X-Zone Broadcast Network - Jim Penniston

This week I reached out to Jim Penniston of Rendlesham Forest fame. I wanted to get his take on the events there. He was involved in the first night of sightings, but had not been with Colonel Charles Halt on what was apparently the third night

Jim Penniston

when Halt and John Burroughs approached the landed craft.

Penniston said he walked up to it and actually touched in on that first night. You can listen to his story here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/19539741

Penniston also provided some information about the aftermath of his sighting, including the fact that there had been a recording of the radio transmissions that had been made during the sighting. He said that a four-star general had retrieved that recording and that it disappeared into the great maw of the Pentagon.

To get a full picture of the Rendlesham Forest events, told by those who participated in them, you can read about my interviews with John Burroughs and Charles Halt and listen to them on the embedded links here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2017/01/x-zone-broadcast-network-colonel.html

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2017/02/x-zone-broadcast-network-return-of.html

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2017/04/x-zone-broadcast-network-john-burroughs.html

To help understand the actual timeline of the Rendlesham Forest events, Penniston has written a book about it. The Rendlesham Forest Enigma: Book 1: Time Line is available at Amazon.

Next week I’ll be talking to Robert Charles Cornett about our experiences in UFO research including our trip into the heart of cattle mutilation country in the mid-1970s.

If you have questions for with Bob Cornett or me, ask them in the comment section here, and I’ll attempt to get them answered during the interview.

X-Zone Broadcast Network - John Burroughs

After I had interviewed Charles Halt a few weeks ago, I heard from John Burroughs. During our discussion about the Halt interview, John said a couple of intriguing things. I thought he might be able to provide a different perspective on the Rendlesham Forest encounter, so I talked with him this week. You can listen to the interview here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/20665258

We started out discussing his involvement in two days of the main events of late

John Burroughs

December 1980, but delved into some of the reports that suggested strange things had been seen in the area for months before that and after. John was just telling us that sightings were not limited to those three days.

I had been somewhat confused some of this until I had talked with John about his involvement. Jim Penniston and John worked for different organizations on the base. There was a separation of police and security forces. Two different functions for two different units with two difference chains of command under most circumstance.  I learned that John was out there with Jim for the first big event on the first night and while Jim saw what he thought of as a craft, John saw lights.

We talked about the second day that involved a different crew and how one member of that crew had been badly frightened by what she saw. John suggested

Jim Penniston

that she was gone from the base in what seemed like a matter of days, maybe a matter of hours.

On the third night, John wasn’t on duty, but when he learned that something was going on out in the forest, he and a couple of others moved to East Gate on the base perimeter. Eventually, John went forward and although Chuck Halt mentioned on this program that John had been in the background on that third night, I have a taped interview on which Halt mentions that only John and one other were in front of him. Is this the fog of memory, or is there something a little more nefarious involved? You can listen to both the latest Chuck Halt and Jim Penniston interviews here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/20149199

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/19539741

From there we got into a discussion that suggested that others, from outside the Bentwaters base, had been flown in, quickly, to conduct “debriefings.” They arrived on an aircraft that had Langley Air Force Base markings. Although it seems that hypnosis was used on the enlisted personnel, it is also possible that there were chemical interrogations. John wasn’t sure if chemicals had been used, but thought there was to a real possibility.

We ended the discussion with a couple of theories that suggested that there might have been a more terrestrial explanation for those events… one that did not involve the lighthouse that is a favorite of the skeptics, but something that might have to do with some of the experiments being conducted by British scientists in the area. Apparently, there was a history of British research in the area for, what, decades.

Yes, we jammed quite a bit into the hour. There were so many other avenues to explore but we just ran out of time. I’m now going to take a couple of weeks off for the holidays, but will be back with some more interesting interviews. We’ll be running some of the “best of” segments during this short hiatus.

X-Zone Broadcast Network - Colonel Charles Halt

Charles Halt, of Bentwaters fame, was the guest this week. The discussion was about the events of December 1980, what he personally saw, and the reaction of the senior officers of the Air Force to those events. He mentioned interrogations of the enlisted personnel that including hypnosis and chemical regression. His

Colonel Charles Halt

suspicion was that outsiders were responsible for these interrogations and that it was the CIA who conducted them. You can listen to the interview here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/20149199

During the discussion, we touched on exactly what he had seen and who had been with him on that night. We learned that John Burroughs was involved on both the first night and on the third night, clearing up a problem I had seen in the testimony by Jim Penniston, who was interview on this program a couple of weeks earlier. You can listen to that interview here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/search?q=Jim+Penniston

One of the things that caught my attention was Halt saying that there were more sightings than just the three nights that everyone talks about. He provided some

Jim Penniston. Photo
copyright by Kevin Randle

examples, including those in which the security force at the weapons facility had engaged intruders, suggesting that the intruders weren’t human.

