WEBVTT 1 00:00:16.839 --> 00:00:22.879 The first scientific UFO field study by Charles Lear. UFOs were big news in 2 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:28.079 nineteen seventy three. Besides the Pascogal and coin incidents, there were flaps all 3 00:00:28.120 --> 00:00:32.640 over the United States. One in Piedmont, Missouri got started that year in 4 00:00:32.719 --> 00:00:39.079 late February with UFO reports involving cars stalling and radio interference. These caught the 5 00:00:39.079 --> 00:00:43.920 attention of a physics professor, Harley D. Rutledge, who was chairman of 6 00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:51.000 that department at Southeast Missouri State University at Cape Girardo. Rutledge became fascinated to 7 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:55.840 the point that he put together an investigation team of scientists, arranged funding, 8 00:00:56.240 --> 00:01:00.560 and ended up spending more than seven years observing unexplained lif lights while collecting data 9 00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:06.280 and photographs. In late nineteen seventy three, he gave a presentation of what 10 00:01:06.359 --> 00:01:10.400 he and the group had gathered up to that point at the fall meeting attended 11 00:01:10.439 --> 00:01:15.200 by John Schusler the mutual ufone network of the Missouri Section of the American Association 12 00:01:15.319 --> 00:01:22.879 of Physics Teachers. Rutledge finally published a book describing the investigation, titled Project 13 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:29.319 Identification, the First Scientific Field Study of UFO Phenomena. In nineteen eighty one. 14 00:01:29.640 --> 00:01:34.599 According to Rutledge, a citing report by beloved Clearwater High School basketball coach 15 00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:40.000 Reggie Boone and five of his players put Piedmont on the map when it was 16 00:01:40.040 --> 00:01:44.959 picked up by media worldwide. In the March sixth, nineteen seventy three Saint 17 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:49.640 Louis Globe Democrat, there is an article by Joseph T. Gallagher headlined Shy 18 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:56.400 but friendly sky visitor haunts Brushy Creek area that tells the story of a shy 19 00:01:56.480 --> 00:02:02.319 but friendly unidentified flying object that follows automobiles that has been spotted by at least 20 00:02:02.319 --> 00:02:08.360 a dozen residents of Piedmont, Missouri. Gallagher explains that the UFO was considered 21 00:02:08.599 --> 00:02:15.360 shy because it took off whenever anyone tried to get close, and friendly because 22 00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:17.759 it lit up the road in front of cars driving at night. The sighting 23 00:02:17.800 --> 00:02:23.120 by Bone and the boys, described here as two assistant team managers and three 24 00:02:23.159 --> 00:02:29.560 players, is said to have been the first and details follow summoned quotes from 25 00:02:29.639 --> 00:02:34.560 Bone. According to Gallagher, Bone was driving the school's driver's edd car on 26 00:02:34.840 --> 00:02:38.520 U S sixty when he and the boys saw a bright shaft of light beaming 27 00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:43.560 down out of the sky. They turned on the Route forty nine near Brushy 28 00:02:43.599 --> 00:02:46.319 Creek, and one of the boys exclaimed, there's that thing we saw back 29 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:51.719 on Highway sixty. Bone pulled over to the shoulder, and according to him, 30 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:55.280 they saw an object two hundred yards away that was hovering fifty feet above 31 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:59.800 the ground. He said it was too dark to determine its shape. Where 32 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:04.120 some and he described what they could see this way, We all saw four 33 00:03:04.199 --> 00:03:08.120 lights like maybe coming from portholes, red, green, amber, and white. 