If the Space Force Won’t Fight Aliens, Who the Hell Will?

By Kyle Mizokami

Military news site Task & Purpose confirmed a disturbing fact: the newly created U.S. Space Force has no intention of fighting aliens. Despite the recent uptick of military UFO sightings, the Pentagon appears uninterested (at least officially) in the possibility of hostile aliens. But if an alien invasion does take place, which arm of the Pentagon would respond? The answer: probably all of them. 

During a recent Pentagon roundtable, Task & Purpose’s Pentagon reporter Jeff Schogol asked if the Space Force “is concerned about threats posed by extraterrestrial intelligence.” The official answer he got back? “No.”

Schogol’s question was asked with tongue firmly planted in cheek, but the revelation last year that U.S. Navy fighter jets encountered alleged UFO craft in 2004 and again in 2015—in both instances appearing on radar and leaving behind video evidence—makes one wonder.

If the unidentified flying objects described by Navy pilots, as well as military and civilian personnel for the past seventy years, are really of extraterrestrial origin and unfriendly, how would the Pentagon deal with them?

If UFOs suddenly descended from the skies, toasting the Statue of Liberty, the Great Mall of America, and the Golden Gate Bridge with death rays, the Pentagon would need to convene some sort of study group to quickly determine what kind of threat it was dealing with. If that happens, forget the Air Force.

Ironically, the service that would most likely take the lead is the U.S. Navy.

Why the Navy? Aliens would likely come from vast distances, traveling light years in long distance voyages, to smash puny humans. The U.S. Navy is unique among the services in planning similar, though much, much shorter voyages. Both submarines and UFOs deal with pressure—in the case of submarines the pressure is on the outside, while in space the pressure is on the inside of the vehicle. From an operational and technical standpoint, aliens and sailors have a few things in common.

Would all of this firepower matter in a fight with aliens?

There are other reasons the Navy might take the lead. Seventy-one percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, and if aliens operated from the water (remember, the 2004 sighting included reports of a 737-sized object on the surface of the ocean) the Navy is unique in having manned aircraft, surface ships, and submarines prowling above, on, and below the surface of the ocean. The Navy could also sail to the most remote locations in the world’s oceans, establishing a military presence for weeks or months, to investigate and monitor for enemy activity.

The Air Force could operate against aliens, but the service’s fighters and bombers could only remain on station for mere minutes or hours before returning to base. Against a terrestrial threat this isn’t really a big deal, but against an alien threat we know nothing about—and according to the 2004 incident, theoretically capable of traveling extraordinary distances in a blink of an eye—such a force will be less useful.

If humans could lure aliens into a set-piece battle the Air Force could bring a lot of firepower, but how one lures aliens into battle is anyone’s guess. In the meantime the Space Force, nestled under control of the Air Force, would contribute to the alien war by maintaining the U.S. military’s network of position, navigation, and timing/GPS satellites, communication satellites, and other space-based assets. 

US Army Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles exercising in Estonia, 2017.

The Army would be the service responsible if aliens attempted a landing in the United States, or presumably one of our allies. The Army’s 10 combat divisions would spring into action, attempting to destroy the aliens with fire and maneuver. It would be in many ways similar to countering an airborne landing, with the Army attempting to destroy the alien’s landing zone and prevent the flow of alien reinforcements. The Marines could also get in on the alien fighting, particularly overseas in Asia, Europe, or even the Middle East—though one would like to think aliens would be smart enough to avoid that region and the prospect of their own 18-year war altogether.

Of course, all of this is contingent on the U.S. military being on par with alien technology... which, frankly, is extremely unlikely. The universe is billions of years old, and other races could easily have a head start of a million years or more on us. And certainly, any species capable of interstellar flight is far more technologically advanced.

Consider that a handful of 21st century tanks could crush an army from the 11th century, or even the 19th century for that matter. Even a difference of a thousand years would be ample enough to ensure humanity’s defeat from even a minor alien expedition/hunting trip/bachelor party.

The entire U.S. military could have the same effectiveness against aliens as cavemen—or in this case cosplayers pretending to be cavemen at Comicon—would have against the U.S. military. 

If aliens do exist, ultimately it may not matter if they are hostile or not. Our destruction at their hands would be about as inevitable as destruction from an extinction-level meteor impact. They could even be friendly, the combination of advanced, destructive technology and violent tendencies leading to intelligent life self-screening itself from interstellar travel. (That would be bad news for humanity.) The “UFOs” people are seeing could even be top secret U.S. government craft. The aliens could be us. In the end, maybe it doesn’t matter if the Pentagon has a plan to fight aliens after all.

