The Emenegger Connection: Back to '74.

In the world of UFOlogy anyone and everyone will sell you a conspiracy theory as quickly as they'll sell you a T-shirt. The unfortunate by-product of decades of official explanations, general non-engagement, deliberate obscuring of data and just plain, good old-fashioned denial have left their indelible mark. It’s difficult to deny that, wherever you might stand on general conspiracies and intrigues, there is something particularly entrancing about UFOs that lends itself to the finger of constant suspicion. In this post I'm going to recount one of my own favourite little intrigues, one of those “that can’t be true... can it?” style dilemmas beloved of conspiracy theorists everywhere.

It concerns a UFO documentary released in 1974 written by prominent film-maker Robert Emenegger with narration by Rod Serling of "Twilight Zone" fame. The documentary, called "UFOs Past, Present and Future" was released accompanied with a book of the same name. But what makes this particular vehicle so special is that it is, to my knowledge, the only documentary that has had some level of official blessing. And it is this connection that gives rise to a strange story...

If you have ever watched the original documentary or the repackaged version released in 1978 called “UFOs: It Has Begun” you'll know that it provides a pretty broad, generally effective, insight into the perceived situation and understanding of the phenomenon in the 1970s and before. It raises a typical bunch of questions and covers a whole batch of sightings, touching on other seemingly related mysterious phenomenon such as cattle mutilations. Across the versions it has also featured contributions from the research heavyweights of Dr. J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallee and generally steers a somewhat pro-ETH course throughout. With Serling's dramatic and leading bass tones raising the intensity every so often, it’s an effective documentary on the subject even now.

But I want to draw your attention to the sequence during the closing minutes of the documentary. While speculating on the whole issue of official contact with representatives of an ET civilization, Serling looks straight out at the viewer and says:

“Let’s look at an incident that might happen in the future...

He immediately follows this up with:

“...or perhaps could have happened already.”

The film then details a hypothetical contact situation, splicing together what looks like stock film and an artists impression of a situation at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, set sometime. The sequence highlights the landing of a small unknown craft with the occupants disembarking and meeting with USAF personnel.

What nags at the viewer as this choppy assemblage unfolds is Serling's haunting voiceover statement: "or perhaps could have happened already." Even the most casual of observers can detect a certain intent to the statements, it is being strongly implied that an incident of this nature has occurred. In addition, the stark, enigmatic notice shown right after the final credits only adds to the feeling that the 'voice behind the image' is trying to tell us something:

”Some of the preceding sequences were recreated based upon the statements of eyewitness observers.”

So, what is this mysterious sequence? It starts with an approach of 3 unidentified air vehicles to Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico which, prior to their approach, is seemingly in lazy mode with very little air traffic and nothing much happening. This all changes however with the appearance of the three objects, Holloman goes to full red alert and scrambles a couple of fighters to escort the objects away.

However, one of the objects has already started to descend and is filmed doing this by cameras on the ground. Hovering for a little while it eventually lands on three legs while USAF staff rush to the scene. They watch as three human-sized, blue-grey skinned figures emerge from the landed craft. The visitors are wearing tight fitting jumpsuits and rope style headdresses, their eyes are set quite far apart and they have pronounced noses. One of the visitors is carrying a box that acts as some kind of translator. After the formal greeting, the party makes its way into a nearby building as the gates to that section of the base are quickly secured. The various witnesses to the event remaining simply stand and stare in complete silence, utterly bewildered by what has just happened.

Now, you might be thinking "okay, a bit strange but couldn't this just be a flight of fantasy description on the part of the film-makers?" Maybe. However, remember that the whole reason the documentary was kick-started in the first place was all down to certain Pentagon personnel sowing the seed to allow it to happen. Emenegger, by his own admission, was no UFO "buff", no pie in the sky believer, in fact his reactions to the initial discussions were that the details he was being given were crazy.

To highlight the strangeness here, after the idea had been floated past him by former Blue Book spokesman Colonel William Coleman (himself a witness to a UFO) he was referred to Colonel George Weinbrenner, once head of Foreign Technology. After the heads up from Coleman, Ememegger goes to visit Weinbrenner in his office and gets straight to the point "what about this footage of an alien landing at Holloman AFB?" Weinbrenner does not reply, instead he starts talking loudly about the Soviets and their MiG 25 "Foxbat" interceptor. As he does this, he moves across to a blackboard and starts drawing the airplane, going on to mention that the Israelis managed to capture one so they have been looking at it more closely and so on. Of course, by this time, Emenegger is somewhat perplexed by the odd behaviour. To cap it all off, the Colonel - still talking about the MiG 25 - retrieves a UFO book (signed by Dr. J. Allen Hynek) from his bookcase and puts it on his desk so that Emenegger can see it... In later interviews, Emenegger would consider this whole scene in a basement office in the Pentagon to be something akin to a Kafka play.

Clearly, Colonel Weinbrenner was unable to talk in his office but the upshot for the documentary is that Emenegger and Sandler were promised some film of an alleged alien landing at Holloman AFB in the early 60s. Emenegger has since admitted that they even got as far as a written contract with the Department of Defence. In other words, there was clearly official sanction here – even if their project had to be hushed up somewhat and sandwiched between other media work for the military.

