Wendelle C Stevens
| Born | Jan 18 1923 |
| Died | Sep 7 2010 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Lt Col. U.S. Air Force / Ufologist / Author |
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Credits: YouTube
Wendelle C. Stevens, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, is widely regarded as both a pioneer in UFO research and one of its most controversial figures. He passed away on September 7th, 2010 in Tucson, AZ at the age of 87 from respiratory failure.
Stevens was one of the most renowned and longest-serving UFO researchers in the world. Born in Round Prairie, Minnesota, in 1923, he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1941. Later, Stevens served as the U.S. Air Force’s air attaché in South America. He resigned from the military in 1963 and worked for Hamilton Aircraft until 1972.
During his military career, Stevens claimed to have been involved in a highly classified project researching unusual phenomena, including UFOs, in the Arctic. The project reportedly used specialized instruments on reconnaissance aircraft to study these events. When Stevens was unable to obtain the results and documents from the project, he began his own UFO investigations, a pursuit that lasted for 54 years. He also became the first director of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO).
Stevens was particularly criticized for his support of the claims made by Swiss UFO contactee Eduard “Billy” Meier. Despite being widely regarded as a fraud by some of Stevens' colleagues, a few still consider Meier's photographs and film footage to contain authentic evidence of UFOs.
Additionally, Stevens faced criticism for his analysis of a purported UFO crash near Laredo, Texas, in July 1948. In his book The UFO Crash at Aztec, he suggested that the incident involved the crash of a U.S. experimental aircraft and that the body found at the site was a rhesus monkey. In a 2009 interview, Stevens reiterated that while he believed many UFO crashes involved alien spacecraft, he considered the Laredo event to be linked to a secret project launched from the White Sands missile test site in New Mexico.
Stevens was also known for his vast collection of UFO photographs, which ranks among the most extensive archives on the subject. His research led to the publication of over 22 books, which have been translated into numerous languages. In 1987, Stevens received a lifetime achievement award for his contributions to ufology at the First World UFO Forum in Brasília. He was also a co-founder and director of the International UFO Congress.
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