The Day After Saucergate

Continued from Inside Hangar 18 with Dr. Robert Carr

Robert S. Carr said the US government secrecy about UFOs was

"a cover-up that makes Watergate look like a trivial neighborhood incident.”

-The Tampa Tribune, Oct. 16, 1974

After Carr’s UFO Crash Disclosure

At the 1974 Flying Saucer Symposium in Tampa, Robert Spencer Carr disclosed that the CIA led the US government cover-up of two crashed flying saucers and the bodies within, hiding them at Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Hangar 18. The subsequent exposure of Carr’s tale as a recycled old hoax did not receive anywhere near the publicity of the original news.

Professor Marvel

While he was often called “Dr. Carr,” or “Professor,” it was humbug. He held no Ph.D, no degree, and had not attended college. Some people hearing his UFO story probably thought Carr held a doctorate in a scientific discipline, but no. Bob Carr’s academic background was limited to him being a former creative writing instructor at the University of Southern Florida. Carr’s first job was an author of fiction; he was an experience professional writer, and those skills, along with his talent as an orator won him the job as a university lecturer. Carr was a master storyteller.

In interviews Carr was questioned about his sources, and he admitted that he had not personally witnessed the UFO, but said he had trusted sources whose identity must be protected; a high ranking Air Force officer, a Wright-Patterson security guard, and a biologist. Carr was a writer and a master storyteller, and it’s as if he created characters who each had a role to play, a job in moving the plot of the story along. The officer transported the bodies by plane, the biologist provided Carr with details of the scientific analysis of the alien body, the security guard protected the saucer itself and the bodies. The guard supposedly had even secretly photographed the bodies, and his sister was in the process of selling the pictures (suggesting that they’d be published soon). At some point after the lecture, Carr introduced a new character, a nurse who had participated in the alien autopsy. Still later, two Air Force men who had study the technology behind the saucer’s propulsion were added. Any holes in the story were not Carr’s fault. He could only dutifully share what the witnesses told him.

Another fantastic Professor.

Scully’s story was a bit flat in regards to plot and characters; he had only a few main players, himself, Silas Newton, Dr. Gee and some unnamed scientists. All the drama in the Scully tale came from the novelty of the saucer and the bodies. Carr made the story come alive with verisimilitude, and made the audience connect emotionally with the story. There was a lot to feel, too, from the tragic loss of the saucer’s noble crewmen to the injustice of the cover-up, and the prospect of a happy ending, the hope of what open alien contact could bring.

Post-Disclosure Reactions

As the news of Carr’s story continued to circulate, there were some who championed the story as the truth, while others attempted a rational examination of the evidence.

There was some accurate reporting:

Lebanon Daily News (PN) November 11, 1974

“UFO Crash Of 1940s Is Drawing Local Interest” by Curtis K. Sutherly, .

Lebanon Daily News, November 11, 1974

There was some sensational reporting:

The National Tattler Jan. 5, 1975,
“U.S. Air Force Hiding Bodies Of 12 Men From Outer Space”

Reproduced in Flying Saucer News, June 1975

The major UFO groups responded to the Carr controversy. Unfavorably.

MUFON Journal (Skylook) Dec. 1974

“Frozen bodies from saucer a l950's hoax”

Through the dubious efforts of a retired University of Southern Florida instructor, the old, old undocumented and discredited story of a crashed UFO, the finding of 12 bodies, and the "deep-freezing'' of those ; bodies by the Air Force has been publicized again. Robert Carr, who apparently was attempting to generate interest in a symposium Nov. 1-3 in Tampa, Fla., told the story on radio talk shows in California and Florida... A quick check of responsible UFO groups indicates that not one takes the case seriously, despite the fact that Carr has publicly claimed a longtime affiliation with NICAP.

NICAP: The UFO Investigator Nov. 1974

“Hidden Body Rumor Back Again”

Many readers of the UFO Investigator may have heard from the news media that Robert S. Carr, a retired associate professor, was going to make a very “dramatic” announcement... We feel an obligation to our members to inform them of the discrepancies and Robert Carr’ statements and most of all to make it now and that they are simply hearsay and not substantiated with any valid information.

