Yes, I'm Annoyed Again...

 

More annoyance at the ignorance that is published in the world today. Sure, I could go off on a political rant here, but that’s not necessary. I saw a magazine a few minutes ago called The Complete Guide to Unsolved Mysteries. No, I didn’t buy it because it was nearly fourteen bucks but I also wondered about the accuracy of their analysis of these “Unsolved Mysteries.”

I searched for a publisher and a list of writers but couldn’t find it. I looked it up on Amazon and the publisher is listed as “Generic.” That means, at least to me, that the publisher was somewhat ashamed of the magazine and didn’t want to be identified with it.

But that’s not what set me off. Naturally, as you would expect, I looked at the few

Frank Kaufmann (left) receives an award at the RAAF in 1947,

hundred words that dealt with Roswell. Not a particularly astute analysis and one that is flawed. According to them, the book I wrote with Don Schmitt, the Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell claimed that the bodies had been shown to President (wait for it) Dwight Eisenhower. I defy them to find any place that either of us has made that claim. We wouldn’t do it because we both know that Harry Truman was president in 1947 and that Eisenhower wouldn’t become president until January 1953.

We did have testimony that one of the flights out of Roswell took bodies to Washington, D.C. so that the president could be brought up to speed. But, as I say, that president was Truman. That information, BTW, was provided by Frank Kaufmann, who has since been discredited by the work of Mark Rodeghier, Mark Chesney and Don Schmitt. Rodeghier and I wrote an expose of Kaufmann a number of years ago in the International UFO Reporter, providing the proof that Kaufmann was not who he claimed to be.

True, we all make mistakes and mine was believing that Kaufmann was telling the truth. But, I was a participant in exposing his lies so that he could be removed from the tale, other than as a footnote. And, of course, that demonstrates that I, as well as my colleagues, continue to search for the truth about Roswell. The real point is that the publisher of the magazine had so little faith in the product that the company name appears nowhere in the magazine. That, I believe, says it all about the reliability of the information contained between the covers.

The American Airlines Sightings and Other "V"-Shaped UFOs

 

I was looking for additional information about a sighting reported by George Noory on Coast to Coast, when I stumbled into several reports of chevron-shaped UFOs. You can read that report here:

https://www.coasttocoastam.com/article/pilot-reports-odd-ufo-over-new-mexico/

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/39367/airbus-encountered-unidentified-fast-moving-cylindrical-object-over-new-mexico

When asked for more information, American Airlines referred the reporters to the FBI. There has been no explanation for the sighting at this time. Later reports suggest both FAA and FBI investigation and the possibility of something from White Sands.

This means, obviously, that the sighting is being taken seriously by the press and various government agencies. This almost reminds me of the beginning of the modern era in which such reports were taken seriously rather than ridiculed. And in the last couple of days, former air traffic controllers have reported similar incidents.

In the course of my search, I came across multiple reports of chevron-shaped objects. These are objects that looked like the rank worn by soldiers and Marines and differ from triangular UFOs because the base is open. David Marler provided commentary about triangular UFOs in his book, Triangular UFOs: Estimate of the Situation. You can listen to that conversation here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/43515728

The Lubbock Lights.

This all lead to the chevron-shaped UFOs. One of the earliest of those reports came from Albuquerque on August 25, 1951. This report was made 90 minutes before the first of the Lubbock Lights sighting. The witnesses described a flying wing like aircraft, with a series of lights along the edge of the wing. Later, several college professors would report objects passing overhead in Lubbock, which became the first of those sightings. Carl Hart, Jr. took five photographs of those lights a few nights later, which showed a chevron-shaped, or flying wing like craft. Only four of the photographs have survived. Hart told me in 1995 that he didn’t know what he had photographed. You can read more about the Lubbock Lights here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/search?q=Lubbock+Lights

In reports from MUFON and Peter Davenport’s National UFO Reporting Center, I found the following. On January 10, 2021, the witness in Philadelphia, said that while star-gazing, saw a massive V-shaped craft that traveled from north to southwest. The witness said that it was very large and was silent. The V or chevron, was dark with dim running lights along the edges. The witness said the most interesting part was that it seemed that light was bending around the body of the craft and that the ‘stars behind it were visible though were stretched or distorted as it flew.

On January 5, at about ten p.m., the witness in Richmond, Missouri, heard a noise that might have been a snow plow but I kept getting louder. Stepping outside, the witness saw an aircraft that resembled the B-2 Bombers from Whiteman Air Force base. The witness said that the object so low, that it was vibrating the house. It was flying extremely low. The only lights were two solid red at the wingtips. The shape seemed to be a triangle, but the B-2 is more chevron shaped. It was cloudy so that the witness said that “It didn’t silhouette very well.”

