Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Karl Pflock Remembered

Kevin Randle, back safe and sound from his recent tour of duty, posted a nice message about Karl today at UFO Updates. Here is an excerpt (the full post can be seen here):

"I'm reminded too of a trip that he and I took in a limousine in LA nine years ago. We were going to do the Sci Fi Channel's SF Vortex and argue about Roswell and UFOs. Also in the car was Russ Estes and I realized that all three of us had been part of the intelligence community at some point. I wondered then what the conspiracy theorists would make of that... but now, two of those people are gone and given our ages, I wouldn't have expected it quite that quickly. Karl liked to twist the tail of those in the UFO community, and sometimes we need it. I believe he was honest in most of what hedid and said just as most of us are honest... I keep thinking of things to put here... things that many of us hold as self evident truths but that might not be quite as solid as we'd like them to be."

This reminds me of the first time I met both Kevin and Karl. Findlay Muir and I were in Cedar Rapids, Iowa - Kevin's hometown - to interview them both for Stanton T. Friedman is Real. The budget was a bit tight by that point, so we had asked Karl to fly up to Iowa rather than two of us fly down to New Mexico, which he readily agreed to do.

Anyway, we were set to interview them one after the other - Kevin first, and then Karl. As I usually do with interview subjects, I took them both out to eat beforehand (in this case, breakfast at what I think was a Village Inn next to the hotel we were staying in). We had a very nice chat, and it was great to watch the back and forth between two ufological veterans, about a myriad number of topics.

Finally, as the meal was winding down, Kevin asked if he and Karl could have some time together to chat before we got underway (they hadn't seen each other in a while). I said sure, because Findlay and I had to go back to the hotel to finalize the set-up (which took about half an hour, as I recall). They ordered a cup of coffee, I paid the bill, and then Findlay and I headed out.

Aware that both Karl and Kevin had backgrounds in the intelligence community, I turned to Findlay as we walked across the parking lot and joked, "Wouldn't I like to be a fly on the wall next to their table right now." Findlay and I had a good laugh, as we imagined what they might be talking about - perhaps some secret MJ-12 plot they were involved in... or perhaps whether they were getting their stories straight about Stan.

Speaking of MJ-12, when I interviewed Karl for the Do You Believe in Majic film, he somehow got a very important detail regarding Donald Menzel's supposed comment about the creatures not being from Mars completely wrong. As I had asked Karl the question twice, and he made the same mistake twice, I felt free to use it. In the film, it's definitely a moment where Stan scores one at Karl's expense (Stan went for the jugular).

After the film came out, I mailed a copy to Karl. He watched it, and said he quite liked it, but couldn't believe that he had made such a mistake regarding Menzel. I said he had made it twice, so I felt free to use the clip, as it wasn't just a one-time slip. Still, because I don't play "gotcha" when it comes to filmmaking, and because I liked and respected Karl, I apologized if it had embarrassed him in any way. He replied (I paraphrase), "Don't worry about it. I'm the guy who made the mistake. Not your fault at all."

Then he added, "Besides, on MJ-12 Stan needs all the help he can get."

Later in our correspondence, this time regarding Aztec, Karl noted that I had come around to his way of thinking. He then joked that I was becoming Anakin to his Darth.

At least I think he was joking! :-)

May the Force be with you, Karl, wherever your journey takes you.

Paul "Anakin" Kimball

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