THE UFO CHRONICLES


nam et ipsa scientia potestas est
- Knowledge is Power -

     On March 17, 2007, the website UFOPOP.org [Flying Saucers in Popular Culture] celebrated its second birthday.

The purpose of UFOPOP is to preserve and display images of UFOs and Flying Saucers presented in various aspects of our “popular culture” including comic books, magazine and book covers, advertising and products, toys and games, and more.

Beginning with a thousand comic books, the site has grown to over 5,400 images. The Merchandising Gallery, opened a year ago, now has 1,600 ads, products, and promotional items which clearly show the extent to which UFO/Flying Saucer and alien imagery have permeated our culture. Plans for the site include a Toy Gallery, which will soon be added, and this will be followed by a Miscellaneous Gallery for those things which just don’t fit elsewhere.

If you are interested in UFOs/Flying Saucers, popular culture, enjoy spacecraft artwork, or just want to stroll down memory lane, then you are invited to visit UFOPOP.org, the site that has been written about in the International UFO Reporter and Britain’s Fortean Times Magazine.

Visitors are invited to return often as new items are constantly being added. Emails are also welcome [through the link at the site].

Labels: Birthday, Books, Magazines Comics, Toys, UFO, UFOPOP

     I met, for a second time, with Jacques Patenet, the engineer in charge of GEIPAN, the new French service of UFO studies at the French Space Agency CNES - Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, or National center for Space Studies - and I can give some more information on the release of those UFO files.

We talked at a TV debate ("C Dans l'air"), recorded yesterday, airing tomorrow, Friday, March 30, on the French national network France 5.

Some more information, and some corrections of what has been already reported:

The name GEIPAN means Groupe d'Etudes et d'Information des Phenomenes Aerospatiaux Non identifies, (Group for Studies and Information on Unidentified Aerospatial Phenomena). It was created in September 2005, to replace the SEPRA, which closed in January 2004. Also put in place at that time, a steering committee (COPEIPAN) presided over by Yves Sillard, former director of CNES, and comprising about fifteen members, whose names are not known.

In January 2006, Jacques Patenet announced that GEIPAN was going to put all its UFO files on the web site of CNES, during 2006. The project had been delayed but has now begun with the release of some 400 files this monthh, covering the period 1988-2005.

Initial inquiries by CNES began in 1977 on the creation of the first service called GEPAN, but there are files from the fifties, and even one from 1937.

There are a total of 1,650 files, including some 6,000 testimonies, and a volume of some 100,000 pages, A4 format (not 100,000 files, as stated somewhere!).

This month, Jacques Patenet has given a number of interviews, in which he warned that we are not going to find any new big case. The best cases, such as Trans-en-Provence in 1981, are known already.

However, there is new information worth mentioning. The number of unidentified cases after serious study (the "PAN D" category), is now estimated at 25 to 28% (depending on the day ot the interview, apparently). This is much more than previous figures. In recent years, it was given at around 13%. So, the revision of the files has at least brought this bonus for French Ufology...

Two main ideas are being put forward by Jacques Patenet, in several interviews. First: "There are no secrets, and we are releasing all the files. Our purpose is to put to rest allegations of UFO secrecy. Second, the extraterrestrial hypothesis is conceivable, but there is not the slightest solid proof for it, or against either."

For my part, the point I want to stress is that, yes, these files at GEIPAN are not "secret" files. They are mainly sightings by civilian witnesses, gathered and reported by the Gendarmes - the military police. If there are really secret files in France, they are somewhere else, probably of military nature. At the debate yesterday on French TV, we pushed him a bit on that question, and he had to admit it. So, his first
the statement is somewhat misleading, in fact. If there are secret files, he just does not have them!

I also want to correct another mistake, seen in the Sunday Times article of March 25, "Spooky... They Start a UFO Website Then it Crashes". It mentions the COMETA Report (without naming it), published in 1999, as being a publication of the French government, at the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de Defense Nationale). Some people had said it at the time, but it is not true. This report was from a private group, the COMETA, even if its true that it had been encouraged at the beginning by the head of IHEDN, General Norlain.

