AATIP Crew Handled Kimbler Roswell Debris

Samples of debris reportedly recovered by Frank Kimbler at what he believed to be the vicinity of the storied Roswell crash site were provided to Hal Puthoff's Earth Tech and Robert Bigelow's BAASS, each later named as key figures in a Pentagon-funded UFO investigation project in a much discussed Dec. 16, 2017, NYT article. As many are aware, the Times piece described what came to be known as the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, among other titles, which reportedly operated from at least 2007 through 2011. A 2011 blog post at The UFO Trail suggested Kimbler provided samples for testing to Puthoff and Bigelow, the latter of which the Times

By Jack Brewer The UFO Trail 6-28-18

described as directing the modification of buildings in Las Vegas for storing materials recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena. Puthoff informed Kimbler of the availability of funding assistance for possible further testing, according to a 2011 email from Kimbler.

Hal Puthoff

Several websites are effectively pursuing likely sources of claims of stored materials, including blogs written by Keith Basterfield, Jason Colavito, and Robert Sheaffer. Worthy analysis of the "alloys" aspect of the evolving AATIP story was also published at Daily Grail. The Kimbler saga might add yet another piece to the puzzle. Researchers are largely forced to untangle the web on their own, as those claiming to be in the know are selectively releasing incomplete statements, often struggling with reasonable follow up questions if not altogether ignoring them.

As Colavito wrote, writer Leslie Kean, a co-author of the original Times article, had trouble trying to explain what was not classified about the alleged alloys and other aspects of the program. Similarly, the exact origins of the materials in question are unclear, as are their ownership.

The UFO Trail blog post from Sep. 3, 2011, explored some of Kimbler's samples reportedly going missing under unusual circumstances. The post further stated:

Kimbler has previous dealings with Hal Puthoff of Earth Tech and Robert Bigelow's BAASS while attempting to obtain quality analysis of the material he located. Many suspect the debris may be linked to the now famous Roswell crash. Kimbler indicated the analysis has been slow and tedious, and his dealing with both Earth Tech and BAASS raised concerns.

Email exchanges with Kimbler leading up to the blog post include an Aug. 22, 2011, message in which he explained he provided Earth Tech and BAASS with samples. He described both outfits as not forthcoming with information, sometimes requiring months of repeatedly asking the status of tests. He never received any data at all on one particular sample sent to BAASS, Kimbler wrote.

Kimbler added in the 2011 email that an interesting side note occurred when Puthoff of Earth Tech, in spite of being relatively unhelpful with the tests, later wrote Kimbler. According to Kimbler's email, Puthoff suggested financial assistance was available for more analysis if desired. This seemed to leave Kimbler somewhat perplexed as to why adequate testing was not simply conducted on the samples and satisfactorily reported to him in the first place.

Offered an opportunity to comment for this post, Kimbler replied in a June 28, 2018, email, "Everything I said in 2011 is true."

Earth Tech did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The significance of debris found by Kimbler in the New Mexico desert sparked debate within the UFO community. Some believe it to be remnants of a crashed alien spacecraft, while others suspect it may provide clues to what human-manufactured vehicle actually went down that fateful summer of 1947. Others point out the material has not yet been established as necessarily having anything at all to do with the famous Roswell story.

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See Also:

Mystery Metal From Roswell Crash Site May Be Confiscated by BLM

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Extraordinary UFO/UAP Sighting: Final Report

An Investigation Report On An Unusual Event, South Coast NSW, 29 MAY 2014.Paul Dean, Keith Basterfield and Unnamed Associate, December 2014

By Paul Dean The UFO Chronicles 12-8-14

      Introduction

In my previous blog post I gave some preliminary details of a rather extraordinary case which landed in my lap last month. I enlisted the help of Keith Basterfield and a researcher who wishes to remain unknown at this time. At the request of the witnesses I cannot be more specific about the location, or, provide personal details about the witnesses. I spent several hours in email, telephone and in-person communication with both witnesses. I have no doubt that the witnesses have been open, and forthcoming with all details surrounding the event. They have been overwhelmingly responsive to my many questions, and they have been rather pleasantly surprised that someone would take them so seriously. They have supplied a map of the property and its surroundings to us; plus provided copies of ground level photographs of the locality. However, for transparency purposes in terms of this investigation report, we, the authors as listed above, need to advise readers that we have not been able to visit the property; nor conduct a door to door cold call to determine if there were any more observers of the event. In addition, we have not been able to contact local news media looking for additional witnesses. The account therefore stands on the verbal testimony of the witnesses, whom we have no reason to disbelieve. Here then, is a more detailed account of the event, than provided for in the preliminary report; plus investigation notes; discussion and analysis. What happened in the early hours of that night, Thursday 29 May 2014, when the witnesses were sitting outside watching the clear, moonless sky in a rural area of scattered dairy farms?

