Out of the ordinary LOCAL CHAPTER OF NATIONAL GROUP INVESTIGATES AREA UFO SIGHTINGS BY STEVE SCHMIDT Northwest Arkansas Times
Posted on Sunday, October 12, 2008
ANDY SHUPE Northwest Arkansas Times State director Norm Walker, left, and Northwest Arkansas sectional director Doug Krueger pose in the Fayetteville Public Library’s Ann Henry Board Room, the same locale where they hold monthly meetings as the local chapter of the Mutual UFO Network.
Neither Norm Walker nor Doug Krueger have ever claimed to have encountered an unidentified flying object in person, but they’ve heard too many stories and accounts not take a proactive stance on the subject.
Every fourth Saturday of the month, the two men meet at the Fayetteville Public Library with fellow members of the Mutual UFO Network, more commonly known as MUFON. The meetings are open to anyone, especially those who might have had an encounter with the unexplainable.
“ We need people that have a sincere interest in the phenomenon, ” said Walker, a 69-year-old Tontitown resident who has served as the organization’s state director for more than two years. Walker and Krueger said that, on occasion, a new face or two shows up and eventually shares an experience he or she had. Cable TV shows such as “ UFO Hunters” and “ UFO Files” on the History Channel have made talking about such occurrences more acceptable, Krueger said. “ I think people are more likely to talk to us given that they see people talking to investigators on TV, ” he said. “ They see how the process works. They see the investigators are taking [observers ] seriously. ”
‘ Something in the sky ’ The meetings take place from 10 a. m. to noon in the Ann Henry Board Room. Krueger is no stranger to the room, which also serves as the meeting spot for other organizations he is a part of, including the Fayetteville Freethinkers. The group, which Krueger helped found, is composed of local skeptics who have always posted a $ 5, 000 reward for any type of demonstration of supernatural abilities such as levitating an object via one’s mind.
Krueger, a 47-year-old citizen of Fayetteville who is MUFON’s sectional director of Washington and Benton counties, said his skepticism stays away when it comes to UFO sightings.
“ A skeptic isn’t somebody who just disbelieves, ” Krueger said. “ A skeptic is somebody who wants to see the evidence.
“ It seems to me that so many people, around the United States and around the world, were reporting seeing something in the sky that it’s of interest to me to try to follow up on that and see what can be ascertained about the origin of these sightings. … There’s enough [sightings ] that seem inexplicable in an immediately obvious way that someone ought to be investigating these things. ”
Although there are several organizations devoted to the scientific exploration of UFOs, MUFON is the largest both in the United States and internationally with about 3, 000 members across the globe.
The group’s officers pointed out that the U. S. Air Force used to watch over anything UFO-related through a series of three investigations. The last one, titled Project Blue Book, ended in 1969, the same year MUFON was founded, according to the organization’s Web site. The same information states that the U. S. government collected more than 12, 500 reports of UFOs from 1948 to 1969. In fact, the name “ UFO, ” according to the site, was coined by Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, the director of Project Blue Book who wanted another term to replace “ flying saucers. ” “ If we weren’t doing this work, there would hardly be anyone doing it, ” Krueger said.
Case studies Walker, who is in charge of assigning investigators within the state, said an average of three to five sightings are reported in Arkansas via the organization’s Case Management System on its Web site, which stated that there are more than 70, 000 reported UFO sightings each year. On the site, observers are asked to give their contact information, a rundown of the occurrence and other descriptions. They can also download any photos they took of the object.
The state director talked about how he had just assigned the most recent case to an investigator from Yellville for a citing with three photographs of a bright blue orb spotted in Maynard. The organization has about 60 members across the state who pay annual membership dues and receive a monthly newsletter, but only nine investigators who have undergone an extensive training program — despite the fact there has been an increase in reported sightings in the last eight months, Krueger said.
The upcoming meeting’s agenda will include the latest training DVDs should anyone be curious about becoming a certified investigator, Walker said. At every meeting visitors and members alike are welcome to browse and read any of the collection of materials that the organization has on the subject including a collection of books by J. Allen Hynek, a renowned astronomy professor at Northwestern University who was a pioneer in the field.
“ To me one of the primary [missions ], coupled with the investigation, is to educate, ” Walker said.
The slogan on the organization’s Web site reads: “ Dedicated to the Scientific Study of UFOs for the Benefit of Humanity. ”
“ When it says ‘ for the Benefit of Humanity, ’ it’s not necessarily that we’re sort of preparing anybody for a big revelation. I would say it’s just like any field of science: We just want to know what is happening. ”
And they’re far from alone in this search.
“ Nearly every major country has two or three UFO organizations, ” Walker said. “ Why ? They’re seeing the same things that we’re seeing. ”
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