UFO Secrecy

Donald E. Keyhoe (1897-1988)

Documented accounts of UFO secrecy between 1955 and 1960 reveal policies and actions initiated by United States government officials that are still influencing contemporary perceptions about UFO and contactee cases.  The responsibilities of contemplating the UFO evidence has often been delegated to military jurisdictions and this has emphasized uncertainties among people who have no knowledge of the subject.  My previous blog articles in their totality indicate how apprehensions about UFO potentialities are unjustified. 

Reports that were declassified in 1985 reveal Senator Richard B. Russell, Jr. experienced a UFO sighting while he was aboard a train in the Soviet Union in 1955.  The National UFO Reporting Center article “Looking Back” — “October 1955"  by Bob Gribble includes the following:

Mr. Tom Towers, in his January 20, 1957 column “Aviation News,” for the Los Angeles, CA, Examiner, printed the contents of a letter from Senator Russell, which was in response to a request for information about the sightings in Russia.  Mr. Towers had originally contacted Senator Russell’s office by letter with the request that he be given permission to “break” the story.  The Senator wrote: “Permit me to acknowledge your letters relative to reports that have come to me regarding aerial objects seen in Europe last year.  I received your letter, but I have discussed this matter with the affected agencies of the government, and they are of the opinion that it is not wise to publicize this matter at this time.  I regret very much that I am unable to be of assistance to you.”  The letter was dated 17 January, 1956.

A particularly revealing series of events commenced when Major Donald E. Keyhoe, USMC Ret., appeared in the CBS “Armstrong Circle Theatre” telecast "UFO: Enigma of the Skies" in 1958 and his commentary was censored.  Keyhoe’s first of five books on the subject of UFOs was published in 1950 and he became a prominent media spokesman on the topic.  The telecast may be heard online at archive.org.

This censoring became a subject for discussion on the after midnight-to-dawn New York radio show “The Party Line” hosted by Long John Nebel.  The show was often devoted to discussions of UFOs and other unexplained phenomena that were at times deliberated in a somber manner yet punctuated by the host's intermittent refrain of "As an individual I don't buy the flying saucer stories but I don't think you're interested in my opinion."

The “UFOlogy” Audio Archive of UFO History anthology disc of MP3 tracks includes Nebel’s commentary about the “Armstrong Circle Theatre” incident and his interview with the TV show episode’s writer Irving Tunic.  The audio recording from 1-23-1958 is also included on a more extensive MP3 CD compilation of Nebel broadcasts that I obtained from theufostore.com.  I’ve transcribed some of the statements heard on two memorable MP3 tracks that presented a repeat broadcast of portions of several original interview broadcasts.

Nebel stated, “Major Donald E. Keyhoe — United States Marine Corps Flyer Retired and author of three books on UFOs commonly called 'flying saucers' and presently director of National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena of Washington, D.C. — was a guest on the ‘Armstrong Circle Theatre’ Wednesday night, the 22nd of January, 1958 . . . (several minutes later) . . . Keyhoe made this statement: ‘I would like to make a disclosure that has never been revealed to the public.’  Now at this point fade began — in other words, the microphone seemed like — just like at home if somebody got up to your volume control and turned it down slowly.  Now according to two private citizens, possibly many more — but two of them that knew enough how to record this even at that low volume told me that this was the balance of the statement.  I will read it for you.  ‘For the last six months, our committee has been working with a senate committee which is investigating UFOs.  If the hearings are held in open hearing, I feel it will prove beyond doubt that the flying saucers are real.  In order to secure the information we need, we suggest that all of the citizens write to’ — and at this point there was a true cut.  There was absolutely no sound.  Now according to a lip-reader that contacted me, I’ve been told that the last two words were ‘your congressman.’  Now no sooner had the video cut to Douglas Edwards, who was the emcee of the show, when the telephones began to ring.  Now actually a large number of viewers wanted to know what Keyhoe had said and they also wanted to know what had happened.  Many of them naturally were crying censorship and within hours a series of statements were issued to the wire services, most of them attributed to CBS spokesmen.  And also a phone report was made by Irving Tunic, the writer of the show who sat in for Kenneth Arnold, and, of course, actually I’m the one that received that report . . .

(later in the broadcast) ". . . about, oh, 2:15 or 2:30 the morning of January 23rd, I received a telegram from Irv Tunic.  Now Mr. Tunic was the writer of the ‘Armstrong Circle Theatre’ for that particular telecast.  Irv Tunic.  Now let me read the telegram.  I have it in front of me now . . . ‘As the writer of “Armstrong Circle Theatre” extremely anxious to give you all the facts on the Keyhoe incident.  Have been up since five.  Am in need of sleep badly.  Would appreciate your call if you really want authentic report.’  Now at that time when I received that telegram I contacted Mr. Irving — Mr. Irv Tunic at his home . . . Now we recorded that conversation.  It was a beeper phone conversation.  And so that you can be brought up to date what Mr. Tunic had to say about that particular telecast we’re going to play that back for you right now . . . ”

Tunic said that while driving home from the studio he’d heard discussion on “The Party Line” about the telecast.  One fact revealed was that Kenneth Arnold and his wife had been brought to town from Boise, Idaho.  After appearing at rehearsal for two days Arnold sent a telegram stating that he would not appear.  Tunic explained, “. . . I kind of sat in for him . . . Well very honestly and I’m being extremely honest I did not see a copy of the telegram.  I understand that he sent a telegram to the producer and to newspapers around town giving his reasons.  I believe he felt that there was not enough time being given to his side of the story.  Now in that regard we have a signed statement from Major Keyhoe in which he states that our program was handled objectively and fairly . . . ”  Tunic explained that the statement was signed before the program went on the air when it was heard Mr. Arnold would not appear. 

