While
working on my new book, I stumbled across a reference to Project Pounce and I
remembered that it was one of those projects that had been associated with
MJ-12. Linda Howe might have been the first to have heard of Pounce, or I
suppose, I should say the first outside of those inventing these things.
According
to the information I have, Howe met Richard Doty, he of the AFOSI at the time
on, April 9, 1983, in Doty’s office at Kirkland Air Force Base in Albuquerque.
He told her that his superiors had told him to show her a document. He handed
her several sheets of paper and told her that she could read them but that she
couldn’t copy them.
The
document was called, “A Briefing for the President of the United States on the
Subject of Unidentified Flying Vehicles.” There was no date on the report, and
the president wasn’t named. Howe didn’t know for which president it had been
prepared though later information from others would suggest that this was part
of the Carter Briefing.
Mentioned
on this document were several classified projects including Aquarius, Snowbird,
Sigma and Pounce. According to these documents, Snowbird was a cover for
Project Red Light, which was a project to fly recovered alien craft. Snowbird
was to develop some type of flying saucer using conventional technology as a
cover for Red Light.
Snowbird
was an actual project and has been described by Barry Greenwood as a “Joint
Army/Air Force peacetime military exercise in the sub-arctic region in 1955,
according to Gale Research’s Code Name
Dictionary, 1963.” (See MUFON UFO
Journal Number 236, December 1987, p. 12) It had nothing to do with UFOs,
aliens, or MJ-12.
And
now we have the information on Project Pounce. According to the MJ-12
documents, Pounce was created in 1980. It would use the Air Force “Black
Berets” for crash retrievals including the recovery of the craft and the bodies
of the occupants, if there were any. Steve Wilson, who claimed to have been an
Air Force colonel, said that he had been the executive officer of Pounce.
Wilson’s story unraveled when it was established that he had not been an Air
Force colonel (See the entry here on November 16, 2006 for more information
about Wilson).
According
to Ed Ruppelt who mentioned Project Pounce in his 1956 book, and Joel Carpenter
writing in the International UFO Reporter
in the Fall 2001 issue, page 4, Pounce began when an Air Defense Command
colonel, tired of all the UFO reports near his base in New Mexico, proposed
converting some of the F-94C fighters into “UFO interceptors,” equipped with
cameras and placed on 24 hour alert. While Pounce did have a UFO component, it
had nothing to do with recovery of alien craft and there is nothing to connect
it to the mythical MJ-12.
All of this is another example of how the
information about MJ-12 and some of the ancillary projects used to support MJ-12
actually were something else entirely. These real projects were used in an
attempt to give legitimacy to MJ-12, but when we learn the truth about them, we
see another fallacy of MJ-12. Had these projects been what the proponents of
MJ-12 said they were, it would tend to validate it. However, when we learn what
they actually were, it tells us, once again, that MJ-12 is a myth.
7 comments:
The most reasonable view given the facts at hand is that the MJ-12 documents are fakes. In the Doty action with Linda Howe we have similar fake documents being presented to a member of the media by an agent of the AFOSI. While the creator of the MJ-12 documents is unknown, it isn’t that unlikely that it could have been the same source as documents Doty let Howe read. It is also clear that the document forgeries started appearing in the wake of the original Roswell book. It is also after a many FOIA documents surfaced showing the government hadn’t lot all interest in UFOs after the Condon Commission.
So it seems most likely that manipulating public perceptions about the UFO phenomena was the subject of government active measures. So while the details of the MJ-12 documents are false the disinformation effort also indicates that something similar was in fact real. Diverse elements of the government including the CIA, NSA, the military, FAA, NASA, etc is fallowing a common program of denial. Doesn’t it follow that there is some controlling organization that enforces this policy?
John's Space -
I do not believe that MJ-12 was a government disinformation campaign. Remember, Bill Moore talked about creating a "Roswell" document because he thought it would convince some reluctant witnesses to talk to him. The whole story, written with Bob Pratt and Richard Doty, appeared in a novel, MAJIK, produced BEFORE any of the MJ-12 documents arrived at Shandera' home.
