Pterodactyl in mid-20th-Century Cuba
Two eyewitnesses, in 1971 and in 1965, saw clearly what may have been a
modern species of living pterosaur at the U. S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
Contact: KSN News Release
Jonathan Whitcomb
5347 South New Hampton Drive
Murray, UT 84123 Press Room on Live Pterosaurs
PHONE: 801 590-9692
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PDF of this release is coming
Web Page: Live Pterosaurs in America
Blog: Live Pterosaur
For Immediate Release
LONG BEACH, Calif/KSN/Dec 19, 2011 --- Retired forensic videographer Jonathan
Whitcomb, of Long Beach, California, used to interview accident victims
for attorney firms; now he interviews only eyewitnesses of apparent
pterosaurs, what many Americans call “pterodactyls.” For eight years,
under the title of “cryptozoologist,” he has investigated sightings that he
is convinced make overwhelming evidence for modern creatures that
most paleontologists believe became extinct millions of years ago.
In February of 2010, Whitcomb gave Eskin C. Kuhn (living in Ohio) a
surprise phone call, questioning him about his report of two creatures he
had seen flying over the U. S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in
1971. The questions were meant both to shed light on the sighting and to
reveal whether or not it was a hoax. Whitcomb became convinced, before
the end of their conversation, that Kuhn was telling the truth.
In the summer of 1971, that U. S. Marine was assigned to the 2nd
Battalion, 8th Regiment (reinforced), H&S Company, 106 mm recoilless
rifle platoon, at the naval base. One clear hot day, during his free time,
alone outside the barracks, he looked out to the sea; what he then saw
would create a forty-year controversy.
Two large long-tailed flying creatures, apparent pterosaurs, caught the
Marine’s attention. He later reported that they were “flying together at
low altitude, perhaps 100 feet, very close in range from where I was
standing, so that I had a perfectly clear view of them.” He noticed that the
“structure and the texture of the wings appeared to be very similar to that
of bats . . .” He had no idea that anybody else had seen such a creature.
Kuhn also said, “the pterosaurs I saw had the short hind legs attached to
the rearward-most part of the wing, and they had a long tail trailing
behind with a tuft of hair at the end.” He added that “the vertebrae of
their backs was noticeable, mostly between the shoulders. I would
estimate their wingspan to be roughly 10 feet.”
Within minutes, the Marine sketched what he had seen, revealing a flying
creature unlike any bird or bat classified in Western science as modern.
Thirty-nine years later, after interviewing Kuhn, Whitcomb wrote several
blog posts on the Marine’s sighting and credibility. One of the web pages,
including the sketch by Kuhn, caught the attention of another eyewitness.
In April of 2011, Whitcomb began email and phone conversations with
Patty Carson, of Riverside, California, who had lived as a child at the
military installation at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 1965. She had a close
encounter with the same kind of long-tailed featherless flying creature
one day, but it was on the ground and only about thirty feet away.
Nobody believed her until 2011, when she reported her sighting to
Whitcomb, soon after she had read of Kuhn’s 1971 encounter.
She told Whitcomb, “We were walking through that scrub area, and
suddenly it sat up, as if it had been eating something or resting . . . All of
us froze for about five seconds, then it leaned to its left and took off with
a fwap fwap fwap sound . . . It did have a tail and it had a diamond
shaped tip, (didn't get to see if it had hairs on it) The skin was a
leathery, brownish reddish color. It had little teeth, a LOT of them.”
Running to the house where her family lived at the base, little Patty was
excited to report the “dinosaur,” but they dismissed it as a pelican or
frigate bird; when Patty reported her shocking encounter to Whitcomb, in
2011, however, she repudiated the 1965 misidentification explanation:
“NO WAY! It was as tall as a man when it stood up on it haunches. It was
close. It froze for a few seconds so I got a good look.”
After several more phone and email interviews with Patty in 2011,
Whitcomb interviewed her brother, Tom, who had his own separate
encounter at that military base, in 1966 when he was about ten years old.
He saw it for only about three seconds, with a more limited view, but
remembered that the tail of the flying creature resembled something like
the shaved tail of a dog. Before 2011, Patty and Tom were unaware of each
other’s sighting.
On November 2, 2011, Whitcomb published the third edition of his
nonfiction book Live Pterosaurs in America, with details on the sightings
reported by Eskin Kuhn and Patty Carson.
On December 17, 2011, Whitcomb interviewed a fourth eyewitness of a
strange flying creature seen in the 1960’s at Guantanamo Bay; but she had
little desire to talk about it and remembered little except that the group
she was with saw what they thought looked like a pterodactyl.
###
KSN News Release
U. S. Marine Eskin C. Kuhn,
at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
Back cover of the third edition of the
cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs
in America, by Jonathan Whitcomb
Sketch by Patty Carson: what she
observed in southeastern Cuba
Sketch by U. S. Marine Eskin Kuhn:
what he observed in S.E. Cuba
Both Patty Carson and Eskin
Kuhn were interviewed by
Jonathan Whitcomb