The German V-1 and V-2 launches from desert bases after WWII. Two key people were on hand to recover the debris from the Roswell saucer crash site: the base intelligence officer and a member of the Counter Intelligence Corps. They directed the recovery of the debris, which consumed a good part of the following day, and loaded the pieces into two vehicles. The debris went to Roswell AAF for disposition.

At about the same time, 100 miles away, Grady Barnett found what he believed to be a crashed saucer. Nearby were four small dead bodies. They had frail limbs and large heads with big, slanted eyes. According to Barnett, their bodies were encased in tight, one-piece, grey suits with no visible fasteners. Again, the military was quick to arrive. All witnesses were ushered away and ordered not to speak of the event.

On June 8, 1947, six days after the first event (all the debris may have been from the same vehicle), a press release approved by Lt. W. Haut, announced that saucer debris had been recovered by the 509th Bomb Group. The debris from both finds are loaded aboard a B-29 and flown to Carswell AFB in Fort Worth, Texas where it the announced is made that it was nothing more than the remains of a standard weather balloon.

We are supposed to believe it took military intelligence officers an entire week to determine that the debris was from a weather balloon, an object any alert E-1 could have identified in about 30 seconds. Since most officers do not scrub about pastures recovering debris from fallen objects, it must be assumed some enlisted men were on hand for the task. Dozens, if not all, could have identified the object as a weather balloon if it was, indeed, a weather balloon. But if not a weather balloon, what was it? Let�fs eliminate the two least likely possibilities: weather balloon and alien space craft, and concentrate on discovering what the 509th might have carried away from the pastures in 1947.

To find an answer, we must return to the period near the end of World War Two and Nazi Germany. German engineers and technicians had produced the only operational jet bomber, the Arado 234, during the war. Additionally, Willie Messerschmitt had designed, tested and produced both the Me 262 twin-jet fighter-bomber and the Me 163 rocket plane. Each of the latter planes was hundreds of miles per hour faster than anything the Allies had at the time. The Me 262 was powered by two very advanced Jumo axial-flow jet engines. The Me 163 was powered by a rocket motor using hyper-golic fuels.

But most bizarre was the disclosure that the BMW plant in Prague had built a prototype advanced jet powered saucer-shaped aircraft with a diameter of 140 feet. Completed in 1944, this radical aircraft was flying by February, 1945 and was destroyed with its blueprints when it became apparent it would soon fall into the hands of the Allies. British and U.S. intelligence reports confirm the existence of this real �gFlying saucer.�h Cessation of hostilities between the waring countries and the knowledge that Germany might have won the war by pure technical skill had not the Allies overwhelmed it with an endless supply of expendable hardware and personnel, was the impetus that prompted U.S., British, French and Russian scientists, politicians and military leaders to develop weapons equal to or better than those that had nearly destroyed half the civilized world.

Before the war was even declared at an end, U.S. intelligence agencies were scouring the countryside trying to locate as many German scientists and engineers and their hardware as they could before the Russians or British found them. By mid 1947, Arthur Rudolph, director of the Dora-Nordhausen rocket projects, and hundreds of former Nazis and members of the SS were safely settled in dusty desert towns in southern Texas where they began re-assembling a few V-2 rockets from hundreds of crates transported from Germany. Rudolph would go on to create the Saturn V booster that would put an American astronauts into orbit around the Earth. Conveniently forgotten were the 80 million souls for whose deaths Rudolph had to share responsibility.

The American public, by and large, was unaware that these former Nazis were here or that their weapons would soon be launched from American soil, because the German teams had been literally smuggled into the country illegally and in secrecy by the military! White Sands Missile Test Center was just down the road a piece. Los Alamos was not far away. Roswell AAF was north, across the state border. When pieces of strange, unidentifiable objects began raining from the desert skies, it is no wonder that uninformed officers at Roswell�fs 509th thought they had discovered something �gnot made on this planet.�h

But when knowledgeable people heard of the incident through the media reports and frantic telephone calls, they would have clamped a lid on the find. The exotic materials found at both sites may have been pieces of a German-now-American V-2 tactical ballistic rocket gone astray! The pieces, after all, went to Carswell AAF in Texas, probably close to where they had been fired if the reports are correct. There would have been no need to send the debris to Wright Patterson Air Force Base for identification. Compromise of the classified projects and disclosure that Former Nazi officers were responsible would have created a political disaster, hence, the weather balloon story was released to pacify the American public.

