What Was the Manta Ray Shaped Object Seen in Texas in 1965?

The "great Flap" of 1965 fell in the months of July, August and some in September. States throughout the American middle lands reported sightings.

The Houston, Texas area for August 11-31 1965 will list in one 137 page file pages of reports. In the conclusion section of the cover sheet:"Reports followed the Great Planes (sic) Inversion on sightings 30 July - 4 August. This folder contains 59 reports submitted to Ellington AFB during 11-31 August 1965. The reports are evaluated as misinterpretation of conventional objects." The form went on to categorize the objects as usually being single objects, varied courses and varied length of observation of objects by witnesses. The file mentions a photo but none is contained in the dozens of reports included.

At a residence from 2 miles NE of Laredo and  the Laredo AFB, Tex on August 4, 1965 came a report.  The cover sheet on the report will say "ASTRO (star/planet)" and will note the sighting involved one multicolored object with flashing lights sequencing from red to green to white. Irregular shaped. Observed for more than two hours after which time a second light joined the first hovering above the first light. It remained there, blinking red lights and then disappeared after several seconds. Observer noted he saw a planet in the sky at the time (he called it Venus first but the record corrects this Jupiter).  Interestingly, but no longer of any great surprise, the internal report and the words of the witness vary from the culminating report summary of the cover sheet. There the witness description includes "triangular lights", object was the size of a pea held at arm's length, slight hissing sound and "flashing lights resembling "neon signs" orange flame like feature shooting from the top that disappeared after a few seconds."

From Carswell AFB, Ft. Worth, Texas on 28 July 1965 came an interesting report from a command pilot involved in education and a Major in the Air Force Reserves at the time. A look at the information  from the summary sheet is in order: 40 ft. long manta ray shape object in flight to North from South. Altitude was apparent and believed to be 1,000 ft. The Tower regarded it as an a/c. Pilots of a/c in area regarded it as an a/c. Investigating officer thought it an a/c. Reported submitted because RAFCON could not identify it was an a/c at time of sighting. Report regard as a/c observation. Flight could be local with no flight plan at local FAA station. Evaluated as a/c".

The sighting at 0240zulu will have a cover sheet reading "AIRCRAFT" but someone - possibly one of the scientific consultants? used by Project Blue Book or some higher up? - scrawled across the cover sheet underneath this conclusion, "How come a command pilot can't recognize an aircraft?" The pilot had top secret clearance and the end of the file is the note: "ASV CY Delivered to DIA".  One can but assume this is the Defense Intelligence Agency and home to many covert projects.

What was unique - and disquieting - about this sighting was the pilot watching this craft fly overhead was with his wife at the north perimeter of the AFB. He recounted in his statement - a well written and analytical document - that : they say two lights approaching from the south" This would seem to imply that the object came right over the air space of Carswell AFB. To continue, "Pulsing brilliant white light " in an on/off sequence about once ever second. This light appeared fixed to, or apart of, a single object moving toward the witnesses in a level flight or slight descent. Note that the witnesses said there were no conventional position lights. The object passed directly overhead, the lights disappeared except for an "erratic sparkling on the leading edge".

The object remain in a constant speed, same course of 360 degrees. Moving away a single pulsating light was visible, it was slightly more brilliant than the one seen from the front view. Additionally, this back light seemed to pulse slower, as though from Doppler Effect. There was no sound from this object - not even a glide noise, He could hear a distant radio playing. The speed was estimated at 50-60 knots and 1000 ft. altitude.

The witness noted that at the time a C-124 was a few hundred yards south of the witnesses position. Around it were Air Force Police and trucks. He returned to quarters, called the Control Tower and added "sighting verified by three other persons." The name of those two were blacked out.

The overkill in the labeling it an aircraft is less than subtle. The idea that any random aircraft could fly anywhere close to a military base in that time period without the military being aware of it is impossible to accept. That a plane over a major city could fly without required Federal Aviation Administration lights and no flight plan stretches credulity.

The idea of there being a "great plains inversion" for the time of the huge August 1-2 "Flap" is unique and apparently isolated to the Houston area as an accepted explanation.   Such inversions are short lived and usually geographical isolated to specific times and places.

The absolute silence of the object observed is another odd thing. The most stealthy on video is the   and other military projects of the time period work well to explain away high level flights, racing across the sky but not much else. Most, however, agree it was 1970 before stealth was a reality in any real way. This was 1965.  Weather balloons were the "go to" explanation for many sightings involving ball, round, curricular, oblong, ice cream cone, and similar shapes but by 1965 the amount of undocumented weather or high-altitude balloons were few and many reports reveal searches and only few "lost" or unaccounted for balloons to use as an explanation.

