FLATWOODS MONSTER -
THE TRUE STORY
by Alfred Lehmberg
PART 2
Previously: Training and persistence. Resolving the near-ruined record. Provenance is ignored?
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| Feschino's Reconstituted 10073 |
Yes reader, it was Frank Feschino who discovered the "PROJECT BLUEBOOK 10073 RECORD CARD ATIC Form 329 (REV 26 Sep 52)," for the "Flatwoods Monster" case! There's your provenance for PBB Flatwoods records, extant. Full stop!
It was Frank Feschino who analyzed numerous "
Tentative Observers Questionnaires" and "
Air Intelligence Information Reports," documents. It was Frank Feschino who re-imaged illegible "
Project 10073 Record Card" papers, "
Air Intelligence Information Report" narratives, and ATIC communication "
ACTION" reports! This is forgetting various other intelligence reports re-engineered back to readability over the years, reader, by one Frank Feschino!
Let us be crystal clear that it was Frank Feschino who letter-detected faded first-person witness
handwritten manuscripts to readability (a
doozy to decipher... a paper in its own right) and, over the years, re-inked them to the record's legibility. Finally, it was Frank Feschino who then made it public, largely for free, reader, apart from his very well received and
credible (
perhaps the problem!)
book, on the internet, radio, or TV.
It was Frank Feschino, for the record, first to put civilian eyes on... was first to see the September 12 and 13, 1952 Project Blue Book case files, in more than a few decades. Within those files was the "Flatwoods" file designated case, "#2078." This writer seems sure a debt's owed to Feschino rather than this uneasy dearth of same... even carried around for a time on a three-cornered journalistic cushion for this writer's money, but we digress.
See, immediately, there seemed an abundant mystery afoot... revealed a result, only, of Feschino's efforts. In turn, perhaps we'd even have some definitive answers regarding questions we now can have, at all... you know... regarding a seemingly clear Air Force cover-up of the "Flatwoods Monster," affair.
To wit, so we can lay this out crystal clear: we refer to the case in the "comments" section of one of its documents, section #11...
The Air Force so confidently proclaims,
"The West Virginia monster so-called. Actually the object was the well-known Washington area meteor of 12 Sep landing near Flatwoods West Virginia. Have confirmation from an Astronomy Club from Akron, Ohio. Letter from E.C. [BLACKED-OUT] President - Akron Astronomy Club."
Ok... right here we can throw the brake full on, even accessorized with that nasty scratched-record sound! Let us remember that this was a "statement of fact" by an officiality, for the record!
The official conclusion reached, then, was recorded in section 12 of the 10073 Record Card:
"12. CONCLUSION: [X] was astronomical."
...Nothing to see here folks, move along now to your homes and tune in some "reality" TV... bake some cookies... wash the dog...
See, to start... the Project Blue Book officials blamed the whole Flatwoods sighting on a meteor, known then, specifically (suspiciously!), as "the well-known Washington area meteor." Stop! There are problems with any or all of this as the reader will see.
The referenced Akron Astronomy Club (AAC) letter, which Feschino also had to make legible, stated,
"EXAMPLE: Typical Meteorite (Fireball). 12 Sep Fireball -- September 12, 1952-- Flatwoods, W.Va."
The "Washington area meteor" was also referenced in The New York Times on September 13, 1952 in the article, "FLAME OVER WASHINGTON."
...The "FLAME." Ok... "OVER WASHINGTON." Right. Only...
This same article also stated,
"Newspapers offices were flooded by calls from witnesses of the phenomenon who sought an explanation...At the United States Naval Observatory a spokesman said, 'reports sound like a typical meteor.'"
The Springfield News reported the same story, "Flaming Object Seen at Capitol" and wrote,
"A flaming object believed to have been a falling meteor tonight flashed across the skies startling hundreds of Washington area residents. The object was seen over the capital and nearby Maryland and Virginia.The Weather Bureau, Naval Observatory and newspaper offices were jammed with a flood of calls from persons wanting to know what the mysterious object was."
Reader, please take note of the sheer amount of calls the newspapers reported received concerning this object... propagandized even, it becomes increasingly clear, to be a meteor! "Newspaper offices were flooded by calls from witnesses" and "newspaper offices were jammed with a flood of calls from persons," was the effusive report!
Now reader, let's take a look behind the scene at a "
Tentative Observers Questionnaire," from a credited witness who reported his sighting to Project Blue Book, himself. Here, Feschino spent countless hours recreating a particular handwritten page from this document, a document which was severely faded and not remotely legible at a glance, and then
brought those words back to life... or it would have been lost forever.
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| From the near illegible... |
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| To readability! |
Again, it was Feschino discovering the following shocking testimony on page 8 of this witness's report under section "30." In part, this witness wrote:
"I don't know what it was I saw and will insist on what it was NOT, I have seen meteors, and the newspapers will have a hard time telling me I was looking at a meteor on 9/12 [September 12]—maybe it sounds good to persons who didn't see the object—this THING was being flown...In summation, this may sound as though I am inferring some fraud in the reports given to the public, perhaps responsible parties believe they are true and the best information available, but did they see the thing on 9/12? [Name blacked out]"
See, and we come to it at last, the problem with this cover-up story, which was clearly implemented by the USAF, is that there are no recorded meteors or meteorite landings in the United States, anywhere, for September 12, 1952...except in Project Blue Book! None." ...Let that sink in.
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| Friedman, onsite at Flatwoods, WV |
More to the point, there was never a meteorite landing in or near Flatwoods on that night in question, or ever as far as this writer knows. Stanton Friedman was to later to have quipped, "If it had, the town would now be called Flattened-woods." To this day, no one has ever found an impact pit or crater in the area, which would surely be noticeable after all the documented commotion for such.
See, after years of research plus putting together his data of UFO sightings for that day onto a "
Master Map," astonishing in its own right, Feschino discovered that the "
Flame Over Washington" was more likely that damaged Flatwoods UFO flying over the Capitol on a western trajectory, continuing on about 200 miles, and then landing in Flatwoods about 30 minutes later! There's your "flame," and a real "Energizer Bunny" one, too!
Additionally, a preternaturally intrepid Feschino discovered and assiduously documented 116 locations where twenty-five UFOs where sighted, crashing and landing over and over, virtually leapfrogging, and all were sighted within ten east coast states during twenty-one sustained hours of UFO activity! Others might have remarked on reported evidence of one hell of a battle with aliens from space... Let that sink in...
Yet, the "Duration" of this alleged "Fireball" was said to be "5-6 seconds" according to that Akron Astronomy Club document, a document that the Air Force rather blitheringly used as their alleged prima facie evidence. This won't be the last time this writer notes how very sad and suspiciously poor this cover-up attempt by the Project Blue Book officials was, so as to provoke in the reader an awareness of same.
Realize that after years of research and putting together his data of UFO sightings for that day onto the aforementioned "Master Map," again astonishing, as the reader can see, Feschino's evidence illustrates that the "Flame Over Washington," passing over the Capitol on a western trajectory at about 7:00 pm, was just... not... a meteor!
It better fits the evidence that it was the damaged Flatwoods UFO craft, shot up by Air Force jets ordered to do just that, as it stands. No apologies, remember.
Whatever it was, it would continue on about 206 miles and then land in Flatwoods about 30 minutes later around 7:30 pm.
The Project Blue Book 10073 Record Card stated the time of the meteor sighting in Flatwoods was...
"TIME: 19:30" (or 7:30 pm) EST. This same document states, "Actually the object was the well-known Washington area meteor of 12 Sep. landing near Flatwoods. Have confirmation of an Astronomy Club from Akron, Ohio," again, and pointed out for emphasis.
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| Just... Not... A Meteor! |
Now pay close attention reader! The Akron Astronomy Club letter stated the time this sighted "Fireball" was, "TIME: Approximately 7:00 P.M. E.S.T." Flatwoods? 7:30 PM. This time-lapse of 30 minutes clearly proves it was NOT a "Typical Meteorite Fireball"!
Consider, reader! The Akron Astronomy Club stated this "fireball" had an "Actual velocity: 27 miles per second." Were this the case, reader, then this fireball would have reached Flatwoods in near single digit seconds after passing over Washington, DC, not 30 minutes! That's the physics!
30 minutes at the noted speed is beyond the pale of rational reason-ability by orders of magnitude! True rationalists must retch or be the wretches they'd proclaim as wretched, retching! That point, honed fine.
