From - Wed Oct 16 20:19:46 1996
X-POP3-Rcpt: ez073888@peseta
Received: from franc.ucdavis.edu by peseta.ucdavis.edu (8.8.0/UCD3.7.1)
	id TAA12500; Wed, 16 Oct 1996 19:23:59 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from caleb.INS.CWRU.Edu by franc.ucdavis.edu (8.8.0/UCD3.7.1)
	id OAA11901; Wed, 16 Oct 1996 14:18:08 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (aa440@localhost) by caleb.INS.CWRU.Edu (8.7.6+cwru/CWRU-2.3-bsdi)
	id QAA05605; Wed, 16 Oct 1996 16:58:06 -0400 (EDT) (from aa440)
Message-Id: <199610162058.QAA05605@caleb.INS.CWRU.Edu>
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 16:58:06 -0400 (EDT)
From: aa440@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Dale Wedge)
To: orphillips@ucdavis.edu
Subject: Re: Air Force UFO Textbook
Reply-To: aa440@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Dale Wedge)
Content-Type: text
X-Mozilla-Status: 0011
Content-Length: 36212

In a previous article, xx044 (UFOlogy SIG) says:

>
>     In the late 1960's, the U.S. Air Force Academy was using a 
>textbook, written by USAF officers and published by the Air 
>Force, in one of its physics classes.  When the existence of 
>this text became public knowledge, the Air Force withdrew the 
>portions of the text which are included below.
>
>THIS IS AN ORIGINAL AIR FORCE DOCUMENT.....
>
>
> 
>________________________________________________________________
>
>         INTRODUCTORY SPACE SCIENCE - VOLUME II - DEPARTMENT OF 
>                               PHYSICS - USAF
>                                  Edited by:
>                          Major Donald G. Carpenter
>                                  Co-Editor:
>                      Lt. Colonel Edward R. Therkelson
>                                 CHAPTER XIII
>                          UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
>     What is an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO)?  Well, 
>according to United States Air Force Regulation 80-17 (dated 19 
>September 1966), a UFO is "Any" aerial Phenomenon or object 
>which is unknown or appears to be out of the ordinary to the 
>observer."  This is a very broad definition which applies
> equally well to one individual seeing his first noctilucent 
>cloud at twilight as it does to another individual seeing his 
>first helicopter.  However, at present most people consider the 
>term UFO to mean an object which behaves in a strange or erratic 
>manner while moving through the Earth's atmosphere.  That 
>strange phenomenon has evoked strong emotions and great 
>curiosity among a large segment of our world's population.  The 
>average person is interested because he loves a mystery, the 
>professional military man is involved because of the possible 
>threat to national security, and some scientists are interested 
>because of the basic curiosity that led them into becoming 
>researchers.
>     The literature on UFO's is so vast, and the stories so many 
>and varied, that we can only present a sketchy outline of the 
>subject in this chapter. That outline includes description 
>classifications, operational domains (temporal and spatial), 
>some theories as to the nature of the UFO phenomenon, human 
>reactions, attempts to attack the problem scientifically, and 
>some tentative conclusions.  If you wish to read further in this 
>area, the references provide an excellent starting point.
>
> 33.1 DESCRIPTIONS
>
>     One of the greatest problems you encounter when attempting 
>to catalog UFO sightings, is selection of a system for 
>cataloging.  No effective system has yet been devised, although 
>a number of different systems have been proposed.  The net 
>result is that almost all UFO data are either treated in the 
>form of individual cases, or in the forms of inadequate 
>classification systems.  However, these systems do tend to have 
>some common factors, and a collection of these factors is as 
>follows:
>  a. Size
>  b. Shape (disc, ellipse, football, etc.)
>  c. Luminosity
>  d. Color
>  e. Number of UFO's
>
> Behavior:
>
>     a. Location (altitude, direction, etc.)
>     b. Patterns of paths (straight line, climbing, zig-zagging, 
>etc.)
>     c. Flight Characteristics (wobbling, fluttering, etc.)
>     d. Periodicity of sightings
>     e. Time duration
>     f. Curiosity or inquisitiveness
>     g. Avoidance
>     h. Hostility
>
> Associated Effects:
>
>     a. Electro-Magnetic (compass, radio, ignition systems, 
>etc.)