In all, I think that we can consider that publication of French UFO files as a very positive effort; which has already the effect of renewing interest for UFOs in the French media, and perhaps of putting France back on the map of Ufology!

Labels: CNES, Files, France, French, GEIPAN, Gildas Bourdais, UFO, UFO Files

     DULCE, NEW MEXICO - On Sunday, March 25, I finally arrived at Dulce, New Mexico once again, after more than 17 years. It was a long drive from Los Angeles but it was definitely a worthwhile trip. The last time that I was at this "mysterious" little town was in March of 1990.

I will never forget that 1990 visit when I first brought a Japanese TV crew, incredible as it may sound, to document an alleged existence of an "underground U.S./alien joint bio-lab" which was rumored to exist deep under the Archuleta Mesa, adjacent to Dulce. While interviewing many Jicarilla Apache locals on the street at that visit, we were inexplicably detained by the then Police Chief, Hoyt Velarde and kept at his office for almost an hour and a half, during which time he had meticulously taken down our personal info, i.e., our ID's, driver's licence numbers and, in my case, even my Soc. Sec. number, if I recall correctly. It was a shock to us then. We had asked him if we were doing anything illegal by interviewing the people, the question to which he never responded. I clearly remember that just before he released us, he told us in a rather warning tone: "Don't you ever ask any more questions regarding such a base. I have nothing to do! with it and I do not want to talk about it!" An enigmatic answer, indeed. That was in March of 1990.

Now here I am once again, in Dulce. It brought me back lots of memories of 1990. However, this time, as soon as I drove in to Dulce, I immediately noticed that it had completely changed since 1990.

It seems to have grown quite a lot, not so much in terms of population, but in terms of its physical appearance. There are now so many new buildings, large and small and many modern local community facilites - a brand new Middle School, a brand new High School, a new Students' Athletic Complex, brand new Police and Maintenance Center, a modern Emergency Medical Service facility, and on the south side, a brand new Student's Residential Complex, and, of course, a newly refurbished Best Western Hotel, all in the small community of less than 3500 residents.

Yes, it has been many years, so it would seem natural for some growth to take place. However, the question I began to think was where did all the funds for all these sudden developments come from? And, especially, for such a tiny town?

When I interviewed the locals in 1990, I clearly remember that almost every one of them had testified to us that in the late 70's and the early 80's, they had frequently observed strange lights in the sky, especially flying over and around, and even appearing to disappear into the sides of the Mesa. They even testified to us that they also frequently observed military helicopters over Dulce, along with reports of cattle mutilations in the ranches nearby. Those were the things we heard back then when we were in Dulce in 1990.

To my great surprise, sightings still seem to continue in and around Dulce, even now!!

Even recent sightings of what many describe as "Bigfoot" along the Navajo River is also a fairly new topic of conversation in Dulce now.

I was so fortunate this time to personally get to know a friendly family who lives in the northwest area of the town. I had gotten to know the husband while I was attending the UFO syposium in Aztec the weekend before. During my three days of stay in Dulce this time, I have obtained many new, fascinating sighting reports from many locals again, particularly from the family that I just mentioned and their relatives.

On my second day of stay in Dulce, this family invited me to their residence for a great meal. They had also invited their relatives who were willing to describe to me in detail many strange experiences they have had and even are having now.

It was assuring to know that the family that I befriended were immediate relatives of high officials of the Jicarilla Apache tribe. The husband was a son of the former head of the Police Department (way before Hoyt Velarde). His wife is an immediate family of the head of the Jicarilla Apache tribal council. His sister-in-law has been a Dulce Police dispatcher. For this reason, I will refrain from naming any individuals to protect their privacy.

