Walter Cronkite's UFO Encounter

By Bill Knell

Walter Cronkite’s UFO Encounter By Bill Knell He is the newsperson and anchor who reported some of the most exciting and traumatic events of the twentieth century to a huge television audience. From the assassination of President Kennedy, to the first men to walk on the Moon, Walter Cronkite brought us the news of those events over network television. He may also have been the first reporter to witness the biggest news story of modern history. It’s a story that remains untold.

As CBS Evening News Anchor for many years, Walter Cronkite was the friendly face on television that brought the good, bad or even tragic news of the day into the homes of millions of Americans. Because he did this before cable channels became such a big part of America‘s television viewing habits, he was more than just a reporter, newsperson or talking head. Walter Cronkite became a trusted source of information and media icon.

Despite the fact that he electronically entered millions of American homes almost every night of the week for so many years, Cronkite was and is a very private person. Little is known about his personal life, but the fact that he managed to work in the highly competitive Network News business for so many years without being implicated in any scandals or mischief speaks volumes about his character.

During the early 1970s, nine of the top ten most watched television entertainment shows were on CBS. No one who knows television history would argue with the fact that CBS was a network television powerhouse during that time. That included their news division. In 1973, CBS News was seriously considering an investigative project about UFOs. Things were changing. People were growing weary of a steady diet of bad news thrown at them daily. The Vietnam War, antiwar protests, the Watergate scandal, terrorism and Middle Eastern conflicts were wearing viewers down. Any news organization that wanted to stay on top would have to offer people some alternatives.

Local news broadcasts, daytime television talk shows and late night radio programs had already experienced some success covering paranormal issues, events and stories. By the early 1970s, New Age topics had reached a high point in popularity that had been building for some time. Among subjects like Ghosts, ESP, Psychic Powers, Reincarnation, Atlantis and Pyramid Power, UFOs were the clear winner when it came to overall public fascination. Stores were filled with books and magazines about UFOs, aliens and the government cover up of those things. As a result, CBS decided that the subject deserved serious consideration and made a decision to go ahead with their UFO project.

Like the subject itself, the CBS News UFO project was going to be something very different. They planned to look at the phenomenon from the standpoint of witnesses, authors and investigators with little or no editorial comment. It would be an investigative piece, but the investigating would be left up to those involved with the subject. It was an intriguing concept that would likely capture the imagination of viewers and leave the network safe from having to take a stand on the subject either way.

After months of viewing previous television news stories about UFOS and aliens, a decision had yet to be made about how the project should be presented. Should it be a one-time special program, series of short investigative pieces or regular feature to be shown in segments during network news broadcasts on slow news days? No one was sure. The only thing those involved with the CBS News UFO Project had agreed on was that Walter Cronkite should be approached to do the sit down interviews for the project. Once those were in the can, that material would be viewed and a final decision on the project format would be made.

I had already been investigating UFOs for several years by 1973, despite the fact that I was just seventeen years of age at the time. I was living in Florida with my parents and attending high school at the time. Because of unexpected public interest in a UFO Club I had organized as an after school project for extra credit, I was presenting a few short seminars each month about my investigations for local libraries and civic groups. Because of my youth, the success of the UFO Club and overall public fascination with the topic at that time, our local newspaper decided to interview me for an article about area UFO sightings and encounters. That article resulted in requests for me to appear on a few local radio and television shows and news broadcasts.

One of the local radio personalities who had me on his show had read a few of the short pieces I wrote for my school newspaper. He enjoyed them and suggested I submit the articles to publications that print stories about UFOs and related subjects. Having written professionally for a few trade publications himself, he gave me a thumbnail sketch of how to submit my material for possible publication. As a result, I went back and cleaned up the old articles, wrote a few new ones and started sending them out for consideration. I was surprised when a few ended up being published. This lead to my ultimate contact with Walter Cronkite.

