from the Lemoore, CA Advance
October 8, 1970
AIR ACADEMY TEXT BOOK URGES MORE STUDY
OF UFO SIGHTINGS
by TED HUBBARD
Students at the U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs are
being taught to stop scoffing at the mention of UFO’s or “flying
saucers” and to keep an open mind on the subject.
This was made clear last Thursday in an interview given by Major
Stewart Kilpatrick, deputy Director of Public Information
of the Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, to the Lemoore
Advance in a lengthy and exclusive phone interview.
The “National Enquirer,” a country-wide journal, which claims
the “largest circulation of any weekly paper in America,”
headlined this following statement, “Air Force Academy Textbook
Warns Cadets That UFO’s May Be Spacecraft Operated by Aliens
From Other Worlds,” in its Oct. 11 issue. “Because so many of
our readers are interested personally in aircraft, The Advance
sought to verify what appeared to be exaggerated claims and
somewhat on the unbelievable side. This despite the reported
sightings of some strange craft over Lemoore by several
witnesses a few weeks ago.
Major Kilpatrick, as second ranking officer in public affairs at
the Air Academy, is in a position to speak authoritatively for
the Air Force. He admitted at once that PIebes are taught
from a text entitled “Introductory Space Science, Volume II” and
an entire Chapter 33 deals entirely with UFO considerations.
He quoted from page 455, that
“50,000 virtually reliable people have reported sighting
unidentified flying objects.”
“This leads us with the
unpleasant possibility of alien visitors to our planet,” the
14-page chapter continues, “or at least alien controlled
UFO’s.”
According to the Academy text book:
“If such beings are visiting the
earth, two questions arise:
(1) Why haven’t they
attempted to contact us officially, and
(2) Why haven’t there been
accidents which would have revealed their presence?"
“Why no contact? That question
is very easy to answer in any of several ways:
(1) We may be the object of
intensive sociological and psychological study. In such
studies you usually avoid disturbing the test subjects’
environment.
(2) You do not contact a
colony of ants - and humans may seem that way any aliens
(variation: a zoo is fun to visit, but you don’t
‘contact’ the lizards).
(3) Such contact may have
already taken place secretly, and may have taken piece
on a different plane of awareness - and we are not yet
sensitive to communications on such a plane.”
In releasing this interview in
The Lemoore Advance we are well aware that many readers will
certainly “raise an eyebrow or two.” But Major Kilpatrick
insisted the above chapter in the text is not a fairy story.
At the end he seemed to go along
with the recommendations of the physics text book which advises
Air Force officers as follows:
“The best thing to do is to keep
an open and skeptical mind - and not take an extreme
position on any side of the question.”
“Introductory Space Science” closes
the chapter with the wish expressed that renewed extensive
investigation be given to the possibility of UFO’s. This will
require expenditure of a considerable sum of government funds,
it explained, and in the present public attitude of scorn and
ridicule whenever “UFO’s” are mentioned, such possibility seems
almost hopeless the chapter laments.
As most people know, the Dr.
Eugene U. Condon investigation was closed down by the
Pentagon and no present official scientific investigation is now
operating in this field. In 1966 we talked with six different
Air Force pilots at Travis Air Force Base, who claimed to have
seen UFO’s but stated they did not dare report them for fear of
extreme ridicule.
At least in 1970 this Air Force
attitude seems to have changed as indicated by Major Kilpatrick
interview with The Advance. Lemoore’s representative at
the Colorado Springs Academy is Steve (Moon) Mullens,
former basketball star on the Tiger team, and alumnus of Lemoore
High.
We are asking him his opinion of his
science text’s presentation of the so called UFO’s.
=============================================================================
DEPARTMENT Of THE AIR FORCE
HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES AIR FORCE ACADEMY
USAF ACADEMY, COLORADO 80840
REPLY TO ATTN OF: OI
4 NOV 1970
In reference to your recent inquiry to the Air Force Academy
concerning Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO’s),
the following facts are provided for your information.
The subject of UFO’s is examined briefly at the end of an
Academy elective course, Physics 370, which usually
attracts approximately 20 students per semester. The UFO subject
falls under the course objective of discussing all observable or
reported physical phenomena occurring from the surface of the
sun to the surface of the planets.
When the UFO subject was first included in the course, the
subject served, from an academic point of view, to illustrate
that when contradictory data are available, the best course is
to keep an open mind and search for further data. The subject
remains an excellent vehicle to discuss the implications and
applications of many basic physical laws to “observed”
phenomena.
The source of recent news media stories concerning the study of
UFO’s at the Air Force Academy was an out-of-date chapter in the
course text entitled “Introductory Space Science”, a two-volume,
470-page unpublished work printed in a spiral notebook by the
Academy for classroom use. The last chapter in the second volume
was a 14-page chapter entitled “Unidentified Flying Objects”.
When this chapter was written and printed in 1968, the
Air Force was still collecting reports of UFO sightings under
Project Blue Book and
sponsoring the investigation of UFO’s by Dr. E. U. Condon
of the University of Colorado.
The Condon Report was completed
in early 1969 with the general conclusion that nothing has come
from the study of UFO’s in the past two decades that has added
to scientific knowledge and that further extensive study of
UFO’s probably cannot be justified in the expectation that
science will be advanced.
“MAN’S FLIGHT THROUGH LIFE IS SUSTAINED BY THE POWER OF
KNOWLEDGE”
Based on the conclusions of the Condon report and its own
twenty-year UFO experience, the Air Force terminated Project
Blue Book in December 1969 with this final statement,
“As a result of investigating
UFO reports since 1948, the conclusions of Project Blue Book
are:
(1) no UFO reported,
investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force has ever
given any indication of threat to our national security;
(2) there has been no
evidence sub-mitted or discovered by the Air Force that
sightings categorized as ‘unidentified’ represent
technological developments or principles beyond the
range of present-day scientific knowledge; and
(3) there has been no
evidence indicating that sightings categorized as
‘unidentified’ are extraterrestrial vehicles.”
In light of these developments, the
in-class content of the course was changed to present orally the
conclusions of the Condon report and the reasons why the
Air Force cancelled Project Blue Book. It was considered
uneconomical to reprint the entire second volume for such a
limited number of students until the fall of 1970.
