A late 2022 release is targeted. She is still accepting detailed stories for inclusion in both volumes. Go to the blog page "UFO SKIES" for the contact form
3/24/22
Hudson To Follow Up SOONER SAUCERs with Related Works
3/20/22
Where Did It Go?
Researching for some new projects (books on the UFO phenomena) I was tracking sightings reported from my home state. I found in 2020 a listing for a place, a date, a report. I took several pages of notes. Added it to the file to explore as I began the book on my home state.
I had been working on that project for some weeks, researching, collating, and gathering information and interviews. I pulled out those notes, and then decided to go back to the online collection of Project Blue Book to check out a detail or two.
It.Was.Not.There.
I double checked. I looked in the year before and after. I searched through the non-dated and illegible files. I dug into other sources and checked newspaper archives (which were oddly pretty blank for a time when there are several cases listed in Project Blue Book and newspapers in other locations).I have searched for several days now and still no mention of that case, anything related to the location or the date.
Given the history of certain parties when it comes to telling the whole story about what people were seeing and reporting and the less than perfectly factual representation of events, this author has to wonder. Now, that another soon to be super secret project related to the search for answers to Unidentified Aerial Objects had been created...was that case file sharing more than was warranted good for someone?
So - the hunt goes on....I am baffled. Where did it go?
1/14/22
THOSE STRANGE 'CONTACTEES'
Through out human history there have been periods in which a society advanced and moved away from long trusted belief systems, behaviors, and moral road maps. Everything "new" was questioned and held in suspicious regard. Change only brought chaos and uncertainty. Status-quo kept things conformed to what had always been and should always be.
"Little people", "Saint", "Angels", "Spirit Guides" or "Space Brothers" - humans appear to have always had times when they sought some power outside of themselves to vindicate a certain point of view. Often that was a plea to retain the old, sacred, tried and true ways. Sometimes it was to embrace a new vision of life and adopt new values and behaviors to improve life for everyone.
The "Contactee Movement" of the late 1940's, the 1950's when they peaked, and even into the 1960's when they lingered appear to fit into that framework of being a response to the fear of technological changes brought by a world war, the atom bomb, and a new world where life moved at a hectic new pace and old ways were being shed like the skin of a snake.
Thus, motivated by fear, con artist greed and opportunity, and often simple spiritual and metaphysical beliefs, the people of Venus, Mars or "Clarion" came to call on simple Earth people to express messages of hope, of peace, and a call to repentance for evil ways and warring habits. They enlisted these people they identified as unique, the chosen ones, the messiahs of a technological age.
This quasi religious or spiritual aspect makes them unique - along with the strong presence of con artists in the mix - and suggests they are a separate phenomena from those who witness or experience other types of UFO or alien contact. One suggests other dimensions, spiritual systems and a response to changing society and the other suggests new technologies and potential non-terrestrial life forms. The motives and methods of both suggest two totally different categories of human experience.
1/13/22
STROUD, OKLAHOM AUTHOR SEEKS STORIES OF UFOS AND ODD EXPERIENCES.
For some the found art in a backyard in Stroud, Oklahoma along Route 66 is a curiosity, a junk masterpiece, a bit of good ol' boy kitsch. For others they see the link to the larger UFO and flying saucer mythos and cattle mutilation events as the inspiration.
For the Stroud resident and author of SOONER SAUCERS: OKLAHOMA UFO'S FROM 1947 TO 1969 (Amazon 2020) and the upcoming SOONER SAUCERS. Vol. 2 (due out later this year) it is a reflection of the bizarre stories Marilyn A. Hudson has uncovered in her research and through stories shared with her for the book.
In fact, she has collected a growing list of sightings, experiences, and events all along Route 66. "I am always interested in more," she said in an interview.
People through the decades have experience strange things all along the "Mother Road." "I would like to hear from people with stories of sightings of objects, strange lights, and any really odd experiences cruising along the area of Route 66. "
The author has a "comment" form on her webpage, UFO SKIES (www.ufoskies.blogspot.com), where anyone can submit a story related to UFO's or odd events along Route 66. "If a person does not want me to use their name just give me some initials. I will want details - time, place, details of the event - and what went on before and after. It is not enough to say there was this object in the sky unless information about which way it was moving, if it made sound, if it had any colors, smells associated with it. How fast did it move? How did move? What was the shape? Where exactly was the event or the object? To consider these stories in the wider context of events there has to be enough to locate where the event happened, what the weather was like, time of day, movements, and all the rest. So those are needed in any report. What time did it happen and when did it end? Every detail of the event is valuable in getting a picture of the experience."
