Some twenty years ago he hosted the very first ever UFO World Congress in Tucson. It attracted people from the North and South Americas, Europe, and Asia. He is considered by far the most influential investigative reporter on the subject.
Born in 1923 in Round Prairie, Minn., Stevens enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1941 and was transferred to the Air Corps in 1942. He was trained as a fighter pilot and served in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Later, Lt. Col. Stevens was reassigned to Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) at Wright Field. JJFO projects Sign, Grudge, and Blue Book were also under ATIC at that time.
In 1947, Stevens was sent from ATIC to the Alaskan frontier. It was there that he first encountered stories of UFOs and became interested in the subject that would eventually become a lifelong quest. A little known fact about the man is that when Stevens was serving in the USAF, he was ordered to attend military language school at MAAG (military assistance and advisory group) and then was sent to serve as a major in the Bolivian Air Force. Subsequently, he was bestowed the honor of becoming a Caballero del Condor de los Andes by order of the government of Bolivia.
Stevens retired from the USAF in 1963 and worked for Hamilton Aircraft until 1972. According to a pilot attending the service, Stevens was also a test pilot, due to his fearless attitude and vast flying experience. "Wendelle survived six plane crashes that were not considered survivable” said his friend of 40 years. It was not until his retirement from the USAF that Stevens dedicated his life to ongoing investigations of crashes and sightings of UFOs. He tirelessly traveled around the world to interview and research reports throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, South America and China.
In his 56 years of UFO and ET contact research, he has collected more than 4,000 photographs of actual unidentified flying objects.
Stevens has supplied many of the UFO pictures seen in movies and UFO magazines.
"Wendelle has forgotten more about UFOs than I will ever know!" said host Bob Brown of the latest UFO Congress in Laughlin, Nev.
Wendelle Stevens has written and coauthored more than 20 books on extensive UFO contact cases, and lectured widely on investigations.