What happened?

There were several stages to the events and these will be listed below, in the order in which they occurred:

1. A hazy, white, foggy light became visible in the distance, to the west. "It was just over the hill so we could only see a misty glow at first, below the false horizon formed by the hill. It kind of looked like a house on fire, but less red/orange and more white...It's a hilly area and it was so dark (no Moon) so it's hard to be precise...It looked as though it was down in the valley but I could not see an actual source of the hazy light...To me it looked like the glow caused by a bright outside light belonging to a house, exaggerated by the mist that came with it."

2. This foggy light became larger/more obvious. "In the distance the haze grew from the size of my thumb nail, then eventually stretched to the size of my thumb...We were not looking at it consistently as we kept chatting, then each time we glanced over (about 3 times overall) it had changed significantly each time..."

3. The white hue became a red hue/fog. It seemed to "split." Instead of a vague fog, it became a row of about ten, red and blue circular lights lined up, with a bright white beam, at the front. Asked about this formation of lights, the response was "They started out in a row...then seemed to rally around a central, larger craft with a stronger white light on the front, like an eye. The smaller "escorts" had lights which were alternating between red and blue, like a slowly rotating police light but with with some occasional green thrown in...They seemed to compact together and surround/follow the white beam as it was scanning the hills/valley."

This "thing" then "...scanned the terrain of the hills and valley, just opposite to us, very low to the ground (around tree level) shining this incredible bright white light through the trees to the ground, as well as in front of itself. It was so bright it would have been able to see about 400 meters ahead. The red and blue lights were hovering around it. Whatever it was, it was looking for something...Also it made this weird oscillating sound that terrified us. It definitely was not a helicopter...It scanned in a grid pattern at what seemed to be a constant speed of around 80 km/hr.". This "scanning" light "At first, it looked like a bright motorbike light, as it came out of the scrub in the distance. When it was closer, or when it got more "active" it seemed brighter, more like a single train headlight. Quite a focused beam but definitely spreading and slightly conical...It had a back and forth motion, quite regular, like it was covering all the terrain as it ran through its "search pattern" through the valley. It never seemed more than 20 metres off the ground, except when it occasionally traversed over the tree tops."

4. "If that wasn't enough, at the same time this was happening, all around us was this foggy hazy light...this "fog" was coming from these 3 different rhombus shapes, 1 green, 1 yellow and 1 red. They had cross hatching effects/sort of laser light effects creating their shape and overlapping one another. I estimate it would have been about 10-20 metres above us. It was just hovering there above us, making no wind/breeze or anything. It was basically just this maelstrom of lights and terrifying noise. We're pretty sure the noise was coming from the scanning light and not the one above us, but can't be 100% as obviously they were "working" together.

The female witness paid more attention to the "thing" that appeared to be close and almost overhead of them. The male witness stated "That was definitely a different craft...I paid it very little attention due to my focus on the other objects. I do remember the fog which came with it and the way the lights cut through the layers of fog like lasers at a music festival...I don't think I looked up at it properly..."

5. "...the really bright light that was scanning the terrain was getting closer to us and its spotlight was scanning in our direction. By this point I was so scared I thought I was about to have a heart attack as it shone its light on us." The two witnesses decided to retreat into the nearby house.

6. They stayed inside the house for an estimated 40 minutes. During this time the noise went away. "The noise continued for maybe 5 minutes, may be longer with the odd random beam flicking past the window. It seemed to take 20 minutes to half an hour before the sound had faded into the distance and another 40 minutes for me to build up the guts to go back outside." Then, on going outside, "...there was still some light activity, going on on the other side of the valley/hill, except instead of the really bright light making noise/scanning, there was lots of little ones. We watched for a while, then they quickly joined together to make "one" and left the mountain and as it did so. all the dogs within a few kilometers started to howl." That was the end of the event.

What did the witnesses think it was at the time?

1. Regarding the initial haze/fog. "1) It's the neighbours back sensor light (over the hill behind us). 2) It's a car headlights coming around the road."

2. Regarding the circular lights. "It must be a milk truck/cattle truck (it's dairy country)..."

3. Once the lights compacted. "It must be a farmer on his quad bike..."

4. On the end lights. "...we rationally thought that maybe there were a whole bunch of farmers running around with flashlights..."

Investigation

How does one go about investigating such an account, where you do not have on-site access, or the ability to conduct on-site checks with the neighbours, or through the media? In the end, it boils down to checking the information provided by the witnesses, against potentially mundane explanations, to try and eliminate these as a source of the observations. A check of the lunar cycle revealed that there was a new Moon on 29 May 2014, so there would be no Moon in the sky in the early hours of that night. A check of the weather for the nearest Bureau of Meteorology site, which was 24 kilometers away, showed that the cloud cover was most likely 1/8th at that time. Winds were light. At 3pm on 28 May, 19km/hr from the NNE and at 9am on 29 May, 20 km/hr from the SW. Thus the best estimate from this data would be relatively clear skies at 2am on the 29 May. There is no radar coverage available of this area, so there was not an opportunity to obtain this via an FOI request.

