by Timothy Good
Thus forearmed, I sent a Freedom of Information Act request asking NASA for details of the speakers. They eventually responded by citing several library sources, one being the Canada Institute for Scientific & Technical Information, from which I purchased a copy of “Earth-oriented Applications of Space Technology,” listing many of the attendees at the Second Forum only.27 No mention is made of Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Professor Herbert Schwartz, or Pamela Handford.
Space Defense
According to Lieutenant Colonel Philip J. Corso, the intelligence officer who headed the U.S. Army’s Foreign Technology Division at the Pentagon, in 1961 NASA “agreed to cooperate with military planners to work a ‘second-tier’ space program [which was] covered up by the civilian scientific missions. They agreed to open up a confidential ‘back-channel’ communications link to military intelligence regarding any hostile activities conducted by the [aliens] against our spacecraft….
“What NASA didn’t tell military intelligence, of course, was that they already had an even more classified back channel to [former CIA director] Hillenkoetter’s working group and were keeping them updated on every single alien spacecraft appearance the astronauts reported, especially during the early series of Apollo flights when the [alien] craft began buzzing the lunar modules on successive missions after they thrusted out of earth orbit. Even though military intelligence was kept out of the operational loop between NASA and the working group, I and a few others still had contacts in the civilian intelligence community that kept us informed. And the Army and Air Force managed to find at least 122 photos taken by astronauts on the moon that showed some evidence of an alien presence. It was a startling find and was one of many reasons that the Reagan administration pushed so hard for the Space Defense Initiative in 1981.”28
The Hon. Paul Hellyer, former Canadian Minister of Defence under Prime Minister Lester Pearson and Deputy Prime Minister under Pierre Trudeau, found Corso’s book so compelling that he decided to check its credibility with a retired American general. “Every word of it is true, and more,” responded the general. “We then spent twenty minutes discussing the ‘and more,’ to the extent that he could without revealing classified material,” Hellyer confirms in his latest book. “He told me that there had been, in fact, face-to-face discussions between the visitors and U.S. officials….”29
In 2004, President George W. Bush announced his “Vision for Space Exploration,” calling for humans to return to the Moon by the end of the next decade.30 The plan was canceled in 2010 by President Barack Obama, citing cost and danger.31
In 2006, the Bush administration stated its intention to dominate space, rejecting any new treaties that would limit the United States’ extraterrestrial activities, warning that it would oppose any nations that tried to get in its way. A policy statement signed by Bush asserted that, in its own national interests, the U.S. had the right to conduct whatever research, development, and “other activities” in space were deemed necessary. As journalist Andrew Buncombe commented, “When proposals to ban the weaponization of space have been put forward at the [United Nations], the United States has routinely abstained. But last October [2005], the U.S. voted against a U.N. resolution calling for the banning of weapons in space.”32
Gordon Cooper
In early 1978, NASA issued an information sheet by way of response to inquiries directed to the White House as well as NASA on UFOs. “NASA is the focal point for answering public inquiries to the White House,” it begins. “NASA is not engaged in a research program involving these phenomena, nor is any other government agency. Reports of unidentified objects entering United States air space are of interest to the military as a regular part of defense surveillance. Beyond that, the U.S. Air Force no longer investigates reports of UFO sightings.”33
In his autobiography Leap of Faith, astronaut Gordon Cooper describes the landing of a flying disc at Edwards Air Force Base on May 3, 1957. At the time, Cooper was assigned as test pilot and manager, with top-secret clearance, to the Fighter Section, Experimental Flight Test Engineering Division, and he recounts that his camera crew came running in to tell him what had just occurred:
“They told me they had just finished their work when the saucer flew over them, hovered over the ground, extended three landing gears, then set down about fifty yards away. They described the saucer as metallic silver in color and shaped somewhat like an inverted plate…. They said they had shot images with 35-mm and 4-by-5 still cameras, as well as motion picture film. When they had tried to approach the saucer to get a closer shot, they said it lifted up, retracted its gear, and climbed straight out of sight at a rapid rate of speed—again with no sound. They estimated the craft to be about thirty feet across….”34
On July 14, 1978, Cooper attended a meeting of the Special Political Committee, United Nations General Assembly, in Miami, chaired by Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, specifically to discuss the UFO question, following repeated requests by Sir Eric Gairy, Prime Minister of Grenada, for a full debate. Later that year, Cooper wrote a letter to Ambassador Griffith, Mission of Grenada to the U.N., setting out his position, prior to the debate, which was held in the General Assembly on November 27 that year:
“I believe that these extra-terrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets, which obviously are a little more technically advanced than we are here on earth. I feel that we need to have a top-level, coordinated program to scientifically collect and analyze data from all over the earth [and] to determine how best to interface with these visitors in a friendly fashion…. I have not yet had the privilege of flying a UFO, nor of meeting the crew of one.”
