; Phantoms and Monsters: Pulse of the Paranormal

Tuesday, August 31, 2021

God’s Celestial Ambassador: The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges - Part V

  

God’s Celestial Ambassador: The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges - Part V

By Raymond A. Keller, PhD, a.k.a. “Cosmic Ray,” the author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising Series, published by Headline Books and available on Amazon.com, while supplies last.

Venus Rising: A Concise History of the Second Planet

Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus

Cosmic Ray's Excellent Venus Adventure

The Vast Venus Conspiracy

Lady Columba Venus Revelations 

“Flying Saucerama”

Once Dr. Stranges and his wife Bernice were situated in Southern California in 1958 and active in the work of their evangelical ministry, it soon became apparent that many in their congregation were particularly concerned about the flying saucer phenomenon.  Of course, Dr. Stranges had been studying the appearance of UFOs and their association with strange beings in the pages of the Bible.  

Dr. Stranges firmly believed that there was a spiritual significance to the UFOs and their occupants, but he felt that it in order to substantiate this theory he would have to collect more data.  He asked the members of his International Evangelism Crusades, Inc., to send him everything clipping they could find in newspapers and magazines about the subject of UFOs, and also to keep him informed of any personal encounters they may have had about UFOs or even any occupant sightings as well.  As word got out in the Southern California ufology community, others came to Dr. Stranges from throughout the United States with more information, and the reverend doctor even went out on personal field investigations of particular UFO cases.  He also began to build up his own UFO library, which soon became one of the more extensive in California. 

From all of this collected UFO material, Dr. Stranges put together his first book on the subject, which he titled Flying Saucerama (New York City:  Vantage Press), which was published in the following year.  The book is lavishly illustrated and peppered with photos of UFOs and prominent ufologists from the 1950s.  The doctor still hadn’t made up his mind about the contactees, however, so he limited his book to a rundown on UFO sightings only.  He held in high esteem the retired Marine Corps Major Donald E. Keyhoe, then the director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena in Washington, D.C., who believed that some UFOs were extraterrestrial spaceships, but most likely unmanned reconnaissance vehicles, and that the United States Air Force, and the government as a whole, were concealing this fact about the UFO origins from the public under the pretext of safeguarding national security and preventing panic from sweeping the country.  Keyhoe did not think too highly of the contactees; but Dr. Stranges, who became quite familiar and made friends of many of them in Southern California, was at least willing to hear them out.  With many of the contactees, Dr. Stranges had a sneaking suspicion that they really met certain entities out in the Mojave Desert that they were speaking and writing about, but he wasn’t all that certain that they were coming from other planets, at least such orbs as can be physically seen through telescopes by astronomers in our own solar system. 

In the acknowledgments and credits to Flying Saucerama, Dr. Stranges wrote: “The author desires to express his sincere appreciation to the following for their cooperation and advice in the compilation of material for this volume:

“Major Donald E. Keyhoe, United States Marine Corps, Ret., director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), Washington, D.C.; Leonard H. Stringfield, director of the Civilian Research Investigation, Flying Objects (CRIFO) and editor of that organization’s Orbit newsletter; August C. Roberts, flying saucer researcher and photographer; Rev. Arthur E. Bloomfield, editor of the Prophetic Ensign magazine of Burket, Indiana; the staff of the Voice of Healing magazine in Dallas, Texas; Bradford Chambers, author of the book, Interplanetary Space and Travel (New York City: Stravon Publishers, 1956), Max Miller, author of the book, Flying Saucers:  Fact or Fiction (Los Angeles, California:  Trend Books, 1957); and the staff of True or False magazine (New York City).”

Testimony of August C. Roberts

As noted in the acknowledgments above, August C. Roberts of Jersey City, New Jersey, is listed among those who had greatly aided Dr. Frank E. Stranges in his research that he conducted while writing Flying Saucerama.  Roberts, like some 20,000 other Americans who from the period of 1947-1959, was not afraid to go on record and state, even in the face of a torrent of adverse criticism, that not only had he sighted a flying saucer, but even took a photograph of it.  “Many have attempted to take advantage of Mr. Roberts’ good nature,” wrote Dr. Stranges, adding that, “but I wish to state that I deeply appreciate his sincerity and truthfulness in all matters pertaining to the flying saucer mystery.”  