There was a lot of information packed into the hour. Because his answers were short, we were able to get into several other events around the sightings. Halt confirmed that there were radar tracks of the UFO at the time of the sighting, but that someone, or rather a group of someones, had removed the tapes of the radar screens. Someone also took the various log books and police blotters that covered those nights in December. In other words, Halt was saying there was a cover up that extended up the chain of command and beyond, going all the way to Washington, D.C.

Next week, for a change of pace, I’ll be talking with Michael Shermer of Skeptic magazine. The discussion should be interesting. If you have questions for him, send a note to the comments section and I’ll ask him during the show.

Ufology in Decline

Jim Penniston (left) and John
Burroughs.

There are many sides to the Roswell case but what might be most disappointing and more evidence of a decline in UFO research is how contentious the debate has become among those investigating the case. The real problem is not the skeptics or the debunkers, but those who supposedly support the theory it was extraterrestrial in origin. Rather than consolidate the evidence and work for an ultimate solution whatever that solution might be, they argue over trivia, are unwilling to entertain another’s explanation and work to destroy the credibility of the witnesses they don’t like for whatever reason. A united front could provide a path to convincing evidence. Instead, the arguments lead to claims of poor investigation and a presentation of contradictory evidence that inhibits proper research and annoys just about everyone else.

Roswell isn’t the only case that suffers from these multiple viewpoints. The Rendlesham landing of December 1980 has the same problems. There were rumors about the case that began when Art Wallace (a pseudonym for Larry Warren) began to talk about the events. Later others came forward including John Burroughs and Jim Penniston who apparently approached closer to the landed object than anyone else. There was even a letter written by then Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt confirming some sort of unusual event had taken place during those nights in the forest.

Peter Robbins

Eventually Warren would team with Peter Robbins to write Left at East Gate about Warren’s experiences during some of the event. Others would investigate the case, learn the names of other service members who were involved and gather additional evidence. Skeptics provided what they thought of as logical explanations for the events, suggesting that the airmen had been fooled by a number of manmade and natural objects.

Burroughs and Penniston would team with Nick Pope who at one time worked for the British government investigating UFOs and write Encounter in Rendlesham Forest. Although they discuss Warren’s involvement in that book, or maybe alleged involvement, they don’t give it much weight. They do, however, credit him with being among the first if not the first to tell the tale.

So there is a point of contention between the two camps, with one side supporting Warren and suggesting that the other side is, shall we say, less than accurate. The other side points to the problems, briefly, with Warren’s account and his ever changing tale. It does little or nothing to provide a clear picture of what happened. In fact, Robbins was inspired to write a long rebuttal to Pope’s book and post it free online. It can be downloaded here:

http://www.kgraradio.com/peter-robbins-deception-a-review-and-critical-analysis-of-the-book-encounter-in-rendlesham-forest/

I suppose, in fairness, I should mention this is not a new problem. APRO fought with NICAP in the 1950s and 1960s and later with MUFON. Each pushed its own agenda and the truth sometimes got lost in the process. This infighting, which has been lamented in the past, seems to have become worse in the age of the Internet and the truth suffers. Or, in other words, Ufology is in decline.

Encounter in Rendlesham Forest - A Review

In December 1980, there were a series of sightings of lights in the Rendlesham Forest near two USAF airbases located in England. American personnel assigned to those bases, RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge sighted strange lights and requested permission to investigate. Now Nick Pope, with John Burroughs and Jim Penniston have written a book, Encounter in Rendlesham Forest, dealing with their inside knowledge of the workings of the British UFO desk in the Ministry of Defence and their service with the Air Force during those sightings.

We get the perspective of the sightings from Burroughs who was first out of the gate and into the forest. Penniston, senior to Burroughs, arrived later. Both moved deeper into the woods, and as Burroughs stopped, away from a structured craft, Penniston walked forward and touched it. Both men later said that they became somewhat obsessed with the sighting. Penniston, unable to sleep in the days to follow, eventually wrote a series of ones and zeroes in his notebook that looks suspiciously like a binary code. He also felt compelled to return to the landing site where he found deep impressions in the ground. He made plaster casts of them.

Little of that has been discussed. It was the next night that involved Burroughs and the deputy base commander, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt, that has received the most attention. Halt, leading a group of men, entered the woods, moving toward the lights. Halt made a tape recording of what was happening and what he was observing as they worked their way toward the lights. Later, at the request of his chain of command, he would write a memo that eventually made its way into the public arena. That memo, written within several days of the event, seemed to underscore the strange nature of the event.

Nick Pope, who ran England’s Ministry of Defence UFO project, learned of the case through his work there. He was able to provide an interesting take on how the two governments, British and American, seemed to pass the problem of the sightings off on each other. Both denied jurisdiction over the case suggesting that the other had responsibility. Pope’s insights into that adds a note of credibility to the case.

The one problem I had with the book was its journey into material that while interesting did nothing to advance the case. As but a single example, there was a chapter Beyond Rendlesham that examined briefly, some a few semi-related cases, but not in enough detail help in our understanding of the Rendlesham case. The death of Captain Thomas Mantell while chasing a UFO over Kentucky is reduced to a single paragraph.

But the book shines when it discusses the Rendlesham report. There is new information found through the detailed memories of Burroughs and Penniston, and the information from Halt. Questions about the case have been answered, many for the first time. Skeptical arguments are examined, and according to Pope, do not explain anything. They merely get in the way of attempts to learn the truth.

For those who wish to understand more about this case, who want to see what has been reported by those involved, who wish to read the first-hand accounts of the men involved, this is the book. Others might suggest they were there. Others might suggest that they know more about the case, but it is here that we hear the voices of the men who experienced the UFO landing and the subsequent events.

X-Zone Broadcast Network - John Burroughs

John Burroughs, of Rendlesham Forest fame, was my guest. We focused, quite naturally, on the December, 1980, sightings there and what all happened from his perspective. You can listen to the program here:

https://youtu.be/rN2llEG7v3s

John Burroughs

I, for a long time, had been confused about the number of days over which the events took place. I had asked Jim Penniston, John Burroughs and Charles Halt that very question and I believe I now know the answer. There were events on three days. On two of them, the first and the last, several members of the security force were involved, and on the middle day, there were only two people were ventured outside the perimeter. From Penniston’s point of view, there were but two days. He and Burroughs were involved on them. But, from the overall perspective (or to get overly punny about it, from A Different Perspective) there were three days. In their book, Encounter in Rendlesham Forest, it is laid out so that all this becomes clearer.

I did ask about the interrogations, but John said he had no real memories of this. He did acknowledge that he had undergone hypnotic regression in an attempt to remember more of what had happened. And we learned, of course, that he now receives VA compensation for service connected disabilities.

This interview is in stark contrast to those provided by Charles Halt. And there are still questions about what had happened, but the real story here might be the reaction of the authorities to the events rather than the events themselves.

Next weeks’ guest: Chase Kloetzke

Topic: MUFON’s Special Assignment Team

Larry Warren, Rendlesham Forest and an Audio Tape

In 1995, I wrote a book, Project Moon Dust, in which I discussed the events at Rendlesham Forest in December 1980. It was an analysis that was based on the research that I done up to that point. For those who don’t know, back then, the case was quite confusing. Just who all was involved? How many days did the event last? Did anyone actually get close to an object or was it just lights in the forest? Lots of questions and only a few good answers.

John Burroughs

To expand on this, I had spent some time in California with Russ Estes, a documentarian who was involved in the UFO community. According to him, Larry Warren had stayed with him for several months, and Estes, as a documentarian, sat him down in front of his camera, asking him about the activities at Bentwaters. Warren, to prove his credentials, provided the evidence, including photographs and paperwork that he was, in fact, a former member of the Air Force security force at Bentwaters. And, as we all now know, his presence at the base has been confirmed by Colonel Charles Halt, John Burroughs and Jim Penniston. All of them were clearly there as well.

So, what is the problem? Wasn’t it Warren who first told the story to Barry Greenwood and Larry Fawcett? Without Warren, telling the story as Art Wallace, providing the first of the details, the story might have remained buried forever. Warren sparked the interest that lead to the breaking of the cover up or so it seemed.

According to a couple of paragraphs posted online by Philip Mantle, Warren had told Linda Moulton Howe that he hadn’t been directly involved, which changes the whole scenario. Mantle asked if any of us knew anything more about this:

Thanks to Rendlesham researcher Ronnie Dugdale for the information.

Warren admitted to Linda Moulton Howe and Benton Jamieson in an interview recorded by them both on May the 18th 1986 that he was re-telling Adrian Bustinzas story as if it had happened to him.

As recently as a couple of years ago Gary Heseltine was a guest on phenomenon radio. I was disappointed by his lack of knowledge but shocked and amazed that Gary Heseltine who claimed to be one of Britains leading researchers on the Rendlesham Forest Incident was unaware of the Howe/ Jamieson interview.

Directly after the show I sent a full transcript of the interview to Gary Heseltine so he knows the truth but chooses to ignore the evidence.!

