Coast to Coast: APRO Files and Iowa Landing

 

For those new to the field, they might not know much about the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO), which was created by Coral Lorenzen in the early 1950s. At that time there were two prominent UFO Organizations with APRO being one and the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) being the other. There were dozens, if not hundreds of smaller, local organizations. I was a member of the Denver UFO Society in the late 1960s, but that was a group that operated in the Denver area and had no real investigation arm.

Jim and Coral Lorenzen

I mention APRO because of its size, the membership in the thousands and Coral, and later Jim and Coral Lorenzen published several good books about UFOs. Unlike NICAP, which seemed to focus on Congressional investigations and pressing the Air Force for transparency, though they certainly collected thousands of UFO reports, APRO focused on what might have been seen as the fringe areas of UFO study early on. They collected reports on landings and occupant sightings and were the first American organization to research alien abduction cases. Although they had known about the Vilas-Boas abduction in 1957, they didn’t report on it officially until the 1960s when the Barney and Betty Hill case was investigated. Interestingly, Betty Hill contacted Don Keyhoe of NICAP about her sighting and abduction. Eventually, her interest was diverted to APRO.

The point here is that the files of NICAP, the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) and even many if not most of the Project Blue Books files have been collected by various civilian research and investigation organizations. The exception was the APRO files. Upon the deaths of both Jim and Coral Lorenzen in the mid-1980s, the files ended up in the hands of the Lorenzen children after. Attempts by various organizations and individuals to obtain the files had been made over the years without success.

I provide this brief history to put all this into context. As many know, David Marler, who has created the National UFO Historical Records Center, a name that does not lend itself to an easily pronounceable acronym, has announced the acquisition of the APRO records. This means, that his Center is now the repository of the largest collection of UFO records. This includes the records and investigative activities of several foreign researchers and organizations.

Marler, and his team have been digitizing these records at the headquarters of the organization, which means that searches for specific cases, and all relevant data will become a searchable file, or as Marler wrote in his press release, the files are digitized for electronic storage, analyzation, transfer and ease of access.

Interestingly, there have been, in the past, UFO researchers who guarded their records and files with a tenacity that rivals various governmental agencies. That barrier seems to have been broken to some extent now.

As I say, the important point here is the transfer of the APRO files into Marler’s group. They are currently located in Albuquerque, New Mexico and can be found at www.nufohrc.org.

APRO was the first UFO organization to take reports of landing and alien beings seriously. They sent the first investigators into Pascagoula to interview Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker. And were in Socorro, New Mexico, within hours to interview Lonnie Zamora about the UFO landing and occupant sighting there in 1964.

One of those APRO cases was a landing in rural Iowa on June 6, 1972. The witness, identified in the APRO only as Mr. T., but his name was Edward Tieg. He said that a flash of light caught his attention. He thought it was an airplane, but the object came closer. He saw that it was egg shaped and as it began to land, legs grew out of the bottom. He said that it was about ten to twelve feet in diameter and fifteen to twenty feet tall. He said that it cast a shadow when it was sitting on the ground.

Illustration of the sighting created by Edward Tieg.
From the files of Kevin Randle

It was about a hundred yards away. A hatch opened and according to him, some people got out. The beings were about five feet tall and were wearing a one-piece flying suit. They messed around in the corn, returned to their ship and it took off.

Investigators on the landing site.
Photo by Kevin Randle.

He said that as it lifted off, a blue flame shot out of the bottom, there was a roar and the legs retracted. The corn stocks in that area looked as if they had been caught in a whirlwind but they weren’t burned. I’ll note here that Lonnie Zamora talked about a blue flame and a roar as that craft lifted off. I’m not sure if a farmer in Iowa knew about a New Mexico policeman who described some of the same features.

Although reluctant to talk about the sighting, he did provide an illustration of what he had seen. As happens so often in UFO reports, there were no other witnesses to this sighting, though there had been others in the area about the same time.

Let's Kill Ufology?

Many years ago, my pal, Rich Reynolds, thought that we geezers in the UFO field should step aside and allow the youngsters to take over. I don’t think he phrased it quite that way but the implication was clear. We had failed to solve the riddle of the flying saucers, so let someone else, with newer ideas, come forward. Maybe they would do better than we had.

Now we have Lue Elizondo, a late comer to the party, saying that he wanted to kill Ufology so that whatever replaced it might by more holistic and harmonized. He wanted a community that was far more academically serious and representative of the topic. You know, like the To The Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences. Yes, I know that he is no longer associated with it, but then, it certainly wasn’t, exactly, serious and representative of the topic.

What he seems to have missed was that Ufology has always been relegated to the civilian world for any serious investigation. The Air Force spent its time ridiculing the topic, often suggesting that those who see UFOs are not the most reliable of observers and providing useless answers to high quality cases.

Oh, you want an example?

In a word, “Levelland.”

Here was a case in which witnesses, who had observed a UFO close to the ground, that stalled their car engines, dimmed their headlights, and filled their radios with static, provided multiple chains of evidence. Sightings lasted for minutes, giving the witness enough time to get a good look at the UFO before it took off in a bright red glow. The craft interacted with the environment and there are even hints of landing traces having been found. The local sheriff saw the UFO but if you read the Air Force report, it said that he’d only seen a streak red light in the distance rather than an object. Before the Air Force investigator arrived, he told reporters that he had seen a glowing red object that was oval or football shaped. After he talked with the Air Force investigator, and according to the Project Blue Book file, he said he had only seen a streak of red light in the distance. Later still, he told Don Berliner that he had seen an object.

Witnesses around the Levelland, Texas, area independently reported the craft, reported the electromagnetic effects, and there were reliable reports of landing traces. The Air Force said that only three people saw the object and ignored most of the reports of stalled engines. The Air Force concluded that the sightings were the result of ball lightning even though, at the time, scientists argued about the reality of ball lightning. Doesn’t really matter because ball lightning has been described as never being larger than a foot to two feet in diameter and existing for mere seconds. Witnesses talked of large craft that remained close to them for five or more minutes. The sightings by multiple witnesses lasted for two and a half to three hours in and around the Levelland, Texas, area.

The Air Force didn’t issue an immediate explanation for the Levelland sightings because they were waiting for NICAP to issue theirs first. The Air Force believed that it was easier to respond to NICAP than it was for them to issue the first report. By waiting, the Air Force was able to change the tone of the discussion from the sightings to the number of the witnesses to those sightings, and then to lie about those numbers. They claimed that only three witnesses had seen an object but their own files provide five names and newspapers, some of the clippings in the Air Force file, reported on many other names.

This wasn’t the only deception by the Air Force related to the sightings in November, 1957. James Stokes, an engineer working at Holloman Air Force Base, reported that just days after the Levelland sightings, his car had been stalled by a low flying UFO

James Stokes

near Orogrande, New Mexico, just south of the Air Force base and near the White Sands Missile Range. Stokes also spoke of a slight, sunburn effect, that reddened his skin. Although the sunburn was seen by others, including the news director at an Alamogordo, New Mexico, radio station, the Air Force investigator, who arrived two days later, didn’t see the burn. The Air Force officers also made a big deal out of the claim that Stokes was an engineer, saying that there was no record of his graduating with any sort of engineering degree and that he was just a technician assigned to the base. It was a smear designed to reduce Stokes’ credibility by suggesting that he was misrepresenting his job status.

The problem was that the Air Force officers assigned to Holloman AFB and who knew Stokes, refuted the other Air Force claim. They said that Stokes was an engineer, had been doing the work of a trained engineer for some eighteen months, and was a twenty-year veteran of the Navy. It was an example of the attitude suggesting that if you can’t explain it, then ridicule it. We had two Air Force organizations dueling over Stokes’ qualifications which, of course, changed the discussion from the reality of the sighting to the credibility of the witness which was what some in the Air Force wanted anyway.

The point here is that the problem wasn’t the quality of the civilian investigations into UFO sightings, but the government and the Air Force attitude and interference in them. Rather than conduct a real investigation, the Air Force just labeled the cases, smeared the witnesses, and went on about their business as if they had supplied accurate analysis.

There are other examples of this, including the case of the photographs taken by William Rhodes in 1947. I have detailed this on the blog and you can access some of that information here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2010/10/still-more-on-rhodes.html

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2010/10/rhodes-wrap-up.html

I certainly could supply additional examples of these tactics but after a point it becomes tedious. For those who wish to read more information about Air Force attempts to smear witnesses, including members of the Air Force, I point you to:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2014/07/air-force-character-assassination-and.html

Elizondo complains that some self-professed Ufologists (is there really another kind) on social media have been less than productive. He reminds us that the Intelligence Community and the Defense apparatus watch social media. I’d suggest their time might be better spent engaging those of us who stay away from social media and the nonsense produced there. While Elizondo mentions a “few naughty children… that have decided that no other children are allowed to play in their sandbox…,” I would suggest that these spats, once called flame wars, have little to do with the scientific work being done by those of us associated with the Center for UFO Studies and the recently formed Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU), which embrace the scientific method and rejects these other spats as counterproductive.

Many of these “spats” are not between members of the UFO community on the side of alien visitation, but are the result of half-truths and lies created by the so-called skeptical community. Philip Klass had a habit of attacking those with whom he disagreed. In the past, I have enumerated some of these allegations. Rather than go into them, at length now, you can read find the information here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2011/09/philip-klass-and-his-letter-writing.html

I would also point out that there are scientific journals that routinely report on UFOs. The Journal of Scientific Exploration, a peer reviewed scientific journal, publishes research into the UFO phenomenon. This is the sort of thing that Elizondo advocates but seemed to know nothing about.

And there is the MADAR system created by Fran Ridge and others. These are stations around the world with sensor arrays that detect and record a wide range of anomalies in the environment. Then, tracking with MUFON and the National UFO Reporting Center, they search for visual observations of UFOs, looking for correlation. Although the results have been slim, there have been some interesting correlations between alerts from the MADAR array and UFO sightings. This brings another level of science to the investigations that provides corroboration for the visual sightings and adds another link in a chain of evidence.

Elizondo wrote that the first place the newcomers go for information about UFOs is social media and that suggests a rather superficial look at UFOs. There are some very good websites and blogs that provide solid and well thought out examinations of the evidence but, of course, there are those that are filled with conjecture, conspiracy, and conflicting data. Shouldn’t anyone interested in the topic seek out multiple sources of information rather than just searching social media? Shouldn’t they be given the opportunity to draw their own conclusions rather than have some suspected and self-appointed authority tell them what the truth is and where to find it?

Elizondo wrote, “Sadly, the UFO Community as of late has become somewhat of an irrational morass of mob rule and popularity seekers.  Gone is the respect and decorum, in favor of mosh pit elbow shoves and boot kicks.  Voices of those who would otherwise apply a scholarly focus are being drowned out by those social media personalities sensationalizing their efforts as ‘disclosure activists’ in order to generate revenue through viewers and subscribers.  Those who seek ‘credit’ instead of cooperation are hijacking the topic for their own enrichment at the expense of genuine truth advocates.”

While I might point out that science is often driven by the same sad motivations, and would point to the Dinosaur Wars of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries as but a single example, it would seem that some of these newcomers are driven by the same motivations. Some of these newcomers have engaged the services of agents and public relations specialists for the very purpose of enriching themselves and propelling themselves into the spotlight. Others have used their connections, however indirect those connections might be, to suggest inside information and knowledge as a way of improving their access to media and those important monetary rewards.

I have often wondered, however, why researching and writing about UFOs is about the only field in which it is a sin to profit from hard work. I can name several older UFO researchers who have written books and given presentations about their research to share the information for the purpose of sharing that information. For those who visit my blog, there is no pay wall or donation button. The information is offered freely. But I still wonder why I am criticized for publishing books on the topic when the compensation rarely covers the expenses for gathering the information. I don’t know how many times I have been accused of only being in it for the money, when there are easier and better ways for me to make money such as historical fiction. The accusation is hurled as a way of dismissing my work, and that of many others, without having to do much research into how we gathered the data or what credentials we might hold.

