by Michael Salla
The world’s foremost authority on alleged cases of direct human contact with extraterrestrial life passed away on Tuesday, September 7 at the age of 87. Lt Colonel Wendelle Stevens (ret. USAF) first became involved in the UFO issue back in the summer of 1947 when he was assigned by the U.S. Army/Air Force to Anchorage, Alaska. He was part of a classified project involving data collection of UFO sightings in the Arctic Circle. He was involved in debriefing pilots who witnessed UFOs landing on Arctic ice fields, and passing along radar, film and photographic evidence to more senior Air Force authorities. What he learned during his classified duties impressed him enough for his interest in UFOs to become a life long passion. After his retirement in 1963 as a Lt Colonel, Stevens dedicated his time to researching claims of extraterrestrial contact from around the world. He traveled to many countries to learn at first hand whether individual claims of extraterrestrial contact were genuine. Along the way, he amassed the world’s largest private collection of photos, testimonies and files concerning alleged claims of human extraterrestrial contact.
The cases that most interested Col Stevens were those involving human looking extraterrestrials that interacted with private citizens in a respectful peaceful way. In contrast to the many horror stories churned out by many UFO abduction researchers, Col Stevens emphasized the peaceful respectful aspects of human extraterrestrial contact. At the 2006 “Extraterrestrial Civilizations and World Peace Conference”, he elaborated on the many aspects of human extraterrestrial contact that were peaceful, and he had great optimism for humanity’s future as a result. He was a signatory and enthusiastic supporter of the unique consensus document that emerged from the conference titled: “Hawaii Declaration on Peaceful Relations with Extraterrestrial Civilizations,”
I got to know Col Stevens best when we traveled together as part of a small group of five researchers to Japan for a three city extraterrestrial conference tour in October 2007. He impressed me with his razor sharp mind and great attention to detail with the many UFO/contactee cases he had researched during his six decades of interest in the field. His passion for the UFO field led to him maintaining a remarkable intellectual vitality and youthfulness despite his advanced years and declining health. His greatest contribution lies in making available to the general public a great number of little known human extraterrestrial contact cases that otherwise would have been lost. He transcribed interviews, translated foreign texts, edited material in a long series of books typically beginning with the title “UFO Contact from the …. “ Many of these are available online on a website maintained by his daughter Cece Stevens.
After decades of research sparked by his classified US Air Force work, there was no doubt in Col Stevens mind that humanity was being visited by extraterrestrial life. He knew from first hand experience that government authorities from around the world were secretly researching the evidence and covering up the true significance and origins of UFOs. He also learned that select government agencies preventing disclosure of extraterrestrial life would stop at nothing to maintain the secrets they had acquired.
Some of the better known books that Col Stevens edited/wrote included, Contact from the Pleiades (Bill Meier case); Contact from Andromeda (Prof Hernandez case); UFO Contact from Planet Korendor (the Bob Renard case) and many many more. Wisely, Col Stevens decided to hand over much of his private library to Open Minds TV so future researchers could have access to some of the most important UFO cases to yet be fully investigated.
Col Stevens compiled profiles of many extraterrestrial civilizations that had interacted with humanity from the testimonies of the different contactees. His most sincere hope was that when the right time had arrived, humanity would be able to learn the truth about the ethically advanced extraterrestrial civilizations that had interacted with multiple individuals. In the meantime, his mission was to keep in the public awareness a record of what had happened in these extraterrestrial contact cases despite secret government efforts to suppress this information.
Col Stevens legacy lives on in the books he wrote/edited, the photographic archive he created, and the hope he instilled that contact with ethically advanced extraterrestrials was a reality that would eventually transform human civilization for the better. His character and mission was the noblest among all the UFO researchers that I have had the honor of meeting. Bon voyage Col Stevens, while we’ll miss you on Earth, your life and spirit will carry you forth into a magnificent new journey to the stars.