UFO Lands Near Missile Base; Affects Radio Transmissions - Strike Team Dispatched!

Capt. Smith (Missile Combat Crew Commander) on duty at Missile Site (MIKE Flt) sixty (60) feet underground indicated that radio transmission was being interrupted by static, this static was accompanied by the UFO coming close to the Missile Site

By Air Force HQ Minot AFB 8-30-1966

(MIKE Flt). When UFO climbed, static stopped. The UFO appeared to be S.E. of MIKE 6, range undetermined. At 0512Z, UFO climbed for altitude after hovering for 15 minutes. South radar base gave altitude at 100,000 feet, N.W. of Minot AFB, NDak. At this time a Strike Team reported UFO descending, checked with Radar Site, they also verified this. The UFO then began to swoop and dive. It then appeared to land 10 to 15 miles South of MIKE 6. "MIKE 6" Missile Site Control sent a Strike Team to check. When the team was about 10 miles from the landing site, static disrupted radio contact with them. Five (5) to eight (8) minutes later, the glow diminished and the UFO took off. Another UFO was visually sighted and confirmed by radar. The one that was first sighted passed beneath the second. Radar also confirmed this. The first, made for altitude towards the North and the second seemed to disappear with the glow of red. A3C SEDOVIC at the South Radar base confirmed this also. At 0619Z, two and one half (2 1/2) hours after the first sighting, and F-106 interceptor was sent up. No contact or sighting was established. The Control Tower asked the Aircraft Commander of the KC-135 which was flying in the local area to check the area. He reported nothing. The Radar Site picked up an echo on radar which on checking was the KC-135. No other sightings. At 0645Z discontinued search for UFO.

See Also:

Air Force Personnel Observe UFOs Near Minuteman Missile Silo (Golf Launch) in Nebraska
8-26-1965

Farmer Reports UFO Over Nearby Minuteman II Missile Silo
4-13-1966

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Lost Films Found! – Allen Hynek’s 3-D Photos

In 1972, Dr. J. Allen Hynek published his first book on UFOs, titled “The UFO Experience.” In it he presented what he felt was a scientific case for the importance of UFO research, himself having advised the Air Force’s Project Blue Book investigations for 21 years. One oddity in the book stood out in the section of photographic plates. Hynek had reproduced two photographs of what appears to be a “UFO.” There is little said of the images except for the caption1:

By Barry Greenwood The UFO Chronicles 6-7-20

Finally, I include two photographs, Figures 9 and 10, taken from the window of an aircraft at 30,000 feet, of an object that I have been unable to identify. Perhaps some reader can identify it as a natural object. If so, I would appreciate knowing the solution. These are two photographs for which I can absolutely vouch.

It was a strangely cryptic remark but was quickly interpreted to mean that Hynek himself took the photos. Why other details were left void is not clear, particularly coming from the former Air Force advisor to Project Blue Book.

Now fast-forward to March 2020. For the last three years, I have traveled to Chicago at the home of Mary Castner in an effort to scan the holdings of the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS). Mary had hosted the bulk of case work and other Center documents for about ten years after CUFOS found it necessary to close their office in Chicago, IL. Due to a forthcoming relocation, she had to have the files moved out to another location in Chicago.

As part of her housecleaning, she had periodically passed along to me parts of her own collection (which sometimes inadvertently contained CUFOS material) she no longer needed. One box, sent in March 2020, contained an assortment of slide boxes and cassette tapes. When the slide boxes were checked, it was quickly evident they weren’t normal slides. Each one was elongated with two images on each. These were slides made with a stereoscopic camera. There was vague identifying information on each slide (later identified as Hynek’s handwriting by Mark Rodeghier of CUFOS) that wasn’t always very helpful. They appeared to be pictures of UFO sighting locations, group pictures taken at conferences, or individual people known in UFO circles.

Two of Three Slide Boxes               Typical Slide Box Contents

It wasn’t clear from the labeling who had been the owner of these slides, only that they were from CUFOS and hadn’t been widely mentioned by anyone as existing for many years.

Back in June 2017, a new book on Hynek’s life was released by Mark O’Connell². This year my friend, Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos wrote an extensive review of O’Connell’s tome based upon his many years of knowing and working with Hynek³. One thing that caught my eye was a discussion of Hynek’s mysterious airliner photos from his 1972 book in Appendix 1 of the review. Ballester Olmos said he contacted John Timmerman of CUFOS some years back and asked about the details of these pictures. Timmerman said, “Allen never revealed the date or location of this photograph, taken with a binocular camera (underlining added).” Instantly, it was obvious that the boxes of stereoscopic slides Mary had sent were Hynek’s own slides. The subject matter of the slides was rather too insider to have been taken by anyone, for example:

Former Blue Book head, “Biker” Robert Friend, 1962.

