Mufon ufo journal 1975 10. october - skylook

Number 95

"We tell it as it is"

SKYLOOKThe UFO Monthly

75 cents

October, 1975

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF MUFOHlJ MUTUAL UFO NETWORK, INC,

This 100-foot in diameter circle of 91 sequenced ISO-wattspotlights with one coded central light serves as a wide anglevisual signal at the Project Starlight International (P.S.I.)facility near Austin, Texas. The electro-mechanical sequencermay be replaced by a more versatile solid-state device, and the

91 spotlights by 100 one-million candlepower strobes. The P.S.I,complex is designed to attract and study UFO's through avariety of sophisticated instruments. P.S.I, equipment wasdisplayed and discussed at the recent UFO Conference atFt. Smith, AR (story begins on page 10).

Founded 1967

SKYLOOKThe UFO Monthly26 Edgewood DriveQuincy, Illinois 62301

Dwight ConnellyEditor

Carolyn ConnellyBusiness Manager

Walter H. AndrusDirector of MUFON

Ted BloecherHurrianoid/Occupant Cases

Joseph M. BrillIron Curtain countries

The Rev, Dr. Barry DowningReligion and UFOs

Lucius ParishBooks, Periodicals, History

Marjorie FishExtraterrestrial Life

Stan GordonCreatures & UFO's

Gary GraberArtist

Richard HallCommentator

Mark HerbstrittAstronomy

Rosetta HolmesPromotion/Publicity

Bob KirkpatrickWest Coast Coordinator

Ted PhillipsUFO Landing Traces

David A. SchrothSt. Louis/Mass Media

John F. SchuesslerUFO Propulsion

Norma E. ShortEditor-Publisher Emeritus

In this issuehumanoid reported in Ontario3 Canada—- :- 3

First issue of PSI Journal available- •— , - 4Ontario family 'invaded' after UFO sighting— 4'Light in the sky' case investigated in California 5Friedman reviews Jacobs ' 'UFO Controversy ' •> 8Ft. Smith conference—a summary and critique r 10Men say UFO visited dairy in California 14South Africa sightings described——•—— — 16Adamski photo—copy or original?— • 17Giant UFO in France reportedly stalls cars 17'The Two' lead Oregon's 'missing persons'MUFON Director Walt Andrus' Message •:Recapping and Commenting -Astronomy Notes for November —South River, M (1963) correction •

-18-19-20-SO-20

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATIONL Title of publication Skylook the UFO Monthly; 2. Date of filing: Oct. 15, 1975; 3. Frequency of issue;monthly; J Location of known office of publication' 26 Edgewood Drive, Quincy, IL. 62301; 5 Location ofheadquarters or general business offices of the publisher; 26 Edgewood Drive, Quiney, IL 62301, 6 Namesand addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor: publisher, Dwight Connelly, 26 Edgewood Drive,Quincy. IL 611301, editor, Dwight Connelly, 26 Edgewood Drive, Quincy, IL H2301; managing editor, none;7. Owner Dwight Connelly. 26 Edgewood Drive, Quincy, IL. 62301; 8. Known bondholders, mortgagees,and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, orother securities: none; 9. Optional completion by publisher mailing at the regular rate blank; 10. Forcompletion by nonprofit organizations authorized to mail at special rates blank. 11 Extent and natureof circulation: A. Total number of copies printed, average for preceding 12 months, 1.400; B. Paidcirculation through dealers and carriers, street, none: mail subscriptions average each issue duringpreceding 12 months, 1,250; actual number of copies ol single issue published nearest to filing date, 1,315;C total paid circulation average each issue during preceding 12 months, 1.230, actual number of copiesof single issue nearest to filing date, 1,315; D. Free distribution by mail , carrier, or other rneans, (1)samples, complimentary, or other means, average number of copies each issue during preceding 12months, none; actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, none; (2) copiesdistributed to news agents but not sold, average number copies each issue during preceding 12 months,none; actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, none; E, Total'distribution,average number copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 1,230; actual number of copies of singleissue published nearest to filing date, 1,315; F. Office use, left-over, unaccounted, spoiled after printing,average number copies each issue during oreceding 12 months. 170: actual number of copies of smeleissue published nearest to filing date, 135; G. Total, average number copies each issue during preceding12 months, 1,400. actual number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 1,450. (Signed)Dwight Connelly, publisher.

Information regarding membership in the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) should be requestedfrom Walt Andrui, Director: MUFON; 103 Oldtowne Road; Sequin, Texas 78155.

The contents of SKYLOOK are determined by the editor and staff, and do not necessarilyrepresent the official judgment of MUFON. Opinions of contributors are their own, and donot necessarily reflect those of the editor, the staff, or MUFON. Books or other items adver-tised are not necessarily endorsed by SKYLOOK or MUFON.

SKYLOOK THE UFO MONTHLY is published monthly by Dwight Connelly, 26 Edgewood Drive,Quincy, IL 62301 USA. Subscription Rates: $8.00 per year in U.S.; $9.00 per year foreign; single copy, 75 cents.Advertising rates: $5.80 per column inch. All ads subject to approval of the publisher.

Copyright 1S7S by SKYLOOK THE UFO MONTHLY, 26 Edgewood Drive, Quincy, IL £2301. Permissionis hereby granted to quote from this issue of this magazine, provided not more than 2M words are quotedfrom any one article, provided that the author of the article is given credit, and provided that the statement"Copyright 1*75 by SKYLOOK THE UFO MONTHLY, 26 Edgewood Drive, Quincy, IL" is included.

Second Class Postage paid at Quincy, IL. 62301.

Thought barn was.on fire .

UFO, humanoid reported in OntarioBy Henry H. McKay

UFO Centre .

Following is a report of aUFO and creature incident re-portedly observed during theevening hours of Oct. 7, 1975.The events are described byRobert A. Suffern, age 27, whoresides off the Three Mile LakeRd., Utterson, which is some 10miles N. W. of the town ofBracebridge, Ontario. The top-ography is of rolling hills andnumerous lakes, an agriculturaland rural resort area locatedin the Miiskoka Lakes District.

initial enquiries were madeto the relevant police agencywhich confirmed as to the sub-stance and origin of the re-ported incident. My first per-sonal contact was made withConstable Fred Dean, OPP (On-tario Provincial Police) Brace-bridge Detachment during theearly hours of Thursday, Oct.9,1975. He provided backgroundinformation on the geographicalfeatures of the terrain andfurther details on the individ-uals involved.

Mr. Suffern1s statement fol-lows:

At about 8:30 p.m. tonight Igot a phone call from my sisterShirley 'who lives about 300yards north-east of my house.She said it looks like a fireat my barn. I went out and atfirst I couldn't see anything,but then I heard the cattlerustling, but told my sister Icouldn't go out because I waslooking after the baby. Shecame down to the house and Itook her car and' went to thebarn and saw nothing. I wentout the lane and drove down theroad and then turned idown aside road.

Then I saw the ship in thecentre of the road. It was thecolour of the dull side of alu-minum foil wrap and the surface

This is a sketch of the UFO as drawn by Mr. Suffern. No sketch of the reportedhumanoid seen in conjunction with the UFO is available at this time.

was irregular and crinkled. Icould not hear any sound otherthan the motor of my car. Ionly saw it momentarily andthen it went straight up at afast sp ed and disappeared.There were no lights. .

I turned around and startedfor home, turned onto the ThreeMile Lake Road and then I sawthe thing on the side of .theroad. He was . on the grassshoulder of the road and was a-bput to cross from my.right tomy left. It suddenly pivotedand turned towards the.pastureand vaulted over the fence andout of sight.

It appeared to be short andhad very broad shoulders whichseemed to be out of proportion.The movements were similar toan ape or a midget, but it wasvery agile. It reached up withits hands, grabbed the fence,post and vaulted over with noeffort. The head portion wascovered in a globe and I couldnot detect any mask or faceportion. The suit was a silvercolour and one piece—the globewas a contrasting white or

light colour.I returned home and had time

to get the kids to bed. The T.V. was on and suddenly thesound.stopped and when I lookedit had blacked out for a matterof seconds. I went to the doorand out behind the barn in thepasture I saw an orange flour-escent light that wasn't flash-ing. The light seemed to followthe contour of the land andheaded out over Three MileLake. • -

, I debated for some time whoto call and then I called theO.P.P. in Bracebridge.

.About 10 years ago in thesame area I saw a similar shipin.flight over my barn.

(End of Suffern's Statement.)Following a brief interview

with Suffern a more detailedinspection was made of the. spe-cific areas concerned and com-mented on herein. No apparenteffects or traces were noticedfollowing close scrutiny of thearea where the creature and thecraft were reported.

The sketch is a copy of theship, drawn by Robert Suffern.

He estimated the size as d-9ft.(2.4-2.7m) top to bottom oflowest portion and a width ofapproximately 12-14 ft. (3.6-4.2m). The ship appeared tolook like the dull side of a-luminum foil, wrinkled and dis-playing a narrow dark band a-round the edge of the clam-likeportion of the structure. Heindicated the ship had restedon or close to the gravelledroad surface.