Now here is August C. Roberts’ story in his own words:

“I Saw and Photographed a Flying Saucer”

By August C. Roberts

What first aroused my interest in flying saucers was the lack of information on the subject.  I had been following the case right along with mild interest:  most of the information coming from the newspapers, magazines and books.  Who was right regarding the flying saucers seen in the sky?  Was it the reasonable and intelligent person who supposedly spotted them, or the United States Air Force, which endeavored to “explain away” what they saw?

Almost everyone by now knows or has read about the following cases:

1. Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of nine flying disks in the state of Washington in 1947.

2. The Tacoma affair, in which two men were killed in the crash of a B-25 carrying what was supposed to be parts of a flying disk.

3. On 7 January 1948, Captain James Mantell, with a flight of three F-51s passing near Goodman Air Force Base in Kentucky, was requested by the field control tower to investigate a strange object over the field; and in so doing was killed and his plane demolished.

What really happened?  The United States Air Force decided that Captain Mantell was chasing the planet Venus, which is a fairly good explanation, except that Venus was not in that vicinity at that particular time.  There are hundreds of more cases of the sighting of flying disks on record.  I could go on and on, but since time and space does not permit, I will cite only a few of the more interesting ones.

First, a New Jersey pilot with years of experience fired his guns at a flying disk, but no reasons were given or information concerning the outcome.  Why?  Then, an Eastern Airlines captain and his co-pilot, on their early morning flight, were amazed when a huge, wingless, tube-shaped aircraft traveling at tremendous speed zoomed past them and disappeared into a cloud, trailing a red-orange exhaust flame thirty feet long.  Its wash rocked their DC-3.  Was that Venus too?  Another time, Lieutenant George Gorman chased a mysterious light in the sky in a twenty-minute flight at speeds varying from 300 to 400 miles per hour, outmaneuvering him at every twist and turn.  Was this his imagination?  The one I liked best, and which stimulated my interest in the subject, happened on 10 July 1948, in Phoenix, Arizona.  William A. Rhodes took two photographs of a flying disk overhead, using an ordinary box camera.  After they had been printed in the newspapers, not another word was mentioned about flying saucers for a long time.  As the story goes, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sent investigators to Rhodes’ home and requested the negatives.  Three days later, when he asked for their return, he was told they had lost them.  What I could say about this particular incident is not fit to print.  I am wondering how they are going to explain away my own flying saucer photographs.

Two years ago, I signed up with the Civil Defense in Jersey City as a ground observer, more commonly known as a “plane spotter.”  I thought my chances of seeing a disk would be much greater by doing so, although the flying saucer reports were few and far between, until early this year, when they began coming in from all about us.  I began to take my camera with me whenever on duty and was at the observation post every spare minute, especially when a flying saucer was reported nearby.  By now almost everyone at the post was flying saucer conscious.  

During June 1952, Jersey City Police Inspector Joseph B Foley, supervisor of the Jersey City Ground Observation Post, had us on a “dry run” for a month getting us properly trained for 24-hour active duty, which commenced on 14 July.

On 19 July 1952, I read in the newspaper that a Mrs. Josephine Hetzel of 17 West Street, West Brighton, Staten Island, had spotted five flying disks.  The newspaper clipping said, “I almost fainted when I saw what looked like five large dinner plates flying through the sky.  They were in V-formation.”  Mrs. Hetzel’s neighbor, Frank Gondar, of 15 West Street, described the objects as “flying like geese, bright in color, as fast as jet planes.”

When I read the article, I called our observation post to see if anything had been reported in our area.  It was then I learned that we had seen them, too.  When I checked the time, I found out it was only five minutes from the time Mrs. Hetzel had seen them.

