This
week, because of scheduling issues and travel arrangements by the guest, we
weren’t able to connect for the show. Ron James will be the guest on June 29 so
we didn’t lose anything. We just have to wait a few extra weeks.
Instead,
I flew solo because I knew that something like this would happen eventually and
I’d need a backup. I wanted to talk about Government UFO hoaxes, which is
something we all know about but might not have understood the significance of
them. You can listen to the show here:
https://www.spreaker.com/episode/50130768
And
for those of you with a little more adventurous nature, you can actually watch
the show here:
Before
we delved into that, I talked about so some of the trouble inside the UFO
field. We have examples of bad faith players but seem to embrace them rather
than ignore them. These are people who have burst onto the UFO scene with
terrific stories of their involvement in many of the best UFO cases or their
travel to other planets. Normally, I just sort of make generic comments about
how something doesn’t make sense or is illogical or there is no evidence for
it. In this case I named Philip Corso, suggesting that his story was largely
false.
I
pointed out a few problems, mentioning that we had no evidence and no testimony
of a convoy leaving Roswell with the bodies of the alien crew. Given that they
were an aviation asset, meaning they had both cargo airplanes and Air Force
bombers, they could fly the bodies to Wright Field in a matter of hours. There
was no reason for them to drive cross country in a trip that could take two or
three days. This suggested that Corso couldn’t have seen the bodies at Fort
Riley, Kansas, because they had never been there.
I
didn’t note that I found it difficult to believe that they would have unloaded
the trucks at Fort Riley and left the crates guarded by soldiers stationed
there rather than members of the convoy. Nor can I believe that the guards
assigned would have been snooping around the crates opening them… and then once
having violated military regulations by compromising the integrity of the
crates, would call a field grade officer to allow him to see what they had
found. This just doesn’t work on so many levels and is obviously an invented
tale.
There
has been push back suggesting that I have become too opinionated. No, I have
just become annoyed with those making up tales, whether it is men, and a few
women, telling tales about their exploits in Vietnam, and then learning that
some of them had been clerks or cooks or maintenance men, all important jobs,
but not combat jobs, and learning that some of them hadn’t served in Vietnam
and that many of them hadn’t served in the military.
Here
was Corso plugging himself into the Roswell story with no evidence that he had
anything to do with it. I don’t believe his story and see the problems with it.
I suppose that those who haven’t served just don’t see the trouble, but I do.
Having
finished my rant about the charlatans in the field, I moved on to the
government hoaxes starting with Project Sign. True, it started out as a
legitimate investigation, it soon devolved into a propaganda operation with
lies about the outcome of investigations. The result was the Estimate of the Situation
(EOTS). This was the document that basically guided UFO research by the Air
Force for the next two decades.
I
did get into the Robertson Panel, which is one of the biggest UFO hoaxes by the
government. As Dr. Michael Swords pointed out, it seemed unlikely that after a
week of investigating the UFO reports, Robertson would have a draft of the
report ready for signature the next day. How had it been written so fast. It
smacked of a document written before the panel was even seated.
Edward Condon
And,
of course, there was the Condon Committee in which an Air Force officer
discussed the final report with a member of the committee before anyone had
begun the investigation. In the end, that letter, written by Robert Hippler
provided the answers the Air Force wanted found. I have discussed this on the
blog a number of times. You can review them here:
http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2007/03/hippler-letter.html
Finally,
I did talk about the Project Mogul hoax as an explanation for Roswell. One of
the points was that Flight No. 4, which never flew and was disassembled
according to Charles Moore, had no rawin radar targets on it, which therefore
couldn’t have left Charles Moore
the metal debris Mack Brazel found or supplied the debris
displayed in General Ramey’s office. I laid all this out in Understanding
Roswell, which those of you who want to know the truth rather than reading
about the exciting “memories” of those who weren’t involved or weren’t there,
should find interesting.
Next week, I’ll be talking to Michael Schratt about his new book and some of the incredible paintings that show some of the encounters.
Kevin, did you ever reach out to Paul Kies or Larry Kratzer, the Lonnie Zamorra event witnesses from Dubuque, Iowa? Larry Kratzer passed in 2018, but Paul Kies is still with us, 73 years old. I wonder what Kies would say if he were asked about it now.
ReplyDelete"There has been push back suggesting that I have become too opinionated."
ReplyDeleteIf calling out obvious (and sometimes NOT so obvious) BS is seen as opinionated, then I think we need more opinionated people in all walks of life.
Kevn: Thank you for another wonderful UFO history lesson. Much appreciated!
ReplyDeleteWell put, Capt Steve. This is the only UFO site, blog, or whathaveyou that I bother with on a regular basis these days. Of course there are a few other good ones, but the vast majority are overflowing with nonsense of one sort or another. Kevin is our Joe Friday. Michael Swords is our Rod Serling, and I sure miss his blog updates.
ReplyDeleteKevin,
ReplyDeleteOn the topic of 'government UFO hoaxes" could you please comment on the little anecdote posted on Bragalia's site which states that, long before the start of your Roswell investigation with Don Schmitt, in 1976 you personally spoke with an Air Force sergeant who claimed to have seeded or 'staged' Rawin balloon debris at site near Roswell? I may be mistaken, but I don't recall this being mentioned in any Roswell book. . . .
goldfive -
ReplyDeleteThat information was published in my book, THE UFO CASEBOOK. I was working with Bob Cornett when it happened. I remember little of the event because it was so long ago and didn't have a great deal of relevance at the time, being before I got involved in the Roswell investigation and before Jesse Marcel talked about his experiences.
We were in the man's basement which had been converted into a family room with dark wood paneling on the walls, some old furniture and a TV. He just mentioned that he had once provided the remains of a balloon to show some people what had been found, saying that it had caused UFO sightings.
In the world today, it reminds me of the Circleville, Ohio, finding in whch Sherman Campbell found the remains of a weather balloon and rawin radar target on his farm. What is curious about that is that Campbell recognized it immediately as a weather balloon and his first thought was that it might have caused some UFO sightings (well, flying saucer) if it was high up in the atmosphere and the rawin was spinning.
Anyway, the sergeant that Bob and I talked to told us about his mission to, dare I say it, to deflate the flying saucer story.
Kevin, thanks for that info. Bragalia's site mentioned that the sergeant's weather balloon 'show and tell' took place in Roswell. . . I am somewhat fascinated by this anecdote, seeing (as you mentioned) it pre-dates the Roswell investigation entirely, while also speaking to the AAF's need to convince people of the mundane nature of the debris, at the time. May I ask, after you became involved in your Roswell investigation with Don Schmitt, did you ever try to track the man down again to ask him for more details about his 'mission'?
ReplyDeletegoldfive -
ReplyDeleteBack in those early days, the 1970s, I was not as careful with keeping notes as I am today. Once we heard the story, it just seemed to be another one of those tales told by Air Force personnel to belittle UFO cases. I have attempted to find notes from those earlier days but I fear they have either disappeared or are buried in a mislabeled file. In the 1990s I made an effort to find the guy, but had no luck.
I agree with you that the Corso book is a hoax. What struck me about it, aside from the points you make, is that when I read the book I had at that point read about 6 books on Roswell, unfortunately none of which included any of yours. And the Corso book reads EXACTLY like he had read those same same 6 books and put every detail contained within them in his book. And that includes details that are mutually exclusive. It's like those novels where one guy is at the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Coral Sea battle, the Midway battle, the Guadalcanal battle, the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and bombing of Hiroshima. It's and an easy way to tell a story but utterly unbelievable.
ReplyDelete