Suffern is engaged in thebuilding trade as a carpenterand would be familiar withaluminum foil for its insula-tion qualities and a good judgefor estimating the relevantdimensions.

No other witnesses have beenreported from that neighbour-hood at this date, but furtherinformation is expected fromMr. Suffern.

A similar report

A somewhat similar report isapparently under investigationby the Center for UFO Studies.This incident supposedly tookplace Oct. 12 north of Alton,II.After hearing their dog bark-

ing, a farm couple reportedlywent out and saw four crea^tures, each about 3 feettall. The creatures were re-portedly dressed in silvery,luminous "clothing," and ap-peared to walk stiff legged.

No UFO was reported in con-nection with this sighting, butthe couple said they had founda matted area in a field wherea heavy object might have rest-ed. When, and if, additionalinformation becomes available,it will be printed in SKYLOOK.

Ontario family invaded by mediafollowing UFO, humonoid report

The quickest way to have yourprivacy invaded and your peace-of-mind shattered is to reportan unidentified flying object.

Robert Suffern, the man whospotted not only a spacecraftbut also glimpsed what appar-ently was one of its passan-gers, said he is "a littleembarrassed" about the wholething.

"We figured that the policewouldn't tell anyone...theywould just make a report andpass it along to somebody," hesaid.

However, a Toronto radiostation happened to talk to theBracebridge OPP detachment andthe story was out.

Mr. Suffern works as a car-penter and went .off to workWednesday morning following asleepless night.

No Sleep

"We didn't get any sleep atall," Mrs. Suffem said. "Wewere just too scared."

Following the radio story onthe reported sighting, thephone rang repeatedly and con-tinued to ring all morning,afternoon, and evening. Mostlyfrom radio, television, andnewspaper types wanting to getinformation. Bracebridge OPPsupplied the name, number, andaddress,

Mrs. Suffern was polite toall callers, including thePACKET AND TIMES reporter whowas the first media person on

First issue of P.S. I. Journal availableFree copies of the first

issue of the Project StarlightInternational JOURNAL areavailable to those "genuinelyinterested in instrumented re-search," according to DouglasJohnson, associate editor ofthe JOURNAL.

The 16-page publication in-

eludes articles on PSI, speci-fic instrumentation at PSI, andthe Charles Hickson sighting atPSI. '

Write to Douglas Johnson,Project Starlight Interna-tional, P.O. Box 5310, Austin,Texas 78763.

the scene.Mrs. Suffern chatted with

the reporter and outlined theprevious night's activities be-fore telling the reporter whereto find her husband's job site.

Just as the reporter wasleaving, a radio station phonedand a television crew fromToronto arrived. More than 25.nedia representatives phonedthe house several times eachduring the day, she said.

"I hope my husband is havinga peaceful time," she said.

The Orilla reporter managedto locate Mr. Suffern on a cot-tage roof at Skeleton Lakeseveral miles away and set upan interview at the UFO landingsite later that afternoon.

Wanted Autograph

Upon returning to the Suffernresidence, Mrs. Suffern said awoman had just left the housewho had driven all the way tothe Suffern house for one pur-pose."She wanted Bob's autograph,"

Mrs. Suffern exclaimed. "Allthis way for an autograph. Sheapparently follows all thesetypes of sightings. She toldus to expect hundreds of peopleon the weekend, for God's sake.She said that at the lastsighting place near Toronto,people were lined up to see thesite and get autographs. Thisis incredible. I kind of wishwe hadn't phoned the police."

Mrs. Suffern added that ateam of UFO specialists fromYork University were now ontheir way to the.Suffern houseand the CBC were flying a tele-vision crew up to Bracebridgewhere they would hire a cab totake them the 13 miles north.

"Maybe we had better packour things," she laughed. "Ourneighbors probably think we'recrazy now and we have no quiethere. Boy, I hope, this endssoon. I need some sleep. Nosaucers, just sleep."

UFO or planet?

'Light in sky' requires careful investigationEDITOR'S NOTE: Because of the fre-

quency with which we encounter the"light in the sky" type of report, it wasfelt that the following investigationshould1 be reported in some detail forSKYLOOK readers.

By Ann DruffelSKYNET

On a waim evening shortlyafter midnight, July 24, 1974Clint K., 21 years old, de-cided to sleep outside in hisback yard in Long Beach, CA.

'About 1 a.m. he awakened andsaw a brilliant white lightshining above the trees in hisback yard. The light was inthe southeast. Clint noticedthat the sky was clear andcloudless.

Thinking that the ob j ectmight be a brilliant planet, hewatched it idly. He soon be-came aware that it was movingslowly toward the southwest,but more rapidly, he thought,than stars or planets shouldmove. He had been camping manytimes and had often watchedbright stars and planets in thenight sky.

He continued to watch it forthe next two and one-halfhours, intrigued by its appear-ance . The bright ' obj ect atfirst seemed roundish, likebright stars seen elsewhere inthe sky, but presently it tookon an elongated shape, ratherlike that of a "sausage." Thebrightness prevented him fromseeing an actual, clearcutshape. The entire thing wasabout the size of a quartermoon. (See Figure 1)

Two Globs of Light

It seemed "like two globs oflight stuck together." It wasgiving off white light compara-ble to that of the full moon inspite of its smaller size, butthe glow did not light the

Figure 1

earth or surrounding dark sky.From time to time, with ho

regular pattern, but at leastfour times between 1 a.m. and3:30 a.m., the object seemed tomake a "jump" from its slowpath westward, zigzagging a-round in a sort of squarish mo-tion. Clint was confident these"jumps" were not due to opticalillusion or to eyestrain fromstaring at the object over solong a period of time.By 4 a.m. Clint was convinced

that the object was trulystrange and wanted to get otherwitnesses. His family and hewere aware of UFOs, having readarticles in the popular press.He woke up his mother and hissister Laurette, 15 years old.They also attempted to awakenhis father, but he refused tocome out to see the object.

Mrs. K and Laurette accom-panied Clint outside, and from4 a.m. to 4:35 a.m. the objectwas viewed by all three. Mrs.K and Laurette also saw the"jumping motions" made two orthree times by the object dur-ing their vigil. They statethe motions were seen at leastby two persons simultaneously.

They also stated they saw"flashes, like silent explo-tions," occasionally from theobject, but only with avertedvision.

Mrs. K saw the object like"two bright glowing lightsstuck together," but each seem-ed composed of several lightsequivalent in brightness tolarge stars. The object as awhole was not . circular, butneither was there separation ofthe conglomerate lights. Theedges were so bright that noclearcut outline could be de-.;termined. (See Figure 2)

Figure 2

Laurette stated that most ofthe time she saw a "middlebright blob," which was sobrilliant it was hard to lookat. On occasion she thought

Figure 3

she could see an elongatedwhite glowing rectangle behindthe middle bright clump. Therectangle was not so bright asthe center and seemed to behidden most of the time by thecentral light. (See Figure 3)

"Zooming" Objects

From about 3 to 5 a.m., thewitnesses saw smaller, fast"zooming" objects travelingacross the sky. Some seemed tocome from the direction of thebright object; others seemed tobe going toward it. These ob-jects were never actually seento enter or leave the mainbright obj ect, but appearedand/or disappeared several di-ameters away. The paths ofother smaller objects had norelation to the location of thelarge object.

These small objects weregenerally white in color, thesize and appearance of "aver-age-size stars." Their pathsacross the sky encompassed any-where from 60 degrees to 100degrees, and all lasted for 3to 5 seconds. Clint noted thatthese objects, though basicallywhite, went through colorchanges, all very pale, but en-compassing all colors of thespectrum, "like stars reflect-ing colors, as if they weregoing through the differentlayers of air." He was surethey were not meteors, becauseof the straight, long paths,

differing from the short areasof meteors he had seen.

The witnesses had the feel-ing that the objects were re-lated to the main object, per-haps separating from or re-turning to it. In addition,all had a "feeling that therewas an immense amount of activ-ity, of things zooming aroundup there, all of which couldn'tbe seen." They stated theythought they were "only gettingglimpses of what was going on."See Figure 4 for a sketch ofthe paths of six of the fainterobj ects, directions roughlyestimated.

Clint and Laurette, thoughfascinated by the display, re-tired at 4:35 and 4:45 respec-tively, leaving Mrs. K alone inthe yard. She watched until 5a.ra. The sky became light withapproaching sunrise, the mainobject faded, and the smallerobjects were becoming harder tosee. Then she, too, went intothe house.

Investigation by MUFON

The witnesses consideredcalling the police during thenight, but decided not to forfear of ridicule. That after-noon, still July 24, they con-tacted Griffith Observatory inHollywood and were referred toSKYNET #3 Druffel, who investi-gated the case on behalf ofMUFON.

The investigator has for atleast ten years received occa-tional reports of what seem tobe that type UFO known in theliterature as "cloud cigars" or"carrier craft." All these re-ports, at least five in number,have come from south Long Beachand the associated Santa Cata-lina Channel area. This reportseemed to fit into this type ofreport, on which the investi-gator has been making a con-certed study.

Aware that the planet Jupi-ter was in the early morningsoutheast sky at this time,

»Y

Figure 4

however, she asked the witness-es during the initial tele-phone interview to look atJupiter on the early morning ofthe 25th to see if that couldhave been what they had seen.