I asked Leo Murphy, a spotter, what he had seen, and he told me he had only seen four, but about a mile behind them was another going in the same direction.  He said he had not been too sure what it was, so he had not recorded it.  It was listed like this in our logbook: “20:10- four flying saucers spotted by Observer Leo Murphy flying in a straight-line one-half mile apart.”

The following Sunday, a friend and I went to see Mrs. Hetzel and hear her story firsthand.  In this way, we planned to compare reports.  She said, “I was sitting in front of my house when suddenly five silver-colored disks with dark red rims, about as large as dinner plates, came right over the trees, over my head.  I thought they were going to hit me, so I screamed.  They flashed by, and my neighbor, Frank Gondar, who also was sitting in front of his house, came over to aid me.  I was so shaken up by what I saw!”  She said she had never believed in flying saucers before, and never again wanted to see them.  From now on, she was convinced they really existed.

When the reports of saucers became localized, the Jersey Journal, our local newspaper, sent reporters to visit our post and get a story about flying disks for publication.  Someone told them I was there with my cameras, a 3 ¼ x 4 ¼ Speed Graphic and a Leica.  Since it is a job of “Operation Skywatch” to protect some of the most valuable real estate in the country- Manhattan as well as neighboring Jersey communities- anything that would happen on the Eastern Seaboard would eventually break loose here; and everything sighted is reported.  They then published a small item about my waiting to see and photograph this phenomenon or disprove its existence, since it had been questioned considerably.

On 24 July 1952, George Conger, an observer, spotted a disk overhead heading for New York.  Thus, it was listed in our logbooks: “10:05- flying saucer spotted by Observer George Conger.  One- unknown- high overhead- flying southeast- looked like a shiny new dime.”  Detective Ray Blascak, who was on the tower at the time using the phone, was called to come and look.  However, it disappeared in about four or five seconds, before Detective Blascak could get there, so Conger was the only one was saw the object that morning.

As soon as I learned that Conger had spotted a saucer, I went to see him on the tower during his next shift.  I asked him how he had come to spot the “unknown object.”  He said he was looking straight overhead when he noticed the glint of the Sun on a metallic object in the sky.  It was definitely round, and appeared about the size of a dime.  As it flew along it was in a “tilted” position, i.e., with the lowest edge leading in its flight.  There was absolutely no sound and no vapor trail.  I asked I it could possibly have been a jet plane; and he said he could easily have identified any known type of aircraft.  Furthermore, he said no jet plane or any other kind of plane could ever move with the tremendous speed of the disk.  And I would like to point out, for the benefit of the skeptical, that George Conger is also a section leader of the Civil Defense Organization, a thoroughly qualified aerial observer.

From the files of the now defunct International Flying Saucer Bureau (IFSB), this drawing by Dominick C. Lucchesi depicts the Civilian Defense Skywatch Tower observers (from left to right) George Conger, Jim Leyden and August C. Roberts, with a borrowed F3.5 Lens 120 folding camera, at 12:11 a.m. on Monday, 28 July 1952.

I had spent quite a few weekends at the tower, including all-night shifts from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., since the reports of flying saucers had begun to come in from nearby localities.  Inasmuch as Conger was now more than interested, having seen a saucer himself, I invited him to join Jim Leyden, another spotter, and myself on some night watches.  He was happy to do so.  Nothing was seen for three nights.

Early on the night of 27 July 1952, it was raining.  So as not to get my cameras wet, I left them home.  I arrived at the tower about 10 p.m., and Leo Murphy, who was just going home, gave us his camera, a F3.5 Lens 120 folding, with a bad shutter which stuck on slow speeds.  James Leyden came on duty a little before midnight and George Conger at midnight.  The shift supposed to be on duty did not arrive until 12:20 a.m.  The three of us were alone on the tower- Leyden sitting inside reading and waiting for Conger or myself to spot a plane and call out to him.  He, in turn, would call the filter station.  George and I were sitting side by side on the highest part of the platform, he looking at anything in the sky that moved from the northeast, east and southeast, and I watching the southwest, west and northwest.  He watched one-half of the sky and I the other.  We had nothing in particular to look for, since the reports we had read in the newspapers differed, and every disk seen ha been reported to be traveling too fast. 

