Memorial Tribute to Francis Lee Ridge

"Francis Ridge was more than an investigator—he was a builder of systems, a guardian of data integrity, and a visionary who believed that the mysteries of the sky deserved disciplined, instrument based study. His work spanned more than six decades, during which he elevated UFO research from anecdotal reporting to structured and measurable analysis."

Francis ‘Fran’ Ridge was born on October 13, 1942 in Vincennes, Indiana and married Carolyn June (Walls) Ridge. Together they raised a family of four children and eight grandchildren and at least four great grandchildren. The MADAR Project, the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), and the broader UFO research community honor the life and legacy of

By Steve Foss MADAR Continuity Specialist and colleague © All Rights Reserved 2-3-2026

Francis Lee Ridge, who passed away on January 20, 2026. His contributions reshaped the landscape of civilian UFO investigation and established a scientific foundation that will guide researchers for generations.

UFO Skepticism at a Crossroads: What Michael Shermer Leaves Out About UAP

Long time, noted skeptic, Michael Shermer, in his new column on UFOs/UAPs is a familiar, articulate expression of classical skepticism: most sightings are misperceptions, the evidence for extraterrestrials is thin, and extraordinary claims still demand extraordinary proof. As a broad framing, that much is uncontroversial. The difficulty is

By The UFO Chronicles 1-30-2026 © All Rights Reserved

that his piece leans too heavily on yesterday’s talking points and underplays the significant, empirical shifts in how governments and scientific institutions are now treating UAP.

The result is an essay that reassures hardened skeptics but does not quite engage with the data-rich environment that has emerged since 2017.

© The UFO Chronicles. All rights reserved.

Alien Captured, 'The Varginha Incident' – Early Reporting

Yesterday’s National Press Club event with filmmaker James Fox dragged the Varginha case back into the harsh light of global scrutiny, three decades after a handful of terrified Brazilian witnesses said they saw something not of this world in the municipality of Varginha, southwest Minas Gerais state, Brazil. As

By The UFO Chronicles 1-21-2026 © All Rights Reserved

cameras rolled in Washington, it was hard not to think back to one of the earliest, most detailed English-language accounts of the affair: a long-form investigation by British UFO magazine editor Graham W. Birdsall, published in the late 1990s, which treated the “Varginha Incident” as potentially “equal to Roswell.”© The UFO Chronicles. All rights reserved.

Birdsall, a leading UK UFO researcher/journalist who co-founded UFO Magazine with his brother, Mark (and died in 2003) was among the first Western researchers to sit down with the Brazilian investigators at the heart of the case and to stitch together a timeline from dozens of frightened locals, military insiders, and medical staff. His early reporting still frames much of what the public thinks it knows about what happened in Varginha in January 1996. 

 The Crash Before the Creatures

In Birdsall’s reconstruction, the story begins a week earlier with a wave of UFO sightings over southern Minas Gerais. On 13 January 1996, he reports, resident Afrânio da Costa Brasil and his nine year old daughter Emeline watched a strange craft hovering near their home; Emeline’s drawing of a cigar or submarine shaped object would later echo in multiple testimonies.

Ufologist Robert Hastings on Coast to Coast AM This Weekend

Will Aliens Intervene in Human Affairs If Nuclear War Ever Seems Imminent? Abducted US Air Force Security Policeman Richard Barth Says He Was Told Exactly That.

This Sunday evening, at 10 p.m. Pacific Time, I’ll be interviewed on the Coast to Coast AM radio show by renowned journalist George Knapp. I will be discussing my five-decade investigation [ad] of UAP activity at American nuclear weapon sites, which utilizes the testimony of dozens of US military veterans who were involved in various UFO-related incidents over time. One of those veterans, former US Air Force Security Policeman Richard L. Barth, will also appear on the program, discussing his September 1964 abduction by non-human entities who took him on board a hovering UFO as he guarded a Minuteman ICBM launch facility at Vandenberg AFB, California. The beings involved included members of the species we now call Grays, together with a single human-like entity who

By Robert Hastings The UFO Chronicles 1-22-206 © All Rights Reserved

communicated telepathically with Barth. The terrified missile guard was told that multiple alien races are secretly operating in concert to prevent the Earth from being devastated by humans’ threatened use of nuclear weapons on a massive scale.

CIA's Silent Treatment on 3I/ATLAS Raises More Questions Than NASA's Answers

When Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb learned that the Central Intelligence Agency had invoked its standard "neither confirm nor deny" response to a Freedom of Information Act request about 3I/ATLAS—an interstellar object currently hurtling through our solar system—he posed a question that has reverberated through UFO

By The UFO Chronicles 1-7-2026 © All Rights Reserved

research circles: Why would America's premier intelligence agency classify the very existence of records about a cosmic object that NASA insists is merely a natural comet?© The UFO Chronicles. All rights reserved.