He went on to add that, while serving with the Air Force in Germany in 1951, he had “two days of observations of many flights of them, of different sizes, flying in fighter formation … over Europe. They were at a higher altitude than we could reach with our jet fighters of that time.” In referring to astronauts, Cooper revealed that “There are several of us who do believe in UFOs and who have had occasion to see a UFO on the ground, or from an airplane. There was only one occasion from space which may have been a UFO.”35
Gordon Cooper was more forthcoming in a recorded interview in New York five years earlier. “I myself have encountered some of their craft while flying in space,” he told a reporter. “NASA knows this and the American government knows it too. Yet they continue to keep their silence, probably in order to avoid confusing the public.” He went on:
“For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists in astronautics. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radars capture objects of a form and composition unknown to us…. I was furthermore a witness to an extraordinary phenomenon [that] happened a few months ago in Florida. I saw with my own eyes a defined area of ground being consumed by fire with four indentations left by a [craft] which had descended in the middle of a field. Beings had left the craft—there were other traces to prove this. They seemed to have studied the topography; they had collected soil fragments and eventually returned to wherever they had come from, disappearing with enormous speed. I happen to know that the authorities did just about everything to keep this incident from the press and TV….
“Flying saucers are a reality—I won’t stop repeating this,” Cooper concluded. “The public must be prepared to make contact with people who, sooner or later, will be compelled to interfere. The salvation of us all depends on it.”36 During my correspondence with Cooper, he neither confirmed nor denied the statements contained in this interview.
I am intrigued by Cooper’s remark in his letter to Ambassador Griffith: “I have not yet had the privilege of flying a UFO.” A few years ago, a respected colleague informed me that, following the U.N. meetings, Cooper had vented his frustration at the seemingly invincible task of convincing U.N. delegates of alien reality. What would it take, he said to the researcher—a landed flying saucer? He went
on to claim that he had been in a position to actually pilot a flying disc and land it himself. An outrageous claim to be sure. Yet from a few other reliable sources I have learned that a number of astronauts and pilots—not exclusively in the United States—have flown alien and/or replicated alien vehicles, as we shall learn later.
Cosmic Journey
In Alien Contact, I discussed at length the official plan by the U.S. government, NASA, Rockwell International, and other organizations for a space-related traveling exhibition, to include five to six thousand square feet of UFO-related materials. A synopsis is warranted here.
In 1989 I had been approached by Robert Kirchgessner, director of a special group associated with Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey International, who had invited me to become the “Official Consultant on UFO Research” to the Special Development Group. A personal meeting in Orlando, Florida, was a prerequisite. We agreed on a date—October 12. However, although I was on a research trip in Gulf Breeze, Florida, at the time, difficulties with airline schedules arose and to my everlasting regret—as it transpired—I was obliged to cancel the appointment.
On my return to the U.K., Kirchgessner explained that the project had reached a critical stage. Could I recommend someone else? I didn’t hesitate to name my friend Bob Oechsler (pronounced “X-ler”), a former NASA engineer who had worked on the Space Shuttle arm at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. As it transpired, the Cosmic Journey exhibition was to include a mock-up of the shuttle. Perhaps also owing to his background in the Air Force, Bob turned out to be the right man for the job: he had joined in 1968, serving mostly with the American Forces Radio and Television Service in the continental United States. During the Vietnam War he served in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand, during which period some of his work required top-secret clearance, when each month he was flown by helicopter into the demilitarized zone (DMZ) to film classified prototype weapons systems. On returning to the U.S., he spent a year and a half at Wright-Patterson AFB.
Bob’s meetings with the Special Development Group took place in Orlando on November 1 and 2, 1989. After signing a non-disclosure agreement, he was briefed on the project. “Cosmic Journey,” as it was called, would be a review of, and a future look at, the space programs of the United States and the Soviet Union. The board of advisers included former astronauts Alan Bean, Eugene Cernan, Charles Conrad, Alexei Leonov, and Thomas Stafford. The project had the approval of President George Bush, Vice President Dan Quayle, and the National Space Council. The latter was chaired by the vice president and included the Director of Central Intelligence, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Defense.
With the co-operation of NASA and Rockwell International, the exhibition was to include a full-scale mock-up of the Shuttle, a 15,000-square-foot “space camp,” representations of alien life-forms, and, I was told, a “post-show exhibit of five or six thousand square feet on UFOs.” Additionally, the program was to involve a tri-level educational curriculum for twenty-five thousand schools in the United States, due to commence on New Year’s Day 1990.37
On November 13, 1989, Bob reported to the Pentagon for a meeting with Thomas P. Stafford, Lieutenant General, USAF (Ret.). A former fighter pilot (who flew F-86D Sabre jets among others), he later became an astronaut, piloting Gemini VI for the first rendezvous in space and commanding Gemini IX. He was also the commander of Apollo 10 in May 1969, the first flight of the lunar module, performing the first rendezvous around the Moon and the entire lunar landing mission, apart from the actual landing itself. He logged his fourth space flight as Apollo commander of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission, July 15–24, 1975, a joint space flight culminating in the historic first meeting in space between American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts.38
Stafford turned out to be the intelligence community contact for Cosmic Journey. Following some bizarre sensations generated by an unusual type of detector at the security check, Bob proceeded to the general’s office, accompanied by a guard. Stafford discussed exhibits for the project, asking Bob where he planned to obtain material for the kiosks to show UFO case histories and photographs. Stafford indicated that NASA and the CIA’s National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) would be good places to start.