We half expected to see only a streak of light, but not anything like what we saw at 12:11 a.m., Monday, 28 July 1952.

We were sitting there chatting when George suddenly said, “Hey, Roberts, lend me those glasses a minute.  I’ve been watching a light there in the east by the Empire State Building, and it is acting funny.  It doesn’t resemble a plane.”  After studying it through the glasses, he called out, “Hey, Jimmy, come out and take a look at that damn light out there,” and started walking towards him.  He handed Jimmy the glasses.  Looking at the object, Jimmy said, “What the devil is it?”  We thought it might be a light from a building, since it just hung there brightly.  Then Jimmy handed me the glasses, and I too took a look.  We did not know how to explain what we had seen, except to define it as a “flying saucer,” but George suggested we call it in anyway.  Perhaps the filter station could confirm it.  While he was talking, I had taken Leo’s camera out and was balancing it on the railing.  Just as I opened the shutter of the camera, Jimmy jumped the three steps into the tower and jarred the whole platform railing.  George raised the glasses again and remarked that it was the “oddest-looking thing.”  When Leyden got the filter station on the phone, instead of calling in the message in a routine manner, he told them he did not know how to explain what we had just witnessed, except to say that there was a ball of light hovering in the east, orange in color, with a dark-brownish rim, very bright and flickering.  The person on duty at the filter station must have checked his list and found that no planes were listed in that area, because he immediately had an Air Force officer talk to Leyden and question him about it.  Leyden asked if any other reports had come in, to which he said, “Three so far- one from Plainfield, one from Tarrytown, and yours.”  Leyden hung up and was called right back, I believe from an air base, from the way the man talked to him.

George kept watching the object while I was trying to look at the back of the camera in order to turn the film.  It was too dark to see, so I just spun the knob a few times, placed the camera on the rail, called to the boys to stand still a few seconds, and took the second photo of the disk as it moved upwards a distance of its own length, as if undecided which way to go.  Conger noticed that a searchlight beam was trying to catch it.  Van, inside the tower, grabbed the phone from Leyden and told them about it.  I took the 9 x 35-power binoculars and watched it until it was out of sight.  I have already mentioned that it had a reddish-brown dot in the center and the rim was the same color.  As it started to move a little faster to the southeast, the rim turned to a brighter red, like glowing metal.  It moved up and away from us at the same time.  As it turned, I got a good look at the depth of its edge, which I will mention later on.  George, standing next to me, tried to find it, but it went into a cloudbank and was gone.  When I asked him if he had seen it leave, he replied negatively.  Leyden, still on the phone, told them we could no longer see it.  

Shortly afterwards, I suggested to the fellows that we call the New York Daily News and find out if they had seen it, as it had been so close to their building, and also learn whether they had received any other reports.  Leyden called.  He was told that they had received two reports but were not interested in any more.  He did not mention that we had seen it or had taken photographs.  I suggested to Leyden that he record this in our logbook as soon as he could.  (I have a photograph of the item as it appears.)  Just about that time, the next group came upstairs.  We told them what we had seen.  They said they had been chatting together downstairs for a while before coming up and were sorry not to have come up on time at midnight, as they would have liked to have seen it too.  We stayed on a while, hoping to see it again, but it never returned.  At 3:00 a.m., two of the three recent arrivals went home, but one stayed on, thinking it might become visible again.  At 3:30 a.m., we called in a plane which was zigzagging back and forth at about the same spot where we had seen the disk over New York.  Nothing else happened, so I went home about 6 a.m. to develop the film.

Everyone was asleep, so I tried not to make any noise as I went into my darkroom and developed the film; but between overdeveloping and getting too close to the safe light, the film fogged up a little.  I am not used to handling roll film, and it twisted up on me until it got wet and soft.  Anyone who has ever tried to develop roll film will realize what I mean.