Beginning with the 1970 fall semester, a revised updated chapter
entitled ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” has been substituted
for the old chapter so that the text now follows the oral
in-class presentation on this subject.
For your further information we are enclosing a copy of:
(1) the old Chapter 33, which is
no longer being used and
(2) a copy of the new, current
Chapter 33 now being used by students of Physics 370
beginning with this fall 1970 semester.
I hope this letter clarifies your
questions concerning the study and treatment of UFO’s at the Air
Force Academy,
Sincerely
/s/ James F Sunderman
James F Sunderman,
Colonel, USAF
2 Atchs
Director of Information
1. Old Chapter 33
2. Updated Chapter 33
Old Chapter 33
Chapter 33 of “Introductory Space
Science” Physics 370
1968 - 1970
INTRODUCTORY SPACE SCIENCE
- VOLUME II
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
USAF
Edited by: Major Donald G.
Carpenter
Co-Editor: Lt. Colonel Edward R. Therkelson
CHAPTER XIII -
UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS
What is an Unidentified Flying Object
(UFO)?
Well, according to United States Air
Force Regulation 80-17 (dated 19 September 1966), a UFO is "Any
aerial Phenomenon or object which is unknown or appears to be
out of the ordinary to the observer." This is a very broad
definition which applies equally well to one individual seeing
his first noctilucent cloud at twilight as it does to another
individual seeing his first helicopter. However, at present most
people consider the term UFO to mean an object which behaves in
a strange or erratic manner while moving through the Earth's
atmosphere.
That strange phenomenon has evoked
strong emotions and great curiosity among a large segment of our
world's population. The average person is interested because he
loves a mystery, the professional military man is involved
because of the possible threat to national security, and some
scientist are interested because of the basic curiosity that led
them into becoming researchers.
The literature on UFO's is so vast, and the stories so many and
varied, that we can only present a sketchy outline of the
subject in this chapter. That outline includes description
classifications, operational domains (temporal and spatial),
some theories as to the nature of the UFO phenomenon, human
reactions, attempts to attack the problem scientifically, and
some tentative conclusions.
If you wish to read further in this
area, the references provide an excellent starting point.
33.1 DESCRIPTIONS
One of the greatest problems you encounter when attempting to
catalog UFO sightings, is selection of a system for cataloging.
No effective system has yet been devised, although a number of
different systems have been proposed. The net result is that
almost all UFO data are either treated in the form of individual
cases, or in the forms of inadequate qualification systems.
However, these systems do tend to
have some common factors, and a collection of these factors is
as follows:
a. Size
b. Shape (disc, ellipse, football, etc.)
c. Luminosity
d. Color
e. Number of UFO's
Behavior:
a. Location (altitude,
direction, etc.)
b. Patterns of paths (straight line, climbing,
zig-zagging, etc.)
c. Flight Characteristics (wobbling, fluttering, etc.)
d. Periodicity of sightings
e. Time duration
f. Curiosity or inquisitiveness
g. Avoidance
h. Hostility
Associated Effects:
a. Electro-Magnetic
(compass, radio, ignition systems, etc.)
b. Radiation (burns, induced radioactivity, etc.)
c. Ground disturbance (dust stirred up, leaves moved,
standing wave peaks of surface of water, etc.)
d. Sound (none, hissing, humming, roaring, thunderclaps,
etc.)
e. Vibration (weak, strong, slow, fast)
f. Smell (ozone or other odor)
g. Flame (how much, where, when, color)
h. Smoke or cloud (amount, color, persistence)
i. Debris (type, amount, color, persistence)
j. Inhibition of voluntary movement by observers
k. Sighting of "creatures" or "beings"
After Effects:
a. Burned areas or animals
b. Depressed or flattened areas
c. Dead or "missing animals"
d. Mentally disturbed people
e. Missing items
We make no attempt here to present
available data in terms of the foregoing descriptors.
33.2 OPERATIONAL DOMAINS -
TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL
What we will do here is to present evidence that UFO's are a
global phenomenon which may have persisted for many thousands of
years. During this discussion, please remember that the more
ancient the reports the less sophisticated the observer. Not
only were the ancient observers lacking the terminology
necessary to describe complex devices (such as present day
helicopters) but they were also lacking the concepts necessary
to understand the true nature of such things as television,
spaceships, rockets, nuclear weapons and radiation effects.
To some, the most advanced
technological concept was a war chariot with knife blades
attached to the wheels. By the same token, the very lack of
accurate terminology and descriptions leaves the more ancient
reports open to considerable misinterpretation, and it may well
be that present evaluations of individual reports are completely
wrong. Nevertheless, let us start with an intriguing story in
one of the oldest chronicles of India.... the
Book of Dzyan.
The book is a group of "story-teller" legends which were finally
gathered in manuscript form when man learned to write. One of
the stories is of a small group of beings who supposedly came to
Earth many thousands of years ago in a metal craft which orbited
the Earth several times before landing.
As told in the Book,
"These beings lived to
themselves and were revered by the humans among whom they
had settled. But eventually differences arose among them and
they divided their numbers, several of the men and women and
some children settled in another city, where they were
promptly installed as rulers by the awe-stricken populace.
"Separation did not bring peace
to these people and finally their anger reached a point
where the ruler of the original city took with him a small
number of his warriors and they rose into the air in a huge
shining metal vessel. While they were many leagues from the
city of their enemies, they launched a great shining lance
that rode on a beam of light. It burst apart in the city of
their enemies with a great ball of flame that shot up to the
heavens, almost to the stars.
All those who were in the city
were horribly burned and even those who were not in the city
- but nearby - were burned also. Those who looked upon the
lance and the ball of fire were blinded forever afterward.
Those who entered the city on foot became ill and died. Even
the dust of the city was poisoned, as were the rivers that
flowed through it. Men dared not go near it, and it
gradually crumbled into dust and was forgotten by men."
"When the leader saw what he had done to his own people he
retired to his palace and refused to see anyone. Then he
gathered about him those warriors who remained, and their
wives and children, and they entered their vessels and rose
one by one into the sky and sailed away. Nor did they
return."
Could this foregoing legend really
be an account of an extraterrestrial colonization, complete with
guided missile, nuclear warhead and radiation effects?
It is difficult to assess the
validity of that explanation... just as it is difficult to
explain why Greek, Roman and Nordic Mythology all discuss wars
and contacts among their "Gods." (Even the Bible records
conflict between the legions of God
and Satan.)
