Bruce was a very interesting man. I met him at a Las Vega UFO Crash Retrieval Conference in the early 2000’s. He was not only selling his books but a tape of his piano, synthesizer work along with his son playing the drums! An accomplished physicist and UFO analyst, Bruce Maccabee, began serious photo research in the late 1960’s as part of the NICAP committee of active and retired military officers investigating UFO sightings until it was dissolved thanks to CIA interference in 1980! One infamous sighting among many that he dissected in the photo laboratory was the 1950 McMinnville, Oregon photo of a classic disk-shaped object as it passed over farmer, Paul Trent’s property! I remember him saying when skeptics called the photo a fake that Trent was not smart enough nor inclined to have pulled off a hoax.

Sadly, Bruce passed away in May of 2024 at his home in Lima, Ohio. It was there that he enjoyed a peaceful life with his wife, Jan, Pheneger Maccabee, who survived him. They lived at a rural residence close to deer hunting grounds and enjoyed the outdoor existence. It was routine for Bruce while on the computer in the early morning that his wife, Jan, would go out to the deer stand, climbing a tall oak tree in the wee hours just before sunrise, and patiently wait to see if she could bag a buck with her telescopic rifle. Jan shows how she climbs into her camouflaged platform and quietly sets up for a possible shot. It seems their lifestyle here was ideal.

Among famous UFO photos and incidents that Bruce Maccabee analyzed through tireless hours of research were the 1947 sighting near Mt. Rainier by pilot, Kenneth Arnold’s sighting, the Golf Breeze sightings over Florida, the Phoenix Lights in 2004, and the New Zealand Lights sighting in 1978, among many others! Having made numerous appearances on radio and TV shows about the UFO phenomenon, Bruce also got involved in funding for UAP research FUFOR, served on the MUFON board of directors, among so many other functions in his extensive quest to solve the UFO mystery and accompanying evidence!

Jan had gabbed a cup of coffee as Bruce relaxed behind his computer one morning and climbed up into her deer stand. The air was crisp, it was slightly cloud but visibility was excellent as she waited to see what she might find, searching for an animal to bag. Suddenly in a neighboring tree just 20 feet away, Jan saw what she would characterize as the same Predator we know in the movies who uses a barely detectable stealth field to hide itself from its prey! It was up in the limbs climbing among the branches. She had just enough time to take some cell phone photos, but the semi-invisible interloper disappeared in a cluster of foliage. I think that this was more than coincidence! We already know that the US military has a cloaking capability that can render a tank virtually invisible.

We know that Bruce Maccabee has retrieved sensitive files on UFOs from the FBI and CIA which he claimed were the real-life X files. Would it be any surprise that surveillance was being stealthily maintained even at Bruce’s private residence? Or, was there an extraterrestrial interest in what Bruce was doing even in his rural home? Jan showed the footage she took and it was just as plain as the Predator movie semi-translucent appearance.

There have been similar sightings reported by other witnesses.