My friend's wife told me of a fairly recent incident whereby a huge, silent delta-shaped dark object emitting extremely bright lights slowly passed over a group of 50 to 75 (all their relatives) on a mesa where they were celebrating a traditional Jicarilla Apache feast called the "coming out" feast, a "puberty" celebration for young boys and girls (similar to the Spanish quincenera celebration). The huge object appeared after sundown, an hour or so after their traditional meals had ended and after the shamans had completed their chantings and dances. They were simply stunned to see the huge triangular 'craft' hovering only about 100 feet above the campground. The entire area lit up like daylight. What was more amazing was that after a few minutes of hovering over the area, it suddenly took off with a tremendous gust of wind. Pots and pans were flying all over. Some of the people were almost thrown off their vehicles. Fortunately! , no one was injured. Panic spread. The generators failed to re-start and all battery-operated appliances malfunctioned, including the car radios.

Another recent incident they recounted was a daytime sighting of a silver, saucer-shaped object at around 11 a.m., which hovered for 30 minutes right next to Hwy 537, not too far from the junction of U.S. 64, north of La Jara Lake.

One relative also recounted a recent, unforgettable sighting of a huge, flying "triangle" near Hwy 537, near J-30 (Jicrailla Road, #30), with some type of a "cloaking device" that almost appeared to have a transparent body. The object was described to have been close to half-a-mile in length!!

The biggest and most impressive sighting, however, took place in May of 2004 when several families were celebrating together the feast on a Jicarilla Apache campground, located at an area near J-33 and J-40, right near the Continental Divide. Incredibly, it involved hundreds (not just one or two objects) of brilliant objects in the night sky. It literally filled up the entire sky, according to the testimony of the former Dulce police dispatcher. There were close to 100 witnesses to this incredible incident. Some even said that there were probably close to several hundred objects in the night sky. They moved en masse slowly from one end of the sky to the other. It was literally an "armada" of UFOs (which exactly reminded me of the famous, well-documented 1950 mass sightings of UFOs over Farmington, near the Four Corners ara of New Mexico).

What was particularly fascinating about this sighting was that everyone also saw a small fleet of military helicopters which seemed to follow the objects. Again, car radios went dead all through the sighting.

An interesting point is that many of the appearances of UFOs seem to coincide with various feasts taking place in the Jicarilla Apache reservation. Were 'they' attracted to the Jicarilla feasts?

Last but not the least of the impressive Dulce sightings involved a Jicarilla Apache Forerst Service ranger who witnessed a 'craft' of some kind enter the east side of the Archuleta Mesa through several large rocks that appeared to open (almost like a door) and in went the craft into the side of the mesa. He excitedly reported this sighting live on his microphone while he was communicating on his radio with the Forest Service station across the south side of Dulce. The ranger was stationed at the top of the Archuleta Mesa in the look-out building next to the radio communications tower. This took place a few years after a big fire destroyed many of the trees on and around the mesa. (What is still strange about the aftermath of the fire, which they say happened about 10 years ago, is the fact that all attempts for the re-forestation have so far failed on and around the Archuleta Mesa. They just don't seem to grow, for some st! range reason or other.

What is my conclusion to all these recent sightings in Dulce? These were all first-hand eyewitnesses to the events. Without doubt, I cannot help but believe that they all saw what they described to have seen. There is no other explanation.

Lastly, while in Dulce, the son of the former head of the Dulce Police Department took me to the site of Project Gasbuggy. Project Gasbuggy was a rather 'strange' 1967 government project which involved a large underground nuclear explosion (29 kilotons of TNT) deep inside the high plateau area 25 miles south of Dulce, allegedly to release natural gas from deep under the ground. It was a joint project with El Paso Natural Gas Company. What is not frequently mentioned in association with this curious project was that the huge nuclear explosion had created, deep, huge underground extensive caverns all over the area along with extensive natural "tunnels".

What this has to do with the ongoing sightings of not only "UFOs" but also alleged sightings of "entities" (including fairly recent sightings of alleged 'Bigfoot' along the Navajo River near Dulce) is up to the reader. We may not necessarily be talking about purely physical phenomena but somehow intertwined with it could be a yet unknown type of "interdimensional" occurrances.

But, of course, we cannot rule out any prosaic answers. One theory is that the town of Dulce is benefitting financially by allegedly covering up the dumping of nuclear waste materials (from Los Alamos and elsewhere) into the underground cavities under Dulce and its neighboring areas and have created the entire Dulce "underground base" story as a cover story!

