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Friday, May 11, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

UFO probe sought

Believers want to tell their tales to Congress

WASHINGTON -- Donald Phillips insists he saw seven silver objects hover high above an Air Force encampment outside Las Vegas one night in September 1966.

Phillips, a noncommissioned officer at the time, said he was asleep at 1 a.m., when he awoke to hear others talking about objects in the sky. He got up and for 10 minutes watched strange rectangular aircraft dart high overhead. The UFOs would dash across the sky and then come to a sudden halt.

"I thought it was absolutely beautiful," he said. "I think they were communicating with their brotherhood."

Two years earlier, outside a church in Glendale, Calif., Phillips said he was on his way to a night service when he spotted a hovering craft and could somehow see inside. He saw what he described as pilots who "look just like us, only a smaller version."

Phillips, now a construction contractor in Glendale, swears he would tell the same stories to Congress under oath, if only someone on Capitol Hill would listen.

He was one of 20 former military or government employees who described their contacts with UFOs at an unusual news conference Wednesday organized by a group called the Disclosure Project.

Group director Steven Greer said he wanted to pressure Congress to hold hearings about extraterrestrials, which would be the first such session since the House Science and Astronautics Committee addressed the issue in 1968.

The organization, which aims to promote the existence of aliens, pointed to Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., as an ally in Congress who would take up the charge of investigating extraterrestrials.

"We have no record of a meeting with (Greer), and he's not involved with the issue. There are a lot of things on his plate," said a Byrd staffer who refused to be identified. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., also was offered as a proponent. His staff said it would check but did not report back.

Greer said the country could benefit from the study of extraterrestrials because he said they use new technologies that could solve the energy crisis. He also warned that weapons in space will cause other life forms to believe Earth is hostile.

The participants told their stories during a three-hour session. Most of their stories took place 40 to 50 years ago, and in some cases were second-hand. All ended their accounts by saying they would testify before Congress that they spoke the truth.

• Retired Navy Cmdr. Graham Bethune, a pilot, said he saw an object with bright lights glow near Newfoundland in 1951.

• John Callahan, who once worked at the Federal Aviation Administration, said he had video and audio cassettes detailing a 1986 incident involving extraterrestrials and the military.

Greer, who said he is a licensed emergency physician, said the panel was screened, and he believes they told the truth about their encounters. He admitted it was possible he could have been fooled.

"The group before you are very credible. We have done very serious interviewing," he said.

Art Bell, who hosts a late-night radio show from Pahrump, said extraterrestrial sightings should be taken seriously.

He said he saw a triangular craft floating about 150 feet above him one night in September 1996 as he was driving in Pahrump. The craft seemed to defy gravity 10 minutes, then darted toward Groom Lake, also known as Area 51, the classified Air Force base where UFO theorists say the government keeps evidence of flying saucers and aliens from outer space.

"There is a significant body of evidence, some of what you heard today, that is pretty damn credible," Bell said.