FATE Magazine
Feb 25, 202110 min
FATE Magazine- April 2009
A slow progression from American UFO mythology to tangible reality...
Years ago, John A. Keel observed that wherever there were advancements in human science and development, the UFO would be present, quietly (most of the time
at least) observing our progress. Like most of the annoying and often outrageous statements made by Keel throughout the years, this one has proven accurate.
Paying heed to his wisdom is what led to the discovery of a most perplexing artifact.
Adhering to “Keel’s Law,” I established relationships with vintage photograph dealers and scientists, making it known that I had an interest in examining and collecting photos from expeditions and scientific endeavors of all kinds in an effort to spot a UFO presence, especially from periods before public knowledge of such phenomena.
Around 1999, a photographic dealer
contacted me to ask if I had an interest in two expedition photos of undetermined origin from sometime in the 1920s or ’30s. He speculated they were from the North Polar Region. After corresponding with him and examining digital images that he had emailed to me, I noticed that one of the shots featured a suspect “spot” in the night sky. The photos had been sealed long ago into standard wood frames, with heavy brown paper glued at the back. For a mere $20, I agreed to purchase them.
As I patiently awaited the arrival of these antiques, something about the photo with the anomalous image nagged at me. It seemed strangely familiar, but I couldn’t place how or why. The second photo showed a crew of men busying themselves around an airplane counter- sunk in the ice, but offered no clues as to why the other photo would puzzle me so.
An Unexpected Discovery
Finally, the artifacts arrived, exactly as described by my vintage photographic friend: two old frames containing photos that displayed every indication that they had not been removed since their original placement,still fully sealed in the heavy brown paper. I looked at the sus- pect photo first and immediately recognized the all-too-familiar UFO object. Staring at the image under the dusty glass, I discovered additional abnormal objects that had not been visible in the emailed
scans. A total of four UFO objects at vary- ing distances occupied the night sky above the base camp that was the central focus of the photo.
Still, I could not place the nagging familiarity of the image. The photo was marked “B.A.E.” at the bottom right corner, an important clue, but it didn’t spark any particular association. The other photo offered no clues at all. I determined that the photos would have to be removed from their frames in hopes of finding something contained with or written on them that would help with identification.
It seemed a shame to remove them after more than 70 years of undisturbed preservation, but my curiosity and duties as a researcher argued the importance of it. Very carefully I removed the paper backing, then the rusty nails holding the cardboard backing, and finally the card- board. What I saw explained my familiar- ity, but left me in a state of shock. On the back of each photo, clearly stamped in purple ink, were the words: “REAR AD- MIRAL RICHARD E. BYRD” and “TO BE RETURNED TO THE POND BU- REAU 25 W. 43rd ST., NEW YORK.”
No wonder it seemed so familiar. This was the famous Little America base of Byrd’s unprecedented Antarctic expedition of 1928–30.“B.A.E.,”it was now clear, stood for “Byrd Antarctic Expedition.” Byrd is hailed as a most important and influential explorer, pioneering and defining research at both the North and South Polar regions. These photos documented the first of his five groundbreaking Antarctic expeditions. For the very first time since his historic return in 1930, actual physical documentation of the Byrd UFO story had surfaced.
A Humbling Discipline Indeed
I was aware of the Byrd UFO myth, featuring wild, preposterous, and often obnoxious stories: Hollow Earth theories, secret Nazi UFO bases in Antarctica, UFOs seizing Byrd’s plane for a journey to the center of the Earth, encounters with prehistoric wildlife, the lost-then-found- then-lost-again “secret Byrd diaries.” It all seemed unworthy of serious consideration, a maze of mythology that I had no desire to get lost in. It was an interest- ing story, but lacked the sup- port of witness testimony and documentation. According to the work of Dr. Frank E. Stranges, Richard Shaver, Ray Palmer, Dr. Raymond Bernard, and others, many explorers have reported warm, green landscapes in the central arctic regions.
There is also much evidence that the Nazis were working on the development of UFO-like technological craft, but whether any of these secret projects took place in Antarctica remains debatable. A public relations campaign followed each of Byrd’s expeditions, featuring documentary films, public lectures, and book releases and signings. After the initial Little America expedition, Byrd made some very mysterious remarks regarding “the greatest dis- covery in history” and the existence of a “New Land.” It seems unlikely that he was referring to penguins or the sub-zero wastelands of the arctic world. There are no further references contained in his lectures, documentaries, or books. The meaning of Byrd’s cryptic remarks re-
mains unknown.
