Mike Wilson: Helen suggested I forward this to you for posting to your IWAR group. I would love to hear comments from your group. KK kkastenat_private ---------- From: Kasten, Kathy Subject: The Roswell Report: Case Closed/The Official Report Date: Tuesday, January 20, 1998 8:16PM I realize this commentary might seem a bit anticlimactic, but now that the dust has settled surrounding the above referenced report I think it is time to look at its contents objectively. Please let me preface this commentary with a remark I once made to Don Schmitt, I think it was while riding around Roswell getting "the tour" or in the motel parking lot. I said something to the effect, "someday they are going to tell the truth and nobody will believe them." The back lash from so-called "UFO researchers/investigators" with comments such as "they ought to be ashamed of themselves - dummies, indeed." This over looks the fact that the document provides an early history of aerospace flight and the heroic efforts of some of the personnel involved. For those efforts, the Air Force should be commended. Additionally, Captain James McAndrew, Intelligence Applications Officer who was assigned to the Secretary of the Air Force Declassification and Review Team, showed everybody how to do a comprehensive report of this nature. Albeit, the rest of us do not have the resources of the American government to assist us, but the report showed me that when our government puts its mind to something - that something gets accomplished. As a sidebar, I found this reassuring. It does work when it wants to. It is obvious that Captain McAndrew was only allowing discussion of declassified material; witness the very brief discussion of the Surveyor, Voyager-Mars, Viking, Pioneer, and Galileo pre-flight missions. My co-worker across the hall from me at UCLA once worked in the aerospace industry in Northern California; his job was as part of the team testing rocket engines. He looked in fascination at the photographs on pages 44-45 and 52-53, and must have imagined how what he did fitted together with what was shown. As my co-worker stated, "the rest is none of our business." I agree. However, the report did provide enough of the curve to fill out the arc. So, yes, there is a "cover up", if you wish to call it that, but it seems to involve advance technology invented by - dare I say it - humans. For those who state, "well, if we have all this advanced technology why aren't we using it." My answer is "we are!" Check the skies, and instead of assuming it is extraterrestrial why not look for supporting documentation, if it is available, or extrapolate from current/prosaic knowledge before jumping into the wild blue yonder. I have never understood the necessity to invent an answer when there are perfectly good ones available at hand. Applying a perfectly good answer from the documentation at hand appears to the method utilized for the report by the Air Force. They stated in their "research methods" at beginning what they were going to focus on, and they did satisfied all points of discussion. I must add one caveat though, the focus of the report clearly utilized only Air Force material/documentation. That fact will require that I contact Captain McAndrew to discover whether his team found leads to other types of events/research/ experiments taking place in New Mexico by other military/private agencies during the late 40s and early 50s. There still remain pieces of some type of experiment on the top of Fort Stanton Mesa, and there appears to have been a high death rate at the Fort Stanton Mesa Hospital during those years. The medical records I could have researched have been moved to Los Alamos, and may still be available to the public. Also, on top of the Mesa, there is that huge pile of dirt and a couple of buildings I need to account for in my own mind. I was especially impressed that not only did the Air Force team find the "missing nurse", but "Slatts and "Wilson." Research above and beyond the call of duty. They were also able to track down the "pediatrician." Pointing to the fact that Glenn Dennis' testimony appears to be a mixture of several memories and a leap of his imagination (Kevin Randall in private e-mail to me stated that Dennis' testimony was now being discounted). A lesson to us all to keep copious notes and physical evidence just in case years down the road we need to answer some questions/fill in some gaps? Was really surprised me was that Dr. J. Allen Hynek interacted with "the red-headed Captain" (Capt. Joseph W. Kittinger, Jr. of project "Stargazer" high altitude balloon flight); knew him in fact for a period of years. Captain Kittinger stated that he and Dr. Hynek had discussed UFOS at length during their association between 1958 to 1963. Kittinger claimed that Hynek was steadfast in his opinion that most, if not all, UFO sightings could be resolved by applying known scientific analysis. Kittinger said he was "flabbergasted" when, years later, Hynek appeared to reverse his opinion and endorsed extraterrestrial explanations. The Air Force then makes the rather unkind statement that "Hynek's reversal in philosophies led to numerous commercial endeavors, most notably as a technical advisor for the science-fiction film 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind.'" Further, I thought the issue of the "bodies" was dealt with very well. The technique of quoting the witnesses themselves, searching for the link and then presenting the best solution based on the facts. This is the scientific method, and one recommended in the concluding remarks of a book called "UFOs: The Scientific Debate." The linking of documentation of when, where and methods of the Excelsior and High Man projects with dates, locations and equipment was very effective, and convinced me of another more viable explanation to "Roswell" than "aliens from outer space." The very photographs derided by the so-called "UFO researchers/investigators" had my nodding my head and stating, "yeah, I can see the similarity; I can understand why a witness stated what they stated; no problem." I thought this part of the report some of the best detective work, and imagined the hours and miles that must have been spent retrieving this information. Lastly, to point up the final statements of the Air Force report regarding that " fact is indeed stranger, and often much more fascinating, than fiction" plus that "defending a nation is a dangerous profession", there is a report I myself bear witness to. That is, the so-called Long Island crash of 1991. The mystery as to what had happened during the last week in November of 1991 ended for me in August of 1995 when my co-worker from across the hall returned from his high school reunion in Stockton, California. He did not know the story of the Long Island crash and that I was a witness to it before he related that he was proud to have known a classmate who had died during the testing of an advance aircraft in exactly that place and on exactly the same date. What was more important to my co-worker was that the pilot had been one of the first African American test pilots in the United States. Just think, this pilot's heroic flight is now ascribed to "aliens." It is quite apparent that the Air Force personnel felt some of the same sting went their extraordinary history is being ascribed to "aliens." Me, I would rather give the credit to the African-American flight test pilot than to "aliens." I would rather give credit to the personnel of High Man and Excelsior who lost their lives and tested their endurance, than give credit to "aliens." I wonder what this says about us as humans; this need for denial of the truth? This need to ascribe everything that is the best in us to "aliens." KK kkastenat_private
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