Project Blue Book file: Trinidade Island, 16 Jan 1958

ROB MERCERj C,l ::i t s that more than one UFO may have been op -
the area, and that the Sebago's radar may have
u ~e th:m one of them. A/IC Me y' s report is fairly
·,T;ith the 5:18 radar repor.t of the UFO headed north
00 mph. If Mey actually saw the UFO at 5:28, it would
, :ed about 1590 mph., from the time it f::tded from the
:adl r screen . If he saw it precisely at 5;20 a.m., it
I.' h;J.d to accelerate to nearly 8000 mph. to cover the
,th:l t time).
the Sebago regained radar contact, and also saw the
!Jy for 3- 5 seconds as a brilliant white object with no
.,blc sr.a,pe. It was at a bearing of 270 degrees true
·...:lt ion :lbout 31 d.egrees, moving . horizontally from
m h. (A navigator obtained the elevation by noting a
, !i;\nlC angle and t:l.king :l sextant reading of it). The
,. ('ate rcd :l cloudbank and disappeared.
t~. 1.! cutte r reporte d its last radJ.r conta.ct with the
~t liS miles to the north, traveling about 660 mph.
:ton XlI, November 1957 chronology, for othel' :-epo r ts
!>J.me period.)
196i; Mis sile Base
:1:11 re;.o rt cer: : fi cd b y NreAP Director Don:lld
and As::;i st:l.:lt Dircc.o . ,Lc;,a ,d Hall. Du nn ~ the
olid fuel mi ss il e , ~· ;:da :;- \ ; . ,,-:;1 . w;.s supposed tv track
~;.":L" ir. s!.c a.d h ·:lckco :l U;70 t :1 r gct. T est e .... ~: u:l. t ion
. " ;"" , ... ........ ' , J I
PH OTOGRAPHS
The phologmp/lic Ilwle J"i(l1 lI s ted beloll' has heen
el.'a{llat cd wilh tllis priJl ci/l/C ill milld; A s till pltolnKY"a/l /t
pl/rportillg to sllOlI' (l UFO is . fit /llDsl. aNJl'oxilllrdclyas
r eliable (I S Ihe pcrs on 11'ItO t oo /~ it. If the will/ess i s a
r epll table pers all lind fill pCl-til/CIlI data i s prodded . his
photognll)1I d eserves carc/ul allalysis. WlIe,·c clwracle r
il/foY/natioll a(wlil the witness is iacllin,r:. the pJIO!ograp/l
is 0/ less L·aluc a lld it is necessary to ·suspclld judgment
about it . Still pllOlogmphs call be jaked VC1·), easily. III
g cncral, mov ie jilms (lre more uailfalJic beCl"lllse they
are more difficult to/aile , and IIID)'C slIbiect 10 analysis
illdepclUie llLly o/Ihe cha .. ·acler ojlhe willl·ess.
I
NICAP Adviser Ralph Rankow, a professional photographer
in Ne w York City, gave the following estimate of ~:-,v"ographic
evidence for UFOs:
"Everyone knows that photographs can be faked, but the real
ques tion is, to what e,.-tent can the y b e faked? We have seen
Hollywood movies of realistic dinosaurs fi ghting one anothe r.
We have· seen dams break and towns washed away by the flood
waters . We have seen naval b attles and ships blown up right
before our eyes . In one movie I even saw Moses hold back the
waters of the Red Sea. These were all very realistic scenes, and
we had to keep reminding ourselves that what we were seeing was
a Hollywood movie and not a real event.
If these complicated scenes can be photographed po real-
istically why can't a simple thing like a UFO be faked? The
answer, of .course , is that it can, and what's more it has-- time
. and time again. A UFO ca n be any shape, not just saucer or
Cigar shaped_ This makes it very easy to fake by anyone, and
furthe rmore any unintentional mark on a Cilm can be, and some -
times is claimed to be a UFO .
U mode l airplanes C:ln be photographed to look real, then
so can mode l UFO's. This does not mean that the re are no air· ....
planes, just because we are eacily abletofake a picture to repre j
sent one. In the Saltle way, the ability to fake a UFO photog raph oJ.
in no way implies that these things do not exist.
This is just to point up the extreme difficulty of determining
whether or not a photograph is authentic on just the unsupported
word of one or two witnesses who mayor may not be reliable.
In truth, no photograph , no matter how clear it may be, can be
considered. evidence of UFO reality without a reliable wltness.
NOW, this brings us to the question oC what m akes a reliable
witness? One need not be a famous person who se nam e we all
know, in order to be termed "reliable" . A man's credentials
give him reliability, not his vocation. Is he a mature individual
or one given to playing tricks? What is the opinion of him held
by those who . know him best? Questions of this nature will help
to determ ine how responsible and trustworthy an ind ividual we
a r e dealing with .
It is only when a photograph is vouched for by such a ve r-
acious individual that it becomes important as evidence ."
In ad<;iition to the question of witness re liability, analysis of
photographic evidence for UFOs is complicated by other facto rs.
Many of the potentially mo s t signiCic:l.nt pictures were taken b efore
NICAP was formed.in 1956. Belate d attempts to obt:l.in all the
ne c essary d:lt.... for full :lnalysis have proved e::-..-tre mely difficult.
Since then, quite a few of the se e min~ ly b etter movie films and
photog raphs were submitted to the Air Force, rather than to
NICAP. hy citize ....s unaware of NICAP's exi~tence. Secrecy and
red tape thereupon obscured the facts. In some cases , because of
the confUSion sur r ounding the UFO subject and reports of tampe r -
ing with or confi s cation of films [Section IXl, witnesses have re -
fused·to ~i vc up their films for analysis .
Becausc oC t.1-:Ic s e problems , we consider it appropriate merel ~
to list photog raphiC evide nce known to exi s t. This will SIlPiJ1}
reCcrcnce~ to data which would ne ed to be an:l.lyzc d thorou~ hly III
any co mplete scienti fic investiga tion of u FO::; . We h..1.ve al.::;o at-
tem pted to rate each casco according to ltS probablc signiHc:loc c
;; s e vi dence . T he codes oc law i r,,·: i c; ·,~ ~ ':l.hn~ , (lIm o:l ta , ar.d
': ::, ~ : ;~: \~.. ..::. ......... ,- ..... ; ;'".;~G co~: r.:.·,. :-
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