In a case from Los Angeles, a witness, only identified as Miguel said that he saw a boomerang flying over the area. He said it was about 300 feet in size and had a dark surface with white lights. He said it emitted nothing and made no noise but did maintain a constant speed and elevation. It had “fuzzy edges,” and he said there was a mist or shroud around it.

One of the best sightings of a chevron-shaped object was reported at the same time as the Phoenix Lights. The object, that could be described as a flying wing with lights in a “V” formation, was first seen in Nevada rather than Arizona. Just before seven (Pacific Standard Time) a man living in Henderson, just outside of Las Vegas, said that he saw a “V”-shaped object that he thought was about the size of a Boeing 747 and that sounded like the rushing of wind. There were six lights on the leading edge. He watched as it flew to the southeast, eventually disappearing over the horizon.

Others reported the lights as they flew from northern Arizona to the southern corner, a distance of about two hundred miles in about thirty minutes, or at about 400 miles per hour. The speed is not outside that of conventional aircraft.

Dana Valentine, a laser printer technician, said he was sitting in his yard when he saw the lights. He ran inside to alert his father, an aeronautical engineer, and both saw the lights, an estimated 500 feet above them. They could also see a mass behind the lights. Neither could see a definable shape, just the formation of lights with a wavy, gray mass behind them. Neither of them could explain what they had seen.

Peter Davenport, and his National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) received dozens of calls from witnesses in Arizona that night.  According to him:

One group of three witnesses, located just north of Phoenix, reported seeing a huge, wedge-shaped craft with five lights on is ventral surface pass overhead with an eerie “gliding” type of flight. It coursed to the south and passed between two mountain peaks to the south. The witnesses emphasized how huge the object was, blocking up to 70 – 90 degrees of the sky.

A second group of witnesses, a mother and four daughters near the intersection of Indian School Road and 7^th Avenue [in Phoenix], were shocked to witness an object, shaped somewhat like a sergeant’s stripes, approach from over Camelback Mountain to the north. They report that it stopped directly above them, where it hovered for an estimated 5 minutes. They described how it filled at least 30 – 40 degrees of sky, and how it exhibited a faint glow along its trailing edge. The witnesses felt they could see individual features on the ventral surface of the object, and they were certain that they were looking at a very large, solid object.

The object began moving slowly to the south, at which time it appeared to “fire” a white beam of light at the ground. At about the same time, the seven lights on the object’s leading edge suddenly dimmed and disappeared from the witnesses’ sight. The object moved off in the general direction of Sky Harbor International Airport, a few miles to the south, where it was witnessed by two air traffic controllers in the airport tower, and reportedly by several pilots, both on the ground and on final approach from the east.

After this point in the sighting, the facts are somewhat less clear to investigators. It is known that at least one object continued generally to the south and southeast, passing over the communities of Scottsdale, Glendale, and Gilbert. One of the witnesses in Scottsdale, a former airline pilot with 13,700 hours of flight time, reported seeing the object execute a distinct turn as it approached his position on the ground. He noted that he witnessed many lights on the object as it approached him, but that the number of lights appeared to diminish as it got closer to overhead. Many other witnesses in those communities reported seeing the object pass overhead as it made its way toward the mountains to the south of Phoenix.

Other sightings occurred shortly afterward along Interstate 10 in the vicinity of Casa Grande. One family of five, who were driving from Tucson to Phoenix, reported that the object that passed over their station wagon was so large that they could see one “wing tip” of the object out one side of their car, and the other “wing tip” out the other side. They estimated they were driving toward Phoenix at approximately 80 miles per hour, and they remained underneath the object for between one and two minutes as it moved in the opposite direction. They emphasized how incredibly huge the object appeared to be as it blocked out the sky above their car.

What all this demonstrates is that there were more sightings than have been reported by most of those commenting on the lights. More important, some of the explanations offered in the days that followed did not account for the variety of sightings.

But the sightings didn’t end; they just became more controversial and produced a number of video tapes. These were lights that inspired the investigations as well as the media attention because nothing excites the media like a good visual. One of the tapes, shown repeatedly on local, national, and cable television, was analyzed using an impressive looking array of computers and some very sophisticated software. The conclusions drawn in those early investigations were that the lights were not natural phenomena and did not exhibit any of the features of manufactured lights. In other words, they were unique.