Is ‘The 37th Parallel’ really the UFO Super Highway?

By Cheryl Costa

On Nov. 6, 2016, USA Today published an article by Jon Swartz titled “The 37th Parallel makes a strong case for UFOs.”

When Ben Mezrich’s book The 37th Parallel: The Secret Truth Behind America’s UFO Highway was released, Linda Miller Costa and I were deep into crunching data related to our UFO Sightings Desk Reference book. Our first impression about Mezrich’s book: “It’s an interesting theory.”

At various UFO conferences where I’ve spoken over the past two years, the question keeps coming up from audience members: “What about this whole 37th Parallel super highway thing?”

I could only shrug my shoulders and offer guesswork based on my familiarity with the states and counties in various regions of the United States. My gut opinion has been that I didn’t think the claim would hold up to statistical science.

Over the past month, I’ve been preparing charts for my nationwide speaking engagements. While crunching the 2018 UFO sighting data for the United States; I went to the time-consuming step of adding latitude information for the thousands of reporting municipalities in our 2018 database.

The combined 2018 data from both UFO reporting services, the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) and the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), totaled 6,929 of reported UFO sightings. For the latitude measurement, I removed 284 sightings records where municipal locations weren’t specified, or about 4 percent. This left 6,645 UFO sighting reports with measurable locations.

The result, as I long suspected, was that some 10 other latitude parallels in the United States have many more UFO sightings reported. Many of these other parallels have nearly double to triple the UFO sightings reports than does the 37th Parallel.

Of course, there are those who will want to point out, as the book did; that there were instances of cattle mutilations and paranormal activity along the 37th Parallel.

Yet if we google “cattle mutilation and specify a state,” we quickly find that just about every state has some degree of livestock mutilation activity. Interestingly, I couldn’t find any evidence of a cattle mutilation database; this surprised me, especially when you consider that so many folks are supposedly studying the phenomena.

I also did a similar exercise regarding paranormal issues. Simply browsing the subject matter “paranormal for any state or county,” you get a robust list of the most haunted places and scariest hiking trails.

I’m not trying to shoot holes in UFO sightings. After all, we’ve had 146,850 UFO sightings reported over the past 18 years. What I am shooting holes in is this much-hyped 37th Parallel notion. On the surface it sounds cool, but it doesn’t stand up to statistical analysis.

It’s high time that some of these UFO folk myths get tested by measurable data about where UFOs are really being reported and where they aren’t.

In the United States, there are about 3,242 counties. In 2018, only 1,033 counties reported UFO sightings; these counties represent 2,996 reporting municipalities of all sizes.

The top states are the usual suspects, while the top counties have changed a little bit but nothing earthshaking. The list of top municipalities for UFO sighting reports had some surprises that I didn’t expect, but I’ll save that story for another article.

Pascagoula UFO: A new witness comes forward

By Hugh Keeton

PASCAGOULA, MS (WLOX) - A UFO and alien abduction on the Pascagoula River: you may have heard this story from the 1970s.

Now 45 years later, for the first time, a witness is coming forward saying she saw this alien encounter.

On Oct. 11,1973, Calvin Parker and now deceased Charles Hickson said while fishing they were pulled onto a space craft, examined and then put back down.

"It scared the living hell out of you," Parker said. "I still have a few nightmares about it. I really think that I was abducted by some kind of life form from another planet."

Parker and Hickson's story has made Pascagoula known around the world.

“They’ll say ‘oh that’s where that UFO encounter was,’” said Rebecca Davis, Main Street Pascagoula Director.

Davis welcomes the attention. She along with Dr. Chris Wiggins and the Jackson County Historical Society are working to place a historical marker across the river from where the alleged abduction occurred.

The Jackson County Historical Society are working to place a historical marker across the river from where the alleged abduction occurred 

"It's time to bring these things out and be proud of our heritage because it is a part of it," Davis said.

On the same October 1973 night, not far from where the marker will be placed on the east bank of the river, Maria Blair was waiting with her husband Jerry Blair waiting for him to leave on a boat to work off shore. What she saw that night is something she’s telling for the first time publicly.

“It was a warm night. It was like 73 degrees, and it was kind of easy to just sit in the car and wait for the captain to get there,” Blair said.

After 45 years, Maria Blair comes forward to tell her side of the story and share what she saw the night of the Pascagoula alien abduction. (WLOX)

While they were waiting Jerry went to sleep and Maria saw what she describes as strange, a blue light streaking back and forth.

