Mufon UFO JournalNumber 268

) August 1990' $2.50

Official Publication of the Mutual UFO Network Since 1967

UPON1990 INTERNATIONAL UFO

SYMPOSIUM PROCEEDINGS

UFOs: The Impact of E.T.Contact Upon Society

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FROM THE EDITORWith any luck we'll soon be back on our regular publication schedule. In themeantime, you'll find the contents of this issue not all that outdated. We havea startling story from a recent issue of Paris Match, a follow-up to last month's"Great Belgian UFO Flap," along with coverage of the MUFON 1990 Inter-national UFO Symposium and a brief survey of events in Medjugorje,Yugoslavia. Perhaps as soon as September we'll be devoting an entire issueto the subject of UFOs and religion. In the meantime, we appreciate yourpatience.

IN THIS ISSUEF-16 RADAR TRACKS UFO Marie-Therese de Brosses 3

FLORIDA SYMPOSIUM AIRSCONTROVERSY J. Antonio Huneeus 8

MIRACLES IN MEDJUGORJE Vince T. Migliore 13

NEWS'NVIEWS 15

LOOKING BACK Bob Gribble 18

LETTERS Roberts, Fuller, Coyne, Clark 20

CURRENT CASE LOG Dan Wright 21

THE SEPTEMBER NIGHT SKY Walter N. Webb 22

DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE Walt Andrus 24

COVER Walt Andrus

Copyright 1990 by the Mutual UFO Network, Inc. (MUFON), 103 Old-towne Road, Seguin, Texas 78155-4099 U.S.A.

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The contents of the MUFON UFO JOURNAL are determined by the editor anddo not necessarily represent the official position of MUFON. Opinions of contributorsare their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the editor, the staff or MUFON.Articles may be forwarded directly to MUFON. Responses to published articlesmay be in a Letter to the Editor (up to about 400 words) or in a short article (upto about 2,000 words). All submissions are subject to editing for style, clarity, andconciseness. Permission is hereby granted to quote from this issue provided notmore than 200 words are quoted from any one article, the author of the articleis given credit, and the statement "Copyright 1990 by the Mutual UFO Network,103 Oldtowne Rd., Seguin, Texas 78155" is included.

F-16 Radar Tracks UFOby Marie-Therese de Brosses

(Translated by Robert Durant)

Robert Durant is a MUFONState Section Director living in Pen-nington, New Jersey.

Paris Match is a slick French week-ly something like a classy cross be-tween Time and People magazines.It is very widely read and somethingof a journalistic institution. Althoughthe reader can count on the latestgossip concerning Charles and LadyDi, each issue also contains seriouscoverage of political and scientificissues.

Thanks to the linguistic abilities ofmy wife, I have translated anastonishing article that appeared inthe July 5, 1990 issue. This recountsa series of sightings of a UFO overBelgium. There were thousands ofwitnesses, and the object was trackedsimultaneously by two ground radarinstallations and by the airborne in-tercept radars of two F-16 fighters sentto chase it.

But by far the most significantaspect of this case is that the Belgiangovernment released all the data andworked in close cooperation with acivilian UFO research organization. Tothe best of my knowledge, this is uni-que in the history of ufology.

Indeed, it is the "political" aspect thatprodded me to take the considerabletime and effort to make this translationavailable to ufologists worldwide via theMUFON UFO Journal.

The article itself, by Marie-Theresede Brosses, is copyrighted by ParisMatch.

The Belgian Defense Minister hasauthorized us to publish this report.It is the "scoop of the sky." These twoscreens (see photos) are the incon-testable witnesses of a meeting ofscience and fiction. In an unprece-dented action, the Belgian Air Forcehas released pictures of the radar im-

ages of UFOs intercepted by the pilotsof their F-16 fighters. It was the preci-sion and clarity of the pictures thatconvinced the Defense Minister toorder full resources deployed in thegigantic chase of the UFO during theEaster weekend. Paris Match takesyou behind the symbols and numbersof these exceptional pictures todiscover the incredible performanceof those flying objects which are veryreal but nonetheless unidentified. Wemay not be the only ones in theuniverse.

There are people in the military ser-vices who are normally silent on thissubject, but who now say the UFOsare not a myth. On June 22nd, forthe first time in history, an Air Forcerevealed an important piece of thisstory which is not science fiction.

On this day, after going through ameticulous security screening, I foundmyself in the headquarters of theBelgian Air Force, near Brussels. Ina small room, Colonel DeBrouwer,Chief of Operations of the Belgian AirForce, started a video tape recorder.On the screen appeared the film thatwas brought back in the "black box"of the F-16 that was launched tochase the UFO. This, it turned out,was not the really important chase,which would happen two weeks later,when practically all of Belgium triedto capture the UFO. But until now wewere not told about the one Col.Brouwer was about to describe.

The Belgian military had been onthe alert since November 1989, whennumerous reports by the Gendar-merie (National police force) beganpouring in daily telling of observationsof the UFOs above Belgian territory.It had started on the crazy night ofNovember 29, 1989, during which 30groups of witnesses, among themthree police patrols, scattered over800 square kilometers of territory be-

tween Liege and the German/Neth-erlands border, reported UFOs. All ofthose witnesses observed for hours astrange triangular object nearly silent,maneuvering at very low speed andvery low altitude, without creating theleast amount of turbulence.

As do all the world's Air Forces, theBelgian military have at their disposalsupersonic interceptor airplanes ready24 hours a day to take off with fiveminutes' notice. In this case we aretalking about two F-16 single-pilotfighters, armed with missiles. Head-quarters was prudent and conser-vative. During the previous month thetwo planes have twice been sent inresponse to sightings, but withoutresults. The first time they sawnothing. The second instance was at-tributed to an advertising searchlightfor a night club.

On the night of March 30th, oneof the callers reporting a UFO was aCaptain of the national police at Pin-son, and Headquarters decided tomake a serious effort to verify thereports. In addition to the visualsightings, two radar installations alsosaw the UFO. One radar is at Glons,southeast of Brussels, which is part ofthe NATO defense group, and one atSemmerzake, west of the Capitol,which controls the military and civiliantraffic of the entire Beligan territory.The range of the two radars is 300kilometers, which is more thanenough to cover the area where thereports took place. In this region theland is fairly flat, rolling countrywithout any prominent hills. Theradar has a perfect view of all flyingobjects with an altitude about 200meters over the ground. Nevertheless,Headquarters determined to do somevery precise studies during the next55 minutes to eliminate the possibili-ty of prosaic explanations for the radarimages. Excellent atmospheric con-

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

ditions prevailed, and there was nopossibility of false echoes due totemperature inversions.

All military and civilian airplanesare equipped with a device called atransponder which permits their im-mediate identification on the radarscreen in the form of a coded signal.The radar echo received on that nightwas like that of an airplane that wasmoving at very low speed, about 50KM per hour, and frequently chang-ing direction and altitude. But it didnot send any identifying transpondersignal.

Naturally, the Belgian Air Forcecan't permit an unidentified object tofly over its territory. So at 0005 hoursthe order was given to the F-16s totake off and to find the intruder. Thelead pilot concentrated on his radarscreen, which at night is his best organof vision. The F-16 is equipped withvery sophisticated equipment, includ-ing chase radar, which is not fixeddirectly ahead of the airplane, butmakes a wide search in an arc of 90degrees left and right of the nose.Slightly behind the lead fighter, thewingman in the second F-16 followedthe movements of the first jet, con-centrating on maintaining contact withthe center of coordination of thesearch.

Suddenly the two fighters sportedthe intruder on their radar screens,appearing like a little bee dancingon the scope. Using their joy stickslike a video game, the pilots orderedthe onboard computers to pursuethe target. As soon as lock-on wasachieved, the target appeared on thescreen as a diamond shape, telling thepilots that from that moment on theF-16s will remain tracking the objectautomatically. On the screen is in-dicated the object's position, distanceand speed. The object was very closeto the fighters.

On this portion of the video tapethat Col. DeBrouwer has, in such anexceptional manner, allowed us tosee, we can hear the radio exchangeof the two pilots. The emotions of thepilots are clearly perceptible. "Look,"the Colonel tells me, stopping theVCR, and showing me the diamond

PHOTO CAPTIONSThese two pictures are derived from the internal recording device in theF-16 that chased the UFO on the nights of March 30-31. They are theviews on the pilot's display with an interval of several seconds. The oneon the left shows the UFO as a diamond, meaning that the radar hadlocked on to the target. The short vertical lines that frame the diamondon the left and on the right show that the pilot had ordered the com-puter to follow the target, so the radar will continue to automatically trackit. At the center of the picture, the "W" shows the axis of the flight pathof the F-16, with digitalized direction of 256 degrees (west/southwest)shown under and to the left. The lines on each side of the "W" are theartificial horizon. The word "AIR" on the top of the screen means thatthe radar is programmed to search for all targets in the air at an altitudehigher than 200 meters over the ground. The UFO is at an altitude of2,000 meters, shown on the picture by 07 (7,000 feet) at the top right.The next picture shows that the UFO dived toward the ground in onesecond. The picture on the right shows the target at an altitude of 00,meaning that it is below the altitude range of the radar, that is, below200 meters. The line of the artificial horizon falls off (rotates), showingthe bank angle of the plane as it tries to align itself with the UFO, whichis diving. The column of numbers under the diamond give the directionof flight of the target, 290 degrees (west northwest), the speed, 990 knotsor Mach 1.50, and the 080R shows the nature of the target in codedlanguage. This particular code means that the computer does not recognizethe nature of the target. In the interval between these two pictures theUFO had accelerated through the sonic barrier, but without making anysonic boom. In one second it would be lost to the pilots.

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

"Our fighter planes are armed with automatically self-directed missiles. Once they are launched, internal com-puters in the missiles intelligently guide the missiles to thetarget by themselves. Of course, in this case of the UFOthere was no question of doing that. We only wanted toidentify the intruder"

shape on the screen, "At this stage inthe chase in our military jargon itmeans a successful interception."

Automatic Targeting

Then I said, in layman's terms, whatdoes a "successful interception"mean? He answered, "Our fighterplanes are armed with automaticallyself-directed missiles. Once they arelaunched, internal computers in themissiles intelligently guide the missilesto the target by themselves. Of course,in this case of the UFO there was noquestion of doing that. We onlywanted to identify the intruder."

The pilot did not even have timeto start this procedure, which requiresthe fighter's radar to stay locked onfor at least six seconds. But the ob-

ject had sped up from an initial veloci-ty of 280 KPH to 1,800 KPH, whiledescending from 3,000 meters to1,700 meters ... in one second! Thisfantastic acceleration corresponds to40 Gs. It would cause immediatedeath to a human on board. The limitof what a pilot can take is about 8 Gs.And the trajectory of the object wasextremely disconcerting. It arrived at1,700 meters altitude, then it doverapidly toward the ground at analtitude under 200 meters, and in do-ing so escaped from the radars of thefighters and the ground units at Glonsand Semmerzake. This maneuvertook place over the suburbs ofBrussels, which are so full of man-made lights that the pilots lost sightof the object beneath them.

