George W. Earley on the Rational Study of UFOs

 

George W. Earley was an aircraft engineer, a writer, a lecturer, a Fortean, and a strong advocate for the scientific study of UFOs. Since 1940, Earley was an avid reader of fantasy and science fiction, and active in its fandom, with many of his letters appearing in club newsletters and national magazines.

Startling Stories, Sept. 1949

Earley’s obituary goes into further detail on his otherworldly pursuits:

“For 50 years, George was a prolific freelance writer, exploring a wide range of interests: science fiction, space exploration, photography, Dixieland jazz, conservation, and what he termed ‘unexplained phenomena’… In 1968 he published an anthology of science fiction titled Encounters with Aliens. He wrote letters to the editor, op-ed pieces, and other articles for newspapers on both coasts. He formed a Connecticut chapter of the National Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomena…”

In 1961, Earley was appointed a national adviser for NICAP’s Panel of Special Advisers and was one of its most an influential members.

On May 15-18, 1967, Earley gave an outstanding lecture on the UFO topic for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Conference at the Americana Hotel in New York City. It was a realistic overview of the first 20 years of the phenomena for the general public, and concluded by insisting that it was worthy of "a more extensive investigation." The NICAP site hosts the entire lecture, Unidentified Flying Objects: An Historical Perspective.

Earley attended a less serious gathering in the same city later the next month. It was Jim Moseley’s New York UFO Convention, but he found it far too full of entertainment and Contactees for a “Congress of Scientific Ufologists.” Earley’s unfavorable review was published in the Hartford Courant, July 9, 1967, called "Hippies, Old Ladies, Over 30 Types Orbit in Flying Saucer Circles." See: The UFO Anniversary and the Giant New York Convention of 1967

Earley’s 1968 book combined two of his greatest interests science fiction and UFOs. Ivan Sanderson wrote the introduction to this collection of stories examining the possibility that UFOs are manned by intelligent beings from outer space, and it was titled, Encounters with Aliens: UFO's and Alien Beings in Science Fiction. The anthology featured works by Theodore Sturgeon, Mack Reynolds, Robert F. Young, Avram Davidson, Richard Wilson, and other authors.

 

Advertisement for the Science Fiction Book Club

Over the years, Earley contributed articles to many UFO and science fiction magazines, Fate magazine, Pursuit, Saucer News, Official UFO, Amra, Beyond Reality, and letters of comment to many, many more. 

Beyond Reality no. 9, May/June 1974, page 39

Beyond Reality no. 31, April 1978, Review of the movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

In his UFO writing, Earley interviewed figures from across the belief spectrum, such as skeptic Philip Klass, alien abduction researcher Budd Hopkins, and paranormal researcher Dr. Jacques Vallee. Earley encouraged the exploration of the unknown, but stressed the need for rational evaluation of the data his 1983 letter to the APRO Bulletin:

“There is, it seems to me, a disquieting tendency in some ufological circles these days not only towards uncritical acceptance of many claims/reports, but of accusing those who would question such claims of being [debunkers] or dupes of the CIA.” 

Earley in the the 21st Century

In later years, Earley was a columnist and contributing editor for Bill and Nancy Birnes’ UFO Magazine, and wrote the column, “The Opinionated Oregonian”

UFO Magazine, Oct. 2010 (PDF)

George Earley's connection to the Birnes resulted in him being featured in the first episode of UFO Hunters, “The UFO Before Roswell” about the story of the alleged saucer debris recovered at Maury Island. Later, he was a guest on the Birnes' radio show, Future Theater, July 2011 , where he discussed the history of the Horten wing and addressed Annie Jacobsen’s claims that a was behind the Roswell incident. He also spoke about his research on the Maury Island hoax.

UFO Hunters, “The UFO Before Roswell”

In 2014, Earley wrote  to Loren Coleman, giving an update on his retirement. 

"Be advised this 'dinosaur' of ufology is still alive and reasonably well. At 87, I may be one of the few left who read the original news story on the Arnold sighting..."

