activities.” (Wikipedia, “National Air and Space Intelligence Center”) February 19 — 9:20 a.m. A fast-moving silvery object “like a cruise missile” flies swiftly across snow-covered fields near Raymore, Saskatchewan, heading north. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2003,” IUR 28, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 13) February 25 — 7:30 p.m. A witness in downtown Bremerton, Washington, looks up and sees a triangular object with a light at each point flying silently over Naval Submarine Base Bangor [now Naval Base Kitsap] on the Kitsap Peninsula, Washington, at an altitude of 800–1,000 feet. (“Sighting Report,” National UFO Reporting Center, March 4, 2003; Nukes 499)

March 3 — 7:55 a.m. The drive and passenger of a truck traveling along a highway in Houston, British Columbia, watch as a silver object the size and shape of an Airstream trailer flies alongside them, then zooms away. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2003,” IUR 28, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 13)

April — 2:30 a.m. Some Air Force security policemen for Area 2, a weapons storage area of the Nevada Test Site [now the Nevada National Security Site], are having a meal outside when they notice a red glow at their feet. The light is coming from a giant sphere perhaps 100 feet across approaching them from the south. By the time they notice it, the reddish-orange object has passed silently overhead at about 75 feet altitude in a few seconds. Apparently, it projects a zone of silence and exerts a zone of pressure directly below it, causing the guards’ ears to pop. It disappears over some mountains to the north, where it apparently explodes in a burst of white light with no sound or shockwave. Building in intensity, the explosion keeps growing until it is painful to perceive through closed eyes, then quickly dies down. The light effects last for 5 seconds. The security controller orders all outside units to search for the downed object. They look until 7:00 a.m. but find nothing. (Nukes 512–515)

June — The Turkish press announces that Turkey’s National Intelligence Service has received a top-secret request from the US Central Intelligence Agency for details on all its latest UFO reports. The Service accordingly asks the

Turkish Air Force, Turkish Airlines, and other agencies to submit reports. It recommends that the Air Force should establish an investigative agency headed by a colonel. (Good Need, p. 394 ) June 5 — 4:45 p.m. Shortly after TAM Flight 3287 takes off from Palmas–Brigadeiro Lysias Rodrigues Airport in Palmas, Brazil, to Brasilia, air traffic control asks the pilot if he can see any other aircraft near his plane. He cannot, but ground control says there is another object in his flight area. When they are over Palmas, the copilot sees a gigantic object on the right side of the plane. It is metallic and surrounded by bright multicolored lights. It flies as if it is sliding with no friction. The UFO follows the aircraft for almost an hour before moving away. (Clark III 203– 205 ; Brazil 548) June 10 — Serbian astrophysicist Milan M. Ćirković theorizes that because it is reasonable to assume that there is an inhabited planet somewhere 3 billion years older than Earth, we are likely to encounter an alien civilization significantly older than 1.8 billion years. (Milan M. Cirkovic, “The Temporal Aspect of the Drake Equation and SETI,” arXiv, June 10, 2003)

July 5 — The Sci-Fi Channel places a stone marker at the Roswell debris field site to commemorate the 1947 crash. (Thomas J. Carey and Donald R. Schmitt, Witness to Roswell, New Page, 2007, p. 223) July 7 — 10:30 p.m. A witness in Verdun, Quebec, watches a gray, teardrop-shaped object moving slowly at low altitude over rooftops, making an unusual whirring sound. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2003,” IUR 28, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 13) July 28 — 12:45 a.m. Hundreds of witnesses see a large, white, moon-shaped object flying over the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, zigzagging from northwest to southeast and changing direction in some cases to move over local mountains and drop into valleys. At 1:00 a.m., a beam of white light arches across the sky from horizon to horizon and persisting until at least 2:00 a.m. Dubbed the “Okanagan Arch,” the beam is seen from Kamloops to Jaffray. (Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 207–209)

August 6 — 12:32 a.m. Three witnesses in North Bay, Ontario, watch as a gray, cigar-shaped object, stationary in the sky, becomes “wavy” and then suddenly disappears from view after 5 minutes. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2003,” IUR 28, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 13) August 10 — 2:22 p.m. A large fuselage-shaped object flies low along a road, under some guy wires, and among trees in Whitehorse, Yukon. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2003,” IUR 28, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 13) August 11 — 6:00 p.m. Diana Luca and her mother are chatting at the kitchen table in her home in New Westminster, British Columbia. Out of the corner of her eye, Luca spots a black object behind the trees in the back alley. The two step out on the patio for a better look and see a UFO flying behind the trees and over the top of the shorter ones. The object, flat and shaped like a Frisbee, flips on its underside, which is as red and shiny as a Coke can. She calls her husband, Mark Murphy, who is inside. By the time he gets to the porch, the UFO looks cigar-shaped and is an estimated 1.8 miles away. Murphy rushes inside to get a camcorder and gets the rest of the sighting on tape. (“UFOs over British Columbia,” Vancouver (B.C.) Courier, March 1 5 , 2004; “B.C. Sighting,” IUR 28, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 27) August 20 — Day. Frank Delephine takes a video of a formation of five yellowish lights leaving a smoke trail above the beach at Nowa Karczma on the Vistula Spit, Poland. (Poland 125) August 23 — Three witnesses observe a saucer-shaped object with protrusions for 30 seconds as it flies above some cars on a highway in Winnipeg, Manitoba. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2003,” IUR 28, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 13) August 26 — Members of the Defense Committee on the Chilean Chamber of Deputies analyze information on UFOs for the first time. It hears testimony, largely reports from pilots and air traffic controllers, provided by the Comité de Estudios de Fénomenos Aéreos Anómalos and the director of OVNIvision (both UFO research groups in Chile). Defense Committee Chairman Arturo Cardemil tells the media that UFOs have sometimes disrupted air-traffic operations. (George Filer, “Chile: Congress Acknowledges Importance of UFO Research,” Filer’s Files, #36- 2003, September 3, 2003)

September — 10:30 a.m. Arthur A. Larson is sitting in a truck at a gravel crossroads near Clara City, Minnesota, when he sees a round, black object at an altitude higher than a passing passenger jet but below the cirrus clouds. He watches it for 10–12 seconds and estimates its speed as 3,000–5,000 mph. (Arthur A. Larson, “Recent Minnesota Sighting,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 25) September 11 — A triangular object with red lights flies over two people in Whitehorse, Yukon. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2003,” IUR 28, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 13)

December 8 — 8:45 p.m. An unusual white, oval object with a ring of blue lights hovers above a house in Houston, British Columbia, dropping sparks. It then flies steadily toward the mountains and is lost to sight. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2003,” IUR 28, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 14) December 24 — 1:00 p.m. Three people in Airdrie, Alberta, watch a chrome-colored “marble” hanging motionless in the sky. After about 15 seconds, it vanishes without a trace. (Mark Rodeghier, “UFOs in Canada, 2003,” IUR 28, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 14)

2004

2004 — Afternoon. A Brazilian pilot flying an ATR 42 - 300 twin turboprop airliner has a near-miss with a luminous sphere near the São Paulo–Congonhas Airport, Brazil. The encounter lasts 14 minutes. (Richard F. Haines, “Near Miss with UAP near São Paulo Airport,” IUR 32, no. 3 (July 2009): 9–18, 23–24; Robert J. Durant, “Commentary on the São Paolo Near Miss,” IUR 32, no. 3 (July 2009): 19– 20 ) 2004 — Vadim Chernobrov registers the All-Russian Scientific Organization, Kosmopoisk, as an international association. (Wikipedia, “Kosmopoisk”) 2004 — Night. Three teams of security policemen at Nellis AFB in Nevada are sent to investigate a mysterious light seen in a distant corner of the weapons storage compound in Area 2. Upon arriving at the location in vehicles, they cannot see any light. However, seconds later, one policeman spots a towering, silhouette-like, 8- or 9-foot-tall figure, visible against the moon-lit sky. It quickly turns and runs. After disappearing over a rise in the terrain, with six Security Policemen in hot pursuit, the unknown intruder seemingly vanishes into thin air. (Robert L. Hastings, “Triangular-Shaped UFO Sighted at the Nellis AFB Nuclear Storage Area,” UFOs & Nukes, April 23, 2015)

January —CNES decides to close SEPRA, perhaps because engineer Jean-Jacques Velasco is publishing a book, OVNIs: L ’ évidence, in April. (Gildas Bourdais, “The Death and Rebirth of Official French UFO Studies,” IUR 31 , no. 2 (June 2007): 13 ; Swords 450) January 4 — 8:30 p.m. An Aer Lingus Boeing 737 with 135 people on board is about 2 miles off the east coast of Ireland approaching Dublin Airport. It is being followed in for landing on Runway 10 by a British Midland Airbus A330- 200 at a distance of 6 miles. Both are at an altitude of 3,000 feet and moving at 287 mph. As the 737 approaches Slane, the A330 crew observes unidentified traffic take off vertically from a field. The object has bright strobe lights and is triangular in shape. It begins to circle the 737, which experiences a power drain. The A330 sees a purplish glow surround the 737, whose captain requests a course change to avoid the object, which is passing in front of the airliner. The UFO angles to the port side and the 737 experiences a huge wake turbulence and an increase in outside air temperature to 327° F. for about 15 seconds. The A330 also feels the turbulence, and the UFO heads southeast at great speed. When the 737 lands, the crew cannot raise the speed brakes on the wings, which are found to be damaged, as if dented by a hammer. There is also aircraft skin damage and hydraulic damage to the brakes caused by the UFO wake. (Good Need, pp. 406 – 410 ; Dermot Butler and Carl Nally, Conspiracy of Silence: UFOs in Ireland, Mercier, 2006 , pp. 41– 42 ) January 4 — 10:30 p.m. Another Airbus 330-200 is approaching the east coast of Ireland, bound for Dublin Airport, when the crew sees a flashing strobe light over Slane, County Meath. As the aircraft throttles back to 265 mph at 2,500 feet, the UFO takes on a triangular shape, passes in front of the plane, and gives off a bright flashing light. The UFO begins circling the Airbus in an aggressive manner. The crew expects a collision with the object, which is about 360 feet wide. The interior lights dim (power drain) and the encounter continues for 8–10 minutes as passengers watch. At one point, wake turbulence from the UFO triggers the wind shear warning device. Other aircraft in the vicinity are watching the encounter and listening in to radio transmissions. Just 2 minutes before landing, the UFO shoots away to the southeast. (Good Need, pp. 407 – 410 ; Dermot Butler and Carl Nally, Conspiracy of Silence: UFOs in Ireland, Mercier, 2006 , pp. 42– 43 ) January 17 — 7:45 p.m. A witness at Bass River, New Brunswick, sees a bright, fast-moving fireball. Around 11:00 p.m., a couple near Saint-Louis-de-Kent, New Brunswick, watch two flashing lights low in the west. They descend rapidly then fly in front of the witnesses at tremendous speed. They then stop and settle above some trees on the eastern horizon and disappear. A man in Caraquet is looking south and sees two objects, one on top of the other, flying west to east. They take 5 minutes to cross the sky but do not look like airplanes. In Moncton, another witness sees a single light moving steadily and rapidly across the ocean toward the east. In Saint Paul, another witness sees two lights heading toward the northwest, They make no sound, rotate around each other, hover, then leave at high speed. (Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, pp. 210 – 211)

January 20 — European Parliament Member Nello Musumeci submits a proposal to create a Europe-wide “body for the study of unexplained atmospheric phenomena.” He suggests that the European Commission should pay special attention to UFO studies by various European space centers and recommends SEPRA in Toulouse, France, as a model. (2Pinotti 213) January 21 — A man is driving on the Trans-Canada Highway 10 miles north of Sussex, New Brunswick, when he sees a blinking light off to his left, apparently hovering above the road. As he approaches, he sees the object is composed of two bright white lights that seem to be attached to a structured object. It descends and hovers above a field. The witness can’t pull over, so the light is soon lost to view behind him. (Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, p. 211) January 22 — 9:00 p.m. S/Sgt Shawn Burke of the 86th Operations Support Squadron stationed at Ramstein Air Base outside Ramstein-Misenbach, Kaiserslautern, Germany, sees a row of seven lights directly overhead and glowing a bright white. When the clouds become thicker, the display disappears briefly, then reappears and become more elongated, looking more like lines than dots. Burke takes a few photos. They remain stationary all night. His cellphone and the internet in his building goes out when the lights get brighter. Possible light pillars. (Wim van Utrecht, “Seven Unidentified Lights over Ramstein Air Base,” Caelestia) January 25 — 6:26 p.m. A woman and her son watch a strange triangular object in the sky above Richibucto, New Brunswick. It has sparkling lights on top and a V shape on its underside. In a telescope, they can see it is a large gray object with something like a round door on the bottom. It suddenly speeds up and disappears in the distance. (Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman, The Canadian UFO Report, Dundurn Press, 2006, p. 211) January 27 — Night. Alec Birch, who has confessed to faking a UFO photo in 1962, takes a series of color slides showing the town hall in Retford, Nottinghamshire, England, for a photography competition. He sees nothing unusual at the time, but on examining one transparency he finds an image that appears to be an elliptical UFO. Ruling out lens flares and aircraft, he contacts the Ministry of Defence, which sends the slide to the Defence Geographic and Imagery Intelligence Agency for analysis. The agency reports back to the MoD on August 2, saying that no definite conclusions can be reached, but “it may be coincidental that the illuminated plane of the object passes through the centre of the frame, indicating a possible lens anomaly, [for example] a droplet of moisture.” (UFOFiles2, pp. 147 – 148 )

February 20 — 2:00 p.m. Lt. Ribeiro of the Brazilian Air Force is retuning on a flight from São Paulo to Recife, Brazil. He is ordered to intercept a radar return that he can visually confirm as a yellow light. During the interception, the light remains stationary. Suddenly it begins moving toward the aircraft and gets very close. The pilot can only see a sphere of light coming closer, so he maneuvers sharply to the right. At this point his plane is illuminated by a beam of light. Seconds later everything is back to normal and the object is gone. (Clark III 206; Brazil 553–554)

March 5 — Mexican Air Force pilots flying a C-26A Metroliner using infrared equipment to search for drug-smuggling aircraft record 11 unidentified objects on infrared video and radar near Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche, Mexico. The objects are not visible to the crew. Secretary of Defense Gen. Gerardo Clemente Vega issues a press release on May 12 accompanied by videotape that shows moving bright lights at 11,500 feet. Mexican journalist Jaime Maussan interprets the videotape as “proof of alien visitation,” but science writer and skeptic Michael Shermer is critical of witness accounts that vary wildly, saying, “it was like a fisherman’s tale, growing with each retelling,” while NARCAP suggests the lights are most likely burn-off flares on offshore oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. (Mark Rodeghier, “Special Failures Down Mexico Way,” IUR 28, no. 4 (Winter 2003–2004): 12–13, 28; “NARCAP Statement on the Mexican FLIR Case,” IUR 29, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 17)

April 15 — Ademar José Gevaerd’s Brazilian Ufologists Commission launches a campaign called “Freedom of Information Now!” with the goal of convincing the Brazilian government to publicly release official information on the Varginha case, the Official Night of the UFOs, and the Trindade Island photos. (Clark III 209)

Summer — Two security guards at a glass factory in Częstochowa, Poland, watch a large, oblong-shaped object with two bright yellow lights on both ends fly 90 feet above their guard post. (Poland 110) July 31 — CNES is now embarrassed by its decision to close SEPRA and is planning a rebirth. (Gildas Bourdais, “The Death and Rebirth of Official French UFO Studies,” IUR 31 , no. 2 (June 2007): 14)

August — The National Institute for Discovery Science releases a report, “NIDS Investigations of the Flying Triangle Enigma,” with analyses of triangle-shaped UFOs in the US, Belgium, and elsewhere. (“NIDS Investigations of the Flying Triangle Enigma,” August 2004)

August 21 — Three red lights hovering in a triangular formation are seen by several witnesses in Tinley Park and Oak Forest, Illinois. Further observations take place on October 31, 2004; October 1, 2005; and once again on October 31, 2006. The lights are captured on video by some witnesses. The video evidence suggests that the lights keep the geometrical shape and move as if they are attached to each other through a dark object. The incident is examined in a Dateline NBC episode on May 18, 2008, and in the episode “Invasion Illinois” of the television series UFO Hunters that premiers on The History Channel on October 29, 2008. (Wikipedia, “Black triangle (UFO)”; Marler 211–216) August 28 — 10:11 p.m. A circular metallic UFO the size of an airliner is seen above the Pemex oil refinery in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico. It is accompanied by six luminous spheres at an altitude of about 3,300 feet. The larger craft performs erratic maneuvers at high speed. (“Recent UFO Reports,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 25)

September 12 — Evening. Laura Simmons sees a “silent, abstract blob almost like the underside view of a manta ray shape, moving quickly, quietly across the sky” above Fulton Street in San Francisco, California. She describes it as “very large, almost gossamer, sprinkled with lights but almost like dusted with luminous powder.” (“Recent UFO Reports,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 25) September 16 — 9:00 p.m. Brian Junkin, Chuck Martin, and three children in Poulsbo, Washington, watch a multicolored light move erratically for 10 minutes about 500–1,000 feet above the canal adjacent to Naval Base Kitsap on the Kitsap Peninsula. The light keeps changing colors from green to red to orange. Flashes of light also come from what appear to be corners of an underlying object. Another light comes speeding in from the north on a straight course and stops close to the first light, which continues to dance around. Suddenly, both lights blink out at the same time. (“Sighting Report,” National UFO Reporting Center, September 29, 2004; Nukes 499– 502 ) September 17 — 3:39 a.m. A woman in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, wakes up to a humming sound and lights shining through her window. She runs out and sees a large object “shaped like a large submarine” with lights. It has beams of lights shining down the middle of it in a straight line from one end to another. She hears a loud thunderclap and the object rises higher until it is lost to sight. (“Recent UFO Reports,” IUR 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 25) September 27 — Early morning. A five-member team of geologists and glaciologists (including Rajiv Kalia, Sunil Dhar, Sushil Singh) led by Anil V. Kulkarni of the Indian Space Research Organization’s Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad are on a research trip in the barren Samudra Tapu valley, Himachal Pradesh, India, at an elevation of 17,000 feet. They spot a strange white, oblong object about 3–4 feet on the top of a mountain ridge that is floating just a few feet from the ground and approaches the camp to a distance of 160 feet. Kulkarni and Dhar grab cameras and take several photos. It has a cylindrical head with 2 balloon-type attachments and looks like a robot walking. The object hovers motionless for a few seconds, then starts a steep ascent, hovers another 5 minutes, then rises high in the sky. Kalia says it does not look like a man-made object. (“UFO Sighting in Himachal Lahaul-Spiti District Remains a Mystery,” India Today, February 13, 2006; Mark Rodeghier, “Scientists Would Investigate Sightings by Other Scientists—Wouldn’t They?” IUR 30, no. 3 (May 2006): 22– 23 )

October 1 — The US Air Force 20th Space Control Squadron at Eglin AFB, Florida, takes over the operation of the US Navy’s Space Surveillance System until 2009. (Wikipedia, “Air Force Space Surveillance System”) October 4 — Pilot Brian Binnie reaches a world record altitude of 367,490 feet in SpaceShipOne, an air launched rocket plane. (Wikipedia, “Brian Binnie”) October 27 — Day. The crew of a military jet near Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California, observes a dark gray, egg-shaped object, approximately 62 feet long, engaging in high-speed maneuvers at 45,000 feet. It is moving east at 575 mph, then makes an aggressive vertical turn. (Keith Basterfield, “A BAASS Data Report of a 2002 Submerged Egg-Shaped Object in the SOCAL OPEAREA,” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena—Scientific Research, May 13, 2022) October 28 — Night. An Iranian Air Force F-14 is on combat air patrol near the heavy water reactor near Khondab, Iran, when it picks up an unidentified target at a distance of 50 miles away that is making rapid changes in altitude, heading, and speed. The pilot is ordered to bank toward the target after regional command receives a visual confirmation from an Arak Air Defense Group observer. Approaching at 22,000 feet, the pilot spots the target at 5,000 feet. The object is spherical and has a green halo surrounding it and a green light on its tail end. When the pilot turns toward the light, it disappears then reappears a few miles away, apparently moving at a speed of Mach 7 or greater. The F-14 is ordered to turn all lights off and descend to pursue the target. At 7,800 feet the target disappears again, but after the F-14 makes a turn at 7,000 feet, it picks up the target again and flies 2,000 feet below it. The F-14 arms its weapons and the pilot requests clearance to engage the object. Every time the radar officer attempts to lock on the object, the radio, radar, and other instruments become jammed. Finally, the F- 14

ascends to 19,000 feet because it is low on fuel and spots the object one last time at low altitude. The pilot returns
to the 8th Predator Tactical Fighter Base in Isfahan. (Air Forces Monthly, December 18, 2017; “Iran UFO Reports
Revealed,” Key Aero, December 18, 2017)

November 10 — Navy Chief Petty Officer Kevin Day, stationed on the guided missile cruiser USS Princeton, notices the clear radar traces of 8–10 objects travelling southwards in a loose though fixed formation at 28,000 feet in the immediate vicinity of Catalina and San Clemente islands, California. He is startled by their slow speed of 120 mph but receives confirmation of their presence from radar operators on other vessels. Regular observations are made of a similar number of objects over the following six days. The objects are also faintly detected by an E- 2C Hawkeye plane after Princeton sends them coordinates. (Wikipedia, “Pentagon UFO videos”) November 14 — 9:30 a.m. Navy Commander David Fravor and pilot Jim Slaight, flying two McDonnell Douglas F/A- 18 Hornets over the California coast on a routine training mission, are diverted from their exercise to investigate some unusual radar contacts detected by the cruiser USS Princeton that is part of the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group. They observe a 40-foot-long wingless craft flying at incredible speeds in an erratic pattern. Controllers on one of the Navy ships report objects that are dropping out of the sky from 80,000 feet and going “straight back up.” As they are looking for the object that appears on the radar, Fravor spots a white disturbance in the water and a white object (nicknamed “Tic-Tac”) moving in random directions. The planes fly lower to investigate the object, which seems to be about 40 feet long and then starts to mirror their movements before accelerating at high speed and disappearing. Fravor and another pilot, Alex Dietrich, say in an interview that a total of four people (two pilots and two weapons systems officers in the back seats of the two airplanes) witness the object for about 5 minutes. The disturbance in the water vanishes. Soon the same or a similar object reappears at their rendezvous point 60 miles away, but by the time they arrive it has disappeared. Another plane launched from the USS Nimitz has its radar jammed and is able to pick up the object on an infrared channel. Two objects emerge from the bottom of the blip, which takes off and goes off the right side of the screen. The speed of the object, which has no exhaust trail, is stunning. However, the Navy claims it “never obtained an accurate” radar track of the objects reported by Fravor; they are quickly dropped by the Princeton’s radar when the computer categorizes them as “false targets.” After the return of the first team to USS Nimitz, a second F- 18 team, led by Chad Underwood, takes off at approximately 12:00 noon, this time equipped with an advanced infrared camera (FLIR pod). This camera records an evasive unidentified aerial system on video. Underwood says “he never had visual, only seeing the object via FLIR.” David Fravor says that the radar operator on the USS Princeton briefed him that they had been tracking radar targets for two weeks. The footage is publicly released by the Pentagon in 2017. This footage is known as the 2004 USS Nimitz FLIR1 video. It officially sheds some light on a decade-old story that had been largely unknown and unreported, aside from a 2015 secondhand story on FighterSweep.com that, in spite of providing many details, remained unconfirmed at that time. Jonathan Axelrod [possibly Naval officer John F. Stratton], investigating the case in 2009 for BAASS, concludes tat the object “was no known aircraft or air vehicle currently in the inventory of the United States or any foreign nation,” and that it remained “stationary with little or no variation in altitude transitioning to horizontal and/or vertical velocities far greater than any known aerial vehicle with little or no visible signature.” Analysis of the FLIR footage by Mick West of Metabunk claims that the impressive sudden departure is an illusion; the object does not actually move except when the aircraft’s own infrared camera moves. West thinks the object resembles an “out-of-focus low-resolution backlit plane” filmed at a distance. [A second film of infrared footage, known as the GIMBAL video, is released by the Pentagon alongside the 2004 FLIR1 footage. Although the media often present the two videos together to illustrate the 2004 USS Nimitz UFO incident, the GIMBAL video is unrelated and was filmed on the East Coast of the United States in early 2015 by planes from the USS Theodore Roosevelt.] (NICAP, “Object Outmaneuvers 2 Jets over Pacific”; Wikipedia, “Pentagon UFO videos”; “Pentagon Declassifies Navy ‘UFO’ Videos (Video 1/3),” ABC News YouTube channel, April 27, 2020; “Navy Pilot Recalls Encounter with UFO: ‘I Think It Was Not from This World,’” ABC News, December 18, 2017; Keith Basterfield, “Did the AAWSA Program / AATIP Really Start in 2007?” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena—Scientific Research, May 16, 2018; “2004 USS Nimitz Navy Strike Group Incident Report,” Scientific Coalition of UAP Studies, March 3, 2019; “Scientific Findings Regarding a Major U.S. Navy Encounter with UFOs,” Scientific Coalition of UAP Studies, April 25, 2019; Matthew Phelan, “Navy Pilot Who Filmed the ‘Tic Tac’ UFO Speaks: ‘It Wasn’t Behaving by the Normal Laws of Physics,’” New York, December 19, 2019; Mick West, “Explained: New Navy UFO Videos,” Metabunk, April 27, 2020; David Clarke, “Echoes and Angels: UFOs on Radar,” Fortean Times 403 (March 2021): 40–42; Skinwalkers 45– 46 , 111– 114 , 118– 119 ; Bill Whitaker, “UFOs Regularly Spotted in US Airspace,” CBS News, August 29, 2021; “Famous Navy UFO Is Camera Glare Hiding Something ‘Really Interesting,’ Researcher Says,” The Independent (UK), March 18, 2022; Internet Movie Database, “A Tear in the Sky”)

November 16 — An unmanned NASA X-43A hypersonic scramjet, the fastest free-flying air-breathing vehicle, achieves a speed of 7,546 mph. (Wikipedia, “NASA X- 43 ”)

2005

2005 — More than 9,500 UFO reports and related documents (of an estimated 15,000) are digitized by Library and Archives Canada and made available online. It releases a virtual exhibition titled “Canada’s UFOs: The Search for the Unknown.” (Chris Rutkowski, Canada’s UFOs: Declassified, August Night, 2022, pp. 11–13)

January 1 — The UK Freedom of Information Act 2000 comes into full force. Around 120,000 requests are made in the first year. Private citizens make 60% of them, with businesses and journalists accounting for 20% and 10% respectively. However, requests from journalists tend to be more complex and consequently more expensive. UFOs are one of the three most popular FOI requests made to the Ministry of Defence. (Wikipedia, “Freedom of Information Act 2000”; UFOFiles2, p. x) January 15 — UFO researcher Keith Basterfield interviews a man in Adelaide, South Australia, whose British father had worked for MI5 after World War II. His father had told him in 1959 when he was 12 that the American military had been experimenting in 1947 with monkeys and pigs being dropped in devices equipped with retrorockets from stratospheric balloons to test them for eventual space rocket research. In one of these experiments, which were conducted at night, they used live 2 – 3 humans with a hydrocephalic condition (enlarged heads caused by excess cerebrospinal fluid) whom they obtained from a facility. The retrorockets failed, the balloon crashed, and a rancher found the material and one of the humans who was still alive. A medical retrieval team came for it. The UFO cover story for this crash near Roswell, New Mexico, was concocted to keep the experiments secret. (Keith Basterfield, “Jacobsen, Redfern, and an Adelaide Informant,” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena—Scientific Research, July 8, 2011; Nick Redfern, The Roswell UFO Conspiracy, Lisa Hagan, 2017, pp. 153–163) January 31 — 10:00 p.m. Two men ice fishing at Columbia City, Indiana, encounter a large triangle above the east end of the pond. It crosses the frozen water at a low altitude, then hovers for some seconds before rising silently upward, leaving a trail of steam from the surface of the ice. The men try to call the local sheriff, but their cellphones are dead, as is their electrical fish locater. After the object disappears, they find a two-inch hole in the ice where the object had hovered. (Jenny Randles, “UFOcal Points,” Fortean Times 196 (June 2005): 28) January 31 — 12:00 midnight. A large oval mass is seen floating above a cornfield at Wood River, Nebraska, by a man leaving his parents’ house. It rocks slightly from side to side for some 10 minutes and then sends out bursts of light toward the ground before climbing upward, seeming to suck up an object, apparently a large cow, from the field below. (Jenny Randles, “UFOcal Points,” Fortean Times 196 (June 2005): 28)

February 7 — 2:00 a.m. In the farming area of El Paraiso, Mar del Plata, Argentina, a resident hears a noise like a strong wind or turbine and sees two misty yellow lights drifting above a copse of trees and climbing slowly. Other witnesses hear and see the phenomena, and others are wakened by their farm animals going crazy and dogs howling as if in pain. At dawn, two circular marks are found near the copse. Police forensic experts take samples of an ash-like deposit that leaves a greasy smear when touched. Meanwhile, the daughter of one of the locals involved is having nightmares about a UFO trying to catch her. (Jenny Randles, “UFOcal Points,” Fortean Times 19 6 (June 2005): 28) February 24 — UFOs: Seeing Is Believing, a two-hour American TV documentary narrated by Peter Jennings, airs on ABC-TV. The show mentions the Kenneth Arnold sighting, the Phoenix lights, southern Illinois triangle-shaped UFOs, and the Roswell incident, which Jennings sneeringly dismisses as a myth. Guests include James McGaha, Seth Shostak, Jill Tarter, Stanton Friedman, Budd Hopkins, Susan Clancy, and Michio Kaku. (Wikipedia, “UFOs: Seeing Is Believing”; Internet Movie Database, “Peter Jennings Reporting: UFOs, Seeing Is Believing”; “UFOs: Seeing Is Believing (2005), ABC Documentary,” Movie Buff Guy YouTube channel, June 18, 2019) February 27 — Richard Doty appears on Art Bell’s Coast to Coast radio program and describes his disinformation campaign against Paul Bennewitz. (“Greg Bishop and Richard Doty, Coast to Coast AM with Host Art Bell, Interview Transcript,” February 27, 2 005 )

April 27 — Late morning. Air traffic radar detects an unidentified target in restricted air space near Ronald Reagan Washington International Airport in Arlington, Virginia, causing President George W. Bush to be taken to a bunker and Vice President Dick Cheney to be evacuated to safety. The target gets within 7 miles of the airport,

then vanishes. Although it is not identified, officials argue it is caused by a radar anomaly. (“Radar Blip Causes
White House Security Scare,” Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, April 28, 2005, p. 10)

May 1 — Night. A biotechnologist and his daughter are driving on the Central Oregon Highway about 50 miles southeast of Bend, Oregon. They notice three bright blue objects zigzagging around each other about 300 feet away above a field. Suddenly two of the lights move toward them and through their vehicle. One passes through the windshield and passes through a window. The second passes through the man’s left arm and upper body, exiting his right arm. He feels a bit hazy, but notices the light is spherical and about the size of a softball. Still driving, the man feels nauseous and scared. The next 45 minutes into Bend seems like 3 hours. Days later, he develops a red rash on the left side of his face and loses some hair on that side. His ankles swell, and he loses some sight and hearing on the left. In the next few weeks, he gains about 50 pounds (although exercising and dieting) and sleeps a lot. In February 2007 he is diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in his left chest, a pre-cancerous condition, and undergoes surgery in May, his health gradualy improving by the end of 2008. (Skinwalkers 70–75) May 3 — 5:30 a.m. A witness sees strange red and white lights crossing the flight path into Dulles International Airport in Virginia, west of Washington, D.C. (Jenny Randles, “UFOcal Points,” Fortean Times 199 (September 2005): 26) May 4 — 10:00 a.m. Angler John Walker sees an object the size of a house, shaped like a large gray bullet, in the sky above Squeaking Point, Tasmania. He estimates its height at 150 feet. It moves extremely slowly, taking 15 minutes to cross his view. (Jenny Randles, “UFOcal Points,” Fortean Times 199 (September 2005): 26) May 8 — Night. A witness captures video footage of pulsating, kaleidoscopic lights over the Denbigh Moors near Llannefydd, North Wales. The lights had appeared for several nights and remained visible for a lengthy amount of time. (Jenny Randles, “UFOcal Points,” Fortean Times 199 (September 2005): 26) May 9 — 9:30 p.m. A man getting into his car in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, spots a huge, pulsating mass overhead, shaped like a double cross, and brilliantly studded with red, green, and white lights. It stays visible for a long time. The witness goes to bed at 1:20 a.m., and the object, or a similar one, is still visible. (Jenny Randles, “UFOcal Points,” Fortean Times 199 (September 2005): 26) May 9 — 11:25 p.m. A woman outside her house in Kuujjuaq, Quebec, watches multi-colored lights heading northeast at a slow pace and low altitude. (Jenny Randles, “UFOcal Points,” Fortean Times 199 (September 2005): 26) May 11 — 11:28 a.m. Radar trackers spot a plane entering the Air Defense Identification Zone around Washington, D.C. As the aircraft bears down on Washington from the north and officials cannot contact the pilot, the White House’s internal threat level goes from yellow to orange and then to red within four minutes. Fighters are scrambled, and occupants and visitors to the Capitol, the Supreme Court, and the White House are sent scurrying for safety. The aircraft flies over the vice president’s residence and comes within moments of reaching the White House and close to being shot down. Officials say 35,000 people are evacuated from the Capitol and adjacent office complexes. An additional 200 are evacuated from the White House. First lady Laura Bush and former first lady Nancy Reagan, who is visiting, are ushered to a bunker beneath the White House for safety, and Vice President Dick Cheney is taken to a secure location. The airplane is a Cessna 150 piloted by two aviators flying with outdated maps from a rural Pennsylvania airstrip and they are lost. Authorities say the pilots are so clueless that when officials finally make radio contact and order the plane to divert at 12:06 p.m., the fliers refuse, asserting their right to proceed. The F-16s then fire four bright flares across the plane’s nose, and the two men realize the gravity of their situation. The plane then veers northwest, out of town, escorted by the interceptors, security helicopters, and a US customs jet. The 15-minute aerial encounter is watched by rapt workers in downtown Washington office buildings. (“Confused Fliers Trigger Capitol Scare,” Washington Post, May 12, 2005) May 20 — Ademar José Gevaerd leads a delegation of ufologists who meet with Brazilian Air Force officials in Brasília, Brazil, headed by Brigadier Telles Ribeiro, chief of the Air Force’s Center for Public Communications. In an interview after the meeting, Gevaerd says his group has been shown information on three specific cases: the testimony of the head of Varig, Nagib Ayub, on a UFO seen in the airspace in Rio Grande do Sul in 1954; testimony from pilots who pursued 21 UFOs flying over São Paulo, São José dos Campos, and Rio de Janeiro in May 1986; and a Brazilian Air Force investigation of UFOs held in 1977 in Pará by Col. Uyrange Hollanda, who died in 1997. According to Hollanda, “we detected at least nine forms of objects. Probes, flying saucer-shaped spaceships… All reports were sent by the 1st COMAR to Brasilia.” (Wikipedia, “Ademar José Gevaerd”)