Concerning the incident involving Keyhoe, Tunic said, “ . . . the director and the producer working under CBS regulations had to flip the key and cut the audio because we did not know what statement was coming out.  The statement had not been approved by Continuity Acceptance as you know must be done on network shows.  We did not know if the Senate subcommittee mentioned had approved his statement and in view of that fact and, as I say, by regulation, they had to cut the speech and no one felt worse about it than the people attached to the program."

Tunic provided his perspective about what happened next: “I do know that following the show INS called and he did give them the statement.  And he — also after the program again signed another statement in which he stated that he regretted the incident.  He was not aware of these regulations.  He had been permitted a certain amount of ad-lib during the course of his presentation and he did not realize that a statement such as this did not fall into the ad-lib category.”

Nebel said, “. . . I was never familiar with that ruling.  I mean we don’t have it in radio anyway.  Are you saying then that if I were to be interviewed by somebody on television that we would have to have a prepared interview?”

“Oh no no no.  But when you have an interview program — obviously it’s an ad-libbed program — but when a program is scripted it must pass through Continuity Acceptance.  Now you know that as well as I do.  And all of the material is placed on teleprompter, you see.  Now obviously no one expects anyone to follow a teleprompter word by word.  There is a certain latitude given.  However — and put yourself in this position—if you’re the producer or the director—the statement comes out, ‘I am now going to say something that has never been revealed before.’  You don’t know what that statement is.  You have no idea if it’s been cleared by the proper authorities who are being mentioned.  It has not been cleared by Continuity Acceptance.  You are at the mercy — of the person who is making the statement.  And it’s a general rule that at that time the director has no prerogative but to cut the show.  Now this is the fact and we felt awful about it.  It’s not a matter of censorship.  As it turned out, I — as I believe, the statement was fairly innocuous and possibly might’ve gone just the way, you know — on the air . . .”

Tunic also stated, “It was not a question of any type of censorship.  As a writer I’m very much sensitive of points of censorship and I can assure you that this does not enter into it one little bit.  Nor did the Air Force in any way control our program.  The original idea for the program was our own.  We set about it just as we set about any other program.  We were very pleased when the Air Force offered us cooperation and when they opened their files to us.  As a matter of fact, I had the files in my home for a number of days working on the show.” 

Minutes later, Nebel asked about what happened to the time that Kenneth Arnold was going to be on the program.  Tunic replied, “I pinch-hit.  I sat in for him because it was done.  You see, we had no notification of this.  He sent us a telegram which arrived about one o’clock this afternoon . . . and we were caught.  You know, after all, we’re all on teleprompter, everything is set in the show.  We were ready to go into our run-through and suddenly one of our guests just doesn’t appear.  Well what do we do?  We kind of jerry-rigged it.  I sat in for him and I read the lines, as we could.  And we felt very badly about it.  We do think that in all fairness we should’ve been informed at least in person — not to be informed by a telegram.  I don’t think a service was done to anyone in that regard."

At one point Nebel mentioned the use of an eight-second delay system in relation to the headsets of his show's guests in attendance who at the time were listening to Tunik being interviewed.  Tunik’s concluding remark was, “And we really are very — we’re sad that this situation had to come up because we thought it was a good program that the audience would be interested in and we don’t want the audience to feel that they’ve been cheated in any way.  It was an emergency measure, you understand.”

More information about Kenneth Arnold (1915-1984) is available at kennetharnoldufo.com.

Nebel thereafter interviewed Kenneth Arnold for broadcast after Virginia Belmont facilitated the contact.  Arnold explained, ". . . being that the subject of flying saucers has become such a complex problem since the time I first made my report, it would've been impossible to, you might say, project in a short time all of the pertinent facts that have been gathered."  He explained that he had never received a  draft of the program's script as he had been promised.  ". . . though I've turned down many requests of this type, It seemed as though that this was going to be projected as represented and I was anxious, of course, to see that the true story as far as we know was being portrayed for public interest." 

Arnold said that in New York, "Every participant in the program, it seemed, was continually changing everything in the script so actually no one I don't believe really knew what the final outcome of it was going to be."  His Jan. 22, 1958 telegram stated:

The persons or agencies who project information of national interest have a serious responsibility.  A correctly informed public is one of the greatest assets this nation can have.  This is to inform you that I will not be a participant on any program that obviously misrepresents and distorts facts available on any subject broadcast for the public interest.  Nor could I allow any photograph or material properly copyrighted to be used on any program without written permission of the owner. 

A postscript stated: "I am not making an appearance on any television program on January 22nd, 1958." 

Donald Keyhoe was later interviewed by Mike Wallace on the television show "The Mike Wallace Interview" and this interview is included on the “UFOlogy” MP3 disc with the broadcast date identified as 3-8-1958.  The interview began with Mike Wallace saying: “Good evening.  Tonight we go after a fantastic story.  The story that flying saucers from other worlds are visiting our planet just as we are exploring outer space with our own rocket satellites.  Our guest is former Marine Air Corps Major Donald Keyhoe who has the support of scores of prominent businessmen, military men and some scientists in his campaign to prove that flying saucers exist."

What followed was the sixty-year-old Keyhoe providing a succinct litany of events from his UFO research.  His commentary was interspersed with Wallace's indignant and skeptical remarks that obviously were, to a large proportion, scripted.  Keyhoe reflected about the intentions of the people in flying saucers, "Well there's been no evidence of any hostility during the last ten years — what we call the modern phase."

After Keyhoe mentioned three secret documents and the findings of a 1953 Pentagon panel, Wallace confronted Keyhoe with an official denial from an unnamed representative of the Air Technical Intelligence Center at the Pentagon who stated that three of Keyhoe's four documents didn't exist and the fourth "doesn't say what Major Keyhoe claims it says."

