Tuesday 29 January 2019

UFO News Article:
“Skeptical professor now a believer in UFOs”


25 November 1977
(Arkansas Democrat, Little Rock, Arkansas)

Sources: U.F.O. Newsclipping Service, Plumerville, Arkansas and AFU.se

The whole article (Page 10):
“The pursuit of ‘flying saucers’ can be a difficult thing for a scientist, especially if he becomes convinced he has found what he was looking for.

‘It’s changed my life completely,’ Dr. Harley D. Rutledge, physics department chairman of Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, said. Colleagues call him a man not prone to exaggeration.

Rutledge began as a skeptic in 1973 when it was suggested that he investigate a rash of sightings of unidentified flying objects in southeast Missouri. Now, after more than four years of firsthand research and observation, he has reluctantly admitted he cannot debunk the stories.

The information gathered by Rutledge, including more than 700 photographs, resulted from hundreds of nights spent in the air, in fields and on hillsides, accompanied, always, by other observers and equipment which includes telescopes, cameras and a spectrograph.

At 51, married, with five children, he is laying his reputation and career on the line and saying that there really is something up there that cannot be explained by conventional logic.

‘Now I know they are up there. What they are or where they came from, I have no way of knowing. But they are there,’ he said in a recent interview.

Rutledge himself has made more than 140 sightings, both in broad daylight and at night. At least 25 of those sightings he labels as ‘incredible.’

Three of the most convincing sightings occurred within two weeks of each other in May 1973. The first, from the air, involved what he calls ‘a 45-second metamorphosis'’ involving 10 balls of light that had no business being where they were, in the air near the small town of Piedmont, Mo.

The second and third sightings, which he believes to be conclusive because he was so close to the objects, were made near Farmington, Mo., about two weeks later. On the night of May 24 Rutledge and several other observers spotted an object with a triangular shaped light pattern passing over them. Rutledge tentatively labeled the object as an airplane, but said later evidence discounted that possibility.

The next night, he said, he and his colleagues observed a huge object that had nearly passed over them before they spotted it.

‘It had four lights, two red and two white,’ the professor said . ‘It was dose enough that I could see parts of it through my 80-power telescope. It had a metallic skin and I could make out a ribbed pattern in the red lights.’

Because of the delicacy of his position, Rutledge said he has been reluctant to talk about the phenomena. Now, he said, he believes he can survive the scoffing he will hear — and he says he believes he has an obligation to tell the public what he knows.

Rutledge’s colleagues point out that he is an intense man, but rational and conservative.

‘Anything he does has lots of effort put into it,’ said Dr. Donald Fromsdorf, dean of the College of Sciences at SEMO. ‘Everything is done professionally, scientifically.

‘I have no qualms about his professional integrity or the way he goes about things. But he has taken on a momumental task.’

Much of the work has been funded through grants from the university and a special grant from the St. Louis Globe-Denocrat [sic].

Rutledge reviews, but will not include in his research data, reports from laymen. He also refuses to associate with amateur UFO clubs, which he says he has learned are usually run by persons seeking no more than cheap thrills or publicity.

‘I really didn’t ask for the position in which I now find myself,’ Rutledge said . ‘But now if I am to perform a service, I suppose it must be to prepare people for the various possibilities.’

The professor emphasizes that he does not know the origin of the objects he has seen. But he does say he has documented evidence that they have performed aerial gymnastics that seem far beyond what any known manmade aircraft can do.

‘Not only have I seen strange vehicles and lights by both day and night,’ he said, ‘but they appear to be intelligently controlled and seem to interact with human beings.’

Have the experiences frightened him?

‘I don’t like the word frightened,’ he said. ‘They have made me uneasy. When I returned from Piedmont after the first conclusive sightings, I was in the dumps for about two weeks. But I got a lot of support from the university and from my family and I was finally able to say, ‘If this is the worst, well, then we’re all in it together.’

‘But it has changed my life. I have no social life to speak of because of the time required for the research. But I guess I can’t stop now. I feel I must try to make people gain a little better understanding of it.’ ”


Related posts:


realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=1973











The late Dr. Harley D. Rutledge, U.S. Physicist & UFO Researcher
(kplcblogs.typepad.com photo)

UFO News Article:
“UFOs are studied by France”


8 October 1977
(Houston Chronicle, Texas)

Source: theufochronicles.com

The Houston Chronicle presents a Chicago Daily News article.

The whole article:
“A French government agency has begun to study the phenomenon of unidentified flying objects.

J. Allen Hynek, professor of astronomy at Northwestern University and director of the Center for UFO Studies, said the study is the first of its kind to be funded by any government.

The French National Center for Space Studies (CNES) has created a research group which has asked Hynek’s organization for cooperation.

Hynek told reporters that CNES is equivalent to our National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

‘The implications of this step taken by the French government are farreaching,’ Hynek said. ‘It points up to the growing interest on an official level and recognition of the serious nature of the UFO phenomenon,’ he added.

Hynek has been studying UFO reports since 1948.

‘There will now be an official government group – unfortunately in another country – that is going to take this thing seriously,’ he said.

‘All of our data is available to them. We have computer data on 60,000 cases. The great difference between our work and what the French will be doing is they will be properly funded.

Hynek hedged when asked if he personally believes the Earth has been visited by beings from other worlds.

‘It is possible,’ he said.”


Related posts:







realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=J.+Allen+Hynek












(CNES image)













Dr. J. Allen Hynek, U.S. Astronomer, the U.S. Air Force's Scientific Consultant on UFOs (1948-1969), UFO Author, Lecturer & Researcher (4.bp.blogspot.com photo)