Charlie Red Star

[Jtucker]

I purchased this 2017 book last week not expecting much, as most of our local books on the "unexplained" are usually superficial glosses.

Not this one!

The author quit university in his 20's when this "Charlie Red Star" UFO flap in southern Manitoba happened during 1975-76. He investigated it full-time for eighteen months. The book reads much like John Keel's "Mothman Prophecies", and in my opinion, the "on the ground" research is even better. It's coherently and professionally written.

The degree of High Strangeness of Mothman Chronicles isn't evident, but the constant UFO encounters are almost a daily occurrence in and around Carman, Manitoba from April 1975 until November 1976.

The author was an eyewitness for dozens of sightings and became close with many of the locals involved (Carman was about 2200 people in those days). The shared experiences kept many of them together for decades despite taking very different paths in life.

Some interesting points of note featured in this book:

- Charlie Red Star had hundreds of sightings by local residents and even followed the same flight path dozens of nights in a row slowly bobbing at a low altitude and traveling at about 70 miles an hour.

- Charlie appeared to swell and shrink (pulsing like a heartbeat). Generally he was usually reported as a 20 x 50 foot foot disc tilted on a 45 degree angle whose bright, red glow obscured the true shape of the object.

- A professional photographer, Tannis Major, chased down Charlie for months and came to the conclusion that "he" could read her thoughts and seemed able to blink off as soon as she raised a camera on him. Eventually she figured out that if she placed a piece of glass between her camera and Charlie, he couldn't "read" her. She endedup getting some spectacular photos. (See one of them below).



- In a rare case where a TV crew sets out to film a UFO - they actually caught one. CKY-TV from Winnipeg followed Charlie for hours and captured clear 16mm night footage. Upon developing it at the lab, the cameraman finds that the sequence of the events shot are completely reversed after development. The footage shot at 1130Pm is last and the footage shot at 130am is at the head of the roll. This was straight from the lab, before the film was ever cut - which is physically impossible. When the 50 feet of raw footage gets sent to the TV station editing department, the reporter comes back the next morning to find that all but 8 seconds has been thrown out and no one in the editing room can remember where it was thrown out. In the reporter's words, "I still can't believe how they (the TV station editors) were that collectively stupid. Unless it was something else." "There were a lot of strange things about this film... It just goes on and on..."

- The 8 seconds that remained were seen by Allen Hynek who commented that it was the best nocturnal UFO footage he'd ever seen. Hynek was supposed to make an official report on it, but never responded to the author nor the reporter from CKY, nor the National Enquirer (who covered Charlie a number of times).

- Apollo 15 Astronaut James Irwin visits Carman a few years later (apparently on a speaking tour) and meets with the main Charlie expert witness who restores vintage WWII planes at the Carman Airport (also Irwin's hobby). Irwin reveals to him that his Apollo crew were met by silver disks landing on the moon at close range and were told by Houston to ignore them.

- Charlie's appearance regularly changed. He wasn't just a slow, pulsing red 50 x 20 ft disk, but could split apart into smaller objects, bilocate, shrink, as well as pop a strobe light and fly into the sky at hypersonic speeds. There were also "Little Charlie's" that sat in fields and ditches which were regularly seen and reported. The author tracked down a former federal aeronautics official involved in the UFO listening stations from the 1950's in Canada. Without prompting, the official refers to the ground lights or "Little Charlie's" as "monitors" from an unknown source. He had been plagued by them for years while the listening stations were in operation.

- On occasion giant Ferris wheel UFO's and large triangle craft were also reported - which were unusual in the 70's UFO sightings.

- Charlie seemed to hover close to the large CBC microwave towers in Carman and Starbuck regularly. He followed the telephone and hydro lines in South to North patterns. Power lines were regularly reported as glowing, crackling and trigger power outages in cars and homes frequent. The author reported getting "sunburnt" on two years later in 1977).

- Charlie's flight paths were very predictable and hundreds of people would wait in a small number of locations near Carman to see him between 11PM and 3AM almost every night during the summer of 1975.

- The Mc Cann family just south of Carman had so many encounters of such intensity and frequency that their neighbours started to shun them. The height of Charlie and his Friends harassment of the Mc Cann's ended up with 32 of their 200 horses vanishing without a trace and never being seen again. This was one of the triangle craft reports made by the Mc Cann's the day before. An official RCMP report exists. No fence breaches or vehicle tracks. No horse bodies located. All the horses were registered and a number of them had names.

- The local RCMP were seen on numerous occasions chasing Charlie, but always denied it when asked. The Mounties also seemed to know when someone was viewing or trying to film Charlie - no matter how remote they were out on a rural road. There were only 4 cops in the whole town at that time.

- Despite the meticulous research, confirmation with government agencies about the quality of the evidence, and due diligence by the author, no one would publish his manuscript for 37 years.

Some personal notes:

I think there's a lot going on in this UFO flap.

The "mass sightings" like clockwork by hundreds of reliable witnesses over 18 months is quite spectacular and rivals the Mothman events in West Virginia, minus the tragedy of the Silver Bridge collapse. There's a lot of scares, but no real menacing horror like Mothman and Indrid Cold.

I might add that Carman itself is unique in Manitoba. We have a lot of Mennonite, Hutterite, Orthodox and Catholic rural communities that are very "churchy" as we say here, in the same area. Carman is very churchy - but all the churches are non-denominational (only town in Manitoba like that). To this day it's an unusual mix of people that are Evangelical, Episcopalian and Pentacostals. No other town in Manitoba is like that. There's zero crime and it's quite well-off by our standards. Everyone we know from there are very intelligent, entrepreneurial and pleasant. To quote my mom, she's always found Carman to be "very lovely". I don't know if that makes any difference in this story, but I thought it was something worth mentioning.

Maybe Charlie's lack of malevolence had something to do with who he was interacting with.

What's also strange about the Charlie story, is that it has all the elements of a great local tale (that Manitoban's love), yet it's completely ignored or forgotten - despite incredible documentation and evidence.

What bugs me the most is how I missed the magnitude of this event. I've been pretty diligent digging into Manitoba High Strangeness over the past ten years, and Charlie Red Star was always in the back of my mind, but it was somehow "suppressed"?

I was in Grade 2 and 3 when this was going on and remember hearing about it. As kids were heavily into the mid-70's UFO's, Bigfoot, Nessie world. We had cable TV from the U.S.! We were the first generation to see something more than curling and hockey on TV.

