2009 Crash Retrieval Conference
2009 UFO Crash Retrieval Conference speakers. Back row: TK Davis, Paul Davids, Richard Dolan, Nick Redfern, Linda Moulton Howe. Middle row: James Carrion, Kenn Thomas, Bob Wood, Peter Robbins, Ryan Wood, Stephen Bassett. Front: James Clarkson, Greg Bishop (2003 speaker who sneaked into photo.)
A fun dinner with James Carrion, Peter Robbins and James Clarkson and his wife kept me in Las Vegas until almost 11PM Sunday night, arriving back home in L.A. at 3AM. It was worth the exhaustion though. Some very funny stories were told.
Some highlights of the talks:
Peter Robbins spoke on the 1978 U.N. resolution to ”debate the establishment of an agency or department ‘for undertaking, coordinating and disseminating the results of research into unidentified flying objects and related phenomena.’” This forgotten but nevertheless important episode featured statements from Dr. Josef Allen Hynek, Dr, Jacques Vallee, and Stanton Friedman. Sir Eric Gairy, Prime Minister of the country of Grenada, proposed the resolution, along with his U.N. representative, Wellington Friday. It died a quiet death and Gairy was ousted from office while he was in New York sponsoring the initiative. Robbins was at the U.N. for the presentations and gave a nice insider account of the proceedings. Nick and I discussed the possibility of writing a novel specifically because the name “Wellington Friday” was too good to waste. In a separate talk, Robbins also went into detail on the 1989 landing case in Voronezh, USSR. He carried on a long correspondence with one of the lead Russian investigators, and emphasized that the case remains important and underappreciated in the West.
Michael Schratt’s talk was entitled “Bombshell UFO Case Files Revealed: Excerpts from the CUFOS Archives” and featured short summaries of hundreds of UFO cases, many illustrated by Schratt’s own wonderful illustrations and imaginative titles, many of which sounded like good names for bands or music albums. I remarked to Richard Dolan that it was top-notch “UFO porno,” enjoyed by one and all. I had never heard of 95% of the cases, and who doesn’t like to hear new UFO stories? What I’d like to see next is an examination of unusual effects on the witnesses of UFO sightings, and associated phenomena that has no apparent direct bearing on the physical aspects of the cases.
Kenn Thomas examined connections between the Maury Island case and the JFK assassination. The main nexus was a character with whom some of you are familiar, the mysterious Fred Crisman. Crisman employed the main witness, Harold Dahl, in a business retrieving errant logs from local sawmills. It was in this capacity that he and two other witnesses observed six donut-shaped UFOs flying low over Puget Sound on June 21st, 1947. Crisman was implicated in the assassination plot by New Orleans attorney Jim Garrison. He also claimed that he had been involved in a firefight with underground humanoids on the island of Burma during WWII. A very strange and fascinating character.
Retired Santa Clara (CA) county police investigators Tommy “TK” Davis and Frank Dixon described their investigation of the “drone” UFO case which began in the spring of 2007. Surprisingly, they presently believe that at least some of the “drone” photos were not hoaxed, at least by anyone with normal means to do so, and point to some sort of disinfo campaign with possible military/ industrial implications. One investigation suggests that the objects are some sort of aerial devices used to check powerlines. Perhaps they are powered by the electrical fields surrounding the wires.
Nick spoke on his continuing investigation into the apparent crash of an unusual aerial vehicle near Kingman, AZ in 1953. New witnesses and accounts continue to pile up and lend credence to the reality of the event. When will we see a book, Nick?
Richard Dolan spoke on new information and documents he uncovered for his second landmark volume, UFOs And The National Security State: The Coverup Exposed. Dolan promised to send a review copy. We had a chance to talk about his contention that I claimed that Paul Bennewitz never saw any “real” UFOs near his home in Albuquerque in the late 1970s and early ’80s. I told him that I never said that. He was simply disappointed with my lack of emphasis on this point in my book Project Beta. Problem solved.
