God’s Celestial Ambassador: The Life and Times of Dr. Frank E. Stranges - Part XXVIII
By Raymond A. Keller, PhD, a.k.a. “Cosmic Ray,” the author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising Series, published by Headline Books and available on Amazon.com, while supplies last.
Venus Rising: A Concise History of the Second Planet
Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus
Lady Columba Venus Revelations
Flying Saucers and the Venus Legacy
Cataloguing of Hostile UFO/Alien Reports Continues, 1956-1957
Evangelist Dr. Frank E. Stranges came to the conclusion that not all UFO/alien encounters were of the “peachy-keen” variety experienced by George Adamski, Gloria Lee, Howard Menger or Laura Mundo. He accounted for the divergence of UFO reports (friendly and hostile encounters) as due to the correlation of aliens visiting the Earth with angels and demons from the spiritual realms that exist on other planets. He also posited that various extraterrestrial groups, both good and bad, maintained bases of operation on our planet, shrouded in cloaks of invisibility, and situated under the oceans, on floating islands in higher dimensions, at the poles, inside mountain ranges and even in the vast caverns of the Inner Earth, which he referred to as “Agartha.”
Naturally, as the Bible declares, there is an ongoing struggle between the forces of good and evil taking place on Earth, as well as throughout the heavens, ever since Satan was cast out of those glorified celestial regions. Dr. Frank, ever cognizant of these powers, both seen and unseen, scattered throughout the cosmos, would frequently point to the words of Jesus Christ in Luke 10:18-24 (KJV) to illustrate this point:
18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.
21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.
22 All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.
23 And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see:
24 For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
At this juncture, for your consideration, we continue with Dr. Frank’s catalog of flying saucers and their occupants on the attack during the period of 1956-1957, all characteristic of demonic or impish impulses:
1956
• Retired Rear Admiral Delmer S. Fahrney, who once headed up the U.S. Navy’s guided missile program, confided to the premier UFO investigator and journalist of the 1950s and 1960s, Major Donald E. Keyhoe, USMC, Ret., that sometime in the summer of 1956, a Navy R7V-2 four-engine Super Constellation transport had to go into a steep dive in the skies over Gander, Newfoundland, Canada, to avoid a collision course with a massive disc-shaped UFO that looked like “one gigantic dish on top of another.” Whatever power was behind the appearance of this saucer seemed set on ramming the Constellation aircraft. The transport pilot estimated that the object was some 350-400 feet in diameter and about 30 feet thick, with lighted edges. This encounter was confirmed by ground radar. Keyhoe confided this information to Dr. Frank E. Stranges, his Southern California director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), when he understood that his evangelist friend was writing a book on the flying saucer enigma.
• On 2 August, Air Force Reserve pilot, J. G. Kirby, while flying over Amarillo, Texas, on a training mission, photographed a UFO with a long, glowing exhaust trail. When he returned to Hensley Field in Dallas, base personnel informed Kirby that, “We know all about that effect from some UFOs. The glow was caused by a deadly radiation vapor. You were smart not to fly through it.” He was also told not to discuss this incident with anyone. As long as he was in the Air Force Reserve, he kept his word, only breaking secrecy after returning to full civilian status.
• While hitting the evangelical circuit and preaching in Great Falls, Montana, Dr. Frank E. Stranges discussed the matter of the appearance of flying saucers as a fulfillment of Bible prophecy when an enlisted member of an aircraft flight crew stationed at nearby Malstrom Air Force Base, approached him with a report of three jets being scrambled from his base sometime in September 1956 for the purpose of intercepting a UFO that was reported hovering over Missoula, Montana. The airman said he overheard the pilots involved in this UFO pursuit discussing their encounter in a locker room. One of the pilots had apparently noted that as he closed in on the saucer, his instrument panel just “went crazy and became useless.” One of the other pilots involved in the incident remarked, “The same thing happened to me. I think the UFO had enveloped my plane in a very strong magnetic field. I went into a dive for 15,000 feet and slightly damaged the nose and the portside wing on my aircraft. I’m just lucky that I got out of that situation alive.”
• On 2 October, night watchman Harry J. Sturdevant of the Nebeert Elkins Construction Firm of Trenton, New Jersey, reported that while on duty he witnessed a red-illuminated cigar-shaped UFO in the vicinity of the Delaware River. The smell of the object was repugnant and the watchman, who had been drinking a Coca-Cola, could not even swallow. He just collapsed in pain. Somehow, however, he managed to crawl over to his parked car. Other senses were also impaired, and it took six weeks before he could taste anything, or feel anything that he was touching. Sturdevant tried to go back to work, but only managed to clock in a few partial days, being so debilitated as he was. Leonard B. Willits, a judge for the New Jersey State Workmen’s Compensation Board, decided that the watchman’s loss of smell, taste and touch was genuine and awarded him financial relief. “Something caused Sturdevant to become quite ill, for a season,” said Willits, adding that, “but whether or not his condition was caused by a flying saucer remains to be seen.”
1957
• It was 10 March and Pan American Captain Matthew A. Van Winkle was flying his Boeing 377 Stratocruiser north of Puerto Rico when he forced off course by a large, “green circular UFO,” which was also reported by other pilots in the area. Due to his sudden maneuver to avoid collision with the UFO, some of the plane’s passengers were hospitalized when Van Winkle had to land in San Juan, rather than continuing on to Caracas, Venezuela.