Others, including private researchers began to gather the stories of the lights that had moved across Arizona, some of them believing that all the sightings were related. There were those who claimed to have a triangular-shaped object and others who claimed to have seen individual lights in a triangular or “V” shaped formation. Some thought the lights were white, others red, and still others saw various faded colors in the lights.

It might also be said that this is where things become confusing. There is good testimony that one formation of lights was identified as airplanes. Steve Wilson of The Arizona Republic, reported about while others were sighting lights, one man saw an object. Wilson reported:

…Max Saracen, 34, is a real estate consultant who lives in north Phoenix. He and his wife, Shala, were driving west on Deer Valley Road when they saw a huge triangular craft. They pulled off the road, got out and watched it pass overhead. “It was very spooky – this gigantic ship blocking out the stars and silently creeping across the sky. I don’t know of any aircraft with silent engines.

Saracen was not alone in this. Mike Rogers, yes that Mike Rogers, told me that he had seen the large, triangular craft as it approached the Phoenix area. It was clear from what he said that he wasn’t talking about a formation of lights, but of a large, single object. He said that he was on a hillside when the craft became visible. It was not a collection of lights or objects, but a single craft. You can listen to our discussion about this here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/19005920

In my conversation with David Marler, he mentioned that sightings of triangular-shaped objects were becoming more frequent. He also mentioned that he “Tried to remain pure to actually focusing on actual triangular UFOs…” there is a gray area when looking at the various reports. He also said that these chevron-shaped UFOs, or boomerangs, were a category of their own.

The statistics do show more sightings of the chevron shapes. It’s almost as if there has been an evolution in the shape of the craft reported that might mean an update in the technology or another species is now visiting.

Roswell and Matilda O'Donnell MacElroy

 

There are times when I am truly amazed at the credulity of the UFO community. Cases that are admitted hoaxes resurface with “new” evidence but are still admitted hoaxes. Cases that have been shown to be fake, resurface as others seem to believe that we have missed an important fact. And there are some that should have never taken off, given the “evidence” surrounding them.

Just the other day I was treated to a renewed interest in the story of Matilda O’Donnell MacElroy who claimed to be a former member of the military who had been in Roswell in 1947 and who had communicated with an alien creature that survived the crash. There is so much wrong with this, that I can’t believe that anyone took it seriously.

An alleged photograph of MacElroy... this is a picture of a 
commissioned officer and not an NCO.

Let’s just begin with the photograph on the cover of the book. It is of an Army nurse, who may or may not have been MacElroy. The trouble here is that MacElroy claimed to have been an NCO but the woman in the picture is in an officer’s uniform. Clearly there is a problem here that is never clarified and this is the first hint of trouble.

We’re told that MacElroy was a nurse, but, of course, her name doesn’t surface in any of the documents we have that provide listings of those serving in Roswell in 1947. She said that she was an NCO, but Army nurses, in fact all military nurses, are commissioned officers, so she wasn’t a nurse. Some sort of technician, maybe? Well, we have no information suggesting that there were any female medical technicians assigned to Roswell in 1947, so that doesn’t work. Besides, she said that she wasn’t a technician.

Then we have the trouble with her rank in 1947. She said, because she had made telepathic contact with the alien, she was assigned as its “companion?” or some such nonsense. She was given a raise and promoted to Senior Master Sergeant. This was a rank created by the Air Force (which didn’t exist in July 1947) in June of 1958. 

She said that she drove Mr. Cavitt out to the site where one was alive. But, in all my conversations with Cavitt, in all the questions Don Schmitt and I asked him about others who might have some knowledge, and in all the names that Cavitt supplied, hers never came up. Of course, Cavitt, as a captain, wasn’t authorized a driver. Either he, or one of the others assigned to the CIC office, would have driven the vehicles.

Bill Rickett, the number two man in the CIC office, and who was willing to answer all the questions put to him, never mentioned a female driver assigned to their office and never mentioned a female who had worked with them, even on a temporary basis. At some point as the questions were asked about those working in the office, this would have been mentioned.

What we see here is someone spinning a tale who knows nothing about the military or the rank structure or its history. It’s as if he (and yes, I mean he) is pulling the details out of thin air because they sound good.

Here is what we are told in the very beginning of the book, Alien Interview: The Letters and Notes of Matilda O’Donnell MacElroy. “This special READERS EDITION of ALIEN INTERVIEW [emphasis in original] contains only the original Letters, the personal Notes written by Matilda O’Donnell MacElroy, and a copy of the U.S. Army Air Force Top Secret Official Interview Transcripts received by Matilda in 2007.”

