UFO Report Feb/1980

Several great things in this issue!  Probably my favorite is an article by Jerome Clark and Lucius Farish "UFOs of the Roaring 20s."  I especially like that because many people seem to think that modern sightings of UFOs did not begin until WWII.  Here is a very interesting 1927 account from a witness of a craft in West Frankfort, IL:

A large round sphere, it was nearly the size of a house underneath it -- approximately 40 feet in diameter.  At first the object had been revolving from right to left, but the revolving motion stopped when the UFO did.  The thing seemed to be made of a stainless steel-like material.  The surface was smooth, unmarked by seams or rivets.

Underneath the UFO was an attached "gondola" which appeared to be part of the object.  Four or five illuminated "portholes" suddenly opened on the gondola.  The light shining through them was blue-white. 

After a while the UFO drifted 100 feet to the right and then stopped again, this time letting down a thin, reflecting line from it's bottom section.  Mr. Jones thought it might have been a glass rod or pencil-thin pipe or wire.

Finally the "portholes" closed just as they had opened, in an effect rather like that of "the iris shutter of a modern day camera."  The UFO began to rotate again and departed toward the same direction from which it had come.

Another article I found to be of great interest was Yurko Bondarchuk's "Alien Occupants: 5 Startling Accounts."  I had heard of Bondarchuk, but was not terribly familiar with him.  That led to a google search, which led to me purchasing a used paperback copy of his book - UFO, sightings, landings, and abductions: The documented evidence.  Seven dollars for that seemed like quite a deal since used pb copies of his other book UFO Canada were not available for less than $30.

Funny enough, since I just complained about another magazine having a cover article by him, James Oberg wrote the cover story about SETI in this issue.  I haven't read that article, but it did make me think that we have now had over 30 years of SETI and nothing to show for it.  As is known, I am not a big fan of SETI, but I do think it may be interesting to read Oberg's article and find out what people thought about it back then (or possibly just what Oberg thought about it).