June — British author Nick Redfern publishes Body Snatchers in the Desert, which purports to show that the 1947 Roswell crash may have been military aircraft tests using Japanese POWs, suffering from progeria (an early aging syndrome) or radiation effects. He has interviewed elderly whistleblowers—a woman he calls the Black Widow, Al Barker, Bill Salter, and a retired military man he calls the Colonel. In 2001, the Black Widow claims to have worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, at which time elements

of the Usgovernment conducted high-altitude balloon tests with attached gondolas that contained live test subjects and sometimes dead bodies. These subjects were handicapped humans, possibly Japanese, including sufferers of progeria. She claims to know of 3 classified balloon flights in May–July 1947. The bodies were broiught to Oak Ridge under stringent security. In 2003, the Colonel states that Roswell and other crashes were a cover for research linked to high-altitude balloon experiments. He mentions crashes in May and July 1947 of two experiments with handicapped persons on board. (Nick Redfern, Body Snatchers in the Desert: The Horrible Truth at the Heart of the Roswell Story, Paraview, 2005) June 19 — 3:10 p.m. Three witnesses in Silverdale, Washington, see a black, rectangular object fly silently in a straight line and constant speed from south to north almost directly above the town. (“Sighting Report,” National UFO Reporting Center, June 20, 2005; Nukes 502– 503 ) June 28 — Early morning. Following reports of unidentified lights above Dublin Airport in Ireland, a UFO 30 feet wide and 10 feet high approaches dangerously close to a commercial aircraft flying at 3,000 feet. The plane experiences intense waves of heat and wake turbulence. A strobe light on the object induces dizziness and nausea; the copilot vomits a few times, but after a while both pilots feel strangely relaxed. After heading in the direction of Malahide, County Dublin, the UFO returns and continues further harassment, causing the aircraft to become uncontrollable for a few minutes. The pilot reports to London Air Traffic Control Centre: “Need assistance… We have a hostile craft and we have made dangerous maneuvers to avoid it.” London confirms the presence of unauthorized air traffic. Some RAF Tornados are scrambled and reach the aircraft 25 minutes later, but there is little they can do except escort the plane to a UK airport, accompanied by the UFO. (Good Need, pp. 409 – 410 ; Dermot Butler and Carl Nally, Conspiracy of Silence: UFOs in Ireland, Mercier, 2006 , pp. 229– 232 )

July — The new CNES director, Yannick d’Escatha, again creates a department for UFO investigations. Another engineer, Jacques Patenet, replaces Jean-Jacques Velasco as head. It is under the authority of CNES but reports to a steering committee (Comité de pilotage) called COPEIPAN, headed by Yves Sillard. The committee has 15 permanent members: representatives of civil and military authorities, and representatives of the scientific world. (Gildas Bourdais, “The Death and Rebirth of Official French UFO Studies,” IUR 31 , no. 2 (June 2007): 14 ; Swords 451) July 5 — 8:50 p.m. A woman is driving home from a fishing trip at Sargent, Texas, on FM2611 when her lights blink twice and the engine goes dead. She gets out of the car to check the battery cables, and sees a bright bluish glow lighting up a wooded area across the highway. The light gets brighter and moves upward through the trees. The outer edges of the light seem to vibrate or tremble slightly. The higher it goes the faster it gets until it disappears. The car starts right up afterward. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 18) July 22 — Industrial chemist Phyllis Budinger reports on her laboratory tests on stains from the dress that abductee Betty Hill was wearing on the night of her abduction in 1961. The samples indicate protein and oily materials from an external source. She also reports on materials brought back from a recent abduction by Stan Romanek, which prove to be bismuth trioxide, used in the making of ceramics and glass but uncommon in everyday situations. No direct link between the materials and an extraterrestrial source can be established. (MUFON 2005 International UFO Symposium Proceedings) Late July — 7:30 p.m. Just as an airliner is making its final approach to the Santa Rosa Airport, La Pampa province, Argentina, the airport control tower operator notices an unknown, luminous object moving slowly and parallel to the aircraft. The flight plan operator is alerted, and they both watch the UFO stop, emit a brilliant flash of blue- white light, move again, emit another flash, and vanish. The airliner crew does not see the UFO. (Good Need, p. 411 )

August 4 — 10:30 p.m. A witness in Fernandina Beach, Florida, sees two rose-red objects approach from the ocean and move silently to the south, disappearing in about 75 seconds. (“Sighting Report,” National UFO Reporting Center, September 2, 2005; Nukes 507) August 27 — 8:45 p.m. Dennis Speed is outdoors at his home in Lenah Valley, Tasmania, when he sees a formation of six orange lights approaching from the north. They are the size of bright stars and are moving slowly below the cloud level. Suddenly, they scatter about 1,650 feet apart, and a white aura appears in the sky around them. He watches them for 15 minutes. Up to 9 oranges UFOs are seen elsewhere in Hobart. (“Orange UFOs over Hobart,” IUR 31, no. 2 (June 2007): 18)

September 1 — The 30th Reconnaissance Squadron, which operates Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel drones, is activated at Tonopah Test Range Airport in Nevada. RQ-170 Sentinels have been deployed to Afghanistan, where

one was sighted at Kandahar International Airport in late 2007. This sighting, and the Sentinel’s secret status at the time, leads Bill Sweetman to dub it the “Beast of Kandahar.” (Wikipedia, “Lockheed Martin RQ- 170 Sentinel”) September 17 — 10:30 a.m. A man is at his home on 31st Avenue in Peoria, Arizona, when he sees a bright object approaching from the east. Seven other objects appear around it, staying in the same spot for about 15 minutes, then moving to the left quickly. They go higher, moving left to right and right to left, almost hitting each other. They are completely silent. (“Spherical UFOs in Arizona,” IUR 30, no. 1 (October 2005): 32) September 20 — Attorney and Army Reserves Brig. Gen. Stephen Lovekin, who had worked for the Army Signal Corps in the 1950s and early 1960s, speaks with writer Peter Janney about the extraterrestrial presence on Earth and the official coverup. He claims that in 1995 he attended a conference on the Strategic Defense Initiative in Monterrey, Mexico, that included high-level US and Russian participants. The purpose of SDI is to protect both countries from incursions by UFOs, he alleges. (Dolan II 289) September 22 — The French UFO agency is given the name Groupe d’Études et d’Information sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés (GEIPAN) in order to emphasize the “information-gathering” aspect of the agency. At its first meeting, it renews the agreements with a network of specialists so that it can work effectively on new cases. (Wikipedia, “Groupe d’Études et d’Information sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés”; Gildas Bourdais, “The Death and Rebirth of Official French UFO Studies,” IUR 31 , no. 2 (June 2007): 14; Swords 451) September 29 — Space scientist Yves Sillard is interviewed on Radio France International about GEIPAN. He states that the UFO phenomenon is serious and involves many witnesses who deserve an answer about what they have seen. The sightings, he says, include impressive radar-visual cases and landing traces. (Swords 451–452)

October — Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, formerly the Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field, activates the Joint Unmanned Aerial Systems Center of Excellence and the 3d Special Operations Squadron (the latter is the 1st MQ- 1 Predator squadron in the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). (Wikipedia, “Creech Air Force Base”) October — Cognitive psychologist Susan Clancy publishes Abducted: How People Came to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens, in which she describes her psychological testing of a sample of abductees. These tests reveal a propensity for false memories and magical ideation, making abductees more likely than average to imagine, be led by investigators, and integrate cultural scripts like the abduction story into memory. Clancy demonstrates that alien abduction stories give people meaning and a way to understand their own lives and circumstances. It also gives them a feeling that they are not alone in the universe. New York Times reviewer Benedict Carey’s takeaway is that “in this sense, abduction memories are like transcendent religious visions, scary and yet somehow comforting and, at some personal psychological level, true.” However, Clancy fails to ask her subjects about their religious beliefs. (Susan Clancy, Abducted: How People Came to Believe They Were Abducted by Aliens, Harvard University, 2005; Benedict Carey, “Explaining Those Vivid Memories of Martian Kidnappers,” New York Times, August 9, 2005; Clark III 7) Early October — 12:30 p.m. The crew of a Magnicharters Boeing 737 encounters a luminous disc in the air corridor over Oaxaca state, Mexico, at 20,000 feet. The object emerges from one cloud and enters another at a distance of 12 miles from the aircraft. (Good Need, p. 411 )

November 1 — An anonymous email is received by Victor Martinez, who runs a discussion list for retired intelligence people who are interested in UFOs. This person, in return for anonymity, passes on a huge volume of information each month for the next three years, all of it extracts from an alleged original document—a top secret, 3,000-page report compiled by the Defence Intelligence Agency in the late 1970s. The major revelations are: There were two crash sites in New Mexico, one southwest of Corona, and the second at Pelona Peak, south of Datil. The Corona site was discovered a day later by an archaeological team, who reports the crash site to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department. One live entity (EBE 1) was found hiding behind a rock; it and some dead bodies were later transferred to Loa Alamos National Laboratory. Roswell Army Air Field took the craft and sent it on to Wright- Patterson AFB. The second site was not discovered until August 1949 by two ranchers. It took the sheriff several days to reach this crash site. He took photos, drove back to Datil, and notified Sandia Army Base, which recovered six bodies that were first sent to Sandia then to Los Alamos. The live entity established communication and supplied the name of his home planet, Serpo, in our constellation of Zeta Reticuli. It died in 1952 after being allowed to use a communication device in the crashed UFO to contact his home planet. An alien/US military meeting was set for April 1964 in Alamogordo, where the aliens (nicknamed Ebens) landed and retrieved their comrades’ bodies (which had been frozen). In 1965, the US had an exchange program with the aliens, where one entity was left behind and 12 trained Americans (10 men, 2 women) left for Serpo from the Nevada Test Site.

They were supposed to stay 10 years, but something went wrong. In 1978, seven men and one woman returned;
two had died on Serpo, and four others decided to remain. Of the 8 that returned, all have since died, the last in

2002. A few months after the documents became known, a UK Ministry of Defence official nicknamed “Chapman” claims the events were not as described but that the document is real, as he had seen it in 1969 or 1970 in London. He claims is was a CIA document authored by Alice Bradley Sheldon (a science fiction author using the pseudonym James Tiptree Jr. who worked for the CIA in 1952– 1955 ) in response to Soviet disinformation in the 1960s about nuclear bombs in the US. (Wikipedia, “Planetary objects proposed in religion, astrology, ufology, and pseudoscience”; Rational Wiki, “Project Serpo”; Mark Pilkington, Mirage Men: An Adventure into Paranoia, Espionage, Psychological Warfare, and UFOs, Skyhorse, 2010 ; Kremlin 161– 166 )

December 15 — The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, a single-seat, twin-engine, all-weather stealth tactical fighter aircraft developed for the Air Force, officially enters service. USAF officials consider the F-22 a critical component of the service’s tactical air power. Its combination of stealth, aerodynamic performance, and avionics systems enable unprecedented air combat capabilities. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor”)

2006

2006 — The UFO Research Coalition (CUFOS, MUFON, Fund for UFO Research) launches an Abduction Monitoring Project (later changed to Ambient Monitoring Project), an effort to create a compact, multi-instrumental device to be placed in the homes of recurrent abductees to record magnetic, electrical, and atmospheric anomalies over an extended period. The goal is to compare any reported abduction experiences with the anomalies to see if they coincide. After considerable difficulty with the design and construction of these boxes through 2008, data are recorded from participating abductees. However, funding is not available for the analysis needed to reach any conclusions. (Tom Deuley, “The Ambient Monitoring Project: Data Colleced in Abductee’s Homes Being Analyzed,” MUFON UFO Journal, no. 483 (July 2008): 3–7, 15; Jack Brewer, “What Happened to the Ambient Monitoring Project?” The UFO Trail, April 2, 2014)

January — GEIPAN’s Jacques Patenet announces that the organization will make its UFO files available to the public worldwide and placed on the CNES website. (Swords 452)

May 15 — The UK Defense Intelligence Staff releases (after a September 2005 Freedom of Information Act request by David Clarke and Gary Anthony) a 400-page report on a secret UFO study, codenamed “Condign,” undertaken by DIS between 1997 and February 2000. Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defence Region, written by former Marconi Electronic Systems scientist Ron Haddow, draws on approximately 10,000 sightings and reports that have been gathered by the DI55, a section of the Directorate of Scientific and Technical Intelligence (DSTI) within the Defence Intelligence Staff. The report concludes that UFOs have an observable presence that is “indisputable,” but also that no evidence has been found to suggest they are “hostile or under any type of control.” According to its authors, the majority of analyzed UFO sightings can be explained by the misidentification of common objects such as aircraft and balloons, while the remaining unexplainable reports are most likely the result of a supernormal meteorological phenomenon not fully understood by modern science. This phenomenon is referred to in the report as “Buoyant Plasma Formation,” akin to ball lightning, and it supposedly produces an unexplained energy field that creates the appearance of a Black Triangle by refracting light. The electromagnetic fields generated by plasma phenomena are also said to explain reports of close encounters due to inducing perceptual alterations or hallucinations in those affected. The Condign report suggests that further research into “novel military applications” of this plasma phenomenon is warranted, and that “the implications have already been briefed to the relevant MoD technology manager.” The report also notes that scientists in the former Soviet Union have identified the close connection between the ‘UFO phenomena’ and Plasma technologies,” and are “pursuing related techniques for potential military purposes.” The report describes people who believe themselves to have had close encounters as being convinced of what they said that they had seen or experienced, but also as not representing proof that such encounters are real. It attributes a number of cases to the “close proximity of plasma related fields” which it said can “adversely affect a vehicle or person.” (“Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defence Region (The Condign Report): Summary of Contents,” The Real UFO Project; UK Defense Intelligence Staff, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defence Region, released 200 6 ; David Clarke and Gary Anthony, “The British MoD Study: Project Condign,” IUR 30 , no. 4 (August 2006 ): 3 – 13, 29 – 32 ; Kean, pp. 173 – 175 ; UFOFiles2, pp. 149– 155 )

May 16 — At least three green fireballs brighter than the moon but not as bright as the sun blaze over northeast Australia. A farmer sees one with a blue tapering tail pass over the mountains of the Great Divide about 75 miles west of Brisbane, Queensland, then watch a phosphorescent green ball about 12 inches wide roll slowly down the side of a mountain, bouncing over a rock along the way. A commercial airline pilot landing in New Zealand sees a meteor breaking up into fragments that turn green as the bits descend in the direction of Australia. The timing of the fireballs suggests they might be debris from Comet 73P/Schwassmann–Wachmann 3, according to physicist Stephen Hughes at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. (Charles Q. Choi, “Mystery of Green Fireball ‘UFOs’ Solved,” Live Science, November 30, 2010)

July 13 — 11:00 p.m. A woman camping on the beach at Wicie, Poland, sees several red and blue lights maneuvering within a glow about 10 feet above the water. Then she realizes that the glow surrounds a huge metallic saucer- shaped object with lights that are turning on alternately from left to right. Her cellphone is acting crazy and she thinks the sea is roaring louder than usual. The object scares her so much that she hides in the forest nearby. (Poland 125) July 28 — The Cheyenne Mountain Realignment consolidates NORAD’s day-to-day operations at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with Cheyenne Mountain as an Alternate Command Center. (Wikipedia, “North American Aerospace Defense Command”)

September — The UK Secretary of State for Defence, Des Browne, approves a proposal from the Directorate of Air Staff (the former Sec(AS)) to transfer all remaining UFO files to the National Archives. Funds are found to scan approximately 160 files and remove sensitive personal information. This is described as “the largest release of documents younger than 30 years in the MoD’s entire history.” (UFOFiles2, p. 170) September 5 — Residents of Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai, Russia, see several types of UFOs maneuvering near the city. One looks like a radaint sphere with three parts. Other witnesses report four lights. A police officer sees an object with 10 yellow lights moving around in a circular motion and hovering above the Sea of Japan at an altitude of 1– 2 miles. Other smaller objects approach it, one of which explodes in a bright flare-up. The official explanation is that these are candle bombs used as aerial targets for Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft. (Stonehill and Mantle, Russia’s USO Secrets, Flying Disk, 2020, pp. 11 7 – 118 ) September 22 — The Grumman F-14 Tomcat supersonic fighter is retired by US Navy, having been supplanted by the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. (Wikipedia, “Grumman F-14 Tomcat”)

October 6 — Night. Ufologist Bill Chalker is along the Mekong River in Phon Phisai District, Thailand, for the annual Naga Light (ghost light) festival. He witnesses and videos many of the Naga light balls arising from the river: “This phenomenon has a tremendous social and human dimension and while it is tempting to try to explain the lights, however correctly or incorrectly, as planted ‘rockets,’ ‘submarine’ firings, Naga Dragons speaking, they all seem to fall short of entirely convincing explanations.” Orb sightings are on the increase, with up to 408 counted at the Phayanak festival on October 24, 2018 (260 in Rattanawapee District and 148 in Phon Phisai). (Wikipedia, “Naga fireball”; Bill Chalker, “The Mystery and Allure of the Naga Light Festival: My 2006 Adventure on the Mekong,” TheOzFiles, January 28, 2015; “Buddhist Aliens,” Fortean Times 388 (January 2020): 7)

November — Many people in a village in Zhenyuan Yi, Hani and Lahu Autonomous County, southern Yunnan, China, see seven white hemispherical objects hovering directly over the property of a local Chinese Communist Party cadre for nearly two hours. They appear to keep changing shape. Many people from neighboring villages hear about the phenomenon and arrive to watch it. People try to pursue the lights, but they soon disappear. (Clark III 653) November 1 — John Schuessler retires as director of MUFON. He is succeeded by James Carrion of Bellevue, Colorado. (“Schuessler Retires As MUFON Head,” IUR 30, no. 4 (August 200 6): 16) November 7 — 4:15 p.m. Federal authorities at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, receive a report that a group of 12 airport employees are witnessing a metallic, saucer-shaped craft hovering over Gate C-17. The object is first spotted by a ramp worker who is pushing back United Airlines Flight 446, which is departing Chicago for Charlotte, North Carolina. The employee apprises the crew of the object above their aircraft. It is believed that both the pilot and copilot also witness the object. Several independent witnesses outside of the airport also see the object. One describes a “blatant” disc-shaped craft hovering over the airport, which was “obviously not clouds.” According to this witness, nearby observers gasp as the object shoots through the clouds at high velocity, leaving a clear blue hole in the cloud layer. The hole reportedly seems to close itself shortly afterward. According to the Chicago Tribune’s Jon Hilkevitch, “The disc was visible for approximately five minutes and was seen by close to

a dozen United Airlines employees, ranging from pilots to supervisors, who heard chatter on the radio and raced out to view it.” So far, no photographic evidence of the UFO has surfaced, although Hilkevitch finds out that one of the pilots is in possession of a digital camera at the time of the sighting and may have photographed the event. NARCAP publishes a 155-page report and has called for a government inquiry and improved energy-sensing technologies: “Anytime an airborne object can hover for several minutes over a busy airport but not be registered on radar or seen visually from the control tower, [it] constitutes a potential threat to flight safety.” The FAA stance concludes that the sighting was caused by a weather phenomenon and that the agency would not be investigating the incident. (Wikipedia, “2006 O’Hare International Airport UFO Sighting”; Jon Hilkevitch, “What WAS That Thing in the Sky at O’Hare?” Chicago Tribune, January 1, 2007, pp. 1, 19; Mark Rodeghier, “Media Take Notice When Media Take Notice: UFO Seen over O’Hare Airport,” IUR 31, no. 1 (January 2007): 32; Richard F. Haines, “Report of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon and Its Safety Implications at O’Hare International Airport on November 7, 2006,” NARCAP, May 14, 2007; Leslie Kean, “Incident at O’Hare Airport,” IUR 31, no. 2 (June 2007): 3–7; Richard F. Haines, et al., “A UAP and Its Safety Implications: O’Hare International Airport, Nov. 7, 2006,” IUR 31 , no. 3 (October 2007 ): 3 – 7; Kean, pp. 65 – 72 ; Clark III 835– 838 ; Mutual UFO Network, [case report]) November 8 — The 42d Attack Squadron is formed at Creech AFB, Nevada, as the first MQ-9 Reaper drone squadron. (Wikipedia, “Creech Air Force Base”)

December 13 — Fastwalkers, a documentary on NORAD’s Defense Satellite Program and its detection of UFOs (fastwalkers and slowwalkers) entering the Earth’s atmosphere, is released. (Internet Movie Database, “Fastwalkers”)

2007

2007 — The US National Archives allows the entire collection of sanitized Blue Book documents to be placed on the web through a private company called Footnote.com (now called Fold3), totaling nearly 130,000 pages, each one an individual JPG image. (Sparks, p. 7) 2007 —John Carpenter launches the Journal of Abduction – Encounter Research in Springfield, Missouri, which continues until July 2010. (Journal of Abduction – Encounter Research, no. 1 (January 2007))

January 11 — China conducts an anti-satellite missile test in which a Chinese weather satellite, the FY-1C polar orbit satellite of the Fengyun series orbiting at an altitude of 537 miles, is destroyed by a kinetic kill vehicle traveling with a speed of 8 km/s in the opposite direction. It is launched with a multistage solid-fuel missile from Zichang Satellite Launch Center or nearby. It is the first known successful satellite intercept test since 1985. The kill produces an estimated 35,000 pieces of one-centimeter-wide debris and another 1,500 pieces that are 10 centimeters or more. (Wikipedia, “2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test”) January 12 — Afternoon. Amateur radio enthusiasts record the conversation of pilots in two USAF F-15C fighters on a training mission just north of RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, England. One fighter gets a radar lock on an unidentified target 17 miles in front of him. He breaks the lock and reacquires it to validate the target, which is moving slowly at 17,700 feet. Closing to 500 feet, the pilot sees a small, irregular object like a “black rock.” His wingman joins him and they make three additional passes as they track it on airborne radar. (Skinwalkers 126– 127)

March 5 — 7:15 p.m. Several witnesses around Bremerton, Washington, see a steady red light above the smokestack at Naval Base Kitsap on the Kitsap Peninsula. It moves slowly north for 10 minutes, stops for 3 minutes, then suddenly dims, brightens, and disappears. (“Sighting Report,” National UFO Reporting Center, March 8, 2007; Nukes 503) March 18 — Former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington admits that he witnessed one of the “craft of unknown origin” during the 1997 Phoenix Lights event, but notes that he didn’t go public with the information. In an interview with Leslie Kean in the Prescott Daily Courier, Fife says: “It was enormous and inexplicable. Who knows where it came from? A lot of people saw it, and I saw it too. It was dramatic. And it couldn’t have been flares because it was too symmetrical. It had a geometric outline, a constant shape.” (“Former Arizona Governor Says He Saw ‘Phoenix lights’ UFO,” American Chronicle, March 18, 2007; “Former Arizona Governor Says He Saw a UFO during the 1997 Phoenix Lights,” Wikinews, March 19, 2007; Kean, pp. 253 – 257 , 262 – 264 )

March 22 — GEIPAN, the French office in charge of UFO investigations, begins to put all its UFO files on its website. These reports have been gathered in more than 30 years of investigations since its creation in 1977. Some 400 files, covering the period 1988–2005, are put online first. (Groupe d’Études et d’Informations sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés website; Gildas Bourdais, “The Death and Rebirth of Official French UFO Studies,” IUR 31, no. 2 (June 2007): 12, 14–15; Swords 452–453; “French Space Agency Puts UFO Files Online,” Fox News, January 13, 2015) March 30 — GEIPAN’s Jacques Patenet appears, with Ciel et espace editor Alain Cirou, on a well-known French TV program called C dans l ’ air. Questioned bluntly by host and journalist Yves Calvi about UFOs, Patenet says unequivocally that yes, there are UFOs. (Gildas Bourdais, “The Death and Rebirth of Official French UFO Studies,” IUR 31 , no. 2 (June 2007): 14)

April — French space scientist Yves Sillard consolidates his ideas on UFOs in the landmark book Phénomènes aérospatiaux non identifies: Un défi à la science, written in collaboration with other scientists. (Yves Sillard, et al., Phénomènes aérospatiaux non identifies: Un défi à la science, Le Cherche midi, 2007) April 6 — Night. Brian Vike is driving near North Park Lake, McCandless, Pennsylvania, with friends when he sees a strange light shining directly on the lake from high above it. They get out and walk towards the lake. Vike is able to see fish swimming beneath the surface of the lake under the beam. The object projecting the light moves away to above the trees and is only the size of a streetlight. (Carl W. Feindt, “Beam of Light into a Body of Water,” IUR 33, no. 3 (December 2010): 24) April 23 — Afternoon. The passengers of Flight A-Line 544 depart Southampton, England, in a BN2a Mk3 Trislander aircraft at about 2:00 p.m. in fine weather with good visibility for miles around, though a haze layer is present at 2,000 feet, and a continuous cloud layer at 10,000 feet. They rise to an altitude of 4,000 feet and are cruising on autopilot about 10 miles south of the Isle of Wight. Capt. Ray Bowyer notices, exactly in the direction of Guernsey in the Channel Islands (southwest and 12 o’clock ahead) what appears to be a brilliant yellow lamp or light. He thinks that it might be an airplane or reflections from the ground, as Guernsey is immediately behind it. The reflection of the sun off a greenhouse is a possibility but the UFO persists for a couple of minutes. It is brilliant yellow, with a dark grey band enveloping it one third from the right, like a band around a cigar. Bowyer makes contact with Jersey ATC to check on traffic heading his way. Paul Kelly at Jersey ATC cannot see any traffic in that position, but he picks up a faint primary return radar signal. A passenger behind the captain confirms what Bowyer is seeing and points out a second UFO immediately behind the first: Bowyer estimates both lights to be “up to possibly a mile across.” Radar traces also seem to register the presence of two objects, which Bowyer believes to be correlated with the position and time of the sighting. The first object is presumed to have been near the Casquets, west of Alderney, and the second some miles north of Guernsey. A study by David Clarke, however, cannot establish a definite link, as the radar reflections of cargo or passenger ferries may have affected at least some of the readings. Bowyer disagrees with Clarke’s team on the supposed link between the radar traces and ferries and proposes that two solid airborne UFOs are working in unison that day. Captain Patterson, the second pilot witness, posits some type of “atmospheric phenomenon” as an explanation. (Wikipedia, “2007 Alderney UFO Sighting”; Kean, pp. 73 – 81 ; UFOFiles2, pp. 166– 168 ; Jean-François Baure, David Clarke, Paul Fuller, and Martin Shough, “Report on Aerial Phenomena Observed near the Channel Islands, UK, April 23, 2007,” February 2008; Jean-François Baure, David Clarke, Paul Fuller, and Martin Shough, “Unusual Atmospheric Phenomena Observed near Channel Islands, UK, 23 April 2007,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 22, no. 3 (2008): 291–308)

June 8 — The US Air Intelligence Agency is redesignated the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Agency. (Wikipedia, “Air Force intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Agency”) June 11 — The Société Belge d’Étude des Phénomènes Spatiaux in Brussels, Belgium, is officially dissolved. Its place is taken by a less formal group, Comité Belge d’Étude des Phénomenes Spatiaux, headed by Patrick Ferryn. (“Bienvenue sur le site de COBEPS,” Comité Belge d’Étude des Phénomenes Spatiaux) June 19 — Defense Intelligence Agency intelligence officer and scientist James T. Lacatski contacts Robert Bigelow for permission to visit the Skinwalker Ranch in Utah, a project under study by the National Institute for Discovery Science. He wants to see how the DIA might develop a strategy to characterize the “potential threat aspects of the phenomena.” (Skinwalkers 17–18, 38–39)

July 16 — 12:52 a.m. A witness is walking a dog in Port Orchard, Washington, when an orange fireball travels from southeast to northwest for 30 seconds. It disappears in thick clouds over Green Mountain. (“Sighting Report,” National UFO Reporting Center, August 7, 2007; Nukes 503– 504 )

July 26 — Robert Bigelow accompanies DIA official James T. Lacatski on a visit to Skinwalker Ranch in Utah. During his 2-hour visit, Lacatski witnesses a bizarre tubular object hovering in the kitchen of the Homestead 1 building. After 30 seconds, it vanishes. He describes it is as similar to the object depicted on Mike Oldfield’s 1973 album Tubular Bells. (Skinwalkers 39– 41 )

September — Project Oxcart, the A-12 reconnaissance aircraft program, is declassified. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed A- 12 ”)

Fall? — The Defense Intelligence Agency, at the initiation of Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the urging of government contractor and Las Vegas billionaire Robert Bigelow, quietly establishes the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP)—purposly misidentified as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), a Pentagon program to study UFOs—as a DIA project on the fifth floor of the Pentagon’s C Ring to evaluate the threat potential of UFOs. With the support of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Reid secures $22 million in black-project funding in the 2008 Supplemental

Funding Act directed to the DIA Directorate of Analysis, specifically the Defense Warning Office. Its goal is “to

understand the physics and engineering of these [advanced aerospace weapon system] applications as they

apply to the foreign threat out to the far-term, i.e., from now through the year 2050.” The Pentagon will

spend this money between September 2008 and December 2010. (Wikipedia, “Advanced Aerospace Threat

Identification Program”; Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Kean, “Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious UFO Program,” New York Times, December 16, 2017; Clark III 48; Skinwalkers 41 – 42 ) October 10 — 10:40 p.m. A man sees a silver-gray disc about 70 feet wide hovering above Lake Easton, Washington, for 3 – 5 minutes. A beam of bright greenish light is extended from it, illuminating the lake. He sees small objects floating up to it, apparently fish. (Carl W. Feindt, “Beam of Light into a Body of Water,” IUR 33, no. 3 (December 2010): 24) October 17 — 7:00 p.m. A man is driving on Interstate 90 near Cle Elem, Washington, when he sees a bluish-gray disc hovering about 600– 700 feet in the air. It bobbles slightly for about 5 minutes then disappears. (Carl W. Feindt, “Beam of Light into a Body of Water,” IUR 33, no. 3 (December 2010): 24) October 30 — Afternoon. Pilot Marin Mitrică is flying a MiG-21 LanceR fighter on a training flight from Romanian Air Force 71st Base at Câmpia Turzii, Romania, when he is suddenly hit by an unknown object. The collision breaks the plastic window covering the cockpit, punches a hole in his helmet, and wounds his face. He reduces speed and descends from his altitude of 4 miles to avoid hypoxia and hypothermia. After landing, an examination of the flight recorder shows two small triangles approaching from the right. No traces of organic matter are found on the plane, ruling out birds, and there are no other civilian or military aircraft or balloons in the area. (“A Mid Air Collision between a MiG 21 and a UFO over Romania in October 2007?” Flying Saucer Review 53, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 1; Romania 114–115)

November 12 — A press conference, moderated by former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington, is held at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. Nineteen former pilots and military and civilian officials speak about their experiences with UFOs and demand that the US government engage in a new investigation. (Bonnie Malkin, “Pilots Call for New UFO Investigation,” The Telegraph (UK), November 14, 2007; “I Touched a UFO: Ex-Air Force Pilot,” Sydney (N.S.W.) Morning Herald, November 14, 2007; Marler 23– 24 )

December 14 — 6:45 p.m. Witnesses in Kingsland, Georgia, see a triangular object with a light in each corner that changes from red to blue to white, with a bright burst happening occasionally. The object moves slowly at about 500 feet altitude. (“Sighting Report,” National UFO Reporting Center, March 4, 2008; Nukes 507– 508 ) December 29 — 9 :00 p.m. Two witnesses driving near the Kitsap Mall in Silverdale, Washington, see an object with three white lights apparently hovering above Trigger Avenue near Naval Base Kitsap to the north. As they approach its location, they see that it is large, triangular and made out of reflective metal. It is silently hovering 500 feet in the air over a farm a few yards from the highway. (“Sighting Report,” National UFO Reporting Center, January 21, 2008 ; Nukes 504– 505 )

2008

2008 — Luis Elizondo, an employee of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, claims that he is the director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), a small group of UFO-curious

personnel at the Pentagon who are studying UFOs encountered by military personnel. Confusingly, it has the same name as the nickname of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s secret Aerospace Advanced Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) used in 2008–2010 as a way to mask its real name. The group has the direct knowledge of their superiors. The core people in this group will form the basis of what will become the UAP Task Force, created by Congress in the summer of 2020, but it now operates without a budget, office, or formal name until Elizondo resigns from his job in 2017. The Department of Defense has claimed that AATIP ended in 2012. (Clark III 49; Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Kean, “Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious UFO Program,” New York Times, December 16, 2017; Skinwalkers xxiii–xxiv, 157– 158 ) 2008 — The Swedish Defence Research Agency begins sharing a database with UFO-Sverige to make all reports coming into the institute available to the organization’s field investigators. (Swords 371)

January 8 — 6:10 p.m. Truck driver Harlan Cowan is traveling east toward Stephenville, Texas, when he sees two stationary lights directly ahead. They are as bright as welding arcs. They split apart and move rapidly away from each other to the north and south at a high rate of speed. At 6:15 p.m., private pilot Steve Allen and three other witnesses 5 miles southeast of Stephenville see four lights similar in intensity to burning magnesium. They come out of the northeast at a speed faster than a military jet. Allen thinks the lights are spread out over a one-mile area. They slow down and remain stationary northwest of his position, then they shift from 4 lights in a horizontal position to 7 lights in a vertical position, emit a white flame, and blink out. Over 30 more witnesses come forward to report odd lights until about 9:30 p.m. Some also see fighter jets chasing the light. Angela Joiner, a reporter with the Stephenville Empire-Tribune, calls Maj. Karl Lewis, spokesman for the 301st Fighter Wing at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, who first tells her he thinks the lights are reflections of the sun on high- altitude aircraft. When she asks about military aircraft reported by witnesses, Lewis volunteers the information that there were no F-16s from his unit operating that night, and no other pilots had reported a UFO. On January 16, a FOIA request is sent to the Federal Aviation Administration for any radar data from sites around Stephenville. On January 23, the Air Force admits in a press release that there indeed were 10 F-16s performing training operations that night between 6:00 and 8:00. Joiner contacts Lewis again, who now merely reads the press statement and is not helpful. In February, responses to FOIAs by Robert Powell and Glen Schulze begin to arrive. Military bases unanimously respond with “we have found no records responsive to your request.” However, the FAA releases its raw radar information in mid-February. It is clear that the unknown lights are not related to F-16 activity, but there is intense Air Force activity that night. Ten F-16s and one AWACS jet make figure-8s over the area. Two F-16s from Oklahoma fly south to the Stephenville area. FAA radar returns also show a target four miles north of Allen’s sighting that moves at an apparent speed of 2,100 mph. At 7:20 p.m., two radar sites pick up a target that corresponds to Constable Lee Roy Gaitan’s observation of an unknown light. Another radar track begins at 6:51 p.m. An unknown object without a transponder signal is tracked with FAA radar for more than one hour. Two different radars (one at Fort Worth and another at Temple) make contact with the object 187 times as it covers a distance of 50 miles on a constant trajectory to the southeast. Its speed varies from stationary, to accelerating to 532 mph in 30 seconds, to deaccelerating to 49 mph in 10 seconds. It is traveling on a direct course to President George W. Bush’s Western White House in Crawford, Texas. At 8:00 p.m. it is 10 miles from Prairie Chapel Ranch. Two witnesses riding bicycles 2 miles away from the ranch see a light that slowly descends, makes a 90° turn, then speeds out of sight in 1–2 seconds. But no F-16s pursue this potential interloper. (NICAP, “Large Object Seen / Tracked by Radar / Near Bush Ranch”; “Stephenville 2008,” Texas UFO Museum and Research Library; Angela K. Brown, “Military Reverses Itself, Says F-16s Were in Texas Area Where Residents Reported UFO,” Brattleboro (Vt.) Reformer, January 23, 2008; “MUFON Releases Report on UFO Sighting in Stephenville, Texas,” Wikinews, July 18, 2008; Glen Schulze and Robert Powell, “Stephenville Lights: A Comprehensive Radar and Witness Report Study Regarding the Events of January 8, 2008, 4pm to 8pm,” December 18, 2010; Swords 344–348)

February 21 — The US Navy destroys the malfunctioning US spy satellite USA- 193 orbiting at 153 miles altitude using a RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 launched from the USS Lake Erie. The US claims it created no space debris because the satellite was so close to earth that the particles burned up in reentry. (Wikipedia, “Operation Burnt Frost”)

