Ufologists Descend on The Small Town of Aztec, New Mexico

By Frank Warren
3-25-06

     AZTEC, New Mexico—Yesterday was the start of the “Ninth Annual UFO Symposium”; as usual it will be held at the “Aztec Convention Center,” located at 101 S. Park - Aztec, New Mexico 87410.

This year’s event will bring back some familiar faces along with some “new blood.”

Among the familiar faces are Dennis Balthaser, Stanton Friedman, Linda Moulton Howe and Scott D. Ramsey as well as his lovely wife Suzanne:

Dennis Balthaser, TruthSeeker, and respected Ufologist residing in not to far away Roswell has not only attended as a keynote speaker in previous events, he also has graced the symposium as “Master of Ceremonies.”

Dennis is an independent researcher, journalist and lecturer who moved to Roswell in order to pursue his quest; Dennis' focus is the “Roswell Incident”; however, his research extends to investigations of Area 51, underground bases and ancient Egypt.

Dennis is a Certified Mutual UFO Network Field Investigator and belongs to the “Great Pyramid of Giza Research Association," as well as several other “UFO related” organizations.

Another returning speaker is none other then internationally known researcher and author, Stanton Friedman. Friedman is no stranger to the Aztec Symposium, and is the original researcher who brought “the Roswell Incident” to the public’s attention.

Personally, I like to refer to “Stan” as the “Godfather of Ufology”; undoubtedly he is the most prominent in the field today, and gives it a most needed flavor of respectability, as his roots are that of “nuclear physicist.”

Stan received his BSc and MSc degrees in physics from the University of Chicago in 1955 and 1956. He was employed for 14 years as a nuclear physicist for such companies as GE, GM, Westinghouse, TRW Systems, Aerojet General Nucleonics, and McDonnell Douglas on such advanced, classified, eventually cancelled, projects as nuclear aircraft, fission and fusion rockets, and nuclear power plants for space.

Since 1967 he has lectured on the topic "Flying Saucers ARE Real!" at more than 600 colleges and over 100 professional groups in 50 states, 9 provinces, 14 other countries. He has published more than 80 UFO papers and appeared on hundreds of radio and TV programs. He is the original civilian investigator of the Roswell Incident and co-authored "Crash at Corona: The Definitive Study of the Roswell Incident." TOP SECRET/MAJIC, his explosive book about the Majestic 12 group established in 1947 to deal with crashed saucers, was published in 1996 and is in its 6th printing [2nd edition due September 2005]. Stan was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Leeds, England, in September, 2002, by UFO Magazine of the UK. A documentary "Stanton T. Friedman IS Real" was broadcast in Canada in 2002.

He has provided written testimony to Congressional Hearings, appeared twice at the UN, and been a pioneer in many aspects of Ufology including Roswell, Majestic 12, the Betty Hill-Marjorie Fish star map work; analysis of the Delphos, Kansas, physical trace case; crashed saucers, flying saucer technology and challenges to the S.E.T.I. (Silly Effort to Investigate) cultists.

Stanton Friedman takes a clear-cut unambiguous stand that SOME UFOs are alien spacecraft, that the subject of flying saucers represents a Cosmic Watergate, that none of the anti-UFO arguments made by a variety of noisy negativists stand up to careful scrutiny, and that we are dealing with the biggest story of the past millennium: visits to Planet Earth by alien spacecraft and the successful coverup by governments of the best data: alien wreckage and bodies recovered in New Mexico, for 58 years. He has spent many weeks at a total of 20 document archives. Stan has successfully taken on many critics of flying saucers, Roswell, Majestic 12, including winning a debate at Oxford University.

Emmy award winning television producer, reporter and author, “Linda Moulton Howe” returns this year to speak on “the 1953 UFO Crash and Burial Near Garrison, Utah.”

Linda is a graduate of Stanford University with a Masters Degree in Communication. She has devoted her documentary film, television, radio, writing and reporting career to productions concerning science, medicine and the environment. Ms. Howe has received local, national and international awards, including three regional Emmys and a national Emmy nomination. Those films have included Poison in the Wind and A Sun Kissed Poison which compared smog pollution in Los Angeles and Denver; Fire In The Water about hydrogen as an alternative energy source to fossil fuels; A Radioactive Water about uranium contamination of public drinking water in a Denver suburb; and A Strange Harvest which explored the worldwide animal mutilation mystery that has haunted the United States and other countries since the late 1950’s and continues to date. Another film, A Prairie Dawn, focused on astronaut training in Denver.

