Truth be told, I’m a huge skeptic.
For as much as I write about aliens, secret societies, and U.F.O’s in my Project Horizon series, I remain a solid skeptic. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to entertain the ideas. Heck, that’s why I enjoy writing about them so much. But when it comes down to it, it’s hard to shake me.
Still, I must confess that there are a few cases that make me wonder, question even, more than others. And there are very specific reasons why.
We’ll start off with one of my favorite U.F.O. photos out there.
The Battle of Los Angeles. No, no, no. Not the film! (Though I believe the photo inspired the film in some way, or at least made its way into some of their marketing campaign) On February 26, 1942 (Just a little over two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor), Los Angeles skies lit up with anti-aircraft artillery. It was thought it was another Japanese attack. The county went into total blackout and air raid sirens sounded off. Giant search lights scoured the skies and weapons fired on what was thought to be an enemy aircraft. Hundreds of shells were fired, but whatever it was, remained unscathed.
Shortly after the event, military officials cited “war nerves” and claimed the object was misidentified; likely a weather balloon or even a flare. (There sure seemed to be a lot of weather balloons back in the day). Even so, with the amount of shots fired, I doubt any balloon would have stood a chance. Shrapnel from a nearby explosion should have knocked it down. And a flare? Travelling from Santa Monica to Long Beach? All right. I give you that this was likely war nerves, but these two explanations don’t do it for me.
What do I think it is? I have no idea. And for me, that’s a lot more unnerving than saying it’s aliens. It’s certainly a U.F.O. by its actual definition; unidentified flying object.
The reason I love this photo is because it’s during a time before photoshop. It was seen by many and documented so well by not only the general public, but journalist and the military. And it’s shortly before the U.F.O. craze that took over during this era; WWII and throughout the Cold War.
There was a documentary done recently, attempting to recreate this photo. It was theorized that the focused beams created an artificial ‘object’ or image in the cross hairs. When the experiment was done, the beams crossed, but no object created.
The writer in me is tickled and I recall another incident ten years later; July of 1952. U.F.O.’s appeared over the U.S. capital. Not just once, but several times during the month of July. It causes pause and makes me wonder if these things don’t happen in particular points in history. But again, I digress, in the end I’m just a skeptic.
What do you think?
More on Battle Los Angeles incident.
httpv://youtu.be/EhjkMoWLE_Y