March 5 — The 556th Test and Evaluation Squadron becomes operational at Creech AFB, Nevada, as “the Air Force’s [first] test squadron for unmanned aerial systems.” The base is home to drone operators for both the US Air Force and the CIA in missions across Afghanistan and the Middle East. (Wikipedia, “Creech Air Force Base”)

April — After publication of the 99th issue of Magonia, John Rimmer decides to cease print publication. (“History of Magonia,” Magonia Archive; Clark III 706) April 22 — The last F-117 stealth fighter-bomber is retired and returned to Tonopah Test Range in Nevada. Although officially retired, the F-117 fleet remains intact and photos show the aircraft carefully mothballed. Some of the aircraft are flown periodically and have been spotted flying as recently as July 2019. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed F- 117 Nighthawk”)

May — Scripps-Howard News Service and Ohio University conduct a telephone poll on UFOs and extraterrestrial life. 55.8% of respondents believe that the existence of intelligent life in space is either likely or somewhat likely, while 33.1% believe it is likely or somewhat likely that intelligent life has visited earth. Only 7.6% answer that they have had a UFO sighting. (Mark Rodeghier, “Influences on Opinion about ETI and UFOs,” IUR 32, no. 2 (December 2008): 19–24) May 5 — At the request of the Brazilian Commission of Ufologists, the office of the Deputy Chief of Legal Affairs contacts the Ministry of Defense and requests access to documents related to UFO material that is no longer classified and can be turned over to the National Archives. (Clark III 1072) May 6 — Political scientists Alexander Wendt and Raymond Duvall publish an article, “Sovereignty and the UFO” in Political Theory, in which they point to the fundamental weakness of anti-UFO arguments, which claim falsely that no evidence exists. When skeptics are not arguing along those lines, they use a priori logic, which insists that if extraterrestrials exist, they would not behave or look as UFO witnesses describe. Another assertion is that spacecraft could never get to Earth, given the constraints of distance and speed. The authors argue that the problem is that the idea of real UFOs challenges anthropocentric norms, making it a taboo even to acknowledge a phenomenon that has been declared non-existent. (Alexander Wendt and Raymond Duvall, “Sovereignty and the UFO,” Political Theory 36, no. 4 (August 2008): 607–633; Clark III 537– 538 ; Kean, pp. 269 – 281 ) May 12 — The first tranche of UFO files is released by the UK National Archives, whose UFO webpage, set up to provide direct public access, receives more than 1.7 million visitors in the first few days. Internet searches on UFOs triple overnight across the globe. (“UK Releases Classified UFO Files,” New Scientist, May 13, 2008; UFOFiles2, p. x) May 26 — New York Times staff reporter Sarah Lyall, based in the UK, selectively focuses on some of the silliest UFO documents released by the Ministry of Defence (letters written to the agency by citizens) and provides readers with standard ridicule and the biased approach traditionally associated with New York Times coverage. (Sarah Lyall, “British UFO Shocker! Government Officials Were Telling the Truth,” New York Times, May 26, 2008)

June 26 — 9:20 a.m. At the 27th Annual Meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration in Boulder, Colorado, Jerome Clark gives a lecture on the distinction between “event anomalies” (which cannot be easily explained) and “experience anomalies” (which are effectively inexplicable). Event anomalies require a scientific investigation to be understood, documented, and incorporated into current or future knowledge. Experience anomalies are indifferent to truth narratives, supporting false ones just as readily; they embrace the notion of liminality, in which it is possible to enter a “realm between the daylight of science and reason and the dark night of dreams and superstition.” Clark expands on the concept in later books and articles. (Clark III 444-446; Jerome Clark, “Experience Anomalies,” Fortean Times 243 (December 2008): 42 – 47)

July 29 — Former UK Ministry of Defence official Nick Pope offers a rational response to the biased reportage in the May 26 issue of the New York Times, citing the O’Hare Airport and Alderney UFO cases. He concludes: “The United States Air Force or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration should reopen investigations of UFO phenomena. It would not imply that the country has suddenly started believing in little green men. It would simply recognize the possibility that radar alone cannot always tell us what’s out there.” (Nick Pope, “Unidentified Flying Threats,” New York Times, July 29, 2008)

August 18 — The Defense Intelligence Agency issues a small-business set-aside solicitation (HHM4 02 - 08 - R-0211) for a company to handle its new Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP), with a due date of September 10. The solicitation states that the primary focus is on “breakthrough technologies and applications that create discontinuities in currently evolving technology trends.” (Skinwalkers 20 – 21 , 42– 43 ) August 20 — 4:45 p.m. A military witness one mile outside Hrubieszów, Poland, watches a silvery isosceles triangle hovering and rotating around its axis in the west. He estimates it is 50 feet long on one side and less than 2 miles away. It flies over the area at an altitude of 330 feet. At one point it dims and literally vanishes in mid-air in a matter of seconds. (Poland 94–95)

September 16 — 10:30 p.m. A witness and his fiancée are driving north near Radomsko, Poland, when they see a black triangle with lights (apparently gas jets) at its corners slowly floating 500 feet above the road. Two of the lights are blinking and one is steady. The 30 - foot-wide object has cubical protrusions on its side and a smooth bottom. It seems to be rotating at first and takes another pass over the highway at a higher altitude after doubling back. (Poland 93–94) September 22 — A $10 million initial contract for the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) is awarded to Bigelow Aerospace, the only bidder on the August solicitation, by the Defense

Intelligence Agency. The program contract directs that the “contractor shall complete advanced aerospace

weapon system technical studies” on 12 topics, such as propulsion, power generation, materials,

configuration, structure, and directed-energy weapons. The intent is to research technology that could shed

light on the UFO/UAP phenomenon. Robert Bigelow sets up the Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies

(BAASS) project with 40–50 full-time support staff to carry out the contract through September 30, 2010. DIA
intelligence officer James T. Lacatski becomes the program manager, and biochemist Colm Kelleher is deputy
administrator. (Clark III 48; Keith Basterfield, “Dr. Colm Kelleher and the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System
Applications Program,” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena—Scientific Research, May 14, 2018; Keith Basterfield,
“Did the AAWSA Program/AATIP Really Start in 2007?” Unidentified Aerial Phenomena—Scientific Research,
May 16, 2018; Skinwalkers 20, 22– 25 , 42 – 44 )

October 31 — The National Archive in Brasília, Brazil, receives from the Center for Aeronautical Documentation and History a set of publications dated 1952– 1 969 on UFOs. Among them are documents identifying the government’s System of Investigation of Unidentified Aircraft and UFO cases investigated from October 1968 to August 1969. Another batch is received on April 23, 2009, covering the years 1970–1972. (Clark III 1072– 1073 ; Kean, p. 199 ) October 31 — 6:00 p.m. An architect in Sandomierz, Poland, sees a boomerang- or half-moon-shaped object surrounded by a mist filled with red points of light. It is silently moving 93) northeast at tremendous speed. (Poland 92–93)

November — Robert Bigelow hires biochemist Colm Kelleher as deputy administrator of the Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies project in Las Vegas, its first full-time employee. (Skinwalkers 44) November — 9:00 p.m. A Polish woman living in Aarhus, Denmark, looks up and sees a gigantic luminous object silently heading west. It looks like it s made of glass or jelly and is surrounded by a misty illumination. (Poland 93) November 5 — Researcher Robert Powell writes to NORAD’s Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr. and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, with copies to the FAA and chairmen of the Senate and House Committees on Homeland Security, asking for an investigation of the Stephenville Lights case of January 8 as a violation of restricted airspace by “unknown aircraft” near the Bush ranch. (Glen Schulze and Robert Powell, “Stephenville Lights: A Comprehensive Radar and Witness Report Study Regarding the Events of January 8, 2008, 4pm to 8pm,” December 18, 2010; Swords 348, 510–511) November 17 — A teacher is taking his dog for a stroll in Sulejówek, Poland, when he comes across a triangular object with lights along its rounded edges and in the center. It flies directly over him. (Poland 93)

December 22 —Maj. Gen. John H. Bordelon, NORAD chief of staff, responds to Powell’s request. He claims an “exhaustive search” in data files was conducted, and the Air Force “could find no tactical or technical information that would corroborate this event.” He refers Powell to the National UFO Reporting Center hotline. (Swords 348, 512)

2009

2009 — CUFOS creates an updated version of its UFOCAT database containing more than 209,551 UFO reports and related information. (Center for UFO Studies, “UFOCAT 2009”) 2009 — Denmark and Sweden publicly release more than 15,000 UFO files each. (Kean, p. 117 ) 2009 — Visión Ovni and many other UFO researchers in Argentina form Cefora, an organization to study the UFO phenomenon in detail. Silvia Simondini and others start collecting signatures on a petition to declassify Argentine military documents on UFOs. However, since most agencies are not required to keep documents more than 5 years, their efforts are frustrated by bureaucratic deaccession rules, especially for interesting Argentine reports.

(Wikipedia, “Cefora”; Milton Hourcade, “Argentina: UFO Declassification,” U.A.P.S.G.–G.E.F.A.I., July 29, 2020 ) 2009 — The operations and maintenance contract for the day-to-day management and operation of the US Air Force Space Surveillance System is awarded to Five Rivers Services, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Wikipedia, “Air Force Space Surveillance System”)

January 1 — Yvan White takes over as director of GEIPAN from Jacques Patenet, who continues as an advisor. (Swords 453) January 5 — 8:15–9:00 p.m. Mysterious floating red lights in the sky are reported near Morristown, New Jersey. The red lights are also observed on January 26, January 29, February 7, and February 17. The events are later revealed as a hoax perpetrated by Joe Rudy and Chris Russo, who are conducting a social experiment to expose ufology as a pseudoscience and raise consciousness around the unreliability of eyewitness claims. They release five flare lights attached to helium balloons. Reports are concentrated in the towns of Hanover Township, Morristown, Morris Plains, Madison, and Florham Park. On April 7, Russo and Rudy plead guilty to charges of disorderly conduct and are sentenced to fines of $250 and 50 hours of community service. (Wikipedia, “Morristown UFO hoax”)

March — The UK National Archives releases another batch of UFO files. (UK National Archives, “Briefing Document: Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs),” 2013 )

May 8 — 11:45 p.m. “Derek Jones” is alerted by his two dogs barking in his backyard in northern Georgia, where his 10- year-old son is camping out in a tent with a friend. He sees a large triangular object about 300 feet long with yellowish lights at each apex moving silently above him. There is a bluish-white light in the center. Behind the triangle are four small objects, two egg-shaped and two round, with bluish-white lights that change to greenish to white and back to bluish. The smaller objects dart up and down soundlessly and erratically. He attempts taking pictures of it with a camera and a videocamera, but the batteries fail in both devices. When he points a bright spotlight beam at the triangle, it responds immediately with a beam of intense bluish-white light about 2–3 feet in diameter that strikes him for about 3 seconds, causing a burning sensation. He runs back into the house, where he watches two of the smaller objects move away to the south-southwest while the other two shoot straight up. He goes to bed, but is awakened by low-flying helicopters at 2:00 a.m. Around 7:30 a.m., he is visited by two men who want to talk about his “sighting report.” They are driving a black sedan, produce no identification, one of them is armed, and they behave oddly as they interview him for 30–40 minutes. After he sees the same men in the black sedan a week later, he reports the license plate to BAASS, which tracks it to a Department of Homeland Security carpool. Jones experiences hair loss and general unwellness within 18 days of the incident. In October he develop lumps on his legs, groin, and back; they enlarge, multiply to 24, and become painful in February 2010. One of the lumps is diagnosed as non-malignant lymphoma, but a BAASS-contracted physician suspects Jones has undergone about 300 grays of ionizing radiation. (Skinwalkers 99–105) May 26 — 9:52 p.m. A man in Rzesnów, Poland, notices from his balcony five strange, whirling red-orange lights twinkling above the suburban villages of Chmielnik and Tyczyn. He captures them on a video. (Poland 153–154)

June — The Uruguayan Air Force declassifies its UFO files and makes them public, including records of 40 cases that remain unexplained, some involving military pilots. Col. Ariel Sánchez, in charge of the UFO office, says that the “Air Force does not dismiss an extraterrestrial hypothesis based on our scientific analysis.” (“Uruguay Joins the Party,” Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune, June 12, 2009; Kean, p. 190 ) June 16 — 2:00 a.m. A woman in Kansas City, Kansas, is looking toward a public forest area behind her home when she notices a large white light moving toward her. It stops, and she uses her binoculars to get a closer look. The object consists of three large spheres connected together with a large arm or protrusion extending from beneath it. The arm is moving around in a circle. It stays in that position until it just disappears. Shortly afterward, military planes and helicopters move into the area and seem to be searching for something for about one hour. (Roger Marsh, “Reports from Louisville and Kansas City,” IUR 32, no. 3 (July 2009): 20) June 24 — Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) decides that the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Application Program (misidentified intentionally as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program) has made such extraordinary discoveries that he asks for additional security (individuals “specialized in the areas of advanced sciences, sensors, intelligence, counterintelligence, and advanced aerospace engineering”) to protect it. He writes Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III that AATIP has made “much progress” with the “identification of several highly sensitive, unconventional aerospace-related findings” that will “likely lead to technology advancements.” He requests that it be designated a “restricted Special Access Program.” Some of the ongoing

projects include power and propulsion systems (nuclear propulsion, anuclear fusion, positron propulsion, magnetohydrodynamics, traversable wormholes, warp drives, antigravity, zero-point energy), materials science (metallic glass, programmable matter), recalculating the Drake Equation, invisibility, and weaponry (pulsed microwaves, high-powered lasers). (Harry Reid, Letter to Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn III, June 24, 2009; Skinwalkers 27, 90– 93 ) June 24 — 1:55 p.m. A package handler at Louisville International Airport in Kentucky sees a reflection in the sky from the south end of a runway. As it approaches, he sees it is a rotating object, first a cylinder, then a diamond shape. It moves over the runway in a straight line and at a steady speed about 1,500 feet high. The object stops at the end of the ramp and hovers for 30–40 seconds, then moves up into the clouds and disappears. (Roger Marsh, “Reports from Louisville and Kansas City,” IUR 32, no. 3 (July 2009): 20)

July — At the invitation of Robert Bigelow, naval aerospace engineer Jonathan Axelrod [possibly John F. Stratton], Jim Costigan, and David Wilson arrive at the Skinwalker Ranch in Utah to deploy a wide variety of sensory equipment to detect and record anomalies. They experience an odd temperature drop, intense anxiety, and a menacing dark oval shape. After Axelrod returns home to suburban Virginia, paranormal phenomena plague his family, including a humanoid shape, phantom footsteps, blue orbs, and a wolf-like creature standing on two legs. (Skinwalkers 1–8) July 5 — 9:20 p.m. Retired police officer Buck Scarsdale is sitting with his son Bo and girlfriend Joanna Fife on the porch of his ranch home in Lagol, Ventura County, California. They notice seven bright blue lights silently hovering several feet off the ground in the orchard about 500 feet away. They jump in a truck and drive slowly with the lights off toward the display. When they get there, the lights are gone. After returning to the house, they decide to drive back, this time with flashlights. After 10 minutes of searching on foot, they hear two loud clicks coming from some dense bushes, and three others clicks coming from different directions. They return to the house. Buck’s brother Roger arrives at 10:30 p.m., and both of them return to the orchard. Just before 11:00 p.m., Roger sees a silver, gray, and blue flash as an oblong object disappears into an opening in the sky that closes quickly. On July 10, Buck, Bo, and Joanna see an intensely blue light at the northern end of the pasture. Buck and Roger approach it and watch a floating light 5 feet in diameter maneuvering for 5 minutes 900 feet away before it vanishes. Two teams of investigators sent by Robert Bigelow also see lights and orbs the rest of the month, and their camera and video equipment behaves oddly. (Skinwalkers 59–69)

August — Robert Bigelow brings Pentagon technical analyst Juliett Witt to the Skinwalker Ranch in Utah. Along with Colm Kelleher, she experiences a cone of silence and a weird pig-like creature the one night she is there. Like Jonathan Axelrod, the phenomena follow her back home to Virginia, where she experiences poltergeist phenomena and sees a huge owl that attacks her car. (Skinwalkers, 5 0 – 58, 81 – 82) August 6 — The UK National Archives releases another batch of UFO files. (UK National Archives, “Briefing Document: Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs),” 2013 ) August 21 — 9:40 p.m. Tomasz Skorupski sees a deep-black object in the shape of the letter M flying west to east 200 feet above the ground at 50 mph at Kowale Oleckie, Poland. He estimates it is 10 feet in length and 30 feet at the widest point. Seven dimly yellow lights are positioned on the craft, while the rest seems dark and obscures the stars on its flight path. (Poland 100)

September — 10:00 p.m. Jim Costigan, who had visited Skinwalker Ranch in Utah two months earlier, is walking his dog with his wife Laila in suburban Maryland when they see a blue, softball-sized light moving in their direction about 6 feet off the ground to the left. It accelerates and shoots between them, grazing Laila’s shoulder as it passes. Within seconds it is lost behind a house. The dog does not notice it. Laila becomes lethargic the next day and shows severe flu-like symptoms for the next few weeks. She is ultimately diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease of the thyroid. (Skinwalkers 77–79)

November — The RAF Air Command prepares a briefing for UK Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth recommending that the Ministry of Defence “should seek to reduce very significantly the UFO task which is consuming increasing resources, but produces no valuable defence output.” (“Britain’s Defense Ministry Releases Its Final UFO Files,” USA Today, June 21, 2013) November — Sen. Harry Reid’s request for Special Access Program status for the US Defense Intelligence Agency’s Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program is denied by a group at the Pentagon consisting of Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Gen. James R. Clapper, special programs officer at USDI Susan Jones, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative

Affairs Marcel Lettre, and Defense Intelligence Agency defense warning officer Bob Carlsberg. (Skinwalkers 92- 93; Gideon Lewis-Kraus, “How the Pentagon Started Taking UFOs Seriously,” The New Yorker, April 30, 2021) November 25 — 12:15 a.m. A mental health professional in Port Jervis, New York, is driving home listening to Christmas CDs on the car’s player. Coming around a bend, he sees an object about one mile away. As he comes to the next turn, he slows down to 25 mph to get a better look, but by then he is surprised to see that it is almost on top of him. He stops the car on the side of the road, putting it in park with the engine running. The object is cigar-shaped and turning clockwise slowly as it approaches. It is moving slowly like a hot-air balloon. He hears a sound like a cat purring at a low frequency. The UFO passes overhead and his vehicle suffers a complete power failure. His cellphone is also dead. He opens the driver’s door and looks up, seeing lights on the bottom of the object, which immediately blink out. The car starts again spontaneously. (Herbert S. Taylor, “An Update on Vehicle Interference Reports, Part 1,” IUR 33, no. 4 (May 2011): 20–21)

December 1 — The UK Ministry of Defence shuts down its UFO hotline and closes its UFO desk, ostensibly because it has produced “no defence benefit” and no evidence of extraterrestrial aliens in more than 50 years. But the staff is overwhelmed by public inquiries, which are at a 10-year high. (“UFO Investigations Unit Closed by Ministry of Defence,” BBC News, December 4, 2009; “Britain’s Defense Ministry Releases Its Final UFO Files,” USA Today, June 21, 2013; UFOFiles2, pp. 175–176, 178) December 1 — The Defense Intelligence Agency’s AAWSAP program issues the first of 38 Project Physics position papers (Defense Intelligence Reference Documents) that define the current and projected state of the art in aerospace technology, all pertaining to the 12 areas chosen by the DIA. Bigelow’s group has subcontracted with Harold E. Puthoff, CEO of EarthTech International in Austin, Texas, to choose the precise nature and scope of the papers. The first paper is on “Advanced Nuclear Propusion for Manned Deep Space Missions” by physicist Friedwardt Winterberg. (US Defense Intelligence Agency, [list of products produced under the AATIP contract], January 9, 2018; Skinwalkers 47, 122) December 9 — Night. A large beam of light is seen and photographed for 10 minutes over all of northern Norway from Trøndelag in the south through all the counties further north, as well as parts of northern Sweden. The phenomenon consists of a blue beam of light with a grayish spiral emanating from one end of it. It moves from behind a mountain, stops in mid-air, and starts to spiral outwards. A similar, though less spectacular, event also occurred in Norway the month before. Both events have visual features of failed flights of Russian RSM- 56 Bulava SLBM. The Russian Defense Ministry admits shortly afterward that such an event had taken place at the time on December 9. (Wikipedia, “2009 Norwegian spiral anomaly”; Tony Spell, “Estimation of the Trajectory, Location, Size, and Altitude of the ‘Norway Spiral’ Phenomenon,” December 29, 2009) December 11 — Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) directors James T. Lacatski, Colm Kelleher, and Larry Grossman meet at Bolling AFB [now Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling] in Washington, D.C., with Jack Angelo, director of operations for the Office of Special Projects of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. They brief him on their operations and security, and ask AFOSI for data on the Northern Tier UFO incursions of October–November 1975. Angelo promised to see what he could do, but BAASS needs to be accepted into some Special Access Programs to progress much further. (Skinwalkers 94 – 97)

2010

January — The RAF asks the Home Office to cancel standing instructions to police forces who have, in the past, routinely forwarded UFO sightings by officers to the MoD. (UFOFiles2, p. 179) January — US Navy Petty Officer John Baughman sees a “Tic-Tac” shaped object from the flight deck of the supercarrier USS Carl Vinson off the coast of Haiti. It is a solid, white object, some 20 feet long, that darts into the water and appears to collapse on itself and disappear. (Ryan Sprague, “New Navy Witness Says He Saw a ‘Tic Tac’ Operating Underwater,” Medium: Trail of the Saucers, July 11, 2021) Late January — Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) Director of Investigation Larry Grossman meets in Washington, D.C., with former AFOSI Col. Barry Hennessey (Ret.). He acknowledges that AFOSI could not identify many of the UFOs associated with the Northern Tier air force bases in 1975. Hennessey suspects that many of the AFOSI investigative records for those cases have been purged, and hinted to Grossman that some odd unmanned aerial vehicles could be military projects. (Skinwalkers 97–98)

February 17 — The UK National Archives releases another batch of UFO files, more than 6,000 pages of documentation and reports from 1994 to 2000. (“UFO Sightings from the National Archives,” The Guardian (UK), February 17, 2010; UK National Archives, “Briefing Document: Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs),” 2013 )

March — The Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) asks remote viewer Joseph McMoneagle to observe a target designated as 22610 using traditional blind targeting protocols. 22610 is actually Skinwalker Ranch in Utah. McMoneagle’s sketch of the ranch, its environment, animals, two ranch managers, and two security guards are accurate, but he indicates a fifth individual is present. He describes a male, 60–70 pounds, 4 feet 3 inches high, with no hair. McMoneagle says this person is invisible to ranch personnel, although he attempts to ciommunicate with them to see their response. (Skinwalkers 120–121) March 3 — Evening. S/Sgt. Omar Gonzalez and the crew of Dakota Air Traffic Control at Ellsworth AFB near Rapid City, South Dakota, pick up unidentified traffic crossing a passing aircraft, which reports visual contact with an object 2,000 feet above him. The target appears to be 18 miles south of the Ellsworth AFB runway. Suddenly the object vanishes from view and the radar track disappears. A few minutes later, the target reappears on radar behind the aircraft. (Skinwalkers 125) March 8– 12 — Dozens of independent witnesses in Kraków and Rzeszów, Poland, report a strange disc-shaped object of considerable size with white or red lights on its perimeter and red-green lights on its base. (Poland 104–107)

April 22 — An unmanned HTV-2 Falcon hypersonic glider, the fastest unmanned aerial vehicle, reaches a record speed of 13,201 mph. (Wikipedia, “Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2”) April 22 — The first X-37B, an uncrewed, reusable, robotic spaceplane, launches on its first mission, Orbital Test Vehicle 1 / USA- 212 , on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The spacecraft is placed into low Earth orbit for testing. While the Air Force reveals few orbital details of the mission, a worldwide network of amateur astronomers claims to have identified the spacecraft in orbit. It lands on December 3 after more than 224 days in orbit. (Wikipedia, “USA- 212 ”)

June 14 — European Parliament Member Mario Borghezio calls for the European Union to have its own centralized information center where anyone can access information on UFOs, even records held by the military. Borghezio argues that governments should go public with the information they hold and stop what he believes is a systematic cover-up. Not satisfied with a central archive, Borghezio also wants a scientific center to study UFOs that could encourage research and development. “I think that, under the principle of transparency,” he says, “the EU member states have a duty to make public and available to all scientific data on UFOs which today are partially or wholly withheld.” (“MEP Calls for Declassification of UFO Files,” Euractiv, July 7, 2010)

July 7 — 8: 4 0 p.m. A UFO is seen hovering above Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport near Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. An airliner preparing for descent first notices the object and notifies the tower. Within minutes, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) closes the airport down, grounding outbound flights and diverting inbound ones to other airports. Normal operations resume an hour later. Nearby residents take photos of the UFO. One daylight photo taken earlier in the afternoon shows an object with a clear, comet-like tail; another, taken after dusk shows a glowing object emitting golden light. Another photo clearly shows an airplane with a contrail. CAAC conducts an investigation but refuses to release it publicly because there is a “military connection.” MIT weapons analyst Geoffrey Forden says the most credible photo shows an arc streaking across the sky around sunset and that the most likely cause is the launch of a DF- 21 missile somewhere near Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and aimed at a point somewhere in the eastern Gobi Desert. (“Flights Diverted, Delayed As UFO Detected Hovering,” People’s Daily Online, July 9, 2010; “UFO Forces Hangzhou Airport to Shut Down,” China Central Television, July 10, 2010; “Hangzhou Light Show,” Arms Control Wonk, July 12, 2010; “UFO in China’s Skies Prompts Investigation,” ABC News, July 14, 2010; Alexis C. Madrigal, “A UFO over China? Well, No,” The Atlantic, July 19, 2010 “UFOs over China? Not Quite, Analyst Says,” CNN, July 20, 2010)

August — The Nevada Test Site is renamed the Nevada National Security Site. (Wikipedia, “Nevada Test Site”) August 5 — The UK National Archives releases another 5,000 pages of UFO files to the public. This release alone generates 196 separate news items and reaches a readership of 25 million people. (“Churchill Ordered UFO Cover-Up, National Archives Show,” BBC News, August 5, 2010; UK National Archives, “Briefing Document: Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs),” 2013 ; UFOFiles2, p. xi)

August 13 — 8:00 p.m. A circle of six yellow lights appears in the sky above the Jardim Bela Vista district of Bauru, São Paulo, Brazil. Dentist Daniela Tamarossi and others spend more than 2 hours watching it maneuver. (Brazil 403– 405) August 16 — 11 : 00 p.m. Two people camping on Cumberland Island National Seashore in Georgia are walking on the beach when they notice above them a low-flying triangular object with lights at each of its points. It is moving silently to the south toward Jacksonville, Florida. About 45 minutes later they see it through some trees from their campsite, again silent and heading south. (“Sighting Report,” National UFO Reporting Center, November 21, 2010; Nukes 508 )

September 27 — Researcher Robert Hastings organizes a briefing at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., that brings together former US Air Force personnel who testify to the existence of UFOs and their ability to neutralize American and Russian nuclear missiles. Those appearing include former Capt. Robert Salas, retired nuclear missile targeting officer Robert C. Jamison, and retired Col. Charles I. Halt. Several of the ex-servicemembers say that when they brought their concerns to superiors, they were told it is “top secret” or that it “didn’t happen.” Hastings suggests the presence of such phenomena means that aliens could be monitoring our weapons and perhaps warning us about their use. (“Ex-Air Force Personnel: UFOs Deactivated Nukes,” CBS News, September 28, 2010; Robert L. Hastings, “The UFOs–Nukes Connection Press Conference,” October 11, 2010; “Military Witnesses of UFOs at Nuclear Sites: National Press Club,” QUFOSR YouTube channel, December 15, 2016; Nukes 511–512) September 30 — The contract for the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program is extended until December 21, 2010, at no cost to the government. However, there is no congressional funding available for 2011. One of its most significant achievements is the development of a Data Warehouse that links 11 separate UFO databases and supporting documentation. The databases are the NIDS database airline and military pilot sightings, the USAF Blue Book database, UFOCAT, the MUFON Case Management System database, Project Colares, the Canadian government’s UFO releases, the UK government’s UFO releases, BAASS cases investigated, Skinwalker Ranch database, and a database of Skinwalker Ranch contagious health effects. Each UFO case is assigned a credibility rating designed by Jacques Vallée, and the database configuration is based on a six-layer model developed by Vallée and Eric W. Davis in 2003, using layers designated as physical, anti-physical, psychological, physiological, psychic, and cultural. The Data Warehouse is not retired at the end of the AAWSAP, but is used by the UAP Task Force and its successor organization. (Skinwalkers 26– 27 , 167– 170 )

October 11 — 8:40 p.m. A man named Qiao sees two luminous objects, one small one and the other larger, over the Xincheng district of Taiyuan, Shaanxi, China. They keep circling in a regular pattern. Other luminous objects are reported above the Sanqianglu district. Soon the media hotlines are flooded with phone calls. Two luminous objects circling in the air are seen at 8:55 p.m. in the Xinhuajie district, at 9:01 p.m. near the Apparel Town area, and at 9:05 p.m. near the racetrack. When reporters arrive at the plaza of the Taiyuan Railway Station, they see a large, milky-white, luminous spot circling above the clouds with a diameter of at least 32 feet. The object first looks like a luminous spot produced by a searchlight against the clouds, but it has no obvious light beams. The object circles and moves up and down and from side to side until it disappears around 9:10 p.m. (“Chinese UFO Report Affirms Reality of Manipulative Extraterrestrial Abduction,” Canadian Business Daily, September 24, 2011) October 13 — 4:00 a.m. A village in the Qinling mountains of southern Shaanxi province, China, supposedly disappears overnight after witnesses contact news agencies to report UFOs in the area. Chinese troops allegedly cordon off the area with no explanation. A video circulates online, reportedly showing bright blue lights in the sky over the village. Subsequent reports deny a military presence in the area and attribute the story to rumor and misinformation. Other reports indicate the “disappearance” took place in 1987 and was part of a rural relocation program to alleviate poverty in the area. (“Inexplicable Disappearance of a Village in the Qinling Mountains: UFO Village Vanishing?” Before It’s News, October 14, 2010; “China Qinling Mountains Village Vanishing after UFO (13/10/2010),” Marco Maia YouTube channel, October 14, 2010; “UFO Abduction of Whole Village Exposed As Rumor,” People’s Daily Online, October 18, 2010; Chris Saunders, “UFOs over China,” Fortean Times 331 (October 2015): 31; Robert Foyle Hunwick, “China Unsolved: The Village That Vanished,” SupChina, July 11, 2018; Brent Swancer, “A Mysterious Vanishing Village in China,” Mysterious Universe, June 26, 2019; “Across China: Revisiting a Disappearing Village in Northwest China,” Xinhua, June 17, 2020 ) October 23– 24 — Air Force personnel at Francis E. Warren AFB near Cheyenne, Wyoming, report seeing an enormous cigar-shaped craft maneuvering high above its missile field. The UFO appears similar to an advertising blimp but has no passenger gondola or advertising on its hull. On the same day, the missile site temporarily loses its ability

to communicate with 50 of its Minuteman III nuclear missiles. The five Missile Alert Facilities affected, Alpha
through Echo, are responsible for launching those ICBMs in time of war and comprise the 319th Strategic Missile
Squadron. The Air Force then quickly acknowledges the problem, saying that a backup system could have
launched the missiles if necessary and that the breakdown lasted only 59 minutes. But according to two missile
technicians stationed at the base, the communications problem, while intermittent, lasts several hours. These
confidential sources further report that the commander of the squadron sternly warns its members not to talk to
journalists or researchers about “the things they may or may not have seen” in the sky near the missiles in recent
months and threatens severe penalties for violating security. (NICAP, “Base ‘Loses’ 50 Missiles”; Marc
Ambinder, “Failure Shuts Down Squadron of Nuclear Missiles,” The Atlantic, October 26, 2010; Robert L.
Hastings, “Huge UFO Sighted near Nuclear Missiles during October 2010 Launch System Disruption,” UFOs &
Nukes, June 21, 2011; Nukes 515–517)

November 5 — In a letter to Spanish UFO researcher Ignacio Darnaude, admitted Ummo hoaxer José Luis Jordán Peña elaborates on the reason why he began writing the fake letters. He acknowledges that he used collaborators (Vicente Ortuno, Norman West, John Child, Mercedes Carrasco, Alberto Borras, Trinidad Pastrana, Sean O’Connelly, Iker J.) who sent letters from distant places and that he created the fictional character of John Axee to better disseminate his knowledge. He claims he was contacted at the outset by two American doctors, Jonathan F. McGuire and Arnold J. Lebotski (he previously said that they were CIA agents), working for a foreign organization who offered him, for a fee, to carry out a sociological experiment in the interest of western culture. (Wikipedia, “Ummo”; Alain Moreau, “Ummo: Une imposture?” Les Cles de l’Inexplique; Scott Corrales, “The Ummo Experience: Are You Experienced?” Strange Magazine; UmmoWiki, “Jóse Luis Jordán Peña”) November 14 — 6:30 p.m. A swiftly moving light is seen maneuvering in the sky above Logradouro, Ceará, Brazil, apparently following witnesses, for more than 6 hours. (Brazil 407–408)

December 22 — The New Zealand Ministry of Defence releases 12 volumes of documents related to UFOs dating from 1952 to 2009. (Suzy Hansen, “Relinquishing Responsibility? Circumstances Surrounding the Release of the New Zealand MOD UFO Files 2010/2011,” Ufocus.nz, 2018)

2011

January — Philippe Ailleris, amateur astronomer and founder of the Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena Reporting Scheme, publishes “UFOs and Exogenous Intelligence Encounters” in the European Space Policy Institute Perspectives newsletter. Although he makes it clear that a large percentage of UFO sightings are explainable, an open-minded approach toward the phenomenon is necessary. He argues that UFOs have had a positive influence on public support for space exploration and SETI, and that 60 years of UFO sightings have opened our minds to the inevitability of direct contact with nonhuman intelligences. (Philippe Ailleris, “UFOs and Exogenous Intelligence Encounters,” European Space Policy Institute Perspectives, no. 43 (January 2011))

February 7 — James T. Lacatski provides an in-depth briefing to Jim Bell and Sacha Mover of the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate on the accomplishments of the AAWSAP in an attempt to transfer the program out of the Department of Defense. He recounts the BAASS investigations into UAPs and the paranormal events at the Skinwalker Ranch in Utah, as well as AAWSAP’s research into advanced technologies. Lacatski works with Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to attempt to get the BAASS-like project funded. Negotiations and presentations continue through December, but DHS is ultimately uninterested and concerned about negative publicity. (Skinwalkers 28, 142– 143 , 148– 154 )

March 11 — 2:46 p.m. A 9.0 Mw earthquake takes place with an epicenter near Honshu, Japan. Immediately after the earthquake, the electricity-producing Reactors 1, 2, and 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, automatically shut down their sustained fission reactions by inserting control rods in a safety procedure referred to as a SCRAM, which ends the reactors’ normal running conditions, by closing down the fission reaction in a controlled manner. Because the reactors are now unable to generate power to run their own coolant pumps, emergency diesel generators come online, as designed, to power electronics and coolant systems. These operate normally until a 46-foot tsunami sweeps over the plant’s seawall and destroys the generators for Reactors 1–5. Large amounts of water contaminated with radioactive isotopes are released into the Pacific Ocean during and after the disaster. (Wikipedia, “Fukushima nuclear disaster”)

March 31 — The New Zealand Ministry of Defence releases a further 3 volumes of documents related to UFOs. (Suzy Hansen, “Relinquishing Responsibility? Circumstances Surrounding the Release of the New Zealand MOD UFO Files 2010/2011,” Ufocus.nz, 2018)

May 6 — The Argentine Air Force creates the Comisión de Estudio de Fenómenos Aeroespaciales for the study of aerospace phenomena. Capt. Moriano Mohaupt, Air Force press spokesman, says that the commission is composed of meteorologists, air traffic controllers, pilots, and radar experts, who will look into sightings. Since 2015 it has been managed with rigor and transparency by Commodore Rubén Lianza. (“Argentina Creates UFO Commission,” IUR 34, no. 1 (Sep. 2011): 21; Milton Hourcade, “Argentina: UFO Declassification,” U.A.P.S.G.– G.E.F.A.I., July 29, 2020)

June 6 — 8:00 p.m. A Mrs. Beata is walking her dog in the Baranówka neighborhood of Rzeszów, Poland. She sees an elliptical, dull metallic object crossing the sky just above the trees about 180 feet away. It is about 30–50 feet long and 15–30 feet across and completely silent. It disappears after emitting some flashes of light from its perimeter. (Poland 155–156)

July — Igor Kalytyuk begins publishing Novosti Ufologii, an online UFO newsletter, in Rivne, Ukraine. It continues through December 2016, accompanied by occasional special bulletins of the Ufology News Project from 2012 to

2018. (Novosti Ufologii, no. 1 (July 2011); “About the Ufology News Project”)

August — The UK National Archives makes available its first batch of Ministry of Defence UFO files from 1985 to 1995, followed shortly afterward by files for 1997 and 1998– 2000. (UK National Archives, “Briefing Document: Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs),” 2013 )

September 11 — 5:00 a.m. An 18-year-old girl in Baborów, Poland, is awakened by a light from a blue triangular object hovering outside her bedroom window. Its contours are outlined with white halogen-like lights and there is what looks like a hatch in its center from which a mist is emanating. She can feel the heat from the object on her face and forehead. The object departs to the west but does not disappear until 6:30 a.m. (Poland 100–101)

November — Out of its 1,170 fully investigated UFO cases, the French UFO agency GEIPAN shows that 22% are unidentified. (Swords 453)

2012

February 18 — 2:00 p.m. A father and son, both pilots, are in their propellor-driven Mooney Ovation II flying at 7,480 feet. Shortly after they cross the border of Virginia from Charlotte, North Carolina, they prepare to land in Richmond. Above Chase City, Virginia, the father unexpectedly sees a bright, glowing sphere about 30 feet in diameter flying alongside the aircraft. As the UFO begins to soar about 50 feet away from the right wing, the plane loses power. All of the electrical equipment (including the computer) suddenly turns off. A few seconds later, the plane regains all systems as the UFO swiftly shoots away at an incredible speed. (NICAP, “Aircraft Encounters UFO and E-M Effects”)

March — The Center for UFO Studies publishes the final issue of the International UFO Reporter.

