21. INTRUSIONS AT USAF BASES
On the night of 6 November 1973, at 21:45, a US Air Force security policeman at Kirtland Air Force Base East (formerly Sandia Base), New Mexico, sighted a large glowing object hovering over the nuclear-weapons inspection facility in the Manzano Laboratory area (Sandia National Laboratories). Thus began an astonishing series of incidents from the 1973–4 period which are known to relatively few students of the subject, let alone the general public.
‘The object was described as oblate spherical in shape, 150 feet in diameter, golden in colour, and absolutely silent,’ reported R.C. Hecker, an investigator for the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization.
The object was hovering approximately 100 feet over Plant No. 3. The nine other air policemen on duty in that area were alerted to the presence of the intruder. While the other air policemen moved into positions affording views of the object, a call was put through to Kirtland East for assistance. According to my informant (one of the air policemen who saw the UFO), four interceptors (F-101 Voodoos) of the 150th Fighter Group, New Mexico Air National Guard, were scrambled to intercept the object. As the interceptors grouped in the skies over Kirtland AFB West, the object began moving in an easterly direction and passed out of sight over the Manzano Mountains at treetop level (below the radar horizon). By the time the jets had arrived on the scene, the object had vanished.
‘I interviewed one of the air policemen who observed the object,’ Hecker’s report continues. ‘He received word of the object’s location when the alarm was sounded over his transceiver … he said that military officials were upset by the incident. He requested that I not identify the source of my information, due to immediate censoring of the report [and] that officially the sighting had not occurred: there were no references to it in intelligence briefs (which he had access to) in succeeding days.’1
At 16:30 on 15 April 1974, a couple observed an object 50–75 feet in diameter at an altitude of about 2,000 feet. ‘The object displayed a distinct whirling motion, as it rotated about its central axis,’ reported Hecker. ‘There was no sound, nor was there any visible means of propulsion … Immediately south of the witnesses’ home is the Manzano Laboratory high-security area [which] is restricted to all private and commercial aircraft below 3,000 feet.’
A month later, a disc is said to have crash-landed on the east side of the Manzano Mountains, less than 30 miles south-west of Albuquerque. Hecker reports:
At 22:10 hours, May 17, 1974, electronic scanning instruments at the Manzano Laboratory section of Kirtland AFB East registered a tremendous burst of energy in the 250 to 275 megahertz range. The energy was so intense it threw all of their instruments completely off-scale. The burst of energy was first noted in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Before the energy died out, a trajectory was plotted. A recovery team was immediately dispatched to the designated impact area. An area southwest of the small mountain community of Chilili, New Mexico, was cordoned off. A few hours later what was described as a metallic, circular object approximately 60 feet in diameter (before being dismantled for handling) was quietly moved into a hangar at Kirtland AFB.
‘I talked with the man who was monitoring the electronic scanning equipment at Manzano [Base] when the initial burst of energy was registered,’ continued Hecker. ‘This individual has given me leads to sightings in the past which have always proven valid … After being told of this incident, I was stopped by a man who identified himself as a Kirtland AFB officer. He ordered me to forget everything I had been told about this incident.’2
In August–September 1980 a number of instances occurred involving high-frequency jamming of radar and other equipment, as well as several landings of unknown objects in Coyote Canyon, part of a large restricted test range used by the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Defense Nuclear Agency and the Department of Energy (see p. 329). During my research trip to the area in July 1989, Major Ernest E. Edwards, who had been in charge of security at the Manzano Nuclear Weapons Storage Facility at the time, confirmed the contents of these reports, and pointed out to me in person where they had taken place.
As mentioned earlier, I have learned via a credible high-ranking source – now corroborated by another source – that an alien facility was sited in the vicinity of the nuclear-weapons storage area in the Manzano Mountains. The preponderance of evidence, from the intrusions in 1949 to the cases cited in this chapter, certainly supports that probability.
ALIEN ABDUCTION
Intrusions at US Air Force bases and sensitive nuclear facilities in New Mexico reached a new high in August 1975, when a US Air Force flight mechanic based at Holloman AFB, Alamogordo, claimed to have been abducted by aliens.