The contradiction sits at the heart of an emerging debate that challenges the comfortable consensus the scientific establishment offered the public just weeks ago. In November 2025, NASA held a press conference declaring definitively that 3I/ATLAS—only the third interstellar object ever discovered entering our solar system—was unambiguously a comet of natural origin, nothing more. Administrator Nicky Fox stated investigators had found nothing "that would lead us to believe it was anything other than a comet." Case closed. Or so we were told.

USAF Guard First Spoke of His Alien Abduction Decades Ago

Friends Say Former US Air Force Security Policeman Richard Barth Privately Revealed His 1964 Vandenberg AFB Encounter Long Before Telling Robert Hastings About It

In mid-October 2025, former US Air Force nuclear missile guard Richard L. Barth approached me with an account of his Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon/Non-Human Intelligence (UAP/NHI) experience at California’s Vandenberg AFB in September 1964. Knowing that I would undoubtably ask for it, Barth at the same time provided his Department of Defense DD214 service record which confirmed that his assignment at the base began on July 1st of that year and that he had been a member of the 4392nd Combat Defense Squadron. Barth’s Security Police unit was charged with protecting numerous missile launch facilities located outside of Vandenberg, including some devoted to testing the new Minuteman-1 ICBMs which were

By Robert Hastings The UFO Chronicles 12-24-2025 © All Rights Reserved

at that time being deployed at various US Air Force bases around the United States, replacing the aging Atlas and Titan missile systems.

© 2025 Robert Hastings/The UFO Chronicles. All rights reserved.

As some readers will know, over the past five decades I have interviewed 169 US military veterans who were involved in nuclear weapons-related UFO incidents. Among those individuals, a handful—including Barth—described witnessing the presence of non-human entities during their own UAP encounter who temporarily incapacitated, overpowered, and abducted them.

34 Government Officials Break 80-Year UFO Cover-Up

"The documentary asserts that an extensive, 80-year cover-up has obscured government knowledge of advanced nonhuman intelligence (NHI) and, perhaps more significantly, reverse-engineering efforts involving technology recovered from crash sites."

A Landmark Moment for Transparency

In a rare display of bipartisan unity, members of Congress recently gathered to witness one of the most significant documentary screenings in modern legislative history. "The Age of Disclosure," (ad) a film featuring 34 current and former high-

By The UFO Chronicles © 11-21-2025

ranking government, military, and intelligence officials, represents a watershed moment in the decades-long struggle to bring transparency to the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) issue. The congressional screening signals that the once-stigmatized topic of UFOs has transcended the realm of fringe theories and entered the halls of serious policy discussion.

Ex-USAF Security Policeman Tells of Being Abducted by Aliens

The 1964 Incident Occurred at One of Vandenberg AFB’s Minuteman Missile Test Sites

Former US Air Force Security Policeman Richard L. Barth emailed me recently, after having watched my September 2024 interview on Australian journalist Ross Coulthart’s Reality Check podcast, during which I had discussed my five-decade-long investigation of UAP activity at US nuclear weapon deployment sites and test ranges. Barth summarized an intriguing experience he had while in the US Air Force involving Non-Human Intelligences (NHI) and provided me with his military service record, known as a DD214, which verified that in 1964, he had been stationed at Vandenberg AFB, California, assigned to the 4392nd Combat Defense Squadron,

By Robert Hastings The UFO Chronicles © 11-15-2025

whose members guarded numerous missile test facilities located along the Pacific coastline adjacent to the base.

© 2025 Robert Hastings/The UFO Chronicles. All rights reserved.

The best-known UAP case at Vandenberg during that era was the September 15, 1964 Big Sur UFO Incident, involving the inadvertent filming of a domed-disc craft that paced a dummy nuclear warhead in flight, before shooting it down with plasma-like beams of light. The astounding encounter was first publicized in 1982, by former USAF Lieutenant (now Dr.) Bob Jacobs, who had headed-up the telescopic photography team.

First Flying Saucer Convention 1954: Eyewitness Report from Giant Rock

The first "Flying Saucer" convention had been set for Sunday, 4th of April, 1954, and I found myself with an invitation to attend with the Dean of the Flying Saucers, Frank Scully. With his book "Behind the Flying Saucers" he had 'placed his surviving foot in the

By Ann McKittrick The UFO Chronicles 4-10-1954

door' of what has become a vast, cosmic, limitless room. While he stands, surprised at the furore, others come along with stories of explorations beyond belief.

Flying Saucers Enliven 'Doodle Bug' Trial

Flying saucers whisked into the “doodlebug” confidence game trial under way in District Court.

Herman A. Flader, Denver industrialist, told of the flying saucers, little men three feet tall and the powers of the magnetic force around the earth.

By Al Nakkula Rocky Mountain News 11-17-1953

Flader is the complaining witness against Silas Newton and Leo GeBauer. They are accused of bilking Flader of $50,000 through the use of electric divining “doodlebugs” to locate oil.