The Seattle Times Friday, May 8, 1987

60,000 sightings can't be wrong, Seattleite insists, "The bottom line is: Don't
believe me, but do read what is available." Dale Goudie

By Peter Lewis Times Staff Reporter
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In their most commonly reported form, the aliens have large heads and stand 3
to 4 feet tall.  Their enormous eyes rest under a transparent helmet. Clad in
jumpsuits adorned with insignias, the humanoids walk in sure, positive
movements.  Far out?  Maybe so, but that's where they probably come from.  And
Seattle resident Dale Goudie has talked to people who say they've seen them.
Goudie has spent the past 14 years researching UFOs and using the Freedom of
Information Act to collect federal documents that he contends prove UFOs exist.
The official position of the U.S. Air Force, for example, is that it got out of
the UFO business when Project Bluebook ended in 1969.  But Goudie says the
Bluebook was succeeded by Project Aquarius.  Since 1942, there have been an
estimated 60,000 UFO sightings in the United States alone and only 5 percent of
sightings are actually reported, Goudie says.  Feeding characteristics of the
60,000 sightings into a computer, 250 different shapes emerged, suggesting to
Goudie that there may be more than one species involved in UFOs.  "The bottom
line is: Don't believe me, but do read what is available," says Goudie, who has
dedicated a room in his home to countless files and papers on UFOs.  "The real
problem is, no one wants to take the responsibility of telling the American
public this (UFOs) is real."  Consider a series of once classified material on
Project Aquarius: An Air Force document dated Nov. 17, 1980, from the Office of
Special Investigations at Rolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., to OSI at
Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico refers to a "request for photo imagery
interpretation."  Other papers indicate that the request stemmed from a series
of "alleged sightings of unidentified aerial lights" over the Manzano Wepons
Storage Area at Kirtland between Aug. 8 and Sept. 3, 1980.  An analysis of at
least two pictures of the sightings concluded that the film was unaltered and
that they were "legitimate negative(s) of (an) unidentified aerial object,"
according to the Nov. 17, 1980, document.  Of the two confirmed sightings, one
"contained a trilateral insignia on the lower portion of objects..."  The
document also states: "The official U .S. government policy and results of
Project Aquarius is still classified top secret with no dissemination outside
official intelligence channels. ...Because of a chance of public disclosure, no
knowledgeable personnel with SPA (it's not clear if SPA stands for Special
Project Aquarius, or something else) will be provided..."  But another Air
Force document dated Jan. 25,1983, says "possible unauthorized release of
classified material" cast doubt on the authenticity of the Nov. 17, 1980,
document.  The later document says the earlier one included nonexistent
officers, and it sought to discredit the validity of the purported imagery
interpretation.  When a Freedom of Information request letter dated Feb. 20,
1986, sought information on Project Aquarius, the National Security Agency
responded, in part, with a letter dated March 3, 1986: "Please be advised that
Project Aquarius does not deal with unidentified aerial objects.  We,
therefore, have no information to provide you on the subject."  But when Sen.
John Glenn wrote the National Security Agency on Jan. 7 of this year on behalf
of a constituent who was having trouble getting responses to Freedom of
Information requests about Project Aquarius, the reply letter, dated Jan. 27,
said in part: "Apparently there is or was an Air Force project by that name
which dealt with UFOs.  Coincidentally, there is also an NSA project by that
name.  The NSA project does not deal with UFOs.. .."  It is Goudie's contention
that the responses about Project Aquarius demonstrate the government is saying
one thing and doing another.  He theorizes that the government is reluctant to
admit the existence of even one UFO because as soon as it does, it fears
opening the door to mass hysteria.  Spokesmen for the Pentagon, the Air Force
and the National Security Agency either declined comment or denied that any
government agency is actively investigating UFOs.  The Air Force quit studying
UFOs in 1969 after a $500,000 study conducted by the University of Colorado
concluded that "UFO phenomena do not offer a fruitful field in which to look
for major scientific discoveries," according to Capt. Jay DeFrank.  DeFrank
noted that in 1977, President Carter asked the National Aeronautic and Space
Administration to look into the possibility of resuming active investigation of
UFOs.  This is the same man who in 1973, when he was governor of Georgia, said,
"I don't laugh at people anymore when they say they have seen UFOs because I've
seen one myself."  NASA spokesman Dave Garrett recalls that agency's response
to the president:  "We said, 'Thank you, but no thank you.'  We have never been
in the business."  Dennis Chadwick, chief spokesman for the National Security
Agency at Fort George Meade in Maryland, an arm of the pentagon, would not say
whether NSA or any other government agency is actively investigating UFOs.
Goudie, a 45-year-old freelance ad man and former TV talk-show producer, is not
deterred by the government's stance.  Two years ago, he established a
computerized UFO bulletin board - CUFON (for Computer UFO Network) - that has
more than 1,400 members.  It spits out information, free of charge, to anyone
with a computer and a modem.  He also runs UFO Information Service
International, a global network of UFO sightings, and Puget Sound Aerial
Phenomena Research Inc.  None of these enterprises, he says, is a money-making
operation.  Goudie says he and others like him have been helped in their many
Freedom of Information requests by military personnel who want the public to
know about UFOs, but who can't afford to be named.  Many of the documents he's
obtained indicate that "suspicious unknown air activity" has occurred at
top-security military installations where nuclear weapons are stored.  The
documents relating to UFOs dropping in on Air Force bases have been published
elsewhere - and professional skeptics such as Phillip Klass, an editor with
"Aviation Week & Space Technology," have written books debunking the
authenticity of those and others sightings.  But Goudie notes the government
itself has never volunteered any information, much less any explanations, about
UFOs at military bases.  "You can explain anything away," says Goudie,
referring to Klass and the other debunkers.  "But these aren't solid answers."
Goudie also says he has consulted with "optical physicists" who have performed
"video-negative photoanalysis" of videotapes of UFOs to substantiate that the
object are not of this earth.  Goudie also says he has interviewed about 40
people over the years who claim to have been abducted by UFOs.  All occurred in
rural areas, including some episodes outside Redmond, in Maple Valley and north
of Seattle.  He thinks about three-fourths of them are telling the truth.  In
many cases, the victims have suffered physical scars that they didn't have
before their encounter, Goudie says.  "I've tried to get these people to come
forward.  They don't want anything to do with newspapers.  They're scared to
death of losing their jobs..."  Considering the threat to national security and
the risk to civilians, Goudie believes the government has an obligation to be
more forthcoming.  You don't have to look to far away places for physical
evidence of UFOs, according to Goudie.  He has a videotape of an object flying
over Tacoma in 1982, enhanced by a process known as "video photo analysis"
which allows the viewer to see vertical and horizontal lines within what Goudie
calls "the plasma" that covers the true shape within.  He expects the video to
air on Sunday's "Town Meeting" on KOMO.  Television, specifically a Dick Cavett
show that aired in 1973, started Goudie's preoccupation with UFOs.  He's since
appeared on CNN's Larry King Show and CBS-TV network news shows, among others.
He spent countless hours and dollars pursuing UFOs.  His goal, he says, is to
see the subject become an area of serious scientific inquiry.  "I'm doing it
because I think people deserve the facts, and no one's taking the time to do
it."