The APRO Bulletin Jan. - Feb. 1975

“Little Frozen Aliens”

During the last part of October and early November, a story was circulated, first by UPI, then by many (about 200) radio stations subscribing to the Zodiac News Service to the effect that a dozen bodies of small aliens from space were being kept in a deep frozen condition at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base… Like the Aurora, Texas Spaceman Hoax, it seems to be just another wild tale dug up for another round of unsubstantiated sensationalism… those who recirculate these tales either have not done their homework or do not care. It's this sort of irresponsible hoaxsterism that casts a shadow on serious objective research.

In the mainstream press, United Features Syndicate newspaper columnist, John D. Lofton, Jr., interviewed Carr in early 1975. Carr stuck by his story, steadfastly refusing to name his eyewitnesses. From The Yuma Daily Sun February 12, 1975, “Now the CIA’s Even Accused Of Hiding Little Green Men.”

United Features Syndicate newspaper columnist, John D. Lofton, Jr., interviewed Carr in early 1975. Carr stuck by his story, steadfastly refusing to name his eyewitnesses. From The Yuma Daily Sun February 12, 1975, “Now the CIA’s Even Accused Of Hiding Little Green Men.”

...Carr says it is "the worst kept secret in America.” He says “at least 500 highly placed people in the medical profession, the academic world, and the intelligence community have examined the humanoids and the craft they arrived in.” ...he would not betray his sources, that he would not “finger’ these individuals who he praised as “people of vision and courage.” He said if I were “acquainted in these circles it would be common cocktail party talk.” Besides, he said, it’s coming out “bit by bit.”

The Yuma Daily Sun, February 12, 1975

The CIA took notice of Carr mentioning them, and the Philadelphia Inquirer version of the article is in the CIA files: https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010004-7.pdf

The press continued to be interested in Carr’s story, and he was still in business with Lawrence Brill, who served as his manager, booking his many lectures at college campuses. In the interviews and lectures that followed, Carr was asked to tell the story again and again. The basic tale stayed the same, but sometimes new characters surfaced, such as a nurse who had participated in the alien autopsy.

Official UFO magazine, Oct. 1975

Mike McClellan wrote the article, “The Flying Saucer Crash of 1948 was a hoax” for  Official UFO magazine, Oct. 1975. He had interviewed Carr, and recapped the Aztec story and its debunking in 1952 by J. P. Cahn for True magazine. McClellan also interviewed residents of Aztec, but the few who had heard of the saucer crash story remembered it as a joke. McClellan had this to say about Carr in the aftermath of the publicity:

He abhors the “lurid sensationalism – the vulgar sensationalism” that the media has afforded him. Yet, he is lecturing frequently at Florida universities and has appeared, according to his own statistics, on 144 radio shows, 33 television appearances, and 50 newspaper interviews; in addition to a well-attended symposium he recently held in Florida. His new book on UFOs is near completion and is forthcoming. He employs an agent to book his lectures.

(Reprinted in 2005, with annotations by Matt Graeber.)

Carr responded to the article, revising his claims, as seen in this clipping from The UFO Verdict: Examining the Evidence by Robert Sheaffer.

When Carr was challenged, he changed the beginning and end of his story, but not the middle, saying he might have been wrong about where the saucer crashed, and where the wreckage was stored, but of the crash, the cover-up - that part was right.

Whether or not anyone believed Carr, he'd relaunched the topic of flying saucer, crashes as this 1975 ad for the UFO Report radio show demonstrates.

Broadcasting, Nov 24, 1975

Getting the Truth Out There

With the coverage of Hangar 18 story, Carr’s reputation as a UFO expert was secure, and he began lecturing on the topic, most often at college campuses. The topic was “Our Friends From Outer Space,” once again pitching his plan for contacting aliens.

The pitch:

The Independent Florida Alligator, Jan 23, 1975

A review of the same event.

The Independent Florida Alligator, Jan 27, 1975

Carr’s lecture career may have been cut short by the death of his manager, Lawrence Brill in 1975, but his interest in UFOs and advocacy for Project Lure remained strong. By 1976, Carr was no longer touring, but the force within him was still strong, as seen in the interview his hometown paper, The Clearwater Sun July 23, 1976. Carr was interviewed about his thoughts on what NASA's Viking lander might find on Mars.

