minnesota man reports close encounter, p. 11. dr. oppenheimer and

8/14/2019 Minnesota Man Reports Close Encounter, p. 11. Dr. Oppenheimer And

1/25
http://www.mufon.com/http://www.theblackvault.com/wiki/


2/25

I nthisissueMinnesota man reports

close encounter, p. 11.Dr. Oppenheimer an dUFOs: Part two, p. 7.Brazil ian military be-

gins work with Brazilianufologists, p. 10.MUFON Forum, p. 13.UFO Press, Sacred En-counters: Spiritual Awak-enings During Close En -counters, reviewed by Dr.

Leo Sprinkle, p. 14.M U F O N s p o n s o r i n g"best technological evi-

dence" contest, p. 17.Calendar, p. 22.UFO Marketplace, p.

23.

ColumnsDirector 's Message 2Filer's Files 15Ted Phillips 18Stan Friedman 20McLeod's Night Sky 24

July 2005No. 447$4.00

Mutual UFO NetworkJOURNAL>f*^

'

A strand of hair, apparendy from the blonde entity above (artist'sconception), has provided tantalizing results after DNA testing. Thearticle begins on page 3. (Thanks to Peter Khoury, Bill Chalker, and APEG forproviding this sketch.)


3/25

July 2005 Number447M U F O NUFO Journal(USPS 002-970)

(ISSN 0270-6822)Mutual UFO NetworkPost Office Box 369

Morrison, CO 80465-0369Tel: 303-932-7709Fax: 303-932-9279

International DirectorJohn F.Schuessler, M.S.Tel: 303-932-7709

[email protected]

Editor:Dwight Connelly, M.S.

14026 Ridgelawn RoadMartinsville, IL 62442Tel: (217) [email protected]

Advertising Director:John F. Schuessler, M.S.

Columnists:George Filer, M.B.A.

Stanton Friedman, M.S.Gavin A. J. McLeod

Ted Phillips

MUFON on the Internet:http://www.mufon.com

MUFON e-mail address:[email protected]

MUFON Amateur Radio Net:40 meters - 7.237 MHzSaturdays, 7 a.m. CST or COST

Director's MessageB y John F. SchuesslerMUFON Case ManagementSystem (CMS) debutsA f t e r m u c h ha rd work and prepara -t ion, the new MUFON Case Manage-m e n t System is ready to r use.W e a p p l a u d and e x t e nd ou r t ha nkst o t h e v o l u n -teers who madet h i s possibleTomas Karls-son, BobR awl in son ,a n d Jan Har-zan are the ar-chitec ts and im -p l e m e n t e r s ofth e new CMS.We are ve ryp l e a s e d w i t h Jolm Schuesslert he i r o u t s t a n d i n g product. I t can beu s e d t o i n t e g r a t e sightings f rom a l lsources, so we view that as a way ofuni fying the work tha t is being done inthis field.W e also t h a n k D on Weatherby andWendy B an for all the work they didon WIJFOD, the predecessor to theCMS, and to James Carrion for thework he is doing on the Pandora Project,which converts past MUFON U F O re -

ports f r om paper to e l e c t r on i c fileswhich will in te r f ace with the CMS.The new CMS Member's User Guidehas been sent to all sta te directors andassis tan t s tate directorsand is availablefo r download.Animal reactions to UFOsA new MUFON special publ ica t ionenti t led Animal Reactions to UFOs: APreliminary Ini-estigatinn from th e Animals'Perspt-ctire w i l l b e a v a i l a b l e f r o mMUFON in la te Ju ly . T h e a u t h o r i sJoan Woodward of Fair fax , VA .J o a n i s a f i e l d i n v e s t i g a t o r f o rMUFON and for the Fu n d " fo r U FOResearch (FUFOR).She worked with Richard Hall todevelop an i n d e x of James E.McDonald's correspondence con-tained in the Donald E. Keyhoe Ar-chives, and then worked on data com-pilat ion for Richard Hall's Alien Inra-sioti or H u m a n fantasy?A t FUFOR's request, she u n d e r t o o ka n i n v e s t i g a t i o n o f t he J u l y , 2002,sightings over SouthernMaryland whereu n k n o w n s were pursued by F-16s fromAndrews A ir Force Base, a report now(Continued on page 22)

Change of address and subscription/extra copies inquiries should besent to MUFON, P.O. Box 369, Morrison, CO 80465-0369.

Copyright 2005 by the Mutual UFO Network. All Rights ReservedNo part ol this document may be reproduced m any form without the written permission of the Copyright

Owners. Permission is hereby granted to quote up to 200 wordsof any one article, provided the author is credited,and the statement. "Copyright 2005 by the Mutual UFO Network. PO. Box 369. Morrison. CO 80465-0369" isincluded.

The contents of the MUFON UFO Journal ate determined by the editor, and do not necessarily ref lect theofficial position of the Mutual UFO Network Opinions expressed are solely those of the individual authors andcolumnists, and do not necessarily reflect th e opinion of the editor or staff of MUFONThe Mutual UF O Network. Inc. is exempt f rom Federal income Ta x under Section 50 1 (c) (3) of the InternalRevenue Code MUFON is a publicly supported organization of the type described m Section 509 (a) (2) Donorsma y deduct contnbutions f rom their Federal income Tax. Bequests, legacies, devises, t ransfers, or gifts are alsodeductible for estate and gift purposes, provided they meet the applicable provisions of Sections 2055. 2106. and2522 of the Internal Revenue Code MUFON is a Texas nonprofit corporation

The MUFON UFO Journal is publishedmonthly by the Mutual UFO Network, inc . Morrison. CO SecondClass postage paid at Versailles. MO.

individual Membership- $45/year u S . S55 outside the U SFamily members: $10 per person additionalSludeni (1 8 years and under) $35 U.S. and S45 outside the U S.Donor SiOO/year Professional S250/year Patron $500/yearBenefactor (Lifetime Member) $1.000First class Journal delivery (m envelopes) U.S and Canada only. $!2/year additionalAir Mail Journal delivery to an other countries outside the United States $35/year additionalPostmaster Send form 3579 to advise change of address to MUFON UFO Journal P O Box 369. Morrison.

CO 80465-0369

MUFON's mission is the scientific study of LFOs for the benefitof humanity through investigation, research, & education.


4/25

Gan science find the key?DNA evidence and the future of ufology

WIChalker

By Bill ChalkerIn the July, 2001, issue of the

MUFON UFO Journal I described insome detail the strange case of PeterKhoury of Sydney, Australia, and his1992 experience with what appears tobe two femaleentities-onewith blue eyesand wispy,blonde hair,and the otherone with darkskin and anAsian appear-ance.As a resultof this en-counter, he dis-covered twostrands of blonde hair wrapped aroundhis penis, and immediately linked thishairto the blonde entity.Khoury, who had experienced otherencounters with entities, realized theimportance of this evidence and placedthe strands of hair in a plastic sachetbag with a seal.It was not until 1996 that I heardfrom him about the hair sample.By 19981was able to begin an inves-tigation into the sample when biologi-cal colleagues agreed to undertake theworld's first PCR (Polymerase Chain Re-action) DNA profiling of ufologicalmaterial implicated in an alien encoun-ter.M y forthcoming book, Hair of theAlien:DNA and other Forensic Evidence fo rAlien Abductions , to be published byParaview Pocket Books this month (July,2005) uses the Khoury case as a potenttouchstone, and examines evidence incases from diverse locations, includingthe United States, South America, Af-rica, China, and my home country ofAustralia.The UFO subject and, more particu-larly, the alien abduction controversy areat acrossroads. Where we go from herewill be critical for the credibility andfu ture of UFO research.As ascientistmyself , I have oftenla-mented the rarity of high-quality sciencein UFO study. Too often there is aJULY 2005

knee-jerk rejection of even the possi-bility that there might be something toUFOs.Over the years I have been fortunateto work with other scientists on theUFO problem in asort of invisible col-lege, like the one the late Dr. J. AllenHynek helped develop-an informal net-work of scientists who view the UFOphenomenon as worthy of serious at-tention.

Many of my colleagues in this invis-ible college prefer to contribute anony-mous ly because "the UFO problem" isseen as a "forbidden science."The bizarre events that centered onKhoury provided an extraordinary op-portunity to assess the reality of abduc-tion experiences. It was time that foren-sic science confronted the alien abduc-tion controversy.By early 1998 my circle of colleagueshad expanded to include some scientistsfrom the biochemical field. They werecautiously interested in UFOs, but in-sisted that their involvement would needto be conducted strictly on an anony-mous basis.The biochemists were established intheir f i e ld , with well-regarded,peer-reviewed publications and re-search. Because I had an existing andreasonable public profile,and strongandestablished connections with key re-searchers worldwide, our group, whichcalled itself the Anomaly Physical Evi-dence Group (APEG), decided that Iwould be its public face.