April 13 — Afternoon. Mihnea Mustaţa and other observers north of Ploieşti, Romania, watch a white, hat-shaped object passing over a field to the east at about 53 mph toward the village of Pleaşa. It disappears for a few minutes and reappears in a different location. Starting at 2:28 p.m., Mustaţa takes several photos of the object before it disappears, accompanied by several balls of light. (Romania 80–82)

May 10 — 3:00 p.m. Workers at a warehouse in Rzeszów, Poland, see a group of spherical objects converging from various directions to a point where a large object shaped like a “screw-thread” is hovering. Two spheres fly away after maneuvering in the air. The other objects disappear (Poland 155) May 10 — 9:30 p.m. A witness in Hermanowa, Poland, watches a light approach him until it is only 100 feet away, only 6 – 10 feet above his neighbor’s house. An identical object, also about 1 foot in diameter, on the same flight path

appears and stops in the same position above the adjacent house. After 20 seconds, it veers off at an angle of 130° and both objects fly away. (Poland 155) Late May — Evening. Two wind-farm engineers are on top of a 4–5 story building in Mamaia-Set, Romania, when they see a large V-formation consisting of clusters of three lights approaching at high speed from the south. The formation crosses the sky in 4–5 seconds. (Romania 82–83)

July — The UK National Archives opens more UFO policy files, covering 1995–1997, 1997–1998, and 2002–2008. (UK National Archives, “Briefing Document: Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs),” 2013) July 5 — 10:04 p.m. A security camera at a well site in the Eagle Ford Shale Field near Cotulla, Texas, snaps an image of what appears to be a 60-foot-diameter object with an array of four lights hovering above the caliche pad of an oil well. Later, in October, workers at the site report UFOs in the night sky. One of them named Xavier Garza takes a blurry video of a reddish-orange orb in the northern sky. (“Observers Think UFOs Hovered above the Eagle Ford Shale,” San Antonio (Tex.) News-Express, January 12, 2013; “Cotulla 2012: Security Camera Shows UFO Hovering over South Texas Oil Field,” Texas UFO Museum and Research Library)

August 1 – 15 — Indian Army troops deployed along the Chinese border from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradash report as many as 100 UFO sightings. The 14th Corps, which is deployed in the Kargil and Leh districts and patrols the frontier with China, sends reports to Army headquarters about sightings by an Indo-Tibetan Border Police unit in the Thakung district near lake Pangong Tso in the Himalayas. The reports describe yellowish spheres that appear to lift off from the horizon on the Chinese side and slowly traverse the sky for 3–5 hours before disappearing. The Army uses a mobile ground-based radar unit and a spectrum analyzer to verify the identity of the UFOs, but they cannot track the spheres on radar. Officials insist the objects are not Chinese drones. (“Over 100 UFOs Seen along China Border,” Times of India, November 6, 2012; Dirk Vander Ploeg, “Chinese, Russian, and Indian Troops Jointly Spot UFOs,” UFO Digest, March 16, 2013) August 3 — Kathleen Marden reports on a survey of abductees in which 38% report seeing hybrids, usually in a large facility along with humans being examined. These respondents see short and tall gray humanoids along with a few mantis-like, reptilian, Nordic, and occasional rarer types. One surprise finding is that 40% suffer chronic fatigue syndrome or mononucleosis. They also report examinations focused on glandular tissue, especially the thymus, a gland that has been implicated in these illnesses. (Kathleen Marden, “Abduction Experiencers’ Perception of the Alien Agenda,” MUFON 2012 International UFO Symposium Proceedings, MUFON, August 2012 )

September 19 — 9:45 p.m. Jennifer Styer is driving north on Antelope Lane near Roy, Montana, when she sees two V- shaped objects to the northwest that speed silently toward her. They have orange lights on each arm and are flying in a straight line quite close to each other. (Robert L. Hastings, “UFOs Reported near Malmstrom AFB’s Nuclear Missile Sites in September 2012,” UFOs & Nukes, November 4, 2012) September 21 — 8:30 pm. Dale Uhler and his wife are driving north-northwest of Moccasin, Montana, two miles north of the intersection of North Star and Fieldstone roads when they notice a bar-shaped, yellow-orange light about 30°– 35° above the horizon. It then splits into three lights, which persist for about 20 seconds before disappearing. A second witness on the Old Musselshell Trail south of the Missouri River, Montana, sees what may be the same display, which appears to him as four orange lights that appear and disappear in sequence. A third witness, about 20 miles east of Roy, Montana, also sees the lights to the north. (Robert L. Hastings, “UFOs Reported near Malmstrom AFB’s Nuclear Missile Sites in September 2012,” UFOs & Nukes, November 4, 2012)

2013

2013 — The Pentagon’s black budget is at $52.6 billion, according to documents leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden. Although the government has annually released its overall level of intelligence spending since 2007, it does not divulge how it uses the money or how it performs against the goals set by the president and Congress. (“‘Black Budget’ Summary Details U.S. Spy Network’s Successes, Failures, and Objectives,” Washington Post, August 29, 2013)

January 4 — Night. Dogs belonging to Carlos Torres of Pine Bush, New York, become noisy and agitated. When he goes outside, he sees a huge rectangular object blocking out the stars and moving silently overhead. His young daughter is terrified. It takes 2 minutes to travel out of sight. (Randle, Levelland, 2021, p. 125)

January 8 — 4:00 a.m. Two policemen in a village near Nysa, Poland, notice distant lights that appear and reappear. At one point, they stop their patrol car to observe the light, which is changing shape and radiating a number of colored lights. The light approaches them and stops a half-mile away. Small points of light break off from its base, some returning into it and others disappearing in mid-air. The primary light then gives off a stroboscopic flash of light that illuminates a large area. The officers drive away, but the light follows them. They stop again at a parking lot and see that the light is coming from a domed disc emitting dazzling yellow lights. Three blue lights are on its base. They drive off again, but the object paces them at a distance of about one mile. Both officers experience strong anxiety during the sighting, and there is a possible element of missing time. (Poland 110 – 114) January 12 — 8:20 p.m. A married couple pull out of their driveway in West Melbourne, Florida, to go out to dinner. As the couple drive west down their street, they see three bright lights in a row in the sky. They assume that the lights are Chinese lanterns, since they are all at or above the same elevation. As they draw closer, they realize that the lights form a single object. As the object turns, the lights are in a pyramidal shape (indicating rotation of the object that causes the three horizontal lights to appear like a pyramid). At the same time, the object bolts away at an incredible speed and disappears in a few seconds. (NICAP, “Pyramid-Shaped Object Observed by Couple”)

March 5 — 5:30 p.m. A witness in the Słocina neighborhood of Rzeszów, Poland, lets her cat outside, but it panics. She looks up and sees strange lights about a quarter of a mile away. She looks through binoculars and sees that the lights are attached to an object with a cupola hovering about 650 feet above some houses in the area. It flies away to the east. (Poland 157) March 19– 20 — In the early hours of March 19, a couple living in a rural section of Warkworth, New Zealand, see a blue flash and hear a loud explosion that causes the building to shake. The next morning they find their telephone service is out and their fax machine’s circuitry is melted. Around midnight on March 20, the woman is watching TV while her husband has gone to bed. She hears a loud sound like jet engines thrusting and goes outside to see a large, black isosceles triangle about 800 feet away and 600 feet in the air, slowly rising among the treetops. It drifts sideways and gradually turns or pivots. The underside of the craft is flat and smooth, a pale pearly metallic color. It has three reddish-orange rings with black centers, one at each point of the triangle, which resemble hot glowing metal rather than actual lights. In the center of the underside is a white strobe light, rotating with a circular movement and casting an intermittent short beam of light. She watches it for 20 seconds as it moves above the house, tilts its nose upwards, and rises more quietly up the ridge-line behind the house, briefly pausing near a transmitter mast positioned on the top of the hill. From there it gains altitude rapidly and suddenly shoots away at phenomenal speed and disappears within seconds. (Suzy Hansen, “Sightings of a ‘Black Triangle’ (Air)craft, 2013,” Ufocus.nz, 2013) March 31 — Twilight. A young couple watches a triangular formation of lights hovering above a forest near Biała, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland. It looks to be about 400 feet wide. After a change in position it moves off in the direction of Chojnów to the south. (Poland 95–96)

April 18 — Members of the Brazilian Ufologists Commission meet with representatives of the Brazilian armed forces at the Ministry of Defense to discuss gaining access to military documents involving UFOs. Attendees determine that Navy, Army, and Air Force documents related to UFOs are to be made public, as established by the law on access to information. More than 10,000 pages of previously confidential documents are released to the public and are available at the National Archives in Brasilia and online. (Alejandro Rojas, “UFO Researchers Meet with Brazilian Ministry of Defense,” OpenMinds, April 26, 2013) April 25 — 9:20 p.m. An unknown object flying at a low altitude passes directly above the Rafael Hernández Airport runway in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, causing the delayed departure of a commercial aircraft. No transponder signal or other communication from the object alerts the airport tower, creating a dangerous situation with departures and arrivals. The pilots of an airborne US Customs and Border Protection De Havilland Canada Dash 8 turboprop aircraft see a pinkish or reddish light over the ocean in their vicinity, so they film the object on infrared thermal video. The object is 3–5 feet in length and its speed varies from 40 to 120 mph. The 3-minute footage shows the flight of an object that crosses into northwestern Puerto Rico from the Atlantic Ocean, traverses the space over the airport twice, then returns to the Atlantic where it apparently submerges. Its speed through the water reaches a high of 95 mph. Chemist Robert Powell and five other members of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies later obtain the video and subject it to a thorough analysis. Their conclusion in 201 8 is that the video is the “best documentation of an unknown aerial and submerged nautical object exhibiting advanced technology” that the authors have seen. (Robert Powell, et al., “ 2013 Aguadilla Puerto Rico UAP: The Detailed Analysis of an Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon Captured by the Department of Homeland Security,” Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, August 15, 2018)

April 29–May 3 — Stephen Bassett’s Paradigm Research Group holds a Citizens Hearing on Disclosure at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Forty UFO researchers, along with political and military representatives (Robert Salas, Paul Hellyer, Nick Pope), testify to six former members of the US Congress: Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, Merrill Cook, Lynn Woolsey, Darlene Hooley, Roscoe Bartlett, and Mike Gravel. The witnesses speak for 30 hours over five days. The panel reaches the conclusion that the US government and other governments need to share what is known about UFO sightings and the United Nations should take the subject of UFOs seriously. (Richard B. Muhammad, “What Is the Truth about UFOs?” The Final Call, May 7, 2013; “Citizen Hearing on Disclosure (2013),” The Unidentified, May 27, 2018)

June — Researcher David Marler publishes Triangular UFOs, an evaluation of hundreds of reports of delta-shaped UFOs seen worldwide. Marler assesses whether these represent an extraterrestrial UFO visitation or a secret project developed by one or more governments. (David Marler, Triangular UFOs: An Estimate of the Situation, Richard Dolan Press, 2013 ) June 5 — Based on material supplied to them by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, The Guardian exposes a top-secret court order showing that the NSA has collected phone records from over 120 million Verizon subscribers. Under the order, the numbers of both parties on a call, as well as the location data, unique identifiers, time of call, and duration of call are handed over to the FBI, which turns over the records to the NSA. (Wikipedia, “Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present)”) June 6 — The Guardian and the Washington Post reveal the existence of the PRISM surveillance program (which collects the emails, voice, text, and video messages of foreigners and an unknown number of Americans from Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Apple, and other tech giants). (Wikipedia, “PRISM (surveillance program)”) June 14 — US prosecutors charge Edward Snowden with espionage and theft of government property, but in late July he is granted temporary asylum by the Russian government. The extent to which the media reports have responsibly informed the public is disputed. In January 2014, President Obama says that “the sensational way in which these disclosures have come out has often shed more heat than light” and critics such as Sean Wilentz note that many of the Snowden documents do not concern domestic surveillance. The US and UK Defense establishment weigh the strategic harm in the period following the disclosures more heavily than their civic public benefit. In its first assessment of these disclosures, the Pentagon concludes that Snowden committed the biggest “theft” of US secrets in the history of the United States. Sir David Omand, a former director of GCHQ, described Snowden’s disclosure as the “most catastrophic loss to British intelligence ever.” (Wikipedia, “Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present)”) June 19 — A triangular object with lights in each tip is seen at Szklarska Poręba, Poland. (Poland 98) June 21 — The UK National Archives releases another batch of 209 UFO files, approximately 52,000 pages, covering 2009. The full set of files show that the Ministry of Defence received an average of 150 sightings annually from 2000 to 2007, increasing to 643 in 2009. This is supposed to be the final batch, but more files are discovered later. (“Britain’s Defense Ministry Releases Its Final UFO Files,” USA Today, June 21, 2013; UK National Archives, “Briefing Document: Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs),” 2013) June 25 — The CIA publicly acknowledges the existence of Area 51 for the first time, following a FOIA request filed in 2005, and it declassifies documents detailing its history and purpose. (Wikipedia, “Area 51”) June 27 — 12:20 p.m. An F/A-18F Super Hornet from Strike Fighter Squadron 11 (VFA-11, the “Red Rippers”), flying out of Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia, has an encounter with an “aircraft [that] was white in color and approximately the size and shape of a drone or missile” in the W-72 warning area, a patch of airspace off the coast of Virginia and North Carolina. The jet’s crew visually acquires it as they see it “pass down the right side of their aircraft with approximately 200 feet of lateral separation” while flying at an altitude of 17,000 feet. It is climbing and has a visible exhaust trail. Neither the Super Hornet nor NAS Oceana records a radar track of the object. The Navy tells units to be aware of the potential hazards posed by unauthorized or uncoordinated drone operations. (Tyler Rogoway and Joseph Trevithick, “Here Are the Navy Pilot Reports from Encounters with Mysterious Aircraft off the East Coast,” The Drive: The War Zone, May 12, 2020)

July 15 — 10:00 p.m. A 60-year-old postal worker and his wife see a rectangular-shaped object maneuver through the sky and come within 100 feet of them in Bellingham, Washington. It executes precise turns that avoid electrical poles, wires, and streetlights. The object’s color changes from a glowing red to a dull gray as it performs a banking turn and comes to a standstill. The color change is not uniform because it begins at the top of the object and moves downward. The object appears about the size of a large SUV, and at its closest approach it is about palm-width in size at arm’s length. The wife sees it as tumbling along its central axis. (NICAP, “Rectangular Object Viewed at 100ʹ”)

July 19 — 6:35 p.m. The pilot of a Thomas Cook Airbus A320 cruising at 34,000 feet near Reading, Berkshire, England, sees a silvery metallic object shaped like a rugby ball streak within a few feet of his cockpit on his left-hand side. The UK Airprox Board rules out another aircraft or weather balloon. (Phil Davies, “Thomas Cook Aircraft in UFO ‘Near Miss,’” Travel Weekly, January 24, 2014)

August 1 — Night. A group of young people at Góra Ossona in Częstochowa, Poland, see a triangular object. (Poland 98) August 3 — 10:30–11:00 p.m. Witnesses in multiple points in Poland report three successive sightings of unidentified triangular objects. A woman in Lubliniec walking her dog sees a giant boomerang floating silently to the west only about 150 feet above her housing estate. It has dim symmetrical lights that are the same intensity as stars and is about 65 feet long. A young couple in Łosice watches a dark, triangular UFO with gray-violet colored lights. An engineer in Dobrzykowice observes a high-altitude, delta-shaped formation of lights. (Poland 96–97) August 14 — Night. An amateur astronomer in Lublin, Poland, is tracking an object in an orbital trajectory. Close-up, it resembles a rocket with a triangular contour, crimson-red color, and yellowish center. A smaller isosceles triangle seems to be embedded in it. (Poland 98) August 18 — 7:00 p.m. A family that owns a dacha in Tyczyn, Poland, watches a wingless object with spear-shaped panels maneuvering slowly and silently above them. It has an apparently rotating blinking light and is making constant turns and ascents. (Poland 101–102) August 20 — 9:45 p.m. Three vehicles pull over on Homer Watson Boulevard just west of Doon South Drive in Kitchener, Ontario, to observe a strange object that is crossing in front of them. The highway lighting makes it easy to see a spherical object 30 feet in diameter move very slowly across the freeway just above the utility poles. The object, only a few hundred feet from the stopped cars, is apparently solid with a glow that illuminates the trees as it passed by. The primary witness exits his car and attempts to take a photo with his cellphone, but its camera functions are dead. He continues to watch the object for another 45 seconds. Once the object leaves, the cellphone operates properly again. (NICAP, “E-M Effects from Sphere near Highway”) August 28 — 9:40 p.m. A three-man hunting party observes a barbell-shaped object within 400 feet of their camp in rural Ontario. The object interferes with the operation of their Motorola radio, a cellphone, and a Sony Cybershot video camera. The object is in view for about 5 minutes. The primary witness owns a company that receives Department of Defense contracts and puts together a 17-page report and a video on the sighting. (MUFON case file)

September 9 — Two witnesses in Sokółka, Poland, see a gigantic triangular UFO flying by in a few seconds. (Poland 98) September 12 — Night. A delta-shaped UFO is seen above Franciszka Hynka street, Warsaw, Poland. (Poland 98)

October — Peru reopens its Departamento de Investigación de Fenómenos Aéreos Anómalos (DIFFA), which had closed in 2008, as a result of “increased sightings of anomalous aerial phenomena” in the country’s skies. DIFAA will bring together sociologists, archaeologists, astronomers, meteorologists, and Air Force personnel to analyze these events. (“Peru Reopens UFO Investigation Office,” Homeland Security News Wire, October 28, 2013) October 1 — The first-generation Air Force Satellite Surveillance System ceases operation. The main advantage of the system was its ability to provide uncued data on new objects as opposed to tracking objects based on existing information. However, the system was also said to be inherently inaccurate due to its dated design. (Wikipedia, “Air Force Space Surveillance System”) October 6 — 9:00 p.m. A father and daughter are traveling west on Highway 40 through Rabbit Ears Pass, Colorado, when the father notices two white lights in the distance. The dimmer of the two begins to descend erratically. It seems to wave back and forth, rather than just move straight down, as it disappears behind a stand of tall pine trees. Then the brighter light begins to grow as it approaches quickly. He tells his daughter to look up, and she immediately sees the object as it speeds toward them. The white light develops a red border that transitions into a solid red light. A very short bright green line also appears just below and to the immediate left of the solid red light. The object then slows and swerves to the north. When the object is positioned just to the left and in front of them, it drops in elevation and begins to pass slowly overhead. The father sees that the short green line is actually a long, flat, bright, rectangular strip. Both note how crisp and clear the green box angles are and how there is no glow, given the brightness of the green light. The father, who had previously worked with low-powered lasers, identifies the green color as exactly 532nm. They cannot see any reflections on the body or wings. The object slows almost to a hover as it passes above them. Once the object passes out of view to the rear, they are unable to see it again out the back window or in the rearview mirrors. They do not want to stop and get a better look. The father comments that he has never seen a solid object emit such a bright green light. (NICAP, “Solid Object Emits Bright Green Light”)

October 13 — 12:05 a.m. A Mr. Mateusz notices a large boomerang-shaped object with yellow lights flying above Pabianice, Poland, from northeast to west. It is surrounded by a hazy mist or glow, making it seem semi- transparent. (Poland 97)

November 1 — Media outlets report that Skunk Works has been working on an unmanned reconnaissance airplane it has named SR- 72 , which can fly twice as fast as the SR-71 at Mach 6. However, USAF is officially pursuing the Northrop Grumman RQ- 180 UAV to take up the SR- 71 ’s strategic surveillance role. (Wikipedia, “Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird”; Guy Norris, “Exclusive: Skunk Works Reveals SR-71 Successor Plan,” Aviation Week, November 1, 2013) November 8 — 4:36 p.m. Two witnesses are driving on the Ring Road around Bucharest, Romania, near the exit for the Autostrada Soarelui. They see a light-brown cylinder-shaped object rotating on its axis and hovering silently above some high-voltage power lines. They watch it for 10 minutes until it disappears suddenly without moving. (Romania 83 – 84) November 18 — 12:55 p.m. An F/A-18E Super Hornet from Strike Fighter Squadron 143 (VFA-143, the “Pukin Dogs”), flying out of Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia, spots an object in the W-72 warning zone via radar off its nose at around 12,000 feet and a speed of approximately 0.1 Mach. “The aircraft had an approximately 5-foot wingspan and was colored white with no other distinguishable features,” according to the pilot, who is able to visually acquire the object and track it for one hour. The Navy concludes that this object is an unmanned aerial system (UAS), but that Commander, Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic and Fleet Area Control and Surveillance Facility, Virginia Capes (FASCFAC VACAPES), the latter of which is also identified here by its callsign “Giant Killer,” is not able to ascertain the operator. A Navy vessel is in the area traveling south, but the Navy is unable to identify it. (Tyler Rogoway and Joseph Trevithick, “Here Are the Navy Pilot Reports from Encounters with Mysterious Aircraft off the East Coast,” The Drive: The War Zone, May 12, 2020) November 19 — 6:20 p.m. Two witnesses, each with 30+ years experience as Army and Air Force aircraft maintenance technicians, see a huge triangular UFO that flies from north to south about 500 feet above them near Adel, Georgia. The surface of the object is not clear and has a rippling effect like “a heat mirage down the road on a hot summer’s day.” There are no anti-collision lights required for all aircraft. The object has a wingspan larger than a C-5A cargo plane and flies slowly at 12–17 mph with absolutely no noise. The rear of the object displays a row of white pulsing lights that are set back or surrounded by a shroud. As the object moves further away, a small drone- like object is seen flying alongside on the left. Soon it banks to the southeast, allowing them to see clearly its triangular shape. (NICAP, “Triangular UFO Observed by Experienced Military Men”)

December 18 — 3:00 p.m. Another Super Hornet pilot from VFA-143 encounters a white object visually and on radar in the W-72 warning zone. (Tyler Rogoway and Joseph Trevithick, “Here Are the Navy Pilot Reports from Encounters with Mysterious Aircraft off the East Coast,” The Drive: The War Zone, May 12, 2020)

2014

February — Day. An aircraft matching the black triangle description is photographed multiple times over Kansas and Texas. Amateur photographer Jeff Templin snaps pictures of a triangular aircraft while photographing wildlife in Kansas. (“Texas Mystery Aircraft Also Photographed over Kansas,” Deep Blue Horizon, April 17, 2014) February 24 — US journalist Glenn Greenwald publishes information in The Intercept about a slideshow document, The Art of Deception, released by Edward Snowden and issued by the UK’s formerly secret Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group concerning “online covert operations.” The slideshow, probably dating to spring 2012, was shared with the US National Security Agency and other intelligence partners and reveals existing techniques to manipulate public opinion and online discourse. The document even includes three UFO photos as illustrations of these techniques. Greenwald writes: “These GCHQ [Government Communications Headquarters] documents are the first to prove that a major western government is using some of the most controversial techniques to disseminate deception online and harm the reputations of targets. Under the tactics they use, the state is deliberately spreading lies on the internet about whichever individuals it targets, including the use of what GCHQ itself calls ‘false flag operations’ and emails to people’s families and friends. Who would possibly trust a government to exercise these powers at all, let alone do so in secret, with virtually no oversight, and outside of any cognizable legal framework?” (Wikipedia, “Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group”; Glenn Greenwald, “How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations,” The Intercept, February 24, 2014; “The Art of Deception: Training for a New Generation of Online Covert Operations,” The

Intercept, February 24, 2014; Mark Pilkington, “Tricksters, Saucers, and Cyber Magicians,” Fortean Times 313
(May 2014): 6– 7 )

March 10 — Day. Steve Douglass and Dean Muskett photograph a triangular aircraft giving off a long contrail over Amarillo, Texas. (Bill Sweetman, “Mystery Aircraft over Texas,” Aviation Week, March 28, 2014; “‘Mystery Aircraft’ over Texas Draws Speculation of Real Spy Plane,” Houston Chronicle, March 28, 2014) March 26 — 4:30 p.m. An F/A-18E Super Hornet from Strike Fighter Squadron 106 (VFA-106, the “Gladiators”), flying out of Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia, detects a possible radar track at around 19,000 feet and with a speed of 0.1 Mach in the W-72 warning area. The pilot’s wingman does not have the object on radar and there is a debate about whether it might be a false track given high winds that are gusting at over 100 knots at 18,000 feet. “The unknown aircraft appeared to be small in size, approximately the size of a suitcase, and silver in color,” according to the report. The pilot is only able to pass within 1,000 feet of it and cannot identify it. After that pass, they lose sight of it and never regain visual contact. “I feel it may only be a matter of time before one of our F/A-18 aircraft has a mid-air collision with an unidentified UAS [unmanned aerial system],” the head of VFA-106 comments. The report also says that “FACSFAC VACAPES has received multiple UAS sightings in the recent months,” but does not say how many of those sightings resulted in sending in hazard reports. The jets’ radar has been upgraded, allowing them to zero in on unidentified targets with infrared targeting cameras. (Tyler Rogoway and Joseph Trevithick, “Here Are the Navy Pilot Reports from Encounters with Mysterious Aircraft off the East Coast,” The Drive: The War Zone, May 12, 2020; Bill Whitaker, “UFOs Regularly Spotted in US Airspace,” CBS News, August 29, 2021)

April 23 — 10:51 p.m. Another F/A-18F Super Hornet from Strike Fighter Squadron 11 (VFA-11, the “Red Rippers”) has an encounter with multiple “unidentified aerial devices” while flying out of Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and operating in the W-72 warning area. The crew initially detects two UADs on radar, one at 12,000 feet and another at 15,000 feet, both apparently stationary or near-stationary. They then confirm both of these objects using the jet’s Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) system. While investigating the first pair of UADs, another two appeared to pass through the ATFLIR field of vision at high speed. The two moving objects do not appear on the aircraft’s radar. (Tyler Rogoway and Joseph Trevithick, “Here Are the Navy Pilot Reports from Encounters with Mysterious Aircraft off the East Coast,” The Drive: The War Zone, May 12, 2020) April 24 — 12:47 p.m. Two more F/A-18Fs make radar contact with another UAD in the W-72 warning area while conducting Basic Fighter Maneuvering out of Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Both aircraft are able to maintain a radar track with the object, which is stationary or near-stationary at 11,000 feet. The aircraft are also able to lock onto the object with CATM-9Xs, a captive-carry training version of the AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. However, in this instance, neither one makes visual contact. (Tyler Rogoway and Joseph Trevithick, “Here Are the Navy Pilot Reports from Encounters with Mysterious Aircraft off the East Coast,” The Drive: The War Zone, May 12, 2020) April 27 — The crew of a F/A-18F from Strike Fighter Squadron 11 (VFA-11), flying out of NAS Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and operating in the W-72 warning area, encounters an unknown aerial device. This report is the most spartan in its details of the three, but it describes a “near mid-air collision with balloon-like object.” (Tyler Rogoway and Joseph Trevithick, “Here Are the Navy Pilot Reports from Encounters with Mysterious Aircraft off the East Coast,” The Drive: The War Zone, May 12, 2020)

June 13 — 2:36 p.m. The pilot and first officer of an Airbus 320 flying at just under 3,500 feet and headed into Manchester Airport observe a man-like object that passes them to the northeast over Macclesfield, Cheshire, England. They estimate it is about 200 – 300 feet above their altitude and only a few hundred yards distant. They cannot see any parachute or paraglider apparatus. Air traffic control confirms there are no other radar targets in the area. The object is in sight for only 3–4 seconds. (Jenny Randles, “Superman vs. Airbus,” Fortean Times 323 (February 2015): 30–31)

July 31 — Gen. Ricardo Bermúdez, director of Chile’s official UFO agency, Comité de Estudios de Fenómenos Aéreos Anómalos, convenes a three-hour meeting at the offices of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) in Providencia of 19 experts from a wide range of disciplines to discuss whether UFOs pose a threat to aerial safety. Among those present are astronomers, psychologists, meteorologists, physicists, and representatives of the armed forces. All seem to accept the premise that UFOs, whatever they are, exist and are worthy of investigation. The DGAC chief of operations says that because many witnesses believe UFOs demonstrate intelligent behavior, it is

the government’s duty to look for the intention behind that intelligence. However, the group concludes that,
despite some accidents attributed to UFOs around the world, they “do not present a threat or a danger to air
operations.” (Leslie Kean, “Chile Declares UFOs Pose No Threat to Aircraft,” HuffPost, August 12, 2014;
“Capitulo 55 DGAC TV,” DGAC TV Institucional YouTube channel, August 7, 2014)

September 29 — The Air Force Intelligence agency is restructured as the Twenty-Fifth Air Force and aligns the 9th Reconnaissance Wing and the 55th Wing under the new numbered air force. Its primary mission is to provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) products, applications, capabilities, and resources to include cyber and geospatial forces and expertise. Additionally, it is the service cryptologic component (SCC) responsible to the National Security Agency and Central Security Service for Air Force cryptographic activities. It is headquartered at Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas. (Wikipedia, “Twenty-Fifth Air Force”)

October 5– 20 — Unidentified drones are observed over seven nuclear plants in France. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve tells France Info radio that a judicial investigation is underway. The tiny, unmanned craft appear late in the evening, at night, or early in the morning. The nuclear plants are the Superphénix in Creys-Malville (closed in 1997); the Bugey Nuclear Power Plant, Ain; Blayais Nuclear Power Plant near Blaye, Gironde; the Cattenom Nuclear Power Plant, Moselle; the Chooz Nuclear Power Plant, Ardennes; the Gravelines Nuclear Power Station, Nord; and the Nogent Nuclear Power Plant, Aube. (“Drones Spotted over Seven French Nuclear Sites, Says EDF,” The Guardian (UK), October 30, 2014) October 16 — The Swedish military reportedly intercepts a radio transmission in Russian on an emergency frequency, sparking a massive search for a Russian submarine thought to be stricken in Swedish waters, the largest Swedish mobilization since the Cold War. Further encrypted radio traffic from Kanholmsfjärden in the Stockholm archipelago, Sweden, and in Kaliningrad, Russia (home to the Russian Baltic fleet), is intercepted the next day. The search involves stealth ships, minesweepers, and helicopters, as well as hundreds of sailors, pilots, and divers. On the island of Korsö, Finland, a mysterious man dressed in black with a backpack is seen wading to shore and is later photographed wading off the nearby island of Sandön, Finland. (It later turns out that the man is a Stockholm pensioner named Ove who is doing some trout fishing.) At a press conference later in the month, the Swedish navy shows a photograph of an unidentified foreign vessel (although it later turns out to be a Swedish ship). A Russian defense ministry spokesman announces that there have been no emergency situations involving Russian military vessels. (Wikipedia, “Swedish submarine incidents”; “Baltic Sub Mystery,” Fortean Times 322 (January 2015): 12) October 20 — Strands of cobweb-like “angel hair” fibers fall from the sky in Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka. (“Cobwebs Like Particles Floating in Polonnaruwa Skies,” Gossip Lanka News, October 21, 2014) October 21 — Swedish military commander Gen. Sverker Göranson announces that he aims to force the unidentified submarine object to the surface with depth charges if necessary. He reveals there have been visual observations twice on October 17 and once on October 19. (“Baltic Sub Mystery,” Fortean Times 322 (January 2015): 12) October 24 — Sweden calls off its search for the mysterious Russian sub. Russia asserts that the vessel was a Dutch submarine, a claim rejected by the Netherlands. The public has reported 250 sightings, five of which the navy takes seriously. Rear Admiral Anders Grenstad says the object could not have been a conventional submarine but a “craft of a lesser type.” (“Swedes Call off Search for Mystery Submarine,” USNI News, October 24, 2014; “Baltic Sub Mystery,” Fortean Times 322 (January 2015): 12) October 25 — Afternoon. Miguel Monteiro is walking in the parish of Alverca do Ribatejo e Sobralinho, Portugal, when he sees white, cottony flakes or fibrous strands falling from the sky and sticking to electrical wires. They feel somewhat like cobwebs but are whiter and thicker. Monteiro takes some home and stores them in liquid nitrogen. He claims that under ultraviolet light the fibers wiggle “as if alive.” Another witness says the strands fell two weekends in a row. (“Mysterious Rain of ‘Alien Angel Hair’ Falls from Sky in Portugal,” Metro (UK), November 26, 2014; “Strands of White ‘Angel Hair’ Rained from Sky—Which Wriggle under UV Light,” Metro (UK), December 17, 2014) October 31 — Retired Swedish naval officer Sven Olof Kviman snaps a picture of what looks like a 65 – 98 - foot long, black submarine in waters just outside Lidingö in Stockholm, Sweden. The incident remains unconfirmed but has been classed by the military as a “potential” submarine. (“Up to Four Subs Feared in Stockholm Waters,” The Local (Sweden), January 24, 2015)