"In any event, it was out of the

question for the F-16 to catch up withthe object at this low altitude, wherethe density of the air limits the speedto 1,300 KPH. Above that speed, thetemperature in the compressors of thejet turbines would cause the enginesto burst," said Col. DeBrouwer."There was a logic behind the motionsof the object."

Everything indicates that this objectwas intelligently directed to escapefrom the pursuing planes. During thenext hours the scenario repeatedtwice. The Commander of theBelgian Air Force gave me a detailedreport which had been produced bythe Belgian Society For The Study ofSpecial Phenomena (SOBEPS) incooperation with the Air Force. Thereport states: "In three cases the pilotsmanaged to get their radars locked onthe object, with the immediate resultthat the object's behavior drasticallychanged. The object literally playedhide and seek with the fighters. Itdived toward the ground to evade theairborne and ground radars. Then itclimbed back into radar range in aleisurely manner, thus initiating a newchase.

This fantastic game of hide andseek was observed from the groundby a great number of witnesses,among them 20 national policemenwho saw both the object and theF-16s. The encounter lasted 75minutes, but nobody heard the super-sonic boom which should have beenpresent when the object flew throughthe sonic barrier. No physical damagewas reported. Given the low altitudesand speed of the object, many win-dows should have been broken.

So, for the first time in history, anewspaper reporter was allowed tosee a document which establishedproof of an interception of a UFO bya military fighter. I have seen on thevideo screen the flight maneuvers andthe extraordinary changes in speed ofthe UFO.

All the details of this affair arerelated in the report which has justbeen released by SOBEPS. This col-laboration between the Air Force ofa nation and a private research groupis without precedent and must be

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

taken very seriously. Also, the com-petence of the civilian researchers isworthy of trust. This group includesseveral scientists with excellentcredentials, such as physicists LeoBrenig, Professor at the University of.Brussels and August Meessen, Pro-fessor at the Catholic University ofLouvain, who has belonged toSOBEPS since its creation 18 yearsago. On a television interview, Mr.Guy Coeme, the Minister of Defense,declared that, he had authorized theAir Force to release all information attheir disposal to SOBEPS.

Discarded Explanations

After having seen this dramatic se-quence, I posed a number of ques-tions to Colonel DeBrouwer. First,could the object have been aradiosonde balloon?

"No, the object acted as if it wastotally independent of the winds, andwe have done, among'other things,a complete review of meteorologicalconditions. This is why we did notpublish the report until now. Wewanted to do a complete study toverify all aspects of the case. ;Ourmilitary defense system is notprepared for this sort of thing. We hadto analyze and interpret the data fromthe recording made inside the,fighters."

Is it a natural phenomen^ or per-haps the debris from rockets orsatellites, space junk? "No, a mete-orite or a fragment of a rocket doesnot enter the atmosphere in a zig-zagfashion. The analysis of the radartraces showed numerous changes indirection, and the atmospheric con-ditions that prevailed precluded anyelectromagnetic phenomenon as thecause."

But, I asked, how about the famousF-117, the American Stealth airplane,which many people think may beresponsible? "This airplane is ab-solutely designed for penetration atlow altitude. On the other hand it hasa minimum speed of 278 KPH, andthe UFO's speed went down to 40KPH. The F-117 does not haveengines that can be tilted down for

So, for the first time in history, a newspaper reporter wasallowed to see a document which established proof of aninterception of a UFO by a military fighter. I have seen onthe video screen the flight maneuvers and the extraordinarychanges in speed of the UFO.

very slow speed flight. Also, noairplane is capable of flying at 1,800KPH or so low to the ground withoutcreating a sonic boom."

Then he gave me a telex sent bythe Military Attache of the.U.S. Am-bassador to the Commander of theBelgian Air Force confirming that theStealth airplane was never stationedoh European territory, nor did it everfly over that territory.

Professor Jean Pierre Petit accom-panied me in my visit to the BelgianAir, Force Headquarters. He onceserved as a controller for jet intercep-tion exercises. Petit is a senior physi-cist, and a director of research withthe National Center for ScientificResearch of France. He has recentlypublished a book entitled "Investiga-tion of UFOs," published by EditionsAlbin Michel, and makes this strongstatement:

"In reality, there is no machinemade by man, either an airplane ora missile, that is capable of such per-formance. Specifically, flying at thespeed of sound without making asonic boom. What degree of con-fidence can we place on this state-ment? The same as that in astro-physics connected with the first detec-tion of a Supernova in 1987 in theMagellanic Clouds galactic group.Proof that the existence of this stellarcataclysm we call a Supernova relieson this single unique observation. Iam completely convinced that thistype of UFO observation by radar hasalready happened many times overthe past 30 years, either by means ofthe sophisticated radar of the F-16which is typical of that used by theworld's air forces for the past tenyears, or before that by conventionalradar. And those countries who havehad radar contacts have kept the factin strict secrecy in order to avoid

public panic."But what is happening right now,

what is the reason for this suddenrevelation of the truth?

"We are living in a time that is thebeginning of a period of openness.First the Berlin Wall crumbled, nowthe wall of silence about UFOs is fall-ing. Concerning the UFOs, we areentering a phase completely differentfrom the earlier ones. It is the end ofcommercialism and fakery. The truescientists are finally making their ap-pearance. Look at the work of Pro-fessor Meessen."

Surprise Photos

"SOPEBS has collected more than1000 eyewitness reports from theUFO wave over Belguim. One reportis especially interesting. On the nightof March 31, at a location 30 KMsoutheast of Brussels, three complete-ly reliable witnesses had a sighting.They were Lucien Clerebaut,Secretary General of SOBEPS,Patrick Ferrym, a Moving Picture Pro-ducer and Jose Fernandez. Theyobserved a bright luminous light lowon the horizon. The light got biggerand closer, and was seen to be an ob-ject of triangular form with roundedangles. It was carrying four spotlightsand the periphery of the object hadnumerous smaller lights around it. Asit passed over their heads at analtitude which they estimated to be300 to 400 meters, the object had adiameter six times that of a full moon.Mr. Ferrym took four pictures of theobject with a very high sensitivity filmwith an ASA of 1,600. As a controlhe photographed an ordinary airplaneseveral minutes later, using the sameshutter opening and speed.

"When the film was developed hegot a surprise. The position lights of

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

"We are living in a time that is the beginning of a periodof openness. First the Berlin Wall crumbled, now the wallof silence about UFOs is falling. Concerning the UFOs, weare entering a phase completely different from the earlierones. It is the end of commercialism and fakery."

the airplane were clearly shown onthe pictures. But the 'spotlights' on theUFO, which to the naked eye hadbeen much stronger than the lights onthe airplane, were hardly discernible.The general form of the UFO, whichhad also been clearly visible, was loston the film. It should be noted thatthe UFO was also much closer to theobservers than the airplane.

"Recalling that a simple infrared raycan prevent some films from being ex-posed, Professor Meessen perform-ed an experiment in his laboratory.Using a prism, he projected directlyon unexposed film a spectrum oflight, going from red to purple,superimposing an infrared ray on thelower part of the negative. When thefilm was developed, the spectrum oflight is perfectly visible in the portionof the film untouched by the infraredray, but considerably attenuated,though not completely annihilated,where the infrared light struck thefilm."

The Professor continued, "If theUFOs are really a physical object, andif they propagate infrared light, itwould be quite normal that photo-graphs would contain some surpriseswhen they were developed. Thiscould include the total disappearanceof the object that had been observedvisually. This would explain the verylow number of pictures that we havereceived in this UFO wave as well asthe failure to get close-up pictures.

Professor Meessen remained veryconservative. As a good disciple of thefamous scientist Claude Bernard, heis faithful to the Scientific Method,which consists of observing facts, thenproposing hypotheses to explain thefacts, and finally accomplishing ex-perimental verification of thehypotheses. To him it is absolutelyessential to study this enigmatic file

of UFO reports: "There are too manyindependent eyewitness reports to ig-nore. Too many of the reports des-cribe coherent physical effects, andthere is an agreement among the ac-counts concerning what was ob-served. If all of these witnesses are ly-ing, then it is a mental disease of suchnovelty and proportions that it mustbe studied. But of course there arealso physical effects. The Air Forcereport allows us to approach the prob-lem in a rational and scientific way.The simplest hypothesis is that thereports are caused by extraterrestrialvisitors, but that hypothesis carrieswith it other problems. We are not ina rush to form a conclusion, but con-tinue to study the mystery."

When I met Prof. Meessen, he hadnot yet seen the document that wasshown to me by Col. DeBrouwer.This was the Belgian Air Force reporton the successful interceptions ofMarch 30th, which allowed us tounderstand why the military hadplaced at the disposal of SOBEPSsuch facilities as the F-16 interceptorsand a twin-engine Hawker airplane.The Hawker could carry a largenumber of researchers and manymeasuring devices, including an enor-mous infrared camera. During thiseventful weekend, which drew in tensof thousands of witnesses, the militaryhad put top priority on the UFO, butwas remaining silent. They wanted toknow more before speaking.

The press was astonished by the"unsuccessful" hunt on this Easterweekend. But it is all clear now. Wecould not say that the UFO did notactually meet us, because there weremany observations from the ground.But if the device had stayed under200 meters in altitude, it would havebeen undetectable by radar.

Now the sightings have dribbled off,

the witnesses rarer and rarer. But thequestions still remain. How discon-certing this wave of UFO sightingsover Belgium! First of all, whyBelgium? Why these thousands ofwitnesses in a six month period? Inprevious decades witnesses oftendescribed landings, but why werethere no landing reports? Why thetriangular shape of the UFO, reportedby more than 90 percent of thewitnesses? At the moment, all of theseare questions without an answer.

"For us, the release of this reportby the Belgian Air Force and the con-fidence in us that it bespeaks is thereward for 18 years of work," con-cluded Lucien Clerebaut of SOBEPS.

Regardless of the frustrating ir-regularity of this phenomenon (wavesof sightings mixed with long periodsof absence), and regardless of the sar-casms of those scientists who areviolently hostile to this kind of in-vestigation, which they consider to bea sort of scientific disease, a few emi-nent scientists such as ProfessorsMeessen, Brenig and Petit continuetheir methodical work.

Now is the time to help them.

Notes

1) A "G" is a unit of acceleration.One G is equivalent to the gravita-tional pull of the earth, 9.81m/sec/sec.

2) See the book Ces Ovnis qui fontpeur by Jean Sider, published by AxisMundi.

3) SOBEPS, 74 Avenue Paul-Janson, 1070 Bruxelles, telephone19 32 2 524 28 48. They publish aquarterly journal on ufology entitledInforespace.

© 1990 Paris Match

See Translator's Note on page 17

MUFONMUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

8

Florida Symposium Airs Controversial UFO Case

Mr. Huneeus is MUFON's Inter-national Coordinator, ContinentalCoordinator for South America anda freelance science writer who haswritten for publications in Northand South America. This materialwas originally published in the NewYork Tribune in his column titled"Science Frontiers."

Over 800 people crowded the Pen-sacola Civic Center on the weekendof July 7 and 8 to attend the annualsymposium of the Mutual UFO Net-work (MUFON) in this otherwisequiet, Florida Panhandle city. Thesuccess of the event was due in largepart to the UFO flap that has been go-ing on around Pensacola and its smallsuburb of Gulf Breeze for the last 21/?years.

