Unfortunately, I never got to meet my maternal grandmother, but I've been told we would have gotten along well.
She was an artist and teacher, created wonderfully morbid, strange, paintings, and owned a model of a human skull whom she named Alaspoor, because Yorric, she thought, was overused.
She was a UFO enthusiast and NICAP subscriber.
Recently, my mom and I found a binder where she had collected her NICAP newsletters, correspondences, and other UFO related things. So, I've started up this little site to organize and archive her collection so that other UFO enthusiasts can enjoy it as much as I have.
The Singular Fortean Society received an email on October 14th, 2020, from a woman who said she had encountered a strange creature while walking her dog on a trail near the Wisconsin River in Wausau, Wisconsin. According to the woman’s email, On September 30th of this year, at just after 8 pm, I
The latest ‘Reports from the Void’ describes an eerie encounter with a mysterious creature in Wausau, Wisconsin.
Judy Messoline owned a plot of land that was used by spotters to watch for UFOs. It is located in the desert and the lack of light pollution gives you clear visibility into the night sky.
She ultimately opened that plot of land up for public use and now it serves as a UFO Watchtower. She set up an observation tower, campground, and gift shop and embraced the extraterrestrial enthusiasts and UFOlogists.
The site has a rock garden and healing garden and not one, but two energy vortexes. There are sculptures of two giant aliens and Bigfoot. Messoline is an artist so she does all of this herself.
Many people claim to have seen UFOs in the area. If you let Messoline film you telling your story of an experience with a UFO sighting she’ll give you a free UFO-themed Frisbee.
A Sudden increase in UFO sightings, here and abroad, is new under intensive investigation by AF intelligence. As we go to press, a new Baltimore UFO case has just lead to the revelation of a dramatic AF sighting withheld for three years.
The Baltimore sighting, new being investigated by AF scientists as well as Intelligence teams, occurred early on Oct. 27, near Lock Raven Reservoir. About midnight, Phillip Small and Alvin Cohen, Baltimore residents, sighted an enormous "egg-shaped" object hovering above a bridge. They estimated its length to be at least 100 feet. As they neared toe bridge, they reported, their car lights went out, then their engine stopped.
As the men climbed out, they felt an intense heat from the object. They watched it 45 seconds, then it shot straight up, with "a thunderous noise." Â They notified Baltimore County police, who immediately called the AF Office of Special Investigation. Because of the reported electrical interference ,and a burned area on Cohen's face, Air Research and Development experts were also called in. This ARDC development was uncovered by NICAP Special Adviser Lou Corbin, who is News Director of Station WFBR. Checking with nearby Andrews AF Base, Corbin also was given the long-withheld 1955 UFO case by a veteran AF pilot who believes the facts should be told. (Though his name and rank are known to NICAP, we have promised Adviser Corbin not to disclose the officer's identity.)In 1955, stated this AF pilot, while flying in Alabama, he and five competent witnesses chased a UFO similar to the one seen at Baltimore. Amon the witnesses as a Lockheed Aircraft representative and a jet engineering expert. All five drew up reports agreeing they hand pursued a solid object of "considerable size" which they believed was intelligently controlled.
"Don't let anyone fool you," the officer told Corbin. "That object did not come from earth. The case has never been solved by the Air Force. And I've every reason to believe it was the same kind as in the Baltimore case.
"Though Mr. Cohen has not admitted taking a radiation-exposure test, NCIAP has reason to believe the AF has arranged such a test.
The heating effects described in the Baltimore Oct. 27 case lend special interest to an earlier report just sent us from South America, which follows.
UNCONFIRMED NEWSCASTS LINK UFO WITH MOON ROCKET
In at least two radio newscasts, an unidentified flying object was reported as hovering over Cape Canaveral just before the ill-fated moon rocket "Pioneer" was launched on Oct. 10. In one broadcast, reported by several NICAP members in Washington, the announcer was quoted as saying "maybe the moon rocket will have company." A similar broadcast was reported by members in the Baltimore area.
NICAP is till checking, though it has found no confirmation of the broadcast reports. If other members heard such newscasts, or read similar news reports, please write us. It is important to prove these reports true or false. There are increasing rumors that UFOs have destroyed some of our rockets, or forced them off course. If such claims have any foundation, this will vitally affect the UFO situation. If they are false, they should be vigorously denied to prevent new ridicule of UFO investigations.
PILOT FEELS INTENSE HEAT FROM HOVERING UFOA bright silvery UFO, hovering over Uruguay on May 5, 1958, created such intense heat in the cabin of a plane that the pilot was forced to open the windows and door, and remove his jacket.
Carlos Alejo Rodriguez, flying his Piper aircraft from San Carlos to Montevideo, saw the brilliant object approach on an easterly course and apparently stop, wobbling slightly. Rodriguez, an experienced pilot and parachute instructor, closed to within 800 yards and saw a metallic-appearing "top-shaped" object, its form symmetrical above and below. Then, as the object took off at fantastic speed south toward the sea, intense heat filled the cabin of the plane. A slight vapor-like trail was noted though both the UFO and the plane were only at about 3000 feet altitude. A team of investigators for C.I.O.V.I. UFO group in Uruguay, who submitted this report to NICAP, said that Rodriguez had always been skeptical about UFOs. After this experience, however, he reported the incident to the Director of Aeronautics and Air Force authorities. Later he described it publicly over the radio.
