◆ SpookStack

Dumb-bell shaped foot | imprints suggested a waddling step rather than the stiff-legged gait of a robot. A heavy weight had made the clear im- prints. Investigators were skeptical of their value as evidence. mouths,” the animal sounds, and the attempts to take some- thing from the ship as evidence of the experience. Mrs. Lorenzen closes her account of the Brazilian experi- ence with: “When Dr. Fontes visited Mr. Lorenzen and me during one of his trips to the United States, I asked him point blank. ‘Do you believe (the V-B) story, Olavo?’ His reply: ‘It is too bizarre to believe.’ ” Not all bizarre encounters with “little hairy men” how- ever have taken place south of the border. North America has its own recorded examples, some of which aroused enough concern to send Air Force intelligence out on in- vestigative trips of no small dimension. The first of these really shook the rafters of the Pentagon and reverberated throughout the nation. It had to do with a scoutmaster in West Palm Beach, Fla., a former Marine and a “solid citizen.” On the night of August 19, 1952, he was driving three scouts home from a meeting when his attention was drawn to a peculiar light about 30 yards off the road in a palmetto thicket. Ordering the boys to stay in the car, he took a ma- chete and flashlight and went off to investigate. He later reported that he had come upon a clearing over which hovered a large, saucer-shaped object with turret top and several regularly spaced vanes between each of which were nozzle-like openings. He was aware of an oppressive heat and a pungent odor, but more than that, he was annoyed by the spooky feeling that he was being watched. He wanted to strike out at what- ever this “thing” was, but suddenly a ball of red fire spurted out and he was enveloped in a vapor-like mist. He lost con- sciousness. 14 Meantime the three scouts, aware that something was wrong back in the palmetto thicket, had run for help. They returned with a farmer and his wife and members of the Florida State Highway Patrol. They found the scoutmaster just climbing back onto the road, so scared he could scarcely tell his story. Advised roughly of what had happened, the group moved back into the palmettos and relocated the clearing. The grass was flattened out and the flashlight still lay there. The scoutmaster was rushed into the sheriff’s office. His face and arms showed evidence of burning, his hair was singed and there were burns in his cap. The Air Force was promptly alerted. The scout leader was subjected to a thorough examination that substantiated the burnings, even to scorched nostrils. Air Force investigators examined the scene of the “inci- dent,” went over the ground with Geiger counters, could find no burnt matches or evidence that lightning had struck or that a fire had deliberately been set. They took the ma- chete and the cap for laboratory analysis and later indicated that their findings lent credeace to the fantastic story. The cap carried strong evidence of scorching that could have been achieved by pressing with a hot iron, but there also were tiny spark burns that could not be explained in this fashion. But the most convincing evidence that the scoutmaster had, indeed, been victim of a nightmare experi- ence was contained in some sample grass clumps taken from the scene. The grass itself was undamaged, but the roots were charred. Edward Ruppelt in his Report on Unidentified Flying Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010002-9