ASTRONAUT GORDON COOPER'S MESSAGE TO THE U.N.
"I believe that these extraterrestrial vehicles and their
crews are visiting this planet from other planets, which are a
little more technically advanced than we are on Earth. I feel
that we need to have a top level, coordinated program to
scientifically collect and analyze data from all over the Earth
concerning any type of encounter, and to determine how best to
interfere with these visitors in a friendly fashion.
We may first have to show them that we have learned how to
resolve our problems by peaceful means rather than warfare,
before we are accepted as fully qualified universal team members.
Their acceptance will have tremendous possibilities of advancing
our world in all areas. Certainly then it would seem that the
U.N. has a vested interest in handling the subject quickly and
properly.
I should point out that I am not an experienced UFO
professional researcher - I have not as yet had the privilege of
flying a UFO nor of meeting the crew of one. However, I do feel
that I am somewhat qualified to discuss them, since I have been
into the fringes of the vast areas of which they travel. Also, I
did have occasion in 1951 to have two days of observation of many
flights of them, of different sizes flying in fighter formation,
generally from west to east over Europe. They were at a higher
altitude than we could reach with our jet fighters....
If the U.N. agrees to pursue this project and lend the
credibility to it, perhaps many more well qualified people will
agree to step forth and provide help and information."
- Astronaut Gordon Cooper addressing
a U.N. panel discussion on UFOs
and ETs in New York, in 1985;
Panel was chaired by then U.N.
Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim.
The above message was given to the U.N. by Astronaut Gordon L.
Cooper, one of America's original seven Mercury Astronauts.
Cooper orbited the Earth for a record 34 hour, 22 orbit flight
in the spacecraft 'Faith 7', in May of 1963. He has been
outspoken about the need for an open inquiry into UFOs - based
on his own personal experience of sighting UFOs in space and
the testimony of other Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Astronauts.
(Source: Nov. 1988 issue (Vol 1, No. 3) issue of UFO Universe
magazine; Condor Books 351 West 54th St., New York, N.Y. 10019)
GORDON COOPER & UFOs: AN ASTRONAUT SPEAKS OUT
by Timothy Green Beckley
"One of the few individuals whose prominence is beyond
question has, however, over the past few months, dared to open
his mouth and challenge the status quo.
Gordon Cooper was one of America's original astronauts. He
helped pioneer this country's space exploration efforts when,
aboard a tiny space capsule known as Mercury [Faith] 7, Cooper
orbited the Earth for 34 hours, proving that man could live
outside our atmosphere for prolonged periods. His patriotism,
bravery and respectability go without saying...
Cooper has recently made several public pronouncements
concerning his strong belief in UFOs. While a guest on the Merv
Griffin Show, Cooper shocked the viewing audiences by speaking for
over five minutes on a topic that was only within the past few
years often considered too bizarre for polite conversation.
But there were some things that Cooper wouldn't even discuss
on the air in front of the curious multitudes.
Luckily Lee Spiegel is a personal friend of Gordon Cooper.
They have conferred on several occasions, and while in the
company of the man who is bound and determined to crack the
'Cosmic Watergate' which he is convinced exists within the
higher echelon of government, the former space traveler is more
than happy to talk about his UFO experiences - and they are many.
In the early 1950s, Cooper was assigned to a jet fighter group
in Germany. While stationed there, he remembers very vividly the
week an entire formation of circular objects passed over the Air
Base on almost a daily routine.
'We never could get close enough to pin them down, but they
were round in shape and very metallic looking,' Cooper points out.
UFOs were to continue to haunt him when the Air Force Colonel was
transferred several years later to Edwards Air Force Base Flight
Test Center in the California desert.
What happened one afternoon while he was on duty at this
military base is evidence enough that the government definitely
does keep a lot of secrets when it comes to UFOs!
The incident took place in the late 1950s, either 1957 or
1958 - as Cooper can best recall; and to this day, the
photographic evidence of an actual UFO touching down upon the
Earth is being kept under wraps.
