by Tim Swartz
Atlantis Rising 61 (Jan-Feb 2007)
from
Serpo Website
“First let me introduce myself. I am
a retired employee of the U.S. government. I won’t go into any
great details about my past, but I was involved in a special
program.”
This was the opening statement sent by
an anonymous source in November, 2005, to a UFO email discussion
group, coordinated by former U.S. government employee Victor
Martinez. The emails revealed the existence of Project Serpo,
an alleged exchange program between the U.S. government and
extraterrestrials from Serpo, a planet in the Zeta Reticuli star
system.
The origins of the program supposedly started after two UFOs crashed
in Roswell and Corona, NM in 1947. The one surviving
extraterrestrial recovered from the Corona crash supposedly assisted
the U.S. military in establishing contact with the Ebens, his fellow
beings on Serpo. This communication eventually led to a 1965
exchange program, where 12 specially trained U.S. military personnel
went to Serpo aboard one of the Eben’s spacecraft as part of a
12-year mission to learn more about Serpo’s geology and biology, as
well as learning more about the Ebens.
During the mission, it was learned that Serpo is approximately 37
light years away from Earth, has two suns, is slightly smaller than
Earth, and has a similar atmosphere. However, the radiation levels
on Serpo were higher than on Earth, so the team had to keep their
bodies covered at all times. The Ebens had leaders but no real form
of government and they lived in small communities with one large
city which acted as the central point of the civilization. The total
population on the planet was around 650,000.
The 12-man team remained on Serpo until 1978, when seven men and one
woman returned to Earth. Two team members died on Serpo while two
others decided to remain behind. Upon returning to Earth, the team
was isolated until 1984 for debriefing. Of the eight who returned,
all have since passed away of illnesses caused by the excess
radiation from Serpo’s dual suns. Nothing is known about the four
who remained behind on Serpo.
These reports originated from a highly placed anonymous source that
reportedly had access to audio tapes of the debriefing of the
returning Project Serpo crew (the written form comprises the
3,000-page Project Serpo report, of which portions can be read
here).
It is a good story, a tale that seems to have a ring of truth to it,
and one that has been circulating among UFO researchers for more
than 20 years. But knowing what we do about past UFO hoaxes, can we
accept Project Serpo at face value?
An Old Story
Made New
Author and filmmaker Linda Moulton-Howe was first told about
an Earth/alien exchange program in 1983, when doing research for
UFOs: The ET Factor, a documentary for HBO. At the time, she was
approached by Air Force Sergeant Richard C. Doty who said
that he had been given approval to allow her to air secret Air Force
information and video footage in her documentary.
Some of this information he said involved an alleged exchange
program of humans who left Holloman Air Force Base in 1964, for Zeta
Reticuli. Howe was told that three humans went but one died
on the alien planet; one went insane (but there was no information
on his fate); and one returned to Earth and was then living in a
U.S. government safe house on an undisclosed island.
Doty promised to supply Howe with material that would
confirm the existence of an extraterrestrial race, including
official government and military documents, film, and photographs.
However, he continued to string Howe along until he finally told her
that his superiors had decided against releasing any further
information. Without Doty’s evidence, HBO gave up on the documentary
in 1984.
Since that time, Doty’s name has surfaced in connection with other
alleged UFO/government secrets, such as
the MJ-12 papers, so it is no
surprise to find out that Doty (now a civilian) is also connected
with the release of the Project Serpo story. And this fact alone
makes the story suspect.
Other UFO researchers over the years have also been told similar
stories about a secret exchange program between the U.S. and an
alien race, but the recent Serpo revelations contain more
information than has been released to date. As to why earlier
stories vary considerably on details (such as the number of team
members sent to Serpo), it has been suggested that
information has been deliberately leaked out in bits and pieces by
those on the inside who feel that such secrets should not be kept
from the public, and that errors were intentionally inserted in
order to disguise the identities of the whistleblowers.
There has been talk of the eventual release of photographs taken on
Serpo by the exchange team, but so far, nothing has emerged to lend
credence to this baffling story. Until the time when actual,
physical evidence about Project Serpo is released, this story
unfortunately has to be treated as just another unverifiable UFO
tale, albeit an intriguing one.
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