>     b. Radiation (burns, induced radioactivity, etc.)
>     c. Ground disturbance (dust stirred up, leaves moved, 
>standing wave
>     d. Sound (none, hissing, humming, roaring, thunderclaps, 
>etc.)
>     e. Vibration (weak, strong, slow, fast)
>     f. Smell (ozone or other odor)
>     g. Flame (how much, where, when, color)
>     h. Smoke or cloud (amount, color, persistence)
>     i. Debris (type, amount, color, persistence)
>     j. Inhibition of voluntary movement by observers
>     k. Sighting of "creatures" or "beings"
>
> After Effects:
>
>     a. Burned areas or animals
>     b. Depressed or flattened areas
>     c. Dead or missing animals
>     d. Mentally disturbed people
>     e. Missing items
>
> We make no attempt here to present available data in terms of 
>the foregoing descriptors.
>
> 33.2 OPERATIONAL DOMAINS - TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL
>
>     What we will do here is to present evidence that UFO's are 
>a global phenomenon which may have persisted for many thousands 
>of years.  During this discussion, please remember that the more 
>ancient the reports the less sophisticated the observer.  Not 
>only were the ancient observers lacking the terminology 
>necessary to describe complex devices (such as present day 
>helicopters) but they were also lacking the concepts necessary 
>to understand the true nature of such things as television, 
>spaceships, rockets, nuclear weapons and radiation effects.  To 
>some, the most advanced technological concept was a war chariot 
>with knife blades attached to the wheels.  By the same token, 
>the very lack of accurate terminology and descriptions leaves 
>the more ancient reports open to considerable misinterpretation, 
>and it may well be that present evaluations of individual 
>reports are completely wrong.  Nevertheless, let us start with 
>an intriguing story in one of the oldest chronicles of 
>India...the Book of Dzyan.
>     The book is a group of "story-teller" legends which were 
>finally gathered in manuscript form when man learned to write.  
>One of the stories is of a small group of beings who supposedly 
>came to Earth many thousands of years ago in a metal craft which 
>orbited the Earth several times before landing.  As told in the 
>Book "These beings lived to themselves and were revered by the 
>humans among whom they had settled.  But eventually differences 
>arose among them and they divided their numbers, several of the 
>men and women and some children settled in another city, where 
>they were promptly installed as rulers by the awe-stricken 
>populace.
>     "Separation did not bring peace to these people and finally 
>their anger reached a point where the ruler of the original city 
>took with him a small number of his warriors and they rose into 
>the air in a huge shining metal vessel.  While they were many 
>leagues from the city of their enemies, they launched a great 
>shining lance that rode on a beam of light.  It burst apart in 
>the city of their enemies with a great ball of flame that shot 
>up to the heavens, almost to the stars.  All those who were in 
>the city were horribly burned and even those who were not in the 
>city - but nearby - were burned also.  Those who looked upon the 
>lance and the ball of fire were blinded forever afterward.  
>Those who entered the city on foot became ill and died.  Even 
>the dust of the city was poisoned, as were the rivers that 
>flowed through it.  Men dared not go near it, and it gradually 
>crumbled into dust and was forgotten by men."
>     "When the leader saw what he had done to his own people he 
>retired to his palace and refused to see anyone.  Then he 
>gathered about him those warriors who remained, and their wives 
>and children, and they entered their vessels and rose one by one 
>into the sky and sailed away.  Nor did they return."
>     Could this foregoing legend really be an account of an 
>extraterrestrial colonization, complete with guided missle, 
>nuclear warhead and radiation effects?  It is difficult to 
>assess the validity of that explanation... just as it is 
>difficult to explain why Greek, Roman and Nordic Mythology all 
>discuss wars and contacts among their "Gods."  (Even the Bible 
>records conflict between the legions of God and Satan.)  Could 
>it be that each group recorded their parochial view of what was 
>actually a global conflict among alien colonists or visitors?  
>Or is it that man has led such a violent existence that he tends 
>to expect conflict and violence among even his gods?
