Showing posts sorted by date for query 1969. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query 1969. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Sunday, 22 November 2020

UFO Case Report (E-mail):
“Subject: Pacific Ocean,
350 miles S. of Valparaiso Port,
South America; Oct. 24, 1969”

By Carl W. Feindt, 8 September 2010

(NICAP.org)

The whole UFO case report:

“The following report has been extracted from the Carl Feindt Water UFO web site for security purposes. To get to the original page with potentially more current working links, click on the link below, hit "Enter", click on "List of Sightings", then select "radar" in the search box. 

http://www.waterufo.net/

10-24-1969

An extraordinary UFO incident off Chile

by Bill Chalker

Bill Chalker, an industrial chemist by profession, is one of Australia's leading UFO investigators. He lives In New South Wales.

Editor's note: Incredible tales of military UFO encounters and cover-ups are legion in the ufological literature. Most depend on the testimony of a single informant. This one is no exception and for that reason must be viewed, unless and until verifying evidence comes forward, as no more than an interesting anecdote. We are publishing it not because we consider it "evidence" of anything -- it clearly is not --but because it resembles other such stories in a remarkable way. That means that either the claimant is drawing on a body of widespread folklore or he, like other claimants telling like tales, is speaking the truth. Chile, a military dictatorship, does not have a Freedom of Information Act to which inquirers seeking verification can turn. Readers who might have access to information that could shed light on this claim are urged to write IUR.

Because of a series of chance events and an overseas trip, I had the opportunity to interview an alleged witness to an extraordinary event that supposedly took place in the Pacific Ocean, about 350 miles to the south of Valparaiso Port, off the coast of Chile. The incident involved a Chilean Naval destroyer and was witnessed by crew members and the commander of the vessel. Up to six UFOs, including one large object, were observed. The objects were verified on radar and observed visually. As the main object moved over the ship, the vessel's power went out.

As extraordinary as the event itself is its alarming aftermath. According to my informant, a cover-up followed and the witnesses were held in confinement in port for two days, subjected to intense psychological pressures to force them to believe they saw nothing out of the ordinary.

The name of my informant cannot be revealed. He says, however, that he was on duty during the incident and observed the whole event. The location of the interview, even the country in which it took place, also cannot be given. The witness fears that disclosure of either detail could cause him to be recalled to active service in the Chilean Navy. Although he has already served his term of service, he is concerned that enforced military service could be used as a form of punishment.

I must point out that from the very beginning I have been skeptical of many UFO cover-up claims. From my experience as the first civilian researcher to have comprehensive access to the Royal Australian Air Force UFO files, however, I have become more open-minded about such allegations. In this regard I was willing to consider the testimony of my Chilean informant, who to all appearances was sincerely frightened by the events he described to me. That does not mean I have become a 'believer,' only that I believe such claims deserve a fair hearing.

The event

Just after midnight, on or about October 24, 1969, a Chilean Navy destroyer, a week out of dry dock at Talcahuano Port (where the ship's axle had been removed and replaced), was navigating at 20 knots and heading north 20 degrees portside from NNW). The incredible events that followed took place over the next eight minutes.

At 12:43 A.M. the radar officer reported a long-range flying contact. A minute later the “contact" was at 400 miles. Because of the "object's" speed, the operator suspected a malfunction in his equipment. In the next minute the contact was approximately 150 miles away closing from 331 degrees of true north. But the operator and officer in charge during the late night duty (an officer of second-class rank) speculated that the contact was a "plane flying southeast” --but at 213 miles in a minute: 12,780 mph!

The officer in charge advised the ship's commander, who asked that an eye be kept on the object.

At 12:47 the contact was only 12 miles away. Suddenly the single contact became six “targets.” The “thing spread .... Little dots appeared in the fire of the light on the radar....”

The officer in charge informed the commander just as the objects making the returns came into view. Both eyewitnesses and radar were reporting six objects approaching the ship. The commander came up to the ship's bridge to see what was going on.

It was a fantastic sight. One massive object and five small objects were approaching at high speed. The “big thing looked like a big box [with] semicircles in the side” looking as if they had been scooped out. It was bathed in brilliant light. “The thing must have been metallic,” my informant told me. “It was bigger than the destroyer, which was about 110 meters long.” He thought it might be at least twice the length of the ship but it was difficult to tell because “the light was bright."

