The late 1980's Gulf Breeze, FL UFO sightings were a watershed moment in ufology. A prosperous builder-contractor Ed Walters was the nexus of the sightings, but he was not the only person to claim an encounter. There is evidence to suggest 200+ sightings were made in the Gulf Breeze / Pensacola area during the flap. The phenomena continues...there have been many more UFO sightings, entity encounters and alien abductions in subsequent years. This includes the accounts of another builder-contractor from Pensacola named David Eckhart. I extensively researched and reported on the ordeal he and his family experienced over a ten-year period...and continue to experience to this day.
Let's start with the Walters sightings:
On November 11, 1987, Ed Walters, who lived in the exclusive community of Gulf Breeze, Florida, saw a peculiar light shining through a tall pine tree in his front yard. He could see that the glow was unusual -- quite different from any of the commonplace planes and helicopters from the nearby naval air station that frequently populated the skies of Gulf Breeze. He stepped outside and saw a bluish gray craft like none he had ever seen before. It was intensely quiet, and Ed was intensely frightened. He rushed back into the house and grabbed the old Polaroid camera that was a a part of his work gear as a builder. And he took photos.
The sightings continued and were shared by his wife and family. Ed's photos were published -- anonymously -- in the local weekly newspaper, and the sightings were corroborated by hundreds of residents in the Gulf Breeze area -- residents in the Gulf breeze area -- priests, politicians, judges, policemen, soldiers, ordinary middle class citizens. - The Gulf Breeze Sightings: The Most Astounding Multiple Sightings of Ufos in U.S. History
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| Ed and Frances Walters |
An Introduction to the Gulf Breeze Sightings
Today Gulf Breeze, in Florida, is known as one of the worlds top UFO hot spots. Sightings are being made and UFOs photographed and videoed all the time. Check out the Gulf Breeze Skywatch Diary to see the latest news from the area.
But it all started with a building contractor called Ed Walters. On the 11th of November 1987 Ed was working in his home office when he noticed a light moving outside, partially obscured by the pine tree in his yard. To get a better look Ed went out of the front door, and could see that the light was in fact a glowing bluish-gray craft like none he had seen before.
Ed rushed back into his office to grab his Polaroid camera which he used on job sights and stepped out onto the porch again. As the craft came from behind the tree he took his first photo. He watched for a moment and then, "Bang! Something hit me. All over my body, I tried to lift my arms, I couldn't move them. They were blue, I was blue, everything was blue. I was in a blue light beam. I was trying to breathe but my chest wouldn't expand. My feet lifted off the floor, a voice groaned in my head, " We will not harm you." I screamed, the voice said "Calm down." I screamed "Put me down!" No control, just a piecing smell, a little scent of ammonia mixed with heavy cinnamon that scorched, the stuck to, the back of my throat. A hum filled my head. Wham! I hit the ground, the blue light was gone. The hum was still in my head but quickly decreased and was gone."
On November the 20th the hum returned, and with it Ed could hear voices, as if he was listening in on a conversation. He went out side and saw a small speck of light falling at great speed. He took photo 6 as the UFO suddenly dropped its fall and hung in the sky. This photo has been light blasted and enhanced in this version.
It is this hum which Ed hears when ever the UFO comes close that has enabled him to photograph it so many times.
On the 2nd of December Ed's house was visited again. At about 3.30 am Ed was awakened by the sound of his dog barking just once. He went to investigate and on opening the blinds on his French doors he was confronted by a four foot tall creature with big black eyes. Ed screamed and fell backwards, the creature looked at him for a moment the walked away. "I gave chase. As my feet left the shelter of the back porch I was hit by the blue beam and held immobile while the creature fled into the vacant field at the back of my house. As soon as I could move I ret rived my camera and took this picture of the UFO shooting the blue beam into the field. I believe that it was picking up the creature I had seen."