Author Marilyn A. Hudson is ready to get her kicks on Route 66 - on the road or in the skies.
12/17/21
1964 New Mexico Sighting
12/16/21
Author Seeks Stories of Oklahoma UFO"s
Oklahoma author and researcher, Marilyn A. Hudson whose 2020 book SOONER SAUCERS: OKLAHOMA UFO'S 1947-1969 is available on Amazon, is working on a volume 2 that will look at the post Project Blue Book years (1970-2021). "I am seeking people who had experiences and are willing to seriously share what they observed or experienced. I am asking for as much details, especially, date, locale, time, and descriptions of direction, weather, and other details that will provide a better picture of the event. I would like to use names to make sure that it is as factual and scientific as possible. The topic of the work is a serious look at things for which people had no logical explanations," explained the author.
Her SOONER SAUCERS provided a detailed look at the reports found in Project Blue Book, the Air Force official project to study the unidentified flying objects for the state of Oklahoma. In light of the recent events that have made the study less a matter of open ridicule and once more a serious topic for science to explore, she adds, " Having more stories of substance will be a great contribution to the larger field of new science and understanding old mysteries."
Those wishing to share their own experience or sighting, please contact the author Marilyn A. Hudson and share your account in detail. "I want the second volume to be as fact based as possible to provide other researchers with important data."
Marilyn A. Hudson is on Facebook as well.
10/9/21
6/27/21
TULSA'S MOTHER SHIP OF 1966
From the files of my book, SOONER SAUCERS, one of my favorite - and almost unknown stories of Oklahoma UFO's. Sept. 1966, Tulsa.
As I learned early in my research, one has to go deep - into the witness reports and associated data on a event in Project Blue Book. Read them and not the conclusions made by others. Some with the Project had little faith in people and so ignored everything they said anyway. Several, including Dr. Menzel, had presuppositions that belied adherence to an open mind and the potential for learning new things.
As a result, when the spin-doctors finished with this event, well to read the summary of this event, it looks pretty ho-hum.
Then when one digs deeper, scanning the sketch included by the witness and the parts left out of his statement by AF officials - it gets - interesting.
The witness saw the object officials would label a plane disappear into a vast dark mass of a craft....That part, however, never made it into the final public explanation of the event.
THE LATEST UFO/UAP Report
UFO SKIES: Is It Disclosure? In a Manner of Speaking...
One of the great mysteries of all time: are we alone in the universe? The topic of UFO/UAP phenomena has been around for many centuries. Kenneth Arnold's famed sighting of June 1947 - days before the Roswell Event - appeared to coin a term for the objects: flying saucers. In reality, that term can be found in a North Texas newspaper of the 1870's when a farmer described the strange object that sailed past overhead at great speed.
The Roswell Event - where the Army released they had one of the "saucers" and then they promptly recanted that and buried the story beneath a hard-to-swallow tale that painted the local military personnel of Roswell (then the only base for planes carrying nuclear weapons) and the local people of Roswell as ignorant yokels. Digging the knife into any would-be witnesses and all those who had said they had seen something were top brass, talking heads, and newspapers all with one agenda: ridicule anyone who says they have seen one of these things! One top ranking military officer inferred the only state not reporting seeing things in the sky was Kansas because it was a "dry state." Thus, if you see anything you have to be drunk. Reputation ruined. Period. By the way, Kansas had its own reports as well.
It is truly amazing to see the shift in how news, governments, and others are speaking about this subject. After, decades of the mandatory tone being ridicule, this tone of acceptance and recognition of the topic as a science-worthy field of discussion is amazing.
Major news outlets that once led with tongue-in-cheek speak about "little green men" (which was a way of casting the subject in the same arena as little pink elephants and not a reference to any green aliens!) are sitting up, adjusting their ties and hairdos and looking serious and somber as they file the story under, "series news."