Charlie was a really famous local event, But over the years the Stan Michalak Falcon Lake encounter seemed to grow into The Manitoba Close Encounter while Charlie Red Star faded away into obscurity.

For my part, I seemed to remember the whole Charlie Red Star completely different than what was written in the book. To me Charlie was a red ball that didn't move and showed up over the Carman TV tower over a few weekends. Some hippies from Winnipeg drive out to smoke weed and zoom out. CKY got footage but it wasn't great (I remember seeing it and not being impressed at all).

Other than that it was a "boring" Marfa Lights type of thing. That assumption couldn't have been further from the truth. When this book came out in 2017, I even went to our local book store to buy it, but couldn't locate the section it was in (which is also strange as I have been visiting that book store since it opened in the late '90's). I meant to go back the next week, but then completely forgot about it for 7 years - until I saw the author post the death notice of one of the key witnesses on X (I had no memeory of following the author or his name).

I had to force myself to go look for it again last week at the same book store on the way home from work for some reason. It's very unusual for me to feel this type of inner resistance buying a 20.00 book on UFO's...

 

[Alejo]

wow,

thanks for sharing, I had no notion of this series of events. It does sound like a classical UFO flap, with some high strangeness thrown in for good measure.

I will be adding this book to my list!

thank you for sharing your impressions on it as well.

 

[Laurentien2]

Thank to bring this up, probably the biggest flap in the Canadian history of which I have heard nothing before.

I just started reading the book and was curious to see the film that a crew from CKY-TV had shot of it. Here I think that I fund it in a cbc report on UFO from 1983. Movie and picture in the first 2 min. of the report.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ufo-sightings-in-manitoba-date-back-to-1792-1.3154855

 

[loreta]

Super fascinating. Thanks for the information and the contre-rendu! I like this kind of stories, will try to read the book, put it on the column of all the books I want to read. But maybe I will read it before the others, no matter if the books on the list will be mad and angry with me.

 

[Stoneboss]

Fascinating indeed! I was born and raised in Winnipeg which is about 40 miles from Carman, and I would have been around 16 years old at the time, yet I've never heard about Charlie Red Star. The book is on my "must read" list and will get to it soon. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Voyageur]

Here I think that I fund it in a cbc report on UFO from 1983. Movie and picture in the first 2 min. of the report.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ufo-sightings-in-manitoba-date-back-to-1792-1.3154855

UFO sightings in Manitoba date back to 1792​

Wow, very interesting @Jtucker. Thanks, and @Laurentien2 as well.

So many parts of Canada have had high strangeness events; Nova Scotia, right across the lands. There are peeps near me in BC, who in the late 70's had had first hand observations of cattle mutilations. The RCMP were there with the cattle covered over with white sheets. No one talks about it, not even in the local press archives, however these fellows were not the inventing types.

 

[Jtucker]

I found an article on Medium by Ken Korczak that may be related to Charlie Red Star.

Alien Probe Collided with Minnesota Deputy’s Squad Car in 1979

Although this isn't directly related to the Red Star flap, the author had relatives in northern Minnesota who claimed they had seen Charlie a number of times in 1975. Charlie did always appear from the south before heading into the Pembina Valley and Carman.

The Val Johnson case took place about 200km SSE of Carman.

Johnson reported that while he was on patrol near Warren, Minnesota about 2 AM on August 27, 1979, he saw a beam of light just above the road. According to Johnson, the beam sped towards him, his squad car was engulfed in light, and he heard glass breaking. Johnson said he was unconscious for 39 minutes and when he awoke he realized his wristwatch and the vehicle's clock had stopped for 14 minutes.

The windshield was shattered, a headlight and red emergency light was damaged and a thin radio aerial bent. Deputies responding to Johnson's call for help found the squad car sideways on the road. Johnson suffered bruises and eye irritation that a physician compared to "welder's burns". When the story received national publicity, Johnson told reporters the sudden attention had caused him and his family a great deal of emotional strain. On September 11, 1979, Johnson appeared as a guest on ABC's Good Morning America program.[3]

His damaged car is still on display at the local museum.


A large backlash occurred and many thought Val had damaged his own car for attention.

Either way his life was disrupted and him and his family had to move due to the ridicule. The consensus was that it was hoax.

Years later the author Ken Korczak tracked down two other witnesses who had almost the exact experience in South Dakota and Minnesota at the same time and ended up interviewing them. Their accounts seemed to validate Johnson's assertions. Korczak goes even further and employs a remote viewer, Buddy Bolton, to target this object from 1979 in a viewing session.

Obviously, we have to take any remote viewing with a grain of salt, but I found some of Bolton's impressions very interesting. Some of these may even be applicable to Charlie Red Star taking into account the close geographical and time line of the occurrences. The descriptions of the 1979 object(s) were similar in some ways to Charlie Red Star.

Description of the Object from the RV'er:

This object is a probe. It is circular, has crisscross lines all over it — and has a squarish aspect — but it’s really a circle.
It’s definitely not “black ops.”
It is covered with the material — It’s a metal that is like a glassy alloy, like a charcoal-silver.
The surface material is a classic kind of nanomaterial that enables a computational ability to spread across its surface. Other computational processes are spread across layers inside.
There is an enormous load of fantastically high-end technology crammed into these objects.
Sometimes this object has a little blinking light on it.

One of them was having a few technical difficulties.
There is a catalyst liquid contained within a small chamber inside. It’s insanely efficient! Makes no noise, no sound — absolutely nothing is wasted. No ancillary energy wastes.
The object is non-organic.
Even though it is not a biological organism, it has the quality of being sentient because of the extreme sophistication of its AI-like computational ability.

ORIGIN OF THE OBJECT:

The original creator of the object is a super-intelligent race that has long since evolved to a post-biological stage.
The original designer of the object can be described as a “post-biological super-intelligence.”
The object in question is at least 100,000 years old, but not older than that. The objects on earth were most likely replicated on Mars. Before that, they came from a distant origin outside our solar system.

It has main hubs which look like giant green cubes — but they can change into several different geometric shapes. They’re exceptionally large — like a quarter of a mile — and if you destroyed all of them except for one this race would still be alive. They have many backup hubs.

Just one probe originally entered our solar system. All others are replicated from that first probe. There seems to be at least 30 of them distributed on Earth at the time.

