SUBJECT: GULF BREEZE UPDATE 7/20/93 FILE: UFO2737 Tue 20 Jul 93 9:53 By: Vince Johnson To: All Re: Gulf Breeze Update --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following file is courtesy of HUFON REPORT, the newsletter of the Houston UFO Network. For more information call (713) 850-1352. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gulf Breeze Update "Bubba" Back in Dramatic Daylight Sightings by Andy Abercrombie With what may prove to be the BIG Story of 1993, the town of Gulf Breeze, Florida, again steps into the UFO spotlight with a blockbuster of a story... videotaped and still footage of a structured daylight disk! No, this is not another Mexico City misidentification of the planet Venus but, rather, what appears to be the "real thing" as both the video and the Polaroid photo have been analized and proclaimed to be genuine by not only MUFON's Jeff Sainio, but optical physicist, Dr. Bruce Maccabee as well. As many of you know, since 1987, Gulf Breeze, Florida, has been nick-named the unofficial UFO capital of the world due to the extraordinary number of sightings that have been witnessed and recorded there. The most famous photos were those taken by Ed Walters and published in the book detailing his experiences, The Gulf Breeze Sightings, in 1990. Until July of 1992, skywatchers had documented an average of 7 to 8 sightings a month... after that, the elusive UFO, affectionately named "Bubba," apparently disappeared for his 30,000 light-year check-up. But then toward the end of November , a few phone calls were received saying that "Bubba" was back. These reports turned out to be true, but the UFO's visits have become much less frequent. I've been told if the Gulf Breeze Research Team is lucky, now they'll have a sighting about once ev ery two weeks, so the appearance of a structured craft during the daylight hours is a truly significant development. In a telephone interview with Bland Pugh, MUFON investigator and editor of the Florida MUFON News ( and creator of one of the finest red- beans-and-rice recipes in the Northern Hemisphere), the following facts were reported: On March 25, a Mr. Martin "Allen" looked up and saw something coming out of the northwest at a tremendous rate of speed. He first thought it must be some type of aircraft he'd never seen before. Later, the object reappeared and again moved tow ard him from the same direction and toward the southeast. The next day, "Allen" set up his video camera in hopes of recording the object and that's exactly what it did! Returning from having gotten an apple inside his house, he was stunned to see the sa me UFO coming at himfrom the southeast. The camera recorded the whole sequence as the UFO sped across the screen. In an article by Bland appearing in the June 9th issue of The Islander,"Allen" said, " I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw that round, silver thing racing across the sky. But, when it shot overhead a second time, I knew it wasn't a normal airplane. By God, I knew it was that UFO that I read about in the newspaper! It was round and kind of crown-shaped with a lower level and a dark red circle in the bottom center." It was at that point that Bland decided to enlist the aid of another MUFON investigator, Gary Watson, well known for his investigation of the Ed Walters case. That decision proved to be a timely one as less than a week later, on March 31, Bland said he received another call from "Allen." This time he said he had videoed the same UFO hovering out over the Gulf of Mexico from his home on Santa Rosa Isl and. After being recorded for about 45 seconds, the UFO made an extraordinary exit to the southeast. Allen exclaimed, "It was fast, real fast! I videotaped it! I couldn"t believe this was happening and that it was happening in broad daylight!" Bland tol d me that when he saw the tape that night, he couldn't believe it either but, there it was... hovering with the sun reflecting off of it and the clouds moving behind it, sat the UFO. The object was silver in color and reflected the light of the sun. It seemed that "Bubba" had definitely returned and, this time, without a hint of shyness. On April 2, Bland received yet another call from "Allen" saying that at 10:30 that morning, because the batteries on his video camera weren't charged, he'd photographed the UFO with his Polaroid camera! This time the object had been hovering ov er the beach to the south of his home. Charles Flannigan, Florida State Director for MUFON, was now also called into the investigation, and the decision was made to forward the videos and Polaroid photo to Jeff Sainio, Photo Analyst and Manager of Imaging Research