337 lines
19 KiB
Plaintext
337 lines
19 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: FACT OR FANTASY ? FILE: UFO2699
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Titled: Fact or Fantasy? Springfieldian seeks validation of UFO
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encounter 43 years ago.
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Written by: Mike O'Brien
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ALSO NOTE: the actual newpaper article shows a scene of the UFO crash
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drawn by Gerald Anderson and also a sketch of a creature he believes
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was a visitor from another galaxy.
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To a 5-year-old kid from Indianapolis, the mountains and mesas and vast
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scrubland surrounding Albuquerque seemed an alien world.
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"I was in awe" recalls Gerald Anderson of his arrival in New Mexico
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with his family in July 1947. "I was in the wild frontier. There were
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real, live Indians out there."
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Then says Anderson, on his second day in the Southwest he bumped into
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real,live creatures from a truly alien world.
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There were four -- two dead, on dying, one apparently uninjured. The
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creatures were about 4 feet tall, with heads disproportionately large
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for their bodies by human measure and almond-shaped, coal black eyes.
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They huddled in the shadow of 50-ft-diameter silver disk - a "flying
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saucer" that had crashed into a low hillside on the rim of what locals
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call the Plains of San Agustin.
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Anderson, a former police chief at Rockaway Beach and Taney County
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deputy sheriff who now works as a security officer in Springfield, is
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adamant about events on the hot midsummer day so long ago. "I saw them.
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I even touched one of the creatures. I put my hand on their ship. And I
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wasn't alone - my dad, my uncle, my brother and my cousin all saw the
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same things. And so did a lot of other people. But they aren't talking.
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Anderson is talking, pubicly, after 43 years of silence.
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Among those listening most intently are some of the foremost
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researchers into unidentified flying object (UFO phenomena. These
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experts say Gerald Anderson appears to be an important link in a
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frustratingly fragmented chain of evidence concerning the most famous -
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or infamous - chapter in UFO annals: the so called "Roswell Incident."
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No one denies that "something" happened in July 1947 in central New
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Mexico, cradle of U.S. nuclear and rocket technology. However, military
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authorities insist reports of strange craft in the sky and bizare
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wreckage on the ground were traced at the time to an errant weather
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balloon and other manmade or natural circumstance.
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Nonetheless, over the years, persistent whispered rumors grew into
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published articles and books, even movies, which fanned speculation
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that what actually occured was a visit by creatures from another planet
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- an intergalactic expedition that turned to tragedy on the high desert
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and then into a massive coverup in the highest circles of the U.S.
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government.
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Anderson says he was unaware of ongoing fascination and controversy
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over the strange episode from his childhood until one evening this past
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January when he was flipping through channels on his television set and
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stumbled across the popular program "Unsolved Mysteries."
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"I wasn't looking for any unsolved mysteries - I have enough mysteries
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in my life that are unsolved, and I don't need any more," Anderson
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jokes. He is a burly, barrel-chested man standing 6-4 and carrying a
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muscular 250-plus pounds, with reddish hair and a rudy complexion
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creased from easy laughter.
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"But, bingo! On comes this story, and everything was wrong," Anderson
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recalls of the TV show. On sudden impulse, he dialed an 800 phone
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number that flashed onto the screen. "I guess I figured that if people
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were still interested in this thing, they might as well get it
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straight" is the only explanation he can muster for speaking up after
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years of keeping mostly mum on the matter.
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"These people don't know what they're talking about," Anderson told the
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operator on the other end of the long-distance line. "The shape of the
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craft is totally wrong. 'And how do you know that, sir?" she asked. ' I
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saw it, I was there,' I told her. "Whoa!" she said. "Thee are some
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people who will want to talk to you...'"
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Anderson's phone soon was ringing with calls from UFO researchers
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around the country. One in particular, Stanton Friedman, a nuclear
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physicist and popular lecturer who had advised the "Unsolved Mysteries"
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producers, was struck by correlations between Anderson's recollections
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and obscure details Friedman uncovered while sleuthing for a book to be
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published next year.
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Friedman, who lives in Canada, contacted John Carpenter, a Springfield
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professional therapist who in his spare time serves as a director of
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investigations for the local chapter of Mutual UFO Network, a
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nationwide orgainization of UFO researchers. At Friedman's request,
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Carpenter conducted extensive in person interviews of Anderson,
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including sessions under hypnosis.
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The results excited Friedman. "Powerful stuff!" he exclaimed upon
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hearing interview tapes. Friedman arranged airline tickets for Anderson
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and Carpent to join him in New Mexico to pinpoint the crash site.
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Anderson says the flight was his first return to New Mexico in more
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than a quarter-century. After poining the pilot of a chartered
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helicopter to a spot in the desert 75 air miles southwest of
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Albuquerque, Anderson gazed at a hillside, strewn with boulders the
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size of Volkswagens and dotted with a few gnarled pinion trees, that he
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says he saw in the summer of 1947..... A NEW HOME
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The Anderson family arrived in Albuquerque from Indiana on July 4,
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1947. they took up temporary residence at the home of one of Gerald's
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uncles, Guy Anderson. Gerald's father, Glen, was about to take a job as
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a master machinist involved in nuclear weapons design at the super-
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secret Sandia base on the outskirts of town.