Whatever the case may be, it is simply fascinating!! And it is still ongoing in the "mysterious" town of Dulce, New Mexico!!

Labels: Dulce, Jicarilla Apaches, New Mexico, Norio Hayakawa, UFO, Underground Base

     At first, she thought what she was seeing was something ordinary.

"As I pulled out of my driveway, I noticed it," Theresa Sinclair, 58, Silvis said. "I thought it was an airplane that was very low."

It was about 6:30 a.m. March 23, and Ms. Sinclair was on her way to her job at the Rock Island Arsenal. What she saw through the open window of her car was a triangular shape in the sky, with bright red, green and white lights along its edges, outlining the shape.

When Ms. Sinclair first saw it, the triangle appeared to be over a high-rise building at the intersection of 10th Street and Crosstown Avenue. She couldn't say what distance it actually was away from her, but it appeared big.

She said she then looked away because she was concentrating on driving west on Crosstown, but when she looked up again, it was moving -- fast.

"It just, like, zipped to Jewel (grocery store), then it zipped to over by Colona Road," Ms. Sinclair said.

She stopped her car at the intersection of Crosstown and 10th Street and got out to have a better look.

"I decided I was intrigued at this point," Ms. Sinclair said. "Then I looked up, and it was gone."

The whole episode only took three or four minutes, she said.

The whole time she observed the object, she did not hear anything like the sounds of jet engines or helicopter blades. It appeared to stay the same distance away from her the whole time.

"I heard nothing, I heard nothing at all," Ms. Sinclair said.

And apparently neither did anyone else.

Local and federal authorities, including the National Weather Service, the Federal Aviation Administration and Quad City International Airport said they received no reports of anything odd in the sky during that time.

Ms. Sinclair said she did not report it either. "I was just so taken aback by it," she said.

She did tell some of her co-workers about it, though. Jokes about little green men ensued.

"You laugh, but stranger things happen," she told them.

The next day, Ms. Sinclair went out at the same time, but did not see anything. There wasn't a second show.

She said Wednesday that she's not on any medications, had not had any alcohol, nor suffered any recent blows to the head.

Many officials, and some local astronomers, also could not or, in some cases, would not, explain what she saw.

"Chances are she wasn't seeing what she thinks she saw," said Black Hawk College professor Richard Harwood, who teaches geology, geography and astronomy.

He said that Saturn and Jupiter would have been visible in the sky as bright stars that morning. It's possible one of them could have appeared moving because Ms. Sinclair's vehicle was in motion.

"In her case, who can say," Mr. Harwood said. "Nobody else saw it, it's hard to tell."

When asked what she thought it was, Ms. Sinclair replied with a laugh that it was an unidentified flying object, or UFO.

But then she added, "I can't say."

"I would like to have been able to say it was a plane or a weather balloon," she said. "But I don't know. It was unidentifiable."

Labels: 3-23-07, Silvis, Triangle, Triangular, UFO

     SANTIAGO, Chile - Pilots of a Chilean commercial jetliner spotted flaming objects falling past their plane as it headed for a landing in New Zealand, airline officials said Wednesday.

U.S. experts suggested the objects were likely meteors burning up in the earth's atmosphere and questioned Australian media reports they were probably pieces of a falling Russian spacecraft.

LAN Chile airline said in a brief statement that the pilot, who was not identified, "made visual contact with incandescent fragments" several miles away on Monday. The Airbus 340 had just entered New Zealand airspace when the space debris was spotted.

The airline said it reported the incident to authorities in Chile and New Zealand.

Web sites of several Australian news media quoted officials as saying that pieces of a Russian satellite had narrowly missed the jet.

But Nicholas Johnson, orbital debris chief scientist for NASA's Johnson Space Center, said that was likely not the case. Russian space junk was expected to come back to Earth _ but not until about 12 hours after the incident with the jet, Johnson said.

He said he checked with the Russians and the debris _ an empty Progress resupply ship that had been at the International Space Station _ re-entered Earth's atmosphere on schedule.