Former Blue Book head, Hector Quintanilla and son Ross, 1964

Hynek with T.C. Drury and wife, Brisbane, 1973

J. Vallee with Mexican pilot, 1977

Drury was a witness to a UFO incident in 1953 when he exposed movie footage of a streaking object that made headlines in Australia. The full footage has never been found but extracted frames remain.

While I could see the subject matter in the tiny frames of the stereo slides, I didn’t have a viewer or projector to enlarge them. Some years back I had obtained a slide scanner for 8mm film, negatives and 35mm slides. It had no adapter for stereo images but in looking at it there was nothing to say I couldn’t insert the stereo slides without an adapter. One just had to be careful inserting them so as not to damage the images. There were 73 slides, meaning I have to create a scan of 146 images, each of which had a slightly different image of the same scene. To my surprise, the images scanned quite well as you can see in the samples here.

Unfortunately, the famous airliner UFO slide was not included in these boxes. There is a good but peculiar reason for this.

When I checked Hynek’s airliner images in his book, it seemed that at first glance, and with the hindsight of knowing the object was photographed with a stereo camera, the two photos were too different to be good stereo. A “shadow” in one image was completely absent in the next. With a camera having lenses 2-3 inches apart, at least part of that shadow should have shown in both.

In his O’Connell book review, Ballester Olmos mentioned having consulted Jacques Vallee’s first volume of diary entries for a mention of the photos.⁴ Vallee did not have, nor knew the location of the photos. John Timmerman said he only had an 11X14 color print that was used for a later Hynek book.⁵ It was time to contact Jacques Vallee. On May 23, 2020, I sent an inquiry asking how the airliner photos became known to him.

Vallee replied on May 24 in a rather unexpected manner:

The two frame pairs you mention have to do with an incident that Allen quoted briefly in UFO Experience where he reproduced them on page 52. The actual story is that he took two stereo exposures of the object, entrusted the development to KODAK in Evanston, and only received one slide from each pair from the shop.They said they sent out such special items to KODAK itself, so they had no idea why one view from each pair was gone.

As a result, he could not determine distance or size for the target, hence the rather short description in the book of two photographs he could "absolutely vouch for."

We had many discussions among us (with Fred Beckman) about this even and what it meant, as you can imagine... The relationship between KODAK and Air Force Intelligence at the time was a little-known fact.

I hadn’t heard (nor had Mark Rodeghier of CUFOS) of the fact that the stereo images of Hynek’s two photographs of the UFO had vanished after being sent to Kodak and returned as two single images. This explains the difference in the pair of images in The UFO Experience. It also injects a layer of strangeness into the story. There are 73 stereo slides in these three boxes taken between 1962 and 1982 which were processed as stereo. Then, for no apparent reason, two exposures of Hynek’s UFO were the subject of tampering and nothing from Kodak as to why. It seemed pointless after the fact because even if the images came back as the proper stereo slides, the lack of other identifying data forgotten by Hynek severely limited their use as evidence. But it still would have been interesting to see them.

I contacted Hynek’s son, Paul, to see if any of this could be explained. He in turn copied my inquiry to his brother, Joel.⁶ They explained that their dad took “thousands” of stereoscopic slides since 1954, presumably the Hynek family’s participation in the 3-D craze of the early 1950s. Joel said his dad loved doing this and was able to get good quality without using a light meter. But as is common, a good bit of archival news is sometimes paired with a bad bit of archival news.

Virtually all the slides were destroyed at Joel’s house in the Los Angeles area due to the Woolsey wildfire of November 2018. Some single images and stereo pairs were digitized prior to their destruction and do survive.

At any rate, I have created an index of all the stereo images with markings on the slides, slide numbers and a best guess as to content since the descriptions on the slides are less than adequate. The slide numbers stamped on each slide tended to jump around and not be in the same sequence. With the loss of so many of Hynek’s slides, it is unlikely this will be remedied. I’m sure some of these existing images will be identified through more scrutiny by those familiar with the subjects that were photographed.

A useful link to view stereo images without a viewer is here.

Thanks to Mark Rodeghier and the Center for UFO Studies, Jacques Vallee, Mary Castner, Paul and Joel Hynek and Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos for assistance in the production of this report.

V.J. Ballester Olmos, London, August 1979

Hynek and Irene Granchi, Brazil, 1979

Notes 

1 Hynek, J. Allen, The UFO Experience, Henry Regnery, 1972, Figures 9 and 10 facing page 53. 

2O’Connell, Mark, The Close Encounters Man, Dey Street Books, 2017. 

