*yawn*
The first big announcement seems to be that MUFON now has two "young people" among its members. I'm not sure who the other one is, but we're sure to cross paths at some point or another. The second announcement is that 60 volumes of files from some old-timey UFO researcher named Leonard Stringfield have been donated to MUFON, and will someday be made available to MUFON members like me.
All I know about this Stringfield fellow is that he wrote a UFO book that I happened upon at a garage sale shortly after I started High Strangeness (and still haven't read), but I was curious to know more and found an article about his papers. It turns out there's some pretty hot stuff in The Stringfield Files, according to Pennsylvania State MUFON Director John Ventre, who is quoted extensively in the article.
"In those 60 volumes we have government interference, the FBI and CIA stopping the ufologists at any cost," Ventre is quoted as saying. "He talks about UFO investigators being beaten or receiving death threats."
Holy shit. Beatings? "Death threats? "Did I just hear a knocking at my front door?
Let me make this clear: Nobody ever told me that I'd be subject to beatings and death threats from the CIA and FBI when I became a Certified UFO Field Investigator, and I'm kind of pissed that I'm only now finding out about this. Then again, I haven't really noticed anyone trying to stop me at all costs, and I think I would notice that, so maybe this guy Stringfield was just paranoid.
Ventre goes on to describe more of the red hot bombshells revealed in The Stringfield Files: He names Donald Rumbsfeld (sic) and President Ford as being briefed on UFOs by J. Allen Hynek. He names heads of state that knew."
Okay, that's kind of cool, because I can use that in the Hynek book. But I will spell 'Rumsfeld' correctly in my version of the story.
But is that the best this Ventre guy can come up with? Where's the good stuff?
"(Stringfield) even has actor Jackie Gleason's contact information in there," Ventre says. "There is a lot of explosive information in there."
Yes, sir, contact information for a comedian who's been dead for 25 years, that's pretty hot stuff.
Jackie Gleason: he's been dead for 25 years, but I will soon know how to contact him.