This object can serve as an avatar for another entity located elsewhere. But it can also be fully independent and “think for itself.”

FUNCTION/PURPOSE OF THE OBJECT:

It has a multitude of missions — but when the first subject was encountered in 1979, the object was conducting surveillance of a nearby U.S. military base and nuclear ICBM silos located near to this location.

(Note: The nuclear weapons would have been about 40 miles to the west of the Johnson and Shoemaker encounters. The Grand Forks Air Force Base’s 321st strategic missile wing commanded 150 Minuteman III missiles in eastern North Dakota that were still in place in 1979. They were deactivated and removed from this area in 1998).

The object can disperse engineering nanobots that can get inside the electronic circuits within the interior of nuclear missiles.

The reason this object took aggressive action against (Val Johnson's car) was that he came upon it while it was “glitched out” — it was repairing technical difficulties and possibly felt threatened by the fast approach of Johnson’s police cruiser.
(Note: Johnson approached the object at about 65 mph).

This is some pretty wild stuff, and who knows how accurate it may be. But like the Charlie Red Star author, Korczak and the RV'er Buddy Bolton all suspect that the ICBM nuclear bases in North Dakota paly a role. America's involvement in the Viet Nam war ended right before the Charlie Red Star flap started. Grant Cameron speculates that there were some in the U.S. military that were pushing for a nuclear option against the communist victory. If this was the case, then non-human intelligences would be interested in monitoring the large bases in 1975.

Korczak points out that the massive 1979 flood in the Red River Valley threatened the Grand Forks ND base and could have caused sever environmental damages and or malfunctions if the silos had become flooded. This threat was legitimate and the subsequent red River flood of 1997 which destroyed Grand Forks showed that.

Although, the nuclear monitoring theory seems like it plays a role and is a viable premise, I think something more is at play here - at least when it comes to Charlie. First, the Mc Cann's horses being abducted doesn't sound like any object monitoring a nuclear base. Also, the sheer volume of Charlie sightings and the clock work of them sounds like human monitoring - not base monitoring.

If there was an environmental aspect of contamination for the bases, this makes sense for the Red River Valley, but not the Pembina Valley (where all the Red Star activity was). The Pembina spillway and the Pembina River run into the Red River, so they are upstream and not an issue.

It's a different thread, but I think it's possible that areas that experienced catastrophic flood events at the Younger Dryas or shortly after (like the Pembina valley spillway), might be window areas.

One thing that kept popping up in my head was how close in time the Red Star events in 1975 were in time to this thread:

What Happened in 1972?

 

[tschai]

Thank to bring this up, probably the biggest flap in the Canadian history of which I have heard nothing before.

I just started reading the book and was curious to see the film that a crew from CKY-TV had shot of it. Here I think that I fund it in a cbc report on UFO from 1983. Movie and picture in the first 2 min. of the report.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ufo-sightings-in-manitoba-date-back-to-1792-1.3154855

Great video- had not seen this before. Thanks for sharing this. I had not heard of this occurrence before either, great addition to the lore.

 

[Laurentien2]

The author quit university in his 20's when this "Charlie Red Star" UFO flap in southern Manitoba happened during 1975-76. He investigated it full-time for eighteen months. The book reads much like John Keel's "Mothman Prophecies", and in my opinion, the "on the ground" research is even better. It's coherently and professionally written.

Thanks again Jtucker for bringing this book to our attention. As you said, the ‘’on the ground’’ research is even better than John Keel’s books. I think that it is caused by the quantity and the qualities of the observation on a long period of time as well as in some case, the knowledge and skill of the observer. One particular witness was Antony Britain, a pilot and plane restaurateur from Carman. His observation gave me much help all along the book to understand what was happening in Southern Manitoba in 1975-76. Here I will share my thought that may or may not explain what was behind the largest UFO flap in Canadian history and maybe the world. Manitoba was called at the time, the UFO capital of the world, but no worthy explanation was ever given as the cause of that Big Flap. Only at the end of the book did the author ask Antony Britain (who as observed Charlie or Other UFO 150 times) what was his thought about the cause of the flap. HIs answer was, the missiles. At the time, we were at the peak of the cold war and nuclear weapons were being installed all along the Canadian border in the U.S. in North Dakota, just south of Manitoba as many silo base as well as many NORAD, surveillance, radar and air force base. All ready in one instant to send missiles or interceptor jets in case of a Soviet attack. It could well be the best and most logical explanation but, after reading the book, not the only one that came to my mind. Here I will share my thought as to what I think may have happen. It will be very controversial to say the least but if I can share them with anyone, it is here in the forum that they may be most comprehended and accepted.

So, let me jump in and I hope you will enjoy the ride.

Like the author, I couldn’t understand the behavior or our hyper-dimensional neighbor. Usually they will try to keep a low profile; they will come in, do their deed and get out. They will send either a team on the ground or projecting man in black to clean up if they messed up. Rarely did a big flap happen; they were mostly isolated activity to limit, I think, the danger of being discovered and the reason behind their visit. UFO lore was entirely controlled and kept behind a veil of secrecy and ridicule. As the author, I couldn’t recognize and understand this sudden change of behavior, it made no sense but, it all changed after a few chapters.

Suddenly, I recognized the behavior that Charlie projected and it wasn’t alien at all but absolutely human. I had seen this behavior before because I was trained the same way in the late 1980. In those years, I passed my private and commercial flying licence, terrestrial and maritime. (Land and water take-off and landing). What became quite obvious after several chapters was that whoever was behind the wheel, flying Charlie was following the same training that I once had to go through. During that training you would have to repeat emergency techniques time and time again and it will follow you during your entire career. Whatever plane you come to fly, you will need to be familiar and practice either in real time or in simulator emergency situations as, emergency landing caused by loss of power, navigating at low altitude cause by sudden changes in weather, loss of navigating instruments and many other situations. These situations, if you are familiar with flying, if you are a train pilot, you will recognize in Charlie behavior as describe by the many witnesses.

It is mostly because of one witness, Antony Britain, a pilot who at the very beginning described what became known as the ‘’beer run’’. Charlie was following a flight plan and not a flight path as Jtucker misquoted. There is a difference for a pilot.

Here are both definition;

Flight path: the actual or planned course of an aircraft or spacecraft.

Flight plan: a written account of the details of a particular proposed flight.