As it happened, Cronkite read a small piece that I wrote for a now-defunct UFO publication. The topic of the article was the Air Force cover-up of UFO information and also included a few cases I had investigated. Cronkite was making a list of people he wanted to interview for the CBS project about UFOs and my article interested him. I never dreamed it would lead to a meeting with the legendary news anchor himself. I later wondered why? This was one of my first and most primitive attempts at writing and I was sure that he had read a thousand other articles by a thousand more qualified people.

In early September of 1973, I received a letter from CBS News indicating their interest in my work and desire to have me contact them about a television project they were planning. After a few phone calls, they offered to fly me to New York City to meet with Cronkite. As a transplanted New Yorker who had moved to Florida with my family a couple of years before, I was always glad to get back to the big city. I really liked Florida, but missed the pace and excitement of the Big Apple. I traveled there and stayed with relatives or friends whenever I could, so I was used to getting around the city by myself.

On a cool New York day in late September of 1973, I found myself back in the Big Apple and sitting down to an informal lunch with Walter Cronkite. For me, it just didn’t get better than that and it was hard to avoid being a bit overwhelmed by the experience. It wasn’t about being star-struck. Like most regular visitors to New York City, I was used to occasionally seeing celebrities out and about around town. I remember walking through the theater district in Manhattan early one morning during the mid-1970s. Richard Burton got out of a car five feet in front me. I stared; he smiled, waved and quickly disappeared into the back door of a theater where he was appearing in Equus. Likewise, I recall meeting a number of important people through my father’s work as an Air Force Officer. I guess I was just in awe of this network news giant and more than a bit nervous.

I was surprised at how quickly the legendary reporter put me at ease. He had a gentle and laid-back manner that made me feel like we had known each other for years. I guess that was his gift and the thing that made Walter Cronkite such a successful news anchor. I appreciated the way he spoke with me as an equal, rather then treating me like some stupid kid. He seemed honestly interested in my UFO investigations and articles and appeared to genuinely respect my interest in the subject.

As we lunched, Cronkite told me what he knew about the CBS UFO Project and indicated that he wanted to interview me. He was honest in explaining that there was no way to tell how much or little of the interview would ultimately be used, if any. Regardless, he wanted a younger person's perspective on the phenomenon for the project and liked the way I answered his questions up to that point. Most of the UFO researchers in those days were older and had taken up the topic as a Retirement project. Nevertheless, I also sensed there was more to this luncheon than he was letting on. He kept referring back to my articles on the government cover-up and asking about what I thought my father might have known about UFOs as an Air Force Officer. Then he dropped the bomb.

After about 30 minutes of talking, Cronkite said to me, "Let me tell you my UFO story." For the next five minutes, I sat in stunned silence as he told me what had happened.

During the 1950s (I felt that he was being purposely vague about the exact date or year), Cronkite was part of a small pool of news reporters brought out to a tiny South Pacific island to watch the test of a new Air Force missile. After a short inspection of the new missile system by the reporters, they were lead to an area that was a safe distance from the launch site. The missile was mounted on a specially built launcher that was attached to a cement base. It was obvious that the area had been rapidly constructed just for this occasion. The details about the missile were going to be given to the reporters verbally now and in the form of handout sheets and press releases after the test.

Cronkite mentioned that he and the other reporters had been warned that photography of the missile test and any audio transmissions or recordings by the press was forbidden. They would have to give a written account of the event. Just as the test was ready to proceed, everyone was writing as fast as they could while an officer blurted out some prepared details about the new weapons system. As Air Force Security personnel walked around the perimeter of the test area with guard dogs and the news reporters watched, the missile was fired-up and about to be released. Just then, a large disc-type UFO appeared on the scene.

Without sharing any personal observations or feelings about the appearance of the object, Cronkite matter-of-factly stated that he guessed the object might have been about 50-60 feet in diameter, a dull gray color and had no distinguishing markings or visible means of propulsion. Because of the background noise generated by the missile engine and sudden flurry of activity, talking and shouting around him, he couldn't tell whether the disc made any noise. He did not notice any coming directly from the object.

