Lightcraft and Project Lightcraft will be used here as umbrella terms. They are applied to a type of propulsion device and not limited to the way it was deployed. As an officially released project, Lightcraft Project was used by NASA, LTI, and the USAF— in other words, it was used across a spectrum of US government and contract institutions. However, it is the contention here that the devices were also independently used for PsyOps, not necessarily by the above mentioned institutions.

     This page will not laboriously list the many UFO reports in the mid 1960s that astounded the nation and ignited the national obsession with the concept of UFO visitation. A detailed chronicle for these sightings and their place in the mosaic is best reserved for another time. Here we cut to the chase. With this page we begin retracing our steps in our quest to explain and solve UFOs. As noted in the overview page, we must go back so that we can go forward to the beginning. We begin at the Great Flap of 1965-1967. This flap and it aftermath shaped the UFO phenomenon to the present.

     In 1965, the UFO flap began in August in the US Midwest, and soon expanded to the significant sightings at Exeter, New Hampshire, on September 3. But here we start in March 1966 when the numerous UFO sightings in Michigan cemented this month as pivotal in this the Second Great UFO Flap in history. In terms of public interest and press fury it matched the original flying saucer flap of 1947. But there was a difference now. Those reports had been from pilots and by comparison only from a few ground observers. There was something fleeting, ethereal to “flying saucers,” something for debate. Now in 1966 entire towns came out to see strange hovering and glowing lights. The technology was there (television) so that the coverage and reporting was concise and immediate. Too many people were seeing something and it could not be ignored. As NICAP’s The UFO Investigator summed it up in their March-April 1966 issue:

       The actual flap began in the middle of March, even though an increase in reports was noted before then, and a high level of activity can be traced back to mid-1965. Intensive publicity in all parts of the national press— newspapers, magazines, radio, television— followed closely on the heels of the Dexter, Mich., near-landing case of March 20 and the similar incident at Hillsdale, Mich., 40 miles away, the next night. Both of these cases were witnessed by large numbers of persons, including many with better-than-average credentials.

     Other sightings poured in from Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and from other parts of the country. The press, already primed by the August, 1965, sightings wave and John Fuller’s article in Look magazine [Incident at Exeter], wasted no time digging into the story. Life carried several pages of pictures, Time and Newsweek had major stories, both the major wire services carried several stories per day for several days, and radio and TV stations kept up a constant stream of UFO reports.

     Many of the reports were of strangely maneuvering lights in the sky, but others were among the most detailed in NICAP’s files. There were close-range observations of structured craft, radar/visual sightings, reports from airline pilots and equally reliable witnesses.

     As noted above, the two most pivotal cases were in Michigan at Dexter and then at a college in Hillsdale. The UFO was a gloriously glowing object of yellow-orange hovering over what was essentially a swamp. This incident inspired the Air Force’s official consultant, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, to suggest “swamp gas” as the cause of the brilliant sightings.

     Some of the 87 students at Hillsdale who saw the UFO and watched it for hours, taking notes and drawing illustrations.

       Due to the enormous press coverage of this UFO flap, Hynek’s innocent suggestion took on a life of its own, and “swamp gas” entered popular vernacular as a tongue-in-cheek simplistic answer for any unexplained phenomena. The UFO Investigator clarified in its March-April 1966 issue: “In spite of a carefully worded statement by Dr. Hynek applying this to only two of dozens of sightings, the press generally took it to be a blanket explanation. This brought protests and strong rebuttals from many of the witnesses.”

       UFOs were an intense subject, with debate especially heated in Michigan due to the above encounters at close quarters. The subject of UFOs grew to respectability. The issue had to be addressed. In April, Michigan Congressman Gerald Ford (later President of the United States) took it to the level of highly publicized Congressional hearings (hearings by the Committee on Armed Services). Hynek’s testimony was influential. He outlined how the Air Force’s official study, Project Blue Book, was rather shallow. He further stated Blue Book’s “working hypothesis” was that all UFO reports were errors, hallucinations, or hoaxes. Coupled with the clarity of the Michigan encounters, his comments only served to prove to the American people that UFOs had never been properly investigated. After 18 years of downplaying UFOs, the Air Force was now suspect for its study of flying saucers. Congress wanted an independent academic committee to be commissioned to go over all the information the Air Force had gathered since 1947. It would be chaired by U of Colorado’s Dr. Edward Condon.