Coleman printed the letter as “Old Ufologist Replies To Young Ufologists.” It seems to have been Earley's final published thoughts on the UFO topic.

A Look Back at How it All Began

Finally, we’d like to remember George W. Earley by presenting a collection of his writings from the beginning of his UFO days up until the time he formed a Connecticut chapter of NICAP. 

The first UFO letter we located was from 1955, Earley would have been 28 years old at the time. It was a book review of George Adamski’s Inside the Space Ships.

Hartford Courant, Aug. 7, 1955.

Spaceman: Bookshelf, reviews of Harold T. Wilkins’ Flying Saucers on the Attack, Donald Keyhoe’s The Flying Saucer Conspiracy, and Edward Ruppelt’s The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects.

Hartford Courant, June 3, 1956

Spaceman: Bookshelf, reviews including: Aime Michel’s The Truth about Flying Saucers, Gray Barker’s They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers, and Truman Betherum’s Aboard a Flying Saucer.

Hartford Courant, Sept. 23, 1956

Review of Arthur Constance’s promotion of “Saucerian Doctrine” in The Inexplicable Sky.

Hartford Courant, Oct. 27, 1957

Letter to the Editor on UFO sightings and NICAP.

Hartford Courant, Dec. 28, 1958

Saucers Analyzed, reviews of Dr. Carl Jung’s Flying Saucers, and Aime Michel’s Flying Saucers and the Straight Line Mystery.

Hartford Courant, May 29, 1960

Letter to the Editor on the diversity of UFO shapes.

Hartford Courant, Oct. 3, 1961

Letter to the Editor on John Glenn’s “space fireflies.”

Hartford Courant, May 5, 1962

Letter to the Editor on the formation of NICAP-CONN.

Hartford Courant, Dec. 17, 1962

That’s how he got his start, and from there Earley was an important voice for NICAP and a rational advocate in the support of research into unidentified aerial phenomena.

The Bridgeport Post,  May 14,1967

George W. Earley, was born February 15, 1927 and died on October 28, 2020. Below is a link to his full obituary:

George Whiteford Earley 1927 - 2020

 

Major Tiger Joe Thompson, WW II UFO Witness

Joe Thompson Jr., (1919 - 2012) of Nashville, Tennessee, was not the typical UFO buff. His obituary described him as: “Thoughtful and devoted husband, father and grandfather, man of faith, insurance executive, Presbyterian elder, P-51 Mustang pilot and World War II hero, photographer, storyteller, planter of trees, friend to many, stranger to none...”

Before the war, Thompson graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in biology in 1941. Thompson was a pilot in World War II, ultimately as a major, and he chronicled his wartime experiences through photographs. In 2006, his book was published, Tiger Joe: A Photographic Diary of A World War II Aerial Reconnaissance Pilot by Joe Thompson and Tom Delvaux.

During those days as a pilot, Thompson became a UFO witness, seeing a formation of the mysterious wartime aerial phenomenon known as foo fighters. Due to that experience, he took a particular interest in the postwar sightings of flying saucers. Thompson eagerly studied UFO reports and literature, and became a local expert, and in the mid-1950s discussed the subject in public, at civic club lectures and on radio.

Thompson is noted as being a foo fighter witness, but there's very little recognition today for his role in educating the public on UFOs as a lecturer. There are just a few mentions recorded on Thompson in period UFO literature. M. K. Jessup’s 1956 book, The UFO Annual, included two newspaper excerpts about him. The first was about Thompson’s role in a public debate, from The Nashville Tennessean, June 22, 1955:

Joe Thompson of Northwestern Mutual Insurance maintained that all the qualified people such as airplane pilots who have seen the flying “somethings” couldn't be so far wrong... Thompson's argument hinged on the fact that pilots, accustomed to watching for objects in the sky and instantly recognizing regular objects, have seen the so-called flying saucers. “These qualified men with thousands of flying hours know what they see and don't see,” he said.

