QUOTE (hazzard @ Apr 10 2008, 06:35 PM) 
And what makes you think that there is a "smoking gun" in the not yet released documents. There sure wasnt in the released ones, as we all hoped.
Some of the stuff that has been revealed.
Eventually, you, and other skeptics will find that I was right on the money all along in regards to ET visitation!!!
"It is just a matter of time!!!
QUOTE
[b]May 1, 1952; Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona; 9:10 a.m.
Witnesses: Major Rudy Pestalozzi, an intelligence officer, and an airman
Features: Discs, coordinated flight, vehicle pacing.
Two shiny discs overtook a B-36 bomber and paced alongside, one close to the fuselage. The bomber crew crowded into the starboard blister aft of the wing and looked down at a slight angle to see the closest disc, which was lens- or double-disc-shaped and about 20-25 feet in diameter. After about 20 seconds, the objects peeled off at a sharp angle and sped away. The flight commander, startled by the experience, made an unscheduled landing at the base and the crew was interrogated at length by Major Pestalozzi, who happened to be the base UFO officer. (Hynek, 1977, pp. 109-112, 292-294; McDonald files, University of Arizona library; Project Blue Book files, National Archives.)
Aug. 13, 1960; Red Bluff, California; 11:50 p.m.
Witnesses: Officer Charles A. Carson, Officer Stanley Scott, California Highway Patrol; Tehama County sheriff's deputies; Air Force radar.
Features: Ellipse, body lights, red light beams sweeping ground, extraordinary maneuvers, radar contact, E-M effects on radio.
Officers Carson and Scott while on patrol observed a large object low in the sky directly ahead of them which they thought was an airliner about to crash. They stopped and leaped from the patrol car to get a position fix, but they heard no sound. When the object reached a position about 100-200 feet off the ground, it abruptly reversed direction and shot back up to about 500 feet and stopped. The officers saw the shape clearly illuminated by a surrounding glow. It was a silvery ellipse with red lights at each extremity. Between the two red lights about five white lights were appeared occasionally along the center of the object. "As we watched the object moved again and performed aerial feats that were actually unbelievable," Carson wrote in his official report of the incident.
"At this time we radioed Tehama County Sheriff's Office requesting that they contact local radar base," Carson continued. "The radar base confirmed the UFO - completely unidentified."
The officers talked with Deputies Fry and Montgomery of Tehama County, and the night jailer, all of whom had seen exactly what they had. The sighting lasted a little over two hours. (Hall, 1964, p. 61-62)
Apr. 24, 1964; Socorro, New Mexico; 5:45 p.m.
Witnesses: Lonnie Zamora, Socorro police officer; Deputy Sheriff James Luckie; Sgt. Sam Chavez, New Mexico State Police.
Features: Ellipse, small beings, leg-like imprints in ground, damage to foliage.
Attracted by an apparent explosion, Zamora drove off the highway onto rough roads to investigate. A white object was visible which he first thought was an overturned car, so he reported in to the dispatcher that he would be out of his car "checking the car down in the arroyo." Two small figures were standing near it.
As he got out of his car he heard two or three loud "thumps," like someone hammering or slamming a door. One of the beings turned and looked at him. Then they disappeared into the craft and it took off with a loud roar and blast of flames. Fearing an explosion, Zamora turned to run for cover, stumbled and fell. The object rose straight up, and once it cleared the ground the loud noise stopped. The object, a whitish ellipse with a red symbol-like marking on the side, flew away horizontally. It rose gradually until it disappeared in the distance over the mountains, just clearing Six Mile Canyon Mountain.
When Zamora called to report the incident, the dispatcher directed Sergeant M.S. Chavez of the State Police to the site as back-up. Zamora and Chavez noticed that the underbrush was burning in several places and Chavez spotted the "tracks."
Socorro Deputy Sheriff James Luckie arrived a few minutes after Chavez, and he also confirmed the imprints and the still-smoking foliage. Clearly visible in the sandy soil were four squarish imprints arranged in a trapezoidal pattern. Four burned areas were visible, three of them within the pattern of imprints. Several small, shallow circular indentations also were found; these are labelled "footprints" in the Air Force case file.
A Public Health Service scientist analyzed a patch of fused sand found at the site. The results of this analysis is absent from the official file. (The Air Force case file contains only one qualitative soil sample analysis dated 19 May 1964 that identifies "major elements" but gives no percentages.)
On April 25, Army Captain Richard T. Holder, Up-Range Commander of White Sands Proving Grounds, along with an FBI agent, D. Arthur Byrnes, Jr., from the Albuquerque office, arrived to investigate and take measurements at the site. (Holder, 1964; FBI, 1964)
Major William Connor from Kirtland AFB and Sgt. David Moody, who was in the area on TDY, investigated for Air Force Project Blue Book on April 26. (Connor, 1964) Dr. J. Allen Hynek conducted a follow-up investigation in person on August 15, 1964, finding strongly favorable character references for Zamora. (Hynek, 1964)
Writing in a classified Central Intelligence Agency publication Studies in Intelligence two years later, Hector Quintanilla, Air Force Chief of Project Blue Book at the time of the sighting, reported that the Socorro case remained "puzzling." With the help of many other agencies, he had conducted an exhaustive check of military activities looking for an explanation. He found none.
"There is no doubt," he reported, "that Lonnie Zamora saw an object which left quite an impression on him. There is also no question about Zamora's reliability. He is a serious police officer, a pillar of his church, and a man well versed in recognizing airborne vehicles in his area. He is puzzled by what he saw, and frankly, so are we. This is the best-documented case on record, and still we have been unable, in spite of thorough investigation, to find the vehicle or other stimulus that scared Zamora to the point of panic." (Quintanilla, 1966)
March 5, 1967; Minot AFB, North Dakota; time not reported:
Witnesses: Air Force security police and other base personnel.
Features: disc, radar visual sighting, flashing body lights, Hover acceleration.
Air Defense Command radar tracked an unidentified target descending over the Minuteman missile silos of the 91st Strategic Missile Wing. Base security teams saw a metallic, disc-shaped object ringed with bright flashing lights moving slowly, maneuvering, then stopping and hovering about 500 feet off the ground. After a while the object circled directly over the launch control facility. F-106 fighter-interceptors were scrambled to investigate. At that moment the UFO "climbed straight up and streaked away at incredible speed." (Fowler, 1981, p. 187)
Oct. 18, 1973; Mansfield, Ohio; 11:00 p.m.:
Witnesses: Capt. Lawrence J. Coyne and the crew of an Army Reserve UH-1H helicopter; separately located ground witnesses.
Features: Cigar-shaped metallic object with dome, body lights, light beam, apparent lifting force, apparent EM effects.
The helicopter was cruising at 90 knots at an altitude of 2,500 feet above sea level, over mixed woods and farmland en route from Columbus to Cleveland on a clear starry night. A red light was observed on the eastern horizon that appeared to be pacing the helicopter. A minute or so later one of the crew members warned the captain that the light appeared to be converging on the helicopter. Capt. Coyne took the controls from the copilot and began descending, at the same time contacting Mansfield approach control to request information on possible jet traffic; he knew there were F-100s based at Mansfield. Before Mansfield could answer, radio communications were lost.
Meanwhile the red light increased in intensity and appeared to be on a collision course at a very high rate of speed, so Coyne increased the rate of descent and dropped to about 1,700 feet. With the trees coming up fast and the unknown object apparently about to ram them, the crew members braced for the impact. Just as a collision appeared imminent, the light suddenly stopped and assumed a hovering relationship above and in front of the helicopter.
The object appeared solid, eclipsing the stars behind it. On it were a red light at the nose, a white light at the tail, and a distinctive green beam emanating from the lower part of the body. The green beam swung across the front of the helicopter, through the windshield, bathing the cockpit in intense green light. No turbulence was felt and the crew heard no sound from the object. After a few seconds, the object accelerated and moved off to the west, showing only the white "tail" light as it receded, and made a distinct 45 degree course change to the right, heading toward Lake Erie.
While the object was still visible, Coyne noted that the altimeter read 3,500 feet with a rate of climb of 1,000 feet per minute. Yet the collective (steering mechanism) was still in the full-down position set during his attempt to evade the object. Coyne regained control at an indicated altitude of 3,800 feet At that point the crew felt a slight "bump." Reviewing his instruments, Coyne noticed that the magnetic compass was rotating slowly, while the Radio Magnetic Indicator was functioning normally. He descended to the previously assigned cruise altitude of 2,500 feet and made radio contact with the Akron/Canton air traffic controllers. This time there was no problem with radio communications.
On the ground, the driver and passengers of a car saw two lights, one red and one green, moving together, coming down rapidly toward them. At first they thought it was a small plane flying low, but the red was too bright, especially compared to the green. They could discern no shape, and heard no sound. As the object approached the car from the right, its unusual qualities caused the driver to pull over and stop. They then became aware of a second group of lights, some of them flashing, approaching from behind them (the southwest) and heard a helicopter-like noise for the first time. The driver thought the two sets of lights were two helicopters about to crash. For a few seconds they watched from the open car windows as the red steady light and the helicopter converged, then some of the passengers got out to watch.
"The one object went over the top of the other one," they reported, "and then it stopped." They described the unidentified object as being "something like a blimp... The helicopter was smaller than the object." After the red-lighted object stopped, the green light flared up. "When we got out, everything was green. I saw that thing and the helicopter... It lit up everything green... It kind of looked like rays coming down." The witnesses agreed that the helicopter was green because of the light shining down from the object above it.
As they continued to watch, the helicopter with the other object above and slightly ahead of it moved in tandem from southwest to northeast. They reported this movement as a backward or zig-zag flight path of the object. Suddenly the green light went out and the object was gone. "When the light went out you couldn't see the object. And then the helicopter went northeast. Then we got back in the car and went on, and saw it [the helicopter] fly out over the lake."
A time-line analysis performed by Jennie Zeidman shows that the unidentified object was continuously in view of the helicopter crew for at least five minutes--possibly six. Both aircrew and ground witnesses testified that the object was precisely shaped and opaque, with distinct edges and no train or trail. That testimony, and the reported maneuvers, absolutely preclude the object's being a meteor. (Zeidman, 1979)
September 1, 1974; Langenburg, Saskatchewan, Canada; 11:00 a.m.
Witnesses: Farmer Edwin Fuhr, 36; Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Ron Morier, onsite investigator.
Features: Circular (hemispherical) objects, formation, coordinated flight, physical traces, E-M effects, animal reaction.
While Fuhr was driving a swather to harvest his rape crop, he noticed a metallic-appearing, dome-shaped object about 50 feet away and stopped to investigate. Walking to within 15 feet of it, Fuhr saw that it was spinning and swirling the grass beneath it. This frightened him and he backed away. Climbing back on the swather, he looked around and saw four more identical domes "like brushed stainless steel" arranged in a rough semi-circle, all hovering and spinning about a foot above the ground. Whether from fear or an E-M effect, Fuhr could not get the throttle and steering wheel of the swather to respond.