“UFO Expert: Viking Will Find Bugs, Other Life on Mars” by Tom Keyser

“It will find life, but only small forms… microbes or little bugs… It is inconceivable the saucers originate from Mars, unless there’s an underground civilization on Mars, which all serious students of outer space doubt. But I believe the space travelers use Mars as a stepping stone to other places just as were used islands in the Pacific is stepping stones to Japan in World War II.”

Carr said that the United States should develop a program of searching for alien life on Earth.

“It is indeed ironic that the finest minds in the scientific society or spending billions of dollars to travel to Mars looking for life when little men are getting out of flying saucers and walking right here on Florida real estate. I’m confident that the occupants of UFOs would respond intelligently if they were reassured we will cease the insane policy we’ve followed since 1952 of shooting at UFOs to kill.

I believe we should build a safe landing zone on the highest mesa in New Mexico, which is government land, and assure the aliens it is not an ambush. I feel confident they would land. I’d like nothing more than to see Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger sitting on a mountaintop at a card table with two or three little beings from outer space asking, ‘What do you want? What can we do for you?’ If we can achieve detente with the alien minds in the Kremlin, which I can promise you are stranger than any man from outer space, we wish we surely have the capability to achieve detente, intelligent conversation, with the immensely wise little beings that pilot flying saucers.”

In 1978, veteran UFO researcher Leonard Stringfield contacted Carr about the Aztec UFO crash story, and it was influential in refocusing Stringfield’s research around the crash/retrieval topic. Carr continued to be a Stringfield source as late as 1982, however, Carr apparently never said a word about Roswell, just repeated his story of the Aztec crash and claims of having witness testimony to the bodies and craft stored by the military.

The X-Files debuted on Fox, 1993, and its sinister UFO cover-up conspiracy closely resembled Carr’s tale of a “Saucergate,” with the government hiding the secrets of saucers, crashed or otherwise, from the American people. The show featured little of the hope that Carr showed in Operation Lure, however. Robert Spencer Carr died April 28, 1994, during the first season of The X-Files.

X-Files: The Erlenmeyer Flask

An Insider Speaks Out

Robert Carr's son, Timothy Spencer Carr wrote an article printed in The Skeptical Inquirer July 1, 1997, “Son of originator of 'Alien Autopsy' story casts doubt on father's credibility.”

To say he had a vivid imagination is an understatement. His imaginary world was more real to him than the real world. He often seemed unable—no, unwilling—to distinguish between fantasy and reality... spinning preposterous stories in front of company or complete strangers. Tales included finding a Lost Horizon— like Shangri-la in New Mexico, befriending a giant alligator in the Florida swamps, and sharing complex philosophical ideas with porpoises in the Gulf of Mexico. It wasn't the tall tales themselves that hurt so much but his ferocious insistence that they were true...But when it came to flying saucers, he finally found an audience that would believe anything he said, no matter how bizarre or unlikely.

He provides some further examples of Robert S. Carr’s fanciful tales, then...

In conclusion, I know with certainty that the myth/legend of the "Alien Autopsy" and UFO at Wright Patterson AFB is nothing but total fantasy, not based on even a scintilla of reality. I am so very sorry that my father's pathological prevarication has turned out to be the foundation on which such a monstrous mountain of falsehoods has been heaped.

Leaving a Legacy

The Hangar 18 tale was all baloney, but not much more than a tangent from the main thrust of Carr’s UFO lecture or message, sort of a parable to introduce his Operation Lure dream of initiating formal ET contact. Ultimately, Carr wanted something not so different from the Contactees, peace here on Earth and peaceful relations with our space brothers.

Part of the reason Carr’s story took hold was that it was so familiar, people wanted something like it to be true, and that it seemed to come from an authority figure, a university professor with official governments contacts and sources It also struck a chord with the public, capitalizing on their distrust of the government following the Vietnam war and Watergate scandal. A good story is seldom discarded in popular ufology. When discredited, the author may be cast aside, but the story or concepts that made it popular will live on.