3 Ballester Olmos, V.J.,  https://www.academia.edu/42856955/Book_Review_of_The_Close_Encounters_Man 

4 Vallee, Jacques, Forbidden Science: Journals 1957-1969, North Atlantic Books, 1992, page 410. 

5 Hynek, J. Allen & Jacques Vallee, The Edge of Reality: A Progress Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, Henry Regnery, 1976. 

6 E-mails, Paul and Joel Hynek, May 29, 30, 2020.

Appendix

Index to J. Allen Hynek’s collection of 3D slides.

Slides taken by J. Allen Hynek, or with Hynek camera. Slide numbers for each is on the slide frame and only sometimes sequential. Date imprinted on each slide is for when each was processed. Captions are in Hynek’s writing.

1) Slide 3: UFO-Italy, Christians in Coliseum. Processed: 5-78

2) Slide 4: UFO-More Christians in the Coliseum. Processed: 5-78

3) Slide 8: UFO-Italy, Bruno +. Processed: 5-78

4) Slide 11: UFO-Boulder Colo. Site of UFO ptg. DD Sighting. Processed: 3-78

5) Slide 10: UFO-Boulder Colo. Site of UFO ptg. sighting Harvest House. Processed: 3-78

6) Slide 13: UFO-Proj. Starlight Austin Tx. Processed: 7-76

7) Slide 16: UFO-Proj. Starlight Ray & Kitty b. Processed: 7-76

8) Slide 17: UFO-Proj. Starlight 1976. Processed: 7-76

9) Slide 18: UFO-Teutch & Baldwin Proj. Starlight Austin Tx. Processed: 7-76

10) Slide 16: UFO-Jaragua Towers – Scene of UFO sighting. Processed: 3-79

11) Slide 17: UFO-Jaragua Radio Towers – Scene of UFO sighting. Processed: 3-79

12) Slide 18: UFO-On way to Jaragua, scene of UFO sighting. Processed: 3-79

13) Slide – UFO – Ballester-Olmos 1979. Processed: --

14) Slide 7: II-2 UFO-Mar Edwards place in Victoria. Processed: 9-68

15) Slide 28: II-2 MN UFO- UFO Talk, Duluth. Processed:

16) Slide 1: Australia UFO-Brisbane at home of the Mr. Drurys. Processed: 10-73

17) Slide 12: UFO-Swiss group. Processed: 6-80

18) Slide 1: UFO-Van Horne IA. Processed: 11-69

19) Slide 2: UFO-Van Horne IA. Processed: 11-69

20) Slide 5: UFO-Van Horne IA. Processed: 11-69

21) Slide 1: II-2 UFO-Crouch & Col. Friend-Silver City, Utah. Processed: 5-62

22) Slide 3: II-1 UFO-Sheriff Pete & Mrs. Pete, Eureka, Utah. Processed: 8-62

23) Slide 4: II-1 W UFO-Tote Gates in Utah. Processed: 5-62

24) Slide 6: II-1 W UFO-Tote Gates May 1962. Processed: 5-62

25) Slide 7: II-1 W UFO-Sheriff Pete Processed: 5-62

26) Slide 10: II-1 W UFO-Peterson on Tote Gate. Processed: 5-62

27) Slide 19: II-1 W UFO-Col. Friend on Tote Gate. Processed: 5-62

28) Slide 1: UFO-Thomas Case. Processed: 6-78

29) Slide 2: UFO-Thomas Case. Processed: 6-78

30) Slide 3: UFO-Thomas Case. Processed: 6-78

31) Slide 4: UFO-Thomas Case. Processed: 6-78

32) Slide 8: UFO-Thomas Case. Processed: 6-78

33) Slide 9: UFO-Thomas Case. Processed: 6-78 34) Slide 10: UFO-Thomas Case Processed: 6-78

35) Slide 14: UFO-Thomas Case. Processed: 6-78

36) Slide 15: UFO-Thomas Case. Processed: 6-78 37) Slide 16: UFO Thomas Case. Processed: 6-78

38) Slide 18: UFO-Thomas Case. Processed: 6-78

39) Slide 19: UFO-Thomas Case. Processed: 6-78

40) Slide 22: UFO-Thomas Case. Processed: 6-78

41) Slide 23: UFO-Thomas Case. Processed: 6-78

42) Slide 2: UFO-Acapulco Conference. Processed: 7-77

43) Slide 5: UFO-Bravo, et. al. Mexico City UFO 1977. Processed: 2-77

44) Slide 6: UFO-1977 UFO Mexico City. Processed: 2-77

45) Slide 7: UFO-Bravo et. al. Outdoor UFO Classroom Mexico City. Processed: 2-77

46) Slide 15: UFO-Host in Mexico City, ?? 1977. Processed: 12-77

47) Slide 16: UFO-Jacques Vallee – John Simhou Mexico City. Processed: 12-78

48) Slide 26: UFO-Jacques Vallee & Mexican Pilot. Processed: 4-77

49) Slide 27: UFO-A rather familiar scene, the Center view. Processed: 12-78

50) Slide 3: UFO-Rubens Villela, Meteorologist from Sao Paulo. Processed: 2-80

51) Slide 12: UFO-Irene Granchi & me. UFO person. Processed: 3-79

52) Slide --: I-2 Br Angus Brooks & children in naborhood (sic)

53) Slide --: UFO-Moigne Downs, direction from which Angus Brooks saw object come, 1970.