Rodriguez said that the head from the object caused him to "sweat profusely." The outside temperature was only about 77° F. He estimated that the object, which was hovering in the vicinity of a Naval Air Base was about 50-60 feet in diameter.
The current sighting increase coincides with Mars' 1958 approach to Earth, though it does not prove a definite connection. Beginning with '48, every Mars opposition (at 26-month intervals) has been accompanied by increased UFO sightings, usually noted two or more months before and after the opposition. This time, the first spurt of sightings, in August, came in our northeast states, with a later concentration in the midwest. (Mars will be closest in early November.) Here is a digest of several sightings during the present "flap".
Aug. 11, Chautauqua Lake, N.Y. Between 9:15 and 10:30 pm Dr. Fred C. Fair, a retired professor of engineering, observed several inexplicable lights in the sky. On two occasions he saw groups of lights in roughly geometrical patterns. In the last of these sightings, Dr. Fair noted a white light rapidly moving north. Through a transit telescope the object appeared as five white lights spaced "as though on circumference of an oval." A red light was visible above and slightly to the rear of the white lights. Dr. Fair followed the object with the telescope until it disappeared behind some nearby trees.
Aug. 24, Brook, Ind. Theater manager Henry Hermansen and his cashier, Mrs. Ethel Tinder, at about 6:45 pm saw a brightly-lighted object "like a pie plate sailing through the air on its rim." It moved "very fast" toward the NE, then suddenly changed direction and disappeared toward the SE. Mr. Hermansen's description of the object recalls the 1947 reports which gave rise to the name "flying saucer."
Sept. 8; Omaha, Nebr. A NICAP member who is an Air Force Reserve officer has reported that he and several high-ranking officers sighted a huge "pencil-shaped" UFO in the western sky at 6:40 pm. They watched it for about 20 minutes. More details are expected. Observers in California next day reported a long, rocket-like object with an orange flame-tail.
Sept. 21; Sheffield Lake, Ohio. A brilliant light at 3:00 am attracted Mrs. Wm. Fitzgerald and her son Johnto their windows. From separate rooms they watched a disc-shaped object descend, with a slight side-to-side oscillation, low over a neighbor's lot. The object, flat and circular with a dome in the center, was illuminated by glowing gas which came out of "tubes" on one edge. Both witnesses heard a humming and whirring noise. After maneuvering around above the lot, the object ascended vertically.
We are indebted to Robert J. Durant, NICAP member in Lorain, Ohio, for his report of the incident.
Oct. 3; Stephensberg, Ky. Four Hardin County residents - Mrs. Harvey DeVore, Miss Ella Sutzer, Mr. Leslie Sutzer, and Mr. Alvin Duncan - reported seeing a UFO at about 6 am in a field 500 yards away. It was silvery, and had stubby protrusions which were seen to move. As Mr. Sutzer approached, the object took off, moved and hovered about 4 feet off the ground, then flew away. In the air, it appeared cone-shaped. It made no sound. Where the object had touched, the grass was said to be mashed, with markings visible. Fort Knox said that it knew of no military equipment in the area. The U.S. Weather Bureau could not account for the object.
Oct. 8; Newark, Ohio. For the second time in less than a month, formations of odd lights maneuvering over Newark were reported by police officers H. E. Sherburn and T. H. Francis. In mid-September, they reported similar white, red, and green lights hovering and performing erratically over the city. Sherburn, an Air Force veteran, said the lights were arranged in a crescent. (See the Aug. 11 report by Dr. Fair.) Sherburn was "certain" the lights were not on conventional aircraft.
Oct. 12; Aurora Ill. Between 9:50 and 10:15 pm DuPage County police officers saw brightly-lighted golden UFOs from several viewpoints in the Aurora area. Shortly thereafter, a patrol car in Lisle spotted the objects moving southeast over DuPage County. The patrol-men said the objects were well-lighted and had "spotlights" turned toward the ground. Other patrol cars confirmed the report. At 10:10 pm the Aurora  police called the sheriff's office to report seeing similar objects headed southeast over Batavia. DuPage County Deputy Sheriff Jack Adams said he saw three objects near Batavia, one brighter than the others. Officials at O'Hare AFB were then notified, and jets apparently in pursuit, were heard shortly afterward. When questioned by the Aurora Beacon-News O'Hare officials refused comment.
Oct. 14; Aurora, Ill. For three consecutive nights, residents in Aurora, Wheaton, and Glen Ellyn watched brilliantly lighted objects maneuvering through the skies. Many witnesses, including police officers, saw four "incredibly bright" objects over Aurora between 8:39 and 8:45 pm. The objects then took off eastward over DuPage county in perfect formation. As the UFOs moved, their color changed from intense white to a dazzling gold.
DuPage County Deputy Louis Parreant attempted to follow one of the objects in a squad car near Downers Grove, but it soon left him behind. Another deputy, Melvin Lowe, said he saw one of the UFOs rise straight up and vanish after hovering about 1000 feet off the ground. (Allan Etzler, a former Army radar operator for guided missiles, recently told NICAP investigators that on Oct. 10 he had seen a large round glowing object hover about 60 feet over a field in Laytonsville Md. He said the watched it about 8-10 seconds when it suddenly shot straight up.)
NICAP ANNOUNCES NEW PROGRAMA new plan to speed of UFO investigations, through local committees of scientists, engineers, pilots and other experts, is now being set up by NICAP. With such committees established throughout the U.S. and all countries outside the Iron Curtain, a mass of scientifically evaluated headquarters for release to our members and Congress.
