BURNED BY A UFO Stephen Michalak was searching for minerals along Falcon Lake, 80 miles east of Winnipeg, Manitoba, on May 20, 1967, when he heard the cackling of geese. Looking up into the early-afternoon sky, he saw two glowing oval-shaped objects on a steep, swift descent. One abruptly stopped its downward flight while the … Read more
UFO Encounters, Sightings, Visitations, and Investigations: THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY TAKES CONTROL A few minutes before midnight on Saturday, July 19, 1952, an air traffic controller at National Airport in Washington, D.C., noticed some odd blips on his radar screen. Knowing that no aircraft were flying in that area—15 miles to the southwest of the capital—he … Read more
“BALL LIGHTNING” IN EEVELLAND On November 2, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik II into orbit. Within hours, coincidentally or otherwise, a UFO wave erupted in the United States. At first the wave appeared to be concentrated in a small backwater area of west Texas, where a series of remarkable UFO encounters took place. The … Read more
THE SENATOR’S SOVIET SAUCERS Georgia Senator Richard Russell was a major figure in the U.S. Senate. As head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he exerted enormous influence over the American defense establishment. When he spoke, the military listened. So when Russell reported what he had seen while traveling through the Soviet Union, no one … Read more
UFO Encounters, Sightings, Visitations, and Investigations: THE INVADERS Flying saucers were supposed to be a fad. Pundits tied these strange shapes in the sky to “war nerves,” a sort of delayed-response reaction to the traumas of World War II. They were also supposed to be a peculiarly American delusion. Unidentified flying objects, however, have survived … Read more
KEYHOE PRESSES THE AIR FORCE In the 1950s the Air Force’s most forceful critic, retired Marine Corps Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe, caused Pentagon UFO debunkers no end of consternation. A respected aviation journalist, Keyhoe wrote an explosive article, “The Flying Saucers Are Real,” for the widely read men’s magazine True (January 1950 issue). Not only … Read more
UFO Encounters, Sightings, Visitations, and Investigations: AN “ESTIMATE OF THE SITUATION” By late July 1948 Project Sign investigators had come to an incredible conclusion: Visitors from outer space had arrived. They had begun with suspicions. Now they now had the proof. The proof was . . . well, it depends on which of two versions … Read more
BUBBLES FROM OUTER SPACE Not all unidentified flying objects are potential alien spacecraft. Some are much stranger. Consider, for example, the strange phenomena that passed over Biskopsberga, Sweden, early in the 19th century. It was a cloudless afternoon on May 16, 1808, and a hard wind blew from the west; the sun over the village … Read more
ELINT YS. UFO Possessing the most sophisticated electronic intelligence (ELINT) gear available to the U.S. Air Force, the RB-47 could handle anything. Unfortunately, in the morning hours of July 17, 1957, over the southern United States, an RB-47 came across something it was unprepared for. In the first hint of what was to come, one … Read more
A ROARING UFO AND FIGURES AT SOCORRO Officer Lonnie Zamora was chasing a speeder south of Socorro, New Mexico, late on the afternoon of April 24, 1964, but he was about to enter UFO history. No less than the head of Project Blue Book would later tell a CIA audience that Zamora’s experience was the … Read more