>     Evidence of perhaps an even earlier possible contact was 
>uncovered by Tschi Pen Lao of the University of Peking.  He 
>discovered astonishing carvings in granite on a mountain in 
>Hunan Province and on an island in Lake Tungting.  These 
>carvings have been evaluated as 47,000 years old, and they show 
>people with large trunks (breathing apparatus?...or "elephant" 
>heads shown on human bodies?  Remember, the Egyptians often 
>represented their gods as animal heads on human bodies.)
>     Only 8,000 years ago, rocks were sculpted in the Tassili 
>plateau of Sahara, depicting what appeared to be human beings 
>but with strange round heads (helmets? or "sun" heads on human 
>bodies?)  And even more recently, in the Bible, Genesis (6:4) 
>tells of angels from the sky mating with women of Earth, who 
>bore them children.  Genesis 19:3 tells of Lot meeting two 
>angels in the desert and his later feeding them at his house.  
>The Bible also tells a rather unusual story of Ezekiel who 
>witnessed what has been interpreted by some to have been a 
>spacecraft or aircraft landing near the Chebar River in Chaldea 
>(593 B.C.).
>     Even the Irish have recorded strange visitations.  In the 
>Speculum Regali in Konungs Skuggsa (and other accounts of the 
>era about 956 A.D.) are numerous stories of "demonships" in the 
>skies.  In one case a rope from one such ship became entangled 
>with part of a church.  A man from the ship climbed down the 
>rope to free it, but was seized by the townspeople.  The bishop 
>made the people release the man, who climbed back to the ship, 
>where the crew cut the rope and the ship rose and sailed out of 
>sight. In all of his actions, the climbing man appeared as if he 
>were swimming in water.  Stories such as this makes one wonder 
>if the legends of the "little people" of Ireland were based upon 
>imagination alone.
>     About the same time, in Lyons (France) three men and a 
>women supposedly descended from an airship or spaceship and were 
>captured by a mob.  These foreigners admitted to being wizards, 
>and were killed.  (No mention is made of the methods employed to 
>extract the admissions.)  Many documented UFO sightings occurred 
>throughout the Middle Ages, including an especially startling 
>one of a UFO over London on 16 December 1742.  However, we do 
>not have room to include any more of the Middle Ages sightings.  
>Instead, two "more-recent" sightings are contained in this 
>section to bring us up to modern times.
>     In a sworn statement dated 21 April 1897, a prosperous and 
>prominent farmer named Alexander Hamilton (Le Roy, Kansas, 
>U.S.A.) told of an attack upon his cattle at about 10:30 p.m. 
>the previous Monday.  He, his son, and his tenant grabbed axes 
>and ran some 700 feet from the house to the cow lot where a 
>great cigar-shaped ship about 300 feet long floated some 30 feet 
>above the cattle.  It had a carriage underneath which was 
>brightly lighted within (dirigible and gondola?) and which had 
>numerous windows. Inside were six strange looking beings 
>jabbering in a foreign language. These beings suddenly became 
>aware of Hamilton and the others.  They immediately turned a 
>searchlight on the farmer, and also turned on some power which 
>sped up a turbine wheel (about 30 ft diameter) located under the 
>craft.  The ship rose, taking with it a two-year old heifer 
>which was roped about the neck by a cable of one-half inch 
>thick, red material.  The next day a neighbor, Link Thomas, 
>found the animal's hide, legs and head in his field.  He was 
>mystified at how the remains got to where they were because of 
>the lack of tracks in the soft soil.  Alexander Hamilton's sworn 
>statement was accompanied by an affidavit as to his veracity.  
>The affidavit was signed by ten of the local leading citizens.
>     On the evening of 4 November 1957 at Fort Itaipu, Brazil, 
>two sentries noted a "new star" in the sky.  The "star" grew in 
>size and within seconds stopped over the fort.  It drifted 
>slowly downward, was as large as a big aircraft, and was 
>surround by a strong orange glow.  A distinct humming sound was 
>heard, and then the heat struck.  One sentry collapsed almost 
>immediately, the other managed to slide to shelter under the 
>heavy cannons where his loud cries awoke the garrison.  While 
>the troops were scrambling towards their battle stations, 
>complete electrical failure occurred. There was panic until the 
>lights came back on but a number of men still managed to see an 
>orange glow leaving the area at high speed.  Both sentries were 
>found badly burned...one unconscious and the other incoherent, 
>suffering from deep shock.
