MUFON: Peddling Nonsense or Unknowingly Ignorant?
Greetings. The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) was once a legitimate investigative organization. Back in the 1970's, the organization worked alongside, but not in cooperation with, the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) and the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP.) By the 1990's, MUFON was the only game left in town, with APRO and NICAP having passed into UFO history. In recent years, the organization's focus has shifted away from UFO investigations towards the UFO entertainment industry and the nonsensical content it embraces.
The organization has experienced several setbacks in recent years, self-inflicted wounds that tended to occur at the upper echelons of the organization, with the names Jan Harzan, John Ventre, and Steve Hudgeons immediately coming to mind. Despite this situation, there are several local chapters that have maintained a level of investigative focus and legitimacy, keeping the chaos of the higher organization at arm's length. Their efforts are deserving of our respect and accolades. Unfortunately, their efforts are becoming increasingly rare in today's MUFON.
Just last week, the San Antonio chapter of MUFON made a post on their Facebook page that embraced the so-called Trinity UFO crash case. The Trinity case has been proven to be a hoax by multiple independent researchers, with the case being void of any physical evidence, valid documentation, or accurate and truthful testimony. Nevertheless, the chapter advocated for the validity of the case, a preposterous position to take.
James Clarkson, a former State Director for MUFON, left behind the following comment on the posting, a thoughtful and straightforward observation, which I quote here, with permission: "On July 17, 2016 I submitted a report to the Director of the Special Assignments Team working directly under MUFON ID Jan Harzan about the claims made by Paola Harris related to the alleged 1945 Trinity Crash. She had asked the SAT to investigate her claim that genetically altered plants had been planted at the crash site to deter future investigators. These plants turned out to be jimsonweed weed and cockle burr. The alleged artifact, claimed to have been recovered from a crash ET vehicle is in fact, a cast aluminum replacement part for a windmill to pump water for cattle. Douglas Dean Johnson on his MIRADOR website has published a lengthy series of highly detailed articles proving that the TRINITY is a HOAX. Reme Baca invented the story to make money. Jose Padilla by claiming to be a wounded veteran from Korea and a wounded career California Highway Patrol Officer, is involved in stolen glory, claiming heroic service that he never earned. Paola Harris' interview of the witnesses is a textbook example of confirmation bias at an extreme level. This case is an abomination and serves the interests of those Government Secret Keepers who want to keep us away from Roswell and other key UFO-related events.
I spent 30 years in MUFON, and the last 10 as a State Director. I also spent 30 years in various kinds of criminal investigation. I can assure you that an interview where you believe everything that someone tells you when there is no evidence to back it up, is not a credible interview. See https://douglasjohnson.ghost.io/author/douglasjohnson/ for details. I will be glad to provide further documents as to why I am absolutely convinced the TRINITY CASE is a massive collection of lies.
Sincerely,
James E Clarkson"
Kevin D. Randle has conducted some thorough research on the Trinity case, with the following links originally from his blogspot "A Different Perspective."
http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-smoking-gun-proving-trinity-tale-is.html?m=1
http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2023/01/trinity-ufo-crash-uaps-and-jacques.html?m=1
http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-truth-about-vallees-trinity-best.html?m=1
Conclusion? Hoax. Kevin's dispassionate work is worthy of examination and consideration.
Douglas Dean Johnson has also conducted some meticulous research work on the Trinity case, with the following links as follows:
https://douglasjohnson.ghost.io/crash-story-the-trinity-ufo-crash-hoax/
https://douglasjohnson.ghost.io/crash-story-file-the-sources-of-the-trinity-tale/
https://douglasjohnson.ghost.io/crash-story-file-the-reme-baca-smoking-gun-interview/
https://douglasjohnson.ghost.io/crash-story-file-the-alien-artifact-with-metric-dimensions/?fbclid
Conclusion? Hoax. Mr. Johnson's thorough research work is also worthy of examination and consideration.
The following observations need to be made after this long and meandering blog posting:
1. MUFON San Antonio may be unknowingly providing misinformation to it's members.
2. MUFON San Antonio does not concern itself with checking the validity of what they post on their platform, otherwise this entire situation would not have transpired.
3. The leadership of MUFON San Antonio may be too ignorant of the UFO issue to be able to provide accurate information to it's members, which speaks volumes about their lack of overall knowledge of the UFO issue.
4. Ken Jordan, the Texas State Director for MUFON, Tater Baker, the Executive Coordinator for MUFON in Texas, and Roy F. Schauffele, the Section Director of Region V in Texas, and a certified field investigator, are directly responsible for this situation, for they are the "leadership" in question.
This entire situation demonstrates why the Mutual UFO Network is a complete mess, not a legitimate investigative organization, but a part of the UFO entertainment industry, providing misinformation and fake content along the way to whomever will listen, and whomever will pay their membership dues too.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Well said!
ReplyDeleteThat's the thing about these hoaxes...they must be so irritatingly time consuming for the serious ufologists. Notice that it's the ufologists who tend to slay the hoaxes and not the debunkers. Good examples being this Trinity UFO story and the Roswell slides debacle. We're very fortunate to have the likes of Kevin Randle and Douglas Johnson, who look over these cases with an open but sceptical mind.
ReplyDeleteI posted anonymously by accident!
DeleteNot to worry, I greatly appreciate your thoughts on the matter. I agree with your take Sir.
DeleteThank you, William. I'm going to enjoy reading your blog. I read the recent book about the Trinity incident, and I must say it is very disappointing that it has been so thoroughly debunked. I am even more disheartened that Jacques Vallee was attached to that book. Do you know if he has come out publicly to comment on his involvement? I thought he was one of the "good guys" all along.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your interest and support, I greatly appreciate it Sir. Mr. Vallee has doubled-down on the case, which is mind-boggling to say the least. Very disappointing.
DeleteI'm disappointed with Vallee, too. We all know he has been a brilliant contributor to UFOlogy for decades. I can only imagine it's an age thing and it's sad that he seems not to realise that by putting his name to this can, very much, damage his legacy.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely Sir!
DeleteThank you for creating this blog! First, I'm disappointed that Google is lame and is forcing me to comment anonymously, even though I'm logged into blogger. Second, I can't comment about Vallee with any degree of authority, but when my wife and I met him at Paola's conference in 2021, he seemed detached and far from the powerhouse he was in his youth and middle years. Further, in all honesty, Paola struck us both as being on the huckster fringe of UFO "research", and this appraisal has been reinforced by some of her more recent endeavors. Frankly, because USGOV has invested so heavily in UFO disinformation over the last 70+ years, it's hard to separate honest testimony and evaluation from nonsense.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments on the matter. I agree with your assessments about Mr. Vallee and Ms. Harris. He has lost any credibility he had attained after his long and storied career. She has never had any credibility and has simply been pushing nonsensical content her entire public career.
DeleteI read the book, did some research into afterwards. Im not saying yes or no. Something definitely happened there. Was it UFO related, who knows really. With many of these cases the witnesses might have observed something which is completly terrestrial.
ReplyDeleteMatter of fact in most cases thats the truth of it. Then some UFO researcher for or against the UFO world takes it to another level of their own making.
The point is this case as with all UFO related cases the original observers to the event thought they did experience something. What they experienced is in question all the time. And most of the time particularly in the UFO investigation fields something did happen to trigger the observation, which leaves no physical evidence in all the cases LOL. What that trigger is needs to be looked into more. Many cases its not fame or money as the trigger.
The entire story is a hoax, with more red flags than in the country of China. Your conclusion is completely incorrect. Embarrassing.
Delete