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The next day, another uncle, Ted, struck up a conversation with
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Gerald's older brother Glen Jr., who was on leave from the Marine
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Corps. Glen Jr. was a rockhound, and his uncle piqued the young
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Marine's enthusiasm with talkes of gorgeous stones just waiting to be
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collected in the desert.
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" Ted told my brother, ' I know where there's plenty of moss agate.'
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So we all piked into a 1940 Plymouth - Uncle Ted, my cousin Victor
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(Ted's 8 year old son), my brother, Glen, my dad and myself. We went
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out into this area where the moss agate was supposed to be - followed
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two ruts into the desert, bounced along out there for a while, and
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ended up on top of a ridgeline. We parked the car and started to walk
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down an arroyo (gully) and dry creek bed and out onto the plains. A
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STRANGE DISCOVERY
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"But we came around a corner and right there in front of us stuck into
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the side of this hill, was a silver disc. There were some remarks
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like"There's a crash up here! Somthing's crashed up here! And then
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someone saying 'That's a goddam spaceship!"
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"We all went up there to it. There were three creatures, three bodies,
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lying on the ground underneath this thing in the shade. Two weren't
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moving and the third one obviously was having trouble breathing, like
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when you have broken ribs. There was a fourth one next to it, sitting
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there on the ground. There wasn't a thing wrong with it, and it
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apparently had been giving first aid to the others.
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Anderson animatedly acts out the fourth creature's reaction when the
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family members approached. "It recoiled in fear, like it thought we
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were going to attack it," anderson recounts, covering his face with
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crossed arms. The adults tried to repeatedly to communicate with the
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frightened creature, Anderson says, but there was no audible response
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to greetings spoken in English and Spanish.
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A few minutes after the Anderson clan happened upon the bizarre scene,
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six other people arrived - five college students and their teacher.
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They'd been working on an archeological dig around cliff dwellings a
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few miles away and had decided to hike over after seeing what they
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thought was a firey meteor crashing the night before. The professor, a
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Dr. Buskirk, tried several foreign languages in unsuccessful attempts
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to coax a verbal response from the creature, Anderson says.
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The sun had climbed to a midday peak by this time and recalls anderson,
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"to a kid from Indiana, it was hot brother, let me tell you." He
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chugged a chocolate flavored soft drink an hour earlier and the sweet
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soda pop was churning uncomfortably in his stomach. so he sought
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shelter in the shadow of the spacecraft.
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"It was 115 (degrees) out there that day. But around the craft, when
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you got close to it, it was cold. When you touched the metal, it felt
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just like it came out of a freezer."
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SOMETHING WASN'T RIGHT
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Anderson also touched one of the creatures lying motionless on the
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ground - and it, too was cold. In his child's mind, he had thought the
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figures looked like dolls. But when he felt the colk skin, " I knew
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something wasn't quite right. Yuck!.
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Anderson says he ran to the crest of a nearby knoll to take stock. A
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pickup truck arrived on the ridge, and a fellow whom researchers
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believe was a civil engineer named Barney Barnett joined the curious
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audience. "I remember thinking he looked like Harry Truman. In 1947,
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every kid knew what Harry Truman looked like," Anderson says.
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After a few minutes, Anderson summoned the courage to agin creep close
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to the strange saucer. It was then more chilling than the surface of
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the craft of the skin of the corpse; The upright creature turned and
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looked right at me and it was like he was inside my head - as if he was
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doing my thinking, as if his thoughts were in my head."
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Anderson remembers a mental sensation of falling and tumbling end-over-
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end. "I felt that thing's fear, felt its depression, felt its
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loneliness. I relived the crash. I know the terror it went through.
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That one look told me everything that quickly," he says with a snap of
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his fingers.
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Other things began happening quickly about this time, Anderson says. A
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contingent of armed soldiers suddenly appeared. The creature, which had
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calmed down after its initial fright, "went crazy" at the sight of the
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soldiers. Thinking back on the creature's plight today brings on the
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"awfulest, horrible feeling," Anderson says.
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"His situation was hopeless. He knew it. He'd just lived through a
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nightmare that most of us wouldn't be able to psychologically stand.
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He'd watched two of his crew, his friends or maybe even his family die.
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He's watching another one die. He knows there's no chance of rescue,
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because the military is here and his people aren't going to be able to
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get him.
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"God only knows how far away from home he was, and he knew he was never
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going to see - if they have loved ones - his loved ones again. He was
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totally alone on a hostile planet, and the only people who where
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showing him kindness were being run off by the military at weapon-
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point.
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"As a kid, I was aware of what being afriad of the dark was like., and
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the feeling I got from him was that feeling multiplied a million times.
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It was scary. It was terrifying.
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SOLDIERS ON THE SCENE
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Anderson says he lost sight of the creature as the soldiers swarmed
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over the site. The civilians were brusquely shoved from the craft.
