UFOs: Generals, Pilots And Government Officials Go On The Record (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
The book is incredibly interesting and the stories within of govt. officials, military pilots and other high level, trustworthy sources are unbelievable. The place where this doesn't feel right is not in their statements, but instead in that of the author, who seems to get a bit heavy-handed in what she is pushing for (i.e., the U.S. government to become transparent in their UFO findings). I think anyone who has any interest at all in this subject surely recognizes that the U.S. is untrustworthy when it comes to this pretty taboo subject. It's known that they hide incidents rather than make them public, use cover up stories like weather balloons and hole-punch & lenticular clouds to explain the unexplained, and in general keep all knowledge in the dark. Face it...there wouldn't be an "X-Files" or "Fringe" if the public thought they were being as open with us as, say, France is with their citizenry. That said, it's kind of "on them" if a UFO ever does crash in Brooklyn or we finally have indisputable evidence of an unexplained craft that they have to answer to. That's their PR nightmare to deal with. Until then, books like this covering the subject just aren't going to change things. If you're new to UFO interest, this is a cool place to start. If you're like me and had a (semi-silent) fixation on the subject for a long time, well, this is all old news. This book really is a triumph of reporting and activism for Leslie Kean, and I was sorely tempted to give this book a full five stars for its sheer importance. Kean has basically assembled the most compelling case for the minimal argument that UFO's, or unidentified aerial phenomena, which she uses as a term that may set aside some unnecessary baggage, are a real, physical phenomena, setting aside the extraterrestrial hypothesis. Her selection of cases (IE: The Tehran Dogfight, Belgian Triangles, Phoenix Lights, Rendlesham Forest, Japan Airlines sighting over Alaska) is excellent, and she has gotten well-written testimonies from key participants. I went into this book very skeptical about her proposal for a UFO investigating agency, and thinking that she fundamentally misunderstood the nature of UFO secrecy. I'm still skeptical about the prospects for the creation of the agency she proposes, but I no longer think its creation would be totally pointless, and she has a more sophisticated understanding of the overall situation w/r/t official secrecy than I assumed. Basically, if you read this book and still say there is nothing to the phenomenon, you are impervious to the evidence and simply prejudiced and unreasonable. That Kean has assembled a book that clarifies the issues so dramatically and has created a set of evidence that can draw a bright line between people who are concerned with evidence and those who are irredeemably prejudiced on this issue is a considerable accomplishment.
What do You think about UFOs: Generals, Pilots And Government Officials Go On The Record (2010)?
One of the best, most highly researched books ever written on the subjects.
—siraad
A well-researched introduction to some of the most famous UFO cases.
—dzadri
This book is 95% surely going to change my life. I'm not kidding.
—rui_anselmo
Excellent source of interesting UFO sightings and interactions.
—viin