Here is a link to my drop box for anyone who cares about the truth to read the full transcript:

https://www.dropbox.com/…/LMH%20Warren%20Jamieson%201986%20…

And, according to Halt, the story was already known in England before Warren had said anything about it. Bentwaters was being discussed in some circles, so even if Warren hadn’t talked to Greenwood and Fawcett, the story would have gotten out. Warren wasn’t all that important to the reporting of the story. Halt is the one who told me that when I interviewed him on the radio version of A Different Perspective. You can listen to that here:

https://youtu.be/lQXAFe-8CpQ

and here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEp8htP6O_g

Back then, in 1995 as I worked on Project Moon Dust, there was something of a controversy about the number of days that transpired. Some thought it was two and others thought it was three. I asked John Burroughs about it and he told me that he thought it was two but Penniston thought that it was three… or maybe it was the other way around. Warren said that he had been involved on the third day but if there was no third day, then Warren’s tale failed.

Peter Robbins

During a conversation held on February 16, 1993, among Halt, Warren and Peter Robbins, Halt told Warren that “You have events from the first night in the second or third night rather intertwined together.”

I think that I have finally solved this portion of the problem. According to what Charles Halt told me, there were three days. One day that involved several members of the security force and a second day that began early in the morning of December 27, that involved different set of witnesses. One of them, Lt. Bonnie Tamplin, who drove out into the woods, had suffered a vehicle failure, and was so freaked out by the experience that she was sent home.

It was that same day, but now late at night, just before midnight and into the morning of December 28, that Halt and the others were involved. In this respect, this is the third day. While I think this explains the problem with the number of days, meaning that everyone was right about the number of days depending on how you looked at it, it really does nothing to validate Warren’s tales. Events in the early morning of the 27^th are counted as one and those happening twenty or some hours later, late at night on the 27^th, account for the confusion. This is the point into which Warren attempted to insert himself.

Russ Estes. All photographs copyright
by Kevin Randle

In the video tape that Estes recorded, Warren seemed to hint that he hadn’t been around for two of the days because he had been on leave in Germany at the time. I mentioned that to Halt during the radio show and he was quite certain that Warren was in England, but not involved in the events in Rendlesham Forest.

There were differing accounts of who was where and who was involved on the critical day.  Halt was there, and according to him, no one was in front of him other than Burroughs and one other airman. Halt told Warren, “There are two nights there that are intertwined. Are you aware of that?”

Warren said that he didn’t and Halt continued. ““You have events from the first night in the second or in the third night rather intertwined together. It’s very puzzling.”

Later in the conversation, Warren said, “I am not married to anything I say. All I have done, or tried to do through the years…” Then as if to alibi his tale said that he had told his mother, who he said could tell whether or not he was lying. From what he said, his mother believed him.

Halt interrupted to ask, “Do you remember two separate, distinct nights, or were you involved on one night?”

Warren replied, “One. But I remember on that night… I can remember people with me and that whole bit.” And then he said the thing that seems to confirm the information that Howe and Benton Jamieson reported. He said, “Whether that is real or created or God Knows now… The strange story with me where your can put a finger on it and say God, something happened with this guy is in the paperwork… What my hopes are is that this is what my mind’s eye says.”

Warren talked about what he had seen or not seen. He said, “…whether I saw a thing explode or didn’t see a bright source of light…”

But Halt interrupted and said, “You couldn’t have been in front of us. There were no people in front of us… You had to be well behind that, at least a hundred, two hundred yards…”

With that, Warren diverted the conversation again. He talked of his eye problems, blaming them on the thing in the forest. Rather than dealing with the discrepancies in his story, he began to talk about other elements of the case.

But rather than take my word for it even though I can provide information about the interview, you can listen to it here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yues8i851bdbdw8/Halt%20Warren.wav?dl=0

The point here, however, is that everything I quoted here is on the tape made in 1993. I would suspect that Warren has a copy of the tape and knows what is on it. I suspect he knows what Halt has said about him and he knows that he wasn’t involved in the sightings but was at Bentwaters in 1980. All this seems to verify what Howe and Jamieson reported. Warren sinks his own tale with his own words and I have no reason to suspect that the interview with Warren in 1986 is not accurate.

Robert Salas and Me

While in Roswell a couple of years ago, I shared, briefly, a table with Robert Salas of Malmstrom missile fame. He was a little more serious about selling his book than I was in selling mine and at one point he snapped at me for joking with the UFO museum patrons. I hadn’t spoken to him since that time in Roswell. I mention this for the context it will provide for some later comments here.

Robert Salas

At the recent Citizen Hearing I saw him again. At the Sunday evening dinner for those who were participating in some fashion… that is, the former members of Congress, the witnesses which included researchers, and those volunteers who helped Steve Bassett to organize the Hearing, I made my way up front to speak with Bassett. On my way back I passed the table where Salas sat. He looked up at me and I said, “You can say, ‘hello,’” which, of course he did.

The next day, we ended up on the bus arranged to transport everyone from the hotel to the National Press Club and back. We were the only two on it, and we spoke again, briefly. I asked him a couple of questions about what had happened at Oscar Flight in 1967.

