THE UFO CHRONICLES


nam et ipsa scientia potestas est
- Knowledge is Power -

     Hello, My name is XXX XXXXXX and was born and raised in XXX XXXXXXX XX.

When my husband and I were dating, sitting in his car in my driveway at the home I grew up in, we were holding each other and looked up above a 80 to 100 year old cottonwood tree and saw a glowing type of color of orange light in the shape of a door way. I've never seen that color before or since. But it was as though I was dazed or something, I was looking right at it for some time and snapped to and realized ,What is that, I climbed that same tree Many times as a kid growing up.

I then leaned back and pointed to my now husband and told him to look!! We both were looking right at it seeing the same thing. A door was open of something and we were seeing the light inside of whatever this thing was. Never saw movement, up or down, just stayed in the same place over the top of that tree. We could hear no noise of anything like a machine, or craft . There was no lights on thru the neighborhood, I looked. We both felt a fear, but we was incredibly tired, I went on in the house and straight to bed ,that was odd for me to do, My husband could'nt make his drive home and pulled off at a rock quarry and slept in his car.

We don't know what we experienced or what I feel may have happened to us. But to this day, we can't get it out of our minds. This was real. I've lived with a fear since. And now I'm growing more angry that things or knowledge is being kept from us. I feel like there was something I was envolved in and had no choice or say in the matter. They just did it. Theres never a night that I don't look to the sky. I need answers. Got any???

Labels: Doorway, My UFO Experience, Orange, UFO

     One never knows what information will show up, or where the information will come from when doing UFO research. Sometimes it comes from the witnesses themselves, or in some cases a spouse, a child or other person somehow related or acquainted with the witness. Finding a “side-story” not related to a UFO case can also be interesting when it’s found. Over the years I’ve enjoyed looking into other interests fellow researchers have when not doing UFO research. The in-depth interview Wendy Connors and I did several years ago with Walter Haut revealed his childhood in Chicago; involvement in WWII with the 509th bomb wing and other non-UFO related accomplishments. Those little tidbits of information give a better overview of the person in my opinion, sometimes not otherwise known.

Such is the account I stumbled on recently while doing a radio interview, when I was asked if I could verify some information I had never heard of before.

Everyone who is familiar with the 1947 Roswell Incident of course recognizes the name “Mack” Brazel, the ranch foreman on the Foster ranch near Corona in 1947, who found the debris scattered across his pasture. By all accounts “Mack” appears to have been a gentle man, away from his family a lot while in charge of the ranch, and trying to earn a living in the 1940s. After the Roswell Incident, his interrogation by the military, and unwanted notoriety, he apparently tried to remain that gentle person, still a characteristic of ranchers in the southwest United States today.

Apparently such was not the case with “Mack’s” uncle “Wayne” Brazel, back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when the “wild west” was still controlled by the six-shooter. As with the 1947 Roswell Incident, the story I will share about Jesse “Wayne” Brazel, “Mack’s” uncle, also contains controversy, but I can’t pass up sharing it.

During the late 1800s two names emerged which are forever remembered in the annuals of the old west---Billy the kid and Sheriff Pat Garrett.

The legend of William H. Bonney (left), (better known as Billy the Kid), became well known over the years as being a vicious and ruthless killer in the New Mexico Territory during the 1800’s. Many of his escapades have been exaggerated over the years in books and films, but there is no doubt that he was a wanted man. After finally being captured, the “kid” shot his way out of the second floor Lincoln County jail on April 28, 1881, in Lincoln, New Mexico (about 47 miles west of Roswell), killing Sheriff Pat Garrett’s deputies Bob Ollinger and James Bell, and successfully escaped.

Although Pat Garrett (left) is best known for killing Billy the Kid, many think he was one of the most contradictory men in the history of the American West. Depending on what can be researched about Garrett, he is also accused of being a woman chaser, drinker, gambler and a man slow at paying his debts. His marriages were also controversial affairs. About the time of the Lincoln County War, Garrett became Sheriff, with strong support from cattle baron John Chisum. As Sheriff, his primary responsibility was to track down Billy the Kid, which he subsequently did, locking him up in the Lincoln County jail, only to have the Kid shoot two of Garrett’s’ deputies while escaping. Garrett tracked down Billy the Kid again, this time at Fort Sumner, (about 80 miles north of Roswell). The Kid was hiding at the house of land baron Pete Maxwell, and around midnight on July 14, 1881, Sheriff Pat Garrett was sitting beside a bed talking to Maxwell when the Kid stepped through the doorway. He saw Garrett sitting there, but didn’t recognize him in the darkness. Instead, he drew his revolver and hoarsely whispered, “Quien es?” (Who is it?). Garrett fired and shot Billy the Kid dead, putting an end to his young outlaw life.

