Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Military UFO documents and the UFO that I forgot
The darnedest thing…
There was a lot of hoopla last month when the British Ministry of Defence released thousands of pages of formerly-classified documents about UFOs. Most of the material was comprised of rather dull, tedious sighting reports from the general public, of stationary starlike objects that were, in all probability, stars. Reporters who spent a little time poring through the files online were able to find other cases, however, that were somewhat more interesting. These included a letter from a woman who believed she was an alien warrior princess, and others from basement tinkerers who believed they had created perpetual motion.
A relative handful of documents, however, were of considerably more interest. There was the report from airline pilots who watched something get close to their plane and then move away in a manner impossible for aircraft. Many other witnesses were police or military personnel who had a good understanding of what should and should not be in the sky. One remarkable case involved an experienced American pilot who was scrambled in pursuit of a UFO over Britain, and who died tragically when his jet slammed into the sea. His body was never found.
As I’ve noted here several times, years ago Canada released thousands of pages of formerly classified documents about UFOs over its provinces and territories, beating Britain to the punch. The files are highly analogous to those released in England in many ways, including style, format and content. And similar to Britain, there are some real gems buried within the files. I’ve spent many hours poking through the material to see what could be found, and some are definitely worth noting.
There’s a fascinating report about a sighting on April 16, 1953 by a RCMP transport pilot flying as a government inspector with Maritime Central. At 3:34 pm, he was flying at about 9000 feet over Chatham, Ontario and was surprised to see a metallic, saucer-shaped object, about 25 feet in diameter, approach and fly beneath his plane. The RCAF investigator remarked simply: “Very reliable.”
On June 24, 1953, an experienced air force meteorologist was tracking a balloon that had just been sent aloft over Greenland at about 10:30 am. As he watched through his theodolite (a small telescope), a rotating object about three times the size of the balloon approached it as it rose, collided with it, destroyed the balloon and then flew off against the wind “at speed which could not be calculated.”
A few decades later, there’s an interesting report from Anticosti Island on January 2, 1977. Just after midnight of that morning, the Sept-Iles Chief of Police, a constable, the Chief of Police in Gagnon and four other witnesses including a weather officer all saw a “fast-moving” white object heading E to SE over the island. That same night, a yellow object was seen over the Island, in the company of 10 other UFOs as well.
Curious cases, all without any evidence that they were adequately investigated by authorities. There’s no question that at least a few of these are proof that a real, unknown phenomenon is occurring over Canada and that a serious scientific study of the cases should be launched.
The story of how I found these particular documents, however, is a bit strange in itself. In fact, these aren’t the first documents I looked at when I started going through the available files. There are files from 1947 to 1982 currently available, and sometimes as many as hundreds of documents listed under each year. Completely at random, I decided to pick 1977 as an example. Then, I thought I’d pick a random document, listed only by location and file number. I happened to pick a file for “Winnipeg, May 6, 1977.”
This is what popped up:
Really.
What’s most significant to me is that I have no recollection of this event at all. I mean, my memory is not perfect, but I have never remembered seeing a UFO during my life, let alone reporting it. For decades, I have been speaking in front of crowds stating that I have never seen a UFO myself, whereas here is proof otherwise. Not only that, but what are the odds that I would find this document out of the entire collection of files on the first click?
Furthermore, what the heck was I doing on Wilkes Street, east of the Perimeter Highway in Winnipeg, which in 1977 was sparsely-populated farmland? Okay, I was a teenager then, so being out there at about 11:30 pm alone was rather odd. I have no memory of seeing a “large red light” moving along the western horizon, nor do I recall having the event make such an impression on me that I made a formal report of it to authorities the following day. And to whom would I have made such a report?
Okay, so some friends whom I have shown this to already have shouted: “abduction” and “erased memory!” But you’d think that if aliens were that advanced (or the government, if they were doing the erasing) they would have deleted the file about my sighting too.
It’s the darnedest thing.
There was a lot of hoopla last month when the British Ministry of Defence released thousands of pages of formerly-classified documents about UFOs. Most of the material was comprised of rather dull, tedious sighting reports from the general public, of stationary starlike objects that were, in all probability, stars. Reporters who spent a little time poring through the files online were able to find other cases, however, that were somewhat more interesting. These included a letter from a woman who believed she was an alien warrior princess, and others from basement tinkerers who believed they had created perpetual motion.
A relative handful of documents, however, were of considerably more interest. There was the report from airline pilots who watched something get close to their plane and then move away in a manner impossible for aircraft. Many other witnesses were police or military personnel who had a good understanding of what should and should not be in the sky. One remarkable case involved an experienced American pilot who was scrambled in pursuit of a UFO over Britain, and who died tragically when his jet slammed into the sea. His body was never found.
As I’ve noted here several times, years ago Canada released thousands of pages of formerly classified documents about UFOs over its provinces and territories, beating Britain to the punch. The files are highly analogous to those released in England in many ways, including style, format and content. And similar to Britain, there are some real gems buried within the files. I’ve spent many hours poking through the material to see what could be found, and some are definitely worth noting.
There’s a fascinating report about a sighting on April 16, 1953 by a RCMP transport pilot flying as a government inspector with Maritime Central. At 3:34 pm, he was flying at about 9000 feet over Chatham, Ontario and was surprised to see a metallic, saucer-shaped object, about 25 feet in diameter, approach and fly beneath his plane. The RCAF investigator remarked simply: “Very reliable.”
On June 24, 1953, an experienced air force meteorologist was tracking a balloon that had just been sent aloft over Greenland at about 10:30 am. As he watched through his theodolite (a small telescope), a rotating object about three times the size of the balloon approached it as it rose, collided with it, destroyed the balloon and then flew off against the wind “at speed which could not be calculated.”
A few decades later, there’s an interesting report from Anticosti Island on January 2, 1977. Just after midnight of that morning, the Sept-Iles Chief of Police, a constable, the Chief of Police in Gagnon and four other witnesses including a weather officer all saw a “fast-moving” white object heading E to SE over the island. That same night, a yellow object was seen over the Island, in the company of 10 other UFOs as well.
Curious cases, all without any evidence that they were adequately investigated by authorities. There’s no question that at least a few of these are proof that a real, unknown phenomenon is occurring over Canada and that a serious scientific study of the cases should be launched.
The story of how I found these particular documents, however, is a bit strange in itself. In fact, these aren’t the first documents I looked at when I started going through the available files. There are files from 1947 to 1982 currently available, and sometimes as many as hundreds of documents listed under each year. Completely at random, I decided to pick 1977 as an example. Then, I thought I’d pick a random document, listed only by location and file number. I happened to pick a file for “Winnipeg, May 6, 1977.”
This is what popped up:
Really.
What’s most significant to me is that I have no recollection of this event at all. I mean, my memory is not perfect, but I have never remembered seeing a UFO during my life, let alone reporting it. For decades, I have been speaking in front of crowds stating that I have never seen a UFO myself, whereas here is proof otherwise. Not only that, but what are the odds that I would find this document out of the entire collection of files on the first click?
Furthermore, what the heck was I doing on Wilkes Street, east of the Perimeter Highway in Winnipeg, which in 1977 was sparsely-populated farmland? Okay, I was a teenager then, so being out there at about 11:30 pm alone was rather odd. I have no memory of seeing a “large red light” moving along the western horizon, nor do I recall having the event make such an impression on me that I made a formal report of it to authorities the following day. And to whom would I have made such a report?
Okay, so some friends whom I have shown this to already have shouted: “abduction” and “erased memory!” But you’d think that if aliens were that advanced (or the government, if they were doing the erasing) they would have deleted the file about my sighting too.
It’s the darnedest thing.
# posted by rutkows @ 7:53 AM 
