Cattle Mutilation 11

Chapter 4, Part One

 

Cattle Mutilation - The Unthinkable Truth

© 1976 by Fredrick W. Smith, Freedland Publishers

 

Chapter 4, Part One -

The UFO Mystery


On June 24, 1947, Kenneth Arnold, an experienced mountain pilot, left Chehalis, Washington for Yakima. The flight took him over a part of the Cascades he was as familiar with as his own living room. As he approached Mt. Ranier, he noticed a series of bright flashes off to one side and slightly below him. On closer inspection, they appeared to be nine very bright disc-shaped objects. The objects, whatever they were, moved rapidly from north to south in a reverse echelon formation, weaving in and out among the mountains with a strange oscillating and skipping type of flight. Since at one point, they passed behind a peak, Arnold was able to estimate their size and speed. They had to have been some twenty miles away, perhaps fifty feet in diameter, and moving at about 1700 miles per hour.

Since it is not unusual for people to see strange things in the sky, local newsmen saw this at first as just another interesting hoax. But the more they examined the story, the more convinced they became that Arnold had really seen what he had described to them. In any case, it struck the public fancy and was soon receiving national and international publicity. A number of similar UFO reports began flooding in from all over the United States and the "flying saucer" era was born.

The U. S. Air Force was quite aware of these reports, many of them coming from their own men. Within a month, the subject was under the very tightest security wraps. Air Force intelligence had to know what was happening in American air space. According to Edward J. Ruppelt, who was later put in charge of the Air Force investigation of UFOs, confusion surrounded the investigation; confusion almost to the point of panic. The brass wanted to know the answer quickly, and people were taking off in all directions. (Report On UFOs © 1956 by Edward J. Ruppelt.)

The Air Force, according to Ruppelt, had essentially two theories. The phenomena were either earthly or unearthly. They could be Russian, or German, or from some other nation. They could even be a super secret U. S. project. Or they could be interplanetary vehicles. Or even space animals of some kind. The miracle of the atomic bomb was still fresh enough in everyone's mind to make anything seem possible.

At first, there was no doubt in the military mind that an all out investigation would quickly get to the bottom of the mystery. Events have proved that not to be true. Twenty-nine years and untold thousands of sightings later, the subject is even more baffling than when it began, as far as the public is concerned. Still, decades of public experience with Air Force investigations, general stonewalling, media apathy, official secrecy, cover-up, ignorance and applied confusion couldn't help but generate a few sparks of enlightenment.

One of the most intriguing things about UFOs has been what seems an irrational compulsion to make them disappear. The official denials are far more interesting than convincing. Why go to such ridiculous lengths to cover-up what is already non-existent? Long before the author had any real idea what UFOs were or how they were propelled, he was completely fascinated by the cover-up. When there is such an elaborate smokescreen, there has to be a little fire somewhere. What is it about them that keeps making the authorities so nervous?

In spite of the intense ridicule, misrepresentation and official pooh-poohing of the phenomenon, people are far from being convinced. It has been estimated that at least fifteen million Americans have seen UFOs and an overwhelming majority believe they exist. (Aliens In Our Skies © 1969 by John A. Fuller) One common error is to imagine most reports come from UFO buffs. The fact is that most reports come from astonished skeptics - who become former skeptics. They represent every strata of society, especially upper, perhaps since those people tend to take government protection for granted. Another error is to suppose that only Americans see them. Actually, the U. S. produces no more, and maybe less, reports per capita than other areas such as South America, Europe and Australia, around the world.

Nor are UFOs really new. During World War II, it was not uncommon for Allied and Axis planes to be accompanied by unknowns that Americans dubbed "foo fighters." These were a small fireball type of apparition that flew in formation just beyond the planes' wingtips, apparently to observe and obviously under intelligent control. Unidentifiable flying objects have been seen throughout history. Charles Fort (1874-1932), a tireless American chronicler of unexplained events, had a special category for the strange airships seen by farmers, milkmaids, above county fairs, cities and villages, by soldiers, sailors, astronomers and judges. In fact, all kinds of people in the most diverse situations saw the airships. Many ancient and venerable documents and scriptures record similar aerial phenomena. (The Works of Charles Fort © 1941, The Fortean Society.)

This is not the place to list sightings since a number of books and magazines are available that devote themselves almost exclusively to that. Objects of various shapes, sizes and colors, alone and in formation, have been seen all over the globe. They've been seen by military and commercial pilots and by astronauts. In fact, pilots who have logged lots of hours are almost sure to have seen strange flying objects they could not identify. Military sightings are kept secret by a special regulation, while commercial pilots usually try to avoid the publicity and ridicule unless the sighting has been especially spectacular or hair raising, or passengers have been injured during violent evasive actions.

A few sightings are especially memorable. For example, during an air show at Longview, Washington on July 3, 1949, a UFO was observed near a plane that was skywriting overhead. The crowd's attention was drawn to it through the public address system. During a period of twenty minutes, three successive objects fluttered over from different directions and were seen by the crowd, many using binoculars. (The Congressional Record, July 29, 1968, reported by Dr. James A. Harder.)

