The Great UFO Wave:
1973

UFO'S ARE BACK???!

• (Source and date unknown. Article written for children; possibly for Junior Scholastic Magazine)

By Michael Cusack

There's a "flap" on. And it may be the biggest ever.

NICAP says so!

What's a flap? Who's NICAP?

In this case, a flap is a lot of UFO (unidentified flying object) reports. Many, many Americans have recently said that they've seen strange things in the sky. A few people have even said that they've seen strange creatures -- on the ground.

Some of these reports sound reasonable. Others sound weird and wild.

Each and every UFO report is of special interest to NICAP -- National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. This committee is a group of people that examines UFO sighting reports. There are several similar private UFO study groups in the world. However, many scientists consider NICAP to be the "best" of those groups. These scientists feel that NICAP's investigations are usually careful, fair, and reasonable.

For several years -- up to the summer of 1973 -- NICAP and similar groups had little to do.

Why? Very few reports of UFO sightings were coming in.

Back in the 1950's there was a big flap. Thousands of people said they saw "flying saucers." (Few people call UFO's "flying saucers" now.) There was a small flap in the early 1960's. Then as the years passed, fewer and fewer UFO reports came in. By 1973, some people wondered, "Where have all the UFO's gone?"

Now, the UFO's "are back in force." And groups such as NICAP are busier than beavers.

The present UFO flap seems to have begun in Texas. In the spring of 1973, the Dallas Times Herald ran some stories about a UFO "crash" in April, 1897. A small, shiny, "cigar-shaped" craft was said to have crashed into a windmill in Aurora, Texas. The strange craft's tiny pilot was said to have been "blown to pieces."

How did the Times Herald learn about the "crash"? Bill Case, a reporter, found the story in an 1897 Dallas newspaper.

Later, Bill Case and a treasure-hunter named Frank Kelley went to the "crash site." They dug up a few scraps of "strange-looking" metal. By mid-June, news reporters, curiosity seekers, and UFO fans were piling into Aurora. A new interest in UFO's was born -- at least in that part of Texas.

Around the same time, Mrs. Marie Harris, of Garland, Texas, said that there was a strange thing growing in her backyard. It was "as big as a platter, foamy and creamy, and pale yellow." It also "pulsated like a beating heart." When Mrs. Harris hacked it with a hoe, it "bled," she said. Its "blood" was a red and purple goo.

People called it "The Blob." A biologist from the University of Texas called it a fungus. Finally, sunlight seemed to kill it.

A national news magazine linked the story of "The Blob" with the story of the old UFO "crash" at Aurora. That magazine story, surely, must have set great numbers of people thinking about visitors from outer space.

In the summer and early fall of 1973, more stories of UFO sightings started to trickle in. By mid-October, that trickle had turned into a flood of UFO sightings.

A farmer in Georgia said that a strange, glowing, egg-shaped object landed on his property and took off again. In Louisiana, sheriff's deputies chased five orange-red lights through 12 miles of piney woods.

A woman in Rockville, Maryland said she saw a huge craft, shaped like a "double-decked ferris wheel," streaking over the town.

National Park Service ranger Tom Westmoreland was cruising the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi an a warm October evening. He spotted a car by the side of the road. He pulled over. Two people from the car pointed to the sky. Ranger Westmoreland looked up. Then he saw a strange "vehicle hanging in the air." "Under the fuselage, if you can call it that,"the ranger explained, "glowed red, yellow, and green pulsing lights."

Paul Brown of Athens, Georgia, said that a silver, egg-shaped object landed on the road in front of his car, as he was driving one evening. He slammed on his brakes. Then, he said, two small people-like creatures came out of the craft and headed toward him. Mr. Brown waved a gun. The two creatures darted back into the craft . . . and whooshed away.

Police Chief Jeff Greenshaw of Falkville, Alabama, was driving to an area where a UFO had been reported. As he turned a bend in the road, Chief Greenshaw said he saw "a man-shaped thing in a reflector-ized silver suit." The thing ran away. But the police chief claims to have taken pictures of the thing. (We haven't been able to get prints of those pictures, yet.)

From Gulfport, Mississippi, people reported that "strange creatures with weirdly shaped heads" had been stopping cars on Route 90. Some reports said that the "strange creatures were scratching at car windows with their claws."

Perhaps, the strangest story of all was told by Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson of Pascagoula, Mississippi. The two men said that they were fishing from a wharf on the Pascagoula River. The date was October 11. As they fished, the said, a strange, fish-shaped blue craft landed near them. Three creatures came out of the craft. The creatures had pointed ears and wrinkled, silvery skin. The creatures forced the two fishermen to go inside the fish-shaped craft. After a while, the creatures let the men go. And the fish-shaped craft whooshed away.

