X Descending (3 page)

The UFO phenomenon has held world-wide interest since at least the beginning of the modern era. Any number of UFO groups now hold regular conferences, and their investigators collect and investigate reports of sightings. However, with little more than a collective shrug, science and government have left each of us to fend for ourselves in the search for answers. On television and late night radio, scores of popular personalities give the impression that they are searching for evidence of these unidentified flying objects. Sadly, the truth is that for all the enthusiasts, researchers, and experts who claim to be searching, virtually none of them are searching for the actual objects—the objects that
are
the phenomenon. The fact that real evidence, the kind that will change minds, is not likely to come from anywhere else seems to be ignored for the most part. Years ago I might have gone along with the argument that the nature of the phenomenon makes searching for the objects themselves impractical, but not now. I have seen some of the results, and as incredible as it may seem there have been spectacular successes. This book is about two of those successes.

This is an account of my personal experiences and the issues that have been raised by two specific films. Many of my observations, developed over the past thirty-five years, are also included. More than anything I want this to be informative and eye-opening for those of you who know little about this phenomenon or the background of the events described. For those of you who, like me, have been at this a long time, I am convinced this book also contains new information that may offer new leads on the technology and secrecy involved.

At the outset let me make a distinction between the UFO
phenomenon
and so-called UFO phenomena. Too much is illogically lumped under the term “phenomena” that has no relationship at all to the cause of the phenomenon itself. At its core the phenomenon still rests on the strange vehicles that have been seen and on what the evidence implies. That is what this book is about.

It may have been my stubborn determination to find things out for myself that led me to two men and their films—films that leave no doubt about the reality within the UFO phenomenon. What I learned from these films and from connections I have seen has also revealed troubling ties to military and defense agencies and their ongoing efforts to keep the truth from the public.

For many years the most widely publicized and popular aspect of what is called ‘Ufology’, a catch-all term for the study of unidentified flying objects, has been the effort to expose government secrecy about the phenomenon. Though I wonder how effective this may actually be in answering the real questions about this phenomenon, it can be an intriguing game in itself. Poring over declassified documents, sifting through information, piecing it all together looking for clues—it may not be spying or espionage in a literal sense but it is definitely an intelligence game. Nevertheless, for every enticing bit of information that occasionally turns up, in the end what do we really learn? Unfortunately for the public, even the Freedom of Information Act is no guarantee you are getting the truth—if you get anything at all.

I had hoped that the facts about these two films could come out in a way that avoided the stigma of “unidentified flying objects”. What are shown in these films are not objects, they are definitely vehicles. They may be flying, but they are certainly not flying by any conventional or trivial means (if it can even be called flying). Lastly, they are far more than simply “unidentified”…they are structured vehicles of a decidedly unknown origin and each has identifiable visible characteristics. Each of these films also comes with a story unique to itself.

The first of these two films resulted in an elaborate operation to discredit the man who took the film and to hide the existence of an incredible technology. The fallout from this case has lasted for over thirty years. Intelligence and counterintelligence agencies became involved and to this day the truth of what happened remains in question, with no one held accountable.

The second film, though virtually unknown to the public, has had a more profound impact. For over ten years I have said virtually nothing about what I know, though all along I felt certain it needed to be told. In a number of ways things are much clearer with this film, but they grew far more complex in the years after it was taken. I have no doubt it is evidence of an advanced technology; a technology beyond what can be accounted for within our own science. Incredibly, and somewhat ironically, evidence of the technology was validated by pure science and experimental methodology clearly demonstrating that the technology is well beyond that of which we are capable. It is a serious claim to be sure, so it is crucial for the moment that you check your beliefs at the door and focus only on the facts. In the end, the evidence will speak for itself.

In the first part of this book I explain what I know of these two films and how they came about. There is a brief section on what the UFO phenomenon is and how it is often mistakenly perceived, including a definition of my own that I believe much more realistically represents the phenomenon. There are also a few examples drawn from my experience.

The only evidence I ever thought would be worth finding is evidence that is inescapable, evidence that leaves you with the feeling you get when you have been checkmated and you know there is no way out. To be frank, far too much of what is publicized about this phenomenon has been the result of pandering to a paying public. I have never been one to accept what I read or heard at face value, nor do I expect anyone else to. Here is evidence you can check for yourself, though I do not expect you to accept it easily.