DNA analysis beginsAnd so it was that in1998,"as my newbiochemical associates were lamentingthe general absence of credible UFOevidence pertinent to their field (specifi-cally biological samples), I pointed to acredible sample, noting that in theKhoury case a hair sample had beenrecovered.Not surprisingly, my scientific asso-

ciates were immediately interested.Our discussions then focused on thefac t that techniques like polymerasechain reaction (PCR) amplification andsequencing of mitochondrial DNA onthe hair sample might provide a strongtest for the credibility of abduction sto-

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

About the AuthorBill Chalker is a chemist and anInternational U FO Reporter (7UR) con-tributing editor. He has written ex-tensively on the UFO phenomenoninhis native Australia and elsewhere,

including a well-received book, TheO% Files: Th e Australian UFO StoryPuffy and Snellgrove, 1996).

ries and anopportunity to do some realscience in anarea heretofore dominatedby wild claims and theories.Could aDNA-mediated forensic ap-proach help determine the reality of theabduction experience? If these bizarreepisodes occur at aphysicallevel, at leastas we understand it, then a DNA analy-sis of the hair sample-the "alien hair"-would provide us with a unique oppor-tunity to apply some real science to thiscontroversial area.This would be a rigorous test of thecredibility of Peter's extraordinary claim.I pointed this out to Khoury, who toldme that he was eager to have the evi-dence tested, and looked forward tohearing the results.He said this even knowing that, sincethis was a sexual encounter, he wouldhave some explaining to do .to his wifeif the hair turned out to be of prosaichuman origin.The focused DNA profiling tech-nique we used in the Khoury case goesto the very heart of one of the keyclaims behind the theorized abductionprogram: alien/humanhybridization.It provides an opportunity for test-ing the credibility of the claim that aliensare creating hybrids composed of bothalien and human genetic material.If such claims are true, there shouldbe some compatibility in. the DNA ofalleged alien specimens, but someanomalies not readily reconciled withknown human DNA variability shouldalso be in evidence. Indeed, our origi-nal analysis confirmed that the alien haircame f rom someone who was biologi-cally close to normal human genetics,but of a highly unusual racial type.Together, two distinct phases of


5/25

DNA analyses undertaken on the hairsample recovered from Khoury's bizarreexperience provide a striking array ofgeneric findings.T h e y appear to e v inc e a dva nc e dD N A techniquesan d anomaliesof diesort we are only no w discoveringorstarting to make senseof-inmainstreambiotechnology.WhiJe the phase-one results initiallydiscussed in the 2001Journal article wereno t in themselves proof of die hair'salien nature, they werecertainly puzzlingan d provocative.How is it that rare Asian MongoloidDNAwas found in a blonde hair samplewhich-if related to the blonde womanKhoury encounteredwould have beenexpected to have most likely yielded aCaucasian DNA profile?The originalDNA work wasdone onthe shaft of the hair. More fascinatinganomalies were found in-the root of thehair when the soft-root hair-tissue mi-tochondria!DNA wasextracted.Additional analysis

The very strange evidence in the newphase-two results on the blonde alienhair revealed an extraordinary anomaly.Dependingonwhether weanalyzed diehard hair shaft or die soft root, its mi-tochondria!DNA appeared to be of twodifferent kinds.From the lower hair shaft we againobtained die same rare Chinese mito-chondria! DNA substitution. But fromsoft-root tissue, we obtained a novelBasque/Gaelic type mitochondrialDNA, which had a rare substitution fordiat racial grouping along widi severalother characteristic substitutions.This in itself was a stunning result.The testing methodology meant diatprosaic explanations, such as contami-nation or laboratory error, were ruledout.In any normal human DNA, weshould obtain consistent DNA, irre-spective of where the sample comesfrom-be it hair, blood, or other tissue.B u t incredibly, here within the onepiece of hair we were gettingtwo typesof strikinglydifferent DNA, dependingonwhere the mitochondrial DNA test-ing occurred.The rare Chinese-type DNA in thehair shaft was confirmed, and a rare pos-sible Basque/Gaelic type DNA wasfound in the root section.The biochemists could not explain

Peter Khourythis strange anomaly.There was no evi-dence of a somewhat rare DNA phe-nomenon called heteroplasmy (wheretwo di f feren t mitochondrial DNAsrarely appear within the same sample,usually a result of coexistence of mu-tant mitochondrial and "wild-type"DNA molecules withinacell or tissue).Heteroplasmy, which is more readilyfound in human hair than other partsof the body, refers to single-base tran-sitions in the mitochondrial DNA. Forexample, G to A, or C to T. They arenot bigchanges. Environmental expo-sure and aging can be factors.A research article in Nature Biotech-nology in 2000 that describedcutting-edge hybrid cloning techniquesto treat hair loss provided a clue. Wemay have encountered evidence of anextraordinary alien analogue of thesetechniques inKhoury's encounter.Perhaps even more controversially,we also have findings of nuclear DNAsuggestive of possible viral resistance.The hair sample seems to show twodeleted genes diat control productionof the CCR5 protein.This protein makes itpossible for theHIV virus to enter cells; its absence canthus confer immunity to HIV-AIDS,and mayalso provide resistance tootherviruses such as smallpox.The implications are startling becauseless than 1% of the population has thedeleted CCR5 form, which makes thealready unusual hair sample even more

provocative. And the CCR5 mutationoccurred only about 5,000 years ago,further adding to die intrigue.Still, I must note that the limitednuclear DNA results were insufficientto achieve a completely clear result ondiis matter.The DNA forensic work has givenus an extraordinary level of certaintythat th e July , 1992, encounter actuallyoccurred. Ail the evidence argues thatth e experienceand the anomalous hairare not consistent with a hoax, a delu-sion, or other fantasy.- The hair sample PCR DNA studywas conducted - by. Ph.D. biochemists,.well-established in their field, withwell-regarded peer-reviewed publica-tions an d research in mainstream bio-chemistry. Their study was conductedin .a professional private biochemistrylaboratory.

OtherDNA studies conducted by thesame team on other evidence, such assamples from encounter cases on themidnorth coast of New South Walesand Queensland, an alleged alien clawfrom California, and the dress worn byBetty Hill duringhe r 1961 abduction inNew Hampshire, have not uncoveredevidence as interestingas that found inthe Khoury_study.[The additional testingonBetty Hill'sdress will be discussed in -the Augustissue of the Journal^Independent scientists associatedwith tiiejresearch on some of diis otherevidence were confident and impressedwith the quality of the biochemists'work in those studies, as well as dieoriginal Khoury research.

Physical evidence the keyWithout this physical evidence, itwould be tempting to attribute Khoury's1992 encounter to the doctor-prescribed medication Peter was taking fo ra head injury.However, the hair evidence, whichultimately yielded unusualDNAresults,supporting rather than conflicting withthe reality of the encounter, cannot beascribed to hallucination. During hisextended period of medication Peterhad this strange experience only once.Another similar encounter with ap-parendy the same strange women, somenine months earlier, only recendy clari-fied, occurred without the benefit ofmedication, injury, or stress as possiblefactors. Inthis case no physical evidence,

MUFON UFO Journal JULY 2005


6/25

*"Z* - 2-16,108-Tldt!62-G *-?-*;16129-A

16,129-A T*~.*~~- 16,162-G*~ * ~* - I'm 16-172-c

16,108-T *"**" ~Mitochondria! DNA sequence from hair

sample.such as hak, wa s left behind.One cannot help noting remarkables im i la r i t i es be tween the s t rangeblonde-haired woman who coupled withVillas-Boas and Khoury's blonde inter-loper, though differences are also ap -parent.While Khoury didn't recall seeingpubic and underarm hak on the woman,DNA profiles that emerged from theshaft an d root of the hair yielded therare Asian Mongoloid DNA (usuallyassociated with dark hair, but found inthis blonde hair) and the rare B asque orGaelic DNA (usually associated withorange or dark hak color, but again re-vealed in the blonde hak).Hak color, in biochemical terms, isdetermined by varying levels of typesof melanin-eumelanin and pheomel-anins. The form er dictates dark hak, andthe latter controls brown hak.Natural blonde hak has a mu rkier ori-gin, some arguing it is dominated byeumelanin levels or at a genetic level viaMC I R (melanocortin I receptor) genediversity.Given that the Villas-Boas blondewas said to have freckled skin andblood-red pubic an d underarm hak, itshould be noted this is usually associ-ated with high levels of pheomelaninand low levels of eumelanin, linked at agenetic level by nonfunctioning allelesin the MCI R gene.Though hak and skin color are be-coming increasingly better docum entedin terms of thek biochemical and ge-

netic origins, these issues have still no tbeen fully resolved.Some success has occurred with theelaborationof the genetic nature of redhak, but the rest of the story is moredifficult.New Scientist reported in July, 2002,that "Hak color is usually determinedby th e cu m u l a t i v e effect of severalgenes, so there's no such thing as a singlegene fo r blonde ha ir tha t could beturned into a simple test, fo r example."The field of genetics may offer UFOresearch imp ortant genetic signposts byproviding possible genetic markers ofsignificance to help unravel the realitybehind abduction claims.

The question of hybridsPerhaps Khoury's two females are the"hybrids" thought by some to be thegoal of an alien genetic p rojec t. But theconcept of hybrids in abduction ac-counts was until recently difficult to rec-oncile with our understanding of thelimitations of interspecies breeding.Indeed, if we are dealing with a vastlytechnologically superior species thatcould be biologically different from u s,hybrids of aliens and humans wouldseem both scientifically improbable an dlogically implausible.On the other hand, if the aliens havemastered space or interdimensionaltravel, arguably they would have akeadyconquered the biochemicalbarriers thatnormally ba r interspecies breeding.B ut the pace of our own develop-ment in genetics an d biochemistry inthe past decade has extended the hori-zon of this deb ate substantially.Indeed, transgenics, the transfer offoreign genetic material into other ge-nomes, perhaps addresses the logicalinterspecies barrier argument againsthum an-alien hybrid claims.B udd Hopkins and Carol Raineyhighlight transgenics, or rather an alienvariation on it, as the breakthrough-"the breakdown of the barrier betweenspecies"-which may legitimize the no-tion that alien abduction may really beabou t genetic ex perimentation by alienbeings.Thek book Sight Unseen (Atria, 2003)[reviewed in September, 2004, Journal\also focuses on strange accounts ofhuman or human-like entities they la -be l as "transgenic beings" who seem tohave stunted em otional ranges an d carryout unusual social activities, sometimes

with a sexual element to them.I certainly would be more comfort-able if dozens of samp les like that fromKhoury'sexperience existed, and if thektesting revealed some consistency ofresults. But for now we have only thisanomalou s sample, which has providedu s with a strange DNA profile.Meanwhile, our findings will continueto be subjected to review and debate.While th e Khou ry case confirms theutility of the DNA forensic approach,the real challenge ahea d fo r researchersis to determine if these anom alies areboth valid an d significant.To do this, abduction researchersshould cooperate in a testing programfocused on DNA profiling. Testing ofa s igni f icant number of legit imatesamples would allow us to validate orinvalidate the apparent anomalies so fardocumented.Such a strategy could help us deter-mine whether the aliens are a biologicalreality, and if indeed any of them arevisiting our planet and abducting hu-mans.The course I have argued for here issomething of apotentially potent DNAparadigm, on e with a strange alien per-spective. It has its roots firmly in sci-ence.The crossroads I alluded to earlierwere demonstrated in the recent PeterJenn ing ' s ABC TV d o c u m e n t a r y"UFOs - Seeing is believing." Whiler a t h e r p r e d i c t a b l e and s o m e w h a tunderwhelming in its treatment of thesubject, it had for me at least two en-during mom ents.The past and the f u t u reOne was firmly anchored in the past,and the other in the future. The his-torical signpost was the coverage of Dr.J. Allen Hy nek, particularly the vintage1960s footage of him undertaking afield investigation, complete with hisubiquitous notebook, and the p rofilingof his cautious transition as a scientific

skeptic and USAF Project Bluebookconsultant into a firm advocate of aUFO reality.The futuristic signpost was quantumphysicist Michio Kaku's statementshighlighting that there were cases wor-thy of scientific investigation. "Let theinvestigation begin," Kaku argued. Acomm on thread was that both signpostswere anchored in science.Allen Hynek's scientific contributionsJULY 2005 MUFON UFO J O U R N A L


