Lt. Col Wendelle C. Stevens, USAF (ret) was buried with full military honors at the military cemetery at Fort Huachuca, Arizona on Friday September 17.
It was an appropriate conclusion to an American life and came as a result of efforts to insure that the 23 year Air Force veteran would be accorded the respect and thanks from a military he so effectively served with distinction.
Stevens was a member of what Tom Brokaw called The Greatest Generation. He served as a fighter pilot in WW II and during the conflict participated in missions that are still classified or largely unknown. Stevens was actively involved in ufology for 54 years, first as Director of Investigations for the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) in Tucson, Arizona, and later as a private investigator/author.
Born 18 January 1923, in Round Prairie Township, Minnesota, Wendelle Stevens enlisted in the U.S. Army shortly after graduation from High School in 1941, at San Pedro, California. He was assigned to duty in the Army Air Force. He was accepted for Aviation Cadet Training the same year and graduated from Fighter pilot Advanced Training in 1943. He subsequently attended the first Air Corps Flight Test Pilot School at Kelly Field where he learned to fly all the aircraft in the Air Corps inventory at that time.
After the war Stevens' wartime experience, test pilots certificate and secret clearance got him reassigned to the Flight Test Division of the Air Material Command at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, with his duty desk in the foreign Technology Division of the Air Technical Intelligence Center.
This position would lead to an assignment that would alter the course of Steven's life. In the summer of 1947 Stevens was assigned to Alaska to supervise a special highly classified team of technical specialists who were installing hi-tech data collecting equipment aboard the SAC B-29s of the Ptarmigon Project, a polar research and mapping project photographing and mapping an area where heavy UFO activity had been reported.
Although he never saw the film he sent to Washington, Stevens heard the accounts of UFO activity observed by the crews. The experience convinced Stevens of the reality of the UFO Phenomenon. He would spend the rest of his life pursuing evidence, particularly photographic, of the reality of UFO and ET operations in earths biosphere.
He soon became known for his collection of UFO photographs, which at one time was the largest collection in private hands.
Because of this, it was Stevens that Swiss researcher Lou Zinsstag turned to to analyze as set of remarkably clear, daylight color photographs of a saucer shaped craft taken by a one-armed Swiss farmer. The ensuing investigation, conducted by Stevens, Lee Elders and Tom Welch, produced a landmark of UFO visual literature. UFO... Contact from the Pleiades was a coffee table photo journal with the same form factor as a record album.
Stevens authored a number of books in the UFO Contact from series, one of the best of which involved the William Herrmann case, UFO Contact From Reticulum.
He conceived of and was a founding member of the International UFO Congress which concluded operations at Laughlin last year. In December 1997 he received an award for lifetime achievement at the First World UFO Forum in Brazilia, Brazil.
Stevens was essentially the godfather of UFO research and his work provided a foundation upon which many others have built.
Wendelle Stevens leaves behind a remarkable legacy of UFO inquiry and documentation. His presence in the field will be missed by those fortunate to know him.
It is a sad irony that Stevens life terminated shortly prior to the broadcast on nationwide television of a fictional portrayal of the President of the United States disclosing to the American public the existence of extraterrestrials, which will be seen during the NBC fall series "The Event".
Selected works:
- UFO Photographs Around the World
- UFO Contact from the Pleiades
- UFO Contact From Reticulum
- UFO Crash at Aztec: A Well Kept Secret
- UFO's Over Modern China
- The Contact Notes of Eduard Billy Meier, Volume 1
- The Contact Notes of Eduard Billy Meier, Volume 2
- Light Years: An Investigation into the Extraterrestrial Experiences of Eduard Meier
The full version of this article, including videos can be found at the Phoenix UFO Examiner website.
Comments
Hey thanks a lot for the spoiler -- without the courtesy of a spoiler alert -- regarding "The Event," which begins airing tonight on NBC. You jerk.
History will show Wendel was a true hero to the people, providing the best intelligence and sober research against a culture of neglect, fear and inappropriate and incorrectly classified secrecy. I for one will never forget him, or the fact I was lucky to have met and spoken to this great man.
We should squarely plant our feet on his shoulders if we intend to reach any higher to the goal of understanding and informing our fellow Earthlings the truth of our place in the universe and the true nature of our world within its vast populated nature.
Wendelle was an important piece of Ufology's history and his legacy will continue to live on at the International UFO Congress in 2011 in Arizona. We are thankful for everything he has done and for the wealth of information he shared with us.
God save us from Aliens!
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