The second part of this book is a more thorough examination of the experiences of Paul Bennewitz, the man who took the first film. Though I met him personally only once, we had several telephone conversations and exchanged many letters in which he explained how he came to take the films that were to cause him so much trouble. My focus is on his experiences between 1979 and 1980, though I also explore the consequences he suffered for having evidence that pointed strongly toward military complicity. This case is a familiar one in some circles but is relatively unknown to the general public, and to my knowledge the truth of its origin has not been widely known, or shown, until now. Beyond the all too human aspects of the Paul Bennewitz story are facts that revealed an extensive operation directed against him, and ultimately against anyone else who became too interested in what he had seen.

Included in the second part is information relating to military and government efforts to suppress information on this phenomenon. Obtaining any information at all from government and military sources can be a long and frustrating process. Throw in national security concerns and it becomes virtually impossible to know if what you learn from documents is even accurate, let alone the truth. Lying is part of the intelligence game and sometimes the truth can only be pieced together. For my part, I found connections and troubling coincidences involving the Air Force, academia, and others in industry. These issues need to be explored if only to raise awareness of something about which I am convinced the public is being deceived.

By far the most difficult aspect of presenting a story dealing with unidentified flying objects is dealing with the level of denial that exists when it comes to something so incredible and potentially serious. When something unexpected appears that could have serious implications, a reasonable response would be to demand information so that informed decisions can be made. But with the UFO phenomenon, ridicule, suppression of information, and human nature itself has left the public unaware that there are questions they should be asking, not the least of which is: Who benefits when the public does not ask questions?

When it comes to the human mind however, the single greatest obstacle to realizing the truth may actually be whether or not someone is psychologically
able
to believe it. The mind will protect itself when faced with a reality it is not yet able to deal with. The idea is expressed very clearly in a story I was told by a psychology professor years ago:

A doctor at a psychiatric ward was trying to help a patient who was suffering from a delusion that he was actually dead. After thinking of a creative way to convince the patient he was in fact alive, the doctor finally asked him, “Tell me, do dead people bleed?” The patient immediately replied, “Of course not!” At that the doctor took out a pin and pricked the patient’s finger and sure enough, he began to bleed. The patient was astonished and stared at his finger for a long time before he slowly looked up at the doctor and said, “I guess they do bleed.”

That said…this story begins on a cold winter night.

“I don’t give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it is hell.”

—Harry Truman

1980
was a strange year in which several of the most incredible and widely publicized UFO encounters on record occurred. Two women and a small boy were injured on a narrow road not far from Houston, Texas; bizarre events were reported near a military base in England; and one lone man in New Mexico placed a call to Air Force Security Police. The first two cases were very compelling, but the New Mexico case was wholly unique.

As the last days of 1979 headed toward 1980, a resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico spent several nights watching glowing objects over one of the United States most sensitive military installations. At the northern boundary of the Sandia Military Reservation, Paul Bennewitz sat on his rooftop deck watching as brilliant disc-shaped vehicles slipped silently in and out of the area between his home and the Manzano Weapons Storage Area (MWSA) (
Figure 1
). If all he had seen were strange lights, his experiences might have amounted to nothing more than another mysterious sighting. What made his case unique however, was that he saw these vehicles repeatedly, over several nights. Very quickly he made sure he was ready for them. With both still and movie cameras, he caught these vehicles on film.

The events that came later—after he called the Air Force to report what he had seen—would turn this into one of the most fascinating, troubling, and tragic stories in recent memory. But the most important aspects of it are still virtually unknown. The Air Force, contrary to their own official position on this phenomenon, became seriously involved once they found out what Paul Bennewitz had done. He may have thought he had witnessed alien craft, but the Air Force had certainly heard those kinds of claims before. That alone would never have been enough to draw them out. In the following months, as Paul built electronic equipment capable of detecting the vehicles, the Air Force conveniently discounted the electronic recordings he made. It was easy to dismiss them by saying they could have come from any number of sources in the area. The Air Force could ignore some things and they could discount others…but the films were trouble. There was no way to deny what Paul had on film.

Paul Bennewitz once wrote that he had studied the UFO phenomenon since 1948. Most of that time he had remained neutral, with no real conviction one way or the other whether there was anything to it. But then, during the 1970s, a wave of cattle mutilations moved through New Mexico and with it came stories of strange lights being seen, sometimes in very remote areas. This seems to have sparked Paul’s interest, enough so that his name appears on a list of attendees to the April 1979 cattle mutilation conference held in Albuquerque by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Still, it wasn’t until July of that year that he took an active interest in the strange events happening in northern New Mexico. During the summer and fall of 1979 he made several trips north to an area that overlooked the Archuleta Mesa near the town of Dulce, New Mexico (
Figure 2
).