     Until this Great Flap of 1965-1967, the UFO phenomenon was a rather distant topic. It was popular as a concept in entertainment, but in serious media it had earned only occasional write-ups in the Oddities in the News section of the major dailies. A flurry here and there inspired some protracted debate, especially after landings at Levelland (1957) and Socorro (1964). Discussion was always enough to keep the subject around but with no real answer. What the UFO debate had largely done until now was to prime society on a subject that still had a dismissive question mark behind it and a lot of kooks around it.

     The public sense of it now was that UFOs had been running amok over the Earth for 20 years and some explanation had to be given. Now with thousands of reliable eyewitnesses, especially in Michigan, Minnesota, and New Hampshire, the question finally had to be answered.

     Therefore it was astounding in late 1969 when the Condon Report was issued. The committee would reject the phenomenon of flying saucers as being real. The Air Force dropped its famous Project Blue Book. There would be no more official investigations. A clear breach now existed between officialdom and popular impressions, a breach that remains to this day.

       From this point forward, it would be up to civilian groups to champion UFO investigations. Relying on Hynek’s expositions, they condemned the entire official Air Force investigation as shoddy, the Condon Committee as rigged and biased, and it was their duty to find the truth. Conspiracy theories dominated, and in the wake of the undeniable Michigan sightings such conspiracy theories seemed justified. Something had really been seen en masse and now it was being denied. Yet without the veneer and counterbalance of official Air Force investigations, sideshow type stuff became staple UFO fare; alien abductions, once mocked, became vogue. Ironically, the stalwart skeptic J. Allen Hynek would publicly begin to convert to believing UFOs were real. Not only that, he would become the most respected voice on the reality of UFOs. And having once been the official scientific expert for the Air Force, there was little reason for his growing audiences not to believe him that the Air Force’s narrow mind had covered up UFO reality from the beginning. In short, this UFO flap of 1965-1967 was such a benchmark in the UFO phenomenon that we still live in its shadow today.

     Now it is time to take it to task. As noted above, two incidents truly brought it home.

     The Dexter and Hillsdale, Michigan, sightings— March 20/21, 1966.

     It was a ball of fire coming out of the west’s indigo sky. Hundreds saw it. It then dropped down over a wooded area near Dexter. Through the trees, Frank Mannor (47) and his son Ronald (19) saw the dim glow, largely reddish, like the burning end of a cigarette. They waded across a creek, crossed onto land and finally approached the object close enough to see an actual structure under the radiant and variegated glow it emitted. It was burnished brown or bronze color, the size of a car and its surface was “quilted,” but Mannor had meant “pitted.” It hovered about 8 feet over the swamp, floating on a glowing fog. The entire bottom of the craft glowed with a meshing kaleidoscope of colors which they took to be bluish-green lights on one side and red on the other. In the center of the object there was a noticeably glowing red “porthole.” The next night several students and faculty at Hillsdale College saw the same craft hover on the horizon in the night sky (over a swamp too). It was much more distant and it was hard to make out the exact structure compared to the Mannors’ report. But one thing was obvious— it had that great glowing red eye or porthole in front.

     Lt. Colonel Hector Quintanilla, head of Project Blue Book in 1966, explains for a TV audience what the Dexter UFO actually looked like.

     Several of this same type of UFO had been generating reports over these Midwest states. At intense energy they were glowing orange-yellow lights. At lower energy they were cooler colors or a dull crimson and a structure could be seen at the center of the throbbing glow. This structure was a hemisphere or bell shape.

     Until the late 1970s no clear, acceptable color pictures of this UFO would be taken in explanatory context, and this context is disturbing because it is very revealing. These photos were taken by physicist Paul Bennewitz. These were craft frequently in operation over and near Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. Kirtland is a center of black ops developments.

