The following year, Dr. Joseph C. Sharp, at Walter Reed Hospital, while in a soundproof room, was able to hear spoken words broadcast by “pulsed microwave audiogram.” These words were broadcast to him without any implanted electronic translation device. Rather, they reached him by direct transmission to the brain.24
Thus, we ask, could McDonald have been the victim of a program using technology such as described above? The answer is yes. Whether or not he was may never be answered. Some will claim this account of McDonald’s death is little more than conspiracy mongering. Not so. It is no better willfully to ignore such unpleasant realities and pretend that McDonald died, unprovoked, of his own hand—a practice that is the rule among UFO researchers today. No one is in a position to state whether McDonald’s suicide was real or not. Both scenarios are possible. It is an unsatisfying and all-too-common position, unfortunately, within the UFO field.
THE RETURN OF UFOs
UFO reports of the early 1970s were sparse. Those that surfaced, however, continued to baffle. Puerto Rico was the scene of much reported UFO activity throughout 1972, and several interesting cases came from Europe and South Africa. On September 14, 1972, an unknown object was sighted at West Palm Beach International Airport. Two FAA air traffic controllers tracked the object, as well as FAA operators at Miami International Airport and radar men at Homestead AFB. It was seen through binoculars by an FAA supervisor at West Palm Beach. Two F-106 interceptors were scrambled, and one pilot saw the glowing object, which disappeared as he closed. The story received only local coverage, and the air force explained the object as the planet Venus. On January 11, 1973, a UFO was filmed in color for twenty seconds in Cuddington, Buckinghamshire, England.25
In October 1973, an intense UFO wave hit the United States, coinciding with some critical developments in the American and international scenes. On October 10, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned from office. Ten days later, a spate of resignations and firings spread through the Nixon administration. On the twenty-fourth, U.S. nuclear forces, in response to Middle East war and possible Soviet intervention, went on DEFCON 3 alert, the highest possible. Fifteen thousand troops of the 82nd Airborne Division were mobilized, and fifty B-52 bombers were readied. In this context, UFOs made their reappearance in American skies.
Most of the activity occurred in the southeastern U.S. On October 11, two men fishing in Pascagoula, Mississippi, claimed they had been abducted by horrific robot-like creatures that floated out of a hovering UFO and brought them inside the craft. Crazy as the story was, the men seemed sincere. On the seventeenth, a photograph of a UFO “occupant” was taken in Falkville, Alabama, by a local chief of police. A woman had reported a UFO landing to the police, and police chief Jeff Greenhaw investigated. He saw no craft, but on his way back noticed in his headlights a tall figure wearing a silvery suit and helmet. Greenhaw failed to communicate with it, then took four photos, two within ten feet. The figure turned and ran away, awkwardly but quickly. Most people dismissed the photos as a hoax, but Greenhaw stood by them, despite a ruined career. On the same night as Greenhaw’s experience, a bedroom visitation and abduction was reported in the Midwest. It involved levitation, sophisticated instrumentation, a physiological exam on table, a human being working with aliens, and what was later termed the “mindscan” procedure.26
Perhaps the most amazing UFO report came the following night. Just after 11 P.M. on October 18, a U.S. Army reserve crew was flying a helicopter from Columbus to Cleveland, Ohio. They included Capt. Lawrence Coyne (nineteen years flying experience), Lt. Arrigo Jezzi, Sgt. John Healey, and Sgt. Robert Yanacsek. At 2,500 feet and good visibility, the crew noticed a red light to the west, slowly moving south. They assumed it was probably an F-100 out of Mansfield. Very abruptly, however, the light changed course and began to head right at them. Captain Coyne put the helicopter into emergency evasion in a controlled descent. When he tried to confirm the existence of a craft out of Mansfield, his UHF and VHF frequencies went dead (Mansfield later confirmed there were no aircraft in the area). The red light continued to close, becoming brighter, while the helicopter descended at the rapid speed of two thousand feet per minute.
