Reality Checking—Alternate Perceptions Magazine, March 2025
UFO Veterans
by: Brent Raynes
Here’s Rey Hernandez and myself at the Alien Xpo (August 2019) in Knoxville, TN. We’ll both be speaking once again at the same venue, this time at the Eureka Springs UFO Conference in Arkansas, April 11-13. My presentation will be on journalist, UFO author John A. Keel and those ongoing mysteries. Link: https://ozarkufoconference.com/#675fa9e4-864e-4904-a723-f6e84f7ae9dc May 3rd I’ve been invited to speak on Mothman at the Smoky Mountain Bigfoot Festival. Link: https://www.thebigfest.com
July 18-20, my wife Joan and I have been invited by doctors Greg and Lora Little to join them on an ARE (Association for Research and Enlightenment) sponsored Indian Mounds Tour in Ohio. Sites visited will be Shrum Mound, Mound City, Serpent Mound, Seip Mound, Cross Mound, and the Newark earthworks. We’ll help do purification and meditation ceremonies at some sites. Link: https://edgarcayce.org/events/tours/
The link for the Mound Tour may not be up yet, but it should be soon.
I hope to see some of you in person.
UFO Veterans
Yesterday, in my interview with researcher and experiencer Mindy Tautfest of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, [available elsewhere in this issue] who is resurrecting the International UFO Bureau begun by the late Hayden Hewes back in 1957, which was an ambitious project he began as a teenager. This opened up the conversation where I confessed how I became a “ufologist” (didn’t know that was what it was called back then though) at age 14, in January 1967. A bit over 58 years now. We got to talking about how there have been many in the UFO field who began early on. She called us “veterans” of ufology. I then told her how in this column I was writing about a young high schooler from Alaska who is himself taking his first steps in this field.
He's a young man named Lehanesa Fernando, who reminded me of my own deep interest in the UFO subject going back to my early teenage years, who recently introduced himself to me in an email: “I'm a current senior at Lathrop High School up in Fairbanks Alaska. I have always been interested in UFOs and extraterrestrial life since I was young, but it wasn't until the summer after my 10th grade school year that I got more involved. In my summer I emailed a lot of UFO groups inquiring on how I can help them. I got an email back from Mark [Rodeghier], who is part of CUFOS. He talked to me about how he started and then gave me a project a month later. It included looking into ufologist Loren Gross's monograms and seeing if there are any mentions of the group GOC. They were a civilian observer group who eventually started seeing UFOs. My job was to go through and find all the mentions of GOC and UFOs in those monograms, which no one else had done before. A little over a year later, I got it completed and shared it back and they have had it ever since to help others with information they need or if they have to do research themselves. I haven't done investigating for them since because I'm waiting for a little bit for things to calm down. I have attached my research to this email if you are interested.
“A bit after that was given to them, I started talking to Ron, who was a former MUFON director who now joined another group to get young people and teens involved in UFOs. Not much progress has been made because we are still waiting for this official group to be made.
“That's mostly my history and background with UFOs. It's not much but I believe it's more than what most people my age could say about their involvement with UFOs.” Initially, Lehanesa emailed me on the recommendation of our friend and fellow researcher in ufology Barbara Becker, who also is a periodic contributor to this magazine. He expressed an interest in engaging with others in the UFO community and seeing if there was any area he might be able to lend assistance.
Mark Rodeghier Ph.D., a sociologist and statistician who has led the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies since 1986, shared this statement with me of the high school senior from Alaska: “Lehansa contacted CUFOS to ask how he could volunteer and assist our work. After some discussion, in particular with Jan Aldrich, we decided that putting together mentions of the Ground Observer Corps (GOC) in the Loren Gross monographs would be useful. The GOC has become more prominent lately because they were trained observers who, in the course of their regular work, also saw UFOs, and reported on those sightings. Lehansa did a wonderful job and we are using the reference document he completed in our work and to assist others. I hope he continues with his interest in the subject.” Here is a link to the research Lehanesa had done: Link