Linda continues to write, report, produce and speak at national and international conferences and symposiums, including NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. She also contracts to produce, write and report for television segments and has been interviewed on a Larry King Live special, CNN; The O’Reilly Factor, Fox; Sightings and Strange Universe, Fox; NBC’s The Other Side; cable’s Montel Williams; Britain’s Union Pictures, ITN and BBC; The Discovery Channel special Evidence On Earth; and the NBC network special, Mysterious Origins of Man.

Local girl, Suzanne Ramsey returns home to be the “Master of Ceremonies” for this ninth symposium; prior to making “lucky man” Scott Ramsey her husband, she was a long time resident, business owner and talk show host of the Four Corners Area. She’s made a habit of being involved with civic oriented projects.

Her association with the symposium began in 1999 with her interview of Library Director, “Leanne Hathcock” which aired on her radio program. The following year she would interview the symposium speakers, and worked hand in hand with a Japanese Television Film Crew covering the Symposium and Aztec Crash.

Suzanne has interviewed such notable Ufologists as:

Stanton Friedman, Dennis Balthaser, Timothy Good, Dr. Bruce Maccabee, Scott Ramsey, Wendell Stevens, Grant Cameron, Wendy Connors, Nick Redfern, Richard Dolan, Robert Swiatek, Susan Swiatek, John Greenewald, Jr., Travis Walton, Jerry Pippin, Dr. David Rudiak, Art Campbell, and Jim Hickman.

Since her initial involvement she has been a prominent figure with the Aztec Library as well as the symposium event, and that mutual interest would eventually pair her with future husband, as well as event speaker/coordinator, “Scott Ramsey.”

In addition to speaking (again) this year, Ramsey is one of the event coordinators as well as board member to the library; most importantly however, he has risen to become the lead investigator of the “Aztec Incident.”

His research has encompassed 19 years, and taken him to 29 states. He has interviewed 60 witnesses and archived well over 2000 documents, including previously classified “Atomic Energy Commission and US Air Force” items. Scott has spent literally hundreds of hours at “Hart Canyon,” the reported site of the “Aztec crash” and continues to analyze “eye witness accounts” and physical data.

His presentation of the "Aztec Incident" will include the latest evidence uncovered, and no doubt will keep audience members at the edge of their seats.

The Ninth Annual Aztec UFO Symposium welcomes back former New Mexico State Representative from Las Cruces, Andrew (Andy) Kissner.

Kissner worked in Las Cruces, near White Sands Missile Range, and received information from a high-ranking officer who worked at White Sands; some of this information he was given was about an Extraterrestrial biological presence on our planet, and other information concerned reasons for the U.S. government’s policy of denial of an ET presence here on Earth in 1947---which apparently have held to this day.

This years newcomers include:

Frank Feschino

C. Scott Littleton P.H.D.

Paul Davids

Jim and Valerie Berwanger

Frank Feschino Jr In the early 1990’s, Feschino became involved in UFO and Crop Circle research in West Virginia. He frequently visited a relative’s farm located in Braxton County, where Crop Circles appeared over night and UFO sightings were frequent. This is when Feschino learned about the 1952 “Braxton County Monster” Incident, which occurred in Flatwoods, near his cousin’s farm. In 1991, he contacted MUFON and was granted a meeting with Crop Circle enthusiast, Colin Andrews. Shortly afterward, Feschino met with MUFON representatives and Colin Andrews and supplied him with his West Virginia UFO and Crop Circle documentation. He continued to collaborate with Andrews about the ongoing anomalies occurring in Braxton County but Frank’s curiosity with the Flatwoods Incident proved to be his calling. He began to investigate this 1952 incident at a deeper level and devoted all of his time to it. Feschino moved to Florida to further his education. In 1993, he enrolled in Phillip’s JR College and studied film and video production. He continued to travel to West Virginia during his schooling but was now armed with camera operation knowledge as well as interviewing and scriptwriting skills. It was during Frank’s two-year training program that the Braxton County Monster evolved into a production project. He combined his strong Art background together with his video production and scriptwriting skills; his story began to take shape. [Courtesy Jerry Pippin]

Friend and colleague C. Scott Littleton had a very unique experience as a young lad—he was an eyewitness to one of the grandest UFO events of all time—“The Battle of Los Angeles!”