On 13 August, after finishing work at 23:30 the previous night, Sergeant Charles L. Moody decided to stay up late to watch a meteor shower (the ‘Perseids’), and drove to a location a short distance from his home to do so. After observing a number of bright meteors, something totally unusual appeared.
‘At approximately 01:20 hours I observed a dull metallic object that seemed to just drop out of the sky and start to hover with a wobbling motion, approximately 100 feet in front of me,’ reported Moody. ‘The object was moving slowly toward my car … I tried to start my car but it was like there was no battery at all.’
At this time the object stopped dead still as if to just hang there in the air. [It] was about 50 feet across and approximately 18 to 20 feet thick at the center, maybe more. At this time I heard a high-pitched sound, something like a dental drill might make at high speed, and just to the right of the center of the object I saw what seemed to be an oblong-shaped window [with] the shadows of what looked to be [two or three] human forms.
At this time the high-pitched sound stopped, and a feeling of numbness came over my body. The fear that I had before left me, and I felt a very peaceful calmness. [Then] the object lifted very fast. It made no sound … After the object left, my car started perfectly. As I drove off I looked at my watch, and it was now 02:45 hours. It seemed to me that the sighting only lasted one or maybe two minutes. That makes one hour and 25 minutes that I cannot account for …3
Following this incident, Moody broke out in a heat rash on his lower body and suffered pain in his lower back. In early September 1975, two researchers from the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, Jim Lorenzen and Wendelle C. Stevens (a former USAF test pilot), met Moody and his wife Karon at Alamogordo, and formed a favourable impression. Moody had been anxious that his story should not come to the attention of the Air Force, though he did talk to a friend, Dr Abraham Goldman, a former USAF flight surgeon, who gave him what transpired to be helpful advice regarding the recovery of at least some of his ‘missing’ memory. In late September, Moody was ordered to be transferred overseas – a move predicted by Lorenzen, whose military background and previous employment at Holloman made him familiar with such security measures.
Before departing a month later, Moody wrote a long letter to Lorenzen, describing what he now recalled of the experience. Selected extracts follow:
… The beings were about five feet tall and very much like us, except their heads were larger and [they had] no hair; ears very small, eyes a little larger than ours, nose small, and the mouth had very thin lips. I would say their weight was maybe between 110–130 pounds. There was speech but their lips did not move. Their type of clothing was skin-tight [without] zippers or buttons [and] black, except for one of them that had on a silver-white looking suit.
There were no names said, but they knew who I was and called me by my proper name – Charles, and did not use my nickname, Chuck. It was like they could read my mind … I was taken to a room and the elder or leader touched my back and legs with a rod-looking device … he said there had been a scuffle when they first made contact with me, and he only wanted to correct any misplacement that might have happened … The inside of the craft was as clean as an operating room [and] the lighting was indirect.
I was thinking to myself, ‘If only I could see the drive unit of the craft, how wonderful that would be’. The elder or leader put his hand on my shoulder and said to follow him. We went to a small room that had no fixtures and was dimly lit … The floor seemed to give way like an elevator. I guess we went down about six feet and what I saw then was a room about 25 feet across, and in the center was what looked like a huge carbon rod going through the roof of the room; around the rod were three what looked like holes covered with glass. Inside the glass-covered holes or balls were what looked like large crystals with two rods, one on each side of the crystal. One rod came to a ball-like top, the other one came to a ‘T’ type top. I was told that this was the drive unit, and that I could understand it if I tried. There were no wires or cables …
I was then taken back up through the same way we came down. The leader then told me that this was not their main craft, but only used for observing, and that their main craft was about 400 of our miles above the Earth. And the drive unit on it was different … I asked if I could go to the main craft, and I was told no, that their time was short, but they could find me any time they desired and that in a short time they would see me again … And then he told me to be sure and see a doctor soon. And I did …
‘It’s not just one advanced race that is studying this planet Earth, but a group of them,’ Moody declared. ‘They also fear for their own lives, and will protect themselves at all costs. Their intent is a peaceful one, and if the leaders of this world will only heed their warnings we will find ourselves a lot better off than before, and at this time it’s not up to us to accept them, but for them to accept us!’’4
I do not know what became of Charles Moody, following his transfer abroad (to a US Air Force base in Spain). However, I do know that a psychological stress evaluation (PSE) of him by Charles McQuiston (coinventor of the PSE) indicated that he was telling the truth. Moreover, Moody held a high-security clearance at Holloman AFB and was involved in the Air Force’s Human Reliability Program, where he had been screened by a psychiatrist and declared free of emotional disorders.