During this period, Cooper was a Project Manager at Edwards
Air Force Base, just three or four years before entering America's
space program. After lunch this particular day, Cooper had
assigned a team of photographers to an area of the vast dry lake
beds near Edwards.
In a taped interview with UFOlogist Lee Spiegel, the former
Astronaut disclosed that while the crew was out there, they
spotted a strange-looking craft above the lake bed, and they
began taking films of it.
Cooper says the object was very definitely 'hovering above the
ground. And then it slowly came down and sat on the lake bed for
a few minutes.' All during this time the motion picture cameras
were filming away.
'There were varied estimates by the cameramen on what the
actual size of the object was,' Cooper confesses, 'but they all
agreed that it was at least the size of a vehicle that would carry
normal-sized people in it.'
Col. Cooper was not fortunate enough to be outside at the time
of this incredible encounter, but he did see the films as soon
as they were rushed through the development process.
'It was a typical circular-shaped UFO,' he recollects. 'Not
too many people saw it, because it took off at quite a sharp
angle and just climbed straight on out of sight!'
Cooper admits he didn't take any kind of poll to determine
who had seen the craft, 'because there were always strange things
flying around in the air over Edwards.' This is a statement Lee
Spiegel was able to verify through his own research efforts,
having obtained closely guarded tapes of conversations between
military pilots circling the base and their commanding officers
in the flight tower, tracking the presence of unknown objects.
'People just didn't ask a lot of questions about things they
saw and couldn't understand,' notes Cooper, who adds that it was
a lot simpler to look the other way, shrug one's shoulders, and
chalk up what had been seen to 'just another experimental
aircraft that must have been developed at another area of the
air base.'
But what about the photographic proof - the motion picture
footage - that was taken? 'I think it was definitely a UFO,'
Cooper states, as he makes no bones about it. 'However, where
it (the object) came from and who was in it is hard to determine,
because it didn't stay around long enough to discuss the matter -
there wasn't even time to send out a welcoming committee!'
After he reviewed the film at least a dozen times, the footage
was quickly forwarded to Washington. Cooper no doubt expected to
get a reply in a few weeks' time as to what his men had seen and
photographed, but there was no word, and the movie *vanished* -
never to surface again....
On coast-to-coast television, Cooper recently made a
blockbuster statement that had the telephone lines tied up the
next day, as viewers telephoned the stations which carried the
syndicated Merv Griffin Show, anxious to find out if their ears
had been playing tricks on them the night before.
Toward the end of the talk-show host's interview with the
former Astronaut, Merv broke into a secretive tone of voice
right on the air, and aimed a hundred-thousand-dollar question at
his guest: 'There is a story going around, Gordon, that a
spaceship did land in middle America and there were occupants,
and members of our government were able to keep one of the
occupants alive for a period of time. They've seen the metal of
the aircraft and they know what the people look like - is that a
credible story?'
For all intents and purposes Cooper should have laughed for
assuredly such a speculative story belongs in the category of
science fiction or space fantasy. But Gordon Cooper kept a
straight face when he replied: 'I think it's fairly credible.
I would like to see the time when all qualified people could
really work together to properly investigate these stories and
either refute or prove them.'
The bombshell had been dropped. Cooper went on to say that
from the various reports of UFO contacts and abductions he had
been privy to, he was convinced that the occupants of this
crashed UFO were 'probably not that different from what we are,'
- that they are almost totally humanoid (i.e., have two arms,
two legs, a torso and readily identifiable facial features) in
appearance.
Taken aback by what Cooper had said over the national airwaves,
Lee Spiegel telephoned Cooper's office the following morning and
managed to get past his private secretary, though others in the
media were getting the cold shoulder.
'Cooper admitted to me that he could have revealed more on the
air, but he decided not to play his entire hand because he felt
certain that some 'official eyebrows were going to get raised'.'"
(The above article was excerpted from the book "MJ-12 and the
Riddle of Hangar 18" by Timothy Green Beckley; 1981; Inner
Light Publications P.O. Box 753, New Brunswick, N.J. 08903;
p.12 - 14.)
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