Unfortunately, it was those same sources who then withdrew the film offer when the whole Watergate scandal broke and Richard Nixon was fighting for his political life.(As an aside, research by Grant Cameron into this intriguing story revealed the timing of the "disclosure film" was vitally important here. It was designed to take attention away from the worsening situation in Vietnam.) Ultimately, come the Watergate Scandal, it was indicated to Emenegger that the climate was no longer conducive to the release of this material: Disclosure was back off the agenda.

Emenegger and co. must have been privately gutted, having had such a leftfield gift thrown their way only for it to be cruelly taken away when events moved against them. Nonetheless, there was still a documentary to finish, albeit one now shorn of its crowning glory. How then to get around the lack of the film? The answer was fairly obvious: recreate the missing film based around discussions that had already taken place. (Note that Emenegger himself has always claimed that he never saw the film at all...) And, it is at this point with the wheels turning towards a recreation, that the Holloman AFB film cements its rightful place in the hallowed halls of UFO intrigue.

Now, those juicy offers of “inside” information have long been a perennial tactic of numerous establishment agencies for as long as Ufology has had a U in the title. Just ask Linda Moulton Howe, most likely she had the same film dangled in front of her in the 80s. These intrigues throw up so many questions and provide no easy answers. You could argue that there was never an original film in the first place, that Emenegger was just another notch in the national security bedpost for some obscure reason, perhaps in some ways connected with the Nixon administration. Another take could be that yes indeed a film does exist - and there is a lot of typically anecdotal evidence to suggest that a "training" film of this nature does actually exist - but that there was never an intention to provide the film at all. The re-enactment was always the intention, to still retain the all-important "plausible deniability". As is typical of much UFO intrigue, the possibilities are broad and varied.

But... Seen from all angles this is fairly unique still. Normally, the focus of intelligence operations will be the person to discredit or a carrier to the person or people to discredit. Why would Emenegger, a non-believer by his own admission, require such treatment? Even the most dispassionate observer has to take on the main point: this documentary was, quietly, given official sanction. Emenegger and Sandler were invited by personnel in the Pentagon to take it on. That the documentary was designed to actively engage (key Pentagon personnel had final say on the content) and not simply debunk - which was the standard official response to all things UFO related - should perhaps give us pause for thought. If someone was looking to discredit the film-makers or their connections, would such an elaborate scheme really have been required and for what ultimate purpose?

Personally, I'm open to the possibility that the Holloman film exists and that this whole story actually showcases the somewhat schizophrenic relationship that political establishment bodies have with the implications of the phenomenon. On the one hand you have the "don't breathe a goddamn word to anyone" mentality, trying desperately to avoid scratching the itchy stress bump of "we gotta get people talking about this so whisper in a trusted few ears huh?" We know from the Disclosure Project testimony of high-calibre witnesses such as Gordon Cooper that movie film is taken of "flying saucers" never to be seen again. So, it really isn't beyond the realm of possibility at all. And mightn't something of this nature be used to acclimatise personnel to that new reality? Y'know, here's a few hundred feet of 16mm print. Watch it. Then pick up the pieces of your old paradigm from the floor before taking up your new residence as a fully-formed child of the universe? It's the heads-up film to end all heads-up films isn't it? Maybe someone somewhere did indeed want to get something out, wouldn't be the first time and wouldn't be the last either. Unusual? Perhaps. But impossible...?

And, just when you thought the water couldn't get any murkier... Go back and have a look at the whole sequence again. Pay attention to the beginning of the epilogue where the craft are approaching and the alerts are sounding. At this point you hear snippets of phone call conversations – checking with Wright Paterson Air Force Base to ask about experimental aircraft in the area and so on. All of this was "scene setting" footage that Emeneggar had apparently shot earlier and was hoping to splice in with the Holloman film. Now, when you get to the part where the craft descends, you see a short piece of film footage showing a white object slowly moving down to the ground at what appears to be the end of a runway. This brief, silent film, edited in to the other footage of control tower telephones, large megaphones, emergency vehicles and artists impressions doesn’t really stand out on first view - it's just another insert, right...? Or is this yet another sleight of hand?

This is where we leave it; a hundred questions, some disjointed movie film and a story that has been retold by Emenegger over the years and hasn't changed at all. Was there a contact at Holloman AFB, or another Air Force base for that matter? Did Ememegger have an 'official' film in his possession after all and, if he did, what strings really were attached? Does such a film still exist, languishing in some agency vault, rolled out only at induction time for those with the need to know? Is the shot mentioned above from one of these original films or is it simply anomalous footage brought in from somewhere else? Did Emenegger recreate something that happened in exactly the fashion it occurred, or not quite? More to the point, was this some weird hype for the documentary that started to live its own life? Or was it all just some elaborate way of discrediting persons unknown? Was Emenegger given permission to use a small piece of the genuine film, providing that enough plausible deniability was built in? So many questions.

Coincidence? Disinformation? Fraud? A little bit of right? A little bit of wrong? Somewhere back there, among the shadows.