The five smaller objects were egg-shaped and appeared to be no bigger than eight feet long and five to six feet wide. They were bluish in color.

At about 2000 yards out from the destroyer the smaller objects left the proximity of the larger object. Three went portside and two went starboard. The smaller objects at times seemed to be flying in "elliptical circles backwards and forwards between the big one and our vessel ....

"The main thing did not change direction -- if it had been in the sea there would have been a collision."

A humming noise was audible when the large object got to within 300 yards. It was at this point that the power went out. For a couple of seconds all instruments went dead as the huge craft passed overhead.

At this point the commander came on to the bridge, asking, "What the hell is that?” My informant remarked that the commander "was very calm, because probably he knew what he saw. We didn't.

"You could see the whole thing, the light was so strong. You could see the water, the funnel head, the head of the ship, the towers, everything... Everybody on the bridge was sort of listening to the noise. I don't know how long this thing took to go across."

The bright red lights underneath the main UFO seemed to be moving back and forth inside the "box,” shining through a half-circle or crescent shape on the bottom of the object. On the side were what looked like "corn cobs," with green or turquoise pulsing lights. These lights, my informant said, "went right through your head."

The large object passed over the powerless ship. When it was 200 yards away, everything returned to normal. The smaller objects, never coming closer than 500 to 1000 yards, flew around the ship and joined up with the larger object on the other side.

The main object continued on its way until it Was about two miles beyond the ship. At that point, along with (we assume) the smaller-objects, it vanished. "It was like somebody opened a big door; then it closed and it was darkness. The only thing that was left behind was like floating little bits of metallic paper."(!)

At least eight minutes had passed. Three persons had tracked the UFOs on radar. Five persons saw the objects themselves. The ship's commander ordered everyone to keep silent about what they had seen.

The cover-up

The "cover-up" started immediately, According to my informant, the officer in charge (the second-class officer) had made several entries concerning the UFO incident in the ship's log.

The entries at midnight and on either side of the UFO entries-were routine. Duty proceeded normally for the rest of the morning.

Awakening after he had retired from his shift, the officer rechecked the log, only to find normal entries in what appeared to be his own handwriting. The UFO incident was not mentioned. The officer had been left-handed but an accident had forced him to use his right hand. Because writing was difficult for him, he had to press down hard on the paper. He had to press down so hard, in fact;-that the outline of what he wrote was always visible on the page. But when he checked, it was not. In other words, someone had forged his handwriting but neglected this telltale physical detail.

At 6:45 that morning the destroyer arrived in Valparaiso Port. After eating breakfast, the men on duty during the UFO event were asked to report to the commander. He told them that some people were coming to talk with them and that they were to go with them. The visitors turned out to be two Chilean Navy officers and four Americans in civilian clothes. The Americans, who spoke Spanish, were identified as naval attaches with the U.S. embassy.

The six witnesses were taken to a mine- or torpedo-storage area at the port. Each was taken to a separate room.

My informant was directed to explain what happened last night. When he told them, they said, “No, you didn't see that!"

“I said that's what we saw," my informant related to me. "They started getting very cranky. They said, 'No, you didn't see it. You didn't see anything. You know nothing.'

“I spoke to the highest-ranking officer there, a tactic commander in the Chilean Navy: 'Are we under arrest or what?' He said, 'No you are not.’ “

Asked why they were there, the Chilean officer replied, 'You are under orders. These people just want to talk to you, to put you on the right track.”

My informant claimed, "While the men never asked us to go through the story in detail, they knew what had happened by the questions they asked. They also had the radar-plot blueprint." They were more interested in securing his silence than in getting information about the event from him.

For two days the harassment continued. “Every two hours,” the informant said, “this guy would come up. 'What do you think now?' he'd say... We had arguments. They didn't have any right to do what they were doing.”

My informant threatened to complain when he got out. He was told that if he did so, that would be the end of him. He did not see the other witnesses at any point during the two day interrogation. He was not allowed to sleep until he signed a document. Finally, after he had done so, he was put in a jeep and driven to another location. One week later he was transferred unexpectedly from destroyer duty. He never saw the others again.

Discussion

As I listened to this man tell his story, I was struck with the passion of his tone. If he was making this up, he was an excellent actor.