And while Elizondo condemns us for many of the problems in Ufology, I would suggest they grow from the attempts to cover up what is happening. I can point to the CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel from early 1953 as a good example. Their recommendations after their alleged investigation were to debunk the phenomenon, have teachers deny students permission to use UFOs as research projects and reject reports on UFO books. They suggested an “education” program to demystified UFOs so that the public would lose interest all the while knowing that the truth was much more interesting.

We also have had the Air Force sponsored, University of Colorado “Scientific Study” of UFOs, commonly called the Condon Committee. We have the documentation showing that the conclusions were written before the investigation began. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Robert Hippler wrote to Dr. Robert Low of the committee telling him what the Air Force wanted, that is, there was no national security threat, there was no scientific benefit in continued in the investigation of UFOs, and that the Air Force had done a good job with their investigation. For the next fifty years, science beat us all over the head with the results of this “scientific endeavor” only to learn that it was more anti-UFO propaganda paid for by the US Government and the Air Force. You can learn more about this here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2007/03/hippler-letter.html

Now we learn that “the social media circus of today has challenged the government’s confidence in UFOlogy as a worthy area of study.” I submit that this social media circus might be driven by the government that has worked for 75 years to prove that UFOs do not exist and are not worth the expenditure of government resources. I suggest that the podcasts, YouTube channels, Twitter fees, and Instagram pages are not the problem here, but the decades of ridicule, misinformation and outright lies spread by official government and Air Force sources are the reason that there is the confusion and division that Elizondo condemns as he attempts to propel himself into a leadership role in the UFO community. That ridicule and division was exactly what the Air Force and the government wanted to keep the answers hidden and it has worked for 75 years.

And now we have a bunch of ex-government officials, some with questioned credentials, lecturing us on what is wrong in the world of UFOs. While many of us have been toiling for decades to bring science to UFOs, have written about it, made suggestions about it, and have attempted to apply science, we have the newcomers telling us that we should now embrace science as if we hadn’t thought of that all by ourselves long ago. Well, thanks for the enlightened view of the situation and I’m sure everything will now change… except, of course, the government is again wrapping its investigation in the cloak of national security so that they can bury the information. John Greenewald just reported that the Navy has determined that the majority of the information and video evidence they have gathered is a national security issue and will not be released to the general public anytime soon. This is the same dodge they used for the last 75 years.

But that’s okay because we have these newcomers who have the answers as they find themselves on the lecture circuit and writing the books, for which they are paid, sometimes quite handsomely, all the while condemning us for writing books and appearing on the lecture circuit. But that’s okay because their motives are pure. We know this because they have told us so.

So, obviously, I find it difficult to read the suggestions made by someone who doesn’t seem to know the history of UFO research. I find it difficult to listen to the suggestion that we embrace science when many of us have done that for years. I wonder just how useful Elizondo’s suggestions are because they seem to address a symptom of the problem but not the problem itself. The problem isn’t the current state of UFO research, but to interference by government, DoD, and Air Force officials. Had they not attempted to hide the information, we would be having a completely different discussion and we would have “solved” the problem decades ago without the help of the enlightened newcomers.

 

PS: I do wonder if putting in links to other articles that have relevance here is worth the effort. Those links lead to other links so that a comprehensive picture can be drawn. The problem is that it can take a long time to wade through the material. Does putting in the links help or hinder the discussion. I would like to know. Please provide a comment with your thoughts. 

Coast to Coast AM - Repeatability

 One thing that we all look for in the world of the UFO is some kind of repeatability. That means, simply, that people in other locations and other times report a craft that is similar those reported earlier. One of the problems in the UFO field is the wide variety of craft that are reported with very few cases in which a similar craft is seen somewhere else at some other time. An example of this are the photographs taken first in McMinnville, Oregon, in 1950 and later in Rouen, France in 1954. A similar object seen and photographed at widely separated locations.

The top photo is from McMinnville and the bottom from Rouen, France. I am
making no claims about the authenticity of either picture. I'm only pointing
out that the images are a match for one another.

Fran Ridge, of the NICAP website and the MADAR program, alerted me to a sighting that has some aspect of repeatability. He posted about a sighting he sent to the National UFO Reporting Center last year. According to him, on September 3, 2021, he, and 14 others were in The Poconos, when they watched a lighted object for five minutes.

According to his report, they were doing what he termed as a sky watch event in Blooming Grove Pennsylvania. At 9:44 p.m. two of them saw three lights slowly moving away from them around the Sterling, Pennsylvania area heading towards Scranton, Pennsylvania. They used high power binoculars to watch the craft. To the unaided eye it was three yellowish-pinkish lights in a row. The color reminded Fran Ridge of mercury vapor lights. The lights were about the size of a pencil eraser held at arm’s length. The lights were arranged in a horizontal pattern. When Fran and the others looked through the binoculars, they began to suspect they might be seeing the back of a craft that was very large. It moved very slowly and they watched it for about five minutes, until they lost sight of it behind the tree line. Fran said it was too slow to be an airplane.

What Fran found particularly odd was that through the binoculars, he could see that under the three yellow lights there were three tiny red lights that blinked randomly and not sequentially. One would blink once and then a second later another would blink. They thought they might be looking at the back of a large black triangle. He also noted that they didn’t take a photo of the UFO.

That was one sighting of a craft with a specific set of lights. The MUFON Case Management System, had a report from December 14, 2021, from a witness, in West Dundee, Illinois, who saw an object that Fran believed was similar to the one he had seen in September. Although there wasn’t a photograph, the drawing submitted by the witness looked like the object Fran and the others had seen.

There were two additional sightings made in Illinois, and all three took place in December, within a day or two of each other. All three were of triangular-shaped objects. Importantly, in the case from Macomb, Illinois, the witness made a video with a cell phone.

