7701 Argosy UFO Magazine - UFOs Under the Sea
Title
7701 Argosy UFO Magazine - UFOs Under the Sea
Text
=== **Page: 1 of 13**
# UFOS UNDER THE SEA?
*Have beings from outer space populated the ocean floor? The idea sounds too incredible to be true. But take a look at the evidence: sightings of UFOs by mariners on the open sea, strange radar signals, eerie lights from the depths...*
BY IVAN T. SANDERSON
ONE evening in the Antarctic, aboard an icebreaker participating in the U.S. Navy's Operation Deep Freeze, Dr. Rubens J. Villela watched in amazement as suddenly something came rearing out of the sea, through no less than thirty-seven feet of ice and went up into the sky like a vast, silvery bullet. The icebreaker was in Admiralty Bay, facing the South Atlantic Ocean. As it was an extremely cold day and all other personnel were below deck, the only other witnesses were the helmsman and the officer on watch. Further, these witnesses saw only the end of the strange perfor-
mance because they were busy with their charts. But what they did see was quite enough: enormous blocks of ice, hurled high in the air, that came cascading down around the hole burst through the thick ice-sheet, and the water in the hole roiling and apparently boiling, while masses of steam issued from both the hole and the descending ice.
It might be a frightening question to ask, but are there rational creatures living under the ocean? Have parts of the ocean bed, possibly around the Indian Ocean, been colonized by beings from outer space? In other words, could some of the
ARGOSY UFO
33
=== **Page: 2 of 13**
many mysterious lights reported as seen under the
seas and oceans be evidence of "civilizations"
flourishing on their bottoms? It may come as a
shock to UFO buffs to learn that, by actual count,
more than fifty percent of all so-called sightings of
UFOs have occurred over, coming over, plunging
into, or coming out of water.
Take another example. Sometime in 1963, the
United States Navy conducted some exercises to
train personnel in the detection and tracking of
underwater craft. The maneuvers were conducted
off Puerto Rico some 500 miles southeast of the
continental United States. All reports seem to
agree that there were five "small" naval vessels
concerned, but in more than one account, the Air-
craft Carrier Wasp is stated to have been the com-
mand ship. There appear also to have been a
number of submarines engaged in these exercises,
and all vessels were intimately linked by advanced
electronic communications systems. There were
also aircraft, at least one of which trailed a detec-
tion device a little below the surface of the ocean
from a line, while flying at very low altitude. The
submarines are said to have been fixed for "silent
running."
There then occurred a rather special and par-
ticular uproar which, at least as far as I have been
able to discover, was initiated as follows. A sonar
technician on one of the small vessels, otherwise
listed as a destroyer, reported to his bridge that
one of the submarines had broken formation and
gone off in what appeared to be pursuit of some
unknown object. This operator did not, of course,
know if this was a "plant," since the maneuvers
they were engaged in were exercises designed to
train personnel in detection of enemy craft, and in
such exercises decoys must always be employed.
However, this operator's report was not at all
within the limits of such simulation. The trouble
was that said unidentified underwater object was
travelling at over 150 knots.
The deck officer immediately reported to the
skipper who, after calling his electronics boys on
the intercom, got in touch with the command ves-
sel, the Wasp, but was then somewhat frustrated
34
to learn that their radio intake was virtually jam-
med with similar reports coming in from all the
other ships and from the sonar-trailing aircraft. No
less than thirteen craft (including submarines and
aircraft) noted in their official logs that their sonar
divisions had latched onto this ultra-high-speed
submersible; and all of this is said to have been
immediately reported to COMLANT, in Norfolk,
Virginia. Many people, including deck officers and
technical personnel, aboard all these ships stated
that they either observed or heard the radar and
sonar blips caught by their modern, sophisticated,
electronic devices, and all concurred that this ob-
ject was being driven by a single propeller at more
than 150 knots.
Now, the world record for a propeller-driven
surface craft is 200.42 mph, but this was with a
Rolls-Royce-engined hydroplane. The record for a
diesel-engined craft is 60.21 mph. The all-time high
was achieved by Donald Campbell in his turbo-jet
engined Bluebird K.7 at 328 mph. The fastest
speeds for submerged submarines have been
achieved by the Skipjack class of pear-drop
shaped nuclear vessels of the U.S. Navy. The
semi-official record is forty-five knots (51.8 mph).
Thus, this object beat in speed anything that we
can do at the present stage of our technological
development, and by nearly four times.
But that was not the whole story. It is said that
our sonar technicians kept track of it for four days,
and that it maneuvered about and down to depths
of 20,000 feet. The record dive for a standard sub-
marine is 6,250 feet, achieved by the U.S.
Aluminaut on November 12, 1967. The record for
mere submersion is, however, the descent to
35,800 feet made by the little Trieste in the Pacific
in 1960. However, the craft could hardly move
along at all, while the Skipjacks cannot go down to
more than a sixth of that depth. In other words, this
thing was literally out of this world. What was it?
This is by no means an unique case. There have
been numerous other reports of a similar nature by
and to our Navy since that date, and others re-
ported by several other navies. Also, there have
been equally surprising reports made by both
=== **Page: 3 of 13**
naval and commercial ship's officers, mostly with names and dates, and going back more than 100 years.
Here are two recent cases which are intriguing.
The log of the Norwegian ship T.T. Jawesta records that on July 6, 1965, while in passage between Venezuela and the Canary Islands, the lookout on the bridge reported a bright object in the sky moving in a northerly direction. The captain, H. A. Trovik, was alerted by ship telephone, and later submitted a report to the Geophysical Institute in Bergen, Norway, because his chief mate, Torgrim Lien, stated: "I can say with complete certainty that it was no question of an aircraft of conventional type, or rocket, or meteor, or ball lightning."
The object is described in considerable detail as issuing tongues of flame and making sudden turns, and the report then goes on to state that "its speed was tremendous, and it was visible for about thirty to forty seconds. It was moving at the time in a N to S direction. Despite its enormous speed and the closeness of its passage, we could not hear the least sound from it. The lookout on the port side, Seaman Hernandez Ambrosio, maintained that it seemed as though the object had come out of the sea, and that it was traveling northward, and then suddenly changed course toward us. The helmsman, Narciso Guillen, an ordinary seaman, saw the object just after it had passed over the ship."
Another recent significant case was reported on July 20, 1967, in the log of the Argentinian ship, Naviero, belonging to the Argentine Shipping Lines Company. This occurred 120 miles off the coast of Brazil, at six fifteen p.m., Argentine time. The Naviero was running at seventeen knots.
"The officers and crew were at their evening meal at the time. The Master, Captain Julian Lucas Ardanza, received a call on the intercom system from one of his officers, Jorge Montoya, to the effect that there was something strange near the ship. Arriving at once on deck, Captain Ardanza beheld a shining object in the sea no more than about fifty feet away on the starboard side. It was cigar-shaped, and he estimated its length at about 105 to 110 feet. It had a powerful blue and white glow, made no noise whatsoever, and left no wake in the water. There was no sign of any periscope or railing or tower or superstructure; in other words, no external control surfaces of protruding parts. The mystery craft paced the Naviero for fifteen minutes. Captain Ardanza estimated its speed at up to twenty-five knots, as against the seventeen of his own vessel. The next development, however, was disconcerting, to say the least. The mystery craft suddenly dived and passed right under the Naviero and vanished rapidly in the depths. As it went, it glowed brightly beneath the water."
History is clogged with reports of this nature. Of significance, before the Puerto Rican U.S.N. antisubmarine maneuvers uproar, is the very strange mention in Thor Heyerdahl's classic, Kon Tiki, which states simply: "On several occasions, we glided past a large, dark mass, the size of the floor of a room, that lay motionless under the surface of the water like a hidden reef, which it couldn't be, since the raft was in the middle of the Pacific, between the Peruvian harbor of El Callao and the island of Raroia, with many hundreds of fathoms under her. It was presumably the giant ray of evil repute, but it never moved, and we never went close enough to make out its shape clearly. Then again, about two o'clock on a cloudy night, when the man at the helm had difficulty distinguishing black water from black sky, he caught sight of a faint illumination down in the water which slowly took the shape of a large animal. It was impossible to say whether it was plankton shining on its body, or whether the animal itself had a phosphorescent surface, but the glimmer down in the black water gave the ghastly creature obscure, wavering outlines. Sometimes it was roundish, somtimes oval, or triangular, and suddenly it split into two parts which swam to and fro under the raft independently of each other. Finally, there were three of these large shining
ARGOSY UFO
35
=== **Page: 4 of 13**
phantoms wandering in slow circles under us.
Reports such as this are numerous and are not confined to modern times. In 1887, we find in the log of the Dutch (Hollandsche) Barque, J.P.A., Captain C.D. Sweet recording that, "In a fierce storm, two objects were sighted in the air above the ship, one luminous, the other dark. They fell into the sea with a loud noise." Or, going back even further than that, there is the following report (reproduced by permission of the "UFO Investigator," the journal of the National Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomena, of Washington, D.C.). This tell us that in "The Diary of Andrew Bloxam," published in 1825, there appeared the entry: "About half past 3 o'clock this morning (August 12, 1825), the middle watch on deck was astonished to find everything around them suddenly illuminated. Turning their eyes to the eastward, they beheld a large, round, luminous body rising up about seven degrees from the water to the clouds, and falling again out of sight, and a second rising and falling. It was the color of a red-hot (cannon) shot and appeared about the size of the sun. It gave so great a light that a pin might be picked up on deck."
But coming back to present times, a report, as carried by the international wire services, read as follows: "A photograph of the sea bottom taken at 2,250 fathoms, 1,000 miles west of Cape Horn, South America, has the scientific crew of the visiting United States research ship Eltanin completely baffled. A photograph which, to a layman, shows something like a complex radio aerial jutting out of the mud bottom, was taken August 29, 1964. Dr. Thomas Hopkins, senior biologist on board, said that it could hardly be a plant.