Next,

Roswell Reborn: The Hangar 18 Legacy

. . .

For more on the life and careers of Robert Spencer Carr

For Carr’s film career, see his autobiographical letter in The Screen Writer Feb. 1946

“Robert Spencer Carr and the Pickled Aliens Hoax”

by Damon C. Sasser from REH: Two-Gun Raconteur (archived).

Joshua Blu Buhs’ review of Carr’s 1951 science fiction collection, Beyond Infinity:

“Robert Spencer Carr as a Fortean” by Joshua Blu Buhs’ From an Oblique Angle

https://www.joshuablubuhs.com/blog/robert-spencer-carr-as-a-fortean-part-1

https://www.joshuablubuhs.com/blog/robert-spencer-carr-as-a-fortean-part-2-of-3

https://www.joshuablubuhs.com/blog/robert-spencer-carr-as-a-fortean-part-3-of-3

The STTF collection of articles on Robert Spencer Carr from newspapers and magazines:
Robert Spencer Carr

Inside Hangar 18 with Dr. Robert Carr

Continued from Robert Spencer Carr and Hangar 18

Shocking news was reported in October of 1974: Professor Robert Carr, a former instructor at the University of South Florida, announced that the United States government has secretly captured a complete UFO with 12 dead beings aboard. This was disclosed in an interview promoting his lecture for the Tampa's Flying Saucer Symposium. There was a great deal of excitement, and a fair amount of confusion. When newspapers reported the story the day after the interview, some basic fact-checking showed there wasn’t much substance to it. Upon investigation, the saucer crash story had been told a few times before, in newspapers, UFO periodicals and most famously, in a bestselling book. Carr‘s wife, Katherine was interviewed by phone and said that her husband was only “quoting all that about flying saucers from a book by Frank Scully, but I can’t remember the title. It’s way up on the top shelf where I can’t reach it right now.”

The Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Florida) October 12, 1974

In response to Carr's story, the Air Force allowed reporters inside Wright Patterson AFB to show them there was no Hangar 18, but had several Building 18s:

“Mr. Austin (a news cameraman in Dayton) toured the Air Force Base on October 11th and stated that there were seven building 18's lettered: 18 A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, none of which contained any of the contents as claimed by Mr. Carr.”NICAP’s  UFO Investigator, Nov. 1974

The News Record (University of Cincinnati) Nov. 5, 1974 carried the ZNS story stating that Grant Hudson, a Canadian newsman, found that building 18F had once housed refrigeration equipment used for rocket fuel testing. That was close enought for Carr. He insisted that the CIA moved the evidence after he exposed them.

The News Record, Nov. 5, 1974

The Fortec Conspiracy ≠ Hangar 18

It was reported that Carr’s tale bore many similarities to The Fortec Conspiracy novel by Richard M. Garvin and Edmond G. Addeo. The book was not traditional science fiction, really a mainstream thriller fueled by flying saucer intrigue. The main character, Barney Russom was seeking answers about the suspicious death of his brother at the Foreign Technology Division of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. The mystery centered on the deadly secret of six small humanoid bodies preserved in fluid within glass tubes, aliens recovered from a flying saucer crash.

The Morning News, Oct. 31, 1974

The UFO portion of the novel’s plot combined the (hoaxed) Spitsbergen 1952 UFO crash story from Norway with a passage it quoted from the 1966 book, Incident At Exeter by John Fuller:

There have been, I learned, after I started the research, frequent and continual rumors (and they are only rumors) that in a morgue at Wright-Patterson Field, Dayton, Ohio, lie the bodies of a half dozen or so small humanoid corpses, measuring not more than four and a half feet in height, evidence of one of the few times an extraterrestrial spaceship has allowed itself either to fail or otherwise fall into the clutches of the semicivilized Earth people.

Carr was accused of taking his story from the novel, but both were drawing from UFO legends that dated back to 1949. It was mistakenly reported that Carr had taken the location, “Hangar 18” from the novel, but in The Fortec Conspiracy, the alien bodies were stored in a laboratory in “Building 828, Foreign Technology Division.” When asked, Carr said “Ah, I've never read the book," but the novel was taken from a real incident." None of his claims can be traced directly to it, but there was another, older book that we can be certain that Carr did read.