Byrd was a primary figure in the development of top secret U.S. military projects such as Operation High Jump and Operation Deep Freeze, both of which appear to still be active today. It is entirely possible that Nazi and/or UFO activities may have served as the catalyst for such U.S. military concentration and the Byrd expeditions to the Poles.
It is widely recognized that John D. Rockefeller and the Rockefeller legacy is tied to many U.S. government conspiracies, cover-ups, and shenanigans. Rockefeller funded the Byrd expeditions (with ties to the Office of Naval Intelligence), and also owned the office that served as Byrd’s publicist, the Pond Bureau.
In Byrd’s first book Little America, published in 1930, you will find this same photograph, but there is something dif- ferent: the UFOs, the strange cloud at the top center, and even the stars in the sky have all been removed.
What was the true function of the Pond Bureau? Most likely it was to operate with the Office of Naval Intelligence to insure that what the public saw was cleared of any indications of what was really going on.
In Way over My Head
After a few years in secretive posses- sion of the photo, I made an unsettling discovery. Records indicate that Byrd spent some time in the mid-1950s at- tempting to leak his arctic secrets to the public through several journalists, all of whom died shortly thereafter. I had no
intention of joining that list, so I kept the photo’s existence to myself.
A careful cross-reference, using souvenir photographs of the same image (minus the UFO visitors) released in 1930 confirmed that the photographic mate- rials as well as the same distinctive purple official ink used to stamp them were authentic. I even searched for photo- graphic anomalies in film exposed to sub- zero conditions and found nothing like what I was looking at here.
Analysis utilizing magnification, light blasting, and grey-scaling edge enhancement computer applications confirmed the objects were indeed original to the photograph, as opposed to surface or neg- ative flaws or tampering with its development. There was absolutely no doubt that this was a photograph of UFOs utilizing plasma-generated technology.
Only a few trusted colleagues knew about the photo, and fewer were allowed to see and receive copies of it in case of my demise. If anything happened to me or the original artifact, it was important that at least a few possessed copies.
I was able to meet up and consult with perhaps the greatest journalist in American history, Jim Marrs. If Marrs could blow the whistle on a case as sensitive as the JFK assassination and still be breath- ing, he must know his business! We dis- cussed it over dinner and it appeared that my homework was accurate as it coincided with what he’d learned in 20 years of research into the topic, including the mysterious deaths of at least five journalists who were in contact with Byrd. He was eager to see the artifact. Jim advised me to desensitize the artifact by mass pub- lic exposure, which I achieved at the World UFO and Paranormal Expo in Denver, Colorado, in November 2004. Once a sensitive secret is exposed, there is no reason to utilize terminal force as preventing the exposure has already failed.
At the Laughlin, Nevada, UFO conference in 2004, Jim and I sat in frustration staring at the artifact. It seemed every lead to anyone that Byrd might have spoken to about it brought us only to graveyards. Rob Simone sat nearby, quietly absorbing the discus- sion, debate, and brainstorm- ing that occurs during such highly charged conferences. He happened to overhear our dilemma.
“You guys are looking for someone who flew with Byrd?” he asked.
Jim and I eagerly acknowledged, “Yes!”
“There’s one sitting right behind you,” Simone casually replied, and sure enough, right behind us sat Graham Bethune. We were familiar with Bethune’s involvement in UFO research but neither I nor Jim had any idea that he’d flown with Byrd, and on two different missions. Bethune lived two miles from Byrd for a period and they became close friends. Marrs and I scooped up our note- books and microcassette recorder, and moved over to introduce ourselves. Bethune and his lovely associate Maria B. Thomé of the National Space Society (an international aerospace sciences network) were very welcoming and receptive to our request, almost as if they had been patiently awaiting the day when such evi- dence would come to light.
Progress At Last
“That’s amazing! This is just great; I’ve told people about this but they never believe me.” Bethune said with ecstatic enthusiasm as he stared transfixed at the UFO image. “No question about it. These bright spots here are crystals. It works [on] crystalline energy. What it is, is it picks up particles out of the atmosphere and converts it into electromagnetic charges.”