Discussion and Analysis

One of the authors, Keith, commented as follows:

1. The usual suspects, such as stars, planets, meteors, aircraft etc. seem not to apply here, due to the direction, movement and description of the phenomenon.

2. The report initially came to us via a Facebook account. The witnesses responded to an email inquiry, and then followed up with detailed descriptions via email, telephone and in person.

3. Keith notes that the detailed accounts supplied include what J Allen Hynek used to call an escalation of hypotheses. That is, at several points during the event, the witnesses tried to provide themselves with rational, non UAP explanations for what they were seeing. The witnesses now believe that they have ruled out any conventional explanations.

4. We can suggest only one conventional explanation which sceptics will put forward. This covers only some of the data points and would of necessity involve misperception by the witnesses. Could it be that they did indeed misperceive an "official search operation" of some kind? The fact that there were no roads in the area where the light was scanning, would not preclude a ground search, perhaps supported by a helicopter. The male witness at one stage in his account told one of the authors (PD) that "We quizzed a local farmer...he'd woken up to the sound of a helicopter at around 2am on the night in question." The male witness also stated, about the end of the event. "There seemed to be smaller lights amongst the distant scrub for 10 or 15 minutes, moving around randomly like men with torches."

Against this generalised explanation, one needs to match the witnesses' detailed description of the number and movements of the light sources, particularly the female witness' account of the close, nearly overhead extended angular diameter "object". All in all, on the supplied data, I'd be inclined to assign a low possibility (though not negligible) to this search operation hypothesis.

I checked with both NSW Police and an person in a current Army Aviation role, and found that helicopters are required to have the standard red and green navigational lights showing, and do not use blue lights. In addition, as the witnesses were outside for some time before the event began, where would a fully crewed helicopter suddenly come from? Overall, the witnesses dismiss the idea of a search operation and any involvement of a helicopter.

5. Another thought by one of the authors, Keith, regarding the close, almost overhead light display (reported in detail by one of the witnesses) was the possibility that could it have been a display of the Aurora Australis? These displays feature red and green, laser like rays, and are seen to the south (the light display was to their south). It also had an extended angular size of perhaps 5-10 degrees (as do Aurora.) The Aurora prediction service issued a bulletin dated 29 May 2014 alerting observers to the fact that auroral displays were to be expected in coming months. One of the authors (PD) put this hypothesis to the female witness, who said no, it was not an aurora.

Conclusion

We studied this case from quite a few angles. I, along with Keith and the other researcher who wishes to remain unknown by name for now, all agree with me that this event is very hard to explain in terms of the mundane or man-made. Thus, this case should be considered as an example of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP.)

Visit Paul's Web-Site . . .

See Also:

Extraordinary UFO-UAP Sighting and Beginning Of Investigations | AUSTRALIA

UFO Over Australia Identified | VIDEO

Radar Confirms Navy Pilot Being 'Buzzed' by UFOs – Australia | UFO CHRONICLE - 1954

Researching The Australian Military/Government 'UFO Files' (Pt 1)

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Extraordinary UFO-UAP Sighting and Beginning Of Investigations | AUSTRALIA

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By Paul Dean The UFO Chronicles 12-4-14

     As part of any serious study of the UFO/UAP matter, sooner or later an undertaking of in-depth case investigation is obviously essential. As a member of Victorian UFO Action (VUFOA), as well as an instigator of a new national sightings database with colleague Keith Basterfield, I have recently spent much time studying a number of cases, both old and new, many of which I will be publishing either by myself, or with Keith, or with VUFOA. I have spent considerable time working on such cases as the North West Cape US Navy sighting of 1973, right through to the 2014 “near miss” between a passenger plane and an “unknown object” over Perth - “unknown object” being the Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s terminology - not mine.

I have recently worked on one of the most unusual cases I’ve ever heard from Australia, or certainly one of the most unusual in recent times. In mid-2014, on the south-east coast of NSW, two people were into well into a long-term house-sitting stint on large rural property. On the 29th of May, around 2am, whilst talking and watching the sky for meteors, planets, etc the woman first noticed a hazy, white, foggy light in the distance. She drew her partner’s attention to it, and over the next two minutes it became larger in size. At this point, they considered the possibility that it might be the neighbour’s backyard sensor light or a small fire. After four minutes it was still growing in size. They then considered whether or not it might be car headlights. At this point, suddenly the white hue became a red hue/fog. At the same time it seemed to split.

