The Presidents and UFOs by Larry Holcombe

Author:Larry Holcombe
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781466835870
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

6

SWAMP GAS

THE FORD ADMINISTRATION

With the resignation of President Richard Nixon over the Watergate scandal, Vice President Gerald R. Ford became president of the United States on August 9, 1974. In the world of UFOlogy, Ford’s administration is a true enigma. Ford served twenty-four years in the United States House of Representatives from Michigan’s fifth congressional district. In 1966, southeastern Michigan, part of Ford’s jurisdiction, had a major UFO flap and Ford became deeply involved in pushing a government investigation of the event. As we shall see, his involvement played a leading, but unintentional, role in the government commissioning the University of Colorado and Dr. Edward Condon to study the UFO issue (the Colorado Project) that resulted in the controversial 1967 Condon Report.

What makes President Ford’s administration a UFO enigma, or at least odd, is that as vocal as he was over the Michigan flap while in the House of Representatives, once becoming vice president and then president he never again mentioned the subject of UFOs. After leaving office he was asked in a letter written by a UFO researcher and retired Air Force intelligence officer about his knowledge of UFO issues while in public office. Ford replied that while in public service he made many inquiries about UFO issues but said high-government officials always denied UFO knowledge. This is reminiscent of a later president, Bill Clinton, who stated in a public forum after leaving office that he had to admit that he did make inquiries about UFOs and Roswell in particular. He went on to say that “if they knew, they didn’t tell me.” One has to wonder who are these mysterious “they” and “high-government officials” and why do they apparently lie to presidents, or at least some presidents?

* * *

Over a period of six days in March 1966, UFOs were seen by hundreds of people in southern Michigan and Ohio, in an area between and around Toledo and Detroit. On March 14, in the early morning darkness a number of police officers from Washtenaw, Livingston, and Monroe counties viewed objects that darted about the sky moving very fast and making sharp turns. The objects would dive, hover, and shoot straight up while changing colors. Citizens were also seeing the objects and were calling the various police departments to report the sightings. Monroe County sheriff’s office contacted Selfridge Air Force base and was told that the base had uncorrelated targets over Lake Erie.

On March 17 at 4:25 A.M. in Milan, Michigan, two police officers, Sgt. Neil Schneider and Dep. David Fitzpatrick, saw three or four toplike objects dart about the sky glowing red, white, and green. Willow Run Airport could not confirm the sighting on their radar.

On March 20, Dexter, Michigan, patrolman Robert Huniwell spotted an object in the sky around 9:30 P.M. He reported that the object, flashing red and green, hovered over a car, then was joined by another object and shot up into the night sky. The county sheriff ordered all deputies to the scene and they later chased an object but were unable to catch up to it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.