and Development at the Quad/Tech division of Quad/Graphics in Wisconsin. Dr. Bruce Maccabee, optical physicist for the U.S. Naval defense lab in Maryland, was also contacted and both Sainio and Maccabee were given the original of the Polaroid photo for analysis. After two weeks of intensive tests and several calls for additional information, such as weather reports and atmospheric conditions, Jeff Sainio submitted his findings and returned the videos and photo to the investigative team. The results: The UFO is genuine and not a hoax. According to Sainio, in the first video, the UFO's speed in relation to its size eliminates all aircraft as a cause, since known airplanes can't move this fast. A 100-foot long fighter jet would need to move 300 feet, 3 times its own length, in 1/30 second, or 9,000 feet per second or about 6,000 mph. below clouds at 7, 000 feet. To stay below the sound barrier, a plane length of 10 feet would be required. Of the second video, where the UFO is seen hovering motionless over the Gulf and then fla shes off, Sainio says in The Islander, "Initial calculations show the UFO accelerated, then slowed 20% and then surpassed 2,000 mph, all in under l/lOth of a second!" Dr. Maccabee's assessment of the March 24 video states, "A frame-by-frame analysis shows that the object moved so fast it traveled several times its own length in each frame, making rectangular images on the screen. It only took about one sec ond to cross the nearly 30ø field of view of the camera. Unfortunately, the actual speed cannot be determined because the distances are not known, but estimates range from several hundred to several thousand mph corresponding to distance estimates of 1,000 to 10,000 feet." Concerning the second tape, Dr. Maccabee stated, "The video shows a compact image with a bright area which may be the sun glint from a metal surface. As he tracked the object, it suddenly disappeared from his viewfinder. When viewing t he video at normal playback speed, the object appears to streak to the right, off the screen and almost too fast to see. Frame analysis shows that the object accelerated at a tremendous rate. The actual acceleration cannot be calculated because, again, the distance is not known. However, if the assumed distances are only 1,000 feet, then the videotape shows that it accelerated at about 500g's (500 times the acceleration of gravity which is about 100 times greater than a jet) and reached a speed twice t hat of sound before it passed out of view of the camera. Yet there was no sound! At an assumed 1,000 ft. distance, the size of the object was a bit less than 10 feet. For other assumed distances, the size, acceleration and departing speed are proportiona l to the distance." Regarding the photo taken on April 2, Dr. Maccabee said, "This photo shows a circular object to the south at an angular of 60ø to 79ø. The sun in the east made a shiny glint at the left side. In the perspective view from below, the object appe ars like a layer cake with the upper layer having a larger diameter than the lower layer. The image is too small and at the wrong angle to reveal any windows in the side of either layer. There is a slight hint of a protuberance at the top, but this migh t be a photographic artifact." As if all of this photographic evidence wasn't enough, there's more! On Friday, April 21, Bland reported he received a color slide and a map from a gentleman named Thomas "Bryant," a visiting elected official from Alabama. The map pointed to a location called the Sugar Bowl in the Big Sabine area, at the east e nd of Pensacola Beach. The slide showed a beach scene of sand dunes, sea oats and shrub bushes but, most importantly, what appears to be the same UFO that Martin "Allen" had photographed. The map contained a hand written note dated April 2, and 2:30 pm a s the time of day. Mr. Thomas "Bryant" who had withheld his name for political reasons, said, "At first I told myself that what I saw had to be something from the military, but I know of nothing that can suddenly appear, hover and disappear like it did." Both Sainio and Maccabee, I am told;, will have the opportunity to analyze this slide, but according to Bland, there's no doubt it is the identical craft that Martin "Allen" had photographed at 10:30 am that same day! At this point, I could no longer wait to ask Bland the BlG question... were these new objects the same ones that Ed Walters had photograpphed in 1987? Bland's response was, "They could be brothers." I learned a few days later, according to the story on the front page of The Islander, that both experts, Sainio and Maccabee, agreed that "the overall shape of the object resembles, but