From Star Trek to Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and ET, Americans have had a long standing love affair with outer space. But is life from another galaxy only the stuff of science fiction or is it possible that there could be intelligent life beyond the stars of the Milky Way? People who openly state that they believe in extraterrestrial life forms are often ridiculed and thought of as paranoid nut cases. But why is it so hard to believe that there is a chance that somewhere out there another plant could sustain life? Is it because we are so vain as to believe that if humanity does not have the technology to travel millions of miles at light speed then it simply is not possible? Or could it be the fear that if extraterrestrial life is proven, the foundations of many religions could be shaken? Or is it the government wanting to protect its citizens from the scary things that go bump in the night?
During World World II airmen on both sides of the war reported numerous sightings of unidentified objects in the skies. These objects were dubbed as “Foo Fighters.” These Foo Fighters were described as balls of fire or light that appeared while airmen carried out their air raids. The objects were reported as traveling at speeds of two hundred and fifty miles per hour and some reported damage to their ignition systems after encounters. The sightings of Foo Fighters ended in 1945 when the war ended. (Pope 22).
But the real start of the UFO craze began on June 24, 1947 when pilot, Kenneth Arnold, was looking for wreckage of a military transport in the Cascade Mountains and found something far more interesting. He reported that he saw nine separate objects flying in formation. When asked by the press what they were like he described the objects as crescent shaped and that, “They flew like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water.” The reporter misquoted Arnold by describing the object as a “Flying Saucer”, hence the now common image of a round metal object that is associated with UFO’s. (Suterly 30).
On July 2, 1947, just a few weeks after Arnold’s discovery, the now infamous Roswell encounter happened. The well told story of an alien spacecraft crashing into the New Mexico desert gave birth to government cover-up conspiracy theories and stories of a secret military installation known as Area 51.
The Untied States (US) government has, of course, denied that any of these things are a reality. But can we be so sure that we are being told the truth? If there was no truth in the stories coming out of Roswell than why was Project Blue Book started?
Project Blue Book was a program developed by the US Air Force that investigated reports of UFO sightings from 1947 until December 17, 1969. The program investigated 12,618 sightings and of those sightings, 701 remain unidentified. (ufoevidence.org)
Bob Lazar is a former government employee who claims that he worked on a project that involved aircrafts of extraterrestrial origin at Area 51. He claims that the extraterrestrial technology was crucial to the development of the stealth fighter. Although generally thought of as a crackpot by the public, new evidence seems to support Lazar’s claims.
In 1997, Bob Oechsler, a robotics expert and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) mission’s specialist released a phone call between himself and Admiral Boby Ray Inman, the former director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and former Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that he had recorded, unbeknownst to Inman. A portion of the phone call follows:
Oechsler: Do you anticipate that any of the recovered vehicles would ever become available for technological research? Outside of military circles?
Inman: I honestly don’t know. Ten years ago the answer would have been no. Whether as time has evolved they are beginning to become more open on it, there’s a possibility.
At the time that the phone call was released Inman was a possible choice for the US Secretary of Defense. When the media released the contents of the call, Inman turned down the job under mysterious circumstances. (Qtd. Suterly 45).
Even Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld has ties to UFO investigations. On July 29, 1968 he served on the House Committee on Science and Astronautics. On this day the committee invited six prominent scientists before a special UFO hearing. Although I do not know the findings of that hearing it would be interesting to know if these scientists provided evidence that the aliens too had weapons of mass destruction.
In the Untied Kingdom (UK) the Ministry of Defense (MOD) has an entire department dedicated to the investigation of all UFO sightings. The department is charged with determining the creditability and threat levels of those sighting. The UK has taken a proactive approach to the UFO phenomenon, going so far as to encourage people to step forward and report things that they see in the skies. What is the purpose one may ask? According to Nick Pope, former director of the UFO division of the MOD, it is to ensure that UFO’s are not a threat to the UK. He says, “If underestimating your enemy is a sin in the military world, then failing to even acknowledge their existence is a cardinal one.”
The MOD has investigated 8890 sightings worldwide since 1959. But according to Pope, 95% of all sightings are not reported due to fear of ridicule or confusion as to who to report it to. If this estimate is true that would mean that instead of the 8890 sightings reported a truer number would be closer to 13 million sightings worldwide. While it is true that the majority of these sightings can and do have a reasonable explanation, a good portion of them do not. Even if there is just one or two that defy explanation, shouldn’t that be reason enough to look beyond ourselves and keep an open mind as to what might be? (Pope).
Take for example the strange happenings in Topanga Canyon, California. This is a small community of about 8000 people that lies within the Santa Monica Mountains just west of LA. Between the years of 1942-1994 there have been eighty-two UFO sightings. There were two in the 40’s, two in the 50’s, two in the 60’s, fifteen in the 70’s, fourteen in the 80’s and forty-seven in the 90’s. Is the increase due to the fact that there indeed more UFO’s out there? While it could be possible it is unlikely. The increase is more likely due to the increased public awareness of UFO’s that occurred between the 70’s and 90’s. (Preston Appendix A).