The new system, suggested by Associate Editor Richard H. Hall, will not only offset the scarcity of UFO reports in the press, but should make possible valid conclusions about several points including:
Any correlation with A-bomb tests.
Sighting cycles linked with Mars or Venus approaches to the earth.
Specific areas apparently under special UFO observation.
Any correlation with launchings of satellites, moon probes or other space rockets.
The question of possible UFO links with certain aircraft accidents and disappearances.
Reports of strange radio signals, suggested as linked with space craft.
Reports of UFO interference with radio, television, engine ignitions and other electrical systems.
Here is how the plan will work. Let's say a UFO sighting occurs near City A, in the midwest. The report may be published or broadcast locally, with no national pickup. The chairman of the local NICAP subcommittee will arrange for interviews (taped if possible) with key witnesses. If a photo was taken, the subcommittee will ask to examine the negative. Information will be collected on the time, weather, lighting conditions, UFO maneuvers, other aircraft involved (as in a jet chase) etc.
The group's astronomer will see if there is any astronomical answer, and its meterologist will check such "weather answers" as temperature inversions or sundogs. A subcommittee pilot, or other aviation expert, will check possible mistaken identification of a plane or balloon. If no conventional answer is found, the group will evaluate the evidence, reach a conclusion if possible, and forward a report to NICAP.
Where there is no conclusion, or there are unsettled questions, final evaluation will be made by NICAP Special Advisers or Board Members or both. Final conclusions and key points will then be given to the membership and appropriate groups in Congress. In press releases, the full credit will be given to the subcommittees; also, local publicity by subcommittees will be recommended, via newspapers and broadcasts.
This system requires that highly trained NCIAP members volunteer their services -- men and women expert in astronomy, photography, aviation (including aviation medicine), electronics, rocketry, meterology etc. Fortunately, NCIAP has members in all these fields, also analysis specialists, researchers, detectives and former Intelligence men. Some have already volunteered, and probably many others, both American and foreign, will help if the working time involved is not too great.
Where enough specially trained members are not available, subcommittees may secure the help of non-member experts interested in the UFO problem. A subcommittee member can keep such service confidential, though the use of the experts' names will be of value when the reports are made public. Special subcommittees may analyze individual problems, such as propulsion methods, artificial gravity and the "angels hair" reports. The system may be broadened to cover non-technical questions such as religious aspects, general publicity, approaches to Congress, etc., in which members without technical training could participate.
Meantime, all NICAP members can help by reporting sightings and other technical UFO information to local subcommittees. (Names, addresses, to be listed.) The Washington, D.C. subcommittee is already partly formed, and we are working to start others quickly. Whether you live in the U.S. or abroad, if you have special training, as indicated, we hope you will help form a local subcommittee. The only other provision is that you accept NICAP's policy of factual approach. If you volunteer, please list your special qualifications and whether you have access to a laboratory or other analysis equipment. We will be glad to have suggestions from all members regarding this new plan.
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Note: The Chicago Daily News said on October 14th that Air Force B-47 jet bombers in a 3:00 am SAC exercise were responsible for at least one "flying saucer" report in Chicago. No explanation was offered for the sightings of the previous nights.
Oct. 14; Indiana. Residents in south-central Indiana reported sighting UFOs in pre-dawn hours. Police discussed the reports on police radio and confirmed sightings in Columbus, Franklin, Greensburg, Greenwood, and Indianapolis.
Oct. 15; Southeast U.S. The Civil Aeronautics Administration control office in Atlanta, Ga., asked if the AF to investigate a "strange flying object" seen over several southeaster states. the CAA said airline pilots had seen the object, one estimating its altitude at 65,000 feet. Citizens in North and South Carolina, and other states, said the object was very large and appeared triangular in shape.
Early on the morning of Sept. 29, 1958, a UFO sighting was officially reported at the Army's Nike missile base, dear Derwood, Md. Later, news and radio reports from Maryland and other states indicated that a firey object seen by hundreds at the same time was a disintegrating meteor. On-the-spot investigations by  a NICAP team confirm this. But because of the contradictory official answers given the press - one of them known to be false at the time, as NICAP can prove - a detailed account will be given. The Nike story, kept quiet for a week, broke on Oct. 6 in the Jersey Journal, which ran an interview with Pvt. Jerome Scanlon, one of the Nike base witnesses. According to the news story, Scanlon and a Sgt. Riney Farris had seen a "cigar-shaped craft" land and take off near the base. A scorched strip a half-mile long was said to have been found where the object landed.
An Associated Press query led to an Army news release at Ft. Meade, Md., confirming the two soldiers' report and adding that 12 investigatiors (later revealed as AF) had quizzed them and searched the area.
A NICAP team - Assoc. Ed. Richard Hall and Washington members Richard Lechaux and Samuel Coe - made three trips to Derwood, interviewed Sgt. Farris, two other Army witnesses, the Nike duty officer, and area citizens. The team also mapped and photographed the area. No scorched area or signs or a landing were found, though the rough, hilly terrain prevented a complete search.
In addition, NY member Ted Bloecher (a CSI officers) reached Pvt. Scanlon, on leave at Jersey City, quizzed him for 45 minutes. Scanlon had not seen the object take off, or even land, but merely saw it pass behind trees. This tallied with Sgt. Farris' statement to NICAP; he had merely seen the object flash overhead. But it added a puzzle: why had the Ft. Meade news release gone along with the landing and take-off story?
