You are right Ethno, there are alot of people out there that are more sensitive and connected to this subject than I am. I believe strongly in aliens, but not to the point of threatening someones life. I have never seen an alien, or a UFO for that matter,nor have I ever claimed to. Everything I believe comes from my own findings through the years. I look at evidence from every perspective, even the skeptics. I have to admit alot of this stuff does seem crazy and outlandish, but the evidence is there nonetheless. And like I stated previousley, you have to weed out the absolute nonsense and hoaxes, sift through all the bullshit, and find the stuff that truly sounds genuine. I have at times been almost to the point of saying to myself "Dude your nuts", but for some reason, I just get the feeling that there is indeed something to it all.
As for your friend at WPAFB, it is truly a small world. My parents grew up in Dayton, and I used to live in Riverside. I could throw all kinds of government documents at you showing records of cargo shipped from Roswell to Dayton on that day, but then you'll just say that who knows what was really on those planes and we will continue to go round and round like the last forty something pages. No one but the people involved with the incident will ever know what really happened.
I'm not forcing my beliefs on anyone, just presenting the evidence the way I see it
And you've done a well-reasoned and patient job of presenting your views, and especially of tolerating my skepticism. There once was a time when I was much more open to the ideas you're espousing, or at least of the permissibility of some of them. As I said, I absolutely find no redeeming value in the "ancient astronaut" theories, mostly because I'm practically over-educated and can provide rational explaination for much of it- the sheer number of hoaxes and the money that those authors make off it doesn't help, either. If God or the Easter Bunny came down and told them in person that such things didn't exist, it wouldn't matter to those authors or to many of the people as deeply invested in it. Then again, if it was the Easter Bunny, that would be a wildcard that could go either way. I just threw that in there for those athiests and agnostics. I'm primarily talking about Erich von Daniken here, who either went off the deep end or made some sort of Faustian deal... He lost any credibility the day he dreamed up his theme park.
Where I am willing to concede a bit is in the realm of unidentified flying objects. The first sighting, to my knowledge, was in the late 1800's, very near the turn of the century. The next one, I believe, was in the 1920's. The sheer number of sightings, and especially that more than a handful have been captured on tape, says something. Some of the sightings were too early to have been experimental spacecraft, and some were witnessed by too many people to be easily explained as a hoax or some sort of mass hallucination. To be sure, there were very few sighting prior to the late 1950's, and the number of sighting are tied to events such as as H.G. Well's "War of the Worlds" and general hysteria incited by other media which depicts extraterrestrials. It also does not discount astronomical or atmospheric phenomena: I myself have witnessed "ball lighting", "St. Elmo's Fire", and "swamp/corpse lights" (also called will o'wisps). Some of these phenomena seem to behave to the observer as if they were intelligent, though they are obviously not. The swamp lights flew in formation, and the ball lightning followed me for some time before going off somewhere else. It found something more conductive, no doubt.
However, it seems to me that there have been cover-ups, such as in Roswell, New Mexico. While it can be argued that these may in fact be experimental aircraft (whether American or Soviet), as some who were involved believed in lieu of extraterrestial craft, others whose credibility is hard to question have believed otherwise. UFOs are also sighted all over the world, and it seems some governments have launched investigations into them. While logical explainations, or at least explainations having nothing to do with extraterrestrials can be offered for all of this, it still raises a few eyebrows, including my own.
I hope there are alien visitors out there. I just know (unfortunately) that the statistical probablility of extraterrestrials actually being sentient and making it here is astronomical almost to the point of it being impossible. One day, we'll start probing deep space in manned craft, and there are several planets out there that at least from preliminary images seem to be capable of supporting life. But, as most people know, simply because it appears to us now does not mean it is still there, with the time it takes light to travel between galaxies. But for those close to us (such as in the Andromeda), it's possible. This won't be in our lifetimes, unfortunately, but the truth, as they say, is out there. It would go a long way (such as in the Star Trek universe) toward human unity if we discovered for sure that we weren't alone. Even if it is a remote possibility, I know I personally shall keep looking to the sky. Here's hoping.
~Ethno
Ernie has probably another 5 hours to wear you down, I will check back in for the early shift tomorrow. 