7/25

to the UFO subject were encapsulatedin his classic book The UFO ExperienceA. Scientific Inquiry (1972), which pro-vided his telling case for the potentialof the UFO controversy as a legitimatearea for scientific study. Even inwhatturned out to be his twilight yearsHynek was steadfastly promoting asci-entific approach anchored in solid un-explained cases.I was pleased to have the opportu-nity to interview him about these aspectsduring a stay at his Chicago home inSeptember, 1984. In a more personalAntipodean focus, I was also able to gethimto run through his 1973 Australianvisit notebooks. These confirmed hiscontinuing focus on using science as ananchor point in the investigation ofUFOs.Michio Kaku is simply restating theobvious. Any phenomenon that revealsa consistent core of seemingly anoma-lous events should be the subject ofscientific enquiry in the true spirit ofopen scientific study.Kaku's own field of quantum phys-icsperhaps offers anappropriate meta-phor for the UFO phenomenon. Bothare laden with controversial attributesand ultimately each may have more todo with each other than mere metaphor.The paradoxical realities inherent inboth may go beyond hints and uncannyechoes.Maybe Michio Kaku might encour-agea focusing on whether the UFO phe-nomenon represents.a macrocosmicmanifestation of hyperspatial realitiesbest elaborated in the burgeoning com-plexities of the cutting edges of quan-tum physics.Such complexities might be mirroredinthe more bizarre aspects of the UFOcontroversy, particularly in UFO abduc-tion experiences.

A DNA approachIn my book "Hair of theAlien-DNAan d other Forensic Eiidence of Alien Ab-duction, "I focus on a DNA forensic ap-proach to alien abduction evidence.While prominence is given to the PeterKhoury "alien hair" case from Sydney,Australia, other cases arid experiencesfrom around the world are also exam-ined.While the validity of this evidencewill be debated, my primary focus is topromote a forensic scientific approachto examining the alien abduction con-

troversy, concentrating on the DNA ap-proach where compelling biological evi-dence isavailable.Part of this approach involves exam-ining DNA for evidence of "non-Dar-winianpatterns," which might reflect ex-traterrestrial or intelligent influenceasign of artificial evolution or interven-tion. Clues in our "junk" DNA?

The Anomaly Physica l EvidenceGroup (APEG) hasbeen examining thisintriguing area, focusinginpart on un-usual mutations, polymorphisms, hu-man"junk" DNA (orperhaps more ap-propriately "regulatory" DNA), andother aspects. Some intriguing areas arebeing looked at.Professor Paul Davies of theMacquarie University-based AustralianCentre for Astrobiology has speculatedthat some sort of pattern along themathematical type of code described inCarl Sagans novel (and the film) Contactmight be encoded in our "junk DNA."While this sounds like science fiction,particularly if mathematical or symboliccodes are being sought, the idea is notas wild as it sounds.I briefly discussed this speculationwith Davies during a Macquarie Uni-versity post-graduate open day on cam-pus onApril 12,2005. He indicated his"junk DNA-ET evidence" speculationswere meant to be serious.Davies feels the idea is no less seri-ous than the idea of seeking out ET"radio signals" (i.e. SETI which heagreed had not delivered any credibleevidence so far).So why not try something that is fareasier to do-and is potentially wellwithin our current technological reach-search for coded clues within our ownDNA.I mentioned to him that this inter-sected with some work I had been fo-cusing on, and he expressed interest inseeing my book. Whether this developsbeyond mere tokenism remains to beseen.I reflected on Davies' well knownskepticism re UFOs in recent times,bringing up with him his friendship withthe late Dr. Hynek, originator of theterm "close encounters of the thirdkind." -Davies acknowledged that Hynekwas a nice guy and that he had oncestayed at his Chicago home. He felt that

MUFON UF O Journal

there is no one of Hynek's stature inthe field of UFO research today.I said there were some interested re-searchers of note. Knowing he had en-dorsed Michio Kaku's new book Paral-lel Worlds, I mentioned Kaku's interestinthe UFO subject. He seemed unawareof this, or skeptical of my statement,so I suggested he inform himself bywatching the Peter Jennings' documen-tary which was airing on Australian tele-vision the following weekend.I alerted Davies to Kaku's open en-dorsement and advocacy of serious in-vestigation of UFOs, and said this wasnot the first time that Michio Kaku,"one of the world's finest science writ-ers" (Davies own endorsement) and aworld-renowned physicist, had madepositive comments about the subject .I indicated that Jennings' documen-tary would also show a positive presen-tation of part of the contribution hisold friend Hynek had made to ufology.Science can help us navigate thebumpy crossroads the UFO subject isnow navigating through. Sagan, in oneof last books, argued that science couldbe a candle in the dark "of a demon-haunted world"-Sagans take on a worldtoo enamoured with dubious beliefs.However, I firmly believe, and thepreliminary results certainly supportthis, that science, particularly with aDNA forensic focus, can certainly helplight the way through this complex andengnimatic subject.Ultimately it will reveal more aboutourselvesand perhaps a lot about theUFO reality that seems to be intrudinginto our world.[Bill Chalker and the Anomaly Physi-cal Evidence Group (APEG), a bio-chemical variant .of "the invisible col-lege, "can be contacted at P.O. Box 42,West Pennant Hills, NSW, AUSTRA-LIA, 2125 or at [email protected] can also visit: http://theozfiles.blogspot.com andwww.theozfiles.com. Photo of Chalkerwas from Starshots/Robb Sinaito.]

Silent Auction reminderA reminder that items are still beingsolicited for 'the Silent Auction to be heldat the MUFON Symposium inJuly (seeJune issue).Contact Tom Deuley [email protected] to donate, help, orget information.

JULY 2005


8/25

Part twoOppenheimer and UFOs

By Donald R. Burleson, Ph.D.The key to the refusa l of Oppen-heimer's security clearance (as discussedin Part One last month), I would sug-gest, is the fact that Gordon Gray wasrunning the day-to-day operation at theAEC clearance hearings.There had tobe more to thematter than

Oppenheimer'slong-renouncedprewar politicalleanings or hisrunning argu-ment with Ed-ward Tellerabout the desir-ability of build-ing the H-bomb. ,--. T , ,S T H , . Don DurlesonThose thingsthemselves fall flat, without some darkerreason in the backgroundsome reasonthathad not been there in1942, but wasthere by 1954.Here we recall the SSS (Smith-Sarbacher-Steinman) correspondenceindicating Oppenheimer's early involve-ment in UFO crash retrieval operations.And we must note that as a memberof MJ-12,GordonGray,officiating overthe so-called Gray Board at the AEChearings, would have known thatOppenheimer knew things classified"higher than the H-bomb," things thathe had not known in 1942 or even in1945.Gray would have known thatOppenheimer was continuing to learngovernment secrets of unprecedentedand unparalleled sensitivity.And in alllikelihood, giventhe grow-ing independence of spirit Oppen-heimer was exhibiting over the Tellercontroversy, which would look alto-gether different when seen in the lightof what GordonGray knew, Gray mightwell have found it prudent to recom-mend taking Oppenheimer out of theloop before hisnewfound waywardnesstook the form, possibly, of deciding thatthe public had a right to know aboutwhat had occurred at crash sites in NewMexico.

JULY 2005

This is not to say that Oppenheimerever really would have disclosed thosethings, which I doubt, but a conserva-tive-thinkingMJ-12 member might havefeared that he would.It has always been standard proce-dure, of course, to admonish anyoneleaving the privileged ranks of securityclearance holders not to talk about any-thing they know.Oppenheimer knew-and those offi-ciatingover his situation knew-that hisbecoming an outsider would in no wayalter his responsibility to maintain si-lence a b o u t classified informat ion hehad already learned.B u t those in power would also havewanted to preventhis learningany morethan he already knew about so sensitivea matter as UFO crashes and retrievals,given that he was regarded in the end asa distinct security risk, whether justly ornot.It is interesting, too, that whenOppenheimer was finally denied hisclearance, and when, leaving govern-ment service forever to resume his po-sition as director of the Princeton In-stitute for Advanced Studies, AEC chiefLewis Strauss followed him there andattempted (unsuccessfully) to block hisreappointment.This has all the flavor of a personalvendetta, quite possibly colored bywhatever exchanges Strauss had withGray over Oppenheimer's clearance, butone wonders why Strauss consideredOppenheimer so dangerous that heshould not be allowed to function evenin private life.When Strauss summed up his deci-sion against Oppenheimer at the end ofthe AEC hearings, he said, "AGovern-ment official having access to the mostsensitive areas of restricted data and tothe innermost details of national warplans and weapons must measure up toexemplary standards of reliability, self-discipline, and trustworthiness"(Polenberg, 380).Whenwe read these comments in thelight of the Sarbacher correspondence(which no one in 1954 knew would evercome to light), Strauss' choice of

MUFON UFO J O U R N A L

About the authorDr. Burleson is New Mexico StateDirector for MUFON, a MUFON

Research Specialist, and a Field In-vestigator.He holds masters degrees inmathand English, and the Ph.D. in En-glish Literature. His Ph.D. disserta-tion led to a book, HP. Lorecraft, ACritical Study.Burleson 's UFO books includeThe Golden Age of U F O s and U F O sand the Death of Marilyn Monroe.He has written articles for the I n -ternational U F O Reporter (CUFOS)and the MUFON U F O journal.Burleson has done extensive re-search on the famous Ramey letter,utilizing sophisticated computer en-hancement.At one time he held a Top Secretsecurity clearance in U.S. Air ForceIntelligence as a Chinese languagespecialist. He is also f luent in Span-ish.