His claim that he had been placed in confinement following the sighting was especially interesting to me. In fact, the account sounds exactly like something out of the NBC-television movie The Disappearance of Flight 412, said to have been based on the real life experience of one of the scriptwriters, Neal B. Burger. Burger's experience supposedly took place in 1951. (My informant claimed not to have seen the movie.) A similar story, involving a U.S. Navy man who allegedly was subjected to similar pressures in Panama in 1973, is recounted in Fawcett and Greenwood's Clear Intent (1984).

Such reports, if taken seriously, clearly imply an official desire to suppress at least some UFO experiences. But why?

This reference: International UFO Reporter September/October 1985, pp. 4-6

UFOCAT PRN ­ NONE

South America - Chile

Valparaiso Port: Latitude 33-02 S, Longitude 71-37 W (D-M) [Bahía ­ Bay]

Talcahuano Port: Latitude 36-42 S, Longitude 73-02 W (D-M) [Bahía ­ Bay]

Reference: Chile Gazetteer, Prepared in the Office of Geography, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., January 1967”

http://www.nicap.org/reports/691024chile_rep.htm

Related posts:

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=October+1969

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=1969

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=Radar

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=Radars

Satellite photo of Talcahuano, Chile (tageo.com)

(Photo: tageo.com)

Saturday, 17 October 2020

UFO Article (Blog):
“1969: The Great UFO Daze of OZ”

By Bill Chalker, 19 September 2020

(The OZ Files, Sydney, Australia)

Quote from the article:

“1969 Australian cases described in this story:

  • 17 April: the Bungawalbyn ‘saucer nest’, NSW
  • 20 April: the Harwood Island close encounter with possible ‘levitation’ effects, NSW
  • 25 April: the ‘Anzac Day’ close encounter of the third kind in suburban Sydney - Greenacre, NSW
  • 23 May: a compelling ‘radar visual’ case - Cloverdale/Kalamunda, Western Australia
  • mid July: a close encounter at Beaufort, Victoria
  • 30 August: my own daylight experience with apparent ‘angel hair’
  • the dramatic close encounter at Surfers Paradise, Qld, witnessed by Australian surfing legend Peter Drouyn
  • I've also added at the end of this post a few further bonus stories from the 1969 UFO wave in OZ, including:
  • the Spackman UFO photo saga
  • the strange story of the Vas family in January 1969 who were reported as telling a story of a UFO and its giant occupants, encountered near Childers, Queensland - was it a real encounter?”

http://theozfiles.blogspot.com/2020/09/1969-great-ufo-daze-of-oz.html

Related posts:

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=April+1969

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=May+1969

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=July+1969

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=August+1969

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=1969



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Map of Australia (lib.utexas.edu)

(Image: lib.utexas.edu)

Sunday, 4 October 2020

Chilean Government UFO Article:
“CEFAA: 23 años investigando
fenómenos aéreos anómalos”
(“CEFAA: 23 years investigating
anomalous aerial phenomena”)

22 September 2020

(Comité de Estudios de Fenómenos Aéreos Anómalos (CEFAA), Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil, Santiago, Chile)

The whole article (translated by Google Translate):

“On October 3, 2020, the Committee for the Study of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena (CEFAA), dependent on the General Secretariat of the General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics (DGAC), celebrates 23 years of existence.

On that day and month, but in 1997, CEFAA was born through Exempt Resolution No. 01599 after the interest expressed by the then Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Air Force, Air General Fernando Rojas Vender, and by the former Commander of that branch, General Ramón Vega Hidalgo, who determined that the investigative body be under the authority of the DGAC. 

In this way, through an official document, the then Director of the Institution, General of the Air Brigade Gonzalo Miranda Aguirre, gave life to CEFAA in the premises of the Aeronautical Technical School, in the Quinta Normal, in Santiago.

In 1996, the written press in our country published articles on 27 sightings, with an average of just over two per month, and in 1997, almost one case was registered per month, according to data provided by engineer Pablo Petrowitsch, one of the first scholars of this type of phenomena in Chile.

Sightings in Arica

Although 1996 was copious in reports of sightings, the decisive cases for the creation of CEFAA occurred in late March and early April 1997. During those days, the press published reports on lights of unknown origin over Arica for three consecutive nights and one of the incidents was even seen by personnel from the Control Tower and by the then head of the Chacalluta Airport.

CEFAA’s mission is to collect, study, analyze and classify all the information related to strange aerial phenomena reported in the national territory, with the aim of supporting the safety of air operations in the airspace of responsibility of the DGAC, which covers 32 million square kilometers. 

History

The first Director of CEFAA was Colonel Enzo Di Nocera and since its birth the Air Traffic Controller Gustavo Rodríguez Navarro was linked to the new entity, who was known within the DGAC because for decades he had been investigating reports of anomalous aerial phenomena by personal interest.

In 1998, Air Brigade General Ricardo Bermúdez Sanhueza assumed the leadership of ETA and also CEFAA, until February 2002. In March of that year, CEFAA's leadership was under the command of Air Brigade General Hernán Henríquez Cobaise, who he held that position until March 2008. During all those years, CEFAA entered a dormant stage.

On December 15, 2009, the then Director General of Civil Aeronautics, General of the Air Brigade José Huepe Pérez, ordered that CEFAA become directly dependent on the General Secretariat of the DGAC, for which reason the Committee left the Aeronautical Technical School, It began to function on the grounds of the National Aeronautical and Space Museum and was again in charge of General (R) Ricardo Bermúdez.

The CEFAA operated for years with General Bermúdez at the head, with the Air Traffic Controller Gustavo Rodríguez as an investigator and with José Lay as the Head of International Relations.

During those first years, CEFAA stood out for giving free talks with different guests at the Aeronautical Technical School, for a high-profile event with international guests during the International Air and Space Fair (FIDAE) 2000 and for similar events during the editions of FIDAE of 2016 and 2018.

In December 2016, General Bermúdez left the leadership of CEFAA and in September 2017, the scientific journalist and historian Hugo Camus Palacios joined by public competition, who soon took over the leadership of the Committee.

Historical heritage

The merit of having initiated the investigation of these phenomena in Chile goes to the Chilean Commission for Studies of Unidentified Space Phenomena, created by the Director of the Chilean Meteorological Office, Sergio Napoleón Bravo, and sponsored by the Scientific Society of Chile, in which featured prominent academics, scientists and researchers of the time. 

In an interview published by the Spanish newspaper ABC in 1969, Sergio Bravo affirmed: “I confess that at first, when the news about it began to invade the world press, we were skeptical. But there were so many stories and the professional solvency of many of the people who referred to it that the concern to investigate these facts in a systematic and scientific way was born in us ".

New CEFAA 

In 2017, in addition to Hugo Camus, Pablo Trigo Marihual joined CEFAA as administrative assistant. At the end of that year, Gustavo Rodríguez and José Lay left the Committee after several years of service and in March 2018, science professor Gustavo Arriagada Bustamante joined the committee as a researcher.

The new CEFAA team was completed in mid-October 2019, when journalist Patricio Abusleme Hoffman joined as a second investigator. 

During the few years in which the new CEFAA has functioned, Director Camus has participated in ufological conferences, has been interviewed by different media and, together with researcher Gustavo Arriagada, has given talks on the work of CEFAA to aeronautical and different branches of the Armed Forces in various cities of Chile.

After the paradigm shift that the global pandemic caused by Covid-19 meant, the members of CEFAA have continued to carry out their work remotely, consulting their internal and external advisers when the cases under study warrant it. 

To report any sighting of anomalous aerial phenomena that have taken place within the territory of the Republic of Chile, users can do so through the CEFAA website at the following link:

http://www.cefaa.gob.cl/home/enviar-caso” 

http://www.cefaa.gob.cl/home/actualidad/noticias/cefaa23anosinvestigandofenomenosaereosanomalos

English translation (by Google Translate): 

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cefaa.gob.cl%2Fhome%2Factualidad%2Fnoticias%2Fcefaa23anosinvestigandofenomenosaereosanomalos

Related posts: 

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=Chilean+Government+UFO+Article

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=CEFAA

The current CEFAA team, headed by Director Hugo Camus, at the Committee’s premises in Cerrillos. 

(Text: cefaa.gob.cl) (Photo: cefaa.gob.cl)

Members of CEFAA and some advisers to the Committee shortly after its creation in the late 1990s, headed by General (R) Ricardo Bermúdez. 

(Text: cefaa.gob.cl) (Photo: cefaa.gob.cl)

Sunday, 2 August 2020

UFO News Article:
“Do We Shoot or Salute, Sir?”


2 July 1954
(Long Beach Independent, California)

Source: NICAP.org

The whole article:
“Brookley Air Force base reported Thursday that an ‘unidentified flying object, brilliant and silver colored’ was tracked by radar over Mobile and the Alabama-Mississippi gulf coast Wednesday night [30 June 1954].

Major James Zicherali, public information officer at Brookley, said the object ‘appeared to be a jet-type aircraft of new design with short stubby wings.’

Five other residents of Alabama and Mississippi also reported sighting the object.

Zicherali said the object appeared on the base control tower radar screen at 6:50 p.m. CST. He said radar operators reported it ‘made no sound and left no trail.’ ”


Wikipedia article: “Brookley Air Force Base”:


Quote from the Wikipedia article:
“Brookley Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base located in Mobile, Alabama. After it closed in 1969, it became what is now known as the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley.

Postwar use
Following World War II and the creation of an independent United States Air Force, the installation became Brookley Air Force Base. In 1947 with the closure of Morrison Field, Florida, the C-74 Globemaster project was moved to Brookley. The C-74 was, at the time, the largest military transport aircraft in the world. It was developed by Douglas Aircraft after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The long distances across the Atlantic, and especially the Pacific Ocean to the combat areas indicated a need for a transoceanic heavy-lift military transport aircraft.

The ‘C-74 squadron’ (later 521st Air Transport Group, 1701st Air Transport Wing), Air Transport Command operated two squadrons of C-74 Globemasters from Brookley from 1947 until their retirement in 1955. The eleven aircraft were used extensively for worldwide transport of personnel and equipment, supporting United States military missions.”

Related posts:




realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=Radars























Brookley Air Force Base, Mobile, Alabama (7 April 1952)
(wikimedia.org) (Photo: wikimedia.org)














Satellite photo of Mobile, Alabama (tageo.com)
(Photo: tageo.com)

Sunday, 26 July 2020

UFO Report:
“The 1979 UFO Chronology”


Created: 15 October 2007
Updated: 6 December 2016
(NICAP.org)

Quote from the UFO report:
“This is currently a 14-page chronology of UFO incidents and events for 1979. Our thanks for these chronologies must go to Richard Hall (the original 1979 chronology from UFOE II), Dan Wilson (archive researcher), and Jean Waskiewicz (online NICAP DBase [NSID]). You will note the many foreign reports that we are now being able to access. Our special thanks to Dan Wilson for getting those to us. As more come in, this page will be updated. Previous chronologies (1947 to 1969) involved the expertise of two other team members: William Wise (Project Blue Book Archive) and Brad Sparks (Comprehensive Catalog of Project Blue Book Unknowns).

This year was the second and final season for Project UFO which was an NBC television series. Based loosely on the real-life Project Blue Book, the show was created by Dragnet veteran Jack Webb, who pored through Air Force files looking for episode ideas. The show was produced by Col. William Coleman who had had his own spectacular UFO sighting while in the Air Force.

Francis Ridge
NICAP Site Coordinator

Feb. 3, 1979, Camp New Amsterdam, Netherlands
Night? An object with three very bright white lights and one red light flew at an altitude of 150 to 200 meters (about 500 to 650 feet) and an average speed of 50 to 100 kilometers per hour (about 30 to 60 miles per hour) over the flight line of the Soesterberg base. At times it was seen to emit a beam of light to the ground. The object did not make a sound and was seen by many airmen at the base. The object twice flew along the flight line before departing at a high rate of speed. This was the summary of an investigative report by three members of the working group NOBOVO, including Dr. W. deGraaff, who worked at the (Harmons) Astronomical Institute. (Unidentified: The UFO Phenomenon, 144, Robert Salas)

April 19, 1979; Talisay, Philippines
Police witnesses reported seeing a mother ship which later spewed out smaller UFOs, all of which landed in a valley. Military authorities were investigating. [Manila, Philippines (UPI), May 1, 1979.]

Aug. 27, 1979; Warren, MN
1:40 a.m. Frightening UFO case which involved physical trace elements. Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson was patrolling near the North Dakota border when he noticed a bright light coming through his side window. Johnson knew it was not typical vehicle lights. He thought it might be a small plane in trouble and about to crash.

Sept.17, 1979; Eichstatt, Germany
12:15 AM. In the Bavarian town of Eichstatt three pentagon-shaped UFOs were seen by many, including 10 police officers. One object hovered at 500 meters, then shot away. (Sources: MUFON UFO Journal, October 1981; Larry Hatch, U computer database, case 13306, citing MUFON).

Oct.15, 1979; Dover, DE
G,V, AF radar & 2 UFOs, state police vis.

Dec. 29, 1979; N. Illinois
11:00 PM. ‘We had a call from the sheriff’s department at 11:00 PM, and they said they were looking at a UFO. We looked on the radar and observed the target in the area westbound, very fast. There were three controllers and myself. We watched the target and it stopped, changed direction to a north heading, went north for about three miles, stopped again, went southwest for five miles, stopped again, went westbound right up to the Mississippi River, stopped there, then continued westbound. It covered 54 miles in three-and-one half minutes, plus it stopped four times. We were receiving a strong return. There were no known aircraft in the area. I have never seen an aircraft at that speed turn that fast. The stops were very abrupt and the turns were very abrupt. I don’t know of any airplane that can turn that fast. We picked up a second object at 11:04 PM and it proceeded southwest until it was directly over the Mississippi River at which time it turned southbound and paralleled right over the river for about half-a-mile and moved away to the west-southwest. After we picked up the second object, I checked back with the sheriff’s department and was advised that they had observed another object. The position the sheriff gave me correlated with the targets we saw.’ (MUJ-186,13)”


Wikipedia article: “Soesterberg Air Base”:


Quote from the Wikipedia article:
“Soesterberg Air Base (IATA: UTC, ICAO: EHSB) was a Royal Netherlands Air Force military air base located in Soesterberg, 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) east-northeast of Utrecht. It was first established as an airfield in 1911, and in 1913, the Dutch Army bought the field and established the Army Aviation Division.

For almost 40 years, United States Air Force facilities at Soesterberg, named Camp New Amsterdam was a major front line USAFE air base during the Cold War. The base was closed on 31 December 2008, due to budget cuts in the Dutch Army. The air base ceased flying operations on 12 November 2008, when the command was transferred from the Dutch Air Force to Dutch Defense who will take care of the base until it will be given back to nature. The last fighter ever to depart, delayed due bad weather at Aviano AB, was a Greek F-4E Phantom II. The former USAFE part stays in military hands, and will now officially be called Camp New Amsterdam.”

Related posts:






realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=1979








Soesterberg Air Base, Soesterberg, The Netherlands
(Photo: schlijper.nl)














Satellite photo of Soesterberg, The Netherlands 
(tageo.com) (Photo: tageo.com)

Saturday, 23 May 2020

UFO News Article:
“Magazine is based in Stover –
If you’re a UFO enthusiast, then turn to ‘Skylook’ ”


5 August 1973
(The Sedalia Democrat, Missouri)

Source: NewspaperArchive.com

The whole article:
“Wherever there is a group of people who share a common interest, you are likely to find a special interest magazine. Now there’s one for people whose hobby or science (depending on their degree of involvement) is hunting unidentified flying objects (UFO’s). It’s a 20 page ‘ufozine’ called ‘Skylook.’

The editor and publisher of ‘Skylook’ is a mild-mannered retiree named Mrs. Norma Short, Stover. She spends about six hours a day editing and rewriting reports of UFO sightings received through daily correspondence.

Mrs. Short explained that the ‘Skylook’ policy ‘has always been to ‘tell it as it is,’ and to separate fact from fantasy in investigating and reporting UFO sightings. We do not carry reports of little green men from Mars or messages from outer space relayed through ‘contactees.’ We don’t build up a story for greater reader interest. We believe  the truth is exciting enough in itself and needs no embellishment.’

Though most of ‘Skylook’s’ material reports UFO sightings, it does include other articles, such as [‘Astronomy Notes’] which informs the reader of where to look each month for planets and stars.

To avoid confusion

‘Learning to recognize these planets and stars prevents confusing them with UFO’s,’ Mrs. Short said.

