UFOs Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record (50 page)

While on a nighttime practice flight with three other Air Force jets, Ferreira saw an object that looked like “a bright star unusually big and scintillating, with a colored nucleus which changed color constantly—deep green, blue, reddish and yellowish hues.” Note the similarity to Jafari’s description: “It looked similar to a star, but bigger and brighter,” and then, “it was flashing with intense red, green, orange and blue light so bright that I was not able to see its body … The sequence of flashes was extremely fast, like a strobe light.” The next phase is chillingly consistent in the two encounters. Ferreira says that the pilots saw “first one small circle of yellow light coming out of the larger object, then three others,” and that these were considerably smaller than the scintillating, main object. Jafari states later in this chapter that he saw “a round object” leave the larger object and head toward him, looking like “a brightly lit moon coming out over the horizon.” And he, too, witnessed not just one of these round lights ejected from the brilliant one, but a series of them. Both incidents involved multiple Air Force witnesses. Jafari’s case was reported in a U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency document in great detail, as described later in this book.

It is unusual enough for pilots to get such extended close views of UFOs while in the air; for detailed reports to be filed about them; and for the primary witness to later be promoted to the rank of general. But when the details are so strikingly similar—even though they were seen nineteen years apart over two different continents—it is reasonable to wonder whether the two groups of pilots were witnessing the same, or almost identical, phenomena.

2
for an examination and more blood tests
Exposure to radiation can reduce the production and/or aggregation of blood platelets, which are essential for coagulation. Perhaps this explains Jafari’s problem, but we don’t know. He does not have copies of the medical records.

C
HAPTER
10: C
LOSE
C
OMBAT WITH A
UFO

1
On April 11, 1980
The first draft of this piece was translated from Spanish by Andrea Soares Berrios and Oscar Zambrano, who also translated during follow-up communications and further development of the piece. I worked on the final edits with Comandante Santa María in English.

C
HAPTER
11: T
HE
R
OOTS OF
UFO D
EBUNKING IN
A
MERICA

1
assigning a security classification and code name to it
General Nathan F. Twining to Commander, Air Material Command, “AMC Opinion Concerning ‘Flying Discs,’” September 23, 1947 (contained in Edwin U. Condon, project director,
Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects
, 1969), pp. 894–95.

2
and given the code name “Sign”
Directive—Major General L. C. Craigie to Commanding General Wright Field (Wright-Patterson AFB), Disposition and Security for Project Sign, December 30, 1947 (contained in Edwin U. Condon, project director,
Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects
, 1969) p. 896.

3
repeated attempts using the Freedom of Information Act
Edward J. Ruppelt,
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
(Doubleday & Company, 1956), pp. 62–63. Ruppelt was the first chief of Project Blue Book, from early 1951 until September 1953. David Michael Jacobs,
The UFO Controversy in America
(Indiana University Press, 1975), p. 47. Michael D. Swords, “Project Sign and the Estimate of the Situation,”
Journal of UFO Studies
, n.s. 7 (2000), pp. 27–64,
http://www.ufoscience.org/history/swords.pdf
.

4
“from another nation in this world”
W. P. Keay, FBI memorandum, “Flying Saucers,” July 29, 1952 (contained in Bruce Maccabee,
UFO FBI Connection
(Llewellyn Publications, 2000).

5
“seriously considering the possibility of planetary ships”
W. P. Keay, FBI memorandum, “Flying Saucers,” October 27, 1952 (Maccabee, ibid.).

6
“any conceivable threat to the United States”
The press conference was filmed and General Samford’s opening statement has been shown in numerous documentaries. It can be seen in the James Fox film
I Know What I Saw
and on this 1952 news clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utX5HvMO0PM
.

7
“or known types of aerial vehicles”
H. Marshall Chadwell, memorandum for Director of Central Intelligence, December 2, 1952.

8
“to minimize risk of panic”
H. Marshall Chadwell, memorandum for Director of Central Intelligence, “Flying Saucers,” September 11, 1952, pp. 3–4.

9
“to review and appraise the available evidence”
“Unidentified Flying Objects,” December 4, 1952, IAC-M-90.

10
“the aura of mystery they have unfortunately acquired”
F. C. Durant, “Report of Meetings of Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects,” convened by Office of Scientific Intelligence, CA, January 14–18, 1953.

11
“It made the subject of UFOs scientifically unrespectable”
Hynek,
The Hynek UFO Report
, p. 23.

12
“to decide the nature of the UFO phenomenon”
J. Allen Hynek,
The UFO Experience
(Marlowe & Company, 1998; originally published 1972), p. 169.

13
“any basis in fact”
Ibid., p. 186.