Fran posted a photograph of an object taken on the night of January 31, 2008 in Indiana. This too, reminded him of the object he had seen and it seemed to be related to the Illinois sightings as well.

Photograph supplied by Fran Ridge of an object that resembled the one he saw.

In all of the cases reported here, the object had a line of lights on what seemed to be the rear, and in all the cases, it seemed that the UFO was triangular shaped. This does suggest the note of repeatability that I mentioned earlier.

I’ll say here that the December Illinois sightings are part of the MUFON Case Management System and are still under investigation. If I find additional information about them, I’ll post it.

Coast to Coast AM - The Moon Dust Controversy

 

There was an interesting question, or thought, or claim, raised on the NICAP Research site, that suggested there was never any Project Moon Dust. What was said, “And there was never any ‘Project’ Moon Dust! There was an attempt by the AF to set up one by that name (Moon Dust) but I don’t recall any documents proving that it was set up with that name and operational… There was a category of activity called ‘moon dust’ for recovery of satellite and space reentries and decays. Anyone in any agency having a report of that would slap a ‘Moon Dust” label on it without any project necessarily with that name.”

This struck me as especially odd. I mean, there were documents out there that related to Moon Dust and I had found four cases in Project Blue Book files that were stamped with the name, “Moon Dust.” True, they weren’t very good sightings, but the point is, these sightings were found in Blue Book.

I had also found a document in the Blue Book files that came from Headquarters, U.S. Air Force Message #54322 and dated December 23, 1957, which said the mission was “to collect and analyze raw intelligence reports from the field of fallen space debris and objects of unknown origin.”

I also mentioned that there were other documents, with a known provenance, that proved there was a Project Moon Dust. I figured that would be the last word, unless someone asked for some of those documents. That wouldn’t be a problem because there were, literally hundreds of them.

Brad Sparks had something to say about that. He wrote:

Sorry, but with all due respect, none of those documents say any ‘Project’ had a ‘PROJECT’ named ‘Moon Dust’ except the proposal in 1961 where I don’t see any succeeding documents showing a ‘Project Moon Dust’ was in fact set up – quote me some post-1961, correct me if I’m wrong.”

‘Moon Dust’ was a category of intelligence physical materiel set up in 1957 post-Sputnik long before any special project was even attempted to be set up as a ‘Project Moon Dust’-- in 1961. What were they doing in 1960, 1959, 1958?

‘Moon Dust’ was like a term like ‘HazMat,’ to use an analogy, which was used everywhere without any special project being set up called ‘Project HazMat’ -- and no rule that prohibited such a project with that name either.

Paul Dean wrote back to say, “I've got a 1980 era 20th missile warning squadron document that mentions "Project Moon Dust", not just ‘moon dust’”. 

And since Brad had asked about this, and although I believed he had some of these documents and understood them as well as I did, I wrote:

Interesting point here. We agree there was something called Moon Dust but it might not have been a "project."

And it is true that the references I found in the Blue Book files are merely stamped "Moon Dust," rather than "Project Moon Dust," at least, confirms the UFO component to it.

However, I have a copy of a letter sent to Robert Todd dated July 1, 1987 which said, "The nickname 'Project Moondust' no longer exists officially."

I suppose you could argue, with some justification, that this is in response to Todd's request for information on Project Moon Dust, so that answer, in referring to Moon Dust is just Colonel Thompson's (the officer who responded) way of identifying the request but doesn't prove there was a Project Moon Dust.

I have a copy of a letter to Senator Jeff Bingaman in which Colonel George Mattingley, Jr., wrote, "These teams were eventually disbanded because of a lack of activity; Project MOON DUST and Operation BLUE FLY missions were similarly discontinued." 

This seems to be stronger evidence that something known as Project Moon Dust did exist as a project. We often refer to Project Blue Book simply as Blue Book. True, I have a copy of a heavily redacted "Airgram" from the State Department that says, "The designator "MOONDUST" is used in cases involving the examination of non-US space objects or objects of unknown origin."

I wonder if we're not splitting a fine hair here. There is documentation about Project Moon Dust and there is guidance that Moon Dust will be used as an identifier on communications among various agencies and organizations. What is important here is that there was something called Moon Dust and it referred to UFO related material (and let me add here that in the case UFO means "unidentified" as opposed to "alien spacecraft.") It suggests another reporting channel and one that often-avoided Blue Book.

Paul Dean scanned the document he had mentioned and Brad Sparks had requested. Dean put it up for those who wished to see it. In response, Brad Sparks wrote:

Thanks Paul.

The 1982 20th MWS History mentions "Project Moondust procedures" without identifying them, or it, or where it is located.  Are they just remembering old procedures without looking them up (no Numbered Directives are cited)?  

Lots of people in the US Govt over the years including within the AF assumed there was a "Project" called "Moon Dust" -- just like anyone dealing with Hazardous Materials or HazMat assume there is a HazMat Dept they deal with, but no overarching "HazMat Project" but multiple HazMat units or depts everywhere. 

What we need to know, as this applies to all "Project" Moon Dust references is at least a few of the following questions answered:

1.  HQ:  Where is the "Project" headquartered? 

2.  Command:  Under what agency or command is the "Project"?

3.  Charter:  What is the charter directive or order setting up the "Project"?  Date? 

4.  CO:  Who is the Commander or Director of the "Project"?

5.  Letterhead:  Any "Project Moon Dust" letterhead available to show some of the above, where located, under whose command, etc.?

6.  Multiple "Project Moon Dust"s:  Were there and if so, why?  Was "Moon Dust" just like "HazMat" or "SAR" (Search and Rescue), every command or major agency has them, etc.?

Brad wasn’t through with his analysis and added some important information that should have been included in the first go-around. He wrote:

Quick correction:  Email got away from me before I could add that the copy of the ICGL 4 of 1961 was obtained by Jim Klotz in 2003, with thanks to Mike Ravnitzky and Dale Goudie.  