An interesting sighting was reported by a chemist near Yuma, Arizona. While watching some aircraft in the sky, he also noticed a small moving cloud-like object. Through the polarized glasses he was wearing, he could see a series of dark rings surrounding it. The outermost ring was about six times the diameter of the silvery UFO, or about the diameter of the full moon. He could see through his glasses, but not without them. Dr. James Harder, testifying before a congressional committee looking into UFOs, calculated from the Faraday effect that in order to rotate the plane of polarization like that an electromagnetic field of at least a million gauss over a distance of 40 meters would be required. A field of that size and intensity is hard to even imagine. (The Congressional Record, July 29, 1968, Dr. James A. Harder.)

Another remarkable sighting comes from Russia. A joint civilian-military team headed by Major Anton Kopeikin and environmental scientist Fydor Denidov reported to their government that 25 witnesses had seen a bluish green, oval-shaped object the size of a jetliner head east at tremendous speed, and silently. Flying very low, the object struck a ridge, but continued on course without slackening its speed, leaving a trench ten feet deep and fifty feet long in the frozen ground, along with two smaller trenches. UFOs have also been seen plunging into the ocean at a terrific speed, only to re-emerge at the same speed.

Let me present a recent sighting not because it is unusual, but because it is so typical of thousands and perhaps hundreds of thousands of sightings the world over. Also, it is firsthand, happening in late December of 1975 while this book was being written. Three of our youngest children and I had gone skating on a nearby reservoir. The sky was perfectly clear and cloudless, the temperature about 20 degrees, the moon several days past full. About 11 p.m., we were getting ready to leave. I was already at the car, walking back and forth on the highway, skywatching and occasionally looking through binoculars.

Suddenly, I noticed a strange light in the east, slightly north of the ecliptic and three or four degrees above the horizon. What star could be there? I glanced up at Capella, which was still in its proper place. But this new object was nothing like Capella. It was ruddy red like Mars, but far brighter. I called the others' attention to it. My older boy, a college physics major and properly skeptical, thought it might be Mars. But Mars was still in its right place, too, almost directly overhead not far from the moon.

Then the red object began moving toward the northwest. We got in the car and drove up a nearby hill to watch. it kept accelerating, getting higher, dimmer and probably father away as we watched. All of us looked at it through our excellent 7 x 50 binoculars, but that did not make it any less hazy. I signaled with a flashlight, but it might have been twenty miles away and there was no response. It seemed to be traveling in a perfectly straight line, passing seven or eight degrees below Polaris, and then we finally lost sight of it somewhere along the curving back to the constellation Draco.

What was it? We did not know, although we watched it for maybe ten minutes. It appeared suddenly in the east and disappeared in the northwest, perfectly silent, climbing and becoming dimmer as it went. It might never have been closer than five or ten miles, but there was no way to accurately judge its distance. We all agreed it could not have been a meteor, satellite or plane.

Our youngest boy, 13, was enthusiastic about it being a UFO. What else could it have been? As for myself, I'm interested as an amateur astronomer and am fairly familiar with the sky, having observed it intently for years over hours at a time at night. So I know there are strange and interesting things overhead and what we saw was not easily identifiable as a natural phenomenon. It was not a secret with us, but like millions of people the world over, we knew reporting such a common experience would have been ridiculous.

It is sometimes thought that UFOs cannot be picked up on radar. Nothing could be farther from the truth. "Angels" and "bogies" are a constant problem to radar operators. If the "angel" does not fit into the pre-programmed patterns of aircraft, missile or satellite flight or trajectory calculations, it is automatically rejected and ignored. (The Congressional Record, July 29, 1968 by Dr. Robert L. Hall.)

Perhaps the best known combined radar and visual sighting happened during two long July 1952 nights over Washington, D. c. A number of fighter planes were scrambled and several hundred interceptor chases were admitted to by the Director of Air Force Intelligence, Major General John M. Sanford. It also became apparent at that time that UFOs were monitoring military communications. (Aliens from Space © 1973 by Major Donald E. Keyhoe.)

In 1953, the Air Force began experimenting with a new type of long range radar equipment that immediately picked up a gigantic object orbiting the equator about 600 miles out. Shortly thereafter, it moved in to 400 miles. (Aliens from Space © 1973 by Major Donald E. Keyhoe.) Even at that time, the Argentine Navy and the U. S. Air Force are alleged to have had motion pictures of giant space ships operating near the earth. The public has seen a number of UFO pictures. Some are fakes and most of them are indistinct. Many private investigators believe "the Air Force itself has thousands of photos of UFOs, but can't release them because of government restrictions." (St. Paul Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn., April 21, 1975)

Another common phenomenon that has been reported worldwide is a complete failure of automotive electrical systems in the presence of UFOs. Cars stall and their lights go out. Then everything returns to normal when the UFO leaves. Utility failures in private homes and in entire communities have also occurred while UFOs were in the neighborhood. Many believe the famous Northeast blackout of 1965 was UFO-caused, since UFOs and also strange "fireballs" were seen at the time near Syracuse, New York where the trouble seems to have originally developed.