November 11 — 1:52 p.m. A Chilean Navy Airbus Cougar AS- 532 helicopter is flying northward west of Santiago, Chile, at an altitude of 4,500 feet and 152 mph. The technician aboard is taking video footage when he notices an object about 40 miles away. He zooms in on it using infrared film. The naval pilot sees it as a “flat, elongated structure

with two thermal spotlights like discharges that do not coincide with the axis of motion.” The video shows a dark, disc-shaped object flying above the sea, which “in two instances discharged some type of gas or liquid with a high thermal track or signal.” The official Comité de Estudios de Fenómenos Aéreos Anómalos spends two years studying the film, then releases the footage, admitting it cannot ascertain what the object is. CEFAA Gen. Ricardo Bermúdez Sanhueza says: “We do not know what it was, but we do know what it was not.” (“Conclusive Proof? Airforce Probe Finds Navy Filmed Real UFO over Ocean,” The Express (UK), January 7, 2017; “Chilean Navy Helicopter Pilot Shoots Video of UFO,” Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, February 8, 2018) November 14 — Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven announces that there is “clear evidence” of a submarine incursion in Swedish waters in October. (“Sweden Confirms Submarine Violation,” The Guardian (UK), November 14, 2014; “Baltic Sub Mystery,” Fortean Times 322 (January 2015): 12)

2015

January 10 — John Greenewald Jr. puts the Fold3 Blue Book files online into his Black Vault website and makes many of the case files into easily downloadable PDFs. The work is done by a contributor to the ATS website since 2012. Unfortunately, the JPG conversion to PDFs is done incorrectly so that documents with many pages are out of correct order. (Sparks, pp. 8 – 9) January 27 — Ancestry.com, the owner of Fold3, illegally demands that Greenewald remove his Blue Book collection from the Black Vault website, falsely claiming copyright. They are still unavailable. (Sparks, p. 9) January 27 — 9:10 p.m. Ufologist Steven M. Greer is leading a group of UFO watchers at Vero Beach, Florida, when they spot two UFOs that appear one after another then fade from sight. A video is taken of the event and posted on Greer’s website. Greer claims it is the result of the group’s meditation and “coherent thought” practices, and there are no ships or aircraft in the area at the time. However, journalist Tom Rogan determines that the UFO is a Beechcraft Model 76 Duchess aircraft moving at 85 mph deploying parachute flares. (Tom Rogan, “Did Steven Greer Fake a UFO with Flares?” Washington (D.C.) Examiner, July 31, 2020)

February? — Two infrared video recordings, known as the Go Fast and GIMBAL videos, are taken by an F/A-18 Super Hornet from the USS Theodore Roosevelt off the East coast of the US in the vicinity of Jacksonville, Florida, sometime between January and February 2015. The two videos are reported by the New York Times to have been taken a few weeks apart,^ with the audio of the pair including voices of military personnel who are questioning what they are observing. The Navy confirms the authenticity of the videos, stating only that they depict what they consider to be “unidentified aerial phenomena.” Susan Gough, a Pentagon spokeswoman, confirms that the videos were made by naval aviators and that they are “part of a larger issue of an increased number of training range incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena in recent years.” In April 2020, the two videos are declassified and officially released by the Department of Defense, alongside footage from the 2004 USS Nimitz incident. Five pilots from the VFA-11 “Red Rippers” fighter squadron report sighting UFOs “almost daily” while training for a deployment to the Persian Gulf. Three of those pilots have chosen to remain anonymous, while two, Lieut. Ryan Graves and Lieut. Danny Accoin, have given interviews and appeared on a History Channel program about UFOs. Radar contacts, infrared detections, and visual sightings by the pilots and weapon systems officers are reported for several months. According to Accoin, the objects have “no distinct wing, no distinct tail, no distinct exhaust plume.” One pilot describes something “like a sphere encasing a cube.” Another source confirms to “The War Zone” that the same description is given by several other pilots and that encounters are commonplace among multiple squadrons including the nearby E-2 Hawkeye squadrons from Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. Accoin says that “multiple sensors [are] reading the exact same thing.” Graves states that the objects are showing up at 30,000 feet as well as sea level and can accelerate, slow down, and hit hypersonic speeds with maneuvers “beyond the physical limits of a human crew.” The pilots also report that the objects persist in the air for long periods of time and might “be out there all day.” When one of the sightings is made, “usually we’d just say, ‘we’re seeing one of those damn things again,’” Graves says. Once, an object almost collides with two jets, prompting the VFA-11 fighter squadron to submit a Notice to Airmen aviation flight safety report. According to the pilots, the squadron has speculated that the sightings could be a classified drone development program, but the near miss angers the pilots and convinces them that this is a safety issue and not a black project. (Wikipedia, “Pentagon UFO videos”; Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Kean, “‘Wow, What Is That?’ Navy Pilots Report Unexplained Flying Objects,” New York Times, May 26, 2019; Joseph Trevithick and Tyler Rogoway, “Carrier Group in Recent UFO Encounters Had New Defense Tech Like Nimitz in 2004 Incident,” The Drive: The War Zone, May 30, 2019; Clark III 49; “Unidentified: UFO Testimony from Lt. Ryan Graves (Season

1) / History,” History YouTube channel, September 22, 2019; Jan Tegler and Cat Hofacker, “Mystery of the
‘Damn Things,’” Aerospace America, November 2019; “Pentagon Declassifies Leaked ‘UFO’ Videos (video
2/3),” ABC News YouTube channel, April 27, 2020; “Pentagon Declassifies Navy ‘UFO’ Videos (video 3/3),”
ABC News YouTube channel, April 27, 2020)

April 13 — Swedish Rear Admiral Anders Grenstad tells the media that the Armed Forces reported to the Swedish government on April 8 that the suspected underwater vessel in October 2014 was in fact only a civilian “working boat.” (“‘Submarine’ in Sweden Was Only Civilian Boat,” The Local (Sweden), April 13, 2015)

May 5 — In a four-hour long presentation in front of nearly 7,000 people at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City, Mexico, journalist and ufologist Jaime Maussan presents BeWitness, an unveiling of two Kodachrome slides that purport to show a dead alien. The slides, discovered in 1998 in the estate of Sedona, Arizona, lawyer Hilda Blair Ray, whose husband Bernerd had been a petroleum geologist in West Texas. The slides had found their way to Chicago videographer Adam Dew, who wants to create a documentary (tentatively titled Kodachrome) about the supposed alien. In the process he has gathered UFO researchers Thomas J. Carey, Donald Schmitt, Anthony Bragalia, and others to lend credence to the authenticity of the images as possibly related to the Roswell incident, since they seem to have a provenance of 1947. The two nearly identical slides show what appears to be a short mummy on a glass exhibit case with an undecipherable placard next to it. Within days of the presentation in Mexico City, a skeptical group uses a SmartDeBlur program to read the text of the placard, which reveals that the supposed alien is actually the mummified body of a two-year-old Native American child taken from the ruins of Montezuma Castle cliff dwelling in Camp Verde, Arizona, in 1894 by an S. L. Palmer and loaned to the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum in Mesa Verde, Colorado, where it had been on display for many years before it was returned to the Montezuma Museum in June 1947. (David Clarke and Peter Brookesmith, “From ‘Smoking Gun’ to #Epicfail,” Fortean Times 329 (August 2015): 26– 27 ; Kevin D. Randle, Roswell in the 21st Century: The Evidence As It Exists Today, Speaking Volumes, 2016; Les Carpenter, “The Curious Case of the Alien in the Photo and the Mystery That Took Years to Solve,” The Guardian (UK), September 20, 2017)

September — In Walking Among Us, David M. Jacobs explains how 14 abductions have detailed for him how an alien invasion is already underway. The alien hierarchy consists of insect-like entities as the leaders, tall Grays the skilled workers, short Grays the menial workers, and masses of hybrids—the end products of the abduction program. These hybrids begin as half-human/half-Gray entities and become progressively more human over four successive stages. The ultimate product is the human hybrid (“hubrid”), fully human in appearance, capable of integration into society. Hybrids have become deeply embedded on Earth, living in their own apartments, mingling with humans, working their way into positions of influence. Their growing numbers on earth advance the Change, the day when they and their alien masters supplant or absorb humankind. (Dana DiFilippo, “Space Aliens Walk Among Us? Indeed, Claims Retired Temple Prof,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 15, 2014; David M. Jacobs, Walking Among Us: The Alien Plan to Condition Humanity, Disinformation Books, 2015; Clark III 10 – 11, 629 – 630 )

December 22 — Janel Sturzl, 31, an employee of the Daily Mining Gazette in Houghton, Michigan, dies while in a coma after being diagnosed with thallium poisoning at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The police investigate her death as a homicide. (“Poisoning Still under Investigation,” Houghton (Mich.) Daily Mining Gazette, October 24, 2017)

2016

February 3 — 7:00 p.m. A married couple is driving on Interstate 10 near Katy, Texas, when they look up through the sunroof and see three black dots that they at first think might be breaks in the cloud cover. Watching them while stopped at a traffic light, they see the dots are part of a vast, noiseless triangular object that emerges from the clouds. The witnesses think it is generating a kind of night fog low above the ground. The witnesses try to take a video, but their cellphones are not working properly; both devices die and do not recharge the entire night. (Roger Marsh, “Texas UFO Kills Allegedly Ground Electronics, Creates Fog to Hide in,” OpenMinds, February 10, 2017)

April — Robert Bigelow, founder of Bigelow Aerospace, sells the Skinwalker Ranch in Uintah County, Utah, to Utah real estate developer Brandon Fugal. In 2020, he partners with the History Channel on a TV documentary series, The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, in its third season in 2022. (Skinwalkers 86, 219–221; Internet Movie Database, “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch”) April 15 — Night. The Canadian Air Defence Sector is notified of a WestJet flight near Toronto, Ontario, that “reported a very bright light pass overhead of them” when “there was no other traffic in the area.” In the day’s log, the lines following what’s clearly referred to as a “UFO report” are all redacted in white. (Daniel Otis, “Credible UFO Reports Are Being Ignored, Declassified Canadian Government Documents Reveal,” Motherboard, November 29, 2021 ; CADORS Report, no. 2016O0730, April 24, 2016)

May 13 — James T. Lacatski retires from the Defense Intelligence Agency, following failed attempts to get the AAWSAP program funded agin through the Department of Defense. (Skinwalkers 29)

June — The Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici begins publishing Cielo Insolito, a journal of UFO history edited by Giuseppe Stilo and Maurizio Verga. (Cielo Insolito, no. 1 (July 2016))

July 1 — NORAD releases figures indicating that radar Tracks of Interest have averaged 1,800 per year since 2011. It states that it routinely withholds Unknown tracks and Tracks of Interest data because the release of any details might affect national defense. (“‘Alien Cover Up’: Nearly 2,000 UFOs Tracked by Radar System But Details Suppressed,” The Express (UK), July 1, 2016; Clark III 801)

August 11 — In Roswell in the 21st Century, Kevin D. Randle upends his previous position and argues that while the Roswell incident remains shrouded in mystery, it was almost certainly not generated by the recovery of a downed spacecraft and dead occupants. (Kevin D. Randle, Roswell in the 21st Century: The Evidence As It Exists Today, Speaking Volumes, 2016)

September 19 — 11:45 p.m. An Air Canada Express pilot flying to Vancouver, British Columbia, reports “3 red lights 3,000 feet above him and going slower” while at 25,000 feet over an uninhabited stretch of British Columbia’s rugged northern coast. Vancouver air traffic controllers report the incident 20 minutes later to the RCAF in Ontario as a “vital intelligence sighting.” The RCAF reviews radar data, but finds nothing near the plane. Within an hour, reports are faxed to the Canadian government’s transportation department and the RCAF’s secretive Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Division in Winnipeg. There is no further follow-up. (Daniel Otis, “Credible UFO Reports Are Being Ignored, Declassified Canadian Government Documents Reveal,” Motherboard, November 29, 2021; CADORS Report, no. 2016P1783)

October 27 — Two Georgia men are arrested on drug charges. They are reportedly plotting domestic terrorism based on conspiracy theories about HAARP. The Coffee County Sheriff’s Office says the men possess a “massive arsenal” that includes AR- 15 rifles, Glock handguns, a Remington rifle, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. According to police, the men want to destroy HAARP because they believe the facility manipulates the weather, controls minds, and even traps the souls of people. Police say the men confess that “God told them to go and blow this machine up that kept souls, so souls could be released.” (“Georgia Men Plotted Attack on Alaska Aurora Research Facility to ‘Release Souls,’ Detective Says,” Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News, November 1, 2016; “Suspected Terrorists Believe Research Facility Controls Minds, Traps Souls,” WALB, Albany, Georgia, November 1, 2016)

December 10 — 4:44 a.m. A married couple is driving near Windsor, Maine, when they observe a “large triangle-shaped object” in two pieces (“like a carpenter’s framing square”) in the northeast sky. The object has six flashing red lights and one turquoise light that goes out as they are watching. It shows a black surface that is about 300 feet long. When they get out of the car for a better look, the man grabs his wife’s phone to take photos and a video. He shoots 6 – 8 minutes of video, but when he views it, it shows only black. The object seems to move effortlessly like a boat coasting through the water—“slow enough to where we could make out some detail but fast enough to where it was out of sight within 10 minutes or so.” They both feel weird as they watch the object. The woman becomes nauseous and the man feels strangely “awestruck.” (MUFON case file)

2017

2017 — The US nuclear stockpile has dwindled to 3,822 bombs. (“Stockpile Numbers,” DoD Open Government) 2017 — The increasing number of drone cases posing a risk to aircraft leads the UK Airprox Board to launch a Small Unmanned Air System (SUAS) assessment that classifies incidents into one of four categories: drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), balloons (including toys and weather), model aircraft, and unknown objects. (UK Airprox Board, “Small Unmanned Air System (SUAS) Assessment”)

January 1 — Richard F. Haines retires from his role as chief scientist for NARCAP. He reports: “The fact that no cause- effect relationship has been found in major UFO airborne safety incidents doesn’t support the notion of nearby, material objects or phenomena in the air. Finally, the well-intentioned change of the term UFO into UAP—hoping to reach a larger scientific audience—served little and no relevant achievement followed.” (Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, “Haines Retires from NARCAP,” UFO FOTOCAT Blog, April 17, 2017)

May 9 — Steven M. Greer releases a documentary, Unacknowledged, on the history of UFO secrecy. Interviews with George Filer, Tom Bearden, Glenn Dennis, Richard Doty, Stephen Lovekin, and John Podesta are featured. Narrated by Giancarlo Esposito. ( Internet Movie Database, “Unacknowledged”; “Unacknowledged: An Exposé of the World’s Greatest Secret,” Free Movies YouTube channel, October 28, 2020) May 28 — Evening. Rik Koops and Harm Duursma see UFOs over Park Sonsbeek, in Arnhem, Netherlands. Koops shoots a 3-minute video of three globular objects. A spokesperson for the Defence Helicopter Command at nearby Deelen Air Base denies that the objects are drones. (“3 bal vormige objecten bewegen in de lucht,” UFO Meldpunt Nederland, May 29, 2017; “UFO boven Arnhem? ‘Ledeeren die het ziet, zit met open mond van verbazing,’” de Gelderlander, May 30, 2017; “Het ufo-seizoen is veer aangebroken,” de Gelderlander, May 31, 2017)

June — Nick Redfern publishes The Roswell UFO Conspiracy, a sequel to his 2005 Body Snatchers in the Desert. In 2001, Redfern interviewed an elderly woman (the Black Widow) who had worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee from the mid-1940s to the early 1950s, who told him that just after World War II she had seen some 15 human “guinea pigs,” including Japanese prisoners and handicapped persons, who were involved in government experiments involving exposure to high altitudes in balloons. Through her testimony and that of other witnesses, Redfern concludes that the “aliens” found at the Roswell crash in New Mexico in 1947 were likely these humans deemed expendable by the US government, and that flying saucers and aliens were a convenient cover story. The experiments were inconclusive and the methods unethical, so all the records were destroyed. (Nick Redfern, The Roswell UFO Conspiracy: Exposing a Shocking and Sinister Secret, Lisa Hagen, 2017) June — Some additional dubious MJ-12 documents (47 pages total) are provided to Heather Wade, host of the Midnight in the Desert streaming radio show. (Nick Redfern, “The Majestic 12 Documents Are Back,” Mysterious Universe, June 16, 2017; Kremlin 214–220)

July 1– 2 — The second Dulce Base UFO Conference is held at the Wild Horse Casino and Hotel in Dulce, New Mexico. The event is organized by members of the Jicarilla Apache, Southern Ute, and Navajo nations and features speakers Chuck and Nancy Wade; the Paranormal Rangers (Stanley Milford Jr. and Jonathan Dover), Navajo law officers; abductee Travis Walton; and actor Alan Tafoya. (Paul Ross, “‘The Truth Is Around Here…Someplace,’” Fortean Times 361 (Christmas 2017): 42–47) July 14 — 7:20 p.m. The pilot of an Airbus A319 is holding at 7,000 feet at Gatwick Airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, when the First Officer, in the right-hand seat, notices an object close to the aircraft. He mentions it to the captain, who also sees it. Both believe the object is not close enough to hit the aircraft and that they will miss it. It is black and shiny metallic in color and appears to be a square or cube. It maintains its altitude and takes about 7 seconds to pass, making them believe it is hovering. They are not certain it is a drone because they cannot see any propellors. They alert Gatwick, but the controllers there do not report seeing it. (“UKAB ‘Unknown Object’ Log 2017 – 2020,” Fortean Times 406 (June 2021): 43; UK Airprox Board, “Assessment Summary Sheet for UKAB Meeting on 11th October 2017”) July 19 — 9 :00 a.m. The FBI conducts a raid on Robert Lazar’s United Nuclear Scientific business in Laingsburg, Michigan, in connection with the thallium poisoning death of Janel Sturzl in 2015, apparently to determine if the company sells or distributes thallium. Apparently it does, but only a harmless radioactive isotope. (John Greenewald, “Documents on 2017 Bob Lazar / United Nuclear Raid—Laingsburg Police Department,” The Black

Vault, July 1, 2019; Tim McMillan, “Bob Lazar Says the FBI Raided Him to Seize Area 51’s Alien Fuel: The
Truth Is Weirder,” Motherboard, November 13, 2019)

August — Reports begin to surface that US and Canadian diplomatic personnel in Havana, Cuba, have experienced unusual, unexplained health problems dating back to late 2016. The health problems typically have a sudden onset: The victim suddenly begins hearing strange grating noises that seem to come from a specific direction. Some of them experience it as a pressure or a vibration; or as a sensation comparable to driving a car with the window partly rolled down. The duration ranges from 20 seconds to 30 minutes, and always happens while the diplomats are either at home or in hotel rooms. Other people nearby, family members and guests in neighboring rooms, do not report hearing anything. Affected individuals describe symptoms such as hearing loss, memory loss, and nausea. Some US embassy individuals reportedly experience lasting health effects, including one unidentified diplomat who now needs a hearing aid. In October, the Associated Press releases what it says is a recording of the sound some embassy workers are hearing. Accusations are made that these are a result of attacks using unspecified technology, perhaps a sonic or ultrasonic weapon. (Wikipedia, “Havana syndrome”; David Hambling, “The Sound of Violence,” Fortean Times 360 (December 2017): 14; “Ottawa Doctor Treating Canadian Diplomats with Mysterious ‘Havana Syndrome,’” Ottawa (Ont.) Citizen, November 30, 2018 ) August 9 — 9:20 p.m. A couple are walking south along North Lake Shore Drive just north of Schiller Street in Chicago when they notice something large and dark flying toward them from the east and crossing ahead of them at an altitude of 20 feet or so. It sweeps upward over the trees in front of 1400 North Lake Shore Drive, then stops in mid-air after it reaches a height just below the top of the building. It hovers with a large pair of wings for about 5 seconds, then dives toward the ground. As the witnesses quicken their pace toward the building, the “winged being” descends in front of them, no more than 25 feet away, and hovers 5 feet above the sidewalk with its wings spread open. They can see its bright red eyes that vary in intensity. Several people on the other side of the street also see the being, which hovers for 10 seconds, pulls its wigs in close, and silently shoots up into the sky. The witnesses describe it as “human-like” with a small head that narrows at the top, two legs with long tapered feet, and no apparent arms. It is 5–6 feet in height and has wide wings that resemble the top wings of a butterfly. The sightings is the most recent of 29 reported in the Chicago area in the summer. (Lon Strickler, “Winged Humanoid Confronts Shocked Chicago Witnesses,” Phantoms and Monsters, August 10, 2017; Joe Vince, “Winged Freak Terrorizes Chicago? Wait’ll You Get a Load of These 29 Sightings,” Chicago Patch, August 11, 2017)

September — The US State Department removes non-essential staff from the US embassy in Havana, Cuba. (Wikipedia, “Havana syndrome”) September — The To the Stars Academy begins offering to the public $50 million worth of stock through a Regulation A+ equity crowdfunding campaign. The company is cofounded earlier in the year by rock guitarist Tom DeLonge, engineer and parapsychologist Harold E. Puthoff, and Jim Semivan and is composed of aerospace, science, and entertainment divisions. Its science and aerospace divisions are devoted to the “outer edges of science,” such as investigating UFOs. It employs Luis Elizondo as a key investigator. Its Virtual Analytics UAP Learning Tool (VAULT) is a public-facing database of UFO sightings. The VAULT team collects, analyzes, and provides their authentication of UFO sightings, most famously reported in the media as having been obtained through declassified government materials. Some evidence suggests that TTSA is sponsored or heavily influenced by the Department of Defense ,as there are 11 former DoD counterintelligence and information specialists associated with it. (Wikipedia, “To the Stars (company)”; Althea Legaspi, “Tom DeLonge Announces Stars Academy for ‘Outer Edges of Science’ Research,” Rolling Stone, October 12, 2017; Tyler Rogoway, “Tom DeLonge’s Origin Story for To the Stars Academy Describes a Government UFO Info Operation,” The Drive: The War Zone, June 5, 2019; “The UFO Information Operation,” Medium: INFO-OPS, November 23, 2021) September 23 — 7:50 p.m. Witnesses in Son, Netherlands, watch a white, U-shaped light for 5 minutes. One witness manages to take a photo of the light, which by then is diminishing in size before disappearing. (“U-vormig wit licht hoog ver weg in die hemel, stilstaand,” UFO Meldpunt Nederland, September 23, 2017)

October 4 — Luis Elizondo resigns from his Pentagon UFO office to protest what he says is excessive secrecy and internal opposition. He declines to identify his successor. He states there is a need for more serious attention to the “many accounts from the Navy and other services of unusual aerial systems interfering with military weapon platforms and displaying beyond-next-generation capabilities.” He tells Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis that “there remains a vital need to ascertain capability and intent of these phenomena for the benefit of the armed forces and the nation.” (Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Kean, “Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious UFO Program,” New York Times, December 16, 2017; Paul Dean and Keith

Basterfield, “A Formal Job Description of an AASWAP/AATIP UFO Case Investigations Scientist,” UFOs: Documenting the Evidence, May 3, 2018) October 19 — ‘Oumuamua (1I/2017 U1), the first known interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System, is discovered by Robert Weryk using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, 40 days after it passes its closest point to the Sun on September 9. When it is first observed, it is about 21 million miles from Earth and already heading away from the Sun. ʻOumuamua is a small object estimated to be between 330 and 3,280 feet long, with its width and thickness both estimated to range between 115 and 548 feet. It has a dark red color similar to other objects in the outer Solar System. Its light curve presents its motion as tumbling, rather than smoothly rotating, and it is moving sufficiently fast relative to the Sun that few possible models define a Solar System origin, although an Oort cloud origin cannot be excluded. Extrapolated and without further deceleration, its path will not allow it to be captured into a solar orbit, so it will eventually leave the Solar System and continue into interstellar space. (Wikipedia, “‘Oumuamua”; “Small Asteroid or Comet ‘Visits’ from Beyond the Solar System,” NASA, October 26, 2017; Patrick Gross, “‘Oumuamua: Extraterrestrial Device or Natural Object?”) October 24 — The Cuban government employs about 2,000 scientists and law enforcement officers who interview 300 neighbors of diplomats, examine two hotels, and medically examine non-diplomats who could have been exposed. Cuban officials analyze air and soil samples and consider a range of toxic chemicals. They also examine the possibility that electromagnetic waves are to blame and even look into whether insects might be the culprits but find nothing they can link to the medical symptoms. The FBI and Cubans meet to discuss the situation, although the Cubans say that the US declines to share the diplomats’ medical records with Cuban authorities or to allow Cuban investigators access to US diplomats’ homes to conduct tests. (“Cubans Forcefully Reject Blame for U.S. Diplomats’ Mystery Ailments,” NBC News, October 24, 2017) October 25 — The FAA detects an unidentified aircraft flying “fast” (relative to commercial air traffic) at around 35,000 feet over Northern California towards Oregon. In an effort to identify the aircraft, the FAA contacts commercial airline pilots in the vicinity who visually confirm a white object traveling northbound. After the commercial passenger jets confirms the position, NORAD scrambles F-15Cs from the 142nd Air Wing in Portland, Oregon, to investigate. Bearing the most advanced targeting system available (the Sniper pod), the F-15s are unable to locate or identify the vehicle. FAA and NORAD both confirm the event and NORAD publicly confirms the launch of the F-15s. (Tyler Rogoway, “You Need to Hear These FAA Tapes from That Oregon UFO Incident That Sent F- 15s Scrambling,” The Drive: The War Zone, February 15, 2018; US Air Force, “Sniper Pod”) October 27 — A group of scientists, former military and law enforcement officials, and other professionals form the Scientific Coalition for Ufology [later changed to the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies] to conduct and encourage the rigorous scientific examination of UFO phenomena. Its executive board includes Robert Powell, Richard Hoffman, and other scientists and professionals. (Scientific Coalition for Ufology, “Scientific Study of UFOs To Be Focus of New Organization,” October 27, 2017)

December 5 — In Moscow, Russia, covert CIA operative Marc Polymeropoulos suddenly gets symptoms similar to Havana Syndrome. In the spring of 2018, a private neurologist gives Polymeropoulos a diagnosis: occipital neuralgia, a condition resulting from damage to the two nerves that run from the base of the skull, curving toward the front of the head. (Julia Joffe, “The Mystery of the Immaculate Concussion,” GQ, October 19, 2020) December 16 — The US Department of Defense confirms the existence of a Defense Intelligence Agency program used to collect data on military UFO sightings, the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (misidentified as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program) that was disbanded in 201 0. (Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Kean, “Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious UFO Program,” New York Times, December 16, 2017; Clark III 48) December 19 — Luis Elizondo states on CNN that he believes there is “very compelling evidence we may not be alone.” (“Former Pentagon Official: ‘We May Not Be Alone,’” CNN, December 19, 2017)

2018

2018 — The British UFO Research Association publishes Vehicle Interference Report, compiled by Geoff Falla and Michael Hudson, summarizing 1,188 EM cases from 1908 to 2013. (Geoff Falla and Michael Hudson, Vehicle Interference Report, BUFORA, 2018) 2018 — Jerome Clark completes the third edition of his two-volume UFO encyclopedia. (Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, Omnigraphics, 2018)

January — A total of 11 satellites carrying Space-Based Infrared System or Space Tracking and Surveillance System payloads are operating in medium-earth, highly elliptical, and geosynchronous orbits that together provide continuous global coverage of infrared energy sources. Originally designed to detect missile launches, and later aircraft, this highly sophisticated capability continues to evolve and improve. This work is being undertaken at the Air Force’s Overhead Persistent Infrared Battlespace Awareness Center at Buckley AFB in Aurora, Colorado, as well as its new Data Utilization Lab. (Wikipedia, “Spaced-Based Infrared System”) January 5 — 1:30 a.m. A woman looking from her bedroom window in Linden, Michigan, sees a large object emitting red-orange light approaching her. It stops dead above her head, accelerates, then slows down. Her husband goes outside and watches it before it blinks out. (Jenny Randles, “The Twelve UFOs of Christmas,” Fortean Times 374 (Christmas 2018): 29) January 8 — The Associated Press reports that a non-public FBI report has found no evidence of an intentional sonic attack in Havana, Cuba. (“Tillerson Tells AP Cuba Still Risky; FBI Doubts Sonic Attack,” Associated Press, January 8, 2018) January 9 — At the direction of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the State Department conveys an Accountability Review Board to “review security incidents involving diplomatic personnel.” Retired US Ambassador to Libya Peter W. Bodde is chosen to lead the board. (“Retired Ambassador to Libya to Lead Cuba Attacks Review,” CNN, January 10, 2018) January 9 — The Defense Intelligence Agency responds to an inquiry by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) regarding 38 projects that the military’s Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program [in reality, the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Application Program] has been involved with. The letter is released on January 16 in response to a FOIA request by Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy. One such research topic, “Traversable Wormholes, Stargates, and Negative Energy,” was led by Eric W. Davis of EarthTech International, which was founded by Harold E. Puthoff, who was formerly involved in the Stargate Project. Another project called “Invisibility Cloaking” was headed by German scientist Ulf Leonhardt, a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Yet another title, “Warp Drive, Dark Energy, and the Manipulation of Extra Dimensions,” was attributed to theoretical physicist Richard Obousy, director of the nonprofit Icarus Interstellar. One of those papers was released to the public by Popular Mechanics on February 14, 2020. Titled “Clinical Medical Acute and Subacute Field Effects on Human Dermal and Neurological Tissues,” it is written by Christopher (Kit) Green, formerly a CIA agent, forensic clinician, and neuroscientist, who describes it as “focused on forensically assessing accounts of injuries that could have resulted from claimed encounters with UAP.” (Joseph Trevithick, “Here’s the List of Studies the Military’s Secretive UFO Program Funded, SomeWere Junk,” The Drive: The War Zone, January 18, 2019; US Defense Intelligence Agency, [A list of all products produced under the AAWSAP contract])

February — The Brazilian Ufologists Commission begins a new phase of its “UFOs: Freedom of Information Now” campaign called “We Have the Right to Know.” The campaign demands that the Brazilian Army, the Minas Gerais military police, and the fire brigade of Varginha release the secret files on the 1996 Varginha case. (Clark III 209) February 1 — 6:10 p.m. An Airbus A321 pilot is descending from 10,000 feet into Manchester Airport, England, when he sees a grayish, thin-profiled object that passes by very close at the same altitude at great speed down the left side of the aircraft. His initial reaction is that he has seen an internal reflection, but the First Officer and another person have also seen it. None of them have a clear view because it is in the landing-light beam for a split second. (UK Airprox Board, “Assessment Summary Sheet for UKAB Meeting on 25th April 2018”; “UKAB ‘Unknown Object’ Log 2017–2020,” Fortean Times 406 (June 2021): 43) February 16 — 9:16 p.m. A witness in Driebergen-Rijsenburg, Netherlands, sees three irregularly flashing lights flying toward the northwest. One of the lights suddenly leaves the formation and flies off in another direction. The lights fly slowly and silently for 6 minutes. (“3 rode oplichtende punten aan de hemel,” UFO Meldpunt Nederland, February 16, 2018) February 20 — 10:00 p.m. A woman in Ede, Netherlands, sees three points of light (one brighter than the others) on a triangular object that is moving toward the northwest. She watches it for 2 minutes. (“Driehoek formatie 3 lichtpunten,” UFO Meldpunt Nederland, February 21, 2018) February 23 — 7:30 a.m. Several people traveling to work in Wielsbeke from the village of Waregem, Belgium, see a hovering triangle with two bright lights like a star. There are red lights on its wings, and it is shaped like a B2 stealth bomber. (Belgisch UFO-Meldpunt, March 4, 2018) February 23 — 6:50 p.m. Two witnesses in Oudenaarde, Belgium, see a “hanging dot” that ascends at an enormous speed. (Belgisch UFO-Meldpunt, March 4, 2018)

February 23 — 10:40 p.m. A witness going outside for a smoke in Biervliet, Netherlands, sees three globes flying in a straight line. They move closer together and disappear at the same time as they seem to merge. (“Drie lichtbollen,” UFO Meldpunt Nederland, February 23, 2018) February 24 — 1:00 a.m. A man steps outside his house in Mol, Belgium, when it suddenly becomes light outside. Looking up, he sees an orange fireball flying past with small fragments falling off it. It is silent and does not explode. (Belgisch UFO-Meldpunt, March 4, 2018) February 24 — 1:15 a.m. A man in Breda, Netherlands, looks out his bedroom window and sees an enormous globe of white and turquoise light as large as the full moon. The light is so brilliant it hurts his eyes to look at it for 6 seconds. (“Felle turqouise-witte bewegende lichtbol, grootte van een volle maan,” UFO Meldpunt Nederland, February 24, 2018) February 24 — 3: 40 p.m. A Learjet 36 belonging to Phoenix Air flying at 37,000 feet reports an object passing above them going in the opposite direction at about 40,000 feet. Minutes later, Blenus Green, pilot of an American Airlines Airbus A321 flying on the same air route at 40,000 feet, reports a bright object passing above them in the opposite direction by about 2,000–3,000 feet. The planes are moving east between the Sonoran Desert National Monument in southern Arizona and the New Mexico border. The air traffic controller in Albuquerque is unable to verify any other aircraft in the area. (Tyler Rogoway, “Learjet and Airbus Had Strange Encounter with Mysterious Craft over Arizona,” The Drive: The War Zone, March 8, 2018; “2 Airline Pilots Report Seeing UFO While Flying over Arizona,” CBS News, March 29, 2018; Jenny Randles, “The Sonora Desert Incident,” Fortean Times 367 (June 2018): 31; Patrick Gross, “Pilots Sightings”) February 25 — 6:45 a.m. A witness in Lendele, Belgium, looks out the window and sees a large, bright globe without a tail shooting toward the ground. After a few seconds it disappears. (Belgisch UFO-Meldpunt, March 4, 2018) February 26 — 7:30 p.m. A man walking his dog in Sibculo, Netherlands, takes a video of a bright, flashing object. (“Snel bewegend verspringd licht,” UFO Meldpunt Nederland, February 26, 2018) February 27 — The Trump administration requests $81.1 billion, the largest amount ever, in funding for the black budget that bankrolls US intelligence operations. $59.9 billion is earmarked for the National Intelligence Program for non-military efforts. The other $21.2 billion would go to the Military Intelligence Program for the Defense Department. (“DNI Releases Budget Figure for FY 2019 Appropriations Requested for the National Intelligence Program,” Office of the Director of National Intelligence, February 27, 2018; “Trump Administration Requests Record $81.1 Billion for ‘Black Budget,’” Washington Times, February 28, 2018) February 27 — 6:30 p.m. A 13-year-old boy in Briele, Netherlands, watches two black discs with red lights flying together. (“2 zwarte (met rode streep) schijven die naast elkaar vliegen,” UFO Meldpunt Nederland, February 27, 2018) February 27 — 10:10 p.m. A cluster of 3–5 orange-white lights is seen moving and hovering above Heerlen, Netherlands. (“ 3 – 5 oranje witte lichten in de lucht kijk hoek 44° Noord Oosten,” UFO Meldpunt Nederland, February 27, 2018) February 28 — 6:20 p.m. A semi-transparent oval object flies 30 – 50 feet above the A2 highway near Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, Netherlands, before moving over an adjacent meadow. (“Grijs semi-transparante bal vloog boven snelweg,” UFO Meldpunt Nederland, February 28, 2018)

March — University of Pennsylvania researchers examine 21 affected diplomats from the US Embassy in Havana, Cuba, and the preliminary results are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The report “found no evidence of white matter tract abnormalities” in affected diplomats, beyond what might be seen in a control group of the same age and describe “a new syndrome in the diplomats that resembles persistent concussion.” While some diplomats recover swiftly, others have symptoms that last for months. The study concludes that “the diplomats appear to have sustained injury to widespread brain networks.” Some experts criticize the study, arguing that there is “no proof that any kind of energy source affected the diplomats, or even that an attack took place.” MRI scans and other tests taken by a chief neurologist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on an unspecified number of Canadian diplomats posted in Havana show evidence of brain damage that mirrors the injuries of some of their US counterparts. Global Affairs Canada withdraws all staff with families. (“Fresh Row over Mysterious Sickness Affecting US Diplomats in Cuba,” The Guardian (UK), February 24, 2018; Randel L. Swanson II, et al., “Neurological Manifestations among US Government Personnel Reporting Directional Audible and Sensory Phenomena in Havana, Cuba,” Journal of the American Medical Association 319 (March 20, 2018): 1125–1133; “Blood and Bureaucracy: Inside Canada’s Panicked Response to ‘Havana Syndrome,’” Toronto (Ont.) Globe and Mail, December 12, 2018) March 2 — The US State Department announces it will continue to staff its embassy in Havana, Cuba, at the minimum level required to perform “core diplomatic and consular functions” due to concerns about health attacks on staff.