It became a row of about ten red and blue, circular lights lined up, with a bright white beam at the front. As they were new to the area they continued to look for a logical explanation. Then the row of white, blue and red lights suddenly compacted itself whilst an incredibly loud noise commenced. The witnesses’ best guesstimate as to the distance to the object, was 900 metres. In the witness’ own words “It then scanned the terrain of the hills and the valley just opposite us, very low to the ground (around tree level) shining this incredibly bright white light through the trees to the ground, as well as in front of itself.” The red and blue lights hovered around it. By this time both witnesses were terrified by the weird, oscillating sound and the foggy, hazy light, all around them.

So, there was the row of lights some distance away, plus all around them was a foggy, hazy light. This fog, quite a distinct phenomenon from the first event, was coming from “...three different rhombus shapes, 1 green, 1 yellow and 1 red. They had cross hatching effects, sort of laser light effects creating their shape and overlapping one another. I estimate it would have been 10-20 metres above us.” There was no air turbulence felt. “We’re pretty sure the noise was coming from the scanning light and not the one above us...” At this point, the scanning light came closer to them and they ran into the house and did not look out for 40 minutes, even after the noise ceased. They then noted some light activity still going on on the other side of the valley; little lights joined together and left the area. Suddenly all the dogs in the area began to howl. The area surrounding the house has some paddocks, but is mostly bushland.

Working with the witnesses, we are now looking at all possibilities, but initial investigations indicate a very real and very tangible event did occur. I have already mounted investigations with some government agencies and a study of the geographical area in question. The witnesses wish to remain anonymous. Privacy is essential for a number of reasons. A full report will be published soon.

Visit Paul's Web-Site . . .

See Also:

UFO Over Australia Identified | VIDEO

Radar Confirms Navy Pilot Being 'Buzzed' by UFOs – Australia | UFO CHRONICLE - 1954

Researching The Australian Military/Government 'UFO Files' (Pt 1)

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A roadside UFO sculpture, Lower Light in South Australia (landy6 - ABC Open contributor)

Does Australia Need Official UFO Researchers?

By Eloise Fuss
www.abc.net.au
10-13-14

A South Australian UFO researcher says a dedicated civilian group needs to be established to investigate and report mysterious sightings in our skies.

     Long time UFO researcher, Keith Basterfield, said the Australian Air Force archived more than 10,000 UFO observations before they halted these records in 1990.

A number of keen groups and individuals around the country have continued to unofficially collect UFO data, but Mr Basterfield wants to see these reports brought together on a national level.

"There are a number of people who have done this for many years and are quite good at it, but what we're lacking is a national level perspective of what's being reported."

With much mystery still surrounding these unidentified flying objects, Mr Basterfield hoped a more cohesive collection of sighting information could help lead to explanations.

"I want to know if there's anything more to the whole subject beyond the 95 per cent that could be explained, and the small possibility of rare phenomena that science still doesn't understand," Mr Basterfield said.

SA's reported sightings range from 50 years ago when numerous unidentified flying objects were seen above the Woomera Rocket Range in the state's outback, to more recent reports from a regional farming community. . . .

Continue Reading . . .

See Also:

UFO Over Australia Identified | VIDEO

Oz Encounters: UFOs in Australia - Paranormal Alien Documentary | VIDEO

Has The Westall UFO Incident Been Solved?

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"Quick Response Team To Investigate UFO Sightings," Requested

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Are we doing enough to learn the truth about UFOs?

By AARON LANGMAID
Herald Sun
9-7-14

A LEADING Australian researcher has called for the launch of a quick response team to investigate UFO sightings across Australia within hours of them being reported.

      The civilian unit would take on a role similar to air crash investigators, interviewing witnesses and taking samples from the scene to be tested, with findings documented and released publicly.

The concept was among a raft of proposals tabled by experts at a Victorian UFO action conference.

Researcher Keith Basterfield also called for a three-day symposium to help explain one of Melbourne’s most baffling cases.

The 1966 sighting over Westall High School in Clayton South could be solved by bringing together witnesses and experts under the one roof, he said. . . .

Continue Reading . . .

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VIDCAST | UFO Crash Retrieval Team Streams 'Live' Update From Location

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Researching The Australian Military/Government 'UFO Files' (Pt 2)

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Editor's Note: Once again we welcome guest blogger and Australian researcher Paul Dean; here we present Part 2 in the series covering his archival research of military/government files and what UFO secrets they hold. Paul in his own words explains, "I have spent 21 years passively studying the UFO phenomena; earlier this year I decided to actively contribute in some meaningful way."–FW

By Paul Dean The UFO Chronicles © 1-10-14

      Having been successful in uncovering UFO related docs during my archival research in March and April (2013), I was newly invigorated more then ever to keep digging.

The saga took an interesting turn as I was now focusing on Australia’s military and intelligence agencies that researchers already knew had dealt with the UFO matter at length. A few of the more obvious organisations were the Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF), the Directorate of Air Force Intelligence (DAFI) and the Joint Intelligence Bureau (JIB), renamed the Joint Intelligence Organisation (JIO) in 1969.

- click on image(s) to enlarge -

The JIO was one of Australia’s chief intelligence agencies in the 1970’s and 1980. It is now called the Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO). In particular, I was interested in files created by a very sensitive division of the JIO called Defence Science and Technical Intelligence (DSTI). The reason why this division of the JIO is so important is because we know, through a stunning file found by Keith Bastefield some years ago, that a handful of scientists working there took the UFO matter very seriously indeed. One nuclear physicist, Harry Turner, was so convinced that the UFO issue was real that he approached his direct boss, Bob Mathams, Head of DSTI to start a no-nonsense investigation of UFO cases using JIO resources with assistance and endorsement of the RAAF. This effort barely made it off the ground, but information about quality UFO cases obtained from the RAAF precipitated the Director of the JIO, R. W. Furlonger, in 1971 to pen the following memo (see right):

“There appears to be sufficient evidence from RAAF and US reports of investigations of UFO sightings to indicate that some reports cannot readily be explained by natural phenomena or manmade activities.”

One assumes that the Director of the JIO, a man who met with the Australian Prime Minister regularly—would not be writing such things lightly! In fact, the Directors of the JIO throughout the 1970’s are said to have had substantially more, wide ranging Intelligence at their fingertips as any other top-level individual in Australia, bar none.

So, with this secretive organisation in mind, as well as the RAAF’s DAFI involvement in the UFO matter, I patiently went through lists of as many possible long-hidden files created by these two organisations as I realistically could. Over two nights I found twelve files which had never been examined by the Archives that remained essentially classified, and were created entirely or at least partly within the JIO or DAFI. My finds by title were:

1. Outer Space Uncontrolled Re-Entry of Satellites and Other Space Vehicles

2. DSTI Defence Science and Technology Intelligence - Joint Intelligence Organisation Product

3. Joint Intelligence Organization Directorate of Scientific and Technical Intelligence DSTI and List of DSTI Notes

4. JIO [Joint Intelligence Organisation] - Space

5. Outer Space - Activities of Marginal Specialised Bodies

6. Requests Reports - DAFI [Directorate of Air Force Intelligence]

7. Requests for and Reports to JIO [Joint Intelligence Organisation]

8. Release of Joint Intelligence Bureau [JIB] (M) Reports and Items to [Remainder of Title Exempt]

9. Requests for and Reports to DAFI [Directorate of Air Force Intelligence]

10. Requests from and Reports to DAFI [Directorate of Air Force Intelligence]

11. DAFI [Directorate of Air Force Intelligence] - Requests From

12. JIB [Joint Intelligence Bureau] Items

Now, I did not assume that any of these gems would necessarily be about UFO’s. Some of them, maybe the lot in fact, could have been about anything and everything but UFO’s. However, the titles, date-ranges, agencies involved in creating them etc., certainly seemed similar to the other JIO and DAFI files which have been released over the years that contained excellent UFO material. The reason I don’t know what is on them yet is because, unlike my other less sensitive finds, none of these files have been released to me – and it has been seven months since I requested them. I have, of course, followed up repeatedly with the National Archives this matter. The startlingly long delay was first explained to me in an email, dated June, 21 (2013):

“These files require particularly heavy scrutiny before being released for public consumption.”

Two months later in August, upon emailing a Senior NAA Reference Officer, I was told:

“I would assume that a decision on releasing this material will not take much longer. The files must be very sensitive.”

We are now in November; the files have not been released.

Something else has happened which was even less expected. On the 19th of November I decided to randomly check the access status of some of these long-overdue files. I wanted to see if any of them had been made available without me receiving information to that effect. I searched the database for one of these files by title, which I knew was there, called “JIO (Joint Intelligence Organisation) – Space” by its title keywords … and it was missing from the database! I then sifted through my handwritten notes to find the barcode of the file. This had to work. The file came up in front of me alright—but its title had changed from “JIO (Joint Intelligence Organisation)] – Space” to “REDACTED – Space”. This was something I didn’t even know could be done.

For authorities to actually modify the title such that it removes any reference to the Joint Intelligence Organisation seems an almost desperate attempt to disassociate the agency from the subject of space. Could my actions of requesting this file have caused either the NAA or the actual controller of the file –now the DIO as mentioned above- to go to this length? Are the current DIO document review officers, who work closely with the NAA on releasing sensitive files, growing a little tired or a little wary of my rapidly growing interest in their documents? Maybe it’s a stretch, but I have already spoken to other people who work with the NAA and they have never, ever heard of this happening before. I rang the NAA for some explanations. They indicated that they will look into it in due course.