54) Slide 20: UFO-Leo Sprinkle and Murray Fisher. Processed: 2-76

55) Slide 19: II-2 MW UFO-Maj. Quintanilla & Ross, Sgt. Processed: 3-64

56) Slide 2: S. Am. Theresa Fontes Blatter at yacht club, Rio. Processed: 9-75

57) Slide 26: UFO-UFO in Ren. Painting. Processed: 5-78

58) Slide 23: UFO-UFO in Ren. Painting. Processed: 5-78

59) Slide 11: UFO-Gribble map for 1964. Processed: 2-82

60) Slide 12: UFO-Gribble map for 1965. Processed: 2-82

61) Slide 15: UFO-Gribble map for 1966. Processed: 2-82

62) Slide 16: UFO-Gribble map for 1967. Processed: 2-82

63) Slide 18: UFO-View of Golden NM. Processed: 1-82

64) Slide 19: UFO-Gribble map for 1973 wave, use either side. Processed: 2-82

65) Slide 20: UFO-Gribble, probably the best. Processed: 2-82

66) Slide 21: UFO-Gribble. Processed: 2-82

67) Slide 22: UFO-Gribble. Processed: 1-82

68) Slide 21: UFO-Golden NM. Processed: 1-82

69) Slide 23: UFO-Golden NM. Processed: 1-82

70) Slide 24: UFO-James Scartaciano – Golden NM. Processed: 1-82

71) Slide 25: UFO-Landing site, Golden NM, Prob. best to use. Processed: 1-82

72) Slide 26: UFO-Landing site, Golden NM. Processed: 1-82

73) Slide 27: UFO-Pointing out landing site near Golden NM. Processed: 1-82

VISIT THE GREENWOOD UFO ARCHIVES ►

See Also:

J Allen Hynek and a Canadian UFO Study

Hynek’s Last Contract with the Project Blue Book UFO Program

Ufology's J. Allen Hynek – A Biography

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Founder of the Center for UFO Physical Trace Research, Ted Phillips Has Died

A young Ted Phillips

Ted Phillips, the founder and director of the Center for Physical Trace Research died, on March 10, 2020. Phillips was born in 1942 and spent his life in Missouri. He began investigating UFOs in 1964 and met Dr.

By Kevin Randle A Different Perspective 3-11-20

J. Allen Hynek during the investigation of the Socorro UFO landing. Phillips was trained as an engineer and was a professional photographer. He was involved in the Vanguard Satellite Program and was a field engineer on the Minuteman Missile Project. He was also employed as an inspector for the Missouri State Highway Department, an associate of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies, and made presentations at the MUFON Symposiums.

It was Hynek who suggested that Phillips concentrate on UFO physical trace cases. Phillips and his team investigated more than 4000 physical trace cases in more than 90 countries. Phillips once said that if you told him the physical markings left be the UFO, he would be able to describe the craft that left them.

Ted Phillips at the Illinois conference

With Hynek, Dr. Jacques Vallee and Dr. David Saunders, Phillips participated in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Aerospace Sciences meetings. He was also participated as a member of a small group who met with the United Nations Secretary-General. Phillips made presentations to a wide variety of groups and was a participant in several television programs and documentaries dedicated to UFOs.

In recent years he was involved in the investigation of strange lights seen in the Marley Woods in far southern Missouri. I met him in Illinois when he made a presentation about those lights at a UFO conference there. I had hoped to talk to Phillips about this while at the conference but there never seemed to be a couple of moments when the two of us crossed paths, with one exception. I told him it was my impression, from his presentation, that he wasn’t looking toward the extraterrestrial on this. He confirmed that he had thought it was some sort of terrestrial manifestation but he didn’t know what it might be. For those interested, there is more about Phillips’ presentation here.

