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A Flying Saucer Lands in the Italian Alps

As Britain's distinguished researcher Gordon Creighton pointed out in his accompanying notes to this report, there are striking resemblances—disc shape, low central cupola, and shiny metallic antenna—to the disputed photographs of a flying disc and its humanoid occupant taken in 1952 by the thirty-year-old Italian engineer Giampiero Monguzzi, in the presence of his wife, on the Alps (see photo section).

Many researchers have arbitrarily confuted the photos, insisting that models were used. Having a particular prejudice to antennae sticking out of flying saucers and aliens wearing Apollo-type spacesuits (if long before such were used), I initially thought the same. But later, as an experienced photographer, I noted that the depth of field and everything else in the pictures appear proportionately correct in comparison with his written report. And in addition to parallels with the Johannis case, there are others.

Monguzzi's pictures are widely known among students of the subject. His actual report, however, is not.

On the morning of July 31, 1952—a few days after a second wave of flying saucer sightings was reported that month and tracked over Washington, D.C.—Monguzzi and his wife were on a climbing trip near the Cherchen glacier on the Italian side of the Bernina massif, a little to the south of St. Moritz.

“Suddenly, I felt something uncanny around us,” begins his account. “A
cold wind had been blowing all the time from the summits, and we had just remarked that it sounded like a music chord, similar to that heard in the sails of a boat. But quite suddenly, this noise had stopped completely although we could still see the wind blowing up snow on the mountain rims. And then we noticed that we couldn't even hear our own heavy footsteps on the gravel and icy ground, and we could no longer hear our voices, though we were quite near each other. I saw my wife's mouth move but failed to detect a sound. It was an uncanny, compact silence which surrounded us, a strange kind of vacuum.
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“Suddenly, my wife grasped my arm with a frightened look in her eyes, and I also got a real shock, because no farther than 200 meters from where we stood, an enormous object had settled on the rim of the glacier, silently. It appeared to have come from below, from the valley beneath the glacier—certainly not from above. My first guess was that of a plane trying to land, but the object had no wings. Looking at it, I grew more and more uneasy. The ice around us reflected the light, blinding me, as did the sun's rays coming from my right. I turned away, trying not to look at the object again. We both hid ourselves behind a rock. The uncanny silence around still prevailed. I did not even try to talk again—I wouldn't have dared to open my mouth.

“After some moments I gathered enough courage to cast a glimpse over the rock. The strange craft was still there. I now dared to approach it and slithered down on the gravel for about 50 meters. I couldn't go any farther without losing my foothold on the ice.

“I now recognized clearly that it was a round silvery disc with a diameter of approximately ten meters and a height of about three meters. As usual, I had my camera
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over my shoulder and, becoming bolder, looked through the viewfinder and shot my first picture. But as I failed to hear the usual click, I felt uncertain and shot a second one. For a few more moments the disc lay there in front of me without showing any sign of life.

“But then suddenly I noticed a man beside the craft, wearing a kind of diving-bell which reflected the sun's rays like metal. The figure seemed to move toward me. Instinctively, I shot another picture, although my legs felt as though glued to the ground, as if paralyzed.

“The man seemed not to notice me. He now changed direction and
started walking slowly around his disc, as if inspecting it. After every two or three steps he stopped, looking upward to the perimeter of the vehicle. His movements seemed to be hindered somewhat by his dress. In his hand he held an instrument like a flashlight. The figure was not clearly outlined and gave the impression that his dress was of a furry material.

“I fail to remember how long this procedure took, but I would estimate that no more than five minutes had elapsed since the landing of the craft. From the spot where I stood, I was unable to see the whole object; rather, I was seeing its lower part. Nonetheless, I could observe an antenna coming out on the top, and there seemed to be another antenna on the man's ‘rucksack.' The pilot, having finished his inspection, showed up once more on the other side of the disc. I presumed that there was an entrance on the side hidden from me. I shot some more pictures.

“After a while, I noticed that part of the completely smooth-surfaced hull seemed to be turning around: the movement might have involved a third of the hull. And suddenly, the craft shot up in the air, noiselessly, hovering a few seconds at a height of approximately ten meters. Then, like a lift, it shot upward toward the summits of the Bernina massif. I had had enough time, however, to note that the antenna had retracted and that the upper part of the craft seemed to have a number of portholes or hatches. I managed to shoot another two pictures of the departing disc, and while the distance grew, I felt life coming back to my legs. My voice also returned.