What is interesting is that A. Britain recognized at the beginning that Charlie was following the same flight plan night after night. Quite bizarre behavior if you ask me for hyper-dimensional being but absolutely human especially in approach to a training ground. At the beginning a single Charlie was observed. Later during the flap, witnesses will see on the same night 1,2 or more craft following the first at interval all on the same flight path following the same flight plan. Knowing their flight plan permitted M. Britain to move from is observation post to position intercepting Charlie path and observe him from a closer point of view on their way back due south toward the US border. This count for is often close observation and a valuable information, corroborated by many witness, about Charlie characteristic during flight at low altitude and low ground speed. Those flight characteristic, were unique to Charlie so later when other craft were spotted, they were not call Charlie but called by their own characteristic like triangle or Ferris wheel. Also, as the Flap continued Charlie was observed in other configuration. More advance flight characteristic was observed like flying in formation. Again, it shows a human behavior. As the pilot grow in experience more difficult flight characteristic were integrated. Only military plane or authorised acrobatic pilot can fly in close formation. Whoever were behind the control of Charlie, be it as a pilot behind the wheel or from a remote position gave a kind of signature if you want my opinion, they were military.



As I said before, there was other craft observed during the flap that didn’t fly with the same flying characteristic as Charlie. Charlie was flying with an angle, between 20 to 45 degree depending on it elevation and speed and perceived as a glowing ball, or glowing saucer or bell shaped one. It flew bottom first as opposed to triangle and Ferris wheel that were flying straight, horizontally. I can confirm that triangle fly level, no angle, as I and my wife and daughter witnessed one on June 24 2010, if I remember correctly. I posted our sighting on the forum immediately after. These different ship show different technologies and as we know triangle are according to the C’s most often flew by lizard. These new craft appeared later during the flap. As well, big foot sighting came at the same moment as the triangle as well as what the Author call ’’ little Charlie’’. Not to spoil too much about the book, all I will say about them is that they were little probe perceived as ball of light use to collect information. (One of the best chapter of the book)



Apart from a sighting of a pair of big foot on a Canadian military base close to Carman and the ball of light call little Charlie observed in the vicinity and around of Carman, no other criptids or paranormal activity were reported in the book. No men in black reported. Some witnesses got the visit by man in uniform and maybe some government agent but nothing that you wouldn’t expect during a UFO flap. That sound bizarre don’t you think. UFO observed practically nonstop for 180 days and no window faller, no Mothman or ghost reported!!! As we learned from the C’s, hyper-dimension travelling open up window and sometime conscious energy being cross at the same time so, why was not a single little window faller reported. My answer is because Charlie wasn’t crossing any boundaries between realm, only the boundary between the U.S. and Canada. At the time 1975, Charlie technology could best be explained by the common normal person as a UFO, it was after all un-identifiable. Charlie, his characteristic, became officially know as a UFO and this was probably another reason for the big flap.



Strangely, there was never any military jet from the many bases in Canada and the U.S., close to Carman, sent during the entire Flap. Remember, there was thousands of intercontinental missile just south of the border and no interceptor plane belonging to NORAD in Minot air force N. Dakota, not far from Carman, or Canadian Air force planes based in Winnipeg was send during the biggest flap in maybe human history. When questioned, NORAD representative respond was that no radar from either country has picked any signature so intervention wasn’t judge necessary. What a bullshit filled answer, I say. In the book many witnesses report that animal on the farm detected the craft when they were close even before the craft being seen. A professional photographer living in Carman event trained her dog to detect UFO. Don’t tell me that your brand new NORAD base in N. Dakota, the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard complex, build for 6 billions dollars, at the time a fortune, with that huge radar called the Nixon Pyramid couldn’t pick anything but, a cow, horse, duck or dog worth at the time a few dollars could. (worth taking a look at that pyramid radar) No, they didn’t send any interceptor because they knew exactly what was going on in southern Manitoba, Charlie was a friendly.



Here is wiki info of the radar base. Note that it is just south west of the border and that Charlie always approached Carman from the South west.

Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex — Wikipédia

fr.wikipedia.org

The information during the flap was of course controlled. Witnesses were ridiculized and that prevented a lot of witness to come forward. A family that talked to the press, a tv station, as 35 horses disappeared on their farm. Two RCMP officers who witnessed a beer run by Charlie an reported it, were transferred in a northern Manitoba remote area. Like being send to Siberia. Another RCMP officer, again a witness, no wanting to be transferred in the far north, changed his mind about a report that he was about to give. When asked why he changed his mind his answer was quite surprising. He said, I have been told that the flap was related to NORAD EXERCISE. It was a planed exercise by NORAD, what were they trying to do apart from what I think was training pilots for the new space force.

Again Antony Britain observation gave me a hunch. Sometime during the flap, he got a demand from reporter from the CBC if I remember, asking him if he can take them along during a night of observation. They wanted to film Charlie and knowing that M. Britain was since the beginning deeply involved in Charlie observation, they thought that he was their best chance to get pictures. He accepted to bring them along and got them in a very good and close position to take picture and film of Charlie. To is amazement and angering him, 2 of the 3 reporters didn’t point their camera toward Charlie but instead were taking picture of him and a friend that was accompanying him. WOW!!! They were more interested by his and his friend reaction. This show to me that Charlie‘s flap had much deeper objective than testing or forming new pilots. Remember, we were at the time in the cold war and a race for new and more powerful weapon was for both side the main objectives. Hiding that weapon from your adversary was primordial but you needed to operate them and see their full potential. How can you hide craft whose characteristic and technologies render nuclear missile absolutely obsolete? With craft like Charlie whose speed was calculated in the book to be something like 130,000 mph, the U.S. military can destroy at the first detection of a missile lunch from Russia all there missile over the Russian territory. No wonder that there brand new NORAD base in N. Dakota the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard complex that opened in the spring of 1975, at the same time that the flap begun, was close in February 1976. 6 billion dollars wasted. There are thing that never change won’t you agree or so it seem to me but one more piece of the puzzle was given in the last chapter of the book. A 9 years old UFO abductee , told the author about a sighting that she add with 2 friend when playing close to the fence of a missile silo complex in N. Dakota. She saw a UFO like object rise from a silo on the site. It was of small diameter but still really make you wonder what the hell is in those silos.

