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
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
http://www.clarksonufo.com

UFO Lecture at Seaside, Oregon Library

November 15, 2009 - 6:29pm

NOVEMBER 14 at Westport Library at 1:00PM

November 01, 2009 - 3:10pm

MYSTERY CONTINUES at HOUSTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

September 18, 2009 - 9:21pm

E-Mail Report Received at Clarksonufo.com:

I wanted to inform you of what I think was a UFO my girlfriend and I saw yesterday afternoon in Houston.  After picking up my girlfriend in the early evening (around 6:30 PM), we noticed a relatively large, bright red-orange light in the western sky, it appeared oblong in shape, maybe at around 35-45 degrees from the horizon.  At first I didn’t think anything of it (being an admitted skeptic), but I was surprised at how clearly it stood out since it was still daylight—it literally looked like a random bright spot in the sky.  I noticed that it was traveling extremely slowly, too slow to be a plane or helicopter, which I also thought was odd.  Then the object started to turn, at which point I thought I could see it from another vantage point to figure out what it was.  The next thing I know it literally disappeared into nothingness, and I was left saying “What the hell happened, how could something that big just disappear?”  My girlfriend said that she saw it rapidly speed up before disappearing.

After checking online to see if anyone else saw it, I came across your website and the pilot’s description of what he saw at the Houston airport.  I thought, “That is exactly the type of object I saw!” (except for the part where it drops a smaller object)—a bright red-orange light in the western sky moving very slowly that suddenly just vanished.

I thought I would write you because it was almost too much coincidence for me to ignore, even though, as I mentioned, I have never considered myself a UFO enthusiast, and if anything, a UFO skeptic.  Maybe you have heard of others who saw the object?  We were in a relatively densely populated area of Houston, surely we couldn’t have been the only ones to see it!

Thanks!
- John Red-Orange UFO

August 3 Sighting by Pilots at Houston International Airport

August 09, 2009 - 8:14am

I have deliberately removed the runway numbers given by the pilot. He is known to me and I consider him highly credible. He has many years experience flying passenger aircraft around the world.

Last night (August 3, 2009) we were taxing out at about 2130L hours late out of Houston Intercontinental Airport and were taxing heading west to a spot (Number deleted). We were told to monitor ground control for taxi clearance to the runway. While waiting for our clearance “we” spotted a very bright and large red light that was about 20 to 30 degrees above the horizon. It was moving slowly and appeared to be descending also very slowly. While watching this light, we saw it drop a smaller red light which fell a few seconds and vanish.

We looked at each other (we being my co-pilot and a jump-seating commuter airline pilot sitting in the cockpit jump seat), and said, “Did you see that?” A few seconds later the large red light slowly faded away and disappeared. We thought, “Oh that was weird” and then the large red light suddenly reappeared. It had moved in a northeasterly direction and was now closer to us.

We couldn’t tell how far this light was but it was very bright reddish orange color that was a steady light with no flickering. It appeared to be oval shaped. As we were watching it we were given clearance to taxi so I started moving slowly trying to keep this object in view out my left cockpit window. Then it suddenly released another smaller red object and again slowly faded away about the time we reached the runway. I desperately wanted to ask the tower if they were watching this and my co-pilot said “NO, don’t say anything!”. So, I didn’t. We turned onto the runway which would have put this object out the right window but my F/O said he didn’t see anything so we took off on (Deleted Runway Number) and turned to a heading of 125 and climbed out towards the Gulf of Mexico.

This thing was very strange, it was not a police helicopter or military aircraft, there were no nav lights or srobe lights and it was near a very busy airport. I thought it was strange that no one else mentioned this light to the tower. It was very visible and obvious and was very creepy.

I have read similar eye witness accounts and this could not be explained away as mis-identification. I know what it wasn’t but don’t know what it was.

Thought you might be interested and it might also be interesting if anyone in the Houston area reported this thing.

(I will be checking with MUFON in Houston.)