In the 1970s, he provided a “position statement” for Ron Story’s Encyclopedia of UFOs that said:

The available facts are mostly statistical, but by taking a large number of reports, we can begin to develop a fairly clear picture of the objects observed and the traces left behind. Obviously, a report involving a landed object is of much greater value than a nocturnal light case. The landed object immediately eliminates a number of possibilities. One would not expect a balloon to land, leave unusual traces, and then ascend vertically at high speed. Stars and planets do not appear at ground level between witnesses and a line of trees. When several witnesses observe a disk-shaped object with a metallic surface, no wings and no sound, landing, ascending vertically, they have, with their descriptions, eliminated most of the natural or conventional explanations. When these objects then leave traces at the landing site, we have something tangible to examine I believe, after thirteen years of investigation, the data indicates a nonterrestrial origin.

Ted Philips, truly one of the pioneers in scientific UFO research and a dedicated investigator is dead at 78.

Continue Reading ►

See Also:

Veteran Ufologist & Expert On The Socorro UFO Case, Ray Stanford Challenges Newcomer & Hoax Pronouncer, Anthony Bragalia To a Live Debate On C2C!!

Aztec, New Mexico Crash and Symposium

37th Annual International MUFON Symposium

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

'Project Blue Book' Cast and Creators Talk UFOs, Aliens and Their Own Sightings | VIDEO

The team behind History’s 10-episode drama, based on the Air Force's 1950s program that investigated UFOs, delves into the true backstories behind the series and how they came aboard.

By Bryn Elise Sandberg www.hollywoodreporter.com 1-8-20

... [David]O'Leary, producer-writer Sean Jablonski and actors Gillen, Laura Mennell, Michael Malarkey and Neal McDonough delve into the true backstories behind the series, valuing "authenticity over accuracy" and their own UFO sightings.

[...]

Continue Reading ►



See Also:

Project Blue Book: Alien-Hunting Agents Seek the Truth About UFOs

The Lost Files of Project Blue Book

Hynek’s Last Contract with the Project Blue Book UFO Program

New UFO Drama Series "Project Blue Book" | VIDEO

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

French Government Agency Begins Studying UFOs – UFO Chronicle 1977

A French government agency has begun to study the phenomenon of Unidentified Flying Objects [UFOs]. J. Allen Hynek, professor of astronomy at Northwestern

By The Houston Chronicle 10-8-1977

University and director of the Center for UFO Studies said, the study is the first of its kind to be funded by any government.

The French National Center for Space Studies (CNES), has created a research group which has asked Hynek's organization for cooperation.

[...]

See Also:

French Space Agency to Publish UFO Archive Online

More On Release Of French UFO Files

Scientists & A Select Few Ufologists Gather in France

-click and or right click on image(s) to enlarge-

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

History's Project Blue Book – A Review

By Kevin Randle
A Different Perspective
1-9-19

Jack Webb

     Back in the 1970s, Jack Webb of Dragnet fame created something he called Project UFO. It was based on the files of Project Blue Book and it was difficult to recognize the cases presented. The attitude of the program, if I remember it correctly, was to examine a case that might have been inexplicable and find a rational and reasonable answer before the hour expired. Although I was excited about the show, I was quickly disappointed in the final product. It reeked somewhat, again if I remember correctly, of a debunking operation.

This new incarnation, given the snappy title of Project Blue Book, seems to be at the other end of the spectrum. It suggests a grand conspiracy that involves what most of us believe is the mythical MJ-12, Air Force officers who will go to about any length to prove a case has a terrestrial explanation and a hint of the Men in Black. In other words, it is filled with the paranoia of the UFO field and has very little to do with the reality of the situation as it was then or as it is now.

While it is suggested that it is based on the history of Project Blue Book, very little of what I saw was based on that. About the only things that were accurate were the names of some of the people such as Dr. J. Allen Hynek and Project Blue Book. Once beyond the superficial, we plunge headlong into the fantasy that has grown up around UFO investigation. In one scene, a general walks into an office that is reminiscent of Fox Mulder’s FBI office filled with photographs, newspaper clippings and drawings of alien creatures. Since this is the beginning of Hynek’s association with Blue Book (Project Sign actually), some of the material there is out of place. It shouldn’t show up for years.

And while I’m in a nitpicking mood, I’ll note that the military customs and courtesies are simply misunderstood. The civilian show runners and directors don’t understand saluting and get it wrong. You have an Air Force captain referring to Hynek as “Doc,” which seemed to be a little disrespectful. And the uniforms seemed to be a combination of Army and Air Force, meaning that elements of Army uniforms showed up on the Air Force uniforms. As I say, nitpicking.

The real trouble here is a suggestion that the stories are grounded in reality but I fear it is a reality driven by every paranoid rumor, half-truth and fantasy that has infected the UFO community since the 1940s. I just had a hard time getting beyond all of that. I was hoping for something that had a little more of a documentary atmosphere, not something that was invented for a story that has little to do with the history of Blue Book.