LOW-LEVEL INTRUSIONS OVER ICBM BASES
In October and November 1975, a spate of low-level UFO intrusions over Strategic Air Command intercontinental ballistic missile bases in Maine, Michigan, Montana and North Dakota caused widespread official concern, particularly since some of the unknown objects exhibited what is called a ‘clear intent’ over the nuclear-missile sites. I cite from two official documents:
• Alert Center Branch, US Air Force Aerospace Intelligence Division, 31 October 1975
Contacted CIA OPS center and informed them of U/I flight activity over two SAC bases near Canadian border. CIA … requested they be informed of any follow up activity.
• Commander-in-Charge, North American Aerospace Defense Command This morning, 11 Nov 75, CFS Falconbridge reported search and height radar paints on an object up to 30 nautical miles south of the site ranging in altitude from 25,000 ft to 75,000 ft … With binoculars the object appeared as a 100 ft diameter sphere … I have also expressed my concern to [Secretary of the Air Force Office of Information] that we come up soonest with a proposed answer to queries from the press to prevent over reaction by the public to reports in the media that may be blown out of proportion.
PILOTS HARASSED
In 1975, Major Donald Keyhoe disclosed details relating to a case that he had learned about from his Air Force sources. ‘This is a powerful case, similar to the Kinross case,’ said Keyhoe, ‘but the location is secret. I can’t even tell you on which coast it happened, or when it happened. But it was over two years ago.’ Leonard Stringfield reports:
‘This incident begins with radar picking up a blip that appeared on the scope as the UFO circled over the airbase. Three jets were scrambled. As the jets climbed skyward, the UFO continued its circling maneuver; then it leveled off, heading toward them. Trying to avoid collision, the jets spread out. Then the UFO accelerated to a higher [altitude], leaving the interceptors under it. Suddenly and inexplicably, the jets vanished from the scope.
Said Keyhoe, ‘It was as though the UFO had swallowed up the jets. Then the UFO made a turn and streaked off the scope. The radar had over a 200-mile range, but there was no trace of the three jets or the UFO. The Air Force made the usual extensive search for the missing jets. Nothing!’5
In conversation with reporter Bob Pratt in 1978, Keyhoe confirmed the reliability of his Air Force sources for the story. The three missing planes were F-102 Delta Dagger jets from a certain Air Force base in Florida.6
A shocking case occurred on 6 May 1976 over the restricted military air corridor north of Cincinnati and east of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, when a pilot was testing a highly sophisticated new instrument in his plane (type not revealed). According to information provided to Leonard Stringfield via an engineer who was present at the debriefing, the incident happened in clear weather during daylight hours.
‘Somewhere east of Wright-Patterson AFB,’ reported Stringfield, ‘the pilot, making his routine test run, suddenly caught sight of three unidentified silverish objects, flying in formation at an unknown distance ahead. They were closing in fast toward his aircraft.’
The UFOs, described as huge silver discs with portholes that had a mirrored effect, suddenly moved in menacingly close. The pilot, fearing a collision, tried to evade the objects by descending to 1,000 feet … But the three UFOs hung tenaciously close – one on each wing tip, the other above the fuselage.
The stunned pilot tried evasive action: levelled off and then shot up in a vertical climb to 3,000 feet. But the UFOs stuck to his aircraft and continued their harassment for more than an hour. During this frantic period, all the instruments on the pilot’s control panel went ‘haywire’, and he admitted later that he lost all sense of time.