Soon after, a new puzzle was added by NICAP Adviser Lou Corbin, radio news director at Baltimore, in an exclusive interview with Lt. Richard Platt, Nike base duty officer who also saw the fiery object. Platt did not see a landing, but insisted he saw a strange glow where the object was supposed to have landed. He said he watched it 45 minutes, saw the pulsating glow alternate from greenish white to orange. (the AF later said a helicopter search found no trace of such an object's presence.) Reports from astronomers and others in states as far as Ohio and Kentucky, and an analysis by NICAP Adviser Jas. C. Bartlett, Jr., strongly backed the meteor answer. But instead of using this answer, the AF hastily rushed out a typical debunking story, claiming solution of over 98% of UFO sightings. (This may have been caused by uneasiness over the sightings increase and the possible Mars link.)
Immediately afterward, the AF put out a news story "solving" the Nike report. The Nike men, it said, had been misled by the reflection of arc-welders' torches as Potomac Electric Power Co. (PEPCO) men worked on nearby high-tension lines. A NICAP check proved this untrue, and obviously known to be false when released. At PEPCO, a spokesman told NICAP this was impossible and the AF knew it. A Capt. Maxwell at Andrews Field, said the PEPCO official, had tried to establish this answer; he had been told that no PEPCO men worked at that hour (5:30 am) and none had been in the area. A NICAP call to Capt. Maxwell resulted in a prompt refusal to comment, because of Air Force Reg. 200-2.The PEPCO spokesman also told NICAP that Newsweek had called and had been given the facts. (Later, Newsweek cited an AF explaination that the Nike men had seen a 200-watt lamp on a distant barn; no mention was made of the false arc-welder answer. Lt. Platt, informed of the barn-lamp story, flatly said it was impossible.)
What Platt saw is unknown. One suggestion is that there was another object beside the meteor, or that a fragment of the meteor fell from the meteor and started a fire. Lt. Platt denies the glow as an ordinary flame. Regardless of this unexplained angle, the case is important. Again, the AF UFO policy is clearly revealed: hurried debunking of any news report, even to planting of a false answer - and, simultaneously, serious investigation by Intelligence teams, behind the scenes.
Reprint of Issue No. 1
In response to frequent requests, we have arranged to reprint Issue 1 of the UFO INVESTIGATOR. This contains 32 pages of still timely information, including several unexplained UFO cases: A CAA radar report of UFOs flying at 3600 mph., two important sightings by former Navy pilots, the Pan American Airways UFO incident of March, 1957, which the Civil Aeronautics Board says is still unsolved, and other authentic UFO reports. Issue NO. 1 also contains a flying saucer history installment, options by Board members, an 8-point cooperation plan offered the Air Force and full details of NCIAP's policy on "contact" claims. If you wish Issue No. 1, please send your check for $1.00 and it will be mailed postpaid in a 9 by 11 inch manila envelope. Also please indicate whether you are interested in ordering copies of Issues 2 and 3 (each containing 32 pages of important information). If there are enough requests, we shall reprint either issue or both, at the same price of $1.00 each.
MAJORITY BACKS NICAP
Though the ballots are still coming in, the votes received indicate that over 90% of our members back NCIAP's policies, as stated in the Aug.-Sept. issue.
Question 1. Should NICAP keep trying to end secrecy about UFOs? Yes, 98.9%. Â Yes, 1.1%
Question 2. Do you think NICAP is a smokescreen, an AF cover-up? No, 99%. Yes, 1%
Question 3. Do you agree with NICAP's policy on contact stories? Yes. 89.14%. No, 10.86% Apparently, from comments on several ballots, some voting "no" believed NICAP meant to ignore all contact reports. This is not correct; NICAP is steadily collecting such reports and will evaluate them after its stated first goals are reached. (See discussion of p. 7, Aug.-Sept. issue.) Possibly the new NICAP committee system (which see) will expedite examination of contact claims.
Question 4. Do you vote for re-election of the Board of Governors until Oct. 1, 1959? Yes, 98.32%. No, 1.68%
Question 5. Will you do everything possible to promote NICAP, secure new members and end the financial crisis? Yes, 99.3%. No, .07%
We greatly appreciate our members' vote of confidence, also ballot suggestions indicating a majority desire for:
1. More UFO sighting reports.
2. Digest treatment of news items, to cover more subjects. Â
3. More discussion of possible UFO sources, motives, types of beings.
4. A question-and-answer section in the magazine.
These ideas will be carried out as fully as space permits.If you have not yet voted, please mail your ballot - and your suggestions for improving our publications.
Several members have suggested NICAP memberships as Christmas gifts. If you wish, we will enclose your personal Christmas card with a NICAP memebership card and the current publication - or we will forward a NCIAP signed Christmas gift notice, if you prefer.
----Washington Meeting Scheduled
A meeting of NICAP members in the Washington area has been set for 7:45 pm, Saturday Nov. 15 at the auditorium of the Washington Post and Times Herald Building, 1515 L St. NW. After a 10 minute report by NICAP's Director, the meeting will be thrown open for questions and answers and general discussion of the UFO problem and NCIAP's operations. Out-of-town members in Washington at the time are cordially invited to attend. Please show your NICAP card at the door.----
If by error you receive NICAP literature for prospective members, please pass it on to a friend or to your local library.