Nov. 9, 1978; Kuwait; time not reported:
Witnesses: Oil field technicians
Features: Disc with dome, flashing body lights, landing, E-M effects on pumping equipment and communications, photographs
Kuwait Oil Company employees reported a series of UFO sightings from November 9 to November 21, 1978, including alleged photographs in some cases. On November 9, at Gathering Centre No. 24, technicians saw a disc-like object with dome on top on the ground. This coincided with failure of the oil pumping station and interruption of communications. After about 7 minutes the object departed at a rapid speed. The Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) conducted an investigation, but could not explain the sightings and considers its report "confidential." When the same or a similar UFO reappeared on November 21, a Kuwait Oil Company employee obtained "...a number of photographs of the object." These were examined by KISR, but their report has never been released. (Private communication from a scientist member of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research; Kuwait Times, Nov. 16, 18, 1978; Arab Times, Jan. 24, 1979)
March 4, 1988; Eastlake, Ohio; 8:35 p.m.:
Witnesses: Family, Coast Guard personnel, others separately
Features: Large elliptical object, light beams, sequentially flashing body lights, landing on ice-covered lake, effects on ice, satellite objects maneuvering around primary object.
Coast Guard personnel responding to citizen reports of unusual aerial activity over Lake Erie witnessed a large elliptical object hovering over the lake. A family driving home saw the object, drove down to the beach to investigate and got out of the car. In the bright moonlight they could see ice on the lake which could be heard cracking like claps of thunder.
A huge, gunmetal gray, football-shaped object hovered low above the lake, rocking back and forth. Blinding white light emanated from both ends. The object was silent. When it moved, swinging one end toward the shore and descending, the family became frightened, ran back to their car and fled. At home, they could still see the object from a window that faced the lake.
The object moved out over the ice and descended, with red and blue lights now flashing in sequence along its lower edge. The family called the Eastlake police to report a UFO. After several referrals to other agencies, with no one expressing much interest, someone suggested the Coast Guard.
Suddenly 5 or 6 bright yellow triangular objects shot out of the center of the large object and began darting around independently. Once they stopped and hovered point up around the parent object, then sped away to the north, turned east, then inland toward the Perry nuclear power plant. Independent witnesses observed this action. At this point the family called the Coast Guard which sent a team to investigate.
Seaman James Power and Petty Officer John Knaub arrived. They told the family that they had seen some lights over the lake from Fairport Harbor and thought they were flares. Maybe there were some fishermen trapped out on the ice. The family pointed out the main craft with some of the triangular objects still zipping around it. The men drove closer to the lake to investigate, accompanied by the husband and wife. At the lakefront all could hear the ice rumbling and roaring.
In their incident report later sent by teletype to the Coast Guard headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, the men were quoted as saying that "the ice was cracking and moving abnormal amounts as the object came closer to it."
Power and Knaub gave a running report to their base via the two-way radio in their Chevy Suburban. The window was down, and the husband and wife overheard them saying words to the effect, "Be advised the object appears to be landing on the lake...There are other objects moving around it. Be advised these smaller objects are going at high rates of speed. There are no engine noises and they are very, very low." They continued to watch for over an hour. The men were overheard saying such things to their base as, "You should be advised that the object is now shining lights all over the lake and it's turning different colors." The men had to yell to be heard on the radio because of the thunderous noise of the rumbling ice.
Suddenly the smaller triangles returned and one by one entered the side of the parent object as it seemed to land on the ice. The object then flashed a series of red, blue, and yellow lights, the light emanating from the end of the object turned from white to red, and the triangles re-emerged and hovered above it. The noise from the ice abruptly ceased, and the lights and triangles disappeared. When it was over the Coast Guard men drove away, "white-faced," according to the husband. (Evans, 1992; see also Coast Guard teletype report on incident)
May 25, 1995; Bovina, Texas; 10:30 a.m.:
Witnesses: Capt. Gene Tollefson, First Officer John J. Waller, America West Airlines Flight 564.
Features: Large silhouetted cigar-shaped object, pulsating lights along body, reported radar track.
An America West B-757 airliner was cruising at 39,000 feet near Bovina, Texas, en route from Tampa, Florida, to Las Vegas, Nevada. To their right and somewhat below their altitude, the crew saw a row of bright white lights which sequenced on and off from left to right. The co-pilot contacted the Albuquerque FAA Air Route Traffic Control Center while the sighting was in progress inquiring about possible military activities. Checks were made with military installations in the area, but no explanation could be found.
As the airliner proceeded westerly and the object began dropping behind, the crew observed it against a background of thunderclouds. When the background clouds pulsed with lightning, they could see the silhouette of a dark, wingless, elongated cigar-like object around the strobing lights. Though they did not know the object's exact distance, the pilot and co-pilot estimated it to be 300-400 feet long.
FAA radar at Albuquerque did not show the object. One of the air traffic controllers contacted the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), which monitors North American air space by radar, and said that NORAD had confirmed an unidentified radar track in the vicinity. This later proved to be a small aircraft whose transponder was not working.
Next morning the controller said he checked with NORAD again. NORAD told him that they had tracked another, very unusual target in the same general area a short time later - something that at first was stationary, then accelerated rapidly and stopped abruptly, repeating this sequence several times. The bursts of speed were computed to be between 1,000 and 1,400 m.p.h. This report, based on the word of one air traffic controller, could not be independently confirmed. (W. Webb, 1996)
MANEUVERED MOTION AND "INTELLIGENT CONTROL:"
Following the nearly year-long 1952 UFO sighting wave in which there were repeated instances of jet interceptors chasing after UFOs that also showed on radar, the Central Intelligence Agency convened the so-called Robertson Panel to evaluate the data. Among the presentations made to the scientific panel was one by Dewey J. Fournet (USAF, Ret.) who had worked with scientific analysts conducting a rigorous motion analysis study of hardcore unexplained cases.
