textfiles/ufo/UFOBBS/1000/1688.ufo

SUBJECT: RECAP OF GULFBREEZE SIGHTINGS                       FILE: UFO1688




(628)   Wed 6 Jun 90 22:49
By: Jim Speiser
To: All
Re: Gulf Breeze at NUFOC 1/5
St:
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@MSGID: 1:114/37 6316d312
The following article was submitted by ParaNet Sysop John Hicks, and will also
be circulated as the file NUFOC90.TXT. Copyright (c) 1990 John Hicks and
ParaNet.


                  The Gulf Breeze mystery continues



by John B. Hicks

  The Gulf Breeze sightings have generated huge amounts of public
speculation, scientific bickering and dirty tricks. However, many people
in the Pensacola, Florida, area still see odd objects and lights in the
sky.
  The recent publication of The Gulf Breeze Sightings by Ed and Frances
Walters has, if anything, fanned the flames.
  "If you took that case, Ed's sightings and those of his family away, and
left everything else, you would still have a monumental amount of evidence
related to the UFO mystery," Dr. Bruce Maccabee said. "Between Nov. 11,
1987 and May 1, 1988, which is the time taken up by Ed's book, the time
that involved Ed Walters and Frances, I estimate that there were about 60
events which involved well over 130 witnesses in the Gulf Breeze area."
  Maccabee is a physicist employed by the U.S. Navy and a well-respected
UFO investigator.
  According to Maccabee, about 65 sightings have occured in the Pensacola
area since May, 1988.
  "I'm basing my statistics on cases that have been reported to MUFON," he
said.
  MUFON is the Mutual UFO Network, a large organization of UFO researchers,
investigators and enthusiasts.
  MUFON investigators Rex and Carol Salisbury have documented many UFO
sightings and contacts in the Pensacola area going back many years.
They made the following comments to the 1990 National
UFO Conference in Miami Beach, Florida. In the interest of clarity, since
they alternated speaking, I will quote the Salisburys as a team, rather
than individually.
  "There have been sightings all around the town (of Pensacola)," they
said. "Another area of intense activity is up around the university area."
  They said that the most of the witnesses they interviewed have had
multiple sightings.
  "We have also discovered that many of these witnesses have also had
missing time or other related UFO paranormal events or other types of
ESP events in their lives," the Salisburys said. "These witnesses come from
all walks of life, and they have seen a wide variety of UFO types, shapes
and sizes."
  On February 8, 1989, Jeff Thompson and his young son watched as a
brightly lighted object of about three feet in diameter landed in their
front yard. Thompson crept close to the object and illuminated it with a
flashlight.
  "The object suddenly emitted a bright, brilliant flash of light and
disappeared," the Salisburys said. "Upon questioning Jeff, we learned that
Jeff knew nothing at all of a previously-taken photo of a very small
craft."
  "In March of 1989 we interviewed a family who has had multiple sightings
and experiences over a two-year period in Pensacola, and as far back as 10
years ago when the honeymooning couple saw a UFO hovering over a mountain
in Pennsylvania," the Salisburys said. "Another family residing in the same
area has had a number of sightings dating back two or three years."
  The two families did not know each other.
  The Salisburys said that they have worked on several cases in an area
near a Navy installation. The cases involve witnesses who have had multiple
sightings and past experiences with UFO and related phenomena, some going
back into the 1920s.
  One witness is a 71-year-old woman who recently saw her back yard
flooded with light. She underwent hypnosis and learned that she had also
seen a bowtie-shaped object and a second light.
  "Her first experience was in 1925," the Salisburys said.
  In another experience about seven years ago, according to the Salisburys,
a young woman babysitting was sleeping on a couch when a noise awakened
her and the house shook. She saw a translucent hemispherical
object in the living room with her.
  The woman slipped into a bedroom to check the baby. While she was out
of the living room, there was another noise, the house again shook and the
object disappeared.
  She told the Salisburys that she looked out a window and saw three
orange balls streaking away across the yard and into the sky.
  In March of 1989 two women were driving home (to the mainland) from Gulf
Breeze when they noticed a white light that appeared to be pacing their
car. When they rounded a curve, they saw an object hovering over the road
in front of the car.
  The women stopped, got out of the car, and felt compelled to walk
toward the object. They bumped into the open car doors and stopped. When a car
approached, the object lifted straight up and vanished.