“I looked at my watch. It was exactly 09:27. Still very confused, and with shaking knees, I went to the rock where my wife was hiding. She had followed everything with her own eyes and was still pale and disconcerted. After a while we went to the landing spot, looking for traces or tracks on the ground, but found none. The snow was absolutely icy. For a while I wondered, however, why the disc, with quite a weight of its own, had left no imprints, but then I remembered that it had hovered at a height of ten meters, and I realized it could also have done this at ten centimeters off the ground. Our own shoes left no marks either, by the way….”
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In 1958, my Swiss friend Louise (“Lou”) Zinsstag, a distinguished
researcher, sent a letter to the Swiss military airfields administration, enclosing a copy of an article which included one of the Monguzzi photos. She received a reply from the operations unit a few days later:

“It is with great interest that we read the article…. Above all, we are astonished and surprised by the revealing photographic material, especially the picture taken by the Italian engineer Monguzzi in the Bernina massif which shows a landed flying machine with a human figure beside it.

“As we were looking at that photo we asked ourselves if engineer Monguzzi was able to witness the take-off of this flying saucer. Do we know whether he might have had the opportunity to locate some other witnesses who observed the machine before it took off?

“We must strongly emphasize that our question implies no doubt about the genuineness of the object photographed; it arises from a sincere and intense interest in all the questions it raises, and we would be very grateful if you could reply to us.

“We look forward immensely to your reply and thank you for your trouble….”
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A copy of the original letter in German appears on p. 44. Unfortunately, I do not recall the outcome of this correspondence, but I am sure that Lou sent the administration copies of all seven photos, together with a copy of the article written for
Epoca
, which would have resolved their questions.

Feeling certain of having taken the pictures of the year and planning to sell them at a good price, Monguzzi and his wife went to Milan. The engineer—a member of the Edison Society of Italy—showed them to his friends, to his manager, and to some newspaper reporters. But nobody believed him: all were certain that they were clever fakes. A heated controversy arose in the Edison Society with the result that Monguzzi lost his membership—and later his job.
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Would a hoaxer have gone that far?

A letter from the Swiss Directorate of Military Aerodromes to researcher Louise Zinsstag confirming their conviction as to the authenticity of one of the series of photographs taken by engineer Giampiero Monguzzi in the Italian Alps in July 1952.

Eisenhower and the Extraterrestrials

W
hy don't aliens contact our leaders? My reply to this frequently
asked question is that they have done so on a number of occasions, as attested by witnesses. Several such meetings involved President Dwight D. (“Ike”) Eisenhower and others in the mid-1950s, such as at Edwards/Muroc Air Force Base in February 1954, discussed later. There is also lesser-known related evidence supplied by Antonio Ribera, a distinguished Spanish researcher, citing an earlier visit to a base by Eisenhower—at that time U.S. Army Chief of Staff.

In Mexico in 1970, the publisher Guillermo Mendizábal Elizalde told Ribera that while attending a gathering during which a title was presented to Miguel Alemán Valdés, President of Mexico (1946–1952), the subject of flying saucers came up. Alemán listened in silence. But on being asked for his opinion, he revealed that when General Eisenhower had visited Mexico shortly before becoming president, he told Alemán that he had once been taken to an air base in the Southwest United States, where he had been shown “a flying disc and the cadavers of several of its crew members.”
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This report was confirmed by Leonard Stringfield, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, who learned from Dr. Robert S. Carr, a University of South Florida professor, that in 1948 General Eisenhower had been taken to see a craft and bodies captured at Aztec, New Mexico in
March 1948, and it was on his command that the secrecy lid was clamped down on the subject, and rigidly enforced.
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Since another crashed disc had reportedly been recovered that same year just across the Mexican border from Laredo, Texas, it is likely, in my view, that this might have prompted Eisenhower's revelation to Alemán.

Until several years ago, I remained unaware of another incident involving Eisenhower and extraterrestrials, reported to have occurred in February 1955. The noted researcher Art Campbell has been responsible for my education regarding what I now regard as compelling new testimony.

Campbell served his country during the Korean War at naval shore installations and with a fleet electronics unit aboard the aircraft carrier USS
Boxer
(CV-21). After leaving the Navy in the mid-1950s, he became active in UFO investigations, working with Major Donald E. Keyhoe's National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). Campbell is the author of an illuminating book on the recovery of a crashed disc on the Plains of San Augustin, New Mexico, in July 1947, in addition to several books on northwest pioneer history.

More recently, Campbell has uncovered a great deal of evidence that in 1955, President Eisenhower had another meeting with extraterrestrials, which took place at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico (currently home of the 49th Fighter Wing, Air Combat Command). The following is summarized from Campbell's investigation reports,
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as well as voluminous additional material which he has kindly furnished me over a lengthy period.

Quail Hunting

On February 9, 1955, Eisenhower announced to the press that he was going to Georgia for a few days' quail hunting, staying with the Secretary of the Treasury, George H. Humphrey, a millionaire industrialist who owned a plantation near Thomasville, Georgia. Others included in the trip were Humphrey's wife, the First Lady and her mother, and Clifford Roberts, a Wall Street banker.