"Unless someone has their times wrong, there appears to be no correlation," Johnson told The Associated Press.

About 50 meteoroids enter the Earth's atmosphere every day _ mostly burning up as they speed toward the planet _ said Bill Ailor, director of the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies at the Aerospace Corporation of El Segundo, Calif.

Those that survive and hit the ground are called meteorites.

By contrast, about 150 pieces of man-made space junk fall back to Earth each year, with about two-thirds of it coming as unplanned entries, Ailor said.

Larger pieces of man-made space equipment, such as the Progress resupply ship, have motors to guide them back to Earth, Ailor said. If they are calculated to have more than a 1 in 10,000 chance of hitting people, they are shifted to a safer path, he said, though small errors can lead to large variations in where the debris hits.

No one has ever been killed by space junk, Ailor said, although in 1997, an Oklahoma woman was grazed in the shoulder by piece.

Labels: Debris, Jetliner, Near Miss Chili, Satellite, Space Junk, UFO

     A 60-year-old woman reported seeing a yellow-white ball of light, which made no noise, at about 10.45pm last Thursday.

She was so disturbed by what she had seen that she contacted Paul Sinclair, who runs a website recording all potential UFO sightings.

The pair are now appealing for anyone else who saw the light, or who may be able to offer an explanation, to come forward.

Labels: Ball of Light, Church, Driffield, Orb, UFO

     An article appears today in the Tucson Citizen where columnist, “Jeff Smith” Lambasts former Governor, “Fife Symington.”

Obviously there is no love lost between this columnist and Symington; however, does one’s politics affect the reliability of an observation regarding a UFO? Should it? Of course not!

Debunker’s S.O.P.: When one can’t attack the data—attack the people/person.

Prior to the news breaking about Symington, Mike Fortson and I discussed the upcoming “trouncing” that he (Symington) would take . . . and so it begins.

In fairness to Mr. Smith, I don’t believe his goal is to “pooh-pooh” Ufology, or specifically the “Phoenix Lights Incident,” that’s just ignorance on his part, as evidenced by his comments towards the end of his piece; he writes:

“It was a CNN report of a documentary on UFOs. Back in 1997 - you may remember; I barely can - a flock of Phoenicians reported seeing UFOs flying over the city. Quite a flock. "Other people saw it, responsible people," said one of the flockers, but at the time he denied it and ridiculed the notion of UFOs and those who report them.

It was our then-governor, the ever-hypocritical Fife Three. He held a news conference and his chief of staff wore a little green man suit. Big laughs all around.

Now as then, truth is slow in coming from the mouth of Fife Symington, and when it emerges, Arizona is made the fool. Now we're that hick state in the rattlesnake belt that elected a governor who saw a flying saucer and bug-eyed aliens.

And it turns out that federal fraud investigators may not be the only ones who have probed J. Fife Symington III. I bet I know what they found.
… do do do do, do do do do. “

For anyone stuck on a remote island for the last ten years, what Smith refers to as a “flock of Phoenicians” is actually tens of thousands of Americans in a few states; although what he refers to as a “flying saucer,” (actually an enormous “V-shaped craft”) was “primarily” seen in Arizona!

Most certainly this will be the beginning of future articles that will attempt to disassemble Fife Symington's character; here’s some samples of what one might hear or read:

If he was a “corrupt politician” and lied while in office, why should we believe him now?

He’s been out of the limelight and wants attention.

His failing political career has caused a breakdown—he’s nuts!

He’s doing it for the “big money” all Ufologists make on books, movies and lecturing!

Those are the basics that will undoubtedly pop-up in the near future, as well as variations thereof.

So! Why did Symington wait so long to make this “declaration?” The answer is, “he didn’t!” Close friends and family were aware of his “personal sighting” and his own efforts investigating the matter.

It was “filmmaker” “James’ Fox” who sought Symington out, and asked the pertinent questions. Political career behind him, he obviously felt he had nothing to lose; for the layperson, talking UFOs is “political suicide” . . . just ask Frances Barwood!”