This isn’t the only thing that has slightly raised my suspicions about their complete openness regarding the fair and transparent act of releasing files to the public. Back in May, I discovered two very interesting files one evening. The first one was titled “Department of Transport Air Safety Incident Report Dated 8 February 1978 Relating to a Sighting Near Gove of Unidentified Aircraft.” The second lucky discovery was called “Unidentified Aircraft and Another Reported Sighting Which Includes Annexes A and B - Tendered by Hendy Ernest Neil, Director Coastal Surveillance.” Both files are, at minimum, surely related to unidentified aircraft. Waiting to receive any confirmation on whether these two interesting finds could be released, I finally emailed the NAA in September for answers. I was first told they were simply “not available on the advice of the controlling agency of the files.” Not wanting to let this matter settle, I have recently chased up the matter again and was finally told, begrudgingly, by a Senior NAA Reference Officer, via email:

“These records were previously opened, but are now marked Not Yet Examined. I have investigated this matter, and have found that when these were originally opened, there was an error made. As soon as this error was discovered, the access decision of Open was removed.”

I have made an appeal to Australia’s powerful Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). It won’t be the last.

Two more unusual cases of files listed as being at the NAA, then turning out to be anything but, have occurred. One very promising hit, back in February, appeared on the database during intensive searching titled, “Air Defence - Unusual Reporting by Aircraft Captains Intelligence Sightings.” One would assume that this would possibly contain UFO reports. I requested it be examined immediately, and it wasn’t long before the NAA responded to me via email:

“The controlling agency for this record has informed us that it was destroyed in July 1998 under General Disposal Authority 14...”

1998? Why it is therefore still listed in the NAA’s RecordSearch in 2013?

Another example, this one involving Australia’s Federal Police no less, is also notable. “Discovery of Secret Naval Intelligence Memorandum” was the title and the date range of the contents was the late 1960’s. I applied for a copy of the file (it had already been examined and was releasable) in February.

While there is nothing in the title to suggest a content involving UFO’s, I had a gut feeling that it was worth requesting. Soon though the NAA advised me:

“Unfortunately the National Archives of Australia does not hold this item as it was withdrawn by the Australian Federal Police.”

The Federal Police? Why would the Federal Police be commandeering a decades old file from the National Archives of Australia?

As for files I have been given access to, there has been much success. Going back to the start of April of this year, I had discovered and requested, as told in Part 1 of my story, half-a-dozen completely unopened UFO files from the NAA. However, I also took the opportunity to request files that had already been discovered and seen by other researchers years earlier–especially Keith Basterfield and Bill Chalker. I paid for the digitisation of these files and sending of hardcopies as I located them. Some of titles of these files included:

• “Eastern Area Headquarters – Intelligence: Report On Unusual Sighting 3rd May 1952”

• “Sighting of an Unidentified Flying Object by Mr L N Waldron”

• “Earth Satellites, Space Vehicles, Unidentified Flying Objects - General”

• “Intelligence - Reports of Unusual Sightings”

- click on image(s) to enlarge -

Of these, the most significant was the file “Eastern Area Headquarters – Intelligence: Report On Unusual Sighting 3rd May 1952” and has the Control Symbol 5/1/27 PART B, part of the A11066 File Series.

The 16 page opens with a newspaper clipping from Sydney’s Daily Telegraph dated 6th May 1952. It describes three servicemen’s report of a ‘flying saucer’ over Sydney on 3rd May 1952. Their reports were given to one Dr J H Piddington, the Principal Research Officer of the Radiophysics Division of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). While the object was finally concluded to probably be a “meteor” - as Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) put it - this event actually made it to the United States Air Force’s Project Blue Book files:

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- click on image(s) to enlarge -

At the end of April I had another file digitised and hardcopies sent to me – the fifth in a month. File Series B595, Control Symbol 21/1/387 PART 2 titled, “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.” With a date range of 1960-1965 the file is 70 pages in length and originated from Australia’s former Department of Civil Aviation (DCA). The file contains numerous UFO reports from seemingly qualified witnesses. These reports include an April 1962 event from South Australia where a man sighted a fast flying, low down, soundless craft. It clearly had three very brilliant lights on it.

What made this story interesting was that only 15 minutes later, and 125 miles away, a similar object was seen by other witnesses. The report was passed to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).

Another report on the file, this one from Queensland, dated November 1964, told of observers at the Rockhampton Aerodrome who saw what they took to be a high flying aircraft and associated vapour trail. However, there was no known aircraft in the area. The vapour trail was inspected minutes later through binoculars but the aircraft was gone. A check of adjacent air traffic control units failed to identify any aircraft in the region at the time.

Another November 1964 sighting from Queensland, this one from Brisbane: Mr M. German - on duty at the weather radar installation noted a return on the radar at 075deg T, range 140 miles. The return was travelling in a northerly direction. There were no known aircraft in the area.

These cases are not overly significant as far as serious UFO events go, but when one considers that just this one single file contains all these reports –and many more– from just a few years, it is clear that people really were seeing unusual things and were prepared to report them.