A Reader Asks about Contactees and James Gilliland’s Ranch

July 27, 2009 - 9:05pm

From MB in Texas:

I wanted to congratulate you on a very nice website. I am very glad to see the UFO phenomenon Investigation to become a more open and so called respectable field. I always felt that MUFON was a great organization to have doing the research.
I do have a couple of questions I hope you will answer for me. I have never been to your grand state, I am from Texas. It seems the “climate” around this subject is viewed somewhat differently here.  I am asking these questions because a little over a year ago I began to have multiple sightings and was excited to report them to MUFON. I was roundly dismissed as some kook. I was so dissappointed and I admit a bit perplexed. I thought they were the guys to go to. However I got over that and just began to observe, document, and learn what I could. I have come to realize this is a very real phenomenon and needs serious study.
Here are my questions for you. You have the ECETI ranch right there. MUFON needs to have a more open mind to the contact issue. Why are you not positioned to try and understand what is happening there all the time?
You think the number of so called abductees is large, the numbers in the contact underground are huge. They don’t even have the support of most Ufologist so they remain in the dark. James Gilliland is out in the open and willing to share. I ask why have you not formed an alliance so this aspect could be better understood?

Dear MB:

The questions you have posed are excellent. I will try and respond to them from my personal perspective on UFO’s and Contact; I can’t speak for MUFON. I am only the Chief Investigator in Washington, but I have been involved in this field for a long time, and in MUFON since 1986. I can’t possibly comment on your reports to MUFON because I don’t know what you reported.
I have not been to James Gilliland’s ranch. I do know there is a long history of mysterious lights at the ranch and in general, near Mount Adams, Yakima and other areas in the US. The lights have been seen repeatedly by reliable witnesses and they have been photographed. Here is an excellent website with multiple sources of information on what I believe has been correctly termed “Nocturnal Light Phenomena.” (http://www.vogelstudy.org/archives.htm )
Where the question arises is when we attempt to explain the origin of the lights. I will state as a general rule that witness observations of distant lights in the night sky are tricky: estimations of distance, size, shape and nature are problematic.
There is no way I can stop being an investigator; this means I keep questioning my assumptions about the perceived information. I can only answer your basic question with a question: how do we go from mysterious nocturnal lights to intelligently controlled craft proving the presence of non-human intelligence(s) in our world?
Everything I have learned about UFO’s indicates it is a world-wide phenomena. I have trouble with the idea that one man on a ranch in Trout Lake is the contact person for ET.
Mr. Gilliland and I do share one thing: we both hope mankind will be enlightened by our contact with higher, better beings from the rest of the Universe. I can sum up my hopes simply: if had to choose my all-time, bar none favorite movie, it would be Frank Capra’s 1937 Lost Horizon because it beautifully portrays human existence as it should be.
But I, like MUFON, have to function in the real world. The Corporate Media likes UFO’s as long as whatever is reported can be used as a cute filler story and the reporter can crack a few cliché jokes about “little green men” or people wearing “tin foil hats.” The UFO phenomenon is almost completely marginalized.
The reason we are so readily dismissed is caused by a long-term disinformation campaign; all the major intelligence organizations in the world consider disinformation to be a legitimate function of government; we need to be protected from what we might think if we really knew what was going on.
But we are also marginalized because of the claims made by contactees in the past. Because MUFON is a well-known organization we have to be careful what we endorse. Mr. Gilliland has made claims that will be very difficult for most people to accept without evidence. A film of a strange light in the night sky may be evidence of ET, or it may not.
Mr. Gilliland, apparently because he is a man of peace who advocates enlightenment has chosen to conclude the mysterious lights are definitely evidence of ET Contact. The evidence I have examined supports the reality of the phenomena, but not the explanation.
You mentioned that you took photographs that contained images of unexpected objects. As an investigator, these reports are very difficult to handle. I spent too many years in court rooms. In order to validate any photographic image the law requires that the photographer is able to swear the image is a true and accurate representation of what was observed at a particular location, date and time. I think you can see the problem; this becomes even more problematic with the advent of digital cameras and programs like Adobe Photoshop.
This may not be what you want to hear, but I have to keep it real. The risk is too great, and too many Contactees have made claims that no one else can verify. This may be because they are delusional; it may also be because there is a certain Trickster element inherent to our interaction with Non-Human Intelligence.
This may not be what you want to hear, and I stress this is not necessarily what MUFON would endorse, but you asked me to respond and I have.