"At that depth, there is no light, so photo synthesis could not take place and plants could not live," he said. "If it is some strange coral forma tion, then no one on board has ever heard of it before. I wouldn't like to say it is man-made be cause this brings up the problem of how one would get it there. But it's fairly symmetrical, and the offshoots are all ninety degrees apart. This is why it has been argued over for so long." Dr. Hopkins, a graduate of the University of Southern Califor nia, said that the ship photographer had been thoroughly questioned on developing the photo graph, and "everyone was certain the picture was not faked." And yet, what was this complex ae rial? If not man-made, then made by what—or whom?
Another puzzling incident, cited in an article by Ed Hyde in "Man's Illustrated" of March, 1966, tells us about a group of O.N.R. scientists who had begun a series of long-range underwater com munication tests. "They were quite aware that long-distance communication beneath the sea had been tried—and had failed. However, one scien tist came up with a completely new theory and decided to try it out. He set up a mile-long antenna to prove his point. The antenna was laid along the continental shelf, which stretches out 100 miles from the east coast of the U.S. before dropping into the deepest areas of the Atlantic. Far out to sea was an O.N.R. research ship with instruments lowered close to the bottom to pick up the signals. Transmission of the signals got under way. What startled the men aboard the research ship was the reception of the signal, and then a repeat of the signal followed by a strange code which the com puters are still trying to break. What happened, according to a later naval report, was that the signals in the experiment were picked up and mimicked by 'something unknown,' and then this 'something' began transmitting its own signals on the same wave lengths used by the Navy scien tists. 'Something strange was definitely down there,' the Navy report stated. Alert O.N.R. sci entists had even tracked the source of the alien signal and discovered that it appeared to emanate from one of the deepest areas of the Atlantic—a spot with depths measured at 29,000 feet.
Could that have been intelligent life, trying to contact our species?
It is always interesting to note that the dawn (about 1947) of our so-called "space age," with the release of contrived atomic energy and so forth, also ushered in the age of "saucermania" and "Ufology" in America. In that year, we had a "something" off southern California that much upset the populace. This occurred on the twentieth of September of that year, and was reported by the U.S. Coast Guard as "a flaming object (which) fell into the sea off that coast; no planes missing; ob servatory at Griffith Park did not think it was any kind of meteor."
Odd indeed, since it sounded very much like a meteor, and this is normally orthodoxy's first line of defense in such a case. However, further in quiry elicited the fact that the damned thing ma neuvered, and for some time; and that it had thereby considerably peeved the Coast Guard. Similar occurrences continued. On July 22, 1955, witnesses in Santa Maria, California reported that a long, silvery object emerged from the water.
Another intriguing underwater sighting occur red in January, 1965. As reported in "Flying Saucer Review": UFO in Kaipara Harbor, New Zealand. On January 12, 1965, a Captain K. (al though identified here as Captain K., this would seem to be Captain Bruce Cathie, a National Air ways Corporation pilot) carried out a 'positioning' flight (no passengers) from Kaitaia, north of Auck land. The crew comprised Captain K., a first of ficer and an operations officer. They left at eleven a.m., and were to reach Kaitaia by twelve-ten p.m. Captain K. decided to fly visually, following the coastline at low altitude. On approaching the southern end of Kaipara Harbor (just north of Helensville), he dropped 500 feet to have a closer look at anything on his flight path. The plane was a DC 3. The tide in the harbor was well out and the water over the estuaries and mud flats quite shal low. When about one-third of the way across the harbor, he spotted in an estuary what, at first glance, he took to be a stranded whale. He veered the aircraft slightly to port in order to fly more directly over the object, and on approaching it, he saw that it was a metallic structure of some sort.
=== **Page: 5 of 13**
He observed the following details:
1) It was perfectly streamlined and symmetrical in shape;
2) It had no external control surfaces or protrusions;
3) It appeared metallic and there was a suggestion of a hatch on top, streamlined in shape, not quite halfway along the body, as measured from the nose;
4) It was resting on the bottom of the estuary, suggested by the streamlined shape;
5) the shape was not that of a normal submarine;
6) Captain K. estimated its length at 100 feet, with a diameter of fifteen feet at the widest part;
7) the object rested in no more than thirty feet of water, and the craft was very clearly defined.
At this point, I would like to point out that the Office of Naval Research is alleged to have developed—and not just on the drafting board—a device that can go into and come back out of water. I have also been told in an official news briefing that a private citizen in Hawaii has, at his own expense, also developed a machine capable of traveling from Hawaii to San Diego, a matter of 2,400 miles, in four “skips” under water. This machine is powered by liquid freon gas, using sim- ply the forces of gravity and counter-gravity, i.e., buoyancy. The technique of this is, of course, immediately questioned by all technicians. The facts, though basically very simple and perfectly understandable to a mere reporter when explained by the senior scientist for such matters on behalf of the U.S. Navy, appear to be incomprehensible to technicians. Therefore, we suggest that any who are further interested apply to us for a detailed, written statement.
Then again, there was also a device built by one Mr. Donald V. Reid of Asbury Park, New Jersey, in 1967, which actually flew in the air and pro- ceeded along ten feet under water. Amazingly, this was propeller-driven.
This, of course, is going to change everything all over again, in that the press and all other skeptics may attempt to lull the public once again by saying that all the new “into-and-out-of-waters” are ob- servations of these wondrous devices that we have invented.
Then again, for more than 100 years, mariners, including commanders, captains, masters of ships and their senior officers, have been reporting im- mense displays of what they rather naturally call “lights” under the surface of certain seas. There are about 100 such cases in my files, and I know of dozens of others, the full details of which I do not yet have; and I know there are still more dozens, if not hundreds, tucked away in nautical journals, both naval and mercantile, and in the records of every seagoing nation. Others are mentioned in ancient Indian literature. And well might these people have recorded such occurrences, since al- most all of them have centered around the Indian Ocean. So let me attempt a composite picture of just what these seasoned mariners have reported for so long.
Most of these reports state that a pulsating light appears on the horizon, or between the horizon and the vessel. In due course, this resolves itself into, not a pulsating, but a series of beams of intense light sweeping around, apparently just under the surface of the sea. As to size, there is apparently enormous variation. Also many ships’ officers have also reported that, observed through binoculars, the hubs were beyond the horizon, yet the beams swept their vessels’ hulls and in most cases seemed to have continued under them, or passed through them.
It was at first suggested that these displays are “electrical” phenomena. But what sort and how come their unique form? Another idea, that the source is animated, assumes that it is some man- ifestation of marine life such as the Noctiluca—the tiny single-celled creature that causes what we mistakenly call “phosphorescence.”
Finally, we have the possibility that the source of this triggering is mechanical. If so, are these mechanical devices of extra-terrestrial origin?
Any craft that can travel through space should be able to continue on into a gaseous and then to a liquid medium, since said craft must be completely sealed. But why should such extra-terrestrials pick on the Indian Ocean? Perhaps it is only in that area and, maybe to a lesser extent, in the Carib- bean, that local conditions (Noctiluca in abun- dance, clear water of a certain constitution, etc.) cause some of their beam casts to become visible to us. Perhaps they prefer water of a certain tem- perature; perhaps they need the enhanced “spin” of the equatorial belt to help them braking for land- ings and thrust for takeoff; perhaps they just stum- bled on base in the Indian Ocean. But one can speculate on this bizarre business forever!
To sum up, we may, I feel, legitimately envisage the possibility of some living entities having evolved in our hydrosphere which eventually reached a stage of what we call intelligence. These would most likely have so evolved on the bottoms of seas rather than oceans, just as the vast majority of other marine life appears to have done. They, like us, who evolved at the “bottom” of the at- mosphere, would then start “building” and perhaps even using caves at first when such might be available. Our own ancestors started building wigwams, then tents, then houses, and finally stone edifices. Underwater types might have pro- ceeded to domes or such, but eventually they would wake up to the fact that drilling into the solid rock of the edges of the continental shelves and the great oceanic mountain ranges would be much preferable.
By the time technology developed to this extent, any sub-aqueous civilization would most certainly have done just what we are now doing: namely, get up out of the water into the air and, once having done this, more or less automatically go on out into space. If there is an underwater civilization indi- genous to this planet, it would probably be a con- siderable way ahead of us, since all life appears to have originated in water. It (they) might even have hundreds of millions of years head start on us.
But, of course, the basic question remains: Is there such a civilization? Judging by the reports that have been made of various natures that we have described, on the one hand, and by the really deafening silence about these on the part of of- ficialdom, on the other, it is my considered opinion that there just might be.
ARGOSY UFO
37
=== **Page: 6 of 13**
38
Above: One of the many UFOs photographed and submitted to the Air Force during the last of Bluebook.
=== **Page: 7 of 13**
The Air Force
Closes Its Blue Book
In 1975, the Air Force's Project Bluebook files on UFO Investigations conducted between 1967 and 1969 were closed to the public. Now, in an exclusive to Argosy UFO, UFO researcher Kevin Randle reveals what he found in the last of the open Bluebook files.
By Kevin D. Randle
In December, 1969, after 22 years, millions of dollars, and several studies, some of which were and still are secret, the Air Force concluded that UFOs did not pose a threat to the United States. Reasoning that this was all they were to be concerned with, and that it was all the explanation that the public requires, they let their official investigations of the phenomena expire. The report and study done under Edward Condon at the University of Colorado, and used to verify the Air Force position, was a master-piece of double-talk and invalid conclusions. But the Air Force didn't care because it got them "off the hook," or, at least they thought that it did.
With the Condon Report being circulated and a decrease in the number of UFO sightings, the Air Force, some of the media, and millions of Americans thought that UFOs were gone for good. Because interest was waning, the Air Force felt that it could safely offer the files to the public, as long as the files were not accessible to too many. And they never officially told the public that the files were open but allowed some private researchers to discover it for themselves. In January, 1975, just a few months before the files were sealed again, I was able to do research at the Air Force Archives at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.
I signed no statements saying that I would withhold the names of witnesses or details of the investigations. In other words, the Air Force allowed me to look at everything without any restrictions. Project Bluebook files have since been transferred to the National Archives in Washington, DC, and six Air Force reserve of-
ficers are going through every file removing names, locations and details of investigations. After the deletions are made, the public will again be allowed to see the files, but for what purpose? What good will they be?
