Ultrasound and UFOs

Vibratory sensation and sound itself must have helped many early critters survive on this planet once life began to flourish. Yes, sight was an important factor, even with fundi allowing wide-screen vision to track predators. But what good would sight be if a Goopadidilosaurus born eons ago from the primordial soup, gazing upon a lush and tasty green forest, didn't feel the vibration or noise of the hungry Viperaslitherorex burrowing murderously up through the marsh, just below its vulnerable underbelly?

The sounds of thunder warned early humans of the approaching storms. The wolf's howl tips the pack off to potential dangers, a food source, or perhaps its howl sometimes exhibits itself merely as a howl for howl's sake, just to be heard. Sound. Even in literature, as in motion pictures inspired by literature, sound often plays an integral part in the story. The role of the conch in "The Lord of the Flies" comes to mind.

When sound ultimately became married to electricity and other forms of power, remarkable things happened. Sonar was developed for military use in submarines, and even fog could be cleared from formerly hazardous aircraft runways.

Today, the potential of sound seems limitless, its science firmly entrenched. now delineated in frequencies such as ultrasound and infrasound. In recent years, refrigerators operated by sound waves have been invented, and just a few months ago ultrasound units developed for battlefield use were seen to hasten the healing of war injuries. And while I personally don't know what to think about "crop circles" that seem truly mysterious (realizing, of course, that numerous known fakes and hoaxes prevail), there exists some rare but intriguing writing in that area suggestive of origin via sound waves, either ultrasound or infrasound.

In the 1960s, other than fog dispersal and early sonar experimentation, I don't believe anybody was doing much with sound, aside from enhancing the quality of Elvis or Beatles music rushing from the evolving speaker industry -- which probably acted as a springboard of sorts for sound's future variations.

However, even in this era of electrical sound's formative trials, there actually had been, for some years, a use of sound in medicine: The therapeutic ultrasound machine. Back then, they were heavy and cumbersome, transported on wheels. As of today, according to a news report I just heard, ultrasound units can weigh as little as two pounds (lbs.).

When I began working in Air Force physical therapy in 1968, I quickly became familiar with that cumbersome ultrasound unit on wheels, as they were used commonly in the clinics for relief of muscle spasms and pain. Now, you must consider how long ago this was and how much knowledge we had yet to gain. In some strange way that probably makes sense only to me, I like to draw a parallel with the Barney and Betty Hill (alleged) UFO abduction case, where Betty related that her alien abductors conducted a "pregnancy test" via insertion of a needle into her navel -- a seemingly wild claim for its time, unheard of in the medical community, yet a procedure that eventually became common internationally just a few years later with the label, amniocentesis.

Similarly, when I worked in a clinic using ultrasound for its healing properties in 1968, nobody had a clue that ultrasound waves would one day be harnessed to determine pregnancies and to diagnose fetal problems, lacking the high risk posed by x-rays, the only diagnostic tool available until sound waves entered the "picture." In fact, had anybody suggested this future use of ultrasound at that time, they might have been looked upon as crazy.

So maybe I was that kind of crazy, too, when I began taking a really close look at that ultrasound unit. I don't exactly know why I focused so intently upon ultrasound, because the clinic was also awash in machinery treating patients with microwave and shortwave diathermy energy -- and, as you may know, the potential relationship between microwave-type energy and UFO encounters frequently seems highly relevant. Yet, other authors have concentrated their efforts superbly on that theory, so I'll leave the microwave issue to them.

Besides, I'm no scientist. I'm just a writer, not even a great writer, but I can usually make a point when necessary. I assure you, had I been a scientist I would have inadvertently blown up the planet long ago. It would be something like, "Oh no! I accidentally mixed bleach and a bowl of Rice Krispies with Helium 3! We're doomed!" Yeah, I know, Helium 3 is still on the moon and we don't have any yet, but that's the dramatization I preferred just now, thank you.

Ultrasound, yes. So I thought long and hard about ultrasound's properties and I read the US machine manufacturer's instruction booklet cover to cover. UFO-related theories emerged. I made notes and then scribbled paragraphs and then by 1969-70 I knew I wanted to write an article. Dare I find the boldness to suggest something for The A.P.R.O. Bulletin, journal of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization? And now that Project Blue Book was gone and Colorado University had banished forever the thought of UFOs being "real," could I now feel more comfortable about wearing the Air Force uniform openly while simultaneously writing something publicly about UFOs?

