Ben Rich and the Jan Harzan ET story

[Sentry]

MUFON's new director Jan Harzan has a story of telling about hearing Lockheed's Ben Rich divulge in a speech that we now had the technology to take ET home. There's an article by aviation historian Peter Merlin that appears in the new issue of Sun-Lite examining the origin and accuracy of this story.
SUNlite Volume 5 Number 6 - November - December 2013

The issue's introduction would seem to apply to this legend:
"You didn’t see what was...you saw what you wanted to see." or in this case, hear.

 

[Rizla]

Oh, Sentry... that is f-in great. I wonder if anyone will tie this into Harzan's mostly unchallenged statements on a recent Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio show.

Very, very funny. Great link! Enough to make one frequent this place, if only infrequently. Thank you!

p/s it's at page 18 or 20 in the pdf link, that's what Sentry's talking about.

 

[Stagger Lee]

Well, that took the wind out of my Ben Rich sail. I was always curious about the "context" of his statement(s)

 

[IsaacKoi]

article by aviation historian Peter Merlin that appears in the new issue of Sun-Lite
SUNlite Volume 5 Number 6 - November - December 2013

Mmm. Having read correspondence by Ben Rich, to him and about him then I don't think the conclusion in that article (about Ben Rich's beliefs) is necessarily accurate. Indeed, there may be quite a bit more to this story. However, it is very hard to tell from the incomplete documentation currently available to me - particularly since Ben Rich appears to have been displaying a sense of humour in some of the correspondence.

Many of you will have heard of Colonel Barry Hennessey, but have you come across reference to him or AFOSI in relation to Ben Rich? What about Colonel Troyer or Colonel Leo Olsen?

 

[Jeff Davis]

Mmm. Having read correspondence by Ben Rich, to him and about him then I don't think the conclusion in that article (about Ben Rich's beliefs) is necessarily accurate. Indeed, there may be quite a bit more to this story. However, it is very hard to tell from the incomplete documentation currently available to me - particularly since Ben Rich appears to have been displaying a sense of humour in some of the correspondence.

Many of you will have heard of Colonel Barry Hennessey, but have you come across reference to him or AFOSI in relation to Ben Rich? What about Colonel Troyer or Colonel Leo Olsen?

When Issac, or Sentry gets involved, I listen. This is of real concern to me as it's a pivotal piece of info within my own little hypothetical UFO quandary and a possible serious revision. At this point, I am really wondering about the authenticity of Rich's ESP statement.

 

[Sentry]

Many of you will have heard of Colonel Barry Hennessey, but have you come across reference to him or AFOSI in relation to Ben Rich?

My time is short, so I'm just going to spill it ADD style and try to sort it out later.

In Ben Rich's book, Skunk Works, the thanks Colonel Barry Hennessey in the acknowledgements. Hennessey ran security for the F117 program (speculation exists he ran disinformation programs to protect it.)

The author of the SUNlite piece is Peter Merlin aka Shadowhawk of the Interceptors, a group of Area 51 spotters that included some interesting UFO players. Area 51 Loose Ends: Interceptor Cast: The Council of Elders
Merlin himself is a skeptic- wrote a great article on real crash retrievals and why the UFO tales of such don't cut it.
C.S.I. UFO: Are UFOlogists afraid of physical evidence? page 11

Getting back to Lockheed's Ben Rich, he shared Kelly Johnson's interest in UFOs. John Alexander confirms this and has noted Rich's interest in his book, lectures and interviews.

And getting back to the Rich-Harzan story, I see (via Facebook) that Isaac has been asking other MUFON elders about the plausibility of the story, and has managed to get in touch with Jan Harzan himself. Isaac, what further information have you gathered?

 

[Jeff Davis]

Issac, we are so grateful for your diligent pursuit of the truth of these matters and look forward to your updates here. We all agree that the matter is truly of utmost import in terms of any type of real rigidity that the backbone of ufology might maintain in these leaner than lean ufological times we're living in. Thanks!

 

[IsaacKoi]

In Ben Rich's book, Skunk Works, the thanks Colonel Barry Hennessey in the acknowledgements.

Yes, but then Ben Rich doesn't discuss Hennessey in the book itself (or at least the quick search I ran earlier in the week for "Ben Rich" in my collection of digitised UFO books, journals etc) found the reference in the acknowledgments of "Skunk Works" but no other hits in that book. I'll probably re-read Skunk Works this week.

Hennessey ran security for the F117 program (speculation exists he ran disinformation programs to protect it.)

Yes, and his name and role tends to crop up in discussion of the Aviary and Rick Doty.


By the way, I referred above to some correspondence relating to Ben Rich. Curt probably has a copy from the same source as me (Lee Graham) but for ease of reference I've uploaded those pages (with Lee Graham's permission) to the link below:
1985 onwards - John Andrews and Ben Rich correspondence.pdf - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

A little bit of digging into issues arising from those pages and some other material on Hennessey led to some material by William Louis (Bill) McDonald, including information at:
UFO Folklore Center

And getting back to the Rich-Harzan story, I see (via Facebook) that Isaac has been asking other MUFON elders about the plausibility of the story, and has managed to get in touch with Jan Harzan himself. Isaac, what further information have you gathered?

The with Harzan so far have been on another topic (Stringfield's rare Status Reports). I'll turn to other issues, including this one, after we (hopefully) resolve a couple of point relating to those reports.

@Jeff - Thanks for the kind words. I hope to be able to post a couple of treats next week.

 

[Sentry]

Bumping this thread due to these stories resurfacing in the latest episode of H2's "Hangar 1."

 

[stonehart]

Bumping this thread due to these stories resurfacing in the latest episode of H2's "Hangar 1."

I know there are good reasons for bumping this thread but this image has to be posted.

 

[boomerang]

By the way, I referred above to some correspondence relating to Ben Rich. Curt probably has a copy from the same source as me (Lee Graham) but for ease of reference I've uploaded those pages (with Lee Graham's permission) to the link below:
1985 onwards - John Andrews and Ben Rich correspondence.pdf - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

Thanks for the link. Can you help me take the lazy way out here: This material sounds fascinating. How is this material vetted and is it considered authentic?

Re the "take ET home" comment, this is yet another one of many examples of how selectively touting comments made by prominent people out of context has the power to create bogus legends. Thanks to Sentry for the link.

 

[Burnt State]

In Richard Dolan's attempt to consolidate the history of ufology in his latest book, UFO's for the 21st Century Mind, he was explaining recently on M.U. that he has a whole chapter dedicated to all the various Ben Rich comments. I find Dolan to be a very entertaining interview subject but find his work to be a little too magnified at times. His thoughts on Ben Rich were focussed on confirming the taxi system for E. T..

 

[Flatwoods]

When dealing with stories like these, one must remember the following two things:

1. People sometimes believe in rumors and conspiracy theories.

2. Important, well-connected people sometimes believe in rumors and conspiracy theories, and when such a person expresses his or her belief in such ideas, it it often misinterpreted as insider information.

This should be a consideration when we hear ideas on UFO's expressed by Chase Brandon, Edgar Mitchell, Ben Rich, or the like. We should always try to recognize the difference between witness testimony and mere opinion.