Lt. George Gorman on the left.

In other words, as Jack Webb had done decades ago, we have a show that is “based” on the truth, but that moves into fiction immediately. I was quickly disappointed again. However, this time, I recognized the case that began the tale without having to have the producers tell what it was. The opening sequence and the investigation are wrapped around the October 1, 1948, sighting by Second Lieutenant George Gorman, an Air National Guard pilot, on a routine night flying mission near Fargo, North Dakota.

In the show, he buzzes a football stadium, climbs out and spots something, a glowing ball in the distance. He attempts to intercept, chases it, is apparently hit by it, and open fires on it. Once he lands, he is more than a little crazed by the events and for me, talks gibberish. He is suffering from an acute case of PTSD and eventually ends up in the psycho ward before being given a shot and dragged off. Apparently, the shot will wipe out his short-term memory of the event.

Hynek is called in to investigate and walked over to where the plane is being examined. He is stopped by a military guard but Hynek gives him the facts of high-altitude radiation and then is allowed to not only examine the plane but to sit in the cockpit. The guard should be reprimanded because he didn’t know that Hynek was authorized to see the plane and shouldn’t have allowed him close to it. After the captain with Hynek told the guard that Hynek was authorized to examine anything he wanted should the guard allow him to pass.

But really, all of this is trivia. If you understand that this is a television drama and not a documentary, that they were not constrained by what really happened, and that they are creating situation to move the plot, then the show is enjoyable. Maybe I nitpick a little too much, but that’s half the fun for me. I am interested in where the show is going and how many elements that have nothing to do with Blue Book will be brought in. I suspect they are going for an X-Files vibe as opposed to an actually historical vibe.

For those interested in the facts of this case, I have examined the relevant documents contained in the Blue Book files. Gorman was building his nighttime flight experience at the time. As the program told us, Gorman did, in fact, fly over a football stadium but at 1500 feet, as FAA regulations required. Gorman did see a smaller aircraft about 500 feet below him. (We would later learn that it was flown by Dr. L. N. Cannon with his friend Einar Neilson thought the names are redacted in the actual files.) He then spotted another object that was flying between the Hector Airport Tower and the football field. The tower operator told Gorman that there was only one other private aircraft in the sky. Gorman said that he was going to give chase. Gorman later told the Air Force investigators:

After the initial peel off, I realized the speed of the object was too great to catch in a straight chase, so I proceeded to cut it off in turns. At this time my fighter was under full power. My speed varying between 300 and 400. The object circled to the left, I cut back to the right for a head-on pass. The pass was made at apparently 5000 feet, the object approaching head-on until a collision seemed inevitable. The object veered and passed apparently 500 feet or less over the top above me. I chandelled [a flight maneuver] around still without the object in sight. The object made a 180 degree turn and initiated a pass at me. This time I watched it approach all the way as it started to pull up, I pulled up abruptly trying to ram the object until straight up with me following at apparently 14,000 feet, I stalled out at 14,000 feet with the object apparently 2000 feet above me circling to the left. We made two circles to the left. The object then pulled out away from me and made another head-on pass. At this time the pass started and the object broke off a large distance from me heading over Hector Airport to the northwest at apparently 11,000 feet. I gave a chase circling to the left trying to cut it off until I was 25 miles southeast of Fargo. I was at 14,000 feet, the object at 11,000 when I again gave the aircraft full power… to catch it in a diving turn. The object turned around and made another head-on pass. This time when pulling up, I pulled up also and observed it traveling straight up until I lost it. I then returned to the field and landed.

Although the program suggested that Gorman had fired on the object and that his aircraft had been damaged by it, there is nothing in the Blue Book files to corroborate that. This is artistic license, I suppose, but it is important to note that this was an aspect added to the story.

Gorman did say, “I am convinced that there was definite thought behind its maneuvers.” He added:

I am further convinced that the object was governed by the laws of inertia because its acceleration was rapid but not immediate and although it was able to turn fairly tight at considerable speed, it still followed a natural curve. When I attempted to turn with the object I blacked out temporarily due to excessive speed… I do not believe thee are many pilots who could withstand the turn and speed effected by the object, and remain conscious.

There were other witnesses, though they didn’t support all of the statements made by Gorman. One of those was Dr. Cannon and he provided a statement for Air Force investigators. It said:

I was flying and Nielson was using the phone and while circling the Football Field at the A.C. at 1600 feet, the Fargo tower advised us there was a [F]-51 in the air and a few moments later asked who the third plane might be. We had noticed the 51, and when we were over the North side of Hector Field going West a light seemingly on a plane flared above and to the North moving very swiftly toward the West. At first we thought it was the 51 but we then saw the lights of the 51 higher and more over the field. We landed… and then went up to the tower and listened to the calls from the 51 which seemed to be trying to overtake the plane or lighted object which then went southward and over the city. The plane was moving very swiftly, much faster than the 51. Tried to get a better view with a pair of binoculars but couldn’t follow it well enough…

In the tower, L. D. Jensen, said that he had seen the object or light at about 1000 feet in the northwest, pass rapidly over the field, flying in a straight line. He could see no form or shape, even through binoculars, and he could not see the maneuvers of either the F-51 or the object.