Many people claimed that they were chased by UFO's. Mrs. Irmgard Lincoln, of Washington, DC, says that she is in "telepathic contact with the people in the UFO's." She says that those people will soon land all over the Earth. But, she says, "they will come as our friends." Mrs. Lincoln gives UFO lectures at a place called the Cosmic Academy.

Usually, scientists don't consider people like Mrs. Lincoln to be "good" witnesses. But the scientists can't ignore the words of someone such as John J. Gilligan, the governor of Ohio.

At a press conference in October, Gov. Gilligan was asked about reports of UFO sightings in Ohio. Then, he startled newsmen by saying: "I saw one the other night, so help me."

Gov. Gilligan described an amber-colored beam of light that he saw while driving on Route 23. The Governor said, "I'm absolutely serious. I saw this. It was not a plane. It was not a bird. It didn't wear a cape. And I really-don't know what it was."

There's little doubt that stories of UFO sightings lead to more reports of UFO sightings. The UFO stories also lead to pranks and hoaxes. On October 20, 1973, most of the 68,000 people attending a night football game at the Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, saw a strange object. During halftime, a brightly glowing thing moved over the stadium with a police helicopter chasing it. The UFO was captured. It turned out to be an inflated plastic garment bag with a candle inside.

Police in Indiana also captured UFO's -- plastic garbage bags with candles in them.

In Greenwood, Delaware, car drivers stopped to stare at a saucer-shaped circle of flashing lights near a road. Traffic backed up. The police came. It turned out that the lights were put up by five volunteer firemen. It was just a joke. But the police didn't think it was a joke. The firemen were arrested for disorderly conduct.

Many UFO sightings have been traced to pranks. Several other UFO's turned out to be planes, planets, and reflected lights. A National Weather Service spokesman said that many weather balloons were launched throughout the southern U.S. during October. Many of those balloons could have been reported as UFO's.

But scientists agree that pranks, planes, planets, and weather balloons don't explain all UFO sightings. And that brings up some questions.

Are some UFO's "real"? Could they be space vehicles sent to Earth from some other place in the universe?

Most Americans think so! A recent Gallup poll showed that 51 per cent of the people interviewed believe that UFO's are real. What's more, 11 per cent of the people said that they'd actually seen UFO's.

What does the U.S. government think of UFO's? From 1947 to 1969, the U.S. Air Force studied UFO sightings. And, from 1966 through 1968, University of Colorado scientists made an independent study of the subject for the Air Force.

These studies showed that most UFO's were really planes, planets, balloons, frauds, reflected light, or freakish weather. However, the scientists making the studies weren't able to explain all UFO sightings. But the scientists felt that there was no evidence that UFO's are spaceships from another planet.

Dr. Edward Condon headed the University of Colorado study. This is what he says: "If you define a UFO as a visitor from outer space, there's no evidence they exist. I've never seen one. I think further study of UFO's would be scientifically useless. I think my own study of UFO's was a waste of government money."

Many scientists tend to agree with Dr. Condon. But one noted scientist sharply disagrees with him. That scientist is J. Allen Hynek, head of the Dearborn Observatory of Northwestern University.

Dr. Hynek is a highly respected astronomer. He is also a believer in UFO's. He has written many books and articles on the subject.

Dr. Hynek says that the Air Force studies of UFO's were incomplete and "shoddy." He feels that it's time for a new, sane, sensible, scientific study of the subject.

Recently, Dr. Hynek said, "For a quarter century the UFO phenomenon has been the subject of gross misconceptions, misinformation, ridicule, buffoonery, and unscientific approach. The fact that reports persist -- from many countries -- presents a mystery that demands explanation."

To help explain that mystery, Dr. Hynek formed the Center for UFO Studies in December, 1973. This center will collect and examine UFO reports from all over the world.

Some scientists believe that the final explanation of the UFO mystery may be "in our minds." Psychologist Lester Grinspoon of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, feels that many UFO sightings may be imaginary. (Psychologists are people who are trained to study human feelings, emotions, and behavior.) He says that people may start seeing things as a psychological reaction to the stresses of modern living.

Several other psychologists take a similar view. They say that, in a time when there is a lot of "bad news," people may start imagining things.

These psychologists point out that the news was bad for very many Americans during October. War raged in the Middle East. Prices soared. Severe oil shortages were expected. Then on October 10, Spiro Agnew quit as Vice President of the United States. The Watergate crisis seemed to be getting worse. And many people talked about impeaching President Nixon.

October was a bad month all around. And it was during October that most UFO sightings were reported.

What do you think about UFO's? Are they all planes, planets, balloons, or wild imaginings? Or ... could some of them be visitors from another world?

This article is courtesy of researcher
Jerry Hamm,
from Napoleon, OH