LIFE BEYOND EARTH Perceptions

KEITH CONROYOne-On-One

January 2018 No. 597 $5.99

TOP TEN UFO CASES OF ALL TIME

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CONTENTS

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5 DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE Let the Flood Begin

6 UFO TRAFFIC REPORT Worldwide news on the latest eyewitness

testimony

12 PERCEPTIONS Life Beyond Earth

14 TOP TEN UFO CASES OF ALL TIME Will you ace the UFO Quiz?

20 ONE-ON-ONE Featuring Keith Conroy

22 MUFON MINUTES What’s happening

23 THE PHOENIX LIGHTS EXHIBIT Recognizing Arizona’s historical event

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COVER Colorization Artist – Matt Loughrey “I have been a photographer always and turned professional in early 2010. I discovered that I had a skill for patience and art combined and quite literally let photography alone, to concentrate on advanced colorization. Living in the West of Ireland I am quite disconnected physically, yet the power of connectivity through the Internet has been tremendous and enables me to remain here undertaking this work. Projects I’ve realized have been featured in National Geographic, and, a worldwide advertising campaign for Dell Computers. Colorization is a hugely rewarding experience, in that it invites a sense of self reflection and rejuvenates young minds especially.”

Copyright 2018 by Mutual UFO Network. All rights reserved.

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JAN C. HARZAN

JAN C. HARZAN can be found at: www.linkedin.com/in/jan-c-harzan-a400a64

DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

Let the Flood BeginJust last month President Trump signed the “Space Policy Directive 1”—a directive that orders NASA to start sending American astronauts back to the Moon and eventually Mars. I always thought that was where NASA was head-ed, but perhaps not based on the slow progress to date in making anything happen in this regard. I, for one, was beginning to wonder; perhaps President Trump and others in Congress were wondering as well. The White House press release went on to say, “The President…will change our nation’s human spaceflight policy to help America become the driving force for the space in-dustry, gain new knowledge from the cosmos, and spur incredible technology.”

Makes one wonder what “new knowledge” we will gain from the cosmos. Perhaps that we are not alone? Or what “incredible tech-nology” will suddenly appear. An interesting statement since for nearly eight years now the United States hasn’t been able to put a man in space. We have been using Russian tech-nology to do so.

Intelligent minds must wonder what is really going on behind the scenes, and this was one of the reasons for the theme of our 2017 MUFON Symposium, “The Case for a Secret Space Program.” Hopefully we’ll learn very soon as I was recently informed by a former NASA employee that President Obama, before he left office, signed a direc-tive authorizing six different groups to begin releasing information on extraterrestrial life and the fact that we are not alone in the uni-verse. From recent announcements, it is clear that at least one of those groups is the new TTS venture by Tom DeLonge. One would have to assume that NASA and JPL are two

other groups given this same directive. Who the other three are is a mystery to me. Per-haps someone reading this knows the answer to that question and can enlighten all of us. But does it really matter? The point is, we are going to begin seeing a flood of official noti-fications, on a rather frequent basis, that we are not alone in the universe. Something that MUFON has been saying for 50 years now. Oh, and that there is some nifty technology that is going to benefit us all. Get ready peo-ple of Earth. Hmmm, sounds very much like our mission statement: “The Scientific Study of UFOs for the Benefit of Humanity.”

As MUFONers, we stand with open arms welcoming our brothers and sisters from the establishment, whether that be our govern-ment, DOD, private industry, or the intel-ligence community, who wish to share the truth with us. We are more than ready for it, as is the rest of humanity. Welcome to 2018! l

Raphael Terra

6 | JANUARY 2018

ROGER MARSH, EDITORUFO TRAFFIC REPORT

Worldwide news on the latest eyewitness testimonyCases of interest are now pulled daily from the closed case files as an edited list of best cases. Witness testimony is

edited for clarity.

Triangle UFO dips low over Iowa witness

Witness site image shows type of clouds during

the sighting. (Credit: MUFON)

An Iowa witness at West Des Moines reported watching a black triangle-shaped object about 100 feet across and moving under 500 feet, according to testimony in Case 81617.

The witness was driving to his moth-er’s home at 8:30 p.m. on January 18,

2017, when the incident occurred.

“When I got very near my mom’s house, I saw a bright orange light over some condos,” the witness stated. “Maybe a couple thousand feet above it, there was a fainter yellow light. As I drove a bit more I had to stop in the middle of the street and watch.”

The object moved close to the wit-ness’s vehicle.

“It was moving very, very slowly and almost right towards my car. I was too in shock to get my camera. As it got closer, I noticed that there were also green and red lights on this thing. I figured it was a drone, but it kept getting bigger as it got closer.”

The witness described the object.

“It must have been 100 feet across, which is not a drone. It was triangular with a couple of pointed edges on the back. It made a faint humming noise as it passed, and I just watched it until I couldn’t see it anymore. My estima-tion for speed is about 40 mph.”

West Des Moines is a city in Polk, Dallas, and Warren counties, population 56,609.

Iowa MUFON Assistant State Direc-tor Beverly Trout investigated this case and closed it as an Unknown.

Alabama witness reports jet chasing cylinder object

Witness illustration. (Credit: MUFON)

An Alabama witness at Remlap reported watching a dark, cylin-der-shaped object being followed by a jet plane, according to testimony in Case 81858.

The witness and a daughter were driving along Route 79 north at 6:25 p.m. on February 1, 2017, when the incident occurred.

“All of a sudden, we saw two lights that were strobing across the sky, from east to west, right above the trees

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with a jet plane directly behind them in pursuit. It was so low that we were able to see the doors of the landing gear on the jet.”

These first few seconds of the sighting scared the daughter.

“She looked at me and said, ‘Please tell me we didn’t just see what I thought we just did!’ All I could do was con-firm with her what we had both seen. I was at my mother’s house within two minutes and called my husband immediately because my daughter and I have always been skeptics, but my husband has always been a believer.”

The woman’s husband told her and their daughter to draw what they saw immediately.

“So we sat in the car and we drew it out. We went into my mother’s house and told her what we saw, and my mother said she heard a roaring, rum-bling noise that vibrated the house. Like an engine was accelerated to the max. We are still in shock, not really believing what we saw. My husband told me about this website and wanted me to report this.”

Alabama MUFON Field Investigator Roger Moore investigated this case and closed it as an Unknown UAV.

“From the interview, witness stated the object appeared to be cylin-der-shaped with strobe lights and two rows of windows or lights one above the other,” Moore wrote in his report. “The daughter submitted a drawing or sketch of their encounter, which is attached.”

Moore contacted the witness by tele-phone and then made a site visit.

“The description she gave was very similar to her description of the event, with no ambiguity noted. She did indicate that some of her daughter’s friends had seen strange objects in the area previous to this sighting, and had been a source of conversation on Face-book. The object described does not correlate with the design of any man-made aircraft known to this investiga-

tor, and the fact that a military fighter aircraft was entailed rules out celestial, satellite, comets, meteor showers or any terrestrial aircraft.”

The weather at the sighting time was partly cloudy, wind from the southwest at 5 mph. The temperature was 64 degrees F, with clear visibility.

“Based on witness testimony, the object would be classified as an Un-known.

Remlap is an unincorporated commu-nity in Blount County, Alabama. The above quotes were edited for clarity.

NJ witness watches triangle craft cloak itself

Witness illustration. (Credit: MUFON)

A New Jersey witness at New Bruns-wick reported briefly watching a black, triangle-shaped object moving beneath the cloud coverage, according to testi-mony in Case 81648.

The witness was driving north on Route 1 at 7:10 a.m. on January 19, 2017, when the incident occurred.

“Approaching the Route 18N exit, I saw a large, black triangle looking craft descend below the clouds and imme-diately begin to disappear. I estimate that object to be between one-half to three-quarters of a mile away. The sighting lasted two seconds before it

simply faded away. The attached photo is an example of the type of clouds that were present when I observed the object.”

New Jersey MUFON State Section Director Robert Spearing investigated this case and closed it as an Unknown.

“The witness is the highest class of observer with 31 years military heli-copter pilot service in national guard,” Spearing wrote in his report. “Had a brief, but substantial sighting of an object black and triangular exit a cloud ceiling and then disappear before his eye as if cloaking itself. Based on his years of experience, object’s distance from him was one-quarter to one-half of a mile away and 4,000 feet in altitude, making it to his trained eyes about 300 feet head to tail, which is consistent with the large-sized, 300-foot craft frequently seen over New Jersey, lending added credence to his sighting. Individual even offered to help MUFON with helicopter flight logs when necessary. I conclude this is a strong sighting of a possible cloak-ing Aurora craft. See 1990s Popular Mechanics magazine article on Aurora cloaking capabilities.”

UFO reported from Florida launch site

Witness illustration. (Credit: MUFON)

A Florida witness at Titusville report-ed watching just a “glimpse” of an object speeding by while waiting for the launch of an Atlas V rocket, according to testimony in Case 81674.

The witness and her husband were in the viewing bleacher for the launch at 8:15 p.m. on January 19, 2017, which

8 | JANUARY 2018

was to carry a missile-detecting satel-lite, when the incident occurred.

“We were in a launch delay,” the witness stated. “I was standing in the bleachers and others were sitting. I was staring at the sky as I had heard that UFOs sometimes are around launches. I was looking towards the east and suddenly I saw an extremely bright, yellow/green light and it was wide, and it was close. It was horizontal to the ground, and it streaked by us. I yelled, ‘Look’ and people in the stands caught a glimpse.”

The witness believes there were other witnesses.

“It was so fast that many missed it, but some didn’t. The woman behind me who was sitting down and just caught a glimpse said it was a meteor. I said, no, there was something in it. Just before the yellow/green steak of light vanished, for a fleeting bit of a sec-ond, I saw part of something metallic. It had a seam, and a shape that was rounded. But the yellow/green light obscured all but a small part of the object. I know what I saw and there was definitely something in that light. The launch was scrubbed, by the way, due to a wayward aircraft in the flight path of the rocket, so we all got on the buses and left. But I was still filled with excitement as I believe that was a UFO. I checked the web and cannot find any record of a meteor on that night.”

Florida MUFON Field Investigator Scott Christopher Schaller investigat-ed this case and closed it as an Un-known.

“There is nothing to suggest the witness made any attempts to mislead or falsify any evidence or testimony,” Schaller wrote in his report. “It seems the witness is simply reporting what she saw. I have checked with the American Meteor Society database, but there was no reported activity on this date. But that doesn’t mean that a fireball wasn’t seen in the area. It just means no one reported it. It could be that the witness may have seen a very fast chase jet come by, but military

activity usually doesn’t show up on FlightRadar24. Based on the fact that I could not find another explanation, I closed this case with a disposition of Unknown - Other.”

Please remember that most UFO sightings are resolved as something natural or man-made. The above quotes were edited for clarity.

Disc-shaped object photographed low over Texas

Cropped and enlarged witness image. (Credit: MUFON)

A Texas witness at Sutherland Springs reported watching and photograph-ing a low-flying, disc-shaped object, according to testimony in Case 81691.

The witness was loading PVC pipe into the back of his pick-up parked at the diesel pump at the VP gas station and convenience store on Highway 87 at 1:49 p.m. on January 21, 2017, when the incident began. Texas MUFON Field Investigator Kenneth Jordan took the report directly from the witness.

“Witness was facing southeast when he first saw the object to the south-east,” Jordan stated. “Its silver reflec-tive color caught his attention (mid-day, bright sunlight). It was hovering approximately 450 feet southeast of witness’s position, about 300-400 feet off the ground, to the right, southeast of Highway 87.”

The witness had no idea what it could be, so he continued to watch it.

“He describes the object as a silver disc about 8 – 10 feet in diameter. Did not see any other markings or shapes (i.e., dome, lights, etc.) From its hovering

position it made an ‘erratic’ sudden move to the right (south) and then ascended somewhat, tilted, and began moving off toward the northeast, crossing Highway 87.”

The witness took out a cell phone and took four photos as the object flew off toward the north.

“Witness describes the motion of the object as it was flying off as an extend-ed arc, similar to skeet being launched on a gun range. Witness remained in his position behind his truck through-out the sighting. He did not hear, smell or sense anything else from the object. The sighting lasted approxi-mately 45 seconds from when it was first noticed until it flew out of sight. Witness states that later in the day, he felt some anxiety, but does not think this was related to this sighting.”

Jordan closed the case as an Unknown. Please keep in mind that most UFO reports can be resolved as something natural or man-made. The above quotes were edited for clarity.

Low-flying object emits loud engine noise

Duanesburg, New York. (Credit: Google)

A New York witness at Duanesburg reported hearing loud engine noises and seeing four bright lights under 20 feet off the ground, according to testimony in Case 82249.

The incident occurred beginning about 10:55 p.m. on January 31, 2017.

“We live in a rural area with a couple of acres of land and woods bordering the back yard,” the witness stated. “My fiancé and I were home in bed talking when we heard an unfamiliar

THE MUFON JOURNAL | 9

engine-like noise growing louder and louder as if on approach. The sound was not quite like a train, a plane, a helicopter, or ATV, but all crossed my mind because the noise varied in its characteristics, but always sounded like a motor.”

As the noise grew to a roar, the two wondered what the object was and moved to the window.

“Each of us saw four very large, bright, yellow lights - they were in a row, in the woods, about 120 feet from us. The lights were evenly spaced, spanning maybe 15 to 20 feet. I also think they were 10 to 20 feet off the ground.”

Then, the lights blinked off in se-quence from right to left.

“We both assumed the lights were mounted on some kind of vehicle or craft, but neither of us saw anything other than the lights. As we contem-plated what could possibly be out there in the woods (did a small plane come down? should we call someone?), the noise recurred, giving us another moment of pause before bright white or yellow lights rapidly flew by the bedroom windows about 20 feet away and 10 to 15 feet off the ground.”

The sound was heard only when the lights were lit.

“Each time, the sound preceded the lights and ceased when the lights disappeared. We only moved here in the past month and do not know our neighbors, so we have not asked if they heard/saw anything odd that night. I did have the opportunity to ask the nearby sheriff ’s office and the state police about it a few days later - both denied having had any calls/reports pertaining to the event. Interestingly, our two dogs, both always ready to bark, did not stir at all.”

New York MUFON investigators Ronnie Milione and Nicholas Voul-garis investigated this case and closed it as an Unknown. The above quotes were edited for clarity.

Iowa witness describes two ‘large ships’ [

Witness illustration. (Credit: MUFON)

An Iowa witness at Cedar Rapids reported watching “two large ships in the western sky,” according to testimo-ny in Case 81805.

The witness was visiting his 83-year-old mother at 8:15 p.m. on January 29, 2017, when the incident occurred.

“I went outside to the car and I looked toward the western sky and saw what looked like a very bright planet (white light),” the witness stated. “Skies tonight were crystal clear with moon-light. All planets visible as well. The light was so large I couldn’t help but look at it more.”

The witness described the object.

“I saw on the right side of this light, a flashing red, intermittent light. I thought at first it was an airplane. I continued to observe object for five minutes, but no apparent flight path to the naked eye. To the naked eye it was stationary. I was so shocked at this enormity of this light I ran inside to get my 10 x 50-power hunting binoc-ulars.”

The object was very large.

“By comparison, this white light was

maybe 10 times the size of any planet and 100 times as bright. I returned outside with binoculars and began to focus on the object. The light began to move farther east and north towards me. The object became crystal clear in the binoculars. This large light began to take wild paths directionally, up and down, left and right, and 90-degree turns. I was absolutely stunned to see this large light come from the direc-tion of an enormous ship, circular in shape, but with a more rounded bot-tom. This ship was easily 10 times the size of the large light. The ship was so clear in the binoculars I could see the bottom construction.”

The witness studied the object through the binoculars.

“I could see the lines of compartments uniform in nature. The large ship had no lights, but was a clearly visible sil-houette in moon/star light. Due to the angle in sky, I could not see the top of the large ship, but it appeared I could see 90 percent of the bottom except the western edge.”

The ship remained stationary.

“I viewed it for approximately five minutes before it completely dis-appeared. It was hard to tell, but it looked like two smaller, white lights came from the direction of the ship and joined the large light. The large light became stationary after bouncing in the sky. What amazed me was these lights came together and transformed themselves into a very large, multi-col-ored disk. The disk had a solid band of lights around it with very clear red, blue, green, white lights. The interior of the disk, what looked like the bot-tom of the disk, had very clear colored lights, not solid, but more polka dot pattern. I observed this phenomenon for 50 to 60 minutes and went back inside. I stuck my head outside 15 minutes later at approximately 9:15 p.m. Central time USA, and object had disappeared. Hard to tell distanc-es. To the naked eye the large light was clearly visible, but the ship was not. With binoculars everything was as clear as if someone took a photograph. My 83-year-old mother saw every-

10 | JANUARY 2018

thing through the binoculars and was a witness.”

Iowa MUFON Field Investigator David Kreiter investigated this case and closed it as an Unknown.

Pittsburgh witness describes fast moving disc

Pittsburgh’s Parkway North near the Camp Home exit. (Credit: Google)

A Pennsylvania witness at Pittsburgh reported watching a large, fast mov-ing, disc-shaped object, according to testimony in Case 82276.

The witness was driving home from work in Warrendale, and was heading back to the city of Pittsburgh, along the Parkway North at 9:05 p.m. on February 14, 2017.

“I was in between the Camp Horne exit and the Wexford exit when I saw the object in the sky,” the witness stated. “It was a clear night. Stars were visible, but there were some clouds. As I was driving, something big in the sky flew past me at a very fast speed. It seemed very big and round in shape and giving off a very bright yellow, orange and red color.”

At first, the witness thought it was a meteor because he had witnessed a meteor in the sky before.

“It did seem similar as far as the color of it. But after I compared the two I strongly do not believe it was a meteor because the object moved at a very fast speed under the cloud cover. The object was also silent. At the speed at which it moved, it did not make a sound and it did not give off a smoke trail or cloud trail that you would get from a falling meteor. The object did not give off any heat, as well, as

you would think would come from a meteor. The object seemed to be moving under some intelligent power. It amazed me.”

Pennsylvania MUFON State Section Director Sam Colisimo Jr. investigated this case and closed it as an Unknown. Witness quotes were edited for clarity.

Pennsylvania witness describes low flying triangle

Reference illustration. (Credit: MUFON)

A Pennsylvania witness at Dauphin reported watching a triangle-shaped object moving directly overhead, according to testimony in Case 82087.

The witness was at home at 10:35 p.m. on February 14, 2017, when the incident began.

“I heard a very loud jet, similar to a common commercial jet sound, except it was much louder,” the witness stat-ed. “I went out the back door onto the deck to take a look. At first, I couldn’t figure out where the sound was com-ing from.”

The witness turned around and scanned the sky behind him toward the east.

“I then saw what at first I took for a really huge jet, like maybe a military cargo jet, until I realized it couldn’t be, as it looked at first like it had two sets of wings stacked one on top of the other like a bi-plane. Once realizing this, I noticed the pulsing red light in the center of it, and two big orange lights that seemed too far behind it for it to be a plane.”

The witness then pointed out the object to his wife.

“She tells me to hurry and grab my binoculars, so I ran inside and grabbed them, which took about 10 seconds. I came out and the object was further away than I thought it should be, as if it was speeding up. I looked through the binoculars, and saw a very large square, or possibly a home plate-shaped object.”

The witness described the object.

“I perceived it to be fairly flat. There were several orange lights on it con-figured in a sort of arrow shape, and it had a red pulsing light in the center. The orange lights on it were illumi-nating the surface of the object, which was a light color. My thought was that the light configuration looked like a swept wing bomber jet from the 40s, and that it might be trying to look like a plane, except with the binoculars I could clearly see there was surface area to it, where there shouldn’t be if it was a plane.”

The witness could see that the object was clearly rectangular.

“The lights that would’ve been the ‘tail’ of the plane were too far back, and too wide for a plane as well. Those lights were actually on the rear cor-ners of the object. It travelled west to east in a straight line. As it got further away, it seemed to accelerate due to how fast it disappeared into the distance, as compared to the standard passenger jet flying by every so often.”

This is the second time this witness has seen this type of object in the last year-and-a-half.

“This time, it was a lot higher, differ-ent light configuration, and traveling much faster, but the flight path was the same. It is rare to see large jets fly-ing west to east in this area. I checked the website flightaware.com and there were no flights in the area except for a local commuter coming into our little airport. That plane was still quite away.”

Pennsylvania MUFON State Section Director Julie Weiss investigated this case and closed it as an Unknow.

“There is a small airport 15 miles

THE MUFON JOURNAL | 11

north of his location—Arcata-Eureka Airport (ACV). There is no evidence and no photographic evidence either to support the sighting other than wit-ness testimony. This witness actually saw a similar object a year-and-a-half ago and reported it to MUFON. See case 70115. The craft seen was in de-tail and it doesn’t resemble any known aircraft. Based on the description of the rectangular craft with orange lights in an arrow pattern with a red light in the bottom center, I am closing this case out as an unknown—UAV.”

Dauphin is a borough in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, population 791. The above quotes were edited for clarity.

Kentucky witness says glowing object landed

Greenup County, KY. (Credit: MUFON)

A Kentucky witness at Greenup County reported watching three glowing, green objects where two disappeared and one landed, according to testimony in Case 82204.

The witness was standing on a ridge off the industrial parkway in Greenup with a friend at 10:12 p.m. on Feb-ruary 19, 2017, when they noticed a noise that sounded similar to clapping and laughing.

“Right after that, within seconds, three similar-shaped objects suddenly appeared over a field a few hundred feet away,” the witness stated. “They all glowed an off-green color, but it dissipated kind of like heat would. We could not come to a logical explana-tion of what it was. One object landed, and two other objects hovered. One of the objects just vanished in no direc-tion – just disappeared, and shortly

after, the second did the same.”

The witness said that when the objects disappeared, it sounded like thunder or a bang.

“We watched the other object on the ground. We tried taking a picture, but the phone went straight to static and as soon as I unlocked my phone, the object took off directly, straight up, and it also sounded like a bang.”

The witness left immediately towards I-64.

“By the time we came to the Grayson exit, we had to pull over and have had severe nausea and a fever since. Then my friend went to the Kings Daugh-ters and I haven’t talked to her since then. Now as I’ve been typing this I’ve had diarrhea and a headache.”

Kentucky MUFON State Section Director John Powell investigated this case and closed it as an Unknown.

Greenup County as a population of 36,910. The witness quotes were edit-ed for clarity.

Virginia witness photographed V-shaped craft

Witness Photograph. (Credit: MUFON)

A Virginia witness at Stafford report-ed watching a glowing white object under 500 feet hovering above a school parking lot, according to testimony in Case 82365 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

The witness was outside behind his home about 9:35 p.m. on February 25, 2017.

“I noticed a bright white, lighted ob-ject hovering above the school parking lot or possibly further behind the

parking lot over scattered homes and a wooded area lot,” the witness stated. “The object appeared about 1,250 yards away.”

The witness stood on the deck and took a photo with a cell camera.

“The light was silent and made no sound. It was there longer than 40 minutes. I thought maybe it was a helicopter or plane coming toward me, giving the illusion of a stationary light, but it just stayed hovering for a long time, no change is size or dimension.”

The witness reviewed his photos.

“When you enlarge the photo, you can see a bright V-shape uncharac-teristic of an airplane or helicopter. Only other thing it could have been is a stealth fighter with that V-shape, but the V is the entire frontal length of the aircraft and a stealth doesn’t have a long V like that. If you enlarge the picture, the V appears to be the propulsion system with a Saturn-like ring around the object’s middle with a dome-like top. And what appears to be an energy field or forcefield around the craft, possibly a potential cloak-ing device. After careful review of the photograph, I am convinced what I witnessed that night was either a U.S. government project and that’s okay, or a true alien space craft.”

Virginia MUFON Field Investigator Noman Gagnon investigated this case and closed it as an Unknown.

“It is my belief that what the witness saw and captured with his Sam-sung-SM-N910A camera was an unidentified object, however, as to his evaluation of what he determines to be a V-shaped craft along with other related details is speculative,” Gagnon wrote in his report. “As you zoom in on this bright object, there are lens reflection artifacts within blurry pixels; similar artifacts were also seen when you zoom in at the street light below.”

The above quotes were edited for clar-ity. Remember that most UFO reports are found to be something natural or man-made. l

12 | JANUARY 2018

PERCEPTIONSSTANTON FRIEDMAN

Two months ago, I wrote about a special Issue of Scientific American dealing with life in the universe. I was surprised a week ago to receive a note about a special edition of Newsweek entitled “Life Beyond Earth? The Mission to Find the Answer.”

In small print on the cover of this 99-page volume were these notes: “Exploring the Universe with Re-searchers, Astronomers, Eyewitnesses and More,” and there was a globe accented in green. It is visually strik-ing, with full page pictures of Kenneth Arnold, a huge field with large crop circles, a two-page spread of Walter Haut next to his automobile display-ing his license plate “MR UFO”; a full-page overhead view of Area 51, a two-page photo of the Mars Rov-er Sojourner (on Mars), a two-page photo of Paul Hellyer, former Canadi-an Defense Minister who has spoken out loudly pro-UFO, a large picture of Betty and Barney Hill, a two-page spread of Paul Trent’s 1950 McMin-nville, Oregon, UFO photo; a two-page spread of the Roswell Museum’s simulated alien autopsy. There are also photos of ufologists such as Dr. David Jacobs, Yvonne Smith, Nick Pope, Travis Walton, Alejandro Rojas, John Greenewald Jr., the late Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Raymond Fowler, Dr. James Harder (though not identified). There are photos from many UFO movies such as Close Encounters, posters from Independence Day, Mars Attacks and others.

The Newsweek special edition is visu-ally exciting and impressive. There is a two-page spread of the front-page headline “General Ramey Empties Roswell Saucer” of July 9, 1947, but not any of the many headlines from major newspapers from the day before: For example, “Air Force Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region.” After all, the Chicago Daily News, Sacramento Bee, Los Angeles Herald Express, etc. have much more status than the Roswell Daily Record.

There are many visuals, but not enough text to suit me and not enough references to written material. Two books are noted: Leslie Kean’s excel-lent UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Gov-ernment Officials Go on the Record and The Day After Roswell by Philip Corso and William Birnes. Unfortunate-ly, it is claimed that Corso was part of President Eisenhower’s National Security Council. Fact is the Eisen-hower Library told me that Corso was not a member of the NSC and never attended an NSC meeting. Others have shown there was also no basis for his claims of having introduced “new” (i.e., alien) technology into industry.

I am pleased with the general tone from a mainline publication. No cheap shots at UFO believers. I think that the picture of Walter Haut should have had text indicating Walter died in 2005. There should have been mention that the commander of the Roswell Army Air Field in 1947 at the time of the Roswell Incident was Colonel

William Blanchard (1916-1966), who by the time of his sudden death of a heart attack had become a four-star general and was Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. Obviously he had been held in very high regard. There was no mention of USAF Major Jesse Marcel (1907-1986), the intelli-gence officer for the 509th Bomb Group at Roswell, who was the first officer I spoke to about Roswell. The 509th was unique as the only military group in the world at that time with access to nucle-ar weapons. There is no mention of the Bolender memo, stating that UFO re-ports that could affect national security are not part of the Blue Book system. I was also surprised at the lack of refer-ence to large-scale scientific studies. No mention of my favorite: “Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14,” which has data on 3201 UFO sightings and many tables, charts and graphs. Surely it is significant that 21.5% of the cases evaluated for the Air Force could not be identified and were completely separate from the 9.3% of the cases listed as “In-sufficient Information.” The better the quality of the sighting the more likely it was listed as UNKNOWN. There is no mention of the University of Colorado Study of UFOs (the Condon Report). Thirty percent of the cases they inves-tigated could not be identified. The reader would not know that. Testimony from 12 scientists was presented to Congressional hearings on UFOs way back in July of 1968. Admittedly, I am the only one of the 12 who is still alive.

Life Beyond Earth

THE MUFON JOURNAL | 13

STANTON T. FRIEDMAN can be reached at: fsphys@bellaliant.net or stantonfriedman.com

As a nuclear physicist who worked on many far out nuclear and space systems, I would certainly like to have at least a glimpse of work that has been highly-classified and not covered by the press. After all, three different large organizations successful oper-ated powerful nuclear rocket engines on the ground before 1970. I find most people are quite surprised by the Los Alamos Phoebus reactor, which had operated at a power level of 4000 megawatts with an exhaust tempera-ture above 4000 degrees Fahrenheit…not far from Area 51, which is shown. Hoover Dam only produces 2000 megawatts. There is no discussion of government cover-up of UFO doc-uments, such as the 156 TOP SE-CRET UMBRA NSA UFO docu-ments on which one can view only one sentence per page. Everything else is whited out. No mention is made of the more than 700 secret or higher CIA UFO documents, which are heavily redacted and available.

There is coverage given to Dr. Ste-phen Hawking’s comments about not replying should a radio signal be received from another civilization. This is kind of silly since we now know that there are about 1.6 planets per star or many billions of planets in the Milky Way. It wasn’t too long ago that Dr. Frank Drake of the SETI Institute was talking of perhaps 6000 planets. Strangely, Dr. Dhara Patel, an astronomer for the Royal Observatory Greenwich, spoke of there being an exoplanet around Proxima Centauri, a star only 4.2 light years away. “If we’re talking about current technology. . .it would take 70,000 years to get there.” Pretty silly to limit our thinking to current technology. Are airplanes limited to the speed achieved by the Wright brothers?

Or ships like Magellan’s, which took 3 years to circumnavigate the globe?

The space station does it in 90 min-utes. The finishing comment in this chapter, “Still Searching,” starts with a question: “Why haven’t we discovered Life beyond our planet?” It ends with: ”But until our technology develops to the point where we can explore space on far shorter timescales, the chance of finding intelligent life is very much in the alien ball court.” As I keep shout-ing to whomever will listen, “They have already found us and govern-ments know it.“ We seem to forget that rule one here is shoot first and ask questions later. With so many planets out there, why come visit (rather than quarantine) this planet with its primi-tive warring societies that are anything but friendly? The official instruction to USAF pilots in the 1950s was ”If they don’t land when instructed to do so, shoot them down.” I am pleased that Ann Druyan (Carl Sagan’s widow) is quoted in the chapter “Unwel-come Visitors” (p. 37): “It puzzles me that we always imagine the punitive extraterrestrials to be technically so far ahead of us, and yet every bit as stunted, emotionally and spiritually as we are at this moment.”

Here is another strange quote (p. 20): “Simple physics, scientists say, makes intergalactic travel close to impossi-ble.” Let’s face it, why be concerned at all with intergalactic as opposed to intragalactic travel? Two hundred bil-lion stars in the Milky Way should be plenty, especially since many of them have neighboring stars less than a light year away and are not out in the galac-tic boondocks the way we are. I recall the claim made by Simon Newcomb, a top American astronomer, in October 1903 that he was sure no one would ever fly any distance in a vehicle (may-be a balloon). This was two months prior to the Wright Brothers flight at Kitty Hawk!

I would certainly say that star travel

is not a result of ”simple physics,” nor is a nuclear reactor. I was pleased to note a reference to a 2007 paper about which I had never heard: “Unidentified Flying Objects in Classical Antiquity,” by Richard Stothers, published in The Classical Journal, volume 103, pages 79-92. I have often referred people to Dr. Barry Downing’s book Flying Saucers and the Bible, and will try to find the Stothers paper.

There is a chapter—“Alien Home-world”—with a subtitle “Why Sci-entists are taking a serious look at an Earth-like planet in our galactic back-yard” (p. 61). They refer to the work of Dr. Jason Dittmann from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophys-ics in Cambridge. It is exoplanet LHS11408, orbiting a faint red dwarf star only 39 light years away (coinci-dentally, that is the distance to Zeta Reticulum). Dittmann is quoted as saying, ”This is the most exciting exo-planet I’ve seen in the past decade. We could hardly hope for a better target to perform one of the biggest quests in science—searching for evidence of life beyond Earth.” Funny, astrono-mer Jill Tarter made a similar claim about her astronomical work with the SETI Institute. It is truly amazing that we so often find statements about the importance of searching for ET life out there, but these same zealots want to avoid dealing with the ton of evidence clearly indicating that aliens have been visiting Earth, being observed on radar, producing physical traces, abducting earthlings, etc. On page 63, Andrew Norton, professor of Astrophysics Education at the Open University, said, “ It is exciting but there have been so many of these now that are interesting for one reason or another. Until we do find an Earth-mass, Earth-sized planet in an Earth-like orbit around a Sun-like star that’s when I think the real excitement will come.” l

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Imagine a future where the UFO phenomenon is common knowledge and as widely stud-ied and researched as the historical landscapes of past wars and present politics. Courses are offered and even degrees earned at universities on this burgeoning topic of science. Middle schoolers are taught the fundamentals of extra-planetary life as well as their methods of travel. Most importantly, they are forced to cram for tests—trying hard to remember dates, places, and names of some of the most important UFO events throughout history. That’s where we come in. We are the historians of tomorrow. This is important work—not only determining the possible unearthly origins of lights in the sky, but recording these historical events, studying them, keep-ing these stories alive, and continuing to look for evidence, because, someday, someone’s great-great-granddaughter will have to dress up like you in class and present her report on “The Great Incident of 2027.”

Several MUFON ufologists put their heads together to come up with the top 10 most import-ant UFO cases of all time. There are so many more incidents that are truly historical, so if your favorite case is missing, hang on until the end to see if you get extra credit.

1. What event, witnessed by thou-sands, resulted in the firing of over 1,400 12.8-pound anti-aircraft artil-lery shells at a UFO by the military on U.S. soil?

2. What is perhaps the most famous UFO case that allegedly provided physical proof, including a craft or parts thereof, bodies, and documenta-tion such as photos, films, and eyewit-ness accounts that have been seques-tered by the government?

3. What type of plane was followed by a UFO for about an hour and a half, covering over 700 miles, seen vi-sually by the crew, with both on-board detection by electronic countermeasure gear (ECM) and ground radar?

4. What was one of the first abduc-tion cases that not only provided phys-ical evidence, but gave some of the first examples of experiencers having lost time, being aboard a ship, undergoing medical examinations, and describing the beings as gray and hairless with large eyes?

5. What is considered the most im-portant landing trace case ever record-ed, involving a police officer witness, and was investigated by Project Blue Book?

6. What UFO incident became the first case officially recognized by a state government as historically true, and later, the location became a public park dedicated to the incident?

7. What was the only case that involved a report to law enforcement

while the abductee was still missing? The story became a major motion picture?

8. What was the location of a multi-day UFO incident that occurred near a military base and resulted in prolonged physical health damages to the mili-tary witnesses and the continued con-cealment of information by involved governments?

9. What case involved two wom-en and a young boy suffering from radiation burns and the appearance of military helicopters during the event?

10. What event is considered the most documented mass sighting, wit-nessed by thousands of people, many of whom took pictures and videos of it from different locations, and was later featured on the national news?

TOP 10 UFO CASES OF ALL TIME

Do You Know the Top 10 UFO Cases? Take the QUIZ!

THE MUFON JOURNAL | 15

Written and compiled by MUFON SAT Correspondent Kerry McClure

TOP 10 UFO CASES OF ALL TIME

1. The Battle of Los AngelesOn February 24, 1942, reports of an unknown aircraft hovering slowly over southern California, just months after Pearl Harbor, caused the military to prepare their ammu-nition for an imminent invasion. The object, as reported by thousands, was not a commercial or private aircraft and like nothing known from either the U.S. or Japanese forces. Later, the military claimed it to be a weather balloon—yet witnesses said it was large, circular and silently moved like nothing they had ever seen, not to mention that it was able to withstand an hour and a half of constant artillery barrage without harm.

Doug Wilson, MUFON SAT Investigator, weighed in on why the Battle of Los Angeles is significant: “It is the only case with major military involvement and, potentially, hun-dreds of civilian witnesses that the military and government have not totally disclaimed; and the photograph that appeared in the Los Angeles Times has become one of the most readily recognized photographs in UFO history. Add to that the fact that several documents in the FBI database reference the event, including one in which Hoover complains that the Army had refused to give him access to the object shot down ‘in L.A.’ sug-gests to me that the Battle of Los Angeles may well have resulted in our first crash retrieval. A city full of witnesses, a massive military action, photographic evidence, and numerous official documents to support a strong case? Only the Battle of Los Angeles has it all.”

2. Roswell

Perhaps one of the most infamous UFO cases, familiar to even the most uninterested person on the street, it may have been the initial spark for many a ufologist. On July 8, 1947, the U.S. military collected debris from a crash site in Roswell, New Mexico. Initial reports stated, “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region,” but the official storyline quickly changed to the object being a “weather balloon.” Thus began the public’s distrust of this official explanation and the multiple theories of what really happened. To this day, after the 70th anniversary of the inci-dent, we still don’t really know what was collected—bodies transported to Wright-Patterson? High technology? A weather balloon? Roswell has grown up around this story-that-doesn’t-die and continues to hold an annual festival celebrating its unusual past.

Hopefully, we will soon learn the truth of what was discov-ered there so many years ago. Bob Spearing, MUFON SAT Co-Lead Investigator, tells us why the Roswell mystery is so important to our history. “If Roswell is true, then more pro-found than the alien technology we may have back engineered is the revelation that we are not the only living creatures in the universe.”

And Now for the ANSWER KEY

Roswell, Roswell Daily Record, July 8, 1947.

Battle of Los Angeles, L.A. Times, February 26,1942.

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3. The RB-47 of the RB-47 UFO EncounterThe pilot and crew of an RB-47 aircraft were shocked at what they witnessed in the early morning hours of July 17, 1957, above Mississippi. The RB-47 first detected some-thing unusual with its ECM equipment, then crewmem-bers visually observed a bright blue light that was aimed at the plane. The object maneuvered in ways not consistent with known aircraft. Then, the pilot saw another large light and, when detected again by the ECM, the military plane accelerated towards it and it shot off. At this time, the Duncanville, Texas, Air Force ground radar station was tracking the UFO, showing it stopping abruptly with the RB-47 passing underneath it.

Nuclear physicist, lecturer, and author Stanton Friedman, when asked to contribute his expert opinion on why he thinks this is one of the most important cases, explained, “I believe that the July 17, 1957, RB-47 Case is extraordinary because there were six highly trained crew members, the investi-gation was done by Dr. James E. McDonald - whom I consider the top ufologist of all – who spoke with all six, the long dura-tion of about 90 minutes, and it involved ground and air radar observations. Truly an outstanding case.”

4. The Betty and Barney Hill Abduction Niece of Betty Hill, Kathleen Marden, being so close to the case, describes it best: “On the night of September 19, 1961, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, couple Betty and Barney Hill had a close encounter with a silent, erratic, hovering, unconvention-al craft in New Hampshire’s White Mountain region. Twen-ty-seven months later, under separate hypnosis, with a highly reputable psychiatrist from Boston, MA, they recalled all of the details of their entire trip, plus memories that they had forgotten of an apparent abduction by the non-human entities. The Hills had conscious recall of observing an unconventional craft at less

than 200 feet above their vehicle. Six days later, Barney report-ed observing ‘figures dressed in some type of shiny black uniform’ (and) that the figures he observed through the craft’s windows were ‘somehow not human.’ The Boston newspaper reporter who, in 1965, carried their story to the public, interviewed ‘12-14 different people from different communities surrounding Franconia Notch, New Hampshire, none of whom knew one another, but all of whom remembered experiencing the same sighting at the same time the Hills did in the same location.’”

Marden, who co-authored Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience with Stanton Friedman, described several reasons why. “It is one of the most important and well documented UFO cases in history,” including that: “The Hills reported their incident to Project Blue Book. Among their statements was: ‘Mrs. Hill reported the flight pattern of the object to be erratic: it changed directions rapidly…it ascended and descended numerous times very rapidly.’ There is substantial evidence of a U.S. Air Force cover-up. There was compelling physical and circumstantial evidence. (Torn dress, pink pow-der on torn dress, Barney’s deeply scuffed shoes, watches stopped and never ran again, magnetized shiny spots on car in location where Hills heard a series of buzzing sounds, as craft hovered overhead, missing time that could not be accounted for, severed binocular strap.) Many of the scientists who investigated their case concluded that it had occurred.”

RB-47, USAF photo circa 1960.

Betty and Barney Hill.

THE MUFON JOURNAL | 17

5. The Lonnie Zamora Incident

Sketch by Lonnie Zamorra.

In the late afternoon of April 24, 1964, down a gravel road in Socorro, New Mexico, Sargeant Lonnie Zamorra was investigating what he initially thought was an overturned car with children running around it, but which turned out to be something completely unexplainable. He reported that he saw an elongated, oval-shaped object with legs and some kind of symbol on it. A bluish flame shot out of it, a whirring noise was heard, the legs disappeared and the object shot up about 20 feet, became silent and slowly moved away, parallel to the ground. It left trace evidence such as burned brush, impressions where the legs rested in the sandy soil, and … footprints.

Chase Kloetzke, MUFON SAT Co-Lead Investigator, analyzed why this is an extremely important example to include in our top ten list. “The UFO incident that occurred in Socorro, New Mexico, continues to offer evidence of extrater-restrial visitation. With strong witness testimony and confirma-tion of the military and government efforts to conceal not only their interest in UFO reports, but their investigation details. It was considered the ‘best documented case on record,’ according to a 1966 classified article for ‘Studies in Intelligence,’ by Blue Book chief, Hector Quintanilla. The Air Force team of inves-tigators was on the scene in less than an hour and documented and collected evidence of the reported event by a police officer and trained observer. Physical evidence was analyzed by the top sci-entists in NASA and UFO investigator Ray Stanford. Recently discovered documents released by James Fox further documented confirmation and first-hand investigator notes of the scene by Colonel Richard Holder that outlined measurements and graphs of the landing, and also the ‘footprints’ in the sand. There is little to no room for speculation in this case, as it remains one of the best UNKNOWNs.”

6. The Reed Family UFO CaseThe Reed family had experienced several unexplainable incidents leading up to the most notable one in 1969 in Sheffield, Massachusetts. The grandmother, the moth-er, Nancy, and her two boys were driving home, when an extremely large craft the size of a “strip mall” with red and white lights shooting out from underneath an encircling row of windows appeared. They recalled being inside the ship, in different areas, and being examined by ant-like beings. Next thing they knew, they regained consciousness inside their car, with the mother in a different seat and the grandmother in a daze outside the car. Many people, some from several towns over, confirmed seeing the mysterious craft in the sky and the local radio station even reported it.

Thom Reed, who was one of the two boys and a witness to this event, as well as many others, explains why this is such a pivotal case. “The Reed UFO incident is our country’s first and only encounter to be officially” recognized by a state government as historically true. “The UFO site marker/monument unveiled in 2015 was also met with favorable live coverage by ABC News. I’m proud to have contributed to and furthered mainstream acceptance.”

7. The Travis Walton UFO IncidentWhile working with a logging crew in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest near Snowflake, Arizona, on November 5, 1975, Travis Walton witnessed a hovering, reflective, saucer-shaped object along with six of his co-workers. A high-pitched buzz was heard and a bluish light shot out from the craft. The other men drove away in a panic, one of whom reported looking back and seeing the craft rise and take off at a high speed. Walton remembered little from the time he was missing, but did recall being on a ship and encountering several alien entities and medical examinations. During the time he was missing, his crew was questioned; however, there was no trace of Walton or

The Reed Family Case, Thom Reed UFO Monument Park, Photo courtesy of Thom Reed.

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evidence of a “ship.” Five days later, he turned up on the side of the road, confused and frightened.

Travis Walton, himself, contributed why he believes his case is important to the field of ufology. “My case is the only one reported to law enforcement while the person was still missing. But mostly having six witnesses passing polygraphs is unique in recorded ufology.”

8. The Rendlesham Forest Incident

“I am not saying I know what the phenomenon was that we encountered. Only that it was,” John Burroughs, an eyewit-ness to both nights of UFO activity in Rendlesham Forest, recalls of the 1980 event that still is shrouded in mystery. This event, sometimes referred to as “Britain’s Roswell,” occurred in the forest outside of RAF Woodbridge, near Suffolk, England, which was being used by U.S. Air Force personnel at that time. The incident consisted of mainly two significant sightings, the first of which occurred at 3 a.m. on December 26, 1980, when a security guard report-ed strange lights originating in the nearby woods. When several servicemen went to investigate, they were shocked to see a triangular, metallic, glowing object, about three meters by three meters, which emitted colored lights, then quickly traveled through the trees when they approached it. Two days later, on December 28, deputy base commander Lt. Col. Charles Halt and several servicemen went to inves-tigate the site and had another encounter. As they were in the forest, Halt recorded on audiotape his observations.

The men witnessed a small glowing red orb that exploded; then the previous craft appeared again. Stories told by each man vary and the facts become muddled at this point.

Clues point to military involvement and cover-up, as well as the spread of disinformation involving the incident. However, John Burroughs discovered reference to the event in the Project Condign papers, and the government’s ad-mission of its validity: “That Unidentified Aerial Phenomena exist is indisputable. Credited with the ability to hover, land, take-off, accelerate to exceptional velocities and vanish, they can reportedly alter their direction of flight suddenly and clearly can exhibit aerodynamic characteristics well beyond those of any known aircraft or missile -- either manned or unmanned.” Also, Burroughs added that Britain’s Ministry of Defence admitted in a paper that the “phenomenon presents itself as having exceptional capabilities, which they label as ‘Anti Physi-cal’ effects…(and) ‘Physiological Effects,’ which effects observed/reported at Rendlesham lead one to conclude that the author did to a degree, consider the actual phenomenon in the crafting of the Memorandum.”

The importance of this event contributing to the legitimacy of ufology also includes the physical proof of the ill-health effects caused by a specific type of radiation. Burroughs adds, “I have to consider something that would eventually re-quire me to have open-heart surgery to replace a badly shredded anterior mitral valve to be significant, defense or otherwise. It does not matter where the hell it came from, whether it’s a black budget project or another civilization, if the phenomenon leaves that kind of evidence behind it and performs in that manner, it is of considerable defense interest.”

9. The Cash-Landrum Incident On the evening of December 29, 1980, Betty Cash, Vick-ie Landrum, and her 7-year-old grandson, Colby, were driving home when they, as well as several others, saw a bright light in the sky. They became instantly surprised when they observed that the light was emitting from a diamond-shaped, hovering, blue object that was expelling flames and significant heat, so much so that it caused the metal of the car to be too hot to touch and rendered the interior vinyl so soft they were able to leave a hand imprint in it. In addition, the women suffered from blistering sores and symptoms of radiation poisoning. Shortly afterwards, they witnessed the sudden appearance of 23 military-type CH-47 Chinook helicopters in the area, helicopters that were observed independently by others as well. Some time later, a National Guard CH-47 pilot based in Houston was tabbed as possibly being one of the helicopter pilots escort-ing the diamond-shaped UFO on the night in question, but his involvement was never proven.

The Travis Walton UFO Incident

THE MUFON JOURNAL | 19

The incredible amount of physical evidence as well as apparent military involvement makes this a highly mo-mentous event. When Vickie Landrum contacted NASA, looking for help and answers, she was directed to aerospace engineer John Schuessler, a founding member of MUFON, who investigated this case and wrote in-depth on the event. Schuessler probably put it best in summarizing why this case is so important when he described Landrum’s reasons for wanting to go public. “She wants to be sure that help is available for future victims, without fear of ridicule or censor-ship. Especially important is the attitude of medical people and their preparation for treatment of UFO induced injuries.”

10. The Phoenix LightsThe most recent of our Top 10 List is, of course, the boo-merang-shaped array of silent, slowly moving lights that thousands witnessed on the night of March 13, 1997, trav-eling over 300 miles from the Nevada state line, through Phoenix, to Tucson. Hundreds of photos and videos were shot from different angles and witnesses described the object as a craft that blocked out the stars above it. Among the many witnesses was then-Governor Fife Symington, who admitted years later to seeing something “otherworldly” that night. Russel Azbill, Arizona MUFON FI, personally witnessed the phenomenon, as well. “I live in Scottsdale. Sometime around 7:30 to 8 p.m., I was outside with my dog. To the northeast of me I noticed there were five strange lights.

To me they looked like blimps that were lit up and initially that is what I thought they were. I could tell they were several miles away from me. I stared at them for about 10 to 15 minutes before going back inside. Somewhere around 10 to 10:30 p.m., I was back outside with my dog and noticed the lights had moved to the southwest of me. This is the location most people noticed. Again, I stared at them as I tried to figure out why so many blimps were together. That is when I first wondered if I might be looking at UFOs. I watched them a while longer and then went inside. The next day, the local news was filled with cover-age of the strange lights.”

Arizona MUFON Section Director David Loomis agrees that this event is highly notable. “I can tell you why the Phoenix Lights is a very important case. The first thing is many people saw this object in the sky and could not identify it as a normal thing to see in the sky. It was large and flew through the sky without making a sound. It flew from the northern part of the state to the lower part of Arizona. This is a long way to travel. And the last thing is that it has not been explained. It is still considered to be a true UFO.” The Phoenix Lights are currently featured in an exhibit that Arizona MUFON built at the Arizona Historical Society Museum, with con-tributions by Arizona State Director Jim Mann and Assis-tant State Director Stacey Wright.

EXTRA CREDITSo, you aced your UFO quiz! You know these cases back-wards and forwards, as you should. For extra credit, you should research the following cases that have been chosen as honorable mentions and have had significant impacts on the world of ufology: the 2000 Illinois UFO sight-ing; the Belgian UFO flap; Rogue River, Oregon, 1949; Nash-Fortenberry pilot sighting; Department of Vendee, France, 1954 cloud cigar; Levelland, Texas, 1957; Father Gill, Papua, New Guinea; Ravenna, Ohio, 1966 UFO chase; Delphos, Kansas, CEII; 1973 Mansfield, Ohio, he-licopter encounter; Trans-en-Provence, France, CEII; and Malstrom AFB Montana, “UFOs and Nukes.” And keep up the great work, historians of the future. Your work will be studied and validated—someday. l

Cover Art for Cash-Landrum Incident, Book by John F. Schuessler.

The Phoenix Lights, Fox News 10 Phoenix.

20| JANUARY 2018

ONE-ON-ONEMARIE CISNEROS

JOURNAL: How long have you been with MUFON?

KEITH: About five years altogether. I was SSD from 1993 to 1996 and I set up my own MUFON FI - SSD web-site, established a rapport with local police and airports, promoted myself as a MUFON investigator on local media, and trained FIs in my home. I was interviewed on several Syracuse and Utica TV and radio stations in-cluding one radio station that claimed to have a crop formation outside their studio. DUH! My ham radio friend and I hosted a weekly MUFON amateur radio “on the air” meeting, or “net” as we call it, where we’d talk with other radio amateurs (hams) about UFO-related topics and I would give my “Section Director’s Minute,” which was a monologue about things related to investigations. After a 20-year hiatus, I rejoined MUFON in May of 2016 as a Field Investigator Trainee, and then was appointed Chief Investigator, taking over from retiring Nick Voulgaris. I’m also working with a very enthusiastic MUFON mem-ber, Linda Moore, who organizes and hosts monthly MUFON meetings in Syracuse during the summer.

JOURNAL: Glad you are back with us at MUFON! What first brought you to the organization?

KEITH: Back in ’93, I had no idea there was an organization investigating UFOs until a fellow ham radio friend, MUFON FI Jim Cormia, told me about it and I joined and became an FI. I had never thought about UFOs until then, although I’ve always had a strong interest in various aspects of fringe science, such as parapsychol-ogy, ghosts, spiritualism, hypnosis, Egyptology, reincarnation, psychoki-nesis, Atlantis, ESP, etc. I’m currently following studies of young children who recall previous lives. I jumped at the opportunity to be “boots on the ground,” investigating these fascinat-ing events.

JOURNAL: Those are all fascinating subjects. Is there a case that you have investigated that stands out in your mind?

KEITH: I’m split between two that I did during my first term as FI. At that time, International Director Walt Andrus called me and asked me to investigate an abduction in Syracuse, NY, which was fascinating and very involved. I spent more time conduct-ing that investigation than all my in-vestigations since then. It occurred at a DOD contractor’s worksite and the subject lost his security clearance as a result of it. Another investigation was a crop formation in Columbia, NY. Biophysicist W.C. Levingood featured

Today the Journal sits down with Keith Conroy, MUFON’S Chief Investigator for New York. Keith is an electrical engineer, having worked in the United States De-partment of Defense at the Naval Ship Research and Development Center in Annapolis, MD, and in aerospace microelectronics at Rome Air Development Center in Rome, NY. He was manager of the Advanced Microcircuit Testing Facility at GE Aerospace in Utica, a consultant at Genisys Research and Development in Utica, and is currently a senior test engineer at Anaren Microwave, Space and Defense group in Syracuse. He is also a member of the Society for Scientific Exploration and the Cen-ter for UFO Studies, and is part of a team of scientists involved in an international UFO Detection and Tracking project (UFODATA), and recently accepted an invitation to join the Scientific Coalition for Ufology (SCU), which is a newly organized “think tank” to evaluate and assist in UFO case investiga-tions. He was previously NY State Section Director for Oneida, Madi-son, and Herkimer counties, and is currently living in Phoenix, NY.

Keith Conroy

THE MUFON JOURNAL | 21

this formation on the cover page of his paper published in Physiologia Planta-rum 1994, pp. 356-363.

JOURNAL: They both sound intrigu-ing. Did either of these cases change your views on UFOs in any way? If so, how?

KEITH: I can’t say they changed my views, because up to that point I didn’t HAVE any views on UFOs. I can say that these cases, and the material I read on the subject, focused my atten-tion on yet another aspect of fringe science that I hadn’t considered before.

JOURNAL: I see. You have been pretty successful at getting coverage of the UFO phenomenon in your area. How has this impacted the public’s perception of it, in your opinion?

KEITH: I can’t speak for the public’s perception because I don’t have any data, other than the responses I get from my presentations on the subject, where the audience is NOT a fair cross-section of the general public. They are UFO enthusiasts who al-ready have formed their perceptions.

JOURNAL: You make a good point. Is there a favorite case you investigated that you would like to share with us?

KEITH: That would be MUFON Case #77946, which was a CE2 that hap-pened in July of 2016 in New Hart-ford, NY. Witness #1 (W1) was walk-ing through a golf course one night with close friends witness #2 (W2) and witness #3 (W3). W2 and W1 are both UFO enthusiasts, but W3 is a hardened skeptic. I recorded my inter-view with W1 at his home, where he described the sequence of events and plotted their path on a Google Earth map. As they walked through the golf course, he said “something made me turn around and look behind me” and

he saw a large, brilliant orb rising from behind a tree they had just passed. He elbowed W2, then all three turned around and watched as the orb slowly rose above the tree and started moving in their direction. He described it as “about the size of the largest boun-cy balls in a children’s playground,” which he refined as about three feet in diameter. All three were awestruck and started walking faster, away from the approaching orb. Shortly it was about 60 feet directly over their heads, and he described it as brilliant as the sun, and the heat from it was “unbear-able.” It gave off a high-pitched, but quiet humming sound. He tried taking pictures of it with his cellphone, but it didn’t show in the viewfinder. (He later deleted the photos thinking they were worthless.) They started running away from it and it moved in their direction with them, and eventually ahead of them, and just before going beyond some trees, the light went out, but a dark orb was still visible. The entire event lasted about four min-utes. When they reached the street and stood under a streetlight, they all noticed that their arms were red, as if sunburned. W1 and W2 enthusiasti-cally talked about their experience but W3 did not want to talk about it, and later made it clear he would not be in-terviewed by me about it. W1 and W2 had had a less dramatic sighting in this same area the evening before, and I asked him, considering the possible repeatability of these events, would he consider going there again to see if it recurs. He stated emphatically “not by myself.”

JOURNAL: Wow, that must have been frightening for them. Your bio states that you have experience in en-gineering, including working with the Department of Defense. How has this impacted your work with MUFON?

KEITH: My engineering work has revolved around electrical measure-ments, specifically writing computer programs to talk to instruments that make voltage, current, timing, fre-quency, and waveform measurements. When I make site measurements as a MUFON Field Investigator, I take into account equipment accuracy and sources of error in both measurements and calculations. Making field mea-surements with a “cellphone app” is NOT scientifically acceptable. My work in the D.O.D. has had no impact on my work with MUFON.

JOURNAL: I agree with you that phone apps are not acceptable for this. In your opinion, do you think there is any credible evidence to support re-ports that some of our current technol-ogies have been back-engineered from recovered alien technology? If so, do you think that includes any weapons?

KEITH: I think anyone who has a good background in science or engi-neering can see the normal evolution of technology in space and defense. It didn’t need the help of reverse-en-gineering of alien technology. For example, stealth fighters are ra-dar-transparent because their surfaces tend not to reflect radar signals back toward their source, and these surfac-es are also designed to absorb radar energy rather than reflect it. This is simple engineering and not alien-craft reverse-engineering as some have postulated. I do NOT mean to imply that such reverse-engineering is NOT taking place.

JOURNAL: Thank you, Keith, for sitting down with the Journal One-On-One. It is much appreciated. l

To suggest someone from within MUFON as the next One-On-One guest—please get in touch with Marie at mariehelena777@gmail.com.

MARIE CISNEROS can be reached at: mariehelena777@gmail.com

| JANUARY 201822

MUFON welcomes new Field Investigators: Timo-thy Derr, PA; Steven Bates, TX; John Carano, PA; Johnny Dixon, TN; Marc Barbieri, FL; Erin Bagna-tori, DE; Andrew Gummer, IN; Maria Mueller, Swit-zerland; Claude Bedard, Canada.

Congratulations to the following MUFON ap-pointees: Gary Neitzel, State Director, TX; Fred Campillo, Chief Investiga-tor, TX; Eric Smith, Inter-national STAR Team CAG, RI; Maria Mueller, Interna-tional STAR Team CAG; Juan Vidal Nicolau, Chief Investigator, Spain; Mark Stewart, Chief Investigator, UT; Bob Spearing, Co-Lead Investigator SAT.

COLORADO MUFON holds its regular month-ly meeting open to the public on the second Sat-urday of every month in the greater Denver area. Please see comufon.org for details.

CONNECTICUT MUFON hosts monthly meeting first Saturday of every month at A D’s Pizzeria Restaurant & Lounge, 377 S Center St., Windsor Locks, CT 06096. 11 a.m. Round-table discussions, meals are self-purchase. For more information see mufonct.com.

ILLINOIS MUFON (Rock-ford, IL, area) will be holding meetings the 4th

Saturday every month from 10 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Held at the Rockford Public Library East Branch in the community room, 6685 E State St., Rockford, IL 61108. Open to the pub-lic. For more information see facebook.com/mufon-rockfordil.

LAKELAND MUFON will present Paola Harris, “Need to know” Whis-tleblowers revealed! Sunday, January 28, 2018, 1:00 p.m. at Unity Chapel, 6230 Lakeland Highlands Road, Lakeland, Florida.

MAIN LINE MUFON (part of MUFON PA) will host its January meeting on Janu-ary 16, 2018, at 6:30 p.m. at the Tredyffrin Public Library, 582 Upper Gulph Road, Strafford, PA 19087. The meeting is open and free to the public and will feature Montauk Chroni-cles, a film by Christopher Garetano. The alleged survivors relate their harrowing tales of bizarre experiments conducted by a clandestine organization (1971-1983), deep beneath the Camp Hero Air Force Base in New York. For more information contact Jennifer W. Stein at Main-LineMUFON@comcast.net or go to MainLineMUFON.com.

NEW YORK MUFON will meet the last Saturday of every month 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. at May Memorial Unitarian Universalist So-ciety, 3800 East Genesee St., Syracuse, NY.

NORTHERN CALIFOR-NIA MUFON will have its South Bay – San Jose Chapter meeting every 3rd Sunday of every other month from 1 – 4:30 p.m. at the Community of Infinite Spirit Center, 1540 Hicks Avenue, San Jose, with speakers and MUFON case reports. $5 admission, open to the public and need not be a member to attend. Contact Ruben Uriarte at ruben_uriarte@hotmail.com or northerncalifornia-mufon.com for more info.

THE SHASTA CHAPTER will host its meeting in Redding, CA. Email Stacey at shastamufon@yahoo.com for more information.

THE MARIN-SONOMA CHAPTER meets the 1st Saturday of every month from 1 – 3 p.m. at the Pet-aluma Senior Center, 211 Novak Drive, Petaluma, CA 94954. Open to the public with a $5 admis-sion. See mufonmarin-sonoma.com for more info.

PHOENIX MUFON wel-comes Paola Harris on Saturday, January 13, as she lectures on Space people visiting Earth: An international Perspective at noon – 3 p.m. at the Arizona Historical Society Museum in Tempe. Please see phoenixmufon.com for all details.

ROCKLAND MUFON will be meeting once a month at the Round Table Pizza back room located at 4885 Granite Dr. in

Rocklin, California, on the second Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. This group is for anyone interested in learning about and dis-cussing UFOs, ETs, un-derground bases, govern-ment cover-up, disclosure, conferences, reporting sightings, and everything UFOLOGY. Experiencers are welcome. Attendees will have a chance to share their relationship to ufology. Go to meetup.com/Rocklin-UFO/ for more info.

SACRAMENTO MU-FON will meet at Coco’s Restaurant, 7887 Madison Ave., Citrus Heights, CA 95610, every other month on the last Saturday of the month from 4 – 6 p.m. See mufonsacramento.net for more info.

SEDONA MUFON will be hosting Paola Harris at the regular January meeting on Friday, Janu-ary 12, 2018, at 7 p.m. at the Sedona Public Library. For more information go to sedonamufon.com.

MUFON MINUTES ITEMS: Please send your state notices of meetings and other related events to Kerry McClure at kerry.mcclure@me.com for inclusion before the 10th of the month previ-ous to the month of the meeting. Please note that we will only feature announce-ments that are emailed and are not able to check each chapter’s website. Thank you.

KERRY MCCLUREMUFON MINUTES

THE MUFON JOURNAL | 23

The Phoenix Lights, one of history’s most-witnessed UFO events, took place in the desert skies on March 13, 1997. It continues to captivate people’s interest to this day, both inside and outside the UFO community. The event began with reported sightings of a dark, chevron-shaped craft traveling southeast near Henderson, Nevada. The reports of the mysterious craft continued along its path, a path that eventually took it to Phoenix, Arizona, resulting in a string of eerie lights hanging over the city for several hours. The event was witnessed by thousands and survived the strictest scrutiny of those who tried to debunk the authenticity of the event.

The directors of Phoenix MUFON, Jim Mann and Stacey Wright, continue to be excited by the event, saying, “The massive Arizona flyover event from 1997, popularly known as the Phoenix Lights, was a true enigma met with wonder, awe, curiosity, and life-changing energy. The estimated tens of thousands of viewers across the state were changed forever as their view of life in the universe was altered to a certainty that we are not alone. Nothing that large, that floats silently and slowly, and shows itself as majestically, with absolutely no feeling of ill will, can ever be erased from our mind’s eye.”

The stunning event had such a long-lasting impact on the residents of Arizona that the Arizona Historical Society Museum contacted Phoenix MUFON to assist them in the construction of a permanent exhibit at the museum. During the following month’s discussion, Phoenix MUFON was asked if they were interested in holding their monthly meet-ings in the museum’s beautiful Steele Auditorium. The large auditorium would allow Phoenix MUFON to accommodate the rapidly rising attendance at their monthly meeting. Jim and Stacey were quick to accept the museum’s kind offer.

Phoenix MUFON enlisted the talents of graphic artist Tom Bogan to create the wonderful 15-foot timeline on one wall

of the exhibit, as well as the fully-lit, boomerang-shaped craft suspended from the ceiling of the exhibit. Chief Investigator Dennis Freyermuth’s talents were called upon to create the seven-minute video that plays from a moni-tor mounted on the wall. There is also a video created by Dennis that encompasses field investigation protocols used by MUFON investigators. Dave Maez, from PrintSmart, supplied the printing necessary for the exhibit. After months of planning and hard work, with funding provided by the members of Phoenix MUFON, the exhibit was opened to the public on August 20, 2016. The opening ceremony was eagerly anticipated and attended by the local media and journalist Linda Moulton Howe, who was also the guest speaker at Phoenix MUFON’s meeting later that day.

The exhibit’s timeline, displayed along the wall, clearly shows the path that the large craft took on March 13, 1997, as it made its way through the state of Arizona and ulti-mately across the border into Mexico. The subdued lighting of the exhibit adds to the overall experience.

The Museum Director states that viewers of the exhibit find it “engaging, compelling, and love the actual recording of the 911 calls.” She goes on to state that it is the Historical So-ciety’s duty to share historical events and it is “not for us to make any judgments, but for us to present the information and facts and let the public make their own assessment. Our perspective is that this was a well-documented event that took place in 1997.”

The Phoenix Lights exhibit remains a point of interest with museum goers from across the country. When visiting the Phoenix area, UFO investigators and enthusiasts are en-couraged to visit this exciting exhibit at: Arizona Historical Society Museum, 1300 N. College Avenue, Tempe, AZ 85281. l

THE PHOENIX LIGHTS MUSEUM EXHIBITBy Russell Azbill. Field Investigator for Arizona MUFON