In the end, when either a current or former politician, particularly an “Ex-Governor” steps forward and has the stones to talk UFOs, it’s very significant! It’s reminiscent of the days when our government took the phenomenon very seriously (and publicly).

Perhaps others (politicians) will find the courage to do the same.

Labels: CNN, Fife Symington, Phoenix Lights, UFO, V-Shaped Craft

     Pasadena, Calif. -- An odd, six-sided, honeycomb-shaped feature circling the entire north pole of Saturn has captured the interest of scientists with NASA's Cassini mission.

NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft imaged the feature over two decades ago. The fact that it has appeared in Cassini images indicates that it is a long-lived feature. A second hexagon, significantly darker than the brighter historical feature, is also visible in the Cassini pictures. The spacecraft's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer is the first instrument to capture the entire hexagon feature in one image.

"This is a very strange feature, lying in a precise geometric fashion with six nearly equally straight sides," said Kevin Baines, atmospheric expert and member of Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We've never seen anything like this on any other planet. Indeed, Saturn's thick atmosphere where circularly-shaped waves and convective cells dominate is perhaps the last place you'd expect to see such a six-sided geometric figure, yet there it is."

The hexagon is similar to Earth's polar vortex, which has winds blowing in a circular pattern around the polar region. On Saturn, the vortex has a hexagonal rather than circular shape. The hexagon is nearly 25,000 kilometers (15,000 miles) across. Nearly four Earths could fit inside it.

The new images taken in thermal-infrared light show the hexagon extends much deeper down into the atmosphere than previously expected, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) below the cloud tops. A system of clouds lies within the hexagon. The clouds appear to be whipping around the hexagon like cars on a racetrack.

"It's amazing to see such striking differences on opposite ends of Saturn's poles," said Bob Brown, team leader of the Cassini visual and infrared mapping spectrometer, University of Arizona, Tucson. "At the south pole we have what appears to be a hurricane with a giant eye, and at the north pole of Saturn we have this geometric feature, which is completely different."

The Saturn north pole hexagon has not been visible to Cassini's visual cameras, because it's winter in that area, so the hexagon is under the cover of the long polar night, which lasts about 15 years. The infrared mapping spectrometer can image Saturn in both daytime and nighttime conditions and see deep inside. It imaged the feature with thermal wavelengths near 5 microns (seven times the wavelength visible to the human eye) during a 12-day period beginning on Oct. 30, 2006. As winter wanes over the next two years, the feature may become visible to the visual cameras.

Based on the new images and more information on the depth of the feature, scientists think it is not linked to Saturn's radio emissions or to auroral activity, as once contemplated, even though Saturn's northern aurora lies nearly overhead.

The hexagon appears to have remained fixed with Saturn's rotation rate and axis since first glimpsed by Voyager 26 years ago. The actual rotation rate of Saturn is still uncertain.

"Once we understand its dynamical nature, this long-lived, deep-seated polar hexagon may give us a clue to the true rotation rate of the deep atmosphere and perhaps the interior," added Baines.

The hexagon images and movie, including the north polar auroras are available at: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu .

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona.

Labels: Artifact, Cassini, Hexagon, Image, NASA, Saturn

     I lived in Great Falls, Montana from 1989-2002. Around 1988 I was driving home in the middle of winter from Missoula, MT--it was on a Sunday night around 10 p.m. It's a three hour drive from Missoula to Great Falls, on Highway 200. I had just come down the East side of the Rockies, passed Bowman's Corner, and was now driving through empty range land. In around 20 miles I'd merge with the main freeway and zip south to Great Falls.

It was a very clear night, with loads of stars in the sky. I would look out the windshield, no other cars around me at all, and then look up through the driver's side window up to the stars in the night sky because it was so beautiful to see. Suddenly, when I turned to look out the side window again, I saw a large, luminous circle of lime green floating in the sky. It had appeared out of the blue. I had the distant feeling the light was looking down at me. I pulled over and got very nervous; I felt, for some reason, incredibly vulnerable. I stared at the object and within a minute or two it then dashed through the sky in shortl, abrupt lines, like it was outlining an invisible triangle and then it took off quicker than my eyes could follow, dashing back West over the Rockies. It was gone in a blink of my eyes. There is no way that any human aircraft could dance around the sky the way it did, utterly, completely soundless; and then zoom away so quickly.