Except, of course, it wasn’t the U.S. Army Air Force in 1947 but was, in fact, the U.S. Army Air Forces. True, a minor error, but one that suggests that the writer didn’t really understand the situation in 1947 and one that those in that branch of the military service would not have made.

And why would a top secret document be sent to a witness. She would have no need for it and would not have the capability to properly store it. But, then, since we don’t have that document, we don’t really know what was in it, how accurate it might be, or if it existed at all.

But then there is the Disclaimer. It removes all doubt about the authenticity of the book. I don’t know why more people haven’t paid attention to it. The Disclaimer said:

As far as the Editor of the book, “Alien Interview” is concerned, and for all practical purposes, the content of the book is a work of fiction. The Editor makes no claim to the factuality of the content, and in fact, cannot prove that the alleged author actually ever existed. Although some of the dates, locations, persons and incidents described may be factual or based on fact, there is no evidence to authenticate that equally as many may be subjective contrivances of the author.

All of the information, notes and transcripts received by the Editor are contained in the complete, original form, as represented in the book. The Editor is no longer in possession of any original documents or copies of original documents from the author, i.e., Mrs. MacElroy.

Some material contained in the book may have similarities to Earth philosophies as the variety of these are too numerous to list, and bear too many fundamental similarities to be easily differentiated. Although the book discusses the origins of the universe, the time track of the physical universe, paranormal activities or immortal and/or extraterrestrial beings, “aliens” or “god”, it is in no way the intention of the Editor to represent, endorse, forward or assume the viewpoint of the author, any political doctrine, economic vested interest, scientific hypothesis, religious practice or philosophy, whether terrestrial or extraterrestrial.

The notes and transcripts contained in the book, are solely and only based on the representations and documents provided by the author, the late Matilda O’Donnell MacElroy, unless otherwise specifically annotated by Footnotes in the Appendix of the book.

The Editor is not responsible for any assumptions, inferences or conclusions made by the reader based on the material in this book, which are solely and only the responsibility of the reader.

What is true for you, is true for you.

Lawrence R. Spencer – Editor

I’m not sure if I need to say that Spencer wrote that he had none of the documentation that was sent to him. He says that he no longer has possession of it which means that we can’t independently test any of it. We have only his word that those documents ever existed but with so many flaws in the story, it seems unlikely that they ever did. In fact, at one point he says that he can’t even prove that MacElroy existed and that he only spoke with her one time, on the telephone, for about twenty minutes. Certainly not a ringing endorsement for the validity of the tale.

In what should have been, and should be nearly the first thing said about the book, Spencer wrote, “As far as the Editor of the book, “Alien Interview” is concerned, and for all practical purposes, the content of the book is a work of fiction.”

At that point, I have to ask, “Why should we treat it any differently?” He said it is a work of fiction and with that disclaimer, we should have no further reason for discussing the book in a forum about UFOs. He said he had none of the documentation and he couldn’t prove that MacElroy ever lived. The book belongs in the realm of science fiction, not very good science fiction, but science fiction nonetheless. All questions about the importance of the book and the authenticity of the information have been answered. It is a work of fiction. End of discussion.

Coast to Coast: UFO Sightings Compilation

 

The assembled compilation of sightings is from a variety of sources including Fran Ridge and NICAP, Peter Davenport and his National UFO Reporting Center and of course, MUFON.

First up is a video that shows a cigar-shaped object that was recorded on a home video camera over Montana. Although this is probably a meteor, it is flying in a fairly flat trajectory and if you look closely, you can see the turbulence in the air behind it. I first spotted that when I paused the video. I’ll note here that meteors can look as if they are flying in a flat trajectory but there is usually an ionized trail behind them that is visible to the unaided eye. You can watch the video here:

https://www.mufoncms.com/files_jeud8334j/107959_submitter_file1__UFO12.17.2019.mp4 

In an unrelated sighting on June 19, 2018, the witness was driving on Gravens Road in Moscow Mills, Missouri, when he saw an object hovering to his right. He thought it was a gray and white blimp. He wanted to pull over to get a picture, but there was no safe area to do that. The object then started to move off to the right rapidly. He lost sight of it when a jet flew up next to it and the object shifted rapidly to the left and disappeared.