JUSTICE DEPT. HUNTING
"Straith" Hoaxer
The State Dept. has informed NICAP that the Dept. of Justice is investigating the so-called "Straith Case," in which a hoax letter on State Dept. letterhead was written to Mr. George Adamski. NICAP believes it knows the identity of the hoaxer and has given the State Dept. another letter apparently written on the same typewriter and maliciously aimed at an officer of Civilian Saucer Intelligence, N.Y. Mr. Lonzo Dove, a NICAP member, also has loaned Government investigators several letters written to him on the same typewriter and signed by the supposed hoaxer, a man well known in UFO investigation.
The "Straith" letter, widely publicized by Adamski, implied State Dept. endorsement of his claims to contact with spacemen. NICAP has been given an official copy of a State Dept. letter sent Adamski by Acting Depty Ass't. Secretary Jameson Parker, which flatly denies Adamski's claims about the hoax document.
"As you have been told orally, this is a spurious letter," Secretary Parker wrote Adamski. "Neither is there an R.E. Straith connected with the Department of State nor is there any record of any person of that name having been an employee of the Department.
"Secretary Parker also said there never has been a "Cultural Exchange Committee" in the Department, as the "Straith" hoaxer claimed. Referring to the Department letterhead used by the hoaxer, Secretary Parker added:
"This stationery has the seal impressed at the time of manufacture, not at the time of mailing. That is, the seal is placed on blank paper, and any person who had access to supplies of this paper would be in a position to misappropriate it and to write an unauthorized letter such as the one in your possession."
Secretary Parker then officially cautioned Adamski not to keep on claiming the "Straith" letter was genuine:
"I should appreciate your informing all who inquire about this letter that is spurious, and request that you cease distributing copies of it."
If Adamski persists, legal action may be taken.
NICAP hopes the State or Justice Dept. will publicly expose the hoaxer and remove one of the troublemakers in UFO investigation. IF not, NICAP will do everything legally possible to reveal his identity.
FRY WITHHOLDS DATA ASKED FOR NICAP ANALYSIS
To date, Mr. Daniel Fry has failed to send the data requested by NICAP regarding a small round object Fry offered for analysis. No UFO link is claimed by Fry, nor does he reveal where he got it.
NICAP PROGRESS REPORT
Thanks to those members who quickly renewed, or who generously sent us contributions, the danger of suspending operations has been averted. We have tried to thank all of these members personally; if anyone was overlooked, please forgive the error.
Thus far, this life-saving help has been limited to about 9% of the members. However, we have not had time to hear from all areas, because of the slower third-class mail delivery of Issue 5. Not everyone can make donations, of course. But everyone can try to get us new members. We must have continued support, through renewals or new memberships every month, to operate on schedule. We urgently need more full-time office workers; though several Washington members have kindly volunteered to help in their spare time, our correspondence and editorial work are still accumulating.
Prompt help by 9% of NICAP's membership has kept us from disaster. If each of the others - or most of them - will get us one new member, our financial problem will be licked. Investigations, editing and other work will be speeded up, along with liaison with Congress and other important projects. More information will reach NICAP members; publications can be enlarged, or printed more frequently.
Please do all you can do promote NCIAP. Urge your public libraries to subscribe to NCIAP publications. Send us the names of interested friends. Send us the names of interested friends - or write us for membership blanks. Another helpful step is to ask your local broadcasting stations and newspapers to mention NICAP's work; many are glad to interview NICAP members. Â You can write letters to editors, quoting key items from our publications, names of Board members and Advisers, and giving NICAP's address.
A new NICAP, operating at full speed, is bound to have a strong impact on Congress, press and public. We believe we can end the secrecy, given full membership backing. Please help us reach this goal.
CORRECTION OF MOSELEY STATEMENT
In his latest UFO publication, James W. Moseley quote NICAP's director as saying he had "fired" Mrs. R. H. Campbell and Mrs. Bessie M. Clark. As Associate Editor Richard Hall will testify, Mr. Moseley was told specifically that Mrs. Campbell had resigned and had planned to have Mrs. Clark assist her in other work. Mr. Moseley has been asked to retract this statement.
Mr. D. W. Opperman, editor, the Olympic Review, says he will gladly correct the NICAP membership statement he attributed to Mrs. Campbell, that we had 35,000 members. We wish this were true. She evidently said NICAP had about 3500 members, and the actual number is some 3200. We thank Mr. Opperman for the correction.
FOUR HUGE UFOS PACE FREIGHT TRAINA freight train southbound on the Monon Railroad in Clinton County, central Indiana, was paced by four glowing UFOs for over an hour early Friday October 3, 1958. All five of the crew saw the objects, which stayed with the train for 40 miles between Rossville and Kirklin. The objects, glowing white at high speeds and red-orange at lower speeds, dipped low over the train and maeuvered in formation.
Fireman Cecil Bridge, a former Air Force bomber crewman, and Engineer Harry Eckman first spotted a formation of 4 odd white lights crossing the tracks ahead of them at about 3:10 am. The lights turned down to about 200-300 feet, and traversed the full length of the train (about one-half mile.) The crew in the caboose, notified by the intercom, then saw the objects wheel east in formation and turn back to follow the train.
Conductor Ed Robinson at one point shone a powerful flashlight on the objects, which immediately flew away, returning a few minutes later. Finally, after maneuvering around the train for an hour and ten minutes, the UFOs moved off to the northeast and disappeared.
Robinson said the UFOs flew and tree-top level part of the time, and appeared to be about 40 feet in diameter and 8 to 10 feet thick. At times, they flew in a vertical position, and occasionally sped up approaching the caboose. No definite configuration could be discerned through the bright glow.
