UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

Albert K. Bender

On March 29, 2016, Albert Bender died at the age of 94. Most people with an interest in UFOs will know of Bender’s name. He was the man who thrust the Men in Black – and the mystery surrounding them – into the public domain in the 1950s. Bender was not the first person to encounter one of the creepy MIB, but there’s no denying it was thanks to him that the enigmatic issue became known widely. When the “modern era” of Ufology kicked off in June 1947 – thanks to the famous encounter of Kenneth Arnold at Mt. Rainier on the 24^th of the month – it prompted numerous people to get involved in the study of the phenomenon. One of those was Albert Bender.

A resident of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Bender was not just a devotee of all-things ufological. He was also heavily involved in – and interested in – all manner of paranormal, supernatural, and occult phenomena. He even converted his attic-based abode into what he termed his “Chamber of Horrors.” It was a dark and foreboding place filled with paintings of demons, witches, ghosts, and more – even an “altar,” one that was designed to summon up who knows what from who knows where.

As Bender’s interest in UFOs expanded, he established his own journal – Space Review – which attracted a sizeable, worldwide audience. And he created his own group too, the International Flying Saucer Bureau (IFSB). It wasn’t long, however, before things began to go wrong for Bender. As in very wrong. Quite out of the blue, in 1953, Bender quit Ufology. He closed down the IFSB, stopped producing Space Review, and walked away from UFOs. It might be more accurate to say he fled Ufology.

Gray Barker – an author and publisher on matters relative to UFOs – was an acquaintance of Bender and ultimately became a friend. When he learned that Bender’s exit from Ufology was prompted by a series of chilling, intimidating visits from a trio of ghoulish men dressed in black – and with nothing less than glowing eyes and sporting fedoras – Barker knew this was a story that had to be told. And it was: in Barker’s 1956 book, They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers. It should be noted, however, that Barker omitted most of the really weird material, preferring instead to imply that the MIB were from nothing stranger than “the government.” Then, six years later, Bender came briefly out of “retirement” to pen his own book on the eerie affair, Flying Saucers and the Three Men. After which, Bender left Ufology for good.

The purpose of this article is not to delve into all of the intricacies of the Bender controversy, but to demonstrate the incredible extent to which Bender’s account influenced the world of entertainment. Five years after Flying Saucers and the Three Men was published, ABC aired a short-lived, but well-remembered show called The Invaders. Running for just two seasons, The Invaders told the story of a man named David Vincent (actor Roy Thinnes) who finds himself caught up in a nightmarish battle against hostile aliens. In the show, the ETs are able to take on human form. The only things that give them away are their mutated little fingers. The show is filled with MIB imagery: the aliens on The Invaders often drive black cars (as do the real MIB), they wear dark suits and fedoras, they are very good at dishing out threats and intimidation, and they can control the human mind – something which has been reported in many MIB encounters. In other words, there’s very little doubt that the Bender saga had a major influence on how the brains behind The Invaders chose to present the alien menace. Not as bug-eyed little critters or as tentacle-waving monsters, but as emotionless men in suits.

The Invaders is hardly a solitary example of how the Men in Black have infected the world of on-screen entertainment. Indeed, there are many. Of course, the most visible and obvious example is the incredibly successful trilogy of Men in Blackmovies starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. In the movies, the primary characters are “J” and “K” (who were named after MIB pursuer and author John Keel, of The Mothman Propheciesfame). Whereas Bender’s MIB were clearly supernatural in nature, in the movies the Men in Black work for a super-secret agency. Nevertheless there’s no doubt that the Hollywood movies – based on Lowell Cunningham’s Men in Black comic-book series of the 1990s – was, to some degree, inspired by Bender’s experiences.

Then, there’s the equally popular and successful Matrix movies, starring Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Laurence Fishbourne. Those films, too, have their very own Men in Black. They’re known as “The Agents,” computer programs whose job it is to prevent anyone from getting close to the truth of the simulated world of the Matrix of the movies’ titles. The Agents are the Men in Black in all but name. They are emotionless and threatening, and they wear black suits and black sunglasses.