So where does this leave us? There are clearly a significant number of new discoveries to be made. Experience now tells me that no matter how seemingly thorough previous file searches were performed—new finds will keep showing up. Then there is the matter of the extended waiting period I have experienced for the release of the twelve files that could well contain valuable material relating to UFO matters in Australia. For more information on some of the files I have found go to Keith Basterfield’s website. Keith has helped me to no-end with this endeavour, and it seems there will be a lot more to come. A mention must be also made of researcher Bill Chalker who also has provided me with a notable level support regarding my line of intensive enquiries. Both of these calm and focused investigators have worked for some forty years on the matter, and continue to do so. I will be issuing a Part 3 of my research in due course.

SEE PART 1

See Also:

Researching The Australian UFO Files (Pt 1)

UFO NEWS | National Archives of Australia Releases Secret UFO X-Files After 30 Years

Australia’s UFO Files | YOUR NEED TO KNOW | VIDEO

Alleged 'Alien Abductions' Lambasted By Paul Barry, Host of Australia's Media Watch

SHARE YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Researching The Australian Military/Government 'UFO Files' (Pt 1)

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By Paul Dean
The UFO Chronicles
© 11-17-13

   My name is Paul Dean and I have spent 21 years passively studying the UFO phenomena; earlier this year I decided to actively contribute in some meaningful way.

The National Archives of Australia holds millions upon millions of files which have been passed to them from every department and or agency in the Australian Federal Government; this is facilitated after a full 30 years has passed, providing they are in some way significant to Australia’s history and providing they are not still in use by the controlling department or agency.

Within the National Archives of Australia website, a section by the name of RecordSearch is maintained where much of their gigantic file collection, at least by title, date range, size, etc, can be scrutinized by entering keywords and simply pressing “search.” Without going into great detail, some files are classed as “Open”, some as “Open With Exception” and some “Closed”. It is from there that the user can request a copy of the file, or, request that it be analysed to ascertain if it is releasable to the user. One reason a file, or rather sections of a file, may not meet the requirements of being releasable is due its contents containing fairly highly classified or sensitive information, even after 30 years. However, I am aware, from correspondence with Senior Reference Officers at the National Archives, that this is actually quite rare because old files that are particularly sensitive never even make it to the National Archives in the first place, and are instead kept under lock-and-key by their controlling agency for decades upon decades.

Australian UFO researches have, in the past, been very successful in discovering and obtaining copies of some 140 UFO-related files during both physical searches of Australia’s National Archives and searches on the Archive’s RecordSearch site. In addition, many of these files, including those kept by the Department of Aviation, and the Royal Australian Air Force’s Directorate of Air Force Intelligence, had already been studied by UFO researcher Bill Chalker from 1982 to 1984 in an unusual period of openness allowed by authorities in those organisations. In other words, it would seem that most of Australia’s official UFO files, or at least those from the 1950’s through to the early 1980’s, have been found at the National Archives, or through other forms of access, and have been largely scrutinized by UFO researchers and others alike.

I decided, at the start of this year, 2012, to do my own searches of the National Archives RecordSearch database to see, on the off-chance, if there were any more files that may relate to UFO’s that had not been opened for public consumption. Due to repeated and frequent scrutiny of the database by more established researchers such as Keith Basterfield – to whom I am greatly indebted for his huge support - I didn’t hold out much hope of discovering anything of interest. There was little point in searching for files with keywords like “flying saucer” or “unidentified object” as I was more than certain that this had been done to the nth degree, so I attempted searches using keywords, and combinations of keywords, as far ranging as “phenomena intelligence”, “object sightings department” or “air event aviation”. Within an hour or so I discovered 2 files that were classed as “Closed” with the titles “Aerial phenomena - UFO sightings Department of Civil Aviation; Transport” and “Unidentified Aerial Object 3/4/1966 Tullamarine”. Somewhat surprised, I requested that the files be examined for the purposes of opening to the public, and went about trying to find any more tantalising file titles amongst the thousands of unrelated entries.

I continued nightly until I had built up a substantial list of highly suspect file titles; titles like “Air Defence - Unusual Reporting By Aircraft Captains Intelligence Sightings,” “Air Incidents Reports,” and “Intelligence – Operation Voodoo.” Not a single one of these strange files had been opened and most of them had probably not seen the light of day since the 1960’s or 1970’s. I requested that these files be opened by the National Archives, so I could have them sent to me in hardcopy, or at least digitized. Possibly getting in over my head, it was also at this point I decided to contact one of Australia’s most well-respected UFO researchers, Keith Basterfield. Keith, while impressed with my finds, needed to quickly give me a crash course in how the National Archives worked to further enhance my slow, nightly searches of the database.