Weather was checked. On themorning of July 24, the skieswere exceptionally clear, theresult of sporadic thunderstormactivity from a weak southeast-erly front which had been af-fecting the Los Angeles Basinarea several days.

During an on-the-spot inves-tigation at the witnesses' homeon July 26, Clint stated thathe had seen Jupiter the nightbefore, but that it was "yel-low," in comparison to thebright white object the familyhad viewed.

Figures on azimuth and ele-vation were taken, with engi-neer's compass and elevation-finder. Clint first viewed theobject at about 25 degrees ele-vation, 125 degrees azimuth.At about 4:30 a.m. it was be-tween 40-45 degrees high, andabout 185.degrees azimuth.

Honest, Stable Witnesses

The witnesses in .the inves-tigator's opinion,, are honestand stable witnesses, reportingwhat they saw—no more, no.less. She was impressed by thecareful way in which . theysought to describe. their ex-perience.

From July 27 through August2, efforts were made to identi-fy the reported objects. Otherresearchers in the area, werecontacted, but no correlatingUFO reports could be turned up.Professional and amateur astro-nomical sources were contacted,out these also failed to turnup any qualified observer whohad seen a "peculiar astronomi-cal object" in the Long Beacharea on the date in question.

Consultation with a profes-sional astronomer and two qual-ified amateur astronomers, plusresearch into astronomicaljournals, led to the informa-tion detailed as follows:

Probable Explanation

Estimated azimuth and eleva-tion figures for Jupiter on thedate and time reported were ob-tained from Griffith Observa-tory.1 a.m. Elevation: JUPITER 30+

degrees - OBJECT 36 degrees -^Azimuth: JUPITER 130-140 de-grees -.OBJECT 125 degrees.

4:30:a.m. Elevation: JUPI-TER 45-50 degrees - OBJECT a-bout 45 degrees. Azimuth." JUP-ITER 190 degrees - OBJECT 185degrees.It has been noted by personal

observation of the investigator(also an amateur astronomer)that Jupiter at its brightesttends to look brilliantly whitewhen viewed in smog-free air,especially in the early morninghours when the sky is relative-ly free of ground glow. Innormal smoggy or hazy air, itassumes a steady, yellow glow.

It is assumed, therefore,that the object viewed by thewitnesses on July 24 was Jupit-er seen under an unusual set ofcircumstances, outlined below:

1. The sky was abnormallyclear, giving Jupiter an unus-ual appearance. It. might benoted here that the night staffof the Griffith Observatory hadseveral calls on the night inquestion in which Jupiter wasreported as a UFO.

2. Mrs. K has exceptionallygood far vision. Her childrenand husband confirm this, Mr.K remarking that ."she has eyeslike a "scope!"' The children,were probably; able to see thedisk of Jupiter with unaidedeyes. The planet at this timewas -2.4 magnitude, or about15-20 times the size and bril-liance of a first-magnitudestar. Its disk is 45" in equa-torial diameter, large enoughfor a person with exceptionaleyesight to see it as more thana point source of light.

3. By July 25, the skiesover Long Beach had probablyreturned to . "normal," eventhough the weak southeasterlyfront was still affecting moun-tain and desert regions of

southern California. Therefore,Clint saw Jupiter that night as"yellow."

4. The witnesses were pos-sibly able to see the four at-tendant Galilean satellites ofJupiter, which were all in evi-dence around the equator of theplanet on the date in question.It is possible for persons withexceptional eyesight to seethese satellites without opti-cal aids. The witnesses mighthave seen them as indistinctextensions of the disk. Thiscould account for Laurette'simpression of a "shadowy rec-tangle behind the central blobof light," and also might ex-plain Mrs. K's impression thatthe object was "a conglomera-tion of light sources," or "twoblobs stuck together." The ob-ject appeared round to Clint atfirst, a normal impression. Ashe stared, his eyesight probab-ly resolved the brilliantplanet and the attendant satel-lites into a "sausage-shape."

5. The zooming lights seem-ingly coming from the objectcould have been Delta Aquaridmeteors, annually seen in lateJuly and early August. Theheight of the display was onthe mornings of July 27 and 28.One of the radiants of theshower was slightly west ofJupiter.

6. Delta Aquarids are, byreputation, "slow and bright,"which could explain the factthat the objects were notrecognized as meteors by thewitnesses. The other faint ob-jects seen zooming in other di-rections than FROM the objectcould have been from the meteorshower's second radiant, orsporadic meteors. The one ob-ject which made a right angleturn in the north and "joinedwith another," traveling westto east, remains unexplained.(See Figure 4)

Since there is a high proba-bility that the object viewedby the witnesses has a conven-tional explanation, no furtheraction is planned on this caseat the present time. (Reportfiled August 6, 1974)

Friedman says

Jacobs' history of Uf ology well doneEDITOR'S NOTE: Stanton T. Friedman

is a nuclear physicist and renowned lec-turer and investigator in the UFO field.He was one of 12 scientists who providedtestimony on the UFO enigma to theCommittee on Science and Astronautics,House of Representatives, on July 29,1968.

By Stanton T. Friedman

"THE UFO CONTROVERSY INAMERICA," by Dr. David M.Jacobs (Indiana UniversityPress;, $12.50) is a fascinatingvolume—a much-revised versionof the author's PhD thesis inhistory at the University ofWisconsin in Madison. It isprobably the best overall viewof "ufology" in the UnitedStates ever written. The periodbetween 1896 and 1974 is wellcovered from an historicalviewpoint.

Jacobs has examined a greatdeal of material, especiallyconcerning the role of the U.S.Air Force and the private UFOgroups such as the National In-vestigation Committee on AerialPhenomena (NICAP) and the Aeri-al phenomena Research Organi-zation (APRO). His is the dis-interested third party, objec-tive view. There are morethan 50 pages of references andnotes, along with an index, andthe approach is scholarly.

The author has provided thebest description I have seen ofthe attitudes of a number ofolder scientists who have be-come embroiled in the UFO con-troversy: Dr. James E. McDon-ald, Dr. Donald Menzel, Dr. Ed-ward U. Condon and Dr. J. AllenHynek. Also portrayed in somedepth are a number of non-scientists like Donald Keyhoewho spent so much effort at-tacking the Air Force for itssecrecy on UFOs, along with thewriters for the NEW YORK TIMESand other newspapers who de-voted so much- time attackingthe people who accept UFO

reality.Certainly neither the scien-

tists nor the journalists areportrayed as . the objectivetruth seekers that both groupswould have the public believethey are—and which a carefulstudy indicates they are not.

Jacobs, along the way de-stroys the myth of the highquality investigative effortsof Project Blue Book.The 1896-97 wave of sightings

of powered airships is present-ed in depth as a yet-to-be-solved mystery. The descrip-tions of the objects and theirbehavior were not a clearchronicling of flying saucersbut rather the pronouncementsfrom on high by newsmen andscientists 78 years ago--andsound much like those of ourtime. Prejudice and characterdefamation were evidenced farmore frequently than objectivetruth seeking. Technology maychange, but the nature of mandoes not.

Since Jacobs was a graduatestudent in history when much ofthis volume was written, it isnot surprising that he doesn'tdig into such areas as thefeasibility of interstellar,travel to any degree and thathe seems naively to accept thenotion that Project Blue Bookwas the only Air Force organi-zation investigating UFOs.

Considering Blue Book's to-tally inadequate capability forobtaining data about flyingcraft as compared with, for ex-ample, the Aerospace DefenseCommand with its 35,000 mem-bers, its huge radar net,closed communication and com-puterized data evaluation sys-tems, Blue Book was much morelikely an unwitting cover thanthe major focus for high qual-ity technical data on UFOs.

Jacobs also has the annoyinghabit of talking about data

sources without presenting muchof the data itself. One exampleis Proj ect Blue Book SpecialReport 14, a vital documentdone for the Air Force in 1955and containing more data aboutUFO sightings than all otherAir Force documents combined.

The reader would have bene-fited from the knowledge that19.7 per cent of the 2,199sightings investigated werelisted as "unknowns"—complete-ly separate from the "insuffic-ient data" cases—and that thebetter the quality of thesightings the MORE likely theywere to have been listed as"unknowns." Also, that thestatistical comparison of thecharacteristics of the "un-knowns" versus the "knowns"clearly showed that the twogroups were totally dissimilar.

Jacobs mentions the GallupPoll of 1973, which showed that51 per cent of adult Americansbelieve in UFOs. He didn'tmention that the poll showedthat the greater the educationof the individual, and theyounger he is, the more likelyhe is to believe in UFOs. Inboth cases the data would havehelped the reader make his ownevaluation of the rhetoric ofthe skeptical scientists andjournalists.

