NICAP Membership in the Mid-Sixties

My first venture into joining UFO investigative organizations involved NICAP, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. I joined NICAP in March of 1964 and kept my membership current until the organization folded in 1979. Concerned particularly as this blog is with UFO antiquities, I thought it might be of interest to feature old NICAP mailings now and then. (For extensive information about the NICAP years and the excellent UFO reports the organization investigated, be sure to visit the official NICAP website at: http://nicap.org )

Today, from 1964, here are two mailed documents. One is an information sheet about NICAP (notice on the list of advisers the name of Albert M. Chop, discussed on this blog on April 19). The other is the standard "welcome" letter for new members, with NICAP director Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe's (USMC, ret.) signature at the bottom.

I had the pleasure of visiting Washington, D.C. the following year, where I briefly met Major Keyhoe, assistant director Richard Hall and NICAP secretary Mrs. L. Day. This was the summer of 1965, when the nation was experiencing a flurry of UFO reports, and the NICAP staff was very busy.

As Weird as it Gets - Part 5 (Final Chapter)

Serious UFO-related journalism has often been hard to come by via the conventional media, especially in the U.S., but recent events may encourage more credible reporting of the seemingly incredible

by
Robert Barrow


An ideal place to look for reasons why the national press doesn't go rightfully bonkers over the UFO issue is the past. The very early 1950s were truly the most open U.S. government period in the history of UFO reporting, despite an avalanche of sightings by military pilots and other qualified observers in the late forties that concerned government sources greatly. Such prominent magazines as LIFE and LOOK were allowed access to government UFO reports and documentation suggesting the existence of something strange in our skies. The summer of 1952 precipitated a wave of hundreds of UFO sightings all over the U.S., climaxed by incidents a week apart over Washington, D.C. where UFOs not only appeared on radar, but visually surrounded a military pilot as well before disappearing.

Dr. Bruce Maccabee, a long-time UFO researcher who has worked in a non-UFO capacity with the government in the past, reminds us in his writings that on July 29, 1952, three days after the dramatic radar-visual UFO chase over Washington, General John Samford held a famous and well-attended D.C. press conference to calm an anxious public about the flying saucers. While in agreement that not all sightings had yet been explained, Samford's reassuring voice wanted the press and public to know that essentially all was well and that reports could generally be explained as natural phenomena.

According to Maccabee, however, even as Samford was effectively chopping the seemingly profound UFO enigma into harmless specks of magic dust before the eyes of a hungry press, something else was going on behind closed official doors on the same day: Air Force Intelligence personnel were telling the FBI that a small percentage of UFO sightings could not be explained and high-ranking military brass were considering that some reports might involve "ships from another planet." Considerable speculation exists as to whether this version of the situation was actually a hair's breadth from being reported to the press at that fateful press conference in 1952. But what was done was done, the press grumbled, and in large part accepted the sanitized official stance then and in years to come.

Thanks primarily to the Freedom of Information Act, a wealth of old government documents pertaining to UFOs have seen release in recent years, though often blacked out judiciously. Still, the government's concern with the subject is obvious, as it should be, because there are numerous dramatic UFO encounters on record, some having endangered commercial airline passengers when pilots had to take evasive actions to avoid possible collisions with unknown objects.

Most recently, the best place to look for some insight on just how seriously the U.S. government takes the UFO question is our neighbor to the north. From 1950 to 1954, a Canadian named Wilbert Smith, senior radio engineer at the Dept. of Canadian Transport, was involved in the secret "Project Magnet," which was set up to investigate antigravity and other propulsion methods and to investigate UFOs and their inherent propulsion technology.

It turns out that the Canadian UFO project participants also worked with U.S. officials, and amongst all the documentation generated in secret was a "top secret" memo written by Smith in 1952, describing the true American stand on UFOs. Smith kept and hid a copy of the memo after Project Magnet disbanded, and several years later as he was dying of cancer instructed his wife to hide his papers because one day after his death officials would be coming to take his records.