words-"the most sensitive areas of re-stricted data"tends to take on newmeaning.One must assume that Strauss knewperfectly well that the subject of nucleararms was not the "most sensitive,"though he may not have known the spe-cifics that Gray must have known. Inan y event, Strauss, Gray's boss, wouldinthe end have been followingup Gray'srecommendations, however much orlittle Strauss himself knew of the UFOphenomenon.There are other indications thatOppenheimer's knowledge of highly

secret matters ran far beyond those usu-ally cited.In his own initial response to thecharges brought against him,Oppenheimer, referring to the postwaryears circa 1947 at the old ManhattanProject facility in New Mexico, said,"Los Alamos also had wide interests inscientific matters only indirectly relatedto the weapons program" (Polenberg,25).Testifying in Oppenheimer's defense


9/25

at the AEC hearings, Dr.V annevar Bush, anotherMJ-12 member, remarkedthat at the time of the LosAlamos program he had hadcomplete trust inOppenheimer, and "I havece r t a in ly no reason tochange that opinion in themeantime. I have hadplentyof reason to confirm it, forI worked with him on manyoccasions on very difficultmatters." (Polenberg, 203)Given that Bush was"MJ-2," and that he wastherefore up to his eyeballsin UFO-related missions, one has towonder what those "very difficult mat-ters" were.It is worth noting that while two MJ- 12 members were involved in the AEChearings, one (Bush) supportedOppenheimer while one (Gray) did not.The difference, perhaps, is thatOppenheimer and Bush were fellowscientists; Gray was just a bureaucrat,though a very accomplished one, an dcould scarcely have had any profoundunderstanding of Oppenheimer'smindset.Where scientists operate from a loveof reason, politicians often operate fromless felicitous impulses.It is obvious that Bush did everythinghe could, although to no avail in the end,to try to keep Oppenheimer cleared fo rTo p Secret or higher, an d this just mighthave been because his sense ofOppenheimer's value fo r future crash-retr ieval activities would have out-weighed any sense of political doubtabout Oppenheimer.On the other hand, it is natural tosuppose that with Gray, who also musthave known of Oppenheimer's involve-ment in UFO retrievals, it was the otherway around. Gray, unlike Bush, waswilling to see Oppenheimer go.How, specifically, was Oppenheimerinvolved in crash retrieval operations?The most detailed information appearsto be in Steinmans book U FO Crash atA^ tec .A s Leonard Stringfield points out,writing the introduction to that book, itis unfortunate that Steinman ha s cho-sen in many cases for one reason oranother not to name hissources, thoughStringfield, needless to say a highly re-spected UFO investigator, would

Oppenheimerscarcely have agreed to endorse thebook had he not felt that Steinman'ssources were legitimate.Indeed, Stringfield implies in the in-troduction that he himself knew whom a n y of these sources were, eventhough the reader would not.Soon after the Aztec crash, Steinmanwrites, Gen. George C. Marshall (thensecretary of state) assembled a militaryrecovery team and also contacted MJ-12 member Vannevar Bush, instructinghim to organize acivilian scientific teamas well.In addition to mathematician Dr.JohnvonNeumann, Dr. Detlev Bronk(another MJ-12 member), Dr. LloydBerkner (another),Dr.Jerome Hunsaker(another), Dr. Carl Heiland, Dr. HoraceBuele Van Valkenburgh, and others, Dr.Bush appointed Dr. J. RobertOppenheimer to the team.According to Steinman, Bush toldthem all to assemble as quickly as pos-sible at Durango (Colorado) Airfield,which is about 35 miles northeast ofAztec, NM, and thus about 24 milesfrom the impact site, telling them alsothat the mission was "of the utmost se-crecy" (Steinman, 31).The military recovery team, Steinmansays, was from Camp Hale, C O, whichwas located west of Denver.My researches on Camp Hale showthat the installation, which was deacti-vated in 1966, was used fo r secret C IAtraining operations from 1959 to 1965,and was in a remote location well suitedto highly secret activities.In the unclassified literature on theplace, no mention is ever made of theInterplanetary Phenomenon Unit thatSteinman says operated out of CampHale-a unit whose existence the Army

MUFON UFO Journal

Stringfieldadmitted in a document he providesbut then that would hardly be surpris-ing for so secret a group.Steinman says that Oppenheimer an dthe rest of the scientific team "arrivedon scene shortly after the IPU team gotthere. They went into immediate ac-tion, first checking for any possible ra-dioactivity. The ground and the disc-shaped machine were both gone oververy carefully with Geiger counters."(Steinman, 35)He goes on to describe the scientificexamination of the craft's interior, in-cluding "control levels labeled in a hi-eroglyphic type symbol form unknownto any of the scientists in the team."He adds, "Oppenheimer, who knewSanskrit [this is firmly established as his-torical fact, by the way], made a remarkthat the symbols did resemble Sanskritto some degree" (Steinman, 38; he ac-tually uses the spelling "Sanscrit"), andmentions that cryptanalyst WilliamFriedman would later be consulted, andthat Dr. Bronk examined the alien bod-ies on site.Thus if Steinmans sources were au -thentic, as Stringfield seems to have feltthey were, we have a firm connectionof Oppenheimer with the UFO crashretrieval at Aztec.And while I have not seen similardocumentation linking himwith the re-trieval at Roswell, one would supposethat if the powers-that-be found it de-sirable to call him in for Aztec, they maywell also have done so for Roswell.Indeed, i t may be that Oppenheimeran d some of the others were pulled inat Aztec precisely because they had ex-perience with the same sort of scenariodating from July 1947 in Roswell.I should mention here that Stanton

JULY 2005


10/25

Friedman interviewed Dr. Sarbacher in1983 (Sarbacher died in 1986), and whenFriedman remarked to Sarbacher, "I'mvery interested in the crash that hap-pened in 1947," an d followed up by say-ing, "and being New Mexico in 1947one has to presume that probablyOppenheimer and Groves and thoseguys were involved," Sarbacher replied,"Very likely."(See www.presidentialufo.com/sarbacher-friedrnan.htm)Another document that tends to linkOppenheimer with aninterest inUFOsis the so-called "Oppenheimer-Einsteindraft" of June 1947, a sort of essay inwhich the authors explore the psychol-ogy, sociology, and politics of possibleinteractions between humankind andalien cultures.(Robert and Ryan Wood list thisdocument on their website and give it ahigh authenticity rating.)Th e document is designated fo r sig-nature by Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimeran d Professor Albert Einstein.On the final page there is an adden-du m typed in that reads: "Myself an dMarshall have read this and I must ad -mit there is some logic. But I hardlythink the President will consider it forthe obvious reasons. I understandOppenheimer approached Marshallwhile they attended ceremony at [por-tion redacted]. As I understand itMarshall rebuffed the idea ofOppenheimer discussing this with thePresident. I talked to Gordon, and heagreed. VB"\ Presumably "VB" is Vannevar Bushand "Gordon" is Gordon Gray. It isnot clear whether President Trumanindeed ever received this draft from itsauthors, but it appears that Gray knewof it in any case, so that we have yetanother Oppenheimer-Gray-UFO con-nection.I have been at some pains here toi n d i c a t e both the likelihood thatOppenheimer was involved in UFO in-vestigations, and that the reasons gen-erally given for the ultimate denial ofhis security clearance are awash in flimsylogic, precisely because I feel that it isimportant to get at what could well bethe real reasons.My hypothesis is simple, but of far-reaching implications: Dr. Oppen-heimer's clearance was denied not somuch because of his left-leaning politi-ca l views or his reservations about the

JULY 2005

development of the H-bomb as becauseof what AEC Personnel Security BoardChairman Gordon Gray, as a memberof MJ-12, must have known aboutOppenheimer's involvement in UFOmatters far more sensitive than nuclearweaponry-an involvement that Graym us t have thought itbest to see discon-tinued.I believe that this hypothesis verytightly accounts for the known facts, an dshould be seriously considered until itis either disproven or replaced by somehypothesis that accounts fo r everythingbetter.The simple fact is that the old logicdoes not work. If Oppenheimer's po-litical views and the like were going tobe viewed as that detrimental, then hewould never have been cleared to headup the Los Alamos project to build theatomic bomb to start withso the AECpanel's excuses for denying his clearancemake no sense.Unless, that is, one realizes that thepanel was looking not j u s t atOppenheimer's knowledge of atomicweaponry in light of his doubtful po-litical views, but at his knowledge ofthings much more importantthingsthat he had no knowledge of duringtheLos Alamos years, but did have knowl-edge of by 1954.Certainly, the UFO crash-retrievalactivities of the late 1940s fi t that de-scription.

In any.event, one has to wonder whythe still-secret portions of the Oppen7heimer AEC hearing transcripts havenever been released, even half a cen-tury after th e fact. Theoretically, thereshould be little ornothinginthose tran-scripts still deserving to be classified.So why areportions of them still clas-sified? Could it be because there ar ereferences, in the testimony before thepanel, to "that flying saucer business inNewMexico" orsomething of the sort?I hardly need point out how impor-tant even one such reference would be,if disclosed to the public and to thecommunity of UFO researchers.I have submitted a Freedom of In-formation Act request for the releaseof the heretofore unseen portions ofthe transcripts, though I have little hopethat they will be released any time soon.If m y hypothesis is true, those tran-scripts could well contain references ofimmense importance to the field ofUFO studies.So the point here is not j u s t thatOppenheimer was royally "shafted,"though in my view he indeed was, ornot j u s t that he was involved in UFOinvestigation.The point here is that the real rea-sons for the government's treatment ofhim may, if spelled out in the hiddentranscripts and if ever disclosed, bringus that much closer to the end of thegrand UFO cover-up.

Earth microbes might survive on MarsNASA reports that terrestrial mi-crobes that hitch a ride to Mars onspacecraft may be able to survive underspecial circumstances, according to ane w laboratory study.The research suggests scientistsshould take extra care when analyzingpotential signs of life during future mis-sions to the Red Planet.Most spacecraft that touch down on

Mars have not been thoroughly steril-ized by heat or radioactivity, so theycarry living microbes from Earth.B u t Mars's thin atmosphere allowssuch intense ultraviolet radiation toreach th e planet's surfacetriple thatfound on Earththat an y life inadvert-ently carried on the spacecraft is thoughtto be wiped out quickly.But now an international team hastested the endurance of a particularlyhardy type of blue-green algaorMUFON UFO JOURNAL

cyanobac te r iumthat thrives in drydeserts from Antarctica to Israel.The resilient bacterium, calledChroococcidiopsis sp. 029, was chosenas a "worst-case scenario" fo r contami-nation of the planet.The team found that dormant sporesof the bacterium had mostly died afterfive minutes of Martian UV exposure.However, the bacteria were able to stayalive if they were shielded by jus t 1 mil-limeter of soil during the tests.Under such aprotective coating, thebacteria could survive an d potentiallygrow if water an d nutrient requirementsfor growth were met. "We think there are places on Marswhere Earth life could make a living,"says John Rummel, NASA's planetaryprotection officer in DC, who is chargedwith preventing microbes from contami-nating worlds beyond Earth.


11/25

Brazilian ufologists pause folloning a two-hour visit nith the mil i tary , \jeft to right, A.]. Gevaerd, MUFON Representative forBrazil; Fernando Rama/ho; a military representative; Roberto Beck;Marco Petit; Rafael Cury; and Claudeir Covo at main entrance ofthe Integrated Center of Air Defense and Air Traffic Control (Centra Integrado de Defesa Aerea e Controle de Trafego Aereo,Cindacta).Brazilian military begins workwith Brazilian ufology groupBy A . J. Gevaerd

MUFON Representative, BrazilEditor, Brazilian UFO Magaz ineHead of the Brazilian Committee

of UFO Researchers (CBU)[email protected], May 20, was an historic dayfor ufology in Brazil and the world asthe Brazilian Air Force (FAB) for thefirst time officially received a commit-

tee of top UFO researchers to openlydiscuss sightings and fully examine clas-sified UFO documents in several mili-tary facilities in Brasilia, the capital.By doing this very important step, theBrazilian Air Force has placed Brazil ina very short listof countries whose mili-taries acknowledge ufology as a seriousactivityBrigadier Telles Ribeiro, chief of theBrazilian Air Force CommunicationCenter, stated, "We want to have all in-formation on the subject which has beenwithheld by us for some decades to befully released to the public through theUFO community."The Brazilian Government, throughthe BrazilianA ir Force, ha s thus finallydecided to come forward and recognizeUFO research as a genuine activity.This is a direct result of intense pres-sure made by the campaign called"UFOs: Freedom of InformationNow," a movement started by the Bra-% i li a n UFO Magazine in April, 2004.10

The campaign was launched by theBrazilian Committee of UFO Research-ers (CBU), composed of six UFO civil-ian researchers: Claudeir Covo, MarcoPetit, R a f a e l Cury, Reginaldo deAthayde, Fernando Ramalho, and A. J.Gevaerd (Athayde wa s sick and replacedby new interim member veteran UFOresearcher Roberto Affonso Beck dur-ing our visit).Details of the campaign, both inPor-tuguese and in English can be consultedat: www.ufo.com.br andwww.ufo.com.br/secrecy.phpThe approach of the Brazilian mili-tary to the CB U committee started lastFebruary, ten months after the campaignbegan, with a phone call from a Brazil-ian A ir Force spokesman, Maj. Anto-nio Lorenzo, and a formal invitation tovisit the Air Force headquarters inBrasilia.Maj. Lorenzo fully recognized th eUFO researchers' efforts in this fieldan d provided a few details of the re-served files and procedures that the Bra-zilian Air Force has about die UFOphenomenon.Two meeting between the civilianUFO researchers and the military tookplace on May 20, the first at the head-quarters of the Integrated Center of AirDefense and Air Traffic Control, a verysensitive facility.During atwo-hour visit the research-ers were given lectures of the proce-MUFON UFO Journal

dures conducted at Cindacta, and hadthe opportunity to visit air traffic con-trol rooms and understand how UFOscould be detected by Air Force person-nel.The second and most importantmeeting took place jus t after this one atthe very reserved facilities of BrazilianAir Defense Command, an even moresensitive installation that controls theentire air defense network, including thesurrounding areas of the Atlantic Oceanan d South America.In this facility the UFO researcherswere given a full briefingof the top as-pects of aerial defense of the country.It was in this facility that its own com-mander, Brigadier Atheneu Azambuja ,admitted to the UFO researchers howconcerned the Brazilian militaryis aboutthe UFO phenomenon.Azambuja also gave details of AirDefense procedures, and openly admit-ted that the country has systematicallydetected and registered UFOs in thecountry-labeled as "H Traffic"-since1954.That wasnt a surprise for the UFOresearchers, but how this registeringprocess took place was.After this point of the visit, nothingcould be filmed, taped, videoed, or evencopied and transcripted.Afte r detailed explanations of AirDefense activities, Brigadier Azambuja,fo r the first time in history, gave full

JULY 2005


12/25

access to the civilian UFO researchersto examine three different folders withclassified U FO information-cases from1954, 1977, and 1986.T he first case was an a irplane pur-suit of a UFO in the ocean shores ofParana State. The second file was m u c hmore i m p o r t a n t . In the folder conta in -ing the 1977 documents tha t could beexamined by the UFO researchers weredozens of cases of UFOs in theAma-zonwith an amaz ing amount of moredian 100 pictures m a de dur ing the so-called Operation Saucer .This was an official program of U F Oinvestigation by the military that tookplace from September to December,1977, and has been fully covered by spe-cialized UFO press over the world.The third case was the "The OfficialNight of UFOs in Brazil," a very sig-nificant group of events that happenedin May, 1986, when 21 objects of over100 m indiameter jammed Brazilianairtraffic control systems over mainly Riode Janeiro, Sao Jose dos Campos, andSao Paulo.Several jets were sent to intercept theintruderswithout any success. TheBrazilian Air Force representatives atthose meetings then fully admitted thatufology is serious business, and broadlyrecognized the activityof UFO researchby the civilianUFO community.They also guaranteed diat furthersteps are about to be taken to let theresearchers examine the entire militaryUFO files inamore comprehensive way.In addition, acommittee of militaryand civilian UFO researchers was prom-ised to start operating very soon, coor-dinated by the Brazilian Committee ofUFO Researchers (CBU).This certainly means diatwe will starta new era in ufology in Brazil and inSouth America.Very good things are about to hap-pen as the Brazilian Air Force com-mand, the Brazilian Ministry of De-fense, and Brazilian President LuisInacio Lula da Silva receive the lettersand formal requests for opening forgood these documents and starting themilitary-civilian committee.

Case reportsInvestigators and State Dkectors.Please send a copy of your case re-ports directly to the MUFON UFOJournal.

^ % i: ^WMinnesota man reports closeencounter and continuing phenomena

Location: Akeley, MNDate: July 31, 2000Time of sighting: 12:02 AMWitness: Jason NajarakInvestigator: Dr. Stephen HeroWitness narrative:The time was 12 midnight. The sky

was overcast with low ceiling, and it wasjust a fter a rain. The road was freshlywashed and clear of tire tracks. I hadj u s t left my neighbor's house and wasdriving my pet car, which only has park-ing lights.As I came to die end of their drive-way I noticed a blue cast on the roadand on the trees opposite me acrossCrystal Lake road. I then looked up dieroad to my right and saw in the distancewhat I took to be a large RV or SUVwith a light rack.The lights were of unusual color, andI assumed diis was a new vehicle widisome new kind of lights.It is not unusual for hunters to beout spottingdeer in this area, especiallyat this time of night. So I thought Iwould sit at the end of my neighbor'sdriveway and let diem come pastasdiey were probably drinking and widiloaded guns.I waited for over 10 minutes as thelights slowly came down dieroad, whichwas a downhill slant. I assumed theywere coasting as I couldnt hear die en-gine running.It was at this time diat I began to feel

something was very odd about diewhole thing. Forone, although the lightswere extremely intense, there was nodiscernable reflection of the lights'beam on the road or on the trees-just apale blue cast, much like moonlight.Another diingdiat I noticed was diatdie large vehicle covered dieentirewiddiof die road. Lasdy, die object cruiseddown die road smoodily, and this was aterribly bad washboard gravel road.It was at this point I thought UFO!!!But I also thought, "No, that's too goodto be true. It must be a truck of somesort."I still could not see die vehicle be-hind the lights. It was at this point diat Idecided to pull out on the road facingdiem and cruise slowly up to my drive-way, which was nextdoor some 500 feetup the road in the approaching direc-tion of the lights.I drove slowly up to my own drive-wa y and pulled in past die large trees,blocking me from their sight.I noticed too that when I wasbehinddie tree I could not even tell diere wereany lights ondie road, evendiough dieywere nowonly some 300 feet distantandthe lights were the most intense I haveever seen on a vehicle, except possiblylanding lights on a major airlinerSo I stepped out from behind die treeand saw diat die lights were still com-ing down die road slowly towards me.It was now some 100 feet from me. I