The embassy has been operating under “ordered departure status” since September, but the status is set to expire. This announcement serves to extend the staff reductions indefinitely. (“US Embassy in Cuba to Reduce Staff Indefinitely after ‘Health Attacks,’” CNN, March 2, 2018) March 9 — The US Air Force officially retires the MQ-1 Predator drone from operational service. The aircraft was first operationally deployed in 1995 and in 2011 the last of 268 Predators were delivered to the service, of which just over 100 were still in service by the start of 2018. While the Predator was phased out by the Air Force in favor of the heavier and more capable MQ-9 Reaper, the Predator continues to serve in the MQ-1C Gray Eagle derivative for the US Army as well as with several foreign nations. (Wikipedia, “General Atomics MQ-1 Predator”) March 13 — 4:15 p.m. An F/A-18E Super Hornet from Strike Fighter Squadron 106 (VFA-106, the “Gladiators”) tracks four separate unknown objects on its radar in the W-122 warning area, which sits off the coast of North Carolina. The objects are all flying at approximately 0.1 Mach at altitudes between 16,000 and 22,000 feet. The pilot visually identifies one at 20,000 feet that “appeared to be a quadcopter-type drone, 3–4 feet wide.” The objects do not appear to be doing anything in particular and are stationary or near-stationary. They are also spread out across an area approximately 40 to 50 miles wide, with the closest one being 15 miles away from the one boat that the pilot noted seeing below. (Tyler Rogoway and Joseph Trevithick, “Here Are the Navy Pilot Reports from Encounters with Mysterious Aircraft off the East Coast,” The Drive: The War Zone, May 12, 2020)

April 5 — Night. Dogs belonging to a witness in DeRidder, Louisiana, begin growling in the living room, and cows in the pasture are mooing excitedly. Outside, he sees a huge white light growing and intensity and pulsating for 15 minutes. When it disappears, the animals calm down. (Randle, Levelland, 2021, p. 125)

May 5 — 12:45 p.m. A B757 airliner pilot is approaching Gatwick Airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, in busy airspace when the First Officer and Captain see a fairly large, irregular-shaped, dark-lack object pass down the left side at the same altitude within 200 feet of the aircraft, heading in an easterly direction. No avoiding action is needed, but the incident is reported to Gatwick control. (UK Airprox Board, “The UKAB Meeting on 20th June 2018 Consisted Solely of Consolidated Drone/Balloon/Model/Unknown Object Report Sheet”; “UKAB ‘Unknown Object’ Log 2017–2020,” Fortean Times 406 (June 2021): 43) May 23 — After an employee of the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China, reports medical symptoms (abnormal sensations of sound and pressure) in April that are similar to the diplomats in Havana, Cuba, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirms to the House Foreign Affairs Committee that there are several reports from diplomatic staff in Guangzhou of symptoms “entirely consistent” with those reported from Cuba. A medical team arrives at the end of the month to conduct baseline medical evaluations on consulate staff. Some are evacuated to the US, including security engineering officer Mark Lenzi, who has been hearing sounds like “marbles bouncing and hitting the floor” since April 2017, followed by excruciating headaches and insomnia. (“US Embassy Pulls More China Staff over Mystery Illness,” BBC News, June 7, 2018; Richard Stone, “Sonic Attack or Mass Paranoia? New Evidence Stokes Debate over Diplomats’ Mysterious Illness,” Science, June 20, 2018; “US Diplomat Mark Lenzi, Who Suffered Mysterious Injury While Stationed in China, Pledges to Donate Brain to Science,” South China Morning Post, May 11, 2019; Julia Joffe, “The Mystery of the Immaculate Concussion,” GQ, October 19, 2020)

July 5 — 9:30 a.m. A King Air BE90 pilot is cruising at 16,000 feet about 10 nautical miles north of Birmingham, England, when he sees a rectangular or elliptical object pass 500–1,000 feet below the aircraft. He estimates it is 20 – 40 inches long, although it is only in sight for 2 seconds below it passes beneath the plane. It is either hovering or traveling in the opposite direction. (UK Airprox Board, “Assessment Summary Sheet for UKAB Meeting on 12th September 2018”; “UKAB ‘Unknown Object’ Log 2017–2020,” Fortean Times 406 (June 2021): 43) July 26 — The To The Stars Academy’s ADAM Research Project is announced to test extraterrestrial materials for commercial and military applications. The testing will be done through Harold E. Puthoff’s EarthTech International in Austin, Texas. (To The Stars Academy, “An Introduction to the ADAM Rsearch Project,” July 26, 2018)

August 6 — 11:20 p.m. A resident of Heemstede, Netherlands, is skywatching when he suddenly sees a silent triangular object with three white lights moving faster than an airplane. (“Drie lichtjies in driehoeksvorm leek zwart vlak in het midden te zitten,” UFO Meldpunt Nederland, August 6, 2018) August 12 — 11:30 p.m. Frédéric K. and a companion are watching the night sky in Viry, Haute-Savoie, France, when they see a black triangle with lights at each of its points. The object is nearly motionless, but it is rotating slightly and is completely silent. K. is struck by its immense size, which he estimates is several times the size of an

airliner. After a few seconds it moves slowly northeast toward Geneva, Switzerland. (Daniel Robin, “Les triangles
de la nuit (suite),” Ovnis-Direct, August 23, 2018)

September 1 — According to a New York Times report, Douglas H. Smith, the lead author of the March study on Havana Syndrome and director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, says that microwaves are now considered a main suspect and that the team is increasingly sure the diplomats have suffered brain injury. Strikes with microwaves, some experts now argue, more plausibly explain reports of painful sounds, ills, and traumas than do other possible culprits—sonic attacks, viral infections, and contagious anxiety. In particular, a growing number of analysts cite an eerie phenomenon known as the Frey effect, named after Allan H. Frey, an American scientist, who in the 19 6 0s found that microwaves can trick the brain into perceiving what seem to be ordinary sounds. The false sensations may account for a defining symptom of the diplomatic incidents—the perception of loud noises, including ringing, buzzing, and grinding. Initially, experts cited those symptoms as evidence of stealthy attacks with sonic weapons. (William J. Broad, “Microwave Weapons Are Prime Suspect in Ills of U.S. Embassy Workers,” New York Times, September 1, 2018; Beatrice Alexandra Golomb, “Diplomats’ Mystery Illness and Pulsed Radiofrequency/Microwave Radiation,” Neural Computation 30 (2018): 2882–2985)

October 15 — The Five Continents UFO Forum is held in the Cosmos Hotel in Moscow, Russia, to serve as a platform to launch a worldwide UFO organization. The nine founders of the World Coalition on Extraterrestrial Contact include Don Schmitt (US), Roberto Pinotti (Italy), Gary Heseltine (UK), Ademar José Gevaerd (Brazil), Andrea Simondini (Argentina), Haktan Ardogan (Turkey), Gabor Tarçali (Hungary), Lachezar Filipov (Bulgaria), and Anthony Choy (Peru). The conference is promoted by the Russian Kosmopoisk group and the International Chinese UFO Association. (2Pinotti 230– 231 ) October 26 — Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb and his postdoctoral assistant Shmuel Bialy submit a paper exploring the possibility that the recently discovered interstellar object ʻOumuamua is an artificial thin solar sail^ accelerated by solar radiation pressure in an effort to help explain the object’s nongravitational acceleration. Other scientists state that the available evidence is insufficient to consider such a premise and that a tumbling solar sail would not be able to accelerate.^ In response, Loeb writes an article detailing six anomalous properties of ʻOumuamua that make it unusual, unlike any comets or asteroids seen before. A subsequent report on observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope sets a tight limit on cometary outgassing of any carbon-based molecules and indicates that ʻOumuamua is at least 10 times shinier than a typical comet. A detailed podcast produced by Rob Reid provides the full details about the differences between ʻOumuamua and known comets. (Wikipedia, “‘Oumuamua”; Abraham Loeb, “How to Search for Dead Cosmic Civilizations,” Scientific American blog, September 27, 2018; Shmuel Bialy and Abraham Loeb, “Could Solar Radiation Pressure Explain ‘Oumuamua’s Peculiar Acceleration?” arXiv, October 26, 2018; Matt Williams, “Could ‘Oumuamua Be an Extraterrestrial Solar Sail?” Universe Today, October 31, 2018; “Cigar-Shaped Interstellar Object May Have Been an Alien Probe, Harvard Paper Claims,” WPSD-TV, Paducah, Kentucky, November 6, 2018; Kerry Sheridan, “Scientists Push Back against Harvard ‘Alien Spacecraft’ Theory,” Phys.org, November 7, 2018; Abraham Loeb, “6 Strange Facts about the Interstellar Visitor ‘Oumuamua,” Scientific American blog, November 20, 2018; D.E. Trilling, et al., “Spitzer Observations of Interstellar Object 1I/’Oumuamua,” aeXiv, November 20, 2018; Rob Reid, “Nailing Down the Nature of ‘Oumuamua: It’s Probably a Comet, But…” Ars Technica, November 29, 2018; Oded Carmeli, “If True, This Could Be One of the Greatest Discoveries in Human History,” Haaretz, January 16, 2019)

November 6 — Around midnight. The pilots of a US Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopter are preparing to take off from an airstrip about 40 miles northwest of Tucson, Arizona, when they spot three objects in a loose triangular formation in the sky at a low altitude. The copilot continues to follow the three objects with the aircraft’s multi- sensor imaging system, the Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor. As the three objects approach the foothills of nearby Picacho Peak, they suddenly appear to rotate around each other, as if revolving around an unseen axis, all while maintaining a steady eastward trajectory. Pilot Chris Lehto says they are moving at an unexpectedly high rate of speed. After several rotations, the objects then resume an obtuse triangular formation before speeding out of sight as the Apache begins to take off. (Tim McMillan, Micah Hanks, and Christopher Plain, “Incursions at the Border: Homeland Security Agents Tell of Encounters with Unidentified Aerial Phenomena,” The DeBrief, May 27, 2022) November 9 — 6:47 a.m. A British Airways 787 is flying eastward just off the coast of County Kerry, Ireland, near the Dingle peninsula at 330 mph at an altitude of 39,000 feet. Two other aircraft, a Norwegian Airlines 737 in front of it and a Virgin VA 76 behind, are on the same flight path. The pilot of the British Airways plane notices a bright

light moving fast on the left and rapidly veers north. She asks Shannon Airport if there are military planes in the area. They tell the pilot no and that nothing is showing on their radar. The Virgin pilot has seen it and thinks it is a meteor or satellite re-entry. The Norwegian pilot has seen two bright lights. Shannon verifies that other aircraft have witnessed the event. (Jenny Randles, “Irish Mid-Air Spectacular,” Fortean Times 375 (January 2019): 33) November 9 — A report finds that the earlier FBI investigation into the Cuban health attacks has been stymied by conflicts with the CIA and State Department. The CIA is reluctant to reveal, even to other US agencies, the identities of affected officers. Federal rules on the confidentiality of medical records also hindered the investigation. (Adam Entous and Jon Lee Anderson, “The Mystery of the Havana Syndrome,” New Yorker, November 9, 2018) November 17 — Day. A Cargojet flight from the Cincinnati area to Calgary, Alberta, observes bright lights high above Saskatchewan, while a corresponding Canadian Air Defence Sector log entry describes “bright shining lights” that are “maneuvering and moving fast.” (Daniel Otis, “Credible UFO Reports Are Being Ignored, Declassified Canadian Government Documents Reveal,” Motherboard, November 29, 2021; CADORS Report, no. 2018C4984) November 19 — The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization announces that all 21 monitoring facilities located in Australia are completed “and sending reliable, high-quality data” to Vienna, Austria, for analysis. The global monitoring system consists of 337 facilities worldwide to monitor the planet for signs of nuclear explosions. It includes 60 infrasound stations that monitor for micropressure changes in Earth’s atmosphere, which are caused by infrasonic waves. These waves have a low frequency and cannot be heard by human ears, and can be caused by nuclear explosions. (Wikipedia, “Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization”) November 21 — Morning. The Canadian Air Defence Sector detects an unidentified radar target approaching North America from the direction of Greenland. Canadian CF-18 fighter jets are soon launched from CFB Bagotville in Quebec to locate the “unknown track,” but find nothing. A declassified report from the following day blames the “spurious data” on equipment issues at a NORAD radar installation on Canada’s north Atlantic coast. Later that day, CADS receives a UFO report from Edmonton air traffic controllers about “3 red lights in the sky, hovering at the approximate height of a cell phone tower” near High Prairie, Alberta. This time, CADS responds by notifying Canadian NORAD headquarters in Winnipeg and Transport Canada, the federal transportation department. (Daniel Otis, “Credible UFO Reports Are Being Ignored, Declassified Canadian Government Documents Reveal,” Motherboard, November 29, 2021)

December 4 — The independent documentary Bob Lazar: Area 51 and Flying Saucers is released. The film, available on Netflix beginning in June 2019, “chronicles the challenges and travails of a cosmic whistleblower. Burdened with a revolutionary secret, he had to choose between his oath to his country or his conscience. Jeremy Corbell’s film explores Lazar’s groundbreaking claims and the devastating impact it has had on his life over the course of the last 30 years, including rare and never before revealed footage guaranteed to alter the landscape of the debate.” “Unfortunately, Corbell busies up the documentary with a barrage of images of atomic age archival footage and such that after awhile make the movie seem more like a collage than a film. There is also the psychobabble narration that is mumbled by Mickey Rourke; at times poetic, at times it comes off like comic relief. It’s distracting and unnecessary.” (Internet Movie Database, “Bob Lazar: Area 51 and Flying Saucers”; “Watch Bob Lazar: Area 51 and Flying Saucers, 2021,” News of the World YouTube channel, November 5, 2021; Amy Zimmerman, “Why Did the FBI Raid the Home of the Biggest Alien Truther?” The Daily Beast, December 4, 2018; Carlos, “Bob Lazar: Area 51 and Flying Saucers,” Cinema365, December 26, 2018) December 19– 21 — Sightings of drones disrupt around 1,000 flights at Gatwick Airport in West Sussex, England, causing flights to be diverted or canceled. There are multiple reports but no physical or photographic evidence. The military are called in with special anti-drone equipment. Gatwick goes back to normal operations on December 21 after two people are arrested then released without charge. (Wikipedia, “Gatwick Airport drone incident”; “Who is Drone Ranger?” The Sun (UK), December 21, 2018; “Gatwick Drone Attack Possible Inside Job, Police Say,” BBC News, April 14, 2019; “The Gatwick Drone Enigma,” Fortean Times 406 (June 2021): 40– 41 ) December 30 — 6:45 p.m. The pilot of an Embraer 175 passenger plane approaching the runway at Glasgow Airport, Scotland, sees an “object pass between three and 10 feet from the aircraft at the same level.” The pilot cannot tell what it is, but it is “lit up in various places and was more horizontally long than it was vertically.” The Airprox board is unable to identify the object, but decides there was a definite risk of collision and luck played a part in missing it. (UK Airprox Board, “Assessment Summary Sheet for UKAB Meeting on 13th February 2019”; “UKAB ‘Unknown Object’ Log 2017–2020,” Fortean Times 406 (June 2021): 43)

2019

January — Ufologist Jenny Randles retires the Northern UFO News after its 200th issue is published. (Jenny Randles, “January Issue Now Out,” Oz Factor Books) January 4 — Biologists Alexander L. Stubbs of the University of California, Berkeley, and Fernando Montealegre-Z of the University of Lincoln analyze the recording of a sound made by US personnel in Cuba and release it to the Associated Press. They conclude that the sound is caused by the calling song of the Indies short-tailed cricket (Anurogryllus celerinictus) rather than a technological device. They match the song’s “pulse repetition rate, power spectrum, pulse rate stability, and oscillations per pulse” to the recording. (Carl Zimmer, “The Sounds That Haunted U.S. Diplomats in Cuba? Lovelorn Crickets, Scientists Say,” New York Times, January 4, 2019; Robert W. Baloh and Robert E. Bartholomew, Havana Syndrome: Mass Psychogenic Illness and the Real Story behind the Embassy Mystery and Hysteria, Springer, 2020) January 6 — The crew of a Vanguard Air Care flight sees an unidentified light moving parallel to them for about three minutes while they are travelling at about 265 mph at an altitude of 7,500 feet around the 55th parallel over northern Manitoba. The CIRVIS report says the brightness of the light in the night sky is what attracted the observer’s attention and that NAV Canada’s Winnipeg Air Control Centre assumes that it is another aircraft. 21 Aerospace Control and Warning Squadron at Canadian Forces Base North Bay in Ontario is notified of the sighting. An unclassified intelligence report is then faxed to Transport Canada. (“2019 Sighting of Unidentified Light in Northern Manitoba Sky Was Reported to Air Force, Vice Says,” Thompson (Man.) Citizen, April 14, 2021) January 8 — The television series Project Blue Book premieres on the History channel. The main role of J. Allen Hynek is played by Aidan Gillen, with Laura Mennell as Mimi Hynek. The series runs for a second season in 2020 before it is canceled. UFO skeptic Robert Sheaffer, reviewing the first four episodes, points out numerous historical inaccuracies and falsehoods, some of which he characterizes as “absurd.” Concerned over misguiding viewers, he concludes that “this program references real people by their real names, a real government program, and real incidents. It then mixes in absurd and invented details, while claiming that the show is based on real events.” (Wikipedia, “Project Blue Book (TV series)”; Internet Movie Database, “Project Blue Book”) January 15 — 11:40 a.m. An RAF Typhoon pilot is leading a pair of fighters from Coningsby, England, to an exercise in the North Sea. After receiving clearance to climb to 30,000 feet from 15,000 feet, he notices an object at 11 o’clock about one nautical mile away, slightly higher and maintaining a constant altitude. The radar and data link show no traffic conflictions. The object reflects sunlight and appears to have a linear form. It passes down the left- hand side of the aircraft. The wingman independently sees the same object as it passes over the leader’s aircraft. He maintains the formation at 15,000 feet until they are clear of the object. Nothing unusual is noticed by ground radar. (UK Airprox Board, “Assessment Summary Sheet for UKAB Meeting on 13th March 2019”; “UKAB ‘Unknown Object’ Log 2017–2020,” Fortean Times 406 (June 2021): 43) January 30 — The government of Canada announces that it is reducing its embassy staff in Havana, Cuba, after a 14th Canadian diplomat reports symptoms of Havana syndrome in late December 2018. (“‘Havana Syndrome’ Forces Canada to Halve Its Diplomatic Presence in Cuba,” Radio Canada International, January 30, 2019)

February 6 — The Canadian government is served with a $28 million dollar lawsuit by five diplomats, on the alleged basis that Ottawa has not promptly addressed the serious health concerns the Canadian diplomats and their families have faced in Havana, Cuba, more than 2 years ago. The origin of these health concerns is unknown, but these ailments manifest as symptoms that are similar to that of a concussion. None of these allegations have been proven in court. (“Ailing Canadian Diplomats Who Served in Cuba Have ‘Visible and Real’ Health Impacts, Trudeau Says,” Toronto (Ont.) Star, February 7, 2019) February 10 — Afternoon. Several people in Cogollos de Guadix, Granada, Spain, observe three mysterious lights flash across the sky at great speed, each of which falls in a different part of the village. José María Madiedo at the Universidad de Huelva rules out meteorites because the objects are only seen locally. (“Seen in the Skies,” Fortean Times 382, August 2019, p. 17) February 13 — 4:35 p.m. The crew of an EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23 (VX-23), flying out Naval Air Station Patuxent River in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, and conducting activities in the W-386 warning area, visually spot what they specifically describe as “a red weather balloon” at 27,000 feet. Neither Fleet Area Control and Surveillance Facility, Virginia Capes (FASCFAC VACAPES), nor the Echo Control team responsible for overseeing operations in the Atlantic Test Ranges off the coast, are aware of any scheduled balloon activity. (Tyler Rogoway and Joseph Trevithick, “Here Are the Navy

Pilot Reports from Encounters with Mysterious Aircraft off the East Coast,” The Drive: The War Zone, May 12,
2020 )

March — An airline passenger films a supposed UFO over the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece. The film is taken through the airplane window and shows a massive, gray-black, contrail-like object cutting through a layer of clouds. Some investigators conclude it is an F-4 fighter jet of the Greek Air Force. (“Seen in the Skies,” Fortean Times 382, August 2019, p. 17) March 4 — An FA-18 pilot flying out of NAS Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia, takes cellphone images of a UAP out of his cockpit in the W-72 warning area off the coast. His weapons systems officer captures three different objects using the same cellphone. (Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell, “The US Navy Filmed Pyramid Shaped UFOs,” Extraordinary Beliefs, April 8, 2019) March 30 — 2:00 p.m. A B787 airliner pilot flying over London, England, sees a red object pass down the right-hand side of the aircraft at 6,000 feet. It is impossible to identify, although it is large enough to cause concern. (UK Airprox Board, “Assessment Summary Sheet for UKAB Meeting on Wednesday 15th May 2019”; “UKAB ‘Unknown Object’ Log 2017–2020,” Fortean Times 406 (June 2021): 43)

April — The UK National Archives releases 18 more UFO files that had been missed since the last release in 2013. (“Ministry of Defence Insider Reveals Contents of Britain’s ‘Final’ UFO Files,” Metro (UK), January 30, 2020) April — The Parkes Observatory in New South Wales, Australia, picks up a 982.992 MHz radio signal, labeled BLC1, emitted from Proxima Centauri. Researchers from the Breakthrough Listen Project cannot attribute it to any Earth-based or near-Earth human-created source. Shifts in the signal’s frequency are consistent with a planet’s movement and may be suggestive of a third planet within the system. As of December 2020, follow-up observations have failed to detect the signal again, a step necessary to confirm that the signal is a technosignature. (Wikipedia, “BLC1”; “Signal from Space,” Fortean Times 404 (April 2021): 15; David Appell, “Meet the Technosignature Researcher on the Lookout for Exocivilizations,” Physics World, February 2, 2022) April 4 — The Argentine Air Force’s Comisión de Estudio de Fenómenos Aeroespaciales is renamed the Centro de Identificación Aéroespacial. (Milton Hourcade, “Argentina: UFO Declassification,” U.A.P.S.G.–G.E.F.A.I., July 29, 2020; Government of Argentina, “Centro de Identificación Aéroespacial”) April 28 — 12:40 p.m. An Airbus A319 is climbing out from Gatwick Airport, near Crawley, West Sussex, England, when the pilot sees an object a few seconds after breaking through cloud at 17,000 feet. It passes beneath them from the center of the aircraft and under the right-hand wing and is clearly contrasted against the clouds. The small object appears dark green in color with a white light on top. The UK Airprox Board places this incident in the highest risk category. (UK Airprox Board, “Assessment Summary Sheet for UKAB Meeting on Wednesday 19th June 2019”; “UKAB ‘Unknown Object’ Log 2017–2020,” Fortean Times 406 (June 2021): 4 3 )

May 5 — 2:00 p.m. An Airbus A320 pilot departing from Gatwick Airport, England, sees a totally white object resembling a shoebox-sized cube with a ball on top. It passes down the left-hand side of the aircraft, slightly above and within 16 feet at 6,000 feet altitude. The object appears to be in level flight. (UK Airprox Board, “Assessment Summary Sheet for UKAB Meeting on Wednesday 19th June 2019”; “UKAB ‘Unknown Object’ Log 2017–2020,” Fortean Times 406 (June 2021): 43) May 22 — Pentagon spokesman Christopher Sherwood confirms to the New York Post that the AATIP program “did pursue research and investigation into unidentified aerial phenomena,” dispelling rumors that the program only focused on theoretical physics. (Steven Greenstreet, “The Pentagon Finally Admits It Investigates UFOs,” New York Post, May 22, 2019) May 24 — Researchers who examine Canadian diplomats affected by Havana Syndrome come to the conclusion that neurotoxin exposure is compatible with the symptoms. Their explanation of the root cause is the increased use of fumigation as pest control by the embassies themselves, which is supported by blood analysis. (“Havana Syndrome: Exposure to Neurotoxin May Have Been Cause, Study Suggests,” CBC News, September 19, 2019) May 26 — The New York Times reports that US Navy pilots fully briefed AATIP about encounters they had with unexplained objects during the summer of 2014 to March 2015 while flying at high altitudes off the East coast of the United States. (Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Kean, “‘Wow, What Is That?’ Navy Pilots Report Unexplained Flying Objects,” New York Times, May 26, 2019)

June — The National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena issues an advisory for pilots that offers recommendations on how to deal with UAPs by Ted Roe. It offers a general history of UAP, some common profiles of unidentified objects, safety factors that can arise during an incident, and cautions and recommendations

for aircrews and air traffic controllers. (Ted Roe, “Advisory for Pilots, Aircrews, Air Controllers, and Aviation Professionals: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, UAP, UFOs, and Aviation Safety,” NARCAP, June 2019) June 15 — President Donald Trump tells ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that he has been briefed on Navy pilots reporting increased sightings of UFOs. Trump raises his eyebrows and grins incredulously when asked what he makes of the reports. “I want them to think whatever they think,” Trump says of the Navy pilots. “I did have one very brief meeting on it. But people are saying they’re seeing UFOs. Do I believe it? Not particularly.” (Matthew Choi, “Trump Says He Was Briefed on Navy Sightings of UFOs,” Politico, June 15, 2019) June 15 — Approximately 4:45 p.m. The Skinwalker Ranch project in Uintah County, Utah, orchestrated by Utah real estate developer Brandon Fugal (who purchased the land from Robert Bigelow in April 2016) and led by University of Alabama astrophysicist and science fiction author Travis S. Taylor, sends up three instrumented small rockets to locate the source of strong RF and gamma radiation apparently coming from about one mile above the property. Between the rocket tests, the team observes and films on two occasions a round, white ball that moves erratically around the sky for a few seconds before disappearing. Cows in a neighboring field are agitated and group closely together in one spot. (The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, Season 1, Episode 4 , 2020; Internet Movie Database, “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch”) June 23 — The catalog of space objects built by the US Space Surveillance Network lists 44,336 objects including 8,558 satellites launched into orbit since 1957. 17,480 of them are actively tracked while 1,335 are lost. The rest have re-entered Earth’s turbulent atmosphere and disintegrated, or survived re-entry and impacted the Earth. The SSN typically tracks space objects that are baseball size or larger. The Space Surveillance Network has numerous sensors that provide data. They are separated into three categories: dedicated sensors, collateral sensors and auxiliary sensors. Additionally sensors are classified as Near-Earth (NE) tracking (observing satellites, space debris, and other objects in lower orbits), or Deep Space (DS) tracking (generally for asteroids and comets). This global program consists of at least 29 distinct worldwide space surveillance systems, featuring the world’s most powerful radars (including the Solid State Phased Array Radar System), the DARPA Space Surveillance Telescope, the ground-based optical GEODSS space surveillance system (which detects “uncorrelated targets”), the Geosynchronous Space-Based Situational Awareness Program, and the Navy’s sea-based X-band radar system. The Combined Space Operations Center (formerly the Joint Space Operations Center) at Vandenberg Space Force Base and the Space Control Center at Cheyenne Mountain are both repositories of data from the SSN. (Wikipedia, “United States Space Surveillance Network”) June 27 — The Storm Area 51 Facebook event is created by college student Matty Roberts as a joke, unaware of the viral attention it will receive. He comes up with the idea of suggesting a raid on the Nevada facility to search for aliens after watching Area 51 conspiracy theorist Bob Lazar and filmmaker Jeremy Corbell on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast on June 20. The event plans for the raid in Amargosa Valley on September 20. More than 2 million people responded “going” and 1.5 million “interested” on the event page, which subsequently attracts widespread media reaction and makes the event become an internet meme. (Wikipedia, “Storm Area 51”)

July — Subsequent findings by the University of Pennsylvania team find that, compared to a healthy control group, the US diplomats who report injury in the Havana, Cuba, embassy have experienced brain trauma; advanced MRI scans (specifically res-fMRI, multimodal MRI, and diffusion MRI) reveal “differences in whole brain white matter volume, regional gray and white matter volume, cerebellar microstructural integrity, and functional connectivity in the auditory and visuospatial subnetworks” but find no differences in executive functions. The study concludes that the US government personnel have been physically injured in a way consistent with the symptoms that they describe but express no conclusion on the cause or source of the injury. The New York Times reports: “Outside experts were divided on the study’s conclusions. Some saw important new evidence; others say it is merely a first step toward an explanation, and difficult to interpret given the small number of patients.” (Benedict Carey, “Were U.S. Diplomats Attacked in Cuba? Brain Study Deepens Mystery,” New York Times, July 23, 2019; Ragini Verma, et al., “Neuroimaging Findings in US Government Personnel with Possible Exposure to Directional Phenomena in Havana, Cuba,” Journal of the American Medical Association 322 (July 23/30, 2019): 336 – 347 ) July 14 — 10:00 p.m. Two unmanned aerial systems (UAVs, or “drones”) are sighted by the crew of the guided missile destroyer USS Kidd off the western tip of San Clemente Island, California. The ship immediately activates its photo expert team (SNOOPIE) and enters into a condition of restricted communications designed to enhance operational security and enhance survivability. Less than 10 minutes later, the USS Kidd advises the USS Rafael Peralta of the situation. The USS Rafael Peralta logs show that at around 10:00 p.m. it had activated its own SNOOPIE team. Reports of possible UAV sightings and a red flashing light come in from the USS John Finn. A white light hovers above the flight deck of the USS Rafael Peralta. The drone manages to match the destroyer’s

speed, moving at 16 knots in order to maintain a hovering position over the helicopter landing pad. By this point, the encounter has lasted over 90 minutes—significantly longer than what commercially available drones can typically sustain. (Adam Kehoe and Marc Cecotti, “Multiple Destroyers Were Swarmed by Mysterious ‘Drones’ off California over Numerous Nights,” The Drive: The War Zone, March 23, 2021) July 15 — 8:39 p.m. The USS Rafael Peralta again spots unidentified UAVs between San Clemente Island and San Diego, California, and by 9:00 p.m. the USS Kidd is also reporting them. The drones seem to be pursuing the ships, even as they continue to maneuver throughout the incident. By 9:20 p.m., the USS Kidd logs simply remark “Multiple UAVs around ship.” 17 minutes later, the Kidd issues orders for the crew to man what is possibly a Mark 87 Electro-Optical Director to provide surveillance and tracking data. At approximately the same time, the USS Russell records a frenzy of activity, with drones dropping in elevation, and apparently moving forward and backward, left and right. Meanwhile, the USS Rafael Peralta receives a radio call from a passing cruise ship, the Carnival Imagination, notifying them that the drones are not theirs, and that they also see as many as five or six drones maneuvering nearby. The incident continues into the night, with the USS Rafael Peralta first recording two UAVs and then four UAVs near their ship. Approaching midnight, the USS Russell reports a final sighting involving multiple pyramid-shaped objects. Despite the nearly three-hour duration of the event, none of the warships involved appear to have been able to identify the drones. The Navy, Coast Guard, and FBI investigate the natter and are unable to provide an adequate investigation. Leaked photos and videos said to pertain to this incident are released by filmmaker Jeremy Corbell. The materials consisted of footage of radar screens showing multiple unknown contacts, video of an object apparently falling into the ocean, and a brief video of a triangular- shaped light flying over the deck of a ship. The apparent triangular shape of the object has been strongly debated, as many have posited it was the result of a common optical artifact. (Adam Kehoe and Marc Cecotti, “Multiple Destroyers Were Swarmed by Mysterious ‘Drones’ off California over Numerous Nights,” The Drive: The War Zone, March 23, 2021; Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell, “The US Navy Filmed Pyramid Shaped UFOs,” Extraordinary Beliefs, April 8, 2021; “ 2019 the US Navy Filmed ‘Pyramid’ Shaped UFOs: Here Is That Footage,” Jeremy Corbell YouTube channel, April 8, 2021; “Pyramid UFO, New Footage: It’s Just Bokeh, Not a Pyramid,” Mick West YouTube channel, April 15, 2021; “VFX Artists Debunk Pentagon UFO Videos,” Corridor Crew YouTube channel, August 15, 2021; Graeme Rendall, “‘Drone Swarms’: UAPs or Other Actors?” UAP Media UK, April 20, 2021) July 16 — Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence and Counterterrorism subcommittee, asks Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer to outline what resources the Navy is dedicating to investigating UFO sightings. He also asks if officials have found physical evidence to substantiate the claims and whether they are aware of any foreign nations or private companies that have introduced breakthrough technologies that could explain them. (Mark Walker, Letter to Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer, July 16, 2019) July 17 — 7:56–10:39 p.m. The Navy destroyer USS Paul Hamilton is cruising 80 nautical miles southwest of San Clemente Island, California, when it spots a UAS (unmanned aerial systems) about one mile distant. Twenty minutes later, the timeline indicates two UASs are seen with one of them falling in the water. By 8:26 p.m., multiple objects are spotted. The timeline also indicates that the bridge was able to see flashing red lights. At 8:50 p.m., the timeline notes a “UAS swarm.” By 9:11 p.m., the timeline notes that one of the objects is directly overhead at 2,000 feet. Just a minute later, all of the objects appear to change course and head away from the ship at 69 mph. However, eight minutes later, UASs are again seen behind the ship. The last event noted in the slide takes place when one of the UAS crosses the ship at approximately 2,000 feet. A photo is taken with a forward- looking infrared (FLIR) system that is of extremely low resolution. Three blurry dots are discernible, but there are no other visible details. (Adam Kehoe and Marc Cecotti, “Navy Releases Timeline for Mysterious 2019 ‘UAS Swarm’ Involving Warships Off California,” The Drive: The War Zone, February 10, 2022) July 18 — An investigation into the UAS incidents is routed to the Chief of Naval Operations. (Adam Kehoe and Marc Cecotti, “Harassment of Navy Destroyers by Mysterious Drone Swarms off California Went on for Weeks,” The Drive: The War Zone, December 17, 2021) July 23 — 8:50 p.m. Another drone is spotted by a SNOOPIE team on the USS Russell at an elevation of about 400 feet. A little over an hour later, flares are spotted, though the logs do not remark if these are connected to the ongoing drone sighting. (Adam Kehoe and Marc Cecotti, “Harassment of Navy Destroyers by Mysterious Drone Swarms off California Went on for Weeks,” The Drive: The War Zone, December 17, 2021) July 24 — 10:30 a.m. A new term is introduced to the USS Russell log: “ghostbusters.” A log entry reflects an apparently brief counter UAS exercise lasting about eight minutes. Though official references are hard to come by, “ghostbuster” is a term sometimes used to refer to lower-end counter UAS devices that look similar to rifles. These anti-drone countermeasures are increasingly being used by security forces around the world. They operate

by using highly-directional radiofrequency jammers designed to disrupt communications between drones and their operators. One key limitation of these devices is that they can only disable drones that are directly controlled by a human operator. Autonomous systems are far more resilient against such countermeasures. It is not perfectly clear if the Russell had this equipment onboard previously, or if “ghostbuster” devices were brought onboard in reaction to the earlier drone incidents. (Stew Magnuson, “OSD to Recommend Big Budget Increase for Counter- Drone Technologies,” National Defense, March 23, 2017; Brett Tingley, “Check Out the Anti-Drone Weapons Carried by Security at Biden’s Meeting in Brussels,” The Drive: The War Zone, June 15, 2021; Adam Kehoe and Marc Cecotti, “Harassment of Navy Destroyers by Mysterious Drone Swarms off California Went on for Weeks,” The Drive: The War Zone, December 17, 2021) July 25 — 1:20 a.m. Another unidentified drone incident, lasting 32 minutes, is reported by the USS Kidd. (Adam Kehoe and Marc Cecotti, “Multiple Destroyers Were Swarmed by Mysterious ‘Drones’ off California over Numerous Nights,” The Drive: The War Zone, March 23, 2021;) July 30 — 2:15 am. The USS Kidd reports another UAV incident. Its SNOOPIE team remains activated until 3:27 a.m. Ships’ logs show a sustained, but an intermittent pattern of drone sightings throughout the month of July by Navy ships operating off Southern California. These events seem to have spurred additional training and the rapid deployment of unique capabilities like the “ghostbuster” counter-UAS equipment. It remains unknown what impact, if any, this training and equipment has on deterring drone operations. At least three ships report sighting drones in the very early hours of July 30, with unusual and extensive redactions in the logs of the USS Russell, but we do not know what happened the next day, or in the weeks that followed. (Adam Kehoe and Marc Cecotti, “Multiple Destroyers Were Swarmed by Mysterious ‘Drones’ off California over Numerous Nights,” The Drive: The War Zone, March 23, 2021; Adam Kehoe and Marc Cecotti, “Harassment of Navy Destroyers by Mysterious Drone Swarms off California Went on for Weeks,” The Drive: The War Zone, December 17, 2021) July 31 — In response to the inquiry by Mark Walker, Navy Undersecretary Thomas Modly writes in a brief letter that “the Department of the Navy takes these reports very seriously and continues to log sightings and fully investigate the accounts.” (Bryan Bender, “Navy Withholding Data on UFO Sightings, Congressman Says,” Politico, September 6, 2019)