The heated controversy over aseries of polaroid color photos takenby local house builder Ed Walters,depicting what clearly seems to besome kind of spacecraft hovering andshooting blue beams, often madelocal front page news. Gulf Breeze hasundeniably become the "flying saucercapital of the USA," as nearly 20 dif-ferent vending tables at the con-ference displayed all kinds of T-shirts,watches and jewelry, and UFOparaphernalia showing the cha-racteristic Gulf Breeze-type spacecraftand its presumed alien occupants.Business was good and competitionheavy.

Walters and his wife Francesachieved national notoriety early thisyear when William Morrow and Com-pany published their book, The GulfBreeze Sightings, dubbed "The MostAstounding Multiple Sightings ofUFOs in U.S. History." The story hasbeen featured in many TV programsand the Walters have toured thecountry promoting their book andspeaking at various UFO conferences.

The case — notable due to thelarge number of photos (39 plus a

By J. Antonio HuneeusPhotographs by Ansen Seale:

video) taken by Walters and other un-canny details he reported betweenNov. 11, 1987 and May 1, 1988 -is hotly debated, not only betweenUFO supporters and skeptics, but be-tween UFO experts themselves.

The Walters' case and the photoswere pronounced genuine by anumber of UFO experts includingMUFON's international directorWalter Andrus and the organization'steam of investigators which followedthe case from its inception; New Yorkauthor and artist Budd Hopkins, whowrote the book's introduction; andNavy optical physicist and photo-analyst Dr. Bruce Maccabee, head ofthe Fund for UFO Research, whoconducted a detailed photographicanalysis published as an appendix tothe book.

Maccabee wrote in the Foreward,"I have concluded that there is noevidence of a hoax and that thephotos in this book are authentic."

Still another expert supportingWalters is Bob Oechsler, a roboticsspecialist and former employee ofNASA's Goddard Space Center whoanalyzed the video taken by Waltersand enhanced the image with so-phisticated digital equipment.

Scrutiny

Nevertheless, the Gulf Breeze casehas not been smooth sailing for theWalters, despite their big book con-tract and the sale of their story for aminiseries to be produced by a ma-jor TV network. Since the photoswere first published a couple of yearsago, they have been subjected to in-tense scrutiny and constant accusa-tion from UFO skeptics, local re-porters, residents and even the mayor,Ed Gray. The skeptics have includednot only prominent debunkers likePhilip Klass, but also UFO researcherswho support the existence of the

phenomena but have become vehe-mently opposed to this particularcase.

The evidence against the Walters,while noisy, has so far not been scien-tifically impressive. As we reportedseveral months ago, some skepticseven went to the extreme of falsify-ing evidence to discredit Walters'photos. A bogus picture of a GulfBreeze-type craft shown flying nearthe Chrysler Building, made for funby New York photographer ManuelFernandez, was published in my col-umn last February, where we ex-posed the questionable techniques ofa particular skeptic.

The Pensacola News Journalpublished a front page story June 10with the banner headline, Gulf BreezeUFO Model Found. Reporter CraigMyers reported that a 9-inch modelof a Gulf Breeze-type craft was foundin the attic of the garage whereWalters had lived at the time of thealleged UFO incidents. Walters hadmoved out in December of 1988 andthe house was uninhabited for aperiod of time until its new residentmoved in. The story was picked upby newswires and lead to the conclu-sion that the model proved the wholecase was a hoax.

Of course, it didn't make sense thatan extremely clever hoaxster, capableof conning experienced UFO in-vestigators and major publishers andTV networks, would leave behindsuch incriminating evidence and failto retrieve it during the period ofseveral months when the house wasempty.

Other details were quickly dis-covered which invalidated the so-called Gulf Breeze model. Photo-graphic analysis done by Maccabeeand others showed that although thismodel was well done and generallysimilar to the object shown in thephotographs, it was too elongated

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

Ed and Frances Walters and the Gulf Breeze UFO

and had fewer windows or "port-holes" than those in the originalPolaroid shots. And to make it looklike Walters had built the model, draf-ting paper from his own office and inhis own handwriting was used in itsmanufacture. This, however, provedto be the hoaxters' undoing, althoughno one knows yet who was respon-sible.

Walters builds only custom-madehouses and therefore no two floor-plans are ever the same. After study-ing the notes and measurements onthe drafting paper used in the model,Walters determined that this was partof "a floor plan I had designed anddiscarded in Sept. 1989," whereas theoriginal photos emerged in the periodbetween late 1987 and early 1988.Walters obtained a letter from hisclient attesting to this fact and alsosuccessfully passed a PsychologicalStress Evaluator Test on June 19,showing he was not involved andknew nothing about the model. (Hehad previously passed two similartests and two polygraph examinations

concerning his UFO experiences.)Walters' conclusion was "the UFOmodel is a hoax, planted to discreditthe local sightings."

The model affair, however, wasneither the first nor the last attemptto discredit the case. In their lectureat a packed Civic Center in Pensacola,Ed and Frances Walters went throughthe list. The latest allegation was madeby Tommy Smith, a young man whoclaims he was present when Waltershoaxed some of the photographs.Smith's testimony was given at a pressconference in Pensacola prior to thesymposium. Smith himself was notpresent, but his allegations were voic-ed by his parents and Gulf Breeze'sMayor and police chief. A third youth,Hank Boland, who was presumablypresent with Smith and Walters' sonwhen the alleged hoax was perpe-trated, later published a statement inthe Gulf Breeze Sentinel fully suppor-ting Walters.

UFOs have become a political "hotpotato in Gulf Breeze and neighbor-ing Pensacola. The mayor is opposed,

but a City Councilwoman herselfwitnessed a UFO shaped like those inthe Walters' photos, as have dozensof other local residents and MUFONfield investigators.

More Witnesses

Even reasonable skeptics wouldagree that if the photos were eventual-ly proven to be fakes, there are stilldozens of sightings with a total ofmore than 100 witnesses, otherphotos and videos, and related phe-nomena that need to be addressedand explained. This last category in-cludes a circle in the grass similar toEngland's famous crop circles, andmysterious "skyquakes" heard in lateJanuary of this year.

Meanwhile the military, which hasnumerous Naval and Air Forcefacilities in the area, has beenunusually quiet about the whole af-fair. In a paper Walters published inthe MUFON Symposium Pro-ceedings, he recounts a multiplewitness sighting on the evening of

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

10January 8 where helicopters wereseen in the sky right after the UFO.

"The next day," he wrote, "whilechecking with the air traffic controltower at the Pensacola Naval Air Sta-tion, they revealed 'unusal activityover Gulf Breeze requiring the de-ployment of search and rescuehelicopters.' When we asked what ourmilitary was searching for we weretold,'... given the nature of things thatare going on over Gulf Breeze, takeyour best guess.' "

Roswell

The controversial photographs andclose encounters in Gulf Breeze,Florida, captured most of the mediaattention at the recent Annual Sym-posium of the Mutual UFO Network(MUFON) in nearby Pensacola. YetGulf Breeze was but one of many sub-jects addressed by a number of scien-tists and researchers at the MUFONparley under the theme, "UFOs: TheImpact of E.T. Contact Upon Society."

One of the important presentationswas "New Revelations From Roswell"by Donald R. Schmitt, Co-Directorand Director of Special Investigationsof the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFOStudies (CUFOS). Schmitt and KevinRandle, a retired U.S. Air Force in-telligence captain and author of twoUFO books, have conducted athorough new investigation of thefamous crash of an unknown objectin Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947.The results of their research will bepublished this fall in the book,Roswell: The Government Recoveryof an Alien Space Craft?

We've mentioned Roswell severaltimes in past columns — how a scat-tering of puzzling debris wasdiscovered by rancher W.W. "Mac"Brazel, how it was retrieved by an in-telligence unit of the 509th BombGroup of the Roswell Army Air ForceBase under Major Jesse Marcel andhow the Base Commander evenordered a press release admitting theywere "fortunate enough to gainpossession of a disc."

This statement was quickly changedby General Roger Ramey, Com-

Budd Hopkins

mander of the Eighth Air Force inFort Worth, Texas, who explainedthe whole thing as a misidentificationof a radar target in a weather balloon.There the matter rested for over 30years.

The case was reopened in 1980 byWilliam Moore and Charles Berlitz intheir book, The Roswell Incident andrekindled a few years ago by therelease of the allegedly top secretMajestic-12 (MJ-12) documents whichreferred to the Roswell crash. NowRandle and Schmitt have combed theterritory one more time, visiting the

site itself, searching for witnessesand relatives of protagonists nowdeceased, and correcting some of themistakes of previous investigators.

One of the main discrepanciesconcerned the report by GradyBarnett that he had seen not justdebris, but an entire flying saucer withthe corpses of its alien crew in thePlains of San Agustin, near Socorro,some 120 miles from the Brazelranch. This part of the story did notcoincide with the alleged 1952 "brief-ing paper" prepared by MJ-12 forpresident-elect Eisenhower. Schmitt

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

Dr. Barry H. Downing

now maintains "the remains of thecraft and the bodies were located" on-ly two and a half miles southeast ofthe debris field in the Brazel ranch.

Of great interest were the list ofdiscrepancies presented by Schmittagainst the so-called balloonhypothesis. They succeeded inlocating the Roswell base's ProvostMarshall and an agent in the Counter-intelligence Corps at the time of the1947 crash. Neither of them woulddiscuss the event because of secrecyoaths. "We admire how seriouslythese gentlemen take their oaths of

secrecy after 43 years," wrote Schmitt,"but we must raise this question: Whythe need to conceal the recovery ofa weather balloon?"

The wreckage was so large it tooktwo days for 50 to 60 troops to com-plete the cleanup, and "seven con-firmed (possibly eight) flights totransport the remains" of what wouldhave to be seen, if the government istelling the truth, as the largest andmost complicated balloon in history.And then there are the descriptionsof the debris itself, which do not cor-respond at all with a weather balloon.

r\_For instance, Schmitt wrote in his

paper that, "the unusual qualities ofthe material described to date by four-teen known eyewitnesses are consis-tent in every detail. In appearance,tensile strength, apparent weight-lessness, memory characteristics,uninterpretable symbology, andplastic-like composition, its physicalmake-up would be difficult toduplicate even by today's standards."

The Roswell crash is at the heart ofthe UFO coverup and, unlike manyother allegations in the murky worldof UFO conspiracies, it gets stronger,not weaker, with time.

Panic Myth

Also at the symposium, Dr. BrianO'Leary, a former astronaut andastronomer, talked about "UFOs, Ex-traterrestrials and the New Science,"where he urged the government "togo public with its UFO information,regardless of the consequences ... Weare well beyond the point of denialand are on the threshold of a cosmicrenaissance in human awareness, ofwhich the UFO phenomenon is an in-tegral part," he said.

Sociologist Dr. Robert Hall discuss-ed the myth of mass panic vis-a-visgovernmental UFO disclosures."Panic in response to such contact ap-pears very unlikely," he wrote in hispaper's abstract, adding that "how-ever, the risk of panic is probably in-creased by governmental treatment ofUFO information as secret intelli-gence, a policy apparently guided (orrather, misguided) by misinformationabout panic."

