Jumping back to Bruce's early years in Ufology, we find out what the mood was like during those days, especially in the wake of the Condon Report. Bruce details how the Condon Report mishandled the famous McMinnville photo case. Looking at the phenomenon as a whole, Bruce puts forward the notion that the very creation of the Condon Report suggests that there had to be some veracity to the UFO subject.
Looking at Bruce's personal opinion on the nature of UFOs, we find out what it was when he first got interested in the subject and how it has evolved over the last 40+ years. This leads to some insight into how NICAP felt about the UFO phenomenon and what factors may have contributed to that stance. He reflects on the "paradigm shift" in Ufology that happened in the early 1980's with the emergence of abduction research as well as the Roswell case. In the midst of this portion, Bruce shares the story of his grandmother's UFO sighting.
Bruce talks about why the Roswell case constituted a part of the big 1980's paradigm shift in Ufology, since it solidified the concept of a government cover-up of the UFO reality. Coupled with that, Bruce talks about how the early abductees were starkly different from the contactees of previous years. Bruce also talks about how crop circles evolved out of UFO landing trace cases first and then seemed to take on a more complex nature.
Going down a different rabbit hole, we talk about Bruce's numerous dealings with his frequent sparring partner, notorious UFO skeptic Phil Klass. Bruce talks about what made Phil Klass different from contemporary skeptics and provides a glimpse into the early years of Klass' skepticism of UFOs. We also get Bruce's opinion on the theory that Klass was doing his UFO debunking at the behest of the government. Bruce then details his investigation into the McMinnville photo case and how it led to a lengthy and elaborate exchange with Klass. Bruce also talks about his battles with Klass over the New Zealand UFO film case.
In light of the contemporary digital age, we get Bruce's opinion on the cloud of suspicion that befalls all modern UFO photos. Bruce extrapolates on his axiom "a photo does not a UFO make." This leads to some discussion on the JAL case of 1986. Part of this story includes an interesting detail about a critical error made by the infamous CSICOP. We then talk about Bruce's interaction with Rick Doty in the 1980's and the 1980 UFO case at Kirtland AFB that he investigated.
Since Bruce is so well known for his acquiring of FBI files on UFOs via the FOIA in the 1980's, we get his opinion on the sheer mass of documents that have been collected in the ensuing years and if we are at the point where we are overwhelmed with documents. Bruce contrasts the power of those documents then with the documents revealed in contemporary times and explains why it is important to amass these types of official government correspondence.
Heading towards the close, we ask Bruce what he thinks, based on his learned opinion, what he thinks is really going on with the UFO phenomenon and whether he thinks we'll ever find out the true answer about UFOs. Wrapping things up, we find out how Bruce views the field of Ufology after 40 years and where he thinks the UFO field needs to go in the future. And, finally, we wrap it up with what's next for Dr. Bruce Maccabee.
Dr. Bruce Maccabee received his Ph.D. in Physics from American University, Washington, D. C., in 1970. In 1972 commenced his long career at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, presently headquartered at Dahlgren, Virginia. He has worked on optical data processing, generation of underwater sound with lasers and various aspects of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) using high power lasers.
He has been active in UFO research since late 1960s when he joined the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) and was active in research and investigation for NICAP until its demise in 1980. He became a member of MUFON in 1975 and was subequently appointed to the position of state Director for Maryland, a position he still holds. In 1979 he was instrumental in establishing the Fund for UFO Research and was the chairman for the about 13 years. He presently serves on the National Board of the Fund.
Dr. Maccabee is the author or coauthor of about three dozen technical articles and more than a hundred UFO articles over the last 25 years, including many which appeared in the MUFON Journal and MUFON Symposium proceedings. He is co-author with Edward Walters of "UFOs Are Real, Here's The Proof," (Avon Books, 1997), he is the author of "The UFO/FBI Connection" (Llewellyn Books, May, 2000) and he is the author of novel, "Abduction in My Life," (November, 2000).