August — An anonymous White House staffer who is accompanying National Security Adviser John Bolton in London, England, is in her hotel room when she suddenly feels a tingling in the side of her head that is facing the window. The intense pressure in her head is accompanied by a tinning in her ears. When she leaves the room, the symptoms stop. She reports the incident to the Secret Service because it is uncannily similar to the symptoms described by American diplomats who had served in Cuba and China. (Julia Joffe, “The Mystery of the Immaculate Concussion,” GQ, October 19, 2020) August 8 — An explosion at the State Central Navy Testing Range near Nyonoksa, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, triggers radiation levels to rise. According to official Russian sources, the explosion is the result of a failed test of an “isotope power source for a liquid-fueled rocket engine,” possibly a 9M730 Burevestnik cruise missile test or recovery. Five nuclear scientists die immediately and three suffer from burns. Russian authorities order the evacuation of the village near the blast site, suggesting grave dangers due to nuclear radiation. (Wikipedia, “Nyonska radiation accident”)

September 6 — Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) accuses the US Navy of withholding information about reports of unidentified aircraft after officially requesting more data on the mysterious encounters. “While I am encouraged the Under Secretary of the Navy confirmed that UAP encounters are fully investigated, there is frustration with the lack of answers to specific questions about the threat that superior aircraft flying in United States airspace may pose,” Walker tells Politico. (Bryan Bender, “Navy Withholding Data on UFO Sightings, Congressman Says,” Politico, September 6, 2019) September 20 — The Storm Area 51 Facebook event takes place with about 150 people showing up at the entrance to Area 51. Although no one succeeds in entering the site, an estimated 3,000 attend the related music festivals in Rachel and Hiko, Nevada, according to state and local law enforcement, and up to 10,000 people visit the area over the weekend. Air Force spokeswoman Laura McAndrews says government officials are briefed on the event and discourage people from attempting to enter military property. Nevada law enforcement also warns potential participants in the event against trespassing. The event, although intended as a joke, has an effect on businesses both locally in Nevada and around the US, which prepare products for visitors for those attending. (Wikipedia, “Storm Area 51”) September 29– 30 — 11:00 p.m. Security officers at Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station near Tonopah, Arizona, observe 5–6 drones flying at 200–300 feet and showing flashing red and white lights. The objects also have

spotlights turned on during their approach but turned off as they maneuver above the site. They remain over the
plant for more than 80 minutes and are estimated to be at least 2 feet across, ruling out commercial drones. They
return the following night, with 4 drones operating above the station for an extended period. Polie unsuccessfuly
attempt to track down the operators. (Tyler Rogoway and Joseph Trevithick, “The Night a Mysterious Drone
Swarm Descended on Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant,” The Drive: The War Zone, July 29, 2020)

October 11 — The Twenty-Fifth Air Force for intelligence activities is merged with the 24th Air Force to form a reactivated 16th Air Force responsible for information warfare. Its headquarters is still at Joint Base San Antonio– Lackland in Texas. (Wikipedia, “Sixteenth Air Force”) October 17 — The To the Stars Academy announces it has entered into a cooperative research and development agreement with the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. The five-year contract will focus on “inertial mass reduction, mechanical/structural meta materials, electromagnetic meta material wave guides, quantum physics, quantum communications, and beamed energy propulsion.” According to the US Army, no public funding will go the group, but at least $750,000 will be provided in support and resources for developing and testing To the Stars technologies. The contract states that To the Stars will provide samples in its possession of “metamaterials,” any data or “obtained vehicles” that use “beamed energy propulsion,” and any information or technology related to “active camouflage” for testing and analysis of potential application on Army ground vehicles. Doug Halleaux, a spokesperson for the CCDC Ground Vehicle Systems Center, has stated that the US government has approached To the Stars because “If materials represented in the TTSA ADAM project are scientifically evaluated and presented with supporting data as having military utility by the TTSA, it makes sense to look deeper here.” According to Halleaux, the Army is also interested in the results of a collaboration between To the Stars and TruClear Global, a company that creates custom video screen billboards, aimed at providing “advanced technology solutions to United States Government clientele.” (Wikipedia, “To the Stars (company)”; “Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science, Inc., and the U.S. Army Combat Capavilities Development Command, Ground Behicle Systems Center,” October 10, 2019; Travis J. Tritten, “UFO Group Sharing Exotic Materials with Army for Combat Vehicles,” Bloomberg Government, October 21, 2019; M. J. Banias, “Tom DeLonge’s UFO Research Group Signs Contract with U.S. Army to Develop Far-Future Tech,” Motherboard, October 21, 2019; Mindy Weisberger, “Rock Star’s Company Seeks UFOs, Finds Military Contract,” Live Science, October 27, 2019; M. J. Banias, “The Army Told Us Why It Partnered with Tom DeLonge’s UFO Group,” Motherboard, November 4, 2019; To the Stars Academy, “CRADA FAQ,” November 15, 2019); October 27 — The fifth X-37B mission, Orbital Test Vehicle-5, lands at the Shuttle Landing Facility on Merritt Island, Florida, after spending nearly 780 days in space. The Boeing X37B is an uncrewed, reusable, robotic spaceplane that is launched by an Atlas V rocket and uses solar panels for power in space. While the complete payload for OTV-5 is classified, the Air Force announces that one of its experiments is the Advanced Structurally Embedded Thermal Spreader II (ASETS-II), which measures the performance of an oscillating heat pipe. (Wikipedia, “Boeing X- 37 ”)

November 9 — 5:16 p.m. A young couple are driving home on the A629 near Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, when they see a white glow over the moorland. They stop and get out to watch as they hear the roar of what seem to be fighter jets headed for the glow. Other cars also stop and watch. Some start to film the object and the jets, as d o the couple on their cellphones, but the footage is blurry. The mother of the driver starts an appeal on social media for any other witnesses who filmed the event to come forward. Jenny Randles determines that two aircraft at that location, but they are not military and not jets; they are Partenavia P.68 Observers belonging to Ravenair and flying at 2,200 and 2,300 feet side by side and landing at John Lennon Airport in Liverpool 25 minutes later. No radar target matches the UFO itself. (Jenny Randles, “2020 Vision,” Fortean Times 389 (February 2020): 28–29) November 11 — 5:33 p.m. A commercial aircrew is flying a Boeing 737-800 airliner at 37,000 feet altitude and 506 mph near Marseille, France. The pilot observes an unusual light flying just above their altitude on a collision heading from the right side into the 2 o’clock position relative to the aircraft. It performs a 180° turn and then matches the speed and heading of the airliner before beginning to cross above and in front of its flight path. At this point the pilot uses a cellphone to take a photograph and record 47 seconds of the UFO crossing their flight path, accelerating, and moving away. (Ted Roe, “NARCAP Technical Report 19: Analysis of a November 11, 2019, Aviation Safety-Related Incident Involving a Commercial Airliner and a UAP Over Europe,” July 2019) November 26 — The same White House staffer who had an attack in August is hit again by Havana Syndrome while walking her dog in Arlington, Virginia. As she passes a parked van, a man gets out and walks past her. Her dog

starts seizing up. Then she feels it too: a high-pitched ringing in her ears, an intense headache, and a tingling on
the side of her face. (Julia Joffe, “The Mystery of the Immaculate Concussion,” GQ, October 19, 2020)

December — The Federal Aviation Administration launches an investigation into multiple nighttime sightings of unidentified “drones” with 6-foot wingspans flying in formation at about 150 feet over rural areas of northeastern Colorado (Phillips, Yuma, Washington, Lincoln, and Morgan counties) and southwestern Nebraska (Perkins County) for the last 2 weeks in December, and as early as November 23. The objects usually fly in square grid patterns nearly every night between 5:00 and 10:00 p.m. They have blinking lights and hover, then descend and take off very fast. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) says he is glad the FAA is investigating. The Colorado Department of Homeland Security also opens an investigation, as Gov. Jared Polis vows to get to the bottom of the case. Sheriffs say the drones are not breaking Colorado law, but industry experts note that the drone operators could be violating FAA regulations on flying after dark and above a certain height. (“FAA Probes Clusters of Mysterious Drones Flying over Colorado,” Reuters, December 31, 2019; Sam Tabachnik, “A Night on the Plains: Chasing the Mysterious Drones of Eastern Colorado,” Denver Post, January 3, 2020) December 3 — The CIA team investigating the Havana Syndrome attacks brings its findings to CIA director Gina Haspel. According to two sources, after listening to the investigators lay out their evidence that suggests the Russian security services are behind the hits on Agency personnel, Haspel challenges them. She accuses the investigators of both hiding information from her and lying to her about what their inquiry has uncovered. The director questions the motives of those looking into the attacks. “This is why we need to clean out Russia House,” she says, referring to the CIA’s operations unit focused on Russia, according to two sources. “You’re just trying to stir up trouble on Russia.” A third source confirms that “the meeting did not go well.” (Julia Joffe, “The Mystery of the Immaculate Concussion,” GQ, October 19, 2020; Ana Swanson, Edward Wong, and Julian E. Barmes, “U.S. Diplomats and Spies Battle Trump Administration over Suspected Attacks,” New York Times, October 19, 2020) December 20 — The United States Space Force Act, part of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2020, is signed, creating an independent space service by renaming and reorganizing Air Force Space Command into the United States Space Force. (Wikipedia, “United States Space Force”) December 31 — Dusk. Placido Montoya, a plumber from Fort Morgan, Colorado, gives chase to a mystery drone in Morgan County after seeing blinking lights in the sky. But they take off rapidly and he speeds up to 120 mph before losing them. Vince Iovinella, deputy sheriff at the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office, receives more than 30 calls from locals reporting drones “zipping around all over the place.” Iovinella himself sees one with red, white, and green lights that he also tries to chase, but it outruns him. (“Attack of the Drones,” The Guardian (UK), April 18, 2021)

2020

January 6 — A meeting of local, state, and federal agencies brings 75 people to Brush, Colorado, to share information and strategy on the mystery drones. Officials are looking for a command vehicle (such as a “closed box trailer with antennas or a large van”) that might be controlling the drones. (“Command Vehicle Focus of Colorado Drone Investigation,” Mystery Wire, January 6, 2020) January 8 — Drones are now being seen in Castle Rock and Parker in Douglas County, Colorado, and Fort Collins in Larimer County. Kerry Garrison, a vice president at drone vendor Multicopter Warehouse in Centennial, claims the drone reports are actually sightings of Starlink satellites launched by SpaceX; although they are at orbital altitude, in a clear sky they can look lower than they really are. But Garrison also visited the eastern planes with other aviation experts to view the drones. He says he saw red lights go zipping by at 100 mph, faster than any drone. A close call with a drone and a Flight for Life helicopter near Fort Morgan, Colorado, prompts officials to add ground-based spotting teams and aircraft equipped to hunt drones. However, an investigation by Colorado Homeland Security later say the incident is unrelated to the drone activity. (“Local Drone Dealer Says Lights Spotted over Castle Rock Were Satellites,” KDVR, Denver, January 7. 2020; Paul Seaburn, “Mysterious Drones Fly near Denver As Colorado Residents Fear a Government Cover-Up.” Mysterious Universe, January 8, 2020; Brett Tingley, “Surveillance Plane Joins Intensifying Hunt for Mystery Drones over Colorado and Nebraska (Updated),” The Drive: The War Zone, January 8, 2020; Kevin D. Randle, “X-Zone Broadcast Network: Drones, Drones, Drones,” A Different Perspective, February 7, 2020) January 13 — State agencies and the Colorado Division of Homeland Security announce that they are scaling back investigations into drone sightings. Between November 23 and January 13, the Colorado Information Analysis Center received 90 reports of drone activity. Of those, 14 are confirmed by law enforcement to be hobbyist

drones. Between January 6 and January 13, when state officials investigate drone sightings in the field, there are 23 drone activity reports. Of those, 13 are determined to be planets, stars, or small hobbyist drones. Six reports are ruled out as “atmospheric conditions or unidentified commercial aircraft.” Finally, four reports are confirmed by law enforcement, but the aircraft are unidentifiable. (“State Plans to ‘Scale Back’ Investigation of Drones in Northeast Colorado,” KDVR, Denver, January 13, 2020; “Drone Swarms,” Fortean Times, no. 416 (March 2022): 19) January 30 — The UK National Archives and Ministry of Defence announce another “final” release of UFO files. (“Ministry of Defence Insider Reveals Contents of Britain’s ‘Final’ UFO Files,” Metro (UK), January 30, 2020)

February 14 — A Popular Mechanics article by UFO investigative writer and retired police lieutenant Tim McMillan says that Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) was contracted under the auspices of the AATIP program to study UFO reports and purported paranormal phenomena. According to Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy, the AAWSAP contract “sounds like it was a good deal for the contractor. But it would be hard to argue that either the military or the public got their money’s worth.” (Tim McMillan, “Inside the Pentagon’s Secret UFO Program,” Popular Mechanics, February 14, 2020)

March 3 — Science writer Sarah Scoles publishes They Are Already Here, focusing on the beliefs and attitudes of UFO researchers through first-person interviews. (Sarah Scoles, They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers, Pegasus, 2020; Curt Collins, “UFO Culture Examined: They Are Already Here by Sarah Scoles,” The Saucers That Time Forgot, Mar h 26, 2020) March 19 — Night. A commercial Boeing 767 airliner is flying from Mexico City to Houston, Texas. At an approximate position somewhere west of Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico, the plane is flying north at 37,000 feet at 575 mph when the first officer, looking across to the left side of the cockpit, sees a yellowish-white light descend into view from above. He first thinks that it is a meteor and begins to say so when it suddenly stops at nearly the same altitude as the aircraft. The UFO then projects an illuminating beam of bright white light on the aircraft and appears to take a collision heading. The captain takes a defensive attitude and prepares for evasive measures, but the beam of light illuminating the aircraft ceases, and the UFO suddenly accelerates to the same speed and heading of the aircraft, maintains separation, and begins pacing. The captain estimates that the UFO maintains a distance of 1,000–2,000 feet, near the minimum allowable separation of 1,000 feet. The copilot describes the UFO as a “brilliant yellow white plasma object, teardrop shaped.” There are no navigation lights or other features associated with airplanes, and the light seems to have a tail. During the following 30 minutes, the crew observes and takes 8 photographs and four video segments of the UFO, one of which lasts 4:47. The video documents that the Airborne Collision Avoidance System SSR radar does not detect anything while the crew is actively observing the object. As the aircraft and its attendant UFO approaches the Mexico/US border, the light begins to flicker, changes colors from yellow-white to pinkish-purple, and turns on a perpendicular heading away from the aircraft and parallel to the border without crossing into the US. (Ted Roe, “An Independent Analysis of a March 19, 2020, Aviation-Safety Related Incident Involving UAP, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, over Mexico,” NARCAP, June 1, 2020) March 28 — The US Space Force declares the Space Fence, its second-generation space surveillance system, operational. The system is designed to track more than 25,000 artificial satellites and chunks of space debris in Earth orbit (and UAPs, presumably), some as small as a marble. The initial Space Fence facility is located at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, along with an option for another radar site in Western Australia. The US Strategic Command has data-sharing agreements with Australia, Japan, Italy, Canada, France, South Korea, the United Kingdom, the European Space Agency, and Europe’s Eumetsat weather satellite organization. With this and other surveillance capabilities, former assistant secretary of defense Christopher Mellon wonders why the US Air Force has not simultaneously detected the same UAPs that the US Navy has been doing with less sophisticated equipment. (Wikipedia, “Space Fence”; Lockheed Martin, “Space Fence”; Christopher Mellon, “Why Is the Air Force AWOL on the UAP Issue?” The Debrief, February 3, 2022)

April 27 — The Pentagon officially releases the three videos (Tic-Tac, GIMBAL, and GoFast) showing UFOs that were previously released between December 2017 and March 2018 by the private company To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences. The release states that “the aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as ‘unidentified.’” (“Pentagon Officially Releases UFO Videos,” CNN, April 29, 2020; David Clarke, “Echoes and Angels: UFOs on Radar,” Fortean Times 403 (March 2021): 40)

May 1 — The US Office of Naval Intelligence holds a classified briefing to destigmatize the UAP problem and to promote more intelligence collection regarding UAP incursions and encounters with active military deployments. (Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell, “The US Navy Filmed Pyramid Shaped UFOs,” Extraordinary Beliefs, April 8, 2019) May 28 — Postdoctoral researcher Darryl Seligman and astrophysicist Gregory Laughlin argue that the interstellar object ʻOumuamua could be a hydrogen iceberg generated by a giant molecular cloud. The hypothesis explains the object’s strange cigar shape, as cosmic radiation would chip away at its edges (in some directions more than others) that would produce an elongated shape. The fact that it sped up as it entered the Solar System can be explained because it is outgassing hydrogen increased by the solar flux. (Darryl Seligman and Gregory Laughlin, “Evidence That 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua) Was Composed of Molecular Hydrogen Ice,” arXiv, May 28, 2020)

June — Robert Bigelow launches a new effort, the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies, to study the survival of human consciousness after death. (Skinwalkers 35) June 23 — The US Senate Intelligence Committee, apparently disturbed by the lack of a coordinated investigatory process, asks the Pentagon for a detailed, unclassified report on UFOs, or “unidentified aerial phenomena.” In his report attached to the 2020– 2 021 Senate Intelligence Authorization Act, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, instructs the director of national intelligence, the secretary of defense, and other agency heads to compile data on UFOs. “The Committee understands that the relevant intelligence may be sensitive; nevertheless, the Committee finds that the information sharing and coordination across the Intelligence Community has been inconsistent, and this issue has lacked attention from senior leaders,” the report states. It also confirms the existence of an ongoing Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force managed by the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence in collaboration with the Office of Naval Intelligence, as was its informal predecessor program, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Investigation Program. The task force is headed until January 2021 by Naval officer John F. Stratton. (Wikipedia, “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force”; M. J. Banias, “Senate Intelligence Committee Confirms the US Navy Has a UFO Task Force,” Motherboard, June 23, 2020; “Classified UFO Briefings May Have Left Senators ‘Disturbed,’ Expert Says,” Fox News, June 24, 2020; George Knapp, “More UFO Heraings? Congress Might Consider Hearing from These 2 Men,” Mystery Wire, May 23, 2022) June 24 – The Intelligence Committee votes to require the US Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense to publicly track and analyze data collected on unexplained aerial vehicles. Reports from the task force are to be issued to the Intelligence Committee every six months. (Bryan Bender, “Senators Want the Public to See the Government’s UFO Reports,” Politico, June 23, 2020; “Senate Panel Votes to Let Public Access UFO Records,” Courthouse News Service, June 24, 2020; “Pentagon UFO Unit to Publicly Release Some Findings after Ex- Official Says ‘Off-World Vehicle’ Found,” The Independent (UK), June 24, 2020)

July 16 — 5:00 a.m. Paul Froggatt sees a glowing orange sphere that follows him as he is cycling through the Oakwood and Blacklow Spinney Woods in Warwickshire, England. The usual early morning birdsong has gone silent. Turning a bend, he encounters a 7-foot-tall, green-colored creature that stands on two legs and looks like a praying mantis. It has a triangular head and two large black eyes that stare at him. He thinks it is trying to transmit evil thoughts into his mind, so he speeds up and escapes it. (Nigel Watson, “M Is for Mantis and Missile,” Fortean Times 404 (April 2021): 22) July 23 — Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean report in the New York Times that Sen. Rubio is primarily concerned about reports of unidentified aircraft over US military bases and that China or Russia or some other adversary has made “some technological leap” that “allows them to conduct this sort of activity.” Rubio says some of the unidentified aerial vehicles over military bases possibly exhibit technologies not in the US arsenal. But he also notes: “Maybe there is a completely, sort of, boring explanation for it. But we need to find out.” The paper reports that while former Sen. Harry Reid “believed that crashes of objects of unknown origin may have occurred and that retrieved materials should be studied; he did not say that crashes had occurred and that retrieved materials had been studied secretly for decades.” News reports also repeat a claim made by Eric W. Davis that an “off-world vehicle” might be in the possession of the US government. (Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean, “No Longer in the Shadows, Pentagon’s UFO Unit Will Make Some Findings Public,” New York Times, July 23, 2020)

August — The National Academy of Sciences completes a report on Havana Syndrome, concluding that embassy personnel in Cuba, China, Russia, and other countries were most likely subjected to “directed, pulsed radiofrequency energy” in malicious attacks. A committee of 19 experts says that the immediate symptoms that patients reported—including strange sensations of pain, pressure, and sound that often appear to emanate from a

particular direction or occurred in a specific spot in a room—are more consistent with a directed “attack” of radiofrequency energy. The report does not point to a perpetrator, though it mentions “significant research in Russia/U.S.S.R.” on pulsed radiofrequency technology, as well as the exposure of military personnel in Eurasian communist countries to microwave radiation. The CDC concludes, “The evaluations conducted thus far have not identified a mechanism of injury, process of exposure, effective treatment, or mitigating factor for the unexplained cluster of symptoms experienced by those stationed in Havana.” The report is inexplicably withheld from congressional and public scrutiny after it is submitted. Only after key senators learn of its existence later in the fall and press then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to turn it over does the Trump administration finally provide the report to a few Senate offices. The New York Times and NBC News first report on details of the unclassified NAS study, titled “An Assessment of Illness in U.S. Government Employees and Their Families at Overseas Embassies,” in early December. (Ana Swanson and Edward Wong, “Report Points to Microwave ‘Attack’ As Likely Source of Mystery Illnesses That Hit Diplomats and Spies,” New York Times, December 5, 2020) August 4 — Deputy Secretary of Defense David L. Norquist approves the establishment of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force. The Department of the Navy, under the oversight of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, will lead the effort. The Department of Defense says it is establishing the UAPTF to improve its understanding of the nature and origins of UAPs. Its mission is to detect, analyze, and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to US national security. Its mandate includes examinations of incursions that are initially reported as UAPs when the observer cannot immediately identify what he or she is seeing. (Wikipedia, “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force”; US Department of Defense, “Establishment of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force,” August 14, 2020) August 29 — 6:45 p.m. An American Airlines pilot reports that a man flying in a jet pack has passed by them about 90 feet away at their altitude of 3,000 feet coming into Los Angeles International Airport in California. About 10 minutes later, a Jet Blue Airways pilot spots the flying man. (“A Man Flying a Jetpack Was Reported by Pilots above Los Angeles,” CNN, September 3, 2020)

September 1 — 10:13 p.m. A B737 is approaching the runway at Leeds Airport, England, at 1,800 feet. Both pilot and First Officer suddenly see a bright light and an object that appears to be headed toward the aircraft, almost head on, slightly up and to the left. It appears without warning and gives them no time to act. After landing, the crew informs Air Traffic Control, who tells them that the West Yorkshire police helicopter had earlier seen “lanterns” in the area, but neither crew member thought that matched what they saw. The UK Airprox Board concludes that a “definite high risk of collision had existed.” (UK Airprox Board, “Monthly Meeting October 2020”; “UKAB ‘Unknown Object’ Log 2017–2020,” Fortean Times 406 (June 2021): 43) September 15 — Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono announces at a press conference that members of the Self- Defense Forces must make a visual recording of any unexplained aerial phenomena they encounter and that the footage must be analyzed to the fullest extent. The military is also being tasked with looking into reports of UFO sightings from the public. The issue is brought up when Kono meets with US Defense Secretary Mark Esper in Guam in late August for a regularly scheduled talk on regional security issues. (“Japan’s Defense Ministry Launches Protocol for UFO Sightings,” The Diplomat, September 18, 2020; “Japan Orders Military Pilots to Report UFO Sightings,” Deutsche Welle, September 28, 2020)

October 14 — 1:45 p.m. A China Airlines crew member reports what appears to be someone in a jet pack flying at about 6,500 feet roughly seven miles northwest of Los Angeles International Airport, California. The air traffic controller alerts another pilot who is preparing to land, and the Federal Aviation Administration alerts local law enforcement and the FBI. However, it’s more likely that the pilots were seeing a battery-powered electric drone fitted with a mannequin. Jet packs would take up too much fuel to get to those altitudes. (“A Man Flying in a Jetpack Has Been Spotted Again in the Skies over Los Angeles,” CNN, October 14, 2020; “This Jetpack Maker Isn’t So Sure That’s What’s Been Spotted over the L.A. Skies,” NBC News, October 15, 2020)

November — An official from the National Security Council suddenly falls ill with symptoms similar to those previously experienced by diplomats in Havana, Cuba. It takes place on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., close to the White House. (“US Investigating Possible Mysterious Directed Energy Attack near White House,” CNN, April 29, 2021) November — The extensive case files of the Center for UFO Studies (including files originating from the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York, and J. Allen Hynek’s Project Blue Book copies) are transferred from Chicago, Illinois, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where a

digitization project begins that will ultimately make them widely available, headed by CUFOS board member
David Marler. (“David Marler: CUFOS Digitization Project 2021,” Project 1947)

December — The CIA re-launches its task force on Havana Syndrome and expands its efforts under new Director William J. Burns, who has vowed during his confirmation hearings to review the evidence on the attacks on CIA personnel overseas, which have long been publicly reported. (“CIA Launches Task Force to Probe Invisible Attacks on US Diplomats and Spies As One Victim Finds Some Relief,” CNN, February 24, 2021) December 27 — President Donald Trump signs a $2.3 trillion government funding bill—the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021—containing a number of long-anticipated provisions, including an Intelligence Authorization Act for 2021. The latter contains a subheading labeled “Advanced Aerial Threats,” which requires the Director of National Intelligence (Avril Haynes under the Biden administration) to consult with the Secretary of Defense (Lloyd Austin under the Biden Administration) to submit a report on “unidentified aerial phenomena (also known as ‘anomalous aerial vehicles’), including observed airborne objects that have not been identified” and the potential threats they pose. The premise behind the provision is that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was concerned that the US government has no coordinated or comprehensive process for collecting and assessing intelligence data about unidentified aerial phenomena. It demands a detailed analysis of UAP data to be delivered to the Joint Armed Services Committee by the end of June 2021. It also calls for a streamlined reporting structure under the aegis of a named official The director of the US Navy’s UAP Task Force, Brennan McKernan, leads this new Pentagon-wide project. (Helen Lin, “Sci-Fi Stimulus Secrets: Why Did UFOs Appear in the December 2020 COVID-19 Relief Package?” Reference, July 2, 2021)

2021

January — Ash Ellis, who runs the online site UFO Identified, compiles a breakdown of 484 sightings reported in the UK during 2020. The majority (396) were made in England. There is a sharp increase in March and April due to the launch of SpaceX satellite trains. The most likely time to see a UFO is between 9 and 10 p.m. on a Sunday, and the shapes vary from star-like, triangular, oval, disc-shaped, and cylindrical to unknown. There were only three CE-3s and one abduction report. (Ash Ellis, “The UK UFO Report 2020,” UFO Identified) January 1 — Using Freedom of Information requests, UK reporter Dean Kirby analyzes 128 separate calls to 16 police forces since 2016 that mention UFOs. Several are obvious UAVs, including one reported by a caller to police in Bangor, Northern Ireland, who described a flying object that appeared to have solar panels. But the true figure could be much higher, with more than 30 police forces including Police Scotland saying they have no easy way of counting the calls and three saying they would each have to search through more than 700 records where the letters UFO were used. (Dean Kirby, “In One of the Strangest Years of Our Lives, Reports of UFO Sightings Have Reached New Heights in Lockdown,” News UK, January 1, 2021) January 15 — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has conducted a two-year “epidemiologic investigation” of the mysterious medical incidents suffered by US personnel in Cuba but cannot determine the nature of the injuries nor the cause, according to its 18 - page report. “The evaluations conducted thus far have not identified a mechanism of injury, process of exposure, effective treatment, or mitigating factor for the unexplained cluster of symptoms experienced by those stationed in Havana, Cuba,” concluded the CDC study. Titled “Cuba Unexplained Events Investigation—Final Report,” the CDC study was completed more than a year ago. But its existence was revealed only after a more recent evaluation by the National Academy of Sciences, which references the CDC report leaked to the press in December. (Dan Vergano, “Medical Records Can’t Explain ‘Havana Syndrome,’ a Buried CDC Report Says,” BuzzFeed News, January 15, 2021; “CDC Report on the ‘Havana Syndrome’: Medical Mystery Remains Unsolved,” National Security Archive, February 2, 2021)

February 7 — The British UFO Research Association reports that it received 583 reports in 2020, which is 40% less than in 2019. However, the number of high-strangeness reports doubled (37). (“An Overview of Sightings, Photographs, and High Strangeness Reports in 2020 and Looking Ahead to 2021,” BUFORA, February 7, 2021) February 9 — 10:30 p.m. An unidentified drone with a green light on its underbody is spotted from the corner of East Ajo Way and South Palo Verde Road in Tucson, Arizona, directly adjacent to a fuel terminal just west of Davis- Monthan. It flies into controlled airspace surrounding the base and Tucson International Airport after the Tucson Police Department and US Customs and Border Protection helicopters began to pursue it. The law enforcement helicopters follow the drone northwest out of the city for nearl 45 minutes before losing it in the clouds around 14,000 feet. The CBP is operating an Airbus AS350, while Tucson police are flying a Bell 206B-3 Jet Ranger.