Keyhoe brought up the “Armstrong Circle Theatre” events himself: “Now I’d like to tell you something that happened on the ‘Armstrong Circle Theatre.’  I had requested that those points be in the script and I was discouraged from it at first by their writer.  Then later some of our board of governors insisted that we have those points included.  So I said either I don’t go on or we have those in there.  They said all right.   So the script was completely rewritten.  Now those were in the script as it was first rehearsed but when the second rehearsal came along and the Air Force saw the mimeograph sheet — the Air Force representative — according to the Armstrong writer — said they would immediately deny it on the air even though it meant denouncing their own former project chief.  Now the source for this was Captain Edward Ruppelt who was the head of Project Blue Book for two years and at that time he was considered good enough that he briefed President Truman on these things.  He was the top man.  Rank didn’t mean anything — it’s the experience that counted.  All right — he says these things existed.  He put it in a book which was cleared by Security and Review in the Air Force.  On December 5th, 1955 that was cleared.  It’s in his book.  He’s never been hauled in and court-martialed.  Now I have here if you’ll allow your camera to come in on it.  This is a sheet from the script of the ‘Armstrong Theatre’ which was deleted.  This was crossed off and I was told that I couldn’t say it on the air.  And that was censorship by intimidation.  This can be matched up with the other sheets from the ‘Armstrong Circle’ script and any typewriter expert will show you . . .”

Here Wallace’s speech overlapped as he said, “Well I’m certain that — I’m certain that — I’m certain that people believe you.  The only thing is that the next morning I distinctly remember reading a report by you, Major Keyhoe, to the effect that no censorship, no pressure of any kind had been put on you.”

“I — I’m sorry, Mr. Wallace, that — I knew that statement almost by heart.  I said that CBS and the ‘Armstrong’ people were not to blame for cutting me off the air when I tried to mention the fact that a Senate committee was working on the secrecy angle.  I never mentioned this that night to anyone because I had promised that I wouldn’t say anything about it on the air that — the Armstrong people.  It was taken out and I will do this.  I will ask the United States Air Force to have the Marine Corps put me on active duty for court-martial if that is not the case."

Curiously, on the topic of flying saucer contactees, Wallace asked Keyhoe to comment on George Adamski and Howard Menger without mentioning any other contactees.  Keyhoe replied, "We do not accept any reports of these so-called contactees without more evidence . . ."

Wallace asked, "Is it possible we're going to start an interplanetary war when we start sending our rockets to the Moon and to Mars?"  Keyhoe replied: “In 1955 General Douglas MacArthur said the next war would be an interplanetary war and we’d have to unite against people from other planets.”

Following the telecast, Keyhoe was interviewed by Long John Nebel on "The Party Line."  His commentary on the broadcast began with a description of his organization NICAP.  After a follow-up question, Keyhoe stated that all members of the armed forces "are muzzled to a great degree in regard to sighting reports.  The Air Force constantly denies this but I have in front of me here copies of the official order JANAP 146, a Joint Chiefs of Staff document, and AFR 200-2 — that's an Air Force order, which says that no one will discuss any unexplained sightings."

When asked about Air Force personnel beliefs about UFOs coming to our planet, Keyhoe commented: ". . . the time when I was working with them, which was back in '52 and '53, there was a very good percentage that believed it — not only believed it but thought the public should know about it.  And there have been documents drawn up by Air Force Intelligence officers stating their belief in that."

Keyhoe commented about the Air Force denial of the documents during the Mike Wallace interview: " . . . the Air Force for the first time tonight came out and denied . . . I had proof of it and they said it was absolutely untrue." 

Keyhoe stated that his time on the "Armstrong Circle Theatre" program expanded when Edward Ruppelt backed out.  Keyhoe read a CBS statement about the show following the telecast: "This program had been carefully cleared for security reasons.  Therefore, it was the responsibility of this network to ensure performance in accordance with predetermined security standards."  Keyhoe commented about his being censored: "Now I would like to know why if the flying saucers don't exist . . . why there was security about it and why the program had to be cleared at all?  Why was it they were so worried that I might say something?" 

Here is how Keyhoe described the advice given him in regard to what would be "the best policy for NICAP" in relation to flying saucer contactees — "'No matter what you personally believe, it is smarter to concentrate on your factual sightings because the minute you start in on any other angle your going to lose the press.  Then you will start being ridiculed as having accepted contact stories — whether you accept them or not, the minute you start sounding as though you do.  The best advice we can give you is not even to mention them.  Don't say yes or no.  Just keep still.'  So I tried that at first.  It didn't work.  The pressure built up because there are many people who are sincerely convinced that these things are true.  And some people who accept all of them.  And some people who accept a few.  The pressure got so great that I was accused of clamping a lid.  Here I am the guy trying to expose censorship and I'm clamping a lid on the contact stories. . . . There are, by now, I think hundreds who claim contact or communication here and abroad." 

Keyhoe wrote about the “Armstrong Circle Theatre” events in a chapter of Flying Saucers: Top Secret (1960); however, Keyhoe incorrectly recalled what he had said that had been censored.  He had made a statement about "intelligent control" earlier in the telecast.  Keyhoe commented in his book: “In that one impulsive act, I seemed to have offset the Air Force claims more than anything I had said on the program . . . Millions now were convinced that the Air Force was hiding the facts.” 

The potential for an end to UFO secrecy was suggested in a Feb. 27, 1960 New York Times article that quoted the first director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter: "It is time for the truth to be brought out in open Congressional hearings.  Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs.  But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense.  To hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced its personnel."

In his book Behind The Flying Saucers (1950) author Frank Scully expressed these circumstances in a succinct way when he referred to "the hypocritical pattern is ever the same . . . the great American game of chumping the common people." 

Over the years, I have read and heard many rationalizations for secrecy about UFOs and have noticed that in some instances ulterior motives of perceived self-interest were a factor.  Beyond the never-substantiated, theoretical question of hostility, the causes for governmental withholding of information about UFOs that Keyhoe mentioned to Wallace as having been given him back in 1952 and '53 were (1) "that they were afraid of hysteria" and (2) "they were also afraid that it would upset organized religion."  Frank Scully provided one response to these concerns by citing a 1950 publication The Way of St. Francis as the final paragraph of his book: ". . . the Bible and Christianity in no way excluded the possibility that God has created other groups of intelligent beings . . . ."