So - - what was that most fascinating craft - manta or delta winged - observed by the pilot at the northern boundary to Carswell AFB in 1965??

1967 Was Weird in Colorado

Fifty three years ago, "The Horse" in Alamosa, Colorado had people buzzing. It is even mentioned in a Project Blue Book file.  In the records for a sighting near Westcliffe, Colorado of 12 August 1967 was a notation - part of a report written October 11, 1967 (AF IN 66421 pg. 3 or 3) that the sighting might have been sparked by recent events:  "The Horse" incident at Alamosa, Colorado."

This online article suggests the date for the finding of the horse was September 27, 1967. And this one suggests Sept 9 as the correct one.

In 1967 in Colorado there were 29 sightings on file and most involved a missing, mysterious or lost balloon. Which it was depended on who was writing the report.  Apparently something faintly balloon like (round) was seen in various locations but no one could identify its source. Weather agencies, weather squadrons, universities, research companies and the military offered maybe answers but none panned out.

The 1966 NASA-Javelin Rocket Barium Release Test

IN the pages of Project Blue Book are five photos "AlabamaArkOhio and Louisiana" File # 10967 (or online designation 09 6978900). The odd thing is there are no cases of sightings for Arkansas in September of 1966.

The photos are labeled 1 and 2 As "Javelin C4-1600 8.27IA" Barium cloud released by a four stage Javelin vehicle from Wallops Island, VA at 5:13 EST. Sat., Sept. 24, 1966. Photo showing full moon with a corner gone was said to have been taken 9 min. 30 seconds after rocket lift off. NASA W-66-372.

The next image is a "Barium cloud" 23 min. after lift off.


A striking image with a beam of light is of "lift off at 5:13". Other images are not labeled.

Sexism In Early UFO Investigation

An early ad affirming the frailty of women

The very word "hysteria" comes from an sexist belief that women were more emotionally and labeled "female hysteria" (nervousness, anxiety, emotional responses, having ideas or opinions, seeking legal or political redress, questioning male authority - these were all symptoms that led to a diagnosis of 'female hysteria').  Sadly, this type of thinking can be seen in some cases of investigations into unidentified flying object reports. Often, by men who labeled themselves "scientists" and should have known better.
mentally unstable due to their biology. The word comes from the Greek for "uterus."  It was bad science that led to worse science and guided far too much thinking about women, their intellect and emotional structure well into the 20th century.  A large group of symptoms were used to define something broadly believed to be a female condition and something that made her inherently inferior in mental capacity, physical stamina and emotional stability.

In Sheffield Lake, Ohio, 21 September 1958, one of the most aggressively sexist of all reports appeared with the story of a woman who reported an unidentified flying object in her front yard. The part that rankled the Air Force was that a local UFO group jumped in and issued a paper on the sighting making claims they could not and would not support. The rivalry between the AF and civilian UFo investigative groups (often mocked with the title 'saucerians') fills many pages throughout the Project Blue Book ( and its predecessor names) records. Some reports to government and military agencies are nothing but pages outlining the numerous civilian periodicals and/or groups in the nation at that time. At one time over fifty national organizations existed and this, it was clear, was just too much.

In short, the witness described an object seen for five minutes has having a side view of a round "saucer shaped object" with smoke coming from the two far "ends" of the thin rim aspect of the "saucer". In other view it was round with a projection on the top. It followed a course across her front yard, appeared 8 feet diameter. The object crossed her driveway, becoming lower, about a foot off the ground - then object turned east to center of lawn, hovering there releasing a grayish-pink smoke- while visible a humming or whirring sound.

The air force explained this away, despite the attempts of the local and national UFO organization to present it as a viable unidentified sighting.  The AF said the combination of events leading to her sighting were:
1. Coast Guard boat using a searchlight to signal another boat at that same time
2. Train with an oscillating headlight and a tail light at that same time
3. Rain and mist with smoke and haze at that same time

1936 film that led to witness emotional vulnerability

4. Witness had just finished watching a horror movie...leaving her emotional vulnarable at that same time.

Believe me, having seen said movie,
it would hardly leave anyone emotional vulnerable let alone overly imaginative about  UFO's.


There was a tendency for some groups to equate any and all unidentified objects with "flying saucers', i.e. craft from other worlds. There was ,also, a tendency by the Air Force and its scientific supports - such as Dr. Donald H. Menzel and Dr.  J. Allen Hynek (although he would later adjust his views to a belief there was much to investigate in the subject) -were less open minded scientists as avid (in Menzel's case, rapid) debunkers. A skeptic is one whose mind is open and will accept what the science, evidence, and witnesses have to say in making a decision. A debunker has already has made up their mind and will only consider the aspects, evidence, and witness statements that support a predetermined belief or supposition.

