Read Alien Universe for Free Online Page B

Aliens look like and what happens if you are abducted by them, and you get stories that are broadly similar; short, gray humanoids, with huge foreheads, small chins, and pupil-less black eyes. Further, the Aliens are inexplicably fascinated with the human reproductive system, probing it with various silver-colored implements. How can people with the most miniscule interest in Aliens be so aware of the abduction narrative? That kind of penetration of the culture takes years. In the following chapters, we’ll take some time to explore how that story developed and was disseminated.
    We’ve talked a bit about earlier media and public interest in the moon, Mars, and Martians, but it was the 1940s where our tale of Alien contact began to take off. As we move forward, we need to keep a very important thing in mind. Students of UFO-ology have at their disposal an enormous literature to read. Tens of thousands of tales of “real” Alien contact have resulted in hundreds of books and many websites. Governments around the world have launched dozens of inquiries into the question of Alien visitation. Anyone who wants to immerse themselves in the literature of this culture has a daunting task before them. But we’re not going to do that.
    In this book, we’re not interested in this obscure sighting or that unexplained abduction tale. We are interested instead in the “big” stories, the ones that got a lot of publicity, for only the ones that had extensive (and ongoing) media coverage are able to enter into the public consciousness. It will likely not surprise you that many elements of the stories that people tell about their contact with Aliens were already present in fiction accounts, which we look at closely in chapters 3 and 4 . However, our current concern is to understand how a flight by a solo pilot in the 1940s or a long drive by an interracial couple in the early 1960s could change our collective vision of extraterrestrial life. Our tale begins in earnest over the skies of Europe, as the Allies tried to push the Nazi armies back into Germany.
    Foo Fighters
    Carl von Clausewitz wrote in his book On War , “The great uncertainty of all data in war is a peculiar difficulty, because all action must, to a certain extent, be planned in a mere twilight, which in addition not infrequently—like the effect of a fog or moonlight—gives to things exaggerated dimensions and unnatural appearance.” He was writing on the difficulty for commanders to get full situational awareness and its effect on their subsequent decision making. But war is an adrenaline-raising situation that has an effect on a combatant’s perception. Incomplete information, conflicting reports, and high stress mean that mistakes will be made.
    Let’s face it. Being in a B-17 over the skies of Germany between 1943 and 1945 pretty much guaranteed that you would be a little tense. Something about the strafing by the Luftwaffe and tons of antiaircraft flak objecting to your visit is bound to add a little excitement to your day. I imagine that a pilot in a P-51 Mustang flying combat air patrol and tagging along for the ride probably shared in the bombardiers’ heart-pounding experience.
    These are the kinds of men who reported what is now generally accepted as the first observations of the phenomenon that would later be called flying saucers. Airmen over Europe began making reports of seeing balls of light that shadowed their airplanes as they flew through the skies. The balls of light would cling to wing tips, even when a pilot pushed his fighter over in a dive that approached speeds of 360 mph. Other balls of light would tail them or travel in parallel paths but not be in contact with the plane. Occasionally, a pilot could outrun the lights. “Kraut fireballs” or “foo fighters,” as they became known, were not seen as potential extraterrestrials, but rather in terms of possible Nazi weapons to explain and counter.
    A report in the January 2, 1945, issue of