Triangular UFOs

About the Author

David Marler joined the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) in 1990 as a Field Investigator Trainee and rose over the following decades through Field Investigator, State Section Director, and Illinois State Director — giving him, by the time this book was published in 2013, more than two decades of hands-on case-investigation experience inside the largest civilian UFO research organization in the United States. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, and holds a Certification in Hypnotherapy from the Mottin and Johnson Institute of Hypnosis in St. Louis — credentials directly relevant to interviewing and assessing witness testimony, the evidentiary base this book relies on most heavily.

Outside ufology, Marler built a fifteen-year career in medical technology: he is a Registered Polysomnographic Technician (RPSGT) who spent several years diagnosing and treating sleep-disorder patients at a major St. Louis medical facility, and at the time of this book's writing worked for an international medical company — a professional background in clinical observation and diagnostic reasoning that runs parallel to, rather than intersecting with, his UFO field work. He has since relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and continues as an independent UFO researcher, having appeared on History, Learning, Discovery, and Smithsonian Channel documentaries in addition to independent productions, and having lectured to school and adult audiences on the subject.

This book carries a foreword by John B. Alexander, Ph.D., a retired U.S. Army intelligence and technology officer whose own involvement lends the project a degree of institutional credibility unusual for a self-published UFO title; Alexander's foreword argues that sensationalism and outright dishonesty within ufology actively deters credible researchers from engaging with the subject, framing Marler's methodical, evidence-first approach as a direct corrective. The book's closing chapter, per its own table of contents, turns the floor over to five additional researchers — Richard M. Dolan (the book's own publisher, via Richard Dolan Press), CUFOS scientific director Mark Rodeghier, George Wingfield, Omar Fowler, and NUFORC director Peter Davenport — each contributing independent commentary on the triangle phenomenon, making the volume a genuine multi-researcher survey rather than a single investigator's solo argument in its final chapter specifically.

A separate, expanded Kindle edition (ASIN B08CWBFFKY, 2020) credits John Alexander more prominently as a listed co-author on its own product page rather than solely as foreword-writer — a bibliographic wrinkle this site's own research found reflected inconsistently across its citing case files (several list "Marler, with John Alexander" for what is, per the original 2013 print edition's own cover and copyright page, Marler's sole-authored work with an Alexander-written foreword). This essential-reading entry is grounded in the original 2013 CreateSpace print edition (ISBN 1490465812), the edition the large majority of this site's own citing case files reference directly.

Historical Context & Origins

Marler self-published Triangular UFOs in June 2013 through Richard Dolan Press, the small independent imprint run by UFO researcher and author Richard Dolan, after thirteen years of his own case collection and analysis work — meaning his research effort on this specific category began around 2000, well before the book's eventual publication. The book arrived at a moment when the black-triangle category itself had already accumulated a substantial modern case record: the book's own cited statistics show reported sightings climbing from roughly 2,742 total between 1882 and 2004 to 8,250 in the single decade from 2005 to 2013 — a documented acceleration Marler treats as one of the phenomenon's most significant and under-examined features.

The book's publication also coincided with renewed mainstream and skeptical-community attention to the specific "secret military aircraft" explanation for triangle sightings, following decades of speculation connecting the category to classified programs like the F-117 Nighthawk (whose existence the Air Force did not publicly confirm until 1988) and various proposed but unconfirmed successor "black project" airframes. Marler's own MUFON background put him in direct, ongoing contact with the raw case-report pipeline this speculation was drawing on, giving this book's engagement with the military-aircraft hypothesis a first-hand investigative grounding most competing treatments of the same question lacked.

Structurally, the book's format — Marler's own sustained analysis across most of its length, followed by a dedicated closing chapter turning the discussion over to five additional named researchers (Richard Dolan, Mark Rodeghier, George Wingfield, Omar Fowler, and Peter Davenport) — reflects a specific editorial choice to present the triangle phenomenon as a live subject of ongoing, multi-perspective research rather than a single investigator's closed case, a structure John B. Alexander's foreword frames explicitly as a corrective to what he characterizes as ufology's broader credibility problem.

Core Arguments & Key Concepts

The book's central, most frequently cited argument is that triangular UFO reports constitute a genuinely distinct phenomenological category with consistent internal characteristics — size, silence, slow deliberate movement, and a stable three-cornered or delta morphology — recurring across geographically and temporally unrelated witnesses, rather than a catch-all bucket for misidentified aircraft lights. Goodreads reviewer Lorrena's description of the book as "nuts and bolts reporting of a manageable sub-set of the phenomena, refreshingly free of the 'nuts' aspects" captures how this focused, single-category approach reads to readers coming from wider, more speculative UFO literature.

A second, closely related argument is that the reported sighting rate itself has genuinely accelerated rather than merely reflecting increased public reporting infrastructure: the book's own cited figures — roughly 2,742 documented reports between 1882 and 2004, versus 8,250 in the single decade from 2005 to 2013, a statistic multiple independent reader reviews single out as a genuinely striking finding — frame the modern era's triangle wave as a real, measurable escalation rather than an artifact of easier reporting channels alone.

A third theme is Marler's direct, first-hand engagement with the two leading conventional explanations rather than either dismissal or uncritical acceptance of an exotic origin: the secret-military-aircraft hypothesis, and simple misidentification of conventional lighted aircraft. Reviewer Brad Mundy's assessment that Marler "is very careful to present the facts, not theories" reflects this deliberately restrained approach — building a documented case profile first, and only then weighing candidate explanations against it, rather than starting from a predetermined conclusion.

A fourth theme, most visible in the book's closing chapter, is that the triangle phenomenon remains a live, contested subject of ongoing professional disagreement even among researchers broadly sympathetic to the reports' genuineness: turning the final chapter over to five other named researchers, each with their own independent read on the category, resists presenting the book's own conclusions as the final word on a still-developing case record.