Getting Behind the Flying Saucers

Silas Newton, Frank Scully, and the book they made.

The book that Mrs. Carr couldn’t reach was Frank Scully’s 1950 best-seller, Behind the Flying Saucers, which told Silas Newton’s story of how in 1948, little men were found in a saucer in Aztec, New Mexico. What Carr did was not only resurrect the first saucer crash tale, in effect, he “rebooted” it, embellished it, and populated it with several anonymous military eye-witnesses. Carr was faithful to Frank Scully’s Aztec narrative, but not his numbers; Scully’s saucer was 99.99 feet in diameter with 16 bodies found inside. For some reason, Carr kept all the other details, but reduced the numbers to a 31-foot diameter saucer with 12 bodies. Perhaps Carr's most brilliant touch was in giving the hiding place for the saucer and bodies a name, “Hangar 18,” which made it all sound so much more authentic. Like Scully, Carr worked the fact that the Government and military keeps secrets, and claimed there was a cover-up. Therefore, any official denial of UFOs was, in effect, confirmation.  

Fort Walton Beach Playground Daily News, Oct 13. 1974

“Air Force Denies Spacemen on Ice”

The (Miami) Herald quoted Carr's wife as saying her husband was simply recalling a story "that he'd read in a book by Frank Scully in the early 1950s. That's where he got his information. It told all about the little bodies."

Fort Walton Beach Playground Daily News, Oct 13. 1974

Frank Scully’s book was based on the Aztec crash story he’d been told by Silas M. Newton and his partner Dr. Gee. It made only a passing mention of what became of the small alien bodies from the saucer crash:

Dr. Gee said that some of them had been dissected, and studied by the medical division of the Air Force and that from the meager reports he had received, they had found that these little fellows were in all respects perfectly normal human beings, except for their teeth. There wasn't a cavity or a filling in any mouth. Their teeth were perfect.From the characteristics and physiology of their bodies they must have been about 35 to 40 years of age, judged by our standards of age.

Scully made no mention of a “Hangar 18,” just that after the saucer was dismantled, “it was moved to a government testing laboratory and there it remained while parts were being tested for a considerable period of time.” Later, Jim Moseley of Saucer News interviewed Silas Newton on Dec. 29, 1953, and his notes state:

“Newton told me that there are two hangars at White Sands at which captured flying saucers are kept. About 15 or 16 saucers are now in government hands.”

James W. Moseley, Unpublished manuscript, 1954

Behind the Flying Saucers propelled Frank Scully and Silas Newton into the spotlight and they were honored guests at the earliest flying saucer conferences. Before and after the Scully book, the captured saucer story was told, imitated and and retold, with many variations of it circulated. (See appendix, “The Road to Hangar 18.”) Major Donald Keyhoe, investigated the Aztec story while researching his book, Flying Saucers are Real. "...the little men story had turned out-as expected--a dud... a big joke. But in spite of this, the little men story goes on and on."

In 1974 Carr took Silas Newton’s forgotten Aztec story and gave it new life, repackaging for a generation disillusioned by the assassination of President Kennedy, the Vietnam war and the Nixon Watergate scandal. In the days leading up to his lecture at the UFO conference, the pressure for media interviews was so fierce that Carr had to hire Lawrence Brill as his manager and go into hiding to get any rest.

Carr's UFO Symposium Lecture: The Worst-kept Secret in the World

Robert Spencer Carr

On Saturday, November 2, 1974 Carr gave his lecture billed as “Spectacular - Uncovering of Government Information” at the Flying Saucer Conference. Carr’s premise was that aliens were good, that government was bad, and had orders to shoot down UFOs. Carr opened by describing the “worst-kept secret in the the world,” stating:

“It is known throughout the academic world, the medical world, it is known throughout the Air Force, and above all it is known throughout the CIA, that the Air Intelligence at Wright-Patterson Field has in its possession a spacecraft…”

Carr emphasized that the saucer was not shot down, just had suffered an accidental decompression which killed the crew of twelve. He described the fantastic technology and the advanced beings within, who were small humans. Carr supported the conference’s star lecturer, Erich von Daniken’s in his Ancient Astronaut theory: “Either we are their lost colony or they are our lost cousins... Undoubtedly, there has been an unbroken link going back a long time.” The punchline for the crash story was that all the knowledge from this was being hidden where it would do us no good, under lock and key by the CIA at Wright-Patterson’s Hangar 18.

