Glenn Campbell -- known on the Internet as Psychospy -- is a balding 36 year old former software developer who makes his home in Las Vegas, ninety miles due south of the top-secret military test facility known to the locals as Dreamland, Area 51, or Groom Lake.
In 1992, Campbell sold his shares in the Boston-based software firm he worked for and headed out west to investigate the strange rumors buzzing around the mysterious area. Campbell has been a civilian fly in the official ointment ever since, drawing public attention to the quasi-illegal land grabs around the secret base by the military. The result has been that both he and Area 51 have received coverage in everything from tabloid TV to the New York Times.
Stories from the Nevada desert are legion of craft performing impossible aeronautical maneuvers, and technology that's literally "out of this world." Campbell's heard it all. A sardonic observer of human folly, with a Pythonesque sense of humor, he has long taken the UFO folklore that has accreted around Area 51 with a grain of salt. So I found it surprising to find him entertaining "extreme possibilities" when I met with him.
Sitting cross-legged on his hotel bed, with The X Files' Scully and Mulder debating in the background, Campbell soberly told me, and a few others, a tale that would test the credulity of any reporter.
Campbell has published the testimony of a man who he will only identify as "Jarod 2" -- a retired 70-year old mechanical engineer who claims to have worked at an unidentified facility from the 1950's into the 1980's. According to Campbell, Jarod claims to have spent at least a decade working on a top secret project involving flight simulators, which he later learned were based on recovered alien technology. He came forth with his story, says Campbell, only after checking with his old supervisor, who gave Jarod the go ahead to relate some, but not all, aspects of his work.
Not only was alien technology recovered decades ago in New Mexico -- in 1953, according to this particular tale -- but alien bodies as well. Some of which, according to Jarod, were alive.
"Do you believe his story?" I asked Campbell.
"I don't know whether to believe it or not," he replied. "All I know is that it's a story from an old guy I'd trust with my life." Campbell adds that he is satisfied by interviewing Jarod's family members that he is genuine.
Not a story that particularly satisfies all the protocols of who, what, when, where. Campbell won't identify Jarod as yet -- citing the unwanted attentions of the fringe element. Only one person has gone on record with a tale similar to Jarod's: the legendary Bob Lazar, who really began the whole Area 51 craze. Lazar has pretty much gone underground, apparently tired of the fickle opinions of the UFO subculture.
On the face of it, the Jarod story sounds ridiculous. Campbell would be the first to agree, and simply shrugs and says his role is simply that of a "collector of stories," a sort of postmodern folklorist. He remains resolutely agnostic about the tales of crashed saucers. "If this civilization is so advanced," he writes in his online newsletter, the Groom Lake Desert Rat, "why can't they keep their craft in the air? It would be just our luck that the aliens visiting earth are the drunk drivers of the universe, sent here to complete a 12-step program but taking the wheel again while still in denial."
Another collector of stories is George Knapp, a burly, bearded investigative journalist and Las Vegas television reporter. Knapp has said he has found greater fear in current and retired military personnel with UFO information than any Nevada residents with information on organized crime. I asked Knapp if anyone with a military background has told him anything similar to the Jarod tale. "About twelve people," said Knapp, adding that none of them are willing to go on record.
Campbell has provided a detailed accounting of Jarod's story in several issues of the Desert Rat posted on his Web site. Those with Web access are encouraged to examine Desert Rat issues #24, 27 and 33 at URL http://www.cris.com/~psyspy/area51/desert_rat.
INTRODUCING JAROD -- AN EXCERPT FROM DESERT RAT #24
[The following excerpt from Glenn Campbell's Groom Lake Desert Rat Newsletter is meant not only to give further detail on the mysterious "Jarod" -- who says he has nicknamed himself after an alien of his acquaintance -- but also to demonstrate Campbell's own unique and entertaining style of presentation. For much more on this story, refer to Campbell's Web site.]