The magazine even has a column which previews books and other magazines that contain UFO-related material. There also is a regular article titled ‘UFO’s Bahind the Iron Curtain.’ The writer gets his information by corresponding with people in communist countries.

‘Skylook’ was conceived in 1967 when Mrs. Short received a letter from John Kuhn, a student at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Kuhn asked Mrs. Short if she would consider editing a newsletter on UFO’s. Mrs. Short, who had several years of newspaper experience and was herself a UFO buff, accepted the proposal with delight.

Through the efforts Mrs. Short and Kuhn, ‘Skylook’ was born and served as a newsletter for a UFO study group in St. Louis. Mrs. Short assimilated the information and Kuhn, the ‘publisher,’ mimeographed 30 to 40 copies of the magazine.

The first few issues of ‘Skylook’ endured a period of severe labor pains and its growth was marked with subsequent, sporadic ‘now-and-then’ issues.

In 1969, college responsibilities forced Kuhn to resign as publisher. But Mrs. Short was too involved to give up the cause or the publication. She promptly bought her own mimeograph machine (which she soon dubbed ‘the Monster’) and undertook the task of printing the publication herself.

First issue difficult

‘I cried over that first issue. I didn’t know how to operate the mimeograph machine or apply the ink,’ Mrs. Short said.

It was a product of ‘blood, sweat and tears,’ she added.

While Mrs. Short carried on her duties as editor and publisher of ‘Skylook,’ that St. Louis UFO study group expanded and organized the Midwest UFO Network (MUFON).

Ted Phillips, 1104A West Third, an inspector for the State Highway Department, is also a field investigator for MUFON. He says the purpose of MUFON is ‘to inform the public of UFO sightings, encourage reporting of UFO’s and conduct scientific studies of the phenomenon.’

Phillips became involved with ‘Skylook’ when it began publication in 1967. He was one of the first UFO enthusiasts to contribute to the magazine.

In 1969, MUFON’s officers named ‘Skyllok’ as their official publication. From then on, Mrs. Short published regularly and has not missed an issue.

Since its establishment as a statewide organization in 1969, MUFON has mushroomed into an international group. So, at the MUFON Symposium in Kansas City this past June, the name was changed to Mutual UFO Network.

MUFON also has enlarged its staff to include several reputable scientists such as Dr. David Saunders, a nuclear physicist at the University of Colorado; and Dr. Allen Hynek, director of the Lindheimer Astronomical Research Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.

Magazine grows, too

As MUFON has grown in the past four years, so has ‘Skylook.’ Its circulation climbed from 30 to 70 copies a month. Mrs. Short abandoned her mimeograph machine a year ago in favour of offset printing by Morgan County Printers. Readership has expanded from a small group of UFO students to MUFON members (covering 29 states and parts of Canada, Europe and Australia) and other UFO enthusiasts not associated with MUFON.

‘I really get much more material each month than I could possibly use and I don’t even push it here in Stover. You might say that I’ve grown because MUFON has grown.

‘The first few years, I was ‘in the hole’ and had to pay the balance out of my pocket money. But for the past year and a half, ‘Skylook’ has been paying for itself.’

Though Mrs. Short is interested in UFO’s, she is not the type to tramp through woods and cornfields in search of physical traces. For the past year, ‘Skylook’ has been flying high with success and Mrs. Short is content with her role as editor and publisher.

‘This is something I have built up and I enjoy doing. It gives me a chance to write,’ Mrs. Short said. ‘I guess I’m a newswoman at heart. I worked on the Salem Post when I was younger and at that time I would have rather been a reporter than President.’

As editor, Mrs. Short has faith in what she publishes. She does believe there is more to our universe than Earth, and that it is possible for extraterrestrial life to land here.

‘Most of the things people think are UFO’s are really just stars, planets, plane lights or fireflies. But there are too many other ‘sightings’ that are unexplained.

‘We’re going to the [Moon] and will soon land on Mars. So, if there is other intelligent life in the universe, why shouldn’t they come and look at us?’ she said.”

My comment:
The late Mrs. Norma E. Short is without a doubt one of the unsung heroes within the UFO field.

https://newspaperarchive.com/Sedalia-democrat-aug-05-1973-p-13/

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(Democrat-Capital photo/newspaperarchive.com image)