Could it be that each group recorded
their parochial view of what was actually a global conflict
among alien colonists or visitors? Or is it that man has led
such a violent existence that he tends to expect conflict and
violence among even his gods?
Evidence of perhaps an even earlier possible contact was
uncovered by Tschi Pen Lao of the
University of Peking. He discovered astonishing
carvings in granite on a mountain in Hunan Province and on an
island in Lake Tungting. These carvings have been evaluated as
47,000 years old, and they show people with large trunks
(breathing apparatus?...or "elephant" heads shown on human
bodies? Remember, the Egyptians often represented their gods as
animal heads on human bodies.)
Only 8,000 years ago, rocks were sculpted in the Tassili plateau
of Sahara, depicting what appeared to be human beings but with
strange round heads (helmets? or "sun" heads on human bodies?)
And even more recently, in the
Bible, Genesis (6:4) tells of angels from the sky mating with
women of Earth, who bore them children. Genesis 19:3 tells of
Lot meeting two angels in desert and his later feeding them at
his house. The Bible also tells a rather unusual story of
Ezekiel who witnessed what has been
interpreted by some to have been a spacecraft or aircraft
landing near the Chebar River in Chaldea (593 B.C.).
Even the Irish have recorded strange visitations. In the
Speculum Regali in Konungs Skuggsa (and other
accounts of the era about 956 A.D.) are numerous stories of "demonships"
in the skies. In one case a rope from one such ship became
entangled with part of a church. A man from the ship climbed
down the rope to free it, but was seized by the townspeople. The
Bishop made the people release the man, who climbed back to the
ship, where the crew cut the rope and the ship rose and sailed
out of sight. In all of his actions, the climbing man appeared
as if he were swimming in water. Stories such as this makes one
wonder if the legends of the "little people" of Ireland were
based upon imagination alone.
About the same time, in Lyons (France) three men and a women
supposedly descended from an airship or spaceship and were
captured by a mob. These foreigners admitted to being wizards,
and were killed. (No mention is made of the methods employed to
extract the admissions.)
Many documented UFO sightings
occurred throughout the Middle Ages, including an especially
startling one of a UFO over London on 16 December 1742. However,
we do not have room to include any more of the Middle Ages
sightings. Instead, two "more-recent" sightings are contained in
this section to bring us up to modern times.
In a sworn statement dated 21 April 1897, a prosperous and
prominent farmer named Alexander Hamilton (Le Roy,
Kansas, U.S.A.) told of an attack upon his cattle at about 10:30
PM the previous Monday. He, his son, and his tenant grabbed axes
and ran some 700 feet from the house to the cow lot where a
great cigar-shaped ship about 300 feet long floated some 30 feet
above his cattle. It had a carriage underneath which was
brightly lighted within (dirigible and gondola?) and which had
numerous windows.
Inside were six strange looking
beings jabbering in a foreign language. These beings suddenly
became aware of Hamilton and the others. They immediately turned
a searchlight on the farmer, and also turned on some power which
sped up a turbine wheel (about 30 ft diameter) located under the
craft. The ship rose, taking with it a two-year old heifer which
was roped about the neck by a cable of one-half inch thick, red
material.
The next day a neighbor, Link
Thomas, found the animal's hide, legs and head in his field.
He was mystified at how the remains got to where they were
because of the lack of tracks in the soft soil. Alexander
Hamilton's sworn statement was accompanied by an affidavit as to
his veracity. The affidavit was signed by ten of the local
leading citizens.
On the evening of 4 November 1957 at Fort Itaipu, Brazil, two
sentries noted a "new star" in the sky. The "star" grew in size
and within seconds stopped over the fort. It drifted slowly
downward, was as large as a big aircraft, and was surrounded by
a strong orange glow. A distinct humming sound was heard, and
then the heat struck.
A Sentry collapsed almost
immediately, the other managed to slide to shelter under the
heavy cannons where his loud cries awoke the garrison. While the
troops were scrambling towards their battle stations, complete
electrical failure occurred. There was panic until the lights
came back on but a number of men still managed to see an orange
glow leaving the area at high speed. Both sentries were found
badly burned... one unconscious and the other incoherent,
suffering from deep shock.
Thus, UFO sightings not only appear to extend back to 47,000
years through time but also are global in nature. One has the
feeling that this phenomenon deserves some sort of valid
scientific investigation, even if it is a low level effort.
33.3 SOME THEORIES AS TO THE NATURE OF
THE UFO PHENOMENON
There are very few cohesive theories as to the nature of UFO's.
Those theories that have been advanced can be collected in five
groups:
a. Mysticism
b. Hoaxes, and rantings due
to unstable personalities
c. Secret Weapons
d. Natural Phenomena
e. Alien visitors
Mysticism
It is believed by some cults that the mission of UFO's and
their crews is a spiritual one, and that all materialistic
efforts to determine the UFO's nature are doomed to failure.
Hoaxes and Rantings due to Unstable Personalities
Some have suggested that all UFO reports were the results of
pranks and hoaxes, or were made by people with unstable
personalities. This attitude was particularly prevalent during
the time period when the Air Force investigation was being
operated under the code name of Project Grudge. A few airlines
even went as far as to ground every pilot who reported seeing a
"flying saucer."
The only way for the pilot to regain
flight status was to undergo a psychiatric examination.
There was a noticeable decline in
pilot reports during this time interval, and a few interpreted
this decline to prove that UFO's were either hoaxes or the
result of unstable personalities. It is of interest that
NICAP (The National
Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena) even today
still receives reports from commercial pilots who neglect to
notify either the Air Force or their own airline.
There are a number of cases which indicate that not all reports
fall in the hoax category. We will examine one such case now. It
is the Socorro, New Mexico sighting made by police Sergeant
Lonnie Zamora. Sergeant Zamora was patrolling the streets of
Socorro on 24 April 1964 when he saw a shiny object drift down
into an area of gullies on the edge of town. He also heard a
loud roaring noise which sounded as if an old dynamite shed
located out that way had exploded. He immediately radioed police
headquarters, and drove out toward the shed.