>     Thus, UFO sightings not only appear to extend back to 
>47,000 years through time but also are global in nature.  One 
>has the feeling that this phenomenon deserves some sort of valid 
>scientific investigation, even if it is a low level effort. 33.3 
>SOME THEORIES AS TO THE NATURE OF THE UFO PHENOMENON
>     There are very few cohesive theories as to the nature of 
>UFO's.  Those theories that have been advanced can be collected 
>in five groups:
>     a. Mysticism
>     b. Hoaxes, and rantings due to unstable personalities
>     c. Secret Weapons
>     d. Natural Phenomena
>     e. Alien visitors
>
> Mysticism
>
>     It is believed by some cults that the mission of UFO's and 
>their crews is a spiritual one, and that all materialistic 
>efforts to determine the UFO's nature are doomed to failure.
>
>Hoaxes and Rantings due to Unstable Personalities
>
>     Some have suggested that all UFO reports were the results 
>of pranks and hoaxes, or were made by people with unstable 
>personalities.  This attitude was particularly prevalent during 
>the time period when the Air Force investigation was being 
>operated under the code name of Project Grudge.  A few airlines 
>even went as far as to ground every pilot who reported seeing a 
>"flying saucer."  The only way for the pilot to regain flight 
>status was to undergo a psychiatric examination.  There was a 
>noticeable decline in pilot reports during this time interval, 
>and a few interpreted this decline to prove that UFO's were 
>either hoaxes or the result of unstable personalities.  It is of 
>interest that NICAP (The National Investigations Committee on 
>Aerial Phenomena) even today still receives reports from 
>commercial pilots who neglect to notify either the Air Force or 
>their own airline.
>     There are a number of cases which indicate that not all 
>reports fall in the hoax category.  We will examine one such 
>case now.  It is the Socorro, New Mexico sighting made by police 
>Sergeant Lonnie Zamora. Sergeant Zamora was patrolling the 
>streets of Socorro on 24 April 1964 when he saw a shiny object 
>drift down into an area of gullies on the edge of town.  He also 
>heard a loud roaring noise which sounded as if an old dynamite 
>shed located out that way had exploded.  He immediately radioed 
>police headquarters, and drove out toward the shed.  Zamora was 
>forced to stop about 150 yards away from a deep gully in which 
>there appeared to be an overturned car.  He radioed that he was 
>investigating a possible wreck, and then worked his car up onto 
>the mesa and over toward the edge of the gully.  He parked 
>short, and when he walked the final few feet to the edge, he was 
>amazed to see that it was not a car but instead was a weird 
>eggshaped object about fifteen feet long, white in color and 
>resting on short, metal legs.  Beside it, unaware of his 
>presence were two humanoids dressed in silvery coveralls.  They 
>seemed to be working on a portion of the underside of the 
>object.  Zamora was still standing there, surprised, when they 
>suddenly noticed him and dove out of sight around the object. 
>Zamora also headed the other way, back toward his car.  He 
>glanced back at the object just as a bright blue flame shot down 
>from the underside. Within seconds the eggshaped thing rose out 
>of the gully with "an ear- -splitting roar."  The object was out 
>of sight over the nearby mountains almost immediately, and 
>Sergeant Zamora was moving the opposite direction almost as fast 
>when he met Sergeant Sam Chavez who was responding to Zamora's 
>earlier radio calls.  Together they investigated the gully and 
>found the bushes charred and still smoking where the blue flame 
>had jetted down on them.  About the charred area were four deep 
>marks where the metal legs had been.  Each mark was three and 
>one half inches deep, and was circular in shape.  The sand in 
>the gully was very hard packed so no sign of the humanoids' 
>footprints could be found.  An official investigation was 
>launched that same day, and all data obtained supported the 
>stories of Zamora and Chavez.  It is rather difficult to label 
>this episode a hoax, and it is also doubtful that both Zamora 
>and Chavez shared portions of the same hallucination.