Even before the recent move to destroy the usefulness of the Bluebook files, the Air Force was doing a good job of hiding its information. Naturally, while at Maxwell, I asked to see the newest cases first. These were the ones that had received the least publicity, because they had been over-shadowed by the Condon Committee's investigations. According to Air Force records, there was only one "unidentified" case in 1969, while there were four in 1968 and less than two dozen in 1967. In addition, there were nearly 40 reports of UFO photographs taken between the middle of 1967 and the end of Bluebook in 1969. But it was the "unidentifieds" that interested me; of those cases, the files showed that there had been some very bizarre happenings.
On Jan. 17, 1969, the last report to be classified as "unidentified" was made to Project Bluebook. There would be other reports, including several photographs but the January report from Crittenden, Virginia, would be the last UFO.
The witness, an employee of NASA, did not want his name connected with a UFO sighting, and, although I am not required to do so, I will respect his wishes by using the name John Kincaid. Kincaid claimed that he had been asleep since 10:30 p.m. that night, but that he had been awakened at 3:24 a.m. by an extremely loud hum. The sound fluctuated from very loud to a low buzzing, then
back to loud. Kincaid got up and walked to the window, staring out toward the sound, but saw nothing. After a few seconds, a lighted object appeared in the Southeast.
As Kincaid watched the UFO come slowly toward him, he saw that the bottom seemed to be elliptically shaped with blunt ends. The UFO was about 100 feet above the ground, about 30 feet wide and over 100 feet long. It moved slowly and came within 100 feet of Kincaid so he was able to get a very good look at it. He called to his wife, but she didn't hear him, apparently because the noise from the UFO smothered his words.
Around the bottom of the UFO, Kincaid could see a series of windows that were all brightly lighted except for one at the rear that blinked. It may have been blinking in time to the changes in the pitch but Kincaid couldn't be sure. The windows were rectangular and appeared translucent. They would allow the light out but Kincaid couldn't see in and each seemed to be surrounded by a glow or haze, further restricting his vision. Kincaid could see the center of the craft in that light and said that it was solid, apparently metallic, and reflected some of the light.
The UFO continued to drift across Kincaid's field of vision. It rocked gently as it moved, making it appear to move up and down slightly, but it never gained or lost much altitude. Finally, Kincaid said that it made a very gentle turn, tilting slightly and moving to the West. A few seconds later, the craft faded from sight.
Kincaid also reported that he felt a "tingling of his nerves" as the UFO flew by. He complained
39
=== **Page: 8 of 13**
that he had unusual mental im-pressions and felt a hypnotic re-laxation pass over him that calmed his fear. He was at a loss to explain any of the feelings.
When the UFO disappeared, Kincaid asked what he had seen. The hum was still audible. When Kincaid picked up the phone to call the operator, He asked the operator if she could hear it over the line, and she re-plied that she could. Kincaid, sur-prised, asked, "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I can hear it."
When the noise finally faded, he decided that he should report the sighting to the authorities and asked the operator to connect him with nearby Langley Field. He was routed to the local "Project Bluebook" officer who took the report and then told him how to file an "official" report. The of-ficer didn't stay on the phone too long and was obviously unim-pressed with the fact that the UFO had just been sighted. By 3:35, Kincaid was back in bed, the whole episode having lasted less than 15 minutes.
The next morning, on the way to work, Kincaid told the others in his car pool about the UFO. They listened politely but didn't seem to care about a UFO report. At work, he told some of his friends and they seemed more interested. One of them called the local paper and Kincaid was interviewed by a reporter.
Later that day, Kincaid tried to find the operator that he had talked to during the night. He failed at first, but kept trying. On Jan. 22, he was connected with the supervisor and was told that the operator could not have heard anything other than a plane. Kin-caid persisted, claiming that the operator had heard the strange hum and not the engines of a plane. The supervisor was equally insistent and refused to give Kin-caid the operator's name or let him talk to her.
On the afternoon of Jan. 17, Kincaid tried to find others who may have heard the sound or seen the craft, because he wanted some confirmation of the sight-ing. He located one woman who thought that her mother, Susan Johnson, may have heard the UFO. Mrs. Johnson and a three-year-old granddaughter had heard the sound and had both awakened, frightened. Mrs. Johnson didn't get up to look but said that the sound was so close that she thought that something was "coming through the roof."
Kincaid continued the search for other witnesses. In nearby E-clipse, Virginia, he found another woman who had heard the UFO. It had awakened her four-year-old daughter and had badly frightened her, to the extent that she didn't look out the window. She said that it sounded as if "it was going to land on top of us."
A few days later, he found a couple who had heard the strange, electrical hum. Kincaid interviewed them, and all decided that they had heard the same thing. Still later, he found yet another witness in a nearby town. Kincaid then filed a report with a private UFO research group be-fore trying to forget about the in-cident.
One point should be made about this sighting. Several de-bunkers have said that the wit-ness' activities after a sighting are very important. Anyone seeing what he or she thought to be an extraterrestrial spacecraft would be very excited about it. By find-ing out how the witnesses reacted hours after the sighting, we can gain a clue to the accuracy of the case. Kincaid was very excited. He had lain awake the rest of the night. He told his friends im-mediately, and he had tried to find others who had a similar ex-perience. His reactions were not those of a person playing a hoax.
The Air Force reactions, how-ever, were not impressive. Two months after Kincaid filed his re-port, the Air Force finally began its investigations. After such a long time lapse, the trail was cold. First, the investigators tried to find out if there had been any helicopters in the immediate area, but Langley Field showed no traf-fic of any kind. Next, they tried the civilian airport but were told that such records are kept only for 15 days and that they were 45 days too late. None of this bothered the Air Force men, who tried to con-vince Kincaid that he had seen a helicopter. The official Air Force record shows that Kincaid "was unreceptive to this line of reason-ing." When that failed, they tried to convince him that he had seen the Goodyear blimp or an aircraft taking night photographs of the area. However, all attempts to prove to Kincaid that he had not seen a UFO having failed, they fi-nally concluded that the case was "unidentified."
I finished reading the file with a sense of frustration. If the Air Force wasn't going to do anything with all the data it collected, why insist that it be kept in a place that was almost outside the reach of serious researchers? Why Max-well Air Force Base? How many knew the files were there? And how many could get to Maxwell to read them?
Moving down the list, I asked for the case from Newton, Geor-gia, dated Dec. 23, 1968. The lady at the archives took the request and returned a few minutes later asking if I was sure that I had the date right. We looked it up in the master index and found that I was right. The case was missing from the files—completely. No small reference card, no empty folder, just the mention in the index.
I then requested the files for several of the next "uniden-tifieds," hoping to find at least one. She returned with a stack of folders, and I opened the one on top. It was dated June 24, 1967, and was from Austin, Texas. Ap-parently the witness had had the same troubles as Kincaid, be-cause there was a blistering letter from him about the lousy investi-gation.
Ray Rosi had been driving near the north side of Mansfield Dam (in the area of Austin) and had stopped to let his dog out. It was about 3:12 a.m., when his atten-tion was drawn to a bright, elon-gated, solid-looking, blue object, just above the horizon. A minute before the UFO appeared, two men in a small red sportscar had driven by, slowing down near Rosi but then speeding on their way. He thought nothing of it until he saw the UFO.
The car pulled to the side of the road only 250 feet from him. "I wondered why they would be at such a place that time of night. They parked with lights tilted up the hill and flashed their beams several times (emphasis added by Rosi). It was a short time then, when the strange object ap-
40
=== **Page: 9 of 13**
peared on the northwest horizon. Occupants of red auto pulled over to the other side of the hill, and stopped the car again—out of my sight.
After seeing the apparent signal, Rosi took out his big spotlight and started flashing the "only code that I could think of that anyone might understand (mathematical: '3.14', pi)." He flashed it a few times, and the object "stopped dead still." The illumination faded for a second or two, and then brightened again, but the UFO continued to hover. Finally it started again, following the same path.
As the UFO continued, Rosi got out a pair of binoculars. Through them, he could see a blue, cigar-shaped UFO. When he flashed the light code again, the UFO slowed, the brightness faded, then brightened, and the UFO resumed its original speed. At 3:22 a.m., the UFO disappeared into a low cloud cover moving in from the south.
After the UFO disappeared and Rosi had collected his dog, he drove to the nearest phone to call the Air Force. They responded with the standard form and one officer, Lt. Robert Foreman. As he was completing the form and discussing the case with Foreman, Rosi mentioned that he had the feeling that he was being watched. He compared it to "a youngster doing something wrong in the backyard of a home who all of a sudden felt that he is being watched." He said that it was a feeling of communication "somewhat like mental telepathy, yet not strong enough because I have never experienced or received any message by brain wave."
Foreman completed his investigations, took the completed Air Force form, with its quagmire of questions and drawings and left. He submitted them to the project headquarters. Rosi, of course, had an interest in the case and later asked what was being done.
=== **Page: 10 of 13**
Finally, he received word of the decision on his sighting. It was stamped INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS.
Rosi was furious. He filled out another form to forward to the Air Force but added a lengthy comment to question 35, which asks for "Information which you feel pertinent, and which is not adequately covered in the specific points of the questionnaire or a narrative explanation of your sighting." Rosi wrote: "It is a real mystery to me why you state in your August 21 missive, 'The information which we received is not sufficient for a scientific evaluation,' in consideration of the fact that the very thorough report which Lt. Foreman took and supposedly submitted to you contained far more definitive information... than could be elicited via your questionnaire."
Rosi continued, adding that more information was available through Foreman's report than in the form that was being sent, but that their handling of the case "leads me to believe... that the accusations of negligence heaped upon you... by some independent investigations in recent years may not be entirely unfounded."
Rosi, like others, was caught wondering what was missing from his reports and those of Lt. Foreman. What data was needed so that a "scientific analysis" could be made, and why wasn't that point covered in the forms? It seemed that a great deal of time and effort was being expended to gather data that was later found to be lacking some important factor.
After reviewing Rosi's new forms, re-evaluating the Foreman report and doing more research into Rosi's background, the Air Force changed the status of the report. No longer was it "Insufficient" but "unidentified." Considering Rosi's rather technical background, his education and obvious sincerity, the Air Force had found itself in another of its famous holes.
Rosi's experiences, both with the UFO and with the Air Force, were interesting. His report was one of the best found in the files. And, it had received no public dissemination. No one outside the Air Force knew about it, and, if the Air Force had its way, no one ever would.
About two weeks after Rosi's experience, another southerner, living in Meridian, Mississippi, reported a UFO. The man, a retired military officer, reported that the object stalled his car. Now, after having seen two hidden reports outlining possible mental contact with UFO's, I found a case involving electromagnetic effects, and all were labeled "unidentified." While all this was going on, the Air Force would have us believe that nothing extraordinary was happening, or had happened.
Philip Lanning was driving south in Meridian, on the evening of July 10, 1967, when his car coasted to a stop and the radio faded. Lanning got out and started to look under the hood when an object of "excessive size passed forward of my position and perhaps 200-300 feet over my head." The object was moving silently except for the "rushing of an extreme wind." It was heading to the East and Lanning thought that it was about to crash into a clump of trees.
"Just before reaching the trees, it tilted upward, appeared to be moving to the immediate right and then accelerated rapidly at an angle almost straight up and disappeared into low flying clouds." Lanning thought the object was in sight for three to five seconds and one Air Force officer thought that was important. In his opinion, no one could have observed all that Lanning claimed he had seen in only five seconds. The officer overlooked the fact that most people are notoriously poor at estimating time, especially when excited.
The object, itself, was "like a cymbal on a drum set and was a dirty metallic grey in color on the underside." When it tilted upward, Lanning was able to see the top, which he said was colored "like the bluing of a good weapon." He saw no portholes or hatches, and could hear no sound. He was not sure how big it was but felt that "it could be compared with the length of a house."
Lanning wasn't sure who would be interested in the report but he felt that it should be sent to "someone in the U.S. Government."
| DATE & TIME GROUP | P.20 |
|---|---|
| 24 June 67 | 0530Z |
| 2. SOURCE | Civilian |
| 3. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 1 |
| 4. LOCATION | Scott AFB, Ill. |
| 10. CONCLUSION | Unidentified |
| 5. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION | 3-10 minutes |
| 6. TYPE OF OBSERVATION | Ground Visual |
| 7. COURSE | Southward |
| 8. PHOTOS | No |
| 9. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE | Yes |
| 11. BRIEF |
| Object was | seen over | base. Object | was metallic | and had | blue light. |
| 12. REMARKS |
| Object was | seen by | several | witnesses. |
| 13. DISPOSITION |
| Sent to | Project | Blue Book |
Handwritten text:
Received copy of report from Project Blue Book
14. Have you ever seen a similar object?
(a) Yes (b) No
15. Information which you feel pertinent and which is not adequately covered in the specific points of the questionnaire or a narrative explanation of your sighting.
Gentlemen: It is a real mystery to me why you state in your August 21 missive, "The information which we received is not sufficient for a scientific evaluation," in consideration of the fact that the very thorough report which Lt. Foreman took and supposedly submitted to you contained far more definitive information... than could be elicited via your questionnaire.
42
Continued on page 50
=== **Page: 11 of 13**
Copy for Hynek
PROJECT 7 RECORD
DATE: 21 August 1967
LOCATION: Scotch Plains, New Jersey
OBSERVER: 3 boys, ages 13, 14, 15
SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS:
Observed a cone shaped object circling and hovering. At one time during the observation the object could hover or make an oyster. The object could hover or make an oyster. The object made rapid speeds in any direction. One huge red light was noted at exact end. At close range, a row of windows were visible.
Efforts to determine the cause of the sighting were made. Contact with the FAA did not reveal any information helpful in the investigation.
CONCLUSION:
This has five witnesses, the report contains information for a meaningful evaluation. Weather data and witnesses were adolescents. Case could be classified aircraft, or possible balloon, or possible unknown.
Above: Author Kevin Randle reading some of the Bluebook files, while doing research at Maxwell Air Force Base in January, 1978.
Left: This report on a UFO sighting at Scotch Plains, N.J., concludes, "Investigation did not reveal any possible explanation."
Below: Kevin Randle offers these photostated reports as evidence of the accuracy of his article.
We have another characteristic thing here for publicity. Witness specifically requested that no corroborative evidence was found, be the whole thing.
Also, characteristic of this type of sighting is that the object "tilted upward, accelerated, and disappeared into the clouds" - all in a matter of a few seconds. In the scientific framework, of course, this is utterly impossible. We know of no way of accomplishing this, even of accomplishing it. Therefore, we either must admit ignorance, or in some cases admit "possible psychological", or I would prefer the latter in many cases since we have no evidence that this person was mentally disturbed. The tempting thing to do is to call it mass hallucination. This we recognize as simply another label for our own ignorance.
I would recommend that in a number of cases of this type, possibly even in this one, that the cooperation of the witness be obtained and a series of interviews and tests conducted, for scientific purposes and without any fanfare whatever. Whether such witnesses exhibit any psychological peculiarities can only be determined in the course of just a few interviews by a competent psychologist. It would be far preferable to take a few cases like this and work on them in depth, rather than to pay superficial attention to hundreds of cases. The latter procedure carries little or no scientific potential.
In summary, case should be carried as "unidentified".
J. Allen Hynek
ARGOSY UFO
=== **Page: 12 of 13**
BLUEBOOK
Continued from page 43
ment," so he forwarded it to a friend in Naval Intelligence. The Air Force received it and began an investigation. Once again, they were impressed with the background of the witness. Lanning, as a former military officer, had received a great deal of training and was, therefore, considered very important. That was not questioned.
Nearly a year later, a further outline of the sighting was made. One man noticed that some of the statements made by Lanning were "characteristic of this type of sighting." The object tilted upward and accelerated, disappearing into the clouds in a matter of seconds.
Sandwiched right between the Austin, Texas, sighting and the case from Meridian, Mississippi, was one from Scotch Plains, New Jersey. Air Force records don't contain too much information about the June 29, 1967, sighting. It was about 5:30 a.m., when Franklin Brown noticed the strangely lighted, cone-shaped object. He was driving along route 22 near Scotch Plains when the lights caught his attention.
For several minutes, he watched them doing aerobatics. It was a clear night, so Brown got a good look at the UFO. As it maneuvered, he could see that it was rounded at the bottom and that it tapered upward, giving it the cone shape. There seemed to be one huge, red light at each end and at close range there seemed to be a row of blue lights.
At one point in the sighting, Brown said that he saw an aircraft. Most investigators would assume that the plane could explain the sighting, except that Brown claimed that the UFO circled the plane several times. Brown saw the UFO hover and then dart away, changing direction instantly.
Brown finally stopped the truck and got out to watch the UFO, which he called to the attention of his passenger, Shirley Tucker. As they watched, the UFO descended, slowed, and began to follow a car. It was now traveling about 20 miles an hour and was quite close to the ground. It followed the car for about 500 feet before veering to the South and disappearing in a great burst of
50
=== **Page: 13 of 13**
speed.
The Air Force followed its stan- dard procedure in such cases- leaving it alone for several weeks. When the investigation was finally started, the witnesses could not be located. Brown, a truck driver, apparently did not live in the area and the Air Force base taking the report neglected to get his home address. They had the same luck with Tucker. The letters they sent her were returned unopened, and they could not find a phone number.
The original report made to Bluebook headquarters men- tioned that there were several corroborating witnesses. The driver of the car followed by the UFO was one. The pilot of the plane was another. And yet, at at- tempts by the Air Force to find these people failed. In the end, the Air Force investigators were forced to say, "Investigation did not reveal any possible explana- tion," and the sighting was listed as "unidentified".
In reading the case history, many researchers were impress- ed with the report, but were worried about the reliability of the witnesses since they couldn't be located. One man wrote that the case was "so bizarre and so suggestive of something strange that there should have been an immediate and comprehensive follow-up." The case can provide little insight into the UFO phenomena, but it does give good clues about the UFO project and the investigative technique employed.
For 22 years, the Air Force claimed that it was investigating UFOs; but in these, the last of the Bluebook "unidentifieds," I found that the investigation was in name only. Sightings were ig- nored, investigations were de- layed and witnesses were not found.
In the January, 1969, sighting, the man reported a low flying UFO, mental impressions from it, and listed a number of cor- roborating witnesses. The Air Force didn't care and delayed the investigation. In Austin, they at- tempted to put the man off by say- ing, "Insufficient data," and over- looking the other important ques- tions. They were unconcerned about the two men in the red
ARGOSY UFO
sportscar who flashed his lights at the UFO. In Meridian, a reliable observer had reported elec- tromagnetic effects, but nothing was done for weeks.
The last cases from Bluebook are revealing, because they cover ground that the Air Force refused to admit existed. Anyone claiming mental contact, however slight, or saying the UFO stalled the car, was labeled a crackpot. Such cases were labeled "uniden- tifieds" even before they were filed. That in itself may be sig- nificant.
These cases indicate a double standard. Tell the public that UFOs don't exist and that the people seeing them are crazy, but continue to gather data and hide it in the files. And, if the case is really bizarre, bury it so deep that it will never be found.
Today it appears that someone has realized that too much was left. What good will the Austin case be with the names removed,
the location gone and the inves- tigative data missing? In fact, the investigative data is a prime part of that report. By removing similar data from the Virginia case and the New Jersey report, the Air Force can ensure that no one finds out about the long delays before investigation. Instead, the public might wonder why witness- es couldn't be found or why Air Force investigators failed to find any corroboration. The move pro- tects the Air Force, overlooks the public's right to data gathered with public money and effectively ruins many cases. The files are becoming worthless. Fortunately, a few researchers were able to see the data, copy large parts of it and read the rest before the Air Force clamped down the lid. This may be the last chance to see the data before those officers finish butchering the files. A last chance to see an uncut version of the Last of Bluebook.