When I saw what the film contained, I felt heartsick- one frame was of a dancing light and the other registered just two spots; but I made a few prints anyway after washing the film.  They did not look as bas as I first thought.  I went back to the tower, arriving before Leyden and Conger went home.  When they saw the prints, they were surprised that they turned out as well.  Detective Blascak asked what the pictures were about.  The boys had never mentioned them, because they had not expected them to come out.  When Detective Blascak saw them, he immediately phoned Inspector Foley, who said he would come over as soon as he could.  

Shortly afterwards, I left for home again to get some sleep, asking Leyden to warn me by phone if the Air Force came and “requested” the negatives, so that I could make a dozen or so prints before they took them over.  Detective Blascak phoned the Air Force, and they sent a man out immediately to pick up the prints.  I had been in bed only a short time when Jimmy called, telling me to work fast if I wanted those extra prints before the Air Force arrived.  I made ten copies of each; and since I figured I would not get much sleep I went back to the police station and gave them a better set of prints.  (The first ones had been made with wet negatives and done hurriedly.)

Told that they wanted the negatives, I was taken home by radio patrol car to get them.  We went to the main police headquarters, where the police photographers checked the negatives and made a few prints for the newspapers.  I was then driven back to the tower, where I had left my car, and headed for home and a little sleep.

In the afternoon I went back to the tower.  Two men from our local newspaper came up with my prints, which they checked with the New York skyline.  They told me they were double-checking the prints and had discovered that I had made the mistake of printing the negatives backwards.  I told them I had better copies at my home.  Naturally, they wanted the better ones, so we set out to get them.  Once they saw them, they tried to talk me out of every one I had made.  When they left, I was told I would be paid for the use of the prints, but I never have been.  

Back at the tower, one of the newspaper men phoned me and asked if I had a camera.  After replying in the affirmative, he told me to take a few photos of New York and bring the film down to him; the paper would then develop and print the film.  This I did.  When I tried to leave the newspaper office, I was detained until the prints were made.  While waiting, another newspaper called to see if a spare flying saucer print could be secured.  The fellow answering the phone said, “No;” and when I quite loudly stated that I had one, and held it up, I never saw anyone move so fast to “shut me up.”  This newspaper had the only really good prints, and did not want any other paper to share the scoop or know that I, the photographer, was there.  All the papers were trying to reach me, but without success.  The prints of New York were not too good, so they took a few pictures of me with the Leica; and about midnight, after retelling the whole story in detail, having been informed not to talk to any other reporter, I was allowed to go home to bed.

The next day the story broke in the newspaper.  From then on for a few days the family lived in a nightmare.  The phone never stopped ringing.  Everyone was calling- newspapers, radio, television, newsreels and magazines.  You name it, we had it.

About 48 hours after the negatives had been taken from me, I asked for them.  Inspector Foley returned then, and I still have them now.  One evening a week later, while we in the tower crew were filming a television newsreel, a call was received about 10:00 p.m. from the filter station stating that another disk had been sighted.  A few of the cameramen dashed upstairs to the tower with movie cameras but could see nothing.

From Keller Venus Files:  The photographs, top and bottom, by August C. Roberts, are purportedly the first ever taken on the East Coast of a UFO.

When the strain got too much for me, I called a friend of my sister in Westwood, New Jersey.  I wanted to spend a few days out there fishing and resting- just to get away from all the hectic times I had undergone.  She told me my sister had not yet returned from Florida.  

While chatting with her, I learned that she had been driving with her sons toward River Edge, and they had seen a disk a few days before we had seen it here.  It was early in the evening.  Suddenly her eldest son told her to look up, and there she saw an orange ball, twice as large as a silver dollar but with the darker rim moving towards New York.  They saw it only about four seconds when the light suddenly blinked out.  Although they looked hard and long, they did not see it anymore.  

Later, while speaking to a friend of mine, he mentioned a lady who had seen a disk about 9:30 p.m., 27 July 1952.  When I spoke with her, she said she just happened to be looking up when she saw this strange orange ball of light moving towards New York.  I did not place too much stock in it then; but later, when another person, an auxiliary policeman, told me he had seen a large orange ball of light moving overhead as large as a silver dollar- also on the night of 27 July 1952, at about 9:30 p.m., it set me to thinking.  These people do not know each other although they live five blocks apart, and yet each had seen the same thing at the same time.