As Air Force Security personnel ran toward the UFO with their guard dogs, the disc hovered about 30 feet off the ground. It suddenly sent out a blue beam of light that struck the missile, a guard and a dog all at the same time. The missile had been frozen in mid-air about 70 feet from the launcher as it had taken off. One guard had been frozen in mid-step and a dog frozen in mid-air as it had jumped at the disc. Cronkite reminded me that this all happened within the space of about five minutes or less.

Suddenly, the missile exploded! After that, the disc vanished. The guard and dog looked all right, but were quickly taken away by medical personnel always present at tests in case anyone was injured. At the same time, Air Force Security personnel rapidly ushered the reporters into a nearby concrete observation bunker and control center. After about thirty minutes of sitting in that box, they were brought out into the air again and addressed by an Air Force Colonel.

The officer told them, "It was all part of the test." Obviously making it up as he went along, the Colonel said that the event was "staged" to test media reaction to UFOs. He reinforced the usual line to the reporters that Flying Saucers were probably not extra-terrestrial, but what people were actually seeing were secret planes being tested by the Air Force. This test was designed to show the media how "shocking" it could be to suddenly view a new technology. Well, Cronkite was certain that what he viewed was a new technology, but he was also sure it was not an Earthly one! He didn't believe the Air Force explanation then, and he still didn't believe it at the time when he told me the story. >{? I was grateful for his brief comments about the incident, because he wasn’t the type of person that enjoyed sharing personal viewpoints. He continued…

After the event, reporters were told that since it was a test of media reaction to new technology, they could not report on it! However, they would be compensated later with exclusive stories on new Air Force projects (a promise that was probably never kept). The implication attached to that promise was that if anyone decided to report on the event it would be denied, could never be verified and would result in a blackout of information to any individual or news organization that took the risk of releasing the story in any way, shape or form.

I was sure that Cronkite felt safe in telling me about his experience. After all, I was just a kid interested in UFOs and who would listen to me? I was also sure it was his own personal revenge on the military for preventing him from releasing the story of the century. He knew I was likely to remain interested in the subject and would tell his story at some point in my life. And here I am doing that some thirty odd years later.

Being a very private person, Cronkite never did share with me his own beliefs about UFOs beyond the story he told me. Since he didn’t believe the object that appeared during the missile test was something the government cooked up and felt it wasn‘t something that looked like it had been made on earth, I guess I can assume he believed it was made elsewhere. But then, if I‘m going to think like Walter Cronkite, I am not going to assume anything about what he said. I’ll just let the story stand and allow you to take from it what you will just as he did when he told it to me.

I probably could have asked him a million questions after he told me the story, but I got the impression that our meeting was over and wasn’t about to challenge America’s most famous News Anchor. Instead, I was deep appreciative of his willingness to tell me a story that I was certain few, if any, other people outside of his family had probably heard.

Looking back on the whole experience, I now realize what a wonderful gift Walter Cronkite gave to me by sharing his UFO encounter story. Any story or anecdote told to me in person by Cronkite would have been a gift, but this was more than just a bit special. Besides my previous observations, I think he did it as a way of thanking me for sharing so much of the information I had about UFOs with him. I didn’t realize it at the time, but many of the stories and pieces of information I had collected from speaking with my father’s military pilot friends were anything but common knowledge in the UFO investigative field. That would explain his many questions and interest in what I knew about the government cover-up.

The CBS UFO Project turned into a less than memorable Special that was filmed shortly after my meeting with Cronkite. I was included in it for just a few minutes. During the filming, I became aware that Cronkite had not shared his story with any of the other UFO investigators or witnesses. I gleaned that from the fact that none of them discussed it among themselves, with me or even mentioned it in passing. After the special aired, I called one of Cronkite's staff members and asked him if he had ever heard the UFO story. He told me he had, but I am not sure about that. I think he was probably an over-worked intern just trying to get me off the phone and didn’t have a clue what I was talking about. He said Cronkite had only shared the story with a few key people, but I think he was referring to something I had told him rather than visa versa. Either way, Cronkite’s Encounter story was certainly not covered or even mentioned in the Special. Nor anywhere else that I am aware of after all these years.