There are a number of minorinaccuracies, including suchtrivia as the dates of the ex-cellent Dick Cavett show onUFOs (No. 2, 1973) and of thefamous Coyne helicopter case(Oct. 18, 1973) over Mansfield,Ohio. Jacobs is wrong aboutthe composition of both theAmerican Institute of Aeronau-tics and Astronautics Committeeon UFOs and the group which ap-peared on the Today show. Butoverall Jacobs' work is an ex-cellent source book and re-quired reading for any seriouslayman or Ufologist.

s55fe/ In Others5 WordsBy Lucius Parish

. . In the past, I've had con-sisistently good words to sayabout the NATIONAL ENQUIRER'S.UFO material. However, an ar-ticle on "Men in Black" byHarold Lewis in the Sept. 23issue of the ENQUIRER is a bitdifferent. Two of the persons

I mentioned in the article haveinformed me that Lewis' ima-gination apparently played an

*•' important role in the writingof the article. So, unless.theremainder of the MIB cases,cited by Lewis can be checked

. out, one must look at them witha suspicious eye. The Oct. 7ENQUIRER contained an articleon landing traces found in Can-ada, while the Oct. 14 issuegave the opinions of Sovietscientists on a hypotheticalexploded planet between Marsand Jupiter.

NATIONAL STAR for Sept. 23carried a short article on Pre-cision Monitoring Systems andtheir plans for a network ofUFO detection posts. An arti-cle in the Oct. 7 STAR linkedUFOs with cattle mutilationsarid included a Texas "mysteryhelicopter" and "creature" re-port which was strpngly remin-iscent of the West Virginia

. "Mothman" stories of 1966-67.

Recent UFO articles in NA-' TIONAL TATTLER have dealt with1 sightings behind the Iron Cur-

tain (Sept. 21 issue); fashionmodel Marie Dunham1s UFO sight-ing and claimed telepathic com-munication with its crew (Sept.28 j.ssue); the opinions of BradSteiger and John White on UFOs(Oct. 5 issue); and.the experi-ences of David Mahon of Browns-town, iL. (Oct. 12 issue).

The W (November) issue ofOFFICIAL dFO contained articles

by such researchers.as GeorgeFawcett, Hayden Hewes, KevinRandle, George Earley, JimLorenzen, Don Berliner, JoeBrill, Wehdelle Stevens andothers. This magazine is nowan excellent source of infor-mation -and it is something like"old home week" when one looks.through the list of contribu-tors in each issue. The" #,.5issue should be out by the timethis column sees print.

Not much on UFOs, per se, inthe November issue of SAGA, al-though this does contain arti-cles on cattle mutilations,disappearing ships in Lake .On-tario, and Keel's column onstrange disappearances in gen-eral.

The November issue of PROBETHE UNKNOWN has an interestingarticle on an ancient Indianscroll, rock paintings, and UFOactivity in the Great Lakesregion.John Wallace:Spencer's second

book, NO EARTHLY EXPLANATION,is now available in a paperbackedition from Bantam Books.

Those who have read the pre-vious "Sourcebooks" of Forteanphenomena which have been com-piled by William R. Corlisswill be pleased to learn of hislatest effort, STRANGE UNIVERSE(Vol.'l). This deals with as-tronomical mysteries , and hasconsiderable material of inter-est to UFO researchers. Ifyou're intrigued by such topicsas telescopic meteors, intra-mercurial planets (Vulcan), andstrange appearances on theMoon, Mars and other planets,you'll find STRANGE UNIVERSEwell worth reading. It isavailable from the author at:P.O. Box 107 - Glen Arm, MD21057. The price is $7.95.

UFOs NAZI SECRET WEAPON? is

yet another of those bookswhich "explains" UFOs as secretGerman devices,- perfected sinceWorld War II by Nazi scientistswho fled to Antarctica or SouthAmerica. The authors, Mattern§ Friedrich, speculate thatperhaps extraterrestrials in-spired and aided the Nazis intheir development of "saucers."This is a variation on an oldtheme and really says nothingwhich has not been said (orspeculated about) elsewhere.The authors' apparent neo-Naziviews will prove distasteful.tomany persons, .no matter whatthey have to say about UFOs.The book may be ordered (at$4.95, plus 75£ postage) from:Samisdat Publishers Ltd. - 206Carlton St. - Toronto, Ontario,Canada.

UFOs AND OTHER WORLDS' byPeter Ryan § Ludek Pesek mustrank as one of the worst UFObooks of recent years. Actual-ly, only about half the book's48 pages are concerned withUFOs, and the information pre-sented is both incomplete anderroneous. Pesek's space artis the only redeeming " featurehere. The book was designedfor juvenile readers, but it isactually a juvenile book, inthe truest sense of the word.The price is $1.75, from Pen-guin Books Inc. - 7110 Ambassa-dor Road - Baltimore, MD 21207.

For those of our readers whospeak French, a Canadian publi-cation called UFO-QUEBEC may beof interest. This is a quar-terly magazine, covering allaspects of Ufology, with a sub-scription rate of $5.00 per yearfor U.S. and European subscrib-ers. It is very well-done, withphotos and illustrations, theaddress is: UFO-QUEBEC - P. 0.Box 53 - Dollard-des-Ormeaux,Quebec - Canada H9G 2H5.

A summary and critique

Ft. Smith ConferenceEDITOR'S NOTE: The following ac-

count is subjective and based on theimpressions of the writer. It is not in-tended to reflect the views of any otherindividual or any organization.

By Dwight ConnellySKYLOOK Editor

The Ft. Smith UFO ConferenceOct. 17-19 was .originally bil-led as the first conference tobring together the four majorUFO groups: Aerial PhenomenaResearch Organization (APRO),Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS),Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), andNational Investigations Commit-tee.on- Aerial Phenomena (NI-:CAP). Bill Pitts, director,ofthe conference, nearly.reachedthis goal—only. NICAP' s direc-:

, tor.was missing. Three . out offour is still a record, how-ever.

In addition to the so-called''big four," the conferencefeatured Project Starlight Int-ernational (PSI) Director RayStanford and his crew, as wellas Ground Saucer" Watch (GSW)Director (western section) BillSpaulding. TWO of the most im-pressive presentations of theconference came from these org-anizations. It would thus seemthere are at least six "top"UFO groups in the U.S., ratherthan four, although they are insome cases organized different-ly to reflect different goals.

Cooperation?

Pitts indicated in settingup the conference that one ofthe key goals was to increasethe amount of cooperation be-tween UFO groups: UFO--Unitedfor Objectivity. Perhaps themost positive indication of atleast some disposition towardcooperation came in the form ofa joint resolution drafted by

"Ri

Charles Hickson, left, and Lou Parish met for the first time at the One of the hconference. . P.S.I, instrum

Dr. R. F. Haines of APRO andCUFOS and presented to the con-ference .

Probably the most importantelement in this resolution wasthat each group would "come toan agreement, within the nearfuture," concerning areas of"basic emphasis" for eachgroup. Presumably this wouldmean that APRO, for ^example,might concentrate on contactcases or humanoid cases, whileMUFON might concentrate onground traces or photos, thusreducing duplication of ef-fort.

In spite of the joint reso-lution and the verbalization ofstatements recognizing the needfor cooperation, underlyingpersonality conflicts were ap-parent at the convention.

There were frequent commentsthat this or that group or in-dividual had attempted to workwith this or that group or in-dividual only to be rebuffed.Convention participants indi-cated that some of those call-.ing most loudly for the sharingof information had, in fact,refused to share information

when requested to do so.-:. Some observers suggested itwould be difficult for personswho dislike each other to sitdown and divide up UFO researchso that each UFO group wouldspecialize in one or more spe-cific area—especially whenAPRO, CUFOS, GSW, MUFON, and-NICAP allegedly have special-ists in virtually all areas ofUFO research.

Hickson and Pascagoula

One of the highlights of theconference was the Friday nightpresentation by Charles Hicksonof his alleged experiences inbeing taken aboard a UFO.(alongwith Calvin Parker) at Pasca-goula, MS, Oct. 11, 1973.

Hickson's story was essen-tially the same as he has toldnumerous times, although he hasbeen credited with various ver-sions concerning specific de-tails, as UFO researcher-critic Philip Klass has pointedout. Hickson was to have takena polygraph exam at the con-ference, but decided not to"because I want to take one

features varied attractions

ghlights of the conference was the demonstration ofnts.

Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the best-known name in Ufology, found himselfbusy with both the media and conference participants.

from, a qualified person underconditions not connected with' aUFO conference." Klass andothers have charged that thepolygraph exam given to'Hicksonseveral days after his allegedencounter - was conducted by aperson whose skill was somewhatquestionable. .

. The most convincing !testi-mony on behalf'.of Hickson comesfrom those on-the scene immedi-ately after the incident alleg-edly occurred, such as Dr.James Harder of APRO, who con-ducted an abbreviated hypnosison Hickson soon after the ex-perience. Dr. Harder and otherspresent were convinced thatHickson and Parker could nothave faked the. terror whichthey demonstrated at the sher-iff's office.

Dr. Harder told me at theconvention that "there is noquestion" but that Hickson ex-perienced what. he. claims tohave experienced.

I had an opportunity to talkwith Hickson on two differentoccasions during the confer-ence. A rather retiring indi-vidual, .despite his notoriety,

Hickson is how more or lessself-employed in a field re-lated to his previous work atthe shipyards. He is alsoworking on a book with the helpof a friend, Professor William"Chic1.1 Mendez. . Hickson says hehas not made ' any money on hisexperience, .and that he doesnot intend to.

