Leonard H. Stringfield - Unsung Hero.

Leonard Stringfield is my all-time hero.The pioneering work this man did on crash retrieval was groundbreaking and changed the face of ufology.
I'm lucky to own one of his Status Reports.One day i hope a publisher will compile a volume of all of them so everyone can see this mans work.
Below is a short biography from wikipedia but i urge anyone who doesn't know this man to look up his work.


en.wikipedia.org...

Stringfield's interest in the subject began August 28, 1945, just three days before the end of the war, when he was an Army Air Force intelligence officer en route to Tokyo, Japan, along with twelve other specialists in the Fifth Air Force. As they approached Iwo Jima at about ten thousand feet in a sunlit sky, Stringfield related:

"I was shocked to see three teardrop-shaped objects from my starboard-side window. They were brilliantly white, like burning magnesium, and closing in on a parallel course to our C-46. Suddenly our left engine feathered, and I was later to learn that the magnetic navigation-instrument needles went wild. As the C-46 lost altitude, with oil spurting from the troubled engine, the pilot sounded an alert; crew and passengers were told to prepare for a ditch! I do not recall my thoughts or actions during the next, horrifying moments, but my last glimpse of the three bogies placed them about 20 degrees above the level of our transport. Flying in the same, tight formation, they faded into a cloud bank. Instantly our craft's engine revved up, and we picked up altitude and flew a steady course to land safely at Iwo Jima."
[edit] UFO interest rekindledStringfield said his World War II encounter was so traumatic that he tried to forget about it. But he was drawn back into the UFO field in 1950 when two very sincere people related flying saucer sightings to him. Stringfield then wrote:

"This one experience near Iwo Jima was proof enough to me in 1950 that the 'foo fighter' of World War II--sometimes dubbed 'Kraut fireball' in the European Theater--and the flying saucer were one and the same kind of machine and from the same source: outer space."
Uneasy about the "rumored loss of Air Force interceptors chasing UFOs, the low-level green fireballs over Sweden and the southwestern United States" and his own experience, Stringfield related he was concerned about the "intent" behind the probes. In March 1954, he created Civilian Research, Interplanetary Flying Objects (CRIFO), and published a monthly newsletter, ORBIT.

reply to post by CrashRetrieval

Funny you should mention Mr. Stringfield. I was just reading through his book the other day. Leonard's "Inside Saucer Post 3-0 Blue" paints an interesting picture of early ufology. I may not agree with him on all his points, but he put a lot of hard word and effort into helping develop the field. I'd recommend anyone with an interest in the history of the subject to read the book.

Originally posted by Xtraeme
Funny you should mention Mr. Stringfield. I was just reading through his book the other day. Leonard's "Inside Saucer Post 3-0 Blue" paints an interesting picture of early ufology.

Hey Xtraeme, here's a free E-book copy of it -it's certainly an interesting read.

Inside Saucer Post 3-0 Blue by Leonard Stringfield 1957


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2143f3a71476.jpg[/atsimg]

Leonard Stringfield was born in 1920. He was director of CRIFO (Civilian Research, Interplanetary Flying Objects) - one of the world's largest research groups during the mid-5Os and publisher of its newsletter, ORBIT (1953-1957). He also worked in cooperation with the United States Air Force (1953-1957), investigating and reporting UFO activity, having been assigned a special code number to report by phone to the Air Defense Command in Columbus, Ohio. For over 30 years Stringfield served in several of the major UFO Organizations in a public relations capacity. From 1957 to 1970, he was public relations adviser with the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. Later on it was director of public relations and board member of the Mutual UFO Network. He was also regional investigator for the Center for UFO Studies directed by Dr. J. Allen Hynek.
Stringfield was also advisor to Sir Eric Gairy, former Prime Minister of Grenada, 1977-78, during his efforts to establish a UFO research agency within the framework of the United Nations. He passed away in 1994.

Link (pdf)

Cheers.

I bought some of his Status Reports in the 1980s and '90s and they were pretty interesting. The problem was he never disclosed any of his contacts real names. He of course claimed he was protecting their privacy but it also meant no one could ever verify his stories. He may really have been interviewing ufo experiencers or he may have been making it all up. We'll never know and because of that his work is largely useless.