I have said it before and I’ll say it again. If Salas was alone in his claims, then we could reject them simply because you’d expect others to have had similar experiences. Of course, there was a series of UFO sightings near Belt, Montana on the day that Salas claimed the UFO caused the missiles of Oscar Flight to “go off-line.” And, there were the documented events of Echo Flight which had happened just days before when all ten of their missiles did the same thing. In other words, Salas was not alone, and the other man in the capsule with him at the time, Fred Meiwald, confirmed the event.

There was a minor discrepancy. Salas said all the missiles had gone off line but his boss, Meiwald said only four or five. In the original information, Salas, according to what he said to me, “Split the different and I said eight.” He now has said all ten were involved.

Meiwald, interviewed by others including Robert Hastings for UFOs and Nukes, confirmed what Salas had said. The missiles had gone off-line, in essence failed. Combined with the documentation about Echo Flight, the words of Salas took on

Swearing in of the Missileers at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., May 2013.

added weight. In fact, Salas appeared in Washington, D.C. with two other officers who had been assigned to missile flights at other military bases who had experiences with UFOs. In other words, there are a number of reports of this sort and contrary to what the Condon Committee said this was a matter of national security.

I suppose I could point out here that all said they had been required, at the time, to sign nondisclosure agreements. They wouldn’t reveal what they knew and would not talk to others at their bases about this. It was a way to keep the information from spreading among the missile crews.

At any rate, we chatted on the short ride from the National Press Club to the hotel. Salas gave me a little more information and a slight preview of what he would say the next afternoon in front of the committee. I was there to watch, listened to Salas as he reported what he had seen, heard and done, and then listened to two other officers say some of the same things. UFOs had penetrated the missile sites and shut down the missile guidance systems. If an outside source could do that, it was a matter of national security. At the time, if the Soviets had been able to do that, they could have rendered our entire strategic missile system useless. They could shut it down from outside the system and prevent retaliation. But, of course, they didn’t have that capability, but in the 1960s and the 1970s, nobody knew that for certain.

It was sometime Thursday afternoon that I bumped into Salas again. It was just after several men from around the world had told of their experiences with UFOs and their governments attitudes about UFOs had testified. Salas came up to me and wondered if I could help him sell some of his books… It was a joke, related to what we had our spat about in Roswell. For those interested, his book is Faded Giant written with Jim Klotz is available at Amazon and probably other on line bookstores.

The real point here is that Salas opened the floodgates on this one aspect of the UFO phenomenon. He was among the first to talk about UFOs interfering with US missiles. Others, such as those who testified with him, and Jim Penniston and John Burroughs who had testified that morning, suggest that UFOs have interfered with our atomic weapons (which, I must point out here might not be a bad thing but that slides off into the realm of political opinion and not relevant here). All of that made for compelling testimony (and now we can hear that Rendlesham was a lighthouse and rabbit holes), and even if it was not alien in nature, national security was involved. Someone, or something, had caused the trouble at the missile sites.

Say what you will about Salas, he is not stand alone… and for me, he seems to have mellowed a little bit as well. Such is the world in which we travel.

Nick Pope is Gone

 

For those who might have missed the sad news, Nick Pope, onetime British Ministry of Defence UFO expert has died. His wife, Elizabeth Weiss said, “My heart is breaking. Nick passed away this afternoon (April 6) at our home."

Nick Pope at the Las Vegas Crash Conference.

Inside the UFO community, Nick was well known for his expertise on the subject and for the insider information he offered. He was a cautious researcher who was bound by his connections to official documents that often required him to protect some of the information he had learned from classified sources. But his intimate knowledge of the UFO phenomena provided him with an insight to many of the important cases.

With Jim Penniston and John Burroughs, he wrote what is one of the best books about the Rendlesham Forest UFO sightings of late December 1980. His book, along with that written by Charles Halt, who was the deputy commander at the time, provides us with a greater understanding of that event.

I met with Nick on several occasions and even shared a dinner table with him. Quite naturally, our talk surrounded UFOs. Although we sometimes differed on certain UFO cases, it was always a cordial conversation. His knowledge was extensive and his contacts were many. He brought a clarity to the topic that others failed to grasp.

Elizabeth Weiss provided some of the medical details, telling us that Nick suffered from Stage 4 esophageal cancer that took his life at 60. It is always a sad note when a colleague passes. We begin to think of what we should have done when we had the chance. I wish his wife my best in this tragic time.

