The True Story of the Worlds First Documented Alien Abduction: Admiral Herbert Bain Knowles
On November 20, 1950, Smith wrote a “TOP SECRET” memo titled “Geomagnetics” to the controller of telecommunications, informing him that for the past several years he and others had been engaged in the study of various aspects of radio wave propagation. He stated that they were on the track of a means whereby the potential energy of the Earth’s magnetic field may be abstracted and used. This provided the potential of introducing a new technology; a linkage between our technology and that by which saucers are designed and operated.
He added the following:
I made discreet enquiries through the Canadian Embassy staff in Washington who were able to obtain the following information:
- a. The matter is the most highly classified subject in the United States Government, rating higher even than the H-bomb.
- b. Flying saucers exist.
- c. Their modus operandi is unknown, but concentrated effort is being made by a small group headed by Doctor Vannevar Bush.
- d. The entire matter is considered by the United States authorities to be of tremendous significance.
- e. I was further informed that the United States authorities are investigating along quite a number of lines which might possibly be related to the saucers, such as mental phenomena, and I gather that they are not doing too well since they indicated that if Canada is doing anything at all in geomagnetics they would welcome a discussion with suitably accredited Canadians
In the same memo, Smith submitted a proposal to set up a special project, later named Project Magnet, to develop a new technology that grew out of his conversation with Robert Sarbacher. In the early 1980s, Arthur Bray, the conservator of Wilbert Smith’s personal collection, made Smith’s handwritten notes regarding this meeting public. Smith had informed Sarbacher that he was doing work on the collapse of the Earth’s magnetic field as a source of energy, adding that he thought his work might have some bearing on flying saucers. Sarbacher informed Smith that U.S. scientists had not been able to duplicate the UFO’s performance.
When Smith asked if they traveled here from some other planet, Sarbacher replied, “All we know is that we didn’t make them, and it’s pretty certain that they didn’t originate on Earth.” When Smith asked if there was a way in which he could get information, particularly as it might fit into his own work, Sarbacher replied, “I suppose you could be cleared through your own defense department and I am pretty sure arrangements could be made to exchange information. If you have anything to contribute we would be glad to talk it over but I can’t give you any more at the present time.”6 In his 1983 discussion with Stanton, Dr. Sarbacher confirmed that Smith’s rendition of the meeting was accurate.
Another memo found in Smith’s file was a Top Secret request for C.G. Edwards to obtain a security clearance for Smith to talk to U.S. authorities about the subject. There is evidence that the clearance was granted, although it is not in government files. Dr. Omond Solandt, who was then the head of the Defense Research Board of Canada, admitted in writing that Smith’s theory was discussed with Dr. Vannevar Bush (1890– 1974). Bush had been named chairman of the U.S. Research and Development Board on September 24, 1947, the date of the infamous Truman-Forrestal memo establishing Operation Majestic-12 (MJ-12), a Top Secret research and development/intelligence operation responsible directly and only to the president of the United States, and created in direct response to the crash and recovery of an alien craft near Roswell, New Mexico, in July of 1947. Operations of the project were carried out under the control of the MJ-12 Group, established by a special classified executive order of President Harry Truman, upon the recommendation of Dr. Bush and Secretary of Defense James Forrestal. Bush was also named to head the group evaluating a possible atomic bomb test by the USSR in September, 1949
Dr. Bush had been a professor, then dean, and then vice president at MIT before he entered an interesting career in the U.S. government. He is said to have been the most influential researcher in America. He built the most powerful computers in the 1930s and was Roosevelt’s chief ad- visor on military research, and a member of the War Council. From 1939 to 1941, he served as chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, which became NASA in 1958. He headed the Office of Scientific Research and Development from 1942 to 1948, which was responsible for the development of the proximity fuse, radar, sonar, and many dozens of other devices that helped win the war. In the summer of 1940, he took control of America’s secret development of the atomic bomb, while he held down a job as chairman at Carnegie, a leading scientific institution whose chief traditionally advised the government on technical matters.
He was a member of a Top Secret elite group of six who set policy, including the president, vice president, the secretary of war, and Army Chief of Staff General Leslie Groves—the man who monitored and oversaw technical progress toward the bomb. When he ran into a snag because of funding issues, Roosevelt and his budget director solved it by creating the first “black budget” in the nation’s history. He brought physics, engineering, and the military together for the technical innovation that he believed was the most important factor in national security, and it was his leadership that ultimately helped to win the war.
Vannevar Bush’s Canadian counterpart, Dr. Omond Solandt, chairman of the Defense Research Board, met with Smith on November 20, 1950. He agreed that work on a classified project on geomagnetic energy should proceed rapidly, and offered to provide laboratory facilities, the acquisition of equipment, and specialized personnel for incidental work in the project.