Edward J. Ruppelt, former Chief of the Air Force Project Blue Book investigation, later reported that the study was "very hot and very controversial...[it] was hot because it wasn't official and the reason it wasn't official was because it was so hot. It concluded that UFOs were interplanetary spaceships." (Ruppelt, 1956, pp. 285-286)
Air Force analysts had reached this conclusion before. Project Sign in 1948 had issued a Top Secret Estimate of the Situation drawing the same conclusion. (Hall, 1964, p. 110) But both times outside scientific consultants, on the basis of what were arguably superficial and excessively skeptical reviews, disputed the conclusion. (Hall, 1988, pp. 155-163)
Many of these jet interception cases included a sort of "cat-and-mouse" behavior on the part of the UFOs, pulling away from the pursuing jets and then slowing down until they caught up again. This behavior has been repeated throughout the history of UFOs, and is one of the many indicators of intelligence behind the phenomenon. Case after case can be cited of UFOs apparently playing interactive games with (a) military aircraft, and (
police cruisers.
Sept. 3, 1965; Damon, Texas; 11:00 p.m.
Witnesses: Deputy Sheriff Billy E. McCoy; Deputy Sheriff Robert W. Goode.
Features: Elongated structured object, body lights, brilliant illumination, cat-and-mouse interaction.
While on routine patrol duty, Goode and McCoy spotted a bright purple light on the horizon over the prairie to the southwest about five to six miles distant. They discussed several possible explanations for what they were seeing--lamps, an oil-drilling rig--but none of them seemed to fit. Suddenly without warning, a blue light--smaller in diameter--emerged from the purple light and moved to its right before stopping. Both lights remained in this orientation for a period of time before beginning to drift upwardly. This upward floating motion, as McCoy described it, continued until the objects reached a position 5 to 10 degrees above the horizon. Goode then looked at the lights through a pair of binoculars, but he could see no further details.
Their curiosity aroused, the officers began to look for back roads that might take them closer to the lights. Goode stopped near a pasture and once again used the binoculars to observe the objects through the open car window. This time, as the men watched, the lights suddenly swooped toward them at fantastic speed, covering the intervening distance in one to two seconds. The officers saw a solid object which abruptly stopped and hovered practically overhead. Its brilliant purple light illuminated them and the nearby ground. The purple and blue lights were attached to opposite ends of an enormous object, hovering about 150 feet from them over the pasture at a height of about 100 feet. In his subsequent statement to the Air Force, McCoy described what he saw:
"The bulk of the object was plainly visible at this time and appeared to be triangular shaped with a bright purple light on the left end and the smaller, less bright, blue light on the right end. The bulk of the object appeared to be dark gray in color with no other distinguishing features. It appeared to be about 200 feet wide and 40-50 feet thick in the middle, tapering off toward both ends. There was no noise or any trail. The bright purple light illuminated the ground directly underneath it and the area in front of it, including the highway and the interior of our patrol car. The tall grass under the object did not appear to be disturbed. There was a bright moon out and it cast a shadow of the object on the ground immediately below it in the grass."
The object seemed to be "...as big as a football field." Goode could feel heat from the object through his shirt-sleeved left arm. Frightened by the strange object looming overhead, the officers "...put the car in motion and headed toward Damon as fast as we could go" at speeds of up to 110 miles per hour. McCoy kept watch out the rear window of the car, monitoring the object's actions. After 10 to 15 seconds, the UFO abruptly shot back in the direction from which it had come. "After arriving at approximately its original position," McCoy observed, "it went straight up in the air and disappeared at 25-30 degrees above the horizon."
After they calmed down, McCoy and Goode decided to return to the area and attempt to identify the mysterious object. Back on Highway 36 near the area where they had first seen the lights, they again spied the purple light on the horizon. Once again the smaller blue light moved out from it with a strange two-step motion and the lights floated upward. Frightened by the possibility of another unwelcome close encounter, they again fled.
The deputies reported the sighting to Ellington Air Force Base, and Major Laurence Leach, Jr., arrived on September 8 to interview McCoy and Goode and take a statement. Leach, in his report to Project Blue Book headquarters at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, indicated that he was puzzled after interviewing the two men. "[T]here is," he wrote, "no doubt in my mind that they definitely saw some unusual object or phenomenon.
Both officers appeared to be intelligent, mature, level-headed persons capable of sound judgment and reasoning." The Air Force ultimately characterized the sighting as unexplained. (Project Blue Book files, National Archives; McCoy statement, Brazoria County Sheriff's Department, Sept. 8, 1965; "Ellington [AFB] Probes UFO Seen by Local Deputies," Brazosport Facts, Sept. 6, 1965; Rhonda Moran, "The Night of the UFO," Brazosport Facts, Sept. 13, 1995.)
April 17, 1966; Ravenna, Ohio; dawn
Witnesses: Dale Spaur and Wilbur Neff, deputy sheriffs; police officers in several other jurisdictions
Features: Structured disc-like object with brilliant light beam to ground, cat-and-mouse chase across state line
Portage County Deputy Sheriffs Spaur and Neff were investigating an abandoned car when they were confronted by a glowing disc-like object that rose up out of the woods and stopped overhead, illuminating them and the surroundings. The object was making a humming sound. After conferring with the dispatcher, they chased the object into Pennsylvania. Along the route other police officers, hearing the radio chatter about something strange headed their way, then joined in the chase as the UFO sped by, followed by the Portage County sheriff's car in hot pursuit.
