UFOs are part of universe that needs to be explored

This is likely the result of last month’s U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee’s public hearing on unidentified aerial vehicles — a government inquiry which has not been publicly made in more than fifty years.

It’s about time.

Being ahead of the curve in 1962, I undertook my own study of the mysterious aerial objects in the eighth or ninth grade as a science fair project. I won the Mooresville Junior High School fair’s “3rd Place (Physical)” award, which came with a pin. I still have it.

I take pride in this achievement, as I did the whole project by myself, with no adult help, unlike some projects at the fair. As a local winner, I went on to enter my project in the district’s science fair in Charlotte, which was a BIG DEAL.

An interesting topic

UFOs were a part of a mysterious universe I was beginning to explore, which also included Amelia Earhart’s disappearance, the lost continent Atlantis, the Bermuda Triangle, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and similar subjects. I read everything I could put my hands on regarding these topics, which, in those days before the internet, was not a great deal.

Accounts of unknown things in the sky go back centuries. Some people regard Ezekiel’s vision (Ezekiel 1:4-7) to be an early Close Encounter, estimated to have happened around 593 B.C.

The “modern age of UFOlogy” probably began during World War II when American bomber crews began reporting what they called “foo fighters.” Described as “inexplicable lights” which followed Allied night fighter squadrons flying over Germany’s Rhine Valley. Sometimes they numbered as many as ten, flew in formation at 200 miles per hour and appeared to be very maneuverable. The craft did not show up on radar.

The first modern sighting

The term “flying saucers” came from a report by a private plane pilot named Kenneth Arnold (1915-1984) on June 24, 1947. Mr. Arnold was flying his single-engine plane near Mount Rainier, Washington, when he observed, he said, nine shiny objects that flew “like a saucer if you skip it across the water.” Mr. Arnold estimated the objects were traveling at 1,200 mph.

Reporters took his words and modified them to “flying saucers.” The term caught on. Mr. Arnold had never used those two words together himself, and later maintained he had been misquoted.

What if these objects sighted by Mr. Arnold were actually advanced Soviet aircraft, designed by Nazi scientists the Soviets captured at the end of WWII? The U.S. military also rounded up scientists who had worked for the Nazis in what was called “Operation Paper Clip” at the end of the war.

While many people started reporting flying objects that looked saucer-shaped, the objects came in other shapes as well. There is a 1967 chart of 31 common UFO shapes available from etsy.com for $5.

While I was in junior high school, I wrote to Dr. J. Allen Hynek (1910-1986), America’s top man on the subject. Dr. Hynek held a Ph.D. in astrophysics and I actually received a letter back from the great man himself. I wish I knew where the letter he wrote to me is today. Dr. Hynek was associated with the Harvard Observatory and is the person who developed the “Close Encounter” scale with which to classify sightings that he proposed in his book, “The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry” (1972). This, of course, is the source of Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” movie title.

In Dr. Hynek’s system, a “close encounter” occurs when the UFO come within 500 feet of the observer. The First Kind occurs when the UFO does not affect the environment. The Second Kind occurs when the UFO affects inanimate and animate objects, such as leaving crop circles, causing wild life to run, etc. The Third Kind of encounter occurs when the observer actually sees the aliens of the UFO.

Dr. Hynek was also a consultant to Spielberg and Columbia Pictures for the movie. His classification system has “come into universal usage” for UFO reports.