Zamora was forced to stop about 150
yards away from a deep gully in which there appeared to be an
overturned car. He radioed that he was investigating a possible
wreck, and then worked his car up onto the mesa and over toward
the edge of the gully. He parked short, and when he walked the
final few feet to the edge, he was amazed to see that it was not
a car but instead was a weird egg-shaped object about fifteen
feet long, white in color and resting on short, metal legs.
Beside it, unaware of his presence
were two humanoids dressed in silvery coveralls. They seemed to
be working on a portion of the underside of the object. Zamora
was still standing there, surprised, when they suddenly noticed
him and dove out of sight around the object. Zamora also headed
the other way, back toward his car. He glanced back at the
object just as a bright blue flame shot down from the underside.
Within seconds the egg-shaped thing rose out of the gully with
"an earsplitting roar."
The object was out of sight over the
nearby mountains almost immediately, and Sergeant Zamora was
moving the opposite direction almost as fast when he met
Sergeant Sam Chavez who was responding to Zamora's
earlier radio calls. Together they investigated the gully and
found the bushes charred and still smoking where the blue flame
had jetted down on them.
About the charred area were four
deep marks where the metal legs had been. Each mark was three
and one half inches deep, and was circular in shape. The sand in
the gully was very hard packed so no sign of the humanoids'
footprints could be found. An official investigation was
launched that same day, and all data obtained supported the
stories of Zamora and Chavez.
It is rather difficult to label this
episode a hoax, and it is also doubtful that both Zamora and
Chavez shared portions of the same hallucination.
Secret Weapons
A few individuals have proposed that UFO's are actually
advanced weapon systems, and that their natures must not be
revealed. Very few people accept this as a credible suggestion.
Natural Phenomena
It has also been suggested that at least some, and possibly
all of the UFO cases were just misinterpreted manifestations of
natural phenomena. Undoubtedly this suggestion has some merit.
People have reported, as UFO's, objects which were conclusively
proven to be balloons (weather and skyhook), the planet Venus,
man-made artificial satellites, normal aircraft, unusual cloud
formations, and lights from ceilometers (equipment projecting
light beams on cloud bases to determine the height of the
aircraft visual ceiling). It is also suspected that people have
reported mirages, optical illusions, swamp gas and ball
lightning (a poorly-understood discharge of electrical energy in
a spheroidal or ellipsoidal shape... some charges have lasted
for up to fifteen minutes but the ball is usually no bigger than
a large orange.)
But it is difficult to tell a swamp
dweller that the strange, fast-moving light he saw in the sky
was swamp gas; and it is just as difficult to tell a farmer that
a bright UFO in the sky is the same ball lightning that he has
seen rolling along his fence wires in dry weather. Thus
accidental misidentification of what might well be natural
phenomena breeds mistrust and disbelief; it leads to the hasty
conclusion that the truth is deliberately not being told.
One last suggestion of interest has
been made, that the UFO's were plasmoids from space...
concentrated blobs of solar wind that succeeded in reaching the
surface of the Earth. Somehow this last suggestion does not seem
to be very plausible; perhaps because it ignores such things as
penetration of Earth's magnetic field.
Alien Visitors
The most stimulating
theory for us is that the UFO's are material objects which are
either "Manned" or remote-controlled by beings who are alien to
this planet. There is some evidence supporting this viewpoint.
In addition to police Sergeant Lonnie Zamora's experience, let
us consider
the case of Barney and Betty
Hill.
On a trip through New England they
lost two hours on the night of 19 September 1961 without even
realizing it. However, after that night both Barney and Betty
began developing psychological problems which eventually grew
sufficiently severe that they submitted themselves to
psychiatric examination and treatment. During the course of
treatment hypnotherapy was used, and it yielded remarkably
detailed and similar stories from both Barney and Betty.
Essentially they had been
hypnotically kidnapped, taken aboard a UFO, submitted to
two-hour physicals, and released with posthypnotic suggestions
to forget the entire incident. The evidence is rather strong
that this is what the Hills, even in their subconscious, believe
happened to them. And it is of particular importance that after
the "posthypnotic block" was removed, both of the Hills ceased
having their psychological problems.
The Hill's description of the aliens was similar to descriptions
provided in other cases, but this particular type of alien
appears to be in the minority. The most commonly described alien
is about three and one half feet tall, has a round head
(helmet?), arms reaching to or below his knees, and is wearing a
silvery space suit or coveralls.
Other aliens appear to be
essentially the same as Earthmen, while still others have
particularly wide (wrap around) eyes and mouths with very thin
lips. And there is a rare group reported as about four feet
tall, weight of around 35 pounds, and covered with thick hair or
fur (clothing?). Members of this last group are described as
being extremely strong. If such beings are visiting Earth, two
questions arise: 1) why haven't they attempted to contact us
officially?
The answer to the first question may
exist partially in Sergeant Lonnie Zamora's experience, and may
exist partially in
the Tunguska meteor discussed
in Chapter XXIX.
In that chapter it was suggested
that the Tunguska meteor was actually a comet which exploded in
the atmosphere, the ices melted and the dust spread out. Hence,
no debris. However, it has also been suggested that the Tunguska
meteor was actually an alien spacecraft that entered the
atmosphere too rapidly, suffered mechanical failure, and lost
its power supply and/or weapons in a nuclear explosion.
While that hypothesis may seem far
fetched, sample of tree rings from around the world reveal that,
immediately after the Tunguska meteor explosion, the level of
radioactivity in the world rose sharply for a short period of
time. It is difficult to find a natural explanation for that
increase in radioactivity, although the suggestion has been
advanced that enough of the meteor's great Kinetic energy was
converted into heat (by atmospheric friction) that a fusion
reaction occurred. This still leaves us with no answer to the
second question: why no contact?
That question is very easy to answer
in several ways:
1) we may be the object of
intensive sociological and psychological study. In such
studies you usually avoid disturbing the test subjects'
environment;
2) you do not "contact" a colony
of ants, and humans may seem that way to any aliens
(variation: a zoo is fun to visit, but you don't "contact"
the lizards);
3) such contact may have already
taken place secretly; and
4) such contact may have already
taken place on a different plane of awareness and we are not
yet sensitive to communications on such a plane.
These are just a few of the reasons.
You may add to the list as you desire.