That night, on WTTV, Bridge and Robinson described the incident to Frank Edwards, NICAP Board Member in Indianapolis, who relayed it to NICAP. Brakeman Morris Ott and Flagman Paul Soshey also saw the objects and agreed with the descriptions given by other crew members.
About 50-60 miles west of the Monon Line, a New York Central Railroad engineer in the railroad yard near Danville, Illinois, reported seeing blinding blue-white objects in the eastern sky between 3:00 and 5:00 am that same morning.
REASONS FOR FIRST CLASS MAILING
Though it is considerably more expensive, we are sending this bulletin by first class mail. We hope this will make up for the unexpected delay, in some areas, of issue No. 5, which went third-class. Also, this should speed up organization of the new local subcommittees, and prompt news of the current sighting "flap" may help members interest other persons in joining NICAP. Even though we will have to go back to third-class mailing for the next issue (an approximate saving of $150 in postage, envelope, and stuffing costs) the interval will not be so great because of this special first class mailing.
A Collection of UFO Articles - Saturday, February 13, 1954
This one, unfortunately, will have no read-more transcription, since some of the clippings are awkwardly cut short by other ones layered on top of them.
I do, however, think the wording of this sentence in particular, is delightful:
"The Pentagon b i g w i g s have laughed off the dancing disks as a lot of poppycock or midsummer night's dreams."
Published Statements on Unidentified Flying Objects (#2)
A list of notable published statements on UFOs, part 2
​Transcribed below:
Published Statements on Unidentified Flying Objects
Sen. Barry Goldwater, a jet-flying AF Reserve Colonel: "Flying saucers -- unidentified flying objects -- or whatever you call them, are real."
Rear Adm. D.S. Fahrney, Ret., former Navy missile chief: "Reliable reports indicate there are objects coming into our atmosphere at very high speeds. The way they change position would indicate their motion is directed."
Clare Booth Luce, former Ambassador to Italy. who with many others sighted a UFO at Rome: "I did see an object, I don't know what it was. "
Capt. W.B. Nash, Pan American Airways, who with his co-pilot saw eight huge discs maneuver below their airliner: "I believe they were controlled machines from outer space."
Maj. L.F. Baker, USAF, who with other AF witnesses saw six UFOs: "They were circular, shiny like spun aluminum. They changed course instantaneously."
Capt. Jas. Howard, British trans-Atlantic pilot, who with crew and 12 passengers saw a huge UFO and six small ones: "It must have been a space ship."
Hermann Oberth, noted rocket and space-travel authority: "I believe the flying saucers come from other worlds."
Capt. Robert Adickes, TWA pilot, who with crew and seven passengers, saw a glowing UFO pace their airliner: "Before then, I wasn't convinced. Now I know they (flying saucers) do exist."
Dr. Clyde W. Tombaugh, discoverer of the planet Pluto, chief of the armed services search for natural satellites, who has sighted UFOs: "These things, which do appear to be directed, are unlike any other phenomena I ever observed... Other stars in our galaxy may have hundreds of thousands of inhabitable worlds. Races on these worlds may have been able to utilize the tremendous amounts of power required to bridge the space between the stars."
Flight Lt. J.R. Salandin, RAF, whose jet almost collided with a disc-shaped, turreted object: "It looked metallic. It was travelling at tremendous speed."
Dr. J.C. Bartlett, Jr., noted Baltimore astronomer who has sighted both disc-shaped and rocket-shaped UFOs: "It is not impossible they come from another planet."
Cdr. R. W. Percy, USNR, Ret., electronics engineer for the FCC: "I personally believe UFOs are spaceships from other, more advanced planets."
Dr. Carl Jung, famed psychologist, in writing NICAP Director Donald E. Keyhoe: " I am a NICAP subscriber. I am grateful for all the courageous things you have done in elucidating the thorny problem of UFO reality. I do not possess sufficient evidence which would enable me to draw definite conclusions. The evidence available, however, is convincing enough to arouse a continuous and fervent interest. If it is true the AAF (American Air Force) withholds telltaling facts then one can only say this is the most unpsychological and stupid policy one could invent...The public ought to be told the truth."
Col. Frank Milani, Director, Baltimore Civil Defense, who has sighted UFOs: "It is a calculated risk to assume the so-called saucers do not constitute a threat to the welfare and security of our citizens. We are given to believe they are not hostile but information on UFOs is classified."
Capt. Richard Case, American Airlines, who with other pilots and thousands of citizens saw a large UFO over Indianapolis: "It was a controlled craft going three times faster than we were."
Albert M. Chop. former AF official handling UFO information: "One thing is absolutely certain. We're being watched by beings from outer space."
Rep. William H. Ayres, Ohio: "Congressional investigations are being held on the problem of UFOs. Most of the material is classified; hearing are never printed."
Statement by NICAP Board Members Vice Adm. R.H. Hillekoetter, ret., former Director, Central Intelligence Agency; Maj. Dewey Fournet, USAF Reserve, former Pentagon monitor of UFO project; Rev. Albert Baller, Greenfield Mass.; Frank Edwards, noted newscaster; Dr. Marcus Bach, Univ. of Iowa; Rear Adm. H.B. Knowles, ret,; Col. R.B Emerson, US Army Reserve; and Prof. Charles A. Maney, Defiance University: "From evidence in NICAP's possession, it is clear the Air Force is still withholding information, including sighting reports, on UFOs."
Published Statements on the Question of Other Worlds
Dr. Harlow Shapley, former Director, Harvard Observatory: "We must now accept it as inevitable -- there are other worlds with thinking beings."
