[extropy-chat] The NSA's disclosures on UFOs

Wed Apr 26 08:13:34 UTC 2006

Samantha Atkins wrote:

>On Apr 25, 2006, at 5:54 PM, The Avantguardian wrote:
>
>  
>
>>There do seem to be a lot of reliable military UFO
>>reports as well as intercepted communications from
>>foreign military pilots regarding UFO encounters.
>>It is nice to see that the U.S. Intelligence agencies
>>DO take UFOs seriously although their official stance
>>is that UFOs do not SEEM to pose a threat to national
>>security.
>>    
>>
>Since military pilots are "up there" more often and around more  
>exotic conditions and spend more time scanning the skies, I would  
>suspect that a disproportionate number of such reports would come  
>from military pilots.
>  
>
Also, an unknown number of sightings never make it to public disclosure
through the NSA.  I'm surprised that any reports are made by pilots,
military or civilian, as these may end their careers.

>>That many reliable military personnel have had
>>encounters with UFOs, with collaborating radar
>>evidence seems to raise the Bayesian posterior
>>probability of their existense quite high in my
>>estimation.
>>    
>>
>The only added datum in this paragraph is possible collaborating  
>radar evidence.  Since I presume military pilots aren't given to  
>hallucination this says at best that at least some portion of things  
>they saw were real physical objects not transparent to radar.  It  
>doesn't suggest these somethings where extra-terrestrial though.
>  
>
Yes, radar-visual sightings are rare.  The Lakenheath, UK report from
1956, I think, is the most well-known.  It includes visual sightings by
the pilot and observers on the ground as well as radar.  A good source
of scientific information is the Condon Report, flawed as it is.  The
New York Times published this as a paperback, "The Scientific Study
of UFOs."  It includes extensive review of weather phenomena such as
ball lightning and mirages.

>>One of the more interesting tidbits of information I
>>found was the Gersten piece that states that "during
>>October, November, and December of 1975, reliable
>>military personnel repeatedly sighted unconventional
>>aerial objects in the vicinity of nuclear-weapons
>>storage areas, aircraft alert areas, and
>>nuclear-missile control facilities at [lists several
>>Air Force bases...] Many of the sightings were
>>confirmed by radar."
>>    
>>
> <>
> I don't see anything of terrible significance about 1975. Do you?
>
> Since military pilots spend a lot of time around military
> installation where these nuclear weapons, air systems and so on are
> it is not at all surprising that many of the sightings are around
> such locations. As many types of experimental aircraft also fly
> around such locations we may have a partial explanation of at least
> some sightings. Also such sites are targets for surveillance by
> other terrestrial parties using whatever perhaps exotic systems can
> be fielded.

The year 1975 isn't significant unless you want to speculate about
Cold War tension.  These UFO sightings occurred along the northern
tier of ICBM sites from the Dakotas through to Montana.  These are
isolated missile silos well away from major airfields and cities.  Most
experimental aircraft are tested in desert areas such as Nellis AFB
north of Las Vegas.

IMO, the UFO phenomenon is worthy of more study.  It is my conjecture
that the U.S. government continues to investigate UFO reports.  I did see
infrequent UFO reports in intelligence messages over the years 1970-85.
Since I am one of those who held a clearance and access above Top Secret
I can't divulge any details.  For that matter I can't remember much anyway.
My non-disclosure agreement expires in 2053.

I do know that the message routing guide used by the Dept. of State includes
a TAG for UFO reports.  One intelligence item I remember from either 1980
or 1981, cited a radio intercept from a Soviet ELINT (electronic 
intelligence)
trawler in the Straight of Gibraltar.  The message stated an object 
approached
at 2,000 MPH, stopped instantaneously, and a few seconds elapsed before
taking off at 2,000 MPH.  Peculiar if true.  Maybe the Soviets were spoofing
our intelligence collection effort.

I have only two personal sightings of a UFO.  One as a teenager could have
been anything.  The second was a daylight sighting on 20 July 1991, from my
backyard in Sierra Vista.  Our town is located next to Fort Huachuca, 
Arizona.
Some testing of RPVs/UAVs occurs here so "we" are familiar with what these
aircraft look like in flight.  I am still puzzled by what I saw.  Here 
is my sighting:

"On July 20[1991] I had my second UFO sighting. The object was

visible for two to three minutes around 1630 MST (2330 GMT)
moving north to south over Sierra Vista (Cochise County). It was
an inky black, flattened egg-shape with no surface detail, no
sound, and height and size unknown. The weather was overcast
with scudding clouds and mist over the nearby Huachuca Mountains
(maximum elevation is at Miller's Peak, 9,465 feet); latitude
31.33N, longitude 110.18W; wind aloft WNW. While looking at dark
clouds and lightning to the north, I at first mistook the object
for a large crow flying towards me head-on, and then for a
balloon. The object disappeared into the mist before Miller's
Peak as I observed from a lower elevation, approximately 4,700
feet."

Terry

-- 
"Only a zit on the wart on the heinie of progress." Copyright 1992, Frank Rice

Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1 at mindspring.com >
     Alternate: < fortean1 at msn.com >
Home Page: < http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/8958/index.html >
Sites: * Fortean Times * Mystic's Haven * TLCB *
      U.S. Message Text Formatting (USMTF) Program
------------
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