He has had at least one UFOsighting . since the Pascagoulaexperience, and he suggeststhat he has had at' least oneadditional contact (i.e. whenasked how he knew that the "ro-bots" at Pascagoula were extra-terrestrial he indicated thatsubsequent events had somethingto do with this conclusion).

The one subsequent sightingwhich has been made public thusfar occurred about,9 p.m. onOct. 12, 1974, at the ProjectStarlight International facil-ity near Austin, Texas,, withfive witnesses. On this occa-sion the group saw a very bril-liant object resembling a discon ^edge; or a sphere, about5,000 feet -to the , southwestover some trees. The object,about 60 to. 80 percent- the

angular size of the full moon(about 30 feet in diameter whendistance was calculated), emit-ted an unusual orange color.Beneath the object the lightappeared to be. brighter, .form-ing something resembling :ashaft or beam which illuminatedthe hillside below. The objectmoved slowly parallel with theridge in a northerly direction,only : a few feet above thetrees. After being in view forabout 25 seconds, the objectdarted backward over the ridgetoward a ravine and disappear-ed. . '

• Hickson's initial reactionto the sighting, according tothe PSI JOURNAL, was, "Well,I'll be!" The JOURNAL articleindicated, however,, that "Hick-son's reaction left some ofthose present with the subjec-.tive feeling that he waspleased to be seeing somethingstrange, but was not nearly asstartled as the others present—as if he had already seen orexperienced something much morestartling at an earlier time.":- Hickson said he and his fam-ily still ; live in the same

house as at the time of thesighting, and that the familyhas experienced no particularproblems as a result of his ex-perience. He says Parker hasnow recovered from a bad caseof nerves which grew out of thesighting.

Polygraph Exam Workshop

A series of workshops forinvestigators was conductedSaturday morning, beginningwith a polygraph presentationby Sgt. Charles Hill. Theplanned polygraph examinationof Hickson was, as alreadynoted, cancelled at Hickson'srequest, but Sgt. Hill testedanother individual who claimedto have been taken aboard a UFOseveral years ago. fBecausethe individual does not desireadditional publicity, his namewill not be used.)Sgt. Hill indicated that this

individual "had not fully con-vinced himself that the exper-ience had taken place," accord-ing to the polygraph exam.

I later talked with this in-dividual and his wife, and hemaintained that the event hadoccurred as reported. His wifesaid that events over the pastseveral years, especially pre-dictions which came true, hadconvinced her he was tellingthe truth. The witness said hehad been trying to put the ex-perience out of his mind,"tell-ing myself it didn't happen,"which he thinks may account forthe results of the polygraphexam.

Sgt. Hill explained to theinvestigators that the skill ofthe polygraph operator is ofextreme importance, and thatinvestigators should use onlythose operators who have beenadequately trained, preferablyfrom states having strictlicensing requirements.

Hypnotic Regression

Dr. Leo Sprinkle of APROdiscussed the technique of hyp-notic regression, noting that

there are varying degrees andtypes. Working with a volun-teer from the audience, Mrs.Mildred Higgins, he demonstrat-ed a technique which made useof a ball suspended from achain, which was in turn heldby the person being regressed--a type of pendulum which wasmoved by the subject to indi-cate answers.

Cattle Mutilation

This workshop was conductedby Kevin Randle of APRO, whointroduced the session by say-ing that there is no connectionbetween UFOs and cattle mutila-tions. Indicating his dis-pleasure at having to investi-gate mutilations when he couldbe checking UFO cases, Randlesaid the mutilations were theresult of cultist groups andnatural predeators. He saidsome of these cases were mis-represented by persons claimingto be UFO researchers. Randleindicated that investigatingmutilation cases had broughthim threats, apparently frommembers of cultist groups, andthat he had become concernedenough to carry a gun.

Some members of the audiencequestioned whether there wasenough evidence to concludethat there is positively no re-lationship between UFOs andmutilations, and it was sug-gested that UFO investigatorskeep an open mind on the sub-ject. Randle commented thathis investigations had failedto turn up any relationship.

Sources outside the workshoplater indicated that a recentcase in Colorado involvingstrange lights and a string ofcattle mutilations might tieUFOs with some of the mutila-tions. This source .also sug-gested that radioactivity hadbeen found at the sites of somemutilations, indicating thatinvestigators should routinelycheck this.

Philip Klass, who has written two books"explaining" UFOs, took an active partin the conference.

Klass the Nonbeliever

Philip Klass, author of UFOsIDENTIFIED and the more recentUFOs EXPLAINED, was reportedlyattending his first UFO con-ference, so on the last day ofthe conference I asked him hisreactions. He said he had en-joyed the conference, and thateveryone had treated him verywell. His most frequent andmost vocal critic was StantonFriedman, who presented a tall;entitled "UFOs Are Real."

Throughout the conference,Klass continued to defend hisanalyses of key UFO cases, suchas the Delphos, KS., case, ap-parently with sincerity. Hefrequently asked questions ofother speakers, and tape re-corded numerous sessions. Over-all, he appeared to be an assetto the convention, keeping UFOproponents on their toes,though seemingly not changingany minds.

PSI Demonstration

Project Starlight Inter-national Director Ray Stanford,his wife Kitty-Bo, and otherPSI personnel presented a mostinteresting demonstration ofPSI equipment, which was trans-ported to Ft. Smith from Aus-tin, Texas, for the conference.A highlight of the presentationwas a demonstration of thevideo-modulated laser beam,which may be used for signalingUFOs and for possible testingof whether UFOs cause lightbeams to bend.

The growing equipment com-plex at the Austin site is uti-lizing sophisticated instrumen-tation in studying the UFO phe-nomenon.

GSW Photo Analysis

Bill Spaulding, director ofthe Western Section of GroundSaucer Watch, with headquartersin Arizona, described equipmentwhich enables GSW to break downUFO photos into various ele-ments for analysis.

Spaulding invited UFO organ-izations to send photos for an-alysis, but noted that a heavyvolume of photos would slowdown the process and possiblyrequire charges to offset GSWcosts.

Participants

When all is said and done,the best thing about a UFO con-vention is the people it at-tracts . It was good to seeWalt and Jeanne Andrus againafter their move from Quincy toSeguin. I enjoyed meeting Tom-my Bland for the first time,and talking with Gene Steinbergin person instead of by phone.It's always interesting to chatwith Allen Greenfield, and ofcourse our own Lou Parish.

Allen,Hynek, Ray Stanford,Charles Hickson, Leo Sprinkle,James Harder, Coral and JimLorenzen, Bill Spaulding, Bill•Pitts, Walt Andrus, Dewey Four-net, Philip Klass, Stan Fried-man, Capt. Stephen Pease, andothers on the official program

also enhanced the many unoffic,-ial conversations throughoutthe three-day event.

Convention Critique'

It is perhaps somewhat un-appreciative to critique whatwas a unique, first-of-a-kindUFO meeting. Overall, it was avery fine meeting, and some ofthe not-so-fine aspects wereperhaps beyond the control ofconference director Bill Pitts,who deserves congratulationsfor a fine job of pulling to-gether diverse elements for thefirst time.

It would, in my opinion,have been preferable to havescheduled Charles Hickson1spresentation on Saturday, sincemany of us have full-time jobsand long distances to travel,making a Friday evening sessiondifficult. Friday evening wouldhave been, a good time for thedirectors of the three "major"UFO groups to tell why they arethe best—a generally uselessactivity. If anyone wants toknow what the various UFOgroups allegedly do, it is notdifficult to obtain written in-formation. Unless a group hasa worthwhile contribution to aconvention program--such asPSI's demonstration of instru-mentation equipment, and GSW'sdemonstration of photo analysis—it does not deserve a prom-inent place on the program.

The Saturday morning work-shop sessions on polygraph ex-aminations, hypnotic regres-sion, and cattle mutilationsconflicted with the regularprograms featuring the FAAradar team,'• the NORAD presen-tation, and the resoloutibn-proclamation involving cooper-ation between UFO groups. Infact, the very interestingworkshop on polygraph exams re-sumed in the afternoon, thoughunscheduled, conflicting withDewey Fournet's discussion ofProj ect Blue Book. Since theworkshop sessions were of con-siderable value they shouldhave been scheduled as a fea-

tured part of the conference,probably with each conducted intwo or more time slots.As noted, the Saturday 2 p.m.

to 5 p.m. segment of the con-ference featured nothing butpublic relations-type materialfrom APRO, CUFOS, and MUFON,yet there were no alternativesessions for this time period.On Sunday, Walt Andrus wasscheduled to discuss MUFON'sInvestigator's Manual at 8 a.m., the same time that BillSpaulding was supposed to dis-cuss Ground Saucer Watch in themain session. Andrus wiselycancelled his session so as notto conflict with what turnedout to be one of the betterpresentations of the confer-ence .

So much for the formal ses-sions. The informal sessionswere marred by three factors.First, two different "parties"were scheduled for Fridaynight, effectively splitting upthe participants the very firstnight of the UNITED for Objec-tivity conference. There wasno party of any kind on Satur-day night. A little coordina-tion and cooperation would havemade this aspect of the confer-ence more enjoyable and valua-ble.