  A Pensacola-area woman who said a UFO abducted her in Germany 16 years ago
saw a UFO west of Pensacola in August of 1989. She told the Salisburys that
the UFO was identical to what she saw in Germany.
  In September, the same woman and her son saw two objects hover over their
house. Twenty similar sightings have occured in their area since then, and
the latest was in April 1990.
  On Nov. 30, 1989, a woman driving east from Gulf Breeze saw an
arrowhead-shaped object hover over a utility substation.
  In February of 1990 MUFON received 26 sighting reports, and in March the
organization received nine sighting reports.
  A large number of UFOs returned to Gulf Breeze in mid-April 1990.
  "We had sightings of lights almost every night for about a week," the
Salisburys said. At least two witnesses made videotapes of those objects.
  "Pensacola MUFON has submitted over 64 cases," the Salisburys said.
  On the night of Nov. 11, 1987, Ed Walters, a Gulf Breeze builder, saw and
photographed his first UFO. What set Walters apart from the other witnesses
was that he had a camera readily accessible, is what would be politely
described as stubborn, and had what could be called good luck as a UFO
photographer.
  Walters was not alone in his UFO sightings that day.
  In the decade up until Nov. 11, 1987, witnesses reported about 10
sightings a year.
  "All of a sudden, on that one day, we find out that there were eight or
nine sightings," Maccabee said. Other witnesses saw objects
similar to the one Walters saw beginning at about 2:30 that morning.
  I will not recount Ed and Frances Walters' story here, since they do so
in great detail in their book. Nor will I recount Dr. Bruce Maccabee's
analysis of Ed and Frances Walters' photographs, since he does so in the
paper he presented to MUFON.
  Since that Veterans' Day in 1987, Ed Walters has taken 41 pictures of
possibly four different objects with five cameras. He has come under
fire that his photographs were a hoax, possibly because they appeared
too sharp and clear. Many other people took pictures before, during and
after the period of his sightings, and several witnesses made videotapes.
Walters made a videotape during one of his close encounters.
  Critics bandied about hoax and conspiracy theories.
  "You can't say there wasn't a conspiracy, but you can't establish a
connection," Maccabee said. Also it appears that a large number of people
would have to be in on a conspiracy.
  Maccabee examined several possible methods of hoaxing the photographs in
his paper and found each to be either readily detectable or impossible to
carry out. He also determined that Ed Walters would not have had the
knowledge or equipment to carry out a hoax.
  "You're going to do something to destroy your roots?" Walters said. "Some
would do something like that, but not a normal sane father."
  I described to Maccabee a method that could be used to hoax
photographs that would pass most, if not all, of the tests he used to
examine Walters' photographs. He was not familiar with the material and
methods I described. He then pointed out that the events of the March
17, 1988 sighting and photographs would have precluded any manipulation of
photographs by Walters.
  Maccabee said that on that date, a witness (Peter Newman) opened the
sealed Polaroid film boxes, loaded Walters' cameras and wrote down the
serial numbers of the film packs. Newman was also keeping track of the film
counter of each camera. Walters took several unplanned souvenir pictures of
people who had joined the small group.
  Because of the cold weather the spectators left, but several
pretended to leave and returned in the darkness. They could not see
Walters because of bushes and a restroom facility building. They
could, however, see the treetops above Walters' position.
  Maccabee said that the witnesses saw two flashes in rapid succession
illuminate the treetops. A few moments later they saw Walters run out of
the bushes to his truck and turn on the headlights. The witnesses gathered
around and watched the pictures develop, and those pictures showed a UFO.
  "Those people watched the film develop, which means the photos had to
have been taken shortly before," Maccabee said. "There was no time in the
middle to diddle with stuff."
  Maccabee said that he had experimented with trying to slow or stop the
film development, even by freezing the film. He said that he managed only
a slight slowdown in development, certainly not enough to have been part of
a hoax.
  Critics have suggested that someone may have been showing Walters
something to photograph, such as a balloon. However, weather conditions
that night would rule out a balloon.
  Ed Walters said that the weather was cold and nasty that night.
  "The wind was coming right off the water," Frances Walters said.
  Hoax theories and debunking efforts still abound.