Further, I wanted to bold-italic highlight the Col Betz memo of Nov 1961, in para. 5g:

"g. Moon Dust:  As a specialized aspect of its over-all [intelligence] materiel exploitation program, Headquarters USAF has established Project Moon Dust to locate, recover and deliver descended foreign space vehicles.  ICGL #4, 25 April 1961, delineates collection responsibilities." 

Thus Moon Dust is an "aspect" of a larger "over-all" intelligence materiel exploitation program of AF Intelligence.  The IGCL 4 in line with that, when read together with the Betz memo, refers to Moon Dust reporting of satellite reentries and space decays, especially intelligence-sensitive "retrieval and examination" (exploitation) of "descended Soviet space vehicles" (and such) -- which are part of just such an "overall materiel exploitation program" (Col. Betz) or "overall project" (ICGL-4) as densely stated in ICGL-4 para. 6:

"Because of the intelligence connotations of MOON DUST regarding retrieval and examination by ATIC of a descended Soviet space vehicle, the overall project is classified Confidential, and MOON DUST Alerts are normally on a Confidential basis because of the intelligence association with [satellite] decay estimates.  The basic decay estimates (identification of the object and estimated date and hour of decay) are in themselves normally unclassified.  Thus, decay estimates, as such, can be released to observers or observatories...

Frank Warren jumped into the conversation. He wrote, “Haven't read all the minutia via this thread, so apologies if this has already been offered up. The attached partial file cites "Project" Moon Dust 3 times by my count, including the line that reads: "Project Moon Dust was suspended on 4 August 1960.”

Those documents were contained information from the Air Force that used the term Project Moon Dust. They follow here (note – they are not sequential):

 

Once again, Brad Sparks took a look at the material offered and then wrote:

Thanks Frank. 

The count of how many times "Project" is used with "Moon Dust" does not "count" too much, so to speak. :)  

What counts is whether there is any direct evidence (so far there is none) of a central national or global AF office called "Project Moon Dust," with a HQ address, a named Commander or Project Officer or both, a chain of command identified, a charter directive that set it up, an org chart, maybe some letterhead with "Project Moon Dust" at the top with HQ address, telephone, teletype address, etc., maybe 2 or 3 of the foregoing would be good.  Even better would be a Unit History of a national or worldwide Project Moon Dust for a recurring period, one for each year going back to its founding.  But we have nothing like that. 

Your 39th Air Division History (USAF in Japan) excerpt actually re-emphasizes the impression that "Project Moon Dust" was just an activity alert designation -- just like "Base UFO Officer" at each AF Base under Blue Book, where those Base UFO Officers were NOT Blue Book or part of BB nor were they their own "Project."  Just an assigned duty episodically carried out

This 39th AD History July-Dec 1960 states that "Project Moon Dust" was an AF-wide "intelligence alert" -- not an AF-wide office or military unit: 

"On 28 June 1960, we were alerted to look for signs of a Soviet missile shot to the mid-Pacific. The Navy was surveilling Soviet telemetry vessels which had moved into the usual Soviet test range in the Pacific; a test shot was expected to follow quickly. 

"Captain George L. Griffith, A0565506, was appointed project officer for Project "Moon Dust," a USAF-wide intelligence alert intended to sight and report Soviet missiles in flight or downed."

This "Project Moon Dust" in Japan could hardly be in Texas, too, etc.  

After barely a month this "Project Moon Dust was suspended on 4 August 1960" -- meaning the Moon Dust alert had been ended, until the next time.  It could hardly be a functioning military unit if it got activated and deactivated every few months or so. 

I suspect, but as yet cannot prove with a shred of documentation, that the AF Intelligence 1127th Field Activities Group at Ft Belvoir, VA, and predecessor units, might have served as a national or global "Project Moon Dust" as merely another hat for the Commander of the 1127th -- just like UFO field investigations were one of several assigned duties for the 1127th -- but unlike with UFOs where the 1127th was just backing up Project Blue Book, maybe (and this is speculative) someone tried to semi-formalize the 1127th organizationally as a "Project Moon Dust" dual entity.  Or maybe "Project Moon Dust" was a Division of the 1127th (which had several Divisions like the Air Attache Division). 

There is some countervailing evidence against this dual-hat, AF-wide central national HQ Project Moon Dust = 1127th theory, though.  ATIC also ran Moon Dust field team(s) seemingly apart from the 1127th, it is unclear.  That would mean TWO AF-wide "Project Moon Dusts"!!  But maybe the ATIC Moon Dust was subordinate to the 1127th's "Project Moon Dust."  Just don't know. 

Another bad piece of evidence against any AF-wide "Project Moon Dust" in, or as, the 1127th is the 1967 AF Intelligence History that includes the 1127th's History.  There is a "MOON DUST" subsection under "OVERT/SENSITIVE COLLECTION AND SUPPORT" but there is no mention of any 1127th acting as a HQ "Project Moon Dust" or any Project Moon Dust Division of the 1127th.  

It states that Moon Dust was an activity whereby NORAD SPADATS notified the 1127th's higher level supervisory staff in AF Intelligence at the Pentagon (Operations Plans Branch AFNIAAB of AF Intell AFNIN) of the deorbitings of 49 Soviet space objects and 17 US space objects (presumably spy satellites) in last half 1967, which must have been passed on to the 1127th as part of their procedure. 

The 1967 AF Intell / 1127th History is not shy about naming names and even HQs of, for example, 1127th's Dallas Resident Agency subordinated to the CIA Domestic Collection Service office in Houston, similarly in Chicago and LA.  This is on the same page as the MOON DUST subsection!  But no "Project Moon Dust" office specified anywhere.

Brad Sparks makes some very interesting observations about Moon Dust. It is clear from other documentation, specifically from the Department of State, that they were responding to directives or procedures issued by some authority. The question becomes is if that authority is the office that Sparks suggests, or if it is a series of rules and regulations initiated by another organization. Under those conditions, it is possible that Moon Dust was just an identifier as Sparks suggested.

However, there is another part of this that hasn’t been explored. Robert Todd learned that the name, Moon Dust, had been compromised. Todd requested the new name, what new code word was, but he was told that it was properly classified. It was not releasable.