The CPB pilot says that the drone is highly modified and able to outperform any other he has seen previously, flying circles around both helicopters at speeds well in excess of 100 mph. (Brett Tingley, “Police helicopter Crew Says Mysterious Craft They Chased Was ‘Not Like Any Other’ Drone,” The Drive: The War Zone, June 22, 2021; Tim McMillan, Micah Hanks, and Christopher Plain, “Incursions at the Border: Homeland Security Agents Tell of Encounters with Unidentified Aerial Phenomena,” The DeBrief, May 27, 2022) February 17 — Tom DeLonge’s To the Stars Academy files a report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, saying that it is restructuring its operations to “scale back its initiatives in science and commercialization.” This is given as justification for dropping advisors Luis Elizondo, Stephen Justice, and Christopher Mellon. (Nigel Watson, “M Is for Mantis and Missile,” Fortean Times 404 (April 2021): 22) February 21 — 12:19 p.m. An American Airlines Airbus A320 pilot reports a long, cylindrical object like a cruise missile pass above his location west of Clayton, New Mexico. The FAA has no reports of objects on air traffic controller radar screens. (“Intercept: American Airlines Flight 2292 Reports Close Encounter with Unknown Flying Object,” Deep Blue Horizon, February 21, 2021; Tyler Rogoway, “FAA Releases Statement on Airliner’s Encounter with Unknown Object over New Mexico,” The Drive: The War Zone, February 24, 2021)

March 12 — The US State Department names a senior official to lead the agency’s response to the Havana Syndrome attacks. Pamela L. Spratlen, a career foreign service officer, will serve as the senior advisor to the Health Incident Response Task Force, which was created in 2018 to coordinate the response to the spate of incidents. (“State Department Names Senior Official to Lead Response to Mysterious ‘Havana Syndrome’ Attacks,” CNN, March 12, 2021) March 29 — Chris Rutkowski’s annual review of UFO sightings in Canada shows there was a 46% rise in reports in 2020; 30% of the 1,243 sights were in Ontario and 24% from Quebec. 13% remain unexplained. (Chris Rutkowski, “The 2020 Canadian UFO Survey,” Ufology Research, March 29, 2021)

April 13 — According to the National UFO Reporting Center, there was an increase of some 1,000 sightings in the United States during 2020, reaching a peak of 7,200 reports. (“UFO Sightings in US Rose Sharply during the Pandemic, Data Reveals,” WION, April 13, 2021) April 15 — Tyler Rogoway of The War Zone summarizes the defense implications of drone and UAP interference with military aircraft, ships, and weapons systems, concluding that “at least one of our adversaries, and possibly two, have played our own cultural norms against us and have executed what may be among the most successful and ingenious intelligence-gathering plays of all time. Meanwhile, it seems that the DoD is either incapable of identifying and evaluating what should no longer be considered an emerging threat—swarming drones and radar target balloons—or they are playing along by acting like they do not know, which could be the case for a number of reasons.” (Tyler Rogoway, “Adversary Drones Are Spying on the U.S. and the Pentagon Acts Like They’re UFOs,” The Drive: The War Zone, April 15, 2021) April 19– 26 — The US Navy kicks off a secretive experiment to launch a missile at a surface target using information from a combination of manned and unmanned aircraft and surface vessels to test their direct attack and electronic warfare capabilities. (Joseph Trevithick, “Huge Navy Unmanned-Focused Experiment Underway Featuring Live Missile Shoot and ‘Super Swarms,’” The Drive: The War Zone, April 20, 2021)

May — During a briefing prior to a planned US Air Force exercise, USAF personnel observe a slide presentation that explains what to do if they encounter a UAP. They are clearly instructed to complete the Air Force reporting form, which features shapes of several different types of UAP they could encounter (plasma-like balls, tic-tacs, discs). It also features specific questions, such as whether the UAP interferes with their radar operation. This is all new, the officer points out to researcher Robert Powell, something that would not have occurred 18 months previous. He finds the stigma associated with this subject in the Air Force has significantly changed. (Robert Powell, “Opinion: When It Comes to the USAF and UAP, the Tide May Finally Be Turning,” The Debrief, February 7, 2022) May 18 — Former President Barack Obama admits on The Late Late Show with James Corden that “When I came into office, I asked … is there a lab somewhere where we’re keeping the alien specimens and spaceship? And you know, they did a little bit of research and the answer was no. But what is true, and I’m actually being serious here, is that there are, there’s footage and records of objects in the skies, that we don’t know exactly what they are, we can’t explain how they moved, their trajectory. They did not have an easily explainable pattern.” (“Barack Obama Talks about UFOs Again on Late Night Television,” WIAT, Birmingham, Alabama, May 19, 2021)

June 25 — The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence releases a summary 6 - page report on UAPs, largely centering on evidence gathered in the last 20 years from US Navy reports. It claims that 143 of the 144 are unidentified, though none of the data is provided. (The full report, available only to those with proper security clearances, is released in a redacted version in March 2022.) The report comes to no conclusion about what the UAPs were, based on a lack of evidence, though in a limited number of incidents, UAP reportedly appear to exhibit unusual flight characteristics, including high velocity, breaking the sound barrier without producing a sonic boom, high maneuverability not able to be replicated otherwise, long duration flight, and an ability to submerge into the water. Some of the UAPs appear to move with no discernable means of propulsion, and it is noted that the alleged high speeds and maneuvers would normally destroy any craft. These observations could be the result of sensor errors, spoofing, or observer misperception, and require additional rigorous analysis. The report indicates that, in some cases, the UAP recordings are of physical objects and not false readings, as individual instances had been detected by different sensor mechanisms, including visual observation. The report also states that “UAP probably lack a single explanation,” and proposes five possible categories of explanation: airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, US government or industry development technology, foreign craft, and an “Other” category. The report raises concerns that the UAPs could be a safety issue, with regard to a possible collision with US aircraft, and that they could pose a security threat if they are foreign craft gathering information about the US. The report indicates that investigation of the topic will continue, including development of reporting protocols. The report also indicates that, of the sightings reported, all except one (confirmed as a weather balloon) lack sufficient information to attribute a specific explanation or explanations. (Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena [6-page summary report], June 25, 2021; Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena [redacted full report], June 25, 2021; Julian E. Barnes and Helene Cooper, “US Finds No Evidence of Alien Technology in Flying Objects, But Can’t Rule It Out, Either,” New York Times, June 3, 2021; Andrew Desiderio, “‘We’ve Got to Get an Answer’: UFOs Catch Congress’ Interest,” Politico, June 23, 2021; “US Report on Pentagon-Documented UFOs Leaves Sightings Unexplained,” ABC News (Australia), June 25, 2021; “Pentagon Won’t Rule Out Aliens in Long-Awaited Report,” BBC News, June 25, 2021; David Clarke, “Beyond Blue Book: The Pentagon UFO Report in Context,” Fortean Times 409 (September 2021): 48– 51 ; John Greenewald, “June 2021 Classified UAP/UFO Report Given to Congress Partially Released,” The Black Vault, March 23, 2022; Micah Hanks, “Analysis: Newly Released Version of Once-Classified Report Presents New Clues about the U.S. Government’s UAP Investigations,” The Debrief, March 24, 2022; Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, “On the 2021 UAPTF Classified Report,” Academia.edu, 2022)

July 20 — Reports surface of American diplomatic officials coming down with Havana Syndrome in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. (“American Personnel in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan Reported As among ‘Havana Syndrome’ Victims,” bne IntelliNews, July 21, 2021) July 26 — The Galileo Project, headed by a multi-institutional team of scientists led by Avi Loeb of the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University, announces that it will investigate evidence that could represent defunct or still- active “extraterrestrial technological civilizations,” or ETCs. The project, which includes Luis Elizondo, Christopher Mellon, Nick Pope, and Michael Shermer, will analyze data from astronomical surveys and telescope observations, and design new algorithms using artificial intelligence, in order to identify potential interstellar travelers, alien-built satellites, and UAPs. Ufologist Jacques Vallée joins the project in January 2022. (Mindy Weisberger, “Harvard-Led Team to Search Cosmos for Extraterrestrial Space Tech and UFOs,” Live Science, July 26, 2021; Robert Sheaffer, “Galileos Galore: Now Including Dr. Jacques Vallée!” Bad UFOs, January 25, 2022 ) July 30 — 11:00 p.m. A bright green fireball illuminates the night sky over Izmir, Turkey. The visual part of the event lasts several seconds before the object disintegrates. Several residents report a sonic boom. According to Hassan Ali Dar, deputy director of the Astronomical Observatory of Aegean University, the object is part of the Perseid meteor shower. (Teo Blašković, “Very Bright Fireball over Izmir, Sonic Boom Reported, Turkey,” The Watchers, August 2, 2021)

August — Reports of Havana Syndrome come to light among more than 20 US diplomats in Vienna, Austria, since January. The numbers are greater here than in any city outside Havana, Cuba. The CIA removes its station chief in Vienna for not adequately responding to the outbreak. (“‘Havana Syndrome’-Like Mystery Illness Affects Vienna US Diplomats,” BBC News, July 17, 2021; “CIA ‘Removes Vienna Boss’ over Havana Syndrome Outbreak,” BBC News, September 24, 2021)

August 29 — In a breakthrough interview on CBS-TV’s 60 Minutes, US Navy pilots line up to recount their experiences with UFOs on the eastern coast. It happens so frequently that the encounters became commonplace, Ryan Graves, a retired navy pilot, tells the show. “Every day,” Graves says. “Every day for at least a couple years.” (Bill Whitaker, “UFOs Regularly Spotted in US Airspace,” CBS News, August 29, 2021)

September 5 — Australian journalist Ross Coulthart releases a documentary, The UFO Phenomenon, which recounts the history of the Australian government’s involvement with UFOs. (“The UFO Phenomenon: Full Documentary 2021,” 7NEWS Spotlight YouTube channel, September 5, 2021) September 15 — 4:03 p.m. One adult and two children witness a hovering metallic object in the Century City area of Los Angeles, California. After watching it for a few seconds, the adult takes a video as the object slowly moves toward the east. (“Video Taken of Hovering Bright, Metallic, Flashing Object,” UFOs Northwest, October 12, 2021)

October — US diplomats in Bogota, Colombia, and Berlin, Germany, are being affected by Havana Syndrome. (“Havana Syndrome: Berlin Police Probe Cases at US Embassy,” BBC News, October 9, 2021; “Havana Syndrome Reported at US Embassy in Colombia,” BBC News, October 13, 2021) October 8 — The Helping American Victims Afflicted by Neurological Attacks (HAVANA) Act is signed by President Joe Biden. It authorizes the CIA Director and the Secretary of State to provide financial support for personnel suffering brain injuries. However, while funding for it has not yet passed, it has been included in drafts of a Defense Department appropriations bill. (“Biden Signs Legislation to Compensate Victims of Mysterious ‘Havana Syndrome,’” New York Times, October 8, 2021) October 9 — Day. Witnesses watch a small, rounded, silver-metallic object at high altitude (perhaps above 15,000 feet) for 5 minutes during the Wings Over Houston Air Show at Ellington Air Force Base near Houston, Texas. The object leaves no trail as it alternately maneuvers and hovers. One of them takes a photograph. The MUFON investigator suspects the object might be a US Army Long Endurance Multi Intelligence Vehicle, a hybrid blimp, making an appearance at the air show. (Kevin D. Randle, “Coast to Coast: The National Defense Authorization Act and Two Interesting Sightings,” A Different Perspective, December 11, 2021)

November — Optical engineer Vincent Costes takes over from Roger Baldacchino as manager of Groupe d’Études et d’Informations sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés, the official French UFO agency in Toulouse, France. (“Un nouveau responsable au GEIPAN à partir de novembre 2021,” GEIPAN, November 3, 2021) November 6 — 8.55 a.m. A witness in Marietta, Georgia, photographs a white, cigar-shaped object moving in a westerly direction. (“Strange Cigar-Shaped Object Seen and Photographed,” UFOs Northwest, November 23, 2021) November 8 — Night. A couple from Hubbard, Ohio, see a triangular-shaped object with a bright yellow light on top and two sets of three white lights along the side, just above the treetops. It appears to be football-field sized and is hovering about 100 feet above the highway. As they approach, it swiftly moves to the left and flies over some trees. Their car begins to act funny and the check-engine light comes on, indicating reduced engine power and traction control. (Kevin D. Randle, “Coast to Coast AM: EM Effects and Current UFO Sightings,” A Different Perspective, December 17, 2021) November 11 — 11:10 a.m. A witness sees nine white orbs flying in formation and mimicking a flyby of F-16s during the Leavenworth, Kansas, Annual Veterans Day Parade. Prior to the F-16 flyby, the witness sees the orbs forming and reforming into various groups. At times they disappear and reappear at an incredible speed. One of the orbs is in an “overwatch” position, while at least six are in a “three-by-two formation.” After passing the flyby, they form a four-point formation then disappear to the west at great speed. A photo is taken showing the orbs and the F-16s. (“9 White Orbs Seen at F16 Airshow,” UFOs Northwest, November 19, 2021) November 19 — The governmental Centro de Identificatión Aerospaciale in Argentina issues an annual report on its investigation into 45 UFO cases analyzed during the previous year, plus occasional investigations on older events. CIAE investigates only those UFO sightings supported by evidence (photography, video, or material). All of them are technically explained, the distribution of causes being birds & bugs (40%), balloons and airborne objects (18%), optical artifacts (11%), astronomical (11%), astronautical (11%), aircraft (7%), or ground facilities (2%). (Rubén E. Lianza, “Informe de Resolución de Casos Recibidos en 2021,” CIAE, November 19, 2021) November 23 — US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks establishes the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG) to synchronize the detection and identification of UAPs. It is to be overseen and directed by the Airborne Object Identification and Management Executive Council (AOIMEXEC), led by Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie. (Kathleen Hicks, “Establishment of the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group,”

November 23, 2021; “Ex-Officials Express Deep Concerns over New Pentagon UFO Unit,” The Hill, December
1, 2021)

December 3 — 6:00 p.m. A woman driving in downtown Green Bay, Wisconsin, in foggy conditions, spots five lights moving in different directions. The lights merge into one. Three other oval, blue-purple lights also fly through the clouds. She then sees green lights moving very quickly. The sighting lasts 45 minutes and she takes several photos. (“Groups of Multicolored Lights Move Rapidly on Foggy Night,” UFOs Northwest, December 4, 2021) December 15 — A new camera system goes into operation at the University of Würzburg, Germany, designed to detect UAP using artificial intelligence. Professor for Space Technology Hakan Kayal has set up SkyCAM-5 on the roof of a university building on the Hubland campus. “When the camera detects known objects, it recognizes them with a Convolutional Neural Network, classifies them and stores the corresponding video sequences in a database,” Kayal explains. (“UAP: SkyCAM Searches the Sky,” Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, December 20, 2021) December 27 — President Joe Biden signs into law the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2022. It includes an amendment, “Establishment of Office to Address Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” introduced by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), that requires the Defense Department to coordinate with other federal agencies to collect, analyze, and report on UAP cases, including those with “adverse physiological effects.” It funds a new office, the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, to replace the UAP Task Force program coordinated by the US Office of Naval Intelligence. The new office will serve as a “centralized repository” for such information and will coordinate with US allies to “better assess the nature and extent” of UAP incidents. It requires the office to submit an annual report to Congress. (“Sen. Gillibrand Introduces Amendment to Defense Bill Establishing Office to Study UFOs,” WTI-TV, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, November 9, 2021; Kevin D. Randle, “Coast to Coast AM: Official Study of UFOs and a UFO Picture,” A Different Perspective, November 27, 2021; “Biden Signs $770 Billion Defense Bill,” New York Times, December 27, 2021)

2022

January — Ash Ellis of UFO Identified issues a summary report on 413 UFO sightings made in the UK 2021. The majority originate in England. (Ash Ellis, “The UK UFO Report 2021,” UFO Identified) January 17 — A military-style drone circles the Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant in Forsmark, Sweden, operating even though there is a high wind. Similar drones with large wings are reported over the Ringhals and Oskarshamn nuclear power plants. The previous week, drones are seen circling the Parliament buildings and the Royal Palacec in Stockholm, as well as the Kiruna and Luleå airports. A police helicopter is seen pursuing a drone flying above it at a height of 3,280 feet to the west of Stockholm, but authorities do not manage to down any of these. All the drones seem to be larger and have greater endurance than commercial models. (“Sweden Drones: Sightings Reported over Nuclear Plants and Palace,” BBC News, January 18, 2022; “Drone Swarms,” Fortean Times, no. 416 (March 2022): 18) January 1 9 — The CIA announces it has ruled out a sustained global campaign by a hostile power aimed at hundreds of US diplomats and spies as the cause of Havana Syndrome symptoms. In about two dozen cases, the agency cannot rule out foreign involvement, including many of the cases that originated at the US Embassy in Havana, Cuba, beginning in 2016. Another group of cases is considered unresolved. But in hundreds of other cases of possible symptoms, the agency has found plausible alternative explanations. (“CIA Says ‘Havana Syndrome’ Not Result of Sustained Campaign by Hostile Power,” NBC News, January 19, 2022)

February 2 — An intelligence panel investigating the cause of Havana Syndrome says that some of the episodes could plausibly have been caused by “pulsed electromagnetic energy” emitted by an external source, according to a partially declassified intelligence report. A panel of intelligence community experts drew up the report after analyzing over 1,000 documents and interviewing affected individuals. They determine the symptoms associated with the illness to be “genuine and compelling,” and note that while some cases can be attributed to known psychological or medical factors, others remain unexplained. The authors sought to determine the feasibility of five potential causal mechanisms, including “acoustic signals, chemical and biological agents, ionizing radiation, natural and environmental factors, and radiofrequency and other electromagnetic energy.” They assessed the potential of each of these mechanisms to account for cases that cannot be easily explained by other means. More specifically, they looked at cases involving a combination of four particularly puzzling “core characteristics.” These include “the acute onset of… sound or pressure in only one ear or on one side of the head,”

as well as vertigo, “a strong sense of locality or directionality,” and an absence of any obvious environmental or
medical causes for such symptoms. Ruling out the possibility that Havana syndrome could represent an
underlying brain disorder, the authors state that “the combination of the four core characteristics is distinctly
unusual and unreported elsewhere in the medical literature, and so far have not been associated with a specific
neurological abnormality.” On the other hand, they conclude that “pulsed electromagnetic energy, particularly in
the radiofrequency range, plausibly explains the core characteristics,” although they do concede that such a theory
is riddled with “information gaps.” Addressing the possibility that Havana syndrome could therefore be caused by
a nefarious device, they go on to explain that devices do “exist that could generate the required stimulus, are
concealable, and have moderate power requirements” that could produce the observed symptoms. (“Havana
Syndrome Could Be Caused by Pulsed Energy Devices, Intelligence Report Says,” IFLScience, February 3, 2022;
“US Intelligence Community Report Says ‘Pulsed Electromagnetic Energy’ Could Cause Havana Syndrome,”
CNN, February 3, 2022; Office of the Director of National Intelligence, [IC Experts Panel on Havana Syndrome
executive summary], declassified February 1, 2022)

March 25 — The Defense Intelligence Agency releases Defense Intelligence Reference Documents on 37 of the 38 projects that its Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) has produced as part of its Project Physics under the direction of Hal Puthoff. The topics range from “Pulsed High-Power Microwave Source Technology” to “Invisibility Cloaking” and “Antigravity for Aerospace Applications.” (John Greenewald, “The Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) Documentation,” The Black Vault, March 31, 2022)

April 22 — 8:52 p.m. The pilot of an Embraer Phenom business jet flying at 45,000 feet above Kessel, West Virginia, notices a light 10,000 feet above him. It changes to a string of lights. As he passes underneath, he notices the object’s lights go out and the aircraft’s avionics system fails. Other pilots can see the light as well. (John Greenewald, “FAA Confirmed UFO Sighting April 22, 2022, by LXJ359 over Kessel, West Virginia,” The Black Vault, May 19, 2022)

May 12 — Department of Defense officials choose Deputy Director of Intelligence and physicist Sean Kirkpatrick to head the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG). (Douglas Dean Johnson, “Scientist and Intelligence Officer Sean Kirkpatrick Piced to Head the New Pentagon-IC Office Empowered by Congress to Study Unidentified Aerial Phenomena,” Mirador, May 12, 2022) May 17 — 9:00 a.m. The House Intelligence Committee’s Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee holds hearings on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, as directed by the National Defense Authorization Act, which calls on the military to provide an annual report and semiannual briefings on the topic to Congress. The hearing features Ronald Moultrie, under secretary of defense for intelligence and security, who is involved with the newly created Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG), and Scott W. Bray, deputy director of naval intelligence. Bray testifies that their database of reports of UFOs now includes about 400 incidents, up from 143 assessed in a report released in 2021. He cites improved sensors, an increase in drones and other non-military unmanned aerial systems, and aerial clutter such as Mylar balloons as causes for the uptick. Incidents in the 2021 report date as far back as 2004 and are based on both sensor data and observations by military aviators. Bray says that “Navy and air force crews now have step- by-step procedures for reporting UAPs on their kneeboard, in the cockpit.” In a back-and-forth with Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), Bray agrees that standardizing the civilian reporting process will be useful. While the military database does include some civilian reports, the vast majority have come from within. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, pushes for the Pentagon and the public to understand that UAPs are becoming a national security concern. At the hearing, officials play a declassified video clip showing a mysterious UAP that zipped by a pilot’s aircraft in a US Navy training yard. It appears to be a spherical object traveling at extremely high speeds. Bray says that he does not have an explanation for what this specific object is. Bray and Moultrie both say they will commit to declassifying more information when possible and when it does not pose a national security risk, adding the task force will operate with more transparency than past Pentagon programs. (Christopher Dean Hopkins, “The Military’s UFO Database Now Has Info from About 400 Reported Incidents,” National Public Radio, May 17, 2022; Brad Dress, “UFOs Pose ‘Potential National Security Threat,’ Lawmakers Warn,” The Hill, May 17, 2022) May 2 7 — The Center for UFO Studies launches its first Facebook page. (CUFOS, Facebook page)

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AFU Newsletter, 1975 – 2008. Arkivet för UFO-forskning / Archives for the Unexplained. https://files.afu.se/Downloads/?dir=Magazines%2FSweden%2FAFU_Newsletter

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Albarelli Jr., H. P. A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA ’ s Cold War Experiments. Trine Day, 2009. https://archive.org/details/terriblemistake00hpal

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Just Cause, 1978 – 1980, 1984–1997. Citizens Against UFO Secrecy. http://files.afu.se/Downloads/?dir=Magazines/United%20States/Just%20Cause%20(CAUS)/

Kafton-Minkel, Walter. Subterranean Worlds. Loompanics, 1989. https://archive.org/details/subterraneanworldswalterkaftonminkel100000yearsofdragonsdwarfsthedeadlostracesufosfrominsid etheearth/mode/2up

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Keel, John A. Strange Creatures from Time and Space. Fawcett, 1970. https://archive.org/details/strangecreaturesfromtimeandspacejohnkeel/mode/2up

Keel, John A. UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970. https://archive.org/details/JohnKeelOperationTrojanHorse/mode/2up

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Keyhoe, Donald E. Flying Saucers from Outer Space. Henry Holt, 1953. [Keyhoe, FS from OS] http://www.nicap.org/books/fsos/fsos.htm

Keyhoe, Donald E. Flying Saucers: Top Secret. Putnam, 1960. [Keyhoe, FSTS] https://www.amazon.com/Flying-saucers-secret- Donald-Keyhoe/dp/B0007F2EIY

Kinzer, Stephen. Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control. Henry Holt, 2019. https://www.amazon.com/Poisoner-Chief-Sidney-Gottlieb-Control/dp/1250140439/

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Knight-Jadczyk, Laura. Cosmic Cointelpro Timeline, 2002. https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_cointelpro01a.htm#menu

Lacatski, James T., Colm A. Kelleher, and George Knapp. Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insiders’ Account of the Secret Government UFO Program. RTMA, 2021. [Skinwalkers] https://www.amazon.com/Skinwalkers-Pentagon-Insiders- Account-Government/dp/B09HR54GQF

Lagrange, Pierre. Personal communications.

Lammer, Helmut, and Marion Lammer. MILABS: Military Mind Control and Alien Abduction. Illuminet, 2000. https://www.amazon.com/MILABS-Military-Control-Alien-Abduction/dp/1881532186

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Ledger, Don, and Chris Styles. Dark Object: The World ’ s Only Government-Documented UFO Crash. Dell, 2001. https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Object-Worlds-Government-Documented-Crash/dp/0440236479

Leir, Roger K. UFO Crash in Brazil: A Genuine UFO Crash with Surviving ETs. Book Tree, 2005. https://www.amazon.com/UFO- Crash-Brazil-Roger-Leir/dp/1585091057

Leslie, Desmond, and George Adamski. Flying Saucers Have Landed. Werner Laurie, 1953. https://archive.org/details/flyingsaucershav00lesl

Lewis, Chad, Noah Voss, and Kevin Lee Nelson. The Van Meter Visitor. On the Road Publications, 2013. https://www.amazon.com/Van-Meter-Visitor-Mysterious-Encounter/dp/0982431465

Lewis, James R., ed. The Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds. State University of New York Press, 1995. https://archive.org/details/godshavelandedne0000unse

London UFO Research Organisation. LUFORO Bulletin, 1959 – 1963. https://bufora.org.uk/LUFORA-Bulletin.php

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Long, Greg. Examining the Earthlight Theory. Center for UFO Studies, 1990. http://files.afu.se/Downloads/Books/Other/Long,%20Greg%20-%20Examining%20The%20Earthlight%20Theory%20— %20%20The%20Yakima%20Ufo%20Microcosm.pdf

Lore, Gordon I. R. Strange Effects from UFOs. NICAP, 1969. http://files.afu.se/Downloads/Books/Other/Lore,%20Gordon%20- %20Strange%20Effects%20from%20UFOs.pdf

Lore, Gordon I. R., and Harold H. Deneault. Mysteries of the Skies: UFOs in Perspective. Prentice-Hall, 1968. [Lore and Deneault] https://archive.org/details/mysteriesofskies0000lore

Lorenzen, Coral E. Flying Saucers: The Startling Evidence of the Invasion from Outer Space. Signet, 1966. [Lorenzen, FSHoax] https://archive.org/details/1966CoralLorenzenFlyingSaucersTheStartlingEvidenceOfTheInvasionFromOuterSpacenotOCR

Lorenzen, Coral E. The Shadow of the Unknown. Signet, 1970. https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Coral-Lorenzen/dp/0451044274/

Lorenzen, Coral E., and Jim Lorenzen. Abducted! Confrontations with Beings from Outer Space. Berkley Medallion, 1977. https://www.amazon.com/Abducted-Confrontations-beings-Berkley-Medallion/dp/0425035018/

Lorenzen, Coral E., and Jim Lorenzen. Encounters with UFO Occupants. Berkley, 1976. [Lorenzen, Encounters] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0425030938/

Lorenzen, Coral E., and Jim Lorenzen. Flying Saucer Occupants. New American Library, 1967. [Lorenzen, Occupants] https://archive.org/details/flyingsauceroccu00lore

Lorenzen, Coral E., and Jim Lorenzen. UFOs: The Whole Story. Signet, 1969. https://www.amazon.com/UFO-Whole-Story-Coral- Lorenzen/dp/B0006CDZPY

Lorenzen, Jim, and Coral E. Lorenzen. UFOs over the Americas. Signet, 1968. https://www.amazon.com/UFOs-Over-Americas- Lorenzen-Coral/dp/B000R8817E

Lumières dans la nuit, 1958 – 1989. http://files.afu.se/Downloads/?dir=Magazines/France/LDLN/

Lunan, Duncan. Man and the Stars: Contact and Communication with Other Intelligence. Souvenir, 1974. https://archive.org/details/manstarscontactc0000luna

Maccabee, Bruce. Dr. Bruce Maccabee Research Website. http://brumac.mysite.com/index.html

McCampbell, James M. Ufology. Celestial Arts, 1976. http://www.nicap.org/ufology/cover.htm

McGonagle, Joe. The Real UFO Project, 2006–2007. http://www.uk-ufo.org

Magonia magazine archive, 197 9 – 2009. Edited by John Rimmer. http://magoniamagazine.blogspot.com/

Magor, John. Our UFO Visitors. Hancock House, 1977. https://www.amazon.com/Our-Ufo-Visitors-John-Magor/dp/0919654703

Mantle, Philip. Roswell Alien Autopsy: The Truth behind the Film That Shocked the World. Flying Disk Press, 2017. https://www.amazon.com/ROSWELL-ALIEN-AUTOPSY-Behind-Shocked/dp/1520548389

Marchetti, Victor, and John D. Marks. The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence. Knopf, 1974. https://archive.org/details/ciacultofi00vict

Marks, John D. The Search for the Manchurian Candidate. W.W. Norton, 1991. https://archive.org/details/pdfy-JSKQIeR_oYTgzSjl/

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Martin, David. The Assassination of James Forrestal. McCabe, 2019. https://www.amazon.com/Assassination-James-Forrestal-David- Martin/dp/0967352126/

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Michel, Aimé. Flying Saucers and the Straight-Line Mystery. Criterion, 1958. https://www.amazon.com/Flying-Saucers-Straight- Line-Mystery-Michel/dp/0875990770

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MUFON Ohio Newsletter, 1992 – 2011. Mutual UFO Network of Ohio. https://files.afu.se/Downloads/?dir=Magazines/United%20States/MUFON%20Ohio%20(Newsletter)/

MUFON UFO Journal, 1976 – , and Skylook, 1967 – 1976. Mutual UFO Network. https://www.mufon.com/. A handful of these are available at https://vdocuments.mx/. 1991 – 2011 available at http://www.noufors.com/My_Personal_Collection_of_UFO_Publications.html

MUFORG Bulletin, 1965 – 1967. Merseyside UFO Research Group, Liverpool. https://files.afu.se/Downloads/?dir=Magazines/United%20Kingdom/MUFORG%20Bulletin/

Mutual UFO Network, 1969–. https://www.mufon.com/

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Mysteries of Canada. 1998–. https://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/

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New Zealand. Selected UFO documents. https://files.afu.se/Downloads/?dir=Documents/New%20Zealand/

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Novos Insólitos: Notícias incríveis que nos fazem refletir, 2015–. https://refletir24.rssing.com/chan-45623680/latest.php

O’Brien, Christopher. Stalking the Herd: Unraveling the Cattle Mutilation Mystery. Adventures Unlimited, 2014. https://www.amazon.com/Stalking-Herd-Unraveling-Mutilation-Mystery/dp/1939149061/

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Paget, Peter. The Welsh Triangle Revisited. The author, 2018. https://www.amazon.com/Welsh-Triangle-Revisited-Peter- Paget/dp/1983626384/

Parker, Calvin. Pascagoula: The Closest Encounter, My Story. Flying Disk Press, 2018. https://www.amazon.com/PASCAGOULA- CLOSEST-ENCOUNTER-MY-STORY/dp/198299584X/

Parker, Calvin. Pascagoula: The Story Continues: New Evidence and New Witnesses. Flying Disk Press, 2019. https://www.amazon.com/PASCAGOULA-STORY-CONTINUES-Evidence-Witnesses/dp/1688698620/

Pegasus Research Consortium. The UFO Files, 2001–2015. https://www.thelivingmoon.com/49ufo_files/

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Phillips, Ted. Physical Traces Associated with UFO Sightings. Center for UFO Studies, 1975. http://www.cufos.org/books/Physical_Traces.pdf

Pilkington, Mark. Mirage Men: An Adventure into Paranoia, Espionage, Psychological Warfare, and UFOs. Skyhorse, 2010. https://archive.org/details/miragemenadventu0000pilk

Pinotti, Roberto. UFO Contacts in Italy, Volume One (1907–1979). Flying Disk Press, 2017. [1Pinotti] https://www.amazon.com/UFO-CONTACTS-ITALY- 1907 - 1978/dp/1522064680/

Pinotti, Roberto. UFO Contacts in Italy, Volume Two (1979–2020). Flying Disk Press, 2020. [2Pinotti] https://www.amazon.com/UFO-CONTACTS-ITALY-Roberto-Pinotti/dp/B089M5ZR7C/

Pinotti, Roberto, and Alfredo Lissoni. Gli “X - Files” del Nazifascismo. IdeaLibri, 2001. https://www.amazon.it/GLI-X-FILES-DEL- NAZIFASCISMO-MUSSOLINI/dp/B005ELX0ES

Pirola, Carlo. UFOs: Reinvestigation in Italy. Lulu.com, 2019. https://www.amazon.com/UFOs-REINVESTIGATION-ITALY-Carlo- Pirola/dp/0244492034/

Pope, Nick. Open Skies, Closed Minds: For the First Time a Government UFO Expert Speaks Out. Simon & Schuster, 1996. https://archive.org/details/openskiesclosedm0000pope

Pope, Nick. The Uninvited: An Exposé of the Alien Abduction Phenomenon. Dell, 1997. https://archive.org/details/uninvitedexpos00pope

Portal Fenomenum: Ufologia com Seriedade e Objetividade. Centro de Investigação e Pesquisa Exobiológica. https://www.fenomenum.com.br/

Powell, Martin J. Aenigmatis. http://www.aenigmatis.com/

Pratt, Bob. UFO Danger Zone: Terror and Death in Brazil. Horus House, 1996. https://archive.org/details/UFODangerZoneBobPrattHowTheyStealOurBloodAndMayKillPeoplePreIceAgeUfoOccupantsAn

Ramsey, Scott, and Suzanne Ramsey. The Aztec UFO Incident. New Page, 2015. https://www.amazon.com/Aztec-UFO-Incident- Elaborate-Perplexing/dp/1632650010/

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Randle, Kevin D. Encounter in the Desert: The Case for Alien Contact at Socorro. New Page, 2017. https://www.amazon.com/Encounter-Desert-Alien-Contact-Socorro/dp/1632651130/

Randle, Kevin D. The Government UFO Files. Visible Ink, 2014. https://www.amazon.com/Government-UFO-Files-Conspiracy- Cover-Up/dp/1578594774

Randle, Kevin D. A History of UFO Crashes. HarperCollins, 1995. https://archive.org/details/historyofufocras0000rand

Randle, Kevin D. Invasion Washington: UFOs over the Capitol. HarperTorch, 2001. https://www.amazon.com/Invasion-Washington- UFOs-Over-Capitol/dp/0380814706

Randle, Kevin D. Levelland. Flying Disk Press, 2021. [Randle, Levelland] https://www.amazon.com/LEVELLAND-KEVIN- RANDLE/dp/B09MYSRTCG/

Randle, Kevin D. Project Blue Book Exposed. Marlowe, 1997. https://archive.org/details/projectbluebooke00rand

Randle, Kevin D. The Randle Report: UFOs in the 90s. M. Evans, 1997. https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780871318206

Randle, Kevin D. The Roswell Encyclopedia. HarperCollins, 2000. https://www.amazon.com/Roswell-Encyclopedia-Randle-Kevin- Paperback/dp/B011SK5FH8/

Randle, Kevin D. Roswell in the 21st Century. Speaking Volumes, 2016. https://www.amazon.com/Roswell-21st-Century-Kevin- Randle/dp/1628155132

Randle, Kevin D. The UFO Casebook. Warner, 1989. https://archive.org/details/ufocasebook00rand

Randle, Kevin D. The UFO Dossier: 100 Years of Government Secrets, Conspiracies, and Cover-Ups. Visible Ink, 2015. https://archive.org/details/ufodossier100yea0000rand

Randle, Kevin D., and Russ Estes. Spaceships of the Visitors: An Illustrated Guide to Alien Spacecraft. Simon & Schuster, 2000. https://archive.org/details/spaceshipsofvisi00kevi/mode/2up

Randle, Kevin D., and Donald R. Schmitt. The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell. Avon, 1994. https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780380778034

Randle, Kevin D., and Donald R. Schmitt. UFO Crash at Roswell. Avon, 1991. https://archive.org/details/ufocrashatroswel00rand

Randles, Jenny. Abduction. Guild, 1988. https://www.amazon.com/Abduction-Jenny-Randles/dp/0709032765/

Randles, Jenny. The Pennine UFO Mystery. Granada, 1983. https://www.amazon.com/Pennine-UFO-mystery-Jenny- Randles/dp/0583137091

Randles, Jenny. UFO Conspiracy: The First Forty Years. Sterling, 1987. [Randles, Conspiracy] https://archive.org/details/ufoconspiracyfir00rand

Randles, Jenny. UFO Crash Landing? Friend or Foe? Sterling, 1998. https://www.amazon.com/UFO-Crash-Landing-Rendlesham- Encounter/dp/0713726555/

Randles, Jenny. UFO Reality: A Critical Look at the Physical Evidence. Robert Hale, 1983. https://www.amazon.com/UFO-reality- critical-physical-evidence/dp/070901080X

Randles, Jenny. UFO Retrievals: The Recovery of Alien Spacecraft. Blandford, 1995. https://archive.org/details/uforetrievalsrec0000rand

Randles, Jenny, and Peter Warrington. Science and the UFOs. Basil Blackwell, 1985. https://archive.org/details/scienceufos0000rand/page/n5/mode/2up

Redfern, Nick. Body Snatchers in the Desert: The Horrible Truth at the Heart of the Roswell Story. Gallery, 2005. https://www.amazon.com/Body-Snatchers-Desert-Horrible-Roswell/dp/0743497538

Redfern, Nick. A Covert Agenda: The British Government ’ s UFO Top Secrets Exposed. Simon & Schuster, 1988. https://www.amazon.com/Covert-Agenda-British-Governments-Secrets/dp/1931044708/

Redfern, Nick. Flying Saucers from the Kremlin. Lisa Hagan, 2019. [Kremlin] https://www.amazon.com/Flying-Saucers-Kremlin- Russian-Meddling/dp/1945962186/

Redfern, Nick. The Pyramids and the Pentagon. New Page, 2012. https://archive.org/details/pyramidspentagon0000redf

Redfern, Nick. The Roswell UFO Conspiracy: Exposing a Shocking and Sinister Secret. Lisa Hagan, 2017. https://www.amazon.com/Roswell-UFO-Conspiracy-Exposing-Shocking/dp/1945962046/

The Rendlesham Forest Incident, official website. James Penniston. https://web.archive.org/web/20190805161848/http://www.therendleshamforestincident.com/

Rhodes, Richard. The Making of the Atomic Bomb. Simon & Schuster, 1986. https://archive.org/details/makingofatomicbo00rhod

RIAP Bulletin, 1994 – 2006. Ed., Vladimir Rubtsov. Research Institute on Anomalous Phenomena. https://files.afu.se/Downloads/?dir=Magazines/Ukraine/RIAP%20Bulletin%20(Rubtsov)/

Ribera, Antonio. Platillos Volantes en Iberoamerica y España. Pomaire, 1968.

Richelson, Jeffrey T. Defusing Armageddon: Inside NEST, America ’ s Secret Nuclear Bomb Squad. W. W. Norton, 2009. https://www.amazon.com/Defusing-Armageddon-Inside-Americas-Nuclear/dp/0393065154/

Ridge, Francis L. The Mantell Incident: An Anatomy of an Investigation, a 60-Year-Old Cover-Up. The author, 2010. http://www.nicap.org/books/Mantell_Incident/The_Mantell_Incident.pdf

Ridge, Francis L. Official NICAP Web Site. http://www.nicap.org, especially The Chronos, http://www.nicap.org/chronos/

Ridpath, Ian. Ian Ridpath’s UFO Skeptic Pages, 2014. http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/ufoindex.htm

Roberts, Andy. UFO Down? The Berwyn Mountain UFO Crash. Fortean Words, 2010. https://www.amazon.com/UFO-Down- Berwyn-Mountain-Crash/dp/1905723601/

Rodeghier, Mark. UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference. Center for UFO Studies, 1981. http://www.cufos.org/books/UFO_REPORTS_INVOLVING_VEHICLE_INTERFERENCE.pdf

Rojas, Alejandro T. Blog and podcast, 2018–. http://www.alejandrotrojas.com/

Ronson, Jon. The Men Who Stare at Goats. Picador, 2004. https://archive.org/details/menwhostareatgoa00rons_0

The Roswell Files. http://www.roswellfiles.com/index.htm

RR0. French online encyclopedia on UFOs and the paranormal. https://rr0.org/

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