Smith's wife wisely followed his advice, eventually turning the papers over to a well known Canadian UFO researcher for safekeeping; however, he, like Smith, also had a high-level security clearance in his past and couldn't do anything about turning the papers over to the public or he would be in serious trouble. And, indeed, as Smith had predicted, Canadian, American and Russian officials visited Smith's wife in search of documents and she informed them all that they were no longer available.

Nick Balaskas, a researcher at York University, was recently in receipt of Smith's papers, and even a couple of extra and essential pages were just found to complete part of the puzzle. Smith's own copy of the 1952 formerly secret memo is now on the Internet (http://www.presidentialufo.com) and makes two intriguing points about the American UFO project's conclusions in the early fifties that he learned through his routine work with the mutual U.S.-Canadian teams: That "flying saucers" exist and that the subject was the most highly classified subject in the U.S., rated higher than the H-bomb.

Currently, there are said to be anonymous representatives in Congress concerned about the UFO issue and decades of secrecy. If one listens to the buzz on the UFO circuit, it is claimed that neither Congressional leaders, nor even the President of the United States, can gain access to the ongoing, highly classified UFO project. At this level of rumor, documentation of the seemingly absurd becomes nearly impossible; however, the viewpoint that some information has recently been leaked to the press about Middle East matters, so all information - even about UFOs - would logically be leaked at some point, is a pathetic dream derived from a fool's paradise.

The next time you venture outside during a crystal-clear evening, by all means scan the stars and the unfathomable depths of the universe, and keep honing the sense of wonder that keeps our minds sharp. But don't neglect to look down at the grass under your feet, too, because, somewhere between the earth on which we stand and the deep space whose borders we have yet to comprehend, the concept of here vs. there may be irrelevant, and every place the same, except with the furniture rearranged, the flowers in a different vase and the faces. . .and the faces? Oh, what about the faces?

"They better wake up and start believin'. . .they better start believin'. . .They won't believe it. They're gonna believe it one of these days. Might be too late. I knew all along there was people from other worlds up there. I knew all along. I never thought it would happen to me." -- Charles Hickson speaking to Calvin Parker at the sheriff's office in 1973, alone and unaware their voices were being secretly recorded.

As Weird as it Gets - Part 4

AS WEIRD AS IT GETS
Part 4

Serious UFO-related journalism has often been hard to come by via the conventional media, especially in the U.S., but recent events may encourage more credible reporting of the seemingly incredible

by
Robert Barrow


Mike Cataldo, now long retired from the Navy, served in 1973 as a chief petty officer in Mississippi. Like most of the country, he was familiar with the Hickson-Parker report and never met or spoke with either man, but for all the years that followed he shared with friends and family another side to the story, something of vital significance that he finally decided to impart publicly late last year. He tried to locate a reporter in Pascagoula who wrote the original UFO story, and eventually was put in touch with Natalie Chambers of the Associated Press.

Chambers' interview with Cataldo appeared in The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal of October 21 last year, but it failed to make the coast-to-coast splash it should have, though even famed radio commentator Paul Harvey realized Cataldo's importance and devoted part of his Saturday, October 27 national broadcast to Natalie Chambers' shocker.

"When Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker told the world in 1973 they were abducted by aliens while fishing on the Pascagoula River, few believed them," her article began. "Now, after 28 years, it appears they weren't alone in their experience on that October 11 night." Indeed, at about the same time and in the same area as the UFO incident, Cataldo and fellow crew mates Ted Peralta and Mack Hanna were driving on U.S. 90, heading to Ocean Springs. Cataldo was in the back seat.

"We saw a very strange object in the horizon going from northeast across Highway 90," Cataldo recalled. "It was going pretty fast. It went down into a wood area and into the marsh. It hovered over the tree line. . .maybe a minute. We actually pulled off the road and watched it. We said, 'My God, what is that?'" Cataldo said the thing looked like a large tambourine with little lights flashing on it. "As quickly as we saw it, it just vanished." Some daylight still remained as dusk approached, so the men got a good look at the object. But Cataldo tells of a second sighting minutes later, this time in St. Andrews, as he neared his home. "It wasn't as high up as we saw the first time. It was real."

Almost hyperventilating when he ran inside to tell his wife, Cataldo knew he had to tell Navy officials. As a member of the pre-commissioning crew of the USS Tunney, under construction at Ingalls Shipyard, he reported for work the next morning and immediately contacted his executive officer to make a statement. After the weekend, he contacted Keesler AFB in Biloxi and left his phone number. However, if Cataldo expected tea and sympathy, he was mistaken. "My executive officer and crew members thought we were just lunatics, just whacked out," he told Chambers. "It never came up again. Keesler never called or did anything."

UFO researcher Kenny Young (Author's April, 2007 notation to this 2002 article: Mr. Young is now deceased) also contacted Cataldo following Natalie Chambers' article, also attempting - so far unsuccessfully -- to locate his two fellow Navy witnesses. Cataldo provided a few more details of the object, perhaps the most intriguing being that it "was less than half a mile away and looked as big as any big American airliner I've ever seen." He also confirmed that other motorists had slowed down to look at the seemingly inexplicable sky object. "We were the only ones on the road to stop and look at it though," he advised.

Importantly, Cataldo admitted, "I never knew of the Hickson-Parker abduction until days later. It happened on Thursday and it was not until the following Sunday that I saw the headline in the morning paper about two men taken aboard a flying saucer, I'm telling you I about died." He emphasizes that he can't be absolutely sure that his UFO and the fishermen's were the same, but the place and time were so close that the relationship must surely be taken seriously.

As Weird as it Gets - Part 3

AS WEIRD AS IT GETS
Part 3

Serious UFO-related journalism has often been hard to come by via the conventional media, especially in the U.S., but recent events may encourage more credible reporting of the seemingly incredible

by
Robert Barrow


"I can tell you here and now, and God is my witness and I believe in God, that when I die I'll tell everybody what I saw. And it'll be the same story." -- Charles Hickson, quoted by authors Ralph & Judy Blum

If there exists a "bigger picture" in this anomalous concoction of mysteries that only the most science-minded of scientists prefer to tackle, that picture still lacks identification. The casual mind, familiar with UFO sightings in the U.S., sometimes notes a pattern, albeit a general one - essentially, that UFOs were reported as balls of light or disc-like objects in the sky in the forties and fifties, observed landing and hovering at close range in the fifties and sixties, also causing a fair share of electromagnetic effects (stalling cars and affecting power supplies, for example), and in the sixties and seventies heralding the introduction of alleged abductions and examinations by entities. From the seventies and eighties have emerged credible reports of UFOs approaching high-security military areas and even causing entire missile defense systems to become inoperable during their presence (a treasure trove of solid military and well-documented UFO cases are on file at http://nicap.org ). That's right here in the good old USA, mind you.

What you are about to read should have been a major story at every news outlet in the country last year, but it was largely ignored. To be properly updated and launched on the track of terror to a world that lurks beyond our supposed wisdom, we must first journey back in time three decades to an incident that actually did make headlines all over the world.

On October 11, 1973, Charles Hickson (42) and Calvin Parker (19) enjoyed a leisurely early evening of fishing from a river pier at the abandoned Shaupeter Shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Suddenly, as documented in their separate accounts, they were distracted by something behind them and turned to get the shock of their lives. A short distance away, a strange, domed oval object making a buzzing sound hovered just above the ground, and bizarre-looking beings had exited the craft, floating through the air, moving right toward the fishermen. One grabbed Hickson's arms with claw-like hands, creating pain in his left shoulder, and he immediately became immobile. Another entity grabbed Parker by the arm and he lost consciousness.

Hickson and Parker were floated off the ground and taken inside the craft, its interior a place of intense light with only a viewing screen on a wall. The entities totaled three, all robot-like, around five feet in height. They had no discernible necks, had slits for mouths and pointed noses and ears. Where eyes might have been there were either little slits, or perhaps nothing. They were covered with grayish, elephant-like skin and feet, and functioned with claw-like hands at the ends of long arms.

A device appearing like a large eye emerged from a wall and Hickson recalled that it moved up, down and all around him, as if scanning his entire body. The beings were observed to perform their work stiffly, mechanically and quickly. One emitted a buzzing noise. After examining the two men, the three disappeared briefly before returning and floated Hickson and Parker back outside. Hickson fell as soon as his feet touched the ground, while Parker was apparently in shock and just stood where he was put. The next thing the men knew, the craft was speeding skyward and out of sight.

A very shaken Charlie Hickson contacted the sheriff and by midnight he and Parker were seated in a room at the sheriff's office, answering questions posed by a no-nonsense officer. One maneuver that lent immense credence to their claims occurred when the sheriff left the room briefly on the pretense of something he had to take care of. Unknown to the two men, a tape recorder was secretly recording their words in his absence to try to catch them in a fantastic lie. On the contrary, however, they continued speaking to one another about their experience, trying to make sense of it, and Calvin Parker's recurrent concern in the conversation was that if they tell people about the experience, the creatures will return in and do something to them. The sincerity in their voices is overwhelming (the tape, of very poor quality by this time and in need of a digital cleanup, was recently put up on the Internet for listening, free of charge, at http://www.konsulting.com/audio_clips.htm ).

By the following morning, Hickson and his wife noticed his left arm bleeding at the spot where the being had grabbed him, and he was destined for a wealth of nightmares as time progressed.

Both men passed polygraph tests and hypnosis sessions were invoked to get the full story. The late astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek, former Air Force chief UFO consultant (who started out highly skeptical but eventually viewed UFOs as a real and important subject of scientific study) walked away highly impressed after speaking with them, convinced by that time that UFO abductions were a legitimate phenomenon. In fact, a succession of scientists and investigators found Hickson and Parker honest and deeply concerned about their experience. Hickson, older and more laid back, handled the encounter far better than Calvin Parker, who suffered a breakdown and remained devastated. Hickson commented to the Associated Press of his close friend, "He's not the same man as before. It just ruined him." Even Sheriff Glenn Ryder, who remembered getting a phone call from Hickson at a pay phone around 11:00 p.m. on that fateful night, was impressed with the situation, whatever its meaning: "Calvin Parker was just hysterical. He was having fits. I took them in the patrol car to the sheriff's office."

Other people had reported a possible UFO that night, but statements were generally vague, some making reference to a streak of light in the sky. And so went the Pascagoula case for almost 30 years, another bizarre little UFO story consigned to history, believed by some and dismissed by others. But then the unexpected happened: A new witness stepped forward.

As Weird as it Gets - Part 2

AS WEIRD AS IT GETS
Part 2

Serious UFO-related journalism has often been hard to come by via the conventional media, especially in the U.S., but recent events may encourage more credible reporting of the seemingly incredible

by
Robert Barrow


Currently, the authorities in this and other countries are forced to puzzle over the phenomenon of cattle mutilations. Researchers have reported on these downright bizarre manifestations since at least the sixties, and some western states are reporting them this year with some regularity. Earlier this year, Montana's Great Falls Tribune alerted its readers to a new round of mutilations. On July 31 The Las Vegas Weekly informed its readers that cases had increased and the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), a private organization noted for in-depth investigations of mutilated cattle and other creatures, stated that reports had climbed to about a dozen, with input from Utah and other western states.

So, what's the big deal about dead and mutilated animals, anyway? Plenty, as it turns out, because the instances in question encompass far more than those mere words betray. Veteran investigators of the "real deal" mutilations generally discover animals that have died quickly and are slow to decompose as they remain watched - but untouched - by predators that would usually waste no time in consuming a carcass. Stranger yet, in the remote areas where cattle are often found, there are no tire tracks or human footprints nearby, and sometimes all the evidence indicates the animals were dropped from the sky, leaving depressions in the ground where they lie. In an uncomfortable number of cases, strange and silent bright lights are observed flying or hovering over pastureland the evening before the animals' discovery. Burned grass and scorched ground is sometimes found adjacent to the bodies.

