John Callahan of Japan Airlines 1628 Fame:
Federal Aviation Administration Career Credentials Finally Confirmed Part 2
By anyone’s measure, the skies of Alaska
were visited by something extraordinary during the evening of the 17th
of November, 1986. Flight 1628, Japan Airlines had front row seats. Very
briefly, for 31 minutes, three UFO’s of varying forms were witnessed by a
flight crew of three, as well as ground-based air traffic controllers watching
primary radar display screens. Hundreds of pages of authorized, officially
released records appeared in the public domain within months of the event.
Furthermore, John Callahan, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Chief of
Accidents, Evaluations and Investigations came forward in 2001 with far more to
add to the story. The question I have attempted, in the last four months, to
answer is whether John Callahan did indeed head the FAA roles he has always
claimed; and, if so, how can we verify those claims, and to what degree of
satisfaction. As this is Part 2 of this series, for anyone not up to speed, I
would encourage them to appraise Part 1, which can be found here:
http://ufos-documenting-the-evidence.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/john-callahan-of-japan-airlines-1628.html
After lengthy email exchanges, on the 19th
of June, 2015, Callahan posted to me an impressive 51 pages of resume material
and official FAA employment documents which detailed his entire career. What surprised
me the most was that these records were not copies, but originals. These were old
– the paper, the ink, the rubber stamping – certainly none of it was thrown
together recently. Space and time restrict me from displaying the entire 51
page file here, but I will most certainly present some of the more important
pages.
Some examples of this primary documentation include a multi-page Federal Office of Management and Budget “Form 171”. On the “Personal Qualifications Statement” continuation-from-page-1 sheet a section titled “Name and address of employer’s organization” resulted in a type-writer entry of “FAA ATS-1 Washington Headquarters”. The box to the right of asks for “Dates employed (provide month and year)” to which was answered “Oct. 1986 to present”. Most importantly, a third box asks for “Exact title of your position”. The phrase “Division Mgr. Investigations/Evaluations” answers this section, and thankfully so. “Name of immediate supervisor” is entered as “Harvey B. Safeer”. The actual page itself is here:
Thus it is established, on a legally
binding Federal Government form, that Callahan was indeed employed with the FAA
in Washington DC in the year 1986. This is precisely the first claim I wanted
to verify. The second issue was the not-insignificant matter of all this “Accidents,
Evaluations and Investigations” business that he says he managed. As one can
see above, the term “Investigations/Evaluations” is listed. But where is the
term “Accidents”? Callahan consistently claims that he ran “Accidents, Evaluations and
Investigations”. The answer to this can be found when we move on to another
page of his employment records. It turns out that just prior to him managing “Investigations/Evaluations” (or as Callahan
usually says “….Evaluations and Investigations”) his role happened to be
manager of the “Accident/Incident Analysis” branch. Also, during that time
period he was also manager of the
“Quality Control” branch.
Confused yet? To simplify all this, I
highlight his “FAA Headquarters Experience” page of his lengthy resume. The top
few line items read:
John
J. Callahan
Resume
FAA
HEADQUARTERS EXPERIENCE
Oct
86 to
Present Division Manager Investigation and
Evaluation Division, ATS 100.
Jul 85 to
Oct 86 Branch Manager Quality Control Branch
and Accident/Incident Analysis Branch,
AAT 60
Below is the copy of this page.
So, to sum up, in a two year period,
Callahan had run both the
“Accidents/Incident Analysis Branch” and the “Investigation and Evaluation
Division”. Critically, this period was from July 1985 to after the beginning of
1987 – which is precisely when the JAL 1628 incident occurred. One may ask why
Callahan never made any of this clearer in the various documentary appearances
and conference presentations he has been a part of. Obviously, to list the
above position titles in full is not what listeners or viewers quite need to
hear. The general notion that he was managing multiple areas of critical FAA
officialdom in a very short period of time is more than enough. However, two
things were entirely new news to me. Keen readers may have noticed that his
“Accidents” Branch was actually titled “Accident/Incident Analysis” Branch,
and, while managing it he was also
managing the “Quality Control Branch”! Much of this is mere semantics, but it
does make clear the exact nature of the roles and responsibilities Callahan had
in this 1985 to 1987 time period.
More specific than the above imaged list
of roles, another page in Callahan’s resume contains a full paragraph of
summarised roles he held going back to the late 1970’s. This page acts as a
cover sheet to a dozen pages of far more detailed position duties and role
responsibilities, and the core of it matter-of-factually reads:
“Presently
assigned as Division Manager Investigation/Evaluation Division, ATS-100. Prior
to this assignment I held the position of Branch Manager for both the Quality
Control Branch, AAT-63 and the Accident/Incident Branch, AAT-340. I have also
held the following positions: Assistant Staff Manager, Quality Assurance
Division, ACT-60; Assistant Division Manager, Test and Evaluation Division,
ACT-500; Branch Manager, National Automation Support Branch, AAT-550; Assistant
Chief, National Enroute Data System Branch-540, and other managerial and supervisory
positions in Air Route Traffic Control Facilities.”
Here it is, imaged from John Callahan’s
resume material:
To sum up, there are over 50 pages of material
similar to what I have been able to present here. As stated before, Callahan
sent me the original file, and it held up to scrutiny. So armchair sceptics can
move on to greener pastures, because the providence of John J. Callahan is firmly
and finally established. So does any of this matter? I argue that it matters
enormously. Testing the credentials of someone directly involved with one of
the most potent UFO cases in history is surely of great significance as we painstakingly
continue to compile the history of the UFO matter for future generations.
Possibly of greater importance is that it may encourage other high ranking officials
to also come forward and risk disclosing their role in the UFO matter. Of
course, none of this solves the actual case. I often wonder what became of
pilot Kenji Teriuchi. Maybe one day we will know what engaged his aircraft that
night, and he, and John Callahan, can be vindicated.