Conclusion:

I see 2 main reasons behind the flap. The first quit obvious for me is flight training of new pilots. The second was to use the mystery surrounding UFO sighting to hide in plain sight an advance human technology. Whoever build that craft (Charlie) needed to operate it but at the same time, needed to conceal their identity. The whole flap was in a sense a test to evaluate human perception of the phenomenon. How would the population react, what will be there interpretation of flying balls of light be. Antony Britain was a train pilot and it never crossed his mind at the time that what he was witnessing was human behavior. If instead of light ball he had witnessed plane doing the same manoeuvre, he would have know and recognize right away that they were pilot in training. But alas, M. Britain didn’t have 50 years ago the knowledge that was gathered since. Didn’t know that the U.S. government add alien ship in its possession for a very long time and were reverse engineering them. Didn’t have the knowledge that the C’s share with us for the last 30 years. He react the same as those in his community who witnesses Charlie flying above them for 180 days and come to a same conclusion which is the technology behind Charlie was too far in advance to be of human construct. Charlie was officially named a UFO creating at that moment, the all intended screen of secrecy. Whoever was behind Charlie (PTB, MIC, CONSORTIUM) succeeded in hiding their technology in plain sight, free to use it anytime they want for whatever reason. They could use the best offensive and defensive weapon system in the world in front of the whole population and no one will point a finger at them. It is the Martian or the Lizard or grey and lately, it must be the Russia, Putin or the Chinese.

We have been play, walked along the prime rose path all along but thank to whistle blower like David Grusch the man behind the curtain is slowly appearing.. Soon all shall see the wizard.

I could go on, but I think that I made my point of view obvious. I didn’t want to be a spoiler so minimized quoting the book as much as I could. I think that it is, as I said above, the best witnesses account in a book about UFO. Thank you Grant Cameron, your book stand at the same level as the great Author in the UFO lore.

 

[Jtucker]

Strangely, there was never any military jet from the many bases in Canada and the U.S., close to Carman, sent during the entire Flap. Remember, there was thousands of intercontinental missile just south of the border and no interceptor plane belonging to NORAD in Minot air force N. Dakota, not far from Carman, or Canadian Air force planes based in Winnipeg was send during the biggest flap in maybe human history. When questioned, NORAD representative respond was that no radar from either country has picked any signature so intervention wasn’t judge necessary.

Great analysis, @Laurentien2. I think the argument you make is plausible and well put together. It very will may be the case.

In terms of Anthony Britain, that's actually a pseudonym for Bob Diemert who just recently passed away. Grant Cameron, the author Charlie Red Star used pseudonym's for the people in the book for legal reasons. Bob was indeed quite famous in Manitoba. Here's a CBC article from last month outlining his career and contributions to aviation.

Bob Diemert

Bob was so renown that when I asked my dad what he remembered about Charlie Red Star (my dad was in his late 20's in 1975), he said he always thought that Charlie was an experimental drone Bob had been working on illegally. I don't think the Charlie Red Star reports back that up, but my dad wasn't into that kind of "woo" thing in those days and probably just brushed it off.

For the sake of trying to piece this mystery together a little better, I'll take the "Hyperdimensional" side for the flap and see if I can dig up enough evidence to back up my thoughts.

From the Charlie Red Star book:

- Page 46 - Tannis the photographer gets Charlie in focus and as soon as she's about to take the picture, his light blinks off. This happens to her a number of times. It seems to know she's trying to get a picture. Once she experiments with putting a piece of glass between her and Charlie, she can suddenly get quality photos.

- Page 52-53 - Charlie is observed dropping four, small saucer-shaped craft to the ground. If this was military, it's leaving evidence that's pretty easy for someone to go find.

- Page 53 - The night after the usual Red Star (Pulsing Red Saucer) sighting, people in nearby Roland have a sighting of a giant Ferris wheel type craft.

- Page 54 - The Stephenfield lake sighting. A teenage throws a rock at a glowing, white object emerging from the lake. The rock hits it, it splits into multiple pieces and then re-assembles itself like a conveyor belt. Then it splits into two Charlies and they play tag with each other.

*I know you mentioned the Triangle Craft and Ferris Wheel Craft above, but I wasn't sure if you thought they were hyper-dimensional, or they had the same 3D source as Charlie?

- Page 59 - the author describes one of his own sightings where bright flashes precede Charlie materializing and de-materializing all over the sky.

- Page 62 - Daylight sighting of a silver disk landed in a field just west of Carman near Holland (see NICAP report below). Another silver disk landed at the Mc Cann's farm during the same week shutting off their vehicles. Minutes later a mini whirlwind starts in their yard, breaking branches and a rumbling is heard in the ground.

- Page 73 - Tannis's photos (some are available online) are very unusual and I've never seen a physical craft from 3D give off that much radiant energy. I have seen fighters at close proximity as we have an F-18 base a couple of miles from our factory, so I'm a little familiar with military craft.

Some other examples would be that the CKY film of Charlie somehow reversed its order of timeline events when developed. Also, the bizarre behaviour of the CKY editing team throwing out almost all the footage then not being able to remember where they disposed of it.

The 23 missing Mc Cann horses and the very similar activity they experienced similar to other "Ranch" visitations in the mid-70's like the Clearview Ranch points to a targeted harassment.

I think there are a number of other examples in the book that I could point to, that may or may not back up the Hyperdimensional theory, but I'll leave the list above as is.

The most compelling argument you made is the complete lack of military or air force response to all these sightings going on.

I would guess that if Charlie Red Star had been doing his act over Winnipeg there would have been military response from 17 Wing RCAF (our fighter base here in the city that I mentioned above). But as Charlie didn't register radar hits, why would they investigate? He's not hurting anyone (except the Mc Cann horses apparently) and technically it's not a physical object if it's not on radar.
Carman and that area of SW Manitoba don't have military bases and there's nothing "sensitive" in terms of infrastructure, so it makes sense the Canadian Air Force wouldn't care.

But what if the same flap happened around massive U.S. military bases, would the response be different? It was! In 1975!

One of the things that the author of Charlie Red Star missed was to dig out the NICAP (predecessor to MUFON) reports from 1975.

NICAP 1975 Sightings

There are over 200 civilian and military reports cited in this report for 1975. Also, I wonder what the percentage of UFO sightings that are reported to anyone as opposed to what are actually seen? Ten per cent? As Cameron mentions in his book, most people at the were very reluctant to come forward until it became socially acceptable in the community. In many communities its never acceptable.

