Podcast UFO

by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”

At the suggestion of Mr. Martin Willis, this week we are looking at a report involving a UFO incident on October 24, 1968, at Minot AFB in North Dakota. It involved sightings reported by ground observers stationed at the surrounding Minuteman ICBM complex as well as the crew of a B-52. What gives this case extra significance is that there are available photos of the B-52 radarscope to back up the crew’s account. There is a Project Blue Book file on the case that contains the conclusion that what was seen was possibly a combination of “anomalous propagation” of radar returns, a plasma ball, and celestial bodies, but an exceptional investigation begun in 2000 by members of the recently formed Sign Historical Group indicates that the incident involved something genuinely mysterious.

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by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”

In 1986, Jim Speiser of Fountain Hills, Arizona, got the urge to create an electronic forum dedicated to a discussion of paranormal topics. He started a BBS (bulletin board system) using six personal computers located at various locations in the U.S. and Canada linked together with a Fidonet system. Speiser called his new BBS “The ParaNet.” In the summer of 1991, there was a “spin-off” of ParaNet named the Multi-national Investigations Cooperative on Aerial Phenomena, and ParaNet published a magazine called Continuum to get their investigations reports out to the public. The first case in the Volume 1, Number 1, September 1991 issue involves an investigation by James Black (who wrote the report) and Robert Atwood of a simple crop circle that formed overnight starting on August 21, 1991, in a cornfield in Iowa that led them to other reports of strange activity in the area. The case became far more complex than a simple crop circle report, and this has ended up becoming a two-part blog. In the first part, we looked at the investigation and three witness accounts, and in the second part, we’ll look at one more account, the conclusions, and the aftermath, which included poltergeist activity reported to have been experienced by a fellow investigator at his home. Read more →

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by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”

In 1986, Jim Speiser of Fountain Hills, Arizona, got the urge to create an electronic forum dedicated to a discussion of paranormal topics. He started a BBS (bulletin board system) using six personal computers located at various locations in the U.S. and Canada linked together with a Fidonet system. People would dial a number that would access a computer through a modem, and they could read and post messages and access files. Speiser called his new BBS “The ParaNet.” In the summer of 1991, there was a “spin-off” of ParaNet named the Multi-national Investigations Cooperative on Aerial Phenomena, and ParaNet published a magazine called Continuum to get their investigations reports out to the public. The first case in the Volume 1, Number 1, September 1991 issue involves an investigation of a simple crop circle in a cornfield in Iowa that led researchers to other reports of strange activity in the area. The case became far more complex than a simple crop circle report, and this has ended up becoming a two-part blog. In the first part, we’ll look at the investigation and three witness accounts, and in the second part we’ll look at one more account, the conclusions, and the aftermath, which included poltergeist activity reported to have been experienced by one investigator at his home. Read more →

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by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”

In 1975, after the Travis Walton Incident on November 5, because of the attention it received in the press and among the UFO community, there were two flaps in Florida that fell through the cracks and have all but been forgotten. The first one was in the area of Miami- Dade County that started on the same day as the Walton incident, and the second was a little over a month later around 50 miles south of Jacksonville in the small farming community of Hastings. The Miami-Dade reports received a good amount of local press, as did the Hastings reports. The Hastings reports were looked into by the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, and there is an article on the case in the January 1976 APRO Bulletin.

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by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”

Recently, on July 26, KLAS Chief Investigative Reporter George Knapp attended the House Oversight Committee hearing on UFOs. He submitted a written statement describing his interest in and involvement with the subject that was read into the record. A part of his statement that has made headlines is a description of an incident involving UFOs over a Russian ICBM base in Ukraine that seemingly took control of the base launch system. He said this story was to him by a man he described as the director of Russia’s official UFO investigation, Col. Boris Sokolov. According to Knapp, the study lasted ten years, “and was likely the largest UFO investigation ever undertaken.” As this is now in the historical record, it might be of interest to know how Knapp got in touch with Sokolov and consider how accurate his information might have been.  Read more →

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by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”