Allons-y! It's my first Doctor Who jewelry set!

A couple days ago I purchased a metal stamping kit to create jewelry with awesome quotes and sayings. I've always admired this kind of jewelry, but it does take some investment to get the required tools! I finally broke down and now I'm having fun with a rustic metal look that I've never really incorporated into my jewelry pieces before.

It's probably not a surprise to you all that I am a Doctor Who fan. I have my online friend Elenatintil to blame for introducing me to the show, and several irl friends to blame for getting me completely addicted!

For those of you not familiar with Doctor Who... it's complete bonkers to explain. You always wind up sounding like an idiot, but believe me when I say the show's eccentricities make it epic. Basically it is a BBC show about an alien known only as the Doctor who goes around in a 1960's blue Police Box (which is actually a spaceship called the TARDIS) with various companions (typically a modern day London girl), traveling throughout all of time and space and having wacky, deep, usually-quite-intelligent, and hard-to-explain adventures. Oh, and the Doctor is played by several different actors.

This was an image which greatly inspired this jewelry set:

I don't know who made the compilation graphic with the quote on it, but the artwork featured in this picture was made by Alicexz on DeviantArt.

People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect,

but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint -

it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff.

I love that "wibbly wobbly timey wimey" quote. It's handy to flourish when your brother is asking you to think about light cones and fourth dimensions. :) "It's all just wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff!"

One of my favorite things about Doctor Who is the pure wonder that the Doctor has bubbled up inside of him and how much beauty he sees in everything from the construction of a man-eating robot to a distant star to a single leaf on planet Earth.

This line, which he says when inviting a friend to join him on his adventures, is short and beautiful:

All of time and space; everywhere and anywhere; every star that ever was... Where do you want to start?

I handstamped the letters onto aluminum, cut out the metal and sanded the edges, punched in holes for the TARDIS blue eyelets, and strung everything onto darkened steel chain sprinkled with blue glass cats-eye beads.

If you are interested, the necklace and two bracelets are for sale as a set on my Shoppe.

Also, I LOVE my camera and its lenses. They were a graduation present and I've been having SO MUCH FUN playing with the settings. :)

Fellow Whovians... what is your favorite Doctor Who quote? And your favorite episode and companion and Doctor? Personally I love Don't Blink, Amy, Martha, and Clara (don't make me pick!) and my bug-eyed Doctor (lol-- it's a joke in my family-- I mean the talented David Tennant of course!).

As a bonus, here is the very first piece that I made with my stamping kit! "Inconceivable!" is, of course, from The Princess Bride, one of the most quotable movies of all time. This one has chainmaille details.

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

The Early Days of Modern UFOlogy

 This photo was published in the Feb. 26, 1942 edition of the Los Angeles Times.  A colossal black triangular object is faintly discernible above the bright area illuminated by spotlights.  Below are the front page headlines.

Modern UFOlogy began to evolve during the eventful decade of the 1940s.  One milestone was first chronicled in newspaper reports about Idaho pilot Kenneth Arnold's sighting of what articles described as "nine shiny objects flying at 1,200 miles per hour flying over the coast range of Western Washington" on June 24, 1947.

Preceding this event, one of the most widely witnessed UFO encounters occurred in 1942 in the sky above Los Angeles during the uneasy period following the attack on Pearl Harbor, although at this time the expression 'unidentified flying object' was not yet part of the popular vernacular.  The event has come to be known as the ‘Battle of Los Angeles.’  The banner headline in the Los Angeles Times the following morning, Feb. 26, announced “ARMY SAYS ALARM REAL.”  The following blurb and paragraphs were presented beneath the headline "Roaring Guns Mark Blackout."

Identity of Aircraft Veiled in Mystery;

No Bombs Dropped and No Enemy Aircraft Hit;

Civilians Report Seeing Planes and Balloon

Overshadowing a nation-wide maelstrom of rumors and conflicting reports, the Army’s Western Defense Command insisted that Los Angeles’ early morning blackout and anti-aircraft action were the result of unidentified aircraft sighted over the beach area.

In two official statements, issued while Secretary of the Navy Knox in Washington was attributing the activity to a false alarm and “jittery nerves,” the command in San Francisco confirmed and reconfirmed the presence over the Southland of unidentified planes.

Relayed by the Southern California sector office in Pasadena, the second statement read:

"The aircraft which caused the blackout in the Los Angeles area for several hours this a.m. have not been identified.”

Insistence from official quarters that the alarm was real came as hundreds of thousands of citizens who heard and saw the activity spread countless varying stories of the episode.

The spectacular anti-aircraft barrage came after the 14th Interceptor Command ordered the blackout when strange craft were reported over the coastline.

Powerful searchlights from countless stations stabbed the sky with brilliant probing fingers while anti-aircraft batteries dotted the heavens with beautiful, if sinister, orange bursts of shrapnel.

The center column on the front page was allocated to an editorial that featured the headline "INFORMATION, PLEASE" with the following initial paragraph.

In view of the considerable public excitement and confusion caused by yesterday morning’s supposed enemy air raid over this area and its spectacular official accompaniments, it seems to The Times that more specific public information should be forthcoming from government sources on the subject, if only to clarify their own conflicting statements about it.

The Associated Press article from Washington that appeared in the Glendale News-Press was given the banner headline “ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS BLAST AT L.A. MYSTERY INVADER” and includes the statements: "Anti-aircraft guns thundered over the metropolitan area early today for the first time in the war, but hours later what they were shooting at remained a military secret.  An unidentified object moving slowly down the coast from Santa Monica was variously reported as a balloon and an airplane."

