MUFON of North Carolina

Letter from the State Director
MUFON of North Carolina

Richard Lang
State Director

2009 a year of Change, New Direction and Leadership

First let’s recognize our former management team:

George Lund stepped down as State director on December 5, 2008. We are all grateful to him for his 15 years of dedication and loyal service to MUFON, serving 11 years as State Director and 4 years as the Assistant State Director. George is staying on with us as a Certified Field Investigator and will help with the investigation of cases.

Peggy Price resigned from MUFON on December 8, 2008. We also wish to thank Peggy for her many years of dedicated service to MUFON and we wish her the very best in her new endeavor. She is leaving us to organize a new more spiritual-based research organization to explore subjects such as the societal and spiritual implications of alien contact, healing, and quantum physics, to name a few, as well as examine extraordinary experiences. Peggy and I agree that these two groups will complement each other and not compete. We will be posting information on our MUFON-NC website as to when and where Peggy’s new organization will be meeting (including information about her speakers, etc).

Marie Rink our treasurer has decided to remain in place and continue to act as our treasurer and we are grateful for her hard work in this regard.

James Rink who has done a fantastic job as our web master will also stay on and continue to do this much needed work for our organization.

Granville Angell – our Coordinator of Experiencer Support Services will also stay on staff and continue to work with our witnesses. Granville will be heading up a special new group for experiencer support which we will talk about in a later news letter.

About Me: For those of you who do not know me some background information is included. In December 2008 after George Lund stepped down James Carrion (International Director of MUFON) appointed me to assume the role of State Director for North Carolina. I also serve as Chief Investigator for MUFON of Virginia and act as the Coordinator of the MUFON S.T.A.R Team.

I am a licensed commercial pilot and have law enforcement experience on both the state and federal level. After the 911 disaster I worked for the U.S Department of Homeland Security in the airports in Virginia. I currently live in the Lake Norman area North of Charlotte, NC.

I started out with MUFON as a Field Investigator and Assistant State Director in Virginia back in the 1990’s where I conducted field investigations. I received the National Award from MUFON in 1999 for one of my investigations. This fall, I was featured in the Discovery Channel shows along with Steve McGee (FI North Carolina) about an investigation that took place in Fayetteville NC. (see below)

About MUFON International: MUFON is a nonprofit scientific research organization dedicated, through its volunteers, to resolving the scientific enigma known collectively as unidentified flying objects (UFOs). MUFON publishes a Journal (nice magazine) which is mailed out to all MUFON members each month. The MUFON international website is www.mufon.com and contains a wealth of information about UFO sightings and cases that are reported. It also has a section that allows a witness to report a sighting on line. To review the CMS data yourself you can go to www.mufon.com and click on "UFO Case Files"

MUFON is an international organization that is organized by States and Provinces around the world. Each state in the USA is headed by a State Director, who leads a team of state officers including: Assistant State Director, Section Directors, Chief Investigator and Certified Field Investigators.

The primary role of the State Director is to facilitate the investigation of cases reported by witnesses through the MUFON CMS system. The State Director and the staff are also charged with recruiting new Members and Field Investigators, as well as providing information to the public in terms of public meetings and representation at other public events and on TV productions.

CMS is a web based internet computer system that is designed to manage case reports and all associated data and evidence. Witnesses can contact MUFON on line and submit their sighting report through the MUFON International Website. They can down load photographic evidence, (photos and video). CMS is the backbone of the investigative process, and it is accessible to the public. Once a case is reported on the CMS system by a witness, the case report is automatically forwarded to the respective State Director, who assigns the case to a Certified Field Investigator.

The role of Field Investigator is to evaluate witness reports on CMS, collect data, interview witnesses, analyze photograph evidence and try to establish facts as related to UFO sightings and encounters. The current thinking is that some of these reports are natural phenomena, some are identifiable aircraft and some military experimental aircraft. Our research indicates that about 85% of the sighting reports are found by our Field Investigators, to be explainable Identifiable objects of some kind. The remaining 15% is the unexplainable UFO. This type of work often leaves one with more questions than answers but the research is fascinating.

We currently need more Field Investigators to work on cases that are being submitted. Since the airing of the Discovery Channel shows our sighting reports have increased dramatically in North Carolina and Virginia.

Discovery Channel produced three shows about MUFON investigators last summer. The series was titled UFOs over Earth. The first show was filmed in Fayetteville, North Carolina. It was the pilot for the series and featured MUFON Investigators Steve McGee, Norm Gagnon, James Carrion and myself. It was a case about five men fishing on the cape river in Jan. 2007 and the incredible experience they had. (you can see the entire show from the link on this website)
The second show was about the wave of sightings in the Bucks County area near Philadelphia PA and the third show was filmed in Mexico. The Discovery Shows were a great advertisement for MUFON and our sighting reports and membership requests have increased dramatically across the nation.

Next Meeting: Within the next few weeks you will receive an announcement about our first State Meeting in 2009. The format will be a little different in that we will focus more on current investigations.

Best Regards!

Richard Lang
State Director North Carolina
Chief Investigator
MUFON of Virginia
MUFON STAR TEAM Coordinator
336-953-1699
rlang3@windstream.net

Click here to see the videos

Chris Bledsoe - Hosted by The Society for Paranormal Inquiry - May 17, 2009

Dennis Balthaser - October 5, 2008

Granville Angell - May 15, 2008

Kathleen Marden - coauthor of CAPTURED! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO - January 10, 2008