That would also, seem to suggest, that there was no “Project” Moon Dust, but that Moon Dust was a code word needed for access to the information gathered under the umbrella of Moon Dust. It seems that the Department of State had been a little less than diligent in their protection of classified information.

The problem that arises is that there were teams that investigated Moon Dust incidents. As Sparks noted, there is a draft document that was leaked into the UFO community that referred to Project Moon Dust. It provided for its mission, its manning, and other aspects of its organization. But this was a draft document and we have seen no evidence that it was implemented, meaning, we have no further documentation for it.

I will note that as I looked through the Project Blue Book files, I did find reference to something designated as Project Horse Fly. This was a proposal to develop teams of junior officers who would deploy to UFO sighting locations to conduct investigations of those sightings. There is no evidence that the project moved beyond the planning stage. You can read about it here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2017/10/project-horse-fly-documents.html

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2018/03/project-horse-fly-and-operation-blue-fly.html

Given what Brad Sparks has provided, and the direction of the conversation, I have to wonder if he isn’t right about this. There was something called Moon Dust but was it a project or a code word for some other project? That means that the collection of the intelligence under the Moon Dust code was for another project, something hidden deeper.

We do have documents that mention the recovery of space debris, but in nearly all those cases, the debris was identified as terrestrial. Had they found something truly extraordinary it might have been sent forward for analysis under another name or project designation. Moon Dust was the cover for the important aspect of the research just as Blue Book turned out to be the cover for another UFO investigation that was hinted about by Allen Hynek and General Bolender.

Moon Dust might not be the proper name of the project that controlled the Moon Dust activities. We have seen hints about this and how various Air Force organizations have been tasked with UFO research in the past. It does seem, however, that Moon Dust, as an independent project might not have existed…

Or for the conspiracy mined, it was the cover for the real investigation. When the Air Force told Senator Bingaman that there was no Project Moon Dust and that the project had never existed, maybe that was the truth. Moon Dust was the code word for the real project and we just haven’t found it… Yet.

Coast to Coast - EM Effects

As I have mentioned in the past, I’m a fan of multiple chains of evidence and in UFO cases, one of those chains is electromagnetic effects. These are cases in which the UFO interacts with the environment often by stalling a car engine or dimming the headlights among other things.

William Puckett at his ufosnw.com website reported an interesting case. On June 23, 2009, a truck driver who was hauling cars from Denver to various dealers in New Mexico spotted a UFO. He had delivered three cars to a dealer in Vaughn, New Mexico, very early in the morning, and was on his way to Alamogordo, when he stopped at rest area. As he got out of his truck, he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He looked up and saw a very large, black triangle-shaped object overhead. At that time, the truck, which had been idling, stalled, all the lights went out. Then his flashlight failed. He got another flashlight, but it didn’t work and even the light on his watch went out.

The object, coming from the southeast was getting closer, and he went to pull one of the remaining cars off the trailer, something he does in an emergency, so that he can drive it to get help. The car’s lights would not come on. About this time, the object began to retreat into the southeast. As it moved away, all the lights on the various vehicles and his flashlights came back on. Everything was working again and he had no further trouble with the truck.

Later, and here is another interesting aspect, when he arrived at his final destination, he had a chance to look at the mechanical alarm clock he keeps in his cab. It was thirteen minutes faster than the truck’s clocks and when he checked the clocks in the cars, he noticed that they, too, were thirteen minutes behind the alarm clock.

In an interesting twist to cases of EM interaction, Robert Spearing, a dedicated UFO investigator has found an interesting and unreported aspect of the EM Effects. He is looking into cases of car paint changing color after being exposed to a high intensity magnetic field. He asks the question: Car paint has a number of possible oxides that theoretically can be victims of induced magnetic fields. But why are there not hundreds of cases of car paint changing color? 

According to his research, he found only two such cases. The first is from Norway in 1953. The UFO circled car and blocked the road. According to the report, the paint changed from beige to dark green but changed back the next day. Spearing noted that UV light can cause the paint color to change but the effects are irreversible.

Spearing also reported that in 1978 there was a UFO sighting in Massachusetts: According to the witness, the Ford Mustang he was driving had the engine, water pump and the battery fried by the close approach of the UFO. The paint changed from white to grey and the car had to be junked rather than repaired.

Levelland, the granddaddy of all EM Cases. Photo copyright by Kevin Randle.

The only case I have found in which the car’s paint was mentioned was Case No. 39 (page 380) in the Condon Committee final report. There is also a discussion of problems with the car’s clock as well, which fits in with this report.

In early morning of November 8, 1967, an unidentified business executive, driving in a remote region of the South Pacific area later identified as Lake Elsinore, California, when his engine failed. He said that the lights went out and the radio went dead at the same time. It was at this point that he saw an object that flew over his car and then hovered above the highway in front of him.

He later described the object as about thirty feet in diameter, saucer shaped and red orange with rotating lights around the rim. He couldn’t see a sharp edge to the craft, saying it had a hazy outline. It hovered about 160 over him.

He watched the UFO for about ninety seconds before it disappeared into the fog ahead of it. Once it as gone, he said that his headlights came back on, the radio cleared up and he was able to start his car.

He told his story to both those at the Condon Committee and to NICAP, but under the condition that his name wouldn’t be revealed. The NICAP investigators who inspected the car and found the clock has stopped at 3:46 a.m. The found spots where the paint was easy to rub off and that there was pitting in the glass and the paint. Music tapes that had been in the car had also been affected by the UFO. The back window had a bizarre optical distortion that hadn’t been noticed before.

The investigator for the Condon Committee, Roy Craig, interviewed the man and then they drove to the scene of the sighting. He said that the details of the case as given to him matched what the witness had said earlier, except a few changes. The witness now said the object was 55 feet in diameter and flew over his car at 50 or 75 feet.