I was unnerved. I got out to urinate in the freezing cold, with snow and ice on the road and the landscape, then got back inside. I checked the clock on the dash and all time seemed accountable; that is, there was no lapse in recognized time passage. I had not, apparently, gone anywhere for any length of time unbeknownst to my conscious mind. I had not been abducted, as I had heard some folks believed themselves to have been.

I suppose others think it is so exciting to visualize a UFO, but when you are a petite woman, faced with advanced technology as you sit in your Ford Escort Wagon, with no other human around to help you or witness your experience, I found it positively frightening. I hope to never see one again, at least alone, in the freezing winter, late at night, in rural America.

Days later I was channel surfing and came, coincidentally, across a show on UFOs on the Sci-Fi Channel. Lo and Behold, imagine my shock when they mentioned that the large, luminous, lime-green flying object in the sky is one of the most common UFOs seen by people. I had not known that. I was not, by any means, a follower of UFOs before I saw one.

Anyway, I heard locally when I lived there that there were pretty frequent UFO sightings around that area in Montana, because of Malmstrom Air Force base. I heard that UFOs not uncommonly hang out around military bases. I don't know if that's true.

I still feel that they were watching me, analyzing me, wondering, perhaps, if they should "take" me. Why they chose not to--if that is an accurate feeling and not simply the imaginative part of my mind getting goofy and way out of line--is unknown, but I'm very happy "they" let me be. I wish them well and hope never to see them again.

Labels: 1988, Great Falls Montana, Green, Malmstrom Air Force Base, My UFO Experience, Orb, UFO

     Mystery surrounds claims that jets from RAF Lakenheath were called to intercept a UFO.
UFO experts claim to have a recording which they have posted on the internet as proof that London Military Air Traffic Control contacted a flight of US Air Force
F-15s from the base, after a UFO was picked up on their radar on January 12.

But air traffic control denies making the call – and RAF Lakenheath will not comment without having more detail over the alleged incident.

Steve Johnson, features writer for UFO Data Magazine, said: "We are still looking into it and we have made a Freedom of Information request to the Ministry of Defence and have also contacted RAF Lakenheath – but they haven't got back to us yet."

The magazine and UFO Monitors East Kent are analysing an audio file picked up by radio enthusiasts purporting to be a call made by London Military Air Traffic Control to a crew of F-15s flying out of RAF Lakenheath.

They claim it tells the American airmen to intercept an unknown target at 3,000 to 4,000ft.

The F-15s get a radar lock on the target and make a 'pass' at 17,000ft and then again at 17,700ft.

Pilots described the black rock like object as unlike any aircraft they
have ever seen.

"One pilot was heard to say to another: 'Did you see that?' And the other replied: 'Yes, but I don't want to talk about it," said Chris Rolfe, of UFO Monitors East Kent.

It is also claimed that the object occasionally appeared to come to a complete halt.

UFO monitors are unable to give a location or a time for the incident, saying only that it happened in the afternoon.
The base itself said it was unable to look into the incident without these details.

A spokesman for London Military Air Traffic Control said: "I've spoken with both the civil and military supervisors at London Control. Neither has any record of an intercept request on or around January 12 – and intercept requests are recorded – so I cannot verify this account."

You can hear the audio file for yourself at www.ufodata.co.uk – click on F-15s UFO incident.

Labels: F-15, Lakenheath, RADAR. January 12 2007, RAF, UFO, UFO Data Magazine

[Norio, who is one of our regular contributors writes: "I thoroughly enjoyed the symposium.

It was super!

The only thing bad was that I was misquoted by a Daily Times guy who asked me a few questions.

He seemed to have twisted a little (probably unintentionally) of what I said, making me a total skeptic on everything. Also, I think he omitted one verb in a sentence that I quoted, which was very important."]