Carr was far less interested in the technology of the UFOs and turned the alien autopsy into the centerpiece of the story. In his tale, the autopsy revealed that the aliens were human like us, but their brains were far more convoluted, indicating that they had lived hundreds of years. In his symposium lecture, Carr said that contact with the aliens could lead to the mental and spiritual enrichment of mankind:

"This great age of the beautiful young man has profound psychic significance as well. Think what an opportunity it would be to develop the psychic powers...to develop culture.. To develop literature, history... the central tragedy of the human race on this planet... is the tragic brevity of human life...

That is the tragedy of human life, and that is one of the secrets that our friends from space...that is one of the benefits they might bring us in this 20th century. If we would only stop shooting at them, and let them land in peace at a designated safe zone in the southeastern United States...southwestern United States, at a certain part of New Mexico, where there are no military installations for many miles...would be plainly designated as a safe landing zone. This is Operation Lure…”

Carr’s hour-long lecture was short on specifics, but in the question and answer session afterward, he was asked about his sources for the information. Carr said there were three witnesses, but they must remain unnamed. 

Illustrations from The Riddle of Hangar 18
by Timothy Green Beckley, 1987 edition

Carr repeated his declaration that the US government would end the cover-up, admit that UFOs were really spacecraft from other worlds, and it would happen soon - before the end of the year.

The Tampa Tribune, Oct. 16, 1974

Fortunately, Carr's lecture was recorded, and portions of it were included in UFOs: Fact or Fiction, a radio documentary broadcast on the Washington, DC station WWDC. Steven W. Kaeser hosts segments from the program and a transcript of Carr’s talk.

Recording:

Part 1, The Lecture http://www.konsulting.com/carr1%20Layer-3.wav

Part 2, The Q & A session http://www.konsulting.com/carr2%20Layer-3.wav

Transcript: http://www.konsulting.com/steve/carr.htm

In our next chapter, we take a look at the reaction from the UFO community, Carr’s legacy and how it changed the world.

The Day after Saucergate

Robert Spencer Carr and Hangar 18

Carr seems like a minister as he speaks slowly and deliberately in a deep, lilting voice. And, in a way, he is a minister. He preaches an attitude of peace, good will and cooperation with "our friends from space.”

- Jane Baumann in the Clearwater Sun, Oct. 27, 1974

Professor Robert Spencer Carr was the guest of a local radio show on Oct. 11, 1974 to promote the upcoming Flying Saucer Symposium by PSI Conferences in Tampa, Florida. During the interview, Carr made the shocking disclosure of the US government’s cover-up of the crash of a UFO in New Mexico. It created a media sensation that lasted for months in print and broadcast news. But who was Robert Spencer Carr?

Bob Carr was born March 26, 1909, and as brilliant youthful author published in prominent magazines, not only in pulps such as Weird Tales, but also mainstream slicks such as the Saturday Evening Post. His son, Timothy Spencer Carr, contributed a mini-bio to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database that fills in some of the blanks:

He was a child prodigy with published magazine articles at age 10, an international best-selling novel author at age 18 and a Hollywood screen writer at 20... he had 3 novels and at least a dozen short stories, mostly science fiction. Like many of his colleagues, he became a member of the USA Communist party during the 1930's. He actually lived in Russia from 1933 to 1938 (during the worst of Stalin's purges), where he became totally disenchanted with Communism. He returned to the US and renounced his party membership. He refused to testify against his former comrades during the HUAC witch-hunts of the 1950's.

Back in the US, Carr resumed his writing career, which included a substantial body of work during his four years as Director of Educational Research for Walt Disney Studios. He served in the Army during World War II, enlisting in 1944 and becoming a sergeant where he wrote lectures for officers to deliver to the troops. After that, he returned to the motion picture industry for several years, writing and producing educational films contracted by the State Department at the International Film Foundation. It was also during this period that Carr became interested in flying saucers.