33.4 HUMAN FEAR AND HOSTILITY
Besides the foregoing reasons, contacting humans is downright
dangerous. Think about that for a moment! On the microscopic
level our bodies reject and fight (through production
antibodies) any alien material; this process helps us fight off
disease but it also sometimes results in allergic reactions to
innocuous materials.
On the macroscopic (psychological
and sociological) level we are antagonistic to beings that are
"different". For proof of that, just watch how an odd child is
treated by other children, or how a minority group is socially
deprived, or how the Arabs feel about the Israelis (Chinese vs.
Japanese, Turks vs. Greeks, etc.)
In case you are hesitant to extend
that concept to the treatment of aliens let me point out that in
very ancient times, possible extraterrestrials may have been
treated as Gods but in the last two thousand years, the evidence
is that any possible aliens have been ripped apart by mobs, shot
and shot at, physically assaulted, and in general treated with
fear and aggression.
In Ireland about 1,000 A.D., supposed airships were treated as "demonships."
In Lyons, France, "admitted" space travelers were killed. More
recently, on 24 July 1957 Russian anti-aircraft batteries on the
Kouril Islands opened fire on UFO's. Although all Soviet
anti-aircraft batteries on the Islands were in action, no hits
were made.
The UFO's were luminous and moved
very fast. We too have fired on UFO's. About ten o'clock one
morning, a radar site near a fighter base picked up a UFO doing
700 mph. The UFO then slowed to 100 mph, and two F-86's were
scrambled to intercept. Eventually one F-86 closed on the UFO at
about 3,000 feet altitude.
The UFO began to accelerate away but
the pilot still managed to get within 500 yards of the target
for a short period of time. It was definitely saucer shaped. As
the pilot pushed the F-86 at top speed, the UFO began to pull
away. When the range reached 1,000 yards, the pilot armed his
guns and fired in an attempt to down the saucer. He failed, and
the UFO pulled away rapidly, vanishing in the distance. This
same basic situation may have happened on a more personal level.
On Sunday evening 21 August 1955,
eight adults and three children were on the Sutton Farm
(one-half mile from Kelly, Kentucky) when, according to them,
one of the children saw a brightly glowing UFO settle behind the
barn, out of sight from where he stood. Other witnesses on
nearby farms also saw the object. However, the Suttons dismissed
it as a "shooting star", and did not investigate.
Approximately thirty minutes later
(at 8:00 pm), the family dogs began barking so two of the men
went to the back door and looked out. Approximately 50 feet away
and coming toward them was a creature wearing a glowing silvery
suit. It was about three and one-half feet tall with a large
round head and very long arms. It had large webbed hands which
were equipped with claws.
The two Suttons grabbed a twelve
gauge shotgun and a .22 caliber pistol, and fired at close
range. They could hear the pellets and bullet ricochet as if off
of metal. The creature was knocked down, but jumped up and
scrambled away. The Suttons retreated into the house, turned off
all inside lights, and turned on the porch light. At that
moment, one of the women who was peeking out of the dining room
window discovered that a creature with some sort of helmet and
wide slit eyes was peeking back at her. She screamed, the men
rushed in and started shooting. The creature was knocked
backwards but again scrambled away without apparent harm.
More shooting occurred (a total of
about 50 rounds) over the next 20 minutes and the creatures
finally left (perhaps feeling unwelcome?) After about a two hour
wait (for safety), the Suttons left too. By the time the police
got there, the aliens were gone but the Suttons would not move
back to the farm. They sold it and departed.
This reported incident does bear out
the contention though that humans are dangerous.
At no time in the story did the
supposed aliens shoot back, although one is left with the
impression that the described creatures were having fun scaring
humans.
33.5 ATTEMPTS AT SCIENTIFIC APPROACHES
In any scientific endeavor, the first step is to acquire data,
the second step to classify the data, and the third step to form
hypothesis. The hypothesis are tested by repeating the entire
process, with each cycle resulting in an increase in
understanding (we hope). The UFO phenomenon does not yield
readily to this approach because the data taken so far exhibits
both excessive variety and vagueness.
The vagueness is caused in part by
the lack of preparation of the observer...very few people leave
their house knowing that they are going to see a UFO that
evening. Photographs are overexposed or underexposed, and rarely
in color. Hardly anyone carries around a radiation counter or
magnetometer. And, in addition to this, there is a very high
level of "noise" in the data.
The noise consists of mistaken reports of known natural
phenomena, hoaxes, reports by unstable individuals and mistaken
removal of data regarding possible unnatural or unknown natural
phenomena (by overzealous individuals who are trying to
eliminate all data due to known natural phenomena). In addition,
those data, which do appear to be valid, exhibit an excessive
amount of variety relative to the statistical samples which are
available. This has led to very clumsy classification systems,
which in turn provide quite unfertile ground for formulation of
hypothesis.
One hypothesis which looked promising for a time was that of
ORTHOTENY (i.e., UFO sightings fall on "great circle" routes).
At first, plots of sightings seemed to verify the concept of
orthoteny but recent use of computers has revealed that even
random numbers yield "great circle" plots as neatly as do UFO
sightings.
There is one solid advance that has been made though. Janine and
Jacques Vallee have taken a
particular type of UFO - namely those that are lower than
tree-top level when sighted - and plotted the UFO's estimated
diameter versus the estimated distance from the observer. The
result yields an average diameter of 5 meters with a very
characteristic drop for short viewing distances.
This behavior at the extremes of the
curve is well known to astronomers and psychologists as the
"moon illusion." The illusion only occurs when the object being
viewed is a real, physical object. Because this implies that the
observers have viewed a real object, it permits us to accept
also their statement that these particular UFO's had a
rotational axis of symmetry.
Another, less solid, advance made by the Vallee's was their
plotting of the total number of sightings per week versus the
date. They did this for the time span from 1947 to 1962, and
then attempted to match the peaks of the curve (every 2 years 2
months) to the times of Earth-Mars conjunction (every 2 years
1.4 months). The match was very good between 1950 and 1956 but
was poor outside those limits. Also, the peaks were not only at
the times of Earth-Mars conjunction but also roughly at the
first harmonic (very loosely, every 13 months).
This raises the question why should
UFO's only visit Earth when Mars is in conjunction and when it
is on the opposite side of the sun. Obviously, the conjunction
periodicity of Mars is not the final answer. As it happens,
there is an interesting possibility to consider. Suppose
Jupiter's conjunctions were used; they are every 13.1 months.
