Look to the Skies

A really interesting thing has happened in the last few years. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released an unclassified version of a classified report it is required by law to provide to Congress. According to that report, they’re currently focusing on 177 cases in which the reported object (or objects) appear to have demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities and require further analysis.

After decades of treating Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) reports as unworthy of serious consideration, the government is now treating them differently. They’re also calling them something different. The UFO has evolved into an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP). Their basic nature hasn’t changed. They’re still things observed in the sky, and they’re still unidentified. Beyond that, you may have to get elected to Congress or the Presidency to find out what’s in the classified version of that report.

One thing needs to be clear at this point. Just because a thing up there in the sky is unidentified doesn’t mean it’s a flying saucer (or whatever shape it takes). It just means no one’s able to figure out what it is. Most of us are not trained in the fine art of figuring stuff like that out. If it looks like a bird, it’s probably a bird. If it looks like a plane, that’s probably what it is. If it looks like a weather balloon, it’s probably a weather balloon (or it may be a Chinese surveillance device, as we’ve learned recently). I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a weather balloon, and that’s why it’s always been the go-to answer for unexplained things in the sky.

Reports of strange things in the skies go back for hundreds of years. Some believe there are descriptions of UAPs in the Bible, and there’s a carving in a cathedral in Spain that really looks like an astronaut in a space suit. Look at the picture included in this entry.

  

As you look at that picture, focus on the space helmet. Look at the bottom of the boots. There’s a backpack of some sort that looks remarkably like the oxygen tanks worn by our astronauts, and the guy’s holding onto a tether. This carving was part of the cathedral’s construction between the 16^th and 18^th Centuries!

There are a lot of believers rooting for UAP sightings to be extraterrestrial in nature, but just because a lot of people believe something doesn’t mean it’s true. It just means a lot of people believe it. I grew up reading science fiction. I watched Star Trek when it was first broadcast. I’m a firm believer that there probably are other intelligent life forms “out there.” Have I seen things in the sky I can’t identify? Yes. Most of us have. Are some of those things from another world? Maybe.

I’ve had three experiences with UFOs (oops, UAPs).

The first was while I was in college. That one turned out to be a bunch of folks with lights strapped to their bodies as they practiced skydiving in the dark. At least, that was the story they passed out publicly, and it kinda fit what I saw.

The second happened a little over ten years later. I saw something strange in the wheat field south of the runway at Altus Air Force Base. (That’s in Oklahoma if you’re not familiar with it.) When I asked someone who should have known what it was, he emphatically told me I hadn’t seen anything, and I never saw him again. Weird, huh?

The third time was in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I was watching an extremely bright light move across the sky from east to west, and then it just winked out of existence. My first thought was it was a high-altitude jet reflecting the morning sun, but I’ve seen that particular phenomenon, and this didn’t resemble what I’d seen in the past. Then, I thought it had gone behind a cloud, but there were no clouds in the sky (that happens a lot in New Mexico).

So, three sightings. One explained. Two are still unknown.

The United States government has elected to reveal what it knows about UAPs. Basically, their knowledge amounts to “We ain’t got a clue, but they’re there.”

That’s pretty comforting, isn’t it?

According to a fellow I met in New Mexico, UAPs really are from other worlds, and the people flying in them disguise themselves as humans. Some are nice guys. Some aren’t. Some are working with the U.S. Government. Some aren’t. To what end? According to him, they’re here to help us and keep us from destroying ourselves. I personally think they’re doing a pretty poor job of that, but that’s just my opinion. Also, according to him, some of those aliens have wings and look like angels. They’ve spoken to him. Let’s make that past tense. They spoke to him. He’s since passed away. According to his family, it was a stroke.

But was it? Or were they eliminating a potential threat?

Isn’t it great how one question leads to another? My wife was a little worried about me meeting with him. She was afraid the aliens (if they existed) might link me to him. I wasn’t worried (much). Everything he told me is already “out there” in the UAP literature. Much of it’s been around for decades.

According to UAP believers, there are lots of different aliens. The Greys look like the traditional image of a naked alien with an over-sized head, huge black eyes, and, of course, gray skin. There are the Nordic aliens who are tall, blond-haired, and white. There are the Reptilians, and—uh--they look like reptiles. Then there are the cryptozoologicals (just plain strange-looking fellows). Some aliens are from the future. Some are from other dimensions. Some are from Atlantis. Some live in New Jersey (no, I didn’t throw that in as a joke). You’ve got aliens and alien artifacts at Area 51, and others are at a place named Dulce in New Mexico. Sandy and I have been to Dulce, and we have a really eerie story about that place, but it didn’t involve aliens – at least, I don’t think it did.

Then there are the Unidentified Underwater Objects. My friend in New Mexico talked about them as well. He said there’s a secret underwater base off the coast of California where aliens work with humans. Humans get there by submarine (he’d been there as well as he was in the Navy). There are three underground tunnels that submarines can use to get from one coast to another, too. In fact, four submarines can use them and travel side-by-side because they’re huge.

In conclusion, there are LOTS of ideas. Facts – verifiable facts – are a different story. But that doesn’t mean it’s all fictitious. Strange things in the skies have been there for ages. They may be hovering over your house right now, because for all I’ve mentioned so far, we haven’t even discussed abductions – or cattle mutilations – or – or – well, you get the idea. If you see something strange, take a picture.

Back in the early 50’s, Hollywood produced the original version of “The Thing.” It was the motion picture debut of James Arness (Gunsmoke’s Matt Dillon). He played the alien. You may remember the closing line. After their encounter with a hostile alien, the reporter in the group ended his report with these words:

“Look to the skies. Look to the skies.”

Remember, if you see a flying saucer, take a picture.

Take care. Stay safe.

cma