Theologian Dr. Barry Downing,author of The Bible and FlyingSaucers, discussed "the religiousdimension" of ET contact. PublisherCarey Baker addressed the UFO flapin Fyffe, Alabama, while Englishauthor John Spencer compared "TheDifference Between Perceptions ofUFOlogy in America and Europe."

UFO abductions were discussed byauthor Budd Hopkins and Canadianpsychotherapist Dr. David Gotlib. Thisauthor presented the recent UFOwave in the USSR, which has been

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

12

r. Bruce. Maccabee'with Polaroid film pack.

U)'i::, r; J.

summarized in.my: column; ini the NewYork Tribune: y^r.i .; r'Vm •;••.! by

Perhaps one of jthe^most .eontro-versiah papers? iwas.ngiyen , :by.i Dr.John E> Brandenburg; i :a 'theoreticalplasma .physicist;- who rworks . indirectedKenergy'weaporisjandispace"defense in -the, Washington D.Guarea.In "The Rainbow, Declaration aridHuman Destiny.,jn thexCosmos"Brandenburg- presented .a scenarioof hostile aliens from theiisouthefnconstellation of1 Reticulurrv>(The Net)as "the - actual \great:' secret under?lying the entire government 'covef-up concerning^ UFQs.';rBradenburg,however; showed?. that. many, of., thepresumed, negative activitiesi-of theReticulans,;such as abductions, ;withtissue sampling, ranimalrrnutiliatidns1,desire for secrecy j andXclaims 6f)'di'vihity;- (have::* parallels r.imdwhat'. :hecalled the ''Humari',Histdrical Model:'!

i BrahdenburgrauthoredrfThe RainTbow' Declaration ,"^a: deelaratiori.jofprinciples .ofuHumanity and ,df<how

we should deal with'other peoplesin the Cosmos. "Its'Cherries, are'equal-ity and fellowship'before .God ;of allpeoples of the Cosmosrand;the}basicrights of'all .pepp!es,"'heVexplainfed.Its articles .'include''.:"the. right. ofSanctity/of Planet lof Genesis fromalien intrusion or interference" and"the right of Possession of-.GeneticCode."

Science-fiction? Perhaps, but thetime,.will.-surely:>come; — rif, it's, notalready,;, here -TTT ';whenu humanitywilhhave; to .worknand,.'agree '.ohgeneral principles; of .how-itlshoulddeal iwith.-other; civilizations- in"theCosmos. :-.. '• > '• '^ ^ • • .'.!.'.' -"A ;.•..;.;;.. O' . •:

Gi -.': ^ . - l ;' v~ '•--' '.-".'

Oi'IS !• ' - . / i , . ' '. •''] ii

.UlOJi,;:J ' ': < " * : > l i - ' .) -L '7

European UFO NetworkFounded

Patrick Vidal, International^•Director, of the recently organ-ized' European UFO Network(EURUFON), has announced thatthey will publish a quarterly bulletinwritten in different languages. Ineach issue, EURUFONEWS will

'•present" "the 'most1 recent'ufologic'"events occuring in"|e"very'Eur6"pean'<;6untryV'r)including- the •socialist''countries'1: -They invite! 'interested'

i 1-, • i *""icpeople" tO'Seiid articles 'ab6utrre-' • -'Tp , - ! < • - , • > - , - .,, . -;,'-Jcenf^events<=' or - general' • •topics:''' EURUFONEWS 'would 'like to1 'ex^"change1 •'publicatiohs with1 rotHer;^drgariizatio'ns. 'Please" answer' !t6?°;

•j-:<f-,j':O aril di l r i « .^o i . r •-.::•_, ij;,r!^6K5ri; ! • ;-;niJ Patrick;yidal -. c^uhlfilji LI :,v;Princ/es:.Marijkestraat .54 **£'s i

V5961CGH HQRSTti «;j -;;ifc

MUFON UFO, JOURNAL':No:i 268 .August) 1990

13

Miracles in Medjugorjeby Vince T. Migliore . ^ mmi

I've just returned from a trip toMedjugorje, Yugoslavia where peopleare reporting almost daily sightings ofthe Virgin Mary. These sightings areoften accompanied by changes to thesun (it seems to spin and "dance").There are also sightings of rings, "likethe rings that are the symbols of theOlympic games," that move from thesun to the church at the time theVirgin Mary is appearing. The appari-tions appear to both groups andindividuals.

These phenomena have many si-milarities to UFO sightings, and I wasinterested in gaining a first-hand ex-perience from a (hopefully) unbiasedvantage point. The events have beengoing on since 1981, and are verysimilar to the occurrences at Fatima,Portugal. They resemble other VirginMary appearances that have been oc-curring throughout Christian history.Refer to "UFOs and the Miraculous,"by Michael Grosso, UFO, Volume 5,Number 2, 1990 (March/April).

Medjugorje is located in the hillsnear the Adriatic coast, about half waybetween Split and Dubrovnik. The siteis quite remote, in a hilly, agriculturalarea of Yugoslavia. The population isessentially Catholic, Serbo-Croatian.

Over the years, Medjugorje hasbecome a pilgrimage site for thereligious and the curious. Refer to anexcellent article, "The Message ofMedjugorje" by Margaret Tabor Millin,in New Realities, March/April 1990.I spoke with several pilgrims, and themost common anomalies are asfollows (in order by frequency):

• Flat Sun. The sun appears flat.lYou can stare at it with no harmful ef-ffjects. The disk of the sun seems to beIsilvery.iOjj.-gray, sometimes spinning,jjsometimes in the shape of a child's toy](top?). Some pilgrims describe the|disk"Qf;theisun"as»similartto.. the formof a communion wafer.

• Lights, Objects Near the Sun.On occasion other lights surround the

disk of the flat sun and sometimes cir-cle the central disk or move back andforth toward the church where the ap-paritions are appearing (daily about6:40 p.m.). Some observers reportcircles, wheels and rings, like theOlympic Games' symbols, that moveslowly towards the church, and zipback to the sun just before they touchthe tower where the apparition isoccurring.

Typically, hundreds of peopleobserve such events at the same time.Some also report seeing letters in thesky. The pilgrims I spoke withreported red block letters that "flash-ed too fast to read." Others claim theletters spell "MIR," which is Serbo-Croation for Peace.

• Individual Appearances. Manypilgrims report paranormal episodesduring prayer, meditation, saying therosary, during Catholic Mass or dur-ing normal daily activities. Common-ly, the Virgin Mary appears to them,sometimes with words of instruction.Less frequently these appearances oc-cur before or after their pilgrimage toMedjugorje and in dreams.

• Group Appearances. Infre-quently the Virgin appears inside St.James Church during the CatholicMass or during the saying of therosary. She has appeared to groupsof people on "Cross Hill" (Krizevachill), a pilgrimage site about a milenorth of the church, and at other loca-tions in and around the town of Med-jugorje. These group appearances areoften preceded by flashes of light.

• Flashes, Orbs of Light. Usuallyonly the original six children see theapparition of the Virgin Mary. Thoseobserving the children at this timereport seeing flashes of light and mov-ing globes of light in the vicinity of theapparition.

None of the people I spoke withreported landed craft, UFO entities,missing time or any sort of abductionphenonena. On occasion the original

six visionariesireport the presence ofother ;humanrlike> entities-during -the

. Virgin;Mary^s appearance;! which theytake/toibe: arigels:or other saints.- T<hemessages' rece'ived^iare', religious cmnature';'cjoriented .ttpwards; -peace,prayer and brotherhood. Thex.vastmajority>of iwitness"es;;report(the-ap-pearances Iseemcsolid andi^real.onotghostlike fahdinoti hallucinatory .hi.1'••

•ini'j ?9ys>easfrr sriT -j i 'dfju le^snL-)?.;. . - . . . . .

Usuallyionlyrthe original sixch ildrerf s'ee thlerappgfitiOn

t J.L "H'iir.n'J^.irM'itoi -\^ ;_!!..;...•*",of the virgin Mary. ThoseJ n> j&.ju, , . - • ! • > ' : '<;n-3 j i i ' i . ' . ' iobserving thej3children: <atthis time report -seeingflashes of light and movingglobes of light in the vicini-ty of the apparition.

Related Observations

The overwhelming impression isthat Medjugorje is a religious ex-perience. Most visitors are on apilgrimage seeking a direct relation-ship with the Divine, generally in thecontext of the Catholic religion. Thereis a hill west of the church where theVirgin first appeared, and manypilgrims visit this site. The real trek,however, is to a larger hill about a milenorth called Cross Hill.

The Path of Peace leads up this hill:It is probably the most difficult!hikeI've ever taken, consisting of extreme-ly jagged white rocks up a steepj in-cline in 106° weather at 95%,/hurhidirty. I was most impressed by the otherpilgrims on this trail. Many were&lder,-ly and infirm, and many-jiwerebarefoot. I honestly feel that>theffaith,hope and devotion of these rseekerscannot be separated from; thei.eventsoccurring here. . nj-'O .'Mir-cKO

MUFON UFO JOURNAL1 No."268 August 1990

14During the approximately three

hours that I was climbing this moun-tain, starting in the evening and con-tinuing on past nightfall, I saw a pairof helicopters arrive from the north,circle the town several times thenhead off again to the north. This oc-curred at least twice while I was there.The previous day I also saw ahelicopter, but it passed by so low andso fast I could not tell whether it hadnormal markings. It was a dark khakicolor.

As in historical appearances of theVirgin Mary, the present events in-clude "secrets" to the children original-ly involved, and messages to thegeneral public. The messages claimthat nine secrets have been impartedso far. We are told that when the 10thsecret is given, the appearances willcease. The information given to thepublic, and in fact most of the eventssurrounding Medjugorje, seem to beunder the control of the Catholicchurch. From what I can determine,the messages are not exactly the sameas the dogma of the church.

My trip to Yugoslavia was part ofa vacation to Italy. In Italy, and par-ticularly the Vatican museums, I wassurprised at how many classical paint-ings depict sightings of the VirginMary - to rulers and peasants, saintsand sinners. Many of the churches inItaly were built in response to such vi-sions. I was surprised at how per-vasive this experience seems to be,and that there are Marian societiesdevoted to just this topic.

Suggestions

Anomolous events persist in Med-jugorje. I think a full scale investiga-tion by one of the major UFOorganizations is warranted. It wouldbe interesting to interview 400pilgrims (this sample size yields arelability of ± 5%) and see how fre-quently the experiences listed aboveappear.

The messages that the Virgin Marydelivers contain universal truths andmetaphysical viewpoints that are notthe exclusive domain of the RomanCatholic Church. I think it would be

KRIZEVAC HILLPath of Peace

PODBRDO HILLSite of first apparition

CITLUK 5km LJUBUSKI 15km

THE TOWN OF MEDJUGORJE, YUGOSLAVIA

wise for other religious groups andNew Age seekers to tune into theseevents.

In conclusion, I believe paranormalevents are occurring on a regular,

repeated basis in Medjugorje. Thisprovides a unique opportunity forscientific and religious groups to in-vestigate the remarkable events inYugoslavia.

