569. Bob Spearing

Guest, Bob Spearing to discuss his role investigating UFOs, some interesting cases, and the history of people reporting balls of light over the centuries.  He also discusses the types of craft that have been reported, including some strange ones.

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Show Notes

On Location, Washington, DC w/ Chris Lehto UAP Hearing Episodes & Clips

YouTube Episodes & Clips From The UAP Hearing

CHRIS LEHTO’S Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisLehtoF16

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UFOs and Tiny Creatures in Malaysia

by Charles Lear

According to an article headlined “Humanoid Encounters in Malaysia,” written by West Malaysia MUFON Representative Ahmad Jamaludin and published in the November 1979 MUFON UFO Journal, in 1970 four boys in Johore Bahru told their headmaster that while on their way to school, they saw some six-inch creatures and a small UFO. News got around school and a search ensued. The only thing found to possibly back up the boys’ story was a burnt patch on the ground, but this report was the first of several throughout the decade of small UFOs and associated creatures ranging from 3 inches to six inches.

Jamaludin lists seven cases along with their dates, localities, and descriptions. He makes note of the fact that five of the reports came from school children in which the encounters were said to have taken place on school premises. According to him, the creatures were described as wearing one-piece suits and being “equipped with a type of ray gun.” Some had large heads with round eyes, and some of the three-inch creatures had antennas.  He mentions that there were “three more probable encounters with tiny humanoids, but unfortunately the origins of the incidents cannot be traced.” With that in mind, it should be noted that Jamaludin fails to cite any of his sources or give any of the witnesses’ names.

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UFOs, NICAP, and the CIA

by Charles Lear

Of all the private organizations devoted to UFO investigation, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena was arguably the most ambitious and tenacious. This was driven in large part by its director, Donald Keyhoe. Keyhoe held the beliefs that UFOs are extraterrestrial and that the U.S. Government, particularly the Air Force, was keeping information from the public that could possibly prove the ET hypothesis. As effective as NICAP was at hounding the Air Force and convincing many in the U.S. Congress that UFOs were deserving of scientific study, there are indications that the CIA was involved in both the beginning and the end of the organization.

Todd Zechel wrote about the CIA – NICAP connection in the January 1979 issue of Just Cause, the newsletter put out by Citizens Against UFO Secrecy. NICAP was incorporated in 1956, and two men Zechel argues were covert CIA operatives were put into chair positions within the organization. One of these men was Bernard J. O. Carvalho, who was made the chairman of NICAP’s membership subcommittee According to Zechel, Carvalho worked as a “front man” for companies secretly run by the CIA. The other was “Count” Nicolas de Rochefort, who was made Vice-Chairman of NICAP. According to Zechel, de Rochefort worked with the CIA’s Psychological Warfare Staff. Zechel tells the reader “there is more than ample evidence to conclusively establish both de Rochefort and Cavalho were at least during certain periods of their lives covert employees of the Central Intelligence Agency.”

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Show #434 Notes: Jack Sliwa

Simulcast on KGRA Radio, YouTube, Facebook & Twitch – Tuesday, December 22nd, 6:00-8:00 PM EDT (-5GMT)

BIO: Jack Sliwa is originally from the Boston area, he earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston, Mass. and then an MS in Materials Science from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. While at Northeastern University Jack did a CO-OP at the Charles Stark Draper Labs (CSDL) in Cambridge, Mass. where he worked to design and test Inertial Navigation Instruments. He was selected as CO-OP of the year by the late Dr Draper, Prof. Emeritus of MIT, inventor of Inertial Navigation and founder of Draper Labs. That experience also got me interested in related subjects such as propulsion, communication and sensors of all types. Read more

UFOs and Balloons

by Charles Lear

Throughout UFO history, a common explanation for sightings has been that the witness or witnesses saw a weather balloon. This explanation has often been used in a ludicrous manner by authorities seeking an easy means of dismissal, and this causes many UFOlogists to scoff at it in all cases. The truth is that it has been convincingly proven that weather balloons and balloons of all sorts have been mistaken as anomalous flying objects.

There is a classic Project Blue Book case known as, “The Gorman Dogfight.”  This incident occurred on October 1, 1948 and involved North Dakota Air National Guardsman, Lt. Frank Gorman. Gorman described chasing a six to eight inch, white light with sharp edges that “was blinking on and off. He chased it in an F-51, getting up to a maximum speed of 400 miles per hour, and it eluded him. The explanation in the Blue Book file is that Gorman was chasing a lighted balloon but there are problems with that and even notorious skeptic, Donald Menzel took issue with it.  What makes the balloon explanation doubtful is that two air traffic controllers saw the object from the ground and one described its speed as “excessive”. Adding to this, a pilot in the vicinity flying a Piper Cub also saw the object and described it as “moving very swiftly”. Menzel resolved the problem by concluding that Gorman was seeing a balloon and “a mirage of the planet Jupiter”.

Because this was at the very beginning of modern UFOlogy, the balloon explanation was off to a bad start and would continue to be used by the Air Force as a convenient way to dismiss a case. This was unfortunate because the explanation is often correct and if the Air Force could have been trusted it would have been able to remove a lot of noise from the signal.

A Blue Book case involving what appears to be a genuine misidentified balloon appears in a scanned document from the collection of Robert Mercer. The document can be viewed in the section, “From the Desks of Project Blue Book” on The Black Vault website. A .pdf labeled, “Balloons” has an undated description of the above- mentioned incident along with pictures. The report states that there had been “a rash of UFO sightings” reported from Golden, Colorado. The case was solved when police found a homemade hot air balloon made of thin clear plastic with a “saucer- shaped platform” that supported candles. Read more

The U.F.O. Baptism of James Moseley

by Charles Lear

Among the early flying saucer investigators who stumbled their way through the mystery in the late 1940s and early 50s, there were some fascinating characters.  Imagine being able to meet and discuss flying saucers with the likes of Donald E. Keyhoe, Edward J. Ruppelt, Frank Scully, Albert Bender or Gray Barker.  A young man who did was James Moseley, who had more than a passing interest in the subject.  With no prior writing experience or credentials, he convinced the most prominent people in the field to sit with him for interviews for a book he’d set out to write.  He never published the book but found a place for himself in the world of flying saucers and saucerers where he’d remain for the rest of his life.

In 1950, James Moseley was a young man with a trust fund who had just quit Princeton University.  He had enough money that he didn’t have to do anything productive but he quickly became bored with “recreational drinking” and skirt chasing.  According to him, in his 2002 autobiography, “Shockingly Close to the Truth: Confessions of a Grave-Robbing UFOlogist”, he sought a more satisfying way to fill his days and decided on travel and exploration.  He got in contact with a well-known Italian explorer, Attilio Gatti, and paid to tag along with him to Africa.  After his return, he approached an American explorer, Ken Krippine.  Krippine was a regular contributor to Argosy magazine and lectured on his travels as well.

Moseley lived in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and when Krippine came to New York City in 1953, Moseley was able to meet with him.  Krippine quickly realized that he’d found a good thing in Moseley and made use of him as a chauffer and a source of funds.  After becoming aware that he was being used, Moseley made Krippine sign an agreement.  It stated that when it came time to go on his expedition, in this case, Peru, Moseley’s way was paid in full.

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