William J. Birnes - UFO Hunters Book One

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Dedicated to the initial originator of the idea for UFO Hunters, my wife, Nancy Hayfield Birnes, the editor-in-chief of UFO Magazine and the cohost of Future Theater radio, who watched her idea for a series about hunting for the truth of the UFO phenomenon take shape on television. Even during the series, she stepped in to guide the show, first toward Leslie Keans National Press Club Conference, and then to Stephenville, where we had boots on the ground even as the UFO flap continued. Nancy was the shows inspiration. Her coconspirator in this venture was Pat Uskert, who took to the road without any network backing to bring back footage and interviews that eventually became the demo reel for what would become UFO Hunters.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First to Pat Uskert, Ted Acworth, and Jeff Tomlinson, the cast of UFO Hunters, who put their own lives and jobs aside to join the search for UFOs. We all came from different backgrounds, had different belief systems and life experiences, but had to mesh together in front of a camera where we argued cogently and intelligently about how facts can support speculation and what happens when two and two doesnt equal four.

Next, of course, to Jon Alon Walz, our executive producer and head of the production company Motion Picture Productions, whose vision about a unique show with four guys from different backgrounds on an impossible quest that ultimately paid off, made the show possible. Our senior producer Dave Pavoni, who was the beating-heart center of the setup for each episode by turning the impossible into reality, and our coexec producers, show runners, and directors Alan LaGarde and Steve Nigg, both of whom were unflappable in the face of unimaginable difficulties with schedules and travel and last-minute conflicts. Both Alan and Steve had very special talents that went way beyond telling the camera which way to shoot. Both individuals knew how to harmonize a crew, get the best out of everyone, and all the while deal with daily demands from the production office and the network. When we almost missed our flight in Mexico City and had to get all the way across the airport while carrying our bags, it was Alan LaGarde who commandeered an electric golf cart, piled us all on top, leaned on the horn, and, in a scene from The Great Race, got us to the jetway just in time for the flight, while proclaiming to all, This is what makes us a family.

Jeff Tober, the coexecutive producer and later executive producer, was in charge of all the editing and postproduction. You can watch hundreds of other UFO- and paranormal-themed reality shows but you wont find one that even comes close to the look, feel, continuity, and intelligence of UFO Hunters. And thats because of Jeff Tober, one of the most skilled heads of editing and postproduction in the business.

Our line producers were John Duffy and Jeremy Gardiner, assisted by coproducer and field coordinator Dan Zarenkiewicz, all of whom kept the daily production schedule flowing and coordinated the production office with the field crew.

Our writer/producers for individual episodes in Season 1 were Kevin Cummins, Tracy Chaplin, Autumn Humphreys, and Chad Horning, and also Stu Chait. Stu also served as story editor and was probably single-handedly responsible for our getting picked up for Season 2 when he was in the editing bay at the Santa Monica production office, saw my you are a hybrid conversation with Terrell Copelandthat was only a suggestion, by the way, not an accusationand just as the film editor was about to cut that scene out, told him to leave it in. Stus instincts were that good. When our new exec at History, Mike Stiller, saw the scene, he said that was the reason for the Season 2 pickup. Thanks, Stu.

In the second season we were joined by Kevin Barry, Rob Bluemthal, John Greenwald, Scott Goldie, and Dave Story, all of whom pushed us to do better, think harder, and not to cop out.

John Tindall was our FX producer, the guy who set off explosions in his lab, demonstrated what type of electrical failure brought down the B-25 over Kelso, Washington, and, with Ted Acworth, debunked the debunkers of the Rendlesham forest story by proving with his magical GPS equations that the light the U.S. Air Force personnel saw floating above the forest floor could not have been the lighthouse at Orford Ness. So much for the debunkers.

Our director of photography was Kevin Graves, probably one of the most gifted DPs in the business, who had the ability to size up a shot in an instant and pull it off quickly even as the sun was uncooperatively sneaking behind a cloud. Our B-camera operator was Brian Garrity, who could hang upside-down from rock overlooking the North Sea one day, wiggle himself into a crevasse outside of Roswell on another day, go caving while still wielding a large Varicam on another day, and still go back to L.A. to compete in a triathlon and keep up with the best and the fastest. Finally, our assistant camera, Linh Nguyen, was the support that kept the cameras rolling. He could take apart a camera and reassemble it in 110-degree Arizona desert heat and do it so quickly that the sun didnt have time to set.

Our sound mixer was my friend Shah Martinez for season 1, who worked with electrician, gaffer, and swing man Stan Eng, who never met an Asian fusion buffet he didnt like. While Shah could get sound out of a rock, Stan had the ability to create and strike a set in minutes, even as the vans were getting loaded. During season 1, on our way back to the United States from the UK after the Bentwaters episode, we discovered at the airport, to our chagrin, that the British airport baggage handlers wouldnt move our equipment because it was overweight. Brian Garrity, Kevin Graves, Linh Nguyen, Shah Martinez, and Stan Eng broke down all the equipment and repacked it while Alan LaGarde and Dan Zarenkiewicz negotiated with the airline to allow our equipment to fly home with us. It was an amazing display of competence.

I have to acknowledge all of our associate producers and production assistants, our editors and assistant editors, and all the help we received on the road.

Finally, of course, to Dolores Gavin at History, who picked us up as a series after our pilot episode and never stopped prodding us to do better, and to our exec at History, Mike Stiller, who inspired us and stood up for us the entire time.

It would be churlish and ungrateful of me not to thank my most patient publisher, Tom Doherty, and even more patient editor, Bob Gleason, as well as editor Eric Raab and assistant editors Whitney Ross and Kelly Quinn for steering this manuscript through.

Thanks, guys, thanks to everyone, the best crew and best editors ever, for making UFO Hunters one of the top reality shows on television and a piece of our cultural zeitgeist. We hunted for, and eventually found and caught on camera, a UFO. It was a magnificent experience, the best three seasons of my life.

INTRODUCTION

UFO ROAD TRIP

All I could do was stand there, incredulous and dumbstruck, watching a metal disk in the sky as solid and substantial as a frying pan.