Secondly, the motel facili-ties did not seem conducive tothe gathering of individualsinto informal groups. The majorsessions were held across thestreet from the motel, andthere seemed to be no centralarea, other than a small lunch-room, where participants couldmingle with each other. Theconference was physicallysplit.

Sessions which begin at 8 a.m. should be outlawed at allconventions where participantsnormally go to bed after mid-v

night—especially where break-fast service was as slow as atthe motel headquarters.

Finally, the Saturday after-noon session was just too long.Not many people can listen tospeakers from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.with no scheduled break. This

was especially unfair to the5:00 speaker, Philip Klass, whowas more or less an outsideguest.Obviously, part of the sched-

uling problem involved too manyspeakers and not enough time.This in itself indicates thehigh quality of the conference.

Perhaps it would have beenimpossible to limit the lessinteresting aspects of the pro-gram (i.e. the PR from thethree UFO groups). Maybe thedirectors would not have cometo the conference, .if they hadnot been allowed to speak for afull hour each. Moreover, itmight have been difficult tojustify providing PSI and GSWwith time . for their excellent -presentations while denyingequal time to APRO, CUFOS, andMUFON.

Perhaps some sort of criteriacan be worked out for futuremeetings." Perhaps the directorsof the major UFO groups willagree to talk only when theyhave something new and of gen-eral interest to say—such asdiscussions on new equipment,new techniques, or new in-sights. .

A Summary

In summary, it was a goodmeeting. There was a good mix-ture of the "popular" UFOmaterial (Hickson), the currentscientific advances (PSI, GSW,NORAD, FAA), the "nuts andbolts" (workshops), the histor-ical (Fournet and Blue Book),and the skeptical (Klass).

Stanton Friedman seemed tobring nearly all these elementstogether in his entertainingand reasonably scientific talk,"UFO's Are Real."

The field of UFO studieswould benefit from an annualconference of this type, al-though the conferences sponsor-ed by individual UFO groupsmight suffer. Perhaps a week-long joint conference in a re-sort area each summer couldcombine the best of all confer-ences .

Is this Mr. Klass? I've run out of swampgas.

Men say dairyvisited by UFODAILY OBSERVER/Corning, CA,

Oct. 16, 1975--Tyrone Philips,38, and Hubert Brown, 22, claimthey, saw a UFO at the KentPlott . Dairy at 3:30 a.m. onSept. 30, 1975. The dairy,where both are employed, islocated seven miles south of.Corning, off Highway 99W.

The object was described asdisc shaped with a dome on top."It made a humming sound andlit up the whole lot like day-light," according to Brown.

, The object was first spottedby Brown, who .had gone to theback lot to round up the cows.He ran back to the milk houseand got Philips.

They watched the .UFO hoverring and emitting a bright redlight. After three to fiveminutes it soared off "in theblink of an eye" as the two mentried to get closer. The cowshad fled from the area and gonebehind the barn when they sawthe UFO raising a huge cloud ofdust. . .

The case is being investi-gated by Paul Cerny, MUFON di-rector for Northern California.As additional details becomeavailable, they will be printedin SKYLOOK. (Submitted by JoeBrill)

SouthernBy Richard Hall

International Coordinator '

(A spate of UFO sightings inRhodesia and S. Africa which ap-parently began the first week ofJuly may stir a new official in-vestigation. MUFON Representa-tive Carl Van Vlierden in Wands-beck, S. Africa, has submittedextensive newspaper coverage ofthe incidents and is circulatingMUFON report forms to key wit-nesses. This preliminary reportsummarizes the main sightings todate)..

Reports of oddly behavinglights in the sky began early inJuly in the vicinity of Salis-bury, Rhodesia, and quicklymushroomed into a minor "flap"with wide newspaper publicity.

On July 13 a couple drivingto S. Africa, from Fort Victoriato Beitbridge (southern tip ofRhodesia), said that their carwas followed by a UFO (D. F.ADVERTISER 8/6/75). (EDITOR'SNOTE: this was in the same areaas the reported teleportation by"Peter" and "Frances" on May31, 1974; see March, 1975, SKY-LOOK. )

On the same date at Berea,Orange Free State, S. Africa,journalist Gavin Alcock was sit-ting in his 16th floor flat whenhe heard a loud .crash and asound like thunder. Rushing toa window, he saw a large glowingorange, cigar-shaped object inthe sky. The object "grew in-visible from the center tilljust the edge was visible, thenvanished- completely." (RANDDAILY MAIL 7/14/75)

Sightings Near Prison

July 15: .Prison officials atKhami, Bulawayo (SW Rhodesia),saw an orange UFO, almost cir-cular with a flattish bottom androunded top, pacing their car ata distance of about 2-3 km at8:30 p.m. About 30 minuteslater another prison officer saw

Africa reports several UFO sightingsa similar object in about thesame place. Next night at 7:30p.m. a bright, round, silveryobject was seen hovering motion-less about 4 km northeast of theprison. After several minutes itmoved away rapidly in an easter-ly direction. (BULAWAYO CHRON-ICLE 7/18/75; dates of the pris-on incidents vary in other newsreports, but this one was clos-est to the scene and seemed mostreliable).

Late in July, Wing CommanderRoger Simmonds, member, of Parli-ament for Hatfield, asked thegovernment to set up a committeeto investigate the sightings.In response the minister oftransport and"power, Roger Haw-kins, said: "I agree with himthat this is no joke and is amatter that has and must betreated with some degree of ser-iousness."

A Rhodesian Air Force spokes-man, however, claimed the ob-j ects "never show up on radar"and--ironically--cited the fact,that the U.S. Air Force hadfound explanations for 95% ofall reports. Minister Hawkinssaid he would look into, the.'pos-sibility of forming a UFO inves-tigation committee. . (RAND DAILYMAIL 7/25/75; P.E. EVENING POST8/9/75).

Man Reports Bruises

On July 26 at Macheke, about110 km east of Salisbury, a wit-ness reported physiological ef-fects. John Clark, 54, a sales-man, said a brightly lighted ob-ject appeared at tree-top levelnear his home and he was flungto the ground and could notmove. He showed police largebruises on his shoulders andchest that he said were causedby the "UFO"" "I think thVoojectJ . ,- . - . . . • . : T T* t i . .

was just examining.me, he said.(P.E. EVENING POST 8/9/75). '_.;'';

(EDITOR'S NOTE: SKYLOOK-hasadditional details on'this?inci-dent which raises some "question

about the overall reliability ofthe witness, but this informa-tion has not been cleared forpublication.)Police in Salisbury personally

witnessed and chased a UFO onJuly 28. As three police on theroof of the police stationwatched, two officers in a pa-trol car drove toward an objecthovering .about 150 m above theground. As they approached, theUFO moved away and eluded them.At midnight that night, a motor-ist reported, a "big brightorange light" about twice as bigas the setting sun, indented ontop, followed his car as hedrove from Marandellas to Rusape(southeast . of Salisbury). Anodor like foul sea water per-meated the car. (RAND DAILY MAIL7/31/75).

Metal Ball

At Joubertina, S.. Africa, inan area called the Langkloff (atthe southern tip of the conti-nent) , a silvery sphere crashedto earch July 29, just missing afarmhouse and shattering a hardboulder. (See SKYLOOK No. 93,page 13). Later, reports, indicatethat it appears to be manmade,possibly some Russian spacehardware. According to the OUDT-SHOORN COURANT .(8/6/75) it isabout 60 cm in . diameter, con-

sisting of two hemispheres weld-ed together. At one end are theremains of a threaded pipescrewed into a hole, and at the

: other a gaping hole apparentlyburned through the metal. Orangeand white markings, some re-sembling faint lettering, werenoted on the surface.

According to information re-ceived from the South Africaembassy by former internationalcoordinator Joe Brill, the ballwas examined by the Center forScientific and Industrial Re-search in Pretoria, but theCenter was ' unable to identifythe object or1 - its country oforigin. The Center has now re-turned the ball to the Capetownpolice.

During the first week of Aug-ust there were numerous sight-ings in the vicinity of New-castle, Natal. In one case afarm family watched a silveryobject fringed with red, shapedsomething like a rugby ball,through binoculars and chasedit in a truck. The UFO seemedto diminish in size, then" "justvanished in mid-air." (NATALMERCURY- 8/7/75)

As a result of the sightings,Carl Van Vlierden obtained froma newspaper columnist a 1972green fireball report that hehad mentioned while reportingthe current sightings.

Ancient Astronauts group plans Mexican tripThe Ancient Astronaut Society

is sponsoring a Thanksgivingweek trip to archeologicalsites in Mexico Nov. 23-29.

1 The trip will include visitsto the Pyramid of the Sun, thecolossal statues of Tula, the

• enormpusiv-jstbne heads rat LaVenta :;.carid the Paleque..•Stone(Von Daniken's "astronaut:in aspace icapsule"). . .a.•••,. <_..,-

The /cost of .the; tour. is::$595per'-person double- occupancy-or$655 .per. person single . occu-

pancy, including all land ar-rangements, air fare from Chi-cago to Mexico City to Villa-hermosa to Mexico City to Chi-cago, meals, hotel costs, andentrance fees. Non-members ofthe Ancient Astronaut Societymust include an addit.iona-l\ $25for membership. .. ••!,•!..