MUFON International Director James Carrion gave a presentation called “Russian Espionage and UFOs.” In the waning years of WWII, and for a few years afterwards, the U.S. Government released a story on the development of a new weapon that was supposedly as powerful as the atomic bomb. Scientists associated with the project spread carefully contrived stories which were designed both to mislead and to draw out persons of interest (namely Soviet spies) who would be attracted by the information. The ruse apparently worked well, and Carrion used the story as an example of disinformation contrived by the military to cover up weapons projects. He warned the audience to keep this in mind when looking at UFO cases.
He suggested that many aspects of the Roswell incident were ripe for disinformation exercises, pointing out that the intelligence officers at the base were eerily silent on everything that went on in the area with the glaring exception of the events of early July, 1947. Some in the audience assumed that he was trashing the whole event as a disinfo campaign, even when Carrion pointed out that he was simply suggesting that they look at it in a different light. One man in the crowd came over to a table I was sharing with Kenn Thomas and showed us his personal notes, which suggested that Carrion, as a former intelligence specialist, was out to disinform the audience and turn them away from the ET explanation. I observed that if the naysayers in the room had agreed with the suggestions in Carrion’s talk, he would have been labeled a “whistleblower” instead of a “disinfo agent.” Carrion is genuinely interested in a solution to the question, but suggests that informed study may weed out the noise, and help researchers to concentrate on the true unknowns. He also emphasized an idea to the audience which I think should be repeated: “In ufology, there are no sacred cows.”
Paul Davids gave an entertaining after-dinner speech on Saturday night, recalling his own spectacular UFO sighting and his frustration with those who continue to express skepticism of the subject. I congratulated him for a well-presented and rousing talk, and Davids said “I know you probably didn’t agree with some (or maybe most) of the things I said, but thanks for the compliment.” I meant it, and I know he did too.
Ryan Wood continues to present a wide array of research at his conference, and should be applauded for the variety of information presented. Researchers also seem to be less concerned with their own opinions, and willing to make room for other findings without worrying about threats to their own work. This is a good sign. I had civilized conversations with people whom I think lead their research more with opinions rather than data. Most of them didn’t seem to take my criticisms personally. Perhaps we can all learn from a little each other. It’s a legitimate hope. Ultimately, the speakers, the organizers, and the audience are all looking for answers. They’re simply asking different questions. It wasn’t ALL back-slapping, hand shaking and sweetness. It never is, but I prefer to recall the positive aspects because they seemed more in evidence this time around.
The UFO conference as an institution is still a legitimate forum for information and debate. It appears to be evolving into something which can introduce more elements into the search for a solution to the problem. Ideas presented at these conclaves may spread into the research community and the culture, providing new avenues of inquiry to a growing number of people who may realize that the subject can be much more than just a marginalized hobby. It can also be a journey of learning and self-discovery.
Make your plans for next year’s event!
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Nov 10 2009 
November 11th, 2009 at 5:42 am
Two things not be overlooked from my talk: a current lawsuit by a Washington Post reporter aims at getting 300+ documents that the CIA argues still pose a “grave threat to the national security” if released. These files involve the anti-Castro Cubans to which Jim Garrison thought Crisman belonged. Second, I’m trying to track down why the chapter on Maury Island was left out of the US edition of Gerald Heard’s 1950 book, The Riddle of the Flying Saucers. These are two intriguing tributaries of the Maury Island story.
November 11th, 2009 at 10:07 am
This was my first UFO conference and I chose it because of the great lineup of speakers. It was a good choice. There was a healthy conflict of opinions, and it was nice to know that the panel wasn’t selected with a bias toward one view or another.
James Carrion was the only one who was soundly beaten about the head. No one who was intentionally trying to muddy the strongly held beliefs in the ET Roswell theory would have risked making himself such an obvious target, especially in front of that particular audience. It was pretty gutsy since I’m sure he knew his statements would be meet with angry protests. No one but no one is going to mutilate the sacred Roswell cow! And if they do, please keep an eye out for black helicopters.