There was one last opportunity to find out if Cronkite had shared the story with any of his staff members. Just before leaving New York, there was a final meeting with each one of us who had been filmed for the CBS project. It was just a brief question and answer session to collect any missing background information about us or ask a few final questions off camera for screen quotes. I carefully hinted around at what Cronkite had told me, but none of the staffers asking the questions seemed to have a clue what I was talking about.

I was glad I had heard the story from Cronkite as a teen. I didn’t get a chance to speak with him at any length before, during or after the filming apart from the interview itself, but I did get to hear some of the other interviews he conducted from a short distance. I was amazed at how full of themselves some of the other UFO investigators sounded. Cronkite simply let them drone on. Most of those interviews were several edited later. I wondered if that would be me years from that time? I hope it’s not. I have tried very hard to apply the other thing I learned from my conversation with Walter Cronkite that day. Knowing the value of when to talk and when to listen.

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FOLLOW-UP to the Cronkite Article - PLEASE READ IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS

This follow-up represents a general response to thousands of email questions I have received about Walter Cronkite's UFO encounter and my feelings about his general credibility. As of 2006, over 3,000 emails have been received and answered about the article since 1998, so please read this instead of emailing. Thanks. - Bill Knell

I originally wrote the Cronkite article in 1998 for my website, but I thought readers who visit Paranormal News and other websites might enjoy it as well. I've also made it available on EzineArticles.com for use as free content as long as the publisher provides a link back to my website at www.ufoguy.com.

As my article indicates, I met Cronkite in 1973 as a result of involvement with a CBS News project about UFOs and that's when he told me the story. Apart my own article or others based on mine, I have never seen the account of his UFO encounter in print or elsewhere. Some of Cronkite's staff said they knew about it when I asked, so I originally assumed it wasn't a big secret. At one point I wondered if it might have been his idea of a practical joke. However, I never got that impression. After trying to discuss the matter further with Cronkite's staff, I became certain that they had no idea what I was talking about. This further convinced that the event had probably occurred and that Cronkite was had been entirely truthful when he told me about it.

I have always believed that Walter Cronkite did not tell me about his encounter in confidence. We never discussed that and there wasn't time to go into it with him later. Being an experienced Reporter, I am certain that Cronkite would never have told me something that he didn't expect everyone else to eventually find out about. But even if the information became public knowledge at that time, most people probably wouldn't have believed it. Since I was just a teen at the time, I had no intention of testing the waters by releasing the story. It would not have benefited Cronkite, myself or the UFO investigative community in general. So then WHY did he tell me.

I have always believed that the reason Walter Cronkite told me about his UFO encounter had less to do with him and more to do with the encounter. Most reporters have an almost natural ability to step back from any story they are covering. In other words, they don't get involved. We've all seen this on television. A reporter can be standing right in the middle of a war zone, hurricane or some other horrific event, yet their only interest is in getting the story. All thought of personal safety vanishes.

Based on our conversation before he told me about his encounter, I believe that Walter Cronkite told me the story because he knew I would eventually do everything I could to follow up on the information he provided. He probably didn't look at it as HIS encounter, but rather as a great news story that government intervention and media arrogance would never allow him to fully investigate or report. When I discussed statements about extra-terrestrials by General Douglas Macarthur, UFO sightings by pilots like Chuck Yeager and the possible involvement of General Doolittle with the retrieval of a crashed UFO, it wasn't about them. He could see that I wasn't interested in taking some political stand, propping up or tearing down a public figure. I was all about investigating these events and making them available to a public that would, otherwise, never have access to that information.

Despite my amazement over what Cronkite had told me, I kept it mostly to myself. I told my father who didn't seem at all surprised based on his own experiences in the military and my older friend David. He was a Christian Minister with an interest in the UFO phenomenon. David was also a trained librarian who owned a number of excellent books about UFOs and was a wiz at research. Although he never published anything and had no interest in speaking about the phenomenon in the public arena, David loved doing research about UFOs. It was his forte and he had notebooks and folders filled with information. David had hoped to write an exhaustive work to be published in multiple volumes when he retired from the Ministry.