The object seemed to play a cat-and-mouse game with Spaur and Neff, speeding up and then slowing down until they could catch up again. At the conclusion of the sighting the object moved off into the distance and hovered motionless for a while. Finally it shot straight up out of sight disappearing among the background stars. (Weitzel, 1966; Clark, 1998, pp. 450-465)
Witnesses: Major Rudy Pestalozzi, an intelligence officer, and an airman
Features: Discs, coordinated flight, vehicle pacing.
Two shiny discs overtook a B-36 bomber and paced alongside, one close to the fuselage. The bomber crew crowded into the starboard blister aft of the wing and looked down at a slight angle to see the closest disc, which was lens- or double-disc-shaped and about 20-25 feet in diameter. After about 20 seconds, the objects peeled off at a sharp angle and sped away. The flight commander, startled by the experience, made an unscheduled landing at the base and the crew was interrogated at length by Major Pestalozzi, who happened to be the base UFO officer. (Hynek, 1977, pp. 109-112, 292-294; McDonald files, University of Arizona library; Project Blue Book files, National Archives.)
Aug. 13, 1960; Red Bluff, California; 11:50 p.m.
Witnesses: Officer Charles A. Carson, Officer Stanley Scott, California Highway Patrol; Tehama County sheriff's deputies; Air Force radar.
Features: Ellipse, body lights, red light beams sweeping ground, extraordinary maneuvers, radar contact, E-M effects on radio.
Officers Carson and Scott while on patrol observed a large object low in the sky directly ahead of them which they thought was an airliner about to crash. They stopped and leaped from the patrol car to get a position fix, but they heard no sound. When the object reached a position about 100-200 feet off the ground, it abruptly reversed direction and shot back up to about 500 feet and stopped. The officers saw the shape clearly illuminated by a surrounding glow. It was a silvery ellipse with red lights at each extremity. Between the two red lights about five white lights were appeared occasionally along the center of the object. "As we watched the object moved again and performed aerial feats that were actually unbelievable," Carson wrote in his official report of the incident.
"At this time we radioed Tehama County Sheriff's Office requesting that they contact local radar base," Carson continued. "The radar base confirmed the UFO - completely unidentified."
The officers talked with Deputies Fry and Montgomery of Tehama County, and the night jailer, all of whom had seen exactly what they had. The sighting lasted a little over two hours. (Hall, 1964, p. 61-62)
Apr. 24, 1964; Socorro, New Mexico; 5:45 p.m.
Witnesses: Lonnie Zamora, Socorro police officer; Deputy Sheriff James Luckie; Sgt. Sam Chavez, New Mexico State Police.
Features: Ellipse, small beings, leg-like imprints in ground, damage to foliage.
Attracted by an apparent explosion, Zamora drove off the highway onto rough roads to investigate. A white object was visible which he first thought was an overturned car, so he reported in to the dispatcher that he would be out of his car "checking the car down in the arroyo." Two small figures were standing near it.
As he got out of his car he heard two or three loud "thumps," like someone hammering or slamming a door. One of the beings turned and looked at him. Then they disappeared into the craft and it took off with a loud roar and blast of flames. Fearing an explosion, Zamora turned to run for cover, stumbled and fell. The object rose straight up, and once it cleared the ground the loud noise stopped. The object, a whitish ellipse with a red symbol-like marking on the side, flew away horizontally. It rose gradually until it disappeared in the distance over the mountains, just clearing Six Mile Canyon Mountain.
When Zamora called to report the incident, the dispatcher directed Sergeant M.S. Chavez of the State Police to the site as back-up. Zamora and Chavez noticed that the underbrush was burning in several places and Chavez spotted the "tracks."
Socorro Deputy Sheriff James Luckie arrived a few minutes after Chavez, and he also confirmed the imprints and the still-smoking foliage. Clearly visible in the sandy soil were four squarish imprints arranged in a trapezoidal pattern. Four burned areas were visible, three of them within the pattern of imprints. Several small, shallow circular indentations also were found; these are labelled "footprints" in the Air Force case file.
A Public Health Service scientist analyzed a patch of fused sand found at the site. The results of this analysis is absent from the official file. (The Air Force case file contains only one qualitative soil sample analysis dated 19 May 1964 that identifies "major elements" but gives no percentages.)
On April 25, Army Captain Richard T. Holder, Up-Range Commander of White Sands Proving Grounds, along with an FBI agent, D. Arthur Byrnes, Jr., from the Albuquerque office, arrived to investigate and take measurements at the site. (Holder, 1964; FBI, 1964)
Major William Connor from Kirtland AFB and Sgt. David Moody, who was in the area on TDY, investigated for Air Force Project Blue Book on April 26. (Connor, 1964) Dr. J. Allen Hynek conducted a follow-up investigation in person on August 15, 1964, finding strongly favorable character references for Zamora. (Hynek, 1964)
Writing in a classified Central Intelligence Agency publication Studies in Intelligence two years later, Hector Quintanilla, Air Force Chief of Project Blue Book at the time of the sighting, reported that the Socorro case remained "puzzling." With the help of many other agencies, he had conducted an exhaustive check of military activities looking for an explanation. He found none.
"There is no doubt," he reported, "that Lonnie Zamora saw an object which left quite an impression on him. There is also no question about Zamora's reliability. He is a serious police officer, a pillar of his church, and a man well versed in recognizing airborne vehicles in his area. He is puzzled by what he saw, and frankly, so are we. This is the best-documented case on record, and still we have been unable, in spite of thorough investigation, to find the vehicle or other stimulus that scared Zamora to the point of panic." (Quintanilla, 1966)
March 5, 1967; Minot AFB, North Dakota; time not reported:
Witnesses: Air Force security police and other base personnel.
