Abductions
Abductions are not a new thing. In fact they have been happening for Hundreds of years. In earlier times, people believed they were being taken by Angels and Fairies. Even by Hobgoblins and Elves. But in modern times this has all changed to abductions by aliens and sightings of UFO's. Some people are taken just once in their lives and others are taken more frequently.
There are Five different types of Encounters:
1. CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE FIRST KIND
A UFO seen at close range, but not affecting the environment around it.
2. CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE SECOND KIND
Similar to the first, but the environment is affected. For example the earth may be scorched or burned. Electrical equipment may be effected. For example - the car engine might stop or the lights go out. Another common thing is the radio may have some kind of interference or change channel before completely cutting out.
3. CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE THIRD KIND
Creatures can be seen closely, but may not communicate; you may not communicate with them.
4. CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE FOURTH KIND
You are taken on board the craft. You may be experimented on. For example blood might be taken along with skin cells. They may just want to communicate with you. Or they might put an Implant in you.
5. CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE FIFTH KIND
You are taken and never return.
George Adamski
George Adamski was born 17th April 1891. At the age of two, his family emigrated from Poland to New York, USA. For three years, starting from age Twenty-two, he was a soldier in the 13th U.S Cavalry Regiment K-Troop fighting at the Mexican border during the Pancho Villa Expedition. When he was Twenty-Six years old, he married his wife and later moved with some friends to a ranch near Palomar Garden, CA. During a meteor shower on the 9th October 1946, Adamski and friends witnessed a large cigar shaped 'Mother Ship'. The next year, in 1947, he photographed to same ship crossing in front of the moon over Palomar Gardens. Later on the 29th May 1950, he photographed another Six UFO's which flew in formation. On the 20th November 1952, Adamski and friends saw a large submarine shaped object in the sky of Desert Center in the Colorado desert. Knowing the ship was looking for him, Adamski left his friends and headed away from the main road. A scout ship made of translucent metal landed nearby and Adamski managed to take several photographs of the strange object. The ships pilot, a Venusian called Orthon sought him out from 400 meters. Orthon was a medium height humanoid with long blond hair and tanned skin. He wore reddish-brown shoes and a brown one piece suite. He communicated with Adamski thorough telepathy and hand signals. Orthon warned of the dangers of using nuclear war and pollution and arranged for Adamski to be taken on a trip through the solar system where he would also see the planet Venus where his late wife had been reincarnated. Orthon expressed a belief in god and claimed his race lived a spiritual life.
When Adamski requested to take a photograph of Orthon he was refused Instead Orthon was willing to take a blank photographic plate. He later returned the plate to Adamski on the 13th December 1952; the plate contained new strange symbol's and Admaski took a photograph wit his 6-inch (150 mm) telescope. This photograph would later become famous. When Orthon left, Adamski and his friends George William Hunt were able to take plaster casts of Orthon's footprints which contained strange symbols.
In 1954, Desmond Leslie witnessed several UFO's with Adamski while visiting in California. He wrote a letter to his wife describing one f them: “... a beautiful golden ship in the sunset, but brighter than the sunset ... It slowly faded out, the way they do.”
Adamski died of a heart-attack in Maryland on the 23rd April 1965. But not before leaving a lot of evidence including photographs and films of the various UFO's he witnessed throughout his life. There are still many investigations going on to prove and disprove his evidence. George Adamski was born 17th April 1891. At the age of two, his family emigrated from Poland to New York, USA. For three years, starting from age Twenty-two, he was a soldier in the 13th U.S Cavalry Regiment K-Troop fighting at the Mexican border during the Pancho Villa Expedition. When he was Twenty-Six years old, he married his wife and later moved with some friends to a ranch near Palomar Garden, CA. During a meteor shower on the 9th October 1946, Adamski and friends witnessed a large cigar shaped 'Mother Ship'. The next year, in 1947, he photographed to same ship crossing in front of the moon over Palomar Gardens. Later on the 29th May 1950, he photographed another Six UFO's which flew in formation. On the 20th November 1952, Adamski and friends saw a large submarine shaped object in the sky of Desert Center in the Colorado desert. Knowing the ship was looking for him, Adamski left his friends and headed away from the main road. A scout ship made of translucent metal landed nearby and Adamski managed to take several photographs of the strange object. The ships pilot, a Venusian called Orthon sought him out from 400 meters. Orthon was a medium height humanoid with long blond hair and tanned skin. He wore reddish-brown shoes and a brown one piece suite. He communicated with Adamski thorough telepathy and hand signals. Orthon warned of the dangers of using nuclear war and pollution and arranged for Adamski to be taken on a trip through the solar system where he would also see the planet Venus where his late wife had been reincarnated. Orthon expressed a belief in god and claimed his race lived a spiritual life.
When Adamski requested to take a photograph of Orthon he was refused Instead Orthon was willing to take a blank photographic plate. He later returned the plate to Adamski on the 13th December 1952; the plate contained new strange symbol's and Admaski took a photograph wit his 6-inch (150 mm) telescope. This photograph would later become famous. When Orthon left, Adamski and his friends George William Hunt were able to take plaster casts of Orthon's footprints which contained strange symbols.
In 1954, Desmond Leslie witnessed several UFO's with Adamski while visiting in California. He wrote a letter to his wife describing one f them: “... a beautiful golden ship in the sunset, but brighter than the sunset ... It slowly faded out, the way they do.”
Adamski died of a heart-attack in Maryland on the 23rd April 1965. But not before leaving a lot of evidence including photographs and films of the various UFO's he witnessed throughout his life. There are still many investigations going on to prove and disprove his evidence.
Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County
On the 20th January 1998, UPN showed a documentary which appeared to show a family being abducted by aliens. The tape is called 'Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County' and is also known as 'The McPhearson Tape'. The documentary was shot by a teenage boy on his home camera and lasted for 93 minutes. It began by showing some of the family rushing outside after they saw a UFO crash just outside their home. The family are later followed back to the house and have to fight for survival against the aliens. By the end of the tape, the Video Camera cuts out and photo's of the family are put on the screen with a number to call if anybody has any information about where they are.
This tape still has a lot of people confused as to whether it was a genuine film or a hoax. A lot of this is because there were interviews on the tape by trusted / valid UFO Researchers who would say the tape was real. Another reason why people were so confused is because of the photo's at the end of the film, which asked people for information. People still seem to be confused about the tape, with some people still believing it was real.
