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 EMAIL FORM 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