America and Russia, who had kidnapped and confiscated the lion�fs share of German engineers and hardware, lost no time developing advanced aircraft and missiles of their own. Many of the early marks were bolt-for-bolt replicas of German operational aircraft. The North American F-86 Sabre, so famous during the Korean War, was developed directly from German technology, the prototype flying on October 1, 1947.

Two weeks later, on October 14, 1947, Captain Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1. A series of stunning and incredible flights followed with the X-planes leading the way toward the edge of space. By 1958 the first North American X-15 was rolled out and by June, 1960, an X-15, powered by a Viking Rocket XLR-99 engine producing 57,000 pounds of thrust, reached an altitude of 59.6 miles_the very threshold of space itself_at a speed of 4,000 miles per hour. In 1964, the X-15 Number 2, designated A-2, established an absolute speed record of 4,520 miles per hour.

The next series of tests were to be conducted with exo-atmosphere orbital planes but the project was cancelled before the planes could be developed. Exo-atmosphere planes were not a new concept. At least not to the German engineers. During the Second World War, German engineer Eugene Singer had proposed and drawn up the plans for a massive sub-orbital �gSkip Bomber�h that, if produced, would have entered the edge of space, re-entered on a flat trajectory, and skipped across oceans of air and water until it fell to earth over North America.

It would have carried a nuclear warhead. America�fs �gSkip�h planes should have led the way to reusable aircraft that could have taken off from the ground (rather than being carried aloft under the wing of a B-52), flown into space and returned to the same airfield to refuel and take more passengers into space. Scott Crossfield, who helped develop the X-15 and was its chief pilot for a number of flights, recently stated that if the exo-atmosphere tests had proceeded, America would have been in space with a reusable aircraft years ago. But the Space Shuttle program was developed (by the same German scientists) and the orbital planes were all but forgotten along with the daring pilots who paved the way for a new generation of astronauts who would take man�fs first tentative steps on another planet of the solar system.

Rocket scientists Werner von Braun and Willy Ley both worked on America�fs space program at Huntsville�fs Redstone Arsenal. Their efforts put Americans on the moon. It is interesting to note that the period during the development, testing and evaluation of the X-planes, from 1947 to 1959, was also the period when most UFO sightings were reported. Unidentified Flying Object reports dropped dramatically from a high of 1,501 in 1952 to only 167 during the last six months of 1959. Of the 173 official reports filed in the first six months of 1960, only three were classified as �gUnidentified.�h

Blue Book

During the entire Blue Book reporting period from 1947 to 1960, the number of unidentified sightings averaged only about 2%, or 130 out of a total of 6,523 reported sightings. A number of the unidentified sightings were classified as �gLights In The Sky.�h Lights in the sky can include such phenomena as ball lightning, swamp gas, earthquake lights, meteors, plasma, stars, planets, aircraft lights, jet or rocket exhaust, sun-dogs and a host of other odd known or unknown effects. �gNuts and Bolts�h sightings include aircraft, rockets or other tangible man-made artifacts, or unidentified or unknown aerial cars. �gSightings�h are generally defined as observations of unknown craft at a distance greater than 500 feet where the craft does not touch the ground, does not affect the environment and does not alarm nearby animals.

�gEncounters�h fall into three categories:

The First Kind: UFO is seen within 500 feet but does not touch the ground or affect the environment or nearby animals. The Second Kind: UFO is seen within 500 feet and touches the ground, affecting the environment by flattening or scorching vegetation and/or alarming nearby animals. The Third Kind: Occupants are seen within 500 feet outside the craft. Virtually all are seen at night and usually only one or two witnesses are present. The occupants do not attempt to communicate, but retreat to their craft which quickly flies away. Two additional classifications are recognized but recorded separately from �gEncounter�h type reports. They are: �gFavored Intermediary�h or �gContactee�h; and �gAbductions.�h

Lights In The Sky

Of all the reports filed, �gLights In The Sky�h seem to be the most perplexing and difficult to explain. Many lights, or glowing orbs, perform complex maneuvers and sometimes respond to other lights or telepathic commands, or to the movements of human observers.

