UFO GUY

Now in my early fifties, I began reading about UFOs in the 1960s. The first book I read was Flying Saucers Serious Business by Frank Edwards. The book was impressive and taught me that the proof for the existence of Aliens from other worlds was substantial. The entire point of the book was for the author to present evidence to support various UFO cases as having something more than conventional explanations.

One reason I really enjoyed that book was because Frank Edwards was no slouch. He took over as a commentator and host on the Mutual Broadcasting Network replacing Edward R. Murrow, the legendary newsman and broadcaster. During an interview promoting the book he said that when he first decided to tackle the UFO subject, he decided to implement the three source rule that most reporters use to verify a story.

Edwards felt that if he could verify just one UFO incident using that rule, it would prove these objects were not just weather balloons and swamp gas. As it turned out, he found many UFO incidents that could easily be verified in that way. More importantly, he included a number of military encounters with UFOs in the book.

I got the impression that he wanted to drive home the point that, despite government statements to the contrary, members of the military and other trained observers were reporting things they saw on the land, in the sea and in the air that could not be easily identified or explained. Sadly, most of those kinds of reports were two long and complicated to make good copy for newspapers. It was easier to report that some good ole boy saw a pie plate attached to a bottle rocket and thought that Martians were invading our planet.

When the U.S. Air Force completed their Project Blue Book investigation of the UFO phenomenon in 1969-1970, it came as no surprise to me that 95% of the sightings were listed as explainable. It was a fast way to discredit UFO reports from civilians. I grew up in an Air Force family and my father was a retired officer, so I knew what the deal was.

The Air Force didn’t want to publicly discuss the subject of UFOs. Whatever was really going on was a big secret, possibly the biggest, and was going to be kept by a select few. The rest was all hearsay and conjecture. However, the Air Force hierarchy still hated being placed in a position to constantly comment on UFO reports. They hoped that Blue Book would solve that problem by allowing a time out for them to collect reports and have the evidence examined by scientific experts, but it didn’t. Instead, they found themselves saddled with a government study that created more questions than answers.

The Air Force has always been a player in the UFO game, but I never believed that they were in charge of it. If any military service had some sort of governmental jurisdiction over the UFO phenomenon, it was the Navy. Despite appearances, the Navy has always been the most powerful and influential of the U.S. Military Services. The Marine Corps, the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office and many other agencies fall under their jurisdiction.

The Navy was the very first branch of the U.S. Military to be organized into a paid, professional organization. Today, they have their own intelligence services, space program and the largest operating budget of any of the branches of the U.S. Military. Most of the alleged heads of secret groups and shadow governments meant to handle the UFO problem were identified as high-ranking U.S. Navy Officers.

My own experience with the U.S. Armed Forces involved the Navy. I served in the Marine Corps during the mid-1970s and had my own set of unique experiences which I will relate later in this book. But that’s jumping too far ahead. Let me back all the way up a bit by saying that I was born late in the marriage of my parents. That was both good and bad. Good, because I didn’t have to deal with most of the relocation and other hassles associated with being born into a family where a career military officer is the primary bread winner. Bad, because I can only recall a brief period of time when my father was active military.

Apart from being an Air Force Officer, my father was a regular guy and great dad. He took me everywhere and provided an experiential education that was equal to what I learned in school. My mother was all for that and did the same. Both my parents believed in education and had college degrees. However, I was an only child and that made my father’s experiences a tough act to follow.

After serving in the Army and on General MacArthur’s Staff in the South Pacific during World War II, my father switched to the Army Air Corps and finally to the Air Force in 1947 when it was born as a separate military entity. For years after he retired, his buddies from the military stopped by for barbeques and other gatherings. It was during those times that I heard a number of stories being told about UFOs.

It seems that UFOs and Aliens were always in the news when I was growing up in the 1960s. Whenever they were, it was a catalyst for my father’s friends to bring up the subject of Flying Saucers and Unidentified Flying Objects. Although my dad didn’t have much use for the topic and didn’t talk much about his military service with me, he was always tolerant when to came to listening to their UFO stories.

Whenever a bunch of my father’s military buddies stopped by, they hung out in our finished basement during the winter or near the barbeque in our back yard during the summer. I found a couple of places in our house where I could sit and hear everything they were saying. It was great! It was also one of the reasons I became so interested in UFOs. That interest hasn’t waned one little bit during the over forty years I have been reading about, researching and investigating them.

Listening to my father and his friends talk about UFOs taught me something important. If you want to find the bone, follow the dog that buried it. If I liken the bone to UFOs and Aliens, I will have to liken the dog to our government and military. No disrespect intended. Nobody loves America more than I do and I have nothing but the greatest respect for members of our military services. As far as elected officials are concerned, not so much.

Radio Personalities that book me as a guest for their shows and have done so for many years call me The UFO GUY, hence the book title. I hope you enjoy my little narrative. It’s the first of several books I hope to write about my experiences and investigations. As you’ll soon discover, my life has been surrounded by the paranormal and unusual events from the very beginning. People that have experienced the unexplained have been drawn to me, and I to them. If nothing else, I hope you’ll learn to appreciate why so many feel so strongly about their paranormal and supernatural experiences.

I began investigating UFOs and the Paranormal in High School. I started an afterschool club for extra credit which began immensely popular. Almost from Day One people wanted to tell me their stories of encounters with the unexplained. I wasn't really ready for this and it kind of freaked me out, but at the same time I was intriqued. I gathered a small group of students and teachers together and we started investigating some of the claims that came our way.

Although I have held jobs completely unrelated to paranormal investigations, I kept on with it as a hobby and eventually started speaking about it in meetings throughout the USA and Canada. I got the name 'The UFO Guy' because of all the radio interviews I started doing. DJs and Radio Personalities listed me as 'The UFO Guy' on their bulletin boards and online sites as a good guest to have on when it comes to the unexplained.