It seems likely that Moore, working with Doty, concocted this tale without any official approval. In the end, however, whether it was done officially or by private citizens, the ultimate answer is "HOAX."
KRandle,
Thanks for your posts and ongoing attention to the various matters you cover. They are appreciated.
You commented above that you suspect it likely that the MJ-12 tale was concocted without official approval. You may very well be correct. I of course could not conclusively say one way or the other.
I would be interested to hear your opinions, should you be inclined to give them, on the likelihood that Doty may have been instructed in an official capacity (as he claims) to meet with and present LMH with the highly questionable docs as took place. Similarly, I would be interested in hearing, from your point of view, the likelihood Doty was acting in professional, official capacities during the ongoing Bennewitz saga. Perhaps you might also care to comment on the responsibilities you think the USAF has to officially address the actions of Doty, his activities that took place at the air base with LMH and so on.
No right or wrong answers, I just wonder your opinions. They'd be appreciated at your convenience.
Thanks.
Kevin,
First of all please note that I didn’t say that there was anything authentic about MJ-12. Disinformation = HOAX except that it is an officially generated hoax rather than one that is done for the personal reasons, etc. Let’s say that you are correct that was Moore who produced the Truman memo and the EBD. However, he was working with Doty on other things including Bennewitz op. Doty was an active AFOSI agent at the time and he claims acting under orders. He also denies he created the MJ-12 documents but he may well have inspired Moore and then stood back and let it happen.
This would still be disinformation but would at distance from the government. Once this was exposed as a hoax it has to useful outcomes for the cover up. First, it would tend to discredit the idea of a real crash recovery. And, it would sow a lot of discord within the Ufology community. On the latter point it was a complete success.
On the other hand Moore has not admitted that he created the documents, right? Yet he has admitted to a lot of other things that he did. If he wrote the EBD why not admit to that too? Perhaps it was just made to look like he did it.
John's Space -
If you are looking for motivation of Bill Moore, you need to ask him about it.
I do not believe that MJ-12 was part of a disinterest campaign. It seems to have been invented by Moore and friends... Moore talked of creating a Roswell document and months later he has one.
Moore, with Bob Pratt and probably Richard Doty, wrote a novel long before MJ-12 surfaced in which the contained the story of Project Aquarius which evolved into MJ-12. They even used many of the terms in that novel. It seemed to be the blue print for the MJ-12 documents that were released...
And, the EBD reflects the state of UFO research in the 1980s, not what is known today. Or, in other words, things that we believed in the 1980s have been shown to be wrong. There was no Del Rio crash, or crash in the El Indio - Guerrero area of Mexico... Willingham made it up but Moore and his pals believed it then so it had to be included.
It's pretty clear where all this originated and while Doty was involved, I don't believe his involvement was approved by shi superiors. Doty ended his military career as an NCO in a Air Force dining hall (mess hall).
Since this thread is on MJ12 and crashed UFOs, you might be interested to know that one of Leonard Stringfield's last reports on crashed UFOs has just been republished as a new edition:
http://nickredfernfortean.blogspot.com/2014/12/stringfield-crashed-ufos-back-in-print.html
Kevin,
So if you are right that Doty’s activity with Moore and Pratt on the novel wasn’t authorized by his superiors then what of his activities were? Were the Bennewitz related activities authorized? They also involved Moore. What about Doty’s activities with Linda Howe and the effort to sabotage her HBO documentary on UFOs?
In short was Doty a rouge agent? For all of these activities or just some of them?
I would suggest that there are two other explanations about the end of his Air Force career. First, it is that if he was basically operating under orders, never the less his cover was blown. His name has reached the public and U.S. senators were involved. Doty had become an expendable liability. Second, if he was rouge why didn’t he get kicked out of the service? Perhaps the mess hall job was a way to let him get his pension and perhaps reestablish a new cover for some post-service contract work.
To me this seems more plausible but it is just speculation.
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