07 February, 2015

UFO files give insight into state's 'flyer saucer' flap

As reported by Walter Cronkite on the CBS News in 1966, the great flying saucer mystery started right here in Michigan.

Today, all 173 pages of the official Southern Michigan report by Project Blue Book, the name given to official U.S. Air Force UFO investigations, went online this month at projectblue book.theblackvault.com.

The files include more than 12,000 other reported UFO and “extraterrestrial” sightings from the 1940s to 1969.

The Black Vault website is hosted by UFO enthusiast John Greenewald who compiled the information after requesting the documents through the Freedom of Information Act throughout the past 15 years.

It includes 129,491 archived PDF pages that can be searched by year or key word. Previously the declassified reports were available only by visiting the National Archives in Washington.

Most sightings were attributed to natural phenomena such as swamp gas or meteors; other were identified as objects such as balloons, satellites and air defense testing—or hoaxes. However, 701 cases remain “unidentified.”

While Southern Michig­an’s alleged flying saucers were one of those investigations attributed to swamp gas, some news agencies reported the theory was an insult to the public and many more said the government was covering up the truth—but those news clippings won’t be found in the files, although there are many.

The sightings occurred March 20-21, 1966, in Dexter and again in Hillsdale, and witnessed for hours by a civil defense director, a dozen police officers, 87 coeds at Hillsdale College along with the assistant dean, and more than 50 farmers and other civilians.

Witnesses described the object as shaped like a football with eerie blinking lights. It was made of what looked like a quilted metal surface and a formation of four or five other similar objects were stationed nearby. One police officer said it zipped down and hovered 10 feet above his patrol car.

Link:  http://allegannews.com/allegan-news-news/ufo-files-give-insight-states-flyer-saucer-flap

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