James E Clarkson

July 4 2009 - Multi-State Mysterious Orange Lights

July 19, 2009 - 9:18pm

Mysterious “Cloaked” UFO from 1983

July 06, 2009 - 4:16pm

Home

July 06, 2009 - 9:14am

ELK RIVER CRASH PRESENTATION REVIEW

July 05, 2009 - 3:35pm

Kevin Randle reviewed my presentation on the Elk River Crash at the 6th annual UFO Crash Retrieval Conference in Las Vegas. His Blog titled “A Different Perspective” has an extensive review dated December 21, 2008.

“Given all this, James Clarkson, who appeared at the 6th Annual UFO Crash Retrieval Conference in Las Vegas, hosted by Ryan Wood, made a good case for adding another (UFO Crash Retrieval) to the list. According to Clarkson, on November 25, 1979, a number of people saw something fiery in the night sky and more than one of them thought of it as a craft without power. I use the term craft, though some of them described an airplane-like configuration with lighted with windows and fire on one side.”

As a retired police sergeant, I agree with Mr. Randle’s analysis further in his article that because of the Posse Comitatus Act, it would be illegal for the military to take over logging roads on private property and operate checkpoints without a civilian law enforcement presence.

What if the over-riding concerns were secrecy and time? Westport, a city of about 5,000 population had almost been hit by a fiery object seen by multiple witnesses over thirty miles from the impact point. If the explanation was a satellite or some other military hardware, ours or someone else’s, then the most prudent strategy would be: secure the area fast, keep out civilians, remove the crash debris, and then deny you were ever there.

I remain unconvinced that the Posse Comitatus Act would be obeyed in all situations. Since the other theory of the Elk River Crash investigation is that the crashed object may have had an extraterrestrial origin, the need for swift action by the military might be an even stronger argument for throwing out the law in favor of national security.

Kevin Randle concluded his analysis as follows:

“The official explanation of “helicopter exhaust glow,” offered later, is ridiculous. Even a quick look at the descriptions by the witnesses shows this to be untrue. I’ve flown in a lot of helicopter formations at night and the glow from the turbine just isn’t all that bright.

Clarkson never really says that the craft was extraterrestrial, though I take that as his meaning. He suggests the possibility that what fell might have been something lost by the military, specifically some sort of missile test that failed. He does note that no one lost an aircraft on that night. No reports of either a military or civilian crash and no reports of a missile gone astray.

As I say, there seem to be too many failures of alien craft. Some lists now top two hundred and a couple are closing in on 300. But still, there are some very intriguing UFO crash cases, many of which have no solid explanation… yet. This is another to add to the file. Until someone tells us what crashed, with the appropriate documentation, this is another well documented UFO crash.”

We certainly agree on the major points of this mystery.

To see the fulll review, go to Kevin Randle’s Blog titled “A Different Perspective.”

JUNE 24 2009 - THEY CAME HERE FIRST!

July 04, 2009 - 8:56am

JUNE 24, 2009

THEY came here first!
June 24, 2009 marks the 62nd anniversary of the famous Kenneth Arnold sighting of a formation of silvery disc-shaped UFO’s near Mount Rainier on June 24, 1947. This sighting event by a highly credible businessman and pilot is considered a landmark in UFO history.
Arnold’s description of their flight “like a saucer skipping over the water,” is considered the primary source of the phrase “flying saucer,” an apparent abbreviation for space taken by a reporter. Despite the cultural baggage that is inextricably linked to it, the Kenneth Arnold sighting remains important.
Further, if you study the shape of the craft, it is not a true saucer shape, and it eerily similar to the UFO photographed over Arizona within days, and similar to the unknown aerial vehicles that crashed in Roswell, New Mexico over the July 4th 1947 weekend.
The Wikipedia article on Kenneth Arnold is highly informative: Kenneth Arnold Sighting In-Depth

7TH ANNUAL UFO CRASH RETRIEVAL CONFERENCE

July 02, 2009 - 1:11pm

June Crain and the UFO’s

July 01, 2009 - 7:38pm

contact

June 30, 2009 - 4:46pm

June Crain Story

June 30, 2009 - 4:26pm

MUFON WA State Director

June 30, 2009 - 4:12pm

Bio

June 30, 2009 - 3:25pm

View Open Cases

June 30, 2009 - 3:14pm

Book James to Speak

June 30, 2009 - 2:57pm

UFO Conference

June 30, 2009 - 11:13am

Getting Started with ExpressionEngine

June 29, 2009 - 4:38pm