Features: disc, radar visual sighting, flashing body lights, Hover acceleration.
Air Defense Command radar tracked an unidentified target descending over the Minuteman missile silos of the 91st Strategic Missile Wing. Base security teams saw a metallic, disc-shaped object ringed with bright flashing lights moving slowly, maneuvering, then stopping and hovering about 500 feet off the ground. After a while the object circled directly over the launch control facility. F-106 fighter-interceptors were scrambled to investigate. At that moment the UFO "climbed straight up and streaked away at incredible speed." (Fowler, 1981, p. 187)
Oct. 18, 1973; Mansfield, Ohio; 11:00 p.m.:
Witnesses: Capt. Lawrence J. Coyne and the crew of an Army Reserve UH-1H helicopter; separately located ground witnesses.
Features: Cigar-shaped metallic object with dome, body lights, light beam, apparent lifting force, apparent EM effects.
The helicopter was cruising at 90 knots at an altitude of 2,500 feet above sea level, over mixed woods and farmland en route from Columbus to Cleveland on a clear starry night. A red light was observed on the eastern horizon that appeared to be pacing the helicopter. A minute or so later one of the crew members warned the captain that the light appeared to be converging on the helicopter. Capt. Coyne took the controls from the copilot and began descending, at the same time contacting Mansfield approach control to request information on possible jet traffic; he knew there were F-100s based at Mansfield. Before Mansfield could answer, radio communications were lost.
Meanwhile the red light increased in intensity and appeared to be on a collision course at a very high rate of speed, so Coyne increased the rate of descent and dropped to about 1,700 feet. With the trees coming up fast and the unknown object apparently about to ram them, the crew members braced for the impact. Just as a collision appeared imminent, the light suddenly stopped and assumed a hovering relationship above and in front of the helicopter.
The object appeared solid, eclipsing the stars behind it. On it were a red light at the nose, a white light at the tail, and a distinctive green beam emanating from the lower part of the body. The green beam swung across the front of the helicopter, through the windshield, bathing the cockpit in intense green light. No turbulence was felt and the crew heard no sound from the object. After a few seconds, the object accelerated and moved off to the west, showing only the white "tail" light as it receded, and made a distinct 45 degree course change to the right, heading toward Lake Erie.
While the object was still visible, Coyne noted that the altimeter read 3,500 feet with a rate of climb of 1,000 feet per minute. Yet the collective (steering mechanism) was still in the full-down position set during his attempt to evade the object. Coyne regained control at an indicated altitude of 3,800 feet At that point the crew felt a slight "bump." Reviewing his instruments, Coyne noticed that the magnetic compass was rotating slowly, while the Radio Magnetic Indicator was functioning normally. He descended to the previously assigned cruise altitude of 2,500 feet and made radio contact with the Akron/Canton air traffic controllers. This time there was no problem with radio communications.
On the ground, the driver and passengers of a car saw two lights, one red and one green, moving together, coming down rapidly toward them. At first they thought it was a small plane flying low, but the red was too bright, especially compared to the green. They could discern no shape, and heard no sound. As the object approached the car from the right, its unusual qualities caused the driver to pull over and stop. They then became aware of a second group of lights, some of them flashing, approaching from behind them (the southwest) and heard a helicopter-like noise for the first time. The driver thought the two sets of lights were two helicopters about to crash. For a few seconds they watched from the open car windows as the red steady light and the helicopter converged, then some of the passengers got out to watch.
"The one object went over the top of the other one," they reported, "and then it stopped." They described the unidentified object as being "something like a blimp... The helicopter was smaller than the object." After the red-lighted object stopped, the green light flared up. "When we got out, everything was green. I saw that thing and the helicopter... It lit up everything green... It kind of looked like rays coming down." The witnesses agreed that the helicopter was green because of the light shining down from the object above it.
As they continued to watch, the helicopter with the other object above and slightly ahead of it moved in tandem from southwest to northeast. They reported this movement as a backward or zig-zag flight path of the object. Suddenly the green light went out and the object was gone. "When the light went out you couldn't see the object. And then the helicopter went northeast. Then we got back in the car and went on, and saw it [the helicopter] fly out over the lake."
A time-line analysis performed by Jennie Zeidman shows that the unidentified object was continuously in view of the helicopter crew for at least five minutes--possibly six. Both aircrew and ground witnesses testified that the object was precisely shaped and opaque, with distinct edges and no train or trail. That testimony, and the reported maneuvers, absolutely preclude the object's being a meteor. (Zeidman, 1979)
September 1, 1974; Langenburg, Saskatchewan, Canada; 11:00 a.m.
Witnesses: Farmer Edwin Fuhr, 36; Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Ron Morier, onsite investigator.
Features: Circular (hemispherical) objects, formation, coordinated flight, physical traces, E-M effects, animal reaction.
While Fuhr was driving a swather to harvest his rape crop, he noticed a metallic-appearing, dome-shaped object about 50 feet away and stopped to investigate. Walking to within 15 feet of it, Fuhr saw that it was spinning and swirling the grass beneath it. This frightened him and he backed away. Climbing back on the swather, he looked around and saw four more identical domes "like brushed stainless steel" arranged in a rough semi-circle, all hovering and spinning about a foot above the ground. Whether from fear or an E-M effect, Fuhr could not get the throttle and steering wheel of the swather to respond.
