by Travis Mateer

I didn’t get to know my Grandpa on my mother’s side because he died in a plane crash in 1986. I also didn’t know, until just this week, that my Grandpa had several encounters with unidentified flying objects throughout his life. Even more difficult for me to believe, he and my Grandma even attended a UFO convention. My mind is having some difficulty adjusting to this new information.

Here’s an old newspaper clipping about my Grandpa’s plane crash:

The reason I learned this new information about my Grandpa is because I listened to an incredible story from an incredible man on Thursday, a man I won’t name in this post, but who lost a son here in Missoula. I’ll briefly recount the story here–since it’s an important part of my own family discovery–with the hope of getting into more details at a later date.

The man, who flew planes for big corporations, had received a call from a Christian broadcasting network because their signal wasn’t transmitting. Since this man is ALSO a well-known man of God, and since he knew the mountains in the area had been supposedly dedicated to Satan by Aleister Crowley, he decided to take to the air with a partner and sprinkle a gallon of holy water from the plane. Later, this man found out that the signal began transmitting again and the experience led to a long and fruitful collaboration with the broadcasting network.

I’m relating this story because planes and signals transmitting from mountain tops is what got me thinking about my Grandpa. You can see, from the article above, that Bob Ditton (Gramps) owned Mobilfone Northwest, and he was returning from “working on communications equipment” when his plane crashed 4.1 miles southeast of Pangborn Field. When I talked with my mother about all this, she said it was while working on communications equipment that my Grandpa saw things in the sky that he couldn’t explain. And remember, this man flew planes.

The connection to the space program was established when my Grandpa’s business, Mobilefone Northwest, got sold off to Motorola, a little company that allegedly transmitted the voices of astronauts from the moon. The sale of the business happened after my Grandpa died, and after my dad left the due to a difference of opinion about whether or not the business should grow (my dad found his cancerous-corporate payoff with Sprint).

This connection to the space program gives some fascinating context to the plastic plate I found in a box of belongings after my Grandma died.

I did a quick search online about Motorola’s growth and found an old NYT article that mentions competition with IBM, which is funny, because IBM is the corporation the pastor-pilot man was flying for when he sprinkled the mountains with holy water. It gets funnier when you realize that Aleister Crowley, the man who inspired the Babylon workings that Jack Parsons participated in at the beginning of 1946, drew the first image now associate with “aliens”.

Did I forget to mention this satanic Babylon magick precipitated the first UFO sighting in America made by Kenneth Arnold near Mt. Ranier in Washington state?

The Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting occurred on June 24, 1947, when private pilot Kenneth Arnold claimed that he saw a string of nine, shiny unidentified flying objects flying past Mount Rainier at speeds that Arnold estimated at a minimum of 1,200 miles an hour (1,932 km/hr). This was the first post-World War II sighting in the United States that garnered nationwide news coverage and is credited with being the first of the modern era of UFO sightings, including numerous reported sightings over the next two to three weeks. Arnold’s description of the objects also led to the press quickly coining the terms flying saucer and flying disc as popular descriptive terms for UFOs.

And, of course, we have the fact that Jack was a founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and his magick partner was none other than L. Ron Hubbard, a real fun guy that leveraged his Naval intelligence job into establishing a science fiction religion.

Another facet of my research that just got even MORE weirdly personal involves David Lynch, the Navy, and the geographical location Lynch’s family moved to after Lynch was born at St. Pats in Missoula, Montana, and that’s the geography of Northern Idaho.

Here’s a portion of an interview Skylar Browning did with David Lynch where he talks about his family roots in the Pacific Northwest, including having a Grandpa who was a State Senator in Montana.

Sand Point, Idaho, is the area where the Navy has a very interesting training facility, interesting because Northern Idaho isn’t all that close to sea water, but the LAKE water this training station is on is VERY deep. From the link:

Farragut Naval Training Station was a U.S. Navy training center during World War II in the Western United States. It was located in Northern Idaho at the south end of Lake Pend Oreille at Bayview, between Coeur d’Alene and Sandpoint.[1][2] The base was named after David Farragut (1801–1870), the first admiral in the U.S. Navy and the leading naval officer during the Civil War. The site became Farragut State Park 57 years ago in 1966.

