Ummo Letter 877

04/29/18 Letter Title: How I Took the Photos in San José de Valdéras Date: 08/26/1967 Author: Mr. Antonio Pardo Recipients: Mr. Marius Lleget August 26, 1967, Madrid Mr. Marius Lleget Barcelona Sir, I am writing to you regarding the wish you expressed in your book Myths and Realities of Flying Saucers. I purchased it upon its release because, for the past two months, I have been seeking information about this captivating enigma. I have decided to share with you what we observed on the evening of June 1st and to present the facts as they appeared to me personally without any exaggeration or distortion. What I will tell you may not be very useful, as I assume you have already gathered a considerable amount of similar testimonies since many Madrilenians witnessed the appearance of this flying vehicle, aircraft, or UFO at the same time as I did. The first part of this letter will probably not bring you anything particularly new; however, with the modest means at my disposal, I have sought to investigate a particular direction, and I have come to understand that certain information regarding the famous tubes might be lacking (unless, for certainly justified reasons, you have intentionally omitted to consider this aspect of the issue in your work). Moreover, I must confess my own confusion, hoping that you will understand me. The day after the event, I was naive enough to recount it to the people I work with at the office. Naturally, as I should have expected, I caused their hilarity and received some harsh remarks. I concluded that sometimes it is better to remain silent than to appear foolish. Then, I read your book, which greatly reassured me. However, at the same time, it made me realize the mistake I was making by formulating several hypotheses in an attempt to logically explain everything. In any case, I understand that people may be skeptical; I reacted like them until the day I witnessed the event, or rather, my wife, my eldest daughter, and I did. They can indeed confirm the authenticity of my account, which the attached photo aims to illustrate. The additional notes I am also sending you were gathered from other people; I have intentionally summarized them. At that time, we often went to San José de Valderas. This locality, located just a few kilometers from Madrid, is very close to the Extremadura road. My wife's sister lives there, and since I work in a company with flexible hours, we took advantage of the pleasant last days of May to drive there each evening. In the late afternoon, around five o'clock, we were going to settle for the evening in a quiet place, near the countryside, not far from a small pine grove planted behind the picturesque castle which is the only monument worthy of interest in the whole region. On June 1, we headed directly to this pine grove because my sister-in-law had gone to Madrid to do some shopping and my son, who usually accompanied us, could not come with us. As we usually do, we settled down quietly. My wife had brought her knitting and I lay on the grass, a few meters from the trees, to read the morning paper. Not far from us were several families and couples in love. A little before eight thirty (it was still daylight and we had the habit of going home for dinner with the whole family), my daughter who was chatting with her mother pointed out something flying over the castle. Unfortunately, we had not taken our binoculars; but the shapes of the craft were clearly visible from where we were. It was certainly not a plane. As we looked at it, it was swaying back and forth without moving an inch; after a few seconds, this swaying stopped and it remained completely still, its circular underside placed horizontally. Then it quickly veered to the right as if it was going to leave and began to sway gently again. We stood up to get a better view; before we realized it, our neighbors had done the same and most of them held their hands above their eyes, like visors, to shield themselves from the last rays of the sun, which was already beginning to set on the horizon. From where we were, the view was perfect and the sun did not bother us too much. Because of perspective, the object appeared oval in shape but there was no doubt that in reality it was round. Although later, after examining the photos, we changed our minds, my wife and I had the impression that it was a large cylinder with a disc passing through it at its midsection. As for my daughter, she did not see the disc and compared the object to a cheese box. Later, the photos revealed that my wife and I had not been seriously mistaken. I thought I saw, in the upper part, something shining as if it were silver or glass. Only one of the seven photos I have shows the top of the craft; however, even after enlarging the shot, it is not possible to get an exact idea on this particular point. Another witness claimed to have made the same observation as me but his statements are not conclusive. One can compare the behavior of this strange flying object to that of a helicopter; but nonetheless, it was certainly not a craft of this type. For many minutes, perhaps a dozen (but we did not count them because we were too surprised to think about it), it remained completely still, as if suspended over the San José castle. In the first two or three minutes, we were so captivated that I did not even think about taking pictures. Having turned my head briefly, I saw a man farther away pointing his camera at the sky and the idea came to me to do the same. Of the nine shots I took, two are bad. For the first one, for example, I acted so hastily that I forgot to remove the protective cover from the lens before pressing the shutter. The aircraft (or UFO, whatever the name) suddenly stopped swaying and oscillating, immobilized in a horizontal position and, suddenly, rose into the air at a dizzying speed. I was unable to take any photos of its ascent. I only remember that my wife, my daughter, and I watched the operation without moving, as if petrified. The diameter of the disc changed noticeably as it rose but I imagine this was just a perspective effect. At first, its apparent size seemed larger than that of a plane; as it climbed toward the sky, it gradually became smaller. Soon, we saw nothing but a circle the size of a coin, very bright and pale orange in color. Then it disappeared completely on the horizon in the direction of Madrid. I would now like to clarify a comment found on page 177 of your book. The flying object was orange in color and, when it was at low altitude, this coloration appeared more intense and less reddish. But we do not agree with the