X-Zone Broadcast Network - Colonel Charles Halt

Colonel Charles Halt

The guest this week was Charles Halt who was the senior officer present for one of the nights of the UFO events in Rendlesham Forest near Bentwaters. We talked about those events, the affect they had on some of those who were involved and Halt’s belief that some sort of disinformation campaign and some sort of intense debriefings were held, including the use of chemicals. He confirmed the statement, “"I believe the objects that I saw at close quarter were extraterrestrial in origin and that the security services of both the United States and the United Kingdom have attempted – both then and now – to subvert the significance of what occurred at Rendlesham Forest and RAF Bentwaters by the use of well-practiced methods of disinformation," is something that he said and he believes. You can listen to the interview here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsXqrFuMlC0

He also cleared up, at least in my mind, the controversy over how many nights the events took place. I had asked both John Burroughs and Jim Penniston about that, and they disagreed. One said it was three night and the other said it was two. Given what Halt said, they were both right. The first night involved a number of enlisted personnel who had seen something in the woods outside the base perimeter and went to investigate. The second night only involved two people, a second lieutenant and an NCO. They were the only two who saw anything on that night. On the third night, Halt, leading a small party went out as more lights were seen in the forest. He provides some of his observations that night.

He talked about some of the physical evidence that was recovered, some of the observations by instrumentality, which is to say radar confirmations that he learned of years after the event, and the enhanced debriefings that were undergone by the enlisted personnel. He was not debriefed on the sightings.

Next week’s guest: Ruben Uriarte

Topic: UFO investigations in Texas and Mexico.

X-Zone Broadcast Network - Don Burleson

This week I spoke with Don Burleson, the State Director of New Mexico for MUFON. We talked about the Levelland UFO sightings and the sheriff’s role in that investigation. Don mentioned his interview with the late sheriff’s daughter, which

Dr. Don Burleson

produced some new information. She suggested that her father had seen more than just a red streak in the distance and that the Air Force had strongly suggested that the sheriff not talk about what he had seen. I noted that I had found a newspaper article from 1957 that supported the idea that the sheriff had seen more than had been reported by the Air Force investigator on the case. You can listen to the Don Burleson interview here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/19428012

We also talked about the symbol that Lonnie Zamora saw on the side the landed craft in Socorro in April 1964. This part of the discussion was important because of a claim that Don had published in The MUFON Journal about a secret briefing given to Air Force fighter pilots in 1964. For those interested in the great symbol debate, you can read about it here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2016/09/x-zone-broadcast-network-ben-mosstony.html

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2016/11/a-final-analysis-of-socorro-symbol.html

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/search?q=Lonnie+Zamora+symbol

Finally, we talked about the alleged landing at Holloman Air Force Base in late April 1964. Don had an affidavit from a man who was the son of the base commander at the time that suggested the landing was real. Interestingly, I discussed this in my book about Socorro, Encounter in the Desert, which provided a slightly different perspective (yes, I said that on purpose) about that landing. I also discuss the symbol controversy at length as well. You can find the book here:

https://www.amazon.com/Encounter-Desert-Alien-Contact-Socorro/dp/1632651130/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3P02O8BF8NPNX&keywords=encounter+in+the+desert&qid=1570725103&sprefix=Encounter+in+the+%2Caps%2C175&sr=8-1

Next week, I’ll talk with Jim Penniston of the Rendlesham Forest encounter. If you have questions for him, submit them through the comments section here, and I’ll try to get them asked during the interview.

'X' Zone Broadcast Network - The Top Ten UFO Sightings

 

For the show this week, I did something a little different. There was no guest for the program. Instead, I provided a list of what I thought were the top ten UFO cases from around the world. As I mentioned in the very beginning of the show, there are many good sightings that involve multiple witnesses and multiple chains of evidence. These top ten were the ones that I thought of on the particular day that I created the list and that next week, I might have another list.

I did mention several cases that could have been on my list but weren’t there for now. These included the Michigan sightings in 1966 which precipitated congressional hearings called for by then Michigan congressional representative, Gerald Ford. The Rendlesham Forest series of sightings in December 1980 is another good case. I have interviewed Charles Halt, John Burroughs and Jim Penniston on this program and the case could easily be on the list. And I mentioned the Terry Lovelace abduction that might not have been alien inspired but was certainly a real event. He talked of his interrogation by agents of the Air Force Office of Special Investigation, which suggests possible manipulation. Those at Rendlesham also mentioned AFOSI interrogations. Charles Halt, the senior officer involved, confirmed that though he said he was not subjected to the interrogations. I still wonder about that.

I also mentioned that there were some important cases from the past that seemed puzzling at the time but are now “solved.” I included the Mantell incident of January 1948 in which Mantell died chasing a UFO. The best evidence available today suggests that this was a tragic accident caused by a Skyhook balloon that had been launched a day earlier in Minnesota. And I mentioned the Chiles-Whitted sighting which, in 1948, inspired the famous Estimate of the Situation, which is not to say it was the only reason the study was conducted. I believe that they sighted a bolide as it broke up. Jerry Clark and others disagree with that.

