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This is not an excerpt from a modern science fiction novel. It is perhaps the most interesting case of a UFO sighting in the files of Dr. Alien Utte, a chemistry professor at UW-O. It happened on August 12, 1967 near Ogema, a town in north central Wisconsin.The UFO phenomenon is possibly the most significant link in the history of man after the theories of Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud. Man has learned of his position In the universe, his origins and his psychological complexities. Dr. Utke believes a study of UFO's could be the key to knowledge of life elsewhere in the universe.His research began In 1966 and ended about two years ago when he became too discouraged to go on.“I started because I felt UFO’s were a phenomenon that deserved investigation,” he said. It began one night when I was scheduled to speak about UFO's at a meeting. Normally about 30 people show up for these meetings, but that night there were about 600. After that, I wrote articles for magazines and newspapers, spoke to various groups, and went to talk to people who reported seeing UFO’s. I have about 100 reports in my file; 10 or 12 of these concern people who saw a UFO at close range.”But the more involved utke became in the UFO question, the more discouraged and frustrated he became.People can’t be convinced to support you,” he said. Scientists don't want circumstantial evidence, but demand scientific evidence which is nearly impossible to acquire in UFO incidents and politicians treat you skeptically. A physics teacher from Arizon State who was extensively researching UFO’s committed suicide last year because no one would listen to him. He had even gone to the UN to get support,”Utke said he was the only one in Wisconsin who has bothered to investigate the UFO reports. He tried to obtain financial support for his research from various scientific groups and politicians, but no one would help him. He said Congressman William Steiger, for example, listened politely to him as he related the importance of his study, and then he never heard anything from him afterwards.This prcrject is too difficult for one person,” he said, “B’s a thankless job and you can’t get financial support. However, I did come to several conclusions through my investigations; I’m convinced UFO’s exist, and I discovered 60% of the facts indicate they are extra-terrestial; 40% point to a natural phenomenon that science doesn't know about yet. And one interesting factor stands oufc-in -each case of someone seeing a UFO close by, everyone stated it looked like a machine.”He attributes the Air Force’s and government’s lack of interest in researching UFO’s to the possibility that they are afraid of what they might find.There has never been a Congressional investigation of UFO’s. The government has probably considered the great psychological shock of discovering life on another planet. This is a curious paradox lm humans-we are fascinatedly new phenomenon, btd when possible explanations present themselves we find them too frightened to face,” he said. 'Utte experienced this him self.: when be tried to organize several people to accompany him toaspot where he was certain,*' UFO would appear,After studjdhg U^o sightings in upper Michigan, I noticed a pattern in their appearance, be said. They seemed to occur mostly in lateAugust and early September in isolated places near iron and copper deposits. I began what I called ‘Project Watch’ and predicted a UFO would appear in Michigan around this certain time. A photographer from the Advance (the forerunner of the Advance-Titan) and a few others agreed to go with me. They were very excited about the idea at first, but when I brought their attention to the fact we would be confronting the unknown on a fairly isolated region they changed their minds, I didn’t want to go myself, so none of us went, as It turned out.”, However, Utke had a friend in Michigan who was aware cf his prediction. On the day he had indicated, approximately 20 miles from the exact place and several hours after the predicted time, a UFO was reported.In an article in the spring, 196S issue of the Augustana Bulletin, utke examined six explanations for UFO’s which have been offered by various people in an attempt to explain UFO’s. The following explainations and Utte’s remarks (in quotes), 1) They are_ hoaxes, fabrications, hallucinations! mass hysteria, or rumor phenomena. If the reports were all psychological in nature, one-would expect more reports where there are more -people. But the opposite trend is usually true. It might also be pointed out that when several, or evenmany persons see something simultaneously and yet independently, and their descriptions match, theDr. Alien Utkesituation is rather difficult to explain.” 2) UFO’s are a hoax, mirage or a reflection due to temperature inversion, or a reflection from ice crystals, water droplets, etc. “The weakness of this theory becomes rather evident when oik tries to use it to expiate close proximity, on-or-riear-the-ground reports. In my estimation, this explanation is highly, unsatisfactory.” 3) Lay misinterpretations ofwell-known physical phenomena (stars, planets, airplanes, meteors, satellites, balloons) create UFO’S. This will explain about 93 per cent cf the reports the Air Force has received. But the. Air Force admits that in the other seven per cent of the cases, they haven't explained the object seen, even with all cf the data available that they desired. And so a UFO is a UFO!” 4) The objects are secret weapons or devices manufactured somewhere on earth. “UFO's had to have been fully developed at least as early as 1947. Could our government, or any other one, keep them a secret for that long? Why would the United States or the Russians be spending billions of dollars to go to the moon by means of old-fashioned rockets rf we already had an airship that could fly rings around these rockets? And wouldn’t this weapon or device have been used to diplomatically black-mail other nations, since it apparently can't be caught or shot down?” 5) The objects have also beed called unknown or poorly understood natural physical phenomena such as ball lightning, electrified balls of gas known as plasmas, or some other rare atmospheric-electrical effect. This could be the answer to the whole UFO questionSomeone once said that ‘the universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.’ Tate electricity for example. No one really knows what an electron is or if it even exists at all. Therefore, phenomena such as the aurora borealis and lightning have remained mysterious for many years, r am troubled, however, by the fact that UFO’s move away from people when approached, that they apparently can sustain themselves for long periods of time in definitive shapes, and that they are frequently described in such terms that a machine of some sort is indicated. 6) Extra-terrestial vehicles of probes, sent or controlled by alien beings could be the answer. I would be the first to admit that based on what we know at the present time about inertia, time, space, means of propulsion and distance in the universe, this explanation does seem ‘impossible at first glance.’ But what about the tilings we don’t know? Every age of man has stated its belief that they had knowledge pretty well wrapped up, only to find that the new, the unexpected, the ‘impossible’ was just around the corner. In the year 1230, for example, Roger Bacon was imprisoned as being mentally unbalanced after predicting the airplane, automobile and submarine! Most scientists believe that life does exist elsewhere in the universe and may even still exist in the solar system. Venus has recently been pretty well ruled out as a possibility for life but Mars has always been more seriously considered in this aspect. We still haven’t ruled Mars out, and there should be millions or even billions of other planets in the universe where life may be possible. In •fact, a whole new science call exobiology has recently developed to investigate the possibility of extra-terrestial life. If it is conceivable that we may solve the problem of traveling through space, is it inconceivable that being’s elsewhere, possibly more advanced scientifically than ourselves, may have already solved these problems?”These gre the .explanations. Utte poses a fascinating yet disturbing possibility. He still receives letters from friends about UFO reports, most recently one from M unising, Michigan, where a grot® of construction workers watched a red object hover above them as they worked. Yet he and other scientists are giving up beoa**se of lack of support. Until people support an extensive study of UFO's to determine what they are and what their purpose is, man can go no farther in learning of his relationship to the universe.
Newspaper Details
Oshkosh Advance Titan
Oshkosh, Wisconsin, US
Thu, Feb 15, 1973
Page 15
Full Page
Clipped by
Driftless T.
AL, USA 26 Aug 2024
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