The following day, an article by Marvin Miles entitled “Chilly Throng Watches Shells Bursting In Sky” contributed other significant details.  As "sleepy householders awoke to the dull thud of anti-aircraft explosions" and searchlights filled the night sky, “. . . the object in the sky slowly moved on, caught in the center of the lights like the hub of a bicycle wheel surrounded by gleaming spokes.”  Other commentary included:

The fire seemed to burst in rings all around the target.  But the eager watchers, shivering in the early morning cold, weren’t rewarded by the sight of a falling plane.  Nor were there any bombs dropped.  "Maybe it's just a test," someone remarked.

The targeted object inched along high, flanked by the cherry red explosions.  And the householders shivered in their robes, their faces set, watching the awesome scene.

The “UFOlogy: A Primer in Audio 1939-1959” MP3 collection of the Wendy Connors Faded Discs Audio Archive of UFO History features an interview with Ray Angler, identified as Air Raid Warden, who recalled the events of that night in February 1942.  He commented that at about 1 a.m. during a blackout as the anti-aircraft started shooting off, “I wanted to see what was going on and I looked up in the sky.  And way high were a formation of approximately six to nine bright — in other words, luminous white dots in a group — close foreign formation.  It appeared to me like it was a triangular — it was a triangular formation.  It was during this time, as I recall, it seems to me there were searchlights on it . . .”

Here is a link to the original July 8, 1947 article "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region".

Among other preserved audio recordings on the “UFOlogy” CD are some with commentary about the mysterious events that occurred in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947.  There are two newscasts along with tracks of individual commentaries about the "RAAF Flying Disc Cover-up."  Here are some transcript excerpts.

July 8, 1947 — “ABC Headline Edition” reporter Joe Wilson: “The Army may be getting to the bottom of all this talk about the so-called flying saucer.  As a matter of fact, the five hundred and ninth atomic bomb group headquarters at Roswell, New Mexico reports that it has received one of the disks, which landed on a ranch outside Roswell.  The disk landed at a ranch at Corona, New Mexico and the rancher turned it over to the Air Force . . .”

July 9, 1947 — WOR reporter Julian Afney: “Elsewhere, the sport of seeing flying saucers or disks was left behind in the excitement over the discovery on the ground of a number of objects resembling disks or saucers.  One object found on the ranch near Roswell, New Mexico turned out to be a battered Army weather balloon.  So it went with other prototypes of the flying disk that clattered down here and there into the backyards of otherwise normal and happy citizens.  Some turned out to be carefully manufactured practical jokes, others the product of keen imagination.  Nobody yet apparently had a suitable explanation for the sights or visions . . ."

Undated interview — Roswell Army Air base Public Information Officer Walter Haut: “Col. Blanchard, who was a commanding officer of the base at that time, called me into his office and he said, ‘I’ve got some information I want to give you and I want you to put out a press release on this material.'  The only thing that I felt at ease with was the fact that we had in our possession a flying saucer and we shipped it on basically to the next higher command.  I think that a cover-up was designed so that they could say it was a Mogul balloon or some kind of balloon.  Within my own feeling I think that it was something from outer space."  There is a 2002 Sealed Affidavit of Walter G. Haut about the Roswell events.

Undated interview — Major Jesse Marcel, Sr.: "It was not anything from this Earth.  That I'm quite sure of.  'Cause I was — being an intelligence officer I was familiar with just about every — all of the materials used in aircraft and — or air travel."  This audio track was from an interview featured in the 1980 "UFO Coverups" segment of the television show "In Search Of" narrated by Leonard Nimoy and now available on You Tube.

Undated interview — Brig. Gen. Thomas DuBose: "We knew that it was a cover story and whose idea it was I — I haven't the faintest — faintest idea."  Dubose signed a Sept. 16, 1991 Affidavit about the Roswell events.

Undated interview — Congressman Steven Schiff: “I think the Department of Defense is acting like there’s a cover-up even if, in fact, there is no cover-up."

Other tracks of audio recordings included on the "UFOlogy" CD provide accounts of UFO sightings during the 1940s, including a 1942 "Foo Fighter Encounter" described by Major Raymond Sabinski and a May 1949 newscast with an unidentified commentator reporting about a dispatch from Key West, Florida: ". . . a dispatch that quoted President Truman's Press Secretary Charles Ross as saying that President Truman has no knowledge of any secret project by this government that would give substance to the existence of such objects.  Ross also said that both the Air Force and the Navy deny that such objects exist."  Truman later commented at an April 4, 1950 press conference in Washington D.C.: "I can assure you the flying saucers, given that they exist, are not constructed by any power on Earth."

Descriptions of newspaper articles about 'flying saucers' and 'disks'—among some other strange objects seen in the sky—were presented in Behind The Flying Saucers (1950) by Frank Scully (1892-1964).  Concluding the book is "The Post-Fortean File 1947-1950" list including more than 150 article descriptions, including his own articles about flying saucers that he’d written as a columnist for the prominent Hollywood trade publication Variety.  One of the article descriptions was of an early photo of 'the mystery saucers': the July 4, 1947 photograph taken by Coast Guardsman Frank Ryman from a Seattle suburb.

In the first chapter, Scully responded to announced conclusions of the Air Force Project Saucer investigation that dismissed the majority of reports about "unidentified flying objects” after two years of research.

There had been an entente cordiale between the press and the Department of Defense to ignore these stories during the two years of the Air Force's official inquiry.  But when the Air Force pulled out, the floodgates opened.  Some newspapers continued to throw flying saucers into their wastebaskets.  Others broke down under the persistent barrage of reader reports and reader interest.  By Easter time every radio commentator of any standing, every comedian, every legislator, every televisable personality, even The New York Times, had had his or her say.

From Scully’s perspective, the “real inside story” about flying saucers was presented in a brief but startling lecture in 1950 at the University of Denver by unidentified middle-aged ‘Scientist X’ who spoke in an unprecedented way about three landed saucers and the recovery of bodies of dead crew members.  These saucer occupants were described being “of small stature.  No different from us, except for height, and lack of beards.  Some had a fine growth resembling peach fuzz.”

Scientist X said that the first recovered saucer had been found on a site within 500 miles of Denver.  Research had revealed that the materials used in the saucer had disclosed two metals formerly unknown.  The disks had revolving rings of metal and there were stabilized cabins at the center.  The construction showed no rivets, bolts or screws.  The control boards were a series of push buttons and the outer construction was of a light metal resembling aluminum but so hard that no application of heat could break it down.  The ships carried no weapons.  Although only forty inches tall, the passengers were not 'midgets' and showed no bad teeth.  Their apparel was a sort of uniform without any insignia on the collars or caps.

He drew four designs on the blackboard.  One showed the "System of Nines," believed to have been used in constructing the saucers. Two others showed two views of the saucer, which was 99.99 feet in diameter, 18 feet across the cabin and a clearance of 45 inches above the rim for pilots to see what might be around them.  The design looked very much like the photographs taken by Paul Trent of McMinnville, Oregon, and published in the June 26, 1950 issue of Life.  The fourth design showed how magnetic lines of force travel from the sun to the various planets, particularly to the earth and to Venus.

After his lecture had caused such a stir, the chalked designs were preserved by lacquer, and unless the lacquer has been removed are there  to this day.

 This is the UFO seen in Paul Trent's 1950 Oregon photographs.

Scully attested about Scientist X, "He delivered what was probably the most sensational lecture about this earth or any other planet since Galileo said, 'It moves!'"  In another chapter of the book, the vicinity of Aztec, New Mexico was identified as one the flying saucer landing sites.

Scully wrote about the identity of Scientist X:

Four students, as well as Baron Beshoar, Denver's bureau manager of Time-Life Incorporated (a gate-crasher to the lecture incidentally), were sure from Denver Post photographers that the man was Silas Mason Newton, president of the Newton Oil Company, amateur golf champion of Colorado in 1942, graduate of Baylor University and Yale, who did postgraduate work at the University of Berlin, a man who had never made more than $25,000,000 nor lost more than $20,000,000, the rediscoverer of the Rangely Oil Field, patron of the arts, and man of the world generally.  In brief, a man of substance as well as science and as American as apple pie.

Scully further described him as "Si Newton, who was closest to Dr. Gee and felt he was in a position to act as a sort of buffer state . . ."  'Dr. Gee' was a pseudonym for “a colleague of the lecturer of the University of Denver tempest.”  Scully wrote in a later memoir, In Armour Bright; Cavalier adventures of my short life out of bed (1963), that Dr. Gee was “a composite character of eight men who have given me pieces of this story."

One newspaper article that Scully doesn't seem to have known about was published in the Rocky Mountain News on July 7, 1947.  Preserved at the Denver Library, the banner headline announces "DISC ARMADAS CROSS DENVER, SCORES SAY."

The page five article "Scores Watch Saucers Sail Across Sky Here" by Jim Lyon begins as follows:

An armada of flying saucers, traveling at lightning speed, shot across Denver's sky yesterday—at least, that's what scores of observers of the strange phenomenon told The Rocky Mountain News.

The first alert of the mystery flight came before 7 a.m. when the first alarm was telephoned to The Rocky Mountain News.  In quick succession, others kept the switchboard buzzing.  More detailed accounts arrived throughout the day.

"It was going like a bat outa hell," a sailor at Buckley Field said.

"It had kind of a hollow booming noise—like thunder 'way off in the distance," George Kuger, 21, of 2385 Ash st., reported vividly.

Another portion of the article is as follows:

Another disc reportedly flashed over Idaho Springs at 1:30 p.m.  Pat Price, 11, said he heard a rumble like thunder.  He and his younger sister ran screaming to their mother that they had seen a flying disc.

Le Roy Krieger, aerologist second class at Buckley Field Naval Air Station, said the saucer he saw was not an airplane.  James Cavalieri, hospital apprentice, agreed.

'IT WAS ROUND AND SHINY' AND DIDN'T MAKE ANY NOISE

They reported that the object appeared east of the field, shooting up and down for about a minute.  It was "round and shiny like silver, but didn't make any noise."

"It sounded like wind rushing through a wire screen," said Harold Wallace, 11009 E. Colfax ave., who reported discs in V-formation shooting westward across the sky at 9:05 p.m.  They made a dim light, he added.

A single saucer about the size of the sun was sighted whirling out of the clouds at 8:30 p.m. by Mrs. J. E. Raeber, 1430 W. Center pl., Westwood.

In Behind The Flying Saucers, Scully had reported about the March 17, 1950 Farmington, New Mexico event detailed in the Farmington Daily Times under the banner headline "HUGE 'SAUCER' ARMADA JOLTS FARMINGTON" but he had never learned about the newspaper coverage of the earlier mass sighting flying saucer event in Denver or would have mentioned it in his book.

Frank Scully

Aftermath

This is one of the photographic images reported to be of 'The Phoenix Lights.'

Seven years after my trip to Arizona, I decided to see if there was any further information available on the Internet about the people I'd met in 1998.

I learned that Jeff Willes had produced his first DVD of his UFO video recordings entitled “UFOs Over Phoenix Volume 1.”  His website is ufosoverphoenix.com.

Frances Emma Barwood had been defeated in the primary election in her bid to become Arizona secretary of state.  A March 2002 article by Thomas Ropp in The Arizona Republic entitled “Mystery lingers over sighting of Phoenix Lights” offered a look back at the controversial night and quoted the official military explanation: “the ‘V’ formation was a squadron of military planes and the balls of light were high-intensity flares.”  There was also a mention of Barwood.

Former Phoenix Councilwoman Frances Emma Barwood said the local media ridiculed her when she asked for and was denied an investigation.  Now living with her husband, Mike, in a cabin in the Bradshaw Mountains near Dewey, Barwood still finds it incredulous how she was treated.

“All I wanted them to do was investigate this,” she said.  “I never said anything about extraterrestrials.”

Similarly, during her lecture that I attended in 1998, she had expressed bewilderment in reaction to the term having been used in public by her spokesman.

I discovered that John Warnhoff had become cofounder of the Southern Kentucky Metaphysical Society (apparently now defunct) with a website presenting an article detailing his family’s enigmatic UFOlogy experiences.  The following is an excerpt from the May 30, 2001 edition of the Bowling Green, Kentucky Daily News.  The article's headline was “The eyes in the sky” — “Group looks at theories and the realities of UFOs” by Alicia Carmichael.

John Warnhoff saw “men in black” long before actors Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith took to the silver screen to portray darkly clad extraterrestrial hunters.

That’s just one reason the retired insurance salesman from Kansas founded the Southern Kentucky Metaphysical Society, or Sky MAPS, with his friend J. R. Stucki earlier this year.

“The way all this came about was based on personal experience,” Warnhoff said.

Through Sky MAPS, Warnhoff and Stucki arrange for discussions of all things metaphysical, including quantum physics, the nature of being or reality, the study of the nature of knowledge and the possibility of unexplained phenomena — like sightings of extraterrestrial life.

For Warnhoff, Sky MAPS offers a chance to further explore something strange that occurred in his childhood.

On Nov. 11,1957, Warnhoff’s father and other Kansas interstate travelers reported seeing an unidentified flying object in the sky.

The lead front-page headline in an edition of the Wichita Beacon read: “Mysterious Object in Sky Startles Scores of Kansans.”

What the paper didn’t report was the backlash that the Warnhoff family would feel after Warnhoff’s father’s account was detailed.

“Once that happened and was published in the paper, the phone began to ring,” said Warnhoff, who was 15 at the time of the sighting. “ We had a lot of people try to intimidate us — tell us we shouldn’t talk about it.”

A few months later, Warnhoff came in contact with the people he describes as the “men in black.”

“In April of 1958, on a Saturday morning, the doorbell rang and I went to the door and there were two men in black,” he said.

“And in 1958, no one talked about men in black.”

The men had arrived at the home in a black car that they had parked halfway in the driveway and halfway in the road — with its doors left open, Warnhoff explained. The men wore sunglasses and black suits — “when it was not the time of year that you would wear that” — and flashed FBI badges, he said.

They asked to speak with Warnhoff’s dad.

“They went outside with my dad and walked around the house,” Warnhoff said.

The elder Warnhoff did not report what was said, according to Warnhoff.

Not too much later, John Warnhoff answered a phone call that was meant for his father.

“. . . The voice said, ‘I don’t want you to talk about it anymore. I’m warning you,’” Warnhoff said.  “I said, ‘Well, you want my dad.’

“I went and got my dad and he got on the phone and I saw the color leave his face,” he said. “He hung up the phone and said, ‘Go get your mother and brother.’”

Warnhoff’s father told the family that they would never speak of his sighting again.

For years, Warnhoff kept that promise, he said.

But it was not easy.

He said he once woke up in the middle of the night with concern about his father, who had had a heart attack.  When he got up to check on his dad, Warnhoff said he saw his father walking around, as if in a trance, while being led by a beam of light with which he appeared to be communicating through facial movements. Although Warnhoff was in his father’s line of vision, he said, his dad did not see him.

Warnhoff followed his father through the house and the beam of light exited the home through a fireplace.

Warnhoff knows that some people will be skeptical of his story.

But he isn’t daunted.

“I know that my dad had an experience and I had an experience,” he said.

Through the years, Warnhoff has heard similar stories of unexplained things — and not just from people with whom he is close.

He has attended many conferences and meetings with experts who study unexplained phenomena across the country.

I was interested to learn if more information could be discovered about the article that had appeared in a November 1957 issue of the Wichita Beacon with the headline “Forty-Four Missing Persons in a Vanished Pan American Stratocruiser.”  Conducting an Internet search on this subject, I found two articles among a longer narrative that appeared to involve “Spaceships.”  Here is the first article that I read: “. . . a report from the Des Moines Register, dated November 9, 1957." 

A large Stratocruiser, enroute between San Francisco and Honolulu, is reported missing after having sighted mysterious blinking lights in the sky early this morning.  The last position given by the plane was about 900-1000 miles northeast of Honolulu.  A military transport flying near the area reported similar mystery lights, blinking off and on, 120 miles north of the last reported position of the Stratocruiser after it had been reported missing.  A full scale sea and air search is in operation with vain efforts to find the plane carrying a crew of four, and thirty-six passengers, in the event it might have plunged into the sea.

 
A note mentioned, “Later reports said 44 aboard.”  The same source presented another article identified as being "from the Associated Press, published January 16, 1958 in the Omaha World Herald" with the headline “Radio-Active Cargo Fell — Mystery of Plane’s Crash Unsolved." 

San Francisco, Cal.  (A.P.) — The Pan American Stratocruiser, Romance of the Skies, was carrying shipments of chemicals and “radio-active” materials when it crashed in the Pacific, killing all forty-four persons aboard, a Civil Aeronautics Board hearing was told Wednesday. 

The huge airliner, bound from San Francisco to Honolulu, mysteriously plunged into the ocean about midway between two points last Nov. 8th.

Only nineteen bodies were recovered.

The first witness before the seven-man hearing panel was David L. Thompson, of CAB investigators, who has spent the last two months seeking clues from the wreckage.

Mr. Thompson said one thing certain was that the plane had burned after it struck the water.

He said the plane carried a shipment of “Yellow label sodium sulfite restricted cargo packed in accordance with ICC regulations.”

“In addition,” he said, “there was White Label radio-active material aboard the plane.”

Mr. Thompson offered no solution to one of the prime mysteries of the tragedy — the riddle of why crewmen were unable to send a distress message in the twenty-three minutes from the time it last gave a position to the time it struck water.

In between these two articles on this Internet page, the following was written: 

I wondered if the blinking lights might have been Spaceships and, if so, whether they could have caused an accident?  Was that why my friends from the Spaceship wanted to know about the cargo? 

As I read further, I discovered that these articles and commentary were from a book published in 1963 as The Reinhold Schmidt Story . . . “My Contact with the Space People.”  This short book that proved disappointing for me had been published in a 1975 reprint with the title modified so that Edge of Tomorrow was prominent with a blurb attesting “Cosmic Secrets Exposed.”  I obtained an edition via an Internet bookstore and photographs in the book revealed that a low-budget Hollywood movie had been made based upon Schmidt’s account. 

I also found that original interview recordings of Schmidt were available as part of an MP3 compact disc compilation of ‘contactee’ audio tracks entitled “Saucerology: Tales of Giant Rock.”  Within a matter of days, I received this CD after ordering it via the Internet from the Faded Discs Archive of Wendy Connors.  Later, I obtained many other CDs that were then available from the Archive.  A CD with interviews of self-proclaimed alien contactees was entitled “Flying Saucers & Four Guys Named George: Adamski, VanTassel, Hunt Williamson & King.”  There was also “CE IV: Alien Abduction & Animal Mutilation 1957 — 1976.”  I also managed to obtain from another Internet seller a copy of a previous Faded Discs Archive release entitled “UFOlogy: A Primer in Audio 1939 - 1959.”  Together the four CDs offered more than sixty-three hours of interview and other audio recordings. 

In following years, I would obtain three more Wendy Connors MP3 CDs in the “Night Journeys in UFOlogy” series and Connors would be instrumental in my obtaining research materials I’d previously not been able to find.  Information about the “UFOlogy: A Primer in Audio 1939 - 1959” disc stated: “This research material was accomplished because of the generosity of many individuals and organizations that share the concept of preserving, for future generations, these rare recordings.”

Hearing the “Saucerology” interviews of Schmidt would make it evident that his story is evidently a bizarre example of disinformation.  Analysis of the book Edge of Tomorrow and the preserved Reinhold Schmidt interviews reveal contradictions.  The most astonishing fact was that Schmidt’s claims immediately (the same day) became a media event.   

In the book, Schmidt’s first contact with “people from another planet” is said to have taken place after 2:30 p.m. in Kearney, Nebraska on November 5, 1957.  After relating his story to the deputy sheriff, Schmidt accompanied him back to the site of his encounter where he’d described seeing four hydraulic rams supporting the craft he first mistook to be "a large, half-inflated balloon."  He said he’d been briefly paralyzed by a tiny stream of light before being taken on board and seeing a panel described with terminology of then-familiar American technology. 

During his first radio interview, Schmidt said: "On each end of the machine there was a tube running up and down."  Some of the words are hard to distinguish but he mentioned big fans and a propeller.  In a recording with an identifying date of 03.02.1958, Schmidt explained that there were no propellers but the compartments at both ends of the craft contained tubes twelve feet in diameter running straight up and down with fans at the base.  

Another contention is that peculiar sweet-smelling green oil was said to have been found at the initial landing site although Schmidt related that he was later told that the craft operated via "energy from the Earth and from the Sun."  Upon returning to Kearney with the deputy sheriff, the events were reported to the chief of police and another trip to the alleged landing site was made before Schmidt was dropped off at his hotel.  He then recalled in his book: 

I sat down in the lobby to watch television.  Shortly, the local program was cut off for a special news flash: “SPACESHIP LANDS AT KEARNEY, NEBRASKA!!”  I was very much surprised because nothing had been said to me about making an announcement over the air.  In fact, I had not even referred to the object as a spaceship, because I didn’t know what it was. 

According to the book, following the television announcement, "There was absolute bedlam for about sixteen hours!"  Schmidt wrote:

Photographers and newsmen came from surrounding cities and even from other states.  At 9:00 p.m. the Chief of Police and I were interviewed on a local radio station, and at 10:00 a.m. we appeared on a local TV station.  These programs were also released on national radio and TV networks.

In his memoir, Schmidt divulged that a lie-detector test was never administered to him.  Nonetheless, the March 2, 1958 recording of a Detroit Flying Saucer Research Group meeting featured commentary by Major Wayne S. Aho, who said that his investigation of Schmidt’s situation indicated “this man was telling of a true experience.”  Aho explained he had developed a group called Washington Foster Intelligence after sixteen years of active and reserve duty that had brought him a bronze star and purple heart.  He stated that he was now working in a civilian capacity "carrying on a type of an educational campaign that is not necessarily the desire or the attitude or belief of the armed services."  Major Aho was accompanying Schmidt on a lecture tour in 1958.

The 64-page narrative presented by Edge of Tomorrow describes a series of flights in the spacecraft of human beings from Saturn with Schmidt’s primary intermediary, Mr. X, described as speaking in English with a German accent.  Schmidt said that at other times he heard the beings speaking in high German.  His contacts by the space people resulted with incredible secrets being revealed to him.  Schmidt described a visit to the Great Pyramid with Mr. X, who led him to a secret room containing a spaceship.  Inside the spaceship, Schmidt viewed the evidence that Jesus following the crucifixion "was taken to His home planet in that very spaceship!" accompanied by Mr. X himself.

I would eventually become acquainted with far more compelling ‘space people’ contact cases as shown by my previous blog articles about Orfeo Angelucci, Daniel Fry and Truman Bethurum — their case study books all preceded Schmidt's.
 
Schmidt's concern about “the blinking lights” being spaceships that “could have caused an accident” for the stratocruiser seems related to "reports circulated that blinking lights were sighted near its last checkpoint," as I found mentioned in the newspaper article "Plane Down At Sea" in the Nov. 9, 1957 issue of The Miami News.  A lengthy investigatory article about the disaster “The Mystery of the Lost Clipper” in a 2004 issue of Air & Space considers a variety of more conventional possibilities.
 
After researching the alien contactees of the 1950s and ‘60s, I’ve concluded that there were some apparent charlatans who distracted attention away from more earnest and intellectually labyrinthine accounts.