You can, of course, see the program here:

https://rumble.com/v14j7r5-a-different-perspective-with-kenin-randle-top-10-ufo-cases.html?mref=yqkns&mc=7zk0c

The cases that I discussed, in the order in which they were discussed are:

10. The French Wave of I954

9. The McMinnville Photographs of May 11, 1950

8. The Lubbock Lights of August and September 1951.

7. The Washington Nationals of July 1952.

6. The Montana Movie of August 15, 1951

5. The Coyne Helicopter Case of October 1973.

4. The Shag Harbour UFO Crash (Emergency Landing) on October 4, 1967

3. The Socorro, New Mexico (Zamora) Landing of April 24, 1964

2. The Levelland Sightings of November 2/3, 1957

1. What else? Roswell

In the future, I plan to do this again, if there is interest in it. Next up, for one of these solo shows would be UFO hoaxes… No, not MJ-12 or Aztec or the Alien Autopsy, but the government’s hoaxes such as the Mogul Deception, the Robertson Panel and the University of Colorado study, just to name a few. This would be sometime in June.

For those interested in such things, I have studied a number of the above cases in depth and have written books about them. Encounter in the Desert is about the Socorro landing witnessed by Lonnie Zamora. Levelland, is a close look at those sightings of a glowing egg-shaped craft that stall car engines. That book also contains detailed information about the French wave of 1954. I did a book called Invasion Washington about the Washington National sightings which you can read for free at the NICAP website. And finally, for those interested in the solid information about Roswell there is Understanding Roswell. All books are available at Amazon, and as they say, if you enjoy them, take a moment to leave a review or a rating.

The greatest newspaper banner headline ever (UFO related).

Next week, I’ll be talking to Philip Mantle of the Flying Disk Press about his new book about landings in the United Kingdom and his investigation, with Irene Scott into the Hickson-Parker Pascagoula abduction in 1973.

'X' Zone Broadcast Network - Terry Lovelace, Alien Abductions and Past Lives

 

Terry Lovelace was the guest this week. He appeared in the UFO community after the publication of his book, Incident at Devil’s Den, which told the story of his

abduction and subsequent interrogation by the Air Force Office of Special Investigation. He described, briefly, the incident in this latest interview. I had spoken with him months earlier to learn more about the experience. You can listen to that original interview here for additional information:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/17671590

Before we started, however, I did mention pictures that have been circulating on the Internet, which are supposed to be the remains of the Roswell UFO. They are, in fact, the remains of an A-12 spy plane that crashed in Utah in 1963. You can read my original posting about that here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2022/01/attip-philip-corso-and-roswell-crash.html

From that point, we did talk about Terry’s experiences and his observations. The important point was the involvement of the AFOSI. That had led me to write, UFOs and the Deep State, in which I do mention Terry’s experiences. I also noted that his involvement with the AFOSI mirrored the experiences of those who had been in Rendlesham Forest including John Burroughs and Jim Penniston. Charles Halt suggested that he had not been interrogated by the AFOSI but knew that many of the airmen involved had been. All of this suggested corroboration for Terry’s story. You can listen to the new interview here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/49027816

We did also talk about his experiences with past life regressions. He had done six of them were some interesting results and did mention the story of a small boy who was apparently a reincarnated Corsair pilot from the Second World War. Although I hesitate to mention it because this becoming a commercial for my books, I had dealt with an alien abduction case that evolved into a past life regression some decades earlier. That book Conversations is an interesting story and can be found on Amazon.

He had mentioned to me, prior to the interview, that he had become interested in exploring those past lives after he was trained in the techniques of hypnotic regression. He hadn’t interviewed many persons about this. I think he said six, but he had some success with it. I mentioned the Bridey Murphy case, which was a quite controversial episode from the 1950s. There is plenty of information about this on the Internet, but if you chose to explore it, be aware of the bias of those making the reports.

In the next couple of weeks, I’ll be talking with John Greenewald about his latest findings from his FOIA requests and his opinions on what is happening in the world of the UFO. The following week, I’ll interview David Marler about triangular UFOs and the project to scan many UFO related documents held by UFO researchers. As always, if you have questions for either of these men, append them to the comments section… and remember, these are not necessarily published.

Citizen Hearing on Disclosure

The Citizen Hearing on UFO Disclosure being held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. is now half over and I’m astonished at the abuse thrown by those not in attendance and the press seeking out the few who are members of the lunatic fringe. I have heard, repeatedly, about two who showed up wearing headbands with crystals but I never saw them (other than in a newspaper photo), and I have seen references to tinfoil hats which are not in evidence.

On the flip side, I see people smeared by association, called out because their views don’t match those of others, or something their children might have done. What it repeatedly overlooked, is the documentation presented, the credibility of many of the witnesses such as retired Air Force sergeants John Burroughs and Jim Penniston who were at the forefront of the Bentwaters encounter in 1980. Robert Salas, along with retired Air Force captain David Schindele and former captain Bruce Fenstermacher, who provided testimony about intrusions of UFOs over nuclear launch facilities and the momentary disabling of minuteman missiles, to name a few.

