James Clarkson - UFO Investigator, Author, and Lecturer

Subject: June Crain/James Clarkson

Ms. Moulton Howe:

Finally got the chance this morning to listen to your interview on “Coast to Coast” discussing the story of June Crain, and have just read the story on your website.  While I find the story most interesting, there are several inconsistencies and factual errors I believe you should be aware of.  I should point out I am an aerospace engineer with over thirty years service with NASA and USAF, and I have worked classified programs in that period.  I am also an amateur military/aviation historian with several magazine articles published in both the US and UK.

1) Ms. Crain claimed to have had a “secret Q clearance.”  As you stated, a “Q” clearance is a DOE (at the time AEC) clearance, not a US military clearance.  This clearance is granted only to those working on atomic/nuclear programs, and are not granted to military members or civilians working for the DoD.  Also, by definition, the “Q” is a top secret, not secret, level clearance.  She apparently had a DoD (War Department) secret clearance, but she did not have a “Q” working in “the parachute branch” for the USAAF/USAF.

RESPONSE TO COMMENT 1:
Just to clarify: We know June had a Secret clearance; I agree, I had one also as an MP Investigator so that I could go almost anywhere on post that my duties required. The “Q” would be issued by the AEC; I do not have confirmation on whether June did, or did not have the “Q.”
I have had other people tell me there was no way she could have had a “Q” clearance. My father resolved this for me. He worked for the Uranium Fuel plant at Paducah, KY after the War, and he explained he had one as well because he was control room operator. He described the fun his father had with his neighbors because the FBI showed up in the small town of Liberty, KY asking questions about my father’s background.

2) A secret clearance is a relatively low level security clearance, its sounds much more impressive than it is.  I had a secret clearance as a 20 year old college student working a cooperative education job at WPAFB.  It’s not uncommon for admin/clerical types to be required to obtain a secret clearance, but the “need to know” is far more important than just the level of clearance.  She further stated she routinely logged “TOP SECRET material in and out of safes.” This is impossible if she had only a secret clearance, she would never have been permitted to see or handle TS material.
RESPONSE TO COMMENT 2:
See response above. Also, I do not know if June’s TOP SECRET clearance might in itself be classified, seeing how labyrinthine the entire secrecy issue has become over the years. (See Richard Dolan’s work for details and verification of this statement.)
There are numerous details that I wish I could have clarified with June before she passed away. She was 72 years old when the primary interview was completed. June herself was careful to tell me where the limits of her memory were. Further, she passed on some of the details to Kevin Randle years before, but she refused to have her name used at that time. He did not follow through probably because of the time and distance involved in pursuing her testimony.
The interesting aspect of the prior revelation is that her story was consistent. It wasn’t embellished and she did not make herself the center of the entire UFO issue as some people unfortunately have chosen to do in this field.
June’s descriptions of her office work did not seem contrived. She went into great detail even telling how she got into trouble for leaving one piece of paper in a desk drawer when she went home. I have the letter she received because she submitted a suggestion on a simple device to make it more difficult for someone standing behind you to see the combination you were dialing on an old style safe.
Here is a direct reference to Project Caucasian:

http://www.uscoldwar.com/hindenburg/Hindenbg_5_6.pdf

This doesn’t sound like a lowly Secret Project to me or anyone else I know.

3) I found it amusing Ms. Crain talked about how seriously her group took security, yet spoke about a NCO discussing highly classified information in a coffee room.  The same goes for the officer from “personnel” who allegedly showed her the “piece of a spaceship.”  A personnel officer would never have a “need to know” and therefore access to such highly classified material.  Neither of these incidents make any sense.

RESPONSE TO COMMENT 3:

I am not certain how you arrive at the conclusion that a Master Sergeant is just any NCO, or that senior NCO’s would not be involved in classified missions. Not everyone on a flight crew can be a commissioned officer.
I tried to budge June on her recollection of handling the memory metal. She wouldn’t budge. What if she did not have the name of the officer right or his assignment, but she still recalled the incident correctly?