Enter “Wayne” Brazel, the uncle of “Mack” Brazel….

As the years passed by Garrett’s troubles increased because of his gambling, drinking, and loss of allies. James P. Miller, who had a reputation as a murderer was interested in buying Garrett’s Bear Canyon Ranch in southern New Mexico. During the negotiations Garrett informed Miller that a “goat man” named “Wayne” Brazel (right) leased a portion of the ranch and would have to be evicted. When confronted Brazel refused to leave unless he was paid $3.50 a head for his 1200 goats. Miller agreed, and offered Garrett $3000.00 for the ranch. Then Brazel raised the price and Miller told Garrett the deal was off since he didn’t have that kind of money.

The next day, February 29, 1908, Garrett and Carl Anderson, a relative of Miller’s, set out for Las Cruces in a buggy and caught up with Brazel, who was on horseback. Garrett and Brazel began arguing about the goats and Garrett said, “it didn’t make any difference whether Brazel moved off of the property or not, he (Garrett) would get him off the ranch somehow.”

From here on there are two accounts of what took place next. One says Garrett climbed out of the buggy and stepped to the rear of it to relieve himself, carrying his folding shotgun in his right hand, and turning his back on Brazel ---who shot him twice in the back of the head. The other account says that while the two were arguing, Garrett reached under the buggy seat to retrieve his shotgun and Brazel shot him. So a little over a quarter century after Pat Garrett shot Billy the Kid, he met his own demise from a handgun.

Fourteen months later on April 19, 1909, Brazel’s case went before a twelve-man jury that took 15 minutes to reach a verdict of “self defense.”

There are other accounts of who shot Pat Garrett, for other reasons and where, but I couldn’t pass up the fact that Roswell witness “Mack” Brazel’s uncle “Wayne” is included, hoping the reader will enjoy this return to the “old wild west” near Roswell in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when law and order were much different than today.

Billy the Kid is buried at Ft Sumner New Mexico where he met his end, amongst much controversy whether the grave actually contains the remains of the Kid or not. Pat Garrett was buried in Las Cruces, at the Odd Fellows cemetery, on March 5, 1908. In the 1950s due to poor maintenance of the cemetery, Garrett’s son had his father’s remains reinterred at the Masonic Cemetery across the street.

As for “Wayne” Brazel”, he married and obtained a small ranch west of Lordsburg, New Mexico a few years after killing Garrett. When his wife died in 1913, he sold the property and disappeared from public record. It is unknown where he moved to after selling the property, and his exact date of death is unknown, but believed to have been around 1915.

Labels: Billy The Kid, Dennis Balthaser, Mack Brazel, Old Wild West, Pat Garrett, Roswell, UFO, William H. Bonney

     A 10/9/97 letter from Sen. John McCain to a constituent about the so-called Phoenix Lights is making the Internet rounds (at http://tinyurl.com/3cojna) just in time for next month’s anniversary commemoration in Scottsdale. But to the amazement of Dr. Lynn Kitei, no one has bothered to press the de facto Republican presidential nominee for an updated response.

Kitei is a Phoenix physician whose world view went sideways when an apparent V-shaped UFO surprised untold numbers of Arizonans on the evening of March 13, 1997. Kitei had seen and even photographed strange lights in the night sky two months earlier, but the mass sightings on that date ultimately drew her into the limelight as a lead investigator.

Labels: 1997, Dr. Lynn Kitei, Letter, Phoenix Lights, Sen. John McCain

     In 1952, in an attempt to cope with the public outcry concerning hundreds of reports of UFOs, the U.S. Air Force organized “Project Blue Book” whose primary objective was to collect and analyze citizen reports of UFO sightings. The chief scientific consultant for that project was a well-respected Northwestern University astronomy professor, J. Allen Hynek.