Our source has chosen "Jarod" as his pseudonym. That's pronounced "JAY-rod," which is the name of a certain individual for whom our source has great respect. The original Jarod is an alien, working here on earth as a scientific translator for the secret government research program. We have seen a sketch of "Jarod 1" drawn by our source, "Jarod 2." Jarod 1 is a handsome looking Gray, like you've probably seen on UFO shows on TV. He has a large, round, hairless head, with an expressionless slit for a mouth, two small holes for a nose and big, black wraparound eyes. He has four long fingers on each hand, ending in very long, Howard Hughes-style nails. Unlike on television, this Gray is dressed in human clothing. He is wearing a button-down shirt and is shown in the sketch in a relaxed, human-like posture as though sitting behind a desk. Our source explains that the street clothes are intended only to put at ease the humans who must interact with the alien. Our source says (with some ambiguity), that when Jarod 1 speaks to you, "you hear it in your own voice."
Jarod 2 (henceforth simply "Jarod") is a human. He is a retired 70-year-old mechanical engineer who grew up in Pennsylvania and who says he worked for the secret government program from the mid-1950s until his retirement in the late 1980s. We cannot attest to anything about Jarod's claims except that he has made them to us directly and we feel that, according our own private system of evaluation, he is genuine. We have not attempted to verify anything about his background. Our style is to take him at his word, collect the story as "folklore," then look for connections with the body of folklore we are assembling from other sources. What is true or false, we believe, will shake out on its own, because any fiction, carefully explored, will eventually prove inconsistent with itself. In the meantime, a well-crafted story is rare enough that it deserves appreciation on its own merits, independent of how it pans out.
In this case, even more than others, we have used a pseudonym for our source not to hide him from the government, which seems perfectly aware of his activities, but to protect him from an onslaught of UFO believers, tabloid TV shows and, yes, alien ambassadors. The Ambassador Merlyn Merlin II from the planet Draconis, a self-proclaimed alien in human form who preaches his own peculiar religion, is already aware of some of Jarod's claims and has camped out in his car in front of Jarod's house as though it were some sort of temple...
Jarod's story is a compelling one, with all the elements necessary to make it the obsession of many a UFO fanatic. It could also become a tabloid extravaganza. "Encounters" has been calling him, as have been organizers of UFO conventions in California who want to pay him big bucks to speak -- no verification required. Jarod has so far declined these offers. Jarod has already spoken, in a low-key way and without pay, at some minor UFO gatherings. He is not a flamboyant speaker, and he is easy to overlook among the extravagant claims and slick sales presentations at many UFO events. Nonetheless, word is starting to get around among the reasonably intelligent that this witness is a cut above the rest. We imagine that his name will be well-known before long, but we do not want to do anything to hasten the process. We are fond of Jarod, and do not want to jeopardize his privacy or the good will of his former employers.
JAROD'S CLAIMS...
In summary, this is what Jarod claims:
-- For over 30 years, Jarod worked on the mechanical design for simulators for human reproductions of alien flying saucers. These simulators are used to train pilots to fly the craft, but they are more than just a cockpit. They reproduce the entire craft, inside and out. Jarod says he knows of three of these simulators now in operation.
-- Although he worked only with the human built simulators, some of the technical details he is familiar with reflect on those of the original craft. The simulators closely match the kind of craft [Bob] Lazar describes, with a reactor in the middle and three gravity amplifiers below deck.
-- Jarod's working environment was highly compartmentalized and all information strictly controlled -- so much so that routine communications with other groups was severely impeded. Nonetheless, Jarod and his group were briefed over the years on human contact with the aliens and the secret government program that works with them. Jarod does not claim to know the whole story of what the aliens and secret program are up to but he offers some intriguing hints.
-- On several occasions, Jarod 2 has seen Jarod 1, the Gray, but has never communicated with him.
-- Jarod has been speaking to us and to the small UFO groups with the permission of his former employers. He is speaking at his own initiative, but he clears what he says with his former boss first. Some topics have been nixed and others approved, and what he has told us so far appears to be only a small part of what he knows.
We acknowledge that this is a lot to swallow at once. Many similar claims have been made in the UFO literature over the years, not many of them credible. What makes Jarod different for us is that we know him personally. We have talked with him many times over the past six months, and we see in his words and behavior all the nuances of reality. We also know several members of his family, and they all regard him as truthful, although a bit of a mystery even to them. Jarod's brother and son knew that he worked for classified defense-related projects throughout his career but they say he has never discussed his work until recently.
[CNI News makes no claim that the foregoing is true. However, we believe Campbell himself to be a talented, discriminating and sincere researcher. Since the above text was first published in mid-1995, Campbell has continued to explore and write about Jarod's case.]
Original file name: .CNI - re Campbell.Jarod
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