They apparently defy the known laws of the universe, traversing the atmosphere with ease and flashing into hyper-drive in the twinkling of an eye, or by making rapid right-angle turns, stopping suddenly from rapid flight and hovering silently for long periods before they sail away.

In 1974, Ground Saucer Watch, consisted of 500 engineers, physicists and astronomers, began using computer enhancement to determine if UFO photos were real or fakes. Scanned onto a computer screen, the images are reduced to 245,000 pixels and the computer is programmed to assign each pixel a brightness rating. Using color contouring, 3-D enhancement, and a number of other sophisticated tests, GSW engineers were able to prove conclusively that 90% of previously accepted UFO photographs were hoaxes.

Two of the most famous UFO photographs were taken by Paul Trent on May 11, 1950 at about 7:45 in the evening. Mrs. Trent was in the yard feeding her rabbits when she looked up and saw a large metal disc sailing silently across the sky. She called to her husband who got his camera from the car and snapped two shots of the disc before it accelerated and disappeared toward the west. Fearing he might have photographed a secret U.S. aircraft, Mr. Trent told only a few friends about the incident. A reporter from the local newspaper heard of the sighting and eventually got the negatives. Within a week the photographs were printed on the cover of Life Magazine. In 1969, after rigorous scrutiny, skeptical scientists working on the Condon Report accepted that the object in the photos could not be explained by any known natural or supernatural phenomena. They concluded,�h�cthe photographs confirms precisely what the witnesses said they saw.�h GSW examined the photos and endorsed the Condon findings in 1974 when its experts concluded that the object in the two photographs was a real �gnuts and bolts�h solid object, between 60 and 90 feet in diameter with a flat, evenly lighted underside and had been at least one-half mile away from the observers.

In 1947, Kenneth Arnold made his historic UFO sighting while flying his private plane near the Cascade Range in Washington State. Nearby, in the inaccessible canyons and mountains of the Yakima Indian reservation, over 200 anomalous lights have been reported in the past 20 years. Reports include stories of discs, fires, glowing canyons, sounds from underground, encounters and other odd phenomena. Most reports are of bright lights moving low in the sky, swelling and pulsing with color. Some seem to be aware of humans, some cause automobile engines to quit, others affect nearby animals.

Glowing orbs of lights performing apparently intelligent maneuvers have been photographed and observed with various scientific instruments in England, the United States and Norway, enabling investigators to make educated guesses about speed, size and light intensity. Their physical and chemical properties remain a mystery. Photographs of the objects reveal nothing more than lights rather than objects with features of flying saucers. Taken as lights alone, these phenomena pose a genuine challenge to science. Nothing presently known fits the description of the lights. They last longer than any known transient luminous phenomena. They glide silently, often for long distances, proving that they are not associated with specific locations. Some have been photographed against a background of mountains, proving they are not celestial bodies, mirages, or refraction effects. They are larger and brighter than any other known atmospheric light. Some have been reported since at least 1771, meaning cars, trains and aircraft lights must be ruled out as causes. They exist in the physical world, but evidence shows they may respond to lasers, light, radio waves and telepathic messages!

Challenged to explain sightings of mysterious lights in the hills around Piedmont, Missouri, physics professor Harley Rutledge of Southeast Missouri State College, set up Project Identification in 1973 to gather data. 178 anomalous objects were recorded on 157 separate occasions. 40 scientists used a wide range of equipment, telescopes, sophisticated cameras, spectrum analyzer as well as a galvanometer to measure changes in the earth�fs gravitational field. Simultaneous observations from widely separated locations allowed measurements of speed, course, and position of the objects. Sightings of aircraft, meteorites, headlights, refracted lights, etc., were eliminated from the investigation. The most startling discovery was that, on at least 32 recorded occasions, the movement of the lights synchronized with actions of the observers.