Amazing.
So, while it may not be the tell all disclosure some envisioned what is happening, and hopefully, will continue to happen, is to bring the subject into the room for serious discussion.
While the very brief report released to the public says little, it does say some powerful things. It says the UFO/UAP is a real object based on scientific equipment that tracked them, based on highly qualified witnesses who saw them, and video evidence they could not refute.
The task force was mandated to study the best cases and present a report. From those best cases they were able to identify only one. Then the task force recommendations read like reports presented by Dr. J. Allen Hynek decades ago: better science, more rigor, more study, and the openness to learn and accept what is discovered.
Now - governments and private groups - should come together to discover more and share more with a public unafraid of what may be discovered.
So the UFOs Are Real. Now What? (msn.com)
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Be sure and read Marilyn A. Hudson's book, SOONER SAUCERS: Oklahoma UFO's 1947 to 1969. Available on Amazon.
2/13/21
BILLIE SCHAFFER: 1959 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE ENDS IN MURDER
Mrs. Billie Shaffer of Seminole, daughter of Judge W.A. McDaniel's also of Seminole, and wife of an Air Force captain assigned to Greenland, went to see a doctor for treatment of mild depression and loneliness as a wife at home with her husband oversees. Then she went shopping with a friend and attended a dinner party. She called home to her mother, who was taking care of her two children, and told her to expect her back in Seminole anytime from 12:15 to 1:30 a.m.. It was February 21, 1959.
She enjoyed a last meal with friends and she left, purchases in her car, and headed back to Seminole from Oklahoma City. She never made it. She was reported missing February 21, 1959.
Her car was found, minus woman, with her purse, purchases and keys in the ignition with the motor running. The 1958 Buick Sedan had been abandoned along a road NE of Oklahoma City. It was just south of NE 10th southeast of the general area of Choctaw Road, east of Lake Hiwassee Road, Later examination by Highway Patrol found her hat crushed in a ditch and a dent in her back bumper.
She was found far from where she would have been headed. An massive search was launched when her car was found deserted along NE 10 and Choctaw Rd with all items inside and the motor running. Several noted its presence among them the Highway Patrol. When she did not arrive home to her parents to retrieve her children, her father launched a search.
Like other murders of the time period the body was placed far into a field or similar remote area. The area was about three miles north of Choctaw (and NE 23rd) and about one mile east of Lake Hiawassee Road. There were no visible signs of violence or cause of death.
A Dr. William Jacques, OU Medical School Department of Pathology, assisted a Sheriff Bob Turner in the investigation of the body. She was clad in some clothes but but had a skirt and a slip on with other clothes nearby. The skirt was shoved up some but there was no sign of sexual assault and no signs of the clothes being torn or ripped.
Her other shoe was nearby. One revealed serious scuff marks along the side but the soles were oddly lacking in wear - especially given the fact she was in the middle of a rough area of a field and at the time period of her disappearance would have suffered in some weather had she walked away from her running car three miles away.
It appeared someone had to have carried her to the area of the field where she was found.
Although there were no signs of knife, bullet, or blunt object blows, there were three odd facts. She had a drop of blood on the inside collar area behind her neck. There were bruises consistent with compression bruises around her neck such as would be seen in a strangulation. Some apparent predation, however, of her check and neck prevented definite identification of that as bruising from strangulation. Also, there had been a nosebleed. Combined it raised several questions. Dr. Jacques was reported to have noted that nosebleeds did not accompany strangulation except - and then he recalled some injuries seen in the war where the assailant had utilized a judo hold to inflict a "sleeper's hold."
In addition, she had a unique set of diamond wedding rings, engraved, and they were on the body when it was found.
Autopsy report indicated she only had her normal medicines in her blood stream and small amounts of alcohol and since she had come from a holiday dinner that was not too surprising.
Several avenues and theories were explored. One of the most interesting involves a known drug corridor that ran throughout the region of the interstates, the Seminole-Asher- Ada area and paths south into Texas and East into Arkansas. This corridor was known to be an active pathway of organized crime, for drugs and for prostitution. People all through those paths had a tendency to turn up dead because they knew something or merely had the misfortune to see something they should not have seen.
