Contributors

“On a personal level, each one has been transformed in one way or another, sometimes drastically so, by this interaction with the “impossible.” They are all baffled and want answers to the same serious questions as the rest of us, but usually for their own reasons. Each one began his relationship to the UFO issue as a natural skeptic, and even though many are now retired from their official jobs investigating UFOs, most have not been able to disengage from the intense drive to want to find out what UFOs are. . .

I noticed that many, even the ones I came to know well, were hesitant to reveal the emotional aspect of their experiences dealing with UFOs. Some witnesses struggle for years with the impact of a mind-boggling close encounter. It was my job to nudge as much as I could from the minds of these reticent military men and Air Force pilots not prone to disclosing their fears. These are men oriented towards duty first, and the significance of their statements cannot be over emphasized. This courageous group is breaking a huge story for the world.”

— From Leslie Kean’s Introduction to UFOs
Excerpted from UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record by Leslie Kean. Copyright © 2010 by Leslie Kean.

RAY BOWYER has been a flight calibration inspection pilot, and continues as a commercially qualified airline pilot. He has flown for ten airlines operating in Europe and the Middle East, including Jersey European, Channel Express, Regionair, BusinessAir and Farner Air transport. From 1999-2008 he was a Line Captain for Aurigny Air Services in the Channel Islands, flying inter-island and international routes based in Guernsey. He currently flies as a captain for a Channel Island-based corporation throughout Europe and has a total flying time of 7000 hours.

WILFRIED DE BROUWER spent twenty years as a fighter pilot in the Belgian Air Force. He was then appointed to the Strategic Planning Branch of NATO in 1983, while a Colonel. After that, he became Wing Commander of the Belgian Air Force Transport Wing and, in 1989, chief of the Operations Division in the Air Staff. Promoted to Major General in 1991, De Brouwer served as Deputy Chief of Staff of the Belgian Air Force. Beginning in 1995, after retiring from the Air Force, he worked for more than ten years as consultant for the United Nations to improve the UN Logistics rapid response capabilities during emergencies.

JOHN J. CALLAHAN has over thirty years of experience at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) specializing in the air traffic control centers. As Automation Branch Chief, he supervised the design, programming, testing, and implementation of all air traffic control facilities software programs. From 1981-1988, he was Division Chief for Accidents, Evaluation and Investigations at Washington Headquarters, where he was responsible for the quality of air traffic service provided to FAA users. After retiring, Callahan was employed as a Senior Analyst for Washington Consulting Group and Chief Executive Officer for Crown Communications Consulting Company. He now owns and operates Liberty Tax Service in Culpeper, VA.

RAYMOND DUVALL is Morse-Alumni Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. His co-edited publications include Power in Global Governance (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and Cultures of Insecurity: States, Communities and the Production of Danger (University of Minnesota Press, 1999). His recent articles have appeared in such scholarly journals as International Organization (2005-06), Millennium (2007), Review of International Studies (2008), and Political Theory (2008). Dr. Duvall’s teaching and research focus on facets of critical international relations theory, including the productive effects of social practices.

RODRIGO BRAVO GARRIDO is a captain and pilot for the Aviation Army of Chile. In 2000, at age twenty-four, he was assigned to conduct an internal study titled “Introduction to Anomalous Aerial Phenomenon and their Considerations for Aerospace Security” involving previous case reports of military planes’ encounters with UAP. He has since continued this research and now works in cooperation with the Committee for the Study of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena (CEFAA), a branch of the General Administration of Civil Aeronautics, Chile’s equivalent of our FAA.

JÚLIO MIGUEL GUERRA became a pilot with the Portugese Air Force in 1973 and was an operations officer specializing in accident prevention at Ota Air Base. In 1990 he began flying commercially with Air Atlantis, a charter of Portugal’s national airline TAP, Air Columbus, and Air Atlanta, piloting Boeing 737 – 200/300 jets. Since 1997, he has been a Line Captain for Portugalia Airlines. He is also a private flight instructor and an examiner for the Joint Aviation Authorities, a European body developing and implementing common safety regulatory standards. With 18,000 hours of flight time, Captain Guerra received an Aeronautic Science Degree from Lusófona University in 2009.

RICHARD F. HAINES is a senior research scientist who worked at NASA-Ames Research Center from 1967 – 1988 on projects such as Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and the International Space Station, and managed the Joint FAA/NASA Head-up Display Evaluation Program. He was appointed Chief of the Space Human Factors Office at NASA-Ames in 1986. Dr. Haines has published more than seventy-five papers in leading scientific journals and over twenty-five U.S. government reports for NASA. Since retiring in 1988, he worked as a senior research scientist for the Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science, RECOM Technologies, Inc., and Raytheon Corporation. Currently, he serves as Chief Scientist for the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP).

For more information, go to www.narcap.org

CHARLES I. HALT was a Lt. Colonel when he was assigned to RAF Bentwaters, England – the largest Tactical Fighter Wing in the US Air Force – as Deputy Base Commander and then as Base Commander. After becoming a full Colonel, he was Base Commander at Kunsan Air Base in Korea, the F-16 base responsible for any offensive action required on the Korean peninsula, and also was instrumental in establishing the Cruise Missile Base in Belgium. Finally, he served as Director, Inspections Directorate for the DoD Inspector General, with total inspection oversight of the entire Department of Defense. Colonel Halt retired in 1991 and now manages a large gated community.

OSCAR SANTA MARIA HUERTAS was a jet fighter pilot with the Peruvian Air Force (FAP) for many years, with flying experience in T-41D, T-37, A-80, T-33, A-37, MB-399, and SU-22 aircraft. He was stationed in numerous military bases throughout Peru and was chief of the Academic Department and a flight instructor in the Officers School of the FAP. Santa Maria also spent eleven years in the Air Force Accident Prevention and Investigation Department. He retired with the rank of commander in 1997 but remains active, currently working as a consultant in Flight Safety and Accident Prevention for the airline industry in Peru.