The actual director of this film is called Dean Alioto. He has admitted to it being a hoax, stating that he wanted to make the most believable alien abduction ever filmed. He admitted that this was just a made up story and that it never actually happened.
Even before Dean Alioto admitted that his film was a fake, people were looking for proof anyway. Here's some proof of the tape being a fake:
- A search was done, which showed that no family under the name of McPhearson has ever lived in Lake County.
- The tape has actor credits at the end (just after the phone number). The main character Tommy, is actually called Kristian Ayre. To date, he's been in 15 TV shows and films since the tape, including The Dead Zone, Jake 2.0 and Stargate. Another actor has been in Supernatural and even little Rosie is in occasional programs. So it seems as though everybody is actually fine.
- Again with the credits, the aliens have names. If it was real; how would the crew know what names to give. I doubt they came back to Earth just to make sure they got their names credited too :-)
Betty Andreason Incident
Instead of walking, the creatures floated across the floor. Betty was taken to a 20ft flying saucer and had several tests. One test was painful but it caused her to have a religious awakening. She was not at all scared and very calm. 4 hours later, at 10:40pm, Betty was brought back home by two creatures. The rest of her family were still in a trace and were put to bed by the alien creatures. Eight years later, Dr J Allen Hynek was looking for subjects who had been Abducted. Betty sent a letter to him but it was rejected and not believed. But 2 years after that, a group of researchers were interested in her story. Betty went through a series of tests including Character Analysis, Polygraph Examination, Psychiatric review and 14 sessions of Regressive Hypnosis. Betty and her daughter were both hypnotized and agreed with all the main facts. This is a very unusual case as it has a lot of details that most other cases struggle to remember.In South Ashburnham, Massachusettes on the 25th January 1967, Betty Andreasson was in her kitchen. Her 7 children, Father and Mother were in the living room. It was about 6:30pm when the lights started to blink and a red light beamed into the kitchen window. The children started to worry about the lights flickering so Betty went into the living room to calm them. Betty's father went to the kitchen window to see where the red light had come from. It was then that he noticed 5 creatures heading towards the house. They walked through the wooden door and at that moment everybody in the house went into a trace. The creatures were from 4ft to 5ft tall with pear shaped heads, ct like wrap-around eyes and small ears and noses. They wore blue coveralls with a wide belt and a logo of a bird on the sleeves.
Instead of walking, the creatures floated across the floor. Betty was taken to a 20ft flying saucer and had several tests. One test was painful but it caused her to have a religious awakening. She was not at all scared and very calm. 4 hours later, at 10:40pm, Betty was brought back home by two creatures. The rest of her family were still in a trace and were put to bed by the alien creatures. Eight years later, Dr J Allen Hynek was looking for subjects who had been Abducted. Betty sent a letter to him but it was rejected and not believed. But 2 years after that, a group of researchers were interested in her story. Betty went through a series of tests including Character Analysis, Polygraph Examination, Psychiatric review and 14 sessions of Regressive Hypnosis. Betty and her daughter were both hypnotized and agreed with all the main facts. This is a very unusual case as it has a lot of details that most other cases struggle to remember.
Kenneth Arnold
On 24th June 1947, Kenneth Arnold was using his plane to help search for a missing aircraft over the Cascade mountains. As he searched the area below him, noticed some reflecting flashes. He said "The first thing I noticed was a series of flashes in my eyes as if a mirror was reflecting sunlight at me... "
No Tails on Object:Arnold soon found the source of the flashes - a series of fast moving objects. He described them as silvery and shiny. The most startling aspect of the object was a lack of a tail. The objects appeared to be shaped like a pie plate. This description almost certainly meant that the objects had a raised top, or cupola on them. This description very closely fit that of the large UFO photographed during The Battle of Los Angeles
"I Must Believe My Eyes.":The stunned pilot was seeing something that he had never seen before in his many years of flying. He estimated the objects' altitude as between 9,500 and 10,000 feet. He began to clock their flight from Mt. Ranier to Mt. Adams. This information would be used to estimate the objects' speed at 1,200 mph, an unbelievable speed for the era."It seemed impossible," he said, "but there it is... I must believe my eyes."
The Term, "Flying Saucer":Although the term saucer was used in a 1930 UFO report in Texas, it was meant to show the relative size of the object from arm's length. Arnold told a newspaper reporter that the objects moved "like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water." Arnold was indicating how the objects bounced across the atmosphere, not the shape of the object, Yet, newspaper reporter Bill Bequette's report on the AP news wire used the term "flying saucer" to describe the objects' shape. A phrase was coined.
Military Takes Action:As was the custom of the day, the U.S. military, though aware of the Arnold report, at first tried to simply ignore the matter. But, the story broke big across the nation, and the military had to make some statement on the sighting. On July 7, a meeting was held to determine how to respond to the report. This conference could also have been prompted by the [link url=http://ufos.about.com/od/bestufocrashcases/p/roswell.htm] Roswell Crash which was also making headlines.
Arnold Called for Interview:Chief of the Army Air Force Air Intelligence Requirements Division, General Schulgen would head the group. Under pressure to give the public some reassurance, the decision was made to hear from "qualified" reporters of UFO sightings. In a couple of days, Arnold was called in for an interview. The results of this interview would earn a place in Project Blue Book.
Place in History:Although there had already occurred several excellent UFO cases before the Arnold sighting, his account will always have a place in UFO history. Over 800 hundred reports would make U.S. media by the end of July, 1947 alone, and Arnold's was one of the most important.
A few minutes before 3:00 p.m. at about 9,200 feet (2,800 m) in altitude and near Mineral, Washington, he gave up his search and started heading eastward towards Yakima. He saw a bright flashing light, similar to sunlight reflecting from a mirror. Afraid he might be dangerously close to another aircraft, Arnold scanned the skies around him, but all he could see was a DC-4 to his left and behind him, about 15 miles (24 km) away.
