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May 14, 2019 - The Unexplained - Howard Hughes
14:00
Stanton Friedman Tribute

A tribute to the father of modern Ufology, Stanton Friedman who has died aged 84.

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Hello again, it's Howard in London at the Home of the Unexplained.
You know, many times over the years that I've been doing this show, both on radio and online, and that's since 2004, I've sat here and tried to compose my thoughts in order to make tribute to somebody who's passed.
Last year, it was Art Bell.
Before that, it was people like Neil Armstrong and Sir Patrick Moore here.
We've done tributes to all of those people, and the words that I was able to assemble were never nearly enough to do justice to the remarkable people that I was talking about.
Well, on this occasion, if you haven't heard it, I have to pass to you the very sad news of the death of Stanton T. Friedman, the man they rightly called the father of modern ufology, a man who gave his life to this field of research, and a man who was a friend of mine and supporter of my show from its very beginning.
Over all of those years, I was able to phone him up in New Brunswick, Canada.
He would pick up the phone, and if he was able, he would come straight on air.
He would always help me, and he was always incisive, informative, and funny.
I will never forget his infectious laugh.
And he is going to be an enormous loss, not only as the father of modern ufology, but as somebody who supports the work of people like me, which he did.
And I feel this one particularly personally, as I'm sure you will if you ever heard him on my shows on radio or online.
Stanton T. Friedman held dual Canadian and American nationality.
And he was, we have to say, an incredible character in a world when the number of characters and the number of people willing to go out there and be themselves is diminishing, it seems to me, by the month.
And we are losing people who have the first-hand experience, the educational background, and the sheer courage to go out there and speak.
Before we hear from Stanton T. Friedman making his last appearance on my radio show during 2018 at the time of his retirement from touring and lecturing, I want to read you his biography, or part of it anyway.
Stanton T. Friedman, nuclear physicist and lecturer, received his BSc and MSc degrees in physics from the University of Chicago in 1955 and 56.
He was employed for 14 years as a nuclear physicist by companies like GE, GM, Westinghouse, Aerojet General Nucleonics and McDonnell Douglas, working in such highly advanced, classified, eventually cancelled programs as nuclear aircraft, fusion, fission, and various compact nuclear power plants for space and terrestrial applications.
Stanton became interested in UFOs in 1958, and since 1967, he's lectured about them at more than 600 colleges and 100 professional groups in 50 U.S. states, 10 Canadian provinces, and 18 other countries in addition to various nuclear consulting efforts.
And I'll just read on at the end here.
He's provided written testimony to congressional hearings, appeared twice at the United Nations, and been a pioneer in many, many aspects of ufology, perhaps most notably Roswell.
But there have been many of them.
Stanton T. Friedman is one of the originals, one of the characters, a man who will leave an enormous footprint, and a man who it will be impossible for anyone to follow.
But we will remember forever his legacy.
I will forever remember his infectious laugh and his contributions to the work that I've been doing.
So here I present to you from 2018 as a tribute to Stanton T. Friedman, his last appearance on my radio show.
And I think the qualities that I've just alluded to, you will hear here on that night in full measure.
Thank you.
Well, hey, aren't I entitled to have so my own life?
I've been doing this for 51 years.
I gave my first lecture, and I'm tired of running around.
My wife wishes I was home more.
Isn't that nice?
And it's my mind isn't as sharp as it once was.
Now, I shouldn't say that publicly, but I am saying it publicly.
So, you know, those of you who are in your 80s probably understand what I'm saying.
Not quite as sharp.
And, you know, after the first 700 lectures, it's not that I have something new to say all the time, because I don't.
And I am not in the mood for writing another book.
There are six out there already.
If they suddenly all sold out, then maybe I'd consider it.
Well, we realize that, you know, there comes a time in a person's life where they have to make some decisions about what they're doing and how they're doing it.
But you know, Stan, that in this field, you are the most credible spokesperson for these things.
You are the man who first investigated Roswell.
And on the event circuit, the lecture circuit, you are absolutely loved.
So, you know, the absence of Stanton Friedman from a lot of big events is going to hurt.
Well, I'm sorry about that, but enough is enough.
Don't you think 51 years is enough?
So where do you, you know, now that you're moving away from doing that, it's a good point, isn't it, to stand back and take an overview of where ufology, as we now call it, and you were one of the people who got that term into use over the years.
Where does ufology stand now?
You said that you've got nothing new to say on the lectures.
You've said it all before, but it's always a powerful case that you put.
Is it true that actually there is nothing new to say?
Well, you know, once you've said there are alien visitors, the evidence is overwhelming.
There's no question we're dealing with the cosmic watergate.
It's time people got in to see if they can dig at it from another direction.
I think not enough people have paid attention to all that has been done and published.
The media sort of ignore it in general, except I must admit that from mid-December on, there was a whole new ball game with Elizondo and those people.
And suddenly we found out that they were studying UFOs for, what, five, seven years, I think it was, in secret.
Big surprise, huh?
And do you think that this is going to lead to...
Well, the U.S. government spent $22 million on this program.
We're told it ran for five years, but probably ran for more.
And probably there was another program before that, and there's one after it.
