Of Tin Foil Hats and Little Green Men — We Really Should Worry About UFOs
Conspiracies are Fun!
I love a good government conspiracy / alien abduction / alien ancestry story. The crazier, the better. As a teenager, I spied a tabloid at the grocery checkout that had Natives in the amazon worshiping a statue of Elvis, giant ants about to attack Los Angeles and evidence that Adam and Eve were alien astronauts — all in one magazine!
I was hooked.
It wasn’t that I believed any of this, but it was immensely entertaining. In later years, I occasionally tuned in to late night radio shows (admit it, you know the ones I am talking about), where guest “experts” discussed the various known alien races vying for control of Earth, and secret alien bases under the sands of the American southwest. I also watched more than a few “documentaries” in which “ancient alien scholars” illustrated how the face of Mars matched carvings in pre-Columbian Central-American temples and the like. This last category lost its luster as the claims and comparisons are so incredibly silly.
I am a science fiction sponge and have probably read a sci fi or fantasy novel every couple of weeks for the past 40 years. Lest you think I am over the top, I do periodically go through non-fiction phases where I devour history, technology and philosophy. I am insulated from becoming a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist by having degrees in Aerospace Engineering, Astrodynamics, and Industrial Engineering. But I still enjoy a good yarn.
There are so many fun stories to talk about. I loved the 2011 movie “Paul”, with its irreverent handling of the space alien issue. We could talk about the face on Mars, alien breeding programs, or conflict between alien races. It is all fun. But let’s focus on UFOs.
The Government has Successfully Buried Real Concerns About UFOs
The thing that has always been weird to me about UFOs is that there is a huge variation in the credibility of stories — from the ludicrously false or staged events like models hanging from strings — to occurrences that no one really knows what to make of. The government has spent time and resources investigating these events. However, nothing substantial has ever been reported out by investigators.
I have always cherished the notion that there is life outside this planet and that there is a way to bridge the enormous gaps between the stars. There is no concrete proof that either of those is true, however. Statistically speaking, it is hard to imagine how life could only have originated on this planet in a galaxy which some estimate to hold 300 million stars — many of which have planets. And the work of people, like Mexican theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre, indicate that it may be physically possible (if impractical) to exceed the speed of light — sort of.
UFO’s provided an interesting hint that someone broke the code on interstellar travel — if one believes that these are not all the figment of conspiracy theorists feverish imagination — and if one believes that they are extra-terrestrial in origin.
For decades the fact that government investigated these incidents and supposedly found nothing — combined with the wingnut branch of the UFO population — resulted in a sort of blanket condemnation of anyone who believes that UFOs exist. We imagine that these folks sit in a heavily secured bomb shelter wearing a tinfoil hat to prevent mind control — similar to Mel Gibson’s apartment in the movie “Conspiracy Theory”. That was an excellent movie, by the way.
We created a climate in which anyone expressing an interest or belief in UFOs was seen as a little bit nutty. No doubt, many of the guest speakers I listened to on late night radio, and many of the stories I read in the tabloids are nutty.
Up till now, there has been no real way to sort out the wheat from the chaff. Are there actually UFO sightings that represent real hardware of unexplained origin flying in our airspace?
I think we know enough today to say that there are.
Wait a Minute… You Mean There IS Something to This?
In my view, the situation changed when Tom Delong, formerly of the punk rock band Blink 182, teamed up with a group of very credible government insiders and technical experts who all are convinced that we have a serious issue resulting from the reality of UFOs traveling in our airspace. These are a few of the people on DeLongs team. As you can see — not a single tin foil hat among them.
Luis Elizondo is a career intelligence officer. His resume includes working with the U.S. Army, the Department of Defense, the National Counterintelligence Executive, and the Director of National Intelligence. He has led highly sensitive espionage and terrorism investigations around the world. For almost ten years, he ran the aerospace threat identification program focusing on unidentified aerial technologies.
Chris Mellon is the Chair of the Science Committee at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. He also served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence in the Clinton and Bush Administrations. He has other roles on Capitol Hill in Intelligence.
Dr. Harold E. Puthoff is an expert on electron-beam devices, lasers and space propulsion. His research career spanned fifty years at General Electric, Sperry, the National Security Agency, Stanford University and SRI International. He is an advisor to NASA, the Department of Defense and intelligence communities on technology. He has a Ph.D. from Stanford University.
Stephen Justice retired as a Program Director for Advanced Systems from Lockheed Martin Advanced Development Programs — better known as the “Skunk Works”.
Jim Semivan is a retired as a Senior Intelligence Service Member of the Central Intelligence Agency. His public profile is (unsurprisingly) empty of specifics on what he did while at the CIA.
I should note that these gentlemen say they still have active clearances.
Tic-Tacs in Space!
The team has introduced de-classified official footage captured by a US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet present at a UFO encounter in 2004 off the coast of San Diego in a recent history channel series, entitled “Unidentified, Inside America’s UFO Investigation”. This video, and two others, come with a clear chain-of-custody (CoC). That means, these videos are known to be the product of US military sensors and can therefore be accepted as original and unaltered. They have also aired interviews with flight crew, as well as radar and sonar technicians corroborating the events. Over several days, there were numerous sightings of white tic-tac-shaped aircraft, which were intercepted by U.S. Navy fighters. The sightings showed up on radar and were confirmed by pilots in the air. For the conspiracy theorist in all of us, the story includes a visit by a helicopter after the events, ordering a wipe of the shipboard databases. The only problem is — it isn’t just a story.
The point that this group makes is not that we have little green men visiting Earth, abducting citizens for fertility experiments, performing endoscopic studies of the human colon, or enacting a scheme to control the planet. They point out that the existence of these aircraft in our national airspace is a national security issue. We have no idea where they come from. They exhibit technology that is far beyond our current understanding of physics and the technology available to the United States.
Who is behind these events? And how do I get one of those ships?
While it is hard to imagine that one of our Earth-bound adversaries are the culprits, it cannot be ruled out. My personal conundrum wit this theory is that technology progresses incrementally. The fact that there are so many aspects of these aircraft that defy what we consider the laws of physics indicates to me that huge breakthroughs would have to have been made on many fronts. They have no detectable propulsion sources, no aerodynamic surface, and move at speeds that would turn any pilot into paste — or damage sensitive avionics. However, I am not going to claim these are alien aircraft. We don’t know anywhere near enough about them to determine their origin.
Their point is that our country should take this threat seriously and get some answers.
It is time we remove the stigma attached to those who believe that UFOs are present in our airspace and pose a potential threat to the United States. Okay, maybe we can still make fun of that guy in the bomb shelter. But we need to acknowledge that serious thinkers and technical experts may have a point.
I suggest that more of us should get behind the idea that this is important — unlike much of what drives our news media. Let’s figure this out. At a minimum, I’d like to see us get some of these tic-tac ships! Imaging zipping through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds with fresh minty breath.
I am so there.