     The Bennewitz Affair is a complex one, and it does not serve the purpose of this page to go into it in details. But to lay out its principles here is necessary. Bennewitz essentially monitored the events over and around Kirtland AFB for sometime over the late 1970s, amassing quite a dossier of photos. He believed that these were flying saucers and that the AF should know about it. In response to his overture to the base, a scientist in development and an AFOSI agent (Air Force Office of Special Investigation) visited him. He showed them what he had been photographing. They were stunned. He had been photographing top secret experiments. They quickly learned he was also deeply involved in the UFO phenomenon and a member of A.P.R.O., the most highly profiled civilian saucer watch and investigation organization in the world. It was located in Tucson, Arizona.

     To make a long, long story short here, instead of telling him to cease and desist, the AFOSI agent started an elaborate scheme to discredit him, and essentially drove Bennewitz into the insane asylum. Some can argue it wasn’t a long ride, but it is not the purpose here to question Bennewitz’s personal beliefs and, to an extent, his gullibility. He was a qualified and at times brilliant scientist with his own facility Thunder Scientific on the edge of Kirtland’s base. 

     For the details of this episode in UFOlogy, the reader can consult a number of books, but I would highly recommend the book Dulce Base by Greg Valdez, as this comes from those who knew Bennewitz personally. The solid evidence Bennewitz gathered is of importance here, as it relates to my investigation of UFOs and a related phenomenon.

     Paul Bennewitz’s photos of the glowing UFO phenomena near and over Kirtland AFB were taken from his car, business, and home, revealing to what extent he studied the phenomena to analyze basic patterns. He determined two type of craft were involved. One had a 36-foot diameter; the other had an 18-foot diameter. Up to 2 of each size existed, as he captured 4 in operation together.

      The phenomena in action over Kirtland AFB, 1978. A 36-foot device flanked by two smaller 18-foot devices. At high power they appear to be glowing UFOs. At lower power, such as one of the 18-foot objects, the bottom glows the most and it appears a bell. Photo by Paul Bennewitz. Consult Dulce Base by Greg Valdez. (I’m not going to clarify their actual sizes here, but Bennewitz overestimated. His estimates will be used for continuity sake.)

     Although Bennewitz’s photos date to the late 1970s, both they and his descriptions confirm these are the same type of craft in action over the Midwest and New England USA in 1965-1967. And as we proceed we will uncover the extrinsic evidence they were in production already by 1957.

       First, the 36-foot craft on the right (below) is a large hemisphere (or mushroom) shape. In the photo below it was captured at the perfect moment from its front. The glowing red “porthole” is evident, identical to the UFO over Dexter and Hillsdale. (Photo by Paul Bennewitz. Consult Dulce Base by Greg Valdez)

     Studying the phenomena more, Bennewitz noted that at lower power the smaller glowing UFO (18-foot) was clearly a top or capsule shape bell (left, above). The photos above (not to scale; the bell is much smaller than the hemisphere) are enhanced. This accentuates the “pitted” appearance of the ionizing glow. However, below, in the regular photos (in scale) the “pitted” nature of the ionizing glow is still evident.

     Frank Mannor had stated that it was the “dim red glow like cigarettes being smoked” that attracted their attention to the swamp at Dexter. An identical moment is captured in the photo below, where the bell is trailing behind the hemispheric model. Then the “thing” turned “deep red” and went out, declared Mannor. The photo below also catches the bell doing just that before it went dark.

   Below, seen from afar and at higher energy output, the glowing “porthole” in front is still obvious. The higher energy output has caused the objects to glow with orange to red and white light. (Consult Dulce Base by Greg Valdez.)

     Here, above, at higher energy, the 36-foot device appears very much a thick flying saucer with a flat bottom, while the glow of the 18-foot device is dimmer and only from the bottom. It was only at much lower power output that Bennewitz could make out the structure underneath. The following sketch (below, right) is my rendition based on Bennewitz’s own hand-drawn sketch.

     The 18-foot bell looks essentially like a US space capsule. Bennewitz referred to the bulge on the craft as the power node, and it is this area which often glowed with intense color (and looks like a glowing porthole). There was a rim around the bottom. He referred to this as the power rim. This is what glowed the most intensely even at low power, causing the bottom of the module/capsule to glow even at low power (see above).