JULY 2005 MUFON UFO JOURNAL 11


13/25

looked directly at it as it came towardsme.I still cou ld not seebeyond the lights,an d there was no sound. However, atthis point I could see that there was noundercarriage to the thing!! It had, in-stead, a blue circle of light which pro-jected on the road beneath it.I had said m y whole life that if I eversaw a UFO I would approach it directly.Now here it was, and yet I stood therefor over 10 minutes before I decided tomove at all. It had stopped about 100feet from me and waited.My thoughts were racing...This wa smy moment...! would never forgivemyself if I ran, or backed away, or didnothing. I thought, I'm a Christ ian;surely God would stand with me.I thought they are observing me, analien creature from Earth, and what Iam goingto do. They just sa t there, and

amazingly no cars came along as theyusually do this time of night.(All ou r neighbors were at the Ca-sino, and they u sually com e driftinghome this time of night)Call It melodrama or not, but it tookeverything I had jus t to step out intothe middle of the road and face thelights. I held m y arms up and slowlyturned around to show that I had noweapons.Then, arms up, I slowly walked to-wards the lights straight up the middleof the road. I had gotten to within 50feet or so, and now I could begin to seesome of the structure behind the lights.I could see the ends protruding over theedge of the road abou t three feet on ei-ther side.I walked like someone in a weddingmarch, slow and very deliberate. I nevertook,my eyes of f those lights.The object then began to move back-wards up the road in pace with my walk.It did this until it became opposite myneighbor's driveway, and then it stopped.I continued slowly walking, and hadgottenwithin 25 feet of the object whenit suddenly shot sideways through th egap in the trees made by my neighbor'sdriveway on the right.\ It was about 30 feet wide and over10 feet to the top of the thing, and itj u s t l e f t , in an i n s t an t w i th aphhhhhhffffffttttt!!! Sound. That is theonly sound it ever made.I want to describe the incrediblemethod in which it departed. I was 20or so feet from it, and it departed side-12

ways so fast that I could notvisibly follow its motion,other than to see that it tookof f to the right and instantlydisappeared befo re my eyes.Other than the sound I de-scribed, it was totally silent,an d there was no force in theair to tell me that it had left.Nothing. Absolute silence,and the air was motionless.When i t left, I m arked thegravel where I stood to beable to measure the distancebetween the UFO (as I nowknew that's w hat it was) an dmyself where I last stood.I then went back to my car and racedup the driveway where it had disap-peared. This is a dead en d drive, and Istopped to ask the neighbor childrenthere if anyone ha d come in there, an dthey said no one ha d.I then went back to my neighborswhere I had been originally and tried towake them. The wife came to the dooran d saw that I was very excited. I toldhe r that I had seen a UFO, and she jus tlooked at me quizzicallyan d said comeover in the morning.I then went back to my house, got af lashlight and a t ape measure , andwalked back out to the road. I checkedfor tracks in the gravel road, where itha d been, ha d left, and had come fromu p the road.

It was jus t after a rain, and the onlytracks in the road were mine from thecar, and my footprints in the gravel.However, on the road, rocks up to thesize of my fist were slid sideways for upto four or more feet to either side.ofthe road.There, at the spot in the road whereit departed w ere only my tracks, and thesame rocks slid outwards in every di-rection.I then measured the mark in the roadwhere I last stood facing the UFO upto the place where the UFO had been.It measured 22 feet. I went into my stu-dio and stayed up all might creating adetailed drawing on scratchboard w hileeverything wa s fresh in my mind.I should like to add that I had lookedat my watch when I left m y friend'shouse that night because I normally donot v isit that late. It was two minu tes to12 , and when the sighting wa s over Ialso checked my watch, and it was 12:38.1 did this to consciously record the time.

MUFON UFO Journal

There was a sunburn that developedon my face, arms, an d legs (I had onshorts at the time). There was never anyredness or swelling, but there was theburning sensation like a sunbu rn, and itlasted about three weeks.The other unusual thing that I no-ticed was a dead skunk that I had rundown the day before this encounter. Itlay at the side of the road near my mailbox.The next morningafter the sighting,I walked out to the road and noticedthat there was something unu sual aboutthe sku nk. The smell was gone, and af-te r aminute, I noticed what waswrong.Where the skunk had lain was a wetspot, and the hair follicles lay in perfectorder, even outlining the white mark-ings, but there was absolutely no flesh

or bone!!!Subsequent events were:1. The sighting of a small red dotabout the size of a dime moving aboutthe kitchen inthe dark. I chased it, andit dove towards the floor and up to thetop of the outside door and went seem-ingly through it. This was four nightslater, and occurred at about 3 AM , Aug.4. 2. On Aug. 14 at 3 AM I awoke tose e a rou nd disc with a swirling b l u ean d pink center. There was a ring ofdiamond-like lights around the rim ofthe thing. It disappeared as I sat up. Inoticed an acid type burning sensationon my arm, but went back to bed.The next morning I brought up thes u b j e c t with my neighbor , and hepointed out that the acid burn on myarm was a per fec t triangle. It lasted fo rthree mo nths, burning with the same in-tensity. Now, over two years later, it stillca n be clearly seen.3. On Aug. 21 my neighbor saw the

JULY 2005


14/25

trees behind their house bending downto the ground, although there was nowind. I had heard a drumming noiseabove the house, and heard noises onthe roof, but saw nothing.The next morning diere was a roundspot behind my house about 50 0 feetfrom my neighbor's back yard. It w as adepression in the new growth of youngtrees that was 30 feet in diameter, andthe trees were twisted into a spiral.4. OnSept 4 myneighbor and I weredriving home when he noticed some-thing pacing us to my right. I didntseeanything at first, but then he pointed u pabove the trees and I saw six goldendiscs turn their flat surfaces to us re-flecting the sun. They moved in an un-dulating motion up and down as theypaced along with us for over ten miles.They moved as If they were tied to-gether. Then they flipped to the hori-zontal and sped up into the clouds. Thetime was about 6 PM-sunset.5. On Nov. 6 in the night about 11PM my neighbor and I were walking apath in the woods some 600 feet dis-tant behind my house when we saw ared ball of light circle my house about15 feet off the ground. W e both saw itdearly. Itwent behind myhouse and wasnot seen again. Therewasnothingat thehouse.6. On Dec. 15 or so, I was away, vis-iting relatives, when my neighbors sawbright lights come on inside my house.One neighbor converged on the housefrom one side, and the other neighbordrove in from the other side to catchthe vandals.It had just snowed recently, and mydriveway had no tracks in the snow.When they pulled up to the house thelights suddenly went out. Therewere notracks in the snow, and no one inside. Ihad my main fuse box shut off at thepole, so there was no electricity.7. Lastly, on Dec. 26 at about mid-night, my neighbors called to say they(several in the group) saw a huge redglowing ball of light slowly go acrossthe tree tops and glide over my house,then shoot up into the sky at a 45-de-gree angle. I was in the house, but no-ticed nothing unusual.So that's it. I believe that's everything.I have the dates because after the firstexperience I kept a book on anythingunusua l that happened. I moved out toWashington thatJanuary, just to get backon an even keel, as it were.JULY 2005

MUFON ForumScientists and UFOs

We thank Paul Von Ward for his in-terest in ourJBIS article reprinted in theMUFON Journals of January an d Feb-r u a ry , and also the editor, DwightConnelly, fo r having reprinted it ("Fourexperts explain why scientists shouldstudy the UFO phenomenon" by Dr.James Deardorff, Dr. Bernard Haisch,Dr. Bruce Maccabee, and Dr. H.E.Puthoff).Von Ward took issue with tw o state-ments. One was that ET behavior isconsistent with... "the fact that not inthe past 56 years,nor inpast millennia,have we been colonized, conquered ore x t e r mi na t e d , nor has society beentraumetized by any ETs."He pointed out that beings more ad-vanced than humans have intervened inhuman society fa r into th e distant past.In speaking for myself and BruceMaccabee, we tend to agree with himon this, and so our words did not ex-clude such intervention.Instead, our intent was to mentionth e obvious fact that an y such interven-tion never reached a stage where th ehuman race itself was colonized or ex-terminated.The other statement was "it appearsall too evident that ETs have not inter-vened in world affairs in any benevo-lent manner that would have forestalledhuman warfare, famine and disease."To this, VonWard objected with twoexamples, one being that reports ofcredible witnesses conflict with this.However, our statement here referredto world affairs and not to individuals.We agree with him that many indi-viduals have been cured of various in -firmities through alien intervention, aswe made explicit reference to the bookby Dennett & Dennett on this.His second examplewas to the strong(warning supplied to Noah about theflood to come and how to build the ark.Von Ward's implication is that this warn-ingcame from an ET, not "God."W e admit not having thought of theFlood inthis context, and only point outhere that supposedly only a tiny frac-tion of the population of the region in-

. MUFON UFO JOURNAL

volved was saved, the rest being non-benevolently doomed, an d that after thisevent human warfare, famine an d dis-ease continued to occur.It should be clear, however, that in ajournal paper of limited length, directedtowards why scientists should studyUFOs, the scope of our argumentationha d to be severely curtailed, and so wedared not raise the topic of religions noreven that of the abduction phenom-enon.-Jim Deardorff

Kentucky call to actionI noticed that in the April issue oftheJournal thatMUFON'sMissions an dGoals were listed. Having not read themmyself in quite awhile, I decided tobrush up on them.After reading them, however, I de-cided that in my state a call to action issorely needed.Of the three goals, investigate UFOsightings, promote research, and edu-cate the public, I realized that KentuckyMUFON only gets about one third ofthe equation right.Our state ha s alwaysha d more focusoneducating thepublic; we are not com-pleting the rest of the equation very well.People of Kentucky, this your call toaction.We need more investigators. As ofright now, we have only oneyours truly.We have a need fo r researchers. Edu-cators, please step forward. W e needyour help as well. Help us get the wordout to the public.Also to those of you who may be onth e fence about membership, why notjoin us? I know that there are some ofyo u out there who are interested inhelp-ing with investigations and taking theMUFON field investigator test.I amasking all of the wonderful andtalented people of Kentucky to not beafraid to share your unique abilities an dtalents with this organization. Let'swork together to help our localMUFON chapter be a success.-April Tipton, Field Investigator,MUFON of Kentucky