.. Complete information, •. isavailable from the ABC TravelService of. Mexico, 1925,. N.Lincoln,;. Ave., Chicago,. .;. IL60614.- , . -.-. ; ,

,

Thailandsightingsdescribed

By Donald A. Johnson

While traveling - throughBangkok on my way to a teachingassignment .in southern Thailandduring October, 1973, I . wasfortunate to make the acquaint-ance of two reporters on thestaff of the English language.newspaper, THE BANGKOK NATION.

I confessed .an interest inthe UFO phenomenon and, be-cause news items were by thistime appearing in the . Asianpapers on the U.S. "Pascagoula"wave, I questioned them onwhether they knew of any localreports. My candidness soon wasrewarded when the*y revealed twovery interesting reports.

The first, much to my amaze-ment, was a contactee case in-volving a former member of theThai Parliament. This pres-tigious individual's encounterwas alleged to have occurredsometime during 1972. His nameand address were given to me,but unfortunately my stay inBangkok was too short to ar-range for • a translator and aninterview.

Photo Case

The second case proved mucheasier to investigate becauseit happened to involve two ofthe staff members of the BANKOKNATION--their chief photog-rapher and his assistant. It.was also mere recent and it in-volved photographs of the ob-ject.

The sighting began in theevening of August 30, 1973,shortly after 8 p.m., when Mr.Sombat Srichuros, 19, an atten-dant of Aree gas station onRama IV Road,, reported to THENATION that he had seen a fly-ing object with flashing green

Christina Loowrakwong, 13, describesthe UFO she says she saw behind AreeCourt and San Francisco Court.

lights over Soi Aree.Two school girls, Lisanette

Hansen, 12, and Christina Loow-rakwong, 13, of Soi Aree Court,reported the same or a similarobject passing behind AreeCourt and San Francisco Court.

Lisanette Hansen, whosefather Mr. Ashjorn Hansen,works as an international mar-keting expert for the U.N.,said the object had smallsquare windows with brightlights inside. Christina, whosaw the object first, stated itwas in the shape of a "halfwing" with many red lights go-ing on and off on top.

They reported the objectmoved slowly and smoothly with-out sound, and disappeared inthe direction of Klong (canal)Toey Port. The parents of thegirls rushed out after theywere told of the UFO and waitedfor sometime in hopes of catch-ing a view of the object shouldit return. It did r.ot.

One other resident in thearea reported the UFO to thelocal police station, but saidthey paid no attention to hisclaim.

THE -BANGKOK NAT-ION- .photog-raphers, Thewin Chanyawongseand Vinich Thinviratana, nextreported, sighting a .similar UFOwith a . flashing red light inthe center and two blue flash-ing lights, one on either end,

This is a sketch drawn by Christina'sbrother ' from a description given byChristina.

as they were driving on Suk-humvit Soi 20 at 10 p. m.(northwest but in the same ap-proximate area as the othersightings).

NATION reporters called DonMuang Airport to check forradar contact and no .contactwas reported, nor were anyscheduled aircraft or helicop-ter flights in the area.

Mr. Thewin took a series ofsix photographs of the objectwith a 35mm camera equippedwith a telephoto lens as itflew by. I was unable to meetwith Mr. Thewin because he wasout on assignment, but was ableto encourage Mr. Vinich toallow me to borrow the nega-tives of these pictures foranalysis.

.When .analysis was finallyperformed (I waited sometimeafter my return to the UnitedStates and was slightly remissin having this done)', the neg-atives were found to show twolights—sadly of only pointsource dimensions.

However, it was determinedthat the lights WERE in focusand that the camera, by judgingfrom stars which could be foundin the background, had not mov-ed or jumped noticeably duringany of the exposures. It wasfurther determined that thelights were blinking with sometype of alternating pattern as

This section of the photo shows twolights from the alleged UFO.

was reported, and that the dis-tance between the lights hadremained fairly constant, sug-gesting they had emanated fromone object.

Perpendicular Lights

The first negatives show thelights almost perpendicular tothe horizontal, with the orien-tation changing until in thefinal negative they, are: paral-lel with the horizontal. Al-though I have not yet receiveda.reply from Mr. Thewin regard-ing camera specifications orexposure time, through analysisthe exposure time can -be esti-mated as ho more than a fewseconds.

Negative number 5, greatlyenlarged, is reproduced withthis article. The blur in thelower right-hand corner is of alarge blossom of a bush-sizeplant which stands about theheight of a man. The object wastraveling from left to right a-cross the frame when the expos-ure was taken, and it appearsthat there are two dark spotsdirectly behind and to the leftof each light which are presum-ably shadows of the light sour-ces . '

It should be mentioned thatit is the opinion of the photo-analyst that the photos repre-.sent the wing lights of an air-

craft that has banked andleveled off. If these lightswere blue as reported by Mr.

. Thewin and, Vinich then this ex-planation would seem dubiousdue to their unconventionalcolor pattern. In any event,it is my opinion and the opin-ion of the analyst that thephotos indicate the presence ofsome type of object and cannot ,be said to be of any natural |celestial phenomena or the re- •"•suit of negative tampering. j-

Giant UFO in Francereportedly stalled cars. SOUTH AFRICAN STAR, Oct. 1,

1975 — Police in Maubenge,•France, were reportedly ques-tioning motorists who claimedtheir cars mysteriously quitrunning as they tried to ap-proach a giant flying sauceron the evening of Sept. 30.-

The .saucer, which about 10eyewitnesses said was at least250 meters (over 700 feet) indiameter, was reportedly hover-ing over a field near town.The.sighting came as French andforeign specialists:met in theAlpine.city of Grenoble for athree-day symposium.on flyingsaucers '.

The motorists reported thatas soon-as the.saucer flew 'off,their auto engines, headlights,and radios began working again..(Submitted by Joe Brill)

U F Qtie-toes . ,

and > :pins' :

We have a few of these left from the1975 MUFON Symposium in DesMoines. They are sterling silver andmake great gifts for Ufologists. Only$5.00 plus $1.00 for.postage, insuranceand handling. . - . . .

;" r S K Y L O O K26 Edgewood Drive..

. Quincy, Illinois 62301

Adamski phoro—copy or original?According to the magazine

UFO CONTACT, the British ufol-ogist who on Sept. 20 "exposed"George Adamski's "spaceship"photo as a picture of a bottlecooler has changed his mind.

Richard Lawrence, secretaryof the British UFO Association,reportedly now says that "FrankNicholson, the man who designedthe bottle cooler, says he madeit in 1959, modeling it onAdamski's- 1952 picture."-

If this is true, the bottlecooler is the "fake," notAdamski's photo, says theInternational Get AcquaintedProgram (IGAP), publisher ofUFO CONTACT, in their Octoberissue.FOR.SALE:ASTRONOMY BOOKS--Exploring

the Moon through binoculars,The nature of the Universe,etc; Back issues: Sky ,§ Telrescope, Celestial Observer.UFO books also available,Write- for list.Mark R. Herbstritt967 Theresia Street

... St. Mary's, PA 15857'....

No UFO connection

The Two' lead Oregon 'missing persons'The much-publicized (over-

publicized, most UFO research-ers would probably say) disa-pearance of approximately 20persons in Oregon has seeminglyrun its course. Through thefine efforts of Bill Heniges inPortland and John Schuessler inHouston, SKYLOOK has been pro-vided with considerable mater-ial of special interest.

While there is apparently nolegitimate connection betweenthe Oregon activities and UFOs,the popular press has caused

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such a connection to exist inthe public mind, since a UFOtheme was utilized by "The Two"to recruit followers.

"The Two" have been identi-fied as Marshall Herff Apple-white Jr., 44, and Bonnie LuTrousdale Nettles, 48. Bothhad at one time lived in Hous-ton.

Applewhite was chairman ofthe music department at theUniversity of St. Thomas from1966 to 1970 when he was given"terminal leave." According toFather Patrick 0. Braden, pres-ident of St. Thomas, Applewhitewas given terminal leave be-cause of personal problems,health problems, and a need fora rest. He is a son of a Pres-byterian minister. Nettles, aformer nurse, was reared a Bap-tist.

The couple left Houston inMay, .1974, reportedly afterwriting, bad checks. They werealso accused of taking a carand credit cards belonging to aman who had visited them inorder to talk about spiritualbeliefs.

At the time of their arreston the stolen car and creditcards the couple thanked policefor arresting them, saying thearrest would lead them closerto a new world. While in jailthe couple said they expectedto be assassinated, and re-quested that their bodies beleft alone until their resur-rection, which they said wouldbe three days after death. Theydid not say who would assassi--nate them.

They later told a reporterthat "death for us will just bea metamorphosis. We have givenup sex and the other thingsconsidered important in thisworld." The couple also saidthey believed they had knowneach other in previous lives.The car and credit card theftcharges were later dropped, ap-

parently because of a techni-cality.The couple refer to the Bible

as a source of their informa-tion, and at one time said thattheir spiritual guide is a 19thCentury Franciscan monk, Broth-er Francis.