Officers from Project Sign, the forerunner of Blue Book, arrived from Ohio and interviewed all the witnesses. Eventually, after an investigation that included testing Gorman’s aircraft for radiation [which might have had more to do with the altitude and cosmic radiation rather than alien spacecraft], they concluded that Gorman had engaged in a dogfight with a balloon. Dr. Donald Menzel believed that Jupiter had a role in the dogfight as well. The official answer in the Blue Book files is balloon.

Jerry Clark, who is one of the historians of the UFO field, and who might be THE historian of the field, wrote in his UFO Encyclopedia:

Though some knowledgeable students of the UFO phenomenon… have rejected such an explanation for this famous sighting, unlike some Air Force would-be solutions this one seems plausible, particularly in the light of the failure of ground witnesses to confirm the extraordinary performance Gorman ascribed to the object he was pursuing After the Mantell incident [in which another Air Guard pilot was killed chasing what turned out to be a balloon], the Gorman sighting may be the most overrated UFO report in the early history of the phenomenon.

I will note here that Clark is more liberal than I when it comes to UFO sightings and explanations, so his conclusion here carries extra weight. I agree with him. Gorman somehow tangled with a balloon.

There is one final point and that concerns the over reaction of the pilot in, dare I say it, the pilot of Project Blue Book. There is no evidence Gorman was completely freaked out over the encounter. True, he had trouble landing the aircraft, but that was the reaction of the encounter. It was not a long-term problem. He remained in the Air Guard and retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1969.

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See Also:

‘Project Blue Book’ Meets with Mixed Reviews in the UFO Community

‘Project Blue Book’ Is Based on a True UFO Story – Here It Is

Project Blue Book - Episode 1 Mangled By 'History' Channel

Project Blue Book: Alien-Hunting Agents Seek the Truth About UFOs

New UFO Drama Series "Project Blue Book" | VIDEO

UFO Scripted Drama, 'Blue Book' To Be Produced By Award Winning Filmmaker, Robert Zemeckis

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

UFO Shoots Beam To Ground - Hynek Investigates | UFO CHRONICLE – 1969

An unidentified flying object(UFO) that beams a dazzling light to the ground has been reported in the Palatine Lake Zurich area and is being investigated by members of Northwestern University's astronomy department it was learned yesterday.

By Chicago Tribune 5-25-1969

The object which was described as saucer-shaped, frightened two teenage boys and caused the owner of a stable to wake up his employees to look at it.

Dr. J. Allen Hynek, director of the astronomy department said the reports of the object appeared to be genuine and that he is continuing an investigation into the matter to determine if the UFO can be explained.

See Also:

J. Allen Hynek Reports On a UFO Landing Near Nuclear Missile Site; An Air Force 'Strike Team' was Ordered To Intercept

Hynek Gathers 1000 UFO Encounters of The Best Kind | UFO CHRONICLE – 1985

Pursuit of UFOs Dangerous for Hynek | UFO CHRONICLE – 1966

-click and or right click on image(s) to enlarge-

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‘Project Blue Book’ Meets with Mixed Reviews in the UFO Community

Sometimes It's Just Con vs. Con

The History Channel's effort to dust off Project Blue Book was met with mixed reviews in the UFO community. In this post we'll look a little deeper into wider implications than the current argument about a television show. In doing so, we find a UFO genre - and arguably American culture at large - which does not expect individuals to possess neither the skills nor inclination to think critically. What's more, this is a long time staple of ufology.

By Jack Brewer The UFO Trail 1-17-19

Pro vs. Con

The argument about the dramatization of Blue Book files is basically split into two sides which hold opinions something like these:

Pro: The show is reaching a lot of people and increasing interest in the UFO topic.

Con: People will develop largely incorrect ideas about what took place during Blue Book because the show is not historically accurate on many important points.

Con vs. Con

While this writer leans towards the con argument of the two positions listed above, a larger point worth considering might be that we tend to doubt the public will know how or even care to establish historical facts. It largely seems that people are not expected to significantly differentiate between a for-profit film production made for entertainment and a for-profit film presented as a factual documentary. Maybe that's because there often isn't much difference. When it comes to UFO media, the cable TV show often isn't particularly any more fictional than the so-called documentary.