is not identical to, the shape of the objects photographed by Ed Walters." Could it be that during "Bubba's" absence from July to November of 1992, that its owner traded up to a newer model? Who knows, but stay tuned! This is an on-going investigation that will probably continue for quite some time. In conclusion, I would like to note that it is to the credit of the Gulf Breeze investigators that they have "sat" on this story for over two months until they and their independent experts had verified the evidence before releasing this repor t to the public. Thanks for a job well done, guys ! Epilogue: In an earlier and, perhaps, related story, Bland Pugh was the investigator on a case concerning mysterious markings at the first of this year. In an article written for the May/June issue of the Florida MUFONNews, Bland writes, "The story began on January 9, when "Bill" went to Pensacola Beach at sundown to skywatch. It is not unusual for someskywatchers, myself included, to go out by themselves. After parking, he set up his equipment for what he hoped would be a sighting. He didn't have to wait long. Over the Gulf appeared the bright light of the Gulf Breeze UFO. "Bill" looked at the object through his 8x40 binoculars for a minute or so when he began to feel his face flushing hot. Then his face felt like it had been exposed to cold for a long period of time. Putting the binoculars down, he began to feel nauseated and even a little faint. After about a minute, the dizziness seemed to be passing somewhat. He looked for the UFO, but it was gone. "Bill" climbed into his vehicle to regain his composure. By now, the time was something like 8:00 pm. He headed for Shoreline Park where a skywatch was underway. He told the people at the park about his experience and was standing around talking when he discovered he'd hurt his hand. Noticing the small amount of blood on the back of his right hand, "Bill" thought that he must have hit it on something while gathering his equipment and putting it into his vehicle. He didn't think too much about it after that. On Friday of the next week, "Bill" showed me his hand and said he was a little concerned about it because it hadn't healed, only gotten worse. When he first discovered the marks, they were only small perforations. They progressively got larger . Towards the first of the week, the enlargement of each separate wound prompted him to call a doctor about it, as it was very unusual in nature. The wound consisted of a circle of seven separate and evenly spaced punctures, with one in the center. When "Bill" talked to the doctor, he was told that he had "seen this type of wound before." As of this writing, the circles are still visible on "Bill's" hand. He has asked me to write this article in hopes that anyone with a similar mark would contact him through me. Please write me (Bland Pugh) at P.O. Box 6111, Gulf Breeze, FL 3 2561. All replies will be kept confidential. Please include your address, telephone number and, if possible, a picture of the affected area ONLY." In my 20-minute conversation with Bland on Sunday evening, June 20, I asked, since Bland had been the investigator on this case, if he felt the incident may have been hoaxed. Bland's response was "No," based on two reasons. First, the integrity of the w itness who, surprisingly, did not feel that he had been abducted or was missing any time and, secondly, the flood of similar accounts he has recelved since the reporting of this incident in The Islander and the Florida MUFON News. People in southern Florida, several other Eastern states, and as far away as England have also recounted mysterious wounds forming exactly the same pattern on different extremities. Bland added that one case in Oklahoma dated as far back as 1981. As it now appears that this new Gulf Breeze case is not an isolated incident or unique in its character. Bland tends to feel the circular pattern of wounds is genuinely of a mysterious nature and, therefore, is deserving of further investigation. In response to the question concerning the cause of these markings, Bland said at the present time, he has no idea, nor has he heard of any theories being advanced on what is producing this peculiar pattern of marks. Is the mystery UFO-related, or is this another "syringe in the Pepsi can" phenomenon? Only time will tell. Meanwhile, the investigation and reports of additional cases continue. All I can say is to keep looking up and behind you... you don't know what may be watching you! ** End ** ********************************************** * THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo * **********************************************