PARVIZ JAFARI is a retired General of the Iranian Air Force. After joining the Air Force, he spent two years training in the United States, at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, Craig A.F.B in Alabama, and Nellis A.F.B in Nevada. In his country, Jafari served as a base commander for several bases and an Air Force Headquarters operations officer. As a General, Jafari became the coordinating officer between the Iranian Army, Navy and Air Force. He retired in 1989 and lives in Tehran.

DENIS LETTY is a well known fighter pilot and major general in the French Air Force. He was head of the Fifth Fighter Wing, Strasbourg Air Base, French Air Force South East Defence Zone, and the French Military Mission near Allied Air Forces Central Europe. As a commander, he was decorated with Legion of Honour. After retiring, General Letty served as president of the joint venture company Aviation Defense Service which provided electronic warfare training for the armed forces. He also became chairman of the COMETA group, a private, in-depth fact-finding committee formed to study the UFO phenomenon, which published the report “UFOs and Defense” in 1999.

JAMES PENNISTON entered the Air Force in 1973 and was assigned to the Strategic Air Command Elite Guard in Omaha Nebraska, working security for the SAC Command Post. Subsequent assignments took him RAF Alconbury in England, and Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, as a Flight Security Controller for the protection and launch readiness of Minuteman ICBM’s. In 1980, he was placed in charge of Security Police Plans and Programs at RAF Bentwaters , England. Numerous other assignments followed, including service in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He retired from the military in 1993 and now works as a Human Resource Manager for manufacturing and county government in Illinois.

JOSÉ CARLOS PEREIRA is a Brazilian four star Brigadier General, now retired. He was a commander of several air bases in Brazil and commander of the Brazilian Air Force Academy. In 1999, he became a commander of the Brazilian Airspace Defense Command, known as COMDABRA. From 2001 – 2005, he served as General Commander of Air Force Operations which required his supervision of thirteen generals and 27,000 subordinates. In 2006, after retiring from the Air Force, Brig. General Periera was appointed President of the Brazilian Airport Infrastructure Agency, the government agency responsible for airport management, from which he has now retired.

JOHN PODESTA was the White House Chief of Staff to President William J. Clinton. He also served in the president’s cabinet and as a principal on the National Security Council. Most recently, he was as co-chair of President Obama’s transition, where he coordinated the priorities of the incoming administration’s agenda, oversaw the development of its policies, and spearheaded its appointments of major cabinet secretaries and political appointees. Since 2003, he has been the President and CEO of the Center for American Progress, a leading organization in the development of and advocacy for progressive policy. Podesta is the author of The Power of Progress: How America’s Progressives Can (Once Again) Save Our Economy, Our Climate, and Our Country.

For more information, go to www.americanprogress.org

NICK POPE worked for the British Ministry of Defense for twenty-one years, from 1985 to 2006. His career involved postings to policy, operations, personnel, finance and security divisions. During the first Gulf War he was recruited into the Joint Operations Center, where he worked in the Air Force Operations Room as a watchkeeper/briefer. From 1991 to 1994, Pope’s primary duty was to investigate reports of unidentified flying objects and assess whether any sightings were of defense interest. Various promotions followed and his last posting was to the Directorate of Defense Security. Now retired, Nick Pope works as a freelance journalist and broadcaster.

For more information, go to www.nickpope.net

RICARDO BERMÚDEZ SANHUEZA is a retired General for the Chilean Air Force, who served as Chilean Air Attaché in London and was Chief Commander of the Air Force´s Southern Area. He was also Director of the Technical School of Aeronautics. In 1998, he co-founded the Committee for the Study of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena (the CEFAA), a branch of the General Administration of Civil Aeronautics, Chile’s FAA, to study aviation incidents involving anomalous aerial phenomena. He was appointed first President of the CEFAA and served until 2002. In January 2010, he was reinstated as director of the CEFAA and now works full time on investigating UFO incidents involving civil or military aeronautic personnel.

FIFE SYMINGTON III was the Republican Governor of Arizona from 1991 to 1997. He was also Chairman of the Western Governor’s Association. A decorated Air Force veteran of the war in Southeast Asia, Symington is a cousin of the late Stuart Symington, Democratic Senator from Missouri. After leaving office, Mr. Symington co-founded the Arizona Culinary Institute and the Symington Group, a strategic, political and business consulting company. In 2007, he and his partners founded the Independent Energy Group of Arizona, which specializes in the development of commercial solar arrays. A long time pilot, he frequently flies his twin-engine Beechcraft Baron plane between his two homes in Phoenix and Santa Barbara, CA.

JEAN-JACQUES VELASCO was an engineer at the French National Center for Space Studies (Centre Nationale d’Études Spatiales, CNES), specializing in satellite research. In 1977, he joined a new French team formed to study unidentified aerospace phenomena within CNES. He became the director of this agency in 1983, and remained in that position until 2004, becoming an international authority on the scientific study of UFOs. His advice was sought by countries wishing to establish their own government agencies to investigate UFOs, such as Chile and Peru, and by the European parliament in 1994. He is the author of several books on the UFO subject.

ALEXANDER WENDT is Mershon Professor of International Security at the Ohio State University. Previously, he taught at Yale University, Dartmouth College, and the University of Chicago. He is interested in philosophical aspects of international politics, and has published a number of articles in leading political science journals, as well as a 1999 book, Social Theory of International Politics (Cambridge University Press), which received the International Studies Association’s “Best Book of the Decade Award” in 2006.