The answer was a resounding yes, and to my delight APRO was impressed. The article, ultimately entitled, "UFO Ultrasound: Key to Injuries," appeared in The A.P.R.O. Bulletin for March-April 1971 and elicited a good response. Former NASA scientist Paul R. Hill, in his 1995 book, Unconventional Flying Objects: A Scientific Analysis, found the ultrasound idea interesting, but rightfully took me to task on my assumptions regarding the medium used for sound wave propagation -- and I'm glad he did because, again, I'm no scientist and knowledgeable theory refinement is gratefully accepted.

Five years following the APRO publication, my very first national magazine article, essentially an expansion of the ultrasound piece, appeared in Official UFO (a great proponent of intriguing UFO literature that eventually went very, very bad once pure idiocy and fiction disguised as truth became the norm in its pages) of May, 1976. Miraculously, the article received "top billing" on the cover.

Today, I'll put up a few letters relating to the article and next time around I'll post the actual article as published by APRO. If I eventually find my original typed article, somewhat longer, I'll scan and feature that, too, though I've currently no idea where it might be.

The Card and the Question

APRO's membership included not only subscribing members, but eventually field investigators as well, chosen to investigate UFO reports on behalf of APRO because of special skills or location. The standard Aerial Phenomena Research Organization letter of field investigator welcome shown here is included particularly because of a reference to military people overseas. APRO depended significantly upon foreign investigators to make the public aware that UFOs are an international scientific mystery.

As I continued to serve in the Air Force in Texas, letters and UFO reports continued to seek me out back in New York. The letter shown here, from northern NY State, is of special interest because an Air Force representative was actually dispatched to speak with the witness and, according to this witness, the Air Force investigator admitted to other sightings.

Blue Book Descends and TIME Blows Condon a Kiss

As the Air Force's Project Blue Book sank into oblivion, expressed in a short article from The Inspector General Brief (I typed what I read onto the paper shown here, the relevant phrase underlined by me for emphasis), some members of the media continued to believe the negative Colorado UFO study had churned out the final word. A Time Magazine editor's letter, for example, embraces Dr. Condon's project absolutely -- hook, line and sinker. The reason, then and now, remains primarily because many journalists simply don't take the time, or have not the desire, to examine all the evidence. There's little point in elaboration or correction here because I've offered numerous previous posts about Condon/Colorado, and my position, and history's account of the project as a "fiasco" (Look Magazine's superb designation), is clear. However, you will note via the brief passage in the TIG Brief that UFOs which could affect "national security" will continue to be reported -- interesting, since the perpetual government statements of pure distortion indicate that UFOs represent no threat to our national security. And so it goes, on and on and on.

Ragged Pieces of 1969

The Vietnam Era touched the lives of every American in some small or large way. In 1969, while I served in a large Texas Air Force hospital as an enlistee and former object of the military draft, the Vietnam influence evidenced its long reach in another way.

For months prior to enlistment, I had stayed in touch with two newspaper reporters who produced some nice articles about UFO activity in Central New York. One day in '69 I suddenly received a letter postmarked from a military facility in (then) West Germany. The writer, to my surprise, was my former contact from the Syracuse Post-Standard. He, too, ended up in the military, in the Army. I never did learn all the details of that quick transformation, but he did admit that while with the newspaper his articles about UFOs elicited more response than anything else he ever wrote about.

Months later, my second surprise occurred as I was reading an issue of Airman, the Air Force's monthly magazine. Airman, which I assume still publishes, distributed Air Force-wide, was a great looking monthly, its glossy appearance rivaling anything on the newsstands. Glancing at the editorial staff list, I became instant knock-me-over-with-a-feather material because an editor's name displayed prominently was familiar -- he was the other reporter I knew from back home, formerly with the Syracuse Herald-Journal, who now wore Air Force captain's bars and played an important editorial role for this major magazine.

So, today I'm looking through the few things I've found from 1969 in the files. There's really nothing worth scanning this time, but a few things merit comment. For instance, there's a note with information likely gleaned from APRO, NICAP or both (and certainly available in the mainstream reference sources) about a dramatic daylight UFO encounter in March by the pilots and crew of an Air Force KC-135 flying over Southeast Asia who reported a "giant black metallic cylinder suspended in the sky." The primary witness was Col. Robert M. Tirman, a flight surgeon stationed in Thailand. Tirman said the "huge" object hovered in a vertical position at an approximate altitude of 15,000 feet, at an estimated distance of two miles. After a spirited conversation between the pilot and co-pilot heard by Col. Tirman, the pilot initiated a closer approach to the object, appearing as a cylinder suspended in the sky. The crew speculated that it might be a weather balloon, but soon discarded that explanation, and the thing disappeared (in some manner) after several minutes.

But the bigger news in 1969 is Dr. J. Allen Hynek's outrage as the University of Colorado releases "The Condon Report," highly negative and dismissive of the UFO subject -- and a controversial product of project infighting and dishonesty to its very roots as a significant percentage of unexplained UFO cases were simply ignored.

A few more letters from Congressman James Hanley occupy my files, responses to UFO-related letters I continued to send him. At one point I've sent him a copy of the book, UFOs: Yes! by Dr. David Saunders, a scientist unceremoniously fired from the Colorado project because he didn't fit in with the misguided "UFOs: No!" crowd. Rep. Hanley assures me he will read the book. I suspect he did.

Friends at Sheppard AFB in Texas, according to another note I scribbled, told me of a June 12 morning news report from either KTRN or KNIN radio (Wichita Falls). The local police station received a call from a town resident reporting a UFO the previous evening, and in turn the police phoned the base about it. The Air Force sergeant taking the call allegedly replied, "Your job is to chase burglars, not watch the skies!"

As 1969 neared completion, I returned to Central NY on Air Force leave and was invited by WSYR-TV's (late) Denny Sullivan to guest on his daily variety show, a program I had appeared on a couple of years previously. His co-host for the week was the late comedian and singer, Lou Monti, who used me as a comedic punching bag for his good-natured sarcasm when I first walked on stage for the interview (memorialized for posterity by Wendy Connors' "Faded Discs" project -- ain't digitalization great stuff?). While at the studios, popular women's program host Kay Russell -- truly a pioneer among television's ladies of broadcasting in the U.S. -- "found" and invited me on her WSYR show, too, a radio program, so I ended up doing the two shows on different days, causing my brief leave to become more of a media event than a vacation. I had a great time and made extensive notes about the guest shots. The thing about WSYR is that it had a long and proud history on the airwaves and was a major broadcast power in Syracuse and Central NY because it encompassed a TV station and both strong-signal AM and FM radio stations.

I did insist that both Sullivan and Russell keep my Air Force relationship out of the conversation, but Denny Sullivan did "slip up" and reveal it on the air. However, in reviewing my old notes (it truly is incredible how some events remain with you forever, while others slip away promptly), I read that the two of us actually had quite an argument or disagreement just days prior to my appearance over this issue. He saw no reason not to tell his audience about my Air Force ties, while I, typically, was scared to death because this was hardly an era where military people could proudly proclaim, "I'm military and UFOs are real and I'm going to tell the world on TV and radio, darn it!" So Denny Sullivan, a military veteran, won that round -- and with the passing years giving me pause to think, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing after all.

UFO Updates: 72,000 Gems and Growing

The almost unthinkable has happened. Many with an eye toward UFO research suspected it was coming, but today's the day when harsh economic realities clash with an otherwise extraordinarily well-oiled information machine. This is all about a place called the Virtually Strange Network, prominently added to my list of links shortly after this blog's initiation.

In Canada, Errol Bruce-Knapp is VSN's founder, and since 1996, at great personal cost, Errol has provided the world with insightful UFO-related radio broadcasts (his "Strange Days...Indeed!" is now conducted exclusively in pod format) and hosts an impressive, ever-growing archive of posts by the best and brighest involved internationally in UFO research -- names you know and names you don't, and possibly with your own name and contributions. Just as the late UFO investigator Coral Lorenzen once referred to her organization APRO as "the United Nations of UFO research," Errol's popular "UFO Updates" Web page also caters to the world's UFO-inquisitive, and to date offers an astounding archive of over 72,000 posts.

But what was once free is free no more, and Errol's impressive, yet costly, services must now be available through paid subscriptions. More information may be accessed via my link to the Virtually Strange Network, and I'm sure you will find the rates reasonable and the wealth of information indispensable. Errol thanks you for your support, and, of course, we thank Errol Bruce-Knapp for being there to help sort out the truth and wisdom from hopeless piles of everything else involving the UFO subject!