I have listened to the testimony of these men, I have known some of them personally for years, and I know the documentation supports the stories they tell. You might quibble about the alien nature of the encounters, but the documentation supports the events. Something happened at Bentwaters in 1980, missiles did mysteriously go off line at Malstrom Air Force Base in 1967, and national security was compromised. Again, you can argue the alien nature, but the events happened and they can be documented through government records.

But the media, or rather many of them, arrive with their preconceived notions, and rather than talk to the witnesses about what they saw, the researchers about what they have learned, the media look for a loon or two and then imply that the majority of those in attendance fit into that category.

Stan Friedman mentioned to me this morning that he had an email from a colleague? friend? acquaintance? Who felt the urge to ask how Stan could call himself a scientist…? nothing like rejecting an idea without looking at the evidence and attacking those who suggest that such evidence exists.

Each of the former senators or congressional representatives have mentioned the negative comments made to them, of the ridicule directed at them, and the bad press they have received. Few seem willing to listen to the testimony of those who have had documented experiences because it is simply too easy to look down their noses at those whose views do not agree with their own.

What I’m saying is that no one is looking at the information being shared by credible people, no one is asking if the health problems of some of the witnesses is not related to their UFO encounters, and no one is asking to see the evidence and the documentation.

No, they’re just more interested in displaying their superiority by making snide comments, tarring everyone with the same brush and ignoring the evidence. Or worse still, printing pictures of those painted green who weren’t at this event. That picture was taken somewhere else at some other time.

True, there are those here whose views I do not share, but if I avoid this venue, then my voice is silenced. If I do appear, then I join those in the tinfoil hats as some sort of kook, at least in the eyes of those offended by the Hearings.

Before you ask, yes, I listened to Steven Greer and found him to be quite entertaining. The audience was with him as he spoke and he is quite charismatic. I watched Sirius, and thought it spent way too much time on alternative sources of energy. I wanted to hear about the little alien, or maybe I should say, unusual little creature found. True, 90% of the DNA matched that of humans, but then some 9% didn’t, which doesn’t prove an alien connection. It is anomalous and interesting enough to engage very credible scientists at some very prestigious universities. That fact somehow gets lost.

In the past I have seen people review books without reading them, make statements about events they know nothing about, and offer opinions that are ill-informed. I wonder why those people do those things. Wouldn’t it be better to listen to the testimony, look at the background and the credentials of the witnesses, and then decide whether the effort was worth it? Why pass judgment before you see the results?

X-Zone Broadcast Network - Don Ecker and the Current State of UFOs

 

This week I was lucky enough to talk with Don Ecker who has been around the UFO field for a very long time. Many will remember him as one of those behind UFO magazine and the host of a number of radio shows dealing with UFOs. Of course, you can listen to the our discussion here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/45054526

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/45054531

We did talk about a wide range of topics. One of the interesting subjects was Dr. Eric Davis and Admiral Thomas Wilson who supposedly had a secret meeting a number of years ago. Don added an interesting perspective to this tale. For those interested, you can read more about it here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2020/09/x-zone-broadcast-network-joe-murgias.html

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2020/06/dr-eric-davis-and-admiral-thomas-wilson.html

I did write more about Davis, but much of it dealt with Davis’ claim that the Del Rio UFO crash was real. If you wish to pursue this line of thought, just type Eric Davis into the search engine and you’ll probably learn more than you care to about Davis and his claims about Del Rio.

Don and I also delved, slightly, into tales of stolen valor and those who claim Vietnam service when it is clear they never served in Vietnam. That, of course led us to Cliff Stone and his somewhat tall tales about his experiences in Vietnam. True, Stone did serve in Vietnam but not the four tours he claimed and it is clear that he was a clerk and not an infantry soldier. Some of that service seemed to be in the theater of operations but might not have been actually in Vietnam.

Don and Vicki Ecker and a pal.

In the second show, we enter the realm alien abduction, including possible explanations for it and some observations about it. This moves us to Rendlesham Forest and the information provided by Jim Penniston and John Burroughs about their experiences and possible hypnotic and chemical regressions. Terry Lovelace and his experiences are also discussed. I outlined those in UFOs and the Deep State.

In the two shows, we tried to cover some of the aspects of the UFO field as it exists today. We both have military back grounds and both had high-level top-secret clearances so that we can speak was some authority on how those things work. We provide some insights that should be useful to those who wish to engage in additional research. I try to ensure that there is enough information for those others to begin their work.

Next up are Jacques Vallee and Paola Harris to talk about their book, Trinity: The Best Kept Secret. If you have questions, put them in the comment section. I’ll review them and try to get them answered, though I have many questions myself.