Nov. 9, 1978; Kuwait; time not reported:
Witnesses: Oil field technicians
Features: Disc with dome, flashing body lights, landing, E-M effects on pumping equipment and communications, photographs
Kuwait Oil Company employees reported a series of UFO sightings from November 9 to November 21, 1978, including alleged photographs in some cases. On November 9, at Gathering Centre No. 24, technicians saw a disc-like object with dome on top on the ground. This coincided with failure of the oil pumping station and interruption of communications. After about 7 minutes the object departed at a rapid speed. The Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) conducted an investigation, but could not explain the sightings and considers its report "confidential." When the same or a similar UFO reappeared on November 21, a Kuwait Oil Company employee obtained "...a number of photographs of the object." These were examined by KISR, but their report has never been released. (Private communication from a scientist member of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research; Kuwait Times, Nov. 16, 18, 1978; Arab Times, Jan. 24, 1979)
March 4, 1988; Eastlake, Ohio; 8:35 p.m.:
Witnesses: Family, Coast Guard personnel, others separately
Features: Large elliptical object, light beams, sequentially flashing body lights, landing on ice-covered lake, effects on ice, satellite objects maneuvering around primary object.
Coast Guard personnel responding to citizen reports of unusual aerial activity over Lake Erie witnessed a large elliptical object hovering over the lake. A family driving home saw the object, drove down to the beach to investigate and got out of the car. In the bright moonlight they could see ice on the lake which could be heard cracking like claps of thunder.
A huge, gunmetal gray, football-shaped object hovered low above the lake, rocking back and forth. Blinding white light emanated from both ends. The object was silent. When it moved, swinging one end toward the shore and descending, the family became frightened, ran back to their car and fled. At home, they could still see the object from a window that faced the lake.
The object moved out over the ice and descended, with red and blue lights now flashing in sequence along its lower edge. The family called the Eastlake police to report a UFO. After several referrals to other agencies, with no one expressing much interest, someone suggested the Coast Guard.
Suddenly 5 or 6 bright yellow triangular objects shot out of the center of the large object and began darting around independently. Once they stopped and hovered point up around the parent object, then sped away to the north, turned east, then inland toward the Perry nuclear power plant. Independent witnesses observed this action. At this point the family called the Coast Guard which sent a team to investigate.
Seaman James Power and Petty Officer John Knaub arrived. They told the family that they had seen some lights over the lake from Fairport Harbor and thought they were flares. Maybe there were some fishermen trapped out on the ice. The family pointed out the main craft with some of the triangular objects still zipping around it. The men drove closer to the lake to investigate, accompanied by the husband and wife. At the lakefront all could hear the ice rumbling and roaring.
In their incident report later sent by teletype to the Coast Guard headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, the men were quoted as saying that "the ice was cracking and moving abnormal amounts as the object came closer to it."
Power and Knaub gave a running report to their base via the two-way radio in their Chevy Suburban. The window was down, and the husband and wife overheard them saying words to the effect, "Be advised the object appears to be landing on the lake...There are other objects moving around it. Be advised these smaller objects are going at high rates of speed. There are no engine noises and they are very, very low." They continued to watch for over an hour. The men were overheard saying such things to their base as, "You should be advised that the object is now shining lights all over the lake and it's turning different colors." The men had to yell to be heard on the radio because of the thunderous noise of the rumbling ice.
Suddenly the smaller triangles returned and one by one entered the side of the parent object as it seemed to land on the ice. The object then flashed a series of red, blue, and yellow lights, the light emanating from the end of the object turned from white to red, and the triangles re-emerged and hovered above it. The noise from the ice abruptly ceased, and the lights and triangles disappeared. When it was over the Coast Guard men drove away, "white-faced," according to the husband. (Evans, 1992; see also Coast Guard teletype report on incident)
May 25, 1995; Bovina, Texas; 10:30 a.m.:
Witnesses: Capt. Gene Tollefson, First Officer John J. Waller, America West Airlines Flight 564.
Features: Large silhouetted cigar-shaped object, pulsating lights along body, reported radar track.
An America West B-757 airliner was cruising at 39,000 feet near Bovina, Texas, en route from Tampa, Florida, to Las Vegas, Nevada. To their right and somewhat below their altitude, the crew saw a row of bright white lights which sequenced on and off from left to right. The co-pilot contacted the Albuquerque FAA Air Route Traffic Control Center while the sighting was in progress inquiring about possible military activities. Checks were made with military installations in the area, but no explanation could be found.
As the airliner proceeded westerly and the object began dropping behind, the crew observed it against a background of thunderclouds. When the background clouds pulsed with lightning, they could see the silhouette of a dark, wingless, elongated cigar-like object around the strobing lights. Though they did not know the object's exact distance, the pilot and co-pilot estimated it to be 300-400 feet long.
FAA radar at Albuquerque did not show the object. One of the air traffic controllers contacted the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), which monitors North American air space by radar, and said that NORAD had confirmed an unidentified radar track in the vicinity. This later proved to be a small aircraft whose transponder was not working.
Next morning the controller said he checked with NORAD again. NORAD told him that they had tracked another, very unusual target in the same general area a short time later - something that at first was stationary, then accelerated rapidly and stopped abruptly, repeating this sequence several times. The bursts of speed were computed to be between 1,000 and 1,400 m.p.h. This report, based on the word of one air traffic controller, could not be independently confirmed. (W. Webb, 1996)
MANEUVERED MOTION AND "INTELLIGENT CONTROL:"
Following the nearly year-long 1952 UFO sighting wave in which there were repeated instances of jet interceptors chasing after UFOs that also showed on radar, the Central Intelligence Agency convened the so-called Robertson Panel to evaluate the data. Among the presentations made to the scientific panel was one by Dewey J. Fournet (USAF, Ret.) who had worked with scientific analysts conducting a rigorous motion analysis study of hardcore unexplained cases.