That would satisfy the observed
periods nicely, except for every even data peak being of
different magnitude from every odd data peak. Perhaps a
combination of Martian, Jovian, and Saturnian (and even other
planetary) conjunctions will be necessary to match the frequency
plot... if it can be matched.
Further data correlation is quite difficult. There are a large
number of different saucer shapes but this may mean little. For
example, look at the number of different types of aircraft which
are in use in the U. S. Air Force alone.
In is obvious that intensive scientific study is needed in this
area; no such study has yet been undertaken at the necessary
levels of intensity needed. Something that must be guarded
against in any such study is the trap of implicitly assuming
that our knowledge of Physics (or any other branch of
science) is complete. An example of one such trap is
selecting a group of physical laws which we now accept as valid,
and assume that they will never be superseded.
Five such laws might be:
1) Every action must have an
opposite and equal reaction.
2) Every particle in the
universe attracts every other particle with a force
proportional to the product of the masses and inversely as
the square of the distance.
3) Energy, mass and momentum are
conserved.
4) No material body can have a
speed as great as c, the speed of light in free space.
5) The maximum energy, E, which
can be obtained from a body at rest is E=mc2,
where m is the rest mass of the body.
Laws numbered 1 and 3 seem fairly
safe, but let us hesitate and take another look. Actually, law
number 3 is only valid (now) from a relativistic viewpoint; and
for that matter so are laws 4 and 5. But relativity completely
revised these physical concepts after 1915, before then
Newtonian mechanics were supreme. We should also note that
general relativity has not yet been verified.
Thus we have the peculiar situation
of five laws which appear to deny the possibility of intelligent
alien control of UFO's, yet three of the laws are recent in
concept and may not even be valid. Also, law number 2 has not
yet been tested under conditions of large relative speeds or
accelerations.
We should not deny the possibility
of alien control of UFO's on the basis of preconceived notions
not established as related or relevant to the UFO's.
33.6 CONCLUSION
From available information, the UFO phenomenon appears to have
been global in nature for almost 50,000 years. The majority of
known witnesses have been reliable people who have seen
easily-explained natural phenomena, and there appears to be no
overall positive correlation with population density. The entire
phenomenon could be psychological in nature but that is quite
doubtful. However, psychological factors probably do enter the
data picture as "noise." The phenomenon could also be entirely
due to known and unknown phenomena (with some psychological
"noise" added in) but that too is questionable in view of some
of the available data.
This leaves us with the unpleasant possibility of
alien visitors to our planet,
or at least of alien controlled UFO's. However, the data are not
well correlated, and what questionable data there are suggest
the existence of at least three and maybe four different groups
of aliens (possibly at different states of development). This
too is difficult to accept. It implies the existence of
intelligent life on a majority of the planets in our solar
system, or a surprisingly strong interest in Earth by members of
other solar systems.
A solution to the UFO problem may be obtained by the long and
diligent effort of a large group of well financed and competent
scientists, unfortunately there is no evidence suggesting that
such an effort is going to be made. However, even if such an
effort were made, there is no guarantee of success because of
the isolated and sporadic nature of the sightings. Also, there
may be nothing to find, and that would mean a long search with
no profit at the end.
The best thing to do is to keep an
open and skeptical mind, and not take an extreme position on any
side of the question.
Updated Chapter 33
(Chapter 33 of “Introductory Space
Science” Physics 370 Fall Quarter 1970)
33.1 Introduction
In this text, an attempt has been made to discuss all observable
phenomena from the surface of the sun to the surface of the
planets, particularly the planet Earth. It must be admitted,
however, that some phenomena have been overlooked and that
others are not presently explainable. In this latter category we
find “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.”
This is a very broad, all-inclusive subject since the
“unidentified” depends on the experience and education of the
observer—to an aborigine, an airplane may be “unidentified”
while to the meteorologist even such rare phenomena as
noctilucent clouds and ball lightning may be “identifiable.”
Thus sightings of “unidentified aerial phenomena” must be
reported completely and investigated carefully to determine if
they are indeed “unidentifiable.”
There have been thousands of reports
of “unidentified aerial phenomena” in the past quarter century
and a number of these reports are still listed as
“unidentifiable.” This may be due to poor reporting, incomplete
investigation, or to deficiencies in our understanding of the
atmosphere and the universe at large. The possibility that our
scientific knowledge could be increased by study of these
phenomena has led several organizations to explore the subject
further.
The popular literature uses the more restrictive term
“Unidentified Flying Objects” instead of the general
“Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.” Although there is insufficient
evidence that the phenomena are real physical “objects” or
indeed that they are “flying”, we will adopt the popular
terminology to avoid confusion. Consequently we will define an
“Unidentified Flying Object” (UFO) as any reported aerial
phenomenon or object which is unknown or appears out of the
ordinary to the observer.
While there are purported UFO reports dating from ancient times,
the subject of UFOs really was thrust upon the American public
shortly after World War II when Kenneth Arnold on 24 June 1947
reported seeing nine “saucerlike” objects near Mount Rainier.
This was the first in a series of UFO reports which has
continued to the present. The newly organized U.S. Air Force was
assigned the mission of determining if the UFOs represented a
threat to the national security. The investigation was conducted
under
Project Sign, later Project Grudge, and
finally Project Blue Book which ended on 17 December
1969.
Because of a rash of UFO reports in 1952 and fears that military
communications channels could be clogged by enemy instigated UFO
reports, a spatial scientific panel chaired by the late Dr.
H. P. Robertson was established under government sponsorship
in January 1953 to study the UFO problem. The panel concluded
that there was no evidence in the available data that UFOs were
a threat to national security. These scientists recommended that
a campaign be conducted to produce better public understanding
of the situation and also to remove the aura of mystery
surrounding the subject.
This latter goal has not yet been
completely achieved.
FALL SEMESTER 1970
After this,
Project Blue Book continued to
receive and evaluate UFO reports, but the conclusions reached
were not always accepted by “UFO-logists” and the general
public. The Air Force was often accused of trying to cover up
the UFO problem and of withholding information allegedly
indicating that UFOs are extraterrestrial. Consequently, a panel
headed by Dr. Brian O’Brien was empowered to review
Project Blue Book in 1966.