34 00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:12.680 We figured they were about three or four feet apart, all in a 35 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:16.680 row. At the beginning of this book, Rutledge describes reports of car engines 36 00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:23.360 stalling, car radios turning off, television signals being interfered with police radio's not 37 00:03:23.479 --> 00:03:29.319 working, and even a radio transmitter being knocked out when mysterious lights were seen. 38 00:03:29.800 --> 00:03:34.439 According to him, there were even reports of flying saucers, of objects 39 00:03:34.439 --> 00:03:38.800 sitting on the ground in fields, and of objects moving under water in Clearwater 40 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:44.360 Lake. The Clearwater Lake incident is reported in the article by Charles j. 41 00:03:44.520 --> 00:03:49.560 Oswald headlined it came out of a lake in the March twenty third, nineteen 42 00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:54.280 seventy three Saint Louis Globe Democrat. According to Oswald, Gene Coleman, and 43 00:03:54.479 --> 00:04:00.000 Kathy Leech reported that as they were driving across Clearwater Dam, the water glowed 44 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:05.240 red as an object surfaced and then rose up into the air and took off. 45 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:11.199 They are said to have told authorities that it turned from red to multi 46 00:04:11.240 --> 00:04:15.319 colored, spinning white, green, red, and amber lights before it disappeared. 47 00:04:15.879 --> 00:04:20.959 Rutledge describes there being a great deal of public excitement and that hundreds of 48 00:04:21.079 --> 00:04:27.319 cars lined the roads in the nightly rituals sky watching. Rather than getting upset, 49 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:31.279 public officials seemed pleased with the effect it was having on the local economy. 50 00:04:31.720 --> 00:04:36.839 He quotes Mayor Roy Anderson saying we're a resort town and if people come 51 00:04:36.879 --> 00:04:42.920 here, they leave some money here. According to Rutledge, a message was 52 00:04:42.959 --> 00:04:46.600 put up on the Marquee in front of the Wall Trip Motel saying welcome UFO 53 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:53.439 people on one side and Piedmont is UFO headquarters on the other. This is 54 00:04:53.480 --> 00:04:58.199 the sign. J Ellen Heinek, a former scientific consultant for Project Blue Book 55 00:04:58.439 --> 00:05:01.720 and founder of the Center for UFO Studies, is seen in front of in 56 00:05:01.759 --> 00:05:09.000 a picture taken by his friend Missouri. UFO researcher Ted Phillips Rutlich describes Heineck 57 00:05:09.079 --> 00:05:14.720 as not very impressed after being invited by state Representative Jerry T. Howard. 58 00:05:15.079 --> 00:05:18.959 According to Rutledge, once he decided to go to Piedmont to investigate, he 59 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:25.879 wisely got colleagues from the physics department involved, as well as an astronomy instructor, 60 00:05:26.199 --> 00:05:30.000 Milton Euelecki, with whom he went for an initial look. He says 61 00:05:30.040 --> 00:05:35.000 that as a courtesy, he wrote a letter to university president Mark Scully informing 62 00:05:35.079 --> 00:05:41.120 him of his intentions. Rutlich says he and Ulecki, along with their wives, 63 00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:45.639 arrived at Piedmont on April sixth, and that very night, equipped with 64 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:49.600 a Questard telescope set up on a concrete slab on Pile's Mountain, managed to 65 00:05:49.639 --> 00:05:56.000 collect data on five sidings in the sky around them of a light or lights 66 00:05:56.319 --> 00:06:01.279 that appeared and disappeared in different positions. Rutlige tells the reader that after sightings 67 00:06:01.279 --> 00:06:06.800 the following night and the weekend afterward, with more colleagues present, he decided 68 00:06:06.839 --> 00:06:13.639 to come to Piedmont every weekend to initiate a formal investigation, and that the 69 00:06:13.720 --> 00:06:18.959 opportunity for a scientific study was obvious because the flying objects were appearing frequently near 70 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:24.519 a given place. Rutledge says he put together a team and chose the name 71 00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:30.839 Project Identification for the group because of the second of the studies two major objectives, 72 00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:35.120 which were to measure the physical properties of the lights and or objects in 73 00:06:35.160 --> 00:06:41.480 the sky and to identify their origin. According to him, he sought funding 74 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:46.000 by writing to three major metropolitan Missouri newspapers and got a response from the editor 75 00:06:46.279 --> 00:06:50.480 of the Saint Louis Clobe Democrat, who agreed to finance the study with the 76 00:06:50.600 --> 00:06:57.439 understanding that while the results would eventually be reported to the scientific community, all 77 00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:03.199 current releases of the group's finding would be through the Globe Democrat exclusively. Rutledge's 78 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:10.079 account of the group's observations and interactions with the phenomena reads very much like John 79 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:15.759 Keel's first hand accounts in The Mothman Prophecies and other works, and Ruttledge cites 80 00:07:15.839 --> 00:07:19.959 Keel's Operation Trojan Horse. At the end of chapters eighteen and twenty. He 81 00:07:20.040 --> 00:07:25.920 reports seeing mostly lights, but also at one point a bullet shaped object. 