When Hynek first began his UFO research, he was very doubtful that the purported UFO sightings were of any real significance. In fact, during a 1966 congressional hearing on UFOs, he indicated that “the whole subject seemed utterly ridiculous,” and he thought the sightings were a fad which would soon pass. However, after decades of analyzing hundreds of UFO reports from airline pilots, military personnel, police officers, public officials, psychologists, astronomers and other scientists, Hynek said his opinion started to shift. He believed something was going on and serious research was needed to understand what it was. In a 1985 interview with Dennis Stacy, when asked what caused his change of opinion, he responded: It ... “was the completely negative and unyielding attitude of the Air Force. They wouldn’t give UFOs the chance of existing even if they were flying up and down the street in broad daylight.” In the late 1970s, Hynek also told a group of students and faculty at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale that his team fudged the data on “Project Blue Book.” He said they could explain only 80 percent of the sightings, and the 20 percent that could not be explained were often omitted from reports, and then used by the team for more in-depth research.

Many other well-respected Americans have also commented on UFO-related matters. On the Web site wanttoknow.info/ufocover-up, which quotes the book “Disclosure” compiled by Steven M. Greer, Apollo 14 Astronaut Edgar Mitchell said: “Yes ... there have been crashed craft. There have been material and bodies recovered. There has been a certain amount of reverse engineering that has allowed some of these craft, or some components to be duplicated. ... It has been a subject of disinformation in order to deflect attention and create confusion so that the truth doesn’t come out.”

Former CIA Director Adm. R.H. Hillenkoetter, in a statement dated Feb. 28, 1960, and reported by The New York Times, said: “It is time for the truth to be brought out in open Congressional hearings. Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense. To hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced its personnel.”

Also on the Web site is a statement by former U.S. National Security Council staff member Col. Philip J. Corso concerning his viewing of a dead extraterrestrial being at Fort Riley, Kan., on July 6, 1947: “First, I thought it was a child because it was small. Then I looked at its head and all. The head was different. The arms were thin. The body was gray. So right at that moment I figured I don’t know what this thing is ...”

In his book “The Day After Roswell” Corso writes, “What I found was an intriguing Army intelligence document describing the creature as an inhabitant of a craft that had crashed-landed in Roswell, New Mexico, earlier that week and a routing manifest for this creature to the log-in officer at the Air Materiel Command at Wright Field and from him to the Walter Reed Army Hospital morgue’s pathology section ....”

Skeptics by the hundreds often dismiss statements such as those of the above cited government officials and military officers as either hallucinations, erroneous perceptions, or out-and-out lies. One skeptic, the highly respected astronomer Dr. Carl Sagan, when invited to participate in a 1995 Washington D.C.-based UFO conference called “When Cosmic Cultures Meet,” said: “Thank you for your interesting invitation. As we have, in my view, no even moderately suggestive evidence that humans are encountering or have ever encountered a non-primate technical civilization, it seems premature to plan a conference on the subject. As far as extraterrestrial civilization on planets of other stars are concerned, I think there is a quite compelling argument that any contact we make will be with a civilization immensely more advanced than we are, in which case this conference you propose would be tantamount to ants planning a meeting on what to do if they ever encountered humans.”

Given the conflicting observations of such respected Americans, what are we to believe? Clearly, additional research is needed.

Labels: 1952, Adm. R.H. Hillenkoetter, Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, Dennis Stacy, Flying Saucer, J. Allen Hynek, Project Blue Book, Steven M. Greer, UFO

     "I was not a big UFO person, didn't know much about it other than my own experience." Sitting in her Tyler, Texas home, Charlotte man tells us about her experience, which she calls the "family secret," many of the details discovered on her grandparents deathbeds.

It was April, 1941 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Around 9:30 p.m., Charlotte's grandfather, Reverend William Huffman, got a call about a plane crash and was asked to help. "When they got out there, it wasn't a plane crash at all. It was a saucer, was how he described it," says Charlotte.

According to the story, 3 alien bodies lie on the ground next to the spaceship; two already dead. "However, granddad said the third one when he got to him, he was breathing very shallow and so he did pray with him. He did expire as he was on his knees praying for him. He then went to the other two and prayed over them."

Charlotte's grandfather then took a closer look at the spaceship. "What he was most impressed with was in the inside there were writings, but he did not recognize it. He said it looked similar to hieroglyphics. The Egyptian hieroglyphics," explains Charlotte.

Quickly, the scene was covered with military personnel and Reverend Huffman was sworn to secrecy. Charlotte says, "He was told, 'This did not happen. You did not see this. This is enormous national security. You're not to ever speak of it again.'"

But the enormity of what he had witnessed was too much for a man. The shock on his face told what his words, at first, did not. Then after gaining their promise, he shared with his family what had happened. "Granddad was a quiet man to begin with but grandmother said the look on his face was different," says Charlotte.

A few weeks after the UFO crash, Reverend Huffman was given a picture taken that night by a local photographer. "He felt like someone else besides himself should have a copy and granddad was the only one he trusted. So he gave him a copy of the picture. So I had seen that picture all growing up." Charlotte goes on to say, "You couldn't see those big eyes and not be affected. It wasn't anything I had ever seen."

That picture went missing years ago after her grandfather loaned it to a friend, who never returned it. But seeing that picture and knowing the integrity of her grandfather, Charlotte believes the story is true. But, she never had any proof until a few years ago while doing research for a documentary on the crash.

"We got validation by going to the archives in Washington D.C. And to see a top secret declassified document that stated that there was in fact a crash retrieval in 1941 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, for me, I have not forgotten holding that paper in my hand and realizing that my families story was real, was solid, and for me was just an answer to a long time question."



But Charlotte knows some people will still be skeptical. "That's OK with me. I don't have to convince anybody. I just have to know what's true for me. I think it's arrogant to think that a God that we have that is so awesome, created just us. I also don't think that we have to worry about a huge threat from them because if that were their intention, that would have happened a long time ago."

Charlotte's story is one of many involving UFO's and she's quick to point out, it won't be the last, saying the next extraterrestrial visit is not far away. "I don't think that's a thing of the future. I just think we're going to see more of it and Stephenville is just the beginning of it happening everywhere. I think there will always be things that we are not aware of but we should always keep an open mind for possibilities."

The UFO crash of 1941 in Missouri continues to be researched and investigated today. So far, the story has been included in two books and one documentary.

Labels: 1941, Alien, Cape Girardeau, Charlotte Mann, Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Missouri, Reverend William Huffman

      Another law enforcement officer has come forward in the strange and mysterious UFO sightings in Erath County.

Sgt. Jim Clifton of the Erath County Sheriff's Department was with Erath County Constable Lee Roy Gaitan in the early morning hours of Feb. 2 on U.S. Hwy. 377 when both saw something extraordinary in the black sky.

"It was a clear night, no clouds, no moon, and a dark night," Clifton said. "I've never seen anything like that before in my career. I've never seen any aircraft like that. The lights did not appear to be military. I was very amazed at what we saw."

Clifton said he received a call to check out an alarm at Woody's restaurant and when he got to the eatery, Gaitan had heard the call also and was already there. The two took care of business and then Gaitan told Clifton there was something in the sky.

"He heard the alarm and got there before I did," Clifton said. "I got in the car with him and observed this with him. It looked like it was over the Highland area to the west and it was a large object."

Clifton said they observed the unidentified flying object through the "dash cam" in the car and could see it quite clearly with the zoom feature. He said the camera is in a permanent mount, which is stationary. So, in his eyes, the video is more than credible because shaking the camera could not be a concern.

"To your naked eye it looked like a bright light and I couldn't really tell if it was moving, but I don't think it was," Clifton said. "What it looked like is difficult to describe because there is nothing to compare it to."

Clifton said the object had a transparent or perhaps translucent appearance and it had " a fog or vapor or cloud around it."

Clifton said he saw colors of white, blue, and red.

"I wasn't frightened - I was just trying to think of what it might be," Clifton said. "I don't have a clue. I wish I had an explanation but I can't think of any explanation. The thing that impressed me was how big it was. It stuck in my mind."

Clifton said he is looking at the sky more now to try and see it again. He said most people he knows are doing the same.

Clifton said he has seen a video from Canada in what he thinks was the year 2007 that is most similar to what he and Gaitan saw.

Both men said the sighting was reported to the Erath County Sheriff's office at the time.

Labels: Angelia Joiner, Dash Cam, Erath County, Sgt. Jim Clifton, Texas, UFO

      Investigators with Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) collected seventeen new UFO sighting reports in Dublin, Texas, on Saturday, Feb. 23.

Not knowing what to expect in the way of numbers of witnesses, eight field investigators attended from the organization from Austin, Waco, Dallas/ Fort Worth, and said they were pleased with results.