There are also “The Observers” from Fringe, a sci-fi-themed show that ran on Fox from 2008 to 2013. In the show, the Observers dress in dark suits, wear equally dark fedoras and skinny black ties, and have pale skin and emotionless faces and characters. Would they have even existed without Albert Bender’s widely publicized run-ins with the MIB? Probably not. At the very least, not in the form they appeared in the show.

Finally, we come to a 1998 movie that doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves. Its title: Dark City. Not unlike The Matrix in many respects, Dark City – which was released in 1998, one year before The Matrix surfaced – is an intriguing production. It stars Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connolly, Richard O’Brien, and William Hurt. As the title suggests, Dark City revolves around a city which exists in perpetual night. We get to meet the people who inhabit it, and we soon learn that the city is not what it appears to be. In fact, reality itself is not what it appears to be. Dark City, too, has its equivalents of Albert Bender’s threatening thugs from beyond. They’re called “The Strangers.” Long black coats and dark hats are their uniforms.

In my view, and based upon my lengthy studies of the MIB phenomenon, the Strangers of Dark City are the closest fictional things to the real Men in Black. Pale-faced, they surface only at night. Threatening and dangerous, they are mind-controllers and manipulators who exude menace. Indeed, Richard O’Brien’s portrayal of one of the anemic-looking Strangers is masterful. Again, the Albert Bender imagery and story are present for all to see.

Dark City, Men in Black, The Matrix, The Invaders, and Fringe – and more – all owe a debt of gratitude to Albert Bender. Had it not been for that strange and sinister series of encounters in Bender’s “Chamber of Horrors” in the early 1950s, it’s highly unlikely any of those shows and movies would have turned out the way they did.

On May 27 of this year I wrote an article here at Mysterious Universe titled “UFOs: When Governments Come Clean.” The article specifically focused on three incredible UFO incidents documented by the U.K.’s military in the 1950s. The point of the article was to demonstrate that, despite what more than a few UFO researches have said, government and military agencies do release official papers that pretty much confirm the existence of the UFO phenomenon. Not everything of a sensational nature is withheld. Today, with the above in mind, I thought: why not demonstrate how this situation applies to not just the U.K., but to the United States, too?

On more than a few occasions, I have heard people say words to the effect of, “Nothing of any significance, on UFOs, has ever surfaced under the terms of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.” Time and again, I have seen people in Ufology loudly proclaim that all of the “good” material is withheld by the alleged “Black Budget” or “Special Access Programs” that secretly oversee official research into UFOs.

Certainly, there’s no doubt in my mind that important material on the UFO phenomenon most assuredly is withheld from us. But, to maintain that nothing – or hardly anything – of an incredible nature has ever surfaced via FOIA is ridiculous. It’s a statement born, largely, out of overwhelming ignorance. So, I figured it’s time to present you with one, classic example that demonstrates how the Freedom of Information Act has proved to be very useful in securing extremely solid data on UFOs. We’re talking about a December 10, 1948 document which originated with the U.S. Air Force and which is titled “Analysis of Flying Objects in the US.”

Unlike so many official documents that have surfaced via FOIA, this one was originally classified Top Secret, which makes it an important and historic one. Indeed, the UFO records that have surfaced via FOIA are, at most, Secret in nature, with the majority of them having even lower levels of classification.

The USAF document stated that, “A number of reports of unidentified flying objects come from observers who, because of their technical background and experience, do not appear to be influenced by unfounded sensationalism nor inclined to report explainable phenomena as new types of airborne devices.” The Air Force continued that one report which particularly stood out occurred in April 1947. This was two months before Kenneth Arnold’s now-famous sighting of a squadron of unknown aircraft near Mount Rainier, at the Cascade Range. It was a sighting that spawned the term “flying saucer.”

