Strange Skies: Pilot Encounters With Ufos

Rating:
Summary: An important contribution to the field.
Review: Well-known ufologist Jerome Clark's 'Strange Skies' provides a fascinating look at an important component of the UFO enigma. This work represents a unique contribution, much as the late Ivan T. Sanderson did with his seminal 1970 book 'Invisible Residents', which detailed UFO sightings associated with the oceans, seas and other bodies of water.
Beginning with such early phenomena as foo fighters and ghost rockets, Clark lays down a historical record of "the more interesting, suggestive reports..." (although they comprise a rather small percentage of the total on file). A large number of these pilot/UFO reports are from the 1940s and 1950s (including, of course, the famed Kenneth Arnold episode), although some are more contemporary, such as the Valentich case and the JAL incident of 1986. Regardless of the sightings' vintage, the author does a superb job in fleshing out the factual details of the events. Clark's writing style infuses his recounting with a hard-to-put-down sense of awe and fascination for the reader.
While Clark generally avoids analysis or speculation, there are some notable exceptions. He persuasively discredits the so-called 'Maury Island incident', and attempts to do the same regarding the 1948 Thomas Mantell case (where pilot Mantell was killed chasing an alleged UFO), although somewhat less convincingly. While he makes a plausible case that Mantell was actually pursuing a a secret, experimental balloon, Mantell's last words to ground control ("a metallic object...of tremendous size") leaves some room for doubt. The comments I had the most trouble with, however, were regarding a sighting in 1965 by Jim Cumber, detailed in the Dec. 2000 issue of The Mutual UFO Network's (MUFON) magazine. This sighting involved an alleged 'snatching' of a jet interceptor by a UFO. After more than 30 years of studying the UFO phenomenon myself, I cannot share Clark's conviction that "the Air Force could not hide a missing interceptor and its crew." He adds the rather puzzling comment that "Whatever Cumber's sighting was about, it cannot have been what he thought it was about." He offers no speculation as to what "it was about," but the inference is that it was a secret military exercise. Perhaps.
These quibbles aside, 'Strange Skies' is a well-written, absorbing book. It is a welcome (and overdue) addition to the annals of ufology.

Rating:
Summary: An important contribution to the field.
Review: Well-known ufologist Jerome Clark's 'Strange Skies' provides a fascinating look at an important component of the UFO enigma. This work represents a unique contribution, much as the late Ivan T. Sanderson did with his seminal 1970 book 'Invisible Residents', which detailed UFO sightings associated with the oceans, seas and other bodies of water.
Beginning with such early phenomena as foo fighters and ghost rockets, Clark lays down a historical record of "the more interesting, suggestive reports..." (although they comprise a rather small percentage of the total on file). A large number of these pilot/UFO reports are from the 1940s and 1950s (including, of course, the famed Kenneth Arnold episode), although some are more contemporary, such as the Valentich case and the JAL incident of 1986. Regardless of the sightings' vintage, the author does a superb job in fleshing out the factual details of the events. Clark's writing style infuses his recounting with a hard-to-put-down sense of awe and fascination for the reader.
While Clark generally avoids analysis or speculation, there are some notable exceptions. He persuasively discredits the so-called 'Maury Island incident', and attempts to do the same regarding the 1948 Thomas Mantell case (where pilot Mantell was killed chasing an alleged UFO), although somewhat less convincingly. While he makes a plausible case that Mantell was actually pursuing a a secret, experimental balloon, Mantell's last words to ground control ("a metallic object...of tremendous size") leaves some room for doubt. The comments I had the most trouble with, however, were regarding a sighting in 1965 by Jim Cumber, detailed in the Dec. 2000 issue of The Mutual UFO Network's (MUFON) magazine. This sighting involved an alleged 'snatching' of a jet interceptor by a UFO. After more than 30 years of studying the UFO phenomenon myself, I cannot share Clark's conviction that "the Air Force could not hide a missing interceptor and its crew." He adds the rather puzzling comment that "Whatever Cumber's sighting was about, it cannot have been what he thought it was about." He offers no speculation as to what "it was about," but the inference is that it was a secret military exercise. Perhaps.
These quibbles aside, 'Strange Skies' is a well-written, absorbing book. It is a welcome (and overdue) addition to the annals of ufology.