51
# UFOS UNDER THE SEA?
*Have beings from outer space populated the ocean floor? The idea sounds too incredible to be true. But take a look at the evidence: sightings of UFOs by mariners on the open sea, strange radar signals, eerie lights from the depths...*
BY IVAN T. SANDERSON
ONE evening in the Antarctic, aboard an icebreaker participating in the U.S. Navy's Operation Deep Freeze, Dr. Rubens J. Villela watched in amazement as suddenly something came rearing out of the sea, through no less than thirty-seven feet of ice and went up into the sky like a vast, silvery bullet. The icebreaker was in Admiralty Bay, facing the South Atlantic Ocean. As it was an extremely cold day and all other personnel were below deck, the only other witnesses were the helmsman and the officer on watch. Further, these witnesses saw only the end of the strange perfor-
mance because they were busy with their charts. But what they did see was quite enough: enormous blocks of ice, hurled high in the air, that came cascading down around the hole burst through the thick ice-sheet, and the water in the hole roiling and apparently boiling, while masses of steam issued from both the hole and the descending ice.
It might be a frightening question to ask, but are there rational creatures living under the ocean? Have parts of the ocean bed, possibly around the Indian Ocean, been colonized by beings from outer space? In other words, could some of the
ARGOSY UFO
33
=== **Page: 2 of 13**
many mysterious lights reported as seen under the
seas and oceans be evidence of "civilizations"
flourishing on their bottoms? It may come as a
shock to UFO buffs to learn that, by actual count,
more than fifty percent of all so-called sightings of
UFOs have occurred over, coming over, plunging
into, or coming out of water.
Take another example. Sometime in 1963, the
United States Navy conducted some exercises to
train personnel in the detection and tracking of
underwater craft. The maneuvers were conducted
off Puerto Rico some 500 miles southeast of the
continental United States. All reports seem to
agree that there were five "small" naval vessels
concerned, but in more than one account, the Air-
craft Carrier Wasp is stated to have been the com-
mand ship. There appear also to have been a
number of submarines engaged in these exercises,
and all vessels were intimately linked by advanced
electronic communications systems. There were
also aircraft, at least one of which trailed a detec-
tion device a little below the surface of the ocean
from a line, while flying at very low altitude. The
submarines are said to have been fixed for "silent
running."
There then occurred a rather special and par-
ticular uproar which, at least as far as I have been
able to discover, was initiated as follows. A sonar
technician on one of the small vessels, otherwise
listed as a destroyer, reported to his bridge that
one of the submarines had broken formation and
gone off in what appeared to be pursuit of some
unknown object. This operator did not, of course,
know if this was a "plant," since the maneuvers
they were engaged in were exercises designed to
train personnel in detection of enemy craft, and in
such exercises decoys must always be employed.
However, this operator's report was not at all
within the limits of such simulation. The trouble
was that said unidentified underwater object was
travelling at over 150 knots.
The deck officer immediately reported to the
skipper who, after calling his electronics boys on
the intercom, got in touch with the command ves-
sel, the Wasp, but was then somewhat frustrated
34
to learn that their radio intake was virtually jam-
med with similar reports coming in from all the
other ships and from the sonar-trailing aircraft. No
less than thirteen craft (including submarines and
aircraft) noted in their official logs that their sonar
divisions had latched onto this ultra-high-speed
submersible; and all of this is said to have been
immediately reported to COMLANT, in Norfolk,
Virginia. Many people, including deck officers and
technical personnel, aboard all these ships stated
that they either observed or heard the radar and
sonar blips caught by their modern, sophisticated,
electronic devices, and all concurred that this ob-
ject was being driven by a single propeller at more
than 150 knots.
Now, the world record for a propeller-driven
surface craft is 200.42 mph, but this was with a
Rolls-Royce-engined hydroplane. The record for a
diesel-engined craft is 60.21 mph. The all-time high
was achieved by Donald Campbell in his turbo-jet
engined Bluebird K.7 at 328 mph. The fastest
speeds for submerged submarines have been
achieved by the Skipjack class of pear-drop
shaped nuclear vessels of the U.S. Navy. The
semi-official record is forty-five knots (51.8 mph).
Thus, this object beat in speed anything that we
can do at the present stage of our technological
development, and by nearly four times.
But that was not the whole story. It is said that
our sonar technicians kept track of it for four days,
and that it maneuvered about and down to depths
of 20,000 feet. The record dive for a standard sub-
marine is 6,250 feet, achieved by the U.S.
Aluminaut on November 12, 1967. The record for
mere submersion is, however, the descent to
35,800 feet made by the little Trieste in the Pacific
in 1960. However, the craft could hardly move
along at all, while the Skipjacks cannot go down to
more than a sixth of that depth. In other words, this
thing was literally out of this world. What was it?
This is by no means an unique case. There have
been numerous other reports of a similar nature by
and to our Navy since that date, and others re-
ported by several other navies. Also, there have
been equally surprising reports made by both
=== **Page: 3 of 13**
naval and commercial ship's officers, mostly with names and dates, and going back more than 100 years.
Here are two recent cases which are intriguing.
The log of the Norwegian ship T.T. Jawesta records that on July 6, 1965, while in passage between Venezuela and the Canary Islands, the lookout on the bridge reported a bright object in the sky moving in a northerly direction. The captain, H. A. Trovik, was alerted by ship telephone, and later submitted a report to the Geophysical Institute in Bergen, Norway, because his chief mate, Torgrim Lien, stated: "I can say with complete certainty that it was no question of an aircraft of conventional type, or rocket, or meteor, or ball lightning."
The object is described in considerable detail as issuing tongues of flame and making sudden turns, and the report then goes on to state that "its speed was tremendous, and it was visible for about thirty to forty seconds. It was moving at the time in a N to S direction. Despite its enormous speed and the closeness of its passage, we could not hear the least sound from it. The lookout on the port side, Seaman Hernandez Ambrosio, maintained that it seemed as though the object had come out of the sea, and that it was traveling northward, and then suddenly changed course toward us. The helmsman, Narciso Guillen, an ordinary seaman, saw the object just after it had passed over the ship."
Another recent significant case was reported on July 20, 1967, in the log of the Argentinian ship, Naviero, belonging to the Argentine Shipping Lines Company. This occurred 120 miles off the coast of Brazil, at six fifteen p.m., Argentine time. The Naviero was running at seventeen knots.
"The officers and crew were at their evening meal at the time. The Master, Captain Julian Lucas Ardanza, received a call on the intercom system from one of his officers, Jorge Montoya, to the effect that there was something strange near the ship. Arriving at once on deck, Captain Ardanza beheld a shining object in the sea no more than about fifty feet away on the starboard side. It was cigar-shaped, and he estimated its length at about 105 to 110 feet. It had a powerful blue and white glow, made no noise whatsoever, and left no wake in the water. There was no sign of any periscope or railing or tower or superstructure; in other words, no external control surfaces of protruding parts. The mystery craft paced the Naviero for fifteen minutes. Captain Ardanza estimated its speed at up to twenty-five knots, as against the seventeen of his own vessel. The next development, however, was disconcerting, to say the least. The mystery craft suddenly dived and passed right under the Naviero and vanished rapidly in the depths. As it went, it glowed brightly beneath the water."
History is clogged with reports of this nature. Of significance, before the Puerto Rican U.S.N. antisubmarine maneuvers uproar, is the very strange mention in Thor Heyerdahl's classic, Kon Tiki, which states simply: "On several occasions, we glided past a large, dark mass, the size of the floor of a room, that lay motionless under the surface of the water like a hidden reef, which it couldn't be, since the raft was in the middle of the Pacific, between the Peruvian harbor of El Callao and the island of Raroia, with many hundreds of fathoms under her. It was presumably the giant ray of evil repute, but it never moved, and we never went close enough to make out its shape clearly. Then again, about two o'clock on a cloudy night, when the man at the helm had difficulty distinguishing black water from black sky, he caught sight of a faint illumination down in the water which slowly took the shape of a large animal. It was impossible to say whether it was plankton shining on its body, or whether the animal itself had a phosphorescent surface, but the glimmer down in the black water gave the ghastly creature obscure, wavering outlines. Sometimes it was roundish, somtimes oval, or triangular, and suddenly it split into two parts which swam to and fro under the raft independently of each other. Finally, there were three of these large shining
ARGOSY UFO
35
=== **Page: 4 of 13**
phantoms wandering in slow circles under us.
Reports such as this are numerous and are not confined to modern times. In 1887, we find in the log of the Dutch (Hollandsche) Barque, J.P.A., Captain C.D. Sweet recording that, "In a fierce storm, two objects were sighted in the air above the ship, one luminous, the other dark. They fell into the sea with a loud noise." Or, going back even further than that, there is the following report (reproduced by permission of the "UFO Investigator," the journal of the National Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomena, of Washington, D.C.). This tell us that in "The Diary of Andrew Bloxam," published in 1825, there appeared the entry: "About half past 3 o'clock this morning (August 12, 1825), the middle watch on deck was astonished to find everything around them suddenly illuminated. Turning their eyes to the eastward, they beheld a large, round, luminous body rising up about seven degrees from the water to the clouds, and falling again out of sight, and a second rising and falling. It was the color of a red-hot (cannon) shot and appeared about the size of the sun. It gave so great a light that a pin might be picked up on deck."
But coming back to present times, a report, as carried by the international wire services, read as follows: "A photograph of the sea bottom taken at 2,250 fathoms, 1,000 miles west of Cape Horn, South America, has the scientific crew of the visiting United States research ship Eltanin completely baffled. A photograph which, to a layman, shows something like a complex radio aerial jutting out of the mud bottom, was taken August 29, 1964. Dr. Thomas Hopkins, senior biologist on board, said that it could hardly be a plant.
"At that depth, there is no light, so photo synthesis could not take place and plants could not live," he said. "If it is some strange coral forma tion, then no one on board has ever heard of it before. I wouldn't like to say it is man-made be cause this brings up the problem of how one would get it there. But it's fairly symmetrical, and the offshoots are all ninety degrees apart. This is why it has been argued over for so long." Dr. Hopkins, a graduate of the University of Southern Califor nia, said that the ship photographer had been thoroughly questioned on developing the photo graph, and "everyone was certain the picture was not faked." And yet, what was this complex ae rial? If not man-made, then made by what—or whom?