The Nashville Tennessean, June 22, 1955

Jessup's second one on was about one of Thompson many public lectures on UFOs, as reported by The Nashville Banner, Oct. 18, 1955:

M. K. Jessup’s 1956 The UFO Annual

As far as we know, Thompson never had another UFO sighting, but he was watching the skies. Here's a photo from him that was featured in The Nashville Tennessean newspaper’s Sunday magazine for June 26, 1955:

Flying Saucers, Are They a Myth?

In his lectures, Thompson discussed everything from ancient sightings to modern events, as well as the Air Force investigations of UFOs.

The Tennessean, Oct.18, 1955, The Jackson Sun, May 1, 1956

The Jackson Sun, May 3, 1956

Thompson’s continued to lecture on saucers at least through 1961. Mysteries of the Skies: UFOs in Perspective by Gordon Lore and Harold Deneault, 1968, page 118, features another of the few references to Thompson in UFO books:

The Nashville Banner, on February 15, 1961, published an interview with a veteran whose "flying saucer" talk at a local club had touched off a new round of discussion and speculation. The veteran, Joe Thompson, then an agent for Northwestern Mutual Insurance Co., was described by the Banner as a college graduate, a family man and a responsible civic leader whose "interest in flying saucers stems from his World War II experiences in air reconnaissance work over Germany.”
The story said: "Reconnaissance crews kept seeing 'strange circular objects over the Rhine Valley,' he recalled. They flew in formation and could not be overtaken by American planes. 'We thought they were some sort of German aircraft device,' he said, 'until after the war when we discovered the Germans thought they were ours.' "

In The Nashville Tennessean newspaper’s Sunday magazine for Oct. 30, 1966, an illustrated two page article by Max York discussed Thompson’s sighting, “Joe Thompson and the Foo-Fighters.”

It wasn't until 1947, when the stories about flying saucers hit page one, that Nashville's Joe Thompson Jr. gave much thought to those strange objects he saw in World War II. Now an insurance man, Thompson was a photo reconnaissance pilot in the war. He and his wing man were on a mission over the Rhine Valley, photographing German troop movements, when he saw them...

The full text of the article is among the historical resources at the Project 1947 site.
Project 1947, hosts The 1966 foo fighter story put Thompson’s UFO interest back in the public’s mind and he lectured at least once more, on “UFOs- Fact or Fantasy?” for a mid-November 1966
presentation in Nashville.

Remembering Tiger Joe

The rest of Thompson’s involvement in the topic is undocumented, but due to the sensational news about the 1973 “Pascagoula Abduction” of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker in Mississippi, he made a brief return to the topic on radio. Thompson spoke about UFOs on Nashville’s WSM radio call-in talk program, “The Teddy Bart Show,” at least twice, in October and November.

Thompson’s participation in the public discussion of UFOs was unusual because he was a prominent citizen, and did not appear to fear it damaging his reputation. The UFO topic has been polluted with an endless stream of hoaxers, hucksters and charlatans who have vied for our attention. From time to time, it’s worth remembering the honorable people like Joe Thompson.

Calvin Girvin, Author, Alien Abductee and Saucerian Spy

In late 1956, Calvin C. Girvin began speaking about his series of flying saucer experiences. He'd recently been discharged from the Air Force where he'd served as a staff sergeant, and at the age of thirty, he was taking on a second career as a flying saucer lecturer. Girvin's tale was unique. 

While the other Contactees were invited into saucers, Girvin woke from his bed at night to be commanded to come aboard a glowing spaceship. By his account, Girvin can be considered to be one of the first reported alien abductees.

Long Beach Press Telegram, Sept. 13, 1956

Girvin spoke at Giant Rock saucer convention in 1957 in advance of his book’s release, and thereafter had a busy lecturing career both solo at local venues and alongside major Contactee figures at national conferences.  

Thy Kingdom Come - No 5. June, 1957 (PDF link)

In 1958, Girvin's book, The Night Has a Thousand Saucers was published by Daniel Fry's Understanding Publishing Co. One of the stories it told was how late in World War II Girvin had been killed or nearly killed by machine gun fire in the Pacific, but was healed and revived by alien. Girvin recovered these memories years later via automatic writing, and there’s a problem with the story, as he joined the service in November 9, 1945, when the war was already over.