  "I don't know how they (debunkers) sleep at night," Ed Walters said.
"What is so intimidating about these photos that would cause such a
reaction among the debunkers?"
  Lately articles have appeared in some newspapers in which the primary
source of information has been Willy Smith. MUFON has distanced itself from
Smith, who was originally an investigator involved in Walters' case. Smith
was implicated in a debunking effort in which an image of a Gulf
Breeze-type UFO appeared in a photograph of the Chrysler Building in New
York City.
  Smith claimed that Ed Walters took the picture.
  UFO investigator Antonio Huneeus and commercial photographer Manuel
Fernandez came forward and stated that Huneeus had Fernandez make the
photograph for study and experimental purposes. They said that it
was not an Ed Walters photograph.
  Smith has also claimed that the so-called ghost pictures show
that Walters was familiar with making multiple exposures before he made the
UFO photographs.
  Walters said that Smith has taken the entire ghost picture idea out of
context. He said that it is a game he plays with various teenage visitors
to his house, and that the game is that the ghost is "in" you, not beside
you.
  He said that he first takes normal pictures of several people. For the
picture of the person the ghost is "in" he focuses the camera for
long-distance and takes the picture with the subject about four feet away.
  The flash on his Polaroid camera makes the subject's eyes turn completely
white, and the subject is a little blurry. That is what he calls a ghost
picture. It involves no multiple exposures.
  The picture Willy Smith has shown as a ghost picture is of a teenage girl
standing in front of a sliding glass door. It shows blobs of light near the
girl.
  Maccabee said that he has confirmed that fingerprints and smudges on
glass can cause similar reflections without the glass itself reflecting
light. Frances Walters said that she had never cleaned that glass door.
  The mysterious blue beam that appears in Walters' photographs and other
witnesses' reports has also brought forth much speculation.
  "It can lift you up, it can hold you down," Maccabee said.
  Walters said, "The blue beam stops you from moving; the white flash, I
believe, if it strikes you on the head, incapacitates you."
  "I don't know that, but I believe it's true," he said.
  Walters explained how he captured the picture of the blue beam
and Frances running in the doorway. He said that he was going outside while
holding the camera up, and that the blue beam suddenly flashed just where
he was about to step. At that time, Frances ran inside and he pushed the
shutter release without even looking through the viewfinder.
  A new apparent debunking attempt is underway.
  An advertisement appeared in the Pensacola newspaper. The ad states,
"Hoax UFO balloons are illegal." The advertisement text then says that
anyone who sees or knows of UFO balloons should call a certain telephone
number.
  "That's a Phil Klass phone number," Walters said. Walters also pointed
out that the 1990 MUFON symposium will be in early July in Pensacola.
He said that it would not be surprising if someone found a UFO balloon just
in time for the symposium.
  Walters also mentioned a flyer that someone stuffed in Gulf Breeze
mailboxes referring to him. It said, in part, "Many of our sources report
how often this UFO nut can be seen drunk at local taverns."
  He said that the debunker obviously did not know that Santa Rosa County
is dry, therefore there are no local taverns.
  "There is certainly a difference between an honest skeptic and a
debunker," Walters said. "A debunker is compelled to convince all others
that there is no such thing as a UFO; therefore, Gulf Breeze should be
swept away."
  "I think probably most of you understand now, if you don't you should,
that Gulf Breeze is not just Ed and Frances Walters," Walters said.
  "It would be almost as strange as a UFO to imagine that you can reject
Ed's case as being a hoax and accept all the rest of them as being real,"
Maccabee said.
  Walters declined to identify Believer Bill and Jane, two people
who anonymously gave pictures of UFOs similar to those Walters saw to the
Gulf Breeze Sentinel. He said that he knows their identity.
  "I might have said it (Believer Bill's name) publicly a few times, and I
might have hurt him," Walters said. "It's not up to me to denigrate or
expose someone who doesn't want to be exposed."
  "It's job-related suicide for some professions," he said.
  He acknowledged that he may have erred in trying to remain anonymous, but
said he was trying to protect his family.
  "I probably made the mistake that if you don't come forward, the news
media will turn into a school of sharks," Walters said. "But if you don't
come forward it almost makes it worse, because then they are going to track
