History Channel show to give Greensburg UFO believer new platform
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John Ventre, state director of MUFON, poses for a portrait in his Hempfield Twp. home on February 17, 2014. Ventre will be starring in a new History Channel series. .
By Craig Smith
Published: Monday, Feb. 17, 2014, 11:21 p.m.
Updated 4 hours ago
John Ventre had no interest in unidentified flying objects until he decided to write a science fiction book about 17 years ago.
The deeper he went in his research, the more evidence of UFOs he found.
"I am 100 percent convinced it is a real phenomenon," said Ventre, Pennsylvania director for the Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON, and one of the stars of "Hangar 1," a new History Channel series about UFOs.
Each week, the show will piece together three MUFON cases and try to show what the alien agenda might be. Actual footage, recreations and narratives will be used along with expert testimony.
For the most part, aliens come here to watch what we do, said Ventre, 56, of Hempfield.
"I think they observe us ... we're like a science project for them," he said.
Lou Coban has been watching the skies for 20 years at the Allegheny Observatory and has seen a laundry list of unusual things through its telescopes — but never a UFO.
"I've see all kinds of strange things, but I've never seen anything I couldn't explain," he said. "There's all sorts of things flying around the sky ... from satellites to pieces of rockets.."
"A high percentage of cases are explainable," said UFO investigator Stan Gordon, who has been tracking sightings "on a very frequent basis" since 1965.
Chinese lanterns and remote control helicopters can spur reports of UFOs these days, he said.
Ventre said he, too, has never seen a UFO, but plenty of others have. MUFON has about 70,000 cases nationwide, including many from Pennsylvania, which ranks third in the nation in UFO sightings, Ventre said. "We get a little over 300 (sightings) a year, about six a week," he said. "Westmoreland County ranks No.1 for counties that don't have a major city."
Last year, for instance, UFO sightings were reported in Murrsyville, Latrobe, Ligonier, Belle Vernon, Delmont, Jeannette, Greensburg, Irwin and Apollo, according to MUFON reports.
Ventre and others are convinced the key may be Lake Erie. About half of all UFO sightings are around bodies of water, he said.
Lake Erie, the accepted thinking goes, could be a base camp for UFOs that hide submerged beneath the surface, Ventre said. During their submerged state, they are referred to as USOs, or Unidentified Submerged Objects.
USOs been seen throughout history, Ventre said.
"In 1492, Columbus and his navigator saw a glowing object moving under their ship and turned the ship toward it," he said.
Ventre said his curiosity was piqued when he learned of the Feb. 25, 1942, Battle of Los Angeles. When nine UFOs were seen over L.A. months after the Dec. 7, 1941, invasion of Pearl Harbor that launched World War II, they were fired upon by a jittery Army.
"The government said they were weather balloons," Ventre said.
People soon started asking how the U.S. would turn back a Japanese invasion when "we fired 1,433 rounds at weather balloons and didn't hit them," he said.
The Air Force gave up chasing UFOs in 1969, saying there was no evidence that the more than 12,000 "unidentified" sightings it received from 1947 were extraterrestrial vehicles.
About 701 of the sighting still carry the unidentified designation, records show.
Craig Smith is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-380-5646 or csmith@tribweb.com.
DetailsWhen and Where
"Hangar 1" will debut Feb. 28 at 10 p.m. after "Ancient Aliens" on History Channel's H2 station.
In addition to Ventre, the cast includes Jan Harzan and Jeremy Ray, of MUFON; and Jason McClellan of Open Minds magazine.
http://johnventre.blogspot.com/
http://www.stangordon.info/wp/
http://www.history.com/shows/h2
Read more: http://triblive.com/news/westmoreland/5612011-74/ventre-ufo-history#ixzz2tiKDoPEI
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Well looky there, a serpo zeta being, being used as a lean to. That could start a planetary serpo zeta war if Bigelows people diss serpos zeta people like that.
I turned off cable tv and no can watch history but when I did watch it, they diss'd me by taking the good stuff and planting it on history HD where I had to bump up my cable pay package to see anything worth watching. So, I called em up and canceled cable.
Did you know Bigelow bought up filers files, linda moulton howe and tried to snatch peter danvenports ufo reporting center. Peter said no cause he has plenty a money of his own and he bought a missile silo where he runs his ufo reporting center from.
I'm sure hanger 1 will be a ufo hunters style ponzi since they are pulling stories from the Bigelow data base of theatrics.
Gigas
they usually put the vid on line so if you trace the link you will probably be able to see it
that is if you are at all interested...
the article was in our local paper about some local guys.. ventre and gordon
that's how i found out about it
i'm not sure we get that channel either but i stuck a note on the frig for that day
if not.. i'll try and catch it on here or youie tube