The most ambitious UFO research project has sunk into oblivion. They tried to forget about him. Scientists were frightened by the results of the study, and ufologists did not want to remain unnecessary if science got down to business seriously.
The epicenter of activity
In late February and March 1973, a wave of UFO sightings hit the outskirts of Piedmont, Missouri. Cars were immobilized when fireballs appeared in the sky or a beam of light fell from somewhere above. The residents of Piedmont complained every now and then of tele-interference.
When the TV screens were covered with continuous lines of ripples, people who went out into the street saw UFOs flying overhead. One citizen ran outside when his house suddenly shook. A rumble was heard from somewhere above. The man looked up and saw an egg-shaped object hovering over the roof of the house.
Dean of the Faculty of Physics at Southeastern University, Professor Harley Rutledge, suggested that astronomy teacher Milton Ueleke himself go to Piedmont and observe the sky. The trip shocked the scientists. They saw many strange lights in the sky.
- The lights go on and off against the background of a black or dark blue sky, - Harley Rutledge summed up the results of the night vigil. - The objects themselves are not visible, except for cases when something obscures the stars. They change color from white to orange. In most cases, they fly at a speed accessible to airplanes, and sometimes they develop incredible speed - thousands of miles per hour.
Rutledge calculated that in one of the maneuvers they saw, an overload should occur, 330 times the force of gravity. For people it is fatal, and any earthly technology will inevitably fail. He turned to the rector of the university with a proposal to start a serious study of the phenomenon.
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Project start
Rector Mark Scully approved the idea and allocated a special grant for it. He allowed Rutledge and Ueleka to take instruments from university laboratories and recruit volunteer students to research. Other professors and teachers soon joined them.
Scientists have selected several points for observation, equipping them with the latest technology. Harley and his colleagues had telescopes, portable radars, spectrometers, and dozens of other instruments at their disposal. The observers maintained communication with each other with the help of radios provided by the civil defense.
The police, city hall and Piedmont radio station provided all possible support, and the hotel allocated a separate house for the headquarters. One of the radios was handed to private pilot James Trickey, ready to take to the skies at any moment.
Dozens of people took part in the project under the modest name "Project Identification". Soon the observation net brought the first catch.
Meeting in the air
On May 11, 1973, observers saw a UFO high in the sky. Harley Rutledge decided to fly in that direction to get as close as possible to them.
“I was on board a plane piloted by Tricky,” the dean said in an interview. “In the back are John Wilson and Drake Cambich, senior students from my house. We flew north from Piedmont.
The sun had gone down, but the sky was blue, as at noon. At 20:10, I scanned the earth, sky and horizon with binoculars, trying to see where the lights come from - from behind the trees, come from afar, or just light up in the sky?
I was looking up and forward as a yellowish, almost white fire flared up in the clear sky. It blinked at a rate of about once a second. After a couple of seconds, a second fire came on. They blinked in turn: one faded out, the second flared up, and vice versa.
Then I still hoped that this was some kind of natural phenomenon, but then seven lights appeared at once, lining up in a straight line. The first three lights burned against a background of something black that obscured the blue sky, and the other four glowed separately.
I pointed in that direction. The pilot changed course. Suddenly, the tenth UFO appeared in the lower right corner of the binoculars. I handed the binoculars to Drake, but he saw nothing. UFOs disappeared instantly, when they were not looked at - extinguished or flew into space.
At 9:10 pm John, looking out the back window, said:
"Dr. Rutledge, a UFO is coming … It's coming straight for us!" The pilot turned the plane around, but the object disappeared before we could see it.
Synchronous observation
On May 25, 1973 at 09:37 p.m., four observers from Mount Pyle radioed that they were seeing a strange glow in the west. A group watching from a city fire tower 18 kilometers from the mountain also saw him.
At 21:42 it was reported from the mountain that they now see UFOs well. It "moves rather slowly across the sky, yellow or orange, and corresponds in brightness to a star of the first magnitude." A minute later, when the object was seen equally well from both points, its exact position was plotted on the map.