The party left Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, on February 10 at 13:00 in Eisenhower's Air Force One,
Columbine III
, a new Lockheed VC-121E four-engined Super Constellation, with a crew of fourteen, piloted by Major William “Bill” Draper, who also had been Eisenhower's pilot during
World War II. Preceding the flight by about thirty minutes, a chartered plane-load of journalists from all the major networks flew to Spence Field, Moultrie, Georgia, some twenty-five miles north of Thomasville.
Columbine III
landed there two and a half hours later.

With its two thousand acres of prime bird-hunting land, Milestone Plantation suited Eisenhower's requirements for privacy. With the exception of a previously arranged photo op, none of the media was allowed on the grounds. “The plantation was so secure,” Art told me, “that Ike was able to go there four times in the 1950s. This was his second trip. The press was housed some eight miles away at Scott Hotel in Thomasville. James Hagerty, Ike's press secretary, gave daily international news and briefings in the hotel lounge.”

Many commentators wondered why the president had taken a few days' hunting trip at a time when international tensions were mounting. Fear of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union was paramount—and a very real threat. As the British journalist and historian Sir Max Hastings succinctly puts it: “A younger generation finds it hard to believe that it was plausible that America and the Soviet Union would come to nuclear blows. Armies and navies, together with fleets of bombers and batteries of missiles capable of destroying civilization many times over, confronted each other at instant readiness….”
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The hunting party reached the lodgings at Milestone, changed quickly, and reached the hunting area at about 17:30. Media attendees included well-known journalists Ed Darby of
Time
, John Edwards of ABC, and William Lawrence of
The New York Times
. Why all the prestigious press for a quail shoot? Perhaps the reason lay in the fact that a week earlier, Josef Stalin's replacement leader, Georgi Malenkov, had been forced to resign and was replaced by Marshal Nikolai Bulganin. “A famous military leader taking over an aggressive Cold War government gave the world a severe case of the jitters,” Campbell believes.

Arthur Godfrey

Campbell questions the presence of Arthur Godfrey on the trip. A famous television personality at the time, Godfrey's shows were watched by millions and helped define the first decade of 1950s television and radio. “What
was the one and only indomitable Arthur Godfrey doing on the president's plane?” asks Campbell. “He was not seated with Ike or his social guests in the main passenger section, but in the forward crew compartment with about a dozen others, including the flight crew and some Secret Service agents.”

According to news sources years later—including Ted Gup of
Time
magazine—Godfrey and Ed Murrow were part of a huge civil defense effort to assist the government in making pre-recorded taped messages to be transmitted on television and radio in the event of a nuclear attack. Campbell continues:

“Gup said in his article that a number of newsmen had taken oaths of secrecy and had agreed to accompany the president to the relocation site of his choosing, to lend their familiar names and voices to help calm the surviving audience. Recalling the separate press plane that accompanied Eisenhower to Spence air base and Thomasville, one wonders if any of these spokesmen were also along on this strange trip. Was this trip a true potential national emergency? Or another trial run of apparently many in those days?

“There were a number of facilities in the mid-1950s where government could relocate to in the event of a national emergency. One was an underground bunker named Mount Weather, near Godfrey's home in Berryville, Virginia, and another was a facility named Raven Rock, near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where Eisenhower and his cabinet convened on a number of ‘practice occasions.'”

Of incidental interest, Godfrey had flown for the Air Force and Navy in World War II. In 1965 he reported on his own show that he had been buzzed by a UFO while flying a light plane.
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The Witnesses

On the day following the arrival at Thomasville, James Hagerty reported that Eisenhower had come down with “the sniffles” and would be staying in for a while. He was not seen again for some thirty-six hours, having secretly been taken to Spence Field and flown in Air Force One to Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, together with a team of Secret Service aides and supervisors.

One of the many witnesses to the presence of Air Force One was Airman
2nd Class Manuel W. Kirklin, stationed at Holloman and assigned to the base hospital under the Flight Surgeon, Captain/Dr. Robert N. Reiner. Kirklin held clearance to Secret material at that time.

“In late February 1955,” relates Kirklin, “we heard that the president was coming to Holloman. I knew there was going to be an honor parade for him, scheduled for early in the morning. The day before it was due to take place, it was called off. Not only that, but I heard through the grapevine that the base commander [Colonel Frank D. Sharp] had requested leave covering the time the president was visiting. I thought this was unusual—I would have stayed on the base if I was the commanding officer and the president was visiting.” (Kirklin later realized that going on leave would allow Col. Sharp to give Eisenhower his undivided attention.)

