UFO's and Firefighters
by Stefan Goya
"The UFO threat-a fact" is a subheading of Chapter 13 in the new
edition of The Fire Officer's Guide to Disaster Control, by William N. Kramer,
Ph. D. and Charles W. Bahme, J.D. I'm imagining myself to be J. Firefighter
(down to earth and a bit skeptical of conspiracy theories, "new"
in the Trashional Inkwirer, and flying saucers) opening her or his 641-page
manual and browsing through the table of contents: "Disaster Planning,"
"Organizational Structure and Incident Command," "Civil Disorders
and Riots," "Hazardous Materials Incidents," "Enemy
Attack and UFO Potential." . . .. WHAT!? I turn to page 439 and read
the first paragraph about an air raid over L.A. in 1942 and then flip through
the pages about fallout, "Blue Alert," "Yellow Alert,"
and get to "The UFO THREAT-A FACT." I read, "In this chapter
we will now turn our attention to the very real threat posed by Unidentified
Flying Objects (UFOs), whether they exist or not." Oh, Ha, Ha, I was
really going there for a minute!
But J. Firefighter is in for a surprise. You cannot finish the chapter believing
the soothing first paragraph's "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast
and resulting panic theory. It turns out that Charles Bahme was a firefighter
in L.A. during the "air raid" in 1942. He saw what was in the
sky and says the zigzagging objects that were totally unaffected by 1433
rounds of anti-aircraft fire (except for rumors of one shot down) were UFOs.
Thus began a lifelong interest that has finally come out as thirteen pages
in what is an otherwise straightforward manual. Here are some quotes:
For readers who already have made up their minds that there is no such thing
as a UFO, notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, it
should be pointed out that there is circumstantial evidence that disastrous
effects have already been attributed to UFO activity in more than one nation,
including the United States.
Witnesses to the phenomena have been bribed, coerced, and threatened by
the CIA, who wanted evidence given to them alone.
Similar cases have been reported by military pilots, illustrated by the
classic case of the near mid-air collision of an army helicopter with a
UFO on October 18, 1973, over Ohio, where not only did both the UHF and
VHF radio wavelengths go dead temporarily, but the downward movement of
the helicopter with its four occupants was levitated upward by a green beam
from the UFO in time to prevent its crash into the ground.
With hundreds of UFO squadrons zooming across the landscape from California
to New York, Toronto to Mexico City, communications disrupted, widespread
power failures, airports and railroads paralyzed, highways turned into giant
parking lots. . . the problem of restoring order would be a tremendous challenge
. . . .
My favorite by far is this one:
The ability to render inoperable all electronic forms of communications,
including those that control the launching of defense weapons systems, has
been considered within the range of UFO capability. Whether this could extend
to the erasing of recorded computer data such as bank records, personnel
data, FBI, CIA, and NASA files, along with critical information of every
kind, is not beyond the realm of possibility.
The author also has a sense of humor.
In a less optimistic scenario, you may have engine trouble upon approaching
the scene and lose radio contact with your dispatcher. If at night, your
headlights could go out, the city could be blacked out, and your portable
generators may malfunction when you attempt to use them for fans and portable
lights. It would certainly be an inopportune time for your comrades to announce
that they had decided to take their pensions, effective immediately.
After this last passage, he suggests that passing along "inside"
information might help alleviate unreasonable fear, and "Truth is the
best cure for the unknown." I got a copy of this book at a talk given
by Ian Christopher for the Tesla society in San Francisco. He was able to
easily get copies by phoning Pennwell Books at 1-800-752-9768. He asked
the publisher how many copies in print and where, but they declined to state.
Mr. Christopher speculated that we are entering a phase where classified
information about UFOs will be leaked with increasing frequency. If leaking
this information is what "they" are trying to do, Mr. Christopher's
talk and this article are playing right into their hands.
Actually, this must be pretty important-Charles Bahme has already been on
TV! I don't have cable, but I've been told that a program called "Encounters"
aired on Channel 2, Fox Network, Feb. 22 at 8:00 p.m. There were recent
home videos of space aliens and Mr. Bahme was there briefly with his book.
He said he added the new chapter "just in case."
C. Bahme's other books include Fire Science and the Law, Fire Officers'
Guide to Dangerous Chemicals, Fire Officers' Guide to Emergency Action,
and Firemen's Law Book. After thirty years with the L.A. Fire Dept., he
wrote Dangerous Chemicals Code for the City of Los Angeles, the first comprehensive
set of regulations ever adopted by any municipality pertaining to hazardous
materials. During the Korean War he served as Security Coordinator for the
Chief of Naval Operations. It could have been that he connected with Naval
Intelligence and stayed in touch during his twenty-eight years in the Naval
Reserve. Mr. Bahme, who currently lives in Kelseyville, California, says
he has a large collection of UFO videos. Very interesting! Let me speculate
wildly. Suppose some insiders knew there was a gravitational anomaly in
the orbit of Pluto (mentioned by Don at the Tesla meeting), and it was approaching
earth. This wouldn't be just an ordinary UFO.
Hence, as we near the year 2000 and move beyond, any comprehensive disaster
plan should address the potential for panic and other deleterious effects
that might befall a population when unexplainable phenomena occur. . . (p.
458)
In view of the fact that many UFOlogists believe that we are fast approaching
a time when overt landings of UFOs will become less remarkable . . . (p.
469)
Maybe Mr. Bahme is hinting at the year 2013? If you were among the wealthy
and privileged and knew there was only a few years left of life (banking)
as you knew it, what would you do? Would you care about the environment?
Your fellow human beings?
This chapter in the book by this man gives me a feeling that I get frequently
when I think and feel about life on this planet. Paul MacCready, inventor
of the first human-powered airplane to fly a figure eight and across the
English Channel was interviewed in Inventors at Work. At one point he sums
up my feeling, saying, "It's the most exciting time to be living in
the world right now. But so is a balloon before it pops."
One last thought: How many outraged people will stop fighting for social
justice and be content to wait for the saucers? Will we polarize into believers
and non-believers?
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