We find ourselves faced by powers which are far stronger than we had hitherto assumed, and whose base is at present unknown to us. More I cannot say at present. We are now engaged in entering into closer contact with those powers, and in six or nine months’ time it may be possible to speak with more precision on the matter.
Von Braun said this while he was in Germany during the holiday season. He never followed up on it, and no further information is available on it. A one-time slip up?88
The year 1959 provided some interesting moments in the history of the UFO. An incredible story came from none other than Blue Book chief Robert Friend. In a 1974 interview, Friend related an account that he claimed occurred in 1959, concerning a Maine woman who was in “contact” with UFOs. The Canadian government learned of this and sent Wilbert Smith to investigate. The U.S. Navy also sent two officers, and eventually the CIA invited her to Langley. After she demonstrated her trance technique, one of the CIA officers apparently made contact. When others in the room asked for proof, the officer replied “look out the window.” To everyone’s astonishment, a UFO was plainly visible and was also being tracked by radar at Washington National Airport. Friend said the CIA briefed him on this incident, and he claimed to have sat in on an uneventful trance session. Blue Book never analyzed the development, while the CIA took punitive action against the officer and transferred all relevant people elsewhere.89
On January 11, Wilbert Smith spoke about UFOs in Ottawa before the Illuminating Engineering Society, Canadian Regional Conference. “Various items of ‘hardware’ are known to exist,” he stated to the audience, “but are usually clapped into security and are not available to the general public.”90
NICAP, still reeling from the failures of 1958, struggled to find direction. Early in 1959, Keyhoe received a lead from Delmar Fahrney, now out of NICAP but still helpful, on a hidden report regarding Navy Commander George Benten and a UFO encounter from 1956. That spring, he met with Hillenkoetter at the New York Yacht Club to discuss NICAP strategy. The secrecy was tighter than ever, Keyhoe told the admiral correctly, and Air Force Public Information Officer Lawrence Tacker even sent NICAP a “sharp letter” telling them to stop writing members of the air force and to confine all questions to his office. (NICAP ignored this request.) Meanwhile, the air force continued to fight strenuously against NICAP’s efforts for congressional hearings on UFOs. Keyhoe also told Hillenkoetter that three scientists had privately reported UFO sightings to a particular congressman. Hillenkoetter said, “we’ll have to do something to speed things up.”91
THE KILLIAN CASE AND OTHER NOTEWORTHIES
At 8:20 P.M. on February 24, 1959, another commercial airliner had an unusual encounter with a UFO. Veteran pilot Capt. Peter W Killian was flying an American Airlines plane in excellent visibility over Bradford, Pennsylvania, at 8,500 feet and 350 mph. Killian noticed three bright lights south of his plane, in a precise line. As first he assumed it was Orion, until he realized these were not stars, and he could see Orion higher up in the sky. As Killian pondered this, one of the objects abruptly left the formation and approached the plane, slowed down before Killian took evasive action, then rejoined the other two. Although unable to discern a distinctive shape, he believed the object to be huge—at least three times the size of his plane.
Killian alerted his copilot, John Dee, to the objects. Then, in a most unusual decision, he opened the plane’s intercom to make a “calm announcement” about the objects. He reasoned that warning the passengers now would be better than risking a full-blown panic. After Killian personally calmed one jittery passenger who was brought to the cockpit, one of the UFOs again approached the plane and then rejoined the others. Killian put out a radio call to other pilots. Moments later, an American Airlines captain flying north of Erie stated, “We’ve been watching the formation for ten minutes.” After this, another American Airlines pilot, near Toledo, also called in to report the sighting. It was soon learned that three United Airlines crews also saw the formation. Before landing in Detroit, Killian reported the sighting to the airport there, intending to keep the story quiet. One of his passengers, however, was an aviation expert who spoke to the Detroit press about the sighting. After the story broke, Killian received permission from American Airlines to discuss the sighting, and the story was carried across the country.