An underground newspaper re-porter said that he had attend-ed the meeting of 200-300 per-sons in Waldport, Oregon, andthat he was convinced that the"other planet" talked about bythe "space couple" was in real-ity a piece of fiction from aKurt Vonnegut, Jr., novel.

"They were talking about aplace where people would befour dimensional," said the re-porter, Avrum Fried. "If youremember Vonnegut, you'll re-member that the people on Tral-famadore were 4-D and invisibleand that they communicated bytapdancing and making noxiousnoises with their anatomy."

Fried said the representa-tives of the "space people" atthe recruitment meeting atWaldport did not talk about thenoises, but that they did talkabout 4-D and tapdancing. .

He added, "You show me whereit says that in the Bible. It'sout of Vonnegut."

Fried said the group wentfrom Waldport - to Eugene, OR,then to Folsom, CA, for anothermeeting. Eventually the grouparrived in Colorado, then movedto Illinois.

As SKYLOOK went to press,the exact whereabouts of "TheTwo" and their followers wasnot known.

Director's MessageBy Walt Andrus

1976 MUFON UFO Symposium

Robert Stinson and the Mich-igan Section of MUFON arepleased to announce that the1976 MUFON UFO SYMPOSIUM willbe held June 12 and 13, 1976,in Ann Arbor, Michigan at Web-er's Inn at 3050 Jackson Road.

Bob will be assisted by RonWestrum, Robert Masta, DaveStupple, Nils Pacquette, ChicMendez, and Dave Fideler, allof whom have attended MUFONSymposiums. The brochure de-picting Weber's facilities anddelicious food promises to ex-ceed previous accommodations inquality at a competitive price.

State Section Directors

Joe Santangelo, state direc-tor for Massachusetts, has ap-pointed the following membersto positions of greater respon-sibility as state section di-rectors: David R. Downs, 632Oak Hill Avenue, Attleboro, MA.02703; Telephone: (617) 222-7326 for Bristol County andFred R. Youngren, 31 HighlandAvenue, Lexington, MA. 02173;Telephone: (617) 862-2061 forMiddlesex County. Dave has aB.S. in Elementary Educationand is vice president of theNew England UFO Study Group,while Fred has a M.S. in AeroEngineering.

John L. Warren, Ph.D., statedirector for New Mexico, hasselected Joseph S. Accetta, 491Bryce Avenue, Los Alamos, N.M.87544; Telephone: (505) 672-1581, as state section directorfor Los Alamos County. Joe isa physicist, a Ph.D. candidateat the University of New Mexicoand director of the Los AlamosUFO Study Group. He has con-centrated his research in the

areas of electromagnetics, geo-magnetics, and atmospheric dis-turbances .

New Consultant

Dr. W. Ray Foster, 104 West19th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio43210; Telephone: (Business)(614) 422-6290, professor ofgeology at Ohio State Univer-sity, has volunteered to serveas a consultant in geology. Dr.Foster joins three other con-sultants in geology: Dorothy J.Gore, Loren W. Slentz, andIrvin Summers.

J. Stanley Fouch, state sec-tion director in Kansas, hasjoined the MUFON staff as anadvisor in computer technology.Stan and his wife, Dorothy, re-side at 9714 Ensley Lane, Lea-wood, Kansas 66206. Stan'smany years of experience in thecomputer field with the I.B.M.Corporation eminently qualifieshim to assume this position.

Amateur Radio Nets

Joe Santangelo, WINXY, Mas-sachusetts state director andnet control station for one ofMUFON's amateur radio networks,would like to remind ham radiooperators and short-wave lis-teners of the frequencies inKHZ and the time in UniversalTime (UT) of each of the fourMUFON amateur radio nets. Theyare Saturdays at 1200 hours on7220, 1300 hours on 3975, 1400hours on 7228, and on Sunday at1800 hours on 14270. A tele-phone call from Elmer J.Romigh, Jr., WA5CTJ, colonel,USAF (Ret.) in Bandera, Texas,advised that the twenty meternet (14,270 KHZ) may shift to14,284 KHZ, to avoid interfer-ence with a NASA net.

I regret that I have beenunable to find time to set upmy amateur radio station sincemoving to Seguin, Texas, inorder to keep in constant com-munications with MUFON's fournets.

Ft. Smith Conference

Bill Pitts, MUFON state sec-tion director, is to be com-mended for this ambitiousundertaking, whereby he had at-tempted to bring the directorsof the four major UFO organiza-tions in the United States to-gether for a combined meeting.He was successful in securingoutstanding representation fromAPRO, the Center for UFO Studi-ies, and MUFON.

We were very proud of the:ine contributions made byMUFON members Stanton T. Fried-man, consultant in nuclear phy-sics; William H. Spaulding,state director for Arizona; andRay Stanford, Project StarlightInternational of Austin, Texas.Your Director titled his pre-sentation "MUFON: A DYNAMICSCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATION." Avote of thanks is extended toLou Parish and Ed and MildredHiggins for their help to BillPitts.

MUFON103 Oldtowne Rd.Seguin, TX 78155

Phones:

512-379-9216(MUFON headquarters and

Walt Andrus' home)

512-379-8850(Director Walt Andrus'place of employment)

Recapping and commenting

(This month's column is directedtoward articles appearing in the August,1975, issue of SKYLOOK.)

This is an especially in-triguing issue incorporating,as it does, examples of most ofthe hard-core problem areas andcontroversies of the UFO sub-ject-including human effortsto rationalize what is goingon. In the latter area, I foundRev. Barry Downing's review ofErnest Moyer's book on contac-tees, religion, and UFOs to bethoughtful and balanced.

Still, I take sharp issue--and will continue to do so--with those who are perpetuatingthe myth that NICAP ("scien-tific," in Downing's example)"has more or less avoided con-tact cases all together." His"case in point," the Barney andBetty Hill report, was investi-gated and brought to light byNICAP.

I make no brief for NICAPsince 1970, but while I was As-sistant Director we constantlyinvestigated contact cases in-sofar as our limited resourceswould allow, compiling thickfiles in ma-ny cases.Had Downing suggested that we

avoided TALKING ABOUT contactcases, that would have beenmore accurate. And for goodreason; our investigations inmore cases than not led us tobe highly skeptical of the"contactees." The constantstandard applied was the de-termined credibility of thewitness (claimant), and manywere established beyond reason-able doubt to be liars andfrauds.

Hindsight is a marvelousthing, especially when it over-looks the context of the times.In those days NICAP was tryingto get serious attention forgood reports from credible wit-nesses, while the colorful

By Richard Holt

"contactees" received all thepublicity and presented to thepublic at large a highly dis-torted picture of what consti-tuted the UFQ problem.

Today it is possible to talkmore openly about contact re-ports because the entire UFOsubject has become more respec-table, and the reports are pre-sented and viewed in a morebalanced perspective. The sit-uation today is due, in nosmall measure, to NICAP's pio-neering efforts.

ronomyNotes

By Mark Herbstritt

November SkyMercury--it may be seen as a

morning "star" during the firstfew days of the month but by the28th it is in superior conjunc-tion.Venus—rising about four hours

before the Sun, it dominates thesouth-eastern sky during theearly hours of the morning.Greatest western elongation ison the 7th.

Mars--in Gemini and becomingvery bright as it approachesopposition, it rises about threehours after sunset. ,:

Jupiter--on the 15th it ismagnitude -2.4. It is well upin the east at sunset.

Saturn--is magnitude +0.3. Itis in Cancer and rises beforemidnight.

There is a total eclipse ofthe moon visible in the easternpart of North America on thenight of the 18th.

The Taurid meteor showerreaches maximum on the 4th.

I would add that "science aswe know it" may well fall shortof being able to figure out,what sort of entities we aredealing with, but primarily be*cause science refuses to. try.

If we begin substituting--what? mysticism?--for seienti-'fie method (which means onlycareful, systematic validatlorMof evidence and 'logical reas-on'-ing about it) then- we o,pe'ndoor wide for totallyal acceptance of everything' a'jt-vsftface value and.-,leave our's.elves: ;no standards for sifting' '.outtruth from falsehood.

Ernest Moy-.e'r probably Is e, >;J

tirely sincere in his. ambitious -project. However, if ...'-hi"? -ap-parent standards . of'wlija .con-stitutes evidence'we're g|ly adopted, then wealmost any liter a*itfr,e:

almost, anyitto. • Im.de e'd-y.

point, probably ortiy"help us.

,!p

South RiTed Bloecher says it has beeiv

brought to his attentionthe South River encounter (August SKYtOOK, p. 5) dateFriday, Oct. 23, 19,6:3; is'possible, since Fridatv^ -the 23rd5

'ttea>5?ear fell on a "WBloecne'f- wrote to thefor clarification, andthe following ""reply: " ' - ' - 5

"...please be advised -t-h'at;'the encounter occurred on FrSflday night which would have beerathe 25th instead of the 23rd of-;-October, 1963. The. . .meritingthat I attended probably eftclon October 23rd. However, -Irecall meeting with variousvN'ew''England state forestry peopleon Thursday and Friday and -.then-leaving for New Jersey lateFriday afternoon. Please acceptmy apology for giving you' thewrong date."

Mufon ufo journal 1975 10. october - skylook

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