>
> Secret Weapons
>
>     A few individuals have proposed that UFO's are actually 
>advanced weapon systems, and that their natures must not be 
>revealed.  Very few people accept this as a credible suggestion.
>
> Natural Phenomena
>
>     It has also been suggested that at least some, and possibly 
>all, of the UFO cases were just mis-interpreted manifestations 
>of natural phenomena. Undoubtedly this suggestion has some 
>merit.  People have reported, as UFO's, objects which were 
>conclusively proven to be balloons (weather and skyhook), the 
>planet Venus, man-made artificial satellites, normal aircraft, 
>unusual cloud formations, and lights from ceilometers (equipment 
>projecting light beams on cloud bases to determine the height of 
>the aircraft visual ceiling). It is also suspected that people 
>have reported mirages, optical illusions, swamp gas and ball 
>lightning (a poorly-understood discharge of electrical energy in 
>a spheroidal or ellipsoidal shape...some charges have lasted for 
>up to fifteen minutes but the ball is usually no bigger than a 
>large orange.) But it is difficult to tell a swamp dweller that 
>the strange, fast-moving light he saw in the sky was swamp gas; 
>and it is just as difficult to tell a farmer that a bright UFO 
>in the sky is the same ball lightning that he has seen rolling 
>along his fence wires in dry weather.  Thus accidental mis-
>identification of what might well be natural phenomena breeds 
>mistrust and disbelief; it leads to the hasty conclusion that 
>the truth is deliberatly not being told.  One last suggestion of 
>interest has been made, that the UFO's were plasmoids from 
>space...concentrated blobs of solar wind that succeeded in 
>reaching the surface of the Earth.  Somehow this last suggestion 
>does not seem to be very plausible; perhaps because it ignores 
>such things as penetration of Earth's magnetic field.
>
> Alien Visitors
>
>     The most stimulating theory for us is that the UFO's are 
>material objects which are either "Manned" or remote-controlled 
>by beings who are alien to this planet.  There is some evidence 
>supporting this viewpoint. In addition to police Sergeant Lonnie 
>Zamora's experience, let us consider the case of Barney and 
>Betty Hill.  On a trip through New England they lost two hours 
>on the night of 19 September 1961 without even realizing it. 
>However, after that night both Barney and Betty began developing 
>psychological problems which eventually grew sufficienty severe 
>that they submitted themselves to psychiatric examination and 
>treatment.  During the course of treatment hypnotherapy was 
>used, and it yielded remarkably detailed and similar stories 
>from both Barney and Betty.  Essentially they had been 
>hypnotically kidnapped, taken aboard a UFO, submitted to two-
>hour physicals, and released with posthypnotic suggestions to 
>forget the entire incident.  The evidence is rather strong that 
>this is what the Hills, even in their subconscious, believe 
>happened to them.  And it is of particular importance that after 
>the "posthypnotic block" was removed, both of the Hills ceased 
>having their psychological problems.
>     The Hill's description of the aliens was similar to 
>descriptions provided in other cases, but this particular type 
>of alien appears to be in the minority.  The most commonly 
>described alien is about three and one- half feet tall, has a 
>round head (helmet?), arms reaching to or below his knees, and 
>is wearing a silvery space suit or coveralls.  Other aliens 
>appear to be essentially the same as Earthmen, while still 
>others have particularily wide (wrap around) eyes and mouths 
>with very thin lips.  And there is a rare group reported as 
>about four feet tall, weight of around 35 pounds, and covered 
>with thick hair or fur (clothing?).  Members of this last group 
>are described as being extremely strong.  If such beings are 
>visiting Earth, two questions arise: 1) why haven't there been 
>any accidents which have revealed their presence, and 2) why 
>haven't they attempted to contact us officially?  The answer to 
>the first question may exist partially in Sergeant Lonnie 
>Zamora's experience, and may exist partially in the Tunguska 
>meteor discussed in Chapter XXIX.  In that chapter it was 
>suggested that the Tonguska meteor was actually a comet which 
>exploded in the atmosphere, the ices melted and the dust spread 
>out.  Hence, no debris! However, it has also been suggested that 
>the Tunguska meteor was actually an alien spacecraft that 
>entered the atmosphere to rapidly, suffered mechanical failure, 
>and lost its power supply and/or weapons in a nuclear 
>explosion.  While that hypothesis may seem far fetched, sample 
>of tree rings from around the world reveal that, immediately 
>after the Tunguska meteor explosion, the level of radioactivity 
>in the world rose sharply for a short period of time.  It is 
>difficult to find a natural explanation for that increase in 
>radioactivity, although the suggestion has been advanced that 
>enough of the meteor's great kinetic energy was converted into 
>heat (by atmospheric friction) that a fusion reaction occurred.  