Craig saw the same distortions in the rear window and saw the pitting and thin spots in the paint. He didn’t think much of this, suggesting it was what would be expected in a car that was four years old. Craig also said that a car dealer said that it was not unusual to receive a car from the factory where the paint was not even.

As had the NICAP investigators, Craig noticed that the clock had stopped at 3:46 a.m. The witness, however, wasn’t sure that the clock had been running the day before, which was another departure from his original story.

Although Craig thought the changes in the witness’ story were significant, he believed that this was a perfect case to test the magnetic mapping theory. They were able to locate another car that matched that of the witness. He mapped the hood and the trunk of the cars and compared the numbers. He wrote:

Some points of sharp change in the magnetic orientation may have displayed that change because of structure beneath the hood. However, the comparison car did show some readings very similar to those of the witness’ car throughout, including corresponding points of sharp change. Even with this crude check, it appears reasonably certain that his Chrysler had experienced no reorientation of its magnetic signature, as one might expect if the car had been subjected to a strong magnetic field.

In the conclusions wrote that the vagueness of the witness description of the object, and the wide inconsistencies in his estimate of its size and distance and that there were no other witnesses to the “alleged event” and because the car showed no evidence of a magnetic field, he concluded that no further investigation was needed which is probably a fair analysis.

If anyone has any reports of cars changing color after the close approach of a UFO, I’d be interested in hearing them. I’ll pass them along to Spearing. Just append them to the comments section here. Include contact information but these reports will not appear on the blog so that your contact information will not be compromised. 

Coast to Coast - Belt, Montana UFO Sighting (Part One)

 

Here is the whole story of the Belt, Montana, sightings for March 24, 1967, as they appear in the Project Blue Book files. A truck driver, Ken Williams, saw what he said was a domed object land in a canyon near the road. He was curious enough that he stopped, got out of his truck and began to walk toward the object. The UFO then lifted off, flew further up the canyon and touched down again, now hidden from the highway by a ridge.

Belt, Montana, part of the Great Falls urban area.

Williams, in a handwritten document filed with the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon, told what he had seen that night. In response to their request, on April 7, 1967, Williams wrote:

Gentlemen:

Object was first observed approximately 5 miles southeast of Belt, Montana. I was traveling North on Highway 87 enroute to Great Falls, Montana. Object was approximately 1 mile to my left and appeared to be about 5 or 6 hundred yards [1500 – 1800 feet] altitude. I would estimate its speed to vary from 40 to 50 miles per hour. I am judging this speed by the speed I was traveling as object seemed to be running evenly with me. Its appearance was that of a large doomed [sic] shaped light or that of a giant headlight. Upon climbing up the Belt Hill in my truck, I looked to my left and about ½ mile up a gully. I witnessed the object at about 200 yards [600 feet] in the air in a still position. I stopped my truck and the object dropped slowly to what appeared to me to be within a very few feet from the ground. [Underlining in original]. It was at this time that I felt something or someone was watching me. As a very bright effecting light emerged from the object it momentarily blinded me. This extremely bright light seemed to flare three times. Each time holding its brightness. By the third time the light was so bright [underlining in original] that it was nearly impossible to look directly at it. It was at this time that I drove my truck onto the top of the hill which was about another ½ mile. I stopped a car and asked the people [Don Knotts of Great Falls] if they would stop at a station at the foot of the hill and call the Highway Patrol. I went back down the hill and viewed the object for several more minutes. It was while watching it the second time that it rose and disappeared like a bolt of lightning. I went back to the top of the hill where my truck was parked and just as the Highway Patrolmen [sic] Bud Nader, arrived the object appeared once again. About 2 miles away and traveling in a Northeast direction, whereas it stopped once again and appeared to drop to the ground [Underlining in the original.]. There are several deep gullys [sic] in the area where it appeared to drop out of sight. This was my last sighting of the object.

The government file on this case contains what was known as a Project Record Card, which was a 4 x 6 card that outlined the details of the case. While the case is labeled as “unidentified,” it also noted that there was “(1 witness),” which they believed to be so important that it was underlined. But that isn’t true and other documents in the government files prove it.

According to a letter written by Lieutenant Colonel Lewis D. Chase, and addressed to Edward Condon at the University of Colorado, there was, at least, one other witness. According to Chase, “Mr. Nader [sent by the Highway Patrol] reported that upon reaching the scene he observed an unusual light emanating from the area that the truck driver, Mr. Williams, claimed the object had landed a second time.”

The Newspaper Accounts

The Great Falls Leader carried a series of articles about the UFO sightings in the area at the time. Interestingly, some of what was printed in the newspaper was not found in the government files. Those who conducted the military investigation should have been aware of the other sightings, but there is no mention of them. It seems that, to the Air Force anyway, those sightings never happened.

Ron Rice, a staff writer on the newspaper said that there had been UFO sightings all over the state that day. He wrote, “Before midnight it was the Belt area; after 3 this morning, Malmstrom Air Force Base where one was picked up on the bottom of a Federal Aviation Agency radar scope which tracked it for a time before it disappeared in the direction of the Belt Mountains.”

There were visual sightings as well. Airman Second Class (A2C) Richard Moore, a communicator-plotter said that he had seen something about five or ten miles from the base at 3:30 a.m. Airman Third Class (A3C) said that he had seen an object that he said was a bright light with orange lights on the bottom. This, according to Moore, was close to the ground and it was what the FAA radar had detected.

Moore also said that a sabotage alert team had located another object about 4:40 a.m. directly over Malmstrom. Moore said that he saw it as well, but it was more a point of light moving across the sky than anything else. He said it wasn’t a satellite because it was zigzagging.

Another airman, Warren Mahoney, said that Moore had told him about the UFO at 3:10 a.m. and that at 3:42 he had received a call from the FAA that there was an object on their radar northwest of the base. Three minutes later it had turned, flying toward the southeast. At 4:26 a.m. it disappeared from the FAA radar.

Rice also mentioned that there had been a search of the canyon where Williams and Nager saw the UFO and they found some evidence, though it isn’t clear exactly what they had found. Sheriff’s deputies Keith Wolverton, Jim Cinker and Harold Martin, searched the ground for about two and a half hours and discovered some freshly broken twigs on bushes and branches of the trees. They thought it might have been cattle, but there were no cattle in the area. Martin was reported as saying, “Some of the trees are 25 feet high, and had limbs broken from them, and some bushes below them were broken. All were fresh breaks.”

According to the Great Falls Tribune, Trudy Fender provided a rough drawing of an object she had seen with a steady white light on one end, a blinking white light on the other and a red light in the center. She had been waiting for her ride on March 26. The sighting isn’t important because of the object, but the fact that she saw something. That refuted a theory that there had been no UFO sightings in Montana other than Williams sighting two days earlier.

The Government File

With all that was going on that night, with the news media alerted and with local law enforcement involved, there wasn’t much that the Air Force could do other than respond. The government files, in a teletype message that was unclassified revealed, “Between hours of 2100 and 0400 MST numerous reports were received by Malmstrom AFB agencies of UFO sightings in the Great Falls, Montana area.”

The message noted that “Reports of a UFO landing near Belt, Montana were received from several sources including deputies of Cascade County Sheriff’s Office. Investigation is being conducted by Lt. Col. Lewis Chase… The alleged landing site is under surveillance. However, daylight is required for further search.”

The investigation was apparently completed several days later and on April 8, 1967, Chase wrote a report that he sent on to Edward Condon at the University of Colorado who was leading the Air Force sponsored investigation into UFOs. After setting the scene, Lewis wrote:

Numerous reports were being received by the dispatcher at Base Operations, plus questions from the public. At 2205 [10:05 p.m.], Lt. Col. Lewis D. Chase, Base UFO Investigating Officer, was notified by the Command Post of a reported landing. Sequence of events following notification were as follows:

2215 – Check was made with Base Operations as to aircraft movement in the area. An outbound transient aircraft departed Great Falls enroute to Glasgow, Montana. Departure time was 2109 [9:09 p.m.]. All other aircraft were accounted for.

2230 – Discussion with the Sheriff of Cascade County revealed that he had dispatched additional deputies to the area. Requested that he notify me of any significant findings. While talking to the sheriff, he contacted one of his mobile units. The man reporting said that they were at the scene and that there was no activity at the time. Requested the sheriff to forward any subsequent developments.

2330 – I called the Sheriff of Cascade County for a status report. He put one of his deputies on the line (Ziener?) who had been at the scene and had interviewed the truck driver and highway patrolman. While on the phone, Sheriff Martin from Belt, Montana, called in from the scene. He discussed the possibility of manpower assistance from Malmstrom and/or helicopter support. Informed him that daylight would be the first possible helicopter support and that I would discuss the other manpower request with Colonel Klibbe.

2345 – Discussion with Colonel Klibbe. He suggested that I go out and evaluate the situation and make my recommendations from there.

0030 – Departed the base in radio equipped station wagon accompanied by Major John Grasser of the Helicopter Section, for an evaluation of the terrain for any possible helicopter survey at daylight, a driver, and the alert photographer.

0100 – Arrived at the scene. Was met by Sheriff Martin, who repeated the previous reports. He had been on the scene continuously. A study of the terrain revealed the hopelessness of any ground survey at night. A tentative plan was agreed upon – the sheriff’s office to conduct a ground search of the reported landing area on the morning of 25 March 1967, while concurrently a helicopter survey of the area would be performed by Malmstrom. (It had been reported by Major Grasser that a helicopter training flight was scheduled for 0730 Saturday morning. This procedure was later approved by 15^th AF, provided no landing was made). Sightseers were in the area due to radio publicity and Martin reported some had gone on the ridges before he could stop them.

0215 – Reported to Colonel Klibbe the tentative plan agreed upon with Sheriff Martin. He approved.

0230 to 0340 – Numerous sightings reported.

0350 – Discussed the make-up of a message with Captain Bradshaw, Wing Command Post, IAW [In Accordance With] AFR [Air Force Regulation] 80-17, to notify concerned agencies, including CSAF, of numerous sightings, plus the reported landing under investigation. Was concerned with resulting publicity and the need to notify other agencies prior to press releases. Message will merely state reported landing, that it is under investigation, that daylight hours are required to complete investigation, and that a subsequent report will be submitted. Preliminary message dispatched.

0800 – Sheriff’s ground search and Malmstrom aerial survey completed with negative results. Follow-up messages dispatched to interested agencies (AFR 80-17) stating negative results of the investigation.

The last part of the report confirmed that Chase had conducted it and provided contact information for him. He later, in a teletype message reported, again, that there had been negative results.

None of the newspaper articles appeared in the official government file, which, in and of itself, is odd. Often the case files included many, if not all, the newspaper articles about the specific sighting. It could be, in this case, that those newspaper reports contradict some of the information contained in the official file. Although Chase wrote that there had been negative results to his investigation, the sheriff’s deputies did report they had found some evidence at the scene. The problem is that the evidence wasn’t sufficiently unusual and there were alternative explanations for it. Cattle certainly could have been responsible for some of it, though it is unlikely that cows were doing damage twenty-five feet above the ground.

All mention of the radar reports is missing from the government files, as are the reports from Air Force personnel. Even if Chase was uninterested in most of the civilian sightings, it would seem that he would want to talk to the airman who saw something, if for no other reason than to explain them. This is a hole in the investigation.

The radar sightings, with the corroborative visual reports would seem to be a very important part of the case. This would make it a stronger case, but Chase didn’t follow up on it. The government files that are available suggest he did not explore the radar sightings, he did not request information from the FAA, and he didn’t interview any of the radar operators. The newspaper files suggest that the information had been reported the next day. Chase should have known about it.

There might have been something else operating here, and that was the mission of Malmstrom AFB. It was a minuteman missile base, and just days before, an entire flight of missiles had suddenly fallen into a “No-Go” situation which meant that they had been deactivated. This was an issue that was a matter of national security and that might explain the reason the Belt, Montana sighting was so poorly investigated.