From: Don Ledger <dledger@ns.sympatico.ca>
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 12:12:18 -0300
Fwd Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 17:58:03 -0400
Subject: Re: Undisputed Facts in Ufology - Ledger


 >From: Wendy Connors <projectsign@worldnet.att.net>
 >To: <ufoupdates@home.com>
 >Subject: Re: Undisputed Facts in Ufology
 >Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 06:26:28 -0600

 >>From: Bruce Maccabee <brumac@compuserve.com>
 >>Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 23:08:54 -0400
 >>Fwd Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 07:55:01 -0400
 >>Subject: Re: Undisputed Facts In Ufology

 >>A little frustrated, are you?

 >>Just think of the "richness" of the subject now. No longer just
 >>"plain vanilla" UFO sightings, of which we have zillions, and
 >>plain old contactee stories.

 >>If they weren't enough to make you crazy by themselves you now
 >>have abductions, mutilations, landing traces, movies, videos,
 >>rods, agriglyphs, orbs, space brothers, entities, megalithic
 >>constructions (not built by humans, of course), etc., etc.

 >>The solution?

 >>When the ice cream gets too rich, like Rainforest Crunch or
 >>Chunky Monkey, or Cherries Garcia, I just go back to plain old
 >>vanilla to reassure myself that there is "something to believe
 >>in."

 >Ah, but I too return to "plain vanilla." More so than ever
 >because that is where the real real cream is located. <G>New
 >things always can be added to the old. To Wit:

 >Chile-Whitted Incident. There were real people behind the
 >documentation that tells much more than the written report. As
 >an example consider the following:

 >1. Chiles led the airline industry in being the first of their
 >pilots to sport a mustache and other pilots began to follow
 >suit. 2. Born in Tennessee, Chiles father was a school principle
 >and a Baptist minister.

 >3. Chiles attended the U of Tenn and studied pre-med. He took
 >his training in the AAC at both Randolph and Kelly Fields, TX.
 >He also served at Hamiliton Field, CA.

 >4. Chiles became an EAL pilot at the age of 22 and was based in
 >Atlanta. (Ihave a photo of him taken in 1940 and a couple while
 >he was in the Army Air Corps). Two years later he was recalled
 >to active duty and flew the "Hump."

 >5. He became Squadron Commander and later Deputy Commanding
 >Officer of at Hensley Field and then was commanding officer at
 >Ascension Island and rose to the rank of Lt. Col. He flew just
 >about everything up to and including P-38s. While commanding
 >Wideawake field at Ascension Island, he used his own money to
 >bring Christmas trees from the U.S. so his men could have a
 >better Christmas on an island that had nothing and forbid
 >alcohol. Yep, although he was not a drinker, he allowed his men
 >to do so, but monitored it so that it did not get out of
 >control.

 >6. His wife's name was Eleanor and they were married 3 weeks to
 >the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor. HIs last duty
 >assignment was in Natal, Brazil.

 >7. Following his EAL career they moved back to Tennessee, built
 >there home out of an old church and raised cattle.

 >8. He made a movie with Gene Autry.

 >9. Shipe Chiles was a highly admired man for his expertise and
 >leadership, both in the military and at Eastern Airlines. He was
 >considered among his colleagues as the "Best of the Best." He
 >was not flamboyant, but very friendly, compassionate, but tough
 >about insuring everything he did was correct and on target.

 >Wendy Connors


Hi Wendy,

About 6 months ago I got into a limited argument with some on
this List and P-47 about the Chiles-Whited sighting which
apparently had been decided that it was a non-starter as UFO
sightings go.

Because we now have low level meteors that can reverse their
plummet and climb back upward, what Chiles and Whited had seen
was one of these newer model meteors/fireballs which I might add
is as unproven as ghosts and the existance of Christ.

I tried to explain the sighting from a pilots point of view
  - some of the stuff ufologists come up with regarding avaiation
is laughable - however, saner heads prevailed it seems.

Note that this was not a pet sighting of mine, nor was I even
aware of it. What I knew of this sighting came from a quick
look-up in Dick Hall's The UFO Evidence book and Jerry Clarke's
The UFO Book - and it came as a result of this sighting having
been claimed to be solved by Jenny Randles, Bob [it was probably
a meteor] Young and others.

One reason given for the likelihood of this being a meteor - if
memory serves - is that the object had an exhaust and since UFOs
as we know them can't/don't have exhausts, then this couldn't
have been the real McCoy.

There were also suggestions that the pilots were looking for
publicity at the time. I've heard this about Arnold and many
others as well but this is a time honored ploy used to discredit
the witness, if you can't disprove the sighting - so I tended to
ignore that claim as such.

What's your feeling on this case-closed scenario?


Don