     At times the craft would eject or shoot down a transparent bolt of cyan plasma. It was within normal flight or when making a sudden right angle and sharp turn. This discharge was quite interesting but unexplained. The sketch at right reflects this phenomenon. This will become significant later in assessing many UFO reports over 1965-1967.

     What is clearly evident is that the 36-foot craft photographed above matches the glowing UFOs seen over the midwest United States, especially in Michigan in March 1966.

     Left, above, a close-up of the most accurate drawing of the UFO when seen hovering at low energy over the “swamp” in Michigan near Dexter on March 20, 1966, as presented by Lt. Colonel Hector Quintanilla. Right, at low energy, the object seen over Kirtland AFB and photographed by Paul Bennewitz. The concentration of light colors is the same (cyan on the right, red on the left, and the node glowing red).

     A more accurate shape can probably be found in the illustrations below, the product of analyzing several pictures. The grid is kept in place to conform with the original illustrations drawn based on numerous witness sightings. It is a way of conveying the “pitted” appearance of the craft in 1966, but the craft is actually smooth. The hemisphere (mushroom) below, left. The 18-foot bell, below, right, is based on a blow up of one of Bennewitz’s photos and may have that grid arrangement.

       Today, a name can be placed on this type of craft— it is Lightcraft. The project’s patch carries the  bell on it:

                   The capsule shape is evident, including the power ring at the bottom.

       From just the comparisons above, the controversy is obvious. But it runs deeper than merely exposing the origins of the Second Great UFO Flap in history and what cascades from it— Congressional hearings, the Condon Report, even J. Allen Hynek’s conversion to believing in UFOs and becoming “the man who made UFOs respectable.” It is impossible to avoid the deduction that the USAF and/or the military intelligence services involved in 1966 knew from the concise descriptions at Dexter and Hillsdale that the responsible craft for the UFO reports was Lightcraft. (And it can be established that Lightcraft was already in operation). They knew several of the craft were operating according to some project then underway.

     Those responsible for this operation(s), which lasted off and on over 2 years, said nothing. They continued to operate such craft over rural and suburban areas. They continued to inspire mass reports of UFOs. The scope of these flights is hardly the result of negligence. This operation had a definite PsyOp effect on the population. This effect was the purpose of the Op or its value was quickly recognized. It created an overwhelming belief in UFOs that Congress could not quell and that the Condon Committee’s weak report could not dispel.

     The extent to which Lightcraft was the responsible, and even how its existence was zealously protected, is seen in the crash of one near Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, on December 9, 1965, a few months into this flap (if counting its beginning traditionally on August 1, 1965). The drawing below was by one of the eyewitnesses, Jerry Betters, who declared he was ready to swear on a Bible this is what he saw (drawn for Leslie Kean). The device had crashed in the woods nearby the hamlet. The Army had come in and scooped up the device, threatening the local citizens to stay away. They put it on a flatbed and hauled it off.

     Below, left, the Lightcraft as displayed on NASA, USAF, and LTI project patch; Center, the Lightcraft that crashed at Kecksburg; Right, the Lightcraft over Kirtland AFB as revealed through blowups of Bennewitz’s photos.

       The Kecksburg Incident will be dealt with later and separately. Suffice it to say here it obviously carries clues that extend deep into explaining the developing UFO experience.

     As touching the Bennewitz Affair, the AFOSI agent, Richard C. Doty, apparently did not operate entirely under Air Force orders in what he did to Bennewitz. He tried to convince him that UFOs were involved and they were coming from a secret alien base in the desert near Dulce, New Mexico. It was, in essence, a way of getting the true believer in UFOs to stop watching Kirtland AFB and instead to pine about the wilderness. But it went beyond that. It went into several dark levels of operations that finally drove Bennewitz into an asylum. It is impossible to say that this was done under Air Force orders. When the AF brass discovered what Doty had been up to, he was transferred to Germany and kicked down to cook. The Kirtland AFB security commander, who had apparently protected Doty, was also transferred.