• On 17 July, the pilot of an American Airlines DC-6 Aircoach had to swerve to avoid a collision with a UFO over Salt Flats, Texas. Out of the 85 passengers onboard, a few had to be hospitalized when the plane was forced to land in El Paso, rather than continuing on to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
• On 24 July, outside of Amarillo, Texas, a TWA Constellation Airlines had to dive to avoid collision with a swift moving UFO that seemed to be purposely barreling down. The plane was forced to return to Amarillo for some of the passengers to be treated for small wounds, instead of continuing on to Ft. Worth, Texas.
• It was 28 July in the skies over Knoxville, Tennessee, when an American Airlines DC-7 plane was struck by a “ball of fire” shot out at it from a flying saucer estimated to be some 100 feet in diameter. Fortunately, the pilot was able to veer the aircraft away from the dead-on course of the fireball, with the result that it only singed the tail of the plane, causing a small puncture. The aircraft continued safely on to its destination in Detroit, Michigan.
• On 14 August over the skies of Joinville, Brazil, the pilot of a VARIG Airlines C-47 cargo ship, Commander Jorge Campos Araujo, reported that the engines of his aircraft began acting up, “coughing and missing;” and that the cabin lights had dimmed and died out with the close approach of a strange, luminous UFO that seemed to have a cupola on top of it.
• Also in South America, at Parana City, Argentina, just one week later, radioactive fragments were left scattered on the ground after a landed UFO had taken off. Whether these were expended from a reactor is unknown; but the total disregard to the health of the locals was disturbing to all UFO investigators throughout the republic.
• Returning to Brazil, bear Ubatuba in the Sao Paulo State on 7 September, another UFO showered exploded radioactive fragments on the beach, witnessed by dozens. Fortunately, no one was harmed.
• Back in the United States, on 4 November at Oro Grande, New Mexico, many vehicles stalled and headlights went out when a “luminous egg-shaped UFO” dropped down, hovering above State Route 54, to the east of the U. S. Navy’s White Sands missile range. Rocket engineer James Stokes, who was driving home from work at that base, received some third degree burns on his face from the UFO, that gave off a heat wave and created electrical interference at the same time. Dr. Stranges, who received this report from Coral Lorenzen, director of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) in Alamogordo, New Mexico, to the north of where this incident took place, speculated that the UFO was probably in the vicinity of White Sands to conduct a reconnaissance of research activities taking place there.
• Brazil seemed to be a really hot spot for UFO activity in 1957. On the same day that the UFO was sighted outside of Oro Grande, New Mexico, down in Itaipu, near Santos, Brazil, a luminous orange sphere with a humming sound, appeared outside an army fort, zapping two of the sentries on duty at the gate with some kind of heat ray. It rendered them unconscious and burned both of them over various places on their body. The UFO also caused lights all over the fort to go out, along with a power outage that caused turrets, heavy cannons and electric elevator systems to become inoperative. The fort’s radio shack was also affected, with heavy disruption caused by static interference. Alarms on electric clocks began to ring all over the fort, without any apparent reason.
• On the same day in the skies over Ararangua, in the southern part of Santa Catarina State, Brazil, VARIG Airlines Captain Duarte De Beyssac reported that as he was closing in on a hovering, red UFO, his aircraft’s automatic direction finder, his right generator and his transmitter all burned out at the same time, forcing him to land at Criciúma, where there was a near, large enough and accessible airport.
• Near Merom, Indiana, on 6 November, ironworker Rene Gilham reported a brightly lit UFO hovering over a highway. When he approached the object, he suffered burns on his face and eyes.
• On the same day, across the state line in Montville, Ohio, plasterer Olden Moore saw a circular UFO hovering overhead and heard a “whirling sound” as the object landed in a field 500 feet in front of him. A Geiger counter later showed a deadly level of radioactivity existed in the area weeks after the object blasted off.
• Two days later out over the Pacific Ocean, a Pan American Stratocruiser, commonly referred to back then as the “Romance of the Skies,” crashed into the Pacific Ocean somewhere off the coast of Honolulu, Hawaii. Local residents reported UFO activity in the area around the time of the crash.
• Housewife Leita Kuhn of Madison, Ohio, saw an acorn-shaped UFO hovering over her garage one afternoon on 10 November. She had to keep covering her face in order to view it, however; and as a result of this incident, she suffered from body rash, failing of vision and burns on her arms and legs. “It looks like she was exposed to severe radiation,” noted a local doctor who once served as a Navy medic out on a South Pacific atoll where atomic testing was taking place.
• At Crownsville, Maryland, on 13 November, a strange metallic UFO exploded over the area and left hot fragments on the ground. Air Force personnel showed up about twenty minutes after the explosion, warning residents not to approach or touch the fragments. “We think these might be dangerous,” said an officer from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations; also warning those locals present to, “Just step back and let us do our job and collect these. Look out! There might be radiation here.”
• More cases of radiation sickness were emerging around the nation. On 7 December, a man from Dallas, Texas, was reported in the local paper to be dying from “radioactive burns received by a close approach of a luminous UFO.”
Poster from Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, Columbia Pictures (1956).
Lessons Learned
From 1972, we learned some valuable lessons from balladeer Jim Croce: You don’t tug on Superman’s cape; you don’t spit (or pee) into the wind; and you don’t pull the mask of the old Lone Ranger. To this sage advice, Dr. Frank E. Stranges adds, “You don’t approach any UFO if you don’t know who is piloting it.”
*****
In Part XXIX, Cosmic Ray examines those hostile UFO/alien reports from Dr. Frank E. Stranges’ files for the years 1958-1960. You won’t want to miss it.
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