>This still leaves us with no answer to the second question: why 
>no contact?  That question is very easy to answer in several 
>ways: 1) we may be the object of intensive sociological and 
>psychological study.  In such studies you usually avoid 
>disturbing the test subjects' environment; 2) you do not 
>"contact" a colony of ants, and humans may seem that way to any 
>aliens (variation: a zoo is fun to visit, but you don't 
>"contact" the lizards); 3) such contact may have already taken 
>place secretly; and 4) such contact may have already taken place 
>on a different plane of awareness and we are not yet sensitive 
>to communications on such a plane.  These are just a few of the 
>reasons.  You may add to the list as you desire.
>
> 33.4 HUMAN FEAR AND HOSTILITY
>
>     Besides the foregoing reasons, contacting humans is 
>downright dangerous. Think about that for a moment!  On the 
>microscopic level our bodies reject and fight (through 
>production antibodies) any alien material; this process helps us 
>fight off disease but it also sometimes results in allergic 
>reactions to innocuous materials.  On the macroscopic 
>(psychological and sociological) level we are antagonistic to 
>beings that are "different". For proof of that, just watch how 
>an odd child is treated by other children, or how a minority 
>group is socially deprived, or how the Arabs feel about the 
>Israelis (Chinese vs Japanese, Turks vs Greeks, etc.)  In case 
>you are hesitant to extend that concept to the treatment of 
>aliens let me point out that in very ancient times, possible 
>extraterrestrials may have been treated as Gods but in the last 
>two thousand years, the evidence is that any possible aliens 
>have been ripped apart by mobs, shot and shot at, physically 
>assaulted, and in general treated with fear and aggression.
>     In Ireland about 1,000 A.D., supposed airships were treated 
>as "demon ships."  In Lyons, France, "admitted" space travellers 
>were killed.  More recently, on 24 July 1957 Russian anti-
>aircraft batteries on the Kouril Islands opened fire on UFO's.  
>Although all Soviet anti-aircraft batteries on the Islands were 
>in action, no hits were made.  The UFO's were luminous and moved 
>very fast.  We too have fired on UFO's.  About ten o'clock one 
>morning, a radar site near a fighter base picked up a UFO doing 
>700 mph. The UFO then slowed to 100 mph, and two F-86's were 
>scrambled to intercept. Eventually one F-86 closed on the UFO at 
>about 3,000 feet altitude.  The UFO began to accelerate away but 
>the pilot still managed to get within 500 yards of the target 
>for a short period of time.  It was definately saucer- shaped.  