       Altogether the sequence of events and punishments make it impossible to avoid the induction that Doty was acting under an intelligence agency control other than AFOSI. This would thus indicate the value of Lightcraft even over a decade after the device was employed over civilian areas in 1965-1967 to intentionally(?) create the popular belief in UFOs.

       Its long-standing use actually makes one wonder just what the importance of a “UFO” could be to a nation’s security. Studying UFO reports over the decades, wherein Lightcraft’s unique characteristics were clearly described, provides some suggestions.

     The most critical reports I uncovered were made in 1978, and their importance grew with more discoveries. It is hardly just banal coincidence that these occurred around the same time as Bennewitz’s study of Lightcraft in action over Kirtland AFB. These “UFO” sightings were occurring over the remote farmlands north of Beale AFB, California, and eastward of Corning in the remote hunting ranches east of Vina, California. Beale AFB is the HQ of Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the home of high altitude reconnaissance spying (U-2). These UFOs were glowing lights. In one report, it skimmed over a country ranch road as low as 8 feet (Frank Mannor had said the UFO had hovered the same distance over the swamp at Dexter in 1966). A number of witnesses were able to describe Lightcraft type performance, but on one occasion a witness got in close to see (and sketch) the shape of the craft— bell shape, power rim, everything indicating Lightcraft. Going back through the reports of UFOlogy revealed that the remote hunting ranches east of Vina had been visited by such craft as early as August 1960. Over October and November 1978 we get a vivid impression of Lightcraft’s use as a low altitude intelligence gathering device on practice maneuvers.

     For a low altitude spy craft, an otherworldly appearance would have value. As a glowing UFO higher in the sky, it may have had more than one use. One can surmise that in 1965 it had value in proving the point of UFOs over America; creating the impression  the United States was being vexed by UFOs and was therefore not responsible for such mysterious and novel craft being sighted elsewhere in the world. This indeed began to happen, and these overseas encounters became another chapter in the UFO phenomenon, a chapter we must deal with later.

     Lightcraft, however, did have one great military advantage. Documents released under FOIA have revealed that UFO visitation to ICBM bases (UFOs that of course matched Lightcraft), where the UFO hovered over the missile silos, could disable and neutralize nuclear missile launching codes. UFO flaps would begin with otherworldly lights visiting USAF Minuteman ICBM bases. (In August 1965, The Great Flap actually began over Francis E. Warren AFB in Cheyenne, Wyoming, an ICBM base). In the 1960s, UFOs’ close-in presence supposedly erased target tapes which guide the missiles to their destination. When the bases switched over to digital in the 1970s, curiously the otherworldly UFOs returned. This time it was definite that their close-in presence reset the digital launch codes. The experiment was obviously a success.

     In an edgy world like the Cold War, especially in the 1960s when intelligence information was coming back the Soviets were ready for war, the value of a low flying spy craft that was mistaken for otherworldly alien saucers was invaluable. U-2 flew too high and had already been shot down once. But such a device as Lightcraft was even more valuable by preventing or delaying any coordinated Soviet launch if the device were landed at a Soviet base. We should suppose by inference, a wave of UFOs over the USA was the perfect PsyOp. When such waves spread to other parts of the world, what government would take reports of flying saucers seriously? A “UFO” could prove valuable on many levels.

     This is not an accusation, but at this point a suggestion. The events during this great flap constitute a brilliant PsyOp, and one would expect it in a paranoid time like the 1960s. It was an era in which the CIA had projects to create programmed assassins and patsies, and they were willing to kill even US officials for national security reasons. One plot conceived a way to overthrowing Fidel Castro by faking the Second Coming of Christ. Goosing the population into believing in flying saucers seems harmless by comparison in order to deploy a low altitude reconnaissance spy craft overseas. But it really isn’t. It made a disputed phenomenon look more tangible. It paved the way for the alien abduction vogue of the 1970s. And it was not the only time Lightcraft or a similar design would seem to be employed as a PsyOp cover for an intelligence operation, a rather ghoulish one I would discover.

