PART 23


The Seattle Times Friday, May 8, 1987

60,000 sightings can't be wrong, Seattleite insists, "The bottom line
is: Don't believe me, but do read what is available." Dale Goudie

By Peter Lewis Times Staff Reporter ------------------------------------------------------------------
In their most commonly reported from, the aliens have large
heads and stand 3 to 4 feet tall. Their enormous eyes rest under
a transparent helmet. Clad in jumpsuits adorned with insignias, the
humanoids walk in sure, positive movements. Far out? Maybe so, but
that's where they probably come from. And Seattle resident Dale Goudie
has talked to people who say they've seen them.

Goudie has spent the past 14 years researching UFOs and using the
Freedom of Information Act to collect federal documents that he contends
prove UFOs exist.

The official position of the U.S. Air Force, for example, is that
it got out of the UFO business when Project Bluebook ended in 1969.
But Goudie says the Bluebook was succeeded by Project Aquarius. Since
1942, there have been an estimated 60,000 UFO sightings in the United
States alone and only 5 percent of sightings are actually reported,
Goudie says. Feeding characteristics of the 60,000 sightings into
a computer, 250 different shapes emerged, suggesting to Goudie that
there may be more than one species involved in UFOs. "The bottom
line is: Don't believe me, but do read what is available," says Goudie,
who has dedicated a room in his home to countless files and papers
on UFOs.

"The real problem is, no one wants to take the responsibility
of telling the American public this (UFOs) is real." Consider a series
of once classified material on Project Aquarius: An Air Force document
dated Nov. 17, 1980, from the Office of Special Investigations at
Rolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., to OSI at Kirtland Air
Force Base in New Mexico refers to a "request for photo imagery interpretation." Other papers indicate that the request stemmed from
a series of "alleged sightings of unidentified aerial lights" over
the Manzano Wepons Storage Area at Kirtland between Aug. 8 and Sept.
3, 1980. An analysis of at least two pictures of the sightings concluded
that the film was unaltered and that they were "legitimate negative(s)
of (an) unidentified aerial object," according to the Nov. 17, 1980,
document. Of the two confirmed sightings, one "contained a trilateral
insignia on the lower portion of objects..." The document also states:
"The official U .S. government policy and results of Project Aquarius
is still classified top secret with no dissemination outside official intelligence channels. ...Because of a chance of public disclosure,
no knowledgeable personnel with SPA (it's not clear if SPA stands
for Special Project Aquarius, or something else) will be provided..."
But another Air Force document dated Jan. 25,1983, says "possible
unauthorized release of classified material" cast doubt on the authenticity
of the Nov. 17, 1980, document.

The later document says the earlier one included nonexistent officers,
and it sought to discredit the validity of the purported imagery interpretation. When a Freedom of Information request letter dated
Feb. 20, 1986, sought information on Project Aquarius, the National
Security Agency responded, in part, with a letter dated March 3, 1986:
"Please be advised that Project Aquarius does not deal with unidentified
aerial objects. We, therefore, have no information to provide you
on the subject." But when Sen. John Glenn wrote the National Security
Agency on Jan. 7 of this year on behalf of a constituent who was having
trouble getting responses to Freedom of Information requests about
Project Aquarius, the reply letter, dated Jan. 27, said in part:
"Apparently there is or was an Air Force project by that name which
dealt with UFOs. Coincidentally, there is also an NSA project by
that name.

The NSA project does not deal with UFOs.. .." It is Goudie's contention
that the responses about Project Aquarius demonstrate the government
is saying one thing and doing another. He theorizes that the government
is reluctant to admit the existence of even one UFO because as soon
as it does, it fears opening the door to mass hysteria.

Spokesmen for the Pentagon, the Air Force and the National Security
Agency either declined comment or denied that any government agency
is actively investigating UFOs. The Air Force quit studying UFOs in
1969 after a $500,000 study conducted by the University of Colorado
concluded that "UFO phenomena do not offer a fruitful field in which
to look for major scientific discoveries," according to Capt. Jay
DeFrank. DeFrank noted that in 1977, President Carter asked the National Aeronautic and Space Administration to look into the possibility of
resuming active investigation of UFOs. This is the same man who in
1973, when he was governor of Georgia, said, "I don't laugh at people
anymore when they say they have seen UFOs because I've seen one myself."

NASA spokesman Dave Garrett recalls that agency's response to the
president: "We said, 'Thank you, but no thank you.' We have never
been in the business." Dennis Chadwick, chief spokesman for the National Security Agency at Fort George Meade in Maryland, an arm of the pentagon,
would not say whether NSA or any other government agency is actively investigating UFOs.

Goudie, a 45-year-old freelance ad man and former TV talk-show producer,
is not deterred by the government's stance. Two years ago, he established
a computerized UFO bulletin board - CUFON (for Computer UFO Network)
- that has more than 1,400 members. It spits out information, free
of charge, to anyone with a computer and a modem. He also runs UFO
Information Service International, a global network of UFO sightings,
and Puget Sound Aerial Phenomena Research Inc. None of these enterprises,
he says, is a money-making operation. Goudie says he and others like
him have been helped in their many Freedom of Information requests
by military personnel who want the public to know about UFOs, but
who can't afford to be named.

Many of the documents he's obtained indicate that "suspicious unknown
air activity" has occurred at top-security military installations
where nuclear weapons are stored. The documents relating to UFOs
dropping in on Air Force bases have been published elsewhere - and
professional skeptics such as Phillip Klass, an editor with "Aviation
Week & Space Technology," have written books debunking the authenticity
of those and others sightings. But Goudie notes the government itself
has never volunteered any information, much less any explanations,
about UFOs at military bases. "You can explain anything away," says
Goudie, referring to Klass and the other debunkers. "But these aren't
solid answers."

Goudie also says he has consulted with "optical physicists" who have
performed "video-negative photoanalysis" of videotapes of UFOs to
substantiate that the object are not of this earth. Goudie also says
he has interviewed about 40 people over the years who claim to have
been abducted by UFOs. All occurred in rural areas, including some
episodes outside Redmond, in Maple Valley and north of Seattle. He
thinks about three-fourths of them are telling the truth. In many
cases, the victims have suffered physical scars that they didn't have
before their encounter, Goudie says. "I've tried to get these people
to come forward. They don't want anything to do with newspapers.
They're scared to death of losing their jobs..."

Considering the threat to national security and the risk to civilians,
Goudie believes the government has an obligation to be more forthcoming.
You don't have to look to far away places for physical evidence of
UFOs, according to Goudie. He has a videotape of an object flying
over Tacoma in 1982, enhanced by a process known as "video photo analysis" which allows the viewer to see vertical and horizontal lines within
what Goudie calls "the plasma" that covers the true shape within.
He expects the video to air on Sunday's "Town Meeting" on KOMO.
Television, specifically a Dick Cavett show that aired in 1973, started Goudie's preoccupation with UFOs. He's since appeared on CNN's Larry
King Show and CBS-TV network news shows, among others. He spent countless hours and dollars pursuing UFOs. His goal, he says, is to see the
subject become an area of serious scientific inquiry. "I'm doing
it because I think people deserve the facts, and no one's taking the
time to do it."

end of part 23


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