PAUL Dean, 35, from Nunawading, is a senior researcher
with Victorian UFO Action, a group dedicated to investigating UFO sightings. He
has spent decades searching for the truth about reports of unidentified flying
objects.
As told to SARAH MARINOS, this is a SnapShot glimpse
into Paul’s extraordinary life:
FROM as far back as I can remember I was always
technically and scientifically minded. As a kid growing up in the eastern
suburbs, I enjoyed learning about physics, astronomy and aviation.
But when I was 13 a close family member told me
something that triggered my lifelong interest in UFOs. He told me about a
sighting near Shepparton in 1975.
He was 25 years old then and in the army and as he was
driving alone one night he saw a massive white light through the trees ahead.
It looked like a train headlight but as the light rose
higher into the sky he thought instead that there must be something like a
grain silo ahead with a bright white light on top. As the light rose even
higher in the sky he thought it had to be a helicopter with a searchlight, but
there was no sound of rotors turning.
He drove underneath this thing and while he knew there
was a craft above him — this intensely bright orb — he couldn't figure
out what it was. All of a sudden his whole car lit up and this object
shone a light directly on his car. He remembers driving out of there as fast as
he could and he stands by that story today.
Around this time I was at my best friend’s house and
an item came on the news aboutthe
disappearance of the pilot, Frederick Valentich. His small plane left Moorabbin Airport in 1978 and
during that flight Valentich radioed air traffic control in Melbourne and
reported a craft harassing him.
He described it as long with a green light on top and
his last words were “that strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again. It’s
hovering and it’s not an aircraft”. Then he disappeared.
So I started reading books about UFOs and what struck
me was that some of the people reporting serious UFO encounters — not fanciful
stories of flying saucers and little green men but reports of highly unusual
and unexplainable aircraft in our skies — were flight instructors, combat
pilots, air traffic controllers, aerospace experts and scientists, and even
they couldn’t explain what they’d seen.
About four years ago I began to delve even deeper into
UFO investigations and I’ve uncovered documents from government agencies around
the world that offer some ridiculous explanations for these sightings.
For example, in 2002, while radar technicians in
Greenland were fixing a radar system, they were buzzed for 20 to 30 seconds by
a UFO hovering above them before it shot off at massive speed. The official
explanation was this was a meteorite, but meteorites usually last for a few
seconds, they don’t hover and they don’t take off in an upward direction.
I’m a painter and decorator but in my free time I’ve
spent hours in my study tracing once-classified documents and officials with
knowledge of UFO incidents. About two years ago, using the National Archives in
Australia, I uncovered a series of declassified papers relating to UFO
sightings from government agencies that hadn’t been opened by the public
before.
I’ve got 240,000 pages of UFO documents from all over
the world. Some include comments from very senior whistleblowers who admit
their job has been to cover up the existence of UFOs. Over the years, I’ve been
in touch with people who work deep inside agencies and government departments
who talk to me anonymously to help my research.
One former air force captain in the US confirmed to me
that there was a serious UFO event outside Kirtland Air Force Base in New
Mexico in 1980, for example. He sent me an email confirming “yes, there was an
object and it landed”.
He said there was radar imaging of that object and
that tests on soil traces where the object landed show the soil was from
nowhere nearby. Witnesses were polygraph-tested and those tests indicated they
were telling the truth about seeing an unknown object zigzag around the place
and then take off at phenomenal speed.
I certainly don’t read about UFOs constantly. I lead a
normal life. I work, I’m married and I have two little girls, but I think there
are many files about credible UFO incidents that are still being kept secret — and
I’m determined to find out as much as I can.
I’m a highly sceptical person but in the face of
constant admissions by high-ranking officials, and through the discovery of so
many documents, I believe something unusual is flying around out there.
About two weeks after I met my wife I told her that I
study something a bit unusual. She’s very supportive of my research. She’s
doing a law degree and while she studies that, I write to authorities for
information, study my files, track down experts and search for new evidence.
I don’t tell everyone what I do. Some people tell me
UFOs don’t exist but they haven’t seen the information that I’ve seen. I always
tell doubters to read about the Japan Airlines flight over Alaska in 1986.
Two radars on the ground picked up a UFO in front of
that plane and the pilots were shouting into their radio to get this thing away
from them. Years later a federal aviation administrator admitted that he helped
cover up that incident.
I think we’re not told the truth about UFOs because
governments don’t know what to do about them. But surely the people who report
these unusual sightings should be vindicated.
All those people who’ve sometimes been ridiculed
deserve answers and the truth.
The Victorian UFO Action group is hosting a conference
called Age of Reason — Seeking The Truth, in Melbourne on September 6. For more information, visit vufoa.com
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