hypothesis you proposed, according to which this color would be caused by solar reflections. Indeed, the sun was indeed setting, the golden tones should have appeared only on the side of the spacecraft directly exposed to its rays. All witnesses of the phenomenon agree that the coloring and brightness were uniform around the object, just as if it had been lit by neon lighting. We are certain that if the event had occurred at night, we would have clearly distinguished the device due to the light emanating from it, because at the moment we saw it, it was still daytime, and the light contrast was perfectly evident. All the reports from other witnesses you have already contacted and are likely interviewing one by one can only confirm these indications. Furthermore, I must admit that we had serious discussions about the symbol that appeared on the underside. I am sending you two of the prints we took under quite rudimentary conditions. I still have seven similar negatives. These two are the clearest of the entire series; the others were overexposed because the diaphragm was too wide open. Later, I enlarged each of the negatives, exclusively highlighting the aircraft. But nothing particularly significant appears in the photos obtained, except for the strange mark drawn on the underside. The following day, on June 2nd, the evening editions of the newspapers announced the event. That very morning, I had another discussion with my office colleagues who, once again, did not spare me their sarcasm. At that moment, I decided no longer to risk being ridiculed. And to achieve this, I made no further comments to anyone about this matter. Despite the abundance and consistency of testimonies, some newspapers cynically claimed that we were 'visionaries'. You will surely understand, Mr. Lleget, that under certain circumstances and considering the various imperatives of social life, one may be forced to remain silent to avoid becoming the target of others' irony. That is why, as I already mentioned, I decided to conduct a small investigation on my own. My goal is easy to define: to isolate, among the pile of discordant versions, those that seem to present the most interest to me. On Saturday of the same week, I went to a neighborhood in Madrid where, according to press indications, the object had been sighted. It was in the Santa Monica sector, located near the Extremadura road. It is worth noting that the aircraft (or UFO) was observed not far from this highway, and San José de Valderas is also a few kilometers away. Several residents of Campamento and Santa Monica were able to follow the maneuvers of the craft from their balconies, and they witnessed an even more astonishing scene: all claim that it descended near a nearby secondary road leading to Boadilla del Monte. I was able to speak by phone with the owner or an employee of the La Ponderosa restaurant (Tel. 23.80.403) located on the edge of this road. My interlocutor provided me with a truly astounding account of the event and specified that several people had been traumatized seeing a gigantic circular craft descending from the sky. He indicated to me that the area where the witnesses saw the aircraft descend was between km 2 and km 3 on the road to Boadilla del Monte. At the location where the landing is said to have occurred, several signs bear the indication 'Property belonging to the National Domain'. The terrain slopes gently, and at the highest point, there is a structure without windows. The ground is covered with stones among which wild plants and herbs grow. According to what I was told at La Ponderosa, rectangular imprints left by the craft had been observed on the ground. But, in half an hour of searching, I was unable to find a single one. I was annoyed because, on the nearby road, two workers were observing my comings and goings. I approached them and asked questions. They told me they had not seen anything that night; they only knew that the day after the 'disc' appeared (this is how they referred to the object), the son of one of their neighbors had found several silver tubes while wandering in the countryside with some young friends. They also added that a resident of Santa Monica had discovered similar tubes while looking through the brush. I asked them kindly to take me to their neighbor. It was the wife of a mason named Antonio Martin Martin. Indeed, the child had picked up a tube which he showed me and of which I am sending you a photo. Unfortunately, it had been cut so clumsily that the entire upper part was missing. The young boy, who looked to be about twelve years old, indicated to me that men, as well as children he did not know, had found several others. He also told me that before mentioning his find to his father, he had cut the tube with pliers and that inside it, there was a 'liquid' which had evaporated immediately. Fortunately, he had not extracted the small roll that I could see inside. I had to almost beg the mother and tip the child for the small tube to be handed over to me. It is currently in my possession and contains a blade made of a material resembling plastic. In Santa Monica, there had been talk of such tubes (there must indeed be several, and you may already be aware). Some residents of this neighborhood had seen, from a distance, the craft descending towards the ground. According to what he told me, Mr. Manuel Rivero Ciudad, a dealer in colonial products (33 Sedano Street in Santa Monica, Tel. Madrid 23.81.732) witnessed the phenomenon while he was on the road to Boadilla, a few kilometers away. Mrs. Eugenia Alonso (4 Campo Florido Street, Santa Monica, Madrid) had observed the descent of the disc from her balcony where she was in the company of her daughter. But this very elderly lady could only tell me that she had been interviewed by many journalists and that she had seen something resembling a disk full of fire. On the road to Estremadure, an engineer, Mr. Ramirez, who was accompanied by his wife, suddenly stopped (and, behind him, all those following him) to look at the device that crossed the sky at a stunning speed. A curious detail provided by this witness must be noted: according to him, the craft was equipped with three antennas (or: bars) whose ends were adorned with square-shaped blades (this equipment does not appear in any of the photos I took). In the Campamento neighborhood, I had a conversation with two aviation officers. They knew nothing more about the event than what everyone was saying here and there. However, they claimed that the personnel of the radio location service (RADAR) knew that the airport authorities were conducting investigations.