Chief Investigator Steve Hudgeons was asked if he believed the new reports were credible and said investigators are often faced with reports from individuals only wanting to get in on the action.

"Of the reports I have reviewed, I didn't get an impression that witnesses were not honest in their accounts," Hudgeons said. "As I have said before, this is a very, very, significant sighting."

Hudgeons conducted an interview with star witness Ricky Sorrells, who was first interviewed by Angela K. Brown of the Associated Press, on Jan. 14. After that interview was released, his story of the daytime UFO sighting at his property just outside of Dublin, quickly traveled around the world and major news outlets converged on Stephenville, Texas, the next day.

"I knew most of his (Sorrells') report because we had talked on the phone days earlier, but you never know a person until you have met them face to face," Hudgeons said. "I found him to be a man of his word because he told me he was going to see me for an interview, and he did come in, even though he was sick and not feeling well. We talked alone for almost an hour. I learned a good deal about his sighting that I hadn't known prior to our visit. He was very direct with his questions and answers. I admire and respect that quality in a person."

Hudgeons said, according to MUFON records, the total number of sighting reports in Texas, beginning in 1977 and continuing through late 2007, is slightly more than 400.

"From November 2007 to date, the number of sightings are in the neighborhood of about 150," Hudgeons said. "We are still investigating nearly 100 reports across Texas."

Media had been warned off the Saturday gathering due to several witnesses leaving when cameras turned in their direction at the Jan. 19 meeting with an estimated crowd of about 400, and more than a dozen media outlets. But a few local reporters attended, as well as one from the Los Angeles Times, although no cameras were allowed inside the building.

Frank Wachowe, 32, with Mamone Productions, traveled from St. Louis, Missouri, spending about 17 hours on the road, and plans on producing a documentary film on the UFO phenomenon occurring around the area.

His plans include investigating the "personal and emotional side of witnessing a UFO."

Wachowe said he is interested in documenting the impact of the sighting on the various communities involved in Erath County.

"How does something this extraordinary impact the culture of a community?" Wachowe said is one area he will explore.

Wachowe said he holds a Bachelor's in media productions from Webster University in St. Louis and another in anthropology from the University of Missouri in St. Louis.

Autumn Humphreys with The History Channel's UFO Hunters was also in attendance, and said a crew from her company will arrive on Sunday, Feb. 24. In an earlier interview, she said the episode, which will include interviews with area witnesses, will probably be aired in late April or early May. Humphreys said the company has set up a temporary office in downtown Stephenville on Graham Street.

Meanwhile, Hudgeons said he and others are working nights and weekends in an effort to expedite a final report, which will be made public.

"I am a project manager for a commercial construction company and I have my own company as a side job drawing blue prints for other construction companies," Hudgeons said. "I am basically working seven days a week. Now, having said that, the events in the Dublin area have been occurring and are continuing with no foreseeable let up. All of the members on the investigation team work for a living and we cannot continue (the investigation) forever."

"I woke up this morning (Sunday after the meeting) with three new sighting reports in Texas," Hudgeons said. "I haven't looked them up as yet to see where they are so I can make assignments."

Hudgeons said a full report in a timeline format will be issued by MUFON soon. The report will include the final analysis of Stephenville resident David Coran's video, of Jan. 19 and 20, which was seen on many news broadcasts and Web sites. Some have referred to the lights in the video as being similar to hieroglyphic symbols.

"It (final report) will be posted in the April issue of the MUFON Journal, and I plan to hold a news conference at the Dublin Rotary Club in April," Hudgeons said. "Once again I wish to thank the Rotary Club for hosting our two meetings. MUFON was greeted warmly, and we are very appreciative."

Hudgeons said he and other members always enjoy visiting Dublin Dr Pepper, as well as meeting the friendly folks in Dublin.

Hudgeons said investigators for the organization are not paid and cover all of their own expenses.

Labels: Angela K. Brown, Angelia Joiner, Autumn Humphreys, Dublin, Frank Wachowe, MUFON, Stephenville, Steve Hudgeons, Texas, The History Channel

     For beings who may or may not have visited Earth, aliens sure have spent a lot of time in the public eye.

The British Ministry of Defense revealed this month that the number of reported UFO sightings there rose to 135 last year from 97 in 2006.

Details of reported sightings were released for the first time in 2007, including an archive dating back to 1998. Sightings were of shapes, lights and formations, according to British press reports.