Calendar of UFO Conferences for 1990October 13 — Show-Me UFO Conference II - Noah's Ark Motor Inn,

St. Charles, Missouri.

October 13 & 14 — The UFO Experience - Holiday Inn, North Haven,Connecticut.

November 3 — The UFO Phenomenon in the 1990s - LobaroTheater, Santa Barbara, California.

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

15

N6WS'n'VieWS ... 1-900-USA-UFOS, Show-Me Conference

A PA's New Committee(WASHINGTON, DC) - In light ofrecent developments in the scientificworld, the Executive Committee ofthe American Psychological Associa-tion (APA) voted to establish a specialcommittee to research, document andinvestigate all parapsychologicalclaims that it can uncover. Named tohead this committee was Dr. GaryVandenbos, a longtime APA ex-ecutive who has held a variety of posi-tions at the Association. Dr. Vanden-bos released the following remarks:

"It is our aim to discover all that wecan about these phenomena. FromWilliam James to C.G. Jung, the greatpsychologists have always been in-terested in the paranormal. It is up to

• our generation to pick up the batonthat was .dropped and continue withresearch in this area. We are enteringa New Age of psychology and theAPA is positioning itself at theforefront of the parapsychologicalfield. We will provide the theoreticalstructuring that is necessary for for-warding this discipline."

Dr. Vandenbos went on to explainthat the committee would be in-vestigating all forms of paranormalphenomena. "Following Jung's workwith flying saucers, we plan to startwith UFO abductions, astrology andpsychic healing but we will not limitourselves solely to these fields of op-portunity. No report will be ignored,no stone will be left unturned. We willtry to scientifically determine all wecan from every account presented tous."

Dr. Vandenbos went on to outlinehis personal reasons for chairing thiscommittee. "I myself feel that thereare a good many things that psycho-logy, in its present state, cannot ex-plain. I have had dreams that havecome true. We all have had these ex-periences of deja vu before Freudbrought this experience into themainstream of psychological thought.I think that it is only a manifestation

of a greater paranormal power, yetunexplained. Many people have seenUFOs before, myself included, but noone has investigated their psycholo-gical basis. No theory has been ableto explain the energy blast thatcreated the Shroud of Turin, but thereit is. The APA will provide the scien-tific reasoning that will make sense outof these 'mysterious' experiences andphenomena."

Dr. Vandenbos concluded that, "Itis in our national interest to explorethese phenomena. The APA will be-gin assembling a team of psycho-logists, psychics and lay people whowill form the committee. We will besetting up the organizationalmechanisms necessary to record andstore the information reported to us.We will be getting a 1-800 number sothat people from across the UnitedStates can call in their reports. We willbe establishing a new APA journalcalled The Journal of AmericanParapsychology that will allowpsychologists, both on the committeeand those working independently, topublish their research. We will explainthe unexplainable."

1-900-USA-UFOS(MENLO PARK, CALIF.; June 18,1990) — Nuclear physicist lecturerStanton T. Friedman announced to-day the establishment of a 900 pay-per-call service to provide the publicwith up-to-date factual informationabout UFOs: 1-900-USA-UFOS(872-8367). Friedman has lecturedabout UFOs to public forums at morethan 600 colleges and dozens of pro-fessional groups in all 50 states. Hehas also appeared on hundreds ofradio and television programs in-cluding NightLine, Unsolved Mys-teries and several documentaryfilms.

"I know from the huge crowds atmy lectures, from the long questionand answer sessions and from the

full phone lines on talk shows, thatthere is a great public interest on aserious approach to the question offlying saucers," said the 55-year-oldscientist whose past employers in-clude GE, GM, Westinghouse andTRW. "Over 23 million people haveseen UFOs according to Gallup pollsand the government has releaseddocuments through FOIA (freedomof information act) that support crash-ed saucers," explains Friedman.

"But the major news media con-tinue to ignore the biggest story of thecentury. It is hard to believe;, but morethan 100 media outlets in the Wash-ington DC area have refused to covera recent story from the Soviet Unioninvolving comments from the generalin charge of the Soviet Air DefenseCommand and testimony from 5 ofhis military pilots. They described around craft over 300 feet in diameter,able to both hover and move at 2-3times the speed of a jet fighter, makeincredible maneuvers silently, and wasseen on ground and air radar andvisually from above and below," Fried-man added.

UFOLine will provide frequentlyupdated information on all aspects ofthe UFO subject, including the latestdocument releases related to theCosmic Watergate, new evidenceconcerning the recovery of a crash-ed flying saucer in New Mexico, UFOabductions, physical evidence, land-ing cases, the myths of the noisynegativists, and the far out technologythat may well be involved.

Callers will also be able to reporttheir own experience/sighting con-fidentially for future investigation.Calls cost $2 for the first minute and$1 per minute thereafter.

Show-Me ConferenceThe UFO Study Group of Greater St.Louis, Inc. and the Mutual UFO Net-work of Missouri proudly present the1990 Show-Me UFO Conference.

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

16This year's Show-Me Conference willbe held at the Noah's Ark Hotel in St.Charles, Missouri on Saturday, Oc-tober 13, 1990. Noah's Ark is just pastthe Blanchette Memorial Bridge offInterstate 70 at the Fifth Street exit inSt. Charles.

Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs)are now becoming Identified AlienCraft (IAC). The question is who orwhat is behind them? What is theirpurpose? What could it mean for youand I?

Once again, this will be a one-daymarathon conference made up ofthree sessions running from 9:00 a.m.all the way into the night, featuringfive world class speakers and a paneldiscussion.

• Linda Moulton Howe: Docu-mentary film and TV producer. Lin-da is the author of Alien Harvest,which is about evidence linkinganimal mutilations and human abduc-tions to alien life forms intruding onthis planet.

• John Altshuler, M.D.: Path-ologist and Hematologist for 25 years.Dr. Altshuler will provide the scien-tific data on the animal mutilations.

• John Carpenter, MSW/ACSW:Psychiatric Therapist and Hypno-therapist. Specializing in anomaloustrauma events, John heads a groupand investigates abductions in theSpringfield, Missouri area.

• Budd Hopkins: Well known au-thor of Missing Time and Intruders. Asa pioneer in abduction investigations,Hopkins has investigated hundreds ofabductions since the late 70's. He hasappeared on numerous television andradio shows, including "UnsolvedMysteries," "The Sally Jesse RaphaelShow" and the largest radio talk showin the U.S., the "Larry King Show."

• Dr. Bruce Maccabee: OpticalPhysicist - Employed by the U.S.Navy, Dr. Maccabee will discuss hisinvestigations and current assessmentof the sightings at Gulf Breeze,Florida.

Panel Session: Following the even-ing session, a question and answerperiod will allow the audience to ad-dress all the speakers of the day.

Admission at the door will be the

same as last year: $10.00 per session(morning, afternoon, evening) or$30.00 for the entire day. An earlybird special price of $25.00 is availablefor conference registrations untilAugust 31, 1990. To register, pleasemake checks to "UFO Study Groupof Greater St. Louis" and mailregistrations to: UFO Study Group ofGreater St. Louis, P.O. Box 31544, St.Louis, MO 63131.

Noah's Ark Restaurant and MotorInn is also offering a special room rateof $35.00 per night ($40.00 doubleoccupancy) for Show-Me Conferenceattendees. When making reserva-tions, be sure to mention that you areattending the Show-Me UFO Con-ference in order to get these specialrates. For reservations, please calleither (314) 946-1000 or 1-800-332-3448. Or you may write to:Noah's Ark Motor Inn, 1500 SouthFifth Street, St. Charles, MO 63303.

UFO ExperienceA dozen UFO researchers and ab-ductees will tell of latest developmentsin ufology at the fourth annual inter-national conference on "The UFO Ex-perience" on October 13-14, 1990 atthe Holiday Inn (formerly theRamada Inn), North Haven, Connec-ticut, USA.

The conference will offer a com-prehensive look at the UFO phe-nomenon. Eminent investigators fromaround the world will present their fin-dings and considered opinions aboutwhat UFOs are, where they comefrom, why they are here, what thegovernment knows about it and whyit is covering up.

Former Apollo astronaut BrianO'Leary, Ph.D., will speak on "UFOsand Inner/Outer Space." The authorof Exploring Inner and Outer Space,Dr. O'Leary has called for a congres-sional investigation of the possibilityof government coverup of the UFOphenomenon. An astronomer andprofessor of space sciences andphysics at Cornell, Princeton, CalTech and University of California atBerkeley, O'Leary has personally ex-plored the UFO phenomenon and

believes it deserves full-scale scientificresearch. He also believes that in-vestigation of the Martian geologicalformation called "The Face on Mars"is needed because the formation maybe evidence of extraterrestrial life.O'Leary will be the featured Saturdaynight speaker.

Abductee Travis Walton ofArizona, author of The Walton Ex-perience, will tell of his five-day ab-duction in 1975 by alien beings in aUFO. The aliens appeared to be aboutfour feet tall with high-domed hairlessheads, large catlike eyes and grayish,leathery skin, although one was tallerand humanlike with nordic features.Walton's abduction was witnessed bysix people, who passed polygraphtesting of their story. When Waltonreappeared, he was tested also andfound to be telling the truth as heknew it. His story is being filmed byHollywood as Fire in the Sky.

Abductee Ed Walters and his wifeFrances of Gulf Breeze, Florida, willshow slides of the UFOs which haveappeared to them near their homesince 1987. There are hundreds ofother witnesses. Ed Walters' photosand videotapes have been analyzedby experts and pronounced authen-tic. They were featured in a segmentof the TV program "UnsolvedMysteries". A book by Ed Walters en-titled The Gulf Breeze Sightings wasjust published and will be broadcastas a miniseries next year.

Stanton Friedman of Canada, anuclear physicist with a master'sdegree from the University of Cfti-cago, will tell the latest findings in theextraordinary cased called the RoswellIncident, a 1947 incident in which aUFO apparently crashed in New Mex-ico and was recovered by the military.Friedman is the chief investigator ofthe Roswell case. He has lectured in-ternationally about UFOs and ap-peared on national television severaltimes to discuss them, including"Nightline," "The Sally Jesse RaphaelShow" and "Unsolved Mysteries."

Jacques Vallee Ph.D., ufologistand author of Confrontations: AScientist's Search for Alien Contact,which describes his research into

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

17hundreds of UFO cases over threedecades, will summarize his findingsin a slide-illustrated talk entitled"Dimensions of the UFO Experience."He believes that UFOs are not ex-traterrestrial at all, but are a paranor-mal phenomenon from dimensionsoutside our space-time and canmanipulate physical reality in wayswhich defy current scientificunderstanding. Formerly an assistantto world-renowned ufologist Dr. J.Allen Hynek, he is widely consideredone of the leading investigators in thefield. He was born in France andserved as the model for the Frenchscientist in "Close Encounters of theThird Kind."

Other notable UFO investigatorswill also present their research.

Paul Devereux of England is anauthor of Earth Lights Revelation,which describes his research intounusual energy effects at prehistoricsites. These exotic luminous pheno-mena, which he terms "earth lights,"emerge from the planet itself indistinct geographical locations.Devereux says they have much toteach society, not only about geo-physics and the effects of earthenergies on human consciousness,but also about the UFO phenome-non.