‘According to the engineer,’ continued Stringfield, ‘the pilot, during debriefing, said he was terrified by the action and confessed that he broke down and cried. The UFOs were confirmed by base radar, probably by a portable unit of the Air Systems Division.’7
This incident bears a remarkable resemblance to the one reported by the Mexican pilot Carlos de los Santos Montiel three days earlier, described in the previous chapter.
MAJOR USAF EUROPE EVENTS
No UFO case in the UK has attracted more publicity than the extraordinary events occurring over several nights in Rendlesham Forest, just outside the twin US Air Forces Europe NATO bases at Bentwaters and Woodbridge, Suffolk, in late December 1980. As in the case of the Roswell incident, several documentaries and books have been devoted to the case. The memorandum summarizing these events, sent to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) by Lieutenant Colonel Charles I. Halt, Deputy Base Commander, who also witnessed several of the incidents, is reproduced on page 330. I interviewed Colonel Halt on one occasion and met him on another. At the latter occasion, Nick Pope, who headed the MoD’s UFO research effort from 1991 to 1994 and had conducted extensive official investigations into the incident, was present. Halt told us both emphatically that certain US authorities had covered up their investigations.
At one stage witnesses reported that the UFOs beamed lights down on to the hardened bunkers containing nuclear weapons (more of which were then stored at Bentwaters than anywhere else in Europe). Halt and his investigators tape-recorded their communications describing some of these dramatic events. It should be noted that a very similar craft was seen for well over an hour by numerous witnesses (some using binoculars) over south-east London and north-west Kent on 15 December 1980, as it hovered for long periods, occasionally split into five separate elements and then regrouped into a single element. All this took place in a cloudless sky. I myself saw the object for a brief period. Frustratingly, I had neither binoculars nor a camera with me and, as luck would have it, by the time I had dashed home only minutes later and was about to photograph and film it with zoom lenses, it had vanished.8 They must have known I was coming!
Readers seeking further information are encouraged to read two definitive books on the case: You Can’t Tell the People by Georgina Bruni,9 and the updated edition of Left at East Gate by Larry Warren and Peter Robbins.10 Bruni’s title was inspired by a brief conversation with former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in May 1997, during which Bruni brought up the Rendlesham Forest incident.
‘UFOs?’ retorted Lady Thatcher. ‘You must get your facts right – and you can’t tell the people!’
REFERENCES
1. Hecker, R. C., ‘New Mexico Reports’, The APRO Bulletin, Vol. 23, No. 2, November 1973, p. 5.
2. Ibid., p. 6.
3. Lorenzen, L.J., ‘The Moody Case’, The APRO Bulletin, Vol. 24, No. 12, June 1976, p. 6.
4. The APRO Bulletin, Vol. 25, No. 1, July 1976, pp. 2, 5–6.
5. Stringfield, Leonard H., Situation Red, The UFO Siege!, Doubleday, New York, 1977, pp. 143–4.
6. http://www.bobpratt.org/keyhoe.html
7. Stringfield, op. cit., pp. 145–6.
8. Above Top Secret and Beyond Top Secret.
9. Bruni, Georgina, You Can’t Tell the People: The Cover-up of Britain’s Roswell, Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 2000.
10. Warren, Larry, and Robbins, Peter, Left at East Gate: A First-Hand Account of the Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident, Its Cover-up, and Investigation, Cosimo-on-Demand, New York, 2005.
Part of an Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) complaint form relating to UFO intrusions at the Manzano nuclear weapons storage area in August–September 1980. (The National Archives, Washington)
Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt’s memorandum to the Ministry of Defence describing the events outside the two NATO bases of Bentwaters and Woodbridge, Suffolk. The security policemen’s encounter took place in the small hours of the 26th – not 27th – December 1980. (US Air Force)
A sketch by Mike Sacks based on a description by one of the witnesses to the craft that landed outside the twin USAF bases of Bentwaters and Woodbridge, Suffolk, in December 1980. From the first book on the case, Sky Crash: A Cosmic Conspiracy by Brenda Butler, Dot Street and Jenny Randles, Neville Spearman, 1984.