About 30 seconds after seeing the first flash of light, Arnold saw a series of bright flashes in the distance off to his left, or north of Mt. Rainier, which was then 20 to 25 miles (40 km) away. He thought they might be reflections on his airplane's windows, but a few quick tests (rocking his airplane from side to side, removing his eyeglasses, later rolling down his side window) ruled this out. The reflections came from flying objects. They flew in a long chain, and Arnold for a moment considered they might be a flock of geese, but quickly ruled this out for a number of reasons, including the altitude, bright glint, and obviously very fast speed. He then thought they might be a new type of jet and started looking intently for a tail and was surprised that he couldn't find any.
They quickly approached Rainier and then passed in front, usually appearing dark in profile against the bright white snowfield covering Rainier, but occasionally still giving off bright light flashes as they flipped around erratically. Sometimes he said he could see them on edge, when they seemed so thin and flat they were practically invisible. According to Jerome Clark,[1][2] Arnold described them as a series of objects with convex shapes, though he later revealed that one object differed by being crescent-shaped. In Arnold's initial descriptions he likened their movement to saucers skipping on water, without comparing their actual shapes to saucers, as news reporters would subsequently quote him.[3] At one point Arnold said they flew behind a subpeak of Rainier and briefly disappeared. Knowing his position and the position of the (unspecified) subpeak, Arnold placed their distance as they flew past Rainier at about 23 miles (37 km).
Using a dzus cowling fastener as a gauge to compare the nine objects to the distant DC-4, Arnold estimated their angular size as slightly smaller than the DC-4, about the width between the outer engines (about 60 feet). Arnold also said he realized that the objects would have to be quite large to see any details at that distance and later, after comparing notes with a United Airlines crew that had a similar sighting 10 days later (see below), placed the absolute size as larger than a DC-4 airliner (or greater than 100 feet (30 m) in length). Army Air Force analysts would later estimate 140 to 280 feet (85 m), based on analysis of human visual acuity and other sighting details (such as estimated distance).
Arnold said the objects were grouped together, as Ted Bloecher[4] writes, "in a diagonally stepped-down, echelon formation, stretched out over a distance that he later calculated to be five miles". Though moving on a more or less level horizontal plane, Arnold said the objects weaved from side to side ("like the tail of a Chinese kite" as he later stated), darting through the valleys and around the smaller mountain peaks. They would occasionally flip or bank on their edges in unison as they turned or maneuvered causing almost blindingly bright or mirror-like flashes of light. The encounter gave him an "eerie feeling", but Arnold suspected he had seen test flights of a new U.S. military aircraft.
As the objects passed Mt Rainer, Arnold turned his plane southward on a more or less parallel course. It was at this point that he opened his side window and began observing the objects unobstructed by any glass that might have produced reflections. The objects did not disappear and continued to move very rapidly southward, continuously moving forward of his position. Curious about their speed, he began to time their rate of passage: he said they moved from Mt. Rainer to Mount Adams where they faded from view, a distance of about 50 miles (80 km), in one minute and forty-two seconds, according to the clock on his instrument panel. When he later had time to do the calculation, the speed was over 1,700 miles per hour (2,700 km/h). This was about three times faster than any manned aircraft in 1947. Not knowing exactly the distance where the objects faded from view, Arnold conservatively and arbitrarily rounded this down to 1,200 miles (1,900 km) an hour, still faster than any known aircraft, which had yet to break the sound barrier. It was this supersonicspeed in addition to the unusual saucer or disk description that seemed to capture people's attention.
Arnold shares the story[edit]Arnold landed in Yakima at about 4.00 p.m., and quickly told friend and airport general manager Al Baxter the amazing story, and before long, the entire airport staff knew of Arnold's claims. He discussed the story with the staff, and later wrote that Baxter didn't believe him.
Arnold flew on to an air show in Pendleton, Oregon, not knowing that somebody in Yakima had phoned in ahead to say that Arnold had seen some strange new aircraft. It was at this time that Arnold studied his maps, determined the distance between Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams, and calculated the rather astonishing speed. He told a number of pilot friends, and wrote in his account to AAF intelligence that they did not scoff or laugh. Instead they suggested that maybe he had seen guided missiles or something new, though Arnold felt this explanation to be inadequate. He also wrote that some former Army pilots told him that they had been briefed before going into combat "that they might see objects of similar shape and design as I described and assured me that I wasn't dreaming or going crazy." (SeeFoo fighter.)
Arnold wasn't interviewed by reporters until the next day (June 25) when he went to the office of the East Oregonian in Pendleton. Any skepticism the reporters might have harbored evaporated when they interviewed Arnold at length; as historian Mike Dash records:[5]
Arnold had the makings of a reliable witness. He was a respected businessman and experienced pilot ... and seemed to be neither exaggerating what he had seen, nor adding sensational details to his report. He also gave the impression of being a careful observer ... These details impressed the newspapermen who interviewed him and lent credibility to his report.Arnold would soon complain about the effects of the publicity on his life. On June 27 he was reported saying, "I haven't had a moment of peace since I first told the story." He then said a preacher had called and told him that the objects he saw were "harbingers of doomsday" and that the preacher was preparing his congregation "for the end of the world." But that wasn't half as bad as an encounter he had with a woman in a Pendleton cafe who looked at him and dashed out shrieking, "There's the man who saw the men from Mars." She ran out "sobbing she would have to do something for the children" Arnold was reported saying "with a shudder".