Another puzzling incident, cited in an article by Ed Hyde in "Man's Illustrated" of March, 1966, tells us about a group of O.N.R. scientists who had begun a series of long-range underwater com munication tests. "They were quite aware that long-distance communication beneath the sea had been tried—and had failed. However, one scien tist came up with a completely new theory and decided to try it out. He set up a mile-long antenna to prove his point. The antenna was laid along the continental shelf, which stretches out 100 miles from the east coast of the U.S. before dropping into the deepest areas of the Atlantic. Far out to sea was an O.N.R. research ship with instruments lowered close to the bottom to pick up the signals. Transmission of the signals got under way. What startled the men aboard the research ship was the reception of the signal, and then a repeat of the signal followed by a strange code which the com puters are still trying to break. What happened, according to a later naval report, was that the signals in the experiment were picked up and mimicked by 'something unknown,' and then this 'something' began transmitting its own signals on the same wave lengths used by the Navy scien tists. 'Something strange was definitely down there,' the Navy report stated. Alert O.N.R. sci entists had even tracked the source of the alien signal and discovered that it appeared to emanate from one of the deepest areas of the Atlantic—a spot with depths measured at 29,000 feet.
Could that have been intelligent life, trying to contact our species?
It is always interesting to note that the dawn (about 1947) of our so-called "space age," with the release of contrived atomic energy and so forth, also ushered in the age of "saucermania" and "Ufology" in America. In that year, we had a "something" off southern California that much upset the populace. This occurred on the twentieth of September of that year, and was reported by the U.S. Coast Guard as "a flaming object (which) fell into the sea off that coast; no planes missing; ob servatory at Griffith Park did not think it was any kind of meteor."
Odd indeed, since it sounded very much like a meteor, and this is normally orthodoxy's first line of defense in such a case. However, further in quiry elicited the fact that the damned thing ma neuvered, and for some time; and that it had thereby considerably peeved the Coast Guard. Similar occurrences continued. On July 22, 1955, witnesses in Santa Maria, California reported that a long, silvery object emerged from the water.
Another intriguing underwater sighting occur red in January, 1965. As reported in "Flying Saucer Review": UFO in Kaipara Harbor, New Zealand. On January 12, 1965, a Captain K. (al though identified here as Captain K., this would seem to be Captain Bruce Cathie, a National Air ways Corporation pilot) carried out a 'positioning' flight (no passengers) from Kaitaia, north of Auck land. The crew comprised Captain K., a first of ficer and an operations officer. They left at eleven a.m., and were to reach Kaitaia by twelve-ten p.m. Captain K. decided to fly visually, following the coastline at low altitude. On approaching the southern end of Kaipara Harbor (just north of Helensville), he dropped 500 feet to have a closer look at anything on his flight path. The plane was a DC 3. The tide in the harbor was well out and the water over the estuaries and mud flats quite shal low. When about one-third of the way across the harbor, he spotted in an estuary what, at first glance, he took to be a stranded whale. He veered the aircraft slightly to port in order to fly more directly over the object, and on approaching it, he saw that it was a metallic structure of some sort.
=== **Page: 5 of 13**
He observed the following details:
1) It was perfectly streamlined and symmetrical in shape;
2) It had no external control surfaces or protrusions;
3) It appeared metallic and there was a suggestion of a hatch on top, streamlined in shape, not quite halfway along the body, as measured from the nose;
4) It was resting on the bottom of the estuary, suggested by the streamlined shape;
5) the shape was not that of a normal submarine;
6) Captain K. estimated its length at 100 feet, with a diameter of fifteen feet at the widest part;
7) the object rested in no more than thirty feet of water, and the craft was very clearly defined.
At this point, I would like to point out that the Office of Naval Research is alleged to have developed—and not just on the drafting board—a device that can go into and come back out of water. I have also been told in an official news briefing that a private citizen in Hawaii has, at his own expense, also developed a machine capable of traveling from Hawaii to San Diego, a matter of 2,400 miles, in four “skips” under water. This machine is powered by liquid freon gas, using sim- ply the forces of gravity and counter-gravity, i.e., buoyancy. The technique of this is, of course, immediately questioned by all technicians. The facts, though basically very simple and perfectly understandable to a mere reporter when explained by the senior scientist for such matters on behalf of the U.S. Navy, appear to be incomprehensible to technicians. Therefore, we suggest that any who are further interested apply to us for a detailed, written statement.
Then again, there was also a device built by one Mr. Donald V. Reid of Asbury Park, New Jersey, in 1967, which actually flew in the air and pro- ceeded along ten feet under water. Amazingly, this was propeller-driven.
This, of course, is going to change everything all over again, in that the press and all other skeptics may attempt to lull the public once again by saying that all the new “into-and-out-of-waters” are ob- servations of these wondrous devices that we have invented.
Then again, for more than 100 years, mariners, including commanders, captains, masters of ships and their senior officers, have been reporting im- mense displays of what they rather naturally call “lights” under the surface of certain seas. There are about 100 such cases in my files, and I know of dozens of others, the full details of which I do not yet have; and I know there are still more dozens, if not hundreds, tucked away in nautical journals, both naval and mercantile, and in the records of every seagoing nation. Others are mentioned in ancient Indian literature. And well might these people have recorded such occurrences, since al- most all of them have centered around the Indian Ocean. So let me attempt a composite picture of just what these seasoned mariners have reported for so long.
Most of these reports state that a pulsating light appears on the horizon, or between the horizon and the vessel. In due course, this resolves itself into, not a pulsating, but a series of beams of intense light sweeping around, apparently just under the surface of the sea. As to size, there is apparently enormous variation. Also many ships’ officers have also reported that, observed through binoculars, the hubs were beyond the horizon, yet the beams swept their vessels’ hulls and in most cases seemed to have continued under them, or passed through them.
It was at first suggested that these displays are “electrical” phenomena. But what sort and how come their unique form? Another idea, that the source is animated, assumes that it is some man- ifestation of marine life such as the Noctiluca—the tiny single-celled creature that causes what we mistakenly call “phosphorescence.”
Finally, we have the possibility that the source of this triggering is mechanical. If so, are these mechanical devices of extra-terrestrial origin?
Any craft that can travel through space should be able to continue on into a gaseous and then to a liquid medium, since said craft must be completely sealed. But why should such extra-terrestrials pick on the Indian Ocean? Perhaps it is only in that area and, maybe to a lesser extent, in the Carib- bean, that local conditions (Noctiluca in abun- dance, clear water of a certain constitution, etc.) cause some of their beam casts to become visible to us. Perhaps they prefer water of a certain tem- perature; perhaps they need the enhanced “spin” of the equatorial belt to help them braking for land- ings and thrust for takeoff; perhaps they just stum- bled on base in the Indian Ocean. But one can speculate on this bizarre business forever!
To sum up, we may, I feel, legitimately envisage the possibility of some living entities having evolved in our hydrosphere which eventually reached a stage of what we call intelligence. These would most likely have so evolved on the bottoms of seas rather than oceans, just as the vast majority of other marine life appears to have done. They, like us, who evolved at the “bottom” of the at- mosphere, would then start “building” and perhaps even using caves at first when such might be available. Our own ancestors started building wigwams, then tents, then houses, and finally stone edifices. Underwater types might have pro- ceeded to domes or such, but eventually they would wake up to the fact that drilling into the solid rock of the edges of the continental shelves and the great oceanic mountain ranges would be much preferable.
By the time technology developed to this extent, any sub-aqueous civilization would most certainly have done just what we are now doing: namely, get up out of the water into the air and, once having done this, more or less automatically go on out into space. If there is an underwater civilization indi- genous to this planet, it would probably be a con- siderable way ahead of us, since all life appears to have originated in water. It (they) might even have hundreds of millions of years head start on us.
But, of course, the basic question remains: Is there such a civilization? Judging by the reports that have been made of various natures that we have described, on the one hand, and by the really deafening silence about these on the part of of- ficialdom, on the other, it is my considered opinion that there just might be.
ARGOSY UFO
37
=== **Page: 6 of 13**
38
Above: One of the many UFOs photographed and submitted to the Air Force during the last of Bluebook.
=== **Page: 7 of 13**
The Air Force
Closes Its Blue Book
In 1975, the Air Force's Project Bluebook files on UFO Investigations conducted between 1967 and 1969 were closed to the public. Now, in an exclusive to Argosy UFO, UFO researcher Kevin Randle reveals what he found in the last of the open Bluebook files.
By Kevin D. Randle
In December, 1969, after 22 years, millions of dollars, and several studies, some of which were and still are secret, the Air Force concluded that UFOs did not pose a threat to the United States. Reasoning that this was all they were to be concerned with, and that it was all the explanation that the public requires, they let their official investigations of the phenomena expire. The report and study done under Edward Condon at the University of Colorado, and used to verify the Air Force position, was a master-piece of double-talk and invalid conclusions. But the Air Force didn't care because it got them "off the hook," or, at least they thought that it did.
With the Condon Report being circulated and a decrease in the number of UFO sightings, the Air Force, some of the media, and millions of Americans thought that UFOs were gone for good. Because interest was waning, the Air Force felt that it could safely offer the files to the public, as long as the files were not accessible to too many. And they never officially told the public that the files were open but allowed some private researchers to discover it for themselves. In January, 1975, just a few months before the files were sealed again, I was able to do research at the Air Force Archives at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.
I signed no statements saying that I would withhold the names of witnesses or details of the investigations. In other words, the Air Force allowed me to look at everything without any restrictions. Project Bluebook files have since been transferred to the National Archives in Washington, DC, and six Air Force reserve of-
ficers are going through every file removing names, locations and details of investigations. After the deletions are made, the public will again be allowed to see the files, but for what purpose? What good will they be?
Even before the recent move to destroy the usefulness of the Bluebook files, the Air Force was doing a good job of hiding its information. Naturally, while at Maxwell, I asked to see the newest cases first. These were the ones that had received the least publicity, because they had been over-shadowed by the Condon Committee's investigations. According to Air Force records, there was only one "unidentified" case in 1969, while there were four in 1968 and less than two dozen in 1967. In addition, there were nearly 40 reports of UFO photographs taken between the middle of 1967 and the end of Bluebook in 1969. But it was the "unidentifieds" that interested me; of those cases, the files showed that there had been some very bizarre happenings.
On Jan. 17, 1969, the last report to be classified as "unidentified" was made to Project Bluebook. There would be other reports, including several photographs but the January report from Crittenden, Virginia, would be the last UFO.
The witness, an employee of NASA, did not want his name connected with a UFO sighting, and, although I am not required to do so, I will respect his wishes by using the name John Kincaid. Kincaid claimed that he had been asleep since 10:30 p.m. that night, but that he had been awakened at 3:24 a.m. by an extremely loud hum. The sound fluctuated from very loud to a low buzzing, then
back to loud. Kincaid got up and walked to the window, staring out toward the sound, but saw nothing. After a few seconds, a lighted object appeared in the Southeast.
As Kincaid watched the UFO come slowly toward him, he saw that the bottom seemed to be elliptically shaped with blunt ends. The UFO was about 100 feet above the ground, about 30 feet wide and over 100 feet long. It moved slowly and came within 100 feet of Kincaid so he was able to get a very good look at it. He called to his wife, but she didn't hear him, apparently because the noise from the UFO smothered his words.
Around the bottom of the UFO, Kincaid could see a series of windows that were all brightly lighted except for one at the rear that blinked. It may have been blinking in time to the changes in the pitch but Kincaid couldn't be sure. The windows were rectangular and appeared translucent. They would allow the light out but Kincaid couldn't see in and each seemed to be surrounded by a glow or haze, further restricting his vision. Kincaid could see the center of the craft in that light and said that it was solid, apparently metallic, and reflected some of the light.
The UFO continued to drift across Kincaid's field of vision. It rocked gently as it moved, making it appear to move up and down slightly, but it never gained or lost much altitude. Finally, Kincaid said that it made a very gentle turn, tilting slightly and moving to the West. A few seconds later, the craft faded from sight.
Kincaid also reported that he felt a "tingling of his nerves" as the UFO flew by. He complained
39
=== **Page: 8 of 13**
that he had unusual mental im-pressions and felt a hypnotic re-laxation pass over him that calmed his fear. He was at a loss to explain any of the feelings.
When the UFO disappeared, Kincaid asked what he had seen. The hum was still audible. When Kincaid picked up the phone to call the operator, He asked the operator if she could hear it over the line, and she re-plied that she could. Kincaid, sur-prised, asked, "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I can hear it."
When the noise finally faded, he decided that he should report the sighting to the authorities and asked the operator to connect him with nearby Langley Field. He was routed to the local "Project Bluebook" officer who took the report and then told him how to file an "official" report. The of-ficer didn't stay on the phone too long and was obviously unim-pressed with the fact that the UFO had just been sighted. By 3:35, Kincaid was back in bed, the whole episode having lasted less than 15 minutes.
The next morning, on the way to work, Kincaid told the others in his car pool about the UFO. They listened politely but didn't seem to care about a UFO report. At work, he told some of his friends and they seemed more interested. One of them called the local paper and Kincaid was interviewed by a reporter.
Later that day, Kincaid tried to find the operator that he had talked to during the night. He failed at first, but kept trying. On Jan. 22, he was connected with the supervisor and was told that the operator could not have heard anything other than a plane. Kin-caid persisted, claiming that the operator had heard the strange hum and not the engines of a plane. The supervisor was equally insistent and refused to give Kin-caid the operator's name or let him talk to her.
On the afternoon of Jan. 17, Kincaid tried to find others who may have heard the sound or seen the craft, because he wanted some confirmation of the sight-ing. He located one woman who thought that her mother, Susan Johnson, may have heard the UFO. Mrs. Johnson and a three-year-old granddaughter had heard the sound and had both awakened, frightened. Mrs. Johnson didn't get up to look but said that the sound was so close that she thought that something was "coming through the roof."
Kincaid continued the search for other witnesses. In nearby E-clipse, Virginia, he found another woman who had heard the UFO. It had awakened her four-year-old daughter and had badly frightened her, to the extent that she didn't look out the window. She said that it sounded as if "it was going to land on top of us."
A few days later, he found a couple who had heard the strange, electrical hum. Kincaid interviewed them, and all decided that they had heard the same thing. Still later, he found yet another witness in a nearby town. Kincaid then filed a report with a private UFO research group be-fore trying to forget about the in-cident.
One point should be made about this sighting. Several de-bunkers have said that the wit-ness' activities after a sighting are very important. Anyone seeing what he or she thought to be an extraterrestrial spacecraft would be very excited about it. By find-ing out how the witnesses reacted hours after the sighting, we can gain a clue to the accuracy of the case. Kincaid was very excited. He had lain awake the rest of the night. He told his friends im-mediately, and he had tried to find others who had a similar ex-perience. His reactions were not those of a person playing a hoax.
The Air Force reactions, how-ever, were not impressive. Two months after Kincaid filed his re-port, the Air Force finally began its investigations. After such a long time lapse, the trail was cold. First, the investigators tried to find out if there had been any helicopters in the immediate area, but Langley Field showed no traf-fic of any kind. Next, they tried the civilian airport but were told that such records are kept only for 15 days and that they were 45 days too late. None of this bothered the Air Force men, who tried to con-vince Kincaid that he had seen a helicopter. The official Air Force record shows that Kincaid "was unreceptive to this line of reason-ing." When that failed, they tried to convince him that he had seen the Goodyear blimp or an aircraft taking night photographs of the area. However, all attempts to prove to Kincaid that he had not seen a UFO having failed, they fi-nally concluded that the case was "unidentified."
I finished reading the file with a sense of frustration. If the Air Force wasn't going to do anything with all the data it collected, why insist that it be kept in a place that was almost outside the reach of serious researchers? Why Max-well Air Force Base? How many knew the files were there? And how many could get to Maxwell to read them?
Moving down the list, I asked for the case from Newton, Geor-gia, dated Dec. 23, 1968. The lady at the archives took the request and returned a few minutes later asking if I was sure that I had the date right. We looked it up in the master index and found that I was right. The case was missing from the files—completely. No small reference card, no empty folder, just the mention in the index.
I then requested the files for several of the next "uniden-tifieds," hoping to find at least one. She returned with a stack of folders, and I opened the one on top. It was dated June 24, 1967, and was from Austin, Texas. Ap-parently the witness had had the same troubles as Kincaid, be-cause there was a blistering letter from him about the lousy investi-gation.
Ray Rosi had been driving near the north side of Mansfield Dam (in the area of Austin) and had stopped to let his dog out. It was about 3:12 a.m., when his atten-tion was drawn to a bright, elon-gated, solid-looking, blue object, just above the horizon. A minute before the UFO appeared, two men in a small red sportscar had driven by, slowing down near Rosi but then speeding on their way. He thought nothing of it until he saw the UFO.
The car pulled to the side of the road only 250 feet from him. "I wondered why they would be at such a place that time of night. They parked with lights tilted up the hill and flashed their beams several times (emphasis added by Rosi). It was a short time then, when the strange object ap-
40
=== **Page: 9 of 13**
peared on the northwest horizon. Occupants of red auto pulled over to the other side of the hill, and stopped the car again—out of my sight.
After seeing the apparent signal, Rosi took out his big spotlight and started flashing the "only code that I could think of that anyone might understand (mathematical: '3.14', pi)." He flashed it a few times, and the object "stopped dead still." The illumination faded for a second or two, and then brightened again, but the UFO continued to hover. Finally it started again, following the same path.
As the UFO continued, Rosi got out a pair of binoculars. Through them, he could see a blue, cigar-shaped UFO. When he flashed the light code again, the UFO slowed, the brightness faded, then brightened, and the UFO resumed its original speed. At 3:22 a.m., the UFO disappeared into a low cloud cover moving in from the south.
After the UFO disappeared and Rosi had collected his dog, he drove to the nearest phone to call the Air Force. They responded with the standard form and one officer, Lt. Robert Foreman. As he was completing the form and discussing the case with Foreman, Rosi mentioned that he had the feeling that he was being watched. He compared it to "a youngster doing something wrong in the backyard of a home who all of a sudden felt that he is being watched." He said that it was a feeling of communication "somewhat like mental telepathy, yet not strong enough because I have never experienced or received any message by brain wave."
Foreman completed his investigations, took the completed Air Force form, with its quagmire of questions and drawings and left. He submitted them to the project headquarters. Rosi, of course, had an interest in the case and later asked what was being done.
=== **Page: 10 of 13**
Finally, he received word of the decision on his sighting. It was stamped INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS.
Rosi was furious. He filled out another form to forward to the Air Force but added a lengthy comment to question 35, which asks for "Information which you feel pertinent, and which is not adequately covered in the specific points of the questionnaire or a narrative explanation of your sighting." Rosi wrote: "It is a real mystery to me why you state in your August 21 missive, 'The information which we received is not sufficient for a scientific evaluation,' in consideration of the fact that the very thorough report which Lt. Foreman took and supposedly submitted to you contained far more definitive information... than could be elicited via your questionnaire."
Rosi continued, adding that more information was available through Foreman's report than in the form that was being sent, but that their handling of the case "leads me to believe... that the accusations of negligence heaped upon you... by some independent investigations in recent years may not be entirely unfounded."
Rosi, like others, was caught wondering what was missing from his reports and those of Lt. Foreman. What data was needed so that a "scientific analysis" could be made, and why wasn't that point covered in the forms? It seemed that a great deal of time and effort was being expended to gather data that was later found to be lacking some important factor.
After reviewing Rosi's new forms, re-evaluating the Foreman report and doing more research into Rosi's background, the Air Force changed the status of the report. No longer was it "Insufficient" but "unidentified." Considering Rosi's rather technical background, his education and obvious sincerity, the Air Force had found itself in another of its famous holes.