One of the reasons he gave for not seeing the Roswell ET story as valid was that a base so deeply entrenched in secret keeping wouldn’t blurt out to the world that they had found a saucer. They were too smart and well trained in keeping mum for a press release about their find to be anything but a well planned diversion meant to provoke a reaction from counterspies. My unsubstantiated argument would be that the officers at the Roswell Army Airfield probably didn’t know that UFOs WERE a secret. I bet no one had never broached the subject with them. In fact, the government didn’t seem to have a real cover-up policy on UFOs until after Roswell. And if they did, it was most likely on a need-to-know basis and therefore wasn’t shared with the Roswell base. So it wasn’t their secret to keep. In fact, the secret they were asked to keep was already out of the bag once the bomb had been dropped. They may have thought they were out of the secret-keeping business.
I did nothing but scribble questions while I was at the conference. I can’t read them all now because they really were scribbled but:
Greg, once June Crain was convinced of the ET reality, was she freaked out? She sounded like a tough broad, so maybe not.
What happened to the rumor that the US invaded Granada to retrieve a crashed craft? I thought for sure it would be addressed as part of Peter Robbins’ presentation, but alas, no one brought it up, including me.
Why didn’t I tell people I went to Las Vegas for a UFO conference? It wasn’t embarrassment as suggested, it just takes too long to explain.
If there’s a government agency patch that has a sphinx, a star and a flying triangle on it, why doesn’t anyone ask them to explain why? They aren’t very creative in their naming conventions or their use of symbolism so I’m sure the meaning isn’t much deeper than our suspicions, but we should make them justify why it’s so weird.
How is it that when the government can’t find requested documents the first thought is always conspiracy and not incompetence? It’s a bureaucracy. They’re incompetent a large percentage of the time. If they were able to find things the first couple of times they were asked, THEN I’d be suspicious.
When Richard Dolan says there are a lot of terrific sightings coming from foreign countries recently, then okay, but even I don’t take those as seriously as I do the ones that come from here. They’re much easier to discredit since I perceive them as being filtered through a certain amount of ignorance, a lack of knowledge of technology that might lead to misinterpretation of what’s been witnessed, and cultural and religious beliefs that may thwart any sensible reporting. When he says they are good cases in Bolivia, am I the only one who has those thoughts?
How was I going to buy bunches of books? Am I the only one who flew there with one measly little carry-on? Thankfully there’s internet shopping and you know, Christmas is just around the corner.
Observation: Of the two Woods’ I find Bob to be the charmer. He’s a sparkly old dude.
My last observation on the conference is that it was haunted. The spirit of Stanton Friedman was everywhere! The speakers who didn’t mention him were the exceptions. Someone should tell him he was missed, but still somehow present.
I enjoyed having been there and seeing you guys in person and with any luck, I’ll see you again next year.
November 17th, 2009 at 8:12 am
Kenn,
Great seeing you there and hearing more on Maury. I think the crowd was interested to hear how the UFO subject connects to events and people in the “real” world. If not, their loss.
November 17th, 2009 at 8:21 am
LB,
I don’t think that Carrion was trying to empty the Roswell saucer, just put a crack in it to see if anything would leak out.
Awhile ago, I wrote a post asking why government people weren’t freaked out about any supposed UFO “reality.” Read it to see what I think.
On the subject of overseas reports, I think that most world governments and local authorities are competent enough to report on their own sightings. Local populations are another matter, but I also see value in listening to their stories, since objective impressions can be useful as well. Perhaps Dolan was calling for more attention from American investigators to help increase the database.
I think that the conference should have been haunted by the real spirit of Mac Tonnies. After all, he was one of the main proponents of a new direction for ufology.
I don’t remember meeting you, unless you didn’t tell me your name!
See you there next year, I hope.