Schirmer realized that he had twenty minutes of missing time from the experience. He was hypnotized by Wyoming psychologist R. Leo Sprinkle as part of the Colorado Project. During the session, he revealed that his radio and car engine died and a “white, blurred object” came out of the UFO and mentally communicated with him. He could not draw his revolver. He had somehow gotten information that the craft belonged to a sister ship; the occupants were based in our solar system but originated from another galaxy; they were here to prevent humans from destroying the Earth.
Colorado Project members dismissed Schirmer’s account as delusional, although Sprinkle, the consultant who performed the hypnosis, believed otherwise. Schirmer, meanwhile, continued to experience uneasiness. Eventually, he underwent a second hypnosis, and revealed much more. He now described the object as metallic, football-shaped, and glowing. He heard a whooshing sound and saw legs under the craft. Although he wanted to leave, something in his mind prevented him. Then, beings came out of the craft, wearing coveralls with an image of a winged serpent. They shot a greenish gas toward the car and flashed a bright light at him. He then passed out. When he regained consciousness, one of the beings asked him, “Are you the watchman over this place?” They pointed to the power plant and asked, “Is this the only source of power you have?” They took Schirmer aboard, and he saw control panels and computer-like machines. They told him they came from a “nearby” galaxy, had bases in the U.S., that their craft was operated by electromagnetism, that they drew power from large water reservoirs, and that radar and ionization disrupted the functioning of their ships. They had been observing the Earth for a long time and would continue to contact more people. Schirmer said, to a certain extent, they wanted to puzzle people. They told him, “You will not speak wisely about this night. We will return to see you two more times.”76
Compared with later abduction stories, Schirmer’s was not especially unusual. At the time, however, this was not only outlandish, but almost unheard of, in a small class of cases like the Boas and Hill abductions. Small wonder the staff at Colorado could not swallow it.
Nor did Project Blue Book. But by now, of course, Blue Book was hardly much of an operation, anyway. In 1966 and 1967, despite 2,049 UFO cases logged by the group at Dayton, a mere fifty-one cases, or 2.5 percent, were acknowledged to be unidentified. The trend reached its apex in 1968, the final full year of Blue Book’s existence, when it logged a total of
THE CRISIS
McDonald, armed with the Low memorandum, posed a distinct threat to the University of Colorado Project. For a year, he had professed his intention to help the project in any way possible. It was obvious, however, that he was disappointed with its leadership and direction. And the memorandum itself was dynamite. It was inevitable that he would raise the matter with Low. The only question was when.
On January 19, 1968, the two spoke by phone, and McDonald raised some of his concerns about the project. The conversation was unsatisfactory, and the two reached an impasse. McDonald decided to write a letter to Low. It ended up as a seven-page, single-spaced document, dated January 31, 1968. Masterful in every way, it was fully worthy of McDonald. He stated the importance not only of the UFO phenomenon, but in particular of the Colorado Project, which increasingly had attained an aura of being the final authority over the matter; nearly everyone, McDonald noted, was now saying, “Let’s wait for Colorado.” The UFO question itself would hinge for many years hence upon its conclusions. For such a major question to depend upon a single study was unusual, and, in this case, especially distressing.
The problem pivoted around Condon, wrote McDonald, and he cited five reasons: (1) Condon’s repeated negative comments in the press; (2) Condon’s “disturbing preoccupation” with the crackpot aspects of the UFO problem; (3) the evident conclusion that Condon himself was not personally examining the kinds of witnesses and cases that had made the UFO problem so compelling; (4) “the distinct impression” that the communication between Low and Condon on the one hand, and the bulk of investigators actually reviewing good case material, was “so weak as to seem almost nonexistent”; and (5) the failure of the project to investigate cases of “obfuscation,” that is, cover-up cases.