The Air Force noted the following in its “Analysis of Flying Objects in the US” document: “During April 1947, two employees of the Weather Bureau Station at Richmond, Virginia, reported seeing a strange metallic disk on three occasions…One observation was at 15,000 feet when a disk was followed for 15 seconds. The disk appeared metallic, shaped like an ellipse with a flat bottom and a round top…The disk appeared to be moving rather rapidly, although it was impossible to estimate its speed.”

Then, there is the following from the USAF, which describes a notable encounter on June 28, 1947, just four days after Kenneth Arnold’s historic encounter. According to the Air Force, “While flying at 10,000 feet on a course of 300 degrees, 30 miles northwest of Lake Meade, Nevada, an Air Force lieutenant reported seeing five or six while circular objects in close formation and traveling at an estimated speed of 285 miles per hour.”

Less than twenty-four hours later, the Air Force documentation shows, “…a party of three, two of them scientists, were motoring along Highway 17 toward the White Sands, New Mexico, V-2 firing grounds and reported seeing a large disk or sphere moving horizontally at a high speed and an estimated altitude of 10,000 feet. It was of uniform shape and had no protruding surfaces such as wings. The object was in sight for about 60 seconds before it disappeared to the northeast. The three observers agreed on the details of the sighting except that one thought he had seen vapor trails.”

Then there are the events which occurred on July 7, also referenced in the Air Force documentation: “On 7 July 1947, five Portland, Oregon police officers reported varying numbers of disks flying over different parts of the city. All observations were made within a minute or two of 1305 hours. On the same day, William Rhoads of Phoenix, Arizona allegedly saw a disk circling his locality during sunset and took two photographs. The resulting pictures…show a disk-like object with a round front and a square tail in plan form. These photographs have been examined by experts who state they are true photographic images and do not appear to be imperfection in the emulsion or imperfections in the lens.”

And the reports just kept coming and coming: “On 10 July 1947, Mr. Woodruff, a Pan-American Airways mechanic reported a circular object flying at high velocity, paralleling the earth’s surface and leaving a trail which appeared as a ‘burning up’ of the cloud formation. The sighting occurred near Harmon Field, Newfoundland. Two other persons also saw the trail which remained in the sky for about an hour and was photographed by another PAA employee. The resulting photographs support Mr. Woodruff’’s observation as far as the sky cleavage is concerned.”

Moving into 1948, the Air Force noted no shortage of high-quality encounters involving military personnel in that year, too. One such case is written-up in the following fashion: “On 5 April 1948, three trained balloon observers from the Geophysics Laboratory Section, Watson Laboratories, N.J. reported seeing a round, indistinct object in the vicinity of Hollman Air Force Base, New Mexico. It was very high and fast, and appeared to execute violent maneuvers at high speed. The object was under observation for approximately 30 seconds and disappeared suddenly.”

In July 1948, there was an astonishing encounter involving no less than a dozen UFOs, all of significant size: “On 1 July 1948, twelve disks were reported over the Rapid City Air Base by Major Hammer. These disks were oval-shaped, about 100 feet long, flying at a speed estimated to be in excess of 500 mph. Descending from 10,000 feet, these disks made a 30-degree to 40-degree climbing turn accelerating very rapidly until out of sight.”

And the list of remarkable sightings – all of which were recorded in official, Top Secret documentation – continued. As the report shows, various theories were addressed to try and determine who, or what, was flying the UFOs. Theories addressed included domestic programs of the U.S. military and similar projects initiated by the Soviets, specifically in the field of radical aircraft design.

The Air Force’s conclusions: “Since the Air Force is responsible for control of the air in the defense of the U.S., it is imperative that all other agencies cooperate in confirming or denying the possibility that these objects have a domestic origin. Otherwise, if it is firmly indicated that there is no domestic explanation, the objects are a threat and warrant more active efforts of identification and interception…It must be accepted that some type of flying objects have been observed, although their identification and origin are not discernible. In the interest of national defense it would be unwise to overlook the possibility that some of these objects may be of foreign origin.”

In view of all the above, if you find yourself on the receiving end of claims that the FOIA is ineffectual when it comes to UFOs, refer them to the “Analysis of Flying Objects in the US” document.