While this commission reaffirmed
that there was no apparent security threat posed by the
existence of unexplained UFO reports, it suggested that a
detailed study of some of the reports might produce something of
scientific value. The commission recommended that a few selected
universities be engaged to provide scientific teams for prompt
investigation of selected UFO sightings.
Consequently, in 1966, the U.S. Air
Force sponsored a $500,000 investigation led by Dr. Edward U.
Condon of the University of Colorado to make a scientific
investigation of UFOs, not necessarily to identify UFOs but only
to determine if there is scientific merit in the study of them.
33.2 Hypotheses to Explain UFOs
In any scientific investigation, we establish an hypothesis or
hypotheses, collect data, analyze the data in light of our
hypotheses and then refute or confirm our hypotheses or conclude
that we have insufficient data to do either.
Approximately 6% of the UFO reports collected by Project Blue
Book are officially listed as “unexplained.” If we propose to
“explain” these remaining cases we must first set up a list of
possible explanations. There is always the danger in this
procedure that the true explanation for a particular event is
not contained in the given set of a priori hypo-theses.
With this note of caution before us,
we adopt a set of hypotheses proposed by Dr. James McDonald
of the University of Arizona:
1. Hoaxes, fabrications, and
frauds.
2. Hallucinations, mass hysteria, rumor phenomena.
3. Advanced terrestrial technologies.
4. Lay misinterpretations of well understood physical
phenomena.
5. Poorly understood physical phenomena.
6. Poorly understood psychological phenomena.
7. Extraterrestrial visitation.
8. Messengers of salvation and occult truth.
Let us examine each of these in
light of the data collected over the past twenty-plus years.
-
Hoaxes, fabrications, and
frauds
There is no question that some
UFO reports are hoaxes, fabrications, and frauds perpetrated
by persons playing pranks with candles in plastic cleaning
bags, persons faking photographs, persons seeking notoriety
or recognition, and practical jokers. The UFO literature is
replete with examples of all types. However, confirmed
hoaxes are only a small percentage of the total number of
UFO reports, Most reports are by reliable witnesses and show
no evidence of fabrication or fraud.
-
Hallucinations, mass
hysteria, rumor phenomena
There is evidence that UFO
reports occur in waves and that a rash of sightings in a
localized area may be due to increased public sensitivity to
an initial report, Some reports received at these times may
indeed be inspired by the increased attention to UFOs and
not true sightings at all.
However, the large number of
multi-observer reports from independent observers, and
reports from military personnel, airline pilots, policemen,
scientists and other qualified witnesses makes it unlikely
that many UFO reports are the results of hallucinations,
mass hysteria, and rumor phenomena. Psychologists and
sociologists are unable to estimate what portion of UFO
reports may be due to such causes but analysis of the
credentials of witnesses in most reports would indicate that
the number must be small.
-
Advanced terrestrial
technologies (e.g. test vehicles, satellites, re-entry
phenomena, secret weapons).
The noted space scientist Arthur
C. Clarke has observed that any sufficiently advanced
technology will appear indistinguishable from magic. Thus
advanced terrestrial technologies are certainly the cause of
some reports. The reported characteristics of UFOs do not
appear to have changed markedly over the years while man has
made great technological progress.
Thus while some current UFO
reports may be attributable to space vehicle re-entries or
satellite launches, the reports in the forties and early
fifties cannot be attributed to these causes. Similarly,
advanced weapon systems in the development and test stages
(secret weapons) now would give rise to a different type of
UFO report from those of earlier eras. The variety and
world-wide distribution of UFO reports make it unlikely that
the reports are due to sightings of products of an advanced
terrestrial technology.
-
Lay misinterpretations of
well-understood physical phenomena (e.g. meteorological,
astronomical, optical).
From our definition of UFOs it
is obvious that a large number of reports will fall in this
category. Misidentification of aircraft landing lights,
blinking and flashing lights during aerial refueling
operations, weather balloons, meteors, movements of the
planets Venus and Jupiter, searchlight reflections on low
cloud ceilings and lens flares in photographs are a few
possibilities.
The reader can undoubtedly
suggest others and find still more in the UFO literature. In
his article, “The Physics and Metaphysics of Unidentified
Flying Object Dr. William Markowitz discusses the UFO
problem in light of the currently accepted physical laws.
In particular, he considers the
following five basic laws:
-
Every action must have an
equal and opposite reaction.
-
Every particle in the
universe attracts every other particle with a force
proportional to the product of their masses and
inversely as the square of the distance between them.
-
Momentum and mass-energy are
conserved.
-
No material body can travel
at c, the speed of light in free space.
-
The maximum energy which can
be obtained from a body at rest is governed by
Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc2
To date these laws have enabled
physicists to predict and control many phenomena for
practical purposes. They can also be valuable in analyzing
UFO reports. The details in most UFO reports do not cause
any conflict with these laws and lead us to conclude that
UFOs may well just be misidentified ordinary phenomena.
However, some reports seem at variance with one or more of
these laws, leading us to question either the reliability of
the UFO reports or the reliability of our physical laws.
Since our physical laws are more
firmly established both in theory and by experiment, the
validity of the physical law is usually a more acceptable
alternative to the scientist. We must realize, however, that
any physical law may be subject to change with the discovery
of new evidence.
-
Poorly understood physical
phenomena (e.g. rare atmospheric electrical effects,
cloud phenomena, plasmas of natural or technological
origin).
Attempting to explain UFO
reports by some poorly understood phenomenon is risky at
best, and probably is impossible until the phenomenon is
better understood.
Lenticular clouds as
explanations for certain UFO reports may be on firm grounds,
but attempts to explain UFOs in terms of mirages, ball
lightning (a sphere-shaped plasma blob usually associated
with electrical storms), atmospheric inversion layers, or
anomalous propagation of radar signals are much less
tenable.
Some UFO reports may be
explainable by these phenomena, but it is impossible to make
positive identifications based on our present limited
understanding of the phenomena. Consequently, all such
explanations should be considered only tentative. There may
be still other atmospheric phenomena which are observed so
rarely that they remain uninvestigated and unnamed.
-
Poorly understood
psychological phenomena
Psychologists are the first to
admit that there are many aspects of psychic phenomena that
have not been adequately explored. Few data are available to
determine how these phenomena may relate to the UFO problem,
but we must at least allow for the possibility that there
may be some effects.