A minor acquaintance of the dead woman was found to be a nurse from Ada named Adeline Thomas. She was involved in some manner and degree with a narcotics ring. She decided to turn state's evidence and on the day she was supposed to testify she disappeared. She was found sitting in her car in a residential area of Ada and complaining of terrible throat pain. A few days later she died from her injuries. An autopsy revealed injuries incredibly similar to those on the neck of the airman's dead wife.
A madman at work? A crazed psychopath? Or someone who had the misfortune to be seen in the company of a person with ties to a narcotics ring - possibly one run by organized crime with far reaching tendrils.
Did she perhaps intersect with the Thomas woman from Ada and that casual relationship was mis-interpreted by the narcotics ring? Did Billie encourage the Thomas woman in some way so the nurse decided go to authorities and tell all? There was never any evidence found of Billie being linked to the narcotics ring or any other criminal activities.
The scenario might be as simple as a woman driving home, seeing something, or being mistaken for someone else. Fingered and then followed, someone could have hit her bumper and then when she got out of her car, motor still running, she was attacked and killed. Then her body taken three miles away and disposed of in an area known by locals for its remoteness just as winter blizzard was expected that would hide the body for weeks. That fits the known facts.
One other thing - the area where her body was found was one known most to locals - so her killer may have been someone in the area with an ear to the ground for out of the way, hard to reach, and suitable body dump sites. Billie Geraldine Schaffer was born 29 October 1920 and her grave marker reads her death was recorded as February 21, 1959.
Thanks to Oklahoma City reader Jeff Dees for bringing this 1960 issue of Master Detective to my notice. His mother had kept it and had assured him it was a very accurate retelling of events.
1/5/21
LIVING UNKNOWN SOLDIER
In a comma, he was examined, shrapnel wounds riddled his back and various other infections resulted. The military, the Merchant Marines, the Coast Guard, the Red Cross, other countries - everyone tried to locate some record of such a man. He could recall details of every steam ship company in the world. He recognized when shown photographs, the Royal Navy's gunnery school in Gosport, England. No records surfaced.
No crew photos revealed his face. Searches for a ship The Cutty Sark revealed no modern ship of that name; later memories of being a crewman aboard the Hinemoa conflicted as to the man's story of it sinking in the Atlantic (it had sunk in the English Channel).
Later research suggested he might have been a POW or a spy but evidence is scant. His tattoos revealed a mixture of American and British naval symbols and phrases (one seeming to read U.S. Navy). He seemed to remember ships and places from the turn of the century better than more recent events and so he may have been suffering from dementia (such Alzheimer's were older memories are fresher than recent ones).
Although a patient in the hospital for 12 years (due largely to a battle with those infected wounds) - no friend, relative, work mate ever visited him there. Apparently, to this day, just who Charles A. Jameson was, remains a mystery.
An excellent article on this subject of Charles A. Jamison or Jameson can be read on this site
11/8/20
OKLAHOMA UNSOLVED
April 29, 1986, a Lawton wife and mother Aileen Conway, was found burned to death in a car that had crashed on a lonely, isolated rural road. Ruled at first an accidental death, her husband and children soon became convinced that was wrong and worked tirelessly to get authorities to delve deeper into the case. Too many things did not add up.
Indications were that the care had been going about 50-60 mph when in ran into a low metal railing over a narrow bridge. It burst into flames, burning so hot that the car was consumed, metal merging with metal in the inferno. Tests by the authorities (including the state Fire Marshall) indicated the material of her car had flame retardant qualities that should have put out any normal blaze or minimized its impact. Tests proved similar material doing just exactly what it was supposed to do. To burn as hot as the fire in the car did, an accelerate would be need to feed the flames.
Her family had found, additionally, several clues that something had odd had occurred. The ironing board had been set up , with the iron on. A bath was run but not used. A phone was off the hook. A yard hosed filling or topping up an outdoor pool was left running. Her purse was left inside the house.
One of the biggest puzzles was why was she on that desolate, isolated, county road in the first place? Her family could not find any clues or reasons why she would have been there, that time or any other. Especially given the conditions left at home. Theories included her being a victim of local robbery spree gone bad but that leaves as many questions as it answers.
Aileen Conway died a mysterious and, to date, still unsolved death on April 29, 1986. That tragedy still haunts family and friends to this day.
An oddly similar death occurred in March 1956 when a young wife, a student at the university in Alva, Oklahoma was returning to her home near Avard. The tragic death of Mildred Ann Newlin Reynolds, known by most friends as Ann, involved a lonely and isolated stretch of country road, a car that burned at an unusually high level, tracks of a possible second vehicle, and what looked like an attempt by one driver to turn around.
Her young coach husband, and many others, were eyed as possible suspects. The event occurred - as with the Lawton case - on a stretch of country road far away from the nearest residence. In the Reynolds case the victim was simply heading toward the farm she and her husband lived on.
There were anomalies : the tire tracks, a shoe and blood outside the vehicle and on the side of the road (although her body was found laying slumped from driver side onto the passenger side, and what looked like something might have been stuck in the gas tank opening to speed up fire reaching the gas tank. See more at LACY NEWLIN'S STORY.
10/20/20
The Man With the Ax :Villisca and Beyond
Has the answer been found for, not only the haunting and horrible murders of Villisca, Iowa in 1912, but others both before and after? Have so many deaths finally been solved? There is an excellent chance that is the case.
Another such acquaintance with a keen interest in such topics gifted me this year with a copy of the 2017 book THE MAN FROM THE TRAIN by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James. The subtitle says it all "Discovering America's Most Elusive Serial Killer." The authors start with the Villisca murders and make the links to other, all too similar, crimes noted early on in Kansas and Colorado. They soon find others and the book unfolds in gripping and oft times horrific details.
What truly sets this work apart is the criteria established to categorize crimes by their unknown man from the train from other crimes similar but significantly different. Given the hurdle of such historic research when one is faced with irregular records, non-existent records, garbled and sensationalized journalism and the tendency for police and communities to not think in terms of a truly random crime without motive or meaning, the result is impressive.
The casual writing style fits the topic, no one wants to be bogged down by academic formality when writing what is basically a true-to-life "who dun it." The chronology and organization would have been easier to follow had it been more linear. It does hop around a bit and that can be confusing. They also have an entry in Wikipedia on the work, a singular credit, given that sources often overly stringent protocols and less than evenly distributed approvals.
Do they name the man? Yes, they do and they present a more than credible argument that it could truly be that individual. And no, this column's author will not name names - read the book and enjoy the discovery for yourself.
See an earlier posting on the Taylor and Elliot books.
10/19/20
THE TERROR TIMES - HALLOWEEN IN OKLAHOMA 1960'S AND 1970'S - From Marilyn A. Hudson's work "Oklahoma Halloween"
The "Terror Times": 1960 and 1970's in Oklahoma Halloween
7/25/20
BOOK ON OKLAHOMA UFO'S AND ANNOUNCEMENT GOVERNMENT HAS "OFF WORLD" VEHICLE! : ALL WITHIN A WEEK OF EACH OTHER
5/30/20
DRESSING AS A MAN: CROSS-DRESSING, TRANSGENDER, AND SEARCHES FOR FREEDOM
5/24/20
THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT: OKLAHOMA CITY'S WILD YOUTH

- Etta Woods and Her Creole Girls (Have not found a name associated with this location on the north and opposite to Nina's)
- Nina Truelove's (South side)
- Madame Brentlinger (aka Jean La Monte), Red Star. She had supposedly come from Leadville with Big Anne Wynne
- Red Onion, Madame Clayton (another or the same is located at one time on Alabaster Row according to postcard in the Griffin book)
- Madam McDonald's 'The Arlington', (Middle of the block, south side)
- Big Anne's 'Place 44', supervised by Effie Fisher (Corner of 2nd and Walker, south side)
- Noah's Ark, supervised by 'Big Liz' and 'Dude' (North side)
Sources:
Daily Oklahoman
McRill. "...And Satan Came Also"
Owens, Ron, Oklahoma Justice: The Oklahoma City Police (1995)
Griffin, Terry L. Oklahoma City: Land Run to Statehood (pg. 20)
'Hell's Half Acre." http://www.okchistory.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=245:hells-half-acre&catid=41:people&Itemid=78
1/17/20
Fort Riley : Ghosts and UFO Tales

For many, during WW1, it was home to "Camp Funston" and gained notoriety for the Spanish Influenza that broke out there and was carried around the world by soldiers.