In part 1 of this blog, we looked at a 1993 case from Southern England that has become known as “The Cosford Incident.” It involved a series of UFO sightings reports, many from police, on March 30 and 31, 1993. British UFO researcher Nick Pope was manning the UFO desk in Sec(AS)2a of the Ministry of Defense at the time and described himself on an episode of NEWS 7 Spotlight as being “broadly skeptical” when it came to UFOs and that his investigation of this case was “the turning point.” The case became a British classic due in part to Pope’s description of it in his 1996 book, Open Skies, Closed Minds. However, other researchers, such as Jenny Randles of the British UFO Research Association, suspected that some of the sightings were of a satellite rocket booster from Cosmos 2235 (sent up by the Commonwealth of Independent States) re-entering the atmosphere. One report from RAF Shawbury that was highlighted by Pope was later reconsidered by the witness as also having a prosaic explanation. Because the file (Part 1, Part 2) on the case was released to the public by the MoD, details can be examined by anyone with an interest. Read more →

by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”

Recently, on August 24, Calvin Parker passed on at the age of 68. In 1973, he, along with Charles Hickson, reported being abducted by strange creatures in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Afterwards, he spent decades hiding from public attention, moving repeatedly, and changing his name. As the 50^th anniversary of the incident was approaching, with the encouragement of his wife, Waynett, Calvin began to publicly acknowledge who he was and what he reportedly experienced. He spent the last decade of his life making friends among the UFO community while speaking about his experience on podcasts, radio shows, and conventions after writing a book, Pascagoula – The Closest Encounter: My Story, that was published in 2018. Martin and Podcast UFO played a large part in Calvin’s re-entry into the public arena and also provided a vehicle for a happy reunion with an estranged family member. Read more →

by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”

On March 30, and 31, 1993, reports of a UFO over Southern England came in to the Ministry of Defense. Nick Pope was manning the “UFO desk” at the time, and he described that “the phones were ringing off the hook.” He posted a description of the most dramatic reports on February 20, 2007, on the Physics Forum website. He appeared in a 2009 7 News Spotlight (an Australian program) segment presented by Russ Coulthart and described himself as “broadly skeptical” and his investigation of this series of reports as “the turning point.” Pope described the case in his 1996 book, “Open Skies, Closed Minds,” which helped to make it a classic, but Jenny Randles of the British UFO Research Association suspected that some of the sightings were of a satellite rocket booster from Cosmos 2235 (sent up by the Commonwealth of Independent States) re-entering the atmosphere. One report from RAF Shawbury that was described by Pope was later reconsidered by the witness as also having a prosaic explanation. Because the file (Part 1, Part 2) on the case was released to the public by the MoD, the details of the case can be examined by anyone with an interest.

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by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”

This is the third part in a series looking at two separate encounters in Winchester, England, with UFOs and humanoids reported by two friends, 42-year-old Joyce Bowles and 58-year-old Ted Pratt. They reported that as Bowles was driving with Pratt in the passenger seat prior to their first encounter, Bowles’s Cooper Mini Clubman travelled diagonally as if it was floating after the steering wheel locked, and the car came to a rest on a strip of grass (known as a “verge” in England) next to the road. They said they then saw a craft hovering 18 inches above the ground with 3 humanoids behind a window or windows sitting lined up as if they were on a bus. A creature left the craft, possibly by walking through it, came up to the car, and seemed to have put its hand on the roof as it looked in Bowles’s window. It was said to have been wearing what looked like a silver “boiler suit” and to have had long hair that curled up in the back, sideburns that came down to a pointed beard, and brilliant red eyes with no pupils or irises. They said that during their second encounter, they found themselves standing next to Bowles’s car inside what they assumed was a spaceship. The creatures spoke with them, said they weren’t there to invade and that they’d be back. Their case got the interest of researchers from various organizations and there is one article examining it in the March/April 1977 BUFORA Journal and FOUR articles in the February 1977, Vol. 22, No. 5 Flying Saucer Review. In the course of the investigation, it came out that there were after-effects and that Bowles had a history of reported paranormal experiences and well as healing and psychic abilities. One of the researchers, Lionel Beer, reported in his article in the BUFORA Journal that Bowles’s history made him dubious, but he and the others didn’t discount her claims, possibly due to the influence the ideas of John Keel and Jacques Vallée were having on researchers at the time. Leslie Harris makes a reference to Vallée’s 1969 book “Passport to Magonia” in his article covering the case in Flying Saucer Review. Read more →

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