>As the pilot pushed the F-86 at top speed, the UFO began to pull 
>away.  When the range reached 1,000 yards, the pilot armed his 
>guns and fired in an attempt to down the saucer.  He failed, and 
>the UFO pulled away rapidly, vanishing in the distance.  This 
>same basic situation may have happened on a more personal 
>level.  On Sunday evening 21 August 1955, eight adults and three 
>children were on the Sutton Farm (one-half mile from Kelly, 
>Kentucky) when, according to them, one of the children saw a 
>brightly glowing UFO settle behind the barn, out of sight from 
>where he stood. Other witnesses on nearby farms also saw the 
>object.  However, the Suttons dismissed it as a "shooting star," 
>and did not investigate.  Approximately thirty minutes later (at 
>8 p.m.), the family dogs began barking so two of the men went to 
>the back door and looked out.  Approximately 50 feet away and 
>coming toward them was a creature wearing a glowing silvery 
>suit.  It was about three and one-half feet tall with a large 
>round head and very long arms.  It had large webbed hands which 
>were equipped with claws.  The two Suttons grabbed a twelve 
>guage shotgun and a 22 caliber pistol, and fired at close 
>range.  They could hear the pellets and bullet ricochet as if 
>off of metal.  The creature was knocked down, but jumped up and 
>scrambled away.  The Suttons retreated into the house, turned 
>off all inside lights, and turned on the porch-light.  At that 
>moment, one of the women who was peeking out of the dining room 
>window discovered that a creature with some sort of helmet and 
>wide slit eyes was peeking back at her.  She screamed, the men 
>rushed in and started shooting.  The creature was knocked 
>backwards but again scrambled away without apparent harm.  More 
>shooting occurred (a total of about 50 rounds) over the next 20 
>minutes and the creatures finally left (perhaps feeling 
>unwelcome?)  After about a two hour wait (for safety), the 
>Suttons left too.  By the time the police got there, the aliens 
>were gone but the Suttons would not move back to the farm. They 
>sold it and departed.  This reported incident does bear out the 
>contention though that humans are dangerous.  At no time in the 
>story did the supposed aliens shoot back, although one is left 
>with the impression that the described creatures were having fun 
>scaring humans.
>
> 33.5 ATTEMPTS AT SCIENTIFIC APPROACHES
>
>     In any scientific endeavor, the first step is to aquire 
>data, the second step to clasify the data, and the third step to 
>form hypothesis. The hypothesis are tested by repeating the 
>entire process, with each cycle resulting in an increase in 
>understanding (we hope).  The UFO phenomenon does not yield 
>readily to this approach because the data taken so far exhibits 
>both excessive variety and vagueness.  The vagueness is caused 
>in part by the lack of preparation of the observer...very few 
>people leave their house knowing that they are going to see a 
>UFO that evening. Photographs are overexposed or underexposed, 
>and rarely in color.  Hardly anyone carries around a radiation 
>counter or magnetometer.  And, in addition to this, there is a 
>very high level of "noise" in the data.
>     The noise consists of mistaken reports of known natural 
>phenomena, hoaxes, reports by unstable individuals and mistaken 
>removal of data regarding possible unnatural or unknown natural 
>phenomena (by overzealous individuals who are trying to 
>eliminate all data due to known natural phenomena).  In 
>addition, those data, which do appear to be valid, exhibit an 
>excessive amount of variety relative to the statistical samples 
>which are available.  This has led to very clumsy classification 
>systems, which in turn provide quite unfertile ground for 
>formulation of hypothesis.
>     One hypothesis which looked promising for a time was that 
>of ORTHOTENY
> (i.e., UFO sightings fall on "great circle" routes).  At first, 
>plots of sightings seemed to verify the concept of orthoteny but 
>recent use of computers has revealed that even random numbers 
>yield "great circle" plots as neatly as do UFO sightings.
>     There is one solid advance that has been made though.  
>Jacques and Janine Vallee have taken a particular type of UFO - 
>namely those that are lower than tree-top level when sighted - 
>and plotted the UFO's estimated diameter versus the estimated 
>distance from the observer.  The result yields an average 
>diameter of 5 meters with a very characteristic drop for short 
>viewing distances, and rise for long viewing distances.  This 
>behavior at the extremes of the curve is well known to 
>astronomers and psychologists as the "moon illusion."  The 
>illusion only occurs when the object being viewed is a real, 
>physical object.  Because this implies that the observers have 
>viewed a real object, it permits us to accept also their 
>statement that these particular UFO's had a rotational axis of 
>symmetry.
>     Another, less solid, advance made by the Vallee's was their 
>plotting of the total number of sightings per week versus the 
>date.  They did this for the time span from 1947 to 1962, and 
>then attempted to match the peaks of the curve (every 2 years 2 
>months) to the times of Earth-Mars conjuction (every 2 years 1.4 
>months).  The match was very good between 1950 and 1956 but was 
>poor outside those limits.  Also, the peaks were not only at the 
>times of Earth-Mars conjunction but also roughly at the first 
>harmonic (very loosely, every 13 months).  This raises the 
>question why should UFO's only visit Earth when Mars is in 
>conjunction and when it is on the opposite side of the sun.  