On 31 July 1952, my married sister (with whom I reside) told me that she, my brother-in-law, and a friend had been driving in the vicinity of the Palisades Amusement Park when she spotted an orange ball in the sky.  Jokingly, she exclaimed, “Oh, look, a flying saucer!”  Was she surprised when it faded out about six seconds later in a cone-shaped manner similar to fireworks displays!  This had happened about 8:45 p.m.  When she returned home, at about 11:30 p.m., she called the New York Daily News to find out whether they had received any other reports.  They confirmed her suspicions, stating they had had four reports from different vicinities for the same time, and all the disks had been sighted over the same area.  

The following week I entered St. Mary’s Hospital in Hoboken, New Jersey, where I had to undergo an immediate operation because of a condition aggravated by staying up on the tower in the dampness and cold of all-night sessions.  After my release six days later, I went away for a rest to my sister’s home in Westwood.  I was told later that the Air Force had been looking for me on two different occasions.  I suppose they wanted to look at the negatives, but no member of the Air Force or anyone of importance has sought me at any time since.

A few weeks later, I received an observer questionnaire which I answered as best I could and returned to them.  One question, which I believe had been answered wrong, was about the changing color of the disk.  At the conclusion of this testimony, I shall describe the disk as I saw it.  

The next report I received was a letter from Mrs. Josephine Hetzel of Staten Island stating that she had read in her local paper, The Advance, on 6 October 1952, that three men had seen two saucers at 7:10 p.m. on the evening before.  

The latest event happened while I was at our skywatch post.  Our logbook records it as follows: “At approximately 20:00 hours on 14 October 1952, John Stemming, Irving Edersheim and I saw a missile fly through the sky from the northeast to the east, then to the west at a height of 1,000 to 1,500 feet.  It traveled in a flat trajectory and almost passed over our post.  It resembled a very bright ball resembling a tracer bullet, but was many times larger.  At the time we saw the missile, a plane which we believed to be a single-motor military plane, was traveling northeast and seemed to be about one-quarter mile from the missile.  The same was reported to the filter station.  (Signed) Andrew J. Gisondi.”

Although at the tower that Tuesday evening, I was not upstairs at the time I was informed of it.  I noted that the time was about 7:39 p.m., not 20:00 (8 p.m.), as was written in the logbook.  I told Andy to make a note of it so that it could be written in the book, but he must have put down the time he wrote the item instead.

The next day the Daily News ran the following story:  

“Blue Flame Still Mystery”

The Civil Aeronautics Administration yesterday still lacked an explanation of the “blue flame” that reportedly flashed over International Airport at a high speed at 7:33 p.m. Tuesday.  Katherine Barry, Assistant Astronomer at Hayden Planetarium, said it probably was “the fire ball of a tremendous meteor.”

Several North Jersey communities reported seeing a “fiery white ball” passing overhead a few minutes after the phenomenon had been sighted from the airport.  

On 18 October 1952, there was a sky quake over Glen Cove, Long Island, that broke windows, split sidewalks and knocked children off of their feet.  It could have been a jet plane breaking through the sound barrier, but all air fields reported their planes had been accounted for.  Or it could have been an experimental plane which was not listed.  If you were to go back a few years, you would find that on 18 February 1948, in Stockton, Kansas, there was also a skyquake which has never been explained, but a disk was seen just before the explosion!

Now for the description of what the disk looked like to me.  It was clearly circular in shape, slightly smaller than a ten-cent piece to the naked eye.  Through my binoculars, however, it approximated the size of a half-dollar.  Also, it had depth.  About the best way to describe it is to visualize two half-dollars held together at arm’s length, turning them slightly to the edge.  The rim appeared to be as thick as the edge was wide.  The whole disk was flat.  It appeared to be anywhere from 50 to 100 feet in diameter.  (Note:  A plane in the same area appears to us to be about the same size, including wingspread.)

