Musing about Miethe

After former Nazi Colonel Miethe was exiled from Egypt in the early fifties, UFO lore has him in Canada, heading up the AVRO flying saucer program. Of course rumor also has it that after the US bought the technology, it turned out to be a total bust.

Uh-huh.

Read about it here

So how does Miethe relate to Townsend, you ask?  Only in the following tangential ways:

1.Linda Brown recalls Townsend speaking of  the characteristics of "our" ufos in the period of time the AVRO prototype was being tested.

2. Linda has told Twigsnapper's account of driving up to a Russian labor camp with Sarbacher, and securing the release of a prisoner, a former German rocket scientist. (A very 'Caroline' type of operation)

3. Sarbacher and Townsend later worked closely together, with Sarbacher even accompanying Townsend to and from the airport on his journeys to France, where he was doing advanced lifter experiments.

Mix those elements together and what do you get?  That's right...a totally Miethe-less soup!

But somehow, I see him in the center of it. It makes a  certain statement when a person is important enough to be wiped from the public record.





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Beau "Peepless" Kitselman

Alva Lasaile Kitselman....

Beau was one of Townsend's closest friends and associates  and. like Townsend,  his tracks through history are, nearly invisible. Appropriate for a man whose intelligence codename was "Sandcastle" in honor of the  thoroughness and speed with which he could create and erase full blown operations.

Before we leave "Buster"...

The LIFE magazine story of May 28, 1956, provides a detailed account of the days before and after Commander Crabb's disappearance.  Many think this last dive was done at the behest of  the foreign arm of  British Secret Intelligence, a belief  bolstered by the publication of  Peter Wright's SPYCATCHER. Wright claimed that Crabb was sent down to observe the hull and propeller design of the Ordzhonikidze, the radically fast new Russian cruiser that brought Premier Krushchev to Great Britain on a diplomatic call.

The Human Side

When Trickfox, a Canadian scientist and fellow forum member requested some beta testers for an invention of his,  Mr. Twigsnapper asked Linda to bring me a test unit.  The Astrologer and I rendezvoused with her and Tractorman George at our local Chevron station. It was a brief but intense get acquainted meeting and I remember being struck by something she said as we nattered away in the back seat of the Prius: “You ought to see some of the pictures!”

I assumed she was talking about surveillance photos, but the significance of that statement didn't really click until I read  JD's reference to pictures “taken through the Keyhole,”  made  in one of his e-mails to the author of "Defying Gravity," (Once Linda decided to write her memoirs, someone, presumably JD, arranged for her to be handed a packet of printouts of their (JD and the author's) correspondence on the anniversary of her Dad's birthday in 2009, and I have read through most of it. ) Anyway, wonderful though reconnaissance satellites are, the need for boots on  the ground will always remain.

JD  and Mr. Twigsnapper represent the human side of the espionage world or HUMINT, as it is known.   Although I have seen photos of each of them, I imagine that I might be sitting in the same room with either one of them and not know who they were, unless they wanted to be known.

First Impressions

I was intrigued with the people gathered around Defying Gravity. They seemed to be a motivated and intelligent crew focused on researching and discussing Townsend Brown's life and career. As I mentioned in the previous blog post, Linda Brown's presence came across loud and clear. Her forum self was bright, staunch, eloquent, gracious, and loyal. She was just as I expected her to be. But I had to depend on observation and intuition to tell me about the other posters.

Almost everyone stood up to my sincerity tests. I was sure that the majority of the posters were exactly who they claimed to be. There was also a notable contingent of spooky folks there, members and former members of three-letter intelligence agencies. Beyond adopting noms de forum even they did not go out of their way to create false posting personas. I soon learned to pay attention to one of them in particular.

Mr. Twigsnapper was (and is) a charming octogenarian who knows more about Townsend Brown than anyone else alive other than Linda. He freely admitted to being one of the two significant sources for Defying Gravity. He introduced himself as Garrity to Linda and her husband, Tractorman George, shortly after they moved to the high desert but his real name was lost ages ago.

The original primary source also made a brief appearance on that forum as J.D. Barret. "JD" had been Linda's First Love and his relationship with her family dated back to the early sixties when "Dr." Brown helped him along with his dream of becoming a real life James Bond. From what I know now, it would be safe to say that his career has outstripped his wildest dreams.

Mr. Twigsnapper's career has also been a successful and colorful one. Many of us followed his posts avidly because he was adept at sharing previously unknown and seemingly irrelevant stories that sent us off to do further research. More often than not, we found independent verification of his facts and some connection to the Townsend Brown story. The more I researched, the more I came to believe that we had barely scratched the surface of a most remarkable story.

After eighteen months of near daily immersion in it, I am more than ever convinced that this is so. It is a complex and multi-generational story that affects us all and it may take many tellings before we understand the full ramifications of it, but it is time now for the next chapters to unfold.