Over many January nights, I not only found time to do specific keyword searches, but also trawl through entire “file series” such as the A703 and A705 groupings which already contained known UFO related files from the 1960’s and 1970’s. Within two weeks I had discovered some sixty files – any one of which could have contained UFO material (whether it be sightings reports, unit investigations of UFO events, official policy, letters from the public, internal teletype messages, routing slips and so forth). I kept finding files with titles containing strings of words like “Tracking of Space Objects, Aust. NASA”; files with titles like “Destruction of Records” by Australia’s old Directorate of Air Force Intelligence, the Directorate formally charged with gathering UFO sighting reports; files with “Special Air Safety Events” or “Joint Intelligence Reports” in their titles.

One by one the National Archives opened the ever increasing files I had requested.
The persistence and the late nights had paid off. An early file I had discovered was titled “Visual phenomena - Mawson - 1958 - Sighted From Taylor” and the Archives had opened it for me, asked me if I wanted a copy, and duly sent one. The file contains a strange tale concerning four experienced observers seeing “. . . an unusual display of lights and shadows” for about 20 minutes. The sun was below the horizon and the sky almost clear of clouds. First came an “. . . indefinable blob of shadow travelling . . . at great speed . . ..” Although this wasn’t a specific Air Force, Navy or other government agency file, the series number of the file means that it came from Australia’s “Antarctic Division”. Better things were to come.

By February I was receiving as many as 5 files a week in the mail. Many were not related to UFO’s, but still were valuable due to the need to understand how Australia’s military worked decades ago. Some files were UFO related however. One file I received was titled “Maritime and Air Incidents/Contacts” and was 31 pages. The National Archives chose to exempt 2 pages due to security concerns as laid out in the Archives Act. It was the first file I had found and received that had such censorship. It wouldn’t be the last. The file contained various reports and loose minutes made to-and-fro between Royal Australian Air Force Headquarters about general UFO activity, possible aircraft intrusions, strange lights in the sky, and other odd events. Some of the pages were teletypes classified “SECRET.” Of more importance was my receiving of the file “Unidentified Aerial Object 3/4/1966 Tullamarine,” which I had found and ordered the month before. It was a UFO report made by an air traffic controller at Tullamarine Airport and highlighted a radar plot near Melbourne. This is important considering it occurred just 3 days before the infamous Westall incident – a well-documented and bona fide UFO event in suburban Melbourne on the 6th of April, 1966. Although the speed and direction of movement of the object on the radar scope fits that of a balloon, one wonders why an air traffic controller would choose to make a report of it to authorities as one would presume balloons are detected by radar quite frequently.

The never before opened file “Aerial Phenomenon - UFO sightings Department of Civil Aviation; Transport” finally arrived at my doorstep in early March. At 18 pages it contained very sober UFO reports made to the Department of Civil Aviation. Amongst them was the sighting of 3 silver-gold objects travelling rapidly through the clear skies by two proficient witnesses. The report was taken seriously, though we have never seen any other documentation regarding the incident in RAAF files. One of the witnesses writes:

“I might add that we were both of sound and sober mind and that both of us would be highly embarrassed should there be any release of this report. I have been a CPL for 18 years and 3500 hours experience in Australia and New Guinea. My eyesight is still 20/20, so you can be assured that I really did see the effect as described.”

The next file to be opened, copied and sent to me was from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) titled, “Observations - General by outside authorities (includes UFO)”. With a date range of 1972-1981, the bulky offering contained 297 pages, and consisted of various reports of meteorological phenomena, apparent astronomical phenomena, a lot of agency correspondence and finally a very decent serving of UFO sightings made to the BOM over 9 years. One sighting, on the 16th of December, 1976, contained this entry:

“The shape was like a rugby ball, with an angular size of about half a degree. Sighting duration was 10-12 seconds. When at about 50 degree elevation in the south-west it seemed to stop for five seconds then dissolved in the same spot.””

Another, from May 27, 1978 reads:

“Dull orange object, low on the eastern horizon travelling north to south. Faster than an aircraft, slower than a meteor. No sound. Duration 1.5 to 2 minutes. Moved from north-east to south-south-west. Above clouds. Long orange tail. 3-4 weeks before, at dusk, a similar object was seen travelling in the opposite direction in the eastern sky.”

By the end of March it was clear that my efforts to dig up a significant number of unopened, sometimes formally classified UFO-related files from the National Archives was gaining momentum. Many of the promising files, however, that arrived at my home would turn out to be completely un-UFO-related. But the files that were UFO related were worth the disappointments.

End Part 1

SEE PART 2

See Also:

UFO NEWS | National Archives of Australia Releases Secret UFO X-Files After 30 Years

Australia’s UFO Files | YOUR NEED TO KNOW | VIDEO

Alleged 'Alien Abductions' Lambasted By Paul Barry, Host of Australia's Media Watch

SHARE YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE