Ufo Journal

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M U T U A L N E T W O R KU F O J O U R N A LNOVEMBER 2000 N U M B E R 39,1 $3

International Director John Schuessler is dwarfed by boxes and file cabinets of M U F O Nmaterials during the transition to M U F O N ' s new Colorado headquarters.


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U F O Journal(USPS 002-970)

(ISSN 0270-6822)P.O. Box 369Morrison, CO 80465-0369Tel: (303) 932-7709FAX (303) 932-9279

Editor:Dwight Connelly

14026 Ridgelawn RoadMartinsville, IL 62442Tel: (217)382-4502e-mail:

[email protected] in Chief:

Walter H. Andrus, Jr.103OldtowneRoad

Seguin,TX78155830-379-9216

Columnists:Walter N. WebbRichard HallGeorge FilerDan WrightStaff ArtistWes Crum

MUFON UFO Hotline:1-800-UFO-2166

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

e-mail address:[email protected]

MUFON Amateur Radio Net:40 meters - 7.237 MHz

Saturdays, 7 a.m. CST or COST

TABLE O F CO NT E NT SNovember 2000 Number 391

In this issueSighting near nation's capital by Dan Wright 3Italy's first abduction case? by A lfredo Lissoni 4'Star Trek' phaser gun now a reality 5Canadian couple shaken by sighting 5M ystery prints on mirror by Barry Taylor 6Filer's Files by George A.Filer 8California sighting leaves driver perplexed 13The U FO Press : 14M U F O N F o rum 16Calendar 17U fology Profile: Anton io Huneeus 18Tribute to Seguin MUFON staff by W alter Andrus 20Andrus presented Barker achievement award 20Perspectiveby Richard H all... 21Readers'ads 22December Sky by W alter W ebb 23Director's Message by John Schuessler 24

MUFON's mission is the systematic collection arid analysisof UFO data, with the ultimate goal of learning the origin andnature of the UFO phenomenon.

Change of address and subscription inquiries should be sentto MUFON, P.O. Box 369, Morrison, CO80465-0369.Copyright 2000 by the Mutual UFO Network. All Rights ReservedNo part of this document may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of theCopyright Owners, Permission is hereby granted to quote up to 200 words of any one article, provided theauthor is credited, and the statement, "Copyright 2000 by the Mutual UFO Network, P.O. Box 369,Morrison, CO 80465-0369" is included.The contents of the MUFON UFO Journal ate determined by the editors, and do not necessarilyreflect the official position of the Mutual UFO Network. Opinions expressed are solely those of theindividual authors.The Mutual UFO Network, Inc. is exempt rom Federal Income Tax under Section 501 (c) (3) of theInternal Revenue Code. MUFON s a publicly supported organization of the type described n Section 509(a) (2). Donors may deduct contributions from their Federal Income Tax. Bequests, legacies, devises,transfers, or gifts are also deductible for estate and gift purposes, provided they meet the applicableprovisions of Sections 2055,2106, and 2522 of the Internal Revenue Code. MUFON is a Texas nonprofitcorporation.The MUFON UFO Journal is published monthly by the M utual UFO N etwork, Inc., Morrison, CO .Membership/Subscription rates are $30 per year in the U.S.A., and $35 per year foreign in U.S. funds.Second class po stage paid at Seguin, Texas and other offices. - Postmaster: Send form 3579 toadvise change of address to: MUFON UFO Journal, P.O. Box369, Morrison, CO 80465-0369.


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M U F O N U F O Journal November 2000 Page 3Investigative SpotlightSighting near nation's capital

By Dan WrightM U F O N D ep uty Director, InvestigationsIn one sense, every credible UFO sighting is asworthy of attention as any other, for each in turn dem-onstrates the reality of visits to Earth by species fromother worlds.The difference between most encounters thatachieve acclaim and those failing to can usually befound in the degree of investigative attention. An"ordinary" anecdotal UF O report can be rendered sig-nificant through dedicated follow-up to eliminatemundane possibilities. Conversely, a seemingly un-deniable event may lose significance if the field in-vestigator simp ly records the w itness account and failsto make the necessary collateral contacts.In this series, we will exam ine recent events eva lu-ated as significant for UFO research, due primarilyto the efforts of local MUFON members. The firstinstallment concerns a tradesman residing sometwenty miles southwest of our nation's capital.

The eventFrom the steps of his town house outside Alexan-dria, VA, a carpenter caught sight of an inky blackspot approaching quickly from the WNW, the direc-tion of D ulles Airport. [Reagan-N ational Airport liesNE, while Fort Belvoir Military Reservation beginsa few miles to the south.] It was 7:50 p.m., Sept. 9,1999, with the sky still bright over ensuing dusk.Th e witness first thought he was observing a bird,but over the nex t second or so it doubled in apparentsize, its shape resembling a mushroom cap with fuzzyedges. As it continu ed to app roach on a straight-linepath ESE, the object repeatedly tilted from side toside. These attitudinal changes revealed a black m e-tallic underside segmented into six "pie slices." Thedisc's border was a bluish silver metal, while black"mist" shrouded the upper portion.From each "pie slice" segment on the bottom shonean "incredibly pure" white light from which a white"tube of light" projected ten feet or so. These tubesended abruptly in midair and with no outw ard spread-ing or diffusion one w ould expect from a light beam .In the nex t several seconds the object m oved al-most directly overhead on its uninterrupted path.Drawing on the skills of his trade, and using the di-m ensions of his own building as a guide, the witnessestimated the anomaly to be approximately 100 feetin diameter and 500-700 feet aloft. He could not de-

tect any sound from the object.At this point he ran inside to alert his wife and re-trieve their video camera. Upon his return outside amom ent later, h ow ever, nothing out of the ordinary couldbe seen. He had viewed the object for probably no morethan ten seconds.The witness experienced a strong sense of uneasi-ness immediately afterward, so strong in fact that heconvinced his wife to pack a bag and drive w ith him toa distant motel for the night.Th e next m orning w hile showering, he noticed a sun-burn-like redness on his chest, shoulders, and abdomen,though he had worn a colored t-shirt the previous day,including the moment of the sighting. [His face, neckand back were unaffected.] The discoloration was gonea day or so later. The investigationThe witness w as interviewed twice, remaining con-sistent and logical in his description and positive as tow hat he had seen. Through the course often years at thesame residence, he had become very familiar with allmanner of conventional aircraft passing nearby.His wife was interviewed separately. She had beenon the telephone when he rushed in and did not join himoutside. However, she related a few important points:Her spouse had seemed almost in shock when he ran into tell her. She confirmed his insistence on leaving thearea for the night, and she recalled that his "sunburn"the next day w as quite prom inent.One possible p rosaic ex plan ation for the event wou ldinvolve a gross misidentification of a weather balloon.Field Investigator Joan Woodward contacted the Na-t ional Oceanic and Atmospher ic Adminis t ra t ion(NOAA). A spokesman there revealed that such bal-loons are launched daily at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. from DullesAirport (i.e., in line with the approach of the object inquestion). He described them as tan in color with anorange parachute and no attached lights. Further, he es-timated that the ev enin g balloon w ould hav e been atleast 25,000 feet high by 7:50 p.m. Surface winds at 7p.m. on Sept. 9 were stated as light. For these reasons, aballoon-based IFO explanation can be discounted.Ms. Woodward submitted an FOIA request to FortB elvoir for flight activity, but that request was ignored.Undaunted, she telephoned the base and spoke with apublic information officer, who indicated that nothingw as launched on that day and that air traffic controlrecords showed nothing unusual in the area.

(Continued on Page 4)


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Page 4 November 2000 M U F O N U F O J o urn alU F O s in HistoryItaly's first UFOabduction?

Alfredo LissoniNational U F O Center, ItalyOn Dec. 9, 1954 a farmer, Giovanni Aquilante,Caserta, disappeared after he left home to go w ork inthe fields. His family began to look for him, and thepolice were informed. But it was impossibile to findhim.On the next day (Dec. 10,1954), toward midnight,

Sighting near capital...(Continued from Page 3)Relatedly, inve stigator Woodw ard requested andobtained the air traffic control tower log from Reagan-National Airport. It too had not hin g of interest in thevicinity that evening. [Note: An object m ovin g at500 feet or so from the ground w ould likely be belowthe floor of Reagan-National's radar.]In that alien spacecraft have never cooperated withFAA regulations by placing a transponder onboard,and because they tend to remain below the radar floorsof major airports, an investigator should be greatlysurprised if a control towe r does indicate an anom a-lous radar return. Rather, the primary purpose forcontacting airport and military base staff is to deter-mine whether a conventional aircraft was nearby atthe critical m om ent and should have been recognizedas such by the witness.This, the n, is a fundam ental step in the process ofelimination prior to reaching a UFO conclusion, astep which Joan Woodward showed persistence inperforming. Additional factorsB ecause of intense construction in the general areaof the witness' residence, electrical disturbances hadnot been uncom m on. On this evening, how ever, lightsin the townhouse continuously flickered and dimmed.Curiously, the next day the couple discovered thatevery battery in the household w as dead, includingthose to their watches and cell phone.After a level of trust had been established, the wit-ness confided that as a child he frequently woke upin the night outside his home, sometim es still on thefamily's property, but on other occasions along anearby road or river. To his knowledge, though, theSeptember 1999 event was his first encounter withan unconventional vehicle.

two of Giovanni's sons and a friend noticed in the field,on their way home after the fruitless search for theirfather, two mysterious humanoid figures with luminouseyes. Only young Andrea Aq uilante tried to follow them,but they disappeared. Next m orning (Dec. 11,1954), 48hours after his disappearance, Gio va nni returned hom e,silent and shocked. D uring the last 48 hours it had rainedin the area, but his clothes were quite dry.Later Giovanni Aquilante explained that he met twolittle "dwarfs" in the fields, wearing m ulti-colored suits.They held his hands, and he began to float into the airwith them , starting a " trip" to " unk now n places." A ftertwo days, they released him, but told him they were go-ing to take him again in the future. Since then Giov anniwas no longer the same, and lived in the constant fear ofhis abductors.He w as highly esteem ed by his neighbors before theincident, and CUN field investigator Umbeto Telaricohad a very positive op inion about the whole story w henhe re-visited the case. It seems this is Italy's first abduc-tion, and the second in the world after 1947.Although it was unsuccessful, the first one was theexperience of Ghaseme Fili (GasimFaili) of AmireahStreet, in Teheran, Iran, w hich occurred at 2:30 a.m . onOct. 8, 1954. This man was on the second floor of hishouse when he saw a luminous, w hite flying object stopin mid-air 20 m. away. Lights were shining from therear and the sides of the craft. Inside could be seen asmall man dressed in black, w earing a m ask with a trunklike an elephant."I w as standing with both hands on the bar of mybalcony, looking with astonishment at this strange ob-ject, w hen I suddenly felt as though I were being drawnup toward the object by a magnet," he said. Mr. Fili criedout in terror, w aking his neighbors.The object shot straight up , emitting sparks, and itw as lost to sight almost im m ediately. As a consequence,Giovanni Aquilante's experience may be considered,after all, the first reported abduction.-Roberto PinottiJuly 20-22,2001-MUFON 2001 International U F OSymposium, Hyatt Regency Irvine, Irvine, C A.Theme: Joining the Cosmic Neighborhood. Makeyour vacation plans now and bring the family.


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M U F O N UFO Journal November 2000 PageS'Star Trek' phaser gunnow a reality

Real life has caught up with Star Trek! HSV Tech-nologies of San Diego, CA, has developed a functionalversion of the "phaser" weapon m ade famous by theStar Trek television series. The flashlight-sized wea po nworks by zapping the distant target person w ith a harm-less electric current that freezes him in place.The current is transmitted to and from the targetthrough two channels of ionized air. When the air isionized, electrons are separated from their p arent m ol-ecules and are free to flow as an electric current: Theionized air channels are in turn produced by beams ofultraviolet laser light.In effect, the laser beams create wires in the airwherever they are pointed. And because the currentduplicates the nerve impulses which control skeletalm uscles, it is im perceptible to the affected person. Thecrucial difference is that the pulse repetition rate issufficiently high to tetanize his m uscles. (Tetanizationis the stimulation of m uscle fibers at a frequency whichmerges their individual contractions into a sustainedcontraction.) .For safe ty's sake, how ever, the current is too low toaffect the smooth muscles such as the heart and dia-phragm. Im portantly, no retinal dam age can occur be-cause the cornea absorbs all ultrav iolet radiation at the193-nanometer wav elength used. Moreover, the beam sare too w eak to irritate the cornea, ev en w hen they aredirected at the eyes for several minutes.According to HSV Technologies, the calculatedmaximum range of the beam weapon is more than 100yards. Th e company has already obtained three U. S.patents on it, and has performed successful proof-of-principle tests at the University of California.The inventor of the freeze-beam, Eric Herr, cameup with the idea after considering the difficulty policeofficers have in apprehending criminal suspects. In -trigued by both the humanitarian and technical aspects,Herr spent several years determining the precise re-quirements for the weapon's safe and effective opera-tion. "I was surprised to learn that anesthesiologistshave been u sing tetanization for decades," he said.Because the device uses laser technology that hasonly recently been developed, Herr com missioned D r.Richard Scheps, a senior scientist at the Nav al Researchand Development Center in San Diego, to prove itsoperating principles. Scheps said the project "has a lotof viability," and might even be adapted for use againstdistant military targets.Further information may be found on HSVT's w ebpage, hsvt.org. (Eric Herr is a long-timeMUFON mem-ber in San Diego.)

Canadian couple shakenby UFO sightingBy Martin Jasek

. On March 30 , 2000, a man, a woman, and a youngboy ( w h o w as asleep) were travelling along th eKlondike Highw ay from Whitehorse to the Village ofPelly Crossing, Yu ko n. The sky w as clear w ith a glowof predawn blue. They were nearing the end of LittleFox Lake and came around a sharp right-hand bendnear the base of a m ountain. Upon coming out fromthe bend they could not believe their eyes!To the right and about 300 ft away was a 30 to 40foot diameter saucer, hovering about 20 0 feet off theground! It was stationary for 4 to 5 seconds as theywere travelling along the highway, an d then it shotacross horizontally in front of their vehicle at an "in-credible speed" and stopped instantly on the left sideof the road. It remained motionless for only anothersplit second and shot off even faster in a different di-rection (basically performing a 90-degree turn an dshooting off behind them). They heard no sound.One w itness though t it w ent right into the side of amounta in , while th e other thought it followed th emountainous skyline. They eventually pulled overabout 20 minutes later and both were shaking.Th e witnesses got a good look, at the saucer. It wasa classic disc shape with a dome on top. The dome hadtw o curved w indows or lights from which a beautifulocean blue or aq ua colored light w as shining. The sur-face of the craft was described as "mirror, silver, trans-lucent, shiny, g lassy, reflecting the color of the sky." Itw as as though the UFO w as trying to "camouflageagainst the background sky color."As the UFO streaked in front of their vehicle, thecar headlights dimmed and their tape deck stoppedplaying. They both wanted to check the time of theirsighting, but the woman's battery-operated analogwatch stopped (at 5 a.m.) and the man's digital watchgot stuc k in "chrono mode" and wouldn't reset.A few miles down the road the wom an tapped theface of her watch and it started working again. Them an fiddled around pushing buttons on his digitalwatch and it started working as well; the time indi-cated was 5:12 a.m.They checked the tape deck and by all indications,John Fogerty should have been playing away. The tapehadn't run out, the volume was on, and the lights onthe cassette window indicated that the power was on.Other than the initial pow er drain, no problems werenoted with the truck. The man figured that they m an-aged to get the tape deck and watches functioning prop-erly a couple of m iles past the UFO sighting location.


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Page 6 November 2000 M U F O N UFOJournalDN A testing inconclusiveM ystery prints on mirror investigated

Editor's N ote: Australian UFOResearcher BarryTaylor, based in the Northern New South Walestown of Grafton, has been investigating a most un-usual case. At this point there is no direct tie toU FO s, though some aspects of abduction cases seemto be present. This is a preliminary report, andfurther developments will be shared as they becomeknown.Taylor became involved when a local woman re-ported that a mysterious crossscratch had appearedon her upper left arm while she slept. That morn-ing, her husband pointed out a series of small"hand"prints on the bedroom mirror that they hadnot previously noticed. They contacted Taylor,knowing that he was a UFOresearcher who mightbe fam iliar with similar cases and h opefully mightprovide a simple answer. Taylor provides an out-line of the investigation thus far:By Barry TaylorUpon first viewing close magnification of the printson the mirror, I realised that scientific analysis w asrequired. I do not have the knowledge or equipmentpersonally to undertake these tests, so I contactedAustralia's leading physical trace ev idence experts w hospecialize in this field, Phenom ena Research Austra-lia (PRA ), based in Melbourne V ictoria. They supp liedme with two DNA sampling kits and detailed instruc-tions.The whole procedure w as video-taped so that thePRA Team could study the method I used, and to seeif contam ination could have accidentally polluted theD NA samples due to my method. Tw o samples weresuccessfully taken. The prints were removed from themirror after dusting, an d safely stored be hind glass.Swab No. 1 sample when first examined under a mi-croscope had dust and other normal atmospheric andsurface "pollutants" on it, and these were picked offthe swab tip before D NA testing w as undertaken. Thisis a normal procedure.There was ONE ONL Y cell group on the swab, otherthan the pr int m aterial. This single cell group w as sepa-rately DNA tested, and showed C ANINE [dog]. Thisw as said to have been attached to the mirror by con-tamination and not directly associated with the actualprint material.The contamination m ethod is not determined at thisstage, bu t could have been a free-floating airborne cellthat had landed on the mirror surface, either before orafter the print w as made.Tw o bacteria w ere found and incubated in Agar. The

The angle of the upper arm, as shown here,would be the same as when she was lying asleepin bed. This makes the cross "drawn" standingupright, arid appearing to have been applied withprecision. A close look shows a precise, delicateapplication with a f ine sharp nee dle-like tool, asopposed to a "claw" or scratch from a cat (whichthey do not own). There was no redness on eitherside of the scratch, i n d i c a t i n g a "gentle"application. The lines are perfectly straight, andequally extended from the center where thescratches cross, forming a perfect cross in allaspects. The woman did not feel anything, andfirst noticed it upon awakening in the morning.

concentration of the bacteria culture was excessive,and a great surprise to-the lab. The two bacteria werePseudom onas aeruginosa an d Azotobactervinelandii.Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a particularly nasty bu g,and directly associated with Cystic Fibrosis and otherserious infectious illnesses. Both these bacteria ar ecommon in soil an d water, but the reason they werefound in such concentrations in a "strange hand print"on a bedroom m irror still remains unexplained.Close exam ination of the pr ints does not show thenormal ridges and valleys that m ake h u m a n prints iden-tifiable, bu t were clear enoug h to show some featuressuch as horizontal lines across the digits. It is hopedthat this feature will assist identification.Th e small size of the prints is unusual. Th e "mainset" showing four digits is 2.25 in . wide, and the long-est digit 1.75 in . long, all tapering off into a point. Thebase of the digits where they would norm ally attach to


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M U F O N UF O J o urnal November 2000 Page?

In collecting the samples, Taylor reports, "Itook all possible precautions so as not to polluteth e prints before an d during th e sample swabs.Comtamination from hair, body fluid, an d eventhe breath could have polluted the sample andshown human DN A in the testing." This image isfrom the video that was set up to record thesampling.

The four "digits" on the main print are long,slim, an d small compared to the human hand. O nall five sets of prints there was no print of the"hand" or "main pad" that the "digits" would beexpected to be attached to.

the hand is wider than exp ected if the prints were madeby a child, and only the last tw o joints were used tomake the prints. Comparisons are being undertakenfor this.Altogether, there were four individual sets of printsaligned one above the other on the right hand edge ofthe mirror at an angle of about 40 degrees, and a singlevertical print more towards the lower center.The removed prints were tested for fluorescence withultraviolet light, bu t did not respond. It was hoped thatthe DNA tests would solve this mystery, but it onlydeepened it. The investigation will continue until wecan go no farther w ith it.So these questions remain:[1 ] What made the prints?[2] Why was such a dense concentration of com-mon bacteria carried on the "hand" that made theprints?[3] Is the mystery cross scratch directly associatedwith the mirror prints, or just coincidental?[4] Was the canine DN A an airborne cell, or attachedto the hand when the prints were made?Images and text copyright(c)2000 B arry TaylorThe "pads" print was at the very bottom of the

print group. This very interesting feature couldassist in the identification of what made the prints.


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PageS November 2000 MUFON UFO Journal

Filer's Files

George A. Filer

By George A. FilerDirector, MUFON Eastern Region

Editor's Note: George Filer is a scheduled gueston the Jeff Rense Show the first Tuesday of eachmonth. Pennsylvania driver frightenedMARYSVILLE Stan Gordon reports a frighteneddriver had a UFO sighting which occurred on Sept.19, 2000, between 4:30and 4:45 a.m. in a ruralarea. The witness regu-larly travels through thisval ley wi th f ie lds sur -rounded by mountains onthe way to work. From ap-proximately a mile away,the driver observed "whatlooked like stadium lightsover an open field."This observer knew thatno such lights were locatedin that area. As the wit-ness continued to watch,he lowered his car window, but no sound could beheard. The observer saw two very large non-blinkinground white brilliant lights. The luminous source wasextrem ely large, and w as estimated as being as long asa football field.At first it seamed as though this was one object, butit became apparent that there were two separate lightspositioned side by side. The lights were quite low inaltitude, motionless over the field, and according tothe driver, the illumination from the lights "lit up thewhole sky."The w itness proceeded dow n the road for a distance,then returned several m inute s later, but the lights couldno longer be seen. D uring the tim e of the observ ation,another vehicle cam e up the road. The w itness is hope-ful that driver of the other car will also report this ev ent.There have been num erous UFO sightings reportedduring Augu st and Septem ber, 2000, across Pennsyl-vania. Thanks to Stan Gordon's UFO Anomalies Zone:http://www.westol.com/~paufo

"Angel hair" reported in West VirginiaHAMPSHIRE COUNTY A housewife in ruralRomney reported that the mysterious gossamer sub-stance know n as "angel's hair" fell in profu sion on herfamily farm during the evening of Tuesday, Sept. 19,

2000; The w itness, Rusty, reports, "Last night at about7 p.m., I heard a loud 'droning' sound, like a large' airplane." I went out to look to see if I could spot it,but I could not. The dro ning lasted about an hour."

"This m orning, w hen I got up, m y yard was full ofthis 'spider w eb stuff.' Don't know exactly how todescribe this other than they looked like spider w ebs,but at the same time they were not your usual 'circu-lar' webs."I im m ediately got the cam era out and took a dozenphotos. I had my husban d go the seven miles to tow nto buy some rubber gloves so we could ge t somesamp les. There were other spots of angel hair alongthe way, bu t nothing as heavy as what was in my yard."The first sam ple he tried to get with the gloves soonturned into a goo-like substanc e as soon as he touchedit. He put the samples on a piece of paper tow el andput the gloves in with it in a plastic bag. We were ableto photog raph the angel hair." Thanks to Louise A.Lowry.

Ohio UFOs tied to power failureWEST M ANCHESTER Ginny B urgess phonedme concerning four UFOs in her backyard on April 8,1996. The UFO reports were accompanied by variousmalfunctions of appliances and light bulb s in people'shom es that hav e started again. Back in 1996, tw o UFOswere spotted over an electric transformer on a utilitypole and in two of the neighbors' backyards. Numer-ous reports were collected throughout the area. Thelocal transformer failed, causing the neighborhood tolose all electrical power."When the power company work crews came hereearly that same morning to replace the failed trans-former, I told them what I had seen earlier over thistransformer and asked them to save it for study uponreturning w ith it to the power com pany," says Ginny ."They said they would, and said that they had a lot offailures at their substation. They also said they won-dered due to the other failures whether UFOs mightnot be the cause for knocking out their other equip-ment, because they said they had been replacing a lotof them lately."Later, I was told it was a normal failure and thepow er comp any w as getting ready to replace that par-ticular transformer anyway. B y golly something causedall these power equipment failures."It seems the electrical problems are returning, andGinny's kids are reporting balls of light follow ing them.Ginny explained to me that her home w as now beingplagued by electrical and phone problems. While talk-ing to her my new Sony phone started buzzing badly.It continues to buzz on both lines and is no longer us-able. I can verify something strange is going on at


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M U F O N UFO Journal November 2000 Page 9Gi n n y ' s house. T hank s to Ginny B u r g e s [email protected]

Alabama flying triangleBIRMINGHAMTwo engineers observed twoslow flying triangles or objects with delta wing con-struction on Tuesday, Sept. 19,2000, at 9:05 p.m.. Thewing span w as about 100 feet across.Tw o objects were observed traveling app roxim ately2 to 3 miles apart at an estimated 20 0 feet altitude w itha speed of around 85 mph. There were tw o w hite lightsat each wing tip with a red light at the nose. There w asno sound being emitted from the objects, and no signof je t engines. Th e objects w ere being followed by apolice helicopter around four miles behind.

Louisiana flying wingOPELOUSAS A very large flying wing-shapedobject w as observed moving north to south Tuesday,Sept. 19, 2000, at 8:55 p.m. with no running lights.There were four or five very faint reddish fore-to-aftlight bands, very dim, that marked the edges of theobject quite w ell. Tw o other aircraft with running lightswere visible, one prior to this observation and oneimmediately after.No sound w as heard from the dark object, but theother aircraft w ere audible. Total vie w ing arc was 90degrees. The size is estimated as w idth of outstretchedhand or about the width of a 747 wing at 3,000 feet.(A 747 has a wingspan of 196 feet.) The flying wingw as black, and reflected no light. It passed in front oftw o stars.Overall impression was a very large, dark, wing-shaped object silently moving at a low altitude and avery high speed. Thanks to Peter D avenport N ationalUFO Reporting Center www.ufocenter.com. Note: Itis illegal to operate w ithout running lights. The sight-ing over Louisiana and Alabama occurred within a fewminutes of each other 300 miles apart.

Texas white flashFORT WORTH Doug McGinnis reports that onFeb. 18,2000, he and his fiance Nantz w ere outside intheir backyard in Westpoint watching the planes fly-ing overhead. "There were tw o paths the planes wereflying," he says, "one just overhead of us and one tothe north. We were comm enting on how the aircraft'sdisplay lights would constantly change colors andblinking p atterns."Then at around 9:30 p.m. a plane w as flying westoverhead at 5000 or 6000 feet when I saw a brightflash of light. Nantz said, 'That plane ju st shot som e-thing!' I immediately noticed a flying object near theplane that w as small, only twice the size an aircraft's

landing wheels. One light w as red and the other white,blinking at about 5 or 6 alternating flashes per second."It seemed to move kind of "jittery" as it zigzagedits way north towards the other flight path. Both theobject and the burst of light came from the right sideof the plane. The object w as within a "planes length"of the aircraft when I first observed it. Four minuteslater, it seemed to fly near another plane and soon dis-appeared."About 15 minutes later a very sim ilar object flewoverhead traveling north in the same weird manner asthe first. We have never seen this kind of thing be-fore." Thanks to Brenda L iv ings ton , http://tracers.8m.com/flashes.htm

Arkansas contrailsOUCHITA NATIONAL FOREST MTS Louisi-ana MUFON's George Sewell writes, "I was on acamping trek along the Cossatot River on Sept. 30,2000, at 2:40 p.m., looking fo r driftwood when Iglanced up and noticed a low-flying, bright white jet.The sky was clear. The jet appeared to be a commer-cial craft, but my attention w as focused on how slow itappeared to be going west."The je t left a contrail. Then the contrail stopped-a gap. Then another contrail streamed from behindthe jet. Then it stopped, creating a gap. Then the craftmoved behind the mountain ridge and was no longervisible. The course w as from east to west. No reliableestimate of altitude, but the fact that it was low got myattention as I'm quite familiar with commercial an dmilitary jet activity. The jet wa s slightly sm aller thanmy thumb at arm's length. The area is wilderness."Thanks to George Sewell [email protected]: Assuming the size of the craft is almost thesize of George's thumb, it must have been flying at afairly low altitude where normal contrails are unableto form . This suggests some kind of spraying was oc-curring over a remote area.

Colorado abduction?COLORADO SPRINGS The case of "Tim," anabduction victim, is under investigation by Coloradom embers of MUFO N. Edward Burke says "Tim" isone the m ost unusu al cases he has ever investigated.According to Burke, "Tim" has a lifelong history ofalien abductions that began at age four, and he has dis-covered a tiny object, possibly an implant, in his cheek."Tim" claims he has been repeatedly threatened bystrange w om en. He is suffering from chronic fatigue,and has no idea how he gets the ugly bruises that showup on his body without w arning. When he and twofriends witnessed the "recovery" of a meteorite, they


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Page 10 November 2000 MUFON UFO Journalsuffered burns on their hands and arms. The case isstill under investigation." Thanks to Edw ard B urke

UFOs reported above pyramidsCAIRO Om ar Hilal wrote, "I w as in a meeting atm y office in Mohandeseen, Giza, on the 25th of Janu-ary 2000, when I received a call from m y mother at5:05 p.m. Sh e excitedly told m e, 'Omar, I see twomassive UFOs above the pyram ids. They look ju stlike the one I saw last summ er in Alexandria. They'rehuge and very bright.' Before she finished her sen-tence, I ran to a window that looks in the direction ofthe pyramids. My work mates thought I w ent nuts, bu tthey ran along with m e."Five m inutes later, after searching the sky, we sawone about 10 km away. It was a m assive cigar-shapedbright orange craft m oving at slow speed from north-w est to southeast. It was 45 degrees h igh, and it flewpast for about 35 seconds in the areabetween the build-ings opposite us. Regrettably, we have a huge build-ing across the street blocking ou r view of the pyra-mids, so we couldn't see the other UFO."My m other and her driver w ere much m ore fortu-nate. She parked on el-Muneeb Bridge, and had a clearview. She described them as two massive 'neon bars,'each 30 meters long (100 feet), coming at slow speedfrom opposite directions, meeting exactly above thesecond pyramid. They paused above each other for ahalf a m inute or so and then continued mo ving in op-

posite directions."The UFOswere a beautiful sight ov er the Giza com-plex at sunset for 15 minutes. My mother, felt theyresembled a UFO that emitted w hite smoke that shehad seen in Alexandria four months earlier."Om ar further explained that strange things had beenhappening to him in recent days prior to the sighting.He states, "I called a friend of mine, one of Egypt'stop columnists, who at first thought I was mad, butrealized he had also seen them when he flew in fromRome. He wrote about w hat w e saw in four episodesin his weekly column in Al-ahram. Thanks to OmarH i la l . O m a r _ H i l a l @ c a i r o . l e o b u r n e t t . c o m a n [email protected]

Sightings TV show has videoNEW YORK CITY Several readers have writ-ten concerning the Sightings TV show #4032 that airedon Friday, Oct. 6, 2000.The Scifi.com portion showed an excellent homevideo of a couple taking a helicopter tour of New YorkCity with an am azing disc-shaped UFO in the video inflight. Close-up pictures were very good of the UFO,and its speed w as amazing. Thanks to USDSCUBA

Note: The video can be seen on www.sightings.com

New Jersey UFOseen from aircraftMichael L. Stovall reports, "One o bservation I havem ade, as I fly a good deal, is that the UFOs occasion-ally seem to be more easily seen from the side thanfrom the underside. I have watched them from a sideview, then could not see them w hen I got underneath.They just looked like the sky, clouds or clear. P erhapsa camouflage effect is in place. Ever heard of suchfrom others?"Note: In a.case I investigated with Dr. Don Johnsonat McGuire Air Force Base in 1980, a witness calledthe base an d told them they had two disc-shaped UFOsover the base. The w itness owned an Art Supply Com -pany and drew the UFOs on his window with a greasepencil. He w as an excellent w itness and I have no doubtthat he saw them. The Air Force looked outside andclaim ed they couldn't see anything. The w itness calleda neighbor w ho could also see the UFOs hovering overthe base.They then called the state police. Those under theUFOs could not see them. Those off to the side wereable to do so. On triangulation of the UFO positionfrom the witnesses it turned ou t they were hoveringover a nuclear weapons storage site.

Maryland flying triangleCHESAPEAKE B AY Bill Bean writes, "I wenton a Skywatch on Oct. 3, 2000, with some membersfrom m y group and we witnessed some incredible ac-tivity between 9:15 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. from Bowley'sQuarters over the Chesapeake Bay. An erratic movingobject was traveling east and then circled back twiceat about 8,000 feet."The craft had blue flashes coming from it, andthrough a spotting scope and binoculars it looked tri-angular in shape. No sound could be heard. The UFOmoved very erratically, and it would stop and start,and zig zag while it gained and lost altitude. We sawthis UFO for about 45 m inutes and then it disappeared.W e also saw three other craft that accomplished mindboggling maneuvers. Tw o UFOs, on e approachingfrom the east and the other from the w est, appeared tobe at the same altitude."They w ere heading right for each other at 9:40 p.m .,and w ere about to collide w hen both performed a twirl-ing m aneuv er. The one heading east gained in altitudeand went out of sight, and the one going west wentback to a steady course and out of sight. At 10:05 p.m .,a blue flashin g object w as approaching from the west,and it was m oving toward w hat w e thought was a star.


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M U F O N UFOJournal November 2000 Page 11Th e blue strobing craft appeared to run into the starmaking a bright blue flash upon impact. Th e star-likeobject started m oving like a craft and headed east. TheUFO that struck it became a stationary star-like objectand hovered there in the,same spot as the first. I haveseen many strange things, but this is the most incred-ible sighting that I have ever had. Thank God othersw itnessed this w ith m e." Thank s to Bil l [email protected].

Ohio multiple UFOs dazzleGIRARD Investigator Kenny You ng interview edRodney Happ ney of Youngstown, w ho reported sight-ing a UFO in Trumbull County on Sept. 19, 2000.Happney was formerly in the 82nd Airborne Infantryas a paratrooper and is very familiar with m any typesof aircraft.While driving north on Salt Springs Road between12:10 and 12:15 p.m., Happney caught a glimpse ofsom ething in the sky. "I just saw these things from thecorner of m y eye," he said. The nex t thing that caughtHappney's attention was a crowd of people standing inthe parking lot of a Sheetz Convenience store and gasstation. . , . . ,"This crowd of 25 people were all standing aroundlooking up, and I realized w e w ere looking at the samething, so I decided to pull in and stop." Th e objects,which were described as roundish star-like lights, inthe daytime sky, seemed "pretty high," yet below thethin cloud layer Happney observed a total of six inde-pendent objects. Some of the objects would shootstraight up above the clouds, w hile others w ould seemto roll around and reflect sunlight., They w ould perform quick "bee-like" maneuvers andthen assume a formation in what appeared from hisvantage point to be a straight line. "Two of these ob-jects from the rear of the straight-line formation wouldremain stationary while the rest of these things just fell,suddenly," Ha pp ney recalled. "They seemed to be fly-ing or buz zin g around real high, bu t there was no soundat all that I could hear."The objects continued to scatter about before theymade a rapid departure to the east. Happney said hehad never seen anything pull aw ay at the speed theseobjects traveled. "Nothing could compare to how fastthese things were going," he said, and declared thatthese objects were nothing that could be addressed witha satisfactory explanation. He was absolutely certainthey were no type of aircraft or m ilitary jets in practiceor mock combat.The crowd of spectators w as pretty worked up, ac-cording to Happney. After the objects departed fromsight, he reports that a C-5 military plane overflew thearea. "N o m ore than 15 or 20-seconds after these things

pulled aw ay." After the sighting, Happney w as excitedabout the occurrence, called 911, and eventually gotthe Youngstow n Airport. He w as informed that noth-ing was seen at the time in question. Happney w asadvised by the tow er operator to contact the NationalUFO Reporting Center and he did. Thanks to KennyYoung, UFO Research http://home.fuse.net/ufo/

Flattened triangle in MinnesotaMARSHALLOn Sept. 20, 2000, at 10:57 p.m.the witness "saw something out of the corner of myeye that at first I thought was a 'V formation of aflock of birds. I cupped my ear to listen, but it madeabsolutely no sound. It glided smoothly bu t quicklyfrom the north towards a south-southeasterly direc-tion. It spanned the portion of sky from Hercules toCapricornus (where I lost it behind the trees) in about5 seconds."It was shaped like a flattened out 'V.' At arm'slength it was about 3" across and about 1" long. Itsshape w as made up of m any pinpoints of w hite lights,not brilliant, about as bright as the average star. It w asa perfectly clear night, and the moon had not risenyet. I was outside just gazing at how spectacular theMilky Way looked w hen I saw it."I'm a 37-year-old m ale and ow n a hardw are store.I have a college degree in management, and I'm anavid starwatcher with telescope. I do not believe inextraterrestrial life, but I am puzzled by what I justs aw. " Th an k s to Peter D a v e n p o r t N U F O R Cwww.ufocenter.com

Arkansas contrailsJim Hickman writes, "Reference Filer's Files #39,I also saw those Arkansas contrails on Sept. 30.1w ason Interstate 40 between Memphis arid Little Rockwhen m y wife noticed several large white aircraft inthe area. They w ere producing strange white contrailsto our southwest that ended up in a strange patternalmost looking like a tic-tac-toe board in the sky, alongwith several circles."I also wanted to report a sighting m y wife and Ihad the night before at about 8 p.m. We were attend-ing the Mid-South Fair in Memphis, TN, when m ywife looked up and saw an object and pointed it out tom e. I saw a dimly lit object which appeared to be aslarge as a commercial aircraft that we had seen in thearea earlier, as we were in the flight path of Memphisairport. It didn't display any FAA lighting. I couldeasily judge it's relative size."This object was displaying only a dim gray col-ored light and it moved quickly from northeast to thesouthwest. It covered the sky from w here w e first sawit to the horizon in less then 15 seconds. I observed


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Page 12 November 2000 MUFON UFO Journalseveral "normal" aircraft in the area, including a po-lice helicopter." Thanks to Jim Hickman.

Nebraska UFOheats up carKILLDEER LAKE Scott Colborn reports: "Awom an came into my store and told m e she and a malefriend were parked by the lake when they saw a pair ofbright lights coming over the trees on Sept. 10,2000.Both of them noticed that the crickets and bugs wenttotally silent suddenly and simultaneously. The lightsflew tow ard them 40 feet above the ground just clear-ing the trees. Sh e felt 'they' w ere interested in the lakebecause it's drying up. 'They' then appeared to realizethat she and her friend were parked watching."The 'UFO lights' swung towards them, an d whenthe lights illuminated their vehicleand them inside, shesaid she and her male friend could feel the heat from

the beams of light. Then the lights swung away andturned back tow ards the trees and w ere gone from sight."Ever since this UFO sighting there has been a'ghost' in her basement. I asked her to tell me aboutthis ghost, and she said that she isn't seeing a clearoutline or features, but rather it is more like severalballs of light, but she was explicit in using the term'ghost' a num ber of times in our conversation. She saidshe thought the 'ghost' was a male-that was the im-pression shehad. They were going outto do more hunt-ing." Thanks to: Scott K Colborn@ inetnebr.com'" ' ' 'i v ' ' ' , ' ' i '

Hooded figures in 1996 Arizona encounterTUCSON In Novem ber of 1996, one of my room-mates and I experienced an encounter. For a month, Iwould see these dan cing lights ju st outside. I would becompelled to go or look outside. Also I would feel likeI w as being watched. I would be w atching TV and feela presence; but when I turned around I didn' t se e any-thing. I was scared to go to bed with all the lights out."I went to bed at 3 a.m. and I was very tired. All Iremember w as just laying m y head dow n. Nex t thing Iw as wide awak e and I couldn't move. T he w hole roomw as filled with this w hitish-bluish light, and I saw thistall hooded figure w alk across the window in m y room!I couldn't move and I was frightened. Then I got thiscalm feeling, and I guess I w ent out, because I openedm y eyes in the morning. I was wondering what hap-pened, and who was in my room. I know without ashadow of doubt there was someone there."M y roommate told m e he had something very simi-lar happe n to him too that night and he w oke up fright-ened and on the floor. The room was filled with thewhitish-bluish light and a tall hooded figure was hov-ering above him. He was scared out of his mind andw as w ondering w hat the heck is going on. Since then Ihav en' thad any encounters. I've seen the dancing lights

since I w as a child, but I don't want to encounter whatm y room m ate and I encountered again." Th ank s toElizabeth WallCalifornia discB ER K ELEY A witness reports, "O n Sept. 15 ,2000, at 8:57 p.m. w hile looking west over the PacificOcean jus t after sunset, an orange light w as seen about5 degrees above the horizon. At first we thought itwas a star or planet. It appeared to be pulsating. Wegot out our telescope and observed a black disc, andthis was surrounded by a pulsating orange halo. Itslowly m oved below the horizon in about 5 minutes."(Peter Davenport Note: "W e spoke briefly w ith thisw itness and addressed w hether the object might havebeen an aircraft flying west, reflecting light from thesetting sun. The witnesses reported that they had ad-dressed that possibility, and rejected it. They appar-ently got a very good look at the object, and found itto be exceptionally strange. Witnesses hold quite re-sponsible jobs.")Thanks toPeter D avenport NUFORCwww.ufoceriter.com

Air Force "UFO"?Popular Mechanics' cover story of the November2000 issue reports that the Air Force attempted to de-velop a Lenticular Reentry Vehicle (LRV) that was40 feet in diameter, 90 inches thick at the center, andhad an empty weight of 17,042 pounds. The craft w asdesigned to operate for six w eeks at an altitude of 300nautical m iles. It w as part of the black budget, classi-fied as secret on Dec. 12, 1962, and remained classi-fied until May 1999.Thereafter, the Department of Defense successfullysought to have the documents distribution restrictedto defense contractors. Popular Mechanics obtained acopy of the documents and speculates the LRV mayhave been responsible for some UFO sightings. Anengineering study describes a reentry heating test that,at the time, could have allegedly been accomplishedonly by a high-altitude drop of a flying prototype, prob-ably from a high altitude balloon. A friend of mineclaims to have seen the LRV at a Florida base in thelate 1960s.ThePopular Mechanics article also speculates thatan LRV crash m ay have been responsible for honey-comb-like debris Jean Fraser found during 1975 onher family's ranch in Brisbane. According to a reportby the University of New South Wales, the debris con-tained minerals commonly found in aircraft-grade fi-berglass panels. Based on the report, MUFON rejectedrumors that the debris was of alien origin. Aphoto onpage 68 com pares a bit of the debris to an LRV engi-neering draw ing.


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MUFON UFO Journal November 2000 Page 13

California sighting leaves driver perplexedIn February 1999, at 11:45 p.m., I was driving hom efrom a dinner at a friend's home in Cambria, CA. Ittakes about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes to drive home toSan Luis Obispo, CA . I w as ju st about to enter the citylimits, when up ahead about 30 0 yards in front of meand 75 feet above the highway, I observed a huge m as-sive light, lime-green, luminous object drifting/glid-ing across the h ighw ay up to the top of a hill, w here itstopped in mid-air. The outer edges of the craft wereluminous or fluorescent like neon lights. There wereno silver or metallic markings at all. I looked at mywatch, and it was exactly 11:45 p.m. I pulled my carover and turned m y radio off. This object m ade no noise.After 2 minutes, with m e more in awe than fright, Ijust stood there on the highway and said (to myself),

"My God what can this thing be?" It was clear andwell defined. There w ere no w indows. It was shapedlike a football. Its size was 1/2 of a baseball field. Itm oved from south to north and hovered for just aroundtw o m inutes. Then it started m oving a little m ore north,then headed east and, at literally incredible speed, ac-celeration was something out of science fictionnosonic boom and it was gone!I want to state here, I don't drink alcohol, I don't dodrugs, and I don't ev en drink coffee or caffeine. I wasw ide-awake and had all my senses. There w as no m iss-

ing time. My car did not stall. Other than the craft, Iobserved nothing else. This experience has changedmy life. I have always been a skeptic. Also, I w as alonein my car. I looked for other vehicles, and there werenone on m y side of the road and none on the oppositeside. Normally, this is a well-traveled highway.The object crossed the highway in front of me andwent up to the top of the hill, then it w as behind theradio tower located on the top of the hill. From m yvantage-point, the radio tow er was in front of me (look-ing toward the hill).Please help me to understand w hat this sighting w as.You folks have knowledge and scientific k now -howto explain this to a novice like m e. In my w hole life Ihave nev er observed anything like this. It was so closeto m e, not w ay up in the sky. I just w ish I had a cam-era. I work in law enforcement and I am afraid to tellor relate this for fear of ridicule.I did check into the police log for that night andnothing was reported. However, through my humbleattempts to investigate this, a friend's neighbor wom anreported observing this object. This woman lives on acattle ranc h jus t a mile south of the highw ay intersec-tion (at the hill). I have no way of contacting thiswoman.Eric N. Edwards


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Page 14 November 2000 M U F O N UFOJournal

From A irships to Arnold: A Preliminary Catalogueo f U FO Reports in the Early 20th Century (1900-1946) by Richard Hall, U F O Research Coalition(CUFQS, FUFOR, MUFON), 2000,81/2 by 11 pa-per, 34 pages, $8.00 plus $1.00 postage & handling.Reviewed by Dwight ConnellyAs one would expect from a researcher like DickHall, this is a well done compilation of some of thebest reports of the first half of the 20th Century. Hallincluded only reports which he felt were reasonablysubstantial, and which did not easily lend themselvesto prosaic ex planations.Hall acknowledges those researchers w ho have pro-vided much of the material for this publication, includ-ing Lou Parish, Jerry Clark, Eddie Bullard, BarryGreenwood, Loren Gross, and Jan Aldrich of the UnitedStates, plus B ill Chalker (Au stralia), A nders Liljegren(Sweden), Ole Jonny B raenne (Norway), and Domin-ique Weinstein (France).Hall notes that these reports may be somewhat lessvaluable than contemporary reports, due to possiblecontamination, faulty memories, or other factors, butconcludes that they are still interesting and still worthconsidering.Th e more than 100 reports in this collection dem-onstrate once again that the-UFO phenom enon did notbegin with Arnold or with Roswell, and that some ofthe reports of nearly 100 years ago are strangely simi-lar to curr ent reports. The March 17,1903, report fromHelmer, IN, is one example:"One hour plus after sunset. Father and daughterobserved brilliantly glowing cigar-shaped object withtwo rows of equally spaced w indow s, four in each row ,hovering jus t behind the upper branches of three mapletrees. He estimated that it was over 100 feet long. Ashe ran tow ard it, the object took o ff, slowly at first andthen accelerating rapidly in zig-zagging flight, thenheaded straight west at high speed."

Extraterrestrial Contact: What Will It Mean fo rHumani ty? , Issue Paper #2, by Dr. Steven J. Dick,Dr. Robert S. Ellwood, Dr. Charles F . Emmons, Dr.S. Peter Resta, and Dr. Thomas E. Bullard, editedby Richard Hall, Fund for UF O Research, P.O. Bo x277, M t. Ranier, M D 20722, 2000, 81/2 by 11 pa-per, 55 pages, $10.00plus $1.50 postage & handling.Reviewed by Dwight ConnellyIf w e assume that UFO occupants are extraterres-trial, then this compilation of the thoughts of fivePh.D. 's representing astronomy, religion, sociology,

psychology, and folklore as to how we m ight react toproof of their existence is apropos.This question has been dealt with before, of course,by NASA, D r. Barry Downing, and many others, in-cluding the French COMETA report. (The final sevenpages of this paper, in fact, are devoted to the "Politi-cal and Religious Implications" discussed in theCOMETA report.)Despite the credentials of all those w ho have dealtwith this question, we still don't know how the worldwould react to proof that UFO entities are extraterres-trial. M uch depends on w hat that proof consists of,what w e perceive the entities to look and act like, andwhat w e perceive to be their power and intent.These issues, which should be of concern to worldleaders, are ably discussed in this paper, and there isenough new material presented to m ake this presenta-tion worthwhile

"Taming Gravity" by Jim Wilson, Popular M e-chanics, October, 2000, pages 40-43.Reviewed by Dwight ConnellyOne of the mysteries of UFOs involves flight char-acteristics, and this in turn often involv es question sconcerning the possibility of devices that can some-how affect gravity. Mainstream scientists have tradi-tionally claimed that an antigravity device is theoreti-cally imp ossible. That may be changing to > some ex-tent.Ning Li, one of the world's leading scientists, pre-dicted in the 1980's that if a time-varying m agneticfield w ere applied to superconductor ions trapped in alattice structure, the ions would begin to spin rapidly,causing each ion to create a minuscule gravitationalfield. In a high temperature superconducting disc(HTSD), the tiny gravitational effect of each individu alatom is multiplied by the billions of atoms in the disc.Li says that, using about one kilowatt of electricity,her device could p otentially produce a force field thatwould effectively neutralize gravity above a one-foot-dia. region extending from the surface of the planet toouter space. Thus far the device being developed isonly a 12-inch-diameter disc, but w hen completed isexpected to generate a force field powerful enough tosupport a bow ling ball placed anyw here above the disc.Jonathan Campbel l , a scientist at the N A S AMarshall Space Flight Center who is working with Li,explains, "The first thing to understand about Li's de -vice is that it is neither an antigravity machine nor agravitational shield. It does not modify gravity. Ratherit produces a gravity-like field that may be either at-tractive or repulsive."Since the device can be either attractive or repul-sive, Li refers to it as AC gravity. She says the devicegenerates a never-before-seen force field that acts on


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MUFON UFOJournal November 2000 Page 15matter in a way that is similar to gravity.Larry Smalley, former chairman of the Universityof Alabama at Huntsville Physics Department, says,"Basically you are adding a couple of vectors to zerogravity out or enhan ce it." Einstein's theory of rela-tivity predicts this effect. All objects produce gravito-magnetic energy, the amount of force proportional toits mass and acceleration.Th e reason this energy has not been detected, saysLi, is because the Earth spins so slow ly, and the field'sstrength decreases rap idly as you m ove aw ay from thecenter of the planet.Although the ions have a minuscule mass, they ro-tate more than a quadrillion times a second, comparedwith the massive Earth's rotation of once a day. Lisays this tremendous speed of rotation will compen-

sate for the small mass of the ions. If a large enoughdisc is constructed, the cumulative field should bemeasurable, says Li, and an even larger disc shouldenable scientists to control the force field.While Li's device ha s passed the preliminary steps,including peer review, several million dollars ar eneeded to build the induction motor that individuallyspins the ions in the HTSD.When and if developed, the device has consider-able potential. Says Cam pbell: "It's a gravity-like forceyou can poi nt in any direction. It could be used inspace to protect the international space station againstimpacts by sm all m eteoroids and orbital debris." (Thisapplication rings a ufological bell as we recall witnessreports of what appeared to be force fields aroundlanded UFOs.)

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, M ANAG E M E NT AND CIRCULATION1. Publication Title: MUFON UF O Journal2. Publication No . 0029703. Filing Date: Oct. 19 , 20004. Monthly5. No of issues published annually : 126. Annual subscription price: USA $30, Foreign $357. Complete mailing address of known Office of Publication:103 Oldtowne Rd., Seguin, (Guadalup e) Texas 78155-4099Ph: 830-379-92168. Com plete address of the Headquarters: Mutu al UFO Netw ork,10 3 Oldtowne Rd., Seguin, Texas 78155-40999. Full names and complete addresses of publisher, editor andmanaging editor: Publisher: John F. Schuessler, P.O. B ox 369,Morrison, CO 80465-0369; Editor: Dwight Connelly, 14026

Ridgelawn, Martinsville, IL 62442; Managing Editor: Walter H.Andrus, Jr., 103 Oldtowne Rd., Seguin, Texas 78155-409910 . Owner: M U FO N /M utua l UF O Network, Inc. P.O. B ox 369,Morrison, CO 80465-0369 A Texas No nprofit Corporation TINo . 37-0990161 and exempt from Federal Income Tax underSections 501 (c) (3) and 509 (a) (2) of the Internal Revenue Code.11. Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holdersowning or holding one percent or more of the total amount ofbonds, mortgages or other securities: NO NE12. For completion by nonprofit organizations authorized to mailat specific rates: Has not changed during preceding 12 months.13. Publication Nam e: MUFON U FO Journal14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below : Sept. 8, 2000.15 . Extent and nature of circulation:

Average No . copies each issueduring preceding 12 months

3025. Total No . copies (net press run)b. Paid and/or requested circulation

1) Sales throug h dealers & carriers (no t m ailed)2) Paid or requested mail subscriptions

c. Total paid and/or requested circulationd. Free distributions by m ail (samples, com plimentary,and other free copies)e. Free distribution outside the mailf. Total free distribution (sum of 15d & 15e)g. Total distribution (sum of 15c & 15f)h. Copies no t distributedi. Total (sum of 1 5 g & 15h)Percent P aid and/or Requested circulation16 . Publication of Statement of Ownership will be printed in the November 2000 issue.

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Page 16 November 2000 MUFON UFOJournal

Carlsbad revisitedI read with interest Bill Dungan Jr.'s letter to theeditor about Carlsbad. First off, I would rather no t havem y nam e used at this point. I am one of y our investiga-tors (not trained), but I am also working full time forthe INS as a naturaliza tion exa m iner. I retired fromthe U.S. Border Patrol in 1990 as patrol agent in chargeof a large station at Campo, CA. I reinstated as an an-nuitant with INS in 1997 w ith the Citizenship USAprogram and will remain with that fo r another yearprobably, then I would like to get into UFO investiga-tions.Now, about Carlsbad. I was stationed there from No-vember of 1960 until April of 1965. During that timethere was a lot of UFO activity and some really strangethings going on around that area from White Sands(Alamogordo) to north of Roswell. During that timethe old AEC had an office in Carlsbad and they finallydid an un derground atomic bomb shoot in one of thepotash mines in 1964,1 believe.We used to go by the A EC office and visit with thetwo-way radio tech, Jim Divens. He was one of thosenatural radio guys, self taught, who got on with AECwhen he was about 24. Jim used to fix our radios inour patrol v ehicles because w e could never get our own

techs to come up from El Paso Sector HQ because ofthe distance.Anyway, Jim told us about some really strange thingsaround the area and near La s Vegas. They used to sendhim up there to work on undergrou nd shoots. I believehe w as in Area 51 , but he said he was sworn to secrecyabout the names of places he went. I believe he died ata young age (about 27 ) from going down in the "hotholes" right after a nuclea r shoot. He would tell us aboutdoing that, and we told him he was crazy.Anyway, he told us that there were undergro und in -stallations around that the military had. One, he said,w as a gigantic underground base located northeast ofRoswell, NM, in that desert area between there andClovis, NM. We went scouting around out there onetime in a 4X, and it is one big sand dun e nothing.Jim said they had found a limestone cavern out therethat literally dw arfed the Carlsbad C averns. It w as bigenough to fly planes into, he said, through a slidingdoor that hid the entrance, somew hat like the old mis-sile silos. Jim also said there were other such installa-tions that were found connected to the Carlsbad Cav-erns.I know that country west of the Caverns. It is rug-

ged and remote. I also kno w that ranch country east ofCarlsbad in the Lincoln National Forest. We used totrack aliens up there. There were also some UFOsightings above that area. I have tw o friends who sawthem-one at night and another during daytime. Thedaytim e story w as most likely an abduction from whatI was told by this young guy and his wife who weredriving back to Carlsbad from El Paso.Anyway , don't forget that Carlsbad also had anArmy Air Corps base during WW II. It is not wellknown, but one of our Border Patrol pilots used to flyup from El Paso, and he told m e about it one time. Hetook me around to the various touch-and-go strips allover the area and west Texas where he used to prac-tice with bombers before going overseas.But Jim Bivens told m e about all the caverns in thearea and rumors he had heard about them (he neverclaimed to have been in any of them-only in Nev ada.)God, I w ish I could hav e talked to him before he died.He m ight have been able to shed a lot of light on somethings around Area 51. We were pretty close friends.So, Carlsbad m ay ju st well be as interesting a po intfor UFOs as Roswell. There may be some secrets hid-den underground all over eastern New Mexico. Myex-partner was in charge of the Alamogordo BorderPatrol station from about 1977 until he retired in about1986 or so.I was in Indio, CA, w ith the B P at the time w hen astrange story got to me about tw o border patrol agentsprow ling around the McGregor Missile range south ofWhite Sands. They reportedly saw a strange outcrop-ping of land, like a volcanic cone. They climbed up itto find it hollowed out like a crater with a flying sau-cer parked at the bottom being attended by Air Forcepersonnel. They got away from the area and after workm et w ith other agents at a local w atering hole and weretelling about what they saw.Reportedly a couple of guys in black suits showedup at the bar and asked them to come along. They werereportedly transferred immediately out of the area tothe East Coast as plain clothes investigators.I called my old partner (nam e on file with MUFON,bu t not for publication) and asked him about the ru-mored event. He flatly answered me, "I don't knowanything about it!" I had an opportunity to ask himface to face about it at his home in Alamogordo aboutthree years ago and he just looked at me flatly andrepeated, "No such thing ever happened!" End of sub-ject.We hav e been friends for a long time and worked aspartners several years in Carlsbad, and from the wayhe said it, I knew it was the end of the subject and hew as saying nothing more. He is an ex-Marine, a verypatriotic Am erican, and a good g uy, and if the guy s in


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MUFON U F O Journal November 2000 Page 17the black suits had told him to clam up , that is exactlywhat he w ould have done an d would carry the secretto his death bed. He is that kind of m an. So, make of itwhat you will.I had a friend, Ray Ahlstrom , who lived in Carlsbadwhen I did. He is also an ex-Marine Raider WWII, asolid gu y, who died a couple of years ago. He told m eabout the sighting of a UFO over that area Bill Dungantalks about, Canyo n Ridge. Ray did not see the UFO sclose enough to ID them, but saw them around thatmountain area on a couple of occasions, as he told meback in about 1965. His son-in-law and daughter werethe ones w ho reported the possible abduction nearCarlsbad C averns in the daytime that I m entioned ear-lier. They did not really know what had happened tothem at the time.Well, all for now. Please contact me perhaps I canrecall som e other things about Carlsbad.

COMETA commentsI hav e ju st received, in France, recent issues of theInternational UFO R eporter (IUR) of CUFOS (Sum-mer) and the MUFON UFO Journal (October). B othfeature an article on the French Cometa Report, pub-lished last year.I f o u n d th e CUFOS article, edited by Ma r kRodegheir, excellent. Thank you to CUFOS and IURfor this good piece of inform ation. My only criticismwould be to the overestimated meaning of the trans-formation of GEPAN into SEPRA: the real meaningw as to downscale that service, reducing it to a one-m an operation (engineer Velasco) with a very limitedrole. It is known that the Director of CNES has nointerest in UFOs and strongly dislikes the publicappearences of that engineer.I am less pleased with the article in the Journal,"The Cometa Report-AThird view," signed by Frenchufologist Claude Mauge. He starts by pointing ou t thatm y article, p ublished in the MUFON UFO Journal inSeptember, 1999, had a misleading title: "A quasi-of-ficial D ocum ent." B ut I never wrote that title! The/ow r-na l did it, and I strongly disagree, like Mauge, with

that title.I would appreciate a correction made in the nextissue. For the record, I am the one who corrected anannouncement made by Pery Petrakis on the "IHEDNReport" to poin t out that the authors are an independantgroup called "Cometa" (see his message of July 13,and mine of July 17 on UFO UpDates).Mauge accuses COM ETA of having misrepresentedits report as an "official" one. This is not true, in m yopinion. Yes, there was a m ention on the cover of the

public edition "The C onfidential Report G iven To ThePresident And The Prime M inister," but that does notmean it was "official." It just meant what it said.Another point: in his preface General Norlain,former Director of the very official IHEDN" (Instituteof Advanced Studies for National D efense) stressesthat many of the authors have been members of thatinstitute, but he does not say that it is a report by theinstitute.All in all, this is a second-rate quarrel, which missesthe m ain point that several senior officers of high rankhave come out to speak about UFOs and say they arereal and probably of extraterrestrial origin.Claude Mauge is a typical French "psycho-socio-logical" ufologist, w ho explains all UFO sightings bymundane factors. So it is kind of shocking to him tosee a bunch of generals put forward the ETH hypoth-esis.

Hence, his systematic attack on COMETA. Ironi-cally, he reproaches them for not having talked of ab-ductions. I wonder what he would have said if theyhad?His conclusion is that the m ere existence of that re-port suggests that "there is no secret investigation aboutUFOs in France." Seems to be a reasonable conclu-sion, but it also seem s to be like pushing an open door.-Gildas BourdaisEditor's Note: Readers (and critics) should beaware that in most publications th e headlines are

not written by the authors of the articles (exceptmaybe in quasi-official reports).

July 20-22,2001-MUFON 2001 International UFOSymposium, Hyatt Regency Irvine, Irvine, CA . Theme:Joining the Cosmic Neighborhood.M U F O N Merchandise

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Page 18 November 2000 MUFON UFO JournalUfology ProfileHuneeus at home throughout th e world

By Dwight ConnellyAntonio Huneeus, MUFON's International Coor-dina tor and C ontin ent al Coordinator for SouthAmerica, w as born in New York City in 1950, grewup in Chile, and is at home virtually anywhere in theworld.His U.S. birth and resulting U.S. citizensh ip occurredwhile his father w as serving as a United Nations offi-cial in New York. While growing up , An tonio attendedAmerican schools in Santiago, Chile, and in Ecuadorbecause his father wanted him tolearn English. He also studiedFrench at Sorbonne and journal-ism at the University of Chile.In Chile he w orked as a sciencejournalist. "I had no particular in-terest in UFOs at the time," he re-calls, "and thought that if scien-tists weren't talking about themit w as probably not a very seri-ous topic." .In 1975 Antonio came to the Antoni HuneeusU.S. to claim his citizenship, a 24-year-old would-bew riter with little m oney and few connections. "I couldread and speak English," he explains, "but I couldn'twrite it very well, so as a journalist it w as a little toughto get started."He tried various things, living in Washington, D.C.,for awhile before moving to New York City. Abouttw o years after coming back to the U.S. he wrote hisfirst UFO article."This w as about the fam ous Corporal V aldez casein Chile," he says. "M y brother sent m e the clippingsfrom Chile. I don't know w hy, because I w asn 't inter-ested in the subject, but it had been published in im-portant papers in Chile." There was a newspaper inNew York called the New York Daily Planet whichhad a section on UFOs, so Antonio decided to write upthe story and see if they would use it. They d id, send-ing him a check for $15.00. "This was the first articleI had published in English," says Antonio."This w as an interesting time for ufology," he notes."Peter Gersteh and others were getting material throughthe FOIA, which ha d recently been passed. CA US w asactive/Then there was the UN initiative with PrimeMinister Gairy of Granada."Although Huneeus had written only a few UFO ar-ticles by the time the UN hearing w as held in 1978, hesays he "somehow managed to get invited" to the UNhearing as a member of the press. He met J. Allen

Hynek and Jacques Vallee there, and his interest inufology continued to grow. "It was very, very excit-ing," he recalls.As a result of the UN m eeting, Antonio met the lateColman VonKeviczky, founder and director of .Inter-continental Galactic Spacecraft Research an d AnalyticN e t w o r k . "I guess he became m y mentor," saysHuneeus. "I was still a newcomer in the field. I hadread a couple of books maybe and written a few ar-ticles."VonKeviczky, a native of Hungary, had extensiveinternational contacts, as well as a good collection ofbooks and documents. "He needed young blood forhis organization, and he needed someone to help himwith his English," says Huneeus. "I was full of enthu-siasm and needed to learn. It was perfect."Antonio also made contacts with magazines over-seas, including one in Spain called Unknown World.This led to some articles, but he was still unable tom ake enough m oney by w riting to support himself.His next interesting contact w as Pete M azzola, w how as with an organization called Scientific Bureau ofInvestigation (SBI). "He w as a New Y ork City policedetective, and had a lot of cops in his organization,and I joined them ," says Antonio. "SBI helped m elearn some investigative techniques, and their sym po-sium in Albany in 1983 was the first symposium I lec-tured at."His first MUFON symposium was in 1982 inToronto, where he f irst m et Walt Andrus. LenStringfield, w ho had been at the UN presentation, w ason hand, as was Hynek and others. "I conducted a lotof interview s," says Huneeus. He joined MUFON thenext year.One of his sisters moved to Houston, and Antoniow as able to work w ith John Schuessler and "a k ind ofUFO underworld at the Johnson Space Center." Hew as writing articles and a column for the New YorkCity Tribune at this time.MUFON tapped him to be a research specialist, thenSouth Am erica coordinator. "I used to go to SouthAmerica quite often, and I wrote a lot about SouthAmerica," he notes. "By the late 1980's I startedbranching into more international things, includingRussian sightings-giants seen in a park and so on. Ialso met a lot of Russian ufologists at a symposium inFrankfurt, Germany, in 1989. This was the first timeRussian ufologists had been allowed to travel outsidetheir country."Using his Russian contacts, H uneeus p ublished a


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M U F O N U F O Journal N o v e mb e r 2000 Page 19book in 1990, Psychic an d Paranormal Phenomena inth e USSR, which he calls "a sm all study guide." It isnow out of print.In the early 1990's he began w orking w ith Japaneseufologists, bu t continued hi s attendance at symposiain Spain an d other places. He w as now also giv ing pre-sentations, including a talk at the 1990 MUFON sym-posium in Pensacola. "W orking w ith the Japanese w asvery good," says An toni o, "especially fin ancially . Theypaid very well, and I ended up going to Japan threetimes on projects."In 1990 he was appointed International Coordina-tor for MUFON.Huneeus did some work on Belgian cases, due tohis knowledge of French, and in 1995 was contactedto work on the UFO Briefing Document, which w aspublished in 1996 by the UFO Research Coalition,which MUF ON is part of. It is to be printed com m er-cially by Dell, and edited by Whitley Strieber-the firstof a series to be edited by Strieber."Joe Firmage ha s bought the Internet rights for thedocument," exp lains Huneeus. "It was meant for VIPs,the m edia, Congress, and so on, includ ing overseas. Itwas w idely distributed in France, and did its job betterthere than in the U.S., and the COMETA Report quotesthe document several times. Probably the UFO Brief-in g Document had the least impact in the U.S., maybebecause there was no organized plan of distribution orfollow-up."Huneeus says he gave a copy of the document toGen. Vega, form er comm ander of the Chilean Air Forceand now an imp ortant senator "who is very interestedin UFOs." Antonio attended a conference earlier thisyear in Chile. "This was the first anywhere that wassponsored by an air force. It was part of a very largeinternational expo called International Expo of Aero-nautics an d Space," explains Antonio. "It was basi-cally an arms bazaar, but a UFO symposium was partof it, coordinated by this committee which is undercivil avia tion, but integrated w ith the Air Force."He says he does "see m ovem ent" internationally inthe UFO field. "I don't know of any formal meetingof the governments of the world," he says. "I'm no tinto conspiracies, and I don 't think there is an interna-tional UFO coverup. The majority of countries areju st stretched out for funds. Some of the more wealthycountries, such as the U.S. or Brazil, may have UFOprojects. B ut England is worse than the U.S. when itcomes to releasing documents. No FOIA. After 30years the B ritish declassify only d ocum ents that theywant to.""Huneeus notes that the little country of San Marinoin Europe has had a large UFO conference for manyyears. "It's open to everyone, an d there is no fee, bu t

the m ain indu stry there is tourism. They fill a theatrewith 700 people w ho have to get hotel rooms, eat, an dotherwise spend money. It's sponsored by the Depart-ment of tourism, but it allows international ufologiststo interact-and it's not too expensive."Huneeus is keeping b usy w ith various projects, in-cluding a regular column fo r Fate Magazine. He hasalso worked on a Chilean TV series, interv iew ing suchAm erican notables as Peter Sturrock, Joh n Schuessler,Richard Haines, Budd Hopkins, and Zecharia Sitchin.He's also in the early stages of a history project w hic hhe does not w ant to discuss jus t yet.Antonio is somewhat surprised that there are fewforeign ufology books translated into English fo r salein the U.S. "There is a whole world of ufology outthere that I think Americans ar e mostly missing," hesays.Huneeus also notes what he calls "an interesting

trend" in recent years of phil antro pi sts fina ncin gprojects. "I have worked with the commercial side,an d w ith philanthropists, and I prefer the philantropist.You don't have to sell yourself out."

California sighting similarto on e reported following dayMalcolm Uhl, a MUFON investigator trainee andham radio operator located on the Feather River Can-yon, Belden, CA., ha s sent the following report:"On June 16, 1999, tw o couples and myself weresitting at the campground fire ring at 2:30 p.m. talk-ing. To ou r left was Caribou Road, EN E of Belden. Atapproximately 35 degrees to the horizon was a largemetallic craft 50 feet in length, stationary, bright sil-ver in color, and apparently noiseless."In the July issue of the Journal on page 9 is a per-fect sketch of this craft. It was observed by two goldprospectors on June 17 (one day after we saw it) atapproximately the same time while working on theirgold claim on Rush Creek. Thai i ^ i n th e general di -rection of ENE of the Caribou C a m p g r o u n d ."I am sorry this report is late. I had j heart attack, socouldn't get out much."

U F O reports & publicationsMUFON and the Journal need your reports. Th eJournal editor would also appreciate receiving pub -lications of MUFON groups so we can learn aboutyour activities an d pub licize them nationally and in-ternationally.


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Page 20 N o v e mb e r 2000 M U F O N U F O JournalA Tribute to MUFON'sSeguin office people

By Walt AndrusDur ing the 25 years that MUFON has been head-quartered in Seguin, TX, we have had several officesecretaries. T hree of them hav e pla yed significant rolesan d conversed by te lephone with m a n y of our m e m -bers, achieving a first nam e basis. This article is basi-cally a t r ibute to each of them and a thank you for theirdedicated work.VIRGINIA CASTN ERVirginia firsl became in vo lved w i t h M U F O N inSe guin w h e n she typed the master copies for theM U F O N 1977 U FO Symposium

Proceedings m ih e spr in g o f1977. "Jinny" was em ployed byMUFON in October of 1977 an dhas worked with us for 23 years.She was born Sept. 27 , 1936,in Cambridge, OH. She and herhusband, John, have one daugh-ter, "Becky," and six grandchil-dren. She had n um ero us civ il ser-vice jobs associated with the U.S. N a v y as her h u sban d mo ved tonew assignments . John passed aw ay on May 18,1998.Virginia became ou r office manager in 1980 and waspromoted to MUF ON Assis tant Treasurer in 1995,w o rk in g wi t h T o m M . Whitmore, our present corpo-rate Treasurer.PHYLLIS H. HUTSO NPhyll is was hired by M U F O N as .1 se t rciary inApril of 1991 an d retired in September of 1997 10 helph e r h u s b a n d , K e i t h , w i t h th ecler ical work of his job as aw o r l d w i d e c o n s u l t a n t in theC o m p o s i t e s T e x t i l e s I n d u s t r y .Keith w as formerly th e M U F O NS t a t e S e c t i o n D i r e c t o r f o rGuadalupe Co u n ty .They h ave two m arried daugh-ters and one grandson. Phyll isw o r k e d as a s e c r e t a r y atR a n d o l p h A F B f rom 1956 to Phyllis Hutson1988. Born in Wisconsin , Phy ll is , moved to Seguin in1956, where she and her h u sban d still reside.

Virginia Castner

ELIZABETH AN N K N O W L E SA n n , as she prefers to be called, started at MUFONon Sept. 9 , 1997. She and her h u sban d , M ich ae l J.Knowles , are both retired schoolteachers. They hav e two grow nm arried children w ith one grand-child.Ann was born in Brownwood,TX,onFeb. 11,1936. In additionto her career as a teacher, Annw o r k e d .u the Pen tag o n f ro m1956 to I 9 S S js a secretary to aLt. C o l o n e l i n the U. S. A r m yShe and Mik e moved to Seguin Ann Knowlesin June of 1996. Her hobbies include sewing crafts.She acquired her Masters degree in 1981.B oth V irginia and Ann con tinued to provide cleri-ca l and bookkeeping services to M UF ON after the of-ficial move to Littleton, CO, on Sept. 3, 2000, unt i ltrained personnel were available in the Denver area.For me, it has has been a distinct pleasure workingwith these congenial and cooperative ladies.Andrus presented Gray BarkerLifetime Achievement Award

Walter H. Andrus, Jr., w ho served as In ternationalDirector of the Mu tual UFO Netw ork from 1970 un -til this past July, was presented the Gray Barker Me-morial Lifet ime A ch ievemen t A w ard at the 34th A n-nual National UFO Con ference in Corp us Christi , TX,on Sept. 23.The award was accepted by Dennis Stacy, formereditor of the Journal, on behalf of Andrus, who wasattending the funeral of his wife Jean n e ."I 'm ver y honored to have been recognized in thismanner by Jim Moseley and the National UFO Con-ference," said Andrus.2000 M U F O N S Y M P O S I U M P RO C E E D IN G STheme: UFOs in the New Millennium in St. Louis,M O. (274 pages) Published papers of thirteen of theleading UFO researchers Price $25.00 plu s $1.75for P& H. Send order lo MU FO N , P .O . B ox 369,Morrison, CO 80465-0369

M U F O N M U G SOfficial MUF ON ceramic m ugs w ith blue logo,$8.00, plus $3.50 S&H. MUFON, P.O. Box 369,Morrison, CO 80465-0369. (Check, money order,or cash in U.S. dollars.)


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M U F O N U F O Journal November 2000 Page 21

PerspectiveO n the graying of Ufology

The prominently featured retirement of Walt Andrusas International Director of MUFON and my ow n mile-stone of reaching the big 7-0 in Decem ber hav e causedme to think long and hard about the fact that we arereaching the end of an era. As an active participant inthe UFO Research Coalition, I look around for the"Young Turks" who are going to replace us w h e n w efade awa y, and I am disturbed by w hat I see.Also, at a recent board m eeting of the Fun d for UFOResearch, Dick Haines asked us to look around thetable at the "graybeards" present and to think aboutthe transition problem. During our "watch," the re-ported nature of the UFO phenomenon has changeddrastically from one of unide ntified airborne objectsto alleged intimate interaction with alien beings. Re-search an d investigation are more complicated thanever, and where is the cadre of younge r people to leadthe w ay?To be sure, you can find on the interne t m any brightyoung people (along with all too many highly opin-ionaied egomaniacs) w ho accomplish some good work.B ut ihey arc not "joiners," their work tends to get cir-culated only privately to a few people, an d peer re -view is almost nonex istent. There is no public or trulyscientific (in the full sense) component to their worksuch as the major organizations practice: public edu-cation, systematic data gathering and investigation, an dsymposia an d semi nars to exchange information an dto interact with col leagues.M y first awareness ol UFOs was as a high schoolstudent some 50 years ago. First I collected randomnewspaper stories, then gradually got more and moreinvolved. The need for organization and peer groupcooperation w as obvious to me, and I have workedwith several organizations over the years.Today, the UFO subject is more associated with "en-tertainment" in the public mind than it is with a "sci-entific m ystery." A ll those "pop-schlock" documenta-ries, 95% of wh ich are not worthy of the name, don 'thelp. They cheapen an d trivialize th e subject , an d sel-dom display any cri tical ju dg m en t at al l . Hoax photosan d con-men ar e thrown in equal ly with serious facts.To m e, the survival of w ell-organized, scientificallyoriented UFO research is of top-rank, even urgent,importance. Without it , so-called ufology w ill disap-pear entirely, fade into folklore and m y t h , and an en-

tirely garbled and inaccurate history of the phenom-enon and h um an reactions to it will be our legacy. Th edebunkers w ill have w on. Solo op erators on the internetan d part-t ime weekend "researchers" may be able toge t some personal satisfaction out of their hobby, butwha t good will it be doing hum ani t y?The major organizations hove a serious problem inf inding good people to recruit , get i nvol ved , an d men-tor. The "talent pool" seems lo be very thin. Probablythe main reasons for this are a lack of focus, a lack of acarefully crafted plan of action, and of course a lack offinancial resources.Starting n ex t year, I plan to cut back on my UFO-related activit ies somewhat for two simp le reasons: (1 )it is past t ime for me to build up my retirement nestegg (there is little money to be made in UFOs unlessyo u are a sensationalist) ; and (2) I w a n t to do somewriting for pay on other subjects that are fun for me,an d that also have prospects for generating some roy-

alty income for my retirement. M y interest in the UFOphenomenon is as strong as ever, but one person ca ndo only so m uch.Meanwhi le , I have high hopes fo r The UFO Evi-dence, Volume / / , which about now is going to pressfor December release. If properly rev iewed, m arketed,an d distributed, it has the potential to give badly neededfocus to UFOs and to attract the type of sup port that isso badly needed.

M U F O N Symposium 2000 baseball cap, navyblue,white lettering-$ 10.00 each. MUFO N Sym po-sium 2000 but tons, navy blue,white lettering-Si .0 0each.O ur video offer is: All tapes are $25.00 each.Call 1-800-489-4UFO. (tape o n e ) Walt An drus trib-ute, John Schuessler; Jesse Marcel , Sr. interview ,Linda Corley; N.I.D.S.research, Colm Kelleher.( tape tw o) Missing t ime on v ideo, John Carpenter;Chemtrai ls an d U.F.O.'s, Gregory Avery; New Ma-jestic documents, Robert Wood. (tape three ) TheF a i lur e of UFO Skep t i c i sm, Bruce Maccabee;R o s w e l l , M J - 1 2 D o c u m e n t s , n ew m i l l e n n i u m ,Stanton Friedman, (tape four) 35 yrs of landing tracecases, Ted Ph illips, Jr.; Inside the B lack V ault, J ohnGreenewald, Jr.; Pennsylvania Mysterious Encoun-ters, Stan Gordon, (tape five ) Mystery of Aviano,Lt. Col. Gerald Rowles; 1962 Las Vegas Crash,Kevin R andl e ; Q& A panel , most speakers.Please send check to : Missouri M.U.F.O.N.,P.O. Box 643, StCharles, MO63302


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Page 22 November 2000 M U F O N U F O Journal

As noted in an earl ier issue, th e display at the Westmoreland M a l l in Greensburg, PA , organizedby Stan Gordon for the first day of National UFO Information week, attracted a huge crowd. Thedisplay featured 18 eight-foot tables with photos, governme nt documents,books, magazines,a Roswelldisplay by Tom Carey, info on the 1965 Kecksburg crash, material on Pennsylvania Bigfoot reports,continuous video, and free handouts. Scott Corrales, editor of Inexplicata, the journal of the In sti-tute of Hispanic UFOlogy, was on hand to talk with th e public. M uch media publicity an d severalreports were generated.N o Mor e A ds Accepted

The MUFON Board of Directors at their annual meeting on J u l y 16, voted to discont

Documents

Ufo Journal