After his retirement, Solandt admitted that he and Bush frequently had conversations about UFOs, but did not reveal the particulars. He usually denigrated Smith, suggesting that he was not a good scientist, and that his experiments were not successful due to incorrect measurements and uncalibrated equipment. Yet, in contrast to Solandt’s appraisal, Wilbert Smith was posthumously awarded the Lieutenant Colonel Keith S. Rogers Memorial Engineering Award in recognition of a life- time of dedicated and distinguished service to the advancement of technical standards in the Canadian Broadcasting Industry, presented by the Canadian General Electric Company. Solandt’s history of fabricated statements seem to stem from his desire not to divulge classified information, but Smith’s archival materials make Solandt’s role clear.
In 1952 Smith was appointed to Project Second Storey, a Canadian government committee set up to consider the UFO problem and to recommend government action. This was through the efforts of DRB Chairman Solandt, who asked staff member Harold Oatway to form a committee to investigate the flying saucer reports that were being reported in the Canadian press. Several of these reports were made by service personnel involving disk-shaped craft over Royal Canadian Air Force bases.10 On June 25, 1952, Smith submitted an interim report on Project Magnet stating that it appeared evident that flying saucers are emissaries from other civilizations. He added that they operate on magnetic principles that we have failed to grasp due to our failure to pay enough attention to the structure of fields in our study of physics.11 Then on August 10, 1954, the controller of telecommunications issued a form letter authorized as a press release admitting that the DOT had engaged in the study of UFOs.
He stated that even though considerable data had been collected and analyzed, it was impossible to reach any definite conclusion. Thus, Project Magnet was terminated, and Smith continued his research without official government sanction.
Smith engaged in a secret experimental project designed to communicate with occupants from UFOs through a contact (Frances Swan) who provided him with information. Swan’s alien sources told him that all matter is held together by “binding forces.” She said that there are areas of reduced binding that present a danger to planes, causing them to liter- ally fall apart. By building a “binding meter” according to the principles given to him by Swan, he was able to locate regions of reduced binding. He recommended to the government that further investigation be conducted, but because he had obtained his information from alleged extraterrestrial beings that channeled it through Francis Swan, he was unable to obtain official recognition for his work.
Two of the more notable guests present at the luncheon were Adele Darrah and her husband Tom, a retired U.S. Navy commander and close personal friend of Admiral Knowles and Frances Swan. Also present was Mrs. Murl Smith, the widow of Wilbert Smith who died in 1962, and Edie and Buck Buchanan from Ottawa, Canada. Buck was retired from the Canadian Military Service and Edie worked for the Canadian Parliament. Betty and Barney were surprised to see their friend Lauri D’Allessandro, and even more amazed to learn her purpose for being there.
The apparent objective of the luncheon meeting was to attempt to identify a small piece of metal that had been cut from a large anomalous object. Wilbert Smith had been contacted to investigate the flaming object that fell from the sky and landed on the banks of the St. Lawrence River. It was huge, weighing several tons, and initially all efforts to cut it were unsuccessful. Now Webb’s widow would ask Lauri D’Allessandro to attempt to identify the object through psychometry or remote viewing. She was blindfolded, and the object was placed in her hands. She in- formed the group that it had fallen in flames from the sky, landing on the shores of a body of water; that it had been studied, and that no one had been able to identify it. She thought that it might have come from a UFO. Then, her blindfold was removed, and Murl Smith revealed the history of the object. Betty was astonished. She had no idea that Lauri was psychic and had never seen psychometry practiced before.
Later, Murl Smith and the Hills attended a conference on antigravity research in Warner, New Hampshire, where science fiction and scientific exploration merged. Betty wrote that she was awestruck that thousands of dollars were awarded to scientists engaged in this research.
Admiral Knowles attempted to introduce Frances Swan to the Hills, but she refused to meet them.
Betty wrote about Mrs. Swan as follows:
A few miles from Portsmouth is a woman who claims she is in contact with the occupants of UFOs, through automatic writing. Almost daily she sits and receives messages. Although she and I share some of the same friends, we have never met. She refuses to meet me, for she believes that Barney and I met the wrong ones—the evil ones, the ones of wrong vibrations. Hers are different types, who are kind, loving, concerned for all; who give her messages of brotherhood and the Kingdom of God. Barney and I both agreed that we had never seen those of a different vibration! But, in those days, we had never heard of George Adamski.
With the introduction of the Hills, the contactee movement of the 1950s had come face to face with abduction. This was also Betty’s first introduction to the contactee movement, but over time she met numerous individuals who described beautiful people dressed in long, flowing robes with blond hair and blue eyes who delivered Biblical messages of being chosen and blessed.
She wrote:
In going into their personal backgrounds, I found that all of them have been involved in psychic phenomena! They are involved in ESP experiments, dream interpretations, astral projection, meditation, mind control, and the spirit world. They attend classes, keep up to date with the latest books, and compare experiences with their friends. Their experiences seem to share a similarity. They are sincere, honest people who seem to believe that some kind of strange phenomenon is happening, which they label, UFOs. There seems to be a very definite correlation between the phenomenon of the contactee and the availability of centers for psychic development.