Santa Cruz Sentinel Feb. 22, 1959

According to Girvin's book, the alien re-animator possessed his body, making him a forerunner of the "walk-ins."  After the war, Girvin was in contact aliens Cryxtan and Ashtar from Venus, who told him to join the Air Force so they he could spy for them to find out how much the US military knew about flying saucers - Gorvin did so, and even managed to get stationed in the Pentagon, but in food services, so his access to classified material was limited. The Venusians later commanded Girvin to write a book, and he did so, chronicling his spiritual and physical encounters. Girvin even painted the cover illustration, which depicted his encounter with the same type of flying saucer from Venus that George Adamski had described.

Girvin's book helped secure him more speaking engagements. There are many notices of his engagements, but below is one of the rare reviews of his lectures.

Pasadena Independent, Feb. 19, 1959

1959 seems to be the peak of Girvin's popularity. He was featured alongside two other famous flying saucer figures on a national television program, "People Are Funny. 

Thy Kingdom Come - No 8. March-April 1959 (PDF link)

Later the same year, he announced a second book, "In Search Of The Saucers," but it doesn't seem to have ever been published.  However, he did paint the cover for Howard Menger’s book, From Outer Space to You.

Calvin Girvin was also on hand for the (aborted) launch of Otis T. Carr's flying saucer in Oklahoma City on April 17, 1959. Girvin was interviewed about his book and experiences for the Long John Nebel radio show on WOR. Link to recording:

Long John Nebel-Launch of Otis T. Carr's Flying Saucer April, 1959

Gabriel Green, of the Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America was the most frequent host for Girvin's lectures, and he continued speaking throughout the late 1950s and the 1960s. Perhaps even beyond 1969, but there's little documentation of Girvin's later years. There's evidence his interest in the paranormal remained strong, though. Ingo Swann was a superstar psychic, a key player in the CIA's Project Star Gate Remote Viewing program. The University of West Georgia hosts the Ingo Swann Papers, and it contains correspondence from Calvin Girvin on remote viewing and other topics beyond conventional science:

"5 Jun 1994 typed letter from Calvin Girvin to Ingo Swann discussing his personal experiences with the paranormal and his lifelong interest in many subjects. Enclosed with an article Girvin authored “Magnetic Bra Prevents Breast Cancer” along with several notes about the biomagnetic differences between the north and south poles and their uses in energy medicine. (eight leaves), 1994"

That's the last documented UFO-related contact we could find for Girvin, and the only other information we could find was the date of his death, May 14, 2005, given as the site, Kook Science. That's the end of the story, but we saved the perhaps most interesting part for last, Girvin's early contact with the the legendary wee folk of Hawaii.

Meeting the Metahunes

Months before Calvin C. Girvin became known on the mainland for his flying saucer contact, he was in the Hawaii news for having encounters with their pixie or troll-like Menehunes. Girvin already had some rich experiences under his belt, some psychic in nature, and he had plans to write a book.

Honolulu Star Bulletin July 30, 1956

Calvin Girvin's story is full of incredible experiences, such as healing by aliens and channeling messages. Such things were not taken seriously then by ufology. Times change.

As with so many of the most interesting UFO cases featured here at The Saucers That Time Forgot, Project Blue Book has no files on Girvin's encounters.

Click this link for additional newspaper stories on Calvin C. Girvin.

. . .

Title Trivia

For the title of his book, Girvin unknowingly borrowed a line from the 1873 poem "Light" by Francis William Bourdillon: 

The Night has a thousand eyes,And the Day but one;Yet the light of the bright world diesWith the dying sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes,And the heart but one;Yet the light of a whole life diesWhen love is done.

GE's UFO Lectures: Flying Saucers - Fact or Fancy?

The Post-Standard from Syracuse, New York Nov. 21, 1966, featured news of an upcoming UFO lecture by Edward J. Patrick, "Flying Saucers - Fact or Fancy?" A special thanks to Robert Barrow for sending us his clippings on this event he attended in Syracuse so long ago.