The next sighting, also from Missouri, was made just under thirty minutes later. The witnesses, were traveling on Stracks Church Road when they spotted a large, blimp-like object over a tree line. Upon reaching the top of a hill they slowed to get a better look, again just a brief glimpse before a nearby tree line obstructed view. The passenger confirmed the sighting. They both agreed it appeared to be in the area of the baseball fields to their northwest. The blimp, or what once would have been called a cigar-shaped craft, was a dull, metallic color and was estimated to be between 400 and 600 feet long and about 100 feet tall. When they reached the ball fields their view was now unobstructed. They spotted the object which was now due west of them at a considerable distance. The passenger was able to zoom in maximum with his phone’s camera and took one photo just prior to the object pitching to about 40 degrees and disappearing behind the tree line a few hundred yards away. The object was never more than slightly above the tree line on the horizon of their view so witness had to assume it was less than 500 ft off the ground. The profile never changed despite the noticeable changes in direction of travel. The object finally disappeared. The sighting lasted between four and five minutes.

As similar sighting took place in Camel, New York, on June 16, 2018. The witness described the object as thinner than a blimp but fatter than cigar-shaped craft. There were no wings visible, no windows or portholes and was flying low enough that such features should have been visible. The witness said that he could see ribbed features and that he thought it was something man-made, but that it was primitive looking. He watched as it flew over his car and he said that it was flying slowly and was quite low. He could hear no noise and had even turned down the volume on his radio and opened the windows to hear better. All he heard were the normal highway noises.

On December 9, 2020, just a couple of months ago, the witness, driving in Greenfield, Indiana, said that he spotted some bright lights northeast of him. The object had five lights in a rectangular shape across the front, and was about 300 yards across. The object was hovering over a barn. Once he arrived at home, he decided to try to see if he could spot the craft again. He walked to a trail and came to a point, near where he had last seen the object. It came back in view but this time he said the lights were white and behind what looked like dark glass in a vertical orientation rather than the rectangle. He said it just faded until it was invisible. There was a MADAR sighting in the area, but it was more than nine hours earlier, which means it might not be related to the sighting.

In an interesting, if not somewhat confusing sighting on March 12, 2020, the witness in Troy, Ohio, reported that he had taken pictures of a UFO, but wasn’t happy with the results. He said he gave chase in his car but object picked up speed. He said when first seen it was flying at about 50 mph and under 1000 feet in the air. It had a definite, sharp edge and was triangular shaped. He said the pictures don’t do justice to it.

Others have suggested Ohio as a UFO hot spot and there have been many UFO videos that have been taken there recently. Three people were interviewed by local television who said they have seen and videoed lights overhead that were not easily identified. One of them, Leon Ellis, used his cell phone to video the lights over his house in 2018. You can see the whole video and that of others here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5hH5Rme2XQ

We often talk about so many cell phones out there and so few videos of UFOs. Here are several examples of interesting lights recorded by men who seem to have nothing to gain by jumping on the UFO bandwagon. Some of the photographs aren’t very good, and the videos show lights in the sky without any real detail to them. Of course, additional research is necessary.

X-Zone Broadcast Network - David Marler and Triangular UFOs

 

My main guest was David Marler who wrote Triangular UFOs: An Estimate of the Situation. However, before I spoke with him, I took a few moments to reflect on the death of Cliff Stone. Although I didn’t find many of his tales credible, he did have a wide-ranging knowledge of UFOs and was responsible for a great deal of information that had been obtained through FOIA, including information about Project Moon Dust and Operation Blue Fly. That also resulted in the Air Force being caught in a couple of lies about Moon Dust and Blue Fly projects.

David Marler

David Marler, a careful and dedicated researcher, provided some insights into his investigation of triangular UFOs and how he became interested in them. He noted that they have become a predominate shape here in the 21^st century, though in the past, sightings of them had been infrequent. He talked about one of the very first sightings from the late 19^th century when astronomers saw triangular objects against the backdrop of the moon. You can listen to the interview here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/43515728

He described some sightings made by pilots, including one near a British airport in which the object violated the operating space of that airport. It was investigated by the CAA, the British equivalent of our FAA and they found no logical explanation for the sighting. The details can be found during the interview.

Another of the pilot sightings he mentioned, this one involving both radar and a military pilot, was from Albany, Georgia, on January 28, 1953, and reported to Project Blue Book. I found it interesting that the case was “sort of” investigated by the Air Force. This was during the time that the Robertson Panel was discussing the reality of UFOs and deciding there was nothing to them. Their recommendations were implemented not long after the Panel concluded their work. Here is some of the information from the Georgia case as found in the Blue Book files.

He also talked about a multiple witness sighting in which a number of police officers, scattered around southern Illinois made a series of sightings. It was described in the March 2000 issue of the MUFON UFO Journal. You can read about this case, as written up by Darryl Parker here:

http://dbarkertv.com/default.htm

We also talked about some of the attributes of the triangular-shaped objects. He knew of no case in which one of these objects landed, with the possible exception the Rendlesham Forest craft. The Rendlesham object did not fit into the triangular category easily.

