UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

The skies seem to be a wild frontier where the rules don’t always apply, and in some cases this can spiral into some truly weird cases. It was mid-December of 2019, and people in the area of northeastern Colorado and western Nebraska were gearing up for Christmas and New Year’s festivities. It would have normally been a joyous time, but things were about to get very weird, indeed. People would begin reporting seeing drones buzzing about the area, and while drones are a common sight in this day and age, this was not in keeping with the norm. In this case the drones were reported as having 6-foot wingspans and 50 mph speeds, far larger and faster than your typical recreational drone, complete with blinking lights that made them an otherworldly and surreal sight, to be sure. What’s more, they would often be seen in great numbers, often up to 30 at a time, flying in formation, always at night between 6 and 10 pm. This would begin a rather strange sequence of events that has never been properly understood, with mysterious swarms of drones roving over the landscape that no one can explain.

These formations of drones were seen all over the region, flying about in tight formation and often hovering over certain areas. It would usually start shortly after dusk, when the sky would then come alive with the flickering lights of these drones appearing in large numbers of between 10 and 30, flying in grid patterns at an altitude between 200–500 feet in the skies of Colorado, Nebraska, and even as far as Kansas. In each case, it was noticed that the formations seemed to be doing a methodical grid search, flying over one square, and then another, as if methodically searching for something or mapping out the area. One Colorado resident would say of the weird phenomenon, “The sky is lit up with Christmas lights basically. There’s lights and things flying all over. It reminded me of something from a movie.” Another resident would say of it, “They can sit there and hover. They can descend very fast. They can take off very fast. It’s more unnerving than anything.” FAA Administrator Steve Dickson would say of it all:

The activity reported occurs primarily between the hours of 1800 and 2200 MST and demonstrate the pattern of multiple “drones” flying a grid type pattern and remaining airborne for several hours at a time in less than optimum flying conditions (high winds and storm-like conditions). The number of drones reported operating at one range from between 2 and 16 and appear to be approximately 6 feet width and length. Flight time has been 2 to 3 hours continuous. All reports indicate flight is between 200 and 300 feet.

There would be hundreds of sightings of these drone formations pouring in, and in the meantime the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), FBI, and local law enforcement investigated the sightings and put together a dedicated task force to try and figure out what in the world was going on. It turns out that not only was flying a drone without a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration illegal, but some of these drones were displaying dangerous behavior. On one occasion even coming very close to helicopters in the area and posing a very real threat to airspace. The task force checked with drone companies and unmanned aircraft test sites in the area to find that none of them had any scheduled activity at the time, and the Air Force, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Army all said the drones did not belong to them. Indeed, no operator could be found to be behind any of it. There had also been no FAA waivers approved for the operation of drones in the area. As this was going on, local law enforcement was on the lookout for any sort of “command vehicle,” such as a closed box trailer with antennas or a large suspicious van, but they found nothing.

The drones did not appear to be willfully malicious, but there was much shock over the violation of airspace and much discussion as to who was operating them and from where. What was going on here? Theories on everything from the U.S. government, to drug cartels, some private company carrying out drone activities, outer space aliens, and simple mass hysteria were thrown around, but no one has taken responsibility and it remains unknown. Another question is just what were those drones doing out there in the first place. Was this just a big practical joke? Were they looking for something and if so, what? One rumor is that they were looking for a missing nuclear warhead, but there is no evidence for this. Another was that they were surveying for a pipeline or possibly methane detection sweeps, but no one knows. Just about the only thing we do know is that these drones were real, thousands of people saw them across three states, and no one has ever taken responsibility for their presence.

Despite intensive investigations into the phenomenon by local law enforcement, the FBI, and the FAA, no answers were ever found, and after several weeks the drones disappeared just as suddenly as they had appeared, taking the answers we seek with them. What was going on here? Who was controlling these drones and what did they want? No one has ever been found to be behind it, nor has anyone ever taken responsibility, and it remains a perplexing mystery that will likely never be solved.

One of the most unfortunate aspects of Ufology is that of hoaxing, whether it’s doctored photographs, outrageous claims, and more. Many are known, such as the shenanigans of George Adamski and those of Gray Barker (I’ll come to the latter soon). There are, however, some hoaxes that have largely gone under the radar for a long time and that aren’t known to the vast majority of Ufology. The ones I’m talking about are not based around photos or claims, but documents and papers. Questionable documents have circulated in the UFO community for years – the most infamous being the original Majestic 12 papers. Since those originals are so well known, I’m going to avoid them and go onto others. I’ll begin with one that surfaced in the mid-1980s in the U.K. Under situations still not clear now, what looked like a U.K. Ministry of Defense document – that was focused on the December 1980 Rendlesham Forest incident – appeared. It looked like a letter sent from one individual to another.