Key Cases & Evidence Discussed

Five of this site's own case files cite this exact 2013 edition directly, spanning 2000 to 2012 and three countries. The St. Clair County Triangle Sightings (Case File #242, 2000), centered on Highland, Illinois — the sighting later commemorated by a rare roadside historical marker and referenced in Sufjan Stevens's 2005 song "Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois" — receives direct, named treatment in the book: this site's own case file describes MUFON Illinois State Director Marler's 2013 book as treating the case "as one of the best-documented American examples of the broader black-triangle sighting category, drawing directly on the CENCOM audio and contemporary press coverage."

The Ross Barnett Reservoir Sighting (Case File #020, 2012), in Mississippi, is likewise treated by name: this site's own case file notes that "MUFON Illinois State Director David Marler's 2013 book Triangular UFOs: An Estimate of the Situation treats this case as one of the best individually documented examples within that broader recognized category, specifically because of its radio-corroborated, multi-jurisdiction structure" — a case this site's own research independently endorses as a genuinely well-preserved example of the wider triangle-sighting pattern.

The Taverny Triangle Sighting (Case File #259, 2010), in Taverny, France, and the Soesterberg Air Base UFO Sighting, at the former NATO air base in Soesterberg, Netherlands (Case File #288), extend the book's case-collection scope across Western Europe rather than confining it to the United States, with this site's own Soesterberg file citing the book as "a dedicated survey of triangular-craft reports worldwide, directly relevant to weighing this sighting's own dark-triangle morphology against the wider global pattern of similar reports."

The Palau-del-Vidre Black Triangle (Case File #264, 2008), in Palau-del-Vidre, France, is also catalogued as part of this same international case pattern, with this site's own file describing the book as "a dedicated, methodical survey of black-triangle UFO reports worldwide, directly relevant to placing this specific sighting within the wider triangular-craft literature this case belongs to."

Critical Reception & Controversies

On Goodreads, the book carries a 4.07-out-of-5 average from 112 ratings and 7 written reviews. Reviewer Eric Wojciechowski called it "an excellent survey of the Triangle UFO phenomenon," noting the book demonstrates consistent characteristics across sightings spanning over a century, while Faith Jones described it as "fascinating" and specifically highlighted the book's documented jump from roughly 2,742 reports (1882–2004) to 8,250 reports (2005–2013) as its most striking single finding. Reviewer Penney called it "brilliant," and Debbie Mcclelland found the sheer volume of sighting information "nearly overwhelming" while calling the author's discussions "thought provoking."

The book's methodological restraint drew specific praise from multiple independent reviewers: Brad Mundy noted the author "is very careful to present the facts, not theories," and Lorrena, more pointedly, called it "nuts and bolts reporting of a manageable sub-set of the phenomena, refreshingly free of the 'nuts' aspects" — a direct contrast with the more speculative UFO literature both reviewers imply this book deliberately avoids. Reviewer Dan Zarfati separately commended the sheer volume of research and documentation the book compiles.

On Amazon, the book carries a strong 4.4-out-of-5 average from 308 ratings (checked August 2026) — a genuinely substantial sample size, among the largest of any small-press UFO title in this site's own essential-reading library, and one that has held up across more than a decade in print.

No dedicated review from a major skeptical or academic outlet (Skeptical Inquirer, a library or trade journal) could be located for this specific title — an absence disclosed here honestly rather than papered over with an uncited claim. What the book's reception record does show clearly is sustained reader engagement and a specialist-community endorsement built into its own structure: John B. Alexander's foreword and the five-researcher closing chapter (Dolan, Rodeghier, Wingfield, Fowler, Davenport) function as a real, in-print form of peer engagement from within organized ufology's own research establishment, distinct from an external critical review but a genuine signal of standing within the field nonetheless.

The clearest and most independently verifiable measure of the book's lasting reference value on this site specifically is its own citation record: five separate case files, spanning three countries and twelve years of sightings, cite this exact 2013 edition directly — a citation pattern this site's own research treats as durable evidence of the book's usefulness as a working reference for the triangle-sighting category specifically.

Influence & Legacy

The most directly measurable evidence of this book's ongoing influence is on this site itself: this exact 2013 edition is cited across five separate case-file pages — St. Clair County Triangle Sightings, Ross Barnett Reservoir Sighting, Taverny Triangle Sighting, Soesterberg Air Base UFO Sighting, and Palau-del-Vidre Black Triangle — making it this site's primary specialist reference for the triangular/black-triangle UFO category across three countries.

The book's continued relevance is directly evidenced by Marler's own ongoing engagement with the subject well past this book's original 2013 publication: he has since presented updated material under titles like "Triangular UFOs: New Historical Cases and Validated Insights" (2022), and appeared on productions for the History, Learning, Discovery, and Smithsonian Channels, indicating this book functioned as the foundation for a sustained specialist research career rather than a single, closed project.

Within organized ufology specifically, this book's legacy runs partly through the research network its own closing chapter documents: contributions from Richard Dolan (its own publisher), CUFOS's Mark Rodeghier, and NUFORC's Peter Davenport tie this book directly into the same institutional infrastructure — MUFON, CUFOS, NUFORC — that continues to process and archive the raw triangle-sighting reports this book's own statistical argument depends on.

Within this site's own research specifically, this book functions as the foundational reference for the entire black-triangle sighting category across the case-file library: its five citing case files span the United States, France, and the Netherlands, and its own documented reporting-frequency statistics (2,742 pre-2005 reports versus 8,250 in 2005–2013 alone) provide the quantitative backdrop this site's own individual triangle case files draw on when situating a specific sighting within the wider recognized pattern.

The Book

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