APRO Memories and Something New

Over the years, I tended to save documents and mailings that most folks would throw out after a time, and today I'm posting a couple more from the defunct Aerial Phenomena Research Organization -- and shortly after I drafted this blog entry there was a new development pertaining to APRO. But first:

The membership letter dated April 25, 1974 actually reached most members about a month later and designates a rare occasion when APRO's Jim and Coral Lorenzen journeyed way back East in the U.S. to offer a UFO symposium. The occasion included a worthwhile speakers' list.

The other sheet was folded into mailings of the APRO Bulletin (May-June, 1975 issue) a year later, touting APRO associate Hal Starr's radio series, "UFO Report." In addition to well-known radio personalities such as Starr, Frank Edwards and Long John Nebel, American and Canadian locations hosted a smattering of UFO-related radio shows in the fifties, sixties and seventies. These were particularly valuable in keeping the UFO subject out in the open and in front of the microphone, a true public service provided long before "Coast to Coast AM" assumed the broadcast throne (which young people probably believe was a "first" -- sorry, not true).

A SIGNIFICANT PIECE OFAPRO's HISTORY AVAILABLE FOR FREE: Frank Warren's UFO Chronicles (see link) noted a few days ago that nearly all old copies of the APRO Bulletin are being scanned and put up for free download at:

http://www.openminds.tv/apro-bulletins

I'm a bit ambivalent about this for two reasons. First, I think it's great and a wonderful tribute to the work of the late Jim and Coral Lorenzen and their many associates around the world who truly illuminated the fact that UFOs are a global phenomenon. However, in constant fear, as I am, of copyright infringements and stepping on the toes of those who claim ownership of various publications, I'm hoping that no problems crop up. I've mentioned in the past that I wanted to scan old copies of the Bulletin for this blog, but never felt comfortable doing so. Nevertheless, if this nonprofit venture continues unimpeded, some super UFO history will be out there for instant access, and I could do nothing less than applaud the project. I wrote a few things for the Bulletin myself in days of old, so it's a little strange for me to see these Internet reflections of the past.

Tsunami Mommy, Robert's Rambles and Other Atrocities

(World War II photos from undetermined government and public news sources: The 1941 U.S. Joint Resolution declaring that a state of war exists between the U.S. and Japan; Stripped of their uniforms, Japanese prisoners are escorted to a carrier by U.S. Armed Forces personnel; A prisoner of war held by the Japanese who died while trying to get a drink of water; An American serviceman identified as Tay Dodds of Canton, Ohio, carries to a waiting stretcher a Japanese woman whose fractured leg had been set and dressed by U.S. Navy doctors.)

Earthquakes. . .tsunami chasers. . .Haiti. . .New Zealand. . .the Japan of 70 years ago compared to its current status. . . Godzilla, Gorgo and other monsters are deemed blameless for the latest tragedy. . .nuclear plant radiation added to a world already on fire. . .our Japanese friends who rejoiced in buying up extensive U.S. parcels and industries during better times. . .voices of dead American WW II military men echo the nearly forgotten words, "Remember Pearl Harbor". . . and please don't forget us. . .but let bygones be bygones, say some. . .as public schools in the U.S. continue to downplay the significance of that historic event. . .and, of course, Japanese terror was our fault, too, children are taught. . .so, is the mother of all tsunamis yet to come?. . .Libyan rebels battle with -- with armaments from where?. . .expensive and high-tech stuff paid for and sent by whom, even before the worthless United Nations entered the scene?. . .as the U.S. slips into yet another armed conflict to help people who will probably hate us later just as much as they hate us now, despite our efforts and expense. . .and just how do we in the U.S. continue footing the bill in futile attempts to save a world of ingrates while our growing deficit anchors domestic needs to immobility?. . .just look at Hillary, she appears to have had it up to here. . .by the way, for the record, pit bulls don't wear lipstick. . .UFOs and nukes must be addressed. . .but, nuclear plants in the United States. . .as we build them in the future, I suggest mounting them upon giant missiles. . .and if we experience a major earthquake or other nation-crippling disaster, have them set on "automatic" to launch the entire nuclear fuel source into the atmosphere, headed with an explosive charge toward the capital cities of our sworn enemies. . .why let a perfectly good nuclear crisis go to waste, to paraphrase an escapee from the current administration?. . .and public unions continue a rampage of sorts as union leaders presumably do everything but have sexual relations during frequent visits to The White House. . .workers of the world unite, oh yes, what a lovely spring day that will be. . .until the bloom falls from the rose. . .while the masses care about little more than sporting events, as wool clipped from their own sheep persona is pulled over eyes twice and thrice blissfully betrayed. . .and drugs yet flow over bodies and borders to anesthetize minds ill-equipped to either teach or learn. . .common sense being dead in the water. . .children of influence. . .children of opportunity. . .but mostly children born of toxicity and poverty. . .but things can only get better. . .until the next disaster. . .magnified via overpopulation and crazies. . .and one day we will learn the hard way that the future is not ours, simply because it never was ours. . .whilst something equally as beautiful and horrible as our species creeps in to replace us as pretenders to the universal throne. . . and brief moments shall tick away on a sidereal clock face, deceptively ornamented with Mickey Mouse-like hands of radium. . .yet, we party on, incapable of understanding that a covert purpose of crying is to absorb, conquer and destroy laughter. . .and the tears always win. Always.