Later, at the hospital, Dorsey E. Moore, the enlisted men's leading airman, asked Kirklin if he had seen a disc hovering over the flight line. Kirklin replied in the negative. “I'm thinking, a disc that you can throw,” he reports, “but the only thing that I knew that hovered was a helicopter and the Navy's hovercraft.” He asked what it was made of. “Metal,” said Dorsey, “like polished aluminum or stainless steel.”

“How big is it?”

“Twenty to thirty feet in diameter. Do you want to see it? Go out to the front of the hospital and look down at the flight line.”

“With my luck it wouldn't be there.”

“I took my wife to the commissary and it was there thirty minutes later. Go out to the front of the hospital and take a look.”

Concerned at leaving his post without permission, Kirklin asked the head nurse if he could go. She consulted the doctor, but permission was refused. Later, the airman happened to be walking behind two pilots and overheard their conversation regarding the event. One of the men, an Officer of the Day, was responding to questions from the other pilot relating to Eisenhower's visit. Kirklin asserts that the officer explained that after Air Force One landed, it had turned around and remained on the active runway. The base radar had then been turned off, after which two discs had approached the base at low altitude via the White Sands National Monument.

“One hovered overhead like it was protecting the other one,” explained
the officer. “The other one landed on the active runway in front of [Eisenhower's] plane. He got out of his plane and went toward it. A door opened, and he went inside for forty or forty-five minutes.” Asked by the other pilot whether he had seen the aliens, the officer replied that he had not: they stayed inside. Eisenhower then returned to his plane.

Later, at about 11:15, Kirklin went to pick up the mail, where he encountered a new 2nd Lieutenant supply officer who asked him if he had seen anything on the flight line. Kirklin replied in the negative.

“After work [about 16:30–16:45], I was in my barracks room when I was called out to see Air Force One fly overhead. It flew over the residential area of the base. This is a no-flying zone for all military aircraft—only the president could get away with it.”

After supper, Kirklin noticed that the lights were still on in the Flight Surgeon's office and went over to turn them off. There he saw and heard Dr. Reiner talking to a lieutenant colonel, who mentioned that the Commander-in-Chief (Eisenhower) had addressed 225 men, on two consecutive sessions, in the supply hangar and/or the base theater. Eisenhower spoke only for a few minutes on each occasion.

Asked by Reiner what had been discussed, the lieutenant colonel replied that the subject matter was classified “higher than Secret.” I share Art Campbell's opinion that since Eisenhower was supposed to be hunting in Georgia, base personnel were ordered not to mention his presence at Holloman. The actual purpose of the visit would obviously never have been disclosed to so many “uncleared” personnel.

Three months later, while serving in Japan, Kirklin was talking to some airmen, one of whom confirmed that he had heard Eisenhower talk at the base theater. The subject matter was not discussed. Kirklin also said that a mutual acquaintance had learned from a man who had been stationed at Holloman that people were still talking about Eisenhower's visit two years later.

Captain Joseph W. Kittinger, Jr. (retired), who was well acquainted with Kirklin at Holloman, is best known for his daredevil leaps from high-altitude helium balloons as part of research into high-altitude bailout, known as Project Excelsior, culminating in August 1960 when he jumped from
Excelsior III
at 102,800 feet (31,300 meters). In freefall in his pressure
suit for four and a half minutes, he reached Mach 0.9—almost the speed of sound. He served three combat tours in the Vietnam War, during which he commanded the F-4 Phantom 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron and vice-commanded the 432nd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing. He was shot down by a MiG fighter in 1972 and spent eleven months as a prisoner-of-war in the notorious “Hanoi Hilton.”
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What is much less known about Kittinger's background, as I discovered, is his extensive professional contact with Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a scientific consultant on UFOs to both the Air Force's Project Bluebook and the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI).
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I noted that part of their professional relationship involved, in 1962, Project Stargazer, a balloon-borne project to carry out astronomical studies at high altitude, Kittinger as balloon pilot and Hynek as astronomical adviser. In
The Roswell Report: Case Closed
—the Air Force's second book attempting to deny the July 1947 incident—Kittinger's sworn testimony states as follows:

“I worked very closely with Dr. Hynek over a period of five years from 1958 to 1963. Dr. Hynek would typically spend a half day working on Stargazer and then the rest of the day participating as one of the consultants on the UFO study, Project Bluebook, that was also conducted at Wright-Patterson AFB. [He] was very familiar with the techniques and capabilities of the Air Force high altitude balloon program [and] once approached me and we discussed at length the possibility that Air Force high altitude balloons were responsible for many UFO sightings…. I was therefore ‘flabbergasted' when Dr. Hynek appeared to believe that some of these sightings were of extraterrestrial origin.”
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