“You’re looking up at the sky, looking at stars, the big dipper and things, that’s when I saw it rise up in the sky,” Blair said. “Where I saw it come up, the blue light was just right over where they were abducted.”

At the time she thought it was a plane or helicopter. “You don’t think it was a UFO,” Blair said.

According to Blair, the blue light continued moving without noticeable sound for about 30 minutes, when it went out of sight.

This is an illustration of what Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson described they saw the night of the alleged alien abduction. (WLOX)

“We hear this loud water, just something fell in the water, it was a loud splash,” Blair said. “The water was just rippling, and when I looked down that’s when it looked like a person in the water. I was looking just right below me.”

Blair still doesn’t know what she saw in the water and didn’t think much of it until the next day when she heard about what Parker and Hickson had told the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department.

“I was watching two men being abducted by a UFO," she said.

Despite believing what she saw was a UFO, she never talked about it to anyone except her family. Blairs’s husband wanted her to keep it quiet.

“When she would talk about it I would tell her to shut up people are going to think you’re crazy,” said Jerry Blair.

After seeing a recent media report about the abduction, Blair got the courage to come forward. She said her motivation was to give Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson’s story validation.

“I always wanted to talk to them, just them about it to let them know that they weren’t lying because they weren’t lying,” Hickson said.

In 1973 Maria Blair and Calvin Parker were separated by a river. Now with a 45 year old secret washed under the bridge, Maria met Calvin face to face for the first time at the same spot on the Pascagoula River where the alleged abduction occurred. (WLOX)

In 1973 Maria Blair and Calvin Parker were separated by a river. Now, with a 45-year-old secret washed under the bridge, Blair met Parker face to face for the first time at the same spot on the Pascagoula River where the alleged abduction occurred.

It didn’t take long for the conversation to turn to what’s brought them together.

“It’s burnt right in my mind,” Blair said.

“It is mine too,” Parker agreed.

Parker’s story has been questioned and doubted for most of his life. He said he had lost all hope of a witness coming forward, but now he and Blair both have a sense of relief.

“I can now put my mind at ease that I told what I knew,” Blair said.

“Before I die I’ll at least have somebody that came forward and ease my mind a little bit,” Parker said.

Calvin Parker has written a book about his experience with what he claims was an alien abduction in Pascagoula in 1973.

Three people have now told their stories of the UFO on the Pascagoula River. Calvin Parker has written a book about it, and he doesn’t think these will be the last stories told of extraterrestrial life on Earth.

“It’s foolish to look up in the sky and see all these stars and all these stars have planets around them and think that we’re the only life,” Parker said.

Plans are in the works to unveil the historical marker on the banks of the Pascagoula River with a ceremony in June. The marker will say “The Pascagoula UFO story remains the best documented case of alien abduction.”

Tom DeLonge Explains The Real Reason Why He Left Blink-182

By Katrina Nattress

Tom DeLonge has been known as the guitarist, singer, jokester, and founding member of blink-182 for over two decades. In 2015, he left the band. At the time, many thought it wasn't his choice and the breakup wasn't amicable, but now he's setting the record straight, explaining what prompted him to drop music and pop-punk celebrity.

In a video explaining his UFO research firm, To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science, DeLonge brings up his band. And why he decided to leave it. “The last show I played was in front of 100,000 people,” he says in the clip. “They wonder why I’m not doing that now, and I’ll say because this is the one moment in my life where I’ll be able to look back as an old man and say, ‘Oh, my God, I was a part of the team that changed the world.'”

He goes on to detail what his company is structured to do, and why it was so important for him to be a part of it. He talks about the firm's different facets—entertainment, aerospace, science—and how they all play a part in investigating and educating the world in UFO and other studies that have generally had stigmas attached to them.

"I wanted to make a quick message to let you know that, from the heart, I left my band and all that I was known for because this is the moment and time where I can change the world for my kids and everybody else’s,” the 43-year-old says to conclude the video. “I would love for you to consider doing that with us.”

Watch the video and learn more about To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science below.

DeLonge also recently announced he's executive producing a mini-series on the History Channel called Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigation.

“With this show, the real conversation can finally begin," he said in a statement. "I’m thankful to History for giving the To The Stars Academy team of world-class scientists, engineers and intelligence experts the opportunity to tell the story in a comprehensive and compelling way. I think everyone that watches the show will walk away with questions answered and a feeling of, ‘Wow, I get it now.’”