Carr had a particular fondness for fantasy and science fiction, and his story about extraterrestrial visitors, “Morning Star,” was published in the December 6, 1947 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. In his author’s profile, Carr was described as “a devoted follower of the late Charles Fort, and a member of the Fortean Society,” and that he was a supporter in the possibility “that men from Mars—if not babes from Venus—already have visited the earth.” In Carr’s “Easter Eggs" (later retitled “The Invaders”) from the Sept. 24, 1949 edition of The Saturday Evening Post, two alien ovoid spaceships land, one actually on the White House lawn, the other in Moscow. It gives a hint of  Carr’s thoughts on the advanced mental and psychic powers of extraterrestrials - and our potential to match them. Bette Pringle, a White House secretary, establishes communication:

“I caught a glimpse of something alive inside, about the size of a man, sitting at controls. He tried to talk to me… He seemed to speak inside my mind, not with words but with ideas. With pictures too, pictures no artist could paint.”

Carr and Ufology

1952 marked the end of Carr’s film work and his literary career, his “The Coming of the Little People,” published The Blue Book, for their November issue. However, in July of that year he wrote something memorable for the President of the United States. Little evidence of Carr’s early UFO-related activity survives, but researcher Larry Bryant found documentation of it. Bryant examined letters to President Harry S. Truman from the public on the subject of flying saucers, writing, “The collected letters – or at least that portion that somehow escaped referral to the Department of Defense for reply – now reside at the Truman Library in Independence, Mo. … A White House staffer synopsized each letter in a cross-reference log.”

Carr’s letter to the President was forwarded, but the remarks by the staff note:

Robert Spencer Carr of Clearwater, Fla. (7/31/52)

“Writer encloses miscellaneous material relative to 'flying saucers’ – suggestions for contact. Respectfully referred to the Department of the Air Force for appropriate handling. Requests President’s comment re this. Threatens to publicize his letter if he does not receive an answer. Critical of the Pentagon. (consideration and appropriate handling.)”

During the 1950s, Carr otherwise was not active publicly in UFO activities, but he was a long-time member of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). The best period documentation of Carr’s NICAP role in a high-profile investigation into a 1965 UFO occupant encounter.

Carr, during the 1965 Brooksville investigation.

The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida, September 26, 1965

“A Public relations man from Pinellas County, Robert Carr, a member of NICAP,” told about the investigation of “the Brooksville incident in which a man testified that he spotted a landed unidentified craft with strange creatures walking around outside... Creatures three to four feet long have been reported... Carr also stressed that he does not believe any of the reports involving sightings of space creatures that he has investigated so far.” (Project Blue Book has a 109-page file on the Brooksville case, and on page 44, a clipping of the APRO Bulletin, which mentions Carr’s investigation.

Operation Lure

1973 marked Carr’s next public UFO exposure, in a book by Major Donald E. Keyhoe. Carr was teaching classes in creative writing at the University of South Florida, but became more vocal about his position and beliefs about UFOs as he neared retirement. He’d written to President Truman in 1952 about contacting aliens, and twenty years on, Carr found someone interested in the idea. There was a plan, Operation Lure, which was the title of the ultimate chapter of Major Donald E. Keyhoe’s final book from 1973, Aliens from Space. According to Keyhoe, Operation Lure would be  “The first planned meeting of aliens and humans could be the start of mutual adjustments, leading to great advances for our world.” It was the UFO equivalent of a duck blind, complete with decoys, “an isolated base with unusual structures and novel displays, designed to attract the UFO aliens' attention... three or more dummy UFOs, disc types with domes, built of aluminum... the decoy UFOs and the education buildings flood-lighted from dusk to dawn. It may be several days before there is any reaction, but there are solid reasons to believe the Lure will work.”

The architect of Operation Lure?

The basic idea was first suggested by a NICAP Special Adviser, Robert Spencer Carr, former Director of Educational Research, Walt Disney Studios, a specialist in visual-aid education who has served with the Army Orientation Service and has produced educational films for the State Department. Since the original suggestion, I have privately expanded the plan with aid from Carr, linguists, psychologists and experts in other fields.