The tendency is made clear in this case in both Dr. Menzel's book The World of Flying Saucers but in the actual file itself, that includes a letter from Project Blue Book administrator Robert J. Friend to Menzel sending the man a report of recent cases and a copy of statistics. The cozy letter sent to the residence of Menzel in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Menzel worked at Harvard) starts out with a salutation to the man and his family for the recent holiday and then launches into apology that he had been unable to send the agreed upon 'bi-weekly' reports on cases and would begin attempting a 'bi-monthly' report "of our activities" instead. ["0800z 21 September 1958, Sheffield Lake, Ohio"]

Friend wrote out a detailed, point by point response and exception report concerning the "Fizgerald Case" by local UFO group (17 Dec. 1958) in which among the many "omissions, errors" etc. he lists "3....a. No mention of the horror movie (Dracula's Daughter) which the witness was viewing before the sighting. It is the opinion of ATIC [Air Technology Intelligence Center in charge of Project Blue Book] that this was a contributing factor to the emotional vulnerability of Mrs. [blanked out name of witness]."

This them of emotional instability and vulnerability fills the pages of Menzel's almost verbatim report of the sighting in The World of Flying Saucers (pg. 279- 283 in the chapter Investigations - Air Force and Civilian). Menzel summed up the Air Force stance by saying the UFO was an illusion "produced by a combination of factors: an excited frame of mind induced by Dracula's Daughters, the spotlight on a Coast Guard cutter, the rotating headlight of the train and the noise of its engine, drifting smoke and the haze of thedrizzly night."

In September of 1960 a Tulsa, Oklahoma woman came in for this treatment after reporting something she and her husband had observed at the nearby airport around August 1, a finally felt it was important enough they should report what had been seen. They lived near an airport and had lived in such a location most of their adult lives.

"Mrs. [Blanked out name] is a heavy set woman about fifty years old. Her husband is a barber in Tulsa..." A notation about her health and eyesight continue the details about one  half of the pair having shared the sighting experience. The investigator was an O.S.I. officer (Office of Special Investigations).  The physical description of the woman and her age are mentioned while the spouse is labeled merely by an occupation. Both were totally irrelevant to the report.

RESEARCHER LOOKING FOR STORIES AND ACCOUNTS OF RED UFO'S

This researcher is interested in learning about experiences of UFO's with red, reddish-yellow, reddish-orange, or reddish-white primary lighting features from 1957 to 1968. Main focus is on the mid-west but anywhere is worth collecting.

Here is the information required:

Location of sighting (place, city, state, etc.):

Description of object seen (circular, oblong, triangle, ball, unsure):

Description of colors:

Description of lights (if visible and discernable as to location, shape, colors, etc.)

Time of date:

Weather conditions:

Any sounds:

Direction object first seen:

Direction object last seen:

Impact on surroundings (dogs barking, trees moving, warmth, chill, etc.):

Any other witnesses:

Any problems or issues post sighting? Such as memory loss, burns, sickness, fear, sleeplessness, etc.

Send to Marilyn A. Hudson, Author and Researcher.

If you wish to write up your account and allow me to post it here with your name as author, I will be happy to so. Just add that statement to the emailed information.

MILITARY/NUCLEAR SITES AND UFO'S: Was this UFO Using Sulfur to Renew a Power Unit?

1959 - Weldon Springs, just west of Wentsville in St. Charles County, Missouri the above craft was sighted. The exact date was not listed by the witness but the Project Blue File was stamped "Jan 1959" and internal letters from March refer to the event so a good guess it was received and refers to a January 1959 event. During WW2 Weldon Springs was the site of an ordnance Works and then it was acquired by the U.S.Atomic Energy Commission for its uranium and closed in 1966. Interestingly in 2014 (July 14) a black triangle craft was observed there as well.

Further, this is a story J. Allen Hynek selected for inclusion in his book The Hynek UFO Report. In in that work it is labeled the 'Night of the Full Moon' and listed in reference to the proximity of Weldon Springs to St. Louis. Hynek' s use of it was illustration of both the problem of delayed reporting and the reality of sincere people perplexed by things seen. There is no internal evidence that the AF investigated it, the date was merely "1959" and the long form was, unsurprisingly, not returned.  The handwritten missive sent to the authorities reads like someone trying to get something off his chest - in this case - a strange and haunting sight. The long form he would have had to fill out to follow up the case was no doubt challenging and intimidating allowing for second thoughts.