Ann Druffel, a California resear-cher for the major UFO organizationsin the United States, will report on herresearch into UFO cases where thepeople intended for abduction havebeen able to resist their abductors. Inher talk, entitled "How to Resist UFOAbductions," she will describe severalof the experiences of these peopleand their techniques for resisting ab-duction. Druffel believes the abduc-tions violate people's civil and humanrights. She is co-author of The Tu-junga Canyon Contacts, which waspublished in 1980 and is one of theearliest accounts of a UFO abduction.

Antonio Huneeus is a globetrottingjournalist who reports on the UFOphenomenon for newspapers andmagazines in North and SouthAmerica. He will speak on "RedSkies: UFOs Behind the Iron andBamboo Curtains." He has lectured

and appeared on numerous radioand TV talk shows in the Americas,Europe and Asia.

Harry Lebelson, a freelance writerwho used to be UFO editor for Omnimagazine, will speak on "BrokenSilence: Military Testimony aboutUFOs." His interest in UFOs began in1955 when he had a daylight sightingof a metallic disc near his home inNew Jersey. His UFO research at PineBush, New York, was reported na-tionally on "PM Magazine." His writingabout UFOs has appeared in publica-tions in North and South America,Japan and China.

Fred Max is a professional hyp-notist from Cheshire, Connecticut,who works closely with area internistsand psychiatrists. He has appeared onthe TV show "PM Magazine" and lec-tured on hypnosis and behavioralmedicine at various universities.Recently he was filmed as he hyp-notically regressed UFO abducteeWhitley Strieber at Strieber's cabin inupstate New York for use in a televi-sion program later this year. Max con-ducted the hypnotic regressions ofConnecticut UFO abductee Betty An-dreasson Luca, as reported in TheAndreasson Affair-Phase Two. Maxwill describe hypnosis, explain howregression works and then demon-strate it, using Betty and her husband,Robert.

Gene Phillips, J.D., is founder andpresident of the Ancient AstronautSociety, which investigates such pro-found subjects as the origin of hu-manity on Earth, the foundation ofreligions and the possibility that in-telligent life exists elsewhere in theuniverse. A practicing corporate at-torney in Illinois, Phillips will presenta slide-illustrated lecture on "AncientAstronauts - UFOs and Early HumanHistory," showing many fascinatingobjects and places which his societyhas examined during 16 years of ex-peditions to places such as Mexico,Easter Island, Jordan and many othercountries.

John White, who is international-ly known as a researcher of paranor-mal phenomena and author of 14books in the field of consciousness

studies, will chair the conference. Hisbooks and articles have been publish-ed in eight foreign languages.

Admission is by registration only.The registration fee is $120 untilAugust 31 and $150 thereafter. Thefee does not include lodging or meals.To register or for further information,write to Omega Communications,P.O. Box 2051, Cheshire, Connecticut06410. However, if space permits atconference time, admission will bepermitted at $75 per day and $15 perevent.

For those traveling by automobile,North Haven is located on U.S. In-terstate 91 at Exit 12, just north ofNew Haven and midway betweenNew York and Boston. For thosetraveling by plane, the most conve-nient airport is Bradley Internationalin Hartford, Connecticut (about onehour's drive to the conference site,with limo service available). From theNew York airports, take air serviceacross Long Island sound to NewHaven (about half an hour) or limoservice New Haven (about 1.5 hours).Then take a local taxi to the con-ference site.

F-16, Continued

Translator's Note(Obviously, we require a detailed ex-

planation of the F-16 data display, as wellas a readout of the entire sequence. Thearticle speaks of "several seconds" andthen "one second" as the interval be-tween pictures. The display is in knots,one nautical mile (6,080 feet) per hour,and the altitude is shown by adding twozeros to give feet. This is an Americanfighter, and the data is in the "English"system, but the author obviously wrotethe article for the readership that uses themetric system. My protractor shows thatthe F-16 was in level flight in the first pic-ture, then in a 50-degree bank to the rightand considerably nose-down in the se-cond picture, and one would supposethat it was increasing both the bank andthe dive angle during this frame, in anattempt to track the UFO. Although theeye witnesses reported a triangular object,the shape on the screen is computergenerated and has no connection withthe actual shape of the object beingtracked by the F-16's radar.)

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

18

Looking BackBob GribbleAugust 1950 • About 11:30 a.m.on the 5th (or 15th), Nick Mariana,38, general manager of a minorleague baseball team, the Electrics,was working at the Legion ball parkin Great Falls, Montana, when hesported something strange in the sky."As I looked up I saw two silver ob-jects moving swiftly out of the north-west," Mariana said. "The objectswere very bright and about 10,000feet in the air. They appeared to beof a bright shiny metal, like polishedsilver. Both were the same size andwere traveling at the same rate ofspeed which was much slower thanthe jets that shot by shortly after Ifilmed the discs.

"Suddenly they stopped. It wasthen I remembered the camera in theglove compartment of my car. I raceddownstairs and yelled for mysecretary, Miss Virginia Raunig. Thedistance from the top of the stairwayto my car is about 60 feet and I musthave made that in about six jumps.I asked my secretary if she saw any-thing and she said yes, two silveryspheres. I unlocked the glove com-partment of my car, took out thecamera, turned the telephoto lens onthe turret into position, set the cameraat f-22, picked up the objects in theviewfinder and pressed the trigger.

"The spheres appeared to be spin-ning like a top and were about 50 feetacross and about 50 yards apart. Icould not see any exhaust, wings orany kind of fuselage. There was nocabin, no odor, no sound, except Ithought I heard a whooshing soundwhen I first saw them. As the filmclicked through the camera I couldsee the objects moving southeast be-hind the General Mills grain buildingand the black water tank directlysouth of the ball park. I filmed the ob-jects until they disappeared into theblue sky behind the water tank."

Mariana recalls that the Koda-chrome original — which was sub-mitted to the Air Force — comprised315 frames. The first 30-odd framesshowed larger images of the UFOswith a notch or band at one point onthe periphery of the objects by whichthey could be seen to rotate in unison,while on the rest of the film the ob-jects show up only as unarticulatedbright white dots. The film, as re-turned by the Air Force, according toMariana, had the first 35 framesremoved.

• 1955 About 7 p.m. on the 21st,eight adults and three children wereindoors at the Sutton farmhouse atKelly, Kentucky. Half an hour later,Billy Ray Taylor had gone out to thewell for a drink of water, and camerunning back into the house shoutingthat he had seen a UFO. He said heobserved a silvery object movingsilently toward the house, then passabout 30 or 40 feet overhead. Itmoved over the fields on a horizon-tal course, slowed, came to a stop,then descended into the 40-foot gul-ly at the end of the fields. No one inthe house even considered in-vestigating Taylor's story. Otherwitnesses on nearby farms also sawthe object.

Around 8 p.m., the family dogbegan to bark violently. Elmer Suttonand Billy Taylor went to the back doorto investigate. Approaching from thefields was a strange glow. As it camecloser, they could make out whatseemed to be a short "man," thoughnot much like any they had ever seenbefore. The being was about three-and-a-half feet tall with a large roundhead and arms that reached almostto the ground. It had large webbedhands with talons (claws) at the endof the fingers. The eyes were hugeand glowed with a yellowish light. The

whole body appeared to be made ofsilver metal that gave off an eerie lightin the darkness, like the glow from theradium dial on a watch. The being'shands were raised.

Sutton and Taylor panicked, andarmed themselves. When the strangevisitor got to within 20 feet of thehouse both men fired their weapons.The being somersaulted backwards,"did a flip," scrambled to an uprightposition, and ran away into thedarkness. Again and again, several ofthe beings maneuvered around thehouse, terrorizing the occupants.Shots had been fired at the shorthumanoids at least four times. In oneencounter Sutton brought a shotgunto bear on one being and fired at pointblank range. It sounded as if thepellets had hit a metal bucket. It wasabout 11 p.m. when the occupants ofthe farmhouse got into two cars andfled at high speed for the Hopkinsvillepolice station. Chief of police Green-well was emphatic about what he saw:"... Those women were scared green.Something scared those people.Something beyond reason, nothingordinary."

Except for the huge glowing eyes,the beings were the same color allover. In the dark, this was a phos-phorescent or luminescent glow, butwhen a light was turned on them thischanged to a dull metallic look. Theglow of the bodies increased whenthey were shot at or shouted at. Thebeings made no noise at any time; themouth, if such it was, never opened,and they made no sound when mov-ing, although the weeds and bushesrustled when they fled into them.They never exhibited any behaviorthat could be described as hostile, andmade no attempt to retaliate for theshooting. Mrs. Glennie Lankford, thesenior adult among those present atthe farmhouse said: "I kept telling

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

19them (Sutton and Taylor) to come in-to the house and shut the doors. Thethings weren't doing us any harm."

• 1965 Don Tennopir, 44, a truckdriver, said he was literally "buzzed"by a UFO about 25 miles south ofAbilene, Kansas, about 1:30 a.m. onthe fourth. Describing his experience,Tennopir said: "I was driving north onHighway 15 ... when all of a suddenthe lights on my truck went out. Thenthey came back on, then off, thenback on again. About this time thisthing, UFO or whatever, went overmy truck with a sizzling or wind-likesound. It scared the hell out of me!It seemed to almost touch the cab —maybe it was 20 feet in the air — andit just swooped down over the roadand hovered there not more than 100feet in front of me. I tell you, I wasstanding on those brakes! I just didn'tknow what was happening. It lookedlike it was going to fall right in the mid-dle of the road, but it didn't.

"I don't know how long it was there.It seemed longer than 20 seconds, butI was just too damn scared to tell timeor anything like that. The thing lookedround to me. I'd guess it was about14 or 15 feet in diameter and sort oforange colored ... The object ap-peared to be like a disc. I'd guess itwas about two feet thick, and theedge was round. There was a hump,or something like that, in the middle.This hump stuck up about four feetor so. I know this sounds silly, but itlooked like a big plate with a cup inthe middle. I tell you, I never havebeen so scared in my life. I regainedmy senses while this thing was hover-ing over the road and watched itdisappear into the southwest. Afterthe thing took off, I ground gears, andI haven't done that in years, and gotthe hell out of there. Brother, I cantell you, these things are for real."

• Personnel at the Air Force radarbase in Keweenaw Peninsula, Mich-igan, reported "solid radar contact"with seven to 10 UFOs moving ina V-formation over Lake Superioron the fourth. The objects came outof the southwest, heading north-

northeast at about 9000 miles perhour at an altitude of between 5200and 17,000 feet. The radar operatorssaid seven other objects were sportedover Duluth, Minnesota, and jet in-terceptors gave chase, but were easi-ly outdistanced. A spokesman at theMichigan base said that radar stationsin Minnesota, North Dakota andCanada also tracked UFOs. He saidthe Luther Air Station in Canadareported electronic jamming of itsradar. On the same night, residentsin Hancock, Calumet, Eagle Harbor,Baraga, and LAnse, Michigan, re-ported seeing UFOs in the night sky.

