Such an author seems able to dismiss the editorial salability of the work so long as (s)he can focus its pages more on getting something off his/her chest than on offering something new/entertaining/motivational.  Thus, we have JE Oglesby's 140-page tome titled Proof of Extraterrestrial Intelligence:  The Cape Canaveral Apollo Program Chronicles (lulu.com -2008).

       Does this example of "citizen journalism" signify a permanent foothold in the craggy heights of modern ufology?  Perhaps so.  As our contemporary news media continue to lag behind the growing public interest in matters ufological, we'll no doubt see steady growth in treatments like Oglesby's.

       This memoir centers on his own December 30, 1967, nighttime sighting of two "flying saucers" during a visit to his brother-in-law's home in the rural town of Bithlo, several miles west of the U. S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.  At the time of the event, the 27-year-old Oglesby was employed as a machine-shop clerk by the Bendix corporation, a NASA contractor.

       The impact of his first-ever UFO encounter transformed Oglesby into a hard-core skywatcher whenever he stayed overnight at his brother-in-law's home.  There, over a period of three months in early 1968 (in which he kept a journal to document events), the young man found his reward in a series of alleged alien-spacecraft sightings, some of which also were witnessed by other relatives, friends, and neighbors.  All these incidents occurred at night, as did a number of cases of vanishing/mutilated cattle from neighboring ranch land.

       On more than one occasion, he recounts, he had a chance to follow, on foot, a small, "flashing blue light" into a wooded area where it apparently had landed; but, alone in an unfamiliar, foreboding locale, he got cold feet and backtracked from his hike into the dense woods.  From his repeat encounter of February 17, 1968, we have his own words:

       "I allowed [once again] fear to gain the upper hand that night as I paused, sensing that something or someone had been watching me from a distance.  I reacted by a swift retreat back to the relative safety of my car."

       Certainly, no-one can fault Oglesby for letting fear of the unknown get the better of him.  Even today, what adult among us would be so bold as to venture out, alone at night, into a hostile environment to track down a mysterious airborne craft?  Many a sleep-deprived night became the price for his saga of expanded UFO awareness.

       As suitable for any such episodes of trauma (especially the one culminating (dramatically) in his "the big picture" of the UFO cover-up at Canaveral - which he titles "ETI Monitoring of Apollo Program Finishes at the Cape"), witness Oglesby uses the long passage of time to add just the right perspective to his chronicles.

       His down-to-earth, unpretentious prose (albeit plagued by faulty syntax, inexact punctuation, and typos) lets the reader decide for him-/herself as to its veracity and rationality.  One of those readers happens to be British ufologist Timothy Good, whose endorsement on the book's back cover pronounces:

       "I have no hesitation in recommending this most important book.  Jim Oglesby provides astonishing evidence linking the Apollo Program with extraterrestrial activity in Florida.  Many of these encounters - some including landed spacecraft - were witnessed with others.  I have long accepted that certain aliens have liaised with NASA personnel, specifically to assist with our space program.  What emerges from this book is convincing new evidence for a clandestine alien liaison program."