After the event, an article in the same newspaper summarized Patrick's lecture.

Syracuse Post-Standard, Dec. 1, 1966

Engineer Says Self-Styled Experts Cause UFO Mystery

Syracuse Post-Standard, Dec. 1, 1966

The fact that a GE engineer was speaking about UFOs added some respectability to things, and while he was skeptical, he did consider the topic worthy of discussion. One of Patrick's lectures was mentioned in NICAP's The UFO Investigator from Jan-Feb 1966, in the article, "Millions Learn of NICAP UFO Evidence." It was cited among their discussion of positive  attention towards the UFO topic.

Missiles, Space and Flying Saucers

General Electric was a big contractor for the US government, and their Missile and Space Division was working on military and aerospace projects such as guided missile technology, NASA's space re-entry vehicles and classified strategic programs. It's puzzling why they were involved in lectures on flying saucers. While researching the background on the original clippings, we found that Patrick's UFO lectures continued into 1968, but curiously, there were other lectures by the same name.

IEEE Almanack, April 1967,
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Philadelphia Section

Who was that unnamed GE scientist? This clip from Standard-Speaker, April 28, 1966 gives us a clue:

UFO Speaker's Name Listed Incorrectly
The speaker at Tuesday's Kiwanis Club... was Roland Swank, not Richard Socky, as previously published. Both men are employees of the General Electric Missile and Space Division, Mr. Socky was announced as the speaker and was unable to attend. Mr. Swank substituted for him and the Standard-Speaker reporter was not informed of the change. Mr. Swank's topic was "Unidentified Flying Objects."

GE's Missile and Space Division in Philadelphia had at least five people giving the "Fact or Fancy" lecture. Besides Edward J. Patrick and Roland Swank, the same talk was being given by Robert Hersch, Paul Usavage, and Eugene Rygwalski. Some of those guys formed their own UFO organization.

Swank's Systems Management Associates, Inc. 

The Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 20, 1966, had an article, "Flying Saucer Evidence Compiled by Engineers" by Stephen J. Sansweet that told how GE engineers Roland P. Swank, Gene E. Rygwalski and Robert L. Ewing got started. “They work for a large firm they prefer not to identified – because it has government contracts – and they fear of being pressured to stop their investigation."

Three engineers and about 30 other men, mostly scientist or engineers, have incorporated a group – Systems Management Associates, to gather data on what they call “Unidentified Observations."

Swank, the SMA spokesman, said his interest in UFOs was aroused in November 1961, when he and some co-workers or asked to speak on the subject. “If we were going to talk about UFOs, we felt we owed it to the public to find out what we were talking about," Swank said. Over the years the interest grew. Last February, 30 men formed the Organization for Scientific Analysis and Research. This was incorporated into the SMA two weeks ago.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 20, 1966

Unfortunately the article does not name any participants beyond the three principals, so we can't know just who else from GE was involved in the SMA. We found that the group had been corresponding with Richard Hall, who wrote in NICAP’s Affiliate/Subcommittee Newsletter, March 9, 1966, “A Subcommittee consisting of General Electric scientists, engineers and technicians in Philadelphia is about to be approved. Co-chairman will be Eugene Rygwalski, (mathematician)..." However, we found nothing to show the group ever was formally connected to NICAP. An article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 12, 1966, shows that SMA was not always backing winners:

Systems Management Associates co-sponsored in Philadelphia on Friday night the appearance of one of the world’s foremost trackers of flying saucers and assorted other  UFOs, Dr. Daniel Fry.

Roland P. Swank and other engineers from General Electric continued to lecture on UFOs all under the same title, "Fact or Fancy," at clubs, schools, churches - anywhere- through 1968.