David first came to believe in UFOs as something more than just lights in the sky after reading a number of Biblical references. These seemed to indicate that intelligent beings other than ourselves might exist and have the technological ability to visit the Earth. The thirty year old Youth Pastor of a large Methodist Church on Florida's West Coast, he had often politely argued the point with other Ministers. I met him at a library which was hosting a series of seminars about the paranormal presented by local college professors. He knew more than they did and we became fast friends.

Because his wife had suddenly passed away a couple of years ago as the result of an undiagnosed heart ailment, David had plenty of time to devote to his Church youth work and UFO research when I knew him in those days. He gave his all to both and worked wonderfully with young people, although he never had any children. Sadly, David was killed by a drunk driver in 1978. Although he never got to complete the exhaustive work he had hoped to publish, David left an important legacy behind. He served his Church for over ten years, providing teens with spiritual comfort, money and food when their families fell on hard times and intellectual assistance. He helped more than a few to pass college entrance exams, write papers and research their thesis. He is missed.

Although David never turned up any further significant information about Cronkite's encounter, he did agree that the distinguished News Anchor had probably been telling the truth. He based that opinion on evidence he discovered that proved reporters might experience a UFO encounter while covering a government or military event, but still fail to report all that occurred.

Dave combed over books that had been written by Donald Keyhoe which might relate events involving UFOs, the military and news reporters. He had exchanged a number of letters with Keyhoe over the years and proudly showed them to me on a number of occasions. Keyhoe was a military and civilian pilot, writer and close associate of both Charles Lindbergh and Floyd Bennett. He became a Naval Aviator after graduating from Annapolis in 1920 where he had received a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps.

As a military pilot, Donald Keyhoe flew balloons, airplanes and seaplanes. After a crash on Guam, he retired. A prolific writer, he wrote a number of popular articles about aviation and other subjects during the 1930's and 1940's. Recalled to active duty during World War II, Donald Keyhoe served in the Pentagon as a Major with the Naval Aviation Training Division. After the war was over, he retired from the military and returned to writing. That lead to his involvement in UFO research.

In 1949, Keyhoe was asked to write about Flying Saucers by True Magazine. Because of his military connections, Keyhoe was able to interview a number of military officers, commanders, pilots and enlisted men. He had access to important people in the Pentagon and spoke with them as well. Because he was initially skeptical, Keyhoe's research became all the more important after he came to the conclusion that the U.S. Military knew more about UFOs than they were telling the public. He also felt that they were deliberately covering up information about the phenomenon. He revealed these findings in his now famous article, Flying Saucers Are Real which appeared in the January 1950 issue of TRUE and later became the first of several books he wrote on the subject. Keyhoe published his last book in the 1970's, but continued to write and stay involved with the investigation of UFOs until his death in 1988.

The importance of Keyhoe's research cannot be over-stated. He knew that the military was lying about UFOs and said so. He reported a number of incidents involving UFO incursions on military facilities where new and secret aircraft, rockets and missiles were being tested. During these incidents, restricted airspace was regularly breached by objects described as shiny or silvery discs. And the witnesses were as solid as you can get. His stories came from military officers, scientists, engineers and technicians working on or near these facilities (see Chapter Three of Keyhoe's Book, Flying Saucers Are Real).

What made Keyhoe's books and articles so interesting was what he didn't say. Keyhoe tended to quote sources, dates, times and descriptions, but left out many of the details. For him it was more about proving his point by laying out multiple patterns of sightings, along with government denials and apparent cover-ups. I assume this wasn't entirely deliberate. I'm sure his sources would have dried up very quickly if he had revealed information that might be construed as a threat to national security. Keyhoe was very careful to reveal information and incidents that had already been reported to the military or were about to become a matter of public record somewhere. They just hadn't been reported by civilian news sources or investigated by anyone outside of government circles.

Given the number of incidents involving UFOs, military bases and government facilities where secret projects were being developed, built or tested, it's not unreasonable to believe that reporters covering the roll out of some new aircraft or test of a missile might witness something unusual during such an event. But would they be able or willing to report it?

