20 September 2019

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE NAVY AND “UFOs”


 “Truth frees us from error, but lie is captivating and subjugating. Regretfully there are people that choose the second.” Milton W. Hourcade
 ----------------------

I will start with an anecdote: there was a famous case of a pilot that lost his life while trying to see better what he reported as a “UFO”. The only case with a tragic final that I know of happened on January 7, 1948. Captain Thomas F. Mantell, of the National Guard, was flying a P-51 Mustang, a propeller airplane, but someone described the P-51 as a jet, and –lo and behold!— this mistake was repeated without hesitation by authors of books, magazines and other publications.

Nobody took care to verify if that was or not true. They took it as valid information and simply repeated it.

Nowadays, the American press is in real crisis. Few TV outlets (for example the Public Broadcasting System or CSPAN) are serious, objective and reliable. Some of the most renowned of them are politically biased and simply commercial, therefore, fake news and distorted versions of the reality abound.

As a general rule –and this is for our readers— when you deal with the UFO subject, you have to be double or triple careful, taking the information with tweezers and checking it with reliable sources and not with other commercial sources.

Anyway, the news was (intentionally?) spread by TV outlets, blogs and web pages, and is taken as truth, without analyzing its content. People tend to read the headlines and not what follows.

Therefore, there is confusion, misunderstandings, erroneous conclusions.

The “saucerians” are celebrating, and the real and responsible investigators and scholars remain concerned and once again feel that there is their obligation to establish the truth.

Essentially the versions given by the press repeat itself, are like copies of an original, and I need to add: very bad copies!

Let’s go to the origin of this barrage of copies: it is an enthusiast of the UFO subject, named John Greenewald (38 y.o., producer and writer of three books) who writes the blog “The Black Vault”



On September 19, 2019, he starts by saying: “On the evening of April 23, 2019, Politico dropped a story from defense editor Mr. Bryan Bender entitled, ‘U.S. Navy drafting new guidelines for reporting UFOs’ The headline alone, is bound to get anyone excited....”

Let me clarify that “Politico” is a web magazine, mostly circulating in Washington D.C. that pretends to be objective but that clearly is in favor of a political party, although it will declare itself as “non partisan”.

First thing to take note: there is nothing new, this story that now has been repeated and copied by various media comes from April 23, 2019.

Second: “Politico” reproduced on April a statement from the Navy about the subject. Greenewald wanted to confirm what “Politico” published, so in response to his inquiry from April 24, 2019 to the U.S. Navy Office of Information, Mr. Joseph Gradisher, spokesperson for the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare sent Mr. Greenewald an “updated” version of the one published by “Politico”. This statement says:

“There have been a number of reports of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft entering various military-controlled ranges and designated air space in recent years. For safety and security concerns, the Navy and the USAF take these reports very seriously and investigate each and every report. As part of this effort, the Navy is updating and formalizing the process by which reports of any such suspected incursions can be made to the cognisant authorities. A message to the fleet details the steps for reporting each incident. In response to requests for information from Congressional members and staff, Navy officials have provided a series of briefings by senior Naval Intelligence officials as well as aviators who reported hazards to aviation safety.” — Joseph Gradisher, spokesperson for Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare. [underline is mine – MWH]

What concerns the authorities of the Navy and the Air Force, therefore, is the presence of “unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft” (they could be military airplanes, drones, or other artifacts) that could go to spy in those “military-controlled ranges and designated air space”. There is a problem of violation of the U.S. air space, of national security and safety of the American pilots operating in those areas.

Third: the Navy authorities talk about “aircraft” not about “unidentified flying objects” (a.k.a. “flying saucers”). If someone interprets this all the way around, is making a big mistake. The press has done that in their headlines, when they use the acronym “UFO”, instead of talking about “aircraft”.

Col. David Timm, 611th Air Operations Group commander brings a clear definition:

“An unidentified aircraft is defined as any aircraft approaching American or Canadian airspace that is not on an international flight plan or has, without air traffic control authorization, deviated from its original flight plan. Any aircraft considered unidentified is investigated.”

As you can see, there is nothing new in this noisy repetition of old videos of infrared images and a declaration dated on April of this year.

Greenwald himself says at the end of his publication:

“The media loves flashy headlines, and “… guidelines for reporting UFOs” certainly catches the eye in your social network feeds. But is that exactly what we are looking at here?”

There is undoubtedly a lesson to learn on all this: a) don’t think that the press reports are accurate; b) search for serious sources; c) read or listen carefully what is offered to you; d) analyze the information, all of it, and don’t take the headlines as a guide to your thoughts.

For those interested to read the whole article published by Mr.Greenewald in his “The Black Vault” go to: https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/u-s-navy-drafting-ufo-reporting-guidelines-but-what-does-that-mean/
------------

On another note near a hundred people met at the borders of Area 51. Those fantasy-prone individuals went there hoping to violate the restrictions to enter the Area, and see “flying saucers” and even “extraterrestrials”.

Two guys in their twenties went through the limits, entered the area and were immediately apprehended, submitted to the police, and in one week they will be returned to the Netherlands, the country where they came from and to which they belong.


Milton W. Hourcade 
September 20, 2019

No comments: