SUBJECT: RECAP OF GULFBREEZE SIGHTINGS FILE: UFO1688 (628) Wed 6 Jun 90 22:49 By: Jim Speiser To: All Re: Gulf Breeze at NUFOC 1/5 St: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @EID:09ff 14c6b620 @MSGID: 1:114/37 6316d312 The following article was submitted by ParaNet Sysop John Hicks, and will also be circulated as the file NUFOC90.TXT. Copyright (c) 1990 John Hicks and ParaNet. The Gulf Breeze mystery continues by John B. Hicks The Gulf Breeze sightings have generated huge amounts of public speculation, scientific bickering and dirty tricks. However, many people in the Pensacola, Florida, area still see odd objects and lights in the sky. The recent publication of The Gulf Breeze Sightings by Ed and Frances Walters has, if anything, fanned the flames. "If you took that case, Ed's sightings and those of his family away, and left everything else, you would still have a monumental amount of evidence related to the UFO mystery," Dr. Bruce Maccabee said. "Between Nov. 11, 1987 and May 1, 1988, which is the time taken up by Ed's book, the time that involved Ed Walters and Frances, I estimate that there were about 60 events which involved well over 130 witnesses in the Gulf Breeze area." Maccabee is a physicist employed by the U.S. Navy and a well-respected UFO investigator. According to Maccabee, about 65 sightings have occured in the Pensacola area since May, 1988. "I'm basing my statistics on cases that have been reported to MUFON," he said. MUFON is the Mutual UFO Network, a large organization of UFO researchers, investigators and enthusiasts. MUFON investigators Rex and Carol Salisbury have documented many UFO sightings and contacts in the Pensacola area going back many years. They made the following comments to the 1990 National UFO Conference in Miami Beach, Florida. In the interest of clarity, since they alternated speaking, I will quote the Salisburys as a team, rather than individually. "There have been sightings all around the town (of Pensacola)," they said. "Another area of intense activity is up around the university area." They said that the most of the witnesses they interviewed have had multiple sightings. "We have also discovered that many of these witnesses have also had missing time or other related UFO paranormal events or other types of ESP events in their lives," the Salisburys said. "These witnesses come from all walks of life, and they have seen a wide variety of UFO types, shapes and sizes." On February 8, 1989, Jeff Thompson and his young son watched as a brightly lighted object of about three feet in diameter landed in their front yard. Thompson crept close to the object and illuminated it with a flashlight. "The object suddenly emitted a bright, brilliant flash of light and disappeared," the Salisburys said. "Upon questioning Jeff, we learned that Jeff knew nothing at all of a previously-taken photo of a very small craft." "In March of 1989 we interviewed a family who has had multiple sightings and experiences over a two-year period in Pensacola, and as far back as 10 years ago when the honeymooning couple saw a UFO hovering over a mountain in Pennsylvania," the Salisburys said. "Another family residing in the same area has had a number of sightings dating back two or three years." The two families did not know each other. The Salisburys said that they have worked on several cases in an area near a Navy installation. The cases involve witnesses who have had multiple sightings and past experiences with UFO and related phenomena, some going back into the 1920s. One witness is a 71-year-old woman who recently saw her back yard flooded with light. She underwent hypnosis and learned that she had also seen a bowtie-shaped object and a second light. "Her first experience was in 1925," the Salisburys said. In another experience about seven years ago, according to the Salisburys, a young woman babysitting was sleeping on a couch when a noise awakened her and the house shook. She saw a translucent hemispherical object in the living room with her. The woman slipped into a bedroom to check the baby. While she was out of the living room, there was another noise, the house again shook and the object disappeared. She told the Salisburys that she looked out a window and saw three orange balls streaking away across the yard and into the sky. In March of 1989 two women were driving home (to the mainland) from Gulf Breeze when they noticed a white light that appeared to be pacing their car. When they rounded a curve, they saw an object hovering over the road in front of the car. The women stopped, got out of the car, and felt compelled to walk toward the object. They bumped into the open car doors and stopped. When a car approached, the object lifted straight up and vanished. A Pensacola-area woman who said a UFO abducted her in Germany 16 years ago saw a UFO west of Pensacola in August of 1989. She told the Salisburys that the UFO was identical to what she saw in Germany. In September, the same woman and her son saw two objects hover over their house. Twenty similar sightings have occured in their area since then, and the latest was in April 1990. On Nov. 30, 1989, a woman driving east from Gulf Breeze saw an arrowhead-shaped object hover over a utility substation. In February of 1990 MUFON received 26 sighting reports, and in March the organization received nine sighting reports. A large number of UFOs returned to Gulf Breeze in mid-April 1990. "We had sightings of lights almost every night for about a week," the Salisburys said. At least two witnesses made videotapes of those objects. "Pensacola MUFON has submitted over 64 cases," the Salisburys said. On the night of Nov. 11, 1987, Ed Walters, a Gulf Breeze builder, saw and photographed his first UFO. What set Walters apart from the other witnesses was that he had a camera readily accessible, is what would be politely described as stubborn, and had what could be called good luck as a UFO photographer. Walters was not alone in his UFO sightings that day. In the decade up until Nov. 11, 1987, witnesses reported about 10 sightings a year. "All of a sudden, on that one day, we find out that there were eight or nine sightings," Maccabee said. Other witnesses saw objects similar to the one Walters saw beginning at about 2:30 that morning. I will not recount Ed and Frances Walters' story here, since they do so in great detail in their book. Nor will I recount Dr. Bruce Maccabee's analysis of Ed and Frances Walters' photographs, since he does so in the paper he presented to MUFON. Since that Veterans' Day in 1987, Ed Walters has taken 41 pictures of possibly four different objects with five cameras. He has come under fire that his photographs were a hoax, possibly because they appeared too sharp and clear. Many other people took pictures before, during and after the period of his sightings, and several witnesses made videotapes. Walters made a videotape during one of his close encounters. Critics bandied about hoax and conspiracy theories. "You can't say there wasn't a conspiracy, but you can't establish a connection," Maccabee said. Also it appears that a large number of people would have to be in on a conspiracy. Maccabee examined several possible methods of hoaxing the photographs in his paper and found each to be either readily detectable or impossible to carry out. He also determined that Ed Walters would not have had the knowledge or equipment to carry out a hoax. "You're going to do something to destroy your roots?" Walters said. "Some would do something like that, but not a normal sane father." I described to Maccabee a method that could be used to hoax photographs that would pass most, if not all, of the tests he used to examine Walters' photographs. He was not familiar with the material and methods I described. He then pointed out that the events of the March 17, 1988 sighting and photographs would have precluded any manipulation of photographs by Walters. Maccabee said that on that date, a witness (Peter Newman) opened the sealed Polaroid film boxes, loaded Walters' cameras and wrote down the serial numbers of the film packs. Newman was also keeping track of the film counter of each camera. Walters took several unplanned souvenir pictures of people who had joined the small group. Because of the cold weather the spectators left, but several pretended to leave and returned in the darkness. They could not see Walters because of bushes and a restroom facility building. They could, however, see the treetops above Walters' position. Maccabee said that the witnesses saw two flashes in rapid succession illuminate the treetops. A few moments later they saw Walters run out of the bushes to his truck and turn on the headlights. The witnesses gathered around and watched the pictures develop, and those pictures showed a UFO. "Those people watched the film develop, which means the photos had to have been taken shortly before," Maccabee said. "There was no time in the middle to diddle with stuff." Maccabee said that he had experimented with trying to slow or stop the film development, even by freezing the film. He said that he managed only a slight slowdown in development, certainly not enough to have been part of a hoax. Critics have suggested that someone may have been showing Walters something to photograph, such as a balloon. However, weather conditions that night would rule out a balloon. Ed Walters said that the weather was cold and nasty that night. "The wind was coming right off the water," Frances Walters said. Hoax theories and debunking efforts still abound. "I don't know how they (debunkers) sleep at night," Ed Walters said. "What is so intimidating about these photos that would cause such a reaction among the debunkers?" Lately articles have appeared in some newspapers in which the primary source of information has been Willy Smith. MUFON has distanced itself from Smith, who was originally an investigator involved in Walters' case. Smith was implicated in a debunking effort in which an image of a Gulf Breeze-type UFO appeared in a photograph of the Chrysler Building in New York City. Smith claimed that Ed Walters took the picture. UFO investigator Antonio Huneeus and commercial photographer Manuel Fernandez came forward and stated that Huneeus had Fernandez make the photograph for study and experimental purposes. They said that it was not an Ed Walters photograph. Smith has also claimed that the so-called ghost pictures show that Walters was familiar with making multiple exposures before he made the UFO photographs. Walters said that Smith has taken the entire ghost picture idea out of context. He said that it is a game he plays with various teenage visitors to his house, and that the game is that the ghost is "in" you, not beside you. He said that he first takes normal pictures of several people. For the picture of the person the ghost is "in" he focuses the camera for long-distance and takes the picture with the subject about four feet away. The flash on his Polaroid camera makes the subject's eyes turn completely white, and the subject is a little blurry. That is what he calls a ghost picture. It involves no multiple exposures. The picture Willy Smith has shown as a ghost picture is of a teenage girl standing in front of a sliding glass door. It shows blobs of light near the girl. Maccabee said that he has confirmed that fingerprints and smudges on glass can cause similar reflections without the glass itself reflecting light. Frances Walters said that she had never cleaned that glass door. The mysterious blue beam that appears in Walters' photographs and other witnesses' reports has also brought forth much speculation. "It can lift you up, it can hold you down," Maccabee said. Walters said, "The blue beam stops you from moving; the white flash, I believe, if it strikes you on the head, incapacitates you." "I don't know that, but I believe it's true," he said. Walters explained how he captured the picture of the blue beam and Frances running in the doorway. He said that he was going outside while holding the camera up, and that the blue beam suddenly flashed just where he was about to step. At that time, Frances ran inside and he pushed the shutter release without even looking through the viewfinder. A new apparent debunking attempt is underway. An advertisement appeared in the Pensacola newspaper. The ad states, "Hoax UFO balloons are illegal." The advertisement text then says that anyone who sees or knows of UFO balloons should call a certain telephone number. "That's a Phil Klass phone number," Walters said. Walters also pointed out that the 1990 MUFON symposium will be in early July in Pensacola. He said that it would not be surprising if someone found a UFO balloon just in time for the symposium. Walters also mentioned a flyer that someone stuffed in Gulf Breeze mailboxes referring to him. It said, in part, "Many of our sources report how often this UFO nut can be seen drunk at local taverns." He said that the debunker obviously did not know that Santa Rosa County is dry, therefore there are no local taverns. "There is certainly a difference between an honest skeptic and a debunker," Walters said. "A debunker is compelled to convince all others that there is no such thing as a UFO; therefore, Gulf Breeze should be swept away." "I think probably most of you understand now, if you don't you should, that Gulf Breeze is not just Ed and Frances Walters," Walters said. "It would be almost as strange as a UFO to imagine that you can reject Ed's case as being a hoax and accept all the rest of them as being real," Maccabee said. Walters declined to identify Believer Bill and Jane, two people who anonymously gave pictures of UFOs similar to those Walters saw to the Gulf Breeze Sentinel. He said that he knows their identity. "I might have said it (Believer Bill's name) publicly a few times, and I might have hurt him," Walters said. "It's not up to me to denigrate or expose someone who doesn't want to be exposed." "It's job-related suicide for some professions," he said. He acknowledged that he may have erred in trying to remain anonymous, but said he was trying to protect his family. "I probably made the mistake that if you don't come forward, the news media will turn into a school of sharks," Walters said. "But if you don't come forward it almost makes it worse, because then they are going to track you down." "They'll try their best to leap upon you from the bushes," he said. "For two years I tried my best to shun publicity," Walters said. "If they (debunkers) hadn't attacked so viciously, the book wouldn't have been written." On Jan. 8, 1990, witnesses saw another UFO, and this time the military apparently took an interest. Ed Walters said that he and Frances were out walking near the Methodist Church in Gulf Breeze when they saw a large red light in the sky. "We'd been criticized early on for not always dancing to a phone and calling somebody, so in this case, we said well, what the heck, we'll run back to the house, take a chance that it's still going to be there, and we'll call people," Walters said. "I ran to the phone and started to call investigators." Walters reached two answering machines and a paging machine. He then called Duane Cook and a friend who he had promised he would call, and they said they were on the way. "This was all on faith that the object was still in the sky," he said. "I didn't know, I was still inside." "It could have already gone and then I would look very foolish because everybody would have come a'running and I'd be embarrassed," Walters said. Walters said, "I started to put together this new camera I'd purchased." He said that he started running back toward the church while still trying to attach the lens to the camera. Duane Cook and his son arrived and both saw the object. Two other people approached and now the object was visible to six people gathered near the church. "I could see through the zoom lens this black disc," Walters said. He said that the disc was visible against a moonlit cloud cover. Walters and city councilwoman Brenda Pollak took some photographs. Walters' camera had a zoom lens with a maximum focal length of about 200 mm., and Pollak had a 300 mm. lens on her camera. However, both had their cameras set on automatic exposure and the cameras automatically set long exposures. Walters' photograph shows a red blurry blob. "The critics and the debunkers would have me being a photo expert, some kind of genius," he said. Just after Walters made his exposure, the red light went out or, as others reported, the disc turned over. Pollak then took her photograph. Her photograph shows an image that looks like multi-colored pearls on a string. Maccabee said that the light changed colors 110 times during Pollak's three-second exposure. Since the camera was handheld with the 300 mm. lens, the image was a snakelike line with a blob of different colored light for each time the light changed colors. "I think this is a phenomenal picture," Walters said. "It doesn't solve anything, it just adds to the questions." "Some of the witnesses remember seeing a white light while the picture was being taken," Walters said. "We don't know we've captured this odd effect until the film comes out." The object then vanished, apparently into the low-lying cloud cover. Walters said that moments later, about six helicopters approached from the direction of Pensacola Naval Air Station. "There's no question where those helicopters came from," he said. He said that the helicopters approached the area of the church, illuminated floodlights and searched the area around the church. The object had been directly over the church when it vanished. A Navy chief, who was not an official spokesman, first told an investigator that the Naval Air Station dispatched the helicopters on a Search and Rescue mission. According to Walters, the investigator pressed further and the chief told the investigator, "You know what's been going on over there, you guess." Another red light appeared near the bridge from Gulf Breeze to Pensacola on the night of April 18, 1990, and many witnesses took photographs while several made videotapes. Maccabee said that he has most of the negatives and videotapes. Ed and Frances Walters' experiences have given them what could be called an insiders' perspective on the UFO phenomenon. "The toughest part is not understanding," Ed Walters said. "I don't like the idea that there may be something out there that may be a threat." Frances Walters said, "For every answer that you come up with, you seem to come up with a lot more questions." "Sometimes I think we haven't learned a darn thing," she said. A participant at the conference asked Ed Walters if he is ready for another visit from the visitors. "If they come symbolically to my front door, and they knock on the door, and they say, 'Hi, we're travelers from afar. Can we come in?' I'll open the door," Walters said. "If they try to come in the back door, in the darkness, and invade my household, I will resist and I will fight back." ### Copyright 1990 John B. Hicks ********************************************** * THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo * **********************************************