     It had never been my intent to asses and expose a brief though significant moment in the history of UFOs over 1965-1967. It was only after going back through the voluminous accounts of UFOlogy that I discovered how long Lightcraft had existed and how significant it had been in the creation and maintenance of the modern UFO experience.

     It was always the 1970’s use of Lightcraft type devices I had been interested in. Beginning in 1975, strange yellow-orange lights had vexed the Midwest, associated popularly and by many law enforcement officers with cattle mutilations. Since these were tangible crimes which could be investigated, it had always been my intent to discover the truth here.

     These reports spoke of the UFOs coming right down and hovering over the paddocks, perhaps even landing. One skimmed over the grassy landscape for miles, so close it left a 10 foot flight track in the summer chaff. The UFO reports east of Vina in 1978 shed light on this, and it gave me little comfort to have uncovered them and their implications.  

       Examining many sketches, reports and photos allows for a more accurate estimate of size for the two most commonly employed models. The illustrations above are from the angle the Mannors’ saw the Lightcraft. The hemisphere (or mushroom) is between 20 and 25 feet and the bell is between 10 to 12 feet in diameter at the base. Lt. Col. Quintanilla: “Frank Mannor described the object as brown in color, quilted, with a porthole in the center, sorta flat on the bottom, cone shaped towards the top, two small lights, one at each end, one glowing bluish-green, the other a brilliant red, with a glow at the bottom.” All told, it seems he saw the 20-25 foot hemisphere.

     Cattle mutilations began in 1974 in Kansas, Minnesota, and Nebraska. A Satanic cult was in operation for its own ends, and they wanted to make the mutilations look as mysterious as possible in order to cover their trail. They were apprehended and the mutilations confirmed. They took the left ear, left lip, the tongue, teats, and made a rosette around the anus, long before these acts were attributed to aliens. A publicity seeker from Wisconsin starts the theory UFOs were responsible for those in Minnesota.

     In late 1975 cattle mutilations begin with a vengeance far away in New Mexico and Colorado. They are associated with blacked-out helicopters and glowing UFOs. They began in New Mexico after a UFO flap at Tucumcari. The premier mutology investigator, State Police Officer Gabe Valdez, eventually saw the pattern. “The tongue and the sex organs are really what they want. When something else is done, it’s to throw us off.” He also stated aliens could be involved. When “pressed” about what he meant by ‘aliens,’ he responded enigmatically: “aircraft unavailable to us.” Valdez knew Bennewitz.

       The phenomenon quickly expanded northward into Montana, especially in and around Cascade County, Montana. Malmstrom ICBM base is vexed by UFOs. Near Vaughn, a witness is able to describe these UFOs. They were glowing domes, with what looks like a power rim at the bottom. One shot a bolt of energy to the ground.

     The objects were unquestionably Lightcraft type devices. Sheriff Captain Keith Wolverton, one of those investigating the slaughter of cattle, published a sketch of them in his 1976 book Mystery Stalks the Prairie. Comparing the sketch to Paul Bennewitz’s photograph of a Lightcraft type device ejecting a bolt of energy draws the connection clearly.

     Clearly Lightcraft devices, those massive energy capsules, were not landing in the prairies and mutilating cattle. Two operations were ongoing. One, a tangible operation involving cattle in which the sophisticated mutilators were needlessly taking organs to imitate Satanic ritual. But the other operation involving the “UFOs”?  We will probe into this in due course.

   “There exists a shadowy Government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of the national interest, free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself.”
         - Senator Daniel K.  Inouye

     The most immediate impact of Lightcraft was also its most far reaching. It was the creation of the modern UFO phenomenon as it was reshaped over 1965-1967. After this the phenomenon was not one of reporting silver discs zipping in the atmosphere. It became a phenomenon of the night.

     This page has acted more as an introduction to both the Great Flap of 1965-1967 and Lightcraft’s most obvious involvement. Before we delve deeper into Lightcraft’s impact (at Lightcraft II Significance), we have to go to Exeter, New Hampshire, and September 3, 1965. The events in March 1966 in Michigan were merely the crescendo of the UFO wave that hitherto got its most publicity at this alarming Incident at Exeter.