82 00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:30.439 Like Keel, he observed that the lights seemed to respond to the actions of 83 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:33.920 him in the other group members in ways such as changing direction when observed, 84 00:07:34.399 --> 00:07:40.519 or, in one instance, disappearing the moment Rutledge pressed a microphone switch to 85 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:45.720 notify a team member of its presence. He labeled such moments as coincidences, 86 00:07:46.199 --> 00:07:50.439 encountered at least eighty and says there were possibly twenty more. One aspect of 87 00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:57.199 the phenomena they encountered were what Rutledge termed pseudo stars. He describes these as 88 00:07:57.319 --> 00:08:01.040 lights that shone with the same brightness as regular stars, but could be recognized 89 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:05.439 when they were observed in constellations in a position where no stars should have been. 90 00:08:05.959 --> 00:08:09.600 In one instance of a coincidence, on page one O four, he 91 00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:16.000 describes one starting to move the instant he began shooting a fifteen second exposure using 92 00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:20.639 a Pentax camera. Rutledge in the team collected an extensive amount of data, 93 00:08:20.920 --> 00:08:24.199 and he presents much of it in the book in the forms of charts, 94 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:28.759 graphs, illustrations, and photos. According to him, there were one hundred 95 00:08:28.759 --> 00:08:35.279 and fifty seven total project sightings, the majority of which fifty four were off 96 00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:39.840 white, followed by amber thirty and orange twenty seven. Looking at the period 97 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:45.960 from April sixth, nineteen seventy three to April sixth, nineteen seventy four, 98 00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:50.440 the majority of the sightings twenty nine or on Thursday nights, which contradicts Skill's 99 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:54.840 observation that the majority of sightings are on Wednesday nights. At the end of 100 00:08:54.840 --> 00:09:01.399 the book, he makes this conclusion without doubt. Our research has established that 101 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:05.000 there is a UFO phenomenon, and we have conjectured about the nature of the 102 00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:11.360 intelligence behind the capricious UFOs. I suspect that their game is to gradually create 103 00:09:11.480 --> 00:09:18.240 general acceptance. By repeated appearances. More UFO flaps will occur from location to 104 00:09:18.320 --> 00:09:24.000 location, winning converts more people will believe in UFOs. He closes with this 105 00:09:24.120 --> 00:09:28.080 bit of optimism. If we are to learn their secrets, they must be 106 00:09:28.120 --> 00:09:35.320 studied scientifically with instruments. When we understand them on a technical, scientific basis, 107 00:09:35.559 --> 00:09:39.360 When most of the world's inhabitants accept the reality of UFOs, then we 108 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:43.480 will meet them face to face, and then we will know their mission. 109 00:09:43.960 --> 00:09:48.039 Over fifty years after the beginning of the flap, on July sixth, two 110 00:09:48.120 --> 00:09:54.120 thousand twenty three, the Missouri General Assembly passed a bill designating Piedmont and Wayne 111 00:09:54.120 --> 00:10:00.720 County as the UFO capitals of Missouri. According to the official website of Missouri 112 00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:05.200 Secretary of State John Ashcroft. The purpose of the bill, according to its 113 00:10:05.200 --> 00:10:11.879 sponsor, Representative Chris Dinkins, was to increase tourism. Rutledge Project identification and 114 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:18.159 the book are mentioned. Charles Lear is the author of Crashed Saucers and Malevolent 115 00:10:18.240 --> 00:10:37.960 Aliens, available at Amazon dot com.