UFOs - Leslie Kean [139]
Today, Symington is inclined to agree with Barry Goldwater that our government is withholding secret information about UFOs. “If we got our hands on a very advanced spacecraft before anyone else, you can be sure we would hold it tight and work on it, and we would be interested in the advanced technology. This is as valid as any other idea to explain why it would be kept secret,” he says.
Governor Symington’s “coming out of the closet” represents a historical turning point in the effort to bring official recognition and policy change to the UFO issue in America. Never before has a twice-elected official of this stature not only acknowledged witnessing an unmistakable unidentified flying object, but also taken a public stand advocating for change. When he was forced to test the system, the governor discovered firsthand that it doesn’t work. As a result, he has to some extent made this effort a personal mission, which is being carried forward with the support of other equally convinced former officials from other countries, some of whom have come together in this volume. As a former elected government official in America and part of the political establishment, Symington is uniquely positioned to influence a change in policy. Through his contacts and experience in government, he can help move us toward the founding of a new government agency—which he could have benefited from so much while in office—and has already done so by adding his voice and support to our international coalition.
CHAPTER 25
Setting the Record Straight
by Fife Symington III
Governor of Arizona, 1991–97
Between 8:00 and 8:30 on the evening of March 13, 1997, during my second term as governor of Arizona, I witnessed something that defied logic and challenged my reality: a massive, delta-shaped craft silently navigating over the Squaw Peak in the Phoenix Mountain preserve. A solid structure rather than an apparition, it was dramatically large, with a distinctive leading edge embedded with lights as it traveled the Arizona skies. I still don’t know what it was. As a pilot and a former Air Force officer, I can say with certainty that this craft did not resemble any man-made object I had ever seen.
As soon as I reached home I told my wife, Ann, about it. She listened attentively, and we both thought long and hard about whether I should make public what I had seen. Eventually, at least for the time being, we reached the conclusion I should not, as doing so would most likely result in ridicule from the press that would distract me and my entire administration from the work we had been elected to accomplish.
The same incident was witnessed by hundreds if not thousands of people in Arizona, and my office was at once besieged with phone calls from concerned Arizonians. Even so, I managed to keep my head down—until two months later, when a story about the sightings appeared in USA Today. Catalyzed by the article, hysteria intensified to a point that I decided to lighten the mood and add a note of levity by calling a press conference at which my chief of staff arrived in alien costume. Originally my idea, this was one my team immediately embraced with enthusiasm. Not only would it dampen any incipient panic, it would show the human face of those who hold public office.
In the event, we did manage to calm the public’s developing anxiety and, despite the fact that, in the process, we also upset a few of my constituents, I felt that our approach had ultimately served a greater good.
With hindsight, however, I would like to set one part of the record straight. As I assured James Fox when he interviewed me for his documentary film, Out of the Blue, it was never my intention to ridicule anyone. My office did make inquiries—of the Department of Public Safety, the Air National Guard, and the lead officers at Luke Air Force Base—as to the origin of the craft, but to this day all of these remain unanswered.
Eventually,