It seemed Jim and I were about to receive a crash course education on Pleiadian UFO propulsion technology. I was quick to point out that these distinctive qualities of UFO entry into our atmosphere were not unfamiliar to modern ufology. “I think the initial charge is being made [referring to the top right object] and that’s why it glows around the edges, and you see these little points of light [pointing to the lower right object’s edges]? Those points of light are still present on the one that’s fully charged and you can see the fragmentation there by these little points around the edges. This has been seen, this ionized air-plasma effect has been seen as late as the 1979 [now as late as 2001] and these modern photo- graphs show this exact same quality and texture.”
All agreed, being familiar with the
modern photos to which I referred. “And those are atoms,” Thomé added. If you look closely at the fully charged
UFO, you will notice that the metallic craft is still visible within the plasma envelope of charged air particles.
Bethune confirmed that the photo had been shot during Byrd’s first expedition in Antarctica, and was able to pro- vide us with technological progressions and timelines of such to validate this fact.
“That’s a Pleiadian craft near Antarctica,” he said, “and this, [pointing to the power lines of the radio towers], they can charge that up if this is electricity.”
“Do you see?” Thomé asked, point- ing towards the charge of the closest craft at the lower right. “Our division of space propulsion laboratory aerospace center is developing a rocket moved by plasma. That means a variable circuit impulse magnetic plasma rocket. And everything is here,” she said, referring to the technologies displayed by the UFO.
According to Bethune, the “secret Byrd diaries” were a fabrication. Byrd never mentioned any meetings with beings in the Earth’s interior as the diaries describe, but he did confirm that the Nazis had acquired UFO technologies from Pleiadian and Sirian sources, who broke contact when Hitler came into power. Thankfully, it would appear that the technologies shared with the Nazis were in- complete, and they were unable to perfect or complete their UFO war fleet.
From his military and intelligence ex- perience, Bethune had a wide knowledge of the alien beings occupying under- ground bases and caverns on our planet.
Out of the Past, into the Unknown...
What was the purpose of these mys- terious contacts taking place in this des- olate outpost at the edge of eternity? Did Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd per- sonally possess this photo? Without a doubt: the dating of photographic and framing materials in conjunction with the original stamping and ink used clearly in- dicate this. Did Byrd smuggle these un- censored photos from the ONI and casually seal them into these frames for the purpose of future generations to one day discover the truth? I’m inclined to be- lieve he did; I find no other reasonable options to explain them. There can be no mistake about the objects: they are defi- nitely UFOs utilizing plasma technology.
The strange events that fuel the mys- tique of Antarctica do not end with the Byrd mystery, the Hollow Earth theory, and secret Nazi and U. S. military opera- tions involving UFOs. Strange transmis- sions of unknown signals and mysterious disappearances add to this menagerie of mayhem as well.
Since the dawn of Nikola Tesla’s radio- frequency experiments, there have been records of VLF (very low frequency) signals that appear intelligent. Many of these signals have been determined to come from Earth itself.
As related by John A. Keel, the National Bureau of Standards in 1965 dis- patched a young scientist, Carl Robert Disch, to the Little America base to invesitigate such VLF signals. On May 7, he van- ished without a trace while traveling just a short distance, despite using a hand line to guide him. When he didn’t arrive at the main station after nearly an hour, his fellow crewmates began a search. Oddly enough, Dirsch’s own dog Gus would also disappear just as mysteriously as he did.
The search for Dirsch lasted three days and spanned a 35-mile area but turned up no clues as to the fate of the missing scientist and his husky. Search crews did, however, report strange lights and engine sounds in the distance that could not be identified or accounted for.
Unknown Forces
The mystery of the Byrd expeditions, like the Shaver mystery and so many oth- ers that have taunted mankind since our beginnings, is a metaphor for the UFO enigma itself. The human race is in need of help, and it would appear that these unknown forces have been assisting us all along. But their help has been wrongfully utilized to manipulate the minds of the masses into ideologies of politics and religion in pursuit of control, hindering the chance of progressive development and relentlessly obscuring the intended mes- sage. As history proves over and again, we are prone to allow others to think for us, and that tendency has led us down into ages of darkness.
Something monumental indeed occurred with Byrd and his crew out there in the middle of this desolate no man’s land: “Little America, the loneliest city in the
world...”.It was something so important it remains hidden from the eyes of the world, enshrouded in the frozen mists of time forever...
Focusing on possibly the greatest phenomena of all time, this book documents many fascinating, long forgotten events, from the Kenneth Arnold sighting to the Hopkinsvlle goblins and beyond, with everything in between. Summarizes the careers of important personalities in the field. Approaches the subject of UFOs from a historical perspective, arranging sightings by date.