Dave's ability as a Librarian to file, reference and cross-reference information was always invaluable when it came to UFO incidents. As a result of our discussions about the Cronkite story and his research into the matter, Dave found twenty three instances (according to my now very worn and yellowed notes) during which reporters should have been on or near government facilities when a UFO sighting or encounter of any type was reported to have occurred by Keyhoe during the 1950's timeframe. Although none involved Cronkite, that information was interesting to say the least.

Dave had searched newspaper and magazine articles available on microfilm to locate any reports or stories that had been written by reporters personally covering events on military bases or government facilities during the 1950's. He compared his results with the sightings and encounters listed by Keyhoe and found some matches. He used Keyhoe's books and articles because he felt that could be trusted to be mostly accurate.

Tracking down the papers and people involved proved to be an almost impossible task. By the 1970s, most of America's Newspapers were in some sort of financial distress and a number of them had already merged or simply closed up shop. That also accounted for the low number of matching articles that Dave found. He was certain that more than a few newspaper archives or parts of them had been lost due to neglect or financial instability.

Locating the reporters was an even tougher job. We discovered that many newspaper reporters wrote under different pen names in those days for a variety of reasons. Even those who used their own names tended to drift from job to job until they changed professions or simply vanished off the radar.

After several months of writing letters and making phone calls, Dave had little to show for his efforts. According to my notes, he located four former reporters associated with the articles. None of them would cooperate with his investigation. It turned out that three of them had been members of the military and felt that any kind of cooperation might be misunderstood in those days of anti-war protests and government distrust. The other was elderly, sick and unable to talk for very long.

While the results of David's investigation did not yield the results we had hoped for, it did indicate that reporters could not always be trusted to report everything newsworthy that they come across. It also proved that reporters might not always provide a complete account of incidents involving unexplained events and the government. That information gave additional credibility to Cronkite's story.

I waited a number of years before including Walter Cronkite's UFO encounter in my seminars and writing an article about it. And when I did reveal it, it was long after his retirement from CBS News. I did this out of respect for his position and willingness to share that kind of powerful information with me. I feel that Cronkite's account of what happened is very credible. He seemed to be telling me the truth, had no reason to lie and nothing to gain or lose by telling me the story. When we spoke, he was very interested in the Air Force cover-up. But I also got the impression that what we spoke about was for his own, not public consumption. He clearly knew the limitations of what could be included in the CBS project about UFOs and that didn't seem to be much.

In case you're wondering about the actual location of the test that Cronkite was covering during his UFO sighting, the reporters were brought there without being told exactly where it was. Secrecy regarding the location was a part of the conditions for being able to witness the test. As I stated in my article, I decided not to push the point or question him about it.

As far as the project goes, I have contacted CBS many times over the years. They have always insisted that no copies of the program have survived to the present. Regarding Cronkite's UFO encounter, I leave it up to you to accept or reject it, believe or disbelieve.

-Bill Knell

SECRETS KEPT : The Secret History and Government Cover-Up of the U.F.O. Phenomenon DVD

If you have not seen this DVD, it’s a MUST-SEE for anyone interested in Bill Knell and his UFO investigations. Bill takes you on a two-hour ride through his life, experiences as a UFO researcher and many of his most interesting and amazing cases. Bill Knell presents an amazing documentary with two hours of solid information. Discover how and why Bill became a UFO researcher. UFO sightings and enounters during World War II and Vietnam. Exclusive Majestic 12 document connections. UFO Sightings by Warren Beatty, Stuart Whitman and Walter Cronkite. A C130 takes off in 1966, encounters a UFO and lands in another place in 1982. Jackie Gleason views crashed UFO wreckage and bodies. UFO crash retievals. A brief history of the 1940's Philadelphia Experiment and a visit to the Montauk Project base where it continued. Proof that UFO technology has been used by the U.S. Government to accomplish time travel and create total invisibility. Much more... Over 100 UFO topics in two hours! Now available for just $9.99 at http://DVDs.UFOguy.com

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