4
-
Extraterrestrial visitation
Dr. Condon states in the summary
of Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects
that convincing and unequivocal evidence of extraterrestrial
visitation would be the greatest single scientific discovery
in the history of mankind. While this may be a slight
exaggeration, it at least points out why this hypothesis
adds so much excitement and controversy to the UFO problem.
Despite numerous UFO reports
concerning purported space vehicles and alien visitors,
there remains doubt as to the veracity of these reports.
Such reports do, however, contain a number of strange
elements that are verifiable. One would prefer hard evidence
in the form of a tail fin, a jettisoned propulsion unit, a
crashed UFO, several good photographs, etc. Such physical
evidence does not seem to exist, despite stories to the
contrary.
Several scientists have
concluded that the priori probability of extraterrestrial
visitation appears to be exceedingly low in terms of present
scientific knowledge. Although no conclusive proof as to the
validity of this hypothesis can be drawn from the evidence
at hand, a panel of the National Academy of Sciences
has concluded that on the basis of present knowledge, the
least Likely explanation of UFOs is the hypothesis of
extraterrestrial visitations by intelligent beings.
-
Messengers of salvation and
occult truth
Certain cults have adopted the
belief that the mission of UFOs is spiritual and that all
Physical efforts to determine the nature of UFOs must
necessarily fail. While such may be the case, evidence to
support it is clearly lacking. Further discussion of this
hypothesis is beyond the scope of this text.
33.3 Conclusion
Having presented the arguments for each of the hypotheses,
possible conclusions are now considered. It is apparent that no
single hypothesis can account for all UFO reports. Hypotheses 1,
2, 3, and 4 are obviously valid and, as a group, account for a
large number of UFO reports. However, the evidence is
insufficient to conclude that all UFO reports can be attributed
to these causes. Hypothesis 8 is unlikely to yield to any form
of scientific analysis, so we eliminate it from further
consideration.
If hypotheses 5, 6, and 7 are
scientifically the most interesting since they offer the
possibility of new knowledge about ourselves and our
environment. As indicated above, hypotheses 5 and 6 require
additional research on poorly understood phenomena before
conclusions can be reached as to their bearing on the UFO
problem. At this time, there appears to be insufficient evidence
available to either confirm or refute hypothesis 7.
One additional note of caution must be included at this point.
In most of this chapter, we have discussed primarily the
scientific implications of the UFO question. However, the
Lorenzens contend that UFOs are primarily an emotional problem,
secondly a political problem, and only incidentally, a
scientific problem. They feel that when the emotional and
political problems have been resolved, the entire UFO problem
will yield to scientific investigation.
5
Is such scientific investigation likely to be conducted? At
least one major scientific study has been made.
Dr. Condon and his University of
Colorado Project ended their Scientific Study of
Unidentified Flying Objects in late 1968 with the general
conclusion that nothing has come from the study of UFOs in the
past two decades that has added to scientific knowledge and that
further extensive study of UFOs probably cannot be justified in
the expectation that science will be advanced.
This conclusion and the entire
report were endorsed by a select panel from the National Academy
of Sciences.
Based on the conclusions of the Condon report and its own
twenty-year UFO experience, the Air Force terminated Project
Blue Book in December 1969 with this final statement,
“As a result of investigating
UFO reports since 1948, the conclusions of Project Blue Book
are:
(1) no UFO reported,
investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force has ever
given any indication of threat to our national security;
(2) there has been no
evidence submitted or discovered by the Air Force that
sightings categorized as ‘unidentified’ represent
technological developments or principles beyond the
range of present-day scientific knowledge; and
(3) there has been no
evidence indicating that sightings categorized as
‘unidentified’ are extraterrestrial vehicles.”
Consequently there is presently no
official government agency investigating UFO reports. Dr.
McDonald and several private UFO investigative agencies have
decried alleged inadequacies of the Condon report and Project
Blue Book and urge that the entire subject be re-investigated.
Specifically, Project Blue Book, during its existence, was
criticized for superficial investigation of UFO reports, low
level of scientific competence among its personnel, and
unreasonable explanations concerning specific UFO reports.
Criticisms of the Condor report
include the contention that the conclusions reached are not
supported by the bulk of the evidence in the report itself and
that the firing of two staff members for “incompetence” before
the completion of the final report raises questions concerning
the objectivity and completeness of the study. While some of the
criticism may possibly be justified, it is unlikely that any new
official scientific studies will be forthcoming, primarily
because the conclusions of the Condon report have been so widely
accepted.
The UFO problem must now compete on its scientific merit with
all the other pressing scientific problems facing mankind. To
receive attention from scientists and the requisite economic
support, the potential rewards from UFO research must be shown
to be commensurate with the resources expended.
Although the Condon committee
cautioned that nothing worthwhile was likely to result from such
research, it suggested that all of the agencies of the federal
government and private foundations should be willing to consider
UFO research proposals along with the others submitted to them
on an open minded, unprejudiced basis.
6
REFERENCES
1. Air Force Regulation 80-i7,
Unidentified Flying Objects, 19 Sept 66, (Rescinded 25 March
1970),
2. Binder, Otto , What We Really Know About Flying Saucers,
Greenwich, Conn: Fawcett Publications, 1967,
3, Condon, Edward U., Scientific
Study of Unidentified Flying Objects, New York: Bantam
Rooks, 1967.
4. Lorenzen, Carol and Jim, UFO’s-The W@ole Story. New York:
Signet Books, 1969.
5. Markowitz, William, “The Physics and Metaphysics of
Unidentified Flying Objects,” Science, Vol. 157 pp.
1274-1279, 15 Sept 67.
6. McDonald, James E., Unidentified Flying Objects-Greatcst
Scientific Problem of Our Times., Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh
Subcommittee, NICAP, 1967.
7. McDonald, James E., “UFO’s—An International Scientific
Problem,” speech presented 12 Mar 68 at the Canadian
Aeronautics and Space Institute, Astronautics Symposium,
Montreal, Canada.
8. OASD(PA) News Release No. 1077-69, Project “Blue Book”
Terminated.
9. Saunders, D.R. and R.R. Harkins, UFO’s? Yes, Where the
Condon Committee Went Wrong, New York: Signet Books,
1968.