When Harry Met Saucers

The country was abuzz over UFOs in 1966, and no journalist or commentator worth his or her salt neglected to ask all the wrong people all the right questions -- and sometimes, there just wasn't enough time for the wrong people to regurgitate enough timeworn answers to insufficiently quench everybody's curiosity. This comes from the May 22, 1966 transcript of NBC-TV's "Meet the Press."

The years fly by. . .

("Goodnight, David.")

("Goodnight, Chet.")

Whispering Sweet Nothings

The odor of nostalgia in bloom, isn't it great? Some of you may remember the April 18, 1977 issue of the magazine, U.S. News & World Report, whose "Washington Whispers" column included this stunning announcement. Various explanations have been offered over the years, but even though nothing materialized publicly from this shocker, it's apparent that some personnel in the Carter Administration were not unfamiliar with the UFO subject. You can read more about UFOs, Jimmy Carter and other U.S. presidents at Grant Cameron's Presidential UFO (see link) Web site.

Undescended Spectacles

Mummies? Politics? World crises? Hey, isn't this blog about UFOs?

It is, but not as much as it was. The truth is, when I initiated these pages in 2007, my intention was to post documents from my old UFO-related files, and this I have done.

Am I trying to be funny? Sometimes. Am I funny? That's up to the readers to decide. My only claim to comedy fame is writing and selling two (count 'em, two) jokes to professional comedy writer Robert Orben back in the seventies for two dollars each. At that price, no, I don't even remember the content.

Do I take UFO reports seriously? Yes, I do. I did. For decades. But it's somebody else's turn to stay current, to take the calls, to fill out the forms, to buy or review the new books. I can only be the past, and others among you the future. Oh, I can still scan and put up some older things on occasion, and I hope you find them of interest, but as you can plainly see by visiting many of my linked Web sites, updated information and "now" stuff resides there.

I'm especially proud of our "U.F.O." movie blog (see link), and though I've scanned and put up a wealth of scans and background information, it is still occasionally updated with new material, thanks primarily to contributions from Barry Greenwood.

My Air Force blog reflects four years which I, to say the least, didn't see coming until a military draft notice received during the Vietnam years welcomed me (not exactly in those words) to participate in the chaos of that era, though as a medical airman, enlisted in the Air Force, I served in stateside hospitals (darned Air Force recruiter promised me photography school. . .) .

The dog tribute blog (see link), begun for reasons unfulfilled, never progressed beyond a few nice pictures of my departed Pekingese. I was going to take it down but, surprisingly, was contacted by people who loved the pics. . .and Pekes. It stays.

Which brings me back to the subject of UFOs. I can't really add much comment to almost four years of blog entries, but I can look to the current day: UFO books continue to be written -- some good ones, too, from what I've heard.. Leslie Kean, Richard Dolan, and then names with which I'm unfamiliar. Major U.S. UFO organizations have dwindled, but some remain. MUFON, for one.

I subscribed for many years to the MUFON Journal, but never considered myself a "member," Now, there's apparently so much in-fighting (and out-fighting), what a shame. The late Coral Lorenzen (APRO) was never a fan of MUFON -- quite the opposite. Regarding the MUFON of years ago, she ridiculed the organization for existing as an entity whose membership seemed overwhelmed by gee-whiz teenagers, rather than true investigators. And Coral insisted to me that a MUFON official had accessed (that's not the word she used, but I'll be kind here) APRO membership lists with intentions of luring away a number of people better suited to investigate UFO reports and enhance membership totals. Unfortunately for MUFON, some of those approached about jumping the APRO ship squealed to Coral. I've a feeling that Coral would look upon the current MUFON and say, "Told you so."

So now what? Dedicated Americans such as Robert Hastings and Robert Salas have done everything but stage a Broadway musical to gain wide public and Congressional interest in UFOs and the phenomenon's peculiar relationship with nuclear missiles, and serious researchers in several countries work their investigative talents to the bone to alert people to the evidence. What changed? What will change?

Really?

I joined NICAP in 1964, always certain that the organization's extensively documented UFO evidence and lobbying efforts in D.C. would crack the UFO mystery wide open. Not. Didn't. Infiltration by the spooky element was no help either, as the organization slowly fell apart. Okay, NICAP is gone, but the NICAP Web site (see link) is a winner. You want UFO evidence and reliable history? NICAP.org is the place.

But. . .still we wait for the fireworks. I joined the APRO membership in 1965 and later became a field investigator. Nothing ultra-dramatic there, but I did what I could. APRO was the place to go in the U.S. to swoon over important UFO reports gathered from all over the world, incredible accounts of UFO encounters that astounded researchers in the fifties who had wondered for years whether UFOs were a global phenomenon. They were. They are.

So. Nearly 50 years have elapsed since I took an active interest in UFOs, encouraged by an uncle's significant library of books on science, science fiction and the strange and UFOs. And Charles Fort. Space travel. Analog Magazine. Archaeology. Shelves filled with dusty volumes about antiquities and the future and Edgar Cayce and pilots who chased UFOs and pilots who disappeared while chasing UFOs. My uncle's telescope, set up in the back yard on evenings, an atmosphere far less encumbered by civilization's light sources than today.

And there were memberships to INFO and SITU, and subscriptions to publications such as Gordon I.R. Lore, Jr's UFO Research Newsletter, a superb and fascinating round-up -- while it lasted -- of important UFO events.

The mystery endures, the publications grind on and proper funding continues to elude the best of intentions, but still the crucial rule-changing, jaw-dropping spectacles have not materialized. We are impatient, and the world doesn't give a damn.. UFO solutions remain unrevealed. Chances seem reasonable that none of us living long or born today will ever crack the egg. Maybe we aren't supposed to know, and if Betty Hill had it right, we really AREN'T supposed to know.

So I'll bring on the mummies, the humor, the sarcasm, I'll bring on diversions and let those who obfuscate continue to revel in obfuscation, because the world is on fire and rational thought has come down to whose religious tenets seem the least crazy.

What the heck, I live in a country apologized for and watched over by a weak president, and a pathetically indecisive Administration schooled more in intellectualism and give-away diplomacy than the blood-and-guts approach the world craves from us here and now. I watch in awe as cowardly state legislators flee their own states, afraid to vote and obviously paid for lock, stock and barrel by dangerous and increasingly powerful public labor unions whose main purpose involves demanding more and more from the voiceless taxpayer.

We have, but won't use, our strong military to destroy Somali pirates and thugs, even though the world knows exactly where the roaches live. The strongest evidence ever indicating invasion of our southern borders by radical Muslims and potential suicide bombers should be trumpeted from coast to coast, but I live under an Administration afraid to utter the politically incorrrect words, radical Islamic terrorists, and the best my "leaders" can do about Mexican drug lords is to offer useless words of sorrow at the funerals of border agents and dedicated members of our intelligence community -- as it cowers in silence while the ACLU sues the FBI over an alleged infiltrated mosque situation.

My president tells me that fossil fuels are the fuel of the past, yet we have little alternative for now or the immediate future except nuclear plants that aren't built yet, windmills whose blades freeze solid during brutal winter weather (as England discovered this year) and sunlight that can't be relied upon (in parts of the Northeastern U.S. our last full day of sunlight was almost six months ago). The greener things get, the more the idiocy blooms -- helped along, as new research appears to suggest, by frequent use of cell phones whose radiation lights up one's brain scan like flashlights in a rat den. Yes, our children are the future, maybe with compromised brains unable to properly learn or think. Or maybe we're already there, just look around.

I live in a nation currently run by the most incredibly inept and gutless Administration I have ever known, and I long for a presidency filled for a few decisive months by a crusty, no-nonsense four-star -- no, make that a nine-star -- general with wartime experience who knows how to go after international thugs like an attack dog, with deadly, uncompromising force. Surprised at my attitude? Me too, but the times, they are-a-changin.' And by changin' I don't mean hope and change.

Meanwhile, the fighting among UFO "personalities" continues, the evidence reposes and, as a recent TV automobile commercial advises, "you can have this, or you can have that."

Sorry, but I think I'll put my money on "that," because I've had more than enough of "this."