>Obviously, the conjunction periodicity of Mars is not the final 
>answer.  As it happens, there is an interesting possibility to 
>consider.  Suppose Jupiter's conjunctions were used; they are 
>every 13.1 months.  That would satisfy the observed periods 
>nicely, except for every even data peak being of different 
>magnitude from every odd data peak. Perhaps a combination of 
>Martian, Jovian, and Saturnian (and even other planetary) 
>conjunctions will be necessary to match the frequency plot... if 
>it can be matched.
>     Further data correlation is quite difficult.  There are a 
>large number of different saucer shapes but this may mean 
>little.  For example, look at the number of different types of 
>aircraft which are in use in the U.S. Air Force alone.
>     It is obvious that intensive scientific study is needed in 
>this area; no such study has yet been undertaken at the 
>necessary levels of intensity and support.  One thing that must 
>be guarded against in any such study is the trap of implicity 
>assuming that our knowledge of Physics (or any other branch of 
>science) is complete.  An example of one such trap is selecting 
>a group of physical laws which we now accept as valid, and 
>assume that they will never be superceded.
>
> Five such laws might be:
>   1) Every action must have an opposite and equal reaction.
>   2) Every particle in the univers attracts every other   
>      particle with a force proportional to the product of the 
>      masses and inversely as the square of the distance.
>   3) Energy, mass and momentum are conserved.
>   4) No material body can have a speed as great as c, the
>      speed of light in free space.
>   5) The maximum energy, E, which can be obtained from a body  
>      at rest is E=mc2, where m is the rest mass of the body.
>
>     Laws numbered 1 and 3 seem fairly safe, but let us hesitate 
>and take another look.  Actually, law number 3 is only valid 
>(now) from a relativistic viewpoint; and for that matter so are 
>laws 4 and 5.  But relativity completely revised these physical 
>concepts after 1915, before then Newtonian mechanics were 
>supreme.  We should also note that general relativity has not 
>yet been verified.  Thus we have the peculiar situation of five 
>laws which appear to deny the possibility of intelligent alien 
>control of UFO's, yet three of the laws are recent in concept 
>and may not even be valid. Also, law number 2 has not yet been 
>tested under conditions of large relative speeds or 
>accelerations.  We should not deny the possibility of alien 
>control of UFO's on the basis of preconceived notions not 
>established as related or relevant to the UFO's.
>
> 33.6 CONCLUSION
>
>     From available information, the UFO phenomenon appears to 
>have been global in nature for almost 50,000 years.  The 
>majority of known witnesses have been reliable people who have 
>seen easily-explained natural phenomena, and there appears to be 
>no overall positive correlation with population density.  The 
>entire phenomenon could be psychological in nature but that is 
>quite doubtful.  However, psychological factors probably do 
>enter the data picture as "noise."  The phenomenon could also be 
>entirely due to known and unknown phenomena (with some 
>psychological "noise" added in) but that too is questionable in 
>view of some of the available data.
>     This leaves us with the unpleasant possibility of alien 
>visitors to our planet, or at least of alien controlled UFO's.  
>However, the data are not well correlated, and what questionable 
>data there are suggest the existence of at least three and maybe 
>four different groups of aliens (possibly at different stages of 
>development).  This too is difficult to accept.  It implies the 
>existence of intelligent life on a majority of the planets in 
>our solar system, or a surprisingly strong interest in Earth by 
>members of other solar systems.
>     A solution to the UFO problem may be obtained by the long 
>and diligent effort of a large group of well financed and 
>competant scientists, unfortunately there is no evidence 
>suggesting that such an effort is going to be made.  However, 
>even if such an effort were made, there is no guarantee of 
>success because of the isolated and sporatic nature of the 
>sightings.  Also, there may be nothing to find, and that would 
>mean a long search with no proff at the end.  The best thing to 
>do is to keep an open and skeptical mind, and not take an 
>extreme position on any side of the question.
>
> THIS IS AN ORIGINAL AIR FORCE DOCUMENT.
>
>
>PLEASE NOTE:  The information contained on this system is not
>intended to supplant individual professional consultation,
>but is offered as a community education service.  Advice on
>individual problems should be obtained directly from a professional.
>
>
>