I’ll share its contents with you without interruption:

“Dear [Deleted], As you know, OSI has completed a report on the landing of a craft of unknown origin crewed by several entities near RAF Bentwaters on the night of December 29/30 1980. Interestingly, OSI reports that the entities were approximately 1 1/2 metres tall, wore what appeared to be nylon-coated pressure suits, but no helmets. Conditions on the night were misty, giving the appearance that the entities were hovering above ground level. Tape recordings were made on which the entities are heard to speak in an electronically synthesized version of English, with a strong American accent. Similar transmissions intercepted irregularly by NSA since 1975. According to OSI, entities had claw-like hands with three digits and an opposable thumb. Despite original reports, OSI said the craft was not damaged but landed deliberately as part of a series of visits to SAC bases in USA and Europe. Reports that craft was repaired by US servicemen or was taken on to the base are not confirmed by OSI. Landing is not considered a Defence issue in view of the overt peaceful nature of the contact, but investigations by DS8 are to be continued on [Deleted] authority. Precautionary plan for counter-information at a local level involving [Deleted] and a [Deleted] is strongly recommended.”

You can see a reproduction of the Rendlesham document in the 1986 book Sky Crash, written by Brenda Butler, Dot Street and Jenny Randles. The three ladies say they conclude the document is “a deliberate fake by certain parties, whose identities are strongly suspected by us.” Moving on: Want to learn about an odd story that involves Robert Kennedy, UFOs and ufologist/hoaxer Gray Barker? For decades, a document has been circulating that is purported to be a letter sent to Barker from Kennedy on May 9, 1968. It states: “Dear Readers: As you may know, I am a card carrying member of the Amalgamated Flying Saucers Association. Therefore, like many other people in our country I am interested in the phenomenon of flying saucers. It is a fascinating subject that has initiated both scientific fiction fantasies and serious scientific research. I watch with great interest all reports of unidentified flying objects, and I hope that some day we will know more about this intriguing subject. Dr. Harlow Shapley, the prominent astronomer, has stated that there is a probability that there is other life in the universe. I favor more research regarding this matter, and I hope that once and for all we can determine the true facts about flying saucers. Your magazine can stimulate much of the investigation and inquiry into this phenomenon through the publication of news and discussion of material. This can be of great help in paving the way to a knowledge of one of the fascinating subjects of our contemporary world.”

It’s a nice piece of work. It looks like the real thing. Maybe it is. I should stress, though, there’s an almost identical letter that was sent to a Mrs. Anne Epple in 1966. When I got more and more into the story, I couldn’t get my mind off the possibility that Barker was involved. I knew of Barker’s lying, something that means we have to dismiss much of what he said or claimed. There’s also the significant fact that in the 1950s Barker (along with Saucer Smear’s Jim Moseley), got hold of a batch of stolen, unused U.S. government papers, most – but not all – from the Department of State. It became known as “The Straith Letter” affair. That the papers were completely unused meant that Barker, or anyone else, could have typed whatever they wished to on those blank papers. Significantly, Moseley admitted there were six or seven different kinds of documentation (with official headings) in their hands. That, however, didn’t stop the Epple letter from being sold in 2012 on Ebay for $220.00.

Robert Francis Kennedy

Now, there’s the matter of the death of the first U.S. Secretary of Defense, James Forrestal. Just a few days ago I wrote another article that focused, in part, on the life and death of Forrestal in 1949. For years there have been rumors that Forrestal was murdered because he was on the verge of revealing all that he knew about UFOs. True or not, there’s a little-known document in circulation that suggests Forrestal was indeed taken out of circulation – and specifically because of the alien problem. The document, that surfaced in the 1990s – but that few talk about, because they don’t know about it – purports to come from the Majestic 12 group. In part, the document states: “In protecting the security operations of Majestic, it has been necessary to [deleted] individuals who would compromise the intelligence efforts. While distasteful [deleted] at times the use of [deleted] measures have been executed. The untimely death of Secretary Forrestal was deemed necessary and regrettable.”

It scarcely needs saying that no-one in government would blatantly put all of the above into a document and risk it falling into the hands of someone who might run to the media or to other arms of government and blow the story that way. Such a scenario is ridiculous. One of the reasons why the JFK assassination has never been solved is because whoever the culprits were, they made sure there were no smoking-guns to be found. The “Speriglio document” that is the subject of my new book, Diary of Secrets, is , for some, seen as nothing but a hoax, while for others it’s the real deal. Some are in between. As I have found out over the years, and as I note time and again in my book, trying to determine what is real and what is bogus in Ufology isn’t that easy.