Wednesday, June 13, 2007

NICAP's "The Year of the UFO" (May)


May is a month of contrasts in terms of media and scientific treatment of the UFO subject. On May 7, 1952 Life Magazine stormed the nation's newsstands with an article boldly suggesting "There is a Case for Interplanetary Saucers." Based on interviews with scientists, government officials and highly reputable UFO witnesses, this landmark piece left little doubt that flying saucers may have an interplanetary source.

Yet, 16 years later it was left up to Look Magazine of May 14, 1968 to alert readers in a bombshell report by writer John G. Fuller that the government-financed UFO "study" at the University of Colorado was being mismanaged and hell-bent upon publicly reaching a negative conclusion about the UFO phenomenon, no matter what the findings. Entitled "Flying Saucer Fiasco," the article revealed a confidential memo and other internal information casting tons of doubt upon the Colorado project's integrity.

May 11, 1950 gave us the famous UFO photos snapped by Paul Trent of McMinnville, OR, perhaps still among the most respected still photos ever taken, based upon witness veracity and other factors. You'll also notice a sprinkling of reports in the May calendar revealing not only radar and photographic evidence, but also electromagnetic effects. For example, on May 4, 1968 a red light buzzed a ship off the coast of Nova Scotia, and intense heat was reported in association with the experience.

On May 9, 1956, the United Artists documentary motion picture, "U.F.O." was released and remains one of most important -- if rather obscure now -- movies ever made about UFOs. Please be sure to read my articles about the film at NICAP.org, easily found by typing my name into the NICAP site search engine.

(Because some areas on the May page contained minor fading of the print, I darkened the page just a little to provide a better copy of the scan.)