Is it possible that an officer might have somehow gotten hold of a piece of the metal, and not had enough good sense to realize the full implications of unlawfully possessing it? How many military members have war trophies, weapons or ordinance they are not supposed to have? I was in the MP’s on a large base; no system of control and security is perfect to say the least.

I think your amusement is based upon your not appreciating the context of all of this: June was an elderly woman disclosing what was very important to her, to me, a newly found friend, but also a police officer, many years after she left WPAFB.  I believe she was very sincere. I am not stating every word she uttered was absolutely correct; how could I make such a statement?

But if you find it “amusing” that she is an old woman with an imperfect memory trying to tell her truth, then I would submit that either consciously or unconsciously, you have become part of the thinking that pervades the Media-imposed perspective we are all supposed to take on the UFO question: if any aspect of any statement made about a UFO event anywhere is found to be in error or somehow imprecise, then it follows that ALL UFO information is just fiction. Interesting piece of logic when you think about how very specious this is, and why it is a very convenient truth we are supposed to swallow.

I don’t play that game. I am looking for the signal in the noise. To whatever extent June’s statements may only amount to seeing through a glass darkly into a key time in the history of the interaction between the USAF and UFO’s, she helps us to get a better perspective because she was there and because she chose to speak out, like Jesse Marcel Senior and quite a few others.

Obviously, it would be way better if the precise names could be verified. I am attaching a list of named June gave me of people she thought were important to her story. If these names are known to you, or if you have any suggestions as to how best to pin them down, I would greatly appreciate any ideas you have.

This is not a closed case to me.

4) I don’t see anything sinister or evasive in the lack of personnel information available for Ms Crain via the FOIA request.  Note, the response from the FOIA supervisor didn’t deny her employment, he simply stated no records were available.  She had left government service nearly fifty years prior to the FOIA request, how long would you expect the WPAFB personnel office to keep records for a civilian clerk typist?  Frankly, I don’t understand why the FOIA request was even made.  There is no doubt she worked at Wright Field per the documents she provided, and even if there had been documents available they would be protected by privacy regulations.  At best the personnel folks would provided the years she worked at WPAFB and maybe her job title(s), but very little else.  They certainly would not have identified any programs on which she worked nor would they revealed her security clearance levels during her employment.

RESPONSE TO COMMENT 4:
As to the getting the runaround when the FOIA request was made, here I find myself amused. You assume that anyone like myself who has never been in such a situation before of having an obviously significant story but not knowing exactly how to make the proper verification inquiries would know exactly how and where to submit a request.
Further, serious UFO researchers have always had an uphill battle against secrecy and disinformation because anything in the interests of National Security is justified, right?
5) I was curious about one point in Ms. Crain’s documents on your website.  Mr. Clarkson’s FOIA request states Ms. Crain resigned from Wright Field on July 28 1948 “due to ill health” before being reinstated in March 1951.  Is there any indication as to the nature of this illness?  Also, did she have any children Mr. Clarkson could interview?

RESPONSE TO COMMENT 5:
The entire interview is available in .pdf on http://www.majesticdocuments.com. Go to the Witnesses section, and then select First Hand Witnesses and scroll down. I would refer you to pages 6-7 specifically. The breaks in employment were caused by pregnancy and what she described as “heat exhaustion.”

June has a son, whom she raised as a single mom. I am not certain he would talk to me. He graduated from a very well known university in an ROTC program. He married well above June’s economic level, and she felt he was ashamed of her. They had not spoken in several years when I met her.

Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not your typical debunker.  I’ve had a fascination with UFOs since the early 70s after a sighting of my own.  The problem with most UFO researchers is they don’t run a “sanity check” on their information, there by making them an easy mark for the skeptics. Unfortunately they miss the point, incorrectly reporting what they consider trivial details hurts their credibility.  I’ve offered in the past to review articles/books for various UFO researchers before publication, but as as soon as they hear my background they get paranoid and figure I’m some disinformation type.
I hope you (and perhaps Mr. Clarkson) find these comments helpful.
Charles G Jarrells
Dayton, OH

James E Clarkson
Assistant State Director
Washington State
Mutual UFO Network
PO Box 12328
Olympia, WA 98508
(360) 701-1342
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http://www.clarksonufo.com