He mentioned that there were some sightings that did involve occupants, but they were seen through windows on the craft and were silhouettes seen against a backdrop of bright lights. They were described as humanoid, but there was little in the way of external detail.

According to Marler, the triangular UFOs almost never make a sound, do not manifest EM Effects, and sometimes seem to shape shift. I did wonder if that was the result of changing perspectives rather than the craft actually changing shape.

Next up is Steven Bassett. We’ll talk about Disclosure, changes in the attitudes about UFOs, and what the new administration might have to say about UFOs. Questions can be appended here and I’ll get them asked. With Marler, I did get answers to the questions sent in, but not always by asking them specifically. The answers came up naturally in the flow of the discussion.

Cliff Stone Has Died

 

Clifford E. Stone, known for his relentless pursuit of UFO documentation through his use of FOIA died on February 10, in Roswell, New Mexico.

Stone rose to fame in the field with his chase of Project Moon Dust and Operation Blue Fly, two Air Force missions that dealt, in part, with UFOs and the recovery of material of either foreign manufacture or of unknown origin. Many of the documents he recovered hinted at secret programs, which the Air Force, at first, denied existed. With the help of United States Senator, Jeff Bingaman, Stone forced the military to admit that the programs did exist.

Cliff Stone. Photo copyright
by Kevin Randle

But Stone was also a figure of controversy. He claimed, repeatedly, that he had been involved in some of the biggest UFO cases and said that he had been a member of a secret crash retrieval team. As a teenager, he said that he had been near the Kecksburg UFO crash and had seen the military flatbed that removed the object from the woods near the Pennsylvania town. Later, he would say, that as an enlisted soldier, he had glimpsed part of the Alien Autopsy film when it was shown to high-ranking officers on the military post where he had been assigned. The film was later admitted to be a hoax.

Stone spent 22 years in the Army, entering right out of high school, and was trained as a clerk typist. He was deployed to Vietnam and claimed four tours, though his military records showed that he had been overseas for 37 months and not all of it in Vietnam. He said that on arrival in Vietnam, he had asked for an assignment to a combat unit, but that the first sergeant rejected his request. Instead, he would sneak out at night, according to him, to hunt the enemy. There is nothing in the record to support that claim.

I met Stone in February, 1989, in Roswell. He joined Don Schmitt and me, at the Burger King on North Main. For some reason, he appeared in uniform. We eventually, retired to his house where he paced up and down, smoking a big cigar and lecturing Don and me about UFOs. His knowledge was extensive, demonstrating a long and deep interest in the topic.

It was later that he would tell us about his brushes with government agents, who harassed him repeatedly. He would say they would call at all hours and demand he meet them in some deserted location for interrogation often threatening him with firearms. There was no proof that any of this took place.

Later he would say that his involvement on a crash retrieval team gave him inside knowledge of UFOs and that alien beings from 57 different worlds were visiting Earth. The documents he had did not prove this, but did suggest a continuing US interest in UFOs.

After Stone retired from the Army, he worked for a time as a security guard at the Roswell Mall, which would be irrelevant here, except for a tragic circumstance. He was called to the scene of a motorcycle accident not knowing that the victim was his son. I can think of no more horrific circumstance than arriving to assist only to see that it was his son who had been killed.

Stone made the rounds of the talk shows, the radio programs, documentaries and UFO conventions and symposiums, describing his activities with crash retrievals. While his tales were met with an enthusiastic response, there was little in the way of evidence that what he was saying was grounded in reality.

Although I enjoyed talking with Stone, visited him at his home many times, I found his tales to border on the incredible.

Cliff Stone was 72.

X-Zone Broadcast Network - Don Schmitt: Part Two (Socorro, Abductions, and Tony's Theory)

 

This was the second half of the interview with Don Schmitt. It began, however, with a quick monolog from me about Tony Bragalia’s recent posting about the government admitting that they had been analyzing UFO crash debris and a suggestion that it relates to the Roswell crash. You can read about it here:

https://www.ufoexplorations.com/?fbclid=IwAR2MHkazL25EHR2KQrWgbFESwzm2NY8KvYLgWSng2Lw8_PxmxIYgrcfdOVc

John Greenewald, of Black Vault fame, provided an analysis of the article that reached a somewhat different conclusion. You can watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dZwqTvJu_s&feature=youtu.be

Don and I touched briefly on this. To give away the ending, we are both somewhat skeptical about Tony’s conclusions. John is more than a little skeptical, but if you read Tony’s article and watch John’s video, I think you’ll be in a position to make up your own mind.

