The day AFR 200-2 was declassified, an incredible CIRVIS report describing a UFO was sent to the DIRNSA. It was headed “Emergency,” from the flight service center at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, to the Commander of Air Defense Command at Ent AFB, Colorado Springs. The report described the entry into airspace of a “strange stationary object variable in brilliance” which moved rapidly, then returned to its original position. The base sent a helicopter to investigate; “definitely not a star,” said the pilot. The object began receiving a great deal of attention. A number of people watched it from the tower, and Columbus CAA radioed in that they had it in sight. The object soon became dimmer, showed a slight red glow, and disappeared. According to the report:
pilot of helicopter wished to stress fact that object was of a saucer-like nature, was stationary at 2000 ft. And would be glad to be called upon to verify any statements and act as witness.81
Although sightings trailed off by the end of summer, on August 28, a formation of fifteen UFOs approached Oklahoma City, tracked on radar. Jets were sent to intercept them, and the objects quickly vanished out of sight. Hundreds of city residents watched the chase. Tinker Field officers nevertheless refused to admit the sighting.82
THE HUMANOID SIGHTINGS
What follows constitutes one of the most bizarre and baffling UFO events ever. Between September and December 1954, a heavy concentration of UFO reports—at times dozens per day—came from France, Italy, Britain, Germany, North Africa, the Middle East, and South America. People were seeing more than objects in the sky: they claimed to see landings of UFOs and short humanoid beings. In France, the first area of intense activity, UFO researchers Raymond Veillith and Aimé Michel did the brunt of rounding up newspaper accounts and interviewing witnesses. Without their work, this wave might well have been forgotten by the public. It is noteworthy that the Lorenzens had collected a few humanoid sighting reports from South America during 1953 and early 1954, which closely match the events of this autumn.83
Press coverage was mostly local, and many witnesses did not know that a UFO wave was taking place. Most of them described beings between three and four feet tall, some of which were human-looking, others “almost” human-looking, others wore “diving suits,” others were hairy, gray, or even shorter than two feet. None of the sightings included descriptions of what are now called “Grays,” the small, thin creatures with big, dark eyes, made famous from the cover of Whitley Strieber’s
The response to all this was uneven. Several governments followed events carefully and even created special sections for gathering and studying UFO reports. Some American UFO organizations, such as CSI and APRO, were also impressed. Others, such as NICAP (formed in 1956) dismissed the reports as too closely resembling “crackpot” cases. Scientists ridiculed the events. “Such fantastic stories,” one French scientist said, “could only come from deranged minds,” to which Michel responded, “what would these people have said if I had published
France had been the scene of steady UFO activity throughout 1954. Multiple-witness sightings occurred in France and Tunisia in late August and early September. CIA files recorded a UFO encounter from the French town of Aisne, near the Belgian border on September 7. At 3 A.M., a husband, wife, and her father were driving when they saw a luminous red-orange disc stop across the road about one thousand feet up. The object rose and took off at high speed.85
The first sighting of a UFO occupant in France occurred three days later, not far from the previous sighting. On September 10, near the Belgian border in Valenciennes, Marius Dewilde, a thirty-four-year-old metal worker, was reading at home at 10:30 P.M. His wife and children were in bed. His dog barked, and Dewilde took a flashlight outside in time to see his dog whining and crawling on its belly. He heard hurried footsteps to his right. His dog barked again. Shining his flashlight, he saw two creatures just beyond his fence, walking in single file toward a dark mass at the railway tracks. The creatures were about three and one-half feet tall with very wide shoulders, short legs, and helmets covering what seemed to be enormous heads. Dewilde could not make out any arms.