A number of these NICAP reports describe similar characteristics to Charlie. The major northern military bases; Loring in Maine, Malmstrom in Montana, Minot in North Dakota, Falconbridge in Ontario as well as the Grand Forks North Dakota ICBM nuclear base all have reports with with UFO's in 1975. It doesn't read to me read like they are taking this issue lightly.

One even mentions that when their F-106 approached the glowing object, it turned off its lights. The F-106 turns around and then the object turns its lights back on. Sounds like Charlie

Some of the highlights:

March 2, 1975; Mehmke Hill (Belt/Great Falls), Montana.
A UFO reported 20 feet over highway, size of car. (NIDS, Summary Report on A Wave of UFO/Helicopters and Animal Mutilations in Cascade County, Montana 1974-1977, Frame 16 of 24 Appendix 1)

April 10, 1975; Carman, Manitoba, Canada.
9:35 p.m. Mr. Robert Diemert sighted a UFO. Diemert was at his airfield, Friendship Field, when the object was sighted. The object was flying in a north-westerly direction at an approximate altitude of 300 feet. The UFO was described as being approximately 50 feet in length, and was flying too slow for an aircraft. The color was all red and was pulsating. There was no sound emanating from the object. Mr. Robert Diemert is a well-known aviation expert. (Reference: Royal Canadian Mounted Police report, April, 11, 1975, Carman, Manitoba, Carman Detachment, National Research Council of Canada Record Group 77, Vol. 308, reel number 1742 N/039)

June 4, 1975; Holland, Manitoba, Canada
7:40 a.m. Henry Francois while driving east on a municipal road 1 mile south and 1/4 of mile west of the junction of P.T.H. #34 and 2, he observed an oval disc shaped object with a very brilliant light close to the top and center. The object was approximately 30 feet in diameter and 10 feet in height.

The light was a brilliant silvery color and was going on and off at an interval of approximately one second. The object was sitting at approximately 2 feet from the ground and in the center of a municipal road. Francois sighted the object for approximately 2 minutes and then turned south on P.T.H #34 and stopped at Henry Sawatzky's residence and ask Mrs. Sawatzky to witness the sighting. When they returned to the location the object had disappeared. (Reference: Royal Canadian Mounted Police report 11 June 1975. Treherne Detachment RCMP File Reference: 75-079-4)

Aug. 26, 1975, Buffalo. North Dakota.
4:00 a.m. Near the Grand Forks AFB ICBM (nuclear weapons) Complex. Sandra Larson, age 32, and her daughter Jackie, age 15, were being driven from Fargo to Bismarck, North Dakota by Jackie's boyfriend when they heard a loud rumbling, thunder-like noise and saw eight glowing orange spheres descend from the sky. The objects stopped in mid-air, and three of the objects shot back upwards. Sandy had a peculiar feeling as though the car was motionless, and at the same time Jackie suddenly found herself in the back seat with no memory of how she got there.

When they got to a gas station they discovered that an hour of time was unaccounted for. Later, under hypnosis, Sandra recalled having been "floated" from the car into a UFO, where a six-foot tall being with a mummy-like head bandaged up in tape, with the eyes remaining visible, had performed some sort of surgical operation on her. She had the sensation that even her brain had been briefly removed. This being had a luminosity around its head and shoulders, and it had long metallic-appearing arms. Its body was like "brown vinyl." (Source: David F. Webb & Ted Bloecher, HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports, case 1975-28, citing Jerome Clark and Dr. R. Leo Sprinkle).

Nov. 10, 1975; Minot AFB, North Dakota.
A long entry from the 24th NORAD Region Senior Director's Log said: "UFO sighting reported by Minot Air Force Station, a bright star-like object in the west, moving east, about the size of a car. First seen approximately 1015. Approximately 1120, the object passed over the radar station, 1000-2000 feet high, no noise heard. Three people from the site on local area saw the object. National Command Operations Center notified."

Nov. 18, 1975; Strathclair, Manitoba, Canada.
At 6:30 a.m (one hour after sunrise). Reginald Jack Langstaff while traveling in a vehicle observed a bright orange to red object with a curved dome shaped top and the sides were sloped 70 to 80 degrees. There was a lip around the bottom. The object seemed to be approximately 150 feet in the air and was traveling east towards the observer, so he started to travel away from it.

He stopped after traveling a quarter of a mile and noticed the object was traveling southwest and disappeared in that direction. Langstaff observed the object for approximately 5 minutes. (Reference: Royal Canadian Mounted Police report, November 26, 1975. Shoal Lake Detachment RCMP File References: 75-700-126, National Research Council of Canada Record Group 77, Vol. 308, reel number 1742)

Dec. 18, 1975; Dutton, Montana.
??? a.m. UFO, radar lock, Penroy. Pentagon notified of UFO. (NIDS UFO 40)

Dec. 19, 1975; Roy to Fergus, Montana.
11:30 p.m. SAC men witnessed UFO on ground. (NIDS UFO 43)

Dec.23, 1975; Great Falls, Montana.
6:00 a.m. Great Falls International Airport. Egg-shaped UFO on ground. (NIDS UFO 46)

SAC is Strategic Air Command, for those not familiar with military designations in the U.S. Air Force.

And that wasn't all. From the NICAP report:

Over a period of about three weeks in October and November of 1975, several Strategic Air Command (SAC) bases in the northern tier states were placed on a high priority (Security Option 3) alert because of repeated intrusions of unidentified aircraft flying at low altitude over atomic weapons storage areas.

The Commander-in-Chief of North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) sent a four-part message to NORAD units on November 11, 1975 summarizing the events: "Since 28 Oct 75 numerous reports of suspicious objects have been received at the NORAD CU; reliable military personnel at Loring AFB, Maine, Wurtsmith AFB, Michigan, Malmstrom AFB, Mt, Minot AFB, ND, and Canadian Forces Station, Falconbridge, Ontario, Canada have visually sighted suspicious objects.

" A teletype message to the National Military Command Center in Washington, D.C., said: "The A/C [aircraft] definitely penetrated the LAFB [Loring Air Force Base] northern perimeter and on one occasion was within 300 yards of the munitions storage area perimeter."

Note official documents cited below with appropriate incident reports beginning in late October, plus the NORAD Command Director's Log (1975) listing the incidents in zulu time which we later converted in our chrono below to local time to show the sequence of events. Note also that the Air Force admitted destroying the documents regarding the Malmstrom incidents!