you down."
  "They'll try their best to leap upon you from the bushes," he said.
  "For two years I tried my best to shun publicity," Walters said. "If they
(debunkers) hadn't attacked so viciously, the book wouldn't have been
written."
  On Jan. 8, 1990, witnesses saw another UFO, and this time the military
apparently took an interest.
  Ed Walters said that he and Frances were out walking near the Methodist
Church in Gulf Breeze when they saw a large red light in the sky.
  "We'd been criticized early on for not always dancing to a phone and
calling somebody, so in this case, we said well, what the heck, we'll run
back to the house, take a chance that it's still going to be there, and
we'll call people," Walters said. "I ran to the phone and started to call
investigators."
  Walters reached two answering machines and a paging machine. He then
called Duane Cook and a friend who he had promised he would call, and they
said they were on the way.
  "This was all on faith that the object was still in the sky," he said. "I
didn't know, I was still inside."
  "It could have already gone and then I would look very foolish because
everybody would have come a'running and I'd be embarrassed," Walters said.
  Walters said, "I started to put together this new camera I'd purchased."
He said that he started running back toward the church while still trying
to attach the lens to the camera.
  Duane Cook and his son arrived and both saw the object. Two other people
approached and now the object was visible to six people gathered near the
church.
  "I could see through the zoom lens this black disc," Walters said. He
said that the disc was visible against a moonlit cloud cover.
  Walters and city councilwoman Brenda Pollak took some photographs.
Walters' camera had a zoom lens with a maximum focal length of about 200
mm., and Pollak had a 300 mm. lens on her camera. However, both had their
cameras set on automatic exposure and the cameras automatically set long
exposures.
  Walters' photograph shows a red blurry blob.
  "The critics and the debunkers would have me being a photo expert, some
kind of genius," he said.
  Just after Walters made his exposure, the red light went out or, as
others reported, the disc turned over.
  Pollak then took her photograph. Her photograph shows an image that looks
like multi-colored pearls on a string.
  Maccabee said that the light changed colors 110 times during Pollak's
three-second exposure. Since the camera was handheld with the 300 mm. lens,
the image was a snakelike line with a blob of different colored light for
each time the light changed colors.
  "I think this is a phenomenal picture," Walters said. "It doesn't solve
anything, it just adds to the questions."
  "Some of the witnesses remember seeing a white light while the picture
was being taken," Walters said. "We don't know we've captured this odd
effect until the film comes out."
  The object then vanished, apparently into the low-lying cloud cover.
  Walters said that moments later, about six helicopters approached from
the direction of Pensacola Naval Air Station. "There's no question where
those helicopters came from," he said.
  He said that the helicopters approached the area of the church,
illuminated floodlights and searched the area around the church. The object
had been directly over the church when it vanished.
  A Navy chief, who was not an official spokesman, first told an
investigator that the Naval Air Station dispatched the helicopters on a
Search and Rescue mission. According to Walters, the investigator pressed
further and the chief told the investigator, "You know what's been going on
over there, you guess."
  Another red light appeared near the bridge from Gulf Breeze to Pensacola
on the night of April 18, 1990, and many witnesses took photographs while
several made videotapes. Maccabee said that he has most of the
negatives and videotapes.
  Ed and Frances Walters' experiences have given them what could be called
an insiders' perspective on the UFO phenomenon.
  "The toughest part is not understanding," Ed Walters said. "I don't like
the idea that there may be something out there that may be a threat."
  Frances Walters said, "For every answer that you come up with, you seem
to come up with a lot more questions."
  "Sometimes I think we haven't learned a darn thing," she said.
  A participant at the conference asked Ed Walters if he is ready for
another visit from the visitors.
  "If they come symbolically to my front door, and they knock on the door,
and they say, 'Hi, we're travelers from afar. Can we come in?' I'll open
the door," Walters said. "If they try to come in the back door, in the
darkness, and invade my household, I will resist and I will fight back."

                                  ###

Copyright 1990 John B. Hicks

       
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