• Harold Butcher, 16, was milkinghis fathers 17 cows on their farm threemiles north of Cherry Creek, NewYork, about 8:30 p.m. on the 19th,when he heard Jacob, the family bull,bellering away about 50 yards fromthe barn. He ran to the door andlooked. Five hundred feet away, in thepasture, was a metal object sitting onthe ground. It was brighter thanaluminum, more like chrome. It wasshaped like two meat platters, rim-to-rim. He started to run toward the craftand was about 50 to 75 feet awaywhen the strange vehicle emitted acrimson-like vapor which bounced asit struck the grass.

The craft then began a verticalclimb, and disappeared into the cloudlayer. Before taking off the boy saidhe heard a steady "beep, beep" noise.The roar of the takeoff drowned outeverything, he said. The vehicle wasabout 50 feet long, 25 feet wide and25 feet tall. There were no openingsin the craft that Harold could see, andthe only light was from the blast-off.About half an hour later, Harold sawthe object again, hovering close to theground across a field about 500 yardsnorth of the point of the first sighting.

As the vehicle reached a point overa field south of the Butcher's house,it was sighted by William and RobertButcher and Kathleen Brougham.They confirmed the description pre-viously reported by Harold. A StatePolice officer searched the landingarea and found a number of placeswhere pieces of sod approximately

six inches wide and two feet long hadbeen freshly disturbed. Capt. JamesM. Dorsey, operations officer of the4621 Air Force Group, supervised theinvestigating team at the landing site.He said: "I don't think this is a hoax.These children saw something. Theneighbors feel the same way about it."

• The Gemini 5 flight on the 21stthat took astronauts Gordon Cooperand Charles Conrad, Jr., on theirrecord-breaking eight-day orbit mayhave attracted more attention thananticipated, but not from earthlings.According to James R. Peek, 47, ofMalabar, Florida, at least three UFOsand possibly four, were photographedin the vicinity of the Cape withinseconds of lift-off. Peek, a seniorengineering laboratory technician, op-tics expert, and experienced amateurphotographer, was out on his frontlawn that historic morning. But in hiscase, he got there a few seconds toolate to see the actual lift-off. He hadhis camera all set to photograph thelaunch. As he was about to return tohis house, he saw an object travelingat very high speed moving in a west-erly direction in the vicinity of thelaunch area.

"It looked like a sliver of brilliantgreen phosphorescent light just eastof the contrail left by the rocket," Peeksaid. "It made a sort of S-turn in andaround the contrail, became ellipticalin shape as it turned, then changedinto a clearly defined disc. Peek hastilyaimed his 35mm camera fitted witha 135mm lens at the object and tooka picture. The disc vanished towardsthe south. He quickly took a couplemore shots but was not sure he gotthe object. When his color film re-turned from the processors, he sawthat he had been more successfulthan he thought. His first shot showsa light green blur across the trans-parency, but the second shows notone object, but three of them. Peeksaid the brilliance of the objects wasnot due to reflected sunlight, butcame from the objects themselves.

• 1970 About 11:30 a.m. on theseventh, residents in the village of

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

20Saladare, Ethiopia, about 14kilometers from Asmara, heard a loudnoise coming from the direction of thenearby forest which sounded like alow flying airplane. The noise in-creased to an earsplitting volume, andthe villagers saw a red glowing ballwhich swept through the villagedestroying houses in its path. Ituprooted trees, burned grass, butdidn't cause fires. When it left thevillage it melted the asphalt on theroad in an area measuring two byseven meters, and smashed throughthe stone wall of the bridge. It traveledanother 150 meters toward a hillsidewhere it became stationary, thenhovered above the ground for a fewseconds.

Then the ball started to moveagain, toward the village, following thesame route or parallel to it. On its wayback it destroyed other houses anddisappeared almost in the same direc-tion it came from. The total distanceit had traveled was about six kilo-meters and lasted about 10 minutes.Inhabitants of a nearby village said itmoved overhead with an earsplittingsound. The ball injured eight people,killed one child, damaged or des-troyed a total of 50 buildings. Tinroofs were crumpled and melted. Theweather was clear and bright.

• 1975 The crews and passengersof several charter fishing boats locatedover a semi-circle about 10 miles indiameter on the Pacific Ocean —about 35 miles west of Grays Harbor,Washington — observed a hugesilver, cylindrical-shaped craft hover-ing about 2000 feet over the surfaceof the water at 8 a.m. on the 30th.The vehicle, estimated to be as longas a Boeing 747 airliner, remainedstationary for about four minutes,then turned up end and went into ahigh speed vertical climb and disap-peared into a clear blue sky.

LETTERS ...

Dear Editor:Each month the sceptical British

scan the pages of the excellentMUFON Journal in the hope of see-ing some tangible proof that the ETH(or indeed any other alien hypothesis)is any closer. Sadly we are alwaysdisappointed. Why, I don't know.Maybe our rose-tinted spectaclesneed cleaning, perhaps we're listen-ing to the wrong kind of witnessesover here, or perhaps we just don'tbelieve hard enough (and you knowwhat the Queen in Alice inWonderland said about belief). Butthis month's piece of non-evidencewas, as they say, 'a doozy.'

In John Schuessler's article, "TheImplant Enigma" (June 1990 issue),we are treated to over 800 words waf-fling about the memories and beliefspeople have about the possibility ofaliens implanting artifacts sub-cutaneously. These 800 words builtup to nothing other than a "most in-triguing" quote from Nature magazinein which a strange object was foundin chromosone preparations during amedical procedure.

As swiftly as he mentions it,Schuessler backs off with "it is hardlythe intent of this brief monologue toargue ...whether or not implants ex-ist." Why bother then, why bring in thestrange case from Nature if it is notto at least suggest to people that thismay be such an alien artifact?

To get to the point, had Schuesslerdone his research properly he wouldhave seen, in Nature, Oct. 23 andOct. 30, 1986, further discussion ofthis case wherein the object was iden-tified as a Diatom skeleton (dictionarydef.: "any group of unicellular algaehaving a heavily silicified cell wall..."),which are quite common. This infor-mation was certainly printed in at leastone US UFO publication and in UFOBRIGANTIA, which I edit.

Sloppy articles and even sloppierresearch, even when presented withcaveats, lead people, especially in theUFO field, to believe at the drop ofa hat. Implant stories do exist in

ufolore, but as no more than stories(they also exist in almost everyfolklore and tribal lore in the world -aliens? I don't think so!), so let's pleasetreat them as such, and not try to im-pute reality from misperceptions orfolktales.

If we did this, ufology would be in \a better state than it is in now. Anotherquestion begged by Schuessler's arti-cle is where did he get the Nature ar- y.tide from in the first place without see-ing the subsequent statements? Icould be wrong, but I would suspect vhe got it from that most incestuous ofbelief breeding grounds, another UFOmagazine, as it appeared in one of theUS UFO publications a few yearsback, also without a follow up. I restmy case.

— Andy RobertsBrighouse, UK

Dear Editor:I was interested to read Jim Dear-

dorff's letter to the MUFON UFOJournal concerning the crop circlesphenomenon (March 1990). Inresponse I enclose a list of 32 mete-orologists and atmospheric physicistswhose opinions I have canvassedconcerning this phenomenon. Thir-teen of these meteorologists accept ameteorological explanation withoutquestion while a further 12 are at leastprepared to consider a weather-basedsolution without the blind dogma be-ing attached to the phenomenon bysupporters of the alien intelligencetheory. So far I have found only threemeteorologists who completely rejecta meteorological explanation for thephenomenon and who dismiss thecrop circles as an endearing hoax. Itseems clear, however, that like An-drews & Delgado these threemeteorologists dismiss Meaden's ex-planation by rejecting the wrongmeteorological theory! A further fourmeteorologists suspended judgementwhile awaiting further evidence.

Despite Deardorff's claim that Cir-cular Evidence is "superior" to Mea-den's book, The Circles Effect and itsMysteries, we now have more than adozen eyewitness accounts of rotating

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

21humming mechanisms creating cropcircles at hill slope sites (as predictedby Meaden's theory), and we can cor-relate actual circle formations with thepassage of weak frontal systemsacross circle sites. These accounts aredescribed in our new book CropCircles, A Mystery Solved, where weapply Meaden's exciting new theoryto account for the unexplained UFOdata. Although Deardorff claims thatnine of his colleagues at Oregon StateUniversity rejected Meaden's theorywe wonder whether Deardorffdescribed these eyewitness accountsto his colleagues and whether or nothe expected them to judge a theorywithout a full examination of theevidence?

The crop circles are a challengingsubject that is being cynicallymanipulated by the mass media topromote a myth. Andrews &Delgados' work has already ensuredthat the UFOlogists will never be ableto gain a scrap of credit for ourresponse to the crop circles and theirpromotion of the phenomenon hasput the UFOlogist's work back byanother 40 years. Their unsupport-able claim that the affected crop onlycarries on growing "horizontally" isjust one of countless blunders and er-rors of fact that they have made intheir "definitive" book.

— Paul FullerBUFORA, UK

life, so many corners of the countryand so many different areas of theworld. Thanks so much.

— Shirley & George CoyneFlushing, MI

Dear Editor:John Schuessler's article, "The Im-

plant Engima," in the June 1990 issueof the MUFON UFO Journal arousedmy curiousity. Specifically, the "mostintriguing" report from the September25, 1986 issue of Nature about a tiny"fragmented crossword" particle ap-pearing on a chromosome slideseemed like something worth check-ing out. The unstated implication ofyour article was that this might be partof an implant, a chunk of some ex-traterrestrial device which wound upunder the microscope.

MUFON's duplicated photo of theobject lacked detail, so I got theoriginal Nature article for a better lookat it. It does definitely look like partof a crossword, or a piece of graphpaper with some squares blacked in.My first thought was that it likely was

a hoax, possibly a prank engineeredby the lab technicians. After a littlereflection, I began looking throughsubsequent issues of Nature for anyfollow-up letters to the magazine ex-plaining what it might be. Sureenough, they published several, bothin the October 23, 1986 and the Oc-tober 30, 1986 issues. The consen-sus of the writers was that the objectwas a piece of the silica skeleton ofa diatom, which possess that kind ofregular square pattern. Blacked-insquares may have been caused by airbubbles retained during the process ofmounting the slide. The source couldhave been lab equipment, sincediatomite is used in lab filters and inthe manufacture of rubber goods.

For your reference, I enclose Xeroxcopies from all three issues of Nature.No doubt you've gotten a number ofletters containing the above informa-tion already. Personally, I prefer theextraterrestrial explanation, but PhilKlass needs something like this toargue over.

— Rich ClarkBerkeley, CA

Current Case Log

Dan Wright, Investigations

Dear Editor:We would appreciate it if we could

use this means to express our feelingsregarding our having the Proceedingsof the 1990 MUFON Symposiumdedicated to us.

We see this as a great honor sincewe have been active in the field forsuch a short time: Seven years thathave flown by so fast it is hard for usto realize.

We have had an inner satisfactionof believing we have done our best tofurther MUFON's aims. To receive therecognition from our peers for that ef-fort means so much to us.