Carr placed special emphasis on the need for the lure to have projected movie images on an outdoor screen, noting that there had been many UFOs attracted to drive-in theatres. Once friendly contact was established, Carr believed the aliens could begin sharing “the benefits they might bring us.”

With his name and plan published in Keyhoe’s book, Carr began exploiting it, using it as evidence of his expertise in the UFO topic. In January 1974, at the University of South Florida, Carr engaged a USF Astronomy professor on stage in a debate, “UFO - Believe It or Not.” It was during this debate that Carr made his first public claim about captured flying saucers. The Tampa Tribune, Jan. 16, 1974 reported:

One of the best-kept secrets of the United States Government is that in Hangar 18 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, there are two flying saucers of unknown origin, a University of South Florida instructor said yesterday.

The Tampa Tribune, Jan. 16, 1974

This article on Carr’s debate seems to be the the first time Hangar 18 was named as the hiding place for UFO secrets, at least in print. If Carr wasn’t the first to name it, he certainly is responsible for making the name Hangar 18 famous. The story only was good only for some local news coverage at the time, but it exploded in the Fall with further disclosures. Hangar 18 was just the opening of Carr’s message, though. The crashed saucer story was a teaser to demonstrate what the UFO cover-up was depriving us of, to highlight how much more we could learn from the aliens by using Operation Lure to establish contact.

Dr. Carr’s Radio Disclosure

Robert Carr retired from the university in June 1974, and took up a new career as a UFO lecturer. PSI Conferences (PSI for Psychic, Spiritual and Intuition) hired him for the Tampa “Flying Saucer Conference,” and on Oct. 11, 1974, during a local radio show interview to promote it, Carr told his story of captured saucers again, but in far greater detail. This time, it made international news, and Carr was hounded by newspapers,  radio and television reporters for more information. Local radio started the buzz with the Carr interview, and the Zodiac News Service (ZNS, provider of bizarre and offbeat stories to progressive radio stations, college, community and underground newspapers) helped broadcast the sensational news nationally.

It's Out of This World...

(ZNS) Professor Robert Carr, a former instructor at the University of South Florida, announced last week that the United States government has secretly captured a complete U.F.O. with 12 dead beings aboard. Now. Professor Carr is predicting that by December 15th - in about eight weeks the U.S. government will launch a carefully-engineered effort to prepare American for an announcement of the existence of extraterrestrial life. the professor created a minor sensation last week after stating in a Florida press conference that the Pentagon has recovered a perfect "flying saucer" that allegedly had crash-landed in the desert near Aztec, New Mexico, in 1948. Professor Carr says that his sources for the incredible story are three men directly connected to covering up or protecting the project—a biologist who examined the bodies; a security guard who protected the ship in a hangar at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio; and a high ranking military officer who reportedly viewed the bodies of the 12 small beings while autopsies were conducted on them. The professor states that all his sources report that the 12 beings were apparently the victims of a decompression accident when the ship was punctured alter entering the Earth's atmosphere. All witnesses, he says, described the visitors as being exactly like small humans —three to four feet tall; white skinned; light haired; blue eyed; in perfect physical condition, but with highly-developed brains. The professor insists that the 12 bodies are still in "deep freeze" at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and that the ship is being concealed in a hangar at the air base. Wright-Patterson Air Force officials flatly and unequivocally deny the entire account.

Albany Student Press, Oct. 29, 1974

Carr’s mission was to launch Operation Lure, but all most people heard was, “Wright-Patterson Field has in its possession a spacecraft… blah, blah, blah.” Many people hearing the news break on radio took it to be an explosive new disclosure, mistakenly thinking Carr was describing a recent UFO capture, not a story from 1948. Reporters were just interested in the saucer and bodies in Hangar 18, so the plan for peaceful contact was seldom mentioned. The press coverage of the story was huge, carried in newspapers across the US and Canada by syndicated newswires such as the Associated Press and United Press International.

The Orlando Sentinel, Oct. 12, 1974

There was a great deal of excitement, and a fair amount of confusion. When newspapers reported the story the day after the interview, the story began to be challenged. Next:

Inside Hangar 18 with Dr. Robert Carr