Happy 70th birthday to the UFO phenomenon

Kenneth Arnold's 24 June 1947 sighting of nine strange objects over the Cascade Mountains in Washington State gave rise to the term "flying saucer". While people have seen strange things in the sky throughout human history, Arnold's sighting marked the genesis of the modern UFO mystery. 70 years on, the mystery remains unsolved, despite some die-hard debunkers claiming that the phenomenon is dead, and despite some true believers stating that the extraterrestrial hypothesis is proven. Neither group are correct. The UFO phenomenon remains unsolved, and perhaps unsolvable (and I say this as someone who had responsibility for the subject for the British government). It can be occasionally frustrating, sometimes fun, and always intriguing. So, once again, happy 70th birthday to UFOs!

Nick Pope

I have always been intrigued by UFO's since I was a kid. Dr. J. Allen Hynek's The UFO Experience was one of the first books I ever read.

I have always been intrigued by UFO's since I was a kid. Dr. J. Allen Hynek's The UFO Experience was one of the first books I ever read.

Some of the most telling evidence to me is that someone like Hynek was basically hired to be a "disprover" or debunker but actually got very intrigued by the UFO phenomena himself.

Then you have someone like General Forrestal who was Sec. of Defense and assigned to head up MJ-12, a group of top scientists, administrators, military, etc. who researched the phenomena in the 1950's. Forrestal was convinced there was something to the UFO phenomena and wanted the public to be informed. Unfortunately this view was not shared by other MJ-12 members or those high up in the government, and he was ultimately taken out although the official cause of death is suicide (after "falling out" of a multi story window).

Two very important individuals who were put in place to study this phenomena and receive numerous reports and data on the subject and two who were utterly convinced something was going on with it that cannot be explained. This is why I choose to believe there may be more to whats going on than what we have been led to believe.

And one last point, I do believe that we are beginning to see disclosure into the subject of UFO's. Many countries are now declassifying a lot of their UFO documents, the UK, Russia, other EU countries, and even the USA to an extent. I feel everyone is looking for a big announcement with people in suits coming to the podium and saying... "they're here". Well in my opinion that isn't what is going to happen. Basically what is happening is these countries are releasing what once was top secret documentation into the subject and saying, here's the proof you can read it and access it if you want. Thus only those interested will take the trouble to learn about some of these cases, a soft disclosure if you will. That is also why I feel there are so many UFO shows and documentaries now, many of which detail many of the declassified documents. So for me, the shows, the documents, and everything that has been happening in the last couple of years has been a form of disclosure, it's just not coming how many people always imagined it would.