We might consider the same about activities called research projects and studies undertaken in the UFO genre. All too often, the hype these studies receive is short lived, and the actual work published - if published at all - turns out to be underwhelming. Given that's the case, it's not difficult to understand why the credibility of paperbacks with dubious tales about alleged alien hybrids seem easily confused with papers containing scientific jargon. They each lack rational conclusions while leaving readers confused. They're kind of the same thing. One's no more credible than the other, and all too frequently they're assigned credibility due to subject rather than expected to achieve credibility through content.

Research Ethics

All of the above pretty much brings us to the topic of ethics in research. We frequently receive hearsay accounts of studies being conducted; academic research on UFOs; medial exams of witnesses; government agency work on UFOs, experiencers, and UFO debris; and many others. The list is long and winding. However, much less frequently are we provided details or even reasonably corroborating evidence of such projects.

Research ethics exist for several reasons, including protecting the health and safety of human research subjects. Another important reason is to protect the integrity of the research. If certain protocols and norms are not followed, which typically include disclosing funding entities, project personnel, methods, and outcomes, the value of the work is in question. It is the adherence to such industry standards, and presenting proposed projects to review boards and completed project reports for peer review, that entitles work to be labeled as credible. We should not be afraid to expect transparency and we should not be intimidated into not asking for it.

Lastly, the blurring of the lines between fact and fiction, professional research and role playing games, as seen in ufology, may indeed simply be an aspect of a much wider cultural dilemma. Perhaps we should be more concerned about people taking an interest in rational problem solving than UFOs.

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See Also:

‘Project Blue Book’ Is Based on a True UFO Story – Here It Is

Project Blue Book - Episode 1 Mangled By 'History' Channel

Project Blue Book: Alien-Hunting Agents Seek the Truth About UFOs

New UFO Drama Series "Project Blue Book" | VIDEO

UFO Scripted Drama, 'Blue Book' To Be Produced By Award Winning Filmmaker, Robert Zemeckis

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

‘Project Blue Book’ Is Based on a True UFO Story – Here It Is

Featuring a Russian spy murder, a self-immolation, gun-toting government thugs and other fanciful plot devices, “Project Blue Book,” History’s popular new series on the Air Force’s program to investigate and debunk U.F.O.s, is not your historian’s Project Blue Book.

By Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean The New York Times 1-15-19

[...]

The History series predictably sensationalizes and overdramatizes case investigations and the historical figures involved, adding many story elements that simply never happened. It’s already hard enough for those trying to understand the truth about government involvement with U.F.O.s without mixing fact and fiction. [Emphasis added]

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See Also:

Project Blue Book - Episode 1 Mangled By 'History' Channel

Project Blue Book: Alien-Hunting Agents Seek the Truth About UFOs

New UFO Drama Series "Project Blue Book" | VIDEO

UFO Scripted Drama, 'Blue Book' To Be Produced By Award Winning Filmmaker, Robert Zemeckis

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

The Real-Life Secret UFO Study Behind 'Project Blue Book' The New TV Series

In the 1950s and 1960s, the US Air Force secretly investigated more than 12,000 reports of unidentified flying objects. The findings on the vast majority of those sightings were uneventful: people misidentifying common objects like

By Adam Epstein qz.com 1-12-19

planes, lights, birds, and comets; hoaxers looking to make a name for themselves; small towns succumbing to hysteria (okay, that one is kind of eventful). But 701 sightings still remain unidentified to this day.

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See Also:

Project Blue Book - Episode 1 Mangled By 'History' Channel

Project Blue Book: Alien-Hunting Agents Seek the Truth About UFOs

New UFO Drama Series "Project Blue Book" | VIDEO

UFO Scripted Drama, 'Blue Book' To Be Produced By Award Winning Filmmaker, Robert Zemeckis

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Project Blue Book - Episode 1 Mangled By 'History' Channel

So on January 8 we finally saw the much-awaited first episode of Project Blue Book on the Channel that once showed History. It was expected to be sensationalized, and poorly-acted. Those things it was. Where it exceeded expectations, however, was in the degree that it distorted the facts of what was, in fact, a historical incident, freely mixing sensational but fictional elements with a classic UFO incident. Public discussions of this case will now be hopelessly polluted by the made-up elements that people will now firmly believe to be part of the actual story.

By Robert Sheaffer badufos.blogspot.com 1-9-19

[...]

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See Also:

Project Blue Book: Alien-Hunting Agents Seek the Truth About UFOs

New UFO Drama Series "Project Blue Book" | VIDEO

UFO Scripted Drama, 'Blue Book' To Be Produced By Award Winning Filmmaker, Robert Zemeckis

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE