by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear
On November 24, researcher/investigator Christopher O’Brien died in a tragic mishap. According to the post by Loren Coleman on his site Cryptozoonews, O’Brien was staying at the house of Ron James in Sedona, Arizona, helping him with the sequel to his film, Accidental Truth, when he started experiencing what James described as “catastrophic breathing difficulties” and tried to drive himself to the hospital. According to James, he likely lost consciousness and “crashed his car into a stone sign and was fatally wounded.” James wrote that he asked for a sign from his “departed friend” as he was returning from San Francisco and stopped by the crash site. He includes a picture of what he found, which was a piece of stone on the ground with the words “Church of Chris” (the final “t” was covered by debris). O’Brien leaves behind many friends in the UFO/Paranormal community who mourn his loss and celebrate his contributions.
O’Brien was a rare breed of researcher, and his methods and integrity remain as a standard that other researchers should be measured by. He appeared on Martin’s show on December 14, 2021, where he mostly talked about a UFO data acquisition system (developed as part of the Unidentified Flying Object Data Acquisition Project) and his involvement with it. He describes duplicating footage shot in Salida, Colorado, in 1995 of what became known as the “Edwards Cigar” when he happened to see a long strand of spider web floating in the breeze and shot footage of it as it was backlit by the sun. He explains, “We need to be intellectually honest about this stuff.” He adds “I’m just as willing to debunk a case or explain it away as I am to confirm it as being high strange.
The history of UFOlogy is made up of stories that range from genuine mystery to outright fraud. The choice of what to take seriously and what to discard can be difficult for those in the early stages of exploring the subject. A good maxim to start with might be “consider the source,” and some good claims to examine with this in mind are those involving metals (lately referred to as “metamaterials”) said to have been recovered from flying saucers/UFOs.
In the early 1970s, reports of people experiencing periods of missing time started turning up during investigations. A 
1973 was a great year for fans of high-strangeness UFO reports. The most famous of these is the October 11
In the annals of UFOlogy, there are many cases that, like zombies, refuse to stay buried even in the midst of convincing arguments and evidence debunking them. The case of the reported crash of an airship and recovery of its unearthly pilot in Aurora, Texas, in 1897 is a prime example of this. 
The reported sighting on February 4, 1977, of a UFO and creature by students at the Broad Haven Primary School in Pembrokeshire, Wales, was the beginning of a flap throughout the county. The area where reports were most concentrated has been dubbed “The Broad Haven Tringle.” Multiple witnesses were willing to go on record, including with the Ministry of Defense, saying they had seen not only strange craft, but silver-suited creatures as well. One dramatic encounter was recalled by a witness for Episode 3 of the 2023 series, Encounters, produced for Netflix by Steven Spielberg’s company. While this is many years later, the story told by the witness is the same as that told by the witness to an investigator who spoke to her and her mother closer to the event just months later. 
In last week’s 
Last Week, we wrote about a case that Betty Hill looked into and came upon another case she was involved with that intrigued us to the point that we were moved to explore it in detail. Most significantly, it involves reported encounters with Men in Black, one from a witness/experiencer (actually a Man in Dark Blue), and the other from the doctor who worked with him to recover memories using regressive hypnosis. 
Betty and Barney Hill came to the world’s attention when the report that they were abducted in 1961 by occupants of a UFO was taken seriously in the mainstream press. What is not widely known is that Betty turned to UFO investigation after this, and when Barney died in 1969, she became more deeply involved and travelled from conference to conference giving lectures on the subject. Betty’s niece, Kathleen Marden, co-authored the 2007 book with Stanton T. Friedman, Captured!, about her aunt’s and uncle’s experience. In Chapter 25 titled, “Fall From Grace,” Betty’s “commitment to solve the UFO mystery” is described. According to the authors, Betty received cautions and criticisms from members of the UFO community who were concerned that her subjective approach and intense belief were causing her to become the subject of media attention for all the wrong reasons and putting her credibility at risk. Even so, she is credited with participation in cases that have become part of the literature, and this week, we’ll look at one of those. 
As most people who have an interest in the subject of flying saucers/UFOs are aware, the United States Air Force had an official investigation program looking into the phenomenon for over 20 years, starting in 1948, that continued until its termination in 1969. What many might not be aware of is that England also had an early official interest in the subject, and the Ministry of Defense put together an investigation team in 1950 called “The Flying Saucer Working Party.” It lasted less than a year and was disbanded after the group issued a report recommending against further investigation. Continued sighting reports and interest among influential people caused the MoD to reconsider, and in 1952, two divisions of the Air Ministry were tasked with investigating.