DATA-NET: A Clutch of Classics.

As I've penetrated a little further into the SITU DATA-NET collection, I've gotten into the early 1970s UFO desert, which is well known. This was a true diminishment of cases, as the post-Colorado era was, paradoxically, one of the most intense times for high quality people being active in the UFO research field. The point there is: if the good cases had been there, someone would have jumped on them. This desert lasted from latter 1969 to most of 1972. DATA-NET so far in this era reflects that, in that there are few impressive cases to report. The New Zealand mystery traces have been an exception. DATA-NET's editor was I believe sensing this too. The pages of the newsletter began including old cases. Whether these were being generated by the editor or by the correspondents, I can't say, but there they are. It is some of those old cases that I'm going to thumbnail here [rather than "current" [1970] events].

Since I have no illustrations for these old-timers, I'm going to post some non-connected old time alleged UFO photos, just to give you something to look at. The thing to the left is a photo taken in 1947 on the California coast. Don't ask me if it's a good one, I don't have a clue.

Olden case#1: July 3rd, 1947; St. Maries, ID. Ten witnesses watch as eight "tub-shaped" UFOs come slowly down and "land" on the ground. They are luminous and the size of small houses. As they approached the ground they stirred up leaves and flattened them beneath them. Later, the witnesses approached the vacated spot, but could find no trace that the UFOs had landed. Pretty wild stuff especially for so early.

Olden case #2: July 3rd, 1949; Longview, WA. While officiating at an air show, former Navy guided missile chief, Moulton Taylor, spotted three flying disks above the field at an estimated 30000 feet. He alerted the crowd to them and everyone watched, many through binoculars. Taylor maintained throughout his life that he and his aerotech buddies would speculate on whether these were extraterrestrial craft whenever they got together later.

Olden case #3: April 24th, 1950; Arrey, NM. This is the famous Charles Moore balloon scientists' observation. There were five witnesses in the research team. They saw a white elliptical object traveling very fast, visually and through theodolite. Sighting lasted 55 seconds. They estimated the thing at 300,000 feet and, therefore, 100' diameter. [these estimates would mean little if the observers weren't the best in the world, so we need to pay at least a little attention to them]. Moore reported the sighting to the USAF and never received a reply. As Moore's group worked as a Navy team, this probably began the interservice antagonism where the USN was very unhappy with USAF cooperation on UFO analyses. This ultimately led to a separate USN UFO desk for a while in 1951-1952. Many balloon researcher reports went to the Navy for a while.

The odd thing at the left is an alleged UFO from New York from 1950. Pretty weird looking but fun.

Olden case #4: July 6th, 1950; Louisville, KY. An employee of the Louisville Times, out trying to film birds, sees a UFO and shoots off 50' of movie film. Allegedly the film shows a "bright disk" which hovered, and then disappeared by either shrinking or moving directly away. I have no idea what this film looks like, nor did DATA-NETs editor who was pleading with the readership for facts. As far as the case goes: if the description is real, if the object moved directly away from the witness, that seems like awareness and deliberate display. If it "simply" shrunk out of sight, that's even stranger.

Olden case #5: September 26th, 1950; Philadelphia, PA. One of the crazier things in UFO files. People saw a large [six-foot diameter] "blob" float down and rest so lightly that it didn't even bend tall weed stalks upon which it rested. My memory of this case is that the thing was purplish. The police were right there to watch the whole thing. One policeman tried to grab a bit off it, and the stuff dissolved in his hand. It had "substance" but was incredibly light. By the time the FBI got there, it was all gone. ... who the heck knows what it was....

The picture on the left is from California in 1951. It's one of those things which reminds you of Adamski but is not one of his. Maybe it inspired his "creativity"?

Olden case #6: May 22nd, 1951; Over Chicago, IL area. An American Airlines pilot and two of his crew saw a very fast blue-white "star-like" object pacing their plane, as if "playing tag". It would approach and then get further away. This went on for 20 minutes until they neared Chicago. Most distinctive was the object's behavior of drawing an up-&-down vertical line, and then a forward-&-back horizontal line [as if making a cross in the sky] several times. The Captain said: "I hated to see it leave. It was a very interesting sight."

Olden case #7: May 28, 1951; Rainy Lake, MN. A large number of persons witnessed a "crystal ball" moving rapidly about in the air. It then darted off to join with another one in their antics. They continued to make fast non-inertial motions until they drifted away. This is near General Mills research balloon territory, but the flying off and joining up does not indicate a balloon. Rather it reminds me of the in-air balloon chase cases where Joseph Kaliszewski would report spherical white globes or disks rushing up [or down from height] upon their balloon and dancing all about it. According to him, this happened on more flights than not in this era. The General Mills cases are in fact among the strongest on record.

Olden case #8: January 25th, and earlier, 1952; San Jose, CA. Within about one week in the area, two independent witnesses, one on ground and one in-air pilot, reported unusual red lights in the air near the city. No particular motions of the lights are mentioned in the DATA-NET article, but one odd behavior was: when the pilot turned to them and shown his plane's lights on them, they "went away". One assumes he means flew away rather than disappeared, but either way it indicates a responsive behavior.

The picture on the left is a famous old one from the Bolivian-Peru "jungle border". Dates from 1952. Good ol' cigar-shaped flying fuselage. Don't know if anyone had enough info to take it seriously, but it's awfully early.

Olden case #9: February 22nd, 1952; Keysville, VA. Only one witness on this one. Observer says that the thing was an elongated silver cigar which moved slowly in a horizontal line across the sky ... well, not QUITE a horizontal line. The thing would move, then disappear. Then reappear a little way ahead, move, and disappear. And so on until out of sight. The Space-jumping Amateur from Whackland??

Olden case #10: April 16th, 1952; Hamilton Ontario. Many witnesses, independently, saw a "great whirling smoke-ring" moving rapidly across the sky. It was black and seemed to have little or no "depth". It was estimated as being 600' in diameter. Before disappearing, it changed color to blue. One witness said that he concentrated hard trying to see stars through the apparently open middle, but could not. One witness said that the thing finally just vanished. {In honor of this "smoke-ring" I include a picture montage below of UFOlogy's most famous Smoke-ring, which was argued about by the Colorado Project, ultimately making them look like fools.}.

Olden case #11: November 1st and 19th, 1953; over London, UK. These are two separate but essentially identical observations by the British military [and public, I believe] of white, circular objects hovering over London for 15 minutes before moving off. They were estimated at 60000' altitude, and larger than an airliner. The kicker is that both cases were tracked by radar. If these cases have good bona fides [I don't know], then one might say that the Brits got their own taste of our Washington DC merry-go-round a little over a year later.

Well, that's it for the moment, folks. Hope that there was something in all that which stretched your mind a bit. Till next time...God be with you.