“One of the more intriguing elements of the discussion,” Bob told me, “involved an exhibit showing an alien/ET corpse.
“As a reference, the general showed me an eight-by-ten-inch color photo of what appeared to be an alien in a cryogenic tank; a space-age-looking coffin with blue tube lighting inside the clear lexan cover…. It was difficult to see too much in the way of detail, so it’s virtually impossible to know if this was real, and the general didn’t enlighten me…. It looked like one of the so-called ‘gray’ types, but the chin was much more sharply pointed than is usually described. I could see evidence of the ‘bug’ eyes, but there was a sort of covering over them….”
The general seemed to be concerned about using the real thing versus a mock-up, querying Bob about his thoughts on public perception. Bob suggested that displaying a companion autopsy report with color photographs might lend credibility. The possible exhibition of an actual alien corpse was proposed quite seriously. “As a matter of fact,” Bob added, “I got the impression they had a lot of bodies to choose from! The general also had the same concerns about showing a real, versus a mock-up, craft, [and] I suggested that the real thing would be preferable if on-board access for the public could be achieved.
“The other primary areas of discussion involved my robotics experience and the minor role that I had played in the development of the space shuttle arm, which was initially designed to provide life support to astronauts and a diagnostic instrument for repairing satellites in orbit.”39
Bob had expected further contact with General Stafford, but none was forthcoming, probably related to the fact that funds for the project apparently stalled. In late 1996, I invited Stafford and his wife Linda to drinks and dinner at his hotel in London. It was a great privilege listening to this modest pioneer as he answered my questions about the flight to the Moon in Apollo 10 in May 1969. Naturally, at one point during the meal, I asked about Bob Oechsler’s claim to have met him in the Pentagon back in 1991. “Bob who?” he expostulated. He denied having met him or even having had an office in the Pentagon at that time.40
For a while, I believed Stafford. However, a combination of several circumstances, including Bob’s unwavering insistence that he had indeed been invited for a meeting with Stafford in the Pentagon, caused me to change my mind.
During the second week of January 1990, Bob was billeted at NASA Ellington Field (also known as Ellington Air Force Base), near the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he was asked to assist in reconfiguring the movements of the shuttle arm from a zero-gravity environment to that of ordinary gravity, according to the project’s requirements. But first, he told me, he was required to become accustomed to how it worked in “microgravity.” Together with some astronauts and engineers, he was flown by helicopter to a NASA facility about twenty miles southwest of Ellington, where he changed into special clothing in preparation for entry into another room. He stepped through a hatch into this other room—and became airborne!
“It was weird, because it’s like the loss of equilibrium and everything,” he explained. “Obviously the astronauts had done a lot of training; they were so accustomed to it, and they were laughing at me…. You learn to skip around [and] it takes about fifteen minutes to become accustomed to the biomechanics [and] feels almost similar to getting into a pool of water—the arms tend to swing out.”
No more than about eight astronauts or engineers worked on a variety of projects in the chamber at any one time, Bob told me. The chamber measured about thirty feet long, twenty feet wide, and nine feet high. Recessed in the ceiling was a strange, plasma-like light, which Bob felt was responsible for generating microgravity. Everyone was wearing the same clothing. �
�Several of the others I knew, but they really wouldn’t let us talk among ourselves. It was pretty much forbidden to talk about anything that had to do with what we were doing.”
In January 1990, Bob was invited to visit a North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) installation in the Gulf of Mexico. He traveled in one of three sleek, black NORAD helicopters. “You couldn’t see where the door was until it popped open,” he said. The helicopter was relatively quiet, sounding “more like a humming noise.” Bob believes that a highly advanced type of propulsion was being utilized, possibly deriving from alien technology. In any event, the over-500-mile flight lasted amazingly no more than forty-five minutes, a speed well in excess of that of the world’s officially fastest helicopter, the Sikorsky X2, which in 2010 reached the unofficial speed record of 288 miles per hour in level flight. The X2 is known as a “compound” helicopter: in addition to two four-blade main rotors set one above the other, it also features a “propulsor”—a six-blade propeller that produces forward thrust.41
Of related interest, in a 2002/2003 Discovery Wings Channel program on the future development of the U.S. Army’s Boeing/Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche helicopter, former Director of Army Acquisition Bud Foster revealed: “I think Comanche will be flying in 2050. In my opinion it is the last pure helicopter the Army will ever develop. We may be into antigravity machines after Comanche.”
The black helicopter landed on what looked like an oil-rig platform, possibly twenty miles south of Pensacola, Florida. It turned out to be a NORAD facility. Bob was taken to a control room with consoles and a huge screen, the latter seemingly with a three-dimensional quality and displaying about a third or fourth of the southeast quadrant of the United States. “It had altitude to it as well, and the entire area was covered with a grid that was moving,” added Bob. At one point, a series of “blips” moved across the top part of the screen:
