Hello and welcome to the podcast.
This is UFO warning today, I'd like to talk a little bit about
series of UFO. Sightings that took place in
March of 1966, and the southern part of Michigan.
These sightings are a little bit unique because they caused such
a stir that a man named Gerald Ford who happen to be the
representative to congress at that time.
Put in a request that the Air Force, do a serious
investigation of These sightings.
And yes, that is the same journal for that later went on
to become president upon the resignation of Richard Nixon.
So, what had happened was in the last half of the month of March
of 1966 there in Michigan, around the arm that around the
Ann Arbor area and further west of there and South, there have
been a series of UFO. Sightings now, probably the most
famous sighting was by a gentleman named Frank mannor,
mr. Manner had.
Of his house that day. According to him, with his son
and they looked out across the swamp and there, they saw a
Europe, a UFO, clear as day described it.
As saucer-shaped says it has flashing multicolored lights to
go all the way around it. And if you're familiar with,
make sure, you know that Michigan, the state of Michigan
lies between two of the Great Lakes on either side on the east
side, you have like here on on the West Side, you have like
Michigan and then to the north, you have Lake Superior that.
Connects into Lake Huron and a lot of Michigan is over the flat
area and there's a lot of swamp land in Michigan with the ground
is at a low level and it just stays wet all the time and
especially so back in 1966. So realistically if you were
trying to hide a deep State spaceship, or if you were an off
Planet spaceship or whatever Michigan Michigan, would have
been a great place just to chill out for a while because there
were plenty of places. Or people just couldn't get to.
So anyway, mr. Manner, observes, this UFO.
And he's just dumbfounded. He reports the UFO and a lot of
other people see it because this UFOs hanging out there for like
four hours. Now that happened on I believe
March 22nd of 1966, but there were other sightings, in fact,
there was a sighting in which a 40 individuals of which 12 or
law enforcement officer also sighted a UFO.
And many of these people reported the UFO Oh, is
football-shaped also, I believe, with the flashing lights, they
also reported their accounts. And then thirdly, I also found
accounts of where multiple sightings, but people, you know,
in groups seeing a pyramid shaped UFO.
So it's hard to say if these were three different types of
UFOs or possibly, it was the same object or phenomena that
was just changing shapes or appearing to change, shapes to
each group of witnesses. Is at any rate multiple reports
from a to the to the Air Force and they really didn't do
anything and people became so upset and so agitated and
irritated from getting the cold shoulder that they began to
contact. Joel fours office, not Gerald,
Ford Gerald, Ford was the congressman from Michigan at the
time and that's the same Gerald Ford that went on to become
president of the United States after Nixon's resignation and
there is a link you can find to the Gerald Ford Museum and its
you can download or read his report that he filed and it's
very interesting. Mr. Ford filed a request with
the Air Force asking for a serious investigation of these
UFO sightings and it's quite clear from his request that he's
a little agitated that his constituents have not been taken
seriously. And this is In 66 the cold war
is going on. And a lot of these people were
just Patriots that thought maybe, hey, this is a Russian,
some kind of Russian aircraft that's up here.
Snooping around, you know, you've got the Great Lakes Naval
Training Academy up there is Air Forces base, navy base.
So, there's a lot of stuff around that, you know, that that
an enemy would be interested in checking out.
And most of these people were probably just patriotic folks
who wanted The Air Force to do their job and investigate what
they had seen and they weren't doing it.
So, mr. Ford files, the paperwork to get
investigation and sure enough, the Air Force does send out a
team headed by Allen hynek J Allen hynek the famous UFO
investigator and this is where things get a little bit
unseemly. Mr. Heinrich does talk to some
people and they spend some time they're going through
testimonies and doing all the normal measurements and and And
an investigation. And if I the time he'd gotten
done there had been quite a bit of talk about this.
The paper mr. Frank mannor, who I had
mentioned before, been investigated our had been
interviewed by the newspapers and made his reports.