By 21:46, nine trajectory points appeared on the map with 15-second intervals between calculations. One point was missed due to radio interference, but observers from the mountain said that the object was flying the same course. Then the people on the tower lost sight of the UFO.
The two teams jointly guided the UFO for 25 kilometers. Thanks to this, it was possible to calculate the speed: first, the object flew at a speed of 500 kilometers per hour, then changed its direction of movement and accelerated to 523 kilometers per hour.
On the same night, Rutledge and his colleagues saw a giant UFO flying directly over the observation post.
“There were four lights on the site, two red and two white,” Harley recalled. “The UFO was close enough that I looked at it well with an 80x telescope. It had a metal body, and on the red lights, I could see the grooved edges.
Games of an alien mind
A month later, UFOs began to appear in the Piedmont area not only at night. Professor Rutledge was one of the first to be lucky:
- On the evening of June 19, 1973, when the sky was still light, I loaded the car with equipment to take it to the observation post. And then a slowly moving UFO appeared from behind the trees. Very short, thick, it looked like a 45 caliber bullet - rounded in front, blunt in back.
I stretched my thumb and forefinger to arm's length to estimate the angular dimensions of the ship. At that moment, he changed the color from gray to green. I took the binoculars, looking away from the ship for no more than a couple of seconds. When I looked up again, the object had already disappeared. I was slightly confused. Any doubts about the existence of UFOs were gone. According to my calculations, its length was 64 meters.
Harley Rutledge had no doubt that UFOs react intelligently to eyewitness actions.
I raise the camera and the fire goes out. I light a flashlight, point it in the direction of the UFO, and it changes its direction of flight. This has happened too often to be coincidence. Those who took part in the project felt that we were dealing with reason. The mind behind the UFO can deliberately attract our attention and then react to the actions of observers. I felt as if someone was playing with us. Several times UFOs reacted to our radio signals, voices, even thoughts.
Once we deliberately moved the vantage point 10 miles to the west in order to be exactly under the favorite route of UFO flights. But they changed the track, bypassing us.
Long hunt
The project, which Rutledge intended to complete in a few months, stretched out over eight years. 620 people took part in it at different times. 378 observers had previously completed a special training course developed by the professor.
Since 1975, the number of UFOs around Piedmont has declined sharply, but not enough to curtail observation posts. In just eight years, 178 UFOs were observed and a whole series of instrumental measurements were carried out.
Electronics experts said the recorded signals were similar to electronic warfare equipment used to suppress enemy radars. It seems that this explains the invisibility of UFOs to radars installed by the project participants. But the radiation did not interfere with photographing.
During the project, more than 700 images were collected and studied by the dean, his staff and local residents.
“To date, I have personally seen 160 UFOs, 42 of them directly from my yard or not far from home,” said Professor Rutledge, speaking at a UFO symposium in 1986. “I saw seven ships, including two disc-shaped craft.
I watched one of the discs in broad daylight from my office at Southeastern University. In four cases out of seven, there were from one to three witnesses nearby who could confirm what I had not imagined.
I am often asked: "Why exactly do you see so many UFOs?" This is not a question, but an accusation. The fact is that I do not sit in a chair, but work in the field, spending hours and days in the place of UFO activity. This work is comparable to waiting for a meteorologist to see a tornado, or an astronomer waiting for a new comet.
It doesn't matter how many equipment and people you have at your disposal. Night after night, you get nothing until the subject of research arises. I have seen everything except little people, but I still do not have a final hypothesis about the nature of the phenomenon.
In 1992, 66-year-old Harley Rutledge left teaching for health reasons. After his departure, the new rector of the university removed the mention of UFOs from all educational and research programs.
On June 5, 2006, the professor died at the age of 80, taking to the grave hopes for the revival of a strictly scientific study of UFOs under the auspices of a reputable university.
Mikhail GERSHTEIN, magazine "Secrets of the XX century" № 40