However, the genuinely frightening kicker here is the condition of the mutilated cattle. Specific body parts such as eyes, ears, genitalia and jaw portions are not only missing, but apparently removed with surgical precision, and frequently with the surgical precision of something akin to a laser. It isn't uncommon to find rectums cored out cleanly and the occasional fetus is said to have been removed with skill. But particularly shocking is the generally reported total absence of blood in and around the carcasses. In recent cases where blood samples were available, lab tests indicate peculiar changes perpetrated by forces unknown on the animals' hemoglobin, and tests are ongoing to establish the process involved.

For several months, South American farmers and ranchers have experienced an ongoing siege of mutilations, especially in Argentina, where the tally of mysterious cattle deaths now exceeds 400 by some estimates. While Uruguay has seen an increase in recent weeks, Argentina by far holds the current record as the South American cattle mutation capitol. Thanks to U.S. researchers such as Scott Corrales, who translates reports from various S.A. newspapers and sends them on to English-speaking countries, it is clear that the mystery mutilators, whomever or whatever they are, show no prejudice in treating their kill exactly as they do in the U.S. and other nations.

Once the Argentine deaths began to multiply this year, the government quickly dispatched a scientific team to investigate and quiet the fears of ranchers who experienced not only the trauma of these bizarre killings, but also the terror of seeing strange lights in the sky prior to their grizzly discoveries.

Faster than you could say "experts," the Argentine government announced a solution to the mutilation onslaught: A particular variety of predatory rodent, the "red-muzzled mouse," was essentially attacking cattle that already died from natural causes and were tearing off body parts with seeming precision! However, even as veterinarians and other scientists who were well versed on the peculiarities of the mutilations were picking themselves up off the floor in disbelief, the absurd mouse explanation began to crumble to dust. The first clue to this idiocy arrived when locals realized the type of mouse in question wasn't even indigenous to the areas in question; further, the sheer numbers of mice necessary to produce the widespread carcass damage would be immense, and there was no evidence of rodent droppings that would certainly have accumulated at the scene of each mutilation. And, as noted previously, predators of all varieties simply wanted nothing to do with the typical mutilation.

The cases continue today and even police officers have reportedly encountered UFOs in cattle mutilation areas. In one instance, an officer's patrol car stalled and lost all power as a strange object flew slowly by. But farmers and ranchers have become infuriated and disgusted with the government explanations and some victims now refuse to report their mutilations officially. Police agencies are said to have stopped accepting reports since the official government mouse explanation hit the streets, and this has affected access of journalists to the latest incidents as well. As if the situation isn't tense enough, there have been reports of large water reservoirs emptied mysteriously overnight, and toward the end of June, 19 dead and dying cattle were alleged in a newspaper report to have been found piled together inside a reservoir, the animals placed there by means unknown. The integrity of the cattle owner was impeccable, and the acutely strange aspect is that the tank was an Australian version, with a conical top and sheet metal on the sides. Under the best of circumstances, determining how the cattle made their entry into such a structure is a mind-bender, though theories of even teleportation have been bandied about.

If all of this doesn't wax imponderable enough already, another report describes the seemingly well-witnessed arrival recently of, not a car full, but a large truck full of U.S. advisers of some sort, supposedly visiting Argentina to examine the mutilated cattle.

As mutilations and the enigmatic crop circles continue to appear in several countries, UFO reports also seem on the increase. India has been much in the news lately because of supposed attacks and deaths blamed on UFOs. Particularly in the western states, numerous after-dark sightings of huge, silent triangular objects occur. There is some well-founded speculation that at least some of these are secret military aircraft, perhaps incorporating high-tech lift and dirigible characteristics, used to transport who-knows-what under cover of darkness. But a disturbing number of other UFO reports, here and abroad, clearly have nothing to do with conventional aviation.