To further hone this point, the "Duration" of this alleged "Fireball" was said to be "5-6 seconds" according to the Akron Astronomy Club document our Air Force rather blitheringly used as their support and evidence beard. Truly, and again, this is a very sad, even deplorable, cover-up attempt by the Project Blue Book officials, to say the least. It just begs to be overturned and invalidated!
So, let's kick this rock over even risking a bite! Feschino discovered and documented 116 locations where twenty-five UFOs where sighted that day! For the record, and focusing on these sightings, there were actually four UFOs crashing a total of 13 times within 3 states, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia, while eight other UFOs made landings in three states, West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. All 25 of the accounted for UFOs were sighted over and within ten east coast states during only twenty-one sustained hours of UFO activity, and most of that in arond an hour! Let that sink in, too!
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| Air War with ET! |
Now, just to show how inaccurate, desperate, and almost-wanting-to-be-caught appearing... certainly poor, as noted, that the Blue Book's attempt to cover-up the "Washington area meteor" was, Feschino discovered that by connecting all the plotted points of UFO sightings that night and by using the time stamps of these sightings... he could establish just "who" was "what," and "where," and that there had been other damaged UFOs seen that night on completely different flight paths than just the one to Flatwoods! The Akron Astronomy Club, flatly, had NOT borne witness to the so-called "Washington area meteor. "
The AAC, contrarily, had not seen any meteor! Rather, actually, they sighted another damaged craft which had passed over Baltimore, Maryland and was headed on a northwest flight path towards Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio! This object was also in flames and was tracked over thirty locations by Feschino.
For an alleged meteor, this "flaming object" had passed over northwest Maryland, proceeded over Ohio, then redirected northeast towards the northern West Virginia panhandle... There it nearly collided with a commercial passenger plane [heavily documented!]! It then redirected and headed south over West Virginia to crash-land five times in that state! Wait! What? ...Redirecting?
Funny meteor, eh, reader? Yet, to add to the mayhem of flaming and damaged UFOs flying across the United States, another and third damaged "flaming object" was seen streaking across the country on a southwest trajectory and heading directly towards... Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee! This writer thinks that that might have rung some bells, and he would wager on kinked short-hairs bunched on shriveled sacks for all the actioning participants! Oak Ridge! That was our nascent atomics industry, remember!
It had passed southwest over Virginia, then actually flew seventy miles through the security sensitive no-fly zone of the "Oak Ridge Air Defense Identification Zone," ...finally to crash-land across the Tennessee border into Arcadia, Tennessee! Here it was sighted going down. This set off a search and rescue operation by the "Kingsport Life Saving and First Aid Crew" with an ambulance.
Upon arrival, the crews saw "strange flares" off in the distance, but before the object could be reached, it took off and headed south through the State. Feschino pinpointed and documented this UFO over ten locations including Virginia, then Tennessee, where it crashed twice! It was then tracked to depart out over North Carolina. Check the map. It's all in the record Feschino uncovered and constructed almost forensically.
To complete the record for those, perhaps, uninformed readers who are unaware of this incident, or Feschino's intrepid investigation into this case, the reader might ask, what was the "Flatwoods Monster" incident and what actually happened that night? Prepare for dirty download and conjunct data-burst.
In a quick overview, (...And the writer makes absolutely no apologies for the ridiculous audaciousness of the presented assertions as has been pointed out... but one is, or should be, constrained by facts... go where these lead... though heaven falls!): the "Flatwoods Monster" affair was a sub-set of one of four different UFOs shot down by USAF jets on September 12, 1952, approximately six-weeks after it was publicly revealed on July 29, 1952 in The Seattle Post Intelligencer, that the "Air Force Orders Jet Pilots to Shoot Down Flying Saucers If they Refuse to Land."
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| Newspaper Article Headlines of the time... |
Yes reader, that headline is absolutely true! In part, the article says,
"Lt. Col. Moncel Monts, (USAF) Information officer, stated: 'The jet pilots are, and have been under orders to investigate unidentified objects and to shoot them down if they can't talk them down.'"
Hence, the overwhelming amount of non-communicating UFOs sighted over, and going down, in the United States, just on September 12, 1952! There are "...other, and more lurid battles" Ed Ruppelt, the PBB Chief of the moment, would later write.