A wife variety of ghosts 'haunt' the Fort and its surroundings. For more on them visit.https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ks-fortriley/
In more recent decades, two stories of Fort Riley have been incorporated in to the mythos of Unidentified Flying Objects. Philip Corso in his controversial and challenged book, The Day After Roswell, alleged one of the alien bodies from the Roswell, New Mexico crash in 1947 had gone through the Fort on its journey to Wright-Patterson in Ohio.
Later, a tale from December of 1964 alleged that before 2:00 a.m. Dec. 10, 1964, returning soldiers were tasked to assist with a search for a crashed UFO. Intense searchlights from low flying helicopters swept far corners of the Fort landscape with orders to kill anyone interfering. The recovered disc was 35-48 ft. diameter and 12-18 ft. tall with a fin like protrusion and aluminum like skin. It had black squares about 9 inches that jutted out from the rim.
11/7/19
MYSTERIOUS WITNESSES: Who was Jefferson Villars?
One was a mysterious Jefferson Villar who submitted several photos, drawings and a detailed account of seeing a UFO sailing though his neighborhood in the "Eastborough" township area of Wichita, Kansas on 27 June 1967.
His story is a part of a Project Blue Book file "xxxx xx 7574428 WichitaAreaKansas" - it is filed amid a group of 'illegible' reports either badly faded or having a cover sheet faded enough that it was not easily read that a quick scan did not provide date or place. In many of these, however, there are dates, names and details within the declassified documents themselves. If anyone bothers to look.

The witness was duly contacted when they needed more information (via the many paged form) but letters were returned. He had supposedly been leaving Wichita to move to Union City, New Jersey. The mail returned. The films were developed; they sent originals to the University of Colorado for examination. Due to the need for the additional information from the long form, the returned mail and no clues - they closed the file and labeled it "Insufficient Data."
Who was Jefferson Vallar? Where did he go? Investigation to date has found no such person? His zip code for one communication was 67208. This is a designation for Eastbourgh in the Wichita area and eastern part of the county of Sedgwick. East of the enclave is Beech Aircraft.
Know who this man was? I would love to tell his story! Email me and let's set the record straight.
Want more on just UFO's visit https://ufoskies.blogspot.com/
See a different photo at this site.
9/18/19
THE MISSING BRIDE OF 1958: MOORE, OKLAHOMA
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Author Hudson in front of area where the hotel once stood |
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The road in front of the motel |

The time period of her disappearance was riff with undercurrents of crime beneath the "Leave It to Beaver" domestic bliss projected in the era. Across the country in these years other young wives will also strangely go missing and some of their cases also remain open or unsolved.
Silken webs may also stretch out from that same Naval Base in Moore - Norman to touch other crimes. A busy crossroads of highways, military bases with changing personnel, and a growing university leave many possibilities.
Carol Batterman is still listed as a missing person on The Charley Project. They gave me permission to use the photo. This author had brief contact in 2014 with a researcher working with her family hoping to finally solve the case (Weston DeWalt, of DOCUMENTARY SCIENCES (Research l Investigation l Analysis) in Pasadena, California USA). Several Capitol Hill High School students in south Oklahoma City and other young women in the region had disappeared in the late 1950's and the possibility of a serial killer in the region seemed possible to this researcher. On that sunny May, however, the young bride eager to find a new home to begin married life joined that day a select group of unfortunate travelers whose journey was into oblivion in a vehicle fashioned of mystery and unanswered questions.
9/7/19
The Cinderella of West Texas: The Disappearance of Andrea Lopez Phares (1955)

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Cotton Fields of Hale County, TX. Public Domain Image |
Grand Jury Fails to Indict Husband
Every few decades, the haunting story of the young mother-to-be was revisited, recapped, and yet always concluded the same chilling way. No one, anywhere, had ever seen the young wife after that fateful day in May of 1955. There was one suspicious rumor that showed up from the Oklahoma panhandle but it was questionable on many levels and was not picked up or repeated with any belief.
Andrea's Disappearance Turns 65 in 2020
After all, in the end, there is no statue of limitations on the truth.
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