Dr. Harold C. Urey, member, Mars Committee, former commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission: "It is exceedingly probable there is other life in the universe more intelligent than ours."
Typical Witnesses in UFO Sightings
Col. D.J Blakeslee, USAF Wing Commander; USAF pilots, Maj. J.B. Smith. Lieuts. D.J. Hemer, Roy L. Jones, D.C. Brigham, Wm. Patterson, D.A. Swimley, H.G. Combs; TWA Capts. W.W. Hawkins, Chas. Kratovil, Robt. Manning, Irving Kravitz; Eastern Airlines Capts. E.J. Arnold, C.S. Chiles, J.B Whitted, Truman Gile, Jr.; American Airlines Capts. Paul Carpenter, Willis Sperry; Pan-American Capts. Â Jas. King, Jack Adriance, Capt. Casey Pierman, Capital Airlines; Capt. W.M. Bruen, National Airlines; United Airlines Capts. E.J. Smith, Ralph Stevens; Lt. Richard spencer, Navy pilotl Warrant Officer D.C. Newhouse, Naval Aviation photographer who filmed a UFO formation; Capt. R.B. McLaughlin, Navy missile expert; Lt. Donald Schaefer, Ensign Wayne Schotley, US Coast Guard; Capt. Dario Celis, Venezuelan airline.
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The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena collects, evaluates and presents reliable UFO evidence to Congress, and to NICAP members in all 49 states and most non-Communist countries. Membership , at $5, includes alternating 4-page bulletins and an 8-page magazine (one a month) with latest sightings and important developments. Address: NICAP, 1536 Connecticut Avenue, Washington 6, D. C.
Published Statements on Unidentified Flying Objects
A list of notable published statements on UFOs
​Transcribed below:
Published Statements on Unidentified Flying Objects
Dr. Clyde W. Tombaugh, noted astronomer, discoverer of the planet Pluto and former chief of the Armed Forces search for unknown natural satellites, who has personally sighted UFOs: "These things, which do appear to be directed, are unlike any other phenomena I have ever observed...No one so far has sure-fire, absolute proof...Other stars in our galaxy may have hundreds of thousands of inhabitable worlds. Races on these worlds may have been able to utilize the tremendous amounts of power required to bridge the space between the stars."
Dr. J. J. Kalizkewski, cosmic ray scientist on Navy project, who with other scientists, sighted two cigar-shaped UFOs near Minneapolis: "They were strange, terrifically fast. I think the Government should set up a 24-hour alert with radar, telescopes, sky cameras, and other instruments."
Capt. Richard Adickes, TWA pilot who with crew and seven passengers saw a glowing UFO pacing their airliner near South Bend: "Before then, I wasn't convinced by the saucer reports. Now I know they do exist."
William Lear, winner of the Collier Aviation Trophy and president of Lear, Inc. aircraft and electronics equipment, who sighted a UFO in bright daylight: "I believe that the flying saucers come from outer space and are piloted by beings of superior intelligence."
Capt. Raymond Ryan, American Airlines who with 44 passengers was asked by Griffis Air Force Base to chase a UFO between Albany and Syracuse and to report by radio: "This was absolutely real. I'm convinced there was something fantastic up there."
Capt. James Howard, British transatlantic pilot with 265 crossings who with crew and 12 passengers saw a huge UFO and six small ones pacing their plane: "It must have been some weird form of spaceship from another world."
Capt. W. B. Nash, Pan American Airways, who with his co-pilot saw a formation of six huge discs maneuver below their airliner near Norfolk, Virginia: "I believe the discs were intelligently controlled machines from outer space."
Hermann Oberth, co-designer of the V-2 rocket, noted authority on space travel plans: "It is my thesis that flying saucers come from other worlds outside our solar system."
(Continued: Please turn to other side.)
Col. Frank Milani, Director of Civil Defense in Baltimore, who has personally sighted UFOs: "It is a calculated risk to assume that the so-called saucers to not constitute a threat to the welfare and security of our citizens. We are given to believe they are not hostile, but information on UFOs is classified."
Flight Lieut. J. R. Salandin, Royal Air Force in England, whose RAF Meteor jet almost collided head-on with a disc-shaped UFO in broad daylight: "The main body was like two saucers pressed together. It appeared metallic. The object was traveling at tremendous speed."
Frank Halstead, curator of Darling Observatory in Duluth Minnesota: " Many professional astronomers are convinced that the saucers are interplanetary machines. I believe they come from another solar system, but they may be using Mars as a base."
Albert M. Chop, former Air Force press official handling UFO information at the Pentagon: "One thing is absolutely certain. We're being watched by beings from outer space."
Published Statments on the Question of Other Worlds
Dr. Harlow Shapley, former Director of Harvard Observatory: Â "We must now accept it as inevitable that there are other worlds with some kind of thinking beings."
Dr. Harold C. Urey, member of the International Mars Committee. former commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission and head of Chicago University Institute for Nuclear Studies: "It is exceedingly probable that there is life in the universe more intelligent than ours."
Rear Admiral Delmer S. Fahrney, USN, Retired, famed as "the father of guided missiles" and formerly chairman of the NICAP Board of Governers: "Reliable reports indicate that there are objects coming into our atmosphere at very high speeds...The way they change position in formation would indicate that their motion is directed. As long as such unidentified objects continue to navigate through the earth's atmosphere, there is an urgent need to know the facts."