By using information Feschino had laboriously extracted from first
Project Blue Book documents, newspaper articles, magazine pieces, past research materials, and his own first-hand eyewitness interviews (many of those videotaped), he then plotted all the points of the UFO sightings, landing areas, and crash sites onto his "Master Map." Then!
Then, he was able to connect the dots; recreate a cohesive timeline of events.
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| A plethora of UFOs in just 21 hours! |
This established the foundation for the story-line of Feschino's book, wholly disproving and discounting the Project Blue Book "single fireball meteor" explanation and its convoluted story-line of events, exposed after all these years, by... who was that again?
Now, all that said, let's take a moment and go back to July 29 of 1952 and talk about a most interesting follow-up statement, regarding all this "Shoot Down" foolishness. It was made by Robert Farnsworth, President of the United States Rocket Society. It was sent immediately after the flying-saucer-shoot-down-orders were publicly revealed. Seems someone could think beyond the auspices of the hindbrain and reptile gonads!
Mr. Farnsworth sent telegrams to President Harry Truman, Robert Lovett, the Secretary of Defense, Frank Pace, Jr., the Secretary of the Army, and Daniel Kimball, Secretary of the Navy, in regards to the shooting down flying saucers. On July 30, 1952, The Louisville Courier reported the following in an article: "Don't Shoot Them Down, Rocket Man Says"...
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| "...Other and more lurid Duels of Death!" |
"I respectfully suggest that no offensive action be taken against the objects reported as unidentified, which have been sighted over our nation. Should they be extraterrestrial - such action might result in the gravest consequences, as well as possibly alienating us from beings of superior power. Friendly contact should be sought as long as possible."
In other words, "Guys! If they can get here, they can kick our ass!"
Farnsworth's telegram to these officials could have been taken more seriously! On the night of September 12, 1952, the United States military shot down four UFOs just off the east coast of the United States.
Subsequently, these damaged objects all headed inland and crash-landed within the United States. Feschino also discovered and documented the locations where these four objects made repeated crash-landings for a combined total of thirteen locations in three different states. Facts will get... more... quarrelous.
One of those damaged objects passed west over Washington, D.C. in flames and eventually landed on a hilltop in Flatwoods, West Virginia at about 7:25 pm. Shortly after, a nearly 12-foot-tall metallic-like "hovercraft structure" emerged from the downed object and encountered a group of curious locals, our Flatwoods residents. This huge being became known as the "Flatwoods Monster" aka. the "Braxton County Monster," and it's the end of the story. It is not the story in and of itself.
That story is the audit trail on the evidentiary pathway to a forgotten airwar with ET. No apologies.
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| It was a mechanism! |
OK, what about all of the other 100 plus locations where various other UFOs were seen passing over different States, in reported distress, and making landings on September 12, 1952? Well, not to give too much of Feschino's research away without reading his book, but the downing of those four UFOs conceivably triggered a mass search and rescue mission at two different locations within West Virginia to extract their fellows it is asserted; one in central West Virginia and the other in the northern panhandle region!
Seems the "opposition extraterrestrial" took care of its own and attempted to leave no fellow ET behind! Well reader, actually, there was one ET perhaps left behind and found by civilians in northern West Virginia before it could be retrieved!
Remember that other flaming object that the Akron Astronomy Club saw and those other eight UFO landings I told you about earlier!!! Those eight UFOs TOUCHING down looked just like it was part of a search and rescue mission to find one of their own stranded in the West Virginia northern panhandle area. It resembles all that to this old combat aviator!
The Columbus Citizen of September called it something else though in the headline of their September 13, 1952 newspaper,
"FIREBALLS SHOWER CITY AREA - Meteor Fall Blamed As Cause of Scare."
There you have it reader, now the scuttle-butt and skinny was an isolated "Fireball Shower" and not a single meteor!!! Yet, The Boston Globe was a lot closer to the truth in their reportage of this isolated incident... from a "PITTSBURGH - September 13 (UP) dateline, they reported the descending and landing objects as:
Four States "Bombarded" by Meteor-Like Objects
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| Only... where were the craters? |
Remember, folks. This writer will have no apologies.
NEXT: Through the Keyhoe. Persistence of vision. A treatment for the elements of a true story.