13


15/25

T


16/25

Director, MUFON Eastern Region

Note: These reports are presented in or-der to keep readers informed of some of thevas t number of sightings being reported.However, these cases have not been officiallyinvestigated.Alabama trianglesMONTGOMERY - A security of -ficer on patrol near the downtown areaat 2:45 AM on May 25, 2005, noticedtwo strange objects flying above him.They ha d strobe lights that emanatedalong the entire length of all three sidesof each object, as well as three largepulsing lights und er the bottomof eachobject.He states, "I noticed a low hummingnoise coming from the triangles thatwere flying at about 10,000 feet altitude.The objects moved slowly at first, al-most seeming to hover, an d after about20 seconds they exited to the west in aburst of speed that I canonly describeas almost instantaneous.'The objects then stopped again andwere only visible as two pulsing lightsat that point. The objects again movedto the we st and disappeared completely."The objects maintained exact dis-tance from each other du ring this entiretime, and the altitude of the objects didnot seem to change during this sight-ing. The event lasted abou t 30seconds."Thanks to Peter Davenport, director,www.UFOcenter.com.Washington black triangleKIRKLAND - On May 13, 2005, at12:19 A M a black triangle with nine or-ange to yellowish lights on two sides ofthe triangle was seen by the witness.There was a center tight at the fronttip of the craft, with f ou r lights follow-ing each leading edge for a total of ninelights. No lights w ere observed on thestern or rear of the triangle.The color of the lights was a verylight salmon/orange yellow. The lightsglowed with barely detectible movem entsimilar to air heating phenom ena whichyo u see on heated roadways, but in this

JULY 2005

case the area was confined to the lights.The witness says, "I discovered thecraft du e east in my field of view, andth e craft was traveling north. I estimatethe craft wa s 3A to 1 mile from my posi-tion. I estim ate altitude at 200-350 feet,traveling at 70-110 knots, and banking-more like floatingtowards the left.'The craft leveled off, traveling to-w a r d s the NE,and became un-detectable as i tbecame level, inperfect stealth."Unlike satel-lites, which floatin an arc acrossthe sky, this craftf l o a t ed in astraight line closethe ear th . Thesize of the craftwa s as big as a 747, or at least 3/4 of afootball field." Thanks to Russ Hamerly.

G e o r g e Filer

Kentucky stationary discINDEPENDENCE - While drivingto work near 1-75 on May 1, 2005, at6:20 AM the witness noticed a metallicobject hovering in the sky abou t half amile away. It was somewhat disc-shapedwith a tall dome or arch on top.It was silent and totally still. The wit-ness explains, "I drove towards it to seeif it was a helicopter; it wasn't. It wastotally silent, no lights of any kind, andI was close enough to confirm that itwas nothing familiar."It flew smoothly like glass. Iwatchedit from a parking lot and tried to get

pictures on m y cell phone, but the reso-lution was too poor. It got smaller, so Idrove after it and pulled into anotherparking lot about 1/4 mile away andwatched it until it got real small."It washeading to the southeast,andmust have been going pretty fast. It hadat least two bent poles or "arms" com-ing off the sides, like the prob es on aspace shuttle." Thanks to Peter Daven-port.MUFON UFO JOURNAL

Maine cigar-shaped objectCUMBERLAND - "I was at apartyat 1 AM on M ay 9, 2005, with four ofmy friends from college," says the wit-ness. 'There were tons of stars becau sethere were no clouds, and we were hav-ing a barbecue an d relaxing."I kept noticing this particular starthat seemed to stand ou t from th e restthat looked like it was moving. I turnedaround to point it out to my friends, an dit moved much closer to us in just fiveseconds. Its speed was incredible."After it got to us at such mind-blow-ing speeds, it slowed to abou t 10 milesan hour, hovering right above the treesthat were about 20 feet away from us.These trees are about 50 feet tall, so w ehad an ama zin g view of this cigar-shaped ship."It had five intensely bright lights onthe bottom that were all white, exceptthe one in the middle which was a lessbright yellow color. When the objectcompletely stopped above the trees themiddle yellow light became more intensethan thewhite onesand flickered on andoff twice."It was a solid object, because thelights on the bottom reflected off itssilver metallic surface. It covered upmo st of the stars and was at least 65feet long and about 25 feet wide. It lit up th e trees as it hovered.'The white lights on the bottom ofth e craft were intense. The center yel-low light turned light blue, and the craftsped off at an amazing speed."We were actually kind of spooked,and off in the distance we saw twootherships on the left and right sides of thecigar-shaped craft. They rose up fromthe thick woods, an d the n all five spedaway in formation." Thanks to PeterDavenport.Florida glowing orbsORANGE COUNTY - Rober taPuhalski writes, "On April 22, 2005,about 11 PM, the Georgia UFO GroupHotline received a cell phone call from

15


17/25

jus t north of Orlando where three Or-ange County fishermen had j u s t ob-served at 20 yards a glowing orb typeof UFO."The orb performed incredible ma-neuvers at a fantastic speed. They wereso shocked; they phoned 411 and askedfor the operator to get them in touchwith any UFO investigator that couldbe found."They reached Tom Sheets ofGUFOG in Fayetteville, GA, whoturned the case over to RobertaPuhalski, the founder of the CentralFlorida UFO Group inLakeland.Roberta Puhalski met with the threewitnesses at the event site two days laterand conducted a complete investigation.Shedetermined that the witnesses, whilenight fishing and shininga flashlight, hadobserved what was initially thought tobe analligator's eyereflecting their flash-light beam about 20 yards away in somebushes.Suddenly the light rose up from thebushes into full sight at an alarminglyfast speed and was observed to be adimly glowing orangish-red orb aboutthe si2e of a basketball.The orbcontinued to rise at this veryfast rate until it reached an altitude ofabout 150 feet, then it hovered, movedto the side about 100 feet, and cameback down, tracing something like a tri-angle init's flight path.The object moved so fast it was dif-ficult fo r the eye to follow. There ap-peared to be an object of unknown sizeand shape behind orattached to the orb,but it was difficult to see exactly what itwas (due to the rapid speed and briefperiod of flight).This object flew off and vanished af-ter returning closer to the ground.Puhalski found these witnesses credible,forthright, and cooperative. Thanks toRoberta Puhalski, founder of the Cen-tral Florida UFO Group.Illinois object shows portholes

ROCKFORD - On the morning ofM ay 15,2005, witness Nancy was pho-tographing what looked like the North-ern Lights, only "white," at 3 AM. Shebelieves the object clearly shows port-holes running alongits length.There is a blue cast to the object, anda blurred trail to the left of the objectthat indicates the object was movingfrom left to right at some speed. Thanks

Rockford, IL, phototo Dirk at the ufoDigest.com. [email protected] andSkywatch International, www.skywatch-international.org/New York shiny domes

BROOKVILLE - On May 27,2005,at 2 PM, on a sunny day, five silver ex-tremely shiny dome-shaped objects wereseen flying across a clear blue sky.The first three were flying in a trian-gular formation, with two others follow-ing behind, perfectly aligned. They allflewat the same speed, and were headedeast."It took about 3-5 seconds for theobjects to leave," says the witness. "Mywife was with me and saw everything Iam describing." Thanks to Peter Dav-enport.Oklahoma triangle chasedNOBLE - This report was sent by acompetent, educated scientist of soundmind and character, who never reportedanything like this before:"At 11:30 PM on May27,2005, whiletakingmy nightlywalk, I observed atri-angular craft traversing the sky fromnorth to south at about 20,000 feet ona clear night.The craft's speed was about 500knots, and several miles behind was afighter jet moving very rapidly, 600 to700 knots. Both craft were flying towardmy position. I could begin to hear theengines of the jet at that time."It appeared the triangular craft wastoying with the fighter, and when thefighter got close, the craft would speedup. As the two got nearly directly overm y location, the triangular craft made asharp right hand turn toward the west,but die jet was unable to make the sharpturn and made a much wider loop."After a few seconds, the triangle ac -celerated dramaticallyan d left the jet be-hind. One thing diat was odd about thetriangular craft was that the three lights

making up the triangular pattern werenot equal in distance."Referencing the wingspan of die jet,two of the lights on the craft were about50 to 75 feet apart, and the third lightwas 100 to 150 feet from die odier twolights. Additionally, the two lights closertogether were at the front, and die otherfurdier away light was at the rear facingdie pursuing jet."This made die craft appear to bemoving inreverse. The color of die tri-angular craft lights was an unusual milkywhite color, nothing like dievery brightred, green, and white lights observed ondie jet."Thanks to Peter Davenport.Alabama pilots see UFO

MONTGOMERY - An aircrew en-route from Houston to Columbia, SC,on May 19, 2005, at 10 PM, flying at35,000 feet in a jet airliner, saw another"aircraft."The captain noticed die unknownaircraft at his 10 o'clock position high,but when he looked at his TCAS, therewa s no aircraft in the vicinity. The cap-tain says, "I then looked back at thecraft, noticing it was passing us like wewere sitting still while we were at Mach.78.1 also noticed it was at least 40,000feet higher than u s."I pointed the target out to the firstofficer, and she saw it as well. It mayhave been a satellite, but it seemed tochange directions as it got directly offour nose and dien disappeared.'The object seemed to have strobes.We both know it was not a shooting star,so it was eidier satellite or unexplained."Thanks to Peter Davenport.Mexican object photographed

GUADALAJARA - UFO Casebookreceived a sighting report from OscarFranco onJune 2, 2005.He reports, "On Sept. 11, 2004, myfamily and I were visiting Ajijc, Jalisco,Guadalajara, and at exactiy 4:58 PM oneof the family members yelled that therewas something unusual above ChapalaLake."We began to watch the object thatlooked similar to the planet Saturn andhad a hazy area around the craft, like anenergy field. The object dipped down,and skimmed across the waters of thelake, and I took five photographs of itbefore it disappeared." Thanks to Os-

16 MUFON UFO Journal JULY 2005


18/25

Guadalajara, Mex ico, photo.car Franco and UFO Casebook.Illinois black sphere seen

EDWARDSVILLE - Dave Marler,State Director of Illinois MUFON, re-ports that at about 1:20 PM on May 19,2005, he observed what appeared to bea black sphere sildently fl y from the SWto the NE, below the 25,000-feet clouds.It appeared to maintain level flightand constant speed during the 8-10-sec-ond sighting before disappearing behinda tree line. There was no noise and novapor trail.Texas rectangle seen by couple

EMORY- A manwho is well knownto the UFO community, together withhis wife , witnessed a bizarre, three-tiered, lighted object hovering in thenight sky on May 13, 2005.He states, "Mywife and I were driv-ing south on FM779 and saw lights onwhat looked like a cell phone radio towerat 9:15 PM, and I remarked to my wifethat I wasnt aware they were buildinganother tower."She said that it looked like it waslighted different from the one near us.It looked like the top of the tower hadthree horizontal rows of white lights onit. "There were two red flashing lightsj u s t below the white lights, and a whitestrobe light above the horizontal rowsof white lights."It appeared to be taller than thetower nea r us so I remarked that possi-bly there were different lighting require-ments for taller towers. We were look-ing across a pasture at the lights a quar-ter mile away."We were not alarmed, and thoughtno more about it until the next day whenwe drove down the same road and therewas no tower there or anything of anyheight anywhere near that area. We haveno explanation for a disappearing cellphone radio tower.".Thanks to Peter Davenport.JULY 2005

MUFON sponsoring contestto find best technologicalevidence for UFOsPurpose: MUFON is seeking paperson the subject of UFO TechnologicalEvidence. The papers must be in anar-rative format and backed with appro-priate references, photos, charts, andexamples.The purpose of the contestis to pushfo r a paradigm shift from entertainingstories about UFOs to the presentationof papers documenting evidence in astyle that can meet the criteria of proofbased on evidence.