There hasn't been a similar increase in the United States, but last month, reports of a UFO sighting by more than 30 residents of Stephenville, Texas, made national news. People, including a police officer, local news reporter and pilot said they saw a large, silent object with bright lights flying low and fast.

Ted Loder, a former University of New Hampshire oceanography professor, is a researcher with the Disclosure Project, which works to expose evidence of extraterrestrial life. He lives at the end of a dirt road in Barrington, surrounded by woods where he says he has a clear view of the stars from the balcony.

His bookshelves are stacked with hundreds of UFO books. By a window, a small object bearing prisms slowly rotates, sending morning rainbows fluttering around the room's exposed-beam ceiling.

The Disclosure Project is a nonprofit research organization seeking to disseminate declassified government documents on extraterrestrials and provide witness testimony about UFOs. Loder said the knowledge that UFOs are real and visiting Earth first was established after World War II with the aerial phenomena classified as "foo fighters," along with the alleged spacecraft crash near Roswell, N.M.

Labels: British Ministry of Defense, Ted Loder, The Disclosure Project, UFO

Part II

     The threat had materialized over the ocean an hour before. Since January, all of San Diego’s best hilltop makeout spots had been reclaimed by Boy Scouts and volunteers with night glasses. Little escaped them. A volunteer in one of these eyries had probably buzzed a filter center between San Diego and Los Angeles with the coordinates of the unidentified aircraft. Shortly thereafter the thimble-shaped lights on the air raid sirens up and down the coast blinked blue. Something moved in the sky towards the city. It was only minutes away.

***
The wail of the sirens gave Warden Raymond Angier the damnedest surprise ever. He couldn’t sleep through it if he’d wanted to. He dashed outside and scanned the area for lamplight. The block was a black corridor when the fireworks started up.

Up on the roof, Raymond had a panoramic view of the city. Orange smoke belched from gun batteries positioned along the coast as bright white and red shells shattered the black morning sky. The moon had vanished, and in its place were the thick white beams of eight huge Sperry searchlights, clawing at the haze over the city, trying to grab the target of their search. Raymond’s eyes flicked between the strobes’ bright fingers, and saw about seven luminous dots organized in a recognizable V-shape. The constellation of objects moved as though locked together, levitating at an altitude he estimated at 20,000 feet. With his training as an aircraft engineer at nearby Douglas Aircraft, Raymond could calculate with some accuracy the trajectory of the strange targets. When he first spotted them they were 60 degrees above the horizon, give or take five degrees, rising from the northwest shore area.

***
Municipal police had no suave official response prepared when the phones began ringing. They hardly had men enough to take down the reports. Officers dimmed their headlights and navigated the shadowy streets in response to alleged “Fifth Column” sightings –espionage in action. Prostitutes and gangsters could have the key to the city tonight; most of the regular patrol cops already knew where to find their suspects: Venice Beach, Terminal Island, Little Tokyo.

Three Ohis were at home on Ocean Front Drive in Venice Beach when the police arrived. A helpful neighbor had noticed that their apartment was much brighter than the shuttered café below. Mrs. Ohi and her two grown sons would have exchanged the look worn by many Issei and Nisei these days when the police goaded them towards the patrol car. An expression that said, shikata ga nai –“can’t help it”– we’ve got an Oriental face. And when the Venice police were through with them, the F.B.I. would take up their case. Smiling, the white men might ask, So, you had your lights on during a blackout. That usually means one thing...you probably got some buddies in the planes overhead. Am I right?

Of course, neither the police nor the F.B.I. yet knew what it was the Army outposts along the coast were trying to bring down from the sky. Reports from Angelenos conflicted. Some people heard the drone of plane engines but could see nothing but exploding shells and searchlights. One police clerk at a West Los Angeles station ran outside and saw something resembling a butterfly flitting high above the range of the ack-ack guns. And then at about 3:15 A.M. the 77th Street police station received a call from a civilian who’d seen an aircraft crash near the intersection of 180th and Vermont.

