Signes des temps

EYES ON THE SKIES
If truth is out there, Metairie husband, wife hope to find it
Thursday, July 01, 2004
By Michelle Hunter
East Jefferson bureau
After 20 years of investigating claims of unidentified flying objects up and down the East and Gulf coasts, Joe and Linda Montaldo never expected to spot one while sitting on the back porch of their Metairie home.

"Come on, this is Metairie," Linda Montaldo said.
     
But on the night of May 24, the couple said, they videotaped a dark, oblong shape with flashing blue, green, red and yellow lights. The Montaldos said they watched as the object hovered for 11 minutes somewhere over Lake Pontchartrain near Kenner.

While a few of their friends also spotted it, no calls about a UFO traveling through East Jefferson were logged by local law enforcement agencies, the Coast Guard, the Navy, the National Weather Service or Jefferson Parish Emergency Services, the agencies said.

Yet the Montaldos, firm believers in extraterrestrial life, are positive that what they saw was no plane, helicopter, weather balloon or astronomical phenomenon.

And so begins another case for the International Community for Alien Research, or ICAR, a 2,800-member organization founded by the Montaldos, connected by the Internet and headquartered out of the couple's Division Street home.

Membership is free for anyone with an open mind who's willing to donate a few hours of volunteer time to the cause and who can fill out the Internet application.

ICAR's mission isn't conversion.

"My job is not to convince people that E.T. is on the planet," Joe Montaldo, 41, said while fidgeting with a still frame of the recent Lake Pontchartrain UFO on one of several computers set up in his kitchen. "My job is to rule out all the other explanations."

The Montaldos' home, aka ICAR-HQ, is fairly low-key: a pale yellow townhouse in the 2800 block of Division with a white picket fence that runs along the driveway. There are only a few touches of the extraterrestrial inside: an alien skull underneath a globe in the living room, a gag gift from the couple's son; a poster of a Confederate flag with a day-glow green alien dressed in Civil War grays; and a candle shaped as an alien on the back porch.

The computer equipment that covers the kitchen table is part of Joe Montaldo's day job as owner of S&J Contracting -- the company builds and installs computer networks for businesses -- but it's clear ICAR is the Montaldos' passion.

"We spend all of our free time and all of our free money on this," Linda Montaldo, 54, said. That amounts to about $12,000 a year, roughly $250,000 total. The Montaldos and other trained volunteer ICAR investigators have traveled through 40 states and 11 countries to check out claims of alien abductions and flying objects. They say they have run into more than a few sightings they simply cannot explain away.

New Orleans is actually quite the hot spot for sightings, Montaldo said. A number of reports, often described as sightings of dark objects, come out of the French Quarter. But the Montaldos said those are taken with a grain of salt considering the location and the probable involvement of alcohol.

The couple know their beliefs are fuel for skeptics who might mock them. In fact, Montaldo says he was once one of them.

"When people used to tell me about this, I used to think they were nuts," he said. "But there's just too much evidence out there from credible people: doctors, lawyers, mayors, firefighters and police officers."

Montaldo also was swayed by the story of a close friend's abduction. Coming from someone who he considered intelligent, sensible and sane, Montaldo said he began to believe.

The ultimate goal of ICAR is to spark an official investigation by either a government agency or a university, Montaldo said. Until that day comes, the couple will continue to investigate abduction claims and UFO sightings, posting their findings on their Web site, www.icar1.com.

Still, Montaldo admits he retains at least a small portion of his former skepticism.

"When E.T. comes up and says, 'Hey Joe, how ya doing?' I'll be a 100 percent believer," he said.

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Michelle Hunter can be reached at mhunter @ timespicayune.com or (504) 883-7054.