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Anderson remembers shouts and threats. His uncle Ted threw a punch at
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one of the GIs. "Things got very tense, very dangerious," Anderson
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says. "The soldiers ushered us out of there very unceremoniously. Their
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attitude, to describe it at best, was uncivilized."
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Anderson has an especially vivid memory of a tough-talking red haired
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Army captain and an equally gruff black sergeant. "They told my dad and
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my uncle, who also worked at Sandia, that if they were ever to divulge
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anything about this - it was a secret military aircraft, they said -
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then us kids would be taken away and they'd never see us again." It
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seems an outrageious threat in hindsight, Anderson concedes. But at the
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time, he reminds, "These people had machine guns and you listened to
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what they said."
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Another recollection strikes Anderson as odd today: The soldiers didn't
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appear surprised about the otherwordly craft and creatures. they didn't
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gawk, slack-jawed and awestruck as the Andersons had done. "The
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soldiers weren't saying, 'Gee, look at that!" They were very cognizant
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of what they were looking at. They knew what it was.
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And it soon became apparent, Anderson says, that the Army knew what it
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wanted to do with the find. "there was a battalion of military, a real
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invasion force, when we got back up on the hilltop. Thee were trucks,
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there wre airplanes - they had the road blocked off and they wre
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landing on it. They had radio communications gear set up. There were
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ambulances, and more soldiers with weapons."
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In the days that followed, all of New Mexico was abuzz with talk of
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strange lights in the sky, strange echos on radar, strange doings in
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the desert. On July 7, new reports told of remnants of an unidentified
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aircraft found by a rancher near the town of Roswell, N.M. about 150
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miles east of the hillside where the Anderson's stumbled upon the
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saucer.
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Although several witnesses said it was like nothing they'd ever seen
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before, military officers insisted the metallic pieces came from an
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ordinary weather balloon.....
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A WEATHER BALLOON?
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Forty three years later, Anderson smiles wryly when reminded of the
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Army's pronouncement, "A lot of people wondered why, if it was just a
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weather balloon, the military put the pieces under armed guard and flew
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them in a B-29 to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio," he
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observes.
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Anderson believes the wreckage scattered near Roswell and the barely
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damaged saucer on the Plains of San Agustin are connected. "There was a
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gash in the side of the disc we saw, like it had been crushed in," he
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says. "The contour of the craft would fit into that gash perfectly -
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like another one of these things had hit it. I think two of these discs
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had a mid-air collision. One exploded and feel in pieces near Roswell,
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and the other crash-landed where we found it.
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With all evidence confiscated and the military steadfastly sticking by
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the weather balloon explanation, the story faded from the news by
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July's end. And Gerald Anderson says he tucked away the memory as he
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grew into manhood. "I learned you just don't go up to the average
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person on the street and say, "Damn, know what I saw?" The guy will go,
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"Get away from me, fool! Are you crazy?" In later life, he didn't
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mention it even to his wife until a few years after their marriage.
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Anderson joined the Navy in the late 1950s and served a dozen years in
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posts around the globe. He lived for a few years in Colorado, working
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as a parmedic and working toward a college degree in microbiology. In
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1979, he moved to Missouri to better raise his daughter away from what
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he terms the "druggy" atmosphere of Denver. In addition to his law
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enforcement posts, Anderson has worked for two southwest Missouri
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trucking firms as a driver and instructor.
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Anderson also has been active in the Episcopal Church. He recently was
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elected to the vestry at Ascension Episcopal in Springfield and is
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studying toward becoming a deacon.A gold crucifix - a cross complete
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with a figure of the martyred Christ affixed to it - suspended from a
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chain around Anderson's neck is testimony to his faith.
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NO CONFLICT IN BELIEFS
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Although he concedes his account might make some fellow churchgoers
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uncomfortable, Anderson sees no conflict between what he saw with his
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eyes and what he believes in his heart: "When you're talking about the
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concept of God, you have to be talking in the context of a universal
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situations, a deity that built the whole universe. And why should we
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assume that this speck of sand in the backwater of space would be the
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only place that an all-perfect, almighty God could create life?"
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In fact, Anderson says he "wouldn't be one bit surprised to find out
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that, wherever this creature came from, there they have a very strong
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concept of a supreme being. Because of my contact with the creature
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showed a high degree of civilized sophistication, gentleness,
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compassion - all of the things we hold as ideals."
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Of the five anderson men who ventured into the desert that day in 1947,
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only Gerald is still alive. Age, illness and accidents claimed the
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other four in recent years. But not only andersons were at the scene,
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Gerald says, and he hopes his decision to come forth, albeit belated,
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will encourage others to tell what they know and spur official
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revelations about the captured craft and creatures.
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"I want to see the government stand up and say, 'Look, we're not alone
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in the universe.
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Let's make a 'Star Trek' really happen. Let's do go out there and
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explore the universe. That may be our only salvation. Because with
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what's doing to this Earth, we're not going to make it much past the
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year 2000.
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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