Standard-Speaker, Hazleton, Pennsylvania April 23, 1966

The Pittsburgh Press, December 8, 1966

Delaware County Daily Times, November 11, 1967

Flying Saucer Company Policy

An article in Delaware County Daily Times,  October 8, 1968 stated,  "A series of lectures will be given by personnel of the General Electric Company's Missile and Space Division at the Rose Tree Media Adult School." The topics generally looked to what the future of technology would bring:  space exploration, computer use in industry, geology, weather satellite technology, and once again, Edwin J. Patrick lectured on "Flying Saucers - Fact or Fancy?," and it was noted that, "He has given more than 200 talks to technical and civic groups and is the author of an article on UFO's."

How far back did these GE flying saucer lectures go? A calendar of events in the Nov. 11, 1957 Aviation Week magazine showed a listing for one in Feb. 1958.

Feb. 19— "Are Flying Saucers Fact or Fancy?", Dr. Hugh Winn, Missile and Ordnance Systems Department, GE, Engineers Club, 1317 Spruce St„ Philadelphia, Pa. 

The Pennsylvania Villanova University newspaper documents a slightly earlier one, Dec. 3, 1957:

The Villanovan, Dec. 11, 1957

 The American Engineer from Nov. 1956 is the earliest version of the lecture we found.

“Flying Saucers—Fact or Fancy?” Asks GE Speaker 

At a recent meeting of the Valley Forge Chapter of the Pennsylvania SPE, Dr. Hugh Winn, General Electric Company, Philadelphia, Pa., gave an interesting talk to about seventy members and guests on the subject— “Flying Saucers—Fact or Fancy?” Dr. Winn, who works in the Special Defense Projects Department, opened his talk with a reminder that we have five normal senses, illustrating each with an example. From this he brought out the fact that some times our senses lead us to illusions— or thinking that something is—that isn't. He gave examples of instances where a person had reported seeing objects flying through space, but which could not be authenticated by other individuals. Dr. Winn told of flying objects that have been seen with the aid of scientific instruments, such as radar and the camera. The saucer-type objects which were seen for about five hours over Washington, D.C., in 1952 were judged by radar to be flying from 250 to 7,500 miles per hour, he said. On other occasions cigar-shaped objects with estimated speeds up to 21,000 miles per hour were reported. The saucer objects appeared to give off a bluish glow, Dr. Winn stated. There have been numerous written accounts of objects seen in the sky during the past 2,000 years, he said, and maybe flying objects are not new.

It's clear that GE's UFO lecture program inspired Swank's independent SMA group, but there was some significant overlap between them, at least up until 1968. After that, it seems the SMA was on their own and eventually fell on hard times. Delaware County Daily Times, May 14, 1976, reported on the end of Swank's UFO group:

The Unidentified Observation Reporting Center in Berwyn, after nine years of reporting sightings and the frustration of where to go and what to do next with them as forced it to close active operations. According to a spokesman at the Center, the work was begun in 1967 by a group of 45 scientists and engineers who found who soon found themselves faced with the riddle of how to prove the existence of something with no evidence. “We could determine the 'are nots,'" said the spokesman. "They are not helicopters, they are not spotlights, they are not planes, etc. But how can you say what they actually were. Where do you go from there?"

Despite the end of the Centers operations, Swank lectured on: The Daily Intelligencer from Doylestown, Pennsylvania on October 27, 1976, contained the last talk we located.

The program will be "Unidentified Observations--Fact or Fantasy" presented by Roland Swank. The subject of the UFO phenomena is one of increasing interest. Swank is a member of Systems Management Associates, Inc., whose prime function is the performance of scientific UFO investigations. Swank has been a systems evaluation engineer with the General Electric Company since 1950.

Beyond that, Roland Swank also continued to correspond with UFO colleagues at least as late as 1979, but his SMA group left few tracks and is now mostly forgotten.

GE: "Progress is our most important product."

We were unable to find much more about the origins of the General Electric lecture program, but have to wonder why it was promoted by GE's Missile and Space Division for fourteen years or so. The most curious thing is that the program seems to have thrown both some water and gasoline on the fiery UFO topic.

If any of our readers have more information on the GE UFO lectures or Swank's, Systems Management Associates, Inc., please send an update to us here at The Saucers That Time Forgot.