In brief, the object was observed as the witness was making his way to visit a relative and was disc shaped, had two rows of portholes (one smaller and one row larger) out of which light shone and the disc (or perhaps part of the disc) revolved clockwise ( a phenomena reported is many other cases). It hovered for about 20 minutes and then moved northwest out of sight in about 10-15 seconds. In this case, there was also an odor associated with the sighting; described as a vapor and smelling of sulfur (oddly this is also a smell associated with alleged material fragments associated with other sightings or events)..


Of a side note is a technical article dealing with using sulfur to store solar energy.    As part of a cycle that might lead to renewal energy sources. Was this object viewed in 1959 already utilizing something similar and was seeking a source for renewing a power unit?

As the site in question was the location of a dynamite ordnance facility from WW2 to 1955 and there was a great deal of potential sulfur and residue in the area. In 1955 it was acquired to mine uranium . The nearby former limestone quarry was just four miles from the plant and was eventually labeled contaminated and was adversely impacting local groundwater. Of note was that the primary contaminants at the Chemical Plant and surrounding soil, included uranium, thorium, radium, and their radioactive decay products Abatement was undertaken to reclaim and clean up the area.

What remains are some interesting events and some strange possibilities. All in all an intriguing concept. 

Who Were The Men in Black?

A sub-genre of the UFO mythos is the concept of the "Men in Black" strange men who arrive to intimidate or warn off witnesses to strange events.

Their first appearance, apparently, was the 1947 Maury Island UFO story that has been largely discredited as a hoax by both believers and debunkers. In the narrative two strange and mysterious 'men dressed in black' came to warn the witnesses about telling what they had seen.

They trope of the men in black would - throughout the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's - traverse the fringe elements of the UFO world.  The pulp books on alleged sightings, landings, abductions, contacts as well as coverups and conspiracies would feature these enigmatic people.  Tracking down these 'men in black' encounters proves hard work.

So hard, that their credibility, and the increasingly bizarre discriptions of their behaviors, had been severely tried.

So, 1) Were there men in black? and if so, 2) Who were they?

After conducting significant research into a variety of government files and historic records it becomes clear that in that wild year of 1947 when strange sightings filled the calendar from January to December it was an odd situation. Spring accounts were laughed off, ignored or investigated merely as tall tales that might serve to cover the espionage work of foreign powers trying to gain access to U.S. atomic secrets and ongoing research. As such, these cases were investigated and not by the military.  The F.B.I. was often the first ones to interview such witnesses in the name of protecting those secret atomic plans and ongoing research projects.

After September of 1947 this would change slightly. That was when a new structure for the military and the intelligence community was established.  Up until then, the Army Air Force would have still been operating under war-time intelligence procedures for intelligence gathering (and indeed some Air Fields and offices would continue to use those models into the next decade).

On September 19, 1947,  the military and intelligence communities were restructured and and the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency were created along with transforming the Army Air Corp into the United Air Force.

Indeed, some of the early investigations found in Project Blue Book (under the tenure of Project Sign or Grudge) reflect that the U.S.A.F. utilized the F.B.I. and other intelligence agencies to interview witnesses and run background checks to determine their general character.

The F.B.I. (formed in the 1920's) had an strict dress and conduct code. The agents (almost always men in early years) were to wear clean, neat dark suits, matching dark socks and garters (never patterned socks) and a plain dark color necktie and a snap brim hat. The Director, J.Edgar Hoover, had exacting requirements as to how they filled out their forms, notebooks, and kept their lockers. All was designed to present a uniform of business attire for an army of intelligence officers - capable of going toe to toe with foes from all walks of life with the same authority and confidence as a police officer or a military officer. This meant that male fashions might evolve into various fads (wide lapels, narrow legs, long jackets, etc.) for the most part the "uniform" of the F.B.I. remained in a very conservative - even staid - classic look.  Changes came late and slowly but it is still the standard to wear business formal for court and other official occasions.

That, to this day, is the standard in Washington D.C. for almost all who work in government and offices around that city. The classic dark suit, white shirt and conservative tie is still the "go-to" attire. Walk any street, visit any restaurant, ride the rail, stroll the lobby of any hotel and you will see them everywhere.

So - - did people see "men in black"? They probably did and were shown a badge with three letters on it. They would run backgrounds, asked a lot of questions of witnesses, and friends and employers of witnesses to gain insight into reputation, associates and behaviors.  If the investigations of these people were deemed credible, then the Air Ford would be notified to add that information to their investigations and to help direct their views concerning any eyewitness accounts.