Situation Red: The UFO Siege

Even though this volume was originally published in 1977, it still stands up as a good volume on the subject of UFOs. The author's thinking on the subject was on the cusp of modern ufology and his theories were ahead of his time. The original volume was a mass market paperback put out by a publisher whose bindings at that time did not hold up well, so I didn't buy it at that time. I'm glad that I waited. Along with his theories, the author covers aspects of the subject from a personal perspective that broke new ground and opened up aspects of the subject that others who were writing at the time didn't have access to. Mr. Stringfield was right in the middle of things. Anyone interested in the deep history of the subject of Ufology should read this one.

"Situation Red" was the late Leonard Stringfield's (he died in 1994) definitive literary work, and the one book which anyone even slightly acquainted with his productive and interesting life knows about.Stringfield's interest in the UFO/ET phenomenon was triggered by a daylight sighting in August 1945 when he was an Army Air Force Intelligence Officer. With 12 other USAAF personnel on board a C-46 aircraft on the way to Tokyo, he sighted three large glowing balls of light pacing their aircraft on the starboard side. The electronics on the plane were affected, one of the two engines stopped working and the pilot prepared to ditch in the Pacific. When the three balls of light departed in formation, everything returned to normal and the aircraft was able to successfully land at Iwo Jima. This encounter made a big impression on Stringfield, as well it might. When thousands of sightings of "flying saucers" and balls of light under obvious intelligent control and exhibiting "impossible" flight characteristics started to be reported all over the world in 1946-47, Stringfield immediately saw that these were almost certainly related to the phenomenon he and other allied servicemen had witnessed during WW2, often referred to in the European theatre as "Kraut Fireballs" and in the Pacific as "Foo Fighters".This book, published in 1977, chronicles Stringfield's work with his organization Civilian Research, Interplanetary Flying Objects (CRIFO) from the 1950s through 1977 with a major focus on the years 1973-77. CRIFO became for a time the largest US-based civilian UFO-interest organization with more than 2,500 active members. He was always close to many senior USAF personnel and even asked to pass on details of encounters from any phone, anywhere, at the expense of the USAF.The book chronicles a large number of encounters - some in great detail - which may be new to even serious students of this phenomenon. Encounters causing physical harm to witnesses (burns, blindness etc.), leaving physical traces and those with significant missing time elements feature prominently. Stringfield, like Jacques Vallee and other researchers from the period, became convinced that humans were sometimes abducted by the entities behind this phenomenon and that these were probably more common than reported. He was particularly interested in reported humanoid/occupant encounters.From his contacts in the USAF and from other evidence, Stringfield became convinced at an early stage that ET technology had occasionally crashed and been recovered, and that this was the greatest government/military secret. Ten years prior to the publication of Timothy Good's seminal book of the same title, chapter nine of "Situation Red" is titled "Above Top Secret" and explores the evidence for crash/recoveries. He was certainly the first researcher to get his teeth into this issue, again several years prior to the 1947 Roswell crash being investigated by Stan Friedman and others.At just over 200 pages, "Situation Red" is a classic of this genre and does contain a lot of interesting and original material. Though his style is not as easy-read and racy as that of Donald Keyhoe, and lacks the intelligent, engaging humor of a writer like Budd Hopkins, Stringfield was a good literate writer and a true original. In his later, bearded years, he was sometimes confused in appearance with the great J. Allen Hynek, who he survived by six years.Due to the publishing success of "Situation Red" with long print runs in both hardcover and paperback, good copies are reasonably easy to find.

First off, don't pay $90 for this book. I got a perfectly good used copy for .50 cents plus shipping, right here on Amazon.About the book: this was the best .50 cents I've spent in a long time. Mr. Stringfield was a pretty good writer and the narrative is engrossing. He spends a little time on UFO apologetics, but not an inordinate amount.. The first couple of chapters are slow, but thereafter he gets into some interesting case history. Most of these I'd never heard of, since Stringfield famously protected his sources. There are a handful of fascinating accounts about humanoids. As this book predates the grey alien cross-cultural contamination of the 1980's, that is significant.Modern day ufologists liberally reference Leonard Stringfield such that my interest was piqued years ago, but, as his books are out of print I had to make a point of locating one. Having read just about every UFO book out there (and starved for something 'new'), this one was a great addition to my library.

Years ago, I purchased a paperback edition of this exhaustive report of UFO activity. The book disappeared from my book shelve, after several moves around the country, so I was thrilled to find it on amazon marketplace. The author Leonard Stringfield passed away, so this book was his last work on the subject. Thanks for making it available to me.

The book is good. However they sure picked the wrong guy on audible to narrate this book. His style of reading irritates the hell out you. Terrible.

Fascinating. Hundreds of stories I had never heard before. Amazing that so many fantastic stories have been surpressed. I don’t think I’ll be driving home alone at night for a while.

Twenty-seven years of research under this authors belt, he knows that which he speaks about. They started arriving during the 50's according to Leonard Stringfield, however, the siege of the 70's," the biggest concentration of UFO's to hit the U.S. nation, and the people who provided the data all shared a common complaint: they will forever feel insecure! pg. 145. -148. "the public's eyes were opened and the press broke its silence."Thousands of witnesses in Cincinnati, Ohio.....pg.147. A must-read, very detailed, and well written. Highly recommend. If this book doesn't make you a believer, "they are here" I don't what will? Will leave you feeling very insecure about what is watching us from the skies above. You hope to hell somewhere there will be something to blow them outta the sky if need be.

One of the best honest accounts of UFO's that CLEARLY demonstrates the World Governments are covering up this important topic. We are definitely not alone in this Universe!

This book was an excellent take on the 1973 flap, it has many interesting cases, but most of these cases are very well known, the book is still very interesting and it is very important in the history of Ufology. Stringfield is one of the most important Ufologists, and with his Crash and Retrieval series called Status report began a new cicle on the UFO phenomena, this book comes just before that and talks briefly of three of these cases. It is not a book essential for someone who just want to learn about Ufos, but it is essential to people who wants to know about the history of Ufology.

I love Leonard Stringfield's books as he tells many of his contacts extraterrestial experiences.I recommend all his works for ufo beleivers and non beleivers alike!

Thanks, and enjoyed