     AZTEC — Norio Hayakawa says he has always approached the question of whether unidentified flying objects (UFOs) exist with a certain amount of skepticism.

He said he has spent the better part of four decades making sure not to believe just any old claim.

Hayakawa was one of a couple hundred of people to visit the Aztec Boys and Girls Club on Saturday during Aztec's 2007 UFO Symposium. All types of believers with incredible stories showed up for the 10th year of the annual event.

Hayakawa said many of the so-called UFO sightings are nothing more than rumors perpetuated by the government to discredit people's claims of seeing advanced military technology. Hayakawa alleges that the federal government is behind these rumors to conceal the fact that they have military devices way beyond what the public believes exist. Talk of alien ships are a nice way to make sure that no one seriously investigates the sightings.

But there is one sighting he feels cannot be refuted.

Hayakawa said the March 1950 sighting of UFOs in Farmington has too many witnesses who told too consistent stories to consider it anything but truth.

"I'm still skeptical, except about the Farmington sighting. ... I have doubt in my mind that people saw these objects high in the sky," he said.

Hayakawa, a writer from Los Angeles, Calif., who works at a funeral home, has helped write articles and lead Japanese documentaries about paranormal activities and other unexplained phenomenon.

He estimates he has visited and researched countless sites all across the country.

Some merely believe in UFOs. Others claim to have first-hand experience. And some were just there to find out what's going on in the curious world of the paranormal.

Jodi Shand, 68, of Aztec, attended the first two symposiums but said, for one reason or another, she took a break for a while. She decided to return again this year to find out more about what is going on in the community of the believers.

Shand's fascination with UFOs dates back as long as she can remember. But the turning point in her life came a few years ago on what began as a normal day.

Shand recalls, with chilling detail, how one day she got home from work early in the afternoon and turned on the television to the news. It was a national news program but when it flipped to the local program, the local anchor in Colorado looked upset, she said.

"He said, Okay, we have some footage from Phoenix, I don't know what to make of this ... you have to make up your own mind,'" she said.

The footage was of a huge spaceship hovering over residential neighborhoods in the broad daylight, she said. Hundreds of people stared skywards as a huge metallic ship passed by.

Shand never saw that footage again. She believes the government pulled it and saw to it that no one saw the clips. Naturally, her belief in UFOs has not altered since.

"I know they're real because I saw it. It wasn't a fake thing. And all of these regular people, looking at this thing on a Sunday afternoon. It was fascinating and I thought wow, it's not a secret anymore,'" she said. "There's just been so many people who've seen or experienced things that I just don't think they're all nuts."

On Saturday, Shand wanted to learn more about what else is out there and being overlooked. She said she does not think about UFOs and other bizarre goings-on too often, but once in a while, she likes to learn a little bit more about what other people have seen and experienced.

At the event, she purchased a book by David Hatcher Childress, one of the speakers at the symposium. She was eager to learn more about the lost cities Childress claims can be found all around the world.

Childress, who grew up in Durango, Colo., spoke at length about a variety of topics including ancient electricity, ancient power sources and lost cities. He estimates there are more than 200 sunken cities in the Mediterranean Sea alone.

His central theory is that very advanced civilizations existed long before our own, but, as predicted by the Mayans, they fell victim to natural cycles of pole shifts that cause destruction and rebirth.

Using a slide-show, he presented his case for the proposition that these civilizations could not have achieved what they did using only the primitive resources that mainstream archaeologists believe they could access.

According to Childress, what they accomplished required much greater technology.

Blanche Zola, 71, of Gay Mills, Wis., has read one of his books and is looking forward to learning more about what she believes is her true heritage.

Childress traces the supposed roots of these former civilizations. Upon hearing Childress' presentation, Zola became interested in learning more.

Through studies of ancient, yet undocumented societies, Zola hopes to piece together more about her own past and where she comes from. She owns 1,000 books already. But after this weekend's symposium, the count is sure to increase.

The UFO Symposium continues today from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Everyone, including skeptics, are invited.

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