Do you think, though, that it is likely that we are going to get closer to disclosure now in this year?
Because disclosure is almost like we have a saying in the UK, sure you got it in Canada too.
It's always jam tomorrow.
It's always going to happen in the future.
We're getting very close to it.
It never happens.
I haven't heard that.
Yeah, I think something's going on.
You have to ask, why did all this happen at the end of December there?
Big article in the New York Times of all places.
Whoever heard of the New York Times writing a serious, sensible article with Leslie Keane as one of the authors.
She's an excellent researcher.
And having people who had fancy job titles, you know, assistant director of this and that sort of thing, somebody must have said, okay, or maybe people decide enough is enough and we're going to decide for ourselves.
And heck with the somebody out there who's running the show.
But there was one thing conspicuous by its absence in this big noise in the last couple of months, and that is Operation Majestic 12.
What we didn't hear was, where did all this stuff go?
You know, there were all these people doing this research, so where did it go?
And I think it went into Majestic 12.
Some people say you're full of baloney, but I don't know if they use that expression in English.
But I think it's time that the real covered-up organization was brought forth.
And I think we can handle it.
Remember that there's been some tremendous development in a whole different direction, and that is we now know that there are planets all over the darn place, about 1.6 planets per star.
That implies in the billions in our galaxy alone, billions, not millions, not thousands, billions.
Secondly, we know, or at least most of us know who've taken the trouble to look at it, that interstellar travel is not the terrible obstacle that we'd like to think it was.
All new developments have been faced with it can't be, it's impossible.
If it were true, I would know about it, other kind of silliness.
So we're getting close to the point where people say, oh, big deal, of course there are flying saucers.
And nobody's going to panic.
Nobody's going to do all kinds of terrible things.
And, you know, by this time, if there's stuff to learn from the recovery of crash saucers, it's been learned.
What's another crash?
I mean, what's another saucer in captivity, so to speak?
We don't know what it all means.
We don't know what governments have said to each other.
I mean, let's face it, everybody's watching the sky because they're worried about invasions.
And now we can tell the difference, I think, between alien and earthling.
So isn't it time that we stood up, the government stood up with guts, with courage, and said, okay, here's the way it is, folks.
Now, I think we'd want them to add, okay, here are the number of Sashas that have crashed and we've recovered.
Here are the number of pilots who have died chasing them.
You know, other little trivial details like that.
So there's information we haven't received.
After all, we have great detection equipment all over the planet.
Things flying by, things coming in from outer space, things going up and back and forth.
I've never asked you this.
Do you believe that we are firing?
I'm talking about the American Air Force, maybe the Brits, maybe others.
We are firing on craft from somewhere else?
There are many, many reports that we actually have regarded them as hostile.
Well, you know, anybody who violates our airspace is by definition hostile, isn't it true?
I mean, that's what air defense programs are about all over the planet.
That doesn't mean we know what their intent is.
It means we don't like them being there without our permission.
Hey, you guys, stay the heck where you belong.
You know, that's a military attitude, isn't it?
Why do you have perimeter defenses if you don't want to say stay the heck away?
So now the question is, is the planet ready to step forward and say, okay, public, we know that they're visiting.
We don't know what all they want.
They haven't displayed direct nastiness.
It's time we told you that man is not alone.
And there'll be some religious people that get upset by that.
There's no question about that.
But there always would be.
Nothing you're going to do is going to please everybody.
Last question for you tonight, Stanton.
I know you're coming on this show soon to talk in more detail.
But, you know, on this occasion where it's a bit of a mile marker for you, a milestone in your career where you've decided to stop one major part of your work.
Are you frustrated that you have reached this milestone where you're giving up the lecture circuit effectively and we haven't had disclosure?
Is that a disappointment to you?
No, I really wasn't expecting.
I was hoping, you know, one runs optimistic about all the things you want to happen will happen, but I didn't honestly expect it.
I've seen no signs that the government, whatever that's supposed to mean in different countries, is prepared to make us aware of being earthlings.
And that's where the next step has to be.
It's not just that they're alien visitors, big deal.
The question is, what are we going to do about it?
And how do we feel about it?
And how does it impact our view of ourselves and where we go from here?
One thing I'd like to see, I'm told that the military today is spending a trillion dollars on this planet for what?
To give jobs to guys in the military?
I mean, that's not a good excuse as far as I'm concerned.
So I think if they think there's really a good reason for all that defensiveness, that they ought to tell us about it.
And, Stan, if in a year from now, some big conference in Las Vegas, maybe or somewhere else, Los Angeles, you know, waved some money at you and said, come on, Stanton, you need to come out of retirement for our event.
Will you do it?
Or is this it?
Well, I can't say.
It depends on my health.
It depends what I wind up doing.
I mean, 84, I'll be 84 in July.
Then it's not exactly the time to start a re-evaluation, a redoing of old things.
Thank you very much.
We'll talk again.
I wanted to get you on in person talking about this.
But, you know, I wish you all the very best for the future, and I know that we'll continue to talk here, but we won't see you on the lecture circuit quite so often.
Have a good afternoon.
Thank you.
Take care.
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