by Charles Lear
This is the third in a series examining the rather grim subject of UFO related injuries. While we don’t want to dwell on this aspect of the mystery too extensively, it would be remiss to leave the subject without exploring what happened in Brazil in 1977. The events there were extraordinary, as was the investigation by the Brazilian Air Force. Fortunately, it was not the start of a trend in UFO contact, for had it been, many of us might be considerably more anxious.
From April 1977 into 1978, there was a flap over the Amazon Delta in the northeast section of Brazil. Because it involved reports of attacks and injuries, the Brazilian Air Force was moved to put together a special operation to deal with it. It was designated “Operação Prato”, which is Portuguese for “Operation Plate.”
The name was chosen by Captain Uyrangê Hollanda. He explained his choice to researchers Ademar José Gevaerd and Cynthia Luce. Because he was not able to use the expressions, “flying saucer” or “flying disk,” he “chose a cousin of a saucer, a plate.” According to him, the expression in Portugal is “flying plate.” The popular expression in Brazil is “discos voadors.”
Hollanda was head of operations for A2, the intelligence branch of the Air Force. The operation was lead by him, and he had a team of six sergeants. Their equipment consisted of a theodolite, tape recorders and cameras. They were sent to the city of Belém, after the mayors of several surrounding villages complained of UFO attacks on their citizens. Read more
The UFO mystery is not a 20th century phenomenon, but it did in many ways come into prominence in the 20th century. Serious study of UFOs began around World War II and thrived in the following decades. During this golden age of UFO study radio was the dominant form of electronic media. Although film and television existed, radio was a much more important source of timely news and information. Also during this time UFO investigators would find audio recording devices much more portable, reliable and affordable than film equipment. All of this led to an incredible amount of information from the golden age of UFO study being stored in audio formats.
The first case comes from a report in the 
Starting in 1947, UFOs seemed to be engaging humanity in a step-by-step process. In the first few years, only the UFOs were reported. Then, there were accounts of occupants showing themselves during what has become known as the 1954 French Wave. An intimate encounter was described by Brazilian farmer, 
There is a classic Project Blue Book case known as, 
In 1961, Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe, USMC (Ret.) was the director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. That year, he and his organization were making life difficult for the Air Force with criticism of their UFO investigation, Project Blue Book. This was nothing new, but now they were close to getting open hearings in Congress to address their criticisms.
It was recently announced that the radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, the world’s largest until 2016, is beyond repair and will be demolished. It is an icon of modern astronomy on par with the Very Large Array (seen in the movie “Contact”) located in New Mexico, and the news has stirred an emotional response among many. For UFOlogists, the Arecibo telescope holds a special significance. It was from this telescope on November 16, 1974, that the first, scientist approved message intended for extraterrestrial intelligence was sent. It consists of a series of binary numbers that code for a graphic giving basic information about the chemistry of life on earth, human DNA, human form, and the telescope itself. The message was designed by Cornell astronomy professor Dr. Frank Drake, with input from others including Dr. Carl Sagan. If anyone ever responds, there are many out there listening, from radio astronomers to those specifically searching for extraterrestrial intelligence. But, there are those who believe the call has already been returned.
On Aug. 15, 1977, a strong intermittent signal was picked up by the Big Ear telescope in Delaware, Ohio. It lasted for 72 seconds and stood out in sharp contrast to the background noise. The signal was powerful and unusual and prompted astronomer Jerry Ehman to write “Wow!” next to the signal on a printout. The team focused on the area of the signal’s origin, but it never returned. Observatory Director John Krauss wrote to Carl Sagan that the “signal is highly suggestive of extraterrestrial intelligent origin, but little more can be said until it returns for further study.”
The year 1957 was a very interesting one in UFO history. In that year, UFO occupant reports were accepted as worthy of investigation by serious organizations such as the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization and Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York; Contactees were in the spotlight thanks to the 
Because the F stands for “flying” in the acronym UFO, it stands to reason that pilots should frequently be UFO witnesses. They certainly are and there is even a specialized reporting center just for them. The National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena was founded in 1999 by Dr. Richard M. Haines. The organization is dedicated to the study of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena and their effects on aviation safety. By the way, Dr. Haines finds the UFO designation for the phenomena so distasteful, he refuses to appear on Podcast UFO. Most pilots prefer to remain anonymous, as publicly admitting to seeing a flying saucer is not usually an enhancement to their careers.
The 1975 book by John Keel, “The Mothman Prophecies,” is a complex book. The book’s through line centers on events in Point Pleasant, West Virginia from Nov. 15, 1966 to Dec. 15, 1967. These involved UFOs, sightings of a winged humanoid with glowing red eyes dubbed “The Mothman” and the collapse of the Silver Bridge, which spanned the Ohio River. But, the book is about so much more than that. It can be read several times and, depending on the reader’s perspective, be a completely different experience each time. It contains contactee stories, abductee stories, MiB encounters, Grinning Man encounters, a nighttime bedroom invader in a checkered jacket, strange metallic voices on the telephone, paranoia, poltergeists and prophecies. The reader can dive in repeatedly and come up with a tale that is interesting enough on its own to warrant further research. The tale involving Jaye P. Paro, Apol and Princess Moon Owl is one of those.
John Keel was a New York City resident and freelance writer who traveled the world looking for stories. During the period covered in “The Mothman Prophecies,” he was dividing his time, investigating strange events in both Point Pleasant and Long Island. The Long Island tale begins in the book with Keel’s investigation of reports of strange visitors by residents living on Mount Misery. Mount Misery is the highest point on Long Island at 400 ft and, put simply, is a big pile of gravel left behind by the last glacier that stopped by around 20,000 years ago. One resident there told of being visited by four men, three of whom looked “like Indians.” They politely told her that her land belonged to their tribe and they meant to reclaim it. She was “frightened” by their feet. They had no car and would have had to walk through mud to get to her house and yet they had none on their shoes. Keel was running into many similar stories of people who didn’t seem to quite fit in. He was becoming convinced that the people being described were extraterrestrials from another planet, or ultraterrestrials from another dimension.
In the world of UFOlogy, some stories continue on, even after they’ve been convincingly debunked. This is often due to a particular story’s entertainment value and, it should be remembered, many UFO stories exist in an area between fiction and fact. If we were to assign this area a genera name, perhaps “true science fiction” might be appropriate. The idea that a fantastic story could be true, makes the story that much more interesting and suspension of disbelief is something everyone engages in when they want to be entertained. One such story, a biographical tale under the byline, Fred Reagan, appeared in the May 1953 issue of Action magazine. It could be held up as an example of what many paranormal enthusiasts call, “high strangeness.” However, it seems to be what folklorists call, “a tall tale.”
He found himself inside a dimly lit room surrounded by strange beings. They were around three feet tall and resembled “huge stalks of metallic asparagus.” He lost consciousness. When he came to, a metallic voice spoke to him through a speaker. Using broken English, the voice apologized for the collision, saying it had been an accident. It explained they were here to observe our primitive civilization and that their mission was peaceful. The voice further told him that they’d examined him and found a cancerous tumor, which they “adjusted.” He was instructed not to talk about the incident, as no one would believe him.