This is a link to the scanned NORAD/SAC documents that still remain from October and November of 1975 NORAD Reports. I wonder what was destroyed?

NORAD Reports

If the NICAP and NORAD reports are to be taken at face value, then it looks like the flap was all over the northern part of North America in 1975.

Are there a bunch of authors in Maine, North Dakota and Montana sitting on Charlie Red Star-like manuscripts of reports that no one's publishing? Or was it just pure luck that Grant Cameron and Bob Diemert took the time to deeply explore the phenomenon due to their own dedication and being at the right place at the right time?

Is Southwest Manitoba is such a laid back area that no one really panicked, or saw Charlie as a threat to their religious or cultural beliefs. Everyone just hung out and watched it? Being a kid at this point in Manitoba - I felt like it was the most amazing place to grow up. Maybe we were at unique period where the veil was "thinner" for a few years?

My speculation would be that Charlie Red Star wasn't unique to Southwest Manitoba in 1975. Similar, if not exact phenomena were happening simultaneously in many locations (but probably with nowhere near the extent of Charlie's frequency). What was unique was the recording and reporting of it after the fact. It is Cameron and Diemert, in my opinion.

If 1972 was some sort of turning point in relations between them and us, we can see activity ramping up from 1973's "Year of The Humanoid" to 1975's full blown Saucer/Red Star visitations.

I wouldn't put it past the Powers That Be to have started aggressively undertaking the development of Close Encounters of The Third Kind as a specific disinfo passion play to counteract the actual events of 1972-75. The movie portrays UFO's as harmless and friendly. Charlie may have been. But if NORAD and Strategic Air Command are scrambling F-106's just south in Montana, did the top brass really believe that?

As usual, UFO weirdness and synchronicities seem to happen when you discuss this subject. My wife is in Carman today. She's a mobile pet groomer and she has a lawyer couple in their sixties with two golden retrievers just west of Carman towards Stephenfield. We're not sure if they've lived in Carman their whole lives, but hopefully she may come back with some additional info

 

[Jtucker]

As usual, UFO weirdness and synchronicities seem to happen when you discuss this subject. My wife is in Carman today. She's a mobile pet groomer and she has a lawyer couple in their sixties with two golden retrievers just west of Carman towards Stephenfield. We're not sure if they've lived in Carman their whole lives, but hopefully she may come back with some additional info

Update - the wife lawyer grew up in Brandon and didn't move to Carman until 1979 so she hadn't heard about Charlie, but the husband lawyer was a teenager at the time and lived nearby, so he remembered the flap well. His pharmacist had a sighting and mentioned it to him a few years ago. They're going to order the book and ask around a town after they read it. They were both very interested.

 

[Dotini]

Charlie Red Star is a part of my library. I recommend it.

 

[Laurentien2]

For the sake of trying to piece this mystery together a little better, I'll take the "Hyperdimensional" side for the flap and see if I can dig up enough evidence to back up my thoughts.

Thank Jtucker, it is what I was hoping you would do. As I said, early on in the book I started to see a human behavior in Charlies and carried the idea all along my reading. I took many notes reinforcing this idea but as I said didn’t want to quote to much from the book as I didn’t want it to be a spoilier. My main objective was to present my observation and, to a certain degree, theory and secondly start a dialogue to ‘’debug’’ it.

Many of the questioning you brought I have already thought off, when reading the book, and have found good argument already and will share them later. So, I will take the side of the human technology but note that I do not exclude the hyper dimensional during the flap, on the contrary.

A suivre

 

[Laurentien2]

Some of the highlights:

Here are some more observation that may answer some of your question.

Let recap what we know of our cosmic environment at the moment. The C’s told us early on in the communication with Laura that there was a multitude of ‘’E.T.’’ coming to earth, some as participant from both camp (sts,sto) and other just interested in history and wanted to witness the event, transitioning of our planet to fourth density. They told us that we will see all kind of craft from all over the Orion confederation and the C’s will be visible as well. Right there we can start to see why different craft are seen during the flap.

In our technological environment, we see many airships, plane with different characteristics as combustion engine, jet engine, rocket all in different sizes and shapes. They are produce all over the globe by many countries for different purposes and all with different characteristic in flight. They can be easily categorized and all model as it own signature that’s to say can be identify by their performance either visually or thought their radar signature and other means. During the cold war identifying an incoming was crucial. All aircraft were eventually equipped with a transponder to minimize misidentification to not blow up a civilian aircraft that may as gone off course and come close to military controlled area. Unfortunately error or should I say provocation were done as in the case of a Korean airplane, if I remember correctly, that was shut down by the Soviet as it went off course and approached the eastern cost of Russia. Monitoring was crucial and it is now done by satellite; almost anything that fly today can be seen and followed from space. You may wonder where I’m going with this, it will become clearer soon.

So first, we can assume that the different alien species as the C’s said will fly different ship with different characteristic and technologies. They told us as a comparison that for us to try to understand their tech, it is about the same as for a squirrel to try to understand how work a television set. We could not event try to understand the tech that we witness’ during an encounter with such ship. All we can do is describe it as our limited senses permit us as brightness, color, speed, flight characteristic, impact on our body and environment when in close proximity or landing etc...

Second, let talk about reverse engineering a bit. Let say, for example, that the Chinese in the 1940 wanted to reverse car for the purpose of mass producing it. They would acquire a ford model and reverse engineer it and produced something that will be identical or very close to the original model. As we learned from the C’s, the US did acquired craft from crash and other mean. They have been working on reverse engineering them for god know how long. It is thus easy to assume, that the product will somewhat resemble the original craft. At least some of it component as let, using my imagination, say mean of propulsion, antigravity tech and other characteristic will resemble it. It will in other word have the flight characteristic of a UFO and that is how a witness encountering them will think they are. So in all practicability, no one could even imagine that this tech is other than from out of this planet, it’s so out of what our present tech is in our environment. Another thing the C’s told us is, that the some group of human, be it the MIC or consortium or other, are technologically hundreds of years in advance compared with what is presently presented to us little squirrel. As far as the 1980, Ra transmission like the C’s told us that the US and as that tech as well as the Russian. Now imagine what would the different ‘’alien’’ species around our blue marble think about craft that give a totally new signature, one that isn’t know to them because as for the US and the Soviet, they surely know all characteristic of their opponent craft or other observer in the vicinity.