They appeared to respond to a light being switched on and off, to verbal or radio messages, and even to telepathic communication! These claims, made by a member of the lay public, would have been dismissed as the ravings of a lunatic; coming from a professor of physics, they merit serious consideration. In 1944, while flying over Germany, USAAF pilot Bill Leet reported a luminous sphere suddenly appeared beside his B-17 �glike a light switch being turned on.�h It paced the plane for almost 45 minutes, then vanished. The gunners wanted to shoot at it but Leet ordered them not to, stating that if the light wanted to harm them, it could have done so any time.

This was just one of many sightings of the now-famous �gFoo Fighters�h reported by pilots flying over Europe in the winter of 1944-45. The discs and globes were about five feet in diameter, generally seen at night, and sometimes changed color from orange to red to white and back to orange. They were never seen on radar. After the war, German and Japanese pilots admitted they had been perplexed by the same phenomena. They have never been satisfactorily explained. Could it be that these glowing orbs, combining a physical existence with an ability to interact with the human psyche, hold the key to the UFO enigma? Secret weapons have always been guarded by the military and certain U.S. intelligence agencies for obvious reasons. It is simply not in the military�fs interest to have thousands of public eyes prying into top-secret projects, nor is it, indeed, in the public�fs interest to do so.

Strange Aircraft

The most bizarre of all aircraft, the alien-looking A-117 Stealth Fighter, the �gShabah�h (Spirit), of Desert Storm fame, was kept secret right up until the time it was deployed to Saudi Arabia and it had flown around the country for years! Had the public known of its existence, had foreign countries known of its existence, an effective countermeasure for detecting and destroying it might have been developed before it could have been used.

So we must accept that there are some projects better left secret. In 1947, a few days prior to the Roswell incident, A V-2 rocket had been fired from White Sands Missile Test Center. At about the same time, the U.S. Army released one of its first polyethylene weather balloons, a material uncommon in the late 1940��s and which may have explained reports of a material �gincredibly tough�h and unlike any seen on this planet. Additionally, either of those vehicles might have carried monkeys aloft as part of the test, which could explain the four small dead creatures discovered at the second site. But even if secret rockets and weather balloons go astray (and the early V-2s were famous for it) the military and intelligence agencies, encouraging interest in the UFO phenomena, can discredit observers as cranks and, thus, effectively maintain the integrity of secret weapons tests. It is the UFO conspiracy!

Areas of high UFO activity in America have always been near test sites for secret weapons and aircraft. Additionally, several aspects of UFO activity might be attributable to the CIA or some group within the CIA since waves of UFO sightings often occur after times of crises within the government. Several UFO sightings followed the Soviet�fs successful launching of Sputnik in November 1957 when America�fs own space efforts were failing dismally on the screens of every American television set! A UFO conspiracy, apparently now directed by a group ensconced in the lower stories of the Pentagon, and backed up by the military, effectively masks secret weapons from prying eyes.Disinformation diverts the scientific community from serious study of UFO phenomena.

Obvious hoaxes, staged a few years apart, is enough to keep the media and scientists off-balance. Behind the smokescreen, new secret technology and radical aircraft designs can be developed, tested and evaluated without serious interference from people who have no need to know what�fs going on. It doesn�ft matter if someone is trying to hide a secret weapon,planning a corporate take-over or concealing their involvement in an assassination, these two strategies apply:

(1) If you want to keep your secrets, you always create a diversion to keep people looking in the wrong direction, and

(2) If the evidence you find leads to only one conclusion, the conclusion will be wrong every time because the evidence has been planted. �gNuts and Bolts�h flying around the skies of every country on the planet is one thing; �gLights in the Sky�h are something else.

It seems entirely plausible that an experimental saucer-shaped aircraft might have overflown the Trent house in Oregon in 1950, a period of great activity in aircraft development in America. It is less plausible that lights responding to human telepathic communication in Piedmont, Missouri are creations of the U.S. military or manipulations of the CIA. They have been seen for centuries on every continent and by nearly every race of people, many of whom never even heard of the CIA or ever read a UFO report. Unlocking the secrets of the lights may give us some of the answers to the continuing enigma of UFO�fs.