Rosi's experiences, both with the UFO and with the Air Force, were interesting. His report was one of the best found in the files. And, it had received no public dissemination. No one outside the Air Force knew about it, and, if the Air Force had its way, no one ever would.
About two weeks after Rosi's experience, another southerner, living in Meridian, Mississippi, reported a UFO. The man, a retired military officer, reported that the object stalled his car. Now, after having seen two hidden reports outlining possible mental contact with UFO's, I found a case involving electromagnetic effects, and all were labeled "unidentified." While all this was going on, the Air Force would have us believe that nothing extraordinary was happening, or had happened.
Philip Lanning was driving south in Meridian, on the evening of July 10, 1967, when his car coasted to a stop and the radio faded. Lanning got out and started to look under the hood when an object of "excessive size passed forward of my position and perhaps 200-300 feet over my head." The object was moving silently except for the "rushing of an extreme wind." It was heading to the East and Lanning thought that it was about to crash into a clump of trees.
"Just before reaching the trees, it tilted upward, appeared to be moving to the immediate right and then accelerated rapidly at an angle almost straight up and disappeared into low flying clouds." Lanning thought the object was in sight for three to five seconds and one Air Force officer thought that was important. In his opinion, no one could have observed all that Lanning claimed he had seen in only five seconds. The officer overlooked the fact that most people are notoriously poor at estimating time, especially when excited.
The object, itself, was "like a cymbal on a drum set and was a dirty metallic grey in color on the underside." When it tilted upward, Lanning was able to see the top, which he said was colored "like the bluing of a good weapon." He saw no portholes or hatches, and could hear no sound. He was not sure how big it was but felt that "it could be compared with the length of a house."
Lanning wasn't sure who would be interested in the report but he felt that it should be sent to "someone in the U.S. Government."
| DATE & TIME GROUP | P.20 |
|---|---|
| 24 June 67 | 0530Z |
| 2. SOURCE | Civilian |
| 3. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 1 |
| 4. LOCATION | Scott AFB, Ill. |
| 10. CONCLUSION | Unidentified |
| 5. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION | 3-10 minutes |
| 6. TYPE OF OBSERVATION | Ground Visual |
| 7. COURSE | Southward |
| 8. PHOTOS | No |
| 9. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE | Yes |
| 11. BRIEF |
| Object was | seen over | base. Object | was metallic | and had | blue light. |
| 12. REMARKS |
| Object was | seen by | several | witnesses. |
| 13. DISPOSITION |
| Sent to | Project | Blue Book |
Handwritten text:
Received copy of report from Project Blue Book
14. Have you ever seen a similar object?
(a) Yes (b) No
15. Information which you feel pertinent and which is not adequately covered in the specific points of the questionnaire or a narrative explanation of your sighting.
Gentlemen: It is a real mystery to me why you state in your August 21 missive, "The information which we received is not sufficient for a scientific evaluation," in consideration of the fact that the very thorough report which Lt. Foreman took and supposedly submitted to you contained far more definitive information... than could be elicited via your questionnaire.
42
Continued on page 50
=== **Page: 11 of 13**
Copy for Hynek
PROJECT 7 RECORD
DATE: 21 August 1967
LOCATION: Scotch Plains, New Jersey
OBSERVER: 3 boys, ages 13, 14, 15
SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS:
Observed a cone shaped object circling and hovering. At one time during the observation the object could hover or make an oyster. The object could hover or make an oyster. The object made rapid speeds in any direction. One huge red light was noted at exact end. At close range, a row of windows were visible.
Efforts to determine the cause of the sighting were made. Contact with the FAA did not reveal any information helpful in the investigation.
CONCLUSION:
This has five witnesses, the report contains information for a meaningful evaluation. Weather data and witnesses were adolescents. Case could be classified aircraft, or possible balloon, or possible unknown.
Above: Author Kevin Randle reading some of the Bluebook files, while doing research at Maxwell Air Force Base in January, 1978.
Left: This report on a UFO sighting at Scotch Plains, N.J., concludes, "Investigation did not reveal any possible explanation."
Below: Kevin Randle offers these photostated reports as evidence of the accuracy of his article.
We have another characteristic thing here for publicity. Witness specifically requested that no corroborative evidence was found, be the whole thing.
Also, characteristic of this type of sighting is that the object "tilted upward, accelerated, and disappeared into the clouds" - all in a matter of a few seconds. In the scientific framework, of course, this is utterly impossible. We know of no way of accomplishing this, even of accomplishing it. Therefore, we either must admit ignorance, or in some cases admit "possible psychological", or I would prefer the latter in many cases since we have no evidence that this person was mentally disturbed. The tempting thing to do is to call it mass hallucination. This we recognize as simply another label for our own ignorance.
I would recommend that in a number of cases of this type, possibly even in this one, that the cooperation of the witness be obtained and a series of interviews and tests conducted, for scientific purposes and without any fanfare whatever. Whether such witnesses exhibit any psychological peculiarities can only be determined in the course of just a few interviews by a competent psychologist. It would be far preferable to take a few cases like this and work on them in depth, rather than to pay superficial attention to hundreds of cases. The latter procedure carries little or no scientific potential.
In summary, case should be carried as "unidentified".
J. Allen Hynek
ARGOSY UFO
=== **Page: 12 of 13**
BLUEBOOK
Continued from page 43
ment," so he forwarded it to a friend in Naval Intelligence. The Air Force received it and began an investigation. Once again, they were impressed with the background of the witness. Lanning, as a former military officer, had received a great deal of training and was, therefore, considered very important. That was not questioned.
Nearly a year later, a further outline of the sighting was made. One man noticed that some of the statements made by Lanning were "characteristic of this type of sighting." The object tilted upward and accelerated, disappearing into the clouds in a matter of seconds.
Sandwiched right between the Austin, Texas, sighting and the case from Meridian, Mississippi, was one from Scotch Plains, New Jersey. Air Force records don't contain too much information about the June 29, 1967, sighting. It was about 5:30 a.m., when Franklin Brown noticed the strangely lighted, cone-shaped object. He was driving along route 22 near Scotch Plains when the lights caught his attention.
For several minutes, he watched them doing aerobatics. It was a clear night, so Brown got a good look at the UFO. As it maneuvered, he could see that it was rounded at the bottom and that it tapered upward, giving it the cone shape. There seemed to be one huge, red light at each end and at close range there seemed to be a row of blue lights.
At one point in the sighting, Brown said that he saw an aircraft. Most investigators would assume that the plane could explain the sighting, except that Brown claimed that the UFO circled the plane several times. Brown saw the UFO hover and then dart away, changing direction instantly.
Brown finally stopped the truck and got out to watch the UFO, which he called to the attention of his passenger, Shirley Tucker. As they watched, the UFO descended, slowed, and began to follow a car. It was now traveling about 20 miles an hour and was quite close to the ground. It followed the car for about 500 feet before veering to the South and disappearing in a great burst of
50
=== **Page: 13 of 13**
speed.
The Air Force followed its stan- dard procedure in such cases- leaving it alone for several weeks. When the investigation was finally started, the witnesses could not be located. Brown, a truck driver, apparently did not live in the area and the Air Force base taking the report neglected to get his home address. They had the same luck with Tucker. The letters they sent her were returned unopened, and they could not find a phone number.
The original report made to Bluebook headquarters men- tioned that there were several corroborating witnesses. The driver of the car followed by the UFO was one. The pilot of the plane was another. And yet, at at- tempts by the Air Force to find these people failed. In the end, the Air Force investigators were forced to say, "Investigation did not reveal any possible explana- tion," and the sighting was listed as "unidentified".
In reading the case history, many researchers were impress- ed with the report, but were worried about the reliability of the witnesses since they couldn't be located. One man wrote that the case was "so bizarre and so suggestive of something strange that there should have been an immediate and comprehensive follow-up." The case can provide little insight into the UFO phenomena, but it does give good clues about the UFO project and the investigative technique employed.
For 22 years, the Air Force claimed that it was investigating UFOs; but in these, the last of the Bluebook "unidentifieds," I found that the investigation was in name only. Sightings were ig- nored, investigations were de- layed and witnesses were not found.
In the January, 1969, sighting, the man reported a low flying UFO, mental impressions from it, and listed a number of cor- roborating witnesses. The Air Force didn't care and delayed the investigation. In Austin, they at- tempted to put the man off by say- ing, "Insufficient data," and over- looking the other important ques- tions. They were unconcerned about the two men in the red
ARGOSY UFO
sportscar who flashed his lights at the UFO. In Meridian, a reliable observer had reported elec- tromagnetic effects, but nothing was done for weeks.
The last cases from Bluebook are revealing, because they cover ground that the Air Force refused to admit existed. Anyone claiming mental contact, however slight, or saying the UFO stalled the car, was labeled a crackpot. Such cases were labeled "uniden- tifieds" even before they were filed. That in itself may be sig- nificant.
These cases indicate a double standard. Tell the public that UFOs don't exist and that the people seeing them are crazy, but continue to gather data and hide it in the files. And, if the case is really bizarre, bury it so deep that it will never be found.
Today it appears that someone has realized that too much was left. What good will the Austin case be with the names removed,
the location gone and the inves- tigative data missing? In fact, the investigative data is a prime part of that report. By removing similar data from the Virginia case and the New Jersey report, the Air Force can ensure that no one finds out about the long delays before investigation. Instead, the public might wonder why witness- es couldn't be found or why Air Force investigators failed to find any corroboration. The move pro- tects the Air Force, overlooks the public's right to data gathered with public money and effectively ruins many cases. The files are becoming worthless. Fortunately, a few researchers were able to see the data, copy large parts of it and read the rest before the Air Force clamped down the lid. This may be the last chance to see the data before those officers finish butchering the files. A last chance to see an uncut version of the Last of Bluebook.
51
Collection
Citation
“7701 Argosy UFO Magazine - UFOs Under the Sea,” Archive Home, accessed July 30, 2026, https://pkman.org/archive/items/show/518.