His presentation of that event will take you back in time to the beginning of WWII, and you will relive this hair raising event as told by someone who had a ringside seat. This incident remains a mystery today!

Professor C. Scott Littleton was born in Los Angeles, CA, in 1933 and grew up in Hermosa Beach, CA. He attended Redondo Union High School, Redondo Beach, CA (1946-50), served in the U.S. Army in Japan and Korea (1950-52), and attended El Camino College in Torrance, CA (1952-54), before enrolling at UCLA in 1955, where he received his B.A. (1957), M.A. (1962), and Ph.D. (1965). He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at UCLA in 1957.

Amongst "Scotty's" many accomplishments is being recognized as an expert in comparative Indo-European mythology and folklore, as well as Japanese religion; he's published extensively on Japanese myth and religion, the origin and distribution of the Arthurian and Holy Grail legends, and the theories of the late French mythologist Georges Dumézil. He is the author of The New Comparative Mythology (3rd Edition, University of California Press, 1982) and, with Linda A. Malcor, co-author of From Scythia to Camelot: A Radical Reassessment of the Legends of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and the Holy Grail (Garland, 1994; a revised, paperback edition appeared in 2000). He is the editor of Eastern Wisdom (Henry Holt, 1996), a book surveying the major Asian religions, as well as the author of the chapter on Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan, and has contributed chapters on Japanese mythology and religion to several other anthologies, including Roy Willis, ed., World Mythology: The Illustrated Guide (Simon & Schuster, 1993), Michael Coogan, ed., World Religion: The Illustrated Guide (Oxford University Press, 1998), and Raymond Scupin, ed., Religion and Culture: An Anthropological Focus (Prentice Hall, 2000). A semi-popular book, Shinto: Origins, Rituals, Festivals, Spirits, Sacred Places, was recently published by Oxford University Press (2002). He is the general editor of Mythology: The Illustrated Anthology of World Myth & Storytelling, which was recently published by Duncan Baird Publishers (July, 2002), as well as of Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology (Marshall-Cavendish, 2004).

His other research interests include nineteenth-century travel accounts—with Horace L. Hotchkiss, he is co-editor of The Diaries of Blakely Wilson: An American Traveler in Europe, Egypt, and the Holy Land, 1874-1876 (Mellen Press, 1998)—and the occult and the paranormal, especially the folkloric and mythological implications of the UFO phenomenon. He is especially interested in the extent to which rebel deities, such as Lucifer, Prometheus, and the Mesoamerican god Quetzalcoátl, are reflections of ancient alien dissidents. He has also researched the so-called “Battle of Los Angeles,” to which he was an eyewitness, wherein a mysterious object, apparently impervious to 1400 or more anti-aircraft rounds, flew over the Los Angeles basin in the wee hours of February 25, 1942, and the possibility that this object may have been an alien craft rather than a stray Japanese observation plane or an errant barrage balloon. Littleton’s science fiction novel, Phase Two, which is concerned with UFOs, alien abductions, etc. was published in 2002 by The Invisible College Press.

Paul Davids, producer, director, artist, writer and as of late, keynote speaker certainly isn't a stranger to Ufology.

Davids was the executive producer of the highly acclaimed movie, "Roswell" done for Showtime in 1994; In an interview with Jerry Pippin he explains, "how his interest in the UFO field was sparked by a daylight flying saucer sighting in 1987 in close proximity, with his two children. This event provided the motivation for him becoming Executive Producer and Co-Writer of the Showtime film, Roswell, starring Kyle MacLachlan, Dwight Yoakam, and Martin Sheen. He talks about being an advocate for full public disclosure of the facts about the UFO phenomenon. Davids is president of Yellow Hat Productions, Inc."

Jim Berwanger, Exective Vice President of Fox Network will be present as well and will do the opening remarks at the Friday night "meet and greet". This will be Jim's second visit to Aztec, New Mexico. Jim attended the 2003 Symposium.

Ole Retsbo from Danish Public Television will also be attending this year; they are the equivalent of PBS here in the States. Ole Retsbo and crew will be filming at the alleged crash site on Sunday morning for one of there shows.

More . . .

See Also: The 'Aztec Incident' Revisited:
- Part One -