Content: The papers must presentevidence based on actual UFO inci-dents, people, places, and events. Weare not seeking opinions, theories, sto-ries or ad hominum arguments.The papers must be between 1,500and 3,000words, not including support-ing information. They must be accom-panied by a short (approximtely 150-200 words) biographical sketch of thesubmitter.Evidence Defined: Allpapers mustaddress the hypothesis that "UFOs arereal, they are technological, and they arenot ours."McCormick's Handbook of the i ^aw ofEvidence may be used as aguide to assistsubmitters inunderstanding the descrip-tion of physical evidence, firsthandknowledge, expert testimony, compe-tency of witnesses, demonstrative evi-dence, official written statements andrecords, best evidence, and authentica-tion. Future contests may address otherhypotheses.Format: Page size must be 8'/2 x11. Papers shall consist of title, briefabstract, introduction describing thetechnological evidence, body of paperdescribing details that make this the bestevidence, and a conclusion. All papersmust be written in English.Media Used: Each paper must besubmitted on CD inMicrosoft Word orequivalent alongwith aprinted copy ofthe paper. Supporting information maybe on the CD or in hard copy.Submittal: Papers and backup ma-terials shall be mailed toMUFON, Post

MUFON UFO JOURNAL

Office Box 369, Morrison, CO 80465-0369. All submittals should be clearlymarked to "MUFON Best EvidenceContest." Youneed not be a MUFONmember to participate in the contest.MUFON Use of Submittals:MUFON reserves the right to publishall submittals in the MUFON U FO Jour-nal, on the MUFON Website atwww.mufon.com, in books, or in spe-cial newsletters or reports. Papers willbe retained on file by MUFON.

Authors of works that fi t the themeof upcoming MUFON UFO Sympo-siums or conferences may be invited topresent a longer version of their workat those events.MUFON is not obligated to publishany paper, and reserves the right to re-ject papers that do not meet the intentor spirit of this contest.Judges: The papers will be reviewedby a panel of judges selected by theMUFON Business Board of Directors,and contest winners will be selectedbased on the content that is judged tobe the "best evidence." Judges' deci-sions are final.Prizes: First Place: $250 plus freeadmission to all sessions of the 2006MUFON International UFO Sympo-sium.Second Place: $150 plus free admis-sion to all sessions of the 2006MUFON International UFO Sympo-sium.Third Place: $100 plus free admis-sion to all sessions of the 2006MUFON International UFO Sympo-sium.All other submitters meeting the re-quirements defined for this contest willreceive a CD copy of a vintageMUFON UFO Symposium Proceed-ings book.Only one prize will be awarded to anindividual submitter.Schedule: All submittals must bereceived by MUFON Headquarters byOct. 1, 2005. Prizes will be awarded inJanuary, 2006.17


19/25

Physical TracesBy Ted Phillips

L Ted Phillips

Vehicle effects, Part 2There are a number of reports inwhich an unidentified flying object ac-tually collided with a vehicle, leavingbehind considerable phy sical traces.In 1954, near March Field, C A , threewitnesses driving a late model car ob-served a shiny circular object on theground. They stopped the car and ap-proached the object.T h e y saw a"being" whoraised his armand projectedwhat appeared tobe a fireball at thevehicle. The fire-ball passed by themen and strucktheir vehicle.The witnessesfled, the objecta s c e n d e d , a n dw h e n t h e y r e -turned to the car they found the paintbu rnt and a large dent.OnMarch 9,1966,Donnela Banningwas driving toward Baytown, TX, withhe r mother, Mrs. Doyle Havard, andDebbie Carrico. At 7:45 PM Debbieyelled, "Look."Ms. Banning reports: "As I lookedthere it was. It looked like it was com-ingthrough the windshield. It hitwith athump and an explosion."The object was dark and the size ofa bowling ball. The ex plosion was loudenough to bring people out of theirhouses some distance from the car.Harris County Sheriff's Depar tm en taccident investigator Roland Kingsleysaid that whatever hit the car did $50 to$100 damage to the roof of the vehicle.The roof was dented and the paintwas knocked off the metal, although themetal was not cu t. Kinsley searched th earea, but could find no fragments. Itshould be noted that the car was on anoverpass, and no one was standing alongthe highway.In Kent, OH, on March 28, 1967,David Morris was driving home at 2:2018

AM when he saw a reddish-orangecone-shaped object 25 feet off the leftside of the road.The object wa s 12 feet wide at thebase, which was slightly off the ground.The object tapered to a point 25 feethigh, where there was a ball.Several small beings were on the road,an d Morris claimed he hit one of them.He fled the area, and when he stoppeddown the road, fou nd three dents in thefront bumper and right headlight ring.On July 13, 1967, in Maumee, OH,Robert Richardson an d Jerry Quay weredriving arou nd a bend in the road whenthey saw a large brilliant blue-w hite lightcompletely blocking the road.Richardson, the driver, braked andswerved to avoid hittingthe light. B othmen closed their eyes as they felt theimpact of a collision.They repor ted th e incident to theOhio State Police, who wen t back to thesite to investigate. The hood of the carand the bumper had been damaged.On July 17,1967, in Miller ton, NY, a13 cm object approached an automo-bile from the opposite direction. The carexperienced EM effects, and the wind-shield was shattered.On Nov. 27, 1998, in Mt. Clemens,MI, a young woman was driving hom ewhen a sphere the si2e of a basketballwa s seen flying just above the road sur-face from the opposite direction. Thesphere was spinningand emitting spraysof light.The object impacted the car roof onthe passenger side over the front door,then flew on, leaving a two-foot longarea of a creamy-gray colored residue.On Dec. 29, 2002, in Benson, NC,Linda Moore was dr iving her newToyota wh en an object hit the passen-ge r side of her car.Mrs. Moore's cousin, Vicki Wright,was in the front passenger seat, and Mrs.Moores two nieces were in the back seat.Vicki said she saw a black ob ject travel-ing at high speed which ap proached thecar from above a tall pine tree.The object impacted th e vehicle justin front of the side mirror. The 14-year-

MUFON UFO Journal

old niece also saw the ob ject app roach-ing. The object gouged a large dent inthe car and scratched of f paint. No frag-ments were fou nd at the site.A classic case of vehicle impact oc-curred on Aug. 27,1979, near Stephen,MN , involving a p olice car.Depu ty Sheriff Val Johnson was driv-ing his patrol car near the North Da-kota border when at 1:40 AM he ob-served a bright white light through hisside window.He contacted dispatch and proceededto move closer. He estimated the dis-tance to the light at abou t 1.5 miles.Suddenly the light moved toward him,reaching the patrol car in one or twoseconds.The light was so intense thatJohnsonwas blinded. He heard glass breakingand lost consciou sness. When he re-gained con sciousness, he fo un d the carstalled, and saw that it had skiddedacross the highway with the front wheelsof f th e pavement.He was able to call dispatch 39 min-utes after the first observation of thelight source. Another deputy arrived inminutes an d called for an ambulance.The doctor foun d Johnso n in a mildstate of shock. His eyes were irritatedas if he had suffered "mild welder'sburns." Johnson couldnt stand expo-sure to any bright lights.Police found that the car had trav-eled 95 0 feet after the first impact, asindicated by the location of glass fromthe headlight. The inside headlight onthe left side was heavily damaged, whileth e headlight 2 inches to the left wasnot.There was a flat-bottomed circulardent on the left side of the hood. Thedent was 12.5 mm in diameter, and closeto the windshield.The windshield directly in front ofthe driver wa s heavily damaged from topto bottom.The roof antenna was bent at a 60-degree angle at a point 6 inches aboveits spring-loaded base. The trunk an-tenna was bent at a 90-degree angle at apoint 6 inches below the top. Both an-

JULY 2005


20/25

tennas had spring-loaded bases.The electric dash clock was 14 min-utes slow, as was Johnson's mechanicalwristwatch. The de pu ty had set bothclocks before startinghis shift.A report released by Sheri ff DennisBrekke after a l eng thy inves t iga t ionfo u n d th e following:Intense light:"First, it occurred in theshape of a beam, then became over-whelmingly bright. The beam-like shapeof the light suggests an unnaturalsource."Glass breakage: 'There are definitesigns of impact. The direction of theimpacting media is evident from the lo-cation of breakage and imprint in thehood. The relative angle of attack onthe car is near horizontal."Engine stoppage: "The stoppage wasnot due to mechanical failure, as evi-denced by the fact that the car func-

tioned normally following the incident.The engine stoppage points heavily totemporary disruption of the electricalsystem."Driver unconscious for a period upto 40 minutes: "It is not clear whetherthe bump on the head could have causedthis or if other 'phenomena' might bethe source."Inorder to function, the body's ner-vous system relies on electro-chemicalsignals. Could there have been disrup-tion of this by electrical means?"Malfunction of the automobile clockand wristwatch: "This was of a tempo-rary nature, much as the engine failure.Disruption of the electrical clock couldvery well coincide with the failure of theengine electrical system.The failure of

minnesota man reports close encounter, p. 11. dr. oppenheimer and

Documents