Don Schmitt

I asked Don for some of the best UFO cases. We talked about the Socorro UFO landing and how the case has been strengthened over the years. Not only were there other witnesses who called the police, but there were other sightings around the area within hours of Zamora’s. These include another landing in La Madera, New Mexico, which is north of Socorro around the Santa Fe area, but other sightings including one by a military NCO. You can read the whole tale of my investigation in Encounter in the Desert. We also discussed Philip Klass’ explanation. You can also find more information about all this here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2009/11/socorro-ufo-landing-part-one.html

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2016/07/socorro-new-mexico-and-lonnie-zamora.html

Of course, we did talk about abductions and a couple of other cases that are interesting. Don suggested there were only a handful of cases that seem interesting including Villa-Boas in Brazil, Betty and Barney Hill ad Travis Walton. You can listen to the show here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/43394396

For those interested, we both agreed that the earliest cases are probably the best, simply because they were not influenced by cases that came before them and by the abduction researchers who often promoted their own agendas. Russ Estes, Bill Cone and I developed the theories surrounding abduction in The Abduction Enigma, which was published more than twenty years ago.

Don did mention a case he had investigated that involved a family and a lifetime of strife that resulted in all sorts of terrestrial problems. Although I had hoped to be able to supply a link to that information, there isn’t much that has been published about the case. I’ll try to get additional information.

Next week, David Marler is up, to discuss his investigation and findings about triangular UFOs. If you have questions, append them here.

Coast to Coast - Dr. Abraham Loeb, MADAR and Chain of Evidence

 

I recently spent an hour talking with Dr. Abraham Loeb, he of alien artifact fame. I learned that the idea the artifact originated from Vega was something of a misnomer. He said there was no way to determine its point of origin.

He suggested that it had been around the Solar System for as much as 10,000 years, which explains its relatively slow speed and that he believed there were other such

Dr. Loeb

objects out there. This seemed strange to me, especially since we had only just found this one. The problem was that it was so small and it didn’t reflect the light very well so that it was difficult to see. Our optics, meaning telescopes here and not political discourse, had gotten better. He thought that we might find others and should be prepared for that. We should know what to look for and what to do.

He was hinting that searching for radio signals, or broadcasting signals as a way of contacting an alien race was not the best way to do it. He thought that sending out probes, thousands of probes, was a better way of conducting the search. The real problem, no matter how you conducted the search, might be a search for a civilization that no longer existed. How long does a civilization last? You can listen to our conversation here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/43152043

Eventually, I asked him a question that I think we should ask all scientists. In this case it was what would he like to see as evidence that UFOs are visiting the Earth (I have asked this of both skeptics and scientists and probably should put all those answers into a single posting). He suggested building the case without human observers. He wanted raw data collected by instruments that could be taken into the lab analyzed at length. He wanted data that would not be biased by the observers’ belief structure. Data gathered by instruments had no bias.

I thought, immediately of the MADAR Network. It was designed to alert someone to the possible presence of a UFO. You’d have both the data collected by the instruments including time, location, direction to the UFO, but you might also have witnesses to the events and frankly it seemed that some human observation would be necessary.

Such is the case on August 19, last year. At 9:47, p.m. a man, was taking his trash out to the curb. While doing this he noticed a pair of odd flashing lights in the night sky, traveling west to east in a straight trajectory at a slow but constant speed. The event lasted a little more than a minute before the lights disappeared behind the trees.

At the same time, the MADAR detector at a nearby node, recorded the sudden surge in the magnetic field and provided some of that raw data that Dr. Loeb wanted.

Here was a case that provided an independent observer and the detection of something anomalous at the same time. This got me to thinking about chains of evidence, and by using the MADAR Network, that it would be possible to create four chains of evidence.

First, would be the collection of the information by the MADAR Node. This is using instrumentality that did not rely on human observation. The only human involvement would be to distribute the data to those who wanted to conduct the analysis.

If the Node operator could get outside in time to see the UFO, it would be a second chain of evidence, which is the dreaded human observation. That information would give us a description of the UFO, or provide the identity of the object that tripped the data collection. To me, this was an important part of the process and I still don’t see how it would hurt the analysis of the data if there were human observers involved. I will note here that the MADAR data is cross referenced to sighting reports made to a number of websites including the National UFO Reporting Center, so that a connection has been made in some of the MADAR cases.

