Another UFO update

 

UFO Update

Anonymous low-level informants have for years accused the U.S.  government

of hiding crashed UFOs.  Since these sources are of uncertain reliability,

the  reports have  been largely  ignored.  Now,  however, ufologists  must

consider  the testimony  of Robert  Sarbacher,  whose entry  in WHO'S  WHO

consists  of more  than 3  inches of  tiny print,  including education  at

Princeton and Harvard  and a stint as  dean of the graduate  school of the

Georgia Institute of Technology.  In the years after WWII, the story goes,

Sarbacher  served as  a science  consultant for  the Defense  Department's

Joint Research and Development Board.  He  was in his Washington office on

September  15, 1950,  it seems,  when he  received a  visit from  Canadian

electrical engineer Wilbert B.  Smith.   According to information released

by Smith just recently, it was  then that Sarbacher revealed the existence

of  crashed UFOs,  apparently under  investigation by  Vannevar Bush,  the

government's top scientist.

In a recent interview, Sarbacher, now  head of the Washington Institute of

Technology, confirmed  those remarks.  He says  that during his  period of

government service as one of a  number of government scientists who served

largely as volunteers, he  was told that the vehicles were  composed of an

"extremely  light  and  very  tough"   material,  apparently  intended  to

withstand  tremendous  acceleration  and   deceleration.   At  one  point,

Sarbacher says, he was  even invited to a meeting at  Wright Patterson Air

Force Base  in Dayton,  Ohio, where  officials related  their findings  to

scientists connected with  the Research and Development  Board.  Sarbacher

had other  commitments and did  not attend the  meeting, but he  says that

those who  did, including Bush and  noted mathematician John  von Neumann,

were told that  the vehicles appeared to be spaceships  from another solar

system.

Asked about his reaction to the  episode, Sarbacher seems oddly blase.  He

admits he hasn't given much thought to a matter most people would consider

extraordinary -- he considers it simply a curious event in the course of a

long scientific  career.  "After all,"  he says, "I had  -- and have  -- a

great  many more  pressing scientific  responsibilities.  I  wish I  could

refer you to someone who was more  directly involved than I was," he adds.

"Unfortunately, they're all long gone."

Writer William  Moore, who  has been  chasing government  UFO secrets  for

years, considers Sarbacher's testimony significant.   "It's the first time

someone with  a reputation  has come  forward to  state publicly  that the

Pentagon has a recovered UFO," he says.  "This isn't proof, of course, but

it fits in with information we have from other sources." Informed of these

claims, Temple  University history professor  David M.  Jacobs,  author of

THE  UFO  CONTROVERSY  IN  AMERICA,  admits  Sarbacher's  credentials  are

impressive but  observes, "Until  somebody can  produce an  actual crashed

saucer, this is hearsay  evidence.  And how can he talk  so casually about

something that  would have  to be  the most  sensational event  in all  of

history?"