Edward J. Ruppelt, former Chief of the Air Force Project Blue Book investigation, later reported that the study was "very hot and very controversial...[it] was hot because it wasn't official and the reason it wasn't official was because it was so hot. It concluded that UFOs were interplanetary spaceships." (Ruppelt, 1956, pp. 285-286)
Air Force analysts had reached this conclusion before. Project Sign in 1948 had issued a Top Secret Estimate of the Situation drawing the same conclusion. (Hall, 1964, p. 110) But both times outside scientific consultants, on the basis of what were arguably superficial and excessively skeptical reviews, disputed the conclusion. (Hall, 1988, pp. 155-163)
Many of these jet interception cases included a sort of "cat-and-mouse" behavior on the part of the UFOs, pulling away from the pursuing jets and then slowing down until they caught up again. This behavior has been repeated throughout the history of UFOs, and is one of the many indicators of intelligence behind the phenomenon. Case after case can be cited of UFOs apparently playing interactive games with (a) military aircraft, and (
police cruisers. Sept. 3, 1965; Damon, Texas; 11:00 p.m.
Witnesses: Deputy Sheriff Billy E. McCoy; Deputy Sheriff Robert W. Goode.
Features: Elongated structured object, body lights, brilliant illumination, cat-and-mouse interaction.
While on routine patrol duty, Goode and McCoy spotted a bright purple light on the horizon over the prairie to the southwest about five to six miles distant. They discussed several possible explanations for what they were seeing--lamps, an oil-drilling rig--but none of them seemed to fit. Suddenly without warning, a blue light--smaller in diameter--emerged from the purple light and moved to its right before stopping. Both lights remained in this orientation for a period of time before beginning to drift upwardly. This upward floating motion, as McCoy described it, continued until the objects reached a position 5 to 10 degrees above the horizon. Goode then looked at the lights through a pair of binoculars, but he could see no further details.
Their curiosity aroused, the officers began to look for back roads that might take them closer to the lights. Goode stopped near a pasture and once again used the binoculars to observe the objects through the open car window. This time, as the men watched, the lights suddenly swooped toward them at fantastic speed, covering the intervening distance in one to two seconds. The officers saw a solid object which abruptly stopped and hovered practically overhead. Its brilliant purple light illuminated them and the nearby ground. The purple and blue lights were attached to opposite ends of an enormous object, hovering about 150 feet from them over the pasture at a height of about 100 feet. In his subsequent statement to the Air Force, McCoy described what he saw:
"The bulk of the object was plainly visible at this time and appeared to be triangular shaped with a bright purple light on the left end and the smaller, less bright, blue light on the right end. The bulk of the object appeared to be dark gray in color with no other distinguishing features. It appeared to be about 200 feet wide and 40-50 feet thick in the middle, tapering off toward both ends. There was no noise or any trail. The bright purple light illuminated the ground directly underneath it and the area in front of it, including the highway and the interior of our patrol car. The tall grass under the object did not appear to be disturbed. There was a bright moon out and it cast a shadow of the object on the ground immediately below it in the grass."
The object seemed to be "...as big as a football field." Goode could feel heat from the object through his shirt-sleeved left arm. Frightened by the strange object looming overhead, the officers "...put the car in motion and headed toward Damon as fast as we could go" at speeds of up to 110 miles per hour. McCoy kept watch out the rear window of the car, monitoring the object's actions. After 10 to 15 seconds, the UFO abruptly shot back in the direction from which it had come. "After arriving at approximately its original position," McCoy observed, "it went straight up in the air and disappeared at 25-30 degrees above the horizon."
After they calmed down, McCoy and Goode decided to return to the area and attempt to identify the mysterious object. Back on Highway 36 near the area where they had first seen the lights, they again spied the purple light on the horizon. Once again the smaller blue light moved out from it with a strange two-step motion and the lights floated upward. Frightened by the possibility of another unwelcome close encounter, they again fled.
The deputies reported the sighting to Ellington Air Force Base, and Major Laurence Leach, Jr., arrived on September 8 to interview McCoy and Goode and take a statement. Leach, in his report to Project Blue Book headquarters at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, indicated that he was puzzled after interviewing the two men. "[T]here is," he wrote, "no doubt in my mind that they definitely saw some unusual object or phenomenon.
Both officers appeared to be intelligent, mature, level-headed persons capable of sound judgment and reasoning." The Air Force ultimately characterized the sighting as unexplained. (Project Blue Book files, National Archives; McCoy statement, Brazoria County Sheriff's Department, Sept. 8, 1965; "Ellington [AFB] Probes UFO Seen by Local Deputies," Brazosport Facts, Sept. 6, 1965; Rhonda Moran, "The Night of the UFO," Brazosport Facts, Sept. 13, 1995.)
April 17, 1966; Ravenna, Ohio; dawn
Witnesses: Dale Spaur and Wilbur Neff, deputy sheriffs; police officers in several other jurisdictions
Features: Structured disc-like object with brilliant light beam to ground, cat-and-mouse chase across state line
Portage County Deputy Sheriffs Spaur and Neff were investigating an abandoned car when they were confronted by a glowing disc-like object that rose up out of the woods and stopped overhead, illuminating them and the surroundings. The object was making a humming sound. After conferring with the dispatcher, they chased the object into Pennsylvania. Along the route other police officers, hearing the radio chatter about something strange headed their way, then joined in the chase as the UFO sped by, followed by the Portage County sheriff's car in hot pursuit.
The object seemed to play a cat-and-mouse game with Spaur and Neff, speeding up and then slowing down until they could catch up again. At the conclusion of the sighting the object moved off into the distance and hovered motionless for a while. Finally it shot straight up out of sight disappearing among the background stars. (Weitzel, 1966; Clark, 1998, pp. 450-465)
