What We Deserve, What We Get

Despite the TV and radio commercials infiltrating human minds faster than cell phone brain tumors (sorry, but I have a particularly concerted respect for close-approach forms of energy, even though I realize the jury is still in -- and out -- and in -- and out regarding this issue) about what we "deserve," I'm afraid I can't always agree. We don't "deserve" to win the lottery, we don't "deserve" a luxury ski vacation and we don't "deserve a break today." But we do deserve the truth from our government. Truth, the jewel whose image often fails to shine through the muck of sanctioned impedance.

If tomorrow happened to be my last day on earth, there are three things out of hundreds (including military encounters) about UFOs that I'd like my government to come clean about. Well, no, actually there's a fourth, which has nothing whatsoever to do with my government, and that is, when are the broadcast giants of this planet going to snap up Canada's Errol Bruce-Knapp (he of the Virtually Strange network and his now-podcast show, "Strange Days...Indeed!") to have him host his UFO-related program on a major radio network? Errol's approach and his stable of knowledgeable and reliable guests should be heard via The Biggest Microphone in the World.

But getting back to those three things. First, I'd like the scoop from the U.S. government about the April, 1964 Socorro, NM UFO encounter. If you've read this blog from the start, you already know of my interest in this case -- and the fact that I received a letter from the Air Force in 1965 (posted in an early blog entry for your viewing) calling patrolman Lonnie Zamora's UFO a "vehicle" only enhanced my interest. After 43 years it's time, as it is for so many other incidents, for the government to tell us what is known. You can't just chalk this impressive case up to the "unexplained" category and never say anything again. Somebody knows, if not highly suspects, something -- and I think that something is worth knowing. Yes, we "deserve" the truth. If the truth clashes with somebody else's belief system or annually contrived fantasies, that's just too darned bad.

What else? Well, Chicago's O'Hare Airport sky object of November 7, 2006 should cause everybody's eyes to pop. Beginning with the first hint from Peter Davenport's National UFO Reporting Center (see link), extending to the January 1, 2007 Chicago Tribune article exposing the incident to a profoundly curious public (the Trib's circulation soared) by reporter Jon Hilkevitch, and ending with the final and lengthy report a few months ago issued by the organization NARCAP (see link) which determined the UFO -- oops, I mean unidentified aerial phenomena, the term NARCAP prefers so as not to inflame those who detest the UFO designation, because those of us who use that term at any time of the day or night are deficient in some way -- was indeed real, strange and a particular flight path hazard as an intruder at one of the world's busiest airports, the O'Hare incident appears a one-punch, knockout UFO case. While the commercial airlines, always concerned with the bottom line, denied the obvious and attempted to shovel away the evidential poop deposited conspicuously by the ufological elephant almost sitting on a runway (bad for business, you know, and currently, of course, we had the U.S. government trying to hide a brand new report -- unsuccessfuly, we are now promised, and we'll soon see -- about potential sky hazards from the public because the public may well panic to the degree it rightly "deserves" to panic), government spokespeople who are supposed to speak in instances of the nationally dramatic spoke nothing, and continue to speak nothing. Again, we are deterred, we are ignored and we are denied the truth. I want the truth and I demand it. We all must.

And this brings me to the last thing I would wish to know if tomorrow were the final tomorrow. Unless you follow the UFO story regularly, you might not even know about the story within the story. Again, it's something I wrote about in the early weeks of this blog, months ago, when I posted my five-part series entitled, "As Weird as it Gets." You may know it as the Hickson-Parker case, or the Pascagoula, Mississippi UFO incident: The alleged abduction and physical examination of two fishermen, Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker, by extraordinarily strange-looking creatures from a UFO. This most bizarre of bizarre incidents had so many things going for it, including the known fact that other people probably witnessed the UFO that swooped down over the fishermen early in the evening of October 11, 1973.

But years later, the story took on a new life when Mike Cataldo, a retired Navy chief petty officer residing now in Florida, approached a newspaper reporter to announce that he and a carload of fellow Navy servicemen had seen a very strange object, all lit up and about the size of a large passenger jet, late during the day of professed abduction while driving on U.S. 90, between Pascagoula and Ocean Springs. Cataldo's rational story, intriguing enough to impress ABC Radio broadcaster Paul Harvey, who spent a considerable amount of time on it during a Saturday broadcast, instantly increased the Hickson-Parker case credibility.

Unfortunately, and not uncommonly, major press sources did not pick up Cataldo's story anywhere near what they should have. The Pascagoula incident cries out as a warning, even if just a warning for warning's sake, of something intruding in our lives almost on a whim that seems to influence in ways unknown, and terrifies or mentally overpowers almost routinely.

When Cataldo's admission as a probable additional Pascagoula witness surfaced at last, Hickson and Parker's experience took on a new prominence. There is something for us to know here, and as much as the government may not know, it is essential that we, the people, be informed about the known. About the real. About the plain and simply bizarre and complex truth. What the hell occurred in Pascagoula that night? Tell us what we know. Tell us what we don't know. Tell us what might be. Number three on my list of a list that could go on for pages and pages. Just three little UFO cases, only three. Please. For starters. Why must we beg? In a universe so strange and still so woefully unexplored by humans, why should we expect to be anything but surprised, pleasantly or otherwise?

Unexpectedly, disturbingly, I find myself quoting President George W. Bush: "Bring it on." Come on, this is big stuff. Give us the truth we truly deserve about the UFO issue so we can honestly say, at last, that we got what we deserve.

My Phantom Radio Show

No, I'm not a huge fan of "Coast to Coast AM," but I'll give Art Bell, George Noory and Co. credit for initiation and survival of its format. How great it must be when a program director or broadcast station manager looks ahead and realizes the potential of that occasional strange idea that graces his or her office.

I wanted to host a regular radio show about UFOs and other enigmas as far back as the sixties, when I was a teenage guest on some programs. In fact, my final project for a broadcasting course at Syracuse University a few months before entering the Air Force in 1968 was a contrived radio program incorporating real UFO incidents of that era (another "gem" from my life saved for all time in Wendy Connors' Faded Discs archive).

After the military years, I continued to harbor a dream of hosting a program, and representatives of several membership organizations kindly offered to help with letters and in other ways, as shown here.

The International Fortean Organization (another group concerned with weird events, apparently still going strong and accessible via the Web) letter brings back memories. There seemed a dreadful lot of in-fighting at INFO way back, as new names and faces entered the administrative scene following the (fondly remembered) leadership era of brothers Ron and Paul Willis, with more internal discontent than a dumpster fight attended by starving cats. I hope the situation eventually changed back to normally abnormal. Years ago, I took on the responsibility of becoming The INFO Journal's audiovisuals editor, and that lasted for precisely one issue, where my name and new title appeared, but I never had the opportunity to contribute a single thing during my "tenure" and was soon replaced and my name dropped!

From experience, all of the letter writers displayed here recognized the popularity of UFO-related broadcasts. Unfortunately, even though I continued to guest on both radio and TV programs to discuss UFOs in the seventies, resulting in a demonstrably positive audience response, I never could interest local or regional broadcast officials in producing a regular series.

One station's general manager whom I saw by appointment in the seventies allowed me about two minutes of his valuable time before almost throwing me out of his office, albeit in a kind manner. He just didn't want to hear any nonsense about a program revolving around UFOs and other mysteries of The Strange And Unknown. I guess he was right. How could such a program ever last for more than a few days? Outrageous. Unthinkable. Impossible. Frank Edwards. Long John Nebel. Bell. Noory. Etc. Etc.

Ivan Sanderson and SITU

Around 1970 or so I joined another organization, but this one's perspective encompassed all sorts of bizarre enigmas, not just UFOs. The Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained (SITU), headquartered in New Jersey, existed under the guidance of famed writer, broadcaster and explorer Ivan T. Sanderson. Sanderson was an individual of prolific talents and education, widely known for his multiple roles as zoologist, botanist, biologist and geologist, with a hint of controversy thrown in.

The SITU information sheet posted here, commonly distributed and published in every issue of SITU's journal, Pursuit, beginning in the eighties, briefly explains the organization's origins.

The form letter additionally posted here reflects a terrible moment for Sanderson, having just lost his wife in addition to experiencing internal problems at SITU. The organization, conceived in the sixties, was eventually headed by the late Robert Warth after Ivan Sanderson's death, and collapsed several years later (in the early nineties, as I recall) as membership declined.

During Warth's years overseeing SITU, I wrote a few articles and numerous book reviews for SITU's quarterly journal, Pursuit. Bob Warth phoned me often about reviewing this book or that, and on occasion he would just box up a number of books and send them to me unannounced, hoping I would find some worthwhile (many were not). In SITU's declining years, I suspect the writers, writing quality and interest began to fade as quickly as the cash needed to sustain the organization -- and because proper funding has always been an issue for legitimate enigma-investigative groups, the demise of yet another really shouldn't have surprised anybody. There's probably more to the story of SITU's end of which I am not familiar, but I think I've offered a fair assessment.

The Post Blue Book Era and Ultrasound Updated

Bits of this-and-that today: About six years after jotting down notes that eventually became the APRO article, I wrote a longer piece on ultrasound and its possible relationship to the UFO phenomenon for the May, 1976 issue of Official UFO, my first venture into the world of national magazines, and here's the cover in stereo (say what you will about the blurbs, but the cover itself was appealing and colorful -- and to see my article title prominently reflected at the top was both an exciting and humbling experience). Once I started writing a few articles for national magazines, mail started coming in from all over the USA and other countries, demonstrating that the public continued to maintain a serious interest in the UFO subject.

Making this point balances well with the 1972 letter posted here. Soon after my USAF discharge I contacted the Air Force unit at Hancock Field and offered my assistance in accepting UFO reports. However, by then the Air Force had divorced itself from the UFO issue in no uncertain terms, where the man, woman or child on the street was concerned, and this public information officer made the official position clear -- there would be no forwarding of UFO reports to any public source whatsoever. While some official agencies did indeed offer up points of civilian contact regarding sightings (such as CUFOS), most did not. Obviously, over time various publicly available sources and organizations -- particularly via the Internet now -- have taken up the cause and accept UFO reports graciously. In the meantime, let there be no doubt whatsoever that government facilities continue to record and investigate troubling UFO encounters and incidents with all the secrecy and censorship abilities available -- abilities currently almost as vast as the known universe, we may assume.

UFO Ultrasound Feedback and APRO's Symposium

My UFO ultrasound article in The A.P.R.O. Bulletin did elicit some feedback, though not all of it favorable. A reader in California wondered what my "problem" was as he added content to my theories (see letter). I wrote Coral and asked what she specifically thought my "problem" was, and her response was that she didn't know, either, that's why she forwarded the writer's letter on to me.

In the meantime, the Lorenzens were about to embark on a trip to Santa Ana, CA for a UFO symposium, where they would also discuss the ultrasound possibilities with others. The Western Symposium pamphlet is shown here, along with an APRO form letter stressing the need for publicity. Pay special attention to the bottom where APRO admits that the negative Colorado UFO project results have deterred sighting reports and sightings are diminished.

It may easily be interpreted from this turn of events that the demise of Project Blue Book, based upon Colorado's report, suddenly gave the public fewer outlets for reporting UFO experiences. When Blue Book collapsed, the public was advised primarily to report UFOs to their local law enforcement agencies -- a preposterous suggestion that would burden police officers who knew nothing about UFO investigations and were already up to their armpits in responding to and solving crimes. In time, especially with the advent of Dr. J. Allen Hynek's influential Center for UFO Studies in the seventies, police agencies at last felt more comfortable in passing reports along to a civilian UFO agency. NICAP and APRO had also enjoyed a good relationship with law enforcement departments, of course, but Dr. Hynek's reputation as both former chief Air Force UFO consultant and professional astronomer allowed him "star status" in the eyes of many, and his ever-evolving public statements supporting the scientific aspect of the UFO phenomenon didn't hurt, either.

By 1972, the possible relationship between UFO activity and ultrasound was apparently taken quite seriously by some in the scientific community. In Vol. 2, No. 5 of Gordon I.R. Lore, Jr's UFO Research Newsletter (Wash., DC), Dr. Robert F. Creegan, professor of philosophy at the State University of NY at Albany, wrote an article about scientists in San Diego and Seattle providing instrumentation to conduct UFO field studies. "These will involve attempts at triangulation of positions," stated Creegan, "studies of light diffraction and possible polarization, attempts to detect ultrasound, and use of magnetic variometers." James Lorenzen, head of APRO, and Dr. J. Allen Hynek coordinated the project initially in conjunction with The National Enquirer, which had convened a "blue ribbon panel" of scientists and other professionals to determine the best evidence for UFOs. I personally am unaware of any immediate findings relative to ultrasound, though, admittedly, doing field studies on a phenomenon as uncooperative as the UFO is an obstacle from the outset.