We still find it wonderful to meet somany terrific people from all walks of

The following summarizes casereports received in May and June1990 which are well prepared andrepresent recent events of significanceto UFOlogy. Unless noted, no sound,vibration or odor was detected.

• Log *900504:2/5/90, 2:35 a.m.event in Richmond, British Columbia;investigator Michael Strainic. A womanarose to take some cold medicine.While watching TV, she noticed ananomaly approaching slowly over anearby apartment building. In theshape of a slightly ovoid hamburgerbun, the entire object was deep red,mixed with blue. She ran back to thebedroom calling to her companion.

Together, they watched it change toa pinkish color as it turned away.Before receding from view, it chang-ed again to a white glow. Duration wasestimated as over one minute.

• Log #900508: 4/14/90, 9:50event in Gulf Breeze, Florida; in-vestigator Joe Barron. Following earliersightings at the same site, a group setup photographic equipment at theG.B. end of the Pensacola Bay Bridge.A largish, red light was videotaped asit approached from the south, mov-ing slowly and almost directlyoverhead, seemingly with repeatedlateral movements. After apparentlyhovering over the bay momentarily,

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

22the light continued on until out of sighton the horizon. Duration wasestimated as 8-10 minutes.

• Log #900510:2/2/90, 1:20 p.m.event in Midlothian - suburban Rich-mond - Virginia; investigator MarkBlashak. A woman was watching TVwhen she noticed a bright, silvery, ovalobject in the distance. It descendedwith a "falling leaf motion, then mov-ed rapidly away on a "sawtooth"course. Duration was estimated as10-15 seconds.

• Log #900511: 2/11/90, 11:30p.m. event in Monroe, Michigan; in-vestigator Wayne Erickson. A womanwas driving when she noticedsomething circling one of the reactortowers of the Fermi II nuclear powerplant. It then approached, dropping"sparks," and paced low over her carmomentarily before moving to her rearand eventually out of sight. The ob-ject was described as jetliner-sized, andmade up of (a) a solid central portion,roughly circular, and partly outlined insmall white lights, and (b) V-shaped,with translucent wings, also outlinedin white lights. Two large spptlightswere at the front. She stopped her carand watched the same or an identicalobject dropping sparks for severalmore minutes in the distance. Totalduration was estimated as 15 minutes.(Fermi security personnel claim to haveseen nothing out of the ordinary.)

• Log #900601: 4/10/90, 10:50p.m. event in Pensacola, Florida; //>vestigators Carol and Rex Salisbeny.A couple was crossing north over theBay Bridge when they spotted an ob-ject ahead and to the east near thePensacola shoreline. It was describedas a long isoceles triangle with acentered red light on the bottom andpairs of white lights at the threeapexes. Immediately, they couldneither see nor hear the other autosand pedestrians along the bridge. Asthey neared the end of the bridge, theobject crossed over their earlier pathto the west. .They turned west also

Continued on next page

The Night SkyWalter N. Webb

September 1990

Bright Planets (Evening Sky):Rising in the NE about 10 PM daylight time in midmonth, Mars moveseastward between the Hyades (face of the Bull Taurus) and the Pleiades.Mars increases its brightness still farther, from -0.4 to -0.9 magnitude, dur-ing September as the Earth catches up to its ruddy neighbor. On the nightof the 24th-25th, Mars lies 4° north of the star Aldebaran; the planet is fivetimes brighter than the star. Compare the colors of the pair.Saturn (magnitude 0.4), in Sagittarius, is low in the sky east of south at dusk.The yellowish ringed planet slides westward during the evening hours.

Bright Planets (Morning Sky):In late September and early October, Mercury has its best morning appearanceof the year/This nearest world to the Sun may be glimpsed very low in theeast at dawn.Venus (-3.9) becomes increasingly hard to see low in the east, rising !J/4hours before the Sun early in the month and then later vanishing into thesolar glare, not to reappear (in the evening sky) until late in the year.Mars stands high in the south at dawn.Jupiter (-1.9), in Cancer, rises in the NE about 2:30 in midmonth. The giantlies very near the lunar crescent on the 15th, a beautiful sight!Saturn sets in the WSW about 1 AM in mid-September.

Moon Phases:

Full moon — September 4

Last quarter — September 11

New moon — September 18

First quarter — September 26

The Stars:The autumnal equinox heralds the arrival of the rather dim fall constella-tions in the east. Nevertheless, it shouldn't be too difficult to find the GreatSquare of Pegasus, as much a symbol of autumn as the Summer Triangleis of summer. The square is large, measuring very roughly 15° on each side.Pegasus was the famous Winged Horse in mythology. Several lines of starsthat branch from the western side of the square form the head, neck, andfront legs of the horse which is flying upside-down.What looks like the hind legs of the animal is really the adjoining constella-tion Andromeda the Princess. The NE corner of the square, the starAlpheratz, actually is the head of Andromeda, while two strings of stars ex-tending outward form her gown.Noteworthy telescopic objects this month during midevening hours are, inthe NE, the Double Cluster of Perseus and the Andromeda Galaxy; in thesouth and SW, the Dumbbell Nebula (in Vulpecula), Ring Nebula (Lyra),and the array of Sagittarius objects discussed in the June issue; and finallythe Hercules Globular Cluster in the west.

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

23MESSAGE, Continued

Budd Hopkins, Rima E. Laibow,M.D., John E. Brandenburg, Ph.D.,Donald R. Schmitt and J. AntonioHuneeus (201 pages), are nowavailable from MUFON at 103Oldtowne Road, Seguin, Texas 78155for $15 plus $1.50 postage and handl-ing mailed book rate. All foreignorders must be paid by either Inter-national Postal Money Order, cash ora check made payable to a U.S.A.bank that has electronic coding acrossthe bottom of the check.

MUFONET

If you have a computer and amodem and are interested in onlineComputer Communications andBulletin Board Systems, you are in-vited to join the experimentalMUFONET Message Echo operatedby John W. Komar, State Director forTennessee. Anyone seeking informa-tion concerning MUFONET shouldwrite to Mr. Komar at 4769 LakeRidge Drive, Memphis, TN 38109 orcontact him on his voice line (901)785-4819 or the data line (901)785-4943.

Western Regional Director Election

The second term of Paul C. Cer-ny, the present Western RegionalDirector on the MUFON Board ofDirectors, has expired according tocorporate bylaws. Filling this impor-tant position for the western states isa unique opportunity for a personwith leadership abilities, dedication toresolving the UFO phenomenon andtime resources. Since this is avolunteer position, anyone interestedin being considered should write toWalt Andrus expressing their in-terests, desire and qualifications. Anelection will be conducted by ballot bythe members in the western states ofWA, OR, CA, ID, NV, UT, AZ, MT,WY, CO, NM, AK, HI and Guam.The candidate must reside in one ofthese states. Three people have ex-pressed an interest in being a can-didate. The deadline for receivingnominations is September 1, 1990.

J. Antonio HuneeusInternational Coordinator

CASE LOG, Continued

and, fearing a collision with unseentraffic, pulled into a parking lot. Ex-iting their car, they watched the ob-ject hover, then move off over the bay

and out of sight. The normal trafficwas then again visible and audible tothem. Duration was estimated as 2-3minutes.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS

MEMBERS/SUBSCRIBERS

Advise change of address(include county andphone no.) to:

MUFON103 Oldtowne Rd.

Seguin, Texas 78155-4099

MUFONAmateur Radio Net

80 meters — 3.990 MHzSaturday, 10 p.m.

40 meters — 7.237 MHzSaturday, 8 a.m.

10 meters — 28.460 MHzThursday, 8 p.m.

10 meters — 28.470 MHzSunday, 3 p.m.

All times Eastern Standardor Daylight

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990

'Director's <~MJz$$ageWalt Andrus

New Officers

Two very important vacancies onthe Board of Directors were filled atthe Annual MUFON Board of Direc-tors Meeting on July 8, 1990 in Pen-sacola, Florida. It is a pleasure to an-nounce that Robert E. Reid, Col.USAF Retired, residing in Fort WaltonBeach, Fla, has accepted the positionof Director of Publications. J. AntonioHuneeus, presently the ContinentalCoordinator for South America, liv-ing in New York City, has been pro-moted to International Coordinator.Mr. Huneeus, a writer and UFO re-searcher, was educated in Chile andFrance and is thus conversant in bothSpanish and French.

Sung-Lyul Maeng, living in Seoul,is the new Representative for theRepublic of Korea. He has a B.S. inphysics and is a member of the KoreaUFO Research Association. NewState Section Directors appointed thismonth are the following: Lisa MarieSkalnek (Edgewater) for VolusiaCounty and Leonard W. Sturm(Holiday) for Pasco and HernandoCounties in Florida; Hugh B. Horn-ing (Wilmington) for New Castle andKent Counties in Delaware; VernonR. Leverett, Jr. (Fort Stockton) forPecos County in Texas; RichardBeckwith (Laramie) for AlbanyCounty in Wyoming; and Vincent H.Uhlenkott (Sepulveda, CA) for LosAngeles County replacing John A.Holland.

New Consultants joining this monthand volunteering their expertise areSamuel Mozes, D.D.S. (Coral Gables,FL) in Dentist-Endodonist ; K.Sinclair Franz, M.D. (Marianna, FL)in Surgery; Russell M. Stookey, J.D.(Savannah, GA) in Law; Barry K.Lance, M.D. (Laurel, MD) in En-docrinology and Metabolism; Ken-neth A. Wong, J.D. (Costa Mesa,

Robert E. ReidDirector of Publications

CA) in Law; and Cheryl L. Fernan-dez, DC. (Frazier Park, CA) inChiropractic.

New Research Specialists giving oftheir talent are Joseph J. Stefula,M.A. (Brown Mills, NJ) in CriminalJustice; Melvin G. Whybra, M.S.(Nashua, NH) in Mathematics; JamesC. Mead, M.A. (Rockville, MD) inEducation; and Richard A. Bird,M.S. (Boca Raton, FL) in MechanicalEngineering.

1991 MUFON Symposium

Thomas P. Stults, Illinois StateDirector, has announced that theMUFON 1991 International UFOSymposium will be held on theweekend of July 5, 6 and 7, 1991 atthe Hyatt Regency O'Hare Hotel atO'Hare International Airport (Chica-go) in Rosemont, Illinois. The sym-posium will be sponsored by theMutual UFO Network (MUFON) and

hosted by Illinois MUFON. The ball-room will seat 1500 people with morethan adequate hotel rooms for all at-tendees on the premises. The ten-tative theme for 1991 is "UFOs: TheBig Picture." Several of the speakers,who will address all aspects of theUFO phenomenon and related fields,have already been invited. Scheduleyour vacation plans now to attendand take advantage of the sightsee-ing attractions in the "windy city."

MUFON 1990 SymposiumProceedings

The MUFON 1990 InternationalUFO Symposium Proceedings, con-taining papers submitted by Brian T.O'Leary, Ph.D., David A. Gotlib,B.S., M.D, John L. Spencer, Dr.Barry H. Downing, Robert L. Hall,Ph.D., Ed Walters, Carey H. Baker,

Continued on page 23

MUFON UFO JOURNAL No. 268 August 1990