A UFO conference held in Fort Smith, Arkansas in October, 1975 was an important event, and certainly crucial for me -- though I wasn't even there. This, you see, was a meeting well attended by numerous UFO researchers, scientists and technical personnel. This was also a time when I was putting together a magazine article about the 1956 United Artists documentary motion picture, "UFO," and it was vital for me to locate former Air Force Maj. Dewey J. Fournet, Jr. who acted as monitor for the Air Force's UFO project in the early 1950s. Fournet was prominently portrayed in the movie by an actor. By the mid-seventies I had no idea where Fournet himself could be found (remember, there was no public Internet then, and locating people could be an expensive or fruitless venture).
However, fortunately, researchers Richard Hall and Jim and Coral Lorenzen, who knew that I wished to interview Fournet, encountered him at Fort Smith and contact was made. If you haven't visited my blog regarding the movie, please check out the link on the right, and among numerous entries inserted over the years are letters posted from the late Maj. Fournet and others.
The Fort Smith conference, as we stated, was an important event, a bold attempt to entice UFO researchers and organizations to share information and conduct their work employing the highest scientific and ethical standards. Coordinated by Bill Pitts, the three-day conference enlisted several guest speakers, and attendees received a copy of "A Joint Resolution," a clarion call drafted specifically for the sessions by Dr. Richard F. Haines, whose books and current affiliation with the organization NARCAP (see link on the side) are well recognized.
The legendary two-page document is displayed here for your interest. Its message is no less relevant 36 years later, and actually far more so, though some of the major UFO organizations and involved people (so many names) are now long departed. In some ways, the Resolution ultimately turned out to be more of a harbinger of ideas, methods and people drifting apart over time than a rock of cooperation among various factions.