During the winters of 1989 and 1990 there were sightings of triangular flying objects over Belgium. These objects were observed by both private and military people as well as documented on military radar. At one point the Belgium Air Force scrambled their F16 fighters, but the object easily evaded and broke radar lock by accelerating to speeds that the fighters were unable to match.
Between March 30 and March 31, 1990 sightings were reported all over Belgium and North Germany. The number of sightings is estimated to be at about 2600. Each sighting described a triangular object moving at fast speeds. F-16’s were scrambled but were unable to catch up to the object. The Belgian government’s official statement is “We do not know what it was, but we would dearly love to know.”
On March 31, 1993, exactly three years after the wave of sightings in Belgium, another wave accorded, this time over the UK. Again thousands of reports from both civilians and military personnel flooded into the MOD. (Pope 261-262)
On July 11, 1991 the streets of Mexico City were flooded with thousands people anticipating the solar eclipse. Cameras, shadow boxes and video cameras were at the ready for the event. But the spectators got more than they had bargained for when they looked up into the sky and discovered a silver, metallic object hovering in the skies over the city. In addition to the thousands who saw the object, no less than seventeen videos were shot from different locations throughout the city. Scientific examination of these videos has shown no signs of fraud.
For the next three years sightings of UFO’s remained constant throughout Mexico, although the objects remained at a further distance. That is until August 1994. That is when a commercial flight from Acapulco to Mexico City was beginning its approach at 12,000 feet and a UFO crossed their path. (Trainor).
The pilot, Captain Fernando Mezquita details his experience,” We were coming out of a cloud and had visual contact with traffic (the UFO) that had the color of aluminum. It was oval and very fast coming straight for us. It banked and it went under us, very very close to the aircraft. I thought we were going to crash so I called the tower. The control tower informed me that there were no other flights in the area and they had no radar echoes of any object near us.”
In the week following Captain Mezquita’s close call not a day passed without a UFO being reported by other pilots or crew members of major airlines, the object was seen appearing above, below, to the side and directly in front of passenger airlines. (Suterly 246).
On January 6, 1995 a British Airways Boeing 737 that was carrying sixty passengers nearly hit a “wedge shaped” object while descending to Manchester Airport. The pilot reported that it was so close to the plane the co-pilot actually ducked. The object was also observed by eyewitnesses on the ground.
What about the Untied States? Why do all the sightings seem to be more concentrated in Mexico and the UK? The answer to that would be, they’re not. Part of the reason the numbers are higher in Mexico and Europe can be attributed to the people’s attitudes on the subject. The attitude of most US citizens towards UFO’s is still that of mockery and closed mindedness. But the fact is there have been many sightings all over the US, including two in July of 1952 close to the White House that were detected not only by the Washington National Airport but also by Andrews AFB. (Suterly 264).
While Americans like to think that only crazy people see UFO’s the truth of the matter is sightings have been reported in the US by military officers, school teachers, numerous police officers, doctor’s and pilots. Witnesses are both male and female, adult and child, they vary in education, race and religious backgrounds. The majority of witnesses did not believe in the existence of UFO’s prior to their seeing them with their own eyes.
From the beginning, mankind has been fascinated by the skies and the wonders of the stars. Writers and movie makers have depicted visitors from outer space from sweet cuddly beings to war mongering monsters. HG Wells wrote War of the Worlds in 1898 in which he depicted alien life forms as being a threat to our world. Throughout his career his books described outrageous, far fetched thing like, chemical warfare, genetic engineering, the depletion of world resources and aerial combat, and of course, UFO’s. Perhaps, his ideas were not so far fetched after all?
Before 1903, if you had said you were going to fly in the air from place to place people would have thought you were insane. Now, air travel is commonplace. In the 30’ s and 40’s there were no rockets in outer space and if you had said that there could be, people would have thought that was nonsense; yet in 1950 the first rocket was launched into outer space
What if I told you in the early 1950’s that a man would walk on the moon? I’d have been condemned as a loon, and yet in 1961 the first human went into outer space and in 1969 the first man walked on the moon. As a race of humans, we are making more and more technological advances every day. The world of USS Enterprise doesn’t seem as far fetched today as it did even fifty years ago. Yet when confronted with the possibility that there could be life outside of the Milky Way that is more technologically advanced than humanity, it is concerned lunacy. Given the facts and the preponderance of mounting evidence to the contrary, we as a race need to accept that there is a possibility of life out there.
SOURCES
Pope, Nick Open Skies Closed Minds, New York: The Overlook Press, 1998.
Preston, Dennett UFO’s Over Topanga Canyon, St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1999
Project Blue Book, March 22, 2006, (http://www.ufoevidence.org/topics/ProjectBlueBook.htm).
Suterly, Curt, A Reporter Seeks the Truth, UFO Mysteries, St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 2001.
Trainor, Joseph, Sightings, Volume 7, No 50, Original Air date December 10, 2002.