Statement by Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe, USMC Retired, Â Director of NICAP: " Our policy as set by the Board is to collect and evaluate reliable evidence by a NICAP panel of scientists, engineers, pilots, astronomers, and other experts. All authentic information on UFOs will be released uncensored to NICAP members and to Congress, with special releases issued to the press. To carry out its program, NICAP is developing investigative units and UFO research clubs which interested persons may join. Membership in NICAP - at $7.50 - includes special bulletins and a monthly 32-page magazine containing UFO sightings, reports on secret developments, special articles by pilots and reliable UFO researchers, a new serialized history of flying saucers - with new light on famous cases - answers to members' questions, and many other features.
Regardless of membership, we shall greatly appreciate recieving news clippings or firsthand UFO sighting reports."
An article from the Jehovah's Witnesses magazine "Awake!" from June, 1966.
UFOs are hoaxes, swamp gas, planets, or maybe even demonic in origin, apparently.
Transcribed below:
Awake!
"It is already the hour for you to awake." - Romans 13:11
Volume XLVII
Brooklyn, N.Y., June 22, 1966
Those Mysterious Flying Objects
From coast to coast, springtime in the United States brought with it a rash of reports concerning strange unidentified flying objects. Hundreds of people, including many in responsible positions, reported seeing them in different parts of the country. Their shapes were variously described as saucers, balloons, cigars, or footballs. Some were reported to have pulsating lights of different colors.
Among the most extraordinary observations were those in Michigan. The first sighting came from an area around Ann Arbor, where at least forty persons said they saw a strangely lighted vehicle that appeared to glide through the air and then land. Next, a group of police officers observed strange lights in another nearby area. They stated: "We would not have believed it if we had not seen it with our own eyes. These objects could move and fantastic speeds, make very sharp turns, dive and climb and hover with great maneuverability."
A few days later, another police officers photographed two of the strange lights, using a telephoto lens and a distance of about five miles. At nearly the same time, a father and son approached to within 500 yards of a strange lighted object that had settled in a swamp. They described it as being football-shaped, about as big as an automobile, with pulsating lights and a surface "pitted like a coral rock." On another night eighty-seven Hillsdale College coeds saw similar lights in a swamp near their college.
These sightings and others like them in the spring of 1966 were not the first. For almost twenty years now, hundreds, yes, thousands, of such objects have been reported and investigated in various parts of the world. Many of them have been seen by responsible persons, including persons trained to detect, observe, and classify flying objects. Some years ago two airline pilots reported a mysterious object flying near their aircraft. The object was able to reverse direction instantaneously and fly at great speeds. The pilots said it was cigar-shaped, as large as an airliner, with a white glow at the bottom.
In the United States, the government has not publicly admitted producing or experimenting with any "flying saucers." But if these appearances are not of some military or spacecraft under development, then what are they?
One source of answers to this much-asked question is "Project Blue Book," the United States Air Fore's investigations that track down reports of unidentified flying objects. Since 1947 the Air Force has checked on 10.147 sightings of these mysterious objects. A report on the finding states: "In 1,240 cases, there was insufficient evidence to complete an investigation. In 646 others, the sightings remained unexplained. In the remaining cases, the UFOs [unidentified flying objects] were attributed to astronomical causes, to planes, balloons and missiles, to hallucinations and psychological reasons. After these thousands of investigations, the Air Force has concluded: No UFO 'has ever given any indication of a threat to our national security'; there is no evidence that any object went 'beyond the rage of present-day scientific knowledge'; 'there has been no evidence that sightings categorized as unidentified are extraterrestrial vehicles.' "
This report notes that the majority of these sightings can be explained. For example in one case of "flying saucers" that the Air Force investigated, two mysterious lights on a photographic plate were "without any question" a time exposure of the planet Venus and the rising moon. In another, witnessed by hundreds of residents of Los Angeles, the explanation proved quite simple. Onlookers had reported various colored lights moving at a "fantastic" speed. But the entire affair turned out to be a hoax. Two students at Pasadena's California Institute of Technology had filled polyethylene balloons with gas and suspended beneath them rotating flares. On four different nights they released the balloons, and in came the flood of "flying saucer" reports.
In the case of the lights that descended in the Michigan swamp, a top Air Force Investigator waded out into the area where the object was reported to have been seen. He admitted that the reports were more consistent than other sightings he had studied. After a thorough investigation, the scientist concluded that the lights "were produced by spring thaws releasing the swamp gasses, which produced a strange glow - the phenomenon known in folklore as the 'will o' the wisp' and the 'jack-of-lantern.' " He added: "A dismal swamp is a most unlikely place for a visit from outer space."
In some cases the objects have been merely reflected light. Also, in many other instances imaginations have run wild. As Science Digest of June 1965 said: "The greatest flying saucer activity in the U.S. coincided with a great boom in science fiction pulp magazines and science fiction films."
While balloons, aircraft, missiles, gases, clouds, light reflections, perhaps even ball lightning, and individual imaginations account for most of the sightings, in other cases there is simply no satisfactory answer as to what was observed. Some have strongly suggested these objects are from outer space, from other planets, but there is no evidence to substantiate this theory. Others feel the objects and light may be of demon origin. While this is possible; nonetheless, there is no evidence that could establish the certainty of this at present.
So investigation has proved that the vast number of "flying saucers" have a natural or man-made origin. However, the fact remains that a small proportion are without satisfactory explanation. The course of practical wisdom is not to be unduly concerned, but to await an increase in knowledge that someday may explain those mysterious flying objects.
