Article 6: Atlantis
Rising 61 (Jan-Feb 2007)
Project Serpo: Fact or Fiction?
by Tim Swartz
“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 Eart,
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 at www.serpo.org).
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.