Just before sunrise on December 5th, this UFO hovered above the tree line near the high school about a block from Ed's house. "The UFO moved towards me, I heard the voice say 'Do not resist...Zehaas.'" - John Gilbert, Skiesare UFO
The Altered Dimensions website offers a detailed account of incident and the aftermath of an intense investigation.
CUFOS' Position on the Gulf Breeze Case
Readers of the article by-lined by Ware, Flannigan and Andrus (though apparently written by Andrus) in the July '88 issue of the MUFON UFO Journal may get a misleading impression of CUFOS' current stand on the Gulf Breeze, FL CE-III photographic episode. Our concern here is not with what we consider the author's errors in reporting privately-stated views. We simply wish to make clear why we feel its wise to take a cautious view of this difficult case, and to await results of the still-unfinished investigation.
CUFOS considers Gulf Breeze a potentially significant UFO case, but one that remains unproven, and it is essential that research into every aspect of both photographs and testimony, continue. Important questions are yet unanswered, and necessary avenues of inquiry yet unpursued.
For example:
1) On November 19, 1987 the Gulf Breeze Sentinel published Ed's original, anonymous letter, accompanying his first five photographs. His letter stated there were no beams coming from the UFO. On December 7th, on his first MUFON report form, he mentions no beams in his account of this November 11th incident. It is not until his third account of the incident, completed January 8th, 1988 that Ed reports a "blue beam"; in fact a blue beam which would come to figure prominently in Ed's claims was first reported by a Gulf Breeze resident on November 11th, according to a November 25th Sentinel article. Critics are bound to suggest that Ed retroactively incorporated a blue beam into his later account of the November 11th incident.
2) Ed has given three different versions of his activity at the initiation of the November 11th sighting. Why?
3) Questions have been raised about the relationship of the MUFON investigators and Ed and his family. Some observers have complained that Ed was kept fully informed on the ongoing inquiries, including those that were turning up leads that might have produced disconfirming evidence. Since all photographic cases should be considered at least POTENTIAL hoaxes, it is essential that investigators operate independently from those whose claims they are checking. An operation that gives claimants sufficient advance warning to cover their tracks (if there are tracks to be covered) is seriously flawed. We are not accusing the MUFON team of committing this kind of methodological blunder, but the charge has been made by others, and has so far not been answered.
We applaud Bruce Maccabee's admirable analysis of the Gulf Breeze photographs. He deserves nothing but praise for the care and thoroughness he has brought to the problem. But his analysis is only the first step. In science, replication of findings is a necessary part of the process of inquiry. It is now time for another scientist, as skilled and conscientious as Dr. Maccabee, to examine the photographs and to report his conclusions.
We feel that the Gulf Breeze case has generated too much needless heat. We hope that in the future, ufologists will devote their energies solely to sober consideration of the promises and the problems of these extraordinary series of events. Since all of us, we hope, have only one concern: that the truth, whatever it is, be found, we can put behind the emotion that has so far played far too large a role in the debate, and concentrate on the work that needs to be done. Whatever the answer turns out to be, ufology can only benefit from adherence to the strictest standards of scientific study. - CUFOS, Center for UFO Studies
B.J. Booth of UFO Casebook offers another detailed report of the sightings.
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You may want to check out the following links:
Stunning UFO footage captured near Pensacola, Florida
Gulf Breeze Close Encounter
Alien Encounters: The Eckhart Family To Recount Their Ordeal
'UFO Hunters' to Investigate the 1980's Gulf Breeze Sightings
Assessment: 'Fact or Faked' Presentation - Alien Intruder - David Eckhart
Suggested Reading:
War of the Words: The True but Strange Story of the Gulf Breeze UFO
Oddball Florida: A Guide to Some Really Strange Places (Oddball series)
The Everything UFO Book: An investigation of sightings, cover-ups, and the quest for extraterrestial life (Everything Series)
The Gulf Breeze Sightings
Chronicles of the Strange and Uncanny in Florida
Unlocking Alien Closets: Abductions, Mind Control, and Spirituality