He then added that, "This whole thing has gotten out of hand. I want to talk to the FBI or someone. Half the people look at me as a combination of Einstein, Flash Gordon and screwball. I wonder what my wife back in Idaho thinks."[6]
Arnold talks of possible non-earthly origins[edit]On July 7, 1947, two stories came out where Arnold again was raising the topic of possible extraterrestrial origins, both as his opinion and those who had written to him. In an Associated Press story, Arnold said he had received quantities of fan mail eager to help solve the mystery, none of it calling him a "screwball". Like the earlier doomsday preacher Arnold spoke of, many of the writers placed a religious interpretation on his sighting. But others, he said, "suggested the discs were visitations from another planet." Arnold added he had purchased a movie camera, which he would now take with him on every flight, hoping to obtain photographic proof of what he had seen.[7]
In the other story, Arnold was interviewed by the Chicago Times:
"...Kenneth Luis Arnold ...is not so certain that the strange contraptions are made on this planet. Arnold... said he hoped the devices were really the work of the U.S. Army. But he told the TIMES in a phone conversation: 'If our government knows anything about these devices, the people should be told at once. A lot of people out here are very much disturbed. Some think these things may be from another planet. But they aren’t harming anyone and I think it would be the wrong thing to shoot one of them down—even if can be done. Their high speed would completely wreck them…'"Arnold, in pointing to the possibility of these discs being from another world, said, regardless of their origin, they apparently were traveling to some reachable destination. Whoever controlled them, he said, obviously wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. …He said discs were making turns so abruptly in rounding peaks that it would have been impossible for human pilots inside survived the pressure. So, he too thinks they are controlled from elsewhere, regardless of whether it’s from Mars, Venus, or our own planet."[8]In an Associated Press story from July 19, Arnold reiterated his belief that if they weren't Army, then they were extraterrestrial:
"The ex-University of Minnesota swimmer and footballer says he now believes:1. The disks are not from any foreign country.2. The Army could give the answer if it would -- 'if they don't have the explanation now they certainly could do something to find out.'3. If the Army has no explanation the disks must be -- 'and I know this sounds crazy' -- from another planet."[9]
Arnold would make similar statements when interviewed by journalist Edward R. Murrow in 1950. (See below)
In April 1949, in a skeptical article in the Saturday Evening Post titled "What You Can Believe About Flying Saucers", Arnold was likewise quoted:[10]
"Since my first observations and report of the so-called 'flying disks' I have spent a great deal of money and time thoroughly investigating the subject... There is no doubt in my mind but what these objects are aircraft of a strange design, and material that is unknown to the civilization of this earth."The article goes on to say:
Arnold himself has been conducting a one-man campaign to prove that he did see something out of the ordinary that day over Mount Rainier... Arnold has written other articles for Fate--one titled Phantom Lights Over Nevada, and another Are Space Visitors Here. In the latter, discussing a fisherman's report of seeing weird purplish spheres with portholes maneuvering over the Crown River, in Ontario, Arnold wrote: "Once again, we can be sure that these Canadian blue-green-purple globes are not meteors, nor are they fragments of a comet or Venus. What, then, are they? Spacecraft from another world?"Clearly Arnold was early leaning heavily towards the Extraterrestrial hypothesis to explain what he and others had seen.
Corroboration[edit]Arnold's sighting was partly corroborated by a prospector named Fred Johnson on Mt. Adams, who wrote AAF intelligence that he saw six of the objects on June 24 at about the same time as Arnold, which he viewed through a small telescope. He said they were "round" and tapered "sharply to a point in the head and in an oval shape." He also noted that the objects seemed to disturb his compass. An evaluation of the witness by AAF intelligence found him to be credible. Ironically, Johnson's report was listed as the first unexplained UFO report in Air Force files, while Arnold's was dismissed as a mirage, yet Johnson seemed to be describing a continuation of the same event as Arnold.
The Portland Oregon Journal reported on July 4 receiving a letter from an L. G. Bernier of Richland, Washington (about 110 miles (180 km) east of Mt. Adams and 140 miles (230 km) southeast of Mt. Rainier). Bernier wrote that he saw three of the strange objects over Richland flying "almost edgewise" toward Mt. Rainier about one half hour before Arnold. Bernier thought the three were part of a larger formation. He indicated they were traveling at high speed: "I have seen a P-38 appear seemingly on one horizon and then gone to the opposite horizon in no time at all, but these disks certainly were traveling faster than any P-38. [Maximum speed of a P-38 was about 440 miles an hour.] No doubt Mr. Arnold saw them just a few minutes or seconds later, according to their speed."[11] The previous day, Bernier had also spoken to his local newspaper, the Richland Washington Villager, and was among the first witnesses to suggest extraterrestrial origins: "I believe it may be a visitor from another planet." [12]
About 60 miles (97 km) west-northwest of Richland in Yakima, Washington, a woman named Ethel Wheelhouse likewise reported sighting several flying discs moving at fantastic speeds at around the same time as Arnold's sighting.[13]
When military intelligence began investigating Arnold's sighting in early July (see below), they found yet another witness from the area. A member of the Washington State forest service, who had been on fire watch at a tower in Diamond Gap, about 20 miles (32 km) south of Yakima, reported seeing "flashes" at 3:00 p.m. on the 24th over Mount Rainier (or exactly the same time as Arnold's sighting), that appeared to move in a straight line. Similarly, at 3:00 p.m. Sidney B. Gallagher in Washington state (exact position unspecified) reported seeing nine shiny discs flash by to the north.[14]
A Seattle newspaper also mentioned a woman near Tacoma who said she saw a chain of nine, bright objects flying at high speed near Mt. Rainier. Unfortunately this short news item wasn't precise as to time or date, but indicated it was around the same date as Arnold's sighting.
However, a pilot of a DC-4 some 10 to 15 miles (24 km) north of Arnold en route to Seattle reported seeing nothing unusual. (This was the same DC-4 seen by Arnold and which he used for size comparison.)
Other Seattle area newspapers also reported other sightings of flashing, rapidly moving unknown objects on the same day, but not the same time, as Arnold's sighting. Most of these sightings were over Seattle or west of Seattle in the town of Bremerton, either that morning or at night.[15] Altogether, there were at least 16 other reported UFO sightings the same day as Arnold's in the Washington state area. maptable of Washington state sightings
The flap continues[edit]
Eight Arnold-like objects photographed over Tulsa, Oklahoma, July 12, 1947 (from Tulsa Daily World).
The primary corroborative sighting, however, occurred ten days later (July 4) when aUnited Airlines crew over Idaho en route to Seattle also spotted five to nine disk-like objects that paced their plane for 10 to 15 minutes before suddenly disappearing.[16]The next day in Seattle, Arnold met with the pilot, Cpt. Emil J. Smith, and copilot and compared sighting details. The main difference in shape was that the United crew thought the objects appeared rough on top. This was one of the few sightings that Arnold felt was reliable, most of the rest he thought were the public seeing other things and letting their imaginations run wild. Arnold and Cpt. Smith became friends, met again with Army Air Force intelligence officers on July 12 and filed sighting reports, then teamed up again at the end of July in investigating the strange Maury Island incident.
A similar sighting of eight objects also occurred over Tulsa, Oklahoma on July 12, 1947. In this instance, a photo was taken and published in the Tulsa Daily World the following day (photo at right). Interestingly, the photographer, Enlo Gilmore, said that in blowups of the photo, the objects resembled baseball catcher's mitts or flying wings. He was of the opinion that the military had a secret fleet of flying wing airplanes. He had been a gunnery officer in the Navy during the war, and using information from another witness, also a veteran, he performed a triangulation and arrived at an estimation of speed of 1,700 miles per hour (2,700 km/h), or essentially the same estimate as Arnold's. One of the objects, he said, seemed to have a hole in the middle.[6]
Two or three photos of a similar, solitary object were taken by William Rhodes over Phoenix, Arizona on July 7, 1947, and appeared in a local Phoenix newspaper and some other newspapers. The object was rounded in front with a crescent back. These photos also seem to show something resembling a hole in the middle, though Rhodes thought it was a canopy.[7] Rhodes's negatives and prints were later confiscated by the FBI and military. However, the photos show up in later Air Force intelligence reports.[8]
Arnold was soon shown the Rhodes photos when he met with two AAF intelligence officers. He commented, "It was a disk almost identical to the one peculiar flying saucer that had been worrying me since my original observation — the one that looked different from the rest and that I had never mentioned to anyone." As a result, Arnold felt that the Rhodes photos were genuine.
Publicity and origins of term "flying saucer"[edit]Arnold's account was first featured in a few late newspaper editions on June 25, appeared in numerous U.S. and Canadian papers (and some foreign newspapers) on June 26 and thereafter, often on the front page. Without exception, according to Bloecher, the Arnold story was initially related with a serious, even-handed tone. The first reporters to interview Arnold were Nolan Skiff and Bill Bequette of the East Oregonian in Pendleton, Oregon on June 25, and the first story on the Arnold sighting, written by Bequette, appeared in the newspaper the same day.
The term appears[edit]Starting June 26 and June 27, newspapers first began using the terms "flying saucer" and "flying disk" (or "disc") to describe the sighted objects. Thus the Arnold sighting is credited with giving rise to these popular terms. The actual origin of the terms is somewhat controversial and complicated. Jerome Clark cites a 1970 study by Herbert Strentz, who reviewed U.S. newspaper accounts of the Arnold UFO sighting, and concluded that the term was probably due to an editor or headline writer: the body of the early Arnold news stories did not use the term "flying saucer" or "flying disc."[17] However, earlier stories did in fact credit Arnold with using terms such as "saucer", "disk", and "pie-pan" in describing the shape. (see quotations further below)
Bequette interview[edit]Years later, Arnold claimed he told Bill Bequette that "they flew erratic, like a saucer if you skip it across the water." Arnold felt that he had been misquoted since the description referred to the objects' motion rather than their shape.[3] Thus Bequette has often been credited with first using "flying saucer" and supposedly misquoting Arnold, but the term does not appear in Bequette's early articles. Instead, his first article of June 25 says only, "He said he sighted nine saucer-like aircraft flying in formation..."
The next day in a much more detailed article, Bequette wrote, "He clung to his story of shiny, flat objects racing over the Cascade mountains with a peculiar weaving motion ‘like the tail of a Chinese kite.' ...He also described the objects as 'saucer-like' and their motion 'like fish flipping in the sun.' ...[Arnold] described the objects as 'flat like a pie-pan and somewhat bat-shaped'." It wasn't until June 28 that Bequette first used the term "flying disc" (but not "flying saucer").
A review of early newspaper stories indicates that immediately after his sighting, Arnold generally described the objects’ shape as thin and flat, rounded in the front but chopped in the back and coming to a point, i.e., more or less saucer- or disk-like. He also specifically used terms like "saucer" or "saucer-like", "disk", and "pie pan" or "pie plate" in describing the shape. The motion he generally described as weaving like the tail of a kite and erratic flipping.
For example, in a surviving recorded radio interview from June 25, Arnold described them as looking "something like a pie plate that was cut in half with a sort of a convex triangle in the rear." His motion descriptions were: "I noticed to the left of me a chain which looked to me like the tail of a Chinese kite, kind of weaving... they seemed to flip and flash in the sun, just like a mirror... they seemed to kind of weave in and out right above the mountaintops..." [9]
Subsequent quotes[edit]The following day (June 26) were the following quotations attributed to Arnold: [10]
- United Press: "They were shaped like saucers and were so thin I could barely see them..."
- Associated Press: "He said they were bright, saucer-like objects--he called them 'aircraft'. ...He also described the objects as ‘saucer-like’ and their motion 'like a fish flipping in the sun.’ ...Arnold described the objects as 'flat like a pie pan'."
- Associated Press: "They flew with a peculiar dipping motion, 'like a fish flipping in the sun,' he said. ... He said they appeared to fly almost as if fastened together -- if one dipped, the others did, too."
- Chicago Tribune: "They were silvery and shiny and seemed to be shaped like a pie plate.... I am sure they were separate units because they weaved in flight like the tail of a kite."
- Portland Oregon Journal: "'They were half-moon shaped, oval in front and convex in the rear. ...There were no bulges or cowlings; they looked like a big flat disk.’ ...Arnold said that the objects weaved 'like the tail of a Chinese kite'."
Statement to the army[edit]
Kenneth Arnold's report to Army Air Forces (AAF) intelligence, dated July 12, 1947, which includes annotated sketches of the typical craft in the chain of nine objects.
In a written statement to Army Air Forces (AAF) intelligence the following day (July 12), Arnold several times referred to the objects as "saucer-like." At the end of the report he drew a picture of what the objects appeared to look like at their closest approach to Mt. Rainier. He wrote, "They seemed longer than wide, their thickness was about 1/20th their width." (document with Arnold's drawing at right) As to motion, Arnold wrote, "They flew like many times I have observed geese to fly in a rather diagonal chain-like line as if they were linked together. They seemed to hold a definite direction but rather swerved in and out of the high mountain peaks." He also spoke of how they would "flip and flash in the sun." text of written report
A variant object[edit]To complicate the shape descriptions further, a month after his sighting, Arnold was to become involved in the bizarre Maury Island incident. Arnold was dispatched by a magazine publisher to Tacoma to investigate it, although he eventually turned the investigation over to the AAF. In a meeting with two AAF intelligence officers (the same ones who interviewed him on July 12 and for whom he wrote his report), Arnold first revealed one of the nine objects was different, being larger and shaped more like a crescent coming to a point in the back. It was at this time that Arnold was also shown the Rhodes photos of a crescent-shaped object over Phoenix, which Arnold deemed authentic because of the unusual shape.
Some note the object in the drawing bears an uncanny similarity to the WW2 German design, the Horten Ho 229, sometimes further claiming it was captured German technology being tested. But there is no historical evidence of any kind supporting this.
Widespread UFO reports after Arnold sighting[edit]In the weeks that followed Arnold's June, 1947 story, at least several hundred reports of similar sightings flooded in from the U.S. and around the world — most of which described saucer-shaped objects. A sighting by a United Airlines crew of another nine, disk-like objects over Idaho on July 4 probably garnered more newspaper coverage than Arnold's original sighting, and opened the floodgates of media coverage in the days to follow.
Bloecher collected reports of 853 flying disc sightings that year from 140 newspapers from Canada, Washington D.C, and every U.S. state save Montana. This was more UFO reports for 1947 than most researchers ever suspected. Some of these stories were poorly documented or fragmentary, but Bloecher argued that about 250 of the more detailed reports (such as those made by pilots or scientists, multiple eyewitnesses, or backed by photos) made a persuasive case for a genuine mystery.
Adding intrigue to Arnold's story, the U.S. military denied having any planes at all in the area of Mount Rainier at the time of his sighting. Likewise, on July 6, speculation arose in newspaper articles that the objects being sighted were due to either the "flying wing" or "flying flapjack," a disc-shaped aircraft, both experimental planes under development by the U.S. military at the time (see military flying saucers). The military repeated that neither aircraft could account for the sightings, which is also born out by historical records.
The most famous UFO event during this period was the Roswell UFO incident, the alleged military recovery of a crashed flying disk, the story of which broke on July 8, 1947. To calm rising public concern, this and other cases were debunked by the military in succeeding days as mistaken sightings of weather balloons.[11] Just before the Roswell story came out, the Army Air Forces in Washington issued a press statement saying they had the matter under investigation and had decided the flying discs definitely were not "secret bacteriological weapons designed by some foreign power," "new-type army rockets," or "space ships."[18]
Military investigation of Arnold story[edit]The first investigation of Arnold's claims came from Lt. Frank Brown and Capt. William Davidson of Hamilton Field in California, who interviewed Arnold on July 12. Arnold also submitted a written report at that time. Regarding the reliability of Arnold's sighting, they concluded:[19]
"It is the present opinion of the interviewer that Mr. Arnold actually saw what he stated he saw. It is difficult to believe that a man of [his] character and apparent integrity would state that he saw objects and write up a report to the extent that he did if he did not see them."Despite this, the Army Air Force's formal public conclusion was that Arnold had seen a mirage.
In addition, on July 9 AAF intelligence, with help from the FBI, secretly began an investigation of the best sightings, mostly from pilots and military personnel. Arnold's sighting, as well as that of the United Airline's crew, were included in the list of best sightings. Three weeks later they came to the conclusion that the saucer reports were not imaginary or adequately explained by natural phenomena; something real was flying around. This laid the groundwork for another intelligence estimate in September 1947 by Gen. Nathan Twining, commanding officer of the Air Materiel Command, which likewise concluded the saucers were real and urged a formal investigation by multiple government agencies. This in turn resulted in the formation of Project Sign at the end of 1947, the first publicly acknowledged USAF UFO investigation. Project Sign eventually evolved into Project Grudge, and then the better known Project Blue Book.
The personnel of the U.S. Air Force's Project Sign (1947–1949) also later studied Arnold's story. According to Major Edward J. Ruppelt,[20]
I found that there was a lot of speculation on this report [amongst Sign personnel]. Two factions ... joined up behind two lines of reasoning. One side said that Arnold had seen plain, everyday jet airplanes flying in formation ... The other side didn't buy this idea at all. They based their argument on the fact that Arnold knew where the objects were when he timed them ...There was an old theory that maybe Arnold had seen wind whipping snow along the mountain ridges, so I asked Air Force investigators about this. I got a flat "Impossible."Skeptical explanations[edit]
The neutrality of the style of writing in this article is questioned. Please see the discussion on the talk page. (May 2010)One skeptical objection raised is that Arnold was suspiciously precise in his descriptions (for example, "approaching Mt. Rainier at about 170 degrees" and "passed almost directly in front of me, but at a distance of about 23 miles"), perhaps calling into question Arnold's reliability as a witness.[21]
Steuart Campbell has argued that the objects Arnold reported could have been mirages of several snow-capped peaks in Cascade Range. Campbell's calculation of the objects' speed determined that they were travelling at roughly the same speed as Arnold's plane, indicating that the objects were in fact stationary. Mirages could have been caused by temperature inversions over several deep valleys in the line of sight.[22]
Philip J. Klass[23] cited an article by Keay Davidson of the San Francisco Examiner in arguing that Arnold might have misidentifiedmeteors on June 24, 1947. In rebuttal, optical physicist Bruce Maccabee pointed out a meteor theory would require impossibly slow speeds and durations for brightly glowing meteors on a horizontal trajectory.[24]
James Easton[25] was the first of several skeptics to suggest that Arnold may have misidentified pelicans: the birds live in the Washington region, are rather large (wingspans of over three meters are not uncommon), have a pale underside that can reflect light, can fly at rather high altitudes, and can appear to have a somewhat crescent-shaped profile when flying.
Richard Carrier recently claimed[26] to have seen the same UFOs as Arnold described, "ovoid objects flying in formation" "rotating along their axis of motion, like footballs, with one side black and one bright white, so they alternated in color while they spun." He later realized it was a flock of seagulls. He claimed that Arnold's account showed that Arnold was incorrectly estimating his height, believing himself level to mountains four thousand feet below him giving him erroneous estimates of the level, distance, and speed of the objects.
Maccabee argues it is impossible for a bird to be as bright as reported by Arnold—the objects' brightness was what Arnold said initially attracted his attention. Further, Arnold was flying at roughly 110 miles (180 km) an hour on a parallel course to the objects. Arnold reported the objects rapidly moving forward of his position as he observed them flying southward on a parallel course between Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams. No bird could fly faster than Arnold's plane; instead birds would have steadily moved backward, not forwards, relative to his position.[27]
Donald Menzel's explanations[edit]Donald Menzel was a Harvard astronomer and one of the earliest UFO debunkers. Over the years, he offered several mutually exclusive explanations for the Arnold's 1947 UFO sighting. Bruce Maccabee rebutted Menzel's explanations in a 1986 monograph, arguing that Menzel often left out data that conflicted with a given 'explanation'.[28]
- In 1953, Menzel argued that Arnold had seen clouds of snow blown from the mountains south of Mt. Rainier. Maccabee noted that such snow clouds have hazy light, not the mirror-like brilliance reported by Arnold. Further, such clouds could not be in the rapid motion reported by Arnold, nor would they account for Arnold first seeing the bright objects north of Rainier.
- In 1963, Menzel argued that Arnold had seen orographic clouds or wave clouds; Maccabee noted that this conflicted with testimony from Arnold and others that the sky was clear, and again can't account for the brightness of the objects or their rapid motion over a very large angular region.
- In 1971, Menzel argued that Arnold had merely seen spots of water on his airplane's windows; Maccabee notes that this contradicts Arnold's testimony that he had specifically ruled out water spots or reflections shortly after seeing the nine UFOs. For example, the early Bill Bequette article of June 26 in the East Oregonian has Arnold saying he at first thought that maybe he was seeing reflections off his window, but "he still saw the objects after rolling it down."
The first issue of Fate (1948) featured the article The Truth About The Flying Saucers by Arnold. In 1952 he described his experiences in the book The Coming of the Saucers, which he and a publisher friend named Raymond A. Palmer published themselves.
Truman Bethurum
Brooklyn Bridge Abduction
One of the most thouroghly researched and documented incidents was that of Linda Napolitano AKA Linda Cortile. At around 3:00am on the 30th Novemeber 1989, Linda Napolitana was sleeping in her 12th floor apartment building in East Manhatten, New York. She did not remember much other than bits and pieces as she suffered Memory Loss. However she did vividly remember being kidnapped by Extra-terrestrials, Known as the Greys. She remembered the kidnapping and the room which was used for examaning her. Other than that, everything else was blank.
Linda contacted UFO Researcher Budd Hopkins. At first he dismissed the case as nothing out of the norm. But in February 1991 he recieved a letter from 2 men known as Richard and Dan. Richard and Dan were driving toward a Heliport when they claimed to of seen the abuduction take place where a woman floated above her flat, 12 stories high. They also claimed to see 3 alien beings floating with her. As they were driving to the Heliport their car engine had cut out. The 2 men were Body Guards to politition Javier Parez de Cuellar and were extreamly concerned about Linda's well being. However it was later revealed that Richard and Dan were actually CIA Agents. Throughought the incident, its said that Richard and Dan seemed a little unstable. They even went as far as to Kidnap Linda in their car for over 3 hours and questioned her about the Abduction.
Budd was very interested in the case and helped to research and document her abduction and find out exactly what had happened. With Budd's help, Linda went through Hypnosis to try and recover more lost memories. Linda also saw a physician because of a bump on her nose, who insisted she'd had nasal surgery at some point in her life. She told him she'd never had any surgery and also contacted her Mother to confirm it. An Xray was taken and an implant was found in her nose. 2 weeks later, Linda had a terrible nose bleed during the night - She woke up the next morning to discover blood accross her face and over her pillow. When she went for a second Xray, the implant was gone. Some people believe that this 'Implant' was placed in her nose by aliens and taken away when it had been discovered for fear of people seeing Alien Technology.
Another wittness to the event was a woman called 'Janet Kimble' (This was a cover name). She had claimed to of been driving over the Brooklyn Bridge when all the cars Lights and Engines along with street lights cut out. Janet got out of the car to see what was happening and noticed a woman floating out of her apartment and into a UFO.
Since the incident, Linda has done an interview with French Magazine, La Gazette Forteenne (Issue 2 - 2003) where she has afew more facts to add. One of these facts being that a New York Post Truck Driver also saw the Abdution from Brooklyn Bridge.
Its very rare to find such a well documented Abduction case with so many different Wittnesses.
Personal Note: This incident was one of the first UFO books i'd read. Although I was very young at the time and didn't even get to finish it, this story has stayed with me. I defentally plan to buy this book at some point and finish reading it.
Kelly Cahill Incident
Betty & Barney Hill
One of the most famous Abduction cases was the Betty and Barney Hill story. Betty and Barney were a normal American couple. They lived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in a small community. Barney worked for a US post office, while Betty was a social worker. Barney was a skeptic and Betty believed in UFO's. Her sister Janet had even seen a UFO in 1957, 4 years before this story begins.
In September 1961 Betty and Barney decided to take a short Holiday. They went to Niagara Falls and then carried on driving to Canada. However on the 19 September 1961 they heard that a Hurricane was due to hit New Hampshire the next day. Instead of having to drive through the Bad Weather and Wreckage, they decided to get a head start and turned back for home. They crossed the US border just before 10pm and stopped for food near Colebrook, New Hampshirrre. Shortly after they continued their jorey. They had another 170 miles to go and thought they'd be home by 2:30am-3:00am.
35 miles down Highway 3, Just Suth of Lancaster, Betty noticed a bright light in the sky. It was to the left and slightly below the moon. She then noticed a second light, it was getting brighter and brighter but Betty dismissed it for a Satellite which had gone off course. They carried on driving for another 7 miles but could still see the light. Their Dachshund (Delsey) was with them in the car. He was growing restless, so they stopped the car and let him out for a run. Betty and Barney could still see the light moving and by now were convinced it was following them. They got back in the car and continued driving.
Betty looked through the car binoculars and could see multi coloured lights and no wings on the object - She was convinced it was a UFO. After a while Curiosity got the better of Barney, so he stopped the car and took a look through the Binoculars too. By now the object had dropped lower. He noticed a double row of windows and could see Half a Dozen Beings looking at him. Barney was terrified the Beings would capture him so ran back to the car and sped off with Betty and the Dog. As Betty looked back she saw the object had dissapeared. Moments later they heard a beeping sound and felt drowsey. At the next moment the drosiness left them and they were 17 miles from Concord, New Hampshire. The sun was almost up, so they checked their watches, both watches had stopped. They got home and checked the Kitchen clock. It was 5am. They were missing 2 hours of their memories. What Happened?
In the Summer of 1962 Barney became ill. He had exhaustion, High Blood preasure and Stomach Ulcers. The doctor thought this might be from Psychological problems, so sent him to a Psychiatrist. Barney found it difficult to open up about his Abduction so used Hypnotics.
The Missing Hours - Hypnosis
As Barney sped away from the craft he seemed calmer. He turned off the main road, down a track and headed towards a light which he asssumed was the Moon. The track was blocked by Figures. One of the Men had a strange device and pointed it at Betty and Barney. At that moment the car cut out. Betty senced something was wrong, got out of the car and tried to run away. The men grabbed her and she then realised they were not men, but Aliens. They were small hairless creatures with pale skin, big heads and huge eyes.
The Hills were taken aboard the ship and lead to seperate rooms. They were given medical experiments - Samples of blood and skin were taken and they were very interested in Barneys False teeth. A long needle was inserted into Bettys Navel and she was told it was a pregnancy test. Betty was also shown a Sta Map (She reproduced this during Hypnosis and Astronomer Mojorie Fish has found a match of it in space - The aliens are from Zeta Reticuli, a Binary Star System just 37 Light years from Earth). Betty and Barney were then taken back to their car.
In 1965 Betty and Barney's story was leaked to a Magazine. They were approached by a well known local writer John G Fuller. He wrote a book called 'The Interrupted Jorney: Two lost hours aboard a Flying Saucer. Offers for the film rights soon flooded in - The lowest price at $300,000. The story was eventually recreated as a movie called 'The UFO Incident'.
Ann Jeffries
Ann Jeffries was born in December 1626 in St Teath, Cornwall. In 1645, 19 year old Ann was knitting in her garden when she saw 6 small men (which she called faeries) wearing green clothes who came over her garden hedge. They carried her to (what she calleed) the castle in the air. They suduced her and then returned her home. She was so terrified that she went into a fit and was found by her Husband on the floor. Her Husband, William Warden brought her into the house and put her to be
Marion Keech
Howard Menger
Sid Padrick
Gil Perez
Schirmer Abduction
On the 3rd December 1967, Police Chief, Herb Schirmer was on duty in Ashland, Nebraska. He was just hitting the intersection of Highway 6 and 63 when he saw a strange object just ahead of him. However most of his memories we're discovered untill he went under hypnosis. On the 13th February 1968, Schirmer flew to Boulder, Colorado to be hypnotised by Psychologist Dr R Leo Sprinkle of the University of Wyoming. When under Hypnosis, Schirmer explained that he'd seen a blurred white object just ahead of him. There were also Red blinking lights, which he mistook for a truck. When he drove closer, he realised he wasn't looking at a truck, but something he couldn't explain. The object communicated with Schirmer mentally, preventing him from drawing his gun. After hypnosis, Schirmer said the beings were friendly and that they had bases in Venus. They drew their enery from Power lines.
Sprinkle did not have enough Phisical evidence to confirm that there really was an abduction, but he did believe that Schirmer believed what he was saying. Schirmer was forced to quit his police job shortly after the incicent because he was mocked by the towns people, they slashed his tires and broke his windsshield. He later got a job in the Private Security Force but was asked to leave once they learned of his Abduction. Through all this, Schirmer always stuck to his story.
Colnol H G Shaw
Whitley Strieber
Antonio Villas Boas Incident
Antonio Villas Boas (1934-1992) was one of the first UFO Abduction stories to recieve world wide attention. On the 16th October 1957, Antonio was ploughing a field near Sao Francisco de Sales. He would often plough his field at night to avoid the daytime heat. While in the field, a red star caught his attention, after a short time the star was getting closer and closer untill it was right in front of him. The object was a circluar Egg shape with a red light at the front. When it landed, 3 legs were extended. Antonio was terrified and decided to run from the scene. He drove away in his tractor but after a short time, the engine and lights cut out. He tried to run on foot but was approached by and Extra Terrestrial. The alien was described to be wearing grey coveralls and a helmet. He had small Blue eyes and when communicating he made barking and yelping sounds. 3 more creatures approached Antonio and he was dragged into the craft. Once inside the craft, Antonio was stripped and covered in gel, Blood was also taken from his chin. He was then sent to another room where a female being approched him. She had big blue eyes and a more pointed chin. Antonio was extremly attracted to her.
Antonio was then taken back to the field where he watched the craft leave. Four hours had passed. For months after, Antonio suffered with Nausea, Weakness, headaches and many other symtoms. Dr Olavo Fontes of National School of Medicine, Brazil tested Antonio. Tests revealed that Antonio had been exposed to a large amount of Radiation and was suffering from Radiation Sickness.
Antonio had since married and had children but always stuck to his story.
Travis Welton Incident
On the 5th of November 1975, 7 men were driving in Apache-Sitgraves National Forrest, Arizona. They noticed a reflective, Luminous, Flattened disk hovering nearby. Travis Welton (wanting to show off to his friends) decided to leave the truck and approched the object in the sky. He was suddenly hit by a Blue light. This caused Travis to hurl through the air and hit the ground on his back. The other Six people in the Truck were so frightened they drove off. Although Mike Rogers looked back and saw the UFO lift into the sky and speed off.
The 6 men later returned in search of Travis but could not find him. They headed back to the road and called the police. They were then met by Deputy Ellison and Sheriff Marlin Gillespie who later ddiscribed the men as distressed. After searching with flashlights, the search was called off for the night. They all returned the next morning with Helicopters and dogs but it was unsuccesful. After tempurtures went below Zero in the forrest, Travis was thought to be dead.
Five days after Travis disappeared, his sister recieved a phone call sometime after Midnight on the 10th of November. It was Travis, phoning from an Exxon Station. He was distraught, Confussed and had memories of Alien Creatures.
All members of the Truck were asked to do Polygraghic tests (Lie Detection) before Travis had been found. Five of them passed the tests, but One was Inconclusive. All together there were 13 tests. The UFO was described by different people as Large, Roughly 20 feet overall. It glowed beneath the tree tops, was smooth, with a yellowish light coming from it, and was like a flattened disk.
Travis Welton has since wrote a book called 'Fire in the Sky'.
The above photo was taken by K Jauncey ( Spechley Gardens, not a spaceship) All other photo's were found through Google Images - All rights belong to the original poster.