When I first saw the disk, the rim (outside top and a small part of the inner surfaces of the rim) was a brownish color.  The inner part of the disk was a bright orange color with a dot in the exact center, of the same brownish color at the rim.  It was like looking at a small moon with a rim around it, and just as bright.  The whole object was glowing and flickering.  Through the 9x35-power binoculars, it could be seen clearly that the rim was spinning in a clockwise direction.  As the disk moved, the outer rim began to change color to a reddish brown and the dot in the center changed color along with the rim, while the center became a lighter orange color.  I noticed that while the rim was spinning there was less flickering.  When the thing finally departed, the colors change again somewhat with the rim and dot in the center becoming a glowing red and the orange color in the center becoming a still paler orange.  As it left, it turned so that the outer edge was facing us; and I could see the thickness of it very clearly.  During the three to five minutes that the disk was visible, it was “standing on edge” in the sky.  I only saw light on two sides, that is on one side and the rim.  I never saw the opposite side of the disk for it never turned towards me.  

While watching it, I had an odd feeling in the pit of my stomach that here was something everyone was searching the sky for, and I had a “box seat.”  I have seen quite a few planes as a spotter, but this machine certainly beats them all.  It did not make a sound, and looked powerful and deadly if it chose to be so, although it appeared to be just observing.  

I did not believe the Air Force has a flying disk; and I feel they are not revealing all they know for very good reasons.  If the disks do not belong to any country on the Earth, then they must come from outer space; and if they do, can you visualize what would happen if Washington suddenly announced we had visitors from outer space?  It would probably cause quite an outbreak of nerves.  In a few years we may learn the answer.  The government may be conditioning us for the big news later on, and then the shock might not be so great.  Already there is talk about putting a space platform 1,700 miles out in space as a jump-off station to reach the Moon.  In time, it might materialize; but right now, the one prohibiting thing is a lack of funds for such a project.  If we could accomplish this in a few short years, what is to keep the inhabitants of another planet from doing the same thing?

Many years ago, things were seen in the sky.  On pages 361 and 362 in the book Altai-Himalaya, by Nicholas Roerich (New York:  Frederick A. Stokes, 1929), the author says that while on an expedition in 1926 he saw a large oval object in the sky moving at a great speed.  He spent time watching it through field glasses.  If he had not seen it, why would he write about it?  This is just one case, and many more have happened throughout the years.  Many more cases are yet to come.  

Should anyone like to see a flying saucer, just join your local Skywatch Station if your city has one.  There you will have a chance to help your country, which needs help now for plane-spotting in case of an enemy attack.

Photo on left of pioneer ufologist and UFO photographic expert, August C. Roberts, from Keller Venus Files as posted with Rense Radio.  Photo on right first appeared in the 4 July 1969 issue of the Allentown, Pennsylvania, Morning Call newspaper.

Thus concludes August C. Roberts’ interesting report.  Another incident of note in Dr. Stranges’ Flying Saucerama, however, took place further afield in the Amphur District of the Songkhla Province in Thailand at 10:10 a.m. on 20 June 1955, where residents in the Songkhla City suburb of Sadau witnessed a strange UFO, round in shape and white in color, that was rotating and flew from the southwest to the northeast at a great speed.   The observers were able to maintain the object in view for about one minute.  They reported a trail of smoke stretching behind the UFO that reached to the horizon.  

A little more than one month later, on 22 July 1955, there were more UFO reports coming out of Thailand, but this time centered over a strategic tin mine.  The UFO apparently was seen sailing above some scattered clouds.  It was described as being “round but elongated” and traveled with the speed of a meteor.  What particularly made this saucer stand out was that it made a loud noise, “like a coughing motor.”  Some of the witnesses said that the UFO was somewhat similar in appearance to wide-brimmed hat which had a small crown, like a coffee cup on top, as a cupola.  This was not the first time an object like this had been seen in the area.  Dr. Stranges commented that, “There can hardly be serious doubt that some types of UFO are interested in the sites of our mineral resources.

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