This year during the Roswell festival, I was privileged to have dinner with James Clarkson and his wife Joanne. I found them charming and intelligent, and with a lot to say about the state of UFO research. Clarkson recently quit his post as Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) State Director for Washington. In this interview, we discussed what caused this break, and what might be done to reform the organization, if that is even possible at this point.
Clarkson believes that the board of directors is no longer dedicated to the “scientific study of UFOs of the benefit of mankind,” and has changed into primarily a moneymaking operation. He also recounted years of neglect of members who gave much time, effort and money to the cause, only to be ignored and unrecognized. Here is their 2015 tax filing referred to during the program. Clarkson also took the time to describe a completely crazy case that he was assigned to follow up due to bad filtering from headquarters, and a surreal visit to the JZ Knight/ Ramtha compound. Knight is part of the MUFON “Inner Circle” and may be its most generous supporter.
Clarkson also talked about his look to the future with a newer, smaller organization which he says will be based on the idea of “UFO investigation with integrity, discretion, and sensitivity.” We also took time to speak on his research into the amazing story of June Crain, who worked at Wright Patterson Air Force Base during the Roswell incident.
Photo: Sitting next to Clarkson at the 2009 UFO Crash Retrieval Conference (lower center.)
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