If the witness took pictures, then we have a third chain of evidence. The photographs, although taken by a human would be recorded by the camera and those images could be independently studied. If the MADAR Node operator had set up a network of interested people around his Node, and if there was time, he could alert them, collecting additional observations. This could be coordinated in advance and with the cell phone technology available could be accomplished rapidly. This too has bee attempted, though as I understand it, on a limited basis.

Providing additional cameras taking more pictures would enhance the credibility of the sighting and while they wouldn’t be, strictly, independent, their photographs would provide more information. With the data collected from those taking the photographs and by examining all the pictures, a great deal of data could be recovered. And if the witnesses had the chance to move to the right or left, then stereoscopic photographs could be created. I have suggested for a long time that anyone photographing a UFO attempt to get pictures from a different perspective so that the stereoscopic pictures could be created.

Finally, if coordinated earlier, there might be the possibly of using local radars. Here I was thinking that contacts with the local airfield and TV stations with radar might provide another aspect of recording data. In the case of the Japan Airlines flight 1628, there was complete radar data available that allowed an independent analysis. If the object was tracked, then there was a fourth chain of evidence. This too, has been attempted, though, again as I understand it, has not yielded any results.

Fran Ridge

If all that was properly collected and recorded, then a very strong case could be made. We could even leave out the human observations. It would meet the criterion suggested by Dr. Loeb and might advance our cause.

Fran Ridge, who runs the NICAP website, is also one of those deeply involved in the MADAR program. Although I was unaware of the extent of the MADAR Network, it seems that others had some of the same thoughts that I did before I had them. Fran provided a number of links about MADAR, about the sightings, and about how the network is structured. Some of the steps I thought necessary to upgrade the system had already been taken. These are some of the links to all that important information:

http://www.nicap.org/match/papers/21-MAVERIC.htm

http://www.nicap.org/match/papers/

http://www.nicap.org/match/correlations/

http://www.nicap.org/ncp/ncp-ridge6.htm

http://www.nicap.org/match/papers/31-UAP&the-KU-band-MUJversion.htm

In the course of the next few weeks, I’ll be taking a more in depth look at the MADAR project. This has real potential and is something that could lead to Disclosure.

X-Zone Broadcast Network - Don Schmitt (Roswell Revelations and the Jesse Marcel Journal)

 

In the first of two parts, I spoke with Don Schmitt and although I had planned to devote very little of the show to Roswell, we ended up examining some aspects of the case in depth. You can listen to it here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/43273308

We began discussing the Not Jess Marcel’s Journal. For a couple of years, we had heard that the family had found a Journal in Marcel’s personal papers that covered the period of the Roswell crash. Though we were told that the family was attempting to verify the validity of the Journal and forensically checking the paper and the ink to be sure it wasn’t a modern forgery, we weren’t told much more. Now, we had the chance to learn so much about it and the big revelation was that Jesse Marcel had not written it.

Don Schmitt

We were then told that Patrick Saunders might have written because a very short sample of Saunders’ printing seemed to match, somewhat, the printing in the Journal. We don’t know why, since the producers interviewed Saunders relatives, they couldn’t have gotten a larger sample of Saunders’ hand writing. The only sample they had was one that I had sent them.

We also talked about the Ramey Memo, the source of it, and the latest attempt to read it. From all that has been said, the latest scans, which took it down to the molecular level, are probably as good as it will ever get. An advance in AI might be required before all that can be put to bed. At least that was the consensus of those who made the scans.

During the program that examined Not Jess Marcel’s Journal, they used a short clip of Frank Kaufmann. Don said that he talked to the producers after that show aired and complained about it. One of them said that one of the writers had said that it didn’t matter because all the witnesses were lying anyway. I’m not sure how you’d get so many people to lie about this, but the statement seems to undercut the validity of their research.

We also talked about Walter Haut and his original support of Kaufmann. I still believe that it harms Haut’s reputation, but Don was of the opinion that his support of Kaufmann predated his learning of all the tales that Kaufmann was telling. I don’t know, maybe, but I still worry about it.

We did discuss Glenn Dennis’ missing nurse. I think there are some very interesting comments made about all that and the validity of the Dennis tale. And, we wondered why the military would ask for child-sized coffins when adult coffins would have worked just as well. The problem was they were apparently looking for coffins that could be hermetically sealed. No need to be child-sized, other than to fit part of the narrative.

Next week, Don and I pick up on the second hour of the discussion. We both promise that it won’t have anything to do with Roswell. If there are questions, append them here and I’ll try to get to them.