14
“as poor as they were”
Ibid., p. 183.

15
hosted by the trusted Walter Cronkite
This letter, dated September 10, 1966, was found in the archives of the Smithsonian Institution by Dr. Michael Swords.

16
“science is more served by fact”
“UFO: Friend, Foe or Fantasy?” hosted by Walter Cronkite, CBS special, 1966,
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=2935380n
.

17
congressional hearings on the subject of UFOs
Congressman Gerald R. Ford, letter to L. Mendel Rivers, Chairman, Science and Astronautics Committee of the Committee on Armed Services, March 28, 1966; David Michael Jacobs,
The UFO Controversy in America
(Indiana University Press, 1975), p. 204.

18
“an almost zero expectation of finding a saucer”
Robert J. Low, memo to E. James Archer and Thurston E. Manning, “Some Thoughts on the UFO Project,” August 9, 1966, contained in David R. Saunders and R. Roger Harkins,
UFOs? Yes! Where the Condon Committee Went Wrong
(Signet Books/New American Library, 1968), pp. 242–44.

19
“reach a conclusion for another year”
John Fuller, “Flying Saucer Fiasco,”
Look
, May 14, 1968.

20
what I could call “irrefutable proof”
Hearings before the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninetieth Congress, “Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects,” July 29, 1968 (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington 1968), p. 32.

21
cooperation be sought through the United Nations
Ibid., p. 15.

22
“within the sight of two witnesses”
Edward U. Condon, project director, and Daniel S. Gillmor, editor,
Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects
(Bantam, 1969), p. 407.

23
it concluded seven weeks later
“Review of the University of Colorado Report on Unidentified Flying Objects by a Panel of the National Academy of Sciences,” 1969.

24
“got involved in such foolishness”
“Air Force Closes Study of UFO’s,”
New York Times
, December 18, 1969.

25
“should arouse sufficient curiosity to continue its study”
J. P. Kuettner et al., “UFO: An Appraisal of the Problem, a Statement by the UFO Subcommittee of the AIAA,”
Astronautics and Aeronautics
, 8, no. 11.

C
HAPTER
12: T
AKING THE
P
HENOMENON
S
ERIOUSLY

1
would still be dealt with accordingly
BBC News, “UFO Investigations Unit Closed by Ministry of Defence,” December 4, 2009.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8395473.stm
.

2
now called GEIPAN
GEIPAN stands for Groupe d’Étude et d’Information sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-Identifiés (Group for the Study of and Information on Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena).

3
known as CNES
CNES stands for the Centre National d’Études Spatiales (National Center of Space Studies).

4
and the Condon report in 1968
Associated Press, “French Space Agency Puts UFO Files Online,” March 23, 2007,
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,260590,00.html
.

5
traditionally employed by that noted paper
Sarah Lyall, “British U.F.O. Shocker! Government Officials Were Telling the Truth,”
New York Times
, May 26, 2008.

6
by former UK Ministry of Defence official Nick Pope
Nick Pope, “Unidentified Flying Threats,”
New York Times
, July 29, 2008.

7
Phénomènes aérospatiaux non identifiés
The book was published by Le Cherche Midi, 2007.

8
“to identify what we don’t know”
http://www.eeb.org/publication/1999/
eeb_position_on_the_precautionar.html
. See also
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/library/pub/pub07_en.pdf
].

C
HAPTER
13: T
HE
B
IRTH OF
COMETA

1
“to do the research, to work together”
James Fox’s film
I Know What I Saw
includes some clips of this interview with General Letty at his home, and it also covers the COMETA Report and the work of GEIPAN.

2
I first became aware
Oscar Zambrano translated some sections about Captain Girard and Captain Fartek. The rest was written in English.

3
our responsibility to study them seriously
Interview with General Thouverez,
Armées d’aujourd’hui (Armies of Today)
, July 2002.

C
HAPTER
14: F
RANCE AND THE
UFO Q
UESTION

1
For twenty-one years
The much longer first draft of this piece was written in French and translated by Jean-Luc Rivera. Throughout the editing process, M. Velasco and I worked in English.

2
the incidents at Malmstrom Air Force Base
Velasco is referring to the 1967 case described by Robert Salas in
chapter 15
(pp. 144–45) and other sightings that took place in the Malmstrom area around the same time period.

3
a new internal agency then called GEPAN
GEPAN: Groupe d’Étude des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-Identifiés (Group for the Study of Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena).

4
a new agency called SEPRA
SEPRA: Service d’Expertise des Phénomènes de Rentrées Atmosphériques (Service of Expertise on the Phenomena of Atmospheric Reentries).