Some of my occult research has taken me into this geographic area, but I had no idea my Grandpa’s father lived on Lake Pend Oreille, near Ponderay. I also had never heard my mother speak about the stories she remembers hearing as a kid about people disappearing in this area, specifically a pastor who supposedly walked into the lake and never came out.

David Lynch’s biographical information also indicates that his father spent time in Hamilton, Montana, a town in the Bitterroot known for being the location of a Bio-Security Level 4 lab called Rocky Mountain Laboratories. From the link:

Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) is part of the NIH Intramural Research Program and is located in Hamilton, Montana. Operated by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, RML conducts research on maximum containment pathogens such as Ebola as well as research on prions and intracellular pathogens such as Coxiella burnetti and Francisella tularensis.[2][3][4] RML operates one of the few Biosafety level 4 laboratories in the United States, as well as Biosafety level 3 and ABSL3/4 laboratories.[5]

In February 2020, electron microscope images of SARS-CoV-2 were collected at RML.[6]

So, what exactly did David Lynch’s daddy do? Well, he worked for the government, of course. Here’s some wikipedia info on Lynch’s early movements, thanks to his dad’s government work:

David Keith Lynch was born in Missoula, Montana on January 20, 1946.[7]: 1  His father, Donald Walton Lynch (1915–2007), was a research scientist working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and his mother, Edwina “Sunny” Lynch (née Sundberg; 1919–2004), was an English language tutor. Two of Lynch’s maternal great-grandparents were Finnish-Swedish immigrants who arrived in the U.S. during the 19th century.[16] He was raised as a Presbyterian.[17][18] The Lynches often moved around according to where the USDA assigned Donald. Because of this, Lynch moved with his parents to Sandpoint, Idaho when he was two months old; two years later, after his brother John was born, the family moved to Spokane, Washington. Lynch’s sister Martha was born there. The family then moved to Durham, North Carolina, Boise, Idaho, and Alexandria, Virginia.

If you think I’m done piling curious references and connections for this post, think again. I have a few more crazy cherries to plop on top before finishing up.

I’ve already marveled at how my run-ins with people, even “street people”, can lead to fascinating connections, like how Doug told me last July his Grandpa was Norris Bradbury. Who is Norris Bradbury? This is Norris Bradbury:

Well, just a few weeks ago I was on the phone with the most dangerous woman in Montana and she absolutely blew my mind by casually dropping how she once worked with Josef Allen Hynek when she was a student astronomy librarian at the University where Hynek taught. Who is Josef Allen Hynek? This is Josef Allen Hynek:

Josef Allen Hynek (May 1, 1910 – April 27, 1986) was an American astronomer, professor, and ufologist.[1] He is perhaps best remembered for his UFO research. Hynek acted as scientific advisor to UFO studies undertaken by the U.S. Air Force under three projects: Project Sign (1947–1949), Project Grudge (1949–1951) and Project Blue Book (1952–1969).

In later years, he conducted his own independent UFO research, developing the “Close Encounter” classification system. He was among the first people to conduct scientific analysis of reports and especially of trace evidence purportedly left by UFOs.

What sparked this casual disclosure from Jane is the fact the skies of Montana have become ground zero for a new interest in unexplained aerial phenomenon, which I wrote about in this post connecting Project Blue Beam with David Lynch’s fucked up tv series, Twin Peaks. Can things get any weirder?

That’s an unnecessary question. Because yes, yes they can. And some future posts and/or interviews concerning cartel behavior will help make that point.

If you appreciate these kinds of connections, please consider making a financial donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

UPDATE: I received a cool pic of Hynek’s business card from Jane, which I’ll include a screen-shot of–enjoy the weekend!

One more update: unfortunately, the information from mother regarding Motorola isn’t accurate. The company that snatched up Grandpa’s communication company was later absorbed by AT&T.