Today, we are monitored more than ever, to my cell phone telling me, when I open it in the morning, where my car is park (in my driveway off course). My new intelligent television set that probably as a camera and microphone installed in it. My phone that tracks me everywhere I go. In 1975, we still add some freedom; there were much less tech to monitor us by our government but, as the C’s told us, by our over lord. They were waiting as they said that our civilisation develop it technologies often given by them to begin with and use it again us. Now I will come back to the book and tell you why I think that after some weeks of Charlie beer run, new craft started to appear in the sky around Carman Manitoba. I’m sure you may see where I’m going.

In the book (p. 74), the first reported triangular ship was reported September 1, 1975 some 7 months after the first sighting. Let see how the author react, in his own word to these new comer.

If I were asked to design the classic model of a UFO, I would undoubtedly base it on the many reports since 1947 that describe a disk-shaped object with cupola on it. It was for this reason that I was confused when I first heard Joseph and Anna McCann tell me they were seeing triangle-shaped UFOs. I hardly knew what to think. Looking back more than 40 years, it might have been the beginning of something new, since triangles are now reported much more frequently than saucer shapes.

With them came report of big foot and the sighting of little Charlie both late comer in the flap. We know from the C’s that triangular ship is a type used by the lizard and they have big foot as pet or worker. What could be the reason to put, if I may say, troop on the ground like big foot and as we learn in the book the little Charlie. It is obvious when reading chapter about little Charlie that they are operated by whoever operate the triangle. About little Charlie, I agree with the scientist that the author interview who tell him that they are as some witnesses that saw them in day light, small probe used for monitoring scientist and scientific research center. As well, what the author describe as the light emanating from them using the term ‘’dead light’’. It shows a similar source of energy or technology used for propulsion definitely different than Charlie. Here is what the author say about it.

p. 203 Little Charlie I noticed that though the object was very bright it didn’t cast light outward the way a normal incandescent bulb does. It was more like a light that had been placed inside a bag.

The light might be very bright, but it was more like a self-containing glow.

Charlie was so bright sometime that you couldn’t look at it to long before it hurt and very close encounter as resulted in the witness skin showing sign of burn like trauma. Fortunately in the one case in the book that I remember it healed after a few days. Contrary to Charlie, a close encounter by the author with a triangle didn’t have any negative effect. The only one he reported and is of great significance, is that after playing with a flash light with little Charlie (little Charlie was repeating everything that the author was doing with the flash light) for some time, in a way communicating with it, a triangular ship came to investigate. The author was at that moment quit scared and emotionally shocked but he then something happened. I will quote him here.

p. 210 the light kept coming toward us until I was staring almost straight up at them. I was never so scared in my life. The object paused for a second, shifted a bit to my left, then started to moving north. As it made the slight shift, like a small jerk in a film, my fear instantly vanished. I went from being more afraid than I ever recalled being to having no fear at all.

Ok, here I will confirm that when you see a triangle, it is almost impossible to see the craft. You see the light as in my case in 2010, but the ship is as dark as the background at night. We were lucky, me and my wife and daughter, to see it enter our reality. We were following the drop of a toy, helicopter like device that when coming down after using a slingshot to throw it up in the air, was spiralling down emitting light. As we were following it up to it peak altitude, behind it a big blue purple flash of light, in the form of a cloud appeared and trough that ‘’window’’ came a huge triangular ship. We were lucky because the blue flash of light brightened the sky for a short time, enough for us to distinctly see the craft. After the light went away, all we could see was the 3 half sphere of light at each corner. The ship vanished; it was the same shade of dark as the night sky was projecting, a perfect match. I could still tell that the craft was there because in the cloudless sky, we could see the star disappearing when it passed in front of them. Also, as for little Charlie, the light emitted was not projecting any ray on the ground. The forest underneath wasn’t illuminated as in the case of little Charlie.

What the author report give me the idea that the triangle were more interested in finding out what was disturbing the little Charlie, as the author said, it started emitting sound when he was interacting with it. Sound like Morse code, the drone was sending message. M. Cameron is interaction with the light on the ground was I think interfering with their mission which was to monitor, I think, Charlie on is beer run as the little Charlie were observed under it flight path.

To conclude today, I think that in most UFO encounter it is probably craft from our neighboring friend from the hyper-dimension realm. Charlie is a new comer, it give a new ‘’signature’’ and as all good farmer do when something change in the chicken coop, he investigate. If as I think Charlie is a reverse engineering craft by human, it will have a totally new signature on the monitoring system of our overlord. And as the farmer did, they will investigate what the hell are the chickens doing.

Remember the Philadelphia experiment in the 1940, 35 year earlier and how the ‘’chicken’’ made a battleship disappear and move in an instant hundreds of km away. They have been playing with space time for some time and probably discovered how to use this technology in their new toy. The experiment was very dramatic on the crew, interacting in this new realm as it price. That’s a reason I think that if Charlie is human tech, it is remotely operated. It would explain the choice of the area of the exercise, southern Manitoba. The communication towers are everywhere and at the time communication from satellite wasn’t ready for such testing. I will stop for today, hope that some of your question got answer.

 

[brandon]

Very interesting case & observations!

What became quite obvious after several chapters was that whoever was behind the wheel, flying Charlie was following the same training that I once had to go through.

Just to add a tiny little thing... Your idea that Charlie was doing training flights reminded me of one of the things written in the margins of Case For the UFO, Varo Edition by Morris K. Jessup, where one of the 3 mysterious commentators mentions UFO pilots doing training:

Q: (L) In the annotated copy of the Morris K. Jessup book, there were three people annotating: Mr.A., Mr. B., and one known as Jemi. One of the references was to the sighting made by Kenneth Arnold. In reference to that sighting, Mr.B wrote: "Don't worry, Jemi, those were LM ships not S men. They are an improved type and were on a training flight. That is why their leader interconnected their force fields, to teach them level tele-control without inducing a fear block." Now, what is an LM ship?

A: Light matter.

Q: (L) What is an "S man?"

A: Secret order member.

So it seems even non-human UFO pilots do sometimes fly around on training runs..

(Well, the C's didn't specifically say the ships were piloted by non-humans, and said 'LM' stood for 'light matter', but in the context of the book, it seems to me LM in that sentence would've likely meant 'L-men', since L-men and S-men are the two types of 'spacemen' repeatedly mentioned.. L-men probably = 'little men'..)