UFO's
Unidentified Flying Objects (Commonly called UFOs) have been around since biblical times, one such famous case is Ezekiel's Wheel, a sighting identified by a Christian prophet as a group of four angels joined at the feet descending from the heavens in a divine light. Sightings such as these are known today by UFOlogists as atmospheric phenomenon (AP for short) and account for the bulk of UFO sightings. Ezekiel's wheel can be seen every so often on a clear night, a solar flare of certain strength causes the Aurora Borealis to appear this way. Over 90% of the cases reviewed in the first study of UFOs by various U.S. government agencies and private interest groups have supported this fact. Ball lightning, meteorites, swarms of high altitude ice crystals and bright planets have all been misinterpreted as extraterrestrial aircraft silently pulsing through the sky. However, there has still been no explanation for the last 10%, and the argument still goes on today. Is it a new top secret military plane? Is it some sort of AP modern science cannot explain? Is it aliens from another planet? These questions cannot be answered as of yet. A veil of mystery surrounds UFOs, it was dropped 1969, when the U.S. "officially" declared it
In January 1953 the CIA's Office of Scientific intelligence commissioned a team of scientists, headed by physicist H. P Robertson, to study the phenomenon. The scientific panel studied the Grudge and Sign reports over four days, it then released its conclusions in the Durant Report: The U.S. government has declassified a vast amount of documents pertaining to its three major studies of UFOs: PROJECT: SIGN, PROJECT GRUDGE, AND PROJECT: BLUEBOOK. These documents were classified due to various national security reasons, but were opened to the public following the Freedom of Information Act and have been the bread and butter of serious UFO research. As the study of UFOs continues into the 21st century, no solid, educated, credible, supported statement can yet be made about the truth of the origins of UFO. As the United States established the first modern UFO investigation, the evaluation of UFO evidence requires us to consider the role of the government. This is just one part of the government's role with UFOs. After the Robertson Panel concluded that the policy to be pursued should be that of debunking UFO reports and that " ...the national security agencies take immediate steps to strip the Unidentified Flying Objects of the special status that they have been given and the aura of mystery they have unfortunately acquired" (Durant Report, Tab A). The Distant Early Warning (D.E.W) and Mid-Canadian radar lines were built by the U.S. and Canada in response to the soviet acquisition of a nuclear weapons and the long range strategic bombers needed to deliver them. The two nations decided a joint defense effort was in order and finished the construction of the two part Advanced Early Warning and Control System (AWACS) in the mid-fifties. The D.E.W system of radar "fences" was set up on the northernmost part of the continent, a the shortest distance between the USSR and North America, where the soviet bombers would have to fly over to reach the U.S. If an aircraft flew through the D.E.W, a message was sent to the second line of defense, the Mid-Canadian Line, which could track the aircraft and scramble interceptor aircraft to vector and destroy it if necessary. The birth of the so called UFO era coincided with that of the Cold War, when the Soviet Union acquired nuclear weapons and a large fleet of long-range bombers that exposed the U.S. to the risk of nuclear attack. For this reason, the location and coverage of U.S. air-defense radars was considered top-secret information because of its potential value to an enemy contemplating a surprise attack. Thus, if a military radar operator reported seeing mysteriously acting "blips" on his scope, his report would be classified 'secret' lest it reveal the location and coverage of the radar. (5) This is another example of the need to look at the government's role in evaluating UFO evidence. The Roswell Press Office hadn't known about Project Mogul, a secret high altitude research project that was being conducted. Most agencies or outside of the military that deal with aspects of national security are compartmentalized so that no one part of the agency can get sensitive information about another part. This was a classic case of misinterpretation. Or was it? There were many assumptions made of bell in his review of the Roswell case that may not be justifiable. For example, on page 78 bell states "Major Jesse Marcel, the officer ordered to travel to Mac Brazel's Ranch and retrieve the remains at the crash site, was an experienced intelligence officer who would be able to identify a downed weather balloon." (Bell, 78). So by that statement it would be logical to assume that the official story was changed and that the government was hiding something. The government denial of the existence of the Groom Dry Lake testing facility up until a few years ago would also seem to support that conclusion. But we have to look at the evidence objectively, and as many people don't
Some common words found in the essay are:
Air Force, Aurora Borealis, Cuba SR-71A, PROJECT SIGN, Soviet Union, Project Bluebook, PROJECT TOBACCO, Report Tab, Durant Report, Information Act, national security, study ufos, project bluebook, project sign, ufo reports, ufo phenomenon, ufo sightings, ice crystals, cold war, air force, durant report tab, nathan twining head, freedom information act, groom dry lake, national security reasons,
Approximate Word count = 2667
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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