So hike finishes investigation up and everybody wants to know,
well, what what is it, and the sheriff or the local County and
you have to go to the link on this because I can't Think of
his name on top my head but he reports that hiney told him that
he didn't know what it was. He didn't know what it was
anymore than anybody else. Did J Allen hynek was a really
really smart guy. I mean this guy's, he's a
straight-up scientist. He's if he says he doesn't know
what it is, well maybe he doesn't but he also knows he has
to know how could he not know that it wasn't what he claimed,
it was the next day because the next day, he has a press
conference Is that the Air Force puts together?
And he claims that what people saw was swamp gas?
I've been to Michigan many times and I've never seen swamp gas,
but Mr. Rai, he throws this convoluted X explanation
together. That just basically de rides,
everybody, that reported seeing these UFOs and that angered a
lot of people and it really harm the reputation of mr.
Honey. Because these Ain't just a bunch
of hicks that spotted. This UFO.
These were just yes, some of them were salt-of-the-earth
people, but a lot of them were law enforcement.
In fact, one of the individuals that that that made a report of
the Society of one of the sightings was the local federal
employee that was their, their FEMA guy back.
Then you would call him. He was the guy that was supposed
to report to the federal government.
If anything, out of the ordinary occurred, you know, this is the
Cold War, so your guy on the ground for the federal
government Hey, I saw a UFO and Honey comes along and says no,
you saw swamp gas, there was quite a bit of disbelief at
hiding explanation. And that was probably the start
of where the UFO Community. Just decided that the government
was not going to be honest. With them about the UFO
phenomenon. They weren't going to disclose
anything. And in fact, they made every
effort on their part to minimize and misdirection.
Act what it actually happen. In fact, Frank mannor can be
seen an interview. He got so upset.
I mean he was really defamed over this and he said that if
you had it to do over again, he would never even report that he
saw a UFO. And to my mind that's probably
the most unseemly thing that happened out of all of this.
You had front, you had jln, hi, a reputable scientist who was
making and I'm sure a pretty good living working for the Air
Force. Debunking you Oh sightings and
he has all this Authority behind him.
And then you take a simple man, like Frank mannor just a
working-class stiff who gives an honest representation of what he
saw and as a result. Mr. Hynek does everything in his
power and one press conference to destroy this man's reputation
to put him off. Like he's some kind of an idiot
or a fool or just an attention seeker.
And that's really, really unfortunate.
So even though hi Ike went on later on in his life to found a
UFO research organization. And to say, yeah, I do believe
that the UFO phenomena exist. When I look back at the case in
1966, the Ann Arbor Michigan case of the of the multiple Mass
sightings and I see how he allowed himself to be used,
basically as a troll for the government, it is very troubling
and I think it just reminds us that that, when it comes down to
judging the phenomenon of UFOs, we shouldn't let an appeal to
Authority. Be what, what helps us make up
our mind? We have to, we have to judge the
evidence for Our self and make up our own minds.
And because like a lot of these people in Michigan, at that time
that saw this UFO, they were just minimize.
And pushed aside, in fact that quick aside, before I cut off
here, A friend of mine that was living Michigan.
Many, many years ago, we were talking and somehow got the
subject and she in fact told me that her and daughter and her
actually had seen a UFO about the same time as this happened.
And she described as a large, disc-shaped UFO of UFO.
With flashing lights and this woman, you know, was a credible
witness of my mind a devout Lutheran gal who had never had
bouts with mental illness and I have to take her at her word,
whatever. They saw was real, even though I
can't explain it and she described it to me the same way,
the same exact way. Mr. Manor has described it a
little larger. Maybe but she's like, well they
they were driving along and they could look at it over the swamp.
And there it was just sitting there.
Lights flashing. Not making a move.
And she didn't know what it was. But like, a lot of these people,
she was just a normal salt of the earth person that had no
belief in UFOs whatsoever until the day that she actually saw
one. And that's the way it is with
the law these people. Well, that's it for now, over
and out. You have a warning.