***
Shells burst all around the glowing triangle without ever seeming to hit it. The spectacle filled Warden Tom and his awakening Hollywood neighbors with patriotism all the same. Hollywood hadn’t been so lit up since Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theatre opened in ‘27. Tom joined the sleepwalkers as they sang snippets of “The Star-Spangled Banner” –it helped to keep him alert. As he made his rounds, Tom noticed that the faces in the gathering crowd were calm and cheerful. The only sour faces he met were the motorists he’d ordered to pull over and cut the headlights. Drivers had pushed various ID cards under Tom’s flashlight. Look, Mister Warden, I’m an -----, I’ve really got to be going. I’m due in five minutes...Don’t you know who I am? But only Tom’s ID card gave him authority under these circumstances, cheery as they felt.

Some folks remained ornery; the postman switched off his lights and kept going.

***
Back on the roof, Raymond continued to follow the movements of the strange lights. The formation hovered over the opposite horizon now at about 15 degrees. Momentarily deafened by the whistle and crack of the incendiary shells, he concentrated on the dots that had at first looked to him as separate and circular lights, as clear as the planets closest to earth. Now, they appeared to him as one diminishing light. Raymond lost sight of it as it moved towards the coast southwest of the city.

***
Some people would have to do without dairy this morning. Just before the guns opened fire on the gleaming objects spotted by the two air wardens, the radio stations signed off and the Civil Defense Alert System changed from blue to yellow to crimson. If Goldie had sought advice from the local AM news channel, she may have felt abandoned. Air wardens paced their blocks in Arcadia, and yet no one was briefed on how long the blackout would last, or what had invaded the city sky.

Perhaps it was one of the many shells falling with the warble of a firecracker that spooked her. Errant shells –having missed or been repelled by their intended target– rained down on the sleeping neighborhoods. Police began receiving reports of the three-inch incendiaries landing on beds whose pyjama-clad occupants had just risen to take in the light show outside. At least two motorists suffered heart attacks after a shell struck the road in front of them.

At about the halfway point of her delivery route, Goldie’s truck collided with something. It was a car. Milk bottles crashed and spilt. Blood and glass glittered in the street. The car’s driver stirred but the passenger had died on impact. With the ambulances in short supply in the dark city, Goldie’s truck probably served as a makeshift hearse, carrying the body to one of the hospitals still operating under dim safety bulbs. Pregnant women had been pouring into the hospitals since the war began, many with “Kilroy was here” scrawled in lipstick on their bulging bellies. But tonight there was an added urgency –the excitement of an apparent blitz on Los Angeles would induce a dozen births before the sirens ceased.

***
Dr. Fujikawa and his wife stood rigidly on their porch. They looked towards the greater metropolitan area, past Fort MacArthur’s cannon-like guns that were still blazing –still so very near now– at fifteen after 3 A.M. As the explosive shells streamed red and orange around a target they couldn’t make out, worry hardened in the doctor’s stomach.

Just hours after the news report last December screamed of Japanese treachery, the Army commanders at the fort had barricaded the only exit from Terminal Island. No one was allowed to leave; it was now part of the arbitrary military zone that sprawled east and west, and north as far as the Presidio in San Francisco. Dr. Fujikawa’s wife had been entertaining two ladies from Sacramento the Monday Roosevelt declared war on Japan, and they wanted to get home. They asked him politely if he might find out how.

Walking quicker than he’d intended, Dr. Fujikawa headed toward the ferryboat on Fourth Avenue. There were about five hundred families on the island, but only five or six family names. He probably knew someone related to the ferryman; he might secure a passage for his friends if he could barter a discount on a birth or a free treatment for arthritis. The ferryman was not in his boat though, so Dr. Fujikawa walked on.

That evening, he took the ladies and their things to the immigration station. Maybe they’d find some answers there –how to get off the island, or how long they’d be trapped there. The agents at the station recognized Fujikawa from the frequent visits he made to sick people aboard Japanese ships that docked temporarily at Fish Harbor to trade and sell goods. One of the agents pulled him away from his company, as though they were going to discuss a special passage for the ladies. But the agent –a Nisei too– pushed Fujikawa against the wall with a long pole. A number dangled from the end of the pole, and he was photographed with it. Two flashes: a profile and a frontal.

“Hey, wait a minute,” Fujikawa protested. “All I’m trying to do is a favor for my friends, trying to get ‘em off the island, get permission.”

“Oh, we know that, Doc,” said the agent. “You’ve got to come with me anyway.”

In the holding room down the hall, a bell chimed and the elevator doors opened. A group of Japanese fishermen stumbled out. They looked at Fujikawa and said, “Oh, the doctor is here too.” He can’t remember where they went from there or how the ladies got home. He never saw the fishermen again.

Dr. Fujikawa and his wife, like other Terminal Islanders, probably went back to bed around 3:30 A.M. and slept uneasily, the silence after cease-fire as heavy as the pulse at their temples.

Outside in the smoky darkness, the Navy jeeps started rolling in. With the unconditional support of President Roosevelt, “the Japanese Question” was about to be solved. At Japanese churches across Southern California, people had started preparing for the evacuation they knew was coming. Nobody would have believed it would arrive so quickly though, at the end of a bayonet. Sometime that night, sailors and police officers pasted bulletins on shop windows around the island.

Each notice bore the same announcement: “Pursuant to such authority upon direction of the Secretary of Navy; You, all members of your family and all other occupants of the premises hereinafter identified, being located within such areas, are officially notified that you must vacate them not later than midnight February 27. You are further notified that if you are not gone from such areas within the time state you will be forcibly removed and will likewise face such penalties as the civil laws provide...”

***
Scotty Littleton awoke to his parents’ whispers in the hall. He peeked out and saw his father’s pale face. As an air raid warden for his beachfront neighborhood, Scotty’s dad had to leave his family and enforce the blackout outside. The shells weren’t exploding over the ocean this time, so it couldn’t be a drill. But neither could he confirm his fears of a real enemy attack –nobody answered the phone at the Civil Defense Headquarters. Only after he walked into the street for a better view did the air raid siren start up.

Mrs. Littleton’s father was staying with the family, and he was slow to get out of bed. Slow to do everything actually. But when Scotty’s dad shouted from the doorway, “Mr. Hotchkiss, I think this may be the real thing,” the old widower bolted down the basement steps.

Scotty and his mom were too curious to remain underground. Besides, the old man’s morning breath is deadlier than falling shells, they thought, and ran back up the stairs to the beach at their back door. The two of them stood side by side, clinging together for warmth, their eyes on the sky. Searchlights focused on what appeared to Scotty’s mother as a silvery, lozenge-shaped bug, seemingly paralyzed by the lights, hanging directly over Hermosa Beach.

Glowing shrapnel fell on the beach in front of them, sending the pair back under the eaves for protection. Scotty was so close he could smell the acrid smoke as the shells exploded. His eyes refused to blink and his lower lip dangled. Were the neighbor kids seeing this?

Not far from Strand Street, another air raid warden left his family in the backyard staring skyward. The thing they watched so raptly reminded him of the Graf Zeppelin he’d seen land at Los Angeles’ Mines Field in ‘29, only wider and flatter. He and some neighbors jumped into their cars, tossing a couple of shotguns into the backseat. The object picked up speed and vaulted into the night sky as they followed it, racing down Sepulveda. As it moved away, the warden got one last look at the rectangular silhouette. Three narrow slits, like the gills of a shark, stood out, glow an angry orange-red. And then it was out of range.

***
Warden Tom Herbert heard the all-clear signal –one minute blast followed by two minutes silence– at 7:30 A.M. and hobbled back to Hollywood, sore but giddy. He lingered over breakfast with his wife, chattering about the night’s excitement. Tom savored his bit part in what he pictured was a small triumph of American morale; his wife undoubtedly liked the look of him in the Civil Defense gear. Then he napped long into the afternoon.

Waking up, Tom walked directly to the newsstand on the corner and plucked the day’s Los Angeles Times from the stack. His knees nearly buckled under him. “RAID FALSE ALARM SAYS SEC KNOX,” read the headline. He cursed aloud and slammed fifty cents on the counter. The article quoted Secretary of Navy Frank Knox dismissing the Army’s antiaircraft response as a case of wartime jitters. Back at home Tom’s wife tried to comfort him, but he wouldn’t be quieted. He wondered who would take him seriously next time when he told them to pull over and douse their lights. Later on, Tom tuned in to the War Department’s radio address. The Secretary of War claimed it wasn’t a false alarm, but explained little more.

As the sun set, Tom sat down at his typewriter. He thought back to the darkness of the early morning, the shells raining down and the national anthem. Confusion descended on him.

***
A few hours later and half a world away, a Dutch sailor aboard the HDMS Tromp spotted something moving along the horizon. Glowing like a comet, it hurtled towards the battleship, skimming the thick air above the Java Sea. And then it slowed. Crew members must have gathered on deck to watch the strange bright disk as it circled and circled overhead.